The Girl Who Walked in the Shadows - Marnie Riches

The third edge-of-your-seat thriller in the Georgina McKenzie series. Fans of Stieg Larsson and Jo Nesbo won’t be able to put it down!

Europe is in the grip of an extreme Arctic blast and at the mercy of a killer, who leaves no trace. His weapons of choice are razor-sharp icicles. This is Jack Frost.

Now a fully qualified criminologist, Georgina McKenzie is called upon by the Dutch police to profile this cunning and brutal murderer. Are they looking for a hit man or a frenzied serial-killer? Could there be a link to a cold missing persons’ case that George had worked with Chief Inspector Paul van den Bergen – two abducted toddlers he could never quite give up on?

The hunt for Jack Frost sparks a dangerous, heart-rending journey through the toughest neighbourhoods in Europe, where refugees and Roma gypsies scratch a living on the edge of society. Walking into the dark, violent world of a trans-national trafficking ring, can George outrun death to shed light on two terrible mysteries?

What did I think?

The Girl Who Walked in the Shadows is book 3 in the George McKenzie series and I've been putting off reading it as I wanted to stretch out the series.  I thought this was the final instalment but I'm delighted to see that George McKenzie is returning in 2018 in The Girl Who Had No Fear.  Thinking this was the end of the series, I thought this was an amazing send-off for this gritty, edgy heroine we have come to know and love.

George returns to join forces with Dutch detective Paul Van den Bergen when a killer known as Jack Frost starts targeting people across Europe.  With perhaps the BEST murder weapon EVER, Jack Frost's victims appear to be random when in fact they are selected as chillingly as the weapon he uses.

What is so clever about this instalment is the dual storyline: the story of Piet and Gabi Deenan whose two beautiful blonde children disappeared from their own back garden.  With Gabi using her PR contacts to keep the case in the front of people's minds, the public turned on the Deenans and then Piet and Gabi turned on each other.  The only thing keeping them together is the search for their children and the secrets they now share...

After the events of The Girl Who Broke The Rules, I thought Van den Bergen would have finally accepted his feelings for George.  He might have done, had his daughter not announced her pregnancy.  Paul is about to become a grandfather and George is his daughter's age so you could feel the age gap rearing its head on every page as if it was a character in the story itself.  Age is just a number but Van den Bergen is one stubborn SOB; as stubborn as he is, George is nothing if not persistent.

I felt as if I got to know George's family more in this book and I loved how they all packed up and went with her to Amsterdam.  As much as I dislike George's mother, Letitia, I did feel sorry for her at times but she has finally got the attention she craves, just not in the way she wants it.

I really love this series; it's gritty, punchy, daring and fast-paced with a heroine who's tougher than old boots yet as comfortable in her own skin as an old pair of slippers.  I think this would make a brilliant TV series as a type of scandi-style police-procedural drama we often see on TV these days.  If we can't bring George to the big (or small) screen, you can bring her onto your kindle by clicking here and relive her jaw-dropping escapades over and over again.  These books are going on my must-read-again series list.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

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BLOG TOUR: I Kill (André Warner, Manhunter Book 2) - Lex Lander

For my stop on the I Kill blog tour, I have an extract from the book.  It was actually a very memorable scene from the book and I couldn't have chosen a better extract myself.

My review is posted after the extract so you can read what I thought of the book.

Lizzy, now in Warner’s custody and staying at his house in Andorra, is awakened by a prowler and calls out to Warner.

I hurtled out of my bedroom and into Lizzy’s with all the finesse of a rampaging rhino. Her light was off. Moonlight streamed through a foot gap in the drapes, projecting a white zone across the bed, now empty. Lizzy herself was by the window, her back to me, staring out across the terrace. Not a panic situation after all.

‘What is it?’ I demanded, uncertain, hovering in the doorway.

Her stare swivelled to me. She let out a squeal and dived for the bed, pulling the sheets over her head.

Bemused but relieved that she was obviously okay, I crossed to the window and stood where she had been standing, wrenching the half-drawn drapes aside to do a sweep of the moonlit terrace. Nothing was stirring, not even the tips of the huddle of elephant grass, planted by Maurice a year ago and already taller than a man.

‘What was all that about?’ I said, perplexed at being rudely awakened for a non-event. I moved towards the bed and contemplated the human form under the sheets.

‘Was it a nightmare?’

‘No ... no ... I don’t know.’ Her words were muffled. ‘I heard voices outside.’

Convinced it was no more than a bad dream, I sighed and returned to the window. The landscape was bled of colour by the August moon, and lifeless apart from a pair of yellow pinpoints of headlights descending the road into La Massana. At this hour even the crickets slept. A feather of breeze twitched the drapes and chilled my skin. I strained to hear – a footfall, a suspicious rustle of bushes, any hint at all of a presence. The stillness was absolute.

‘Nothing,’ I announced. I closed the shutters and switched on the ceiling light. I considered doing a tour of the house and yards. If Lizzy insisted on it, I would. But when I turned from the window to ask her, she was still under the sheet. ‘It’s safe.’ I told her, jumping to the wrong conclusion. ‘You can come out now.’

‘Not bloody likely!’ came the retort. ‘You’ve got nothing on.’  

WHEN SHE WAS TAKEN FROM HIM HE WENT AFTER HER AND SEALED HER FATE – HIS TOO

Racked by guilt over his accidental killing of a young Italian girl, contract killer André Warner has effectively retired himself from his ‘profession’ and taken to drink and other palliatives, while sinking slowly into a mire of depression.

A contract in Tangier to assassinate an Arab drug trafficker lures him out of retirement and self-pity. Soon after his arrival he encounters attractive American widow, Clair Power, and her precocious sixteen year-old daughter, Lizzy, who bears such a striking resemblance to the girl Warner killed that his waning anguish is instantly rekindled. He attempts to assuage it by embarking on a fling with Clair which brings him into conflict with a mysterious Dutchman named Rik de Bruin, who also appears to have designs on her.

The contract on the drug merchant is cancelled with no explanation given, but Warner, now seriously involved with Clair, is more relieved than disappointed. Their budding romance is not destined to blossom however. Clair disappears and Warner is landed with the role of de facto guardian to Lizzy.

In tracking down Clair, Warner crosses a line that brings him into conflict with the local police and he is deported from Tangier with a distraught Lizzy in tow. Back at his Andorra villa she slowly recovers from her mother’s disappearance and launches an assault on Warner’s good intentions. Her increasingly provocative behavior disturbs yet excites him, and when Rik de Bruin pitches up in Andorra and begins to take an interest in Lizzy too, Warner gets possessive the only way he knows.

Too late, alas, to save Lizzy from an unspeakable fate.

What did I think?

I hadn't previously read the first book in the series, End as an Assassin, and I don't think it was necessary to do so as I enjoyed I Kill without knowing anything about André Warner. 

From the opening pages, we are launched straight into the world of an assassin as André relives his real-life nightmare of shooting an innocent girl and is haunted by her face and final words.  When a job comes up in Morocco, André hopes to take his mind off the dead Italian girl by focusing on a new bad guy.  He adopts a new persona, that of Alan Melville, and meets an American widow, Clair Power, whilst staying at the hotel in Tangier.  He is struck by how much Clair's daughter, Lizzy, resembles the dead Italian girl - he really can't escape his nightmares.

'Alan Melville' isn't the only man showing an interest in Clair Power, creepy Dutchman Rik de Bruin seems to be everywhere she turns.  So when Clair goes missing, André knows he had something to do with it and as he delves a bit deeper he thinks that Clair perhaps wasn't the intended target after all.  Then de Bruin turns up in Andorra and it is clear that he does not intend to leave without his prize, even if he has to go through André to get it.

I Kill is such a fast-paced book that I could barely draw breath between chapters.  As André follows the trail from Tangier, past his doorstep in Andorra, through Paris and onto Amsterdam, the dark and twisted underbelly of the pornography business is revealed.  I felt my heart racing as André in his Porsche chased de Bruin in his tacky red Rolls-Royce through the snowy streets of Amsterdam.  It was certainly a car chase that James Bond would have been proud of.

I'll definitely be picking up the first book in the series, End as an Assassin, to read about more adventures of André Warner.  The writing is so vivid and descriptive that I felt as if I was watching a film as opposed to actually reading a book.  I Kill is a superb thriller.

I received this e-book from Authoright in exchange for an honest review.

My rating:

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About Lex Lander

British-born thriller writer Lex Lander was raised in France, earned his degree in French and Italian in New Zealand and currently lives in Montreal. Lander is the author of political thriller ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER JACKAL, published by Kaybec in 2013. Vol III in the series, THE MAN WHO HUNTED HIMSELF, will be published by Kaybec in the autumn. The first two volumes in the André Warner series, END AS AN ASSASSIN and I KILL by Lex Lander (published by Kaybec 1st May 2016) are available to buy online from retailers including amazon.co.uk. and all good bookstores including WHSmiths.

Kaybec Publishing - http://www.kaybecpublishing.com/

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The Girl Who Broke the Rules - Marnie Riches

The pulse-pounding new thriller from Marnie Riches. For anyone who loves Jo Nesbo and Stieg Larsson, this book is for you!

When the mutilated bodies of two sex-workers are found in Amsterdam, Chief Inspector van den Bergen must find a brutal murderer before the red-light-district erupts into panic.

Georgina McKenzie is conducting research into pornography among the UK’s most violent sex-offenders but once van den Bergen calls on her criminology expertise, she is only too happy to come running.

The rising death toll forces George and van den Bergen to navigate the labyrinthine worlds of Soho strip-club sleaze and trans-national human trafficking. And with the case growing ever more complicated, George must walk the halls of Broadmoor psychiatric hospital, seeking advice from the brilliant serial murderer, Dr. Silas Holm…

What did I think?

After The Girl Who Wouldn't Die I was eager to read what was next in store for George McKenzie and Paul van den Bergen after the little spark of sexual tension was ignited.  Although you could read this as a standalone, I welcomed the characters as I would old friends and feel that it is beneficial for full enjoyment of this book to know the history that was set out so breathtakingly in The Girl Who Wouldn't Die.

Marnie Riches writes with such a skill that grabs you round the neck and draws you into the book, although there were moments that were a bit squeamish - I do wish there was an equivalent of hiding round the back of the sofa when reading!  I had so many visual scenes in my head as I was reading this, and the Amsterdam setting is so colourful and vibrant that I could almost hear the hoot of the horns and the chatter on the street.

Again, we have another fast paced thriller as George races against time to identify the killer causing havoc, not just in Amsterdam but across the channel.  My reading speed increased the further I got through the book until I was left breathless at the end.  All that was missing was a massive 'TO BE CONTINUED' and I for one, cannot wait for The Girl Who Walked in the Shadows to complete this outstanding trilogy.

I received this e-book from the publisher, HarperCollins, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

My rating:

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The Girl Who Wouldn't Die - Marnie Riches

HE’S WATCHING HER. SHE DOESN’T KNOW IT…YET

When a bomb explodes at the University of Amsterdam, aspiring criminologist Georgina McKenzie is asked by the police to help flush out the killer.

But the bomb is part of a much bigger, more sinister plot that will have the entire city quaking in fear.

And the killer has a very special part for George to play…

A thrilling race against time with a heroine you’ll be rooting for, this book will keep you up all night!

WINNER OF THE 2015 DEAD GOOD READER AWARD FOR MOST EXOTIC LOCATION

What did I think?

I had read so much chatter and excitement about this book on Twitter, so when I saw that it was free on Amazon for a limited time I rushed straight over and ordered it.  I am happy to report that I was definitely not disappointed.

I loved the setting in Amsterdam as it ensured that there were many colourful and diverse characters in the book.  George is a really strong character and I felt that she was constantly alert for some unknown reason, and when the reason does become clear I couldn't believe that I hadn't guessed.  I think I was hungrily devouring every page and enjoying the book so much that I wasn't trying to work out why the reader was being given certain information.

George links up with Senior Inspector Paul van den Bergen to investigate the murders, not that he has much say in the matter.  They make a really good team and I felt that he ends up becoming a bit of a father figure for her and she gives him a new lease of life.

There are so many heart-stopping moments in the book as George races against time to identify the killer before it's too late.  From about half way through I really couldn't put this book down.  I enjoyed the switch from Amsterdam to Cambridge and there is an almost unbearable tension as an event occurs in Amsterdam while George is in the UK, ensuring that 'just one more chapter' became 'read until it's finished'.

This book deserves all the recognition it has received and if you enjoyed Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy you will definitely enjoy the George McKenzie series.  In fact, I prefer George to Lisbeth and Marnie to Stieg so it's no surprise that I've given this book 5 stars.  It's gripping from start to finish, with a strong believable heroine thereby ensuring that I am chomping at the bit to read the next instalment, The Girl Who Broke the Rules.

My rating:

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Us - David Nicholls

David Nicholls brings to bear all the wit and intelligence that graced ONE DAY in this brilliant, bittersweet novel about love and family, husbands and wives, parents and children. Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2014.

Douglas Petersen understands his wife's need to 'rediscover herself' now that their son is leaving home.

He just thought they'd be doing their rediscovering together.

So when Connie announces that she will be leaving, too, he resolves to make their last family holiday into the trip of a lifetime: one that will draw the three of them closer, and win the respect of his son. One that will make Connie fall in love with him all over again.

The hotels are booked, the tickets bought, the itinerary planned and printed.

What could possibly go wrong?

What did I think?

I snapped this one up out of the library as I've never read a David Nicholls book before but I thoroughly enjoyed this so I will be adding Starter for Ten, The Understudy and One Day to my reading pile.  It was beautifully written and so easy to read that I didn't want it to end.

The characters were defined brilliantly and I liked the interspersing of chapters with little snippets from their past.  Right from the first few pages we are launched straight into a crumbling marriage when Connie drops her bombshell on an unsuspecting Douglas.  Despite their intention to separate, they agree to go on a Grand Tour of Europe with their 17 year old son, Albie.  Albie's relationship with Douglas is very fraught to say the least, I thought he was just a troubled teenager but getting the insight into the past meant that we could see the deep rooted distance between Albie and Douglas compared with the closeness between Albie and Connie.

When they first met, Connie and Douglas appeared to be complete opposites but there is no doubt that they loved each other through all the ups and downs of married life.  I was therefore a firm believer that the Grand Tour would bring them back together, until Albie threw a spanner in the works and ran away!  Douglas surprised me by going to look for Albie while Connie went home - I felt it was symbolic that the family were divided across Europe, as fragmented as they were whilst living in the same house.  Without spoiling the story, it was rewarding reading about relationships being both broken and mended.

This is a lovely story of family life and how it often goes wrong and despite everything we do always love each other but may not always show it.

My rating:

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