BLOG TOUR: The Sacrificial Man - Ruth Dugdall

What I want to say is that suicide is my choice. No-one else is to blame. Man seeks beautiful woman for the journey of a lifetime: Will you help me to die? 

When Probation Officer Cate Austin is given her new assignment, she faces the highest-profile case of her career. Alice Mariani is charged with assisted suicide and Cate must recommend a sentence. 

Alice insists her story is one of misinterpreted love, forcing those around her to analyse their own lives. Who is to decide what is normal and when does loyalty turn to obsession? 

Investigating the loophole that lies between murder and euthanasia, Cate must now meet the woman who agreed to comply with her lover's final request. Shocking revelations expose bitter truths that can no longer be ignored.

What did I think?

Having been blown away by her debut, The Woman Before Me, it's about time I read another Ruth Dugdall book and what a brilliant one to choose.  The Sacrificial Man held me in its chilling grasp from the very start and refused to release the grip from its icy fingers until I had turned the final page.

I really have to applaud Ruth Dugdall for coming up with such an exceptional and thought-provoking plot.  When David decides to end his life, he posts an advert for a partner in crime; not for someone to actually do the deed but for someone to be there with him at the end.  Alice answers David's advert and the plans begin to form.  My head was like a whirligig with so many questions flying round my head.  Why does David want to die?  Why on earth has he chosen the stomach lurching method he has chosen? And what sort of person is Alice to be willing to take this journey with him?  So many questions which will all be answered as fast as I could possibly read.

It was great to catch up with Probation Officer Cate Austin again.  Cate has been called in to recommend a sentence when Alice is charged with helping David to die, despite him leaving a suicide note.  It's an odd one really as for all intents and purposes Alice was only present at David's death, she didn't help him make the decision or force him to go through with it.  On the surface, I wondered what exactly Alice had done wrong; but this is the whole debate regarding euthanasia which is illegal in the UK but we often hear about people fighting for their right to decide when and how they die.  Surely David was the one at fault but the police can't prosecute a dead man so Alice will have to do.

Of course there are always two sides to every story and Cate Austin tries to find out not only what exactly happened on the night that David died but the motivation behind both participants.  This makes for one hell of a story and I would have read the whole book in one sitting had I not started it at bedtime.

Chilling, gripping and stomach-lurchingly twisted, The Sacrificial Man is an outstanding thriller that I will be thinking about and debating for a long time to come.  If you're looking for something different to read over Christmas, you've just found it!

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

My rating:

Buy it from Amazon




About the author:

Ruth worked as a Probation Officer for almost a decade, working in high security prisons with numerous high- risk criminals. Her writing is heavily influenced by her professional background, providing authenticity and credibility. She currently lives in San Francisco.

Follow Ruth:

Twitter @RuthDugdall

Instagram @Ruth_Dugdall

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BLOG TOUR: Death Wish - Linda Huber

Secrets. Lies. Murder.

When Leo decides to go into business with his mother-in-law he soon realises his mistake. Eleanor is the mother-in-law from hell and will stop at nothing to get what she wants. Her daughter, Ashley, has her own reasons for hating her mother. The atmosphere is toxic and old wounds refuse to heal.

Next door, eight-year-old Joya has a difficult life. Her parents argue constantly and her grandmother, who lives with them, is approaching death.

Soon these two families will collide and the consequences might just be fatal…

What did I think?

Talk about a good start to a book!  The prologue sets a scorching pace as we join the story when somebody is burying a body in their back garden.  Whose body is it?  Who is doing the burying, Mandy Jordache style?  Who is the killer?  As with any good book, we have to wait a while to get the answers after following the story from the beginning to get back to this very juicy end.

8 year old Joya lives with her parents, Martine and Stu, and Grandma Vee.  Grandma Vee has Huntington's Disease and doesn't want to be a burden, so she is looking at options to end her life.  Vee has one final wish: that she goes to her grave knowing whether or not she has passed this life sentence on to her daughter, Martine.  Martine, however, doesn't want to take the Huntington's test; she'd rather not know, but not knowing is putting a strain on her marriage as all they ever think about is Huntington's.  Joya is stuck in the middle of all this, hearing snippets of conversations that she doesn't understand, so she is delighted to be the centre of attention when a young couple move in next door .

Ashley and Leo move into the house next door to Joya and instantly strike up a friendship with the 8 year old.  Ashley is a natural with kids and it's a shame that she doesn't have a child of her own.  Ashley and Leo also have a cross to bear: Ashley's mother, Eleanor, is moving in to the annex that is joined to their house by a connecting door that is staying firmly locked.  Ashley doesn't get on with her mother, for reasons that become apparent as the story unfolds, so she doesn't want her living in such close quarters.  Leo, however, has sold his soul to Satan, aka Eleanor, and only repayment of her huge loan will get rid of her...unless there is another way...

A lot of this book is told from the point of view of Joya, and my heart went out to her as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing and hearing.  It really is true that little ones have big ears and Linda Huber has done an amazing job of giving us a glimpse into the confused mind of a sweet and innocent 8 year old.  We often keep things from people to protect them, but sometimes imagination does run riot and poor Joya feared the worst without even knowing what she was afraid of.

Death Wish is quite a dark book but so very easy to read with well-developed characters and a gruesome whodunnit.  I read it in the space of 24 hours as I couldn't wait to find out what events had led up to the grisly prologue.  There are so many good storylines within this one book, not only exploring the right to die but seeing a mother's love from several different angles.  How far would a mother go to protect her child?  Read Death Wish to find out!

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

My rating:

Buy it from Amazon




About the author:

Linda grew up in Glasgow, Scotland, but went to work in Switzerland for a year aged twenty-two, and has lived there ever since. Her day jobs have included working as a physiotherapist in hospitals and schools for handicapped children, and teaching English in a medieval castle. Not to mention several years spent as a full-time mum to two boys, a rescue dog, and a large collection of guinea pigs. 

Her writing career began in the nineties, when she had over fifty short stories published in women’s magazines. Several years later, she discovered the love of her writing life – psychological suspense fiction. Her seventh novel, Death Wish, will be published by Bloodhound Books in August 2017.

Follow Linda on Amazon, Facebook, Website and Twitter


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