Housewife - Karen Crawford

 

Wife. Mother. Drug Lord.

Erica Forsythe is a wealthy New York City housewife who feels undervalued and unappreciated. On a rainy day, she dashes into a diner, where she meets a mysterious man. 

Plagued by boredom and loneliness, Erica decides to go home with the intoxicating stranger. She is seduced by the dangerous and lurid world of a notorious drug cartel and abandons her family.

Becoming a high-ranking member of the cartel, Erica believes she has found the excitement she has been craving, but her world shatters when she spirals into the true darkness and violence of working in the drug trade.

What did I think?

Housewife is something very different from Karen Crawford.  I absolutely love her Taryn Winter series set in Las Vegas but the streets are definitely much darker and more dangerous in New York City, where Housewife is set.

Erica may appear to have it all; a wealthy husband, three healthy children and a New York City penthouse, but as The Beatles said: 'Money can't buy me love'.  Feeling ignored by her family, Erica is finally noticed by someone when she meets an exciting and attractive man in a diner and her world changes forever, although not necessarily for the better.

It does feel as if fate had a hand in Erica meeting Alejandro that day as they seem very much in love.  Normally, I wouldn't be able to understand a mother walking away from her family but it's easy to empathise in Erica's case.  Erica is so selfish and superficial so its no wonder that her children are also self-absorbed - they are the monsters that she created.  Of course, her husband must also shoulder some of the blame but he is a typical patriarch and sees his role as the breadwinner, bringing home the money to keep his family in the lifestyle to which they are accustomed.

Entitled, rich and selfish, there's nothing much to like about Erica or her family but it was heartbreaking to read about her descent into the darkness of drug addiction and the effect of her disappearance on her family.  It's incredibly disturbing to see how quickly drugs can take hold and it was very harrowing to see the devastating effects of addiction.  As she rises to the top of the drug cartel, Erica is in contact with very few people and the warning signs of her addiction go unnoticed.  I've always said that you never notice the decline of someone you love as you see beyond the outer shell; so as mad as I was at Alejandro for not doing something to help Erica, I could also understand that he may not have seen it.

With characters you will love to hate, Housewife is like a cross between The Sopranos, Breaking Bad and Billions.  It's harrowing, disturbing and emotive but sobering in its powerful message about addiction and recovery.

Many thanks to Karen Crawford for sending me an ARC to read and review; this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

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BLOG TOUR: Layer Cake - J. J. Connolly

 

Layer cake (n): a metaphor for the murky layers of the criminal world.

Smooth-talking drug dealer X has a plan to quietly bankroll enough cash to retire before his thirtieth birthday. Operating under the polished veneer of a legitimate businessman, his mantra is to keep a low profile and run a tight operation until it’s time to get out .

When kingpin Jimmy Price asks him to find the wayward daughter of a wealthy socialite who’s been running around with a cokehead, he accepts the job with the promise that after this he can leave the criminal world behind with Jimmy’s blessing. Oh, and he needs to find a buyer for two million ecstasy pills acquired by a crew of lowly, loud-mouth gangsters, the Yahoos. Simple enough, until an assassin named Klaus arrives to scratch him off his list, revealing this job is much more than it seems at first.

From the glitz of the London club scene of the 1990’s to the underbelly of its criminal world, Layer Cake is the best in British crime fiction.

What did I think?

I didn't realise that Layer Cake was a book before it was a film until the 20th Anniversary edition of the book was advertised.  I watched the film before I read the book so I was intrigued to see how they would compare.  I really wanted to be able to say that the book was better, which it is to a degree, but J. J. Connolly wrote both the book and the screenplay so the film storyline follows the book very closely indeed.  Reading the book actually enhanced the film for me as I got to know the characters better and accessed more details of the story.

One thing I struggled with at first was the usage of slang in the book so I found myself stopping to google things every few minutes.  It does give massive authenticity to the story but I could've done with a little glossary at the end of the book where I could look up things like boob, lolly pops and lionels.  The slang is completely necessary though as it immerses the reader into the heart of drug-fuelled London and it feels like the main character is talking to you and taking you into his confidence.

There is no honour among thieves and there are no friends in the drug scene.  It's all very cutthroat and it's a business that the main character, X, wants to retire from as he approaches his 30th birthday.  The drug scene is kind of like a beehive with a king instead of a queen at the top and various levels of workers beneath him, hence the title of the book: Layer Cake.  X just wants to make enough money so that he can spend his days sitting on a beach sipping cocktails in the sun, but getting out of the business might not be that easy.  When he is given a strange task to find a missing girl, X becomes the hunter and the hunted.

Dark, gritty, brutal and brilliant, Layer Cake is a stunning portrayal of the British drug scene in the noughties.  The writing is so vivid and fresh that you feel as if there is a movie being projected into your brain from J. J. Connolly's intense and authentic words.  You've seen the film, now read the book; it's an absolute classic.

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

My rating:

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An Angry Orange Sky (Gordan Hudde #2) - Mark Hudson

Gordan Hudde was a tough soldier on the battle field, a problem solver of the most difficult situations for the CIA; risking everything for the country he loves. A hard life has created a hard man, now how does operative Gordan Hudde learn to take a vacation? A beautiful, exotic woman, a harsh street gang, the brutal cartels, and the uncaring/corrupt government he worked for represented by the CIA and the DEA come together at a beach resort in Mexico. The woman wants to love him; everyone else may want to kill him. Sexual tension, suspense and incredible violence will make it impossible to put down An Angry Orange Sky. 

What did I think?

Having thoroughly enjoyed A Deep Purple Hue last month, I was eager to immerse myself once again in the life of Gordan Hudde.  An Angry Orange Sky sees Gordan Hudde taking a well earned rest in Mexico.  Although Hudde by his nature is never at rest and is constantly on high alert.

I found this book a little harder to get into as I'm not terribly interested in Mexican drug cartels and always find it hard to identify one Juan from another; needless to say there is lots of shouting and shooting as rival gangs go up against each other.  There is also a lot of detail as every hour, mile and metre is specified - I found it a bit off-putting at first but I soon got used to it as my brain adjusted to not having to remember every single number stated.

About half way through we start to see the sensitive side to Hudde as a pretty Mexican lady catches his eye.  He is soon drawn into the bosom of her family and considers putting down roots south of the border.  He just has a few Mexicans to sort out before he and Isabella can live happily ever after.  Will they drive off into the sunset or get caught in the crossfire?

With plenty of shocks and surprises, An Angry Orange Sky does not disappoint and I have no doubt that we will be hearing a lot more from Gordan Hudde, at least I certainly hope so!

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

My rating:

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Harm - Hugh Fraser

'What makes an innocent girl become a contract killer?'

Acapulco 1974: Rina Walker is on assignment. Just another another quick, clean kill.

She wakes to discover her employer's severed head on her bedside table, and a man with an AK 47 coming through the door of her hotel room. She needs all her skills to neutralise her attacker and escape. After a car chase, she is captured by a Mexican drug boss who needs her radiant beauty and ruthless expertise to eliminate an inconvenient member of the government.

Notting Hill 1956: Fifteen-year-old Rina is scavenging and stealing to support her siblings and her alcoholic mother. When a local gangster attacks her younger sister, Rina wreaks revenge and kills him. Innocence betrayed, Rina faces the brutality of the post-war London underworld - a world that teaches her the skill to kill...

What did I think?

Wow – what a rollercoaster and a stonking debut from Hugh Fraser. This was another one of those books that you can't put down. It is evident from the start that Rina is a very strong female lead character. As we delve into her background, we find that she’s had such a hard life looking after her young siblings and alcoholic mother but surrounded by an amazing female support system.  She's suffered so much that it's not surprising she has turned into a contract killer - she has nothing left to lose.

The writing was so vivid, perhaps too vivid sometimes – the scene near the end with Carmela still churns my stomach when I'm thinking about it now!  There are some surprising twists as you don't know who is on which side in Mexico, and the way the deal goes down between Lee and Manuel really was inspired - all I'll say is metal joints!  The flashbacks to Rina's teenage life in Notting Hill really captured the essence of the era; men in dark smoky pubs and women at home with the kids living in poverty.  Rina reminds me of Sydney Bristow in Alias and I wouldn't be surprised to see Harm picked up for the small screen.

There were a few same-sex love scenes but they were written with enough subtlety so as not to disturb even the most faint-hearted reader.  With her history, it's hardly surprising that Rina would avoid men at all costs.

Hugh's writing is excellent; I really hope it's not the last we hear of Rina Walker!

I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

My rating:

Buy Harm direct from Urbane Publications