The Institution - Helen Fields

They’re locked up for your safety.

Now, you’re locked in with them.

Dr Connie Woolwine has five days to catch a killer.

On a locked ward in the world’s highest-security prison hospital, a scream shatters the night. The next morning, a nurse’s body is found and her daughter has been taken. A ransom must be paid, and the clock is ticking.

Forensic profiler Dr Connie Woolwine is renowned for her ability to get inside the mind of a murderer. Now, she must go deep undercover among the most deranged and dangerous men on earth and use her unique skills to find the girl – before it’s too late.

But as the walls close in around her, can Connie get the killer before The Institution gets her?

 

What did I think?

WOW!  Just WOW!  Do not miss this book!  I have to start my review of The Institution by saying how amazingly brilliant it is.  It's a standalone novel but I was absolutely delighted to be reacquainted with profiler Connie Woolwine and former DI Brodie Baarda who we met in The Shadow Man.  

Set on a criminally insane ward in a remote location, it's fraught with danger as Woolwine and Baarda go undercover to find a murderer after a most heinous crime is committed on site.  It's certainly no mean feat as every man held there is a killer.  Imagine Hannibal Lector being the main character in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, The Institution is sort of like that.  Are the 'guests' insane or dangerous?  Can any member of staff be trusted?

The increasing danger level had me on high alert throughout the book.  There were several scenes where I gasped out loud or held my breath and I had absolutely no idea who had committed this awful murder, how they'd done it or why.  When all is revealed, the conclusion is immensely satisfying and it left me fist pumping the air (and with a little bit of sick in my mouth - yuk!).

The storyline is very chilling, but it was the last line that gave me goosebumps and chilled me to the bone.  I'm not going to quote it and it could be quite innocent to a lot of people but it really resonated with me as I have been there and regretted it.  I hope it's not something that Connie Woolwine will come to regret and I hope it's a sign that there are more Woolwine and Baarda books to come.

With characters that gave me nightmares, The Institution is gripping, addictive and chilling.  The writing, plot, characters and chilling location are all outstanding and I was left both breathless and speechless at the end.  It's brilliant from start to finish and an easy five stars.  Very highly recommended.

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

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Imposter (The Alexander Gregory Thrillers Book 1) - LJ Ross

***SHORTLISTED FOR THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS 2020 – CRIME THRILLER OF THE YEAR***

FROM THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE DCI RYAN MYSTERIES

There’s a killer inside all of us…

After an elite criminal profiling unit is shut down amidst a storm of scandal and mismanagement, only one person emerges unscathed. Forensic psychologist Doctor Alexander Gregory has a reputation for being able to step inside the darkest minds to uncover whatever secrets lie hidden there and, soon enough, he finds himself drawn into the murky world of murder investigation.

In the beautiful hills of County Mayo, Ireland, a killer is on the loose. Panic has a stranglehold on its rural community and the Garda are running out of time. Gregory has sworn to follow a quiet life but, when the call comes, can he refuse to help their desperate search for justice?

Murder and mystery are peppered with dark humour in this fast-paced thriller set amidst the spectacular Irish landscape.

What did I think?

LJ Ross seems to write books quicker than I can read them but I finally managed to squeeze in the first book in the Alexander Gregory series, Imposter.  I'm a huge fan of the bestselling DCI Ryan series by LJ Ross so I was interested to see how a new series would fare without the charisma of Ryan and the wit of Phillips.  

The story is set mainly in Ireland and LJ Ross sets the scene so beautifully that I could easily imagine being there.  After a young mother is murdered, the local Garda don't believe that someone in their quiet close-knit community could do such a thing.  They need a fresh, impartial pair of eyes in the form of forensic psychologist Doctor Alexander Gregory, especially when the body count starts to rise.  Gregory has the ability to get inside the mind of the killer, but at great cost to his own mental health, however, it is a price that he is willing to pay to bring the killer to justice.  The hunt is on!

Once I picked up Imposter I couldn't put it down and read it cover to cover in the same day, so make sure you're sitting comfortably when you start this one!  Although I did miss Ryan and the team initially, Alexander Gregory is a very intriguing character and I loved how DCI Ryan gets a nod from him towards the end of the book.

LJ Ross has the magic touch; everything she writes is outstanding.  I love how some characters or passages seem completely unrelated to the story, then they all come together at the end in what I can only describe as absolute genius from LJ Ross.  The Alexander Gregory series is definitely going to give the DCI Ryan series a run for its money!

Imposter is absolutely brilliant; it's gripping, addictive and very twisty.  I didn't know who to suspect so I was kept on my toes from start to finish.  It's a book that demands to be read in one sitting so clear your schedule, sit in your most comfortable chair and take a virtual trip to the fictional Irish town of Ballyfinny.  A well deserved 5 stars and a very highly recommended read.

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

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BLOG TOUR: The Key - Kathryn Hughes

Today I'm taking part in the blog tour for The Key by Kathryn Hughes.  This is an absolutely breathtaking book that I will remember for a very long time.  You can read my review below and you can also click here to read an extract comprising the prologue that made me gasp out loud and chapter one set in 2006.

1956

It's Ellen Crosby's first day as a student nurse at Ambergate County Lunatic Asylum. When she meets a young woman committed by her father, and a pioneering physician keen to try out the various 'cures' for mental illness, little does Ellen know that a choice she will make is to change all their lives for ever...

2006

Sarah is drawn to the abandoned Ambergate Asylum. Whilst exploring the old corridors she discovers a suitcase belonging to a female patient who was admitted fifty years earlier. The shocking contents lead Sarah to unravel a forgotten story of tragedy, lost love and an old wrong that only she may have the power to put right . . .

What did I think?

I was a late entrant to join The Key blog tour and I thought that I would struggle to read the book in the time given, but I couldn't have been more wrong.  No sooner had I picked the book up than I was wiping my eyes after turning the final page.  Kathryn Hughes is such a talented author that she effortlessly weaves so much emotion into the pages that even the coldest heart can't fail to be moved.

The prologue is set in 1956 with an attempted dual suicide and murder that made me gasp out loud, but we are teasingly left dangling for quite a few chapters before we pick up this thread again.  As we meet Sarah in 2006 we discover the abandoned Ambergate Lunatic Asylum and Sarah is determined to tell its story through a book she is writing.  Sarah befriends a homeless young man who is sheltering in the asylum and the pair investigate the empty corridors and empty rooms together.  One day they stumble across the attic filled with suitcases and one suitcase in particular is like opening the wardrobe door to Narnia as we glimpse into the past of 1956.

Student Nurse Ellen Crosby is very empathetic and wants to make a difference; her outspoken views often get her into trouble with the sister and the doctor, but I loved her standing up to them to get her point across.  Ellen is drawn to Amy Sullivan who is admitted on the same day that Ellen started at Ambergate and is the same age as her.  Amy's story is terribly tragic and her misery is compounded as each day of her incarceration in Ambergate passes.  In 2006, Sarah traces Amy via Ellen and the whole heartbreaking story is revealed.

I had to brush a few tears away whilst reading The Key; the pain and suffering must have been immense for the men and women forced into institutions, many of them as sane as  you or I.  It's quite shocking to think that places such as Ambergate Asylum actually existed.  Thank goodness for Enoch Powell, then Minister of Health, who promised to close many of these asylums in his 'water tower' speech delivered in 1961.  

The Key is a completely heart-wrenching and poignant story that left me completely powerless to prevent my eyes blurring with tears as the story unfolded.  It reminded me of the TV show Long Lost Families as my happiness for the characters at the end of the book was coupled with a lone tear trickling down my face.  It's a beautifully written novel, inspired by the real-life discovery of a room filled with suitcases in a derelict asylum in Willard, New York.  In addition to reading The Key, it's well worth visiting the Willard Suitcases website to read more about this amazing story.  I definitely won't forget The Key anytime soon.

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

My rating:

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Lily Poole - Jack O'Donnell

Everything about John is off-kilter.

He’s sixteen now, out of school and out of work. It’s the early 1970s: shipyards in Clydebank are no longer hiring and a long stretch on the dole is imminent. But on a day when the town is covered by a deluge of snow, his life is changed by an act of kindness: he helps a wee girl, Lily, get to school on time.

She waits for him to meet her outside the school gates every day, but he seems to be the only one who can see her. This provokes a backlash that ripples out from concerned mothers at school to the parish priest of St Stephen’s and invites institutional responses that involve the police and psychiatric care.

The unspoken hope is that John can be ‘cured’ of what has seduced him. But Lily has bled into other parts of John’s family life, in a novel which is an exploration of the physical and the psychological, of spiritual crises and the occult.

Dark, haunting, and told by alternating narrators, Lily Poole disrupts your assumptions about mental health and who can be trusted when the truth becomes threadbare.

What did I think?

I've really struggled to review Lily Poole; not because I didn't like it, but because I'm not really sure what I've read...and perhaps that is the whole point.  With mental health being the underlying theme, you're never sure what version of reality you're being shown and I was really impressed with Jack O'Donnell's ability to create this purposeful confusion in his debut novel.

The 1970's in Scotland pretty much mirrors the same era in the North East of England as the lifeblood of the region is slowly dying with the imminent closure of the shipyards, leaving men out of work and school leavers with no job prospects.  This is exactly the case for the main character, John, who is at a loose end and has no purpose in life until he notices a young girl, Lily, clinging to the railings afraid to cross the icy road to school.  John befriends Lily and makes sure that he is there every day to see her safely across the road to school, but the mums taking their children to school report John for hanging around the school and watching the children.  John is confused as he is simply helping Lily, and can't understand why the mothers and the police can't see that...but that's because only John can see Lily.  

There seemed to be several different versions of John: the almost child-like innocent John who trudged through the snow to help an invisible girl to school and the volatile teenager whose family are not sure what he is capable of.  This wasn't a book I raced through as it was very dark in places but equally tender in others.  Jack O'Donnell is definitely one to watch out for as he has an amazingly divergent writing style: so dark and vivid, yet so tender and dreamlike.  An impressive debut novel.

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

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They All Fall Down - Tammy Cohen

Hannah had a normal life – a loving husband, a good job. Until she did something shocking.

Now she’s in a psychiatric clinic. It should be a safe place. But patients keep dying.

The doctors say it’s suicide. Hannah knows they’re lying.

Can she make anyone believe her before the killer strikes again?

What did I think?

I could not contain my excitement when I received a copy of Tammy Cohen's new book, They All Fall Down.  I have been a fan of Tammy Cohen's writing since reading The War of the Wives many years ago so this book literally dropped onto the doormat and into my hands without even making a brief visit to the TBR pile.

I knew I was going to love it from the start as the first page reminded me of Alice in Wonderland's 'we're all mad here' and as it's set in a psychiatric institution I did find this rather amusing.  Amusing as Hannah is a lot more sane than she realises and I was desperate to learn why she had been incarcerated.  As my mind kept asking the same question: 'What happened to her baby, Emily?'  Such a fine hook from Ms Cohen as I greedily took the bait and raced through the story, uncovering more than I ever expected.

Not only do we have Hannah's story to unravel, but suddenly patients appear to commit suicide.  Hannah is sure that something untoward is happening, but who will believe her - she's mad, isn't she?  Part of me wondered if it was all in Hannah's head but the storyline is SO much better than that.  It went in directions I never even saw coming and then suddenly Hannah is next on the kill list.  Will her family get there in time to save her?  Eeeeeek!

What a great storyline - it's like a study of the human mind that plays with your mind.  I could have quite easily questioned my sanity at times, as Tammy Cohen continued to surprise me.  You're always guaranteed a good read with one of Tammy Cohen's books and They All Fall Down is no exception.  This is surely set to rocket up the charts - you'd be mad not to read it.

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

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Little Girl Gone - Alexandra Burt

A baby goes missing. But does her mother want her back?

When Estelle’s baby daughter is taken from her cot, she doesn’t report her missing. Days later, Estelle is found in a wrecked car, with a wound to her head and no memory.

Estelle knows she holds the key to what happened that night – but what she doesn’t know is whether she was responsible…

What did I think?

I quite enjoyed this, it was a relatively quick read but I didn't really warm to Estelle or Jack.  Estelle has a bit of a chip on her shoulder and expects to fail at everything so she doesn't realise that she is suffering from post-partum depression until it is too late.  Jack was a bit of a cold fish and doesn't really appear much in the book, I questioned whether he was even bothered that his daughter had gone missing.

I found it well written although sometimes I felt like it was a bit padded with more words than were necessary, for example: "something had gone amiss, had gone awry" - which is basically the same thing.  I think Alexandra Burt has chosen a difficult subject to write about, not only a child going missing but a mother suffering from post-partum depression.  The description of the effect of post-partum depression was written brilliantly and I think it was important to emphasise the help that psychiatric professionals can give in such cases, as people shouldn't suffer alone.

The story of the baby going missing is the main point of the book and I thought the addition of a few news articles within the book was a great idea.  I read the book quickly as I wanted to find out what had happened to Mia so the hook was there and I continued to be intrigued during Estelle's search for the truth.  The ending wasn't a disappointment, in fact I think it showed how far Estelle had come in her therapy - she never gave up looking for her daughter.

I did enjoy the book and I think it was a fascinating psychological analysis of a damaged young woman as she attempted to adapt to married life and motherhood.

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

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