Review of The interpreter – Brooke Robinson

Innocent or guilty. It’s all a matter of interpretation…

THE MOST DANGEROUS PERSON IN THE COURTROOM ISN’T THE KILLER…

Single mother Revelle Lee is an interpreter who spends her days translating for victims, witnesses and the accused across London. Only she knows what they’re saying. Only she knows the truth.

When she believes a grave injustice is about to happen, and a guilty man is going to be labelled innocent, she has the power to twist an alibi to get the verdict she wants. She’s willing to risk it all to do what’s right.

But when someone discovers she lied, Revelle finds the cost might be too high… and she could lose everything, including her son.

The interpreter

Brooke Robinson

Harvill Secker

Supplied by Penguin Random House New Zealand

Reviewed by Jan Butterworth

Revelle Lee lives a solitary life and has no family or friends to connect with, so has to create her own family.  She’s currently in the process of adopting her six year old foster child, Elliot.  Social Services removed from his biological parents as they had been abusive drug addicts.  As a polygot, she speaks 10 languages fluently – English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Russian, Dari, Hindi, Hungarian, French.  Revelle works as a freelance translator through an agency who call her up for jobs such as translating testimony for of victims, defendants and witnesses in court and police stations, relaying health information between doctor and patient in hospitals, and even facilitating international business meetings. 

Racked with guilt after mis-translating a social work meeting early in her career that led to a little boy dying, Revelle refuses to speak the German language or even acknowledge she understands it.  She keeps a professional distance from clients and doesn’t let emotion enter into cases, making sure the translation is an accurate representation of what was said.  Then Elliot’s babysitter is murdered and Revelle is assigned to translate a witness’s statement that provides the accused with an alibi.   Convinced he’s guilty, she changes a word to make the alibi useless.

But someone knows what she’s done.  Someone wants her to do it again.  And that someone is now threatening Elliot……

It’s a unique concept and I looked forward to reading it, and I loved it.  The plot was very clever in describing current events while detailing what happened in the past and building a clearer picture of who Revelle is.  You do need to concentrate to grasp what’s going on with the timeline, and it’s being told from two POV0’s, Revelle’s and the bad guy’s, but these are clearly defined with different fonts.

It shows what can happen when the line between right and wrong begin to blur and makes you think about how important words are. Intentional or not, changing just one word in an interpretation of a statement can be the difference between life and death.

A compelling thriller with a complex plot.  Read it.

Review of I Will Find You – Harlan Coben

David and Cheryl Burroughs are living the dream – married, a beautiful house in the suburbs, a three year old son named Matthew – when tragedy strikes one night in the worst possible way.

David awakes to find himself covered in blood, but not his own – his son’s. And while he knows he did not murder his son, the overwhelming evidence against him.

Five years into his imprisonment, Cheryl’s sister arrives – and drops a bombshell.

She’s come with a photograph that a friend took on vacation at a theme park. The boy in the background seems familiar – and even though David realizes it can’t be, he knows it is.

It’s Matthew, and he’s still alive.

David plans a harrowing escape from prison, determined to do what seems impossible – save his son, clear his own name, and discover the real story of what happened that devastating night.

I Will Find You

Harlan Coben

Century

Supplied by Penguin Random House New Zealand

Reviewed by Jan Butterworth

David Burroughs is in prion for murdering his

 three year old son Matthew – something he is not guilty off and doesn’t remember doing.  His son is dead though, so he doesn’t care about anything and keeps his head down, not accepting contact from anyone beyond prison walls. Then he gets a visitor.

His ex sister-in-law, Rachel, has a photo of a friend’s family trip to a theme park. There’s a boy in the background she’s convinced is Matthew, very much alive.  Rachel is an investigative journalist – with a murky past – and is determined to find her nephew.

David is dubious at first but slowly allows himself to believe Matthew is alive and out there.  He has to find him but needs to escape from prison first.  He forms a plan with some old friends and, with Rachel’s help, sets out to find his son, clear his name, and discover what really happened on that horrific night.

This is a fast-paced thriller which moves at a breath-taking speed yet the plot is very easy to follow. I could see some actions coming but other revelations were a complete surprise.  I was hooked from the first chapter and kept enthralled until the last page.

Harlan Coben has done it again!  Read this if you want a page-turner that will keep you guessing till the very end.

Review of Listen To Me – Tess Gerritsen

The murder of Sofia Suarez is both gruesome and seemingly senseless. Why would anyone target a respected nurse who was well-liked by her friends and her neighbours? As Detective Jane Rizzoli and Forensic Pathologist Maura Isles investigate the baffling case, they discover that Sofia was guarding a dangerous secret — a secret that may have led the killer straight to her door.

Meanwhile, Jane’s watchful mother Angela Rizzoli is conducting an investigation of her own. She may be a grandmother, not a police detective, but she’s savvy enough t0o know there’s something very strange, perhaps even dangerous, about the new neighbours across the street. The problem is, no one believes her, not even her own daughter

Immersed in the hunt for Sofia’s killer, Jane and Maura are too busy to pay attention to Angela’s fears. With no one listening to her, and danger mounting in her neighbourhood, Angela just may be forced to take action on her own…

Listen To Me

Tess Gerritsen

Bantam Press

Supplied by Penguin Random House New Zealand

Reviewed by Jan Butterworth

Detective Jane Rizzoli and Forensic Pathologist Maura Isles are called to a crime scene where the victim had been stabbed repeatedly as she desperately tried to escape her killer.  The grisly murder is especially shocking as it seems so senseless.  The victim, Sofia Suarez is, was a respected nurse well-liked by her friends and neighbours.  As Jane looks deeper, she finds Sofia was investigating someone for something.  Did she get too close to someone’s secret?

Angela Rizzoli is suspicious about her neighbour’s missing daughter, suspecting something more sinister than a normal teenage runaway has happened, and she wants Jane to investigate.   Jane keeps brushing her off, as do the police, but she keeps investigating in the hope of finding the girl.  She keeps a close eye on the neighbourhood and is convinced that there is something suspicious about the new neighbours across the street. No one believes her though, dismissing her as a nosy old woman who sees shadows everywhere.  Jane and Maura are too busy looking for Sofia’s killer to pay attention to Angela, so she takes matters into her own hands.

College student Amy Antrim was nearly killed by a hit-and-run driver, and now uses a cane to walk. Several months later, she is at the funeral of Sofia Suarez, a nurse her doctor father worked with. A man approaches her and strikes up a conversation before vanishing.  After strange noises and unexplained break-ins at her house, Amy then feels she’s being followed.  Is someone stalking her?

These three threads are told in separate chapters and seem independent of each other at first.  As the plot moves briskly on, they gradually weave together and establish the connection between Sofia’s murder and Amy’s hit-and-run.  The plot is very clever and ties everything together neatly, with some things becoming obvious partway through the book.  I did not expect the last piece of information though.

Yay!  More Rizzoli & Isles!  This book is an addictive read and definitely one for thriller fans. 

Review of No Plan B: Jack Reacher #27 – Lee Child & Andrew Child

Gerrardsville, Colorado. One tragic event. Two witnesses. Two conflicting accounts. One witness sees a woman throw herself in front of a bus – clearly suicide. The other witness is Jack Reacher. And he sees what really happened – a man in grey hoodie and jeans, swift and silent as a shadow, pushed the victim to her death, before grabbing her bag and sauntering away.

Reacher follows the killer, not knowing that this was no random act of violence. It is part of something much bigger…a sinister, secret conspiracy, with powerful people on the take, enmeshed in an elaborate plot that leaves no room for error. If any step is compromised, the threat will have to be quickly and permanently removed.

But when the threat is Reacher, there is No Plan B….

No Plan B: Jack Reacher #27

Lee Child & Andrew Child

Bantam Press

Supplied by Penguin Random House New Zealand

Reviewed by Jan Butterworth

In a small Colorado town, Reacher witnesses a woman be pushed off a footpath and then be run over by a bus.  He’s the only one how saw her get pushed though.  Another, more trustworthy, witness saw her trip and lose her balance before falling.  The guy who pushed her then took her handbag before disappearing into the crowd, so Reacher has to follow him to find out what is going on…..

A scared foster kid finds out his bio mother is dying.  He embarks on a bus journey across the US to a small town in Mississippi where a prisoner is due to be released from the Minerva Correctional Facility.  His journey is harrowing and he soon learns who to trust and who not to.  He’s determined to reach the prisoner – his bio father…..

A man finds out he has lost his junkie son to an overdose while in a rehab, and the grieving dad is determined to find out who to blame.  Only he’s not an ordinary man but a psychotic criminal who commits arsons for insurance money.  He’s happy to use gruesome force to get answers from people as he works his way further and further up the chain until he finds the top boss to enact revenge…..

Six men are having a top secret meeting in a secure room in Minerva Correctional Facility.  The topic of the meeting is the man in Colorado and if he looked at the papers in the handbag.  They’re worried he might show up at the prisoner release and make plans to keep the man from setting foot in the small Mississippi town…..

These four threads entwine seamlessly to give another clever Reacher story.  There’s lots of action and the plot moves briskly with a slowly dawning realisation things are not what they seem.  When the bad guy’s plot is finally exposed I felt revolted and pleased the grieving farther got what he deserved. This is a gripping read and definitely one for thriller fans.  It also reinforces the message that YOU DON’T MESS WITH REACHER!!!

Review of No Less The Devil – Stuart MacBride

‘We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.’

It’s been seventeen months since the Bloodsmith butchered his first victim and Operation Maypole is still no nearer catching him. The media is whipping up a storm, the top brass are demanding results, but the investigation is sinking fast.

Now isn’t the time to get distracted with other cases, but Detective Sergeant Lucy McVeigh doesn’t have much choice. When Benedict Strachan was just eleven, he hunted down and killed a homeless man. No one’s ever figured out why Benedict did it, but now, after sixteen years, he’s back on the streets again – battered, frightened, convinced a shadowy ‘They’ are out to get him, and begging Lucy for help.

It sounds like paranoia, but what if he’s right? What if he really is caught up in something bigger and darker than Lucy’s ever dealt with before? What if the Bloodsmith isn’t the only monster out there? And what’s going to happen when Lucy goes after them?

No Less The Devil

Stuart MacBride

Bantam Press

Supplied by Penguin Random House New Zealand

Reviewed by Jan Butterworth

Detective Sergeant Lucy McVeigh has been on the team that has been on the trail of the Bloodsmith – a serial killer who drains the blood of his victims before butchering them and removing body parts.  Operation Maypole has been investigating for 17 months and they’re still no closer to identifying him.

The higher ups now have bought in some new people to lead the Operation, under growing criticism from the public for failing to deliver any results.  Under pressure, Lucy decides to go back to the beginning and re-examine each case to see if any evidence has been overlooked.  She brings along Detective Constable Duncan Fraser as a fresh set of eyes.

Lucy has also been contacted by a homeless man who was convicted of the brutal murder of a man when he was eleven years old.  Now terrified and convinced a mysterious ‘They’ are out to get him, he begs her for help.  Is it paranoia or is he caught up in something? Is it connected to the Bloodsmith or are there other monsters out there?

With The Dunk’s help, she’s determined to get to the bottom of things.  But with a creepy stalker, unresolved trauma, and a prat from the Police Professional Standards unit to deal with, can she cope without cracking up?

The story started off ok, though it didn’t really grab me.  It was an interesting drama about a gutsy cop determined to catch a horrible monster and make the community safer.  Then as a read more things didn’t make sense and I started wondering what was going on.  Then it became really weird….

The story was a bit to dark for me and I didn’t really enjoy it.   Though if you enjoy black humour, horror, violence, and travelling to some very dark places, this is the book for you.

Review of Hush Little Baby – RH Herron

Jillian Marsh is a survivor. She escaped her toxic upbringing at the hands of her religious zealot mother as a teenager, and after hitting rock bottom due to alcoholism in her twenties, she not only got sober, she built a successful marriage and medical career, even if she wasn’t able to make amends for all the mistakes she made during her drinking days. But nearly a decade later, things are once again going downhill for Jillian.

Her wife, Rochelle, has left her while Jillian is pregnant with Rochelle’s biological child, and she feels constantly unsettled in her now-empty house—items missing from their usual place, burning candles she can’t remember lighting, the screen from her bedroom window removed.

Even her mommies-to-be group isn’t the solace it once was. Bree, Camille, Maggie, and Jillian vowed to not only support one another in motherhood but in their sobriety, careers, and maintaining their independence after their babies are born . . . a sisterhood that begins to unravel when the secrets between the women come unwillingly to light.
 
As things in Jillian’s home begin to escalate, she’s forced to ask herself: Is one of her supposed friends not as trustworthy as she seems? Could Rochelle be gaslighting her in order to claim full custody of their daughter? Or, worst of all—is Jillian turning into her own mother, and imagining all of it in some sort of subconscious sabotage against her unborn child?  
 
When the missing items turn into unambiguous threats, and as the circle of those she can trust continues to dwindle, Jillian knows only one thing for sure: she will do anything to protect her baby.

Hush Little Baby

RH Herron

Dutton

Supplied by Penguin Random House New Zealand

Reviewed by Jan Butterworth

Jillian is a successful Ob-Gyn who’s pregnant with her wife’s biological baby.  Only her wife has left her for another woman.  A recovering alcoholic, she has formed a tight-knit support group with 3 other alcoholics also expecting.  They call themselves ‘The Ripleys’ after the kick-ass heroine in the Alien movies.

Rattling around alone in her former marital home, Jillian should be nesting but she feels unnerved.  Items go missing, only to reappear, candles that she can’t remember lighting are found burning, her bedroom window screen is removed allowing her cat to escape…..  Someone has been in her house and violated her space. But who? And why?

A dedicated doctor, Jillian doesn’t have enemies.  Or does she?  Her turbulent home life is complicated and messy. The Ripley’s all have secrets and as they are exposed, the group start to look at each other with suspicion.  Who can she trust?

The book starts off with scenes from Jillian’s everyday life which seems ordinary. Then we get glimpses of why this is happening and some certain odd unexplained incidences.  As the story unfolds we get an insight into Jillian’s life, her heartbreak, her strength, and her determination. The suspense in this book is intense and with each new revelation the pieces of the puzzle become clearer – you have to keep reading to find answers.

A riveting thriller, this book is a must for anyone who likes spine-chilling reads.  As each new revelation is exposed, the question of ‘how far will a mother go to protect her baby?’ is raised.  Do not start this book if you have no self control and things to do the next day; it is a real page-turner where you have to keep reading to find out what happens next.

Review of The Family Remains – Lisa Jewell

LONDON. Early morning, June 2019: on the foreshore of the river Thames, a bag of bones is discovered. Human bones.

DCI Samuel Owusu is called to the scene and quickly sends the bag for forensic examination. The bones are those of a young woman, killed by a blow to the head many years ago.

Also inside the bag is a trail of clues, in particular the seeds of a rare tree which lead DCI Owusu back to a mansion in Chelsea where, nearly thirty years previously, three people lay dead in a kitchen, and a baby waited upstairs for someone to pick her up.

The clues point forward too to a brother and sister in Chicago searching for the only person who can make sense of their pasts.

Four deaths. An unsolved mystery. A family whose secrets an’t stay buried for ever …

The Family Remains

Lisa Jewell

Century

Supplied by Penguin Random House New Zealand

Reviewed by Jan Butterworth

A group out mud-larking find a black bin bag of bones and the police are called.  They are determine they are human and further testing reveals that they are 26 yrs old and belonged to a small-statured woman.  DCI Owusu leads the investigation to find out whose bones they are and how they ended up in the river…….

Lucy Lamb, her children and the dog have been living with her brother Henry, in his chic modern flat for over a year.  The Cheyne Walk house has finally sold and with her share of the money in her account, she’s started house hunting.  Then Henry disappears…….

After no contact for 25 years, Henry learns that his and Lucy’s old friend Phineas is working as a safari guide in Botswana and has changed his name to Finn.  After being told the Lambs have found his whereabouts, Finn disappears again.  Henry tracks him to Chicago and flies over to hunt down his childhood obsession..….

Rachel is the current wife of Lucy’s ex-husband, Michael. She thought she’d found her Prince Charming, but then he started to scare her. Traumatised by his violence and wanting to find someone who understands, Rachel tries to track down Lucy to find answers…..

There are four different threads that weave together seamlessly to tell a story.  Each is from a different viewpoint and it jumps from past to present events, explaining the back-story.    Chapters about past events include the month and year so you don’t get confused and it’s easy to tell whose viewpoint the story is being told from.

This book is the sequel to The Family Upstairs, a story about a house with a history, many secrets, and what happened to the family who lived there.  The Family Remains is a good standalone that provides enough background for readers that didn’t read the first book first but you really should.  It gives 4you a better understanding of the horrors the characters faced and how the experiences shaped them.

You know how some books end too soon and leave you wanting to know more?  With this sequel you get the chance to see how things turned out, as well as a thrilling new story.  It’s interesting to view the lives of the family after the hell they endured in the first story and how they dealt with the past. 

Though the last lines leave me hoping for another sequel.

Review of Breathless – Amy McCulloch

At the top of the world’s tallest mountains, there literally isn’t enough oxygen to breathe. In the space of hours your body will begin to shut down. Any longer, and death is inevitable.

What better place for a serial killer to find their next victim?

Struggling journalist Cecily Wong is delighted to be invited to interview famed mountaineer Charles McVeigh, conditional on joining his team on one of the Himalayas’ toughest peaks.

But on the mountain, it’s clear something is wrong. It begins small – a theft, an accidental fall. And then a note, pinned to her tent in the night: there’s a murderer on the mountain…..

Breathless

Amy McCulloch

Michael Joseph

Supplied by Penguin Random House New Zealand

Reviewed by Jan Butterworth

Cecily Wong has been invited on an expedition to climb Manasulu, one of the Himalayas’ toughest peaks, with the world’s most famous mountaineer Charles McVeigh, who has already submitted seven of the eight highest peaks in the world without assistance including supplemental oxygen. He promises Cecily an exclusive interview with him if she summits.  For a fledgling journalist and novice climber, the offer is too good to resist.

The rest of the expedition team includes an extreme sports influencer, a videographer, a rich technological communications CEO, a guide – all experienced mountain climbers – and the Sherpas.  The team is set to leave for base camp, where they will meet up with Charles, just before a French climber is found dead under suspicious circumstances. Then on the trek to base, another experienced climber is found with a rope around her neck.

At base camp Cecily finds an omnious note in front of her tent; There’s a Murderer on the Mountain. Run. Unsure if it’s a warning or a threat, she fears their expedition is in danger.   When she tells Charles of her fears, his response doesn’t exactly give her confidence – ‘Well, what better place for a killer to hide, than somewhere already known as the death zone?’  And then a second climber dies…..

When you’re this high up, no one can hear you scream – this is them line that caught my attention in the press release and made me want to read this book.  What a great ideal; a serial killer on the world’s highest peaks.  I was happy to discover the story was everything I expected and more.  It had a tightly woven plot, lots of fast paced action, unexpected twists, and an ending you don’t see coming.

I got slightly bored with the mountaineering descriptions and ended up skimming over most of them.  They were needed to explain things to non-mountaineers though and were set the scene well for a novice whose only experience is watching docos about Hilary and Tenzing.  It helped the author is actually a mountaineer herself and her passion for the mountains came through; with images so vivid you could taste the air and feel the cold.

t turns out I was right in half suspecting who the killer was but wow!  I did not expect that ending at all!

A really good book about pushing boundaries and how you never know what you’re capable of.  I recommend reading it inside under the heat pump though, not outside in the cold snow.

Review of The Match – Harlan Coben

As a young child, Wilde was found living a feral existence in the Ramapo mountains of New Jersey. He has grown up knowing nothing of his family, and even less about his own identity.

He is known simply as Wilde, the boy from the woods.

But when a match at an online ancestry database puts him on the trail of a close relative – the first family member he has ever known – he thinks he might be about to solve the mystery of who he really is. Only this relation disappears as quickly as he’s resurfaced, having experienced an epic fall from grace that can only be described as a waking nightmare.

Undaunted, Wilde continues his research on DNA websites where he becomes caught up in a community of doxxers, a secret group committed to exposing anonymous online trolls.

Then one by one these doxxers start to die, and it soon becomes clear that a serial killer is targeting this secret community – and that his next victim might be Wilde himself …….

The Match

Harlan Coben

Century

Supplied by Penguin Random House New Zealand

Reviewed by Jan Butterworth

Wilde was found living in the woods as a young child, with no memory of his past or how came to be there.  He’s fostered by a good family and joins the military when he grows up.  He gets curious about his past and submits his DNA to a genealogical website, hoping to find answers.

Work intervenes and when he checks his email months later he has a match from an account that has been hastily deleted after matching with him. Wilde tries to track down the deleted account and doesn’t like what he finds. 

It takes him several months to check his email again and when he does he finds a mysterious email from a relative that was sent a few months ago.  Worried by what the message said and hoping to find answers about his family, Wilde decides to look for him.  But he isn’t he only one looking.

As the body count grows, Wilde is sucked deep into the glitzy world of reality shows, celebrity influencers, and social media, while capturing the attention of a serial killer.

This book has two distinct stories and a third minor part that cleverly weave together.  The first chapter was a really interesting story that had me hooked.  The next chapter was a totally different story that was also an intriguing story.  I just could not see how they would come together.  As they were fleshed out I began to see it.

My fourth form science education and lack of interest in DNA meant I skimmed over some parts and missed information but it was spelled out later.

The look at the world of celebrity social media was both interesting and disturbing.  Its scary how quickly rumours or malicious lies become truth and there are actually people who get paid to harass others.  A sobering reminder to question everything and believe nothing.

A third of the way into the book it became obvious who the killer was. Too obvious. As this is a Harlan Coban book I knew it was too easy and I had to wait till the twist at the end to see who it was and WOW!  I did not suspect that person for an instant. And the final twist was awesome!  So many new questions raised.

Read this if you enjoy thrillers, killers, and mysteries.

Review of One Step Too Far – Lisa Gardner

A young man disappears during a stag weekend in the woods. Years later, he’s still missing.

But his friends who were with him that day are still searching for him. Still hunting.

They hike deep into the wilderness.

With them is missing person specialist Frankie Elkin.

hat they don’t know is that they are putting their own lives in terrifying danger, and may not come back alive . . .

One Step Too Far

Lisa Gardner

Century

Supplied by Penguin Random House New Zealand

Reviewed by Jan Butterworth

Frankie Elkin finds missing people.   Not or money but because she’s good at it and likes the satisfaction gained when a case is solved.

On her way to a case of a young girl missing, Frankie learns of a man who has gone missing in a national forest while on his bachelor party weekend with four college buddies. The official search has been abandoned by law enforcement but the man’s friends and his dad are still looking.

As one buddy has gotten sick, Frankie joins the team with the man’s three remaining college buddies, the man’s dad, a local wilderness expert, a Bigfoot hunter, and a Search and Rescue member and her cadaver dog, Daisy.

The hike to the base camp is tough and made tougher with the team dynamics.  The dad and the wilderness expert are cold and distant, them college buddies are grumpy and clearly don’t want to be there, the SAR member is reserved, and only the Bigfoot Hunter seems friendly.  And Daisy, who is awesome!  Then bad things start happening – someone is sabotaging this search mission. Then people start going missing………

This book was so good!  It had me turning pages all night, desperate to find out what happens next.  It was a gripping thriller that I was unable to put it down and stayed up till 3am to finish (& I’m not night owl).

Frankie is a complex woman and as she comes to know most of the crew members a lot better and gets them to open up, I understood them better.  I didn’t like the three friends at first but they grew on me as the story progresses and they show their characters.  Daisy is the heroine of the story though.  The identity of the bad guy was a total shock to me.  He was the last guy I suspected and I never saw it coming.

If you enjoy mysteries and thrillers, read this book.  It’s a breath-taking ride that will have you hooked from start to finish.