Ragdoll, by Daniel Cole

Format: e-ARC, 378 pages

Publisher: Hachette Australia

Published: 28 February, 2017

ISBN: 9781409168751

Genre: General Fiction (Adult), Mystery & Thrillers

Back cover blurb: A body is discovered with the dismembered parts of six victims stitched together like a puppet, nicknamed by the press as the ‘ragdoll’.
Assigned to the shocking case are Detective William ‘Wolf’ Fawkes, recently reinstated to the London Met, and his former partner Detective Emily Baxter.
The ‘Ragdoll Killer’ taunts the police by releasing a list of names to the media, and the dates on which he intends to murder them.
With six people to save, can Fawkes and Baxter catch a killer when the world is watching their every move?

My review: I was reminded a lot of the Luther TV series while reading this. Will Fawkes, aka Wolf, is the kind of detective who takes crimes personally, isn’t above bending the rules to get his man, and who often finds himself embroiled with his witnesses and colleagues. The case was gory and intriguing, full of sudden twists, and based on the blurb, I should have enjoyed this more than I did. But the fact was I didn’t get much sense of Wolf until very late in the story. I wasn’t invested in him, or even any of his colleagues. Only Edmunds seemed to stand out, and it doesn’t look like he will be staying on for the second book. I can see how Cole wrote this initially as a screenplay, but feel like the characterization would have been all down to the actors cast. I doubt I’ll be reading the sequel.

***Disclaimer: This e-ARC was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Huge thanks to them. ***

My rating: 3.5/5

Amazon

Die Of Shame, by Mark Billingham

Format: e-ARC, 448 pages

Publisher: Grove Atlantic

Published: June 7, 2016

ISBN: 9780802125255

Genre: General Fiction (Adult)

Back cover blurb: From British thriller master Mark Billingham, a recent finalist for the Crime Writers’ Association Dagger in the Library, Die of Shame is a chilling story of addiction, subterfuge, and murder.

Every Monday evening, six people gather in a smart North London house to talk about shame. A respected doctor, a well-heeled housewife, a young male prostitute . . . they could not be more different. All they have in common is a history of addiction. But when one of the group is murdered, it quickly becomes apparent that someone else in that circle is responsible. The investigation is hampered by the strict confidentiality that binds these individuals and their therapist together, which makes things difficult for Detective Inspector Nicola Tanner, a woman who can appreciate the desire to keep personal matters private. If she is to find the killer, she will need to use less obvious means. The question is: What could be shameful enough to cost someone their life? And how do you find the truth when secrets, lies, and denial are second nature to all of your suspects?

My review: My sister has been recommending Mark Billingham to me for a while, so I jumped at the chance to get this ARC when it popped up on Netgalley. And I was not disappointed. This standalone story introduces us to an addiction therapy group full of interesting, well-crafted characters. I was gripped from the outset, and although there were many twists and red herrings, I was satisfied my suspicions were confirmed in the end. In fact, that ending was one of those wonderful “gotcha” moments that make a reader grin, knowing the crime will not go unpunished.

Billingham’s experience as a TV writer shows, and I can easily see this as an excellent British crime drama. I hope we’ll see more of DI Nicola Tanner and her interesting colleagues in future. Meanwhile, I’m definitely going back to read Billingham’s earlier works. My sister was right.

***Disclaimer: This e-ARC was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Huge thanks to them. ***

My rating: 5/5

Amazon

Stacking the Shelves #17

Hosted by Tynga’s Reviews

Welcome back to Stacking the Shelves, a regular meme hosted by Tynga at Tynga’s Reviews. Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the latest books you have added to your shelves, physical or virtual.  This means you can include books you buy in store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts, and of course e-books!

I got a bit carried away on Netgalley this week, and have requested far too many books! So far two of them have been approved, but there are still several pending – I just hope I can find time to read them all! The first was The Masked Truth by Kelley Armstrong, which looks soooooo good!

The second was The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss by Max Wirestone, which was a featured book as part of Netgalley’s 2015 challenge. This one took my fancy because of its blurb and the quirky cover.

Finally, I bought Shadow’s Claim by Kresley Cole from Audible this week. I needed a book with the word “shadow” in the title to complete a reading challenge, and haven’t read this IAD series offshoot yet.

So that’s it for this week. Keep an eye out for my reviews of these in coming weeks. So what new books did you pick up this week? Let me know in the comments.

Stacking the Shelves #15

 

Hosted by Tynga’s Reviews

Welcome back to Stacking the Shelves, a regular meme hosted by Tynga at Tynga’s Reviews. Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the latest books you have added to your shelves, physical or virtual.  This means you can include books you buy in store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts, and of course e-books!

I took “Dry July” to the extreme and didn’t buy or borrow any books, but now it’s August I’m back!

I won a $US10 Amazon gift voucher this week, and have started spending it with two 1001 Dark Nights Demonica novellas from Larissa Ione, Aazagoth and Hades. Love these covers!

I made two requests from Netgalley and they were both granted. The first was Darken the Stars (Kricket, book 3) by Amy A. Bartol. I absolutely love this series and can’t wait to get started on this final installment.

I also asked for and was granted Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon, about which I have heard great things. Really looking forward to starting this one, too. Again, both of these have beautiful covers!

Finally, I borrowed The Devil’s Star (Harry Hole, book 5) by Jo Nesbo on audiobook from the public library. I’ve read a few of his books and would like to read more of his Harry Hole novels. They’re very good.

So that’s it for this week. Keep an eye out for my reviews of these in coming weeks. So what new books did you pick up this week? Let me know in the comments.

Stacking the Shelves #14

 

Hosted by Tynga’s Reviews

Welcome back to Stacking the Shelves, a regular meme hosted by Tynga at Tynga’s Reviews. Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the latest books you have added to your shelves, physical or virtual.  This means you can include books you buy in store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts, and of course e-books! Here is my haul from this week.

Purchased from iBooks

I recently read my first Gail Carriger book, which I absolutely loved, so this week I grabbed one of her short stories from iBooks, The Curious Case of the Werewolf That Wasn’t, the Mummy That Was, and the Cat in the Jar. Great title!

Paperback given as a gift

It was my husband’s birthday recently and he was given Good As Dead by Mark Billingham, which he read in a couple of sittings last weekend. I have now inherited it in the pile beside my bed, so it’s the first by that author on my TBR.

Purchased from Amazon

Finally, I bought a couple of books with similar titles from Amazon so I can use them in my Goodreads reading challenges. Finding a book title that starts with the letter Z is tricky, so I snapped up Zack by M. Malone and Zack by Sawyer Bennett. I know nothing about either of these authors and purely chose the books by their titles, so I hope they’re good.

Purchased from Amazon

So that’s it for this week. Keep an eye out for my reviews of these in coming weeks. So what new books did you pick up this week? Let me know in the comments.

Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes, by Karin Slaughter

Format: e-ARC, 80 pages

Publisher: Cornerstone Digital

Published: June 4, 2015

ISBN: 9781473535626

Genre: Literature fiction (adult), crime thriller

Back cover blurb: A missing girl in the news reminds Julia Carroll of herself: nineteen, beautiful, blonde hair, blue eyes.

Julia begins to dig deeper and plans an article for her college paper. She becomes gradually more obsessed with the case, never imagining how close she herself is to danger.

My review: This was my first Karin Slaughter book – I have to admit half of the appeal is that she has the perfect name for a crime novelist – and I found her easy style a nice change from a lot of the other thrillers I’ve read lately. This is a prelude to Slaughter’s next book, so the outcome seemed inevitable, but it was interesting to be in Julia’s mind and meet the other characters from her point of view. I’m intrigued enough to definitely want to read Pretty Girls when it comes out next month.

***Disclaimer: This e-ARC was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Huge thanks to them. ***

My rating: 4/5

Amazon

Stacking the Shelves #8

Hosted by Tynga’s Reviews

Welcome back to Stacking the Shelves, a regular meme hosted by Tynga at Tynga’s Reviews. Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the latest books you have added to your shelves, physical or virtual.  This means you can include books you buy in store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts, and of course e-books! Here is my haul from this week.

Given to me as a gift

It’s been a bit of a quiet week for new books for me. It was my birthday, and my sister gave me a paperback copy of The Retribution by Val McDermid. It’s book 7 in the Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series and I haven’t read any of the others, so it should be interesting! McDermid comes highly recommended.

Purchased from iBooks

I also got some gift cards for my birthday and have so far bought Pucked by Helena Hunting. Really looking forward to reading this one! And there’s still plenty left on my cards for more purchasing in coming weeks.

Keep an eye out for my reviews of these in coming weeks. So what new books did you pick up this week? Let me know in the comments.