Genre: Mystery

The genre of mystery novels is a young form of literature that has developed since the early-19th century. The rise of literacy began in the years of the English Renaissance and, as people began to read over time, they became more individualistic in their thinking. As people became more individualistic in their thinking, they developed a respect for human reason and the ability to solve problems.

Perhaps a reason that mystery fiction was unheard of before the 1800s was due in part to the lack of true police forces. Before the Industrial Revolution, many of the towns would have constables and a night watchman at best. Naturally, the constable would be aware of every individual in the town, and crimes were either solved quickly or left unsolved entirely. As people began to crowd into cities, police forces became institutionalized, and the need for detectives was realized – thus the mystery novel arose.

Sometimes I Lie

Sometimes I Lie

Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney
Published by Flatiron Books on March 13th 2018
Pages: 258
Format: arc_paperback
See it @ Goodreads


Synopsis

My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me:

1. I’m in a coma.
2. My husband doesn’t love me anymore.
3. Sometimes I lie.

In 1987 I was living in Huntington, Long Island, that Christmas there was a strange news story of a young newly married couple who had a fight, the wife had gone missing.  For at least a week there was nightly news stories about how the young husband was assisting the police in the search and was responsible for providing information that led to the discovery of his wife’s body.  He was later convicted of murdering her.  I often wondered if something had tripped in his mind that allowed him to repress what had happened. What happens when the mind gets so so over loaded it can no long know the truth.

Alice Feeney’s Sometimes I Lie gives us a glimpse, into the dark side of how the mind works.  She also did an excellent job of messing with my mind in one of the best psychological thriller I have read.  If you enjoy this genre, this is the book to read.

About Alice Feeney

Alice Feeney is a writer and journalist. She spent 15 years at the BBC, where she worked as a Reporter, News Editor, Arts and Entertainment Producer and One O’clock News Producer.

Alice is has lived in London and Sydney and has now settled in the Surrey countryside, where she lives with her husband and dog.

Sometimes I Lie is her debut thriller and is being published around the world in 2017.

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The French Girl

The French Girl

The French Girl by Lexie Elliott
Published by Berkley Books on February 20th 2018
Pages: 304
Format: arc_paperback
See it @ Goodreads


Synopsis

An exhilarating psychological suspense debut that will propel readers into the darkest edges of friendship, for fans of Fiona Barton, Clare Mackintosh, and Ruth Ware.

They were six university students from Oxford--friends and sometimes more than friends--spending an idyllic week together in a French farmhouse. It was supposed to be the perfect summer getaway...until they met Severine, the girl next door.

For Kate Channing, Severine was an unwelcome presence, her inscrutable beauty undermining the close-knit group's loyalties amid the already simmering tensions. And after a huge altercation on the last night of the holiday, Kate knew nothing would ever be the same. There are some things you can't forgive. And there are some people you can't forget, like Severine, who was never seen again...

Now, a decade later, the case is reopened when Severine's body is found in the well behind the farmhouse. Questioned along with her friends, Kate stands to lose everything she's worked so hard to achieve as suspicion mounts around her. Desperate to resolve her own shifting memories and fearful she will be forever bound to the woman whose presence still haunts her, Kate will find herself buried under layers of deception with no one to set her free...

The French Girl is one of those books that immerses you. A well written tale of six English students who spend a week in the French countryside only to have a French girl who was staying across the way go missing. Fast forward ten years and five of the six students are now settled into their lives in London when they are notified that the remains of the French girl have been found in an old well on the property where they were staying.

Thus begins the cat and mouse game between the old friends, who knows what, each person carefully searching to see what the others know. This is not a sit on the edge of your seat thriller but a nuanced study of how friends react to news that most likely one of them is a murderer. I throughly enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it.

The Hollow Men

The Hollow Men

The Hollow Men by Rob McCarthy
Published by Hodder & Stoughton on February 25th 2016
Series: Dr Harry Kent #1
Pages: 368
See it @ Goodreads


Synopsis

A stunning and original debut crime thriller starring Harry Kent, a police surgeon who uncovers a shocking conspiracy after a hostage situation goes wrong.
Dr. Harry Kent likes to keep busy: juggling hospital duties with his work as a police surgeon for the Metropolitan Police - anything to ward off the memories of his time as an Army medic.
Usually the police work means minor injuries and mental health assessments. But Solomon Idris's case is different. Solomon Idris has taken eight people hostage in a chicken takeaway, and is demanding to see a lawyer and a BBC reporter. Harry is sent in to treat the clearly ill teenager...before the siege goes horribly wrong.
When Solomon's life is put in danger again from the safety of a critical care ward, it becomes clear he knows something people will kill to protect. Determined to uncover the secret that drove the boy to such desperate action, Harry soon realises that someone in the medical world, someone he may even know, has broken the doctors' commandment 'do no harm' many times over...

A good read, would recommend.

Snow Blind

Snow Blind

Snowblind by Ragnar Jónasson
Published by Minotaur Books on January 31st 2017
Series: Dark Iceland #1
Pages: 320
See it @ Goodreads


Synopsis

Where: A quiet fishing village in northern Iceland, where no one locks their doors. It is accessible only via a small mountain tunnel.
Who: Ari Thor is a rookie policeman on his first posting, far from his girlfriend in Reykjavik. He has a past that he's unable to leave behind.
What: A young woman is found lying half-naked in the snow, bleeding and unconscious, and a highly esteemed elderly writer falls to his death. Ari is dragged straight into the heart of a community where he can trust no one, and secrets and lies are a way of life.
Past plays tag with the present and the claustrophobic tension mounts, while Ari is thrust ever deeper into his own darkness―blinded by snow and with a killer on the loose.
Taut and terrifying, Snowblind is a startling debut from an extraordinary new talent.

Endless days of gray sky set and snow set the stage for me to sit down to read Snow Blind, we haven’t seen the sun in days. Nestled in my comfortable chair in front of the fireplace, I settle into a small town close to the arctic circle were rookie Ari Thor has taken a his first position as a police officer. Shortly after his arrival, a local celebrity is found dead, Ari Thor is drawn to a woman who is not his girlfriend and a partially naked woman is found laying in the snow. While not an action packed thriller, the characters were well-developed holding my attention as the story slowing moved along, like the winter storm that had settled on Siglufjördur.