Book Review: White Rabbit, Red Wolf by Tom Pollock

Title: White Rabbit, Red Wolf
Author: Tom Pollock
Publication date: 3rd May 2018
Publisher: Walker Books
Source: Review copy from publisher
Genre: Young Adult Thriller

Description: 
Seventeen-year-old Peter Blankman is a maths prodigy. He also suffers from severe panic attacks. Afraid of everything, he finds solace in the orderly and logical world of mathematics and in the love of his family: his scientist mum and his tough twin sister Bel, as well as Ingrid, his only friend. However, when his mother is found stabbed before an award ceremony and his sister is nowhere to be found, Pete is dragged into a world of espionage and violence where state and family secrets intertwine. Armed only with his extraordinary analytical skills, Peter may just discover that his biggest weakness is his greatest strength.

My thoughts:
I’d read one of Tom Pollock’s other books before, which has a strong fantasy element, and while this is very different I knew going in that I liked his writing, and I was intrigued by he fact it deals with an eating disorder and other mental health issues. White Rabbit, Red Wolf gets started very quickly, and is one of those books that's packed with twists and turns, making it very hard to talk about without spoilers!

The portrayal of Peter's panic attacks and how they link in to compulsive eating and other actions was fascinating. I've read that Tom Pollock has an eating disorder himself, and I wonder if that's part of what made it feel so authentic, understandable and real. Peter's best friend in the book, Ingrid, also has OCD and their mutual problems are part of what help them bond so strongly.

While there was the odd twist that I could anticipate, for the most part, I was completely surprised by them. Unlike some books where the 'surprising twists' just seem to crush the story so far and laugh at the reader for how they've been misdirected, the turns in White Rabbit, Red Wolf felt totally believable within the story. It's fast paced, dramatic, and one of those books that when I finished it, I immediately wanted to reread it knowing what you do by the end of the book. I completely recommend this to anyone who enjoys a thriller, even if you wouldn't normally read YA. Overall I'm giving it 8 out of 10.

Review: The Boy Who Saw by Simon Toyne

 Title: The Boy Who Saw
Author: Simon Toyne
Publication date: 15th June 2017
Publisher: HarperCollins
Genre: Thriller (with supernatural twists)
Source: Review copy from publisher

Blurb: Only one boy can see the darkness.
Only one man can save him from it.

‘Finishing what was begun’

These are the words written in blood beside the body of an elderly tailor who has been tortured and murdered in the ancient town of Cordes. He leaves behind a cryptic message for his granddaughter and her son, Leo – one that puts them in immediate danger. When the mother and child are forced to go on the run, accompanied by the enigmatic Solomon Creed, they find themselves hunted across France, on a journey that will take them into the heart of Europe’s violent past. What begins as small-town murder will become a race to uncover a devastating secret dating from World War II. The few men who know the truth are being killed by a powerful organisation, and only one man stands in its way.

Only Solomon Creed can stop the murders.
Only he can save the boy.

My thoughts: The Boy Who Saw is the sequel to Solomon Creed, which I read when it came out and really really enjoyed. It left me really wanting to know more about Solomon Creed, who he was, and where he came from, so I was excited that proofs of The Boy Who Saw arrived in the office while I worked at HarperCollins.

The book gets off to a dramatic start, with the gruesome murder of a tailor, who is being tortured for information. The killer wants information about a list. As police begin their investigation, Solomon Creed enters the picture. As in Solomon Creed, he has very few memories - in fact this book takes place just a couple of weeks after the events of the first. There are two main threads to the story, wrapped around each other. The first is the Dan Brown-esque mystery of what the murderer was looking for, and the flight of the granddaughter and her son across France, aided and abetted by various others along the way as they try to remain ahead of the killer and also solve the clue left behind by the tailor.

Entangled with that is Solomon's quest to figure out who he is and where he came from, a quest that is exactly why I wanted to read this book so badly! There are a few more clues and a little bit more light shed on the situation, but if like me you wanted to find out 'who is Solomon Creed' you'll remain disappointed for now. The upside of that is that there must be more books to come!

As with Solomon Creed, The Boy Who Saw is full of elements that make you think 'Is something supernatural going on here?' Most of them can be explained away, or dismissed as overactive imaginations, but then, like in book one, a couple of things happen which unquestionably are something magical. Simon Toyne has written very skilfully to keep the reader guessing about this, and the plot is full of twists and turns. Fans of Solomon Creed will not be disappointed with this followup, and overall I'm giving it 8 out of 10.

Book Review: Missing Presumed by Susie Steiner

Title: Missing, Presumed
Author: Susie Steiner
Release date: March 2016
Genre: Crime
Publisher: HarperCollins
Source: Publisher

Description: Mid-December, and Cambridgeshire is blanketed with snow. Detective Sergeant Manon Bradshaw tries to sleep after yet another soul-destroying Internet date – the low murmuring of her police radio her only solace.

Over the airwaves come reports of a missing woman – door ajar, keys and phone left behind, a spatter of blood on the kitchen floor. Manon knows the first 72 hours are critical: you find her, or you look for a body. And as soon as she sees a picture of Edith Hind, a Cambridge post-graduate from a well-connected family, she knows this case will be big.

Is Edith alive or dead? Was her ‘complex love life’ at the heart of her disappearance, as a senior officer tells the increasingly hungry press? And when a body is found, is it the end or only the beginning?

My thoughts: I love a good crime novel, so when this book just kept selling and selling I decided to see what the fuss was about. Missing, Presumed introduces D. S. Bradshaw and her teammates, sets up their working relationships and starts to look at some of their individual dramas. In terms of the case they're dealing with, I was intrigued by the title - straight away is the question of whether Edith (the missing girl) is just missing, or presumed dead.

I enjoyed the various twists in the case, as the team follow different leads and uncover new clues. The story is told from several viewpoints, with the most prominent being Manon. As the book progressed I began to have a suspicion of what might have happened, even if I couldn't put together the details of it, but I wasn't sure, and it was good to read through to the end and finally get everything untangled.

While I'm interested in seeing the developments of the police team over future books, Manon's love life in this one did annoy me quite a lot, and I skimmed through large portions of her point of view chapters which didn't relate to the case. She just seemed a bit too grumpy and strange, it wasn't very interesting to read her awkward dating experiences or to see things getting messed up.

Overall, it was a promising start to a series, and hopefully Ms. Steiner can build on it and the characters she has introduced to create a stronger second book. Missing, Presumed was a good, fast read but not memorable once I'd finished - definitely the sort of book I'd class as a 'beach read' or holiday read. I'm giving it 6/10.

Book review: Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough

Title: Behind Her Eyes
Author: Sarah Pinborough
Release date: 26th January 2017
Publisher: HarperCollins
Genre: Thriller (supernatural)
Source: Review copy from the publisher

Description: Louise: Since her husband walked out, Louise has made her son her world, supporting them both with her part-time job. But all that changes when she meets...
David: Young, successful and charming - Louise cannot believe a man like him would look at her twice let alone be attracted to her. But that all comes to a grinding halt when she meets his wife... 
Adele:  Beautiful, elegant and sweet - Louise's new friend seems perfect in every way. As she becomes obsessed by this flawless couple, entangled in the intricate web of their marriage, they each, in turn, reach out to her. But only when she gets to know them both does she begin to see the cracks...Is David really the man she thought she knew and is Adele as vulnerable as she appears? Just what terrible secrets are they both hiding and how far will they go to keep them?

My thoughts: Going in to this book, I wasn't sure what to think. I'd heard the first couple of pages at an event and didn't want to read another thriller centred around an unhappy or abusive relationship. Then I heard there was a slight 'weird' or fantasy element to it - a very subtle one, but enough to make it not just a normal thriller. If you're familiar with Ms. Pinborough's work, this shouldn't surprise you, as it's sort of her calling card. I decided to give the book a try.

It's an awkward book to review, because so much of the impact comes from the little twists, and I don't want to give anything away. There were a few times where the pace didn't quite go fast enough for me, but just as I was on the verge of giving up, something would be revealed, sometimes a thing which changed my perception of events so far, and I'd be hooked again.

Adele and David were childhood sweethearts from very different backgrounds, and Sarah Pinborough uses flashbacks and diary entries to show how happy their relationship was at that time. It contrasts dramatically with the present, where something is (or in fact several somethings are) wrong with their relationship. As Louise tries to puzzle out what's going on, the amount of manipulation going on between the three of them seems to get deeper and deeper. It's not a happy story. Told across several different points of view, you never quite know which narrator to trust, or if what they are guessing at is true. With Behind Her Eyes, Sarah Pinborough has redefined the unreliable narrator, and it's great.

The hashtag for Behind Her Eyes is a bold #WTFthatending, which is what caught my attention, and when I finally got to the end, I think my eyes were as wide as saucers as I read. I loved it - it was a twist that I completely didn't guess and I do want to reread the whole book knowing the full story. Overall, I did very much enjoy the book, so I'm giving it 7 out of 10. If you're looking for a thriller and are prepared for a tiny fantastical twist, this is absolutely the book for you.

~Ailsa

Book review: All Is Not Forgotten, by Wendy Walker

Title: All Is Not Forgotten

Author: Wendy Walker

Release date: 14th July 2016

Genre: Thriller

Publisher: HQ

Source: ARC from publisher

Description: You can erase the memory. But you cannot erase the crime.

Jenny’s wounds have healed.
An experimental treatment has removed the memory of a horrific and degrading attack.
She is moving on with her life.

That was the plan. Except it’s not working out.
Something has gone. The light in the eyes. And something was left behind. A scar. On her lower back. Which she can’t stop touching.
And she’s getting worse.
Not to mention the fact that her father is obsessed with finding her attacker and her mother is in toxic denial.

It may be that the only way to uncover what’s wrong is to help Jenny recover her memory. But even if it can be done, pulling at the threads of her suppressed experience will unravel much more than the truth about her attack.

My thoughts: I've read a few thrillers over the past year and file I find them fast reading and a good change from what I normally read, they don't tend to stand out very much. All Is Not Forgotten felt different, for a couple of reasons. 

Number one: the narrator. At the start of the book, you might think it's a 3rd person, omniscient narrator. But very quickly you learn that someone specific is telling the story, and that got me interested: who would know what this person knows about Jenny? And if it's a character telling the story, how many strands of the picture can they really know about? You do find out a couple of chapters in and I think it's a perfect person to be telling a story like this. I also enjoyed that while you are mostly getting the full story, as you get further in, I questioned the reliability of the narrator more and more.

Number two: The basic premise of a treatment that could block the memory of something traumatic, and the questions that come up around the use of something like that. The decision to give Jenny a medicine that will wipe out the memory of her rape is taken while she's unconscious. It was never her decision but her parents thought it was best. That's a topic on its own, and is dealt with a little bit, but the main concern of the story is on what the effects of the treatment are. Jenny can't move on, even though the memory is blocked - quite possibly because the memory is blocked. Certain things - smells, sounds - make her body react in fright but she doesn't remember why those things are setting off the panic.

The book is based around this exploration of consequences and I found that really interesting. I will say, the first chapter is gruesomely detailed and I felt physically sick reading it. Push past that, or skip it altogether - you really don't need to read it for the rest of the story to make sense. After that, it's a very fast read, exploring the treatment and how other aspects of the family's life are pulled apart by the consequences of it. It was a very interesting read. I'm going to give All Is Not Forgotten 7/10.

~Ailsa

In A Dark Dark Wood by Ruth Ware book review

Title: In A Dark Dark Wood
Author: Ruth Ware
Publisher: Harvill Secker (UK) / Scout Press (USA)
Publication date: 30 July 2015
Genre: Thriller
Source: Received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Description: In a dark, dark wood 
Nora hasn't seen Clare for ten years. Not since Nora walked out of school one day and never went back. 
There was a dark, dark house
Until, out of the blue, an invitation to Clare’s hen do arrives. Is this a chance for Nora to finally put her past behind her?
And in the dark, dark house there was a dark, dark room
But something goes wrong. Very wrong.
And in the dark, dark room.... 
Some things can’t stay secret for ever.

My thoughts: (Quick aside: I've also done a video review for this one so if that's more your thing, you can find it here.)

The tagline for this book (Someone's getting married. Someone's getting murdered.) intrigued me so I thought i would give it a go. In the very first pages, Nora, the main character, is running through the woods, trying to get to a road, and when she does, there’s some kind of accident - she wakes up in hospital. The book then alternates between the present with her in the hospital trying to piece together what happened, and her recollections. She was invited to a hen party weekend (or a bachelorette party in the States) for a girl she was best friends with in school. She hasn’t been in touch with the girl since Nora abruptly transferred school and moved away. She doesn’t disclose to the reader why but it was immediately clear that Something Had Happened. I made a guess straight away and when the ‘big reveal’ for that point eventually came along, I was right. It did frustrate me a little that it was built up as being a big deal and a big secret when I thought it was really obvious but maybe that’s just me and good guessing.

Anyway, Nora goes to the party, where she meets other random people who have never met before despite all being really good friends with the bride-to-be, Claire. They stay in a big spooky house in the middle of some woods, and because in the hospital Claire knows someone has died, there’s immediately a sinister edge to things. One of the people here in the house is a killer, and one is going to be dead by the end of the weekend. I liked that over the course of the book, I suspected almost everyone of being the killer at one point. However it did narrow down to two in particular that I kept switching between. By the end, it wasn’t that surprising to learn who it was and I was skeptical that Nora hadn’t figured it out sooner.

I did really enjoy this. It was a book I carried around with me, reading whenever I had a spare moment. It was easy to go in and out of that way and kept me up reading while I was in London. It was an enjoyable thriller to read, not too intense and creepy but still suspenseful with nuanced characters who had the potential to be both victims or killers. I’m giving this one 7/10.

~Ailsa

(Negative) Book Review: The Girl On The Train

Title: The Girl On The Train
Author: Paula Hawkins
Publication date: January 2015
Publisher: Transworld
Source: Borrowed

Description: Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She’s even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. ‘Jess and Jason’, she calls them. Their life – as she sees it – is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy.

And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough.

Now everything’s changed. Now Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she’s only watched from afar. Now they’ll see; she’s much more than just the girl on the train…

My thoughts: I did not like this book. At all. I will go so far as to say I hated it.

It's not the writing. It is a well written book. My complaint is with the characters. The book is narrated primarily by Rachel, who it quickly becomes clear is an unreliable narrator. Within the first few pages readers realise she's an alcoholic and as the story goes on there are other reveals here and there that show other things that have been omitted, which paint her in a more and more unflattering light. The other two women who narrate are Anna, who is married to Rachel's ex-husband and 'Jess' (actually Megan), the woman Rachel watches from the train.

Primarily the narrators annoyed me for their idiocy. The three of them make silly choice after silly choice. In particular I had no sympathy for Rachel, who doesn't seem to be doing anything to help herself. I couldn't care about the characters or what happened to them because they were too idiotic. Rachel drinks and does silly things; Megan makes stupid choices and can't seem to grow up, and Anna sees everything as revolving around her.

I forced myself to keep going and I'll admit that I didn't guess how the book was going to end but the characters drove me up the wall. They made it irredeemable in my opinion. I will give this 2/10, based on the fact the writing was actually fine.

Have you read this one? What did you think?

-Ailsa