The Wrong Sister - Claire Douglas

 

I am not one to bandy the term 'unputdownable' around willy-nilly. It's oft used and I have found it to be a misleading term. Sometimes I've found it applied to certain books and discovered that they are in fact extremely putdownable!  But this book is - unputdownable!

I am new to the work of Claire Douglas and I see that she is quite prolific. If her other books are anything like this I shall be seeking them out forthwith!

I think that it is complex and detailed plotting that drives this book forward so compulsively. Whereas some books are very much character driven the characters here seem to be at the mercy of the plot and it's labyrinthine whims. They are full of secrets and as unreliable as characters in these type of thrillers are. Often they re hard to like but I always believe that the reader doesn't need to be emotionally invested in them if they are to remain objective about the story as a whole. 

And it all begins with a prologue. I love a prologue! It whets your appetite but as you become immersed in the book you can forget about it until something you read triggers it, reminds you and you go, oh yeah! But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's have a little blurb.

'Tasha and her older sister Alice might look alike but they couldn't be more different. Tasha's married with two children and still living in her home town near Bristol, while Alice is a high-flying scientist traveling the world with her equally successful husband. But each would trust the other with their life.

So when Tasha and husband, Aaron want a break and Alice offers to stay in their home with the kids, Tasha knows they're in safe hands.

But she couldn't be more wrong.

The call from home is unexpected:Alice and her husband Kyle have been attacked. Alice is in intensive care. Kyle is dead. 

Rushing to Alice's bedside, Tasha finds the police trying to piece events together. She can't think why anyone would attack her sister. Then the note arrives, addressed to Tasha.

It was supposed to be you....'

And the problem, I suppose, with reviewing a book like this is that's it is all too easy to give things away. The more complex a plot the bigger the risk that becomes so I've got to be careful! The narrative offers us perspectives from several of the characters and you need to pay attention, also to the time frames. 

One of the ways in which a book like this works is to offer clues but also to try and send the reader off into the wrong direction. To do that there has to be a lot going on and there really is here. But the writing is tight and structured so you never get the feeling of floundering in a maze that can so easily happen and frustrate the reader. Here, as the plot develops, it's like the reader is being taken down a narrowing tunnel to a not quite obvious conclusion. In some books it's easy to see where that conclusion is headed and having 'guessed' correctly the reader can feel pretty smug, but that wasn't the case here. The twists were unexpected and not obvious. I would doubt many people were able to surmise the perpetrator accurately. There were suspicions and anyone in possession of some specific scientific knowledge might have been able to do so but I was not that person!!

I found it very entertaining and was able to escape fully - one of those books where you are in such a rush to finish it to find out whodunnit but there's a sense of disappointment when you have finished it! 

My thanks to Tandem Collective for a copy of the book.

AD-PR Product

The Wild Swimmers - William Shaw

 

My brother lent me my first William Shaw book (I say lent, I’ve yet to return it!) It was the first in the Breen and Tozer series, A Song for Dead Lips. I read it, finished it, went straight out and bought the next three! I loved them. I wanted the series to go on. But nothing lasts forever, does it? So, I tenderly placed them on my bookshelf nestling together ….in the correct order of course…. and I moved on to other books.

 

But then one day I was sent an advanced reading copy of The Trawlerman by William Shaw (also accompanied by a copy of Grave’s End). I think it was in response to a social media offer for the book. Ok, I might not have started them in the right order, but I didn’t care for I became totally hooked on the Alex Cupidi series. Alex is the daughter of Breen and Tozer! Is that a spoiler? Sorry if it is. I was ecstatic! It felt like one series I had loved was allowed to develop into another that I loved equally. So off I went to get hold of the other two books in the series, oh and The Birdwatcher which features a character from the Cupidi series in a standalone.

 

I knew the Wild Swimmers was due to hit the bookstands in May and, Reader, I was ready!! BUT….but….but… the wonderful Elizabeth Masters at riverrun books sent me a proof which had me hyperventilating with excitement.

 

So, what is it about this series that so stokes my reader infatuation? Firstly, they are set in a part of the country where my paternal family hail from. I know these places. I’ve been visiting them since I was a kid, and it fills me with delight when places I know feature in books that I read. I can picture the locations and I think it enhances the overall experience. But location alone can’t elevate a book without there being some substance beyond that sense of place. Take the locations away and would I still love these books? Yes, I would.

 

Alex is a great character, flawed, yes, real, yes but also determined and intelligent when it comes to solving crime. She’s open and self-critical particularly as a parent for Zoe, her daughter, who is another of the series’ recurring characters. Fascinating depiction of a teenager. The series also has tight and twisty plots that has the reader thinking and surmising. The seamier underworlds that most areas possess to a degree are explored alongside the respectable which may not always be respectable!

 

The Wild Swimmers possesses all the elements that made the previous books in the series so compelling for me. Although Alex is the main character she doesn’t dominate the narrative. There is a sub plot here that allows a couple of the other characters to take a step up from their supporting roles to inject a scrumptious bit of tension and anxiety whilst meandering smoothly alongside Alex’s current investigation. Some parts will have you on the edge of your seat whilst others will have you yelling ‘No!’ at the pages! 

It's a book to pay attention to because the clues are there. And whilst I didn’t identify the perpetrator right away, I was heading in the right direction which made me feel pretty smug.  I refuse to divulge too much more. To suffice I will offer the basic blurb.

 

‘The body of a local woman is found washed up on the Folkestone shoreline. Cupidi must discover the missing link between a group of wild swimmers, an online dating profile and a slippery killer who feels remarkably close to home.’

 

And if that doesn’t whet your appetite I don’t know what will! If you’re a lover of crime fiction and you’ve never read any of this series I do recommend them. 

 

Thanks to Elizabeth Masters at riverrun books for a gifted copy.