Book Review: The Mistake by Katie McMahon

 The Mistake

by

Katie McMahon

 

Can one decision change everything?

 

Publisher: Echo Publishing

Publication date: 2nd March 2021

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Pages: 400

RRP: $29.99AUD

Format read: Paperback

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

 

About the book

 

Kate and Bec are sisters, but they could not be less alike.

Bec lives the perfect life: perfect house, perfect husband, perfect children. That is, until she meets Ryan - ten years her junior, wild and exciting, his arrival makes her question everything she thought she wanted.

Her sister Kate's life is anything but perfect. Her career as a model ended dramatically over a decade ago; now she lives alone miles from her family, and has been lonely for a long time. That is, until she meets kind, funny Adam. But something doesn't quite add up, and as he avoids Kate's questions, she begins to wonder if he is too good to be true.

Bec thinks Adam is only after her sister's money, and Kate can't see why Bec would throw her life away for Ryan.

But as tensions mount and secrets are revealed, which sister is about to make a mistake?

 

My review

 

The Mistake is an outstanding and impressive debut by Australian author Katie McMahon.

 

Kate was a successful model working around the world when her career ended suddenly. She now pursues an academic career. Her younger sister Bec, a doctor's wife, lives the perfect life; a handsome husband, a beautiful house and three gorgeous children. Everything Kate aspires to.

 

There is something between the sisters, simmering menacingly, something that's never been discussed but changed the course of both their lives irrevocably.

The dual narrative gives the reader a greater sense of the sisters' relationship and how each of them feels. With Kate's in first person I found her character more open and vulnerable, than the third person narrative of Bec. 

 

As Katie's life finally starts to be looking up in the romance department Bec's life and marriage are falling apart. When Bec starts to get attention from the much younger Ryan she can't resist the urge to break free. Kate and Bec will always be there for each other and tell each other everything. Or do they? Katie McMahon explores the bond between sisters, beauty, sexuality and fidelity.

 

I had a small idea of what was going on but I had no idea where McMahon was taking this and found this shrewdly plotted novel both believable and well executed. 

McMahon gives the reader a deep insight into the sisters innermost thoughts, fears and the events that bind them together and tear them apart. Delivered in two intertwining plot lines The Mistake held my interest from start to finish.

 

In this genre defying novel McMahon mixes family drama with romance, suspense, humour and satire. Her writing is sharp, succinct and delivered with a wry wit.

 

The Mistake is honest, heartfelt and engaging. I'm looking forward to more from Katie McMahon. 

 

4.5 / 5   ⭐⭐⭐⭐½

 

About the author

 

Katie McMahon wrote The Mistake while attending a masterclass run by the internationally bestselling author Fiona McIntosh. Previous writers discovered at the masterclasses include Tania Blanchard, author of the runaway bestseller The Girl from Munich (50k+ copies sold in ANZ). Katie has lived in London and Melbourne and is now based with her family in Hobart, Tasmania. She is a trained doctor, works as a GP and teaches communication skills to medical students. The Mistake is her first novel.

 

 

Challenges entered:  Australian Women Writers Challenge #AWW2021

                                 Aussie Author Challenge #AussieAuthor21

 

 

 

Book Review: The Paris Affair by Pip Drysdale

 The Paris Affair

by

Pip Drysdale

 

It turns out, Paris isn't always a good idea 

 

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Publication date: 3rd February 2021

Genre: Mystery / Thriller

Pages: 336

RRP: $32.99AUD

Format read: Paperback

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

 

About the book

 

Meet Harper Brown …

Occupation: Arts journalist
Dream job: Hard-hitting news reporter
Location: Paris
Loves: True crime podcasts, art galleries, coffee, whiskey
Does not love: fake people, toxic positivity, being told how to live her life by smug workmates who have no life (that’s you, Stan), her narcissistic ex
Favourite book: 1984
Favourite artist: Noah X. Sometimes.
Favourite painting: Klimt’s Schubert at the Piano
Special skills: breaking out of car boots, picking locks and escaping relationships.
Superpower: She can lose any guy in three minutes flat. Ask her how.
Secret: She’s hot on the trail of a murderer – and the scoop of a lifetime.

That’s if the killer doesn’t catch her first.

 

My review

 

The Paris Affair is narrated in first person by Harper. This is a narration style I don't usually enjoy as the narrator is quite often unreliable. I am only getting Harper's POV but it is clear by the way she talks that she knows this and doesn't care whether you believe her...or even like her. Which made me like her even more.

 

"Of course, I still haven't told him who I am either, so yes, technically that makes me a hypocrite but whatever. Nobody is perfect."

 

Harper Brown is super feisty and cynical. She is addicted to true crime podcasts, can pick a lock, escape handcuffs, and she knows how to lose a guy in three minutes. She comes across as a real person with hopes and dreams and flaws.

 

Pip Drysdale has created this wonderfully complex and complicated character. She is not scared to confront people but she is also full of insecurities. Life had been shitty for her. She gave up her chance of a career to support and fund her boyfriend's music career and then when he had finally made a name for himself he dumped her. 

Determined to now live her own life she lands a job with the Paris Observer, an online magazine based in Paris, where she writes about art and exhibitions. When a young woman is found murdered, and Harper is one of the last people to see her alive, the story of her dreams lands into her lap and Harper will stop at nothing to get that story. She is willing to lie, steal and manipulate, putting herself in the path of the murderer.

 

The Paris Affair is set in the city of love however Pip Drysdale shows us a seedier side of Paris with a serial killer stalking young women. The story is set firmly in the modern day with texting, Tinder dates, Instagram posts and Uber rides. The mentions of Harper stalking her ex on Instagram and Googling the artist from the exhibition she was covering to get more information on him was all very realistic.

 

There are plenty of twists, turns and danger as Harper investigates the murdered girl's life and I found myself holding my breath with my heart pounding as I turned the pages.

 

The Paris Affair is another sharply plotted page turner from Pip Drysdale placing her firmly on my 'must read' list. 

 

5/5  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

About the author

 

Pip Drysdale is a writer, actor and musician who grew up in Africa and Australia. 

At 20 she moved to New York to study acting, worked in indie films and off-off Broadway theatre, started writing songs and made four records. After graduating with a BA in English, Pip moved to London and she played shows across Europe. In 2015 she started writing books. Her debut novel The Sunday Girl was a best seller and has been in the United States, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Strangers We Know was also a bestseller and is being developed for television.

 

 

 

Challenges entered: Australian Women Writers Challenge #AWW2021

                                 Aussie Author Challenge #AussieAuthor21

                                 Cloak and Dagger Challenge

                                 Aussie Crime Month  #SouthernCrossCrime2021

 

If you like this review you might also like

 

 

 

Look out for my giveaway for a copy of The Paris Affair coming soon

Book Review: Crackenback by Lee Christine

 Crackenback

by

Lee Christine

 

A thrilling tale of snow-bound crime and suspense

 

Publisher: Allen & Unwin

Publication date: 1st February 2021

Genre: Crime / Mystery / Suspense

Pages: 272

RRP:$ 29.99AUD

Format read: Paperback

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

 

About the book

 

Detective Sergeant Pierce Ryder of the Sydney Homicide Squad is on the hunt for notorious fugitive Gavin Hutton.

After months of dead-ends, the breakthrough Ryder has been hoping for leads him back to the New South Wales Snowy Mountains on the trail of the suspected killer.

Meanwhile, when an injured man bursts into the remote Thredbo lodge managed by Eva Bell, her first instinct is to protect her daughter, Poppy. The terrifying arrival of Jack Walker turns Eva's world upside down as the consequences of Jack's presence become clear.

With a killer on the loose, Jack Walker and Ryder are tangled in the same treacherous web - spun across the perilously beautiful Crackenback Range.

 

My review

 

I haven't read Charlotte Pass, the first book featuring DS Pierce Ryder but it didn't impact my enjoyment of Crackenback as it read perfectly as a stand alone.

 

Pierce Ryder is working on a multiple murder case. They have sightings of a suspect at the scene of both murders however the man has managed to evade him. When another sighting is called in Ryder is headed to the Snowy Mountains to investigate.

 

As Eva Bell is preparing her remote lodge at Thredbo, for the next lot of lodgers to arrive, a man bursts into her home. He looks familiar but she hasn't seen him for years and she is terrified he wants her daughter Poppy.

 

Crackenback  was such an engaging read. I was hooked from the prologue! DS Pierce Ryder has a new recruit Detective Nerida Sterling who will be joining him and Detective Mitchell Flowers on this latest case. I loved the natural banter and ribbing between the detectives and how we got to know more about them through their conversations in the car. The police procedural came across as realistic with a lot of waiting around for information and piecing snippets of information together to further the case.

Coming from Sydney myself I found all the mentions of roads and landmarks from the Parramatta Police HQ to The Snowy engaging and easy to picture.

 

Reading this story during an Australian summer highlights how vividly Lee Christine depicts the cold and driving snow of the area during winter. At no time did I forget how bitterly cold it was and how isolated Eva was in her lodge. 

Jack Walker is a likeable protagonist and a large part of the story is Jack and Eva getting to know each other again and Jack connecting with 3 year old Poppy who he had only ever seen in photos.

 

Jack, as well as Ryder, is after the murderer and the tension builds as we are held in suspense, we know there is going to be an altercation but we don't know where, when or with whom. 

 

Crackenback held my attention from the start to finish. I found it tension filled and highly engaging. I will definitely be on the lookout for more from Lee Christine in the future. 

 

4.5 / 5                    ⭐⭐⭐⭐½

 

About the author 

 

Credit Goodreads

In 2009, former corporate trainer Lee Christine decided to turn her writing hobby into a series day job. Her first crime novel. the best selling Charlotte Pass, was published in 2020. She lives in Newcastle, New South Wales, with her husband and her Irish Wheaten Terrier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Challenges entered: Australian Women Writers Challenge #AWW2021

                                 Aussie Author Challenge #AussieAuthor21

                                 Cloak and Dagger Challenge

                                 Aussie Crime Month  #SouthernCrossCrime2021

 
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Book Review: Daylight by David Baldacci

Daylight

by

David Baldacci 

 

 
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia

Publication date: 11th November 2020

Series: Atlee Pine #3

Genre: Crime / Thriller

Pages: 404

RRP: $ 32.99AUD

Format read: Paperback 

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

 

About the book 

 

FBI Agent Atlee Pine's search for her twin sister, Mercy, coincides with military investigator John Puller's high-stakes case, leading them both into a global conspiracy from which neither of them will escape unscathed.

Ever since Mercy was abducted after a brutal incident when the girls were just six years old, Atlee has been relentless in her search for the truth. Now, just as time is running out on her investigation, she finally gets her most promising breakthrough yet—the identity of her sister's kidnapper: Ito Vincenzo. Last known location: New Jersey.

As Atlee and her assistant, Carol Blum, race to track down Vincenzo, the run into Pine's old friend John Puller, who is investigating Vincenzo's family for another crime involving a military installation.

Working together, Pine and Puller pull back the layers of deceit, lies and cover-ups that strike at the very heart of global democracy.  And the truth about what happened to Mercy is finally revealed.

And that truth will shock Atlee Pine to her very core.

 

My review

 

Daylight is book three in the Atlee Pine series. In previous books Atlee has relentlessly dug into her past to reveal startling revelations about her parents. Her main agenda is to find out what happened to her twin sister, Mercy, who was kidnapped when they were six.

 

Currently on leave until she can sort out her personal demons, Atlee is joined by colleague and close friend, Carol Blum. Carol gives a calming presence to Atlee's, at times, bluntness and impulsiveness. Atlee stumbles across a police bust and in true Pine form becomes involved in the case.

 

Baldacci includes plenty of backstory making Daylight fine as a stand alone. However, to get the full experience I would recommend reading Long Road to Mercy and A Minute to Midnight.

In this latest novel Atlee shows that she is not immune to bad decisions as I found she made plenty during this investigation and I found myself shaking my head over some of the situations she found herself in.

 

Working together with CID Special Agent John Puller the pair investigate a suspected drug ring and how this connects to a teenager shot by police. Stopped at every turn, shutdown and shutout by higher powers they work to expose a cover-up of epic proportions.

 

Daylight is fast paced, action packed and suspense filled. Making this a must read for all crime fans.  

 

4/5  ⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

Meet the author

 

Photo: Goodreads

David Baldacci is one of the world's bestselling and favourite writers. With over 150 million worldwide sales, his books are published in over 80 territories and 45 languages, and have been adapted for both feature-film and television.

David is also the co-founder, along with his wife, of the Wish You Well Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to supporting literacy efforts across the US. He is still a resident of his native Virginia.

 

 

 

 

 

Read my review of A Long Road to Mercy 

and A Minute to Midnight  

 

 

 

Book Review: Nothing Good Happens After Midnight by Jeffery Deaver

Nothing Good Happens After Midnight 

edited by Jeffery Deaver

Publisher: Suspense Publishing

Publication date: 17th November 2020

Genre: Suspense / Mystery / Thriller

Pages: 338

Format read: eBook

Source: Courtesy of the publisher via Netgalley

 

About the book

 

The sun sets. The moon takes its place, illuminating the most evil corners of the planet. What twisted fear dwells in that blackness? What legends attach to those of sound mind and make them go crazy in the bright light of day? Only Suspense Magazine knows…

Teaming up with New York Times bestselling author Jeffery Deaver, Suspense Magazine offers up a nail-biting anthology titled: “Nothing Good Happens After Midnight.” This thrilling collection consists of thirteen original short stories representing the genres of suspense/thriller, mystery, sci-fi/fantasy, and more.

Readers’ favorites come together to explore the mystery of midnight. The ‘best of the best’ presenting these memorable tales, include: Joseph Badal, Linwood Barclay, Rhys Bowen, Jeffery Deaver, Heather Graham, Alan Jacobson, Paul Kemprecos, Shannon Kirk, Jon Land, John Lescroart, D. P. Lyle, Kevin O’Brien, and Hank Phillippi Ryan.

 

My Review

 

I love anthologies! You get a quick short burst of whatever the theme is, be romance, fantasy, thriller or suspense. My love started with Kiss Kiss by Roald Dahl which has since become my benchmark for anthologies.

 

Nothing Good Happens After Midnight as the title suggests has a common theme of grisly events happening just after midnight. As with any anthology some stories will be liked more than others. I rated each story to my enjoyment. Some were three star, some four and some five star reads. I averaged the book out to four stars overall.

 

I did initially worry that these might be horror stories but they were mostly entertaining tales, some with a chilling twist and some I found quite amusing.

 

My favourite five star stories were Linwood Barclay's Night Shift and Shannon Kirk's Tonight is the Night, both authors used revenge as a plot line. Jon Land writes an eerie but uplifting tale using magical realism in ATM. Whilst Kevin O'Brien's Cell Phone Intolerant is a humorous and cautionary tale starring a curmudgeonly vigilante. Jeffery Deaver's A Creative Defense was another five star read.

 

Nothing Good Happens After Midnight is an anthology of thirteen short stories, from the masters of suspense, that will have you glued to the pages until well after midnight. 

 

4/5 stars  ⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

Meet the authors

 

Joseph Badal - Joe is a #1 bestselling author, with 16 published suspense novels. He has been recognised as "One of The 50 Best Writers You Should Be Reading."

 

Linwood Barclay - A New York Times bestselling author with nearly 20 novels to his credit. His books have been translated into more than two dozen languages.

 

Rhys Bowen - is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of two historical mystery series, as well as three internationally bestselling standalone novels. Her books have won multiple awards. 

 

Jeffery Deaver - is an international number-one bestselling author. His novels have appeared on bestseller lists around the world. His books are sold in 150 countries and translated into twenty-five languages.

 

Heather Graham - New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. She has written over two hundred novels and novellas. She has been published in twenty-five languages.

 

Alan Jacobson - is the award-winning USA Today bestselling author of fourteen thrillers. His books have been translated internationally and several have been optioned by Hollywood. 

 

Paul Kemprecos - is the author of eight novels in the Aristotle Socarides private detective series. Paul became the first fiction co-author to work  with Clive Cussler. He has received many awards for his writing.

 

Shannon Kirk - is a contributor to the International Thriller Writer's Murderers' Row. She is a practicing litigation attorney and former adjunct law professor.

 

Jon Land - is the USA Today bestselling author of more than 50 books, including the award-winning, critically acclaimed Caitlin Strong series. He has also penned six novels in the Murder, She Wrote series.

 

John Lescroart - is the author of twenty-nine novels, nineteen of which have been New York Times bestsellers. Libraries Unlimited places him among "The 100 Most Popular Thriller ans Suspense Authors." With sales of over twelve million copies, his books have been translated into twenty-two languages.

 

D.P. Lyle - is the Amazon #1 bestselling and award-nominated author of 18 books. both non-fiction and fiction. He was co-host of Crime and Science Radio and hosts the podcast series Criminal Mischief.

 

Kevin O'Brien - Is the author of twenty-one internationally-published thrillers, he won the Spotted Owl Award for Best Pacific Northwest Mystery.

 

Hank Phillippi Ryan -  is on-air investigative reporter for Boston's WHDH_TV, winning 37 EMMYs and dozens more journalism honours. She is a USA Today bestselling author of twelve thrillers. Critics call her "a master of suspense."

 

 

Book Review: Rico Stays by Ed Duncan

Rico Stays 

by

Ed Duncan

Publisher: Terminal Velocity

Publication date: May 2020

Series: Pigeon-Blood Red #3

Genre: Crime / Thriller

Pages: 184

Format read: paperback

Source: Courtesy of the author via Book Publicity Services

About the book

After enforcer Richard “Rico” Sanders stepped in to protect his girlfriend from a local mob boss’s hot-headed nephew, all hell broke loose.

When the smoke cleared, the nephew had vanished, but three goons who had tried to help him lay dying where they’d stood. Fighting for his life, Rico was alive but gravely wounded.

Out of the hospital but not fully recovered, he needed a place to crash – a place where he wouldn’t be found by men who surely would be looking. A place like the cabin owned by lawyer Paul Elliott, whose life Rico had saved more than once. Trouble was, Paul’s girlfriend hadn’t forgotten Rico’s dark history. Or Paul’s fascination with him.

Using Rico’s girlfriend as bait, vengeful killers soon would be coming for him. The only question was whether he would face them alone or with help from Paul.

My review

Rico, hit-man for hire, is back in full force in the third and final instalment of Ed Duncan's Pigeon-Blood Red trilogy.

Rico finds himself on the wrong side of the local crime boss after a good samaritan act goes terribly wrong. There are three men dead and Rico ends up in hospital. He now has two men looking for him on a path of revenge.

"He was a killer with a conscience...... he only killed people who 'had it coming'."

Rico always gave his adversaries a chance. Whether they took it or not was up to them. 

Rico turns to acquaintance (Rico doesn't have friends) Paul Elliot to help him hide out while he recovers from a gunshot wound.

Rico Stays is another fabulous read in the Pigeon-Blood Red trilogy. There is a lot of character development in this story and we get to know not only Rico's past but also Paul's. The shoot-outs are still there but the characters take centre stage. Paul Elliot features more in this story with a high school reunion and a hook-up with an old flame ending with Paul contemplating what he really wants from life and love.

This can be read as a stand alone with snippets of backstory filling the reader in on previous events. However you will want to read the first two books because Rico is freaking awesome.

The story ramps up to an explosive ending and Rico just may have found his first real friend in Paul. And I could easily see that Paul has a bit of a man crush on Rico.

Rico Stays has everything I have come to expect from Ed Duncan; drama, suspense and a touch of humour.

4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

About the author

Photo: Goodreads

Ed is a graduate of Oberlin College and Northwestern University Law School. He was a partner at a national law firm in Cleveland, Ohio for many years. He is the original author of a highly regarded legal treatise entitled Ohio Insurance Coverage, for which he provided annual editions from 2008 through 2012. Rico Stays is the third novel in the Pigeon-Blood Red Trilogy which began with Pigeon-Blood Red and was followed by The Last Straw.Ed, originally from Gary, Indiana, lives outside Cleveland.

 

Book Review: Wasp Season by Jennifer Scoullar

Wasp Season

by

Jennifer Scoullar

Publisher: Pilyara Press
Publication date:  20th July 2020
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Pages: 294
Format read: eBook
Source: Courtesy of the publisher

About the book 

When Beth’s marriage ends, she’s determined to build a new life in the country for herself and her children. A quiet life lived closer to nature. She thinks she’s achieved the impossible – a civilised separation, a happy home and a cordial relationship with her estranged husband, Mark. There's even the promise of new love on the horizon. But when Mark tries to change the rules, Beth’s peaceful world is turned upside down.

Disturbingly, she also discovers that European wasps have invaded her garden. Beth’s obsession with them and their queen holds up a distorted mirror to the human drama. As the chaos in Beth’s life gathers momentum, connections between the two worlds come sharply into focus. The lives of Beth and the others are neither separate to, nor safe from, the natural world.

My review

Jennifer Scoullar's love and reverence of the nature that surrounds us shines through in her writing, making the daily lives of the wasps and other insects fascinating and evocative reading.

Wasp Season is narrated in multiple points of view. Scoullar anthropomorphises the wasps and bees thus invoking sympathy. Naming the insects and giving their POV brings the reader right into their lives and thoughts and gives a perspective I'd never contemplated before.
Fairy wrens, potter wasps, paper wasps, assassin flys, black cockatoos, European wasps, platypus, wombats, wallabies, kookaburras, dragonflies, eastern spinebill, hummingbird, cicadas, spiders; all this beautiful and diverse fauna of Australia is seamlessly spread throughout the story without being one bit contrived.

The humans are just as fascinating as the insects. Mark, a delusional narcissist, separated from wife Beth and now living with girlfriend Lena and their baby son, has a life is always greener on the other side attitude. Bored with his young girlfriend he decides he wants his wife back.

Lena feeling alone and worthless turns to the allure and bright lights of poker machines to get her highs. Predators are lurking to pounce on the weak and unwary.
Beth and her two children have settled into a tranquil life on a property in the mountains. However there is a European Wasp colony developing that will threaten them and the whole surrounding ecosystem.

With themes of the natural balance of the ecosystem, introduced pests, regrets, narcissism, gambling addiction and befriending strangers, Wasp Season is fascinating and emotional. As human lives and insect lives cross over and intertwine Scoullar builds the story to a suspense filled conclusion.

4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

 About the author

 

Photo: Goodreads

Bestselling Aussie author Jennifer Scoullar writes page-turning fiction about the land, people and wildlife that she loves.

Scoullar is a lapsed lawyer who harbours a deep appreciation and respect for the natural world. She lives on a farm in Australia's southern Victorian ranges, and has ridden and bred horses all her life. Her passion for animals and the bush is the inspiration behind her best-selling books.

 

Book Review: Midwife in the Jungle by Fiona McArthur

Midwife in the Jungle

by

Fiona McArthur

Publisher: Self published
Publication date: 31st March 2020
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Pages: 189
RRP: $5.99AUD (Kindle)
Format read: eBook
Source: Courtesy of the author

Jacinta McLeod met Dr Jonah Armstrong delirious with malaria and, even then, she needed to fight off the urge to know more about this fascinating patient. When the chance came to follow him to the wilds of Papua New Guinea, and into a dangerous medical mission up the Sepik River, she took it, despite Jonah’s absolute ‘no’!

Jonah had already lost his baby sister in the unsafe world of PNG. Now headstrong Jacinta had arrived and he had to keep her safe.

Midwife in the Jungle is no anguished filled romance. Fiona McArthur’s female lead, Jacinta, is headstrong and feisty. She knows what she wants!

Jacinta first meets Jonah as a patient. He has been admitted to hospital with a bad case of malaria. There is an instant connection between the two but also a degree of irritation. They seem to fire each other up.

Both characters had tragic pasts and have devoted themselves to medicine. These tragedies caused them to shy away from commitment but also drew them together in their shared heartache. Jonah, also a doctor, works in New Guinea and was quick to tell Jacinta that it was no place for a woman. However Jacinta had her curiosity piqued and now New Guinea was exactly the place she needed to be.

Midwife in the Jungle has plenty of bumps in the road for Jacinta and Jonah and they have some major hurdles placed in their way with more than one life or death situation on their hands.

Fiona McArthur deftly includes details of a difficult childbirth and the skill of the attending doctor, lack of medical facilities in the jungle and the superstitions of the natives.

The story moves along quickly and there is never a dull moment. Even though this is a novella it doesn’t skimp on character development or a full storyline.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 

My rating  5/5

Photo credit: Goodreads

 

Fiona McArthur has worked as a midwife for thirty years. She is the clinical midwifery educator inner rural maternity unit and teaches emergency obstetric strategies while working with midwives and doctors from remote and isolated areas.

Fiona has written more than thirty romances, which have sold over two million copies in twelve languages. She has been a midwifery expert for Mother and Baby magazine and is the author of Aussie Midwives. She has also written the novels Red Sand Sunrise, The Homestead Girls and Heart of the Sky. She lives on a farm in northern New South Wales.


This review is part of the Book Lover Book Review Aussie Author Challenge 

and the Australian Women Writers challenge

 

 

Book Review: A Minute to Midnight by David Baldacci

A Minute to Midnight

by

David Baldacci

From #1 bestselling author David Baldacci comes the gripping second novel in the Atlee Pine series, a tenacious female FBI Special Agent assigned to the wilds of the western US.

Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia 

Publication date: 29th October 2019

Series: Atlee Pine #2

Genre: Crime / Murder mystery 

Pages: 464

RRP: $29.99AUD

Format read: Trade paperback

Source: Courtesy of the publisher 

Atlee Pine has spent most of her life trying to find out what happened that fateful night in Andersonville, Georgia. Her six-year-old twin sister, Mercy, was taken and Atlee was left for dead while their parents were apparently partying downstairs. One person who continues to haunt her is notorious serial killer, Daniel James Tor, confined to a Colorado maximum security prison. Does he really know what happened to Mercy?

The family moved away. The parents divorced. And Atlee chose a career with the FBI dedicating her life to catching those who hurt others. When she oversteps the mark on the arrest of a dangerous criminal, she's given a leave of absence offering the perfect opportunity to return to where it all began, and find some answers. But the trip to Andersonville turns into a roller-coaster ride of murder, long-buried secrets and lies.

And a revelation so personal that everything she once believed to be true is fast turning to dust.

A Minute to Midnight is the second novel in the special agent Atlee Pine series.

I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Atlee and finding out what makes her tick in the first novel. In this second story Atlee is still hung up over her sister’s disappearance almost thirty years ago. And rightly so! Mercy was her identical twin and not knowing what happened to her must be traumatic. However, after an incident that could have Atlee kicked out of the FBI she is told to take a holiday.

Atlee returns to her home town of Andersonville Georgia, home of the former confederate prisoner-of-war camp and now a historic site which Baldacci includes seamlessly into the story.

The story runs with two different plot lines. One being Atlee asking questions about her family and talking to people that were friends of her parents or those that lived in the town the time of her sister’s disappearance. The more she finds out the more the mystery of who her parents were and who she is deepens. The second plot line is the investigation of a string of bizarre murders that start not long after Atlee arrives in town.

Baldacci’s characterisation is brilliant and he quickly built up a cast of believable characters that lived in the small town of Andersonville.

I was much more invested in Atlee’s personal investigation than the mystery surrounding the murders although that part of the story was well wrapped up. I’m hoping Atlee receives some more concrete evidence about her sister in the next book.

Baldacci writes a fast paced and compelling read. It stands alone well, as any relevant backstory is filled in for the reader.

A Minute to Midnight is a highly recommended read for any thriller fans.

🌟🌟🌟🌟

My rating   4/5

You can read my review of Long Road to Mercy here

Photo credit: Guy Bell

David Baldacci has been writing since childhood, when his mother gave him a lined notebook in which to write down his stories. (Much later, when David thanked her for being the spark that ignited his writing career, she revealed that she’d given him the notebook to keep him quiet, "because every mom needs a break now and then.”) He published his first novel, Absolute Power, in 1996; it was subsequently adapted for film, with Clint Eastwood as its director and star. In total, David has published 40 novels for adults; all have been national and international bestsellers, and several have been adapted for film and television. His novels have been translated into more than 45 languages and sold in more than 80 countries, with over 130 million worldwide sales. David has also published seven novels for younger readers.

David and his wife, Michelle, are the co-founders of the Wish You Well Foundation®, which supports family and adult literacy programs in the United States. In 2008 the Foundation partnered with Feeding America to launch Feeding Body & Mind, a program to address the connection between literacy, poverty and hunger. Through Feeding Body & Mind, more than 1 million new and used books have been collected and distributed through food banks to families in need.

A lifelong Virginian, David is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Virginia School of Law.