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

 

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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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Mailbox Monday & Life This Week - March 1st

 

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It now has a permanent home at the Mailbox Monday blog.

Life This Week is a meme created by Denyse Whelan Blogs where bloggers share snaps of what is currently happening in their lives.

Happy Monday!

 

Below are some snaps from our daily walk

 

 

We also had a win with our garden. Cucumbers! Lots of cucumbers!

Books I have received in the mail over the last three weeks:

 

 Traffic by Robin Gregory

A PI Sandi Kent mystery. Sandi is hired to rescue a young woman from an illegal brothel. Sandi is soon embroiled in the city's seamy underworld of human trafficking, drugs and murder.

As Swallows Fly by L P McMahon

Malika, a young orphan in rural Pakistan is left disfigured after a savage attack. She spends her life hidden from the world.

Her life is changed when she is taken to Australia and teamed with plastic surgeon Kate. But is the price of beauty higher than either of them ever expected.

A poignant portrayal of survival, identity and empowerment in a culture dominated by the pursuit of perfection.

The Codebreakers by Alli Sinclair

Set in Brisbane during WWII. Ellie O'Sullivan exceptional skills attract the attention of the Central Bureau and she joins a group of elite women deciphering enemy communications. They soon form a close bond - yet could there be a traitor in their midst. 

A compelling story about tenacity and friendship inspired by the real codebreaking women of Australia.

The Jam Queens by Josephine Moon

Aggie, her mother,Valeria, and her distant daughter, Holly, as well as her meddling great aunt, Myrtle come together on a trip across Australia on the Ghan for her mother's seventieth birthday. The four generations of family will be reunited at last.

This is a sweet and soulful story about women being there for each other through the stickiest situations. It celebrates the joys and sorrows of life, and reveals the essential ingredients of the true recipe for happiness.

 

The Mistake by Katie McMahon

Bec and Kate are sisters, but they couldn't be less alike.

Bec lives the domestic dream with husband Stuart and three children. So why is she attracted to free-spirited Ryan?

 

Kate's life is hardly a dream. But when she meets Adam things start looking up. Until she finds out he's been keeping secrets from her.

Then there's the incident both sisters are desperate to ignore...

Will they discover some mistakes can't be put right?

 

Those Hamilton Sisters by Averil Kenny

Following their mother's death, the Hamilton sisters have returned to Noah Vale to live near their aunt and uncle.

 

Sonnett, fiery and independent, Fable, a gifted artist and a dreamer and Plum, who is anxious to please and notices everything.

The sisters settle into small-town life but suspicion and judgement follow them wherever they go. When Fable falls in love with Noah Vale's golden boy, is history destined to repeat itself?

The Paris Collaborator by A W Hammond

Set in German occupied Paris during WWII

Former schoolteacher Auguste Duchene has stumbled upon an unusual way to survive: he finds missing people. When he's approached by the French Resistance to locate a missing priest - and a cache of stolen weapons - Duchene initially refuses. But the Resistance offer him no choice. Within hours, he's also blackmailed by a powerful Nazi into searching for a German soldier who's suspected of deserting.

 I would love to hear what books you've received in the mail recently!