Down the Darkest Road by Tami Hoag

Description from Amazon:

California, 1990—four years after Lauren Lawton’s sixteen-year-old daughter disappeared, the world has given up the girl for dead. Lauren’s husband took his own life. Her younger daughter Leah is still looking for what’s left of her childhood. But Lauren never surrendered. She knows who took her child, and there’s not a shred of evidence against him.

Seeking a fresh start, Lauren and Leah move to idyllic Oak Knoll. So does Lauren’s suspect. And suddenly it feels like history is about to repeat itself.

Leah is turning sixteen, and Oak Knoll has a cunning predator on the hunt. But as sheriff’s detective Tony Mendez and his team sift through the circumstances of an increasingly disturbing case, a stunning question changes everything they thought they knew. . . .

 

This was the first Tami Hoag book I’ve read, and other reviewers said that it wasn’t her best. Plus, it’s the third in the series, so that didn’t help. Well, I didn’t love it.

Lauren is convinced she knows who took her child: Roland Ballencoa. But she cannot prove it, and he knows every police procedure in the book, so is able to get a restraining order against her. Now, while I’ll never know the pain of a mother losing a child and a husband in these circumstances, the way Lauren is so unhinged and places Leah in danger by moving to where Roland lives is crazy. Her actions and her continual berating of the police for not doing anything “more” (hello, their hands are tied due to certain procedures) becomes monotonous. Take into account the year this is set in and you know so many tests we have now were not available then.

Leah is trying to be the perfect daughter so that her mom will notice her because it seems Lauren is wholly fixated on her missing daughter. But this intense desire leads her to self harm and this arc is never finished in the book.

The two cops were interesting characters, but since I didn’t know them from the first books, I didn’t connect with them.

The book doesn’t really have an ending wrap per se, and questions remain unanswered. The whole book that Lauren was writing felt unnecessary and her intensity OTT.

Another author to remove from the reading list. Let’s rather check out some indie authors in 2026!

The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year by Sue Townsend

Description from Amazon:

The day her children leave home, Eva climbs into bed and stays there. She’s had enough - of her kids’ carelessness, her husband’s thoughtlessness and of the world’s general indifference. Brian can’t believe his wife is doing this. Who is going to make dinner? But Eva won’t budge; and soon she realises to her horror that everyone has been taking her for granted - including herself.

 

With fond memories of the Adrian Mole books, I thought this would have the same dry humour and keep me entertained. Someone said to me you need to enjoy Monty Python or Douglas Adams to get this and since I enjoy both, I was ready. But no. It was neither enjoyable nor memorable. Well maybe memorable, but all for the wrong things.

Eva decides to check out. Now we’ve all been there, so yup, a day in bed sounds super. But a year? C’mon. I thought there would be some great intellectual insight as in why and how this was going to play out but it’s literally her in bed and that’s it.

So you have Brian, Eva’s husband, who has been having an affair with a colleague for eight years and who decides to move in to their garden shed. Both of them are rather nasty pieces of work. The kids are absolutely awful and their uni “not friend” Poppy is a manipulative, will-do-anything-for-money person. Brian and Eva’s mothers come around to help but often forget to even take Eva food, so she begins to waste away. Alexander is about the nicest of the lot, a white van man who has fallen in love with Eva and determined to look after her seeing as Brian won’t. He has two children though, so the house is getting pretty full.

There are a number of side stories to this, but basically someone decides Eva is able to fix problems, causing a media frenzy, people camping outside her house demanding to see her, and all-around chaos.

The book hits loads of triggers and the characters are all nasty and mean, with lots of screaming and scheming going on. It’s really rather distasteful. I can handle plenty of odd plots but this just didn’t hit the mark. Granted I did laugh twice so there’s that. When Eva asked Brian to buy her tubing and packets so that she didn’t have to leave the bed to go to the ensuite bathroom I should’ve just stopped there and then. Since the title said a year, I figured there was an ending and that there would be a big reveal. Got to the end and went Oh. Complete letdown. Plus there were pages and pages after it about other books, so when the end came, I thought there was more to come about her reason. But no. I was really disappointed in this.

We Solve Murders by Richard Osman

Description from Amazon:

Solving murders. It’s a family business.

Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He still does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers the pub quiz and afternoons at home with his cat Trouble. His days of adventure are over – that’s his daughter-in-law Amy’s business now.

Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul, which makes being a private security officer to billionaires the perfect job. She’s currently on a remote island keeping world-famous author Rosie D’Antonio alive. Then a dead body, a bag of money and a killer with their sights on Amy have her sending Steve an SOS...

As a breakneck race around the world begins, can they stay one step ahead of a deadly enemy?

 

Richard Osman has started a new series of murders to be solved with this one. The Thursday Murder Club was more clever than this, but this new series has some great bones to it. Although you need a sense of British humour to get all the quirks within and you must be prepared to suspend disbelief!

Steve and Amy have a much better relationship than Steve and his son, Adam, so Steve is quite happy to leave his village and the upcoming quiz at the drop of a hat in order to help Amy. It seems Amy has found herself in quite the pickle as an influencer seems to drop dead near her when protecting clients. This leads to an investigation where money smuggler, François Loubet, is using small-time influencers to move his money and Amy seems to be the one set to take the fall.

The host of characters work brilliantly together in this book, and so many are portrayed as doing an action deemed stupid only to have the end goal in mind and being rather smart about it. The dynamics between certain relationships and the witty and dry banter show how clever things are “under the surface”.

Rosie was a standout character. I loved her indeterminate age but youthful spirit and her street smarts really come to the fore here. Amy is a badass in so many ways and her relationship with her “quiet and boring” financial husband works for them. Steve is one of those guys who thinks he should never be in the limelight as he has nothing to add but get a few pints into him and he will have stories aplenty to tell. Including about Van Halen.

The premise of the story is great and the execution is where you need to suspend belief a bit. However, the writing is so humorous and the style so flowing that you just find yourself nodding your head along with the antics.

The last chapter sets it up for the next book, and based on the characters (yes, there were a lot, and sometimes it took a while to remember who was who) introduced in this one, it’s going to be a wild ride.

A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins

Description from Amazon:

When a young man is found gruesomely murdered in a London houseboat, it triggers questions about three women who knew him. Laura is the troubled one-night-stand last seen in the victim’s home. Carla is his grief-stricken aunt, already mourning the recent death of yet another family member. And Miriam is the nosy neighbor clearly keeping secrets from the police. Three women with separate connections to the victim. Three women who are – for different reasons – simmering with resentment. Who are, whether they know it or not, burning to right the wrongs done to them. When it comes to revenge, even good people might be capable of terrible deeds. How far might any one of them go to find peace? How long can secrets smolder before they explode into flame?

 

I really enjoyed The Girl on the Train, so I figured this would be as psychological and as twisty. I was wrong. It started out interestingly enough but fell short very quickly and was so slow in getting to where it needed to go. And the big reveal was pretty obvious.

 

There is a story within a story here and you have to understand how the timelines and characters fit together. The problem is that you know how both stories are going to end as one goes forward and the other backward (it’s not hard to figure out whodunnit) but you keep reading to see if anything good comes up and it’s slow going. It felt like taking a really bad decision and then trying to explain it with very thin reasons. A bunch of plot lines that vaguely tie together and a character that undergoes so much violence it’s crazy. I finished this book a while ago but didn’t write the review straight away as I’ve been swamped with editing and beta reading. That being said, the book made such little impact on me that I remember the overall story but don’t remember the intricate details and that’s the sign of a book that hasn’t delivered a memorable experience.

Based on this and other reviews of Into the Water, it seems Paula is now off my reading list too, and that’s a shame. It’s average, so read it if there is nothing else available.

*SPOILER*: If you are a dog fan, you might want to skip an awful section. Authors, please note that violence to dogs does not endear you to readers!

The Housemaid is Watching by Freida McFadden

Description from Amazon

“You must be our new neighbors!” Mrs. Lowell gushes and waves across the picket fence. I clutch my daughter’s hand and smile back, but the second Mrs. Lowell sees my husband a strange expression crosses her face. In that moment I make a promise. We finally have a family home. My past is far, far behind us. And I’ll do anything to keep it that way…

I used to clean other people’s houses—now, I can’t believe this home is actually mine. The charming kitchen, the quiet cul-de-sac, the huge yard where my kids can play. My husband and I saved for years to give our children the life they deserve.

Even though I’m wary of our new neighbor Mrs. Lowell, when she invites us over for dinner it’s our chance to make friends. Her maid opens the door wearing a white apron, her hair in a tight bun. I know exactly what it’s like to be in her shoes. But her cold stare gives me chills…

The Lowells’ maid isn’t the only strange thing on our street. I’m sure I see a shadowy figure watching us. My husband leaves the house late at night. And when I meet a woman who lives across the way, her words chill me to the bone: Be careful of your neighbors.

Did I make a terrible mistake moving my family here?

I thought I’d left my darkest secrets behind. But could this quiet suburban street be the most dangerous place of all?

*Apparently Goodreads thinks my post has spoiler alerts but I thought I'd kept it generic so read at your peril!* 

This is the second Freida McFadden book that I have read, and based on the two of them, no more for me. Apparently this is the third in a series and the others are better, but wow this one just had me scratching my head. You didn’t need to read the others to understand this as the whole backstory does get explained but there are events in this that seem to contradict the characters’ motivations in previous stories.

The book starts with Millie standing over a body and there is blood everywhere. Now go back some time before, and Millie, Enzo, and the kids have moved into this house that they seemed to get for a steal even though they can’t really afford it. Their neighbours, Suzette and Johnathan, seem super wealthy and since they want Enzo to help out with the garden and it’s money coming in, Enzo is happy to help. But Enzo seems a little too happy spending time there and Suzette is a tad handsy around him. Plus they have a super creepy maid who watches them as though they are thieves.

The book carries on really slowly, with their son Nico starting to act out to the point where Millie starts to think he is a psychopath (the praying mantis, really?), the lady across the street (who keeps her son leashed to a backpack) continually warning her about the neighbours and the fact that she is watching everyone, Ada, the daughter, crying constantly and then suddenly threatening bodily harm, Enzo keeping secrets about money and spending a LOT of time with Suzette, and Millie, well, basically doing nothing except watching all this happen and worrying about Enzo. And each thing that happens you think is going to lead to something but it kinda fizzles out.

So you get to just before the end and find the killer and the reasons behind it. Um, okay. Reasons for people to stay with others? Nope… call the cops, hello! It was like there was a seed of an idea, but in worrying about upsetting people, it wasn’t expanded on, so the whole premise behind the reason for the killing was stretched somewhat. And then the epilogue. Hmmm. After eventually understanding what Enzo and Millie do to help people (and while we are on that, seriously – Enzo keeping his past like that while telling all else? Again…hmmm) it was so odd that the person who needed help (and was being assisted but not to everyone’s knowledge) would not come forward sooner. Did it add anything to the story? Not really. It may have answered a question we could have guessed, but otherwise, no.

So, in a nutshell, that is me out. No more Freida. The book was slow, the characters dull and some really not necessary, the plotline through the story tenuous at best, and some dialogue and internal thoughts just not great. One example being Millie’s lipstick that wiped off but made no difference as it was the same shade as her lips. Words are precious – don’t waste them!

Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt by Lucinda Riley and Harry Whittaker

Description from Amazon:

Maia, Ally, Star, CeCe, Tiggy, Electra and their long-lost missing sister are gathered together for the first time, on board the Titan, to say a final goodbye to the enigmatic father they loved so dearly.

He has entrusted each of them with a clue to their past. But for every truth revealed another question emerges. How did Pa Salt amass his fortune? Why did he choose to adopt the sisters and why were they chosen from such different parts of the world? Have the answers been there all along, if only they had known where to find them?

The sisters must confront the idea that their adored father was someone they barely knew – and, even more shockingly, that his long-buried secrets may still echo through the generations today.

 

Oh how I wanted to love this book and it’s binding of the parts, but alas.

There are two feelings about this: one is that an explanation was given for each sister and the reason for Atlas’s run was clarified. But the other is complete incredulity at what the reader is supposed to swallow.

 

So Atlas has a diary that pretty much laid it out, and where entries were missing over the years, he summarized it later. It explains his start and about the kind people who adopted him. After travelling nearly 6,000kms from Siberia to France on his own, with something very valuable around his neck, as an eight-year-old boy. Um… wow… Then we move through his childhood where he refuses to speak to protect himself from someone after him (and the people around him all seem to feel he wants to tell them something but are quite happy to wait years for it) but manages to prove his extraordinary violin-playing ability. He also meets the love of his life. At eleven years old. Fast forward and a series of amazing links to the next countries drag him along, all while he is in fear of the person who might be just behind him.

 

Now bear in mind that this diary is being read by the sisters on the boat. Dear old Georg couldn’t just summarise what happened and tell them. Nope, each had to have a copy of the diary, go off and read it on their own, and not read any further than where they would stop for the day. A tad unrealistic. Fair enough, the relationships that get revealed within the diary are quite interesting and how people who worked for Atlas came to be. And we won’t (cough cough) focus on the bow and arrow or what aided in the mine in Australia.

 

Then we go through all the ways he adopted the girls and there are tons of parts in it that make no sense and don’t drive the story forward. Why he would go to certain places and see certain people seems like padding for nothing in a book already far too long. This could have been culled in so many places and dialogue made to sound much more natural.

 

But then the ending... oh my word. Worst villain ever. And worst villain’s son who is also a villain ever.

 

So yay that the girls got their origin story and learned how they fitted together as well as understanding the backstories to those aligned with Atlas. But gosh... I was disappointed in it.

Sweet Fall by QK Petty

Description from Goodreads:

Every storm leaves scars. Some never heal.

The House of David has fallen—fractured, betrayed, and cast into the shadows of a world teetering on the brink of ruin. But amid the wreckage, Tennin Aiden Yeager stands with the last of his allies, determined to stop Seditio from finishing what they started.

As a new threat emerges in the form of Mary Denau, a chaos-seeker with a dark obsession, old enemies and unlikely allies collide in a final confrontation that will decide the fate of both the living and the damned. And when a mysterious child with blood tied to the relics enters the fray, every choice becomes a gamble between redemption and destruction.

Sweet Fall, the breathtaking finale of A Series of Four Seasons, delivers a raw, emotional climax where healing hurts, redemption cuts, and survival comes at a cost.

The seasons are ending. Only the strongest will see the dawn.

The House of David versus Seditio. But each side has suffered its share of losses and wants the fight over. So when a child with a special blood ability comes along, it’s going to be a fight to the death – but whose death…

This is the fourth book in the series, so it was initially a little difficult to understand the roles of the characters within the story and to each other, but the main theme that stuck out to me was redemption. While certain things became clearer later, some of the weapons and their abilities never came through. I found the idea behind the relics and the bacteria in Alexander the Great’s body that allowed for regeneration intriguing. Then added to the mix were those whose blood had special abilities.

You have Aiden on one side, who is conflicted about being able to lead yet still show compassion. And you have Mary on the other, who is hellbent on destruction and whatever chaos and physical destruction she can cause. But she is conflicted too, and is starting to make decisions very contrary to her evil nature. And in the middle is Dallis, a young girl with blood that has regenerative properties. There are quite a few characters in the story, but the author has been able to convey each unique identity well, and you become invested in each one.

The writing style seemed to change right after the beginning of the book. It was very (almost too much) descriptive and airy in a way, and then as soon as it changed to the present, the writing became a lot more to the point. The action sequences were well detailed, and the quieter moments held gravity.

What a pity this story had so many proofing errors, though. They ranged from things like missing or doubled-up quotation marks, to commas missing before direct address, to missing words in sentences or sentences being repeated right after each other. A character’s name changed spelling throughout, and at one stage, a character had a dress on that suddenly changed into pants.

This will appeal to fans of clever fantasy stories that don’t hold back on the action. There is a trigger warning for this as there is physical torture, and some of it happens to children, so take that into account. But overall, a great read…

The line between good and evil can be blurred… sometimes…

Thanks to Reedsy Discovery and the author for the opportunity to review the book:
https://reedsy.com/discovery/book/swe...