The Julius House by Charlaine Harris

Description from Amazon:

Aurora Teagarden is happily preparing for her wedding to dashing business executive Martin Bartell. As a wedding gift, Martin buys her the house of her dreams: the “Julius house,” infamously named after the family who vanished from the house without a trace six years ago. As Roe sets about renovating and decorating her new home, she’s never felt happier.

Then Martin suddenly rents the small apartment on their new property to an old army buddy and his wife, who seem to be more bodyguard than tenant, and Roe is sure her husband-to-be is keeping secrets. To take her mind off her suspicions, she opens her own unofficial investigation into the Julius family cold case. But when an axe-wielding stranger attacks her, Roe must determine whether it’s her husband’s secrets, the mystery of the Julius family’s fates, or both, that have put her own life on the chopping block.

 

I had read the Sookie Stackhouse novels before, so thought I’d try out this one in the series (in the wrong order again) that I’d heard were Hallmark movies.

 

The premise here is quite different, so with people going missing and an axe-wielding stranger, I figured this would be full of action. It turns out not really. Sure, it has its moments, but for the most part it’s Aurora being in love with her new husband but questioning whether she actually knows him or not. And we really never get to find out that much about him.

 

The first thing that blew me away was the ease with which he just buys her a house as a gift. A house. Who does that? And since she has inherited a large sum of money, she buys him a farm. A farm? I know there was a sentimental reason behind it, but wow – that’s a bit ostentatious. And weirdly enough, even though she has all this money, she baulks at getting room service at a hotel later as it’s expensive??? Hmmm.

 

The investigation into the missing persons was a good one, and that along with the introduction of her husband’s new “friends” to “help” at the house (read into it: bodyguard) made this story only slightly better than the under average book it was. It was really slow with so much time spent on Aurora wondering if she married the right person and vacillating between thinking her husband is an Adonis and they are soulmates to not trusting who he is. Even when she meets (stalks) his ex-wife who warns her he keeps secrets, she decides not to ask about them. Um, really? Oh, and then the best reveal of all. He comes clean and tells her he is an arms dealer. An illegal gun smuggler. Her response? Oh well, at least it’s not drugs. OH MY WORD!!! And who goes to their ex for couple counselling? This was all very strange.

 

Not my cup of tea so this will be my one and only Aurora Teagarden mystery.

Darkness Within the Forest by Matthew Neighbours

Description from Amazon:

Shadows of recent events follow James as he leaves Alaska, traveling through Canada with a group of strangers until a detour brings them to a house nestled deep in the forests of British Columbia. Haunted by his failures, conflict and mystery threaten to pull James into the very thing he’s been trying to run from.

When the fate of other people’s lives are affected by the choices James makes, will he take a side in a conflict he doesn’t fully understand, or will he look to the road again, distancing himself from any involvement, and the potential consequences it brings.

 

This book became confusing immediately as I didn’t realise it was the second in a series, and the book seems to be in two major parts with only a slight connection at the end.

The descriptions of places were great and I did love how the author seemed passionate about the outdoors. But the story itself made me feel no connection to it or the characters. Maybe knowing more about James from the first book would have helped.

Straight away I questioned the wisdom of deciding to go on a roadtrip to a different country with a group of strangers. Where I come from, that would be like sending in your photo for Police File before you have left as you’ll know the outcome. James seems quite fine to have someone uninvited in the car with him who has been whispering secrets with one of the others and won’t tell him what it’s about. Red flag anyone? All this while he is working out what to do about a murder and a death and how he is involved in it all.

They arrive at a house that has questionable people inside and James proceeds to join the party. His life choices at this stage really surprise me. Anyway, it seems James has been recruited to help broker a peace deal between those who want to embrace forward movement and those who want to hold on to traditions. The problem comes in when a family member is aligned with both sides and there might be no winner here. James finds out that not choosing sides sometimes his its own consequences.

The grammar issues really got me in this book, though. Yes, even in edited books typos sneak through and often we can turn a blind eye to a few of them or even continuous ones if it’s the same “rule” over and over. But here we had missing commas before direct address, missing quotation marks, missing words, and numerous others.

Unfortunately, this book did not speak to me and I wouldn’t go back to see the first book to find out how they fit together. There was a glimmer of hope when James was in the wilderness, but not enough to draw me in.

The Girl in the Van by Helen Matthews

Description from Amazon:

Now you see her. Now you don’t…

A haunted mother. A missing girl. A lethal game of deception…

A few years ago, Laura lost her daughter in tragic circumstances. Now, she is running from her past, but a chance encounter with a frightened teenager, Miriana, drags her back into a web of secrets and danger.

As Miriana’s cryptic story unravels, Laura realises the threat is closer than she ever imagined. Someone is hunting Laura, determined to bury the truth about what really happened to her daughter.

A predator is watching. Waiting. Ready to strike again.

Trapped between fear and fury, Laura must confront her darkest suspicions and uncover the terrifying truth before the hunter closes in. Because this time, it’s not just her past on the line—it’s her life.

 

Laura is ready to face life again and goes on a singles campervan trip. When leaving, she discovers a young girl stowed away in her van and must make the decision of believing her story and helping her or tossing her out since she doesn’t need this in her life. Straight away this grabbed me as I wanted to know how this would play out. And then it became a hit and miss for the rest of the book.

There was a lot to unpack in this – Laura’s new relationship, her relationship with her mother and how her mother didn’t understand why Laura would not get back together with her ex, the relationship Laura had with her flatmate/neighbour, the relationship Laura had with her feelings about her daughter’s disappearance and her disagreement with her ex that he should keep looking, and her relationship with Mariana and the stories she was weaving. Couple this with a dual timeline and it became a bit much at times.

It felt less like a psychological thriller to me than a general thriller as even though psyches are being manipulated, there really isn’t anything that made me grab the edge of my chair and sit there wide-eyed as though I could never have seen it coming. In fact, the ending had me rolling my eyes a little even though the reasons were given. It’s like characters have watched too much Dexter and think they can stage crime scenes now.

There are some hard hitting areas in here like grooming, sexual exploitation, immigration issues, grief and depression, and drugs, so it’s a lot to take in. I feel I should have enjoyed this more, but in the end, I just felt it wasn’t a standout to me as I don’t remember a whole lot about the book now a few days later.

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!