Billy Summers by Stephen King

Description from Amazon:

The perfect crime doesn’t exist. The perfect getaway . . . that’s another story.

Billy Summers is a killer for hire. He’s among the best snipers in the world, a decorated Iraq war vet who can blend into any neighbourhood and disappear after the shot is taken. But he’ll only agree to a contract if the target is a truly bad guy.

Now Billy wants out. But first he’s offered one final job - an offer which is just too big to refuse.

As the days count down to the hit, Billy senses something is wrong. He doesn’t yet know just how wrong, or about the woman who will help him try to set things right.

Part thriller, part war story, part lyrical portrait of small-town America, Billy Summers is about a good man in a bad job, with one last shot at redemption.

 

I absolutely loved this. It’s quite different from his usual fare, and I thought the nod to The Shining was a fun addition.

 

Billy’s job and the people involved is laid out nicely, and even though what he is about to do is so completely wrong, you are cheering him on. The book is quite thick, so as the job is put into action, there seem to be a lot of pages over. Enter the second portion, which, while it has a different element to it, ties it all together so well that by the end the emotions are a rollercoaster.

 

Billy takes you through parts of his life in wars through memories and the book he is writing, and I thought the way he writes his book using his simple voice and then his usual one read really well. There are cringy parts and his first interaction with Alice as well as some of the decisions he makes about her are downright questionable. But I guess that also shows how people make decisions and how wrong they can be.

 

Many won’t like this book based on decisions made and the political jabs, but I really enjoyed it!

Lady Apprentice by Toni Cabell

Description from Amazon:

Her homeland under siege. A dark sorcerer hot on her trail. All the prophecies say Linden can stop him. Who are they kidding?

Linden is the worst mage apprentice at her school. Her latest disaster: accidentally destroying her classroom when a small hooded fay pops up inside the fireball she’s just conjured.

Linden is sent to the headmaster’s office to be formally expelled, when she is saved by the bell—quite literally. Someone is frantically ringing the bell inside the watchtower overlooking the western frontier. Raiders are coming, in broad daylight, wearing the uniforms of the enemy army.

In the days following the raid, rumors begin to fly about the invading commander, with dark powers and an even darker mission. And for some reason Linden has yet to fathom, he’s taken a personal interest in her and her unruly magic.

 

This is definitely aimed at YA but still interesting enough to keep older readers somewhat engaged. It’s the first I’ve read of this author, and her writing style is very easy to follow, her characters well varied, and the plot carefully thought out.

 

Because it’s the first in the series, a lot of world-building and background info on characters had to take place to get the story where it needed to be at the point of Linden’s place in the war. This did make certain areas drag out a little, but Linden’s journey in finding herself was necessary. The different abilities and levels are well described and the action sequences entertaining.

 

Linden’s path in coming to terms with her abilities and finding her confidence was a great basis for the age of the reader, but my gripes were that she was more concerned about her boyfriend than her brother, and the fact that this script had editing mistakes in it.

 

I would like to read the rest of the series just to find out if Linden gets to become the person she is meant to be.

Burn After Reading by Catherine Ryan Howard

Description from Amazon:

A ghostwriter is tasked with capturing the memoirs of a celebrity widely suspected of murder; now she’s locked in an interview room with a killer and he’s ready to confess... The night Jack Smyth ran into flames in a desperate attempt to save his wife, he was, tragically, too late - but hailed a hero. Until it emerged that Kate was dead long before the fire began.

 

This is the first book I’ve read by this author and based on this I wouldn’t read another. The story starts off with a bang and you are sucked into a situation someone is not getting out of and might end up dying in horribly. This definitely grabs attention.

 

Then the book meanders into the weird rules about how the ghostwriting must take place, Emily’s feelings toward Jack and her going back and forth between believing him or not, and then the misdirection the author tries to take us through. Which, unfortunately, is not difficult to spot.

 

The characters are 2D and I felt nothing for any of them. There are huge plot holes in the book that the author tries to explain but it feels like the explanations are being tacked on. I read the whole book in hope, but by the end I felt shortchanged.

Watching You by Michael Robotham

Description from Amazon:

I am the most important figure in Marnie’s life, but she doesn’t know it yet . . .

I am the one who watches.

Marnie Logan often feels like she’s being watched. Nothing she can quite put her finger on - a whisper of breath on the back of her neck, or a shadow in the corner of her eye - and now her life is frozen. Her husband Daniel has been missing for more than a year. Depressed and increasingly desperate, she seeks the help of clinical psychologist Joe O’Loughlin.

Joe is concerned by Marnie’s reluctance to talk about the past, but then she discovers a book packed with pictures, interviews with friends, former teachers, old flames and workmates Daniel was preparing for Marnie’s birthday. It was supposed to be a celebration of her life. But it’s not the story anyone was expecting . . .

 

This is the first Joe O’Loughlin book I’ve read in the series, and it’s easy to jump into and read as a standalone. I really enjoyed this one and was amazed it was written so long ago yet still feels so fresh.

 

You really are taken back and forth where you think something is real then it’s fake then it might be real again. Marnie is stuck in a terrible financial situation and resorts to something soul crushing to earn some money for her children seeing as her husband cannot be declared dead and his insurance paid out. Of course the kids don’t know what she is doing and her teen daughter thinks her mom is pretty much useless while her son is really ill.

 

But it seems that a lot of people connected to Marnie either turn up dead or something bad happens to them, so she is high on the list of suspects for her husband’s disappearance. All this while she is seeing Joe for depression. And he is about to find out some fascinating things about her. Marnie’s past didn’t stay there and it’s threatening to overtake her future.

 

This was a thriller of note and I kept wanting to read just one more chapter. As the clues are unravelled and you are sure of your guesses, more turns up. Marnie’s character was so well written that you could feel her anguish all the way through and the fact that part of the book are written from an unknown character’s POV makes the guesswork all the more fun.

 

This kept me engaged all the way through with fast-paced writing and great characters and one heck of a great plot! I love it when a book is described as a psychological thriller and it actually is one...

Return of the Spider by James Patterson

Description from Amazon:

Along Came a Spider introduced Detective Alex Cross to readers around the globe and delivered an unsurpassed rivalry: Cross—named the “human superhero” by The New York Times—versus Gary Soneji, who the Lexington-Herald Leader called the “most deliciously wicked character since Hannibal Lecter”. But that wasn’t their first meeting ...

Police discover that Soneji kept a murder book, Profiles in Homicidal Genius, detailing his transformation from substitute teacher to hardened serial killer—including clues that imply missteps that Alex Cross may have made a rookie homicide detective.

Now, Alex must retrace the steps of that long-ago investigation and face ... the Return of the Spider.

 

I decided to try an indie book again and picked one randomly on my Kindle. On the first page a character bashes a cat against a wall to see if they have psychopathic tendencies. Well that book got closed quickly. So I thought I’d see if James Patterson was still writing (and I say that tongue in cheek) mass-produced generic stuff. I used to love Patterson and thoroughly enjoyed his books until they became predictable as he churned them out so quickly. Even the Amazon description seems to have an error in it!

 

I didn’t read the back of the book, just picked it up as it was new. Oh dear. It seems it was a prequel of sorts to Along Came a Spider, which was written way back when. It doesn’t start off as a prequel though, so I felt cheated when I was expecting a new story and it lands up taking you back to how Gary Soneji started his reign of terror; and since we know how it ended, it felt like a backstory that was not necessary.

 

Sure there were clues here and there that were quite clever to have used to frame the guys he managed to make the fall guys, but there were also timing issues. If I remember Along Came a Spider correctly, Alex was a well-established detective by then, but according to this he was a rookie and making a lot of mistakes. Plus I think he mentioned an iPad in the 90s? Yeah, no.

 

I read it, closed it, and then said no more Patterson for me. Once upon a time they linked and had good ideas in them. Now they just follow a formula where it feels like drop-down menus to fill in the blanks.

Just finishing off a Michael Robotham and enjoying that one a lot more. Review up soon.

When She Was Good by Michael Robotham

Description from Amazon:

Criminal psychologist Cyrus Haven and Evie Cormac return in this “powerhouse of a novel” (Booklist, starred review) from internationally bestselling author Michael Robotham, a writer Stephen King calls “an absolute master...with heart and soul.”

Who is Evie, the girl with no past, running from? She was discovered hiding in a secret room in the aftermath of a terrible crime. Her ability to tell when someone is lying helped Cyrus crack an impenetrable case in Good Girl, Bad Girl. Now, the closer Cyrus gets to uncovering answers about Evie’s dark history, the more he exposes Evie to danger, giving her no choice but to run. Ultimately, both will have to decide if some secrets are better left buried and some monsters should never be named...

 

I loved the first book in this series and was hoping for all the answers here. We did not get them as it turns out there is another book (or two)! But a lot of questions were answered and Evie certainly got some vindication.

 

Evie is back at Langford Hall and elsewhere Cyrus is brought in to a suspected suicide that is anything but. And the more he looks into it, the more connection there is with Evie’s past. Cyrus manages to convince Sasha, the police officer who found Evie as a child, to team up with him. She is rather reluctant to do this but she eventually agrees, and what they find out leads them to organised groups who find pleasure in using children for sick deeds. It’s heartbreaking to hear what Evie went through as a child, and what Terry endured to keep her safe was quite something.

 

As usual the writing is compelling and you keep wanting to read just one more chapter. Evie wants Cyrus nowhere near the case as she is worried about him, just as he is worried about her. If they had managed to be open with each other a lot sooner much could have been averted. But this all adds to the tension and the author’s way of showing us vulnerability yet courage.

 

I was annoyed that not everything was ended off but at least I know there is more to come. And more of Poppy, the black Labrador, I hope! Just make sure, Mr. Author, that someone is there to look after her and feed her when your characters decide to go wandering off, please...

The Eyes of Darkness by Dean Koontz

Description from Amazon:

In the year since her son Danny’s tragic death, Tina Evans has suffered incredible heartache. But now, with her Vegas show about to premiere, Tina might be ready to put her grief behind her and start over.

Until a shocking message appears on the chalkboard in Danny's room: NOT DEAD. Those two words send her on a terrifying journey from the bright lights of Las Vegas to the cold shadows of the High Sierras, where she uncovers a terrible secret.

 

I knew Dean Koontz had written under the pseudonym Leigh Nichols before, but I hadn’t read any of them or realised how old they were. This one had been rereleased and updated and the story worked relatively well.

 

I found it very quick and easy to read and the story felt more solid, as though the older works focused on the plot itself and didn’t need bells and whistles. It almost felt like the seed for so many new books today that have tried to twist exactly this.

 

When Tina gets the message, she thinks someone is out to deliberately spook her and initially blames her ex-husband. She still misses her son immensely, but is in a better space in her head and her work is going well, so when the messages start, she is torn between going forward or back to the bad place in her life.

 

At one of her shows she meets Elliot and they hit it off. When she shares with him that she thinks Danny might be trying to get hold of her after a few more odd coincidences occur, he refuses to believe it. Until two men show up at his house with nefarious intentions.

 

Using any methods they can, they are able to locate an area they think Danny might be and head off. Where they find coverups and secrets galore.

 

This is a bit dated in that it’s a simplistic plot but it feels like an “original” and a precursor so was just putting the bones out there for the time. The ending was the ending but could have been done so much better. There was scope for so much more yet it was abrupt. And yes, there are questions – which would give away a lot of spoilers, so I won’t go into them. The tie-in with the 2020 worldwide disaster is ominous considering when this was written, so having read it now, I guess back then it wouldn’t have made the same impact.

 

I did enjoy the book. Wasn’t fabulous and I wouldn’t read it again, but it delivered a simple story with a supernatural lean to it and a good take on never giving up.