The Cellar Door by Langford Shepherd

 The Cellar Door is a short story and touted to be a horror.

 

This book fell far too short of anything it promised. In fact, the only horror was that of a human harming an animal. An animal that starts off as one species and lands up as another.

Why the book needed to spend the majority of it in the erotica between the couple makes no sense. The first line of the book description says exactly that. No need to go into that many sordid details.

I was disappointed and was hoping for more about the bodies and more actual horror.

I Know Your Secret by JM O'Rourke

 Dr Amanda Jackson is a well-respected physician and has two wonderful children. She loves her husband deeply, but is constantly having to sacrifice what she wants and needs to make him happy. And she is willing to do this as she has a secret she cannot let him know about.

 

So when she finds a note on her windscreen one day saying I Know Your Secret, she realises she is in big trouble. The question is whether to find out who sent it or let the secret be known. And since there is only one other person out there who does know about it, she needs their help to make sure the secret stays a secret.

 

With traumatic events in her past coming back to her in flashbacks, she starts doubting their authenticity. And with her husband questioning her sanity, she starts doubting herself, too. As friends and family turn against her, Amanda doesn’t know who to go to. Is keeping the secret worth it?

 

The book centres on bad decisions and their repercussions. It also highlights toxic relationships between spouses, between friends, between parents and children, and between work colleagues.

 

For a woman like Amanda who has overcome so much, it seems odd that she would put up with Edward’s behaviour and indeed enable it. Considering even her son tells her to leave him as he doesn’t treat her well, the secret is not worth keeping. What I did like about her character was the growth she went through to eventually find the courage to say “no” and stand up for herself.

 

Edward’s character was absolutely awful. He is the epitome of an abuser and gaslighter. I did think it was a tad implausible that he would go to the lengths he did to protect himself, though.

 

Pri was a very irritating character, especially considering her story arc. And the way she kept calling Fiona “that loola woman” was annoying. Looking at it from an outside perspective, though, one could argue that her decisions were not her own and she was guided by an “inner demon”. However, when found out, she came across as being more than willing and not necessarily coerced.

 

As you move through the clues, you can guess where it’s headed but there are still another curveball or two on their way. While some scenes were set up well and integrated with the story believingly, others (cue logs and an overall) were a lot more difficult to swallow. Even scenes where characters pretend to be someone else in a medical facility don’t sound feasible. And then, of course, the obligatory evil nurse in the mental institute – was it really necessary? And it seems like most victims in psychological thrillers nowadays end the story by writing a book about it!

 

So I Know Your Secret has its pros and cons and does get dragged out in places, but is overall a satisfying read.

 

Thanks to NetGalley and Inkubator Books for the opportunity to review the book.

Have you seen her? by Dea Poirier

 Blair, now a social worker, and her sister Evianna, an influencer, have never got on. Evianna was the “perfect” daughter and Blair the one pushed to the side, especially by their mother. So why Blair decided to hop on a plane to see her sister is beyond her. But Evianna sounded desperate.

 

And now Blair is heading back to Evianna’s in a bizarre series of events. After Evianna telling Blair she has cancer, Blair heads back home, but as she touches down, Evianna’s husband Simon calls to tell her Evianna is missing and she needs to come quickly. Blair immediately gets on the next plane and the craziness begins.

 

When Blair arrives, she realises all is not well. Simon has not even reported Evianna as missing and is actually keeping up her social account himself. She decides that it’s up to her to look into the disappearance, but the more she digs, the more Simon’s behaviour turns evil and the more questions come to light.

 

Now Blair fears for her own life and everywhere she turns, the puzzle pivots. Those who try to help land up in danger and those who threaten her might just destroy everything she has. What do you do when you are in over your head?

 

Why Blair went to the lengths she went, I’ll never know. First, the relationship with her sister was so strained and she had been treated so badly, it was an odd choice to see her in the first place. Then putting up with the way Simon treated her was not on. I get that deep down she loved her sister and would do this for her, but the idea of doing this on her own and not going to the police was crazy. She knew something was off and still went ahead with her amateur sleuthing. Even when it became clear her life was in danger. The physical damage she sustained I question. She seemed to recover from that very very quickly even though it occurred more than once.

 

Simon was a deplorable character. That means that the author has written him really well to make me hate him that much! His attitude, mannerisms, and actions just spoke of duplicity and selfishness.

 

The girls’ mother was another character that was just downright awful. The way she treated Blair was appalling and I’ll never understand why people like that have children.

 

The book is written well in that the proofing was good with few mistakes to distract you. But at one stage, one of the characters that works in IT goes from Melvin to Calvin, which was a little odd. I will say that you can figure out the ending before it happens and when it does, you are actually sad because it’s such a waste!

 

I really enjoyed this book because even though you feel such strong negative emotions towards people and actions, it goes to show how much the author has made you believe. The toxic relationship, the secrets, the “real life” behind an influencer – all thrilling elements that brought the book together well. I would have liked to have seen some more of the plot lines finished off as there were a few points left open. But the ones that needed to be explained were. Not all that glitters is gold, indeed!

 

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture.

The Slaying Game by Faith Gardener

Leela’s world is imploding. After leaving her stressful job at Jolvix Enterprises, she needed a completely different pace. Cue working in Feline Better, a café come cat sanctuary. But something weird is taking place. People who she considered “enemies” from before in her life are sending her texts saying they are sorry before they land up dead. Supposedly a suicide. But Leela knows in her gut it’s connected to the VixSpex – a novelty lethal virtual reality headset designed to kill the user when they lose the game they are playing. But this isn’t supposed to be in the general population. So who has one?

 

Still mourning her fiancé's death, Leela reluctantly teams up with his twin brother Teddy to get to the bottom of this. When Leela realises how deeply involved in this she is, she needs to end it. But how far is she willing to go to do that?

 

This is the third of Faith Gardener’s novels that I have read and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed them all. She gives a real depth to her characters and makes you feel very uneasy about Jolvix Enterprises and the work they do. Leela’s character embodies so many emotions. You get to see glimpses of her past and the author has utilised issues like addiction and a mother living vicariously through her child with subtlety and delicacy. In that the issues are not glossed over but treated with respect. The changing dynamic between her and Teddy makes for an interesting thread that holds the story together. Knowing that Jack is gone you are rooting for them and annoyed that Leela can be so obstinate when it’s clear that Teddy is a good guy!

 

Another character I loved to hate was Leela’s boss at the cat café, Daisy. Her passive aggressive smiley attitude and constant reminders to Leela about her work contract made me infuriated. I have met a few like her and boy did she get under my skin! And let’s not even get into Barnett Briggs – absolute shudder there.

 

The fact that you get to “understand” things from the killer’s mind helps to make the story more cohesive and when the author proves that no character is safe, I was shocked. To go through so much and then...

 

The author has a wonderful writing style and the book is well edited (apart from some missing vocative commas again!) which makes it comfortable to read without being jolted between POVs or finding inconsistencies. I will definitely be looking out for the ones I’ve missed in the series.

Thanks to NetGalley and Xpressobooktours