Murder Dogs by Karl Skinner

 The pandemic caused carnage and soon the world became a different place. No more morals and rules... now it was everyone for themselves.

Sarah’s life had taken a turn for the worse. Captured by a gang and forced into sex slavery, each day was just a mission to live. So, when a cop named Brad (who looks like he could commit murder and not think twice about it) arrives with a photo of her demanding to see her, she knows she needs to run. But out there it’s danger around every corner.

As Sarah hides from a rogue unit of cops known as the Murder Dogs, she has one thing on her mind. Survive at all costs...

 

The book has a fantastic opening scene and sets the tone for a very graphic story. The author depicts the emotions of the characters well, running from hate to despair to courage. The descriptions of atrocities committed in the name of the law as well as the loss of values that also spreads like a plague is a testament to the devastation the author has witnessed. But he has also managed to include the opposite, where basic decency and helping your fellow man still has its place.

 

The story is short but punchy and the action happens in quick bursts with the longer sections showing the desperation and loneliness. However, near the end of the story, an element was introduced that offset the authenticity of the story. No spoilers but think Terminator and the fact that the character is Sarah. Now this might lead into something as the book is left open for a sequel, but the genre change from nowhere was puzzling. As for the character’s change of heart? I think not. And when we find out the reason they are looking for Sarah, it stretched literary belief.

 

Making this book hard to read was the lack of chapters. There were some breaks thrown in but they didn’t give the reader a chance to breathe. There were also huge issues with dialogue and action tags being used incorrectly and words like feint / faint or into / in to being mixed up. Simple things like hyphens being used instead of en dashes and some backwards quotation marks stopped the flow of reading. It was also odd to use “a cup that held 500ml” or “a kettle that held 1.4l” – was it necessary?

 

Overall the author has done a good job of showing the reader the chaos that ensues when basic rights are taken away, and the story is entertaining if somewhat confusing at times. Three out of five quills for me...

Thanks to Reedsy Discovery and the author for the opportunity to review the book.

https://reedsy.com/discovery/book/murder-dogs-karl-skinner#review

Lifetimes: The Beginning by Joe McFrancis

 Sophie is just your average girl from Ireland. She has some friends, is bored at school, and wonders what life has out there for her. Well, it comes in the form of Phoebe, who turns out to be part of history (literally) and has a mission for Sophie. Unlock her powers and save the world! Just another day in the life of a soon-to-be superhero…

The synopsis sounded great and I was keen to find out how Sophie was going to unlock her powers, what they would be, and how she would save the world. Some of these are touched on, but the story ends in a cliffhanger and felt incomplete. The author has presented a great idea about mythology and where it fits in with history that has so many possibilities about where it could go, but there is a lot of telling the reader about it and not enough showing.

First we look at the story. Sophie is whisked off to a military training school in Italy where she is meant to undergo combat training and learn how she will help in the war to defend Earth. There she meets a number of non-human classmates but only one features in any of her missions. We never really get the full picture about the classes at the school and what they did to further her powers. Things are mentioned (like her accelerated mutations) but sections could be fleshed out. Yet at other times, the same thing is repeated in a number of ways. Odd things occur like having a mission debrief after her first mission days (?) after it finished. Everything was turned into banter – surely jokes were not necessary all the time? And Phoebe constantly calling Sophie “girl” became grating.

Then come the editing errors. Action and dialogue tags were completely mixed, resulting in incorrectly placed capitals and punctuation errors. Quotation marks were used incorrectly when speech runs into more than one paragraph and the writing was awkward in a number of places like this: “Hi, Sophie! I’m Bob. Bob Miller,” Said to me, a nice dude with dark hair and blue eyes. Even the footnotes had errors: “Panini: Italian plural for panino, which in Elglish is just panini.”   

This is a fantastic foundational idea for a series and with a little tweaking of the story and the editing errors, it could spawn many sequels. Three out of five quills from me... 

Many thanks to Reedsy Discovery and the author for the opportunity to review the book.

https://reedsy.com/discovery/book/lifetimes-the-beginning-pino-de-francesco#review

Killer Dead, Victim Alive by Michael Geczi

 

Keith Victor is proud of being a serial killer. He enjoys what he does and he’s happy to let the cops know about it. Actually... that should be “was” since Victor is dead. So why has his seventh kidnap victim Chrissy Weeks pitched up at the police station claiming Victor dropped her off?

 

So begins the case for detectives Mollie Granger and Greg Nichols, both of whom have more than enough on their plates in their home lives than to go wading through truths and lies. But it’s justice they must get, and thus starts one of the strangest cases they will come across, with some far-reaching repercussions...

 

Killer Dead, Victim Alive had so much potential. Sure, the case is in the title and, as the reader, you go in with a preconceived notion. The mystery is set up, the characters introduced, and you get yourself ready for a ride. But it’s a bumpy one.

 

Let’s start with Weeks. The build-up to her manipulative character was strong and the character was designed to irk the reader, which she does. However, you are given a backstory and told how evil she can be and hear her threats, but besides the obvious, not much comes of it. It’s odd that as the reader you know she is the killer but you have to go through the procedural process of them finding out. This means there is a lot of tell as she changes her story a number of times and yet you know she is lying. In essence, there was really only one person manipulated in her whole story.

 

Granger and her girlfriend Gwen Seward have an interesting parallel story to the main one in that they are fighting cultural and relationship complications for their future. This does add a good dynamic to the story in showing the personal upheavals that people are going through that sometimes cannot be shared when in the work environment. This was true to Nichols too, with the emotional toll his wife’s illness was taking on him. I did feel, however, that there were too many side stories within the police section and a number of them did not need to go into as much detail.  

 

Then there was KJ – would she have given up like she did considering the fighter that she was? Even if she did feel she did wrong? I guess she was manipulated by so many people she didn’t really know where her future was anymore.

 

As to the story. The reason why Weeks did it was a tenuous connection, as it was based on so many “what ifs.” It almost had to be the perfect timing, the perfect manipulation, and have the perfect co-conspirator to work, and if these weren’t there, the story would not have happened. I truly do not understand how she thought it would end in her favour, especially with her story changing so often between the police, the lawyer, and the media. As for the ending... where was this going? Designed for the next book? It was so abrupt I kept trying to turn to the next page. If you look closely, there is a clue related to the ending early on, but it’s remarked on so randomly that the connection is not obvious, even at the end.

 

 The proofing overall was pretty good. The only consistent errors were the mix of straight and curly quotes and apostrophes and a number of inconsistent uses of action versus dialogue tags. Some quotation marks were missing, too.

 

So I’m rather ambivalent about this. In a psychological thriller, I’m looking for the who, how, and why. I want to be surprised at the end by how I missed the setup and how it all links together. With this book, the title made the reader assume they knew “who” the killer was (and this gets confirmed early), “how” it happens is also evident early, and when the “why” comes along, well I felt a little cheated. A lot of good stuff in this book, but I think it was the “intent” versus “coincidence” that made it a hard sell for me.

 

My thanks to the author for the opportunity to review the book. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

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