Diagnosis: Bookaholic

SYNOPSIS They were all there. So which one of them did it? It's that time of year when the glacier gives up bodies. But there's one in particular someone is looking out for. When five friends meet for a reunion in an isolated mountain lodge, things turn deadly in the must-read thriller of the year. Fans of Lucy Foley and Lisa Jewell will be gripped by spectacular debut novel  Shiver . When Milla is invited to a reunion in the French Alps resort that saw the peak of her snowboarding career, she drops everything to go. While she would rather forget the events of that winter, the invitation comes from Curtis, the one person she can't seem to let go. The five friends haven't seen each other for ten years, since the disappearance of the beautiful and enigmatic Saskia. But when an icebreaker game turns menacing, they realise they don't know who has really gathered them there and how far they will go to find the truth. In a deserted lodge high up a mountain, the secrets of

SYNOPSIS Frankie Elkin is an average middle-aged woman, a recovering alcoholic with more regrets than belongings. But she spends her life doing what no one else will--searching for missing people the world has stopped looking for. When the police have given up, when the public no longer remembers, when the media has never paid attention, Frankie starts looking. A new case brings her to Mattapan, a Boston neighborhood with a rough reputation. She is searching for Angelique Badeau, a Haitian teenager who vanished from her high school months earlier. Resistance from the Boston PD and the victim's wary family tells Frankie she's on her own--and she soon learns she's asking questions someone doesn't want answered. But Frankie will stop at nothing to discover the truth, even if it means the next person to go missing could be her. Title: Before she disappeared Author: Lisa Gardner Publisher: Dutton Publication date: January 19, 2021 REVIEW RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Frankie Elkin is a reco

SYNOPSIS Documentary filmmaker Alice Lindstedt has been obsessed with the vanishing residents of the old mining town, dubbed “The Lost Village,” since she was a little girl. In 1959, her grandmother’s entire family disappeared in this mysterious tragedy, and ever since, the unanswered questions surrounding the only two people who were left―a woman stoned to death in the town center and an abandoned newborn―have plagued her. She’s gathered a small crew of friends in the remote village to make a film about what really happened. But there will be no turning back. Not long after they’ve set up camp, mysterious things begin to happen. Equipment is destroyed. People go missing. As doubt breeds fear and their very minds begin to crack, one thing becomes startlingly clear to Alice: They are not alone. They’re looking for the truth… But what if it finds them first? Title: The lost village Author: Camilla Sten Publisher: Minotaur Books Publication date: March 23, 2021 REVIEW RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ When I

  SYNOPSIS We all want different things. Francie wants to be the perfect mother. Nell wants to escape the past. Collette wants to spend more time with her family. All Winnie wants is to have her baby back. When Nell suggests a night out in Brooklyn to her new mums' club, the others jump at the chance. But the evening takes a tragic turn when Winnie learns that her six-week-old son Midas has been kidnapped. As the investigation hits a dead end, Nell, Collette and Francie make it their mission to succeed where the police are failing. But as Winnie and those around her come under scrutiny from the media, damaging secrets come to light and friendships are pushed to the limit. Because people will do almost anything to protect the ones they love. Title: The perfect mother Author: Aimee Molloy Publisher: Sphere Publication date: July 11, 2019 REVIEW RATING: ⭐⭐⭐💫 Last year I absolutely adored "Goodnight beautiful". It's not usual that a book catches me completely unaware an

SYNOPSIS Millie Spark can kill anyone. A special effects make-up artist, her talent is to create realistic scenes of bloody violence. Then, one day, she wakes to find her lover dead in her bed. Twenty-five years later, her sentence for murder served, Millicent is ready to give up on her broken life - until she meets troubled film student and reluctant petty thief Jerry. Together, they begin to discover that all was not what it seemed on that fateful night...and someone doesn't want them to find out why. Title: The cut Author: Chris Brookmyre Publisher: Little, Brown  Publication date: March 4, 2021 REVIEW RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ I had never heard about Chris Brookmyre until I saw the ARC for "The Cut" on NetGalley a few months back. The synopsis sounded so interesting I had to request it even though I didn't have any references about the author or his previous work. The story take off with a bang when we discover that someone is dead, then going backwards a few days to find out

  SYNOPSIS Spring, 1921 .  Lady Eleanor Swift , explorer extraordinaire and accidental sleuth, hasn’t had a vacation since she arrived in England a year ago. Being an amateur detective can be a rather tiring business and she is determined to escape any more murder and mysteries. So she books into the Grand Hotel in the fashionable resort of Brighton for some fresh air, fish and chips and, of course, a dip in the ocean. Eleanor is enjoying her view of the waves and trying to find her bathing suit when calamity strikes: a guest has been found dead at her beautiful hotel. The distraught manager, who can’t afford a scandal, asks Eleanor to solve the case as swiftly as possible. Thank goodness she has her partner in crime – Gladstone the bulldog – to help her sniff out the dastardly culprit. But when Eleanor enters the dead man’s room, she receives a shock big enough to make her forget even the finest ice cream sundae. The body is that of her husband, who supposedly died six years ago on th

  SYNOPSIS It all happens so quickly. One day you're living the dream, commuting to work by riverbus with your charismatic neighbour Kit in the seat beside you. The next, Kit hasn't turned up for the boat and his wife Melia has reported him missing. When you get off at your stop, the police are waiting. Another passenger saw you and Kit arguing on the boat home the night before and the police say that you had a reason to want him dead. You protest. You and Kit are friends - ask Melia, she'll vouch for you. And who exactly is this other passenger pointing the finger? What do they know about your lives? No, whatever danger followed you home last night, you are innocent, totally innocent. Aren't you? Title: The other passenger Author: Louise Candlish Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK Publication date: June 25, 2020 REVIEW RATING: ⭐⭐⭐💫 A couple of weeks back my group of bookish friends was discussing how our ratings and enjoyment of some books can sometimes be affected no

  SYNOPSIS Have you ever been wrong about someone? Juno was wrong about Winnie Crouch. Before moving in with the Crouch family, Juno thought Winnie and her husband, Nigel, had the perfect marriage, the perfect son—the perfect life. Only now that she’s living in their beautiful house, she sees the cracks in the crumbling facade are too deep to ignore. Still, she isn’t one to judge. After her grim diagnosis, the retired therapist simply wants a place to live out the rest of her days in peace. But that peace is shattered the day Juno overhears a chilling conversation between Winnie and Nigel… She shouldn’t get involved. She really shouldn’t. But this could be her chance to make a few things right. Because if you thought Juno didn’t have a secret of her own, then you were wrong about her, too.  Title: The wrong family Author: Tarryn Fisher Publisher: Graydon House Publication date: December 29, 2020 REVIEW RATING: ⭐⭐ Do you know those books that go on and on, and they have gone for so lon

SYNOPSIS Joe Lattimore, homeless and trying desperately to provide for his young family, agrees to fight in a no-holds-barred illegal bout, only to have his opponent die. Lattimore now finds himself at the mercy of the fight's organizers who blackmail him into burglarizing a house. However, when he breaks in, he finds a murdered woman on the floor and the police have received an anonymous tip naming him the murderer. Robin Lockwood, an increasingly prominent young attorney and former MMA fighter, agrees to take on his defense. But the case is seemingly airtight—the murdered woman's husband, Judge Anthony Carasco, has an alibi and Lattimore's fingerprints are discovered at the scene. But everything about the case is too easy, too pat, and Lockwood is convinced that her client has been framed. The only problem is that she has no way of proving it and since this is a death case, if she fails then another innocent will die. Title: A matter of life and death Author: Phillip Marg

  SYNOPSIS She's stuck in the past, the killer wants to immortalise his future. When a local farmer announces on social media that he has discovered a bog body in Ardee, the world’s historians are keen to explore the secrets of the life and grisly death of the victim. Antique journalist January Quail is fighting to keep her newspaper job and uncovers far more than she bargained for.   The victim is actually a recent murder, and January uses her nose for the truth to investigate the County Louth town. From shopkeeper to the publican, everyone is a suspect, but when the Gardai can’t find the killer, can January?   Once she sets down the liqueur glass, January gains the confidence of the lead garda investigator. Within days, the case unravels into a much more dangerous situation with a killer on the loose.   Despite the risk, January is electrified that this newest discovery has come at the perfect time to inject some colour into her flailing career. January relinquishes her old ways

  SYNOPSIS In the coronary care unit at one of Copenhagen's leading medical centres, a nurse fills a syringe with an overdose of heart medication and stealthily enters the room of an older male patient. Six days earlier, a paperboy on his route in the centre of the city stumbles upon a macabre find: the body of a dead woman, lying in a fountain, her arms marked with small incisions. Cause of death? Exsanguination - the draining of all the blood in her body. Clearly, this is no ordinary murder. Jeppe Kørner, recovering from a painful divorce and in the throes of a new relationship, takes on the investigation. His partner, Anette Werner, now on leave after an unexpected pregnancy, is restless at home. While Jeppe leads the official search, Anette can't stop herself from doing a little detective work as well. But operating on her own exposes her to dangers she can't even begin to realise. As the investigation ventures into dark and dangerous corners, it uncovers an ambition an