Diagnosis: Bookaholic

  SYNOPSIS The Temperance Brennan series is one of those series I started reading back when I was a teen and it was first published and one of the few I still keep reading every year. All these long time running series (this is the 20th installment) run the risk of becoming repetitive, but Tempe is still as fresh as in her first case. I’ve always preferred her Canadian cases so I liked how this time she kept jumping around between Montreal and South Carolina. Two bodies have washed up inside a container during a storm in Charleston and Tempe soon finds similarities with one of her old cases in Canada. Add a weird epidemic (familiar much?) and you have all the ingredients for Tempe to be involved in another baffling (and quite terrifying) case. The mystery was really interesting and managed to hold my attention throughout, but it was a bit overcomplicated at times and it required too many coincidences that would never happen IRL. As usual I loved all the forensic analysis she perfor...

  SYNOPSIS Are you suffering from a broken heart? Searching for the right medicine? Staring down the barrel of being single and not knowing where to start? Learn from Grace Callaghan! She’s done it all: Wine is the answer. Some serving-size suggestions include: a glass the size of your head, a bathtub, an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Best served chilled, and with a straw. Friends with benefits is always an option. Be prepared for side effects such as the guy saying ‘baby’, crying out his ex’s name and preferring to keep his socks on. Going ‘out out’ helps banish the blues. It may involve breaking into replica ships from the fifteenth century, screaming ‘Aye-aye, Captain!’ and accidentally falling off the plank. Karaoke makes everything better. Best enjoyed singing Enrique Iglesias, followed by an extra-large serving of fries. Three years ago, when Grace’s heart was blown to smithereens, she made a promise to protect herself. But has she gone too far? Has she played it too safe? Sho...

  SYNOPSIS DI Kate Young can’t trust anybody. Not even herself. In the bleak countryside around Blithfield Reservoir, a serial murderer and rapist is leaving a trail of bloodshed. His savage calling card: the word ‘MINE’ carved into each of his victims. DI Kate Young struggles to get the case moving—even when one of the team’s own investigators is found dead in a dumpster. But Kate is battling her own demons. Obsessed with exposing Superintendent John Dickson and convinced there’s a conspiracy running deep in the force, she no longer knows who to trust. Kate’s crusade has already cost her dearly. What will she lose next? When her stepsister spills a long-buried secret, Kate realises she’s found the missing link—now she must prove it before the killer strikes again. With enemies closing in on all sides, she’s prepared to do whatever it takes to bring them down. But time is running out, and Kate's past has pushed her to the very edge. Can she stop herself from falling? Title: A cut f...

  SINOPSIS La presidenta del Real Club de Tenis de Santander, una de las mujeres más poderosas de la ciudad, ha aparecido muerta en el camarote de una preciosa goleta que con unos pocos y selectos invitados surcaba las aguas de la bahía al anochecer. El crimen recuerda a las novelas de la «habitación cerrada» de principios del siglo pasado: el compartimento estaba cerrado por dentro, tanto la extraña herida que presenta el cuerpo de la empresaria como el misterioso método utilizado para perpetrar el asesinato resultan inexplicables y todos los invitados a la fiesta parecen tener motivos para haber acabado con su vida. Nadie puede haber salido o entrado de la nave para cometer el crimen o escapar. ¿Quién ha matado a Judith Pombo? ¿Cómo? ¿Y por qué? Título: Lo que la marea esconde Autor: María Oruña Serie: Puerto Escondido #4 Editorial: Ediciones Destino Fecha de publicación: 16 Junio 2021 RESEÑA VALORACIÓN: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ En esta cuarta entrega de la serie de “Puerto Escondido” María Oruña r...

  SYNOPSIS Eighteen-year-old aspiring comic Joey Rossi just found out his boyfriend has been cheating on him for the past ten months. But what did he expect? Joey was born with an addiction to toxic jerks—something he inherited from his lovably messy, wisecracking, Italian-American spitfire of a mom (and best friend): 34-year-old Gia Rossi.   When Gia’s latest non-relationship goes up in flames only a day later, the pair’s Bayonne, New Jersey apartment can barely contain their rage. In a misguided attempt at revenge, Joey and Gia inadvertently commit a series of crimes and flee the state, running to the only good man either of them has ever known—Gia’s ex, Marco. As they hide out from the law at Marco’s secluded lake house, Joey and Gia must confront all the bad habits and mistakes they’ve made that have led them to this moment—and find a way to take responsibility for what they’ve done. Title: Burn it all down Author: Nicolas DiDomizio Publisher: Little, Brown and Company Pub...

  SYNOPSIS London, September, 1941. Following the departure of the formidable Editor, Henrietta Bird, from Woman’s Friend magazine, things are looking up for Emmeline Lake as she takes on the challenge of becoming a young wartime advice columnist. Her relationship with boyfriend Charles is blossoming, while Emmy’s best friend Bunty, is still reeling from the very worst of the Blitz, but bravely looking to the future. Together, the friends are determined to Make a Go of It. When the Ministry of Information calls on Britain’s women’s magazines to help recruit desperately needed female workers to the war effort, Emmy is thrilled to be asked to step up and help. But when she and Bunty meet a young woman who shows them the very real challenges that women war workers face, Emmy must tackle a life-changing dilemma between doing her duty, and standing by her friends. Title: Yours Cheerfully Author: AJ Pearce Series: The Emmy Lake Chronicles #2 Publisher: Picador Publication date: June 24, ...

  SYNOPSIS You can save hundreds of lives. Or the one that matters most . . . The atmosphere on board the first non-stop flight from London to Sydney is electric. Celebrities are rumoured to be among the passengers in business class, and the world is watching the landmark journey. Flight attendant Mina is trying to focus on the passengers, instead of her troubled five-year-old daughter back at home - or the cataclysmic problems in her marriage. But soon after the plane takes off, Mina receives a chilling anonymous note. Someone wants to make sure the plane never reaches its destination. They're demanding her cooperation . . . and they know exactly how to get it. It's twenty hours to landing. A lot can happen in twenty hours... Title: Hostage Author: Clare Mackintosh Publisher: Sphere Publication date: June 22, 2021 REVIEW RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Ladies and gentlemen, welcome onboard Flight 79 with service from London to Sydney. Please fasten your seatbelts, secure all baggage and turn of...

  SYNOPSIS Growing up on Cape Cod in the 1960s, Liza Rodman was a lonely little girl. During the summers, while her mother worked days in a local motel and danced most nights in the Provincetown bars, her babysitter—the kind, handsome handyman at the motel where her mother worked—took her and her sister on adventures in his truck. He bought them popsicles and together, they visited his “secret garden” in the Truro woods. To Liza, he was one of the few kind and understanding adults in her life. Everyone thought he was just a “great guy.” But there was one thing she didn’t know; their babysitter was a serial killer. Some of his victims were buried—in pieces—right there, in his garden in the woods. Though Tony Costa’s gruesome case made screaming headlines in 1969 and beyond, Liza never made the connection between her friendly babysitter and the infamous killer of numerous women, including four in Massachusetts, until decades later. Haunted by nightmares and horrified by what she lear...

  SYNOPSIS When Emma’s useless fiancé tells her a lie she cannot forgive, she decides enough is enough. She leaves him, quits her dead-end job and travels hundreds of miles away to the ancient village of Honeymoon in the Dorset countryside, to help her friend Tia turn the old train station into a boutique hotel. Tia has told Emma that it will be a project, but when Emma arrives in Honeymoon and sees a weed-choked crumbling ruin, her vision of an idyllic life in Dorset begins to disintegrate. But when she meets twinkly-eyed builder Aiden in the village shop, and sparks fly between them, she can’t help but feel that the stars have for once aligned. As work begins on the hotel, Emma and Aiden grow closer, and on sun-dappled evening walks, he tells her the secrets of the village. But there are some villagers who wish that Emma had never arrived in Honeymoon… And when Emma is involved in a terrible accident on site, and then discovers what Aiden has been keeping from her, it feels like ...

SYNOPSIS When Alice and Leo move into a newly renovated house in The Circle, a gated community of exclusive houses, it is everything they’ve dreamed of. But appearances can be deceptive… As Alice is getting to know her neighbours, she discovers a devastating, grisly secret about her new home, and begins to feel a strong connection with Nina, the therapist who lived there before. Alice becomes obsessed with trying to piece together what happened two years before. But no one wants to talk about it. Her neighbours are keeping secrets and things are not as perfect as they seem. Title: The therapist Author: B.A. Paris Publisher: HQ Publication date: April 15, 2021 REVIEW RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ When a few years back I read Behind Closed Doors I became instantly a fan of B.A. Paris. I can’t remember many books that made my blood boil and got me so tense as that one. Last year, The Dilemma was a bit of a letdown, as it was more of a drama than a suspense story, so I’m glad to tell that in The Therapist...

SYNOPSIS Summer, 1921. Lady Eleanor Swift, the best amateur sleuth in the country, is delighted to be in charge of the prize-giving at her village summer fair. But the traditional homemade raft race takes a tragic turn when the local undertaker, Solemn Jon, turns up dead amongst the ducks. Jon was the life of any party and loved by the entire village. Surely this was simply an awful accident? But when a spiteful obituary is printed in the local paper, Eleanor realises there may be more to Jon’s death than first thought. Despite handsome Detective Seldon giving her strict instructions not to interfere, Eleanor owes it to Jon’s good name to root out the truth. So with her partner in crime, Gladstone the bulldog, Eleanor starts digging for clues… When another local dies in a riding accident, the police refuse to believe he was murdered. But a second vindictive death notice convinces Eleanor of foul play. Solemn Jon’s assistant, a bullish banker and a majestic marquess make her suspect lis...