Tag Archives: Catherine Balavage

Glorious Books To Add To Your TBR

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I have read a huge number of amazing books recently and I need to share them. Add these to your To Be Read list now.

The Island by Adrian McKinty

A dark and delicious read. High-concept, edge-of-your-seat stuff. This thriller is unputdownable. Out May 26th. From the author of The Chain.

A pulse-pounding, high-concept new thriller from the author of the “propulsive and original” instant Sunday Times bestseller The Chain (Stephen King).

You should not have come to the island

You should not have been speeding

You should not have tried to hide the body

You should not have told your children that you could keep them safe

No one can run forever…

The Siege by John Sutherland.

The is the fiction debut from ex-chief Superintendent John Sutherland, author of the Sunday Times Bestselling Blue. You can tell that he knows his stuff. This is masterful and gripping. John Sutherland is a hot new talent. One to watch. Our June 23rd.

Nine hostages. Ten hours. One chance to save them all.

Lee James Connor has found his purpose in life: to follow the teachings of far-right extremist leader, Nicholas Farmer. So when his idol is jailed, he comes up with the perfect plan: take a local immigrant support group hostage until Farmer is released.

Grace Wheatley is no stranger to loneliness having weathered the passing of her husband, whilst being left to raise her son alone. The local support group is her only source of comfort. Until the day Lee James Connor walks in and threatens the existence of everything she’s ever known.

Superintendent Alex Lewis may be one of the most experienced hostage negotiators on the force, but there’s no such thing as a perfect record. Still haunted by his last case, can he connect with Connor – and save his nine hostages – before it’s too late?

One Night With You by Laura Jane Williams. 

I loved this novel so much. Brilliant characters, a fun premise, and a whole lot of love. Set partly in the north, this book has such depth, along with characters who are so flawed and human. Gorgeous.  Out May 26th.

It’s his first night in London. And her last…

Ruby’s leaving London. She’s not running away from her ex per se, but an exciting opportunity in a new city has landed at the perfect time.

Nic is moving to London. After a bad break-up, he’s excited to see where big-city life could take him.

When a chance meeting throws the pair of them together for just one night, it’s clear that this could be the start of something special. But there’s one problem: she’s leaving, and he’s just arriving. So, after tonight, they’ll never see each other again . . . will they?

Hot Water by Christopher Fowler. 

Clever and witty, this is set in the French Rivera. A first-class thriller that you won’t want to put down. Our March 1st.

She sees everything, but can never tell anyone… a wickedly compulsive thriller from the bestselling author of the Bryant & May series.

At a beautiful villa near Nice in the south of France, Hannah Carreras works as a maid. Under strict instructions never to speak to the guests, she blends into the background – but she sees everything. Including the mistress Summer, lounging by the pool awaiting the arrival of her married lover, Steve.

When Steve finally shows at the villa – with his family unexpectedly in tow – Summer has vanished. Steve claims he never saw her. But Steve’s wife is no fool: she knows there’s something going on. Whose tiny bikini lies by the pool? Whose perfume is in the bathroom?

Before long, the local police start asking questions, and the villa’s occupants have something to hide. Only Hannah, always listening, watching, saw broken glass and blood on the patio the day Summer disappeared. Only Hannah thinks she knows what lies are being told…

One Last Letter From Greece by Emma Cowell

The gorgeous Greece setting, the beautiful journey the character takes. A beautiful tale of hope and love. I was gripped from the first page. Out June 9th.

The breathtaking, escapist debut novel from Emma Cowell, perfect for fans of Victoria Hislop, Carol Kirkwood and Karen Swan.

Devastated by her mother’s death, Sophie longs to get away from an empty house full of memories and a life that hasn’t quite turned out as she had imagined.

So when a chance discovery among her mother’s belongings hints at a past Sophie knows nothing of, she jumps at the opportunity for escape and a chance to heal. The magical, idyllic Greek town of Methoni awaits…

But Sophie – determined to uncover her mother’s secrets – is about to discover so much more. Among the tranquil waters and cosy tavernas, Methoni’s locals offer Sophie the answers she craves, along with unexpected romance and, if she’ll take it, a chance at her own happiness…

Will walking in her mother’s footsteps help Sophie discover who she was meant to be all along…?

The Dark by Sharon Bolton

The Dark takes after its name. A deeply dark thriller that will leave your heart pounding and your hand turning the page as quickly as possible. Out May 26th.

ONCE, SHE SAVED HIS LIFE…
NOW, HE’LL TAKE HERS.

When a baby is snatched from its pram and cast into the river Thames, off-duty police officer Lacey Flint is there to prevent disaster. But who would want to hurt a child?

DCI Mark Joesbury has been expecting this. Monitoring a complex network of dark web sites, Joesbury and his team have spotted a new terrorist threat from the extremist, women-hating, group known as ‘incels’ or ‘involuntary celibates.’ Joesbury’s team are trying to infiltrate the ring of power at its core, but the dark web is built for anonymity, and the incel army is vast.

Pressure builds when the team learn the snatched child was just the first in a series of violent attacks designed to terrorise women. Worse, the leaders of the movement seem to have singled out Lacey as the embodiment of everything they hate, placing her in terrible danger…

After Dark by Jayne Cowie. 

This book is so clever and timely. It is written so well and is so clever. Original and brilliant. Out May 12th.

WELCOME TO A WORLD WHERE WOMEN HOLD THE POWER.

They dominate workplaces, public spaces and government.

They are no longer afraid to cross a dark car park, catch the last train, or walk home alone.

With the Curfew law in place, all men are electronically tagged and must stay at home after 7pm.

It changed things for the better. Until now.

A woman is murdered late at night and evidence suggests she knew her attacker.

It couldn’t have been a man because a Curfew tag is a solid alibi… Isn’t it?

Glimpses by Pat Fowle. 

A clever idea well executed. Stories on a colourful life well lived.

Most of one’s life is not always memorable. I spent a fair amount of my past just chasing the wind, however, I can recall certain events, some of which I will share. I’ll stick to glimpses.

This is what could be described as a fragmented autobiography; a story told through noteworthy events that have occurred during a colourful life.

Some are mystical, some inexplicable. Short stories that involve humour, but most of all love, like threads of gold that run through a lifetime.

Five Days Missing by Caroline Corcoran

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It takes a brave author to tackle a difficult subject, and a mother leaving her newborn baby is certainly one of those. I was intrigued to find out how the author would make this book work. All I have to say is: wow. Five Days Missing flows perfectly with not a word out of place.Just when you think you know exactly what is happening another layer is peeled away.

The characters are all fascinating and believable. I loved most of them. I raced through this novel and enjoyed every page. It’s a masterclass of a psychological thriller. I am going to have to insist that you read it.
five days missing, caroline Corcoran

Having a baby is all about firsts. The first touch. The first kiss. The first cuddle. They mark a lifetime of firsts – including the first goodbye.

 

When Romilly says goodbye to her new baby daughter, abandoning her at the hospital hours after giving birth, no one can understand why she would leave – and where she has gone.

 

In those first few hours she had been the image of a doting mother and would have done anything to protect her baby.

Something has clearly gone wrong. Could it be that Romilly is suffering from postpartum psychosis, just as her mother did?

 

Or is something even worse at hand? A danger so grave that she would leave her longed-for daughter to escape it…

 

Caroline Corcoran’s first novel, Through The Wall, came out in October 2019. It was a Sunday Times top 20 bestseller and translated into numerous foreign languages. Her second book, The Baby Group, published in September 2020. As well as writing books, Caroline is a freelance lifestyle and popular culture journalist who has written and edited for most of the top magazines, newspapers and websites in the UK.

Out now.

12 Hours to Say I Love You Book Review

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12 hours to say I love youWritten by married couple Olivia Poulet and Laurence Dobiesz, 12 Hours to Say I Love You is an original, beautiful and completely perfect love story. As you read this story of Pippa and Steve you fall in love with them as they fall in love with each other.

Pippa is lying in a coma as Steve talks to her, willing her to come back to him after a traffic accident. The concept is clever and delivered with aplomb. Stunning stuff. I loved it.

 

TWO PEOPLE. ONE LOVE STORY. TWELVE HOURS TO TELL IT…

Gripping, moving and beautifully observed, this is a love story told from both sides, with warmth, tenderness and heart.

Whir, beep, click, breath. Whir, beep, click, breath.

Pippa Gallagher is rushed in to hospital following a traffic accident.

As Pippa lies unconscious, she is aware of fragments. The day she met Steve Gallagher, her best friend and the man who would become the love of her life. The heartbreak she felt tonight as she got into her car, her eyes blurry from tears.

Meanwhile Steve sits at her bedside, his eyes fixed on her pale, still face. He has no idea where his wife was going when she crashed. No clue as to why she became distracted behind the wheel. All he knows is that she is his world. And that he wasn’t there when she needed him most.

For the next twelve hours, Steve tells Pippa all the reasons he loves her.

But is it too late? Can Pippa find her way back to him?

Here’s what early readers are saying about 12 HOURS TO SAY I LOVE YOU:

12 Hours to Say I Love You is available here.

 

One Step Too Far by Lisa Gardner Book Review

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Any regular readers of Frost will know that I love Lisa Gardner. She is one of my favourite writers. I was unbelievably excited when book two in her new Frankie Elkin series arrived. Don’t let that put you off if you haven’t read the first one though, this works as a stand alone. I also loved the growth of Frankie in this book and I was left excited for what she would do next.

It is hard to think what is not in this book: it has everything you want in a crime thriller, and then a whole lot more stuff you didn’t even know you did. When a young man disappears into the woods on his stag do he leaves behind a trail of grief and guilt. He leaves no traces behind, so where did he go? It is up to ex-alcoholic Frankie Elkin to find him, with a group that includes his friends from his stag do, and his grieving father. What’s happens next grabs you by the throat and refuses to let go.

My biggest hope is that the Frankie Elkin series gets made into a TV series sometime soon. It’s what we all deserve.

one step too far by Lisa Gardner book review

If he never left the woods, where did he go?

A young man disappears during a stag weekend in the woods. Years later, he’s still missing.

But his friends who were with him that day are still searching for him. Still hunting for answers.

They hike deep into the wilderness.

With them is missing person specialist Frankie Elkin.

What they don’t know is that they are putting their own lives in terrifying danger, and may not come back alive . . .

One Step Too Far is available here.

Top Books of 2021: A List of Brilliance.

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top books of 2021It’s that time of year where I try to whittle down all of the amazing books I have read into a short(ish) list. Each one is an essential read. So here goes…

Shiver by Allie Reynolds.

The Serial Killer’s wife by Alice Hunter.

Ahead of Her Time by Judy Piatkus.

The Garfield Conspiracy by Owen Dwyer.

Just Haven’t Met You Yet by Sophie Cousens.

Snow Country by Sebastian Faulks.

The Receptionist by Kate Myles.

The Perfect Marriage by Adam Mitzner.

Her Last Breathe by Hilary David.

Animal by Lisa Taddeo.

The Devil’s Advocate by Steve Cavanagh.

Water Memory by Daniel Pyne.

Autopsy by Patricia Cornwell.

Wild Girls By Phoebe Morgan.

One August Night by Victoria Hislop.

A Narrow Door by Joanne Harris.

Before She Disappeared by Lisa Gardner.

Perfect Timing by Owen Nicholls.

Magpie by Elizabeth Day.

Look What You Made Me Do by Nikki Smith.

Safe And Sound by Philippa East.

Perfect On Paper by Gillian Harvey.

A Poet  For Every Day of The Year by Allie Esiri.

And one for 2022: The Patient by Jane Shemilt.

Frost editor Jane Cable chooses Claire Dyer’s Yield and Polly Heron’s The Surplus Girls’ Orphans as her books of the year.

What would you add?

Murder at the Bailey by Henry Milner Book Review

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muder at the baileyThis is a brilliant and believable novel due to the author being one of the UK’s top criminal lawyers. Gorgeously entertaining. A fantastic debut from a new rising star.

A notorious loan shark is shot dead, in broad daylight, right outside the front doors of the Old Bailey. The killer is arrested at the scene and Adrian Stanford is lined up to take on the toughest defence case of his career. Can he steer his client past the no-nonsense Detective Chief Superintendent ‘Iron-Rod’ Stokes, hell-bent on achieving a murder conviction in his last case before retirement? That’s assuming he can keep his client alive in prison long enough for the trial to go ahead. Can his illustrious defence QC, Patrick ‘The Edge’ Gorman, swerve the case past the acerbic judge known to all as Mack the Knife, whose own resolve is being tested to the limit by an adulterous wife? And why is London underworld numero uno Big Jake Davenport showing such a keen interest in the proceedings?

A wickedly eccentric cast of brilliantly drawn characters populate this daring debut from one of Britain’s top criminal defence lawyers. Dripping with sparkling dialogue and delicious wit, Murder at the Bailey is a masterly picaresque romp through the courtrooms, custody suites and London restaurants graced by the cognoscenti.

Murder at the Bailey is available here.

 

The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly Book Review

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The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly Book Review

I always get excited when a new Michael Connolly book arrives. I also love the characters Renée Ballard and Harry Bosch. As a team they are brilliant and so interesting. The Dark Hours is a tightly-wound thriller which reaches an explosive and satisfying ending. Another triumph for Michael Connolly.

A brazen and methodical killer strikes on New Year’s Eve and LAPD Detective Renée Ballard and Harry Bosch must join forces to find justice for the victim in a city scarred by fear and social unrest, in the new thriller from the #1 Sunday Times bestseller Michael Connelly.

There’s chaos in Hollywood at the end of the New Year’s Eve countdown. Working her graveyard shift, LAPD Detective Renée Ballard waits out the traditional rain of lead as hundreds of revellers shoot their guns into the air. Only minutes after midnight, Ballard is called to a scene where a hardworking auto shop owner has been fatally hit by a bullet in the middle of a crowded street party.

Ballard quickly concludes that the deadly bullet could not have fallen from the sky and that it is linked to another unsolved murder – a case at one time worked by Detective Harry Bosch. At the same time, Ballard hunts a fiendish pair of serial rapists, the Midnight Men, who have been terrorizing women and leaving no trace.

Determined to solve both cases, Ballard feels like she is constantly running uphill in a police department indelibly changed by the pandemic and recent social unrest. It is a department so hampered by inertia and low morale that Ballard must go outside to the one detective she can count on: Harry Bosch. But as the two inexorable detectives work together to find out where old and new cases intersect, they must constantly look over their shoulders. The brutal predators they are tracking are ready to kill to keep their secrets hidden.

The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly is available here.

 

The Garfield Conspiracy by Owen Dwyer Book Review

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I have to admit, I thought The Garfield Conspiracy sounded weird. I did not think it would be a good book. More fool me because: wow. What a masterpiece. This is a blisteringly original novel, filled with glorious prose that you want to file away in your memory bank and fascinating historical facts. It’s a modern novel haunted with ghosts from the past. This novel is intelligent and thought-provoking. Give your brain a fun workout and read some Owen Dwyer. Just perfection.

the Garfield conspiracy , owen dwyer

A burnt-out writer is visited by the characters he is researching while writing a book about the mysterious assassination of US President James Garfield.

Richard Todd, an award-winning writer, is outwardly successful but inwardly plagued by uncertainties. Worst of all, he can’t seem to write any more. When a bright young editor, Jenny Lambe, arrives on his doorstep to work with him on his latest book, about the assassination of US president James Garfield, his life is sent spinning off in a new direction.

 

President Garfield was killed by Charles Guiteau, who was tried and hanged for the murder. But was he acting alone, in July 1881, or was there a more sinister force at work? Richard hears Guiteau’s voice in his head, and as his relationship with Jenny deepens, he is visited by other characters from the assassination drama – including Garfield himself, his Secretary of State James Blaine, Republican senator Roscoe Conkling, Conkling’s mistress Kate Chase Sprague, and the investigating police officer, Detective McElfresh. Are they helping Richard to solve the mystery surrounding Garfield’s murder – or pushing him further towards the edge?

 

A remarkable, disturbing portrait of a middle-aged man torn between his carefully constructed life and new adventures which may beckon, in the present and the past, from one of Ireland’s most exciting emerging authors, and based on original research into a little-known period in US history.

 

 

About the Author

 

Owen Dwyer is a prize-winning short-story writer who has won the Hennessy Emerging Fiction Prize, the Silver Quill (twice), the Smiling Politely Very Very Short Story competition, the South Tipperary County Council Short Story competition and the Biscuit Fiction Prize, and has had stories published in Whispers and Shouts magazine. His previous novel, Number Games, was published to glowing reviews by Liberties Press in 2019, and follows The Cherry-picker (2012) and The Agitator (2004). Owen lives in Dublin with his wife and their three children.

The Garfield conspiracy is available here.