September was a good and nicely varied reading month. I finished one series and started a new one. I read a fascinating book about the origins of words and customs associated with Christmas, a thriller everybody appears to be raving about, and two Dutch titles. As I said a varied month.

PROBLEM AT POLLENSA BAY AND OTHER STORIES by Agatha Christie (4*)

Two stories each featuring Parker Pine, Hercule Poirot, and Harley Quin as well as two stand-alone stories that aren’t mysteries. A thoroughly enjoyable collection. Having said that, I would advise dog lovers to steer clear of the story titled Next to a Dog.

 WORDS CHRISTMAS GAVE US by Grace Tierney (5*) NF

More than just a Christmas-themed lexicon, Words Christmas Gave Us is also a well-written, easy-to-read, and captivating work of non-fiction. Some words, such as gizzard and the aforementioned salmangundi, were new to me while I also found myself learning more about words and customs I considered myself familiar with. For a longer review please click on the link: https://helenasheat.blogspot.com/2024/09/words-christmas-gave-us-by-grace-tierney.html

 WE SOLVE MURDERS (We Solve Murders #1) by Richard Osman (5+*)

Take one private security officer thriving on danger (Amy Wheeler), a retired cop enjoying a very quiet life (Steve Wheeler), and a best-selling author up for just about anything (Rosie D’Antonio), throw in dead bodies, bags filled with money, and a death-threat or two, and you may well find yourself on a caper taking you from the New Forest to Dubai via South Carolina and Ireland.

Richard Osman has done it again. He’s created another madcap adventure featuring fascinating and captivating MCs and filled it with a lot of heart and some inspiring pearls of wisdom. Now I find myself desperately waiting for both the next Thursday Murder Club book and the sequel to this gem.

 DE COCK IN HET KORT (4 short stories) by A.C. Baantjer (4*)

There are only 46 pages in this bonus publication. What makes them special that they were all written by Baantjer in himself and not by Peter Römer who has taken over de De Cock series twenty titles ago. The four stories are fun and original with the fourth one being extra special since it is a meeting between De Cock and Baantjer, his creator.

 THE COMFORT OF GHOSTS (Maisie Dobbs #18) by Jacqueline Winspear (4+)

The latest and last title in the series set in the immediate aftermath of WW II sees Maisie Dobbs/Scott deal with several of the consequences of that conflict as well as some ghosts from her personal past while also focussing on the future and the way ahead for her and those she loves. Or, to quote the last sentence of the book:

“In that moment, she felt lighter, leaving the past behind, as if Fate had asked her to take one final look across the landscape of years, before turning her head towards the future and the building of a new house.”

 THE ONLY ONE LEFT by Riley Sager (4*)

A severely disabled woman suspected of having murdered her family decades earlier decides to tell her story to her troubled live-in caregiver, one typed letter at a time. As her story and the plot thicken the house where it all happened, Hope’s End, crumbles. A real page-turner but also a reminder of why I’m not a huge fan of thrillers. In order to really enjoy a book, I need to understand the MC(s) and in most thrillers, as in this one, the choices they make and the way in which they behave are too far-fetched for me to become fully invested in the story.

 DE COCK EN DE MOORD OP AFSPRAAK (De Cock #95) by Peter Römer (4*).

The title of this Dutch mystery translates as: De Cock and the Murder By Appointment.

A producer of a popular television programme is murdered in his apartment and a short time later a gossip reporter is strangled in a movie theatre. The two, apparently unconnected, cases bring De Cock face to face with the world of showbiz and for a long time, he’s like a fish out of water. As always a wonderful cozy police procedural set in Amsterdam. What’s not to love?

A Recipe for Murder by G.S. Revel Burroughs

330 pages

Publisher: Mr. E. Entertainment

Release Date: September 5, 2024

 

Blurb

“You lot are bloody crime writers. If anyone can get away with murder, it would be one of you.”

 An invitation to Burnham Manor, home of celebrity chef, television presenter and bestselling crime writer Max Wilde, is the pinnacle of a crime novelist’s career. This year’s guests include Sanjay Chakrabati, India’s pre-eminent crime writer; Margaret Hemshaw, author of many bodice-ripping 17th Century crime tales; Sydney Fletch, a young rising star in the crime world and Gareth Sebastian Black, a self-published phenomenon. Also on the guest list is former Detective Inspector Jack Finney, famous for solving the Painswick Poisoning case.

This year’s annual gathering has an extraordinary twist….

On the menu this year will be the deliciously deadly Fugu, carefully prepared by a celebrated Japanese chef. Those who partake of this starter will be hoping that it doesn’t contain any of the poison, tetrodotoxin, one of the world's deadliest toxins.

Or perhaps the guests would enjoy a Soupçon of Suspicion or a serving of Murderous Mushrooms? Also on the menu is the deservedly entitled Poisoned Quail and a helping of Bella-doner kebab, made from some of the world’s finest ingredients, all washed down with a glass of Sparkling Cyanide.

But when Max Wilde is found dead in bed the following morning suspicion naturally falls on those present. But who slipped the inimitable Max Wilde a dose of Hemlock and why?

As the list of suspects increases the body count starts to rise…

 

Review

Max Wilde is the sort of man who seems to make a success of everything he turns his hand to. Celebrity chef, television presenter, and bestselling crime writer Max Wilde is about to hold his annual dinner party. Invited are four other successful crime writers as well as Max’s assistant and John Finney, a retired police detective-inspector. Even before they sit down to dinner it becomes clear that most guests at the dinner party have a reason to hate their host as does Gemma, Max’s assistant, and Robert, his brother.

Despite the menu on the night being murder themed with dishes named The Poisoned Quail, Red Herring, and Murderous Mushrooms accompanied by a bottle or two of Sparkling Cyanide it isn’t until the next morning that Max is found dead in his bed as a result of Hemlock poisoning. With almost everybody having both a motive and the opportunity to put the poison in the glass of water on Max’s bedside table, there are no easy answers. And while the police are on the case, the group of crime writers, led by John Finney, start their own investigation. But it won’t be until more deaths have followed that the culprit is unveiled in an action-packed finale.

This story is a bit of a slow burner. The book starts with introductions of the various characters followed by events on the night of the dinner party and it isn’t until we are about 40% into the story that Max is discovered dead in his bed and the investigation starts. In the hands of a lesser writer that relatively long introduction might have been boring, but I flew through it because all the characters are unique and interesting individuals. What’s more, as far as I can tell, this is the first book by G.S. Revel Burroughs, and I’m impressed. This is a clever, well-written, and captivating mystery. I enjoyed it from start to finish and found it difficult to put my Kindle down. The story is written from a third-person omniscient perspective, which isn’t easy to pull off but works remarkably well here. It was always clear whose head I was in and the transitions from one character to the next were smooth and flowed easily. Since among those characters is a murderer, we know that at least one of them has to be an unreliable narrator, but that only added to the reading fun for me.

Long review short: A Recipe For Murder is a special treat for anyone who enjoys a well-plotted mystery. I look forward to reading whatever G.S. Revel Burroughs may write next.

The Searcher by Tana French

Cal Hooper #1

391 pages

Publisher: Penguin/Viking

Publishing date: October 2020

 

Blurb

Cal Hooper thought a fixer-upper in a remote Irish village would be the perfect escape. After twenty-five years in the Chicago police force, and a bruising divorce, he just wants to build a new life in a pretty spot with a good pub where nothing much happens.

But then a local kid comes looking for his help. Trey’s brother has gone missing, and no one, least of all the police, seems to care. Cal wants nothing to do with any kind of investigation, but somehow he can’t make himself walk away.

Soon Cal will discover that even in the most idyllic small tow, secrets lie hidden, people aren’t always what they seem, and trouble can come calling at his door.

 

Review

To say this book has a slow start would be an understatement. The first quarter of the story leisurely meanders along. The reader is in Cal’s head as he reflects on his new life and surroundings in Ireland and what, and more importantly who, he left behind in America. The writing was beautiful, and Cal is an interesting main character, but the slow pace didn’t urge me to keep on reading. On the other hand, it is fair to say the story's pace perfectly matched the pace of the life Cal thought he was settling into.

Everything starts to change and speed up as soon as Cal meets Trey, a thirteen-year-old kid who wants Cal to use his police skills to find out what happened to their older brother who disappeared a few months earlier. Once Cal starts asking questions the story and events pick up speed, but it isn’t until the last third of the book that the tale really explodes off the page and events follow each other at a much faster, at times rather uncomfortable but always fascinating, pace.

So much for the story since I don’t want to spoil it for anyone. I have a few thoughts about what exactly did and didn’t happen in the end. For starters, if you read crime fiction because you love the straightforward endings in which evil gets punished and everybody gets what they deserve, this may not be the book for you. I think it’s safe to say there are no clear-cut good and bad people in this story with the possible exception of Lena, the widow Cal befriends and ends up relying on for assistance. While that may not be ideal for a fictional mystery, it does feel true to life. In fact, true to life could be used to describe a lot of what happened in this book. The way small local communities are inclined to distrust outsiders and, for better or worse, tend to take care of their own, for example, as well as the rural gossip, and the leisurely pace of life. I haven’t decided yet whether or not I believe Cal, the former cop, would behave as he does in this story; his actions should go against everything he was trained to believe in. On the other hand, any other decision on his part might have let to more harm rather than a ‘satisfying’ conclusion so the jury is still out in that respect.

In an interview with the All About Agatha podcast (https://open.spotify.com/episode/4Sl35ZwxlgtSNxOrnKWYXb), Tana French revealed that she took tropes from the Western genre and applied them to the west of Ireland, and as far as I’m concerned, she succeeded very well. This story has that ‘loner against the rest of the community’ (the old gunslinger who gets rocked out of retirement for one more mission, to paraphrase Tana French) vibe that we also find in traditional westerns as well as the ‘us against the rest of the world’ sentiments we often encounter in small, close-knit communities.

For a long time while reading this story, I didn’t think I would want to read the sequel. The last quarter of the story changed my mind; I now can’t wait to find out what will happen next to Cal, Trey, and Lena. Bring on March 2024 and The Hunter.

 

Shot With Crimson by Nicola Upson

#11 Josephine Tey Mysteries

352 pages

Publisher: Faber & Faber

Publishing date: November 2, 2023

 

Blurb

 I will never understand why murder is considered such a lowbrow speciality in Hollywood.

September, 1939, and the worries of war follow Josephine Tey to Hollywood, where a different sort of battle is raging on the set of Hitchcock's Rebecca.

Then a shocking act of violence reawakens the shadows of the past, with consequences on both sides of the Atlantic, and Josephine and DCI Archie Penrose find themselves on a trail leading back to the house that inspired a young Daphne du Maurier - a trail that echoes Rebecca's timeless themes of obsession, jealousy and murder.

 

Review

 “The sky above our heads was inky black. But the sky on the horizon was not dark at all. It was shot with crimson, like a splash of blood. And the ashes blew towards us with the salt wind from the sea.”

Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier

While I have to admit that I may have missed a title or two, I can honestly say that I have loved Nicola Upson’s Josephine Tey mysteries since I first read An Expert in Murder thirteen years (13!) ago. Right from the start I’ve loved Upson’s attention to detail, gentle voice, vivid descriptions, clever introduction of real historical figures, and perfectly plotted mysteries and Shot With Crimson was filled with all those qualities.

This isn’t the first Josephine Tey mystery featuring Alfred and Alma Hitchcock and fortunately, the first one, Fear in the Sunlight, is among the previous titles I have read (click the title for my thoughts on that book). The quote below, taken from that older review could have been written today for Shot With Crimson.

 In fact, there were times when I had to remind myself that I was reading a work of fiction featuring real historical figures. There is such detail in the descriptions in this story that it is quite possible to believe that all of it really happened.

Shot With Crimson starts with a prologue set in an English country house during WWI. The house is used as a hospital for wounded soldiers, and we are witness to a six-year-old Daphne du Maurier undertaking but not completing a task set by James, a medical orderly there.

Fast forward to the start of WWII and James is now a special effects artist working on Rebecca for Alfred Hitchcock. He is back at the estate where he worked two decades ago and discoveries about what happened then lead to him lashing out in the worst possible way.

When we meet James again, he is on his way back to America on the same boat as Josephine Tey who is on her way to visit her lover Martha in Hollywood. He is obviously distressed, and Josephine reaches out in the hope of calming him.

Meanwhile, back in England Josephine’s friend DCI Archie Penrose is sent to the country house to investigate the murder of a woman there.

Finding themselves on different sides of the Atlantic, Archie and Josephine are unaware that they are both dealing with the same case and, as they both dig deeper, the issue only becomes more complicated until it leads to its final, rather sad, conclusion.

For a long time, I thought this was the kind of story where the writer might have revealed too much information at the start of the book. Since I had read books by Nicola Upson before, I should have known better. Layer upon layer of secrets still waited to be exposed and absolutely nothing was quite as it seemed at first. In other words, this is a very cleverly plotted mystery.

Apart from Alfred Hitchcock, his wife Alma, and his daughter Pat, quite a few other famous people feature in this story: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, producer David O. Selznick, and du Maurier herself also make brief appearances. For film buffs, there was also quite a bit of detailed information about the making of a film in Hollywood in the late 1930s.

I loved the parallels between Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca and the mystery. They added to the sense of realism and were all too plausible. As I said before, I had to remind myself occasionally that what I was reading was fiction.

Overall, I loved this book. The plot fascinated me, the writing was smooth, the conversations flowed naturally, and the mystery was intriguing, leaving me truly baffled before providing a very satisfying, be it devasting solution.

My final thought is less related to the book than the times we live in. Given how long it takes to write a book, edit it, and get it published, there is no way Nicola Upson could have known how shockingly appropriate the quote below would be for the times and events we live through right now.

 We think we’ve learnt our lessons from the past, but we never really get beyond an eye for an eye.

 

Harlem After Midnight by Louise Hare

#2 Canary Club Mysteries

Publisher: HQ

Pages: 416

Release Date: September 14, 2023

Netgalley

 

Blurb

1936, September 17th, 1am…

In the middle of Harlem, in the dead of night, a woman falls from a second storey window. In her hand, she holds a passport and the name written on it is Lena Aldridge…

Nine days earlier…

Lena arrived in Harlem less than two weeks ago, full of hope for her burgeoning romance with Will Goodman, the handsome musician she met on board the Queen Mary. Will has arranged for Lena to stay with friends of his, and this will give her the chance to find out if their relationship is going anywhere. But there is another reason she's in Harlem – to find out what happened in 1908 to make her father flee to London.

As Lena's investigations progress, not only does she realise her father lied to her, but the man she’s falling too fast and too hard for has secrets of his own. And those secrets have put Lena in terrible danger…

 

Review

This book starts almost at the point where Miss Aldridge Regrets ended. For that reason alone, I recommend that you read these books in order. I’m not saying you can’t read this story as a stand-alone, but you’ll get a lot more out of it if you’re familiar with what has happened before. What’s more, events come full circle in Harlem After Midnight.

And while I’m on the subject of how this book starts; I hope you’re ready for a shocker. The first scene of the book features a young woman on a Harlem pavement. She appears to have fallen out of a window and is clutching Lena Aldridge’s passport. What on earth is going on?

Actually, it will take some (reading) time before you discover what happened in that prologue. The timeline of the story moves back nine days, and we join Lena after she has moved in with friends of her lover, Will. Over the next few days, we follow Lena as she tries to find out about her father’s life in New York before he travelled to London. At the same time, she tries to figure out what her future should look like. Does she return to London and her friend Maggie, as she originally planned, or could there be a future for her in America after all…a future with Will?

Slowly, through meeting his family and from stories told by his friends, Lena gets to know Will better and it isn’t long before she realises that Will has a few secrets in his past. Not that she can complain about that. It is not as if she has told him all her secrets either. But, over the nine days, the atmosphere around her goes from friendly and welcoming to fraught and a little hostile, although Lena has no idea why.

Things come to a head on the night of a party with a woman falling from the window of Will’s friends’ apartment and Will being the main suspect.

Since I try to avoid spoilers at all costs, that’s all I’ll say about the mystery. As for the story, it is just as fascinating as the prequel. Except that in this case there is more than one mystery from the start. While most of the story is told from Lena’s perspective and focusses on her stay in New York, other sections are set in 1908 and voiced by her father and one other character who will remain unidentified in this review.

I’m obviously not going to reveal how any of the mysteries in this story are resolved, but I do have thoughts I want to share about those resolutions. For starters, I found the resolution to the mystery of the fallen woman as dubious as the one in Miss Aldridge Regrets. The answer is provided and makes sense but whether or not you’d call it satisfactory depends on your personal opinion. As the word dubious implies, I remain to be convinced. Furthermore, while the reader finds out exactly why Lena’s father left New York for London, it is a little unclear whether or not Lena herself was aware of his ultimate goal. Then again, for her sake, I’m inclined to hope that she didn’t figure it all out.

Having said all of the above, the story did fascinate me. The setting, the characters, and the interactions between them grabbed my attention. The book is very well written, and my reading experience was smooth and enjoyable. While this book may not completely satisfy the mystery purists, I highly recommend it to readers who enjoy a combination of captivating characters, a rich historical setting, and enough intrigue to keep them on their toes.

I wonder if there will be more Lena Aldridge mysteries. While this book could easily be the end of her story, I wouldn’t be sorry if Louise Hare decides to feature her in future books. Reservations or not, Miss Aldridge has gotten under my skin.

 

 

 

 

Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare

Canary Club Mystery #1

404 pages

Publisher: HarperCollins

Library

 

Blurb

A nightclub singer with more than one secret hastily leaves London on The Queen Mary after her best friend's husband is murdered...only to discover that death has followed her onboard, in this thrilling locked-room mystery.

London, 1936. Lena Aldridge is wondering if life has passed her by. The dazzling theatre career she hoped for hasn’t worked out. Instead, she’s stuck singing in a sticky-floored basement club in Soho, and her married lover has just dumped her.

But Lena has always had a complicated life, one shrouded in mystery as a mixed-race girl passing for white in a city unforgiving of her true racial heritage. She has nothing to look forward to—until a stranger offers her the chance of a lifetime: a starring role on Broadway and a first-class ticket on the Queen Mary bound for New York.

After a murder at the club, the timing couldn’t be better, and Lena jumps at the chance to escape England. But when a fellow passenger is killed in a strikingly familiar way, Lena realizes that her greatest performance won't be for an audience, but for her life.

 

Review

My main reason for bringing this book home from the library, apart from the beautiful cover and the intriguing blurb, was that I had signed up on Netgalley to read and review the sequel. If at all possible, I much prefer to read my mystery series in the right order. While I can’t be sure until I read Harlem After Midnight, I’ve got a feeling that having already met Lena Aldridge when I start that book will stand me in good stead.

Lena Aldridge is a fascinating main character. She was raised by her musician father, who was black, and knows nothing about her mother except that she was white, which means that most of the time, Lena can ‘pass’. When the story starts, Lena’s father has recently died, she has broken up with her married lover, and she’s mostly disillusioned about her life and her job as a singer in a dingy nightclub. The club is owned by her best/only friend’s husband who has just announced that he wishes to divorce Maggie and leave her with nothing. When the husband is murdered in his club while Lena’s on stage, Lena’s life goes from uninspiring to outright frightening. Thankfully, Lena has a way of getting away from the madness because she has been made an amazing offer. An old friend of her father’s wants her to travel to New York to star in a Broadway production. The murder, and Lena’s uncertainty about what the consequences will be mean that she’s only too happy to leave London behind her and try for a new and brighter future on the other side of the Atlantic.

If you’re anything like me, you may wonder why a mostly streetwise woman like Lena would trust a stranger with an offer that sounds too good to be true. I pushed that niggle of doubt aside because being a possible accessory to murder might make most of us jumpy and prone to dodgy decision-making.

The crossing from England to New York should have been a time of rest and relaxation for Lena, but no amount of creature comforts makes up for the shock of having one of her fellow passengers dying in a way that is strikingly similar to the earlier murder in London. And that’s only the start of the violence on board.

I’m not going to say anything else about what happens next, except that if you are expecting a traditional mystery in which the main character investigates what’s going on, this isn’t quite that. While Lena does think about everything that happens, she doesn’t try to get to the bottom of it and the only reason she and the reader find out what did happen and why, is because the guilty party spells it out for her. I have to admit I didn’t see the solution coming, which for me is always a positive in a mystery.

I really liked this story. It gave me a smooth read and featured a fascinating character. Lena captured my interest right from the start. It’s great when the main character is multi-faceted, and boy are there a lot of sides to Lena, and not all of them are what you would call positive character traits. Which is of course what made her relatable and so much fun to read about. Since the story is told in Lena’s voice and from her perspective, we don’t get to know the other characters in this story as well, especially since she only spends a few days with them on the crossing to New York. And I have to say that most of the others felt a bit two-dimensional. Again, this is perfectly understandable given how the story is told, but it did mean I was less invested in what had happened to them or why.

And that brings me to my one ‘issue’ with this book. While I enjoyed reading the story whenever I picked the book up, the story never gripped me in such a way that I couldn’t wait to get back to it. There was none of the usual urgency I experience when I’m reading a mystery. Combine that with the fact that both the set-up and the solution, while original, felt a little far-fetched and you’ll understand why I rated it 3.5 stars. Having said that, I am looking forward to reading the sequel, Harlem After Midnight, soon because spending time with Lena Aldridge is unlikely to be boring.

Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent

 

364 pages

Publisher: Sandycove

Publishing Date:

Library

 

Blurb

Sally Diamond cannot understand why what she did was so strange. She was only doing what her father told her to do, to put him out with the rubbish when he died.

Now Sally is the centre of attention, not only from the hungry media and police detectives, but also a sinister voice from a past she cannot remember. As she begins to discover the horrors of her childhood, Sally steps into the world for the first time, making new friends and big decisions, and learning that people don't always mean what they say.

But who is the man observing Sally from the other side of the world? And why does her neighbour seem to be obsessed with her? Sally's trust issues are about to be severely challenged.

 

Review

This book comes with so many endorsements it’s almost scary. It’s obviously seen as a work of genius by a long list of authors, many of whom I love reading. Which means that if I don’t like this story there must be something wrong with me, right?

Well, on the upside, I didn’t dislike Strange Sally Diamond. It is an exquisitely written, fascinating, and compelling story. I’m in awe Liz Nugent’s mastery with words when it comes to portraying Sally and the other major players in this story. And I still haven’t figured out why this was such a smooth read when the subject matter is so very bleak and heartbreaking.

Because that’s the other side of the equation. No matter how much this story captivated me and how brilliantly Liz Nugent drew me into this story, there’s no getting away from the fact that it’s a bleak tale. What is more, there doesn’t appear to be anything resembling resolution, or justice. Even the tiny glimmer of hope provided when the book ends filled me with a renewed sense of horror.

I’m filled with admiration when it comes to characterisation. Sally and Paul are in many ways very similar but at the same time, they are almost exact opposites in every way imaginable. Where Sally takes everything at face value and doesn’t make or accept excuses, Paul manages to find an excuse for everything he does and everything that has happened to him. They each tell their part of the story. Both voices are compelling, and it is almost scary how easy it was to drift along on their words while they described horrific events and circumstances. I distinctly remember having the same reaction after I finished Unravelling Oliver.

To say I’m conflicted about this book doesn’t begin to cover it. As I said, it’s brilliant; faultlessly plotted, gorgeously written, and totally engrossing. I have no doubt I will be thinking about this story and the characters in it for quite some time. It’s just that, no matter how dark a story may be, I don’t like it when the ending of a book leaves me feeling down and hopeless. Because, while a lot happens in this book, I think it’s fair to say that none of the characters in it find resolution.

 

 

The Housekeepers by Alex Hay

  

320 pages

Publisher: Headline Review

Publishing Date: July 6, 2023

NetGalley

 

Blurb

The night of London's grandest ball, a bold group of women downstairs launch a daring revenge heist against Mayfair society in this dazzling historical novel about power, gender, and class.

Mrs. King is no ordinary housekeeper. Born into a world of con artists and thieves, she’s made herself respectable, running the grandest home in Mayfair. The place is packed with treasures, a glittering symbol of wealth and power, but dark secrets lurk in the shadows.

When Mrs. King is suddenly dismissed from her position, she recruits an eclectic group of women to join her in revenge: A black market queen out to settle her scores. An actress desperate for a magnificent part. A seamstress dreaming of a better life. And Mrs. King’s predecessor, with her own desire for vengeance.

Their plan? On the night of the house’s highly anticipated costume ball—set to be the most illustrious of the year—they will rob it of its every possession, right under the noses of the distinguished guests and their elusive heiress host. But there’s one thing Mrs. King wants even more than money: the truth. And she’ll run any risk to get it…

After all, one should never underestimate the women downstairs.

 

Review

I saw this book described as Downton Abbey meets Oceans 11 and that feels about right. What we have here is a clear case of ‘never underestimate the help’. The help has had it with the system and is planning to get their own back in what looks like an intriguing yet probably impossible heist.

The book starts with Mrs. King being fired from her job as a housekeeper in an opulent house on Park Lane, London. Rather than fall into despair or panic, Mrs. King has a plan and in order to execute it she needs help. Enter a varied group of women, some of whom have also worked in The House of de Vries and others who will find themselves working there while they work out the logistics of the planned heist.

And so begins a story that is about a lot more than ‘just’ the 'biggest heist of the century’ taking place during the ‘biggest costumed ball of the century’. In fact, we are halfway through the story before we reach the day of the heist. I’m not getting into what that ‘more’ is. The story shares details in small doses and at a leisurely pace, keeping the reader guessing exactly what is going on, how the various characters relate to each other, and if ‘getting revenge while getting rich quick’ is not the only motivation for Mrs. King and her co-conspirators.

The mystery in this book is not ‘whodunnit’. In fact, when the story starts nothing (obvious) has been done and the reader is a witness as the scheme is organised; seeing everything unfold through the eyes and thoughts of the characters. But there definitely are mysteries in this story, and the process of discovering what exactly is going on and why it is happening was fascinating and at times thought-provoking.

This was a well-written and brilliantly plotted story. I knew from early on that there had to be more to the story than the obvious and I loved how slowly but steadily layer after layer lifted to reveal secrets. The heist itself was just the right mix of suspense and over-the-top shenanigans. An original and compelling read!

HOSTILE GROUND

TITLE: HOSTILE GROUND

AUTHORS: L.A. WITT & ALEKSANDR VOINOV

Pages: 300

Date: 13/05/2014

Grade: 4.5

Details: Received from Riptide Publishing

             Through Love Romances and More

Own / Kindle

The blurb:

After the deaths of three undercover cops investigating a drug ring in a seedy strip club in Seattle, Detective Mahir Hussain has been sent to finish the job. He joins the club’s security team in the hopes of finding enough evidence to bust the operation before the men in charge find a reason to put him in a shallow grave.

To protect the strippers, only gay men can work the club. Ridley, the cold and intimidating head of security, knows exactly how to test potential new hires—including Mahir. From the minute they meet, Mahir and Ridley engage in a dangerous dance of sex and mind games. Mahir needs to find his evidence before Ridley figures out he’s a cop—and before they both grow too close to betray one another.

As the game goes on, Mahir burrows deeper into the operation, where he learns there’s much more happening than meets the eye . . . and why every cop who made it this far has been silenced with a bullet.

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My thoughts:

Talk about dropping your main character knee deep in shit. Mahir, a Seattle Detective, goes undercover in a strip club in the full knowledge that the three policemen who preceded him have been shot and killed. Because the owner of the club doesn’t want his security staff to interfere with the girls working there, Mahir’s first hurdle is the ‘gay-test’. Since Mahir is gay this isn’t a huge issue but the head of security investigating his credentials, Ridley, is one scary bastard. Which makes Mahir’s reaction to the test rather surprising. Rather than repulsed he finds himself excited and drawn to the man.

Mahir’s cover is well established and means he has to live away from his own house most of the time which makes the arrival of his teenage nephew a problem. The boy has left home after coming out to his mother and afraid of his father’s reaction. Since Mahir has had a fraught relationship with his brother ever since he came out, he understands the boy’s fears and allows him to stay even thought it means leaving him alone most of the time.

As a strange, potentially dangerous but compelling relationship with Ridley develops, Mahir has to balance the various balls he’s trying to keep in the air. If his cover is blown he’ll die, probably at the hand of the man he’s becoming ever more attracted to. A man who seems incapable of staying away from his as well.

With it being unclear exactly what the owner of the club is up to the investigation can’t be rushed while every single day undercover increases the risks for Mahir. And it isn’t long before Mahir isn’t the only person in mortal danger.

This was a fascinating book. It is both a thriller and a love story but it is so much more. The authors deal with a host of issues while never giving the reader the feeling that they’re being overwhelmed with them. Through Mahir’s nephew we get a look at the problem of coming out to parents who neither understand nor ‘approve of’ being gay. Mahir being a Muslim leads to the unavoidable issue of bullying and discrimination. Both issues are woven into the story in a meaningful yet unobtrusive way. Often, when an author wants to deal with an issue the reader gets beaten over the head with it. Not in this book. The issues were there but not only did they fit the story they were also dealt with in such a way that they made the reader think without taking them out of the main story-line.

I was fascinated by the transformation Mahir went through every time he had to become Saeed and couldn’t look away when his cover was put to the ultimate test.

I love it when authors have respect for their readers’ intelligence. I won’t say what, but I saw two plot developments coming quite early on in the story and half feared it would be dragged out until the final pages, as seems to be the standard these days. I’m very grateful it wasn’t and am convinced it made the story much better than it would have been if they’d gone for the more standard approach.

The relationship between Mahir and Ridley was intriguing as well as incredibly hot. I loved the smalls shifts in dominance between these two men and their inability to stay away from each other even though being together posed huge risks for both of them. Mahir falling for Ridley against his better judgment despite the dangers involved was breathtaking.

 “...dammit, but that was a smile tugging at the man’s lips. Butterflies in his stomach? More like a  horde of red-assed apes going berserk in there.”

I don’t know enough about Islam or being a Muslim to say whether or not that aspect of the story was dealt with in a realistic manner. What I can say is that I never questioned Mahir’s thoughts or actions or felt the need to double check something. All of it made sense and felt natural.

It is a joy to have authors you can turn to, secure in the knowledge you’re starting a well written story with fascinating characters and a captivating narrative. Aleksandr Voinov and L.A. Witt have turned into must read authors for me. I barely even glance at the blurbs for their books, because I know that I’ll love their words regardless of the story content. And, Hostile Ground only confirmed that idea for me. It was a thrilling page turner with enough love and sex to give the reader a breather from all the tension while the secondary characters all had a meaningful place in the story. In short this was a well-plotted, intriguing, hot and fascinating story written by two authors who have turned captivating their readers into an art form. This book comes highly recommended.