Fire in the Thatch by E C R Lorac

This classic mystery murder is slightly different to the other books found in the series. The murder was more complicated than most and what seemed like an accident was then deemed to be not. To find a motive and to unravel the mystery took some doing and it was this that set this story apart.

Set in beautiful countryside, very descriptive and sounding very "English" this story epitomizes country living - especially farm living. It also depicts the insular ways of established country folk who really do not like weekenders and town folk aping them in anyway! The murder apart the story of the farmers and the community who made up this little part of Devon.

When the cottage goes up in flames killing the occupant in the process it affects many people especially since Nicholas despite not being from Devon, was much admired  in the manner he worked and his sincerity to make a success of the farm he leased. Inspector Macdonald has a very convoluted mystery murder to solve. He has an instinct as to the underlying reason why Nicholas was killed but to connect the dots takes a lot of dogged police procedure (which was very well done).

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of Poisoned Pen Press.

The Good Liar by Catherine McKenzie

A complicated story, told in several narratives all beginning with an explosion in a building in Chicago which claimed over 500 lives.

What happens when something like this occurs is immense. The immediate tragedy is evident. The loss, the grief. Then comes the practicalities of life which involve those left behind. How do wives cope with untold secrets, of untold financial burdens, of marital secrets slowly unraveling.

The stories of the women left behind by this Chicago tragedy are complicated. They are also linked in unimaginable ways. Whilst slowly unraveling you do know where this is going, but the end is totally, absolutely unexpected.

Done with flair, handling emotions so very well this author is brilliant.

Sent to me by Netgalley, for an unbiased review courtesy of Lake Union Publishing.

Before and Again by Barbara Delinsky

Mackenzie Cooper is now Maggie Reid. She has tried and been very successful in remaking her life after a disastrous accident took away the life of her child whilst she was driving. The grief following this accident destroyed her marriage and she and Edward are now divorced. Maggie lives a very structured life, alone but settled well into this small community where she is liked with a few friends who have no inkling of her previous life.

Edward buying a Inn and moving into this small town will definitely upset Maggie. On top of it all, she feels her brother has turned traitor when she discovers he is the new chef at the Inn joining her ex husband in this new endeavour. However what really turns Maggie's world upside down is when her colleague's son Chris just fifteen years old is caught hacking into the computers of not just the Inn but of customers of the Inn and now faces federal prison. The ensuing publicity, media frenzy that descends on this town fills Maggie with foreboding as she knows it is only a matter of time when people start connecting the dots and discovering who she is. Someone with a past and a record.

The story though it is about Maggie and Edward mainly also chronicles the life of Grace and Chris - the boy at the middle of the hacking saga, with a lot of secrets that Grace wants kept hidden. How the two stories interact though totally disconnected from each other and how it evolves is very well done.

Friendship, small town support (and gossip) all keep the story going and the love story binding Maggie and Edward is a plus.

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of St. Martins Press.

The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda

It seems perfectly plausible that a person can reinvent themselves (only in America!). In my country they would have sussed out from where you came, who your parents were, what did your brother do and even find out what school you went to very early. I doubt you'd get away with this here.

The story fascinated me. Leah has ended a troubled relationship. She has been friends with Emmy over a very long time. Emmy invites her to rural Pennsylvania and for Leah this is ideal. She can make a new start and hopefully the past will remain in the past. Her teaching position in the local school is without any problems and Leah hopes that she can fast track her career in this way baby steps at a time.

When Emmy disappears and Leah is forced to inform the local police about her friends absence things turn tricky for Leah. For one, there is no one who can corroborate Emmy's presence. There is no paper trail, no identity, no bills and when Emmy's boyfriend turns up murdered the police turn skeptical as to whether someone like Emmy actually existed and whether  it is a figment of Leah's imagination. Leah's history does not help either.

It is left to Leah herself to try to find out what happened to her friend and what she discovers is a body blow as it is obvious that Emmy pursued her purely to steal her identity to make a new life for herself. How she did it was ingenious, convoluted and mind boggling.

Apart from the main characters of Leah and Emmy, everyone in this story has something to hide and in a small town, this is not easy. Unraveling the murders, solving them and finding Emmy was more than enough for this story.

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of

Paris Ever After by K S R Burns

Amy goes to Paris, leaving a husband behind without saying a word. The ability and ease with which she did this took my breath away. Can one just walk away from a husband, home, job, and just jet off to Paris to "find oneself".

Anyway Amy does just that. She lands on her feet, finds a beautiful woman who takes her into her home and heart, links up with her friends and has now made a life for herself. She also did not realize when she left Will her husband that she was pregnant. Now she is well advanced in her pregnancy, still not sure what she is going to do, ambivalent about her feelings towards Will and Manu (whom she found in Paris!) protective of her unborn child and basically not sure of anything.

Fast forward and she discovers Will has come to Paris looking for her. At the same time she is thrown out of her home in Paris with the return of a long lost daughter who does not want her anywhere around her mother. Will seems strangely reluctant to have any conversations with her, keeps putting it off even meeting her and though she thought he was back to ask her to return (on bended knee) it does not seem to be quite so straightforward.

I found all the characters very charming in very different ways. I found Amy to be the least charming of the lot. She sounds like a spoilt brat who expected things to fall into place, the way she wanted it to. I however loved the descriptiveness of the entire story, the Paris setting, the lives and details of the few Parisiens who dotted this novel.

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of Velvet Morning Press.

The Girl with no Name by Lisa Regan

This is the second book in the series of Josie Quinn Police Chief of this small town and maybe I should have read the first one, though after a couple of chapters it did not detract from this story.

Josie has faced problems in the past. Her husband, now dead. Now Josie is confronted with a missing fiancee (who has been over the last few weeks been totally distracted), a missing baby, a dancer at a strip club badly beaten with connections to Josie's fiancee and a girl wearing her fiancee's clothes caught fleeing a scene of a crime with total memory class, pretend or otherwise.

Every link or lead does not necessarily lead to the next lead and with pressure to solve the crimes, especially when the bodies start piling up and with the Mayor's husband being an active suspect, Josie is also in danger of losing her job even before she solves the case, finds her missing fiancee Luke and sort out her own personal problems.

Very slick, quick paced, and descriptive this had all the key elements for a good mystery murder.

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of Bookouuture. 

Us Against You by Fredrik Backman

This should not have been a book I picked up. I do not know anything about ice hockey and the paranoia almost that surrounded the game in this small town of Beartown was not something I could understand!

Having said that, the petty jealousies, the envy and finally the strong emotions that tie people down to a town, a thing or in this case to a sport was hard for me to understand. The town was overshadowed by the sport and the whole book is about how the sport controlled everyone's lives, their attitudes and how they wanted things to work out. That money was involved was obvious but the sport overshadowed it all.

That pranks and minor jealousies could erupt into this with one person dead is quite imaginable but the story did not do anything very much for me. It was almost a DNF but I plodded on. I get books with a lot of difficulty and I appreciate that publishers send them on to us, so I think it is an obligation to give it a fair go.

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of Atria Books.