#5Books: Book recs and yeah, Winter is here

It’s a cold snap really, with snow about a month early, so it’s bloody cold and we’ve officially seen the last of our very long summer.

ALAS.

In other news, I hope everyone else is starting to enjoy some warm weather wherever you are!

It’s been a quiet week over here, thank goodness, and I must admit to finding a whole lot of upcoming books I think I might enjoy. Is it a slow season or something and nobody told me?

Open Your Eyes

Haven’t we all wanted to pretend everything’s perfectly fine? Jane Campbell avoids confrontation at all costs. Given the choice, she’ll always let her husband, Leon–a bestselling thriller author–fight their battles. She’d prefer to focus on the good things in life: precious days with her two young children, a steady and loving marriage, their mischievously playful cat Bonita, and her fulfilling job as a creative writing teacher. In Jane’s eyes, life is altogether sweeter than any individual bump in the road.

But when Leon suffers a brutal attack in the driveway of their home, in front of their children, Jane has to finally face reality. Who would commit such a hateful offense in broad daylight? Leon has imagined his fair share of crime on the page, and now this unthinkable violence has landed on the Campbell family doorstep. With her husband in a coma, Jane must open her eyes to the problems in her life, as well as the secrets that have been kept from her. Although she might not like what she sees, if she’s committed to discovering who hurt her husband–and why–Jane needs to take matters into her own hands.

A surprising and gripping thriller of literary ambition and envy, from acclaimed novelist Paula Daly, Open Your Eyes exposes an ordinary suburban family to a shocking act of revenge that irreparably changes their lives. 

Most days Jane is me – I’d rather avoid confrontation. But, this sounds like she might’ve been wilfully blind maybe and now has to face reality — but what is that reality? What is Leon involved in?

Dark Sacred Night 

LAPD Detective Renée Ballard teams up with Harry Bosch in the new thriller from #1 NYT bestselling author Michael Connelly.

Renée Ballard is working the night beat again, and returns to Hollywood Station in the early hours only to find a stranger rifling through old file cabinets. The intruder is retired detective Harry Bosch, working a cold case that has gotten under his skin. Ballard kicks him out, but then checks into the case herself and it brings a deep tug of empathy and anger.

Bosch is investigating the death of fifteen-year-old Daisy Clayton, a runaway on the streets of Hollywood who was brutally murdered and her body left in a dumpster like so much trash. Now, Ballard joins forces with Bosch to find out what happened to Daisy and finally bring her killer to justice.

Harry Bosch is one of those long-running series I always planned to get into but am slightly intimidated by the series. But after reading the first Renee Ballard book, this combo? I can totally work with!

What My Sister Knew

“Psychological suspense doesn’t come much grittier or more packed with satisfying twists and turns.” -Meg Gardiner, Edgar Award-winning author, on Girl Last Seen

We’re not just siblings; we’re twins. We’re supposed to be able to read each other’s thoughts. Although Eli is a few minutes younger, he always seemed older, always one step ahead.

It turns out that Eli kept many secrets. And he told many lies. So although he was once seen as the golden child-while I stood by as the silent sister-his web of deception led to a guilty verdict for the arson that killed our parents.

Now his thirteen-year sentence has been served, and Eli is free. But we are still bound by a secret. Which is dangerous because he has nothing left to lose, and I have everything.

Well, yeah, that’s creepy. Obviously, the question is their secret – I half think he took the fall for his sister, but also, isn’t it interesting that the title is “What my sister knew” as if Eli is the narrator, but it’s his sister that’s narrating the blurb anyway.

Under my Skin

Live and Let Fry

For Cass Tuplin, proprietor of the Rusty Bore Takeaway (and definitely not an unlicensed private investigator), it’s weird enough that her neighbour Vern has somehow acquired a lady friend. But then he asks Cass to look into the case of the dead rats someone’s dumped on Joanne’s doorstep.

She’s barely started when Joanne goes missing, leaving hints of an unsavoury past. Then a private investigator from Melbourne turns up asking questions about Joanne’s involvement in a fatal house fire—and before you can say ‘unauthorised investigation’ Cass is back on the case.

‘Sue Williams is Australia’s answer to New Jersey’s Janet Evanovich.’ NZ Listener 
‘Finely wrought and highly amusing…a wonderful new series in the comedy crime genre.’ Australian

This may be the third in the series, but I can’t tell how you how excited I was to find a cozy, set in Australia in a fish and chips shop, which I swear is a staple here of suburbs! Cass sounds delightful, and this third one oh so good!

In Her Bones

Fifteen years ago, Lilith Wade was arrested for the brutal murder of six women. After a death row conviction, media frenzy, and the release of an unauthorized biography, her thirty-year-old daughter Edie Beckett is just trying to survive out of the spotlight. She’s a recovering alcoholic with a dead-end city job and an unhealthy codependent relationship with her brother.

Edie also has a disturbing secret: a growing obsession with the families of Lilith’s victims. She’s desperate to see how they’ve managed—or failed—to move on. While her escalating fixation is a problem, she’s careful to keep her distance. That is, until she crosses a line and a man is found murdered.

Edie quickly becomes the prime suspect—and while she can’t remember everything that happened the night of the murder, she’d surely remember killing someone. With the detective who arrested her mother hot on her trail, Edie goes into hiding. She’s must get to the truth of what happened that night before the police—or the real killer—find her.

Unless, of course, she has more in common with her mother than she’s willing to admit…

Perfect for fans of Ruth Ware, In Her Bones features Moretti’s “riveting and insightful” (Megan Miranda, New York Times bestselling author) prose and “chillingly satisfying” (Publishers Weekly) twists, and will leave you questioning the nature of guilt, obsession, and the toxicity of familial ties.

Chills! This is a wildly different perspective to other novels in the genre – in fact, do we see female characters who have killed like Lilith has? I almost wish this is Edie killing like her mother did if only because it’d put the psychological in psychological thriller!

That’s it for me! I hope evryone had a wonderful — and warm — weekend!