[BOOK REVIEW] The Good Ones by Polly Stewart @harperbooks @pollystew #TheGoodOnes

The cover of this book is so eye-catching, wouldn’t you agree? Yes, that’s what caught my attention first, then having read the blurb I knew that this was the type of book I would like to read. Having read the book now, I appreciate the cover more because it’s not just there to be pretty. Well done, book designer and author!

The Good Ones is about Nicola Bennett who, after nearly twenty years, comes back to her Appalachian hometown to finally shed some light on the disappearance of her friend Lauren Ballard. Lauren mysteriously vanished one night and the last time Nicola saw her was when she was keying someone’s car. The next day, she was gone, there were traces of blood and signs of struggle. Nicola believes that going back to her hometown and getting a job there will help her uncover more information relating to her friend’s sudden disappearance.

“What choice did you have, after all, when the person who had stood at the center of your sense of self wasn’t there anymore? You grew around that loss like a tree wrapped in barbed wire. You let it bite into you. You shaped yourself to the new reality, until it was hard to tell what was you and what was the hole she’d left.”

What I found to be most interesting when it comes to The Good Ones was the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Lauren and how we got to see the main character investigate many possible leads and explanations as to what might have happened to her because it lead the reader to many interesting possibilities. The book being set in a small town provides the author with tools to go in-depth when it comes to examining the characters and what role they play in it. I feel like the author did a good job when it comes to showing us each character and their role in the book. Our main protagonist Nicola is a character one doesn’t sympathize with very much (at least in my case), I found her willingness to find out the truth to be more about herself rather than truly getting the answers she was looking for and putting the whole story to rest. When it comes to certain twists, I have to say that I enjoyed them, although some were very predictable and they made me want to yell at the main character, I was pleasantly surprised by other twists though. The author knows how to write and create an engaging story which I find to be very important in these kinds of books. What surprised me was the ending! Although I had a feeling that something wasn’t right in my judgement, I was pleasantly surprised by the last twenty pages!

“It was always a surprise how vulnerable people were in sleep, even the ones who showed you almost nothing of themselves during the daylight hours.”

The Good Ones has everything I look for in a mystery novel and I found it to be completely enjoyable! If you’re someone who likes reading thriller/mystery books I’d recommend adding this one to your TBR!

I would like to thank the publisher (Harper Books) for providing me with an advance reader’s copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions reflected in this review are my own and aren’t influenced by the fact that I got this book for free from the publisher.

The Good Ones by Polly Stewart comes out on June 6th 2023 from Harper Books

My rating:

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Polly Stewart is the author of The Good Ones, forthcoming from Harper Books in June 2023. As Mary Stewart Atwell, she’s also the author of Wild Girls (Scribner 2012). Her essays have appeared in the New York Times and Poets & Writers, among other publications. She runs the Craft of Crime Fiction interview series, formerly published on Fiction Writers Review and now appearing on Instagram.

Find her on: Website, Goodreads and Twitter.

[BOOK REVIEW] You Can’t Stay Here Forever by Katherine Lin @harperbooks #YouCantStayHereForever

You Can’t Stay Here Forever has a striking cover, the gorgeous colours, the photograph of a person diving into a pool and that stunning view from the pool – that’s evident, and yes that’s what first attracted me to this book. After taking a look at the cover I then went on to read the synopsis and found it to sound like something I’d enjoy reading. If you’re wondering, yes I did enjoy reading You Can’t Stay Here Forever but I also had certain issues with it.

You Can’t Stay Here Forever is about Eleanor Huang who goes by Ellie, an attorney at a prestigious law firm in San Francisco. When Ellie suddenly becomes a widow and on top of that finds out that her husband had a mistress, her reality begins to blur. Crashing in on her late husband’s insurance policy, she books a three week stay at a luxurious hotel called Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes, France (google it, it looks so fabulous and mesmerizing) with her best-friend Mable Chou. Coming to Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc Ellie believes that she’ll be able to find balance and escape the craziness that she left in the U.S. but she’ll soon realise that moving oneself from one place to another won’t resolve any issues. This vacation will influence her and shape the course of her future.

The novel deals with a story that is interesting but slow-paced in a way, hence why people who are looking for a book that has more dynamics will be left unsatisfied. It’s more of a psychological study of a character rather than a novel that’s plot driven. While reading You Can’t Stay Here Forever, I could tell that the author was a debut author but I have to say that Katherine Lin has talent, certain passages and observations written in the novel left me speechless. Especially the following one:

‘At some point it became clear to me that we weren’t exactly hanging out together, more that I was following her around and she let me. I felt like an observer to her life, and almost felt compelled to take notes, as if I were a ghostwriter on assignment.’

I felt like the character of Ellie Huang was the most fleshed out in the book out of all the characters and I found her to be interesting – with flaws as well as virtues. Her decision making was somewhat questionable at times. When it comes to the side characters, specifically Fauna and Robbie, I have to say that they felt one-dimensional, they had no depth to them other than the perception that Ellie and Mable had of them. I didn’t find them to be as interesting as Ellie and Mable did. The progression of Ellie’s story was something I was interested in the most because I was rooting for her to make the best decisions and deal with real-life. Something I found to be touching was the friendship between Ellie and Mable because the author showcased the many layers that a friendship has – from the falling out, to the not-talking, to reconciliation. Their friendship was the beacon of the book, in my opinion, it was something that provided the reader with many observations about how a friendship works and how individuals connect with each other. The book touches on the topic of race, Ellie being an Asian-American woman and Ian being a white American man, married to each other, and it approaches it in a real way, it showcases the issues that are set in reality. The last hundred pages of the book I didn’t find to be convincing because of how unreal I felt they were but mostly because of the pace, the fast realisation of the main character was something that felt unrealistic to me. I feel like the author could’ve spent more times fleshing that part out because it would’ve been more cohesive.

I feel like a rating of 3.5 stars is something I find to be realistic for this novel because of the issues I stumbled upon while reading it, but that doesn’t devalue the book as a whole because I’ve enjoyed my experience with the book. I’m curious to read other people’s opinions on the book and will follow upcoming reviews.

I would like to thank the publisher (Harper Books) for providing me with an advance reader’s copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions reflected in this review are my own and aren’t influenced by the fact that I got this book for free from the publisher.

You Can’t Stay Here Forever by Katherine Lin comes out on June 13th 2023 from Harper Books

My rating:

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Katherine Lin is an attorney and writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area and a graduate of Northwestern University and Stanford Law School. You Can’t Stay Here Forever is her debut novel.

Find her on: Website, Goodreads and Instagram.

[BOOK REVIEW] Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn #SharpObjects

I watched the TV mini series back when it came out in 2018 and was just floored by it! I found it to be so enjoyable and captivating! I bought a paperback copy of Sharp Objects a few years back and have postponed reading because of I don’t know why but I’m glad I picked it up and read it now! I have to say that the mini series is quite close to the book so kudos to Flynn for getting involved with it and providing the readers with what we deserve.

Sharp Objects follows Camille Preaker, a reporter for a small newspaper press in Chicago called The Daily Post. Her first assignment is to investigate the strange murders of pre-teen girls that happened in Wind Gap, a town she grew up in. Camille is reluctant to take the assignment but knows very well that she can’t say no so she goes in – but going in means reconnecting with her strange mother Adora and her step-father Alan as well as seeing her step-sister Amma who she doesn’t know well at all. Visiting Wind Gap won’t be easy for Camille because it’ll open up old wounds and might even open new ones… will she be able to overcome her past and focus on the task she’s been assigned to or will the past catch up with her and influence her investigations?

Flynn is someone whose writing I love and whose mind I find to be so fascinating. She comes up with great and complex female characters and stories. I just loved reading Gone Girl and was amazed at how someone could write such a good thriller that makes the reader gasp and be speechless. I’m so glad I read Sharp Objects because once again Flynn showcases her crafting skills and comes up with such interesting, flawed and complex characters. I found all the characters to be very well-written especially Camille, Adora and Amma. I wanted to learn more about the latter two because I found their psyche to be something so fascinating. Although the book was 400 pages I wished she gave us more of a backstory involving certain characters because that would’ve been even more enjoyable and fun. The book is very dark and it won’t be for everyone because it involves certain trigger warnings such as cutting, mutilation and more. I don’t wish to discuss this book further because of potential spoilers hence why I’ll leave you with this: for anyone who enjoys reading good psychological thrillers and mystery books this one is for you.

Sharp Objects is a fantastic thriller featuring very complex and unlikable characters that’ll make you read-on until you get to the very end and then wish for more.

My rating:

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Gillian Flynn is an American author and television critic for Entertainment Weekly. She has so far written three novels, Sharp Objects, for which she won the 2007 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for the best thriller; Dark Places; and her best-selling third novel Gone Girl.

Her book has received wide praise, including from authors such as Stephen King. The dark plot revolves around a serial killer in a Missouri town, and the reporter who has returned from Chicago to cover the event. Themes include dysfunctional families,violence and self-harm.

In 2007 the novel was shortlisted for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar for Best First Novel by an American Writer, Crime Writers’ Association Duncan Lawrie, CWA New Blood and Ian Fleming Steel Daggers, winning in the last two categories.

Flynn, who lives in Chicago, grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. She graduated at the University of Kansas, and qualified for a Master’s degree from Northwestern University..

Find her on: Website, Goodreads and Twitter.

[BOOK REVIEW] My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell #MyDarkVanessa

The more I mull over this novel and think back on my experience with it I’m struck by the wrongness of my rating hence the change from 4 to 5 stars. Having previously read Putney (see my review here) I felt the urge to (re)read My Dark Vanessa after it, in order to see how the two works relate to each other and to provide a long due review for MDV. I have to admit that my experience with MDV felt more intimate but I don’t wish to undermine the importance of Putney because it was such an important novel.

My Dark Vanessa follows Vanessa Wye, a fourteen/fifteen year old girl who becomes involved in a sexual relationship with a much older English teacher (eighteen-year difference between the two) Jacob Strane at a boarding school she’s enrolled in. Almost two decades later Jacob is accused of sexual abuse by a former student of his but Vanessa’s perception of that subject and of her relationship with Jacob is quite different. Vanessa becomes conflicted, begins questioning what’s right and what’s wrong because her experience with him didn’t involve sexual abuse, did it?

So, Kate Elizabeth Russell can write! I never felt a dull moment while I read the book because everything was connected to the larger plot points. What I really appreciated was the depth the story had. What I felt lacking in Putney was what I found in MDV and that is the slow realisation of things happening to the main character. Yes, Putney had three characters and MDV had one but I still wished for Putney’s main character (Daphne) to have that deep introspection when it came to the realisation that abuse had taken place. I absolutely loved how Putney had three characters because we got more POVs and more details and I sort of wish MDV had Jacob’s perspective at least (although we got to see the speculation behind his behaviour). Both novels feature very dark, heavy themes and are very interesting in their own ways so I’m glad that I read them both (one after the other). Going back to MDV, Vanessa’s character was very multi-layered and real – from her teenage, rebellious teens to her slightly older thirties. Her problems and dilemmas were realistic (in my opinion) and added complexity to her character. It was interesting seeing the relationship between Vanessa and Jacob through her (V) eyes because I became so invested in her story and wished to help her. I don’t wish to discuss the book further because I feel like I’ll ruin the experience to the future reader. This novel, as well as Putney, is very heavy in its themes and subject matter but also very important. Stories like these are real and need to be told.

If you’re an individual who is interested in the heavier novels that deal with important topics such as sexual abuse, mental health issues and much more then this (and Putney) is the book you’ll want to add to your TBR and read.

I would like to thank the publisher (4th Estate) for providing me with a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and weren’t influenced by the fact that I got this book from the publisher.

Have you read this book? Does it intrigue you? Please, let me know down below in the comment section.

My rating:

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Kate Elizabeth Russell was born and raised in eastern Maine. She holds an MFA from Indiana University and a PhD from the University of Kansas. My Dark Vanessa is her debut novel.

Find her on: Website and Goodreads.

[BOOK REVIEW] Putney by Sofka Zinovieff #Putney

The story centers around Ralph Boyd a gifted composer who upon being asked by a famous novelist Edmund Greenslay to score his most famous work becomes invited into Greenslay’s world where he meets Edmund’s nine-year old daughter Daphne and becomes infatuated with her. What ensues is a dark, twisted relationship and complex bond between Ralph and Daphne. We also meet Ralph when he approaches his seventies and Daphne in her fifties who looks back on her time with him and starts to realise what happened was far from innocent. Within the story we have a third voice, the voice of Jane, Daphne’s best friend whose role in the book gives us more insight into the psychological effects of the complexity of this relationship.

Putney is a gorgeously written novel, Zinovieff can write! I just love how she described things in the book. She’s definitely a skilled writer. Putney is a dark tale, a spine-chilling one when you look back on it. She doesn’t shy away from delving deep into the complexity of the relationship between Ralph and Daphne. I enjoyed how she gave Ralph flaws and issues of his own instead of just presenting him as a straight-up abuser (which he is). The whole story had depth that I look for in novels that deal with such intricate and hard subjects. My issues with the book might be spoiler hence why I won’t share them but I’ll say that certain small portions of the novel weren’t believable to me, the sudden change of opinions/realisations of things. I wished they were fleshed out better. Zinovieff does a great job at describing the atmosphere, I especially enjoyed reading about Greece. I feel like this story was told very well and that this book should be read by everyone interested in this subject matter, it’s just so important. The author doesn’t as mentioned before shy away from dealing with hard topics such as r*pe, abu** and I think that’s very important because it challenges the reader and makes them think.

If you’re interested in the subject matter this book deals with I’d urge you to get a copy of this book and read it because it’s important and well-written.

I would like to thank the publisher (Bloomsbury UK) for providing me with a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and weren’t influenced by the fact that I got this book from the publisher.

My rating:

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Sofka spent most of her childhood living in London, where her father, Peter Zinovieff, had an electronic music studio (EMS). Visitors to the house during the 1960s and ‘70s included composers and musicians as diverse as Harrison Birtwistle and Pink Floyd. Both her paternal grandparents were from St Petersburg and escaped to England after the 1917 revolution. She was named after her Russian grandmother, the subject of Red Princess: A Revolutionary Life.

After attending schools in London and Oxford, Sofka studied social anthropology at Cambridge. She carried out research for her PhD in Greece, which marked the beginning of a lifelong involvement with the country. She later lived in Moscow and Rome, where she worked as a freelance journalist.

Sofka is the author of five books, the latest of which is Putney (hardback 2018, paperback 2019): ‘Lolita in reverse: a novel for the #MeToo age which addresses the minefield of sexual consent.’

She is married, has two daughters and lives between Athens and London.

Find her on: Website, Goodreads and Twitter.

[BOOK REVIEW] The Children’s Crusade by Ann Packer #TheChildrensCrusade

Compared to my previous read Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler this book had more depth and more meat. I also don’t get the low ratings and reviews but some reviews make a good point – still, in my opinion, I feel like this is a solid family saga novel.

The book follows the Blair family, four siblings: Robert, Rebecca, Ryan and James but also the parents: Bill and Penny (it’s mostly focused on the children but it has many interactions with the parents because we follow the children from a very young age). Now, you know there’s going to be drama because the last kid isn’t named with a letter R!! I’m kidding but not really. The novel deals with issues which are real such as sibling rivalry, attachment, detachment, jealousy, distant parents… The synopsis on Goodreads does a good job of giving you the skinny of the novel. The novel is an interesting exploration of a family with many layers in it from the above mentioned sibling rivalry, to the jealousy, distancing from the parents, damaged relationships etc. Every time I sat down to read I read around 80-100 pages in one sitting because of how invested I became in the story. Let’s discuss what I found the book was lacking: explanations, certain scenes which would help give the reader even more depth in regards to the ways certain characters felt towards one another. Having set the story where there’s a psychiatrist and two doctors in the family I expected more complexity when it comes to the intra and interpersonal relationships. I wish the author gave us more context rather than leaving us wondering about what might’ve caused this reaction and this scene. Maybe that’s me being lazy because I know some people love to wonder and analyse but I’d rather have more complexity inside the novel so I could analyse the characters better.

Issues aside I felt like this novel did a nice job in following the family saga rule: provide the reader with many years/decades and many situations where we can see the family interact and see the family grow in many ways (those are my rules at least). I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the story and in the genre.

My rating:

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***I am in no way compensated by these sites. I am simply sharing it so people can find this book easier.

Ann Packer was born in Stanford, California, in 1959, and grew up near Stanford University, where her parents were professors. She attended Yale University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has received fellowships from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, the Michener-Copernicus Society, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

She is the acclaimed author of two collections of short fiction, Swim Back to Me and Mendocino and Other Stories, and three bestselling novels, The Children’s Crusade, Songs Without Words, and The Dive from Clausen’s Pier, which received the Kate Chopin Literary Award, among many other prizes and honors. Her short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker and in the O. Henry Prize Stories anthologies, and her novels have been published around the world.

Beginning in 2016, Ann expanded her writing into film and TV, collaborating on these projects with her husband, the novelist and screenwriter Rafael Yglesias. They divide their time between New York, the Bay Area, and Maine.

Find her on: Website, Goodreads and Twitter.

[BOOK REVIEW] The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo @ClaireLombardo #TheMostFunWeEverHad

There’s something about family dramas/dysfunctional families that immediately catches my attention but even so I’m very picky because I prefer family dramas set during a longer period of time because I feel like they cover more ground and get more precise or dissect the family better. The Most Fun We Ever Had was that book, it ticked all of the boxes for me. Family life in itself isn’t that much fun but adding to it the ‘getting into the psyche of the characters’, discussing certain topics over decades is what makes it fascinating (at least to me). The Most Fun We Ever Had offers so much brain food with the topics it discusses (familial bonds, affairs, adoption etc) and that’s what I appreciated a lot.

The story revolves around Marilyn and David Sorenson and their four children. It goes from the present (2010s+) where we get to see an ‘arrival of a newcomer’ to the past (1970s+) where we get the story of Marilyn and David. The way Lombardo switches from past to present is gorgeous, she manages to keep us in the loop on all happenings which I appreciated while reading. The way Lombardo writes about siblings is so accurate and fascinating. While reading I highlighted many quotes and my copy is filled with sticky notes. The perception of children is something I was surprised to see in the book whilst reading and it’s something I loved because oftentimes we’re oblivious to how much information children absorb and how much of that information stays with them like a scar, etched in their brain. The main topic of the novel is love. Sibling love, spousal love, parental love. It all stems from Marilyn and David and it was so interesting reading about how their daughters lives are followed by their love. Each one is aware that Marilyn and David are something else, something special, that their love is something special. Their daughters are Wendy, a widow and a bit of a drunk, Liza, an educator who’s pregnant but not sure if the man she’s with is the right one, Violet, a retired litigator who has a new role as a housewife with two boys and Grace, a college-aged youngest daughter who hasn’t been telling the truth to her family. Lombardo presents the reader with a lot of information but does it in a way that isn’t overwhelming because you find yourself wanting to know that information, even more than what you’re presented with.

The novel as a whole works beautifully and presents the Sorensons in all their glory – their failures, hopes and more. I couldn’t stay away from the Sorensons because I always wanted to know more, to get another peek at their lives.

This review is a bit of a mess I believe so moral of the story – read it! If you love family dramas this is a MUST READ.

My rating:

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**I am in no way compensated by these sites. I am simply sharing it so people can find this book easier.

Claire Lombardo is a fiction writer, teacher, and Post-It enthusiast. Her debut novel, The Most Fun We Ever Had, was released in June 2019 and debuted on the New York Times Bestseller List. It has been translated or is forthcoming in over a dozen languages, and is currently being adapted for a series on HBO with Laura Dern and Amy Adams co-producing and Lombardo writing.

Claire is a 2017 graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and has been the recipient of an Iowa Arts Fellowship, a Sun Valley Writers’ Conference Fellowship, and a Key West Literary Seminar Scholarship. She has taught fiction writing at the University of Iowa and the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio. Her short fiction has appeared in or is forthcoming from, among others, Playboy, Barrelhouse Magazine, Little Fiction, and Longform. Her short story, “I Only Want to Talk About the Nice Things,” was one of 2016’s Best of the Net, and was #1 on Longform‘s 2015 fiction list.

Find her on: Website, Goodreads and Twitter.

[BOOK REVIEW] Schrödinger’s Dog by Martin Dumont transl. John Cullen @otherpress

Schrödinger’s Dog is Martin Dumont’s debut novel. Told in first person it follows Yanis, a cabdriver, who is a single parent to Pierre. In the early days when Pierre was younger his dad used to take him everywhere in his taxi and they had fun together – but the one thing they both love most  is diving. Their mutual love for diving is something they both come back to even now when Pierre is in his twenties. Yanis mostly works nights as a cabdriver so that he can have time to see his son during the day. Pierre has friends, he goes out and Yanis can’t always watch him carefully. Yanis and Pierre are great divers, Pierre (because of his age) is even better than Yanis and can last longer underwater. One day when diving Pierre complains that his back hurts and that they should stop – this is worrisome to Yanis because Pierre never complains when it comes to diving. From this moment on, Pierre begins to get worse and ends up in hospital. Yanis does his best to help his son, but at what cost?

Schrödinger’s Dog is a short book but a powerful one. The writing style in it is gorgeous so kudos to the translator! The chapters are relatively short so you can definitely read it in a few hours but the story inside is quite sad. I found Yanis to be so dedicated to helping his son and I loved that about him. I feel like his actions could be justified because if a person is brought into that situation they’d always do things to make their loved ones feel better. I really loved hearing Yanis talk about the times spent together with his son as well as Yanis’ descriptions of what diving means to him, how it transports him. Ah, that ending…

Definitely recommend.

I would like to thank the publisher (Other Press) for providing me with a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and weren’t influenced by the fact that I got this book from the publisher.

My rating:

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Martin Dumont was born in Paris in 1988 and spent many years in Brittany, where he fell in love with the sea. In addition to writing, he works as a naval architect. Schrödinger’s Dog is his first novel.

John Cullen is the translator of many books from Spanish, French, German, and Italian, including Susanna Tamaro’s Follow Your Heart, Philippe Claudel’s Brodeck, Carla Guelfenbein’s In the Distance with You, Juli Zeh’s Empty Hearts, Patrick Modiano’s Villa Triste, and Kamel Daoud’s The Meursault Investigation. He lives on the Shoreline in southern Connecticut.

[BOOK EXTRACT] None the Wiser (Detective Mark Turpin #1) by Rachel Amphlett @rachelamphlett

Hello everyone! This is a new segment where I post a spotlight of a book and share an extract of it. I’ve been asked by the lovely author to share an extract which I expected gladly because I know many of you enjoy reading her books and love mystery/thriller books as well. This is the first book in the Detective Mark Turpin series. I hope you enjoy the extract!

EXTRACT

None the Wiser

(Detective Mark Turpin, book 1)

© Rachel Amphlett

Chapter 1

Seamus Carter dropped to his knees.

His voice was little more than a murmur, rising and falling with the rhythm of the prayer.

Exhaustion threatened, and he tried to take strength from the subtext, a momentary sense of calm easing the guilt that had gnawed away at him for days.He kept his eyes closed in meditation a while longer, savouring the tentative peace that enveloped him.

No-one would disturb him.

He was alone – the pub that stood on the other side of the boundary wall with his church had a live band playing tonight. He had heard the thumping bass line as he had been praying, and none of his parishioners were likely to visit at this time of night.

Easing himself from a kneeling position, he genuflected as he gazed up at the wooden crucifix above the altar, and then bowed his head in a final, silent prayer.

Seamus blinked, his trance-like state leaving him as soon as he moved away from the altar.

Despite his efforts, the self-loathing remained, and he scowled.

It wasn’t meant to be like this.

He stomped along the aisle towards the vestry, reached into his pocket for a bubble pack of antacids, then popped and swallowed two.

His thoughts turned to the Sunday morning service, and the uplifting sermon he wasstruggling to write.

The events of the previous week had shaken him, and he needed to excuse his fear.

Addressing the congregation would be a tincture, a way to soothe the wound that had been opened.

Crossing the remaining length of the nave, he pushed through the door to his office and sank into the hard wooden chair at his desk. It faced the wall, a plain wooden cross above his head.

The room had no windows, which he preferred. The setting enabled him to meditate upon his words as he crafted carefully phrased sentences to spread the word of his God.

He tapped the trackpad on the laptop, and, as the screen blinked to life, he manoeuvred the cursor over the music app, selected a compilation of violin sonatas, and closed his eyes as the music washed over him.

He smiled.

Two years ago, the church cleaner had entered the room and emitted a sharp, shocked gasp at the loud trance music emanating from the computer. After he’d calmed her and tried to convince her that, often, his best sermons were written at one hundred and twenty beats per minute, she’d continued with her dusting, although she’d eyed him warily. He’d resisted the urge to educate her musical tastes further with the progressive rock of 1970s Pink Floyd.

Seamus read through the words he had typed an hour ago, and frowned. He deleted the last sentence, cracked his knuckles and then stabbed two fingers at the keyboard in an attempt to convey the thoughts that troubled him.

Perhaps in sharing his own foibles, he would find retribution.

The stack of paperwork at his elbow fluttered as a cold breeze slapped against the back of his neck, and he rubbed the skin, his eyes never leaving the screen.

He would check all the doors and windows before leaving tonight, but now he had found his flow, the sermon was almost complete.

A shuffling noise reached his ears before he became aware of someone standing behind him, a moment before a rope snaked around his neck.

Seamus lashed out in fear, shoving the chair backwards. Terror gripped him as the noose grew taut.

A gloved hand slapped his right ear, sending shards of pain into his skull, and he cried out in pain as his assailant moved into view.

Black mask, black sweatshirt, black jeans.

‘There’s money in the box in the filing cabinet over there. My wallet is in my trouser pocket.’

Before he could recover from the shock, his right wrist was fastened to the arm of the chair with a plastic tie.

His left fist flailed, then Seamus cried out as he was punched in the balls, all the air rushing from his lungs in one anguished gasp.

He panted as his left wrist was secured to the chair, and tried to focus his thoughts.

‘What do you want?’

The words dried on his lips as he heard the warble in his rasping voice, the unsteadiness that betrayed the lie.

Eyes glared at him from slits within a black hood, but no words came.

Instead, the figure moved behind him.

Bile rose in his throat as the rope tightened under his Adam’s apple.

‘Help!’

His cry was instinctive, desperate – and useless.

Restricted by the rope around his neck, his voice was little more than a croak, broken and shattered.

He twisted in his seat, nostrils flaring as he tugged at the ties that bound his wrists to the arms of the chair.

He couldn’t move.

He gagged, struggling to swallow.

Without warning, the rope jerked, forcing his chin towards the ceiling and burning his throat.

A single tear rolled over his cheek as a wetness formed between his legs, heat rising to his face while his attacker crouched at the back of the chair, securing the rope.

He had known it would come to this, one day.

The figure said nothing, and edged around his body, peering into his eyes before raising a knife to Seamus’s face.

A gloved hand gripped his jaw, forcing his mouth open as the priest panted for air.

The blade traced around each eye socket, millimetres away from his face.

I don’t want to die.

His eyes bulged as the knife moved to his cheek, his plea little more than a whimper.

Seamus gagged at the rope cutting into his neck, fighting against the pressure in his lungs.

I can’t breathe.

A searing pain tore into his tongue, slicing through sinew and tendons before the knife flashed in front of his eyes, blood dripping from the blade, and, as Seamus’s body convulsed, the figure before him began to speak.

‘Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned…’

What do you think of it? Let me know below in the comments!

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Before turning to writing, Rachel Amphlett played guitar in bands, worked as a film extra and freelanced in radio as a presenter and producer for the BBC. She now wields a pen instead of a plectrum and is a USA Todaybestselling author of crime fiction and spy thrillers, many of which have been translated worldwide. A keen traveller, Rachel holds both EU and Australian citizenship.

Find her on: Website, Twitter and Goodreads.

[BOOK EXTRACT] The Only Living Witness by by Stephen G. Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth #TheOnlyLivingWitness @TheMirrorBooks

Today is my blog tour stop for The Only Living Witness. I was supposed to be posting a review but due to my current health issues I’m not able to do so. I think that I’m cursed when it comes to blog tours! Something always happens or comes up..

I’m providing you with an extract of the book so you can get a little taste of what’s inside!

Chapter Two

 

No one seemed to notice that he was different, not like other children. His Aunt Julia would later report some scary episodes with knives, but otherwise he looked and acted like any other kid. He believed in Santa Claus, hated vegetables, and some-times-imagined ogres and scaly things crouching in his closet, waiting for night to fall.

But he was haunted by something else: a fear, a doubt – sometimes only a vague uneasiness – that inhabited his mind with the subtlety of a cat. He felt it for years and years, but he didn’t recognize it for what it was until much later. By then this flaw, the rip in his psyche, had become the locus of a cold homicidal rage.

He was born to a prim, modest department store clerk, the eldest of three daughters in the family of a Philadelphia nurseryman. Her story has always been that in 1946, fresh out of high school, she was seduced by Jack Worthington, a rakish veteran of the recent war, who hinted to her of an old-money pedigree. At least that’s what she claimed. Much later, family members would express open doubts about this story, directing a defense psychiatrist’s attention to Louise’s violent, possibly deranged, father, Samuel Cowell.

Whatever the truth, Louise was pregnant in an era not congenial to single young women in such a predicament. Nor was she insulated from her problem by family means. She braved her way through the first seven months of her term, before traveling north to the Elizabeth Lund Home for Unwed Mothers in Burlington, Vermont. On November 24, 1946, she gave birth to her love child. Louise called him Theodore. She had always liked that name.

Just before his fourth birthday, Teddy and his mother left Philadelphia to join her uncle and his family in Tacoma, Washington. Ted told us that the move upset him. Either as a deliberate falsehood, or due to some trick of memory, he described his early days in Philadelphia as an idyll, saying he loved his grandfather Cowell and the comfortable old house where the family all lived together. He said he didn’t understand why he and Louise had to go live with great-uncle Jack, why Louise needed to get away, to start a new life. In light of what the family would later disclose, Ted’s recall becomes a mystery in itself.

He hated Tacoma at first. After Philadelphia, the Puget Sound mill town seemed raw and impermanent to him – just a jumble of ugly brown and gray buildings on a hillside jutting out into the frigid salt water of Puget Sound. Ted would outgrow his initial distaste for his new home, but he never got over an arrogant disdain for anything he regarded as common. This attitude was linked to how he felt about himself, his deep self-doubt, and also to his later conviction that life had wronged him.

Jack Cowell was only a few years older than his niece, Louise, and Teddy always called him uncle. A music professor at Tacoma’s College of Puget Sound, Uncle Jack was a man of both accomplishment and refinement. His gleaming dark piano, the classical music that filled the house, his air of cultivation, drew Teddy to him. Early on, he decided to pattern himself on Uncle Jack.

Louise went to work as a secretary at the Council of Churches office in downtown Tacoma. There she was befriended by a female coworker who coaxed the tentative newcomer into attending young adult nights at the First Methodist Church. One evening, Louise was introduced to John Culpepper Bundy, known as Johnnie, a soft-spoken native North Carolinian who recently had mustered out of the Navy in nearby Bremerton.

Johnnie’s drawl made him seem a little slow, a serious drawback as far Teddy would be concerned. He was unlettered, and his prospects in life were those of a modest southern country boy. With his Navy hitch over, Johnnie had decided to stay in the northwest. He found a job as a cook in a Veterans Administration hospital a few miles south of Tacoma. It turned out to be his life’s work.

From the start, Johnnie and Louise saw something special in each other. Johnnie was steady and uncomplicated, and he fulfilled Louise’s first and ultimate requirement by accepting both her and her son. She was also drawn to his mild disposition, although her son Teddy would later learn the consequences of provoking his quiet stepfather.

For Johnnie, Louise was a gentle, God-fearing woman whose history began on the night they met. He didn’t ask questions, and Louise did not go into details. From what Ted told us of his boyhood, he seems to have tried to block Johnnie, the interloper, from his mind. Clearly, Johnnie’s presence upset him. Ted remembered staging a scene in a Sears store parking lot and wetting his pants. He conceded that this tantrum and others probably were a result of his jealousy over Louise, and his fear that Johnnie’s advent would further disrupt his world.

Louise miscarried the summer following her May 1951 marriage to Johnnie. Then a daughter, Linda, was born in the last part of 1952. Here was another confusing mystery for Teddy. He didn’t know where babies came from or how they were made. But he knew it had something to do with Johnnie, and he believed throughout his entire life that Louise suffered a good deal at Linda’s birth. According to his mother, however, the pregnancy was uneventful.

Ted also told us that it was around this time that his parents broke him of the habit of crawling into bed with them when he grew frightened in the middle of the night.

The earliest evidence of Ted’s behavior outside the family comes from his first grade teacher, Mrs. Oyster. According to Louise, Teddy was very fond of Mrs. Oyster. On his report card, the teacher wrote Louise that Teddy grasped the numbers 1 through 20, knew the meaning of 100, was at ease before the class, and expressed himself well. Ted told us he was “unset-tled” when Mrs. Oyster left to have a baby and was replaced by a substitute teacher.

What do you think of it? Let me know below in the comments!

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Add ‘The Only Living Witness‘ to your TBR:  

*Purchase ‘The Only Living Witness‘ here:

*Purchase ‘The Only Living Witness‘ with free international delivery here:

**I am in no way compensated by these sites. I am simply sharing it so people can find this book easier.

Stephen G. Michaud has written extensively on criminal justice topics. His previous books include Lethal Shadow, a study of sexual sadism, and The Only Living Witness, an acclaimed portrait of serial killer Ted Bundy that the New York Daily News listed as one of the ten best true-crime books ever.

Four-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, bureau chief of both Newsweek and the Washington Times, and investigative team leader for ABC’s 20/20, Hugh Aynesworth was a thirty-two-year-old reporter for the Dallas Morning News when JFK’s visit to Dallas ended in tragedy. His coverage of the assassination, the trial of Jack Ruby, and the conspiracy flurry that followed earned him two Pulitzer nominations and recognition as one of the most respected authorities on the Kennedy assassination.