At twelve, my favorite thing to read were the tattered, dog-eared Ellery Queen, or Alfred Hitchcock Mystery magazines my aunt let me borrow. From there I read every Agatha Christie novel available, and so began a lifetime of reading British authors. I love suspense these days, and of course, every British detective series I can find to stream. To research my books I’ve traveled to Britain, and have visited with my cousins, my family never lost touch with, in Scotland and in Yorkshire. You’ve heard “write what you know”. I love to write what I love. That’s why I wrote Deadly Thyme set in Cornwall, England.
When Ruth Butler escaped Texas for a sleepy seaside village in the south of England, it was to rescue her infant daughter from the perverted demon she’d married. But after ten peaceful years in Perrins Point, her daughter Annie disappears. Not far away, a madman has been trying in vain to turn back time. When Ruth turns out to be a dead ringer for his mother, the voices in his head won’t leave him alone. The only way to silence his mother’s nagging is to kill her all over again...
Ruth must rely on her instincts and the ally she finds in Jon Graham, an undercover detective who’s in Cornwall on another matter. The trail leads from a faceless body in Annie’s clothes to a smuggler’s cave, where the killer drains his victim’s blood an ounce at a time. But he’s got a special purpose for little Annie. He is patient. He will wait until her mother comes to save her.
Wow, I discovered this book because I get the daily email of discounted books to read from bookbub.com. I rarely buy a book (because I have so many), but I couldn’t pass this one up. I’m glad I did buy it. I couldn’t put it down. The suspense doesn’t end from the first scene until the last scene. My title was British books, but I digress, because this one is set in Norway. I know this was an English translation, but it was so good, I relished the language used. I love stories where natural things are used for sinister purposes, and where little nursery rhymes are completely creepy. At the end, I was reminded of the Silence of the Lambs trilogy, though this book is not as bloody. It is worth getting. I guarantee.
I know that each of Peter James’ books could be read as standalone novels, but I do recommend reading them in order. Why? Because of the character development. DI Roy Grace has a wife who disappears without a trace in the first book. That plot doesn’t end, really, until #17. Every one of the Roy Grace stories is worth reading. In every one of them, I learn something new. They are set in the Brighton/Hove area of England, which is south of London and famous as a beach resort.
What is not known is that it has also always been a “den of thieves” the average citizen will never encounter. There are reoccurring thieves and murderers in the series that you won’t want to miss, for instance, the professional hitman who is bitten by a venomous spider, scorpion, and pit viper, but who lives to escape yet again by the next book, and the black widow, the woman who keeps the venomous creatures to kill her husbands for their money. And one character is a sweet dog.
*The brand new Roy Grace novel from Peter James - Picture You Dead - is available to pre-order now*
Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, creation of the CWA Diamond Dagger award-winning author Peter James, faces his most engrossing case yet in Left You Dead.
Niall and Eden Paternoster start their Sunday the same way they always do - with a long drive, a visit to a country house and a quick stop at the local supermarket on the way home.
But this Sunday ends differently - because while Niall waits and waits in the car park for Eden to pick up…
In A Litter of Bones, DCI Logan is sent to investigate a child’s disappearance and is suddenly thrown back to a previous case of a child disappearance and death he was involved in solving. The killer called Mr. Whispers is in prison, so why are children disappearing in the same manner as when he was out? Logan is perplexed. Can his small band of misfit detectives with Police Scotland handle the case? I haven’t read a suspenseful book that made me laugh out loud, and then cry a few pages later like this. The funny Scottish words, the author throws in occasionally like a wee delicious tidbit, were enough to set me laughing, too.
The series continues and still makes me laugh, while unable to turn pages fast enough to find out what happens next. Really, if you want a laugh while reading incredible suspense, you’re going to want to check out J.D. Kirk’s novels.
A missing child. A tormented detective. A ticking clock.
Ten years ago, DCI Jack Logan stopped the serial child-killer dubbed 'Mister Whisper, ' earning himself a commendation, a drinking problem, and a broken marriage in the process.
Now, he spends his days working in Glasgow's Major Investigations Team, and his nights reliving the horrors of what he saw.
And what he did.
When another child disappears a hundred miles north in the Highlands, Jack is sent to lead the investigation and bring the boy home.
But as similarities between the two cases grow, could it be that Jack caught the…
In this book, the author uses a new character Elvira (her character reappears in subsequent books) who leads the reader forward in the first person, a breakaway from the usual (close) third person in the other books in the series. Her voice is so clear, you can’t help but fall in love with her strange quirks. She is a medical student and trained in body combat. Elvira’s sister has been missing for 59 days and she can’t get the police interested enough to take her seriously. Her sister was an adult after all and left with a packed bag. Anderson and Costello eventually do get involved as more and more young women disappear.
The action in this novel is fast and furious. It left me breathless at times. I had to put the book down and walk away a few times near the end it was that intense.
Elvie McCulloch's sister Sophie has been missing for 57 days. She went out for a run - and never came home. Several young woman in the area have disappeared in similar circumstances, and Elvie's family fears the worst.
As Elvie is driving to her new job late at night, the naked, emaciated body of a young woman crashes from high above onto an oncoming car. Elvie recognises her as Lorna Lennox, who has been missing for weeks. But why was she up there? Where had she been all this time? And why was she running for her life?
In The Blackhouse set on the Isle of Lewis, some small islands north of Scotland. Honestly, I think I felt the bleakness and the cold reading this. DI Fin Macleod must return to his birthplace and confront all the demons he left behind. In the process, he discovers he has a son. He also discovers that if he hadn't gone back, he would never have known how much someone there wanted him dead. I love a good atmospheric novel and the use of place and weather as a character.
BOOK ONE IN THE MILLION-SELLING LEWIS TRILOGY. A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER. A RICHARD & JUDY PICK. WINNER OF THE USA'S BARRY AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL OF THE YEAR.
PETER MAY: THE MAN WHO BROUGHT MURDER TO THE OUTER HEBRIDES 'One of the best regarded crime series of recent years' Independent
A brutal killing takes place on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland: a land of harsh beauty and inhabitants of deep-rooted faith.
A MURDER
Detective Inspector Fin Macleod is sent from Edinburgh to investigate. For Lewis-born Macleod, the case represents a journey both home and into his past.
I am adopted. For most of my life, I didn’t identify as adopted. I shoved that away because of the shame I felt about being adopted and not truly fitting into my family. But then two things happened: I had my own biological children, the only two people I know to date to whom I am biologically related, and then shortly after my second daughter was born, my older sister, also an adoptee, died of a drug overdose. These sequential births and death put my life on a new trajectory, and I started writing, out of grief, the history of adoption and motherhood in America.
I grew up thinking that being adopted didn’t matter. I was wrong. This book is my journey uncovering the significance and true history of adoption practices in America. Now, in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, the renewed debate over women’s reproductive rights places an even greater emphasis on adoption. As a mother, historian, and adoptee, I am uniquely qualified to uncover the policies and practices of adoption.
The history of adoption, reframed through the voices of adoptees like me, and mothers who have been forced to relinquish their babies, blows apart old narratives about adoption, exposing the fallacy that adoption is always good.
In this story, I reckon with the pain and unanswered questions of my own experience and explore broader issues surrounding adoption in the United States, including changing legal policies, sterilization, and compulsory relinquishment programs, forced assimilation of babies of color and Indigenous babies adopted into white families, and other liabilities affecting women, mothers, and children. Now is the moment we must all hear these stories.
Who Is a Worthy Mother?: An Intimate History of Adoption
Nearly every person in the United States is affected by adoption. Adoption practices are woven into the fabric of American society and reflect how our nation values human beings, particularly mothers. In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade, the renewed debate over women's reproductive rights places an even greater emphasis on adoption. As a mother, historian, and adoptee, Rebecca C. Wellington is uniquely qualified to uncover the policies and practices of adoption. Wellington's timely-and deeply researched-account amplifies previously marginalized voices and exposes the social and racial biases embedded in the United States' adoption industry.…
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