I had high hopes of ‘The Donut Legion‘. Joe Lansdale turing his sharp humour towards an East Texas flying saucer cult that runs a chain of donut shops. What’s not to like?

Well, for me, the answer to that turned out to be the storytelling. The story was told through the eyes of Charlie Garner, the kind of Joe Lansdale character that I’m normally drawn to but who, this time, felt more like an absence than a presence, a plot device rather than a person. So I set the book aside at 27%.

My review is HERE

‘The Nearly Dearly Departed Club’ is a debut novel kicking off a quirky series about a ragtag team of resurrected individuals working for a murky branch of the British secret service. I bought it partly because of the title and partly because the premise was so out there.

It was a book that shouldn’t have worked. It gave no explanation of how resurrection worked or why these people were resurrected. Their mission was fairly mundane- find a missing teenager – and was set in a dull provincial town. What kept me reading was the sheer bravado of the book. It felt no need to explain itself. It was carried forward by the energy produced by combining four disparate individuals, who got on each other’s nerves and dropping them into a dangerous situation that they were ill-equipped to handle. I found myself wrapped up in the people and the events, both of which made me smile.

‘The Blood Spilt’ is the second book in the Rebecka Martinsson series that I started last month with ‘The Savage Altar‘.

If you judge it by its content, this is a dark book, that starts with a vicious, vengeful killing and goes on to uncover a climate of violent misogyny, endorsed and encouraged by the most powerful men in the village, including the local priests. Yet, for me, this is a story about surviving trauma and overcoming hate by finding a way to stand together and be true to yourself. It’s fuelled by a love of the rural setting and the possibility of serenity and community that it offers.

Convicted serial killer Benjamin Fisher has finally offered to lead San Bernardino detective Daniel Ellis to the isolated graves of his victims. One catch: He’ll only do it if FBI profiler Reni Fisher, his estranged daughter, accompanies them. As hard as it is to exhume her traumatic childhood, Reni can’t say no. She still feels complicit in her father’s crimes.
Perfect to play a lost little girl, Reni was the bait to lure unsuspecting women to their deaths. It’s time for closure. For her. For the families. And for Daniel. He shares Reni’s obsession with the past. Ever since he was a boy, he’s been convinced that his mother was one of Fisher’s victims.
Thirty years of bad memories are flooding back. A master manipulator has gained their trust. For Reni and Daniel, this isn’t the end of a nightmare. It’s only the beginning.

Presided over by the lofty Mrs McBryde, Hill Topp House is a superior council home for the elderly. Among the unforgettable cast of staff and residents there’s Mr Peckover the deluded archaeologist, Phyllis the knitter, Mr Cresswell the ex-cruise ship hairdresser, the enterprising Mrs Foss and Mr Jimson the chiropodist. Covid is the cause of fatalities and the source of darkly comic confusion, but it’s also the key to liberation. As staff are hospitalised, protocol breaks down. Miss Rathbone reveals a lifelong secret, and the surviving residents seize their moment, arthritis allowing, to scamper freely in the warmth of the summer sun.

Claire and Sophie aren’t your typical murder investigators . . .
Claire Hendricks is a hapless 30-something true-crime fan working as a freelance medium. When she is Invited to an old university friend’s country pile to provide entertainment for a family party, her best friend Sophie tags along. In fact, Sophie rarely leaves Claire’s side, because she’s been haunting her ever since she was murdered at the age of 17.
When the pair arrive at The Cloisters it’s clear this family is hiding more than just the good china, as Claire realizes someone has recently met an untimely end at the house. Teaming up with the least unbearable members of the Wellington-Forge family—depressive ex-cop Basher and teenage reactionary Alex—Claire and Sophie determine to figure out not just whodunnit, but who they killed, why and when…

When a Canadian spy comes to ex–black ops specialist Aubrey Sentro for help tracking down notorious Cold War spymaster Günter Witt, she wants to say no. It’s been thirty years since Aubrey’s captivity in East Berlin, and she has no desire to return. Her focus now is on mending the relationships that suffered during her years working in the shadows.
But when a ruthless mercenary targets Aubrey and her daughter, the game changes. With Witt back on the scene, blackmailing his old contacts and contracting with rogue governments, the stakes are high. And Aubrey, who endured the brunt of Witt’s cruelty in that old Stasi prison, may be the only one who can track him down.
To unravel the threads of Witt’s intricate web of lies, Aubrey will need to confront not only the dark secrets of her past but also the threat they pose to her future.

ONE NIGHT
It is a wild night in the middle of December, and GP Enya is crouched over a teenage boy, performing CPR in the rain.
ONE MOMENT
The boy survives, but Enya’s life splinters in two. Trapped in a loveless marriage, the storm propels her to break free.
ONE CHANCE TO BE FREE
But even in the remote country town that becomes her sanctuary, Enya is haunted by the night in the rain.
Beneath the boughs of an ancient tree that tells a thousand stories, can she find the courage to face her own?

In Gallup, New Mexico, where violent crime is five times the national average, a serial killer is operating unchecked, his targets indigent Native people whose murders are easily disguised as death by exposure on the frigid winter streets. He slips unnoticed through town, hidden in plain sight by his unassuming nature, while the voices in his head guide him toward a terrifying vision of glory. As the Gallup detectives struggle to put the pieces together, they consider calling in a controversial specialist to help.
Rita Todacheene, Albuquerque PD forensic photographer, is at a crisis point in her career. Her colleagues are watching her with suspicion after the recent revelation that she can see the ghosts of murder victims. Her unmanageable caseload is further complicated by the fact that half the department has blacklisted her for ratting out a corrupt fellow cop. And back home in Tohatchi on the Navajo reservation, Rita’s grandma is getting older. Maybe it’s time for her to leave policework behind entirely—if only the ghosts will let her . . .