Is my Read # 22 missing? No, but it's worthy of its own post and therefore, this one will cover two "lesser" reviews.
by Leslie Wolfe
You guessed it - here was another free 1st book in a series, meant to get readers interested in buying the following volumes. And as nearly always, in my case it didn't work as intended. I found the 1st story gripping and written well enough, but not quite enough to make me want to continue with the series.
Kay Sharp is a highly qualified profiler with the FBI - one of their best. And yet, when her brother back home, the only living family she still has, is in trouble, she gives up everything and travels back to the small woodland community where she grew up.
Very quickly, she gets involved with the case of a missing young mother and her little girl, apparently vanished into thin air straight from their car in the vicinity of Silent Lake, a popular destination for lovers of nature and an area Kay is familiar with from her youth.
As if that weren't enough to keep her on her toes, there is the trouble with her brother, and a secret buried in their childhood threatens to come to light. Add the recently relocated Sherrif to the mix (no need for me to tell you that he and Kay have instant chemistry but are of course in denial) and Kay's old home town not having changed for the better, and you have a multi-strand story that is indeed rather gripping.
Sometimes, there is a change of perspective from one chapter to the next, but Kay is the main character. And as is nearly always the case in such stories, in the course of solving the mystery (and hopefully getting her own life back on track), she encurs mortal danger herself - something the authors of similar books could actually do without. Why bother when the reader knows from the start that it is the 1st book in a series built around that very same character? It does take away some of the tension, but is rather unnecessary when put in the context of a series.
I wasn't a fan of Kay Sharp or anyone else in the story, but still found the read good company on many train trips. You can find out a lot about the author and her work by clicking here (the link leads to her official website) or here (wikipedia).
by Emma Jameson
Two things made this book (yet another 1st in a series) a bit more interesting for me than many others: It is set on the Scilly Islands, a place I know very little about, and the main character is a Librarian.
Again, we found the well tested approach that someone returns to the place of their childhood and youth, where some dark secret or other still lurks.
In Jemima Jago's case, it is the accidental death of a friend of hers when they were 13 years old, reckless teenagers who didn't know better.
She has not returned to get involved in anything more mysterious than the contents of the library of one of the oldest families on the islands (which is mysterious enough in itself), but of course it doesn't take long before she is thrown in at the deep end - it is her who discovers the body of a known and much-hated busybody, making her as much of a suspect as a number of other people who had reason to want the person dead.
Therefore, not only does Jemima want to find out what really happened for her own sake, it is also vital to her professional future and to restore peace in the small community where people start to suspect each other, especially when a second body is found.
Do I need to mention that the investigating detective is as new to the island as he is attractive and witty? Or that Jemima keeps bumping into people who used to be her friends (including her first boyfriend) but have changed after so many years?
It all adds to the mix and makes for a good read, and I must admit I did not foresee how it was all going to end (except for one part).
This author has her own website, too; you can visit it here.
These 2 books aren't at my library so I'm out of luck with these.
ReplyDeleteBut I do want to thank you for the review of Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng. What a fabulous book! I read 2 others by her, too, and she is such a wonderful writer. I'm so glad to have found this author thanks to you, Meike!
You are very welcome, Ellen - we have to thank my friend Andrea, who lives only a few streets away and has begun to swap books with me every few months.
Delete"Our Missing Hearts" is not only fabulous, but also really important and VERY timely, I find. I am glad you read it and have come to the same conclusion.
You have obviously become very good at finding those "free first-in-a-series offers" :)
ReplyDeleteIt's all down to the search parameters I apply when looking for reading material at the Kindle shop :-) One of my next reads will be the next Yorkshire Murder mystery, the one series I keep buying. Strangely enough, Amazon does not send me suggestions or information when a new one is out; I depend on your blog for that :-)
DeleteMeike, I don't think I get any automatic messages like that from Amazon either (and agree that is kind of strange, as one tends to get so many other messages from various sources about things one is much less interested in...) I'm in the habit of checking up on some of my favourite authors manually now and then, though.
DeleteI have a favourite second hand bookshop which not only sells all kinds of unusual books but sells them at a low price. I would not say they are free, but they are almost - I rarely pay more than £3 , usually about £1.50 and often only 50p. And you do get the chance to look at them first. Often they're lovely books on subjects that I'd never have dreamed of seeking out. I'm reading at present a privately printed memoir of someone who went out to work in Colonial Africa in the 1930s. It is positive and generous in tone, and the author appreciated the years he spent and the people of all races that he met - but still, I don't think any book on this subject would be published today because really it's just so out of fashion. So interesting to glimpse a different world.
ReplyDeleteYour favourite second hand bookshop sounds like a great place to browse and find the occasional gem! The memoir you found sounds very interesting. Really from a different world and time.
DeleteMy Kindle reading is what suits my almost daily train trips best. Physical books are heavier to carry, and even paperbacks take up more room in my handbag than that. Also, books need to be handled more carefully, and I can not read them with my gloves on on a cold winter's day waiting on the platform - but it's no problem with a Kindle. That is why I need a constant supply of (preferably free) ebooks.
Physical books are for reading at home, either on my yellow armchair during lunch break when working from home, or at night in my bed. I did find a good pile of paperbacks a few months back at the regular second-hand sale of one of the churches in the town centre and bought eight in one go - for next to nothing!