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Detective Mackenzie Price is investigating the disappearance of a young woman exactly a year after another girl vanished. Politics is at play as Mack tries to investigate Abby’s disappearance and then a body is discovered.

Meanwhile she is dealing with severe personal issues. Her husband is having an affair but she hasn’t the courage to confront him so it is eating away at her. Overwhelming her present day actions and emotions are the guilt and terror of hiding her father’s body after her mother killed him after enduring years of abuse.

Can Mack focus on the case long enough to solve it…?

Hidden Lake actually begins with a flashback prologue to Mack returning home at the age of 12 and finding her mother with her father’s body. This is hugely dramatic and drags the reader straight into the story with a high level of empathy with Mack.

The pace of the book overall is quite slow which is probably accurate for most criminal cases but less dramatic. This left plenty of scope for the personal side of Mack’s life to come to the fore.

I admit to feeling irritated by Mackenzie’s obsession with the past even though I could understand it. She is haunted by her father but I don’t understand why she feels accountable for her actions as a 12 year old protecting her mother. Now her mum is dead too, I think she should have come clean and saved herself the mental anguish.

Hidden Lake is a debut novel yet Ruhi Choudary writes in a confident way. The characters and plot are well developed but the crimes felt secondary to the personal life of Mack.

The ending was unexpected as the truth of the disappearance and murder is revealed, and my jaw literally dropped at the epilogue. There MUST be a sequel based on the shocking twist at the end and I look forward to finding out what happens to Mack next.

RUHI CHOUDHARY Media Kit:

Title: Hidden Lake

Author:  Ruhi Choudhary

PUBLICATION DAY: 19/08/2020

BUY LINKS:

Amazon: https://geni.us/B0895Q93SRCover

Apple: https://apple.co/36yGPoQ

Kobo: https://bit.ly/2X2Rlle

Google: https://bit.ly/2XsJGM0

Description:

When she was just twelve years old, Mackenzie Price came home to find her father bleeding to death on the kitchen floor. She will never forget that night, nor what her mother asked her to do…

Twenty years later, Detective ‘Mack’ Price is back in Lakemore, despite vowing never to return. Determined to atone for the sins of the past, she is unstoppable in her quest for justice.

When eighteen-year-old Abigail Correia goes missing, Mack is convinced that the case is linked to Erica Perez, who disappeared exactly one year before. Unlike Abby, Erica is the daughter of one of the town’s most powerful men, but still no trace of her has been found.

As Mack endeavours to find Abby and bring her back alive, she and her team unearth a shocking secret at the heart of this small town. But that is not the only secret that lurks beneath the surface, as Mack knows only too well…

The first book in the Detective Mack Price series, Hidden Lake is a haunting and utterly unputdownable crime thriller, perfect for fans of Lisa Regan, Angela Marsons and Karin Slaughter.

Author Bio:

Ruhi Choudhary discovered her passion for writing when she was seven years old and wrote her first Star Trek episode. Being a fan of the dark and twisted, she found her calling in crime thriller.

She likes to write stories that make you a little uncomfortable and characters that you struggle to make up your mind about but stay with you.

She lives in Toronto and spends her days training to be a scientist and wishing it rained more often!

Author Social Media Links:

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/RuhiSChoudhary

Fenella Churche is devastated by the disappearance and supposed death of her fiance Arthur during WW2. He was in France working undercover to undermine the Nazis but never came home. She is determined to find out the truth even if it is bad as she fears.

Fen travels to the village in France where he was last seen and starts work at a vineyard. But soon a murder occurs…

It was rather lovely to be immersed in the French countryside in a different era. The traditional Christie style use of cyanide felt familiar. The descriptions were rich and I could easily visualise the characters and the locations.

The historical depictions of the aftermath of the Second World War with the wounded pride of the French and their revulsion towards collaborators felt natural and realistic from my own knowledge of the era (I’m a history graduate).

A Dangerous Goodbye has a wonderful lead character in Fen. Her heart is broken for her lost love but she is determined to find out the truth about his death. I wish we had had more chance to see the pair as a couple before war tore them apart.

Fen and Arthur’s relationship was full of crosswords and cleverness and this is represented in the narrative. The plot is littered with crossword puzzles which had my brain working overtime. It has been some time since I did a cryptic crossword so I was a little rusty but managed to get some of the correct answers!

I did guess the culprit but enjoyed the revelations and motives. The ending leave plenty of potential for a series of sequels and I look forward to seeing where Fen’s adventures take her next and how she moves on from Arthur’s death.

A Dangerous Goodbye book description:

Save Her Soul is book number 9 in Lisa Regan’s Detective Josie Quinn series. The town of Denton is underwater due to severe floods and a house washes away to reveal a body buried in its foundations. The victim is a teen that Josie clashed with repeatedly at school. At the autopsy, Josie realises the body is wearing her late husband’s jacket: could he have been involved in the murder of her teenage enemy?

This is quite an emotional case for Josie and some of the plot is delivered via flashbacks to Josie’s teenage years. Lots of emotions about her late husband Ray are stirred up by his involvement in the case. Things are made more complicated when Josie locks horns with the mayor again as she also shared a shady past with the victim’s mother.

There is plenty of drama and danger for Josie and her colleagues as they fight the floods as well as investigate the murder. Josie risks injury and even death several times over the course of the book, thanks in part to her tenacity and sense of duty. Her superiors see her as reckless but we see her as brave and determined.

There are plenty of twists and turns in the plot as witnesses and suspects protect themselves and hinder the case. Josie also faces more heartache about her unhappy childhood and her current family which adds to the pressure she faces over the course of the book.

Save Her Soul is an enjoyable thriller with a healthy dash of emotion to make Josie a character we are rooting for from start to finish. There are some references to other cases but the parts of the past shown in flashback are new for all readers and I think this would work as a stand alone novel.

I have previously reviewed other books in this series: Her Final Confession,The Bones She Buried, Cold Heart Creek, Find Her Alive. 

Media Pack Info Sheet:

Title:         SAVE HER SOUL

Author:     Lisa Regan

Publication Day: AUGUST 12th 2020

Buy Links :

Amazon: https://geni.us/B0891453FHCover

Apple: https://apple.co/2zl3KIa

Kobo: https://bit.ly/2XnW67V

Google: https://bit.ly/3e96TcH

Description:

Josie flinches as she takes in the faded blue sports jacket wrapped around the girl they just pulled from the water. Josie knew someone who’d once owned that jacket. He had died in her arms five years ago.

Heavy rain pours on the small town of Denton causing the riverbanks to break and the body of a young girl to float quietly to the surface. With no crime scene to examine, the odds are against Detective Josie Quinn and her team. Mercifully, the victim’s body is perfectly preserved, right down to the baseball patch on the jacket she was wearing. Josie can’t hide her devastation—her dead ex-husband, Ray, owned one just like it.

Following the trail back to her high school, Josie identifies the girl as Beverly Urban, a troubled student rumored to have been dating Ray before she left town for good. It looks like a tragic accident until the autopsy reveals a bullet in her head and the heart-breaking secret she was keeping.

Josie visits the salon where Beverly’s mother used to work, believing she was at the heart of a terrible scandal around the time her daughter’s life was taken. With the Denton wives remaining tight-lipped, Josie’s only hope is a secret meet-up with a terrified woman willing to talk. But she is murdered moments before giving Josie crucial information. It’s clear that someone is prepared to keep on killing to stop the truth from getting out.

Digging deep into memories of her own past with Ray is the only advantage Josie has on this twisted killer… but at what cost?

Another jaw-dropping crime thriller from an Amazon, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author that will have you absolutely gripped from page one. Perfect for fans of Angela Marsons, Robert Dugoni and Rachel Caine.

Author Bio:

Lisa Regan is a USA Today, Wall Street Journal bestselling author and Amazon bestselling crime novelist.  She has a bachelor’s degree in English and Master of Education Degree from Bloomsburg University.  She is a member of Sisters In Crime, Mystery Writers of America and International Thriller Writers. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and daughter. Find out more at her website: www.lisaregan.com

Author Social Media Links:

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/Lisa-Regan-189735444395923/

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/Lisalregan

WEBSITE: www.lisaregan.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6443334.Lisa_Regan

Davina Granger, an acclaimed poet, arrives in Oxford with one thing on her mind: revenge! Her brother David commited suicide and she blames his tutor Gareth Lacey. She is intent on destroying him but is shocked to develop an attraction to him. Will passion or revenge win out?

Meanwhile Alicia Norman struggles to combat her family’s snobbish behaviour. She wants to write crime novels and wants council estate born Jared to be her lover. But her brother’s machinations aim to wreck the relationship. Can love defy class and family?

An Oxford Revenge is the second in Maxine Barry’s Oxford series. The only connection is the location so this works perfectly as a stand alone novel.

It is kind of obvious that Davina and Gareth are destined for each other so the enjoyment of this book is in the negotiation of the obstacles in their way. Davina battles with her love and hate, her past and future.

There are points where we see Davina’s resolve buckle and also Gareth’s viewpoint as he mourns the death of his student. There is clearly more to the death of Davina’s brother than we or she are aware of so the reveal of the truth is eagerly anticipated so that her new relationship can flourish. I was expecting a little more emotion as Gareth’s wife had died and his relationship with Davina is the first since that devastating event.

There is one sex scene early on that really made me blush: the passion was so well written that I felt like an intruder because it was so realistic (does that sound weird?!)

There is not much mystery or any real criminal element involved in this book so it feels very different to The Lying Game and the Faith Martin crime mysteries I am familiar with but still kept me hooked the whole way through.

An Oxford Revenge book blurb

HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO FOR REVENGE?

Davina Granger wants revenge. She blames Dr Gareth Lacey for her brother’s suicide. When she gets a fellowship at his Oxford college, she finally has her chance to punish him. But her plan never included falling in love with him.

But is he really as guilty as she thinks?

Alicia Norman is a student at the same college. She’s excited to leave her sheltered, privileged existence for college life and a chance of love and adventure. But her brother and his friends will do anything to stop her from being with someone they think isn’t posh enough. Including murder?

HOW FAR WILL THEY GO?

Revenge isn’t always as sweet as you think. And romance can play havoc with the best-laid plans.

About the author

Maxine Barry is the romance novel pen name used by Faith Martin who is the two-million-selling author of the DETECTIVE HILLARY GREENE and JENNY STARLING mysteries, which have topped the global best-seller charts. She was born in Oxford, and has spent all her life within twenty miles of the university city, even working at Somerville College for five years before turning to writing full-time.

The author of the popular DI Hillary Greene novels, she also writes more classic-style ‘whodunits’ under the pen name Joyce Cato, but began her writing career as Maxine Barry, winning an award for penning romance novels! A popular writer for over 25 years, she has had nearly 50 novels published so far. Her hobbies include walking her now ageing dog, wildlife-watching, reading and (reluctantly) gardening.