A body on a beach is the new case for Detective Megan Carpenter. It soon becomes clear that there is a serial killer on the loose…
I absolutely loved the first book featuring Megan and this second book in the series Water’s Edge was an enjoyable police thriller but didn’t pack quite the same punch. Megan’s backstory which featured heavily in the first book was of secondary importance this time.
I enjoyed the first person narrative again as Megan negotiates a new professional relationship when she is partnered with rookie Ronnie. This character development allowed touches of humour to contrast with the grisly deaths that form the main plot and the experiences from Megan’s past.
Megan is a tenacious and determined police officer, haunted by her own past. She uses her role in the police to hunt down killers with the idea of ‘an eye for an eye’ rather than legal justice.
There are plenty of suspects and twists to keep the reader entertained and guessing until the end. I would have liked to know a little more about the motive but enjoyed the extra drama of the reveal.
The plot is delivered in short chapters to maintain the pace and make you read just one more when you should be doing something else!
I believe that Water’s Edge would work as a stand alone novel but I think it would be beneficial to read the first in the series, Snow Creek, which I have previously reviewed.
GREGG OLSEN Water’s Edge Media Kit:
Title: WATER’S EDGE
Author: Gregg Olsen
PUBLICATION DAY: 28/05/2020
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Description:
The young woman’s body is lying with her arms stretched out to each side. Her lips slightly parted. Her face untouched by injury and her hair spread around her head like a fan. A redhead. Just like the others.
When the body of Leann Truitt is found in a secluded cove in Mystery Bay, Detective Megan Carpenter is one of the first on the scene. The victim has tell-tale marks on her wrists, ankles and neck where she has been bound. But that’s not all. Next to Leann’s body lies a puzzling clue – an unusual symbol scratched into a rock.
With rookie Deputy Ronnie Marsh under her wing and the investigation underway, Megan starts to receive disturbing messages. Someone knows about her traumatic past. They know what she did.
Determined to stay focussed, Megan soon makes a chilling link between Leann’s brutal killing and the unsolved murder cases of two other women – all redheads with the same marks on their bodies, the same symbol carvings found at the crime scenes, and most shockingly, all had been pregnant.
The killer stalks his prey, kidnapping and torturing them in a very exact and methodical pattern. And he is not finished yet…
When the body of another woman is found bearing a striking resemblance to the other victims, Megan must crack the clues fast if she is to catch the twisted soul before they strike again.
Megan might be closing in on the killer, but someone is watching her every move. Can Megan hide the secrets of her past threatening to destroy her future? And can she protect herself and Ronnie before they both find themselves in terrible danger?
An addictive, gripping and completely unputdownable crime thriller from the Number One New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Amazon Chart bestselling author.
Author Bio:
A #1 New York Times, Amazon Charts, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author, Olsen has written nine nonfiction books, seventeen novels, a novella, and contributed a short story to a collection edited by Lee Child.
The award-winning author has been a guest on dozens of national and local television shows, including educational programs for the History Channel, Learning Channel, and Discovery Channel.
The Deep Dark was named Idaho Book of the Year by the ILA and Starvation Heights was honored by Washington’s Secretary of State for the book’s contribution to Washington state history and culture.
Olsen, a Seattle native, lives in Olalla, Washington with his wife, twin daughters, three chickens, Milo (an obedience school dropout cocker) and Suri (a mini dachshund so spoiled she wears a sweater).
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TRIGGER WARNING: What Only We Know deals with the Holocaust and suicide
In 1930s Berlin, Liese’s life at her parents’ fashion house is thrown into turmoil as the Nazis start their process of eradicating the Jews. First their business then their lives are in danger.
In the 1970s and 80s, Karen Cartwright struggles to deal with the aftermath of her mother Elizabeth’s suicide. I enjoyed the setting of Aldershot as it is very close to where I live!
Catherine Hokin’s narrative so clearly evokes the two time periods she is describing. I found myself completely immersed in the settings and amongst the characters. I was incredibly frustrated, even angry, at Liese’s parents for their constant disregard for their daughter. They are so wrapped up in each other, even as she desperately tries to save them from certain death.
Liese is a very likeable character and I felt devastated by her life story as it unfolds. Karen is more complex as she has the selfishness of childhood at the start of the book and gradually becomes aware of the nuances of her parents’ relationship. She feels guilty and unloved as well as blaming her father for not preventing her mother’s suicide.
What Only We Know is a clever title as it could refer to the survival guilt specific to survivors of the Holocaust, or it could be a reference to the secrets that Liese has kept since that time. It could mean the secret side of ourselves that we hide to protect ourselves and others from the truth.
This is not a pleasant book to read but it is a terribly wonderful. The atrocities committed by the Nazis must never be forgotten and their victims should be remembered. Some of the events in the book are shocking and harrowing: if we ever become complacent and immune to the horror then we provide the opportunity for evil to reappear.
I have read a few other WW2 fiction novels recently, but what makes this one different and unique is that it looks at the aftermath of the Holocaust and the personal difficulties faced by one survivor. This book also shows the effects of mental health struggles on other family members.
What Only We Know is an incredibly powerful book and I look forward to reading more by this author in the future.
What Only We Know book description:
A door slammed and the unmistakable sound of boots came crashing up the hall. Liese held her little daughter’s hand so tightly, the tiny fingers had turned purple. The SS officer’s hand was at Liese’s throat before she saw him move. ‘I can kill you easily, then I can kill your daughter.’ He relaxed his grip a little. ‘Or perhaps I could kill her first?’
England, forty years later. When Karen Cartwright is unexpectedly called home to nurse her ailing father, she goes with a heavy heart. The house she grew up in feels haunted by the memory of her father’s closely guarded secrets about her beautiful dressmaker mother Elizabeth’s tragic suicide years before.
As she packs up the house, Karen discovers an old photograph and a stranger’s tattered love letter to her mother postmarked from Germany after the war.
During her life, Karen struggled to understand her shy, fearful mother, but now she is realising there was so much more to Elizabeth than she knew. For one thing, her name wasn’t even Elizabeth, and her harrowing story begins long before Karen was born.
It’s 1941 in Berlin, and a young woman called Liese is being forced to wear a yellow star…
A beautiful and gripping wartime story about family secrets and impossible choices in the face of terrible hardship. Perfect for fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, We Were the Lucky Ones and The Alice Network.
Author Bio:
Catherine Hokin is a Glasgow-based author writing both long and short fiction. Her short stories have been placed in competition (including first prize in the 2019 Fiction 500 Short Story Competition) and published by iScot, Writers Forum and Myslexia. She blogs on the 22nd of each month as part of The History Girls collective.
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Mocha cakes are always a favourite in our house, despite the kids not liking coffee! Here is the recipe that I have made vegan and gluten free:
Ingredients
125 ml approx aquafaba (liquid from a 400g tin of chickpeas)
160g caster sugar
160g vegan spread, melted
160g SR flour
1 tablespoon of coffee granules mixed with 1 tablespoon boiling water and cooled
1 tablespoon cocoa
Instructions
Preheat oven to GM5 and grease 2 cake tins
Whisk together the aquafaba and caster sugar for about 4 minutes until frothy and glossy.
Add the melted vegan spread and whisk for a further minute
Add the flour, coffee and cocoa and give a final whisk.
Pour into the two cake tin and bake for 20 minutes.
Remove from the oven and tins, and leave to cool.
When the cake is completely cool, sandwich together with chocolate spread or make a ‘butter’ icing: 75g vegan spread, 125g icing sugar and 1 tablespoon each of coffee granules and cocoa made up with 2 tablespoons of boiling water and cooled. Beat all ingredients together and spread onto the cake.
This recipe could also be used to make fairy cakes or a traybake (baking time would need to adjusted)
TRIGGER WARNING: some of the murders in this book involve children and may be upsetting.
A family murdered twenty years ago, a skull found behind a plaster wall, body parts found on a train line. There is no shortage of bodies at the start of the latest novel featuring Detective Lottie Parker, and soon there are even more…
Meanwhile Lottie is dealing with her fiance and colleague Boyd’s cancer as well as the death of his mother and the arrival of his sister. Added into this are her own children and grandson and a new boss at work.
Lottie is a likeable lead character, negotiating personal and professional relationships whilst remaining focussed on the murders. The challenges she faces in her home life are realistic and her responses to them feels natural.
This is the 8th book in the series by author Patricia Gibney (but only the third that I’ve read, I need to catch up on the start!). It works perfectly well as a standalone book, providing a snapshot of Lottie’s life with a few references to her past that do not require knowledge of the previous books to make sense.
The book is written in short chapters which keeps the pace fast. We see elements of the past which feed into the present day murders and body discoveries. I was kept guessing until the final pages and the character links did become a little too intricate for me by the end. There is some forensic detail but this is not overly graphic. There was a scene of domestic abuse that I found quite harrowing and the deaths of children was handled sensitively.
Patricia Gibney’s style of writing is very easy to read, making this book entertaining and enjoyable despite the murderous content! I would love to see her books dramatised for television!
I have previously read and reviewed book 6 and 7 in the Lottie Parker series: Final Betrayal and Broken Souls.
Book Description:
Bubbles of cold sweat trickled down Faye’s spine. The hole wasn’t empty. Before she could turn and run, she caught the two sightless eyes staring up at her. Only then did she scream.
When Faye Baker discovers a fragile child’s skull behind the walls of her new home, Detective Lottie Parker is called to investigate. The house has been owned for years by the family of Faye’s boyfriend Jeff, so when Jeff starts acting suspiciously, Lottie wonders what he might be hiding…
Lottie doesn’t have long to dig deeper before a child’s bones are found by eleven-year-old Gavin on nearby railway tracks. The bones don’t match the small skull behind the walls, but Lottie can’t ignore the coincidence. Someone out there must be missing their loved ones and it’s up to her to put right a terrible wrong.
Unable to shake a feeling of foreboding, Lottie goes to speak to Faye, and discovers that she hasn’t turned up for work. When Faye’s body is found stuffed in the back of her car, Lottie needs to find out who wanted her to keep quiet.
As Lottie hunts for Faye’s killer, the case takes a darker turn when Gavin goes missing. Faye and Gavin are connected only by the grisly body parts they discovered. But who are these little victims and why has their killer come back? Can Lottie find the answers before another precious life is taken?
This thrilling new novel from bestselling author Patricia Gibney will keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end. If you like Lisa Regan, Robert Dugoni and Rachel Caine, you’ll love Buried Angels.
Author Bio:
Patricia is the million-copy bestselling author of the DI Lottie Parker series. She yearned to be a writer after reading Enid Blyton and Carolyn Keene and even wanted to be Nancy Drew when she grew up. She has now grown up (she thinks) but the closest she’s come to Nancy Drew is writing crime!
In 2009, after her husband died, she retired from her job and started writing seriously. Fascinated by people and their quirky characteristics, she always carries a notebook to scribble down observations.
Patricia also loves to paint in watercolour and lives in the Irish midlands with her children.
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Alice Solomon has lost her mum, her job and her fiance. But now she has the chance to reconnect with her childhood best friend Joanna who invites her to London to meet her fiance. But when Alices arrives, Mark informs her that Joanna has gone missing…
Most of the plot is delivered to us via the first person narrative of Alice. We have access to her fears and doubts which seem to stem from her childhood. And there is a mystery about why she and Joanna lost contact. About two thirds of the way into The Bride, we finally see Joanna’s perspective but there are still more secrets to be uncovered!
The secrets, lies and confusion make for an engaging and entertaining plot. Alice is a pleasant enough character and our sympathy is aroused in the opening chapters by her vulnerability and problems. There are some scenes of abject fear and these were very realistic.
I think the title is a little misleading as the bride in the book is not the main protagonist, although she is the catalyst for the events that take place.
I loved the ending: I had completely forgotten the prologue so the conclusion leaves you with a sense of dread. It is open ended but still really satisfying.
Overall, The Bride was an enjoyable psychological mystery.
Take a look at my reviews of We Were Sisters and What She Saw, also by author Wendy Clarke.
Media Pack Info Sheet
Author: Wendy Clarke
Book: THE BRIDE
Publication Day: 20/05/2020
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Description:
The moment Joanna told me she was engaged, I had this awful feeling that something was wrong.
We used to speak on the phone every day. Growing up I spent more time at her house than I did at my own. I’d always imagined what it would be like to see her get married, and now I didn’t even know her fiancé’s name.
She asked me to come and meet Mark and I intended to tell her to slow down. You can’t know someone for a month and be sure that you want to spend the rest of your lives together.
When I got to Joanna’s front door, only Mark was there. He was charming and gorgeous and nothing but nice to me, and I started to understand.
And then he told me that Joanna was missing.
The Bride is a twisty, unputdownable psychological thriller that will have you reading until late at night. Perfect for fans of The Girl on the Train, Gone Girl and anything by Lisa Jewell.
Author Bio:
Wendy Clarke started her career writing short fiction and serials for national women’s magazines. After having over three hundred short stories published, she progressed to writing novels. With a degree in psychology, and intrigued with how the human mind can affect behaviour, it was inevitable that she would eventually want to explore her darker side.
In her previous life, Wendy has published three collections of short stories and has been a short story judge for the Chiltern Writers Group, Nottingham Writers Group and The Society of Women Writers and journalists.
Wendy lives with her husband, cat and step-dog in Sussex and when not writing is usually dancing, singing or watching any programme that involves food
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