Keep Her Close

Keep Her Close by M. J . Ford

Published by Avon Books

March 2019

Someone is playing a deadly game…

When a young woman goes missing from Jesus College, Oxford, DS Josie Masters is plunged into a world of panic as fear grips the city. Along with Thames Valley Police’s newest recruit, the handsome DS Pryce, Josie must act fast – and when two more students disappear from Oriel and Somerville colleges, she realises the killer is sending her a deadly message in a cruel game of cat and mouse. This time, the case is personal – but who is the perpetrator?

In a desperate race against the clock, Josie hunts for the kidnapper, and soon discovers he could be a lot closer to home than she’d ever thought…

This is the second novel by M. J. Ford following on from his debut Hold My Hand.  Prior to reading this, I did think I had already read the first book but it turns out I haven't so I'll be putting that right shortly after posting this I think!

DS Josie Masters is on a new case, a student has disappeared from Oxford University in circumstances that appear somewhat troublesome.  Her step-father, an MP doesn't want any publicity and as the case progresses, two other girls go missing in somewhat similar circumstances.  Alongside this, Jo is also troubled by her home life.  Boyfriend Lucas seems to be keeping something from her, saying he is working when he clearly isn't.  After the issues she had with her previous boyfriend Ben, Jo isn't sure she totally believes Lucas is telling her the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  But if he isn't, then what exactly has he got to hide?

The book ties in somewhat with the previous novel but that doesn't mean you have to have read it to enjoy this.  It's quite the page turner as it is clear that the person behind all of this seems to have a vendetta against Jo.  The question is though who could it be; someone in Jo's past, or someone in Jo's present?  And if it is the latter, then who the heck is it?

I love a crime thriller and this did not disappoint.  Jo is a likeable cop, complete with baggage as our fictional detectives tend to be, and she has a polar opposite detective working with her, in the form of hunky DS Jack Pryce.  Between the two of them, can they find who has taken these girls before it is too late for any of them or will Jo come face-to-face with her nemesis?

I'm hoping that there will be a follow-up to this and soon!

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x

Daisy Jones and The Six

Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Published by Hutchinson

March 2019

For a while, Daisy Jones & The Six were everywhere. Their albums were on every turntable, they sold out arenas from coast to coast, their sound defined an era. And then, on 12 July 1979, they split.

Nobody ever knew why. Until now.

They were lovers and friends and brothers and rivals. They couldn't believe their luck, until it ran out. This is their story of the early days and the wild nights, but everyone remembers the truth differently.

The only thing they all know for sure is that from the moment Daisy Jones walked barefoot onstage at the Whisky, their lives were irrevocably changed.

Making music is never just about the music. And sometimes it can be hard to tell where the sound stops and the feelings begin.

If Reese Witherspoon says she likes a book and picks it for her online book club then in my humble opinion it's usually pretty good and when I saw that Daisy Jones and The Six had been chosen as this month's choice (and a possible mini series) it seemed to be a good book to pick up next and I am so glad I did.  I can pretty much say right now that this is certainly going to end the year as one of my top reads, it's bloody brilliant. There is no point in trying to find clever superlatives here when that does the job.

The book is an interview with the band members of The Six, once famous throughout America in the 1970s and of a solo singer  called Daisy Jones whose talents were combined together to make a stunning album called Aurora.  The band were everything, they were everywhere, their connection to each other was out of this world and then suddenly they were no more.  No explanations were ever given, no interviews were made until now, in this book.

We are taken back to the formative days when the Dunne brothers formed a band that were eventually to become known as The Six.  Their lead singer Billy hit the big time hard: sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll were definitely his vibe despite a wife and baby on the way.  Daisy Jones was a girl who had everything and wanted for nothing and yet wasn't satisfied with life.  She too hits a path of drink and drugs, yet unlike Billy has found nothing to quit for.  Separately their individual music is good but when serendipity brings them together their music is formidable.

This book is about the band, the music but more importantly it is about the people who are part of the music.  Taylor Jenkins Reid focuses on Billy and Daisy, but spends just as much time building the characters of the rest of the band plus those loved ones whose lives are ultimately affected by everything that they do.  Many have said that they think the book is loosely based on Fleetwood Mac but I don't know about that.  What I will say is that I believed that Daisy Jones and The Six were real from the moment I finished the first page of the book until I read the very last word, and I am not the only one to say how sorry I am that the music defined through these pages does not exist in real life because I know without a doubt I would be playing those songs again and again and again.

Daisy Jones and The Six is about music, it's about passion, it's about following your dreams, it's about relationships, it's about loving someone and them not loving you back, it's about life, it's about death, it's about sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll.  It's about everything.

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x

The Stone Circle

The Stone Circle by Elly Griffiths

Published by Quercus

February 2018

DCI Nelson has been receiving threatening letters telling him to 'go to the stone circle and rescue the innocent who is buried there'. He is shaken, not only because children are very much on his mind, with Michelle's baby due to be born, but because although the letters are anonymous, they are somehow familiar. They read like the letters that first drew him into the case of The Crossing Places, and to Ruth. But the author of those letters is dead. Or are they?

Meanwhile Ruth is working on a dig in the Saltmarsh - another henge, known by the archaeologists as the stone circle - trying not to think about the baby. Then bones are found on the site, and identified as those of Margaret Lacey, a twelve-year-old girl who disappeared thirty years ago.

As the Margaret Lacey case progresses, more and more aspects of it begin to hark back to that first case of The Crossing Places, and to Scarlett Henderson, the girl Nelson couldn't save. The past is reaching out for Ruth and Nelson, and its grip is deadly.

I may have squealed a little bit when my copy of The Stone Circle arrived on my kindle earlier this year and that's because, like many others, I've been sucked wholeheartedly into the Ruth Galloway series of books by Elly Griffiths.  If you are unfamiliar with them, where have you been?  Here's a quick catch-up should you need it: Ruth is an archaeologist working at the university in Norfolk and due to the nature of her career, has managed over the course of 11 books to become involved in many police cases that have involved the unearthing of human bones, be they both modern and ancient.  She has also managed to strike up a relationship between herself and DCI Harry Nelson, a brusk northerner who is already married to the beautiful Michelle and father to two children of his own though he now also has a daughter with Ruth.  Other characters in the stories have also struck up relationships with one another during the course of these books, and for many the most pressing question in this novel is about who the father of Michelle Nelson's baby is - her husband Harry or that of her lover Tim who tragically passed away saving her life in the last book?

Anyway, I digress.  The remains of a body are unearthed on the Saltmarsh and they are identified as those of a young girl who disappeared one sunny day during a street party some thirty years ago just after Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer.  Many of those involved in the case are still in the surrounding area today and DCI Nelson reopens the case in the hope that today there can be some closure for Margaret's family; after all someone has kept quiet about killing her all this time, can there be some shred of evidence that helps the police to finally catch her murderer?

The story interweaves parts of the Scarlett Henderson killing into play (which were featured in the first book of the series The Crossing Places) and Ruth and Nelson are once again drawn together both in and out of work.  For many readers it is not just the crime element of these books that holds its legion of fans gripped, but the complex relationships of the characters themselves.  I had many questions I wanted to throw out there once I'd finished the book (but won't put on here for fear of spoiling the book for others) but Elly Griffiths has a way of ending the books with the reader asking as many questions at the end of the book as they have at the beginning. And now we have to wait for novel 12.  I for one don't think I can!!!

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x