The Lost Man

The Lost Man by Jane Harper

Published by Little, Brown

February 2019

He had started to remove his clothes as logic had deserted him, and his skin was cracked. Whatever had been going through Cameron's mind when he was alive, he didn't look peaceful in death.

Two brothers meet at the remote border of their vast cattle properties under the unrelenting sun of the outback. In an isolated part of Australia, they are each other's nearest neighbour, their homes hours apart.

They are at the stockman's grave, a landmark so old that no one can remember who is buried there. But today, the scant shadow it casts was the last hope for their middle brother, Cameron. The Bright family's quiet existence is thrown into grief and anguish.

Something had been troubling Cameron. Did he choose to walk to his death? Because if he didn't, the isolation of the outback leaves few suspects...

This is the third of Jane Harper's novels and I think it might just be my favourite so far.  Set in the Austrailian Outback, this is a book where the setting plays a primary role in the novel.  Cameron Bright's body is found after he never showed up to complete some repair work on a mast on the edges of his property.  What made this man, who was knowledgeable about the area, abandon his car and therefore his supply of food and water to wander across the remote outback to end up dying on top of the notorious grave of The Stockman?

It is Christmas in Australia and the sun is relentless.  Cameron's body has been found and brothers Nathan and Bub are having to deal with this discovery as well as keeping their own heads above water.  Each has his own problems - Nathan has become more reclusive than ever, following on from his ban to enter the city a decade previously. His son Xander is visiting from Brisbane and even he can see the changes in his father's behaviour.  Younger brother Bub is getting fed up with not being listened to, and seems to have more problems than alcohol can deal with.  Also at the property are Cameron's wife and daughters, Harry who has helped out on the farm since anyone can remember, Liz, the boys mother and two British backpackers who were after summer jobs.

Each character has their own secret or two and Jane Harper draws them out one by one.  What did Nathan do that resulted in him being shunned by his own community?  Who are these British backpackers - isn't it strange for them to be out here with no experience?  Why was Cameron out at the Stockman's grave?  When Nathan discovers the car abandoned by his brother, something is niggling him but he can't figure it out - what was going through Cam's mind and was he really walking to his own death that day?

Jane Harper certainly brings the hardships of living and surviving in the outback to the forefront of the readers mind in The Lost Man.  It certainly doesn't make me want to live that way, and you come away with a new found respect for anyone who has to deal with such a harsh climate on a daily basis.  This  book is full of the trials and tribulations one family can experience, especially when they are your closest and only neighbours.

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x

The Wych Elm

The Wych Elm by Tana French

Published by Viking

February 2019

One night changes everything for Toby. He's always led a charmed life - until a brutal attack leaves him damaged and traumatised, unsure even of the person he used to be. He seeks refuge at his family's ancestral home, the Ivy House, filled with memories of wild-strawberry summers and teenage parties with his cousins.

But not long after Toby's arrival, a discovery is made: a skull, tucked neatly inside the old wych elm in the garden.

As detectives begin to close in, Toby is forced to examine everything he thought he knew about his family, his past, and himself.

A spellbinding standalone from a literary writer who turns the crime genre inside out, The Wych Elm asks what we become, and what we're capable of, if we no longer know who we are.

The Wych Elm (or Witch if you are in the States) is the new stand-alone crime novel by Tana French.  Now I'll get my niggles out of the way instantly - the chapters are exhaustingly long, if like me you cannot stop reading in the middle of one, and secondly I hated the central character Toby.  Aside from all of that, I did enjoy this book so please read on!

Toby is a self-centred so-and-so and the sort of person that everything goes right for - he can talk his way out of anything and has had a lifetime of things falling into his lap; lucky boy.  He works for an art gallery and they decide to have an exhibition that is going to bring a lot of publicity their way, however things go wrong, Toby gets into trouble at work and then to top it all off, his flat gets burgled and he ends up in a very serious way in the local hospital as a result.  He needs to recuperate and his family decide that the best thing for him to do would be to return to the Ivy House, home of his uncle Hugo who is sadly dying.  Toby is now a former shadow of himself but could be the ideal companion for his uncle in his final months of life.  

Toby goes to stay with Uncle Hugo, and takes his girlfriend Melissa along with him.  He spends a lot of time reminiscing with his cousins Susannah and Leon and the whole family get together every Sunday for a big lunch.  It is at one of these lunches that Susannah's children discover a skull hidden in the Wych Elm at the bottom of the garden.  As luck would have it, or not in this case, the skull turns out to be human which prompts a visit from the local constabulary and a murder case is opened when it is revealed that the skull belongs to an old school friend of Toby and his cousins who was at the time, rumoured to have committed suicide before they all departed for university.

Now Toby is at the forefront of two mysteries - that of the skull in the garden and also of who tried to kill him when the burglary on his flat went wrong.  Is there a connection?  Tana French clearly shows that you can choose your friends but you certainly cannot chose your family.  Do you even really know them as well as you think you do, and when push comes to shove, do they even have your back at all?  It is certainly a novel about relationships more than anything and makes for interesting reading in that respect.  This is the sort of novel that could strike up some interesting conversations in a book group.

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x

In Conversation with Gillian McAllister

In Conversation with Gillian McAllister

Today I'm in conversation with Gillian McAllister, author of four cracking crime novels, with one new one due out this Spring.  So without further ado, let's chat on....

Not only are you an author, but you are also a lawyer. How important was it to you to include a side of that in your writing?

I don’t think it was important, as such. To me, it just felt natural. I became a lawyer because I was interested in the justice system, the idea of guilt and retribution, and so much more. To me, humans making good decisions, bad decisions, and spur-of-the-moment decisions, and the punishment society imparts, is the stuff of being human.


What are your favourite books to read?

At the moment I mostly re pre-releases within my own genre: I like to keep up with what’s doing well, what works and what doesn’t, and the cultural conversations taking place. The perfect book for me would be a thriller that blends in credible, realistic and heartfelt relationships. The sort of thing I try to write…


Crime novels can be a bit far-fetched at times. Is fact stranger than fiction?

I have a big commitment to realism in my novels – I agonise over plot so that it seems real and it’s something I think my readers appreciate. There are some news stories I am itching to use but they’re just too bizarre!


Any advice to anyone dreaming of becoming an author?

Write the book. It’s the simplest and hardest thing, to spend hundreds of hours on something that may come to nothing, and I think our sensible and logical brains try to stop us from doing that. It’s hard because it’s a hard thing to do, not because you’re rubbish at it or not meant to be doing with it.


Where do you get your writing inspiration from?

News stories, good writing, great TV dramas, and gossip.


What are you working on next?

I’m writing a book about two people who find themselves on either side of witness protection.


If, heaven forbid, there was a fire, what possession would you grab first to save?

I’m sad to say it would be my laptop containing my work in progress. Over all other things, including my cat. How embarrassing.


What five people, living or dead, would you choose to invite to a dinner party?

Zadie Smith, Lee Child, Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath and Michael Stipe from REM.

Gillian's new novel, The Evidence Against You, is out on 18 April 2019. It’s about a woman whose father murdered her mother. After serving 20 years for it, having been convicted due to overwhelming evidence, he gets out and tells her he didn’t do it. But is he telling the truth?

Thank you Gillian for taking part with in conversation with and I can't wait to read your new novel in April. 

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x

The Stranger Diaries

The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths

Published by Quercus

November 2018

Clare Cassidy is no stranger to tales of murder. As a literature teacher specialising in the Gothic writer R.M. Holland, she teaches a short course on them every year. Then Clare's life and work collide tragically when one of her colleagues is found dead, a line from an R.M. Holland story by her body. The investigating police detective is convinced the writer's works somehow hold the key to the case.

Not knowing who to trust, and afraid that the killer is someone she knows, Clare confides her darkest suspicions and fears about the case to her journal. Then one day she notices some other writing in the diary. Writing that isn't hers...

This is a stand-alone novel from Elly Griffiths, following on from her two successful series featuring Ruth Galloway and Stephens & Mephisto.  I already love her books so was excited to see how this would pan out - clue: I wasn't disappointed.

Our central character is Clare Cassidy, single parent, teacher and would-be author.  She works at a school where a long-dead author, the mysterious R.M.Holland used to live (think M.R.James).  Clare likes to read some of his spooky stories to her classes to help them improve their writing.  The start of the book sees the death of one of Clare's colleagues and a tantalising link to the writing of Holland. The police think that the killer may have a link to the school.  

Clare has a habit of keeping a diary and the police ask her to recall her friendship with Ella and of a particular event in both of their lives.  Flicking back through the diaries, Clare discovers some writing at the bottom of one of the pages - only the handwriting isn't hers!  Who wrote it, how did they get hold of her diary, and what do they want with Clare?

A second death occurs and the link to Holland is now firmly in place, as is a second diary note left for Clare.  It would seem that the killer is reading her diaries and is trying to protect Clare from those who may have upset her.  Clare doesn't know what to do, should she leave the school and take her daughter Georgia with her to protect her from this situation or by remaining at Talgarth High will it draw the killer out?

Elly Griffiths holds the tension with her settings, and even when Clare and Georgia escape up to Scotland, she keeps the atmosphere going.  I didn't guess who the killer was, though with hindsight I probably could have, but for me that isn't what the story is about.  It is about relationships, and keeping secrets, and emotions and how real life is affected by all of these.

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x

The Hunting Party

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

Published by Harper Collins

January 2019

In a remote hunting lodge, deep in the Scottish wilderness, old friends gather for New Year.

The beautiful one
The golden couple
The volatile one
The new parents
The quiet one
The city boy
The outsider

The victim.

Not an accident – a murder among friends.

A group of university friends spend New Years Eve at a remote lodge in the wilds of Scotland.  They spend every New Year together and this year it is Emma who has arranged the trip.  She is a veritable new-comer to the group, being Mark's girlfriend but she is determined to make an effort and create a memory no one will forget.  Things start badly when they discover that their train ticket seats aren't all together, but surely that's only a minor blip and won't spoil the actual trip itself.  When they arrive at the station they are greeted by Doug the gamekeeper and are prepped with the rules and regulations of being out in the wild, especially as the weather is about to get worse and they could be literally snowed in with no way in or out.  

The group have changed since their uni days, no one remains the same, and it is apparent from the offset that their is tension among them.  One couple have insisted on bringing their baby along, the men are all trying to be 'top dog' and well, something isn't sitting quite right amongst the girls either.  By the end of the trip one member of the party will be dead.  The question is who dies, and who killed them?

Lucy Foley brings up the whole question of friendships, and of whether these are sometimes maintained out of  the feeling of necessity rather than from an actual desire to want to remain friends.  There weren't many really likeable people in this story out of the group of friends, and I did spend most of the book wondering which of those was going to meet a gritty end - I wasn't sorry to learn who it was! Then came the next game - trying to work out who had killed them.  

The Hunting Party is a great atmospheric novel and worked well being set in the middle of nowhere to give it a darker edge.

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x

Cuckoo

Cuckoo by Sophie Draper

Published by Avon

November 2018

There’s a stranger in your house…

When her stepmother dies unexpectedly, Caro returns to her childhood home in Derbyshire. She hadn’t seen Elizabeth in years, but the remote farmhouse offers refuge from a bad relationship, and a chance to start again.

But going through Elizabeth’s belongings unearths memories Caro would rather stay buried. In particular, the story her stepmother would tell her, about two little girls and the terrible thing they do.

As heavy snow traps Caro in the village, where her neighbours stare and whisper, Caro is forced to question why Elizabeth hated her so much, and what she was hiding. But does she really want to uncover the truth?

I'll be honest here, I actually only started reading this book on Monday ready for the blog tour today but do you know what, I flew through this and really enjoyed it.  I will say, and this is not meant negatively at all, but how many books just lately are about women on their own in creepy houses?  Or is just that I keep reading about them because that's my favoured genre?!

Anyway, our central character Caro (never Caroline) learns that her evil stepmother Elizabeth has died tragically - an accidental falling over a banister (as if!) and she and her estranged sister Steph have inherited everything, including the old farmhouse that was once their family home in Derbyshire.  Caro is currently living in a friend's flat in London but with the tenancy up soon this seems to have come at the perfect time.  The house needs sorting out and as she is an artist she can work from Derbyshire as easily as she can from London so she travels up instantly.  Her sister lives in New York so Caro is on her own to deal with Elizabeth's belongings and it isn't long before living in the house once again starts to trigger some peculiar memories.  

The villagers aren't particularly warming towards her, and Caro can't figure out why, but the young and handsome neighbour Craig seems to have taken a shine to her and takes her under his wing.  After recently ending a relationship though, Caro is more than a little wary but as things in the house continue to go bump in the night, and stuff is moved around seemingly on its own, she soon realises she needs someone on her side.

Some of the book reminded me a little of Angela Carter's  The Bloody Chamber as Caro is illustrating a  fairy tale book called The Pear Drum and other dark tales from the Nursery, which the reader may not be surprised to learn her stepmother also had a pear drum with which she used to taunt Caro when she was younger.  There are some snippets of the stories within the book and they are equally as dark as the ones Carter writes about.

Is some of Cuckoo predictable?  Yes, probably.  However it kept me turning the pages throughout and actually I thought it had a pretty good twist of an ending which if you know me, I love.  I can't stand a poor conclusion to a book.  Cuckoo is also only 99p on Amazon Kindle in the UK so surely that makes it worth a read?

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x 

A House of Ghosts

A House of Ghosts by W.C.Ryan

Published by Bonnier Zaffre

October 2018

Winter 1917. As the First World War enters its most brutal phase, back home in England, everyone is seeking answers to the darkness that has seeped into their lives.

At Blackwater Abbey, on an island off the Devon coast, Lord Highmount has arranged a spiritualist gathering to contact his two sons who were lost in the conflict. But as his guests begin to arrive, it gradually becomes clear that each has something they would rather keep hidden. Then, when a storm descends on the island, the guests will find themselves trapped. Soon one of their number will die.

For Blackwater Abbey is haunted in more ways than one . . .

A House of Ghosts is one of those stories that is perfect for curling up in front of the fire with. Set on an island in the midst of winter in 1917, it is atmospheric and creepy (but not too scary).  We first meet Kate Cartwright and Captain Robert Donovan when they are both summoned by the Head of the Secret Intelligence Service (by a man known as C) to undertake a mission in espionage at Blackwood Abbey off of the coast of Devon.  Kate is known to the family as her parents are friends of the owner Lord Highmount, and with her (ex)-fiance Rolleson Miller-White, parents and Donovan (who is in role as a valet to Miller-White) head off for the island for a seance session in which Lord Highmount hopes to be able to contact his two sons who have been killed in France.  Kate's parents hope too to have some contact with their son Arthur, who is missing in action.

The weather, as you can imagine, is frightful and soon the islanders are cut off from the mainland.  Alongside those mentioned above, other members of the party include Madame Feda and Count Dimitri Orlov who both claim to be able to see and speak to the dead.  Little do they know that Kate also possesses the ability to see ghosts, and she is soon astounded by how many spirits are still gathered at Blackwater Abbey.  However, are the famed spiritualists all they claim to be?  The party also consists of Doctor Reid and his patient Private Albert Simms who is suffering from the effects of trench warfare.

Some plans have been stolen from the Highmounts who are responsible for manufacturing armaments to send to the front line, and it would appear that there is a person in the house who is prepared to kill to get their revenge, but who is it and can Kate and Donovan find out before their lives too are in danger? I thought this was a nice ghosts story and that it worked well.  It's been billed as a modern day Agatha Christie, and if you love her novels as I do, you won't be too disappointed by reading this I'm sure!

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x