JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

The Confession by Jo Spain

You find out who did it on the very first page.On the last page, you’ll find out why.

Late one night a man walks into the luxurious home of disgraced banker Harry McNamara and his wife Julie. The man launches an unspeakably brutal attack on Harry as a horror-struck Julie watches, frozen by fear. Just an hour later the attacker, JP Carney, has handed himself in to the police. He confesses to beating Harry to death, but JP claims that the assault was not premeditated and that he didn’t know the identity of his victim.

With a man as notorious as Harry McNamara, the detectives cannot help wondering, was this really a random act of violence or is it linked to one of Harry’s many sins: corruption, greed, betrayal?

The Confession by Jo Spain is an absolute page turner — a gripping psychological thriller that will leave you guessing for the entire book.

This book is not about trying to discover who committed the crime; it’s about discovering why they committed the crime. The reader ventures into the story knowing everything about the present. Harry is a disgraced banker and together, he and his wife Julie hold many secrets. And then JP bashes Harry late one night and it seems like it was for no reason.

Over the course of the novel, we are thrown into both the past and the present. We are taken back years to when Julie and Harry first met, and we discover all about their marriage troubles and Harry’s indiscretions and the crimes he committed whilst the CEO of his bank.

In the present, Alice is the detective assigned to the case and she’s having trouble believing that JP’s assault was not premeditated. She delves deeper into Harry’s past in an attempt to uncover his secrets.

The plot and structure of the book allows for an addictive read. Just when you’re reading about Harry and Julie’s wedding and the suspicious activities going on, you’re then thrust back into the present where Alice is uncovering evidence about the attack. The way this book is written means that I was desperate to keep going, and eager to get to the end of each thread to find out what happened.

“Toby was wrong. Harry wasn’t back within the week. I let him stew for a whole month…I was consumed with guilt but too full of self-pity and heartbreak to do anything about it.”

None of the characters in this book are likeable. Harry is manipulative and controlling. He may never physically harm Julie, but he does mentally. He is incredibly conniving, lying to her and twisting his words. He also encourages her to work less so that they can spend more time together, but then he isn’t home with her and she has to spend a lot of time alone. Additionally, Julie struggles to get pregnant for the years that they are together and Harry grows incredibly distant. Soon, Julie grows paranoid and becomes an alcoholic.

Julie is a weak character. She is portrayed as a person who has been so manipulated by her husband that she chooses to turn a blind eye to his bad behaviour. However, I felt like the characterisation wasn’t really there. Instead of really showing us how Julie has been brainwashed by Harry, Jo Spain tells us through Julie’s internal monologues. There’s a point in the novel where it’s really obvious that Harry is cheating on her and yet Julie decides not to witness it because once she witnesses it, then it becomes real.

“I knew I was being a coward, but I couldn’t bear physical witness to my husband cheating. I’d wait until he came back and confront him,once I’d got everybody out of the house. Once I’d summoned up the courage.”

As you can guess, she never really does confront him. She prefers to act blind to it, even though this doesn’t fit the character she was first introduced to us as. At the beginning of the novel, she’s portrayed as a strong character who refuses to be pushed around. But there seems to be no transition into this weak, timid character. Straight away, she’s being cowardice and it makes no sense to the reader. It’s actually incredibly frustrating. And then Julie says things like this and I realise she’s actually my least favourite character in the entire book:

“She’s not an ugly woman, I realize, despite her pear shape. Her hair is awful, sure. Greasy and thin, an insipid brown scraped back in a severe, unforgiving ponytail. But her face is very pleasant.”

I definitely think the second half of the book is stronger than the first half. Until about midway through the book, the reader is still blind to a lot of things, so I felt a little in the dark. Plus, Julie is so unlikable and at times I wish she were the one who was attacked. But as you read the second half of the book and Harry’s manipulation grows and Julie’s state of mind fractures even further, the details of JP’s history comes to light. We start to understand why he was there that night and how his life intersected with Julie and Harry’s. And the ending is rather satisfying.

I read this book in a matter of days. Once I’d hit that turning point halfway through the novel where things started to fall into place, I was desperate to get to the end. If you love crime and thriller novels, then you’ll love this. Just be warned: you won’t warm to any of the characters and Julie is just as frustrating as she is naive.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Confession
Jo Spain
January 2018
Hachette Publishers

Fallow by Daniel Shand

Two brothers elude a press witching by hiding out in the remote wilds of highland Scotland. As they travel, they move from one disturbing scenario to the next, eventually involving themselves with a bizarre religious cult. The power between the brothers begins to shift, and we realise there is more to their history.

One of them is a murderer. But it’s the other you have to watch out for…

Fallow is a darkly comic novel about the evolving relationship between two brothers — Paul and Mikey — and the terrible crime that both of them were involved in when they were young boys. This is a tense psychological thriller, deliberately making the reader feel uneasy and anxious about what is to come.

“My main concern that morning had been the tube of newspaper jammed into Sam’s armpit. I wasn’t able to make out the title but if it was a tabloid then Mikey was almost certainly somewhere inside.”

The cover of Fallow is incredibly striking, with orange and brown colours and a single image of a stag in an open field. It’s an inviting book, and I was intrigued. Fallow is under three hundred pages, so it doesn’t take too long to read the entire thing — in fact, I imagine some readers would be able to get through it in one sitting.

Fallow explores unreliable narration, manipulation and control. Paul lies and twists his explanation of events in order to control Mikey. In some parts of the novel, Micky commits horrific acts because he thinks he needs to, even though he doesn’t. Paul has lied to him and made Mikey fearful, to the point where Mikey has committed a crime for no reason.

And then, because of this, Paul has yet another thing that he can hold over Mikey. It’s a twisted relationship because Mikey feels guilty, but also confused. And over the course of the novel, he starts feeling indebted to Paul, even though he doesn’t need to.

“Mikey reached over and got him by the head and neck and I pulled his legs out from beneath him and we held his body and pushed and carried him out into the deeper water…we held the body until the water held it by itself.”

The strengths are Daniel’s writing. The prose flows so well and the imagery is beautiful. Just one sentence can say so much about the relationship between these two brothers; Daniel Shand has a real talent for using as few words as possible to convey the most meaning.

There are a few things about this novel that I know some readers won’t like. The pace is deliberately slow, to draw out the characterisation and to force the reader to anticipate what’s coming next. The plot is also a little stagnant, so there are a few times in the book where I was wondering where the story is going and why certain events were important to the overall plot.

But, the writing is beautiful and the two main characters are incredibly well-crafted and three-dimensional. Daniel Shand has done an excellent job of characterisation through actions, attitudes and dialogue.

I recommend Fallow to literary fiction lovers. Yes, there’s a fair bit of crime in the book. But it’s not your average crime or thriller novel. It’s a slow build, and it’s more character driven than plot driven. Some of you might be wondering what the point of it all is, but the ending to this novel is just extraordinary. It was surprising but also satisfying. This is a novel you have to stick with until the end.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Fallow
Daniel Shand
January 2018
Pan Macmillan Publishers

The Cull by Tony Park

One mission… countless enemies.

Former mercenary Sonja Kurtz is hired by business tycoon Julianne Clyde-Smith to head an elite squad. Their aim: to take down Africa’s top poaching kingpins and stop at nothing to save its endangered wildlife.

But as the body count rises, it becomes harder for Sonja to stay under the radar as she is targeted by an underworld syndicate known as The Scorpions.

When her love interest, safari guide and private investigator Hudson Brand, is employed to look into the death of an alleged poacher at the hands of Sonja’s team, she is forced to ask herself if Julianne’s crusade has gone too far.

From South Africa’s Kruger National Park to the Serengeti of Tanzania, Sonja realises she is fighting a war on numerous fronts, against enemies known and unknown.

So who can Sonja really trust?

The Cull is a heart-racing thriller from former army officer and bestselling author Tony Park — this is his 14th novel and once again he’s transported a real-life ‘wildlife war’ onto the pages of a novel.

This is the third novel with protagonist Sonja Kurtz, although I haven’t read the first two (The Delta and An Empty Coast) and I was able to read this book just fine, so The Cull definitely works as a standalone novel.

Sonja is resourceful, intelligent, observant and equipped to handle everything that she comes across in the African wilderness. She’s in Africa training women in an Anti-Poaching unit and they are ambushed by well-armed poachers. Two women in the team end up dead.

“Paterson watched the others. The TANAPA ranger, a young man, looked shaken. Ezekial, the preacher’s son, deliberately avoided eye contact with him and strode away. Tema walked with the fluid gait and cold stare of a leopard slinking through the long grass.”

Afterwards, wealthy businesswoman Julianne Clyde-Smith meets with Sonja and offers her a job — she wants to take down the poaching kingpins that are overtaking the African wildlife. She wants to find out who is at the top of these organisations and destroy them from the source. But once Sonja accepts the job and employs an exclusive team to help her, she realises that there’s a lot more to this job than Julianne let on. The team are suddenly entangled in a dangerous and deadly war between them and a poaching mob named The Scorpions.

“This wasn’t Sonja’s fight but her people were under fire. She could see Ezekiel lying on the ground, frantically pulling clubs from Julianne Clyde-Smith’s golf bag.”

Sonja is a fantastic protagonist. She’s really skilled and trustworthy, and she leads her team with strength and determination. At the same time, Sonja is a bit flawed. She can be a bit awkward, and she’s in a sort-of relationship with Hudson Brand and she really loves him but doesn’t act accordingly sometimes. She jumps to conclusions and makes assumptions and for a while it’s hard for the relationship to stay stable.

“Sonja sighed. She really had made a mess of this. She regretted bringing Mario onto the team, and what had gone on between them, but she was sure he would be enough of a gentleman not to put her on the spot. She had made this bed and would have to lie in it, with both of these handsome dark-haired men.”

There are plenty of sub plots throughout the novel to keep the reader engaged and entertained. The side characters are just an intriguing as Sonja, and I really enjoyed reading this book. It’d be a great Father’s Day gift, especially if your dad reads crime or thriller novels like James Patterson.

“Hudson left his camera and made for a stone pillar supporting the terrace roof and ducked behind it. Three men, each wearing a balaclava and armed with an AK-47, burst out into the restraint terrace. ‘Everybody down.’
People screamed.
The man who had given the order pointed his rifle at a family.”

Finally, Tony Park does a fantastic job of describing the African wildlife. His prose is rich with detailed description and imagery, and the reader can easily imagine everything that’s happening even if he/she has never been to Africa before.

I’d recommend The Cull to lovers of crime, thriller and adventure novels. It’s heavily embedded in African wildlife and the politics of poaching in the wilderness, so you’d have to be interested in reading about that or this may not be the book for you.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Cull
Tony Park
October 2017
Pan Macmillan Publishers

Did You See Melody? by Sophie Hannah

Pushed to breaking point, Cara Burrows abandons her home and family and escapes to a five-star spa resort she can’t afford. Late at night, exhausted and desperate, she lets herself into her hotel room and is shocked to find it already occupied – by a man and a teenage girl.

A simple mistake on the part of the hotel receptionist – but Cara’s fear intensifies when she works out that the girl she saw alive and well in the hotel room is someone she can’t possibly have seen: the most famous murder victim in the country, Melody Chapa, whose parents are serving life sentences for her murder.

Cara doesn’t know what to trust: everything she’s read and heard about the case, or the evidence of her own eyes. Did she really see Melody? And is she prepared to ask herself that question and answer it honestly if it means risking her own life?

Did You See Melody? is a crime novel that solves a cold case murder in the United States. Cara is swept up in the mystery when she takes some time away from her family for a break, and discovers that a young girl in the resort was supposedly murdered years earlier.

I’m going to have to walk past the two men in order to look natural. I slow my pace, hoping to hear some of their conversation, but it’s no use. The detective spotted me straight away and is saying things he’s decided it’s okay for me to hear: ‘Thanks for your help’ and ‘Worth a try, whatever the odds.’

Whilst the premise of the novel is intriguing and engaging, the characters are the weakest aspect of the novel. My favourite character was resort guest Tarin Fry because she was sharp, witty, confident and hilarious. But I felt like the other characters fell short. Bonnie Juno seemed like a stereotypical talk show host whose opinion was one-sided and whose presence in any scene was overbearing. Tarin’s daughter Zellie is spoilt and unlikable, popping up in the story when she really isn’t needed (Sophie could’ve cut her out of the story and it probably wouldn’t have made a difference).

And Cara Burrows is actually a really rubbish character — a weak, self-absorbed woman who I didn’t care for at all. She takes most of her family’s life savings and ditches them because they weren’t happy about her pregnancy. And the real reason she was unhappy was because no one asked her how she felt about the pregnancy. Any woman with a bit more backbone would’ve stood up for herself. Her whole backstory didn’t make much sense to me, and I lost respect for her within the first couple of pages:

“As I swim, I have an idea. I’m going to take some photos on the iPad Mason lent me and post them on Instagram, like I might if I were on a normal holiday, so that Jess and Olly can see I’m having a good time and there’s nothing to worry about.”

She ditches her family for two weeks but communicates with her kids via Instagram? She desperately wants to be alone for two weeks, but while she’s at the resort all she talks about is her kids and how she’s worried what they think of her. It’s kind of jolting when you’re reading it.

Another downside to the book was that it was overwritten. The first 50 pages are really slow because Sophie spends pages and pages describing the spa and the hotel. I thought I was settling in for a crime/thriller novel and yet the beginning of the book feels like a chick lit novel.

The premise of the novel is strong, and I kept reading the book because I was intrigued enough to want to find out what happens at the end. The novel switches back and forth between present day prose, to previously published newspaper articles and interview transcripts for Bonnie Juno’s show.

KH: Then, according to you, the Chapas planted the sock in Kristie Reville’s car, and also later moved it to Melody’s school bag?
BJ: Absolutely
KH: So they got lucky twice? Kristie Reville left her car unlocked twice, at two very opportune moments for Annette and Naldo Chapa?

There is a much larger mystery behind Melody’s disappearance, and it’s enjoyable reading the book trying to figure out who might be responsible.

“The sound of the key turning, the door opening: scrape, click, creak. I’ve taught myself to keep still when I hear these familiar noises. They don’t mean I’m going anywhere, or that anything will change.”

Whilst I kept reading so that I could find out the answer to the mystery, I still felt let down by this novel. I wouldn’t recommend this to crime fiction fiends. You’ll probably find yourselves disappointed. I would recommend this novel to readers who like to float between genres and aren’t too fussed with what they read, and who like a bit of mystery but aren’t overly loyal to it.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Did You See Melody?
Sophie Hannah
September 2017
Hachette Book Publishers

After I’ve Gone by Linda Green

On a wet Monday in January, Jess Mount checks Facebook and discovers her timeline appears to have skipped forward 18 months, to a day when shocked family and friends are posting heartbreaking tributes to her following her death in an accident. Jess is left scared and confused: is she the target of a cruel online prank or is this a terrifying glimpse of her true fate?

Amongst the posts are photos of a gorgeous son she has not yet conceived. But when new posts suggest her death was deliberate, Jess realises that if she changes the future to save her own life, the baby boy she has fallen in love with may never exist.

After I’ve Gone is a gripping new thriller about a young girl who knows she will be dead in 18 months’ time, but doesn’t know how it happens or even how to stop it.

Jess Mount, the protagonist of the story, is 22 years old and is enjoying life. She isn’t stressed about love or her career, and she’s carefree. She works at the local movie theatres with her best friend and she lives with her dad. The two are very close. She lives a pretty quiet life, and she doesn’t anticipate that her life will change anytime soon.

When she meets Lee, she falls in love instantly. He’s older than her, but he’s charming, sweet, caring and he wins over everyone with his personality. Jess meets his mother Angela and she really warms to Jess. But as her Facebook timeline fills up with posts from the future, Jess learns that Leo has been charged with her murder. And the case is going to trial. She can’t believe that the man she’s falling in love with could be responsible for her death.

“My heart is hammering against my chest, as if trying to alert me of the impending danger. My eyes, when I see them reflected in the wardrobe mirrors, are wild and staring. My whole body is trembling. I do not want to believe this. I do not want my happiness spoilt. Whoever is doing this, and however they are doing it, they are doing it on purpose to hurt me. I know that.”

When Jess tries to show her best friend Sadie the Facebook posts, Sadie can’t see anything. She just sees Jess’ normal timeline. So Jess can’t do anything but continue to watch as loved ones post tributes to her.

“The photo I am looking at is of me and Lee on our wedding day. I know Photoshop is good, but it is not that good. You can’t play around with something that isn’t there. This isn’t a case of airbrushing something out, this is the creation of something that has not happened.”

I think the strengths of this book lie with the characters, and the writing. Linda Green has done a wonderful job of bringing Jess to life. She’s young and at times immature, and quite naive. She is determined to alter her fate, but doesn’t want to risk losing her son. Sadie is also a fantastic character. She’s determined, fierce, bold and whenever she and Jess are in a scene together they’ve got great dynamic. She’s incredibly loyal to Jess and is very compassionate. She’s protective of her, and in her Facebook posts to Jess’ timeline in the future, she’s determined to uncover the truth about Jess’ death.

I think the pacing was one of the weaknesses in the book. The first half of the book was really slow. Jess knew that she was going to die in 18 months’ time and because of photos and stories being posted on her timeline, she knew about certain events before they happened. And yet, when the events came to play before her, she let them happen? I thought she’d be a bit more defiant and would try to alter the timeline a lot more. Instead, I think she tried maybe twice and then gave up rather easily.

The ending is quite obvious and I picked it in the first fifty pages of the book. The twist wasn’t really a twist. Additionally, scattered throughout the book are chapters that are written in past tense. They document a time in Jess’ life after her mother died and she felt a little lost with life. Her best friend and her dad helped her, and she was able to recover from her breakdown. Truthfully, I don’t think these chapters were needed. Jess’ dad and best friend both mention this time in her life at various points throughout the book, and so I actually found myself skimming those chapters.

This book may be a thriller and it may be a case of ‘whodunnit’ but it is also an exploration into domestic violence. Linda has done an exceptional job of really capturing what it’s like for a domestic violence victim, getting drawn into the web of their abuser and being unable to leave without the fear of being harmed (of their loved ones being harmed).

For anyone who is about to read this book, I really recommend you read the author’s note at the end. It’s incredibly moving. The motivation behind the book and the research that went into the book were particularly fascinating.

“Thirty per cent of domestic violence starts or gets worse when a woman is pregnant. When, twenty years ago, I relayed the findings of a survey on this from a local women’s refuge, my news editor, said, ‘Yeah that’s because the men have got more to aim for’. When I objected to this ‘joke’ I was told that feminists lack a sense of humour.”

I recommend this book to readers who love thriller novels. I picked the ending of this pretty early on, but I know some readers who didn’t. This book has many layers, and the author has evidently done her research. It’s incredibly well-written.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

After I’ve Gone
Linda Green
August 2017
Hachette Book Publishers

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