Book Review: There Was an Old Woman by Hallie Ephron

There Was an Old Woman: What it is about

What the publishers say: “There Was An Old Woman by Hallie Ephron is a compelling novel of psychological suspense in which a young woman becomes entangled in a terrifying web of deception and madness involving an elderly neighbor.

When Evie Ferrante learns that her mother has been hospitalized, she finds her mother’s house in chaos. Sorting through her mother’s belongings, Evie discovers objects that don’t quite belong there, and begins to raise questions.

Evie renews a friendship with Mina, an elderly neighbor who might know more about her mother’s recent activities, but Mina is having her own set of problems: Her nephew Brian is trying to persuade her to move to a senior care community. As Evie investigates her mother’s actions, a darker story of deception and madness involving Mina emerges.”

There Was an Old Woman: What I thought

This was a great novel of suspense. I especially liked the story around Mina, the elderly neighbor, who seems to have become much more forgetful recently, and gets into some seriously dangerous situations. But she is a very alert 90-year old and as a reader, I was thinking that maybe someone was playing tricks on her. Was it that nephew, trying to get her into a home?

It was also very unclear how Evie’s mother had become so rich recently, that she didn’t even need to cash in her pension cheques. And why was there such a mess in her house? Bit by bit, Evie (and the reader) find clues to a story that is much bigger than she could have imagined.

There was a sub-story in which Evie, because of her work, interviews Mina about her memories of the Empire State Building, where a historical event took place that Mina played a part in. This was not so interesting, I thought, as it had hardly any bearing on the rest of the (mystery) story. It was also a little too thin a storyline and thus didn’t add much to the book.

But overall, I absolutely loved the story. I got frustrated together with Mina, as she was seen as an old lady who was nuisance to her neighbors and ripe for a care home that she didn’t want to go to. Evie was a believable character too, with a love-hate relationship with her mother which I found very understandable given the past. Very enjoyable, a fast read – because you have to know what’s going on before you close the book!

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Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Number of pages: 303

First published: 2013

I got this: from the publishers (Uncorrected e-proof)

Genre: thriller

Book Review: Dark Tide by Elizabeth Haynes

I read Haynes’  previous book, Into the Darkest Corner, which I thought was very good. So I was very keen to read this new book.

Dark Tide: What it is about

Genevieve has a dull but well-paying sales job in London. Her dream is to own a houseboat and live on it for a while. She needs quite a bit of money to realise her dream and in order to speed things up, she takes a job as a pole- and lap-dancer at an exclusive club.

When the book begins, Genevieve has bought her boat and is in the process of doing it up. Her father was a carpenter and taught her enough so that she can do her own refurbishments. One night she gives a boat-warming party for her new boating friends and her friends from London. One London friend, Caddie, doesn’t show up at the party, but is found drowned in the water the next morning.

Genevieve suspects her past at the pole-dance club is catching up with her. Her reluctance to divulge this past to the police brings her in danger. A friendly police officer tries to help and protect her.

Dark Tide: What I thought

This was an thrilling story, with danger around the corner almost from the beginning. Genevieve was a bit more trusting of the people around her than I was, which made the story more scary for me than for her. She was not easy to identify with because of the tough person she was. She lived alone on a houseboat, had been pole-dancing in  a shady club and was doing carpentry to fix up her boat. All things that I could not imagine myself ever doing.

I didn’t enjoy the pole-dance setting at first, but this became better as I got to know the people at the club and knew who could be trusted or not. The eventual resolution of the story was a little far-fetched but I liked the tension in the story, with Genevieve never knowing whether she’d have a quiet night on the boat or whether people would break in or otherwise disturb her night. The presence of the police officer some of the time helped, but I wasn’t sure he could be trusted.

A good and quick read full of suspense.

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Rating: 4 (out of 5)

Number of pages: 400

First published: 2012

I got this book: for review from Harper Perennial via Edelweiss (ebook)

Genre: thriller

Extra: See my review of Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes

Have you read this book?

What did you think?

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Book Review: The Treatment by Mo Hayder

I love a good thriller, and I can tell you: this is one!

The Treatment: What it is about

From the inside cover: “It is the middle of the summer in Brockwell Park, a pleasant residential area in London. Behind the placid facade of one house, a man and his wife lie tied up and imprisoned in their own home. When they are discovered, badly dehydrated and bearing the marks of a brutal beating, they reveal one final horror: Their young son has disappeared.

Called in to investigate, Jack Cafferty uses all the tricks of the forensic investigator’s trade to piece together the scanty clues at the crime scene. But the echoes of a heartrending disappearance in his own past make it almost impossible for him to view the crime with scientific detachment. As Jack digs deeper, attempting to hold his own life together as the disturbing parallels between past and present mount, the real nightmares begin.”

The Treatment: What I thought

This was my first thriller by Mo Hayder and it was very good. There was a sense of urgency all through the book because the reader knows a second crime is being committed. Will the police be on time to help the people involved?

Jack, the forensic investigator, is really not the ideal person for the job – his own brother disappeared many years ago and Jack has always suspected a local man who is considered a paedophile. I think in reality he would never have been allowed to work on the current case, so that was a little contrived, I thought. On the other hand, it made a nice parallel between the old and current story lines.

I also felt a little mislead regarding the identity of the kidnapper, but this was not a big problem for the enjoyment of reading the book.

Otherwise, this was a fantastic story that kept me on the edge of my seat all the time. I liked the details of the crime – for originality, that is. Also, the motivation behind the crime was very clever and original.

Rating: 5 (out of 5)

Number of pages: 358

First published: 2001

I got this book: from a book swap

Genre: thriller

Have you read this book?

Did you enjoy it?

Book Review: Prior Bad Acts by Tami Hoag

This book was on my to-be-read shelves for ages! I got it from a book swap last year. So, when packing for holiday this summer, I decided to take some of my neglected books, and this was one of them. It made a great read on a lounger at the hotel swimming pool!

Prior Bad Acts: What it is about

A woman and her two children are brutally murdered in their own house. A vagrant, Karl, who had been receiving handouts from the woman, is apprehended and stands trial for the murder. The first step in the trial is to decide whether Karl’s previous convictions (for much minor crimes) can be taken into account by the jury. The judge, Carey Moore, says they can’t, which immediately makes her very unpopular with a number of people, amongst which the arresting officer, Stan Dempsey, who has become obsessed with the case, and also with the father of the victims, who now lives in the house with just his remaining son.

On the way to her car that evening, Carey is attacked in the parking garage. Investigating officer Sam Kovac is initially very much anti the against-the-grain judge but helps her home and discovers that her husband isn’t very interested in her well-being and may himself have ordered the attack.

Further investigation uncovers more bad behaviour from the husband, and also, the reader finds out more about Stan Dempsey, who is up to no good, and Karl, who escapes from prison and is also not up to much good.

Prior Bad Acts: What I thought

This was a solid thriller. Judge Carey was a strong character, not exactly likeable until later in the book, but I liked how she dealt with the situation she found herself in. Officer Sam was a flawed person too, but keen to prove that Carey’s husband was behind the attack in the parking lot.

We also get to see the story from the viewpoint of Karl, who escapes from prison, and Stan Dempsey, who is more obsessed than we initially can imagine.

Some of the story is over the top, for instance Casey’s husband was rather too uninterested in his wife even when she was beaten up, and Stan and Karl go too far in order to get what they want – a little over the top. But in all, a very enjoyable read.

Rating: 4 (out of 5)

Number of pages: 384 (Dutch edition)

First published: 2006

I got this book: from a book swap

Genre: thriller

Have you read this book?

Did you enjoy it?

Book Review: Blood Lure by Nevada Barr

Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Number of pages: 330
First published: 2001
I got this book: from the library (in Dutch: Bloedspoor) for my Reading Around the USA in 90 Days challenge
Genre: thriller

Blood Lure: What it is about

Anna Pigeon is a park ranger in Mississippi but is currently doing work experience in Glacier National Park in Montana. There she works with a grizzly bear expert, Joan, and a student volunteer, Rory, to study the grizzlies in the park.

Then, one night, while camping out, they hear a bear bear their tent and not much later discover that Rory has disappeared (from his own tent). When looking for him the next day, they find the body of his stepmother, who was camping in the park with Rory’s father.

Anna suspects more or less anyone, and it takes some antecedents research and clver combining of information by her to get closer to the truth. But even then she can’t quite guess what is really going on in the park. In a dramatic event towards the end of the book, all becomes clear.

Blood Lure: What I thought

This book was an OK read, but I found that too much was explained and too little was left to the reader to figure out. That made some of of the text a bit tedious (with mental remarks by me such as “Yes, I got that, no need to explain!”).  The writing style as such was nice and fluent.

Also the story line wasn’t all that strong. Some things were a little unbelievable. For instance, at some point, Anna strongly suspecrs Rory of the killing but she doesn’t try very hard to stop Joan from going on a camping trip with him, and no one else. And although Anna believes the killer is still in the park, she hikes through the woods all by herself.

I very much enjoyed the descriptions of the nature (the woods, the mountains) and the bits of knowledge I learned about bear research, bear habits and national parks in general.

This was the ninth book in the Anna Pigeon series, but it didn’t feel necessary to read them in order. There are 17 (!) books in this series overall. I may read another one when I feel like something light, but it’s not high on the list.

Book Review: Sister by Rosamund Lupton

This book has had some positive reviews on blogs that I value (but also some less favorable reviews) and I was keen to read this thriller when I saw it at the library.

I enjoyed the book but not so much as some of my blog friends.

Sister: What it is about

Beatrice’s sister Tess is missing and later found dead in an abandoned toilet building in a park in London. Beatrice, who lives in New York, flies back to England as soon as her mother calls her about her missing sister.

Beatrice moves into Tess’ apartment while waiting for news of Tess. She talks to a few of Tess’ friends and her lover. It turns out Tess’, who had been expecting a baby soon, gave birth to a stillborn baby only a few days before she went missing. When Tess is found, apparently having killed herself, Beatrice investigates the matter, as she cannot imagine her sister doing such a thing.

She goes to the police a few times with new information, but none of it is strong enough for them to take action. After suspecting several different people, she closes in on the killer. But will Beatrice get a chance to tell her story to others before the killer gets to her?

Sister: What I thought

This wasn’t as fantastic as I had been made to believe, but it was still a very decent mystery that I enjoyed reading. However, the story left me a little ambivalent. Although I happily read it when I felt like reading, I was not thinking about the story when I wasn’t reading and I was in no hurry to find out who Tess’ killer was.

The story isn’t told in a straight forward way: we have Beatrice recount to (the no longer living) Tess what she told Mr Wright, a lawyer of the public prosecution. What she tells is the story of what happened to her, Beatrice, from the moment she heard about Tess gone missing, to the arrest of the killer.

Sometimes this was confusing – it wasn’t always clear whether what was happening was happening in the now or was something that happened before. Also, I wasn’t sure why she had to tell Wright absolutely everything that happened, including her thoughts and feelings (although later, this becomes clear).

The solution of the story, who had killed Tess and why, was a little far-fetched although the whole story around it was fun.

The book was a easy-going read, that lent itself very well for reading a bit and putting down again (there was no need to concentrate deeply on the book or ‘getting back into it’ after putting it down). I was never on the edge of my chair but I did feel sympathetic enough towards Beatrice that I wanted her to solve this crime.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I got this book: from the library

I read this in: Dutch (Zusje), the original language is English

Number of pages: 352

First published: 2010

Genre: mystery, thriller

Book Review: Beneath the Shadows by Sara Foster

Rating: 4/5
Number of pages: 320
First published: 2012 (June 5th)
Genre: thriller
I got this book: for review from Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press, via Netgalley (ebook)

I love a good thriller and the idea of a remote village in the Yorkshire moors appeals to me. I’ve been in places like that myself, walking, cycling and driving, so I have a good idea what it looks like. This is a really nice thriller, more spooky than gruesome.

Beneath the Shadows: What it is about

Description from the publishers: “When Grace’s husband, Adam, inherits an isolated North Yorkshire cottage, they leave the bustle of London behind to try a new life. A week later, Adam vanishes without a trace, leaving their baby daughter, Millie, in her stroller on the doorstep.

The following year, Grace returns to the tiny village on the untamed heath.  Everyone—the police, her parents, even her best friend and younger sister—is convinced that Adam left her. But Grace, unable to let go of her memories of their love and life together, cannot accept this explanation.  She is desperate for answers, but the slumbering, deeply superstitious hamlet is unwilling to give up its secrets.

As Grace hunts through forgotten corners of the cottage searching for clues, and digs deeper into the lives of the locals, strange dreams begin to haunt her. Are the villagers hiding something, or is she becoming increasingly paranoid? Only as snowfall threatens to cut her and Millie off from the rest of the world does Grace make a terrible discovery. She has been looking in the wrong place for answers all along, and she and her daughter will be in terrible danger if she cannot get them away in time.”

Beneath the Shadows: What I thought

I liked the description, I liked the cover, and… I liked the book!

I mean, cottage in a remote village in Yorkshire, creaking floorboards, dark corners, a grandfather clock that stops ticking and then starts again by itself, weird neighbours, old letters, a handsome stranger? It all makes for a great story.

When Grace returns to the cottage a year after her husband goes missing, she finds some clues that suggest he didn’t just run off (not that she’d thought he had, really). But who can she trust in her investigations?

The story was built up very well. I suspected several different people to have been involved in either Adam’s disappearance or in making Grace’s life unbearable while she was cleaning out the cottage. While I couldn’t have guessed the final outcome, it wasn’t too abrupt, it fitted the story well.

I did feel a little manipulated by the author, as there were some moments where I felt the author really wanted the reader to take note of certain happenings, while I was at the same time wondering whether these would turn out to be a red herring.

I was amazed that this snowy, freezing, Christmassy book made such a good read on a warm spring day! I was able to imagine myself in wintery Yorkshire very easily.

I think lots of thriller fans will enjoy this book. If you are a fan of old, creaking cottages and dark family secrets, this is a book for you!