All These Perfect Strangers by Aiofe Clifford

Blurb:

“This is about three deaths. Actually more, if you go back far enough. I say deaths but perhaps all of them were murders. It’s a grey area. Murder, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.”

Within six months of her arrival at a university campus, three of Penelope Sheppard’s new friends are dead. And only Pen knows why. This isn’t Pen’s first encounter with violence, and she’s an expert at keeping secrets—especially ones as dark and dangerous as her own.

Reputations have a way of haunting you—they’re easy to make, hard to shake. After Pen leaves her isolated hometown to escape the judgmental stares of her neighbors and carve out a new identity for herself, she’s free from the stigma of her past mistakes. At school, Pen is anonymous, surrounded by an eclectic collection of perfect strangers. But when someone begins to uncover the deadly secrets she thought she’d left behind, how far will Pen go to protect her new life?

Six months later, Pen is back home, the victim of a violent trauma and a pariah once again. Now, reluctantly, she must recount her story from start to finish: to her shrink, to the police, even to herself. Because until she tells the whole truth, there will be no escaping the past.

About the Author:

Aoife Clifford is the author of the novel All These Perfect Strangers, published in Australia (March 2016) and the United Kingdom (August 2016) by Simon & Schuster. It will be published by Penguin Random House in the United States (July 2016). It is available as an audiobook from Bolinda Audio.

Born in London of Irish parents, Aoife grew up in New South Wales, studied Arts/Law at the Australian National University, Canberra, and now lives in Melbourne.

She has won two premier short story prizes for crime fiction in Australia—the Scarlet Stiletto (2007) and the S.D. Harvey Ned Kelly Award in 2012, among other prizes. She has also been short listed for the UK Crime Association’s Debut Dagger. In 2014 she was awarded an Australian Society of Authors mentorship for her novel, All These Perfect Strangers.

Review:

I couldn’t quite decide whether or not I trusted Penelope Sheppard, and therefore, I couldn’t quite decide whether I liked her. She was a troubled child from a troubled home, who got into trouble with her best friend that culminated with the death of a cop, and the suicide of her friend. Then, when she arrives at university, people start dying around her. I was fairly certain Pen was not involved in the murders, but still, it took a long time for the whole story to unravel.

I think that’s the problem with All These Perfect Strangers. It takes place over a semester of school, partly as told to Pen’s shrink, partly as she remembers it, and it’s mixed with memories of the events leading up to the demise of the cop and her best friend’s suicide. And, it seemed to take that long to read it.

Furthermore, Ms. Clifford did not make it clear from the beginning the book took place in Australia. There was no hint in the blurb, and I was halfway through the book when she mentioned it was getting cold in April. I did a double-take, and went back a few pages to be sure I’d read right. Prior to that, I thought the book took place in England. A couple of chapters later, Ms. Clifford mentioned eucalyptus trees, and that confirmed it was in Australia. It would have helped to know what continent the book was on—indeed, what hemisphere it was in, much earlier.

Despite the somewhat slow pacing, not being sure of the heroine, and not realizing for half the book that it was in Australia rather than England, All These Perfect Strangers still held my attention. I did figure out much of what happened back home before Ms. Clifford revealed it, but I was surprised by “who dunnit” at school, and a couple of the details at home.

Just pick up the pace a bit, Ms. Clifford, and let people know where they are sooner. The blurb could maybe say, “…isolated outback town…” or “…isolated Australian town…,” and maybe the bus could travel through the outback, or New South Wales, or Queensland, or when she got to school maybe “the shrimp could have been gone from the barbie.” Something those of us reading up north could have identified with. Otherwise, All These Perfect Strangers is a pretty good read.

Author Website:  http://www.aoifeclifford.com/

Heat Rating:  R for Violence

Length:  416 Pages

Digital Price:  $3.99

Buy Link:  https://www.amazon.com/All-These-Perfect-Strangers-Novel-ebook/dp/B01A4ATVSW

Thanks for visiting.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Blurb:

Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. “Jess and Jason,” she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost.

And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in what happens next, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?

About the Author:

Paula Hawkins worked as a journalist for fifteen years before turning her hand to fiction.

Born and brought up in Zimbabwe, Paula moved to London in 1989 and has lived there ever since. The Girl on the Train is her first thriller.

Review by Rochelle:

Rachel is an alcoholic, taking the train into London where she wanders around during the day, spending time at the library, buying booze for the night, hoping no one will notice she’s been jobless for the past few months. She idealizes the couple she watches from the window of the train where it stops for a switch every morning, a few doors down from the dream home she shared with her ex-husband who still lives there with his new wife and baby.

“Jess and Jason” have everything Rachel used to have—until she witnesses Jess kissing another man. That night she gets off the train at the nearest stop, not sure what she plans to do. Waking up the next morning after having blacked out, Rachel reads that Jess, whose real name is Megan, disappeared last night. She goes to the police and tells them about the man she saw Megan kissing, and gets more deeply involved in the investigation than she ever intended to.

I have no idea how I ended up with this book. The fee for it showed up in my checking account and I thought if I wiped it from my Kindle I’d be able to return it. Well, that didn’t work. And somehow, while it disappeared from the list of books in my account, it stayed on my Kindle. So, I figured I may as well read it.

The Girl on the Train is told in first person from the point of view mainly of Rachel, but it also goes into Megan’s POV and her ex’s new wife Anne’s POVs as well. It delves into the guilt Rachel carries at not being able to remember the night of Megan’s death. She awoke with a head wound and blood on her hands. Did she kill Megan? Did she witness Megan’s murder? Is Megan still alive and off somewhere with her paramour? What can’t she remember and does she even want to?

I hate hype. I rarely push best-sellers. I figure they have enough support. But I have to give praise where praise is due. Well-drawn characters? These people’s secrets have secrets. Their layers have layers. The ending completely shocked and surprised me. Yeah, I’m jumping on the bandwagon. I highly recommend The Girl on the Train.

Heat Rating:  PG

Length:  326 Pages

Prices:

Print:

Hardcover  $13.47

Paperback:  $8.05

Digital:  $11.99

Buy Link:  http://www.amazon.com/Girl-Train-Novel-Paula-Hawkins-ebook/dp/B00L9B7IKE/ref=la_B0034Q4SHS_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450132026&sr=1-1

Thanks for visiting. Donna, Julie, & Rochelle

The Marco Effect: A Department Q Novel by Jussi Adler-Olsen

Blurb:

All fifteen-year-old Marco Jameson wants is to become a Danish citizen and go to school like a normal teenager. But his uncle Zola rules his former gypsy clan with an iron fist. Revered as a god and feared as a devil, Zola forces the children of the clan to beg and steal for his personal gain. When Marco discovers a dead body—proving the true extent of Zola’s criminal activities—he goes on the run. But his family members aren’t the only ones who’ll go to any lengths to keep Marco silent…forever.

Meanwhile, the last thing Detective Carl Mørck needs is for his assistants, Assad and Rose, to pick up a missing persons case on a whim: Carl’s nemesis is his new boss, and he’s saddled Department Q with an unwelcome addition. But when they learn that a mysterious teen named Marco may have as much insight into the case as he has fear of the police, Carl is determined to solve the mystery and save the boy. Carl’s actions propel the trio into a case that extends from Denmark to Africa, from embezzlers to child soldiers, from seemingly petty crime rings to the very darkest of cover-ups.

Review by Rochelle Weber:

I would have loved to have given The Marco Effect five roses, but it was full of head-hops—abrupt changes of point-of-view. Otherwise, it was a nail-biting chase through Africa, Copenhagen, and even a glimpse of Venezuela, with well-drawn characters. At the center, we have a cop and a thief—strange bedfellows, at best, but oddly with the same goal.

It is said that "the death of a single butterfly in the Amazon rainforest can cause a typhoon in Japan." In this case, Marco Jameson overhears his Uncle Zola planning to possibly maim him, because he’s beginning to look too healthy to beg effectively on the street. He learns the hit-and-run that left his adopted sister’s leg destroyed was not an accident, and decides he does not want to suffer the same fate. So he runs away from home and burrows in a hole near the grave of an animal. Marco stays there all night until he’s sure his family’s search for him has moved away from the area. Only, he’s not near the grave of an animal—he’s in the grave of a man. He eludes his family for a few years, and then comes upon a missing persons poster for a man called William Stark, and recognizes Stark as the corpse with whom he shared that night in the grave. He decides he needs to let the man’s daughter know what happened to him.

Meanwhile, Detective Carl Mørck’s assistants, Assad and Rose, pick up the missing persons case of William Stark. As the case takes them to the top of the Department of of Assistance, which would be something like the Foreign Affairs office of our State Department, and the top of one of the most respected banks in Denmark, they keep running across Marco—and wondering what this fifteen year-old homeless boy had to do with Stark. As he crosses paths with the police at one turn, his uncle’s henchmen at the next, and hit men he doesn’t even recognize, Marco tries to go deeper underground. He wants to flee Copenhagen, but he needs to do two things first. Tell Stark’s daughter where the man is buried, and get to his stash of saved-up escape money. But how can he manage to do either with the noose tightening around him?

Again, The Marco Effect was a great read except for the head-hops, which most readers probably wouldn’t notice. I highly recommend this book.

Length:  496 Pages

Prices:

Print:  $27.95

Digital:  $15.95

Audio CD:  $30.91

Audibel Unabridged (Non-Member):  $26.95

Buy Link:  http://www.penguin.com/book/the-marco-effect-by-jussi-adler-olsen/9780525954026

You’ll notice we always include the publisher’s buy link.  That’s because authors usually receive 40% of the cover price from the publisher.  Editors and cover artists usually receive about 5%.  When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the author, editors and cover artists receive their royalties from what is left.  So, if a book costs $5.99 at E-Book Publisher.com and you buy from there, the author will receive about $2.40.  If you buy the book at Amazon, the author will receive about $0.83.

Downloading the file from your computer to your Kindle is as easy as transferring any file from your computer to a USB flash drive. Plug the larger USB end of your chord into a USB port on your computer and simply move the file from your “Downloads” box to your Kindle/Documents/Books directory. You can download your books onto your computer using “Save As” to a “Books” file you create and sort them into sub-folders by genre, author, or however you wish before transferring them to your Kindle. That way, if there’s a glitch with your Kindle, the books are on your computer. Your author will be happy you did when he/she sees his/her royalty statement.

Thanks for visiting. Rose, Julie, Donna, & Rochelle