*Book review* One for the Nordic Noir fans...

I'm not a fan of Nordic Noir books - it just isn't a genre I enjoy. But my friend Laura from the fab foodie blog, A Second Serving, does love it and raved about Kristina Ohlsson's, The Chosen so much that I asked her to review it for me. And she kindly obliged…  

On a cold winter's day, a pre-school teacher is shot to death in front of parents and children at the Jewish school in Stockholm. Just a few hours later, two boys go missing on their way to tennis practice. A heavy snowstorm hits the city and the traces of the perpetrator are few and far between. 

Fredrika Bergman and Alex Recht are faced with one of their toughest challenges ever as they hunt for a killer who is merciless as he is effective. The leads are diverse, but all point to the same place: Israel. And someone called the Paper Boy keeps popping up in the police investigation. But who is this mysterious figure? Could he possibly have resurfaced in Stockholm, now claiming new victims? 

Laura says: The Chosen is a Swedish no. 1 bestseller and I can see why as it's tense, dense and incredibly atmospheric. 

This is the fifth book in the Bergman and Recht series, something I didn't realise before starting! Although this is an entirely new story, it felt like there were a lot of characters which meant it could get a bit confusing – if I'd read from the start it might have made things easier. 

Despite that, The Chosen was an excellent read in the Nordic-crime genre. It's a complicated story about revenge and has a real labyrinthine of a plot with its roots in the past and also the present. Interestingly, you know the ending of the story from the very start as the novel jumps around in time but you're still kept guessing the whole way through. It has a great ending too, with a fabulous twist, one that left me with a lump in my throat. 

Despite being quite a complicated read I was thoroughly engaged by the story and would recommend to others who enjoy this type of crime fiction. 

Sound like your cup of tea? Buy it here… 

A brilliant crime novel...

A woman at home in Liverpool is disturbed by a persistent tapping at her back door. She's disturbed to discover the culprit is a raven, and tries to shoo it away. Which is when the killer strikes.

DS Nathan Cody, still bearing the scars of an undercover mission that went horrifyingly wrong, is put on the case. But the police have no leads, except the body of the bird - and the victim's missing eyes.

As flashbacks from his past begin to intrude, Cody realises he is battling not just a murderer, but his own inner demons too.

And then the killer strikes again, and Cody realises the threat isn't to the people of Liverpool after all - it's to the police...

I scare very easily. I am convinced that one day a zombie apocalypse could happen and I even get jumpy when watching Jurassic Park (seriously).  

With this in mind, I really shouldn’t have picked up and started reading A Tapping at My Door when my husband was on a night shift… This book needs to come with a serious warning – do not read when you’re home alone.

50 pages in I was convinced that I could hear someone knocking on my front door (it doesn’t help that I live in an apartment block with thin walls so I can always hear comings and goings…) and then when I finally did sleep, I dreamt that my balcony was full of birds all trying to get in and get me…

So basically, David Jackson’s A Tapping at My Door is completely unsettling but completely brilliant. It’s one of those books where you can never predict quite how it’s going to end. 

On a side note, I really enjoy books that are set in places I am familiar with. I was a student in Liverpool for four years and still visit a lot so a lot of the places and street names were places I’ve been too so I could really visualize the characters and what was happening in the plot even more – maybe that’s why it made it so much more scarier?!

I can’t believe I have never read any of David Jackson’s novels before. A Tapping on My Door is certainly one of the best crime fiction novels I have read in a while and I can't wait to read more of his work.

Buy it here   

**NEW crime book review** The Loving Husband by Christobel Kent

There are SO many brilliant books being released in April. And I am kicking the month off with The Loving Husband by Christobel Kent… 

Can you ever truly know the one you love?

Fran Hall and her husband Nathan live in a farmhouse on the edge of the Fens with their two children. One February night, when Fran is woken by her baby, she finds the bed empty beside her and Nathan gone. Searching the house for him she makes a devastating discovery.

As Fran finds herself under intense police scrutiny, she and her two small children become more isolated as she starts to doubt whether or not she really knew Nathan. Was he really the loving husband that Fran had trusted him to be?

As police suspicion grows the questions for Fran begin to mount. Is there something that she is hiding from them - something that she has kept hidden from everyone, including her husband?

I do love a good thriller especially ones where a major event happens within the first few pages and then you try and spend the rest of the book guessing and second guessing what the hell the outcome is going to be.

So I was very excited to get my hands on The Loving Husband as I knew from the synopsis it was going to be a rollercoaster read – and it really was…

Completely compelling, this novel ticked all the crime boxes for me: dark, addictive, with an explosive end.

I haven’t read anything by Christobel Kent before but The Crooked House is now on my TBR list as its received outstanding reviews and I loved her writing style. 

If you’re a fan of Gone Girl and Girl on the Train, then The Loving Husband is certainly for you.

Buy it here...

What does an author keep on their desk….?

When a Lesley Kinnock buys a lottery ticket on a whim, it changes her life more than she could have imagined…

Lesley and her husband Mack are the sudden winners of a 15 million EuroMillions jackpot. They move with their 15-year-old daughter Rosie to an exclusive gated estate in Buckinghamshire, leaving behind their ordinary lives - and friends - as they are catapulted into wealth beyond their wildest dreams. 

But it soon turns into their darkest nightmare when, one beautiful spring afternoon, Lesley returns to their house to find it empty: their daughter Rosie is gone.

DC Maggie Neville is assigned to be Family Liaison Officer to Lesley and Mack, supporting them while quietly trying to investigate the family. And she has a crisis threatening her own life - a secret from the past that could shatter everything she's worked so hard to build. 

As Lesley and Maggie desperately try to find Rosie, their fates hurtle together on a collision course that threatens to end in tragedy. Money can't buy you happiness. The truth could hurt more than a lie. One moment really can change your life forever…

What. A. Thriller. Full of plot twists, Gone Astray really made me question whether winning the Lotto would actually be a good thing… 

It's a page-turning debut from Michelle Davies, full of secrets, revelations and mystery. Utterly brilliant. I can't wait for her next novel!  

And have you ever wondered what an author has on their desk when writing - and what they shouldn't? Michelle spills the beans… 

Michelle at her book launch in Waterstones, Covent Garden 

1. A wireless keyboard – I developed serious neck ache after writing Gone Astray hunched over my laptop, so for my second novel (Wrong Place, out in February 2017) I went old school with a big clunky keyboard. Now I can't write without it.

2. Nigel Clough - the little plastic figurine of former Nottingham Forest player Nigel Clough was given to me for by my first boyfriend while we were training to be journalists. It was meant to be a jokey good luck present but Nige has sat on my desk at every place I've ever worked, even at super-stylish Grazia! I'd be lost without him.

3. Glossy magazines – when I'm not writing books I freelance for women's magazines as a journalist, so invariably my desk is littered with latest issues. I've always been a magazine junkie, right back to when I was a child and my mum bought me Twinkle and Bunty. My daughter, who's six, now reads the CBeebies one - I'm very proud to be passing the baton!

4. My Kindle - every time I write a chapter or edit a section of my novels I download the Word document to my Kindle. I find that reading it back in proper book format makes it easier to spot what sentences jar. But when it comes to the final draft I still print the entire thing out on paper – I need to be able to flick through pages one last time before I'm satisfied it's done.

And the one thing I shouldn't have on my desk...

Cat litter! Right now I'm sharing my office with our new kitten, Lolly Longwhiskers, because we have an older cat, Woody, as well and the two of them need to have their own private space to escape to while they get used to each other (his domain is the kitchen, wise boy). Lolly's litter tray is in a corner of the office, on the floor, far away from my desk, yet somehow she still manages to sending bits of grit flying in my direction. I'm counting the days until she can take her ablutions out into the garden!

Michelle's desk - where the magic happens!

Get Gone Astray here