KINDIG

THE YEAR OF THE WITCHING ALEXIS HENDERSON ***** Blood. Blight. Darkness. Slaughter. Four plagues have come to the small village of Bethel – but who summoned them and who can stop them? The Year of the Witching is a great standalone fantasy story. Personally I much prefer standalone book to sprawling epics with endless installments and unknown publication dates. I’m also likely have forgotten everything about the last book by the time the next one comes out! This book packs a

THE CURATOR M W CRAVEN ***** Disembodied fingers are appearing in seemingly random locations, all left next to the phrase #BSC6. Can Poe and Bradshaw discover the link before it’s too late? This was my first delve into a crime thriller by M W Craven and I was a little apprehensive having not read the previous 2 books in the Washington Poe series. However, I soon felt at home with the characters and their backstory without feeling left out or like I was given an overload of

THE BURNING MEN WILL SHINDLER ***** I often mention in my reviews that Crime Thrillers are a very over-saturated genre. It seems every 5 minutes there’s a release of ‘the first book in the series of DI OldSchool GrizzleMan and his partner DC Woman WithIssues’. As much as I love the genre it does get a bit waring sometimes but every now and again I find a series I genuinely want to read more of that makes a competent and great start at pulling me in. The Burning Man is a great

CHOSEN ONES VERONICA ROTH ***** ‘Sometimes Sloan wondered if the world had been worth saving’ 10 years after a band of five teenagers saved the word from the evil of the Dark One, they are struggling to live in the real world without the threat of death lurking behind every corner. But have they eradicated the threat completely? Chosen Ones is Veronica Roth’s adult debut and after the popularity of her best-selling Divergent Series, I was excited to see her take on something

THE SILENT TREATMENT ABBIE GREAVES **** Frank has not spoken a word to his wife in 6 months, so will Maggie trying to take her own life spur Frank on to reveal what he has not been able to say for all of this time? The Silent Treatment was a surprising heart-breaking read for me. I was expecting a thriller type story – a dark and hidden family secret to be revealed but instead we got the story of a relationship; it’s origins, the marriage and the trials of parenthood. The boo

THE PERFECT WIFE JP DELANEY ***** When Abbie wakes up with no idea who she is or what has happened to her, her husband Tim is more than happy to fill in the gaps. But what secrets are hiding within her past? The blurb of The Perfect Wife is a little misleading; I had the impression that Abbie would have no idea what she was – a woman woken up from a traumatic accident and told bits about her life only to find something more sinister lurking beneath the surface. However, 3 pag

THE MEMORY WOOD SAM LLOYD ***** When Elissa is kidnapped she finds solace in a boy called Elijah who visits her – but will he be willing to help his new friend escape? The Memory Wood is a dark crime thriller that is not afraid to pull punches in its plot development. The chapters shift between a boy who knows his Memory Wood contains a dark secret, a girl who’s been abducted and a police detective with problems of her own – there is a lot to unpack here but it certainly lea

DRACUL DACRE STOKER & J.D. BARKER ***** Bram Stoker was always a very sickly child, but when he’s miraculously cured by his nanny with a mysterious past he finds himself linked to her and her dark world in a way he could never have imagined. I must admit I was a little wary of Dracul by Dacre Stoker - Bram’s great grand-nephew. I initially thought it would be a chance for the author to cash in on his famous name and nothing more. How wrong I was! Firstly, I really enjoyed the

THE WAREHOUSE ROB HART ***** Welcome to The Warehouse – a company that encourages its workers to become a part of the family. With housing, medical facilities, entertainment and food all in one place for workers to enjoy it seems like heaven to so many but what shady activities are lurking beneath the surface? As a lover of books such as ‘The Circle’ and tv series such as ‘Black Mirror’, I was so excited to get the ARC for The Warehouse by Rob Hart. The blurb really pulled me

LOCK EVERY DOOR RILEY SAGER *** When Jules is offered a dream job house sitting a beautiful large apartment she jumps at the opportunity – but what is the catch? I really enjoyed The Last Time I Lied, Riley Sager’s last book (see my review here - https://www.kindig.co.uk/post/review-the-last-time-i-lied) so I was excited to receive the ARC for Lock Every Door. Skimming over the fact that the title actually has very little to do with the plot, I was a little disappointed with

THE KINGDOM JESS ROTHENBERG ***** Ana is a Fantasist, a programmed Disney-style Princess who lives with her 7 sisters in The Kingdom – a theme park where all of your dreams come true. But what darkness is lurking under the surface of paradise? The Kingdom is easily one of my ‘Kindig Gems’ for this year. Think of it as Westworld meets The Belles – two of my favourite universes and you can see that I had little choice but to love it! I devoured it in a day over two sittings, th

THEN SHE VANISHES CLAIRE DOUGLAS ***** When Jess goes to investigate a double homicide she finds her childhood friend at the centre of the allegations – but what actually happened and why? I was excited to get to read Then She Vanishes as I have read and enjoyed one of Claire Douglas’ other books – Do Not Disturb (read my 5* review on my blog here: https://www.kindig.co.uk/post/review-do-not-disturb). I’m happy to say that even with high expectations going in I wasn’t at all

THE NEVER GAME JEFFERY DEAVER * Although I have never read a book by Jeffery Deaver before I was so excited to get the ARC to read The Never Game. I read the blurb out to my friends who all agreed that this book sounded perfect for me. I have been an avid gamer all of my life, I love going to escape rooms and crime thrillers are one of my preferred genre of books so on paper this book sounded absolutely ideal. This may also be why I’ve held it to very high standards and ultim

MY LOVELY WIFE SAMANTHA DOWNING ***** Millicent and her husband are a team in everything they do – whether that’s buying all organic food at the supermarket, going to gala nights with their upmarket housing community or luring and killing women together… My Lovely Wife is an absolute rollercoaster of a read and one I really enjoyed from beginning to end. I enjoyed the way that Samantha Downing keeps the book completely in the narrative of the husband, and it is only now in wr

PERFECT CRIME HELEN FIELDS ***** When Steve Berry turns up dead after a failed suicide the week before, the question is asked. Did he jump this time or was he pushed? Perfect Crime is the 5th book in the DI Callanach series and I think it does have some important plot points to the overall series arc, rather than being a standalone piece. You’d be better off at least reading the last book to get some context than jumping straight into this one. As someone who has read some of

THE DARK GAME JONATHAN JANZ * I was really excited by the premise of ‘The Dark Game’ – horror mixed with my favourite subject – books! Ironically however, I found the writing to be a let down! My first problem was how predictable it all was – the reader and the characters can easily guess what is going on by chapter 3 and there is no big twist or reveal which deviates from that in any way throughout the book. I feel like the whole thing needed more setup – we needed the illus

WAKENHYRST MICHELLE PAVER **** Maud lives with her father in Wakenhyrst – a house surrounded by the mysterious and beautiful fen. But when a church painting (or ‘doom’) is discovered and restored, what evil has been unleashed? I picked up Wakenhyrst thinking from its blurb and supported PR that it was a ‘gothic horror’. I would say I probably went in with the wrong expectations of the book. There are elements of witchcraft, superstition and death which run through the book an

SLEEP C.L. TAYLOR ***** After a serious car crash Anna is struggling to sleep; she feels guilty and paranoid that someone is after her for what she has done. She moves to the remote island of Rum to make a fresh start and forget all of her troubles – but have they followed her there? I really enjoyed The Fear by CL Taylor last year and was very excited about her latest offering – Sleep. I certainly was not disappointed! Sleep is a great Thriller which, ironically enough keeps

THE DOLLMAKER NINA ALLAN ** I found The Dollmaker to be a very disjointed and strange read. The core story is Dollmaker Andrew’s journey to see his pen friend Bramber who lives in an odd institution in Bodmin Moor. I must admit I didn’t find this story very interesting; it was mainly flashbacks on Andrew’s life mixed with letters from Bramber and dull details about his journey. I found Andrew to be very forgettable to say he is the main character – I had forgotten his name an

THE LOST MAN JANE HARPER *** When Cameron Bright is found dead in the Australian wilderness miles from his car, his brother Nathan is determined to find out what happened. But what secrets are lurking in the outback? I was really eager to read The Lost Man. It’s had a lot of pre-release excitement, 5 star reviews and even was a LibraryReads selection for Feb 2019. I was quite disappointed therefore, to have to give it a low star rating. I’ll start with the positives; the sett