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Our Kind Of Cruelty by Araminta Hall

Kim Kingston — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 04:40:28 +0000

It’s pretty disturbing to be inside the head of Mike, who can’t let go of his love/obsession with Verity. Even though she’s about to marry another man, he thinks it’s all part of an elaborate game they play. Mike is an original character, a psychopath but not entirely evil. This book is a notch above a truly schlocky thriller, in that you never know quite how it’s going to end. Well done.

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Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Kim Kingston — Wed, 12 Sep 2018 03:37:06 +0000

If the Brontes taught us high school English students how to love with passion, Jane Austen taught us how to choose our great loves with intelligence. Eliza Bennett chooses Fitzwilliam Darcy with her head before her heart, after freeing herself of pride and prejudice. This one stands up to multiple rereads because it’s thick with irony and humour and brilliant characters. Classic. And if you hanker for more, try Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld – a worthy modern update.

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A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor

Kim Kingston — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 03:00:54 +0000

Just read the first story in this collection and you’ll get it. The power and horror and the beauty of the short story, perfectly encapsulated.

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Heartstone by CJ Sansom

Kim Kingston — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 02:50:02 +0000

Samson’s account of the sinking of the King’s warship, the Mary Rose, in Hearstone is unforgettable. Sansom renders it real, compete with rats frantically clambouring over the netting as the ship sinks into the water with the trapped men beneath. This is what Samson is so good at; history so vital and compelling it makes you feel a little bit sick. Brilliant.

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The Monogram Murders by Sophie Hannah

Kim Kingston — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 05:12:07 +0000

Written in the style of Agatha Christie with the fastidious Hercule Poirot investigating, this little murder mystery almost convinces. The ending, however, is so convoluted you may come away glad that someone knows how the murders occured and who the murderer is, even if it’s not you. Hannah is trying a little too hard. I prefer her next Christie book, Closed Casket.

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No Place Like Home by Caroline Overington

Kim Kingston — Mon, 18 Jun 2018 07:00:17 +0000

As much as I wanted to like this book, something about it just didn’t jibe. It has good intentions- highlighting, for example, the vulnerability of refugees- but doesn’t quite ring true. The SPOILER ALERT death of schoolboy Mitchell does however leave a lasting sadness so some of it gets under the skin, but unfortunately it’s not a compete success as a thriller.

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Say Nothing by Brad Parks

Kim Kingston — Thu, 29 Mar 2018 00:10:12 +0000

The six year old twins of a US Federal court judge are kidnapped and he is told he will have his children’s body parts returned to him one by one if he contacts the police or the FBI. Pretty horrifying stuff. His only chance to get his children back is to deliver the verdict dictated by the kidnappers in two matters coming before him in the court and of course, to say nothing.

This is a good one; it makes you want to grab the shoulders of the person next to you and shake them and holler “But what would you DO?” The judge’s sense of bewilderment and helplessness is utterly believable. Less believable are his suspicions about his wife and the SPOILER ALERT almost cursory attention he pays to the children once they are returned to him. Perhaps I should say nothing. A finely written, well paced thriller shot through with dread and suspense.

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The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly

Kim Kingston — Wed, 28 Mar 2018 23:53:13 +0000

Difficult to love a novel when you find the characters in it so selfish and pathetic you want to wring their necks. Such is the case with The Poison Tree, Erin Kelly’s first novel, in which the solidly middle class protagonist Karen becomes inexplicably enthralled with the needy, hopeless, manipulative and unfortunately named Biba and, later, her doormat of a brother, Rex. When Biba kills two people, Rex takes the blame and everyone’s lives spiral out of control until Karen takes charge again, allowing Biba to get away with murder both figuratively and literally. You may, like me, be silently cheering at Karen’s final encounter with Biba. It’s a pretty good debut in terms of plot but Kelly’s later novel He Said She Said is so much better.

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Here and Gone by Haylen Beck

Kim Kingston — Thu, 22 Mar 2018 01:11:38 +0000

This is a ripper of a little thriller, just begging to be made into a movie. Audra flees from her abusive husband and imperfect past and goes on a cross country road trip with her two children. In the middle of small town Arizona her car is pulled over by a cop who promptly plants some drugs on her, arrests her and arranges for her children to be taken away. When she later asks where they are, he responds “What children?” And so the nightmare continues. It’s a thriller ride but also an examination of just how vunerable women are to an abuse of power and how we are all programmed to judge, viciously, people who’ve made mistakes in their past. Well done.

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Fearless by Fiona Higgins

Kim Kingston — Wed, 21 Mar 2018 23:32:35 +0000

Coulda woulda shoulda been good, but somehow isn’t quite. Five strangers meet on a retreat in Bali with an incredibly irritating spiritual leader, attempting to overcome their respective phobias. A terrorist incident intervenes but somehow it, and the characters, never feel quite real.

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