Don't Believe It by Charlie Donlea

Lots of reviewers say that Donlea gets better with each book. I made the mistake of reading his latest one before I read this one, so it's good, but it's not as good as The Woman in Darkness.

The book follow Sidney Ryan, an investigative documentary maker, as she revisits the case of notorious killer Grace Sebold. Grace has been in prison in St Lucia for ten years, for killing her fiance Julian Crist the night he was about to propose to her. 

The story is easy to follow and there are some great plot twists. The characters are interesting and there's a lot of detail in the forensics and in how documentaries are made. I devoured the last 150 pages in one sitting; however, I'll wait for Donlea's next book rather than reading another earlier one.

Coming Home from Breast Cancerville by Liz Van Vliet

This book is a must-read for anyone who has experienced breast cancer or knows someone who has. On the one hand it's an easy read, Liz's writing is engaging and at times laugh-out-loud funny, on the other, it's a difficult read. A lesson for me was that empathy comes at a price (I now know stuff about cancer I kind of wish I didn't). Liz is brutally honest about the impact breast cancer has had on her life and the lives of her husband and three girls.

Using her childhood road trips with parents and four siblings in a VW Kombi van as a metaphor, Liz explains the three stages of her journey: treatment highway, recovery highway and survivor highway. She talks about the impact on her physical health, on her mental health, on her marriage, on her family and on her finances and career. It took her a long time to realise her journey was not going to be a round-trip. She has gradually come to accept, and even embrace, the fact that she will never be the same person she was before the breast cancer.

If there's one thing I think people should take away from the book, it's the need for free ongoing counselling not just for the patient but also for their immediate family. It had never occured to me that people who survive cancer might suffer from PTSD as a result of their experience, or that their whole family might.

If you want to reach out to someone who has been diagnosed with breast cancer I suggest you buy this book, read it yourself and then send them a copy.

The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan

In 1993, Detective Cormac Reilly is called to a remote house in Ireland. He finds a young girl Maude, and her five-year-old brother Jack alone with the body of their mother who has died from a heroin overdose. The story moves forward 20 years, and Jack commits suicide after his pregnant partner Aisling tells him she doesn't want to keep their baby. Detective Reilly has recently moved back to Gallway and is called on to reopen the original case and consider whether Maude may have killed her mother. Aisling and Maude work together to find out what really happened to Jack.

It was a good story but I never really connected with any of the characters. Jack disappeared from the story too quickly for me to become attached to him. Aisling is a trainee doctor. She rushes straight back to work after Jack dies, and sees no reason to change her mind about keeping the baby. The new job is a step down for Cormac and he has to deal with the politics of coming in as a high flyer and getting on with the job without getting anyone's back up. He has a partner but we don't hear much about her and none of the other police officers were particularly interesting. This is the first book in a series of Cormac Reilly novels. I read it because I wanted to read the second one, but now I'm not sure I want to.

The Woman in Darkness by Charlie Donlea

This was a great read. I finished it and immediately ordered another by the same author. The story flicks between the present day, where forensic reconstructionist Rory Moore has recently lost her lawyer father, and 1979, where housewife Angela Miller is trying to work out who is responsble for a spate of local murders. Rory discovers that her father represented the serial killer Angela was tracking, and he is about to be released from prison. The first pages are quite dark. They are from the serial killer's perspective and show the delight he gets from killing. 

I enjoyed both the main characters. Rory is on the autism spectrum and repairs china dolls as a way of focusing her mind and controlling her OCD. Angela is dealing with mental health issues. Both are smart and different. The book has some great plot twists and is just a really clever story. 

Best Kept Secret by Jeffrey Archer

The book is the third of seven. It's better than the first but not as good as the second. Harry and Emma's son Sebastian is going through school and Giles Barrington is trying to keep his seat in parliament. The last part of the book sees Sebastian off on an farcical and predictable adventure that had too much detail for me.

It's a story of good guys (the Cliftons and the Barringtons) and bad guys; the good guys are heroic, talented ands smart and the bad guys are despicable. The Barrington family have a knack for acquiring enemies and those emenies seem to enjoy making it their life's work to bring the family down. No doubt I'll be reading the next one, when I've nothing else to read!

A Lifetime of Impossible Days by Tabitha Bird

I loved this book. It was definitely one to be read slowly and savoured and not a book to be rushed through. It tells the story of Willa at three stages of her life (8, 33 and 93). Each of these three Willas is able to visit the other using a jam jar that creates a magic ocean in the garden. 

I wasn't sure when I started reading whether the book would really be about time travel or whether it was about mental illness and one Willa was imagining the other two. I found the book a bit slow when the Willas first start meeting each other but the second half of the book was great. Tabitha Bird obviously has a wondeful imagination and it felt like a privilege to have access to it. That's not to say the book is all shiny and bright. Willa has a difficult childhood that she's desperate to escape and something tragic happens to Middle Willa (33) that Silver Willa (93) is trying to prevent. Gumboots and jam drops feaure heavily in the book. The final page is a receipe for jam drops and I'm going to try it. 

Sins of the Father by Jeffrey Archer

This is the second book in the Harry Clifton series. Harry has taken on another man's identify and ends up in prison for that man's crimes. Emma Barrington and Harry's mother are both told Harry died at sea but Emma goes looking for him. As Harry sits out the start of the World War II in prison, his friend Giles ends up in Tobruk.

This book is much better than the first. There are a series of chapters from each of the main characters perspectives. They cover different events, whereas in the first book they tended to cover the same events but from different perspectives. I'm sure I'll read the next book in the series.