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A Fractured Winter - Alison Baillie

21/10/2018

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Book Description
A missing girl.
Threatening notes.
Sinister strangers.

Olivia’s idyllic family life in a Swiss mountain village is falling apart.  She thought she’d managed to escape the past, but it’s coming back to haunt her.

Has somebody discovered her secret – why she had to leave Scotland more than ten years ago?

And what is her connection to Marie, a lonely schoolgirl in a Yorkshire seaside town, and Lucy, a student at a Scottish university?

A twisty family mystery with a dark edge, where nothing is as it seems. ​


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****

I read Alison Baillie's brilliant debut novel 'Sewing the Shadows Together' back in 2015 and I've been eagerly waiting her next one ever since. Admittedly the author sent me this book some months ago, but unfortunately it's only now that I found the time to read it.

The main character in this book is Olivia Keller, a Scottish woman living a prosperous life in a small mountainous village in Switzerland. Her husband, Christian, is Swiss, and they live together with their children in a beautiful house surrounded by breathtaking views. However, as the book is aptly titled, this ideal life is suddenly fractured when a local girl, best friend of Olivia's daughter Lara, disappears into thin air. Numerous search missions prove fruitless and the girl remains missing. Where is Sandra? What happened to her? Was she involved in some accident and is now injured and alone in some remote place? Or has something more sinister happened to her? Was she kidnapped? Murdered? And if it were so, why and by whom?

Sandra was a family friend and Olivia becomes obsessed with her disappearance, thinking that it could have been her daughter who has gone missing. But this will be just the beginning of the unravelling of Olivia's life. A few days later, she receives a sinister note. In the note, someone asks her how she could sleep at night knowing what she has done back in Scotland. And here we start to get the picture. Olivia has escaped from Scotland and is in hiding in this remote village in Switzerland. What terrible thing has she done in Edinburgh? Who knows about her secret? Not even her husband knows about it. Suddenly, the past she has fought so hard to keep away and hidden has come back to destroy her new life. The memories and the ghosts of the past start to haunt her days. The ideal life she had so painstakingly built begins to crumble as she's carried away by her own fears, obsessions and suspicions.

Olivia is quite a weak character, leaving all decisions in her husband's hands, and as the book progresses, she begins to go to pieces as the mask behind which she has lived all these years in Switzerland begins to slip away. She becomes progressively paranoid, choked by fear, consumed by suspicions, not trusting anyone, not even her family. Her husband doesn't recognise her any more. She knows that someone is out there watching her and waiting for the right moment to come and destroy her and her family.

The book is well written and all characters are realistic and believable. Thanks to the author's vivid descriptions, I found myself in this beautiful country, surrounded by snow-capped mountains, lakes and forests. I could almost inhale the fresh air and feel the biting cold on my skin. The author also gives us an insight into some Swiss traditions. Alternating chapters take us back and forth in time between what's happening in Switzerland now and what took place in Scotland in the past. 

I was surprised by what happens at the end. I wasn't expecting things to turn the way they did and am not that sure I like the way the mystery is solved, but I like the way the book eventually ends. Maybe, I would have preferred it to be a bit more suspenseful, and at times I felt it was a bit repetitive, as Olivia zig-zags between her house and one of the other three or four places in the village she visits regularly on her mission to solve the mystery behind the girl's disappearance and to rebuild her own life. 

However, on the whole, this was quite an enjoyable, absorbing read and I went through it very fast, wanting to find the answers to the many questions invading my mind.

With thanks to the author for a copy of this book which I voluntarily accepted to read and review.   

About the Author
Alison Baillie was brought up in the Yorkshire Dales, but has always felt Scottish. Her parents were both from Scotland and, as soon as she could, she went back there to study English at the University of St Andrews. After a year in Finland she taught English in several Edinburgh High Schools. She then moved to Switzerland, where she still lives, but her heart will always be in Scotland, where she goes as often as possible. She loves travelling, reading crime fiction, going to crime writing festivals and being with her family and friends. In 2015, her first novel, Sewing the Shadows Together, set in Edinburgh, the Outer Hebrides and South Africa, was published. To find out more about her and her books, visit her website alisonbaillie.com or follow her on Facebook at Alison Baillie Author or Twitter alisonbailliex. If you enjoy the book, please contact her. She’d love to hear from you. And if you could write a review after reading A Fractured Winter, it would mean so much to her.

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Fatal Promise - Angela Marsons

13/10/2018

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Book Description
Eeeny meeny, miney, moe. Who lives, who dies only I know.


When the body of a doctor is discovered brutally murdered in local woodland, Detective Kim Stone is shocked to discover the victim is Gordon Cordell – a man linked to a previous case she worked on involving the death of a young school girl. Gordon has a chequered past, but who would want him dead?

As the investigation gets underway, Gordon’s son is involved in a horrific car crash which leaves him fighting for his life. Kim's sure this was no accident. 

Then the body of a woman is found dead in suspicious circumstances and Kim makes a disturbing link between the victims and Russells Hall Hospital. The same hospital where Gordon worked.

With Kim and her team still grieving the loss of one of their own, they’re at their weakest and facing one of the most dangerous serial killers they’ve ever encountered. Everything is on the line. Can Kim keep her squad together and find the killer before he claims his next victim?

The killer is picking off his victims at a terrifying pace, and he’s not finished yet. 
​

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*****

Lives are shaped by choices. Whether small or critical, choices can affect not only the life of the person making the choice but also that of others. When choices destroy lives, the consequences can be deadly.

A prominent surgeon, who was also one of the characters in Dying Truth (Book 8 in the DI Kim Stone series), is found murdered in a park. Kim Stone and the forensics team soon lift a number of trace evidence from the scene and from the doctor's flat, making them wonder whether this was the killer's first crime. When the doctor's son is involved in a terrible car accident the following day, Kim's gut tells her this was no coincidence at all. She suspects that someone has targeted Dr Cordell's family and she's desperate to find out who and why before any more lives are put in danger.

In the meantime, Stacey investigates the disappearance of a teenage girl, a girl who has a lot of health problems and who can't stay without her medicine for too long. 

In this book, Kim and her team regroup after a long period, during which Kim was on sick leave waiting for her broken leg to heal. She and the others are all still trying to come to terms with the terrible loss they've suffered recently. So, when Woody sends in a replacement, the addition is not exactly welcomed in the team with open arms. They see the new officer as an intruder. He shouldn't be there taking someone else's rightful place. Kim wants him out of there as soon as the case is solved. This creates friction and tension within the team, piling up more stress on Kim, who has yet to prove she's still capable of staying in the job.

Well, this was a captivating, absorbing, and at times knuckle-biting read that kept me hooked from start to finish. I would probably have titled this book 'Fatal Choice' as the story stems from one terrible decision, one horrific choice.

Kim is such a fantastic character. In this book I could literally feel her pulse beating and I really wished I could give her a hug, even though she's not one for hugs or cuddles. She's strong and hard, but deep down she's soft and hurting, continuously suppressing her emotions. In 'Fatal Promise', Kim is faced with not only another baffling case and a vicious killer to catch, but she also has to deal with her grief, prove she's fit for work and maintain her team's spirit, morale and performance. It was interesting to see how she would react to the new addition to the team. How she and the others would manage without their colleague. How they would start afresh without him. How will the team's dynamics be affected? What effect will the new addition have on the team? Can they ever overcome the loss and form a new tight-knit team again?

'Fatal Promise' is yet another absolutely brilliant, absorbing addition to the series. I couldn't put it down and I found myself squeezing in a chapter or two whenever I had a spare minute as I wanted to know how it will all end. Who was the killer? What happened to the missing teenager? This author has gone from strength to strength since she wrote her first book. This is the ninth instalment now and it seems that her creative mind knows no bounds. The series just keeps its momentum with interesting, perplexing cases, chilling murders and the awesome cast of realistic characters we've come to love.

I highly recommend not only this book but the whole series. What are you waiting for? Go and grab this book!!!

With heartfelt thanks to Bookouture for approving my request to read and review this book through Netgalley. 

About the Author
Angela Marsons is the author of the International Bestselling DI Kim Stone series and her books have sold more than 2 million in 2 years.

She lives in the Black Country with her partner, their cheeky Golden Retriever and a swearing parrot.

She first discovered her love of writing at Junior School when actual lessons came second to watching other people and quietly making up her own stories about them. Her report card invariably read "Angela would do well if she minded her own business as well as she minds other people's".

After years of writing relationship based stories (The Forgotten Woman and Dear Mother) Angela turned to Crime, fictionally speaking of course, and developed a character that refused to go away.

She is signed to Bookouture.com for a total of 16 books in the Kim Stone series and her books have been translated into more than 27 languages.

Her last three books - Blood Lines, Dead Souls and Broken Bones - reached the #1 spot on Amazon on pre-orders alone.

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