Review: The Guest List

The Guest List by Lucy Foley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

THE GUEST LIST shares a lot with Lucy Foley's last novel THE HUNTING PARTY. As in the previous novel we have an event in a remote location attended by a frankly, fairly unlikeable bunch of characters and presumed crime, the details of which are revealed slowly through judicious use of timelines. The wedding of a successful web-magazine editor and a handsome Bear Grylls-type adventure TV personality is held on a remote island off the coast of Ireland. The story is told in the first person by several viewpoint characters - the bride, the best man, the bridesmaid, the wife of the bride's best friend 'the plus one' and the wedding planner - most of them flawed and damaged; and a third person narrative set after some calamitous event, the nature of which is not immediately revealed.

It is all very Agatha Christie and the plot occasionally relies a little too much on coincidence, but it is incredibly well done. Foley has a real talent for making the reader care what happens to people with few redeeming qualities. With a few exceptions, the characters are a nasty bunch with murky backstories - deliciously so. For me the conclusion, although satisfying, was a little too neat but getting there was great fun.

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#BlogTour - Never Look Back by A L Gaylin AudioBook Tour

She was the most brutal killer of our time. And she may have been my mother…

When website columnist Robin Diamond is contacted by true crime podcast producer Quentin Garrison, she assumes it’s a business matter. It’s not. Quentin’s podcast, Closure, focuses on a series of murders in the 1970s, committed by teen couple April Cooper and Gabriel LeRoy. It seems that Quentin has reason to believe Robin’s own mother may be intimately connected with the killings.

Robin thinks Quentin’s claim is absurd. But is it? The more she researches the Cooper/LeRoy murders herself, the more disturbed she becomes by what she finds. Living just a few blocks from her, Robin’s beloved parents are the one absolute she’s always been able to rely upon, especially now amid rising doubts about her husband and frequent threats from internet trolls. Robin knows her mother better than anyone.

But then her parents are brutally attacked, and Robin realises she doesn’t know the truth at all…

I have to confess that Alison (A.L.) Gaylin is a new author to me and, intrigued by the synopsis, particularly the podcast reference, I was expecting something in the vein of Matt Wesolowski’s excellent Six Stories series in which the plot is essentially driven by the podcast element. NEVER LOOK BACK is a more conventional, though no less entertaining, crime novel in which Quentin Garrison’s Closure podcast is the starting point for a psychological thrill-ride with more twists and turns than a really twisty-turny thing. Garrison’s podcast investigates the 1970s murder spree of Gabriel LeRoy and April Cooper, crimes which echo Bonnie & Clyde, Badlands and Natural Born Killers, crimes which have long impacted Quentin’s family and, unknown to her until Quentin tracks her down, that of Robin Diamond.

The writing is excellent, the plot races along and the characters are believable and relatable. The story is told from the viewpoints of Quentin and Robin in present day and in the letters April Cooper wrote to the daughter she hoped to have someday. And the letters reveal a story that is much more complex than the reported ‘facts’… The audiobook is narrated alternately by male and female voices and the female in particular is convincing and sympathetic, especially as April. I thoroughly enjoyed the novel and the narrators really bring the dialogue to life. Highly recommended.

Thanks to Compulsive Readers and Orion Book for the opportunity to review NEVER LOOK BACK.

Review: Roger Daltrey: Thanks a lot Mr Kibblewhite: My Story

Roger Daltrey: Thanks a lot Mr Kibblewhite: My Story by Roger Daltrey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Roger Daltrey’s story read by Roger Daltrey. Perhaps not as enthralling as Pete Townsend’s WHO I AM, Daltrey seemingly a more contented and less conflicted individual, it is nonetheless a hugely entertaining autobiography from one of the great singers, and survivors, in rock history. More humour than In Townsend’s book too and even more so having Rog read it himself - on a couple of occasions he starts to laugh as he reads particular passages, as it comes back, and has to have another go...

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#BlogTour - The Sinner by Martyn Waites

 The Sinner by Martyn Waites

My rating: 5 of 5 stars 

A repost of one of my favourite thrillers from 2019 - in paperback February 6th

Tom Killgannon, ex-undercover police officer and now in witness protection, is recalled to active service by a local police task force, headed by DS Sheridan. His mission is to befriend notorious child killer Noel Cunningham and find out where he buried the bodies of his final two victims.

The catch? Tom has to obtain that information from within Blackmoor prison itself.

Undercover and with no back-up, Tom soon runs into danger.

In the prison is convicted gangster Dean Foley. He used to run Manchester’s biggest gang, until Tom’s testimony put him away for life. He recognises Tom, and so begins a cat-and-mouse game as Tom fights for survival before Foley can get his revenge.

But why can’t Tom reach DS Sheridan and what is the real reason he has been sent to Blackmoor prison?

Martyn Waites last novel, ‘The Old Religion’, found Tom Killgannon living in Cornwall, in the witness protection programme for reasons unknown to the reader, and getting caught up in pagan rites and farmers’ rights. In ‘The Sinner’, Tom’s past catches up with him as his ‘handlers’ demand that he enters Blackmoor prison in an attempt to persuade a child killer to reveal the location of his victims’ bodies. Tom is undercover, his true identity unknown to even the prison authorities and he very soon discovers that something is not right in the police unit that is directing him. Worse, he finds that the crime boss whom he ‘betrayed’ when an undercover operative is also in Broadmoor. 

‘The Sinner’ has a completely different feel to ‘The Old Religion’, owing more to the likes of ‘Bronson’ or ‘Scum’ where the previous book was more ‘The Wicker Man’. Waites makes the change in direction just as believable and exciting though, as Tom struggles to survive in an increasingly hostile situation while those he has left behind in Cornwall are tormented by the people whose agenda he is being manipulated into following. The book is gritty and dark and very televisual as one might expect from the author’s background as an actor. I was drawn into the darkness and could really see this working as one of those 9PM Sunday night crime miniseries that the BBC do so well.

@MartynWaites @ZaffreBooks