Red Snow by Will Dean

Red Snow by Will Dean
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - in and out over 3 days

Pages - 400

Publisher - Point Blank

Source - Bought

Blurb from Goodreads

TWO BODIES

One suicide. One cold-blooded murder. Are they connected? And who’s really pulling the strings in the small Swedish town of Gavrik?

TWO COINS

Black Grimberg liquorice coins cover the murdered man's eyes. The hashtag #Ferryman starts to trend as local people stock up on ammunition.

TWO WEEKS

Tuva Moodyson, deaf reporter at the local paper, has a fortnight to investigate the deaths before she starts her new job in the south. A blizzard moves in. Residents, already terrified, feel increasingly cut-off. Tuva must go deep inside the Grimberg factory to stop the killer before she leaves town for good. But who’s to say the Ferryman will let her go?



My Review

This is book two in the series, you could start here but I would go back as it is part of a series and you go into this with more knowledge/backstory of both the people and the place. Tuva is our main character, a deaf reporter, an outsider in this small town who made herself even more unpopular by covering the murders (in the last book). She is leaving for a new job but before she goes she has some loose ends to tie up and news to cover as someone dies in the towns local factory, the towns life blood but not everyone is as thankful to it.

Strange characters, strange happenings, the body count is rising and Tuva needs to know who "the ferryman is" and why are people dying. So I actually liked this book more than the last one, I did like book one but I really liked this. Tuva is a fascinating character, we get to see what it is like to be deaf, what things like weather changes can mean/impact on her aids. How people see her, treat her (beside having issues with her as an outsider). Some of the people are strange, I LOVED the character of the granny and would love love love to read more about her.

There are some many themes within the book, murder, death, suicide, family issues, sexuality, small town mentality, Tuva dealing with some personal issues. The town weirdo, weird links with the family who run the factory and their employees, the town is very remote and there is a blizzard so they are even more shut off. Accidents, people being harmed, a killer on the loose and Tuva is trying to report on it all and do some side research for the shunned author.

There is some weird eating in the book, I totally boke at some foods touching so this is an issue , even the salty licorice had me twitching lol. The book is very atmospheric, you don't (well I didn't) know where it is going to take you, what is coming next, I didn't even really have any good suspects on who the dodgy is or what the motive could be. I have all the books in the series so won't be long before I get to the next one and see what is in store next, 4/5 for me.

View all my reviews

Your Life in my Hands by Rachel Clarke

Your Life in My Hands: A Junior Doctor's Story by Rachel Clarke
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 3 days

Pages - 280

Publisher - Metro Publishing

Source - Bought

Blurb from Goodreads

How does it feel to be spat out of medical school into a world of pain, loss and trauma that you feel wholly ill-equipped to handle? To be a medical novice who makes decisions which - if you get them wrong - might forever alter, or end, a person's life?

In 'Your Life in My Hands', television journalist turned junior doctor Rachel Clarke captures the extraordinary realities of life on the NHS frontline. During last year's historic junior doctor strikes, Rachel was at the forefront of the campaign against the government's imposed contract upon young doctors. Her heartfelt, deeply personal account of life as a junior doctor in today's NHS is both a powerful polemic on the degradation of Britain's most vital public institution and a love letter of optimism and hope to that same health service.



My Review

Rachel Clarke was a journalist and is now a doctor working in the NHS. I love reading real life stories, healthcare and think everyone should read them to get a glimpse of what it is to work in that kind of environment. Even people working in the NHS, reading other professionals experiences is an eye opener and makes you appreciate them more, in my honest opinion.

This one is different from the others I have read and I think it is two fold, one because the author was a journalist before hand. Two because whilst the story does have some of the stories on what Clarke experiences in her work a lot of it isn't. There is huge coverage of the junior doctors strikes, the governments impact on funding cuts and patient care, services cancelled and politics politics politics.

We hear a wee bit about her personal background/life and the steps taken, sleeping and camping outside, protests and a meeting with Matt Hancock. I tend to prefer these books about the actual hospital experience so this one was different. It is shocking how many patients and staff suffer due to government decisions and how the news manipulates things to slant in favour of certain politicians or against the NHS. Bureaucracy, quotes from the news and lots of information about the doctors strike, it makes an interesting read, just a tad different from what I was expecting, 3/5 for me this time.

View all my reviews