Close To Death by Anthony Horowitz

Close to Death by Anthony Horowitz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - in and out over 3 days

Pages - 419

Publisher - Random House UK

Source - Review copy & bought

Blurb from Goodreads

In New York Times–bestselling author Anthony Horowitz’s ingenious fifth literary whodunit in the Hawthorne and Horowitz series, Detective Hawthorne is once again called upon to solve an unsolvable case—a gruesome murder in an idyllic gated community in which suspects abound

Riverside Close is a picture-perfect community. The six exclusive and attractive houses are tucked far away from the noise and grime of city life, allowing the residents to enjoy beautiful gardens, pleasant birdsong and tranquility from behind the security of a locked gate.

It is the perfect idyll until the Kentworthy family arrives, with their four giant, gas-guzzling cars, a gaggle of shrieking children and plans for a garish swimming pool in the backyard. Obvious outsiders, the Kentworthys do not belong in Riverside Close, and they quickly offend every last one of their neighbours.

When Giles Kentworthy is found dead on his own doorstep, a crossbow bolt sticking out of his chest, Detective Hawthorne is the only investigator that can be called on to solve the case.

Because how do you solve a murder when everyone is a suspect?


My Review

So first thing to note, this is book five in the series, I didn't know this and as a result I had some questions. Once finished I did a bit of reading up and have since ordered book one, will read the previous books before this one and then re read this.

A small gated community, new neighbours move in, a family who are loud, not team players and things start to go wrong. Destruction of peoples property, heads butting, block peoples cars in, a missing dog ooft tensions galore. When the trouble makers are invited to a neighbours meet and they don't show tensions run higher and before we know what happens Giles Kentworthy (dad/new neighbour) is found brutally murdered. Everyone is a suspect, everyone has a motive and the police call in Detective Hawthorne for assistance. He is a unique guy who has some trouble and clouds following him but he is very very good at what he does.

So in between the murder and investigation the book then jumps to the author who is writing about the murder case (so the timeline also jumps) and is meeting some walls and resistance in collating information. At this point the reader knows Mr Kentworthy was killed and the method but not the who. It is clear the author is party to information we don't have and he wants to write the novel and see it through to completion but some people do not. The book then bounces between that and then back to the investigation, murder and everything that transpires.

I did find myself spinning a wee bit trying to keep up, Anthony the fictional author in the book is a bit clueless like us but Hawthorne is sharp as a tack. Anthony is writing the new book which is based on the gated community murder of Mr Kentworthy, Hawthorne is his partner but seems a tad reluctant on this one. They aren't together, Hawthorne is a bit elusive when Anthony is trying to get him and then we timeline jump too.

I think by going back and reading book 1-4 I will probably get a better feel for everything so I fully admit picking this up 5 books in wasn't the best move on my part. However I did love the sound of this and I am glad I picked it up as I think it will be a great series. Hawthorne is so sharp and perceptive, he also gets folks backs up but he is brilliant which is a good mix, 3.5/5 for me. I have ordered book one so will get to that when able.

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Everyone Here Is Lying by Shari Lapena Blog Tour

Today is my turn on the blog tour (RandomThingsTours) for my stop I have my non spoiler review, enjoy.


About the author

Shari Lapena is one of the best-known thriller writers working today. Every one of her thrillers has been a Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller. She has spent a total of 76 weeks in the top 10 and has sold over 7 million copies across all titles and formats worldwide. Her debut, The Couple Next Door, was the overall bestselling fiction title in the UK in its year of publication and has been optioned for TV by Paramount. For more information about Shari and her books, you can visit Shari’s website here: https://sharilapena.com/.

Buy link for the book, OUT NOW, from Amazon UK.

Everyone Here Is Lying by Shari Lapena
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1.5 days

Pages - 336

Publisher - Bantam books

Source - Arc

Blurb from Goodreads

Welcome to Stanhope! A safe neighborhood. A place for families.

William Wooler is a family man, on the surface. But he's been having an affair, an affair that ended horribly this afternoon at a motel up the road. So when he returns to his house, devastated and angry, to find his difficult nine-year-old daughter, Avery, unexpectedly home from school, William loses his temper.

Hours later, Avery's family declares her missing.

Suddenly Stanhope doesn't feel so safe. And William isn't the only one on his street who's hiding a lie. As witnesses come forward with information that may or may not be true, Avery's neighbors become increasingly unhinged.

Who took Avery Wooler?

Nothing will prepare you for the truth.



My Review


Ooft buckle in folks! Imagine your worst day, you are happily having an affair and out the blue it is ended, you are dumped. You are angry, upset, confused and head home early to try get your head around it but your kid is unexpectedly home too. You loose your temper, you leave furious and later your kid has gone missing. A bad day is about to get so much worse. And the thing is it isn't just the cheater(s), just about everyone in this book is going to have a bad day that gets worse!

A missing kid, affairs, shady neighbours, everyone is a suspect, tis like a modern day murder she wrote (for the hunners of suspects rather than muuuuuuurder), I was accusing everyone. This goes from bad to worse and just when you think ooft that person's day can't get any worse, it bloody does :D

I think the pull for these kind of books is how normal and relatable (ish ) well some of them lol, the characters are, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, neighbours - every day people. And the impact some decisions/acts can have not just on themselves and the ripples of their behaviours.

If I hadn't been working I would have probably got through this in one sitting, it is no secret we are big Lapena fans in here. Not everyone can write flawed/dodgy characters that doesn't turn a reader off or just annoy them, Lapena creates ones that whilst they can be unsavoury/shady you absolutely keep riveted, glued to the page and either root for them and or their demise. Already looking forward to the next one, this book is out to buy now, 4.5/5.

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The Holdout by Graham Moore

The Holdout by Graham Moore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - < 1 day

Pages - 325

Publisher - Orion

Source - Netgalley

Blurb from Goodreads

In this twisty tale from Moore (The Sherlockian), the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of The Imitation Game, young juror Maya Seale is convinced that African American high school teacher Bobby Nock is innocent of killing the wealthy white female student with whom he appears to have been involved and persuades her fellow jurors likewise. Ten years later, a true-crime docuseries reassembles the jurors, and Maya, now a defense attorney, must prove her own innocence when one of them is found dead in Maya's room.



My Review

Everyone has moved on from being jurors on one of the most high profile/controversial cases or have they? Maya Seale certainly has or wants to leave it in the past, it has been ten years enough already. However a true crime pod cast type show is coming and Maya is encouraged to take part, from a juror to now a lawyer her bosses heavily encourage it. It doesn't seem so bad, drinks, catch ups and things seemingly going much better than she could have hoped, until someone is murdered - in her hotel room and now Maya is in another role, the accused!

Oooh this is good, split between now and then - mostly present day but we get throw backs to the past and the all important case. Race, pedophilia, murder the case covered everything it should have been a slam dunk but one juror put a spanner in the works. Present day, Maya being accused of murder and having to be represented herself.

It is smart, engaging, pacey and has not one but two mysterious for the readers to guess at and ponder over, can I just say I got neither correct! Legal dramas, a who done it, shady secrets, pasts that would rather be forgotten by many. The case from years ago cannot be put to bed because Maya has to work out who killed the person and even more important how to prove she didn't do it.

A bit of a murder she wrote, some red herrings - I went off on a few chains of thought and was wrong wrong wrong. A book that keeps you on your toes, guessing. A wee spoiler or two dropped in relation to Agatha Christie's books which hopefully by the time I get to them I will have forgotten the references. This is my first time reading this author, I would absolutely read his other stuff, kept me guessing, 4/5 for me.

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Someone We Know by Shari Lapena

Someone We Know by Shari Lapena
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1 day

Pages - 292

Publisher - Bantam Press

Source - Review copy

Blurb from Goodreads

Maybe you don't know your neighbors as well as you thought you did . . .

"This is a very difficult letter to write. I hope you will not hate us too much. . . My son broke into your home recently while you were out."

In a quiet, leafy suburb in upstate New York, a teenager has been sneaking into houses--and into the owners' computers as well--learning their secrets, and maybe sharing some of them, too.

Who is he, and what might he have uncovered? After two anonymous letters are received, whispers start to circulate, and suspicion mounts. And when a woman down the street is found murdered, the tension reaches the breaking point. Who killed her? Who knows more than they're telling? And how far will all these very nice people go to protect their own secrets?

In this neighborhood, it's not just the husbands and wives who play games. Here, everyone in the family has something to hide . . .

You never really know what people are capable of.



My Review

As you may well know I am a huge Lapena fan, loved her previous books and this one is no exception. Someone's kid has broken into local houses, didn't take anything but now their parent knows they have written letters to the affected people. One of whom's wife has gone missing, how do you feel/react when you know someone has been in your house snooping? What have they seen and how far would you go to hide a secret?

We hear from a few of the characters, Olivia is just a mum trying to come to terms with what has happened, why and one of their neighbours has gone missing. The missing woman's husband, even from the minute he reports her missing, for me I wasn't a fan. Something about him just doesn't seem right but as the book develops we get more insight into each of the characters and proves you just never really know your neighbour(s) as well as you think you do.

A twisted web of deception, mystery and not really knowing who you can trust. Suspense pretty much from the beginning and a page turner, just wanting to know who done it, who has something to hide and what is coming next. 4.5/5 for me - looking forward to Lapena's next offering, characters you like or hate you just want to know what is going to happen next!

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An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena Blog Tour

Today is my turn on the blog tour for the fantastic "An Unwanted Guest" by Shari Lapena, please check out the other stops on the tour as everyone offer different content and it is a great book. I also think the banner for this blog tour may be my favorite ever, I love how all the lights come on for each room, bloody fabulous!











An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1 day

Pages - 304

Publisher - Bantam Press

Source - Random Things review copy

Blurb from Goodreads

We can’t choose the strangers we meet.

As the guests arrive at beautiful, remote Mitchell’s Inn, they’re all looking forward to a relaxing weekend deep in the forest, miles from anywhere. They watch their fellow guests with interest, from a polite distance.

Usually we can avoid the people who make us nervous, make us afraid.

With a violent storm raging, the group finds itself completely cut off from the outside world. Nobody can get in – or out. And then the first body is found . . . and the horrifying truth comes to light. There’s a killer among them – and nowhere to run.

Until we find ourselves in a situation we can’t escape. Trapped.





My Review

Welcome to the Mitchell Inn, a wee hotel out of the way and a storm is raging! Two friends and a few couples escape to the inn to work on their own issues. When a body turns up and there is no way to get out or communicate it soon turns into a cabin fever picture with a killer on the loose.

EEEEK so lets talk location, it all takes place in The Mitchell Inn, I am so gutted this isn't a real place, I would have love to go there minus the killing. It is old fashioned, unique, no wifi, a wee retreat type place, an ice bar, sitting room and a library bliss. Add to that they are snowed in so really if it hadn't ended up all murderous it would be a bloody perfect location.

Gwen & her friend Riley, David is a lawyer and travelling alone, Lauren & Ian are a couple, Beverly & Henry are married this weekend is to fix their marriage and Dana and Matthew are newly engaged and wedding planning. All have their own issues, all are looking forward to their time away, none realising nothing will ever be the same again after this weekend.

So, it starts off relatively gentle, we just get to know all the visitors, the hotel is small and with the weather it is a tiny skeleton staff running it. I have to say, normally the small stories getting to know the characters I am a bit meh, these guys we get in bite size as it moves to the next visitors. I found myself getting immersed quickly and not wanting to move on to anyone else for every person I was reading. It isn't that huge things happen immediately but Lapena writes in such a way you want to get to know the characters more. When the first body appears the story takes on a new feel and as the characters start to freak out you can help but feel the tension and suspect everyone. It is all a bit cabin fever and as you turn page after page, more than once, I was holding my breath. What is happening, who is next, who is the bad guy, I found myself going through it like an old Murder She Wrote = suspect them all, trust no one!

I really enjoyed this, pulled in quickly, experiencing the terror and tension with the characters and fully engaging with it as it all unfolds. I have read this author before and I think there is only one more of hers I need to get. I was kept guessing the whole time and I love when a book does that to you, absolutely a testament to the authors ability to weave a tale and keep you on your toes, 4/5 for me this time. Thanks so much to Random Things Tours for giving me the opportunity to read this and remind me how much I enjoy Lapena's writing!

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Portrait Of A Killer Jack The Ripper Case Closed by Patricia Cornwell

Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper - Case Closed by Patricia Cornwell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 2 days

Publisher - Time Warner

Pages - 451

Blurb from the back cover

Between August and November 1888 five women were murdered in Whitechapel. The gruesome nature of their deaths caused panic and fear for months in the East End, and gave rise to the sobriquet which was to become shorthand for a serial killer - JACK THE RIPPER.

For over a hundred years the identity of the killer has remained one of the world's greatest unsolved mysteries. Until now. Using her formidable range of forensic and technical skills, Patricia Cornwell has applied the rigorous discipline of twenty-first-century police investigation to the extant material, and here presents the hard evidence that the perpetrator of the Whitechapel murders was the world famous artist, Walter Sickert.

With her knowledge of criminal investigation and her consummate skills as a bestselling writer, Patricia Cornwell has produced a book which is as compelling as it is authentic - the definitive account of one of the world's most famous murder mysteries.




My Review

I heard a lot of criticism of this book and some positive reviews before I started this one. Any fans of crime fiction know the name Patricia Cornwell and I have enjoyed a few of her books over the years. I have always been interested in the theories put forward about Jack The Ripper and there is so much controversy and speculation about the killers identity, even over a century later! So of course I had to buy and read this myself.

So, what did I like about it? A new potential killer thrown into the mix, as for me, I have never heard Walter mentioned as a suspect let alone outright named as the killer. Cornwell not only puts forward this chap as the absolute killer, she debunks the idea of some of the other suspects listed previously and explains why they couldn't be the killer. The book gives a good bit of evidence and recount of the crimes, she also puts in many murders that she believes was the Rippers work too again I hadn't heard of these ones.

What didn't I like, the book says case closed, she has found the killer, I disagree. She makes a good case putting forward a new suspect but so much is could have, points to, may have been. This is not definitive proof and it is almost arrogant to claim you are the absolute when so much of the findings are possibles, could be and if he was or if he did.

Regardless, it is an interesting read, the book has photographs of the victims and of some of the correspondence sent in from the Ripper. Some of the details of the crimes and horrors carried out to the bodies is for tough and gorey reading so caution if you have issue reading details like that. Overall, whether you agree with Cornwell or not, I would say you would enjoy it or find it interesting for discussion if you have an interest or opinion on one of the oldest unsolved crimes, 3/5 for me this time.

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