In Extremis: A Hellbound Novella by David McCaffrey

In Extremis: A Hellbound Novella by David McCaffrey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - < 1 hour

Pages - 88 pages

Publisher - Sixth Element Publishing

Blurb from Goodreads


James Maybrick had secured his legacy as the most infamous serial killer of all time…his diary would one day shock the world.

Thomas Quinn wants revenge…his actions will give birth to an organisation of unspeakable power.

Together, they unwittingly set in motion a plan that will one day lead to the serial killer, Obadiah Stark.

Stark became The Tally Man.

They were The Brethren.

Maybrick is known to history by another name…



My Review

In Extremis is a novella that picks up immediately after the last murder by Jack The Ripper, the author has another book, Hellbound that people say you should read before this one. I decided to read this first, James Maybrick is The Ripper & in this short novella we get to read his thoughts & state of mind in the immediate aftermath of the killers. Thomas Quinn is one of the Brethren, a group of "individuals" who have an idea of what society should be and see Maybrick as a means to an end. When Maybrick puts them at risk, Quinn and the Brethren set in motion a plan to clean the decks, without exposing the all important Brethren brotherhood.

Ooooh I do love all things Jack The Ripper, he has always been an enigma, so many conspiracy's and theories. I can't believe of the books I have read Maybrick didn't feature or if he did I don't remember him. I now want to go digging and have a read about Maybrick and his diary, In Extremis we get to go behind the scenes and see into the mind of one of the most notorious killers. Excerpts from the journal of James Maybrick which I did struggle with a few of the words with the curved writing however it was very late at night which probably contributed!

Apart from a few big words I needed to look up, the writing flows well, it is well written creating a creepy and eerie atmosphere making the reader pull their blanket just a wee bit closer and listen a bit more keenly to the creaks when late night reading. This was my first dance with this author, it won't be my last, 4/5 for me this time. I would warn, as with all Jack The Ripper themed books, some of the passages are graphic which may upset some of our faint hearted readers, otherwise dive right in.

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Baby Doll by Hollie Overton

Baby Doll by Hollie Overton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1 day

Pages - 288

Publisher - Century

Blurb from Goodreads


You've been held captive in one room, mentally and physically abused every day, since you were sixteen years old.

Then, one night, you realize your captor has left the door to your cell unlocked.

For the first time in eight years, you're free.

This is about what happens next ...

Lily knows that she must bring the man who nearly ruined her life - her good-looking high-school teacher - to justice. But she never imagined that reconnecting with her family would be just as difficult. Reclaiming her relationship with her twin sister, her mother, and her high school sweetheart who is in love with her sister may be Lily's greatest challenge. After all they've been through, can Lily and her family find their way back after this life-altering trauma?

Impossible not to read in one sitting, Baby Doll is a taut psychological thriller that focuses on family entanglements and the evil that can hide behind a benign facade.



My Review

We open with Lily, Lily has been kidnapped, tortured, abused, beaten and trained for 3110 days, but today everything has changed. Lily finally has a chance to escape her torture chamber, this is Lily's story of what happens next once she is free. The story splits mostly between Lily, her mum Eve, her twin sister Abby and Rick her captor. The story looks at how everyone tries to adapt to finally have Lily home, coping with what happened, picking up as a family and each dealing with the demons Lily's kidnap brought forward for everyone involved.

This book kicks off pretty much from the first page, with Lily in captivity, you feel the fear and tension immediately as the character ways up the options for self preservation. Initially I was a bit worried we were getting another "Room" style novel as initially there were strong echoes of that book however you soon realize the two are very different. We follow Lily as she integrates back into her old life, her family and read along with each of their experiences and feelings. Rick is the bad guy, he doesn't get as much voice as the other characters and to be honest I would have liked to have heard more from him. The face of normality, hiding a psychopath and seeing or hearing more of his family life rather than just glimpses after the fact.

The book looks at societal reintegration, family struggles as each has both tried to move on and been trapped since their world was shaken and turned upside down. The glare, scrutiny and judgments of the media on such a high profile case and how that impacts upon the family. I found this book to draw the reader in, evoke emotion for almost all of the main characters and the underlying issues of not only Lily's plight but how everyone was affected by her disappearance and reappearance. Each chapter is headed with the individual whose perspective the tale is being told from so it is easy to follow. A strong debut novel, I will be looking out for more by this author, 4/5 for me this time.

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Nekropolis by Tim Waggoner

Nekropolis by Tim Waggoner
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 2 days

Pages - 401

Publisher - Angry Robot

Blurb from Goodreads

MATT RICHTER MAY BE DEAD, BUT HE'LL STILL CRACK THIS CASE.

Meet Matt Richter. Private Eye. Zombie. His mean streets are the city of the dead, the shadowy realm known as Nekropolis.

This place has always been ruled by the vampire overlords.
Now they're plotting to destroy the city.
... over his dead body.


More pulp than Pulp Fiction, more butt-kicking than Buffy, Nekropolis is the first in a deathly new series.


My Review

An alternate dimension ruled by vampire overlords in order to escape any punishment by humans. Ruled by vampires, inhabited by many mystical creatures, werewolves with a difference, vampires, hybrid creatures such as a piranha type dogs and many more. PI Matthew Richter used to be a cop back on earth, now he is a PI zombie, a zombie with free will and a conscience, an all round good guy. When a vampire Lord's daughter, Devona, hires him to reclaim a stolen powerful artifact the two come together and face many dangers. Devona can't tell her father, her blood brother may be involved, Mike is trying to keep his body from falling apart whilst keeping the foes from killing them before they can get the job done!

I didn't think I was going to like this story, I don't mind one or two creatures in my story but when there are so many different ones and you don't get a how they came to be that irritates me. Anyways, a whole new world for the unnaturals, Mike is a go to kind of guy who helps out everyone on Nekropolis and doesn't seem to have a bad bone in his undead body. Devona and him soon build up a mutual attraction whilst investigating who would want the Dawnstone and why. With much at risk, the investigation turns deadly and time is running out.

I liked we eventually get Mike's back story, I like his character he is such a nice guy and has made many friends in Nekropolis whereas normally with detectives they are a bit dodgy. Devona was a harder character to like, it was as if Waggoner couldn't make up his mind to make her a hardcore strong female character or a shrinking violet which she flipped between pending the situation. It was a good introduction to that world and the characters, I would definitely read more of this series, 3/5 for me this time.

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Wee additional giveaway & thank you

Image credited from here

THANK YOU! The blog twitter account has hit 2000 followers and the Facebook page is over 1700, thank you so so much guys for your support, interactions and recommendations for books and book events. I started this blog to keep track of books I have read, I kept re buying ones forgetting I had read them until a few chapters in. So I started the reviews to keep track and it links in with Goodreads which is awesome, so when people starting to interact, authors offered to send books, publishers and publicists reached out I was delighted and pleasantly surprised. My reviews are not literary masterpieces by any stretch of the imagination, I just write what I liked, what I didn't and recommend books to folks that I think will love them, even ones I disliked because one man's rubbish is another's gold. I have "met" so many great bloggers and bok lovers who are so supportive, been introduced to many great authors I would otherwise have missed and some absolute gems of books. So, as well as the current competition running just now, click here for details, this is just a wee additional & keeping in theme with Halloween.







A wee dvd called "Dead Of The Night" and a magnetic bookmark, both as shown in the picture above. To enter, just head over So Many Books So Little Time's Facebook page or click here to be redirected, like the post, share and comment. I will give you a number on your comment and at the end of the week I will random generate the winning number. This competition is open to everyone, you just need to like/share and comment, that is is. Good luck if you are entering and thanks again for your continued support.

The Secret by Kathy Hughes

The Secret by Kathryn Hughes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 2 day

Pages - 416

Publisher - Headline Review

Blurb from Goodreads

Mary has been nursing a secret. Forty years ago, she made a choice that would change her world for ever, and alter the path of someone she holds dear.

Beth is searching for answers. She has never known the truth about her parentage, but finding out could be the lifeline her sick child so desperately needs. When Beth finds a faded newspaper cutting amongst her mother's things, she realises the key to her son's future lies in her own past. She must go back to where it all began to unlock...The Secret.


My Review

We open in June 1975 Mary Roberts whole world ended as she knew it. Flip ahead to 2016, Mary has passed leaving behind her daughter, grandson and a secret that could literally mean life or death for her daughter Beth's son. Beth's fathers identity is a secret, only Mary could have told her who he was, now Mary has died and Beth's son Jake is ill, could Beth's father's identity hold the key to saving his life? As Beth starts to go through her mothers belongings she finds clues that could help save her son, a secret from the past that may touch the lives of many.

Whilst the story timeline flips a wee bit, it is done so in a way the reader can follow easily. 1975 initially, 2013 to give some build to the main characters before heading back to the past where we pick up in 1976. We meet characters who seem to have no relationship or relevance to our present day story. We delve into the past, meet new characters, love and hate them in equal measures, Hughes takes us into a story of love, loss, sacrifice, family and how some secrets can have long reaching consequences and the fall out from it. This is a lovely story that has elements of sadness, courage and the impact secrets can have, how in protecting those we love we can actually cause more harm.

Beautifully written with characters that jump off the page and into your heart, or the ones that irritate you and get right under your skin. A skillful writer who creates a world you fall into and want to keep reading about long after you finish the last page. 4/5 for me this time, this is my first time reading this author, it won't be my last, thanks to Bookbridgr for sending me a copy of this to review and introducing me to a new author.

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The Killing Room by Richard Montanari

The Killing Room by Richard Montanari
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - on and off for 5 days

Pages - 358

Publisher - Sphere

Blurb from Goodreads

Hear the footsteps, feel the screams. The chilling new Byrne and Balzano thriller from the Sunday Times bestseller. Product Description Nothing will ever be the same again... In the heart of Philadelphia's badlands, Homicide Detectives Byrne and Balzano are called out to a particularly chilling crime scene. Once the pillar of the neighbourhood, an abandoned church has become a killing room. At first it looks like a random act of violence. But then a second body is found, and a third. Each crime scene more disturbing than the last, each murder more brutal. And it soon becomes horrifyingly clear that a cold, calculating and terrifyingly precise mind is at work. With very few leads, and a mastermind who always seems to be one step ahead, Byrne and Balzano are faced with challenges they could never have imagined as they race against time to hunt down their killer, before it's too late...


My Review

An ex police officer found in an abandoned chapel, kept alive and wrapped in barb wire for ten days but why? Only one day later, another victim, another chapel just as disturbing, when a third is found the police know they need to move fast, but what drives this killer and what links the victims. Clearly a religious aspect and footage shows a victim voluntarily heading to the location they die, what can have a hold over these people and why are the chapels important?

The chapters go between the police investigation and a glimpse to the killer, written in italics and interactions with the victims. This makes for very freaky reading, is there a spirtual element in the killings? Is the killer a mere mortal? The slayings are brutal and the scenes are not for the faint hearted. The book is quite heavy on police procedure which seems a bit drawn out in places and didn't capture my attention quite as much as other parts of the book. The supernatural tones really draw the reader in and were very creepy however the finale and wrap up raised some questions and made me question the plausibility of it all. A good read if you just suspend reality for a while, gruesome too with in depth police procedures and aspects of the investigation, 3/5 for me this time.

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How I Lost You by Jenny Blackhurst

How I Lost You by Jenny Blackhurst
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 2 days

Pages - 352

Publisher - Headline

Blurb from Goodreads

They told her she killed her son. She served her time. But what if they lied? I have no memory of what happened but I was told I killed my son. And you believe what your loved ones, your doctor and the police tell you, don't you? My name is Emma Cartwright. Three years ago I was Susan Webster, and I murdered my twelve-week-old son Dylan. I was sent to Oakdale Psychiatric Institute for my crime, and four weeks ago I was released early on parole with a new identity, address and a chance to rebuild my tattered life. This morning, I received an envelope addressed to Susan Webster. Inside it was a photograph of a toddler called Dylan. Now I am questioning everything I believe because if I have no memory of the event, how can I truly believe he's dead? If there was the smallest chance your son was alive, what would you do to get him back?


My Review

2013 Susan Websters letter to the parole board is accepted, Susan is being released and starting a new life as Emma Cartwright. Emma can move on, meet new people and start to heal, Emma is not Susan, Susan who killed her twelve week old baby. Emma is ready to heal, however someone knows Emma is Susan, someone knows what she has done and now Emma has a letter hand delivered to Susan and a picture of a toddler, the same age as Susan's baby would be. Soon Emma is being tormented, could her son really be alive or is someone punishing Susan for her crime and is she in danger?

So the book opens in 2013 and pretty much jumps into the present with Emma getting the picture of a toddler suggesting it is her son. There is no memory of her child's death but she has been convicted, lost her husband and everyone has told her of her guilt. Now Susan aka Emma, needs to uncover who is tormenting her and if there can be any chance her child is alive. The story flips to the past 1987, written in italics and headed Jack. We go between the past, with Jack, and then to the present with Susan, the relevance of Jack doesn't become clear until much later in the story. With it being headed and in italics it is easy to identify the time jump and character distinction so doesn't disrupt the story too much.

Susan is unreliable at times, particularly as she is constantly questioning herself and her crime, things happen to mess with her mind and reality and you do feel sorry for her. She agrees to meet a reporter who seems to want to help her and believe she is being tormented. With little support and the scale of terror climbing up Susan has few places to turn. Her behavior at times is exasperating and questionable however if you had lost your child and being tormented, who can say how you would behave. Her poor choices and erratic behavior did impact on my enjoyment of the story to be honest and as it went on I did at one point think really? However, it does make for a very good page turner, I was invested in the story and needed to know how it all panned out. This was my first time reading this author, I would read her again 3/5 for me this time.

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