Unhinged by Thomas Enger and Jørn Lier Horst

Happy Valentine's Day! Today I'm a stop on the Random Things Tour for Thomas Enger and Jørn Lier Horst's latest Blix and Ramm installment, Unhinged!

Just days after losing a friend and colleague, Alexander Blix and Emma Ramm find themselves under interrogation in the aftermath of a fatal shooting. 

Sofia Kovic was murdered in her own apartment. No one knows why and no one knows who is responsible. But Blix's daughter, Iselin, Kovic's roommate, narrowly escaped. Unfortunately for her, it seems she's has become a target herself when she's kidnapped the very next day. 

Blix and Ramm follow the only clues left behind and not only find Iselin but kill her kidnapper as well. 

And that's only the beginning of the story. 

Blix finds himself suspended and unsure what to do next while Ramm is determined to solve Kovic's murder and find out why Iselin was kidnapped. She's certain it has to be tied to Kovic's latest case, but without her primary resource she's not sure who she can trust. 

Meanwhile, Blix is doing his own off books investigating. But it increasingly appears that Kovic may have been suspicious of one of their own. Which means Blix has no one else to turn to for help in one of the most important cases of his life. 

Ok, first off: you're killing me guys!!!

This book has left me with the ultimate book hangover. First, they went somewhere I really thought for sure they would not go with this book. 

Second, the ending!

I have devoured each book in this series so far and each one has left me suuuuper anxious for the next installment. And this is no exception to the rule. I need more Blix and Ramm!!!

The book begins with Blix and Ramm being interrogated. Blix for a fatal shooting. Ramm for her role in the whole thing. And then, before we get too comfortable, it pops back to the day before where Blix is giving a talk for those who have lived through violent crime. Survivors like Emma herself, who has now been contracted to write a book about the subject. 

Blix ends his talk, finally able to check his phone, which has been blowing up the entire time. And his heart sinks when he realizes his own daughter has called multiple times. He finally connects, only to learn that she's on the run from a shooter who just killed her roommate, Blix's colleague Sofia Kovic. 

It's an explosive beginning to a book that I promise you will not be able to set down until you find out how it all will end. Which is exactly what I did—I read through in one afternoon (sorry, authors, I know it took a lot longer to write!). 

I should have savored it considering how badly I want to read another one. But I didn't. I couldn't! I was sucked in and I just had to know what was going to happen! And now...of course I'm dying to read more! 

I am just one of many who will tell you how great this series is! It is an absolute must read for crime fans and it just gets better and better with each book because we know and love the characters so much more with each new story!

Cherish Farrah by Bethany C. Morrow

Happy Book Birthday Week to Bethany C. Morrow whose latest, Cherish Farrah, released yesterday!

As a Black girl, Farrah knows everything is about control. And she prides herself on her level of it. She's even bested her mom, her most worthy foe. Which is why she's living with her best friend's family after her home was foreclosed on.

It was always supposed to be temporary in her parents' minds. But living with Cherish is what Farrah wants. It's what Cherish wants. And, thanks to Farrah's work, it's what Cherish's parents want as well 

Cherish is what Farrah calls "white girl spoiled." Her parents are white but Cherish is Black. And yet, she's never lived exactly the kind of life Farrah has. She'll never be in danger of losing her house. Her parents have fallbacks if something happens to one of their jobs. 

But still, Cherish is Black. And when she and Farrah meet, it means neither of them is the only Black girl anymore. They have each other and, as far as Farrah is concerned, that's all they need.

But things aren't as perfect at the Whitman home as they seem to be on the outside. Farrah has been sick almost since she arrived. And while she's sick, she overhears things she can't be sure are real at all. What's more, Farrah isn't certain that she's fully in control of the situation anymore. And control is the one thing she cannot lose. 

This is a super voice-y character driven mean story! And by that I mean, it is definitely horror and it is definitely adult but it's more subversive and quiet than you might suspect going in. 

And there's a really telling part that sets you up for everything else to come that would be so spoilery if I were to reveal it, that I will keep my big mouth shut!

So Farrah has lived a comfortable middle class life. She attends a private school, she has a middlish sized house with a swimming pool—definitely not as big as the Whitman home, but respectable enough that it exists in the same neighborhood. And it's a real shock to Farrah to learn that her parents have been living so close to the edge of their means that when her mom loses her job and doesn't find a new one quickly enough, they lose their home. 

And it's jarring for her to say the least. She actually sort of demands that her parents fix it and get their house back! And when they can't, she's fully ready to let herself basically be adopted by the Whitmans.

Even more interesting, the Whitmans seem open to it. Farrah is convinced that they've started to see her as their own daughter. That she and Cherish can be sisters in a real and formal sense!

But there's a thread of nastiness that runs through the story. Farrah herself is very manipulative. She aims to get exactly what she wants at any cost. And Cherish is the person she loves the most, so that means she'll do anything for Cherish—and to keep Cherish—as well.

Cherish Farrah is a clever book that gets under your skin. With Farrah as the narrator, you're completely in her head, experiencing the story every step of the way alongside her. And it makes for a really immersive and fast read!

And boy, when you have the dawning sense of where this book is actually going...it becomes a really wild ride!

Order a copy from your favorite indie via Bookshop!

Off Target by Eve Smith

Good morning, everyone! Today I'm a stop on the Random Things Tour for Eve Smith's latest, Off Target. 

In the near future, almost everyone has to rely on IVF to get pregnant. The added bonus is that early testing can also reveal if your child will suffer from a number of now corrective issues. 

Genetic manipulation is legal, to an extent, in the UK. And many have benefited greatly by it and IVF. But even though Susan and her husband have been trying to get pregnant for years, he is adamantly against IVF. 

But then Susan gets pregnant. And the father isn't her husband. Desperate to make things right, Susan agrees to undergo a highly experimental procedure that replaces the biological father's DNA with that of her own husband's, making him, for all intents and purposes, the father. 

Over a decade later, Susan's daughter Zurel is healthy but not thriving. She hasn't spoken a word for quite some time and there appears to be no medical reason for it. At the same time, there are an increasing number of cases of genetically modified children suffering horrible mental health issues that are believed to be linked to DNA tweaking. Protestors are rallying and the names of people like Susan, who have gone outside of the country and the law, are in danger of being exposed. 

For Susan, nothing is more important than her daughter. But how far will she have to go to ensure her daughter's safety?

This latest from Eve Smith tackles some really hard hitting questions. First and foremost, if you could, would you have your child's DNA altered? How far would you go? 

We already know that genetic modification is really happening. CRISPR has yet to be used, as far as we know, in human genetic manipulation, but it's only a matter of time. 

As a parent, this story hits close to home for a number of reasons. And it's a weird thing to think about. Especially since I myself was diagnosed with a genetic disorder while I was pregnant. 

For Susan, though, it's more than just health. She and her husband have both been tested and nothing seems to be out of order. But they still can't conceive. And thanks to things that happened with his ex, her husband won't even consider IVF, much less genetic modifications. 

But then almost all of Susan's dreams come true when she finds out she's pregnant. Unfortunately, she quickly realizes the baby is not her husbands. Which is where the experimental treatment comes in. And she absolutely elects to do it, even having known health issues eliminated at the same time. 

Keeping it secret, though, that's the real issue. And when she becomes concerned that her choice may have hurt her daughter...

This is a really frightening premise! And an explosive page turner perfect for people looking for an intense but quick read. And equally perfect for people looking for a meaty topic to chew on. (In other words, great for book clubs!)

Off Target is out now in e format and releases next week in paperback from the fabulous folks at Orenda!

The Undesired by Yrsa Sigurdardóttir

1974: Aldís swears her job at Krókur, a group home for delinquent boys, is only temporary. In fact, she’s counting the days until she’s saved enough to move to the city. But until then, she bides her time cleaning and doing pretty much any job asked of her by the home’s unpleasant owners. 

When a new boy arrives who doesn’t quite fit the mold of the home’s other residents, they strike up a tenuous friendship. And it comes as something of a relief, considering their remote location. But Aldís has grown more and more uncomfortable at the home, especially as odd noises and occurrences start to become more commonplace.

Present day: After the death of his ex, Ódinn has become solely responsible for his eleven-year-old daughter. Which means he’s had to leave some of his bachelor life behind, including his demanding job working for his brother. 

He doesn’t enjoy office life, but the agency he works for has been tasked with investigating the histories of various care homes to determine whether their residents were mistreated. When a colleague passes away in the midst of investigating Krókur, Ódinn is given the assignment. 

Unlike others, the home doesn’t have a history of complaints, though it has been closed for some time. And though two boys did die while in care there, the incident was deemed an accident at the time. Ódinn is excited about the added responsibility and something he can focus some energy on. But as his investigation goes on, he becomes more certain that things weren’t right at Krókur. And while he’d consider himself a level-headed person, ever since taking over the case, he’s heard—and even seen—increasingly strange things. 

One of the things I have always loved about Yrsa Sigurdardóttir‘s work is her way of weaving strange and possibly supernatural events into stories that have otherwise logical explanations. It something that adds a really fabulous and eerie undertone to her fiction. It’s a hallmark of her first series and it’s prevalent in The Undesired.

The story is told in two separate timelines—1974 and present day—with narrators Aldís and Ódinn. 

Aldís has left her home and is living on her own, trying to save for better days. Ódinn has new responsibilities as a single father after his ex dies suddenly in a tragic fall. Their connection is Krókur, a home for boys that operated in the 70s. 

Krókur is located in a fairly remote area. Aldís and the others rely on the owner if they want transportation into town (unless they want to spend the day walking). Any inclement weather leaves them essentially cut off. Aside from the boys, the home’s only other residents are the owners, Aldís, and four men who can’t get work elsewhere. So it’s a pretty lonely existence. Especially for a young woman with no one to call a friend. 

In his own way, Ódinn is also cut off. Many of his friends have fallen away and his free time is spent with his daughter, who is still grieving the loss of her mother. Ódinn is at a loss, considering he’s never had to be much more than a weekend dad and he has no clue how to help with his daughter’s emotional state. 

And she seems fine, most of the time. But she swears her mother’s spirit is angry. 

As Ódinn digs further into Krókur, he becomes all too aware of how cut off he and his daughter are. Strange noises plague their home, a condo building with just one other resident. But is it connected to the investigation? Or the death of his wife? Or is it all his imagination?

As Aldís’s story unfolds and Ódinn’s look into the home progresses, the real truth about the goings on at Krókur draw closer and closer to being revealed. 

The Undesired is perfect reading for a late and chilly night! Just the right amount of suspense and mystery. And an added bonus of creepy undertones!

Order a copy from your favorite indie via Bookshop! (Note, I do have the UK edition. The Undesired was released in the States from Minotaur in 2018.)

Woman Last Seen by Adele Parks—Excerpt

It is, as my son says, the freaking weekend! And I am really excited to be sharing an excerpt of Adele Parks's latest thriller, Woman Last Seen!

But first, here's a bit about the book from the publisher:

HAPPY. MARRIED. MISSING.

Leigh Fletcher: happily married stepmum to two gorgeous boys goes missing on Monday. Her husband Mark says he knows nothing of her whereabouts. She simply went to work and just never came home. Their family is shattered.

Kai Janssen: married to wealthy Dutch businessman, Daan, vanishes the same week. Kai left their luxurious penthouse and glamourous world without a backward glance. She seemingly evaporated into thin air. Daan is distraught.

DC Clements knows that people disappear all the time – far too frequently. Most run away from things, some run towards, others are taken but find their way back. A sad few never return. These two women are from very different worlds, their disappearances are unlikely to be connected. And yet, at a gut level, the DC believes they might be.

How could these women walk away from their families, husbands and homes willingly? Clements is determined to unearth the truth, no matter how shocking and devastating it may be.

As any of my readers can tell, I do adore a great thriller and Adele Parks delivers! 

And now, the promised excerpt to whet your reading appetite :)

1

Tuesday, 17th March

I am engulfed in emptiness. I’m not in my bed. I am not in any bed.

In the instant my eyes flutter open I know there is some-thing wrong. Seriously wrong. It’s dark. I’m suspended in a threatening, airless blackness. I’m lying down but am dis-orientated because I’m on a cold concrete floor. A floor that looks as though it’s waiting to be tiled, but something immediately suggests to me it never will be. My mind is lazy and unable to process why I think this. I can’t remember when I last slept on a floor, a million years ago when I was a student and would bunk in on another student’s room if I was too drunk to get home. I try to sit up; my limbs feel heavy, my head sore. I try to stand up but as I do so, I am yanked back down, my left hand is tethered. Chained. I hear the rattle of the chain at the same time as I feel the cold tug. Am I dreaming? My head pulses, swells and then bursts, I close my eyes again, my lids are like sandpaper scratching, I open them for a second time, giving them a chance to adjust to the darkness. Is it my dizziness that’s leaving everything unfamiliar? Shaky? I feel slow, behind myself.

How much did I have to drink last night? I try to remember. I can’t. And then—this is terrifying—I realize I can’t remember last night at all. I feel sick. I can smell vomit, suggesting I have already been sick. I should not be waking to the smell of vomit. Where is the smell of my husband’s early morning breath? There is no smell of toast from the kitchen, no traces of the Jo Malone Lime Basil and Mandarin room spray that I sometimes wake to. I’m somewhere dusty, not damp, a little overwarm. Am I in a hospital? No. What sort of hospital makes patients lie on the floor, chains them? There are no sounds. My boys are not arguing in the kitchen, the TV is not blaring, no doors opening, slamming, no demands, “Mum, where are my football shorts?” I wait, sometimes I wake to something more serene. Sometimes it is Radio 4 and the smell of coffee.

Nothing.

Alarm and horror flood through my body. My organs and limbs turn to liquid and I can’t coordinate my movements. None of us are that naive anymore. The news doesn’t always enlighten or inform, often it terrifies. My foggy mind realizes I must have been drugged. I have been abducted. The terrible thing that you read about that happens to someone else—someone other—has happened to me.

Panicked, I tug hard at the chain, there’s no give. I scramble about in the darkness. Trying to understand my environment. I can’t move far because of the chain, which is attached to a radiator at one end and through a zip tie that is tight around my wrist on the other. The chain is about a meter long. As my eyes adjust, I see that I am in a room that is about three meters long by just over two, like a standard guest room. The walls are manila. It is clean and bare. I am not in a derelict warehouse or abandoned cottage. It’s bland to the state of anonymous. I imagine that is the point. I could be anywhere. There’s no furniture in the room. None at all. Not a bed, a mattress, a lamp. Nothing to soften or comfort. Just a plastic bucket. I realize what this is intended for and my stomach heaves. I can see the outline of a door and a boarded-up window. I can’t reach the door as it’s in the far corner, or the window as that’s at the end of the wall opposite the one with the radiator I am chained to.

I go to check the time, but my Fitbit has been removed. Not knowing what time it is, or even what day it is for sure, sends spikes of isolation and confusion through my body. Still, I have my voice. I can shout and maybe attract attention. I fleetingly consider that shouting will attract the attention of whoever it is that brought me here. He could do a lot worse to me that chain me up, but I have no choice.

“Help! Help me! Help!” My voice shatters the dead unnatural silence. I yell over and over again until I become hoarse. The pain in my tender head intensifies.

No one comes.

No one responds.

The silence stretches. I stop yelling and listen. Hoping to hear something, cars in the distance, people in the street, bird-song, as the light has started to eke around the boarded window. A new day, but which day is it? Nothing. It’s like I’m in a vacuum. Then, I hear footsteps coming toward the door.

“Please, please let me out,” I whimper. I’m crying now. I’m not sure when I started crying. Tears and mucus pour down my face. I don’t want to be weak. I want to be strong, brave, resistant. That’s what you imagine you’ll be in a situation like this but it’s beyond me. It’s a ludicrous fantasy. I am just terrified. I will beg, plead, implore. Anything to stay safe. Any-thing. “Please, please don’t hurt me. Please.”

Then I hear the distinct sound of the keystrokes of an old-fashioned typewriter being pounded. A sort of shuffling rat-tat-tat. Slow, precise. Like a hostile countdown. Next, the hurried juddering whirl of paper being forcefully pulled out of the machine’s roller. It is incongruous, this passé sound is the domain of busy newspaper rooms in decades gone by. Who has a typewriter anymore? There is rustling, as the piece of paper is pushed beneath the door. I stretch to reach it, but it is tantalizingly out of my grasp. I lie on the floor and carefully, oh so slowly, edge it nearer with my toes until I can drag it close enough to snatch it up.

I am not the villain here.

Excerpted from Woman Last Seen by Adele Parks, Copyright © 2022 by Adele Parks. Published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

About the author: Adele Parks was born in Teesside, North-East England. Her first novel, Playing Away, was published in 2000 and since then she's had 20 international bestsellers, translated into twenty-six languages. She's been an Ambassador for The Reading Agency and a judge for the Costa. She's lived in Italy, Botswana and London, and is now settled in Guildford, Surrey, with her husband, teenage son and cat.

Whew! I can't wait to dive further into this one!

Huge thanks to the publisher for providing the excerpt today. Woman Last Seen is out on shelves now!

Buy Links: Bookshop - Harlequin - Barnes & Noble - Books-A-Million

The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore by Kim Fun

Camp Forevermore, an overnight camp meant to be a growing and bonding experience for young girls. It even boasts an overnight kayaking and camping trip on a remote island. 

But what starts out as a fun adventure ends with five girls stranded and fending for themselves. 

Years later, the experience may be behind them but all of the women are fundamentally changed by what happened. 

I will say that my expectations of this one were not quite met. Although, it is all my own fault. I went into this with the unfortunate timing of having become completely obsessed with Yellowjackets!

I quite enjoyed the camp story. 

The girls, none of them really friends from the start, set off with their leader, Jan, a former counselor at the camp, and make such good time that they decide to camp further out. Which means that when tragedy occurs, no one knows where they are!

Nita, Andee, Isabel, Dina, and Siobhan’s stories unfold in their own chapters, sandwiched between chapters outlining the camping trip itself. It makes for a much more character-driven story than I usually choose. 

Many of the women aren’t obviously scarred by what happened, but, as with much trauma, they are nonetheless affected. The events follow and haunt them for years!

And they’ve all taken very different paths. Nita is married with kids. A former doctor who seems to feel her greatest accomplishment was helping the other girls get through it all. 

Andee isn’t actually the main character in her chapter. Instead, it’s her sister, who was left behind after Andee won a place at the camp. The two of them live together for years, orbiting each other like two planets rather than supportive sisters. 

Isabel’s story is the one that I was most drawn to. Her first real connection is one that also ends in tragedy. She’s also the only one that ends up with any connection to the others after everything is said and done. 

Dina, sadly, is the most obviously marked by the events. She also doesn’t have a great relationship with her mother, which is part of her journey. 

Finally, there’s Siobhan, who narrates the camp story. But while it would seem she’s given the most screen time, I was disappointed not to get more from her. 

Fu, whose upcoming short story collection runs the gamut of genres, is an exceptional writer, taking even the smallest moments in a person’s life and using them to show how the events of the past never do truly leave us. 

Order a copy from your favorite indie via Bookshop!

The House of Ashes by Stuart Neville

Happy Tuesday, everyone! Today I’m a stop on the Compulsive Readers tour for Stuart Neville’s latest, The House of Ashes!

Sara Keane and her husband Damien have only lived in their new house for a short time. It’s to be a new start for them after the incident. But the house, named The Ashes for the trees that grow outside, has a dark history. A history Sara is unaware of until an old woman arrives, banging on their door in the early morning hours.

The woman insists the house is hers. What’s more, she says the children need her. 

Curious about the woman, and with literally nothing to occupy her time, Sara begins to dig into the story of The Ashes and learns that it was the site of a horrific crime. As she discovers more, she also gets to know Mary, the old woman. And it’s this that finally gives her the strength she needs to change her own life.

Stuart Neville is well known as a master of Irish crime fiction. This latest standalone is crime fiction but also so much more. It’s the story of two women, tied to one another by location and circumstance. 

The book alternates, mostly, between Sara, present day, and Mary as she recounts her time living at The Ashes. 

Sara is closed off thanks to her domineering husband. And his family has a history in the area. Her father-in-law is in property development—it was he who bought the house for Sara and Damien and he’s had a crew working to fix it up and add an addition. But Francie Keane is also well known because of his stint in prison. And Sara isn’t too clear on exactly why he was there. 

For over a decade, Mary never knew anything outside of The Ashes. She lived there with Mummy Joy, Mummy Noreen, and the daddies. The daddies were always angry. There were others. Other women and even other children occasionally. But mostly it was Mary, Joy, and Noreen. 

Until one day when everything changed. 

Throughout, the book is peppered with pieces that set the tone and scene for the happenings in Northern Ireland. But that’s not the focus of the book by any means. Instead, it’s Mary and Sara. And a house that both women have theorized has never seen anything but tragedy. 

I know it sounds like this is a heavy read. And it is, but it’s also got the atmosphere and propulsion of a crime novel. It’s literally compulsively readable! So much so that I finished it in just a matter of hours!

House of Ashes is out now in both the UK and the US.