The Inner Darkness by Jørn Lier Horst

Wisting is back with his daughter Line in this latest story from Jørn Lier Horst. Line is helping the police with an investigation into the location of a convicted killers last victim. Tom Kerr has agreed to lead the police to where the body is buried. It is during the investigation that Kerr escapes, captured on film by Line.

The team build a plan to recapture him, knowing that if they fail, Kerr could commit further terrible murders. 

There is suspicions of another one who helped Kerr, both previously with his torturous murders and lately with his escape. But nothing is known of this individual, finding Kerr could be a way to capture this other person. 

Line meanwhile is working hard on her own journalist research into the case, in order to gather enough material for a documentary once the case reaches its conclusion, hopefully.

As ever Jørn Lier Horst writes a story that is both involving and full of tension.
I like the familiar way we are involved with the characters, we see them in their home, with their family and with their colleagues. The relationships are tangible and natural. 

 
What wasn't so good was the bit of descriptive evidence late on in the book. It was a bit too graphic for my squeamishness.

"As he passed Line, he turned and looked straight into the camera, so close that she could smell him. A dank, stale odour reminiscent of the interior of a house left empty for a long time."

I received an e-ARC of this novel through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. NetGalley does not allow for paid reviews. 

 
4/5 Stars (What this means...five-stars-applied-carefully) 

 
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The chilling and heart-pounding new novel from Norwegian superstar Jørn Lier Horst.

THE INSPIRATION FOR THE HIT BBC FOUR SHOW WISTING 

After four years behind bars, notorious serial killer Tom Kerr is ready to talk. And Chief Inspector William Wisting is waiting to listen.

Kerr has finally agreed to lead the police to his final victim's grave.

But the expedition goes horribly wrong after his escape deep into the Norwegian forest, Wisting must launch a frantic search to find this cold-blooded killer before he strikes again. But the body of another woman, killed weeks before, has been found. Murdered in the same way as Kerr's victims.

Is there a copycat killer on the loose? Has Kerr become a twisted role model for a second killer? And, if so, what might happen if master and apprentice unite?

As the clock counts down to the next murder, Wisting must put everything on the line to stop a terrifying evil before it strikes again.

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The Sin Eater by Megan Campisi

Magnificent story telling! Twisting and turning throughout. 

May Owens is sentenced to be a Sin Eater for stealing a loaf of bread. Now she is Unseen and Unheard, except when she is either taking a Recitation or Eating Sins

She manages to find the other Sin Eater in town and begins to learn her new 'trade'. Without speaking, without touching. 

A cruel and grim fate for a young girl who was hungry. Slowly she begins to learn to 'eat', and listens and watches as she does. Class is no barrier for the Sin Eater, she attends the destitute and also the highest in the land. The danger is greatest when in the Royal Court, with all its plotting.

Megan Campisi keeps you on your edge as she draws you through the trials of May's life, her scrapes with death and the excitement of her escapades. I found myself looking forward to my next free block of time to read, so that I could find out what was happening next. This book gets a big FOUR stars from me. It is great.

"The sin eater walks among us. Unseen. Unheard,’ she says. ‘But I can see her—’ I hiss. ‘Unseen. Unheard,’ she silences."

I received an e-ARC of this novel through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. NetGalley does not allow for paid reviews. 

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An old adage says there are really only two stories: a man goes on a voyage, and a stranger arrives in town. 

This is the third: a woman breaks the rules . . . 

Can you uncover the truth when you’re forbidden from speaking it? A Sin Eater’s duty is a necessary evil: she hears the final private confessions of the dying, eats their sins as a funeral rite, and guarantees their souls access to heaven. It is always women who eat sins – a punishment, for it was Eve who first ate the Forbidden Fruit. Stained by the sins they are obliged to consume, the Sin Eater is shunned and silenced, doomed to live in exile at the edge of town. 

Recently orphaned May Owens is just fourteen when she’s arrested for stealing a loaf of bread and sentenced to become a Sin Eater. It’s a devastating sentence, but May’s new invisibility opens new doors. And when first one, then two, of the Queen’s courtiers suddenly grow ill, May hears their deathbed confessions – and begins to investigate a terrible rumour that is only whispered of amid palace corridors. 

Set in a thinly disguised sixteenth-century England, The Sin Eater by Megan Campisi is a gripping story of treason and treachery; of secrets and silence; of women, of power – and, ultimately, of the strange freedom that comes from being an outcast . . . 

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Q by Christina Dalcher

This book held me right to the end and didn't end as expected. In fact I filled up at the last few paragraphs.

Children have to achieve certain standards or they get demoted to a lower school. The lowest schools are those where the children have to leave the family home and go to a state school somewhere else in the country.

Some unexpected transfers occur in the street where El lives, two girls in the neighbourhood get dropped from Silver to Yellow, unheard of before. And there was no sign of the girls failing before that.

Then El's daughter Freddie is transferred. El cannot stand the idea of Freddie in a yellow state school on her own. She asks her husband Malcolm to intervene, as he is in the top level of the management team for the Fitter Family Programme, but he refuses.

So El deliberately flunks her own teacher assessment to be transferred too.

What she expects and what she gets are so far apart as to be unbelievable.

"Freddie’s in a boarding school, and I’m going to take her out of it. It will be two short days before I realize how absolutely wrong I am."

I received an e-ARC of this novel through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. NetGalley does not allow for paid reviews.   

3/5 Stars (What this means...five-stars-applied-carefully)

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PERFECTION IS EVERYTHING

Elena Fairchild is a teacher at one of the state’s new elite schools. Her daughters are exactly like her: beautiful, ambitious, and perfect. A good thing, since the recent mandate that’s swept the country is all about perfection.

Now everyone must undergo routine tests for their quotient, Q, and any children who don’t measure up are placed into new government schools. Instead, teachers can focus on the gifted.

Elena tells herself it’s not about eugenics, not really, but when one of her daughters scores lower than expected and is taken away, she intentionally fails her own test to go with her.

But what Elena discovers is far more terrifying than she ever imagined…

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Thorn by Intisar Khanani

Thorn is a princess known in her own land as Alyrra, but is not valued by her mother or her brother. Since her father's death she is alone. The presence of the king of Menaiya in her land means that she is a prospect for marriage, that she may yet escape her bully of a brother. But, Alyrra needs to reach Menaiya safely in order to be wed. 

This was an engrossing tale of a princess betrayed by her own family, then rescued by a foreign prince. The prince himself is vulnerable and needs her help, but she doesn't know how to give it. Along the way she makes a lot of friends in all stations of life. These give her the will to keep striving for the truth.

I understand that this is a re-telling of an older story, but I haven't heard it before and found it quite engrossing. The author writes very descriptively and it was easy to visualise the world created for the characters. It was very enjoyable for me to read and I read it in a very short space of time, for the length of the book. I would recommend it to those who like a fantasy story based on fables and folk tales.

 

"Do not put yourself in a vulnerable situation. Do not walk alone. Do not remain with anyone you do not trust.”

I received an e-ARC of this novel through Edelweiss in exchange for a fair and honest review.

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For Princess Alyrra, choice is a luxury she’s never had … until she’s betrayed. Princess Alyrra has never enjoyed the security or power of her rank. Between her family’s cruelty and the court’s contempt, she has spent her life in the shadows. Forced to marry a powerful foreign prince, Alyrra embarks on a journey to meet her betrothed with little hope for a better future. But powerful men have powerful enemies—and now, so does Alyrra.

Betrayed during a magical attack, her identity is switched with another woman’s, giving Alyrra the first choice she’s ever had: to start a new life for herself or fight for a prince she’s never met. But Alyrra soon finds that Prince Kestrin is not at all what she expected. While walking away will cost Kestrin his life, returning to the court may cost Alyrra her own.

As Alyrra is coming to realize, sometime the hardest choice means learning to trust herself.

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Bone Silence by Alastair Reynolds

Adrana and Arafura (Fura) Ness are back in this (allegedly) last book in the series. Having upset the whole Congregation of worlds with the changes in quoins and their values, they are now being hunted for a variety of crimes. They set out to acquire a means of communicating and listening in on ship to ship messages. Each sister also has their own 'shopping list' of things they want to acquire while docked.

Fura commandeers another ship for Adrana and they each set their ships towards their next target, where they will be able to satisfy their curiosity regarding certain matters relating to the cycle of the rise and fall of civilisations and other tasks they have taken upon themselves.

Meanwhile the hunters are circling and drawing near, with dirty tricks, to capture the Ness sisters. The intention is to hang every crime they can on the heads of the sisters, while setting everyone against them to ensure capture and conviction at the very least (death if necessary).

Each sister has to deal with difficulties thrown in their path, hoping that they will eventually be safely reunited and better placed than they are at the start.

I enjoyed this book, I like the world's that the sister's and their crew visit and the people they meet. They all have their different ways of speaking, for example the space farers talk like pirates, alien's have their own different ways of communicating and the robots speak depending on their level of repair. The author states that they have finished this world now, which I am disappointed about. However, the books in this series are excellent and I am glad that I have read them.

If you enjoy space or adventure stories you will most likely enjoy this book. I recommend it to you, but make sure that you read the other two first (Revenger and Shadow Captain).

"The man was not a man. The upper two thirds of his face, from the point where his nose might have begun, was a jumble of insect parts stitched together like the pieces of a rag doll."

I received an e-ARC of this novel through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. NetGalley does not allow for paid reviews.

5/5 Stars (What this means...five-stars-applied-carefully)

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Return to the Revenger universe, for another thrilling tale set among the stars . . .

Quoins are accepted currency throughout the thousands of worlds of the Congregation. Ancient, and of unknown origin and purpose, people have traded with them, fought for them, and stolen quoin hordes from booby-trapped caches at risk to life and limb throughout the Thirteen Occupations. Only now it's becoming clear they have another purpose . . . as do the bankers who've been collecting them.

The Occupations themselves are another puzzle. The rise and fall of civilisation may have been unevenly spaced across history, but there is also a pattern. Could something be sparking the Occupations - or ending them? And if so, what could it be, lurking far beyond the outermost worlds of the Congregation?

The Ness sisters are being hunted for crimes they didn't commit by a fleet whose crimes are worse than their own. If they're to survive, and stay one step ahead of their pursuers - if they're to answer the questions which have plagued them - it's going to require every dirty, piratical trick in the book .

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The Cabin by Jørn Lier Horst

This is the second of the 'Chief Inspector Wisting' books that I've read, and I enjoyed this one as much as the previous one.

Bernhard Clausen, a former Member of Parliament for the Labour Party has died, and Wisting has been given a secret case to investigate, forming his own team around him. Wisting's daughter (Line) is again involved, this time on Wisting's terms.

But, there is danger lurking, where from is not obvious. Another case overlaps Wisting's and the investigation starts to get very involved.

Line follows up on a previous journalists investigations and obliquely involves the woman in the case. This helps Line move her work for her father forward much more quickly. Meanwhile a Kripos cold case investigator wants to learn what Line knows about it too!

Jorn Lier Horst still tells an exciting story that keeps you along for the trip to the end. Definitely a book that I would recommend to someone that I know, they are a keen Wallender 'follower'. I'm sure that they would like it.

"‘We’re working on a case where it would be best for the police not to be the ones asking the questions,’ he told her."

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4/5 Stars (What this means...five-stars-applied-carefully)

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It's been fifteen years since Simon Meier walked out of his house, never to be seen again.

And just one day since politician Bernard Clausen was found dead at his cabin on the Norwegian coast.

When Chief Inspector William Wisting is asked to investigate, he soon discovers he may have found the key to solving Meier's disappearance.

But doing so means he must work with an old adversary to piece together what really happened all those years ago.

It's a puzzle that leads them into a dark underworld on the trail of Clausen's interests and vices. A shady place from which they may never emerge - especially when he finds it leads closer to home than he ever could have imagined.

Fans of Jo Nesbo and Stieg Larsson will be captivated by The Cabin, a thrilling and atmospheric read from award-winning Nordic crime writer Jørn Lier Horst.

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Starve Acre by Andrew Michael Hurley

Creepy as anything! With a shocker of an ending.

Richard Willoughby inherited his home and was persuaded to move into it by his wife, Julia. Richard has taken to a hobby of excavating his field, opposite the house, while Julia spends her time in Ewan's room, hoping for a sign of him, Ewan.

The local village population don't figure much in their lives, they haven't since Richard was a boy. Gordon Lambwell does though. He was fond of Ewan and wants to help with Julia's situation. He has introduced her to Mrs Forde who has, apparently, helped many others before.

Gordon doesn't like that Richard is digging his field, believing that Richard should leave things be. But Richard is dismissive of Gordon's concerns.

Julia's sister Harrie comes to visit, more like take over, but Julia doesn't want any family around and resists Harrie's attempts to help.

Following a curious find in the field, developments continue in the house, and Mrs Forde has her visit.

This was an edgy read and the ending was just so 'creepy'. Of course, I enjoyed it.

"Starve Acre was somewhere that he visited rather than lived. It belonged exclusively to his parents; it was the stage for their life, not his. Until, that is, his mother died, and he inherited everything."

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4/5 Stars (What this means...five-stars-applied-carefully)

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The worst thing possible has happened. Richard and Juliette Willoughby's son, Ewan, has died suddenly at the age of five. Starve Acre, their house by the moors, was to be full of life, but is now a haunted place.

Juliette, convinced Ewan still lives there in some form, seeks the help of the Beacons, a seemingly benevolent group of occultists. Richard, to try and keep the boy out of his mind, has turned his attention to the field opposite the house, where he patiently digs the barren dirt in search of a legendary oak tree.

Starve Acre is a devastating new novel by the author of the prize-winning bestseller The Loney. It is a novel about the way in which grief splits the world in two and how, in searching for hope, we can so easily unearth horror.

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