The Silent Children by Carol Wyer

The boy studied the bruise turning yellow at the base of his neck. With quick fingers his mother tightened his tie, and pulled his collar high above it. Her eyes alone said, We will not speak of this...

Years later, a man is found shot dead in a local park. On his phone is a draft text: I can’t keep this secret any longer. The recipient is unnamed.

Detective Robyn Carter knows this secret is the key to the case, but his friends and family don’t offer any clues, and all her team have to go on is a size-ten footprint.

Then a nurse is found in a pool of blood at the bottom of her staircase, and a seemingly insignificant detail in her friend’s statement makes Robyn wonder: are the two bodies connected, and has the killer only just begun?

When another body confirms Robyn’s worst fears, she realises she’s in a race against time to stop the killer before they strike again. But just as she thinks she’s closing in, one of her own team goes missing.

Title:  The Silent Children

Author:  Carol Wyer

Published By:  Bookouture

Publication Date: 7th December 2017

Links:
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silent-Children-serial-thriller-Detective-ebook/dp/B075Q2TFS9/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1513163217&sr=1-1&keywords=the+silent+children+carol+wyer
   
US: https://www.amazon.com/Silent-Children-serial-thriller-Detective-ebook/dp/B075Q2TFS9/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1513163182&sr=1-1&keywords=the+silent+children+by+carol+wyer

Our Review

Carol Wyer is absolutely amazing and quickly becoming one of my favourite crime authors.
I've just finished the Silent Children and I now want more more more. I don't know how she does it but she makes me feel for the baddie too. I'm gutted I read this too fast as I wanted to savour every word.

In the fourth book of the series we are quickly thrown back into the world of D I Robyn Carter as she investigates the death of a man found near the Gruffalo trail. Straight away the tension builds as a young boy finds the body and Robyn has to lead her team to find and put together the pieces of the puzzle.

I love the mix of Robyn's work life and private life as the investigations are always so interesting and her private life is filled with loneliness, she finds joy in the relationship she has with her step daughter and in this book she manages to find someone to love of the furry variety.

Life has become a lot more complicated for her now as she has this potentially life changing mystery to solve regarding her late husband along with the help of her cousin Ross, the private investigator who loves a bit of cake. Is she being led on a cruel wild goose chase or is there something deeper going on surrounding the death of her beloved husband? I for one cannot wait to find out what has happened and I know what answer I'm hoping for. I'm so looking forward to the next instalment from Carol.

The characters are all well rounded and interesting and I simply can't wait to read the next instalment of this brilliant series. Well done Carol you clever lady, thanks to Bookouture for the ARC.

Sincerely
Book Angel x

About the Author

Carol E. Wyer is an award-winning author whose humorous books take a light-hearted look at getting older and encourage others to age disgracefully. More recently she has chosen to write for the "dark side" and embarked on a series of thrillers, starting with the gripping best-seller, Little Girl Lost.
Her book Grumpy Old Menopause won The People's Book Prize Award for non-fiction 2015.
Carol has been interviewed on numerous radio shows discussing 'Irritable Male Syndrome' and 'Ageing Disgracefully' and on BBC Breakfast television. She has had articles published in national magazines 'Woman's Weekly' featured in 'Take A Break', 'Choice', 'Yours' and 'Woman's Own' magazines and writes regularly for The Huffington Post.
Carol is a signed author with Bookouture and Delancey Press.

To learn more about Carol, go to www.carolwyer.co.uk or follow Carol on Twitter: @carolewyer. Carol blogs at www.facing50withhumour.com and www.grumpyoldmenopause.com

House of Secrets by Lynda Stacey

A woman on the run, a broken man and a house with a shocking secret …Madeleine Frost has to get away. Her partner Liam has become increasingly controlling to the point that Maddie fears for her safety, and that of her young daughter Poppy. .

Desperation leads Maddie to the hotel owned by her estranged father – the extraordinarily beautiful Wrea Head Hall in Yorkshire. There, she meets Christopher ‘Bandit’ Lawless, an ex-marine and the gamekeeper of the hall, whose brusque manner conceals a painful past.


Title: House of Secrets
Author: Lynda Stacey
Published by: Choc Lit
Publication Date: 19th July 2016
Links: UK: Amazon   US: Amazon

Our Review of House of Secrets

Reading this book made me expect the unexpected.
It started off as a relationship going very wrong and a woman called Madeleine had come to the realisation that she needed to leave her partner Liam. Since they had moved in together he had become possessive and controlling and was nasty to her little girl Poppy.
She eventually finds herself at Wrea Head Hall which is a very grand hotel. Horrible things begin to happen to her and Liam won't leave her alone as he can't accept that their relationship is over.
Whilst at the hotel she meets the gorgeous Bandit who is protective of her and Poppy.
Then the layers of the story begin to unfold as through an old diary belonging to the previous owner of the hotel we find out more about the building itself and the hotel almost becomes a character in its own right. Secrets are unearthed which have been hidden away for too long and Madeleine and Bandit bond even more.
The pace was incredibly fast and I read this almost in one sitting. The suspense built up very well and the story was interesting as I always wanted to know what happened next.
This was part love story and part cat and mouse thriller I know I can relate to having an ex who didn't want to let go but luckily he didn't go as far as Liam. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Madeleine and Bandit and watching their story unfold. I have to admit to falling a little in love with Bandit myself but don't tell my husband!

I am really looking forward to reading the sequel, House of Christmas Secrets which is out today. See below for details.

Sincerely
Book Angel x

 This year we’re just going to have a nice, normal Christmas… Last year’s Christmas at Wrea Head Hall didn’t quite go to plan which is why Jess Croft is determined this festive season will be the one to remember, for the right reasons. And she has plenty of reasons to be hopeful, she’s going to marry the man of her dreams, Jack Stone, seven days after New Year’s Eve.

However, as family secrets are revealed in hidden letters and two unexpected guests turn up on the doorstep, Jess is left wondering whether her life will ever be the same again.

Can Jess and Jack still experience a peaceful festive season that they had imagined or are there some problems that even Christmas can’t fix?


Title: House of Christmas Secrets
Author: Lynda Stacey
Published by: Choc Lit
Publication Date: 5th December 2017
Links: UK: Amazon   US: Amazon

About the Author

Lynda grew up in the mining village of Bentley, Doncaster, in South Yorkshire and went to both Bentley New Village School, and Don Valley High School.

She is currently the Sales Director of a stationery, office supplies and office furniture company in Doncaster, where she has worked for the past 25 years. Prior to this she’d also been a nurse, a model, an emergency first response instructor and a PADI Scuba Diving Instructor … and yes, she was crazy enough to dive in the sea with sharks, without a cage.

Following a car accident in 2008, Lynda was left with limited mobility in her right arm. Unable to dive or teach anymore, she turned to her love of writing, a hobby she’d followed avidly since being a teenager.

Her own life story, along with varied career choices helps Lynda to create stories of romantic suspense, with challenging and unpredictable plots, along with (as in all romances) very happy endings.

Lynda joined the Romantic Novelist Association in 2014 under the umbrella of the New Writers Scheme and in 2015, her debut novel House of Secrets won the Choc Lit & Whole Story Audiobooks Search for a Star competition.

She lives in a small rural hamlet near Doncaster, with her ‘hero at home husband’, Haydn, whom she’s been happily married to for over 20 years.

Come and find me at www.lyndastacey.co.uk to hear my latest news. You could follow me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lyndastaceyauthor or watch out for my tweets @Lyndastacey
Come say hello. I'd love to hear from you. Oh and if you love the book, I'd be really grateful if you'd take the time to leave me a review.

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The Birthday Girl by Sue Fortin

Dear Carys, Zoe and Andrea
Come and join me for my fortieth birthday adventure weekend, full of mysteries and surprises
the like of which you can’t imagine.
When Joanne’s friends reluctantly accept an invitation to her birthday party, it quickly becomes clear that there is more to this weekend than they are expecting.
One of them is hiding a secret.
And Joanne is planning to reveal it…
A weekend away in a cottage in the woods sounds like fun – until no one can hear your cries for help.
Four friends.
A party to die for.
Who will survive?

Title: The Birthday Girl
Author: Sue Fortin
Published by: Harper Collins
Publication Date: 30th November 2017
Links: UK: Amazon   US: Amazon

Our Review

I now realise that when I pick up a book by Sue Fortin that I should prepare myself for a very bumpy ride.
No sooner had I started reading it I became engrossed in a highly suspenseful plot and I have not moved from my spot with the sun shining on me through the window apart from to make a cuppa.
The main narrator of the story is a lady called Carys and she is intrigued as her and two other friends called Andrea and Zoe are invited away on a mystery weekend by another friend Joanne.
The weekend starts weirdly when they are picked up in a car and end up in the middle of nowhere They quickly begin to suspect that Joanne has an ulterior motive and soon start to feel uncomfortable.
It seems there are a lot of Secrets being kept and it quickly transpires that none of them know who they can trust.
I would say none of the characters were particularly likeable but I did find myself rooting for Carys and felt every bit of fear that she did.
It reminded me of horror stories where a group of people find themselves in a remote place and they begin to feel hunted.

I was swapping and changing my opinions of who the baddy was constantly.
This will certainly get the blood pumping around your body and a word of warning don't pick it up if you should be doing something else because once you start it you won't be able to stop.

Thanks to Sue Fortin and Harper Collins.

Sincerely
Book Angel x

About the Author

Published by Harper Collins’ imprint Harper Impulse, Sue Fortin writes mystery, suspense and romance. Sue is a member of both the Crime Writers’ Association and The Romantic Novelists’ Association.

Sue is a USA Today and an Amazon UK #1 best selling author, with The Girl Who Lied and Sister Sister both reaching #1 in the Amazon UK Kindle chart in 2016 and 2017 respectively. Translation rights for both novels have been sold worldwide.

Lover of cake, Dragonflies and France. Hater of calories, maths and snakes. Sue was born in Hertfordshire but had a nomadic childhood, moving often with her family, before eventually settling in West Sussex.

Sue is married with four children, all of whom patiently give her time to write but, when not behind the keyboard, she likes to spend her time with them, enjoying both the coast and the South Downs, between which they are nestled.

( sourced from Sue's website https://suefortin.com/about/ )