The Shining Girls Lauren Beukes ★★★★½

THRILLER THAT SHINES

    Lauren Beukes said in an interview that the only way she could write her horrific, serial killer Harper was to hurt him at every opportunity possible. And injure him quite often she does which only makes him more frighteningly real.

     She also didn’t want to glorify violence against women. So each victim of Harper’s is given a full life before Harper whisks it away.  They are women who are Mothers, journalists, nurses, social advocates and their lives are revealed within their eras in fascinating detail.

     The Shining Girls is an extraordinary book in that it crosses genres.  It’s a crime thriller but also a work of science fiction.  And it’s about as complicated as a time travelling book can be as the killer leaves victim’s personal objects from one era on the body of another victim in another decade.

     Beukes kept meticulous charts on her wall, while writing the book, showing where and when objects were taken and then placed, where Harper was injured, how long before he healed, along with the timeline of victim’s lives and deaths.

     Harper living in 1926 is drawn to an abandoned house that works as a portal into the future. Any time he thinks about he can travel to.  He has a compulsion to kill and particularly enjoys visiting his victims as children in order to confirm they are his shining girls. Behind their eyes he can see a glow.

     Kirby is the only victim to survive an attack. Years later, interning for the Chicago Sun-Times, Kirby teams up with a reporter who covered her attack and slowly they discover connections between her and numerous murders in the past. 

     We all know Harper is the killer. The real thrill is watching characters discover the truth.  Beukes is a gifted author who works seamlessly in the complex time travel arena.   Just like Audrey Niffenegger’s ‘Time Traveler’s Wife’ this book will haunt you with the possibilities. You will marvel, too, that an author with such a moral compass can write one of the truly most evil killers ever put to page.

My review copy of The Shining Girls thanks to the shiny people at HARPER COLLINS PUBLISHERS Australia

USEFUL INFORMATION

Release Dates:

Australia and New Zealand: May 2013

Purchasing details:      Click here

Author’s Website:        LAUREN BEUKES

Sample Read:             Click here

THE AUTHOR

     Lauren Beukes is a novelist, TV scriptwriter, documentary maker, comics writer and occasional journalist. She won the 2011 Arthur C Clarke Award for her novel ZOO CITY, set in a fantastical Johannesburg where guilt manifests as spirit animal familiars. Her previous works include MOXYLAND, a dystopian cyberpunk thriller set in Cape Town under corporate apartheid. She helped create South Africa’s first half-hour animated TV show, URBO: The Adventures of Pax Afrika, and has written kids animated shows for Disney UK and Millimages in France.

Fuse (Pure #2) by J.C. Baggott ★ ★ ★★

PART TWO STILL PURE DELIGHT

Last year I fell in love with ‘Pure’ and the marvellous talent that is Julianna Baggott.  So my hand was firmly in the air for ‘Fuse’, part two of this dystopian trilogy.  I wasn’t the only passionate fan.  In between the books, ‘Pure’ has become an award-winning novel. 
The New York Times named ‘Pure’ in its ‘2012 Top 100 Notable Books’.  It was a People Magazine pick for its ‘“Still Hungry?” List’, as suggested reading for ‘The Hunger Games’ fans.  Entertainment Weekly picked it for “Find Me a Twilight” and the list goes on.  It even featured on Suspense Magazine’s “Best Book of 2012” list. 

If you haven’t read 'Pure' then put the first two of the trilogy on your reading list.  As Fox2000 has acquired the film rights and Karen Rosenfelt, the lead producer of ‘The Twilight Saga’ film trilogy will produce, expect to hear a lot more of ‘Pure’ in the future.

Do you need to have read the first book to enjoy ‘Fuse’?  Yes and you will enjoy every minute of the catch-up.  In ‘Pure’ we met Baggott’s finely imagined characters and the devastating and mesmerising post-apocalyptic world of the Dome-dwelling Pures, untouched by the Detonations.  The survivors, the Wretches, live outside in the wasteland, scarred by horrible fusions of whatever object they were nearest during the detonations; dolls heads fused to wrists, wings fused to backs, babies fused to hips and even a boy fused on his brother’s back.

In ‘Fuse’, Baggott hits the ground running as the determined group of Partridge, Pressia, Lyda and Bradwell embark on a plan to save the Wretches from the Dome-dwellers who seem intent on wiping them out. Told via multiple perspectives, our heroes separate on various quests.  Partridge returns to the Dome to confront his dictator Father Willux.  Pressia, El Capitan and Bradwell embark on an odyssey for the antidote to reverse the Wretches disfigurements and Lyda joins the savage Mothers. 

‘Fuse’ thrusts us deeper into Baggott’s horrifying future vision and expands the central characters without slackening the pace.  On the final page, we are left hanging precariously over a literary cliff but if anyone can leave you gladly dangling, it’s Julianna Baggott and her band of extraordinary ‘Pure’ heroes.

My review copy of 'FUSE' supplied by Hachette Australia.

For more information about this book, click through to Hachette website HERE.  

RELEASED:  Febuary 2013

More Information from the Publisher Hachette Australia

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

           Julianna began publishing short stories when she was twenty-two and sold her first nove

l while still in her twenties. After receiving her M.F.A. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, she published her first novel, Girl Talk, which was a national bestseller and was quickly followed by The Boston Globe bestseller The Miss America Family, and then The Boston Herald Book Club selection, The Madam, an historical novel based on the life of her grandmother. She co-wrote Which Brings Me to You with Steve Almond, A Best Book of 2006 (Kirkus Reveiws).
           Her Bridget Asher novels include The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted, The Pretend Wife, and My Husband’s Sweethearts. Asher’s novels are widely published overseas.
          She has also published award-winning novels for younger readers under the pen name N.E. Bode as well as under Julianna Baggott. Her seven novels for younger readers include, most notably, The Anybodies trilogy was a People Magazine summer reading pick alongside David Sedaris and Bill Clinton, a Washington Post Book of the Week, a Girl’s Life Top Ten, a Booksense selection, and was in development at Nickelodeon/Paramount; The Slippery Map, The Ever Breath, and the prequel to Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, a movie starring Dustin Hoffman, Natalie Portman, and Jason Bateman. For two years, Bode was a recurring personality on XM Sirius Radio. Julianna’s Boston Red Sox novel The Prince of Fenway Park (HarperCollins) was published in spring 2009. It is on the Sunshine State Young Readers Awards List and The Massachusetts Children’s Book Award for 2011-2012.
          Visit the "Pure" website for the first chapter of "Pure", loads of cool stuff and to learn more. Information on purchasing “Pure” and "Fuse" is also there. I highly recommend you buy yourself a copy of each. You will want to read them more than once.

            Visit author Julianna Baggott’s website and blog, with fabulously informative information for writers there. http://juliannabaggott.com/

Click here to purchase Pure

The Disciple of Las Vegas by Ian Hamilton ★ ★ ★★

NOT YOUR STANDARD HEROINE

 

           Reviewed by Tracy Harris

 

When a small company has a default on a payment or loan, they call in the debt collectors. But who does an International, multi-million dollar business call in when someone has defrauded them of over US$50,000,000?

The answer is simple, or for those in the know, at least. Ava Lee, a Canadian born Forensic Accountant who has partnered with her “Uncle” Chow Tung, an elderly Hong Kong based Chinese businessman who may, or may not, have close connections with the Triad gangs.

For Tommy Ordonez, the richest, self-made millionaire in the Phillipines, they are the answer. As Ava begins her investigations, starting with Tommy’s North American based brother, Phillip Chow, she soon discovers a complex real estate fraud case that ultimately links back to the shady world of on-line gambling. Travelling through San Francisco, Las Vegas, Vancouver and London, Ava is forced to watch her back as a contract has been put on her by a disgruntled adversary.

Not your standard heroine, Ava is not prepared to let others do the dirty work and, in her line of business, it can certainly get dirty. Cool and calm, she refuses to be flustered when attacked by anonymous strangers, hit men or even confronted with matchmaking close friends.

Ava is an unusual character whose unique personality adds to the tale. An exotic combination of traditional and respectful Chinese culture and modern Canadian values, Ava is not prepared to back down from any confrontation, nor allow herself or her colleagues to be manipulated into actions which are not of any benefit to themselves. Tough, resourceful, chic and incredibly intelligent, it’s certainly a wild ride as we follow Ava on her business trip like no other.

Ian Hamilton has lead an exciting life working as a journalist, a senior executive with the federal government, a diplomat, and a businessman with international links. His first book, a non-fiction publication, was published almost 40 years before his first Ava Lee novel. Fortunately, his experiences from travelling throughout the world have given him an excellent background to draw upon for his current series. Like Ava, Ian and his wife are based in Canada.

If you are a fan of strong female characters who don’t back down in a crisis and who don’t take prisoners, the Ava Lee series is certainly one you don’t want to miss. Be warned, there are punches thrown and blood spilled so if, as a reader, you’d prefer to avoid violence, this is not the book for you.

 

The review copy of 'The Disciple of Las Vegas' supplied by NetGalley.

For more information about this book, click through to Hachette website The Disciple of Las Vegas 

RELEASED:  November 2012

More Information from the Publisher Hachette Australia

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

          

It was a life-threatening health scare that prompted Ian Hamilton to write his first in the series of captivating Ava Lee novels. Just two days out of hospital and recovering from surgery, Ian sat down at his computer. The name ‘Ava Lee’ came to him and the first chapter was quickly written. A few short weeks later, the first Ava Lee novel was completed.

Ian is not a stranger to the literary world. He began his career as a journalist and wrote a non-fiction book in 1968, The Children’s Crusade, which was a Canadian Book-of-the-Month selection. He has written for several magazines and newspapers in Canada and the U.S., including Maclean’s, Boston Magazine, Saturday Night, the Regina Leader-Post, the Calgary Albertan, and the Calgary Herald. He has been a senior executive with the federal government, and as worked internationally as a diplomat and businessman. Although there are 40 years between books, Ian never lost his passion for writing.

The years he spent travelling the world on business, spending countless hours on planes and hotels, became important influences on his writing, providing personal insights into the world of business and into the many people, places and cultures Ava Lee encounters.

His inspiration for the Ava Lee series did not end when the first book was complete. About half way through writing the first book, an idea for the second book came to Ian and he built it into the plot of the first. He began writing the second book the day after the first book was finished. The same is true for the third and fourth books. Within eight months, all four books were complete. Ian secured a four-book deal from his publisher before the last two books were even read by the publisher. International rights have been sold into the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Holland, Germany and worldwide Spanish and French rights.

Ian is currently working on the continuation of the Ava Lee series and has already completed books 5 and 6.

Ian lives in Burlington, Ontario with his wife Lorraine. He has four children and seven grandchildren.

Visit this author's website  http://ianhamiltonbooks.com/

 

Life! Death! Prizes! by Stephen May ★ ★ ★★

Australian and New Zealand Book Lovers

Win a copy of Life! Death! Prizes! at Myshoppinglist.com.au

Competition open until 19th August 2012

We have a Winner!

‘Life, Death, Prizes’ went to the bottom of my ‘to read’ list—not really my cup of tea. It’s a great gig reviewing books but the downside is that many times you receive books that are just not to your taste.  The books that rock my world involve thrills, spills, psychopaths, and if you have a spare monster or ghost, I will take those as well. 

Now the upside of being a book reviewer—besides the lovely, free unreleased books—is the same as the downside.  Let’s just say I am forced to read outside my comfort zone and, sometimes,  I am pleasantly surprised.  On occasions, I am absolutely blown away.

So, where does ‘Life! Death! Prizes! fall?  If my voice sounds like an echo it’s because I’ve been blown away to Kansas by this book.  Not my usual fare but it proves a book well written, no matter what, is a good book.

Billy is a nineteen-year-old dealing with the emotions of, well, being a nineteen-year-old, and all the associated grottiness and self-consciousness.  His Mother has died pointlessly in a recent bungled street robbery leaving him parent to his little brother Oscar.  There are plenty of pedestrian books on kids whose Mother has died but author Stephen May has voiced Billy with uncommon clarity. 

The two brother’s home life becomes a blend of unscheduled lives, unsuitable film watching, and uneaten healthy food stacked in the freezer whilst they dine on takeaway.  When well-meaning relatives, teachers and Government bodies question Billy’s ability to care for his little brother he must add ‘fighting the establishment’ to his list of duties.  

There is, also, the smouldering mystery of the missing killer’s life, as Billy’s paranoia of his whereabouts grows, and we are offered a glimpse into what makes a criminal. Events are not neat or expected and an extraordinary ending will literally take your breath away.

Whilst the tag for the book claims it is funny, bittersweet, unforgettable; a story of grief, resilience and brotherly love, that is not the whole story.  It is probably the most intriguing book I’ve read in a long time.  Put it at the very  top of your ‘to read’ list.

PURCHASE THIS BOOK

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

         Stephen May is a novelist, playwright and TV writer. His first novel TAG (Cinnamon Press – 2008) was one of ten books long-listed for Welsh Book of the Year and went on to win the Media Wales Readers' Prize – an award voted for by the general public, as the best book on the list.

His plays Back The World and Still Waiting for Everything toured nationally to good reviews. He also had an unhappy stint working as a storyline writer on A Top ITV continuing drama.

Stephen also wrote the best-selling how-to guide Teach Yourself Creative Writing (Hodder and Staughton) and his second novel Life! Death! Prizes! is his second novel and is published in 2012 in the USA, Australia and Germany.  He is also working on new plays and TV projects both on his own and with the writer Mark Illis.

Stephen May was brought up in Bedford and now lives in West Yorkshire. Visit his website at  http://www.sdmay.com/ 

Thank you to Bloomsbury Australia for my review copy of this book. Visit Bloomsbury ANZ for more information on their other fabulous titles.

11/22/63 by Stephen King ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Now the King of Time Travel

 

 

Having just emerged from 1963, courtesy of Stephen King’s latest novel 11/22/63, I am thrilled to report it was a fabulous trip and well worth the ticket price.  King slips us very convincingly through the ‘rabbit hole’, a time slip doorway at the back of the local burger diner owned by Al Templeton.

This portal always lands the traveller back in Lisbon Falls, September 9, 1958, at 11:58 am.  No matter how long the traveller stays in the past, only two minutes elapses in the present.  Any changes made during the visit, affect the future.  All the changes of the altered future are reset, the next time someone re-enters the past. 

Al has travelled back to 1958 hundreds of times and, on the last visit, he decides he will stay until 1963 in order to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy.  During this attempt, he develops terminal cancer and returns to the future to enlist the help of the local English teacher, Jake Epping, whom he figures is young enough to survive the five years he will have to wait for the fateful day.

After a short and fascinating reconnaissance into 1958, Jake agrees to Al’s scheme to save Kennedy, not only because he believes the world will be a better place should Kennedy live but, also, to avert the murder of a student’s family.  Jake enters the past, armed with Al’s research notes, sporting statistics in order to win living expenses, and a naive plan.

But the past is “obdurate”—it doesn’t want to be changed—and is a character in itself as it seemingly sets out to thwart him at every turn.  Over almost 850 pages, Jake battles the power of the past, betting thugs, murderers, and a nosy education administrator, as he corrects wrongs and surveils Lee Harvey Oswald and his family.

King and his long time researcher, Russ Dorr, read enormous quantities of historical documents and visited Dallas several times in order to accurately recreate the historical era leading up to the Kennedy assassination.  The details, embodied in minutia that extend from the 1958 price of a pint of root beer (10 cents) or a haircut (40 cents) down to the local vernacular and music bring to life this time.  King has said that he loves this era and you feel that in his finely imagined world.

  The idea for the book came to King in 1971 just before the release of ‘Carrie’ but he said, at the time, it was too soon after the assassination with the wounds too deep, plus he didn’t feel he possessed the talent to make it work.  Even now, after some fifty books, he said, "I've never tried to write anything like this before.  It was really strange at first, like breaking in a new pair of shoes."  

In describing 11/22/63 as an historical novel with a sci-fi twist, King commented, "This might be a book where we really have a chance to get an audience who's not my ordinary audience.”  But there is more to this book than time travelling and history.  Alongside the dramatic scenery there is an element not often found in a King novel.  There is romance. 

In his ‘past world’ life, Jake meets Sadie Dunhill, a school librarian, with whom he begins a love affair.  It’s this relationship, and all the cross time difficulties it endures as the Assassination day draws closer, that gives the story its true depth.  In the last few pages as King ties up the story threads, it is this love affair that delivers the book’s poignant and satisfying end.

Such a large book becomes a small part of your life whilst reading, and as I closed the coverfor the last time, I wished fervently that we could go down that time ‘rabbit hole’ just one more time.  Stephen King waited thirty years until, in his own words, his talent caught up with his vision of time travel.  It was worth the wait, Mr King.  11/22/63 is a masterpiece of storytelling and imagination and will be read and enjoyed into the distant future, and that includes all multiple time line threads.
            To learn more about this book and how to purchase it Click here.

Jane Was Here by Sarah Kernochan ★ ★ ★ ★

A Haunting Fate

 

One of the most talked about books of the late seventies was “Audrey Rose” by Frank De Felitta.  A frightening tale of reincarnation, it not only sparked a movie adaption but also began an era of passionate discussion on reincarnation. 

For years after, I devoured books on reincarnation finding convincing supporting anecdotal evidence.  Even the actress Shirley MacLaine is adamant she has lived multiple lives—one, famously, as a lover of ancient emperor Charlemagne.

So when I first discovered Sarah Kernochan’s book, ‘Jane Was Here’, there was an immediate sense of Déjà vu.  All the memories of my pleasure and wonder when reading “Audrey Rose” flooded back.  A reincarnation novel, I thought—it’s been too long between past lives.

 In the first part of “Jane Was Here” we meet the strange mannered twenty-three year old Jane, knocking at an ungodly hour, on the door of Brett, claiming it to be her house.  Also mysteriously drawn to the town of Graynier, Brett is renting the home with his ten-year-old son, Colin.  Brett immediately overwhelmed by strong feelings of love for Jane, aids her in a determined search to discover her past life identity.  Colin, less enamoured than his Father and, guided by his superstitious friend Gita, believes Jane’s real purpose is evil.

Eighteenth century Jane Pettigrew tells her story, in part two, through a section of letters from herself to her lover.  These letters are a window into the innocence of this Jane, and they build dramatically to the ultimate question of the story: what happened to this Jane?

Amongst the present day townsfolk is another group of characters, all with their own dark stories whose paths, in a karmic twist, will eventually intercept Jane’s. The revelation of these character’s roles in Jane’s previous life brings the reader a satisfying ending that they will not see coming.

Sarah Kernochan is an Oscar winning screenwriter, and there is a spellbinding cinematic mood to this story.  You will close this book but find days later that the idea has seeped into your consciousness.  Kernochan’s poetic vision of reincarnation and fate will truly haunt you. 

Click through to learn more about Sarah & to purchase “Sara Was Here”

About the Author

Sarah is a writer of fiction, film, and music. She scripted such films as the notorious 9 and ½ Weeks, Sommersby, Impromptu (personal favorite), What Lies Beneath, and All I Wanna Do which she also directed.

Both her documentaries, Marjoe and Thoth, won Academy Awards. Sarah says, “attending the Oscars as a nominee in the documentary category is fairly humiliating as everyone ignores you.’’

Her first ambition was always to write novels. William Morrow published Dry Hustle in 1977. It had a healthy success and is now being reissued as an ebook. Sarah hopes people will at least download a sample on amazon. Fair warning: the book is really raunchy. She was anything but respectable in those days.

Her second novel, Jane Was Here, is something completely different. She has long believed in reincarnation, so she really enjoyed devising a mystery-suspense story that spanned 150 years, examining the karmic links between a woman's mysterious disappearance in 1853 and her reincarnated self in the present day.

Formerly an RCA recording artist, Sarah continues to write music, posting songs on her website and myspace. She lives in New York with her husband James Lapine.

To learn more about Sarah visit her website http://www.sarahkernochan.com/

Edge of Survival - Toni Anderson ★ ★ ★ 1/2

Things hot up in the wilderness

Three things you will learn whilst reading the Edge of Survival by Toni Anderson;

·         Diabetes is a far more dangerous disease than you realise;

·        Girls, we’re looking for love in all the wrong places; it’s in rough, isolated mining communities;

·         Toni Anderson can write a good thriller romance without losing pace.

Toni describes Cameran Young (Cam) as one of the gutsiest, most intelligent characters she’s ever written and, as a good protagonist requires flaws, her heroine, suffers with diabetes.  This physical challenge plays an important role in the story, creating constant tension as she manages her disease.

Cam is a biologist sent to an isolated North Canadian mining project to assess their impact on the native wildlife.  Within the first chapter and, on Cam’s first day, she discovers the dead body of a local prostitute.  She also meets Daniel Fox, an ex SAS Sergeant, with a guilty past, who is to be her, and, her assistant Vikki’s, helicopter pilot.

Their attraction to each other is immediate but they both battle their desire to act upon their feelings.   Haunted by his memories of his last SAS assignment, Daniel an emotional loner wishes Cam gone, whilst feeling an overwhelming urge to protect her.  Daniel represents everything Cam dislikes in a man.  He’s not only an arrogant womaniser but she suspects he is also a cold blooded killer with a violent past. 

But there is a killer on the loose and he has decided Cameran is a threat. As Staff Sergeant Kershaw investigates the killing, Daniel and Cam find themselves not only attempting to avoid falling in love but also attempting to stay alive.  Not an easy thing in an isolated community where outsiders are unwelcome and the killer has all the advantages.

Toni Anderson is donating fifteen% of her royalties to diabetes research, which is another good reason to enjoy the guilty pleasure of Edge of Survival.


Toni's Blog  http://tonianderson.blogspot.com/

Edge of Survival is now available from Carina Press, Amazon.com. Amazon.co.uk and Barnes & Noble.

This review published in December 2011 issue of Suspense Magazine