The Silent Treatment by Melanie Surani

 

 

Blurb: Twenty-eight year old Katrina Jaitley is rebuilding her life after escaping an abusive boyfriend. The last thing she needs is the mystery she stumbles on during a bout of retail therapy. But she can't ignore the coil of film -- a piece of movie history -- she finds hidden inside her purchase. Unfortunately, Peter, the handsome host of the estate sale, disappears before Kat has a chance to return it to him.

Curious, Kat watches the strip and is shocked to witness the brutal murder of a famous 1920's silent film star by a fellow actor. When a news article cites Kat as the film's owner, her already complicated life goes from bad to worse. Someone is stalking her. Are they trying to silence her or what she has discovered?

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Excerpt 1

THE WORST PART about working the vampire shift was that apart from Bridget, Kat experienced little human interaction since moving back to Memphis. Bridget still had college buddies who she went drinking and sleeping with, two activities Kat thought better about participating in for the time being. That left Kat stuck either in front of the computer or TV, or in extreme cases, at the twenty‐four hour Walmart.

Solitude in those first two weeks after two years of limited privacy was a welcome relief in most respects. Kat left her belongings, however few, in the living room and returned to find them where she left them, not thrown in the trash. Her computer no longer had a keylogger, thanks to a few hours spent with Bridget's IT savvy brother, and she was free to search whatever she wanted without fear of lecture afterward (Why were you looking at ticket prices? Are you thinking of leaving me?), Kat couldn't shake the feeling that someone was going to burst through the door. The baseball bat she kept under her bed wouldn't help if someone startled her in the living room.

After placing the Missed Connections ad online and praying Peter would respond, Kat surfed the Internet until her eyes burned. Since her mind was on the coiled piece of film she'd found and she desperately wanted to watch it, she focused instead on silent movies, her favourite escape subject.

Her interest began with a poor copy of Metropolis, recommended by a pen pal as being  the best thing heʹd ever watched. The release date put her off since so many ʺclassicʺ movies her mom subjected her to involved fast‐talking pictures from the thirties. Three years before the decade change, the constant talkers were quiet, gestures theatrical, and Kat put her own inflection on the written dialogue.

She found a used copy of the novel on which Metropolis was based— written by the director's wife—to fill in the gaps left by massive editing and plot restructuring that rendered the film nearly incomprehensible. Though historians and buffs wanted to experience what the film looked like on opening night, one‐fourth had either been lost or destroyed like so many of its silent brethren.

That was what made the news article on the computer screen stand out.

The complete three‐hour version of Metropolis was found in an unlabeled canister in the Museo del Cine, a film museum in Argentina.

Kat blinked at the screen. ʺAll that time.ʺ The butchered, washed out copy that lay buried somewhere in the box of movies she'd dragged to the middle of the living room wasn't the end of the story but the beginning.

  

 

 

Melanie Surani is a blogger, hair stylist, and author with a heart for international travel. When she isn't cutting hair, Melanie is thinking about ways to kill people (for mystery novels). She lives with her husband and cat in New York City, where she is hard at work on her next book with Booktrope Publishing. Melanie is a member of the International Thriller Writers society. You can follow Melanie’s adventures on Facebook at MelSurani, on Twitter @melsurani, and Tumblr at MelSurani

 

My Review

 

What would you do if you found out that your favourite silent movie actor could be a murderer? Would you report it? Ignore it? That is the decision Kat Shergill has to make. As well as witnessing an 80 year old murder, escaping a violent ex, being followed, having her apartment broken into and dealing with her mother!!

What I loved is that we have a leading lady who is real, who has flaws but has real balls. She has baggage and a Mum who sounds very much like my own. Kat has a best friend Bridget who is the kind of friend every girl should have, one who drove for hours straight to rescue her.

The author Melanie Surani has kept the language simple and the story gripping, the plot on the whole is a good one although I could have done with a few more plot twists but I am a big suspense/thriller/crime reader and I think a couple more twists are more than welcome. I read this book in one sitting on a lazy Sunday afternoon with a big cup of tea and chocolate and it was also the book which completed my Goodreads Challenege yippee! Great book to complete it with.

The good thing is this is the first book in a series and I cant wait to read more about Kat, Bridget and of course Peter. I just hope the next one is longer :-)

4/5 I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moving by Jenny Eclair

Synopsis

Edwina Spinner has lived in the same house for over fifty years. It used to be a busy, crowded family home but now Edwina lives alone and it has grown too big for her. She has decided to sell it.

The young estate agent who comes to value the house sees potential. Knock down a few walls, add a wet room. 'People like a project.' But as Edwina takes him from room to room, she is transported back to her old life as a young mother. Back to her first husband Ollie and their twins, James and Rowena. Back to lies and dark secrets and to a stepson whose name Edwina cannot even bear to speak aloud.

As Edwina's story unravels she is revealed as a complex and intriguing person. Not just the 'frail old lady' trapped in her dated house, but a woman who has lived an extraordinary life, full of love and tragedy. Why is she now so alone? What happened to Edwina's family all those years ago?

My Review

This is the first book I have read by Jenny Éclair and it certainly wont be the last. To say I enjoyed this book is an under statement.

Moving follows the life of a lady named Edwina who has lived in the same house since getting married. Edwina decides the house is getting too much for her as she is getting on and she decides to put the house on the market. When the estate agent comes round to value the house, each room they go into triggers a memory for Edwina. The other characters in the story are Edwina's twins Rowena and Charlie, her second husband Dickie, his ex-wife Barbara and their son Lucas. We follow the children through childhood and onto becoming adults. The chapters are split into Edwina, Fern and Lucas each telling their own individual story and point of view. I loved the characters of Edwina and Fern, I just wanted to envelope Edwina in a big hug and go for a drink with Fern.

I have always heard people use the term "book hangover" but never really got it until I read this book. The characters from this book will stay with me for a long time and I really hope Jenny Éclair writes more about this family.

I  received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 5/5 for this book.

NetGalley Badges

Synopsis

Pathologist Maura Isles has dissected her fair share of corpses. But this time it’s different, because the victim looks exactly like her.

Detective Jane Rizzoli is assigned to investigate, and finds herself tracking a twisted killer across the country. To catch him, Maura is forced to delve into a dark and dangerous family history - her own. Blood ties are the hardest to escape . . .
My Review

I  started reading this series of books after watching the TV series which I love. It has Lorraine Bracco and I love that woman!

This book looks more into the life of Dr Maura Isles who has been in Paris at a convention. When Maura arrives back in Boston she tries to get into her street but cannot access it as there is a police barrier and it turns out her doppelganger has been murdered but who is the mysterious woman and why has she been killed in front of Maura's house. When Rizzoli looks into the unknown woman they find our her name and that she shares the same birthdate as Maura. A DNA test then confirms that the woman is Maura's sister and as an only child and being adopted, it comes as a shock to Maura.

Maura decides to start looking into her sisters life and heads to a seaside town in Maine where things take an unexpected turn of events with the case Rizzoli investigating becoming intertwined. There is a serial killer on a murderous crime spree up and down the county. To find the killer Maura has to confront her past and track down her biological mother who may hold the key to the killers identity.

I really enjoyed this book as I felt we got to know more about Maura than in previous books. I also find when I am reading about Rizzoli and she is talking to someone I hear Angie Harmon's voice in my head but I don't do this with any of the other characters.

If your a fan of Rizzoli and Isles get reading they are fab books. 5/5 for me.

The Bones Of You By Debbie Howells

Synopsis

When Kate receives a phone call with news that Rosie Anderson is missing, she’s stunned and disturbed. Rosie is eighteen, the same age as Kate’s daughter, and a beautiful, quiet, and kind young woman. Though the locals are optimistic—girls like Rosie don’t get into real trouble—Kate’s sense of foreboding is confirmed when Rosie is found fatally beaten and stabbed.

Who would kill the perfect daughter, from the perfect family? Yet the more Kate entwines herself with the Andersons—graceful mother Jo, renowned journalist father Neal, watchful younger sister Delphine—the more she is convinced that not everything is as it seems. Anonymous notes arrive, urging Kate to unravel the tangled threads of Rosie’s life and death, though she has no idea where they will lead.

Weaving flashbacks from Rosie’s perspective into a tautly plotted narrative, The Bones of You is a gripping, haunting novel of sacrifices and lies, desperation and love. 


My Review

I received this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

I really really wanted to like this book but just didn't and I am not sure why to be honest.  It sounded the kind of book I usually love.

It starts off with a young girl named Rosie Anderson who has gone missing, Rosie comes from the "perfect" family but straight away you know all is not what it seems. Rosie would go and ride horses with a woman named Kate and it is Kate who wants to find out what has happened. After we find out Rose has been murdered, Kate who knows Rosie's mum Jo in a neighbourly way befriends her and try's to help her deal with this tragedy. Kate discovers all is not what it seems with this family to the famous husband Neal and younger daughter Delphine its just gets more mysterious.

The story is told in alternating view points, from Rosie's where you find out what happened to her and to Kate in the present. I found the characters of Kate's friends Rachel and Laura confusing as sometimes I wasn't sure who was who, they seemed to blend into each other. There are lots of secrets and lies which keep you guessing until the end.

To me this book is like marmite you will either love it or hate it.

I would still recommend this book to people who enjoy psychological thrillers. I would give this 3 out of 5 stars.

Early One Morning By Virginia Baily

Synopsis


Chiara Ravello is about to flee occupied Rome when she locks eyes with a woman being herded on to a truck with her family.

Claiming the woman's son, Daniele, as her own nephew, Chiara demands his return; only as the trucks depart does she realize what she has done. She is twenty-seven, with a sister who needs her constant care, a hazardous journey ahead, and now a child in her charge.

Several decades later, Chiara lives alone in Rome, a self-contained woman working as a translator. Always in the background is the shadow of Daniele, whose absence and the havoc he wrought on Chiara's world haunt her. Then she receives a phone call from a teenager claiming to be his daughter, and Chiara knows it is time to face up to the past.  

My Review

I received this book from Net Galley in return for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book, it is not the usual type of book I read but I am so glad I was given the chance.

This book follows a young woman named Chiara who makes a silent pact with a young Jewish woman whose family has been rounded up from the Ghetto and they are being sent to a concentration camp. Chiara claims the woman's son Daniele as her own and the story follows there life together. The book is set parallel in the 1940s and 1970s. When we get into the 1970s Daniele is missing and Chiara is living alone and has just received a letter from a woman who is looking for Daniele. We find out that Daniele has a daughter he does not know about named Maria. I don't think there is much more I can say about the story without spoiling the outcome.

This book was very good but it did leave me wanting more and to know more about the characters. And a couple of characters I felt were just given up on. I would recommend this book as it is a very enjoyable read. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.