Category: 20 Books of Summer

Blog Tour/Book Review: The Playground Murders by Lesley Thomson

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I’m delighted to be hosting today’s stop on the blog tour for The Playground Murders by Lesley Thomson. Described by Ian Rankin (no less) as ‘A class above’, The Playground Murders is the seventh in the author’s ‘The Detective’s Daughter’ crime series.

My thanks to Vicky at Head of Zeus for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my review copy.

The Playground MurdersAbout the Book

Forty years ago, in the dark of the playground, two children’s lives were changed forever.

Stella Darnell is a cleaner. But when she isn’t tackling dust and dirt and restoring order to chaos, Stella solves murders. Her latest case concerns a man convicted of killing his mistress. His daughter thinks he’s innocent, and needs Stella to prove it.

As Stella sifts through piles of evidence and interview suspects, she discovers a link between the recent murder and a famous case from forty years ago: the shocking death of six-year-old Sarah Ferris, killed in the shadows of an empty playground.

Stella knows that dredging up the past can be dangerous. But as she pieces together the tragedy of what happened to Sarah, she is drawn into a story of jealousy, betrayal and the end of innocence. A story that has not yet reached its end…

Format: Hardcover (384 pp.)    Publisher: Head of Zeus
Published: 4th April 2019   Genre: Crime, Mystery

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com  ǀ Hive.co.uk (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find The Playground Murders on Goodreads

My Review

Switching back and forth in time from the present day to 1980 (always clearly signposted), the reader is soon immersed in the uncanny connections between people, places and events. The connections are especially personal for Stella because of her links to those involved in investigating the original murder at a pivotal moment in her childhood. To this day there is a fascination about child murders that makes them compelling (albeit possibly uncomfortably so) as subject matter for a crime novel.

Cleaner, Stella, and underground train driver, Jack, make an interesting partnership both as detectives engaged in solving cold cases and in their out of office hours activities. Stella has the eye for detail of a cleaner and the strong stomach needed at a crime scene. Jack is blessed with a photographic memory and a ‘sixth sense’ when it comes to spotting murderers and psychopaths (whom he refers to as ‘True Hosts’ and to whom he ascribes particular psychological traits and powers). As Stella admits, ‘Jack saw what others missed, what she missed.’ I’ll confess this ‘paranormal’ element took me slightly by surprise in what is otherwise a conventional crime mystery.

Coming new to the series, I did miss having witnessed the development of Jack’s and Stella’s relationship over previous books. In fact, The Playground Murders sees them at a particularly fractious point in their relationship with past liaisons resulting in mistrust, misunderstandings and big decisions about their future. I was soon rooting for them to work things out however. There are references to events in earlier books but not so much that it would deter me from reading previous books in the series. Equally, The Playground Murders works perfectly well as a standalone novel.

As Stella’s and Jack’s investigation progresses, things get very close to home for both of them. There are multiple suspects, possible scenarios and motives. Because of the number of characters, some of whom are known by different names at various points in the book, some concentration is required from the reader. Well, at least it was from this one. I did have suspicions about one particular character early on although I certainly didn’t predict how events would unfold as the tension builds to a dramatic climax.

Having read The Playground Murders, I can appreciate why ‘The Detective’s Daughter’ series has attracted so many fans amongst crime fiction lovers. They may be reassured by the fact that there still seem to be some unopened case files belonging to her father in Stella’s attic.

I received a review copy courtesy of publishers, Head of Zeus. The Playground Murders is the second book on my 20 Books of Summer Reading Challenge list.

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In three words: Compelling, intricate, atmospheric

Try something similar…The Temptation by Vera Morris (read my review here)

Lesley Thomson NewAbout the Author

Lesley Thomson grew up in west London. Her first novel, A Kind of Vanishing, won the People’s Book Prize in 2010. Her second novel, The Detective’s Daughter, was a number 1 bestseller and sold over 500,000 copies.

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Book Review: Fled by Meg Keneally

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FledAbout the Book

She will do anything for freedom, but at what cost?

Jenny Trelawney is no ordinary thief. Forced by poverty to live in the forest, she becomes a successful highwaywoman – until her luck runs out.

Transported to Britain’s furthest colony, Jenny must tackle new challenges and growing responsibilities. And when famine hits the new colony, Jenny becomes convinced that those she most cares about will not survive. She becomes the leader in a grand plot of escape, but is survival any more certain in a small open boat on an unknown ocean?

Format: Paperback (400 pp.)    Publisher: Zaffre
Published: 15th April 2019 Genre: Historical Fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com  ǀ Hive.co.uk (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Fled on Goodreads

My Review

Meg Keneally’s debut solo novel is described as ‘an epic historical adventure based on the extraordinary life of convict Mary Bryant’.  In her historical note, the author explains where the story departs from known facts – relatively few occasions, as it happens – and where fictional characters replace their real life counterparts.

The prologue, set in 1791, provides a taste of the remarkable events that will unfold but first of all the reader is transported back in time to Cornwall in 1783.  When Jenny Trelawney’s fisherman father is killed at sea, she chances upon highway robbery as a way to keep her family from poverty.  This is despite her fear of ending up as one of the grisly corpses displayed at the crossroads, Four Turnings.  (Perhaps a little nod there to the opening lines of Daphne du Maurier’s novel My Cousin Rachel: ‘They used to hang men at Four Turnings in the old days’.)  Her encounter with the mysterious highwayman, Mr. Black, draws Jenny further into a life of crime that ultimately sees her convicted of robbery and sentenced to death.

The commutation of her sentence to transportation seems like a lucky escape until the horrors of the voyage to Australia are revealed.  Once there, and now with the protection of a husband, Dan Gwyn, things are little better.  The newly established convict colony struggle to support themselves.  Starvation and disease are always close at hand.  Contrary to the actions of the Governor and his staff, Jenny welcomes contact from the indigenous people who provide valuable information that enables the colonists to survive, but only barely.  Jenny also benefits from help from a rather unexpected source.  (I initially thought it was a bit too convenient and rather unlikely but learned from the author’s historical note that it is based on fact.)

Jenny realises there is no future for her and those she loves in Australia and sets out to convince Dan and others that escape is the only option, notwithstanding the perils that await them at sea.  As she says, their most valuable asset is that they possess “The skill to leave, and the courage to do it’.  Those perils are thrillingly brought to life in the part of the book I found most compelling.  After what can only be described as an epic adventure on the high seas, Jenny and her companions seem to have reached safety but will it prove short-lived or is there a possibility of a more hopeful future?

Jenny (or rather her real life counterpart, Mary Bryant) is a remarkable character brought convincingly to life by the author.  Jenny’s determination to take control of her own destiny is admirable and not easily resisted by those around her.  When she remarks to husband, Dan, “You are a brave man” he replies, “Not brave enough to defy you.”  Fled is a compelling and skilfully told story of courage, resolve and fortitude that I thoroughly enjoyed.

I received a review copy courtesy of publishers, Zaffre, and Readers First. Fled is the first book from my 20 Books of Summer Reading Challenge list.

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In three words: Compelling, atmospheric, dramatic

Try something similar…The Secret River by Kate Grenville

Meg KeneallyAbout the Author

Meg Keneally started her working life as a junior public affairs officer at the Australian Consulate-General in New York, before moving to Dublin to work as a sub-editor and freelance features writer. On returning to Australia, she joined the Daily Telegraph as a general news reporter, covering everything from courts to crime to animals’ birthday parties at the zoo. She then joined Radio 2UE as a talkback radio producer.

In 1997 Meg co-founded a financial service public relations company, which she sold after having her first child. For more than ten years, Margaret has worked in corporate affairs for listed financial services companies, and doubles as a part-time SCUBA diving instructor. She lives in Sydney with her husband Craig and children Rory and Alex. (Photo credit: Goodreads author page)

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