Tag: mystery

#BookReview Cold, Cold Heart by Christine Poulson

whatcathyreadnext1 Comment

Cold, Cold HeartAbout the Book

Midwinter in Antarctica. Six months of darkness are about to begin. Scientist Katie Flanagan has an undeserved reputation as a trouble-maker and her career has foundered. When an accident creates an opening on a remote Antarctic research base she seizes it, flying in on the last plane before the sub-zero temperatures make it impossible to leave.

Meanwhile patent lawyer Daniel Marchmont has been asked to undertake due diligence on a breakthrough cancer cure. But the key scientist is strangely elusive and Daniel uncovers a dark secret that leads to Antarctica.

Out on the ice a storm is gathering. As the crew lock down the station they discover a body and realise that they are trapped with a killer…

Format: ebook (272 pages)                        Publisher: Lion Hudson
Publication date: 17th November 2017 Genre: Crime, thriller, mystery

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

Find Cold, Cold Heart on Goodreads

My Review

Cold, Cold Heart is the second book featuring research scientist Katie Flanagan but if, like me, you haven’t read the first book, Deep Water, never fear because Cold, Cold Heart works perfectly well as a standalone. There are a few references to events in the first book but not so many that I think it would spoil your enjoyment of the earlier book. (The third book in the series, An Air That Kills, has recently been published.)

The twin threads of the story, one set in Ely and the other on the Antarctic research station, are cleverly constructed (the former with the help of an unusual narrator at one point) maintaining the reader’s interest in how – and when – the two storylines will converge.

The scenes set on the research station are very realistic and clearly the product of in-depth research. I have to say I did struggle a little to differentiate between some of the male characters but I guess it’s probably the case that the demands of the job mean research scientists tend to be similar in age and physical build. However, the remoteness of the station, the inhospitable external environment and the twenty-four hours a day of darkness really help ratchet up the tension. A shift of point of view part way through injects a nicely thrilling element and the dramatic final chapters definitely kept me turning the pages right to the end.

The set-up – a remote location, shut off from the outside world with a limited number of suspects – made me think of the crime novels of Agatha Christie. I had in mind a particular book of hers for my ‘Try something similar’ recommendation below but the author beat me to it! Visiting the station’s small library in search of some light reading, Katie ‘took a dog-eared copy of And There Were None off the shelf and then had second thoughts’. So I had second thoughts as well and went for something equally appropriate I hope.

Cold, Cold Heart is an assured, atmospheric crime mystery set in a fascinating location

I’d like to thank the author for my review copy of the book and for waiting  so patiently for my review.

In three words: Atmospheric, tense, gripping

Try something similar: Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie

Follow my blog via Bloglovin

Christine-Poulson-bwAbout the Author

Before Christine Poulson turned to crime, she was an academic with a PhD in History of Art and had published widely on nineteenth century art and literature. Her Cassandra James mysteries are set in Cambridge in the UK.

The first in her new series, Deep Water, featuring scientist Katie Flanagan, appeared in 2016. The second, Cold, Cold Heart, set in Antarctica, came out in January 2018 and the third, An Air That Kills, was published in November 2019. Her short stories. published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, CWA anthologies, and elsewhere, have been short-listed for a Derringer, the Margery Allingham Prize, and the CWA Short Story Dagger. (Photo credit: author website)

Website | Twitter

 

#BookReview The Tide Between Us by Olive Collins

whatcathyreadnext1 Comment

The Tide Between UsAbout the Book

1821: After the landlord of Lugdale Estate in Kerry is assassinated, young Art O’Neill’s innocent father is hanged and Art is deported to the cane fields of Jamaica as an indentured servant. On Mangrove Plantation he gradually acclimatises to the exotic country and unfamiliar customs of the African slaves, and achieves a kind of contentment. Then the new heirs to the plantation arrive.

His new owner is Colonel Stratford-Rice from Lugdale Estate, the man who hanged his father. Art must overcome his hatred to survive the harsh life of a slave and live to see the eventual emancipation which liberates his coloured children. Eventually he is promised seven gold coins when he finishes his service, but he doubts his master will part with the coins.

One hundred years later in Ireland, a skeleton is discovered beneath a fallen tree on the grounds of Lugdale Estate. By its side is a gold coin minted in 1870. Yseult, the owner of the estate, watches as events unfold, fearful of the long-buried truths that may emerge about her family’s past and its links to the slave trade. As the body gives up its secrets, Yseult realises she too can no longer hide.

Format: ebook, paperback (372 pages) Publisher: Poolbeg Press
Publication date: 7th September 2017 Genre: Historical Fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ Amazon.com
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find The Tide Between Us on Goodreads

My Review

In the first and, for me, the most powerful part of the book Art O’Neill sets out to record, for the benefit of his children, the story of his life from the time he was transported to Jamaica from Ireland and forced to work as an indentured servant on the Mangrove Plantation. The author vividly depicts the cruelties and privations of the voyage and Art’s sense of unfamiliarity with his new environment. The book also exposes the harsh conditions and savage treatment meted out to slaves on the plantation.

Over the next decades Art experiences love, marriage and the birth of children but also the loss of loved ones. He is witness to turbulent events on the island, including slave rebellions and outbreaks of disease. Rising to the position of overseer, he faces moral dilemmas over the treatment of slaves under his control. And, underlying it all, is the ever present hatred he bears towards the Stratford-Rice family that at times seems to provide the only meaning in his life.

In the second part of the book, the reader sees events from the point of view of Yseult and, briefly, from the point of view of her daughter, Rachel. Yseult and Rachel have a rather strained relationship with Yseult dismissive of Rachel’s ideas for developing the Lugdale Estate. I’ll confess I found Yseult an unsympathetic character and difficult to warm to. Interspersed with events following the discovery of the skeleton are Yseult’s memories of her childhood including her friendship with Mary O’Neill whose family owned land adjoining Lugdale.

Eventually the unfinished stories of the characters from the first part of the book are brought to completion, revealing a tale of secrets, revenge and feuds continuing down through the generations.

You can read my earlier interview with Olive here in which she talks about the inspiration for The Tide Between Us, the historical background to the events in the book and her view that we must examine the past in order to fully understand the present.

I’d like to thank Olive for providing me with a review copy of The Tide Between Us and apologize for the length of time it’s taken to reach the top of my review pile.

In three words: Dramatic, authentic, powerful

Try something similar: Sugar Money by Jane Harris (read my review here)

Follow my blog via Bloglovin

Olive CollinsAbout the Author

Olive Collins grew up in Thurles, Tipperary, and now lives in Kildare.

For the last fifteen years, she has worked in advertising in print media and radio. She has always loved the diversity of books and people. She has travelled extensively and still enjoys exploring other cultures and countries.

Her inspiration is the ordinary everyday people who feed her little snippets of their lives. It’s the unsaid and gaps in conversation that she finds most valuable.

Connect with Olive

Facebook ǀ Twitter ǀ Goodreads