Tag: mystery

Book Review: The Cliff House by Amanda Jennings

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The Cliff HouseAbout the Book

Some friendships are made to be broken.

Cornwall, summer of 1986.   The Davenports, with their fast cars and glamorous clothes, living the dream in a breathtaking house overlooking the sea.

If only… thinks sixteen-year-old Tamsyn, her binoculars trained on the perfect family in their perfect home.  If only her life was as perfect as theirs.  If only Edie Davenport would be her friend.

If only she lived at The Cliff House…

Format:  ebook, hardcover (384 pp.)    Publisher: HQ
Published: 17th May 2018                        Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Thriller

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 Cliff House on Goodreads

My Review

Sixteen year-old Tamsyn’s obsession with The Cliff House, and the family who use it as their weekend haunt, is rooted in the precious memories she has of illicit visits there with her beloved father on their frequent cliff-top walks.  The Cliff House has come to embody everything Tamsyn believes she desires, filling the gaps she feels in her life and the sense of displacement from other people, even her loving mother and brother.  ‘But here, at The Cliff House, the colours were exaggerated, the light brighter, the smells, tastes and sounds richer.’  However, it’s an ideal of perfection that the reader feels is likely to be disappointed.

When an opportunity does arise for Tamsyn to get closer to achieving her desire, it sets off a chain of events that will have unimaginable and unintended consequences for those around her.  Along the way, using multiple points of view, the book explores themes of class, of rich and poor, the impact on rural communities of economic decline, and of bereavement, loss and grief.  It also explores the idea that what’s on the surface and what lies beneath may be very different things.  The Davenports seem to have it all – but do they?   As Tamsyn’s mother, Angie warns, “They’re different.  To us.”

Throughout the book there is a brooding sense of emotional turmoil and impending tragedy, like a great storm approaching from out at sea.  It’s something Tamsyn herself senses: in her nightmares that border on visions; in the evil she imagines emanating from the ravens perched on the roof of The Cliff House (echoes of Daphne du Maurier’s ‘The Birds’ here).  The final scenes of the book play out on the sun-drenched terrace of The Cliff House like the stage of some Shakespearean tragedy, with events building to a dramatic and devastating climax.

The Cliff House is a compelling picture of obsession and desire born out of loss and grief and a great summer read.

You can read my review here of Amanda Jennings talking about her book (along with Claire Dyer, author of The Last Day) at Waterstones Reading on 24th May 2018.

I received a review copy courtesy of publishers, HQ, and NetGalley in return for an honest and unbiased review.

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In three words: Atmospheric, intense, compelling

Try something similar…The Vanishing of Audrey Wilde by Eve Chase (click here to read my review)

Amanda JenningsAbout the Author

Amanda is mother to three daughters and lives in chaotic contentment just outside Henley-on-Thames with a houseful of pets and a husband. She is the author of three books, Sworn Secret, The Judas Scar and In Her Wake. Her fourth novel, The Cliff House, another psychological thriller set in West Cornwall, was published in May 2018.

Connect with Amanda

Website  ǀ  Facebook  ǀ  Twitter ǀ  Instagram ǀ Goodreads

Blog Tour/Review: Fault Lines by Doug Johnstone

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I’m delighted to be kicking off the blog tour for Fault Lines by Doug Johnstone alongside my tour buddy – appropriately, given the setting of the book – Joanne at Portobello Book Blog.    As regular followers of What Cathy Read Next will know, my usual reading diet is historical fiction but when it comes to thrillers I know I can’t go far wrong with titles published by Orenda Books.  I haven’t been disappointed yet and Fault Lines was no exception.

Do take a look at the tour schedule at the bottom of this post to see the other great book bloggers taking part in the tour.

Fault LinesAbout the Book

A little lie… a seismic secret… and the cracks are beginning to show…

In a re-imagined contemporary Edinburgh, where a tectonic fault has opened up to produce a new volcano in the Firth of Forth, and where tremors are an everyday occurrence, volcanologist Surtsey makes a shocking discovery.  On a clandestine trip to new volcanic island The Inch, to meet Tom, her lover and her boss, she finds his lifeless body, and makes the fatal decision to keep their affair, and her discovery, a secret. Desperate to know how he died, but also terrified she’ll be exposed, Surtsey’s life quickly spirals into a nightmare when someone makes contact – someone who claims to know what she’s done…

Format: ebook, paperback (300 pp.)        Publisher: Orenda Books
Published: 22nd May 2018 (paperback)   Genre: Crime, Thriller

Pre-order/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 Fault Lines on Goodreads

My Review

Surtsey is following in the footsteps of her mother in studying to be a volcanologist and she has the perfect object of study on her doorstep.  Well, across the sea, to be precise – the volcanic island known as The Inch which erupted out of the Firth of Forth on the day she was born.  Being named after another volcanic island (this one in Iceland) proves to be apt because Surtsey’s life is about to erupt in the most dramatic way possible when she discovers the body of her boss and married lover, Tom, on The Inch, the location of their intended tryst.  She decides to say nothing for fear of their affair coming to light.  However, it turns out to be too late as someone else appears to know her secret – in fact, all her secrets.

I really liked the way the author used geology as a metaphor for the situation Surtsey finds herself in.  The frequent earth tremors resulting from the movement of the tectonic plates mirror the upheaval in Surtsey’s life.  In addition, it transpires she has more than just the death of her lover creating fissures in a life already made unstable by too much alcohol and other stimulants, infidelity and strained relations with her sister, Iona.

In a way Fault Lines has many of the elements of a classic whodunit as there a number of possible suspects.  Two thirds of the way through the book, things get a whole lot more complicated for Surtsey as her secret tormenter closes in and secrets from the past are revealed that change everything.   My suspicions did eventually turn towards the actual culprit although what their motive could be eluded me.  The book builds to an exciting and dramatic climax in which the forces of Mother Nature, aptly, play a significant part.

Fault Lines is an imaginative, dark and accomplished thriller with believable – if not necessarily likeable – characters set in a convincingly described location.  I received a review copy courtesy of publishers, Orenda Books, and Anne Cater at Random Things Tours, in return for an honest and unbiased review.

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In three words: Imaginative, gripping, suspenseful

Try something similar…The Ice by Laline Paull (click here for my review)

doug-johnstone1-credit-chris-scottAbout the Author

Doug Johnstone is an author, journalist and musician based in Edinburgh. He’s had eight novels published, most recently Crash Land. His previous novel, The Jump, was a finalist for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year. Doug is also a Royal Literary Fund Consultant Fellow. He’s worked as an RLF Fellow at Queen Margaret University, taught creative writing at Strathclyde University and been Writer in Residence at Strathclyde University and William Purves Funeral Directors. He mentors and assesses manuscripts for The Literary Consultancy and regularly tutors at Moniack Mhor writing retreat. Doug has released seven albums in various bands, reviews books for the Big Issue, is player-manager for Scotland Writers Football Club and has a PhD in nuclear physics.      (Photo credit: Chris Scott)

Connect with Doug

Website | Twitter ǀ Goodreads

Fault Lines blog poster 2018