Dark Fragments, by Rob Sinclair

This is a thriller about a seemingly normal man who seems to fall into a spiral of bad choices.

Ben is married to Gemma with two children, Harry and Chloe. Harry is Ben's son with his first wife, Alice, who was brutally murdered seven years earlier, potentially by a serial killer.  As the story progresses, it flashes between a future point where Ben is being interviewed by a counsellor / psychiatrist, and the present time, where he's in too deep - and getting ever deeper -  with a local gangster.

The trouble spirals quickly for Ben and he descends further and further into a constant state of rage. I felt like the reasons for this could have been fleshed out a bit more, as he seemed to be living a perfectly nice, normal life at the start, then by a few chapters in he was in debt to the local gangster to the tune of £100,000 and self destructing his own life and relationships.

I do feel like some aspects of the book move unrealistically fast - his relationship with Cara being a prime example of this.  There's a point where he states that he couldn't believe that she could cut him out of her life so quickly, but I felt like they'd only been on about four dates!  He does also seem to spiral quite quickly once the trouble all starts for him - he makes a lot of bad decisions, but it karma does bite back pretty quickly.

However, this is a fast paced story - I read it in two sittings. I enjoyed the story as a whole once I'd finished it and could think back over the whole story. I definitely think that the whole book is greater than the sum of its parts. I'm glad I stuck with it, there are some intriguing characters and I feel like there is an open door to explore those characters further. I hope this is the case - I'd definitely be interested to see where the characters go!

Nows your chance to grab it on sale for the Kindle - it's currently 99p!!!  Dark Fragments

Disclosure - I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. 

Hunt for the Enemy, by Rob Sinclair

This is the first book I've read by Rob Sinclair, and I realised shortly after I started that it's actually the third book of a trilogy.  I didn't find it too hard to follow what was going on, and the flashbacks weren't too heavy-handed, but the series has been designed to tie in closely together, rather than each book being more standalone.  An example of a series with more standalone books would be the Rebus books by Ian Rankin - the books follow a loose series order, but it doesn't have a massive impact if you read the books out of order, whereas i feel that this trilogy is a lot more closely knit.  To be fair, it didn't really put me off, but I tend to try and read series in order and I feel that this series would be best served by reading in order. 

Carl Logan is a security operative for a mysterious government firm, the Joint Intelligence Agency (JIA), and has been for twenty years.  However, the agency has turned on him and he's been framed for murder, forcing him to go on the run and delve deep into his past in order to discover the truth.  

This book is fast paced and a good page turner.  I read that the author was inspired to start the series by wanting to write a book that would keep his wife awake all night to keep reading, and I feel that this is a decent attempt at the genre.  I enjoyed the story and the characters, especially enjoying the flashbacks to when Logan was being trained in the Scottish Highlands, as it was interesting to get an insight into a stereotypical, James Bond-esqe character and their motivations, although I feel that this may have been explored in more depth in the earlier two books. 

Overall,  I enjoyed the book, but if i was going to recommend this to other readers, I'd definitely advice them to start at the beginning of the series.  It would be a good beach read I think, as it rattles along at a good pace with plenty of twists, turns, double crosses and bluffs.  An enjoyable read. 

Disclosure - I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. 

What I'm Reading Now...

Hi all, another weekly update about what I've been reading this week...

It Would Be Wrong To Steal My Sister's Boyfriend (Wouldn't It?), by Sophie Ranald.   I picked this up as part of my Kindle Unlimited subscription, as I wanted something light and easy to read. I really enjoyed this, I found it to be a cut above the usual run of the mill chick lit - I could mostly tell how the characters were going to end up, but it was done in a clever enough way that I didn't find the book boring or draggy,  like this genre can often be.  I think it was a good idea for a book, as it was a bit of a different spin on a genre than can be a bit formulaic!  I'd previously read another book by this author, called A Groom With A View, and I had also really enjoyed it - I'd definitely read more by Sophie Ranald! 

What You Wish For, by Mark Edwards. I've previously read two of Mark Edwards books,  Because She Loves Me and The Magpies, and really enjoyed them, finding them to be good psychological thrillers. This one however,  just wasn't up my street. The story is about a photographer called Richard who falls in love with a woman called Marie... who believes in aliens.  Four months into their relationship,  Marie suddenly disappears, and the rest of the story is concerned with Richard searching for Marie through the underworld of alien and UFO believers. I just don't have a lot of time for alien conspiracies, but so much of the story was focused on it! I read it to the end,  but it was only 200 pages so it wasn't too much of a time investment.  In the authors comments at the end of the book, he says that he starting writing the book approximately 15 years earlier, and ended up scrapping it all and rewriting it, just keeping some characters intact.  I think it shows to be honest - there's not as much finesse, and to be honest, I just didn't find it as clever or as engaging as his other books.

Prep, by Curtis Sittenfeld.  I wanted to try something by this author, before I read her version of Pride and Prejudice, which she is writing as part of the Austen Project.  I read Sisterland and really enjoyed it, so I bought a couple of others to try and this is the first one. Lee is a 14 year old girl attending a prestigious school and struggling to fit in. She's quite and shy, and finding that she doesn't really fit in with the elite. I'm only about 20% into the story, but I'm really enjoying it so far, im interested to see how it goes!

Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn

From the outside, Nick and Amy Dunne appear to be happily married.  On the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary, Nick get up and goes to work as normal, only to receive a worried phone call from a neighbour, who tells him that the front door of his home is lying open. Concerned, Nick rushes home to investigate, to find that the house shows signs of a possibly deadly struggle and there is no sign of his wife.  He calls the police, who start questioning him, asking probing questions concerning the state of Nick and Amy's marriage, clearly convinced that Nick has had a hand in whatever has happened to Amy.  After telling the police that he hadn't had a disagreement with his wife that day, Nick thinks to himself - and the reader - 'That was the fifth lie I told the police that morning.'  From this point, the story spirals into a twisty, dark tale, which serves to confirm that no-one ever truly knows what passes behind closed doors. Perhaps not even the people behind those closed doors…

  Gillian Flynn is an accomplished writer, who crafts an incredibly clever story which questions how well any person can truly know another person, no matter how well they believe they do.  This story is told in the main by Nick in the present day, recounting the days after Amy's disappearance.  However, the clever concept in this is that we know that he lies, because, after all - he told us that he lies!  Nick's parts of the story are interspersed with excerpts of Amy's diary, starting from when they first met, leading up to the fateful day of their first anniversary.  I'm reluctant to reveal any more of the story, in case I ruin it for anyone, as one of the aspects of the story I really enjoyed was a genuine, slack-jawed, wonder at what could possibly happen next!  That isn't a feeling that too many books inspire, especially if you are a frequent reader.  I have given this book to many of my friends, and they have all had a very positive reaction.

This is Gillian Flynn's third book, and upon finishing this, I went back and read the previous books, Dark Places, and Sharp Objects.  Both are also extremely good, but I think that Gone Girl remains my favourite for the moment.  I can't wait to see what Gillian Flynn will bring out next, in my view she's one of the most exciting authors of recent years.  I first heard of this book on a podcast called Books on the Nightstand, which is a consistently reliable source of great reads.  Both hosts absolutely raved about this tale, recommending it so highly that I couldn't wait to read it.  I'm so glad that this was the case, as this has easily been my stand out book of this year.  It's not a light, easy read, but if you like good writing and great storytelling, you should definitely give Gillian Flynn a try!

As always - all comments are welcomed!!