If Beale Street Could Talk – James Baldwin

The book focuses on a young couple in Harlem in the early 1970s: Tish, 19 years old, and Fonny, a budding sculptor, 22 years old. The story is told from the present and through flashbacks about how Tish and Fonny met and fell in love, and how they arrived at their predicament.

After reading this book, though heavy for the most part, it will stay with long after you’ve turned the last page.

Verses For The Dead: A Pendergast Novel #18 – Preston Douglas & Lincoln Child

I love the Pendergast series; just think Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, and Albert Einstein all packaged into a fictional character. This is FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast.❤️❤️

In Verses for the dead, Pendergast is partnered, yes partnered with Agent Coldmoon by the new Assistant Director Walter Pickett. Anyway, Pendergast and Coldmoon set to investigate the case of the serial murderer, Mister Broken Hearts. There’s a lot of twisties to keep you guessing, the biggest twist will totally have you grinning like a fool going, “nice one, Douglas and Child.”

Small Great Things – Jodi Picoult

In Small Great Things, we meet Ruth a Labour and delivery nurse fighting for her freedom after being accused of murder. It focuses on racism, prejudice, privilege, and justice. This story is told from the perspectives of three characters—Ruth a black nurse accused of murder, Turk a white supremacist whose baby dies of cardiac arrest, and Rachel the lawyer, representing Ruth.

It’s an uncomfortable and emotional tale that will grip you from start to finish.

Throw-Away Faces – Josef Alton

This book takes us from Seattle 1889 to present-day Dublin, 1916. It was a superb read, Josef Anton gives us a piece of Seattle while at the same time twisting it in a mind-bending and intriguing story of murder and political willfulness. It’s a whodunnit that will both surprise you and yet not, for the mind of man is easily corruptible.

The Outsider – Stephen King

A child has been brutally mutilated and murdered. The fingerprints matched the prints of Terry Maitland, a respectable husband, father, and beloved Little League coach; the DNA could belong to no other man. Or does it? He was in another state when the murder occurred he can prove outright that he didn’t commit the crime. But he’s arrested almost in front of the whole town. His family and his lawyer believe in his innocence, no one else.

Here we get a bit of mystery, thriller, horror and the supernatural.

As a Constant Reader of Stephen King, I was a bit skeptical at first about how this book was going, but then he introduced a well-loved character from the Bill Hodges trilogy and I was all in.

It would appear that HBO will be adapting The Outsider as a limited series. Rogue One star Ben Mendelsohn will star in the adaptation.

The Serial Killer’s Daughter – Lesley Welsh

Charmer, liar, father, Killer.

This guy is the devil incarnate, there are no words to adequately describe the depth of this monster’s evil. We learn of his monstrous acts through his daughter Suzanne’s eyes and along the way through his eyes as well. Suzanne received a series of diaries from her father’s girlfriend after his death as well as a number of photos of women. But is he truly dead?

This is a very dark and disturbing read, but it’s kinda my deal so I quite enjoyed it.

Unfortunately, we won’t be reading anything new in the future from this amazing author, as she passed away in April 2017. Her other books Truth Lies Buried and In the Blood are available on Amazon for purchase.

City of Endless Night – Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Another awesome Pendergast read. I don’t think I will ever be tired of one of my favourite FBI Agent. In City of Endless night Pendergast is assigned to a routine murder case, well you see he’s on his boss’s bad side at the moment, so he’s being punished. Only the case turns out not to be routine, I mean there’s the decapitation of a billionaire’s daughter and all. He’s joined once again with our favourite NYPD Lieutenant Vincent D’Agosta.

This is a great addition to the Pendergast series, tense and tightly wound, it seems death is always lurking behind every shadow. It’s unputdownable, well it was for me.

The Girl with all The Gifts

This is a great zombie apocalyptic story. Based in England on a military base, Doctors studies children that were once human, but are now what the doctors termed “hungries”. Melanie is a 10-year-old, second-generation hungry. She possesses superhuman strength and a superb intellect, and she can reason and communicate. These children are being experimented on to find out how and why they can communicate and be like normal humans, except you know they would eat you if they catch you. I enjoyed this book, very different from the usual zombie apocalypse.

The film adaptation is available on Netflix.

Alias Grace – by Margaret Atwood

This historical true crime account delves into the life of Alias Grace a convicted murderer. She is one of Canada’s most infamous killer.
She and James McDermott were arrested in 1843 for the murder of their employer Thomas Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery his house-keeper and mistress. A stunning portrait of the lives of women in another time.

Now a television miniseries playing on Netflix.

What You Owe Me

A saga of two cleaning ladies, one white, one black, they meet in post-World War II, in 1940s Los Angeles, California. They form a friendship and business relationship that would eventually lead to betrayal, love, and heartbreak, between the women and in generations that would follow. I’ve read this a few times. It’s a worthwhile read,  very intriguing, poignant and heartwarming.

Swan Song – By Robert R. McCammon

In a post-apocalyptic world, after a nuclear war between the U.S and Russia destroys the world. Evil still walks, hell-bent on eliminating the rest of mankind. If you’ve read and loved Stephen King’s The Stand, you’ll love this as well.