What Alice Forgot - Liane Moriarty

What Alice Forgot has been sat on my shelf for over a year and by chance, I picked it up and decided to give a go, it was a really refreshing surprise. Alice Love wakes up on the floor of a gym thinking she’s a newly pregnant twenty nine year old happily in love, she is horrified to discover she’s actually thirty nine, getting divorced and has three children she can’t remember. The love of her life hates her, her sister doesn’t seem to like her much, her mother has remarried and apparently her best friend Gina who she remembers nothing about, is dead. The story is told through three different perspectives, Alice’s story, and her sister’s journal entries to her doctor and her grandmother Frannies’ blog.

This book is a lovely little surprise, Alice is kind, free-spirited and deeply cares about those around her, her attempts to guide herself through a life she doesn’t recognize are endearing and often funny. Her shock and horror and suddenly becoming a mother to three children and her quick of the base remarks about how those around her are brilliantly witty.

The rest of the people around Alice are just as interesting to read, her sisters entries are often bitter and heart-breaking as well as being funny and are a real change in direction from Alice’s chapters. Frannie’s show a well-grounded character in Alice’s life, one who can clearly see what is best for her.

The best part about this book is how those around Alice see themselves and the way they have changed through the eyes of twenty nine year old Alice. It really makes you ask how much have you changed in ten years, what you have lost about yourself that you’d love to have back.

Towards the end I was concerned it wouldn’t go in the direction I’d been praying for but it turned out to be exactly what I wanted!

I gave it a four out of five, it was such a fantastic and unexpected little book! Definitely reading her next one. 

Snow White Must Die - Nele Neuhaus

This crime novel is a German export translated to English and written by Nele Neuhaus, eleven years ago two girls went missing in the small German village of Altenheim, Stefanie "Snow White" and Laura whilst their bodies were never recovered local boy Tobias Sartorius was convicted of their murders, after ten years in prison Tobias is released and returns home where everything has changed. The village is in uproar at the idea of a murderer walking the streets and when local girl Amelie disappears the fingers once again point at Tobias.

I’ll start with what I didn’t love, there are a lot of characters in this novel, I mean, a lot and they all have difficult to pronounce names. They have very complicated lives, shitty personalities and very twisted lives. You really have to focus on this novel to keep up with everything that’s happening and it’s definitely not an easy light-hearted read. Secondly, I know this is a book in a series, I’m unsure if the other novels follow the same two detectives and that’s why there was so much backstory to them, but at times in felt unneeded and I really found that I didn’t care about Bodensteins’ bitchy wife cheating on him or whether Pia would have her house knocked down. Finally the biggest hurdle in this novel is that at times the translation is disjointed and occasionally cheesy, which I think alters some of the books tone, had I been able to read German I probably would have been left with a different feeling by the end. My final gripe is that by the end of the novel, the hints that a much older Tobias might end up with a much younger Amelie were creepy.

But what I did love was the fact that Neuhaus weaved a fascinating, gritty and at times, disturbing story that I wanted to finish, that hooked me in and that was full of twists and turns. I didn’t guess the ending ahead of time and I quite liked Tobias as a character, despite his initial introduction as a murderer.

Another solid 3, though I did debate a 4, but the English translation was sometimes a little too uneven and left the book with a tone that didn’t always fit the genre. 

The Grown-up - Gillian Flynn

I said before that I was excited for Gillian Flynn’s next offering and here it is, although The Grown-up is not exactly new and was originally posted in a collection of short stories under a different title.

My only main gripe with this novel is that it’s a short story, I would have loved to of read a longer, and more extended version of this story, and her writing as ever is dark, gritty and abrasive. The story-line was creepy and disturbing, however, the ending was seemed rushed, confused and I definitely wanted something a little more satisfying.

Four out of five, I seriously can’t wait for her next full length offering.

Tricky Twenty Two - Janet Evanovich

It’s getting kind of hard to believe that Evanovich has managed to squeeze Twenty Two books out of her popular Stephanie Plum series but here we are with number Twenty Two. Whilst the series was initially strong the last few have definitely lacked the sparkle that originally made them so great. However Twenty Two definitely shows some positive growth after the last few passé novels.

Stephanie Plum is the world’s worst bounty hunter, who regularly blows up cars and is caught in the world’s longest love triangle with Italian cop Joe Morelli and better than bond security expert Ranger.

I’m not going to lie, the frustrating love triangle is still here, and I’ve given up on expecting Evanovich to give Plum fans the answer they so desperately want. Plum will never chose between her two men and despite a slight break by Morelli in this novel, it appears the men in her life will never force her to choose either.

However all of the important aspects that make Stephanie Plum so brilliant are still here, Lula is on top form and though I usually prefer my Grandma Mazur with a little more scandal I always enjoy when Stephanie’s Mum steps out of the kitchen and into the Plum circus.

As always Stephanie was forced to drive big blue, she blew up another care, she failed at catching felons, she needed Rangers help, she got involved in one of Morellis cases, she used some Bulgari green shower gel, she spoke to Rex, Lula did something crazy with her hair and Vinnie was a slimeball.

I gave this one a four, I always rate Plum so high, because she’s such a brilliant creation and her world is always fun to immerse yourself in. This marks a definite improvement on a few less than brilliant novel and I hope Evanovich delivers another winner with book Twenty Three (though surely, she is running out of titles by now?!)

Waiting for Wednesday - Nicci French

Nicci French are a husband and wife crime writing team that I’ve read quite a lot of, but their Frieda Klein novels are easily my favorites, Waiting for Wednesday is book #3 in the Frieda Klein series and it’s important to read the first two before you delve into this one, there is just too much back story that can’t be covered with a brief explanation.

That said, Waiting for Wednesday is definitely the weakest of the series, the story and plotline are solid but Frieda’s despondent nature and tendency to act rashly before considering the circumstances is getting a little old and I think it would be nice to see some growth from her character. Dean Reeves is as ever, lurking in the background of Frieda’s life, ominously.

The story covered two separate crimes, the first being the murder of Ruth Lennox and her family whose boring lives were neat and ordered on the surface but beneath the surface a web of secrets and lies was about to tear the family apart. Whilst DCI Karlsson attempts to solve the case the families children are busy making themselves at home in Frieda’s life, this was slightly confusing, three children were staying with Frieda, a woman they didn’t know, based on a friendship between the older boy and Frieda’s niece and it wasn’t questioned at all really.

The second crime was ex journalist Jim Fearbys’ desperation to uncover a serial killer that the police aren’t even aware of, something which Frieda finds herself entangled in, as usual.

The only thing that irked me about this novel was that the serial killer definitely needed fleshing out more, the only real insight was the comment Frieda obsessed over for the entire bloody novel. 4/5 stars from me however, I love Nicci French and I’m looking forward to reading the fourth book in the series Thursdays Child, it’s a strong interesting series that grips the reader, whilst parts of this make it the weakest in the series so far it still holds up well to its predecessors. 

The 9th Girl - Tami Hoag

This is the first Tami Hoag novel I’ve picked up, it follows Detectives Liska and Kovac as they attempt to solve the rather brutal murder of a young girl, nicknamed “Zombie Doe” after she falls out of the back of a moving car with half her face destroyed by acid. Hoag is a gritty writer, the Detectives have serious flaws, some of which threaten to impact the investigation (Liskas’ son being very friendly with the victim).

The petty circus of high schoolers makes for an interesting though slightly frustrating read and the victim has a very tangled and disturbing life. The determination of the detectives to solve the crime however is satisfying, the clever use of blogs and social media to reach the younger kids and the use of the victim’s poetry to engage the reader all add to the novel.

The voice of the serial killer is striking but is frustrating snuffed out before a satisfying ending can be reading but overall the novel is still a solid 3, I read it fairly quickly and found it fairly gripping, I’ll definitely give another of her books a go.