Here’s the thing. I already knew I was going to break the ban this time. I had to go into town, I was feeling happy about life, I knew I wanted to visit Waterstones. I got some money for Christmas that I was going to put into savings but in a ‘spur of a moment’ I decided to spend it on books again. There was no reason to get more books. I currently have (estimated), 40 books on my tbr shelves, and with my birthday coming up soon, I’m bound to get more. I have sinned! I need help! I can’t control myself! But, to be honest, I could be addicted to buying much worse things than books.

So, here we go.

I’m really into black backgrounds at the moment. I got the top five books on my initial trip to the bookshop. Then I went to have some lunch – where I finished reading a book I had brought with me – I returned to the bookshop because I wanted to get a present for someone but I needed some help in picking out the book, which turned into two books for the present and another two for me. Before my second trip to the store, I was under budget for the money I had decided to use to get the books with. With the two added books, I was one book over the limit, but, sticks and stones, right?

It’s really hard at the moment to buy books because people have been asking what I want for my birthday and I’ve been directing them to various lists of books that I have. So, when I’m out shopping, I have to stay away from books I know that are on those lists. It does open me up to a wider variety of books and I have discovered a lot more this way, but, my book pile is looking WAY too crazy right now.

P.S. I definitely did a photoshoot for these new books, who knew scarfs could be so good as background material?!

SIX FRIENDS. ONE KILLER. WHO DO YOU TRUST?

Seven teenagers went down to the woods. Only six came back . . .

30 years later, a body is discovered. 

DCI Sheens already knows what’s waiting for him – Aurora Jackson, found at last.

What he doesn’t already know is that it’s murder.

All six witnesses insist on their innocence, but DCI Sheens is sure one of them is lying. 

But who?

Paperback | 416 pages

Publisher: Penguin (12th December 2019)

I was going off the cover here, it’s not pretty or complex, but I thought it held mystery. The blurb sounds exciting. There are a lot of these genre of books floating around at the moment. I’ve read some great ones and I’ve read some terrible ones. I haven’t heard of Gytha Lodge before, so I am unfamiliar with their works but I have a feeling I’ll enjoy this. You know that tingly feeling you sometimes get when you pick out a book in the store? I got that feeling when I picked this up, plus, I read the first page and had a good impression of what the book and the story would be like.

Have any of you read this? What did you think?

Everyone believes Alex is in a coma, unlikely to ever wake up. As his family debate withdrawing life support, he can only listen.

But he soon begins to suspect that his accident wasn’t really an accident. Even worse, the perpetrator is still out there and Alex is not the only one in danger.

Alex must use a series of clues from his past to solve the mystery of who tried to kill him. He needs to protect those he loves – before they decide to let him go…

Paperback | 320 pages

Publisher: Vintage (7th February 2019)

This book seems to be following me. It must have been on every feature table in every bookshop I’ve visited since before Christmas but something has always made me step away from the book. This time though, I decided that the only way the book was going to leave me alone was if I bought it myself and read it. I’ve read one book before regarding a coma patient and I had another book that I decided to give away after reading only a couple of chapters. So, I’m 1-1 on this style of book. However, I will reserve judgement for after I’ve read this and I am optimistic that I will enjoy this on some level. It’s a pretty cover. The short blurb gave enough to be interested but held enough away to keep it mysterious. I am looking forward to reading it.

I looked at the pale, freckled hand on the back of the empty bar seat next to me in the business class lounge of Heathrow airport, then up into the stranger’s face.
‘Do I know you?’

Delayed in London, Ted Severson meets a woman at the airport bar. Over cocktails they tell each other rather more than they should, and a dark plan is hatched – but are either of them being serious, could they actually go through with it and, if they did, what would be their chances of getting away with it?

Back in Boston, Ted’s wife Miranda is busy site managing the construction of their dream home, a beautiful house out on the Maine coastline. But what secrets is she carrying and to what lengths might she go to protect the vision she has of her deserved future?

Paperback | 432 pages

Publisher: Faber & Faber (3rd September 2015)

I read, and loved, Peter Swanson’s ‘All the Beautiful Lies’, but never actually pursued Swanson or any other works he might have done after reading. I did really enjoy his writing style, so when I saw this on the shelf in Waterstones, I decided to give it a go. It sounds like another book that will make me think about human interactions and the way the human mind works, and it will be interesting to see how this story unfolds and how Swanson has written the story.

Alison has it all. A doting husband, adorable daughter, and a career on the rise – she’s just been given her first murder case to defend. But all is never as it seems… 

Just one more night. Then I’ll end it. 

Alison drinks too much. She’s neglecting her family. And she’s having an affair with a colleague whose taste for pushing boundaries may be more than she can handle.

I did it. I killed him. I should be locked up. 

Alison’s client doesn’t deny that she stabbed her husband – she wants to plead guilty. And yet something about her story is deeply amiss. Saving this woman may be the first step to Alison saving herself.

I’m watching you. I know what you’re doing.

But someone knows Alison’s secrets. Someone who wants to make her pay for what she’s done, and who won’t stop until she’s lost everything….

Paperback | 336 pages

Publisher: Wildfire (12th December 2019)

This one I went off the cover alone. Isn’t it fab? Somehow it manages to look both mysterious and chilling, I couldn’t help but gravitate towards it and pick it up. I have no knowledge or experience with the author in question, this was definitely a impulse pick up. Oooh but doesn’t it sound juicy? It’s not a particularly thick book but that doesn’t make me think it’ll be any less filling. This one, I can’t wait to read.

Detective Buchanan remembers every victim. But this one he can’t forget.

The body of a woman has been found on a pristine New Zealand beach – over a decade after she was murdered.

Detective Matt Buchanan of the Auckland Police is certain it carries all the hallmarks of an unsolved crime he investigated 12 years ago: when Samantha Coates walked out one day and never came home.

Re-opening the case, Buchanan begins to piece the terrible crimes together, setting into motion a chain of events that will force him to the darkest corners of society – and back into his deepest obsession…

Paperback | 304 pages

Publisher: Orion (28th November 2019)

Another book with a pretty and interesting cover and what an interesting title. I haven’t read a crime novel set in Aukland before, so that’ll be a new and interesting avenue to explore. I LOVE books that revisit cold cases, they have a special charm all of their own and I love a good old mystery. I also love the way a character develops when we meet them for the first time at the beginning of a returned case. We’ll see how good this is when I get around to reading it I guess.

Has anyone else read any crime books (singles or series) that have been set outside of USA/UK? (I realise that shows how narrow my crime experiences are but I’m working on broadening them.)

Alice has fought hard for a normal life. Having escaped the Hinterland – the strange, pitch-dark fairy tale world she was born into – she has washed up in New York City, determined to build a new future for herself.

But when her fellow survivors start being brutally murdered, Alice must face the fact that the Hinterland cannot be so easily escaped. And that, from the shadows of her past something – or someone – is coming for her…

Paperback | 352 pages

Publisher: Penguin (9th January 2020)

I am SO EXCITED to read this, truly! I loved the first book and had completely given up in expecting a sequel. So, imagine my surprise when I saw this in Waterstones. I mean, how could I fall away from this book? Well answer, you can see that I didn’t. I’m going to have to go back and read ‘The Hazel Wood’ to reacquaint myself with the story before I read this but I’m super excited for it.

Gah – my shoulder/arm injury has just started to play up. I bet it’s because I carried my new books in a bag on my shoulder for a couple of hours. It’s a cross between numbness and intense pain. Really uncomfortable and irritating.

The sleepy town of Heartsdale, Georgia, is jolted into panic when Sara Linton, paediatrician and medical examiner, finds Sibyl Adams dead in the local diner. As well as being viciously raped, Sibyl has been cut: two deep knife wounds form a lethal cross over her stomach. But it’s only once Sara starts to perform the post-mortem that the full extent of the killer’s brutality becomes clear. 

Police chief Jeffrey Tolliver – Sara’s ex-husband – is in charge of the investigation, and when a second victim is found, crucified, only a few days later, both Jeffrey and Sara have to face the fact that Sibyl’s murder wasn’t a one-off attack. What they’re dealing with is a seasoned sexual predator. A violent serial killer…

Paperback | 416 pages

Publisher: Arrow (23 June 2011)

I’m new to Karin Slaughter but I see her books all the time on Instagram and I’ve always wanted to read her books. I got one of her books for Christmas and have A TON of her books on my birthday wish lists. This does sound a little more graphic and dark than what I usually read but I was interested enough in what the blurb offered to want to find out how the story would reveal itself. It sounds like a good one and like the others on this list, I’m very excited to read them (I just can’t commit to when exactly that’ll be.)

Have any of you read these books? What were your thoughts? Let me know!