Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog! The stressful family issues are still continuing, but they are taking a little break at the moment. So, here is a catch up post.

I have read three books since I last wrote one of these posts. Here is the first one…

After tackling a really long and complex book, Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Lords of Uncreation, I should have chosen something much shorter and easier to read. Instead, I decided to try Robert Galbraith’s The Ink Black Heart (Cormoran Strike #06). Perhaps not the best choice when struggling mentally and physically! Anyway, here is the blurb:

“When frantic, dishevelled Edie Ledwell appears in the office begging to speak to her, private detective Robin Ellacott doesn’t know quite what to make of the situation. The co-creator of a popular cartoon, The Ink Black Heart , Edie is being persecuted by a mysterious online figure who goes by the pseudonym of Anomie. Edie is desperate to uncover Anomie’s true identity.

Robin decides that the agency can’t help with this – and thinks nothing more of it until a few days later, when she reads the shocking news that Edie has been tasered and then murdered in Highgate Cemetery, the location of The Ink Black Heart .

Robin and her business partner Cormoran Strike become drawn into the quest to uncover Anomie’s true identity. But with a complex web of online aliases, business interests and family conflicts to navigate, Strike and Robin find themselves embroiled in a case that stretches their powers of deduction to the limits – and which threatens them in new and horrifying ways . . .”

It took me a long time to finish the book and this is my response on Goodreads:

The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book immensely, but I must admit that it was very long indeed. When you suffer from memory issues, it’s hard to manage a book of such complexity and length. However, I enjoyed the “dance” between Robin and Strike very much. The book was very well written and, for once, I didn’t work out the “baddie”. All of the online fuss about these books is totally perplexing and utter nonsense. Just shows that so many people make silly judgements about books they obviously haven’t read at all!

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In my present condition I am so thankful that ebooks are available. I really struggle to remember character names and certain incidents in the plot, from one day to the next. At least I can use the search tools to remind myself, when I need to!

Anyway, on to the second book…

I wonder if this was the best choice as I was suffering from really horrible dark moods! Or maybe the book was somehow cathartic. Anyway, The Sentence by Christina Dalcher became available on my library reservations, so I downloaded it. Here is the blurb:

“A law intended to end capital punishment.

Prosecutors who seek the death penalty put their lives on the line if the guilty are later found innocent.

A lawyer convinced beyond reasonable doubt.

Justine Boucher is presented with overwhelming evidence in a brutal murder case. Her request for execution is granted.

But what if she’s wrong?”

Although this was a very difficult book to read, because of the subject matter, I did read it very quickly. This was my review:

The Sentence by Christina Dalcher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am glad that I am British and that we ended the barbaric practice of capital punishment so long ago. Having said that, it was interesting to read this thought provoking book from that angle. I found it well written, gripping and heart-breaking in turn. Dalcher is a brilliant writer who makes the reader pause and think. In many places, I found it very difficult to read on and the open ended conclusion was somewhat annoying, but, at the same time, an understandable way for the author to finish the story.

My feeling is this: what loving mother could bear to leave her young child without either parent and with such a horrifying legacy?

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My final book was a completely random choice from the ebook catalogue…

The selected book was Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney. This is the blurb:

“After years of avoiding each other, Daisy Darker’s entire family is assembling for Nana’s 80th birthday party in Nana’s crumbling gothic house on a tiny tidal island. Finally back together one last time, when the tide comes in, they will be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours.

The family arrives, each of them harboring secrets. Then at the stroke of midnight, as a storm rages, Nana is found dead. And an hour later, the next family member follows…

Trapped on an island where someone is killing them one by one, the Darkers must reckon with their present mystery as well as their past secrets, before the tide comes in and all is revealed.”

So, it appears that I chose another darkly themed book! As I am now in a much better mood at the moment, perhaps these books helped. Apologies for the very sparse “review”…

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have given the book four stars, but I am still rather unsure about what I really feel about it. The story takes a common “whodunnit” theme, which was an OK thing to do. All I can say about the main characters is that I am glad I am not related to people like them! I did guess some of the ending, but not everything, which was good, and enjoyed the reading experience.

I will certainly look for other books by Alice Feeney.

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So, that’s the end of my Reading Roundup for this week! I hope you have all been enjoying your reading journeys as much as I have.

Happy Reading to you all!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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