The Angel Maker - Alex North

I've read and enjoyed Alex North's previous books. The Whisper Man was especially creepy. 

North's newest book is The Angel Maker. "From the New York Times bestselling author of The Whisper Man and The Shadows comes a dark, suspenseful new thriller about the mysteries of fate, the unbreakable bond of siblings, and a notorious serial killer who was said to know the future." 

Okay, that's a novel idea for sure. Think about it - a killer who can justify each and every crime he commits as 'its meant to be'. The Angel Maker has many, many characters and timelines. I admit I found it overwhelming at times to keep everything and everybody straight. I really liked Katie as a lead character. She came off as believable and it was easy to be behind her. The unfurling of the book was slow for me and my attention started to wander, so I thought I would try a read/ listen combo. 

The reader was  Rosalie Craig. She did a wonderful job at bringing the book to life for me Her voice has so much movement, rising and falling, capturing the emotion, action, horror, danger and more with her reading. Her voice is pleasant to listen to, she speaks clearly, and I liked her accent. The pace was just right. I've said it before - sometimes I am drawn more into a book when listening instead of reading. And that was the case here. I still found there to be too much in terms of timeline, jumps and points of view, but was able to know who was speaking, by the different voices. Hear for yourself - listen to an excerpt of The Angel Maker. Or if you prefer - read an excerpt of The Angel Maker. 

Gentle readers - there are triggers in this book. 

The Shadow Man - Helen Fields

I've quite enjoyed Helen Fields' D.I. Callanach series. When I saw she had a new book coming out, I didn't even read the flyleaf description - I just knew I'd be in for another great read. The Shadow Man was amazingly good! It kept me up late frantically flipping pages.....and double checking that the door was locked.

The prologue starts things off with a decidedly morbid scene that sets the pace for the story to come.  Fields gives us an unusual protagonist. Dr. Connie Woolwine is an American psychologist and profiler brought in to assist Scottish D.I. Baarda. The search is on for a missing woman, and then another, and then a child and then a man..... Are they connected? Are they alive? 

This duo worked really well for me. Woolwine is an unusual woman and her methods are different from what the tightly wrapped Baarda is used to. I enjoyed the banter between the two - it gave them personality and their own storyline in addition to the crime thread. (I would truly like to see more books featuring these two). Woolwine's profile building has the ring of truth to it and is believable. Fields has done her homework here.

The reader is going to know much more than our lead characters do. Fields gives us a (very scary) glimpse into the actions and mindset of the suspect. The Shadow Man's thoughts and actions will give you goosebumps. Fields' description and depiction of him are visceral, unsettling and downright creepy. We are also privy as to what's going on with the victims. I have to say that of the three missing people, young Meggy stole my heart. She's a gutsy little girl faced with the unthinkable. But the others were just as well drawn.

There was more than one time where I thought the story had reached a certain point and was over. But, Fields kept me on my toes with turns I didn't see coming. The action is firmly in the 'edge of your seat' category. And the ending? Crazy good! I could see this book as a movie. 

The Shadows - Alex North

I listened to Alex North's previous book - The Whisper Man - and really enjoyed it. I was eager to listen to his newest - The Shadows.

The covers of both titles feature handprints - with a bit more when you look closely. I liked the elongated shadows and the figures making their way into .....?

The Shadows opens with a horrific crime in a small English village. Now, it's one you've read in the papers before. Or so I thought. I was wrong - there's so much more to this crime.

Paul Adams was a schoolboy when it happened. It involved the boys he thought were his friends. One died, one went to prison - and one - Charlie - was never seen again. That was twenty five years ago. Paul left the village and never returned, until now. And only because his mother is dying. And then - another boy is killed in a neighbouring village - and his death seems to be a copy of that old crime. Is Charlie back?

I'm not going to spoil things for you - the method of murder is frightening - and very, very creepy. (I love creepy!) Things start happening to Paul - someone following him, flashes of the past and what's in his mother's attic. (Attics or basements always house the gotcha stuff, don't they?) What's happening now? And what really happened then?

North does subtle creepy really, really well. A sound, a name, a memory, a possibility. The reader knows there is something bad out there and it is the anticipation that ramps up the creepiness factor over and over again. I loved the building tension. The Shadows are the woods behind Paul's boyhood home. The description of the woods themselves is enough to give you goosebumps.

I appreciate not being able to predict a plot. There was no way to know where North's story was headed and how it would end.

I chose to listen to The Shadows. The readers were Hannah Arterton and John Heffernan. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I become much more immersed in a tale when I listen. The Shadows absolutely was better for me in audiobook format. Both readers have lovely British accents that are easy to understand. They both enunciate well and speak clearly. Heffernan has a wonderfully expressive voice that captured the tone and tenor of the plot. The gravelly tone of his voice was perfect for the uncertainty, the danger and the spookiness of the book.  Arterton did a good job as well - she too has an expressive voice that's easy on the ears. Hear for yourself - listen to an excerpt of The Shadows.

Another atmospheric listen from North. I'll be watching for his next book.

Follow Me - Kathleen Barber

I loved Kathleen Barber's debut novel Are You Sleeping. (my review) Social media was a large part of that book and this latest, Follow Me, does as well.

Follow me can be taken literally as following someone down a hallway. Or....in today's age of online everything, your first thought might have been following someone on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

Audrey Miller is an influencer on Insta, with over a million followers that eagerly await Audrey's next post. On the plus side, her social media savvy has landed her a dream job promoting an art gallery's exhibits. She rents an apartment unseen, moves a new city and reconnects with an old friend. And....lets all her followers know every step she's taking, every place she's been and more. Lots of followers for sure, but one of them has taken things to a new level - stalking.

Follow Me in told in three voices - Audrey, her old friend Cat and Him. We know the stalker is a man, but it could be any of the suspects Barber gives us to choose from - creepy guy at the apartment building, old flame, sketchy co-worker, new friend or random stranger. I honestly had no idea who the final aha was going to be. I was quite surprised by the final reveal. Barber does a great job of keeping the listener guessing.

I had a hard time liking Audrey and her somewhat narcissistic personality. Okay, maybe a bit more than somewhat. She's a bit of a user. But it absolutely works in this plot. There are a number of times she disregards the danger in front of her and blithely carries on - the equivalent of a movie 'don't go in the basement'. But again, integral to the plot. Good friend Cat has her own issues, but I shared her frustration with Audrey. And that brings us to the third voice - Him. Wonderfully (and frighteningly) drawn! His obsessions, delusions and stream of consciousness thinking are terrifying.

I chose to listen to Follow Me. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I always feel more immersed in a story when I hear it. I really liked that there were three narrators for Follow Me. And even more so when there are multiple narrators. The three for this book were excellent choices. - Corey Brill, Erin Moon and Emily Tremaine. Brill's voice for Him is suitably creepy and suited the unstable nature of this character. He interprets the plot very well and his tone and intonation reflects that. I'm not sure which woman read which part, but again they were both very well suited. Audrey's voice is strong in tone and captures the self centeredness of the character. The reader for Cat employs a softer voice that depicts the uncertainty of this player very well. All three were easy to listen too, were well enunciated and easily understood. Hear for yourself - here's an audio excerpt. 

Make sure you listen to the author's notes on writing this book - absolutely creepy. And the most alarming thing? This is completely plausible.

The Chestnut Man - Soren Sveistrup

I love the cover of  Soren Sveistrup's new novel The Chestnut Man. Those few black strokes conjure up something ominous... And then I discovered that Sveistrup was the creator and screenwriter of The Killing - a show I really enjoyed. And I knew I was a for a really great read!

A killer is on the loose in Copenhagen. His signature? A small little man made of chestnuts and matchsticks left at every murder. Forensics makes a startling discovery - the  fingerprint of the daughter of a high ranking politician is on each one. Trouble is - she's been missing for a year.

Great premise and I was hooked. But what makes or breaks a great premise are the protagonists. I'm happy to say that Sveistrup has created a great pair in Detectives Thulin and Hess. Thulin is a single mother balancing parenting and detecting. She's tough, intelligent, happy to work on her own and doesn't suffer fools. But that's what she fears she's been paired with when she inherits Hess from Europol. He has messed up there and until things are cleared, he's assigned to partner with Thulin in the Major Crimes Division in Copenhagen. But, really Hess just wants to coast until he can get back to Europol - where he also coasts along. This pair reminded me a bit of the two detectives in The Killing. Seemingly polar opposites. But as things progress, they grudgingly start to work together. I really enjoyed this pairing - and hopefully they cross paths again in another novel.

Their work is cut out for them. The case is hindered by politicos and complicated by multiple suspects. Just when I thought I had sussed out the killer was, another possibility popped up. I quite enjoyed being led down the garden path. And I have to say, I was surprised by the final answers. Well done. (Which I really appreciate as I read a lot of mysteries).

The ending has a nice little gotcha that opens things up for a possible follow-up. A wonderfully dark and gritty read for those who love Scandi noir (puts hand up). See for yourself -read an excerpt of The Chestnut Man.  (And on a side note, Netflix is making a series based on this book).

The Hatching - Ezekiel Boone

I wanted to share this great bookmail package I received yesterday...........

Here's the envelope, with a wonderfully intriguing sticker.... "There's a reason you're afraid of spiders." #theywantout

And here's the book... The Hatching by Ezekiel Boone. Yes, it arrived covered in spider webs and spiders! Clever, clever marketing Penguin Random House Canada!

From the publisher:

"An astonishingly inventive and terrifying debut horror novel about the emergence of an ancient race of carnivorous spiders, dormant for ten thousand years but now very much awake. There's a reason we're afraid of spiders...

A local guide is leading wealthy tourists through a forest in Peru when a strange, black, skittering mass engulfs him and most of the party. FBI Agent Mike Rich is on a routine stakeout in Minneapolis when he's suddenly called by the director himself to investigate a mysterious plane crash. A scientist studying earthquakes in India registers an unprecedented pattern in local seismic readings. The US president, her defence and national security advisers and her chief of staff are dumped into crisis mode when China "accidentally" drops a nuclear bomb on a desolate region of its own country. As such unsettling occurrences mount, the president's old friend (and her chief of staff's ex-wife), spider expert Melanie Guyer, receives a box at her lab at American University that contains an ancient egg unearthed at a South American dig.

So begins The Hatching, the hair-raising saga of a single week in which an ancient, frighteningly predatory species of spider re-emerges in force. When the unusual egg in Melanie Guyer's lab begins to vibrate and crack, she finds herself at the epicentre of this apocalyptic natural disaster. Working closely with her ex-husband and his very powerful boss, she has to find some way to stem the brutal tide of man-eating arachnids." Releases July 5, 2016. Watch for my review!

You - Caroline Kepnes

You is the deliciously creepy new novel from Caroline Kepnes.

When Guinevere Beck walks into a New York bookstore, she immediately catches the eye of the clerk, Joe. A light flirtatious conversation ensues, but for Joe it is much more than that. Beck is the one he's been looking for. They're meant to be together. But Joe wants to make sure everything is right first - so he begins gathering information.... he discovers where Beck lives, begins watching her home, stalking her online profiles and hacks into the cell phone she 'lost' at the bookstore.

You is told entirely from Joe's point of view in an unending, seriously disturbed stream of consciousness narrative. The matter of fact attitude in dealing with roadblocks (Beck has a boyfriend already) to his ultimate goal (Beck) is truly chilling. But just as frightening is his ability to explain and rationalize almost anything. Beck isn't quite the golden girl Joe envisions. But no matter, they will be a beautiful couple. He just has to win her over - bit by bit.

None of the main characters in You are likable. And yet, when I thought about Joe and Beck, it is actually Joe that elicits a modicum of sympathy. I know! Beck is the 'stalkee' and the one in seeming danger, but I really didn't like her at all. Kepnes's character development was excellent.

Kepnes has penned her own version of the 'stalker' novel. It's different - and it's darn good. Kepnes has written for Entertainment Weekly and television. She knows how to grab the reader and hold them. I was hooked from first page to last. And I started getting a little paranoid after the first few chapters.....Read an excerpt of You. And I loved the ending. This one has film written all over it.

You can keep up with Caroline Kepnes on Facebook and on Twitter.