Rabbit Hole - Mark Billingham

Mark Billingham pens one of my favourite crime series - the Tom Thorne books. But he also writes standalones -  the latest is Rabbit Hole. 

Now, what do think when you hear the title? Merriam Webster defines a rabbit hole as "a complexly bizarre or difficult state or situation conceived of as a hole into which one falls or descends." 

Alice Armitage find herself in a rabbit hole. She's a "medically retired" police officer. After witnessing the death of her partner, she develops PTSD and starts self medicating with drink and drugs. Which lands her sectioned into a secure psychiatric unit.

"A murder isn't really anything to write home about in a place like this, not when you think about it. It's almost inevitable, I reckon, like the noise and the smell. You ask me, a murder's par for the course."

Uh huh, a patient is murdered and Alice, as police, decides to work the case from inside. Great premise! Oh, Alice is a wonderfully unreliable narrator! She has memory issues, is paranoid and takes a boatload of meds every day - as does everyone she lives with. The killer could be any one of the residents. 

There are a number of supporting players in Rabbit Hole - both residents and staff. The book is told from Alice's point of view and that's how we get to know the others. I have to applaud Billingham's description of those residents and their illnesses, as well as the setting and the every day life on the ward. We learn bits and pieces of what came before for Alice from interactions with some ex colleagues, friends and family. There's some dark humour scattered thoughout.

As to the 'investigation - I was just as stymied as Alice. I was with her as she pieced together answers that seemed quite logical, but changed often with new observations, memories and occurrences. I truly (and happily) had no idea who the killer would be. I thought things were being wrapped up in the run up to the final pages, and was caught off guard by an unexpected twist. Nice ending!

In my opinion, the idea for Rabbit Hole was really different (in a good way), the setting jumped to life, the characters were intriguing and really well drawn and I couldn't solve the mystery myself. Well done Mark Billingham! I'll be waiting for your next book. Read an excerpt of Rabbit Hole.

The Perfect Girlfriend - Karen Hamilton

My reading kind of dropped off over the holidays. The TBR pile is teetering, but I've seen so many teasers about Karen Hamilton's debut novel, The Perfect Girlfriend, that I decided to jump it to the front of the queue. And I pretty much finished it in a day.....

Let me introduce you to Juliette....

"Waiting. That's what I do, a lot of waiting. And thinking...." She's thinking (obsessively) about her ex boyfriend Nate.

"I hope he appreciates the lengths I've gone to, just to save us - everything will fall into place." What has she done? Taken a job that puts her into Nate's world. And Nate is not the only one in her sights. "Revenge is a dish best served cold, and mine is going to be frozen."

Oh my gosh, Juliette's thinking is so...so...off. She has a long term plan that will get her what she wants and in her eyes, what she deserves. And the path she maps to that end is frightening. Just when I thought Juliette couldn't possibly do any else, she does. I applaud Hamilton's plotting. I adore not being able to predict where a story is going to go. And with Juliette, there was no predicting. What a character! There were also two twists that I didn't anticipate and that I thought were quite clever.

I leave you with one last piece of advice from Juliette...

"If you love someone, set them free. If they come back, they're yours. If they don't, make them."

Karen herself worked for many years as a flight attendant and her descriptions and settings reflect that. I'm hoping Juliette isn't drawn from reality! Psychological suspense fans, put this one on your list for sure! Read an excerpt of The Perfect Girlfriend.

The Breakdown - B.A. Paris

I loved B. A. Paris's debut novel, Behind Closed Doors. (my review) I was very excited to see what she had in store for readers in her newest book, The Breakdown.

Cass takes a shortcut home late one rainy night through a  dark wooded area. She comes across a parked vehicle and wonders if the woman driver needs help. She pulls over, but the woman never exits her vehicle, so Cass drives on, thinking she will phone the police to let them know there's a possible breakdown. But she forgets to call and is stunned to find out that a woman named Jane was murdered on that same shortcut road last night. Cass seems to forget a lot these days and she is terrified that she has the same early onset dementia that her mother had. And she is just as terrified that the murderer may have seen her license plate as she drove by. And then things start happening....

"It's hard to believe that my split-second decision to take a shortcut through the woods that fateful Friday night has had such a devastating impact on my life. Jane may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time but so was I. So was I."

Wonderful premise! And a decidedly unreliable narrator - are the 'things' happening all in her own mind? Or are they real?  Is the murderer after her as well? And her memory seems to be rapidly deteriorating....

Paris introduces a set of friends and family and because we only meet them through Cass, I was suspicious of them all. The tension builds and builds as Cass becomes even more paranoid and terrified. The last one hundred pages turns everything upside down, providing the twist that psychological suspense lovers like myself are just waiting to discover. Read carefully as Paris drops little snippets of dialogue along the way that will point the reader in the right direction for the final whodunit. There are one or two pieces of the resolution that require a few grains of salt to be taken, but this didn't detract from my overall enjoyment of the book in any way. (In fact it ended up being read in a day on the weekend!) The Breakdown was another great read for me and I will be looking forward to Paris's next book. Read an excerpt of The Breakdown.

I always enjoy a clever title - Breakdown can be interpreted a couple of ways in this case.  You can connect with B.A. Paris on Twitter.