Carol Naylor's REVIEW it...

White Nights by Ann Cleeves. "It's the time of year. The light nights. It makes us all go a little bit mad." Sounds like Shakespeare? A Midsummer Night's Dream? This is Cleeves' second book in the Shetland series. Tourists are streaming ashore in Lerwick, mainly Americans to enjoy the beauty and tranquility of Shetland. In one breath we are told of how safe the place is then we are confronted with a clown wearing a sinister mask giving out flyers as the tourists disembark. It's midsummer when the birds sing at midnight and the sun never sets. It's a crazy time of the year when night blurs into day and nothing is quite as it seems! Jimmy Perez has his own down-to-earth style of detective work in between pursuing Fran Hunter, his love interest for the past six months. It's still early days and he is treading carefully. Bella Sinclair, described as being rather unapproachable, intimidating and rich was exhibiting her art work at Herri...

                 Honeymoon in Paris by Jojo Moyes. " I can't be this woman. It's who my mother was and it terrifies me." This is Moyes' first collection of short stories taken from " Paris For One and Other Stories." Honeymoon in Paris is more novella than short story and satisfying to read. Two newlyweds are celebrating their lune de miel at different times, one in 2002, the other in 1912 with uncanny similarities and tensions. They are certainly love matches but is this a solid enough foundation for marriage and all the challenges that they are going to be faced with? An artist, or more specifically, a painting, links the newlyweds a century apart. Liv Halston looks down from the iconic Eiffel Tower, alone already regretting her marriage to David who designed and built properties. She was reflecting on how disastrous her honeymoon in Paris had been. She had celebrated two days of married b...

A Woman Scorned by Christine Smith. This murder mystery is the third book by local writer Christine Smith set mainly around Mojacar in Almeria, Spain. "She needed a sanctuary to return from the madness of her career, a safe haven of love and happiness. A place for normality." Robert Taylor represented that "normality" so desired by Clare White. He was a section leader for the local council, thirty-one years of age leading a mundane life: drinking every Friday night with Jim from work and lunch with his parents on Sundays. Not much of a hell-raiser! A domestic emergency disrupted the Friday routine and as Jim made a hurried exit, Clare White made a dramatic entrance and headed to where Robert was left supping his pint solo. Not a bad substitute, especially one that was beautiful. "Robert sat mesmerised; she was like some exotic creature, the like of which had never crossed his path before." Abruptly she disappeared telling Robert she wa...

                 Die Again by Tess Gerritsen.          "The circle of life is also a circle of death."           " Six years ago, in the bush, I found out what it's like to die. Don't ask me to die again?" For those of you who like gory and gripping thrillers with plenty of action then this is for you. This is Gerritsen's eleventh book in the Rizzoli and Isles series. If you're a Gerritsen fan  then you'll be aware of the hit t.v. series Rizzoli and Isles starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander. We  begin with a two week safari in Okavango Delta, Botswana, the experience of a lifetime for a group of seven: Millie Jacobson, one of the narrators with boyfriend and writer Richard Renwick, creator of MI5 hero Jackman Tripp, Sylvia and Vivian from Cape Town, Elliot from America and the Matsunagas from Japan. Unfortunately, Mill...

                      Flight of a Lifetime by Philip Watling. "I was certainly not destined to die; I was not confronted with a tunnel, swirling with luminous mist, or beckoned by distant ancestors tempting me with the promise of everlasting peace and happiness. I did not see a bright light." You are presented here with an autobiographical account of a tragic accident that occurred to the author and left him struggling between life and death. Very much touch and go. This moving account shows his sheer, gritty determination and courage to pull back from the face of death and to learn those basic skills once more of talking, walking and just generally functioning as a "normal" human being instead of becoming a vegetable. It touches the heart strings and includes personal testimonials from family, friends and medical practitioners emphasizing the seriousness of Philip's head ...

                    The Lodger by C.L.Taylor. "My world becomes dark and loud as I'm tossed, turned and twisted. Over and over I turn, my breath burning in my lungs, the river roaring in my ears." Having read a couple of books by Cally which I have reviewed recently, I must admit that I've got a soft spot for dysfunctional people and families with unstable and unhappy relationships. It mirrors the lives of many of us. Some of us don't seem to get it right with the happy ever after bit. When 25 year old Joe is introduced you get the feeling that he is infatuated with Laura, the protagonist. Joe is Ian's brother, labelled the lady-killer, vivacious, outspoken and the look before you leap type, whatever that means! So, is he presented as a good guy or a bad one? Find out. Whilst at work, Laura receives an email from Ian, an old flame from her university days asking if she can put up Joe for a couple of nights because he ...

                     Pumpkin Farmer by Michael Hughes. This is presented as a satirical view of American society, two formidable characters, one weak and suicidal, the other, a dangerous man who likes to live on the edge of danger, suffering constant itches or bouts of boredom, high on drugs to get his kicks, with sadistic tendencies. Selfishness pervades the book and there is a superficiality about the attitude of the characters presented. The peripheral characters exude wealth and liberation but in selfish terms, a total disregard for humanity. It is a dark story and it's difficult to engage with any of them or warm to them. It seems to be a modern trend to introduce characters into a story who are flawed throughout without any redeeming qualities. Take Paula Hawkins, for instance: The Girl on the Train. " Another victim of reality, of predator and prey, that was how the world worked. It ate its weak, that was the truth...

The Scent of Almonds and Other Stories by Camilla Lackberg. Lackberg is a popular Swedish writer described by The Independent as “ the rock star of Nordic Noir,” who has sold more than 12 million copies in 55 countries. Family relationships with their petty jealousies as well as the sea and gathering storms, omens of disasters play prominent parts in this collection of short stories. The physical environment is depicted in an oppressive way enabling Lackberg to use pathetic fallacy effectively to create tension and horror. The author presents you with three short Agatha Christie type stories and one novella, perfectly readable but without the depth of her novels such as The Ice Child or Lost Boy. All of the stories are set in the Swedish fishing village of  Fjallbacka. In " Dreaming of Elisabeth" we meet Malin and husband Lars who seem to have grown apart and out of love. We are told that the wall between them was insurmountable: " Merely air breathed in a...

                Farrel's Last Case by Gerald R Wright. " Four years of celibacy had weighed heavily upon him. It was like being a starving man, close to death having a sumptuous meal set before him. Would the man choose to starve?" Ian Farrel is considered as being a good, small-town cop. He started out as a beat officer, giving out parking tickets which was rather tedious for an ambitious guy like him. Promotion to the Criminal Investigation Department allowed him to gain respect as well as a fearful reputation. As his career soared his marriage floundered. His excessive work schedule seemed to be the main reason why his wife left him four years before the action begins. When she realised that his job came first she wanted out. He was twenty when he joined the force and had almost completed twenty-two years of service. Described as grumpy and on the tetchy side, Farrel didn't suffer fools gladly. He had a tendency to become cynical ...

                       Truth Hurts by Janet Waters. "Nellie would never again be a whole person, her grief and guilt would continue to plague her for her remaining days." The story spans almost 90 years taking us from 1919, post first world war era with all its hardships and through the second world war to 2006 where we witness Nellie's birth (real name Ellen) when tragically her mother Jessie died leaving a brood of children to the eldest girl, Rose to bring up in a 3 bedroom terrace house seen as part of the wages for working down the pit. We begin in a mining village in South Wales. The story has a historical backdrop to it and there are touches of autobiography emerging, otherwise it is a romantic story about unrequited love and guilt. We begin in the present, the year is 2006 and Nellie is 87. Her health has declined rapidly and her one and only dutiful daughter, Alison is making one of her regular visits to ...

                           Witches' Mountain by Gerald R. Wright. "The more he thought about it, the more he knew that Kate and the mountain would draw him back-especially Kate." Our main character, Rick Jackson was 27 years old, reasonably open-minded, stoic, pragmatic and gregarious., quite a nice chap, in fact. A small, engineering company he had worked for as a salesman had folded but he was fortunate in finding similar work with another small business covering a wide and diverse territory of farms, lumber companies and engineering works. He loved the open country and mountains in their majestic natural beauty and grandeur. Just as well as his work covered the infamous mountain-Witches' Mountain linked to the Salem trials. The novel begins with Rick driving his Mustang through the mountains, it's twilight. The colours around him were spectacular: yellows, oranges and reds-a sight worth seeing and rememb...