Genre: Mystery


Monday, July 06, 2015

Review: The Harvest Man by Alex Grecian

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I received this book for free from Random House in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Review: The Harvest Man by Alex GrecianThe Harvest Man by Alex Grecian
Series: The Murder Squad #4
Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons on May 19th 2015
Genres: Adult, Mystery, Thriller
Source: Random House
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three-stars

Scotland Yard’s Murder Squad—and Jack the Ripper—return, in the extraordinary new historical thriller from the author of the acclaimed national bestseller The Yard.

In The Devil’s Workshop, London discovered that Jack the Ripper was back, sending the city—and Scotland Yard’s Murder Squad—into chaos. But now it is even worse. Not only is the Ripper still at large, but so is another killer just as bad.

For Inspector Walter Day, it has been a difficult time. His wife has given birth to twins, his hostile in-laws have come to stay, and a leg injury has kept him at his desk. But when the Harvest Man begins killing, carving people’s faces off their skulls, the Yard knows they need Day in the field.

Not so Sergeant Nevil Hammersmith. Rash actions have cost him his job, but that doesn’t stop his obsessive hunt for the Ripper. When the mutilated bodies of prostitutes start turning up again, Hammersmith enlists the help of a criminal network to stop Saucy Jack, his methods carrying him further and further from the ideals of the Yard, so far in fact that he may never be able to find his way back.

Of course, the Ripper’s been playing a game with him—with Walter Day, as well. He is pushing both of them to their limits, and what happens when they get there . . . no one can say.

I always am up for a good mystery/thriller so when I saw this I was all about it. I haven’t read the other books from this series, but it didn’t matter. It seems that each story is its own. After reading this though, I am definitely interested in going back to read the previous ones. It wasn’t a super suspenseful mystery, but it did have that chilling factor to it. It is told from numerous points of view, and that was what kind of disconnected me from it all. I did enjoy it though. We not only have Jack the Ripper to worry about in this, but a new killer named The Harvest Man. The characters were interesting, but how this is told, I never really felt an attachment to any of them. The benefit of being told that way though was that we get a well rounded story. We know what is going on everywhere. Since this is before cell phones and all that, it was important to get other POVs.

Mainly, it’s about Walter Day. He is an Inspector on the Murder Squad and is currently on desk duty due to him being tortured by Jack. His wife also just had twins, so he is a new father. His in-laws are around, and there is a whole staff of people in his house. He is recovering from his injuries that he got when he was held captive by Jack. What I liked about him is that his is very smart. He is a great detective and is needed to solve the case of the Harvest Man. He also needs his friend Hammersmith, who is no longer part of the squad.

I don’t want to go into things too much because there is a lot going on, and a lot to discover. It’s haunting and chilling. The Harvest Man is one messed up and creepy dude. Jack is also creepy and very smart and manipulative. We are getting to see them working at two different mysteries at once. Add in two little boys who escaped the house after their parents were murdered. The story is great. It is slow and steady, but it’s also intriguing. I am really interested in reading the rest of the books now. This author weaves a fantastic story and I will be picking up more of their books.

three-stars

3 Hot Espressos

Review: Delicate Monsters by Stephanie Kuehn

Review: Delicate Monsters by Stephanie Kuehn

Posted by on 06/02/2015 • 10 Comments

I have loved every book by Stephanie Kuehn so far, and this one is no exception. Her books are so… bizarre and unique and wonderfully compelling. You feel as if you’re being played with, as if the book is making sure you’re never quite certain of what’s happening, except for the fact that it’s terrible and disturbing and wholly messed up!

In Delicate Monsters we’ve get ourselves 3 perspectives, and while I fear this would be a bit much – multiple perspectives can be so tricky – it ended up being the perfect choice for this story. Each perspective is very much distinct, with voices you could not confuse for another even if you tried. We meet Sadie first who we quickly learn is trouble. She’s angry and bored with…

Review: Blood Will Tell by April Henry

Review: Blood Will Tell by April Henry

Posted by on 06/01/2015 • 0 Comments

I love a good mystery, and I did enjoy the first book in this series. I guess it’s not really a series as much as companion novels, but whatever. This was actually a really cool one since you actually know rather quickly who the killer is, but all evidence points to the wrong person. So instead of trying to figure out who did it, you are trying to find out how it all points to someone who is innocent. Much like the first book, this is told in numerous POV’s, which took me a bit away from the story, but it also gives you a full picture of what is going on. I have to say, I had no clue how in the world the evidence could be possible until…

Review: Anyone But Ivy Pocket by Caleb Krisp

Review: Anyone But Ivy Pocket by Caleb Krisp

Posted by on 04/09/2015 • 3 Comments

I was hoping that this would be cute and fun, but I found myself so annoyed by the MC that I couldn’t really enjoy the book at all. I think that the story itself was pretty interesting, but I couldn’t stand Ivy. I did enjoy the stuff about the Clock Diamond and its magic and Ivy’s journey though. I wish that I could say that I enjoyed some of the characters, but I really didn’t. This is a middle grade book, so the younger crowd might enjoy it much more than me, and probably won’t find things as irritating as I did. The other thing that I liked about this book was the artwork. It was very good and thought that it really brought something more to the story. Since…

Review: The Cage by Megan Shepherd

Review: The Cage by Megan Shepherd

Posted by on 04/08/2015 • 12 Comments

Gah, I’m not sure what to think about this book. One one hand, I feel like it’s definitely unique and refreshing, partaking on a sci-fi idea and molding it into something new. On the other hand, it had a lot of things that made me raise my eyebrow, want to bang my head on a wall, and gouge my eyes out.

Let’s get one thing straight, though: the writing is mad awesome. It’s been a while since I’ve read such beautiful writing that reads like a sweet harmony, as if reading it is like listening to angelic music. I have heard of the author’s writing prowess in reviews of her previous series The Madman’s Daughter, but now I am a firm believer. The narration and how the words were connected and…

Review: Gone Too Far by Natalie Richards

Review: Gone Too Far by Natalie Richards

Posted by on 04/03/2015 • 7 Comments

You guys know how much I like my revenge stories. There’s something that feels really sweet when mean and awful people get a dose of their own medicine. The best one I’ve read to date is Gretchen McNeil’s Don’t Get Mad duology, which had an amazing cast of female characters (who totally kicked butt and whose different personalities really made both novels shine), so I was kind of expecting to feel the same intensity in Richard’s. Unfortunately, while I liked the idea of the premise (which wasn’t all that original, sadly enough…), it didn’t feel like it was executed greatly enough.

So, the story starts with Piper finding a notebook filled with cryptic statements about what people have done to other people. She witnessed someone get bullied in school, a victim…

Review: Dark Rooms by Lili Anolik

Review: Dark Rooms by Lili Anolik

Posted by on 03/17/2015 • 6 Comments

I don’t even know where to start with this one. I love a good mystery/thriller, and I also love gritty contemporaries. This book is both of those, but I just didn’t feel it. I wasn’t a fan of the MC, and I thought that this was very drawn out and it bored me at times. The mystery really is pretty good, but being the sleuth I am, I did connect the dots before we are given the reveal. I do think that this book had a lot of potential, and there are great parts of the story, it just didn’t have me needing to keep reading. In fact, most of the time I wanted to yell at the MC and tell her that she was a bit crazy and stupid….

Review: The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma

Review: The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma

Posted by on 03/11/2015 • 15 Comments

Another fabulously strange book from Nova Ren Suma! The writing is brilliant, the way the story is told is mesmerizing and deeply disturbing. I just loved it!

First I have to say that the blurb reveals too much. I went into this without re-reading it, and I personally think that if I had known more than I did, the story would have lost the extra bit of magic that the unknown allows us to have. While this revelation is not exactly a twist – there’s no real “aha” moment – it does become an unsettling fact that you simply can’t ignore anymore, and discovering this through your own deductions makes the reading experience all the better – an experience that the blurb takes away. So my advice is to go…