Rosie’s #Bookreview Team #RBRT EXPOSURE by @RoseEdmunds Financial #Thriller #TuesdayBookBlog

Today’s second team post is from Terry, she blogs here http://terrytylerbookreviews.blogspot.co.uk/

Terry has been reading Exposure by Rose Edmunds

EXPOSURE by Rose Edmunds

4 out of 5 stars

This is the standalone sequel to Concealment, which I read two years ago; I have the worst memory in the world, so Exposure read as a one-off to me.  Thus, I can confirm that you don’t need to read Concealment first, though of course it’s always helpful ~ and I think it might be equally as interesting to read it afterwards.

I’d describe this novel as half way between a financial and a psychological thriller.  Occasionally the financial terminology went over my head, but it’s written in such a way that I got the gist.  One thing I did like very much was the way the novel was structured; there are lots of point of view and situation changes at just the right time, it’s extremely well-edited, with plenty of dangling, suspenseful threads at the ends of chapters to make you think, “I wonder what’s going to happen there….?”  The whole novel is dialogue-led; there is little narrative, and the pace never lets up.  Murder, deception, financial fraud, international skullduggery toxic relationships ~ it has all the ingredients of a popular page-turner.

Rose Edmunds’ Amy shows clever characterisation; she is bound to cause definite reactions amongst those who read her.  The daughter of a hoarder, she grew up with all sorts of psychological problems that led her to being exceptionally ambitious and obsessed with the material, and the outward show of success.  In the last book, circumstances came together to make all this come crashing down, and Exposure deals with the new, more self-aware Amy who is still trying to deal with the remnants of the old.  She’s not particularly likeable; she knows it’s nasty and superficial of her to judge a female colleague on being (horrors!) 20 lbs overweight and wearing the ‘wrong’ clothes, but she can’t help it.  She’s unsympathetic to the woman whose husband was in love with her – she tries to overcome the self-destructive within her, but always struggles.  Her complex character makes for some interesting relationship dynamics, indeed, and we learn more about her backstory in this book, too. 

My favourite character was financial blogger Toby Marchpole ~ I was most interested in his wife, an old schoolfriend of Amy’s, and their marriage.  I also enjoyed Amy’s observations about the dreadful Pedley, her boss for part of the book (when she goes undercover…. I’ll leave you to find out about that!).

It’s a well thought out plot, and I’m sure readers of smart, fast-paced contemporary thrillers will enjoy it very much ~ there’s certainly no opportunity to get bored!

Book Description

City high-flyer Amy has crashed and burned. Fresh out of rehab and with her career in tatters, the sudden death of an old friend propels her into an illicit undercover fraud investigation. 
But Amy’s in way over her head. The assignment quickly turns sour, pitching her into a nightmare where no one can be trusted and nothing is what it seems. 
In mortal danger, and with enemies old and new conspiring against her, Amy’s resilience is tested to the limit as she strives to defeat them and rebuild her life.

About the author

For more than 20 years, Rose Edmunds almost passed as normal, working undercover in several well-known financial firms in London while quietly gathering material for her novels.

Since jumping off the corporate hamster wheel Rose now writes thrillers with a strong ethical theme. Her writing draws heavily on her considerable insight into business world and in particular the uncomfortable conflict between capitalism and humanity. 

Rose’s debut thriller, Never Say Sorry, was about a Big Pharma conspiracy to suppress a cancer cure. Since then, she has been working on the Crazy Amy thriller series—an ambitious project which will follow the brilliant but unstable Amy Robinson on her journey from senior finance executive to who knows where…

You can find out more by checking out Rose’s website at www.roseedmunds.co.uk or on Facebook at Rose Edmunds – Author Page. Via the website, you can also join the Crazy Amy VIP Fan Club, for exclusive access to free bonus Crazy Amy short stories and other exciting offers. There is also a closed Facebook group for club members.

Rose lives in Brighton with her husband David.

Goodreads | AmazonUK | AmazonUS | Twitter

#NewRelease ONE LITTLE MISTAKE by @emmacurtisbooks @RosieMargesson #Thriller #SundayBlogShare

One Little Mistake by Emma Curtis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One Little Mistake is a psychological thriller. The main setting is the London area, the year 2010. Running alongside is another story, set in 1992, which ties in at the end. The book chapters alternate between the two.

The story opens with baby Josh having a morning nap, the third child of Vicky Seagrave. Sleepless nights and a fractious baby leave her strung out, so she’s vulnerable when little distractions occur.
A moment of a poor decision, a break-in and the quick action of her friend leads Vicky down a path of destiny she would not have chosen in hindsight. Vicky and Amber met at anti-natal classes; they’ve become best friends, but the friendships is not without problems, mostly based around Amber’s complex emotional issues.

In the second storyline, Katya was in the care of social services, but her social worker, Maggie didn’t listen when she tried to tell her that Luke was abusing her.

When one lie leads to another Vicky’s life begins to spiral out of control. Others have seen something in Amber they don’t quite trust, but Vicky has been blinded by their friendship. Can she turn things around and keep control? Or will one tiny error be her downfall?

I thought the author portrayed really well the stress new mothers feel when they have demanding babies who don’t sleep at night, and when they also feel they have to cope with social pressure to do everything ‘right’. The story was well developed, with small cracks in the relationship between Vicky and Amber slowly drip-fed to the reader. The pull of a thriller or a mystery, for the reader, is to try to solve the mystery themselves, and this gave a satisfying balance between mystery and clues.

The building of Amber’s character was stealthy, taking her full circle from devoted best pal to jealous friend, and, finally, to shocking stranger. Revelations about her past were a great surprise, and gave another, fascinating angle to the reader’s understanding of her.

Closing messages from the book will have readers thinking about the friendships they currently have and perhaps some they’ve lost on the way, and made me think about how little we know, sometimes, about those we consider friends. The playground gossips at the school of Vicky’s older children had me nodding in recognition, as they will with most mothers.

A good, well-written debut novel. In order to give this book 5* I would have needed to see some really unexpected twists of the jaw-dropping kind to keep the reader on the edge of their seat in this popular genre, but I was impressed with what I read.

A thriller to pull at the heartstrings of mothers, and, perhaps, to make others question their closest friendships.

View all my reviews on Goodreads

Book Description

Vicky Seagrave is blessed: three beautiful children, a successful, doting husband, great friends and a job she loves. She should be perfectly happy.

When she risks everything she holds dear on a whim, there’s only person she trusts enough to turn to.

But Vicky is about to learn that one mistake is all it takes; that if you’re careless with those you love, you don’t deserve to keep them . . . 

About the author

Emma Curtis was born in Brighton and brought up in London. Her fascination with the darker side of domestic life inspired her to write One Little Mistake, her first psychological suspense. She has two children and lives in Richmond with her husband.

Goodreads | AmazonUK | AmazonUS | Twitter

ALONE TRILOGY by @BobSummer5 #Psychological #Thrillers set in #Wales #TuesdayBookBlog

ALONE by Bob Summer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Alone Trilogy are a set of psychological thrillers set in Wales around a small town of Nanteang. Book #1 Alone But Not Lost introduces us to a lonely a very insecure character called Sin. She lives in a house with top security, CCTV cameras, locks and bolts and a safe room, and hovers on the edge of sanity. Her only human contact is with Hawk, an odd-job man she leaves notes for who gets her shopping and tries to become her friend.

News of the release from prison of Glyn Morgan has Sin panicking, and making preparations to run away. This triggers memories from her childhood and fills us in on the story so far. Born to a mother made rich from a song her band once made, Sin is her mother’s mistake and she’s subjected to verbal and physical abuse from a mentally unstable parent. Forced to live in a pit beneath the garage. Later they send Sin to a private school, where she meets Jenna, but it’s a front for a Paedophile ring and the girls run away, successfully at first, but later they’re caught. With no proper schooling or upbringing, Sin is far from streetwise and experiences then and later, when they return to her mother’s house make her insanity no surprise.

Book #2 The Edge. Grown up Sin is on the run. Jenna’s gone, Hawk’s dead and she can’t trust anyone. This book is also more about police officer Sara Jones, who came as a community support policewoman to offer support when Glyn was freed. Sara and Sin had met about twenty years before when Sin and Jenna were on the run. They both have mental health issues, and are alone. Sara is ostracized at work over supporting a rape allegation against a fellow police officer. She’d like to be a part of the current murder investigation, but she has family connections and they keep her out. But she can’t let it rest and follows her own line of inquiries which lead them to Sin.

Book #3 Detective Alan Meadows is also a loner, sent in undercover to sniff out the corruption in the police-force. There’s been a big fall-out because of Sara’s investigations and she’s left the force for a peaceful life, but two cases of arson at Hawk’s properties and kidnapping of her son and his pregnant girlfriend have her back on the case. With few avenues open to her, she asks Alan for help, the kidnappers want Sin because they believe she holds vital information, but Sin is in a top mental hospital. Sarah will stop at nothing to save her family and Alan puts his job on the line to help her.

It was good to read these books one after another, there was just enough detail of the story so far, for readers who will read them singularly, but not too much for those reading them in sequence. I think they work best read one after the other and I enjoyed the level of suspense in each book. As the books evolve they move more into police crime thrillers. There were some good twists at the end of book three which I didn’t see coming. I would recommend these to anyone who enjoys good thrillers.

Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

View all my reviews on Goodreads

Rosie’s #Bookreview Team #RBRT GLOSSOLALIA by @TantraBensko #Psychological #Suspense

Today’s second team review is from E.L. Lindley, she blogs here http://lindleyreviews.blogspot.co.uk/

E.L has been reading Glossolalia by Tantra Bensko

Glossolalia by Tantra Bensko has the subtitle, a psychological suspense, but I’m not sure this reflects the true nature of the novel. It’s a story that is impossible to categorise and quite possibly the most unique book I’ve ever read.

It’s a complex and surreal story which highlights lots of modern dilemmas, chiefly by using irony and exaggeration. The imagery that Bensko creates is both visual and bizarre. The only way I can think of to explain it is – imagine staring at a Salvador Dali painting whilst on speed because the pace of the novel is almost neck breaking.

Bensko’s protagonist is a character called Nancy. It’s quite difficult to get a real sense of Nancy as, due to her fragmented mental state, she is a very unreliable narrator. She is being used as a pawn by a group called the Neverminds, who are basically running a mind control programme. Nancy has been split into compartments by the Neverminds so that she is three different personalities. They accomplished this by traumatising her as a young child and then keeping her medicated.

The novel works on the premise that the world is controlled by an alliance of the US government, church and big business, who use mind control to ensure that the world is run as they see fit. The glossolalia of the title is a language used by the powers that be to create a hypnotic effect. Hence once they hypnotise someone they use the secret language to control their behaviour. Bensko offers us a world where power corrupts. Nancy works for her Uncle Geoff, an agent of Nevermind and the owner of D-CIDE, an unscrupulous pesticide company. The chemical XXX which is used in the pesticide is known to have killed both humans and animals but the corruption within the establishment is such that Geoff is given the job of investigating chemicals that are harmful to the environment.

Geoff colludes with the charismatic Reverend Terry Crank who has incredible power within the church despite being a sexual deviant. He is also an agent of Nevermind and uses his position to control and eliminate any opponents of the status quo.

The levels of corruption run so deep it’s hard to know who is part of the Nevermind conspiracy and who is actually a genuine character. The main anti-Nevermind voice is an activist called Elias Brandon who runs an online blog exposing wrong doing. He is so shrouded in mystery and bizarre however, it just adds another layer of distrust and confusion.

Nancy also has an online friend called Jeff who, when he visits her turns out to be a sinister childhood associate with hands fashioned to look like flamingos, which he then uses to control her mind. There is a love interest called Julio who again seems like a shadowy character which makes us doubt his authenticity.

There is no doubt that Bensko is a talented, intelligent writer and she successfully gets us to question everything by making us doubt our own perceptions. She maintains control over her writing despite taking it to such surreal heights that her readers have no choice but to suspend all reality.

I suspect that Glossolalia will appeal to a niche audience who will absolutely love it. The problem I had is that I didn’t really get it and this was more to do with me than the actual novel. It’s a bit like some people love Terry Gilliam films whilst others are left feeling out of the loop. I’m not sure if my inability to connect was cultural because the book is very American or caused by the fact that I’m quite conventional and couldn’t immerse myself fully into the madness.

I would definitely recommend that you give Glossolalia a try. It’s a brave and unique story and Tantra Bensko is an assured writer. I’m willing to bet that if you connect with it this novel may well turn out to be one of your all time favourites.

Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com