Middle of the Night- Book Review

Title:- Middle of the Night

Author:- Riley Sager

Date published:- June 18th 2024

No. of pages:- 367 pages

Genre:- Psychological Thriller/Horror

Rating:-

Plot:- 3/5

Writing:- 4/5

Overall rating:- 3.5/5

In the latest jaw-dropping thriller from New York Times bestselling author Riley Sager, a man must contend with the long-ago disappearance of his childhood best friend—and the dark secrets lurking just beyond the safe confines of his picture-perfect neighborhood.

The worst thing to ever happen on Hemlock Circle occurred in Ethan Marsh’s backyard. One July night, ten-year-old Ethan and his best friend and neighbor, Billy, fell asleep in a tent set up on a manicured lawn in a quiet, quaint New Jersey cul de sac. In the morning, Ethan woke up alone. During the night, someone had sliced the tent open with a knife and taken Billy. He was never seen again.

Thirty years later, Ethan has reluctantly returned to his childhood home. Plagued by bad dreams and insomnia, he begins to notice strange things happening in the middle of the night. Someone seems to be roaming the cul de sac at odd hours, and signs of Billy’s presence keep appearing in Ethan’s backyard. Is someone playing a cruel prank? Or has Billy, long thought to be dead, somehow returned to Hemlock Circle?

The mysterious occurrences prompt Ethan to investigate what really happened that night, a quest that reunites him with former friends and neighbors and leads him into the woods that surround Hemlock Circle. Woods where Billy claimed monsters roamed and where a mysterious institute does clandestine research on a crumbling estate.

The closer Ethan gets to the truth, the more he realizes that no place—be it quiet forest or suburban street—is completely safe. And that the past has a way of haunting the present.

I always make a point of reading all of Riley Sager’s books and so I got my hands on his latest novel Middle of the Night. I did have high expectations for this book as I have enjoyed nearly all his books. But this latest thriller, in my opinion was a bit of a disappointment to me.

Middle of the Night follows the story of Ethan Marsh. He is still haunted by the event that happened when he was ten years old–in 1994, he and his friend were sleeping outside Ethan’s home, camping. But the next morning, when Ethan woke up, Billy was missing and there was a slash at the side of where Billy was sleeping. Someone might have kidnapped Billy and since then Ethan was suffering from the nightmare. Now Ethan had returned back to his childhood home and soon, the police discover Billy’s remains at the secluded Hawthorne Institute–an institute known for secret and eccentric activities. Ethan believed that Hawthorne Institute has something to do with Billy’s murder.

The story started out great. But then as it went on, in my opinion, the pacing began to slow down and it started to get a bit boring. The ending was lame, in my opinion, something which I didn’t expect at all. To me, this book ended up being more emotional story rather than a thriller, something that Riley Sager is known for. I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. The only thing I actually liked was, in most of Riley Sager’s books, the protagonists were female but this book, the protagonist or the main character ended up being a male.

While I liked his other works, I didn’t enjoy reading Middle of the Night and in my opinion, this wasn’t his best book. Overall, I gave this book 3.5 stars.

Good Dirt – ARC Book Review

Title:- Good Dirt

Author:- Charmaine Wilkerson

Date published:- will be published on 28th January 2025

No. of pages:- 368 pages

Genre:- Historical Fiction/Literary Fiction

Rating:-

Plot:- 5/5

Writing:- 5/5

Overall rating;- 5/5

The daughter of an affluent Black family pieces together the connection between a childhood tragedy and a beloved heirloom in this moving novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake, a Read with Jenna Book Club Pick

When ten-year-old Ebby Freeman heard the gunshot, time stopped. And when she saw her brother, Baz, lying on the floor surrounded by the shattered pieces of a centuries-old jar, life as Ebby knew it shattered as well.

The crime was never solved—and because the Freemans were one of the only Black families in a particularly well-to-do enclave of New England—the case has had an enduring, voyeuristic pull for the public. The last thing the Freemans want is another media frenzy splashing their family across the papers, but when Ebby’s high profile romance falls apart without any explanation, that’s exactly what they get.

So Ebby flees to France, only for her past to follow her there. And as she tries to process what’s happened, she begins to think about the other loss her family suffered on that day eighteen years ago—the stoneware jar that had been in their family for generations, brought North by an enslaved ancestor. But little does she know that the handcrafted piece of pottery held more than just her family’s history—it might also hold the key to unlocking her own future.

In this sweeping, evocative novel, Charmaine Wilkerson brings to life a multi-generational epic that examines how the past informs our present.

Good Dirt is an emotional and heartbreaking story of an affluent African-American family and their connection to their heirloom.

Ed and Soh Freeman move into a wealthy suburb in New England with their two children Baz and Ebony, known as Ebby. But a tragedy strikes the family as Baz was shot to death and the Freeman’s heirloom broke into pieces. The key witness to the crime was then ten-year old Ebby. As they are the only African American family in the town, what seemed to be a burglary case remained cold but Ebby still suffered from the traumatic experience. Then in present day, Ebby was going to get married but on the wedding day, she was ditched by the groom Henry who gave no explanation as to why he didn’t want to marry her anymore. Heartbroken Ebby escapes to France and find solace in the cottage in the French countryside. While in France, Ebby thinks about the broken heirloom jar that has a significant meaning in her family–made by an enslaved ancestor of theirs and brought to North and was passed from generation to generation.

The story divides between present in the POVs of Ebby, Avery, Henry and Ebby’s parents and then changes to the 1800’s where first a woman was abducted from a village in West Africa and was brought to work in South Carolina. She gives birth to a boy Old Mo who grow up to become an excellent potter thus making the jar that will soon be passed from generation to generation. The author must have done tons of research to make the story as realistic as possible when writing about the slavery in the south and how enslaved people escape to North for better life, and of course, not sugarcoating about racism that seem to exist and lurk around even today. The story itself is emotional and heartbreaking to read and also touching as well. Like Black Cake, this is also a generational story but with more emotions and heartbreaking moments. Just as I enjoyed reading Black Cake, I enjoyed reading Good Dirt as well. This was actually a beautifully written story that will keep you wanting more.

Overall I highly recommend this book and this book is worth 5 stars.

Many thanks to Netgalley. Many thanks to Random House Ballantine for inviting me to review this book. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

Charmaine Wilkerson is an American writer who has lived in the Caribbean and is based in Italy. She is a former journalist and recovered marathon runner whose award-winning short stories can be found in various UK and US anthologies and magazines. Black Cake (2022) will be her first novel.

The Christmas Guest – Book Review

Title:- The Christmas Guest

Author:- Peter Swanson

Date published:- September 28th 2023

No. of pages:- 96 pages

Genre:- Holiday/Psychological Thriller

Rating:-

Plot:- 4/5

Writing:- 4/5

Overall rating:- 4/5

An American art student in London is invited to join a classmate for the holidays at Starvewood Hall, her family’s Cotswold manor house. But behind the holly and pine boughs, secrets are about to unravel, revealing this seemingly charming English village’s grim history.

Ashley Smith, an American art student in London for her junior year, was planning on spending Christmas alone, but a last-minute invitation from fellow student Emma Chapman brings her to Starvewood Hall, country residence of the Chapman family. The Cotswold manor house, festooned in pine boughs and crammed with guests for Christmas week, is a dream come true for Ashley. She is mesmerized by the cozy, firelit house, the large family, and the charming village of Clevemoor, but also by Adam Chapman, Emma’s aloof and handsome brother.

But Adam is being investigated by the local police over the recent brutal slaying of a girl from the village, and there is a mysterious stranger who haunts the woodland path between Starvewood Hall and the local pub. Ashley begins to wonder what kind of story she is actually inhabiting. Is she in a grand romance? A gothic tale? Or has she wandered into something far more sinister and terrifying than she’d ever imagined?

Over thirty years later the events of that horrific week are revisited, along with a diary from that time. What began in a small English village in 1989 reaches its ghostly conclusion in modern-day New York, many Christmas seasons later.

If you are looking for a short thriller to read during Christmas break, check out the Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson.

The story is set in 1989 when an American exchange student, Ashley Smith who is studying in England was asked to spend the Christmas with Emma Chapman at Starvewood Manor in the English countryside. Ashley was excited to experience the Christmas in the British countryside. She meets Emma’s brother, Adam, a handsome and charismatic man and she falls in love with him. Nearly few years ago, a girl named Joanna was found brutally murdered by Chapman’s residence and Adam was the main suspect in the case. Ashley realizes that someone sinister is lurking in the woods and feels like she is in a part of Gothic thriller.

This was a short thriller and quick to read as well. The story is divided into two parts–the first part are the extracts of Ashley’s diary and the second part takes place after an incident at the manor. There are some twists and turns along the way but there are some parts that are bit disturbing to read. Nevertheless, I managed to finish this book in less than twenty-four hours. So if you are someone who looks for a quick read, check this book out. Worth four stars.

Look Closer – Book Review

Title:- Look Closer

Author:- David Ellis

Date published:- July 5th 2022

No. of pages:- 448 pages

Genre:- Psychological Thriller

Rating:-

Plot:- 5/5

Writing:- 4/5

Overall rating:- 4.5/5

Simon and Vicky couldn’t seem more a wealthy Chicago couple with a stable, if unexciting, marriage. But with these two… absolutely nothing is what it seems. When a beautiful socialite is found hanging in a mansion in a nearby suburb, Simon and Vicky’s complex web of secrets begins to unravel. A whirlwind affair. A twenty-million-dollar trust fund about to come due. A decades-long grudge and an obsession with revenge. Both Vicky and Simon are liars–but just who exactly is conning who? Prepare to question everything you think you know in this wickedly clever novel of greed, revenge, obsession–and quite possibly the perfect murder.

This was a mind blowing thriller and what a page turning thriller!

Simon Dobias is a law professor and is married to Vicky Lanier, an advocate in helping the survivors of domestic abuse. They seem to be happily married, until Simon involves in a love affair with Laure Bentancourt, a socialite. Vicky also gets involved with a financier named Christian Newsom, who turns out to be a fraud, scamming married women and is using an alias. Then Lauren was found murdered and the whole story involves a million-dollar trust fund that belonged to Simon and Vicky wants to get hold of the trust. This novel talks about love, deceit and revenge.

The story is very well written, packed with so many twists and turns. The story is told mainly in the POVs of Simon, Vicky, Christian and Jane, the woman who is in charge of Lauren’s murder case. Simon, Vicky and Christian are all unreliable characters and so as a reader, you are not sure if they are lying or being truthful. The climax reaches towards the ending, where it will actually make the reader gasp out loud in surprise–a complete and unexpected twist and the end! I actually enjoyed this mind blowing page turning thriller and I couldn’t put the book, despite the fact that the book was a bit more than 400 pages long.

All in all, if you are looking for a domestic thriller with suspense packed with twists and turns, then this book is for you. I cannot wait to read more book from this author–worth five stars.

David Ellis is a lawyer and the Edgar Allan Poe Award winner for Best First Novel for Line of Vision. Ellis attended Northwestern Law School and began his legal career in private practice in Chicago in 1993. He served as the House Prosecutor who tried and convicted Illinois Governor Blagojevich in the Impeachment Trial before the Illinois Senate. He was elected to the Illinois Appellate Court in 2014 and took office December 1, 2014. Ellis currently lives outside Chicago with his wife and three children.

Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

The Christmas Tree Farm – Book Review

Title:- The Christmas Tree Farm

Author:- Laurie Gilmore

Date published:- October 10th 2024

No. of pages:- 369 pages

Genre:- Holiday/Romance

Rating:-

Plot:- 4/5

Writing:- 4/5

Overall rating:- 4/5

From the author of the viral TikTok sensation, The Pumpkin Spice Café, comes the only spicy grumpy x sunshine Christmas romcom you need this year!

Kira North hates Christmas. Which is unfortunate since she just bought a Christmas tree farm in a town that’s too cute for its own good.

Bennett Ellis is on vacation in Dream Harbor taking a break from his life in California. And most importantly, taking a break from his latest run of disastrous dates.

After a run in with Kira in her fields, Ben has no intention of offering to help the grumpy owner set up her tree farm, despite the fact she’s clearly got no idea what she’s doing.

Kira knows she should stop being so stubborn, but her farm is not all cute and cozy like people always show on social media, it’s borderline dangerous with no heating, and she’d rather no one saw it.

But somehow fate finds Ben at Kira’s farm once more, and as Kira watches him swing an ax at the first tree, she finds herself appreciating his strength and questionning why she refused help in the first place..

The Christmas Tree Farm is a spicy romantic mystery for fans of Gilmore Girls with a HEA guaranteed!

This is the third book of the Dream Harbor series, and the story follows Bennett, who is the brother of Jeanie, the owner of Pumpkin Spice Cafe and a woman named Kira North, who moved into Dream Harbor from Georgia to run the Christmas Tree Farm business. Kira North is a typical grumpy person and Christmas was never a happy event for Kira. Not to mention that her twin sister Chloe is now married and is living in the other side of the world. There is a rumor around the town that the house in which Chloe is living in, the previous owner must have buried a body or treasure in the grounds. Bennett is assigned the task to become friendly with the grumpy Kira North. Bennett has bad luck with relationships before and soon, Kira and Bennett started having feelings towards each other…

If you are looking for a typical Christmas time story, then this book might be a perfect choice. There is the usual grumpy sunshine trope but in this case, the grumpy is the female character Kira and sunshine is Bennett. I just like the chemistry between Kira and Bennett and how their relationship develop overtime as they start getting feelings towards each other. I also like the dynamic and the fact that the whole community is always together makes this book a great read. The descriptions of the snow, Christmas and Santa Clause give the book a vibe of Christmas. Overall, I actually enjoyed this book and this book is worth four stars.

Christmas Presents – Book Review

Title:- Christmas Presents

Author:- Lisa Unger

Date published:- October 24th 2023

No. of pages:- 277 pages

Genre:- Psychological thriller

Rating:-

Plot:- 4/5

Writing:- 4/5

Overall rating:- 4/5

Instead of presents this Christmas, one true crime podcaster is opening up a cold case…

When true crime podcaster Harley Granger drifts into Madeline Martin’s bookshop days before Christmas, he seems intent on digging up a past that Madeline would much rather forget.

Granger’s work has earned him fame and wealth – and some serious criticism for his various unethical practices. Granger also has a lot of questions about the night Madeline was left for dead, the only surviving victim of killer Evan Handy.

Handy, who also murdered Madeline’s best friend and is suspected in the disappearance of two local sisters, has been in jail for a decade. Since then, though, three other young women have gone missing in similar circumstances. Is the true predator still out there somewhere?

As Christmas approaches and a blizzard bears down, Madeline must confront the past to answer questions that have haunted her since that day. Is the truth more terrible than she ever imagined?

Coupling a picturesque, cosy setting with a deeply unsettling and suspenseful plot, Christmas Presents is a chilling seasonal tale that can be enjoyed all year long.

True Crime podcaster, Harley Granger is doing a podcast about a cold case that the small bookshop owner Madeline Martin want to forget. Many years ago, Evan Hardy killed Madeline’s friend and left Madeline to die. Now Evan Hardy is in prison and he is also suspected for two missing girls’ disappearances as well. But even though Hardy has been in prison, girls have gone reportedly missing, the latest, a girl named Lolly had gone missing. Although Evan is guilty, Granger believed that someone else might be also involved in these abductions.

This was a fast paced thriller, set during the Christmas time, so perfect to read during the Christmas. The story is told in the POVs of Madeline, Lolly and Harley. Madeline recounts her traumatic experience while at the same time dealing with that experience currently. The fact that Madeline is getting present in every Christmas i a mystery as well. There weren’t much twists and turns in my opinion, as I kind of predicted the ending but it was engaging and thrilling and a page turner. The writing was also great as well. I have read Lisa Unger’s books before so even though this was a good thriller, this was not her best either. However, I did enjoy the book and gave a rating of four stars.

The Housemaid is Watching – Book Review

Title:- The Housemaid is Watching

Author:- Freida McFadden

Date published:- June 11th 2024

No. of pages:- 364 pages

Genre:- Psychological Thriller

Rating:-

Plot:- 4/5

Writing:- 4/5

Overall rating:- 4/5

“You must be our new neighbors!” Mrs. Lowell gushes and waves across the picket fence. I clutch my daughter’s hand and smile back: but the second Mrs. Lowell sees my husband a strange expression crosses her face. In that moment I make a promise. We finally have a family home. My past is far, far behind us. And I’ll do anything to keep it that way…

I used to clean other people’s houses—now, I can’t believe this home is actually mine. The charming kitchen, the quiet cul-de-sac, the huge yard where my kids can play. My husband and I saved for years to give our children the life they deserve.

Even though I’m wary of our new neighbor Mrs. Lowell, when she invites us over for dinner it’s our chance to make friends. Her maid opens the door wearing a white apron, her hair in a tight bun. I know exactly what it’s like to be in her shoes.

But her cold stare gives me chills…

The Lowells’ maid isn’t the only strange thing on our street. I’m sure I see a shadowy figure watching us. My husband leaves the house late at night. And when I meet a woman who lives across the way, her words chill me to the bone: Be careful of your neighbors.

Did I make a terrible mistake moving my family here?

I thought I’d left my darkest secrets behind. But could this quiet suburban street be the most dangerous place of all?

I think this is like the fourth Freida McFadden book I have read this year, eighth in total. This is the third and maybe final book of the Housemaid series.

Millie Accardi and her husband Enzo buys a dream house in the suburb and moves into the house. They meet some new neighbors, Mrs. Lowell who seem to be flirtatious towards Enzo and Janice, who seems to be spying on all the neighbors. Millie is trying to move on with her new life. But things change when Enzo hires Lowell’s maid name Martha who was caught stealing by Millie and who Enzo seems to be taking side of. Nico, Millie’s youngest son also changes, getting into fights in school which was unlike f her son. Enzo seems to be hanging out more with Mrs. Lowell. Then Millie’s life turn upside down again when Mr. Lowell was found brutally murdered and Enzo was the main suspect.

This wasn’t great as the first two book of the Housemaid series. But just like all McFadden books, the story is fast paced, page turner and intriguing, even though the actually story doesn’t really start until towards the middle of the book. You get the POVs of Millie as well as Millie’s twelve year old daughter Ada. The ending of the book again was completely unexpected. Nonetheless, I hope this will be the last book of the Housemaid series.

Overall this book is worth four stars

Darling Girls – Book Review

Title:- Darling Girls

Author:- Sally Hepworth

Date published:- April 23rd 2024

No. of pages:- 368 pages

Genre:- Thriller

Rating:-

Plot:- 4/5

Writing:- 5/5

Overall rating:- 4.5/5

A thrilling page-turner by the New York TimesThe Soulmate, Sally Hepworth, about sisters, secrets, love and murder.

It’s not just secrets buried at Wild Meadows.

For as long as they can remember, Claudia, Margo and Jackie have been told how lucky they are. Rescued from family tragedies and raised by a loving foster mother on an idyllic farming estate, they were given an elusive second chance for a happy family life.

But their childhood wasn’t the fairy tale everyone thinks it was. And when a body is discovered under the home they grew up in, these three foster sisters find themselves thrust into the spotlight as key witnesses. Or are they prime suspects?

With darkly comic timing and insidiously twisting plots, Sally Hepworth’s novels are guaranteed to keep you turning the pages . . .

This was a fantastic thriller and an unputdownable thriller book as well!

Norah, Jessica and Alicia are sisters but not biologically related. They used to live under the same foster house, run by Miss Fairchild and each of the girls were mistreated by Miss Fairchild. Now twenty years later, each of them are moving on with their own lives until the police call them. The house where they lived with Miss Fairchild was being demolished, but while digging, they found skeletal remains. As the sisters return back to the place, memories surface as they remember their lives under Miss Fairchild.

This was an intense reading. Please note, there are mentions of child abuse, sexual abuse when you are reading this book and might be a bit of sensitive topic to some. But other than that, the story is compelling and fast paced. The story is told in the POVs of Norah, Jessica and Alicia, each of them dealing with the childhood trauma they faced while living with Miss Fairchild. The story gets more interesting and intriguing with the discovery of skeletal remains and the fact that it might belonged to one of the babies that Miss Fairchild used to foster while Norah, Jessica and Alicia were living also made it interesting. Then there are snippets of a psychiatrist interview on Miss Fairchild, talking about her own traumatic experience during her teenage years. However, the ending was what actually blew me away–the ending was completely unexpected that I couldn’t even expect the ending to be that way!

Overall, this was a great book by Sally Hepworth and this book is worth 4.5 stars–unputdownable and page turner with twists and turns and emotional and heartbreaking to read.

Sally Hepworth is the New York Times bestselling author of nine novels, most recently Darling Girls. Sally’s novels have been called “darkly charming” and praised by authors Emily Giffin and Liane Moriarty as “totally absorbing” and “fiction at its finest.”

Sally’s novels are available around the globe in English and have been translated into over 30 languages. She has sold over two million books worldwide.

Sally lives in Melbourne, Australia with her family. 

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls – ARC Book Review

Title:- Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

Author:- Grady Hendrix

Date published:- will be published on 14th January 2025

No. of pages:- 496 pages

Genre:- Horror/Fantasy/Witches

Rating:-

Plot:- 4/5

Writing:- 4/5

Overall rating:- 4/5

There’s power in a book…

They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood Home in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.

Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. And Zinnia, a budding musician who knows she’s going to go home and marry her baby’s father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.

Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid…and it’s usually paid in blood.

In Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, the author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group delivers another searing, completely original novel and further cements his status as a “horror master” 

I have read so many Grady Hendrix books before and when I got the ARC of his latest novel, which will be released next year, I was so ecstatic!

The Witchcraft of Wayward Girls follows the story set in 1970–when abortion was illegal and underage pregnant girls were whisked to a place in Florida called The Home run by a Miss Wellwood. Neva is one of those girls when she was dropped off to the Home. Her name was changed to Fern and she meets other girls who are like herself–Holly, Zinnia and Rose. Miss Wellwood basically controls everything in the house–from what the girls eat to what the girls should do and read. When Fern comes across a book about the witchcraft, Fern and the three girls decide to use some of the spells mentioned in the book. The spells became successful but then while using these spells, comes a price as well…

This was quiet an interesting read actually. Nearly half of the book describes about the girls’ life in the house, particularly when they were forced to give up on their babies and controlling the things that they should eat and do. But when the girls start coming across the witchcraft book then things started to get interesting. Though the whole story was fictional, the situation that these girls faced when they become pregnant out of wedlock and underage was emotionally disturbing–the child birth scenes are also a bit disturbing to read as well. I am not sure if the early 1970’s were like that mentioned in the book but nonetheless, the author had done some research about the life of girls in the 1970’s. In my opinion, this was one of the author’s best books. This book portrays about how society has a way of dictating and controlling the women’s life in every possible way which makes it also sad that it used to be like that back in the early 1970’s.

Above all, besides the emotional and disturbing parts, there were funny parts as well. Though it is a horror book, there wasn’t much scary or jump scare moments in the book in my opinion.

I enjoyed reading this book and give 4 stars to this book.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

Grady Hendrix is the author of the novels Horrorstör, about a haunted IKEA, and My Best Friend’s Exorcism, which is like Beaches meets The Exorcist, only it’s set in the Eighties. He’s also the author of We Sold Our Souls, The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, and the upcoming (July 13!) Final Girl Support Group!

He’s also the jerk behind the Stoker award-winning Paperbacks from Hell, a history of the 70’s and 80’s horror paperback boom, which contains more information about Nazi leprechauns, killer babies, and evil cats than you probably need.

And he’s the screenwriter behind Mohawk, which is probably the only horror movie about the War of 1812 and Satanic Panic.

You can listen to free, amazing, and did I mention free podcasts of his fiction on Pseudopod. He also does a podcast called Super Scary Haunted Homeschool.

If you’re not already sick of him, you can learn all his secrets at his website.

Strange Sally Diamond – Book Review

Title:- Stange Sally Diamond

Author:- Liz Nugent

Date published;- July 18th 2023

No. of pages:- 384 pages

Genre:- Psychological thriller

Rating:-

Plot:- 5/5

Writing:- 4/5

Overall rating:- 4.5/5

Sally Diamond cannot understand why what she did was so strange. She was only doing what her father told her to do, to put him out with the rubbish when he died.

Now Sally is the centre of attention, not only from the hungry media and worried police, but also a sinister voice from a past she has no memory of. As she begins to discover the horrors of her childhood, recluse Sally steps into the world for the first time, making new friends, finding independence, and learning that people don’t always mean what they say.

But when messages start arriving from a stranger who knows far more about her past than she knows herself, Sally’s life will be thrown into chaos once again . . .

Sally Diamond doesn’t understand why everyone is making a big deal about what she has done. She has simply fulfilled her father’s wish of dumping his dead body into the dumpster. But soon, the news go around the world, about this incident and little did she know, Sally was adopted by the Diamonds when she was seven years old but she has no recollection of her childhood before she was seven years old. Little did she know, Sally is the infamous Mary Norton, whose mother Denise Norten was abducted when Denise was eleven years old by a man named Conor Greary. As Sally is trying to come to terms with her background, a man from across the world is trying to get in touch with Sally Diamond, threatening to destroy the new life Sally has maintained.

This was an interesting, emotional, disturbing and compelling story. Sally is a very interesting character, a character you kind of feel sympathize towards and a flawed person. Then we have another perspective character named Peter, who is also another flawed character with an unusual childhood upbringing. The book is unputdownable and fast paced. Quiet emotional to read as well. There are so many sensitive topics being discussed in this book–sexual abuse, child abuse, kidnapping a child, depression, rape…which to some readers could be disturbing to read. Nonetheless, the story was executed well, the writing style was great and above all, this was a great book in my opinion.

I highly recommend this book, and this book worth 4.5 stars.

Liz Nugent worked as a stage manager in theatres in Ireland and toured internationally before writing extensively for radio and television drama.

Unravelling Oliver was published in 2014, hit the number 1 spot for several weeks and won Crime Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards.

Lying in Wait, published in 2016, went straight to number 1 and was chosen for the Richard & Judy Book Club. It won the Radio 1 Ryan Tubridy Listeners Choice Award at the Irish Book Awards.

In October 2017, Liz won the Irish Tatler Woman of the Year Award in Literature.

Skin Deep was published in 2018. It also went straight to number 1 in the bestsellers charts and scooped two awards at the An Post Irish Book Awards in Nov ’18: Crime Novel of the Year AND the Radio 1 Ryan Tubridy Listener’s Choice Award.

Little Cruelties (Our Little Cruelties) was published in 2020. Another number 1 bestseller, it topped the charts for fifteen weeks, was nominated for Crime Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards, long listed for a CWA award at Theakston Crime Festival at Harrogate. It was listed as one of the most recommended thrillers of the Year by the New York Times.
Liz was presented with the James Joyce Medal for Literature (via Zoom!) in February 21 and was a Guest of Honour at Iceland Noir in November 21.