Houses, Secrets and More Stalking

In June and July I was reading books about houses. While on holiday in Queensland on the way home I saw an old stone house on the side if the road near the town of Moore. The house was falling down and not in very good condition, I did some research about it when I got home and discovered some history about the old house.

Some houses just reach out to you and give you the feeling that there is a story hidden in it's walls. The house in House of Secrets by Lynda Stacey had a lot of secrets waiting to be discovered. The book is set in the present time in the UK. It is about relationships, stalking and secrets. Madeleine is a single mother, who has written four novels. Her new relationship with Liam is falling apart and her young daughter Poppy is afraid of him.

Madeleine's half sister Jess encourages Madeleine to leave Liam. Madeleine and Poppy move into an old Victorian Hotel owned by her father.

They settle in to a new life. Madeleine discovers an old diary from the 1940's and starts to unravel secrets about the hotel and the previous owners, meanwhile someone is creeping around and soon tragedy strikes.

Another book I enjoyed was Lies she told by Cate Holoha This book is set in the present time and mostly in New York.

Liza is an author. Her editor is not happy with her latest book and wants her to write about mind games and psychological manipulation.

 Liza has a difficult relationship with her husband and struggles with the side effects from taking fertility treatment. The fertility treatment causes forgetfulness, headaches and nausea. Liza’s husband David struggles with extra work load in his law firm since the disappearance of his co-worker and best friend Nick.

The book swings between Liza’s life and the life of Beth the protagonist of her latest novel. Liza’s latest novel is a romantic suspense. Beth has secrets and tells lies to her husband and Liza has a secret life that has been buried and forgotten. Only her best friend Chris knows about Liza’s childhood.

This story will keep you guessing to the very end. I loved every bit and couldn’t wait to turn another page. The pace was fast and the transitions between Beth’s story and Liza’s story worked well.

The Secrets She Keeps by Michael Robotham

Publisher Simon & Schuster 2017

This book is set in London in the present time. It is about two pregnant women and their different lives. Agatha is single and works in a grocery store stocking shelves and Meghan writes a parenting blog, has two children and has a life that Agatha sees as perfect.

Agatha spends all her spare time watching Meghan, every day finding out a little bit more about her life and habits.

Meghan has secrets and her husband also has secrets, Agatha discovers some of their secrets but not all of them.

Agatha has secrets also.

This book has a sinister creepy feel to it. Gradually the lives of Meghan and her husband Jack and Jack’s best mate Simon are revealed and slowly find out what Agatha plans to do. Each chapter switches between Meghan and Agatha.

At the end of July 2017 I finished reading The Dog Walker by Lesley Thomson. I like Lesley Thomson books, she has the same characters but the books can be read alone. Stella runs a cleaning business, with her mother Suzie helping with the books. Jack is one of her cleaners. Jack and Stella have detective agency and investigate murders. Stella is employed to clean and investigate strange activities in a cottage on the Thames. At the same time Stella is also asked to investigate the disappearance of a woman from a nearby cottage 29 years earlier.

This book is about secrets, family relationships, missing people, murder, stalking, OCD, cleaning and dogs.  I love the Jack creeps around at night.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Stalking

During May and June I enjoyed some interesting books that included people with obsessive compulsive disorders and stalking.

Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriary was set in Australia and was about a cellist. It is also about friendships, relationships, families, secrets and obsessive compulsive disorders.

The House by Simon Lelic I chose to read this book because of the title. I love reading books about old houses and their contents.

Jack and Syd buy an old house in London. The house was full of the previous owner’s belongings.

There were books, clothes, pictures, photos, furniture and boxes. Jack described the contents as junk. Jack thought the house was creepy but Syd was smitten.

Strange things happen, creepy and ghostly. Jack finds a dead cat in the attic and other things.

Syd befriends a young girl living in a house nearby. Meanwhile someone is watching their movements and stalking them.

This book is about secrets, family relationships, revenge and murder. It is paced quickly, with both Jack and Syd telling their versions of what led them to buy the house and what happened when they moved in.

Did not do a lot of reading in June because we went on a ten day road trip along the coast of Queensland. We took our twelve year old granddaughter. While driving we played car bingo with lots of loud discussion about who saw something first and who said Bingo first. I was too tired to do much reading.

I did manage to finish reading Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova this novel was set in Bulgaria in the present time with flash backs to the 1950's.

Alexandra accidentally picks up a case with a precious item that belongs to someone else. She sets out to return the case helped by a taxi driver. Their quest takes them all over Bulgaria.

Identity and Secrets. 

A subject I love in my reading. At the end of March and all of April I was reading some fantastic novels about Identity, secrets and families.

I really like the e-book from Net Galley I Found You by Lisa Jewell I enjoyed the way Lisa wrote small chapters with la little bit being revealed about different points of view about the main characters in the story. A young woman is left on her own, her husband goes missing and she sets out to find him, with only a clue - a phone number.

In another town Alice finds a man sitting on the beach - he has lost his memory. Alice is lonely and dis-organised, she has three children all with different fathers. Her best friend keeps her organised.

Alice gives the lost man a home and a name and tries to help him regain his memory.

Meanwhile 23 years earlier in the same town another person goes missing and Gray tries to protect his younger sister from a man they meet on the beach.

Early in April I finished reading The Girl Before by J. P. Delaney. This was about an architect who wanted to control how people lived in buildings he designed. People were given cheap rent on condition that they followed all the rules. The house at One Folgate Street was perfect for Emma. Emma was hoping for a new start in a building with better security. Emma had secrets and she soon discovered the owner and architect had secrets.

Jane moved in after Emma and gradually discovered the house secrets and Emma's secrets but there were still secrets left to be discovered.

I loved the way this book was written. Each chapter unraveling a little bit of what is happening in the house and gradually revealing Emma's secret. A quick easy read.

More Secrets and History

Spindrift by Tamara McKinley an E-Book from Net Galley had a theme I enjoy about families, history and secrets. This was a novel set in 1904, Christy lives in Tasmania. Her husband has just died and her children and grandchildren live in other states of Australia.

Christy and her daughter Ann and granddaughter Kathryn go to Scotland and Skye, so Christy can revisit her birthplace and put her memories to rest. Along the way Christy gradually tells her life story to her daughter and granddaughter revealing the tragedy of her early life and the decision to leave Scotland and travel to Tasmania.

Christy has secrets about her early days in Australia and while she is away someone in Australia sets out to reveal Christy's secret and make a claim on her property. Christy's two sons and soninlaw are left to fight the claim in their mother's absense. 

I loved the way history was told in Skye and back in Australia in the life on the goldfields.

Love and Belonging

Keep Me Safe by Daniela Sacerdoti this was an e-book from Net Galley. I loved this book, the cover grabbed my attention as soon as I saw it, blue sky, blue ocean and a girl in a red coat.

Anna takes her six year old daughter Ava to a small Island called Seal.

This is about loss, guilt and love. Anna and Ava are enfolded into a community of Seal and rediscover love and a senses of belonging.

The main characters tell their story as it unfolds gradually revealing a tragedy that happened 15 years earlier.

It is set in the present time with flashbacks to earlier events. this book was well written, easy to read, makes you want to read just a little bit more to see what happens.

Secrets, Lies and Family Relationships

Keeping with my theme of identity and secrets I was drawn to e-book from Net Galley that was a mystery and a thriller and lots of secrets.

Are you sleeping by Kathleen Barber starts with a creepy phone call at 3 am that unsettles Jo and brings back buried memories of her sister who she hasn't seen for ten years. Not long after the phone call Jo hears about a podcast started by Poppy Parnell. Everyone is talking about it. Poppy Parnell is an investigative journalist who is using her podcast to look at evidence and uncover the truth of who murdered Jo's father ten years earlier. Jo and her partner Caleb live in New York. Jo has changed her name and Caleb does not know about her family.

This is a psychological thriller mystery full of secrets, lies and family relationships.

Identity and History

A nice easy read to finish off my April reading was an e-book from Net Galley Letters from Italy by Pamela Hart. This book was set in Italy during the First World War. Rebecca is in Italy with her husband Jack during the First World War and they are journalists from Australia reporting on the war. While Jack is away reporting on the resistance movement against the Austrian’s Rebecca struggles to work on her own her own as a war correspondent. She teams up with a photographer to give her a better chance in a male dominated field of journalists clamoring to get the best stories.