Saturday, October 21, 2017

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.

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