Review #698: The Birthday Girl by Sue Fortin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“There is still no cure for the common birthday.”

----John Glenn

Sue Fortin, an English author, has penned an atmospheric and compelling thriller called, The Birthday Girl that revolves around a mother, of a teenage son, who has recently lost her husband, receiving the best birthday surprise that she cannot ever imagine in her lifetime from someone really close to her heart, even though she has three best friends and one of her friends has already planned out a surprise weekend getaway somewhere away from the regular noises of the city, and in there unfolds a deathly mystery when the host of the holiday, reveals the secrets of each women through a creepy guessing game, finally turning fatal.

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Review #686: East of Hounslow by Khurrum Rahman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Everyone’s worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there’s really an easy way: Stop participating in it.”

----Noam Chomsky

Khurrum Rahman, a Pakistan-born, British author, has penned a pot-boiling thriller, East of Hounslow that revolves around a low-key 30-something Muslim drug dealer, who still lives with his mum in the British town, Hounslow, who is not very religious, yet for the sake of religion, he attends the Friday prayers at a local mosque, but little did he knew that he has been on the radar of MI5 for a very long time, so when he loses the deadly supplier's money, this drug dealer gets caught up as a pawn in the war between religious extremists who wants the world to teach a lesson in the name of Allah and the MI5's one-man team who wants to stop the jihadists at any cost.

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Review #678: Copycat by Alex Lake

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


“He who searches for evil, must first look at his own reflection.”

----Confucius

Alex Lake, a British novelist, has penned a subtly gripping psychological thriller called, Copycat that is centered around a well established doctor, wife and mother of three kids whose life takes a wild turn when one of her college friends moves back to her hometown who informs her about the fake profile that someone has been using under that doctor's name. Not only that, things get more weird, when the Facebook posts on that fake account gets a little too close to the home, leaving her husband dubious of his wife's mental health condition, owing to the fact that postcards, emails, handwritten notes, Amazon account all are being impersonated by someone who knows the doctor a little too well or maybe the doctor is doing it all by herself, who knows? Read the book to find out!

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Review #646: Victoria & Abdul by Shrabani Basu

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“If I had a flower for every time I thought of you...I could walk through my garden forever.”

----Alfred Tennyson

Shrabani Basu, an Indian author has penned an honest memoir about a forgotten man who mattered the most in the life of Queen Victoria in her book called, Victoria & Abdul: The True Story of the Queen's Closest Confidant. Abdul Karim was just a young man when he first met the British monarch, Queen Victoria and since that day, till the day, the queen died, their friendship stayed invaluable and that reached beyond the walls of Osborne House to Buckingham Palace to India thereby creating an uproar amongst the royals and the British Empire. Very predictably, after the death of the Queen, her family erased every single proof of the Queen and her munshi's friendship, yet somehow and mostly through hard work, dedication and by miracle, author, Shrabani Basu, has successfully resurrected the forgotten Indian Muslim man who became an integral part of Queen Victoria's life through this memoir.

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Review #640: An Almond for a Parrot by Wray Delaney

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“The gods made our bodies as well as our souls, is it not so? They give us voices, so we might worship them with song. They give us hands, so we might build them temples. And they give us desire, so we might mate and worship them in that way.”

----George R.R. Martin

Wray Delaney, pen name for Sally Gardner, an award-winning British children's author, has penned an intriguing and a very sizzling historical fiction called, An Almond for a Parrot that revolves around a young woman in London locked up in a prison as she is accused of killing her husband, whom she got married to at the age of 12 by her father to pay off his neck-deep debts, and from the prison cell, the woman narrates the story of her life, of how she discovered her sexuality at a tender age, of how she became a prostitute, of her godly gifts of seeing dead people's ghosts from parrots in a cage, of falling in love, of her other talents of pleasing men, and mostly of her erotic exploration through ages.

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Review #627: Secrets of Nanreath Hall by Alix Rickloff

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

----Søren Kierkegaard

Alix Rickloff, a critically acclaimed author of historical and paranormal romance, has penned a heart touching historical fiction called, Secrets of Nanreath Hall that revolves around two women, in two different timelines, searching for their own identities, one is looking for her biological mother's family and her forgotten background, while the other leaves everything behind for love. Both the stories, narrated in alternative chapters, are not only endearing but are also intriguing enough to keep the readers on their edges.

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Review #625: One Little Mistake by Emma Curtis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you.”

----Friedrich Nietzsche

Emma Curtis, a British writer, pens her debut psychological thriller called, One Little Mistake that revolves around a woman, who is a mother of three beautiful children, wife to a husband who loves her a lot and with a job she loves, but her perfect life has cracks and those cracks make her slip, as she commits one tiny little mistake, which she later confides to her beat friend, who in turn, asks her to keep lying in order to save her kids from child protection services and little did this woman knew that a terrible calamity was waiting at her front door, the moment she confided in her best friend. A story about two best friends and a little girl, who just lost her mother and is forced to go to foster care.

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Review #617: The Child by Fiona Barton

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Childhood trauma does not come in one single package.”

----Asa Don Brown

Fiona Barton, the British bestselling author, is back with another page-turning and chilling psychological thriller called, The Child that revolves around three women, one our favorite journalist from Barton's previous book, Kate, and two different women, each grieving upon the news of an infant's skeletons recovered from a building site, as one strongly believes that it is her baby stolen the day she gave birth to her baby while the other is terrified about her long buried past has finally come to haunt her, can Kate uncover the mystery behind two women's grief?

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Review #606: The Deviants by C.J. Skuse

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“You save yourself or you remain unsaved.”

----Alice Sebold

C.J. Skuse, an English author, has penned a tragic yet extremely riveting young adult thriller called, The Deviants that revolves around five high school teenagers whose friendship blossoms up when one of them is bullied badly, also gradually, the secrets of their lives begin spilling up, when one bad event after another challenges them to keep a hold on their friendships or their dark secrets, especially, it becomes a challenge for the couple from this group of teenagers, who seem to be drifting apart in a gradual motion.

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Review #579: Rebound by Aga Lesiewicz

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Like some wines our love could neither mature nor travel.”

----Graham Greene

Aga Lesiewicz, a British author, has penned a terrific and gripping debut psychological thriller, Rebound that revolves around a young career-oriented woman who has a perfect life with perfect boyfriend and a cute pet dog, but not long before she calls it off with her boyfriend, and one day she meets a total random stranger in the park while walking her dog but an encounter with the man makes the woman pay heavily for her perfect life and career. An obsession she can't let go, yet the obsession is eating her up like a slow poison along with the gradual increase in the body count of random women in that very same park.

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Review #578: After You (Me Before You #2) by Jojo Moyes

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


“You don't have to let that one thing be the thing that defines you.”

----Jojo Moyes

Jojo Moyes, the international bestselling author, has penned the much-awaited novel to her best selling book, and now a major motion pictureMe Before You called, After You that opens right after the death of Will surrounding Lou's life which has changed drastically, and she is struggling hard to keep up with Will's dying promise to "Just Live!" instead the suicidal thoughts are crowding her mind, but when a tragic accident shakes Lou up, she meets an unexpected person who finally gives her a purpose to follow Will's dying words.

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Review #571: Sirens by Joseph Knox

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“After all, it's one thing to run away when someone's chasing you. It's entirely another to be running all alone.”

----Jennifer E. Smith

Joseph Knox, an English author, pens his debut crime fiction, Sirens in which the author weaves a bone-chilling and terribly horrifying yet honest tale set against the ugliest and grimy backdrop of Manchester where a disgraced police detective is blackmailed to bring back a reputed MP's teenage runaway daughter safely and discreetly from the clutches of a notorious drug seller, but within few days of investigation, the detective finds some ugly clues about another missing girl's whereabouts.

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Review #567: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Intuition is like reading a word without having to spell it out. A child can't do that because it has had so little experience. A grown-up person knows the word because they've seen it often before.”

----Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie, the queen of crime fiction, has penned a tremendously spellbinding and constantly challenging thriller called, And Then There Were None. Originally published with the title Ten Little Niggers in the UK, is a mystery revolving around a group of eight strangers lured to a lavish house for a paid holiday by the owner located on an abandoned island followed by the unpredictable death one after another. This novel is based on a nursery rhyme named Ten Little Soldiers and it sold over 100 million copies world wide and is listed among the world's top-ten bestselling books.

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Review #554: This Was a Man (The Clifton Chronicles, #7) by Jeffrey Archer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“My dear young cousin, if there's one thing I've learned over the eons, it's that you can't give up on your family, no matter how tempting they make it.”

----Rick Riordan

Jeffrey Archer, the international bestselling author, is back with the final installment in The Clifton Chronicles called, This Was a Man that yet once again brings alive our favorite characters alive with new shocking twists and turns that will overthrow both the powerful families, the Barringtons and the Cliftons along with some supporting cast of characters, thereby giving the readers a closure from this extremely enticing and slightly heart breaking tale.

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Review #551: The ABC Murders (Hercule Poirot, #13) by Agatha Christie

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Our weapon is our knowledge. But remember, it may be a knowledge we may not know that we possess.”

----Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie, the Queen of Mystery, has spun and extremely intriguing crime fiction and the thirteenth tale from her Hercule Poirot series called, The A.B.C. Murders that revolves around the anonymous letters stating as well as challenging Poirot that a murder will take place in the alphabetical order in a random town, and that intrigues the clever Poirot to come out of his early retirement to catch the mad serial killer striking random people in the alphabetical manner.

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Review #549: The Lost Ones by Ben Cheetham

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Fifty percent of something is better than than one hundred percent of nothing.”

----Chuck Barris

Ben Cheetham, an award winning English author, pens a dark and an intriguing family thriller, The Lost Ones which centers around the mystery of a little missing girl right under the nose and eyes of her own mother near the forest which is and was popularly known for the cult who performed their rituals there located in a small town with some ugly secrets behind the unsolved murder case of a married couple, that has a strong similarity with the features of the little girl's disappearance.

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Review #522: The Muse by Jessie Burton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth.”

----Pablo Picasso

Jessie Burton, an English author, has penned a deeply moving and intoxicating historical fiction novel, The Muse that narrates the story of two women separated by a timeline of almost thirty years, where the one is an aspiring Trinidadian woman who finds work as a typist in art gallery of London whose odd boss encourages and explores her talent in writing stories and one day, a mysterious painting lands up in that gallery with a deeply buried secret, that will take the readers back in time when the other woman who is a young teenage girl, is trying to keep her artistic talents hidden from her dominating art dealer father's eyes and when she meets a young housemaid and her half brother, her life forever changes with life shattering actions.

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Review #505: My Husband's Wife by Jane Corry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“A great marriage is not when the 'perfect couple' comes together. It is when an imperfect couple learns to enjoy their differences.”

----Dave Meurer

Jane Corry, an English author, pens her debut psychological thriller, My Husband's Wife that narrates the story of a couple who goes through ups and downs in their newly marital life, through many years, but their past mistakes and their involvement in the life of a notorious and sly criminal and a sweet little girl, comes haunting back at them ages later, and that can either destroy their relationship or can kill them.

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Review #503: Summer Secrets by Jane Green

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“A man who drinks too much on occasion is still the same man as he was sober. An alcoholic, a real alcoholic, is not the same man at all. You can't predict anything about him for sure except that he will be someone you never met before.”

----Raymond Chandler

Jane Green, the New York Times bestselling author, has penned an extremely heart touching yet sassy contemporary fiction in her book, Summer Secrets where the author weaves a tale about an alcoholic woman's life about how she learns to stand up on her two feet after losing herself into the delusional and easy escape of golden and often crystal clear liquid (alcohol), how this woman despite having her own family travels back and forth in time through her mother's childhood days to her struggling single days to some dark secrets that take her back to her own original roots.

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Review #467: Closed Casket by Sophie Hannah

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Everyone is a potential murderer-in everyone there arises from time to time the wish to kill-though not the will to kill.”

----Agatha Christie

Hercule Poirot is back again with another new adventure and mystery in Sophie Hannah, an internationally bestselling writer's new book, Closed Casket where the Belgian detective Poirot along with the help of Scotland Yard inspector, Edward Catchpool, solve the mystery surrounding an old rich, aristocrat lady's lavish party at a forgotten Irish countryside where among the guests, there is a killer lurking around and they must try to stop him/her before he/she strikes his weapon to commit a crime.

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