BOOK REVIEW:Mr Mercedes by Stephen King

'Who is going to be the fish in this relationship and who is going to be the fisherman?'
BILL HODGES, retired cop, tormented by 'the Mercedes massacre', a case he never solved.
BRADY HARTSFIELD, perpetrator of that notorious crime, and preparing to kill again.
Now each is closing in on the other in a mega-stakes race against time from world-wide, best selling master of suspense, Stephen King.

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Pages: 405

This is the first Stephen King novel I have read and I loved it! I know that Mr Mercedes is not like his other books; it is more of a thriller than a horror but I thought it was fantastic. I can see why Stephen King is so well respected, reading this was like being given a master-class in story-telling.
Bill Hodges is retired and bored. He is thinking back over old cases he had to leave unsolved; the most important being 'the Mercedes Massacre'. Someone drove a Mercedes into a big group of people in the early hours of the morning. These were desperate people, queuing in the early hours to attend a jobs fair; the driver killed eight and seriously maimed many more. The fact that the killer was simply able to drive off into the fog has frustrated Hodges as he feels he has failed to get justice for the victims.
Brady Hartsfield was the Mercedes Killer; he still can't quite believe that he got away with it. He is ready to kill again and he wants Bill Hodges to know about it. Here begins a game of cat and mouse, will Hodges be able to identify Brady before he strikes again?
Mr Mercedes is beautifully written and expertly plotted. Brady Hartsfield is a vile creation and truly believable, he's terrifying. There is a follow up to this book which I will definitely be reading but it has also made me want to try some of King's horror novels so let me know if you have any favourites or suggestions of what I should begin with?

BOOK REVIEW: Trust In Me by Sophie McKenzie

When friends tell lies, who can you trust?
Julia has always been the friend that Livy turns to when life is difficult. United eighteen years ago by grief at the brutal murder of Livy's sister, Kara, they've always told each other everything  or so Livy thought.
When a fresh tragedy strikes, Livy cannot accept what Julia is supposed to have done. But little does she realise that digging into her best friend's private life will tear the very fabric of her own existence apart. 

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Pages: 440 

This book was so good! I read it in just two days, the story was so compelling that I didn't want to put it down. Trust In Me is the first book I have read by Sophie McKenzie but I have already ordered her first as I think she is a very talented thriller writer.
McKenzie does not waste any time in ra
mping up the tension. Within the first few chapters Livy has discovered her friend Julia's body. It very much looks as though she committed suicide but Livy will not accept this. Brought together by Livy's sister's murder, they have been incredibly close over the years, sharing everything, or so Livy thought. As Livy begins looking for answers about Julia's death, she discovers that her friend had many secrets. These secrets are related to Livy's past and her sister's murderer but they have dire consequences in the present, especially for herself and her beloved family.
Trust In Me had me guessing throughout. Sophie McKenzie is simply brilliant at throwing in red herrings, there were so many times when just one word would convince me that I had worked it all out, only to discover that I was nowhere near.
The ending of this book was terrifying and so well written , the last few chapters kept me up very late as I just wasn't prepared to go to sleep without knowing the conclusion.
Trust In Me is thriller writing at its best, sharp, clever and gripping, you need to read this book.

Many thanks to Jamie at Simon & Schuster for sending me a review copy, Trust In Me is out now. 

Book Review: Naomi's Room by Jonathan Aycliffe

Charles and Laura are a young, happily married couple inhabiting the privileged world of Cambridge academia. Brimming with excitement, Charles sets off with his daughter Naomi on a Christmas Eve shopping trip in London. But, by the end of the day, all Charles and his wife have left are cups of tea and police sympathy. For Naomi, their beautiful, angelic only child, has disappeared. Days later her murdered body is discovered.
But is she dead?
In a howling, bumping story of past and present day hell, Jonathan Aycliffe's haunting psychological masterpiece is guaranteed to make you sink to untold depths of teeth-shaking terror.

This book is absolutely terrifying! It caught my eye on Amazon as there were several references to M.R. James who I am a big fan of.  I decided to give it a go, it is only 158 pages long and I would say that I had finished it in about three and a half hours. The story was one of the most chilling that I have ever read but I just couldn't put it down.
Naomi's Room did remind me of M.R. James's ghost stories. You can imagine the narrator retelling the story round a roaring fire in a desolated house somewhere.
The story is told by Charles, he took his young daughter Naomi shopping on Christmas Eve, he loses her when he turns his back and then her body is discovered on Christmas Day. But if she is dead then how can Charles and his wife see her in their house? How is she appearing in photographs taken after her death and who are the other people standing with her?
Naomi's Room makes for uncomfortable reading in many parts. I read a few reviews which said that they felt that the gruesome details were unnecessary . I've not made my mind up about it but I do think that the book would lose a lot of it's shock appeal if those details were missing. I didn't feel that the author only used shock tactics though. Jonathan Aycliffe creates a sincerely sinister atmosphere from the very beginning. I felt aware that awful events were going to take place but I still wasn't prepared for the final few chapters.
If you like a good ghost story then I highly recommend Naomi's Room.

Dot Scribbles Rating: 5/5

Best Intentions by Emily Listfield

The lovely people at Simon & Schuster sent me a copy of Emily Listfield's new book last week; I read it over the bank holiday weekend and I loved it! Best Intentions is the story of four college friends whose reunion in New York has fatal results. Listfield uses the story to explore the question of: How well can you ever really know another person? Lisa Barkley is the central character and in 24 hours her whole life is turned upside down; her husband, her job and her best friend are all called into question.
Lisa is married to Sam and they have settled in New York with their two young daughters; Deirdre is an old college friend of both of them, also living in the city. Deirdre and Lisa are best friends and meet weekly for breakfast to confide in each other about their worries and anxieties. In their last few meeting Deirdre opens up about her complicated love life and Lisa expresses her worry over the financial strains that she and Sam are facing. Jack is the fourth person from their college days; he visits New York for a job interview and the reunion takes place. They catch up on each others lives and the old flame of attraction between Jack and Deirdre is re-ignited again. A series of events contrive against the four of them; Lisa is handed photographs of her husband alone with her best friend, Jack accuses Sam and Deirdre of having an affair in their college days and inevitably suspicions are raised and emotions even more so. This is the build up to Deirdre being found dead in her apartment. Reeling from shock, Lisa has to admit that she has no alibi, nor does Sam; Deirdre's ex was out of the country and Jack's wife has said that he was with her at the time of the murder. There is no sign of forced entry, leading the police to believe that Deirdre knew her murderer and willingly invited them into her apartment on that fateful night.
Lisa already has her suspicions of those closest to her and Deirdre's murder leaves her in the vulnerable position of having to question those that she loves the most. Who would want to murder Deirdre and why?
Emily Listfield's book had me gripped from the very beginning and I loved the use of first person narrative. I felt as though I was standing just behind Lisa, watching all the events unfold and hearing her thoughts and feelings as they happened. It really does make you wonder if you ever do truly know another person or if you just have to take a leap of faith and trust them. What happens to our relationships when they are tested?
I felt that communication was a real key theme in this book too, especially how we communicate with each other and how much information we decide to keep to ourselves. Lisa and Sam both have jobs which involve communicating to the public about people and events. Sam is a journalist so he is always trying to make sure that the truth is exposed and Lisa is in public relations so she is making sure that the public get the positive version of events and people. They are both very much aware of how the system works and this seeps into their relationship and they way they communicate or not with each other.
I would highly recommend this book, it held my attention to the very end and gave me a lot to think about afterwards. If you want to find out more about Emily Listfield then check out her website, Best Intentions also has an individual website that is worth taking a look at. Emily Listfield has written six novels so I am very excited to have discovered an author who has other books that I can explore.

Mistress of Mellyn by Victoria Holt

This is the first book that I have read by Victoria Holt, that is the pseudonym for Eleanor Alice Burford who has written many books in different styles and under different names.
Mistress of Mellyn is very much a romantic suspense novel. The reader follows Martha Leigh as she takes up the position of governess at Mount Mellyn House in Cornwall. The house itself is central to the story; it is a spooky, cliff-top mansion hiding many secrets within it's walls. Connan TreMellyn is the master of the house who has recently lost his wife and so he has employed Martha Leigh to take charge of his young daughter, Alvean. Martha feels the presence of the previous mistress of Mount Mellyn immediately and sets out to uncover some of the secrets surrounding her untimely death.
This book has many aspects which are similar to some of the classics. Connan TreMellyn has many similarities to Mr Rochester of Jane Eyre and there are comparisons with Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca with the mysterious death of the first wife and the mysterious house on the Cornish coast. Some of these similarities annoyed me slightly but I still enjoyed it and I have to say that I really had not predicted the twist at the end.
I am just about to start The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It is my intention to catch up with some of the books that I missed from last year. Next on the list is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. Mr S is reading this at the moment so I am going to borrow it when he has finished. It is the fastest that I have ever witnessed him read a book so it must be good!

The House at Midnight by Lucie Whitehouse

This is one of the best books that I have read so far in 2009. I had heard quite a lot about this book before I bought it, especially the comparisons to The Secret History and Rebecca. I believe that it is definitely worthy of those comparisons but in no way is Lucie Whitehouse trying to copy those books; her storytelling has very much a style of it's own.
Lucas inherits Stoneborough Manor from his Uncle, both of Lucas' parents are dead and he is haunted by the suicide of his uncle who had been a father-figure. However, Lucas decides to use Stoneborough as a place where he and his small group of friends can escape to from their busy lives in London. The group of friends is incredibly close and the relationships between them are all extremely intricate.
Lucas gradually becomes increasingly obsessed with Stoneborough and with the cine films that he finds of his Uncle and his friends in their heyday. The similarities to Lucas and his group are startling and the secrets they reveal come to have a bearing on all of them.
This book had me gripped from the very start, the suspense stays with you right until the last page. Even when events in the story take a positive turn you know that something must be waiting just round the corner. The house plays a pivotal role in the book; I love books set in large houses with their many secrets and memories hidden away in the attic just waiting to be discovered. This was a really excellent book, especially as it is Whitehouse's first novel, I hope she writes many more!