Broken Promise by Linwood Barclay

Publisher: Doubleday Canada (July 28 2015)

Sold by: Random House Canada, Incorp.

Linwood! A great author of our country (but where's your country, would you ask, you who love to read!) (Well in Canada of course!) And yeah, one can be a "New York Times Bestselling Author" and Canadian...

I had already read Never Saw it Coming, which I had found very good. And Linwood has an unblemished reputation in crime fiction, so the risk was not great to read his latest novel Broken Promise.

What I like about Linwood is that he knows quickly and perfectly how to plant an atmosphere, characters and a context. Here, the story is about David, a widower, who returns to his hometown after a series of bad luck and who will end up in the heart of a investigation that touches his own family.

I liked David and his family, good people. His parents are a lovely couple and they take good care of their grand-son. I liked Marla, his cousin, who suffered the unthinkable and remained marked.

I liked the family secrets, revealed bit by bit. We can see how secrets poison a family and that their consequences are often devastating. In Never Saw it Coming, Linwood already made us think and led us to ask the question of what we should have done instead of Keisha. Here he leads us to think about the weight of secrets... or family lies. Is parents' love always benevolent? Does they always do the best for their children? There's a lot of stuff to think about in this novel!

As for the plot, or rather the intrigues, they take place in a logical and progressive way, with some dramatic turns and one begins to devour the pages with ease, for it's Linwood's power: his writing is really flowing with well placed touches of humour.

The blurb

After his wife’s death and the collapse of his newspaper, David Harwood has no choice but to uproot his nine-year-old son and move back into his childhood home in Promise Falls, New York. David believes his life is in free fall, and he can’t find a way to stop his descent.

Then he comes across a family secret of epic proportions. A year after a devastating miscarriage, David’s cousin Marla has continued to struggle. But when David’s mother asks him to check on her, he’s horrified to discover that she’s been secretly raising a child who is not her own—a baby she claims was a gift from an “angel” left on her porch.

When the baby’s real mother is found murdered, David can’t help wanting to piece together what happened—even if it means proving his own cousin’s guilt. But as he uncovers each piece of evidence, David realizes that Marla’s mysterious child is just the tip of the iceberg.

Other strange things are happening. Animals are found ritually slaughtered. An ominous abandoned Ferris wheel seems to stand as a warning that something dark has infected Promise Falls. And someone has decided that the entire town must pay for the sins of its past…in blood.

In a nutshell

One is never wrong with a book by Linwood. The characters are very well written and engaging, the story is well put together, well brought outcome. It is a 4/5 for me.

Disclaimer: An e-galley of this title was provided to me by the publisher. No review was promised and the above is an unbiased review of the novel.

A Penny for the Hangman by Tom Savage

Random House Publishing Group - Alibi - (Oct. 7 2014)
259 pages - 2.99 $ (epub)

The catchy title and the publisher: Alibi made ​​me ask this title on NetGalley. Although I must say that the blurb in which the female journalist is in a bikini made ​​me fear that it was a kind of book à la San Antonio (not my cup of tea), it is not absolutely not that kind of book.

The blurb

In Tom Savage’s chilling novel of suspense, an ambitious reporter is beckoned to an island paradise for the story of a lifetime. But this scoop might just be the death of her.

Fifty years ago, on the Caribbean island of St. Thomas, two teenagers born to privilege were convicted of slaughtering their parents in cold blood. Today the men are free and a Hollywood movie has been made about the murders. For Karen Tyler, an eager New York journalist, the case is irresistible. She has been invited to the Virgin Islands for an interview that’s too good to pass up . . . and sounds too good to be true.

Karen packs her bikini and her digital recorder and follows an ingeniously designed trail that leads her to a wealthy, mysterious figure. The man claims to be one of the notorious boys, but Karen soon learns that all is not as it seems. On this isolated utopia of sun and surf, a young reporter far from home fights for the truth—and for her life. Because the shocking secret behind the infamous atrocities has remained hidden all these years. And the killing isn’t over yet.

What's good in that book?

This book was a blast! The pace does not fail, there is always something intriguing or disturbing. The stressful informations are revealed along the story. The narrative is interspersed with extracts from the diary of one of the teen killers, excerpts from police reports, minutes of the trial, testimony... and a disturbing correspondence from Karen. From the start, we know that another tragedy occurred on the island and she is in danger. From the start, we follow her story by being afraid of the end. Stress increases bit by bit because of the dialogues and the trap that closes on her. 

The characters are well written with shady guys, rogues (and I'm not talking about the bad guy...), naive or clever ones, there's something for everyone. There are still some cliché (both affluent teens are necessarily exceptionally beautiful and intelligent) but this does not hinder the story, it is not what stands out most about this book. What stands out most is the countdown to an end that we know/sense/guess horrible. 

Extracts or inserting text into a story - whether to give information or returns in the past - are not always easy to write in a book because they cut too abruptly the story or that they're hard to understand what they bring up to the final moment. But Tom Savage pass the exercice in style with brio. The extracts are timely writen to provide an explanation when the story needs it or sow a little anxiety and stress because the revelation brought only confirms us in our fears. 

In a nutshell

A good and stressful book that reads in one go, Tom Savage plays with our nerves and we ask for more! It is a 4/5 for me.

Disclaimer: An e-galley of this title was provided to me by the publisher. No review was promised and the above is an unbiased review of the novel.

The Quick - an early review

by Lauren Owen

Hardcover: 544 pages - 19.99 $

Publisher: Random House (June 17, 2014)

An astonishing debut, a novel of epic scope and suspense that conjures up all the magic and menace of Victorian London

London, 1892: James Norbury, a shy would-be poet newly down from Oxford, finds lodging with a charming young aristocrat. Through this new friendship, he is introduced to the drawing-rooms of high society, and finds love in an unexpected quarter. Then, suddenly, he vanishes without a trace. Unnerved, his sister, Charlotte, sets out from their crumbling country estate determined to find him. In the sinister, labyrinthine city that greets her, she uncovers a secret world at the margins populated by unforgettable characters: a female rope walker turned vigilante, a street urchin with a deadly secret, and the chilling “Doctor Knife.” But the answer to her brother’s disappearance ultimately lies within the doors of one of the country’s preeminent and mysterious institutions: The Aegolius Club, whose members include the most ambitious, and most dangerous, men in England.

In her first novel, Lauren Owen has created a fantastical world that is both beguiling and terrifying. The Quick will establish her as one of fiction’s most dazzling talents.

What's about that book

I enjoyed the quality of writing, fluid and very pleasant. From the beginning of the book, one is swept away by the story. James and Charlotte are two characters we love to discover. The very Victorian style, both in writing and in story, which makes its charm. Some topics, interesting and well fed (but not enough exploited). All in all, the book is very pleasant and one loves to meander in London or to live a happy life in Italy. I really loved some characters, even if they weren't not present for long (Shadwell and Adeline). It does have a bit of Anne Rice in it, mostly for the supernatural part, the way the characters are written or the setting. 

I least enjoyed the second quarter of the novel - after James' disappearance - which mainly includes the logbook of the famous Doctor Knives, interspersed with parts of the story. It was very confusing, especially as the logbook is not very understandable. Of course, we understand that the logbook was partially destroyed for who knows what reason and it missing pieces but the writing is so weird that it becomes difficult to understand. That would have been clever if one did not already know what element Doctor speaks in his diary. In short, it was a rather laborious part to read and therefore quite unpleasant.

Thereafter, the story starts again and one finds again with pleasure the writing of the author, to which she adds different characters and themes. Now, I admit that the profusion of themes is, in my opinion, unnecessary and sometimes superfluous. The story of the disappearance of an aspiring poet, linked with a more or less secret society of the Victorian London and the differences in social classes have enough to make a good book, given the ease with which the author takes us into her story.

Some characters deserved a little more flesh on the bones as they were so promising. I think of Liza, the street urchin, Mrs. P., Alia's emblematic figure, James which is no that important after all, Burke who is so important but of whom we know nothing...

In a nutshell

A pleasant novel, Gothic at will, well written but which probably addresses too many themes and has too many character at the same time to make it consistent. This is a 3.5 / 5 for me.

Warning: An e- galley of this title was provided to me by the publisher. No review has been promised and chronic above is an unbiased review of the novel.