The Hummingbird's Cage by Tamara Dietrich

I have mixed views on this book, as while it was extremely well written and moving, it took me places I really did not want to go.

Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love thrillers, especially psychological thrillers. This novel began like a psychological thriller, as the protagonist finds herself trapped in a violent, abusive and loveless marriage, but just as you start to get emotionally involved in the story and you long for Joanna to escape with her daughter the story takes an unexpected twist and you find yourself in the land of make believe.

Generally I do not read fantasy. I like my stories grounded in reality, and while reality was so bleak for Joanna and her daughter I shouldn't have been so surprised at where this book ended up.

I had a difficult task deciding what score I would rate this book, tossing and turning from 3 stars to four. In the end I decided to award 4 stars, because as books go this was a really good book. It kept me gripped from start to finish, and I had to finish it, I really had to know what happened in the end. Did I love this book? No. It went places I didn't want it to go, and I really wasn't happy with the ending, but then, I didn't write it, Tamara Dietrich wrote it, and it was a really good debut novel by an extremely talented writer, and despite myself, I will be reading her next book as i'm really curious to see where she will go with it!

Thank you to NetGalley, Orion Publishers, and the author Tamara Dietrich for my free e-ARC in return for an honest review.

Lie In Wait by G.J. Minett

Owen Hall is a mathematical genius, a big strong man who earns his living by hard physical graft as a landscape gardener. He also happens to be fascinated by number patterns and sequences. Socially awkward and with a brilliant intellect, as a child he was different to the other children his age and was bullied to such an extent that his mother had to remove him from his school. Owen has never forgotten the scars, both psychological and physical that were inflicted on him in the schoolyard, and he has not forgotten his childhood tormentors.

When a brutal murder occurs in the small town where Owen lives he finds himself once more singled out as 'odd' when the police turn the spotlight on him and he finds himself the chief suspect in their murder investigation.

Is Owen Hall a violent murderer, or is he an innocent man, an easy target for suspicion who just happens to stand out?

This is G.J. Minett's second and much anticipated novel. I have previously read his debut novel The Hidden Legacy and thoroughly enjoyed it. In many ways Lie in Wait is a very different book, although both books touch on the theme of childhood bullying.

Lie in Wait is a dark thriller, extremely cleverly plotted by the author. At times, and particularly in the beginning of the book I found it difficult to keep the cast of characters straight in my head, but G. J. Minett had no such problems as he tells his story from the perspective of each character with immense skill. Just when I thought I understood where each character was coming from and what made them tick, they would say or do something to throw all my assumptions out the window!

G. J. Minett is a very clever writer with a natural ability to tell a story that the reader won't forget in a hurry. Long after you have turned the last page you will still be thinking about Lie in Wait and the complex characters he introduces you to in this dark and twisted journey of a book. A great read, this book will keep you turning the pages long into the night.

Thank you to newbooks/nudge, netgalley, the author and the publisher for an advanced e-copy of this book in return for an honest review.

He's Gone by Alex Clare

Just when you think every angle of every book plot has been covered over and over again, along comes a new author with a new story to tell. At least I think gender dysphoria hasn't been covered before in crime fiction, or at least not where the Detective Inspector in charge of the investigation disappears for two weeks vacation and returns a woman, as is the case with this crime fiction novel.

We first meet Detective Inspector Robyn Bailley as she returns to work. Now a woman DI Robyn Bailley used to be DI Rodger Bailley but had never been happy or complete as a man. Now she had the chance to continue the job she loved, while being the gender she had always wanted to be. But things are never that simple are they? Now as a woman DI Bailley must learn to act as a woman would, dress as a woman would and put her lipstick on correctly without staining her teeth!

Apart from facing her colleagues in her new gender, DI Robyn has been thrown straight into the distressing case of a missing two year old child, Ben. This is further complicated by his mothers obvious disgust at DI Robyn's appearance. Ben's mother Melissa belongs to a strict religious cult, who frown upon any kind of gender alteration among many other things and she soon lodges a complaint against Robin with the police authorities. All this while Robyn is doing her best to find her son for her, solve a spate of increasingly violent burglaries and try to identify a dead body.

I have to say I enjoyed this book. It didn't cause me to laugh out loud but there were amusing moments for me throughout the book where I smiled quietly to myself. Whether they were intentional by the author or they just tickled my humor, i'm not sure. There were moments when I found Robyn's personal life intruding too much into the main story as I saw it, which was about a two year old boy who had gone missing and that investigation. At times I really felt for Robyn and the difficulties she had to go through to be even a little happy, but there were also times where I felt, 'forget the makeup, the bra digging into your back or where you left your handbag and just go find that little boy'. As a police procedural I was disappointed that I guessed correctly early on who had taken Ben, and who had committed the murder. But, as a story. A police procedural with a 'difference', I really liked it. I liked DI Robyn Bailley, and I really look forward to catching up with her in the second in the series so I hope I don't have to wait too soon. And i'd just like to whisper....... if there are any tv production companies out there looking for a new tv detective series please do give consideration to DI Robyn Bailley as her story would make a great tv!