Novel Nerd Blog - Book Reviews by Smitha

  MY THOUGHTS AND BOOK REVIEW ROUND UP THE UNUSUAL SUSPECTS - NOVEL The plot is set in the WW2 during the time when Japanese is in California. This novel opens with a murder scene which keeps the reader right away from the start curious as to what's happening on the sets. The Hollywood sets of Sound stage teamed by Warner and Walis filming Yankee Doodle Dandy which promoted American Patriotism is halted by a murder of a stagehand technician named Sauer. Right away the investigation is assigned to detectives Babs Norman and her assistant Guy from B. Norman Investigations. My favorite part of the book was the subtle humor and many suspects that keeps the reader guessing. In the middle of the read I thought the story lags behind halfway through and the conversations can feel repetitive with too many characters as it's difficult to keep track of who is who. It's a light cozy mystery with small drawbacks and the plot patterns were familiar if so, the ending was not shocking at a...

  Book Review: A Gripping and Gritty Start to a Suffolk Crime Series If you’re a fan of British police procedurals with a dark edge and a genuinely unsettling mystery at their core, this new Suffolk-set thriller introduces Detective Nicki Hardcastle with exactly the kind of impact crime readers crave. The novel opens with a strikingly macabre image: a man impaled on the iron spikes of a townhouse in Bury St Edmunds. What at first glance looks like a desperate suicide quickly spirals into something far more chilling. The victim, Jacob Towers, is found with seven of his own teeth tucked into his pockets — a grotesque detail that instantly signals the killer’s ritualistic signature and sets this story apart from your standard murder mystery. From here, the tension never lets up. A threatening voicemail — “It’s time to pay for what you did” — hints at a buried injustice, and when another body appears just days later, marked in the same horrific way, it becomes clear that someone is del...

  MY THOUGHTS AND BOOK REVIEW If you love your crime fiction with a touch of faith, a dash of humour, and a heroine unlike anyone else in the genre, The Earth Weighs Heavy is an absolute treat. Alison Joseph’s novel introduces us to Sister Agnes — a nun with a taste for killer heels, prosecco, and unravelling dark secrets. The story opens in a rain-soaked Hackney convent, where the crumbling cellar gives up a disturbing secret: the skeleton of a woman, long buried and long forgotten. The police hit a dead end, but Sister Agnes’s sharp intuition and quiet persistence soon lead her into the convent’s murky past. As she digs deeper, she uncovers secrets some would rather stay buried — and when a gunshot pierces the night, it becomes clear that history might be repeating itself. What makes this book stand out isn’t just the clever mystery (though it’s full of twists and atmosphere), but the richness of its characters and setting. Sister Agnes is brilliantly drawn — a woman of faith who...

MY THOUGHTS AND BOOK REVIEW The Girl Next Door by Matt McGregor is a dark, twisty domestic thriller that grabs you from page one. When Helen befriends her young, mysterious neighbor Dakota, she thinks she’s just being kind — but kindness quickly turns deadly. McGregor delivers sharp writing, tense suburban drama, and enough secrets and betrayals to keep you guessing until the final page. Perfect for fans of Gone Girl and The Couple Next Door. McGregor’s writing is crisp and cinematic. He has a gift for creating ordinary domestic settings that feel increasingly claustrophobic, turning backyard fences and kitchen counters into stages for psychological warfare.  The ending of the story is an overwhelming and rapid series of shocking twists and turns that forces the audience to confront complex and unsettling questions about morality, rather than providing a simple, satisfying resolution.  Themes & Strengths: The fragility of trust and perception in marriages The seductive dan...