Water tells a serious and contemplative story using the theme of water to create distance, solitude, and self-exile. The unknown preceding life alteriWater tells a serious and contemplative story using the theme of water to create distance, solitude, and self-exile. The unknown preceding life altering event is unpicked slowly for the reader, the weight of it always there heavily, always hanging in the cold Irish air. Changing her name and shaving her head, Willow has chosen a beautiful place to enter life again, somehow.
Choosing to go into town to eat a meal, to converse with the locals, or not. I found it interesting she did not completely delve into herself entirely, she knew that contact with the world, though limited, was a necessary evil to maintain.
The isolation in this remote island of Ireland created a cosy atmosphere, in contrast to the sinister reasons for Willows seeking refuge from prying eyes. On and off interactions with her adult daughter are fraught with unease, the love for her evident but the shadow of their estrangement ever present.
As the reasons for her removal from life become apparent, my feelings were in a tumble in trying to reconcile this woman’s complicity versus ignorance versus a refusal to see evil where it should not lie. My heart broke as a character was attempting to disclose serious abuse which was passed over; this was well written, compulsive, and absorbing in all aspects. I was left feeling disappointed AND understanding of this character, and a voyeur in her attempts to reconcile her life.
John Boyne is remarkable in every way. I was spellbound, drawn in and contemplative at the last scene, not a word wasted, listening twice. Willow was haunted and hunted by her grief, hoping for her to come back to herself. I loved the people she met along the way, and those she in turn she helped.
Affecting and momentous, completely insightful, I highly recommend this book. A wonderful audio read via the Libby platform and my public library....more
I loved this! What a great outback crime novel. I had completely missed this on my radar, so this is why GR is so good. And of course, we get to contiI loved this! What a great outback crime novel. I had completely missed this on my radar, so this is why GR is so good. And of course, we get to continue the story as this is only number one.
This was an excellent mix of missing persons in the very harsh northern Australia, police procedural with a well fleshed out link to home and family. The conditions of this part of Australia well described, with a mix of helpful community members and the troubled ones with secrets to hide. The scourge of drugs and the toll this takes on small communities was convincing.
DS Walker is on personal leave and revisiting his birthplace. While there he is tasked with stepping in to assist the local constabulary to find tow young European travelers who failed to turn up to their next working destination.
Lucas Walker is a capable protagonist, level headed and very likable. He teams up with the missing woman's sister Barbara, also a detective from Berlin. This woman has a good sense of what is going on. She was an excellent character, inserting herself into this arid countryside well. Unsurprisingly her idea of Australia was much different to what she found in the north of Queensland, sweltering and almost unbearable.
Well paced and compelling, I loved the audio version of this. Very much looking forward to the next book in the series where I will be happy to pick up on this young man's journey, and how Barbara may feature as well.
4.5☆ rounded up.
I listened to this via the BorrowBox platform and my local library. Well recommended. ...more
I stumbled across this title on a S&S email promoting titles for ‘Fans of Gilmore Girls’. I couldn’t sourceFirst book of the year, and of the holiday.
I stumbled across this title on a S&S email promoting titles for ‘Fans of Gilmore Girls’. I couldn’t source it on audio, so I requested on of my public libraries add this to their Overdrive collection, and voila, they did! This was a perfect summer beach read, and a literal beach one as some of it was done on the beach.
Sophie was a career girl, loved her Manolo’s and climbing the ladder. Leather lounges and an empty fridge; her little life was very adult and self-focused. Her own mother was more committed to her dogs than Sophie, this suited her, she could go to work and do her own thing.
Out of the blue she was contacted by a social worker, her best friend died leaving the care of her children to Sophie. There was an agreement years ago that she would be the girl’s guardian, why not, as if anything would happen needing follow through. It was a promise she didn’t even remember making.
Sophie had to adjust quickly, a three- and six-year-old having suffered trauma, she had a lot to get her head around. She stumbled through as best she could, saying this was temporary and hiring a private investigator to find the absent father who had abandoned the little family years before. Bella and Izzy were the cutest, most adorable and comical little gals I've read about for some time. So delicious!
This book was light and heavy hearted in equal measure, with lessons learned and hearts captured. I had not heard of this author and will now look out for him. Well read by Juanita McMahon, fans of contemporary fiction with a touch of romance, too. A well written gem with equal measures of light and love and discovery....more
Again, an Australian woman writer smashing it out of the park. A debut that does not hint at anything less than quality writing. I am lucky I have a fAgain, an Australian woman writer smashing it out of the park. A debut that does not hint at anything less than quality writing. I am lucky I have a father that will always give me good, solid recommendations. And he is lucky is lovely librarian gives him personal recommendations, too, all the way to placing the books onto his record, directly on to his request shelf. We both have a personal recommendation service!
This book is written by someone who has worked in the field, and this is what I love, as the content is reliable and close to the way things go in the real world. In this instance, the New South Wales justice system, which has been of interest to me lately as my daughter has just finished a criminology degree.
Again I read a debut that ends up being a series starter, that when I read it initially, there is no plan for a series. This will be a good one. Laura is a prison psychologist who hasn't had a good start, she lost her partner as a paramedic and after the trauma of that situation, she ditches that career for her current one. She may lack some smarts here, as she's not treated well by her soon to be ex-husband, and she seems to allow herself to be somewhat a victim of coersvie control. This then seems to set up up to be unreliable in the telling, and I enjoyed this aspect. Although I did want to shake some sense into her many times!
She becomes involved with an awful inmate, the charasmatic Justin Jones whose case is passed on to her when a colleague leaves early for maternity leave; there are many red flags for Laura as this man certainly is not the squeaky clean reformed man he appears to be. His file is marked for release and this just doesn't sit right with her.
No one will listen to Laura, apart from Sam, the quirky and quite eccentric prison guard Laura has befriended. She has gone to all levels of the sytem, to the Warden and her own direct boss. She is running against the clock and things become personal as her adolescent daughter gets dragged into the fray.
This is an interesting thriller, more enjoyable by being local to me, and with a smart but yet flawed woman in the lead.
I look forward to see more of Laura and her daughter; this was a tremendously written novel. Hats off, Mercedes Mercier....more
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