RoroblusMumReadsReviews/Rants

5* Despite a slightly slow, dull and boring start, this turned out to be an excellent, if sad, tale. This is a book whose blurb doesn't do it justice, nor does the creepy prologue. Emma doesn't appear in the tale beyond the prologue and you don't find out about the history of the corpse in the prologue with the child's shoe until maybe 85% of the tale. It's a sad history that caused an even sadder tragedy, a history that wouldn't have made anyone bat an eyelid in 2025. But, it provided an excellent storyline to the tale, and boy were Karenza's forensics skills and sleuthing good.  This tale is that of Karenza, who's trying to help 2 troubled bereaved children, the Tyacks. She lost her daughter Maggie, aged 10, who sleepwalked out of their house the one night Karenza and her husband didn't lock there front door, following which her marriage broke up. She feels empathy with both kids who are clearly troubled, not just by their loss, but by guilt, feeli...

 4*Hmmm. Love the brand but 3 weeks on, this dishrack is covered in water marks 😩 Simplehuman do some lovely stuff that you pay a bit above average price for. Their soap dispensers used to be around £29 for the base battery-operated model, which is now £49, so sadly, I've had to jump ship. But, I was fed up with water marks on my Simplehuman black plastic compact dishrack, so when this came up in Black Friday sales at £56.25, I nabbed it. It's sturdy with moulded feet, rather than metal feet that need to be attached. It's about 1 inch taller than the plastic model, so it might not fit under a boiler - it literally just does for me, once plates are inserted. The spout drains well. The glasses clips are decent but only take very small glasses. The middle drain is metal and is already marked but looks better than just the occasionally scummy slots in the plastic model. The metal sides that've apparently been treated with a substance that's meant to keep it mark-free, ...

 3.5* Well orchestrated, believable but also not that a cop would...collude... as she did. Sins from the past... This starts pretty brutally and there are immediate questions about the events and persons present during, before and after the shooting. Thankfully the vet pulls through and the old doggie isn't injured. It's quite transparent that all isn't as it seems. So begins the investigation into what happened, with a rather brazen perpetrator who keeps it BAU and low-key. The cops' instincts and noses are good but connections aren't made in time and other innocents suffer for the sins of the father. There are some quite brutal but not in TMI scenes, and all ends well. I wasn't good with the female cop sort of colluding with her veterinarian husband's not-that-youthful error, which came back to bite more than just them.  ARC courtesy of NetGalley and One More Chapter/Harper Collins Publishers, for my reading pleasure.

3* Was there a body at the windmill and I missed it? And what does Georgina see in Boring MCP Colin who doesn't respect her, despite his professing? I normally enjoy these cosy mysteries but the author brought too much in this time. There was Georgina's son Will who was struggling with a new female boss that was either a micromanaging bully, or a new broom intent on bringing her own people in (the storyline went nowhere; he was just around for some research on arsenic). There was an absent wanker merchant banker husband. There was a seemingly on-Louise's-side MIL. There was lovely Louise who was either the killer or bringing targeted,  together with the poor butcher and his daughter. There was the unfriendly nanny. Bert got ill but thankfully recovered. Boring Colin spouted his normal stuff, bordering on being an MCP. Am I the only one who sees how disrespectful he is of Georgina and Doris? The glances? The judgey short sentences? The way Georgina anticipates a difficult re...

3.5* Quite compelling despite the stark quality of the tale, and because of the vilified characters who died in the AIDS era, the times and the premise of seeing the dead. This isn't overly emotional, as I don't think the lead really did emotions. I had expected more with her 'I see dead people' gift, handed down from her late estranged mother (I think), and the era in which the tale took place. It showed that women can be as disconnected from sex and gratification as men. I did feel sad for those who died alone, those left behind, those who'd have loved to see their dead loves again, and for them not really understanding the AIDS crisis and for the way that they were treated. It's not a tale that stayed with me, due to a lead that I could take or leave, but it was worth a read. ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Quercus Books, for my reading pleasure.

4* Good, but hard to visualise where the tale takes place. And the ending is sad, but kind of understandable. This is a pretty satisfying book, despite the many innocent lives that are taken in Rangers quest to avenge his wife's death - not his fault - and the bad guy's quest to take Ranger - and Dane - out. It takes place over a few hours in a single day, and boy, you had to wonder about these middle-aged men's stamina in the terrain they were in, plus with not-inconsiderable injuries. But, Ranger got his guy, although it was slightly anticlimactic with how quickly and easily he took him out. No prolonged suffering. No real words of hate or revenge, maybe because Ranger hasn't lost his humanity. His reunion with Cindy was sad-sweet, believable and also not in his leaving his daughter again. It had Reacher vibes at this point, but pointless ones, especially with what Ranger had lost, and found at the end, and with the injuries he had. But, yes, satisfying that he got th...

4* Great until almost the end. Pay attention to the cleverly done prologue.  This tale ends in a bit of an anticlimactic, slightly lazy, literal scramble, as the killer in 2019 flees but ends up awaiting trial. I felt sorry for the female journalist at the end, who ended up becoming part of the story that'd stayed with her for 20 years. The 2 female students, Olivia in 2019, and Wotsername from 1999 weren't the most empathetic, the latter with her lies, thefts, deceit, user tendencies, and married lecturer lover, and Olivia always wondering how she might be perceived, how she looked, her insecurities, her envy of more outgoing females, and her resentment of her middle-class background. I couldn't connect with any of the females, but that didn't spoil the tale. The ending revealed a conscience-free killer living in anyone's, well, 2019 regular life. Not a sensationalist one, not a really noticeable one, not one that stood out, but a devious one with no qualms. I kind...

2* Ugh, not exciting. Didn't feel believable or like a full-on tale, just setting the scene for a new series - a nepo one - with another Kent brother... This wasn't a great read. It was pretty bland and unbelievable, even when I clocked that Deryn was Mal Kent's youngest brother. It felt like a should've-been-a-freebie intro to a series featuring this guy and his alter ego, Dee - she felt particularly unbelievable, tbh. What made this a fail for me is that Deryn's family paid for his uni education (and chose the course), his car and his flat and in return, fast-tracked he turned a blind eye to their drug distribution and other crimes. And he managed to live with himself and Dee, without too much of a conscience. Add in the red herrings that were the American who'd moved to the sleepy Welsh village, and the mildly PNG FBI agent on holiday in the same village (these were peripheral but felt very underused and low-key, despite the slightly interesting ending), and ...

4* What a read. Started off with something mundane, turned into something totally shocking. I wasn't sure I'd like this tale of a former roomie/bestie going to interview a trad wife, some 10/11 years after their lives diverged, following a fallout, for a celebrity piece. I was a bit surprised at the lack of awkwardness and tension between the former friends, and didn't expect the tension from the actual eventual source. I absolutely didn't expect the plot, which was really, really well done, if you can cope with the plotting, the (occasionally) flawed rationale, the not-really-likable journalist/writer, Holland, and the iceberg-type trad wife, Cat/Catriona. Add in various very, very good red herrings (staff, scared kids, a creepy teen, a domineering husband, a mysterious death - still not clarified at the end, cops that don't have big-city cop instincts or mistrust, mental health, a possible psychopath), and you have a very, very well-done, well- dovetailed tale tha...

3.5* This didn't have quite the same impact as book 1 - because of the latter's obviously needed infodump - but it was still a decent read. I'd recommend re-reading book 1 before this, though, as it took a chapter to make me think something sounded a bit familiar... So, there's killer/s and innocent victims 25 years ago. The case was Charlotte's, and remained unsolved. And now, there's killer/s and victims, possibly vengeance and a cult. It's a nicely done, if not an exciting, tense or feels-dangerous tale. It's a solid read, and predictable after the commonalities with the first 2 killings come to light, and once Charlotte and a friend - that aspect may well turn out to be a bit of light in her rather dark life, thank goodness - come on-board. There's decent dovetailing, and tbh when the killer got caught, I actually felt for him, despite his kills. An eye for an eye, and enduring love. And justice was done for those killed 25 years ago, not quite a...

I needed a new bread bin that'd fit in 2 loaves, and have spent about a week trawling all over the place. Well, this little bargain beauty at £22.99, takes an 800g and a 700g loaf!! Without squashing them. It sticks out quite a lot more than most bread bins, even the big German Wesco Breadboy that it's replacing.  It's a blood red shade, not bright-bright red, but it matches my red Kitchenaid Artisan kettle and toaster perfectly (the red, not candy apple red shade). Comes with a 1yr guarantee.  https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DVZCPN2L?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

 2* A serious contender for the worst book I've read this year, up there with Things That Break Us by Michelle Heard. Book 3 in this series shows that Vera and Bent (what a nickname - don't Americans know what it means?) have finally made it into bed, as 1) clearly they're both rather addled and 2) they manage to talk about sex in the middle of the absolutely not believable and not exciting case. This was so bad a book that at the end I returned it for a refund. There's no way I was wasting money on this. If I didn't know, I'd have said this was a book by a first-time author. It was a 'diet' mystery and police procedural. The Valeri character was dodgy from the start and how she hadn't been arrested or at least questioned under caution, is beyond me, and apparently beyond Vera and Bent too. Were they giving her rope to hang herself with? Nope, they were risking her doing a bunk and getting away with her part in more than one death. Skilled investigat...