distressedPerfect Liars by Rebecca Reid
16 years ago best friends Nancy, Georgia and Lila did something unspeakable at their boarding school. Now, one of them is showing troubling signs of emotional disturbance from the toxic legacy of secrets and lies. Over the course of a dinner party, despicable people are unswervingly grim. This was good and full of people who take rapturous joy and cold amusement in their cruel acts. This is a tale of unsentimental friends who show no mercy and are full of unspeakable darkness.
Best Line:
“Being removed from whatever was going on and deliberately excluded, forced to sit and listen to everyone else having fun.”
~
The Turn Of The Key by Ruth Ware
From the author the good 'The Lying Game' and the bad 'In A Dark, Dark Wood' and 'The Death Of Mrs Westaway' comes this inept modern gothic tale told in 'letter' format. An idiot woman applies for a nanny job in a smart house in remote Scotland.
The hellion brats treat her as a threat, she fears there is a ghost in the attic and succumbs to despondency. There is a mean housekeeper whose only apparent purpose is to stare silently and menacingly. The triple twist ending is ridiclious and this causes diminishing interest. The scale of the brats anger toward the new nanny is OTT.
There are stirred up tensions, unnecessary tensions, a huge amount of anger and ill will as spoilt brats smile mockingly and say and do many terrible things as they treat their nanny in a particularly demeaning fashion and will do anything to upset her. This was neither cold not gripping. The nanny is oddly powerless in the face of disgraceful, deliberate interference and malicious troublemaking which leads to agonising consequences for her.
Best Lines:
“Weed out weirdos.”
“Holding forth as if there was nothing in the world so important as his inconsequential problems.”
~
Sherlock Holmes: The Vanishing Man by Philip Purser-Hallard
Ever since Titan Books went from republishing old out of print Sherlock Holmes novels to publishing new ones, the quality has taken a dip. It is 1896 and Holmes investigates a psychic who vanished from a locked room. This starts out promisingly but does downhill as various idiot plots and characters are trotted out.
Watson lurks. Isn't it a bit early for the spirtualist craze? There is moral judgement and Sherlock Holmes authors are particularly sensitive to changes in the status quo: it is always the reign of Victoria and the duo always live in 221B Baker Street. Watson is forever loyal to Holmes. The idiot plot and chronic lack of intellectual stimulation is highly detrimental to readers.
Best Lines:
“A rustic's curiosity.”
“Messianic pretensions.”
“Scandalous plays that had outraged the morals of society.”
“I fear you underestimate the phantasmagorical effect of cocaine.”
“Ran mad.”
“Perform murder.”
“Horrific warning.”
“Remained both silent and unseen.”