Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: The Book Club Murders by Alan Gorevan

Alan Gorevan is an intellectual property lawyer and a crime fiction writer from Dublin with some 15 books to his credit. He published The Book Club Murders independently in October 2023.

Izzie O’Brien has had it with her controlling possessive boyfriend. She waited until he was at work on her day off and packed everything she owned into her tiny Fiat and drove south to Dun Laoghaire, a former fishing village where her aunt Elaine had lived. Elaine died only 10 weeks before in a household accident and she left her terraced house to Izzie, who was grateful for a place to hide from Adam, whom she found increasingly frightening.

Adam’s possessiveness had been worrying but the final straw was when Izzie discovered Adam’s previous girlfriend had been murdered and Adam had been the primary suspect. Unfortunately she could easily believe it. Both her aunt and her friends had warned her about Adam but she was so smitten that she could not hear what they were saying. Now she understood everything they were telling her.

Louise, one of the Izzie’s new neighbors, watched Adam throwing a fit on Izzie’s doorstep. After he gave up and left, but not before smashing her car window, Louise invited Izzie to her house for the weekly book club, where she was warmly welcomed by Kate, Tess, Dee, and Melanie. The group was shocked and stunned when Kate died on the way home that night, stumbling onto the rocks below the pier where the garda assumed she’d wandered after drinking a bit too much.

With multiple narrative threads the story and characters in this book could be hard to keep straight but the various subplots come together neatly. The major account is Izzie’s attempt to remove Adam from her life and move on amid his determination to force her to return. The rapid fire pacing and the crisp writing are propulsive and I raced through this book without realizing how quickly I was reading. Highly rated on Amazon and Goodreads. For fans of domestic thrillers and strong characters.

 

 

·                Publisher: ‎Independently published (September 30, 2023)

·                Language: ‎English

·                Paperback: ‎408 pages

·                ISBN-13: ‎979-835381112

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3WuyMUG

 

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2024

 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

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Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: The Family Next Door by Sally Hepworth

Sally Hepworth is a writer who lives in Melbourne, Australia. The Family Next Door (St. Martins Press, 2018) is a domestic thriller, her fourth novel and her first book set in Melbourne. Unlike most of the books I read that are set in Australia, this one could actually have taken place in almost any Westernized country.

Pleasant Court is a cul-de-sac of red brick houses in a highly desirable neighborhood near the beach, where children play safely in the street while their mothers visit. When Isabelle moved in, the neighbors thought it was odd that a single woman would want to live in such a family-oriented area. No one new had moved in since Essie’s mother had bought a house there to be closer to Essie and her family. Essie had a bad bout of post-natal depression after her first child and spent some time in hospital to recover. Her mother and her husband are always watching her for fear of another breakdown. Fortunately Essie and her husband Ben don’t mind having her mother around; she fits easily into their family and she is a doting grandmother.

Isabelle tells Essie that she works for a nonprofit that looks for missing children and supports their families during the search. Essie is intrigued by Isabelle and increasingly spends time with her to the point that her family notices. Her mother especially does not like this new friendship.

It’s hard to say much more without giving away plot points, although I can say this is one of the least violent books I have read in months. No murders, although I kept waiting for at least one. Crimes are definitely committed, just not the ones I usually read about. Almost exactly halfway through, a major reveal turned the story on its end and from there it’s one surprise after another. A leisurely, almost meandering, build-up to the plot twist and then a tsunami of action. 

This book was not at all what I expected. Fascinating and highly credible. Recommended for crime fiction readers who need a break from bloodletting and for fans of domestic thrillers.

Starred review from Library Journal.

 

·         ASIN: ‎ B074ZNVPWH

·         Publisher: ‎ St. Martin's Press; Reissue edition (March 6, 2018)

·         Publication date: ‎ March 6, 2018

·         Language: ‎ English

·         File size: ‎ 4366 KB 

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2022

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

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Her twin brother Dave moves in to help her through this. Iris, Dave, and their tough dad meet with a representative from the airline, Ann Margaret Myers. When Myers offers Iris a settlement, her anger explodes and she rips up the check.

When she begins to uncover secret after secret that her husband had kept from her, she begins to have trouble mourning him, realizing she didn’t know who he was. As she discovers more about him, her shock increases and the dark past reaches out to snare her.

Reviewed by Kaye George, Author of Death on the Trek, for Suspense Magazine.