PURPLE QUEEN FAIRY READS

Sy nopsis : A pril 1964, and the cruelest month is breeding bad weather and worse news. And plenty of disturbing news is coming to Florence detective Inspector Bordelli.Bordelli’s friend, Casimiro, insists he’s discovered the body of a man in a field above Fiesole. Bordelli races to the scene, but doesn’t find any sign of a corpse. Only a couple of days later, a little girl is found at Villa Ventaglio. She has been strangled, and there is a horrible bite mark on her belly. Then another young girl is found murdered, with the same macabre signature.And meanwhile Casimiro has disappeared without a trace. This new investigation marks the start of one of the darkest periods of Bordelli’s life: a nightmare without end, as black as the sky above Florence. This is what I say : I was rather apprehensive to read this title.  It wasn't a thick book but the cover image does remind me of No 1 Ladies Detective Agency Series which I do love.  Such, decided to give it a try.   ...

Synopsis : Lemmer's First Law: Don't get involved. But when Emma le Roux looks at him with pleading eyes, when the roof of his Karoo house needs big repairs, when the cause is good and just, laws can be broken. So he sighs, and says, yes, he'll ride shotgun for two rare black rhinos. Bad decision. Because on a dark and dusty road in Limpopo, they stick a Smith & Wesson Model 500 against his head. They kick him and beat him, they lie, they deceive him, and they steal his Glock, the one with his fingerprints all over it. They should have killed him. And now he goes after them--the start of a trail of violence that will run the length and breadth of a country, and touch many lives. It will leave a trail of blood through the first private-investigation dossier of former cop Mat Joubert. It's a "fifty-five," police slang for a missing persons case. It will stomp fear and horror through the life of Milla Strachan, who walked out on her rich, cheating husband ...

Synopsis : Having received severe head injuries in Iraq, Lieutenant Charles Acland cuts all ties with his former life and moves to London.  Disfigured, alone and unmonitored, he sinks into a private world of guilt and paranoia.  When a customer annoys him in a Bermondsey pub, he attracts the attention of the police, who are investigating three local murders that seem to have been motivated by extreme rage... Under suspicion, Acland is forced to confront the real issues behind his isolation.  How much control does he have over the dark side of his personality?  Do his crippling migraines contribute to his rages?  has he always been the duplicitous chameleon that his ex-fiancee claims? Any why, if he hates women, does he look for a woman for help? This is what I say : I was very pleased to get hold of a copy of this title after greatly enjoyed reading The Shape of Snakes a while ago. The Chameleon's Shadow is a rather different psychotic thriller but while it...

Synopsis : Little Gloria Summers' body has been found, hidden inside two plastic bin bags in a disused warehouse. Somewhere in the city, a child killer is on the loose, free to strike again. Then Emily Morrison vanishes on a sunny Sunday afternoon. A week later there are still no clues. Inspector Charlie Resnick is as appalled as the media. But years of patient police work have taught him a thing or two - including his conviction that those who jump to easy conclusions are often the last ones to solve a crime. This is what I say : I do like Off Minor .  Maybe it's because the story-line deals with a child but whatever it is, it's a good thriller. However, it is rather tragic and sad for the family of the children and maybe it's because of the interest to know what happens to the missing child that will drive readers to cheer for the investigation and hope for a good ending. This is the forth book by the author that features his character, Inspector Charlie...

Synopsis : This New York Times Notable Book begins on a rainy winter night. It takes hours for a black woman known as Mad Annie to die in the gutter. It will take 20 years for the woman who found her to shape her neighbors' racism, the indifference of the police, and her own rage into the truth. November 1978. Britain is on strike. The dead lie unburied, rubbish piles in the streets – and somewhere in West London a black woman dies in a rain-soaked gutter. Her passing would have gone unmourned but for the young woman who finds her and who believes - apparently against reason – that Annie was murdered. But whatever the truth about Annie – whether she was as mad as her neighbours claimed, whether she lived in squalor as the police said – something passed between her and Mrs Ranelagh in the moment of death which binds this one woman to her cause for the next twenty years. But why is Mrs Ranelagh so convinced it was murder when by her own account Annie died without speaking...

The MCO (Movement Control Order) in my country lasted about two months and then subsequently, it was followed by the CMCO (C being conditional). I actually tried out a few new authors during the MCO and CMCO.  Some I read for  just a few pages, some I persevere on for at least 50 to 100 pages but then I just decided that these are not the kind of books that I like and so I gave up on them. For the purpose of recording, here are some of them. They are just not my choice.  This doesn't mean that they are not good.  Just that I didn't like them.  It could mean that someone else out there might enjoy reading them. Just not me. For the record, I read about 13 - 14 books over the MCO period of 2 months (mid March to about mid May).  I didn't keep track of what I read during CMCO as I was at work then.  Probably not much.