The Devil’s Work by Mark Edwards

The Devil’s Work by Mark Edwards

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Devil’s Work was an enjoyable reading experience with a clever plot and interesting characters.

I seem to keep choosing books that have a dual narrative, past and present events being woven together to create mystery and questions a-plenty. It’s not on purpose, but it’s such a common style that I’m finding it hard to find a book that doesn’t have this! Don’t get me wrong, it is something I like and it worked incredibly well here, but with my next book choice, I’m hoping it doesn’t have this because I’m getting a bit fed up with this concept. (For now).

Mark Edwards uses clear, concise language that tells a quite complex tale that I could follow without any confusion. Sometimes these multiple time lines in books muddle up my brain and I often find I’m back-tracking to help boost my understanding. That was not the case here, Edwards created brilliant characters that I could clearly visualise, whether they were in present day or past.

Only a three star rating though, well, let me explain. I think I’m reading too many psychological thrillers at the moment. It’s one of my favourite genres and I’m becoming rather difficult to please. I’m also getting too good at predicting outcomes, hidden agendas, red herrings and sussing out the unreliable narratives. I’m looking for more WTF’s and, I hate to say it, but I’m getting a little bit bored of this genre!! 😮

The Devil’s Work is the first book I’ve read by this author and I will undoubtedly read more from him in the future based on my enjoyment levels.

Overall, a good, but sadly, not gripping read.

Thank you to the author, Mark Edwards, the publisher, Thomas & Mercer for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review via NetGalley.

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Kiss Me, Kill Me by James Carol

Kiss Me, Kill Me by James Carol

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I tend to read a lot from the psychological thriller genre, I enjoy books that get right into my head and mess it up a bit with twists and turns and WTF’s.

Kiss Me, Kill Me was an enjoyable read, the first half being it’s better half. As the story progressed, I felt that it went off on an unexpected tangent, which kept my interest piqued all the way through to the conclusion, but at times, it did get a bit far-fetched for my liking.

The characters behaviour and reasonings were just bordering on unbelievable. Putting myself in Zoe’s shoes, the main protagonist, I felt that her thought processes and decisions didn’t properly reflect the sheer seriousness and intensity of the situation. She was a bit wet behind the ears, shall we say.

I also found that the dialogue didn’t have a huge amount of depth, making the characters undeveloped and slightly uninteresting. The repetitive use of ‘keep you safe’ started to get on my nerves after I’d read it for the tenth time.

Now, it sounds like I’m properly dissing this book, but rest assured, I most definitely am not. As I said at the start of my review, I enjoyed reading this. I REALLY enjoyed reading this. These kinds of thrillers are pouring out all over the show lately, and I’m a tough reader to please in this genre, because I feel like I’ve read it all before.

Kiss Me, Kill Me was different in that it’s unusual spiral of events were unexpected and never have I come across a psycho-thrill that went off on such a crazy-assed tangent! For that reason alone, my brain was getting a good old mashing that was keeping me turning those pages.

I’d like to thank the publishers Bonnier Zaffre for sending me an advanced readers copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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