bethreadscrime's reviews
290 reviews

I refuse to believe this is a debut – surely a pseudonym reveal is coming, which would be apt! 

𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘈𝘳𝘦 𝘍𝘢𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘐𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘥 is a glorious locked-room mystery, dripping with pop culture references, from 𝘗𝘴𝘺𝘤𝘩𝘰's infamous knife to 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘥's Lucille. Fans of Agatha Christie, Alex Pavesi’s 𝘌𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘋𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴, the 𝘒𝘯𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘖𝘶𝘵 series and those who grew up playing 𝘊𝘭𝘶𝘦𝘥𝘰 will devour this.

Six thriller authors are invited to an exclusive writers' retreat hosted by the elusive J. R. Alastor, an anonymous literary legend. But when one of them turns up dead, it becomes clear that the parlour games at play are far deadlier than expected. 

Expertly plotted and entertaining, this book is an absolute blast. There are a lot of moving parts, but the writing flows effortlessly, making it an easy-to-digest thriller. I had so much fun reading and pretending to be Hercule Poirot/Benoit Blanc whilst doing so. I am incredibly proud of one of my theories too 🔍 

Thank you to Bantam for the gifted proof copy and readalong goodies. 

A wonderfully fresh and original debut from Jenny Morris. 

Thea is just an ordinary person – until she gains the ability to see how long someone has left to live. But then she discovers something even more shocking: she can take years/months/days from one person and gift them to another. As she experiments with her newfound power, her choices seem justifiable at first, but she soon realises that morality isn’t as clear-cut as she thought. She gave me Light Yagami vibes. Like 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘦, Thea finds herself wielding immense power over life and death as the line between good intentions and dangerous obsession blurs. Is Thea truly saving lives, or is she inadvertently becoming a serial killer?

With a clever plot full of unexpected twists and an ending that will stay with you long after you close the book, this witty debut thriller will have you questioning mortality and leave you wondering – what would you do in Thea's place?

Thank you to the Likely Suspects for the proof and Random Things Tours for the eARC in order to take part on the tour.

This is Alice Feeney’s seventh book, but the first I’ve read – and I’ve definitely been missing out!

Beautiful Ugly centres around writer Grady, whose wife disappeared a year ago under mysterious circumstances. Struggling with writer’s block, his agent offers him a lifeline: a free extended stay at a writer’s retreat cabin she inherited on the Isle of Amberley, off the Scottish Highlands.

The book features chapters from both Grady’s point of view and his wife Abby’s, before her disappearance. On the island, Grady is haunted by the image of Abby and the island setting adds an eerie atmosphere to the mystery.

This is a gripping thriller that kept me hooked throughout. The end in particular had a part that really made me smile! Genius.

Thank you so much to Tandem for including me in their Thrills & Chills Book Club. There couldn’t be a more “me” club and everyone involved is so lovely.

For the next six months I’ll be channeling my inner Veronica Mars while we investigate the very best new thriller releases from Thomas & Mercer, an imprint of Amazon Publishing.

The first case we were assigned to work was 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘎𝘪𝘳𝘭. This had me hooked, it was hard to put down and stick to the agreed readalong schedule. Indeed some detectives even put in some over time and read ahead as we couldn't wait to find out what had happened! Discussing theories with the group made it even more fun, especially seeing which ones turned out to be right.

This is a fictionalised true crime novel that makes you think about the ethics of consuming real-life crime stories. Karen’s childhood friend and first love, Aaron, has spent the last decade in prison. He turned out to be the serial killer known as the Bagman – and Karen was the one who put him away. Now, another girl has gone missing, and the infamous but unpublished Bagman symbol has been found at the scene. This drives Karen to return home to South Yorkshire and confront her past. Real-life cases, infamous criminals, and the women linked to them are woven into the narrative, making Karen’s story feel all the more real.

I loved this. Such a strong start to our book club! Thank you again to Tandem for including me.

Being set in Yorkshire and featuring aspects like FGM which I think are important to highlight - I really wanted to like this book but I'm struggling with the writing style so parking this one for now.

Possibly one of the strongest opening chapters. I initially loved the writing style, Cora is a great main character and her job as a crime scene cleaner plus the killings are interesting. However I found the pace slowed a little and wasn't as keen on the ghostly elements that are introduced. 

Not for me personally. Storyline wasn't for me and didn't enjoy main characters descriptions of women

Loved it and my theory was right! 

Lewis is a new-to-me author but has written 50 books to date, spanning different genres! Nothing to See Here falls into the thriller category. The story follows podcaster Cristy as she rebuilds her life after separating from her husband and pivots to podcasting to revive her career and give herself some distance work-wise from her ex.

Her latest project is the sixteen-year-old Kellon Manse cold case in which 3 people where murdered: Lexie Gordon, her mother and her therapist. Lexie is a mother of two and on the same day as her murder, her 10 year old daughter Amelia disappeared. Suspicion intinally fell on her husband David but CPS never managed to bring him to trial. The launch of each new episode of the podcasts, encourages people to come out of the woodwork with tips and theories. Despite the obvious mother/daughter and friend relationships between the victims, they are also linked by the same butterfly necklace and talks of branding and cults... There's a dark backstory behind why Lexie left university too.

At 512 pages this is on the lengthy side and I personally felt it could be less drawn out. The story has dark and intriguing undertones but the pacing was too slow for me.