DO NOT READ THIS AT BEDTIME!

So book number 7 is one not to be read just before falling asleep (as I did)
This review contains spoilers so if you do want to read the book don't read the end section (it's safe to read the part after the **)

#7 Light Shining in the Forest by Paul Torday

I love crime thrillers, there's nothing better than a good detective novel or an episode of CSI! It's my favoured form of brain numbing. This book is written by the same author who wrote Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, that now mildly famous film. I haven't read it but i'd heard good things, so when I saw he had written a thriller and it was on offer on Kindle, I purchased it. I couldn't put it down, it's an absolute page turner, and whilst it was no surprise whodunit I devoured it!
The book revolves around the statistic that every 5 minutes a child in Britain goes missing. A small percentage of those children are never found again; most are runaways, but some children that are suspected to be runaways may not be...

*SPOILER ALERT*
Do not read this book at night. I read the last fifth in one sitting at bedtime- couldn't stop till I put it down, but the taxidermy and embalmment of children is something you do not want to be in your head before dreaming!
*END OF SPOILERS*

I give this book a 3.5/5 because there were some elements that I just felt didn't really work.

Death by Crime Fiction

There are a lot of things I immensely enjoy in life. Some of these are perfectly reasonable and normal things like spending time with friends, red wine and travelling. Some are slightly more unusual; board games, playing violin and McDonald's chips dipped in McFlurry's.
Then there are my guilty pleasures; those things you really shouldn't love but can't get enough of and are beyond the point of caring. I have a fair few of these but this post deals with two specifically;

Crime Fiction and anything about the Amish!

Imagine my excitement when I found a crime fiction series where the police detective grew up Amish and all the murders involve this small, curious, Pennsylvanian Dutch speaking community in Ohio!

#2 Gone Missing by Linda Castillo

I devoured this in two days of light reading and I'm not ashamed to say that I enjoyed every second of it. Even when I felt like i'd read the same evidence about three times, told in three different ways and the police still hadn't clocked it (I'd nailed the murderer in the first chapter for pete's sake!)

This book is really everything guilty pleasure crime fiction should be; terrible one liners, cliche relationships and a few too many murders than a small town should really have (a la Midsommer!)

In a few weeks the details will blur and the characters will depart my mind and it shall just be another notch on my crime thriller bedpost!

Title: Gone Missing
Author: Linda Castillo
Medium: Paperback
Publishing Details: 2012, Macmillan
Stars: **/*****

#1 Safe House by Chris Ewan

The first book I read this year was also a crime thriller. Set on the Isle of Man, this one was more literary than the one above. The characters were multi-dimensional and they operated within a much tighter plot with more twists and a case that kept you guessing to the end. Safe House by Chris Ewan is one of those CT's that can trick you into believing it's Pulitzer prize worthy!

Title: Safe House
Author: Chris Ewan
Medium: Kindle
Publishing Details: 2012, Faber and Faber
Stars: ***/*****