One Word Kill by Mark Lawrence

 Ah, the 1980's. I must say I do have a penchant for stories set in this decade - probably because this was the time of my youth so I guess it brings back memories of then.

Anyhoo, to the story. Our hero is Nick and as we join his story things are not looking good for him as he has just found out he has leukemia. In the plus side he and his friend's D and D group have a new member...and it's a...GIRL, Mia 😱.

When a familiar looking man starts following Nick things start to get weird. He tells them they have a mission of sorts that they need to complete in order to save Mia.

From his previous works I've known for a while that Mark Lawrence is an excellent teller of tales but with this new series he has, in my opinion, stepped it up a gear. Maybe it's because I was a teen at the same time as the characters but this story really spoke to me.

And then there's the ending, the three very last words put a grim on my face that was still there 8 hours later (I'd finished the book just as I arrived at work, that's how I know that).
I'm really looking forward to where this story will go with the rest of the series - and I've just seen book 2, Limited Wish, is up on NetGalley so I'll find out soonerrather than later.

One Word Kill 6/5* (it was already 5/5* before that punch the air punching ending which deserved an extra star so, my blog, my rules)

You Die Next by Stephanie Marland - a blogtour review

 Welcome to the final stop on the blog tour for Stephanie Marland's 'You Die Next'.

The premise here, Urban Explorers being hunted down after a grim discovery on one of their 'excursions' puts this thriller well into the dark side of crime fiction. Add to this a detective, (DI Dominic Bell) and his former partner (amateur sleuth Clementine Starke) both coming at the case from different angles and initially not even knowing they were looking at the same mystery what you have here is the very definition of a page turner.

This is very much a tale of obsession, especially from the point of view of the two leads. They are apart mainly because Starke was (and still is) a very intense person but are they better apart than together?

What worked for me was the fact that the Urban Explorers all used fake nicknames for their broadcasted ventures so while none of their online viewers knew their real identities neither does the reader so the mystery is harder to solve (and a few red herrings helped too).

With the added unsolved side stories of Starke trying to solve the mystery of who framed her father and DI Bell investigating corruption in the police this series should hopefully run for a bit yet.

So, how good was it? I tore through this in a couple of days and finished it at stupid o'clock in the morning as I had to know how it ended and who was responsible. That's how good it was. This was my first time reading Stephanie Marland but it certainly won't be my last.

As always, many thanks to Alexandra Layt at Orion for inviting me to take part in this tour and please have a look at the other posts by the other bloggers who have taken part.