BEST BOOKS 2022 PART 4

Something always goes wrong! In some strange way, part 3 of my blog went live immediately just when I found out how to schedule. So you may see Parts 3, 1, and 2 in that order. This is the last one which hopefully will go out on 19^th December.

I’ve never understood why some people just don’t read. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have a book in my hand, even before I began school. Books take you backwards and forwards in time, to places you will never go or have never visited. They teach you, stretch your mind and open up the whole universe.

Why not give someone a book this Christmas, maybe even one of mine!

TAINTED WINE   Linda Watkins

This was an intriguing story for how can you defend an accused when every bit of evidence points to her guilt? I couldn’t work out how the investigator could ever wriggle out of this one.

The body of a vintner is found among the vines at the renowned Fauchér Winery, a corkscrew lodged deeply in his throat. The primary suspect – Jessica Fauchér, heiress to the winery fortune, The San Francisco law firm of Jacobs, Felder, and Smith takes on the task of representing the young heiress and Steve Daniels, who works for them as an investigator, is assigned the task of determining her guilt or innocence. Is she a cold-blooded murderer or just a victim of circumstance? Will the revelations Steve uncovers about her past foreshadow an even darker future? And, will Steve get caught in the web of lies that is being spun around him?

MEANS TO DECEIVE    Alex Craigie

I am a great fan of this independent writer and this is her third book, although I’ve just discovered she published a novella this autumn which I downloaded immediately. Means to Deceive is a psychological thriller another of my favourite genres.

Eighteen months ago, Gwen Meredith left the job she loved and came back to Pembrokeshire to help support her irritable and increasingly confused grandmother.
But someone is pursuing a vendetta against her.

As the attacks become more malicious, her old anxieties begin to build.
She’s attracted to her new neighbour who is keen to help…but can she trust him?

THE BAG CARRIER  Stephen Leather

Years ago I was an avid fan of Stephen Leather and then somehow he slipped off my radar. Then I rediscovered his books and I’ve read several this year. I’ve chosen the Bag Carrier as it shines an uncomfortable but probably accurate picture of modern-day Britain. Food for thought.

A dead body in the prayer hall of a mosque isn’t the best start to the day for anyone.
But for Detective Inspector Harold Porter it’s all in a day’s work – he’s a Murder Detective with the Metropolitan Police’s Homicide and Serious Crimes Command.
The problem is that DI Porter has been given a new partner – a young Muslim detective by the name of Mohammed Salim Nasri.
Nasri and Porter are both British and they are both cops, but they look at the world – and the case – from completely different viewpoints.

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