Welcome to the first edition of My Favourite Reads for 2018!

I thought I’d get lots of reading done in January but nup. Too many other things going on. I also seem to have had a bit of a crime/thriller/horror binge. No idea why. Usually there’s at least one romance on my reading list but not last month. Guess I must’ve been in a thrillery mood.

VERY hard to choose a favourite though, because all four reads were excellent, but I nominate…

The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor

This was a fantastic read. The Chalk Man hooked me from the opening pages and didn’t let go.

It’s a bit cross genre. A thriller mixed with crime, mystery and horror, and just the kind of thing I adore, especially when the storytelling is of this quality. The writing was brilliant too. If the author had been listed as Stephen King I wouldn’t have been at all surprised. Yup, it was that good.

Set in a small village in England, The Chalk Man swaps between the present and the mid-eighties, when Eddie, the narrator, was a young boy, riding his bike around town with his mates, doing all the things that young boys do. When they discover a dismembered body, life is never the same for any of them.

Cool plot twists, well-written characters, great writing and a satisfying ending. Loved it.

The Mayfly by James Hazel

Another cracking read, also featuring the discovery of a mutilated body in the woods. The Mayfly also switches between time periods, in this case between the present and World War II, and has the same cross genre elements as The Chalk Man along with lots of plot twists. That’s where the similarities end though. This is a very different book.

The Mayfly introduces us to Charlie Priest, a far from average lawyer and who I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of in future books. Charlie suffers from dissociate disorder which adds extra challenge to his already highly challenging predicament, i.e. he’s a suspect in a gruesome murder.

Great stuff.

The Deep by Michaelbrent Collings

I’ve been wanting to read this book for a couple of years now, after I heard horror writer Michaelbrent Collings speak about writing on a webcast. I was so impressed with what he had to say it left me determined to read one of his books, and The Deep seemed popular and something I’d enjoy. It just took me longer to get around to than I thought!

And enjoy I did. I adore horror novels anyway, but what made The Deep such fun was the storytelling. The pace made it very hard to put down, and every character was intriguing. I LOVED Haeberle. He was brilliantly bonkers.

I’m going to have to read more of Collings’ books. Like J.A Konrath’s, they are smack in my zone.

The Marsh King’s Daughter by Karen Dionne

The Marsh King’s Daughter has a fab premise. The heroine Helena’s mother is an abductee, lured off the street as a teenager and taken into the Michigan wilderness where she’s forced into sexual and domestic servitude. Brought up in a home where violence and brutality are normal and survival skills learned early, Helena eventually gets away. Her father is caught. Helena buries her past as deep as it will go and tries to make a normal life.

Then her father escapes.

High stakes, great setting, a fantastic strong heroine and a page-turning plot. A blast.

What reads have you enjoyed lately?