What I've been reading in June

 I've read a variety of books this month, so shall we start with the one that my daughter lent me as she hadn't started it and said I could take on holiday?

This was a very unusual book.  Broken Light by Joanne Harris.  It took me quite a while to get into it and there were a few times in the early chapters when I wasn't sure I was going to continue with it as it was a little strange!

Bernie Moon is a woman going through the menopause and blaming her hormones on some of the weird sensations she is having.  A young woman is murdered in a park near to where Bernie lives and it reignites a 'gift' that Bernie discovered when she was young.  She can enter people's minds (she refers to it as looking inside their house) and change tiny things that have life altering consequences.  

There is an amusing side to how her husband's creepy friend from the gym views women after Bernie has been inside his 'house'.  Of course none of the strange things that that happen to him is his fault, clearly women are secretly slipping some kind of drug into his protein health drinks!

Although there were parts of the book I enjoyed, I'm not sure that I will recommend this too highly as it really did have some strange chapters!

Next up was The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling)

I had watched a season of the Strike tv series so could easily visualise Cormoran Strike and Robin.  I really enjoyed how their relationship grows and how they complement one another in solving the crime.

A model falls to her death and it is widely believed to be a case of suicide.  But her brother approaches Strike with the belief that she had not taken her own life and asks him to investigate the case.  As he carefully unravels the last moments before she died it becomes obvious that things are not as they seem and this is quite likely a case of murder.  But who is the murderer?  There are plenty of likely suspects and the characters are so well described, from the eccentric fashion designer, to the jealous members of her family and the 'bad boy' boyfriend who has a tempestuous relationship with her.  However, when the true murderer was revealed, I was more than a little surprised!

A good read, and I will probably soon download book 2 in the series.  

Then onto my next holiday read, Game of Lies by Clare Mackintosh.

This book is set in the Welsh mountains and revolves around the filming of a reality TV show.  Seven contestants compete in what they think will be a survival challenge with the winner taking home a life changing amount of money.  However, the premise of the show is not what they have been led to believe.  Every contestant has a secret, one which will affect them and the lives of those they love if they are made public.  Each night, someone's secret will be revealed.  

Anxiety levels are high with people's lives being turned upside down as secrets are revealed and contestants leave the show. Then the producer of the show is murdered.  Each contestant has an alibi, and each has a good reason to want to silence Miles for good and ensure that their secrets are not revealed.  

It is easy to visualise the format of the show, kind of 'I'm a Celebrity ...' in a forested area by a Welsh lake.  So many suspects, but who had the opportunity to carry out the crime?  

I enjoyed this, it was easy to read and I liked the characters of the police force who struggle to put all the pieces together.  It wasn't until the end that I realised that I had already read the first book that introduces the detective Ffion Morgan so I should have recognised her earlier!

Finally, the third in the series of Housemaid books, The Housemaid is Watching by Freida McFadden

I was waiting for this to be published as I’d enjoyed the first two books so much.  We find Millie and Enzo twelve years after we last saw them.  They are now married with two children, Ada and Nico, and moving from their city apartment to a house on Long Island.

A nice house in a safer environment, what could possibly go wrong? Well, the neighbours don’t seem to be particularly friendly, with the strange anxiety ridden lady opposite watching their every move from her windows and the wife of the neighbours next door who seems rather too interested in Enzo. Add to that mix a cleaner who Suzette from next door insists they employ but who acts very suspiciously.

When someone in the street dies the evidence seems to be pointing towards either Millie or Enzo and Millie discovers things about her husband’s past that he had kept hidden.

Although you can read this as a stand-alone book, it is better if you know the back story of the two main characters and the return of someone from book 1.  I did enjoy this but I felt it was the weaker of the three books.  That said, I found it hard to put down at times and am pleased to have read the final book of the series!

So there we go, a mixed bag this month!