The Blood Detective by Dan Waddell

As dawn breaks over London, the body of a young man is discovered in a windswept Notting Hill churchyard and the killer has left DCI Grant Foster a cryptic clue. However it’s not until the clue is handed to Nigel Barnes, a specialist in compiling family trees, that the message becomes spine-chillingly clear. It leads Barnes back to 1879 – and the victim of an infamous Victorian serial killer. When a second body is discovered, Foster needs Barnes’ skills more than ever. The murderer’s clues run along the tangled bloodlines that lie between 1879 and now. And if Barnes is right about his blood-history, the killing spree has only just begun...(from the publisher).
Not a bad book at all, demonstrating that the past is still part of the present. Just be mindful of who your ancestors were and what they got up to! This was Dan's first novel, and has a second one out titled Blood Atonement that features Barnes again. Will be reading that one soon...
Rating - I give this 4/5 Not bad!
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Reviewed by Michelle @ admin

Nineteen minutes, by Jodi Picoult

"In nineteen minutes, you can mow the front lawn, colour your hair, watch a third of a hockey game...In nineteen minutes, you can stop the world, or you can just jump off it. In nineteen minutes, you can get revenge."
Jodi Picoult, one of my favourite authors, specialises in characters outside the norm. In Nineteen Minutes, she gets inside the head of a young boy, bullied since kindergarten, who turns on his tormentors with horrifying results. That all too common phenomenon, the school shooting, leaves shattered lives and so many questions. Whose fault is it - Peter the shooter's? His parents? The bullies? There are no easy answers, and Picoult does not offer excuses, but lets the characters tell their own stories.
This is a shocking tale, well-written and so absorbing I read it almost in one hit. I had read it before but forgotten the details, so came to it almost afresh and admiring of Picoult's ability to deal with difficult issues and keep the surprises going to the last pages.
Rating - I give this 5/5
GREAT!!

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Reviewed by Jan @ Ballarat branch

A song in the daylight by Paullina Simons

Larissa Stark is a beautiful woman who plays many roles in her life: wife, mother, devoted friend. She has everything she ever wanted, until a chance encounter with a stranger changes Larissa′s idyllic existence forever, leading her to question all the things she once believed were true. Faced with impossible choices and contemplating the unthinkable, Larissa struggles with an eternal mystery: how does one woman follow a divided heart? Spanning the upscale suburbs of New Jersey, the slums of Manila and the desolate beauty of the Australian outback, A Song in the Daylight is a story of the bonds that unite us and the desires that drive us apart (from the publisher).
I have been reading this book since Christmas on and off as it is a rather long book (nearly 770 pages), and was at first a little hard to get into. I got to the end and was taken by surprise by the way it finished, but I'm not sure I enjoyed the ending. To have been on the journey through the whole book for the end result, well, I felt disappointed with one element of it.
Rating - I give this 3/5 Not bad...
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Reviewed by Michelle @ admin

Subterranean by James Rollins

Travel To The Bottom Of The Earth...to place you never dreamed existed. Beneath The Ice...a hand-picked team of specialists makes its way toward the centre of the world. They are not the first to venture into this magnificent subterranean labyrinth. Those they follow did not return. Over The Rocks...Across The Yawning Caverns...Beyond The Black River...You are not alone. Into The Darkness...where breathtaking wonders awaits you - and terrors beyond imaging...Revelations that could change the world - things that should never be disturbed... At The Bottom Of The Earth Is The Beginning. Keep Moving...toward a miracle that cannot be...toward a mystery older than time (from the publisher).
I seem to have developed an addiction to these kind of books; bit of action and adventure, bit of mystery as to what is out there, some ancient ruins, and some romance that is pushing the 'blah, get on with the story' boundary. I particularly liked the way this book ended, so unlike most other books that have ancient ruins in them.
Rating - I give this 3.5/5 Not bad!
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Reviewed by Michelle @ admin