Sam's Fireside - Cosy Book Reviews & Recommendations

Warning! The dog dies! This isn't a spoiler because it's in the synopsis - I just never read them! However, it happens early on, and I soon got past that tragic event as the story picked up pace and, despite the murder, death, blood, guts and gore, I absolutely could not get enough, I was eager to find out what happened, and those pages just weren't turning fast enough!  I had no idea how I'd feel about this book, Russell is a new-to-me author and the subject, a little outside my comfort zone. There definitely aren't any cute bookshops and happy-ever-afters in The Hero Virus! Think thriller, crime and suspense with a dystopian undertone, the world looks like it's going to end, and that might just well be due to just one man. I enjoyed it from beginning to end, it's fast-paced, entertaining, has great character development and I didn't know how it was all going to end. At one point I thought there might be a sequel coming. The author wrapped it all up ni...

I've lost track of how many times I've read this book, and all I know is that Daphne du Maurier has been a favourite of mine since I was a teenager. So when Jamaica Inn was chosen as our January read for the classics chat I'm in, I couldn't wait to disappear again onto the wild Cornish moors! This is such a good story, and I'd forgotten a lot of what happened. I remembered the gist, the Inn in the middle of Bodmin Moor, the smuggling and the wrecks at sea, but I'd forgotten many of the characters and how influential they are to the story.  Daphne du Maurier has an incredible imagination, her vivid descriptions of the dank and dreary Jamaica Inn and the wilderness and inhospitable Bodmin Moor are something which will stay with the reader, long after the last page has been turned.  Jamaica Inn is a gothic, dark, gruesome and twisted novel, and so much more than many people perceive it. There is nothing fun and fanciful about Du Maurier's writing, so if that...

⭐⭐⭐⭐ I’m not sure whether I’ve been living under a rock for the last forty-odd years but I knew nothing about the Jonestown cult and the horrific things that went on there so when I read the synopsis for The Girl From Jonestown by Sharon Maas, I knew I needed to find out what had happened. Inspired by actual events, Sharon Maas sympathetically retells the story of how the cult came about and what happened in the following few years. To say I was shocked to the core was an understatement. Few things shock me these days, but The Girl From Jonestown made me shudder and recoil and really just wonder how and why!  Our protagonist, Zoe, was determined to find out all about the noises she hears in the night. Other people just wanted to brush everything under the carpet and let people get on with their lives, regardless of right and wrong. I know this is true of people and places everywhere in the world, but looking the other way doesn’t always mean it’s the right thing to do.  Sharon...

⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe is based on the horrific disaster which occurred, in the coal mining village of Aberfan, Wales on 21 October 1966. Embalmers were the unsung heroes of Aberfan, with volunteers rushing to the small Welsh village to ensure that the 116 children and 28 adults who perished were cleaned, identified and embalmed to keep them from deteriorating and thus saving their loved ones from further distress. This book follows the fictitious character of William Lavery, from his young life as a chorister in Cambridge, through to him working for the family business as an embalmer which led him to Aberfan, right after he first qualified. The story jumps from 1966 and Aberfan, back to when William was a child and then forward again as he learns how to deal with the aftermath of the tragedy he witnessed and how it affected his life moving forward. It has been clear from the book, that Jo Browning Wroe has carried out a great deal of research on the role of the...