BAD LOVE by Jonathan Kellerman

Jonathan Kellerman writes murder thrillers, featuring child psychologist Alex Delaware, and his good friend, LAPD Detective Milo Sturgis. Together they solve crimes that would have lesser mortals stumped. Nevertheless, they are good, gripping reads with very well thought out plots. This is quite an old book from the earlier years, written in 1993. There have been many more since then to choose from.

Alex earns his bread and butter counselling and evaluating children who have been either involved in a crime or abuse of some sort, or whose parents were involved somehow in a crime. In the middle of

one such case, where Alex is evaluating two young girls whose father is in jail for killing their mother, he receives a parcel containing an audio tape of someone screaming horrendously, followed by a childlike voice reciting a rhyme. The phrasing of the rhyme is vaguely familiar, but he cannot place where he heard it before. When Alex runs it by Milo, Milo claims to recognise the words from a previous case, the murder of a social worker several months back. Doing most of the investigating and leg work himself, Alex traces the phrase "Bad Love" back 13 years to a symposium he attended, commemorating the work of a renowned child psychologist who ran a clinic for troubled children and teens.

With Milo's help, he discovers a seemingly random series of violent deaths involving people who all
attended that same symposium. Convinced that it is all connected somehow, Alex investigates further, and finds himself to be a target.

This is a typical Kellerman book, moving at a fast, steady pace towards its gripping climax.

Happy reading!

THE PLAGUE STONE by Gill White

Meadcombe, a picture postcard Devon village, is built around the Plague Stone. A giant piece of rock which tourists come to photograph, this towering landmark is believed to possess magical powers.

One September night, in the village of Meadcombe, 3 wishes are made simultaneously. Marian Law wishes her mother in law Constance would die - tonight. Teenager Melanie Tandy wishes for freedom and Sonia Hanaford wishes she will escape the humiliation of bankruptcy.

By dawn the next day, Constance is dead, Melanie is missing and Sonia is in possession of a cheque for a quarter of a million pounds. Is it magic, some dark force at play? No, not really. Constance was old and senile, so surely her days were numbered. It was merely coincidence she died when she did. Melanie was rebellious, hated her parents, her father who suffers from chronic depression, her ineffective mother who constantly makes excuses for his lack of love and interest in his family. And Sonia, well, simply put, Sonia blackmailed her father in law Stanley for the money that she needed to keep her house, her status and all her comfortable possessions.

But now Melanie is still missing and nobody knows where she could be. And there is the guilt. They are all besieged by guilt. Melanie's mother, Janey, feels guilty for not loving her daughter the way she should have, always putting her sick husband first and trying to make his life easier, guilty because Marian is taking all the attention for herself and away from Janey. Marian feels guilty because she hated Constance, hated the burden of looking after her, being so recently widowed herself and missing her husband, because she knew there was a problem with Constance last night and she didn't bother to go and check up on the old lady, and she saw Melanie talking to someone in a car late last night, and now Melanie is missing. Sonia feels guilty because of what she did to Stanley to get the money out of him and now she is very much afraid that he might have gone off and done something stupid, possibly with Melanie. So the tensions mount, and nothing will ever be the same again in the village of Meadcombe.

As Melanie continues to be missing, so Janey's imagination and fears slowly start to drive her mad. And she begins to plan her revenge on the evil ones who have taken her child...

A dark, scary story of witchcraft and madness, both real and imagined, and a terrible vengeance taken on an unsuspecting village.

Happy reading!

THE LUXE by Anna Godberson

Imagine, if you will, New York City, 1899...
The Luxe tells the story of Society's elite, the parties, the beautiful debutantes, the rich girl, the humble boy, forbidden love, the secrets and scandals ...
Elizabeth Holland is THE debutante of the season, rich, beautiful, and expected by all to snare a proposal of marriage by the richest and most eligible bachelor. But there are many obstacles and pitfalls along the pathway of finding the perfect husband. There is Diana, Elizabeth's younger, rebellious sister, who is not in the least bit interested in doing what is expected of her.
There is Penelope, Elizabeth's best, but rather unsuitable friend, who has her eye on one of the season's most eligible and sought-after bachelors, Henry Schoonmaker, and she will go to any lengths to get him.

There is the secret love of Elizabeth's life, that no one knows about. And then there is the horrifying reality of Elizabeth's father's death and the fact that he left his family less than well-off,
and the security of her mother and sister lies in the success of Elizabeth's marrying a rich man. Her manners and obedience are so firmly bred into her that Elizabeth would never dream of not complying with her mother's wishes. But is she really as obedient as what she appears to be? How determined is she that Manhattan's elite will never discover her secrets: that her family is poor, that she is in love with a servant, that she is a selfish girl likely to ruin her family even more than they were already ruined.

When Henry Schoonmaker, the most eligible bachelor of the year, starts to pay court to her, she knows she should be overwhelmed with gratitude. But when he, rather angrily, proposes to her on his very first visit, she unwillingly accepts, knowing it to be her duty and how happy and relieved her mother will be. She doesn't realise what a tangled web she is involved in, she is in love with Will, her family's groom, Penelope is determined to get Henry back, and Henry, to his own surprise, falls in love with Diana. As the wedding date looms closer, Elizabeth can't help thinking how much simpler everything would be if she could just cease to exist...

This book was a wonderful read, full of hopes and dreams and heartbreaking emotions of falling in love, first love, forbidden love and lost love.

Happy reading!