Mystery & Suspense Reading Challenge 2012

I have signed up for the Mystery & Suspense Challenge hosted by Book Chick City. I'm planning to read at least 12 mystery and suspense novels in 2012 for this challenge.

Johnny Swanson by Eleanor Updale

 This is the answer to smelly feet - wear a clothes peg on your nose. 11-year-old Johnny Swanson is in business. He's raking in the money with his advertising scams and his agony aunt persona, Ada Ardour, who offers advice on absolutely anything in return for a shilling. But his money-making schemes are getting him in too deep. Everything is spiralling out of control, and now his own mother is in mortal danger. There's only one thing for it: Johnny must assume another role - as undercover detective.

My thoughts: The title character, Johnny, hates being short so when he sees an advert in the newspaper that promises the secret to tallness he steals some money off his mum to send away for the secret. Unfortunately this is a con, but it gives Johnny an idea for his own money-making scheme to help pay back the money he stole and to help his mum pay the rent. He places his own adverts in the paper to trick people into sending him money. Some of his adverts were really clever and funny, and even though he was technically breaking the law I really wanted his plans to work.
Later on the focus of the book shifts as a murder is committed and Johnny's mum is the prime suspect. Johnny knows he must clear his mum's name, even if it means risking getting into trouble himself.

The book is set in 1929 and a lot of the story is centred around Tuberculosis and the treatment of the disease. This historical aspect made for interesting reading and I certainly learned some facts about TB that I didn't know before. But the book is so much more than just a historical story, it's a fun mystery story with a fantastic character who I couldn't help but love.

ISBN: 9780385616423
Publish date: April 2010
Publisher: David Fickling Books
Author website: http://www.eleanorupdale.co.uk/
Book source: Personal collection

Quantum Breach by Mark Powell

As Mark McCabe observed the financial market meltdown in the Dealing Room, his nerves tight and on edge, he felt too old for the game. At 45, why the hell was he doing this, putting himself under such stress, and for what? It had been eight years since he left the regiment. Forex trading was a world in which he felt he did not belong. The adrenaline that fed his veins was risk of a different kind.

Then he receives a call from Brian Stowe, a former Special Forces buddy, now MI5 spook. A suspected money-laundering plot linked to a drug cartel was going on in the very bank that he works. Stowe enlists McCabe and his Singaporean assistant, the highly intelligent and very attractive Ying Lee, a 26-year-old trader, to uncover the money trails.

The chase leads to a terrorist cell known to McCabe from his own murky past, and a deadly game of cat-and-mouse across Asia and the Middle East ensues. Along the way, questions are raised and loyalties become suspect. How is the British government involved? Who is this shadowy MI6 informer, the Rain Angel? Is she with them - or is she against them?

My thoughts: This was a thrilling adventure story set around the international banking world. The money-laundering scam was interesting, I don't know much about the financial world, but everything was explained in a way that I could understand. The investigation, and ultimately the conclusion, were well set up by the author. Although there were hints along the way, the ending was still a surprise for me.

There were some torture scenes, which were a bit uncomfortable to read in places, but not too gruesome.

The characters were well developed, and the author did a great job of introducing aspects of each characters' past that helped to understand why they act the way they do in the book.

I really enjoyed this book. It was full of action and was never boring. I thought it was a really good first novel, and I was really pleased that Mark decided to send it to me for review. He even signed it for me too:

Death in the Stocks by Georgette Heyer

A moonlit night. A sleeping village. And an unaccountable murder.

An English bobby returning from night patrol finds a corpse in evening dress locked in the stocks on a village green. He identifies the body immediately. Arnold Vereker was not a well-loved man, and narrowing down the suspects is not going to be an easy job. The Vereker family are corrupt and eccentric - and hardly cooperative.

It's another case for the resourceful Superintendent Hannasyde, who sets off on the trail of a killer so cunning that even his powers of detection are tested to their limits.

My thoughts: This was an excellent mystery story. When Arnold Vereker's body is found locked in the village stocks the main suspects are his family. I did find the Vereker family a bit annoying and stupid at times, but on the other hand they were quite realistic with real flaws. The whole book is basically the Vereker's discussing how each of them could have been the murderer and it seemed like they were all trying to protect each other by making false statements and confessions.
As the book drew to a close I was convinced I knew who the killer was, but the real killer was a huge surprise!
This book was a great cozy mystery and I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys mysteries that are a bit light-hearted.

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

The Little Stranger follows the strange adventures of Dr. Faraday, the son of a maid who has built a life of quiet respectability as a country doctor. One dusty postwar summer in his home of rural Warwickshire, he is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for more than two centuries, the Georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in decline - its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, the clock in its stable yard permanently fixed at twenty to nine. But are the Ayreses haunted by something more ominous than a dying way of life? Little does Dr. Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become entwined with his.

My thoughts: I really loved this book! Told from Dr. Faraday's point of view, the story tells of the Ayres family and their home, Hundreds Hall. Dr. Faraday loves the house and gradually he becomes more and more involved with Hundreds Hall and the Ayres family.
It's hard to tell what exactly is going on in the house, at first it seems like a ghost but as the story went on and madness crept into the house, I wasn't sure whether it was caused by the supernatural or the psychological elements. 
 
The story is a really good historical novel and I loved the descriptions of the house, even if it was a little creepy! Actually, I think this is one of those books that I'd like to live in, because I loved the house as much as Dr. Faraday did.
 
An extra thing that I liked about this book is that it's set in Warwickshire which is quite close to where I live. In fact at one stage in the story the two women visit Worcester, which is the city where I grew up. It was one of those moments when I was like "Ooh I know that place" lol, it just adds to my enjoyment of a story if I recognise the setting.

Mania by Craig Larsen

Synopsis: On the foggy streets of Seattle, a serial killer known as the Street Butcher is terrorising the city. Newspaper photographer Nick Wilder is accustomed to seeing gruesome homicide scenes. But when the Street Butcher claims Nick's brother his latest casualty, the case suddenly becomes very personal. Determined to find his brother's killer, Nick stumbles into a dizzying labyrinth of deceit and danger. As he digs deeper, Nick discovers his own past holds a key to unmasking a clever, diabolical psychopath. But the real motives behind the murders are as cold and stark as Seattle's winters - and much more blood will spill before Nick learns the horrifying truth.

My thoughts: The book kicks off with a murder, the protagonist, Nick witnesses his brother Sam getting murdered, but his memory is hazy. As the book goes on it jumps backwards and forwards a lot, this is confusing at first but it helps you to understand how Nick is feeling, because he keeps having these blackouts and flashbacks.

The author has done a great job of building up suspense and kept me wondering what was going on, but by about 200 pages in I had a pretty good idea of what the outcome was going to be. Once I got towards the end of the book it was obvious that my suspicions were right, but there was still one big surprise that I hadn’t expected.

I really enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it for other fans of mystery/thrillers

Illusion by Edmond Cheng

Synopsis from back cover: A haunting, a vision, a nasty headache, and a murder… What’s next? Illusion will distort and re-shape your view.

My thoughts: The first chapter begins with us seeing an unknown couple dumping an unconscious man into the sea.

In the second chapter we meet Thomas, and his wife Karen. Everything seems quite normal at this stage in the story. As yet, it is unclear how the first chapter will relate to the rest of the story. But after Thomas is paid a visit by his old friend’s mother, Wai Ha, things start to get weird for Thomas. When he gets home he finds out that Wai Ha has been dead for weeks, and there is no way that it was her that visited him.

Thomas begins to try and solve the mystery of Wai Ha’s visit. Did he imagine it? Is someone playing tricks on him? He doesn’t know. He starts having more visions, and the story takes lots of twists and turns. Thomas finds himself in the frame for murder and his wife is kidnapped. He gets some unexpected help from a mystery man, but is he an illusion too?

I really enjoyed this story. I couldn’t stop reading it! The twists and turns in the plot kept me guessing to the end. Every time I thought I knew what was going to happen, something unexpected would happen instead. Even on the last page there was still one last mystery.

Uncanny Stories by May Sinclair

Synopis from back cover: May Sinclair was an innovator of modern fiction, a late Victorian who was also a precursor to Virginia Woolf. In her Uncanny Stories (1923), Sinclair combines the traditional ghost story with the discoveries of Freud and Einstein. The stories shock, enthral, delight and unsettle.

Two lovers are doomed to repeat their empty affair for the rest of eternity... A female telepath is forced to face the consequences of her actions... The victim of a violent murder has the last laugh on his assailant... An amateur philosopher discovers that there is more to Heaven than meets the eye.

Specially included in this volume is 'The Intercessor' (1911), Sinclair's powerful story of childhood and abandoned love, a tale whose intensity compares with that of the Brontës.

My Thoughts: This book contains eight short stories and an introduction by Paul March-Russell.
The introduction is mostly an analysis of the stories in the book, and would have probably made more sense to me if I'd read it after I'd finished the book.

“Where their Fire is not Quenched” is about two lovers who are having an empty affair and end up having to spend eternity repeating it. I found this story a bit confusing as it jumps through the years quite quickly. It was a bit dull really, just like their affair.

“The Token” is about a man who can’t express his love for his wife, so when she dies she comes back to find out if he really loved her. I enjoyed this story.

“The Flaw in the Crystal” is about a telepathic healer who finds it hard when the person she is healing finds out that she is the one keeping him healthy. This story was ok, but it was dragged out too long in my opinion.

“The Nature of the Evidence” is about a man who takes a new wife after his first wife dies. When he tries to go to his new wife’s bedroom he is visited by the ghost of his old wife.

“If the Dead Knew” is about a man who wishes his mother would hurry up and die, and she does.

“The Victim” is a murder story. A chauffeur murders his master and is then haunted by what he has done. I really liked this story.

“The Finding of the Absolute” is the story of an amateur philosopher who goes to heaven. Some of the ideas of heaven are interesting, but there were too many scientific explanations in this story and I found it confusing.

“The Intercessor” is a haunting story of a house haunted by a little girl who is looking for the love of her mother. This was my favourite story in the whole book, it was quite spooky.

Overall I enjoyed about half of the stories in the book, the other half I found a bit dull.

New Arrival

Uncanny Stories by May Sinclair

This book arrived today. I bought it from bookdepository.co.uk. I bought five books at the same time, but this was the first to arrive. I'm quite looking forward to this one. I love a good spooky story.

Synopsis from back cover: May Sinclair was an innovator of modern fiction, a late Victorian who was also a precursor to Virginia Woolf. In her Uncanny Stories (1923), Sinclair combines the traditional ghost story with the discoveries of Freud and Einstein. The stories shock, enthral, delight and unsettle.

Two lovers are doomed to repeat their empty affair for the rest of eternity... A female telepath is forced to face the consequences of her actions... The victim of a violent murder has the last laugh on his assailant... An amateur philosopher discovers that there is more to Heaven than meets the eye.

Specially included in this volume is 'The Intercessor' (1911), Sinclair's powerful story of childhood and abandoned love, a tale whose intensity compares with that of the Brontës.

The Suicide Club by Robert Louis Stevenson

Synopsis: Short story trilogy involving a club for people who wish to end their lives. The "Story of the Young Man with the Cream Tarts," "Story of the Physician and the Saratoga Trunk," and "The Adventure of the Hansom Cab" chronicle the exploits of Prince Florizel of Bohemia and Colonel Geraldine through some of 19th-century London's most dangerous haunts.

My thoughts: An intriguing three part mystery story based around the Prince of Bohemia and his discovery of a secret club for men who want to end their lives. After discovering the club, the Prince then takes it upon himself to make the leader of the club pay for his crimes.
I enjoyed the first part of the story where we are first introduced to the Suicide Club itself. I didn't enjoy the second and third parts of the story quite as much, but it was interesting how they were all connected to each other.