We Keep the Dead Close – Becky Cooper

In 1969, Harvard graduate student, Jane Britton, was found brutally murdered in her apartment after missing an important exam. There were rumours of an affair with a married Professor but nobody was ever charged, never mind convicted, for her murder. 40 years later when Becky Cooper also attends Harvard the rumours are still circulating and the Professor at the heart of them is still working at Harvard. Cooper was scandalised at the idea that this man could be guilty and hiding behind the power of Harvard. She was drawn to Jane’s story and decided to start digging into it with a view to being the person who might finally solve this decades long mystery.

Every Smile You Fake – Dorothy Koomson

Kez Lanyon, Profiler and Therapist, is shocked when she comes out of an event and finds a baby in the backseat of her car. There is a note asking her to take care of the baby and not to look for the Mother or risk endangering them both. Kez has a good idea that the Mother is Brandee, a Social Media Influencer who had stayed with Kez and her family for a while and was in a relationship with Kez’ stepson, Moe. Initially torn between doing as Brandee has asked and the feeling that Brandee is in trouble this only gets worse when rumours start to circulate online about what has happened to Brandee. Kez reaches out to a former colleague in the Government and what she discovers has more far reaching implications than she could have imagined.

Faithful – Stewart O’Nan and Stephen King

A blow by blow account of the Boston Red Sox’ World Series winning season in 2004 by die-hard fans and horror writers, Stephen King and Stewart O’Nan.

Rage – Richard Bachman

“Rage” was first published under the name of Richard Bachman back in 1977 and centres around a school shooting with protagonist, Charlie Decker, killing two people and taking his class hostage. After several real life shooting incidents in the 1980s and 1990s were apparently linked to this book, Stephen King (by then known to have been the author behind the Richard Bachman name) decided to let it fall out of print and it has remained so ever since.

The Long Knives – Irvine Welsh

The second instalment in the “Crime” Trilogy sees DI Ray Lennox back in Edinburgh, still engaged to Trudi and investigating the brutal murder of local MP, Ritchie Gulliver. Gulliver was not well liked. He was viscous, racist and corrupt but few could have seen his demise coming the way it did, castrated and left to bleed to death in a Leith warehouse. The list of suspects is long and the more Ray digs the murkier the picture becomes.

My Favourite Mistake – Marian Keyes

Trapped in Manhattan during the pandemic, Anna Walsh takes stock of her life and finds she isn’t happy with any of it anymore; The Most Fabulous Job in the World is actually causing her a lot of stress and anxiety, her boyfriend, Anton, is getting on her last nerve, and even living in New York doesn’t feel the same anymore. She heads back home to her family in Dublin and before she can blink, she’s off again to the tiny town of Maumtully to help her friends, Brigit and Colm with the PR for the luxury retreat they are building. She’s going to have her work cut out for her, the locals are unhappy, so much so that there have been some incidents at the site, and she is going to have to work alongside her old crush, Narky Joey Armstrong, but Anna can do anything once she puts her mind to it.

“My Favourite Mistake” is due to be published by Michael Joseph on 11 April and I am extremely grateful to have been approved for an eArc via NetGalley in exchange for this honest review.