This is what I have to say.

With its immediate hook catching you, this is one book you won’t want to put down until you’re done. I didn’t think MacBride could get any better. I was wrong.

Detective Constable Ash Henderson has a dark secret…

Five years ago his daughter, Rebecca, went missing on the eve of her thirteenth birthday. A year later the first card arrived: homemade, with a Polaroid picture stuck to the front – Rebecca, strapped to a chair, gagged and terrified. Every year another card: each one worse than the last.

The tabloids call him The Birthday Boy. He’s been snatching girls for twelve years, always in the run-up to their thirteenth birthday, sending the families his homemade cards showing their daughters being slowly tortured to death.

But Ash hasn’t told anyone about Rebecca’s birthday cards – they all think she’s just run away from home – because if anyone finds out, he’ll be taken off the investigation. And he’s sacrificed too much to give up before his daughter’s killer gets what he deserves…

Result? :- WHOLE HEARTEDLY RECOMMENDED

Finally the delightful Lord Kevin of Wignallshire, as he will always be to me, is getting some of the recognition he has deserved for some time.

This was my second “young adult” read for me recently and another in a series of books, although this was the first in a trilogy, as opposed to an open ended series of my previous read.

The Mercian Trilogy tells the tale of William, Earl of Mercia, and 800 year old teenage vampire.

But don’t let the fact that it’s a new vampire novel put you off, forget all your thoughts of those ‘other’ emphatically inferior vampire novels of which you may have heard (and which will *never* be spoken of here).

Blood re-writes the traditional rules of vampirism. Be prepared to turn everything you’ve thought on your head. Capturing the essential essences of adventure, love, history and destiny it’s a book everyone should read.

Go buy it now, you really should.

After reading the first book in the legacies series I Am Number Four, and it’s between the books companion, I Am Number Four, The Lost Files – Sixes Legacy, I have to say I was a bit confused when I began to read this book.

I sat down fully expecting exactly what I got, in that it was the further adventures of Four and Six as they search for more of the Loriens, hidden on Earth. The thing was most of the initial part of the book, and interspersed along the way it was the story of number seven. It wasn’t until halfway through that the title of the book was explained. Rather than being The Power of Six, talking about Six who was leading the ‘fight’, it was actually The Power of Six, as in the power of the remaining six Loriens on earth, No’s four through nine.

It may seem like a simple and unimportant error to make, judging the book by it’s cover, and it’s title, but you’d be surprised the difference it makes to your priding experience when you approach this story from such a subtly different angle.

One thing though, it may have been a novel written for the “young adult” market, but I think anyone of any age will find something enjoyable in it, even if it as simple as the fact that deep down, we all really wish we had super powers of our own.

Don’t panic, I’m keeping this one, because as with all of my little corners of the blogosphere, it does have a particular place and purpose in my life even if you don’t understand it.

That said though, for those of you that missed this announcement last year, you will now also be able to find me over here

Have a great New Year everyone. May 2012 bring you all you wish for.

“Never ASSUME, it makes an ASS out of U and ME”

It is also the one thing you cannot do with this book.

Featuring snipers, home invasions, race crime and more, 11 The Hard Way, repeatedly gives you that same pit of the stomach feeling of dread, that comes from being alone in a strange, noisy house late at night.

Each story guides you carefully towards an inevitable conclusion, before sneakily pulling the rug out from under your feet.

Whether you like to enjoy your books as an all in one read or in delightful bite sized chunks, 11 The Hard Way ensures one size fits all. It’s a fantastic debut from Graham, and I’m looking forward to more.

11 The Hard Way is available for you Kindle right now.

11 Hard boiled stories of murder, misconception and mayhem. Nothing ends as expected. Everything can change in an instant. Tense, thrilling and funny. You’ll be cheering on, laughing at and crying for the characters.

Take a walk in the woods with Annie as a camping trip goes horribly wrong, slug some bourbon in Bobby’s Bar with gumshoe Leonard Peters or join Nicholas and Christine as their honeymoon trip takes a frightening turn.

Attend a night class with the girl who fears a stalker, escape killers with Jason and his sons, join Cook & Barnes as they hunt a twisted killer, look through a telescopic sight with an assassin and recoil in horror as terrorists attack.

Why has Garry been stood up at the altar? What happens to Susie?

All the answers you need are in 11 The Hard Way.

It’s gorgeous.

I could get married here.

Never has such a small and stupid toy caused so much merriment to so few, or was that the beer?

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