One of the more thought-provoking Rebus novels as it deals with a pertinent moral dilemma. The whodunnit and other mysteries are as always very well constructed. 4/5
The Harcourt family, drawn by the allure of a country lifestyle, moves into a secluded Georgian mansion and soon realize that their dream home, apart from being a money pit, harbours a dark secret. As strange occurrences and unsettling visions begin to plague them, the Harcourts must uncover the chilling truth behind Cold Hill's haunted past. Unfortunately I read this first novel after the sequel and effectively rated the sequel higher than it actually deserved. The sequel is somewhat of a carbon copy of this novel but set in a slightly later time period featuring different families with different occupations, but the storyline remains exactly the same. The wiring style is however unique interesting and engaging.
A historical fiction murder mystery set in 19th-century Paris in the famous Salpêtrière asylum. The story centers around two women, Laure and Josephine. Laure is a former patient at the asylum and current ward attendant, who is desperate to leave and find her missing sister, Amélie. Josephine is a young woman with amnesia who arrives at the asylum covered in blood and suffering from trauma. As the novel progresses, Laure and Josephine form a bond while navigating the questionable treatments within the asylum and attempting to find ways out of their respective dilemmas. Very well researched and more gripping than the title infers. Fact and fiction intertwine very believably and seamlessly. 4/5
A blind teenager, Joshua, receives a corneal donation from his detective father who was recently killed in the line of duty. This gives Joshua the gift of sight, but also the burden of seeing his father's final moments and the dark secrets he was investigating. Joshua soon realises that one of the donar eyes is that of his father and the other eye, the eye of his father's killer. Cleave's comedic faux pas of swapped eyes, builds brilliantly into a psychological thriller where donees start to demonstrate latent characteristics of the serial killer donar. Cleave develops this theme in such detail and integrates it so well into the whodunnit, that one could be forgiven for believing the "science". 5/5
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