This Week In Books is a weekly update on what you’ve been reading hosted by Lipsyy Lost & Found . A similar meme is hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words
∧ Then ∧ The Chalk Man by C. J. Tudor
In 1986, Eddie and his friends are just kids on the verge of adolescence. They spend their days biking around their sleepy little English village and looking for any taste of excitement they can get. The chalk men are their secret code; little chalk stick figures they leave for each other as messages only they can understand. But then a mysterious chalk man leads them right to a dismembered body, and nothing will ever be the same.
In 2016, Eddie is fully grown, and thinks he’s put his past behind him. But then he gets a letter in the mail, containing a single chalk stick figure. When it turns out his other friends got the same messages, they think it could be a prank… until one of them turns up dead. That’s when Eddie realizes that saving himself means finally figuring out what really happened all those years ago.
Expertly alternating between flashbacks and the present day, The Chalk Man is the very best kind of suspense novel, one where every character is wonderfully fleshed out and compelling, where every mystery has a satisfying payoff, and where the twists will shock even the savviest reader.
Finally! A friend reminded me a copy of this one was waiting in my TBR. I am still working on the review…
≈ Now ≈ The Vanishing Season by Joanna Schaffhausen
Ellery Hathaway knows a thing or two about serial killers, but not through her police training. She’s an officer in sleepy Woodbury, MA, where a bicycle theft still makes the newspapers. No one there knows she was once victim number seventeen in the grisly story of serial killer Francis Michael Coben. The only victim who lived.
When three people disappear from her town in three years, all around her birthday—the day she was kidnapped so long ago—Ellery fears someone knows her secret. Someone very dangerous. Her superiors dismiss her concerns, but Ellery knows the vanishing season is coming and anyone could be next. She contacts the one man she knows will believe her: the FBI agent who saved her from a killer’s closet all those years ago.
Agent Reed Markham made his name and fame on the back of the Coben case, but his fortunes have since turned. His marriage is in shambles, his bosses think he’s washed up, and worst of all, he blew a major investigation. When Ellery calls him, he can’t help but wonder: sure, he rescued her, but was she ever truly saved? His greatest triumph is Ellery’s waking nightmare, and now both of them are about to be sucked into the past, back to the case that made them…with a killer who can’t let go.
Slowly making my way through the nice gifts I received before leaving for London!
∨ Next ∨ Smoking Kills by Antoine Laurain
How far would you go to enjoy a cigarette? In this witty black comedy, Laurain’s anti-hero can only make smoking pleasurable by committing the ultimate crime…
When head-hunter Fabrice Valentine faces a smoking ban at work, he decides to undertake a course of hypnotherapy to rid himself of the habit. At first the treatment works, but his stress levels begin to rise when he is passed over for an important promotion and he finds himself lighting up again – but with none of his previous enjoyment.
Until he discovers something terrible: he accidentally causes a man’s death, and needing a cigarette to calm his nerves, he enjoys it more than any other previous smoke. What if he now needs to kill every time he wants to properly appreciate his next Benson and Hedges?
I should give this to my mom!
What’s on your reading list this week?
Then – Guess Who by Chris McGeorge
Now – The Affair by Sheryl Browne
Next – ……..not sure
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Haha, I always struggle with the Next part!! I like the titles of your reads, I need to find out more! xx
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I loved The Chalk Man!
My list is coming up later. Pretty sure there will be something in there you’ll approve of 😉
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Ooooh teaser!!!! :p
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I have heard good things about The Chalk Man. Can’t wait for your review. Have a wonderful week Meggy. Happy reading 🙂
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Will I ever finish this review? xD Thank you! Have a great week!!
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I will be curious to see how Smoking Kills is. I am reading a sci-fi Nyxia Unleashed and trying to decide on another. I am mood reading haha (which means bouncing around) 💖
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Mood reading is awesome! Except when you have lots of blog tours, haha! xxx
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Yes haha. I do not sign up for many of those anymore 😘
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I try to stay away… Fail. Promise to try again. Fail again xD
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Ok I’m not sure how you do it, but I want to read all three! Enjoy your books this week. ❤
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I’m Donna 😜 Happy reading to you, love! Xxx
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I’ve seen mixed reviews for The Chalk Man.. Hope you had/will have a better time with it. 😮
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It was good…But. I have a but stuck in the head xD
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