Holiday reads

 I finally ventured into reading on a device (my phone) rather than physical books for my holiday, which worked quite well for me. I was surprised and pleased. I don't really like the idea of paying for books that I can't pass on to others, but then again, my mum has recently been going through her books and trying to thin them out and perhaps not having shelves and shelves of them in real life has its advantages too. 

I started with Losers Club, a cosy murder mystery by Yvonne Vincent, an author recommended by an acquaintance. Brief outline: a recently divorced woman moves back to the island community she grew up in, with two teenaged children in tow, starts sticking her nose into murder with the help of her just-formed weight-loss group.

It was quite a fun read, but the humour is a bit crude and slapstick, which I didn't really get along with. The idea of some woman dangling over a counter with her knickers on show is a bit too Carry On for my tastes. 

The formation of the group was very contrived and unrealistic: first meeting and they all abandon the immediate purpose of the club and start investigating murder, really? The relationships between the characters felt hurried and unlikely. But I guess we weren't going for gritty realism in any part of the book. 

It was enjoyable but I'm not going to rush to read the rest of the series.

After Everything You Did by Stephanie Sowden was one that appealed to me randomly as I scrolled through potential reads. Brief outline: woman suffering amnesia is obviously the perpetrator of a series of murders, but can she come to grips with what she apparently did and why?

This was a gripping read for me. You think it's going one way with the twist, and then - well, it was quite a shocker. 

I'd read another book by this author. 

One Good Lie by Jane Isaac was a psychological thriller that also appealed to me on scroll-by. Brief outline: two sisters are attempting to get on with their lives following the murder of their mother, but the death of a missing witness casts doubt on the murderer's conviction - was it actually someone else?

There was some strange wording/malapropisms in the novel, which threw me out of the story at times, but  over all it was a good read and kept me hooked. 

Apparently Isaac has written police procedurals previously, so I might give those a go.