What Was Lost by Jean Levy

About the Author

Jean Levy has worked in genetics research, the pharmaceutical industry and in academic publishing. She is currently completing a doctorate in Linguistics. She studied Creative Writing at the University of Sussex and lives with her husband in the South Downs. This is her first novel.

Follow @JeanELevy @DomePress

About the book

Something terrible has happened to successful children’s writer Sarah, but she doesn’t know what it is. All she knows is that it was enough to wipe her mind of memories.

Without her past she is lost, drifting, friendless, her life reduced to the protected one of a child. Specialists tell her that she must retrieve her memory of what brought her to be found, unconscious, bloodied and frozen, on a beach miles from her London home. And the police are interested too. But perhaps some things are best left forgotten…

Review

Sarah was found on a beach, miles away from her home, with no memory of how she ended up there. Since then she has been under a stringent set of rules to aid her recovery. She is more or less under constant surveillance by her doctors and needs daily help to remember the smallest things.

When she remembers fractured memories she isn’t sure whether or not it’s real or imagined scenarios. Even the simplest action has become a series of questions and fills her with doubt. From picking cereal in a supermarket to making a hot drink, every action seems to be a complex process and a mystery Sarah doesn’t have the answers to.

Every person she meets is a stranger, every street she has walked before has become a path into the unknown. Her world is a bubble with little or no content on the inside and everything else, including her memories, is on the outside looking in.

The methods the specialists use are debatable. Keeping Sarah completely isolated and treating her like a child with no power seems counter-productive to the healing process. It is also incredibly intrusive to forbid contact with prior friends, remove any physical object which could evoke a memory and have adult babysitters checking up on you nearly every day.

Levy creates a tense steady paced thriller from a blank slate. Her main character can’t fill in any of the details, the secondary characters either refuse to or aren’t allowed to, which means the reader assumes the majority as the tale unfolds. It’s a bit like sailing into the sunset without a paddle, sail or motor, and it’s also what gives this story the edge.

Buy What Was Lost at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Dome Press

Vixenhead by Eve Seymour

You think you know someone, but the reality is nobody really knows anyone completely. Everyone keeps secrets and in this case the secrets are the kind that destroy lives.

Roz thinks her boyfriend of three years is her Prince Charming, until one morning when he drops a few reality shocks on her ever so perfect life. All of a sudden he doesn’t want the same things she does. Then later that day he disappears into thin air.

It is by sheer chance that Roz finds out Tom has been hiding not one, but multiple past lives from her. A criminal who is trying to hide from the consequences of his crimes. Or is he?

Seymour brings together a painful past and a violent altercation, which somehow sets the path for a young boy and his life on the run. His life of lies and deception.

I liked the way the author brought it all together in the end. There isn’t a neatly tied bow with a warm and bubbly happy ending. Instead there is realistic one.

The lines between guilt and innocence become rather blurred in this story. The main character makes the reader wander between sympathy and antipathy with the frequency of a ping pong ball in a tournament.

It’s an interesting read.

Buy Vixenhead at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

Follow @EveSeymour  and @HarperImpulse. Connect with Eve Seymour on Facebook or visit evseymour.co.uk

Watching Edie by Camilla Way

One of the most interesting elements of this story is the fact the author hasn’t created a black or white situation.

There are many shades of grey, and in this case those shades relate directly to whether the characters are good guys or bad guys. The truth is, there is no clear answer to that question.

The reader feels sympathy with Edie, because of the hard situation she finds herself in. She is a single woman, who is about to become a single mother. When the baby does eventually arrive she is overwhelmed and clearly needs a friend.

Heather seems like the great alternative to a support system, despite the troubled past she and Edie share. Seems like the perfect solution. Edie needs help and Heather wants to help. Does she really want to help though?

Heather has a tendency to stalk, get violent and blackout. She is creepy and clearly unstable. Would you want her to take care of your newborn baby?

Throughout the book Edie has flashbacks to a time when she and Heather were friends and also to some terrible event that ended said friendship.

What it comes down to is who you think is guilty of the greater crime or wrong-doing. There are things that are unforgivable or so inhumane that they leave a deep dark stain on anyone involved in them. Some wrongs can never be righted.

Watching Edie will make you question everything and everyone. It is a nicely paced and well-developed psychological thriller, and despite the fact the reader can probably guess the traumatic secret the two of them are hiding, it is still a compelling read.

Buy Watching Edie at Amazon UK or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

Blog Tour: The Ripper Gene by Michael Ransom

Today it is my turn on the Blog Tour for The Ripper Gene by Michael Ransom. I am thrilled to be able to give away a hardcover copy of The Ripper Gene to one of you lucky readers! All courtesy of Forge Books/MacMillan and Michael Ransom.

To enter the giveaway just do one of the following (or all of them if you want), Retweet the giveaway tweet on Twitter or send me a DM, comment on this post or for the readers, who value a little anonymity just send me a quick email to mm_cheryl@yahoo.co.uk. The winner will be revealed on Friday the 30th of October!

Now let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of The Ripper Gene.

About the Author:

Michael Ransom is a molecular pharmacologist and a recognized expert in the fields of toxicogenomics and pharmacogenetics. He is widely published in scientific journals and has edited multiple textbooks in biomedical research.

He is currently a pharmaceutical executive and an adjunct professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Raised in rural Mississippi, he now makes his home in northern New Jersey. The Ripper Gene is his first novel.

Follow Michael Ransom on Facebook, Twitter @MRansomBooks, Goodreads and at michaelransombooks.com

About The Ripper Gene:

A neuroscientist-turned-FBI-profiler discovers a gene that produces psychopaths in this thrilling debut novel.

Dr. Lucas Madden is a neuroscientist-turned-FBI profiler who first gained global recognition for cloning the ripper gene and showing its dysfunction in the brains of psychopaths.

Later, as an FBI profiler, Madden achieved further notoriety by sequencing the DNA of the world’s most notorious serial killers and proposing a controversial “damnation algorithm” that could predict serial killer behavior using DNA alone.

Now, a new murderer—the Snow White Killer—is terrorizing women in the Mississippi Delta. When Mara Bliss, Madden’s former fiancée, is kidnapped, he must track down a killer who is always two steps ahead of him. Only by entering the killer’s mind will Madden ultimately understand the twisted and terrifying rationale behind the murders—and have a chance at ending the psychopath’s reign of terror.

Review:

The Ripper Gene has quite a fascinating premise, perhaps not really as far-fetched as it may seem. We live in an era of technology and amazing advancements in medicine and genetics. Now in the 21st century parents can dictate the gender of their child, filter out hereditary diseases or extra chromosomes. Designer babies in a world of commercialism.

So, let’s say scientists made it possible, in the near future, to not only discover whether someone has the so-called warrior gene, but also find out if they are a psychopath or sociopath. Then taking it one step further being able to discover the genetic footprint of their possible heinous crimes,  and how they will perpetrate them.

The ability to recognize and perhaps even track specific individuals, who are predetermined to commit horrific crimes. Not quite a simple as that is it? First of all there is simply no way to determine whether they will actually kill or which external factors they will be influenced by. Would you want to know if you have a gene like that or whether one of your loved ones could possibly be a serial killer in the making?

Even with all of the information on the Ripper Gene, Dr Lucas Madden still can’t manage to keep up with a vicious serial killer. Always one step and one body ahead of the police, the murderous monster is playing cat and mouse games with Lucas.

When events take a personal turn Lucas finds himself in the middle of a dangerous triangle of lies, death and false memories. He suddenly comprehends that although he thinks he is in control of the situation and his analysis of the Ripper Gene in the killer, he is actually just a pawn in a violent killing spree.

The Ripper Gene is an intriguing blend of science, crime and psychological thriller. It grips you and draws you in from the first few pages. Ransom knows how to combine the science and fictional elements without losing the attention of the reader. For a debut novel it is a very strong start.

The Ripper Gene [Forge Books/MacMillan] is available on Amazon, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million and in brick-and-mortar bookstores across North America.