Mareli Thalk ink ......

Title: Queen of Spades Author: Michael Shou-Yung Shum Published by:  Forest Avenue Press Publication date:  10 October 2017  Genre:  General Fiction, Suspense ISBN:  19424363319 Mareli's rating:  3.5 stars Recommend to:  If you have a gambling problem - stay clear. This book reveals the 'magic' of a casino and the luck of the card.  Description:  Queen of Spades  revamps the classic Pushkin fable of the same name, transplanted to a mysterious Seattle-area casino populated by a pit boss with six months to live, a dealer obsessing over the mysterious methods of an elderly customer known as the Countess, and a recovering gambler who finds herself trapped in a cultish twelve-step program. With a breathtaking climax that rivals the best Hong Kong gambling movies, Michael Shou-Yung Shum’s debut novel delivers the thrilling highs and lows that come when we cede control of our futures to the roll of t...

Title: The Girl in the Ice Author:  Robert Bryndza Published by: Bookouture Publication date: February 2016 Read:  August 24 - 27, 2017 Genre: Mystery; Thriller Pages:  396 (kindle edition) Series: Detective Erika Foster #1 Mareli's rating:  2.5  stars Recommend to: Readers of fast paced thrillers. Or if you watch crime series with female detectives, you might like this one as well. Description:  When a young boy discovers the body of a woman beneath a thick sheet of ice in a South London park, Detective Erika Foster is called in to lead the murder investigation.   The victim, a beautiful young socialite, appeared to have the perfect life. Yet when Erika begins to dig deeper, she starts to connect the dots between the murder and the killings of three prostitutes, all found strangled, hands bound and dumped in water around London.   What dark secrets is the girl in the ice hiding?   As Erika inches closer to uncovering the truth, the killer is...

Title: Where the sweet bird sings Author:  Ella Joy Olsen Published by: Kensington Books Publication date: 29 August 2017  Genre: General Fiction ISBN:   9781496705648 Mareli's rating: 3 stars Recommend to: Lovers of adult fiction that deals with loss and grief Description:  People respond to tragedy in different ways. Some try to move on. Some don’t move at all. A year after her young son’s death due to a rare genetic disease, Emma Hazelton is still frozen by grief, unable and unwilling to consider her husband Noah’s suggestion that they try to have another child. As the future Emma once imagined crumbles, her family’s past comes into sharp relief. Searching for the roots of her son’s disease, Emma tries to fit together the pieces in her genealogical puzzle. Hidden within an old wedding photograph of her great-grandparents is an unusual truth Emma never guessed at—a window into all the ways that love can be surprising, generous, and fiercely brave...

Title: The Memory of Water Author:  J.T. Lawrence Format: Audiobook (Audible) Read/listened:  August 4 - 9, 2017 Genre:  Thriller; Black Humor (is that a genre, or just preferred reading?) Mareli's rating: 3.5  Stars (loved the story, didn't care for the narration much) Recommend to:  If you find Jay Gatsby an intriguing character, you will have a field-day with Slade Harris Description:  Slade Harris will do anything for a story, including murdering the woman he loves.   Slade doesn’t think twice about jumping out of a plane or conducting disastrous love affairs to gather material for his work, but his self-indulgent life is catching up with him. Stumbling through his late thirties hopeless and a little drunk, Slade has a dazzling, dangerous idea which will change his life forever. It’s going to be Slade’s ultimate story ... and all he’s hoping for is to survive it.   Goodreads

Title: Leaving Time Author: Jodi Picoult Published: November 2014 Read: 02 August 2017 My Rating: 5 Stars and listed as a favorite Goodreads Blurb:  Number One bestselling author Jodi Picoult returns with her compulsive new novel - about the lengths we go to for those who have left us behind; about the staying power of love; and about how three broken souls might have just the right pieces to mend each other. Jenna Metcalf was with her mother the night she disappeared in tragic and mysterious circumstances, but she remembers nothing. Over ten years have passed, and still Jenna reads and rereads her mother's journals, hoping to find some clue hidden there, in the meticulous recording of her scientific research with elephants. Desperate for answers, Jenna uses all her savings to recruit the aid of a private detective - and a psychic. Jenna knows her mother loved her. She knows she would not leave her. And she will not rest until she finds out what happened that night. In her mo...

Into the Water by Paula Hawkins My rating: 3 of 5 stars A single mother turns up dead at the bottom of the river that runs through town. Earlier in the summer, a vulnerable teenage girl met the same fate. They are not the first women lost to these dark waters, but their deaths disturb the river and its history, dredging up secrets long submerged. Left behind is a lonely fifteen-year-old girl. Parentless and friendless, she now finds herself in the care of her mother's sister, a fearful stranger who has been dragged back to the place she deliberately ran from—a place to which she vowed she'd never return. With the same propulsive writing and acute understanding of human instincts that captivated millions of readers around the world in her explosive debut thriller, The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins delivers an urgent, twisting, deeply satisfying read that hinges on the deceptiveness of emotion and memory, as well as the devastating ways that the past can reach a long arm int...

Title: My Cousin Rachel Author:  Daphne du Maurier Published by: Victor Gollancz Ltd Publication date: 1951  Read:  June 24 - June 28 2017 Genre: Mystery Thriller; Classic Pages:  351 Mareli's rating: 5 stars Recommend to: If you can read, you have to read Daphne du Maurier's books. They don't come like this anymore. Description:  Orphaned at an early age, Philip Ashley is raised by his benevolent older cousin, Ambrose. Resolutely single, Ambrose delights in Philip as his heir, a man who will love his grand home as much as he does himself. But the cosy world the two construct is shattered when Ambrose sets off on a trip to Florence. There he falls in love and marries - and there he dies suddenly.  Jealous of his marriage, racked by suspicion at the hints in Ambrose's letters, and grief-stricken by his death, Philip prepares to meet his cousin's widow with hatred in his heart.Despite himself, Philip is drawn to this beautiful, sophisticated...

Title:  The Serial Killer's Daughter Author: Lesley Welsh Published by:  Bookouture Publication date:  14 June 2017  Read:  June 5 - June 10 2017 Genre:  Thriller Pages:  343 ISBN:   9781786811929 Mareli's rating:  4 stars Recommend to:  PSYCHO (Some new killing tips and how to lie about it here) Description:  Suzanne’s life changes forever the day she receives a visit from Rose Anderson, the woman who has been living with her estranged father, Don.  Don is dead, but Rose wants Suzanne to have his possessions – including a series of intimate diaries and a mysterious collection of photographs of women.  To Suzanne’s shock, one of the photos is of her friend Sophie, whose death ten years before in an unexplained and devastating fire broke Suzanne’s heart.  But Don only met Sophie once, on an unsettling visit he paid Suzanne just days before Sophie’s death… So why did he have a picture of her?  U...

Title: How We Found You Author:  J.T. Lawrence Series: When tomorrow calls (Book 2) Publication date: 18 May 2017 (Today!!! Launch day is TODAY!!) Read:  May 11 - 18, 2015 Genre:  Thriller; Science Fiction (Futuristic) Mareli's rating:  4 Stars Recommend to: Have you read Why you were taken?  Description:  There’s something different about Kate’s four-year-old son. He wasn’t created the old fashioned way. Now a violent cult wants him dead and Kate will do anything to protect him – until they take her daughter. In tomorrow’s world, Kate is haunted by a brutal past. Struggling to navigate a life that seems like an experiment in virtual reality, her paranoia threatens to consume her. But when someone tries to kidnap Mally, she realizes she was absolutely right to be afraid. With only hours to go before the cult's prophecy is to be fulfilled, Kate and Seth face more danger than they’ve ever imagined, desperate to keep him safe. However, the charismatic ...

Titel: Misverstand Skrywer:  Marita van der Vyver Uitgewer: Penguin Random House SA Publikasie datum:  Maart 2017 Bladsye:  270 (sagteband) My gradering:  2 Sterre Beveel aan vir lesers van: Marita van der Vyver (dis nie 'n genre  nie, ek weet, maar dit is 'n onmisbare stem).  As jy worstel met die vraag,  Wroeg jy met jou middelmatigheid?  Kort opsomming:  Willem Prins bewandel die strate van Parys. Eens was hy op koers om ’n gerekende skrywer in Suid-Afrika te word, maar na jare se probeer wink die koue water van die Seine – miskien sal sy verdrinking sy boekverkope bietjie opstoot, dink ’n swartgallige Willem. Tot sy skaamte is dit die erotika wat hy onder ’n skuilnaam skryf wat hom na Frankryk gebring het. Terug na die stad waar een van sy drie eksvroue saam met sy oudste seun woon, ’n jong man wat sy pa skaars ken. Vir Willem is Parys nie juis die stad van liefde nie, maar dit is hier waar hy vir Jackie ontmoet, ’n jong Suid-A...

Title:  Why You Were Taken Author: J.T. Lawrence Published by:  Pulp Books Publication date:  29 March 2015 Read:  April 25 - April 30, 2015 Genre:  Thriller; Science Fiction (Futuristic) Pages:  358 ISBN:   9780620655583 Mareli's rating: 3.5 stars Recommend to:  Sci-fi junkies who love the thrill of something "different". J.T. Lawrence's fan-club (this woman can write!) Description:  In tomorrow's world prowls a creative and ruthlessly efficient assassin who won't stop until Kirsten is killed. A troubled woman approaches Kirsten with a warning and a key and is later found dead. Was the woman just another victim of the Suicide Contagion or is there something more sinister at play? The key leads Kirsten to the Doomsday Vault and a hit list of seven people - and her barcode is on it. Edgy and original, Why You Were Taken is a dark cinematic thriller that will keep you guessing till the last page. Goodreads   Nah, that blurb...

Title: Don't Tell Anyone Author:  Eleanor Gray Published by: Midnight Ink Publication date: 08 December 2016  Read: April 16 - April 18 2017 Genre: Mystery; General Fiction; Family Drama Pages:  384 ISBN:   9780738750224 Mareli's rating:  4 stars Recommend to: Lovers of Whodunnit  Description:  Nearly lost in a fog of grief over the fatal stabbing of her daughter, art historian Grace Neville feels only sorrow as Jordan Dukes is found guilty of murder. Days after the sentencing, Grace receives a visit from Jordan’s father, who claims that his son is innocent and a grave miscarriage of justice has taken place. Jordan’s history of gang-related violence and the fact that he doesn’t have an alibi make his father’s plea hard to believe. But then why does somebody break into Grace’s home and go through her daughter’s belongings?  In  Don’t Tell Anyone , Eleanor Gray explores the relationship between a mother and a daughter, and ...

Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye My rating: 2 of 5 stars This book is a very good example of a bad habit. The habit of assumption. One assumes that a book is going to be great for oh so many reasons: 1.Everyone is raving mad about it (Sometimes Everyone is just raving mad) 2. That blurb. I mean really. Of course Everyone is going to go raving mad about it. What's NOT to like about - "A Gothic retelling of Jane Eyre. Like the heroine of the novel she adores, Jane Steele suffers cruelly at the hands of her aunt and schoolmaster. And like Jane Eyre, they call her wicked - but in her case, she fears the accusation is true. When she flees, she leaves behind the corpses of her tormentors. A fugitive navigating London's underbelly, Jane rights wrongs on behalf of the have-nots whilst avoiding the noose. Until an advertisement catches her eye. Her aunt has died and the new master at Highgate House, Mr Thornfield, seeks a governess. Anxious to know if she is Highgate's true heir,...

Title: The Other Einstein Author: Marie Benedict Published by:  Sourcebooks Landmark Publication date:  18 October 2016  Genre:  Historical Fiction Pages: 304 ISBN:   9781492637257 Mareli's rating: 3 stars Recommend to:  Lovers of historical fiction and strong female characters Description:  A vivid and mesmerizing novel about the extraordinary woman who married and worked with one of the greatest scientists in history. What secrets may have lurked in the shadows of Albert Einstein’s fame? His first wife, Mileva “Mitza” Marić, was more than the devoted mother of their three children—she was also a brilliant physicist in her own right, and her contributions to the special theory of relativity have been hotly debated for more than a century. In 1896, the extraordinarily gifted Mileva is the only woman studying physics at an elite school in Zürich. There, she falls for charismatic fellow student Albert Einstein, who promises to treat h...

"A sophisticated and chilling psychological thriller of dangerous secrets, cold vengeance and unexpected absolution" Title: Pretty Girls Author: Karin Slaughter Publication date: July 2015 Pages: 688 Mareli's rating: 4 Stars Goodreads Description:  Sisters. Strangers. Survivors. More than twenty years ago, Claire and Lydia's teen-aged sister Julia vanished without a trace. The two women have not spoken since, and now their lives could not be more different. Claire is the glamorous trophy wife of an Atlanta millionaire. Lydia, a single mother, dates an ex-con and struggles to make ends meet. But neither has recovered from the horror and heartbreak of their shared loss—a devastating wound that's cruelly ripped open when Claire's husband is killed. The disappearance of a teenage girl and the murder of a middle-aged man, almost a quarter-century apart: what could connect them? Forming a wary truce, the surviving sisters look to the past to find the...

A Novel about the Little Dog who almost changed history Title: Sirius Author:  Jonathan Crown Published by:  Scribner Publication date: 04 October 2016  Genre: Literary Fiction Pages:  247 ISBN:   9781501144998   Mareli's rating: 5 stars Recommend to: Animal lovers (especially for dashing fox terriers), lovers of historical novels (WWII) Description:  Berlin, 1938: Sirius, a dashing fox terrier, lives a charmed life with the German Jewish Liliencrons. But, with the rise of Nazism, the Liliencrons decide to leave Berlin for Hollywood. Sirius takes his destiny into his own hands with the kind of melancholic mirth exclusive to his breed. He becomes a celebrated film star and circus performer, friend to Rita Hayworth and Cary Grant. But, when a magic trick goes wrong, Sirius ends up back in war-torn Berlin. Never one to despair, he finds himself in the Führer's headquarters as Adolf Hitler's lap dog... and an informant for the resistance....

The devilish parts:  Title: Autumn in Oxford Author: Alex Rosenberg Published by: Lake Union Publishing Publication date:  30 August 2016  Genre: Women's fiction/Crime&Mystery/historical speculation Pages: 426 ISBN:   9781503939073   Mareli's rating:  3 stars Recommend to:  Crime&Mystery lovers with hints of historical speculation. Lovers of conspiracy theories might also enjoy this one. Description:  After being blacklisted for having communist sympathies as a student twenty years before, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Tom Wrought escapes America’s Cold War climate to teach at Oxford. There, he falls in love with Liz Spencer, a beautiful married woman. When Liz’s husband is pushed in front of a train in the London Underground, Tom is immediately arrested for the murder. Scotland Yard is convinced it has its man, as he had means, motive, and opportunity. Certain of his innocence, Liz hires a young solicitor, Alice Silve...

The devilish parts: Title:  Anna and the King of Siam Author:  Margaret Landon Published by (ebook):  Open Road Integrated Media Publication date (ebook):  23 August 2016 (first published in 1944) Genre:  Literary/Historical Fiction Pages:  395 ISBN:   9781504038553  Description:  In the early 1860's, Anna Leonowens, a widow with two young children, was invited to Siam (modern day Thailand) by King Mongkut who wanted her to teach his children and wives the English language and introduce them to British customs. Inspired by two memoirs written by Mrs Leonowens, Margaret Landon took the first person narratives and enhanced them with details about the Siamese people and their culture from other sources. The book has been translated into dozens of languages and has inspired at least six adaptations into various dramatic mediums. Now, for the first time, it is also available on electronic format. Mareli's rating:  4 stars ...

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling My rating: 4 of 5 stars Harry Potter is a generation thing. Like 80's music and movies. Or 60's fashion. Every generation following that eras have a different take on it. Same with Harry Potter. And the last installment, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child , is the generation definer. Following all the reviews, I came to the conclusion that there are two main generations here: 1. The kids who grew up with Harry Potter. In other words, when Harry was 12, they were 12. 2. The "older" kids. Those of us who were in our late teens to twenties or thirties when Harry first entered Hogwarts. (Not as old as Dumbledore or Professor McGonagall - although I do know a couple of "elders" who also read Harry Potter) Closer to Snipe's age.

Paperback  390 pages Read 09 August 2016 Published February 2016 Goodreads Blurb: Winter, 1945. Four teenagers. Four secrets. Each one born of a different homeland; each one hunted and haunted by tragedy, lies and war. As thousand of desperate refugees flock to the coast in the midst of a Soviet advance, four paths converge, vying for passage aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff,  a ship that promises safety and freedom. Yet not all promises can be kept. Inspired by the single greatest tragedy in maritime history, bestselling and award-winning author Ruta Sepetys lifts the veil on a shockingly little-know casualty of WWII. " The shoes always tell the story"