Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney
Length: 295 Pages
Genres: Mystery, Thriller
Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Trigger Warnings in this book for Nefarious Goings on Typical of a Mystery/Thriller, Cheating, Mentions of Animal Neglect

"Can a weekend away save a marriage?"

Alice Feeney has been on my radar for a while now, but when I want to pick something up I'm usually more drawn to Fantasy and Historical Fiction. However, her newest novel, Rock Paper Scissors, was an option for my September Book of the Month, and I couldn't resist. I mean, a mystery set in snowy Scotland, inside a supposedly cursed chapel, sounded too good to pass up! Happily, I can say that Feeney has made a loyal fan out of me!

Amelia and Adam are at the end of their marriage. He spends most of his time adapting novels into screenplays, is glued to his phone 24/7 and suffers from prosopagnosia, which leaves him face-blind and unable to recognize even those he holds dear. She prefers dogs to people and works at a rescue and lost both of her parents to a car accident before she was even born. They think they know everything about each other -- but do they really? A trip to Scotland, won by Amelia in a raffle, seems the perfect antidote to their marital problems. 

Told in interchanging chapters from Amelia's POV, Adam's, the mysterious Robin, who lives in a thatched cottage outside Blackwater Chapel, and anniversary letters written from wife to husband every year, this is a tightly plotted thriller that will have you guessing until the very end. Alice Feeney is one of the best mystery writers I've ever read, and this book is so original and a breath of fresh air for the genre! 

It was exactly what I was wanting: something atmospheric and gripping, perfect for the holiday season.

Book Review: The Savage Instinct by M.M. DeLuca

The Savage Instinct by M.M. DeLuca
Length: 377 Pages
Genres: Historical Fiction and Psychological Thriller
Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

"I dreamt I stood at the door of a ruined barn, its roof split open to the moon. I saw a dark-haired woman standing in a pigsty, and as the pigs swarmed round her ankles, she stroked their bristled snouts and whispered, Thou shalt rest well soon, my husbands.
Then she saw me and seemed to float, through the muck and swill until I felt her behind me, whispering in my ear: I am in the city now. Come to me."

A special thanks to NetGalley and Inkshares for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Trigger Warnings in this book for Violence, Gore, Sexual Assault, Rape, and a Detailed Miscarriage

I have a huge fascination with the past, and while I, like many others, am drawn to the glittering clothes, the balls, and the manners, I think more often than not the darker aspects are pushed aside. Glossed over, or gilded through the lens of time. As much as I enjoy the question "If you you could go back in time, when would you go?", I always add an addendum to my answer: Only for a day. Because as shocking and dangerous as it is to be a woman in my own day and age, I could only imagine what it was like for the women of the past.

The Savage Instinct by M.M. DeLuca never flinches away from the reality of life for a woman in the Victorian era. On one end, we follow our protagonist Clara Blackstone, a woman of wealth who is crushed by the miscarriage of her child, and promptly thrown into Bethlem for a episode that ends in violence. Ferried to another asylum, more fitting of a woman of the Upper Classes, she is eventually released, only to be pushed headfirst into her husband's scheming clutches. Soon, at the behest of a genteel society lady, she is visiting the Durham Prison where she makes the acquaintance of one of Britain's most reviled serial killers of all time: Mary Ann Cotton. 

Poisoner of eight of her children, seven of her step-children, three of her husbands, her mother, a lover, and a friend. She is destitute, the opposite of Clara, but with shocking similarities in their life. Clara can't help but be drawn into Mary Ann's cunning web, and I was just as charmed by her, at times wondering if she was telling the truth about her innocence or spinning another lie.

This book left me breathless and outraged, and I could hardly put it down, despite my growling stomach when dinner rolled around! In the end, I wondered how much truth there is in history's version of Mary Ann Cotton - was she really a heartless killer? Or was she another victim, of men, of circumstance, and time, much like Clara is? The Savage Instinct is a deftly woven work of historical fiction, ran through with bits of truth, and all the questions and chills of a psychological thriller, that will surely leave you wanting more.