Crimson Lake - Candice Fox

Synopsis:

12.46: Thirteen-year-old Claire Bingley stands alone at a bus stop
12.47: Ted Conkaffey parks his car beside her
12.52: The girl is missing . . .

Six minutes – that’s all it took to ruin Detective Ted Conkaffey’s life. Accused but not convicted of Claire’s abduction, he escapes north, to the steamy, croc-infested wetlands of Crimson Lake.

Amanda Pharrell knows what it’s like to be public enemy number one. Maybe it’s her murderous past that makes her so good as a private investigator, tracking lost souls in the wilderness. Her latest target, missing author Jake Scully, has a life more shrouded in secrets than her own – so she enlists help from the one person in town more hated than she is: Ted.

But the residents of Crimson Lake are watching the pair’s every move. And for Ted, a man already at breaking point, this town is offering no place to hide

Review:

So Ted Conkaffey is accused of abduction and rape of a young girl but isn't convicted due to the lack of evidence. After 8 months behind bars on remand he runs away to Crimson Lake near Cairns to try and rebuild his life from the foundations all the way to the very top. Neither his workmates, who are were fellow detectives on the drug squad in Sydney, nor his wife believe Ted was simply there at the wrong place at the wrong time. So labelled a paedophile he lost his job and access to his baby daughter and now he is living in fear of the case being reopened, he can barely function.

In Cairns he teams up with a private investigator his lawyer pointed him towards, her name is Amanda Pharrell, another damned soul who has served a prison term for murder. Together they combat the task of finding Jake Scully, a missing local author.

You do become fully immersed in the book,  with all of the vivid detail all the way from Amanda's colourful tattoos and outfits all the way down to the banks of crocodile infested waters. As the couple dive into Jakes background, his relationships and his fans, they both become interested in finding out more about the 'other' cases which neither wants to talk about. As a reader you too want to know all of the details but with the characters real not letting anything slip that adds to your knowledge so far, you really are just craving for one of them to just open up.

The case itself which they are working on is very interesting I have to admit, this author has seemingly gotten up and walked out of the house and left in one of the cars and vanished, there is no sign of him what so ever until a crocodile close by reveals a clue, but is everything really as simple and clean cut as it seems? Its full of twists and turns you don't really see coming and the conclusion really blew me away and I think part of me is still digesting it. It was just so good watching it unravel and the pieces falling into their places.

Candice had built up 2 great characters here, Ted the tough cop who's life has been turned upside down and has to deal with the local cops picking on him at every chance they get. Amanda is mysterious, unbalanced and fragile at times but she is also fearless and tough as old boots. I fell in love with both characters, they are very much portrayed in a way for you to do that but I feel like even if they weren't written for you to do that, I would anyway because they're both struggling in their own ways and I just feel connected to that part. They are both very similar in ways they don't see but its glorious to watch them develop over the span of the book.

I would 100% want to see more adventures with these pair to see how their relationship blossoms because I really felt like they were a great match of character because after what is really a short time they went from not really wanting to be around each other and hating the quirks of the other, to not really minding being in each others company and even picking up some of the quirk they once disliked.

I'd love to pick up more of Candice' work because this book just simply blew me away so I bet the other pieces of work would too. It's an easy 5/5 from me and I hope anyone who like a thriller/crime will give this book a shot.

Gravedigger - Michael Israel Jarvis

Synopsis:

Dead or alive. Good or evil. Hero or fugitive.

Valo needs a specific solution to a grave problem. The human Claimfold and prigon Torzsi draw apart. War is promised in the West. Worst of all, the magi of Nagyevo are meddling with the dead.

Perin is an apprentice Gravedigger: uneducated, unwanted, unsure. He may be the answer Valo needs, if he doesn't get killed before he works out what's going on. But of course there's the chance that fate hasn't called him after all. The gods are nameless and silent and the best laid plans have a way of going badly wrong.
​
Enter the spade and sorcery world of Valo.

Gravedigger subverts the expectations of that oldest of foes in fantasy, the dead that walk, in a fast-paced adventure through a world of culture, intrigue, magic and blood.

Review:

Dane Cobain had contacted me in early March asking if I would like to read any of the four books he had told me about, I said I could read all four and review each of them, Gravedigger was one of those four.

I have to admit that with a name of Gravedigger, I wasn't sure what to expect, I have to admit that it wasn't something I had expected, and it was truly enjoyable. We take the view of Perin, an apprentice gravedigger who has no friends and what you can see as no future. And then a giant bull-man Kesairl the Prigon, and his dead friend Medrivar the undead king come seeking the services of Perin’s master, and shatter the narrow minded ways of the Graveyard. When unfortunate events occur within and after a year, Perin has no choice but to leave the graveyard behind and follow Kesairl across the land alongside Medrivar, but not in the form you think.

The story is well paced, I loved that all of the characters were individual in mind set and skills it just helped that they weren't clones of each other. I was surprised at the level of gore but it wasn't offensive, in fact it helped the book become greater.

"The book Gravedigger, is about living and dead people and then the living dead people. It has corrupt mages, secret societies and ale-drinking anarchists.
It’s also about brotherhood and resilience in the face of adversity. It questions the existence of fate and the motivations of the gods."

I couldn't sum it up any better, a nail biting, edge of the seat, intense, gory, fantasy with no dragons or pixies, a great amount of progression and amazingly written characters and story line. The ending truly blew my mind, I wasn't expecting it to happen how it happened but it unfolded perfectly and was a overall, I wasn't able to stop turning pages.

I can say that Jarvis has a talent when it comes to writing Fantasy and the immersion is effective due to his eye for detail.

The only thing I've got to say is that for me it felt like a very big lengthy read but it's faultless besides that. I love the artwork, it's an exact replica of the way I see both of the characters pictured. As for the recommendations having now read this book? Well any fantasy lover, anyone who wants to dip their toes into a twist of fantasy or the fantasy genre in general.

Overall a 5/5 from me, I definitely will me looking out for more of Michaels work.