On Bee's Bookshelf

  Popular romance author Margot Bradley has a secret: she doesn't believe in Happily Ever Afters. Not for herself, not for her readers, not even for her characters. When a super-fan leaks this to the world, Margot is dropped faster than you can say 'enemies-to-lovers.' Her sister thinks she needs a change of scene and sends Margot off to a remote Alaskan cabin on a writing retreat that could be the perfect chance to say goodbye to romcoms and write something new - maybe swap meet-cutes for murder mysteries? But then she meets the handsome owner, Forrest. As one trope after another draws them together over long snowy nights, one thing is clear: Margot and Forrest have landed in a romance novel of their very own. But will they each be able to overcome their fears, or risk becoming another of Margot's Happily Never Afters themselves... "I live in perpetual fear that my fans will somehow learn the truth about me. That beneath all the romance tropes and triple-orgasm se...

  A men-only charity dinner. A clutch of young waitresses. The jokes are uncomfortable. The hands linger. The collars loosen. Behind closed doors, the wine flows. The night is dark. The faces blur. The memories warp. Behind closed doors, the money flows. But revenge is sweet and justice is a burning flame. Behind closed doors, the blood flows… Review "These men tonight, they weren't sex. They were hands and faces and comments." A compulsive tale of love and lust, brimming with secrets, silence and violence with a healthy dose of feminine rage. This book expertly shoves a crowbar through the locks of hidden parts of a misogynistic, selfish society: exploring how power, obsession and money can shape and infect our relationships, direct our lives or even make men think they’re entitled to hurt and kill to get what they want. From the first few lines, I was besotted with Cass, seeing the weight of societal and traditional expectations being placed on her by simply existing ar...

  I’m psychologist Dr Emy Rose, but that’s not my real name. I work with serial killers who've hidden their victims. My job is to find the bodies - and I'm kind of awesome at it. The trick is to get inside these murderers' minds. And there's one in particular I'm hellbent on breaking. Why? None of your business! Just know,  I'll stop at nothing to read that killer's mind... Review:  "Is there anything more crass than popping open a bottle of champagne to celebrate the discovery of five dead bodies?" Prepare to get uncomfortably close to the thoughts of killers. Darkly funny and witty, this book toes the line between vulgarity and class — with an enigmatic thriller, unapologetically real narrator and whip-smart storytelling that wades through the murky world of clandestine criminology research, corruption and murder. We follow Emy, and best friend/business partner Chi as they perfect their new techniques, deal with government reps and slowly find ou...

A scholarship kid with straight As and massive potential, Evie Gordon always thought she was special, that she'd be someone.  But after graduating from an elite university, she finds herself drowning in debt and working as a private tutor to the children of Los Angeles's super-rich. Everything changes when Evie arrives at the Victor family's lavish mansion for her weekly lesson to discover, not the bored teenager she excepted, but pure carnage: the bloody remains of Mr and Mrs Victor sullying their beautiful back garden, and a woman crying for help from within the walls of the house. Within moments, Evie and the woman go from bystanders to suspects to fugitives. Suddenly at the heart of a nation-wide manhunt, Evie finds that her mysterious companion, who refuses to speak, has quickly become the most important person in her upside-down life. Meanwhile, the press runs wild with Evie's story - anointing her the new Charles Manson, a blood thirsty ninety-nine percenter look...

After her father dies suddenly, Jane Sharp drops out of university and retreats to the online world of TheRealCrimeNetwork.com, where she befriends four amateur sleuths from across the country. When three college students are viciously stabbed to death, seemingly at random, it sets the world of amateur sleuths ablaze and the team travels to small-town Idaho to find answers—only to discover the truth is more shocking than any other case they’ve investigated. "If you're reading this, chances are last year you flipped on the news and saw me getting shoved to my knees in the dirt, hands wrestled behind my back, gun-toting FBI agents swarming like ants around me into that three-story house. God only knows what the headline below my face must've read." Review: I can’t lie — I’ve had a strange curiosity about true crime, why it happens, how it happens, how people get caught and get away. But I’m also curious about whether it’s possible to ethically consume this kind of conte...

In their Saitama office,  Ashikawa  is the kind of woman  Nitani  knows he will likely marry: sweet, obliging, and determined to wean him off his addiction to instant noodles. But he finds himself increasingly unable to respect her – or the sugary treats she shares around the workplace, winning their colleagues’ affection with baking rather than hard work. Oshio  is bolder and uninhibited – she is Nitani's drinking buddy. In the oppressive office atmosphere, the pair grows closer, both outsiders struggling with the rigid status quo. Review: This book is the small package good things come in. A short but powerful and memorable story about the absurdity of modern life and corporate culture. A dramatically larger than life peek into the inner workings of adults in the office, their personal lives seeping into work, conflicts, crushes and of course, complex power dynamics. From pot noodles, to protein pills to freshly cooked soba, the story uses beautifully describe...

Late one summer morning in 1892, a prominent businessman and his second wife were brutally murdered with an axe in their own home. One of the man’s two daughters was charged with his murder. The trial was a circus. The outcome was controversial. What actually happened in that home? This work of fiction imagines the thinking and fear that drove the killer to that extreme act of cruelty.  Review:  I’m a huge lover of pseudo-historical novels — ones that attempt to fill in the blanks, subvert a story that was marred by historical biases, offer a fresh perspective or just take inspiration from our own histories. Lizzie delves into the story of Lizzie Andrew Borden, a tale that has captivated history and true crime fans around the world and sparks a debate: was she a scapegoat, a murderer, or something more complicated? Lizzie attempts to answer the not if she was a killer, but why? Fanning fills in the gaps with her own ideas of what really happened not just that one night, but in...

Kirby Cornell needs a break from  everything: - Her crumbling flat in the sleepy town of Crowhurst (famous for its award-winning sausage rolls and a second-rate serial killer from the 90s). - Her dead-end job. - Her sleazy landlord. - Her slobbish housemates. - And, most of all, the terrible thing they all did. Luckily, that hasn’t caught up with her just yet. Until a new message on their old group chat pops up: Everyone in the group chat will die. It’s the first text her ex-flatmate and social-media sleuth Esme has sent for ages, but that’s not the really weird thing.  The   really  weird thing is, Esme died twelve months ago… Review: "They say there are three sides to every story: mine, yours and the truth. So, which one do you want?" Dark humour royalty returns with a devilishly funny, slightly absurd thriller starting with a warning from a dead friend. Our narrator is a self confessed hot mess, and they’re an absolute riot who was more relatable that I’d have com...

"You already know who died and how. Very shortly you will know who was responsible. The only question this story concerns itself with is why. Why did flight GFA578 crash into a mountain, killing two men?" When an empty passenger plane crashes in the Lake District, Carly Atherton's hopes of getting back together with the man she loves vanish - Luke Emery was one of the two pilots on board.  Investigating the story behind the doomed flight might just be the chance disgraced journalist Carly needs to rescue her career, as well as giving her the answers about Luke's death that she desperately wants. But when she contacts the family of the other pilot, Daniel Taylor, she finds the two women he was closest to - his devoted sister and his loving wife - have very different memories to share.  As Carly delves into the dynamics of a seemingly ordinary family, she uncovers a far darker story than she could possibly have imagined. A story she risks becoming part of even as she tr...