Category: thrillers

Dark and shallow lies by Ginny Myers Sain

When seventeen-year-old Grey makes her annual visit to La Cachette, Louisiana – the tiny bayou town that proclaims to be the “Psychic Capital of the World” – she knows it will be different from past years: her childhood best friend Elora went missing several months earlier and no one is telling the truth about the night she disappears. Grey can’t believe that Elora vanished into thin air any more than she can believe that nobody in a town full of psychics knows what happened. But as she digs into the night that Elora went missing, she begins to realize that everybody in town is hiding something—her grandmother Honey; her childhood crush Hart; and even her late mother, whose secrets continue to call to Grey from beyond the grave. When a mysterious stranger emerges from the bayou – a stormy-eyed boy with links to Elora and the town’s bloody history – Grey realizes that La Cachette’s past is far more present and dangerous than she’d ever understood. She doesn’t know who she can trust. In a town where secrets lurk just below the surface, and where a murderer is on the loose, nobody can be presumed innocent—and La Cachette’s dark and shallow lies may just rip the town apart.

Brilliant book, took you on many twists and turns. Amazingly written but heartbreaking ending. OBM (S3) *****

Black Cairn Point by Claire McFall

Heather agrees to a group camping holiday with Dougie and his friends because she’s desperate to get closer to him.9781471404870
But when the two of them disturb a pagan burial site above the beach, she becomes certain that they have woken a malevolent spirit.
Something is alive out there in the pitch-black dark, and it is planning to wreak deadly revenge.
One year later Heather knows that she was very lucky to escape Black Cairn Point but she is still waiting for Dougie to wake from his coma.
If he doesn’t, how will she prove her sanity, and her innocence?

Amazing story. Well Written! EM (S3) *****

See How They Run by Ally Carter

See how they runGrace thought finding her mother’s killer would bring her peace.
But the truth has only made her a target. On Embassy Row, trust is a luxury. Death is a very real threat. And a girl like Grace should be very careful about which secrets she brings to light…

I thought this book was really good because it’s page turning. It makes you want to read more which I think books are meant to do. CS (S2) *****

The Seeing by Diana Hendry

The second world war is over in the quiet town of Norton. When wild, dangerous, break-all-the-rules Natalie arrives, thirteen-year-old Lizzie is drawn irresistibly to the new girl from the wrong side of the tracks. Desperate for Natalie’s friendship and respect, Lizzie soon discovers a side of the town – and of herself – that she had never imagined.
As the girls grow closer, Natalie and her strange, eerie brother, Philip, reveal a shocking secret. For Philip has a second sight, and all around them he sees evil – ‘left-over Nazis’ lying in wait until the time is right for revenge. Natalie and Philip believe it’s up to them to root these people out of Norton.
Lizzie is swept up in what starts as a thrilling game – but the consequences of Philip’s ‘gift’ quickly spiral into disaster.

It was OK. Beginning was very slow & about the middle something happened which made me think that it mught actually become exciting but I was wrong. This book was boring and (did not) grip me at all. Suitable for ages 9 or 10 up to 13, I think.  L (S2) **1/2 

It was a dark out of the ordinary book in a good way. I (S1) ****

I thought the start was a bit creepy but it got more interesting later in the book. I (S1) ***

It is a good book but I don’t really like it because that isn’t the kind of book that I like. J (S1) ***

Exciting. Keep wanting to read on. J (S2) ****

Good book but very slow. J (S3) ***

Out of the Depths by Cathy MacPhail

Tyler Lawless has an unusual and sometimes scary gift. She is able to see dead people. And sometimes they speak to her, asking for her help. When Tyler is sent to a new school because her so called ‘storytelling’ about seeing dead teachers gets her into too much trouble, she is hoping to make a fresh start.

It is an amazing book. I did not like it at the start but when I read on I started to love it. Sometimes a bit scary. P (S2) *****

It was very good but a little too scary! AM (S2) ****

Grass by Cathy MacPhail

It would have been hard to have missed what was written on the wall. Painted in giant whitewashed letters: ‘SHARKEY IS A GRASS’. I hadn’t a clue who Sharkey was, but I knew one thing. ‘Sharkey’s a dead man,’ I said. Leo knows the value of never grassing and that you never grass on your friends. Everybody, too, knows the gang leaders in town. And you don’t grass on them. Not unless you don’t value your life – like Sharkey. And then Leo is unlucky enough to witness the murder of one gang leader by another, a man called Armour. Leo is petrified as he realises what he is witnessing and even more petrified when he realises that Armour has seen him. Sure that he is drawing his own last breath, Leo silently says goodbye to his family and everybody he knows. But all Armour does is wink at Leo, very slowly, and leave the scene of the crime. Leo draws a long breath of relief. He has got away with it. But he hasn’t – not really. Leo will live to regret that wink and realise that Armour has an insidious hold on him and his family,which will test his family relationships, and his very sense of what is right and wrong. It will take bravery, luck and sheer daring to extricate himself from Armour’s deadly web.

A good book and a good author. ‘Do not grass on your friend’. G.Y. (S1) *****

The Rescue (The Medusa Project Book 3) by Sophie McKenzie

Until recently, the Medusa teens lived under the protection of William’s brother, Fergus Fox, at his North London boarding school – Fox Academy. However their existence has now became known to members of the criminal underworld, so they are being taken to a secluded training camp in Spain, where their identities can be kept secret. Now Dylan has been kidnapped, and this time only Ed can help set her free…

It was really good. I didn’t want it to end. G.S. (S2) *****

Secret Lives (Darke Academy Book 1) by Gabriella Poole

The Darke Academy is a school like no other. An elite establishment that moves to an exotic new city every term, its students are impossibly beautiful, sophisticated and rich. And the more new scholarship girl Cassie Bell learns about the Academy, the more curious she becomes.

This is one of the most beautiful, intense books I have ever had the privilege to read. The use of historic legends is incredibly clever and the descriptions used are fantastic!
C.W. (S2) *****