"The Killer Question" by Janice Hallett

Janice Hallett is a dare-devil. And a clever cookie.

Who else writes an entire murder mystery using only texts, emails, transcripts, and still makes it this gripping? It shouldn’t work as well as it does... and it really, really does.

The setup is deceptively cosy. Sue and Mal Eastwood retire early and take over a rural pub, The Case is Altered, and bring it back to life with a weekly pub quiz. You get to know the regular teams through scoresheets, categories, bits of conversation. It’s all very low-key, quirky, British.

There’s even that one team member who complains about everything every single week, and the running joke that the quizmaster is always right, even when he’s clearly wrong.

And then a body turns up in the river behind the pub.

From there, things start to shift. A new team arrives, The Shadow Knights, and begins winning every week, unsettling the regulars and changing the whole dynamic. The second half of the book goes somewhere I didn’t expect at all. It gets twisty, but still grounded in that same clever format.

I love pub quizzes, and I really loved this book.

It's Not What You Think

"It's Not What You Think" by Clare Mackintosh is an excellent book. I couldn’t put it down. It's he kind of book where you tell yourself one more chapter and suddenly it’s well past midnight.

I went in expecting a fairly straightforward psychological thriller. Instead, I got something a bit sharper, a bit more self-aware. The story keeps nudging you into forming opinions. About what’s happening, about who to trust. And then quietly pulls the rug. 

I loved Nadeeka and Lauren. They’re not perfect characters, which is exactly why they work. There were moments I didn’t agree with them, moments I questioned them, but I never disengaged. 

What stayed with me is the sense of unease running under everything. It’s a clever reminder that perspective is slippery, and that we’re often far more certain than we should be.

I read it quickly, but it’s the kind of book that lingers a little afterwards, making you replay moments and wonder what you missed the first time.

Smart, addictive, and just a bit unsettling in the best way.

Inside Man by John McMahon

This sequel brings back Gardner Camden and the PAR team with the same clever energy that made the first thriller so compelling. The mystery unfolds on two fronts (a militia investigation and a chilling series of buried victims) and the tension builds steadily without losing the human side of the story. 

It’s a smart, absorbing novel that reminds you that puzzles aren’t just about clues. They’re chiefly about people.

What I loved most was hanging out with four brilliant, slightly odd book people who trust each other enough to tackle the cases nobody else can solve. Thank you, John, for normalising neurodiversity and unveiling how cool and desirable it is.