Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
Very good police thriller, with a great twist midway through. My only (minor) complaint is that it has little sense of place. It's set in London but there is so little detail it could be anywhere. Maybe that was deliberate, but it gives the book a generic quality that doesn't serve it well.
Right from the commencement of SOMEONE ELSE'S SKIN there's something extremely engaging about the protagonist DS Marnie Rowe. Arriving at her parent's house, five years earlier, to the sight of ambulances and police outside, and the news that her parents are dead inside, it's not hard to feel the shock that she is experiencing. Made even more harrowing by knowing she's a cop / she's been at this sort of scene many times before. Instantly this author has established a central character who is human, struggling with an awful event in their own life, capable of empathy for victims and families. There's real skill in the way that this scenario has been set up. Rather than telling the reader all about Rowe, instead there's a short / sharp demonstration of what happens when it's your own, and the reader is pulled from there, straight into current day.
Now Rowe is a DS and she and her partner DS Noah Jake are trying to get a statement from a young girl hiding from her family in a women's refuge. The CPS want her to tell what she knows about her brother's involvement in an assault, whilst the threat from her brothers remains very real. Things at the shelter quickly go pear-shaped when Rowe and Jake arrive to find another resident's husband dying from a stab wound, a lurking presence watching the shelter, and women who start disappearing from there.
In many ways (good) SOMEONE ELSE'S SKIN is a classic police procedural with a team working an investigation. It's set within a realistic world where culture collision is increasingly common, and there's enough background to give the reader a reasonably good sense of place. The characterisations particularly appeal, each are vividly drawn, even when quickly encountered, and the central two are strong, flawed, realistic cops. Rowe, especially, is a great character because she's got that added empathy from her own background, and the vulnerability that comes from struggling, 5 years on, to come to terms with the murder (and murderer) of her own parents.
Best part of all - SOMEONE ELSE'S SKIN was originally released in 2014, and has now been followed by NO OTHER DARKNESS (2015) and TASTES LIKE FEAR (2016). Nothing like a new series to get your teeth into.
http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/review-someone-elses-skin-sarah-hilary
Now Rowe is a DS and she and her partner DS Noah Jake are trying to get a statement from a young girl hiding from her family in a women's refuge. The CPS want her to tell what she knows about her brother's involvement in an assault, whilst the threat from her brothers remains very real. Things at the shelter quickly go pear-shaped when Rowe and Jake arrive to find another resident's husband dying from a stab wound, a lurking presence watching the shelter, and women who start disappearing from there.
In many ways (good) SOMEONE ELSE'S SKIN is a classic police procedural with a team working an investigation. It's set within a realistic world where culture collision is increasingly common, and there's enough background to give the reader a reasonably good sense of place. The characterisations particularly appeal, each are vividly drawn, even when quickly encountered, and the central two are strong, flawed, realistic cops. Rowe, especially, is a great character because she's got that added empathy from her own background, and the vulnerability that comes from struggling, 5 years on, to come to terms with the murder (and murderer) of her own parents.
Best part of all - SOMEONE ELSE'S SKIN was originally released in 2014, and has now been followed by NO OTHER DARKNESS (2015) and TASTES LIKE FEAR (2016). Nothing like a new series to get your teeth into.
http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/review-someone-elses-skin-sarah-hilary
Until half way through I thought this was just another police procedural crime drama.
Once I passed the half way point I realised that, yes, it was a police crime drama but an exciting well written one.
I will defiantly read more by this author and more in the series
Once I passed the half way point I realised that, yes, it was a police crime drama but an exciting well written one.
I will defiantly read more by this author and more in the series
⭐⭐⭐ = I liked it.
TW: Rape (and mentions of it), domestic abuse, torture
A rollercoaster of darkness and the shadows that lurk underneath people's skin. This novel made me so aggregated and on-edge. The mistakes the characters made and the agony that they put each other through really made me grind my teeth. If that was the intention, fantastic.
Also, the opening chapter hit me HARD. I found it amazingly compelling.
Favorite quote about Rome:
"She was good, all smooth, cool surface, like a sheet. But underneath, she was red hot. If you listened hard, you could hear her ticking."
TW: Rape (and mentions of it), domestic abuse, torture
A rollercoaster of darkness and the shadows that lurk underneath people's skin. This novel made me so aggregated and on-edge. The mistakes the characters made and the agony that they put each other through really made me grind my teeth. If that was the intention, fantastic.
Also, the opening chapter hit me HARD. I found it amazingly compelling.
Favorite quote about Rome:
"She was good, all smooth, cool surface, like a sheet. But underneath, she was red hot. If you listened hard, you could hear her ticking."
Oh boy, seriously I don't know how to comment this book. First, I don't know why it has a bestseller status. Plot is really embroiled, a lot of topics and many people. At some point I hadn't had idea when this book was going. The author tried to put in one book all world problems (rasism, homosexuality, differences in the treatment of women in the Muslim world, sexual defiations)...and it wasn't good idea because between them she lost the smoothness of the plot. Really hard to read.
So I have mixed feelings about this one. Mostly due to the way it was written. It kept jumping back and forth between perspectives and started off extremely slowly but after the half way point it really started to pick up and it seemed everything started happening, which is good because I was debating putting it down.
This is a story about a detective Rome and her partner looking into a acid burn victim and her family. However when they find her they stumble upon another woman and a stabbing. The detectives have to get to the bottom of both crimes, but new things just keep popping up and not everything is as it seems.
This is a story about a detective Rome and her partner looking into a acid burn victim and her family. However when they find her they stumble upon another woman and a stabbing. The detectives have to get to the bottom of both crimes, but new things just keep popping up and not everything is as it seems.
This year I'm doing a Reading Challenge; so I have 26 books with specific subjects that I need to read.
Book 14:A book with a character with your first name
Initially I thought finding a book with a character with my first name would be difficult, but when then my research prove me so wrong that I actually could pick and choose.
Picking [b:Someone Else's Skin|21350894|Someone Else's Skin (DI Marnie Rome, #1)|Sarah Hilary|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1409223715s/21350894.jpg|24089880] was really an excellent choice!
I fell right into the story.
'DI Rome, slayer of dragons.'
I like the complexity of the characters; especially DI Marnie Rome. She's fierce and in charge; taking challenges on head first; but it might be her internal struggles causing this fierceness.
The way [a:Hilary|3418841|Sarah Hilary|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1377456617p2/3418841.jpg] build this beautiful broken strong piece of art she calls Marnie Rome amaze me. Marnie feels so real to me I can easily fall into her character and believe it's me.
The counter characters amplifies Marnie's character so well you feel you know them all.
The slow build of suspense and drama works you up in a way that makes you feel part of it.
The tricky premise of the plot with multiple witnesses was perplexing and thought-provoking.
Me reading a lot of suspense, thrillers and crime usually figures out the plot quite quickly, but not this time. [a:Hilary|3418841|Sarah Hilary|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1377456617p2/3418841.jpg] gives you enough and just little enough to keep you guessing and going in the wrong direction.
This was [a:Sarah Hilary's|3418841|Sarah Hilary|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1377456617p2/3418841.jpg] debut novel; which makes me very exited for the next books in the series.
I found a new favorite author!
This was a very tragic story, a testament to the horrors people inflict on each other, and not just men to women, but also women to women, (as in female genital mutilation, inflicted by a young girl’s own mother. ) some parts are not for the squeamish.
The characters are interesting, and the relationships are promising.
The narrator was to my ears terrible. She is highly regarded elsewhere, but the entire book was read with a sort of quiver in her voice. I’m pleased this was a library book, and not a purchase.
The characters are interesting, and the relationships are promising.
The narrator was to my ears terrible. She is highly regarded elsewhere, but the entire book was read with a sort of quiver in her voice. I’m pleased this was a library book, and not a purchase.
Quite well written. But I couldn't finish it.
I gave up at 76% Yep, I just couldn't read it properly anymore as I started to skip lines, then paragraphs, then pages in a desperate rush to just finish the book...which I couldn't.
It's not that the book is bad, it's just a boring topic. I think it's also aimed more at the female market, so perhaps that influenced my attention.
No, that wasn't why. It was the way the onion of the story was unpeeled, slowly drawing back a layer to reveal what we already knew was coming, a colour-by-numbers standard plot where I was 3 chapters ahead in the plot already, so I spent the whole read waiting for the book to catch up to me. Not one surprise. Okay, I lie--there was one. One that was feeble plot-wise, tacky and lame in my eyes.
I'm giving this a generous 3 stars, because the author can write...but needs help telling a story.
I gave up at 76% Yep, I just couldn't read it properly anymore as I started to skip lines, then paragraphs, then pages in a desperate rush to just finish the book...which I couldn't.
It's not that the book is bad, it's just a boring topic. I think it's also aimed more at the female market, so perhaps that influenced my attention.
No, that wasn't why. It was the way the onion of the story was unpeeled, slowly drawing back a layer to reveal what we already knew was coming, a colour-by-numbers standard plot where I was 3 chapters ahead in the plot already, so I spent the whole read waiting for the book to catch up to me. Not one surprise. Okay, I lie--there was one. One that was feeble plot-wise, tacky and lame in my eyes.
I'm giving this a generous 3 stars, because the author can write...but needs help telling a story.