My Book Reviews for January 2026 (Part Two)
My Book Reviews for January 2026 (Part Two)
My Book Reviews for January 2026 (Part Two) comprise various kinds of thrillers – ghostly horror, action and psychological – a mystery, a literary folk retelling, a history book and a self-help guide. All but the history book are independent reviews of advance copies. I thank the authors, publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity.
A Box Full of Darkness by Simone St James
Having read Simone St James’s earlier novels—The Broken Girls, The Sundown Hotel and Murder Road—I already knew she was expert at combining suspenseful mysteries with creeping ghost stories. She’s brought her A game again with A Box Full of Darkness.
It’s 1989 and twenty years since three siblings quit their hometown of Fell and went their separate ways. Their little brother Ben was the only ray of sunlight in their grim childhoods, but, when he was six, he went missing and was never seen again. They are forced to return to the deserted family home when Ben’s ghost appears to the landscapers who maintain the property.
Each sibling takes turns to narrate chapters. The author has done a first-rate job of making each unique, rounded, flawed and likeable:
Violet, the eldest – Even before Ben disappeared, she saw ghosts, but now that she’s back in Fell, spectral encounters become dangerous and threatening.
Vail – Hoping that alien abduction might explain what happened to Ben, he has become a UFO investigator.
Dodie, the youngest – Throughout her childhood, she was haunted by a watery presence in her bedroom.
The ghostly element plays out with a steadily escalating and pitch-perfect sense of doom. Yet, through lively protagonists and some adorable secondary characters, the author also manages to imbue this stark, eery story with wonderful warmth.
As usual in a Simone St James’s novel, every sentence is expertly crafted – smooth, pacy and authentic.
I wrote this independent review of an advance copy back in September 2025 and I already predict A Box Full of Darkness will be one of my favourites to be published in 2026. It’s going to be hard to top this novel.
A tragic case of life imitating art occurred when this novel landed on NetGalley at the same time as a real-life attacker ran amok on a London-bound train, stabbing passengers. With this shocking incident fresh in my mind, it was with trepidation I approached this fictional account of a train hijack by knife-wielding terrorists. However, thankfully, the novel soon diverged from the true-life outrage.
In this novel, hijackers board the Manchester to London train and take control of every carriage and the driver’s cab. Fifty-something art lecturer Claire accidently finds herself the leader of a band of passengers in the rear of the train who fight back.
Months later, after the subsequent trial of the hijackers, she writes a book about what happened that day. Claire’s narrative is interspersed with notes from her editor, the police and railway managers and texts sent to loved ones by panicked passengers and texts between the hijackers before the attack. There are also transcripts of the trial and accompanying newspaper articles that show defence counsel being critical of Claire’s actions during the hijack. Her book is intended to be her way to set the record straight.
I didn’t understand the layout of the train and I couldn’t keep track of named passengers and hijackers, nor did I understand all the text message inserts. However, much like the speeding train, the story, with its action and suspense, had forward momentum that kept my attention. I particularly enjoyed the second half when, a year later, in the process of researching her book, Claire contacts other passengers and even some of the imprisoned hijackers and begins to suspect there may have been more to the hijack than the trial concluded. The interviews Claire conducts are sometimes suspenseful and sometimes heartbreaking.
Detours: Hope & Growth After Life's Hardest Turns by Elizabeth Smart
From the blurb: In Detours, Elizabeth Smart explores how trauma can derail one’s path in life and shares her struggles with captivity, reintegration, and resilience. Using the metaphor of life as a road, Smart introduces four key “Rest Stops” for navigating life’s detours—grieving lost paths, embracing change, seeking connections, and redefining destinations. Through themes of hope, community, and self-discovery, she inspires readers to find strength in their own journeys toward healing.
This is a straightforward, quick read, partly memoir but mostly inspirational self-help guide. Drawing on her traumatic experience of being snatched from her bedroom, physically and sexually abused by a depraved married couple and held captive for nine months when she was fourteen - and on the later experience of enduring her parents’ unexpected divorce – Elizabeth Smart provides practical suggestions for recalibrating one’s life plan and remaining resilient.
With reference to physiology and psychology, she explains how the body and mind react to trauma and to the more everyday derailment of plans. She provides guidance on how a person can overcome setbacks, whether these are highly traumatic or less severe.
Travellers in the Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism Through the Eyes of Everyday People by Julia Boyd
The author has meticulously researched letters, diaries, speeches and press articles by foreign travellers in 1930s Germany. These travellers came from all walks of life, for example: exchange students, university students, academics, journalists, business travellers, middle-class ladies, politicians, diplomats and aristocrats. Many were British but we also hear from North and South American, Australian, Asian and European travellers.
Their observations were as varied as their reactions to what they saw. Some talked of beautiful scenery, smart, well-fed, friendly people, and the magnificent 1936 Olympic Games; others noticed antisemitism, marching solders and evidence of rearmament; some were alarmed by Kristallnacht and other violence against Jews. Their responses encompassed a wide range of opinions from wholehearted endorsement of National Socialism, through bemusement, to complete revulsion. Several people put the regime’s behaviour down to teething trouble, believing the Nazis would ‘settle down’ once they were established.
This book was a birthday present from my son. A thought-provoking gift indeed.
The Bloody Branch by Brigid Lowe
The novel is based on the fourth branch of the Mabinogion. The tales - first written down in the twelfth century but based on oral telling going back to the Bronze Age - leave many subplots incomplete and characters without emotional depth.
As Brigid Lowe says, she has 'darned the holes', using other Celtic songs and stories to fill in detail.
She stays true to the storytelling style of the standard text.
Ideal for fans of literary fiction based on traditional Welsh storytelling.
The Opposite of Murder by Sophie Hannah
While Jemma is at the police station confessing to an intention to murder Marianne, her intended victim is being killed in precisely the way Jemma planned. Surely, with her solid alibi, Jemma is innocent of the crime—unless she is an ingenious, cold-blooded killer…
Another pacy puzzler from the queen of fiendishly plotted mysteries. Fans of Sophie Hannah will love it.
Darling Mine by Romy Hausmann, translated by Jamie Bulloch
Taken from the blurb: Julie has been missing since 2003. It broke her family. Only her father, Theo, doesn't give up on her. On the 20th anniversary of her disappearance, Theo is contacted by podcaster Liv. She's come across a new lead. But if Theo wants to find out the truth he must be quick before his progressing dementia smothers everything in darkness.
Twisty and tragic, the story conveys well the fog of Theo’s increasing confusion. Ideal for fans of complex psychological thrillers.
By the German author of the stunning Dear Child.
So those are My Book Reviews for January 2026 (Part Two). My first lot of reviews for this month are at this link: My Book Reviews for January 2026 (Part One) — Rachel Sargeant