My Book Reviews for August 2025
My Book Reviews for August 2025
My Book Reviews for August 2025 comprise a podcaster mystery, three suspenseful thrillers, a 1940s spy mystery and two romantic comedies. All books this month are advance copies I had the privilege of reading, and I thank the authors, publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity.
Heather Critchlow has done it again with a terrific new addition to her Cal Lovett Files series.
Cal is a true-crime podcaster who investigates cold cases. We see this story from three perspectives: Cal's viewpoint as he investigates the case; through podcast episodes; and in chapters set many decades earlier from the viewpoint of Morna, a forlorn but key character.
Following the acquittal of his sister's murderer, a crime brought to court in the previous novel, Unsound, three decades after her disappearance, Cal is set to quit his Finding Justice podcast.
But while on a hike in Aberdeenshire, he comes across not only a historic murder case but also an active missing person's enquiry. He finds himself drawn into the search for missing social influencer Lucie. To rule out a link to the unsolved murder committed above the same loch twenty years earlier, he also takes up the cold case of Hillside Jane, the unidentified victim.
Heather Critchlow's storytelling is superb. She weaves threads and timelines together seamlessly and keeps up the page-turning suspense. Seasoned crime fiction readers are likely to spot the culprit early on but rather than spoiling enjoyment that leads to a smugly satisfying read.
This is the best book so far in an already outstanding crime series.
High Season by Katie Bishop
Tamara Drayton’s rich and chaotic former It-girl mother owns a villa on the Côte d'Azur, where the family always spends the summer. In 2004, teenager Tamara drowns in the swimming pool. Nina Drayton, Tamara’s five-year-old sister tells police she saw their housekeeper’s daughter, Josie, push Tamara under the water. Nina’s testimony sends Josie to prison for ten years. Despite frequent media bids, neither Josie nor Nina have ever given interviews, nor have either of them returned to France.
Now, twenty years later, a new true-crime podcast and investigation piques their interest. Both return to the Côte d'Azur and meet for the first time since the trial.
This well-written thriller revolves around these women, their pasts, their presents and their memories of Tamara’s death. A third viewpoint character is Hannah, a friend of Josie’s, who at the time of the murder was in love with Tamara’s twin brother, Blake.
The fourth perspective comes from the true-crime podcasts and the scandal-hungry comments from followers, who see Tamara's murder purely as an entertaining case.
The writing is fluent with thisness of detail and in-depth and visceral interior thought from the three rounded protagonists. The author also does a great job of evoking the Riviera setting. Seasoned thriller readers may not be shocked by the denouement, but the journey there is absorbing and suspenseful. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend it as a literary thriller and well-written beach read.
You Had Me at Pumpkin Patch by Anita Faulkner
I don't read many romcoms, but like its title, this one had me at pumpkin patch. There's something magical about fields of orange orbs lighting up an autumn day. With publication set for late August, this novel will brighten the way towards winter.
Rosie's Monday goes from bad to worse. Not only has she been usurped at work by an AI copywriter, but she also returns home to discover her boyfriend's affections have shifted to something, well, robotic.
With the urge to flee, she drives into the Gloucestershire countryside but breaks down in the middle of nowhere. When an elderly lady landowner mistakes her for a wild swimming facilitator and retreat developer, a whole new life of rustic contentment presents itself - at least until the real job applicant turns up, until the landowner rumbles Rosie can't swim, and until the grumpy but gorgeous tenant pumpkin farmer finds out her fundraising retreat ideas involve theming up his prize patch.
The writing is excellent. The humour is light, breezy and sometimes saucy. I read the book on an aeroplane on my phone with the font dialled big. I was in the middle seat and can confirm the novel’s lively sexy bits caught the attention of my fellow passengers. Oh, how I blushed.
Rosie is a likeable and relatable main character and there's strong support from Zain the brooding pumpkin prince (un)charming, Agnes the eccentric landowner, Steve the hairless, three-legged cat with a penchant for denim, and the indomitable ladies of the wild swim club. There are also delightful cameos by characters from Anita Faulkner’s previous novels, A Colourful Country Escape and The Gingerbread Café. This book touches on the theme explored in The Gingerbread Café of independent creatives going back to basics to compete with the slick power of corporate business.
As well as being a well-managed will-they-won’t-they romantic comedy, the novel is also a love song to nature, with beautiful descriptions of the lake, of roosting bats and of clear, bright skies.
The author also weaves in two threads of intrigue as the reader wonders throughout what happened in Zain’s past to make him awkward and obstinate, and why is Rosie so anxious to stay one step ahead of a series of orange envelopes that landed on her doorstep before she ran.
This novel will be published on 28 August.
A Magical New Year’s Kiss by Jennifer Joyce
Yes, a second romcom slipped into my reading this month and it’s another good one. Daisy walks into a bar to meet her best friends Jesy and Callum, but the scene suddenly shifts to New Year's Eve. The bar is packed, Jesy is heavily pregnant, and Daisy is holding hands with a mystery man who is wearing a cracked wristwatch.
The image fades and Daisy returns to an ordinary midweek evening. Jesy isn't with child and Daisy isn't with boyfriend. The handsome man of her daydream has vanished.
She just about accepts it was a fantasy until a few days later she spots the exact dress she was wearing in the vision and Jesy discovers she's pregnant. Daisy decides she has a few months until New Year's Eve to bump into her dream man. When she eventually sees the cracked watch on the arm of the most unlikely candidate, she vows to make him fall in love with her and to convince herself he's The One.
I'm not a seasoned RomCom reader so feel rather smug I guessed the outcome of this cute story.
This is a bright and breezy novel with gentle humour. I enjoyed it.
Slander by Rhiannon Barnsley
In an effort to keep the case of her missing sister in the public eye, Riley becomes a true-crime podcaster. A mystery follower lures her to London to cover a celebrity defamation trial by hinting the case will reveal what happened to her twin.
Hollywood actor Ethan is suing his British popstar wife Tori for slander after she whispered in the wrong ear that her husband was having an affair. With a morality clause in his contract, Ethan lost his starring role in a lucrative film franchise.
How can this possibly connect with the disappearance of Riley's twin?
A celebrity defamation trial, a true-crime podcast, a media frenzy and a missing woman - the complex and engaging plot is deftly handled. A page-turner.
Beattie Cavendish and the White Pearl Club
Beattie, an undercover intelligence officer, is tasked with getting close to Ralph Bowen, a politician suspected of having Russian sympathies, by befriending his son.
Meanwhile, Bowen's wife has hired jaded private detective Patrick Corrigan to spy on her husband.
The two investigations collide when Beattie and Patrick both chance upon the dead body of the Bowens' housekeeper. They are forced to work together when their enquiries lead them to the seedy White Pearl Club in Soho.
With this first mystery/spy story in the late-1940s-set Beattie Cavendish series, the author has a sure-fire hit on her hands.
Guilt Trip by Jo Furniss
I loved Jo Furniss’s last book, Dead Mile, for its unusual premise, an ingeniously staged and plotted locked room mystery set on a grid-locked mystery. And she’s done it again in Guilt Trip, another transport-related thriller.
Working single mother, Emma, gets a text summoning her to her daughter’s school. Daughter Olivia is a pupil at Saints, an elite private school. The institution is out of Emma’s league, both financially and politically, but Olivia is an outstanding student and talented swimmer on a full scholarship.
On arrival at school, Emma is shown into the Great Hall where four other parents are waiting:
Akin, a consultant anaesthetist.
Jack Kent, a social influencer,
Ayesha, a government minister,
Mariah, Emma’s friend, married to a shady property developer.
The headmaster briefs them that their children’s minibus, due back from a swim meet at midday, has still not returned three hours later. Having had no phone contact with the teacher driving the minibus or any of the five pupils on board, the PR-conscious and scandal-phobic headteacher reluctantly calls the police.
Told from Emma’s viewpoint, the story reveals how each parent and the headteacher react to emerging news from the police search. Naturally because this is a thriller, each adult has something to hide and conceals secrets that may have led to the teenagers being kidnapped. The school setting made me think of Your Time Is Up by Sarah Naughton.
The other viewpoint character is Olivia. Her story starts a few hours earlier at breakfast at home with Emma, moving to the swim meet and then to the ill-fated return journey to school. We meet the teenage children of the four other anxious parents:
Temi, all round good guy, son of the anaesthetist,
Kiran, neurotic geek, son of the government minister,
Alix, bad boy son of the social influencer,
Dixie, Olivia’s friend and daughter of Emma’s friend Mariah.
Their survival attempts put me in mind of The Search Party by Simon Lelic.
Lots of twists and deadpan humour.
This book will be published on 28 August.