Book Review | One Beats The Bush by Riall Nolan - The First in the Max Donovan Adventure Series

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One Beats The Bush is a well-paced action thriller that ticks multiple boxes; page-turning twists, fight scenes, a lot of crime and, more importantly, a main character you cannot help but love. Vietnam veteran Max Donovan is in Bangkok, and very hungover, when his friend “Fat” Freddie Fields is arrested in San Francisco for the murder of an Australian diplomat. He knows his old buddy would never hurt a fly, so he rushes back to the Bay Area to help. Suspecting Freddie is being framed, Donovan tries to rustle up some cash to bail him out, but only succeeds in getting into trouble with the local mob.  He’ll have to solve the case on his own. Unfortunately, the only clue he has suggest the answer lies in the jungle-covered mountains of Papua New Guinea. As he comes face-to-face with smugglers, hostile tribesmen, insurgents, and a web of corruption and deception, can Donovan achieve what is seemingly impossible? Nolan has managed to achieve a page-turning action thriller that doesn’t feel
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Book Review | The Appeal by Janice Hallett - Murder Mystery Worth The Hype

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The Appeal was one of them books I saw all over my Twitter for months, as I’m sure anyone on Book Twitter has. And me, someone falls victim to peer pressure so easily, of course caved in and bought it. But that being said, this is one of the few times everyone on Twitter were correct. This book is amazing! 

The Appeal is told through many, many email exchanges and text messages. It follows the story of two law students who have been tasked with finding out whodunit. They must read through all the evidence, emails, and come to a conclusion of who murdered the victim, as Roderick Tanner QC believes the wrong person is behind bars. From reading the evidence, and with the help of little clues, can you figure out whodunit before the law students can? 

So the first thing that will instantly draw you into this book, or completely turn you off it, is the writing style. As I said above, the whole book is told through emails and text messages. There is no chapters, or ‘story telling’ in the traditional sense. For me, I adored this. As someone who reads a lot of murder mystery books it was so refreshing to see a completely unique take on the concept. 

However it did make it extremely difficult to put the book down, as there were no obvious stopping points like the end of a chapter, but I am not complaining. I didn’t want to put the book down anyways! I read this whilst working in Paris for the week and after 10+ hour working days all I wanted, and needed, was sleep but The Appeal prevented that in the best way. There I was, up until midnight each night reading away, squeezing in as much reading time as I could. 

The character development is done so cleverly. You wouldn’t think you could create a personality and persona for someone through emails but Hallett did just that. You could straight away sense the kind of person they were from the way the wrote their emails and they way they gossiped about other people. 

In my opinion, the build up of this story is way more entertaining than the conclusion. I had so much fun trying to put it all together and figure out who the murderer was. With that said, the ending was a great way to conclude the overall story. All my questions were answered and you discovered everyones secrets.

The Appeal was everything I could have hoped for and more. This is one book I can hands-down say is worth the hype! Click here to buy The Appeal.

A safe space for me to ramble on about the books I’ve read. Don’t expect high quality, news worthy reviews; I’m just a simple woman who needs somewhere to vent! This blog contains affiliated links.

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