Review: Dead Jealous by Sharon Jones

Dead Jealous by Sharon Jones (July 2013, Orchard Books, ISBN: 1408327546)

Dead Jealous is the first book in the Poppy Sinclair thriller series and is set in the Lake District. Poppy is sixteen and has come with her mum and step-dad Jonathan to an alternative/new-age festival on the shores of Scariswater where her mum and Jonathan are to have a handfasting ceremony. They are regular attendees to the annual festival but of late Poppy doesn't believe in the pagan ways.

Poppy is in love with her best-friend Michael but he has a girlfriend and to protect herself, Poppy has been turning away from him. At the festival she meets the gorgeous, slightly older, Tariq – can he take her mind off Michael?

On the first night Poppy seeking seclusion climbs a hill and meets Beth. Beth is looking for a girl she's in love with – Maya – who hasn't been seen since last year's event. Though Poppy and Beth only meet briefly, they connect and so when Poppy discovers Beth's dead body in the lake she knows it was murder. The police think it's an accident and despite Poppy's assertion that it wasn't, do very little. So it's up to Poppy, with occasional help from Michael, to get to the bottom of things.

One of my favourite adult crime series is Martin Edwards's Lake District mysteries so I was very much looking forward to Dead Jealous and I wasn't disappointed. Good use is made of the setting – both the countryside with its erratic mobile phone signal reception, and the new age festival including tarot reading and sweat tents. Poppy is haunted by Beth and Maya – possibly in more than just a manner of speaking as it's left to the reader to choose whether there's something supernatural going on or whether it's just that Poppy is under a lot of strain. As Poppy works through the mysteries she also resolves some personal issues. I'm very much looking forward to the sequel, Dead Silent, which is set in another of my favourite places (Cambridge) and is out in February 2014.

NB. As Poppy is sixteen, there are some references to sex, some F-words and there are some drug mentions as well (plus a few dead bodies!).

Some upcoming crime novels

The CWA's crime writing month officially finished last night however I have a couple more posts I'd like to include so I'll carry-on a bit longer!

Crime is doing big business at the moment looking at what's coming in the next few weeks alone These all look very good and I haven't even included Soul Storm by Kate Harrison as I didn't want to see any spoilers as I'm half-way through book two, Soul Fire, as I write.

4 July

Dead Jealous by Sharon Jones

People think of Mother Nature as a gentle lady. They forget that she's also Death. Sixteen-year-old Poppy Sinclair believes in quantum particles, not tarot cards, in Dawkins, not druids. Last summer, in a boating accident in the Lake District, Poppy had a brush with death. But the girl she finds face down in Scariswater hasn't been so lucky. As she fights to discover the truth behind what she believes is murder, Poppy is forced to concede that people and things are not always what they seem and, slipping ever deeper into a web of lies, jealousy and heart-stopping danger, she comes to realise - too late - that the one thing that can save her has been right there, all the time.






Carnaby by Cate Sampson

Sarah aka Carnaby has a tough life, but it suddenly gets a whole lot tougher when her mother is found murdered, her sister goes into labour and her new baby nephew is threatened with being taken into care. Sarah doesn't remember finding her mother's body, but she does remember hearing about other murders on the estate where they live. Is there a connection - and can Sarah find out what is going on, without putting herself and her family in even more danger?










18 July 

Spy Society by Robin Benway

Believe it or not, there are some drawbacks to being a 16-year old safecracker, daughter of spies, and member of an organization that fights corruption and wrongdoing around the world. For example: never getting to stay in one place long enough to have friends or a boyfriend, being the only spy ever to have a 10 p.m. curfew, and being sent on assignment to Russia. In the winter. For Maggie Silver, the compensation for the vast inconvenience of being a teenage spy has been avoiding high school and its accompanying cliques, bad lunches, and frustratingly simple security on the lockers. (If it's three digits or less, why even bother?) But when Maggie and her parents are sent to New York on a major assignment, all of that changes. She'll need to attend a private school, avoid the temptation to hack the school's security system, and befriend the aggravatingly cute Jesse Oliver to gain the information she needs to crack the case, all while trying not to blow her cover. The first in a new series from Robin Benway, Also Known As, is the perfect read for fans of The Gallagher Girls.
  
The Dead Girl Detective Agency by Suzy Cox

Solving the mystery behind your death can be murder. Charlotte wakes up at Hotel Atessa, home to murdered New York teenagers and HQ of The Dead Girls Detective Agency. Before she has time to adjust to her new, erm, dead self, she's thrust into the arms of her new afterlife companions, Lorna, Nancy and the cute - if slightly hostile - dead boy, Eddison. But where does this leave Charlotte and her boyfriend David? Is it possible to have a long-distance relationship from beyond the grave? The only way out of this limbo is to figure out who killed her, or she'll have to spend eternity here. But who could hate her enough to want her dead?







 Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas

It's Spring Break of senior year. Anna, her boyfriend Tate, her best friend Elise, and a few other close friends are off to a debaucherous trip to Aruba that promises to be the time of their lives. But when Elise is found brutally murdered, Anna finds herself trapped in a country not her own, fighting against vile and contemptuous accusations. As Anna sets out to find her friend's killer; she discovers hard truths about her friendships, the slippery nature of truth, and the ache of young love. As she awaits the judge's decree, it becomes clear that everyone around her thinks she is not just guilty, but dangerous. When the truth comes out, it is more shocking than one could ever imagine...






1 August

Cruel Summer by James Dawson

A year after the suicide of one of their friends, the rest of the group decide to spend the summer together in a holiday villa in the Mediterranean. They're hoping to get over the terrible events of the previous year, but then a new guest arrives - claiming to have evidence that the suicide was actually murder. When she is found dead, it becomes clear that the killer must be one of them - but who is it? And will they strike again? A compelling psychological thriller - with a dash of romance.










And a January 2014 release in the US -
No One Else Can Have You by Kathleen Hale

Small towns are nothing if not friendly. Friendship, Wisconsin (population: 688) is no different. Around here, everyone wears a smile. And no one ever locks their doors. Until, that is, high school sweetheart Ruth Fried is found murdered. Strung up like a scarecrow in the middle of a cornfield.

Unfortunately, Friendship’s police are more adept at looking for lost pets than catching killers. So Ruth’s best friend, Kippy Bushman, armed with only her tenacious Midwestern spirit and Ruth’s secret diary (which Ruth’s mother had asked her to read in order to redact any, you know, sex parts), sets out to find the murderer. But in a quiet town like Friendship—where no one is a suspect—anyone could be the killer.