Presumed Dead by Shirley Wells

I received this book from the Author as part of the First Reads promotion on the Goodreads website.

Having developed a taste for crime mysteries lately I was very happy to hear that I would be receiving a copy of this book to read and review. It's the second in the Dylan Scott Mysteries, the first being  'Dead Silent' which I have yet to read but this was not a problem in picking up the story and characters involved in it.

Dylan Scott has problems. Dismissed in disgrace from the police force for assaulting a suspect, he has no job, his wife has thrown him out and-worse luck-his mother has moved in. So when Holly Champion begs him to investigate the disappearance of her mother thirteen years ago, he can't say no, even though it means taking up residence in the dreary Lancashire town of Dawson's Clough for the duration.

Although the local police still believe Anita Champion took off for a better life, Dylan's inquiries turn up plenty of potential suspects: the drug-dealing, muscle-bound bouncer at the club where Anita was last seen; the missing woman's four girlfriends, out for revenge; the local landowner with rumored mob connections-the list goes on. But no one is telling Dylan all they know-and he soon finds that one sleepy Northern town can keep a lot of secrets.

So when I read that I thought it sounded interesting and I was curious about which track the author would take as there aren't really that many reasons for someone to go missing like this are there?

The storyline switches between Dylan's efforts to reunite with his estranged wife Beverley while spending time with his son and away from his mother and his time involved in trying to discover Anita Champion's last movements and what may have happened to her. We follow his movements up and down the country and even a visit abroad or two. Each location described well and full of characters that are easy to read about and a few that become favourites as you read more about them, both who they are and, for some, why they are the way they are now.

We learn more and more about Anita's lifestyle and although the ending was a cliche, it wasn't one I saw coming, I totally missed a very subtle hint about what had happened to Anita which made the reading of this book very enjoyable as it wasn't at all obvious what had happened.

There's a great flow to the writing and it's a great read which I thoroughly enjoyed, now I guess I should go find myself a copy of 'Dead Silent' to read as well!

Vax Air Pet cylinder vacuum cleaner

Last year I was made aware that Vax were recruiting for a panel of testers known as Vax Voice. Each month one of their products would be offered to the members and 15 people would be chosen from all those who applied to test it. I've been clicking my link each month and hoping to see my name on the 'lucky list' for as long as I've been a member and about 2 weeks ago when the latest list came out I could hardly believe my eyes when I noticed my name was on there and about a week ago this arrived on my doorstep

I have always preferred a cylinder vacuum cleaner to an upright so this one is perfect for me to test out. Add to that this is one designed for pet hair and it's just right for us, yes we don't have cats of our own but we get visited by a couple regularly who have claimed us as a second home and shed regularly all over the place!

Before this I have mostly used cheaper vacuum cleaners as I've never quite understood the need to spend so much on an item of cleaning equipment and after opening the box I was faced with many tools that you just don't get with those machines but all of which looked interesting, the first task being to try to figure out which head to use first.

The picture below shows what came out of the box, the machine itself, instruction booklet, warranty card and flexible hose & handle are easy to spot, the other items included are (from left to right):

Telescopic extension tube
Turbobrush
TurboTool
Combination floor head
Upholstery tool
TurboTool connector

We decided to try the Combination floor head first due to us having mostly hardwood floors downstairs with a rug and carpet on the stairs and throughout upstairs.

The first thing that struck me was how easily everything clicks together, there's no need to push and pull and force things to fit to ensure you get an airtight connection between hose, head and machine. The next thing was just how long that flexible hose actually is, it states that it's 2.5m in the specs and that is actually quite long when you're faced with it. This means that the machine itself doesn't need to move that much to enable you to reach a wide area and this could be particularly useful to anyone with limited mobility or who finds an upright difficult/heavy to use, particularly when you take into account it's 5.6kg weight (empty)

The power lead is also a good length at 6 meters and combine this with the 2.5 litre capacity it'll do a lot of vacuuming before you need to empty it. Fitted is a H12 HEPA anti-bacterial filter which means a lot less particles get released back into the air from the exhaust than with machines lacking this.

In use I found it works amazingly well, it really has put my current vacuum to shame with how much dust and hair it's picked up from the rug and wooden floor even after a recent clean. We all know that vacuum cleaners are noisy but this one isn't that bad, you can talk while using it without having to shout (although if you were trying to annoy someone you could still claim you couldn't hear them telling you to turn it off while they watch/listen to something!)

The instruction booklet is lovely, it explains everything really well with diagrams to help you understand how to empty the dirt container and to clean the filters and to care for your tools. It all just goes to make this a complete package, it's not just an ordinary vacuum cleaner that you get, it's a complete cleaning system designed to make it as easy for you to use and maintain as possible.

Like all Vax machines this one comes with a full 6 year guarantee and retails for  £229.99 further details can be gained from the website here.

The Colour of Death by Michael Cordy

I was sent this book as I'm part of the Transworld book group (see here for details)

When I was selecting the books I would read as part of this group I decided to pick a favourite author, 1 from each of my favourite genres and the last would be something new to me but which appealed in some way and this is that book.

In a residential neighbourhood of Portland, Oregon, an unknown young woman uncovers a shocking crime scene by inexplicably sensing the evil within its walls. To the police, she is a mystery. She can’t even tell them her own name. They christen her Jane Doe.

Suffering terrifying hallucinations, Jane is assigned to Nathan Fox, a forensic psychiatrist struggling with his own demons. Together they must piece together the jigsaw that is Jane’s identity.

Then a sequence of brutal killings terrorizes the city and Fox learns Jane is the only cryptic link between the unrelated victims. To solve the murders, Fox must discard his black and white preconceptions, look beyond the spectrum of normal human experience and confront the dark truth of her past…and his own.

Having read this book I found a lot of similarities in the plotlines between this and another book I have reviewed this year, Ultraviolet. They both deal with a young woman suffering from memory loss and synaesthesia who has been admitted to a mental health facility (People who have synaesthesia sense things in a different way to the rest of us, words can have a taste or smell, letters and numbers can have different colours even when all written with the same pen) but from this similar starting point the two books vary greatly.

The heroine, Jane Doe presents with not just one form but ALL forms of synaesthesia and even one that has not previously been documented. As we travel with Jane in her journey of discovery it's easy to understand just how terrifying the world around us could be should we suddenly loose our self in the way she has. We see Fox struggle to deal with his own personal demons which re-surface from this case as well as his inability to let anyone close to him again while also trying to keep what little family he has left safe. And then on top of all this is the horrific fact that there is a killer in the city who seems to be fixated on Jane.

I really don't want to give anything away from this book at all, I found it to be an amazing story and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The story moved along at a good pace, there were lots of details to make it easy to follow along from scene to scene and to understand the characters and their motivations. The writing flows so well that I am going to look at getting some more books by this author very soon.