Elevator Pitch by Linwood Barclay

First thing on a Monday morning in New York, whilst people are heading into work, 4 people step into an elevator and press buttons to go up to different floors.  On the journey up, instead of stopping at the requested floors, the elevator goes all the way up to the top.  The doors don’t open. The elevator then plummets all the way down to the bottom.  The occupants don’t all get out alive.  

On Tuesday there is another elevator malfunction in another building.  On Wednesday there is another elevator accident in yet another building.  Each day people are dying.  

Mayor Richard Headley announces that all elevators in the city must not be used until they have been inspected.  There are about 7000 elevators in the city and 28 inspectors.  This brings the city to a stand still.  How can some of the elderly people who live many floors up in apartment buildings get up and down using the stairs? 

Reporter Barbara Matheson, who is no fan of the local Mayor, hears that the elevators may have been sabotaged and starts her own investigation to work out of there is a link between the buildings and the events. 

The Locket by Ruth Saberton

Needing something to occupy herself whilst her son is away with the army on active duty, Alison Foy is encouraged by her friend to look into her family history.  Alison knows that her family used to live in the local area of Cornwall and had connections with the old Pendennys family who used to own a large old house which had burnt down many years ago.  

As she looks though some old boxes that had belonged to her mum, some of which hold items which had belonged to her grandmother, Alison makes interesting discoveries of links between her family and Kit Rivers the famous local War Poet.  

The story goes backwards and forwards from 1914 at the start of the war and the life of Emily Pendennys to modern times with Alison and her family. 

This was a free Kindle download. 

The Silver Collection by Carole Matthews

This is a collection of short stories, each also has a brief introduction from the author. 

Ignorance is Bliss

Pamela knows that her husband is having an affair. She keeps a check on his clothes, pockets and briefcase to know what is going on.  

Travelling Light

Alice is taking a final backpacking holiday on her own before going home to get married. She meets Kane on her travels.  

A Weekend in Venice 

Beth should be in Venice with her husband for the weekend celebrating their 5th anniversary, but instead she is there on her own as Jerrard has decided the marriage isn’t working and has moved out.  

Hotel du Lac

A young woman on her own meets a lovely Frenchman Yves, whilst on a moonlight cruise in Switzerland. They are staying in the same hotel and for the next few days spend some time together. 

The Way to a Man’s Heart

After a relationship breakup Mandy leaves her job and sets up her own mobile Chocoholics Anonymous business.  She bakes cakes and sells them at markets from her ex-burger van.  James, the ex-boyfriend who lives in the flat above, starts dropping in after work in an evening to sample the cakes.

This was a free kindle download. 

The Vampire Knitting Club by Nancy Warren

Arriving in Oxford from America to visit her grandmother and help in the shop for a few weeks, Lucy finds the knitting shop, Cardinal Woolsey, closed.  The shop is never closed outside of its published opening hours.  Lucy is told by the old ladies in the tea shop next door that her grandmother died 3 weeks ago, peacefully in her sleep, and that they had not been able to make contact with her or her mother to let them know.  

After a visit to the solicitor Lucy is told that she, not her mother, is to inherit the shop with the living accommodation above, and that her grandmother’s wishes are that she runs the shop for a least the next year.  Lucy had never planned to run a shop and she can’t even knit.  

Lucy becomes convinced that all is not what it seems with her grandmother’s death after finding spots of blood on the floor in the shop along with her grandmother’s glasses on a broken chain, when they should have been upstairs with her by the side of her bed.  

There is someone trying to buy up the row of 4 shops, at a very high price, who tells Lucy her grandmother was just about to sign the paperwork.  Lucy needs time to work out what is happening and what her grandmother was really planning before she can decide what to do. 

The story contains witches and vampires.  

Their Little Secret by Mark Billingham

A Tom Thorne and Nicola Tanner Thriller

Whilst investigating a suicide DI Tom Thorne is convinced that the woman was driven to kill herself after being duped by a man who preyed on women to steal their money.  

Although this is not a murder which needs to be investigated, Thorne wants to do a bit of digging to see if he can identify the man.  He is able to find some DNA but there is no match on the police files.  

Sarah is integrating herself into a small group of parents who drop off and pick up their children outside school each day.  Some days they go out for coffee and cake after the drop off to have a chat.  She is a bit more secretive than the others and often sits slightly away from the group.  One day a man at another table in the coffee shop starts to talk to her and they begin a relationship.  

S.U.M.O (Shut Up, Move One) by Paul McGee

The straight-talking guide to succeeding in life. 

The messages within this book are that by looking at things differently you can better enjoy life and be more successful. I have learned that E + R = O (event + response = outcome).  I can control how I respond to something which can give me a better outcome. I can recognise when someone is ‘wearing the victim t-shirt’ and know I don’t do this.  I can see that I sometimes need a bit of ‘hippo time’ but quickly get over it and pick myself up out of the wallowing.  And appreciate that not everyone sees the beachball from the same side that I do.  

This is not the genre of book I would usually choose to read, but it is interesting and quite thought provoking.  I will definitely be able to take some of the messages and use them in my daily life to better understand myself and others.