Down The TBR Hole #2

Down the TBR Hole was originally created by Lost In A Story The idea is to help slim down your Goodreads TBR, because we all know how large and endless that list becomes!

How it works:
– Go to your Goodreads to be read shelf
– Order on ascending date added
– Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books
– Read the synopses of the books
– Decide: keep it or should it go?

1. The Caller by Dan Krzyzkowski

Leslie Calloway is a twenty-eight-year-old volunteer at a 1-800 line, designed as a call centre for children whose parents are out of the house. One snowy New England night, she receives a panicked phone call from a young boy named Justin. He says, “There’s a man in my house,” and Leslie is the only person who can save him.
Armed with only a handheld receiver, Leslie must use experience, intuition, and love to talk her young caller through his ordeal. The hushed conversations lead to a shared intimacy which forces Leslie to take a closer look at the boy’s domestic situation, which makes her peer unwillingly into the darkened corners of her own life and state of mind. – Goodreads –

This sounds right up my alley! I love thrillers so this is staying put!

2. The Sacred Bones by Michael Byrnes

At the crossroads of Christian, Islamic, and Jewish faiths, an ancient artefact is stolen from a long-hidden vault located directly beneath Jerusalem’s Temple Mount .
With the violent theft leaving thirteen Israeli soldiers and policemen dead, and the Palestinians up in arms over the desecration of sacred grounds, the tension between the two groups is dangerously high. Jerusalem is a stick of dynamite and the fuse has been lit.
Across the Mediterranean in Italy, American forensic scientist Charlotte Hennesey has been hired by the Vatican to examine the contents of a newly discovered archaeological treasure: a two-thousand-year-old ossuary containing the bones of an unidentified, crucified man—the first complete skeleton of a crucifixion victim ever found. Together with Italian anthropologist Giovanni Bersei, Charlotte makes startling forensic and genetic discoveries that lead her to wonder—could these be the bones of Jesus Christ? – Goodreads –

Being honest I don’t actually remember adding this to my TBR, it doesn’t sound like something I would be too interested in, so its got to go.

3. Skippy Dies by Paul Murray

Why does Skippy, a fourteen-year-old boy at Dublin’s venerable Seabrook College, end up dead on the floor of the local doughnut shop?
Could it have something to do with his friend Ruprecht Van Doren, an overweight genius who is determined to open a portal into a parallel universe using ten-dimensional string theory?
Could it involve Carl, the teenage drug dealer and borderline psychotic who is Skippy’s rival in love? Or could “the Automator”, the ruthless, smooth-talking headmaster intent on modernising the school, have something to hide?
– Goodreads –

I remember adding this to my TBR after seeing it on a Waterstones award list, I mustn’t have read the synopsis because this is not for me.

4. Into The Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes

When young, pretty Catherine Bailey meets Lee Brightman, she can’t believe her luck. Gorgeous, charismatic, and a bit mysterious, Lee seems almost too perfect to be true.
But what begins as flattering attention and spontaneous, passionate sex transforms into raging jealousy, and Catherine soon discovers that Lee’s dazzling blue eyes and blond good looks hide a dark, violent nature. Disturbed by his increasingly erratic, controlling behaviour, she tries to break it off; turning to her friends for support, she’s stunned to find they don’t believe her. Increasingly isolated and driven into the darkest corner of her world, a desperate Catherine plans a meticulous escape.
Four years later, Lee is behind bars and Catherine—now Cathy—is trying to build a new life in a new city.
Though her body has healed, the trauma of the past still haunts her. Then Stuart Richardson, her attractive new neighbour, moves in. Encouraging her to confront her fears, he sparks unexpected hope and the possibility of love and a normal life.
Until the day the phone rings . . . – Goodreads –

This one I seriously need to read so it is staying where it is.

5. A Good Month for murder: The inside story of a homicide squad by Quentin Del Wilber

Twelve homicides, three police-involved shootings and the furious hunt for an especially brutal killer–February 2013 was a good month for murder in suburban Washington, D.C. After gaining unparalleled access to the homicide unit in Prince George’s County, which borders the nation’s capital, Del Quentin Wilber begins shadowing the talented, often quirky detectives who get the call when a body falls. After a quiet couple of months, all hell breaks loose: suddenly every detective in the squad is scrambling to solve one shooting and stabbing after another. Meanwhile, the entire unit is obsessed with a stone-cold “red ball,” a high-profile case involving a seventeen-year-old honour student attacked by a gunman who kicked down the door to her house and shot her in her bed. – Goodreads –

This seemed like an interesting addition at the time but I think this would fall short compared to Mindhunter.

6. The Stepmother by Claire Seeber

The perfect wife. A fairytale family. Don’t believe your eyes…
Jeanie and Matthew are a happily married couple who both have teenage children from previous relationships.
No one said it would be easy to raise a blended family under one roof but Jeanie and Matthew are strong. They will make it work.
And whilst Jeanie’s step-daughter Scarlett rejects her, Jeanie will just have to try harder to win her over.
But Jeanie has a past. A terrible secret she thought she’d buried a long time ago. And now, it’s coming to the surface, threatening to destroy her new marriage.
Someone is playing a terrifying game on Jeanie and she must put a stop to it once and for all.
After all, a fairytale needs a happy ending … doesn’t it? – Goodreads –

This sounds like a familiar plot, it is seen so often now that I just don’t think I will take the time to read it.

7. The Secret (DS Imogen Grey #2) by Katerina Diamond

EVERYTHING YOU THINK YOU KNOW IS A LIE… Can you keep a secret? Your life depends on it… Bridget Reid has a secret, one that could get her killed… If she can escape the man who is keeping her locked in a basement bedroom.
DS Imogen Grey is good at keeping secrets – truths she’d never reveal to her colleagues at Exeter Police. She worked hard to get where she is – she nearly died for it. Now her past is catching up with her…
As DS Grey and her partner DS Adrian Miles search for Bridget, they uncover a terrifying web of abuse, betrayal and murder. And they realise that some secrets are better left buried… – Goodreads –

I’ve read the first in this series and really enjoyed it, I need to get around to reading this as there are now two more in the series.

8. My Husband’s Wife by Jane Corry

Til death us do part.
When young lawyer Lily marries Ed, she’s determined to make a fresh start. To leave the secrets of the past behind. But then she takes on her first murder case and meets Joe. A convicted murderer whom Lily is strangely drawn to. Whom she will soon be willing to risk anything for.
But Lily is not the only one with secrets. Her next-door neighbour Carla may be only nine, but she has already learned that secrets are powerful things. That they can get her whatever she wants.
When Lily finds Carla on her doorstep sixteen years later, a chain of events is set in play that can end only one way. An eye for an eye. A wife for a wife. – Goodreads –

This has been on my TBR for years! I’m definitely going to get around to reading this!

9. The Girls by Emma Cline

Evie Boyd is desperate to be noticed. In the summer of 1969, empty days stretch out under the California sun. The smell of honeysuckle thickens the air and the sidewalks radiate heat.
Until she sees them. The snatch of cold laughter. Hair, long and uncombed. Dirty dresses skimming the tops of thighs. Cheap rings like a second set of knuckles. The girls.
And at the centre, Russell. Russell and the ranch, down a long dirt track and deep in the hills. Incense and clumsily strummed chords. Rumours of sex, frenzied gatherings, teen runaways. Was there a warning, a sign of things to come? Or is Evie already too enthralled by the girls to see that her life is about to be changed forever? – Goodreads –

This has been sitting on my bookcase for soooooo long! Everytime I go to start it I always get sidetracked.

10. In a Dark Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

Nora hasn’t seen Clare for ten years. Not since Nora walked out of school one day and never went back. There was a dark, dark house
Until, out of the blue, an invitation to Clare’s hen do arrives. Is this a chance for Nora to finally put her past behind her?
And in the dark, dark house there was a dark, dark room
But something goes wrong. Very wrong.
And in the dark, dark room….
Some things can’t stay secret for ever.
– Goodreads –

I actually bought this, but everytime I went to read it, I just couldn’t bring myself to open it, I don’t think it’s for me, so I actually gave it to my friend, hopefully she enjoys it.

Today I said goodbye to: 5 books
Overall books removed: 10
So there it is, I hope you enjoyed it, it’s becoming one of my favourite posts so you will be seeing #3 in around two weeks!