Kobo library reading on the go: Authors Baker, Flynn, Keogh, Speechley, and Waines

I was travelling quite a bit for work during 2022 and 2023. I purchased a Kobo so that I could keep up my reading habit while I was without access to my local public library. Kobo has a monthly subscription that grants free access to their catalogue. I assume from doing a basic search of the authors I have reviewed in this post that the catalogue contains titles by certain publishing houses. New releases and books by super popular authors are not available. I hadn't heard of any of the authors that I read while travelling, and most of them cannot be found in my local library.

I have five British thriller writers from the Kobo library whom I want to highlight in this post. Their books sustained me while I was a long way from home and working insane hours across multiple time zones.

JA Baker

I only have scant information about British psychological thriller author, JA Baker. None of her books is available in my local library. There are 19 of them, though, published by independent fiction publisher, Boldwood Books since 2017. Way to pump them out!

I read three of the 19 titles on my Kobo while travelling: Looking for Leo (2021), Here lies Alice (2022), and The last wife (2023).

The Leo in Looking for Leo is an 8-year old boy who disappears from a quiet Yorkshire village. Suspicion falls onto Ashton, a young man who returns to the village after committing a terrible crime as a child.

It's not just Ashton under the microscope. There are four neighbours in Leo's street, all of whom could have been responsible for his disappearance. We get to know each of these women as the book is told from their different points of view. Red herrings and misdirection abound, and I didn't guess the culprit. Clever! I loved the North Yorkshire setting, too, as the world-building of the small village is nicely done.

Here lies Alice is a dark, atmospheric story of Peter and his 17-year-old daughter, Lauren, who are rebuilding their life after the murder of their wife and mother, Sophia. Peter becomes involved with Alice whom he meets at a grief group. Alice insinuates herself into Peter's life, claiming she has lost her husband in a car crash. Lauren, however, is suspicious of Alice from the get go. Alice is a creeper and you just know something awful is going to happen. I was hooked from the outset. Again, the book is told from multiple viewpoints - Peter, Lauren and Alice - and it's deliciously evil and full of secrets and lies. The final twist was pretty shocking and again, Baker manages to engineer an intriguing story.

In The last wife, Fiona and Neil move to a small, isolated island community in the North Sea for a fresh start. They are not welcomed by the locals and soon it appears as if someone is desperate for them to leave. The island setting makes for a chilling atmosphere and the lack of women on the island (hence the book's title) is super weird and creepy. This one was my least favourite of the three as I didn't quite get how all those women had been killed or disappeared and no one on the island did anything about it. That said, it is still a solid thriller that kept me guessing.

JA Baker rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Sophie Flynn

Sophie Flynn is a psychological thriller writer and Managing Director of Jericho Writers. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Oxford Brookes. Flynn has published four novels to date, the first of which, All my lies, was published in 2017 by Simon & Schuster. Her other three novels have been published by Hera. I read Keep them close and If they knew, both published in 2022.

Keep them close tells the story of Emily, mother to twin daughters, who seeks solace from her parenting struggles in an online Mums forum. She unburdens herself to Internet strangers and finds a connection with another Mum, @TwoisTrouble. This virtual relationship spirals into something sinister after Emily realises she has revealed too much and her secrets are being used against her.

I related to Emily completely even though I had my babies before there were Internet forums to support new mothers. I did question the level of honesty from Emily on the forums, but I think Flynn paints a realistic picture of post-natal mental health. The novel is well-paced, broken up by Emily's forum postings. Flynn raises some important topics - women's mental health and the candid nature of online interactions with their thin veil of anonymity. I didn't guess who was stalking Emily.

If they knew has Hannah and Charlie eagerly awaiting the arrival of their two-year-old adopted daughter, Isabelle, after years of infertility and heartbreak. When a global popstar is found murdered in their sleepy Oxfordshire village, Hannah fears her past is catching up with her as the murder victim is someone she dated in college in New York. The investigation into his death threatens to jeopardise the final stage of Isabelle's adoption.

The book is written in first person point of view, mostly from Hannah's perspective. It includes lots of detail of What Happened Before. This had the effect of forcing the reader to side with Hannah. I did, however, easily sympathise with Hannah, through her naïve college years and later fertility struggles. I was hoping for a positive outcome for her and Charlie. Charlie's narrative then takes over, as he tries to find out what connection Hannah might have had to the murder. I didn't guess what was going to happen, and I liked the way that Flynn weaves a story about loss, grief and trauma into a thriller. There's a lot to think about in the novel, particularly how trauma can impact on self-identity and perception of experiences.

Sophie Flynn rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Valerie Keogh

Valerie Keogh is a registered nurse with a Bachelors degree in English and a Masters in American Literature. She self-published nine novels but later became part of the Bloodhound Books author stable. Keogh is now a full time writer of crime and psychological thriller novels. Her works to date include The Dublin Murder Mysteries, a series of six books featuring Detective Garda Sergeant Mike West, four in a series about a serial killer nurse and a burnt out detective (Hudson and Connelly), and 16 standalone novels. I wonder how Keogh could churn out so many books in such a short time. The Dublin Murders were published between 2019 and 2020, the Hudson and Connelly ones between 2014-2017 and the standalones between 2014 and 2024. I assume that some of the books were written prior to being published.

I haven't read any of the Hudson and Connelly series but I read all of The Dublin Murder Mysteries from my Kobo library. The series starts with DS West investigating a murder in a Dublin graveyard and this leads him to Edel Johnson whose husband had disappeared some months before. This is an imposter story that was super interesting to read. In book 2, West comes across Edel again through her work with a victim support group. I don't think it's a spoiler to say that the two end up in a relationship. In book 3 they go on a romantic getaway to Clare Island and become embroiled in a murder investigation during their stay. Book 4 covers the case of the discovery of a small child's body abandoned in a suitcase. The final book in the series sees West investigating the body of a convicted sexual predator found hanging in a church.

All six books were cracking stories and I loved the Irish Garda perspective. Keogh has crafted an intelligent, suspenseful and well-paced crime procedural series with a team of well-fleshed out characters. I could not warm to Edel and could have done without the romance bits, though. I loved Mike West and his strong characterisation is a big part of the success of the series, I think. The crimes are original and intriguing, and I would rate the series as a cut above the standard procedural. Keogh's writing also lifts the standard and her compelling storytelling had me quickly working my way through all six books while I was working abroad.

I also read ten of Keogh's 16 standalone novels from my Kobo library. The below titles are my top five from those I read. I found them all to be compulsively addictive reading, and I kept madly clicking the pages on my Kobo to see how they all panned out. The books are a little over the top, but in a deliciously evil way that I love. In that sense, they are quite a fresh take on the thriller genre. As mentioned in my comments on The Dublin Murder Mysteries, Keogh is a terrific writer and storyteller and she gives the reader something to ponder about human behaviour in each novel.

My absolute favourites are The three women and The lies he told. I have to admit that I loved the second one for the Ealing Broadway setting alone, as I was staying near that part of London when I was working in Uxbridge.

The three women is top of my list. It is so cleverly plotted and the completely unpredictable ending blew me away. The book is about three friends who meet at university and are bonded by the shared trauma of an assault on one of the group. Years later it looks as if the truth might come out, and one of the group will do anything to stop that from happening. The exploration of the three women's connections to the assault, the ways they had dealt with the lingering trauma, and the repercussions of the secret coming to light are all beautifully laid out. The book is wicked and I loved it!

The lies he told is also a story of women + one serial douchebag cheater (Toby) that binds them together. Successful Misty is happy living with her perfect boyfriend until he tells her he is leaving. Posh Gwen is excited about the new man in her life until she discovers he’s been lying to her. Angry Babs has the love of her life lured away, first by Misty then by Gwen, and she wants revenge. Long-suffering Dee is a wife who takes her wandering husband back every single time. All four women have motive when Toby disappears. Even if you don't relate to the women, the book is a cracking revenge story and once again, Keogh creates a superb bunch of characters and a twisty story.

Here's a selection of Keogh's standalone books:

Valerie Keogh rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Ruby Speechley

Lisbon-born British author, Ruby Speechley, worked as a journalist before achieving an MA in Creative Writing. Her first novel, Someone else's baby, was published in 2019 and she has written seven books since then, the next one due out in 2025. Her debut novel was published by Hera books, winning Best Opening Chapter at the 2017 Festival of Writing. She is now published by Boldwood Books. Speechley writes psychological thrillers of the domestic kind, weaving real life dilemmas into her stories.

I read Someone else's baby through my Kobo library and I liked it enough to be inspired to tackle the other books in Speechley's catalogue. The story has surrogacy as its core subject. New mother, Charlotte, is keen to help others have children so she enters into an agreement with Brenda and Malcolm whom she meets via an online surrogacy group. After she gives birth to twins and hands them over to Brenda and Malcolm things start to get weird. Charlotte and her husband, Steve, then embark on a quest to get the babies back.

OK, so Speechley is a thriller writer so the reader knows something is up with Malcolm and Brenda otherwise there'd be no story. I had a pretty good idea of what was going on, but I still found the novel a captivating read as Charlotte and Steve try to find out what has happened to Malcolm and Brenda and the babies. All is not quite what it seems! Speechley does a good job of building the tension and providing the reader with a solid thriller. The book leaves the reader with plenty to think about around surrogacy laws and how people can hide behind online façades. Charlotte comes across as being rather naïve, though, and I am not sure how realistic it is to sign up for a surrogacy agreement with a couple you have met online, but that's really my only niggle. A terrific debut novel otherwise.

Ruby Speechley rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

AJ Waines

AJ (Alison) Waines spent 15 years as a psychotherapist before turning to writing full time. Her Goodreads bio says that Waines is "fascinated by secrets and lies, crimes of passion, devious motives and anything hidden under floorboards." Waines has published 10 books to date (2013-2020) with Bloodhound Books, including four in a series and six standalones. The 4-book series features London-based clinical psychologist, Samantha Willerby, who is an expert in memory loss and PTSD. I read all four of the Sam Willerby books and two of the standalones from the Kobo library.

I loved the Sam Willerby books! The four titles are shown below, published between 2016 and 2020. Why did I love them? First of all, I warmed to the character of Sam Willerby instantly. The books rely heavily on her strong characterisation. Waines has created and developed Sam with depth and authenticity. She's clever and caring and I like those qualities in a person. I found the psychological angle to the stories fascinating, told clearly from someone who knows what they are talking about. The crimes in the books aren't ordinary; they lead the reader deep into the human psyche (a dark place to go for some!). Each has elements of delusion, paranoia, and suggestion at their core. Waines has created a unique character in Dr Willerby with a fresh take on the psychological thriller, and I hope she writes more books in the series.

The two AJ Waines standalones I have read are Don't you dare (2018) and Enemy at the window (2019).

Don't you dare is a tense thriller exploring the idea of how far a person might go to protect their child after they are involved in an accident causes someone's death. The book is told from the mother's (Rachel) and the daughter's (Beth) perspective in alternating chapters, and the reader is treated to both women's innermost thoughts. This being a thriller, Rachel is nursing a secret past so she is desperate to stay under the radar. The characters are beautifully constructed and I couldn't work out whether I liked them and wanted them to stay out of trouble. Don't you dare is an edgy thriller that may have felt predictable, but turned out not to be at all.

Enemy at the window is another Waines book with a strong psychological angle. In it, Daniel is living his dream life until he isn't. Out of nowhere, his wife, Sophie, accuses him of having an affair and stabs him in a frenzied attack. Sophie is later sectioned in a psyche ward and Daniel must piece his life back together while dealing with a seemingly sinister force bent on sending him over the edge.

Waines's experience as a psychotherapist is evident again, and I admired her sensitive exploration of mental health woven into a story of manipulation and deception. Waines takes a different approach by making her victim male. I kept asking myself as I read the book whether this influenced how I felt about Daniel and what might be happening to him. Waines does a stellar job of planting pieces of information that made me think one thing that later turned out to be wrong. Clever!

I found the below comment from the author on her Goodreads page and I think it worthy of inclusion here:

There are lots of my favourite themes in the novel, such as: deception, secrets and being led astray. Photographs are also a theme in the story, in particular, what you can find in a photo if you look closely enough. You know, those tiny little details you spot in the background that make you completely reconsider what was going on at the time. Also, what a snapshot can falsely imply, the assumptions we make seeing a picture that can often turn out to be entirely incorrect… I love that kind of uncertainty! There’s also a theme of ‘motives’: I don’t want to give away any of the plot, but I like playing with the dissonance between what it looks like we’re doing, on the surface, and what we really up to, underneath. I love writing in layers, like that!

AJ Waines rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐