The 3 Books of Caz Frear

Today sees the start of a new series on the blog where I ask authors, readers, and bloggers about three important books in their lives.

To kick the series off I have the fabulous Caz Frear.

Caz grew up in Coventry and spent her teenage years dreaming of moving to London and writing a novel. After fulfilling her first dream, it wasn’t until she moved back to Coventry thirteen years later that the writing dream finally came true when she won the Richard and Judy Search for a Bestseller competition with her debut novel, Sweet Little Lies. When she’s not agonising over snappy dialogue and incisive prose, she can be found swearing at the TV when Arsenal are playing, buying dresses she can’t fit in her wardrobe and holding court in the pub on topics she knows nothing about.

1. What’s the first book you remember reading?  

The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams.  I get a lump in my throat just thinking about it.  Such a beautiful story about what it means to be Real (i.e. not perfect)

2. What book will always stay with you and why?

The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer.  It just felt so different – the writing so simple and so raw – and I honestly think that anyone from the age of eight to eighty (and beyond) could find meaning in it.  Essentially it’s the story of a young man’s battle with mental illness and his precarious ‘recovery’ but it’s as funny as it is upsetting.  I read it in one sitting on holiday and smiled and sobbed all the way through.  I recommend it to everyone.

3. 3. One book you are looking forward to reading?

I really enjoyed Sirens by Joseph Knox so I’m thoroughly looking forward to the follow-up, The Smiling Man.  Aidan Waits is such an intriguing, wayward character and it’ll be interesting to see where Knox takes his character next.

 

You can find Caz on Amazon | Twitter | The Bookseller

Sweet Little Lies

What happens when the trust has gone?

Cat Kinsella was always a daddy’s girl. Until the summer of 1998 when she sees her father flirting with seventeen-year-old Maryanne Doyle.

When Maryanne later disappears and Cat’s father denies ever knowing her, Cat’s relationship with him is changed forever.

Eighteen years later, Cat is now a Detective Constable with the Met. Called to the scene of a murder in Islington, she discovers a woman’s body: Alice Lapaine has been found strangled, not far from the pub that Cat’s father runs.

When evidence links Alice to the still missing Maryanne, all Cat’s fears about her father resurface. Could he really be a killer? Determined to confront the past and find out what really happened to Maryanne all those years ago, Cat begins to dig into the case. But the problem with looking into the past is that sometimes you might not like what you find.