LIVING ON A PRAYER.

LIVING ON A PRAYER by SHEILA QUIGLEY.

A week before Christmas Debbie Stansfield's life falls apart. Her son - her funny, cheeky, kind Richard - has been found hanging from a tree at the Seven Sisters. The police think it's suicide but Debbie won't - can't - accept it. Her son would never kill himself. Not her Richard. no way.

Richard's four friends know something about his death. Detective Inspector Lorraine Hunt can feel it. The teenagers are clearly terrified about something - something that scares them more than the police. But they're not about to tell.....

As the days tick down to Christmas, Lorraine, increasingly overworked and under pressure, can't ignore her suspicions that there's more to Richard's death than meets the eye. And when Richard's friends start going missing, her worst fears are confirmed. Just who is preying on the young people in Houghton-Le-Spring? And will Lorraine be able to stop them, before another vulnerable teenager is found dead?
.... From the outer back cover.

FIRST SENTENCE (From the prologue): Debbie Stansfield's hands trembled furiously as she pressed Richard's pale-blue Nike T-shirt to her face.

MEMORABLE MOMENT: Debbie imagined the teddy waiting patiently for Richard to return, to smile at him one last time, to take him out and play with him, and love him like he used to.

The third outing for the folks of the Seahills Estate (click for my reviews of BOOK 1 and BOOK 2) and I'm still fascinated by the fact that I once lived so very, very close to many of the locations mentioned - yes, the 'Seven Sisters' mentioned in the back cover blurb actually exist.

Still with little swearing (some I can cope with) I really enjoyed Living On A Prayer which as well as dealing with the 'main crime' also tackled some of the other issues concerning modern Britain (and I dare say many other European countries.)

Character wise: Despite the fact that I still cannot bring myself to like 'leading lady' Lorraine Hunt, I find myself warming more and more to many of the other characters - many of them 'salt of the earth types', you know that they are extremely close to breaking the law themselves and yet you cannot help but empathise with the situation some of them find themselves in.

Living On A Prayer was a library book read, my first read for the SEPTEMBER SPECTACULAR READING CHALLENGE. To view the other blogs participating in week/book 1 click HERE.

AN A TO E OF SILLY STORIES.

A is for aliens. A short story competition to celebrate the life of HG WELLS failed to attract a single entry after organisers banned science fiction writing.

The contest challenged fans of the author, considered by many as the father of science fiction, to write stories about contemporary life in his home county of Kent rather than aliens or time travel.

Another condition was that the story had to be handwritten rather than typed in an effort to challenge the modern over-reliance on computers. - the Daily Telegraph.

B is for Boomer. A man who often dresses up as a ... dog has been denied his request to legally change his name to Boomer The Dog after a judge said it could "put public welfare at risk".
Mr Mathews,44, an unemployed computer technician regularly wears a shredded-paper dog costume.
But judge Ronald Folino said the name change could cause "confusion", for example, if he ever needed to make an emergency call he would not be taken seriously. - Thanks to C for that article.

C is for Cornetto. A motorist rammed a car and threatened to run over the driver's mother because ..... her ice-creams were melting.

Jacqueline Griffiths came face-to-face with another driver on a single-track road and refused to turn around because the Cornettos on her back seat were melting. - the Daily Telegraph.

D is for desert. Even the most sweet-toothed among us may struggle with this desert - it contains 300 dishes and a gut-busting 320,000 calories.
The towering mix of sugar, custard tarts, jams and candies includes gilded jelly and 20 sugar sculptures.
The sugary feast, first served to Queen Elizabeth I more than 400 years ago, was re-created by KENILWORTH CASTLE, Warwickshire, for the first anniversary of the opening of its Elizabethan Gardens. - the Metro.

E is for escape. Two prisoners have escaped from a prison in Argentina after guards placed a dummy with a football for a head in the watch tower because of a shortage of manpower.

Prison workers said that a shortage of staff meant they were only able to man two of the 15 guard towers, so they had to resort to using a stand-in. A prison source said "We've made a dummy out of a football and a prison officer's cap, so that the prisoners see its shadow and think they're being watched."

(Obviously not so easily fooled) Two armed robbers, Walter Pozo and Cesar Andres, leapt over a fence before scaling the perimeter wall and making their escape, unnoticed by their remaining guards.

(NOT) SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES.

A hugh fan of the pictures (cinema) - I love the whole experience, the big screen, the smell of popcorn, (on a hot day) the air conditioning, the rustling of sweet papers, the child behind constantly kicking the back of my seat (0k so we can scrap the last two) - Husband dearest and I used to go often but sadly we are much more likely to catch a film on DVD these days but not so the following two films both of which I saw with Lisa and (the second film) ma-in-law and Niece #2.

ECLIPSE. The third outing in the popular vampire/werewolf saga.So I didn't think too much to the first two offerings in the series but being a glutton for punishment I HAD to see part three and it just so happened that Lisa also wished to see it. Whoa, wait a moment Hd - you are not so lucky as to think this means you won't have to sit through it, you WILL be watching it on DVD.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, Eclipse.

Much better than both TWILIGHT and NEW MOON (click on relevant link to view my reviews) this actually had a story, Bella wasn't nearly so full of teenage angst, there were some really quite funny moments, great action sequences AND, dare I say it, I actually found myself warming (just an itsy, teeny, weeny bit) towards Edward though I still remain a Jacob fan at heart.

Interesting to see (should that be hear?) the film through the eyes (ears?) of someone whose first language was other than English, I had not thought that Lisa had yet to hear the actual voices of the actors. Also interesting was her perspective on Riley - a newly created vampire, love interest of the somewhat feisty 'anti' heroine Victoria - who she felt sorry for as, and I quote "When Victoria changed him into a vampire she always told him she loved him and he believed her (and) until the end he fought for her love and died knowing she played with him." but then I've already told you all of this in my interview with Lisa.

The second film?

MARMADUKE. It was either this or DIARY OF A WIMPY KID and in the end this, sadly, won - how I wish I'd not been so wimpy and had held out for the latter.

The story of a Great Dane dog, Marmaduke is part live action, part animation and is more for the children though to be fair it also has enough (just) to keep us adults entertained - the biggest laughs going to when this hugh dog breaks wind whilst his owners try to sleep.

I thought it was mildly amusing in parts though thought the park scene involving cat, Carlos, was totally unnecessary and not at all funny. Feeling pretty much the same as me, the ma-in-law also found certain things to be mildly amusing though, funnily enough, she also failed to raise even a smile at Marmaduke breaking wind.  Much more amusing to Lisa (14) and even more so to niece #2 (11) I won't be forcing encouraging Hd to watch this one, no, not even on DVD.