I am sorry for the inconvenience, but I don't have the time to read this book anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

Finn Bell (also the authors name) is a middle aged man who is starting his life over in a remote area of New Zealand. Finn’s previous life has imploded due to some self destructive activities. He settles into a house ‘at the end of the world’ and begins to try to solve the mystery of the previous residents who are presumed dead which involves his very creepy neighbors.

I am so conflicted about this book.  I did enjoy how such an unlikeable character at the beginning of the book was able to redeem himself. There were some scenes in the book that were a bit over the top on the gruesome scale and I felt like the ending was very rushed compared to the pacing of the rest of the book.  I am still thinking about this one and there was a wrap up chapter which helped to tie up most of the loose ends.

Gosh, but, I loved this book!

Finn is a wheelchair bound alcoholic who has moved to an isolated cottage in a town called Riverton in New Zealand to start afresh.

He meets some interesting people, Betty, his fabulously eccentric therapist (love her) and some strange, scary, evil neighbours who seem to have a history with the family who previously lived in the cottage. So begins a murder mystery thriller with a difference, that moves from past to present and it works so well.

It's a thrilling, compulsive read with excellent characters, great plot line and such quality writing style.

Also, in and amongst this amazing storyline is the best therapy advice I've ever read - Go, Betty! There is also history, family secrets and so much more. I don't want to spoil it, as, this is a 'must read' for anyone who enjoys a suspenseful, gripping tale.

I loved it. A clear and strong 5* read for me and I can only apologise for the delay in posting my review as, for some reason, this treasure got lost in and amongst my list of books to preview. I am so grateful to have found it and thanks so much to NetGalley, FromBooksGoSocial and Finn Bell the author for my ARC in exchange for this honest review.

More! Please!

There were many reasons why I decided to pick up this thriller - the advance praise, the fact that it sounded so unique which is quite a miracle in the crime genre, and because it won the Ngaio Marsh Award for best first novel. The superb ratings on Goodreads and Amazon are very impressive too. All very good reasons to dive right in!

Despite the award, I had no idea what to expect and was pleasantly surprised when I found it difficult to put down to do other important things such as eating and sleeping (clearly not as important as reading to me). I always wonder why I am so shocked when an indie author or publisher promotes a book that I then read and am amazed by, I really should know better! I have read plenty of indies that have completely blown me away, this is another one to add to my list.

With "Dead Lemons" Finn Bell has created an original creature. Everything about the title is astonishingly unique, he certainly can't be accused of copying or being "inspired" by another writer's work here. The setting is the beautiful South Island of New Zealand (somewhere i've always wanted to go), and there is such a strong sense of place you almost feel as though you are there. The story is intricately plotted and there is strong characterisation which ultimately makes the characters (especially Finn) realistic and relatable. Oh and be prepared for a huge twist coming at the end.

An excellent read that I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending. A deserving winner of the Ngaio Marsh award.

Many thanks to BooksGoSocial for an ARC. I was not required to post a review and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

this book suddenly showed up on my feedback due page- never had it for review////

4.5 Stars:
I was in the mood for a good thriller, and I lucked out when I chose ‘Dead Lemons’ by Finn Bell. The story is set on the very southern end of the South Island of New Zealand. This was new territory for me, and I appreciated Bell taking the time to describe some of the contemporary Maori culture, and the local environs.

The main character, oddly enough also named Finn Bell, is a wheelchair bound paraplegic who moves to the South Island to turn the page and get a fresh start life. He recently became a paraplegic because he crashed his car while driving drunk. He buys a small cottage at the remote southern end of the island, and thus becomes neighbors with the ominous Zoyl brothers. Years before, a 12 year-old girl, and then her father went missing from the cottage that Finn just bought. Neither were ever found, and are presumed dead. This doesn’t seem to bother Finn too much, until he loses power in his house at odd times and goes to talk to the Zoyls about the issue. He is forcibly kept out of the barn by the youngest brother Darryl. Finn was convinced strange cries and screams coming from the barn, and Darryl seems to be getting great pleasure from the sounds and his ability to possibly wreak violence on Finn.

When Finn moves, he is assigned a new psychotherapist, Betty, who works with him to figure out what his next moves are in relation to the direction he wants his life to take. I loved Betty. She pulls no punches. She’s at least 70 years old, and calls it like she sees it. The term ‘Dead Lemon’ comes from her. Are you a Dead Lemon who has no future, or are you going to fight to make a new life for yourself? That is her main question to Finn.

Finn keeps getting dragged further and further in the mystery surrounding the Zoyl brothers and the missing people from the cottage. The pace of the book revs up as the story unfolds. I didn’t see the ending coming. To me, that’s the hallmark of a great mystery/thriller. I liked the main characters, and was kept on (appropriate) tenterhooks about the Zoyls. On the one hand I was rooting for Finn to keep going, but on the other hand, I wanted him to stop because I didn’t see it ending well for him. What a wonderful dilemma to find yourself in as a reader. It kept me engaged with the book and the characters.

Thank-you to NetGalley and the author Finn Bell for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

Exceeded my expectations. I thought it was going to be a much slower story, but it actually has a very good pace. The story is interesting and made me sad when I had to put it down to get things done. I highly recommend this!

This is a rather unusual novel as the protagonist, Finn Bell - written in the first person - bears the same name as that of the author. So this begs the question of how much of this is autobiographical?

Presumably not the murder mystery. The main character, however, is required by law to visit a shrink, the touch and confrontational Betty who begins by asking him if he is a dead lemon (Betty is a real person).

Dead Lemons are, according to Betty, so damaged they are basically beyond redemption. They are so damaged they are only able to damage the lives of everyone they are in contact with. Finn turned to drink to fix his inner emptiness, destroyed a good marriage and most of himsf after ploughing into the back of a vehicle and paralysing his body from the hips down. Betty seems to guess that despite moving to a remote part of NewZeand from Africa, suicide is still on his mind.

Yet good things are starting to happen to Finn as he reaches out to new neighbours, some of them Maoris with palpable inner wisdom. A cat befriends him and brings her family of kittens for him to nurture and the narrative lets us know them too as Finn involves himselvescin their care.

But there is evil surrounding him, most especially from his neighbours, the sinister Zoyl brothers. Finn is to find out that they are most probably responsible for the abduction of the daughter of his previous house owner. And soon, this evil prove set to strike at Finn
and his nascent healing........

Go away, he is told. There is nothing you can do against this kind of cunning.

But getting to the bottom of the mystery and the challenge to his right to settle in this rural community becomes an obsession. But can he win against a seemingly insurmountable enemy?

The novel involves several flashbacks to earlier events, each flashback revealing more of the mystery and the history of the community, the telling all very deftly handled. Plus essentially, this is whodunnit and there are still unexpected surprises at the end.

I particularly liked the gothic elements of this crime story, with the bleakness and isolation of Finn's house, the secret cubby holes connecting him to the Zoyls and the mystery of the area and the Sherlock Holmes- like deductions of the twin forensic detectives from Africa, something that can occasionally border on the psychic. Most of all though, it seems that in confronting evil, Finn somehow redeems himself.

Wow! Dead Lemons is a fantastic book! My thanks to NetGalley for providing an advance copy, and my sincere apologies for not getting to it sooner than I did. I loved everything about this novel. All of the characters come fully to life, so much so that I simultaneously felt I knew them and wished I could meet them. Finn Bell, the lead character (as well as the author’s name) has been paralyzed literally and figuratively by alcoholism. To restart his life, he has relocated to the tiny harbor town of Riverton on “the South Island, New Zealand, almost as close to the bottom of the world as you can get without actually moving to Antarctica.” Once settled in a remote cottage, Finn quickly becomes embroiled in an old murder mystery and current violence that seems to involve his closest neighbors, a very strange and scary trio of brothers. Along the way, Finn also unwittingly forms a close group of interesting friends, including a fabulous local therapist named Betty. Betty is so good that I felt as though I were personally getting free therapy. I loved her! Determined to get to the truth of the old murder and save his own life, Finn delves into the history of Riverton, a town build on whaling, gold mining, and smuggling. In doing so, Finn and the reader also learn a lot about the Maori culture.

I can’t say enough about how good this book is. The mystery was intriguing, and I didn’t have it at all figured out until the very final chapters. The New Zealand setting and history was fascinating to me. And the characters really came to life in the author’s capable hands. Seriously, read this book!! You won’t be disappointed.

.Great, unusual thriller set on south island in New Zealand.
This is a crime story set in the very south of the south island of New Zealand which is quite a remote landscape. We follow Finn who is a wheelchair user. He is at rock bottom emotionally and arrives in the small town of Riverton knowing no one and not interested in life. He lives in a cottage where a child and her father previously disappeared and at first he is not bothered about this but he gradually gets intrigued by the story.This links him to the local people and his sinister neighbours the Zoyls..

I don't want to give anything away so getting to my opinion. This is a strong crime novel that is not a police procedural, does not have a protagonist who is stereotyped and is not only about the crime - all strong points. The setting is very much a part of the story. The local Maori culture influences much of what has taken place and the historical background plays a large part in how things unfold. In between the crimes we have a man coming to terms with the new reality of using a wheelchair. We delve into his therapy and his attitude with his great therapist - Betty - asking him if he is a 'dead lemon' someone who goes around making no contribution to the world whilst spoiling it for others, who may as well not bother living. She pulls no punches. Finn finally starts to find a reason to go on with the thrill of wheelchair rugby. He won't give up trying to find out what has happened in this tiny community. My only criticism is that it raced through the culminating scene rather quickly, although it was good to have the final chapters to tie in all the threads - there are several. I was enjoying it enough not to want to get to the end.
Overall this is a recommended book for those who enjoyed books like The Dry, Dead Woman Walking and books with a mystery that are not lead by a police character. I see this has won awards and it is easy to see why.

I fell in love with Beth and the "far south" of New Zealand. This is a mystery of imperfect people who seem to function much better than the perfect people who surround them. Very good and interesting book

This book was beyond creepy and sometimes scary. Yes, I am talking about Finn's cats. That was just horrible. I also think Finn has nine lives because of the amount of times he almost died in the book. Honestly, I'm not sure how he is even alive.

Finn is an alcoholic who ends up in a wheelchair after an accident. He divorces his wife, sells his company and ends up moving to the far south in New Zealand. The cottage Finn moves into also happens to be where a young and her father went missing years before. The father was never found, and the pubic bone was the only part of the young girl that was discovered. Finn starts asking questions and starts to play detective to try to find out what really happened all those years ago. Finn's life starts changing for the better with the help of Betty, his therapist, Murderball, friends and Patricia, a possible love interest. Finn's convinced his creepy neighbors, the Zoyls, are out to get him.

The book goes back and forth between present with Finn fighting for his life while dangling off a cliff and the past when he first moved to Smugglers Cottage. I felt like I got a mini history lesson about New Zealand while reading the book and enjoyed it. I had my suspicions on who was behind Alice's disappearance but I never completely guessed. I liked the story line, characters and writing style. I look forward to reading more by the author and definetely recommend the book.

Thanks to NetGalley, BooksGoSocial and the author, Finn Bell, for a free electronic ARC of this novel.

Brilliant. This book is totally different and definitely worth reading. It is set in a remote part of New Zealand. The historical details are fascinating. The writing style makes every character interesting and it is easy to visualise everything. I really liked the therapy sessions. There was a lot of truth in them. This book is one that I will definitely be recommending and reading again.

So where were you when this novel came out? Late to the party here as DEAD LEMONS has since its release picked up the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel and author Finn Bell has gone onto write two more well received novels. Good opinions abound of this debut work and it will only be a few pages into the reading of DEAD LEMONS before you will see why.

Leaping with confidence straight out of the gates, DEAD LEMONS has a cracking opening chapter that will stay with you for quite some time. You just can’t go past a man hanging over a cliff, hanging upside down in his wheelchair, thinking such dire and witty thoughts. Our lead character Finn Bell (hmmmm I hear you say) is a barely functioning alcoholic, now permanently without the use of his legs due to a self-admitted pile of poor life decisions. Having moved to a remote southern town of New Zealand to figure out what it is he needs to do – or end – Finn unexpectedly finds purpose in the violent history that is attached to his new home.

Finn’s ramshackle smugglers cottage once housed a small family that was destroyed beyond repair with the brutal killing of its youngest member, a small child. Only scraps of the little girl were ever found. Everyone seems to know who is to blame, yet all are too frightened to act. This far south it seems, the guilty are destined to get away with murder.

Finn Bell presents as a surprisingly pragmatic creature for all the challenges he is required to face in his every day existence. Laconically hilarious plus unnervingly calm in a tight spot, is our Finn. This is the strength of DEAD LEMONS, as the humour is presented shockingly side by side with all the heartbreaking details of the town’s murders. The dark is balanced with the redemptive light that emanates from Finn finding his way back to what it is that makes the world turn – the complexities of human relationships.

DEAD LEMONS is an absorbing and disturbing window into a part of the world that time seems to have left well behind. Don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t look, don’t dwell. Injecting a character like Finn into such an eerie and remote location is reading gold as there is a push/pull with his modern awareness and the slow pace practiced by its residents. There is so much in Finn’s character to like, admire and barrack for. Hoping very much to see this character again. The pace does slacken off during the middle of the novel a little as so much is discovered in such a short space of time right at the start. Kudos to the author for not dwelling on any physical limitations of Finn as he crawls and throws himself around where necessary. A very polished debut novel that any crime fiction enthusiast will enjoy.

My Opinion:
I really enjoyed this thrilling, exciting tale. Dead Lemons was at times even thought provoking. I like that we explored this world from a mental health issue and from a person with a disability. I think that is what I liked the most about the book.
I liked the fact that Finn (name is the same in the book) has a disability and seems to function better then most without one. We were exposed to his condition and why he is like he is. We also get to heart of the matter. There are some life lessons in here I believe. That's what drew me in. I totally enjoyed all the twists and turns and all the characters in the book.
My favorite was Betty, Finn's therapist and her helping Finn trying to figure out the Dead Lemon. Loved it. I would definitely recommend this book as it has won an award for best first novel. I loved, at times, that the author could even get me to cringe at some of the things going on in the book.
I totally enjoyed it and will look forward to more from Finn Bell. I really enjoyed the twist at end!

I give this book 4.5 of 5 stars!

LINK - https://stackingmybookshelves.blogspot.com/2018/02/book-review-dead-lemons-by-finnbellsays.html#more

This is a great psychological thriller. It is well written with a great plot. The characters are easy to connect with. I would recommend!
I read and reviewed an ARC copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Finn Bell is both author and protagonist of this strikingly good thriller set in southern New Zealand, where the writer and the complex, multidimensional protagonist who share the same name (curious choice in a novel that's certainly not a doesn't seem to be a roman a clef) both live. The fictional Finn has come to this remote village a rolling wreck of a man, wheelchair-bound and reeling from the knowledge that he's brought his troubles on himself. But none of the trouble he finds there is of his own making'. The mystery of what happened to the previous owners of the cottage he buys draws him in and puts him in the middle of a family of killers who want him dead, too, and as he attempts to rebuild his life in a a culture and community that both welcome and fear him for reasons he doesn't initially understand. Building to a thrilling denouement, this is a book that draws the reader in as well.

Finn drinks too much and is on a path to destruction when a car crash leaves him in a wheelchair destined never to walk again. Unable to make up his mind if he wants to live or die he sells up and moves to a remote seaside cottage somewhere in New Zealand. Shortly after arrival, he meets his creepy neighbors the Zoyl’s. Locals believe there is badness in their land and warn him not to go back there.
After learning some of the local history, he begins investigating the past giving him the purpose he has not had for a long time. As part of his enquiries, Finn decides to visit the previous owner of his cottage currently living in a nursing home. Years ago, her young daughter disappeared, with only part of her body found and the killer never apprehended. Someone has secrets and is prepared to do anything to make sure they remain that way. Finn's efforts to uncover the truth put his life at risk as he searches for answers.
I started this book without any expectations and quickly became surprised how good the story felt to me. It was lovely how Finn gave Mumcat and her kittens a home. There was a terrible event, which made me feel sad leaving me asking why it had to happen. It was nice to discover he found love as well as peace with himself and life.
In addition to Finn, this book had several very interesting characters eg Betty the elderly therapist with a difference whose advice displays insight and relevance to life and the cop turned priest who said his worst memory wasnt unsolved cases but seeing suspects walking the streets free to go on with their lives.
Parts of this book are quite moving and the glimpses into Maori culture and traditions very interesting. My advice is not to under estimate this story. It is a great read particularly if you enjoy mystery thrillers. You may think you have the ending all worked out until the surprise twist is thrown into the mix. I loved the title and learning the concept behind it.
Thank you to the publisher for providing a digital copy of the book via Netgalley and I enjoyed providing a review.

I usually like mysteries from more exotic locations than my backyard. This one is set in New Zealand and the description of the place is great.
The hero is a interesting guy, moving to a new small town to try to recover from some nasty things that have happened to him. From the get go his manner and tone are really attractive; there is some self deprecation and wry observations that I liked to read.
However, I have a huge problem with any kind of cruelty to animals. There is a discussion about the torture of whales, then an absolutely horrifying episode that made me close this book. I was sickened.
I did want to read the story and see how it resolved, but I was too afraid to read further. I ended up reading the end, so I have an idea of what happened. The final pages pretty much tied up the loose ends, and it seemed to explain who, what, where and how.
I'd love to read more by this author but I am too afraid of well written paragraphs that create images I can't get out of my mind.

I am blown away. This book was honestly perfect from start to finish. The characters were so real and different. I loved the therapy sessions of this more than the rest but I loved the entire thing. I learned a lot about myself reading this. I'm going to stare at myself in the mirror for ten minutes straight now.