A budding crime writer, a death at a literary festival and a satirical peek into the world of publishing
Handsome, debonair Nigel Inchcock is a talented crime writer working on the next global bestselling thriller. Or so he believes. In his early thirties and still living with his ageing mother, his writing career is taking time to kick-start, hampered by his warped sense of self-belief. From attempting to woo literary agents and library assistants, to becoming a victim of his own research, we follow Nigel on his turbulent journey through the bewildering world of publication.
#ConfessionsofaCrimeWriter X/Twitter @LouiseMangos
#RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours
Instagram @louisemangos @randomthingtours #blogtour
While attending a series crime writing festivals, Nigel befriends octogenarian author Edith Sparrow, after which his writing career takes an unusual turn. An accidental murder, the unintentional theft of a manuscript and the devious misuse of intellectual property leads to some unexpected publishing scandals that will change Nigel’s world.
My Review
I once told someone I’d only just met that I was writing a book about a female serial killer and it was ‘dark humour’. He looked at me a bit weird. How can a book where someone gets murdered be funny? Think Killing Eve I suggested. OK, that’s a bit extreme, but crime fiction can be funny so long as you don’t go in for really gruesome details. And Confessions of a Crime Writer IS hilarious.
Budding crime writer Nigel Inchcock may believe he is talented, debonair and handsome, but in reality he is awful, be it in an almost lovable way. Well his mum loves him. Jennifer Primrose at the Library thinks he’s stalking her. When he gets a job there, she leaves, saying she is being stalked. Nigel questions who it could possibly be. Yes, he’s that dense.
Then there’s Marion Winterbottom, who Nigel is convinced is a literary agent. He asks her on a date, which she accepts, but it goes disastrously wrong. It’s her dog you see. It doesn’t like him. But octogenarian author Edith Sparrow’s dog Riddles – or Widdles as she pronounces it with her lisp – adores him.
When Nigel attends a famous crime festival, there’s a murder, and Nigel becomes the prime suspect. But there’s doggy DNA on the victim, as well as human. And poor Riddles is implicated.
‘Her dog,’ said Best. ‘Jesus, the old biddy had a dog! The DNA! We need to question Mrs Sparrow’s dog.’
This is so my type of book. I love a bit of crime humour, and occasionally as in the ‘we need to question the dog,’ it slips into the absurd. All the better as far as I’m concerned.
As an aside, I love this self-insertion by the author.
Sally scrolled a little further through the thread … she looked down at the list of names:
Hugh Smith – Evening’s Standards
Louise Mangos – The Beaten Track
Nigel Inchcock – untitled spy thriller
… Flannery hadn’t been quick enough to send her an offer before she was snapped up by another agent right after the festival …”
But seriously this book is so entertaining I read it in two and a half days. I adored Edith Sparrow and I’d love to see a picture of Widdles, sorry Riddles, please.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours #blogtour
About the Author
Louise Mangos grew up in the UK but has spent more than half her life in Switzerland. Her debut psychological thriller Strangers on a Bridge was a finalist in the Exeter Novel Prize and long listed for the Bath Novel Award. The psychological thriller The Beaten Track and her historical mystery The Secrets of Morgarten were both finalists in the Page Turner Awards, while the psychological whodunnit Five Fatal Flaws reached the shortlist. She also writes short stories and flash fiction which have won prizes and been published in various anthologies. She holds an MA in crime writing at UEA.
Louise lives on an Alp with her Kiwi husband and two sons, and when she’s not writing you can find her on the cross-country ski trails or wild swimming in the lake, depending on the season.
Inspired by an infamous real-life case, The Mourning Necklace is an unforgettable historical novel from the Women’s Prize-longlisted author of The Maiden, Kate Foster.
They said I would swing for the crime and I did. I wear the rope-bruise like a necklace.
1724. In a tavern just outside Edinburgh, Maggie Dickson’s family drown their sorrows, mourning her death yet relieved she is gone. Shame haunts them. Hanged for the murder of her newborn child, passers-by avert their eyes from her cheap coffin on its rickety cart.
But as her family pray her soul rests in peace, a figure appears at the door.
It is Maggie. She is alive.
Bruised and dazed, Maggie has little time for her family’s questions. All that matters to her is answering this will they hang her twice?
My Review
I’m a huge fan of Victorian Gothic mysteries so my first Kate Foster read The Repentants was a little early for me, set in Scotland in 1790. The Mourning Necklace, also set in Scotland, begins in 1724, so even earlier. But no matter as I loved this as well.
The books opens with Maggie Dickson surviving her own hanging. How is that even possible? She wakes up in a coffin and makes her way home to her family. The revelation is far more complicated than a simple survival. But we have to read on to find out.
The book then goes back in time to tell us how Maggie ended up being hanged and what for. Nowadays it beggars belief, but that’s how things were for women in the 18th century.
Maggie is a brilliant character and there were others I really loved too. Particularly Mrs Rose, aka Dorothy, who starts off as a thief and a whore, but ends up as Maggie’s best friend. Maggie’s sister Joan not so much, to be honest she’s an idiot, but she is no doubt a reflection of the times. Maggie’s husband Patrick Spencer, who claims to have been press ganged into the navy after they’ve only been married a few months, is also an unlikable character.
I listened to The Mourning Necklace with Borrowbox and thoroughly enjoyed the Scottish narration.
About the Author
Kate Foster worked as a national newspaper journalist for more than twenty years before becoming an author. Growing up in Edinburgh, she became fascinated by its history and often uses it as inspiration for her stories. Her debut novel, The Maiden, won the Bloody Scotland Crime Debut of the Year in 2023 and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2024. She lives in Edinburgh with her two children.
Bromgrove folk are dying to join Fitness for All. A friendly little gym where everyone’s welcome. And everyone’s a suspect.
Paralympian Jack Donahue has always been the gym’s devastatingly handsome poster boy. Until now. Jack is found dead in the weights room. Bludgeoned with the same dumbbell that helped sculpt his world-class biceps!
Detective Gil Markham is called to investigate, with his loyal — and gloriously tactless — sidekick George Noakes never far behind. But the deeper they dig into Jack’s secrets, the more suspects they find.
#CrimeintheGym X(Twitter @ZooloosBT #ZooloosBookTours #booktwitter
Instagram @zooloosbooktours #bookstagram #blogtour
Behind his spotless public image, Jack wasn’t short of enemies. A spurned student with a grudge. A bitter ex-trainer. A girlfriend hiding secrets of her own.
Markham fears it all links back to a spate of attacks on the ladies of the Silver Swans barre group.
Before long, a second body falls. Then a third . . . both paid-up members of the gym.
Whoever’s behind these killings, they’re only just getting warmed up. Can Markham solve the case before they return to make it a personal best?
My Review
Crime in the Gym is Book 24 in the Detective Gil Markham series. While I know it is written as a standalone, it did take me quite a while to get to know the established characters like Markham himself, his ex-girlfriend Olivia, his possible love interest Detective Kate Burton, and of course his very un-PC partner George Noakes, to name just a few.
This time the victim is paralympian Jack Donahue. Jack is found murdered in the weights room, where he was training, bludgeoned to death with his own dumbbell.
Jack was a controversial figure, who had lots of fans, but also a few enemies. He could be arrogant and rude, but most people admired his determination and resilience after an accident left him in a wheelchair. And he happened to be drop dead gorgeous to boot.
In the meantime, three members of the mature ladies Silver Swans barre group have been sexually assaulted near the Fitness for All gym. But is there a connection? The MO is totally different and the victims have nothing in common with Jack. Except they all trained at the same gym. Then more bodies turn up.
It’s a complicated case for Markham and the team. And are they looking for more than one perpetrator? It’s a great holiday read, with plenty of humour and brutal characterisation at times. Just don’t be in a hurry to get to the end and enjoy for its own sake.
Many thanks to @ZooloosBT for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the Author
Catherine Moloney is a Liverpool writer of Irish-American heritage. After graduating in Jurisprudence from Jesus College (University of Oxford), she was called to the Bar at Gray’s Inn. Despite qualifying as a barrister, her first love was English; this led to a PhD in English Literature at Birkbeck College (University of London).
In her academic career, she lectured and published widely on the subject of tuberculosis and nineteenth-century literature, but somehow managed to avoid contracting galloping hypochondria and turned her attention to crime fiction.
Connect with Catherine
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063675798722
Twitter/X: https://x.com/OnlyMoloney1
Website: https://www.catherinemoloney.com/
Goodreads:
www.goodreads.com
Purchase Links:
www.amazon.co.uk
+ female friendship, fiction, friendship, grief, loss, love, review
The Cartography of What Remains by Eva Schep (The Going Back Series Book #1)
She can go back. Not in memory. In fact.
Since Tomas died, Lena has made her life small enough to survive. The chipped cup on the left side of the sink. The bread folded twice. The keys in the bowl by the door.
And one impossible thing her grief allows.
She can step into the kitchen they shared and stand in the fixed afternoon light — close enough to count the threads at his cuff — watching her younger self refuse the coffee, the bread, the man across the table.
She goes back to gather evidence. Of his care. Of her failures. Of the small, ordinary cruelties that filled the last rooms of a love before a phone call ended it.
But the past keeps itself intact by making her harmless. Nothing she does there can be undone, or repaired, or forgiven.
And while she returns again and again to a room she cannot change, the present goes on without her — a stubborn downstairs neighbour, a colleague’s dry kindness, a woman who mends broken frames. Quiet edges, accumulating. Waiting to be lost by neglect as easily as the dead are lost by too much remembering.
My Review
I usually read crime, serial killer thrillers, and modern contemporary Gothic. I write crime, dark humour and magical realism. The Cartography of What Remains is not my usual genre, but I know I need to broaden my horizons (so long as it’s not sci-fi, high fantasy or horror).
Lena is widowed (though they weren’t actually married). She’s still young. Tomas died young. Every day she goes back and relives that last day, the chipped cup. the coffee, the bread, the forms that needed signing. Did she do something wrong? I can feel the guilt washing off her like the rain outside on her coat. It’s impossible for her to move forward until she can let go of the past.
In the meantime, Mrs Smit downstairs brings her home made soup. Pieter at the archive where they both work is rather annoying, but he’s trying to help in his own way. And then there is Noor who mends things. She offers to mend the broken frame of the office chair. Her workshop with the blue door is close by. Lena walks by but can’t allow herself to be friends.
It’s an emotional read which will stay with me for a long time. I am looking forward to book two in the series.
Many thanks to the author for an advance copy of the book.
About the Author
Eva Schep writes about the spaces between people — and the ones left behind when someone is gone.
The fiction lives where the literary and the quietly impossible meet, circling a single stubborn question: what do we owe the version of ourselves that remembers? These stories trade in the unreliable comfort of memory, the weight of ordinary objects — a chipped cup, a borrowed screwdriver, bread on a plate — and the small Amsterdam rooms where lives quietly come apart and, sometimes, begin again.
The Cartography of What Remains is the first short novel in The Going Back Series, coming August 2026.
Connect with Eva
Twitter/X: @Eva_Love_Story
Instagram: @author_eva_schep
If these walls could talk, they’d scream…
When Ellie moves into 1 Delaney Row, all she has to her name is the house, a small suitcase and the terrible secrets she’s desperate to keep. But what she doesn’t know is that her new home is already hiding someone else’s secrets – and the people determined to keep them are watching her.
#BuyerBeware X/Twitter @cathryanhoward #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours Instagram @cathryanhoward @randomthingstours @bantambooksuk #bookstagram #blogtour
When a grim discovery prompts Ellie to find out more about the house’s past, she unwittingly puts herself on a deadly collision course not just with her new home’s history, but with her own as well…
Inspired by so-called ‘stigmatised properties’ – houses with dark and violent pasts – Buyer Beware is an intricate puzzle-box of a thriller with a pulsing emotional heart, from an author at the very top of her game.
My Review
When my kids were at school, they weren’t very good at team sports (like me). Other mums would boast about how wonderful their kids were, so much better than mine. Then along came the grandson of a famous cricket commentator and everyone else paled in comparison.
And so it is with this book. There are average writers, there are good writers, and then along comes Catherine Ryan Howard, and the rest pale in comparison. OK, I exaggerate. There are lots of great writers, but you get my drift.
Buyer Beware could have been longer, but it wasn’t. That’s part of what I loved. The suspense, the action and the tension never let up. No waffling. No unnecessary musings on life.
Ellie owns a run down house she never knew she owned. And the neighbours can be a bit odd, particularly Annaliese. Hannah shocks her friends and her deeply religious mother by saying she doesn’t want to get married or have children. And Erin gives everything up to be with her useless partner Jason.
But how are they linked? And why is Ellie so hostile? And who are The Murder Club who meet in the pub once a month? They claim to know stuff and one of them believes he’s a bit psychic. Houses hold memories of evil Ellie is told. Or is it more than just memories?
Such a great read! Not my first by this author and certainly won’t be the last.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of the #BuyerBeware blog tour
About the Author
Catherine Ryan Howard is the author of nine novels including the no. 1 bestsellers The Nothing Man, 56 Days, The Trap and Burn After Reading. Her work has been shortlisted for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best Novel, the Crime Writers Association New Blood and Steel Daggers, and Irish Crime Fiction Book of the Year multiple times. The screen adaptation of her lockdown thriller, 56 Days, is streaming now on Prime Video. She lives in Dublin.
Her scandal. His revenge. The unforgettable new historical novel from award-winning author, Kate Foster.
St Monans, Fife, Scotland 1790. Two women are forced to publicly repent in church, one for adultery the other for breaching the sabbath. Wealthy housewife, Florrie, and salt serf, Eliza, form a quick and unusual bond over their mutual humiliation. So when Florrie’s husband decides she must accompany him on a trade venture to Iceland, she insists Eliza comes as her maid.
Far from home, isolated and fearful, the two women grow ever closer. Then Florrie’s husband reveals his sinister plan: he will leave her in Iceland, banished for the shame she has cast upon him. Florrie must escape, but when she turns to Eliza for help she realizes nothing is quite as it seems . . .
Inspired by an attempt by Scottish merchants to annex Iceland as a remote prison for the British Empire, The Repentants is a chilling tale of betrayal, exile and survival from the Women’s Prize long-listed author of The Maiden, Kate Foster.
My Review
I’m a huge fan of Victorian Gothic mysteries so The Repentants is a little early for me, but I absolutely loved it. Set initially in Fife, Scotland in 1790, and then Iceland (with a short sojourn in Denmark), we follow the lives of three very different women.
Florrie is married to the owner of a salt factory. She is only 20 and has a fortune of her own which she will inherit when she turns 21. It is held in trust and not even her husband can have any claim on it.
Eliza is a salt serf, bonded to the salt factory. Both she and Florrie must publicly repent in church – Eliza for breaching the Sabbath, Florrie for adultery. Then Florrie’s husband decides to travel to Iceland, and insists Florrie go with him. She reluctantly agrees but wants Eliza to come too as her maid.
In Iceland we meet Hallgerd, whose husband is travelling for work. Her brother Marcus has been arrested for murder, and Hallgerd has been thrown out of her own house. You would think the three women would bond, but there is far too much animosity between them for that to happen.
I’ve never read (well listened on Audible) to anything like this before, but I have already downloaded my next Kate Foster book and I can’t wait.
About the Author
Kate Foster worked as a national newspaper journalist for more than twenty years before becoming an author. Growing up in Edinburgh, she became fascinated by its history and often uses it as inspiration for her stories. Her debut novel, The Maiden, won the Bloody Scotland Crime Debut of the Year in 2023 and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2024. She lives in Edinburgh with her two children.
Would you sacrifice your marriage to save your best friend?
Bound by the traumas of their childhood, Flora and Sophie were inseparable long before they married brothers and joined the rich and powerful Cavendish family.
But behind the polished façade of the family estate lurks Cecelia. The cold and controlling matriarch is determined to remind both women they will never be good enough for her sons.
Flora’s life starts falling apart the moment she announces plans to move house with her husband. Strange things happen when no one else is looking. Fear creeps into every corner of her life. When even her husband begins to question her grip on reality, Flora is left wondering: is she losing her mind or is that what someone wants her to think?
Meanwhile, Sophie is trapped in a marriage built on secrets and fear. Desperate to escape the viper’s nest she married into, she comes to realise leaving may come at a devastating cost.
As paranoia grows and loyalties begin to fracture, Flora and Sophie’s bond is put to the test as they struggle to escape from the dangerous clutches of the Cavendish empire.
They are forced to decide what they are willing to sacrifice for their friendship.
A dark and unsettling psychological thriller where toxic family dynamics, betrayal, and long-buried secrets collide with devastating consequences.
My Review
“Would you sacrifice your marriage to save your best friend?” If the answer to this is yes, then you probably married the wrong man.
I have a few close friends, but our relationships are not like that of Flora and Sophie. It’s creepy and unhealthy. They have known each other since they were children, Sophie living with her alcoholic mother and taking refuge at Flora’s house with her lovely parents. Then Flora’s mum and dad die in a car crash when Flora is fourteen, having been killed by a hit-and-run driver.
Eventually the friends marry brothers, members of the ultra-wealthy Cavendish family. Controlling mother Cecelia hates both the women, while the father Alistair is not to be trusted. Cecelia is particularly suspicious of Flora, who married Sam, her favourite of the boys. She’s obviously a gold digger. Cecelia treats Sam like a baby, wheedling and crying if he doesn’t agree with her. He should be running a mile.
So when Sam and Flora decide to move house to the other side of town, all hell breaks loose. But it’s more complicated. Everyone has something on someone else. It’s a dangerous situation. But who is to be trusted?
Weird things start happening to Flora, but why would anyone target her? Could it be Cecelia? A stranger? Or the woman who’s been stalking her at her place of work? You’ll never guess until the very end.
This is a book full of mystery, intrigue and downright nastiness. Prepare to be shocked and surprised in equal measure.
Many thanks to @lovebookstours for inviting me to be part of the #SaveHer blog tour.
About the Author
Abigail Osborne is an author and also runs her own business supporting students and people in the workplace with their disabilities. Abigail is originally from the Lake District but moved to the West Midlands for University where she completed an English Literature & History degree. She lives in Worcestershire with her husband and is a board game fanatic, owning over 70 games. She has a huge collection of books, plays the violin, and is currently learning the piano.
Handles/Tags
Instagram
@AbigailOsborneAuthor
@AcornandInk
@lovebookstours
@LBT.Crew
#Ad #LBTCrew #AcornandInk #Bookstagram #FreeBookReview
X (Twitter)
@Abigail_Author
@lovebookstours
#Ad #LBTCrew #AcornandInk #Booktwitter #FreeBookReview
Threads
@lovebookstours
Journalist Gil Peck is back; in therapy, married to Jess – now editor of the Financial Chronicle – and still driven by the need to prove a point that he can’t quite identify.
Yet all is not well at home. Jess is fed up with Gil’s obsession with his job, and she’s kicked him out of their home.
But Gil has never let anything get in the way of a scoop. He and Jess have landed the interview of a lifetime with the Prime Minister, Stella Barnsbury, for the podcast they co-host, and Gil has no intention of missing it.
#TheKillSwitch Twitter/X @Peston @ZaffreBooks @Tr4cyF3nt0n #CompulsiveReaders
Instagram: @robert_peston @thebookdealer #CompulsiveReaders @zaffrebooks #blogtour #bookstagram
During the interview, Barnsbury begins to pale, her coughing intensifying before she finally collapses.
Within 48 hours, the Prime Minister is dead.
Gil is used to landing the biggest stories. But as the last person to see the PM alive, he’s now a main character. And when foul play is confirmed, he’s also a prime suspect . .
My Review
I cannot get over how much I loved this book. I read the first one ages ago and thought it was pretty good, but The Kill Switch is in a league of its own. There are so many shocks, but one of them had me gasping in disbelief.
It’s a mixture of politics, murder – the Prime Minister is killed right near the beginning (just what I like in a book, start off with a bang) – and discussions about AI and whether it is a force for good or bad. How far can we go with it and will it become more powerful and knowledgeable than those who created it?
I was so involved in the story, that when it ended I had to wait a good 24 hours before I started another book. In fact I’m finding it hard to write a review. It’s one of those books you just want to read, rather than analyse. It’s probably because it’s too clever for me to explain the premise. Best to just immerse yourself in Gil and Jess’s world of intrigue and obsession. The kids are great, the dog is cute, Jess is brilliant, and Gil is still annoying. Not because he’s neurodivergent, but because he can be a total twat.
As an aside, I love the way the author self-inserts as political commentator Robert Peston (along with Tom Bradby) in an interview, like a Hitchcock cameo.
Many thanks to Tracy Fenton for inviting me to be part of the #CompulsiveReaders #blogtour and to NetGalley for an ARC.
About the Author
Robert James Kenneth Peston is an English journalist, presenter, and author. He is the political editor of ITV News and host of the weekly political discussion show Peston. From 2006 until 2014, he was the business editor of BBC News and its economics editor from 2014 to 2015.
A vanished mother. A fractured family. A lifetime of choosing the wrong men.
When their bold, brassy mother vanishes into Ireland’s Traveller community, Shibby Magee and her twin sister, Dorah, are left behind in a family already cracking at the seams.
Under the iron rule of their rigidly bigoted grandmother, the girls grow up on opposite tracks: Dorah, sharp-edged and defiant; Shibby, bruised and unmoored.
As an adult, desperate for love, Shibby is drawn to men who wound and discard her, caught in patterns she can’t yet see. She finds a measure of stability in the chaos of a restaurant kitchen — but a question persists: is her future in the settled world, or on the open road to God only knows where?
With the steadfast support of Alice Duffy, a housekeeper turned surrogate mother; Moochie de Barra, a stand-in for an emotionally absent father; and Kitty Dooley, who embodies the fierce pride and harsh realities of Traveller life, Shibby begins to confront hard truths about cultural identity, family, and what it will take to find where she truly belongs.
Set across the roads, towns, villages, and rugged coastlines of western Ireland—from Roscommon and Galway to a remote Atlantic island, the story traces how early abandonment echoes into midlife, revealing what endures, what shifts, and how the cycle repeats until it finally breaks.
My Review
Shibby Magee is definitely one of my favourite books of the year so far. One cannot help but love Shibby and her twin sister Dorah, both such endearing characters in their own right. And so many of the others are memorable, if not always likeable, like housekeeper Alice Duffy, Traveller and best friend Kitty Dooley, father Benny, Moochie de Barra, and the spiteful, judgmental Nanny Magee.
The book follows a dual timeline. We briefly meet a pregnant Shibby, aged 45, at the beginning, then jump back to the twins as children on the day their mother, Vera Coffey, walks out and leaves them behind. We follow their lives as they attend the local Catholic school, befriend Kitty, and try to connect with Benny, who runs the bakery. Nanny Magee is horrible to them, so Alice becomes their surrogate mother. I loved the warmth and humour in this part of the book. Eventually the twins are sent to boarding school in England.
In part two, the twins are both 45. Dorah is happy to have affairs, but never settle down. Shibby still wants a husband and children. Poor Shibby just seems to attract the wrong men. Will she ever find true love? And will she finally discover what happened to her mother?
I have a real thing about Irish narrators in audiobooks (which is why I always listen to authors like Jess Kidd rather than read her books – one is even narrated by Siobhán McSweeney), and it was the same with Shibby Magee. It gives you a feel for place and characterisation, immersing you in Shibby and Dorah’s world. And much of the humour comes out in the language.
Many thanks to the author for a review copy of the book.
About the Author
Published by Penguin Random House, Carrie Kabak’s novel, Cover the Butter, was an Independent Booksellers’ Pick, won an Audiofile Magazine award, and was nominated for a Quill Award. Her essays appear in For Keeps and He Said What? (Seal Press), Exit Laughing (North Atlantic Books), Faith (Simon and Schuster), and Dumped (She Writes). Carrie’s latest novels, Shibby Magee and Every Mole and Freckle, will be released in spring and fall 2026, and Mali Morgan’s Summer in spring 2027.
Alongside her writing, Carrie works as a book cover artist for major publishers after working for many years as a production designer at Hallmark Cards.
When sisters Libby and Rachel open a letter from their late mother, they discover that it’s the first of five.
Each letter asks them to scatter their mother’s ashes in a different place, and travel together to the carefully chosen locations.
What begins as an act of remembrance soon becomes a journey into the past. With every trip, the sisters uncover unsettling truths about their family. As questions mount, Libby and Rachel are forced to confront what they thought they knew about their mother, and about themselves.
#UntilTheNextLetter X(Twitter @ZooloosBT #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour #booktwitter
Instagram @zooloosbooktours #bookstagram
Along the way, grief gives way to connection, laughter and unexpected romance. Old wounds are reopened, but new bonds are formed, offering the chance of healing and hope.
Until the Next Letter is a warm, uplifting novel about sisterhood and the courage it takes to face the truth. One letter, and one journey, at a time.
My Review
Not my usual genre, but occasionally I like to dip into something uplifting and heart-warming instead of yet another serial killer thriller or Gothic mystery. And Until The Next Letter will have you wrapped up emotionally in the lives of the sisters, Rachel and Libby.
Their mother has just died at the age of 62. Libby is devastated. Rachel is too, but also regrets having fallen out with her over her wedding to Ivan. She doesn’t know why her mum missed the ceremony. Maybe the letters will tell her something.
Ah the letters I hear you ask! Well it turns out that there are five of them to be opened in order. Each letter reveals a location where the sisters must go, each one a mini road trip. Something important will be unveiled at each place. There will be revelations and shocks. Their mum had secrets buried so deep that even her own children knew nothing.
In the meantime, Libby is helping at the school where her mum was the special needs coordinator. So far an outdoor classroom has been built – the plan also being to have a farm, complete with goats, ponies and chickens. And Josh, the teacher in charge of the project, just happens to be drop dead gorgeous.
I loved this book, and read it in two days. It was so easy to get involved. The only bit I found hard to believe was something their mother did all those years ago. It just didn’t seem likely. I also found historian Brian Barker’s initial reaction to the sisters a bit odd, considering he knew what he did.
Many thanks to @ZooloosBT for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the Author
Hannah Claire has been an avid book lover for as long as she can remember, enjoying nothing more than escaping into fictional worlds. As a teenager, she wrote a prize-winning short story and later turned her attention to novels. She lives near the beautiful Peak District, where her books are set, with her husband, three children, two cats and one bouncy dog.
Connect with Hannah
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61582402563058
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hannahclairewriter/
Goodreads:
www.goodreads.com
Purchase Links:
www.amazon.co.uk
2026 is turning out to be a good year for audiobooks, so once again I am giving them their own post.
We have one Jess Kidd (always, and always as an audiobook as the narration is one of my favourite parts), a modern Gothic mystery and two Will Carvers (who also made it to my Top Ten favourite books of 2026 Part Two). Here we go:
Murder at the Spirit Lounge by Jess Kidd
Nora Breen Investigates Book #2
Murder at Gulls Nest ‘stars’ Nora Breen, ex-nun turned Miss Marple. It’s very different from Jess Kidd’s other novels, but it still has the same ring to it. Murder at the Spirit Lounge is the second in the series and it’s even better.
I literally couldn’t wait for this and I was not disappointed. New narrator but just as good. I listened to it with Audible.
Dolores Chimes, a famous medium, arrives in Gore-on-Sea and organises a séance in the ‘Spirit Lounge’ with six sitters, all personally invited by Dolores. One of them happens to be Detective Inspector Rideout himself.
For my full review click here
Winterbourne by Elisabeth Wolf
The narration was great, but I have one criticism and it grated on me. Lucien Broussard is posh and well educated. When reading out his letter, the narrator spells out ‘haitch’. No-one with his background says ‘haitch’. It would be ‘aitch’. Tell me I’m wrong if you want.
But all in all I really enjoyed listening to this on Audible. It was perfect while walking the dog. Poor Anne. Having survived a terrible car crash which killed her beloved twin brother Malcolm – Anne was driving – she is told she may never walk again. Except she does. She is forced to live with her parents who can never forgive her for the accident. So she takes a job on a remote island off the coast of Scotland, cataloguing Winterbourne’s fabulous, priceless, yet often sinister library.
For my full review click here
Girl 4 by Will Carver January David #1
It started with The Beresford, since which I have read everything Will Carver has ever written. So I decided it’s time to go back to the very beginning with Girl 4, book one in the January David series.
January David is our leading protagonist. He’s a police officer with a touch of the psychic. This doesn’t endear him to one of his colleagues, Murphy, the other, Poulson, being more open-minded about Jan’s visions.
For my full review click here
The Two by Will Carver January David #2
Once again I listened on Borrowbox. There are still two narrators – one male and one female – but many different voices and points of view. These include Detective January David himself, the killer, Celeste and the victims.
As with most of Carver’s books, The Two is not for the faint hearted. The descriptions of the killings are extremely graphic, as are Jan’s visions of the boy and the girl. We also know from book one that Jan’s sister Kathy was taken as a child and never found.
For my full review click here
+ adventure, childhood, crime fiction, domestic abuse, fiction, lies, marriage, murder, review, secrets, thriller
How To Survive in the Woods by Kat Rosenfield
Wild meets The Wife Between Us in this page-turning thriller, set in the treacherous final stretch of the Appalachian Trail – an addictive tale of passion, betrayal, control and what it means to survive.
Emma Sharp knows the rules of survival. From being raised by a doomsday-fearing father and hardened by the startup world, she has learned how to endure – especially in her marriage to Logan Grant, a charismatic tyrant who keeps her under tight control. To Emma, her marriage is a cage: it keeps you in, but it also keeps you safe. Until it doesn’t.
When Emma forms an unexpected bond with Logan’s former girlfriend, the two women form a plan to help Emma reclaim her life. Destination: the punishing final stretch of the Appalachian Trail.
After all, bad things happen in the woods all the time.
#HowToSurviveInTheWoods X/Twitter @katrosenfield @ZaffreBooks #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours Instagram @katrosenfield @zaffrebooks @randomthingtours #blogtour
As the three venture deeper into Maine’s back country, desire and dread curdle into something unpredictable, dark and deadly. Someone is lying. Someone is watching. And in the remote heart of the forest, someone is about to be lost . . . or found.
How to Survive in the Woods is a heart-stopping knockout of a novel, by turns smart, psychologically rich and deliciously dark. In her masterful hands, Kat Rosenfield asks us to consider what it means to be a survivor – and what, or who, you would sacrifice to stay alive.
My Review
The book starts with Emma Sharp in hospital, having tried – and failed – to take her own life. She’s had some kind of breakdown, which we know nothing about initially. All will be revealed later.
She is ‘rescued’ by handsome, charismatic Logan Grant, with whom she forms a relationship, and they get married. He keeps her on a tight leash, which is what she thinks she needs at this point in her life. It prevents her from going off the rails. She knows so little about him until she meets and becomes friends with his ex, Taylor.
As we discover more about Emma, we realise she’s not very nice. Her wealthy father was a ‘doomsday-fearing’ prepper, who taught her from a very early age how to survive in a dangerous world, and be prepared for Armageddon. He had rules, which he trained her to follow, the first of which was: ‘Nobody is coming to save you’. But Emma likes the last one best: ‘Never point a weapon at anything you are not willing to destroy‘. Both will be useful at some point.
Now believing that Logan is more dangerous than she at first thought, she and Taylor form a plan to help Emma escape her prison. It involves hiking the final stretch of the Appalachian Trail. And this is where everything changes. Because who is really lying, and who is telling the truth? And neither Logan nor Taylor have a clue what Emma is actually capable of.
A real roller coaster of a ride with plenty of exciting moments. I just feel there was too much musing about her life from Emma which held up the action at times. But the characters are brilliantly written and full of depth, even if mostly hateful.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
About the Author
Kat Rosenfield is the author of six books, including No One Will Miss Her (Edgar Award nominee for Best Novel), and the New York Times-bestselling A Trick of Light, co-authored with the late, great Stan Lee.
A former reporter for MTV News and current columnist for The Free Press, her essays and cultural criticism have appeared in The Boston Globe, Vulture, Wired, AirMail, and The New York Times. She lives in Connecticut.
Bookchatter@Cookiebiscuit 