+ fiction, ghosts, grief, haunting, marriage, mystery, review, supernatural, superstition
The Ones Who Never Left by Gabrielle Mullarkey
Newlyweds Hugh and Lucy become property guardians of ‘haunted’ Rook House in rural Yorkshire, unfazed by local claims about its past.
As Hugh puts it: ‘What old house standing alone in the countryside doesn’t have stories attached to it?’
The young couple regard the house as a haven to rekindle their creative sparks in beautiful, tranquil surroundings.
But it soon becomes clear that someone – or something – in Rook House has been waiting for its latest occupants… waiting to unfold a story that’s been whispered down the years but gone unheard. Now a malevolent force awakens, exploiting the hidden darkness in two people who barely know themselves – let alone each other.
Rook House has a story to tell. And if you listen too closely, you’ll end up joining the ones who never left.
My Review
I loved this book in spite of some truly horrible characters. Shows how well written it is that I hated them so much.
Firstly – Jude. What a truly dreadful woman! Conning her way into being Lucy’s friend just to get at her husband. Someone slap her please.
Secondly – Hugh. Just a weak idiot of a man if you ask me.
Finally – Elena. Lucy’s stepmother, but then I probably have stepmummy issues. I found the part when she comes to stay quite funny though.
I’m not even going to include Ezra as he’s the actual villain in the story.
Good characters – Lucy naturally, Snowy Bird and Pinky, even if the names sound like pet bunnies.
Newly married couple Lucy and Hugh are staying in the haunted Rook House as ‘property guardians.’ They are paying a peppercorn rent, though I thought they should be paid to stay there. It’s in rural Yorkshire and they are not exactly country types, having always lived in the city.
Almost immediately Lucy hears things go ‘scratch scratch scratch‘ in the night behind the walls and then voices. The house is said to be haunted by the spirit of the evil Ezra Napier whose picture ‘watches’ them from the living room wall, his wife Belle, and various family members. Others have stayed there but it’s Lucy that is more open to sensing things than Hugh or previous tenants.
I adored this book. It’s really chilling and creepy, though I was never really scared as such. I only have a couple of issues and that is the constant use of short versions of words (mainly by Jude) like mani-pedi or pretty ‘rad’ really irritating. And who text-speaks nowadays unless you’re twelve, such as ‘shops in Swsby… might b back… if u can… etc.’ But it doesn’t matter. It was brilliant.
About the Author
Gabrielle Mullarkey is an award-winning author and seasoned storyteller. Having written three previous novels and over 3,000 short stories and serials for magazines across the UK and beyond, she delivers gripping, character-driven fiction. As a journalist, she’s contributed features, travel writing and opinion pieces to a wide range of publications.
Her writing has been broadcast on radio, adapted for audio downloads, and has won or been shortlisted in writing competitions. She’s served as a writing judge, teaches creative writing for local authorities, and has led therapeutic writing workshops for hospices and mental health charities. With an MSc in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes, Gabrielle brings rare emotional depth to her storytelling – fiction that’s as human as it is haunting.
+ audio book, audio drama, Australia, crime fiction, fiction, murder, obsession, police drama, review, serial killer, siblings, thriller
Hush Hush by James Patterson and Candice Fox Detective Harriet Blue #4
Top cop, devoted sister, and now Inmate 3329: even prison bars won’t stop Harriet Blue from seeking justice for the murder of her brother.
Prison is a dangerous place for a former cop — as Harriet Blue is learning on a daily basis.
So, following a fight for her life and a prison-wide lockdown, the last person she wants to see is Deputy Police Commissioner Joe Woods. The man who put her inside.
But Woods is not there to gloat. His daughter Tonya and her two-year-old child have gone missing.
He’s ready to offer Harriet a deal: find his family to buy her freedom . . .
My Review
This is book four in the series and another cracking story. Harriet Blue is in prison. She broke every rule in the police handbook, going rogue and then killing the man she was chasing. The only man who could prove her brother’s innocence.
Prison is very tough for a cop – even a suspended one who rid the country of a serial killer who targeted young women. It seems everyone is corrupt, even some of the guards. Apart from Dr Goldman who has become Harriet’s friend.
I’m not going to go into the plot in detail as there are a number of main threads and it’s all a bit complicated. Harriet, Whit and Tox Barnes have been teamed up, Harriet having been released from prison by her nemesis Deputy Police Commissioner Joe Woods. His daughter and granddaughter are missing and he wants them to find her Harriet has nowhere to live so she moves in with her mentor ‘Pops’ and his three fluffy foster dogs. Whit and Tox are technically suspended but also brought in to help.
So we have a missing woman and her daughter. How is one of the country’s richest lawyers linked to them? Then we have a biker gang and bodies buried in the desert. And who murdered the lovely doctor? Are they connected and how far will our fearsome trio go to pull it altogether?
Unfortunately they changed the narrator – which was a bit of a disappointment but I did get used to her in the end. The last in the series – please write another one. I want to know what happens to Harriet, Whit and Tox.
About the Authors
Candice Fox is the middle child of a large, eccentric family from Sydney’s western suburbs composed of half-adopted and pseudo siblings. The daughter of a parole officer and an enthusiastic foster-carer, Candice spent her childhood listening around corners to tales of violence, madness and evil as her father relayed his work stories to her mother and older brothers.
As a cynical and trouble-making teenager, her crime and gothic fiction writing was an escape from the calamity of her home life. She was constantly in trouble for reading Anne Rice in church and scaring her friends with tales from Australia’s wealth of true crime writers.
Bankstown born and bred, she failed to conform to military life in a brief stint as an officer in the Royal Australian Navy at age eighteen. At twenty, she turned her hand to academia, and taught high school through two undergraduate and two postgraduate degrees. Candice lectures in writing at the University of Notre Dame, Sydney, while undertaking a PhD in literary censorship and terrorism.
James Patterson is the most popular storyteller of our time and the creator of such unforgettable characters and series as Alex Cross, the Women’s Murder Club, Jane Smith, and Maximum Ride. He has coauthored #1 bestselling novels with Bill Clinton, Dolly Parton, and Michael Crichton, as well as collaborated on #1 bestselling nonfiction, including The Idaho Four, Walk in My Combat Boots, and Filthy Rich. Patterson has told the story of his own life in the #1 bestselling autobiography James Patterson by James Patterson. He is the recipient of an Edgar Award, ten Emmy Awards, the Literarian Award from the National Book Foundation, and the National Humanities Medal.
+ audio book, audio drama, Australia, crime fiction, fiction, murder, obsession, police drama, review, serial killer, siblings, thriller
Liar Liar by James Patterson and Candice Fox Detective Harriet Blue #3
Detective Harriet Blue is clear about two things. Regan Banks deserves to die. And she’ll be the one to pull the trigger.
But Regan – the vicious serial killer responsible for destroying her brother’s life – has gone to ground.
Suddenly, her phone rings. It’s him. Regan.
‘Catch me if you can,’ he tells her.
Harriet needs to find this killing machine fast, even if the cost is her own life. So she follows him down the Australian south coast with only one thing on her mind.
Revenge is coming – and its name is Harriet Blue …
My Review
This is book three in the series and if I had to choose my favourite, this might just be the one. I’ve loved them all but Liar Liar is more focused on finding the serial killer without going off on a tangent to the ‘never never’.
Harriet Blue is on the run now. After her brother Sam was murdered in prison, she is determined to find Regan Banks and kill him. She’s gone rogue and she’s not bringing him in. She’s going to shoot him even if it means she ends up in prison.
Edward ‘Whit’ Whitaker has permanently transferred from Perth to Sydney so he can help Harriet prove Sam’s innocence and find Banks. His eccentric partner Tox Barnes is still in hospital, so Whit has a new partner. I wasn’t sure about her as she persuaded Whit to have a few drinks even though he had told her he was a recovering alcoholic. Seemed very unprofessional. She also seduces him – I actually assumed he was gay as in book one the miners called him ‘nancy boy’.
After Regan is shot he seeks medical attention from a cosmetic surgeon. She has her 11-year-old daughter with her at the surgery. You know what’s going to happen. Her sister’s comments at the press conference were so brilliant – one of the highlights of the book.
But I’m also still reeling from the revelation about Regan’s childhood file and why it was sealed. I kind of guessed the truth, but not how or why. It’s going to stay with me for a long time.
Same narrator – she’s perfect. Excited that there’s a book 4 Hush Hush in the series. Can’t wait.
About the Authors
Candice Fox is the middle child of a large, eccentric family from Sydney’s western suburbs composed of half-adopted and pseudo siblings. The daughter of a parole officer and an enthusiastic foster-carer, Candice spent her childhood listening around corners to tales of violence, madness and evil as her father relayed his work stories to her mother and older brothers.
As a cynical and trouble-making teenager, her crime and gothic fiction writing was an escape from the calamity of her home life. She was constantly in trouble for reading Anne Rice in church and scaring her friends with tales from Australia’s wealth of true crime writers.
Bankstown born and bred, she failed to conform to military life in a brief stint as an officer in the Royal Australian Navy at age eighteen. At twenty, she turned her hand to academia, and taught high school through two undergraduate and two postgraduate degrees. Candice lectures in writing at the University of Notre Dame, Sydney, while undertaking a PhD in literary censorship and terrorism.
James Patterson is the most popular storyteller of our time and the creator of such unforgettable characters and series as Alex Cross, the Women’s Murder Club, Jane Smith, and Maximum Ride. He has coauthored #1 bestselling novels with Bill Clinton, Dolly Parton, and Michael Crichton, as well as collaborated on #1 bestselling nonfiction, including The Idaho Four, Walk in My Combat Boots, and Filthy Rich. Patterson has told the story of his own life in the #1 bestselling autobiography James Patterson by James Patterson. He is the recipient of an Edgar Award, ten Emmy Awards, the Literarian Award from the National Book Foundation, and the National Humanities Medal.
From two-million-selling author Steena Holmes, nine dark and gripping stories featuring Detective Meri Amber.
Nine missing girls. Nine cases the world wants to forget. One detective who never will.
Each file is someone’s daughter. Someone’s sister. And if Meri Amber can’t bring them home, she’ll make sure their stories end with justice.
#NineMissingGirls X(Twitter @ZooloosBT #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour #booktwitter
Instagram @zooloosbooktours #bookstagram
As the FBI’s leading child abduction specialist, Meri has spent her career chasing the vanished – from Minnesota to Montana, from abandoned barns to dark cellars that still echo with screams. But every case cuts deeper than the last.
“I’m Detective Meri Amber. I’ve been searching for my sister for twenty years. Every missing girl is a mirror. Every scream behind a wall could be hers.
“I’ll never stop looking. These are the stories of the girls I’ve found, the truths I’ve uncovered, and the cracks in my own past I can’t seem to seal.”
From the horrifying secrets of the House of Dolls, to a macabre twelfth birthday party, to the sinister truths buried in the Widow’s Barn: delve into nine intriguing mysteries which will chill you to the bone.
NINE NAIL-BITING STORIES FULL OF SHOCKING TWISTS BY A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR.
My Review
I read The Girls in the Basement a year ago and thought it was brilliant. It was my introduction to Detective Meri Amber. Meri has been looking for her sister who disappeared twenty years ago. She will never give up. Every time a new missing girl, a new victim is discovered, Meri hopes it will shed some light on her sister’s abduction. Even if the victim turns out to be her sister it will give her closure.
In Nine Missing Girls, we have nine separate stories, nine rules, each story about a different girl, but they are all linked. Certain names like Caleb Rusk and Andy Rawlings keep cropping up. Caleb is a volunteer with the Search and Rescue crew, except his boots are always clean, while Rawlings makes deliveries to the same places where Caleb volunteers. Many of the homes like Moon House are run by ‘religious’ fanatics with an agenda. Girls are disciplined, locked away, hidden.
But not all. In one story three girls make a pact. One leaves, they all leave or die. But why did they make the pact? If you tell someone the same thing over and over, soon they will believe you.
A House of Dolls is spooky and weird. Then there is a twelfth birthday party where the girls are always twelve years old. In What the River Took body parts are found in the river. The river gives up its secrets eventually. Then there is Luce in The Girl with a Broken Smile, who doesn’t speak and has a forced smile.
Nine Missing Girls is beautifully written and constructed, the language is very typical of the author. It’s unmistakable as her ‘voice’.
Many thanks to @ZooloosBT for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the Author
With 2 million copies of her titles sold worldwide, Steena Holmes was named in the Top 20 Women Author to read in 2015 by Good Housekeeping. She continues to write books that deal with issues that touch parents’ heart, whether it is through her contemporary fiction or psychological suspense novels.
To find out more about her books and her love for traveling, you can visit her website at http://www.steenaholmes.com
Where can you find her?
Steena’s Social Media
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorsteenaholmes/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorsteenaholmes
Twitter: https://twitter.com/steenaholmes
Website: http://www.steenaholmes.com
Goodreads:
www.goodreads.com
Purchase Links:
www.amazon.co.uk
+ audio book, audio drama, Australia, crime fiction, fiction, murder, obsession, police drama, review, serial killer, siblings, thriller
Fifty Fifty by James Patterson and Candice Fox Detective Harriet Blue #2
It’s not easy being a good detective – when your brother’s a serial killer.
Sam Blue stands accused of the brutal murders of three young students, their bodies dumped near the Georges River. Only one person believes he is innocent: his sister, Detective Harriet Blue. And she’s determined to prove it.
Except she’s now been banished to the outback town of Last Chance Valley (population 75), where a diary found on the roadside outlines a shocking plan – the massacre of the entire town. And the first death, shortly after Harry’s arrival, suggests the clock is already ticking.
Meanwhile, back in Sydney, a young woman holds the key to crack Sam’s case wide open.
If only she could escape the madman holding her hostage . . .
My Review
Before I get on to the story, I’d like to mention a couple of things. First of all I loved the narrator from book one, so I was really pleased to discover it was the same person in book two. Secondly, I get very frustrated when books are badly edited and full of typos. I guess when you are dealing with James Patterson you expect that everything will be perfect, and it is.
Moving on. Harry’s brother Sam Blue, known as the Georges River killer, is still the main suspect in the abduction, torture and murder of three young women, and maybe more. Harry believes Sam is innocent, but having assaulted the prosecutor outside the court building, she is sent into the outback again to investigate a strange case where a diary found by the roadside reveals a shocking plan to massacre a whole town – the town of Last Chance Valley (population 75). Harry must work with Victoria Snail, local police officer and ex-army veteran Cash.
In the meantime, Edward ‘Whit’ Whittaker, Harry’s partner in Never Never remains in Sydney to help prove Sam’s innocence and also to find another missing woman. Who took her? Many people believe that this new abductor is working with Sam. Seems very strange to me as my first thought would be that Sam must be innocent and this is the real killer. But, hey, what do I know.
Once again this is a tough, gritty crime story with plenty of violence, murder, bad language and a kick-ass heroine. Just up my street, bring it on. I’m so looking forward to the next in the series Liar Liar which takes Harry on a roller-coaster ride looking for a new killer.
About the Authors
Candice Fox is the middle child of a large, eccentric family from Sydney’s western suburbs composed of half-adopted and pseudo siblings. The daughter of a parole officer and an enthusiastic foster-carer, Candice spent her childhood listening around corners to tales of violence, madness and evil as her father relayed his work stories to her mother and older brothers.
As a cynical and trouble-making teenager, her crime and gothic fiction writing was an escape from the calamity of her home life. She was constantly in trouble for reading Anne Rice in church and scaring her friends with tales from Australia’s wealth of true crime writers.
Bankstown born and bred, she failed to conform to military life in a brief stint as an officer in the Royal Australian Navy at age eighteen. At twenty, she turned her hand to academia, and taught high school through two undergraduate and two postgraduate degrees. Candice lectures in writing at the University of Notre Dame, Sydney, while undertaking a PhD in literary censorship and terrorism.
James Patterson is the most popular storyteller of our time and the creator of such unforgettable characters and series as Alex Cross, the Women’s Murder Club, Jane Smith, and Maximum Ride. He has coauthored #1 bestselling novels with Bill Clinton, Dolly Parton, and Michael Crichton, as well as collaborated on #1 bestselling nonfiction, including The Idaho Four, Walk in My Combat Boots, and Filthy Rich. Patterson has told the story of his own life in the #1 bestselling autobiography James Patterson by James Patterson. He is the recipient of an Edgar Award, ten Emmy Awards, the Literarian Award from the National Book Foundation, and the National Humanities Medal.
A Way with the Fairies is a captivating folklore anthology that delves into the mysterious world of fairies, myths, and legends as they have been remembered, whispered, and reimagined across generations.
Rooted in Irish tradition yet reaching outward to stories from across Europe, the collection brings together poems, songs, and retold tales that blur the boundary between the natural and the otherworldly.
Fairies here are complex beings—capable of generosity and cruelty, wonder and loss—reflecting the contradictions of human nature itself.
Inspired by the author’s lifelong connection to folklore and the supernatural, and closely linked to the accompanying Supernatural album, this book is both a preservation of old tales and a deeply personal creative offering.
Other information:
1. The supernatural is woven into everyday life. The book invites readers to see folklore as something once deeply embedded in daily existence. Fairies, spirits, and otherworldly forces are presented as part of the same landscape as homes, fields, music, and family life, reflecting a worldview where the unseen was accepted rather than questioned.
2. ‘A Way with the Fairies’ positions itself as a threshold work in that it connects literature, music, mythology, and personal memory. It asks readers not just to consume stories, but to enter them, linger with them, and allow them to resonate.
3. By retelling, adapting, and contextualising these stories alongside music, the book emphasises that folklore is not frozen in the past. It evolves through voice, song, memory, and personal interpretation. Readers are encouraged to see tradition as something alive and ongoing.
4. Transformation, death and rebirth are key themes and symbols throughout e.g. a child is taken by the fairies (The Stolen Child and Fairy Boy); the piper who can only play one tune becomes an extraordinary musician (Piper and the Púca); the 12 brothers are turned into ravens; Lusmore loses his hump, Jack Madden meets a bitter end; Étaín is transformed into a fly and reincarnates in human form.
My Review
To be honest I find fairies a bit scary. Not The Cottingley Fairies kind, but the ‘real’ ones in myths and legends. They are not like Tinkerbell, in a diaphanous dress, with a cute wand, and the type of wings that little girls wear at parties. Or teens at Glastonbury. All fairy dust and glitter.
In folklore they can be mean and cruel, and put spells on unsuspecting people, and they are not very kind to animals. And the people involved seem happy with the level of cruelty to beasts and even pets.
I found the Lithuanian folk tale Twelve Brothers: Ravens really terrifying. OK, so nothing to do with fairies, but still…. After his wife died, leaving him with twelve sons and a daughter, a grieving man decides to remarry, but his bride-to-be turns out to be a witch. She says to him ‘Your daughter may stay, but you must burn your twelve sons and send me their ashes in twelve little bags. Only then will I marry you.’
His ‘clever’ servant told him ‘You have twelve dogs… burn them instead and send their ashes… the witch will never know.’ At this point I would have broken off the wedding, but no, he went ahead and sent the poor dogs’ ashes. Eventually she discovers his deception and turns the sons into ravens.
Of the other folk tales, some are poems or songs, while others are stories. They have all been collected from Ireland, Spain, Lithuania and Ukraine. They form the inspiration for the author’s fourth album Supernatural.
The most famous of the poems is The Stolen Child by W.B. Yeates.
‘Come away, O, human child
To the waters and the wild
With a faery hand in hand
For the world’s more full of weeping
Than you can understand.‘
A Way With The Fairies is a very interesting compilation of tales, which apart from The Stolen Child I had never heard of. There are many from my own heritage (Polish/Romanian) that I will now research.
Many thanks to PalamedesPR for inviting me to be part of this #blogtour
About the Author
Born in 1975 in County Down, Bróna McVittie is a Northern Irish musician and trained biologist whose work has earned widespread critical acclaim for its imaginative fusion of traditional folk, nature-inspired songwriting and experimental soundscapes. Her music draws deeply on the mythology, folklore and landscapes of her homeland, reimagining traditional ballads and composing original songs that reflect the rhythms of the natural world and the ancient stories woven into Ireland’s cultural fabric.
McVittie describes her music as cosmic folk, blending ethnic instruments, harp, guitar and electronic textures to create music that evokes birdsong, open skies and elemental forces. Her voice, richly accented and clear, carries both the intimacy of a traditional sean-nos singer and the breadth of a contemporary experimental artist, an approach encapsulated in The Guardian’s praise that her music “takes you on its wing, and gives you fresh visions”.
Since her solo debut in 2018, McVittie has released three acclaimed albums. Her first, We Are the Wildlife, was recorded and produced in County Down and interweaves original compositions with re-imagined traditional songs, drawing on local lore such as the County Down ballad “The Flower ofMagherally”. Her 2020 album The Man in the Mountain expanded her palette, balancing experimental electronic elements and collaborations with musicians from diverse backgrounds to deepen the mythic and pastoral dimensions of her work. Most recently The Woman in the Moon (2022) has been celebrated for its broader stylistic range, incorporating jazz, South American rhythms and atmospheric instrumentation while remaining rooted in Celtic song traditions and mythic themes.
McVittie’s music has been championed by publications including MOJO, Uncut, The Guardian and The Independent, with her albums selected for The Guardian’s Folk Album of the Month and twice listed among its year’s best folk records. Her performances span major festivals such as WOMAD and Celtic Connections, and broadcasts on programmes from BBC Radio to RTÉ Radio 1, bringing her compelling blend of folklore, science-inflected curiosity and sonic experimentation to audiences across the UK and beyond.
A note to you, the bloggers, from Brona:
I would like readers to consider the supernatural as enmeshed within and around our natural world, its people and landscapes, and not as mere fantasy. The folklore and legend of Ireland and of other European countries is our cultural lifeblood; something to be celebrated, not forgotten. Our intangible cultural heritage, and the shared themes of death and transformation characteristic of fairy stories across Europe, cement our national identities and international synchronicities. I want the songs and stories to evoke a sense of connection to the unseen world around and within us, to conjure an imagining, a personal reaffirmation of our shared cultural identities, hopes and dreams.
Where can you find her?
Instagram
@bronamcvittie
Background/Book Site
https://bronamcvittie.corkbots.com/
Goodreads
www.goodreads.com
Buy link
www.amazon.co.uk
+ audio book, audio drama, Australia, crime fiction, fiction, murder, obsession, police drama, review, serial killer, siblings, thriller
Never Never by James Patterson and Candice Fox Detective Harriet Blue #1
When Sydney police department sex crimes detective Harriet Blue is called into her boss’s office, she never imagined it would be to tell her that her brother is the prime suspect in the brutal murders of three women.
Shocked and in denial, Harry is transferred to Perth to avoid the media exposure this case will attract. Harry is sent into the outback – the never never – to investigate the disappearance of mine worker Danny Carter. The mining town is a seedy place, full of money and immoral ways to spend it. As Harry delves deeper into the murky lives of these miners, she finds that Danny isn’t the first to go missing.
My Review
I recently read (well listened to with Borrowbox) The Crimson Lake series, so while Never Never is co-written with James Patterson, I can clearly hear Candice Fox’s voice. But then it’s been years since I read one of Patterson’s books.
Sydney sex crimes detective Harriett (Harry) Blue has just discovered that her brother Sam has been arrested for the kidnap, torture and murder of three women. She’s sure he is innocent though evidence proves otherwise. In order to keep her away from the media circus that is sure to follow, Harry is sent to Perth to assist in the investigation of the disappearance and probable killing of mine worker Danny Carter. Though based in Perth, Harry is sent into the outback known as the ‘never never’.
Her partner is Whit who she believes is spying on her. They even have to share their cramped accommodation. It will take her a while to trust him. I really liked him.
It appears that Danny is not the only one to go missing, but workers come and go all the time and eventually turn up elsewhere. Harry is not convinced.
One of the voices we hear is only referred to as ‘the soldier’ who is picking off the cowards and the traitors. So who is the soldier? Could it be Linbacker in charge of security? The local prostitutes say he shoots and tortures animals. Or Richie who runs the drugs at the mine. Then we have an environmental group who camp nearby and are trying to close the mine.
Harry is a great character – hard, brave and quick-witted. She knows how to fight and can take on any man. I’m not saying I guessed the identity of the soldier – lets just say that – no better not.
I’m looking forward to the next in the series Fifty Fifty which takes us back to Sam in Sydney.
About the Authors
Candice Fox is the middle child of a large, eccentric family from Sydney’s western suburbs composed of half-adopted and pseudo siblings. The daughter of a parole officer and an enthusiastic foster-carer, Candice spent her childhood listening around corners to tales of violence, madness and evil as her father relayed his work stories to her mother and older brothers.
As a cynical and trouble-making teenager, her crime and gothic fiction writing was an escape from the calamity of her home life. She was constantly in trouble for reading Anne Rice in church and scaring her friends with tales from Australia’s wealth of true crime writers.
Bankstown born and bred, she failed to conform to military life in a brief stint as an officer in the Royal Australian Navy at age eighteen. At twenty, she turned her hand to academia, and taught high school through two undergraduate and two postgraduate degrees. Candice lectures in writing at the University of Notre Dame, Sydney, while undertaking a PhD in literary censorship and terrorism.
James Patterson is the most popular storyteller of our time and the creator of such unforgettable characters and series as Alex Cross, the Women’s Murder Club, Jane Smith, and Maximum Ride. He has coauthored #1 bestselling novels with Bill Clinton, Dolly Parton, and Michael Crichton, as well as collaborated on #1 bestselling nonfiction, including The Idaho Four, Walk in My Combat Boots, and Filthy Rich. Patterson has told the story of his own life in the #1 bestselling autobiography James Patterson by James Patterson. He is the recipient of an Edgar Award, ten Emmy Awards, the Literarian Award from the National Book Foundation, and the National Humanities Medal.
For a devoted wife and mother, a restful getaway descends into an inescapable nightmare in this dark psychological thriller.
Harlow has almost everything she wants: a passionate marriage, an adorable stepson, and a fresh start at her husband Gregor’s childhood home on a remote island. But soon after arriving, Gregor begins to change, and Harlow is unsettled by his connection to their neighbour.
When Harlow uncovers evidence of a possible murder deep in a wooded ravine, she begins to question what is real and what might be in her mind. As rumours of missing girls and dark rituals surface, she fears that the greatest danger may be far closer than she ever imagined.
My Review
‘If I hadn’t found that dead girl’s head in the ravine, what would’ve happened to us?’ How many books can claim an opening line as good as that one! And this book was good, great in fact. Such brilliant characters and setting.
Harlow wants a baby, but it’s just not happening for her and new husband Gregor. She has a great job, but it’s pressurised and Gregor (and his dreadful mother) think that taking a six month sabbatical from work will help her conceive. They suggest spending the time at Gregor’s childhood home on a remote island with his young son Sam, and his family. Gregor is in a band and it will give him the opportunity to rehearse and lay down an album. And one of the band members happens to live next door with his beautiful, earth-mother wife Kirsten and their almost too beautiful children.
It soon becomes apparent that Gregor is not who he says he is. He’s like a different person and Harlow begins to wonder if she can trust him. Then there is Kirsten. They seem very close. Is that what Gregor wants Harlow to be like – a stay-at-home wife who makes her own sourdough starters and brews magic tea. The children all attend the same forest school where Sam stands out like a sore thumb. The teachers are all weird and he is deeply unhappy.
And then of course there’s the dead girl’s head in the ravine. Gregor tells Harlow she imagined it, but did she? Girls have gone missing. It all starts to get even weirder and Harlow worries for her sanity.
I loved this book. There’s something very ethereal about the island, but it’s also very sinister and cultish. All a bit Summerisle and I just prayed there wouldn’t be a Wicker Man at the end.
Many thanks to @lovebookstours for inviting me to be part of #TheRavine readalong. It’s been great fun.
About the Author
Maia Chance writes unsettling domestic thrillers with a supernatural edge, including The Body Next Door. She is also the author of the Discreet Retrieval Agency, Fairy Tale Fatal, and Agnes & Effie mystery series. Maia lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, two children, and a terrier with an impressive moustache.
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+ audio book, fiction, love, Magical realism, music, review, secrets, stories
The Violin Maker’s Secret by Evie Woods
The Brand New Book from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Lost Bookshop! Hewn by a master and passed down through generations, one violin charts its own course through history…
Baggage claim agent Devlin, retired teacher Walter, and appraiser Gabrielle should have nothing in common, but when a single choice sets in motion a new chapter in the violin’s story, they finally feel a part of something – something that matters, and which makes them matter.
Because as their search for the violin’s origins unlocks a mystery stretching back decades, the instrument teaches them a melody they never expected.
My Review
Baggage handler Devlin’s life is drifting. His girlfriend Melissa wants to get married so when he turns up on her birthday with a violin he found in the Lost and Found, she is devastated. She expected a diamond engagement ring.
But the violin has history. Little did Devlin expect that their flat would be broken into to recover it, while his new found friend and retired history teacher Walter has also been targeted. For Walter though it was worth it. Helping Devlin find the violin’s provenance has given his lonely life meaning. Unfortunately, Melissa doesn’t feel the same. She kicks him out and he ends up living in Helga, his old camper van.
Walter takes Devlin to meet an old friend who appraises violins, but he has died and his daughter Gabrielle has taken over the business. From here on it becomes a race to track the violin’s maker, while someone called Verity is after them to get it back. And she is ruthless.
Throughout the book, we go back in time to the story of William and Clara, starting in the early 19th century in Ireland. William has gone to London to train as a luthier with the promise to come back for Clara so they can be married. But tragedy strikes, Clara drowns and her spirit is locked inside the violin. We revisit the violin told from Clara’s spirit’s point of view as the violin passes from hand to hand in some fascinating and tragic stories. This was very original and I loved these parts, some even made me cry.
I adored this book and was sad when it finished. I listened once again on Audible (because I love the Irish narrators though this is only used for the Violin chapters) and look forward to more from this author.
About the Author
Evie Woods is the pseudonym of Evie Gaughan, bestselling author of The Story Collector, The Heirloom and The Mysterious Bakery On Rue De Paris. Living on the West Coast of Ireland, Evie escapes the inclement weather by writing her stories in a converted attic, where she dreams of underfloor heating. Her books tread the intriguing line between the everyday and the otherworldly, revealing the magic that exists in our ordinary lives.
Nella, daughter of millionaire Theodore Racksole, orders a dinner of steak and beer at the exclusive Grand Babylon Hotel in London. Her order is refused, so Theodore promptly buys the chef, the kitchen and the whole hotel. But when hotel staff begin to vanish and a German prince goes missing, Nella discovers that murder, blackmail and kidnapping are also on the menu. A rollicking murder mystery from one of the finest writers of the last century.
My Review
Last month I joined a book club run by the U3A. I’ve been a member of book clubs before but not one of those where you all read the same book and then meet to discuss it. Online yes, but not actually in person.
We meet in the upstairs room of our local professional theatre and order a tea or coffee as payment for using the room. After my first meeting where we discussed a book I’d luckily already read, albeit in 2017, so I barely remembered it, this time I would actually have to read The Grand Babylon Hotel. And so I did.
I really enjoyed it though the language is so old-fashioned that it took some getting used to.
“…could never know a tithe of the extraordinary and queer occurrences that happened daily under his very nose: the atmosphere of such a caravanserai must necessarily be an atmosphere of mystery…”
I also wanted it get a move on at times – modern books tend to be more fast-paced.
American millionaire Theodore Racksole and his daughter Nella arrive at The Grand Babylon Hotel and she orders a dinner of steak and beer. The order is refused, so Theodore buys the hotel instead. This includes the chef Rocco, head waiter Jules and clerk Miss Spencer.
In the adventure that follows we encounter two princes from the fictitious kingdom of Posen, a dead body, plenty of mystery and intrigue, a Jewish money-lender, kidnapping and a trip to Ostend. What can it all mean and who now wants to kill Prince Eugen? And of course why? Nella is fearless and clever and most of the story revolves around her.
It’s a veritable romp, written in short chapters, making it suitable for serialisation. Audiences at the time of publication (1902) weren’t particularly worried about credibility and this makes it more entertaining if somewhat far-fetched. I’m not sure whether I would read more literature written in the Edwardian period but it was well worth the one-off experience.
When Joe Ripley, the local fire chief, attends a house fire, he finds his friend Gina Murray has been burnt alive in a clear case of murder.
DS Scott Hansen, still new to the area, is called in to investigate. Returning from a call out, the local mountain rescue team discover a body laid out in a sacred stone ring. The body has been placed reverently. Local legend holds the stones holy as the ghost of Mary Magdalene has been rumoured to have appeared by them. Folklore says she is protecting something sacrosanct.
Genre: Character Based Crime Thriller
Alastair Brown is reported missing by his sister after she finds blood and signs of a struggle at his property. Puzzled, Scott looks for clues as to why he would suddenly disappear while he investigates the other two deaths. Clues lead him to Cameron Hunter, the owner of the largest resort in the area who has plans to expand his empire further. When Alastair is found dead on the standing stones by the stone ring, Scott realises there may be a link between all three killings and discovers that two very different obsessions have led to three murders.
Murder, suspense, mystery and a hint of romance continue in the second of the Whistlers Peak series.
My Review
Not having read the first book in the series, I was a bit overwhelmed initially by the number of important characters. In fact I wasn’t sure who was our main protagonist – Fire Chief Joe Ripley or DS Scott Hansen. Then there’s Jack whose wife Fee has recently died leaving a daughter, 17-year-old Bonnie, and Doctor Ruth who went to school with Joe.
The book opens with the murder of Gina Murray, locked in her house while someone has set the place on fire and she is killed. Her three beloved dogs though have been shut outside. Joe is devastated – they were good friends – and takes the dogs. He doesn’t understand why they were shut out of the house while Gina died. The killer is obviously a dog lover and I totally get that.
In the meantime, Cameron Hunter is trying to expand his resort ’empire’ and has motive – he needs the land. His brother Ashley is schizophrenic, and he ends up in a private nursing home. But no-one believes Cameron is capable of carrying out such a heinous crime – he must have a henchman. And local man Alastair Brown has gone missing – is there a connection?
Also on the land are the sacred stones where the spirit of Mary Magdalene is supposed to have appeared to the enlightened few. Unfortunately it’s also where the body of a young man is found, naked and ‘posed’.
Finally we have vile doctor Mark Wallis who has a fondness for young girls and for ‘allegedly’ killing his ex-wives. At least they were ex once he had done away with them. This time, his ‘target’ is Jack’s daughter Bonnie, though he’s also looking for a new rich wife.
I’m exhausted! However, once I got a quarter of the way in and I felt familiar with the characters, I really enjoyed all the different threads and the way the author has pulled them all together. As a writer I’d definitely need a spreadsheet to keep track.
Be warned though that even though some of the book is almost cosy crime with all the relationships and banter, there are some really nasty moments which I am trying to forget about.
Many thanks to Hygge Book Tours for inviting me to be part of #TheMagdaleneStonesMurders #blogtour
About the Author
J.M. Simpson was born in Essex, but was raised primarily in the West Country, never far from a rugged coastline, a sandy beach, or harbour. With a degree and PhD, much of Jo’s working career has been spent undertaking research in a variety of subjects; most notably in construction and new development where her expertise lies.
Staying in the Welsh town of Tenby some years ago and watching the local lifeboat launch one stormy winter night, gave Jo the beginnings of an idea for a book for her debut novel Sea State. Jo has since published six crime suspense thrillers set against the backdrop of a lifeboat crew in a coastal town called Castleby. Christmas in Castleby was a finalist for The Book Bloggers Novel of the Year award 2025.
Jo published the first in a new series set in the Scottish Highlands in 2025, a crime thriller, The Ophelia Murders that incorporated Scottish Mountain Rescue into the character base and plot line. The second in the series, The Magdalene Stone Murders is due out in March 2026. Jo also has a standalone psychological thriller Mine To Keep due out in May 2026 with Cahill Davis Publishing.
Jo lives in Kent, with her two (occasionally stroppy) teenage daughters, her extremely long-suffering husband and her rescue Border Collie, Merlin. She also runs a successful research consultancy, but dreams of becoming a full-time writer. In what little spare time Jo has, she spends writing, walking the dogs, being an armchair movie critic, dreaming of Scotland or the Pembrokeshire coast; drinking endless coffees in various local cafés (on the pretence of writing) or drinking copious amounts of wine in her most favourite pub with friends, (where no writing occurs whatsoever).
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An isolated cottage…
After losing her job and boyfriend, Jan Hamlin is in desperate need of a fresh start. So she jumps at the chance to rent a secluded cottage on the edge of Coleshaw Woods.
A tap at the window…
Very quickly though, things take a dark turn. At night, Jan hears strange noises, and faint taps at the window. Something, or someone, is out there.
A forest that hides many secrets…
Jan refuses to be scared off. But whoever is outside isn’t going away, and it soon becomes clear that the nightmare is only just beginning…
My Review
If I said this was ridiculously far-fetched and silly, it would sound disrespectful as part of the story is about couples losing their babies. But that’s not what makes it comical at times.
There are some great reviews – 4 and 5 stars, but also some terrible ones, even some one stars. Though I understand the sentiment, I really enjoyed listening to the book while out walking. Providing the book is well-written – which it is – this is fiction so I don’t expect depressing reality or I’d be watching Eastenders. I don’t even mind that it’s far-fetched, so long as it’s entertaining. If it was a TV show I’d definitely watch it. I’d even help cast it!!
There are two seemingly separate threads which you just know will come together at the end, plus a number of twists. Jan Hamlin is renting Ivy Cottage at a peppercorn rent so she can take care of the house and the dog for Camille who is working away. But Jan keeps hearing noises in the garden. No-one believes her – of course they don’t, not even handsome Chris. The cottage is in the middle of nowhere surrounded by deep dark woods – why would anyone be scared? Even when her best friend Ruby comes to stay and reassure her, she scarpers first thing in the morning after a scary night. Some friend. Thanks a lot.
In the meantime, Ian and Emma have just lost their second baby though Mrs Nosy Neighbour swears she heard it cry when midwife Anne took it away in a Moses basket. At this point you know something fishy is going on (suspect the babies both survived – was Anne selling them to childless couples) or something even more sinister. And just when you thought it was all a bit silly, it got even sillier. But I don’t care. It was great fun in a strange sort of way.
Finally my favourite character was Tinder the dog. Even the name made me laugh. I visualise a scruffy looking shaggy Jack Russell with the ability to match-make.
Listened with Borrowbox.
About the Author
“Just a little bit about me. I live in England and have three children. I have always been a writer – from when I was at school, with poems and articles in the school magazine. In my teens I began writing short stories, a few radio plays and novels. I finally made it into the bestseller charts with Damaged in 2007 which I wrote under the pseudonym Cathy Glass. Since then I have had 45 books published, many of which have become international bestsellers.”
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