+ family, fiction, ghosts, gothic, gothic horror, Gothic mystery, haunting, revenge, review, secrets, supernatural, Victorian Britain
The Shroud by Ava Monegan The Making of Madame Theda #1
A fraudulent medium. A house full of secrets. And a killer who can’t let either of them leave.
Madame Theda is a fraud. She wears mourning clothes without having lost anyone. She owns a past that isn’t hers. And she claims to speak to the dead, but can’t.
When she is hired to investigate a haunting at the isolated Blackheath House on the English moors, she readily accepts. It might just secure her position as a rising medium in a Victorian London obsessed with the dead.
But Blackheath House, lonely and disdainful, like its owners, holds too many secrets.
Why do the servants flee the house each night? Did a devil’s curse doom the family’s men? Why are parts of the house sealed off from visitors?
As the house’s labyrinthine corridors draw Theda deeper into a web of secrets and deceit, the boundary between reality and the supernatural begins to blur. Soon, her reputation is the least of what’s at stake now. And the past she ran from isn’t done with her yet.
This first instalment of the debut trilogy The Making of Madame Theda delivers atmospheric suspense and a gothic supernatural mystery for readers who love haunted-house stories such as Rebecca Netley’s The Whistling or Laura Purcell’s The Silent Companions.
My Review
It’s books like The Shroud that make me realise why Gothic fiction is one of my favourite genres. It’s perfect and has all the necessary elements – a spooky house in the middle of nowhere, a storm that prevents anyone from leaving, faces appearing in the mirror but there’s no-one there, hidden tunnels, crazy relatives and of course the requisite ghosts. It also has its fair share of secrets and local gossip.
Madame Theda is a medium who makes a living holding seances and speaking to the dead. Seances became very popular in Victorian Britain with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Queen Victoria (allegedly) being fans. But Theda, as with most of them (or all if you don’t believe), is a fraud and she knows it. I’m sure there were others who actually believed they could contact the spirits, but I very much doubt it.
Following a disastrous seance, Theda and her partner-in-crime Hannah are invited to go to Blackheath House, a spooky old manor on the moors, where pregnant widow Mrs Olivia Hays is being haunted by an unfriendly spirit. Her husband’s death is recent and he died in debt, meaning Olivia and her young son will lose their house. The only alternative is to move to Blackheath, the family home.
As soon as Theda and Hannah arrive they know something is amiss. Mr Eastcott is the other ‘guest’ but he is a scientist and is there to find a rational answer to the mysterious goings on. And unmask Theda as the fraud she really is. And it’s not long before they realise they could all be in danger.
I loved this so much. It’s the first in a series called The Making of Madame Theda and I can’t wait to read book two. There is a also a short story called The Widow of Blackheath House, downloadable free from Ava’s website https://avamonegan.com/ about Olivia which I read straight after. More Theda please!
Many thanks to @lovebookstours for inviting me to be part of #TheShroud blog tour.
About the Author
Ava Monegan writes atmospheric Gothic mysteries inspired by haunted pasts and lingering ghosts. Her work blends historical fiction, subtle horror, and supernatural ambiguity, drawing on classic Gothic traditions, Victorian-era influences, and a lifelong love of mystery and ghost stories.
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Ishmael Dollah is back! He was once a CEO. He is now an assassin. He kills people who deserve to die.
He excels in his new role for exactly the reasons he excelled at the old one.
When a Singapore family tortures their domestic worker to death and looks certain to walk free, Ishmael adds a mother and her son to his list. Then he runs into the limit every founder runs into: the job is bigger than one man.
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So he does what any competent leader would. He builds a team. Starting with the police inspector assigned to catch him.
Because even assassins can’t do it alone.
What follows is a lesson in delegation, loyalty and control, taught by a man who understands that the most dangerous thing you can give someone is your trust.
The third novel in the Corporate Assassin Series. A dark thriller that is also, unnervingly, the best management book you will read this year.
My Review
Ishmael has already killed four people in the first two books. They all deserved to die. But that doesn’t make it right in the eyes of the police and work colleagues. Though all four cases are now closed, there are some that don’t accept the results and think they require more detailed investigation.
Singapore is usually a civilised, peaceful, safe place. But when Fatimavati comes from overseas to work for the Soons, she is beaten, tortured and dies of her injuries. The Soons won’t get the punishment they deserve. Ishmael in incensed. So is Inspector Julia. But unfortunately, though she would like to help Ishmael bring the Soons to justice, julia also suspects he is involved in the other four deaths. Ishmael really needs her on his team.
He also needs private investigator Joseph, but while Joseph is prepared to help up to a point he is not happy to assist directly in the actual assassination. But Ishmael really needs him on his team. He’s working on it.
You can’t help liking Ishmael, it’s a bit like admiring Villanelle in Killing Eve. And then of course there is his family – his long-suffering wife Nysa, their son Shahed, and daughter-in-law Marianne, whom they refer to as the ‘children’.
There’s a bit of a cliff hanger at the end, so no doubt this will be resolved in book four. I can’t wait. It’s such a great series.
And once again, we get an unashamed plug for the author’s wife in real real life and her fabulous cakes. Look up @SinsationsbyRadhika. Love it!
Many thanks to #HyggeBookTours for inviting me to be part of the #AssassinsCantDoItAlone #blog tour.
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About the Author
Shesh, or Venkatraman Sheshashayee, is a retired CEO living in Singapore. Armed with degrees in Marine Engineering and Management, he first sailed across half the known world and then built businesses across most of the rest of it. In his career spanning thirty-eight years, he built companies from scratch, transformed them and turned them around. Currently, he mentors nine start-ups and about twenty professionals. He is a director on three boards and advises two more.
He started writing in his teens. His articles have been published in trade publications (relating to the maritime and offshore energy industry) across the world.
Shesh is married to Singapore’s best home baker, Radhika (www.sinsationsbyradhika.com). They have two children, both of whom are in Singapore building a start-up in the physical fitness space.
When not mentoring or writing, he runs, plays tennis and reads. Though never at the same time.
Fallowfield – where the past cannot rest
Fallowfield Hall: once an avant garde art college, now abandoned and decaying. To journalist Rowan Woodhouse it is the fabled backdrop to her parents’ 1970s love story. But is there more to Fallowfield – and her family – than she’s been told?
Struggling with the loss of her artist father, Rowan hopes a research project to celebrate the half-centenary of the college where he taught will lessen her grief, reveal more about his life and work, and bring a deeper understanding of her enigmatic mother who died tragically young.
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But Rowan soon discovers that Fallowfield wasn’t all about hedonistic student life and idyllic picnics on its famous daffodil lawns. Jealousies, betrayals and rivalries emerge when she learns of the mysterious death of one young woman and the unsolved disappearance of another.
As past and present become dangerously intertwined, how will Rowan cope with the suspicions sparked by her investigations and will these impact her own troubled personal life?
My Review
Fallowfield is set partly in the 2000s and partly in the 1970s. The latter was my era. I went to The London College of Fashion in 1973. It was amazing. I didn’t drink though or use cocaine (I’m not sure I’d even heard of it back then). We had very little money and lived in a hostel. We must have been very boring compared to Rowan’s father Nick and his friends.
Nick was a student at Fallowfield before returning the following year as a lecturer. Her mother Annie was a student when he was teaching – their relationship forbidden by the college. They still managed to see each other on the quiet.
We are introduced to other students, and to hippie Zizi, staying on a campsite nearby. Everything seems to revolve around Zizi, who died on the night of the summer ball.
It’s all too much for Rowan, who is determined to find out the truth following her father’s death, and why he might be linked to Zizi. But everyone is telling her a different story and they all seem to be lying.
I can’t believe how naive Rowan is, especially as she is a features writer for a magazine. She is so shocked that her father might have been up to all sorts in the 70s, including drinking, taking drugs and two-timing Annie. Even having previous relationships seems to bother her. She is currently seeing photographer Doug who also works for the magazine. We know they are wrong for each other even before Rowan does.
Fallowfield must have taken hours of research – I don’t think I could ever have the patience. It’s so well-written and on-point, and I learnt a lot about a genre I have never heard of called Good Girl Art, a type of artwork depicting women on the covers of comic books, detective novels and pulp magazines. Look it up! I found it fascinating.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
About the Author
Nicole Swengley is a highly-regarded and experienced journalist who has written about art and design for titles such as The Times, Financial Times, Daily Telegraph, London Evening Standard, Wall Street Journal and many others.
A past student of the Faber Academy, Nicole has written non-fiction books for Collins and Adlard Coles and has had several short stories published in magazines and anthologies.
Her debut novel, The Portrait Girl, was published by Breakthrough Books in 2024.
Fallowfield is her second full-length work of fiction.
Publisher’s note:
This book’s appeal will be wide to readers of upmarket women’s, literary, mystery and amateur-sleuth fiction but in particular may appeal to mature audiences (especially anyone who remembers the 1970s! Or those with an interest in that era). Also to anyone with a passion for or keen interest in art – of all kinds (including a 1950s glamour-girl genre more akin to Hollywood posters, which is key to the story. The male gaze does not go unquestioned but the book and its heroine also take a quite pragmatic view). The book also takes place in some rarified worlds, such as those of art collectors and galleries, although it has a diverse cast of characters from all backgrounds. Fallowfield may also appeal to fans of ‘dark academia’. The book has moderate levels of threat.
Perfect for home or school, the new book for children in the acclaimed Urban Wildlife Explorer series takes a close look at foxes, one of the most common but least understood wild urban animals.
85% of people in the UK live in urban settings, but only one in three children in the UK have ever watched birds or wildlife in their local park. And yet 85% of children are animal lovers.
Book Tour: 5th – 13th October
Genre: Children’s Non Fiction | Picture book (4-8 yrs)
Publisher: Cameron Publicity and Marketing (Publicist)
Urban Wildlife Explorers are Perfect for curious young minds, they are bursting with laugh-out-loud moments, fascinating science, and beautiful watercolour illustrations. The Urban Wildlife Explorers series is also packed with tips on how kids can help protect and interact safely with local wildlife.
Whether you’re a budding naturalist or just want to find out more, these are the perfect guides for young urban explorers!
My Review
I love foxes and I want others to love them too. They are not the villains that people believe they are. They are simply trying to survive in an ever more hostile environment. We no longer hunt them for sport, but they need to find food, which could mean going through your bins.
I live in an urban area. A few months ago we had a family of five foxes living behind a garage across the road. Eventually, mum, dad and two of the cubs moved away, and just one of the cubs remained to claim it as his or her territory. Eventually a new family will appear and the whole cycle will start again.
Foxes are different from other furry animals like wolves, cayotes and red pandas, but they have similarities with cats and dogs. A fox uses its tail for balance like a cat, and uses its ears and nose like a dog. It has whiskers and eyes that see well at night like a cat, and claws that help it to climb. But there is a big difference – foxes are WILD. So where can we see them? They are easier to spot in urban areas than they are in the countryside these days.
Let’s Explore Foxes is a brilliant book with lovely illustrations. But more than that, it’s full of information about foxes for budding naturalists, and why we love them and need them. I’m a huge fan – my dog not so much – and I love seeing them when we go out for a walk in the evening.
Many thanks to @lovebookstours for inviting me to be part of the #LetsExploreFoxes book tour.
About the Author
SISKI KALLA is an award-winning Illustrator who has illustrated more than twenty children’s picture books, all about animals and many about dogs (she has fostered 15 dogs in the past 10 years!). Her first Urban Wildlife Explorer Book, Let’s Explore Snails, won the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Spark Award Honour and she has not stopped since! Find out more at siskikallaillustration.com
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When a woman haunted by a relentless presence seeks Annie Jackson’s help, Annie and her brother Lewis are drawn into an investigation that reaches deep into Scotland’s darkest history. The twisty, atmospheric, addictive Annie Jackson series continues…
The most dangerous voices are the ones that no one else can hear…
Evie Cartwright first speaks to the dead as a child. When she leaves home for university, her ability takes a terrifying turn after she witnesses a brutal murder. By morning, she is haunted by a dead serial killer who refuses to leave her alone, and marked by a cut across her neck that never heals.
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For the next ten years, Evie is driven from place to place, searching for a way to rid herself of the voice that torments her day and night. When desperation leaves her with nowhere else to turn, she arrives at the remote Highland home of Annie Jackson, hoping she will finally find answers.
As Annie and her brother Lewis begin to investigate, helped by an old friend with specialist knowledge of the occult, they are drawn into a dark and dangerous search that reaches deep into Scotland’s history.
And some ghosts are not content to remain in the shadows…
A Gothic thriller with a spellbinding mystery at its heart, The Cutting is the fourth instalment in Michael J. Malone’s acclaimed Annie Jackson series, and this time, danger may be impossible to outrun.
My Review
In the first book, The Murmurs, in the Annie Jackson series, we had flashbacks to the time when witches were strangled and their bodies thrown on a blazing pyre. In book four Annie is still plagued by the ‘murmurs’, the ability to see how and when people will die, but we are also introduced to Evie Cartwright, who is tormented by an evil spirit called Victor, whose mother and sister were drowned as witches in the 1600s. Evie witnessed a murder and that’s when Victor latched on to her and won’t let go. Evie has always been sensitive to the voices of the dead, but nothing compares to the ten years she has been haunted by Victor.
In the meantime, Annie’s twin brother Lewis is still on the trail of hit man Pierce, whose attack on Lewis’s wife Clare caused her to lose their baby. Lewis is determined to get his revenge, even if it puts his life at risk.
Evie seeks out Annie and befriends her in an attempt to rid herself of Victor, and together they visit various people like the elderly Ina, who knows all about the occult, and they believe can help either or both of them. But can Annie trust Evie or does she have her own agenda?
The book becomes a chase around Scotland for the two women, who discover more and more information which they hope will ultimately lead them to the truth. I have to admit though that Lewis’s story was at times a bit of a distraction and I just wanted to get back to the Evie and Annie part. I hope there will be more to come in the future as there are things left unanswered.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #TheCutting #blogtour
About the Author
Michael Malone is a prize-winning poet and author who was born and brought up in the heart of Burns’ country. He has published over 200 poems in literary magazines throughout the UK, including New Writing Scotland, Poetry Scotland and Markings. Blood Tears, his bestselling debut novel won the Pitlochry Prize from the Scottish Association of Writers.
His dark psychological thriller, A Suitable Lie, was a number-one bestseller, and is currently in production for the screen, and five powerful standalone thrillers followed suit. The Murmurs and The Torments, first in the Annie Jackson Mysteries series, were published to critical acclaim in 2023. A former Regional Sales Manager (Faber) he has also worked as an IFA and a bookseller. Michael lives in Ayr, where he also works as a hypnotherapist.
About Orenda Books
Orenda Books is a small independent publishing company specialising in literary fiction with a heavy emphasis on crime/thrillers, and approximately half the list in translation. They’ve been twice shortlisted for the Nick Robinson Best Newcomer Award at the IPG awards, and publisher and owner Karen Sullivan was a Bookseller Rising Star in 2016. In 2018, they were awarded a prestigious Creative Europe grant for their translated books programme. Three authors, including Agnes Ravatn, Matt Wesolowski and Amanda Jennings have been WHSmith Fresh Talent picks, and Ravatn’s The Bird Tribunal was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award, won an English PEN Translation Award, and adapted for BBC Radio Four ’s Book at Bedtime. Six titles have been short- or long-listed for the CWA Daggers. Launched in 2014 with a mission to bring more international literature to the UK market, Orenda Books publishes a host of debuts, many of which have gone on to sell millions worldwide, and looks for fresh, exciting new voices that push the genre in new directions. Bestselling authors include Ragnar Jonasson, Antti Tuomainen, Gunnar Staalesen, Michael J. Malone, Kjell Ola Dahl, Louise Beech, Johana Gustawsson, Lilja Sigurðardóttir and Sarah Stovell.
+ crime fiction, folklore, gothic, Gothic mystery, grief, Historical fiction, humour fiction, Iceland, Iceland noir, Ireland, List, murder mystery, mystery, political thriller, politics, Scandi noir, superstition, thriller, witchcraft
My Top 10 Books of 2026 – Part Three
Here are ten of my favourite books of 2026 Part Three, excluding audiobooks, of which there are loads so far. As usual a disparate selection, with a fair bit of superstition thrown in, and my usual Gothic, plus Iceland, Ireland and politics.
Where Are The Kings by Donal Ryan
What a remarkable book this is. Ryan deals with suicide and mental health in such a sympathetic way. The writing is sublime and all the characters from fourteen-year-old Jack (he’s twelve at the beginning of the book), to his uncles Theo and Haulie, uncle JJ (who is only two years older than Jack but has learning difficulties), his grandparents and his Auntie Rose. Jack fantasises about Rose, but then she’s beautiful and he’s a hormonal teenager. She is still his Mam’s sister however.
I felt really sorry for Jack’s father, Tom. I thought that there was a tiny bit of blame placed on him just because he’s an immigrant. Almost as if no-one is surprised he went a bit doolally. After all, he’s from Czechoslovakia. I know, because my parents emigrated from Eastern Europe during the war. Maybe that’s why Where Are The Kings resonated with me more than Heart Be At Peace. It’s also unusual for the father to be institutionalised for mental illness, rather than the mother. Women were usually the ones treated for their ‘nerves’.
For my full review click here
The Kill Switch by Robert Peston
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?
For my full review click here
Buyer Beware by Catherine Ryan Howard
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.
For my full review click here
The Cartography Of What Remains by Eva Schep
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.
For my full review click here
Day Of Wrath by Otho Eskin
Day of Wrath is going straight to the top of my favourite books of 2026 Part Three. Maybe even make my favourite books of the year. I adored it. I read it in two days. I love that it’s fast-paced, hard-hitting, filled with dark humour in Zorn’s musings and conversations, and entertaining. The relationship between homicide detective Marko Zorn and potty-mouthed partner Saoirse, who no-one wants to work with, is brilliant.
While Day of Wrath may not win any prizes for its poetic beauty, it packs the kind of punch that could knock you off your feet. First of all we have Cardinal Archbishop of Washington, Vincent Holmes, lying dead in the Cathedral, a Tarot card in his hand. There were two witnesses, a soppy nun-novitiate and a homeless man with a facial scar. What did they see?
For my full review click here
They Can’t Burn Us All by Cathryn Kemp
There is a horrifying chapter in this book that will probably haunt me forever, and it’s mentioned at least three times. But setting that aside, I thought They Can’t Burn Us All was amazing, wonderfully written and immaculately researched. I’ve read a lot of novels set in Iceland from modern Scandi noir to a book about Scottish women in the 1800s sent there to repent their sins.
But this is set 200 years earlier, during the sweeping witch hunts that took place all over Europe, except in Iceland it was different. Elsewhere, witches were almost all women, with almost 60,000 being put to death for witchcraft. In Iceland, they were all men. Women were not educated, most couldn’t read or write, so were deemed incapable of being witches and casting spells and curses.
For my full review click here
You’ll Be Sorry by Lisa Gardner
Thirty years ago, an entire family the Dixons – mum, dad and their four young children – vanished without a trace. The house was left as if they’d just gone for a walk, with no clues apart from three sets of bloody footprints. Police Chief Grady was obsessed with finding out what happened that night, and never gave up until the day he died.
Now his daughter, Amanda Grady, newly appointed police chief of small town Shereford, has taken up her father’s mantle, because finally the house has been purchased by Theo and Raquel Collins, who intend to ‘do it up’ maybe turning it into a guest house. Though who would want to stay there is anyone’s guess.
For my full review click here
The Hidden Library by Sharon Gosling
Until I’d finished this book, I didn’t realise that this isn’t the first time I’ve read this author. I read The Forgotten Garden two years ago. In fact I was on the blog tour and it was one of my favourite books of the year.
The Hidden Library is probably a bit too ‘romancy’ for me and I would have liked a more sinister, Gothic element. Maybe hidden skeletons buried in the walls (you’ll know where I mean when you get to it), whispering galleries and warnings written in condensation on the mirror. But I still read it in two sittings and couldn’t wait to turn the pages. If I was on holiday I’d probably have read it in one go.
For my full review click here
The Last Tenant by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir
I think of all the books I’ve read by this author – six including The Last Tenant – this is my favourite (just overtaking The Creak On The Stairs). I’m not sure why, maybe it’s just the idea of the unknown woman and the baby buried where no-one would find them – till now. It was very sad, even more so when we discover who they are.
Single mother Karitas and her four-year old son Bessi have just moved to Akranes and taken a basement flat in the home of a strange elderly man called Baldvin. She finds him unnerving and creepy, but her son seems to really like him. He tells her that she is one of three ‘suns’ in his life, one of which is his daughter. It’s in their names.
For my full review click here
Confessions Of A Crime Writer by Louise Mangos
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.
For my full review click here
+ family, family drama, fiction, gothic, gothic horror, Gothic mystery, grief, lies, mental illness, review, secrets, siblings, sisters
The Hollow Garden by Natalie Grace Lewis
Seventeen years ago, Kyra Masters fled the Hollow Garden and never looked back.
Haunted by fragmented memories of her friend Eleanor’s death and the events that followed, she has spent years trying to build a life far from the estate that shattered her family and left her questioning her own mind.
Following her aunt’s death, Kyra unexpectedly inherits the Hollow Garden. A sprawling Victorian graveyard of crumbling mausoleums, ruined monuments, and paths tangled with the rare Night Ivy that has grown there for generations.
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The place she returns to is not the one she remembers. Time has transformed it into something stranger, its shadows heavy with secrets long hidden behind graves and mausoleum. Family resentments linger, and an old flame is unwilling to let the past remain buried.
As old memories begin to surface, Kyra is forced to confront the tragedy she has spent years trying to forget. What really happened on the night Eleanor died? And why have those around her worked so hard to bury the truth?
The estate was never meant to be hers.
And the Hollow Garden has a will of its own.
My Review
When I began reading, nothing much seemed to be happening. Kyra has had to return to the home she fled after her friend Eleanor died seventeen years ago and Krya was locked up in a mental hospital. This was a slow burn for sure. No problem, because I knew it was going to be good. Atmospheric. Gothic.
Kyra has had to return to discover why her Aunt Magda, who had recently died, has left everything to her. Kyra’s sister Dana is hostile. As the eldest she believes the estate – the crumbling old house, the Hollow Garden, the cemetery and everything that goes with it – should be hers. Her father (Kyra’s step-father) is even worse. He wants everyone to believe that Kyra is mad.
In the gatehouse Kyra’s ex-boyfriend Priory lives with his two sisters, the youngest of which is nine-year-old Celine, an interesting child, wilful and almost feral. She was my favourite character.
And now it was starting get interesting. Krya doesn’t believe Magda died of natural causes, and others seem to be getting sick. But no-one wants to believe her. The pace began to accelerate and by the end I was breathless trying to keep up. An excellent story once it got going, with lost of twists, turns and some well-written, unlikable characters as well as likeable ones including Kyra, Priory and of course, Celine.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #TheHollowGarden #blogtour
About the Author
Natalie Grace Lewis is a British author of contemporary Gothic fiction. Her work combines haunting settings, family secrets, and supernatural elements to explore memory, loss, and the stories we inherit. Drawn to historic cemeteries, ruined churches, and forgotten corners of the past, she writes about inheritance, grief, identity, and the uneasy relationship between memory and truth.
Her debut novel, The Hollow Garden, is a contemporary Gothic novel set within a decaying Victorian graveyard, where old tragedies refuse to remain at rest.
When Natalie isn’t writing, she can usually be found wandering historic graveyards, visiting old bookshops, or planning her next research trip.
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Tiktok: @thehollowgardennovel
Website: www.nataliegracelewis.co.uk
Helsinki, 1982. Recently divorced postal worker Ilmari Nieminen has promised his daughter a piano for Christmas, but with six days to go – and no money – he’s desperate.
A last-minute job offers a solution: transport a valuable antique sofa to Kilpisjärvi, the northernmost town in Finland.
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With the sofa secured in the back of his van, Ilmari stops at a gas station, and an old friend turns up, offering to fix his faulty wipers, on the condition that he tags along. Soon after, a persistent Saab 96 appears in the rearview mirror. And then a bright-yellow Lada.
That’s when Ilmari realises that he is transporting something truly special.
And that’s when Ilmari realises he might be in serious trouble…
My Review
I love that the ‘heroes’ of the author’s books all have mundane jobs. In The Adventure Park trilogy, our intrepid hero Henri Koskinen was an actuary, who had inherited the YouMeFun theme park with all the drama that ensued. Not a spy, or a detective, or a brain surgeon, but basically an accountant. Then in The Burning Stones, Anni Korpinen sold saunas. And not even the whole flaming thing, just the stove.
In The Winter Job, it’s 1982 when we meet postal worker Ilmari Nieminen. There’s nothing special about him. Recently divorced, he wants to buy his daughter a piano for Christmas, but he doesn’t have enough money, so he agrees to deliver a sofa to Kilpisjärvi, the northernmost town in Finland. The sofa is admittedly a valuable antique, but surely it’s not valuable enough for the chase that follows.
Firstly, there’s the Lada, a really old-fashioned looking car made in the Soviet Union. It came in a variety of colours, including a bright lemon yellow. Driven by two mismatched communists, Anneli and Erkki, they want to use the sofa to raise money for their cause. But they are also being pursued by crazy Otto in his Saab 96, who has a different agenda. What does he know that they don’t? Something crucial of course. And don’t get in his way if you want to stay alive. Ilmari teams up with his old school friend Antero, but can he trust him? Or does Antero have his own agenda?
It’s often very dark, very gruesome, and very funny, all at the same time. And the method of killing the man who stole his leather jacket at a party is almost as bad as the first murder in The Burning Stones, which will remain branded on my memory for years to come. Antti Tuomainen’s books are unique in their humour and weirdness – once read, never forgotten. And again, the translation is perfectly seamless.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
About the Author
Finnish Antti Tuomainen was an award-winning copywriter when he made his literary debut in 2007 as a suspense author. In 2011, his third novel, The Healer, was awarded the Clue Award for Best Finnish Crime Novel and shortlisted for the Glass Key Award. With a piercing and evocative style, Tuomainen was one of the first to challenge the Scandinavian crime-genre formula, and his poignant, dark and hilarious The Man Who Died became an international bestseller, shortlisting for the Petrona and Last Laugh Awards and now a Finnish TV series. Palm Beach, Finland (2018) and Little Siberia (2019) were shortlisted for the Capital Crime/Amazon Publishing Readers Awards, the Last Laugh Award and the CWA International Dagger, and won the Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel. The Rabbit Factor, the first book in the trilogy will soon be a major motion picture starring Steve Carell for Amazon Studios, and the first two books were international bestsellers. Antti lives in Helsinki with his wife.
About Orenda Books
Orenda Books is a small independent publishing company specialising in literary fiction with a heavy emphasis on crime/thrillers, and approximately half the list in translation. They’ve been twice shortlisted for the Nick Robinson Best Newcomer Award at the IPG awards, and publisher and owner Karen Sullivan was a Bookseller Rising Star in 2016. In 2018, they were awarded a prestigious Creative Europe grant for their translated books programme. Three authors, including Agnes Ravatn, Matt Wesolowski and Amanda Jennings have been WHSmith Fresh Talent picks, and Ravatn’s The Bird Tribunal was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award, won an English PEN Translation Award, and adapted for BBC Radio Four ’s Book at Bedtime. Six titles have been short- or long-listed for the CWA Daggers. Launched in 2014 with a mission to bring more international literature to the UK market, Orenda Books publishes a host of debuts, many of which have gone on to sell millions worldwide, and looks for fresh, exciting new voices that push the genre in new directions. Bestselling authors include Ragnar Jonasson, Antti Tuomainen, Gunnar Staalesen, Michael J. Malone, Kjell Ola Dahl, Louise Beech, Johana Gustawsson, Lilja Sigurðardóttir and Sarah Stovell.
2026 has been a good year for audiobooks, so once again I am giving them their own post.
I could have chosen all of them to be honest, but I only pick four each time.
The Mourning Necklace by Kate Foster
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.
For my full review click here
Shibby Magee by Carrie Kabak
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.
For my full review click here
The Beholders by Hester Musson
I never expected to love this as much as I did. I had never heard of this author, but Gothic is my favourite genre.
When the old lady that housemaid Harriett looks after is dying, she asks her to take care of Clara, wife of popular Liberal MP Ralph Gethin at Finton Hall. But all is not as it seems. While Gethin is considered to be a good man, looking after the poor and needy, even destined for the top job, he is in fact a monster. He is cruel to his wife and allows all sorts of unsavoury things to go on in the house.
Of course no-one would believe Clara, who is considered to be unstable. She doesn’t even appear to care for their baby son Edward. But Clara has an agenda and it involves Harriett, but it could put both of them in mortal danger.
For my full review click here
The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-Robinson
This is not my first book by this author – I read Daughters of Night in February 2021 – I had completely forgotten. But The Square of Sevens is in a different league. One of my favourite books of the year, it is so cleverly plotted, it literally took my breath away.
Set in London, Bath, Devon and Cornwall, our main character, simply known as Red, is initially a child of eight or nine, travelling with her father ‘making a living predicting fortunes using the ancient Cornish method of ‘The Square of Sevens’.** Red can already read the cards and they are getting along nicely until her father dies and she is taken in by Robert Antrobus, who is fascinated by all things scholarly. It is here that Red becomes a lady, now known as Rachel Antrobus.
For my full review click here
+ 1980s, abuse, audio book, audio drama, child abuse, fiction, lies, review, secrets
An American Tragedy by Dan Flanigan – Peter O’Keefe Crime series
A nation in panic. A teacher accused. O’Keefe steps into the storm.
During the 1988 Satanic Panic, fear is a weapon—and justice is on trial.
The summer of 1988 is boiling with hysteria. Across America, accusations of hidden cults and ritual crimes are destroying reputations, families, and lives. Peter O’Keefe wants nothing more than to stabilize his PI agency and rebuild trust with his daughter. But when her favorite teacher, Miss Ginny, is charged with unspeakable crimes, everything changes.
From the first moment O’Keefe hears the case, he senses the truth has been drowned out by fear. Evidence is thin. Allegations shift. And the figures driving the prosecution—shadowy child-protection zealots—are more interested in convictions than justice.
Audiobook Bookstagram Tour: 24th Sept – 3rd Oct
Genre: Crime | Mystery | Thriller
Length: 12 hours 23 minutes
Taking the case means stepping into a political firestorm. It means risking the fragile progress he’s made with his daughter. And it means standing almost alone against a culture consumed by paranoia.
As O’Keefe digs deeper, he uncovers manipulated testimonies, hidden agendas, and a system buckling under public pressure. The closer he gets to exposing the truth, the more dangerous the case becomes—for Miss Ginny, for the children, and for O’Keefe himself.
In a nation blinded by fear, one man must decide what justice is worth—and who he’s willing to become to defend it.
Meet Peter O’Keefe—scarred, relentless, and a hero for our times.
My Review
I can’t stop thinking about this book. It really hit me in the gut. And my children being of a similar age as the ‘victims’ (four and two in 1988), I struggle to imagine the way they were interrogated by the so-called child protection agents, and even by their own parents.
“Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth”, is a law of propaganda often attributed to the Nazi Joseph Goebbels. Among psychologists something like this is known as the “illusion of truth” effect. And we are talking about adults regardless of education, intelligence or background. And the child protection agents are similar to the propagandists.
Children as young as four or five have no idea about the kind of atrocities they were supposed to have been subjected to. But if you tell them enough times that it did, and shame them into believing they are stupid, unfair to their friends, or repressing the truth if they don’t remember, then what do you have but coercion and another form of child abuse? The use of anatomically correct dolls and puppets was used to show the children what supposedly happened. Some of it appears so outlandish that it makes you wonder how the parents fell for it.
But this was the ‘satanic panic’ (or moral panic) of the late 1980s referred to in the book. It almost took hold in the UK, but I was not aware of it at the time. You only have to look at current politics in the US to see how certain things can take hold almost to the point of hysteria, and then come over here. I’m just not sure we are quite so easily deluded – apologies to our friends over the pond. Maybe it’s more to do with apathy than anything else.
I can’t say I ‘enjoyed’ the book, because it’s not the sort of book you can enjoy as such. It made me sad, angry and ultimately frustrated. I so wanted a positive outcome, I wanted it not to have happened, but this was a story about the truth, not some Hollywood, happy-ever-after, sugary slop.
And please be aware that some of the details were extremely unsavoury and hard to read. But don’t give up – it’s well worth sticking with it.
Many thanks to @lovebookstours for inviting me to be part of the #AnAmericanTragedy audiobook tour.
About the Author
Dan Flanigan is an award-winning novelist, playwright, poet, and former attorney. Holding a PhD in History and a JD, he enjoyed a distinguished legal career specialising in civil rights and financial law before turning his lifelong passion for creative writing into a full-time pursuit.
Since 2019, Dan has published four novels in his acclaimed Peter O’Keefe detective series, along with a poetry collection, Tenebrae: A Memoir of Love and Death, and a collection of short fiction, Dewdrops. He has also written several stage plays and continues to champion child protection through his work on the Board of Directors of Childhood USA, the US arm of the World Childhood Foundation.
Dan divides his time between Kansas City, New York, and Los Angeles, while finding inspiration in the natural beauty of the Catskills, the San Juan Islands, and British Columbia.
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When the remains of a young woman and a baby are uncovered on a derelict farm, Detective Elma is drawn into a disturbing investigation, as a young mother settling in Akranes realises danger may be closer than she ever expected… The multi-award-winning, international bestselling Forbidden Iceland series continues…
`She uses complex plots to explore how monsters are made and demonstrate that “evil can lurk behind the most attractive of smiles”. Her many characters are people not puppets and she delights in pulling the rug from under their –and our – feet. If you have never read Aegisdottir, now is the time to start´ Mark Sanderson, The Times
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When the skeletons of a young woman and a baby are uncovered on a long-abandoned farm in Hvalfjörður, it is clear they were buried years apart. West Iceland CID begins to investigate the disturbing discovery, aware that someone has gone to great lengths to keep the past hidden.
In Akranes, Karitas, a young single mother seeking a new start, settles in with her four-year-old son and rents a basement flat from an eccentric landlord. A cautious sense of happiness returns when she meets the boy next door.
But when news breaks that a local girl has been murdered, Karitas must decide who she can trust, knowing that one wrong choice could place her and her child in danger. Detective Elma is drawn into the case, forced to navigate long-hidden family secrets to understand a killer’s motive, while trying to hold together her increasingly troubled relationship with Sævar.
Dark, atmospheric and rich with psychological suspense, The Last Tenant confirms Eva Björg Ægisdóttir as one of Iceland’s finest crime writers, as a meticulous investigation and a series of unsettling discoveries draw a close-knit community towards a reckoning no one can escape…
My Review
I think of all the books I’ve read by this author – six including The Last Tenant – this is my favourite (just overtaking The Creak On The Stairs). I’m not sure why, maybe it’s just the idea of the unknown woman and the baby buried where no-one would find them – till now. It was very sad, even more so when we discover who they are.
Single mother Karitas and her four-year old son Bessi have just moved to Akranes and taken a basement flat in the home of a strange elderly man called Baldvin. She finds him unnerving and creepy, but her son seems to really like him. He tells her that she is one of three ‘suns’ in his life, one of which is his daughter. It’s in their names.
Soon Karitas meets a young man called Kristófer, with whom she tentatively begins a ‘relationship’. He lives next door with his father Hermann and young wife Rós. Hermann owns a pharmacy where Rós also works and they are pretty well off.
In the meantime Detective Elma has been in a relationship with one of her colleagues Sævar, and they are still together, now with a toddler in tow. Her boss Hörður is still on the scene, though he doesn’t figure that much in this latest story. Elma is investigating the discovery of the bodies, as well as the disappearance six years ago of a young woman named Sólrún, believed to have taken her own life.
This was a fantastic book with so many nasty and suspicious characters going back to the 1960s and 1970s, and linked to the abandoned farm in Hvalfjörður where the bodies were found. And just when you think you’ve solved the mystery, everything changes and you have to start again. So cleverly plotted, I just adored it. More from this author please.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #TheLastTenant #blogtour
About the Author
Born in Akranes, Eva Björg Ægisdóttir studied for an MSc in Globalisation in Norway before returning to Iceland and deciding to write a novel. Her debut, The Creak on the Stairs, was published in 2018, becoming a bestseller in Iceland and going on to win the Blackbird Award and the Storytel Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year. It was published in English by Orenda Books in 2020, and became a number-one bestseller in ebook, shortlisting for Capital Crime’s Amazon Publishing Awards in two categories, and winning the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger. Girls Who Lie, Night Shadows, You Can’t See Me and Boys Who Hurt soon followed suit, shortlisting for the CWA Crime in Translation Dagger, the Capital Crime Awards, and the Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel. You Can’t See Me won the Storytel Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year in Iceland in 2023. In 2024, Eva won Iceland’s prestigious Crime Fiction Award, the Blood Drop, for Home before Dark and was shortlisted for the coveted Glass Key. The Forbidden Iceland series has established Eva as one of Iceland’s bestselling and most distinguished crime writers, and her books are published in eighteen languages with more than a million copies sold.
Follow her on @evaaegisdottir
About Orenda Books
Orenda Books is a small independent publishing company specialising in literary fiction with a heavy emphasis on crime/thrillers, and approximately half the list in translation. They’ve been twice shortlisted for the Nick Robinson Best Newcomer Award at the IPG awards, and publisher and owner Karen Sullivan was a Bookseller Rising Star in 2016. In 2018, they were awarded a prestigious Creative Europe grant for their translated books programme. Three authors, including Agnes Ravatn, Matt Wesolowski and Amanda Jennings have been WHSmith Fresh Talent picks, and Ravatn’s The Bird Tribunal was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award, won an English PEN Translation Award, and adapted for BBC Radio Four ’s Book at Bedtime. Six titles have been short- or long-listed for the CWA Daggers. Launched in 2014 with a mission to bring more international literature to the UK market, Orenda Books publishes a host of debuts, many of which have gone on to sell millions worldwide, and looks for fresh, exciting new voices that push the genre in new directions. Bestselling authors include Ragnar Jonasson, Antti Tuomainen, Gunnar Staalesen, Michael J. Malone, Kjell Ola Dahl, Louise Beech, Johana Gustawsson, Lilja Sigurðardóttir and Sarah Stovell.
Honey is no ordinary Labrador pup – she’s a dog with a mission!
She’s worried about planet Earth and wants to be green, but there are limits to what a dog can achieve, especially when her best pal Jimmy the Poodle gets involved.
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Join these mischievous eco-warriors with waggy tails as they try their best to save the planet one paw print at a time!
My Review
I don’t often give 5 stars to children’s picture books, but this one deserves every star. It’s not just that the illustrations are so cute and fun, it’s also that the subject matter is relevant and important, and younger children (and hopefully mums and dads) will relate to it.
Honey is a canine eco-warrior, a doggy Greta Thunberg. Honey isn’t quite the same level of environmental activist as Greta – she’s a dog at the end of the day – but she can still do her bit, as we all can if we follow her lead (no pun intended).
Look, she can even read the newspaper. There’s a climate crisis and Honey knows what to do, even if it includes shredding the paper with the help of her friend Jimmy the Poodle. OK, so I admit I made up the bit about reading the newspaper, but you know what I mean.
There are so many things we can all do to help, including switching off all unnecessary lights when we go to bed and Honey turns them off if the adults have forgotten. My dog Patch is too small to reach or I’m sure she’d do the same. She doesn’t chew shoes though which is a plus but she hates plastic and chews it to bits. A good reason for avoiding plastic whenever we can.
I loved this book and can’t wait to read it to my granddaughters next time they come to stay and to Patch so she can be an eco-warrior too.
Many thanks to #HyggeBookTours for inviting me to be part of the #HoneysHelpfulHints #blogtour.
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Meet the Illustrator
Book Links/Buy Links
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com
Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk
