When Caroline Alleyn inherits Wickham Grange, all she wants to do is sell up.
There are bad memories there, linked to her childhood as the daughter of a single mother – and to all the other mothers she knew in that house. But her grandmother Frances’s will means that it can’t be sold without the consent of five elderly women, and they all refuse. None of them will tell her why she has to keep a house she doesn’t want. Instead, she is given a stark warning: don’t look for Lizzie Sixpence.
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Though Caroline has other worries. Someone is watching her; the house’s elderly tenants are lying to her; and an old man is hoarding mementos of her past.
Then she finds the bones.
And Caroline is left with a choice: keep silent, or betray everything her grandmother stood for. Because there is one final secret to be revealed…
My Review
I almost didn’t read this but I’m so glad I did! I loved it from start to finish. It takes place in two timelines – 2006 when Caroline Alleyn’s beloved grandmother Frances has just died and Caroline has inherited Wickham Grange, and just after the war when we learn the history of the residents and why a group of five women all left on the same day in 1947. Unfortunately for Caroline, she is not allowed to sell the Grange without the permission of those women.
If they are still alive – they would be pretty old by now – Caroline needs to contact them. But when she does get hold of the women, she is met with outright hostility. The answer is a definite no. What is it they don’t want her to discover? She is told not to look for Lizzie Sixpence, the one Frances had said she couldn’t save. And the elderly residents of Wickham Grange, including Mr Harris, are also hiding something. And then she finds the bones…
As Caroline looks through her grandmother’s belongings, she finds a number of interesting things, but why are some personal items, including her own graduation photo, in Mr Harris’s desk drawer?
As we go back and forth, the story begins to unravel in ways that I could never have dreamt of, and becomes more complicated and sinister at times. It appears that the women and the residents are hiding secrets that Caroline could not have imagined.
The book is set near Bromley, just outside West Wickham, an area I know well as my son lived there for a number of years. I love reading about familiar places in stories.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
About the Author
Zoe has worked in education services for nearly 25 years, but her heart has always been in writing. When she’s not working, she enjoys baking, collecting antiques, and gardening. She is also slowly decorating and furnishing a large dolls’ house. Originally from Medway, she has a grown-up son and now lives in London with her husband and their enormous dog.
You can find Zoe here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zoemanlowbooks/
Website: https://bedfordsquarepublishers.co.uk/book-author/zoe-manlow/
Sometimes things are not as they appear, especially when religion, magic, and shady dealings mix.
It’s 1908, and itinerant spirit medium Madame Ilsa von Hoffmann is at the end of her professional rope, facing down two unappealing options: join an ill-conceived commune founded by some fellow trans ex-vaudevillians, or take on a high-paying but mysterious job offered by a religious extremist in Salt Lake City. Madame Ilsa opts for Utah and the employ of one Roger Marsh who, it turns out, wants her to summon the ghost of Joseph Smith, Mormonism’s founder, to give his blessing to Marsh’s fledgling offshoot of the mainstream church.
Unsure how she’ll pull off this near-impossible task, Ilsa finds an ally in Francie Bream, an East Coast journalist in town to profile Mormon women at the dawn of the twentieth century. Bream’s motives remain obscure to Ilsa, though she begins to suspect the journalist has an agenda far more sinister than she could have imagined. Complicating the situation further are an inept and volatile henchman, a relentlessly orthodox Mormon apostle, a copper magnate with a fetish for polygamists, Marsh’s rogue third wife, and a vengeful private investigator from Ilsa’s past. As dead bodies accumulate around her, Madame Ilsa worries less and less about saving her career, and more about making it out of Salt Lake City alive.
My Review
Three of the things I love best in a book – religion, magic, and shady dealings. Add to that a medium, seances and murder, all wrapped up in a Gothic mystery, and you have the perfect recipe for my favourite literary concoction.
The year is 1908, and our main character, Madame Ilsa von Hoffmann, a spiritualist medium, has fallen on hard times. Then she is hired by Roger Marsh, a Mormon elder who has been excommunicated by the church for refusing to accept that polygamy is no longer legal. He has three wives. He wants Ilsa to raise the spirit of Joseph Smith, who founded the Mormon religion. But is Ilsa a fraud?
I once attended a ‘seance’ for a podcast, where we learnt how it was all done including why it was always dark and attendees stayed together round the table. Mediums kept props in their dresses, in pockets or sewn into the lining. The seance scene later in the book is a triumph, absolutely brilliant.
I just LOVED this book. The characters, the setting, the mystery. Each of the main characters is richly drawn and has their own story. My favourite was probably journalist Francie Bream, who is writing an article on Mormon women, but appears to have a more sinister agenda.
Incidentally, the title of the book is taken from a Mormon dime novel and yes, that really was a thing. Like a Victorian Mills & Boon.
About the Author
T.I.M. Wirkus (they/them) is the author of the novels The Infinite Future and City of Brick and Shadow. Their novella, Sandy Downs, won the 2013 Quarterly West novella contest. Their short fiction has appeared in The Best American Non-Required Reading and elsewhere. They hold a PhD in creative writing and literature from the University of Southern California.
A Bad Deal in Mormon Land is their third novel.
+ fiction, gothic, Gothic mystery, Historical fiction, history, Italy, murder, revenge, review, Venice
Dangerous by Essie Fox out now in paperback
Fiction can be fatal…
Living in exile in Venice, the disgraced Lord Byron revels in the freedoms of the city. But when he is associated with the deaths of local women, found with wounds to their throats, and then a novel called The Vampyre is published under his name, rumours begin to spread that Byron may be the murderer…
Genre: Gothic Historical Crime Thriller
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As events escalate and tensions rise – and his own life is endangered, as well as those he holds most dear – Byron is forced to play detective, to discover who is really behind these heinous crimes. Meanwhile, the scandals of his own infamous past come back to haunt him…
Rich in Gothic atmosphere and drawing on real events and characters from Byron’s life, Dangerous is a riveting, dazzling historical thriller, as decadent, dark and seductive as the poet himself…
My Review
Once I’d finished the book and read the historical context at the end about the real characters and the fictional ones, I went online and did my own research. I never realised Byron was the father of Ada Lovelace or that Polidori’s sister was the mother of Christina and Dante Gabriele Rosetti (the latter of which I was a bit obsessed with after watching the TV programme Desperate Romantics in 2009). Polidori is also an interesting character, I’ve researched him as well. Polidori’s father worked as a secretary for the ‘tragic’ Italian playwright Count Vittorio Alfieri.
Dangerous is a very entertaining read, though Lord Byron is hard to like. He is ultimately a selfish, self-absorbed, narcissistic philanderer. He spreads it about without consequence, but the one that upset me the most was his poor little daughter Allegra (her fate is well documented though I won’t print a ‘spoiler’ – you can look it up). And I did worry about the menagerie, especially Mutz the dog (again real and well documented).
When a prostitute is murdered in the street and then another is found dead in Byron’s bed at a brothel, the fingers point at him as he was there on both occasions. But is he a murderer or is he being framed? And why would anyone wish to discredit him? I could probably give a few reasons, his treatment of his ‘women’ being one, or being named as the author of Polidori’s The Vampyre. But nothing is ever that simple and we have a long way to go before the web is untangled.
I think it’s the mix of fact and fiction that makes this book so interesting. I hope Netflix (other production companies are available) will take it up as it would make a fantastic series. And who wouldn’t want to play Lord Byron?
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
About the Author
Essie Fox was born and raised in rural Herefordshire, which inspires much of her writing. After studying English Literature at Sheffield University, she moved to London where she worked for the Telegraph Sunday Magazine, and then book publishers George Allen & Unwin, before becoming self-employed in the world of art and design. Essie now spends her time writing historical Gothic novels. Her debut, The Somnambulist, was shortlisted for the National Book Awards, and featured on Channel 4’s TV Book Club. The Last Days of Leda Grey, set in the early years of silent film, was selected as The Times Historical Book of the Month. Essie’s Victorian Gothic novel, The Fascination, debuted at number 10 on the Sunday Times bestseller list, and was widely acclaimed. Essie is also the creator of the popular blog: The Virtual Victorian. She has lectured on this era at the V&A, and the National Gallery in London. She lives in Windsor.
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.
You can change your name. Change your life. But someone knows exactly who you are.
Twenty years ago, Mason Tucker was tried and convicted as the teenager who helped lure young boys to the serial killer known as the Pied Piper of Peasedale. After serving his twenty-year sentence, Mason is freed and hopes to remain invisible while he rebuilds his life as an adult, hoping to become a man he can be proud of. A new town, a new flat, a new job and a new purpose.
But living with secrets is challenging, and protecting his anonymity, the woman who stood beside him, and her child becomes impossible when the past pushes back. Hard. Within days of his release, Mason suspects he’s being stalked. He’s threatened and twice attacked.
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He never imagined being outside would be more dangerous than being in prison. The police aren’t an option. One headline will destroy him.
Someone wants him punished, not redeemed, and as danger closes in, you will never suspect where the next threat comes from.
My Review
I think my only issue with the third book in the series is that it is written entirely from the point of view of Mason Tucker, known ‘as the teenager who helped lure young boys to the serial killer known as the Pied Piper of Peasedale’. Initially he is drawn in because the killer threatens to kill his mum if he doesn’t help him procure his victims. But the question is how far would you go to protect someone?
In Mason’s position, I think most people – even a child – would go straight to their mum, tell her what’s going on, and go together to the police. Report the weirdo and ask for protection. But then Mason is different and it started with the rabbit.
So is he fundamentally evil? If you’ve read The Other Mother you will know what happened to his sister Lily. His behaviour then was already not normal.
I have to say I can’t warm to him or forgive him. And I don’t like Shiv either. I think she is manipulative. Having married, had a son Pip, separated from her husband, and waited 20 years for Mason to be released from prison, you would think she would want to distance herself from all of it for the sake of her son. He’s also not very nice, but who can blame him.
And then there’s neighbour Kenny. Yes, he has an alcoholic, useless mother, and dreadful stepfather who beats him, but the last thing Mason should do is befriend a teenage boy, not with his history.
But I really enjoyed the book, in spite of everything I’ve just said. It’s been a great series and I would read another chapter, but I’m not sure there is anyone left!
Many thanks to @ZooloosBT for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the Author
Heidi Field was raised in the beautiful countryside of the South of England with her parents and her two sisters. In her twenties she was a freelance Sports Massage Therapist. She achieved a Degree in Zoology at the age of thirty and then went on to raise two boys and became the stepmother of three more young children. She still lives near her family home with her partner, their Great Dane and the children that have yet to fly the nest.
In her early forties Heidi completed a Masters in Creative Writing at Winchester University. She entered the course hoping she would become a children’s fantasy writer and left with a burning desire to write contemporary mysteries and thrillers. Heidi wanted to put relatable people in extraordinary situations, challenge them, push them to their limits and watch them fight for their sanity.
Where can you find her?
Social Media Handles
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heidi.field.75/
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Website: https://heidifield.co.uk/
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Purchase Links:
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Fox Argall looks like a hero: the handsome, over-educated detective. The past has proved the truth is far different.
On paper, Lieutenant Ellis Cadnon ‘Fox’ Argall, MD, PhD, JD is a hero. He’s handsome, wildly over-educated, eccentric, and adores his wife with epic passion. Fox’s brain is neurospecial, weaving unfiltered webs of complex science with murder and a side of romance through twisty mystery threads. Our compulsive detective drags his ensemble cast on journeys through literal and figurative Florida swamps, where he leaves a trail of irritation everywhere he goes. Well, almost everywhere. He’s very good at a thing or two. Obsession has its benefits.
It’s all exactly his kind of trouble.
In The Ruin of the Watcher, a string of broken children arrive on Fox’s doorstep like offerings, forcing the detective to follow the breadcrumbs to a showdown with an old and dangerous enemy. The last time the two met, Fox ran for his life. This time, it’s not just his life on the line. This time, he can’t run.
The Ruin of the Watcher is the prequel for Fox Argall Mysteries. The books are numbered so the reader can fully appreciate the details of the friendships and failures as they develop, although the books are standalone mysteries and can be read in any order. The Ruin of the Watcher introduces the main cast of characters and their beginnings from the earliest days of their relationships in Columbus, Ohio as young adults. Each subsequent book brings a different murder mystery, always with the main cast, and adds interesting new characters along the way.
My Review
I almost gave up a couple of times. Not because I didn’t enjoy the story, but because much of the dialogue (and the asides in italics) was confusing and I struggled to follow the story around it. All those terms of endearments, the ‘pets’, the ‘darlings’ etc grated on me. And then all the ‘I love yous’ and the hugging and the churchy stuff. And I get he’s Ellis and Fox but why is he also Lad?
Strangely enough, the day I finished the story, I was at my book club and someone asked if I was happy to read a book that was all narrative with no dialogue at all and I wish that applied more here.
I had no problem with Fox being neurodivergent – one of my favourite crime series has a neurodivergent detective (though his autistic characteristics are more recognisable than Fox’s) – it was the writing itself and for that I apologise to the author. I’ve still given it 4 stars because looking at other reviews (most 5 stars), I think it’s more about me, and as I said, the story is very good.
About the Author
Inspired by her own neurodiverse family life, Collings MacCrae wanted to depict autism as it is in real life — complex, human, sometimes isolating, always real — using the framework of a gripping mystery to engage her readers. Her aim was to depict autism as it really is, and not as a cartoon or caricature, and show the real and varied relationships between autists and neurotypicals; how they view each other, how understanding grows, or doesn’t; how finding paths to each other makes life more interesting.
The Ruin of the Watcher is the first book in the series, with three others already also published and the fifth book, Mad Dog Elegy, publishing later this year. The books are compelling and intricate mysteries that have readers hooked with the engaging and emotionally compelling characters.
A candle flickers to life in the window of an old house, every dusk without fail. Rumours in the village speak of disappearances and murder. The recluse who resides there has shunned the world for years.
Is his ritual a vigil? A form of memorial? An apology? Or something more sinister? What happened beyond those locked iron gates, behind the high walls?
Lotte is a lively young girl drawn to the mystery, unperturbed by the warnings, transfixed by the solitary dark figure who stands in the garden and stares at the river. As her teenage unwinds, she resolves to befriend the sad old man and unearth the truth. Driven by her own sense of loss, she seeks answers and exposes a haunted darkness riddled with misconception.
Genre: Murder Mystery
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Fragile Flame by established author Chris Cloake is a novel of deepening intrigue and twisted loyalties. With his usual insight, he explores the intricacies of relationships and the complex need for love and security felt by all.
Don’t hesitate to buy Fragile Flame and follow Lotte’s quest to bring hope where there is only remorse, and by laying to rest the past, shine a light on the future.
My Review
This is a book I found very disturbing. I wish I could have read it with a book club so I could express my feelings which I can’t do in a review without spoilers.
Lotte is a teenage girl of around fifteen or sixteen who is fascinated by the lonely ‘old’ man, Maurice Harrow, who lives alone at Mordant House (how old he is really – we never actually know but I’m guessing no more than sixty). She has heard the rumours that he killed his wife and maybe even his son, but she is determined to discover the truth. Then there’s the ‘curse’. So one day she and her friends find a break in the wall, clamber over and knock on the door.
Mr Harrow tells them they are trespassing, but still invites them in. He is intrigued, particularly by Lotte, and she decides to visit again. They soon become friends and she helps him start sorting his clutter. She is fascinated by his stories, but tells him little of herself. There are many books and diaries, though she feels the diaries are too private to look at.
I was already worried at this point. She is too naive to be suspicious of him but I was. She wants to prove his innocence, but innocent of what?
I loved the dynamic between Lotte and her friends Poppy, Emily, Tim and Harry. They all warn her but she doesn’t listen.
I can’t really say much more without giving too much away, but it’s certainly an interesting read, though be prepared to be shocked. I gasped frequently.
Many thanks to @ZooloosBT for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the Author
Chris Cloake was born in 1964 and began telling stories a couple of years later. He grew up in Kent, England. He is motivated to write by a deep interest in life, particularly the cruel, deeply flawed nature of people contrasted with their incredible creativity and inspiration. The power of the natural world is a common theme in his work as a writer and professional photographer. He lives happily with his wife, two children and a large collection of music, books and board games
Where can you find him?
Social Media Handles
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Purchase Links:
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Brian Beatty’s two passions in life are his art gallery, supported by the wealthy Eddie Battersby, and silent comedy films.
His family knew Stan Laurel, who is Brian’s idol. For all his perceived innocence, Brian is a master at attracting publicity, due to his habit of dressing up in the costumes of silent movie stars.
He seems wholly unaware of the plotting going on around him by two rival gallery owners, Angela Whyte and Ken Woodward, as well as Eddie’s wife, Tina. Angela’s property developer husband, Tony, also has his own interests in Brian’s gallery and contacts a wily hotelier and local councillor to get his hands on the building.
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But as Angela and Ken pursue their separate plans, their relationships begin to unravel, while Tony finds dealing with the council far trickier than he’d anticipated. Despite his reluctance to have his wife run an art gallery, Eddie, after much scheming, comes up with a compromise.
Meanwhile, things intensify further when Brian passes away after a short illness, and two of his friends make a shocking discovery, uncovering what lies inside a locked wooden box.
My Review
This was a very gentle read, rather like the previous novel Late Venetian which I read by this author. The main characters range from kind like gallery owner Brian Beatty, to scheming like the wealthy entrepreneur Eddie Battersby, to downright dodgy like rival gallery owner Ken Woodward. Then we have Angela Whyte, who runs yet another gallery, and her husband, property developer Tony Whyte, plus Ken’s wife the delightful Lollipop.
Brian, who has spent much of his later adult life caring for his father, passes away after a short illness. Everyone wants his gallery and will do anything to get their hands on it, especially if they can make lots of money. One of them is Eddie, whose wife Tina is as dim as a Toc H lamp and I’m being generous. Why can’t she run the gallery – it can’t be that hard – and use her initials as the new name ie the TB Gallery? Heaven help us!
It’s all a bit complicated until you get to know everyone. This is definitely a character-driven story, which I thoroughly enjoyed, but I think you need to be of a certain vintage to appreciate it. Everyone is perfectly written and well drawn in delightful detail. I would definitely read another book by this author.
I almost forgot – what is the significance of the small bowler hat?
Many thanks to @ZooloosBT for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the Author
“Apart from three years studying History of Art and Philosophy at University College London, I have lived my entire life in the North West – born in Warrington, lived and worked in Manchester, and fourteen years ago moved to north Cumbria.
“After several years of freelance arts journalism, I ran a NW-based public relations agency called Lawson Leah in the 1990s, then worked for various organisations in the construction industry, as CEO of Construction for Merseyside Ltd and then Director of the Civil Engineering Contractors’ Association. I have been a guest lecturer on urban regeneration and chaired a housing association for three years, and now work part-time as a consultant.
“I have had articles on a range of topics, including the arts, construction, engineering, housing and economic development published in numerous magazines, as well as poetry and a guidebook to waterway walks in the NW.
“My approach to writing tends to involve identifying a problematic situation and then finding a means of resolving it. I derive particular pleasure from finding the right words to achieve that. I was first inspired to write, as a teenager, after reading The Catcher in the Rye, and latterly find inspiration in the daunting novels of Bellow, Nabokov and Pynchon.”
Where can you find them?
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/guylawson274/
Book Links
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com
Purchase Link: www.amazon.co.uk
Wes Streeting might have ended up in prison rather than in parliament. His maternal grandfather Bill, an unsuccessful armed robber, spent time behind bars, as did his grandmother, who was also a political campaigner.
Brought up on a Stepney council estate, the young Streeting saw his teenage parents struggle to provide for him. In One Boy, Two Bills & A Fry Up he brings to life the poverty, humiliation and incredible struggle for them choosing whether to feed the meter and heat the flat, put carpet on the floor, or food on the table.
Wes Streeting knows it was the help and inspiration he received from the great characters that surrounded him, especially his paternal grandfather (also called Bill), that ultimately set him on the way to Cambridge and then Parliament. He knew he could draw on the strengths in childhood to eventually come out, and to go on and face his now successful struggle with kidney cancer.
This honest, uplifting, affectionate memoir is a tribute to the love and support which set him on his way out of poverty, and informs everything about Wes Streeting’s mission now in politics.
My Review
I never read non-fiction other than in exceptional circumstances. And the last time I read an autobiography / biography / memoir was probably The Moon’s A Balloon about David Niven in 1971. I even had to add new categories and tags to this post.
But Wes Streeting’s remarkable autobiography was chosen as my book club read. I was very worried that it would be a slog but how wrong I was. My husband commented that he’d rather watch paint dry, but I told him it was actually really interesting and I was enjoying it enormously. I became a fan very quickly.
I have to confess that I preferred the first part when he is living in the East End of London fisrtly with his mum and then his dad, regaling us with tales of his maternal granddad being a bank robber and his nan being in prison with Christine Keeler. In fact his grandparents are probably the most interesting characters in the book.
It dipped a bit for me after he graduated from Cambridge University with his various jobs, the NUS and the Council, but then picked up again when he moved into politics proper as a Labour MP, and the rest, as they say, is history.
So before you say you are not interested, that he’s just another of those politicians who don’t care or don’t understand how working class people live, think again. This isn’t just a memoir. It’s a social commentary and might just open your eyes.
About the Author
Wesley Paul William Streeting, born 21 January 1983, is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care since 2024. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Ilford North since 2015.
Brought up in Stepney, Streeting attended Westminster City School. He read history at the University of Cambridge and was president of the Cambridge Students’ Union from 2004 to 2005. He was president of the National Union of Students (NUS) from 2008 to 2010. Streeting also worked for Progress, a Labour Party-related organisation, for a year before working in the public sector. In 2010 he was elected to Redbridge London Borough Council for Labour and became deputy leader of the council in May 2014. Streeting was elected to the House of Commons as MP for Ilford North at the 2015 general election and resigned as the council’s deputy leader before standing down as a councillor in 2018. He was returned to Parliament at both the 2017 and 2019 general elections.
Fifteen years ago, Sunny Hart vanished. Now her sister wants the truth – no matter the cost.
Investigative journalist Rose Hart swore she’d never return to her hometown, the place that stole her sister and shattered her family.
But it’s finally time to lay the ghosts of her past to rest.
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Her fragile peace is shattered when a horrific parcel arrives in the post, followed by a chilling warning beside a dead body. Suddenly, Rose is dragged back into a nightmare she can’t escape.
As she begins to investigate, Rose realises she’s not the only one hunting for answers. Leo Thorn, a forensic pathologist with secrets of his own, and Vinny Strong, a convicted murderer with unfinished business, become unlikely allies.
Together, they step into a labyrinth of long-buried secrets and a history far darker than Rose ever imagined. Someone knows what happened to Sunny, and they’ve waited a very long time to finish what they started.
My Review
I really enjoyed this book but there were times I had to suspend disbelief as it became more and more far-fetched. No-one is who they seem and relationships become very complicated.
Living in Gloucestershire, I immediately connected the serial killers Jim and Peggy Slater with Fred and Rose West, who famously abducted numerous girls who were later discovered under the house at 25 Cromwell Street. Daughter of the killers, Lee Riley, wrote a book about her experience called Growing up at the Murder Manse and on its anniversary crime reporter Rose Hart is writing a piece for the local newspaper, the Hauxley Gazette where she works, having returned to her hometown from a high profile job in London.
In the meantime Vinny Strong is about to be released from prison. While inside she obtained a degree, though to me she seems rather stupid and naive. She can’t wait to see her brother Enzo, but little does she know that tragedy is about to strike.
The story also revolves around the beauty pageants that Rose’s teenage sister Sunny took part in before she disappeared. Her mother was obsessed with Sunny’s success, her father far less so. I found the idea very old-fashioned and rather creepy.
But the part I found a bit far-fetched is the way everyone is connected. There are just too many connections and coincidences for me, and I would have liked to see a bit more hope and redemption.
However, Rose is a great character. She is determined to find out the truth about the disappearance of her sister ‘like a dog with a bone’ someone describes her determination. I think many of us can identify with her in some way, or know someone like her, and I also love the cover, and of course Jimmy the Dachshund.
Many thanks to @ZooloosBT for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the Author
Marrisse Whittaker has been creating characters for all of her working life, travelling far and wide, first as a TV and Film Make-Up Artist. Next as a TV Scriptwriter, creating stories for popular series. But plenty of drama takes place in real-life too and when Marrisse joined forces with her husband, to establish Orion TV, they produced a fascinating range of factual programmes for major broadcasters.
Now, creating a scene is taking on a new meaning for Marrisse as she launches a new career as a novelist writing about the world of crime, having been shortlisted for The Lindisfarne Prize for Outstanding Debut Crime Fiction in 2020.
Where can you find them?
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarrisseWhittakerAuthor
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Book Links
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Purchase Link: www.amazon.co.uk
THE WORDS OF 120 VIDEOS ABOUT THE GREEK GODS AND RELATED STORIES
Mythological Stories from the Classical World
Rupert Stanbury, the author of the Gods Galore fantasy / comedy books about the Greek Gods in the 21st Century, also produces TikTok videos on Greek Mythology.
Greek Gods on TikTok records the words from these videos, appropriately edited, in a written book.
It covers the major Olympian Gods – Zeus, Poseidon and Hades – as well as the Goddesses Athene, Aphrodite and Artemis and many others.
The famous Greek heroes are also introduced – Perseus taking on the Gorgon Medusa, Theseus fighting the Minotaur, and Jason claiming the Golden Fleece. We also meet many of the participants in the Trojan Wars – Helen, Achilles and Odysseus – and finally Hercules, perhaps the most famous hero of all!
My Review
When I studied Greek Mythology at school it was never this funny. It was all very serious. The way the author has told the stories is at times hilarious – my favourite being the tale of poor Io. When Hera suspects that husband Zeus had been chasing the beautiful nymph, even turning day into night so Io would get lost and he could catch up with her, she turned Io into a cow. Zeus then gave Hera the cow. A distressed Io roamed around. She could no longer speak, and all she could say was ‘moo’. This tickled me because of something I read years ago about the silliest things people say in insurance claims, but I digress.
Something else they never told us at school (it was a convent by the way) was the amount of incest that went on. Brother and sister, mother and son, nothing was sacred. Even mating with mythical non-humans. Cronus for instance married his sister Rhea and they had six children who became known as the Olympian Gods. Too much inbreeding causes ‘untoward genetic consequences’ – no wonder they often turned out so weird.
At one point we also learnt that Gaia – married to Uranus – got her son Cronus (yes him again) to cut off his father’s genitals and throw them into the sea. The blood left behind turned into various scary creatures (ie the Furies amongst others) while the genitals turned into Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love. Just another example of their weirdness.
Our top God Zeus was a horrible character in reality. He was jealous, sexually permissive, nasty and vicious, and punished people who crossed him in some dreadful ways. His wife Hera wasn’t much better, especially when she discovered the randy old bugger was playing around.
But my favourite is probably Hecate, the Goddess of witchcraft. Whenever someone was turned into an animal, she looked after it as a pet. A woman after my own heart. And who knew there was a Goddess called Doris!
I am also a bit obsessed with Medea after studying her as part of my OU degree, probably because she was a sorceress, though she did some dreadful things. We are told she killed her brother Apsyrtus to help Jason escape with the Golden Fleece, but I read a version in which she chopped him up and threw his body parts into the sea as a distraction, as her father had to gather the pieces one by one so he could have a proper burial.
It’s a great book and you don’t have to read it all at once – you can dip in and out when you feel like it.
Many thanks to Hygge Book Tours for inviting me to be part of the #blogtour
About the Author
Rupert is a Cambridge graduate. He was born in Manchester but has lived most of his adult life in Central London. He has always been an avid reader and in recent years decided to take up writing himself. His books have one overriding objective which is TO MAKE PEOPLE LAUGH! His first book, Gods Galore, was published in November 2021 and this was followed by The Four Horsemen, in April 2023. His latest novel, Pimlico People, was published in October 2024. All three books are a mixture of fantasy and comedy about the Olympian Gods in the 21st Century.
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A former detective is starting over in a small town, but his past won’t let him go in this gripping new stand-alone from the world’s bestselling thriller writer.
The Inn at Gloucester stands alone on the rocky New England shoreline. Its seclusion suits former Boston police detective Bill Robinson, novice owner and innkeeper. As long as the dozen residents pay their rent, Robinson doesn’t ask any questions.
Yet all too soon Robinson discovers that leaving the city is no escape from dangers he left behind. A new crew of deadly criminals move into the small town, bringing drugs and violence to the front door of the inn.
Robinson feels the weight of responsibility on his shoulders. His sense of duty compels him to fight off the threat to his town. But he can’t do it alone. Before time runs out, the residents of the inn will face a choice.
Stand together? Or die alone.
My Review
Another fantastic book by James Patterson and Candice Fox. No. it’s not great literature or anything particularly unique, but it’s exciting and entertaining with a good cast of characters.
Bill Robinson was thrown out of the police force in Boston and is starting again in a small town called Gloucester not too far away. But tragedy strikes when his wife Siobhan is killed and he finds himself running The Inn – a b & b that appears to attract the type of people who are also running away from something.
Susan is a retired FBI agent so why is she hiding out here? Angelica is a published author, Effie has a scar on her neck from something terrible that happened. And I love Vinny, an ex-gangster with a colourful past, but now in a wheelchair after being injured. Then there is Nick who is suffering from PTSD following his experiences in the Middle East.
Fifteen-year-old Marni is Siobhan’s niece who is living at The Inn for a reason I can’t remember. There are others too, but I don’t want this to sound more like a list than a review.
But the plot revolves around a man called Cline who has become very rich by selling drugs to teenagers. Gloucester has become his target town. He holds lavish parties where he hands out the drugs. Cross him and it won’t end well. But Bill and Nick are not put off especially when Cline starts targeting their own.
I’m looking forward to Book Two. Bring it on.
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.
Have you heard all these complaints like:
– “What did I do wrong again?!”
– “Maybe it’s my fault?”
– “Maybe I’m the problem?”
– “Why can he not understand me?”
The problem is that some things may seem obvious to you, but you forget that they are NOT obvious to another person. And that’s where many conflicts arise.
To eliminate these conflicts, this book will provide you with some eye-opening hints that are so easy, but so neglected.
– First, the book divides desires into three categories and explores them.
– Second, the book provides you with a practical framework of female archetypes, their descriptions, desires, and behavioral guidelines for men.
– Third, the book uncovers possible “syndromes” that appear in the life of every woman. By knowing about these “syndromes”, you understand how to behave in multiple unclear or challenging situations, which helps maintain a good and healthy relationship.
– Fourth, the book explains the female perception of men, which is another important factor to consider both for men and women in order to avoid conflicts and misunderstandings.
Tired of constant arguments and stress? This book is here to help you.
My Review
Firstly I have to say that I struggled to identify with any of the six archetypes in the book, or any of the mixed ones. I don’t wear heels or skirts – dresses occasionally – but then I don’t wear jeans either and I’m not sporty. I don’t, however, believe my clothes say anything about me as a person. Or maybe the author would tell me that’s my first mistake.
My husband (like many others I know) would read the advice in the book and joke that the easiest thing to do is agree with your partner and buy them presents. I love presents, especially surprise ones (though not clothes – he knows better now than to flatter me with something too small or insult me with something too big). But I hate surprises when it comes to the big things like a holiday or a puppy (don’t ask). Part of the fun is in the choosing, and for me in the planning. I used to work as a project manager, so planning is what I do.
So does that make me a lady-boss? I’m not ambitious and hate responsibility so probably not. I’m not a girlie or a cutie – see heels, skirts and dresses above. Definitely not a victim. So I’m probably more in the mature category. Sounds a bit boring but I guess it is what it is. Bit late to worry.
Ultimately, I think all the advice applies to younger women. I’ve been married for 43 years – I think my husband ‘gets’ me, and I’m probably not that easy to live with at times. My goals are short term now as I don’t have to worry about a career.
Many thanks to @lovebookstours for inviting me to be part of the #WhatDoWomenWant? tour.
About the Author
Inna Veliksar — a book author, musician, 3rd Dan Kyokushinkai karate international champion, entrepreneur, educator, and course developer. She holds a degree in Business & Marketing from Greenwich University and has travelled to over 30 countries, which helped her develop a broad perspective on the world and human behaviour. These diverse experiences led her to explore patterns in human communication and interaction. In her book What Do Women Want?, she examines common misunderstandings between men and women and offers practical insights into female psychology, desires, and behaviour to help avoid conflicts and build healthier relationships.
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