Month: December 2022
+ List, literature
My 6 Most Read Reviews of 2022
This is a new one for me, but I do love a good list. These books were not necessarily published in 2022 – in fact Miss Benson’s Beetle has been top for the last two years. Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel JoyceThere’s hardly a day goes by when someone doesn’t visit this review and I am not sure how or why. It was published … Read More My 6 Most Read Reviews of 2022
+ abuse, alcoholism, brothers, childhood, domestic noir, family, fantasy, feel-good, female friendship, fiction, folklore, forgiveness, friendship, Ghost story, gothic horror, Gothic mystery, grief, haunting, List, literature, loss, love, music, paranormal, piano, relationships, review, secrets, sisterhood, sisters, slavery, suffragette movement, supernatural, superstition, tradition, whimsical
My Top 4 Books of 2022
It’s approaching the very end of 2022 and it’s time to reflect on my absolute favourite books of the year. Last year it was hard but this year is even harder. There were instant standouts again – about 10 of them but I had to cut it down to four. I have tried to include a mix of genres but failed yet again. I read … Read More My Top 4 Books of 2022
+ abuse, adventure, childhood, crime fiction, Detective novel, family, fiction, friendship, Ghost story, gothic horror, grief, Historical fiction, List, literature, London, loss, love, Magical realism, mental health, motherhood, murder, mystery, police drama, religion, revenge, review, secrets, short stories, short story, sisters, supernatural, thriller, twins
My Top 8 Books of 2022 Part Four
Here are my favourite eight books of the final quarter of 2022. One of these will make it into my top four books of 2022 (I just couldn’t cut it down to three this year). The Parlour Game by Jennifer Renshaw This is the book I have been waiting for! A gothic tale of sinister goings-on, mysterious disappearances, hauntings and macabre artefacts with special powers. … Read More My Top 8 Books of 2022 Part Four
+ alcoholism, anthology, brothers, family, fiction, Ghost story, gothic horror, haunting, marriage, mental health, mental illness, motherhood, mythology, paranormal, postpartum psychosis, review, short stories, short story, sisters, supernatural, superstition, witchcraft
The Haunting Season: Ghostly Tales for Long Winter Nights by various
Winter, with its unsettling blend of the cosy and the sinister, has long been a popular time for gathering by the bright flame of a candle, or the warm crackling of a fire, and swapping stories of ghosts and strange happenings. Now eight bestselling, award-winning authors – master storytellers of the sinister and the macabre – bring this time-honoured tradition to vivid life in … Read More The Haunting Season: Ghostly Tales for Long Winter Nights by various
The Boy Who Lost His Spark by Maggie O’Farrell (Author) and Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini (Illustrator)
When Jem and his family move to the countryside, he doesn’t like his new home one bit. It’s an old cottage on the side of a hill, where strange things keep happening: shoes are filled up with conkers, the stairs become tangled in a woollen maze. Jem’s sister Verity is certain it is the work of a “nouka”, an ancient creature from local folklore … Read More The Boy Who Lost His Spark by Maggie O’Farrell (Author) and Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini (Illustrator)
+ female friendship, fiction, friendship, Ghost story, haunting, paranormal, psychic, review, supernatural
The Haunting of Highdown Hall – Psychic Surveys #1 by Shani Struthers
If you sold your soul to the devil, could you ever get it back? The latest in a long line of psychically-gifted females, Ruby Davis can see through the veil that separates this world and the next, helping grounded souls to move towards the light – or ‘home’ as Ruby calls it. Not just a job for Ruby, it’s a crusade and one she … Read More The Haunting of Highdown Hall – Psychic Surveys #1 by Shani Struthers
+ crime fiction, Detective novel, fiction, journalist, murder, murder mystery, police drama, psychopath, review, serial killer, thriller
Speaking Daggers by Lloyd Rees
There’s a killer on the loose on the streets of Swansea and they are leaving clues. Detective Inspector Gus Reid and his team have a gruesome murder on their hands but there are no suspects and no obvious motive. All they have to go on is a series of literary quotations that appear like graffiti on walls throughout the city. Can Gus’ daughter, an … Read More Speaking Daggers by Lloyd Rees
+ Belfast, crime fiction, eighties, fiction, friendship, Ireland, journalist, murder, obsession, review, serial killer, thriller, USA
The Wolf Is At Your Door by Simon Maltman
New York, 1987. Rory is a likeable career thief originally from war-torn Belfast, planning out his next big score. A serial killer is murdering women in the city. But no bodies are ever found; just missing girls and cryptic plaques left on benches in Central Park. #TheWolfIsAtYourDoor @simonmaltman @AestheticPress1 @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour When the killer strikes too close to home, Rory becomes unhealthily obsessed … Read More The Wolf Is At Your Door by Simon Maltman
Elfing About by Cat On A Piano / Theatrephonic
Elves! Assemble! If you ever wondered what those pesky Christmas ‘Elves on Shelves’ get up to when you are asleep, they are ‘elfing about’, climbing up and down the tinsel and knocking things over in people’s houses (accidentally of course). ‘We are here to watch the children of this household to make sure that they deserve to be on the Good List,’ says Elfie. … Read More Elfing About by Cat On A Piano / Theatrephonic
+ crime fiction, dark humour, Detective novel, fiction, kidnapping, murder, police drama, police procedural, revenge, review, short stories, short story, thriller, World War Two, WW2
Case Files: Collected Short Crime Stories Vol. 1 by Rachel Amphlett
Discover twelve dark and twisted mysteries from USA Today bestselling author Rachel Amphlett. This page-turning collection features The Man Cave in which Darren regains consciousness in a dank basement where escape turns out to be the least of his worries; in All Night Long Zoe soon wishes she wasn’t working the late shift; and in Nowhere to Run a rookie detective encounters her first … Read More Case Files: Collected Short Crime Stories Vol. 1 by Rachel Amphlett
+ crime fiction, dark humour, Detective novel, Edinburgh, fiction, germany, memoir, murder, murder mystery, police drama, police procedural, revenge, review, rivalry, Scotland, thriller, World War Two
Hunter’s Revenge (The Edinburgh Crime Mysteries #2) by Val Penny
Hunter by name – Hunter by nature. Detective Inspector Hunter Wilson is a loyal friend and a fair leader. He is called to the scene of a murder in Edinburgh where the corpse has been fatally shot. He is dismayed to find the victim is his friend and colleague, George Reinbold. Hunter must investigate Reinbold’s murky past in Germany to identify George’s killer. #HuntersRevenge @valeriepenny @SpellBoundBks @Zooloo’s … Read More Hunter’s Revenge (The Edinburgh Crime Mysteries #2) by Val Penny
+ brothers, bullying, crime fiction, family, fiction, kidnapping, lies, murder, murder mystery, Psychological fiction, review, secrets, thriller
Her Husband’s Lies by TJ Brearton
Callie has a great life, living in a ten-acre home in the Adirondacks with her husband, Abel. Their son is away at college and Callie, a writer, is content living a relatively secluded life. Then Abel skids off the road into an icy lake. No one heard anything.No one saw anything. But Abel is left in a coma in a Vermont hospital. #HerHusbandsLies #TJBrearton … Read More Her Husband’s Lies by TJ Brearton
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