Category: review
+ brothers, crime fiction, dark humour, Detective novel, family, fiction, murder, police drama, review, thriller
The Rule by David Jackson
When you break THE RULE, bad things happen. Daniel is looking forward to his birthday. He wants fish and chips, a chocolate caterpillar cake, and six comics starring his favourite superhero. Daniel will be twenty-three next week. And he has no idea that he’s about to kill a stranger. #TheRule @Author_Dave @ViperBooks Daniel’s parents know that their beloved and vulnerable son will be taken away. … Read More The Rule by David Jackson
The Beach House by Beverley Jones
The perfect place to hide. Or so she thought . . . When Grace Jensen returns to her home in Lookout Beach one day, she finds a body in a pool of blood and a menacing gift left for her. #TheBeachHouse @bevjoneswriting @TheCrimeVault @damppebbles #damppebblesblogtours The community of Lookout Beach is shocked by such a brutal intrusion in their close-knit neighbourhood – particularly to a … Read More The Beach House by Beverley Jones
We Need To Talk by Jonathan Crane
It’s 2019 in Sudleigh, a market town not far from the south coast. It’s not a bad place to live, provided the new housing development doesn’t ruin it, but most residents are too caught up in their own disappointments, grudges, and sores to notice. #WeNeedToTalk @jon_crane24 @EyeAndLightning @damppebbles #damppebblesblogtours Gap-year Tom is cleaning toilets but finding unexpected solace in his Chinese house-share. Former lounge musician … Read More We Need To Talk by Jonathan Crane
Nowhere to Hide (Shannon Ames, #4) by TJ Brearton
A brutal winter storm traps residents of a small Adirondack town with two vicious killers. But they didn’t count on Shannon Ames… FBI Agent Shannon Ames is headed to the north country for some much-needed R&R when a sudden ice storm traps her in the small hamlet of Long Lake, NY. But the storm isn’t her only problem – as she rolls into town … Read More Nowhere to Hide (Shannon Ames, #4) by TJ Brearton
My Top 8 Books of 2021 – part two
Here are my favourite eight books of the second quarter of 2021. So far this has been a good year for books if for nothing else, so it was a really difficult decision. The Girls Inside by NJ Mackay I have always been fascinated by religious cults and what makes people join them. How you can have such power over someone that you can … Read More My Top 8 Books of 2021 – part two
+ audio drama, fiction, murder, podcast, radio play, review
The Meeting by Cat on a Piano Productions / Theatrephonic
I just want the truth… But Greg isn’t very good at telling the truth. What starts out as a drunken one night stand for Greg turns into something much much darker. A brilliant story with a very unexpected twist. Written and directed by Emmeline Braefield StarringLuke Rhodri as GregandJasmine Raymond as Eloise Produced by Cat on a Piano Productions Music: Sloppy Clav by Godmode The Theatrephonic Theme tune … Read More The Meeting by Cat on a Piano Productions / Theatrephonic
The Blue Hour by MJ Greenwood
The Blue Hour – two love affairs and two summers, 75 years apart Damaged by a toxic relationship, Ava Westmorland flees the ruins of her life in London for a carer’s job in a Cornish village. She hopes a combination of countryside and coast will heal her shattered heart. But she has yet to face tyrannical Tilly Barwise; the 89-year-old she will be looking … Read More The Blue Hour by MJ Greenwood
+ abuse, child abuse, childhood, family, family drama, fiction, journal, literature, loss, memoir, relationships, review, sisters
The Lost Girls by Heather Young
In the summer of 1935, six-year-old Emily Evans vanishes from her family’s vacation home on a remote Minnesota lake. Her disappearance destroys her mother, who spends the rest of her life at the lake house, hoping in vain that her favorite daughter will walk out of the woods. Emily’s two older sisters stay, too, each keeping her own private, decades-long vigil for the lost … Read More The Lost Girls by Heather Young
+ abuse, child abuse, childhood, family, fiction, friendship, motherhood, murder, review
The First Day of Spring by Nancy Tucker
“So that was all it took,” I thought. “That was all it took for me to feel like I had all the power in the world. One morning, one moment, one yellow-haired boy. It wasn’t so much after all.” Meet Chrissie… Chrissie is eight and she has a secret: she has just killed a boy. The feeling made her belly fizz like soda pop. … Read More The First Day of Spring by Nancy Tucker
+ autism, childhood, coming-of-age, family, fiction, friendship, love, motherhood, review
This Is How We Are Human by Louise Beech
Sebastian James Murphy is twenty years, six months and two days old. He loves swimming, fried eggs and Billy Ocean. Sebastian is autistic. And lonely. Veronica wants her son Sebastian to be happy, and she wants the world to accept him for who he is. She is also thinking about paying a professional to give him what he desperately wants. Violetta is a high-class … Read More This Is How We Are Human by Louise Beech
The Last Minute Play by Cat on a Piano Productions / Theatrephonic
When you are really busy it’s time for the actors to improvise. And they really do. Absolutely hilarious The Last Minute Play has some of my favourite lines. “Is that a new car…”“….lime green….really brings out your eyes Pitrum.”“Shame I’ve only got the one really.”“Beautiful eye though.” “It’s always easier to recover from grief when it makes you filthy, stinking rich.” And of course … Read More The Last Minute Play by Cat on a Piano Productions / Theatrephonic
+ childhood, coming-of-age, family, fiction, folklore, friendship, loss, love, magic, Magical realism, motherhood, mythology, review, supernatural, superstition
She Never Told Me About The Ocean by Elisabeth Sharp McKetta
Told by four women whose stories nest together, She Never Told Me About the Ocean is an epic about a rite of passage that all humans undergo and none remember: birth. Eighteen-year-old Sage has been mothering her mother for as long as she can remember, and as she arrives on the shores of adulthood, she learns a secret: before she was born, she had … Read More She Never Told Me About The Ocean by Elisabeth Sharp McKetta
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