And you thought burning the turkey was the worst that could happen…
Christmas is all about lists. To do lists. Shopping lists. Lists to bloody Santa. And doesn’t Anna Johnson know it. Waking up on Christmas Eve after the annual Johnson party, she’s hungover, exhausted and really sick and tired of Christmas already.
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All she wants is to tick the last things off her endless list and sit down with the world’s biggest glass of wine. But apparently that’s not going to happen any time soon because now her list looks like this:
1. Wrap the presents
2. Peel the potatoes
3. Stuff the turkey
4. Get rid of the dead body
A mysterious death in her home really is the last thing she has time for right now, but with police officers who could double as the Chuckle Brothers and a husband and two kids intent on watching Christmas films, it looks like it’s up to her to find out what the hell’s gone on.
Oh – and figure out what to do with the body before her in-laws arrive.
Happy bloody Christmas indeed.
My Review
This was hilarious. At times the body in the larder was almost incidental. Who killed Colin was largely irrelevant – he was a smarmy d*”k anyway – except that it gave Anna, husband Oli and best friend Jennie something to focus on apart from the potatoes and the tablescape (whatever that is). The book is often just Anna’s rant against all things Christmas, her snooty, judgemental mother-in-law, ridiculously high expectations, and many other things.
I’m not Anna’s generation. I’m the mother-in-law, the grandmother and the babysitter, but there was still so much I could identify with. I’m a list maker, obsessively so. I think the more times I make a list and write it down, the more chance I will remember what’s on it and even do stuff without referring to it. Fat chance. Luckily I’ve never had to make a list of potential murder suspects.
As far as Christmas is concerned, I am happy for you to invite me to lunch. I don’t care if you have a tablescape off Pinterest, the chairs don’t match, the plates are chipped, you had to borrow next door’s cutlery and there’s a body in the….. (well maybe the last one). It’s about family and friends, plenty of food (I’m vegetarian remember if you’re asking, but I’m happy with the cauliflower cheese) and a glass or two of vino. Prosecco is just as good as real Champagne and I’ll bring the Baileys. It’s a lesson Anna will learn by the end of the book, as she realises what’s important.
Her attempts (with help from Oli, Jennie and teenage son Ben) to solve the murder is like The Thursday Murder Club for millennials. Or Agatha Christie’s The Body In The Library – who has a library in their house nowadays anyway – but this time it’s The Body In The Larder. Come to think of it who has a walk-in larder? Jennie finds it useful, but that’s for another reason.
Happy Bloody Christmas is an entertaining, easy read – just don’t get so involved you burn the turkey.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
About the Author
Jo Middleton lives in Somerset with her daughter, a disobedient golden retriever and three cats, all named after fictional detectives. Jo has a passion for mysteries, loves escape rooms, and longs to capture a cave full of smugglers. She is also a blogger, author, copywriter and one half of the It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere podcast.
A gripping and Gothic new historical mystery. Can she unlock the secrets of The House of Fever?
1935, Hedoné House, a luxurious sanatorium for the creative elite dedicated to the groundbreaking treatment of tuberculosis. As the doctor’s new wife, Agnes Templeton has pledged her life to a house of fever.
But Hedoné is no ordinary hospital. High society rubs shoulders with artists, poets and musicians. No expense is spared on the comfort of the guests, and champagne flows freely. It’s a world away from everything Agnes knows.
Her husband’s methods are unusual. There are whisperings about past patients and even a cure. Hedoné’s secrets draw Agnes in, revealing truths she could never anticipate, and soon she is caught between a past she is desperate to escape and a future she may forever regret.
My Review
The Unravelling (the author’s second novel) is probably one of my favourite books of all time, certainly of the decade. Therefore once again I had high expectations for The House of Fever and I was not disappointed.
Following the death of Agnes Templeton’s father from tuberculosis, Agnes and her mother have fallen on hard times. But while in France, Agnes meets the enigmatic Dr Christian Fairhaven and after a whirlwind romance, they marry. Christian is the owner of Hedoné, an exclusive sanatorium for TB patients who are either every rich like Juno Harrington, or very talented like Sippie and Georgie.
Christian brings Agnes and her mother, who is now very sick with TB over to England, promising to cure her mother with his revolutionary methods. Christian’s first wife also died of the disease and their young daughter Isobel needs a new mother.
But all is not as it seems at Hedoné where the champagne flows freely and the parties carry on through the night, and while the first half of the book is a bit of a slow burn (especially as an audio book), the secrets start to emerge. Towards the end they become more and more shocking and the ending is a triumphant masterpiece of intrigue and suspense.
I adored this book and look forward to the next one from Polly Crosby.
As an aside, both my parents had TB. My father was ill after the war (and a spell in a prisoner-of-war camp in Northern Russia) and was never totally cured. When he was ill in 2000, it returned. My mother had it years later and was ‘cured’ quickly with the drug streptomycin. I had to have a chest X-ray every six months – can’t remember for how long – even though I had had the BCG vaccination.
About the Author
Polly Crosby grew up on the Suffolk coast, and now lives with her husband and son in the heart of Norfolk.
In 2018, Polly won Curtis Brown Creative’s Yesterday Scholarship, enabling her to write her debut novel, The Illustrated Child. Later the same year, she was awarded runner-up in the Bridport Prize’s Peggy Chapman Andrews Award for a First Novel, and she received the Annabel Abbs Creative Writing Scholarship for the prestigious MA at the University of East Anglia.
Polly’s first book for Young Adults, This Tale is Forbidden, came out in January. Her fourth historical mystery, The House of Fever, was published in August 2024.
Dr. Keira Stetson is at the forefront of a technological revolution, driven by her dual passions: ethical artificial intelligence — AI with a conscience — and creating technology that enhances children’s lives.
Trapped in an earthquake-flattened building with a half-dozen panicked five-year-olds, she fears the worst. When billionaire Roy Brandt leverages his mysterious nanite technology to rescue them, she’s both grateful and intrigued.
Impressed by his prototype technology but alarmed at its potential for exploitation, Keira makes a fateful decision to merge her company with Brandt’s. This strategic move not only grants Keira the much-needed funds for her own tech development, but also gives her access to Brandt’s powerful minuscule robots. In a bold move, she and her AI assistant, Elly, embed Keira’s trademark Moral Operating System in Brandt’s nanite SmartDust to ensure its ethical use.
Yet, Brandt’s groundbreaking technology has been shrouded in secrecy for a reason. Despite his noble intentions to enhance life, others have darker plans. Corporate raiders and the military seek to weaponize Brandt’s nanites, putting everything Keira has worked for in jeopardy. Exposed to the darker side of humanity, she and Elly must now navigate a perilous path to use this newfound tech for good and prevent it from falling into the wrong hands…before it’s too late.
My Review
I’m not a SciFi fan but Moral Code has nothing to do with Star Trek, Star Wars or rockets going into outer space and finding other solar systems. Thank goodness. I think it needs its own genre.
Even if you know nothing about artificial intelligence, robotics, nanites or moral operating systems, you will still enjoy this book. It asks so many questions. I’ve been on the ‘readalong’ where we’ve attempted to answer some of them. Can an AI replace human interaction? The jury’s still out. Just because we can build something, should we? Think atomic bomb or cloning humans? No. Cloning my beloved Jack Russell (we lost her three years ago) would be tempting – where’s the harm? Because one thing leads to another and we’ll be cloning humans next.
What about legality versus ethics. Dr Keira Stetson believes that ethics should drive the law, not the other way round and I agree. Just because something is legal (some crop sprays for instance or trophy hunting) doesn’t make it ethical. And it will always be nationwide, because we can’t control the rest of the world.
Keira has merged her company with Roy Brandt’s Searcher Technologies. Keira and her AI assistant, Elly, have embedded Keira’s trademark Moral Operating System into Brandt’s nanite SmartDust to ensure its ethical use. He needs her MoralOS and she needs his financial backing. She trusts Roy, but there are others who want to get their hands on the SmartDust in order to weaponise its use. People like tech raider Mickey Temming, who wouldn’t know the meaning of the word ethical if it smacked him in the face.
In the meantime, Keira and Elly are using the nanite technology to help children in danger, even though their methods may not be entirely legal. But if it stops the cycle of abuse then it’s justified surely. I’ve never believed that the end justifies the means (back to the atomic bomb, Hiroshima etc) but in this case, I think it does. They are not killing thousands of innocent people, they are simply ignoring ‘due process’. A bit like smashing into someone’s car to rescue an overheated dog. By the time you’ve called the police, the dog will be dead. And what if it was a child?
The ending of Moral Code was nothing like I expected, but I am not going to give anything away. I just hope it opens the door for a sequel as I miss Elly already. I need an Elly in my life, but I want one that chooses to take on any shape like a slinky cat or a funny little dog as well as a human.
Many thanks to @lovebookstours for inviting me to be part of the #MoralCode readalong.
About the Author
Moral Code is not the first collaboration for Lois and Ross Melbourne. Side-by-side, they grew their software business to a global award-winning organization, as CEO and Chief Technology Officer, respectively. Now Lois’ storytelling brings to life Ross’ deep understanding of the possibilities within artificial intelligence and robotics. Parenting and marriage have been the easy part of this equation.
Lois is now writing books, having published two children’s books about exploring careers. Moral Code is her first but not her last novel. You can learn more about Lois at www.loismelbourne.com. Ross’ current work includes artificial intelligence and robotics. You can learn more about him at www.rossmelbourne.com. And for more about them and the book, you can visit, www.MoralCodeTheBook.com.
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+ brothers, bullying, child abuse, childhood, dark humour, depression, fiction, journal, loss, love, mental illness, obsession, psychiatric hospital, psychiatrist, review, therapy
The Funeral Portrait by Vincent Viñas
Guy doesn’t smile easily. He could be described as fundamentally glum.
Tallulah doesn’t die easily. She could be described as annoyingly immortal.
What if you wanted to die but were unable to? Such is the case with Guy Edwards and Tallulah Leigh, who want to end their miserable lives for different reasons. The only problem is, she’s been stricken with an unexplained (and unwelcome) case of immortality while he lacks that final, sorrowful piece of inspiration he needs to effectively do himself in.
Genre: Dark Humour
Pages: 270 pages
Publisher: Ink Smith Publishing
What better way to solve this dilemma than to help kill each other. However, a bigger problem has emerged–one of them is falling in love with the other. They’ll now have to decide what is a more frightening option–dying or taking one last shot at happiness? The Funeral Portrait is a very dark and comedic (but often horrific) tale about two lost souls who find each other and soon realize the only thing that may be worse than death is commitment.
My Review
I’m still gobsmacked after reading this. It’s not like anything I’ve ever read before (not even Will Carver’s Suicide Thursday). It’s even darker and while there is a lot of humour, I sometimes struggled to find anything funny.
Guy Edwards is annoyingly miserable. His girlfriend of five months, Constance, packed him in and he still can’t get over her, even to the point of stalking her at work. He’s suffering from clinical depression, though I’m not sure he really is. All he wants to do is throw himself off the roof of the glass works factory. And find an excuse not to, and write about it to his parents and brother Bruno in letters. The book is written like a journal. I’m not going to judge, because I can’t pretend to understand him. And then he meets Tallulah Leigh, who can’t die, no matter how hard she tries to end it.
Guy works at a funeral home, where he prepares the bodies and we get a graphic description at one point of what that entails, mainly the embalming for open coffin viewings. He seems to enjoy his job (if you can enjoy cleaning blood, and sewing up and stuffing dead people), as far as he enjoys anything at all. I’m a glass half full kind of person, so Guy’s totally empty glass outlook on life can grate. Old Mr Friar, the peach seller, has the answers.
At one point, the letters are written by others including Tallulah, Bruno, even Constance, and Guy’s psychiatrist. These were all very interesting, especially Tallulah, whose early life was devastatingly sad and you can understand why she wants Guy to help her die. Though I would prefer to see that there is always hope.
Bruno keeps lots of animals as pets (I get that), but he also keeps throwing pies in Guy’s face. If there is something deep and meaningful about that, I didn’t get it.
Did I like Guy – not so much – but I adored Tallulah. She’s funny, warm and exciting. I just wish she could have found a way back from all the trauma.
I don’t know what else to write. It’s easy to think that Guy’s life is not that bad, no abusive childhood, bullying or rapes, so he needs to be thankful, stop feeling sorry for himself, and move on (like Bruno keeps telling him to). But that’s easy for us to say, when it’s not us going through it. Tallulah’s life on the other hand, has been so traumatic that she can’t cope any longer. I cried for her, I really did.
PS As an aside, there is a very well-known book/film called Me Before You by JoJo Moyes. It was loved by many, but also criticised for treating disabled people as those with no hope or future. Critics worried that it would impact children who felt that being disabled made life not worth living. The ending was the worst. This kept popping into my head while reading The Funeral Portrait because Tallulah’s extreme PTSD is a form of disability and asking Guy to help her kill herself becomes the only way out. It’s very upsetting.
Many thanks to @lovebookstours for inviting me to be part of #TheFuneralPortrait blog tour.
About the Author
Born and raised in New York City, Vincent Viñas, has been forcing friends and family to read his writing for years. He did the same thing with his short films and whenever his old band played a show. His collaborative film efforts had the honor of bewildering unsuspecting theater-goers before midnight screenings of the cult classic, Donnie Darko. As a musician, Vincent was lucky enough to take the stage at the famed CBGB’s and considered trashing his drum set to spice things up. However, the drummer in the previous band trashed his drums during their performance and having two consecutive drummers behave in such a manner is just silly.
A short story Vincent wrote once earned him a cheese and wine movie party at Sony’s private screening room for him and fifty friends, which Sony executives no doubt regretted as free alcohol and bad movies don’t make for a civilized theater experience.
Some of his many influences include Stephen King, Rod Serling, George A. Romero, Chuck Palahniuk, Stanley Kubrick, Christopher Moore, Edward D. Wood, Jr. and Alfred Hitchcock.
He currently lives in the mystical realm of New York with his wife, Megan, and their small cat who thinks she’s in charge.
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The truth can be a bitter pill . . .
Michelle can’t believe this is her life. That she’s escaped her dreary 9-to-5 in London and landed a PR job here. In the towering headquarters of Kimia Pharmaceuticals in Reykjavik, Iceland.
It’s too bad her coworkers don’t want to be friends. They’re all young, beautiful — and determined to freeze Michelle out of their whispered conversations.
But researcher Lars isn’t like the others . . .
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Michelle steps into the elevator with him and is struck by the hunted look on his face. The doors close — and seconds later, they judder to a sickening halt.
That’s when it happens. Lars locks eyes with Michelle. Thrusts a folder into her hands.
This is evidence. Hide it . . . I discovered something and I’ll be silenced because of it.
Michelle’s already run from her past. This time, she’ll be running for her life . . .
My Review
Imagine this happening to you. There you are, minding your own business, when someone thrusts a folder into your hands and tells you to hide it. Or give it to someone in the media. He gives you their card. Sorry it has to be you, he says. It will probably change your life forever, may even get you killed, but hey ho, I had no choice. Then he disappears. His name was Lars, that’s all you know.
It’s not a prank. It’s for real. What do you do? You’re just an ordinary middle aged woman with no experience of industrial espionage or secrets or whatever this is. At this point I may have given it to someone else and said ‘you deal with it. I’ve only been here five minutes and I’m just covering maternity leave.’
But you don’t, because you know that what he just told you could endanger the lives of thousands of people – maybe millions. And you have to weigh that up against your own safety.
Michelle doesn’t know what to do. She only tells one person. They are horrified. They tell her to hand it in to the company. We could both be at risk for even discussing it, lose our jobs, be arrested. Explain what happened. But her conscience won’t allow it.
So she calls the name on the card and asks his advice. And the game is on, except it’s not a game. The book then becomes a race against time. It’s just the two of them initially, then someone else joins them. But what about Lars? Can they keep him safe?
I’m exhausted just thinking about it. Poor Michelle. If only she’d known she probably would have stayed at home, trying to get over her failed marriage, her loneliness and her attempts to look younger (her ex went off with a woman half his age. Of course he did).
This was so fast paced and exciting that I read it in one day – I’m lucky enough to have been on holiday at the time.
Many thanks to @ZooloosBT for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the Author
Thriller writer Susanna is fascinated by human relationships. She can be found people-watching wherever she goes, finding material for her writing. Despite the writer’s life, she has an adventurous streak and has swum with whale sharks in Australia, fallen down a crevasse in the French Alps and walked through the sewers of Brighton – not in that order. Her passions include animals — particularly her dogs — wildlife and tennis, which clears her brain of pretty much everything.
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When Ryan’s dying father gives him a sealed shoebox with instructions to open once he’s passed, Ryan can only speculate on what’s inside.
The last thing he expects is for his father to shoot himself immediately afterward, or for the shoebox to contain ten thousand dollars cash.
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But the money isn’t for Ryan; it’s for someone named Jamie Norton. When Ryan learns Jamie is an old friend of the family with a shady past, he looks to his mother for answers.
But he isn’t the only one looking.
Ryan thought he knew his parents. But the deeper he digs, the more he learns that some families will do whatever it takes to keep their secrets buried—no matter what the cost.
My Review
I felt so sorry for poor Ryan. His father appears to dislike him and his mother is cold and uncaring. Or that’s how it seems. But His Last Lie is far more complicated than just poor family relations. Thank goodness he has Rachel, who loves him unequivocally.
The story starts with a bang – literally – when Ryan and Rachel visit Ryan’s father Lou. They are not welcome. However, Lou gives Ryan a sealed shoe box, which he says Ryan shouldn’t open till after Lou’s death. Little does he know that would be imminent. No sooner have they left the flat, when there is a loud bang and it turns out that Lou has shot himself.
The box contains ten thousand dollars and a sealed envelope addressed to someone called Jamie Norton. A lot of time is spent with Ryan and Rachel speculating on where the money has come from and what they should do. Their banter is actually very witty and well written, and they are both likable characters. Secretly I always thought Rachel might do a bunk with the loot – maybe she does – we’ll have to wait and see.
I have to be honest, I would have simply found Jamie and handed over the money. I wouldn’t care where it came from, in fact it wouldn’t have occurred to me that it was dishonestly come by, and I’m not really sure why it mattered so much. On the other hand, if I was Ryan I would be furious that Lou had left him nothing, his only child.
But Jamie Norton isn’t that easy to find. Ryan has an address of sorts but not the apartment number, Ryan’s mum says she has no idea who Jamie is, and the only other person who might know is his uncle Floyd, but he’s banged up for armed robbery. That leaves only one option – pay a visit to his cousin Daryl, who lives alone in a trailer in the middle of nowhere, shooting his own dinner and skinning it. It’s all getting a bit Grizzly Adams.
There’s also a character called ‘Knuckles’, a huge man-mountain covered in tattoos – you couldn’t make him up (actually the author just did). Ryan is so out of his depth.
The twists and surprises start coming in thick and fast. The pace picks up round about now and everyone seems to be lying or hiding something. His mum never lies – Ryan you are so naive – of course she does. Ryan and Rachel have so many theories, but they are all wrong. I had no idea and the outcome was nothing like I imagined. So well plotted – I read it in one sitting.
Many thanks to @ZooloosBT for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the Author
Erik Therme has thrashed in garage bands, inadvertently harboured runaways, and met Darth Vader. When he’s not at his computer, he can be found cheering on his youngest daughter’s volleyball team, or watching horror movies with his oldest. He currently resides in Iowa City, Iowa—one of only twenty-eight places in the world that UNESCO has certified as a City of Literature. Join Erik’s mailing list to be notified of new releases and author giveaways: http://eepurl.com/cD1F8L
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A foundling, an old book of dark fairy tales, a secret garden, an aristocratic family, a love denied, and a mystery.
The Forgotten Garden is a captivating, atmospheric and compulsively readable story of the past, secrets, family and memory from the international best-selling author Kate Morton.
Cassandra is lost, alone and grieving. Her much loved grandmother, Nell, has just died and Cassandra, her life already shaken by a tragic accident ten years ago, feels like she has lost everything dear to her. But an unexpected and mysterious bequest from Nell turns Cassandra’s life upside down and ends up challenging everything she thought she knew about herself and her family.
Inheriting a book of dark and intriguing fairytales written by Eliza Makepeace—the Victorian authoress who disappeared mysteriously in the early twentieth century—Cassandra takes her courage in both hands to follow in the footsteps of Nell on a quest to find out the truth about their history, their family and their past; little knowing that in the process, she will also discover a new life for herself.
My Review
I signed up for this as an audio book on Borrowbox. It’s 20 hours long – which is huge – I can see it’s six hours and 48 mins as a physical book. I had to renew it after 15 days, but then when I tried to renew it a second time, I saw I couldn’t and only had three days to go before it expired and five hours left to read.
I’m a fast reader so it was a bit frustrating. It’s a wonderful book though and is really three separate stories which come together throughout the book.
Nell is the little girl left on a ship to Australia. She is told to wait for the ‘authoress’ who never comes back. It’s not until she is 21 that she discovers she was ‘adopted’.
Eliza Makepeace is the ‘authoress’. She’s probably my favourite character. She writes dark fairy tales which are published in a book with illustrations. A couple of the chapters are the actual tales from the book. My most hated character is Rose’s mother Adeline. She’s horrendous, especially her treatment of Eliza. She’s a social climber and a snob of the worst kind, and married to creepy Linus who appears to have been in love with his own sister.
Cassandra is Nell’s granddaughter. Abandoned by her mother when she’s very young, Nell brings her up and they adore each other. Her adult life is filled with tragedy, but when she inherits a cottage in Cornwall after Nell dies, her life changes forever.
There’s not much point in me retelling the story as it’s been done over and over, so suffice to say that I adored the book, but probably wish I had read it rather than listened. Only because of the length – the narration was good.
I do have one criticism of the narration though. The Cornish accent is very strange – almost more like Irish – I live in Gloucestershire and the accent moves and changes as you go South, but it’s still similar. It was a bit grating sometimes.
About the Author
KATE MORTON is an award-winning, New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author. Her novels – The House at Riverton, The Forgotten Garden, The Distant Hours, The Secret Keeper, The Lake House, The Clockmaker’s Daughter, and Homecoming – are published in over 45 countries, in 38 languages, and have all been number one bestsellers around the world.
Kate Morton was born in South Australia, grew up in the mountains of south-east Queensland, and now lives with her family in London and Australia. She has degrees in dramatic art and English literature, and harboured dreams of joining the Royal Shakespeare Company until she realised that it was words she loved more than performing. Kate still feels a pang of longing each time she goes to the theatre and the house lights dim.
“I fell deeply in love with books as a child and believe that reading is freedom; that to read is to live a thousand lives in one; that fiction is a magical conversation between two people – you and me – in which our minds meet across time and space. I love books that conjure a world around me, bringing their characters and settings to life, so that the real world disappears and all that matters, from beginning to end, is turning one more page.”
You can find more information about Kate Morton and her books at https://www.katemorton.com or connect on http://www.facebook.com/KateMortonAuthor or instagram.com/katemortonauthor/
To stay up-to-date on Kate’s books and events, join her mailing list here: https://www.katemorton.com/mailing-list/
+ art, female friendship, fiction, friendship, jealousy, journal, love, murder, obsession, relationships, review, rivalry, Scottish Highlands, secrets, thriller
The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins
When a small bone at the centre of a famous sculpture is revealed to be human, three people become intimately connected by the secrets and lies that put it there.
Set on a Scottish tidal island connected to the mainland for just a few hours each day, and home to only one inhabitant, The Blue Hour asks questions of ambition, power, art and perception.
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Paula Hawkin’s singular fourth thriller cements her place among the very best of our most nuanced, powerful and stylish storytellers.
My Review
What a cast of mostly unlikable characters! First of all we have James Becker (actually he’s quite nice), highly intelligent, working class, a self made man with a PhD. Curator at Fairburn House, but totally paranoid about his pregnant wife Helena, who was previously engaged to Sebastian Lennox, heir to Fairburn when his mother dies. James is also obsessed with the late Victoria Chapman, the artist whose work was bequeathed to the Fairburn gallery. It’s one of her works – a sculpture called Division II – that starts the whole investigation, when one of the bones used is believed to be human.
Vanessa was extremely talented, but highly strung and vicious when she wanted to be. She lived on an island in the Scottish Highlands, where she could paint and create her ceramics. One day she breaks her wrist in a fall and that’s when she meets Dr Grace Haswell.
Grace, I initially thought was on the spectrum, obsessive and socially awkward, but then I began to think it was something far more sinister than that. She can’t help being short, fat and ugly (not my description), but she is obsessed with Vanessa in a rather unhealthy way. And anyone else who deserts her.
Vanessa’s husband Julian is tall, blond and handsome. Grace hates him. He’s also unfaithful, scheming, greedy and unreliable. However, Vanessa wasn’t averse to the odd affair herself, including with her gallerist, Douglas Lennox, who she slept with when she felt like it. Before he was accidentally shot that is.
But worst of all we have Lady Emmeline, wife of the late Douglas and mother of Sebastian. Now I know she had every reason to hate Vanessa, calls her a whore etc, but she also hates Becker, partly because he stole her son’s fiance, but also because he’s working class and not fit to move in their upper class society. She actually asks him about his mother who died when James was a child – ‘And was she also a whore?’ And on one occasion, she does something so awful (I won’t say what), and when the child witnessing it won’t stop crying, she says ‘anyone would think I shot her mother’.
The Blue Hour is a story of art, obsession, isolation, murder and greed. It’s brilliant. I read it in two sittings.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
About the Author
PAULA HAWKINS worked as a journalist for fifteen years before writing her first novel. Born and brought up in Zimbabwe, she moved to London in 1989. Her first thriller, The Girl on the Train, has sold more than 23 million copies worldwide. Published in over fifty languages, it has been a No.1 bestseller around the world and was a box-office-hit film starring Emily Blunt. Paula’s thrillers Into the Water and A Slow Fire Burning were also instant No.1 bestsellers.
Saunas, love and a ladleful of murder…
A cold-blooded killer strikes at the hottest moment: the new head of a sauna-stove company is murdered … in the sauna. Who has turned up the temperature and burned him to death?
The evidence points in the direction of Anni Korpinen – top salesperson and the victim’s successor at Steam Devil.
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And as if hitting middle-age, being in a marriage that has lost its purpose, and struggling with work weren’t enough, Anni realizes that she must be quicker than both the police and the murderer to uncover who is behind it all – before it’s too late…
My Review
I think it will take me some time to get the images of the first murder out of my head. I’m not going to say any more. I don’t want to be reminded.
Then there are the sprats. I ate them once as a child and was immediately sick, and I have never eaten them since. The thought of them still fills me with horror!
Finally we have the ‘bumlet’. It’s a square of folded linen designed for hygiene purposes. I wasn’t sure if it’s an actual ‘thing’ or just created for the story. Of course I googled it and apparently the Finns (who invented the sauna) also like the extra protection from the heat. They take their saunas much hotter than we do in the UK.
But we also don’t really do naked in the UK. And if we did, we would sit on a neatly folded towel, with another one over any naughty bits. In the case of our first victim, it would have taken more than a double thick bumlet or a folded towel to save him from overheating.
Anni Korpinen is our narrator. Following the impending retirement of Erkki ‘The Stove King’ Ruusulu and the horrific murder of his successor Ilmo Räty, she is now in line to be the next CEO of Steam Devil sauna stoves. She is also the number one suspect in the murder as she has motive, means and opportunity. Chief of police Kiimalainen couldn’t care less about any of these – he is gunning for her because of an age old feud with her father over an Elk. I kid you not.
Anni is married to Santeri who is obsessed with Formula One and former racing drivers’ old socks. Thirty years ago she was engaged to police officer Janne who she jilted, but that’s a whole separate story.
Incidentally, the translation is seamless. Hard to believe The Burning Stones was written in a foreign language, especially as Finnish is considered one of the hardest languages to learn.
I loved this book. It’s very different from the Adventure Park trilogy, where our intrepid hero Henri Koskinen was an actuary. Anni Korpinen is a sauna stove salesperson, though I’m not sure that’s any more exciting. And she doesn’t have a cat. If there’s a follow up can she have one of Schopenhauer’s kittens please.
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.
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.
ESTELLA’S REVENGE IS OUT TODAY IN PAPERBACK
Think you know Great Expectations? Think again
Raised in the darkness of Satis House where the clocks never tick, the beautiful Estella is bred to hate men and to keep her heart cold as the grave.
She knows she doesn’t feel things quite like other people do but is this just the result of her strange upbringing?
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As she watches the brutal treatment of women around her, hatred hardens into a core of vengeance and when she finds herself married to the abusive Drummle, she is forced to make a deadly choice:
Should she embrace the darkness within her and exact her revenge?
A stunningly original, gripping Gothic read, perfect for fans of Stacey Halls, Madeline Miller and Jessie Burton.
My Review
I’ve always loved Great Expectations in all its iterations – my husband loves the 1946 film version where John Mills plays Pip (I think he is far too old), but my favourite is the TV mini series where Gillian Anderson portrays Miss Havisham. As a child, the scene where Miss H goes up in flames terrified me and still does.
As an aside, for my OU degree creative writing module, I wrote a short story called Miss Havisham’s Ghost. It earned me a good mark, but it never saw the light of day, as it got woven into another story a couple of years later. Just goes to show that we all have a budding Dickens in us somewhere!
But back to Estella’s Revenge. I absolutely loved it and have given it a worthy five stars. The writing is impeccable and immaculate. The plot is original and entertaining. It’s not a retelling of GE though, you have to remember that – it’s the story from Estella’s point of view, NOT Pip’s, so anything can happen, and it does. There are a lot of the original characters, but also others that are new.
But – if I could keep two things from the story I know and love, it would be Estella and Pip coming together at the end (soppy Love Actually stuff I know), and Bentley falling off his horse and breaking his neck after being cruel to it ie the ‘horse’s revenge’. To discover whether either of these happen in Estella’s Revenge, you’ll have to read it to find out.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
About the Author
Barbara is an international bestselling author, whose psychological thrillers have topped Amazon and Kobo. Her writing career started in journalism, interviewing the real victims of crime – and the perpetrators. The realistic, complex characters who populate her fiction reflect this deep understanding. When not writing, Barbara is found walking her two dogs, Scamp and Buddy, or taking photos of wildlife.
+ abuse, crime fiction, fiction, Iceland noir, murder, murder mystery, police drama, review, Scandi noir, secrets, sisters, supernatural, thriller
Dark As Night (An Áróra Investigation Book #4) by Lilja Sigurðardóttir translated by Lorenza Garcia
When Áróra receives a call telling her that a child she’s never met is claiming to be her missing sister reincarnated, she is devastated … as ridiculous as the allegations might seem.
For three years she has been searching for her sister without finding a single clue, and now this strange child seems to have new information.
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On the same day, Icelandic detective Daníel returns home to find a note from his tenant, drag queen Lady Gúgúlú, giving notice on her flat and explaining that she has to leave the country. Daníel is immediately suspicious, and when three threatening men appear, looking for Lady, it’s clear to him that something is very wrong…
And as Iceland’s long dark nights continue into springtime, that is just the very beginning…
My Review
This series started in book one Cold As Hell when Áróra returned to Iceland from England, where she was living with her English mother (her father was Icelandic), to search for her missing sister Ísafold. The sisters have been estranged because of Ísafold’s abusive relationship with boyfriend Björn.
Lots of things have happened since then, but it has been assumed by everyone, including the police, that Ísafold is dead and that Björn murdered her and hid her body somewhere out there. But without a body, there can be no closure for Áróra.
Áróra is now in a proper relationship with police officer Daniel (it’s been brewing since the beginning). They don’t live together yet.
But back to the story proper. In fact there are two stories. Áróra receives a strange phone call from a woman who claims that her three year old daughter believes she is the reincarnation of Ísafold. The child appears to know things that only a handful of people know – Áróra, her mother, Daniel and the officers assigned to the case. Áróra is devastated, angry and upset. Daniel is sceptical – he doesn’t believe any of this stuff.
On the same day, Daniel returns home to find a note from his tenant, drag queen Lady Gúgúlú. It just says goodbye, you can dump my stuff, I won’t be coming back, in fact I’m leaving the country, family matters blah blah. But Daniel doesn’t believe a word of it. She wouldn’t have left her phone and other important personal items. She would have said goodbye. Then three men appear looking for her, and their behaviour is definitely suspicious.
And so we follow the two stories, both becoming more and more complicated, especially that of Lady Gúgúlú. It’s far more involved and dark that we could have ever imagined. But Áróra is good at this sort of thing. Follow the money and you’ll discover the truth. But what about the child? Is she really Ísafold? Or is this some horrible ruse by the parents to use Áróra’s heartache to their own ends.
I loved the supernatural element of the story. I used to watch an American TV series years ago where the police actually met with psychics to discover the locations of missing persons. It fascinates me. But a three year old?
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours.
About the Author
Icelandic crime-writer Lilja Sigurðardóttir was born in the town of Akranes in 1972 and raised in Mexico, Sweden, Spain and Iceland. An award-winning playwright, Lilja has written four crime novels, with Snare, her English debut shortlisting for the CWA International Dagger and hitting bestseller lists worldwide. Trap soon followed suit, with the third in the trilogy Cage winning the Best Icelandic Crime Novel of the Year, and was a Guardian Book of the Year. Lilja’s standalone Betrayal, was shortlisted for the Glass Key Award for Best Nordic Crime Novel. The film rights have been bought by Palomar Pictures in California. Lilja is also an award-winning screenwriter in her native Iceland. She lives in Reykjavík with her partner.
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.
+ 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, coming-of-age, fiction, literature, love, marriage, music, obsession, relationships, review, seventies, sisters, therapy
The Enlightenment Club by Chris West
It’s 1975. Bright, dissatisfied teenager Stella Tranter wants to learn about big things: philosophy, great art, love.
Her quest leads her to the select ‘Enlightenment Cub’ and the charismatic Dr Stanislas Licht. And to trouble.
Thrown out of college, she continues her search in London. Is she really cut out for being a part-time roadie for a punk band, fronted by her outrageous sister? Probably not, but being her, she gives it a go.
Her ultimate goals continue to elude her, however, and she decides to settle for a quiet life with well-meaning but slightly dull Bobby. But memories of the Enlightenment Club haunt her, whispering that she must find more, do more, learn more, be more… When she meets Alex, a talented, lonely, experimental composer, she knows she must break free. But at what cost? Passion, it soon turns out, can exact a terrible price.
This is a book about dreams and how tough it can be to fulfil them. It is about identity, aspiration and change. It is about music, and its power to inspire (but also, maybe, to mislead).
Prizewinning author DJ Taylor has described it as ‘delicately written, with big themes boiling away beneath the surface.’
My Review
It’s 1971 and I’m doing my A levels at the local tech. I apply for Bristol University to read English and – yes you guessed it – Philosophy. I even get as far as a group interview where a load of Old Etonians discuss a load of old you know what. I don’t get in, so I do a foundation year at the Art College instead, followed by Fashion Writing at The London College of Fashion. We have a blast. Go to shows, drink Bucks Fizz at eleven in the morning, while an over-tanned Judith Chalmers does the commentary. So I ‘get’ Stella, though I never got thrown out or tipped a bowl of soup over anyone’s head.
The Enlightenment Club that Stella goes to is a bit like the Dead Poets Society, or in this case the dead philosophers society. Looking back, it seems very pretentious. It encourages us to be so much more, while everyone else is telling us to be so much less. Be a free thinker. Find your one point of certainty say the philosophers. Get married to boring Bobby, study typing and shorthand (so you can work for a man who is not half as clever as you are), says everyone else.
But instead of enhancing Stella’s life, it actually makes her dissatisfied with everything. I think for Stella, the problem is that she takes it all too literally. Her sister Lucy on the other hand, embraces the latest trends. She fronts a punk band even though Stella is the far better singer and dresses like Poly Styrene from X-Ray Spex, while they bash away at their terrible music. Stella prefers Mozart’s Requiem. Get over yourself Stella, I want to say.
Stella marries boring Bobby. Everyone is pleased (or relieved). But she’s still unhappy. And then she meets Alex, a ‘talented, lonely, ‘experimental’ composer’. Or is he? Talented that is. What a vile human being he is underneath. A bowl of soup over his head just wouldn’t hack it. But it would have been cheaper, Stella.
And finally, I love Abba! And though they weren’t ‘cool’ in the eighties and nineties, they were actually very accomplished musicians, song writers and music producers. So while you are starving for your Great Art in your self-imposed garret Alex, defined by your musical snobbery, remember that.
I just adored this book. It has everything for me (apart from any gruesome murders). It made me think, and remember my teenage (and twenty-something) angst, and be glad I managed to shed that layer of pretentious pomposity. Ha!
Many thanks to @lovebookstours for inviting me to be part of #TheEnlightenmentClub blog tour.
About the Author
“I grew up in a country village north of London. As a boy I filled endless notebooks with stories – not all of them finished! As a young man I played in various (unsuccessful) bands, then worked in the City of London. I studied philosophy and economics as a ‘mature’ student (though I wasn’t very mature). After leaving uni I went backpacking in China, and wrote a book about that adventure which came out in 1991. Since then, writing has (along with family) been at the heart of my life, though I’ve had other jobs, too, largely in Marketing and PR, working with small businesses. In 2008, I found an old stamp album in the attic of my parents’ old house, and became fascinated by the contents and the way they seemed to mirror history. Each stamp was a tiny, rectangular time machine! In the end, I had to write a book along these lines: A History of Britain in 36 Postage Stamps was the result. I have now done the same for the USA – a fascinating journey into American history (and a great pleasure to collect the nation’s stamps). I live in North Hertfordshire with my wife and daughter.”
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