+ community, feel-good, female friendship, fiction, friendship, lies, loneliness, loss, menopause, plants, review, sisterhood
The Invisible Women’s Club by Helen Paris
A joyous and refreshing read about the power of unlikely friendships, women’s voices, and a reminder that it’s never too late to find joy and meaning later in life.
One woman’s journey from invisibility to being seen once more, as she strives to save her beloved community allotment, perfect for fans of The Lido and Keeper of Stories.
Ignored. Overlooked. But they’re about to prove everyone wrong…
#TheInvisibleWomensClub @drhelenparis @DoubledayUK #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour
Janet Pimm is used to being invisible. 70 something, with her beloved allotment for company, she simply doesn’t need anyone else.
But when the local council threaten to close the allotments, Janet will do anything she can to try to save them – even enlisting the help of her irritatingly upbeat and interfering neighbour, Bev.
As the two women set off on a journey together, Janet begins to realise that perhaps she isn’t so happy to blend into the background after all. And that maybe there’s more to Bev that she first thought. As the bulldozers roll in and they fight to save the place Janet loves most, both women find their voice again and no one can silence them now…
A story of friendship, female lives post-menopause, community spirit and the importance of connection and finding your voice.
My Review
Janet is 72 years old. She’s antisocial and keeps herself to herself. She hides from her neighbour and throws away the friendly notes that get pushed through her door. She doesn’t need a friend. Especially one who feels sorry for her because she is old. And she has her allotment, though she never feels she is part of the community. In fact she has names for them, and they are not very flattering. The Power Ballads, the Steer Manures, Felicity bloody Kendall etc. But she likes Patrice. She’s OK and respects Janet’s relationship with her plants. They are health-giving and medicinal. Not just a load of pretty petals like FbK’s with her matching floral dresses.
I’m 70. I have little in common with Janet, apart from the fact that I live in Cheltenham, the home of GCHQ, where she worked until she was pushed out. I am about to retire, because I want to. I have two volunteering roles lined up – I used to volunteer at Chedworth Roman Villa (yes it’s National Trust). I swim three times a week and do yoga. I’m never lonely – I have loads of friends. And I have a husband, two sons and four granddaughters and until recently a Jack Russell. Unlike Janet who has no-one. She’s become so used to being alone that she rejects any attempts to become anyone’s pity project.
How wrong she is. She can’t see that people find her interesting. Bev doesn’t feel sorry for her, she wants to be her friend. Even though she’s happily married to Eddie, she feels lost. She’s angry and menopausal and she wants to shout about it.
But back to the allotment. Incidentally, we are on the waiting list – it’s three years – they are still popular, even more so now when everyone wants to be green. Seaview has 120 plots and they are all lovingly tended. They even grow vegetables for the cafe in Hastings which feeds refugees.
Then one day the council turns up, putting Biohazard tape all over the place, claiming there is knotweed present and it’s a dangerous, invasive species (bit like the grey squirrel but not as cute). They plan to bulldoze the whole site, destroying everyone’s plots, but Janet isn’t having any of it. From her days at GCHQ she knows there is something fishy going on and she plans to prove it.
The Invisible Women’s Club is all about friendship, community, sisterhood, being ignored and fighting back. In the words of the song – ‘We shall not be moved...Just like a tree that’s standing by the water side…We shall not be moved‘ this is an inspiring and emotional read which left me in tears.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
About the Author
Helen Paris worked in the performing arts for two decades, touring internationally with her London-based theatre company Curious. After several years living in San Francisco and working as a theatre professor at Stanford University, she returned to the UK to focus on writing fiction.
+ fiction, friendship, grief, healing, Ireland, lies, loss, love, psychic, religion, review, secrets, spirituality, superstition
The Graces by Siobhan MacGowan
Bestowed with the graces. Condemned by a secret. Redeemed by a lie.
Dublin, 1918. Rosaleen The Rose. A seer and a healer. Revered within the Mesmerist circles, she was acclaimed for her gifts of prophecy and healing amongst Dublin’s fashionable society. But the shocking realisation of her last extraordinary prophecy will see her famed throughout the city.
One summer night at Mount St Kilian Abbey, Brother Thomas watches a candlelit procession of pilgrims, come to walk the Way of the Rose on the anniversary of their idol’s death. Now a shrine, the bell tower has seen tragedy – one that others would only whisper of.
Then, a padre arrives at the Abbey and reveals the deathbed confession that Rosaleen Grace made to him three years before. The tragedy of what occurred at the bell tower is well known, but this reveals an even greater horror – a heinous crime to which St. Kilian’s once-beloved Abbot, now imprisoned, has confessed. But the Rose has a different tale to tell.
Never to be spoken of. Never to be revealed. What lies beneath the Rose.
My Review
I absolutely loved The Trial of Lotta Rae and The Graces is just as brilliant. It’s probably more my genre to be honest. Anything that includes mysticism, prophecy, alternative religions, healing, superstition etc is right up my street.
It’s beautifully written, with Rosaleen – The Rose – such an interesting character. She is so young and naive really, and it’s very easy for her to be taken advantage of in the big city of Dublin after a sheltered life in the Co Clare countryside.
The heartbreak is devastating, and brave, the subjects dealt with sympathetically and with compassion. Such tragic circumstances, which had me in tears many times. I can say no more.
Rosaleen’s gift of sight is feared in her village in Clare and her family feels it would be better for her to go to Dublin to live with her aunt and uncle in their guest house. She can work in the house, helping with the light chores. It all works out well until she is introduced to a group of people calling themselves Mesmerists. They believe that illness is caused by blockages to the flow of magnetic fluid in the body and that your own body will cure you. They think that doctors are quacks who are trying to poison you with their snake oil. I couldn’t help but think of anti-vaxxers during Covid. I remember a number of people telling me that your body’s immune system will prevent you from getting ill. But that depends on how ill you really are and how strong your immune system is.
It doesn’t take long before the group realises that Rosaleen has not just the gift of sight, but also of healing. She can lay her hands on people and use their ‘spring’ to heal themselves. Soon she becomes known as The Rose and is revered all over Dublin. But Rosaleen knows too well how things can go wrong in a heartbeat.
This is not a simple tale of happiness and romance – it is one of tragedy and dark secrets. Of unrequited love set against a backdrop of political unrest and the fight between Protestant and Catholic, of being part of the UK or embracing Home Rule. The background politics is quite subtle, but it’s always there.
The Graces is just so good, evocatively crafted, with every wonderful character brought to life. I adored it.
About the Author
Siobhan MacGowan is a journalist and musician who lived and worked in London for much of her life before returning to Ireland several years ago. She is from a family of great storytellers, the most prominent of which is her brother, Shane MacGowan of The Pogues.
Noa Morgan worked hard to put the past and Emily behind her. Not that she remembers much about the forty days she spent in captivity.
When Noa realises she is being stalked, she knows it’s him. Despite everything she’s done, he’s found her. And now he’s killing innocent women, leaving an item at each crime scene still vivid in her memory.
With the body count rising, Noa can no longer hide the truth from her new friends. Not if she wants to keep them alive.
The worst part is … that Emily died for nothing.
#DeathIsntEnough #MarietteWhitcomb #CoverReveal #PsychologicalThriller
Here is the cover of this fantastic new psychological thriller by one of my favourite authors Mariëtte Whitcomb:
Release day: 13 September 2023.
Preorder Death Isn’t Enough: https://books2read.com/deathisntenough
Add to your TBR on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/…/195630712-death-isn-t-enough
About the Author
Mariëtte Whitcomb studied Criminology and Psychology at the University of Pretoria. An avid reader of psychological thrillers and true crime books, writing allows her to pursue her childhood dream to hunt criminals, albeit fictional and born in the darkest corners of her imagination. When Mariëtte isn’t writing, she reads or spends time with her family, friends, and her two miniature schnauzers.
Social Media Links
Website/Newsletter: https://mariettewhitcomb.com
Email: mariette@mariettewhitcomb.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mariettewhitcombauthor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mariettewhitcomb/
Tiktok: tiktok.com/@mariettewhitcomb
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/mariettewhitcomb
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/goodsreadscommariettewhitcomb
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/mariette-whitcomb
+ family, fiction, Ghost story, gothic, Gothic mystery, Halloween, haunting, Ireland, lies, motherhood, relationships, review, secrets, seventies, supernatural, superstition, thriller
The Belladonna Maze by Sinéad Crowley
An old house can hold many secrets. Hollowpark in the west of Ireland certainly does. At the heart of the gardens is an intricate maze, named after a deadly poison, Belladonna.
If you know the way through, it’s magical, a hiding place and playground like no other. If you don’t, it’s a place of fear and sinister riddles, where a young girl once went missing and was never seen again.
Grace comes to Hollowpark as a nanny for young Skye FitzMahon. Soon the mysterious past of Hollowpark has seduced her.
Who is the woman she sometimes glimpses in an upstairs window? Or the apparition who keeps showing up unexpectedly, pleading, ‘Find me’. And how can she fight her growing attraction to Skye’s father?
My Review
I absolutely loved reading this with my Pigeonhole book club. It’s so much more fun when you can comment throughout the book. And we certainly did that.
The book is set in three timelines. We have the early 1800s when we meet Deirdre and her family, who own Hollowpark Hall, with its deadly Belladonna Maze. A quick aside – our friends planted a maze during the year of the late Queen’s Jubilee at Symonds Yat. It is known as the Jubilee Maze, unsurprisingly. It opened officially on the day of the then Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s wedding and we were there. Thankfully no Belladonna or ghosts (though you can never be sure about the latter).
Secondly, we have 2007, when nanny Grace meets the Fitzmahons while she is working at a holiday hotel in Greece. Patrick and Isla ask her to return to Ireland with them and be a permanent nanny to toddler Skye. She accepts and travels to Ireland where she will live at the Hall. It’s there that she meets Patrick’s mother Delia, a formidable woman who is fiercely protective of Hollowpark.
And finally we have 1973 when a teenager goes missing on Halloween night.
It’s all very spooky and scary with its feel of a Gothic mystery and more secrets than you can shake a stick at. But is Grace the only one who sees the ghost of a teenager, pleading with her to ‘find me’? Or the woman in the window, dressed like someone from 200 years ago?
I couldn’t wait to read on – my only criticism being that it goes a bit bonkers towards the end, but that’s never put me off a book. Anyone who reads my reviews will know that I love a bit of nuttiness and eccentricity.
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole, the author and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read.
About the Author
Sinéad Crowley is a writer and broadcaster, whose three DS Claire Boyle crime novels were all nominated for the ‘Best Crime’ category at the Irish Book Awards, with the first two becoming Irish Times bestsellers. She is currently Arts and Media Correspondent with RTE News, the Irish national broadcaster. The Belladonna Maze moves away from crime, and is published by Head of Zeus in 2022.
+ childhood, family, fiction, friends, friendship, grief, loneliness, loss, love, mystery, relationships, review, wales
Scrap by Kathy Biggs
Life has become stale for best friends Mackie and Sharon, who never imagined they’d end up working in a scrapyard.
Sharon has dreams of becoming a cruise ship star, while a browbeaten Mackie cares for his wayward daughter’s twins. But fate takes an unexpected turn when a mysterious kid is discovered in the boot of a car.
#Scrap #KathyBiggs #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours @Honno #BlogTour
He has a remarkable gift—he can draw visions of the future, and this opens up new avenues that neither could have foreseen…
Scrap is a modern fable about the human capacity to overcome the hand life deals us and start afresh.
My Review
It’s six o’clock in the morning and I’m sitting in bed crying. Not because I have to get up – I don’t – but because I just finished reading Scrap. Partly because I didn’t want it to end and partly because it did and it was sad, happy and emotional all at the same time.
What a book! All the main characters – Mackie, Sharon and Trev have their own back stories. They work together at Tranter’s Scrap Yard, which is where they discover the kid. He’s found in an old Merc at the top of a pile of cars, dehydrated and malnourished, because he’s been there for days. Thank goodness they didn’t crush the car.
The ambulance arrives and takes him to hospital, with Mackie accompanying him. For some reason Mackie feels compelled to visit him, even though he doesn’t know him. When he wakes the kid says ‘Oh it’s you.’ Mackie has no idea why.
As well as working at Tranter’s, Mackie’s best friend Sharon is a singer at a night club. She dreams of being discovered and performing on the cruise ships. All she has accomplished so far is a seedy affair with the club’s owner Barry, who is married, of course. Aren’t they always.
Trev lives with his mum Bertha, who is terrifying and Trev is terrified of her. But deep down he’s clever and a mine of useless information, though thanks to the kid’s visions, his knowledge is now becoming invaluable.
Other characters in Scrap are vividly brought to life – the kid’s criminal brother Marco, Tranter himself, his wife Arlene, and Mackie’s daughter Lauren, who dumps the twins on him whenever it suits her. And then disappears for days. They are all a bit larger than life.
But in the end, it’s all about the kid. He draws the future (remember Isaac Mendez in Heroes?), but the results are both realistic and often devastating.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
About the Author
Kathy Biggs is originally from Yorkshire. She took a summer job in Mid Wales in 1985 – and never left. She has two grown children and lives with her husband, Paul. After studying a number of Creative Writing courses linked to Aberystwyth University, she discovered a talent for writing. The Luck was her first novel.
Be careful what you wish for.
In a prestigious Edinburgh apartment building, gym receptionist Evie whiles away long hours doodling the deaths of residents who’ve annoyed her.
On her birthday of all days, a man slumps off the exercise bike — dead. She tries to get help, but someone has locked the doors and the phones are out of reach.
#KillerBodies @hkist #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #BlogTour
When another resident collapses inexplicably, Evie realises the deaths resemble those she drew … and her sketchbook is missing.
Was she framed…
… or is she next?
My Review
Sharp and witty, with cutting observations, this is a book that says it like it is. Most of the characters are truly horrid – selfish, full of themselves, and liars to boot. Or rather to designer trainers.
Evie is the receptionist at the gym belonging to a prestigious Edinburgh apartment building. The only resident she likes is the very elderly Mrs M who lives on the top floor. Mrs M accepts Evie completely, with her Manga-inspired, creepy tattoos and a penchant for drawing the other residents in the throes of death by horrific means. It’s only for fun after all. Evie’s boyfriend Kaif supplies Mrs M with marihuana, and their friend Martina works in IT.
Residents Charles and Fiona have a small fluffy dog called Pebbles, who regularly gets dumped on Evie while they ‘work-out’ and Stephen just gets sweaty in the gym. Beatrice is a right old cow. Dave is ex-forces, and runs a security company, while Suki has only just moved in. She’s always going on about ‘leverage’. The building manager is called Alan and he’s a real charmer.
Saturday is Evie’s birthday, but instead of celebrating all day with Kaif and Martina, she’s inexplicably called in to work. A number of the residents have received messages to say that the gym will be closed at 10.30. This means they turn up early. And that’s when it all goes horribly wrong.
The doors are locked, their phones are in the lockers they can’t access. and the internet is down. The windows are made of unbreakable glass and anyway, they are on the twelfth floor. Then one of the residents slumps off the exercise bike and so the fun begins. There are some truly bizarre moments, a rising body count and plenty of dark humour, like who accompanies who to the toilet and who is safe to be left alone. Then Evie realises her sketch book is missing, the one with all the dead residents in it.
Dark, often hilarious and at times just plain weird, I highly recommend this locked room mystery book.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
PS ‘Hate is a big word. I’m not a big fan of this dog, or most dogs.’ She carried Pebbles to Evie. ‘That doesn’t make me a bad person.’ Oh yes it does!
About the Author
Heleen Kist is a Dutch, formerly globetrotting career woman who fell in love with a Scotsman and his country, and now writes about its (sometimes scary) people from her garden office in Glasgow. Killer Bodies is her fourth novel, inspired by her hatred of exercise. She was chosen as an up-and-coming new author at Bloody Scotland 2018. Her novels have been finalists in a variety of awards, both in the UK and USA, and she years to someday ‘be the bride’.
Heleen hopes you enjoy her writing, and would love to hear from you on twitter @hkist Faceboook @heleenkistauthor or Goodreads. You can also sign up to her newsletter on www.heleenkist.com
Photo Credit Scott Cadenhead
+ alcoholism, childhood, crime fiction, family, fiction, friendship, grief, lies, loneliness, loss, mystery, review, Scottish Highlands, secrets, superstition, witches
Gallow Falls by Alex Nye
A remote Scottish estate. A missing teenager.
When a young archaeologist discovers bones at the site of her Bronze Age broch on Gallows Hill, the community of Kilbroch hold their breath. Ex-detective Callum MacGarvey came to work on the estate in order to escape from his past, but when a friend asks for his help, he cannot refuse. Missing teenager Robbie MacBride’s grandmother wants answers. She doesn’t believe what the family tell her, and Callum finds himself reluctantly drawn into a historic missing person case. He suspects that everyone is hiding a secret, including George Strabane, the landowner whom Callum works for.
#GallowFalls Twitter @Alexnyewriter @FledglingPress @KellyALacey @lovebookstours #Ad #LBTCrew #BookTwitter Instagram @alex.nye1 @fledglingpressbooks
While the police believe Robbie ran away from home more than a decade ago, not everyone is convinced. The archaeologist, Laura, ex-detective, Callum MacGarvey and Robbie’s grandmother continue to investigate, while Robbie’s sister, the silent Ruthie, remains haunted by her childhood flashbacks. Sometimes the truth is so dark, it’s best to let sleeping dogs lie.
My Review
The first thing I had to do was establish who is who. This took a bit of time, but I got there in the end. And it was worth it.
Callum MacGarvey lives alone in a remote Scottish ‘village’ – and I use the term loosely. He used to be a police detective in Glasgow, but he was hounded out of the force. He now lives a simple life in his tied cottage, selling chopped firewood and generally doing whatever you do in the countryside when you’ve lost your job, your wife and your child.
His friend Joan is the 70-year-old grandmother of teenager Robbie, who disappeared 12 years ago. Because he took some supplies and his passport, the police surmised that he just ran away from home. Joan is not convinced. She is sure he’s still here. And she wants Callum to help her find out the truth. But she may not like what she finds.
Robbie’s younger sister Ruthie now lives with her dad Owen – neither of them ever see or speak to Joan since Robbie vanished and Ruthie’s mother died. In fact Ruthie never speaks at all. She chooses not to do so. What is she afraid she will say if she does?
Then 20-something archaeologist Laura Pettigrew arrives to excavate the site on Gallows Hill, where it is believed stands the remains of a Bronze Age broch. But the bones she discovers are not from the Bronze Age, and she finds herself embroiled in an historic missing persons case. Add the vile landowner George Strabane into the mix and you have all the makings of a creepy thriller, full of mystery, secrets, and superstition.
Such a brilliant book with a ‘guess what’s next’ shocking and intricate story, a massive twist and the writing is perfect. We see it from different points of view – Callum, Laura, Joan and Ruthie. Each has their own story to tell, but there are some who don’t want the truth to come out.
Many thanks to @lovebookstours for inviting me to be part of the #GallowFallsTour
About the Author
Alex Nye is the award-winning author of seven novels. She is also a Teaching Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund at the University of Glasgow. She has several times been a Writer in Residence and Creative Writing Mentor through the Scottish Book Trust. She has written books about Mary Queen of Scots, Mary Shelley, Glencoe, the Jacobites, refugees and the care system in Scotland. Her previous novel was a collection of stories which touched on challenging subjects as diverse as Tianenman Square and the school shootings at Dunblane. As a teenager she won the WH Smith Young Writers Award with a piece of reflective prose about a Biology lesson, where the pupils examined a foetus in a glass jar.
Twitter
@Alexnyewriter
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+ alcoholism, childhood, family, fiction, forgiveness, grief, loss, love, marriage, memory, mental illness, motherhood, Psychological fiction, review, therapy, thriller
Arrietty by Abby Davies
Our loved ones protect us.
So what if you woke up one day to find yours gone? Your mum, your friends, your freedom – all gone. And the one person you trust may be hiding a terrible secret.
#Arrietty @Abby13Richards #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours
Welcome to Arrietty’s life.
My Review
So what if you woke up one day to find everything you thought you knew was turned on its head. Not once or twice but again and again. You can’t trust anyone. You maybe can’t even trust yourself.
Arrietty is almost impossible to review because everything is a spoiler. Suffice to say that one night at midnight her mum walks out and is never seen again. There is only her father, who won’t tell her what happened, and her little brother Eddie. Eddie is four years old and Arrietty adores him.
The story is told in two timelines – now and two years earlier. There was significant trauma in her life, but we don’t know what it was. We hear from her mum Sofia’s point of view as well as from Arrietty’s.
Then it all changes and we start seeing something totally different. Is Arrietty a reliable narrator? Then it changes again and – oh my goodness – it turns into something so dark and terrifying, I was literally blown away. Good job I don’t have a cliff with a thirty foot drop at the bottom of my garden or I’d be down there. An amazing third book from a bright, new author.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
Abby Davies was born in Macclesfield in 1984. She grew up in Bedfordshire in a seventeenth century cottage near Flitton Moor and started writing ‘thrillers’ when she was seven years old. After reading English Literature at Sheffield University and training to be an English teacher, she wrote novels in her free time.
She was shortlisted for the Mslexia Novel Competition in 2018 and longlisted for the Blue Pencil Agency First Novel Award in 2019. Her debut Mother Loves Me was published by HarperCollins in 2020. The Cult came out in 2021. Arrietty is her third novel.
She lives in Wiltshire with her husband, daughter and two crazy cocker spaniels.
+ family, feminism, fiction, grief, Historical fiction, lies, literature, London, loss, love, marriage, mental health, mental illness, motherhood, music, obsession, psychiatrist, relationships, review, secrets, sisters, therapy, twins
The Crooked Little Pieces: Volume 3 by Sophia Lambton
Dreams are a red flag for the danger-prone.
Postwar van der Holts. Sophistication sticks to Head of Music Isabel – and so does new headmaster, the mysterious and semi-dictatorial Richard Schneider. Dissent from doctorly conventionality leads Anneliese into digressions deviant even for her as she squares off not just against Susanna but a serial offender of the law. Sparks fly between old flames; new fears prove equally exciting. Loyalties are switched and cravings itched in this compendium of the forbidden driven by foreboding: a mere taste of the temptations still to come.
Treats are aplenty for the reader who prefers vicarious living in The Crooked Little Pieces: Volume 3: a world abundant in the traps of passion’s shackles.
Into the higher stakes we go.
My Review
As I’ve said in my previous reviews:
‘…. it’s very different. Don’t expect straightforward historical fiction. It’s more about emotions and the relationship between two women, who even though they are twins are disparate and diverse.’
So here we are again. We are approaching the 1950s and the twins are almost 30 years old. I am not going to recap volumes 1 and 2, because I am assuming you have read them. If you haven’t, then you should.
Psychiatrist Anneliese is still married to barrister Stephen, though they never seem to spend any time together. But then Anneliese has no interest in being a mother or having a physical relationship with her husband or anyone.
Isabel has been apart from her husband Steven (is there a reason they are both called Stev/phen?) for a number of years, their sado-masochistic games having gone too far. They were no longer games and Isabel had to escape before she was seriously hurt. She now concentrates on her position as Head of Music at Croham Hurst girls school, where Richard Schneider is the new headmaster. Isabel is horrified that they have appointed a man. He must be a pervert.
I can’t help liking Richard even though I probably wouldn’t in real life (no not because he’s a pervert – he isn’t). He’s cultured and interesting, but what secrets is he hiding behind that oh-so respectable demeanor? Vincent, on the other hand, would give me hayfever.
Once again another nod to my mother – the tenor Gigli, who she loved, and who Richard hates.
In the meantime, Anneliese becomes obsessed with the lawyer who defended the killer – allegedly – of her psychiatrist Susanna’s daughter Lily, many years earlier. She inveigles herself into his home by helping to treat his schizophrenic young daughter, Rosalind.
Another great book in this fantastic series. It’s so brilliantly written in its own inimitable style. Many thanks to the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
About the Author
Sophia Lambton became a professional classical music critic at the age of seventeen when she began writing for Musical Opinion, Britain’s oldest music magazine. Since then she has contributed to The Guardian, Bachtrack, musicOMH, BroadwayWorld, BBC Music Magazine and OperaWire, and conducted operatic research around the world for a non-fiction work set to be published in 2023. Crepuscular Musings – her recently spawned cultural Substack – provides vivid explorations of tv and cinema together with reviews of operas, concerts and recitals at sophialambton.substack.com.
The Crooked Little Pieces is her first literary saga. This is volume 3. She lives in London.
+ Australia, community, grief, loss, love, Magical realism, motherhood, relationships, review, Scottish Highlands, supernatural, superstition, whimsical, witches
Salt & Skin by Eliza Henry Jones
Grief-stricken and on the verge of a breakdown, photographer Luda Managan leaves Australia for a commission, bringing her two teenage children to a remote, weather- ravaged but beautiful Scottish island.
Luda, isolated from her two resentful teenagers, turns her attention to the records from the 17th century island witch hunts and the fragmented life stories of the executed women. Min, her daughter, restless and strong, tries to fill up the space in their family left by her father. She soon finds comfort in both the sea and an unlikely friendship.
#SaltandSkin @elizahenryjones @septemberbooks #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours
But the only thing that beautiful and gifted Darcy cares about is getting marks high enough for entry into university – one very, very far away from his mother. Until he meets the wild foundling, Theo, who is slowly self-destructing in a community that is both protective and violent towards him.
But when a tragic accident unleashes ghosts and the echoes of long-ago violence and betrayal into their lives, the Managans must confront their unspoken histories in order to survive.
Luminously-written, Salt & Skin is a compelling modern family drama, threaded with folklore and building to an incredible, climactic ending. It’s a story of wild landscapes, incomers, outsiders and changelings, and a meditation on the absence of women’s voices in stories and history. And like a hymn to the sea, it is unpredictable, startling and beautiful.
My Review
I’ve only ever read two books that I can compare this with, and they are She Never Told Me About The Ocean by Elizabeth Sharp McKetta and The Unravelling by Polly Crosby. They all have that same whimsical, magical unworldliness, and the first two became my top books of the year in 2021 and 2022. I have a feeling Salt & Skin will be in my top books of 2023.
It’s hard to describe what Salt & Skin is about, because it’s so much more than a story. It’s beautiful, lyrical and filled with superstition and magic. It’s about a family and their journey across the world to find a new beginning, but it’s also about motherhood, grief, love and community. It’s about the witches who were executed in the 17th century and the religion that fears them and would still persecute them if they could.
Following the tragic death of her husband Joshua, Luda Managan leaves her home in Australia, taking her two teenage children with her, having accepted a commission to photograph the natural surroundings on a remote Scottish isle. The Managans are distantly related to an old lady named Cassandra who lives there. They are to lodge in ‘the ghost house’, where there is barely room for them all to sleep. And there are markings on the wall that are of interest to local archeologist, Tristan.
The children hate the move, until Min becomes a friend to Cassandra and finds going out on a boat and deep diving in the cold sea far more interesting than school, while her older brother Darcy is only interested in getting the grades to go to University. Then Darcy meets the luminous foundling Theo, wild and untamed, an abandoned child with webbed fingers. He was found washed up on the beach when he was around seven years old and is now seventeen. No-one knows where he came from. In the meantime, Luda alienates the whole community because of a photo which she took and published.
This book is so beautiful, I can’t get it out of my head. It will remain with me for many years to come. It made me gasp and it made me cry and its profound effect will ripple through my life like the waves on the beach at Seannay.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
About the Author
Eliza Henry-Jones is a writer and academic based on a little flower farm in Victoria, Australia. Her previous novels have been listed for multiple literary awards including the ABIA, NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and QLD Literary Awards. Her work has also been published widely, appearing in places such as the Guardian, Country Style, The Big Issue and The Age. Eliza has qualifications in psychology as well as grief, loss and trauma counselling. @elizahenryjones
+ alcoholism, crime fiction, family, family drama, fiction, grief, Iceland noir, jealousy, lies, loss, marriage, murder, Nordic noir, review, secrets, thriller
You Can’t See Me by Eva Björg Ægisdótti (Forbidden Iceland #4) translated by Victoria Cribb
The wealthy, powerful Snæberg clan has gathered for a family reunion at a futuristic hotel set amongst the dark lava flows of Iceland’s remote Snæfellsnes peninsula.
Petra Snæberg, a successful interior designer, is anxious about the event, and her troubled teenage daughter, Lea, whose social media presence has attracted the wrong kind of followers. Ageing carpenter Tryggvi is an outsider, only tolerated because he’s the boyfriend of Petra’s aunt, but he’s struggling to avoid alcohol because he knows what happens when he drinks … Humble hotel employee, Irma, is excited to meet this rich and famous family and observe them at close quarters … perhaps too close…
#YouCantSeeMe @evaaegisdottir @OrendaBooks @victoriacribb
#RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #IcelandNoir #NordicNoir #ForbiddenIceland
As the weather deteriorates and the alcohol flows, one of the guests disappears, and it becomes clear that there is a prowler lurking in the dark.
But is the real danger inside … within the family itself?
My Review
In the previous three books, Detective Elma was the central character, but in You Can’t See Me, the leading investigators are Sævar and Hordur – it’s the prequel so Elma hasn’t appeared yet – though to be honest they don’t figure that much at all.
The story focuses around the wealthy family Snæberg who have booked an ultra-modern and hugely expensive hotel in the Lava fields for some kind of reunion. There will be lots of wonderful food and drink (and boy do they drink – they all seem half pissed nearly all the time), plus trips out including one on a boat and evening fun for all.
There are numerous points of view – from teenager Lea, to her mum Petra, Tryggvi, the partner of Aunt Oddny (who almost dies because of her alcohol abuse), and hotel employee Irma, whose disadvantaged childhood makes her want to meet this famous lot.
There are lots of other characters whose points of view we don’t hear, including Petra’s cousins Viktor and childhood bosom pal Steffy, the dreadful, though film-star handsome, cousin Hakon who chucks cocaine into the mix, Petra’s brother and parents, Harpa, who is almost 18 and encourages Lea to drink, and Edda who runs the hotel.
Then one of the guests goes missing (though who is it – we don’t know till almost the end) and there also appears to be a prowler about. This was an unusual and very clever twist as I didn’t guess who was missing right up to the point of being told who it was.
The hotel is in the middle of nowhere with snow and storms all around – no wonder untoward things happen – and virtually no escape. It’s all very complicated and it takes a while to remember who is who (though sometimes it doesn’t matter with the more minor characters), and I found it fascinating. Money may not be the root of all evil in this case, but it doesn’t always make you happier.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
About the Author
Born in Akranes in 1988, Eva Björg Ægisdóttir studied for an MSc in Globalisation in Norway before returning to Iceland and deciding to write a novel – something she had wanted to do since she won a short-story competition at the age of fifteen. After nine months combining her writing with work as a stewardess and caring for her children, Eva finished The Creak on the Stairs. It was published in 2018, and became a bestseller in Iceland. It also went on to win the Blackbird Award, a prize set up by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir and Ragnar Jónasson to encourage new Icelandic crime writers. It was published in English by Orenda Books in 2020. Eva lives in Reykjavík with her husband and three children and is currently working on the third book in the Forbidden Iceland series. Follow her on @evaaegisdottir
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.
+ coming-of-age, Dogs, family, fiction, friendship, grief, literature, loss, love
Reflections On The Boulevard by LJ Ambrosio (Reflections of Michael Trilogy Book 2)
Michael’s story continues from A Reservoir Man (2022) where we find him teaching at a university ready to retire. He unexpectedly meets a young man named Ron who becomes his protégé and journeys with him in a haphazard adventure throughout America and Europe. In Michael’s final journey in life, each twist and turn of the road brings unexpected adventures. The journey taken is one of joy, friendship, and discovery.
Excerpt
“As the ferry entered the river, one would barely know they were sailing. The breeze brushed against his face; he saw the water pass him just as life had. He looked at the stern of the ferry seeing all his relationships, career, and spirituality disappear in an endless stream of the river, moving them away but not forgotten. Michael felt as if the bow moving upriver was pushing towards his future with the thrust of a young man stealing second base.
“From the corner of his eyes, he saw a well-built, nice looking young man, nerdy, longish dirty blonde hair that either needed cutting or a ponytail. He was talking to himself, no, Michael thought, “he is talking on the phone.” But no, the young man was actually talking to himself, or a bird. Suddenly, the young man saw Michael and flashed a small smile.
“Oh no I have been here too many times; those moments are up the river,” thought Michael. The young man approached Michael asking if he knew him.
“I could not imagine how,” said Michael, in disbelief.
“Yes,” the young man said, “in the park near the university. You were always reading on that same bench. I remember when the pigeons shit on your book and once on your jacket; the whole bench was full of shit,” the young man said with a slight devilish smile.
“Right!” said Michael. “Are you getting off here?”
“In the middle of the river, how could I?”
“You could always try,” said Michael, with a slight but cold smile.”
Competition
The author will award a $20 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner and an autographed copy of the book to a second randomly drawn winner.
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My Review
This was so emotional. I read and reviewed A Reservoir Man last year but it didn’t affect me like this. I think it’s partly because of Rhonda, so let me explain.
Rhonda is a dog. She’s a wire-haired Jack Russell. ‘She had a squatty little body with long hair and a mostly white body. Her little head was brown and there was a sad look in her eyes.’ Ron adopts her as a stray, shortly after meeting Michael. We’ve had two Jack Russells – Cookie who crossed the rainbow bridge eight years ago, and Pancake who we lost in September 2021, aged 17. I therefore fell in love with Rhonda from the first time she is introduced into the story.
Ron meets Michael on the ferry and tries to engage with him. He’s lost and doesn’t know which way to turn. Michael is understandably nervous – he’s in his late sixties and here is a young man who may pose a threat to him. He leaves him a couple of streets away from his house, but Ron finds him and knocks on his door. They talk. Michael realises that Ron isn’t a threat and their friendship blossoms.
Ron learns a lot about life from Michael, who becomes his mentor. Eventually he moves in with him and returns to college to finish his degree. It’s when he first moves in that he adopts Rhonda. Michael soon grows fond of the little dog – who wouldn’t.
Together they embark on a trip around America, visiting many cities, states and places of natural beauty. They go to Death Valley and Yosemite. Rhonda is always with them.
But Michael knows he is not well. He has always had stomach problems and acid reflux, but he knows this is something worse. His decline is gradual. He tells Ron that when his time comes, he wants him to leave the window open for a couple of hours so he can ‘leave’, and asks that Ron and Michael’s family prepare his body for burial.
Michael talks a lot about religion, and the part it plays in his life. ‘Religion is good.’ he says, ‘It makes us feel hopeful.’ Not organised religion though, but the spirit of Jesus as the embodiment of goodness. He also explains about the Reservoir Men.
‘They would dart into the bushes and disappear for a time,’ Michael continued,’ they lived in untruths. Lies to themselves and to their families. They were dangerous, they are dangerous, they want you, too, to hide your truth.’
This is a wonderful book, full of truth and love and friendship. Michael tells Ron to always forgive and not to hang on to hatred, because that’s how hatred wins. It shows us how love can be so much bigger than physical love – the love of friends and family and even of a dog. We are all part of something, we are one with each other.
Many thanks to Goddess Fish Promotions and the author for inviting me to be part of the review tour.
About the Author
Louis J. Ambrosio ran one of the most nurturing bi-coastal talent agencies in Los Angeles and New York. He started his career as a theatrical producer, running two major regional theaters for eight seasons. Ambrosio taught at seven universities. Ambrosio also distinguished himself as an award-winning film producer and novelist over the course of his impressive career.
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