+ brothers, childhood, family, fiction, literature, Malaya, memory, murder, mythology, review, secrets, superstition
Someone Is Coming by TA Morton
Memories come thick and heavy like the rains that fall in the jungle. Dense droplets wash the leaves and soak into the ground, cleansing the acrid smell of rubber, cleansing the jungle of its sins.
I hear my mother’s voice. No more secrets, Philip, I promise. Someone is coming, get ready.
#SomeoneIsComing @TAMortonWriter #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour
Philip Goundry is 93 and living out his days quietly in a care home in England when a young researcher from Singapore arrives, wanting to learn more about his former life in Malaya for the Singapore archives. His memory growing fitful, Philip is torn between wanting to unburden himself and staying silent, as he has done all these years, about the sinister and shocking events of his childhood on a Malayan rubber plantation. The truth, however, has a habit of winning.
My Review
This was one of the strangest books I have ever read. I mean that in a good way. It’s very short and is basically the story of 93-year-old Philip Goundry, now living in a care home in the UK, and how he gradually reveals his memories to Dr Lin.
But all is not as it seems. As he recalls, over a period of time, his childhood on a rubber plantation in Singapore, memories he has buried over decades start to emerge. His father was a good man, or was he? His mother ran away with a lover and was never seen again. His Amah and her superstitions – there was a pontianak, she said, a vampire girl from Malay and Indonesian mythology in the abandoned house where a woman died. This girl would draw men to their death. Don’t go near.
Pontianaks usually announce their presence through baby cries. It’s said that if the cry is loud, she is far away, but if it is soft, then she is nearby.’ See mythus.fandom.com/wiki/Pontianak You can tell if a girl is really a pontianak by looking at her feet – they don’t walk on the ground.
Phillip’s older brother Jimmy died in his teens. Phillip told him everything, but not everything. Some things he told no-one, but now he is starting to remember. His mother’s voice – someone is coming, she would say, over and over. Someone is coming, get ready.
A tiger prowled around the house. The children must be careful not to go into the jungle. The tiger might eat you. And so it goes on. The memories emerge slowly. Phillip gets upset easily. He doesn’t want to remember. But someone is coming and he needs to tell the truth. The truth has a habit of winning.
What a stunning book! It’s so different and unusual. Someone is coming – just the repetition of this one line is chilling. And the ending was totally unexpected.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
About the Author
T.A. Morton is a Singapore based Irish/Australian writer. Previously she has worked as a journalist and Editor for Longman Pearson in Hong Kong. Her short stories have been published in the Lakeview International Journal of Arts and Literature and The Best Asian Short Stories. Currently, she is studying towards her Masters in Crime and Thriller writing at the University of Cambridge.
In February 2020 her novel The Queen, The Soldier and The Girl was shortlisted for the Virginia Prize for fiction. In October 2020 she was shortlisted for the Strand International Flash fiction prize and the Bridport prize. In Autumn 2022 Monsoon Books published her novella, Someone is Coming. She is currently completing a new crime thriller novel.
Her website is: www.tamorton.com
“The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.”
April Crawford didn’t even know her mother had been in the army in Cyprus in 1958. That’s where she met her dad. Caitlin McLoughlin arrives at their house 65 years later to go over a statement which her mother signed at the time. Caitlin is a lawyer.
Shootings civilians is murder she says. Even by soldiers in uniform. April knows nothing about the case. April doesn’t want Caitlin to talk to her mother about the ‘incident’ that occurred in 1958 that involved four teenage Greek boys. She says they must have been terrorists. They were just kids.
But Majorie Collins doesn’t need her daughter to talk for her. She remembers it all too well. They were different times but still, ‘it weren’t right.’
A very emotional play. I really enjoyed listening to it.
Written by @martinlytton
Directed by @ebraefield
With:
Emmeline Braefield as April Crawford
Helen Fullerton as Caitlin McLoughlin
Jayne Lloyd as Majorie Collins
Produced by Cat on a Piano Productions
Music:
A Revelation by Jeremy Blake
I’ll Remember You by Jeremy Blake
Oud Dance by Doug Maxwell
The Theatrephonic Theme tune was composed by Jackson Pentland
Performed by
Jackson Pentland
Mollie Fyfe Taylor
Emmeline Braefield
Cat on a Piano Productions produce and edit feature films, sketches and radio plays.
Their latest project is called @Theatrephonic, a podcast of standalone radio plays and short stories performed by professional actors. You can catch Theatrephonic on Spotify and other platforms.
For more information about the Theatrephonic Podcast, go to catonapiano.uk/theatrephonic, Tweet or Instagram @theatrephonic, or visit their Facebook page.
And if you really enjoyed this week’s episode, listen to Theatrephonic’s other plays and short stories and consider becoming a patron by clicking here…
+ childhood, family, feel-good, fiction, friendship, gay community, love, marriage, relationships, review, secrets
Becoming Ted by Matt Cain
A charming, joyful and surprising story about love, friendship and learning to be true to yourself, Becoming Ted will steal your heart.
Ted Ainsworth has always worked at his family’s ice-cream business in the quiet Lancashire town of St Luke’s-on-Sea.
But the truth is, he’s never wanted to work for the family firm – he doesn’t even like ice-cream, though he’s never told his parents that. When Ted’s husband suddenly leaves him, the bottom falls out of his world.
But what if this could be an opportunity to put what he wants first? This could be the chance to finally follow his secret dream: something Ted has never told anyone …
My Review
Poor Ted doesn’t even like ice cream, but he’s been working at his parents’ ice cream parlour all his adult life. He never had a choice. They’ve been very good to him, so he is grateful to them for everything. For the fact that they totally understood when he came out, never criticised his personal decisions or disapproved when he married Giles. Even though Giles was and still is a total dick.
But Ted has other ambitions – a secret dream that only he knows about. He has never told anyone, not his mum and dad, nor his sister who went off to London to follow her own dream, not even his best friend Denise.
So when Giles leaves him for Spanish lothario Javier, it looks like the time is right for Ted to branch out. Once he has got over the shock that is. He can go to dance classes, he can sing along to Cher songs, he can bop and gyrate like no-one is watching (apologies for the dreadful cliche), because Giles always put him down and told him he was rubbish.
Oskar came to St Luke’s-on-Sea from Poland ten years ago. Being a gay man in Poland was much harder than in the UK. Perfectly legal, but still frowned upon. Oskar has never ‘come out’ or had a relationship, because he can’t come to terms with his sexuality. He still believes he must be a pervert. He works as a painter and decorator but dreams of being an interior designer.
And then there is Stanley, still as flamboyant and outspoken in his nineties as he was in his heyday. Ted is very lucky he says, because when Stanley was young, homosexuality was still illegal. He had to creep around in secret, afraid of being caught. I may be a lot younger than Stanley, but I still remember when the law changed in 1967 – I was in my teens and I had never really understood why it was illegal in the first place.
Under the Buggery Act of 1533 (during the reign of Henry VIII who was fine with chopping the heads off two of his wives), having a same-sex relationship was punishable by death. This only ever applied to men. It wasn’t until 1861 that this was reduced to life imprisonment or hard labour with a minimum of ten years. But I digress.
This was such a lovely book, full of laughter, joy, sadness, a little intrigue, friendship and being true to yourself. Matt Cain is an author who can pull at your heartstrings till you are bursting with happiness and crying over characters like Ted and Oskar as if they are your real friends. I miss them terribly already.
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole, the author, and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read.
About the Author
Matt Cain is an author, a leading commentator on LGBT+ issues, and a former journalist. He is currently a presenter for Virgin Radio Pride UK, was Channel 4’s first Culture Editor, Editor-In-Chief of Attitude magazine, and has judged the Costa Prize, the Polari Prize and the South Bank Sky Arts Awards. He won Diversity in Media’s Journalist Of the Year award in 2017 and is an ambassador for Manchester Pride and the Albert Kennedy Trust, plus a patron of LGBT+ History Month. Born in Bury and brought up in Bolton, he now lives in London.
PS Bookchatter@Cookiebiscuit is number 66 out 100 UK blogs on Feedspot
+ childhood, coming-of-age, crime fiction, fiction, friendship, murder, murder mystery, review, sixties, superstition, wales, whimsical
Tiding by Sian Collins
A lyrical, engaging coming-of-age murder mystery set in the Great Freeze
December 1962. Eleanor O’Dowd, a middle-aged piano teacher, is found stabbed and bludgeoned to death. As the Great Freeze of 1963 takes hold, local vicar’s daughter Daphne Morgan finds herself forced to navigate the confusing currents of the adult world, where she must face up to her own crimes and what she knows about the murder.
#Tiding @sian_collins @honno #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour
A novel about memory and the power of the imagination…
‘She stands on the margin of the ebb tide. The air is foul, a miasma of things lost or drowned; the reek of dead stuff.’
My Review
This was my era, my childhood though not one I particularly recognise. Set in the Great Freeze of 1963 (which I don’t actually remember though I know I should), Daphne Morgan aged 10 and her elder sister Sylvia are the daughters of the local vicar. They spend most of their time outdoors with their friends, getting up to mischief.
When Daphne and her chums break into the bone house and steal a skull (is it that of the Beaker woman?) it sets off a chain of events that they believe is their fault. Obsessed with the curse of Tutankhamun’s tomb and the mysterious deaths of the explorers that followed, they think that their friend Martin’s sudden illness is the result of a ‘curse’, as is every other bad event that follows. Daphne must put the skull back, but it doesn’t go to plan and she is too scared to tell anyone.
While she is bunking off her piano lesson to go to the bone house, her middle-aged piano teacher Eleanor O’Dowd, is brutally murdered. Deaf mute Johnny Parry is the obvious suspect, but what motive could he possibly have?
This is one of those wonderful books that is made up of quirky characters, perfectly drawn settings and a feeling of warmth (despite the snow), wrapped around a murder mystery. Reminiscent of novels like When God Was A Rabbit or The Trouble With Goats And Sheep, it sees the world from the children’s point of view.
Tiding is about childhood, growing up in rural Wales, family, mystery, superstition and coming-of-age. The suspicion around Johnny shows the darker side of living in the sixties, where his disability makes him the obvious suspect just because he’s the ‘village idiot’ like the John Mills character in Ryan’s Daughter. Fifty years later and not much had changed.
I loved this book. It’s both gentle and dramatic, dark and mystical and it will transport you back to simpler times, when children could roam freely and not worry about today’s social pressures.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
About the Author
Siân Collins was born in Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire. An Edinburgh graduate, she taught Anglo Saxon and Medieval Literature in South Africa, worked as an assistant editor on The Lancet, and ran English and Drama departments in several well-known London secondary schools. She returned to Carmarthenshire to teach, write, and relish life in the beautiful Tywi Valley. Her debut novel, Unleaving, was published in 2019.
+ family, feel-good, female friendship, fiction, fifties, forgiveness, friendship, grief, literature, loss, love, marriage, motherhood, museum, pandemic, relationships, review, World War Two
Dark Enough To See The Stars by Beth Duke
The long-awaited sequel to bestseller and book club favorite It All Comes Back To You has arrived!
Violet Glenn. Everybody loved her. In 1946, that included her boyfriend’s best friend, Sam Davidson.
Ronni Johnson wrote a book about Violet. It changed her life. Now she’s back working as a registered nurse at Fairfield Springs, loving her patients and her job. She doesn’t have another book in her.
#DarkEnoughToSeeTheStars #BethDuke @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour
A mysterious email arrives from Chet Wilson’s son, asking Ronni to tell “the truth” about his dad. She ignores it.
Sam Davidson’s family becomes inextricably linked with Ronni, though, and through them she learns a story that must be told.
Ronni finds herself back at the keyboard, determined to share the long-held secrets revealed to her. And once again, Violet is reaching back through the years to touch Ronni’s life.
Dark Enough To See The Stars is a story of human resilience and fragility; of joy and sorrow; of our ability to find family in one another. Alternating chapters between Sam’s world in the distant past and Ronni’s in the present, readers will witness lives woven together, hearts bound forever in surprising ways.
My Review
First of all I must comment on how much I love the cover – it’s absolutely beautiful.
I knew I wouldn’t get to the end of a Beth Duke novel without crying at least once and I did. Admittedly right near the end. It’s so beautiful and evokes such emotion. I love Ronni as much as I did in the first book, but this time I warmed to her husband Rick – I didn’t the first time round.
She is surrounded by some beautiful characters (I prefer the ‘now’ parts to the flashbacks to Sam’s story), like Deanna, Samuel, Maddie and little Violet.
I swore a few months ago that I would never read a book that included references to Covid, but in this case, firstly I didn’t see it coming and secondly it was totally relevant to the story. Wherever a book starts, if it comes up to date, you can’t ignore the pandemic. It happened, and became part of everyone’s lives.
“‘..Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars’ – Martin Luther King, Jr. This quote has a lot of truth and meaning to it because humans have to go through the darkness in order to see the beauty in life, like the stars in the night sky.”
However, the original quote: ‘When it is dark enough, you can see the stars,’ is actually attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Ronni’s book about the original Violet Glenn was a huge success. Everyone wants her to write another one, but she doesn’t feel inspired. Of course they all have suggestions. You should write about this…or that …or the other. When she is ready, the story will come.
However, when a mysterious email arrives from Chet Wilson’s son, asking Ronni to tell ‘the truth’ about his dad, she ignores it. Rick tells her to ignore it. But through Sam Davidson’s family, she learns that not everything in her book was correct, and this might be the time to revisit Violet’s life and the lives of the people around her. And through the darkness she finds that family isn’t always about blood, it can also be ‘in our ability to find family in one another’. A truly beautiful book.
Incidentally Tapestry was one of my four favourite books of 2022 and It All Comes Back To You is my fourth most popular review of all time.
Many thanks to @zooloo2008 for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
PS a little add-on. The characters in the book are fictional but the Berman Museum in Anniston (where the book is mostly set) is real.
The Modern Warfare gallery features personal artifacts, memorabilia, and weaponry from WWI, WWII, the Korean War, and Vietnam War, including Adolf Hitler’s tea set, though no full Nazi uniforms (as donated in the story).
In the Danger, Deception and Disguise gallery, you can explore the mysterious world of espionage, which pays homage to the founders, Farley and Germaine Berman, both spies during WWII. This exhibit presents those who risked their lives serving undercover and the objects used in covert actions taken as a result of intelligence gathering and analysis.
About the Author
Beth Dial Duke is an Amazon #1 Best Selling author and the recipient of short story awards on two continents. She is eyeing the other five. Beth lives in the mountains of her native Alabama with her husband, one real dog, and one ornamental dog. She loves reading, writing, and not arithmetic. Baking is a hobby, with semi-pro cupcakes and amateur macarons a specialty. And puns–the worse, the better. Travel is her other favorite thing, along with joining book groups for discussion. If a personal visit isn’t possible, she is fluent in Zoom.
Please visit bethduke.com for more information, to request a book club visit, and to see photos of the most beautiful readers in the world!
Follow her at:
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5399106.Beth_Duke
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onlythebethforyou
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bethidee
Website : bethduke.com
Twitter : https://twitter.com/bethidee
Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/65973853-dark-enough-to-see-the-stars
Buy Link – https://geni.us/7zkPLK
A murder without evidence, a secret that could topple society and a cop with a bit of a coffee habit!
Three things were certain in the mind of Officer Theodore Night:
One: There’s a serial killer loose in Portstewart
Two: His new friend is a werewolf
Three: He’s in way over his head
#Strays @InkAndSmudge @BlossomSpring3 @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour
When bloody paw prints at a crime scene leads Officer Night to consider the impossible, he must rely not only on his years of investigative experience, but on the local werewolf pack, for help.
An unlikely friendship gives Night the edge he needs to prevent an all-out war. Has Blair, the mysterious barista from Bean and Gone, caused him to bite off more than he can chew?
Here is a short extract from this thrilling book:
Blair patted the human’s bicep wordlessly as he passed and Theo turned to follow him down the dark corridor towards the bizarre living room, the elevator waiting for them at its centre. He could still hear Terry’s panicked breathing reverberating off the walls behind them and Theo swallowed back the feeling of sympathy he felt for the man. In situations like these, time was of the essence and a setback like Terry could cost lives.
“Thanks for what you did back there,” Blair said as the elevator doors parted, “I don’t often get to see you play the bad cop.”
Theo snorted as he checked the safety on his firearm again, an unnecessary action to quiet his thoughts, “I’m always the bad cop.”
“You’re always the asshole cop,” Blair amended, leaning against the man’s side, “There’s a difference.”
The familiar chime announced their arrival and Theo was quick to shrug up the soaked hood of his jacket,
“You ready for this?” he asked. Blair nodded and pulled up his own hood, falling in behind his Silvered as they walked through the estate. Wolves passed by them on all sides, some working, others enjoying their usual, uninterrupted day to day. People hung out of the windows that faced their walkway, smiling and chatting between themselves. The smell of street food clung to the air, sweet with preservatives, and the larger spaces were filled with bustling crowds.
“Stick by me,” Blair breathed. He let his fingers reach down to brush against the other man’s hand and the blond took a hold of it, intertwining each digit with his own. Theo could feel the thump of the other man’s pulse, the constant drumming pressure of it keeping him grounded as the noise of those around them only seemed to grow. The underground was made up of vast, tall tunnels, each lined with houses and shops and almost as wide as the streets on the surface. Many of the wolves that lived beneath the ground had grown used to the ever-present neon lights, the artificial changing of day to night. A huge portion of the wolves who lived here had probably never been exposed to humans, or the moonlight for that matter, perfectly content to hide away from the world. No doubt the markets here were filled with foods and objects from the surface and Theo watched people trade and barter with curiosity from under his hood.
The world was entirely different from the view Amile saw of her people. No one stopped to watch them go now, no wandering eyes of yellow or gold, only the lingering voices of salesmen that shouted over their heads. Theo wondered if this place made Blair feel lonely, if the separation of his family from his own kind had left him feeling adrift. Isolated. The Collar at his throat was strangely quiet now, only the barest inkling of what the man was feeling pulsing through it.
Blair stopped to glance up at the signs overhead and muttered a quiet, “This way,” before he trailed his human companion onward, their footsteps falling into a matching rhythm.
The werewolf let his hand drop as they entered the inner chambers and he cast a wary eye at the painted walls. The vacant halls echoed with voices, and they followed the sound to where the two Alpha’s stood around the chamber’s glass table. Erin’s wolfish ears perked up above her light-coloured hair, the furry appendages leading the turn of her head, “Mister Blackwolfe…” she started.
Amile twisted to watch them enter with a scowl that transformed her face. It was not a kind expression, her eyes burning as she growled out Blair’s name. She laid a hand on Erin’s arm and the woman stepped back to give her space, “You know that your pack privileges have been revok-”
Blair cut her off with an urgent bark, “We need to speak with you regarding the murders.”
Many thanks to @zooloo2008 for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the author
Janeen is an Irish author born and raised on the scenic Causeway Coast. Curious, and with a great love for adventure, Jan spent her childhood climbing trees and talking to her imaginary friends, many of whom have now found a home in her writing. She has a bachelor’s degree in advertising and works for gaming companies around the world. She is a lover of all things fantasy and aims to bring some magic to the places that she visits in her writing. Portstewart, Dublin and Chester City each feature prominently in both her travels and her writing, and her stories often draw from real life places that have captured her heart.
As an ultramarathon runner, Jan often writes on the go, using her trusty phone and stylus to craft scenes that come to her after hours on her feet. She lives with her husband, Liam, their Border Collie-Cross, Zarya, and their Guinea Pig, (Peek-A) Boo, who they all fear will one day take over the world!
Follow her at:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JLeeseTaylorAuthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/InkAndSmudge
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inkandsmudgebooks/
Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63327359-strays
Buy Link – https://geni.us/zAYEccA
Two people. One love story. Six days.
He loves me… He loves me not… He loves me…
Gemma knows that she and Finn are destined to be together. They are soulmates. But then, on their wedding day, he never arrives at the church.
Gemma is convinced Finn wouldn’t abandon her like this, even though he has disappeared once before. But back then he had a reason. She feels sure something terrible has happened, but no one else is convinced. Even the police aren’t concerned, telling Gemma most people who disappear usually turn up in a week… assuming they want to be found, that is.
For the next six days Gemma frantically searches for Finn, even though every shocking revelation is telling her to give up on him. Before long, even she begins to doubt her own memories of their love.
How long can she hold on to her faith in Finn if everyone is telling her to let him go?
My Review
I don’t normally read romance, so this was an exception for me. The story sounded intriguing and from that point of view I was not disappointed. However – and it’s a biggie – it was far too long. Every time we went back in time to the day Gemma and Finn met (it didn’t go well), the time they went on a date and he immediately left her to move to Australia, and all sorts of other disastrous meetings, I glazed over and started to skim read.
I wanted the story to move forwards. A bit of background is OK, but it went on and on. I lost the will to live at this point. Then suddenly the pace changed and we began to find out the truth.
Gemma always believed that Finn loves her and would never have walked out, leaving her at the altar – literally – like a spare part at a wedding. As far as her best friend Hannah and her dad and even the police are concerned, that’s exactly what happened. And all the evidence points to it. But Gemma is not about to give up.
I would have really enjoyed this book if had been about one third shorter. And the twists that come flying in at the end would have had more impact. But it’s undeniably a well written novel, with some well-rounded characters and enjoyable banter between Finn and Gemma.
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read.
About the Author
Dani Atkins is an award-winning novelist. Her 2013 debut Fractured (published as Then and Always in North America) has been translated into sixteen languages and has sold more than half a million copies since first publication in the UK. Dani is the author of four other bestselling novels, two of which, This Love and A Sky Full of Stars, won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award, in 2018 and 2022 respectively. Dani lives in a small village in Hertfordshire with her husband, one Siamese cat and a very soppy Border Collie. Follow Dani on Twitter @AtkinsDani
+ art, crime fiction, dark humour, Detective novel, fiction, jealousy, murder, murder mystery, obsession, police drama, review, thriller
The Other Half by Charlotte Vassell
You know how they live. This is how they die.
THE NIGHT BEFORE
Rupert’s 30th is a black tie dinner at the Kentish Town McDonald’s – catered with cocaine and Veuve Clicquot.
THE MORNING AFTER
His girlfriend Clemmie is found murdered on Hampstead Heath. All the party-goers have alibis. Naturally.
This investigation is going to be about Classics degrees and aristocrats, Instagram influencers and who knows who. Or is it whom? Detective Caius Beauchamp isn’t sure. He’s sharply dressed, smart, and as into self-improvement as Clemmie – but as he searches for the dark truth beneath the luxury, a wall of staggering wealth threatens to shut down his investigation before it’s begun.
Can he see through the tangled set of relationships in which the other half live, and die, before the case is taken out of his hands?
My Review
‘Rupert’s 30th is a black tie dinner at the Kentish Town McDonald’s – catered with cocaine and Veuve Clicquot.’
That says it all really. Who has a black tie dinner at McDonald’s? Closing the whole place and terrifying the staff with their drug and champagne-fuelled antics. These are our supposed future leaders, reminiscent of the Bullingdon Club, they will buy their way out of trouble with daddy’s money and one day sit in the House of Lords. Heaven help us (and the Hippos) – no wonder the country has gone to the Corgis. More about the Hippos later.
While the revellers are enjoying pouring the bubbly down their throats and the powder up their noses, Rupert’s girlfriend Clemmie is lying dead on Hampstead Heath, her perfectly turned-out, Instagrammable ankles sticking out of the undergrowth. Which is where he finds her. It’s obvious even before forensics get to the body that she’s been murdered. But first she needs to be identified. That’s not too difficult as she’s all over Instagram. She was an Influencer. Of course she was.
It’s up to Caius and his colleagues Matt and Amy to find out the truth, but with these sorts of people, money buys silence and everyone at the party has an alibi. Especially Rupert, unfortunately. Undeniably handsome and charming, Clemmie loved him, but he was going to ditch her the day after the party and her death is actually rather convenient. Because he has always been in love with Nell, but she has just embarked on a relationship with Alex. And if you think that’s complicated….
Wherever Caius, Matt and Amy investigate, there is a charity box for Help the Hippos? Coincidence? There are no coincidences in good policing and they are determined to find out what it means before the investigation is taken out of their hands.
I adored this book. The characters are larger than life, wonderfully drawn in all their hateful glory, especially the obscenely rich Rupert Achilles de Courcy Beauchamp and the obscenely beautiful Nell – the dark and the light – the pompous and the mildly eccentric. The banter between Caius and Matt is hilarious, the names are ridiculous, it’s full of references to the classics and Jane Austen, and the Chief Superintendent is referred to as the great pooh-bahh.
One of my favourite books of the year so far.
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read.
About the Author
Charlotte Vassell studied History at the University of Liverpool and completed a Masters in Art History at SOAS, University of London, before training as an actor at Drama Studio London. Other than treading the boards, Charlotte has also worked in advertising, executive search, and as a purveyor of silk top hats.
+ demon, family, fiction, friendship, healing, literature, love, mindfulness, relationships, review, spirituality, therapy
Awakening by Abby Wynne
When Marissa’s fiancé leaves her unexpectedly, she is left trying to put the broken pieces of her life back together again.
The magical years of her childhood are now lost or long forgotten and, trapped in a downward spiral of worry and anxiety, nothing seems to be bringing the magic back any time soon.
Training to become a therapist, Marissa discovers an unforeseen talent for helping others and, for a while at least, she puts her own needs and concerns to one side. An unexpected windfall prompts a spontaneous trip to Peru, and an encounter while she is there triggers an astonishing series of events.
#Awakening @AbbyNrgHealing #InnerCompassTrilogy #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour
Shaken but excited, Marissa embarks on a wonderful journey of revelation and adventure – after which, her life will never be the same again. Marissa’s story is your story, is my story, is everybody’s story: we each must find our own true path through life, our one true way.
Abby Wynne, author and Shamanic Psychotherapist, brings all her wisdom to bear on Marissa’s amazing tale of discovery and healing. A catalyst for people’s healing processes, Abby is a problem solver, a creative artist, an alchemist, a healer, a mother, a daughter, a lover of life – and it shows in this, her first novel.
My Review
When I started reading Awakening, I knew nothing about Shamanism or spiritual healing, other than once visiting a Reiki practitioner (so I could review my experience for a magazine). Awakening is quite an eye-opener. I learnt so much.
I was very excited by the idea of the oracle cards and purchased a set as soon as I finished reading the book. I wish I could have ‘Bear’ as my spirit guide all the time. I also purchased a sage smudge stick. I love the smell, it’s gorgeous. Sorry, I’m rambling.
Marissa is struggling to get over the break-up of her relationship with James. They were going to get married, have two children – a girl and a boy – and spend the rest of their lives together. Then James left her and she still doesn’t know why. He married someone else and started a family with her.
Marissa has a boring job in an office, where she works with Sarah. She is also training to be a psychotherapist. Sarah persuades her to go to Peru and having just received some money from an uncle, she can afford to go. It’s not the kind of thing she usually does. And while for Sarah, it’s a holiday with the hope of finding romance, for Marissa, it’s the trip of a lifetime. She discovers her talent for healing and it changes the direction that her life is taking.
Her spiritual adventure will lead her to Shamanism, Reiki and guardian angels, amongst other paths. The ‘journeys’ she takes as part of her training are described in such detail and are wrapped around a story of lost love, being an outsider in a Jewish family (my Jewish mother married a Polish Catholic so this I understand), finding oneself and learning to love and trust again. It’s a beautiful book with a message for all of us: ‘we each must find our own true path through life, our one true way.’
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
About the Author
Abby Wynne is the bestselling author of the One Day at a Time Diary, How to Be Well and Energy Healing Made Easy. She helps people release what is in the way of living an empowered, wholehearted life. She lives in Ireland with her husband, four children, and their dog and cat! The Inner Compass Trilogy is her first major work of fiction. Look out for Expansion, the final book in the series, in early 2023. Join Abby for pre-recorded sessions, self-paced healing programmes and live group healing sessions via www.abbysonlineacademy.com
SOCIAL MEDIA:
You can join Abby via
Telegram: https://t.me/abbywynneauthor
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Websites: www.abby-wynne.com & www.abbysonlineacademy.com
She is the missing girl. But she doesn’t know she’s lost.
Carmel Wakeford becomes separated from her mother at a local children’s festival, and is found by a man who claims to be her estranged grandfather. He tells her that her mother has had an accident and that she is to live with him for now. As days become weeks with her new family, 8-year-old Carmel realises that this man believes she has a special gift…
While her mother desperately tries to find her, Carmel embarks on an extraordinary journey, one that will make her question who she is – and who she might become.
My Review
I loved this book. I know there are many books written about children being abducted, but this was quite different.
Eight-year-old Carmel often hides from her mother Beth, but this time she can’t be found. A man who claims to be her grandfather has taken her. He tells her that her mother has been in a devastating accident and he is to take care of her for now. Her mother doesn’t get any better, so she has to stay with him. He also tells her that her father doesn’t want her because he has a new family now with Lucy.
But ‘Gramps’ has another agenda. He believes that Carmel has a special gift of healing and together they can travel and make people better. And make a living. Who is this man as he is clearly not her real grandfather. Or is he?
In the meantime, Beth’s life has come to a standstill. Every day she looks for Carmel, holding on to every sighting, every crank who claims to have seen her and every new lead. Carmel’s body has never been found, so there is no reason to believe she has been killed.
I read this in 11 staves with The Pigeonhole book club. I couldn’t wait for the next instalment to be released. I loved reading about Carmel’s life probably more so than Beth’s. It was so unusual. Most children in stories nowadays are kidnapped for ransom, sex trafficking etc. Not to be hiked round another country as a ‘healer’.
I know there are a few things that are marginally far-fetched like how did Carmel and Gramps leave the country, though that is kind of revealed or hinted at much later on. Why did Carmel never try to run away or tell anyone who she was? Was no-one ever suspicious enough to report what they had witnessed?
I’m always been fascinated by religious fervour, cults etc, so this book was perfect for me. I now want to read the sequel.
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read.
About the Author
Kate Hamer grew up in the West Country and Wales. She studied art and worked for a number of years in television. In 2011 she won the Rhys Davies short-story prize and her short stories have appeared in various collections. Her debut novel The Girl in the Red Coat was published in 2015. It was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Prize, the British Book Industry Awards Debut Fiction Book of the Year, the John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger, and the Wales Book of the Year. It was followed by the acclaimed The Doll Funeral in 2017 and Crushed in 2019. Kate now lives with her husband in Cardiff.
+ childhood, Dogs, feel-good, fiction, friends, friendship, homelessness, humour fiction, loneliness, loss, review
Lost & Found by James Gould Bourn
Ronnie has resigned himself to a life of loneliness.
His life in the crumbling seaside town of Bingham-on-Sea never seemed that bad, but since the loss of his father, the highlights of Ronnie’s solitary days include manning the lost property office at the bus station where he works, and plaguing his local GP with increasingly outlandish ailments. Forgotten or underestimated by all those around him, Ronnie is lost, and he’s not expecting to be found.
#LostAndFound @JPGouldBourn @orionbooks @Tr4cyF3nt0n #CompulsiveReaders #blogtour
But when a chance encounter leads Ronnie to reluctantly foster Hamlet, an unwanted stray dog, his empty days begin to fill with all manner of new responsibilities and experiences.
Can these two lost souls help each other to find a new lease of life?
My Review
I literally read this in a day, finishing at one o’clock in the morning. It has everything. It’s sad, hilariously funny at times, poignant, includes an ugly but lovable dog called Hamlet (no not after the Prince of Denmark – after the next town where he was found, which happens to be called Hamlet) and a group of mismatched lonely protagonists.
‘He likes you,’ said Cate. ‘I can see it in his eyes.’
Ronnie looked at Hamlet. Hamlet’s dodgy eye also looked at Hamlet.
‘Really?’ said Ronnie. ‘And which eye would that be exactly?’
‘The gammy one. It only rolls around like that when he likes someone.’
Ronnie has lost his shadow. He has no idea how or why, only that he can no longer see it. Maybe that is why Hamlet is so wary of him. Dogs can sense things. Ronnie also visits the doctor – the only medical professional (loosely speaking) in run-down Bingham-on-Sea – every couple of weeks, having consulted Google and convinced he has everything from tetanus to a lump on his bum and a tropical disease only caught in a country he has never been to (or even heard of). He can’t tell the doctor about his missing shadow though as it’ll make him sound even madder than the doctor already thinks he is.
The doctor scenes are hilarious. ‘Yes,’ said Dr Sterling. ‘I can feel it.’
Ronnie swallowed and braced himself for the news. ‘What do you think it is?’
‘I think it’s your bum cheek.’
Ronnie sighed. ‘Not that round thing, the other round thing?’
‘That’s your other bum cheek.’
‘I don’t think you’re taking this very seriously.’
‘I’m not.’
‘Well that’s comforting,’ said Ronnie.
‘I’m not here to comfort you. Watch The Golden Girls if you want comfort. I’m here to tell you whether or not you have a legitimate medical complaint, and as per usual, you do not.’
Ronnie is a hypochondriac. And lonely since his father died. His mother had run off with the neighbour 35 years ago and his dad became his only friend. Ronnie works at the bus station with Carl and their boss Alan. He has been put in charge of the Lost & Found office, except no-one wants to claim any of it back. Except homeless woman Pearl that is, only none of it belongs to her. In the end Alan tells him to get rid of it. Ronnie can’t just dump it, so he takes most of it to the charity shops, but they don’t want the part chewed dog toys, so he takes them to the dog shelter and that’s where he meets Cate … and Hamlet. And somehow Cate manages to persuade him to take Hamlet home with him for a few days.
I love Cate. She’s knowledgeable about everything, a mine of useless trivia, unless you are a contestant on University Challenge, everyone tells her.
And it’s through Hamlet that he meets Brian who wants to train his cat to be a dog, Harriet who sits on the beach every day atop what looks like a life guard’s watchtower, and how he befriends the neighbour whose husband ran off with his mum.
This is such an enjoyable read. I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants a book in 2023 that will make their spirit soar.
Many thanks to @Tr4cyF3nt0n for inviting me to be part of the #CompulsiveReaders #blogtour
About the Author
James Gould-Bourn is an award-winning screenwriter and novelist from Manchester, England. His debut novel, Bear Necessity, has been published in 13 languages and his short films have been screened at several international film festivals. His most recent film, Champ, qualified for consideration at the 2022 Academy Awards. It was directed by Emmy award-winning director Ben Tricklebank and premiered at Cinelounge in Hollywood. James currently lives in Bristol, UK.
+ adventure, climate fiction, crime fiction, friendship, grief, journalist, lies, loss, love, marriage, murder, mystery, revenge, review, serial killer, thriller
Green Shoots by Ben Westwood
OUT OF THEIR ASHES, GREEN SHOOTS WILL GROW
The Constant Gardener meets Dexter – Green Shoots is a gripping conspiracy thriller with an ecological heart.
Brought back from the brink of suicide by a mysterious phone call, grieving journalist John Adamson is on a quest for the truth about his wife Christina’s death in South America.
#GreenShoots @benwestwood @CranthorpeBooks @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour
A private investigator provides John with clues to what really happened, but also tips him off to investigate a spate of deaths of businessmen, all found with the same cryptic message: ‘Out of their ashes, green shoots will grow.‘
From the protest-filled streets of London to the ravaged jungles of Ecuador, John is unwittingly drawn into a lethal plot.
There seems to be a vigilante killer on the loose, but who is behind these murders and what is the connection to his wife’s death?
My Review
Originally, I wasn’t even going to read Green Shoots. It didn’t appeal to me. I was afraid it would be too political. It’s not that I’m not interested in politics or the environment – I am – I just prefer to keep it separate from the fiction I read.
But then I did and I was literally blown away. It was nothing like I expected. So much heart and emotion. And then the locations I was familiar with – Beachy Head (though I’ve never tried to jump or take a selfie on the edge), Birling Gap and the steps leading down to the pebble beach, Brighton, Hove, The Seven Sisters (I hiked up and down those for the Macmillan Cancer charity). Unfortunately, I’ve never been to Ecuador, but I can see the beauty in my mind’s eye and despair for the birds, the jaguars and the monkeys.
Green Shoots is quite a simple story really. Journalist John Adamson has lost his beautiful wife and no longer able to cope, he takes himself up to Beachy Head. But he receives a call which stops him literally going over the edge. The man on the line knows where he is and why and tells him that he knows the truth about Christina’s death. He also persuades him to investigate the mysterious, seemingly unrelated murders of successful businessmen, all found with the same cryptic message: ‘Out of their ashes, green shoots will grow.’
Desperate to find out what happened to Christina in Ecuador, John is drawn into a dangerous world, where someone has a personal vendetta against these men. But is it enough to kill them and is it because they were all involved in plundering the Ecuadorian forests in order to make money from oil, timber, leather etc.
The scenes where John witnesses the destruction of the environment and the unbalancing of the delicate ecosystem were very harrowing – more harrowing that the grisly murders, because it’s really happening.
I can’t even begin to say how much I loved this book and everything it represents.
Many thanks to @zooloo2008 for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the Author
Ben Westwood is an author, lecturer and performer. He has worked for many years as a journalist, writing for publications including The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Guardian and The Independent. He lived for several years in South America and has authored travel guidebooks to Ecuador, Galapagos and Peru. Green Shoots is his first novel and draws on his own experience of grief and of living in Ecuador.
Ben now lives in East Sussex with his two children and lectures at the University of Brighton. In his spare time, he is a singer-songwriter and has released two self-funded albums.
To accompany the release of his debut novel, Ben is releasing a Green Shoots Soundtrack of 10 original songs on the themes of grief, loss, love and healing, available on Spotify, iTunes and all major music channels from September 2022. For further information on all Ben’s writing and music, benwestwood.net or music on benwestwoodmusic.com.
Follow him at:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/benwestwoodwriter
Twitter: https://twitter.com/benwestwood
Instagram: www.instagram.com/benwestwoodwrite
Website: www.benwestwood.net
Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62898865-green-shoots
Buy Link – https://geni.us/QDyqA43
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