+ alcoholism, childhood, dark humour, family, fiction, motherhood, music, relationships, review, thriller
Mother’s Day by Abigail Burdess
SHE GAVE YOU LIFE. WHAT IF SHE WANTS IT BACK?
The last thing Anna needs is a baby. Abandoned, adopted and living hand to mouth, she never dreamt of having a real family.
But when she meets her birth mother, everything changes – because the same day, she learns she’s going to be a mother too.
#MothersDay @AbigailBurdess @headlinepg @Wildfirebks #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour
Marlene is eccentric, generous with her considerable fortune and overjoyed to become a grandmother. Anna’s living the dream. But is it her dream, or someone else’s? Now she will have to decide what she’s willing to sacrifice for a real family – her future, her freedom, even her unborn child.
My Review
Get to the top of the list! This was totally bonkers and I loved it! It’s not even trying to be anything else (I hope I haven’t got that wrong). I’ve read a couple of reviews that said it rapidly spins out of control until it becomes utterly batshit crazy (latter are my words not theirs). I think that’s the whole point of the dark humour. To me it was perfect.
I read it in one sitting while I was off sick and my husband was at work, but I’d probably have taken the day off to finish it if I wasn’t (only joking work peeps).
Anna is so desperate to have a relationship with her ghastly mother Marlene, who left her in an orange handbag (yes a HAAANDBAAG – we get it) on a roundabout, that she is easily drawn into the madness that is Ma’s family. Ma wasn’t hard to find in the end and their ‘reunion’ just happens to coincide with Anna’s discovery that she’s pregnant.
Dermot is Anna’s boyfriend. Six foot five inches tall, Irish and scruffy, he’s a talented musician. Unfortunately he’s also an alcoholic. And I found him a bit dim (or maybe just too drunk to realise what’s going on). When Anna is in trouble he doesn’t rush to her aid. I wanted to scream at him. But he’s happy. Ma is stinking rich and some of it might just rub off.
Neil is Dermot’s fellow band musician. He is far too handsome for his own good and he has a bit of a thing for Anna. She knows it but doesn’t acknowledge the fact.
Marlene initially is all welcoming and generous with her fortune, but does she have her own agenda? Of course she does and Anna’s baby is central to it. But how accepting can Anna be about her mother’s plans for her?
Some readers may find some of the book quite shocking – her friend Layla’s cussing, graphic descriptions of rape and torture in war zones, intimate close ups of personal body parts (no pictures thank goodness), blood, gore and flying placentas – but don’t be put off. Keep an open mind – at times my mind was so open I thought my brain would flip out of the window.
It’s undoubtedly bizarre but it is officially now my favourite book of the year.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
About the Author
Abigail Burdess has written for and acted in various comedy shows for the television, radio and stage. She also sometimes writes TV for kids, as well as plays and musicals. She lives in London with her husband, Robert Webb and their two children. Mother’s Day is her first novel. For book updates, follow Abigail online: @AbigailBurdess
+ abuse, family, fiction, grief, loss, love, marriage, motherhood, review, secrets, sisters, thriller
If She Lives (Harlow Series #3) by Erik Therme
Tess Parker knows tragedy better than most.
After surviving the death of her daughter and kidnapping of her nephew, Tess is ready to return to normal life.
#IfSheLives @ErikTherme @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour
But her troubled past has other plans, and when an old threat reemerges, Tess must seek the help of an unlikely ally to set things right.
No matter what the cost.
My Review
It’s exactly a year since I read and reviewed If She Wakes, the second book in the series, a year after reading and reviewing the first book, If She Lives. I read it in one day, though I admit I was at home off sick. Again it’s a short book which moves at a fast pace.
In the first book we met Tess after her five year old daughter Lily was killed by a hit-and-run driver Brady Becker. Tess closes down emotionally and risks putting her marriage to Josh in jeopardy.
In the second book, Tess and her sister-in-law Torrie are in a car crash. Before Torrie slipped into coma, she asked Tess and her husband, Josh, to take care of her baby son Levi. Much of the book focuses around Torrie’s sisters, Jessie and Mia, and around a man called Gordon, brother of Tess’s old school friend Amy. It helps if you have read the first two books, but in case you haven’t I won’t give away any spoilers.
In book three, Tess and Josh are having a trial separation and Tess is living with Torrie and Levi, looking after Levi in the daytime while Torrie goes to work. Things are seemingly peaceful for a while until a past threat rears its ugly head and Tess must seek out an enemy and ask for her help. What could possibly go wrong?
A lot it would seem, Tess and her now-ally crossing state lines to escape the danger, while Torrie and Levi have their own itinerary, and Josh just won’t let go.
It’s exciting and fast moving and ties up a lot of loose ends. Except one. Who will take care of Echo the rescue cat? I’m still worried. I need resolution.
Many thanks to @zooloo2008 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
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ErikTherme
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ErikTherme.writer
Website: https://eriktherme.com/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/7831573.Erik_Therme
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Erik-Therme/e/B00IAS90UA/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1
Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62084348-if-she-lives
Buy Links – https://geni.us/7hMqchj
+ childhood, crime fiction, family, fiction, grief, jealousy, lies, loss, love, marriage, motherhood, murder, obsession, review, secrets, therapy, thriller
The Sleepwalker by LC George
Our dreams can be forgotten. But our nightmares will haunt us forever.
Sam Fulford is living a perfectly normal life, except for one little thing: a strange sleep condition that causes him to roam in the night and occasionally become violent.
So when Sam wakes one devastating morning to discover his wife dead beside him and his baby daughter missing, his whole world implodes. Did he accidentally kill his wife during a night time episode? If so, where is his baby?
#TheSleepwalker #LCGeorge @inkubatorbooks @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour
Just as Sam begins to accept the possibility that he is guilty, he finds a photograph that makes him realise someone else may be involved, that he may be innocent and might yet find his missing daughter.
But there’s a complication. Sam has a dark secret that he just can’t allow to surface. And it’s soon made clear to him that if he presses on with his quest to find out what happened that terrible night, his secret will be revealed to the world.
Leaving Sam wondering whether it might be better to confess to a crime he’s not even certain he committed. Faced with an unimaginable dilemma, Sam begins to wonder: would it be better for everyone if he was guilty?
My Review
A book like no other – at least not for me. I have heard of parasomnia but never read a novel in which it featured. I do, however remember a case in 2009 when a husband was acquitted of his wife’s murder.
A “decent and devoted” husband who strangled his wife while he dreamt she was a intruder has been cleared of murder after the Crown Prosecution Service accepted he had not been in control of his actions but was not a danger to anyone else. (The Guardian)
There have been others.
Sam Fulford wakes one morning to discover his wife Tess dead in the bed next to him and baby Cora not in her cot. He searches frantically but she is nowhere to be found. He calls the police but they of course suspect him. It’s usually the husband or partner isn’t it? The trouble is, because of his parasomniac episodes, he can’t be sure that he didn’t kill her, but if so where is Cora? Sam could try therapy, but has always resisted in case his terrible childhood secret comes out. Now may be the time.
The book flips around various points of view, including Sam (now), his wife (going back to when they met until now) and another character who will become clear part way through. All three of these characters come to life in the author’s skilful hands (or should it be words), particularly the third one who becomes increasingly bonkers and delusional. I love a good she/he descended into madness in true Shakespearean fashion.
It’s highly entertaining and a great read. I learnt a lot about Sam’s condition, but that still wouldn’t prevent me from being scared to fall asleep in the same bed.
Many thanks to @zooloo2008 for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the Author
After spending her working life searching unsuccessfully for a fulfilling career, Laura George found her passion for writing psychological thrillers whilst on maternity leave with her first child. She took a leap of faith and didn’t return to work, instead running with her dream of continuing to write.
Now a mum of two, she lives with her children, husband and springer spaniel, Dougie on the beautiful Devonshire coastline. In the little spare time she gets, she loves nothing more than writing twisty thriller novels for the reader to untangle.
She spends most of her days with her children, in soft plays, on the beach or jumping in puddles, grateful that no one can see inside the corners of her mind as she conjures up the next dark character and plots their fate.
Follow her at:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100052597013465
Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/84321337-the-sleepwalker
Buy Link – https://geni.us/L8WCsA
27-year-old Daphne Barlow escapes her parents’ ruthless expectations as the heir to their Fortune 10 organic food brand and finds a different kind of ruthlessness—the remote town of Sierra Ridge in the inhospitable Sierra Nevada Mountains of Northern California.
Daphne seeks out an idyllic Mayberry existence in a small town where residents might appreciate her personal brand of homeopathic techniques and herbal cures. When her favorite client—John Sharpe, an army veteran in his 70s—goes missing and no one in the town seems to care, Daphne is deeply concerned. He saved her life once and she is bound and determined to return the favor.
Pitting herself against the townspeople, who assure her that Sharpe is just on a bender despite all the evidence she finds to the contrary, Daphne is drawn deeper and deeper into trouble, all while a wildfire rages closer and closer to the town.
My Review
I loved this and I seemed to be in the minority in my book club, because I rather liked Daphne. She’s a naive, overprivileged, white, middle class, idealistic idiot in her late twenties, who wants the world to be all sweetness and light. A bit like me at her age (apart from the wealthy parents). I can relate and I’m still idealistic.
Unfortunately life isn’t like that. So when she escapes her domineering ‘parents’ ruthless expectations as the heir to their Fortune 10 organic food brand’, she hopes to find peace and tranquility in ‘the remote town of Sierra Ridge in the inhospitable Sierra Nevada Mountains of Northern California’. But Sierra Ridge opens up a whole new level of ruthlessness to poor Daphne.
She has set herself up as a homeopathic healer and while she has a few clients, most people are suspicious of her. Then her favourite client John Sharpe, a 70-year-old army veteran, goes missing. She is determined to seek out the truth. But no-one is interested, claiming he’s probably gone on a bender, and no-one seems to care, not even the police.
The whole town seems to be against her and soon she realises that it goes deeper than that. They are actively trying to prevent her from discovering the sinister truth, and all the while the wildfires are getting closer. The last part of the book was a race against time. It was heart-stopping. A five-star read for me.
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole, the author, and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read.
About the Author
Amanda Traylor writes deliciously twisted mysteries and thrillers and has published eighteen works of fiction. She holds Bachelor of Arts in English and Journalism and a Master of Arts in Mass Communication Research. Before writing fiction full time, she spent ten years in the corporate game, but tries not to think about that except when crafting tales of horror. She grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area but now moves around the country like a nomad with her husband and toddler daughter. They currently call Colorado home where they live in a giant country house and begrudgingly battle snow.
+ alcoholism, brothers, crime fiction, family, fiction, friendship, jealousy, journalist, lies, marriage, motherhood, murder, politics, review, secrets, thriller
The Mother by TM Logan
Framed for murder. Now she’s free . . .
A woman attends a funeral, standing in the shadows and watching in agony as her sons grieve. But she is unable to comfort them – or reveal her secret.
#TheMother @TMLoganAuthor @Tr4cyF3nt0n #CompulsiveReaders #blogtour
A decade earlier, Heather gets her children ready for bed and awaits the return of her husband Liam, little realising that this is the last night they will spend together as a family. Because tomorrow she will be accused of Liam’s murder.
Ten years ago Heather lost everything. Now she will stop at nothing to clear her name – and to get her children back.
My Review
This is another of those ‘I couldn’t put it down’ books. It’s a cracking good read and it kept me up till one o’clock in the morning to finish it.
Heather has lost everything. Convicted of murdering her MP husband Liam, she was sentenced to 18 years. After nine years she is out on licence, but the rules are very strict. No contact with her family, including her two sons who she hasn’t seen since they were toddlers. No approaching anyone involved in the case, the police, the lawyers, no-one.
But Heather is determined to prove her innocence, whatever the cost. The trouble is, she can’t do it alone, but who can she trust?
Over the last nine years, there was someone, a journalist, the only sliver of light in the darkness. He believed that Liam was trying to uncover corruption in Parliament and was killed because of it. That the police missed the evidence, instead taking the easy route and arresting the wife for a crime of passion. He also tried to prove that people were being paid to keep quiet, but ended up in court for libel, losing everything including his career. His name is Owen Tanner and he’s nothing like Heather expected.
Can he help her and should she trust him? She also gets assistance from her roommate at the hostel where she has to live now she’s out, an ex-druggie and alcoholic called Jodie. Jodie understands how Heather feels, because she also lost her child when she was in prison – a daughter named Holly. And she knows how to break into houses and steal things when you need to.
It’s such an exciting book, I’m sure it will be on TV soon like The Holiday and The Catch. I certainly hope so.
Many thanks to @Tr4cyF3nt0n for inviting me to be part of the #CompulsiveReaders #blogtour
About the Author
T.M. Logan is a Sunday Times bestseller whose thrillers have sold more than 1 million copies in the UK and are published in 18 countries around the world. The Holiday was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick and has been a major TV drama. Formerly a national newspaper journalist, he now writes full time and lives in Nottinghamshire with his wife and two children. Follow him on Twitter @TMLoganAuthorFollow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram
+ autism, childhood, coming-of-age, family, fiction, literature, love, motherhood, relationships, review
All The Little Bird-Hearts by Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow
I lived for and loved a bird-heart that summer; I only knew it afterwards.
Sunday Forrester lives with her sixteen-year-old daughter, Dolly, in the house she grew up in. She does things more carefully than most people. On quiet days, she must eat only white foods. Her etiquette handbook guides her through confusing social situations, and to escape, she turns to her treasury of Sicilian folklore. The one thing very much out of her control is Dolly – her clever, headstrong daughter, now on the cusp of leaving home.
#AllTheLittleBirdHearts #VictoriaLloydBarlow @headlinepg @TinderPress #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour
Into this carefully ordered world step Vita and Rollo, a couple who move in next door, disarm Sunday with their charm, and proceed to deliciously break just about every rule in Sunday’s book. Soon they are in and out of each others’ homes, and Sunday feels loved and accepted like never before. But beneath Vita and Rollo’s polish lies something else, something darker. For Sunday has precisely what Vita has always wanted for herself: a daughter of her own.
My Review
Poor Sunday! Unloved by her mother, blamed for her sister’s death and then rejected by her husband, whom she refers to as the King, none of them understood her or why she behaves the way she does. Except maybe David at the farm, where she works. David is deaf and Sunday signs with him. He is probably my second favourite character, after Sunday.
As for her new next-door neighbours, Vita and her husband Rollo, they made my skin crawl from day one. Vita with her pretensions, her affectations and an accent so posh it’s ‘almost a speech impediment’, as someone once joked to me. I hope that’s not too un-PC. But Sunday is entranced by their charm, as is her sixteen-year-old daughter Dolly. Vita calls Sunday ‘Wife’ – no idea why – Rollo is Rols and Dolly is Doll. It’s like those people who refer to rugby as rugger, ‘Oh did you play rugger when you were up at Oxford, what.’ I’m not even sure how to use it in a sentence.
Vita arrives one day on Sunday’s doorstep, invites herself in and breaks every rule in Sunday’s etiquette handbook. Sometimes Vita turns up in an evening gown, at other times she’s wearing Rollo’s pyjamas with no underwear. She brings her little dog called Beast, smokes incessantly and assumes everyone adores her. Well I didn’t.
Sunday and Dolly are invited to Vita and Rollo’s Friday night dinner every week, where they drink copious amounts of Champagne (Sunday will only drink fizzy drinks), red wine and port. The menu includes hare (I remember my father cooking jugged hare and it smelled disgusting) and steak Tartare (in other words raw mince). My dad ate the latter as well.
I’m too squeamish, I’m afraid, to eat anything so ‘adventurous’, if that’s what you call it. Dolly is becoming increasingly frustrated with her mum, who has days where she only eats white food, and loves how Vita and Rollo have no such ‘issues’. Sunday has autism (about which I know very little), but neither her mother nor husband understood, just considered her outspoken, annoying and difficult. To Dolly she is just boring, while to Vita, Sunday is simply a means to an end.
I loved All The Little Bird-Hearts. It’s like poetry. The language is beautiful and lyrical and the author’s understanding of Sunday’s autism is both personal and sympathetic. But then Viktoria is also autistic and can write from her own extensive experience.
Of course, nowadays, it’s easy to criticise the lack of understanding of autism and neurodivergence, when information is out there for everyone to investigate. Thirty-plus years ago, it was misunderstood and someone like Sunday was considered too different and often inappropriate in her behaviour.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
About the Author
Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Kent, and has extensive personal, professional, and academic experience relating to autism. Like her protagonist, Viktoria is autistic. She has presented her doctoral research internationally, most recently speaking at Harvard College on autism and literary narrative. Viktoria lives on the Margate coast with her husband and children.
Deirdre and Arthur are on the case again so you know this will be fun.
Cryptic crosswords are good for the brain Arthur. I saw a programme…
But why does Deirdre have to read the clues out loud? It helps me think Arthur.
Arthur is angry about some missing computer parts. And he’s hungry. Deirdre’s new diet is like rabbit food and it gives him wind.
But it’s Deirdre’s crosswords that help Arthur solve the clues.
I love these two!
Written by Barbara Jennings
Directed by @EBraefield
Helen Fullerton @HelenFullyActor as Diedre Meadowes
and
Jonathan Legg @Jondlegg as DI Arthur Meadowes
Produced by Cat on a Piano Productions
Music:
Smoke Jacket Blues by Tracktribe
Dusk ’til Dawn by Tracktribe
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, depression, family, feel-good, female friendship, fiction, friends, friendship, grief, loss, love, marriage, mental health, motherhood, review
Em & Me by Beth Morrey
A mother. A daughter. A secret waiting to be uncovered.
The day that Delphine stands up for herself is the day that changes everything…
For too long, Delphine has been unable to let go of the past, obsessed with protecting her daughter, Em, and clinging to a secret that has cast a shadow over their lives. When a chance encounter offers a way out, Delphine seizes it with both hands. As their lives begins to fill with colour again, can she find the courage to change their lives forever?
My Review
If it was possible to give six stars to Em & Me on Amazon or Goodreads, I would. Beth has the ability to create such believable characters. Delphine is wonderful, but at times she is so negative you want to scream at her. Daughter Em is a joy. She’s clever almost to the point of genius level but she’s never precocious or unlikeable.
Delphine’s French mother died when Delphine was a child and her father – a piano tuner – fell to pieces. He’s out of tune but he can’t retune himself. Delphine became his carer as well as being a single mum to Em. They live in a tiny flat with only her income. She and Em still have to share a bed. And then she gets the sack from the coffee shop where she works (personally I think she deserved a medal).
Anyway, now she is away from her dreadful ex-boss Gio, so many opportunities begin to present themselves through some amazing people. Delphine finds a new job at a coffee shop called Merhaba, run by Eritreans Selassie and his wife Abrihet. They take her under their wing, treating her like family and teaching her to cook.
Then there is Roz, who introduces us to Sylvie, daughter of Letty who’s a right old bat – we had a name for a German relative – ‘die alte fledermaus’ – maybe someone could tell me the equivalent in French. But at least Letty knows she is. She takes some warming to, but she has a lovely cat called Aphra. And a generous heart if you don’t annoy her.
Roz is married to Sanjay, who once had a successful pop career and has started a band with his friend Dylan, who happens to teach music at Em’s school. Did I mention that Roz also teaches there? Whoops, I forgot. But Roz was once a successful actress and dreams of being one again.
So many people, so many dreams. Will any of them come true? Beth’s writing makes you care about all of them, but especially Delphine and Em. And then of course there’s the big question. Who is Em’s father? And what will happen when Em finds out?
I knew I wouldn’t get to the end without shedding a tear or ten. Au revoir mes amis. I’m going to miss you all.
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole, the author, and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read.
About the Author
Previously Creative Director at RDF Television, Beth Morrey now writes full time. Her debut novel, Saving Missy, was a Sunday Times bestseller and longlisted for the Authors’ Club First Novel Award.
Beth lives in London with her husband, two sons and a St Berdoodle named Phoebe.
+ Catholic Church, crime fiction, family, female friendship, fiction, fifties, friendship, illegitimacy, Ireland, loss, love, motherhood, murder, police drama, rape, religion, review, serial killer, sisters, sixties, thriller
Blood Mothers by Gaye Maguire
Some debts can only be paid in blood.
A rich socialite is found hacked to death in her Dublin home. It’s the beginning of a killing spree that leaves five apparently unconnected people brutally slain. Kate Hamilton, a brilliant and ambitious detective sergeant, is assigned to the case and soon uncovers the connection between the victims – they were all involved in an illegal adoption scheme which was running in Ireland up to the 1980s.
#BloodMothers @GayeMaguire9 @inkubatorbooks @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour
In a deeply traditional society, unmarried mothers were shamed by their families, forced to give birth in secret and surrender their newborns for adoption, fuelling a lucrative and cruel baby trade.
Now, decades later, it seems someone is taking bloody revenge on those who played a part in the adoption racket.
With each day bringing a new victim, Kate and her team race to stop the bloodshed. But when she discovers she has a personal link with both victims and murderer, Kate realises her own life is in danger as never before.
Blood Mothers – the first in the gripping new series featuring DS Kate Hamilton.
My Review
I loved this book so much. The subject matter is devastatingly sad and makes for a compelling read.
Did you ever see the film Philomena with Judi Dench and Steve Coogan? It takes place in Ireland, a very traditional country, where an illegitimate birth was the greatest shame that could be suffered by a young girl. Former journalist (Coogan) is asked by Philomena’s daughter to write the story of her mother (played by Dench), whose son was taken away at birth over 50 years earlier, and ‘given’ to a good Catholic family in America. At this time, unmarried mothers were sent off to convents to have their babies in secret and avoid bringing shame on the family.
This is the premise of Blood Mothers, but in this case there is a bloody and sinister twist. It starts with two women, brutally murdered in their own homes, with no apparent connection to each other. It’s only when Billy Butler, the elderly caretaker of the now disused St Mary’s Convent that was involved in the adoptions and secret baby trade, is also murdered, that a pattern begins to emerge.
DS Kate Hamilton has recently returned from working with the FBI in America, to join the Murder Squad of An Garda Síochána. She is called in to investigate the murders, along with her boss DI Jim Corcoran. But little does Kate know that her life is linked to both the victims and the killer, or that she is increasingly in danger.
In 1967, 14-year-old Rosie Jackson finds herself pregnant, having been raped by her cousin. She is sent away to St Mary’s to have her baby and is befriended by another girl called Bernie O’Toole. Rosie’s story is heartbreaking, as is that of Bernie and of the other girls sent away to St Mary’s.
We jump between the two timelines, Rosie in 1967 and Kate in 2010. I don’t always like this tactic, as the ‘now’ is often more interesting than the ‘then’ which can prevent the story from moving forward. But this is different. I loved Rosie’s story – maybe loved is the wrong word – often even more so than the murders. It’s hard to imagine that people were so cruel and judgemental in my lifetime, but they were and many young girls had to live with the consequences.
Many thanks to @zooloo2008 for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the Author
Gaye admits to a lifelong obsession with crime, and a keen interest in psychology and social history. She credits her parents, who were avid readers, with her love of fiction. When she graduated from Enid Blyton to Agatha Christie at age nine, so began a life of crime… reading. She enjoyed an award-winning career as a TV Producer/Director working for the BBC, ITV and RTE. She’s always written in her spare time, and during lockdown, when her husband built himself a workshop at the end of the garden, she seized control (peacefully) and renamed it her writing cabin. The result was Blood Mothers.
Now a full-time writer, she has three adult children and one adorable granddaughter. She lives in Dublin with her husband, to whom she now owes a workshop, two of her grown up kids and two rescue dogs who are not at all grown up, but make for great company at the bottom of the garden.
Blood Mothers is Gaye Maguire’s first book with Inkubator Books.
Follow her at:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gayemaguire/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gaye.maguire.1
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GayeMaguire9
+ crime fiction, fiction, grief, loss, love, motherhood, obsession, retreat, revenge, review, superstition, Sweden, University
The Wilderness Retreat by Jennifer Moore
I release myself from the shackles of the outside world and embrace the wilderness within.
As Bella drops her son off at university, she’s devastated. It’s been the two of them ever since Asher was born. The only thing helping her through is the upcoming week-long wilderness retreat in Sweden. It’ll be her chance to reconnect and recharge.
At the retreat, Bella basks in the beauty of the modern lodge, with its luxury rooms and picture-perfect views, the glistening lake and lush forest. For the full detox effect, everyone must surrender their phones.
The holiday seems idyllic until the person who ruined Bella’s life years ago arrives, threatening everything she’s worked hard for and will do anything to protect. Suddenly, a terrified Bella is trapped in the wild, knowing someone wants her dead…
My Review
If anyone ‘buys’ you a retreat in the middle of nowhere ‘to release yourself from the shackles of the outside world and embrace the wilderness within’, be very wary. Especially if it’s in a place called Dead Man’s Wood in an isolated location in Sweden (or anywhere else for that matter). And there’s a storm. And you are cut off from civilisation by fallen trees. And some of the others are self-obsessed twats. And someone is trying to kill you.
Single mum Bella’s son Asher has just gone off to university, after spending his whole life with just her. She is devastated to the point of overkill. Maybe it’s her creativity as a composer (she just composed the score for a film about a serial killer), that gives her an overactive imagination and I thought I was overprotective! The retreat is a gift from her sister in the hope that it will give her something else to focus on.
At the airport she is ‘accosted’ by fellow ‘retreatee’ (inmate? Victim?) Oscar Wildman (with a name like that I was bound to be an author – yes Oscar we get it), and soon meets the others on the journey. Krista is an older lady with a sad past, Hamar is half-Swedish and likes practical jokes (eg pushing people into freezing cold water without even checking whether they can swim, ha ha not), T is whatever, and Lena is a journalist who is reporting on her stay. They are met by the owners Stuart and Marie. The only staff are Saga and Rosel, who cook and clean.
It’s not long before things start to get weird and Bella begins to feel creeped out, assuming it’s all about her. To make it worse, everyone has to hand in their phones so they can truly experience the full detox. Then to add insult to injury, the guest speaker turns out to be someone from her past. Someone she had wanted to forget and never see again. And he has his wife with him. Even worse.
I so enjoyed this book. The characters are well-drawn and entertaining. Bella is annoying and I often struggled to sympathise, but I warmed to her in the end. I got the perpetrator totally wrong for most of the story, though I did get something else right – no spoilers. My fellow ‘pigeons’ and I had great fun trying to work out who was doing what, so buddy-reading with an online book club is highly recommended.
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole, the author, and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read.
About the Author
Jennifer Moore is a freelance writer, novelist and children’s author. She was the first UK winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and was previously shortlisted for the Greenhouse Funny Prize. Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous publications on both sides of the Atlantic, including in the Guardian, Mslexia, The First Line, Fiction Desk and Short Fiction.
+ crime fiction, Detective novel, fiction, friends, friendship, jealousy, kidnapping, marriage, murder, murder mystery, police drama, police procedural, review, thriller
No More Lies by Rachel Abbott
It would be unfair to blame the woman I met tonight for turning my life upside down. She didn’t. It was already upside down. I just didn’t know it.
Recently life has been good for Mallory Hansen: a great job, a lovely home, and a wonderful man, Nathan, to share it with.
But now she must ask herself: is it all built on lies?
A terrible accusation has been made against Nathan, and Mallory doesn’t know who to believe. All the signs point to his guilt. She has learned to trust Nathan, but she also remembers the fickle boy he used to be.
#NoMoreLies @RachelAbbott #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour
Together, Mallory and Nathan were part of a close-knit group of six friends until a vicious argument drove them apart. Now, fifteen years later, they are back in touch with one another, only to find themselves drawn into a web of mutual distrust, one by one…
The attacks on their lives are cleverly targeted, designed to hit them where they hurt the most, and when a young woman disappears and a baby is abducted, DCI Tom Douglas must try to unravel the past and discover the architect of their misery.
My Review
I’ve read quite a few of Rachel Abbott’s books – in fact this is number eight as far as I know, most of them being part of the DCI Tom Douglas thriller series. I’ve loved every single one. I’m a huge fan. This is my first blog tour though.
Having read so many of the others, I know a lot about Tom’s back story (though it doesn’t matter if you haven’t read them). I know about his brother Jack, his ex-wife, his daughter and his relationship with Louisa. And baby Harry of course. But on to the main story.
Mallory and Nathan were part of a group of six friends until an argument ended their friendship. Nathan had a fling with Jodie, but dropped her quite quickly for a girl outside the group (it might break up their friendship he told her), called Erin. That was also short-lived, because the only girl he really wanted was Mallory, but she knew he meant trouble. Fifteen years later, Mallory and Nathan are married – he swore he’d changed – but when Nathan is suspended at work for an accusation which he emphatically denies, Mallory has doubts. Is he the same womaniser he was all those years ago?
In the meantime, one of their other friends, Taya, has also been targeted, but at this point there isn’t a link. In fact the police don’t know yet that Taya, Mallory and Nathan were friends.
At times during the story, we jump back to that fateful night, fifteen years ago, when it all fell apart. Nathan, Mallory, Connor, Akin, Jodie and Taya decided to spend their last night drinking and celebrating before they all went off to university. But something happened when they got to their destination and played a silly game from their childhood. And that’s when it all went wrong.
This is a brilliant book, maybe even my favourite of Rachel’s novels. It’s exciting, fast-paced, well thought out, with a maturity that has grown since book one.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
About the Author
Rachel Abbott is a British author of psychological thrillers. As a self-published author, her first ten novels (and one novella) in the DCI Tom Douglas series have combined to sell over four million copies. All have been bestsellers on Amazon’s Kindle store, and her books have been translated into over 20 languages. In 2015, Rachel was named the number one bestselling self-published author in the UK and the 14th bestselling author (both published and self-published) over the previous five years on Amazon’s Kindle in the UK.
In 2017, following a five-way auction, Rachel signed a two-book deal with Headline Publishing Group. The first book, And So It Begins, was published in 2018 and features Sergeant Stephanie King. The second book in this series, The Murder Game was released in April 2020. Books three and four in the series are to be published by Headline in late 2023 and 2024.
Rachel’s writing career began in 2009, when she decided to write a book about a woman facing a situation which gave her no option but to commit murder. In November 2011, she published the story – Only the Innocent – on Amazon. It rose to number one in the charts and remained there for four weeks. Rachel followed up Only the Innocent with The Back Road, Sleep Tight, Stranger Child, Kill Me Again, The Sixth Window, Come A Little Closer, The Shape of Lies, Right Behind You and Close Your Eyes. All the thrillers in this series focus on the victims and perpetrators of the crimes, and the complex relationships that exist between protagonist and antagonist. This series features Detective Chief Inspector Tom Douglas.
Rachel grew up near Manchester, England. She worked as a systems analyst, and then founded an interactive media company, developing software and websites for the education market. When she sold the company in 2000, she moved to Italy where she restored a 15th-century Italian monastery. For a time she and her husband operated the property as a venue for weddings and holidays. She now lives on the Channel Island of Alderney in a Victorian Fort where she spends her days writing in her office – a former gunpowder shelter.
Follow her at:
Twitter: @RachelAbbott
Instagram: @rachelabbottwriter
Facebook: RachelAbbott1Author
Website: rachel-abbott.com
“I don’t want to be here” – based on a true story.
All reservists are being called up. But Lionel has already done his bit for King and country. Two and a half years as an officer. So why would he want to sign up as a guardsman?
It seems he has no choice. He’s been conscripted, but he doesn’t want to be here. Can he find ways to avoid fighting? Of course he can!
Very funny and inventive (particularly on Lionel’s part). I love Lionel’s mum as she gets more fed up with each phone call.
Written by Nigel Foster
Directed by Emmeline Braefield
With
Sally Hyde Lomax as Mrs Gwendoline Hetherdew
Ben Manning as Lionel Hetherdew
James Parsons as Sergeant Beaumont and Sergeant Rudger
Scott Peacock as Captain Horncock
and
Emmeline Braefield as The Telephone Operator
Produced by Cat on a Piano Productions
Music:
Invitation to the Castle Ball by Doug Maxwell
Brooke’s Triumphant March – United States Marine Band
Bike Sharing to Paradise by Dan Bodan
With Shot and Shell by the United States Marine Band
Away by Georgrapher
Strenuous Life by United States Marine Band
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…
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