Elves! Assemble!
If you ever wondered what those pesky Christmas ‘Elves on Shelves’ get up to when you are asleep, they are ‘elfing about’, climbing up and down the tinsel and knocking things over in people’s houses (accidentally of course).
‘We are here to watch the children of this household to make sure that they deserve to be on the Good List,’ says Elfie.
And hoping there aren’t any dogs, as elves are very very small – about the same size as a dog toy.
‘Didn’t you know that the family has a dog?’ asks Jingles. ‘If you don’t want to get chewed up…run!’ Elfie replies.
It’s really funny and the kids are amazing – there are no adult actors in this special production.
(And if you are a patron you get to hear the hilarious bloopers as well. You can become a patron by clicking here…)
Written by Emmeline Braefield
Directed by Tom Jordan, Jason Parkes, Danielle Lade & Genevieve Swift
With:
Elsie Parkes as Elfie
Scarlett Lade as Jingles
Holly Lade as Elfa
and
Harry Parkes as Brownie
Produced by Cat on a Piano Productions
Music:
Christmas Village by Aaron Kenny
Snow Princess by Jimena Contreras
Holly Dazed by RKVC
We Wish You a Merry Christmas (Instrumental) by E’s Jammy Jams
Jingle Bells by DJ Williams
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…
Bookchatter@cookiebiscuit is currently number 79 out of 100 on Feedspot Top 100 UK Book Blogs
See my entry here
+ crime fiction, dark humour, Detective novel, fiction, kidnapping, murder, police drama, police procedural, revenge, review, short stories, short story, thriller, World War Two, WW2
Case Files: Collected Short Crime Stories Vol. 1 by Rachel Amphlett
Discover twelve dark and twisted mysteries from USA Today bestselling author Rachel Amphlett.
This page-turning collection features The Man Cave in which Darren regains consciousness in a dank basement where escape turns out to be the least of his worries; in All Night Long Zoe soon wishes she wasn’t working the late shift; and in Nowhere to Run a rookie detective encounters her first serial killer… but will she survive?
#CaseFiles Instagram: @rachelamphlett Facebook: rachelamphlett.author #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour
Case Files Short Crime Stories Volume 1:
The Reckoning
A Grave Mistake
The Beachcomber
The Man Cave
A Dirty Business
The Last Super
Something in the Air
Special Delivery
A Pain in the Neck
The Last Days of Tony MacBride
The Moment Before
Nowhere to Run
Case Files: short crime fiction stories that will have you on the edge of your seat.
My Review
As there are so many stories, I have picked out the ones that resonated with me the most. That’s not to say the others weren’t brilliant as well.
‘…your sin will find you out.’ Isn’t that what they say? In The Reckoning nonagenarian Evelyn arrives at the nursing for one night respite care, so she isn’t left alone at home. Sadie tends to her needs and hears all about Evelyn’s time during the war when she sang to the troops.
Alan Hendrick is a lovely old man, whom everyone adores. Apart from Roger Sanders that is, who seems to have a problem with him. But is it all as it seems, or is someone keeping secrets? My favourite out of all of them.
In The Man Cave Darren wakes up in a dark, dank cellar. He’s tied to a chair and has no food or water. He remembers being pushed down the stairs. No-one knows where he is, and his wife Tess is away for five days. What if no-one comes to rescue him? Maybe he can find a way to escape.
But who would keep him down there? It can’t be for the money, so who hates him enough? The twist at the end was totally shocking and unexpected.
A Dirty Business, recycling, (though my husband says I am so obsessed, I should work in a recycling centre rescuing the soft toys). Michael Hawkins has been doing it for years and his wife Lisa makes him take his clothes off at the door and have a shower before entering the rest of the house because he stinks. But when she asks him to ‘take out the trash’ it’s a step too far. And results in yet another argument.
Heather doesn’t seem to mind though. Their affair has been carrying on in secret for a while now. But for Lisa, recycling will take on a whole new meaning.
The Last Super – Larry has been the superintendent at the flats for seventeen years, nine months and four days. He has looked after his tenants, particularly elderly Brenda Friedman, the Bancrofts and twenty-something Melissa, but now the building is to be demolished and a new development put up. He’s going to miss his ‘old friends’. Larry can’t leave though. He’s hiding a secret that would tear one family apart. But as always, Larry will have a solution.
Nowhere to Run is a short story that revolves around Detective Kay Hunter, who has featured in 11 best-selling books so far by Rachel Amphlett. It’s the longest of the Case Files.
Two women have been murdered, both runners, hit over the head with a blunt instrument while out on a jog. They didn’t know each other – the only similarity being the running and the fact that they went to a gym at some point. Kay is determined to find a link, if there is one, and ends up putting herself in danger in order to trick the killer into revealing themselves.
All the stories have a twist in the tail that you won’t see coming (though I admit I guessed one of them). I love a good short story and these are all brilliant.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
About the Author
Rachel has written more than 30 crime novels and short stories featuring spies, detectives, vigilantes, and assassins. The USA Today bestselling author has created two detective series, Detective Kay Hunter and Detective Mark Turpin as well as thrillers featuring Dan Taylor and Eva Delacourt.
Inspired by reading books as a child, her aim is ‘to write gripping stories that you won’t want to put down’.
Bookchatter@cookiebiscuit is currently number 79 out of 100 on Feedspot Top 100 UK Book Blogs
See my entry here
+ crime fiction, dark humour, Detective novel, Edinburgh, fiction, germany, memoir, murder, murder mystery, police drama, police procedural, revenge, review, rivalry, Scotland, thriller, World War Two
Hunter’s Revenge (The Edinburgh Crime Mysteries #2) by Val Penny
Hunter by name – Hunter by nature.
Detective Inspector Hunter Wilson is a loyal friend and a fair leader.
He is called to the scene of a murder in Edinburgh where the corpse has been fatally shot. He is dismayed to find the victim is his friend and colleague, George Reinbold. Hunter must investigate Reinbold’s murky past in Germany to identify George’s killer.
#HuntersRevenge @valeriepenny @SpellBoundBks @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours
At the same time, Hunter is tasked with looking into a previously undetected criminal gang supplying drugs from Peru. There seems to be no connection between the murder and the drug supply until Hunter unexpectedly secures help from inmates of the local jail.
Hunter’s investigations are hampered by distracted members of his team and unobservant witnesses.
Reinbold was not the quiet, old man Hunter believed him to be and his killer bore their grudge for a lifetime.
Hunter’s Revenge is the explosive second book in the DI Hunter Wilson thriller series.
My Review
The story starts off in Germany during the 2nd World War. Eighteen-year-old George Reinbold gets drunk one evening and does the unthinkable. It was supposed to be a prank, but it went terrifyingly wrong. The repercussions were huge and horrendous and he was forced to flee, never to return or see his family again. Until now.
Because George was not the quiet old man his colleagues believed him to be. His past has followed him to Edinburgh – you can tell by the security he had installed in his flat that he was worried about something. Rightly so, because when DI Hunter Wilson is called to investigate a murder, he realises the victim is none other than his friend George Reinbold. George had been shot in the head at point blank range – he never stood a chance.
But who would do such a thing? Someone from his past who blamed him for what happened after he fled his homeland, or someone he helped incarcerate during his career. And how is any of it linked to the drugs that are coming into the country from darkest Peru? And no, it’s not Paddington bringing them in under his hat with the marmalade sandwiches, but every time Peru was mentioned I did a little titter.
We will be reunited with Hunter’s colleagues such as Tim ‘young Myerscough’, whose father Sir Peter was sent to prison in book one, other members of the team including Jane, Rachael, Mel and ‘Bear’, pathologist Meera, plus a few new ones.
We also meet up again with Jamie Thompson, our hapless burglar from Hunter’s Chase, his cousin Frankie, whose girlfriend was killed, leaving him with twins and no sign of his acne improving (the descriptions of zit-popping are just as graphic and revolting as before), and Jamie’s father Ian, also incarcerated at Her Majesty’s pleasure (will it be ‘His’ in the next book), in the same prison as Sir Peter.
We also have some new villains and an interlinked plot which comes together satisfyingly at the end. Plenty of twists, plenty of banter and some dark humour as before. A great series!
Many thanks to @zooloo2008 for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the Author
Val Penny has an Llb degree from Edinburgh University and her MSc from Napier University. She has had many jobs including hairdresser, waitress, banker, azalea farmer and lecturer but has not yet achieved either of her childhood dreams of being a ballerina or owning a candy store. Until those dreams come true, she has turned her hand to writing poetry, short stories, nonfiction, and novels. Val is an American author living in SW Scotland. She has two adult daughters of whom she is justly proud and lives with her husband and their cat.
Follow her at:
Twitter : https://twitter.com/valeriepenny
Instagram : www.instagram.com/valerieepenny
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/Authorvalpenny
Website : www.valpenny.com
Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63894852-hunter-s-revenge
Buy Link – https://geni.us/sMr9O
+ brothers, bullying, crime fiction, family, fiction, kidnapping, lies, murder, murder mystery, Psychological fiction, review, secrets, thriller
Her Husband’s Lies by TJ Brearton
Callie has a great life, living in a ten-acre home in the Adirondacks with her husband, Abel. Their son is away at college and Callie, a writer, is content living a relatively secluded life. Then Abel skids off the road into an icy lake.
No one heard anything.
No one saw anything.
But Abel is left in a coma in a Vermont hospital.
#HerHusbandsLies #TJBrearton @JoffeBooks @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour
Things seem bad but they’re about to get even worse. Now Callie is getting calls from a woman who claims to know more about the accident. Callie is skeptical, though a few things do line up, and she’s always wondered why her husband was where he was at the time of the accident.
Then every spouse’s worst nightmare: police tell Callie her husband is a suspect in the disappearance of two teenage girls. Callie will do whatever it takes to clear his name. But is she really ready for the truth about her husband . . . ?
My Review
I was a beta reader for this back in April. I read it then in two days. My heart was in my mouth for most of it. I really cared about Callie and about Althea too. The constant suspense and the surprises that were added every day.
I was invited to read the ‘finished’ book and then to be on the blog tour so I jumped at the chance. I also read it again from scratch as I knew there would be changes and edits. To be honest I had forgotten quite a lot, which is a good thing as it was like reading a totally new story.
It was just as exciting the second time round. Imagine being in Callie’s shoes – her husband Abel is in a coma following a horrific accident. Then she gets a call from a young woman called Althea Cooper, whom she has never met or even heard of, telling her that her husband’s ‘accident’ was not an accident. Someone rammed his car off the road and into the frozen lake. In her mind Althea has alternative memories in which she can see a box shaped house, a green SUV and bears, lots of them. But then the Adirondacks is full of bears.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, the police are treating her husband as a ‘person of interest’ in the disappearance of two teenage girls. And why was her husband in the vicinity of the lake anyway? He had no reason to be there.
But Callie knows her husband, knows him inside out. After all, they’ve been together for decades and have a grown-up son. Abel wouldn’t do anything like that, would he. And now he’s a soft target, lying unconscious in the hospital.
Callie, of course, isn’t going to leave it there. She’s going to investigate, not just about the crash, but also to clear Abel’s name. Can Althea help or is she a fraud? And is Detective Footman on her side? Or does he believe Abel is guilty? Another great book from one of my favourite authors.
Many thanks to @zooloo2008 for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the Author
T.J. Brearton’s books have reached half a million readers around the world and have topped the Amazon charts in the US, UK, Canada and Australia. A graduate of the New York Film Academy in Manhattan, Brearton first worked in film before focusing on novels. His books are visually descriptive with sharp dialogue and underdog heroes. When not writing, Brearton does whatever his wife and three children tell him to do. They live happily in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. Yes, there are bears in the Adirondacks. But it’s really quite beautiful when you’re not running for your life.
+ abuse, child abduction, crime fiction, fiction, kidnapping, lies, ransom, revenge, review, secrets, thriller
Behind Closed Doors by Carol Wyer
Two kidnappings, thirty years apart. Can Stacey face her own dark past in order to save her stepdaughter?
When Stacey’s ex-husband turns up on her doorstep begging her to help save his kidnapped thirteen-year-old daughter, Lyra, the terror is all too familiar. Stacey’s own violent kidnapping thirty years ago was never solved, and while a severe case of amnesia spares her from recalling the specific horrors, she remembers enough…
#BehindClosedDoors @carolewyer @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour
Stacey knows her father never paid the ransom—she has the missing pinkie finger to prove it. She knows she was only saved because of an anonymous tip-off to the police. And she knows her captor was never apprehended.
Lyra’s kidnappers have made it clear the police must not get involved. But Stacey can’t shake the eerie similarities between the two cases, and she’ll use whatever she can, from her journalistic powers to her shady contacts, to save Lyra from the same nightmare. Desperate to find any link between Lyra’s abduction and her own, Stacey forces herself to revisit her forgotten, traumatic past for clues.
But can she make sense of the terrible secrets she unearths in time to save Lyra? And if she does, is she ready to face her own tormentor?
My Review
This was my second Carol Wyer novel and I wasn’t disappointed. It turned out to be far more complicated than a ‘simple’ kidnapping, so concentrate! It was also very different.
Kidnappings in the UK are far more common than I realised, BUT the majority are carried out by someone known to the victim. Estranged partners kidnapping their own children, drug related kidnaps etc. Children under sixteen kidnapped by total strangers to obtain a ransom are very rare in the UK and most of them are unsuccessful. So the idea that two related children are randomly kidnapped is statistically unlikely.
Stacey understands this, which is why she is convinced that when Lyra is taken, it has something to do with her own kidnap thirty years ago. But why would someone wait that long? It doesn’t make sense.
Ex-husband Jack (Lyra’s dad) is terrified that the kidnapper will kill his daughter if they call the police, so when he comes to Stacey for help, he insists no police. But Stacey knows they can’t do this on their own and enlists the help of two former police officers and a hacker.
One of the things that were missing from Stacey’s own violent abduction (apart from her amputated finger and part of her ear) was her memory of what happened. I loved the part where she tries to unpack her memories – I won’t say how – but it was probably my favourite part of the book, though I am biased. Again I can’t say why.
And why did her father Henry refuse to pay the ransom? The more she digs, the more she uncovers, and it’s very unpalatable.
This was a great book, well written and exciting with so many twists that I could never have guessed the outcome. Netflix, are you reading this? You should be.
Many thanks to @zooloo2008 for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the Author
USA Today bestselling author and winner of The People’s Book Prize Award, Carol Wyer’s crime novels have sold over one million copies and been translated into nine languages. A move from humour to the ‘dark side’ in 2017, saw the introduction of popular DI Robyn Carter in Little Girl Lost and proved that Carol had found her true niche. February 2021 saw the release of the first in the much-anticipated new series, featuring DI Kate Young. An Eye For An Eye was chosen as a Kindle First Reads and became the #1 bestselling book on Amazon UK and Amazon Australia.
Carol has had articles published in national magazines ‘Woman’s Weekly’, featured in ‘Take A Break’, ‘Choice’, ‘Yours’ and ‘Woman’s Own’ magazines and the Huffington Post. She’s also been interviewed on numerous radio shows discussing ”Irritable Male Syndrome’ and ‘Ageing Disgracefully’ and on BBC Breakfast television. She currently lives on a windy hill in rural Staffordshire with her husband Mr. Grumpy… who is very, very grumpy. When she is not plotting devious murders, she can be found performing her comedy routine, Smile While You Still Have Teeth.
To learn more, go to http://www.carolwyer.co.uk, subscribe to her YouTube channel, or follow her on Twitter: @carolewyer
Follow her at:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carol-E-Wyer/221149241263847
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carolwyer/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/carolewyer
Website : https://www.carolwyer.co.uk
Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60588361-behind-closed-doors
Buy Link – https://geni.us/RUjn6H
+ abuse, crime fiction, family, fiction, jealousy, marriage, murder, mystery, obsession, revenge, review, romance, Scotland, secrets, thriller
Secrets And Lies by Joy Wood
Secrets and lies bind three women together.
Jenna, the beautiful yet fragile wife of the heir to the Montgomery fortune.
Bridget, the wily housekeeper who carries out her duties with diligence and guile.
Lucy, the jewellery designer living an almost reclusive life.
#SecretsAndLies @Joywoodauthor #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour
Oak Ridge is the mansion where the heinous Montgomery family reside. A place where subterfuge, blackmail and murder have become the order of the day. Challenging the Montgomery family is never an option – defeating them impossible.
All three women are forced to take them on. But only one of them is confident of victory because she’s watched and learned from the masters themselves.
My Review
Got to love a book with characters who are greedy, obsessed, hiding secrets and go round killing people. Otherwise where’s the entertainment value and Secrets and Lies has it in spadefuls.
I love this story. It has all the elements:
Jenna, the beautiful, fragile wife of the heir to the Montgomery fortune.
Bridget, the creepy housekeeper who ‘carries out her duties with diligence and guile’ – I’d say obsessed and with an overinflated opinion of herself. And bonking the boss.
Lucy, a reclusive jewellery designer living in Oban with her twin boys.
Jenna’s husband Leo, cruel and controlling, and on a charge of murdering his chauffeur and about to appear in court.
His domineering father Avery, who is ten times worse and rules the Montgomery roost. Like Teflon, nothing sticks, though the police wish it would.
And Avery’s wife, ‘sickly Susan’ as Bridget calls her, who is getting sicklier by the day.
It’s almost the cast of a Shakespearean tragedy!
Enter Jack. Tall, dark and handsome. Owner of a newspaper and determined to discover any truths that will release his sister Jenna from her suffocating marriage to Leo Montgomery. And write about Leo and Avery at every opportunity. They hate him with a vengeance.
We know there will be danger afoot. We know/hope there will be romance. But the ending was still a terrible shock. Brilliant!
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours.
About the Author
Joy was born in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire and loves it so much she has returned to spend her retirement there. Joy has a degree in public health and for thirty years has worked as a nurse both in the private sector and the NHS, in a range of positions from ward work, clinics, theatres and the community. Since her retirement, she has written and independently published six novels with a strong romance theme running through them. All are full of twists and turns which she hopes will have the reader eagerly turning the pages for ‘just one more chapter’. More recently, she has interjected a crime/thriller component into her writing.
Joy is a popular public speaker in and around Lincolnshire where she delivers her humorous talk about the transition she’s made from nurse to author (From Bedpan to Pen). She speaks at a range of events such as WI meetings, luncheon clubs, after dinner guest speaker, book clubs and author events. At these events, she sells signed paperback copies of her books and promotes the availability of them electronically.
As Joy watches the tide turn daily walking along the quaint but beautiful seafront, she is able to find writing ideas, whatever the weather. She likes to develop the characters and plot in her head assisted by the melancholy charm of the seafront particularly during the winter months. Despite being offered traditional publishing contracts from smaller publishers, the ones she would truly like to sign with still are proving elusive! Joy’s paperback books are sold locally in her home close to the Cleethorpes seafront which generates footfall for those on seaside trips.
Quote from Joy:
“Writing is my passion. I strive with each novel for a narrative that invites the reader into a world that is captivating, engaging and menacing. Five of the books that I’ve independently published fall into the category of crime, with twists and turns I hope will keep the reader turning the pages well into the night. My greatest desire is to acquire more readers – my driving force is to sell more books!”
+ fiction, India, literature, love, Magical realism, mindfulness, religion, revenge, review, spirituality
The Celeste Experiment by Omar Imady
When modern science fails to save his wife Celeste, Michael turns to religion. When religion fails to cure her, he is left painfully searching for answers.
From his grief flows anger, determination, and finally the plan – a meticulous experiment to finally unravel the truth in one of civilizations’ biggest question of all, religion.
#TheCelesteExperiment #omarimady @VillaMagna_pub #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #literaryfiction
At the heart of this plan is Hamida Begum. A young woman of depth and intelligence, heiress to a lost lineage. Selected and prepared. Qualified in ways even Michael could never have anticipated. Will her involvement in his vast, mysterious, and at times unethical experiment spell deliverance for Hamida as well as for Michael?
This literary work, with a touch of magical realism, The Celeste Experiment is the story of one man’s attempt to sever the spiritual threads of history once and for all. It is a thrilling journey of revenge and conviction, sorrow and rage, design and entrapment, whispered words. A tale where no one and nothing is vindicated…except love.
My Review
Wow! Just wow! What a fantastic book! The story is beautiful, the writing is beautiful, it exceeded all expectations and then some.
It starts with Michael and his love for his wife Celeste. But when she is diagnosed with a terminal illness, Michael decides he will do anything to save her. Medical science does not have the answer, so he turns to religion, but when that also fails he sets out to prove that if religion can’t save her, then religion must be a lie.
In the meantime, seventeen-year-old Hamida Begum lives with her grandmother in a slum in Kolkata. She is an intelligent girl, who loves to read, and attends a faith school where she can receive an education in spite of their poverty. It is believed that she is the heiress to a lost lineage.
She has been carefully selected and brought to England, where she is mentored first by Miss Patience and then by sheep farmer Charlotte. In the second part of her ‘preparation’, she travels the world with Maurice, who has been chosen to be her companion and lover.
It is all part of the experiment – the one that Michael believes will prove his theory. But Michael’s story and Hamida and Maurice’s are part of the bigger picture of religion and philosophy and spiritual ties, where ultimately the only thing that matters is love.
A wonderful, amazing story, full of rich descriptions and beauty. I could not put it down.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of this blogger readalong.
About the Author
Omar Imady is an uncommon collection of many things – poet, historian, novelist, Syrian, American, exile, Sufi, ‘Alan Wattsian**’, cat lover, avid coffee drinker, insatiable gastronome – all of which find expression in his growing repertoire of eclectic fiction. He is the author of multiple books, including The Gospel of Damascus, a 2012 Book of the Year Award finalist, and When Her Hand Moves, a collection of three controversial, thought-provoking novellas. His forthcoming novels dig ever deeper into the human experience of alienation and the quest for meaning in a world increasingly hostile to answers.
** Alan Watts’ essential message, and the whole point and joy of human life, as he shared in the preface to his autobiography In My Own Way, was to “integrate the spiritual with the material”. He believed that this could only be done by carving “your own way”, by “accepting your own karma”, and by “following your own weird.”
+ childhood, crime fiction, family, fiction, lies, motherhood, murder, murder mystery, review, sisters, thriller
Simon Says Die by Erika Strauss
For the last ten years, Angela Thompson has been living a nightmare.
While motherhood was never her goal, she has tried everything to connect with her son, Max. It was supposed to be the two of them against the world, until Max’s behavior grew increasingly disturbing.
The missing items, lost pets, and strange drawings she could handle, but now, the murder of little Tommy Marshall has the entire town of Oregon, Ohio on edge.
#SimonSaysDie #ErikaStrauss @darkedgepress #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour
Beaten with a large rock and left to die in the woods, the police search frantically for a sadistic child killer. Unfortunately, all of the evidence points to Angela. She swears that she would never hurt a child.
Her gut tells her that Max is involved but authorities find it hard to believe that a ten-year-old boy could pull off the perfect murder and put his mother on death row. In fact, nobody believes her. But they don’t know Max like she does.
They don’t know how depraved her angelic little boy can be.
My Review
I literally read this in one day. It’s a short book and very creepy. When ten-year-old Max is the narrator, I felt really uncomfortable. In fact it’s an uncomfortable read altogether, with some unsavoury characters.
Max’s view of his mum Angie is shocking (though she’s not exactly the perfect mother) and his treatment of his four-year-old cousin Phoenix is cruel and sadistic. How does he expect a four-year-old to behave? He can’t help crying and ‘whining’, especially when Max is around.
Angie has always suspected there is something not right with her son – she has taken him to four psychiatrists, but no-one believes her. In fact her older sister Mari thinks Max is a little angel, though her husband Robert doesn’t agree.
According to the blurb: ‘The missing items, lost pets, and strange drawings she could handle’ – I have to say I would be very upset if I thought my child was responsible for the disappearance of next door’s Yorkshire Terrier and other neighbourhood pets. But then ten-year-old Tommy Marshall is found dead, having been hit over the head with a stone and left for dead in the woods. All the evidence points to mum Angie, but she suspects Max. But who would believe her angelic son is capable of such a heinous act?
Right up to the end you won’t know what’s going on and the twists and turns were enough to make you gasp, but there are some things you will never guess.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
About the Author
Erika Strauss has dedicated her life to writing stories that show that there are two sides to every story. Everyone has a background story, and everyone has their own set of intentions, whether they are good, bad, or indifferent. Striving to create memorable tales, Erika writes stories that will draw the reader into the psyche of the broken and their victims.
Living in her hometown of Toledo, Ohio, with her husband, three daughters, and rescue/emotional support dog, Baker, she spends her days writing in her home office. When she’s not writing, she can be found in the kitchen, cooking and baking up a storm. If you can’t find her there, you might find her reading a book from her large library of suspenseful crime novels.
+ abuse, female friendship, fiction, friends, friendship, jealousy, lies, love, marriage, mystery, Psychological fiction, relationships, review, secrets, therapy, thriller
The Engagement by Nasheema Lennon
Speak now or forever rest in peace . . .
THE PERFECT FIANCÉ
When Victoria’s best friend Gwen announces she is marrying the rich and handsome Michael, celebrations are strained. Victoria doesn’t trust Michael – he’s hiding something. And he reminds her of someone she needs to forget.
THE DREAM WEDDING PLAN
Too loved up to see Michael’s dark side, Gwen drags Victoria into a whirlwind of dress shopping, engagement drinks and elaborate maid-of-honour duties. Meanwhile, a mysterious visitor is leaving unwanted gifts in Victoria’s home, and Michael is becoming aggressive: no one gets between me and Gwen.
TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE?
The clock is ticking until the big day. Will Victoria expose Michael’s secret, and save her best friend from a marriage made in hell? Or will her past catch up with her first?
My Review
What a cast of unlikeable characters! With friends like these, who needs enemies, as they say. Selfish, untrustworthy, nosy, flaky, violent, jealous, the list of endearing traits is endless. I am glad to say I have never had friendships like this – my friends know when to help and when to back off. If I said (like Greta Garbo) I want to be alone, they’d simply say ‘I’m at the end of the phone if you need me,’ not follow me home and insist on staying.
First we have Victoria – she’s a therapist (God help her clients) – and flaky as hell. Not that I blame her after her past relationship with Dylan, but I don’t think she is ready to help anyone – for about the next ten years at least.
Then there’s Gwen, Vic’s selfish ‘best friend’ who is getting married to Michael. So busy organising an art exhibition, she just dumps it all on her friends. Jessica is a right bitch – telling everyone what to eat before the wedding so they don’t get fat, how to style their hair, what to wear. P*&s off Jess. I need chocolate for stress. Samira is nice but can we trust her?
Michael is rich and handsome but secretive. What is he hiding from Gwen? I’m not sure I cared after a while, she is that selfish and appearingly as dim as a TocH lamp (as my late father-in-law used to say).
What about Isaac? As far as my fellow book club readers were concerned, the jury’s out.
I loved this book. I so enjoyed the madness. All that metaphorically shouting at Victoria, ‘JUST TELL HER!!’ And that ending! Totally unexpected. Sometimes I was exhausted just reading it.
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole, the author, and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read.
About the Author
Nasheema Lennon is a writer of Mauritian heritage based in Nottingham. She studied psychology and criminology at university before nine years working in the prison service, where she facilitated cognitive behavioural therapy programmes. She then changed paths to complete her PGCE, becoming a primary school teacher. Her first novel, The Engagement, was shortlisted for the Owned Voices Novel Award 2022.
+ cosy mystery, crime fiction, Detective novel, fiction, murder, murder mystery, private investigator, review
Deuce (Jax Diamond Mysteries#3) by Gail Meath
One for sorrow, two for spice triggers a game of three blind mice.
While vacationing in New England, PI Jax Diamond and his courageous canine partner, Ace, bite off more than they can chew when two small town deaths reveal two big time killers, and the locals don’t take too kindly to strangers.
#Deuce @GailMeathAuthor @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour
Laura Graystone, Broadway star, auto expert, and Jax’s heartthrob, is once again front and center digging for clues while trying to ditch an old boyfriend. That is, until her brother becomes Jax’s prime suspect. Then all hell breaks loose, and Ace is left in the lurch, tracking down leads with his new sidekick, Susie.
A crazy duet of crimes sends Jax, Laura and Ace into a tailspin in small-town USA during the Roaring Twenties. Where no one is above the law, everyone is a suspect, and time is running out before the clock strikes one.
My Review
Another great book in the Jax Diamond mysteries series. I’ve read the first two and this one is just as good.
Handsome private detective Jax is back of course, with his sidekick Ace the German Shepherd, Laura ‘Songbird’ Graystone and Police Officer Tim ‘Murph’ Murphy from books one and two. This time Jax and Laura have taken some time off to visit her family in the quiet town of Millbury, where she was born and lived until moving to New York to appear on Broadway.
They are going to have a nice holiday, but no sooner have they set foot in the town when Ace discovers a dead body under a pile of leaves. Not just dead, but murdered, and Jax cannot help but get involved. It’s what he does best after all, and the local cops don’t seem as competent as his police mates back in the Big Apple. But then Millbury isn’t exactly the crime capital of America so they don’t have the experience to deal with it.
Unfortunately, Jax isn’t made welcome by some of the residents, particularly Laura’s brother Tommy, still grieving for their father after his death twelve years earlier, or by the deputy sheriff who has fancied her for years. The sheriff isn’t exactly playing ball either. Ace has a fan though – young Susie who is staying with her grandparents next door has taken a real shine to him and calls him her best friend.
Once again fast-paced, quick, easy to read, and exciting, with our favourite cast of characters. Roll on Book Four – what will our intrepid trio get up to next time.
Many thanks to @zooloo2008 for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the Author
Award-winning author Gail Meath writes historical romance novels that will whisk you away to another time and place in history where you will meet fascinating characters, both fictional and real, who will capture your heart and soul. Meath loves writing about little or unknown people, places and events in history, rather than relying on the typical stories and settings.
Follow her at:
Facebook: https://facebook.com/Gail-Meath-Author-121289219261348
Instagram: https://instagram.com/gailmeathauthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GailMeathAuthor
Website: https://www.gailmeath.com
+ crime fiction, family, female friendship, fiction, friendship, grief, loss, love, Magical realism, revenge, review, secrets, supernatural, thriller
Dragonfly Summer by J H Moncrieff
No small town’s secrets can stay buried for long. Moncrieff digs into the treachery of memory and the power of female friendships…
Dragonfly Summer is a gripping thriller that asks: What happens when the past comes back to haunt you?
#DragonflySummer #JHMoncrieff @flametreepress #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour
Jo Carter never thought she’d return to Clear Springs, Minnesota. But when the former journalist receives a cryptic note about the disappearance of her friend Sam twenty years before, she’s compelled to find out what really happened. During her investigation, she learns another high school friend has died in a mysterious accident. Nothing is as it seems, and Jo must probe Clear Springs’ darkest corners and her own painful and unreliable memories to discover the truth – and save herself from the killer who could still be on the hunt.
Deliciously twisty and suspenseful from the first minute to the last, Dragonfly Summer proves that no small town’s secrets can stay buried for good.
My Review
I really loved this book. It has touches of magic and the supernatural which adds an extra layer to a an exciting thriller.
Following the mysterious disappearance of Jo Carter’s friend Sam, she leaves her home town of Clear Springs to go to university and then to live in New York where she starts out as an investigative journalist, but now works in PR. As far as she is concerned, there is nothing to go back for.
Then one day, over twenty years later, she receives a message about Sam’s disappearance and she feels compelled to return and try to uncover the truth. She also discovers that their other friend Amanda has been killed in a horrific accident. She was heavily pregnant when she died. Her grieving husband Doug also happens to have been Sam’s boyfriend when she went missing.
So many secrets, so much intrigue and at least one person who doesn’t want Jo to find out what really happened. But the problem for Jo is that something happened at the time that she doesn’t remember. In fact she has almost no memory of Sam or Amanda or anything that took place that year – the year they should all have graduated from High School – only Sam never did.
There are other people who Jo left behind – her friend Jack and her own father, whom she hasn’t seen since she left. More of her relationship with her father is revealed in the book and it’s a harrowing read.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
About the Author
J.H. Moncrieff is the author of nearly twenty books of dark fiction. City of Ghosts won the 2018 Kindle Book Review Award for Best Horror/Suspense. She won Harlequin’s international search for “the next Gillian Flynn” in 2016. Moncrieff began her writing career as a journalist. Her articles have appeared in many publications, including Chatelaine, FLARE, Writer’s Digest, and The Globe and Mail.
FLAME TREE PRESS is the imprint of long-standing independent Flame Tree Publishing dedicated to full-length original fiction in the horror and suspense, science fiction & fantasy, and crime / mystery / thriller categories. The list brings together fantastic new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices. Learn more about Flame Tree Press at www.flametreepress.com and connect on social media @flametreepress
+ fiction, lies, mental health, mindfulness, murder, mystery, revenge, review, secrets, therapy, thriller
The Sanctuary by Emma Haughton
Very few people get the opportunity to stay here.
And some don’t get to leave …
Zoey doesn’t remember anything about last night. But she knows something went badly wrong. For she is no longer in New York. She’s woken up in the desert, in a white building she doesn’t recognise, and she’s alone.
When she discovers she’s been admitted to The Sanctuary, a discreet, mysterious, isolated refuge from normal life, to avoid jail, she is stunned. She knows she has secrets, troubles, but she thought she had everything under control. But as she spends more time with other residents, she begins to open up about what she’s running from. Until she realises that not everyone in The Sanctuary has her best interests at heart, and someone might even be a killer . . .
My Review
I love books like this. At times slightly far-fetched, it never lets up with the suspense and intrigue. Most of the characters are quite unlikeable in a likeable sort of way. (Simpkins the cat is my favourite character said one of my fellow readers.) You almost sympathise with some of them – the ‘poor little rich kids’ like Riley and Finn (I’m not judging). But being rich doesn’t mean you don’t have problems. The staff are all a bit strange as well – an ex-addict, a Shaman, and a psychotherapist to name just three.
Thirty-two-year-old Zoey goes out with her friends one night, gets blind drunk, and finds herself alone in a tiny room in the middle of a desert in some kind of rehab facility, where everyone except her seems to know what’s going on. She’s in a strange place, and there’s a woman screaming in a tent somewhere that resembles a big top.
While The Sanctuary, as she discovers it’s called, is not technically a lock-in, anyone who tries to leave has to walk 20 miles through the baking hot sand, with only scorpions and poisonous snakes to keep them company. Zoey knows, she’s tried and failed.
Of course she can leave on the next helicopter, but then she’d have to pay for the flight, plus the two flights it took to get here from New York and any treatment she has had so far. It costs an arm and a leg to stay at The Sanctuary and she has no idea who is paying for her. All she discovers is that it was part of the deal to keep her out of prison – she can’t even remember what she did or is supposed to have done – but who does she know who has that kind of money? No-one it would seem.
Her life so far has been a mess, never settling, always running, though she tells herself it’s fine and that she’s in control. And as she spends more and more time with the other residents, she realises they all have problems, addictions and secrets.
Brilliant! I couldn’t wait for the next ‘stave’ to land (reading with The Pigeonhole online book club you get one tenth of the book every day and can discuss the story with your fellow ‘pigeons’). Great twists at the end – most of us would never have guessed.
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole, the author, and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read.
About the Author
Emma grew up in Sussex; after a stint au pairing in Paris and a couple of half-hearted attempts to backpack across Europe, she studied English at Oxford University, then trained in journalism. During her career as a journalist, she wrote many articles for national newspapers, including regular pieces for the Times Travel section.
Following publication of her picture book, Rainy Day, Emma wrote three YA novels. Her first, Now You See Me, was an Amazon bestseller and nominated for the Carnegie and Amazing Book Awards. Better Left Buried, her second, was one of the best YA reads for 2015 in the Sunday Express. Her third YA novel, Cruel Heart Broken, was picked by The Bookseller as a top YA read for July 2016.
Find out more at www.emmahaughton.com or www.facebook.com/emmahaughtonwriter.
Or get in touch via Twitter: @Emma_Haughton
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