+ child abduction, childhood, community, fiction, forgiveness, loneliness, loss, love, motherhood, review
Safe With You by RM Ward
It used to be more of a community round here. I was going to say something like this wouldn’t have happened then, but it would, wouldn’t it? Maybe a lot of it was kept quiet. But was it really any safer? Is anywhere safe?
Kath has lived on the same London estate for decades. Lately she’s become friendly with the little girl next door, who is often left alone for hours at a time while her mum is at work.
They have a system. When Mina gets home from school to the empty flat, she knocks on the wall three times. Knock, knock, knock. I’m home safe and sound.
But one day Mina’s knock doesn’t come. Kath raises the alarm and the police begin the search. Kath was the only person looking out for Mina – now she might be the only one who can bring her home.
My Review
I know I’m always talking about red herrings, but Safe With You had so many and every single one a real possibility. And it’s one of the first books I have read where we can sympathise with characters who appear to have done some awful things.
Take Mina’s mum Sandy for instance. What a terrible mother! Lives in a tip, leaves her 11-year-old daughter alone for hours after school, never feeds her properly and then even stays out all night so she can have sex with her boss. How could we possibly feel sorry for her? But thanks to some clever writing we do.
Then we have Den from the cafe. Bullied by his father for being a wimp, forced to leave university under a cloud (we find out why eventually), an obvious suspect when it comes to Mina’s disappearance, but again we root for him because we can see his vulnerability.
The characters make mistakes – often dreadful ones – but that’s because they are human and we have to believe that almost everyone can be redeemed. They just need to atone, and I don’t mean in a religious way.
But eighty-something Kath is the main protagonist here and our narrator. She lives opposite Sandy and Mina in the same block of flats where she has lived for decades. Lately she’s become friendly with Mina, who is often left alone for hours at a time while her mum is at work. They have devised a system. When Mina gets home from school, she knocks on the wall three times. Knock, knock, knock. And Kath knocks back in reply. Until one day Mina doesn’t and Kath becomes worried.
And so we have the premise for the whole story. Where is Mina? Did she run away or was she taken? And if so who took her? Everyone is a suspect, and who can we believe?
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole, the author, and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read.
About the Author
R.M. Ward was born in Surrey and now lives in Bath with her husband and two dogs. She has two grown up children. She worked in local government for years before writing full-time. Her debut YA thriller, Numbers, published under Rachel Ward, won many regional awards in the UK and Europe, was released in 26 countries and is currently optioned for film. She has also written a cosy crime series, the Ant and Bea Mysteries, starting with The Cost of Living, set in and around a supermarket. Safe With You is her first psychological thriller with HQ Digital.
+ crime fiction, Detective novel, fiction, grief, lies, loss, murder, private investigator, revenge, review, trafficking
The Tin Man by Brian W Caves
Almost eight years after ex Detective Sergeant Simeon Cain fell into the deepest, darkest hell when his wife committed suicide, he has managed to rebuild his life and is now running a private investigation agency.
He is hired to investigate a nine month old murder that the police have all but given up on, the killer has never been caught; the murder classed as a random violent mugging. Cain, finds himself thrown into a complex puzzle left behind by the murder victim, a translator who has by accident discovered information regarding drugs and people trafficking involving a Romanian gang and three prominent local business men.
#TheTinMan @brian_caves @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour
The daughter of the murdered man hires Simeon to do what he can to bring the real killer to justice, but all is not what it at first seems and Cain ends up fighting for his life and the life of a young Hungarian university student he has accidentally involved in the case. To the very end Cain is unaware that he has been manipulated right from the very start.
The Tin Man is the first of a new series, which you will not want to miss. The novel is full of action and intrigue and the series is set to grow. Brian Caves is a great storyteller and this book is pure action all the way through, with twists and turns aplenty. The plotting is genius…
My Review
I loved this book far more than I thought I would when I read the blurb. Simeon Cain is hired by a famous model to look into the murder of her father Edward Knox, nine months ago. The killer has never been found and the crime was decreed a mugging that went tragically wrong. But daughter Sam is not convinced and wants Simeon to look for clues.
Simeon Cain has a tragic past. His wife committed suicide – we later find out what happened to her – but he is still struggling to come to terms with it. As this is the first in a series we are slowly building his character and personality. He’s empathic and hard at the same time. He can be quite judgmental. He can get angry when he sees injustice. Like his friend Dean – still a police officer – he needs to turn over every stone. The smallest details niggle. And he notices things.
Each time we meet a new character he describes them in detail eg ‘He was about thirty-eight, shoulder length dark hair parted in the middle, dark eyes…He had on a white T-shirt, oil-stained jeans and scuffed work boots. He was shorter than me by a couple of inches and slighter in build…’
Now initially I found this quite odd (as a writer this goes against everything I was taught), but then I realised that being an ex-cop turned private detective, he was describing someone from the point of view of being a witness as in what can you tell me about the person you saw? Very clever rule-breaking which definitely works.
So much more I could say about this exciting new novel, but I can’t give anything away and there were some seriously unexpected twists, especially towards the end.
According to Simeon, the great James M. Cain (Simeon’s namesake a coincidence – I doubt it very much) wrote in his novel Double Indemnity, that there are three essential elements to a successful murder. One, help. Two, everything known in advance: the time, the place, the how. And three is the most important element of all: audacity. ‘I’d abridged Cain’s text, but that was the gist of it,’ says Simeon, ‘…and turned it around to suit what I needed to do…a huge risk, and it was an audacious plan.’
In fact the whole book is audacious, and Simeon takes risks that had me reeling in shock, literally. I was gobsmacked at one of the things he does. In fact more than one.
Many thanks to @zooloo2008 for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
From the Author
“I started out as an engineer, then an estate agent, followed by senior management roles in cable TV and telecoms. Spent a few years as a management consultant and now work in the language translation industry.
“I have played music all my life. Classically trained on the clarinet from the age of eight until fourteen when my world took a quantum leap forward after hearing Jimi Hendrix and Voodoo Child on the radio. I thought, wow, I gotta do that. I dumped the clarinet and I picked up the guitar and have never put it down. I have played alongside topflight musicians, both live and in studios.
“From a young age I read books like Treasure Island, Robinson Crusoe, Black Beauty, Swallows and Amazons, then The Famous Five, Billy Bunter, Jennings and Derbyshire, Biggles, and Tarzan. Agatha Christie had a major impact as did Georges Simenon. I penned short stories at school – mostly adventure, but it wasn’t until I became hooked on American Crime Noir that my urge to write came crashing to the forefront of my mind. Reading Hammett, Chandler, Jim Thompson, Macdonald, and the master, James M. Cain had the same effect on my potential writing career as Hendrix had for my music.
“Currently, having been further influenced by the greats of Southern literature, I write crime stories based in the Deep South as well as UK based dark noir crime set in the county of Northamptonshire where I reside. Throw into the pot crime and horror short stories and novellas and you’ll have some idea of what goes on in my head.”
Follow Brian at:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bwcaves
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/caves.brian/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/brian_caves
Buy Links – https://geni.us/Xbs0Hw
+ crime fiction, Detective novel, fiction, murder, murder mystery, police corruption, police drama, police procedural, review, Scotland, Scottish Highlands, thriller, vigilante
The Night Watch (DS Max Craigie #3) by Neil Lancaster
He’ll watch you.
A lawyer is found dead at sunrise on a lonely clifftop at Dunnet Head on the northernmost tip of Scotland. It was supposed to be his honeymoon, but now his wife will never see him again.
He’ll hunt you.
The case is linked to several mysterious deaths, including the murder of the lawyer’s last client – Scotland’s most notorious criminal… who had just walked free. DS Max Craigie knows this can only mean one thing: they have a vigilante serial killer on their hands.
He’ll leave you to die.
But this time the killer isn’t on the run; he’s on the investigation team. And the rules are different when the murderer is this close to home.
He knows their weaknesses, knows how to stay hidden, and he thinks he’s above the law…
My Review
Perfectly written and plotted, this is an author you can rely on to deliver a police procedural with added bite. Plus a great deal of action, plenty of murders and a lot of swearing from the boss. I don’t usually like swearing in books, but when DI Ross does it, it’s hilarious. ‘Craigie, why is it that I am in the f*”*ing office on my bastard own?’ is his opening line. Insults fly back and forth as they call each other names.
We’ve met DS Max Craigie twice before in Dead Man’s Grave and The Blood Tide, as well as the team – DI Ross Fraser ‘Ross-Boss’ and ‘fast-track Fannie’ DC Janie Calder. Then we have civilian intelligence agent Norma Kirk, Max’s old mate from their Flying Squad days – undercover cop Niall Hastings – and surveillance expert Barney (though he was in the second book). Plus a host of others.
Scott ‘The Axe’ Paterson thought he was ‘the hardest man in Edinburgh.’ But when he is acquitted of a crime everyone knew he had committed, someone decided that justice had to be done. ‘He was the worst of the worst, so he had to die.’
Then a lawyer is found dead at the foot of a cliff while on his honeymoon and he just happened to be the same lawyer who got Paterson off. Journalist Shuggie Gibson, or as Ross calls him ‘scumbag, gutter-sniping, parasitic shite’ thinks they are connected. Five years ago the same lawyer managed to get another drunken-driver Chick Wilson off a hit-and-run with a ‘not proven’ verdict. Three days later he’s found hanging from a tree in a park. Coincidence? No chance. Not in police work.
And that’s just the beginning. The story races along with no let-up as Max and Janie try to find out who is behind the vigilante killings before there is another one. And just when you think you know who is behind it, there is another twist and more suspects get thrown into the mix.
Another brilliant book from Mr Lancaster and I’m sure there will be lots more to come.
However…..we definitely do not hear enough this time from furry sidekick, running partner and cuteness-overload cockapoo Nutmeg. Come on Neil, he’s my favourite character. He needs his own show…
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole, the author, and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read.
About the Author
Neil was born in Liverpool in the 1960s. He recently left the Metropolitan Police where he served for over twenty-five years, predominantly as a detective, leading and conducting investigations into some of the most serious criminals across the UK and beyond.
Neil acted as a surveillance and covert policing specialist, using all types of techniques to arrest and prosecute drug dealers, human traffickers, fraudsters, and murderers. During his career, he successfully prosecuted several wealthy and corrupt members of the legal profession who were involved in organised immigration crime. These prosecutions led to jail sentences, multi-million pound asset confiscations and disbarments.
Since retiring from the Metropolitan Police, Neil has relocated to the Scottish Highlands with his wife and son, where he mixes freelance investigations with writing.
+ crime fiction, dark humour, Detective novel, Edinburgh, fiction, murder, murder mystery, police drama, police procedural, review, thriller
Hunter’s Chase by Val Penny (Edinburgh Crime Mysteries #1)
Hunter by name – Hunter by nature: DI Hunter Wilson will not rest until Edinburgh is safe.
Detective Inspector Hunter Wilson knows there is a new supply of cocaine flooding his city, and he needs to find the source, but his attention is transferred to murder when a corpse is discovered in the grounds of a golf course.
#HuntersChase @valeriepenny @SpellBoundBks @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours
Shortly after the post-mortem, Hunter witnesses a second murder, but that is not the end of the slaughter. With a young woman’s life also hanging in the balance, the last thing Hunter needs is a new man on his team: Detective Constable Tim Myerscough, the son of his nemesis, the former Chief Constable Sir Peter Myerscough.
Hunter’s perseverance and patience are put to the test time after time in this first novel in The Edinburgh Crime Mysteries series.
My Review
When young, cocky, useless burglar Jamie Thompson is caught stealing valuables from the house of former Chief Constable and now Justice Minister, Sir Peter Myerscough, he makes a run for it. Unfortunately, with Sir Peter hot on his heels across the grounds of the prestigious Merchant’s Golf Club, he stumbles and breaks his ankle. But it’s not a tree stump or the 18th hole he trips over – it’s the decomposing body of a woman.
And so it begins. The body has barely been taken away and the post-mortem carried out, when DI Hunter Wilson witnesses another death – this time it’s that of a well-known local felon (allegedly) and it looks like murder. And if two bodies are not enough, we have a third though the young girl’s life is hanging in the balance. Finally we have the addition to the team in the shape of Tim Myerscough, son of Sir Peter, and Hunter is not well pleased. Not a fan of the father, it will take a lot for the over-privileged son to prove himself. Give him a chance – I really liked him.
Hunter’s Chase is a real mixture. A crime drama and police procedural, it also features drugs, fraud, stolen cars and some surprises. It’s clever and witty and at times it broke my heart. Some of the scenes are quite graphic – none more so than the in-depth description of Frankie’s treatment of his severe acne. Give me chopped up body parts and ritual crucifixions any day.
There are a lot of characters in this book. I really had to concentrate – all the members of the team including Jane, Rachael and ‘Bear’ (who I am sure we will meet again in the next three books), the pathologists, and also the families of Jamie, Frankie and the victims. Then we have the very shady car dealer Arjun Mansoor.
I loved the Edinburgh setting, the names of the pubs – eg The Persevere – that’s a new one on me and the way the author is slowly building the characters, fleshing them out ready for Book Two.
Plenty of twists to keep you guessing and plenty of police banter and dark humour. Loved it!
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
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/Authorvalpenny
Website : www.valpenny.com
Buy Link – https://geni.us/sMr9O
The Volunteers – we give consent.
The angels arrive in a flying box. Every three or four generations. They take a number of willing volunteers from the colony. They have consent.
But what happens to them afterwards?
A short story written by Silvandar
Directed by Emmeline Braefield
Narrated by Ashley Shiers
Produced by Cat on a Piano Productions
Music:
Starcrasher by TrackTribe
Into the Void by TrackTribe
Away by Patrick Patrikios
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…
+ child abduction, family, fiction, grief, kidnapping, lies, loss, love, marriage, motherhood, obsession, Psychological fiction, review, secrets, twins
Into The Woods by Lorraine Murphy
A lost child. A broken marriage. A ticking time bomb.
Karen will do anything for her eight-year-old daughter, Scarlett. Even holding together a marriage that is way past broken.
So when Scarlett disappears from their rural home, Karen is one hundred percent focused on a single goal – finding her little girl as soon as possible.
#IntoTheWoods @MurphyLorr @inkubatorbooks @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour
And time is of the essence. Because Scarlett is profoundly deaf and would live in utter silence if it wasn’t for her high-tech hearing aids. Karen knows that within hours their batteries will run out, leaving her daughter even more isolated and vulnerable.
As the search for Scarlett intensifies, shocking secrets are revealed and Karen realises she may have to look for answers closer to home.
When the reason for Scarlett’s disappearance finally becomes clear, Karen finds she is living her own worst nightmare – her daughter is in deadly danger and time is running out.
My Review
A short, sharp book, so scary and atmospheric – at times I was almost too nervous to read on. Not helped by the fact that I have an eight-year-old granddaughter named Scarlett. Should I peek at the end to see what happens? I admit I’ve done this when there is a dog in the story, just to make sure it survives. Did I peek? I’m not saying.
Into The Woods is written from the point of view of three different characters, including Karen, Scarlett’s mum and her husband Paddy. Karen is not always likeable, but naturally we have sympathy for her situation.
Husband Paddy is a prat. I’m sorry but there’s not really much else I can say about him. In fact both Karen and Paddy are too obsessed with work. Paddy is never at home – he’s always away in London – and Karen is always on her phone, organising her next venture and living out her life on social media. Paddy never goes online. I wonder why.
A year ago, Karen spoke publicly about her early thoughts on motherhood. She admitted that she didn’t really want children, and talked about the depression she suffered as a result of everything that had happened to her, including Scarlett being born prematurely at 26 weeks and being profoundly deaf. And because of something she said, the backlash was enormous and venomous and she claims she was ‘cancelled’.
When Scarlett disappeared, Karen was so busy on the phone that she hadn’t realised her daughter was missing for over an hour. Paddy, of course, wasn’t there, and he hadn’t seen Scarlett since he left for London that morning. A perfect excuse to blame each other.
There is so much tension in their marriage, you wonder how they are still together. You could cut the atmosphere with a knife, something which is not lost on the police officers who are there to search for Scarlett. And it’s a race against time, as once the batteries in Scarlett’s cochlear implants run out, she will no longer hear anything and she will be terrified.
This was such a brilliant book. Full of tension and malice. Parts were almost unbearable to read. Just let it be said that no dogs were hurt in the making of this story. I can’t say any more…
Many thanks to @zooloo2008 for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the Author
Lorraine Murphy takes everyday situations and twists them into terrifying tales. She is the author of Into the Woods and numerous published, and winning, flash fiction stories. A software engineer by profession, she’s had many careers including slimming club leader, adult educator, charity co-founder, chairperson, activist and entrepreneur. As a teenager, she adored Stephen King and later found herself on the jury of an infamous murder trial.
When she’s not writing, Lorraine is always into something, whether it be competing in/for her local Toastmasters club or jumping out of a fully functional airplane. She lives in Westmeath, Ireland with her husband Brendan and three taller children.
Into The Woods is her first psychological thriller with Inkubator Books.
Follow her at:
Twitter : https://twitter.com/MurphyLorr
Website : http://www.lorraineamurphy.com/
Buy Link – https://geni.us/VqrvU
+ fantasy, fiction, healing, literature, love, magic, marriage, paranormal, review, supernatural
Painted Fire by Mark Fowler
Actress Kate Tolle falls victim to an illness that baffles the medical world.
In desperation her husband Ben appeals to the public, and an anonymous benefactor comes forward. Soon the couple find themselves on a flight bound for San Francisco. Where the enigmatic Merle is waiting.
#PaintedFire @MFowlerAuthor @SpellBoundBks @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour
Kate’s health appears to improve as people around her die horrifically. Merle tells Ben that healing comes at a price and questions what he’s willing to pay.
But what does Merle want? And what is the chilling truth waiting out in the desert … in Las Vegas and beyond?
My Review
This was a very bizarre book. It’s kind of a thriller, but then again it’s not. It’s a murder mystery, but only in as much as people get murdered. It’s fantasy, but only if you believe in Merle. I was very slightly reminded of Mr Wednesday in Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, and the way Ben and Kate just follow Merle from California to Nevada and meet his ‘friends’. Everywhere they go, everyone seems to know him.
But back to the beginning. Kate has fallen victim to a mysterious illness and no-one in the UK knows what is wrong with her or how to cure it. She has terrible, dark nightmares and is getting weaker all the time. Then they get an offer from an anonymous benefactor to go to America and soon become celebrity news. So off they go to San Francisco to meet the person who is going to help Kate.
While staying in a very expensive hotel, paid for of course by the benefactor, Ben leaves Kate for a few minutes to go and get a drink in the bar. And it’s there that he meets Merle for the first time. A tiny figure (again I visualise Neil Gaiman’s leprechaun) though this one is dressed in a white suit, with a buttonhole and bow tie. The latter appear to change colour every time Ben sees him, but the white suit never does.
‘The buttonhole and bow tie alone continued to defy expectations, now becoming a blue so deep and dark that it threatened at any moment to proclaim itself midnight.’
So is Merle a kind person trying to help Ben and Kate or does he have a more sinister agenda? And does he really have the power he claims?
‘Was this man unhinged, dangerous, or just having fun at the expense of some innocent abroad?’
That’s for me to know and you to find out, as they say. Painted Fire is a superbly written book and the author has a wonderful way with words. This has to be one of my favourite examples.
‘The place hummed with death, was alive with death.’ What a great phrase that is!
Many thanks to @zooloo2008 for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the Author
Mark writes detective crime fiction, and psychological and supernatural thrillers. He is the author of the popular Tyler & Mills detective crime series set in Staffordshire. RED IS THE COLOUR was shortlisted for the 2018 Arnold Bennett Prize and begins with the grim discovery of a schoolboy who disappeared thirty years earlier. BLUE MURDER involves a missing singer and a murdered guitarist, elevating an obscure band to sudden fame and fortune. THE DEVIL WORE BLACK unveils the mystery of a crucified priest. The latest book in the series, THE SMELL OF COPPER, finds Tyler out on a limb as the detectives uncover high level police corruption. All the books can be read as standalone crime novels.
Other detective mysteries include THE BATHROOM MURDERS. A series of women are found hacked to death while taking a shower. This is the first in a new series set in Manchester, featuring female detective Charlie Reed. TWIST has the eponymous private investigator returning, against his better judgement, to the city of nightmares to look into the strange case of a dead philosophy student. THE MAN UPSTAIRS introduces hard boiled Frank Miller, discovering he’s a fictional detective and that his author is plotting to kill him.
Mark also writes psychological and supernatural thrillers. SILVER finds journalist and crime writer Nick Slater obsessed with an unpublished manuscript that a best-selling author was working on when she was murdered, and which her family refuse to publish. SEXTET explores the twisted rivalry between twin sisters, the weird games they played as children, and the rising murder rate in a small English town. COFFIN MAKER is a gothic tale. Death is sent two apprentices amid warnings from an out-of-favour priest that the devil has arrived on Earth. Mark’s latest book PAINTED FIRE finds a writer travelling to America’s West Coast in a desperate bid to find a cure for a baffling illness afflicting his wife. An anonymous benefactor has offered to help, but at what price?
Follow him at:
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/marklfowlerauthor
Twitter : https://twitter.com/MFowlerAuthor
Instagram :https://www.instagram.com/markfowler8780/
Buy Links – https://geni.us/Yfqb
The irresistible debut novel from celebrity TV chef Rosemary Shrager where cosy crime and cookery collide!
When an old television rival, Deirdre Shaw, is found dead at the Cotswolds manor house where she was catering for a prestigious shooting weekend, Prudence is asked to step into the breach. Prudence is only too happy to take up the position and soon she is working in the kitchens of Farleigh Manor.
But Farleigh Manor is the home to secrets, both old and new. The site of a famous unsolved murder from the nineteenth century, Farleigh Manor has never quite shaken off its sensationalist past. It’s about to get a sensational present too. Because, the more she scratches beneath the surface of this manor and its guests, the more Prudence becomes certain that Deirdre Shaw’s death was no accident. She’s staring in the face of a very modern murder. .
My Review
It’s all a bit too cosy for me – I prefer my crime to be really dark and grisly – but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Probably more so because I was reading with my online book club and we had a laugh exchanging comments. Nothing really original here, but entertaining nonetheless.
First the negatives and then I’ll move on to the positives and there were a lot. As a vegetarian, I found the food they were serving at the manor really stomach-churning. Sorry, but that’s just me and I know many people who would love to chomp down on raw venison and hung pheasant, accompanied by heart-attack inducing sauces. But I’ll have the raspberry roulade for dessert please. And the recipe.
Then there is Prudence herself. I hate it when sixty-somethings are always made out to be IT dinosaurs. I’m slightly younger than Rosemary and older than Prudence and I can still give many of my colleagues a run for their money on the computers at work. ‘Ask Veronika to show you how to use the new software – she’s the expert,’ my colleague was told by the 30-year old in support. How refreshing it would be for Prudence to say to Suki, ‘move over, let the ‘expert’ check it out on the iPad, mobile phone (why is it always an overpriced iPhone?). We all became experts when we found out many years ago that we could order shoes online.
Then there’s granddaughter Suki, giving the reader the impression that all teenagers do is get drunk and stay in bed till lunchtime….OK, maybe I’ll park that one for now.
And Numbers. Irritating name, irritating way of speaking – just irritating all round. In fact I probably preferred the guests and that’s really saying something.
So to the positives. it’s fun, it’s entertaining, it had some clever twists and some ghastly, well-written characters amongst the guests. It’s set in the beautiful Cotswolds, where I live (though a reference or two to a town I recognise is always fun). It’s a great choice for a book club or to read on the plane. It’s a quick read and not taxing on the brain. It’s just a bit formulaic. Would I read the next book in the series? Maybe. Would I watch it on TV? Definitely. Just get Prudence to do a crash course in computers at a local community centre first.
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole, the author, and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read.
About the Author
National treasure Rosemary Shrager endeared herself to the nation when she took part in I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! where she proved she could cook just about anything, anywhere. Her most recent tv appearances have been equally well received – Netflix’s Best Leftovers Ever!, Cooking with the Stars, where Rosemary mentored Johnny Vegas throughout the series , and Fishing Scotland’s Lochs and Rivers for Channel 5.
First and foremost Rosemary is a talented and versatile chef who loves talking about food almost as much as she loves cooking. During lockdown she began her own online demonstrations on Facebook and YouTube, and she has now begun her own virtual cookery school, details for which are on http://www.rosemaryshrager.com.
When not teaching and cooking, Rosemary avidly reads and watches crime fiction, so much so that she wondered whether she had it in her to write a book in which crime and cookery collide… and The Last Supper is the winning result, introducing Rosemary to a new crime readership who in turn will be treated to several more outings with retired celebrity chef Prudence Bulstrode over the coming years.
An emotional, heart-wrenching and uplifting debut about friendship, love and sacrifice, perfect for fans of David Nicholls and Holly Miller.
One moment in time can change everything…
The day Scarlett dies should have been one of the most important of her life. It doesn’t feel fair that she’ll never have the chance to fulfil her dreams. And now, she’s still … here … somehow, watching the ripple effect of her death on the lives of those she loved the most and unable to do anything about it.
@Bookish_Becky (Twitter) and @beckyhunterbooks (Instagram)
@CorvusBooks (Twitter) and @atlanticbooks (Instagram)
#RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours
Scarlett’s best friend Evie cannot contemplate her life without Scarlett, and she certainly cannot forgive Nate, the man she blames for her best friend’s death. But Nate keeps popping up when she least expects him to, catapulting Evie’s life in directions she’d never let herself imagine possible. Ways, perhaps, even those closest to her had long since given up on.
If you could go back, knowing everything that happens after, everything that happens because of that one moment in time, would you change the course of history or would you do it all again?
Here is the fabulous cover. The book is published by Atlantic / Corvus on 2 March 2023
Becky Hunter worked for many years in London in the publishing industry, before taking a career break in Mozambique, where she volunteered with horses and decided to give writing a go. She now works as a freelance book publicist. One Moment is her debut novel.
+ crime fiction, Detective novel, fiction, friendship, murder, murder mystery, police drama, police procedural, rape, review, stalker
Broken Screams by Sally Rigby
Scream all you want, no one can hear you….
When an attempted murder is linked to a string of unsolved sexual attacks, Detective Chief Inspector Whitney Walker is incensed. All those women who still have sleepless nights because the man who terrorises their dreams is still on the loose.
#BrokenScreams @SallyRigby4 #CavendishandWalker Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour
Calling on forensic psychologist Dr Georgina Cavendish to help, they follow the clues and are alarmed to discover the victims all had one thing in common. Their birthdays were on the 29th February. The same date as a female officer on Whitney’s team.
As the clock ticks down and they’re no nearer to finding the truth, can they stop the villain before he makes sure his next victim will never scream again.
Broken Screams is the twelfth book in the acclaimed Cavendish & Walker series.
My Review
This will be my fifth Sally Rigby blog tour! Sally is one of my favourite crime fiction authors featuring one of my favourite duos – Cavendish and Walker. As I’ve said before, you know it’s going to be short, sharp, pacy detective fiction at its best.
This time we have a serious sexual assault in the park. The victim was not only raped, she was punched in the face, threatened and a leather glove pushed over her mouth. She also had marks around her neck as if someone had attempted to strangle her. She managed to get away, but the next victim might not be so lucky.
It turns out though, that she was one of a string of victims, over a period of eighteen months, each one getting more violent. All of them were born on the 29th February, the only link between them. Will the rapist strike again and who will be the next victim? Police Officer Meena Singh, who recently joined Whitney’s team, shares the same birthday. Could she be on his ‘list’?
Detective Chief Inspector Whitney Walker and forensic psychologist Dr Georgina Cavendish could have only days before the killer strikes again, but where do they even start. No witnesses, no motive and no DNA. It’s going to be a nightmare to solve but that has never stopped them in the past.
Another rollicking good ride from this author, hopefully there will be lots more to come. And when are we going to see them on TV please?
Many thanks to @zooloo2008 for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the Author
Sally Rigby was born in Northampton, in the UK. She has always had the travel bug, and after living in both Manchester and London, eventually moved overseas. From 2001 she has lived with her family in New Zealand (apart from five years in Australia), which she considers to be the most beautiful place in the world.
After writing young adult fiction for many years, under a pen name, Sally decided to move into crime fiction. Her Cavendish & Walker series brings together two headstrong, and very different, women – DCI Whitney Walker, and forensic psychologist Dr Georgina Cavendish. Sally has a background in education, and has always loved crime fiction books, films and TV programmes. She has a particular fascination with the psychology of serial killers.
Follow her at:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sally-Rigby-131414630527848
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sally.rigby.author/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SallyRigby4
Buy Links – https://geni.us/Bik4k
+ fiction, Ghost story, grief, haunting, loss, love, mental illness, motherhood, Northumberland, review, schizophrenia, supernatural
Don’t Leave by Pru Heathcote
JANE is a young woman grieving for her child, who is taken to a remote holiday cottage on the Northumberland coast.
From the moment she arrives at the cottage with her much older and over-protective husband, Peter, Jane keeps catching glimpses of a little girl and hearing a child crying.
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Peter is convinced these are hallucinations, as Jane has been diagnosed with schizophrenia – a diagnosis she doesn’t agree with.
She sets out to discover who or what the child could be.
A ghost?
A real child?
Or something else?
My Review
I loved this book. I read it in about three sittings and would have read it in one go if I had been on holiday. And I would NEVER have guessed the reality of what was happening in a million years.
Following the tragic death of Jane and Peter’s young daughter Angela, Peter decides that it would do Jane good to give up work for a while and spend some time in a cottage by the sea in a remote location off the coast of Northumberland. They will be away from everyone and everything and Jane will be able to come to terms with her loss.
But no sooner have they arrived that strange things begin to happen. Peter believes that her sightings, visitations, whatever you wish to call them, are hallucinations, caused by her diagnosis of schizophrenia. Except Jane disagrees with the diagnosis and even stops taking her medication as it makes her groggy. And Jane believes the little girl in the red Minnie Mouse top is real.
She sees her everywhere – through the window, in the garden, on the beach. She asks her peculiar next-door neighbour Mrs Mortimer (who Jane and Peter call Morticia) if anyone has a child staying with them nearby, as she is worried that she may be in danger out alone so close to the cliffs.
It’s a mystery, but then so is Mrs Mortimer. Her cottage is the other half of theirs (it was originally one house) and she does the cleaning and tidying for each new holiday tenant on behalf of the landlord. Her backstory is as interesting as Jane’s hauntings.
This book is so good. Intriguing, a little scary at times (though not too much), ghostly and creepy.
Many thanks to @zooloo2008 for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
From the Author
‘I’ve always loved telling stories and putting them down on paper as soon as I could write. I began my working life in Hertfordshire as a local newspaper reporter – obits, weddings, Uncle George’s Kiddies’ Corner – then went on to teenage magazines (Fab and Rave) and women’s magazines.
‘I moved to Northumberland forty years ago and worked as an adult education tutor, teaching any subject I didn’t need a qualification for, including creative writing.
‘Over the years I’ve written dozens of stories for magazines, a commissioned biography, and several plays, one of which was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe. It was one of my plays that formed the basis for my novel Don’t Leave, winning entry in the 2020 Lindisfarne Prize, written during the first Lockdown.’
‘I’m married, with three grown-up children and two grandchildren. I live in Warkworth, a village on the Northumberland coast, an area that provides most of the inspiration for my stories.’
Follow her at:
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/pru.heathcote
Buy Link – https://geni.us/e7fKV
+ Belfast, Covid, crime fiction, dark humour, Detective novel, fiction, murder, mystery, pandemic, review, social distancing
Absent Victim by David Roy
No body, no motive, no name…so who did she kill?
When wealthy divorcee Stephanie Kuler asked a private detective to investigate a murder, he told her to go to the police instead. But when she told the rest of the story, he took the case.
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There was no body, no reason to kill and no name for her supposed victim, but she knew she was the murderer. Solving the mystery meant jail for her and a headache for him.
Premonition, false memories, deja vu…the mind playing tricks or reality distorted through time?
The unmissable new thriller from David Roy explores the dark side of memory and its impact on us all.
My Review
A very different book I have to say, but entertaining and totally unique. Wealthy divorcee Stephanie Kuler hires a private detective (the narrator whose name is never mentioned) to investigate a murder which she claims to have committed. However, there is no victim to name, no body, and no date when it took place, or where.
Sometimes it is a brilliant murder mystery, while at other times it is a way for the author to put forward his own, sometimes controversial, views:
‘The news was full of stories of protest, the rhetoric of BLM given over to a struggle with anyone whose views might differ. It was peaceful protestors versus right-wing thugs, The press and television media had created the story they wanted and now it was just a case of ensuring the protagonists acted it out for them.’
He says how Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela never resorted to these tactics. Then he mentions Brexit, but I never really got whether he was pro or anti. I got the impression maybe pro, but he didn’t seem like a Brexiteer.
There are also lots of references to the Troubles in Northern Ireland where the book is set. Once again the narrator can be very politically incorrect, particularly in his view of the types of people who do, or believe, certain things.
But the main thread running through the whole book is that of the pandemic. It is set during the first year of lockdown, pre-vaccinations and even pre-masks. And Boris and co on TV every night giving us instructions on what we must do to stay safe. Little did we know who would be the worst rule-breakers later on. Everyone is social-distancing, in theory, though there are plenty who don’t.
Then there is Billy, also ex-army like our narrator and his ‘Billy-isms’, his strange way of speaking. Zombies (a bit of a Billy obsession) are ‘a fig roll‘ of his imagination, he says Gongle instead of Google and that he was waiting for some fish to come home to roost. There are also the names he uses for everyday objects such as the interweb machine (computer), corporate transport module (bus), linked corporate transport module (train) or individual transport module, ITM for short (car). Sometimes I have to admit, I didn’t get the relevance.
I loved the narrator’s comedy take on things. It was just like the banter I have with my younger son, my one daughter-in-law and a colleague at work. Others often don’t get it. In the book only Stephanie’s friend Georgina is totally on his wavelength and I really enjoyed their interactions.
A highly recommended, interesting read.
Many thanks to @zooloo2008 for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the Author
David Roy was born in Bangor, Northern Ireland in the mid ’60s. After a number of years in the army he left a life in uniform to read for a degree, ultimately qualifying as a secondary school teacher. He is the author of many books, the first written in 1994 as an account of his service in the first Gulf War. His book ‘The Lost Man’, the first of his Ted Dexter adventures, featured on ITV ‘The Alan Titchmarsh Show’; where it was shortlisted in The People’s Novelist competition.
As well as being a soldier, David has been a dishwasher, a teacher, a civil servant, a security guard, a welfare assistant and an ambulance crew member. He is married and now lives in the north of England with his wife and two daughters.
Follow him at:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigdaveroy/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DavidRo02674885
Buy Link – https://geni.us/PYFx
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