+ childhood, Dogs, feel-good, fiction, friends, friendship, homelessness, humour fiction, loneliness, loss, review
Lost & Found by James Gould Bourn
Ronnie has resigned himself to a life of loneliness.
His life in the crumbling seaside town of Bingham-on-Sea never seemed that bad, but since the loss of his father, the highlights of Ronnie’s solitary days include manning the lost property office at the bus station where he works, and plaguing his local GP with increasingly outlandish ailments. Forgotten or underestimated by all those around him, Ronnie is lost, and he’s not expecting to be found.
#LostAndFound @JPGouldBourn @orionbooks @Tr4cyF3nt0n #CompulsiveReaders #blogtour
But when a chance encounter leads Ronnie to reluctantly foster Hamlet, an unwanted stray dog, his empty days begin to fill with all manner of new responsibilities and experiences.
Can these two lost souls help each other to find a new lease of life?
My Review
I literally read this in a day, finishing at one o’clock in the morning. It has everything. It’s sad, hilariously funny at times, poignant, includes an ugly but lovable dog called Hamlet (no not after the Prince of Denmark – after the next town where he was found, which happens to be called Hamlet) and a group of mismatched lonely protagonists.
‘He likes you,’ said Cate. ‘I can see it in his eyes.’
Ronnie looked at Hamlet. Hamlet’s dodgy eye also looked at Hamlet.
‘Really?’ said Ronnie. ‘And which eye would that be exactly?’
‘The gammy one. It only rolls around like that when he likes someone.’
Ronnie has lost his shadow. He has no idea how or why, only that he can no longer see it. Maybe that is why Hamlet is so wary of him. Dogs can sense things. Ronnie also visits the doctor – the only medical professional (loosely speaking) in run-down Bingham-on-Sea – every couple of weeks, having consulted Google and convinced he has everything from tetanus to a lump on his bum and a tropical disease only caught in a country he has never been to (or even heard of). He can’t tell the doctor about his missing shadow though as it’ll make him sound even madder than the doctor already thinks he is.
The doctor scenes are hilarious. ‘Yes,’ said Dr Sterling. ‘I can feel it.’
Ronnie swallowed and braced himself for the news. ‘What do you think it is?’
‘I think it’s your bum cheek.’
Ronnie sighed. ‘Not that round thing, the other round thing?’
‘That’s your other bum cheek.’
‘I don’t think you’re taking this very seriously.’
‘I’m not.’
‘Well that’s comforting,’ said Ronnie.
‘I’m not here to comfort you. Watch The Golden Girls if you want comfort. I’m here to tell you whether or not you have a legitimate medical complaint, and as per usual, you do not.’
Ronnie is a hypochondriac. And lonely since his father died. His mother had run off with the neighbour 35 years ago and his dad became his only friend. Ronnie works at the bus station with Carl and their boss Alan. He has been put in charge of the Lost & Found office, except no-one wants to claim any of it back. Except homeless woman Pearl that is, only none of it belongs to her. In the end Alan tells him to get rid of it. Ronnie can’t just dump it, so he takes most of it to the charity shops, but they don’t want the part chewed dog toys, so he takes them to the dog shelter and that’s where he meets Cate … and Hamlet. And somehow Cate manages to persuade him to take Hamlet home with him for a few days.
I love Cate. She’s knowledgeable about everything, a mine of useless trivia, unless you are a contestant on University Challenge, everyone tells her.
And it’s through Hamlet that he meets Brian who wants to train his cat to be a dog, Harriet who sits on the beach every day atop what looks like a life guard’s watchtower, and how he befriends the neighbour whose husband ran off with his mum.
This is such an enjoyable read. I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants a book in 2023 that will make their spirit soar.
Many thanks to @Tr4cyF3nt0n for inviting me to be part of the #CompulsiveReaders #blogtour
About the Author
James Gould-Bourn is an award-winning screenwriter and novelist from Manchester, England. His debut novel, Bear Necessity, has been published in 13 languages and his short films have been screened at several international film festivals. His most recent film, Champ, qualified for consideration at the 2022 Academy Awards. It was directed by Emmy award-winning director Ben Tricklebank and premiered at Cinelounge in Hollywood. James currently lives in Bristol, UK.
+ adventure, climate fiction, crime fiction, friendship, grief, journalist, lies, loss, love, marriage, murder, mystery, revenge, review, serial killer, thriller
Green Shoots by Ben Westwood
OUT OF THEIR ASHES, GREEN SHOOTS WILL GROW
The Constant Gardener meets Dexter – Green Shoots is a gripping conspiracy thriller with an ecological heart.
Brought back from the brink of suicide by a mysterious phone call, grieving journalist John Adamson is on a quest for the truth about his wife Christina’s death in South America.
#GreenShoots @benwestwood @CranthorpeBooks @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour
A private investigator provides John with clues to what really happened, but also tips him off to investigate a spate of deaths of businessmen, all found with the same cryptic message: ‘Out of their ashes, green shoots will grow.‘
From the protest-filled streets of London to the ravaged jungles of Ecuador, John is unwittingly drawn into a lethal plot.
There seems to be a vigilante killer on the loose, but who is behind these murders and what is the connection to his wife’s death?
My Review
Originally, I wasn’t even going to read Green Shoots. It didn’t appeal to me. I was afraid it would be too political. It’s not that I’m not interested in politics or the environment – I am – I just prefer to keep it separate from the fiction I read.
But then I did and I was literally blown away. It was nothing like I expected. So much heart and emotion. And then the locations I was familiar with – Beachy Head (though I’ve never tried to jump or take a selfie on the edge), Birling Gap and the steps leading down to the pebble beach, Brighton, Hove, The Seven Sisters (I hiked up and down those for the Macmillan Cancer charity). Unfortunately, I’ve never been to Ecuador, but I can see the beauty in my mind’s eye and despair for the birds, the jaguars and the monkeys.
Green Shoots is quite a simple story really. Journalist John Adamson has lost his beautiful wife and no longer able to cope, he takes himself up to Beachy Head. But he receives a call which stops him literally going over the edge. The man on the line knows where he is and why and tells him that he knows the truth about Christina’s death. He also persuades him to investigate the mysterious, seemingly unrelated murders of successful businessmen, all found with the same cryptic message: ‘Out of their ashes, green shoots will grow.’
Desperate to find out what happened to Christina in Ecuador, John is drawn into a dangerous world, where someone has a personal vendetta against these men. But is it enough to kill them and is it because they were all involved in plundering the Ecuadorian forests in order to make money from oil, timber, leather etc.
The scenes where John witnesses the destruction of the environment and the unbalancing of the delicate ecosystem were very harrowing – more harrowing that the grisly murders, because it’s really happening.
I can’t even begin to say how much I loved this book and everything it represents.
Many thanks to @zooloo2008 for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the Author
Ben Westwood is an author, lecturer and performer. He has worked for many years as a journalist, writing for publications including The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Guardian and The Independent. He lived for several years in South America and has authored travel guidebooks to Ecuador, Galapagos and Peru. Green Shoots is his first novel and draws on his own experience of grief and of living in Ecuador.
Ben now lives in East Sussex with his two children and lectures at the University of Brighton. In his spare time, he is a singer-songwriter and has released two self-funded albums.
To accompany the release of his debut novel, Ben is releasing a Green Shoots Soundtrack of 10 original songs on the themes of grief, loss, love and healing, available on Spotify, iTunes and all major music channels from September 2022. For further information on all Ben’s writing and music, benwestwood.net or music on benwestwoodmusic.com.
Follow him at:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/benwestwoodwriter
Twitter: https://twitter.com/benwestwood
Instagram: www.instagram.com/benwestwoodwrite
Website: www.benwestwood.net
Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62898865-green-shoots
Buy Link – https://geni.us/QDyqA43
+ alcoholism, crime fiction, Detective novel, fiction, friendship, motherhood, murder, obsession, police drama, review
If I Can’t Have you by Louise Mullins (DI Emma Locke #3)
Have you ever wanted something so much you’d do anything to get it?
I wanted her from the moment I laid eyes on her. I promised to do anything to make her mine.
#IfICantHaveYou @MullinsAuthor #LouiseMullins @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour
But like a caged bird all she wanted was to fly away. Have you ever wanted someone so much you’d do anything to keep them? When you love someone, you should never let them go.
This is Book 3 of the DI Emma Locke series, but it can be read as a standalone.
My Review
You don’t need to have read the first two books in the series, but to be honest, it would have helped. However, there are two threads going on here – the first is the crime, the lost child, the missing persons, the murders. This is totally standalone.
But the second thread is when DI Emma Locke arrives, part way through the book, and she has history. She has obviously had a sketchy past before becoming a police officer. She is now with Johnno and helps take care of his son Jaxon, after his wife virtually abandoned the child. She is also worried about her friend Craig, who is a single parent, his son Ethan’s mother having died of an overdose. Craig is an alcoholic and things have become worse since their friend Jimmy died. All this is imported from books one and two, I guess.
I didn’t really warm to Emma. The investigation into the child’s sudden discovery is being led by DS Dafydd Tomos and I adored him. Fifty years old and suffering from PTSD after his stint in the SAS where his friend Mo was blown to pieces, and a wife in a wheelchair after a car accident, he is still so caring and empathic. His team is good too. The child whose name we discover later on, doesn’t speak and while she likes the male officers, she appears to be scared of women.
She’s slightly older than she looks and somewhat malnourished, but her clothes are new, clean and expensive, at least they would be clean if she didn’t have blood on her dress. Whose blood we don’t know at this stage.
This was a really exciting, fast-paced read. It’s also quite involved so I can’t say much more without revealing the plot. It is told in two timelines – the past from the point of view of ‘Laura’ – we initially have no idea who she is and the present which starts with the police being informed that a young girl is wandering around in the dark on her own. We swap back and forth until the past and present meet.
It’s a quick, easy read and I hope we’ll get to see more of DS Tomos in the future. He’s brilliant. In fact he deserves his own series of books.
Many thanks to @zooloo2008 for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the Author
Louise Mullins writes full-time using the experience she gained in a prior life working in the field of forensic mental health, working with offenders and survivors of serious crimes.
To keep up to date with her latest releases, visit her website: www.louisemullinsauthor.com. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as: @mullinsauthor.
Follow her at:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Louisemullins80
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mullinsauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MullinsAuthor
Website : www.louisemullinsauthor.com
Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61110920-if-i-can-t-have-you
Buy Link – https://geni.us/AAiQ
‘Who put that manhole there?’
Poor Pickle! I laughed and laughed.
First it’s the ‘accidents’ in his postal van. Then it’s the animals and not just the dogs. The funniest is the randy cockerel, probably because when my husband was young they had a cockerel. It chased people round the garden, trying to peck the backs of their legs, especially if they had bare legs.
But Pickle had other dreams before he became a postie. Will he realise those now? He’ll have to get out of the manhole first.
Written and directed by Emmeline Braefield, based on the life experiences of Anthony Young
Starring Anthony Young as Pickle
Produced by Cat on a Piano Productions
Music:
Whistling Down the Road by Silent Partner
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…
+ abuse, child abuse, childhood, family, fiction, kidnapping, loneliness, obsession, relationships, review, thriller
So Pretty by Ronnie Turner
When Teddy Colne arrives in the small town of Rye, he believes he will be able to settle down and leave his past behind him. Little does he know that fear blisters through the streets like a fever. The locals tell him to stay away from an establishment known only as Berry & Vincent, that those who rub too closely to its proprietor risk a bad end.
Despite their warnings, Teddy is desperate to understand why Rye has come to fear this one man, and to see what really hides behind the doors of his shop.
#SoPretty #EvilAlwaysComesHome @Ronnie__Turner @OrendaBooks
#RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour
Ada moved to Rye with her young son to escape a damaged childhood and years of never fitting in, but she’s lonely, and ostracised by the community. Ada is ripe for affection and friendship, and everyone knows it. As old secrets bleed out into this town, so too will a mystery about a family who vanished fifty years earlier, and a community living on a knife-edge.
Teddy looks for answers, thinking he is safe, but some truths are better left undisturbed, and his past will find him here, just as it always has. And before long, it will find Ada too.
My Review
Part way through this I had to make a family tree so I could remember who was whose son or daughter. There are some unsavoury characters in each family – Teddy’s father, Ada’s mother and her mother’s mother. Then we have Mr Vincent, who is creepy and evil – at least that is what the townspeople think. I don’t disagree. He owns a shop called Berry & Vincent, but no-one goes in or shops there. Many years ago there was an antique shop in Cheltenham called Summerfields. It was jam-packed with stuff and he never sold anything. When he passed away, it turned out he was a millionaire. But I digress. I’m certain he was a very nice man and a trust was set up in his name.
When Teddy arrives in Rye, he hopes no-one will recognise him and it appears they don’t. He sees a job advertised in the window of Berry & Vincent and applies. He gets the job immediately. All he has to do is dust and keep the place tidy. There are no customers to serve.
At first we feel sorry for Teddy. He’s looking for friendship. He’s very stressed all the time – he keeps scratching till his skin bleeds. But he is nice to Ada and her four-year-old son Albie.
Ada is also looking for friendship, but no-one wants to be friends with her. Except Teddy. They go for walks, take Albie to the park, have lunch together, until things start to take a sinister turn.
I loved this book so much. It is unique and brilliantly written, and asks so many questions. Can Teddy escape his father’s legacy or are we predestined to inherit our parents’ genes? I hate to think you can never escape your destiny and that nurture can never win over nature. Secondly, do people really blame the spouse – the ‘Devil’s Mistress’ as they called Teddy’s mother – or do they see her as yet another victim. The idea that the wife always knows and keeps quiet really bothers me. Think Peter Sutcliffe (his wife Sonia had absolutely no idea that her husband was a serial killer), and not Rose West who was as bad as her husband.
My final query is why Rye? It’s a lovely place if you are referring to the real one. I presume you are, as the nearest town/city is Hastings, which is mentioned more than once.
I feel that we are going to hear a lot more from this author. I certainly hope so.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
About the Author
Ronnie Turner grew up in Cornwall, the youngest in a large family. At an early age, she discovered a love of literature and dreamed of being a published author. Ronnie now lives in the South West with her family and three dogs. In her spare time, she reviews books on her blog and enjoys long walks on the coast. Ronnie is a Waterstones Senior Bookseller and a barista, and her youth belies her exceptional, highly unusual talent.
Orenda Books is a small independent publishing company specialising in literary fiction with a heavy emphasis on crime/thrillers, and approximately half the list in translation. They’ve been twice shortlisted for the Nick Robinson Best Newcomer Award at the IPG awards, and publisher and owner Karen Sullivan was a Bookseller Rising Star in 2016. In 2018, they were awarded a prestigious Creative Europe grant for their translated books programme. Three authors, including Agnes Ravatn, Matt Wesolowski and Amanda Jennings have been WHSmith Fresh Talent picks, and Ravatn’s The Bird Tribunal was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award, won an English PEN Translation Award, and adapted for BBC Radio Four ’s Book at Bedtime. Six titles have been short- or long-listed for the CWA Daggers. Launched in 2014 with a mission to bring more international literature to the UK market, Orenda Books publishes a host of debuts, many of which have gone on to sell millions worldwide, and looks for fresh, exciting new voices that push the genre in new directions. Bestselling authors include Ragnar Jonasson, Antti Tuomainen, Gunnar Staalesen, Michael J. Malone, Kjell Ola Dahl, Louise Beech, Johana Gustawsson, Lilja Sigurðardóttir and Sarah Stovell.
It’s been a successful year for reading. I’ve read some brilliant books. My reading challenge was 130 and I just made it with 132.
This is a new one for me, but I do love a good list. These books were not necessarily published in 2022 – in fact Miss Benson’s Beetle has been top for the last two years.
Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce
There’s hardly a day goes by when someone doesn’t visit this review and I am not sure how or why. It was published in 2021 but it’s still top by a mile.
The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett
Again this is visited constantly. It’s a great book but it wasn’t one of my favourites as to really appreciate the book you have to play along and I don’t want to work that hard!
The Trial of Lotta Rae by Siobhan MacGowan
Dropped off a bit now – I initially thought that it may have had something to do with the author’s rather well-known sibling, but that would be unfair. This was a really good read and she deserves the recognition in her own right.
It All Comes Back To You by Beth Duke
I didn’t love this as much as Tapestry (which has just made my Top 4 books of 2022), but it was certainly well visited when I posted it in 2021, and still is. The follow-up is out soon.
Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson
A very well-known author so not surprising. This was quite recent so may keep going up.
A Tidy Ending by Joanna Cannon
The author of the brilliant The Trouble With Goats And Sheep so it’s bound to have had an impact.
+ abuse, alcoholism, brothers, childhood, domestic noir, family, fantasy, feel-good, female friendship, fiction, folklore, forgiveness, friendship, Ghost story, gothic horror, Gothic mystery, grief, haunting, List, literature, loss, love, music, paranormal, piano, relationships, review, secrets, sisterhood, sisters, slavery, suffragette movement, supernatural, superstition, tradition, whimsical
My Top 4 Books of 2022
It’s approaching the very end of 2022 and it’s time to reflect on my absolute favourite books of the year.
Last year it was hard but this year is even harder. There were instant standouts again – about 10 of them but I had to cut it down to four. I have tried to include a mix of genres but failed yet again. I read a lot of crime fiction, which often make my Top 8 selections, but my Top 3 or 4 of the year tend to be something a bit different.
My first three therefore are all slightly ‘whimsical’ while the fourth is a gothic mystery.
The Unravelling by Polly Crosby
‘The sea is made up of unspeakable sadness.’ This is a sentence you will read many times in this extraordinary book.
Tartelin, a young woman who has recently lost her mother, travels to the tiny, remote island of Dohhalund in the middle of the North Sea, to work for Miss Stourbridge. Her job will be to catch butterflies and kill them, so they can be pinned and studied. It’s a strange request and one that Tartelin doesn’t realise will have such a profound effect on her.
For my full review click here
Tapestry by Beth Duke
“We’re all part of a tapestry bigger than any of us can imagine, weaving in and out and creating a glorious picture. All of us from the beginning of time.”
What a lovely thought. My brother had his DNA done and assuming he and I are exactly the same ethnicity, it was quite revealing. Not the 49% Ashkenazi Jew – we kind of guessed that – but the rest. Eastern European, Scandinavian and 6% African. We are all descended from the slaves brought over from Africa, but most of us don’t have Creek ancestors, more’s the pity. Both are very important in Tapestry.
For my full review click here
Nothing Else by Louise Beech
I cried. I admit it. In fact I probably cried for most of the last third of the book. But don’t be put off by silly old me. This book is wonderful, tender, beautiful and uplifting but it’s also very sad. It broke my heart at times.
Louise Beech is one of my favourite authors and this book is one of my favourite reads of the second half of 2022. It pulls at the heart strings as well as the piano strings – see what I did there – the characters are so well drawn. I loved Heather, but I probably loved her little sister Harriet even more if that’s possible.
As children the two sisters were inseparable, playing the piano to drown out the violence in their home. Heather was trying to protect Harriet from hearing what was going on – their father hitting their mother. That two such young children should have to witness such horror is unimaginable. It really did break my heart.
For my full review click here
The Parlour Game by Jennifer Renshaw
This is the book I have been waiting for! A gothic tale of sinister goings-on, mysterious disappearances, hauntings and macabre artefacts with special powers.
The Parlour Game really was a book I could not put down. I’m so glad I read it on holiday so I didn’t have to. There is an underlying spookiness in every page, just waiting for the darkness, the bumps in the night, the voices in the walls.
Following the death of her beloved mother and the attendance of the celebrated spiritualist Miss Earnshaw at the funeral, Ivy Granger’s life will never be the same. The spiritualist tells her that she knew her mother and that Ivy’s life is in peril and gives her a card with her address. But Ivy’s father tells her it’s all nonsense and has decided that Ivy is to be married to the local undertaker. Her dream of studying to be a botanist is fast fading.
For my full review click here
+ abuse, adventure, childhood, crime fiction, Detective novel, family, fiction, friendship, Ghost story, gothic horror, grief, Historical fiction, List, literature, London, loss, love, Magical realism, mental health, motherhood, murder, mystery, police drama, religion, revenge, review, secrets, short stories, short story, sisters, supernatural, thriller, twins
My Top 8 Books of 2022 Part Four
Here are my favourite eight books of the final quarter of 2022. One of these will make it into my top four books of 2022 (I just couldn’t cut it down to three this year).
The Parlour Game by Jennifer Renshaw
This is the book I have been waiting for! A gothic tale of sinister goings-on, mysterious disappearances, hauntings and macabre artefacts with special powers.
The Parlour Game really was a book I could not put down. I’m so glad I read it on holiday so I didn’t have to. There is an underlying spookiness in every page, just waiting for the darkness, the bumps in the night, the voices in the walls.
Following the death of her beloved mother and the attendance of the celebrated spiritualist Miss Earnshaw at the funeral, Ivy Granger’s life will never be the same. The spiritualist tells her that she knew her mother and that Ivy’s life is in peril and gives her a card with her address. But Ivy’s father tells her it’s all nonsense and has decided that Ivy is to be married to the local undertaker. Her dream of studying to be a botanist is fast fading.
For my full review click here
Surviving Her by Jo Johnson
The book is set in two timelines – one is Nicky’s childhood in the eighties – though the exact date is not always clear – and at times so sad I wasn’t sure initially if I would be able to carry on reading. The other is told from the point of view of Keziah, a primary school teacher who has recently married Claus, supposedly the man of her dreams, the man who would rescue her. Because Keziah’s life has never been the same since her sister Esther died when they were both in their teens and she still harbours the guilt she felt at the time. I think sometimes she feels she deserves whatever has been handed out to her.
It’s an amazing book which perfectly captures the themes of love, loss, parenthood, childhood trauma, guilt and control. Having been written by a psychologist, we know that these themes, together with that of mental health, will be dealt with sensitively and realistically.
For my full review click here
The Pain Tourist by Paul Cleave
What a fantastic book – towards the end it was so exciting I was almost holding my breath. But it is quite complicated, so you need to concentrate.
There are numerous storylines going on here. We begin with a terrible murder nine years ago, when 11-year-old James Garrett’s mum and dad were shot to death, execution style. Having witnessed his parents’ deaths, James was shot in the head, which left him in a coma from which no-one expected him to emerge. But he did and Detective Inspector Rebecca Kent is tasked with finding out who did it. Theodore Tate was the investigating officer at the time but failed to solve the crime. He is no longer a police officer – he now works as a consultant on two TV programmes, one fiction – the other a re-enactment series called New Zealand Crime Busters, a bit like Crimewatch in the UK.
For my full review click here
The Crooked Little Pieces Volume 2 by Sophia Lambton
I finished the review of volume one of The Crooked Little Pieces with this:
‘…. it’s very different. Don’t expect straightforward historical fiction. It’s more about emotions and the relationship between two women, who even though they are twins are disparate and diverse. As we leave them amidst world war two, I look forward to the next instalment in this fascinating tale.’
And I couldn’t wait for the second instalment of this brilliant story. Then it arrived and I wasn’t disappointed. We continue to follow the sisters two years on. The war is over. Isabel is married to Steven, whose tastes in the bedroom are both weird and dangerous. Isabel is accepting but her sister Anneliese is worried and rightly so. But Isabel wants a baby so badly that she is prepared to put up with anything.
For my full review click here
Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan
As this book is jointly written by Jodi Picoult, you know that it will raise important questions and make you think.
One of the questions this book asks is whether we are entitled to keep secrets about our past from the people we love. Some secrets are best left buried if they do not in any way affect anyone else. But there are others where it is necessary to tell the truth and leave the recipient of the secret to decide for themselves whether it’s something they can live with. Or is it?
For my full review click here
Dragonfly Summer by JH Moncrieff
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.
For my full review click here
The Celeste Experiment by Omar Imady
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.
For my full review click here
The Bookstore Sisters by Alice Hoffman
I often comment that a book is too long but The Bookstore Sisters is too short! I wanted more – more Isabel and Sophie and Violet and the dog Hank. I wish she had taken the Jack Russell as well as I desperately miss my beloved Pancake whom we lost last year aged almost 17.
Alice Hoffman has been one of my favourite authors – if not THE favourite – ever since I read The Museum of Extraordinary Things a number of years ago and then devoured every one of her books that had been released on Kindle.
For my full review click here
+ alcoholism, anthology, brothers, family, fiction, Ghost story, gothic horror, haunting, marriage, mental health, mental illness, motherhood, mythology, paranormal, postpartum psychosis, review, short stories, short story, sisters, supernatural, superstition, witchcraft
The Haunting Season: Ghostly Tales for Long Winter Nights by various
Winter, with its unsettling blend of the cosy and the sinister, has long been a popular time for gathering by the bright flame of a candle, or the warm crackling of a fire, and swapping stories of ghosts and strange happenings.
Now eight bestselling, award-winning authors – master storytellers of the sinister and the macabre – bring this time-honoured tradition to vivid life in a spellbinding collection of new and original haunted tales.
From a bustling Covent Garden Christmas market to the frosty moors of Yorkshire, from a country estate with a dreadful secret, to a London mansion where a beautiful girl lies frozen in death, these are stories to make your hair stand on end, send shivers down your spine and to serve as your indispensable companion to the long nights of winter.
So curl up, light a candle, and fall under the spell of The Haunting Season . . .
Featuring new and original tales from:
Bridget Collins, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Binding; Imogen Hermes Gowar, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock; Kiran Millwood Hargrave, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Mercies; Andrew Michael Hurley Sunday Times bestselling author of The Loney; Jess Kidd, International award-winning author of Things in Jars; Elizabeth Macneal, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Doll Factory; Natasha Pulley, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street and Laura Purcell, Award-winning author of The Silent Companions.
My Review
I’ve read a few of these authors before, which is why I was attracted to this compilation in the first place.
A Study in Black and White by Bridget Collins
Spooky and scary, reminding me of the traditional ghost stories of MR James. When Morton sees a black and white house, with huge topiary in the shape of chess pieces, he is fascinated. So he can’t believe his luck when he discovers he can live there for a nominal rent. Well, you know what they say, ‘if it seems too good to be true it probably is.’
Strange things happen in the house – he can see and feel a presence and the chess pieces keep moving.
Thwaite’s Tenant by Imogen Hermes Gowar is one of the scariest ghost stories I’ve ever read. When Lucinda Lisle leaves her husband, taking their young son Stanley with her, she is ‘aided’ by her father and driven to the old Thwaite house, a place of ‘some notoriety’. Neither she nor her sister have ever been there, but somehow their father is caught up in its reputation.
The house is cold and dark and Lucinda’s father leaves them both there. That’s when the spooky stuff starts happening. And terrifying it is too. Footsteps, objects being moved, voices, apparitions, but this is way beyond the usual haunting occurrences. I was truly chilled.
Story number three is The Eel Singers by Natasha Pulley. Very different from the other stories so far, it follows Thaniel, Mori and Six from The Watchmaker of Filigree Street as they decide to take a break for Christmas and stay in a cottage in the Fens. There’s something not right, however, about the people and the place. Thaniel finds himself sleepwalking for the first time in his life and hears a strange song – the song of the eel singers.
It makes more sense if you have read The Watchmaker of Filigree Street – otherwise you won’t have any background on the characters, which I feel is important.
Lily Wilt by Jess Kidd is my absolute favourite. So much so that I immediately downloaded Things in Jars to read next. I just love the way she writes, the turns of phrase, the descriptions, are all so original.
Seventeen-year-old Lily Wilt died in her sleep. Her body is lying in an open coffin in the house in Hanover Square. People come to file past and revel in her beauty. She has become a celebrity in death. And strangely, her beauty hasn’t faded since she passed.
The renowned photographer Walter Pemble is hired to take her picture – a memento mori – something the Victorians were very keen on. He has been warned not to get too close to Lily’s body. But Walter doesn’t heed the warnings. Just how far is he prepared to go to be with Lily? Terrifying!
The Chillingham Chair by Laura Purcell, another of my favourite authors, The Silent Companions is one of my favourite books.
A few days before her younger sister’s wedding, Evelyn falls off her horse and breaks her ankle. She is supposed to be a bridesmaid, but now that won’t be possible. She can barely stand let alone walk. However, her sister’s fiance Victor Chillingham has a solution in the form of his late father’s wheelchair, a horrible, scruffy thing that only just moves. Why is Victor so keen to have Evelyn at the wedding, seeing as he had proposed to her first and she had rebuffed him in no uncertain terms. The chair appears to have a mind of its own, but what does it want?
The Hanging Of The Greens by Andrew Michael Hurley is probably the strangest of the stories. The Rev Edward Clarke is visited by a sick man called Joe Gull who tells him that he is dying and wants to make his peace with the people he has wronged due to his alcohol addiction. He has done some terrible things, particularly to Murray and Helen Oxbarrow of Salter Farm. In his conceit (as he himself believes) Edward will use his own influence, not God’s, to act as mediator between Joe and the Oxbarrows. So far, nothing supernatural. But when Edward visits the Oxbarrows, it all turns a bit Christmas Carol and The Ghost of Christmas Past.
Confinement by Kiran Millwood Hargrave – absolutely terrifying and based on the true case of Mrs Amelia Dyer, the Victorian baby murderess, and the author’s own experience of postpartum psychosis.
Catherine Blake has given birth to a baby girl and is confined to her room, as was often the advice given by doctors in Victorian times. She is fed laudanum on a daily basis to keep her calm and locked in the dark. Seems unbelievable today. Probably because of the newborn baby, I needed to finish the story to make sure the baby was OK. Just terrifying.
Monster by Elizabeth Macneal is set in 1838. Victor Crisp has always been the clever brother, the one who was good at everything from cricket to mathematics. His younger brother is only interested in plants and flowers. Victor calls him Daisy. But now, years later, Daisy is a leading horticulturist and Victor has achieved nothing. Then he marries Mabel and they go to Lyme Regis where Victor can search for a fossilised skeleton that will make his fortune. He’ll be celebrated by the Royal Society. But things are not as they seem. Seals that turn into women, women that turn into seals, selkies and strange happenings. It’s all rubbish to Victor until a terrible tragedy changes everything.
A brilliant anthology of scary stories just in time for Christmas. I loved every single one.
When Jem and his family move to the countryside, he doesn’t like his new home one bit.
It’s an old cottage on the side of a hill, where strange things keep happening: shoes are filled up with conkers, the stairs become tangled in a woollen maze. Jem’s sister Verity is certain it is the work of a “nouka”, an ancient creature from local folklore that lives deep down inside the hill. Jem, however, is adamant that there is no such thing.
But this small mythical creature, so attuned to the hearts and minds of others, does exist. And, what’s more, it is determined, through mischief and mayhem, to help Jem reignite the spark within himself once more.
My Review
‘You ever have any trouble there?”
‘No,’ Jem said, quickly.
The old woman regarded him over her spectacles…’Good,’ she said. ‘If you ever do, just leave a little something outside your back door.’
‘Pardon?’
‘A bowl of porridge or a few crusts. It keeps them happy, you see.’
‘Who?’
‘You know who.’
But Jem doesn’t believe in the nouka. It doesn’t exist…
I don’t often review children’s literature but The Boy Who Lost His Spark is in a class of its own and I just had to. Of course the fabulous illustrations are part of its charm. It’s set to be a modern classic.
So what is the nouka? It’s ‘little and fluffy,’ Jem’s sister Verity tells him, ‘with black fur that sticks out all around. Unless it’s been raining…water makes their fur go droopy. Noukas hate rain.’
I can honestly say that this is probably one of the best children’s books I have ever read.
Q & A with Scarlett Jordan, Age 8 and Holly Jordan, Age 6
It’s a beautiful book isn’t it. Did you like the illustrations?
Holly: I like the pictures of the nouka. It’s small and cute.
Scarlett: Beautiful.
Do you think the story has a message?
(My daughter-in-law interjected here and explained about Jem’s problems with reading and about being dyslexic.)
I think this is very important to the story as Jem shouldn’t be made to feel stupid.
Who is your favourite character in the story?
Scarlett: Mmmm
Holly: The nouka! nouka, nouka, nouka!
If you lived where Jem and Verity live, would you believe the nouka was real?
Yes. And Holly even made up her own song about the nouka.
About the Author
Maggie O’Farrell is an award-winning Irish-British author. Her books for adults have received international acclaim; she has won the Betty Trask Award for her debut novel After You’d Gone, the Somerset Maugham Award in 2005 for The Distance Between Us, the 2013 Costa Novel Award for The Hand That First Held Mine, the 2020 Waterstones Book of the Year Award and the 2020 Women’s Fiction Prize for Hamnet, and her non-fiction book I Am I Am I Am reached number 1 on the Sunday Times bestseller list. Where Snow Angels Go was her first book for children, and it won the Indie Book of the Month. Find her online at maggieofarrell.com
Daniela Terrazzini studied Fine Art in Milan and moved to London to study Photography at The London College of Printing. She is now an illustrator of both detailed paintings and graphic surface patterns. She has illustrated Where Snow Angels Go by Maggie O’Farrell, The Night I Met Father Christmas by Ben Miller and The Seeing Stitch by Jane Yolan. Follow her on Twitter as @DJTerrazzini and Instagram as @danielajterrazzini.
+ female friendship, fiction, friendship, Ghost story, haunting, paranormal, psychic, review, supernatural
The Haunting of Highdown Hall – Psychic Surveys #1 by Shani Struthers
If you sold your soul to the devil, could you ever get it back?
The latest in a long line of psychically-gifted females, Ruby Davis can see through the veil that separates this world and the next, helping grounded souls to move towards the light – or ‘home’ as Ruby calls it. Not just a job for Ruby, it’s a crusade and one she wants to bring to the High Street. Psychic Surveys is born.
Based in Lewes, East Sussex, Ruby and her team of freelance psychics have been kept busy of late. Specialising in domestic cases, their solid reputation is spreading – it’s not just the dead that can rest in peace but the living too. All is threatened when Ruby receives a call from the irate new owner of Highdown Hall. Film star Cynthia Hart is still in residence, despite having died in 1958.
Winter deepens and so does the mystery surrounding Cynthia. She insists the devil is blocking her path to the light long after Psychic Surveys have ‘disproved’ it. Investigating her apparently unblemished background, Ruby is pulled further and further into Cynthia’s world and the darkness that now inhabits it.
For the first time in her career, Ruby’s deepest beliefs are challenged. Does evil truly exist? And if so, is it the most relentless force of all?
My Review
The Haunting Of Highdown Hall is set in a part of the country I know quite well and I love a book that describes places I am familiar with. Lewes not so much but Brighton and the surrounding area.
Ruby Davis is a psychic and her ambition in life is to bring her gift to people who believe they are being haunted – Ruby can tell straight away if they are faking it – and help the spirits to find their way to the light. And Ruby doesn’t believe that anyone is totally evil – she is certain that everyone can atone and find peace in what she refers to as their original ‘home’. But her beliefs will be severely challenged with one of her cases.
She has set up a business in Lewes called Psychic Surveys, along with fellow psychics Theo, Ness and the slightly less gifted Corinna. During an evening out she meets the handsome Cash and they become good friends. In fact he begins to accompany her on her visits. It’s at one of these that they are trying to send a spirit to the light along with dog Jed, but Jed inadvertently ‘befriends’ them and now pops up from time to time initially, and then seems to become a permanent fixture in their lives. Theo tells Ruby that Jed must go to the light, but he’s not having it. And while Cash, unlike Ruby, cannot see the dog, he can smell him.
But I digress. Ruby and co are summoned to rid Highdown Hall of its celebrity ghost, the film star Cynthia Hart. And it’s not going to be easy because Cynthia believes she sold her soul to the devil in exchange for fame and fortune. Cynthia died of a heart attack in 1958 on her 31st birthday and her spirit is still sticking around causing havoc to Mr Tierney, the new owner of the house and she isn’t going anywhere. It’s going to be Psychic Survey’s hardest job yet and what’s more, Mr Tierney, a journalist, threatens to discredit Ruby and co if they don’t get Cynthia out by Christmas Eve.
Very entertaining with lots of hauntings, poltergeists and other spirits and I do love Jed the ghost dog. I’ve only ever seen a couple of ghosts in my life – always animals, never humans – so I shall be following their antics in the future.
About the Author
Born and bred in Brighton, Shani Struthers is the author of twenty-four supernatural thrillers, some set in various locations in England, others in more far-flung destinations such as Venice and America. Having been brought up with an understanding of the Occult and alternative views on religion, she threads this knowledge throughout her books, often drawing on real-life experiences of her own, from people she has known and from well-known Occult figures.
Her Psychic Surveys series has proved very popular, becoming global Amazon genre bestsellers. There is also the This Haunted World series – standalone books set in and around the world’s most haunted places. They too have topped the Amazon genre charts, along with the more romantic Jessamine and Comraich, plus the Reach for the Dead series. Standalone psychological thriller, Summer of Grace, is also set in America, in the dark heart of Kansas! For Christmas Ghost Stories, check out Blakemort, Eve, Carfax House and The Damned Season.
To keep up to date with new releases, you can subscribe to her newsletter via her website: www.shanistruthers.com.
PS Bookchatter@cookiebiscuit is currently number 74 out of 100 on Feedspot Top 100 UK Book Blogs See my entry here
