ramblingmads

It’s a TV drama with a set full of secrets, but who’s calling the shots?

A dream role in a hit TV drama is not all it seems when actor Holly Elding is warned to turn down the part and run for her life!

A missing actress, a superyacht full of stolen art, an FBI man with a hidden agenda, a chateauset to burst into flames, a love triangle and a web of deceit.

Can Holly and disgraced cop turned stuntman Josh Corton bring down the gang before they’re written out for good?

A fast -moving adventure thriller set in England, Spain, the Greek islands and France.

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As a TV reporter, producer and newsreader for both BBC East and ITV Anglia, Phil Johnson covered everything from tracking down criminals in Spain and going on high octane-police chases, to interviewing pop stars, politicians and celebrities.
Writing as PN Johnson, Phil’s books aim to entertain, with thrilling crime mysteries in
exciting locations.

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My thoughts: The scam being run is clever but the criminals haven’t been as smart as they thought when actor Holly and stuntman Josh catch on to their scheme. Chasing the stolen items across Europe with the help of Spanish police inspector Blanca, they thwart kidnappers and thieves, gunmen and escape from an exploding chateau. Action packed indeed!

If Holly and Josh ever decide to quit acting, they’d make quite the investigative duo.

Really entertaining and enjoyable adventure and a satisfying ending as the bad guys go down for their crimes and the brave duo finally admit their feelings for one another. What might they uncover on their next acting gig?

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

Every lie has its cost. In money or in blood . . .

Suave, suited winemaker Adam Gillespie has it all. A thriving business. A designer
home in a leafy Birmingham suburb. And a little black book full of lovers.

Until, the drab Monday morning he’s found dead at his desk. A carrier bag masks his chiseled features — and surely smothered his final cries.

Detective Tom Mariner’s team are ready to chalk it up as a tragic accident. A kink
gone horribly wrong.

But Mariner’s not so sure. The burn marks around the victim’s wrists tell a darker
story.

And this isn’t the only mysterious death on Mariner’s patch.

Elsewhere, an elderly woman is found floating in a murky canal.

Mariner knows he should leave well alone. He’s supposed to be on leave. Recovering
from the case that almost cost him everything . . .

He somehow survived, battered not beaten. But his health — and his relationship — are hanging by a thread.

This time around, he might not be so lucky . . .

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Chris Collett grew up in a Norfolk seaside town where she worked in a boarding
house (now defunct) a local bakery (closed down) and a crisp factory (razed to the
ground). After leaving school she trained, in Liverpool, as a teacher for children with
learning disabilities, including autism.

Now a recently retired university lecturer,
Chris is married with two grown up children and lives in Birmingham, UK on DI Tom Mariner’s ‘patch’. She has published short stories, teaches creative and crime writing and is a manuscript assessor for the Crime Writers Association.

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My thoughts: What could the murder of a wine merchant and the accidental death of an old woman have in common? Nothing, or so it seems. The police think Adam Gillespie was probably killed over a wine certification or a theft in his warehouse, and the elderly lady probably fell in the canal.

But DCI Tom Mariner’s not so sure. He’s on medical leave, but that doesn’t stop him from thinking and after being asked to look into the drowning by the dead woman’s niece, he’s putting the pieces together and uncovering a conspiracy and  a criminal taking advantage of the most vulnerable people around.

Meanwhile one of his team is concerned about their neighbour, a university student who has been acting rather strangely. Has he found another crime in the city?

Clever, full of twists and with an ingenious connection between the two victims and the least likely criminal mastermind you might ever come across. Very enjoyable.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

How do you solve a murder when you’re shut out of the investigation?

Young detectives, Robinson Ellington Foxe and Amy Kennard, don’t want to work at Coventry’s Moat Lane police station. Neither do their colleagues want them there. But it’s the last chance for two
officers for whom doing the right thing has cost them their futures.

Despite a murder on their patch, they are lumbered with investigating a series of high-profile burglaries. But when a thief is killed in the house of an influential businessman, Foxe and Kennard are convinced it is linked to their cases and want in.

The official investigation is a whitewash, but Robbie and Amy keep investigating anyway. As they uncover a web of deceit and corruption, reaching to the very top of the force, their own difficult histories are weaponised against them, and they find themselves fighting for their careers and their lives.

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Paul Gitsham is the author of the Foxe and Kennard British detective series, the DCI Warren Jones series and the standalone domestic thriller, The Aftermath.

Brought up in Coventry, he started his career as a biologist. After gaining a PhD in molecular biology, he worked in laboratories in Manchester and Toronto, before retraining as a science teacher.

Along the way he had spells as the world’s most over-qualified receptionist and spent time working for a major UK bank, ensuring that terrorists, foreign dictators and other international ne’er do wells
hadn’t embarrassed the institution by managing to deposit their ill-gotten gains in a Children’s Trust Fund.

Paul’s final school reports from primary school said that he would never achieve anything if his handwriting didn’t improve. A somewhat kinder note urged him to become the next Roald Dahl. If
anything, his handwriting has got worse and unless Mr Dahl also wrote police procedurals under a pseudonym, he has failed on both counts.

Paul is a member of the Crime Writers Association and the International Thriller Writers organisation and lives with his wife in the West Midlands in a house with more books than shelf space.

Instagram/Threads @paulgitsham
Facebook@dcijones (Appears as Paul Gitsham Author)
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My thoughts: Foxe and Kennard are both new to the team at West Midlands Police, he was with the Met and she’s from Manchester, but they’re put together to work on a string of burglaries while the rest of the team are dealing with a murder.

However, as they investigate, they start noticing strange coincidences, and with a bit more work, they’re not coincidences, they’re part of something bigger. All of the victims posted about being away on Instagram and they all had safes installed by the same company. But then there’s a few outliers, and that’s even more intriguing.

Both have slightly complicated pasts, both left their previous roles under a shadow and now they’re struggling to fit in. But they’re also excellent detectives and in solving their cases, they might also be solving the cases the rest of the team are working on.

A really good start to a new series, with great protagonists and an interesting start, having solved a huge case and exposed some darkness in the police that needed to be dealt with.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

The Fatal Farandole is a cozy mystery full of plot twists and small-town secrets. It’s perfect for fans of character-driven crime novels with emotional depth.

A beloved Provençal festival.

A murderous conspiracy.

A bullfighter who knows too much.

When two local chefs are killed within a week, shockwaves ripple through the region’s tight-knit culinary world.
Suspicion lands squarely on baker Julie Cavallo.

As whispers turn to accusations, her eccentric family closes ranks, and her loyal friends rally to her side.

But Julie’s running out of time. Her pastry shop is at risk. Her love life is unraveling. The gendarmes are tracking her every move. Julie can’t afford to wait for the official investigation to uncover the
truth.

Her instincts go into overdrive. Dots connect. Patterns appear…

Can Julie make it through this case, when asking the right questions has already gotten others killed?

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Ana T. Drew is the evil mastermind behind a recent string of murders in the fictional French town of Beldoc. A first-place winner of the Chanticleer MYSTERY & MAYHEM Awards, her books have been
released in several languages, both independently and through traditional houses, including HarperCollins France and Straarup & Co.

When she’s not plotting mysteries, Ana can be found perfecting her low-carb cookie recipes or watching The Rookie to cope with the void left by Castle.

Ana lives in Paris with her husband and their dog, but her heart resides in Provence.

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Win a boxset of the three books in the Provence Mysteries Series (Open INT)

My thoughts: as the town gears up to celebrate the annual bullfight, and Julie is waiting to see whether her bakery is one of the caterers, a friend is murdered and she finds herself locked in a fridge with her grandmother’s dog and somehow the prime suspect.

Julie and her friends decide to carry out their own investigation, especially as the police seem so focused on her, even after another suspicious death which she can’t possibly be involved in.

As they dig into the lives of the victims, they find a conspiracy, one that someone will kill to keep hidden. Can Julie avoid becoming the next victim?

Clever, funny and enjoyable, this was an entertaining crime read with plenty of twists (and now I really want a pistachio croissant!)

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

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