ramblingmads

Bromgrove folk are dying to join Fitness for All. A friendly little gym where everyone’s welcome. And everyone’s a suspect.

Paralympian Jack Donahue has always been the gym’s devastatingly handsome poster boy. Until now.

Jack is found dead in the weights room. Bludgeoned with the same dumbbell that helped sculpt his world-class biceps!

Detective Gil Markham is called to investigate, with his loyal — and gloriously tactless — sidekick George Noakes never far behind.

But the deeper they dig into Jack’s secrets, the more suspects they find.
Behind his spotless public image, Jack wasn’t short of enemies. A spurned student with a grudge. A bitter ex-trainer. A girlfriend hiding secrets of her own.
Markham fears it all links back to a spate of attacks on the ladies of the Silver Swans barre group.

Before long, a second body falls. Then a third . . . both paid-up members of the gym.
Whoever’s behind these killings, they’re only just getting warmed up. Can Markham solve the case before they return to make it a personal best?

A wonderfully witty and twist-packed British crime mystery you won’t be able to put down. Perfect for fans of Elly Griffiths, Faith Martin, Clare Chase, P.F. Ford and LJ
Ross.

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Catherine Moloney is a Liverpool writer of Irish-American heritage. After graduating
in Jurisprudence from Jesus College (University of Oxford), she was called to the Bar at Gray’s Inn. Despite qualifying as a barrister, her first love was English; this led to a PhD in English Literature at Birkbeck College (University of London).
In her academic career, she lectured and published widely on the subject of
tuberculosis and nineteenth-century literature, but somehow managed to avoid
contracting galloping hypochondria and turned her attention to crime fiction.

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My thoughts: The Fitness For All gym is the centre of the crimes in this book – Paralympian Jack Donahue is murdered in the weight room, and several members of the Silver Swans dance class have been attacked around town. The only thing that connects the victims is the gym. But are the crimes being committed by the same person and why?

As Markham and his team investigate, they find Donahue wasn’t the golden boy he appeared to be and there were plenty of people who disliked him – but did that lead to his death?

There’s some people at the university too, where Donahue was supposed to be doing a PhD, some of whom seem very keen on him and others, like his girlfriend’s ex, who really don’t. That ex, a rather strange guy anyway – obsessed with eugenics and claiming Donahue was abusive, certainly seems to have motive.

But while he might have plenty to say, does he really seem like a killer? When another body is found, it seems less likely. Can the team crack the case?

Clever, funny (Noakes is rather entertaining if a bit of a dinosaur) and with a twisted killer at the centre, this is another excellent case for the Bromgrove CID.

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

Fearless, feisty and at the wheel of her bright orange campervan, newly-single Sadie is about to enter a new era… as a detective?!

It’s never too late for a second chance, and when Sadie Sutton’s marriage implodes spectacularly, she jumps into her vintage VW campervan and heads for the twisty cobbled streets and sea views of her childhood in the little seaside town of Winching. But her fresh start comes to an abrupt stop when she trips over a dead body, turning an ordinary walk with her faithful dog Sam Spade into a murder investigation!

Having failed to stop a balaclava-wearing suspect disappearing from the scene into the night, Sadie can’t help but take matters into her own hands. The victim, retired headmistress Charlotte Woolf, was well known around Winching for her sharp tongue – rumours suggest she was particularly disliked by her own husband! But he swears he doesn’t even like killing snails by mistake…

With the enthusiastic help of three women at the campsite who have all embraced Van Life, Sadie starts sleuthing. Who was sending Charlotte anonymous bunches of flowers that had her rattled? Do the members of the local sea swimming club hold a vital clue? Sadie and her friends are on the right track… until their prime suspect ends up dead in his garden shed!

Can Sadie get to the root of the problem and stop the killer before the next person is buried? Or will her fresh new chapter end with her driving her campervan back the way she came?

First in a brilliant new series from bestselling author Maeve Haran, this warm, witty and absolutely unputdownable cosy crime novel is perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, The Thursday Murder Club and Robert Thorogood.

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Maeve Haran is an Oxford law graduate who had a successful career in television before writing her worldwide bestseller Having It All , which was translated into twenty-six languages. She has written twenty contemporary novels, two historical novels, and a work of non-fiction in praise of life’s small pleasures. She has three grown up children and four grandchildren. She lives mainly in North London but escapes when she can to a much-loved cottage in the beautiful Cuckmere Valley near the sea in East Sussex. Her hobby is ignoring age and having a good time!

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My thoughts: Discovering her husband in bed with her best friend, Sadie scoops her little dog Sam Spade up, buys a campervan and heads off to the beach where she had a great time as a child, hoping to start again.

Out for a walk, she comes across the body of retired headteacher Charlotte Woolf. Teaming up with the other Vintage Vanettes, while the police inspector is fixated on the victim’s husband, she needs to solve this herself.

This was really fun, funny and enjoyable start to a new series, I liked Sadie and little Sam, as well as her new friends. They’re smart and capable and solved the case ahead of the local police, proving they’ve got great instincts. Can’t wait for book two!

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