When Caroline Alleyn inherits Wickham Grange, all she wants to do is sell up. There are bad memories there, linked to her childhood as the daughter of a single mother – and to all the other mothers she knew in that house.
But her grandmother Frances’s will means that it can’t be sold without the consent of five elderly women, and they all refuse. None of them will tell her why she has to keep a house she doesn’t want. Instead, she is given a stark warning: don’t look for Lizzie Sixpence.
Though Caroline has other worries. Someone is watching her; the house’s elderly tenants are lying to her; and an old man is hoarding mementoes of her past. Then she finds the bones. And Caroline is left with a choice: keep silent, or betray everything her grandmother stood for. Because there is one final secret to be revealed…
Zoe has worked in education services for nearly 25 years, but her heart has always been in writing. When she’s not working, she enjoys baking, collecting antiques, and gardening. She is also slowly decorating and furnishing a large dolls’ house. Originally from Medway, she has a grown-up son and now lives in London with her husband and their enormous dog.
My thoughts: Wickham Grange has been a place of refuge over the years, but now her grandmother has died, for Caroline it is a place of secrets. Planning to sell the building, she has to locate five women who her grandma’s will says she has to get the consent with before she can sell.
As Caroline attempts to unravel the past, she keeps being told to stay out of things, and not to look for the mysterious Lizzie Sixpence.
Caroline, however, is determined to get to the bottom of the secrets and mysteries of the past.
What she finds is shocking, a little heartbreaking and answers both her own and Caroline’s mother’s questions about their family.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
From USA Today bestselling author, and Bram Stoker nominee, Philip Fracassi, comes a historical horror novel where three brothers go AWOL during one of the most violent battles of the Civil War, but find something much worse waiting in the woods.
Choosing to risk execution rather than be killed in a losing war, three brothers desert their posts and begin a long, arduous journey back home. After weeks of dealing with rough terrain while evading bandits and home guard soldiers–starving, injured, and exhausted–the brothers find a miracle deep in the dark woods. A home.
Living in a remote cabin is a beautiful woman, Sarafina, and her young son, Titus. Sarafina takes the soldiers in, cares for them, feeds them, offers them a place to rest. But the youngest of the brothers is wary–something is not what it seems. After discovering a mysterious creek and a strange underground cavern, he gets a strong sense that the cabin, and the fertile land surrounding it, might be harboring something nefarious, terrifying, and dangerous.
What ensues is a nightmare beyond imagination, an escalation of horrors that the brothers must somehow fight to survive. With tensions high, the country divided, and loyalties put to the test, Sarafina will take readers on an epic journey of modern horror.
My thoughts: Three brothers flee the battlefield of the American Civil War, heading south to home and their sister Ellie. After several near misses, hungry and one of them injured, they stumble across what seems like paradise – a farm, home to Sarafina and her son Titus.
Unfortunately for them, Sarafina isn’t the kind farm wife she appears, she’s something much older and more terrifying. The youngest brother, Ethan, manages to escape and make it home to tell his twin everything that happened. With some help from the family’s priest, they prepare to return and rescue their brothers.
Things don’t go the way that Ethan hoped, and what happens will change the twins’ lives forever.
Creepy and chilling, with Biblical echoes, Sarafina is a dark fairytale (the brothers’ last name is Belle) full of horrors deep in the woods.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
January, 1942. London is dark – and not just because of the blackout.
The worst of the Blitz may be over, but still the city’s a treacherous place. Buses run without headlights. Bomb rubble lies underfoot. Looters and petty criminals roam the shattered streets. And somewhere in the ruins stalks a serial killer the papers have dubbed The Beast of the Blackout.
As a fear of death, delivered not from the sky but lurking in the bomb sites, grips South London, four unlikely allies are assembled by Civil Defence warden Albert, self-appointed shepherd patrolling his nightly patch. Edwin, Bette and Cat share nothing in common, except one extraordinary secret: each has killed an abuser and got away with it. Now, forged by trauma and driven to deliver retribution to those who hurt and harm, they come together to stop a monster the police have failed to catch.
What follows is a daring hunt through bombed streets and moral grey zones, as the mismatched murderers plot to save the Beast’s next victim, Violet and deliver their own brutal justice. But this is no simple vigilante tale. All brought here by their own harrowing journey, each comes uniquely equipped for the kill: Edwin with his knowledge of poisons, Bette her muscle, Cat her courage, while Albert will weave the net to catch the killer in.
Drawing on meticulous historical research, the novel explores the lurid world of Victorian poisons and poisoners; early silent films and the lasting damage left by the First World War on not just those who fought, but the people they came home to. While rooted in the past, the book also speaks urgently to the present, offering a reflection on what it means to be and feel ‘safe’, and how even now a woman may put herself in danger just walking home alone.
A gripping and morally daring novel, All Cats Are Grey offers a haunting portrait of wartime London, and a powerful meditation on justice, survival and the thin line between right and wrong.
My thoughts: I found this intense and fascinating. As the various characters find their way through the London blackouts, home from work or like Alby, off on his rounds as an ARP warden. However, somewhere in the dark lurks a killer, looking for a young woman to lure to her death.
Unfortunately he picks out the wrong ones this time as neither Bette or Cat are victims – rather they’re killers. Both have had to protect themselves and remove abusers from their lives permanently. Alby had planned to help Cat with this particular monster, but she’s smarter than he realises.
None of the people in this are perfect, far from it, but all of them did what they did for very clear reasons, and you sort of admire them for that.
The blackout helps hide various sins and crimes, there’s a theme of houses being blown up and burnt down, a way to bring an end to things. Every character is a survivor and while none of them are punished, in a way, they’ve already paid for what they did by their pasts.
A truly interesting read.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
In 1876, Eleanor Teague lives in a lonely house far from the glamorous London Society she once knew. Confined to Haddon Hall by agoraphobia, bedevilled by nightmares of the death of her daughter, and haunted by the guilt of a terrible crime she committed, Eleanor depends on the household servants and on her husband Ezra, who is kind, patient… and controlling.
But when an apparition appears at her bedside, and mysterious voices urge her to find the ‘Shadow House’,she’s convincedan uncanny presence dwells within the walls of Haddon Hall, and that the staffare lying to her – they, in turn, fear she’s descending into madness.
As Eleanor’s world starts to fracture, the very foundations of Haddon Hall seem to shake. Why is the attic room locked? What is the Shadow House? Who is the strange woman in the woods? The shocking truth will shatter everything Eleanor thought she knew about her life.
A haunting, high-concept thriller with a jaw-dropping twist,The Strange Lives of Eleanor Teaguewill enthral readers of John Marrs, Gillian McAllister and Stuart Turton
M.K. Hill was a journalist and an award-winning music radio producer before becoming a full-time writer. He’s written the Sasha Dawson series – The Bad Place, The Woman In The Wood – and the Ray Drake series – The Two O’ClockBoy and It Was Her – as well as acclaimed psychological thriller One Bad Thing, and the espionage thriller Zero Kill. He lives in London.
My thoughts: This was very clever and without giving anything away, the concept is really well done and sinister, especially given the rapid growth of technology in our century.
Eleanor (who shares a name with my sister) is riddled with guilt about the death of her daughter and the crime she committed. She’s completely dependent on her husband and their tiny household staff for everything, and feels trapped. But something isn’t right.
Her memories are confusing and muddled, things are strange in the house and when her sister and brother-in-law visit, they seem very worried about her.
She is the only person who can find a way through all the mysteries and confusion, her husband becomes increasingly controlling and distant. The staff don’t seem able to help her, referring to Ezra whenever she asks for anything. But she must leave the house, somehow.
Tense, claustrophobic and creepy, Eleanor’s life spirals out of her control and she needs to regain it if she hopes to survive with her mind intact.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
We’re celebrating the April release of A Whisper of Claws, a steamy dragon shifter fantasy romance by Jennie Lynn Roberts!
A Whisper of Claws (Steel Vanguard Book 1)
Release Date: April 9, 2026
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Chosen Mates
Forced Proximity
Second Chance
Off-limits (he thinks so anyway)
Found Family
Protective Hero
Fierce Heroine
Court Intrigue
Inner Beasts w/ Sharp Claws & Sharper Attitudes
Hard-won HEA
Knight Captain Luka has two problems: an assassin trying to start a war… and Izabel. He already knows which one of them is going to break his heart.
Luka keeps castle security, and his life, under strict control. He gave up the right to happiness when his actions led to his best friend—Izabel’s brother—dying alone. He could never ask for forgiveness, especially not from Izabel, no matter how much he wanted her. So, he pushed her away instead. But now there’s a dead body on the side of their ancient holy mountain, Izabel has been drawn into hunting for the killer, and having her close enough to touch is driving his beast insane.
Izabel has a new home and a flourishing apothecary well away from the castle… and well away from the man whose cold rejection still haunts her. But something sinister is happening, and it feels all too similar to how her brother died. When the prince asks her to help investigate, Izzy can’t refuse. Not with war threatening everyone she loves—and the chance to finally learn the truth—on the line.
Forced to work together, Luka and Izzy find the pull between them burning hotter with every shared moment. With enemies already inside the gates, they must decide exactly how far they’re willing to go— for their kingdom, and for each other.
A gruesome discovery in a Copenhagen apartment. A desperate author’s dark secret. A stalker who will stop at nothing, to destroy everything…Jensen returns in her most sinister case yet.
When human remains turn up behind an apartment wall DI Henrik Jungersen finds himself on the trail of a killer who has been hiding in plain sight.
Meanwhile, Jensen should be enjoying maternity leave but life has other plans. Legendary author, Valde Brix, is claiming to be her father. But Brix has an ulterior motive.
Then a woman connected to Brix turns up brutally murdered, and Jensen and her teenage apprentice Gustav become embroiled in Henrik’s investigation.
It soon becomes chillingly clear that the stalker will stop at nothing. And as the danger closes in Jensen realises the threat isn’t just to Brix – her own family is in mortal danger.
Heidi Amsinck a writer and journalist born in Copenhagen has lived in London for many years. A graduate of the MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London, she was previously shortlisted for the VS Pritchett Memorial Prize. She has written many stories for BBC Radio 4 including The Bellevue Poltergeist series which features Jensen. She is the author of four previous books in the Jensen series: My Name is Jensen, The Girl in the Photo, Back from the Dead and Out of the Dark, as well a book of short stories, Last Train to Helsingor.
My thoughts: This was really good, a twisted, clever case that throws up lots of avenues for the detectives to go down, links between old cases and the new one, new cases coming along while they’re working that might be connected.
When the remains of a young woman are found bricked up in a Copenhagen flat, the police are shocked to discover that she was pregnant when she died. The flat’s owner insists he knows nothing, and suspicion falls on author Valde Brix, who once stayed there.
Brix has contacted Jensen, who’s on maternity leave, he drops a bombshell, he thinks he’s her father. He was in a relationship with her mother at around the right time, but Jensen’s mother is adamant he isn’t. He also asks Jensen to help him investigate a stalker who has been sending anonymous threats.
This brings Jensen back into Henrik’s life, while he’s already having problems at home, can they work together or is it just too complicated?
I really enjoy complex crime books like this, where the characters are as messy as real life and the cases cause them personal chaos. The case does get solved, but there are repercussions that might come up in future books.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Welcome to the tour for Justice: A Love Story by Nicole Sallak Anderson! Watch for Grace coming this May!
Justice (Justice & Grace Part 1)
Release Date: March 25, 2026
Genre: Contemporary Romance
On Halloween 1992, during a huge party at his fraternity, Justy Sloan literally stumbles into Grace Van Orden, meeting the girl of his dreams.
Unfortunately for him, Grace, a junior in computer science, has a handsome study buddy and best friend named Erik, and the chemistry between them is undeniable. Add to the equation Justy’s dark past with Grace’s roommate, Kat, plus the fact he’s about to graduate, and his dream girl feels completely out of reach.
Ditching his usual caution when it comes to love, Justy pursues Grace, setting off a series of events that will alter the futures of everyone involved.
Justice is a romance about twenty-somethings stumbling their way through the highs and lows of first loves, an ode to Chicago, a tribute to Gen X, and a celebration of the 1990s, one of the best decades for coming of age.
We’re proud to present the cover of book 3 in the Heir of Atlantis series, The Vanished Queendom by S.T. Fernandez!
The Vanished Queendom (The Heir of Atlantis Book 3)
Expected Release Date: August 25, 2026
Genre: Romantasy
Cover Designer: @krafigs_creative
Sky Realm
Bermuda Triangle Folklore
Elemental Fae
Rightful Heir
Political Intrigue
Power Awakening
Strong FMC
Breeding
One of four sacred relics lies hidden in the skies… and a malevolent darkness hunts her every step.
Branded a traitor to Atlantis, Asherah Delmar—the goddess’s chosen—must flee through the Bermuda Triangle to the realm of Airelandia, a queendom lost to time and space. On her mission to recover the goddess’s next artifact before she’s forced to reveal the truth of what she is, she must risk every soul depending on her to succeed, and the one she’d burn the world to protect.
Dark forces move to exploit her bondmate, Draevyn Eliron—her greatest strength and deepest vulnerability. Queen Leanah offers sanctuary, but in a realm woven with illusion, even peace proves fleeting. Asherah soon discovers that the evil she thought she escaped has already taken root in Airelandia’s skies.
When vengeance comes for her, Asherah must wield her conviction and her fury, or watch the light of her world vanish with the Queendom itself.
The Vanished Queendom is the third book in The Heir of Atlantis series and is intended for readers 18+. It is recommended to start with The Veiled Heir (The Heir of Atlantis, Book One).
For a full list of trigger and content warnings, please visit STFernandez.com.
Suddenly Joe was back in the job and doing what he did best… becoming someone else.
Mixing with the bad guys in order to bring them down.
Three years ago, after an undercover police operation went disastrously wrong, CID officer Joe Clayton lost his career and his family. Forced to adopt a new identity, he lives under the radar, taking whatever jobs he can find. Always looking over his shoulder, always hunted.
Now living on the tiny south coast island of Terror’s Reach, home to rival business tycoons Robert Felton and Valentin Nasenko, Joe works as a bodyguard to Nasenko’s wife, Cassie, and her two children.
But when a burning summer’s day explodes into violence, and a murderous gang targets the ultra-exclusive community, only one man stands a chance of saving the residents from annihilation.
Joe must draw upon all his skills and determination to keep them alive. But nothing is as it seems on Terror’s Reach, and a long night of betrayal and murder leaves Joe fighting for his own survival …
Tom Bale was born in Brighton in 1966. He left school at eighteen and worked a number of jobs before starting a career in the insurance industry. He managed a claims office in Yorkshire for five years before returning to Sussex for a far more rewarding – and exhausting – stint as a househusband.
After years of collecting rejections slips, his publishing breakthrough came in 2006 and he has now been a full – time writer for more than fifteen years. His books have sold more than half a million copies and been translated into various languages.
An avid reader of crime and thrillers, he lives on the Sussex coast where he loves to cycle, swim in the sea and spend time with his grandchildren.
My thoughts: Joe Clayton is a man with secrets, but it isn’t his that might just get him killed. Working for a dodgy Ukrainian businessman Valentin Nasenko as a bodyguard, his duties mainly involve Cassie Nasenko and her children Jaden and Sofia.
After a botched kidnapping event, Joe races back to the island home where Valentin is conducting business. Joe finds the whole place under siege from a gang of thieves, they’ve taken the residents hostage and want to get into fellow business magnate Robert Felton’s infamous safe, supposedly full of gold.
Things have gone a bit sideways however and the gang are beginning to get tense, this was supposed an easy job, and now it isn’t. When Felton’s own security team appear, things go from bad to worse. All Joe wants to do is stay alive and get back to keeping Cassie and her children safe. But that might not prove to be so easy.
There’s a lot happening here, little of it good, lots of it violent and bloody, Joe might be a man whose past is full of pain, but he wants a future, one where he might be able to fix things, and to do that, he has to survive. He’s quick thinking, clever and prepared to fight his way free if he has to. Which is handy when thrown into a fight to the death with a violent brute.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Connor is twenty-four, brilliant, broken, and out of control. He’s the swaggering frontman of The Ossians, a Scottish indie band on the brink of signing a major record deal.
Desperate to make their mark, they head off on a two-week winter tour across the cities and hinterlands of Scotland – a last-ditch attempt to find fame, purpose, and themselves. But the tour soon spirals into a surreal, chaotic odyssey.
From seedy bars and snowbound towns to a final, defining Glasgow gig, the band hurtles through a whirlwind of seagull massacres, botched drug deals, a mysterious stalker, radioactive beaches, bomb-testing ranges, epileptic fits, riotous Russian submariners, deadly storms, epiphanies, regular beatings and random shootings.
Raw, darkly funny and wild with energy … a gloriously anarchic story of rock’n’roll obsession, national identity and self-destruction, and what it means to belong – in a band, in a country, in a life unravelling at speed.
Doug Johnstone is the author of nineteen novels, many of which have been bestsellers. The Space Between Us was chosen for BBC Two’s Between the Covers, while six of his books have been shortlisted or longlisted for the Theakston Crime Novel of the Year or the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year.
Doug has taught creative writing or been writer in residence at universities, schools, writing retreats, festivals, prisons and a funeral directors. He’s also been an arts journalist for twenty-five years.
He is a songwriter and musician with ten albums released, and drummer for the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers. He’s also co-founder of the Scotland Writers Football Club.
My thoughts: Connor reminds me of so many of my friends when we were in our early twenties, rootless, unsure of themselves, desperate to matter. Basically almost every twenty-something at some point. Only I don’t think they were all as self-destructive as Connor. Good thing he isn’t real because no one can survive on that many drugs and alcohol with no food or sleep for so long.
The Ossians, who might be headed for the big time, made up of Connor, his twin sister Kate, girlfriend Hannah and best mate Danny, plus manager Paul, are off on a tour of Scotland’s further reaches, some a bit off the beaten path.
Connor owes a rather nasty drug dealer a lot of money, and as he doesn’t have it, he’s now a delivery boy for said charmer, carting around a bag full of drugs and cash to exchange with a network of equally under the cosh strangers. Except he hasn’t told the others, and they’re definitely getting suspicious.
He’s also so off his face pretty much permanently, and like a lot of twenty-something’s thinks his every thought is profound and completely original. He says he’s on a quest to discover the real Scotland, but he isn’t very impressed by what he finds.
The rest of the band try to keep the tour going, but in between Connor’s wanderingd, getting punched in the face multiple times and some of the truly strange encounters they have, Hannah collapses on stage, Kate and Danny might be becoming a thing, and they keep having to cut gigs short, so they’re not exactly making money.
As they head to Glasgow and a make or break gig, Connor goes missing, and has an epiphany, one with consequences for them all. Perhaps this tour wasn’t the best idea.
Darkly comic, full of twists and weird moments, including a submarine full of Russians in a tiny Scottish town, this is a reminder of why it’s quite nice not to be in your twenties and unsure of where you belong anymore.
I can see the brilliance that is the Skelfs and the Enceladons trilogy emerging here, Johnstone’s wry view of the world is present and that dark humour that flows through all of his books. I missed this book on its first time out so it’s really nice to read it in this shiny reissue from the Orenda Books team.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 