Month: Aug 2020

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Penance – Edward Daniel Hunt*

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PENANCE is the first book in a series of crime novels featuring retired Boston homicide detective John Gilfillan. This story is about the race to find Lori Doyle. Ten years ago, Lori, as a teenager, witnessed a killing. Today, she has established a new life for herself and her daughter in Maine under an alias. Unbeknownst to her, all that’s about to change, as some are seeking her out to do her harm and some to do her good. A page-turner to keep you in suspense until the end.

Edward Daniel Hunt’s short stories have appeared in the Scarlett Leaf Review, Down in the Dirt Magazine and Adelaide Literary Magazine. “Hit Men Have Feelings Too” was named a finalist in Adelaide Magazine’s 2018 Literary Award Contest for Best Short Story. He lives in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, within walking distance of the ocean.

My thoughts:

This was an interesting book that began as a thriller but became more about people and their relationships, their lives.

Tommy is out of prison and looking for his ex-wife, the only witness to a murder he was involved in, she, Lori, has moved away and rebuilt her life, finding new family and friends in the process.

Retired cop turned PI Gilfillan is hired to find her too, to see if she can help solve the long cold case of a murdered doctor. He is also rebuilding his life post-retirement, in his beach front home in Maine.

Both men follow tenuous leads from Lori’s family, to friends and acquaintances, trying to find her before anyone else does.

Lori has been lucky, becoming the lodger of an elderly widow, who treats her and her young daughter, more like family and building a new relationship with a colleague at the diner she waitresses in. She knows that her ex-husband will be looking for her however.

The narrative weaves between the protagonists, showing their lives and loves against the backdrop of the search for Lori.

The ending is left open, presumably for a sequel, but with the strong suggestion that some of Lori’s fears may be laid to rest.

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: CWA Vintage Crime Anthology – edited by Martin Edwards*

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Vintage Crimes will be a CWA anthology with a difference, celebrating members’ work over the years.

The book will gather stories from the mid1950s until the twenty-first century by great names of the past, great names of the present together with a few hidden treasures by less familiar writers.

The first CWA anthology, Butcher’s Dozen, appeared in 1956, and was co-edited by Julian Symons, Michael Gilbert, and Josephine Bell. The anthology has been edited by Martin Edwards since 1996, and has yielded many awardwinning and nominated stories in the UK and overseas.

This new edition includes an array of incredible and award-winning authors: Robert Barnard, Simon Brett, Liza Cody, Mat Coward, John Dickson Robert Barnard, Simon Brett, Liza Cody, Mat Coward, John Dickson Carr, Marjorie Eccles, Martin Edwards, Kate Ellis, Anthea Fraser, Carr, Marjorie Eccles, Martin Edwards, Kate Ellis, Anthea Fraser, Celia Fremlin, Frances Fyfield, Michael Gilbert, Paula Gosling, Celia Fremlin, Frances Fyfield, Michael Gilbert, Paula Gosling, Lesley Grant-Adamson, HRF Keating, Bill Knox, Peter Lovesey, Mick Lesley Grant-Adamson, HRF Keating, Bill Knox, Peter Lovesey, Mick Herron, Michael Z. Lewin, Susan Moody, Julian Symons Herron, Michael Z. Lewin, Susan Moody, Julian Symons and Andrew Taylor Taylor.

Martin Edwards (Editor) is the author of eighteen novels, including the Lake District Mysteries, and the Harry Devlin series. His ground-breaking genre study The Golden Age of Murder has won the Edgar, Agatha, and H.R.F. Keating awards.

He has edited twenty eight crime anthologies, has won the CWA Short Story Dagger and the CWA Margery A lingham Prize, and is series consultant for the British Library’s Crime Classics. In 2015, he was elected eighth President of the Detection Club, an office previously held by G.K. Chesterton, Agatha Christie, and Dorothy L. Sayers.

The CWA CWA (Crime Writers’ Association) was founded in 1953 by John Creasey, and organises the prestigious CWA Dagger Awards which celebrate the best in crime writing. The CWA is a pro-active, thriving and ever-expanding community of writers based in the UK but with a reach that extends worldwide.

My thoughts:

This was an excellent collection of crime stories spanning the 1950s until close to the present day.

Short stories are often where crime writers’ talents shine, so many of crime fiction’s greats wrote short stories, which pack the crime, the solving and the solution in neat, clever parcels. Perfect for dipping in and out of.

And the joy of all that genius is contained in the this volume. The stories are clever, cunning and shrewd, much like the detectives solving them.

I’ve read several of the authors included, and it’s interesting to see the differences and similarities between their short stories and longform work. The stories included are all very enjoyable and easily read as standalone works.

The CWA does a lot of work to not only promote living writers but ensure that older stories are not lost and can be enjoyed by readers long after they were first published.

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Last to Know – Jo Furniss*

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A family’s past pursues them like a shadow in this riveting and emotional novel of psychological suspense by the Amazon Charts bestselling author of All the Little Children.

American journalist Rose Kynaston has just relocated to the childhood home of her husband, Dylan, in the English village of his youth. There’s a lot for Rose to get used to in Hurtwood. Like the family’s crumbling mansion, inhabited by Dylan’s reclusive mother, and the treacherous hill it sits upon, a place of both sinister folklore and present dangers.

Then there are the unwelcoming villagers, who only whisper the name Kynaston—like some dreadful secret, a curse. Everyone knows what happened at Hurtwood House twenty years ago. Everyone except Rose. And now that Dylan is back, so are rumors about his past.

When an archaeological dig unearths human remains on the hill, local police sergeant Ellie Trevelyan vows to solve a cold case that has cast a chill over Hurtwood for decades.

As Ellie works to separate rumor from fact, Rose must fight to clear the name of the man she loves. But how can Rose keep her family safe if she is the last to know the truth?

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After spending a decade as a broadcast journalist for the BBC, Jo Furniss gave up the glamour of night shifts to become a freelance writer and serial expatriate. Originally from the United Kingdom, she spent seven years in Singapore and also lived in Switzerland and Cameroon.

As a journalist, Jo worked for numerous online outlets and magazines, including Monocle and the Economist. She has edited books for a Nobel laureate and the palace of the Sultan of Brunei. She has a Distinction in MA Professional Writing from Falmouth University.
Jo’s debut novel, All the Little Children, was an Amazon Charts bestseller.
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My thoughts:

This was a really interesting and enjoyable read, dealing with memory, guilt and rumour.

Rose uncovers a web of intrigue surrounding a suspicious death at her in-laws’ home and terrible rumours of child abuse. Determined to uncover the truth and free her family from these past tragedies she applies her journalistic skills to uncovering the truth.

This was really gripping, full of red herrings and muddled recollections – having two of the characters suffering from dementia and not being able to fully differentiate the past and the present means both Rose and sergeant Ellie Trevelyan miss vital clues and have to work harder to solve the series of deaths uncovered.

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Sight Unseen – Sandra Ireland*

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1648. Alie Gowdie marries Richard Webster during a turbulent time in Scotland’s history. Charles I is about to lose his head, and little does Alie know that she too will meet a grisly end within the year.

2019. Sarah Sutherland is struggling to cope with the demands of her day job, caring for her elderly father and keeping tabs on her backpacking daughter. She wanted to be an archaeologist, but now in her forties, she is divorced, alone, and there seems to be no respite, no glimmer of excitement on the horizon. However, she does have a special affinity with the Kilgour Witch, Alie Gowdie, who lived in Sarah’s cottage until her execution in 1648, and Sarah likes nothing better than to retreat into a world of sorcery, spells and religious fanaticism.

Her stories delight tourists as she leads them along the cobbled streets of her home town, but what really lies behind the tale of Alie Gowdie, the Kilgour Witch? Can Sarah uncover the truth in order to right a centuries-old wrong? And what else might modern-day Kilgour be hiding, just out of sight?

However, she does have a special affinity with the Kilgour Witch, Alie Gowdie, who lived in Sarah’s cottage until her execution in 1648, and Sarah likes nothing better than to retreat into a world of sorcery, spells and religious fanaticism.

Her stories delight tourists as she leads them along the cobbled streets of her home town, but what really lies behind the tale of Alie Gowdie, the Kilgour Witch? Can Sarah uncover the truth in order to right a centuries-old wrong? And what else might modern-day Kilgour be hiding, just out of sight?

Amazon

Author Bio

Sandra Ireland was awarded a Carnegie-Cameron scholarship to study for an MLitt in Writing Practice and Study at the University of Dundee, graduating with a distinction in 2014. Her work has appeared in various publications and women’s magazines. She is the author of Beneath the Skin (2016), Bone Deep (2018) and The Unmaking of Ellie Rook (2019). She lives in Carnoustie, Scotland.

My thoughts:

This was a clever, engaging read, reflecting modern day events back to the 17th Century witch trials. Sarah and Grant are so enthralled with unravelling a centuries old tale they almost miss something right in front of their faces.

Sarah’s dad is seeing things, or is he? Slowly they unravel two terrible crimes, four hundred years apart.

With whispers of magic and mystery, this is a captivating story of relationships and righting wrongs.

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

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Cover Reveal: Unconquerable Sun – Kate Elliott

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It has been eight centuries since the beacon system failed, sundering the heavens as it collapsed. Without beacons the void between stars is navigable only by the slow crawl of knnu driven argosies. Rising from the ashes of the collapse, cultures have fought, system-by-system, for control of the few remaining beacons.

The Republic of Chaonia is one such polity. Surrounded by the Yele League and the vast Phene Empire, they have had to fight for their existence. After decades of conflict, Queen-Marshal Eirene has brought the Yele to heel, binding them into subservience.

Now it is time to deal with the Empire.

Princess Sun, daughter and heir to the queen-marshal, has come of age. In her first command, she has driven a Phene garrison from the beacons of Na Iri.

Growing up in the shadow of her mother has been no easy task. The queen-marshal, having built Chaonia into a magnificent republic against impossible odds, is both revered and feared. While Sun may imagine that her victorious command will bring further opportunity to prove herself, it will in fact place her on the wrong side of court politics. There are those who would like to see Sun removed as heir, or better yet, dead.

To survive, while the battle between empires ignites all around her, the princess must rely on her wits and companions: her biggest rival, her secret lover, and a dangerous prisoner of war.

Hold on tight. This is the space opera you’ve been waiting for.

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About the Author:

Kate Elliott has been writing stories since she was nine years old, which has led her to believe that writing, like breathing, keeps her alive. Writing science fiction and fantasy, her particular focus is immersive world building and centering women in epic stories of adventure, amid transformative cultural change. Kate was born in Iowa, raised in Oregon and now lives in Hawaii, where she paddles outrigger canoes and spoils her schnauzer.

www.kateelliott.com

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Little Falls – Elizabeth Lewes*

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She tried to forget the horrors of war–but her quiet hometown conceals a litany of new evils.

Sergeant Camille Waresch did everything she could to forget Iraq. She went home to Eastern Washington and got a quiet job. She connected with her daughter, Sophie, whom she had left as a baby. She got sober. But the ghosts of her past were never far behind.
While conducting a routine property tax inspection on an isolated ranch, Camille discovers a teenager’s tortured corpse hanging in a dilapidated outbuilding. In a flash, her combat-related PTSD resurges–and in her dreams, the hanging boy merges with a young soldier whose eerily similar death still haunts her. The case hits home when Sophie reveals that the victim was her ex-boyfriend–and as Camille investigates, she uncovers a tangled trail that leads to his jealous younger brother and her own daughter, wild, defiant, and ensnared.
The closer Camille gets to the truth, the closer she is driven to the edge. Her home is broken into. Her truck is blown up. Evidence and witnesses she remembers clearly are erased. And when Sophie disappears, Camille’s hunt for justice becomes a hunt for her child. At a remote compound where the terrifying truth is finally revealed, Camille has one last chance to save her daughter–and redeem her own shattered soul.

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Elizabeth Lewes is a U.S. Navy veteran who served during Operation Enduring Freedom as a linguist. A practicing attorney, she resides in Seattle with her family.

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My thoughts:

Camisole finds the tortured, murdered body of a teenager in a barn and sparks an investigation into local criminals that comes a little too close to home.

Suffering from PTSD and unsure how reliable her memory is, frustrated by the police’s glacial pace, she starts investigating herself, getting entangled in a web of very dangerous people, who do not want her nosing around.

Fast paced and with an unreliable narrator, this is a clever, intense thriller, with shocks and twists that throw Camille and the reader curveballs as she ricochets around Little Falls.

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Boy Queen – George Lester*

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Fall wig first into a world of big hair, high heels and even higher stakes in George Lester’s debut novel Boy Queen.

Life’s a drag until you try . . .

Robin Cooper’s life is falling apart.

While his friends prepare to head off to University, Robin is looking at a pile of rejection letters from drama schools up and down the country, and facing a future without the people he loves the most. Everything seems like it’s ending, and Robin is scrabbling to find his feet.

Unsure about what to do next and whether he has the talent to follow his dreams, he and his best friends go and drown their sorrows at a local drag show, where Robin realizes there might be a different, more sequinned path for him . . .

With a mother who won’t stop talking, a boyfriend who won’t acknowledge him and a best friend who is dying to cover him in glitter make up, there’s only one thing for Robin to do: bring it to the runway.

My thoughts:

Oh my wigs and lashes, this was such a fun read, I loved it. Written by a real life drag queen, aka That Gurrrl, this is such a delight.

Robin is out and surrounded by fantastic friends and a loving mum, a committed Drag Race fan, a birthday night out at a local drag night lights a spark in him and off he goes to discover his inner diva and drag up his life.

As a lifelong theatre kid and glitter aficionado who gets make up tips from drag queens at Pride, this book made my queer little heart sing. It’s so much fun and real and I just loved it.

My inner drag queen had her heels on and was dancing a boogie when Robin finally took the stage and it just ticked so many boxes for me.

Drag has become more and more mainstream over the last few years and the more positive stories about LGBTQ+ lives that get published the better.


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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: F.O.X.E.S – M.A. Bennett*

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Greer has just recovered from her terrifying experience during the STAGS play. Was she really put on trial by the sinister Dark Order of the Grand Stag? Or was it purely her overheated imagination? The imprint of an ‘M’ for murderer that has appeared on her thumb, though, is puzzling but incomplete evidence . . .

Meanwhile Ty is staying on at Longcross Manor and Greer, Nel and Shafeen are increasingly worried for her safety. When Ty sends a cryptic message directing them to Cumberland Place, the de Warlencourts’ palatial home in London, they decide to risk a visit. There they meet Henry’s grieving parents, Rollo and Caro. Rollo is arrogant, entitled and not overly grieving. Caro, however, while superficially charming, is clearly pushed to the brink of madness by Henry’s death, insisting that Henry is still alive. Which is clearly impossible . . . but Greer has her own troubling doubts about Henry’s death which make it hard to dismiss Caro completely . . .

Can Greer, Shafeen and Nel work out what Rollo de Warlencourt is planning for his deadly Boxing Day Hunt at Longcross in time to save Ty – who has now gone silent? Or will history horribly repeat itself?

A thrilling, richly complex instalment in the STAGS series.

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M. A. BENNETT is a history graduate of Oxford University and the University of Venice, where she specialised in the study of Shakespeare’s plays as a historical source. Her first YA novel, S.T.A.G.S., was published in 2017 and was shortlisted for the YA BOOK PRIZE 2018, winning various awards such as the Warwickshire Secondary Book Award 2019 and the Sussex Coast Schools Amazing Book Award 2019, both voted by students, and won the Great Reads ‘Most Read’ 2018 Senior Award.

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My thoughts:

You really should read S.T.A.G.S and D.O.G.S first to get you up to speed on what Greer, Nel and Shafeen are dealing with in F.O.X.E.S but it isn’t essential.

After almost dying several times at the hands of some of their classmates and the nasty Order of the Stag, you’d think these three would have transferred to somewhere less murderous and called in the police, social services and OFSTED, but no, they’re going to try to bring down the Order with the help of Ty, and a few other new acquaintances along the way.

Honestly, I found myself veering between horror and wondering exactly how dumb Greer actually is. She thinks mostly in terrible films, seems to forget the modern world exists, which I know is the point of the awful school they’re at, and wander around with her head in the clouds.

Thankfully Nel and Shafeen are a bit more with it, Nel is easily my favourite character.

The book left me with more questions than answers, no doubt some will be explained in the next book. I read Ben Jonson at uni, but he didn’t seem nearly as interesting as in these books, so I’m off to research his connections to the Gunpowder Plot…

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Long Shadow on the Stage – Nichole Heydenburg*

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Jackson Birkman has the perfect life: the lead role on the popular detective show “Dispatching David,” millions of adoring fans, celebrity status, and a beautiful girlfriend. After five seasons, “Dispatching David” has just been cancelled. With the final episode quickly approaching, Jackson is worried about more than just his future acting career. His once massive fortune is dwindling and his girlfriend Clara is pressuring him to propose.

When Jackson unexpectedly dies on the set of the TV show during filming, everyone speculates whether it was suicide or murder. Why would Jackson commit suicide? If it was a setup, who would want Jackson to die? And most importantly, what was the motive of the murderer? As the investigation continues, Officer Wilson inches closer to the truth, uncovering Jackson’s secrets. She begins to think no one really knew Jackson at all, but is determined to solve the case, no matter the cost.

As the investigation continues, Officer Wilson inches closer to the truth, uncovering Jackson’s secrets. She begins to think no one really knew Jackson at all, but is determined to solve the case, no matter the cost.

Amazon

Nichole Heydenburg earned her Bachelor’s Degree in English with an emphasis in writing and a minor in theatre from Adrian College in 2014. Her one act play “The Hidden Story” won a playwriting contest and was performed at her alma mater in 2015. She also had several poems published in “The Oxcart” literary magazine. Nichole has been working full-time as the Content Manager for a start-up company for 3 years. When she isn’t writing, Nichole enjoys going on adventures with her husband, reading, playing board games, and the occasional mimosa. “The Long Shadow on the Stage” is her first novel. She currently resides near Asheville, NC with her husband, Zed.

To stay up to date on news about her second novel, as well as read writing and self-publishing tips, subscribe to her monthly newsletter on her website.

My thoughts:

A twisted tale of love, friendship and fame. Edgar and Jackson have been friends all their lives, Jackson and Clara are engaged.

Jackson has secrets, could those secrets be what gets him killed?

Twisted and dark, this story weaves between narrators, showing you glimpses of the killer as well as the victim, his friends and the officer determined to solve the case.

The ending leaves enough hanging that the brave Officer Wilson could easily be on the case and tracking the killer into a second book. *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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Blog Tour: The Witch House – Ann Rawson*

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Who can you trust, if you can’t trust yourself?

Alice Hunter, grieving and troubled after a breakdown, stumbles on the body of her friend and trustee, Harry Rook. The police determine he has been ritually murdered and suspicion falls on the vulnerable Alice, who inherited the place known locally as The Witch House from her grandmother, late High Priestess of the local coven.

When the investigations turn up more evidence, and it all seems to point to Alice, even she begins to doubt herself.

Can she find the courage to confront the secrets and lies at the heart of her family and community to uncover the truth, prove her sanity, and clear herself of murder?

Ann Rawson has long been addicted to story. As a child she longed to learn to read because she knew there was magic in those pages, the inky squiggles that turned into words and became images in her head – the stories that could transport her away from the everyday. As she grew older, she divined there was truth in books too. They were a glimpse into other minds. Her reading became the foundation of a deep and abiding interest in what makes people tick – and so she soon became hooked on crime fiction.

Age ten, she wrote to Malcolm Saville, author of the Lone Pine Series, enclosing her first short story. He wrote back and encouraged her to continue writing – and she is heartbroken that the letter is long lost. His book, Lone Pine Five, sparked a lifelong interest in archaeology, as it mentions the Mildenhall Treasure which makes an appearance in The Witch House.

A lapsed witch with enduring pagan tendencies, she lives on the south coast. She still thinks of herself as a Northerner, although she’s been in exile for many years. Almost every day she walks on the Downs or the white cliffs with her husband, plotting her next novel while he designs computer systems.

Ann’s debut novel, A Savage Art was published by Fahrenheit Press in 2016. She has published some short fiction, and in 2019 her memoir piece If… was shortlisted for the Fish Short Memoir Prize.

She is currently completing a memoir and working on her third novel.

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My thoughts:

This was a really interesting story about family and inheritance, mental illness and anger.

Alice is arrested for murder, but due to her history of mental illness and paranoia doesn’t convince the police that she’s innocent – especially as the victim was the trustee of her grandmother’s estate and controlled Alice’s allowance.

Deciding to go rogue and solve the crime herself, aided by friend Kelly, archeology professor and lawyer, she unravels a whole heap of family secrets and lies.

Beautifully written and compelling, I found this novel full of little surprises and clever twists. There is a great love of the landscape present in the novel and it forms almost another character in the story, so much of the action taking place on the Downs.

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