Blog Tour: Half Past Tomorrow – Chris McGeorge

Shirley Steadman, a 70 year old living in a small town in the North East of England, loves her volunteer work at the local hospital radio. She likes giving back to the community, and even more so, she likes getting out of the house. Haunted by the presence of her son, a reluctant Royal Navy officer who was lost at sea, and still in the shadow of her long dead abusive husband, she doesn’t like being alone much.

One day, at the radio station, she is playing around with the equipment and finds a frequency that was never there before. It is a pirate radio station, and as she listens as the presenter starts reading the news. But there is one problem – the news being reported is tomorrows. Shirley first thinks it is a mere misunderstanding – a wrong date. But she watches as everything reported comes true. At first, Shirley is in awe of the station, and happily tunes in to hear the news.

But then the presenter starts reporting murders – murders that happen just the way they were reported.

And Shirley is the only one who can stop them.

My thoughts: this was an interesting thriller that got increasingly weird as it went along, as Shirley’s reality became more complicated.

Mourning her dead son, struggling with increasingly poor health, slightly lonely and with a grumpy cat to feed; Shirley’s refuge in her hospital radio volunteering becomes more important than ever when she hears a mysterious radio broadcast referring to future events.

She thinks someone is about to be murdered and enlists her late son’s former girlfriend, nurse Callie, in helping her try to prevent it. Things go a bit strange from there.

A clever premise, and a complicated sci fi twist, plus ghosts who might not be ghosts, people suffering from guilt, embroidery group gossips and Shirley at the heart of it all.

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