Month: Sep 2021

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Death Comes to Bishops Well – Anna Legat

ramblingmads

When Sam Dee moves to the beautiful Wiltshire village of Bishops Well, he expects a quiet life of country walks and pub lunches. OK, so his new neighbour, Maggie Kaye, is a little peculiar, but she’s very nice – and his old pal Richard Ruta lives just down the road.

But when Richard throws one of his famous parties, things take a sinister turn. Sam, Maggie and the rest of the guests are dumbfounded when Richard falls down dead. A horrible tragedy – or a cunningly planned murder?

With a village full of suspects – and plenty of dark secrets – just who exactly would want to bump off their host? Is there a connection to another mysterious death, nearly twenty years before?
Armed with her local knowledge, Maggie – with Sam’s reluctant but indispensable help – is soon on the case. But when the body count starts to rise, will sleepy Bishops Well ever be the same again?

Amazon UK
Amazon US

Anna Legat is a Wiltshire-based author, best known for her DI Gillian Marsh murder mystery series. Murder isn’t the only thing on her mind. She dabbles in a wide variety of genres, ranging from dark humorous comedy, through magic realism to dystopian. A globe-trotter and Jack-
of-all-trades, Anna has been an attorney, legal adviser, a silver-service waitress, a school teacher and a librarian. She has lived in far-flung places all over the world where she delighted in people-watching and collecting precious life experiences for her stories. Anna writes, reads, lives and breathes books and can no longer tell the difference between fact and fiction.

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My thoughts: this was a really enjoyable mystery novel – with two amateur sleuths hunting out clues and doing better than the police. Putting little things together, references to Richard’s ‘love of his life, which didn’t seem to be any of his wives, the mysterious woman at the airport, without any access to official equipment or information. But the police are right behind them and can put the murderer away for it.

DI Gillian Marsh is only peripherally involved, as she’s supposed to be on sick leave, but she can’t quite leave it alone. Doesn’t help that Maggie keeps trying to get information out of her about the investigation.

A really fun spinoff from the DI Marsh series, set just up the road from Marsh’s beat.

*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 Wolf in the Woods – Dan Brotzel

ramblingmads

Colleen and Andrew haven’t had sex in eleven weeks and three days [not that anyone’s counting]. Their marriage is in crisis, they’re drinking too much and both have secrets they’re afraid to share. 

A teetotal week in a remote cottage could solve all their problems. But with the promised beach nowhere in sight, a broken-down car and a sinister landlord, they may not find it so easy to rekindle their romance. In this dark and funny novel, tensions build and tempers fray.

Dan Brotzel’s short stories have won awards and been published widely, with Hotel Du Jack, his first full-length collection, published in 2019. He is also co-author of a comic novel-in-emails about an eccentric writers’ group, Work in Progress (Unbound). The Wolf in the Woods is his debut novel.

Dan lives in London with his partner Eve and their three children.

My thoughts: this is a slightly strange story – mostly because of Wolf, the overly friendly owner of the cottage Colleen and Andrew rent for a week. He’s forever popping in with items of food, some advice, the offer of a lift after their car breaks down, a friendly chat. But he seems to know all sorts of private things about them and becomes increasingly sinister as the week goes on.

Neither Colleen or Andrew are exactly happy, she’s fantasising about running away with Gerry from drama school, he’s too busy cogitating on words and their pronunciation to pay real attention to his marriage. Neither of them want to discuss their problems – the drinking, the estranged son, the fact that they’re miserable.

I’ve stayed in lots of holiday cottages but I don’t remember any of the owners being this visible (except when it was my aunt and uncle’s cottage) and annoying. Wolf and his sister/wife (!?!?!) are really odd too – living in such a remote place, mentioning things but never explaining them – who is Jilly? What’s wrong with Hildy?

This increasingly descends into very black comedy and the beginnings of a horror story where Wolf and ‘Mrs Wolf’ are serial killers or something. The woods are not always full of teddy bears having picnics, sometimes there are wolves…

*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 Winter Garden – Alexandra Bell

ramblingmads

Welcome to the Winter Garden. Open only at 13 o’clock.

You are invited to enter an unusual competition.

I am looking for the most magical, spectacular, remarkable pleasure garden this world has to offer.

On the night her mother dies, 8-year-old Beatrice receives an invitation to the mysterious Winter Garden. A place of wonder and magic, filled with all manner of strange and spectacular flora and fauna, the garden is her solace every night for seven days. But when the garden disappears, and no one believes her story, Beatrice is left to wonder if it were truly real.

Eighteen years later, on the eve of her wedding to a man her late father approved of but she does not love, Beatrice makes the decision to throw off the expectations of Victorian English society and search for the garden. But when both she and her closest friend, Rosa, receive invitations to compete to create spectacular pleasure gardens – with the prize being one wish from the last of the Winter Garden’s magic – she realises she may be closer to finding it than she ever imagined.

Now all she has to do is win.

My thoughts: as a little girl I believed fervently in magic and fairies and the power of wishes, a part of me still does. This beautiful, magical book contains all of those things, like a fairy tale for grown ups. It made me a little tearful to finish it because I would never be reading it for the first time again and falling under its spell.

It is also about the power of friendship – that between Rosa and Beatrice and James. A vital enduring bond that helps them all through dark times and leads them to happiness in its different forms.

A truly wonderful, beautiful story, heartwarming and full of magic and marvels.

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