Month: May 2023

Death at the Three Sisters
Three feuding sisters. A faded spa. And a woman, dead in the water…
As they head towards retirement, Suzanne, Hazel and Tessa Walsh are locked in bitter disagreement about the future of the lakeside beauty spa they jointly own. Should they keep The Three Sisters
going as their parents wished, or should they sell to a neighbouring hotelier who seems determined to acquire the failing business, even at a preposterously high cost?
When their employee, Sophie Hayes, is found drowned close to the spa one cold January morning it rapidly becomes clear that it’s no accident: Sophie has been murdered. But who could possibly want
to kill her — or was she mistaken for someone else? As DCI Jude Satterthwaite seeks the answers he and his team dig ever deeper into the complicated and embittered relationships between the sisters and their neighbours.
As the investigation proceeds Jude becomes convinced that Sophie’s murder may only be the beginning. It’s not long before a shocking and tragic turn of events proves him correct and he and his
team find themselves in a race to prevent a further, final tragedy overtaking the Three Sisters. Can he uncover what deadly secrets the sisters are prepared to die — or kill — for, or will he be too late?
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Jo Allen was born in Wolverhampton and is a graduate of Edinburgh, Strathclyde and the Open University, with undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in geography and Earth science. She’s been
writing for pleasure and publication for as long as she can remember. After a career in economic consultancy she took up writing and was first published under the name Jennifer Young, in genres of
short stories, romance and romantic suspense. She wrote online articles on travel and on her favourite academic subject, Earth science. In 2017 she took the plunge and began writing the genre she most likes to read — crime.
Jo lives in the English Lakes, where the DCI Satterthwaite series is set. In common with all her favourite characters, she loves football (she’s a season ticket holder with her beloved Wolverhampton Wanderers) and cats.

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My thoughts: I really enjoy this series and in this installment Jude’s colleague Ashleigh comes to the fore a bit more as Jude is trying to remember he’s a DCI and shouldn’t be the one interviewing suspects – as his frosty boss keeps reminding him. I liked getting to see more of the team doing the heavy lifting of the investigation, especially the women.

This book and the case is all about family. Siblings especially, and controlling parents. The three sisters who run the eponymous spa, overlooking one of the Lakes, have a very complicated, messy relationship. Their parents built the business and left it and the family home divided equally between their three daughters.

And now, they’ve had enough. Or at least two of them have. Eldest, Susanna, wants everything to stay the same, she’s very like their late mother and controlling with it. But Hazel and Tessa want to see more of life, and are pushing back.

When their only employee, Sophie, is found in the lake, attention turns to the messy Walsh family. And an unexpected blast from the past complicates things. Do the answers lie in the sisters’ difficult dynamic? Jude and Ashleigh certainly think so.

Another excellent read from Jo Allen, I was kept guessing, and there were plenty of twists to have you gasping out loud. Good stuff.

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

The Sequel to Desmond Bagley’s DOMINO ISLAND

Insurance investigator Bill Kemp had never wanted to trek deep into Australia’s remote interior. But when his clients Sophie and Adam Church inherit an abandoned opal mine, triggering some explosive long-lost secrets, they – and Kemp – find themselves facing an unknown enemy even more deadly than the vast, forbidding wilderness of the Outback…

The Desmond Bagley centenary novel honours the legacy of the bestselling thriller writer with a new adventure featuring Bill Kemp, described by Jeffrey Deaver as ‘part James Bond, part Philip Marlowe, and all hero’. Writer Michael Davies, who completed the first Kemp novel Domino Island for publication nearly 40 years after the author’s death, now weaves an original tale of danger and death under the blistering Australian sun.

Michael Davies began his career as a newspaper journalist and editor and a professional theatre critic. Since moving into fiction, his writing has appeared on stage, screen, radio, the printed page and online. His debut play won a national competition, and subsequent work includes Tess – The Musical, an adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s classic novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles. He is a lifelong Desmond Bagley fan, and in 2019 reworked one of Bagley’s abandoned drafts into the highly acclaimed novel Domino Island.

Desmond Bagley was a multi-million-copy selling author of 16 adventure thrillers. Moving to South Africa after WW2, his transition from unskilled printer’s apprentice, aircraft engineer, mine worker, photographer and author.

My thoughts: this was really good, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Bill Kemp was a fantastic protagonist, brave, a little foolhardy, clever and persistent. Even when the odds seem stacked against him – the Australian landscape, the weather, a plane with a gunman in it, slashed tyres, he never lets up trying to get to the bottom of this knotty inheritance.

Helping out an old friend by looking into the life of an old man who lived in the middle of nowhere, nearest town Coober Pedy (the note on how the name is the mispronunciation of the Aboriginal name did make me chuckle – typical white people) who never went anywhere and whose opal mine was worthless, but apparently worth killing over.

His niece Sophie (lovely) and her new husband (very annoying) have come over from the UK to see her inheritance. But as things start to happen, from threatening notes to an awful hit and run, Sophie doesn’t turn tail, she digs in. The results are explosive. Turns out someone really doesn’t want her to inherit.

The writing hooked me straight in, from the Sydney harbour to the unforgiving Outback itself, the geography of Australia is mind-boggling. The place is huge. But why is someone so obsessed with a chunk of desert? There was a lot of action, and several suspicious people around but the final twist – did not see that. You won’t either.

I know this was to carry on the legacy of Bill Kemp’s original creator, Desmond Bagley, but I think Michael Davies has a great character here who could go places and I hope there’s more to come.

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

‘Your tattoo… it’s exactly like mine.’ She hesitates. ‘But – I’ve never noticed it before. I must have had it since I was little.’ The ink markings on both of them are delicate, barely visible. Interlinked triangles in the shape of a daisy. But how can two strangers have matching tattoos, they didn’t know they had?

With their parents gone and nobody left to ask, when Georgia and Oliver first come to amateur sleuth Millie Westlake for help with their daisy-shaped markings she thinks the tattoos are a joke. A funny, if unusual, link between two strangers. In the seaside town of Whitecliff, stranger things have happened – especially to Millie herself.

But then Millie finds an artist who remembers giving someone the same tattoo twenty years ago. Someone who spent years hiding in the isolated woods outside Whitecliff – the same place unidentified bodies were once found…

Even as Millie gets closer to answers, she witnesses a shocking robbery that changes everything. And as whispers of what happened in the woods decades ago become louder, how much danger will Millie, Georgia and Oliver put themselves in, to uncover the mystery of the daisy-shaped markings and the dark truth about their pasts?

This gripping and character-driven mystery read is perfect for fans of Faith Martin, Ann Cleeves and LJ Ross.

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Kerry Wilkinson is from the English county of Somerset but has spent far too long living in the north. It’s there that he’s picked up possibly made-up regional words like ‘barm’ and ‘ginnel’. He pretends to know what they mean.

He’s also been busy since turning thirty: his Jessica Daniel crime series has sold more than a million copies in the UK; he has written a fantasy-adventure trilogy for young adults; a second crime series featuring private investigator Andrew Hunter and the standalone thriller, Down Among The Dead Men.

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My thoughts: another weird case for Millie and Guy in Whitecliff Bay, a town i am very glad is fictional. This time it’s a strange tattoo on the back of two complete strangers’ ears that leads to a cult that used to exist in the woods outside town. The cult ended in fire and death but a few ex-members exist and someone must have some answers.

Meanwhile Millie’s personal life is still a mess – she wants custody of her son and is willing to exploit her ex-husband’s secrets to get it, and she needs to confront a friend about the email that outed her affair. Her friends Jack and Rishi are on the outs and even Guy’s acting a bit strangely. His late wife’s obnoxious nephew Craig is hanging about and after cash.

Then there’s the shop robbery Millie witnessed, the police think they have their man, but Millie’s not convinced – and neither is the man’s girlfriend. So of course Millie’s going to investigate.

With all of this going on, life’s never quiet, and Millie doesn’t have much appetite despite all the food she seems to be around, I wish people would randomly bring me a bakery’s worth of treats. Though I don’t get Luke’s toast thing still. And we still need answers about Millie’s parents. Roll on the next weird and brilliant Whitecliff Bay mystery.

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

Italian Rules is the fourth in Tom Benjamin’s critically-acclaimed Bologna-set series featuring British private detective Daniel Leicester. 

When Hollywood comes to Bologna, La Dolce Vita turns sweet murder…

A famous Hollywood director arrives in Bologna to remake a cult film and the city’s renown cinema archive decides to mark the occasion with a screening of the original, only to discover it has disappeared. After English detective Daniel Leicester follows the trail of Love on a Razorblade to an apparent murder-suicide, he begins to suspect there may be more at stake than missing negatives – could the film contain a clue to one of the city’s most enduring mysteries? Together with a star from the forthcoming remake, Daniel moves from the glamour of Venice Lido to the depths of Bologna’s secret tunnel system as a sinister network closes in and he learns some people are ready to kill for the ultimate director’s cut.

Tom Benjamin grew up in the suburbs of north London and began his working life as a journalist before becoming a spokesman for Scotland Yard. He later moved into public health, where he led drugs awareness programme FRANK. He now lives in Bologna. Follow Tom @tombenjaminsays on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook

My thoughts: while this is the fourth book in a series, it can be read as a standalone or you can tuck into the whole series.

I love the recent proliferation of crime novels set in Italy, this one in Bologna – at the famous film archives (or at least a version of them) where the negatives of a classic of the giallo genre has gone missing. Do the archives have a thief in their midst or is something much bigger going on?

A remake is due to be shot in conjunction with the director’s family – indeed the new director is married to the great-niece of the original, and is a fan. But the family have secrets, and some of those might be on the missing film.

While hunting down the negatives, and almost getting killed, PI Daniel Leicester finds a couple of bodies and squires a glamorous American actress around town, waiting for the other shoe to drop. His Italian relatives are on hand to help out with the investigation, although his sister-in-law is about to give birth and his daughter Rose is a little starstruck.

The case becomes more complicated and complex as he digs, and about a lot more than just a missing film. Secrets, dodgy dealers of Nazi memorabilia, affairs of the heart and a link to a truly strange real life case are all woven in to this clever and twisting series of crimes. Very enjoyable.

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

The competition is fierce….
Desperate to try and rebuild the reputation of Hopgood Hall, owners Alexi Ellis and Cheryl and Drew Hopgood agree to host a realty TV baking show, spearheaded by their arrogant but enigmatic head chef Marcel Gasquet. Hopefully the ratings will bring in bookings to the struggling hotel and Cosmo, Alexi’s antisocial feral cat, is hoping to get a starring role too!
The temperature is high…
Fiery and hot-headed, Marcel’s antics makes for brilliant television, but off-screen trouble is brewing.
One of the contestants, femme fatale Juliette Hammond, makes it clear that she will do anything to secure the winning prize – even if it means sweetening up the prima donna chef.
The results are deadly!
So when Juliette is found dead, all eyes turn to Marcel. Has his fiery French temper got the better of him or has someone else fallen victim to Juliette’s devious ways?
With the reputation of the hotel in tatters and Marcel’s liberty on the line, Alexi needs answers and fast. And the only person she can turn to for help is her old friend and private eye Jack Maddox.
Jack’s working his own case, but he can’t refuse Alexi and he knows more than anyone that this murder could cost them everything!
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Evie Hunter has written a great many successful regency romances as Wendy Soliman and is now redirecting her talents to produce dark gritty thrillers for Boldwood. For the past twenty years she
has lived the life of a nomad, roaming the world on interesting forms of transport, but has now settled back in the UK.

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My thoughts: Hopgood Hall is hosting the regional heat of a national cooking contest on TV and resident chef Marcel is hoping they get his good side. Until one of the contestants dies – and it looks like murder. Was Marcel the killer?

Alexi and Jack don’t think so, it’s too convenient that one of Marcel’s chef knives is stuck in Juliette’s chest, besides chefs are precious about their blades, they’d never kill someone with one. And there’s plenty of other suspects – all with a grudge against the not so lovely contestant.

Perhaps something in her past has returned to haunt her or she pushed someone too far? And what’s the connection to Jack’s current PI case at Cash Out? The duo get digging, aided by Alexi’s huge black cat Cosmo, who’s become a bit of a star in his own right.

Having my own attention seeking moggy, I can totally see why he’s such a camera magnet, I imagine he might be almost as handsome as my boy, and he does an excellent job of guarding Alexi’s car, which is impressive for a cat. They’re usually far too lazy to care.

Jack and Alexi’s relationship steps up a notch or two as well, from the spare room to Alexi’s bed! Good thing Cosmo likes Jack. The investigation runs fairly smoothly as they sort through their suspects, asking the right questions, and helping the under-resourced local police out with tying up the loose ends and discounting any red herrings. Juliette was not a nice person but she certainly didn’t deserve to be murdered. Thankfully this pair are on the case!

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