Twelve-year-old Sophie and her mother, Amelia-Rose, move to London from Massachusetts where they meet the charismatic Matty Melgren, who quickly becomes an intrinsic part of their lives. But as the relationship between the two adults fractures, a serial killer begins targeting young women with a striking resemblance to Amelia-Rose.
When Matty is eventually sent down for multiple murder, questions remain as to his guilt — questions which ultimately destroy both women. Nearly twenty years later, Sophie receives a letter from Battlemouth Prison informing her Matty is dying and wants to meet. It looks like Sophie might finally get the answers she craves. But will the truth set her free — or bury her deeper?
My thoughts: this is a clever, complex and interesting book with a fascinating concept – Sophie’s father figure turned out to be a serial killer, she’s spent her whole life trying to understand why he did it. She talks to her mother but gets no answers there, would finally confronting the dying Matty resolve things?
I really enjoyed the author’s Ziba Mackenzie books, and I was excited to read this, her writing is accessible and the book’s premise unfolds nicely. Sophie is an intriguing protagonist – guilty by association, even though she was a child and had no idea what was going on. She’s piecing the clues together though, fragmented memories and newspaper inches. An intelligent and engaging read.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Detective Anjelica Henley confronts a series of ritualistic murders in this heart-pounding thriller about race, power and the corrupt institutions that threaten us
When Detective Anjelica Henley is called to investigate the murder of a popular preacher in his own church, she discovers a second victim, tortured and tied to a bed in an upstairs room. He is alive, but barely, and his body shows signs of a dark religious ritual.
With a revolving list of suspects and the media spotlight firmly on her, Henley is left with more questions than answers as she attempts to untangle both crimes. But when another body appears, the case takes on a new urgency. Unless she can apprehend the killer, the next victim may just be Henley herself.
Both fans of The Jigsaw Man and readers coming to Matheson’s work for the first time will get swept away in this heart-pounding thriller. Drawing on her experiences as a criminal attorney, Nadine Matheson deftly explores issues of race, class and justice through an action-packed story that will hold you captive until the last terrifying page.
My thoughts: this book goes to some dark places – it seems to be Henley’s lot in life. Extreme religious beliefs, secrets, embezzlement, lies and murders. Vulnerable people, often with mental health issues are disappearing and later turning up dead, looking like they’ve been tortured. What is the connection to the dead preacher? And can Henley and team stop it before anyone else loses their life?
I really liked the previous book in this series – The Jigsaw Man, and I think Henley is a really interesting protagonist. She’s clever and good at what she does but keeps a lot of things close to her chest, and isn’t always as open, even with her closest colleagues, as she could be. These crimes are in her community, and she wants to keep people safe but when all she gets is lies and obfuscation from those involved, it’s not easy.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Nasrin and Sabrina are two sisters, who on the face of things live successful and enviable lives in London and New York. When their father, Shamsur suddenly dies, they rush to be with their mother at the family home and restaurant in Wales, and reluctantly step back into the stifling world of their childhood.
When Shamsur’s will is read, a devastating secret is revealed that challenges all that people thought and loved about him. It also profoundly changes the lives and identities of the sisters, and creates an irreparable family rift…
Moving between London, Wales, New York and Bangladesh, this is an epic family drama that spans over four decades. A story of mothers and daughters, of fathers and daughters, of sisterhood, it is a tale that explores belonging, family and what makes forgiveness and redemption possible.
My thoughts: firstly I want to talk about the striking and beautiful cover on this book, it really is lovely. And I know you should never judge a book by its cover but you can certainly admire it.
The story it contains is not an easy read, it starts with the death of the family patriarch, a man who loves his family and keeps all of its secrets, who protects and cares for his employees, who was well known and loved in the community and whose death, a sudden one, leaves a deep hole in the centre of everyone and everything.
The differing reactions to his death, and to the fallout of his will, make up the rest of the book. His daughters, niece and wife all have very different ways of dealing with things, Sabrina’s rage, Nasrin’s epilepsy returning, and revelations he leaves behind all have profound impacts. The business struggles – more than the food they serve, the Peacock was Shamsur, and without him customers don’t quite seem to be coming.
Afroz, his niece, has travelled from Bangladesh, leaving her husband and impossible mother-in-law behind. She tries to help, finding she enjoys working in the restaurant, enjoys being with the staff, who Shamsur treated like family. She struggles with her cousins, and looks after her aunt, whose grief is complicated by secrets left behind in both the past and Bangladesh.
In a way this reminded me of one of my favourite books – Nadeem Aslan’s Maps for Lost Lovers, with its intergenerational secrets and pain, the foreign born younger generation having to unpack the things their immigrant parents prefer to keep hidden, not always understanding the mess of culture, religion and society that wrap around certain people and events. Seeing their parents’ homeland as backward and even ridiculous compared to the Western world they live in.
There are further tragedies, and more heartbreak to be reckoned with, the ripples of Shamsur’s will lingering long after his death. Nasrin’s illness and struggles in particular seem acute and complicated. Sabrina’s determination to push her ethnicity, her mother tongue, as far as possible away from her, to be ultra modern and keep up with the culture of her world of investments and trades threaten to unmoor her completely from her family. Afroz too needs time to decide what she really wants – the husband she didn’t choose and a life of unwilling servitude or this new one in the shadow of the Brecon Beacons, in her aunt and uncle’s footsteps.
Incredibly moving, powerful and engaging, this is a striking book both in looks and in contents.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Cora carries secrets her daughter can’t know. Freya is frightened by what her mother leaves unsaid. Angel will only bury the past if it means putting her abusers into the ground.
One act of violence sets three women on a collision course, each desperate to find the truth, when the people they love are not what they seem.
When danger lies in the eye of the beholder, what happens when you reject its pull?
Margie Orford is an award-winning journalist who has been dubbed the Queen of South African Crime Fiction. Her Clare Hart crime novels have been translated into ten languages and are being developed into a television series. She was born in London and spent her formative years in Namibia and South Africa. A Fulbright Scholar, she was educated in South Africa and the United States, has a doctorate in creative writing from the University of East Anglia and is an honorary fellow of St Hugh’s College, Oxford. She is President Emerita of PEN South Africa and was the patron of Rape Crisis Cape Town. She now lives in London.
My thoughts: a few years ago there was a grief furore in the press about a photographer who had included images of her naked children in an exhibition and a book. The debate centered around consent and the line between art and porn. That’s the line Cora’s most recent exhibition has been accused of crossing in this book. The paintings are of herself as a child, topless on her parents’ South African farm – replicas of photos. She claims she’s trying to capture that last moment of innocence, before a girl realises why men are looking at her. But the resemblance of her daughter, now an adult, and the childhood Cora has angered some.
She’s also in a new relationship with a man with a horrible, dark secret. Angel, who also has horrible, terrible, heartbreaking secrets, is looking for this man – Yves, in the Canadian wilderness where he lives and she works in a wolf rehabilitation centre.
These women’s lives collide because of these secrets and because of Yves and men like him. There is a real core of darkness in this book, something a lot of us don’t like to acknowledge. Angel and Cora are trying to take something back, to restore lost innocence in their own, very different ways.
Freya, Cora’s daughter, is wrestling with being her mother’s daughter, with what her mother’s autobiographical art means to her – and hoping to understand her mother better. She uncovers some things Cora has tried to bury.
Compelling, brutally honest and incredibly powerful, this is a striking and gripping novel that lingers in the mind long after you close the book.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all
Ash Carter had to leave the Near East in a hurry. But when he arrives in Singapore he finds himself in the middle of a much bigger problem. No one knows where, or when, or who but someone is planning an attack. Carter is told to make sure it doesn’t happen. With pressure from politicians and the army and with Chinese Secret Societies watching his every move, he has other plans. He is more interested in finding out who killed his friend.
My thoughts: inspired by the author’s father’s time as an MP (military police) in Singapore while it was a British colony, this next installment of Ash Carter’s adventures finds the former Army captain looking for a missing friend who sent him a telegram. Needing to get away from Cyprus, Ash leaps at the chance to help his friend Tom out. Unfortunately he’s too late. But Tom had found something, and now Ash needs to find out what, get revenge, and help out the Governor’s office too.
Temporarily assigned back to the Army, he’s assisted by two MPs, the local police inspector and the glamorous Su Ling, niece of local businessman Andrew Yip. Who might also be a criminal.
Lots of twists and turns, red herrings (you’ll find out the meaning of lots of phrases as you go along too, thanks to Hedge), and distractions follow as Ash attempts to untangle his investigation. He’s also asked to find the mysterious lady dubbed Madam Butterfly who’s been robbing naive soldiers and causing embarrassment for the barracks.
Tired of playing politics, Ash of course immediately goes off book, conducting his job in a rather unorthodox manner – not keen on sharing the details with his superiors, his official investigation is a little light on the how he gets answers. And despite vowing not to spend too long in town, he starts to quite like Singapore and might just stick around….
Always fun and enjoyable, this had Ash hit the ground running. He’s out of SIB (Special Investigations Bureau) and doesn’t enjoy being dragged back into the military way of doing things, which bodes well for his future. Although he’s a rogue, he’s a lovable one and even the women he disappoints don’t seem able to stay mad at him.
The book is now available free on Amazon, and the sequel Singapore Girl is currently 99p or free on Kindle Unlimited.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
As the Battle of Britain rages overhead, a warlock leader from the Council of High Witches comes to Woodville with a ritual to repel the imminent Nazi invasion. The only catch is it involves full-frontal nudity on the White Cliffs of Dover. The Witches of Woodville are having none of it, but when more witches arrive they realise they might have a spy in their midst, and it’s up to Faye Bright to uncover the traitor. But she’s got enough on her plate already with the ghost of a Polish Hurricane pilot who may hold the key to the truth.
Mark Stay co-wrote the screenplay for Robot Overlords which became a movie with Sir Ben Kingsley and Gillian Anderson, and premiered at the 58th London Film Festival. He is copresenter of the Bestseller Experiment podcast and has worked in bookselling and publishing for over twenty-five years. He lives in Kent, England, with his family and a trio of retired chickens. He blogs and humblebrags over at markstaywrites.com.
My thoughts: I do enjoy this series and Faye gets more and more interesting with each book. I still have many questions about Miss Charlotte and Mrs Teach but perhaps the mystery makes it better?
This time they’re fending off an aerial invasion with magic – or are they? Bellamy is very enthusiastic but the Woodville witches don’t seem too keen and Faye’s distracted by her life and the ghostly Polish pilot in the barn. Otto Kopp – who continues to be deeply annoying, is still hanging about, and causing trouble. There’s a spy in their midst and no one’s quite sure who it is.
Bits are very funny and the ending is very moving and sweet, there’s a lot of toing and froing to Dover for the ritual, including a very funny scene with a tweed clad dogwalker, and at some point Bertie and Faye might get around to some proper canoodling (without a witchy emergency or half the village as audience).
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my
Welcome to the book tour for cozy mystery, Bee Movie by Wendy W. Webb. Read on for more!
Bee Movie (The Beluga Stein Mysteries Book 1)
Publication Date: March 30th, 2022
Genre: Cozy Mystery/ Suspense/ Paranormal
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Beluga Stein is here, with her signature loud muumuus, pastel cigarettes, and hit-or-miss psychic ability. She and her feline familiar, Planchette, are ready for their closeups. Or are they?
Beluga is called to investigate paranormal activity and other strange events on the set of a low budget horror movie. But after a mysterious fire, an actor dressed in a bee costume is found hoisted high in the air by a crane. Is the set haunted? Or are the supernatural stirrings and death the result of special effects?
From the dark screening room to the madcap SFX warehouse and scary set itself, Beluga and Planchette are there as reluctant cast members. But even a bit part in this film could be murder.
Shooting on set of Bee Mine delayed yet another day due to unforeseen circumstances of boom falling on antenna of actor playing part of giant bee. Actor sustained minor injury (covered by insurance), antenna sent to SFX department for surgical repair (not covered by insurance), boom operator yet to be found after his exit from soundstage, screaming, “It’s a ghost. It’s a ghost.”
Budget overrun in Craft Services department. Snack Head places blame on Beluga Stein.
Wendy Webb (aka Wendy W Webb) has published dark fantasy short stories and supernatural-humor murder mystery novels over many years. After a hiatus for far too long as a professor of emergency management and as a disaster responder, she welcomes the return to fiction writing. She adores her husband; two dogs, one of which turns on iTunes whenever Wendy leaves her office; dry red wine; theatre; and travel as long as she doesn’t see anymore ghosts.
My thoughts: this was a strange story, a bit confusing and completely mad. There’s odd events on a low budget film set, including the death of the Bee Man (not the actor hired to wear the suit but someone wearing it nonetheless). Hired by the producer to find out what’s going on and who is trying to destroy the movie, biology professor, PI and psychic Beluga Stein, her feline sidekick Planchette, friend Tanya and eventually her daughter Olivia, is on the case.
As more strange things occur, the brightly dressed sleuth starts to narrow down her suspects, but has she overlooked the real killer?
One last client. A week at a beautiful chateau in the south of France—it should be a straightforward final job for Dora. She’s a smart, stunning and discreet escort, and Daniel has paid for her services before. This time, all she has to do is to convince the assembled guests that she is his girlfriend. Dora is used to playing roles and being whatever men want her to be. It’s all about putting on a front.
One last chance. It will be a last, luxurious look at how the other half lives before Dora turns her back on the escort world and all its dangers. She has found someone she loves and trusts. With him, she can escape the life she’s trapped in. But when Dora arrives at the chateau, it quickly becomes obvious that nothing is what it seems…
One last secret. Dora finds herself face-to-face with a man she has never forgotten, the one man who really knows her. And as old secrets surface, it becomes terrifyingly apparent that one last secret could cost Dora her life…
From the Sunday Times number one bestseller Adele Parks comes a blisteringly provocative novel about power, sex, money and revenge.
My thoughts: I love Adele Parks, so I was thrilled to get my hands on her newest book and oh it doesn’t disappoint! It’s full of secrets and sex and revenge and sudden heartstopping moments and twists.
Dora is a rather sympathetic figure, right up until the end, and she finds herself in a horrifying situation after agreeing to one last job – even though she doesn’t need to or really want to. The beautiful location hides darkness and manipulative, dangerous people.
After it all takes a nasty turn, Dora’s memory isn’t very reliable. The book flashes back to her aged 19, to how she ended up working as an escort and why. It adds dimensions to her character and starts to explain why the present events might just be happening.
This was so enjoyable, if you’re heading off to lounge by a pool, take a copy. If like me, your summer involves your own sofa, get a copy too.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Two teenage girls on the run with fake IDs and a beater car…what could go wrong? Emmy has always been impulsive. She is no longer a minor and has aged out of foster care. When her best friend, Amber, is the target of a perverted uncle who lives in the basement of her group home, they plan her escape. They head for Canada, where Amber will be safe, and the foster care system can no longer control their lives. When they come across a whitewater rafting brochure, they decide to take a detour for one last adventure before leaving the country. Emmy and Amber have no idea it will be a decision that will forever change their fates. The rafting town is so far in the middle of nowhere that Emmy’s car radio catches nothing but static. They consider turning around until a truck pulls up, loaded with hot whitewater rafting guides and rubber rafts–just the fun they were looking for. Ignoring every instinct, they turn off the pavement and follow the truck down an isolated dirt road. They end up in Lodell, the town where a girl went missing the previous summer…and she will not be the last.
Kelly Romo grew up in California but has lived in Oregon for over twenty-five years. She teaches writing, literature, and social studies. She is the mother of three grown children: Brittany, Brennan, and Ryan. She is an avid outdoorswoman who loves to kayak, hike, and fish. DEAD DRIFT is Kelly’s third novel. She also has two historical fiction novels; WHISTLING WOMEN (2015) and WHEN SORROW TAKES WING (2021).
My thoughts: this was a clever, dark, twisted thriller. Set in a small town where tourists come to ride the rapids every summer and girls seem to go missing every year too. When Emmy and Amber, heading to Canada, stop by to explore the river, they find more than they bargained for. Amber goes missing and Emmy can only vaguely remember the night before – did the girls really hurl their new shoes into the tree? And why would Amber, afraid of the water, risk the river?
As a year goes by, Emmy’s memories remain fuzzy but a new summer brings more tourists and more girls go missing. Can Emmy solve the terrible mysteries and save another girl from Amber’s fate? Can she stop a killer?I didn’t see the killer at all, all the hints pointed in several directions and the sunny, tourist friendly nature hid a really disturbing dark side – one that needed Emmy’s outsider perspective to finally be revealed and stopped. 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.
A fast-paced, laugh-a-page graphic novel about friendship, capitalism, and never putting your f***ing phone away!
Katie and Nas are best friends, exes, co-dependents. They share everything, including a tiny room in a North London townhouse belonging to their landlord Jeremy, former host of the hit 90s show ‘Football Lads’.
While Katie bounces from job to job and obsesses about falling behind in life, Nas has bigger things in mind—waiting endlessly for their visa to come through, while working on a seismic art project that will revolutionize politics and society as we know it. Their friend Emma, meanwhile, seems to have it all figured out—job, mortgage, engagement—yet the long hours working for tech giant Arko and endless wedding admin prove equally dread-inducing.
But when Katie’s latest job finds her tutoring the daughter of Arko’s formidable CEO, Michelle, and Emma welcomes the eccentric and enigmatic Alicia to her team at Arko, none of the three women are aware that their lives—and possibly the future of society itself—are about to change forever.
Twelve Percent Dread is a fast-paced, laugh-a-page graphic novel about friendship, capitalism, and never putting your f***ing phone away from Emily McGovern, author of Bloodlust & Bonnets and the hugely popular webcomic My Life As A Background Slytherin.
My thoughts: Bloodlust & Bonnets is still one of my favourite graphic novels of the last few years – it’s very, very funny and we need a sequel please! So I was delighted to be gifted a copy of Twelve Percent Dread to review.
It didn’t disappoint, funny, insightful, intelligent and wry, this is very much a book for right now. With a giant tech firm, its megalomaniac founder poised to try to take over everyone’s lives, while threatening the Prime Minister and barely parenting her teenage daughter, and two young people who have to share a room even though they broke up – rent is not cheap people, just trying to get through life, make enough money to survive, oh and not get deported, this is the satirical read we need!
Katie and Nas are just about surviving, Katie’s addicted to her phone, just lost her job and needs to get a new one – not least because the rent is due. Nas is hoping to stay in the UK (why?) and isn’t allowed to get a job. And now they want to bring down Arko. As things start to spiral out of control, will they be ok?
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 