When the bodies of five men are discovered in a secret vault at the villa Belle Époque, suspicion falls upon the villa’s former owner, enigmatic Pascal Deveraux. Actor, gambler, general good-for-nothing – Pascal has lived a life of privilege and excess. But with no evidence to implicate him in murder, the case goes unsolved. Called in to investigate the cold case, it’s not long before Margot’s enquiries re-open old wounds. Aided by policière municipale, Alia Leon, the investigation moves swiftly from the smugglers’ trails of the Pyrenees to the cannabis clubs of Barcelona. And it’s there, in the dark medieval streets of the city’s Gothic Quarter, that someone finds a reason to silence her. Amazon UKAmazon US
Rachel Green is the pen name of a writer from the UK. Rachel has twice been longlisted for both the Bath Novel Award and the BPA First Novel Award, as well as being on the shortlist for the Capital Crime New Voices Award. Rachel lives in a tiny village in England, but travels frequently to the south of France where the stories from the Madame Renard Investigates series are set.
My thoughts: this was very enjoyable, I like Margot, and I liked Alia, I hope she appears in another book in this series. Investigating a strange cold case leads the two women into the odd lives of the Deveraux siblings, the creepy Pascal and his strange sister. Pascal likes to play perverse and disturbing games with people and immediately Margot has her suspicions of him. When Alia remembers seeing a man matching the remains of one of the victims, they’re set on a trail that will lead beyond the village’s borders and across the mountains into Barcelona.
Margot is an intelligent, resourceful investigator – for all that her late husband was the police officer, she has the right instincts for detective work. The remote villa and the tragic and disturbed family are ripe for investigating. Working with Alia, who really deserves a lot of the credit, means she has back up when things go wrong.
Set against the backdrop of a hot summer in the south of France, and the descriptions of all the delicious food Alia’s father, Didier, provides, gives an intense juxtaposition to the dark deeds and the sinister bunker where the remains were found. Twisted, gripping and intelligent crime writing.
*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 girl is sitting upright, her dark brown hair arranged over her shoulders and her blue, blue eyes staring into the distance. She looks almost peaceful. But her gaze is vacant, and her skin is cold…
When Detective Jackie Cooke is called to the murder scene, she is shocked by what she sees. Missing teenager Chloe Smedley has finally been found – her body left in a cold back yard, carefully posed with her bright blue eyes still open. Jackie lays a protective hand on the baby in her belly, and vows to find the brutal monster who stole Chloe’s future.
When Jackie breaks the news to Chloe’s heartbroken mother, she understands the woman’s cries only too well. Her own brother went missing as a child, the case never solved. Determined to get justice for Chloe and her family, Jackie sets to work, finding footage of the girl waving at someone the day she disappeared. Did Chloe know her killer?
But then a second body is found on the side of a busy motorway, lit up by passing cars. The only link with Chloe is the disturbing way the victim has been posed, and Jackie is convinced she is searching for a dangerous predator. Someone has been hunting missing and vulnerable people for decades, and only Jackie seems to see that they were never lost. They were taken.
Jackie’s boss refuses to believe a serial killer is on the loose and threatens to take her off the case. But then Jackie returns home to find a brightly coloured bracelet on her kitchen counter and her blood turns cold. It’s the same one her brother was wearing when he vanished. Could his disappearance be connected to the murders? Jackie will stop at nothing to catch her killer… unless he finds her first…
An absolutely gripping crime thriller that will keep you racing through the pages. Fans of Kendra Elliott, Rachel McLean and Val McDermid will love The Lost Ones.
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Marnie Riches grew up on a rough estate in north Manchester. Exchanging the spires of nearby Strangeways prison for those of Cambridge University, she gained a Masters in German & Dutch. She has been a punk, a trainee rock star, a pretend artist and professional fundraiser.
Her best-selling, award-winning George McKenzie crime thrillers were inspired by her own time spent in The Netherlands. Dubbed the Martina Cole of the North, she has also authored a series about Manchester’s notorious gangland as well as two books in a mini-series featuring quirky northern PI Bev Saunders.
Detective Jackson Cooke is Marnie’s latest heroine to root for, as she hunts down one of the most brutal killers the north west has ever seen at devastating personal cost.
When she isn’t writing gritty, twisty crime thrillers, Marnie also regularly appears on BBC Radio Manchester, commenting on social media trends and discussing the world of crime fiction. She is a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Salford University’s Doctoral School and a tutor for the Faber Novel Writing Course.
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My thoughts: this was really good, I’ve read some of the author’s previous books but this really was a compelling read. I really liked the character of Jackson ‘Jackie’ Cooke, pregnant, mother of twins, wife to a rather useless man, but determined and incredibly good at her job. Her own little brother Lucian (their dad’s an artist) was abducted as a boy and the case is still open. He had Down’s Syndrome, as does the first missing child in this case. The connection means that for Jackie, this is personal.
As more remains are found, and more mothers are informed that their missing children are dead, Jackie becomes even more dedicated to solving this. Despite her boss wanting her, at 8 months pregnant, behind a desk till maternity leave.
The ending and the perpetrator is something you won’t see coming. Jackie’s personal life is on its knees, and I really didn’t pick the murderer out, like I can sometimes do, it just seemed too cruel. Brilliantly done and totally gripping.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
When Mary receives a blank diary as a present, she thinks nothing of it. Until she opens the diary, and sees it’s not blank after all… 1st January MURDER LISA, OXFORD 1st February MURDER JANE, BIRMINGHAM 1st March MURDER DAVID, CARDIFF 1st April MURDER MARY, CHELTENHAM Is this some kind of sick joke? But…it’s the end of January now. And a woman named Lisa was murdered in Oxford on 1st January. Does that mean there really is a killer out there, planning to commit a new murder on the first of each month? And is the Mary due to be killed on 1st April her? The clock is ticking for Mary to uncover the truth, before she becomes the next victim on the killer’s list…
Jackie Kabler is an internationally bestselling author of psychological thrillers including The Perfect Couple, Am I Guilty? and The Happy Family. She worked as a newspaper reporter and then in television news for twenty years, including nearly a decade on GMTV. She later appeared on BBC and ITV news, presented a property show for Sky, hosted sports shows on Setanta Sports News and worked as a media trainer for the Armed Forces. She now combines her crime writing with her job as a presenter on shopping channel QVC. Jackie lives in Gloucestershire with her husband.
My thoughts: this reminded me a little of one of Agatha Christie’s books – possibly The ABC Murders, which if I remember correctly contains a list of names, but this is a clever and modern thriller. Much like Mary, I couldn’t figure out who the killer was, why they have selected these particular victims and how they’re going to get to Mary now the police are aiming to keep her safe.
There are several twists at the end that put an entirely different spin on the plot and the characters, there’s some shocking things that Mary has kept secret. And the killer – no spoilers, but I never saw it coming.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
In Aurora, Illinois, Aubrey Wheeler is just trying to get by after her semi-criminal ex-husband split, leaving behind his unruly teenage son.
Then the lights go out—not just in Aurora but across the globe. A solar storm has knocked out power almost everywhere. Suddenly, all problems are local, very local, and Aubrey must assume the mantle of fierce protector of her suburban neighborhood.
Across the country lives Aubrey’s estranged brother, Thom. A fantastically wealthy, neurotically over-prepared Silicon Valley CEO, he plans to ride out the crisis in a gilded desert bunker he built for maximum comfort and security.
But the complicated history between the siblings is far from over, and what feels like the end of the world is just the beginning of several long-overdue reckonings—which not everyone will survive . . .
My thoughts: I found the premise of this book very interesting – for two reasons. Firstly the science, which the author notes is as accurate as he could get it thanks to some very clever scientists who advised him, and secondly the way Aubrey and Thom go about getting through the blackout.
The Sun is hugely important, without it we’d all die but it is also a volatile mass of gases and immense heat. Should it fire off a pulse like it does in this book, we’d all be in huge trouble. So much of the developed world relies on electricity. Think about all the ways you use it in a day – your mobile, laptop, tablet, the lights, the kettle, the toaster, all powered by electricity. And that’s before you leave the house!
When the blackout hits, at first, like most, Aubrey has a slight panic. She rushes off to the supermarket and stocks up. Forgetting that her freezer, oven and fridge all need power. But as time goes on, she adjusts. Her neighbours come together to plant vegetables and protect each other. They build a community. They get through it as a group.
Thom, for all his money and tech savvy, immediately heads for the hills. Or his fancy bunker. He’s hired staff and plans to only take his wife and kids. Even Aubrey is an afterthought. He doesn’t think about his loyal assistants or their families. Just himself and his needs. Unsurprisingly this starts to backfire.
People need people. That’s what I took away from this book. You need your neighbours, just as we all did in lockdown over the last two years, you need the people around you. If the only reason they’re with you because you’re paying them – well then they might just decide they’re better off elsewhere.
This is going to be made into a film, not surprising when you realise the author is a well known film writer, and that will be really interesting. While the events are something that everyone sees, in terms of the extreme solar activity, the main plot about Aubrey and Thom isn’t huge in scale, it’s small and about a local phenomenon – community, family.
*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 world of faeries, leprechauns and dragons – and magic fuelled by the blood of trees. A mystery portal to the Real World.
And a pair of curious young adventurers who know they shouldn’t step through it…
Meet Fergal the Second, nicknamed ‘two’. Or ‘Doe’, in his own language. He can do magic. But, for the moment, he’s forgotten where he’s from. Or what’s happened to his blind friend Ruby.
He’s actually from Tir na Nog, the enchanted world of Shadowmagic, where a new generation of the royal House of Duir are cheeking their parents, preparing for adulthood and itching to see the Real World for themselves – whatever the peril.
JOHN LENAHAN, whose Shadowmagic trilogy sold more than 100,000 copies, takes us back to his enchanted parallel world where Irish folk myth combines with lively 21st-century banter.
The first in the new trilogy, Son of Shadow, takes up the story in the next generation. It opens in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where teenage princeling Doe – son of the hero of the original trilogy – is arrested for making a gold coin disappear at a magicians’ convention. He has lost his memory while following his abducted friend Ruby into the Real World.
Born in Philadelphia but long settled in the UK, Lenahan is an acclaimed magician and TV performer. He fronted his own BBC2 magic series Stuff the White Rabbit, played the voice of the toaster in Red Dwarf and has appeared on a wide range of entertainment shows including TFI Friday, Comedy Café and Celebrity Squares.
He is a member of the exclusive Magic Circle.
My thoughts: incorporating characters and beings from Irish mythology, this is a fun, YA, adventure story about family, friendship and magic. Doe can’t remember who he is or where he’s from but he knows he’s supposed to do something. Incarcerated in the mental hospital, he meets Sarah, who can see the future. Together they travel across America in search of answers.
Moving back and forth in time and between worlds, the story is gradually revealed. Doe is in fact a faerie prince from Tir na Nog, and on a mission to rescue his kidnapped friend Ruby. He just didn’t tell his parents all the details. Luckily they’re more worried about saving Ruby and the new Big Bad – a human sorceress and her ally, who they all thought was dead, than grounding Doe.
This was a fun romp across America, with Sarah trying to explain the Real World to Doe, who has never even eaten pizza before, let alone dealt with money, trans-continental buses or well, anything. He meets some helpful, and some very unhelpful, people along the way, searching for legendary Irish hero Cu Chulainn, who he hopes can help him rescue Ruby.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Welcome to my stop on the tour for From Brick & Darkness, a gritty YA novel steeped in djinn mythology. Read on for an exclusive excerpt and a chance to win a signed copy!
From Brick & Darkness
Publication Date: May 16, 2022
Genre: YA/ Modern Fantasy/ Retelling
Publisher: Wild Rose Press
The most powerful wishes aren’t said with words.
Bax always fantasized something remarkable would happen in his life. So when a decrepit man with glowing purple eyes offers him a ring intended for his estranged father, Bax accepts.
The ring speaks to Bax in a dream, tempting him with a vision of a powerful djinn. Desperate to make his fantasies a reality, Bax unleashes a creature called Ifrit, but soon learns this djinn isn’t what the ring led him to believe. Feeding off the depths of his subconscious, the sinister demon fulfills what he thinks Bax wants by manipulating, threatening, and murdering. With everyone he loves in danger and a trail of crimes pointing back at him, Bax must scramble to solve the puzzle that will banish Ifrit forever.
Neck bones popped as his head rotated toward me, his face eclipsing the rays of the streetlight. His irises were dull purple, glazed over with a foggy film, and deep-set wrinkles radiated from the corners of his eyes like arrows drawing attention to them.
A shudder caused the keys to slip from my hand and clank on the ground. My face burned with shame that the poor man’s appearance had startled me. My rudeness would have disappointed Mom.
“I’m sorry, but really—” I snagged my keys.
His hand slithered out of the brick-colored sleeve as his arm rose, trembling as he strained to hold the weight of his own limb. Gloved in loose, veiny skin, his skeleton hand had yellowed fingernails so overgrown they grew in on themselves like curly birthday ribbons. As his fingers unfurled, he revealed a ring nestled in his palm.
It was large. Too large. The ring resembled the toy jewelry Jason’s sister played with or something from a Halloween costume. Grimy gold with a single dull purplish jewel that matched his eyes.
His hand trembled under the heaviness of the ring. “Take it.”
Shifting my backpack to my other shoulder, I took it. “What is this?”
The corners of his thin lips curled into a grin as a gust of warm, dry wind cut through the chilly October night and swirled around me
J.L. Sullivan writes young adult stories inspired by gritty urban environments and the tales that percolate within abandoned buildings and desolate alleys. He lives in St. Louis with his wife, two daughters, and a dog named Princess Penelope Picklesworth.
My thoughts: this was a fun magical story about why it’s not so wise to get involved with djinn. One little monkey like jann who runs errands is one thing, but a murderous ifrit is another!
Luckily Bax has good friends who want to help him out when he needs to return the ifrit to its own dimension.
Wishes can be dangerous, especially if someone is interpreting them from your subconscious while you sleep.
A clever, entertaining read with some twists and turns.
Welcome to the tour for this fascinating memoir by Gabriela Maya Bernadett, called Stories My Grandmother Told Me: A Multicultural Journey from Harlem to Tohono O’dham. Read on for more info!
Stories My Grandmother Told Me: A Multicultural Journey from Harlem to Tohono O’dham
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: City Point Press/ Simon & Schuster
The illuminating and deeply personal debut from Gabriela Maya Bernadett, Stories My Grandmother Told Me explores culture, race, and chosen family, set against the backdrop of the twentieth-century American Southwest.
In a hilly Southern California suburb in the late twentieth century, Gabriela Maya Bernadett listens as her grandmother tells her a story.
It’s the true story of Esther Small, the great-granddaughter of slaves, who became one of the few Black students to graduate from NYU in the 1940s. Having grown up in Harlem, Esther couldn’t imagine a better place to live; especially not somewhere in the American Southwest.
But when she learns of a job teaching Native American children on a reservation, Esther decides to take a chance. She soon finds herself on a train to Fort Yuma, Arizona; unaware that each year, the Bureau of Indian Affairs kidnaps the native Tohono O’odham children from the reservation and forces them to be educated in the ‘ways of the White man.’ It doesn’t take long for Esther to notice how Fort Yuma parallels her own grandmother’s story as a slave in the South—the native children, constantly belittled by teachers and peers, are forced to perform manual labor for local farmers.
One of two Black people in Fort Yuma, Esther feels isolated, never sure where she belongs in a community deeply divided between the White people and the Tohono O’odhams. John, the school bus driver and Tohono O’odham tribe member, is one of the only people she connects with. Friendship slowly grows into love, and together, Esther and John navigate a changing America.
Seamlessly weaving in the present day with the past, Stories My Grandmother Told Me blends a woman’s memory of her life, and that woman’s granddaughter’s memories of how she heard these stories growing up. Bernadett’s captivating narrative explores themes of identity, tradition, and belonging, showing what it really means to exist in a multicultural America.
Maya Bernadett grew up in California hearing the stories of her grandmother, Esther Pancho. She grew up in a multi-cultural household, as her father is Mexican American and White and her Mother is Tohono O’odham and Black. At the age of 18 she moved to New Haven, Connecticut to attend Yale University, from which she graduated in 2008 with a degree in the History of Science/History of Medicine. She lived in Tucson briefly, then moved to New York City, and finally returned to Tucson to attend the University of Arizona. She graduated in 2015 with a Master’s Degree in American Indian Studies with a focus on Education. She currently teaches GED classes at the Pascua Yaqui Tribe.
When DI Barton is asked to investigate a seemingly innocuous fire that kills, he believes it’s either children fooling around or a worrying racially motivated crime. As he delves deeper into the case, he soon realises that there is a history of similar blazes spread out over many years, all within a close area. And after an idea is suggested by pathologist Mortis, Barton suspects he has the arsonist’s motives wrong. When a night worker comes forward with a tip, Barton narrows down the suspects. Yet all of them act suspiciously and he knows for sure that one or more of them are lying. And when a huge house blaze shocks everyone, Barton fears the killer has lost all control. Who is The Fire Killer? What will be next to burn? Purchase
Ross Greenwood is the bestselling author of ten crime thrillers. Before becoming a full-time writer he was most recently a prison officer and so worked everyday with murderers, rapists and thieves for four years. He lives in Peterborough.
My thoughts: another outing for DI Barton and his team, this time on the trail of a serial arsonist, after a woman’s body is found in a burnt out skip. Dark, twisted and a bit disturbing. Fire is a primal thing and most people are either drawn to it or afraid of – perhaps a bit of both.
Set during lockdown, which helps narrow the suspect pool a bit as most people stayed close to home, even the supposedly victimless bin fire that follows the skip isn’t entirely free from damaging a life. The killer’s guilt doesn’t drive them to turn themselves in and there’s a worrying link to a county lines drug case from London too.
Barton’s family are getting a dog and he wants to be home with them, getting to know their new family member, but this case keeps drawing him back in. After a house fire that almost kills an old lady, it’s time to really put some pressure on the suspects.
Gripping and highly entertaining, it’s another slice of the dark side of Peterborough’s otherwise quite pleasant cathedral city.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
DCI Warren Jones is deep into the investigation into an apparent murder-suicide when another case is thrust onto his desk. Winnie Palmer, missing for two months, has been found dead, her body stripped and propped against a tree in the woods.
Two cases are more than enough to handle – but things get even harder for the team when they realise the cases might be linked. And when a third suspicious death is added to the pile, it raises a horrible question. Is there a serial killer on the loose?
With all the murders taking place on Sundays, it’s a race against time to find the killer before they strike again. As the days tick by Warren desperately searches for a link between the victims – but the only thing he knows for sure is that absolutely anyone could be next…
My thoughts: this was a clever, gripping crime thriller. A murderer seems to be killing people indiscriminately – an older couple, an elderly woman, but putting out food for the family pet each time. Each killing takes place on Sundays. So the police have a week to find the killer.
But they’re struggling and Warren is a little distracted by his new diet and the fact his wife is finally pregnant. His boss is retiring, change is in the air at the station and now with this spate of killings, all eyes are on Warren and his team.
Another body turns up, and the heat turns up on the team. And now the killer is writing to Warren. Detailed diaries of the murders, taunting Warren. Like certain historical serial killers. As it unfolds, Warren is easily the most sympathetic figure in the book. He has a lot on his plate and wants to catch the killer.
I really enjoyed this book, as with the previous books in the series, the writing is crisp and the plot keeps you gripped. The denouement delivers a surprise or two and I was stunned by the identity of the killer and his frankly bizarre reason for killing.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
London 1776: Lord Worth is busying himself restoring his family fortunes and burying any feelings he still harbours for the woman who rejected his proposal. The fact that the lady in question—Lady Rebecca Fairing—happens to be his sister’s best friend, his niece’s godmother, and present at every Societal gathering of consequence is… unfortunate. Meanwhile Rebecca fears she made the wrong decision in rejecting James Worth, but when he assures her he won’t be renewing his proposal, she is forced to accept her choice. It doesn’t take long for the eligible Lord Worth to attract other suitors, among them Lady Sophia, daughter to Society’s most notorious gossip, Lady Goring. Rebecca knows she must step aside and allow James to find happiness, but when she senses all is not as it seems in the Goring family, she can’t help but intervene. As James and Rebecca work together to unearth Societal secrets, deal with scheming matriarchs, and face villainous highwaymen, they find themselves more in each other’s company than ever before. Will they continue to bury their feelings for one another, or will they finally realise what it means to love?
About the Ladies of Worth series The Ladies of Worth series is a historical romance series of novels set in 18th century. From the gaming hells of London to Bath’s fashionable Pump Room, the Ladies of Worth series opens up a world of romance, wit and scandal to its readers. With formidable heroines and honourable heroes who match each other wit for wit you’ll find yourself falling in love with the Ladies of Worth.
Philippa Jane Keyworth, also known as P. J. Keyworth, writes historical romance and fantasy novels you’ll want to escape into. She loves strong heroines, challenging heroes and backdrops that read like you’re watching a movie. She creates complex, believable characters you want to get to know and worlds that are as dramatic as they are beautiful. Keyworth’s historical romance novels include Regency and Georgian romances that trace the steps of indomitable heroes and heroines through historic British streets. From London’s glittering ballrooms to its dark gaming hells, characters experience the hopes and joys of love while avoiding a coil or too! Travel with them through London, Bath, Cornwall and beyond and you’ll find yourself falling in love.
Keyworth’s fantasy series The She Trilogy unveils a world of nomadic warrior tribes and peaceful forest-dwelling folk. Explore the hills, deserts and cities of Emrilion and the history that is woven through them. With so many different races in the same kingdom it’s become a melting pot of drama and intrigue where the ultimate struggle between good and evil will bring it all to the brink of destruction.
Giveaway Win a signed copy of Lord of Worth (Open to UK Only)
My thoughts: this Regency romance is full of gossip and intrigue as James, Lord Worth and Lady Rebecca Fairing spar and conspire to help a young friend on the path to true love, and perhaps resolve their own feelings for each other along the way.
There’s the society gossip and snob Lady Goring to contend with as she practically tries to force James into marrying her daughter, the sweet Lady Sophia, her nephew Lord Avers, who has schemes of his own, James’ sister and brother-in-law, on hand as back up when James re-enters society and the dreaded Season.
Rebecca has her own sister in her corner, as well as Caro, James’ sister. Which helps as Lady Goring seems determined to ruin her life on her way to securing a rich husband for her daughter. Miserable woman that she is.
Over card games, tennis, lunches, and other high society pursuits, Rebecca realises she was a bit hasty in rejecting James and they finally realise they do actually need each other.
I’m rather glad these days you don’t have to marry to avoid disgrace and parents don’t have the same sway they once did. I felt sorry for Sophia and Rebecca, and was pleased that things sorted themselves out before Rebecca’s aunt swooped in.
There’s humour along the way, from zebras in the Royal menagerie, to meddling sisters and misunderstandings. A fun, historical romantic comedy of manners.
*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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