Category: blog tour

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Blog Tour: Violence in the Void – Alice Stanco

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Have your read Violence in the Void by Alice Stanco yet? We highly recommend you do!

Violence in the Void

Publication Date: November 2023

Genre: Dark Romantic Fantasy

  • Multiple dialects
  • Mental health rep
  • Life & love after trauma
  • Hidden realm
  • Elemental magic
  • Phantom hands daddy
  • Tall, dark, & brazen MMC
  • Feisty, resilient, & powerful FMC
  • Morally grey everyone
  • “Mine”
  • “You’re safe with me”
  • Forced proximity
  • He cooks for her
  • Quest-centered plot

The Void is encroaching, threatening to take over…
Will his Violence set me free, or push me further into Its grasp?

That day at the Armantrea market was the same as any other, until a tall, beautiful stranger appeared and snapped his fingers.

In an instant, my world disappeared, replaced by his strange land. I’m suddenly surrounded by foreign accents, mysterious, magic-wielding Astrales like Xander, and powers I never knew existed.

Except, in Xander’s eyes, I belong here. Fate’s unfathomable hand guided mine to unknowingly create a replica of an ancient Astrale relic—one with the power to upend society as we know it. Months later, I am responsible for tracking down this lost replica through an unfamiliar world, with Xander as my guide.

But the Astrales are playing with powers far beyond my comprehension, and have political agendas I can’t begin to understand.

Despite his barbaric and controlling demeanor, I find myself drawn to Xander, and something shifts as I begin to rely on him for my safety. When threats from this new world circle in, truths from my past begin to surface, and I am forced to question everything I know.

Xander does what he can to protect me, but I soon realize that even he can’t stop the Void that threatens to swallow me whole…

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Blog Tour: A Christmas Murder – Mary Grand

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Susan didn’t plan on being an amateur sleuth and, after two successful investigations, she’s looking forward to a quiet Christmas. So, when local businesswoman Meera is in desperate need of help, Susan agrees rather reluctantly.

The task should be easy enough. The infamous press mogul Duncan Fern is coming back to the Isle of Wight, the scene of his family’s childhood holidays, to celebrate Christmas with his grown-up
children and their partners, his new glamorous wife Kirsten who is forever dripping with diamonds, and the spikey editor of his paper the Morning Flame, Antoine. The newly-refurbished luxurious
Bishopstone Manor is the perfect setting for a festive break, and all Susan has to do is help Meera host.

But when a snowstorm descends over the island, and the following morning a body is found, Christmas at the Manor takes a darker turn. Can Susan get to the bottom of the mystery before the murderer strikes again…

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Mary Grand writes gripping, page-turning suspense novels, with a dark and often murderous underside. She grew up in Wales, was for many years a teacher of deaf children and now lives on the Isle of Wight.

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My thoughts: Christmas is a murderous time of year, people get together with their families – the people they most love and hate at the same time and old resentments as well as new rows burst out. 

Susan thinks helping Meera out at the Manor will be easy, but the family they’re hosting aren’t an easy group. Media mogul Duncan Fern, his second wife, his children and their partners, and one of his business partners as a last minute addition.

Fern used to bring his family to the island when his children were young and his first wife, their mother, was still alive. They’ve all got some memories, good and bad, of that time and daughter Hayley is struggling with that.

She used to spend time with Alice, Susan’s friend, and the shrewdest person around, who always solves all the mysteries and murders without ever needing to leave her retirement home. I love her.

After Duncan is found dead in his bed, from a heart attack, Susan thinks it’s not straightforward, there’s some things that don’t add up. So she starts digging, asking questions and clearly someone gets threatened as she’s pushed down the icy outside steps and almost drowned.

Susan has great instincts but she’s not good at taking basic safety precautions, she doesn’t really tell anyone what she’s doing or take her phone (or walkie talkie, there’s no signal at the Manor).

I really enjoyed this book, it’s a bit in the mould of the Golden Age country house murders but with a festive (and modern) twist. Everyone there has secrets, some of them more deadly than others.

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

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Blog Tour: Living is a Problem – Doug Johnstone

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The Skelf women are back on an even keel after everything they’ve been through. But when a funeral they’re conducting is attacked by a drone, Jenny fears they’re in the middle of an Edinburgh gangland vendetta.

At the same time, Yana, a Ukrainian member of the refugee choir that plays with Dorothy’s band, has gone missing. Searching for her leads Dorothy into strange and ominous territory. And Brodie, the newest member of the extended Skelf family, comes to Hannah with a case: Something or someone has been disturbing the grave of his stillborn son.

Everything is changing for the Skelfs … Dorothy’s boyfriend Thomas is suffering PTSD after previous violent trauma, Jenny and Archie are becoming close, and Hannah’s case leads her to consider the curious concept of panpsychism, which brings new danger, while ghosts from the family’s past return to threaten their very lives…

Doug Johnstone is the author of seventeen novels, many of which have been bestsellers. The Space Between Us was chosen for BBC Two’s Between the Covers, while Black Hearts was shortlisted for and The Big Chill was longlisted for Theakston Crime Novel of the Year.

Three of his books – A Dark Matter, Breakers and The Jump – have been shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize. Doug has taught creative writing or been writer in residence at universities, schools, writing retreats, festivals, prisons and a funeral home. He’s also been an arts journalist for 25 years. He is a songwriter and musician with six albums and three EPs released, and he plays drums for the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers, a band of crime writers. He’s also co-founder of the Scotland Writers Football Club and lives in Edinburgh with his family.

My thoughts: Skelfs, Skelfs, Skelfs!!

Yep, my favourite undertakers/PI family are back and they’ve got a few cases on their whiteboards. Jenny is following the drones that attack two of their funerals, Dorothy is looking for a missing member of her choir, a Ukrainian refugee, and Hannah is trying to help Brodie, whose infant son’s grave has been tampered with.

Then there’s the ongoing fallout of the previous violent case with Thomas’ former colleagues causing trouble. Could it be connected to any of these new cases?

The dead still need to be tended to, and the body of a homeless Biffy Clyro fan (tattoos that also give the book its title, help the team find some friends of the deceased), and a few more of the new methods they’re using, which I find endlessly fascinating as I agree that there has to be a more ecologically sound way to bury the dead. One of my friend’s is a funeral director for one of the big firms and I am keen to talk about this with him.

I love the Skelfs, I think they’re fantastic and the books are so full of little details and moments. I love the fact they have a wind phone in the garden so people can talk to their loved ones (it’s a genuinely lovely concept from Japan) and I was fascinated by the panpsychism that Hannah is exploring, something I’ve bookmarked to research later.

Doug Johnstone is one of the most interesting writers working at the moment between the Skelfs and the alien creatures of the Enceledon series. His books are enjoyable and sometimes funny but also full of ideas and concepts that make you think. Brilliant stuff.

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

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Blog Tour: I Died at Fallow Hall – Bonnie Burke-Patel

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Anna Deerin moves to a remote Cotswold cottage to become a gardener, trying to strip away everything she’s spent all her life as a woman striving for, craving the anonymity and privacy her new off-grid life provides. But when she clears the last vegetable bed and digs up not twigs but bones, the outside world is readmitted.

With it comes Detective Inspector Hitesh Mistry, who has his own reasons for a new start in the village of Upper Magna. Drawn in spite of herself to this unknown woman from another time, Anna is determined to uncover her identity and gain recognition for her, if not justice. As threats to Anna and her new life grow closer, she and DI MIstry will find that this murder is inextricably bound up with issues of gender, family, community, race and British identity itself – all as relevant in decades past as they are to Anna today.

Born and raised in South Gloucestershire, Bonnie Burke-Patel studied History at Oxford. After working for half a decade in politics and policy, she changed careers and became a preschool teacher, before beginning to write full time. She lives with her husband, son, and needy cat in south east London, and is working on her next crime novel about fairy tales, desire, and the seaside.

My thoughts: I know there’s a tendency to compare modern crime novels to the Golden Age ones – easy to say “like Agatha Christie was alive in the 21st Century” but apart from a setting, this is not the same sort of crime novel (and I love Golden Age crime so this isn’t a slight at Agatha).

It’s a modern, intelligent novel that grapples with sins of the father, race in rural England, relationships and the dwindling influence of the landed classes.

Anna is a former ballerina, whose career was ended by injury, and has moved to a small cottage with an outsize garden, growing and selling fruit, veg, jam and cakes at the local market. She pays no rent as it’s managed as part of the estate of the local National Trust type house.

Digging in the garden she finds human remains and calls in the local police in the firm of another recent incomer to Upper Magna, DI Hitesh Patel, recently moved from London after the death of his mother. (Side note; the area his father lives in, Kingsbury, is about 20 minutes away from where I live).

There’s an instant connection between the two, navigating their different forms of grief, as they look into whose remains are in the garden and what led to them being there. Anna, despite being told to leave it alone, can’t help asking questions, and attracting the wrong kind of attention.

I really enjoyed this book, the moving back and forth between Anna and Hitesh, and the memories of a young woman at Fallow Hall in the 60s. Slowly the story of the body in the garden is revealed, and as Anna and Hitesh get closer, a new story for Upper Magna and Fallow Hall is being written.

The ending is shocking and full of twists, and so good too. I really hope this author writes more books this clever and compelling and maybe even revisits these characters.

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

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Blog Tour: After the Husbands – Gina Cheyne

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What do you do when you’ve buried four husbands and not yet found a fifth?

Wealthy Lady Bumstead takes a cruise down the Mekong in Vietnam with a hired female companion, Anne de Tonkin. Annie is not just a kind old lady, she is a brilliant listener and soon knows all about the other travellers. But, on the last day of the cruise she is murdered.

Lady Bumstead, unable to see any reason why Annie should be murdered, is convinced the killer was after her. She hires the SeeMs Detective Agency to protect her and find the killer. At the same time she decides to do some sleuthing herself, and, with the help of her high powered hearing aid, she begins listening to all the conversations around her.

As the SeeMs Detectives investigate the crime, they find Annie had a rich past and connections with almost everyone else on the boat. There seem to be plenty of reasons for killing her, but who did the
deed?

Will Lady Bumstead and the SeeMs Detectives find the killer before he/she strikes again? Will Lady Bumstead find a fifth husband? Or will she become another victim?

Written in the first person by Lady Bumstead this novel will be particularly enjoyed by readers of Agatha Christie and A Man Called Otto. Or anyone interested in whodunnits.

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Gina has worked as a pilot, physiotherapist, freelance writer and dog breeder. As a child, Gina’s parents hated travelling and never went further than Jersey. As a result she became travel-addicted and spent years bumming around SE Asia, China and Australia, where she worked in a racing stables in Pinjarra, South of Perth. She then lived and worked in various places in Spain, the
USA and London before settling in West Sussex with her husband and dogs. This is her fifth crime novel in the SeeMs Detective Agency series. This book is set in Vietnam.

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My thoughts: I found Lady Bumstead (yes, it’s a silly name) quite self involved and annoying, she claims not to understand why her family don’t want anything to do with her, and even seems rather fed up to be on holiday. She’s not nice to or about the companion, Annie, that she’s hired, or her fellow travellers.

When Annie is found murdered in the cabin next door during the cruise part of the trip (an incredible tour of Vietnam that  most people would be delighted to be on), there’s plenty of suspects – she seems to have been connected to every one of the guests.

The SeeMS Detective Agency are hired, by Lady Bumstead’s companion agency to look after her and find out who killed Annie. They also have a link to a family on the trip. The only witness to Annie’s death is Catherine’s granddaughter Lagatha.

As the team look into Annie’s past and the passengers on the Mekong cruise ship, Lady Bee is thinking back over her own past – her collection of husbands, her former career as a nurse and tries to work out which passenger is one of former stepsons.

Funny, clever and enjoyable, Annie’s story is full of twists and surprises, and the agency have their hands full solving the case, there’s almost too many suspects!

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

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Blogathon: Nighthawking – Russ Taylor

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When a nighthawker on the hunt for antiquities instead uncovers the body of a foreign student, Detective Adam Tyler is pulled into a serpentine mystery of dangerous secrets, precious finds, and illegal dealings.

You are a trespasser. You are a thief. You are a Nighthawker.

Under the dark cover of night, a figure climbs over the wall of the Botanical Garden with a bag and a metal detector. It’s a dicey location in the populous city center, but they’re on the hunt–and while most of what they find will be worthless, it takes only one big reward to justify the risk. Only this time, the nighthawker unearths a body. . . .

Detective Sergeant Adam Tyler and his newly promoted protégé, Detective Constable Amina Rabbani, are officially in charge of Cold Case Reviews. But with shrinking budgets and manpower in the department, both are shunted onto the murder investigation–and when the victim is identified as a Chinese national from a wealthy family, in the UK on a student visa, the case takes on new urgency to prevent an international incident.

As Tyler and Rabbani dig further into the victim’s life, it’s becomes clear there’s more to her studies and relationships than meets the eye, and that the original investigation into her disappearance was shoddy at best. Meanwhile, someone else is watching these events . . . someone who knew the victim, and might hold the key to what happened the night she vanished.

Russ Thomas grew up in the 80s reading anything he could get his hands on, writing stories, watching television, and playing videogames: in short, anything that avoided the Great Outdoors. After a few ‘proper’ jobs, he discovered the joys of bookselling, where he could talk to people about books all day. Now a full-time writer, he also teaches creative writing classes and mentors new authors.

My thoughts: I’m not sure I’d be out creeping around at night, even if there was treasure, but that’s how a dead woman’s body is discovered in Sheffield’s Botanical Gardens. Buried in a shallow grave, she is a Chinese student with a politically connected father and an interest in rare orchids.

As Tyler and the newly promoted Mina Rabbani start to work the case, Tyler’s secret investigation into Superintendent Stevens is distracting him from the case and leaving Mina doing all the legwork.

That case is stepping up and Tyler and Doggett find new details emerging about Stevens and his cronies that need following up and could put people in danger.

The new case turns out to have links with the secret investigation which pull them in closer to Stevens’ many secrets.

But they still need to unravel the body in the border, what do the gold coins found with the corpse mean? Who left them there?

A fascinating, gripping thriller with a shocking ending.

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

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Blog Tour: Death Plunge – Michael K. Foster

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Somebody wants her dead. But there’s a problem. She’s Jack Mason’s partner. 

DCI Mason’s peaceful existence is about to be shattered by a notorious gangster’s release from prison. But that’s not the only problem. His partner, a successful physiotherapist, is now the target of a violent stalker.

The perpetrator might be a name from his past. Might be.

What could be more dangerous than a serial killer seeking revenge? Increased brutality. Excess.

With time slipping away, Mason must confront his nemesis head-on if he is to save the woman he cherishes more than anything. If not…

Death Plunge is the seventh book in the Jack Mason crime series. 

If you enjoy dark, action-packed crime novels with complex characters and unexpected psychological turns, then Michael’s latest instalment will captivate you. 

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Michael K Foster has been writing bestseller crime thrillers since 2006, all of them based in and around the North East of England. He released his bestselling debut novel, ‘The Wharf Butcher,’ in 2015, offering a unique insight into this rugged landscape. Since then, he has written seven full-length novels featuring the hard-hitting DCI Jack Mason and has garnished an army of loyal readers.

Michael was born in Plymouth, England. After ten years’ service in the British Army, he moved to Newcastle, where he earned his master’s degree. A former magistrate and lifelong fan of the mystery and crime thriller genres, he now lives in County Durham where he enjoys travelling, walking, and two Siamese cats.

Readers can find out more about Michael via his website or find him on Facebook, Goodreads, and Bookbub.

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My thoughts: With the local gangsters making moves and a serial killer in town, DCI Mason is pretty busy. He’s setting up a new unit to deal with priority cases, and the arson of a night club and a missing young man are two that fall under the rapid response team’s purview so the team are busy. Then there’s the risk to Mason’s partner, Barbara, who he sends to stay with her sister, and keep her safe till he’s found out who’s behind it and stopped them. 

The cases Mason and his team are working on are complex and tricky, with lots of twists and turns along the way. The serial killer is particularly unhinged, and the local villains’ way of doing business is causing trouble for the police, with them forcing out rivals and starting fires.

A clever and gripping police procedural, with well drawn characters and an enjoyable, tense plot.

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

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Blog Tour: Scandalous Women – Gill Paul

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1966: In London, Jackie Collins’s racy The World is Full of Married Men hits bookshops and launches her career.

In New York, Jacqueline Susann’s debut novel Valley of the Dolls is published, and she’s desperate for it to be a bestseller. But neither author is prepared for the price they will pay for begin women who dare to write about sex.

In Manhattan, college graduate Nancy White is excited to take up her dream job at a Manhattan publishing house. But Nancy could never be prepared for the rampant sexism she will encounter on the job.

But when Nancy introduces the two Jackies, she never could have predicted what was about to happen next. As she strives to achieve her ambition of becoming an editor, can all three women succeed despite the men determined to hold them back?

Gill Paul is an author of historical fiction, specialising in the twentieth century and often writing about the lives of real women. Her novels have topped bestseller lists in the US and Canada as well as the UK and have been translated into twenty languages. The Secret Wife has sold over half a million copies and is a bookclub favourite worldwide. She is also the author of several non-fiction books on historical subjects. She lives in London and swims year-round in a wild pond.

My thoughts: I love Valley of the Dolls, I think it’s an incredible novel and I’m fascinated by the Collins sisters – but I know more about Joan than Jackie.

So this, which creates a friendship between Jacqueline Susann and Jackie Collins (my leopard print loving role model) during the 60’s and 70’s when they were both writing their bestsellers is a truly fascinating and fantastic read.

Gill Paul writes about extraordinary women like the two Jackies and her created character, Nancy, a woman fighting for her place in the sexist world of publishing. I loved Nancy, part of me wants to be Nancy as she bonds with the two brilliant authors and edits their books, dismissed by the men at the publishing houses as not worthy enough. The fact that both women’s books are still published today and enjoyed by millions of readers definitely proves Nancy (and the real life women who inspired her) right.

The book is lots of fun, and both Jackies are brilliantly brought back to life, vivid and funny, clever and acerbic. Hardworking and determined to provide the best possible lives for their children, writing at a time even more dismissive of women’s writing than now. It’s glamorous at times, yes, but also shows the sheer hard slog of working to become something.

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

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Blog Tour: A Conduit of Light – Chelsey Ann Tompkins

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To prepare for the December release of A Blightress of Wrath, we’re touring A Conduit of Light this week!

A Conduit of Light (A Conduit of Light Series Book 1)

Genre: Romantic Fantasy

✨He falls first
🌲Powerful women
✨Forced proximity
🌲Secrets & lies
✨Enchanted library
🌲Magic forest
✨Haunting betrayal
🌲Enduring love

“You cannot go through your life thinking no one has loved you. Thinking no one has seen your soul because I have. I see it. And I love you for it.”

As a deadly disease courses through her city, twenty-year-old Ash’Arah is selected as the magic wielder who will be taken as payment for the cure. Chosen by the Baron of Felgren to come train her power in the forest which fuels it, Ash attempts to return to her former life by proving herself both weak and useless.

She is neither.

And as she finds friendship, a home, and love, the dark truth about what consumes the forest comes to light, leaving her with the inescapable destiny to save it or fall to a darker fate.

This is book one of three in a multiple POV romantic fantasy with enchanting magic and very little violence. With some adult language and light spice, you will find themes of self-discovery, feminine rage, and the endurance of love. The slow suspense and intrigue will grip you with twists that will keep you guessing until the very end.

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Blog Tour: A Midnight So Deadly – Wren Handman

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Fans of Kelley Armstrong’s Cainsville series and Leigh Bardugo’s Alex Stern books will love this cozy thriller about the unexplored realms within each of us.

A Midnight So Deadly (The Lumin Archives Book 1)

Publication Date: August 28, 2024

Genre: Thriller/Urban Fantasy

When dreams infect the waking world, what threats—and promises—do they bring?

Maeve and Peri are ‘dreamers,’ creators who record their dreams and publish them to the delight of their fans. When Maeve dreams of the murder of her friend’s abusive ex—and then he’s killed in the real world—her ‘dream’ job becomes terrifying. At the same time, Peri is losing their grip on reality as they search for a woman who keeps appearing in their dreams. Who is this enticing stranger? How does she keep finding Peri, night after night? And what will it cost to hunt her down?

To find the answers to their questions, Maeve and Peri will first have to find each other. As their dreams begin to bleed into the real world, and the borders between reality and illusion come unstuck, reality itself faces deadly collapse.

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