Category: blog tour

The Honourable Cressida Fawcett is expecting the cathedral crypt to be full of dry old bones. But when she finds a body murdered just moments before, she’ll need divine inspiration to solve her most mysterious case yet…

Winchester, 1925. When heiress and amateur sleuth Cressida Fawcett is invited to her aunt’s mansion on Cloister Close, she is looking forward to a quiet stay in the historic town. The views of the cathedral are heavenly – and her aunt’s maid, Nancy, makes devilishly good ginger biscuits! But it seems Cressy and her pug Ruby won’t be allowed to rest in peace… On a tour of the crypt, they are shocked to stumble across the body of Anthony, the gentle, devoted verger. And a wild-eyed Nancy is standing over him, bloodied candlestick in hand…

Since Nancy was caught red-handed and the only other suspect is the Silent Friar, the legendary local ghost, Detective Andrews of Scotland Yard thinks the case is closed. But Nancy swears she would never have killed Anthony; they were in love. And while Cressy may not believe in ghosts, she does believe Nancy. So, whose soul is full of murder most foul? And will they strike again?

As she digs through parishioner gossip, Cressy discovers that for a man of the cloth, the verger had a surprising number of enemies. Was a local antiques dealer driven to murder over an illegal trade in holy relics? Would the head bellringer kill to achieve his musical ambitions? Or is the saintly Dean, whose black-cloaked figure resembles the Silent Friar and whose wife recently drowned, hiding a deadly sin?

The cathedral conceals many secrets, and it seems Cressy will need a miracle to uncover the truth. But then Cressy finds a hidden passageway to the crypt. Is this how the murderer escaped? The sceptical police lack faith in her theories, but can she catch the killer and save Nancy from the hangman’s noose? Or will she be too late to prevent another funeral march?

A totally gripping and deliciously witty historical murder mystery with a gasp-out-loud reveal, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, T.E. Kinsey and Lee Strauss.

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Fliss Chester lives in Surrey with her husband and writes historical cozy crime. When she is not killing people off in her 1940s whodunnits, she helps her husband, who is a wine merchant, run their business. Never far from a decent glass of something, Fliss also loves cooking (and writing up her favourite recipes on her blog), enjoying the beautiful Surrey and West Sussex countryside and having a good natter.

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My thoughts: after all the murders and other crimes Cressida has dealt with, she’s looking for a quiet break at her aunt’s in Winchester, in the shadow of the cathedral. Accompanied by her loyal pug Ruby, and joined by Dotty and Alfred, it should be a lovely break. 

Unfortunately Cressida’s luck doesn’t hold and she and Aunt Mary stumble across the body of the cathedral’s verger, Anthony, with Nancy, her aunt’s maid standing over him, holding the murder weapon.

Cressida calls in DCI Andrews to help the local police, who are baffled, as Nancy swears blind she didn’t kill anyone.

Obviously Cressida can’t help but investigate, and after spotting some family silver in a local pawn shop, she starts putting the pieces together. She just needs a few more.

Uncovering a conspiracy involving the bones of former Bishop, St Swithun, and with Ruby literally sniffing out some clues, it’s another compelling case for Cressida and Co.

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

The Jagged Scar is a spin-off from Nick Rippington’s much-acclaimed Boxer Boys series. 

Troubled schoolgirl Red and her best friend Marc visit London for a Valentine’s party but they get separated and she ends up in a police cell.

While behind bars the teenager befriends mysterious glamour girl Kat who negotiates her release and invites her to a 70s Soho awash with strip clubs, porn shops, shady characters and bent cops.

Unhappy with her home life back in Wales, she opts to stay and lands a job in the nightclub empire of former stripper Blaize and her porn king husband Jack.

Before long she has made friends, settled into the lifestyle and forgotten all about the problems at home.

That is until her world is turned upside down by a sequence of tragic events. It leads her to question those around her and brings her to the notice of some leading players in London’s dark underbelly who will stop at nothing to keep their unlawful activities under wraps.

And as she closes in on the truth, Red is about to make the shocking discovery that her new life is inextricably linked with the past she’s so desperate to leave behind.

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Nick Rippington would like it to be known that although he once worked for the News of the World he has never hacked a mobile phone. For that matter, most of the time he can’t even remember his own passcode.

 A national sports journalist with a wealth of experience, Nick took the plunge and began writing crime thrillers when Rupert Murdoch shut down Europe’s biggest-selling Sunday newspaper in 2011 as a result of the phone hacking scandal.

 His debut novel Crossing The Whitewash came out in 2015, receiving an honourable mention in the Writers’ Digest Self-publishing eBook awards.

 That launched the Boxer Boys series, which has found a niche in the growing UK gangland market. To date, there are four books in the series – Crossing The Whitewash, Spark Out, Dying Seconds and Bare Lies.

 Nick’s creation of the notorious Dolan family, their associates and enemies has been greeted with acclaim by some of the country’s most prestigious book bloggers.

 Meanwhile, his standalone psychological thriller Rabette Run has been described as ‘Alice in Wonderland… with tanks and guns’ with a twist you didn’t see coming. Rabette Run (published by Red Dragon) and Crossing the Whitewash are both available as audio books while the first three novels in the Boxer Boys series are available in digital format with Amazon as a box set.

 The Jagged Scar, Nick’s 6th novel, is a spin-off of the Boxer Boys which can be read as a standalone, as can all his books. It is based in 1970s Soho, London, and you may notice a few characters that appear much later in the saga.

 Nick has now moved out of East London to the wilds of Suffolk with wife Liz and daughter Livvy.

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My thoughts: two teenagers run away from a small Welsh village to London in the 70s. Separated they follow their own paths – Red finds work in a Soho club as the assistant to the owner, Blaize. She’s naive and doesn’t really understand what business her new friends are in.

Things take dark turns and her naivety is soon worn away, and after a friend is killed in police custody, she vows revenge.

Meanwhile, the siblings the friends left behind in Wales start looking for them, following tiny clues to track down their beloved sister and brother.

This was a really fascinating and gripping look at the dark side of 70s London life through the lens of several young and innocent souls. There’s a lot that happens to them and some shocking, terrible things come to light. Red in particular goes through an enormous amount and Marc’s story was heartbreaking.

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