Category: books

Julia Bird loves a walk in the countryside. There’s nothing quite like the fresh air and green rolling hills of the Cotswolds to clear your head. Unless you come across a dead body, that is…

When the local Berrywick vet, Dr Eve Davies, is found dead at the bottom of a cliff, the police believe it’s nothing more than a tragic accident, but Julia isn’t so sure. Just a few days earlier when she took her dog, Jake, to the vets, Dr Eve said she believed something awful was about to happen. It turns out she was right…

But who would want the beloved village vet dead? Was it her mother Kay, a down-and-out gambler who stands to inherit her unwedded daughter’s home? Was it her assistant Olga, who was close to getting fired? Or was it her cut-throat tennis partner Will, with whom Dr Eve had an argument shortly before she took a tumble? And who is the stranger skulking around Berrywick peering into people’s windows?

When a second body appears in the exact spot where Dr Eve was found, Julia knows it can’t be a coincidence. Both victims were pushed off the cliff, but why? Should Julia let sleeping dogs lie, or will she be like a dog with a bone to find the murderer?

A totally gripping and charming cosy mystery set in the English countryside. Fans of M.C. Beaton, Faith Martin and Betty Rowlands will love the Julia Bird Mysteries.

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Katie Gayle is the writing partnership of best-selling South African writers, Kate Sidley and Gail Schimmel. Kate and Gail have, between them, written over ten books of various genres, but with Katie Gayle, they both make their debut in the cozy mystery genre. Both Gail and Kate live in Johannesburg, with husbands, children, dogs and cats. 

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My thoughts: I kinda love Julia, she’s just a really nice person, smart and kind and funny. However she does have the worst luck ever, always finding dead bodies – often of people she knows. This time it’s the village vet, Dr Eve, a woman Julia only saw a few days previously.

Of course Julia starts digging, the supposed accident isn’t one, and Dr Eve was worried about something. Is it to do with her job? Or maybe the Padel club she’s part of?

As Julia investigates, she ruffles someone’s feathers, but can she and lovely Labrador Jake solve the vet’s death and catch the killer.

This series gets better with each book and I love how the other villagers have become more and more involved with Julia’s investigations. I also loved how many adorable dogs this one contained, although Jake is still my favourite.

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

Thirteen students on a party night dream up a plan to save the world. They will create an app to slash food waste and improve diet.

A decade later green activist Astra Wallace hires Danny Lancaster to trace her uni friends.

Despite the help of ex-gangster entrepreneur Big Eddie Archer and reclusive Ukrainian tech wizard Steroid Stepan, Astra’s pals are hard to find.

The trail leads to celebrity chef Bix Battersby, a TV action hero, feisty retired medic Lillian Bayliss, and her lively cavapoo Petal.

It’s a twisting trail made harder by friction between Danny and Astra. But their uneasy partnership reveals people are dying.

One thing Danny’s dead sure of – this FOOD FIGHT is going to get messy.

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I’ve spent my working life as a journalist. You meet a lot of people, see things, learn stuff. For a crimewriter, it’s a plot factory.

I’ve also done a lot of travelwriting. It’s not all cocktails under the palm trees but it is a fantastic job that’s taken me to more than 40 countries, from the white wastes of Arctic Finland to the deserts of Namibia.

People often ask my favourite place. In a world of globalisation, many destinations look the same but Iceland and Namibia are like stepping onto another planet. Go if you can.

I’ve also enjoyed a long love affair with Western Crete, the mountains, coastline, food and people. And I was delighted and surprised to receive the Ed Lacy Gibraltar travel award in 2007.

Another interest is my family tree. I’ve traced the ancestors back to William of Byfield, a farmer in 1600s Northamptonshire, just down the road from Shakespeare.

I love maps. They might seem old fashioned in the age of GPS but they tell stories, make promises. I have a ragbag collection of more than 3,000.

I’m also a fan of interesting cheeses, good beer and wilderness. They’re like Marmite, you’re an empty places person or you’re not.

I have written six crime thrillers and a book of short stories featuring Danny Lancaster, a wounded Afghanistan veteran turned private investigator. They are:

The Wreck Of The Margherita

Death Squad

Rough Diamond

Rock Hard

Gargoyle Pixie Dog

Godlefe’s Cuckoo 

Last Orders

I’ve also written three non-fiction books. GUNNER is based on my father’s World War Two diary. PIGTAIL PILOT is the tragic story of a talented young woman pilot. A CROCUS FROM JERUSALEM is about a 19-year-old country lad’s journey to war in the Middle East in 1917.

If you fancy a chat I’m easy to find.

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My thoughts: When I was a student we were always coming up with things to change the world, usually in the pub, and that’s where the ideas stayed. The students in this book actually put the idea into an app that they intended would somehow solve food waste. However someone has taken over the app and twisted it to suit their own needs. And they’ve been killing off the other members of the group in a series of “accidents”.

Hired to look into these deaths, PI Danny Lancaster is struggling a bit, his leads seem to head in the direction of a celebrity chef and his brittle wife. But they both insist they don’t care about the app or the money the last founder standing could gain.

With the help of his friend, retired doctor Lillian and one of the surviving members of the group, Astrid, as well his friendly Ukrainian hacker Stepan and former gangster Eddie, who look into a few things for him, he starts to piece the clues into an answer.

This was really clever, it twisted this way and that, the plot increasingly fiendish as a trio of thug brothers, a rogue police detective and a few other strange characters get involved and chaos ensues. I was hooked, couldn’t put it down as I couldn’t guess what was going to happen next. I was particularly fascinated by Stepan, who in between helping Danny, is hacking into satellites and websites to aid his countrymen against the Russians, he’s clearly damaged and has lots of secrets. But there was something rather endearing about him and his fragility, I wanted to know more. I also wanted to know more about Lillian, who is pretty incredible. Definitely going to read the rest of the series and learn more about Danny and his adventures.

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

A missing baby. A dead councilman. Five suspects.

When psychotherapist Trudy’s baby disappears one afternoon, the individual motives of four members of her post-trauma therapy group are gradually revealed. But when the police begin investigating baby Benny’s disappearance, the seemingly unrelated death of a local councilman brings each member of the group under firm suspicion, along with Trudy herself. Five Fatal Flaws is a psychological whodunnit with a #MeToo thread.

Louise Mangos writes psychological suspense, historical mystery and short fiction, which have won prizes, placed on shortlists and been narrated on BBC radio. Her novels are set mostly or partly in Switzerland where she lives at the foot of the Alps with her Kiwi husband and two sons, enjoying an active life in the mountains. The psychological whodunnit Five Fatal Flaws is her fifth novel.

My thoughts: Trudy dozes off in her back garden, only to wake and discover that someone has taken her son Benny from right beside her. A parent’s nightmare, and the police think the members of her group therapy sessions might be involved. 

I’ve done group therapy and it wasn’t anything like the group here, who bond a little too intensely, and share details that lead other members of the group to do things they really shouldn’t.

As the story rolls back and we learn more about Trudy and the group’s members, their stories, the reasons they’re in therapy, and the way they bond, there’s moments when it could be any of them that took baby Benny from his home.

It is quite dark and Rachel’s story was particularly grim, although none of them were exactly having a lovely life. An interesting, intelligent read.

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