Category: books

blog tour, books, reviews

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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Cover Reveal: Bella’s Countryside Christmas – Claire Huston

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An uplifting festive romance perfect for fans of Hallmark Christmas movies and authors such as Phillipa Ashley, Trisha Ashley, Sue Moorcroft, Rebecca Raisin and Donna Ashcroft.

Fleeing her heartache and horrendous job, Bella stumbles upon a December wedding in the beautiful village of Haileybrook and the spirit of the season moves her to act as a fake date to handsome stranger Jack.

Jack and Bella hit it off, but Bella has to leave in a hurry and their magical evening soon becomes nothing more than a blissful memory.

A year later, Bella is returning to Haileybrook, seeking a fresh start and a quieter life. With a new job close to her cosy cottage home, a peaceful Christmas is surely only days away.

But it’s not long before family surprises, small-town feuds and romantic drama disrupt Bella’s plans, and she has to wonder if being alone is what she really wants for Christmas …

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Publication Date: 18th September 2024

Claire Huston lives in Warwickshire, UK with her husband and two children. She writes uplifting modern love stories about characters who are meant for each other but sometimes need a little help to realise it.

A keen amateur baker, she enjoys making cakes, biscuits and brownies almost as much as eating them. You can find recipes for over a hundred sweet treats at clairehuston.co.uk. This is also where she talks about and reviews books.

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blog tour, books, reviews

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.

blog tour, books, reviews

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.

blog tour, books, reviews

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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Book Blitz: If I Had a Heart – Ariella Isabella

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If you like you romance on the dark side, then you are going to want to read If I had a Heart by Ariella Isabella! Read the content warnings carefully before diving in!

Visit our Instagram page for a chance to win a signed copy of the book!

If I Had a Heart (Hawthorne Duology #1)

Publication Date: August 13, 2024

Genre: Dark Romance

“For fans of Haunting Adeline, Silence of the Lambs and Dexter”

  • Age-Gap
  • Serial Unaliver
  • Stalker
  • Terminal Illness
  • City Life in Boston
  • Guaranteed HEA at End of Duology

“How long have you been running, little rabbit?”

Ever Knight had been racing towards death her entire life, her feet pounding against the floors of psychiatric institutes and hospitals across Boston. From a very young age, she was haunted by depression, and despite numerous attempts to escape its grip, it always pulled her back. When her doctor delivers the news that she has less than a year to live, the allure of death begins to fade. To make matters worse, her history of substance abuse and depression disqualifies her from the transplant list for a new heart. Poetic, in a darkly ironic way, but Ever preferred thrillers to tragedies. She never expected to be cornered by a dark-eyed doctor on a cold Boston night, offering her a chance at life, but at what cost?

Doctor Theron Hawthorne, a renowned surgeon by day and a black-market organ harvester by night, leads a double life. As a member of a lineage of hunters, he takes criminals off the streets and gives their organs to patients denied transplants, free of charge. Why? It satiates his bloodlust, for one. When Theron finds Ever outside the hospital, consumed by self-grief, he sees something he has been searching for his entire life—a voice to call back to him in the void.

If I Had a Heart is the first book in the Hawthorne Duology, a Harvester novel. Fans of Haunting Adeline, Silence of the Lambs and Dexter might also enjoy this dark stalker romance.

AVAILABLE ON AMAZON

CWs:
  • Assault
  • Binding
  • Self-Harm
  • Attempted Suicide
  • Substance Abuse
  • Psychiatric Institutes / Institutionalization
  • Somnophilia (Nonconsensual)
  • Spreading of Bodily Fluids
  • Dubious Consent
  • Alluding to Past Sexual Assault while underaged
  • Description of Past Domestic Violence
  • Mentions of Past Child Abuse and Assault
  • Attempted Sexual Assault (Not between FMC & MMC)
  • Improper Use of Medical Equipment
  • Stalking
  • Chronic Illness
  • Terminal Illness
  • Abuse of a Cadaver
  • Forced Self-Cannibalization
  • Drugging
  • Prey Play
  • Kidnapping
  • Organ Harvesting
  • Knife Play
  • Blood Play
  • Tasting Blood
  • Breeding Kink
  • Masturbation
  • Consensual Marking with a Knife

BOOK BLITZ ORGANIZED BY:

R&R BOOK TOURS

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Book Review: The Two Masks of Vendetta – Tony Lee Moral

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Set in New York City, Catriona Benedict is a down on her luck theatre actress, with an Italian immigrant boyfriend Mario Montefiore, a cramped apartment on the Lower East Side and a theatre show off Broadway that is cancelled after a week because of poor ticket sales. She is approached by the charismatic Miles Kingston, a wealthy Park Avenue business. He offers her ten thousand dollars to pose as his wife. Miles will only gain his full inheritance if he abandons his playboy lifestyle and marries by the age of forty. Catriona disenchanted with her life Off Broadway and eager to pay off Mario’s debts to a violent loan shark, accepts Miles’ offer.

At a party at the Stork Club to welcome her into the Kingston family, Catriona meets Grace, Mile’s hostile cousin with links to the art world; Freddie Swann, a society photographer being sued by Miles; Rupert Ward, Miles’ valet who nurses a terrible grudge against the Kingston family; Louis Ferrero, an Italian casino boss with links to the mafia. All of them, including Catriona herself, become suspects in a murder investigation, when Miles is suddenly poisoned by cyanide during a champagne midnight toast to the bride and groom.

To make matters worse, Catriona finds that the mafia is after her to pay Miles’ gambling debts and someone is trying to kill her. This is a stylish murder mystery thriller with surprising twists and revelations, featuring a host of memorable characters.

Published 21st September 2024

Pre-order on Amazon (UK)

My thoughts: This is the first adventure of Catriona Benedict and boyfriend Mario Montefiore, I reviewed book two recently and the author very kindly sent me this book to read as well.

This is where it all starts, where Catriona gets involved with dodgy Italian gangsters, missing masterpieces, murder and conspiracy. She’s asked to pose as a wealthy man’s wife, he says to claim an inheritance that has a codicil that he must be married.

Her boyfriend Mario, a musician, isn’t very happy about this arrangement, especially when things go sideways and suddenly people are being murdered. He’s worried she isn’t safe, and he might just be right. Then there’s the missing Caravaggio painting.

Drawn into the criminal world and the art world at their intersection – Catriona and new pal Freddie, a society photographer, are digging into the mystery of the forged paintings, but it puts them in the firing line, literally. Luckily Catriona keeps a cool head and starts to slot it all together.

Intelligent and enjoyable, this was a great read and I was really pleased to learn all about what happened in New York that sent Catriona and Mario to Italy and more adventures.

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Cover Reveal: A Modern Midlife Christmas Carol – Alana Oxford

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Christmas cheer was dead, to begin with.

The world rests on Eliza’s shoulders. The kids, her husband, work, her elderly mother and don’t forget her newest friend, perimenopause. It’s too much to carry, but she’s been doing it for years. It’s just what a good wife and mother does, isn’t it? 

When another Christmas rolls around, Eliza is drained by all the expectations and logistics of the holiday season. She’s fast approaching her breaking point, only no one around her notices she’s on the edge.

After an incident at her in-law’s on Christmas Eve brings things to a boiling point, she finds herself with three unexpected visitors. The spirits of the past, present, and future take her on a journey through her life to shake her out of the rut she’s gotten into. Their messages leave her with new possibilities: reconnect with her past, reclaim her present, or forge a new future, and you, the reader, decide which option is best! 

Books2Read Amazon UK

Publication Date: 15th October 2024


Alana Oxford is a Michigan author of romcoms, sweet romance, and humorous women’s fiction. She wants her stories to bring sunshine and smiles to her readers. She enjoys improv comedy, moody music, everything book related, and has an ongoing love affair with the United Kingdom.

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@alanaoxford
blog tour, books, reviews

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.

Facebook Website

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.