Category: reviews

While the city sleeps, a killer strikes.

Detective Bec Pope is waiting in Heathrow departures when the call comes in: a body has been found in a quiet Bloomsbury cemetery. Her long-overdue holiday is over before it begins.

It’s no ordinary crime scene. The smartly-dressed young man hasn’t just been murdered. The killer has left a message – a pentagram, brutally carved into the dead man’s chest.

Then a second victim is discovered on a patch of scrubland in Bermondsey. Another young man, killed at midnight, just like the first.
The same five-pointed symbol etched into his flesh.

Bec is on the hunt for a ruthless killer unlike any she’s faced before. If she is to crack the case, she must discover what the symbols mean. And why these victims were targeted.

With the press circling and the entire city on edge, Bec’s running out of time in a case that grows darker by the hour. She needs to stop the killer before midnight strikes – and another life is taken.

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Jez Pinfold taught English and Film Studies in London for twenty years, including eight years as Head of English. Before landing in secondary teaching he had various jobs, including roadie, sound engineer, guitar tutor and teacher of English as a foreign language.
After writing, his other passion is music. He plays guitar in a rowdy covers band currently called The Maverick Detectives, although they frequently change their name to avoid becoming too recognised and succumbing to the trappings of fame.

My thoughts: This is a twisted case, the killer leaving an inverted pentagram carved into the flesh of their victims  – it implies some dark purpose behind their crimes.

Detective Bec Pope and her team can find no connections between the two victims, and they need to work out the person responsible before anyone else comes to harm. Then it takes a very personal turn.

This was a really clever, gripping read, I had no idea where the twists and turns were going and the killer is remorseless, taunting the detectives, especially Bec, with whom they seem to have become a little obsessed.

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

When the system isn’t working, work outside the system.

A search for a missing man thrusts Rand Scott into the dark realms of homelessness, drug dealing and sex clubs.

Kirsty Moore wants to find her brother Johnny, a one-time rock star.
The police also want him – for murder.
And there are others looking who don’t play nicely.

A simple job turns deadly as Rand uncovers a world where money talks louder than the screams of innocent bystanders.

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Graeme Cumming lives in Robin Hood country. He has wide and varied taste in fiction, but a particular leaning towards the darker side – though he’s very pleasant when you meet him.

Borderline, the first book in his new crime series was released in 2025 and already gained praise from readers.

When not writing, Graeme is an enthusiastic sailor (and, by default, swimmer), and enjoys off-road cycling and walking. He is a past President and Education Director at Sheffield Speakers
Club. He also reads (a lot) and loves the cinema.

For more information about Graeme and his books, you can check his website

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My thoughts: Rand Scott used to be a police officer, now he’s working outside the official system, helping the homeless, and investigating a missing man, who might be on the streets somewhere.

There’s a lot more however to the case than first appears, some rather nasty criminals are also looking for the missing man, Johnny Moore, and they don’t mind beating up anyone who gets in their way. Unfortunately they picked on the wrong person.

Dragged into a murky underworld where criminals cross big business arms dealers, Rand has to tread carefully, everyone here prefers to shoot first and ask questions later, if at all. He’s also fending off the local police, including his former boss (and what a dodgy piece of work he is) and trying to give his friend Liv the collar.

Nothing is ever easy in his world and this is a nightmare, still, he’s got his sense of humour – the vehicles registered in the names of famous musicians made me laugh. And if he survives, there’s always that trip to Rotterdam to look forward to. 

Funny, smart, and with plenty of twists and turns, this is an enjoyable and entertaining 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.

When the worst comes calling…

Scott and Blair Bagby are a happy, successful English couple living in the suburbs with their teenage son and Great Dane. Life seems good, until one beautiful spring morning when a detective inspector
knocks on their door asking if their son is home, unleashing an unspeakable horror that blows apart the life they thought they had.

Police have discovered bodies buried deep in the Peasedale forest and the inspector suspects one is Jamie, the final victim of a brutal and prolific serial killer. But Jamie’s death is unlike all the others, starting with his emergency phone call that leads to a macabre burial ground near a dilapidated
hunting shack and creates shocking suspicions.

With bone deep grief threatening to destroy their marriage and their sanity, Scott and Blair set out to investigate Jamie’s death, a journey that not only upends their perceptions of who they are, but torturously reveals they may not have known Jamie at all…

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Heidi Field was raised in the beautiful countryside of the South of England with her parents and her two sisters. In her twenties she was a freelance Sports Massage Therapist. She achieved a Degree in Zoology at the age of thirty and then went on to raise two boys and became the stepmother of three more young children. She still lives near her family home with her partner, their Great Dane and the
children that have yet to fly the nest.

In her early forties Heidi completed a Masters in Creative Writing at Winchester University. She entered the course hoping she would become a children’s fantasy writer and left with a burning desire to write contemporary mysteries and thrillers. Heidi wanted to put relatable people in extraordinary situations, challenge them, push them to their limits
and watch them fight for their sanity. The Other Boy is her first novel.

My Facebook author page is: Heidi Field Author
@HeidiField11
@heidifield.bsky.social

My thoughts: Sad, shocking and chilling, Scott and Blair’s quest to find answers to their son’s death at the hands of a sadistic killer lead them to unexpected and disturbing places. Grieving but unable to let go of Jamie’s last hours, they hunt for the titular other boy, a friend of their son’s who might just have been helping his killer.

Blair especially struggles with her grief, manifesting a version of Jamie that only she can see in order to cope with the loss. Time at an inpatient clinic helps her come to terms but only answers will help her finally let him go.

Scott, an investigative journalist, doggedly follows every lead, chasing down a burglar and hunting through his son’s things. He too wants answers, but more for Blair than himself.

Combining an exploration of parental grief with a quest for truth and answers to Jamie’s death, this is an unusual and highly enjoyable thriller.

*This is a repost of a review from earlier this year, to help promote this book. All opinions expressed remain my own.

There’s no such thing as happy families.

In the space of a morning, Vicky’s life changed. She started the day happily married, with a wonderful infant son and a doting husband. By lunchtime, her husband was dead and her child missing.

DI Jennifer Stone knows time is critical. She and her team need to find nine-month-old Harry quickly – but the case has reopened old wounds for her, reigniting a pain that had only just started to heal.

However, when people close to Vicky are hurt and her late husband’s estranged mother turns up, DI Stone suspects something may be going on behind the family’s closed doors. If she can’t figure out what, and soon, more people will die.

It begs the question; how well do you really know your family?

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Scott Englefield grew up on the Isle of Wight. Despite being surrounded by
idyllic beaches and woodland walks, he was often to be found with his
head buried in a book.

His love of reading endured into adulthood and now he spends his free
time writing crime and psychological thrillers, often having to stop to fend
off his cat James who believes his keyboard is the perfect place to sleep.

He is in his mid-forties (and feels it) and lives with his wife, son and cat in
the East of England.

He grew a beard once – his wife hated it.

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My thoughts: Poor Vicky, her husband has a shocking heart attack in the supermarket car park and then someone abducts her infant son from his car seat. That’s truly awful. The police quickly start looking for little Harry, they know the longer he’s missing, the worse the outcome.

But things get worse for Vicky after that, her sister-in-law is knocked down by a car, then her lovely old neighbour John, who has been so kind and supportive, dies in a suspected murder. What on earth is happening and why to this poor woman?

But the police know there must be something in Vicky’s past – some clue as to what’s going on. Her mother-in-law might be in the frame for one, maybe two, of the incidents, but is in the clear for the rest. Especially once the toxicology report on Tom comes back. Things are very weird.

The twists in this, the killer’s reasoning, so many gasp out loud moments. Poor Harry will never remember his dad, and Vicky will have to live with the memories and trauma. But it’s very enjoyable and I was totally hooked.

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

Mistletoe, mince pies… and murder

When Jude Gray inherited Malvern Farm, she never thought she’d become so used to farm life, let alone be good at it!

But now a beloved national TV show is coming to film their Christmas special on her land, celebrating the charm of rural living and all Jude’s achieved so far.

At least, that’s the plan… until one of the crew is found dead in suspicious circumstances.

At first, it looks like a tragic accident, but when alibis start to crack, it seems like anything but. With a growing list of suspects and enough behind-the-scenes drama to rival anything the cameras are capturing, Jude must dig deep to uncover the truth.

Because someone on her farm is hiding a deadly secret – and this year, the season of goodwill may come with a killer twist…

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Kate Wells is the author of a number of well-reviewed books for children, and is now writing cosy crime set in the Malvern hills, inspired by the farm where she grew up.

Facebook: @KateWellsPoels
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My thoughts: I really like this series and while reading a book set at Christmas at the end of summer does feel a bit silly, hard to imagine needing a big coat yet, once December arrives, this book will be perfect.

Jude has agreed to let a TV show film on her land – it’s a bit like Countryfile I think or Springwatch. It’s also paying her, so she can afford to keep the farm going. However it’s the run up to Christmas, there’s always a lot to do on a farm and she’s also helping her sister organise her wedding, to be hosted just after Christmas on the farm.

The director is an egotistical nightmare who seems to think Jude works for him, and doesn’t understand animals at all. He drives her a bit crazy with his demands and orders. The rest seem OK, but there’s tensions and secrets among them.

Then the camera operator is killed, in what could be a horrible accident but the police investigation reveals it’s murder. Again. Jude seems to attract them.

When it looks like the presenter of the show has been having an affair with the dead woman, and his co-presenter wife knows, but could that be a reason to kill? As Jude and her police friends investigate the TV crew and try to uncover who might have wanted the camerawoman dead, another member of the crew is found dead, pointing in a different direction. What is going on?

A clever, twisty-turny crime, with lots of festive goings on around the chaos on the campsite. And it ends with a wedding!

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