Category: reviews

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Hotel Cartagena – Simone Buchholz*

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Read my review of Mexico Street

Twenty floors above the shimmering lights of the Hamburg docks, Public Prosecutor Chastity Riley is celebrating a birthday with friends in a hotel bar when twelve heavily armed men pull out guns, and take everyone hostage. Among the hostages is Konrad Hoogsmart, the hotel owner, who is being targeted by a young man whose life – and family – have been destroyed by Hoogsmart’s actions.

With the police looking on from outside – their colleagues’ lives at stake – and Chastity on the inside, increasingly ill from an unexpected case of sepsis, the stage is set for a dramatic confrontation … and a devastating outcome for the team … all live streamed in a terrifying bid for revenge.

Crackling with energy and populated by a cast of unforgettable characters, Hotel Cartagena is a searing, stunning thriller that will leave you breathless.

Simone Buchholz was born in Hanau in 1972. At university, she studied Philosophy and Literature, worked as a waitress and a columnist, and trained to be a journalist at the prestigious Henri-Nannen-School in Hamburg.

In 2016, Simone Buchholz was awarded the Crime Cologne Award as well as runner-up in the German Crime Fiction Prize for Blue Night, which was number one on the KrimiZEIT Best of Crime List for months.

She lives in Sankt Pauli, in the heart of Hamburg, with her husband and son.

My thoughts:

This was a trippy book, with strange moments where the text changes form as the narrator lapses in and out of consciousness and struggles with sepsis. Moving from Germany to Colombia and back, it traces a reckoning years in the making as well as one eventful and strange night in a bar.

The shocking twists and turns of the night, as the story moves back in time and then returns to the present is gripping and utterly compelling. Who are the gunmen and why is the bartender so relaxed? What is happening to Chastity’s mind as her friends’ faces swim in and out of focus?


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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: A Beautiful Breed of Evil – Andy Maslen*

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He’ll never speak of the evil they did…

A former Swedish ambassador lies dead in his swanky Mayfair flat. With his tongue torn out and placed on a Bible. Competing theories swirl. A religious maniac? A psychopath? The truth is far darker than either. DCI Stella Cole’s search for the killer takes her to Sweden. There, she discovers a horrific chapter in the country’s history that throws the case into turmoil. And then more people start dying.
Teaming up with Swedish cops Oskar Norgrim and Johanna Carlsson, Stella pieces together Ambassador Brömly’s shocking past. And discovers the killer’s motive.
Meanwhile, Stella’s personal life is about to take a significant turn as her boyfriend, Jamie, suggests a change in their relationship. But as Stella tries to process what it means, she makes a fateful decision.
Why won’t the dead stay buried?
On the other side of the Atlantic, a kid practising BMX stunts over water finds a skeleton on a lake bed. When the victim is revealed to be a British cop, the FBI ask for assistance. Stella’s arch-enemy from her own department gets the case. She flies to Chicago and soon discovers the murderer’s identity.
The scene is set for a showdown in Sweden as DI Roisin Griffin pursues her vendetta against Stella all the way to the north of Sweden during the annual festival of Midsommar.
A fast-paced, twisty crime thriller …
A Beautiful Breed of Evil is the fifth book in this series of hard-hitting crime thrillers. Much of the action takes place in Sweden, home to fictional detectives Martin Beck, Kurt Wallander, Harry Hole and Saga Norén.
Even as Stella is fighting to bring the killer to justice, shadowy figures from her past are planning to silence her before she can expose their brutal methods.

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Andy Maslen was born in Nottingham, in the UK, home of legendary bowman Robin Hood. Andy once won a medal for archery, although he has never been locked up by the sheriff.

He has worked in a record shop, as a barman, as a door-to-door DIY products salesman and a cook in an Italian restaurant.

He lives in Wiltshire with his wife, two sons and a whippet named Merlin.

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My thoughts:

This was a really enjoyable international thriller with investigations spanning the UK, Sweden and the US.

When a former ambassador is murdered and mutilated, seemingly related to lines in the Bible left underlined, DCI Cole discovers a discrepancy in the victim’s past that may just help her find the killer, so she’s off to Sweden to fill in the gaps.

Meanwhile bodies have been recovered from a lake in Minnesota that link back to the UK, and could spell trouble for Cole.

It’s a fast paced, whip crack of a case as more bodies start to drop in Sweden and Cole’s neck is on the line.

Really enjoyable, utterly gripping thriller with lots of red herrings and dodgy dealings and a link to a shocking chapter in Swedish history.

I actually know the Swedish Church in London, I used to work about two doors down but I never went in for the delicious cinnamon buns that prove a vital plot point (buns not the probably very nice Swedes in the church).

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Old Cases, New Colours – Madalyn Morgan*

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Sick of working in a world of spies and bureaucracy, Ena Green, nee Dudley, leaves the Home Office and starts her own investigating agency.
Working for herself she can choose which investigations to take and, more importantly, which to
turn down.

While working on two investigations, Ena is called as a prosecution witness in the Old Bailey trial of a cold-blooded killer who she exposed as a spy the year before.

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I was bought up in a pub in a small market town called Lutterworth. For as long as I can remember, my dream was to be an actress and a writer. The pub was a great place for an aspiring actress and writer to live with so many characters to study and accents to learn. I was offered Crossroads the
first time around.

However, my mother wanted me to have a ‘proper’ job that I could fall back on if I needed to, so I did a hairdressing apprenticeship. Eight years later, aged twenty-four, I gave up a successful salon and wig-hire business in the theatre for a place at East 15 Drama College and a career as an actress, working in Repertory theatre, the West End, film and television.

In 1995, with fewer parts for older actresses, I gave up acting. I taught myself to touch-type, completed a two-year correspondence course with The Writer’s Bureau and began writing articles and presenting radio.

In 2010, after living in London for thirty-six years, I moved back to Lutterworth. I swapped two window boxes and a mortgage for a garden and the freedom to write. Since then, I have written nine novels.

The first four, The Dudley Sisters’ Saga, tell the stories of four sisters in World War 2. My current novel, Old Cases, New Colours, is a thriller/detective story set in 1960.

I am writing a Christmas book – Christmas Applause – and a Memoir; a collection of short stories, articles, poems, photographs and character breakdowns from my days as an actress.

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My thoughts:

This was a really fun read, it reminded me of a lot of mystery novels with a slight tongue in cheek humour – and they’re always enjoyable.

The characters are strongly drawn and Ena in particular is fascinating and I was rooting for her to solve all of her cases and get the agency up and running. She felt very modern but also of her time – a tricky thing to pull off.

The plot bubbled along nicely, and the supporting characters were entertaining – especially the wealthy Priscilla, forever pinching things and pretending to run out on her restaurant bills.


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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Unbroken – C.L. Clark*

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In an epic fantasy unlike any other, two women clash in a world full of rebellion, espionage, and military might on the far outreaches of a crumbling desert empire.
Touraine is a soldier. Stolen as a child and raised to kill and die for the empire, her only loyalty is to her fellow conscripts. But now, her company has been sent back to her homeland to stop a rebellion, and the ties of blood may be stronger than she thought.

Luca needs a turncoat. Someone desperate enough to tiptoe the bayonet’s edge between treason and orders. Someone who can sway the rebels toward peace, while Luca focuses on what really matters: getting her uncle off her throne.

Through assassinations and massacres, in bedrooms and war rooms, Touraine and Luca will haggle over the price of a nation. But some things aren’t for sale.

My thoughts:

This was a brilliant read, so well written with the world building inspired by North African history and its peoples. The way it’s set up is clever, parts are very moving and gripping, there’s magic and pitched street battles, negotiations and secret rendezvous.

Both Touraine and Luca are intriguing, devisive characters, it’s easy to like and dislike them at the same time. They share an optimism, Touraine’s a little more jaded, but both want change, a better life for the people of Qazal and the people but have very complicated paths ahead of them to achieve it.

A fantastic first book from a new voice in modern fantasy.

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Down World – Rebecca Phelps*

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Stranger Things meets the Netflix series Dark in this paranormal thriller where three mysterious doors in a school basement hold the key to unlocking the mystery of what really happened the night Marina’s brother died.

As the new kid in school and still reeling from the unexplained death of her brother Robbie, Marina O’Connell is only interested in one thing: leaving the past behind. But a chance encounter with handsome Brady Picelli changes everything. He will lead Marina to a startling discovery. The Down World is real and the past, present, and future are falling out of balance.

Brady is determined to help Marina discover what really happened to her brother. However, what is taken from one world, must be repaid by another. And Marina is about to discover that even a realm of infinite possibilities has rules that must be obeyed…

My thoughts:

This was a strange, trippy book, with weirdness all around. From parallel worlds with other versions of everyone you know and strange doors in unexpected places.

Is Down World something created by the military in the base that’s now the high school? How did the sinister Russian take over? Is there actually a conductor on the train? So many questions!!

All Marina wants to do is find her brother, if he’s still alive, and mend her family, but instead she gets sucked into a surreal and terrifying alternate reality, one that starts seeping through into hers. Can she unravel the universes as they merge and alter everything she knows?

A blend of scientific theory and a lot of science fiction weirdness that creates a novel that makes you think about reality and how far you might go for the people you love.

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: You Let Me Go – Eliza Graham*

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After her beloved grandmother Rozenn’s death, Morane is heartbroken to learn that her sister is the sole inheritor of the family home in Cornwall—while she herself has been written out of the will.
With both her business and her relationship with her sister on the rocks, Morane becomes consumed by one question: what made Rozenn turn her back on her?

When she finds an old letter linking her grandmother to Brittany under German occupation, Morane escapes on the trail of her family’s past. In the coastal village where Rozenn lived in 1941, she uncovers a web of shameful secrets that haunted Rozenn to the end of her days. Was it to protect
those she loved that a desperate Rozenn made a heartbreaking decision and changed the course of
all their lives forever?

Morane goes in search of the truth but the truth can be painful. Can she make her peace with the past and repair her relationship with her sister?

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Eliza Graham’s novels have been long-listed for the UK’s Richard & Judy Summer Book Club in the UK, and short-listed for World Book Day’s ‘Hidden Gem’ competition. She has also been nominated for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. Her books have been bestsellers both in Europe and the US.

She is fascinated by the world of the 1930s and 1940s: the Second World War and its immediate aftermath and the trickle-down effect on future generations. Consequently she’s made trips to visit bunkers in Brittany, decoy harbours in Cornwall, wartime radio studios in Bedfordshire and
cemeteries in Szczecin, Poland. And those are the less obscure research trips.

It was probably inevitable that Eliza would pursue a life of writing. She spent biology lessons reading Jean Plaidy novels behind the textbooks, sitting at the back of the classroom. In English and history lessons she sat right at the front, hanging on to every word. At home she read books while getting dressed and cleaning her teeth. During school holidays she visited the public library multiple times a day.

Eliza lives in an ancient village in the Oxfordshire countryside with her family. Not far from her house there is a large perforated sarsen stone that can apparently summon King Alfred if you blow into it correctly. Eliza has never managed to summon him. Her interests still mainly revolve around reading, but she also enjoys walking in the downland country around her home and travelling around the world to research her novels.

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Giveaway to Win 3 x Paperback copies of You Let Me Go by Eliza Graham (Open to UK / USA only)**

My thoughts:

This was a moving family drama, set partly in Brittany and partly in Cornwall. After her grandmother’s death, Morie is left with questions, only by travelling back to the village of Rozenn’s wartime experiences can she start to put the pieces together.

At times very sad and with a bittersweet series of discoveries to be made, this is a gentle and tender story about love and family above all else.

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

* *Terms and Conditions –UK and USA entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.**

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Blog Tour: The Guilty Husband – Stephanie DeCarolis*

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THE PERFECT HUSBAND…

Vince Taylor has everything he could dream of. He’s the CEO of a tech firm in New York City, owns a beautiful home, and most importantly, he is married to Nicole – the woman who stole his heart the first moment he set eyes on her. Together they have built the perfect life.

ONE GUILTY SECRET

But when Layla, a stunning young intern at Vince’s company is found dead, all eyes are suddenly on him. Vince has a secret that threatens to tear their perfect world apart…

He was having an affair with Layla. And he’ll do anything to cover his tracks.

DO YOU BELIEVE HIM?

When the police discover Vince lied about their relationship, they are convinced they have found Layla’s killer.

If Vince kept quiet about the affair… what else is he guilty of?

My thoughts:

Vince comes across as typical wealthy boss who took advantage of his intern – complete with lying to the cops and fiddling the evidence, but he was being played too. As the case unrolls, secrets are slowly coming to light that cast a different angle on Layla, Vince and some of the other potential suspects.

The twist at the end was very nicely done – it paid off only really seeing things from limited perspectives, because the more you know, the more doubt you have. Did Vince do this?

Enjoyable and gripping, this was a clever thriller about secrets, lies and money.


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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Blood Runs Thicker – Sarah Hawkswood*

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August 1144. Osbern de Lench is known far and wide as a hard master, whose temper is perpetually frayed. After riding to survey his land and the incoming harvest from the top of the nearby hill, his horse returns to the hall riderless and the lifeless body of the lord is found soon after.

Was it the work of thieves, or something closer to home? With an heir who is cast in the same hot-tempered mould, sworn enemies for neighbours, and something amiss in the relationship between Osbern and his wife, undersheriff Hugh Bradecote, the wily Serjeant Catchpoll and apprentice Walkelin have suspects aplenty.

My thoughts:

This was a really enjoyable medieval murder mystery. I’ve read some of the Bradecote and Catchpoll books before so I knew I was going to read something well written, full of historical detail and with the pacing of a modern crime novel.

Despite the police not existing until the 19th century, the sheriff’s men here are smart and understand crime and criminals more than the real thing might have done. They don’t just go with the most obvious story or agree with the dead lord’s son. They actually investigate the crime – starting with a sort of postmortem, using what little science was available in the 12th century.

The characters of Bradecote, Catchpoll and Walkelin are prototype detectives, using logic and evidence, not superstition and hearsay, to catch their killer. It might take them longer as they’re thorough, but they get justice in the end.

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

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Blog Tour: The Embalmer – Alison Belsham*

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Has the ancient Egyptian cult of immortality resurfaced in Brighton?

When a freshly-mummified body is discovered at the Brighton Museum of Natural History, Detective Francis Sullivan is at a loss to identify the desiccated woman. But as Egyptian burial jars of body parts with cryptic messages attached start appearing, he realises he has a serial killer on his hands. Revenge, obsession and an ancient religion form a potent mix, unleashing a wave of terror throughout the city. Caught in a race against time while battling his own demons, Francis must fight to uncover the true identity of the Embalmer before it’s too late…

My thoughts:

This was really good, totally weird and creepy but thoroughly enjoyable and gripping too.

A mummified body is left in a local museum, complete with canopic jars containing organs, more bodies, and jars, start to turn up.

The team, led by DI Sullivan, are racing against time to find their killer, but Sullivan gets a bit distracted by another case that hits closer to home, and doesn’t give this his full focus at times.

I really liked the relationships between the different detectives, the tensions added more depth to the characters and provided an extra dimension that made them seem more realistic. The use of Ancient Egyptian iconography and hieroglyphs was also rather intriguing, making it all seem a bit more sinister than just leaving dead bodies.

Balsham uses the Brighton location really well with set pieces on the pier and at the famous Pavilion. Even if you don’t know Brighton you might well have seen these locations on TV and can imagine the fading splendour of the Regency buildings.

A cracking read and a really enjoyable crime thriller, that as a series, is set to run and run.


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

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Blog Tour: The Three Locks – Bonnie MacBird*

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The Three Locks – a gripping new Sherlock Holmes adventure by Bonnie MacBird – is published by Collins Crime Club, an imprint of HarperCollins, on 18 March 2021. It is the fourth in her acclaimed series.

The year is 1887 and an Indian Summer broils London and Cambridge. A mysterious impregnable box arrives for Watson, locked and with a secret from his past. Then a famous escape artist/conjurer fails to unlock his “cauldron” and burns to a crisp during a performance at Wilton’s Music Hall. And in Cambridge, three suitors including a priest, an aristocrat and a young physicist vie for the love of a spiteful beauty, who vanishes after her lookalike doll is found dismembered in the Jesus Lock on the River Cam. The cases convolve as Holmes and Watson tangle with clergy, police, academics and scheming siblings, risking life and limb to solve the murders and to keep the innocent from the gallows.

MacBird’s stylish updates to Conan Doyle’s canon bring all the wit, camaraderie and deductions one expects from Holmes and Watson, but with the extended arc of a novel allowing not only more character development but also action, which carries them far beyond the locked room mystery and into danger.

Each of MacBird’s four Holmes books explores a theme. Just as Art in the Blood revealed the perils and gifts of the artistic temperament, Unquiet Spirits uncovered the danger of letting ghosts of the past lie unresolved, and The Devil’s Due touched upon the cost of corruption, The Three Locks examines the risk of keeping dark secrets locked away.

Meticulous research and attention to period detail enrich the reading experience. The Three Locks is a must-read for fans of the original Sherlock Holmes adventures and for readers new to the genre.

Bonnie MacBird was born and raised in San Francisco and fell in love with Sherlock Holmes by reading the canon at age ten. She now lives in London and Lost Angeles. Her long Hollywood career includes feature film development at Universal, the original screenplay for the movie TRON, three Emmy Awards for documentary writing and producing, numerous produced plays and musicals, and theatre credits as an actor and director. In addition to her work in entertainment, Bonnie teaches writing at UCLA Extension, as well as being an accomplished watercolourist.

She is active in the Sherlockian community in both the UK and the US, and lectures regularly on Sherlock Holmes, writing, and creativity.

Bonnie’s previous three Sherlock Holmes adventures are: Art in the Blood; Unquiet Spirits and The Devil’s Due. Her books are now available in 17 languages worldwide.

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My thoughts:

I’m always a little wary of books that take well known and loved characters created by other authors and create new stories. A lot of them are…not good. Thankfully however this was very enjoyable and felt very true to Conan Doyle’s original stories.

I really felt like I’d been sat with my enormous copy of the original Strand stories (a required text for my long ago degree, but at that price now a permanent resident on my bookcase). There was no slip into modern vernacular, no weird things that hadn’t actually been invented yet, Holmes hadn’t acquired any odd affectations beyond his existing ones.

You can really tell that MacBird knows her source material and has spent a lot of time getting inside Conan Doyle’s style and approach. Her Holmes and Watson feel like the original crime solving duo.

The plot was a lot of fun, and typically manic, with the intrepid duo bouncing around London and Cambridge in a succession of trains and hansom cabs, Holmes high as a kite on his various solutions, Watson attempting to rein his friend in and remind him how to behave around other people.

The way the two cases, that of Dellie in Cambridge and the vanished magician in London are casually linked was nicely done and as always Holmes is three steps ahead of any police detective or dodgy criminal.

I also enjoyed that Watson’s own story and the tragedies that marked his early life came to the fore with a mysterious locked box. It was nice to see his gentle humanity in stark contrast to Holmes’ otherworldly obliviousness.

A very pleasing addition to the various unofficial Holmes spinoffs.

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