Category: reviews

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: All Her Lies – Matt McGregor

ramblingmads

Brie wanted to start over. But not like this.
Drowning in debt and desperate to escape her controlling boyfriend, Brie MacKenzie jumps at a summer job at Pine Ridge Homestead.

The remote property offers a fresh start. And the owners, Grace and Bradley, seem like the perfect couple.

They’re not.

Locked doors. Veiled threats. And rumors of a young woman who vanished from the
property years ago—and was never seen again.

When Brie uncovers the couple’s dark secret, she understands they have brought her here to be a pawn in their twisted games.

As wildfires close in and cut off all escape, Brie realizes she has fled one trap to find herself caught up in something far more terrifying. Because in this deadly game, only one thing is certain—the pawn will be sacrificed.

All Her Lies – the chilling psychological thriller, perfect for fans of Freida McFadden, Nicola Sanders, John Marrs.

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Matt McGregor is a writer of psychological thrillers from New Zealand. Before
becoming a writer, Matt taught English (briefly), ran a nonprofit, worked with maps, and led a marketing team for a tech startup. Now, he mostly spends his time inventing surprising ways to murder his characters, which is totally fine and nothing for you to worry about. When he’s not writing in the third person, he likes to explore the local wilderness, swim in the sea, and play with his exhaustingly energetic young children.

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My thoughts: Nothing about this situation sounds like a good idea, but Brie is out of options. She’s desperate to get away from her controlling boyfriend Neil, and with little money and nowhere to go, her choices are very limited.

Taking a job from a listing that doesn’t give much in the way of details, on a farm in the middle of nowhere occupied by an English professor and his writer wife, there are a few red flags straight away, but Brie can’t be picky. She thinks it’ll be ok for now until she can get some money together and work out her next move.

Unfortunately she’s now caught up in the twisted relationship and strange games Grace and Bradley play. It seems as if Grace might just kill her, or gaslight her into a mental breakdown, but Bradley doesn’t act like his wife, and offers a way out. And that’s when things get really weird.

With few friends and no one able to help, Brie has to find a way to survive the mess she’s in and prove that none of it is her fault. If she doesn’t die in some horrible way first. 

When you’re mentally screaming “get out, run!” at a character because everyone around them is nuts, you know you’re hooked. I really liked Brie but she was really naive, Grace and Bradley were monsters and she just got caught in their web of disturbing weirdness. It’s hard to know who’s telling the truth, or which of them is worse. And then there’s creepy ex-boyfriend Neil. Brie – make better choices about the people in your life, you have a very rubbish crazy filter!

*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: Twenty-Six Years Living a Lie – Gina Cheyne

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In 1997, high in the alpine resort of Tignes, Cecily celebrates her third wedding anniversary with a night of passion. But in the morning her happiness turns to misery and shock when she find her husband Nick dead in the bed beside her, the victim of a sudden heart attack.

Six weeks later, Cecily learns she is pregnant.

Twenty-six years later, her son Charlie takes a DNA test alongside his uncle Adam, Nick’s identical twin. The results shatter everything he thought he knew: Charlie is not related to Adam. If Nick wasn’t his father, then who was?

Cecily insists she was faithful, and the timing points only to that single night in Tignes. Desperate for answers, she turns to the SeeMs Detective Agency. Could someone have entered her room that night
without her knowing? And if so—who? And why?

As the detectives dig deeper, they uncover a web of conflicting memories, buried secrets, and dangerous lies. Slowly they discover other people are in danger and if they don’t find out very soon what really happened in that wonderful night in Tignes two, or maybe more, lives will be lost.

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This is Gina Cheyne’s seventh novel in the SeeMs Detective series (the agency that
looks behind what seems to be true). Gina’s family are keen and dedicated skiers and this book was inspired by a holiday in Tignes in France.

Gina has worked as a physiotherapist, a pilot, freelance writer and a 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 the year after university bumming around SE Asia, China and Australia,
where she worked in a racing stables in Pinjarra, South of Perth.

After getting stuck in black sand in the Ute one time too many (and getting a tractor and trailer caught in a tree) she was relegated to horse-riding work only. After her horse bolted down the sand, straining a fetlock and falling in the sea, she was further relegated to swimming the horses only in the pool. It was with some relief the race horse stables posted her off to Thailand… after all what could go wrong there?

In the north of Thailand, she took a boat into the Golden Triangle and got shot at by bandits. Her group escaped into the undergrowth and hid in a hill tribe whisky still where they shared the ‘bathroom’ with a group of pigs. Getting a lift on a motorbike they hurried back to Chiang Rai, where life seemed calmer.

After nearly being drowned in a fiesta in Ko Pha Ngan, and cursed by a witch in Malaysia, she decided to go to Singapore and then to China where she only had to battle with the language and regulations.

Since marrying life has been calmer. She became a writer because her first love was always telling a good yarn!

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My thoughts: This was quite a shocking case for the ladies of SeeMS Detective Agency. Cecily comes to them for help, her son has taken a DNA test and it seems he isn’t related to her late husband. The only thing is as far as she knows she didn’t sleep with anyone else. How on earth can this be true?

As the team dig into the events of 26 years ago, they discover a terrible deception, a cruel act and devastated family members. What happened in Tignes more than two decades ago affected a lot of people, some who have never talked about it – until now. Can the team unmask a killer before he claims another victim? 

The case is quite dark and when they piece together the exact events, it was genuinely quite disturbing. The perpetrator in this case is a very unpleasant individual and I am very glad he’s fictional. Cecily and her family, as well as quite a few others have had to live with unanswered questions for too long.

Well written as always, and full of twists and turns, like a ski slope, but with a pretty grim resolution that shocks everyone involved.

*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: Don’t Shoot the Messenger – Rob Harris

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They’ve changed. He hasn’t. And that’s the problem.

Alan Hope has spent his entire working life as a reporter for the local newspaper. Now in his early sixties, he’s the newsroom dinosaur, firmly out of touch with the TikTok generation. So when his editor insists he starts an online blog, Alan treats it like free therapy. It’s not like anyone is actually going to read it… right?

Wrong! Because the more Alan’s life unravels – both personally and professionally – the more his brutally honest posts explode in popularity. Suddenly, the tight-knit town of Bashford is reading Alan’s innermost thoughts…

His wife announces she no longer wants to grow old with him. His two grown children
are more like strangers. His colleagues are mortified at the oversharing. Then he’s forced to work with fellow reporter Lisa – young, ambitious and the epitomise of modern life.

Everything Alan is not.

But can someone from a completely different generation help Alan reconnect with his own family? And can Alan – a newspaper relic who now actually hates newspapers – help Lisa uncover the truth about her father?

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Rob Harris grew up in the Forest of Dean but now lives in Oxfordshire with his wife
and daughter. For more than 15 years he worked on regional newspapers as a
journalist, sports editor and sub-editor and he is a former editor of The Forester
newspaper. He’s also been named Gloucestershire Media Sports Writer of the Year.

Rob’s first novel, The Absurd Life of Barry White, was published July 2024 by
Bloodhound Books. The sequel, Barry White is Still Absurd, came out in June 2025.

Rob previously wrote a memoir about the rare highs and frequent lows of being a
committed but ultimately frustrated village cricketer – called Won’t You Dance for Virat Kohli?, which was published in 2021 by Pitch.

He still knocks around on village cricket grounds, allegedly ‘for fun’.

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My thoughts: This had quite a few funny moments as Alan, a formerly good reporter slowly loses the will to write for the local paper and starts writing a blog, that ends up derailing everything. He doesn’t think anyone is reading his thoughts, but really he has thousands of dedicated fans, especially in India, where the papers owners are based. 

His editor is horrified at the airing of the papers secrets, the way Alan is so rude about their ultimate bosses, and tries to rein him in, but Alan won’t do as he’s told and as his personal life collapses and he moves into his shed, things go from bad to worse.

A bit silly, but very entertaining, this is one man’s breakdown that will take everyone with it. Even being assigned to teach new reporter Lisa how newspapers work won’t stop Alan unleashing his real opinions on his blog and bringing chaos to the quiet town of Bashford. 

*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: The Mysteries of Ravenfield – N.D. Thompson

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Ten standalone mysteries. One haunting conspiracy.

Welcome to Ravenfield, a quiet Yorkshire town surrounded by endless moorland. To
outsiders, it is peaceful. To those who live there, it is haunted by secrets.

Rachel Cooper, a young police officer, arrives determined to solve her father’s unsolved murder — even if it costs her career. Her only lead points to Ravenfield, but what she finds is far stranger than she imagined.

Paranormal investigator Chris Silversmith has spent his life studying the town’s unexplained phenomena, and he believes those mysteries are tied to Rachel’s father’s death.

Together with Rachel’s sceptical partner, Chris’s loyal friend, and a woman who can speak to the dead, they form an unlikely alliance to uncover Ravenfield’s truth. But the deeper they dig, the more dangerous their search becomes.

Watching from the shadows is The Management — a clandestine group determined to keep Ravenfield’s secrets buried forever.

Told across ten chilling episodes, each a standalone mystery yet bound together by a dark overarching conspiracy, Book One of The Ravenfield Chronicles launches a gripping saga of murder, mystery, and supernatural horror — where uncovering the truth may cost more than your life.

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N.D. Thompson is a horror and dark fiction writer from West Yorkshire, publishing
under his independent imprint, Darker Realms Press. His work has drawn
comparisons to Stephen King, Richard Laymon, and James Herbert—delivered with a distinctly Yorkshire voice that infuses his supernatural stories with grit, atmosphere, and authenticity.

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My thoughts: This was an enjoyable blend of paranormal mystery and police procedural crime novel. When officer Rachel Cooper arrives in town, hoping to unravel the mysteries surrounding her father’s death, she ends up clashing with DI Armstrong, a man with a lot of secrets.

As she carries out her job, she encounters Chris Silversmith, University lecturer and paranormal investigator with his sidekick Alexis. They join forces after discovering that a series of deaths have a definite touch of the supernatural, despite the DI dismissing them as accidents or suicides.

Each of the cases builds up the conspiracy, the hidden secrets of Ravenfield slowly coming to light through the diligent and sometimes dangerous investigating of Rachel, Chris and their friends. What is really going on in this small Yorkshire town and why can’t anyone remember what they’ve seen?

Clever, entertaining and mysterious. You’ll want to know the secrets of Ravenfield too.

*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: Must Love Lavender & Little Lies – Maisy Magill

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We’re celebrating the release of Must Love Lavender & Little Lies by Maisy Magill!

Must Love Lavender and Little Lies (Moonshine Hollow Book 3) 

Release Date: April 14, 2026

Genre: Cozy Fantasy Romance

  • Fake Fiancée
  • Friends to Lovers
  • Orc MMC
  • Magical Spring Festival
  • Enchanting Small Town
  • Shrieking Goats
  • Farmcore & Cottagecore Aesthetics
  • Orcish Shenanigans
  • Forced Proximity
  • Guaranteed HEA
  • Medium Spice 🌶️🌶️🌶️

She’s his bestie.
He’s her rock.
And now? They’re accidentally engaged.

Juniper runs the village apothecary, and Granik grows lavender on his farm. These two plant lovers have always had each other’s backs. When orcish custom demands Granik get married, Juniper does the only logical thing to save her best friend: she proposes a fake engagement. Brilliant plan, right? The only trouble is that in orcish customs, engagements are binding and there’s no such thing as fake. Now they have to find their way out of a major mess. That proves harder than anticipated when Granik’s family comes to celebrate the spring Greening festival. Juniper and Granik must convince everyone they’re madly in love. But the longer they pretend to be a couple, the harder it becomes to remember why they were faking it in the first place.

Must Love Lavender and Little Lies is a spicy cozy fantasy romance full of farmcore vibes, gentle magic, mischievous shrieking goats, and a love story that will warm your heart.

Must Love Lavender and Little Lies is book 3 in the enchanting Moonshine Hollow series. Each novel in the series can be read as a standalone. Different couples and storylines

Perfect for lovers of wholesome spice and cozy romantasy! Fans of Kimberly Lemming, Heather Fawcett, J Penner, and Tee Harlowe will devour this perfectly cozy and deliciously passionate tale of magic, friendship, and learning what you really want in life.

AVAILABLE HERE

My thoughts: This is another cute fantasy romance in the Moonshine Hollow series, this time with a fake relationship trope.

Orc Granik must pick a wife in this, his thirtieth year, or his family will arrange one for him. His best friend Juniper offers to help him out by playing the role of his fiancée, and they’ll call the whole thing off after a while. Until they learn that orc custom means ending an engagement would bring shame on the whole family. 

And then Granik’s entire family come to visit and now they’re planning a wedding, for this Saturday. What are they going to do?

Everyone thinks they’d be perfect for each other but in true rom com When Harry Met Sally style, they can’t see what’s right in front of them. With a meddling grandmother and friends who are determined to give them a magical wedding, perhaps it might be time to admit their true feelings?

Cute, funny and romantic, this is charming and has delightful characters and a sweet little puppy, magic cows and screaming goats too.

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#rrbooktours #moonshinehollow #mustlovelavenderandlittlelies #cozyfantasy #cozyfantasyromance

*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 Review: Lochbound – Rebecca Templeton

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There is no happily-ever-after…

Kilmara, Scotland. 1725. For fifty years, Iris has accepted the curse that blighted her life. By night, she is a heartbroken woman, destined to walk the misty shores of Kilmara without growing older. By day, she is Moireach, a terrifying monster imprisoned in the murky depths of Loch Moine. When bodies begin appearing on the shore, the villagers are convinced Moireach is responsible.

So a hunter – the rugged, ruthless Henry Carver – is summoned to slay the monster of the loch. Iris must break her curse before she is killed for crimes she cannot believe she has committed. But as Kilmara’s hunt for the monster becomes ever more fevered, she and Henry are drawn together in a dangerous game of impossible attraction. And when a figure from Iris’s past suddenly reappears, she must choose what – or who – she is willing to sacrifice to win her freedom…when you are the monster.

Rebecca Templeton has had a love of books from a very early age and had lofty childhood aspirations of being a writer, though she ended up joining the legal profession instead. When her husband encouraged her to start writing again, she rediscovered her creative outlet and hasn’t looked back since.

When not writing or working, Rebecca can usually be found crocheting giant blankets, baking or watching Gilmore Girls. She is also owned by a couple of very energetic children.

My thoughts: This blends a retelling of the Little Mermaid with elements of Scottish folklore, Beauty & the Beast, Snow White, and other fairy tales.

Iris is cursed to spend her days as Moireach, a terrifying creature that dwells in the loch, and her night’s hiding from the villagers, who don’t know about her secret. They most likely think she’s long dead. She wants to break the curse, but doesn’t know how. Her only friend is Duncan, her childhood friend now grown old.

When bodies start being found around the loch, a monster hunter is summoned to rid the village of its murderous creature. Only Iris doesn’t think she is the killer. And soon, neither does the hunter, Henry Carver.

After Iris saves his life, and they meet, there’s an instant connection. Can they defy the odds, break the curse and solve the murders?

It’s a really interesting blend of fantasy, fairy tale and folklore, there’s hints of lots of different stories, and Iris is an interesting protagonist, she’s smart about certain things, but naive in other ways. Duncan is her only contact and friend, she isn’t aware of much that has happened since she was cursed, he controls her access to information and news, and manipulates her.

Her relationship with Henry gives her hope after a long time and refuels her desire to break her curse, causing her to return to the village for the first time in fifty years and search for answers, breaking free of the secrets she has been carrying for so long.

It’s interesting to have the woman as the monster – although I don’t think Moireach is really a monster, she’s just trying to survive in a world not designed for her, fighting against nasty kelpies in the loch and the ignorance of villagers who would destroy her.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, all opinions are my own.

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Blog Tour: A Body of Lies – Marrisse Whittaker

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Fifteen years ago, Sunny Hart vanished. Now her sister wants the truth – no matter the cost.

Investigative journalist Rose Hart swore she’d never return to her hometown, the place that stole her sister and shattered her family. But it’s finally time to lay the ghosts of her past to rest.

Her fragile peace is shattered when a horrific parcel arrives in the post, followed by a chillingwarning beside a dead body. Suddenly, Rose is dragged back into a nightmare she can’t escape.

As she begins to investigate, Rose realises she’s not the only one hunting for answers. Leo Thorn, a forensic pathologist with secrets of his own, and Vinny Strong, a convicted murderer with unfinished business, become unlikely allies.

Together, they step into a labyrinth of long-buried secrets and a history far darker than Rose ever imagined. Someone knows what happened to Sunny, and they’ve waited a very long time
to finish what they started.

Perfect for fans of Gillian McAllister and Alex North, A Body of Lies is a haunting crime thriller of secrets, survival and the darkness a family can hide.

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Marrisse Whittaker has been creating characters for all of her working life, travelling far and wide, first as a TV and Film Make-Up Artist.

Next as a TV Scriptwriter, creating stories for popular series. But plenty of drama takes place in real-life too and when Marrisse joined forces with her husband, to establish Orion TV, they produced a fascinating range of factual programmes for major broadcasters.

Now, creating a scene is taking on a new meaning for Marrisse as she launches a new career as a novelist writing about the world of crime, having been shortlisted for The Lindisfarne Prize for Outstanding Debut Crime Fiction in 2020.

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My thoughts: When crime journalist Rose moves back to her hometown, determined to finally solve the mystery of her younger sister’s disappearance that led to her father’s suicide and her mother asking the courts to send her to boarding school and never letting her visit.

Somehow, despite all of this trauma, Rose has been successful at uni and worked on a top national paper, but swapping it for a small regional paper whose editor seems to be living in another age, demanding she find shocking crime stories for the front page, in their small town.

But as she tries to find out what happened to Sunny, she does indeed stumble on the crime spree of the century. From the apparent suicide in the park of a man whose beloved sister was due to released from prison, to the accidental death of an elderly lady, that definitely doesn’t look like an accident.

And what does her playground nemesis, now apparently the paper’s photographer, have to do with it? He’s the new police chief’s son to boot, meaning he’s getting insider information and possibly using that relationship to hide his misdeeds.

But what Rose and her new friends, SOCO Leo and freshly released ex-con Vinny, uncover is both shocking and impossible to imagine going hidden in a small town for such a long time,but yet, somehow it has. Until now.

The twists in this story are jaw dropping, the horrifying truth about Rose’s family is completely shocking and Rose, who so many people doubt, proves to be a fantastic investigator and gets justice for the innocent lives lost along the way. Totally gripping.

*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: No More Tomorrows – Olivia Lockhart & Hal Lambert

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Two eras. One aching heart.

1917 – At Cambridge University, American scholar Harry Turchin never expects to lose himself to desire. But Annie Mackenzie—soft-spoken, grieving, and luminous—claims his heart from their very first kiss. Their love is swift, fierce, and intoxicating. Married just days before Harry is sent to war, their passion is ripped apart when the trenches claim everything he knows, and Harry is thrown into a future that should not exist.

1967 – The free-spirited sixties are alive with rhythm, rebellion, and possibility. Harry awakens to a world he doesn’t recognise—and to Annalise Taylor, as bold and captivating as the era itself.
Brilliant, independent, and achingly alive, she rouses a desire he thought belonged solely to the past.

Caught between the love he was ripped away from and the passion he cannot resist, Harry is torn between two women, two lives, and two versions of forever. Because time will not bend twice … Or
will it?

Sweeping from the blood-soaked battlefields of World War One to the fevered nights of the swinging sixties, No More Tomorrows is a sensual time-slip romance about desire, devotion, and the
devastating power of love that refuses to be bound by time.

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Olivia Lockhart (Livvie to her friends) is an English author who can’t quite decide
if she wants to write contemporary romance, historical romance, or paranormal romance. So she writes them all, because it HAS to be romance!

She loves to write about the underdog, the one who got away, the bits of love stories we can all relate to.

When not writing she can be found drinking wine, cuddling with her beloved pooch, or with her head in a book.

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Giveaway to Win a signed copy of No More Tomorrows (Open to UK only)

My thoughts: When Harry wakes up in a field in France in 1967, despite having been on the battlefield in 1918, he’s utterly bewildered. He’s horrified by the fact his sweet wife, Annie, won’t have known what happened to him and that fifty years have passed.

Nursed back to health by a kindly French couple, he then makes his way back to England, hoping to find a trace of his family. Instead he meets physics student Annalise, who takes him in and helps him get sorted out. She believes his story and wants to help him, even as she falls for him.

It’s a bittersweet love affair, Harry determines that he must live in the present, not worry about what might have been. But Annalise fears he is forever comparing her with his lost love and really longs for the life he never got to live.

I really liked Harry and Annalise, and their lovely dog, who went from bomb detection to spoilt pet in one time travelling trip.

The story was really lovely and sad, Harry has been ripped from his life and thrust into a world he doesn’t recognise – the huge changes from 1918 to 1967 are a shock, and he initially struggles to adjust. But he does and it’s Annalise who then struggles to accept his love.

I also liked Annalise – she was very different and modern, perhaps even more so than most in the 60s, not believing in marriage and wanting to work for NASA. She’s clever and wants more from life than the traditional, and is determined to achieve even as her fellow (male) students denigrate her and mock the idea of female Cambridge students.

Their relationship might not be conventional, but it means a lot to both of them, even as something incredible happens that might tip their lives upside down forever. Have a tissue handy if you’re a crier, this one has its weepy moments.

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

*Terms and Conditions –UK entries welcome. Please enter using the Gleam box. The winner will be selected at random via Gleam from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or
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Blog Tour: Operation Berlin – Michael Ridpath

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In a city rebuilding from war, truth can be the most dangerous weapon of all.

Berlin, 1930.
Historian Archie Laverick, scarred mentally and physically by the Great War, travels to Berlin to research a famed Prussian general. His quiet study is shattered when he crosses paths with Esme Carmichael, a spirited young American intent on making her name as a foreign correspondent. When a shooting at a Saxon castle leaves a young Jewish woman accused of murder, Archie and Esme are drawn into a perilous hunt for the truth.

Their investigation cuts through the glittering façades and lingering scars of a nation still reeling from war – where resentment simmers, political alliances shift, and the first shadows of a new conflict fall across Europe. Amid whispers of blackmail and betrayal, the pair must navigate intrigue and danger to unmask a killer hiding in plain sight.

A tense, atmospheric mystery set in a world between wars – perfect for fans of Philip Kerr’s Berlin Trilogy, Robert Harris’s Fatherland, and Alan Furst’s spy novels.

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Michael Ridpath is the bestselling author of over 20 crime novels and thrillers. His first novel, after a career in finance, was Free to Trade, a No 2 bestseller about the murky world of bond trading which was translated into over thirty languages. He is currently writing the Foreign Correspondent series of murder mysteries set in the capitals of Europe in the 1930s. He splits his time between London and
Massachusetts.

Facebook: @michaelridpathauthor
Instagram: @michaelridpathauthor
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Bookbub profile: @MichaelRidpath

My thoughts: I once wrote a very boring essay about the Weimar Republic of Germany between the wars, I am very glad to say this book was much better than my essay.

Sir Archie Laverick is in Berlin researching a general from the Napoleonic wars, the assistant he thought he was taking has bailed on him, but his cousin, on the ground in Germany, has found him a new one in the form of wannabe journalist, American Esme Carmichael. She’s enthusiastic and energetic, but Archie worries she might be a bit too much. Luckily they do get along and after she looks after him when he has a spell of shell shock, they bond.

When Esme’s friend is killed while weekending at a German baron’s home, and a young Austrian woman is arrested, Esme thinks the police have it wrong. She asks Archie to help her find the real killer.

But as the duo look into the case, Esme is threatened and it becomes apparent there’s more to the situation than a jealous lover.

This is a really interesting book, with a strong sense of historical time and place, interesting characters and an intriguing case at its centre.

*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: Sacrilege – Keith Moray

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A nun is found dead.

A priest is horribly attacked.

An evil older than sin is loose in Yorkshire…

Marske, 1361. Sir Ralph de Mandeville with his assistants Peter and Merek have recently come from Reeth to hold a court session in Marske but are pulled away at the news of a most heinous crime having been discovered further down the River Swale.

A boat has been found, floating down the river. Inside is a truly horrifying scene – the body of a nun, her wrists cut and her hands fixed in the sign of benediction… As Ralph uses his astute skills of inspection, his mind asks a most difficult question – is this self-murder or murder most foul? Were her last moments spent in benediction prayer… or malediction warning?

With both Marrick Priory and Easby Abbey within a stone’s throw of Marske, it appears something is not quite right in the house of God…

When the body of a priest is found mutilated as if by a wild animal, the villagers fear the nun’s body has opened the gates and let loose a monster from Hell… but Ralph starts to wonder if something much more human is at the root of these evils.

As he follows the grim clues, he fears he knows where this miserable sacrilegious journey will end.

The question is, can he catch the murderer and prevent more grisly deaths – his own included?

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I was born in St Andrews and studied medicine at the University of Dundee in Scotland. I lived and worked in Wakefield in Yorkshire for 40 years, within arrow-shot of the ruins of a medieval castle, the base for a series of historical novels.

I am a retired GP, medical journalist and novelist, writing in several genres. As Keith Moray I write historical crime fiction in the medieval era and in ancient Egypt, The Inspector Torquil McKinnon crime novels set on the Outer Hebridean island of West Uist, and as Clay More I write westerns.
Curiously, my medical background finds its way into most of my fiction writing.

In my spare time I enjoy the movies, theatre and making bread. I play golf and I run at carthorse speed. As a frustrated actor I have found occasional solace as a supporting artist, but enough said about that!

I now live in Stratford-upon with my wife Rachel and whichever of our children and grandchildren who happen to pop in.

Social Media Links –
Facebook: @KeithMorayAuthor
Twitter: @KeithMorayTales
Instagram: @souterkeith
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Bookbub profile: @dr_keithsouter

My thoughts: This was very good, a medieval murder mystery with the detectives in the form of the justice of the peace, Sir Ralph de Mandeville and his assistants, scribe Peter, and former archer Merek.

Carrying out the king’s work in Yorkshire, they become involved when the body of a young nun is found drifting in a boat on the river Swale. Did she kill herself or was she murdered? When the body of the parish priest is also found brutalised, Ralph suspects something rather nasty is going on. And when he and his assistants are attacked, he knows there’s something seriously wrong in the area.

As the case unfolds, Ralph, Peter and Merek are in danger too, they’re close to an answer and the killer wants them to stop looking. But they’re tougher than anyone realises and Ralph won’t give in to threats.

This is an engaging, clever and enjoyable read, I liked Ralph and his colleagues, they’re intelligent and thorough investigators, even with the limited knowledge of their age, willing to carry out thorough investigations, acting not only as detectives but also carrying out the roles that in modern cases would be scene of crime, and medical examiner.

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