Category: reviews

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Then There’s Trust – Susan Gray

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A forbidden love…a relationship in jeopardy…a tested trust

Darcy Dukas is fearless and feisty – but can she be trusted? Left bereft after a personal
disappointment, her vulnerable mindset causes her to seize an opportunity to pursue her dream career.

When Marcel Duval arrives in Durham to establish his detective agency, she agrees to work
with him. But is she prepared for the risks she will encounter? Risks for her safety…risks for her young marriage…and risks affecting her family’s trust?

In 1952 Josh Smallwood, Darcy’s brother, returns home after completing his national service. Trying to sort his future, he begins working on the family farm and befriends Judy, a young nurse. He is
baffled to discover any liaison with her is forbidden by her family. This mystery fuels an intense, secret relationship…can they overcome obstacles to be together?

A shroud of guilt clings to Chantal Martin – will she ever be free from its taint? As an unmarried mother, her once tenacious trait seems to have deserted her. Striving towards the final hurdle, an unexpected decision and an untimely event threaten to blight her resilience…can her trust be
rewarded?

Then There’s Trust is a gripping, emotional story of love, fidelity and trust set in 1950’s northeast England.

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‘Never too old to follow your dreams’ has become Susan Gray’s mantra since beginning to write novels after celebrating a significant birthday. Susan endeavours to entwine the genres of mystery and romance and sets her books in the Twentieth Century.

She lives with her husband in northeast
England, setting her books in this picturesque area. She has a son and daughter, both married, two granddaughters and a grand dog. When not writing she loves to spend time reading, puzzling, walking and catching up with friends over a coffee. She enjoys travelling and tries to include many of
the places she has visited in her books.

Her plots are inspired by ‘life’ and how her characters navigate the waters. She loves to ‘people watch’ and creates her characters based on the many
strangers she has observed.

She has written eight novels, but only four are published so far. SPANISH HOUSE SECRETS was her debut novel. BLOSSOMING OF TRUTH, HOPE ON HOPE and THEN THERE’S TRUST are a series.

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My thoughts: I haven’t read the previous two books in this series, so I wasn’t familiar with the characters and how they’re all connected, so it took me a little while to get them all sorted in my head.

The story itself was a lot of fun to read, even the sad bits, because it was so engaging and full of energy and excitement.

There’s thwarted love, undercover shenanigans and drama at every turn. The members of this extended family don’t exactly live quiet, easy lives. Darcy is an investigative journalist, who after a terrible loss, decides to raise awareness of how women like her are treated, determined to make change. She also assists a private detective in some of his cases, even though she’s put in danger by doing so. She’s a very modern woman trapped by the mores of the 1950s.

Her brother, Josh, also struggles against the rules, few young women these days would allow their fathers to behave as his girlfriend, Judy’s does. Controlling and even kidnapping her because he doesn’t like Josh’s family. Although after some digging into the past, things change.

Then there’s Darcy’s aunt, Chantal. Her partner Sam is still married to his miserable wife in Scotland, who won’t grant him a divorce, even though she lied to get him to marry her. Chantal has to live with the stigma of being unmarried and a mother to twins. Nowadays it’s not such a big deal and Sam would probably find it easier to get a divorce too.

All of these characters are trapped by the social conventions and attitudes of their time, pushing against the way society perceives them. But they’re also very lucky to have each other for support and aid when they need it.

An interesting and enjoyable read, strange to think things were so different not so long ago.

*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: Under the Blazing Sun – Jenny Lund Madsen, translated by Paul Russell Garrett

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Hannah is miserable. Her love life is in ruins, her contract demands a sequel to her bestselling crime debut – and she’s out of ideas.

After a mortifying TV interview, her agent ships her off to a sun-drenched Sicilian villa with a simple order: finish the book. No distractions. No excuses. But inspiration doesn’t strike – murder does.

When a night out ends in murder, Hannah finds herself at the centre of a murder investigation … again.

The police want her out of the way, and the only person who seems to believe her is a young but charming Italian police officer. That is, until she doesn’t.

Soon Hannah is chasing suspects, fleeing crime scenes, and doing whatever it takes to avoid becoming the next victim. She came to write a crime novel. Now she’s trapped inside one.

Jenny Lund Madsen is one of Denmark’s most acclaimed scriptwriters (including the international hits Rita and Follow the Money) and is known as an advocate for better representation for sexual and ethnic minorities in Danish TV and film. She made her debut as a playwright with the critically acclaimed Audition (Aarhus Teater) and her debut literary thriller, Thirty Days of Darkness, first in an addictive new series, won the Harald Mogensen Prize for Best Danish Crime Novel of the year, was shortlisted for the coveted Glass Key Award, longlisted for the CWA Crime in Translation Dagger, and won the Crime Fiction Lover Award for Best Crime Book in Translation. She lives in Denmark with her wife and young family.

My thoughts: Hannah wrote a brilliant crime novel after her involvement with a murder in Iceland, but now she’s stuck again. She’s under contract for another crime novel, but wants to go back to her literary fiction roots. So her agent, Bastian sends her to a friend’s villa in Sicily to write. 

And she gets involved in another murder. She’s even a suspect, which is crazy because she barely knows the victim. The police don’t believe her, her lawyer doesn’t seem bothered either. What can she do? Well, she’ll just have to solve the case and prove her own innocence. Obviously. And then write a book all about it.

Chaos ensues, especially after her Icelandic lover (with husband and children in tow) shows up, Hannah has a holiday fling with the one police officer who believes her, and after discovering whose house she’s staying, calls the one person she vowed never to, because she really needs help.

Hannah’s life is completely crazy, despite her insistence that it isn’t, and maybe she should stop leaving home as she seems to encounter murder everywhere she goes.

It’s actually a really funny book and would make a great movie on Netflix, the sort of film I would definitely watch (I love a crazy crime caper). More please!

*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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Blogathon: Nowhere Girl – Ruth Dugdall

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From the top of the Ferris wheel, Ellie can see everything. Her life, laid out beneath her. Ellie looks up. She wants freedom.

Down below, her little sister and mother wait, watching as people bundle off the wheel and disappear into the crowd. No Ellie. Must be the next box.

But the Ferris wheel continues to turn.

When Ellie goes missing on the first day of Schueberfouer, the police are dismissive, keen not to attract negative attention on one of Luxembourg’s most important events.

Probation officer, Cate Austin, has moved for a fresh start, along with her daughter Amelia, to live with her police detective boyfriend, Olivier Massard. But when she realises just how casually he is taking the disappearance of Ellie, Cate decides to investigate matters for herself.

She discovers Luxembourg has a dark heart. With its geographical position, could it be the centre of a child trafficking ring? As Cate comes closer to discovering Ellie’s whereabouts she uncovers a hidden world, placing herself in danger, not just from traffickers, but from a source much closer to home.

My thoughts: Cate has left the probation service and her messy family court case behind and moved to Luxembourg with her daughter Amelia and boyfriend, police detective Olivier.

When the older sister of Amelia’s school friend goes missing at the carnival, Cate is dragged into the case via her sort of friendship with the girls’ mother Bridget. Olivier is leading the case but won’t discuss it with Cate.

As the days pass, it becomes increasingly less likely that Ellie will be found, and that’s before Bridget confesses something that changes how the police view the case.

Meanwhile a newly arrived teenage girl attempts to understand her new life and the world of undocumented migrants that she finds herself in.

Clever and relevant, this is another brilliant book from Ruth Dugdall that had me absolutely gripped and will get its hooks into you too. By placing the reader right there in the middle of everything, with sweet Amina who just wants a better life, with terrified Ellie who wants to go home and with Cate, who thought she was doing the right thing in leaving Suffolk, but realises that she was really just running away from her troubles. Cannot wait for the next book.

*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: The Death of Shame – Ambrose Parry

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When you are a prisoner of your secrets,
the death of shame is the only path to liberty

Annabel Banks was promised work as a maid with a prestigious Edinburgh family. But on her first day, she’s nowhere to be found. Concerned relatives contact Sarah Fisher to help. Sarah might know her way around the city – its light sides and dark – but soon she’ll discover the plight of dozens of girls ensnared in its many brothels: lured, abused and left ruined in the eyes of the world.

Meanwhile, a prominent society figure throws himself from the Scott Monument. Will Raven is asked to establish whether the death was suicide or if someone else was involved. Drawing upon real historical events, The Death of Shame takes the Raven and Fisher series into a treacherous labyrinth of shame and the pitfalls of a culture obsessed with moral purity.

Ambrose Parry is a pseudonym for a collaboration between Chris Brookmyre and Marisa Haetzman. The couple are married and live in Scotland. Chris Brookmyre is the international bestselling and multi-award-winning author of over twenty novels. Dr Marisa Haetzman is a consultant anaesthetist of twenty years’ experience, whose research for her Master’s degree in the History of Medicine uncovered the material upon which this series, which begun with The Way of All Flesh, is based. The Way of all Flesh was longlisted for both the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award and the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year. @ambroseparry

My thoughts: i really like this series, probably because it’s well written, well researched and the cases are so fascinating. Blending historical figures of Edinburgh’s past with the fictional Will Raven and Sarah Fisher, who dig into mysteries surrounding the medical fraternity of the city.

This time, it’s Will’s father-in-law at the centre of the case. Having apparently committed suicide, from the Scott Monument, but Will’s wife, Eugenie, insists her father would never do that. Will discovers that he was being blackmailed. Could that be why the eminent doctor took his own life?

Meanwhile Sarah has been asked to find her late husband’s niece, Annabel, who arrived in Edinburgh for a job as a nursery maid but then disappeared. Has she met a terrible end or is she as tough as Sarah and somehow survived?

As Will and Sarah investigate, an unwanted figure from Will’s estranged family appears and Sarah finds herself in terrible danger.

Another absolutely gripping adventure for the two doctors (Sarah’s determined to be one) and investigators, which finally also gives us some answers about their relationship 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: Case Files Vol. 2 – Rachel Amphlett

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Discover nine dark and twisted mysteries from bestselling author Rachel Amphlett in this second collection of disturbing short stories.

This second page-turning collection features The Date, in which Lucy and Michael meet every year for a sinister anniversary; in All Night Long Zoe soon wishes she wasn’t working the late shift; and in A Burning Question a young Detective Kay Hunter suspects a serial arsonist is targeting a small community of river dwellers with chilling results…

Case Files: Collected Short Crime Stories Volume 2:
The Date
The Back Nine
The Protégé
Devil of a Favor
Six Underground
Three Ways to Die
A Toxic Remedy
All Night Long
A Burning Question

Case Files: short crime fiction stories that will have you on the edge of your seat.

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Before turning to writing, USA Today bestselling crime author Rachel Amphlett played guitar in bands, worked as a TV and film extra, dabbled in radio, and worked in publishing as an editorial assistant.

She now wields a pen instead of a plectrum and writes crime fiction with over 30 crime novels and short stories featuring spies, detectives, vigilantes, and assassins.

A keen traveller and accidental private investigator, Rachel has both Australian and British citizenship.

You can find out more about Rachel and her books at http://www.rachelamphlett.com.

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My thoughts: This collection of short crime stories is enjoyable and clever. Some of the stories are very short, clever little snapshots of killers and thieves, detectives and alligators!

I really liked these bite size tales, some self contained and others feel like little bits of much bigger stories. Perfect for dipping into when you need a crime fix.

*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: The Drowned Girl -David Mark

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A woman vanishes from a remote lake in Cumbria. All that’s left behind are her abandoned clothes, a ringing phone, and a stretch of dark water that won’t give her back. And everyone here knows that Sleddale Tarn keeps its silence.

Moses Crow knows this place too. He grew up here, before he went to prison, before he became the kind of man who scans every room for the nearest exit. When the case reignites rumours about a girl who disappeared in the local caves, Moses is summoned home to help the family who raised him keep the police at arm’s length.

As the search intensifies, so does the question he’s been avoiding for decades: what really happened here, all those years ago? And what will it cost to drag the family’s secrets into the light?

David Mark spent more than fifteen years as a journalist, including seven years as a crime reporter with the Yorkshire Post, before becoming an author. He is the author of the Sunday Times bestseller Dark Winter and has been championed by Val McDermid, Peter James, Mick Herron and Martina Cole. He lives in rural Northumberland with his family.

My thoughts: Moses was fostered by the wealthy and messed up family, the Rinkov-Torsneys, at the centre of this book. When Oksana, the carer for patriarch Andrei drowns despite being a strong swimmer, his brother Hugo calls on him to return to the family home and look after things.

When first a journalist, and then a former police inspector appear, both following the death and a string of other similar drownings, Moses is in their sights but he knows he didn’t kill anyone, so who did?

Intense, sinister and compelling, this book hooks you in and carries you along with Moses as he attempts to unravel the family’s dark secrets and find a killer.

*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: Wonderful – Louise Beech

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A Hollywood idol. The Virgin Mary. An everyday girl from Hull. Three women, three eras, surprising things in common.

On the night she should have died, Marilyn Monroe has a visitor who changes her life. The Virgin Mary appears in her kitchen with a message. Inspired, Marilyn abandons her home, her life, her fame, and disappears into the night…

Fifty-four years later, in a Hull kitchen, Flora Baker finds Mary, bathed in light. She has a similar message for the working class woman on the poverty line. Flora makes changes that impact not only her life but the lives of those around her…

Do Marilyn and Flora have more in common than Mary’s visit? Are they linked across time? And is Mary’s message for all the women of the world? Wonderful is about the way women are portrayed in both history and the world of celebrity, about women not being quiet, and about women united by the shared stories that shape them.

As a child, Louise Beech told everyone she was going to be a world-famous novelist one day. She once bet her mum ten pounds that she’d be published by thirty – her first newspaper column was published when she was thirty-one. She finally got a publishing deal in 2015 with Orenda Books.

Her debut, How to be Brave (2015), got to No4 on Amazon and was a Guardian Readers’ Pick; Maria in the Moon (2017) was described as ‘quirky, darkly comic and heartfelt’ by the Sunday Mirror; The Lion Tamer Who Lost (2018) shortlisted for the Popular Romantic Novel of 2019 at the RNA Awards and long listed for the Polari Prize 2019; Call Me Star Girl (2019) long listed for the Guardian’s Not The Booker Prize and was Best magazine’s Best Book of the Year 2019; and I Am Dust (2020) was a Crime Magazine Monthly pick. This Is How We Are Human was published in June 2021. Louise still hasn’t given her mum that tenner though.

Louise also writes under the name Louise Swanson, and her first book in that guise, End of Story, was published in March 2023 by Hodder & Stoughton and her second, Lights Out, in September 2024. Her play, How to be Brave, toured in 2024. Wonderful was published June 2026.

My thoughts: I, like the author and Flora in the book, love Marilyn Monroe, I am fascinated by her and she talents, she could have gone on to be an even more incredible actor if she hadn’t died at 36.

Which is where this book starts, instead of dying, she disappears and starts over, using her new life to do something good and help other women, women like her who need support and care.

Flora lives in Hull, caring for her mentally ill sister Bella, working in a club and trying to keep her head above water. CARE runs a shelter for women and once took in her sister when she needed help. When the Virgin Mary appears to Flora and tells her to volunteer there and Bella will be ok.

Slowly Marilyn and Flora’s lives come together and the coincidences that bring them together, including another brief appearance from Mary (who I agree with Marilyn, I wish we knew more about her, and her life (I know she ran a catering firm – it’s in the Bible))

It’s genuinely a lovely book, a lovely story and left me with a smile on my face. I wish Marilyn’s story had ended like this, much happier and less tragic than it did in this life, maybe in another universe somewhere it did.

*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: They Fear Not Men in the Woods – Gretchen McNeil

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When Jen Monroe hears her father’s remains have been found, she returns home to disprove his death, only to find the forests of rural Washington are hiding something ancient and dangerous…

Seven years ago, Jen Monroe left behind her hometown of Barrow, Washington after her father, a forest ranger passionate about protecting old trees from the aggressive logging business that runs their small town, vanished seemingly into thin air. She vowed never to return…until she gets a text from her estranged mother. Her father’s remains have been found.

It seems impossibleto Jen who has always believed her father is still alive, and she returns home, determined to find out what really happened. When her ex-boyfriend proposes a camping trip into the woods in her father’s memory, it feels like the opportunity Jen had been hoping for: to find her father. To find the truth.

But what she finds lurking in the forest may be deeper, darker and deadlier than she could have ever imagined. And it has no intention of letting her leave.

Unsettling, tense, and atmospheric, this is a feminist suspense novel for those who have always known there’s something hungry waiting in the woods.

My thoughts: If you go down to the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise…sadly not a teddy bears’ picnic but the forest fighting back. Those ancient trees of the Pacific Northwest of America, thousands of years older, possibly growing before any humans set foot on the land.

The town of Barrow is a logging town, her ex-boyfriend’s family own the company that cuts down the trees and employs many of the residents. Her dad was an employee of the forest service and loved the ancient trees the most, fighting to protect and preserve them.

Jen’s return and the decision to head into the forest to find out what really happened to her dad, accompanied by her old friends and a few new faces ends in something dark and terrifying (if you’re not nice to the trees, why should they be nice to you?).

There are some pretty old trees near me, here in the UK, might go pat them gently and ask them not to sacrifice me to the hulderfolk please. I’m quite fond of woods and trees so hopefully they’ll be nice and not eat me. Genuinely creepy book, this. Don’t read it on a camping trip or you won’t sleep.

*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: Killer on the Set – P.N. Johnson

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It’s a TV drama with a set full of secrets, but who’s calling the shots?

A dream role in a hit TV drama is not all it seems when actor Holly Elding is warned to turn down the part and run for her life!

A missing actress, a superyacht full of stolen art, an FBI man with a hidden agenda, a chateauset to burst into flames, a love triangle and a web of deceit.

Can Holly and disgraced cop turned stuntman Josh Corton bring down the gang before they’re written out for good?

A fast -moving adventure thriller set in England, Spain, the Greek islands and France.

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As a TV reporter, producer and newsreader for both BBC East and ITV Anglia, Phil Johnson covered everything from tracking down criminals in Spain and going on high octane-police chases, to interviewing pop stars, politicians and celebrities.
Writing as PN Johnson, Phil’s books aim to entertain, with thrilling crime mysteries in
exciting locations.

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My thoughts: The scam being run is clever but the criminals haven’t been as smart as they thought when actor Holly and stuntman Josh catch on to their scheme. Chasing the stolen items across Europe with the help of Spanish police inspector Blanca, they thwart kidnappers and thieves, gunmen and escape from an exploding chateau. Action packed indeed!

If Holly and Josh ever decide to quit acting, they’d make quite the investigative duo.

Really entertaining and enjoyable adventure and a satisfying ending as the bad guys go down for their crimes and the brave duo finally admit their feelings for one another. What might they uncover on their next acting gig?

*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: Costly Secrets – Chris Collett

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Every lie has its cost. In money or in blood . . .

Suave, suited winemaker Adam Gillespie has it all. A thriving business. A designer
home in a leafy Birmingham suburb. And a little black book full of lovers.

Until, the drab Monday morning he’s found dead at his desk. A carrier bag masks his chiseled features — and surely smothered his final cries.

Detective Tom Mariner’s team are ready to chalk it up as a tragic accident. A kink
gone horribly wrong.

But Mariner’s not so sure. The burn marks around the victim’s wrists tell a darker
story.

And this isn’t the only mysterious death on Mariner’s patch.

Elsewhere, an elderly woman is found floating in a murky canal.

Mariner knows he should leave well alone. He’s supposed to be on leave. Recovering
from the case that almost cost him everything . . .

He somehow survived, battered not beaten. But his health — and his relationship — are hanging by a thread.

This time around, he might not be so lucky . . .

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Chris Collett grew up in a Norfolk seaside town where she worked in a boarding
house (now defunct) a local bakery (closed down) and a crisp factory (razed to the
ground). After leaving school she trained, in Liverpool, as a teacher for children with
learning disabilities, including autism.

Now a recently retired university lecturer,
Chris is married with two grown up children and lives in Birmingham, UK on DI Tom Mariner’s ‘patch’. She has published short stories, teaches creative and crime writing and is a manuscript assessor for the Crime Writers Association.

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My thoughts: What could the murder of a wine merchant and the accidental death of an old woman have in common? Nothing, or so it seems. The police think Adam Gillespie was probably killed over a wine certification or a theft in his warehouse, and the elderly lady probably fell in the canal.

But DCI Tom Mariner’s not so sure. He’s on medical leave, but that doesn’t stop him from thinking and after being asked to look into the drowning by the dead woman’s niece, he’s putting the pieces together and uncovering a conspiracy and  a criminal taking advantage of the most vulnerable people around.

Meanwhile one of his team is concerned about their neighbour, a university student who has been acting rather strangely. Has he found another crime in the city?

Clever, full of twists and with an ingenious connection between the two victims and the least likely criminal mastermind you might ever come across. Very enjoyable.

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