Category: reviews

Connie Maguire has always lived in the shadows. Battling low self-esteem, she has spent her life prioritising her only child — and he has flourished, becoming Ireland’s newest rugby star. On the day of her milestone birthday, with Liam’s career about to soar, Connie finally believes she might achieve some happiness.
Then tragedy strikes in the dark of night, changing everything.

On Ireland’s rugged west coast, the past refuses to stay buried, and Connie must finally confront the devastating truth of what happened on the night that destroyed so many lives. This powerful exploration of motherhood, guilt and redemption questions whether we can truly be free from the mistakes of our past.

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Hailing from Navan, Co. Meath, Domhnall works as a travel journalist, columnist and author. He writes extensively for the Irish and British media, with work regularly appearing in the Belfast Telegraph, Woman’s Way, The Sunday Times and the Irish Examiner. Domhnall has received many prestigious honours for his writing, including the 2025 Travel Extra Travel Journalist of the Year award.
Mercier Press published his novels Crazy for You and Colin and the Concubine. His début novel, Sister Agatha: the World’s Oldest Serial Killer, was released in 2016.
As an actor, he appeared in the award-winning series Ros na Rún for nine seasons.

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Facebook: Domhnall.o.donoghue

My thoughts: This was really interesting and gripping. Connie has just been released from prison and needs to find somewhere safe to stay, she can’t go back to the village she’s lived in her whole life, her son’s in Portugal, her best friend’s in Spain and there isn’t anyone else.

As she travels across Ireland to find safety, she is forced to reckon with the events that lead to her imprisonment. At her fortieth birthday party, after a night of drinking and dancing, tragedy struck. And she paid the price. But some think she should still be locked up and the truth is not quite as straightforward as the one she told in court.

This is intelligent, engaging and fascinating. Connie raised her son alone, and his success means everything to her, even at the expense of her own freedom. Can she reach a place of safety or have her actions poisoned everything?

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

How many times would you let your child get away with murder?

When you look down at your newborn baby, you realise they were right, those smug parents you’ve always rolled your eyes at: you’d do literally anything for your child. To make them happy, keep them safe.

So when Joseph Carver wakes one night to find his teenage son Max scrubbing the kitchen, hands wet with blood and panic flooding his voice as he promises it was an accident, he didn’t mean to do it, Joseph does the only thing he can. He helps Max bury the body.

Joseph thinks that’s the end of the nightmare. Until he finds Max with stricken eyes and bloody hands once again . . .

You’d do anything for your child – even cover up a murder.

But how many times?

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SAM LLOYD grew up in Hampshire, where he learned his love of storytelling. These days he lives in Surrey with his wife, three young sons and a dog that likes to howl. His first three thrillers, The Memory Wood, The Rising Tide and The People Watcher were published to great
critical acclaim.

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My thoughts: There are a lot of dead bodies in this book, and lots of clever twists too. Joseph helps his son Max cover up what Max says is a terrible accident, but not reporting it is a serious crime. Especially when the brother of your victim is a psychopath who won’t stop till he finds out what happened.

Then Max, oops, kills someone else. But this isn’t a stranger, and it’s a little too close to home. Joseph is taking bigger risks and his wife’s getting suspicious. If he can just get Max through the summer and off to med school then it’ll be fine. It’s not fine.

Things get crazier and crazier, the whole family get drawn into the chaos, and then more twists turn everything you think you know upside down. I was absolutely hooked and lost count of the corpses. There’s also a strain of pitch black humour or possibly hysteria running through this very dark, very bloody book. Highly recommend.

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

The twistiest murder mystery you are ever likely to read?

A story about a family that does the unthinkable in order to save the life of one of its beloved members?

Both?

Or something else altogether?

You’ll have to read until the very last word in order to find out…

You think it will never happen to you: the ring of the bell, the policeman on the doorstep. What he says traps you in a nightmare that starts with the words, ‘I’m afraid…’

Sally Lambert is also afraid, and desperate enough to consider the unthinkable. Is it really, definitely, impossible to escape from this horror? Maybe not. There’s always something you can do, right?

Of course, no one would ever do this particular something – except the Lamberts, who might have to. No one has ever gone this far. Until Sally decides that the Lamberts will…

Sophie Hannah is a Sunday Times, New York Times and Amazon Kindle UK No. 1 bestselling author and her books have sold millions of copies worldwide. She writes contemporary psychological thrillers and, at the request of Agatha Christie’s family and estate, the new series of Hercule Poirot novels. She lives in Cambridge with her family.

My thoughts: Sophie Hannah is one of my very favourite writers, so getting to read this and be on the blog tour is very exciting.

Without spoiling the story, I actually think I would go further than the Lamberts if I was in their position. I would actually kill and get away with it (I have read so much crime fiction, watched CSI in every US city and so many other crime shows, I am pretty sure I could leave no trace).

The Lamberts, are a pretty ordinary family, Sally’s a bit quirky certainly, but other than that pretty normal. The document that purports to reveal what really happened is a mishmash of things, in some semblance of order, but the narrator is a question mark. Who is telling the story of the Lamberts and what happened?

When a member of their family is accused of a crime, Sally springs into action, rounding up her children and husband and going in search of allies. She knows that no one in her family committed this crime, but is at a loss as to how to prove it, and how to keep them all safe.

The story that unfolds will tell us everything we need to know about the Lamberts, their village, its residents, the Gaveys (boo! hiss!), the so-called crime, the truth about that incident, some history, and what happened next. Or will it? You will have to decide what you can believe.

Funny, very clever and a little confusing in a “huh? What?” way, this is a very different sort of crime novel but hugely enjoyable and entertaining.

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

Former Detective Hillary Greene and her cold case team are sweltering in their stuffy basement office on the hottest day of the year when they are handed an impossible case.

Fifteen years ago, Imelda Phelps was battered to death in the hallway of her home. The brutal crime shocked the residents of the pretty market town of Chipping Norton. The killer was never
caught.

The motive for the murder remains a mystery. Could the happily married mother-of-two’s stunning good looks have played a part in her death?

Everyone will have to take a hard look in the mirror — and not everyone will like what they see. If Hillary is to crack the case, she must keep an open mind. But one thing is crystal-clear: this crime was personal. It’s up to Hillary and her team to work out which of Imelda’s family
and friends is hiding a deadly secret.

A secret lover. A humiliated husband. A vengeful ex-business partner. A resentful daughter.
The list of suspects grows . . .

Suddenly an unexpected lead throws the case wide open. And then a second body turns up.
This cold case is now red hot . . .

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Faith Martin was born in Oxford, and has spent all her life within twenty miles of the university city, even working at Somerville College for six years before turning to writing full-time.

Faith has been writing for nearly 30 years under four different pen names and has had nearly 50 books published so far. She began writing romantic thrillers as Maxine Barry, which Joffe Books are in the process of re-releasing as brand new eBooks. Then she turned to crime, and as Joyce Cato wrote classic-style whodunits, since she’s always admired the golden-age crime
novelists. But it was when she created her fictional DI Hillary Greene, and began writing under the name of Faith Martin, that she finally began to become more widely known. Her latest literary characters WPC Trudy Loveday, and city coroner, Dr Clement Ryder, take readers
back to the 1960’s and the city of Oxford.

Having lived within a few miles of the city of dreaming spires for all her life, both the city and the countryside/wildlife often feature in her novels. Although she has never lived on a narrow boat (unlike DI Hillary Greene!) the Oxford canal, the river Cherwell, and the flora and fauna of a farming landscape have always played a
big part in her life – and often sneak their way onto the pages of her books.
Her hobbies include walking her now ageing dog, wildlife-watching, reading and (reluctantly) gardening.

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My thoughts: I am a bit of a fan of Faith Martin’s Loveday and Ryder books and I’ve read a few of her others too, but somehow not this series. Time to rectify that as this was really good.

Retired detective Hillary Greene heads up the cold case unit, a team of three, that scour the case files looking for new clues and evidence that might finally allow the police to close the case. Looking into the fifteen year old murder case of a local model killed in her home.

Her husband has remarried, her children are now grown up. But everyone remembers where they were when it happened. Hidden somewhere in their memories might be the answer to the question – who killed her?

Hillary and her tiny team must pit their wits against a killer that may be closer to home than they think.

Clever, highly enjoyable and with lots of twists and turns, this is excellent crime writing.

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

A wedding, a missing fiancée, and a murder – Melody Harper is about to discover just how dangerous “I do” can be…

Fledgling private detective Melody Harper is down on her luck and nursing a black eye when she’s approached by a new client who believes her daughter is in danger.

There’s a wedding next weekend, and the client’s daughter is the bride. Except Melody’s client hasn’t told her the whole truth – the groom’s last fiancée seems to have disappeared, and nobody has any answers.
Now tasked with going undercover to protect the bride-to-be, Melody finds herself out of her comfort zone and on an outdoor adventure weekend in the Lake District with the hen party.

After narrowly escaping death in a climbing accident, Melody’s detective skills are tested to the limit when one of the bridesmaids is murdered – and time is running out.
This is her biggest investigation to date, but will Melody even survive long enough to unmask the killer and protect the bride?

Murder in the Lakes is a page-turning murder mystery from USA Today bestselling author Rachel Amphlett and perfect for readers who love amateur sleuths and deadly crimes.

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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: I can’t think of anything I’d like to do less than an outdoors abseiling and climbing weekend, and as a hen do, no thank you! But that’s what Melody gets roped into doing.

She’s starting out as a PI, mostly investigating men who seem too good to be true before some unfortunate young woman marries them. But asked to provide protection to Natasha, who’s due to get married in just over a week, finds her in the Lake District, doing all many of outdoor activities.

After a couple of close calls, one of the bridesmaids is killed. What did she know that put her in the killer’s crosshairs? The police are on their way but first the party has to make its way back to the base camp in one piece and Melody is quickly putting the pieces together. She needs to find the killer fast, before they can act again.

Smart, enjoyable crime fiction with an excellent protagonist in Melody, and supporting cast in her adoptive family who run the fish and chip shop downstairs, a nasty murderer, who haven’t got away with it once, thinks they can do so again but without counting on Melody’s instincts and investigating nous. Hopefully there will be more.

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