Category: reviews

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Violets are Blue – Miranda Rijks

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Her perfect home. Her perfect man. How wrong can she be?

After a bitter divorce, criminal solicitor Laila moves to idyllic Violet Lane, where she quickly falls for Max—her charming, piano-playing neighbour.
They begin a wildly passionate affair, and Laila feels she is really starting
to live again.

But the tranquility of this close-knit community is shattered when Jackie, a
young mother from across the street, goes missing. Her husband is the chief suspect and Laila agrees to act as his lawyer.

As she investigates Jackie’s disappearance, Laila discovers that this quiet street hides deadly secrets, and someone is watching her every move.
Anonymous threats pull her ever deeper into a twisted web of deception.
Meanwhile, her intense relationship with Max is starting to feel like a runaway train. And Laila begins to wonder if her gorgeous new man may have a hidden dark side.

She desperately needs to uncover the truth. And when she does, Laila realises that she’s put herself in terrible danger, and that she may lose everything – including her life.

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Miranda Rijks is a writer of fast-paced, twisty psychological thrillers many of which have been Amazon bestsellers. She has an eclectic background ranging from law to running a garden centre.
After surviving bone cancer, Miranda turned to writing and is now living
the dream, writing suspense novels full time.
She lives in West Sussex, England with her Dutch husband and two black Labradors and spends as much time as she can in the Swiss Alps.
This is her twenty-third psychological thriller with Inkubator Books.

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My thoughts: Laila moves into her new home after a bruising divorce, starting a new job at the same time. Her neighbours seem friendly and close knit, she hopes to get to know them a bit better. Then Max from next door starts his seduction plan, at first it’s mostly physical and she sees this as a release.

Then one of her neighbours is murdered, and the husband is the police’s number one suspect, Laila agrees to represent him, but he warns her off Max and it gets a bit awkward.

As Laila and Max get closer, she starts to wonder why he doesn’t share anything about his life before moving here eighteen months ago. As she looks into her new man, she starts to worry, is he dangerous?

There are lots of twists and turns in this, Laila never really knows who she can trust, everyone has their own agenda and underneath that friendly veneer, not so friendly neighbours lurk. For a smart woman, she doesn’t lead with her head, but her heart, and that’s a risky way to go.

*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 Norfolk Theatre Murders – Judi Daykin

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One witness who can’t be trusted. Seven actors who’ll never stray from the script.
And a costumed killer, waiting in the wings . . .

Behind the front door of Mr and Mrs Morgan’s elegant Norwich townhouse, something is terribly wrong. Detective Sara Hirst pushes it open to find a scene of utter devastation. Furniture upended. Shattered china and torn papers strewn across the floor. And, amid it all, James
Morgan himself. A frail old dementia sufferer, crying out for his wife.
Where’s Carole?

Amateur actress Carole Morgan was out late last night, running lines with her castmates at the Rosegarden Theatre. James waited up for her for hours. But now he knows, she’s never coming
home.
A stranger came calling in the night to tell James as much. A masked stranger, draped in a monk’s habit.

Now, James urges Sara to hunt for the person behind the mask, certain that the trail will lead straight to his missing wife.
Sara takes his ramblings with a pinch of salt. It’s just his distressed mind playing tricks on him.
But when a body is found, hidden beneath the boards of the Rosegarden stage, she’s forced to think again.
Now Sara’s in a race against time to track the ruthless killer. With a cloaked figure watching her every move from the shadows . . .

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Yorkshire born, Judi has lived, worked and made theatre in Norfolk for the last forty years. She completed her MA in Creative Writing (Crime Fiction) at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in 2019, and her debut novel was shortlisted for the Little, Brown UEA writers prize. That novel became Under Violent Skies, which was long-listed for the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger in 2021.
Judi was a working actor with a portfolio career spanning twenty years of theatre, film and television; directing; workshops; audio narration and medical roleplay. These days she writes full time from her study in a North Norfolk village. She also enjoys crafting, art history, watching horror films and going on cruises, none of which she has much spare time for!

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My thoughts: This was a very dark and sinister case, a tale of revenge and madness as people connected to an amateur theatre are murdered by someone dressed like the theatre’s supposed ghost of a monk.

The police are struggling to locate their suspect, and then a young social worker who has been helping a homeless military veteran, is kidnapped. I actually think she’s the hero of this book, kind, believes in doing the right thing and wants to help her clients like Vince to have a better life.

The police are following every lead and are pretty sure it has to be someone linked to the theatre in some way, they just don’t know how. Unfortunately the killer isn’t done and two detectives are at risk. Sara Hirst, one of the team, finally corners the killer, at great risk.

Both the theatre’s recent past and the much older past of Norwich play a part in what happens and how the police solve this one, which was clever and 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.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Notorious Virtues – Alwyn Hamilton

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A glamorous media darling, a surprise heiress, and the magical competition of a lifetime.

At sixteen, Honora “Nora” Holtzfall is the daughter of the most powerful heiress in all of Walstad. Her family controls all the money–and all the magic–in the entire country. But despite being the center of attention, Nora has always felt like an outsider. When her mother is found dead in an alley, the family throne and fortune are suddenly up for grabs, and Nora will be pitted against her cousins in the Veritaz, the ultimate magical competition for power that determines the one family heir.

But there’s a surprise contestant this time: Lotte, the illegitimate daughter of Nora’s aunt. When Lotte’s absent mother retrieves her from the rural convent she’d abandoned her to, Lotte goes from being an orphan to surrounded by family. Unfortunately, most of them want her dead.

And soon, Nora discovers that her mother’s death wasn’t random–it was murder. And the only person she can trust to uncover the truth of what happened is a rakish young reporter who despises everything Nora and her family stand for.

With everyone against her, Lotte’s last hope is hunting for the identity of her father. But the dangerous competition–and her feelings for Theo, one of the Holtzfalls’ sworn protectors–turns her world upside down.

Incredible tests, impossible choices and deadly odds await both girls. But there can only be one winner.

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About the Author

Alwyn Hamilton was born in Toronto and spent her childhood bouncing between Europe and Canada until her parents settled in France. She grew up in a small town there, which might have compelled her to burst randomly into the opening song from Beauty and the Beast were it not for her total tone-deafness.

She instead attempted to read and write her way to new places and developed a weakness for fantasy and cross-dressing heroines. She left France for Cambridge University to study History of Art at King’s College, and then to London where she became indentured to an auction house. She has a bad habit of acquiring more hardcovers than is smart for someone who moves house quite so often.

Alwyn’s New York Times-bestselling debut, the YA fantasy REBEL OF THE SANDS, was published by Viking Children’s Books in the US and Faber Children’s Books in the UK, and in 14 other territories. The trilogy continues in TRAITOR TO THE THRONE and HERO AT THE FALL. Alwyn was named the 2016 Goodreads Choice Award winner for Best Debut Author.

My thoughts: With fairytale elements, this is both a murder mystery and a fantasy in which four cousins must compete to be named their grandmother’s heir, after the mother of one of them, Nora, is killed.

Nora joins forces with a journalist, August, to try to solve the mystery of her mother’s murder – that’s being called a mugging gone wrong, but doesn’t make sense.

Her aunt has produced an illegitimate daughter, Lotte, which complicates the succession trials, and Lotte, who is smarter than some of them realise, wants to find out more about her family and forms an alliance with Nora, discovering that at least one of her relatives isn’t a terrible person.

Meanwhile a resistance to her family’s wealth and power is getting stronger and starting riots in the streets, prompting reprisals from the authorities.

The Holtzfall family founded the town, and with their magic protected people from the creatures of the forest. But generations later, they’re now incredibly wealthy and corrupt. They hold too much power and the growing pressure against them is close to explosive as the inheritance trials the cousins are in demolish parts of the town and add fuel to the fire.

I loved Lotte and Nora, and rightly detested fhe rest of their awful family. Their grandmother is a monster and the rest are spoilt, entitled and selfish. But considering that each generation has been raised to see their siblings (and cousins) as competition, as well as being over-privileged in a place where no one ever questions their family’s dominance (at least not openly), it’s not surprising.

The story was clever, filled with references to the original Grimm versions of the stories we know so well. It’s a chunky book and I was surprised it was the first in a series, as opposed to a standalone at this size. I’m definitely intrigued to see where it goes next, considering the events of the closing pages.

*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: Death of a Wild Swimmer – Peter Boland

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Still waters run deep in this baffling new case for the Charity Shop Detective Agency!

Wild swimming in February? No, thank you . . .

To Fiona, Daisy and Partial Sue, the retired
ladies behind the counter at Dogs Need Nice Homes charity shop, it sounds like torture.
Still, no one ever died of plunging themselves into the icy sea waters.
Until now.

When the body of Colin Barclay — retired PE master and wild-swimming fanatic — washes up in a secluded cove, the ladies begin to realize just how dicey this wellbeing trend can be.

Especially when a shifty new customer comes calling at their charity shop. Is this where you solve murders? She asks, her eyes darting wildly round the shelves of bric-a-brac. I think I have one . . .

This woman knows Colin better than most. And she’s convinced his death was no accident. It was murder.
But she’ll need the ladies to dive in and help her prove it . . .

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After studying to be an architect, Pete realised he wasn’t very good at it. He liked designing buildings he just couldn’t make them stand up, which is a bit of a handicap in an industry that likes to keep things upright. So he switched to advertising, writing ads for everything from cruise lines to zombie video games.
After becoming disillusioned with working in ad agencies, he switched to writing thriller novels (or was it because he just wanted to work at home in his pyjamas?). He soon realised there’s no magic formula. You just have to put one word in front of the other (and keep doing that for about a year). It also helps if you can resist the lure of surfing, playing Nintendo Switch with his son, watching America’s Next Top Model with his daughter and drinking beer in a garden chair.

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My thoughts: The Charity Shop Detectives are back, and this time with a strange case that’s been ruled death by misadventure, but a friend of the victim insists it must be murder.

So Fiona, Partial Sue (I love Partial Sue) and Daisy start learning about wild swimming, tides, currents and surfing as they look into the death of a member of the local wild swimming group (those rather crazy people who swim in the sea when it’s freezing cold) who supposedly drowned.

Fiona takes up swimming with the group, all of whom seem to be rather nice. She also talks to the owner of the local surf shop, not exactly a successful business, but another fairly benign person. Daisy’s neighbour, a surfer, helps them out with some technical knowledge (and eats a lot of cake).

It’s a really clever case that requires a lot of local knowledge and understanding of human nature. When the trio put together the clues, and the information they’ve gathered to crack the case and find a killer.

Another brilliant outing from the Charity Shop Detectives.

*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: Damaged Beauty; Joey Superstar – Margaret Gardiner

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Set in 1980s America, Damaged Beauty: Joey Superstar is the story of supermodel Joey Superstar.  But underneath her glossy veneer, Joey hides a traumatic past. Joey sets out to confront the roots of her wildness – but must admit to a youthful act that haunts her. As she moves from addiction to redemption, can she change the course of her life, deal with her dark past and become the superstar she was always destined to be?

Damaged Beauty: Joey Superstar is not just a work of fiction, but a narrative that sheds light on issues that often remain hidden in the shadows. With her unique perspective and rich storytelling, Gardiner addresses these themes in a way that is both engaging and deeply impactful.

The author now and in her modelling days

Margaret Gardiner, in her 60s, became an international cover-girl at 16 and at 18 she was the first woman from Africa to be crowned Miss Universe. She ultimately became the fashion editor at GoldenGlobes.com and works with A-list stars from Angelina Jolie to Zendaya. Her debut novel explores the seedy underbelly of the high-octane world of 1980s fashion modelling. While her book is not autobiographical, it is inspired by the people of the time and events she witnessed. Margaret saw extremes in various forms: the dreaded scales being used to weigh models in the 70s, the coping strategies of other models and friends including drug and alcohol abuse. As a model for almost 50 years, and a fashion editor, Margaret has an insider’s knowledge of the industry. She knows what it is like to be on the red carpet, in the spotlight – and what goes on behind the scenes. With a degree in psychology, and a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion, her debut novel is for every woman who has ever been made to feel less. 

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My thoughts: The author’s first-hand knowledge of the modelling industry and the pitfalls some young women sadly fall into shape the story of Joey, who battles with addiction and self-destructive behaviour while working in the notoriously cutthroat world of the supermodels.

Joey leaves a failed marriage and enters the House of Rest, a mental health unit to detox and recover her equilibrium. Checking out, she heads to New York, planning to revive her modelling career and reconnect with some old friends.

Her friend Fran let’s her back into her life, but Joey’s self-destructive behaviour pushes them apart again, and she ruins their friendship. The book chronicles the up and downs of Joey’s life, the traumatic events in her teenage years that led to her running away from home and becoming a model in the first place. The spiralling mental health issues she chooses to self-medicate and how her painting helps soothe her troubled soul.

Joey is a damaged person, she’s not been given much love in her life and struggles with her relationships. Her recovery ebbs and flows as she wrestles with her demons, but she’s resilient and determined to overcome her struggles.

The book is out now from all the usual places and the author has more planned.

I was sent a copy of this book to read and review but all my opinions remain my own.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Woman on Platform 8 – M.A. Hunter

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I first saw her on the platform on my way home from work a few weeks ago. She had an aura about her that made people stop and stare. Then I saw her again. And again. Our twice weekly commute into London Waterloo insync. She was always so poised, so pretty, so perfect.
Everything I’m not.

In my head, her name’s Lucia, and she’s a glamorous catwalk model from Milan who commutes from Winchester to attend casting calls in the city. But this morning she’s late, barely making the train as
the doors close. She doesn’t take her usual seat, instead staying close to the doors…

Then it hits me – she looks terrified.
I feel compelled to help her, and against my better judgement I stand up and move towards her. It’s then the illusion crumbles. Her name’s not Lucia, but Allie. Not a model, but a woman in need of dire
help. She tells me she’s in danger, that she’s done something dreadful and I don’t know why I do it, but I promise to keep her safe.
But I shouldn’t make promises I know I can’t keep.

Because my life isn’t as picture perfect as I like to pretend, and I can’t stop wondering if maybe I’m not the only one pretending…

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M.A. Hunter is the author of psychological and crime thrillers, including The Boat Party, One Wrong Turn, and Every Step You Take. Born in the north-east of England, he now lives in Southampton
where many of his stories are set, allowing him to use his insider knowledge to deliver realistic and unsettling suspense on every page.
Away from writing, M.A. loves to read anything that will keep him awake at night. He’s also a passionate advocate for contemporary cinema and binge-watching the latest offerings from streaming services. He is married with a son and a daughter, and two dogs.
M.A. also writes under the name Stephen Edger.

Facebook: @AnAutieAuthor
Twitter: @AnAutieAuthor Instagram:@AnAutieAuthor
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My thoughts: when I used to commute across London for work, aiming to get the same train every day, I did sometimes recognise some of my fellow passengers (the 8am pigeon for example) but I never spoke to any of them. Unlike Jenna who offers assistance to a woman she recognises when she sees her in distress.

Unfortunately for Jenna, Allie isn’t the innocent victim she pretends to be, she’s a cuckoo in the nest. She uses Jenna’s fears, her struggles to read people (she’s autistic) and her family’s mental health issues (her mother is sadly very unwell) against her. Or is Jenna just paranoid?

This is a twisted psychological thriller, is Jenna the victim or the aggressor? Is Allie who she claims to be or there to destroy Jenna? As Allie seems to be taking over her life, can Jenna fight back or will she lose everything?

The twists are so good, you won’t see them coming. Promise. I gasped at the ending. So good.

*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: I Kill Always Love You – Helen Golden

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A perfect sunny getaway with no drama. Or so they’d hoped…

BREAKING NEWS

Woman Taken in for Questioning in Death of Actress’ Husband Police in Portugal this morning told reporters that a woman is being questioned in connection with
the murder of the film producer Jason ‘JT’ Kenda, who was married to award-winning actress Ariella St Gerome.
Mr Kenda, who was found dead in the swimming pool of the couple’s villa, was initially thought to have died following an accident, but now police believe the American was killed intentionally. The
villa is next door to where Lady Beatrice, the Countess of Rossex, is currently holidaying with family and friends at the villa of TV’s Sir Hewitt and his wife, Lady Grace.

Who can say no to Lady Grace? When the daughter of Lady Grace’s housekeeper is suspected of murder, her ladyship requests that Bea and her friends prove the maid’s innocence. But with time
running out, can they navigate the tangled web of lies, betrayal, and hidden motives before an innocent woman is imprisoned for a crime she didn’t commit? Because even on holiday, the sleuthing never stops!

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Hello. I’m Helen Golden. I write British contemporary cosy whodunnits with a hint of humour. I live in small village in Lincolnshire in the UK with my husband, my step-daughter, her two cats, our two
dogs, sometimes my step-son, and our tortoise.
I used to work in senior management, but after my recent job came to a natural end I had the opportunity to follow my dreams and start writing. It’s very early in my life as an author, but so far I’m loving it.
It’s crazy busy at our house, so when I’m writing I retreat to our caravan (an impulsive lockdown purchase) which is mostly parked on our drive. When I really need total peace and quiet, I take it to a
lovely site about 15 minutes away and hide there until my family runs out of food or clean clothes.

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My thoughts: I love this series, I love the terrible pun titles, I love Daisy (you know I’m a sucker for a crime solving pet, or any animals really) and I love the gang. I mean Lady Bea and her entourage.

Even on holiday they manage to find themselves involved in a murder, when the film producer next door drowns in the pool while drunk. Or did someone kill him and shove him in? At first the local police think it was a terrible accident, but something doesn’t add up and they arrest the housekeeper. Except her mother (who looks after the house Bea and co are in) swears her daughter had no reason to kill the man. But someone in that house did.

I felt bad for Rich, even detectives should be allowed to have a holiday, and Bea desperately wants a quiet break, which when a teen social media star is just down the road and her son is obsessed with her, isn’t going to happen. Teenagers are impossible to control after all.

In fact, the best behaved member of their villa is Daisy. She only chases one rabbit and unearths an important clue in the process. Obviously. Canine (and feline) detectives are just better. We all know that!

Bea and Rich’s relationship is in a good place, even when his ex-wife and very estranged father start talking to the press. Gross. But Bea worries it might make Rich want to cool things off, he’s not used to being in the public eye after all.

I enjoyed this so much and can’t wait for the next one, this series is so much fun and my sister even asked me what I was laughing at so much (Perry mostly, he’s hilarious).

*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: Murder Under the Pier – Max Manning

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One murdered millionaire. Two suspects, with every reason to want him dead.
A haunted detective, who can’t outrun his past . . .

A body hangs beneath the rotten boards of Southend Pier. Strung from a rusted beam and twisting in the chill February air. In life, wealthy entrepreneur Adam Golding had the Midas touch — coining a fortune from his chain of tawdry seaside arcades — but now his luck’s run out.

Detective Edison Kane — still grieving a loss of his own — stares into the dead man’s eyes
and wonders . . . who left him like this?

Was it the wife Adam cheated on, over and over? Lavishing his mistresses with gifts, while she waited for him at home.
Or the brother who’s never forgiven him for being their father’s favourite son. Disinherited, Tony Golding dabbles in petty crime to pay the bills.
Both had means and motive. Who is guilty of the ultimate crime?

Kane’s closing in on his prime suspect when a second body washes up on the shores of lonely  Two Tree Island.
And the victim’s identity changes everything . . .

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Max Manning is a former national newspaper journalist. He started his career as a news reporter on regional newspapers before moving on to Fleet Street. There he worked for several national titles. The Killer In Me is his latest psychological thriller and is published by Joffe Books. Now You See is his debut crime novel. It was published in the USA by Sourcebooks under the title Don’t Look Now. His second novel, The Victim, was published in August 2019.

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My thoughts: Hitting the ground running from the opening scene and a body strung up under Southend’s pier, why has someone killed local millionaire businessman Adam Golding? Was it his estranged brother or his unhappy wife? They seem the most likely suspects, but all further killing throws a spanner in the police case, and forces them to dig deeper and cast a wider net.

The killer is injecting his victims with insulin, causing a massive drop in their blood sugar levels, so why string them up? What is the murderer saying? Getting inside their head might just explain everything. Things take a darker twist when a local journalist disappears, and now the race is on to find her alive.

Twists and turns galore in this clever and enjoyable crime thriller.

*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 Lavender Bride – Alexandra Weston

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An English rose with American dreams

Audrey Wade longs to escape her domineering father and the bleak streets of post-war Yorkshire.
Hollywood glitters with glamour, freedom, and the promise of a life with her best friend Freddie. But when Freddie abandons her, Audrey is left to chase her dreams alone.

A Heartthrob with secrets

Rex Trent is more than Hollywood’s leading man. Charismatic and dangerously handsome, he’s adored by millions and watched by powerful enemies in a paranoid 1950s America. One wrong move
could destroy him.

A romance born of ambition and betrayal

When Rex proposes, Audrey is swept into Hollywood’s glamour and high-stakes secrets. But she soon discovers Rex’s dark side and faces a choice: cling to a man who may never love her, or risk everything to forge her own path?

A gripping new historical novel from a wonderful new voice. Perfect for fans of Taylor Jenkins-Reid, Wendy Holden and Allison Pataki.

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Alexandra Weston writes historical fiction. She has a MA in Creative Writing from York St John University. She has a lifelong passion for history and loves visiting stately homes, museums and old churches. She also writes fantasy as Alys West. She lives with her partner and a ginger cat called Wilf in East Yorkshire. She sings with her local community choir and loves live music, hanging out in bookshops and eating cake.

Facebook: Alex Weston Historical Fiction Writer
Twitter: AlexWeston46

Instagram: @alex_l_weston
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My thoughts: I recently watched the mini series about Cary Grant’s life, and this reminded me of that, with the setting and the look inside a Hollywood marriage. Obviously, Grant wasn’t gay and hiding, and the author was inspired by Rock Hudson’s marriage to his agent’s secretary, but Grant’s marriage wasn’t happy.

Swept up in the magic of Hollywood, Audrey agrees to a “lavender marriage”, usually entered into by two people hoping to hide their true sexuality, during a time when being out could destroy your career and your life, but doesn’t understand what she’s really getting into.

Her new husband is drinking too much, throwing parties that the press would love to know about and treats her appallingly. He’s deeply unhappy and missing the man he loves, and soon so is she. Especially when she falls for prop builder Jack, but can they ever build a life together while she’s tied to her heartthrob husband?

Life isn’t as glamorous as the movies, and even though Hollywood is a lot better than being miserable in dreary post-war England, there’s a dark underbelly and Audrey is deeply naive about how things really work. She’ll need to be strong and brave to weather this.

Bringing the reality of 50s Tinsel Town during Mccarthyism and the HUAC trials, when keeping your secrets was everything, to life, this is an interesting and enjoyable read.

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

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Blog Tour: Hunkeler’s Secret –  Hansjörg Schneider, translated by Astrid Freuler

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Hunkeler, now a retired inspector of the Basel police force, is hospitalized and sharing a room with Stephan Fankhauser, an old acquaintance terminally ill with cancer. One night, a groggy Hunkeler wakes up to see a young nurse with a ruby ring on her hand administering an injection to his friend. The following day Fankhauser is found dead.

Was the injection just a dream? Does the night nurse not usually wear a small diamond ring? There was no autopsy and a quick cremation. Hunkeler resolves to get to the bottom of the matter despite the objections of his ex-colleagues, who want the retired inspector to stay well clear of the investigation.

Hansjörg Schneider lives in Basel and began his professional career as a journalist and essayist. He is the author of a number of highly acclaimed plays and of the bestselling Hunkeler crime series, now with ten titles published.

Translator Astrid Freuler lives in Lidney, Gloucestershire. She has published translations of non-fiction and fiction, including the crime thriller A Shadow Falls by Andreas Pflüger.

My thoughts: This was really interesting and clever. Hunkeler lives in a narrow wedge of three countries meeting, France, Switzerland and Germany, the police of each nation must cooperate, but don’t always get along and the strange coincidence of several senior people from a Swiss bank dying and being arrested around the same time, has them worried.

But despite being retired, and pretty sure the police are barking up all the wrong trees, it is former Inspector Hunkeler who solves all the mysteries. Along the way he meets his granddaughter and makes up with his daughter, rescues a bewildered artist who just wants to be left alone, adopts a goat and eats some really good cheese.

I really enjoyed this, even if I didn’t understand all the stuff about people from Bergen (maybe you have to be Swiss?), I liked its wry, dryly comic tone, as Hunkeler outwits his former colleagues and does his own thing.

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