Category: reviews

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Antique Hunter’s Death on the Red Sea – C.L. Miller

ramblingmads

Freya and Carole are back on an antique hunting adventure in the sequel to the international bestseller, The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder.

When a painting vanishes from a maritime museum, and a dead body is found nearby, the newly established Lockwood Antique Hunter’s Agency, Freya Lockwood and her aunt Carole, are called to investigate. Following a lead that takes them aboard a glamorous antiques cruise sailing toward the Red Sea in Jordan, they quickly discover that the ship‘s art gallery is filled with stolen antiquities.

Each antique is also listed in Freya’s late mentor’s journals that detail unsolved cases. In chasing a murderer with a stolen painting, they may have found something more sinister than they could’ve imagined . . .

Their hunt soon turns deadly when they learn the enigmatic and dangerous art trafficker named The Collector could be on board. But on a ship full of antiques enthusiasts – plus some unexpected familiar faces – will Freya and Carole be able to discover The Collector’s identity and stop his murderous plans before the ship docks? Or will the killer strike again?

Cara Miller started working life in publishing as an editorial assistant for her mother, Judith Miller, on the Miller’s Antique Price Guide to Europe before she went into hospitality and events. After she had children, she decided to follow her long-held dream of becoming an author and began writing full-time. She was an Undiscovered Voices winner in 2022 and was showcased in the UV 2022 anthology. She lives in a medieval cottage in Suffolk with her family.

This book was written in consultation with international antiques expert Judith Miller (1951–2023), a regular specialist on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow. Judith was also the co-founder of the bestselling annual Miller’s Antiques Price Guide, which started in 1979. She went on to write more than 120 books on antiques and interiors.

My thoughts: Freya and Carole are settling into their new lives in Arthur’s antique business and looking for their next case, which comes in the form of a stolen painting at a maritime museum. There’s also been a murder, but the police are dealing with that, so they can focus on the painting.

It’s listed in one of Arthur’s journals, and the trail leads them to a cruise down the Nile to Jordan, where several experts are due to give talks on antiques and a range of items is on display. Stolen items, including the painting.

Chasing it will lead them into danger, as there’s plenty of people on board with their own motives, interests in the antiquities and possibly even the mysterious Collector. Friendly FBI agent Phil also happens to be on board, along with furious thief Bella.

Freya has tech support in the form of new employee Sky, but is she who she claims to be, or is she somehow connected to the Collector?

Carole is even more flamboyant than ever in kaftans and neon, while Freya is having to overcome her natural shyness and give talks in Arthur’s stead, as well as risk her life to expose the criminals in their midst and attempt to get the painting back for the museum, even if it isn’t exactly authentic.

Arthur had a lot of secrets, and was probably double crossing some very dangerous people, some of which Freya encounters on this adventure  – not that staying home is much safer, thank goodness for the villagers.

Great fun, funny and witty. I’m already looking forward to the next book, when they head off to Scotland following the next of Arthur’s journals and his list of stolen treasures.

*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: Listen to Mother – L.J. Smith

ramblingmads

Lesley Hamilton is starting a new life in Florence when she discovers a dead
neighbour. An inexplicable mistake leads her to Paolo Bianchi, an individual
unaffected by usual human emotions. His involvement in crime leaves him living in
the shadowy fringes of society where decisions are made for him. When he is left to his own devices, his actions lead to tragic consequences, not just for himself but also for all those lives he touches.

As Paolo’s life unravels, Gianfranco Valdi and his Caribinieri team must unpick the
threads that lead to Paolo and his connection with organised crime.

Goodreads Purchase

Laura Jane Smith began writing seriously in 2019 when she took early retirement
after a 34-year career in education. She lives in Perthshire in Scotland, where she
enjoys gardening, walking, theatre and going to the cinema, as well as cycling and
cross-stitching.
Her interest in writing came not just from her own reading but also from the
process of teaching others about reading, writing and understanding the written word.
The ideas for her first novel came from her experiences in education and
travelling in Europe, as well as her enjoyment of a well-told psychological thriller.
She focuses on human behaviour and individual motivation when faced with life-changing events and difficult decisions.
Relationships are at the heart of the novels. The decisions made by the characters and the relationships they develop drive the plot. The inspiration for this first novel, Listen to Mother, came initially from a trip to Florence in 2011. However, the main inspiration was a desire for others to experience the world from the viewpoint of someone with highfunctioning autism whose struggles with the reality of life result in his joining a world in the shadows

Twitter

My thoughts: This was a really interesting way of writing a crime novel, setting it both before and after the central crime, giving the perpetrator all the opportunities to stop and reconsider his plan, and then showing the aftermath, the investigation, the pain wrecked on the victims’ families and the almost inevitable end for the killer.

Lesley has moved to Florence, a stunning city, with the intention of writing a novel, but discovering the body of a neighbour sets into motion a terrible chain of events. I’m not sure I’d agree with her actions and the decisions she makes, bringing into contact with a killer and also with the detective she falls in love with.

Paolo, our assassin, is a strange man, obsessive and still following instructions left by his dead mother (hence the title). It is only quite far into the book before anyone says that he’s autistic, and while his condition isn’t why he becomes a killer, it does govern how he goes about his job and the way in which he behaves when events get beyond him. I found him quite sinister, not because of his autism, more the stalking behaviour and the wearing of black leather gloves, even to do the gardening.

I liked Lesley and Diego, their deaths are awful, but the detectives who investigate were pretty decent and I like Gianfranco and Violetta a lot, I hope we see more from them in a future 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.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: While We’re Young – K.L. Walther

ramblingmads

A whirlwind romance inspired by Ferris Bueller’s Day Off about four friends whose hearts are broken and mended over the course of an epic senior skip day—from the bestselling author of The Summer of Broken Rules!

Grace, Isa, and Everett used to be an inseparable trio before their love lives became a tangled mess. For starters, Grace is secretly in love with Everett, who used to go out with Isa before breaking her heart in the infamous Freshman Year Fracture. And, oh yeah, no one knows that Isa has been hanging out with James, Grace’s brother—and if Grace finds out, it could ruin their friendship.

With graduation fast approaching, Grace decides an unsanctioned senior skip day in Philadelphia might be just what they need to fix things. All she has to do is convince Isa to help her kidnap Everett and outmaneuver James, who’s certain his sister is up to something.

In an epic day that includes racing up the famous Rocky steps, taste-testing Philly’s finest cheesesteaks, and even crashing a wedding, their secrets are bound to collide. But can their hearts withstand the wreckage?

Goodreads Storygraph  

Amazon: Canada  USA UK

K.L. Walther was born and raised in the rolling hills of Bucks County, Pennsylvania surrounded by family, dogs, and books. Her childhood was spent traveling the northeastern seaboard to play ice hockey. She attended a boarding school in New Jersey and went on to earn a B.A. in English from the University of Virginia. She is happiest on the beach with a book, cheering for the New York Rangers, or enjoying a rom-com while digging into a big bowl of popcorn and M&Ms. And listening to Taylor Swift on repeat, of course. 

My thoughts: I loved this, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is one of my favourite films (I’m a massive fan of the director John Hughes) so I was hoping for a great read, and I got one.

A gender swapped, set in Philadelphia not Chicago, 21st Century update of Ferris, with multiple narrators that is very funny, smart, charming and great fun.

Grace is student president, a brilliant student, popular and well thought of, so her deciding to take the day off, is completely out of character, and dragging her studious, going to an Ivy League, best friend along for the ride, even more so. Isa doesn’t ever skip school or a test, so hopefully their lies hold up. Kidnapping long time friend Everett while dressed as the Phillie Phanatic, is not even the craziest thing they do all day.

Grace’s brother James, formerly the final corner to their square, is furious when we works out what’s going on, and even though he keeps the secret, he’s determined not to completely miss out on the day’s hijinks. He just has to avoid the school principal first.

I had a ball reading this, and I spotted all the Ferris Bueller references (I think!)

*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 Swell – Kat Gordon

ramblingmads

IN PLACES OF DARKNESS, WOMEN WILL RISE . . .

Iceland, 1910. In the middle of a severe storm two sisters – Freyja and Gudrun – rescue a mysterious, charismatic man from a shipwreck near their remote farm.

Sixty-five years later, a young woman – Sigga – is spending time with her grandmother when they learn a body has been discovered on a mountainside near Reykjavik, perfectly preserved in ice.

Moving between the turn of the 20th century and the 1970s as a dark mystery is unravelled, The Swell is a spellbinding, beautifully atmospheric read, rich in Icelandic myth.

My thoughts: A powerful and fascinating story of sisters and family. In 1910 sisters Freya and Gudrun live on their father’s smallholding in Northern Iceland, when they rescue a young man from a sinking ship, his presence changes their lives.

Years later, Sigga, a teenager in a changing Iceland, spends time with her grandmother and learns a bit more about her life. She’s a survivor and raised her son, Sigga’s father, alone, after the deaths of her family, never naming his own father. Could the body recently found on a remote mountain near to where she lived, be someone she knew?

As Sigga struggles with her own brother and makes decisions about her own future, we see how the events of 1910 affect Freya and Gudrun, how their guest’s presence changes things in the village forever.

Moving back and forth, the two narratives, weave an inventive and captivating story of siblings and the complicated bonds between them. There is a third narrative of sorts too – a founding tale of Iceland, that weaves through the other stories. Sigga has won a prize for her version of the story, and the sisters refer to the same tale in their time too, adding to the interconnected nature of the 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.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The House of Light and Shadows – Lauren Westwood

ramblingmads


An atmospheric and captivating old-house mystery, layered with romance and secrets.

Secrets lurk in the shadows at Rookswood House…

When Kate goes to look after her estranged sister’s children in their creepy old house, she takes a photo of what seems to be a ghost. Frightened yet intrigued, Kate undertakes to uncover the secrets
of the house and the two mysterious sisters who lived there over a hundred years before.

But like the illusions of light and shadow in the sisters’ strange and disturbing Victorian post-mortem photography, Kate discovers that all is not what it seems. Someone – or something – has their own
plans for Rookswood House – and for Kate.

With a potential developer circling around, her teenage niece in danger from an unseen force, and new love on the horizon, Kate must unravel the secrets and lies of her own and Rookswood’s past
before she loses everything she holds dear.

If you like historical mysteries by Eve Chase, Rachel Burton and Harriet Evans, you’ll love Lauren Westwood.

Purchase


Lauren Westwood is an author of emotional women’s fiction and intelligent romance novels.

Facebook: @Lwestwoodbooks
Twitter: @lwestwoodwriter
Instagram: @lwestwoodwriter
Newsletter

My thoughts: I liked Kate, I felt awful bit sorry for her, estranged from her only family, but I know that sisters can be very hard work (personal experience has taught me that!) and that things are not always as they appear. When she steps in to take care of her niblings, while her sister gets better, she’s not entirely sure how to deal with teenagers.

Their dishy headteacher on the other hand, she’s intrigued by. And the crumbling old house her sister bought is also fascinating. Rookswood House was home to an earlier pair of sisters – one of whom was a photographer and worked with early special effects to create some unusual images. Victorians did some pretty weird things – like taking photos with their recently deceased loved ones as though they were still alive, but this early science and imagination also created some incredible things.

Ada might be dead, but part of her remains trapped in her home, unable to move on without her sister, lost to her years ago. Kate picks up on this energy and wants to help Ada move on, so Rookswood can too. Luckily headteacher, photographer and amateur historian Matthew does too. As the pair search for answers, they grow closer. Then Kate’s sister comes home and a few secrets and home truths need to be shared.

Pairing Kate’s story with Ada’s is interesting, the different relationships they have with their younger sisters, the struggles they both share as women who haven’t followed the expected paths in life (both unmarried, both working women) despite their different centuries. I really liked that aspect of the story – things don’t change as much as we sometimes would like.

*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 Enemy Within – Rob Sinclair

ramblingmads


His past is coming back with a vengeance…

Ex-intelligence agent James Ryker has done many things in the past he’d prefer to forget.

The last time he saw Gregor Minko – son to one of Ukraine’s most dangerous and politically influential arms dealers – Gregor was a scared 6-year-old boy in need of protection. But Ryker had to walk away. The boy wasn’t the mission.

Twenty years on Ryker is approached by two strangers in Antibes, France, asking for his help in finding Gregor – now going by the name of Gregor Rebrov. With a back catalogue of ‘crimes against the Russian state’, Gregor has escaped from a gulag in Siberia and is now in the wind.

Fuelled by old demons and painful memories of his own brutal actions in the past, Ryker finds himself once again in the thick of a complicated race against time and who knows how many of the world’s secret services, to find Gregor and get some answers.

As answers turn into more questions, they lead Ryker closer to home… and he can’t shake the feeling that he may be to blame.

Purchase 


Rob Sinclair is the million copy bestseller of over twenty thrillers, including the James Ryker series.
Most recently published by Bloodhound, Boldwood will publish his latest action thriller, Rogue Hero, in June 2024 and will be republishing all the James Ryker series over the coming months.

Facebook: @robsinclairauthor
Twitter: @rsinclairauthor
Newsletter
Bookbub profile: @RobSinclair

My thoughts: James Ryker’s past as an undercover agent comes back to haunt him when he’s approached to look for a missing Russian prisoner. Gregor Rebrov escaped from a Siberian gulag and vanished. He’s an enemy of the Russian state, as was his oligarch/gangster father.

So Ryker heads to war torn Ukraine – the last place Gregor was seen. But he’s not been given all the information and Gregor isn’t an innocent by any means.

Ryker also isn’t operating with full cooperation of any government or agency, his boss Winter has agreed to give him some assistance, but he’s essentially on his own. And things do not go well.

There’s twists and turns, some harrowing moments and Ryker also relives his involvement with Gregor’s parents and the six-year-old Gregor in Cyprus. Gregor’s plan for revenge is pretty scary too – especially in a post-Covid 19 world and considering the way that things are at the moment, not too hard to imagine. Totally gripping, thrilling, will keep you on the edge of your seat!

*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 – Late Venetian – GN Lawson

ramblingmads

A disgraced former MP, Teddy Chesterton, is dying. He wants to put things right with
his ex-wife, Laura, the only woman he has ever loved, but who left him after
believing he deceived her. Teddy finds out that Laura has recently been widowed
and invites her to come with him to Venice. To his surprise, she accepts.

They first meet at a gallery where Teddy’s university friend, Paul Merrick works, and
Laura is offered the chance to work in London to help stage an exhibition of
paintings by Tiepolo. Paul asks Laura to do him a favour and authenticate a sketch
by the younger Tiepolo. She is told subsequently that what she believed to be a genuine Tiepolo was a fake, and her reputation in the art world is ruined.
She blames Teddy for his part in getting her involved with Paul. They divorce, and
Teddy goes to prison for money laundering.

Upon his release, he visits Paul, who explains that he had nothing to do with the sketch being a fake and that it was copied by a forger to whom he had unwittingly sold the original.

In Venice, Teddy gives Laura a pile of papers that prove Paul did not set out to
deceive her about the sketch he asked her to authenticate. Teddy knows that he
has done what he set out to do, even if everything is just too late.

Goodreads Purchase


Apart from three years studying History of Art and Philosophy at University College
London, I have lived my entire life in the North West – born in Warrington, lived and worked in Manchester, and fourteen years ago moved to north Cumbria.

After several years of freelance arts journalism, I ran a NW-based public relations agency called Lawson Leah in the 1990s, then worked for various organisations in the construction industry, as CEO of Construction for Merseyside Ltd and then Director of the Civil Engineering Contractors’ Association. I have been a guest lecturer on urban regeneration and chaired a housing association for three years, and now work part-time as a consultant.

I have had articles on a range of topics, including the arts, construction,
engineering, housing and economic development published in numerous
magazines, as well as poetry and a guidebook to waterway walks in the NW.

My approach to writing tends to involve identifying a problematic situation and then finding a means of resolving it. I derive particular pleasure from finding the right words to achieve that. I was first inspired to write, as a teenager, after reading The Catcher in the Rye, and latterly find inspiration in the daunting novels of Bellow, Nabokov and Pynchon.

My thoughts: Teddy invites his ex-wife Laura to join him on a short trip to Venice, she is the only woman he’s ever loved and he doesn’t blame her for divorcing him when she did.

The story of their relationship is told in turns by them, the story of how a Jewish New Yorker art historian met a Home Counties Tory MP (as he became). It’s bittersweet as you know from the beginning that they aren’t together any more and that Laura moved on. It’s also the story of an art fraud that they were implicated in, one that could have ended very badly.

Teddy is dying, something he keeps from Laura even as they relive their previous trips to Venice and their life together. He leaves her with the proof that the art fraud that destroyed their marriage was not done with malice towards them, that it was in fact the buyer of the piece that perpetrated it and they were merely caught up in. While we’re not given Laura’s reaction, after everything else we as readers know, it would be a shock.

Once you get into the narrative flow, and the way it passes back and forth between Teddy and Laura, between the past and the present, it’s a well written and quite engaging story, Teddy is a bit of a rogue and Laura slightly naive and unworldly, but somehow it worked and they have two adult children together, keeping them always just in each other’s lives long after their marriage ended. A fascinating and thoughtful 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.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Case of the Christie Conspiracy – Kelly Oliver

ramblingmads


Agatha Christie is about to embark on a new, gripping murder case. But this time, she’s not the author – she’s a suspect…

1926 – Christie is a darling of the literary circuit and the most desired guest in London’s glittering social scene. She can often be found at meetings of the Detection Club – where mystery writers
come together to share ideas, swap secrets and drink copiously. But then a fellow author’s initiation ceremony takes a gruesome turn, and one of the group ends up dead. Now, Agatha is no longer just
the creator of great mystery plots – she’s a player in one.

And when Agatha disappears the day after the murder, she’s widely assumed to be guilty. Only Eliza Baker, assistant to the Club’s enigmatic secretary, Dorothy Sayers, is interested in investigating the case. But in a world where murder is the ultimate plot device, can Eliza piece together the evidence and find the killer before it’s too late?

Purchase


Kelly Oliver is the award-winning, bestselling author of three mysteries series: The Jessica James Mysteries, The Pet Detective Mysteries, and the historical cozies The Fiona Figg Mysteries, set in
WW1. She is also the Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University and lives in Nashville, Tennessee. She is bringing new titles in the Fiona Figg series to Boldwood, the first of
which, Chaos in Carnegie Hall, will be published in November 2022.

Facebook: @KellyOliverAuthor
Twitter: @KellyOliverBook
Instagram: @kellyoliverbooks
Newsletter
Bookbub profile: @KellyOliverBook

My thoughts: Blending fact and fiction, this is a fun historical crime caper. Agatha Christie was indeed a member of the Detection Club, a group of the top crime writers of the era, and she did disappear for a while in 1926, turning up in Harrogate with apparent temporary amnesia. This is usually attributed to the fact that her husband had asked for a divorce so he could marry his secretary. Agatha never revealed anything about this episode and after some time refused to discuss it at all.

But here an alternative theory is proposed, following the murder of a fellow crime writer, one of which she is accused of doing, she flees in fear. Although shooting someone in the dark isn’t very Christie – a former pharmacist she knew her poisons very well and many of her books feature death by deadly dose.

Luckily for her, Dorothy Sayers, the club’s secretary is on the case (Sayers and Arthur Conan Doyle did really look for her when she went missing) and so is her assistant Eliza Baker (sadly, fictional), who has some experience in these matters after working at Scotland Yard during the war.

I really liked Eliza, she was smart, resourceful and a lot more intuitive than the police, solving both the murder and Mrs Christie’s disappearance with apparent ease and playing a lot of chess along the way. I hope this is the start of a cracking series featuring the Detection Club and Eliza, who is a better detective than the creators of some of the most famous. She also has a faithful canine companion, and as you probably know by now, an animal detective is always a bonus in my book.

And don’t worry about Agatha, as well as being one of the most successful writers of all time, she also found love again with archaeologist Max Mallowen, and even went on digs with him, which inspired some of her more far flung books like Death on the Nile. Yes, I am a huge fan and a total nerd, why thank you.

*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: Happily Ever After – Jane Lovering

ramblingmads

Andi Glover loves nothing more than a good book.
Any book in fact because when you’re raised by unconventional parents who think school’s for squares, alongside a deeply conventional sister who escapes home as soon as she can, fiction is
eminently preferable to reality.
The only problem is that fiction isn’t the best way to learn about the real world.

When Andi starts her new live-in job at Templewood Hall for the eccentric Lady Dawe and her enigmatic son Hugo, it’s
tempting to think she’s fallen into the pages of one of her favourite gothic novels.
But the plot twists at Templewood Hall are stranger than fiction and it’s not long before Andi questions if she’s living in a romance novel or a whodunnit. Bumps in the night, a missing heir, ghostly apparitions and secrets that have been kept for generations – the mysteries mount up. Then there’s the inscrutable gardener who seems to appear when needed – is Andi right to hope for a happily-ever-after end to her story?

Purchase 


Jane Lovering is a bestselling and multi-award winning romantic comedy writer. Most recently Jane won the RNA Contemporary Romantic Novel Award in 2023 with A Cottage Full of Secrets. She lives in Yorkshire and has a cat and a bonkers terrier, as well as five children who have now left home.

Facebook: @jane.lovering
Twitter: @janelovering
Newsletter
Bookbub profile: @janelovering

My thoughts: This was a lot of fun, I liked Andi, and her job cataloguing the dusty and neglected library is pretty much my dream (although the dust is a health hazard, I’m asthmatic!) accompanied by resident feline, The Master.

She’s supposed to be looking for the diaries of the house’s one time master, grandfather to Hugo, Lady Tanith’s father-in-law, with whom she is obsessed. But the diaries don’t seem to be anywhere Andi can find, and Lady Tanith is not happy.

What Andi does find is a whole heap of secrets, and considering that there’s only a few people in the house, it’s impressive that they’ve managed to keep them. She also finds a deaf gardener, Jay, with whom she develops a slightly awkward relationship. He almost drowns her in the fountain, she catches him peeing in the bushes, it’s very rom-com esque.

She’s slightly worried that Lady Tanith will either sack her or marry her off to poor Hugo, who doesn’t really want that either. Although he does need a friend. His mother is completely nuts and horrible.

As Andi’s time at the house is under pressure, and she’s still sort of falling for Jay, things take a few twists and turns.  It’s lots of fun to read, but probably quite stressful to live, so maybe I won’t hire myself out as a librarian archivist just yet.

*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: Hollow Ground – Freya Wallace

ramblingmads

In the rugged wilderness of Dartmoor, school teacher Sophie Parsons vanishes without a trace during a weekend trek. For Detective Inspector Jacob Knox, Sophie’s disappearance stirs unsettling echoes of a previous case involving another woman who vanished in the same desolate moorland six months earlier.

As Knox delves deeper, he uncovers the complexities of Sophie’s personal life, including a secret affair with a charismatic colleague and a tense relationship with her long-term boyfriend, Peter. But Sophie’s tangled love life is just the beginning of Knox’s troubles. A local legend about a beast stalking the moors resurfaces, fueling public fear and media speculation. Is it just a myth, or could something more sinister be at play?

With time running out and the possibility that two women have been claimed by the moor, Knox faces his toughest case yet—one that will test him professionally and personally. As the case unfolds, Knox realizes the dark truths buried beneath the surface of Sophie’s life may be the key to unlocking the mystery.

Introducing DI Jacob Knox, Hollow Ground is a gripping crime thriller set in the eerie
beauty of Devon’s Dartmoor, blending elements of mystery, suspense, and psychological depth to explore the blurred lines between human vulnerability and the unknown.

Goodreads Purchase

Freya Wallace is a crime writer based in Devon. Her debut novel, Hollow Ground, introduces DI Knox in the first book of an atmospheric new series set against the backdrop of her local area. A lifelong reader, she always wanted to see a gripping crime series unfold in the place
she knows best.
When she’s not writing or reading, Freya can be found walking her two German Shepherds
along the local beaches.

Facebook Instagram

My thoughts: This was a really good, tense, crime thriller. Women have been going missing on Dartmoor – not an easy place to find a missing person. The local police are up against it, not helped by rumours that the infamous beast of legend is roaming once more.

As DI Knox and his team dig into Sophie’s life, trying to work out what her connection to the previous victim might be, if any, and whether she was targeted or just convenient, they uncover her secrets, do either her longterm boyfriend or colleague lover have anything to do with her disappearance?

Knox’s personal life also becomes more complicated in the form of his troubled brother, he wants to help him but needs to focus on the case. There’s also potential romance with her dog walker, Lucy, but when does he have time to date, there’s missing women and a dangerous person to find.

Clever, twisting and totally gripping, this is a great start to hopefully a new series of crime set in Devon.

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