Category: reviews

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Death at Lover’s Leap – Catherine Coles

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Westleham Village 1948

As Valentine’s Day rolls around, Martha Miller finds herself unusually melancholy at the state of her own love life. With husband Stan still missing and with her growing feelings for Vicar Luke still
shrouded in secrecy, there’s only one place Martha can go – famous local beauty spot, Lovers’ Leap.
Legend has it that those with a broken heart throw themselves off the bridge that spans the river, but Martha is certainly not about to do such a thing! But it looks like someone else has had other ideas…. Because there in the river, Martha finds a body. But is this misadventure, a moment of lovesick madness, or is foul play afoot? Martha knows one thing…the villagers of Westleham have another crime to solve! Let the investigation commence! Find out if Martha and Luke can catch the killer in a brand new Martha Miller mystery from bestselling author Catherine Coles.

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Catherine Coles writes bestselling cosy mysteries set in the English countryside. Her extremely popular Tommy & Evelyn Christie series is based in North Yorkshire in the 1920’s and Catherine herself lives in Hull with her family and two spoiled dogs.

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My thoughts: in the middle of WW2, in a small English village, a young man is found dead in the water beneath the Lovers’ Leap, where legend has it, two young people, forbidden to be together, leapt to their deaths. Is this history repeating or is it something else entirely?

Out walking her dog, Martha finds the body, and after getting covered in mud too. It looks like a tragic accident but the autopsy reveals it’s murder. Could it be related to a strange incident in the village shop a few days before?

With the vicar, Luke, helping out, along with her gossipy friends, Martha thinks she can solve this one for Ben, the local Detective Inspector, and her future brother-in-law, if Ruby says yes.

Martha’s own feelings for Luke are threatening to boil over, if only missing husband Stan would either be found dead or alive and willing to agree to a divorce, then they could all move on, but no such luck. So for now the two of them will tiptoe around each other and focus on murder and not romance.

Uncovering a scam taking place right there in the village, one that might be connected to two deaths now, and involve Luke’s estranged father, a newcomer to the village, will hopefully provide distraction.

There’s lots going on and I couldn’t see how it was all connected until Martha laid it all out. She’d spotted the killer and quickly linked all the clues together, no wonder Luke finds her so fascinating, she’s rather brilliant. Setting up a trap for the murderer to walk into and getting it all very neatly resolved for the police to be able to charge the right people. Unfortunately not everyone ends up happy, but that’s life I suppose. A charming, clever 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: Indefensible – James Woolf

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A lawyer gets uncomfortably close to a former client, crossing a dangerous line, in this edgy debut thriller.

Daniel, a criminal barrister, is working all hours on a sensational trial at the Old Bailey, defending a client he believes is wrongfully accused of a grisly murder. Determined to keep Rod out of prison, he begins to neglect his wife—and soon afterwards suspects she’s having an affair.

After Daniel triumphs in court, the bond he’s formed with his newly acquitted client grows even stronger. Then Rod offers Daniel a favour that he really shouldn’t accept . . .

When things take a catastrophic turn, Daniel realises his conduct has veered from unprofessional to indefensible—and that he’s trapped in a nightmare of his own making . . .

My thoughts: this was a really interesting, clever and gripping legal thriller. Daniel is a bit too uptight and tense, you don’t ever imagine him being someone who might bend or break the rules, even the unwritten ones.

He finally lands a big case, defending a suspected killer, at the Old Bailey, he’s also recently got engaged to Micaela, a journalist. Riding high on his successes, he makes a few mistakes, that will in time, prove to be very costly.

Becoming friends with a client, even an ex-client is a big no no, but Daniel does it anyway, Rod is very good at winning people over. While on a weekend in Barcelona, Rod makes Daniel an offer he swears he refused – Micaela is having an affair, has in fact left him, and Rod offers to sort things out.

When Daniel sobers up, and repeatedly after, insists he didn’t agree to Rod’s offer, he never would. But this now threatens to destroy everything, his career, his relationships. So he comes clean and starts trying to put a stop to Rod’s threats and the fear Daniel now feels. How did he end up here?

There’s twists and turns and a few genuinely nasty moments, a lot of the characters seem to operate in a morally grey area – even Daniel for all his seemingly black and white morality. It’s quite hard to trust any of them as protagonists, between all the betrayal and lies. You’d think someone who understood the law so well would be able to predict circumstances but no, Daniel really doesn’t seem to be able to read people or events very well.

The ending is a shock, and I wonder whether any of them can ever come back from this, credibility completely gone, and be able to rebuild their lives.

*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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#TeamLyons Blog Tour: Critical Incidents – Lucie Whitehouse

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A missing girl. A murdered friend. No one left to trust.

‘Seriously good suspense … trust me, you’ll need to know what happens’ Lee Child

‘Superb characterisation, humour and galloping plot’ Susie Steiner

‘This is that deeply satisfying thing, a strong, deft thriller with real depth’ Tana French

Detective Inspector Robin Lyons is going home.

Dismissed for misconduct from the Met’s Homicide Command after refusing to follow orders, unable to pay her bills (or hold down a relationship), she has no choice but to take her teenage daughter Lennie and move back in with her parents in the city she thought she’d escaped forever at 18.

In Birmingham, sharing a bunkbed with Lennie and navigating the stormy relationship with her mother, Robin works as a benefit-fraud investigator – to the delight of those wanting to see her cut down to size.

Only Corinna, her best friend of 20 years seems happy to have Robin back. But when Corinna’s family is engulfed by violence and her missing husband becomes a murder suspect, Robin can’t bear to stand idly by as the police investigate. Can she trust them to find the truth of what happened? And why does it bother her so much that the officer in charge is her ex-boyfriend – the love of her teenage life?

As Robin launches her own unofficial investigation and realises there may be a link to the disappearance of a young woman, she starts to wonder how well we can really know the people we love – and how far any of us will go to protect our own.

About the author

Lucie Whitehouse was born in Gloucestershire in 1975, read Classics at Oxford University and now lives in Brooklyn, New York. She is the author of The House at Midnight, the TV Book Club pick The Bed I Made and Before We Met, which was a Richard & Judy Summer Book Club pick and an ITV3 Crime Thriller selection.

@LWhitehouse5

My thoughts: Robin is a senior detective at the Met police and makes a career crashing mistake, then she returns home to Birmingham, with teen daughter Lennie in tow. Sleeping in her childhood bunk bed, with Lennie up top, trying to get to grips with her situation.

Rob goes to work for a family friend, PI Maggie, who as well as cheating husbands, helps out women in trouble. They’re on the case of a young woman who’s gone missing.

Then Rob’s best friend Corinna is killed, her house set on fire and her young son seriously injured. Corinna’s husband Josh is missing, did he do this or were they involved in something more dangerous and is there a link between the missing girl and Corinna?

Rob can’t help but dig into Corinna’s death, despite being told by the police, in the form of ex-boyfriend Samir, to stay away. It turns out she didn’t know her friend as well as she thought.

Gripping from the start, Rob’s a great protagonist, she’s smart with great instincts if a bit too impulsive. She’s good at joining the dots and digging out the smallest clues and following them, even if they don’t lead anywhere good.

This case is incredibly personal to her, involving her closest friends but ones who really have too many secrets. And despite her less than official status she’s faster and more determined than the police.

This book really does set the series up, you get to meet Rob, her family, find out her story as well as learn about what she’s done to end up in her parents’ house in her mid thirties.

*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 Boot Camp Murders – Matthew Ross

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An an ambitious high-achieving young woman, unfairly bullied from her job, her career in ruins; her brother, a charming slacker getting by on good looks and charisma; an out-of-control unstoppable terrier called Winkle, and a popular social media star bludgeoned to death – who said pet-sitting would be a walk in the park?

Monica was on the corporate ladder striving to be a high-flying executive, but when the misogynistic bullying from the privileged pale stale males becomes too much she snaps and quits on the spot. At her lowest ebb, a chance remark from her charming slacker brother Paddy identifies a business opportunity – she becomes a pet-sitter!

She’s enthusiastic, she loves animals, and she’s got the management it’s bound to be a success, isn’t it? Monica quickly finds dealing with her team of misfits as easy as herding kittens.

Monica and Paddy soon very publicly clash with a much beloved personal trainer that has made their local park his own personal kingdom. However, after he is brutally murdered with his own dumbbell, legions of his online devotees are quick to pronounce Monica guilty in the court of social media opinion.

When the demands for retribution threaten to overspill into Monica’s real life, she knows she must find the killer before the lynch mob comes for her.

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Matthew Ross is the author of 3 published novels to date. His first novel, “Death Of A Painter” was selected by The Sun newspaper as one of its picks of the week. Matthew wrote his first novel after undertaking the prestigious Faber Academy 6-month novel writing course under the tutelage of Richard Skinner.

Prior to that Matthew wrote material for a leading British stand-up comedian for their live performances, corporate bookings, national theatre tours and their appearances on tv and radio shows such as “Have I Got News For You”, “Mock The Week” and “The News Quiz”.

In addition, he was commissioned to provide material and sketches for several comedy series that were broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

Matthew lives in Kent with his family and pets.

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My thoughts: I’ve read a couple of this author’s other books, so was keen to read his new crime fiction, and it was really enjoyable.

From the moment Monica loses it as she leaves her terrible job, to the gathering of the dog walkers and the utter chaos of the murder in the park investigation with a total idiot in charge of the case (I feel so sorry for Nicci, his DC, who should really be in charge), it’s just a tremendously fun and entertaining read, with enough gripping whodunnit? energy to keep me hooked. Can’t wait for the next one!

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*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: A Deadly Promise- Rachel Amphlett

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When a woman’s mutilated body is discovered in a remote countryside property, Detective Kay Hunter is faced with one of the most challenging investigations of her career.

There is nothing in the victim’s past to explain her brutal slaying and no clues as to how her killer got away.

Then a second body is found in a run-down storage facility, the man’s remains covered in horrific injuries that bear the hallmarks of prolonged torture.

With two families demanding justice, Kay is under pressure from her superiors to deliver a swift result – but there is no evidence to connect the two victims.

When a third victim is found just a short distance from her own incident room, Kay realises that the killer has no intention of stopping – and they already have their next victim in their sights…

A Deadly Promise is the 13th book in the Detective Kay Hunter series by USA Today bestselling author Rachel Amphlett, and perfect for readers who love fast-paced crime thrillers.

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 as a presenter and freelance producer for the BBC, and worked in publishing as an editorial assistant.

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

Rachel’s stories are available in eBook, print and audiobook formats from libraries and retailers as well as her own shop on this website.

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

She loves hearing from readers and personally replies to every email.

Email: info@rachelamphlett.com
Website: http://www.rachelamphlett.com

My thoughts: a dark and compelling crime thriller from Rachel Amphlett, who writes some very gripping stuff.

The shocking murder of a young woman in the bathroom of the house she cleans leads the police to more horrific deaths, all of people who turn out to be in debt to some seriously nasty people  – loan sharks, but sharks don’t torture their food, these people do.

As the cost of living crisis, rising unemployment and stagnant benefits force desperate people to take money from dubious sources, the police are racing against time to stop the killers and save lives. A chance comment in lock up could hold the key to who these genuinely awful people are.

Gripping, intelligent crime fiction.

*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: A Sign of Her Own – Sarah Marsh

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Ellen Lark is on the verge of marriage when she and her fiancé receive an unexpected visit from Alexander Graham Bell.

Ellen knows immediately what Bell really wants from her. Ellen is deaf, and for a time was Bell’s student in a technique called Visible Speech. As he instructed her in speaking, Bell also confided in her about his dream of producing a device which would transmit the human voice along a wire: the telephone. Now, on the cusp of wealth and renown, Bell wants Ellen to speak up in support of his claim to the patent to the telephone, which is being challenged by rivals.

But Ellen has a different story to tell: that of how Bell betrayed her, and other deaf pupils, in pursuit of ambition and personal gain, and cut Ellen off from a community in which she had come to feel truly at home. It is a story no one around Ellen seems to want to hear – but there may never be a more important time for her to tell it.

Sarah Marsh was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish prize in 2019 and selected for the London Library Emerging Writers programme in 2020. A Sign of Her Own is her first novel, inspired by her experiences of growing up deaf and her family’s history of deafness. She lives in London.

My thoughts: I knew of Alexander Graham Bell as the Scottish born inventor of the telephone, as I’m sure many people do, but not that he worked with D/deaf people and taught something called Visible Speech – essentially getting his students to speak by teaching them the shapes of letters and words in the mouth  – but they still couldn’t understand another person. 

I used some of his techniques as an ESL teacher, teaching English, when it comes to voiced and invoiced letters – B and P – for example. Ellen compiles lists of homophenes, words that appear the same when lipreading, which are harder to parse, for Bell, and writes an essay he never publishes as promised, on the subject. It’s an early sign of his reluctance to really engage with the deaf community.

Sign language is a valid and completely legitimate way of communicating, but it wasn’t always so. Deaf students were banned from using their hands in schools and expected to learn to speak, and lip read the responses. Through the characters of Ellen and Frank, both of whom attended these Oral Schools, the story of how sign language was oppressed is told.

Much like any language, it has its own rules, grammar and syntax  – and varies both nationally and even regionally. BSL (British Sign Language) is not the same as ASL or AusLan (American Sign Language and Australian Sign Language), nor is it the same as spoken English, much as American or Australian English varies from British English, despite being nominally the same.

Ellen speaks both ASL and BSL. Her mother is British, and while she grows up in America, she moves to Britain and learns the signs. She is lucky to be exposed to other members of the deaf community and to have a supportive and loving mother, who understands when she quits her lessons with Bell. Visible Speech, which gives him the idea for the telephone, feels to Ellen in the end, a betrayal of the deaf community and sign language.

This is a really fascinating look at the history of the deaf community more than it is a book about Bell, and I really liked Ellen and her story. Bell is apparently quite a controversial figure in deaf history, with his insistence on speech and dislike of sign language, even after working with deaf people and being married to a deaf woman. Ellen may be the fictional character but she was much more appealing and likeable than the real life one, who doesn’t come across well at all.

*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: Token – Beverley Kendall

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Kennedy Mitchell is brilliant, beautiful and tired of being the only Black woman in the room.

Two years ago, she was plucked from reception for a seat at the boardroom table in the name of “representation”. Rather than play along, she and her best friend founded Token, a boutique PR agency that helps diversity-challenged companies and celebrities. With famous people getting into reputation-damaging controversies, Token is in high demand and business is booming, but when her ex shows up needing help repairing his reputation, things get even more complicated and soon Kennedy finds herself drawn into a PR scandal of her own.

My thoughts: this was a really interesting, thought provoking and enjoyable read. It’s part romance, part looking at issues in modern life, specifically around race and gender.

Kennedy is hastily thrust into a job in order to secure some diversity points and instead of just letting herself be steam-rollered, she siezes the opportunity to take being the token woman, the token black person, and turn it into a business that helps companies recruit a more diverse and proportional workforce, educating the dinosaurs as best she can along the way.

She’s also falling hard for her best friend/business partner’s brother Nate. They had a very brief thing years before, and despite starting out sniping at each other, it’s pretty clear that they’re meant to be. And Aurora (the bestie) is thrilled.

However an email hack of several companies, including some of Kennedy’s clients, threatens to ruin it all when Kennedy gets dragged into a scandal and has to find a way to salvage her business and her sanity. Navigating the mess left behind by her two-faced clients takes a lot of energy and it causes some stress with Nate. Can Kennedy save her business and her relationship?

I found it really interesting to read a book that blends discussion of these serious issues – racism, sexism, in a romance novel, mixing serious issues with something light and frothy. Readers can be both – a lot of writers have inserted serious things into their books, but not necessarily as explicitly as this. Putting it front and centre in the form of Kennedy’s experiences.

Kennedy is a strong and smart woman, she’s fully aware that she’s exploiting the stupidity and full on ignorance of the white executives of these companies, and why not. Turn the tables on them, show them what they’re missing by being close minded and plain wrong.

This is intended to be the first in a series starring these characters, and it will be interesting to see what Beverley Kendall does next.

*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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BBNYA Blog Tour: Sorrow’s Forest – Kaitlin Corvus

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BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 15 finalists and one overall winner.

If you want some more information about BBNYA, check out the BBNYA Website https://www.bbnya.com/ or take a peek over on Twitter @BBNYA_Official. BBNYA is brought to you in association with the @Foliosociety (if you love beautiful books, you NEED to check out their website!) and the book blogger support group @The_WriteReads.

Sorrow’s Forest teems with beasts, some ugly, some beautiful, all unnatural. A ban restricts travel beneath her branches, existing for as long as Lakeview Township has, and most who disobey do not return.

To win a bet, twelve-year-old Mackie King enters the forest, and in its depths, he discovers a boy-like devil. Then he steals him from the trees.

In as little as an hour, the devil names himself Blue and fits seamlessly into the Kings’ life. No one seems to remember he wasn’t always there. Only Mackie knows the truth.

Now, Mackie and Blue are grown, Queen Sorrow has awakened, and she wants her devil back. She’s willing to tear the town apart to reclaim him. Mackie has always been resourceful, but it will take every bit of ingenuity he and Blue possess to thwart Queen Sorrow and her minions, save the town, and free themselves from the shadow of the bittering forest.

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Kaitlin Corvus is from Ontario, Canada. The north holds the best part of her. She writes about nobodies, monsters, and gutter glitter, loves the stars, the deep dark sea, and a good horror mystery.

My thoughts: when Mackie steals a forest devil, Blue, from Sorrow’s Forest, she doesn’t forget and eventually she wants to claim back what’s hers. The forest consumes the missing, and never gives them back.

But Mackie is afraid, afraid of the forest and increasingly of Blue. He is exhibiting strange power over people and events, and keeps spending time with his school bully, in what Mackie thinks is an abusive situation. Blue has always been openly gay, and the relationship between him and Mackie is shifting into something different, something more.

As the forest attempts to assert its power and draw Blue back to it, Mackie fights harder to keep his brother/friend/lover with him. Meanwhile his father is dying and more people are being swallowed up by the forest.

An intense bond and a story that draws you into it, as the forest does the two young men. What will become of them if the forest succeeds or indeed, if it doesn’t?

*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 Summer of Lies – Louise Douglas

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The summer is the hottest yet in the Brittany coastal town of Morranez, but when a new case lands on the desk of the Toussaints detective agency, there can be no time to relax.

As wild fires bear down on the town, the alert goes out for a missing girl. Nineteen-year-old Briony Moorcroft has seemingly been taken from her sleepy Welsh village and brought to France. Her parents are baffled and scared – Briony needs her life-saving medicine or this case will become even more sinister, and with the police dragging their heels, the Moorcrofts are relying on Mila Shephard and Carter Jackson’s sleuthing skills.

Meanwhile there are mysteries troubling Mila’s life too. Two years after the accident that swept her sister Sophie and brother-in-law Charlie away and left their daughter Ani in Mila’s care, new evidence resurfaces that makes Mila doubt everything. Can Carter and Mila find Briony before it’s too late? And is the truth about Sophie and Charlie finally about to be revealed…

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Louise Douglas is the bestselling and brilliantly reviewed author and an RNA award winner.TheSecrets Between Uswas a Richard and Judy Book Club pick. She lives in the West Country.

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My thoughts: Mila and Carter are tracking down two young women, one critically ill, who have run off to Brittany. But all is not as it seems there.

There’s also the possible sighting of the boat Mila’s stepsister Sophie and her husband Charlie were sailing when they went missing, or at least the remains of it. How will Mila’s niece, Ani, cope with hearing her father’s boat and maybe his remains have been found?

As thunderstorms threaten and wild fires destroy the Breton countryside, Mila must juggle her worries for Ani with the time crucial case, and discovers secrets hidden behind an every day facade.

Intelligent, gripping writing that brings the beautiful but threatened Brittany coastline and villages to life, with a cast of fascinating characters and stories. Sophie and Charlie had secrets too, will finding the boat bring them to the surface and what of Mila’s long distance relationship with fiancé Luke, back home in Bristol? Everything feels very delicate and tense, a delightful 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: Murder at the Leaning Tower – T.A. Williams

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An instalment in bestselling author T. A. Williams’ Armstrong and Oscar cosy mystery series!

A cosy crime series set in gorgeous Tuscany…

It’s murder in paradise!

A secluded villa…

When Dan Armstrong is asked to provide security at a private villa on the outskirts of Pisa, he’s prettysure it will be an easy job. Villa Gregory is remote; the gathered guests are rich – what could possiblygo wrong?A glittering gathering…

Inside the high walls of the palatial villa, Dan discovers the gathered guests are some of the most powerful tycoons in the media world, with plans for world domination. With so much at stake, Danredoubles his efforts to keep everyone safe.A detective under pressure?But when one of the group is found murdered, Dan’s heart sinks – especially considering Anna’s owndaughter is in the frame! When the police arrive, Dan meets formidable Inspector Adolfo Vinci, a man whose main talent seems to be for getting things wrong. It all goes from bad to worse for Dan as the man from the Leaning Tower starts leaning on him. It’s another case for Dan and Oscar to solve, and this one won’t be easy!

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T A Williams is the author of over twenty bestselling romances for HQ and Canelo and is now turning his hand to cosy crime, set in his beloved Italy, for Boldwood. The series will introduce us to retired DCI Armstrong and his labrador Oscar, and the first book, entitled Murder in Tuscany, was published in October 2022. Trevor lives in Devon with his Italian wife.

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My thoughts: I really like this series, Dan and Oscar are a delightful man & dog detective duo, like some of my favourite TV and book series, Oscar often sniffs out the perp and saves the day. As he does here.

I went to Pisa years ago with my family, and as with much of Tuscany, it’s incredibly beautiful, and the Tower is fascinating. Thankfully I didn’t witness any crimes though, while Dan seems to attract them. He’s playing security guard at a private villa where a top level meeting is taking place and they want privacy.

Until one of the guests is killed, and the police descend. Did someone break in, despite Dan’s patrols or was it one of the other guests? The deceased is not a popular man and has done some properly nasty things both professionally and personally and some of the other guests have reasons to dislike him, but to kill him?

When Anna’s daughter, who happens to be the victim’s assistant, is arrested, Dan is sure they’ve got the wrong person and despite the deeply unpleasant Inspector warning him off, decides to keep digging.

Thankfully the ever vigilant Oscar is by his side as Dan makes himself a target to catch the killer. Otherwise this could have been the last in the series!

I really had fun with this one, and the descriptions of food made me so hungry! Can’t wait for the next adventure for Dan and Co under the gorgeous Tuscan sun.

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