ramblingmads

Crystal-clear waters. Cold-blooded murder. Deep blue lies. When Ava Whitaker is kicked out of medical school – and dumped by her boyfriend – her life falls apart. But the real problem isn’t her future. It’s in her past. She was born on the Greek island of Alythos, where her mother once mixed cocktails at the luxurious Aegean Dream Resort. Yet her mother has never spoken about that time, never explained why she left so suddenly, and never answered the one question that’s haunted Ava her entire life: Who was her father?

Desperate for answers, Ava travels to Alythos to discover the truth. But what begins as a search for her identity quickly turns into something far more sinister. The island’s aquamarine waters hide tragic secrets. The locals’ smiles don’t reach their eyes. And the abandoned resort, with its cracked pool and vine-strangled terraces, feels like a tomb.

Because something happened here twenty years ago. Something the locals have spent decades trying to forget. And something somebody will do anything to keep buried…

My thoughts: Dear Parents, please tell your children the truth about their parentage if there are any questions e.g. who’s their father or if they’re adopted. Otherwise, like Ava, they might go digging and find things out you’d rather they didn’t.

Ava knows that her dad is Greek and that she was conceived when her mum was working at a holiday resort on the island of Alythos. But her mum won’t tell her anything else, like her dad’s name or why they up and left Greece so quickly.

So, having been forced to drop out of medical school, Ava’s off to Greece, armed with a photo of her mum, a few facts and a whole lot of supposition.

But as she learns about what happened at the resort twenty-three years ago, the questions mount up. Is she the baby left alive after the murder/suicide of the resort’s manager and his girlfriend? How does her mum fit in to that story? As Imogen (her mum’s friend) and her mum also head out to Greece, will Ava finally get some answers and will what she learns give her the peace she needs?

Full of shocking revelations and twists, this is one summer of discovery no one is coming away from unchanged.

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

In the aftermath of Hamas’s October 7th attack on Israel, Mossad’s London station chief Eli Amiram is fighting battles on all fronts. When his ambitious rival plans an assassination on British soil – supposedly authorized by Trump supporters – Eli suspects a deeper conspiracy.

Meanwhile, British intelligence asset Petra is hunting for redemption. Tasked with recruiting Wasim Al-Arikhi – whose sister she failed to save from becoming a suicide bomber – Petra’s drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse. Can Wasim be trusted or has she become a target?

As Eli and Petra’s paths converge, they discover that in the shadow world of international espionage, the greatest threats often come from within. They must confront not just their enemies, but their own moral choices.

A sophisticated spy thriller that weaves together tradecraft, betrayal and the human cost of intelligence work.

Merle Nygate is a screenwriter, screenwriting lecturer and novelist. Her career has taken her from working on BAFTA winning TV to New York Festival audio drama to writing original sitcoms. She previously worked for BBC Comedy Commissioning. She has been a writer and script editor across multiple genres. Her first espionage novel won the Little Brown/UEA Crime Fiction award. Her second was a Sunday Times Thriller of 2024.

My thoughts: A very timely read, concerning itself with the immediate aftermath of the October 7th attack in Israel and the Mossad agents stationed in the UK.

Eli is an interesting figure – he’s worried about the temporary head of the Washington office, who is all gungho for an assassination to take place on British soil, but his information is a bit suspect and Eli needs to prove it’s a bad call.

He’s also attempting to recruit a student – Wasim who he thinks might be a good source of information. But after being rebuffed he sends in Petra, who knew Wasim’s sister. Unfortunately Wasim has to come to the attention of a rather troubling individual and now Petra has to resolve things.

There’s a bit of sneaking around in the countryside, meetings in coffee shops and restaurants with spies from other countries – and their own side, and personal problems for Eli and his number two.

It was a really interesting read, and managed not to be too weighted or lecturing. Even the Mossad agents are at a loss as to how to react to the events unfolding in their home country, they just have to try to focus on their jobs. It was a clever, intelligent thriller and the characters are engaging and realistic.

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