ramblingmads

Two brutal murders. One glass house with a sinister past. And a ruthless killer who’s
ready to throw the first stone . . .

To step into Hollingrove Palm House is to step into another world, filled with tropical blooms, lush foliage and six ancient stones. Flash tycoon Tony Pardoe, the house’s owner, doesn’t believe the old wives’ tales that swirl around these stones. A mistake he won’t live to regret.

Pardoe’s body is found, sprawled across the stones like a sacrificial offering. Now it’s up to Detective Markham and his team to solve the twisted puzzle of Pardoe’s killing.

The only clue? Another mysterious death, under the same roof. Thirty years ago, little Mary Priddy suffered a fatal fall among the stones. Markham doesn’t believe in that kind of coincidence.

But the roots of these murders are buried deeper than he could ever imagine . . .

While Markham’s grappling with his own, more personal demons, a third body falls.
Can he unravel the mystery — more tangled than the palm house foliage — before the killer escapes into the shadows a second time?

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Catherine Moloney is a Liverpool writer of Irish-American heritage. After graduating in Jurisprudence from Jesus College (University of Oxford), she was called to the Bar at Gray’s Inn. Despite qualifying as a barrister, her first love was English; this led to a PhD in English Literature at Birkbeck College (University of London).
In her academic career, she lectured and published widely on the subject of tuberculosis and nineteenth-century literature, but somehow managed to avoid contracting galloping hypochondria and turned her attention to crime fiction.

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My thoughts: DI Markham’s team are called to the gardens of Hollingrove House, a museum in a stately home that has links to Richard II. The CEO has been murdered by the ancient standing stones, his body laid out in a strange fashion, could a modern believer in ancient Druidic rites be the killer?

The only previous time the police had investigated the house was thirty years before when a little girl died, the detectives at the time ruled it an accident, but there were always questions it was murder. Could there be a connection to this case?

With more questions than answers, the team delve into the lives of the staff and volunteers at the house. At the same time Markham and his able fellow DI Bishop are both dealing with personal relationship issues, but they need to focus after another person is killed. Just what is going on?

Clever, with a rather chilling folie a deux, lots of literary and historical references to keep you focused, and enjoyable characters (I’d forgotten how much I enjoy grumpy old Yorkshireman Noakes) this is another excellent slice of crime writing.

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

He freed a monster. Now the city wants his head.

Mitchum Sweeney is fifty, divorced, and one bad hand away from financial
ruin.

By day, he’s a judicial staff attorney at Oakland’s Superior Court. By night, he’s dodging creditors and chasing lost causes. But when his expert testimony sets cartel kingpin Paco Castillo free, Mitch becomes a target — for the union, the FBI, and Paco himself.

Castillo has one final demand: find his missing wife, and Mitch’s mountain of gambling debt disappears.
But when Mitch’s search uncovers evidence of a child trafficking ring
buried in the justice system itself, the stakes turn lethal.

As bullets fly and bodies drop, Mitch is forced to reckon with his past and confront impossible choices — because the truth won’t set him free, and saving the people he loves might mean damning himself for good…

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Dylan H. Jones is the author of the best-selling Detective Tudor Manx
series, set on the idyllic Welsh island of Anglesey.

A native Welsh speaker, Dylan was born on the Isle of Anglesey and left at the age of eighteen to study at Leeds University. His love of storytelling and writing began at a young age when he slipped a copy of Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock from his father’s bookshelf.

Dylan’s debut novel, Anglesey Blue, was an immediate hit, taking the Amazon #1 spot in Welsh Crime on the first day of release. The novel was also long listed for the Guardian Newspaper’s prestigious readers’ choice award, Not the Booker Prize.

His following two novels, Doll Face and Shadow Soul soon became firm, crime fiction fan favourites, and established DI Manx as a fresh, compelling protagonist in Welsh Noir.
His standalone thriller, What Follows, set in Oakland CA, was published in 2021.

Dylan is also a creative director and ad agency copywriter, and now lives in Oakland, California with his wife Laura and daughter Isabella. Dylan loves great coffee and fine wines, and can often be found around the coffee shops of Oakland conversing with the locals and seeking inspiration in his next shot of espresso.

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My thoughts: Mitch Sweeney is having a very bad day. Called to testify on the stand as an expert witness during the trial of a crime kingpin, he’s now in the sights of everyone, from the furious man who blames that criminal for his niece’s death, to the cops who pulled him over, and the very happy to be found innocent gangster.

Now he apparently owes Paco Castillo a favour – find his missing wife so she can sign the divorce papers and he can marry his Russian ballerina girlfriend, Oksana. Or at least that’s what he tells Mitch.

He finds himself caught up in the middle of a turf war, and that Paco is guilty of much more severe and awful crimes than he could possibly know. There’s also dodgy dealings at the court house to investigate and a bent cop to bring to justice. All in a day’s work, right.

His personal life isn’t in much better shape, and his wife and son have gone to her mother’s, in Mexico, which puts them in danger as Mitch gets dragged further into chaos and villainy. And then the FBI want his help too.

Blackly comic, as Mitch’s life falls apart and he tries his best to stay alive and not get arrested for his part in the gigantic mess he’s in.

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

Detective Mike Nash thought that moving back to Yorkshire from London would give
him a quieter life. But evil still lives out on the windswept Yorkshire moors — and so does vengeance.

A killer calling in their own crime? DI Mike Nash never thought he’d see the day. Until he gets a call that makes his blood run cold.
If you go to the woods on Stark Ghyll, you’ll find a man hanging from a tree. He’s dead, and in hell where he belongs.
Nash races to the scene to find the killer’s as good as their word. And they’re not done yet.

A second corpse surfaces at the foot of treacherous Black Fell cliffs.
Elsewhere Sammy Rhodes, a promising teen gymnast, is missing. She never came home from training, and her parents are frantic with worry.
The clock is ticking for Nash to bring her home alive. With no idea who — or what — he’s up against. A ruthless killer who’s waited decades for a taste of sweet revenge.

Only Nash can stop them now. Or die trying . . .

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Bill Kitson was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire. His father, a wool merchant, was a fan of crime books giving Bill access to his diverse thriller collection from a young age.
Educated at Ashville College, Bill worked in the family business before spending over thirty years as a bank executive. A keen cricketer and sportsman, the highlight of his career came when he umpired a one-day international at Lords.
He and his wife now live in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, where he writes crime, romance, and general fiction. Bill’s interests include Cricket, Crime, Crete, Cookery, Cryptic crosswords – and also Alliteration.

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My thoughts: Mike Nash is back and this is a dark, twisted case he has on his hands. Someone is killing paedophiles, and even Mike’s team aren’t sure they want to solve this one. But their job is to catch killers, not pass judgement, so they begin to investigate.

Whoever is luring these men to their deaths on Mike’s patch hasn’t left much to go on. And then a child goes missing, and the team have a whole second case on their hands, or do they? Could missing Samantha be linked to their murders?

A dark, twisted tale of pain and revenge, as Mike and his team hunt for someone who’s killing some of the worst criminals the team have ever encountered.

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