Detective Mike Nash thought that moving back to Yorkshire from London would give him a quieter life. Instead he finds a sleepy little town where nothing is what it seems . . .
Two dead bodies, locked in a disused mortuary. In the basement of a hospital that shut its doors over twenty years ago. The irony isn’t lost on veteran DI Mike Nash.
The victims have been shot in the head, execution style — by a consummate professional who knows exactly how to cover their tracks, leaving no evidence and no solid leads for Nash to go on.
The deeper Nash digs, the more he fears the past will come back to bite him. These bodies are tied to a dark history of crime and betrayal, and a past case with more loose ends than Nash cares to remember. It’s not long before a third body surfaces. This time the scene’s awash with DNA, belonging to a man who died decades ago. Now Nash must face the chilling possibility that his oldest adversary is behind it all, watching and waiting to take his own brand of deadly vengeance . . .
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.
My thoughts: This was really good, very clever, compelling and just convoluted enough. When a fire at an old hospital building reveals two corpses in the former mortuary, both with gun shot wounds, the bullets and the victims are linked to a series of underworld killings, almost like someone was cleaning house.
Then there’s a dummy with a bullet hole or three, a dead hitman, a pair of lovers on the run, and all sorts of other complications in this far from simple case. Could it all be linked to a man Detective Mike Nash knew at school? Even though he’s dead.
As the team investigate and attempted to ID ‘The Keeper’, the criminal shot caller they believe might be behind it all, other interested parties are making plans of their own. Can Mike get to the bottom of this and help out a charming former celebrity at the same time?
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
You may remember I reviewed the hardback version of this book a while ago, and now I am sharing the gorgeous paperback cover. Look at it! Isn’t it gorgeous. Order a copy at the link below.
The only sin is betrayal…
It is the year 1715, and Thomas True has arrived on old London Bridge with a dangerous secret. One night, lost amongst the squalor of London’s hidden back streets, he finds himself drawn into the outrageous underworld of the molly houses. Meanwhile, carpenter Gabriel Griffin struggles to hide his double life as Lotty, the molly’s stoic guard. When a young man is found murdered, he realises there is a rat amongst them, betraying their secrets to a pair of murderous Justices. Can Gabriel unmask the traitor before they hang? Can he save hapless Thomas from peril, and their own forbidden love? Set amidst the buried streets of Georgian London, The Betrayal of Thomas True is a brutal and devastating thriller, where love must overcome evil, and the only true sin is betrayal…
I thought I was lucky before all this happened. I have a beautiful baby boy. A man I want to make a life with. A gorgeous cottage in the Cotswolds that we’re in the middle of doing up. Life’s good.
Then Ben drops a bombshell. His brother Adam is coming to stay. ‘Promise me something,’ Ben says as he gazes into my eyes. ‘Don’t believe everything Adam tells you.’
Ben’s not home when Adam turns up, with his waif-like girlfriend — and a suitcase full of secrets. He looks me up and down, his mouth quirking into an amused smile. ‘You must be Sophie.’ Deep in my bones, I know this man is dangerous. He says he won’t stay long. But the lies come quickly.
First his girlfriend disappears — and I think he’s done something very bad to her. I should have listened to my instincts . . .
Born in West Bromwich and with her family roots deep in the Black Country, Eve has spent much of her life ‘on the run’; she has probably lived in more houses in various parts of the country than most people eat dinners. Currently settled in Herefordshire with her husband, she often has a houseful of offspring, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, partners and a growing tribe of little ones. When not writing she can be found playing the piano, enjoying a glass of wine and/or reading, and has a particularly soft spot for historical and spy fiction.
We’re thrilled to present the cover and blurb for The Serpent Prince by Jacquelyn Gilmore. Pre-order a copy today!
The Serpent Prince (The Plot of the Six Saint Series Book 2)
Expected Release Date: October 28, 2025
Genre: Dark Fantasy
Fated mates,
Shocking plot twists
Spicy slow-burn romance
Shadow mama and fire daddy
Angst
REAL enemies to lovers
Love triangle
Fake engagement
Feminine rage
Antiheroes and villains
Imani flees her home as a wanted murderer.
Betrayed, she seeks to regain her footing in Niflheim and vows retribution against those who wronged her. She will let nothing block her path to vengeance: there will be a reckoning, and she will spare no one who stands in her way.
Yet despite being used by everyone she knows, Imani turns to the only people she can, burrowing herself deeper into the lives of her former allies to uncover their secrets—and her own. But the longer Imani immerses herself in the politics of the Niflheim Kingdom, the less sure she becomes of anything—allies, enemies, wrong, right, evil, good, hate… and love.
Another more insidious threat, orchestrated by people beyond her imagination, lurks beneath the surface. With civil turmoil swelling in her own kingdom, the clock is ticking on Imani’s plans. Faced with the choice of which side to stand with, she’ll stop at nothing to come out on top—and the Serpent Prince himself could not foresee the cost of victory.
Tensions are high at the Three Counties Show when accusations of cheating add fuel to a longstanding feud. For Jude Gray, whose only hope was to not make a fool of herself showing her Kerry Hill sheep, farming life has never been so dramatic.
When a body is found, belonging to one of the competitors, there is no shortage of suspects. Every sheep farmer in this close-knit community has a motive and beneath their show-ready smiles, they all have something to hide. Experience has taught Jude that when there’s a murderer at large, nobody is truly safe. And with secrets simmering beneath the surface, this may be her most challenging investigation yet.
Can she unearth the truth before it’s too late?
A gripping new instalment in the Malvern Farm Mystery series, perfect for fans of Frances Evesham, Merryn Allingham, and Faith Martin.
Kate Wells is the author of a number of well-reviewed books for children, and is now writing cosy crime set in the Malvern hills, inspired by the farm where she grew up.
My thoughts: I never thought a county fair would have so much scandal and intrigue, they don’t sound like they would be that exciting. Especially among the sheep farmers, who you would think would be more like their flocks, placid and cuddly. Not so this lot.
Jude is only showing two of her flock, but the more experienced farmers have more animals, and history. Lots of history, prickly, difficult history. Which Jude slowly learns as things go sideways and someone is killed. Was the murderer former musician turned eco warrior farmer/social media nuisance Zander? I was surprised he wasn’t the victim, the way he was carrying on.
Or will it be one of the farmers? Someone who knew the victim of old and was acting out an old grudge? Jude helps Binnie out with this case from the inside, the other sheep farmers are happier to confide in her than the police. But there’s other secrets and schemes going on and now Jude is in a bit too deep…
Another cracking case for Jude to solve in between mucking out and taking the always adorable Sebbie to school or out on the tractor. Her sister’s wedding plans are coming along nicely, or expensively, depending on how you look at it, and the farm is doing well. As long as Jude doesn’t end up as another victim of this killer.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
We’re proud to present the cover for upcoming release by Briar Black, Nightshade!
Nightshade (The Cheshire Set #2)
Expected Release: June 21, 2025
Genre: Small-town Romance
Forbidden Love 💔
Age Gap 🕰️
Slow Burn 🔥
Small Town Romance 🏡
Grumpy x Sunshine 🌦️
Morally Grey Hero ⚖️
Healing Romance 🩹
Dark Cottagecore 🍄
When eco-warrior and budding bee expert Suzie returns to Ashfordby, she expects a peaceful summer solving the mystery of Hugh Delaware’s dying bees and spending time with her best friend.
After a recent run-in with The One That Got Away (and made her swear off relationships for life), she needs the break. Peace, quiet, and a chance to focus on what she loves sounds perfect—until she stumbles into a tangled web of sabotage, murder, and secrets threatening to destroy the estate Hugh has dedicated his life to saving.
As Suzie and Hugh join forces to unravel the mystery, a shocking discovery leaves the estate reeling and the pair questioning everyone around them—except each other. But with a struggling marriage and the weight of the estate on his shoulders, Hugh’s world is a far cry from Suzie’s council-house upbringing. Any connection between them feels impossible—and forbidden. She would never entertain an affair, yet the more she tries to stay away, the more she’s drawn back in.
Caught between her growing feelings for Hugh, the painful wounds of her past, and a sinister plot targeting the estate, Suzie must summon the courage to expose the truth—and keep her heart out of the crossfire—before more lives are lost.
With its blend of romantic tension, murder, and environmental intrigue, Nightshade is a gripping tale of love, loyalty, and uncovering beauty in the most unexpected places. Perfect for fans of romantic suspense and age-gap romance.
We’re celebrating the release of Shadows of Fate today! If you’re looking for a dark romance to sink your teeth in, this is it!
Shadows of Fate (Threads of Fate series, Book One)
Release Date: May 14, 2025
Genre: Dark Vampire Romance
🥀Morally black FMC
🖤Shadow daddy MMC
🥀Touch her and 💀
🖤Fated mates
🥀Trauma representation
🖤He falls first
🥀Found family
🖤Vampires with magic
Silvana
Rage and blood lust have been the only things fueling my soul for the last one-hundred years. Revenge has been the only thing holding my sanity together. Until his shadows curl around my throat and all I can think about is his revenge. I don’t want to be loved, but he doesn’t know the meaning of the word no.
Raiden
Ruling the Court of Shadows for the past three-hundred years alone has left my life feeling mundane on the best of days. But the courts are uneasy and there’s something more going on than meets the eye. When she comes into my life, daggers flying, it’s everything in my power to let her maintain distance between us. But I won’t be held at bay for long – she’s mine. Whether she wants to admit to it or not. I’ll have her, even if it burns my court to the ground to do so.
**Please note, this book is a dark fantasy romance complete with an extensive trigger list. Remember that your mental health matters more than reading a book.**
The Yorkshire village of Beddingfield is home to the wonderful women of the Allen family: teacher Robyn, wannabe chef Jess, teenage tearaway Sorrel and matriarch Lisa, who holds the whole family together. But underneath her warmth and brilliance, Lisa has a secret – she longs to know who she really is.
In Hudson House, the grand manor on the edge of Beddingfield which is now a care home, lives seventy-something Eloise Howard. With film star beauty but memories fading fast, Eloise is slowly taking one foot at a time back into her past. Born into a prestigious family, her father the owner of the local Hudson’s Mill, Eloise’s life was destined to be one of finishing schools and balls. But when her path crossed Junayd Sattar’s, the most striking and kindest man she had ever met, nothing would ever be the same again.
When Lisa begins to spend time at Hudson House and befriends Eloise, the two women form an unbreakable bond. But unbeknownst to them both, they share secrets that, once uncovered, will change everything they believed about their own lives.
In her unmatched warm and uplifting voice, Julie Houston’s funny and profoundly moving tale of forbidden love, friendship and family ties will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page…
Perfect for fans of Jenny Colgan, Fiona Gibson and Cathy Kelly.
My thoughts: Yay! We’re back in Beddingfield in another fun, heart warming, enjoyable book from Julie Houston. Picking up a short while after the last book, we find Robyn still teaching at the worst school in Yorkshire, and all loved up with former barrister turned hopeful restauranteur Fabian.
Her mum, Lisa, is doing much better now under the care of her doctors and at a bit of a loose end volunteers at the care home where eldest daughter Jess works. There she meets Eloise, who used to live in Hudson House when it was a private home. Lisa is also wondering about looking into her biological parents, even if that means tackling her awful adoptive ones.
With the help of her girls, and a few friends, she starts to piece the past together, but what she uncovers is not what she was expecting at all. A love story across class and racial lines, heartbreak and tragedy, but in piecing it all together, she might just find happiness of her own. As long as none of her daughters have a crisis…
Funny, warm, witty and wise, this is a great book to curl up with of an evening, or out in the sun. Whatever the weather feels like doing really!
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Welcome to the tour for When the Witch Visits by Michael Rands. Read on for more!
When The Witch Visits
Publication Date: April 18, 2025
Genre: Paranormal/ Horror Comedy/ Supernatural Fantasy
Rick and Kayleigh Zapp are living proof that perfection sells. With their idyllic family, overflowing bank accounts, and millions of online followers, they’re the world’s second-most beloved power couple. But on the night a hurricane rages through their town, a witch appears in their garden and tells Rick he has one year to live—unless he can repair the flaws in his seemingly flawless life.
As Rick’s paranoia builds and Kayleigh hides a secret that could topple their empire, their social media influence continues to grow—thanks in part to their increasingly twisted friendship with the enigmatic Max and Maxine Maxwell, the world’s most beloved power couple.
Humorous, dark, and eerily timely, When The Witch Visits is a horror-comedy for the age of the online personality.
Skylark in the Fog was the 9th place finalist in BBNYA 2024!
About BBNYA
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 (16 in 2024) 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 book blogger support group @The_WriteReads.
So when the universe falls to pieces, it doesn’t mean your life has to, right? That comes later.
Jeane Blake, captain of the spaceship Skylark, makes her living by looting dead worlds, planets fallen prey to naturally occurring wormhole-like rifts plaguing the cosmos. She survives the only way she knows how: avoiding commitment and arguing with her dead foster father’s ghost. But when her crew stumbles upon an alien device that could collapse the wormhole network and wipe out all sentient life, they catch the hungry eyes of the Union, a tyrannical empire hunting the sinister tech.
As she flees the Union’s brainwashed agents, Jeane is forced to take on a shady mission and gets stuck assisting the runaway monarch of a technocrat planet. Queen Maura Tholis is seeking the aid of an interstellar resistance to reclaim her war-torn world, with another trouble-magnet device as her bargaining chip: a glove that allows her to command AI systems. Jeane couldn’t care less about the whole deal, but things become personal when the Union annexes the place she calls home. And it might be her fault.
Reluctant to become weapons in the hands of power-hungry militants and desperate rebels, smuggler and queen join forces. But to save their homes, they must redefine themselves, work with the enemy, and face personal traumas they’d buried long ago-and only stars know which challenge might break them in the end.
Helyna L. Clove (she/they) is a lover of the written word, hot comfort drinks, a universe full of stars, and all things neat and kind. She was born in 1988 in Hungary, and was raised in a small village a few miles off the shores of Lake Balaton. Described as someone always having “her head in the clouds”, she spent the first fifteen years of her life mostly consuming books from her dad’s home library, watching some great 90’s sci-fi series and movies, slowly working on her eclectic music taste, and dreaming about being abducted by cool alien friends.
After the arduous years of acquiring her astrophysics degree (because if they were not coming for her, she would damn well at least try and spy on those aliens) she worked as a researcher in Budapest, moving onto the green pastures of South-France in 2018, then Wales in 2022, where she currently lives with her small family of a wonderful boyfriend and Puddle, the tortoiseshell cat. She spends most of her time commandeering telescopes, staring at molecular spectra, writing/reading, cooking, playing video games, and trying her hand at different crafts.
Although she has been, as the Hungarians say, writing to her desk drawer since she was a kindergartener, it wasn’t until 2019 that she stepped out into the world with her stories. In the hell-year of 2020 she finished her first full-length novel, Skylark in the Fog, a light-hearted but honest space opera featuring a grumpy spaceship captain and her wayward friends on a quest to find their metaphorical (and maybe literal) homes, and, if everything goes well which it rarely does, to save the universe as well.
Her current projects include Imbued and Untwined, a new adult/adult dark fantasy duology about magic and love and how those might break the world, a paranormal horror about a team of demonhunters, several other speculative story ideas, and the so-far-untitled sequel to the adventures of the Skylark-crew.
My thoughts: I loved this, it’s exactly the kind of sci-fi I enjoy, a crew of misfits, an impossible mission, chaos, adventure, secrets, overthrowing the evil empire. And it was just lots of fun. Jeane was my favourite, after ALU, that little tin can with its mysterious origin, love of helping and strong bonds of friendship, too cute.
Although if I’m really honest, I loved the whole gang – not a duff character among them. And poor Skylark, definitely here for Skylark 2: Taping the ship back together.
Jeane takes on a quick pick up job for an old friend, while avoiding the Union (evil empire) who are hunting their ship, because of the super secret alien tech they previously collected. Then they get involved in about three wars all at once. Everyone is forced to reckon with their families and upbringing, Jeane almost dies inside an AI system, the evil empire keeps trying to kill everyone, some stuff explodes, some people die (boo!) and then the gang goes their separate ways…which I did not like.
I really hope when book 2 arrives, my new pals are reunited, the evil empire is less evil and Jeane gets to smile occasionally, even though her permanently grumpy mood is very funny. Look, I loved this, it filled a sci-fi hole that I didn’t know I had.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 