Tag: blog tour

When Sarah Cassells, a young British woman who has just completed her training as a chef, hears of her father’s violent death on Ibiza, she refuses to believe it is suicide.

She goes to Ibiza to investigate and becomes involved with an art dealer; with two beautiful jetsetters; with her brother’s strange predicament; with a remarkable American woman who is not all what she seems – and with Johnson Johnson, the mysterious portrait painter who shows up on his yacht, Dolly.

As Ibiza prepares to celebrate Holy Week with the traditional processions, events become more and more macabre…

Dorothy Dunnett gained an international reputation as a writer of historical fiction. She moved genres and turned to crime writing with the acclaimed Dolly books, also known as the Johnson Johnson series. She was a trustee of the National Library of Scotland, and a board member of the Edinburgh International Book Festival. In 1992 she was awarded an OBE for her services to literature. A leading light in the Scottish arts world and a renaissance woman, Dunnett was also a professional portrait painter and exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy on many occasions. She died in 2001.

My thoughts: we’re back with portrait painter and secret agent Johnson Johnson on his yacht, Dolly, and this time he’s in Ibiza. Sarah Cassells has flown into the island after the supposed suicide of her father, Lord Farley of Pinner, but she’s pretty sure he was murdered.

Besides, she’s a woman in search of a husband with a decent sized bank account and she cooks, rides, water skis and all sorts of other things. Why wouldn’t she find one in this town? Staying with a friend’s family, she’s determined to find out what happened to her father. Getting embroiled in a scheme involving art, fake rubies, Holy Week and Russians, probably wasn’t part of her plan, but she’s pretty game if it will get her answers.

There’s actually less of Dolly and Johnson in this one, probably because they’re just in the port, no yacht race this time, and Sarah is right in the middle of things, including a very crazy party. Everyone drives back and forth across the island and Johnson is just in the background, working it all out in his bifocals.

But he’s there for the vital bits and explaining it all to Sarah and Co, she doesn’t even need to bother finding a husband just yet either, plenty of time for that and most of the candidates turn out to be unsuitable anyway. Jolly good fun.

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

Are you missing Happy Valley? Pre Order the next gripping instalment in the Yorkshire Murder Series by bestselling British crime author Wes Markin!

A murdered child. A case from the past. A detective inspector with nothing to lose…
DI Paul Riddick is a man tormented by his own actions and determined to right the wrongs of his past any way he can. But when his instincts lead him to follow a child he believes to be in danger, Riddick
gets in deeper than he ever imagined…especially when the child is found dead.
DCI Emma Gardner doesn’t believe Riddick has blood on his hands, but he’s off the case until she can clear his name. If she can clear his name. Because Riddick seems determined to chase ghosts that only get him into more trouble.
Riddick’s certain he didn’t kill the kid in the cave. But he also remembers another case, twenty years ago, with shocking similarities…which means someone is trying to trap Riddick.
Can Riddick uncover the truth, or will this be the case that finally destroys him once and for all?
Don’t miss the brand-new gripping crime series by bestselling British crime author Wes Markin!
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Wes Markin is the bestselling author of the DCI Yorke crime novels, set in Salisbury. His new series for Boldwood stars the pragmatic detective DCI Emma Gardner who will be tackling the criminals of North Yorkshire.  Wes lives in Harrogate and the first book in the series The Yorkshire Murders was published in November 2022. 

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My thoughts: so to North Yorkshire, where my Grandad was from. But a different side to God’s own county than the one he told me about, and he would have loved this series. There’s a child’s body found next to Mother Shipton’s cave, petrifying under the unusual mineral water, and a young PC Riddick is first on the scene.

Years later, he’s convinced they arrested the wrong man for that crime, and while suspended after being found unconscious by another dead boy, he decides to re-open that first case and find the real killer. Perhaps he can make amends for his own sins in doing so.

Meanwhile his boss DCI Emma Gardner is looking into the dead body he was found next to – was it murder or suicide? The teenager had lots of secrets, and so do several others around him. As the cases unfold, there are links and a local criminal comes to their attention after a second boy goes missing.

Emma’s also dealing with her personal life, as husband Barry’s girlfriend shows up. All she wants is to keep custody of her daughter and niece, Barry’s free to go.

If she can this case closed, sort out Riddick, who’s spiralling, and get home in time to put the girls to bed, she might get what she wants.

The case she’s on gets very dark and sad, there’s a lot of pain in the lives of the teenage boys she’s looking into. And they don’t talk about it, preferring fantasy worlds in comics and toys to the things they’re dealing with. Getting through to them is tough. But she needs the friends of her victims to open up and help her find the killer/s. Luckily she’s good with people and even though he’s been stood down Riddick has her back. Another excellent book from Wes Markin.

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

Two years on from the start of a devastating pandemic, food shortages are becoming critical, and rationing looms. So it’s more than embarrassing when a lorry full of luxury food for Scottish Virus Minister’s banquet goes missing. When Bernard and Maitland from the HET team find it, the food is missing – but there is a dead body.

My thoughts: this series is very funny and clever and keeps me entertained. The hapless team at the North Edinburgh HET are tasked with finding a missing van load of food, that might have been pinched by eco terrorists, which could be very awkward for their ghastly boss. But then there’s dead bodies and still the hangover of their last case and chaos ensues.

Even though some of the team are technically police officers seconded to HET, they’re not empowered to arrest anyone or even demand more than a Health Check, which is just what they need. And now the police liaison officers have vanished and they’ve been given a new manager, who doesn’t want to be there.

Mona’s still looking into the Bryce matter from before, getting a bit distracted by a hunky Belgian terrorist, who might be somehow involved in both cases. And they’ve finally let their pet IT nerd out in the field, not that he’s got a clue either.

It’s all madness as ever and none of its really a Health matter, except the Minister says it is, but really it’s about embarrassing headlines at an awkward moment. Bernard also has some family matters to sort out, hardly great timing. Can’t wait to see how it all falls out in the next book.

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