Tag: blog tour

Meet the craft group swapping decoupage for deception and glues for clues…
Violet Brewer is the owner of Rooney-at-Burrow’s charming wool shop, Brewer’s Loop, and the organiser of its weekly crafting group. Nothing much usually happens in the sleepy little English
village. Until now.
But when Sir Buster Burniston, much-loved owner of nearby Burrow Hall, is found dead, a cloud of mystery lingers in the village air. Or at least it does for Violet and her fellow craft mates in Team C.R.A.B – the Crafters of Rooney-at-Burrow. They are certain that the old man’s death might
not be as cut and dried as Violet’s police officer nephew, Samuel, seems to think. Violet has lived in the village for over sixty years, and something tells her and her creative pals that there is more behind Sir Buster’s sad demise. Violet and her friends are determined to turn detective, despite
what her nephew says. And soon murder is on the cards at their meet and make sessions as they discover a mystery that needs to be unpicked stitch by stitch…

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About the Author
Nigel to no stranger to the worlds of both publishing and crafting. He has published seven previous novels – six glam fiction blockbusters such as Trinity, Addicted and Revenge, which saw him gain fabulous reviews and nicknamed as the ‘UK’s male Jackie Collins’, and a gripping psychological thriller called The Girl Unknown. Quilling Me Softly is his first foray into the cosy crime world.
Crafting is very close to his heart as he has been working as a TV presenter on the UK’s biggest crafting TV channel, Create & Craft, for over 16 years, and he has launched his own successful craft
range, A-May-Zing, as well. He was named top Male Personality Of The Year in the Crafts Beautiful Awards in 2021.
As well as writing and telly hosting, Nigel presents a weekly national radio show on Gaydio, interviewing celebrities from the worlds of TV, film and music. He lives in Brighton and his obsessions include Eurovision, all things 80s, flea markets and juicy reality TV.
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THE HUGE QUILLING ME SOFTLY CRAFT GIVEAWAY (Open Int)
Seeing as Quilling Me Softly is based around the members of a fabulous craft group and Nigel also works in the world of craft it only seems right that the launch of Quilling Me Softly should come with
a massive crafty prize giveaway! Nigel has teamed up with one of the craft world’s most inventive companies, the incredible Lisa Horton Crafts to give away a bumper bundle of crafting goodies worth over £150. Included in the prize bundle are loads of inspirational layering stencils and embossing folders plus the worldwide crafting smash that is the Ulti-Mate Multi Tool – it’s the perfect crafting tool for everyone when it comes to stamping, stencilling and blending.

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My thoughts: I really enjoyed this, can I join Team C.R.A.B? I’m not very crafty but keen to learn, I’m thinking crochet, and I have loads of inkpads and stamps already.

When local dignitary Sir Buster is found facedown in his own lake, it looks like a heart attack. But someone has been sending him threatening notes. And he was very healthy. Could it be murder? Another body seems suspicious and with the local crafting/crime club looking for clues too, the police have plenty of evidence.

I of course love a book with a crime busting pet, but despite belonging to PC Paula, Mr Bublè the ginger tom didn’t do much to solve the case and ginger cats are problematic in my house (Ted, my black cat and boss, has a rival ginger tom he keeps squabbling with!) so although it was of course good to see a cat making himself well known in the village, I’m not allowed to be a fan!

The cast of villagers and Crafters were a total delight, I want Pearl to cook me dinner and Violet and Margaret to tell me all the gossip before I go and rub the ears if Jimmy’s pigs. Delightful. And very good at gathering evidence and solving a much more complex case than it appeared at first glance. More please!

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

**Terms and Conditions –Worldwide entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will
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Some debts can only be paid in blood.

A rich socialite is found hacked to death in her Dublin home. It’s the beginning of a killing spree that leaves five apparently unconnected people brutally slain. 

Kate Hamilton, a brilliant and ambitious detective sergeant, is assigned to the case and soon uncovers the connection between the victims – they were all involved in an illegal adoption scheme which was running in Ireland up to the 1980s.

In a deeply traditional society, unmarried mothers were shamed by their families, forced to give birth in secret and surrender their newborns for adoption, fuelling a lucrative and cruel baby trade. 

Now, decades later, it seems someone is taking bloody revenge on those who played a part in the adoption racket.

With each day bringing a new victim, Kate and her team race to stop the bloodshed. But when she discovers she has a personal link with both victims and murderer, Kate realises her own life is in danger as never before.Blood Mothers – the first in the gripping new series featuring DS Kate Hamilton

Gaye admits to a lifelong obsession with crime, and a keen interest in psychology and social history. She credits her parents, who were avid readers, with her love of fiction. When she graduated from Enid Blyton to Agatha Christie at age nine, so began a life of crime… reading.  

She enjoyed an award-winning career as a TV Producer/Director working for the BBC, ITV and RTE. She’s always written in her spare time, and during lockdown, when her husband built himself a workshop at the end of the garden, she seized control (peacefully) and renamed it her writing cabin.  The result was BLOOD MOTHERS.  

Now a full-time writer, she has three adult children and one adorable granddaughter. She lives in Dublin with her husband, to whom she now owes a workshop, two of her grown up kids and two rescue dogs who are not at all grown up, but make for great company at the bottom of the garden.  

Blood Mothers is Gaye Maguire’s first book with Inkubator Books. 

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My thoughts: this was a cracking start to a new crime fiction series, featuring DS Kate Hamilton. The case has a personal connection but not one Kate is immediately aware of.

A series of incredibly brutal killings lead to a private mother and baby home run by the Catholic Church. Someone is taking revenge for the actions of those involved years before, although not on the people directly involved but those more on the periphery, people not carefully protected. The nuns and the Bishop who facilitated the cruel system of forced adoptions are free to carry on their lives, but the victims of this killer are not.

The saddest death is that of Billy, a sweet man with learning disabilities, who worked at the home as the odd job man and bookkeeper, writing down the young women’s details and the births. He’s an innocent, just a little cog in the machine, and has been all but abandoned himself.

But Kate and her colleagues are working through the clues and the mysterious American has left plenty of evidence behind. But the final piece is Kate’s own history, it leads her to the killer and a tense standoff.

Dark, clever, twisting and rather heartbreaking at times, this is an intelligent and compelling read. Looking forward to the next one.

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