Choice of Darkness is a tale of blighted love and mass murder based on the hunt for the biggest serial killer in nineteenth-century America.
Jad Adams tells the story of Henry Holmes from the point of view of the detective who tracked him down, burdened by a love betrayed.
Frank Geyer is a detective in Philadelphia who in 1894 is called to investigate the death of Ben Pitezel. He encounters Dr Henry Holmes who says he is acting for Pitezel’s family to collect the insurance money. Holmes had been best friends with Geyer in their home town of Gilmanton, New Hampshire, they have unfinished business over a woman.
Alerted by the insurance company, Geyer seeks Holmes in what becomes a journey to redeem Geyer’s life as he discovers how his former friend left horror after horror in a killing programme across the United States.
Set in the gilded age of American history, Choice of Darkness is a meticulously researched study of this late nineteenth century criminal, and the police methods used to bring him down.
Jad Adams has worked as a television producer and a newspaper journalist. He is best known for his works of history including Decadent Women: Yellow Book Lives, Tony Benn: A Biography and Women and the Vote: A World History. He is the author of another novel, Café Europa.
My thoughts: I knew about HH Holmes from reading Devil in the White City, but this takes an interesting angle on that story, by positioning the detective Frank Geyer, who tracked Holmes across the US, as the protagonist. He’s in a unique position as he and Holmes were childhood friends and Holmes left town with the woman Geyer was planning to propose to.
It starts with him being contacted by an insurance company, Holmes is one of the people coming to Philadelphia to identify a body in order to claim an insurance payout. Holmes says he’s doing it for the dead man’s family, the deceased being his friend and business partner. But as with all of Holmes’ many, many crimes, there’s something off about his sincerity and Geyer is suspicious. He begins looking into the man he knew as Henry Mugett.
From medical schools to police departments from as far away as Texas, the truth about Holmes starts to emerge. He’s a conman, a thief and if Geyer can prove it a murderer. In fact, he’s America’s first serial killer – a term that didn’t even exist back then.
At first Chicago’s detectives don’t want to know, they even throw Geyer in a cell, but later they come to him asking for help. Holmes has gone too far and attracted their attention. Geyer has been inside the “castle” his old friend turned nemesis built in Chicago, the place where dozens of people met their terrible end.
It’s these deaths Chicago want Holmes for, Texas is still after him for horse theft, there’s multiple dodgy insurance claims, the kidnapping that haunts Geyer. Will they find the answers in Holmes’ house of death?
Compellingly written, Geyer is a sympathetic figure, while he does have a personal score to settle, it’s overwhelmed by the many terrible things Holmes has done since they were both young men in Massachusetts.
This was a very interesting and enjoyable angle to take as you feel like you’re in Geyer’s shoes as he traverses the country trying to track Holmes down and bring him to justice.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
On the Island of Philae in the upper reaches of the Nile Valley, Nofret, the new priestess to the Temple of Hathor, has left Dendera in the north where she received her training. She now has her own temple to govern.
The hierarchy makes her welcome, but as she settles into life on the island, she slowly realises that her predecessor’s death may not have been straightforward. Hearing different versions of the event, she takes it upon herself to find out what really happened to the Priestess Safiya and finds that the island holds its own secrets, which lie beneath the temple buildings.
Glennis Goodwin is a British author who has long held an interest in the myths and culture of the Ancient Egyptians. Along with that, the people of southern Africa have also been of interest and in the early 1980s, she was fortunate to live and work in Zambia. In her working life, she has gone from Nursing to Retail and from Academic Publishing to PA, but during that time she never lost the feeling that Africa gave her, and, in those years, had holidays in Egypt and Kenya. In 2004, she aimed to return to her nursing career and enrolled in New Zealand on a refresher course. Settling into life on the other side of the world, she continued to further her career, met her husband and made her home there. Sadly, a brain haemorrhage and slight stroke ended her study, but after her recovery, she found herself wanting to write, something she had longed to do but never seemed to have the time for. Returning to the UK in 2017, she settled down at her computer, and over the following months, the tales of the Eight Deities of the Primordial Chaos came to life in the story of Malian, the altar tender. Her first book, The Eighth Deity, then came into being and The Gods of Chaos, a fantasy adventure series, was born. Now living in a Nottinghamshire village, she has since written Brotherhood of Apep, In the Footsteps of Ra, and The Papyrus of Ma’at, her second, third and fourth books. Her fifth, and final title of the series, The Bow of Horus, is published here. Currently, she is looking to expand her writing while using the knowledge gained from her trips to Egypt and is working on an Ancient Egyptian murder mystery set on the banks of the Nile.
My thoughts: a young priestess is given her own temple of Hathor to lead, but her predecessor’s death was far from a straightforward accident. There is something rotten at the heart of the temple complex of Philae and Nofret must tread carefully, unsure who to trust, as she investigates.
Underneath the complex lies a labyrinth of tunnels and tombs. Someone has been stealing and selling the grave goods of the priests and priestesses resting there, it must be someone working with the temples, assisted by an outsider, but as a newcomer Nofret doesn’t know the island’s secrets.
She puts her life at risk to get answers, both to the thefts and the murders. A special ceremony offers the opportunity to expose the criminals but the answers she uncovers are not as expected. Can she still stop the perpetrators?
Nofret is an intelligent and educated woman, sent to serve her goddess as a child, she’s risen far in the hierarchy of Hathor’s followers. The high priest has somehow missed all the intrigue and crime going on beneath his nose, but as someone with an outsider’s perspective, Nofret can see more clearly.
It’s a clever and intricate plot, replete with secret passages and high risks, not least the crocodiles and hippos along the island’s edge, Nofret has no real allies except a little cat that has adopted her, and possibly the local governor, whom she confides in. Despite its ancient setting, this could easily be a modern-day mystery, people after all, have always been people.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Every room has a secret. Every secret has a price.
Rachel thought marrying Lucas Price would be the beginning of her happily ever after.
Instead, moving into Crestwood, his sprawling seaside estate, feels more like stepping into a nightmare. The shadow of his first wife, Eliza—who died in a tragic fall from the cliffs—haunts every corner of their new home. When ghostly apparitions begin appearing and mysterious messages warn Rachel to leave, she questions her own sanity.
Lucas dismisses her fears and refuses to discuss what happened to Eliza, leaving Rachel isolated and paranoid. Desperate to get to the truth, she starts to investigate Eliza’s death. In a house where nothing is as it seems and everyone has something to hide, Rachel must confront not only the ghosts of the past but the buried trauma of her own dark memories.
And when she finally gets closer to Crestwood’s horrifying secret, she realizes she’s in danger of losing everything she cares about. Including her life.
Theo Baxter loves writing psychological suspense thrillers. It’s all about that last reveal that he loves shocking readers with. He grew up in New York, where there was crime all around. He decided to turn that into something positive with his fiction. His stories will have you reading through the night—they are very addictive!
My thoughts: Rachel clearly never read Rebecca or Bluebeard – if you’re the second wife, be prepared to be haunted by either the dead wife or the husband’s terrible secrets behind locked doors. She’s dealing with both.
Moving into Crestwood, the house her husband and his late wife Eliza designed and built is where her nightmares begin. She thinks there might be a ghost, even if everyone around her insists that’s not possible. Her husband is keeping secrets and has locked the bedroom next to theirs, and won’t discuss it.
But then things start happening even after her therapist switches up her meds to help her sleep. Someone blocks the doors to the room Rachel is working in, someone who can move through the house unseen.
Lucas needs to start talking – the secrets he’s keeping might hold the answers or at least reassure Rachel that he isn’t involved.
There’s a shocking twist and once Rachel starts to get to the truth, she’s not crazy, Lucas has kept a lot from her, and their lives could be the cost.
Clever, full of twists and with a protagonist I really felt sorry for, put in a terrifying situation that’s not her fault.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
A murdered suffragette. A missing politician. A stolen artwork.
London, 1910
Coral Fairbanks is a contradiction. As well as a suffragette, she’s a bit-part actress and nude model, earning her the disapproval of her fellow suffragettes. Guy Flynn is an artist. He’s also a detective inspector at Scotland Yard, who doesn’t always see eye to eye with fellow officers in the Metropolitan Police.
When Home Secretary Winston Churchill orders the police to terrorise the suffragettes during an afternoon of violence that becomes known as Black Friday, the battlelines are drawn – and Coral Fairbanks and Guy Flynn are on different sides.
But when a young suffragette is found murdered in the National Portrait Gallery and one of their paintings is stolen – Fairbanks and Flynn must put their differences aside and combine their knowledge to track down the killer.
Introducing an iconic detective duo in Fairbanks and Flynn, this is an exciting and gripping historical mystery, which will delight fans of Agatha Christie, Benedict Brown and T. E. Kinsey
Michelle Salter writes historical cosy crime set in Hampshire, where she lives, and inspired by real-life events in 1920s Britain. Her Iris Woodmore series draws on an interest in the aftermath of the Great War and the suffragette movement.
My thoughts: The first in a new series featuring suffragette, actress and artist’s model Coral Fairbanks who teams up with Met detective and painter Guy Flynn to solve the murder of her fellow suffragette, Marian, in the National Portrait Gallery during a suffrage stunt.
The gallery was mostly empty when Marian was killed, so the suspect pool is small – staff of the gallery, her fellow suffragettes, an MP, his aide, and curiously another MP’s wife, who happened to be there at the same time. A painting was also stolen at the same time.
There’s also a missing Secretary of State, whose wife hasn’t a clue where he’s got to, nor do his colleagues. His house was firebombed roughly the same time and he seems rather connected to the actions the suffragettes have been carrying out.
Coral wants to protect her fellow suffragettes, she can’t imagine any of them are killers, but Flynn knows anyone can snap and do something terrible. Is that what happened here?
I really liked Coral and Flynn, I think they’re going to be an interesting pairing. Flynn empathises with the battle for suffrage, if not with the way the women are going about it. He’s drawn to Coral, they’re both widowed, and Flynn is raising a teenage daughter, who could do with more women around her. Coral is trying to work out what she wants to do with her life now, without her husband, and her acting career on the wane. She’s got good instincts and while she can’t officially be a detective she could be an asset to Flynn.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Julia Bird adores a walk on a winter’s day. The crunch of fresh show under your feet and the promise of hot cocoa by a roaring fire afterwards… But she’s not expecting to find a body in the woods!
It’s Christmas in Berrywick, the busiest time of year for dashing taxi driver Lewis. But when he’s killed in a road accident, the entire village is shaken. Julia Bird, recently appointed to the Road Safety Committee, visits the site so that no other villager suffers the same fate. But when she spies a pendant left in the bushes, she feels certain Lewis’s death was no accident…
As the festive lights twinkle in the village square, Julia vows to uncover the truth. She soon learns not everyone found Lewis’s charm appealing. Sweetshop owner Dora says he had an eye for the ladies, much to his wife’s frustration. Lewis recently gave his life savings to a mysterious businessman who proves difficult to track down. But could these be reasons enough to want him dead?
Then, local beekeeper Matthew is struck by a car near the Christmas market. Julia believes the two deaths must be linked, but contrary to Lewis, Matthew was as sweet as the honey he sold. Who could possibly want to hurt Berrywick’s kindest man?
With no obvious leads, Julia stumbles upon an old picture that finally links Lewis and Matthew. Many years ago they were in a band poised for stardom, but when the bubble burst, their chance at fame vanished quicker than a glass of festive eggnog. Could someone be targeting the band members one by one? And can Julia track them down before the killer strikes again?
An utterly gripping and totally charming cozy mystery set in the English countryside. Fans of M.C. Beaton, Faith Martin and Betty Rowlands will love the Julia Bird Mysteries!
Katie Gayle is the writing partnership of best-selling South African writers, Kate Sidley and Gail Schimmel. Kate and Gail have, between them, written over ten books of various genres, but with Katie Gayle, they both made their debut in the cozy mystery genre. Both Gail and Kate live in Johannesburg, with husbands, children, dogs and cats.
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My thoughts: I love this series, Julia has really grown on me, this time she finds a body in the woods during a winter walk. It’s local taxi driver Lewis, victim of a hit and run.
It looks to have been a terrible accident, until someone also hits local beekeeper Matthew in the market place car park. There’s a connection between the two men – they both used to be in a band many years ago and someone has had a grudge against them.
While the police follow their leads, Julia does some investigating of her own. She’s friendly with the widows of both men and thinks she can get some more information informally than Hayley can as an official.
Julia’s also getting ready for Christmas with Sean, buying dog sweaters (lucky Jake) and putting up the decorations. Hopefully, they can solve the case before it’s time to open presents.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
MEET DETECTIVE KATE HAMBLIN IN THIS BESTSELLING SERIES FROM A FORMER POLICE OFFICER.
A missing schoolgirl. A body in the woods. A killer who’s only just begun.
Newly promoted to Detective Inspector, Kate is back on her old patch at Highbridge CID. But there’s no time to settle in. Early Monday morning, Kate gets a call. Fourteen-year-old schoolgirl Tammy Robinson is missing. She hasn’t been seen since Friday afternoon when she told her mother she was going to her best friend’s to revise. She never made it.
Kate discovers that Tammy wasn’t going to her friend’s house at all. She was planning to meet a mysterious boyfriend she called Gerry. She’d met him in an online chatroom — who is he really?
The following day, a body is discovered in the woods. It’s not Tammy. Kate is in a race against time to unmask the most dangerous killer she’s encountered yet. Before more young women die.
A former superintendent with Thames Valley Police, with thirty years experience in the force, David Hodges is a prolific crime writer and author of eighteen crime novels plus an autobiography on his life in the police service.
His debut crime novel received critical media acclaim and a welcome accolade from Inspector Morse’s creator, the late great Colin Dexter, and since then he has become the author of several successful stand-alone thrillers, including FLASHPOINT (now out of print) BURNOUT, SLICE, BLAST and TARGET.
In particular, his Somerset murder novel series, published by Joffe Books, which is set on the mist-shrouded Somerset Levels in England and features the exploits of feisty detective, Kate, and her easy-going partner, Hayden, has gone from strength to strength. It has attracted keen interest in Europe, the USA, Canada and Australia as well as in Britain. The first six previously published thrillers in the series are also available on Audible for sight challenged readers and those who prefer the spoken word, though all Joffe Books are available on amazon in paperback and Kindle format.
David’s last novel in the Somerset Murder Series, DIAMONDS ON THE LEVELS, (Book 13) was published by Joffe Books on 21 March 2024. This has just been followed with the re-publication by Joffe of the first 8 novels in the series, produced as a box set in November 2024 and available only on Kindle, providing Kindle readers with the opportunity to read all the earlier novels in sequence. David’s next new novel in the series is anticipated for early 2025 (Further information will follow in due course)
David has two married daughters and four grandchildren and lives in the UK with his wife, Elizabeth, where he continues to indulge his passion for thriller writing and to pursue his keen interest in wild life and the countryside. He is a member of the Society of Authors, the Crime Writers and Crime Readers Associations and International Thriller Writers Inc.
My thoughts: This was very good, chilling and disturbing as well as compelling and gripping. DI Kate Hamblin has just started her first day in a new post, and she has to drive straight into a missing child case. A fifteen-year-old girl left her house on a Friday evening and it’s now a Monday morning and she hasn’t come home.
Her parents aren’t the most attentive and it isn’t a happy home, but Tammy has never stayed away this long. Then a call comes in, there’s a body, but it isn’t Tammy. So who is and where is she?
This is a twisted case, with a twisted killer, and a terrified victim. The police are determined to find the perpetrator before any more teenage girls are hurt, and a flasher in the park might actually be able to help give them a lead.
Written by a former police Superintendent, this was a great read with an interesting protagonist and a shocking plot.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Paul Clayton is a familiar face on screen, best known for his roles as Sophie’s dad in the BAFTA-winning Peep Show and Graham in the acclaimed Him & Her.
Currently, he appears as Drew Peacock in EastEnders, Dennis in Disney’s sequel to The Full Monty and has featured in Brian and Margaret, Wolf Hall, House of the Dragon, and over 300 stage and screen roles. He’ll be seen in the new ITV thriller Secret Service, and in Season 3 of House of the Dragon
Beyond acting, Paul is an internationally recognised creative event director and sought-after presentation coach. His previous thrillers, The Punishment and The Hoax, have gripped readers, while his books for actors—So You Want to Be a Corporate Actor? and The Working Actor (both published by Nick Hern Books)—offer invaluable industry insight. He lives in London with his partner.
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My thoughts: This gets pretty dark, Patrick and Barney have some nasty secrets and the things that start happening to Marcella after Barney tells Patrick about her are nasty too. Although no one can prove Patrick’s behind them.
The end of a relationship can be messy – you tend to know more about the other person than anyone else and it can quickly get very personal, with every slight, mistake and row revisited and rehashed. Barney and Patrick aren’t perfect, they haven’t always been honest with each other and the resentments start to surface as they painfully begin to untangle their life together.
They seem to bring out the worst in each other, and their happy marriage is really anything but. But that’s before a Russian with a gun and a grudge shows up, and then things start getting even worse. Only one of them will survive the break-up from Hell. But who?
Darkly comic, verging on the absurd, full of vengeance and bitterness, you can’t really like either of them but Patrick is particularly monstrous and I loved him, he absolutely does not care about anything else except revenge, is completely unhinged, and self-centered. I’d probably loathe him if he were real but he’s so awful I couldn’t help but secretly root for him, even if that makes me a terrible person too.
*Terms and Conditions –UK entries welcome. Please enter using the Gleam box below. The winner will be selected at random via Gleam 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 not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.
**I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
A Black Notice means one thing: unidentified human remains. And this time, five skeletons lie interlocked in the darkness of a wartime pillbox.
Rowan Jackman and Marie Evans are the detectives who take on the toughest cases on the Lincolnshire fens. And trouble always comes in threes.
6 a.m. on a dark autumn morning. Retired detective Bob Ruston is about to feed the dog when the doorbell rings. The man on the doorstep has blood running down his cheek and a look of terror on his face. ‘Please! Let me in! They’re going to kill me!’ Bob sees a handcuff dangling from the man’s lacerated wrist.
Later that day, a stylishly dressed woman marches into Saltern-le-Fen police station demanding to see Detective Marie Evans. ‘I want you to find my husband.’
Then a homeowner clearing undergrowth in his back garden makes a horrifying discovery. The decomposing remains of five bodies tangled together in an old WW2 pillbox.
Detective Jackman asks Interpol to issue a Black Notice. But little is he prepared for the shocking results that come in . . .
I was born in Kent but spent most of my working life in London and Surrey. I was an apprentice florist to Constance Spry Ltd, a prestigious Mayfair shop that throughout the Sixties and Seventies teemed with both royalty and ‘real’ celebrities. What an eye-opener for a working-class kid from the Garden of England! I swore then, probably whilst I was scrubbing the floor or making the tea, that I would have a shop of my own one day. It took until the early Eighties, but I did it.
Sadly the recession wiped us out, and I embarked on a series of weird and wonderful jobs; the last one being a bookshop manager. Surrounded by books all day, getting to order whatever you liked, and being paid for it! Oh bliss!
And now I live in a village in the Lincolnshire Fens with my partner, Jacqueline, and three Springer spaniels and four little rescue, Breton spaniels. I had been writing mysteries for years but never had the time to take it seriously.
Now I write full-time, and as my partner is a highly decorated retired police officer; my choice of genre is a no-brainer! I have an on-tap police and judicial consultant, who makes exceedingly good tea!
I have set my crime thrillers here in the misty fens because I sincerely love the remoteness and airy beauty of the marshlands. This area is steeped in superstitions and lends itself so well to murder!
I am lucky enough to be one of the amazing Joffe Books team of authors and am really enjoying being able to spend time doing what I love… writing!
My thoughts: This was really good, if a little gory. When five bodies are found in an old WW2 pillbox in a field, the police must find out who they are and who put them there.
At the same time they’re also looking into a missing man – out on parole, his wife is worried because he wouldn’t just take off and risk his liberty like that. It turns out he’s connected to something much bigger.
The cases are complicated and require the whole team to get involved, handling different elements and working through all the evidence.
I don’t want to spoil this but the reveal is shocking and rather brilliant, I was totally gripped. Joy Ellis is a great writer and her stories are so clever.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Vowing once more to remove herself from society, Annie is living alone in her little cottage by the shores of a loch. But when an old enemy – now locked up in a high-security hospital – comes calling, begging her to find the son that she was forced to give up at the age of seventeen, Annie is tempted out of seclusion.
The missing boy holds the key to ending Annie’s curse, and he may be the only chance that both she and Lewis have of real happiness. Annie and Lewis begin an investigation that takes them back to the past, a time etched in Scottish folklore, a period of history that may just be repeating itself.
And what they uncover could destroy not just some of the most powerful people in the country, who will stop at nothing to protect their wealth and their secrets, but also Annie’s life, and everything she holds dear…
Michael Malone is a prize-winning poet and author who was born and brought up in the heart of Burns’ country. He has published over 200 poems in literary magazines throughout the UK, including New Writing Scotland, Poetry Scotland and Markings. Blood Tears, his bestselling debut novel won the Pitlochry Prize from the Scottish Association of Writers. His dark psychological thriller, A Suitable Lie, was a number-one bestseller, and is currently in production for the screen, and five powerful standalone thrillers followed suit. The Murmurs and The Torments, first in the Annie Jackson Mysteries series, were published to critical acclaim in 2023. A former Regional Sales Manager (Faber) he has also worked as an IFA and a bookseller. Michael lives in Ayr, where he also works as a hypnotherapist.
My thoughts: I find Annie a really fascinating character, she’s obviously troubled by her “murmurs” but despite her need for quiet solitude, she is willing to risk much to help others – even those who have wronged her. Sylvia tried to kill Annie last time they met, attempting to sacrifice her, but here Annie is agreeing to help her, to look for her lost son. Yes, she’s hoping that an end to the family curse might be her reward, but when she and Lewis realise that this investigation might be very dangerous, they still want to help.
I was gripped from the off, there’s something so intriguing and compelling about the story, with its echoes of the past in people’s lives and personalities, Drew feels like he’s lived before, as one of the ancestors he and Annie share. And Annie knows only too well that you can’t outrun the past. There’s also a connection to Annie and Lewis’ birth mother – Bridget, a slightly happier story than the others they know.
It felt like a bit of an ending, or maybe a pause in Annie’s story, as certain things are wrapped up, or are they? I cannot wait for the next installment.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
The first in a series of quick-read, cosy mysteries set during the 1970s in North East London and North Devon, featuring the characters of Jan Christopher, her Aunt Madge, her uncle, DCI Toby Christopher and romantic interest DC Lawrence Walker – plus several other endearing, regular characters.
The background of Jan’s career as a library assistant is based on the author’s own library years during the 1970s, using many borrowed (often hilarious!) anecdotes, her life in suburban north east London on the edge of Epping Forest, and her present life in rural North Devon…
July 1971 Eighteen-year-old library assistant Jan Christopher’s life is to change on a rainy evening, when her legal guardian and uncle, DCI Toby Christopher, gives her a lift home after work. Driving the car, is her uncle’s new Detective Constable, Lawrence Walker – and it is love at first sight for the young couple.
But romance is soon to take a back seat when a baby boy is taken from his pram, a naked man is scaring young ladies in nearby Epping Forest, and an elderly lady is found, brutally murdered… Are the events related? How will they affect the staff and public of the local library where Jan works – will romance survive and blossom between library assistant Jan Christopher and DC Walker? Or will a brutal murder intervene?
“I sank into this gentle cosy mystery story with the same enthusiasm and relish as I approach a hot bubble bath, (in fact this would be a great book to relax in the bath with!), and really enjoyed getting to know the central character…” Debbie Young bestselling cozy mystery author
“Jan is a charming heroine. You feel you get to know her and her love of books and her interest in the people in the library where she works. She’s also funny, and her Aunt Madge bursts with character – the sort of aunt I would love to have had. I remember the 70s very well and Ms Hollick certainly gives a good flavour of the period.” Denise Barnes (bestselling romance author Molly Green)
“A delightful read about an unexpected murder in North East London. Told from the viewpoint of a young library assistant, the author draws on her own experience to weave an intriguing tale” Richard Ashen (South Chingford Community Library)
“Lots of nostalgic, well-researched, detail about life in the 1970s, which readers of a certain age will lap up; plus some wonderful, and occasionally hilarious, ‘behind the counter’ scenes of working in a public library, which any previous or present-day library assistant will recognise!” Reader’s Review
Library Assistant Jan Christopher is to spend Christmas in Devon with her boyfriend, DS Laurie Walker and his family, but when a murder is discovered, followed by a not very accidental accident, the traditional Christmas spirit is somewhat marred…What happened to Laurie’s ex-girlfriend? Where is the vicar’s wife? Who took those old photographs? And will the farmer up the lane ever mend those broken fences?
“There are lots of things to enjoy in the second in the Jan Christopher cosy mystery series” Best-selling cozy mystery author Debbie Young
“A laid back sort of novel, the kind that you can relax while reading, and simply let the story happen. This author has a particularly unique style of writing… this book wasn’t simply a story, but an experience. You almost have the feeling that the author is reading the book to you, and is adding in her own little quips every now and again. I loved every second… The whole mystery is well thought out… utterly amazing!” Review: I Got Lost In A Book Blog
“The pace is gently cosy, despite the murder… Jan is a wonderful character; young, naïve, but also savvy when needed. And Laurie is a gem. All the characters and their foibles and actions stay true to the era… a lovely, warm story.” Review: Ruins & Reading
More in the series:
Episode 3 A MISTAKE OF MURDER Was murder deliberate – or a tragic mistake?
Episode 4 A MEADOW MURDER Make hay while the sun shines? But what happens when a murder is discovered, and country life is disrupted?
Episode 5 A MEMORY OF MURDER A missing girl, annoying decorators, circus performers and a wanna-be rock star to deal with. But who remembers the brutal, cold case murder of a policeman?
Episode 6 A MISCHIEF OF MURDER The village Flower and Veg Show should be a fun annual event – but who added mischief and murder to the traditional schedule? *
Known for her captivating storytelling and rich attention to historical detail, Helen’s historical fiction, nautical adventure series, cosy mysteries – and her short stories – skilfully invite readers to step into worlds where the boundaries between fact and fiction blend together.
Helen started writing as a teenager, but after discovering a passion for history, was initially published in 1993 in the UK with her Arthurian Pendragon’s Banner Trilogy and two Anglo-Saxon novels about the events that led to the 1066 Battle of Hastings, one of which, The Forever Queen (USA title – A Hollow Crown in the UK) became a USA Today best-seller. Her Sea Witch Voyages are nautical-based adventures inspired by the Golden Age of Piracy. She also writes the Jan Christopher cosy mystery series set during the 1970s, and based around her, sometimes hilarious, years of working as a North London library assistant. Her 2025 release is Ghost Encounters, a book about the ghosts of North Devon – even if you don’t believe in ghosts you might enjoy the snippets of interesting history and the many location photographs.
Helen and her family moved from London to Devon after a Lottery win on the opening night of the London Olympics, 2012. She spends her time glowering at the overgrown garden, fending off the geese, chasing the peacocks away from her roses, helping with the horses and wishing the friendly, resident ghosts would occasionally help with the housework…
My thoughts: I really enjoyed this 1970s set crime novel, while I wasn’t around in the 70s (I’m an 80s baby) my mum always tells me about then, as she was training to be a nurse and met my dad during the decade, but I have worked in a library or two, so I could relate to Jan’s job, libraries attract some interesting people.
Her uncle, DCI Christopher is an interesting person, he’s obviously very intelligent and capable, and he trusts her to help him at times. His new DC, and Jan’s love interest, Laurie Walker, is new in town and between him and Jan have already stumbled on a murder and stopped a naked man in the forest! Goodness knows what else they’ll find.
I thought this was a very enjoyable, entertaining and clever book. The case was more involved than it first appeared, and there were other, smaller crimes to resolve along the way. Eventually Laurie and Jan might even get to go out for a nice dinner, somewhere other than her aunt and uncle’s house.
*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 