Tag: crime fiction

Two perfect families. Two beautiful homes. A one-way trip to hell.

When two families organise a house swap, it seems like the perfect holiday arrangement.

The Browns will exchange their London townhouse for a stunning chateau in the south of France, the perfect place to relax and rekindle their flagging marriage.

And the Lesters are looking forward to showing their son, Rafael, around their old haunts in the British capital.

Sounds wonderful. Except for one thing – both families are hiding dark secrets, and secrets have a way of coming out…

In France, there’s a mysterious break-in at the chateau. Then the Browns discover that a woman who lived there disappeared and was never seen again. Instead of feeling rested and relaxed, they now feel isolated and vulnerable.

Then, in London, 17-year-old Rafael vanishes without a trace.

As the tension mounts to an unbearable pitch, both couples are forced to face their darkest demons. Someone won’t be coming home…

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Miranda Rijks is a writer of fast-paced, twisty psychological thrillers many of which have been Amazon bestsellers. She has an eclectic background ranging from law to running a garden centre. 

After surviving bone cancer, Miranda turned to writing and is now living the dream, writing suspense novels full time. 

She lives in West Sussex, England with her Dutch husband and two black Labradors and spends as much time as she can in the Swiss Alps.

This is her twenty-third psychological thriller with Inkubator Books.

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My thoughts: I’m not sure I’d want to do a house swap, although a holiday in Provence would be great (although not in December). But the two families in this book swap a falling down French villa for a Kensington town house, apparently to see if it’s a viable prospect for Elodie’s business to expand into.

However some of the people involved have ulterior motives and the supposed Provencal idyll is far from it, the house is damp, smelly and has builders working on it. The neighbours seem nice, but they don’t get on with the usual residents, so they too might have their own reasons for being chummy.

Meanwhile in London, the Lesters aren’t having a good time either, their marriage is teetering on the edge and Piers learns a huge secret that could destroy everything, and that’s before their son Raf goes missing.

The perfect holiday starts to become the perfect nightmare for both couples.

Miranda Rijks’ books are always really fun and the twists are always total surprise, as it is here. I didn’t see some of them coming at all and the connections between the two families were a shock. I was hooked from the beginning, partly because swapping houses is just not something I would ever do, strangers rummaging through my stuff – no thanks. Really enjoyable, intelligent and full of suspense.

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

I am accused of the worst of crimes – murdering my baby – and I have hours before this passenger ferry docks in Spain to find him, alive.
Someone knows about my difficult past and darkest secrets, and now I think they’ve taken my baby.
But who would do this to me and why? I know the answer. Or least I think I do…

The police want to know why I have fled my home and husband. How do I tell them that I had a breakdown after my first baby died? That today is the anniversary of his death? That my husband is planning on having me sectioned?
Despite what my husband says, I’m not ill. Am I? For I have discovered he has an agenda…

So how could I have been so wrong about him?

And how do I convince the police I’m innocent, when everyone believes I’m guilty, and get my baby back before he disappears forever?

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Daniele Ramsay is the author of the DI Jack Brady crime novels and other dark thrillers. She is a Scot living in the North-East of England and was previously published by Hodder & Stoughton and Avon.

Facebook: DanielleRamsayAuthor
Twitter: @DanielleRamsay2
Instagram: @danielle.ramsay.author
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My thoughts: Losing a child is every parent’s worse nightmare, and after her son dies of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), Alice becomes ill with depression. After spending some time in a psychiatric unit getting better, and discovering she’s pregnant once more, Alice vows that she will do everything in her power to protect her next child.

Tom, her surgeon husband, hires a nanny to help out, but Alice’s troubled mind is increasingly paranoid and she starts to imagine that he’s planning to have her committed and take off for his native US with their son.

It all comes to a head on a ferry to Spain, where her brother Oli is staying, when someone takes baby Eli from her, and she can’t remember what happened.

But Alice’s paranoia and fears aren’t entirely unfounded, someone is targeting her and her family, but she’s looking in the wrong direction.

Full of twists, I wasn’t sure who was trustworthy and I really felt for Alice as she struggled to grieve for Noah and then bond with Eli while it was all so raw. People grieve in different ways, and she gets upset that Tom seems less affected than her. It all builds up in her head and she reacts instinctively, but it puts her and Eli into further danger. 

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

Nothing is as perfect as it seems…

Hattie Gilby has not been back to her family home since the devastating events that took place there years ago. Events that changed Hattie and which continue to haunt her today. But one phone call changes everything.

Now Hattie is going back to her family home to face her brothers, Adam and Luke and to hear the last words of her dying mother.

Imogen Gilby hasn’t spoken a word since the night she was beaten almost to death and her husband was murdered. But now it’s time to reveal the truth about what happened that night and the secrets
that almost destroyed her.

Hattie isn’t sure she wants to know the truth. And it seems someone close to them will do anything to make sure the secrets stay hidden forever…

Another chilling read from bestselling author L H Stacey guaranteed to keep you up all night!

Perfect for fans of Valerie Keogh, J.A. Baker and Diana Wilkinson.

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L. H. Stacey is the bestselling psychological suspense author of over seven novels. Alongside her writing she is a full-time sales director for an office furniture company and has been a nurse, an emergency first response instructor and a PADI Staff Instructor. She lives near Doncaster with her husband.

Facebook: @LHStaceyAuthor
Twitter: @LyndaStacey
Instagram: @lynda.stacey
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My thoughts: Hattie doesn’t return to her parents’ house, she can’t move on from the terrible events of the night her father was killed and her mother brutally beaten. They still don’t know who did it, and Hattie worries she might have been responsible. She and her cousin Louisa were involved in something that went awry and she’s always wondered if that was what led to the tragedy.

But now, as her mother is dying, she has returned and as she and her brothers Luke and Adam look through all the paperwork in their mother’s old office, a terrible, truly shocking secret emerges. It seems their parents were involved in something very dark, and that certainly led to their father’s death.

I was genuinely shocked, the secrets that the house holds are horrific and terrible. Somehow Hattie manages not to completely spin out, I’m not sure I could be as cool as she is. As the siblings unearth their parents’ past, we’re shown the events that led to the assault and murder.

It seems there was a lot more to what happened that night than any of the siblings are aware. And someone close to them knows a lot more than they’ve ever said.

Full of shocking moments and twists, this was utterly gripping and a compelling read.

*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 JACK MACINTOSH IS BACK — ON THE TRAIL OF A BRUTAL KILLER.

A punch in the face. A painful visit to the dentist. A summons from his boss. Detective Jack is having a very bad day.

It’s then he gets the call. ‘We’ve got ourselves a murder.’

Jack races to the crime an empty flat on the twelfth floor of a rundown tower block. To be met with a truly shocking sight.

On the kitchen floor are two dismembered human legs. On the shabby sofa in the living room lie three severed arms.

In the bathroom, there’s something even worse . . .

The following day, on a derelict industrial estate, two holdalls are found containing more human limbs.

Then an early morning passenger makes a horrifying discovery on the top deck of the Number 42 bus.

Someone is leaving body parts all over town. But who are the victims — and why have they been targeted? Jack and his team must piece together the parts of the puzzle before more people die.

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Michelle Kidd is a crime fiction author best known for the DI Jack MacIntosh and DI Nicki Hardcastle series. Michelle qualified as a legal executive in the early 1990s, spending ten years practising civil and criminal litigation.

But the dream to write was never far from her mind and in 2008 she began writing the first book in what would later become the DI Jack MacIntosh series. 

Michelle now works full time for the NHS and lives in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. 

She enjoys reading, wine and cats — not necessarily in that order.

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My thoughts: this was a gruesome and gory tale, opening with dismembered body parts found in an empty flat, someone has been abducting sex workers, murdering them and chopping them up. Leaving limbs and other body parts all over the place, including on a bus.

As DI MacIntosh and his team investigate and more vulnerable women go missing, they soon have several suspects, each one more dodgy than the previous. The caretaker of the block of flats, the former resident’s son, they’ve both got links to the building and are acting evasively. But could it be someone closer to the team?

Then there’s the gangster who’s trying to either get Jack to work for him or somehow manipulate him, and now he’s broken a dangerous man out of prison with connections to Jack. Can he keep his bosses off his back and get these two men under arrest?

There’s a lot going on, and the longer the case continues, with more women missing, the harder it is to solve. The press are salivating at the story, with its echoes of Jack the Ripper and an apparently ineffective police force. But Jack knows his team are good, and they’ll get the right man given a chance. But it could come at a cost.

Gripping, dark and compelling, with conflicted protagonist Jack, his team and ruthless criminals. Good stuff.

*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 tragic accident or an untimely death?

When Drew Hopgood’s brother, Frank dies whilst out climbing, it’s initially thought his death was simply a tragic accident. But when Frank’s much younger wife, Stella arrives at Hopgood Hall  demanding half of Frank’s inheritance the Hopgoods and Alexi Ellis begin to suspect foul play…

Stella has no claim to Frank’s legacy, but she isn’t giving up easily. And with the reputation of  Hopgood Hall still fragile, Alexi can’t afford to lose any more money because of Stella’s greed.
So Alexi, her partner Jack, and Cosmo of course, decide to dig deeper into Stella’s background. Just how did she meet Frank and were they really as in love as she claims?

As the trio investigate, they discover Stella has her own reasons for being back at Hopgood Hall. And rather than console the grieving widow, Alexi and Jack think they might need to look again at Frank’s
tragic death – because rather than an accident this could have been a deadly fall – planned by his own wife!

A boutique hotel. A feral cat. A recipe for murder!

A gripping murder mystery, perfect for fans of Faith Martin, Frances Evesham and Emma Davies.

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Evie Hunter has written a great many successful regency romances as Wendy Soliman and is now redirecting her talents to produce dark gritty thrillers for Boldwood. For the past twenty years she
has lived the life of a nomad, roaming the world on interesting forms of transport, but has now settled back in the UK.

Facebook: @wendysolimanauthor
Twitter: @wendyswriter
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My thoughts: This time the case Alexi and Jack take on is close to home. Drew and his brother might have been estranged but it still hurts that he’s died in a horrible climbing accident, especially as he was such a good climber. And then there’s his horrid wife Stella, who turns up demanding money she thinks Frank is owed. Was his death really an accident? And why hasn’t Stella gone back to Australia?

As the ask questions and learn more about the gold digger with a heart of stone, as well as Frank’s past misdemeanours with women and other people’s money, motives emerge. Alexi is put in danger, but Cosmo and his newest canine chum Silgo are there to save the day!

Another interesting case for the Hopgood Detectives, full of grudges held far too long and secrets. All they really want to do is help their friend, but as always they end up catching plenty of bad people along the way!

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