Tag: crime fiction

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Guests – Adriane Leigh

ramblingmads

Six guests are invited to paradise. Not all of them will survive.

Ryleigh is a struggling artist, still trying to catch her break in theater. Her new best friend offers her a once in a lifetime opportunity — a week on her family’s private island on Lake Michigan.

She doesn’t belong here. She doesn’t know these people at all.

Kerrigan is the housewife with the perfect life. She has a loving husband and a glamorous city apartment. Her life is everything she could ever dream of.

Her husband hates her. Their marriage is a sham.

Cole is the only local on Stonecliffe Island. He’s there to make sure the guests have everything they want. He has to focus on creating the perfect experience.

He can’t afford any distractions after last summer. This is his final chance.

Each guest has their own villa. There are staff on-call to help with every need — a masseuse, a chef to make dinner every night, waiters pouring endless champagne. It’s going to be perfect.

But a violent storm looms on the horizon. There’s no way off the island.

Then, one of the guests disappears. And they won’t be the last . . .

Goodreads Purchase 

Adriane Leigh is a USA Today bestselling author of multiple novels and novellas. With appearances in publications such as Vogue Magazine and The Montreal Gazette, the award-winning author, in addition to writing, founded RARE: Romance Author & Reader Events, a community of internationally-renowned book conventions that draw thousands of readers and #1 bestselling authors to events around the world each year. 

She hosts a podcast, The Rebel Artist, and her books are translated into French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese.

She lives on Lake Michigan with her family.

Adriane’s Social Media

Facebook Instagram

Joffe Books’ Social Media (I highly recommend signing up for their newsletter, you get a free ebook every day!)

Facebook Twitter Instagram Website

My thoughts:

Note to self; do not accept any invitations to remote islands, ever.

Invited for a combination will reading and holiday on a rather exclusive island, this rather disparate and bickering group arrive, spend several days falling out with each other and then leave, minus two of their number, who are either missing or dead.

There’s some serious confusion over what happened, stories keep changing, no one is reliable and the police never really seem to get to the bottom of it. The island’s caretaker is arrested and charged with neglect and manslaughter, but is he really to blame for any of it, or is there something larger and nastier going on?

Nine months later, the survivors are slowly building new lives, but none of them have really moved on. Questions still remain and some are plagued by guilt. Things get stranger and more volatile. But can anyone untangle the mess and find out what really happened?

Twisted and twisting, this is an edge of your seat “what just happened?” read. The lives of the characters are so enmeshed and messy, it’s not surprising that events are beyond their control and more than one of them is capable of murder.

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blogathon: In the Blink of an Eye – Jo Callaghan

ramblingmads

DCS Kat Frank knows all about loss. A widowed single mother, Kat is a cop who trusts her instincts. Picked to lead a pilot programme that has her paired with AIDE (Artificially Intelligent Detective Entity) Lock, Kat’s instincts come up against Lock’s logic.

But when the two missing person’s cold cases they are reviewing suddenly become active, Lock is the only one who can help Kat when the case gets personal. AI versus human experience. Logic versus instinct. With lives on the line can the pair work together before someone else becomes another statistic?

My thoughts: The premise of this book is really interesting – a brilliant scientist has developed an AI program to assist the police in solving crimes. It removes the emotions from the investigation but does that make it foolproof?

Paired with DCS Kat Frank, herself and excellent detective, can AIDE Lock help her find out who is abducting people, cases that have gone cold, before anyone else goes missing?

The case becomes very personal to Kat and Lock has a lot to learn from the human investigators in the team. Can their unique blend of cutting edge science and emotional intelligence create a crime solving team better than anything that’s come before?

I really enjoyed this, Kat and her team are great, and Lock is really intriguing, both as a concept and as a character, he’s designed to learn and expand his knowledge, but will it make him more human?

The case itself is shocking and disturbing, which adds to the sense that this is something new. It’s a science based case in many ways as well as being deeply human. Absolutely cracking stuff. I dived straight into book two from here, I couldn’t resist.

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Taken – Danielle Ramsey

ramblingmads


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?

Purchase

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
Newsletter

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.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Family Home – L.H. Stacey

ramblingmads


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.

Purchase


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
Newsletter

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.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Coffee House Murders – Ellis Blackwood

ramblingmads

In London, 1666, drinking coffee can get you killed…

The case of Samuel Pepys’s missing pocket watch escalates rapidly when Eustace Blount, writer and wit, is found murdered in Rose’s Coffee House on The Strand.

Blount was a prig, a poseur and a parliamentarian – nobody liked him, not even his friends – and Pepys’s intrepid personal inquisitors, Abby Harcourt and Jacob Standish, find themselves with a suspect list as unwieldy as it is perplexing.

When their investigation leads to the nearby Gilded Bean coffee house, frequented by fervently royalist members of parliament, it becomes clear that a dangerous political game is afoot. Abby and Jacob face their most audacious challenge yet:

To break into Westminster Palace, at the very heart of English politics. The penalty, if discovered – is death.

Goodreads Purchase

Ellis Blackwood fell in love with the writings of Samuel Pepys, and the 17th-century England he inhabited, through the great man’s published diaries. The Samuel Pepys Mysteries are the result of that literary love affair.

Facebook  Instagram

My thoughts: I really like this series, it’s a lot of fun and brings the hubbub of 17th Century London to vivid life.

The coffee shops were a new concept and where the great and good (and not so good) would meet to talk, boast and scheme. They were male only spaces much of the time and Pepys would have been very familiar with them.

When Pepys asks his two inquisitors to locate his missing pocket watch, which he thinks may be in one of those very coffee shops, they stumble into murder and intrigue, just round the corner from Jacob’s house.

Abby as always, is quicker off the mark and starts to untangle the relationships between the coffee house denizens, the wits who spend their days writing pretty terrible poetry and the politicians who pontificate and squabble just round the corner.

The plot the pair discover threatens the King himself, Charles II, and the heart of government, much like the Gunpowder Plot that almost killed his grandfather.

Clever, entertaining and enjoyable, each installment of this series gets better and better.

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Reunion – M.A. Hunter

ramblingmads


Never underestimate how much people can change…

It’s been years since Zoe last saw them – since they graduated, drifted apart, and lost touch.

Years since Zoe ended things with Dan because the memories were too painful to bear.

Years since that night – the night an unexpected death shattered their close-knit group of friends.

Now, Zoe is invited to Scotland for a wedding – a grand affair at a manor house on a remote island.
Apprehensive about the reunion, she hopes the long drive with Lily will help ease her nerves.
But things are far from simple. Lily has also agreed to give Dan a lift, and Rod, not wanting to be left  out, is joining them as well, along with his fiancée.
And when they come into trouble on a cold, dark, desolated Highland road, it sets off a chain of  events which will leave them all shaken to their very core, and questioning everything they thought
they knew…

An unsettling and unputdownable edge-of-your-seat thriller set in the eerie mists of Scotland, perfect for fans of The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

Purchase


M. A. Hunter is the alter ego of Stephen Edger, the bestselling author of psychological and crime thrillers, including the Kate Matthews series. Most recently published by One More Chapter, his new thriller, Adrift, will be published by Boldwood in May 2023.

Facebook: @AnAutieAuthor
Twitter: @AnAutieAuthor
Instagram: @AnAutieAuthor
Newsletter
Bookbub profile: @M_A_Hunter

My thoughts: this was a good one, clever, twisting and  suspenseful. Reuniting with a group of old friends, with history between them and secrets makes everything a little tense when they’re in Lily’s dad’s old car.

Zoe is a lawyer and dealing with a workplace fling gone horribly wrong, Lily is her high school best friend, with a little secret of her own, Dan was her teenage boyfriend, Rod another friend, who’s getting married and has invited them all along. But between them is the accidental death of their friend Saul, an incident that has bound them together but also driven a wedge between them all.

Bella, Rod’s fiancée, doesn’t really fit in with the group and things about her don’t quite add up. As they drive up to the Highlands to catch the ferry to Jura for the wedding events take a nasty turn.

With events bringing the past crashing into the present, and secrets spilling out of everyone, will their friendships survive? 

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Twelth Floor – Michelle Kidd

ramblingmads

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.

Goodreads Purchase

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.

Michelle’s Social Media

Facebook Twitter Instagram Website

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Joffe Books’ Social Media

Facebook Twitter Instagram Website

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.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: A Deadly Legacy – E.V. Hunter

ramblingmads


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.

Purchase


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
Newsletter

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.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: A Perilous Premiere – Gail Meath

ramblingmads

Solving their own murders is the least of their problems…and the beginning of Stone & Steele, a reluctant yet surprisingly skilled investigative team.

The Golden Age of Hollywood, 1938. Vivian Steele moved to California to start a new life. She opened a fashion boutique in Beverly Hills, befriended Carole Lombard, the actress, and married a successful banker. But when her husband is murdered, Vivian discovers she isn’t the only one hiding a few secrets.

An anonymous phone call lures Vivian to a plush hotel room where she stumbles upon the dead body of a beautiful young actress – her husband’s mistress. To add fuel to the fire, she’s not alone.

Preston Stone, her adversary and Hollywood’s notorious playboy, is standing beside her. Suspiciously, they part ways only to find themselves alone again at a movie premiere two days later, and the message becomes brutally clear. They’re both the next targets of a cold-blooded killer.

Together, Vivian and Preston are thrown into a deadly race to find a missing collection of valuable coins and stop a vicious killer before they become the next murder victims. But first, they need to stop pointing their fingers at each other.

A Perilous Premiere is the first book in this exciting new 1930s Stone & Steele mystery series starring a great cast of characters ranging from the rich and famous to Bella, a Boston Terrier, her new friend, Boris, a Saint Bernard, and a few other endearing folks. (A pretty clean read)

Goodreads Purchase

Award-winning author Gail Meath writes historical romance novels that will whisk you away to another time and place in history where you will meet fascinating characters, both fictional and real, who will capture your heart and soul. Meath loves writing about little or unknown people, places and events in history, rather than relying on the typical stories and settings.

Facebook Twitter Instagram Website

My thoughts: brand new series set in 1930s Hollywood, where our lead character is best friends with Carole Lombard (actress and wife of Clark Gable), and has an adorable canine sidekick? Yes please!

And bonus, it’s from the always enjoyable Gail Meath.

I loved Perilous Permiere, the setting, the characters, the investigation, the bickering between our two protagonists, the secrets and mystery that swirls round them. It was delicious.

I love classic Hollywood movies (Bringing Up Baby is my favourite) so this era is perfect for me. It’s a time of huge change, the Great Depression is finally drawing to an end, in Europe rumblings of war, and women are starting to be more independent. Just like our girl here, Vivian owns a high end fashion boutique and dresses film stars and the wealthy alike, aided by her assistant Nora and cute pooch Bella.

When her husband is tragically shot dead during what appears to be a robbery gone wrong, she hires a PI to do what the corrupt LAPD haven’t, and find the killer. But there seems to be more to it than she first thought.

Preston Stone, playboy and scion of a wealthy family, although he too appears to have plenty of secrets, crosses paths with her and the pair team up to solve the case and prevent more people being killed.

They bicker in the best screwball cinematic way, there’s another (enormous) dog called Boris, who helps save the day, because of course he does. Such a good boy.

I cannot wait for more!

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Revenge Pact – Liz Mistry

ramblingmads


TWO DEATHS

Tommy and Markie Jones are found dead at the side of a main road in Scotland.

TWO RIVALS

Detectives Jazzy Solanki and Annie McQueen are on the scene where the bodies are identified as the nephews of Jimmy Nails, head of a notable gang in Glasgow. The turf war between the gangs
of Glasgow and Edinburgh has existed for years, but these murders are seen as an escalation in violence.

ONE UNFORGIVABLE BETRAYAL

As the investigation unfolds, there’s suspicion about a leak within the police force, and to her dismay Jazzy is asked to keep a watchful eye on someone close to her.
With distrust mounting on all sides, can the pair uncover the truth before someone else is killed?

Amazon UK Amazon US


Liz Mistry moved to West Yorkshire in the late 1980s. Her gritty crime fiction police procedural novels set in Bradford embrace the city she describes as ‘Warm, Rich and Fearless’ whilst exploring the darkness that lurks beneath. Yet, her heart remains in Scotland, where childhood tales of bogey men, Bible John and grey lady ghosts fed her imagination.

Her latest work, The Solanki and McQueen crime series is set around West Lothian, where she uses the distinctive landscape, historic heritage and Scottish culture as a backdrop to her gritty yet often humorous stories.

Struggling with clinical depression and anxiety for many years, Liz often includes mental health themes in her writing. She credits her MA in Creative Writing from Leeds Trinity University with helping her find a way of using her writing to navigate her ongoing mental health struggles. The
synergy been creative and academic writing led Liz to complete a doctorate in creative writing researching the importance of representation of marginalised groups within the genre she loves.

Her husband, three children and huge extended British Indian family are a constant support to her.

In her spare time, Liz loves visiting the varied Scottish and Yorkshire landscape, travelling, listening to music, reading and blogging about all things crime fiction on her website blog, The Crime Warp.

Website X (Twitter) Facebook Instagram

My thoughts: The Jazz Queens are back! Jazzy Solanki and Annie McQueen (Queenie) are sort of recovered from the events at the end of their last case and while Jazzy is on desk duty as her physical injuries are still healing, Team D are split up to help cover the rather worrying gang war that seems to have broken out between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Or has it?

The gangsters involved have been receiving messages from someone calling themselves ‘Vengeance’ and killings have taken place in both cities. The police aren’t in the loop, but the Jazz Queens have spotted some oddities in the events that suggest to them that someone else is involved.

As events grow towards a showdown, the team gather information and try to get ahead of the inevitable fall out. There’s also a cold case that needs their help, and may be linked to ‘Vengeance’ too.

DI Dick is still being, well, a dick, and keeps trying to sideline his best team, but DCS Afzal knows their worth, even if Jazzy is still furious with him.

Another absolutely cracking outing for this team of ace detectives and highly enjoyable it is too. I really like Jazzy and Queenie, they’re a great pairing and along with the rest of team Jazz Queens, are amply qualified to take on this complex and messy case, replete with historical abuse and murders. Can’t 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.