Tag: crime fiction

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: A Christmas Murder – Mary Grand

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Susan didn’t plan on being an amateur sleuth and, after two successful investigations, she’s looking forward to a quiet Christmas. So, when local businesswoman Meera is in desperate need of help, Susan agrees rather reluctantly.

The task should be easy enough. The infamous press mogul Duncan Fern is coming back to the Isle of Wight, the scene of his family’s childhood holidays, to celebrate Christmas with his grown-up
children and their partners, his new glamorous wife Kirsten who is forever dripping with diamonds, and the spikey editor of his paper the Morning Flame, Antoine. The newly-refurbished luxurious
Bishopstone Manor is the perfect setting for a festive break, and all Susan has to do is help Meera host.

But when a snowstorm descends over the island, and the following morning a body is found, Christmas at the Manor takes a darker turn. Can Susan get to the bottom of the mystery before the murderer strikes again…

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Mary Grand writes gripping, page-turning suspense novels, with a dark and often murderous underside. She grew up in Wales, was for many years a teacher of deaf children and now lives on the Isle of Wight.

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My thoughts: Christmas is a murderous time of year, people get together with their families – the people they most love and hate at the same time and old resentments as well as new rows burst out. 

Susan thinks helping Meera out at the Manor will be easy, but the family they’re hosting aren’t an easy group. Media mogul Duncan Fern, his second wife, his children and their partners, and one of his business partners as a last minute addition.

Fern used to bring his family to the island when his children were young and his first wife, their mother, was still alive. They’ve all got some memories, good and bad, of that time and daughter Hayley is struggling with that.

She used to spend time with Alice, Susan’s friend, and the shrewdest person around, who always solves all the mysteries and murders without ever needing to leave her retirement home. I love her.

After Duncan is found dead in his bed, from a heart attack, Susan thinks it’s not straightforward, there’s some things that don’t add up. So she starts digging, asking questions and clearly someone gets threatened as she’s pushed down the icy outside steps and almost drowned.

Susan has great instincts but she’s not good at taking basic safety precautions, she doesn’t really tell anyone what she’s doing or take her phone (or walkie talkie, there’s no signal at the Manor).

I really enjoyed this book, it’s a bit in the mould of the Golden Age country house murders but with a festive (and modern) twist. Everyone there has secrets, some of them more deadly than others.

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

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Blog Tour: Living is a Problem – Doug Johnstone

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The Skelf women are back on an even keel after everything they’ve been through. But when a funeral they’re conducting is attacked by a drone, Jenny fears they’re in the middle of an Edinburgh gangland vendetta.

At the same time, Yana, a Ukrainian member of the refugee choir that plays with Dorothy’s band, has gone missing. Searching for her leads Dorothy into strange and ominous territory. And Brodie, the newest member of the extended Skelf family, comes to Hannah with a case: Something or someone has been disturbing the grave of his stillborn son.

Everything is changing for the Skelfs … Dorothy’s boyfriend Thomas is suffering PTSD after previous violent trauma, Jenny and Archie are becoming close, and Hannah’s case leads her to consider the curious concept of panpsychism, which brings new danger, while ghosts from the family’s past return to threaten their very lives…

Doug Johnstone is the author of seventeen novels, many of which have been bestsellers. The Space Between Us was chosen for BBC Two’s Between the Covers, while Black Hearts was shortlisted for and The Big Chill was longlisted for Theakston Crime Novel of the Year.

Three of his books – A Dark Matter, Breakers and The Jump – have been shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize. Doug has taught creative writing or been writer in residence at universities, schools, writing retreats, festivals, prisons and a funeral home. He’s also been an arts journalist for 25 years. He is a songwriter and musician with six albums and three EPs released, and he plays drums for the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers, a band of crime writers. He’s also co-founder of the Scotland Writers Football Club and lives in Edinburgh with his family.

My thoughts: Skelfs, Skelfs, Skelfs!!

Yep, my favourite undertakers/PI family are back and they’ve got a few cases on their whiteboards. Jenny is following the drones that attack two of their funerals, Dorothy is looking for a missing member of her choir, a Ukrainian refugee, and Hannah is trying to help Brodie, whose infant son’s grave has been tampered with.

Then there’s the ongoing fallout of the previous violent case with Thomas’ former colleagues causing trouble. Could it be connected to any of these new cases?

The dead still need to be tended to, and the body of a homeless Biffy Clyro fan (tattoos that also give the book its title, help the team find some friends of the deceased), and a few more of the new methods they’re using, which I find endlessly fascinating as I agree that there has to be a more ecologically sound way to bury the dead. One of my friend’s is a funeral director for one of the big firms and I am keen to talk about this with him.

I love the Skelfs, I think they’re fantastic and the books are so full of little details and moments. I love the fact they have a wind phone in the garden so people can talk to their loved ones (it’s a genuinely lovely concept from Japan) and I was fascinated by the panpsychism that Hannah is exploring, something I’ve bookmarked to research later.

Doug Johnstone is one of the most interesting writers working at the moment between the Skelfs and the alien creatures of the Enceledon series. His books are enjoyable and sometimes funny but also full of ideas and concepts that make you think. Brilliant 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.

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Blog Tour: I Died at Fallow Hall – Bonnie Burke-Patel

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Anna Deerin moves to a remote Cotswold cottage to become a gardener, trying to strip away everything she’s spent all her life as a woman striving for, craving the anonymity and privacy her new off-grid life provides. But when she clears the last vegetable bed and digs up not twigs but bones, the outside world is readmitted.

With it comes Detective Inspector Hitesh Mistry, who has his own reasons for a new start in the village of Upper Magna. Drawn in spite of herself to this unknown woman from another time, Anna is determined to uncover her identity and gain recognition for her, if not justice. As threats to Anna and her new life grow closer, she and DI MIstry will find that this murder is inextricably bound up with issues of gender, family, community, race and British identity itself – all as relevant in decades past as they are to Anna today.

Born and raised in South Gloucestershire, Bonnie Burke-Patel studied History at Oxford. After working for half a decade in politics and policy, she changed careers and became a preschool teacher, before beginning to write full time. She lives with her husband, son, and needy cat in south east London, and is working on her next crime novel about fairy tales, desire, and the seaside.

My thoughts: I know there’s a tendency to compare modern crime novels to the Golden Age ones – easy to say “like Agatha Christie was alive in the 21st Century” but apart from a setting, this is not the same sort of crime novel (and I love Golden Age crime so this isn’t a slight at Agatha).

It’s a modern, intelligent novel that grapples with sins of the father, race in rural England, relationships and the dwindling influence of the landed classes.

Anna is a former ballerina, whose career was ended by injury, and has moved to a small cottage with an outsize garden, growing and selling fruit, veg, jam and cakes at the local market. She pays no rent as it’s managed as part of the estate of the local National Trust type house.

Digging in the garden she finds human remains and calls in the local police in the firm of another recent incomer to Upper Magna, DI Hitesh Patel, recently moved from London after the death of his mother. (Side note; the area his father lives in, Kingsbury, is about 20 minutes away from where I live).

There’s an instant connection between the two, navigating their different forms of grief, as they look into whose remains are in the garden and what led to them being there. Anna, despite being told to leave it alone, can’t help asking questions, and attracting the wrong kind of attention.

I really enjoyed this book, the moving back and forth between Anna and Hitesh, and the memories of a young woman at Fallow Hall in the 60s. Slowly the story of the body in the garden is revealed, and as Anna and Hitesh get closer, a new story for Upper Magna and Fallow Hall is being written.

The ending is shocking and full of twists, and so good too. I really hope this author writes more books this clever and compelling and maybe even revisits these characters.

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

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Blog Tour: After the Husbands – Gina Cheyne

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What do you do when you’ve buried four husbands and not yet found a fifth?

Wealthy Lady Bumstead takes a cruise down the Mekong in Vietnam with a hired female companion, Anne de Tonkin. Annie is not just a kind old lady, she is a brilliant listener and soon knows all about the other travellers. But, on the last day of the cruise she is murdered.

Lady Bumstead, unable to see any reason why Annie should be murdered, is convinced the killer was after her. She hires the SeeMs Detective Agency to protect her and find the killer. At the same time she decides to do some sleuthing herself, and, with the help of her high powered hearing aid, she begins listening to all the conversations around her.

As the SeeMs Detectives investigate the crime, they find Annie had a rich past and connections with almost everyone else on the boat. There seem to be plenty of reasons for killing her, but who did the
deed?

Will Lady Bumstead and the SeeMs Detectives find the killer before he/she strikes again? Will Lady Bumstead find a fifth husband? Or will she become another victim?

Written in the first person by Lady Bumstead this novel will be particularly enjoyed by readers of Agatha Christie and A Man Called Otto. Or anyone interested in whodunnits.

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Gina has worked as a pilot, physiotherapist, freelance writer and dog breeder. As a child, Gina’s parents hated travelling and never went further than Jersey. As a result she became travel-addicted and spent years bumming around SE Asia, China and Australia, where she worked in a racing stables in Pinjarra, South of Perth. She then lived and worked in various places in Spain, the
USA and London before settling in West Sussex with her husband and dogs. This is her fifth crime novel in the SeeMs Detective Agency series. This book is set in Vietnam.

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My thoughts: I found Lady Bumstead (yes, it’s a silly name) quite self involved and annoying, she claims not to understand why her family don’t want anything to do with her, and even seems rather fed up to be on holiday. She’s not nice to or about the companion, Annie, that she’s hired, or her fellow travellers.

When Annie is found murdered in the cabin next door during the cruise part of the trip (an incredible tour of Vietnam that  most people would be delighted to be on), there’s plenty of suspects – she seems to have been connected to every one of the guests.

The SeeMS Detective Agency are hired, by Lady Bumstead’s companion agency to look after her and find out who killed Annie. They also have a link to a family on the trip. The only witness to Annie’s death is Catherine’s granddaughter Lagatha.

As the team look into Annie’s past and the passengers on the Mekong cruise ship, Lady Bee is thinking back over her own past – her collection of husbands, her former career as a nurse and tries to work out which passenger is one of former stepsons.

Funny, clever and enjoyable, Annie’s story is full of twists and surprises, and the agency have their hands full solving the case, there’s almost too many suspects!

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

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Blogathon: Nighthawking – Russ Taylor

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When a nighthawker on the hunt for antiquities instead uncovers the body of a foreign student, Detective Adam Tyler is pulled into a serpentine mystery of dangerous secrets, precious finds, and illegal dealings.

You are a trespasser. You are a thief. You are a Nighthawker.

Under the dark cover of night, a figure climbs over the wall of the Botanical Garden with a bag and a metal detector. It’s a dicey location in the populous city center, but they’re on the hunt–and while most of what they find will be worthless, it takes only one big reward to justify the risk. Only this time, the nighthawker unearths a body. . . .

Detective Sergeant Adam Tyler and his newly promoted protégé, Detective Constable Amina Rabbani, are officially in charge of Cold Case Reviews. But with shrinking budgets and manpower in the department, both are shunted onto the murder investigation–and when the victim is identified as a Chinese national from a wealthy family, in the UK on a student visa, the case takes on new urgency to prevent an international incident.

As Tyler and Rabbani dig further into the victim’s life, it’s becomes clear there’s more to her studies and relationships than meets the eye, and that the original investigation into her disappearance was shoddy at best. Meanwhile, someone else is watching these events . . . someone who knew the victim, and might hold the key to what happened the night she vanished.

Russ Thomas grew up in the 80s reading anything he could get his hands on, writing stories, watching television, and playing videogames: in short, anything that avoided the Great Outdoors. After a few ‘proper’ jobs, he discovered the joys of bookselling, where he could talk to people about books all day. Now a full-time writer, he also teaches creative writing classes and mentors new authors.

My thoughts: I’m not sure I’d be out creeping around at night, even if there was treasure, but that’s how a dead woman’s body is discovered in Sheffield’s Botanical Gardens. Buried in a shallow grave, she is a Chinese student with a politically connected father and an interest in rare orchids.

As Tyler and the newly promoted Mina Rabbani start to work the case, Tyler’s secret investigation into Superintendent Stevens is distracting him from the case and leaving Mina doing all the legwork.

That case is stepping up and Tyler and Doggett find new details emerging about Stevens and his cronies that need following up and could put people in danger.

The new case turns out to have links with the secret investigation which pull them in closer to Stevens’ many secrets.

But they still need to unravel the body in the border, what do the gold coins found with the corpse mean? Who left them there?

A fascinating, gripping thriller with a shocking ending.

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

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Book Review: The Two Masks of Vendetta – Tony Lee Moral

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Set in New York City, Catriona Benedict is a down on her luck theatre actress, with an Italian immigrant boyfriend Mario Montefiore, a cramped apartment on the Lower East Side and a theatre show off Broadway that is cancelled after a week because of poor ticket sales. She is approached by the charismatic Miles Kingston, a wealthy Park Avenue business. He offers her ten thousand dollars to pose as his wife. Miles will only gain his full inheritance if he abandons his playboy lifestyle and marries by the age of forty. Catriona disenchanted with her life Off Broadway and eager to pay off Mario’s debts to a violent loan shark, accepts Miles’ offer.

At a party at the Stork Club to welcome her into the Kingston family, Catriona meets Grace, Mile’s hostile cousin with links to the art world; Freddie Swann, a society photographer being sued by Miles; Rupert Ward, Miles’ valet who nurses a terrible grudge against the Kingston family; Louis Ferrero, an Italian casino boss with links to the mafia. All of them, including Catriona herself, become suspects in a murder investigation, when Miles is suddenly poisoned by cyanide during a champagne midnight toast to the bride and groom.

To make matters worse, Catriona finds that the mafia is after her to pay Miles’ gambling debts and someone is trying to kill her. This is a stylish murder mystery thriller with surprising twists and revelations, featuring a host of memorable characters.

Published 21st September 2024

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My thoughts: This is the first adventure of Catriona Benedict and boyfriend Mario Montefiore, I reviewed book two recently and the author very kindly sent me this book to read as well.

This is where it all starts, where Catriona gets involved with dodgy Italian gangsters, missing masterpieces, murder and conspiracy. She’s asked to pose as a wealthy man’s wife, he says to claim an inheritance that has a codicil that he must be married.

Her boyfriend Mario, a musician, isn’t very happy about this arrangement, especially when things go sideways and suddenly people are being murdered. He’s worried she isn’t safe, and he might just be right. Then there’s the missing Caravaggio painting.

Drawn into the criminal world and the art world at their intersection – Catriona and new pal Freddie, a society photographer, are digging into the mystery of the forged paintings, but it puts them in the firing line, literally. Luckily Catriona keeps a cool head and starts to slot it all together.

Intelligent and enjoyable, this was a great read and I was really pleased to learn all about what happened in New York that sent Catriona and Mario to Italy and more adventures.

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Blog Tour: Death Plunge – Michael K. Foster

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Somebody wants her dead. But there’s a problem. She’s Jack Mason’s partner. 

DCI Mason’s peaceful existence is about to be shattered by a notorious gangster’s release from prison. But that’s not the only problem. His partner, a successful physiotherapist, is now the target of a violent stalker.

The perpetrator might be a name from his past. Might be.

What could be more dangerous than a serial killer seeking revenge? Increased brutality. Excess.

With time slipping away, Mason must confront his nemesis head-on if he is to save the woman he cherishes more than anything. If not…

Death Plunge is the seventh book in the Jack Mason crime series. 

If you enjoy dark, action-packed crime novels with complex characters and unexpected psychological turns, then Michael’s latest instalment will captivate you. 

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Michael K Foster has been writing bestseller crime thrillers since 2006, all of them based in and around the North East of England. He released his bestselling debut novel, ‘The Wharf Butcher,’ in 2015, offering a unique insight into this rugged landscape. Since then, he has written seven full-length novels featuring the hard-hitting DCI Jack Mason and has garnished an army of loyal readers.

Michael was born in Plymouth, England. After ten years’ service in the British Army, he moved to Newcastle, where he earned his master’s degree. A former magistrate and lifelong fan of the mystery and crime thriller genres, he now lives in County Durham where he enjoys travelling, walking, and two Siamese cats.

Readers can find out more about Michael via his website or find him on Facebook, Goodreads, and Bookbub.

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My thoughts: With the local gangsters making moves and a serial killer in town, DCI Mason is pretty busy. He’s setting up a new unit to deal with priority cases, and the arson of a night club and a missing young man are two that fall under the rapid response team’s purview so the team are busy. Then there’s the risk to Mason’s partner, Barbara, who he sends to stay with her sister, and keep her safe till he’s found out who’s behind it and stopped them. 

The cases Mason and his team are working on are complex and tricky, with lots of twists and turns along the way. The serial killer is particularly unhinged, and the local villains’ way of doing business is causing trouble for the police, with them forcing out rivals and starting fires.

A clever and gripping police procedural, with well drawn characters and an enjoyable, tense 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.

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Blog Tour: The Grass Widow – Vanessa Edwards

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Ditched by her married lover Hugh on the day she was made redundant, Leonie plans to make life difficult for Hugh while she searches for a new job. She inveigles her way into his house as a cleaner, intending to plant fake clues to his new liaison for his wife Amanda to find. But instead she discovers real clues to Amanda’s secrets.

Meanwhile, fellow cleaners Brenda and Tina also have hidden agendas as they work: Brenda is counting on a spot of blackmail and Tina is looking for financial information to sell to her dodgy brother-in-law.

At the centre of this web is Amanda’s gardener Simon: handsome, ruthless and plausible, with a shady past and lofty ambitions.

A death in an apparent accident arouses Leonie’s suspicions. Can she put aside her animosity towards Amanda and use her impressive – if sometimes unorthodox – investigative skills to find the truth before someone else dies?

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Vanessa is a solicitor specialising in EU law who has worked in private practice in London and Brussels and for the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.

After taking early retirement from the legal profession she turned her hand to fiction.

She lives in Hampstead and likes wine, walking and music of many sorts. And of course reading and writing.

My thoughts: I love a blackly comic novel of revenge and underhand business, and this was exactly that. People often overlook their cleaners and gardeners, forgetting they’re there and that they see and hear everything.

Leonie was made redundant on the same day that her married lover dumped her, so she’s out for revenge, getting a job as his cleaner means she can leave clues that will hopefully get him into hot water with his wife, Amanda…

…who’s having her own affair with Simon the gardener – unfortunately he’s not actually a very nice man, he’s ruthless and keen to get his hands on more than just Hugh’s wife.

Meanwhile Leonie’s fellow cleaners are resorting to criminal means to supplement their small incomes after their crappy partners both leave them high and dry.

Winchester doesn’t strike most as a hot bed of intrigue and crime, but in this book, the cathedral isn’t what we’re here to see. As the cleaners go about their business, legitimate and otherwise, they gather a lot of information about their clients and their goings on, which becomes useful as Amanda’s secret relationship takes a dark turn.

Clever, full of twists and turns, these characters could start a PI agency while cleaning houses, it’s funny and smartly written, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Would love more from these rather brilliant characters and definitely from this writer.

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

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Blog Tour: Death Notice – Simon Maltman

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2000

Michael Walker – former IRA volunteer, turned MI5 informer – had his quiet existence shattered when an IRA hit squad was dispatched on his trail to America.

One year on, Walker has been recovering from having his identity blown.

Now living in New York, he is visited by Amy Landish. The former FBI agent is looking for help to find her missing cousin, Lisa.

Walker and his other new ally, Brandon Johnson – a former thief who had robbed him – immediately agree to do anything that they can. The trio are reunited, once again set on a deadly course.

Their investigation leads to the small town of Six Mile, but the last thing they expect is to end up on the hunt for a serial killer.

Walker does not ingratiate himself with the locals or the police, while becoming the target of the killer himself. Just as Walker closes in on his quarry he receives news from home, in Belfast.

Walker moves from one danger zone to another as he finds himself back in IRA territory, where his old comrades want him dead.

Returning to Six Mile, the killer strikes again and closer to home. Walker made a promise to track him down and he doesn’t intend to break it.

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Simon Maltman is the author of novels, novellas and short stories, released with various publishers. An Amazon Bestseller from Northern Ireland he writes a range of crime fiction thrillers. A regular guest at festivals and events, he is the tour guide for Belfast Noir, and also a well known book reviewer for the likes of ITV and online journals. An established ‘Ulster Noir’ author, he also writes American-set high concept thrillers.

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My thoughts: I was a teenager in 2000 and flew to the US by myself to stay with family, but my American trip was very different to the one the characters in this book are having. They’re looking for a missing teenage girl, and possibly multiple missing girls as their hunt intensifies.

Asked by his friend Amy to look for her cousin, Michael Walker, former IRA man turned MI5 informant (the worst thing he could do according to his former colleagues) and his sidekick Brandon drive down from New York to have a look. The local police haven’t made much effort and Aunt Rose is getting very worried as this is out of character for her daughter.

The duo interview Lisa’s friends, crappy boyfriend, teachers, neighbours and finally get a lead. Then suddenly Michael is called back to Belfast – his dad’s dying and this might be his last chance to see him. But this puts him directly in the firing line, he’s still on the IRA’s most wanted, despite the peace process being in, well, process. Despite the risk and having to leave Amy to continue the hunt alone, he and Brandon pop back to the old country.

There’s a lot of action in the book, car chases (including in a small car in the Irish countryside), shootouts, vendettas being carried out, innocent bystanders getting caught up in it, fights with idiots in hockey masks, but Michael and Brandon, and indeed at one point Amy, acquit themselves well and mostly survive to see another day, and keep looking for Lisa.

I really enjoyed this book, I’ve been learning a fair bit about Ireland and it’s history (mysteriously absent from the English school curriculum – I wonder why?!) recently and so this was a nice slice of recent politics, and with lots of 90s/00s pop culture references too. It’s also a great thriller and the trio make excellent detectives – perhaps that’s in their future.

I loved Michael’s habit of quoting famous Irish writers and comparing himself and Brandon to famous crime fighting teams. He’s a great character and well supported in both plot terms and in action terms by Brandon and Amy. More please!

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

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Blog Tour: The Brampton Witch Murders – Ellis Blackwood

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Can Samuel Pepys save his sister from the hangman’s noose?

As the Great Fire devours London in 1666, another firestorm rages in the tranquil village of Brampton, where Pepys’s sister, Paulina, stands accused of witchcraft.

Pepys summons his inquisitors, Abigail Harcourt and Jacob Standish, plunging them into the heart of the witch-hunt. Can Abigail, Pepys’s astute housemaid, and Jacob, his awkward yet eager protégé, unravel a web of secrets, whispers and lies to clear Paulina’s name?

Racing against time, Abigail and Jacob must confront a formidable adversary: Simon Hopkins, son of the infamous Witchfinder General. Possessed by his father’s Puritan zeal, he will stop at nothing to prove Paulina’s sorcery and send her to the gallows.

To the pious folk of Brampton, the options are stark. Witch or not? Life or death?

The Samuel Pepys Mysteries bring 17th century England vividly to life, in the company of the celebrated diarist himself, and his personal inquisitors, Abby and Jacob. 

If you love a murder mystery wrapped in history, this series is for you.

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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.

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My thoughts: Samuel Pepys is one of history’s more interesting figures, his famous diaries cover a truly fascinating period of English history and he was one of life’s survivors, swapping sides after the Restoration and avoiding prison as a traitor by getting on Charles II’s good side. 

In fact, he got some pretty important jobs out of it, and the power and influence that comes with it. Which comes in handy when his inquisitors, Abigail and Jacob, fall foul of local law enforcement in the village of Brampton, where his parents and sister live.

Simon Hopkins, son of the infamous Witchfinder General, Matthew Hopkins, is living in the Puritan past – wearing his late father’s clothes and attempting to imitate the terrible and cruel witch trials, even though society has moved on.

Pepys’ sister Paulina has been accused of cursing a local farmer, and with the disreputable local magistrate on his side, things look bleak. But Abby and Jacob are smart and capable investigators, they’ve got science and plenty of people who will attest that Paulina isn’t even remotely a witch. Everything hangs on proving that Hopkins is a fraud and that the accusations are false.

This was a really fun read, I love the concept of Pepys and his cohorts carrying out investigations and righting wrongs at a time before we had a proper detective force, and crime was prosecuted in a very different way than it is now.

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