Tag: crime fiction

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: At the Stroke of Midnight – Jenni Keer

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It’s 1923 and in a decade that promises excitement and liberation, Pearl Glenham and her father are invited to a mysterious country house party on the Dorset coast by a total stranger.

Her father claims not to have any prior association with Highcliffe House, but upon arrival, it is apparent that he has a shared history with several of the guests, although he won’t admit it.
Belatedly discovering that her father was blackmailed into attending, Pearl’s worries are compounded when their host fails to arrive…

Intimidated by everyone at the party, she escapes to the nearby cove and stumbles upon a mysterious mercury clock hidden in a cave. This strange encounter sets in motion a series of events that will culminate in an horrific house fire, claiming the lives of all the guests, including Pearl herself.

But then Pearl wakes up back in the cave, seemingly destined never to live past midnight. She can repeat the day. But can she change its outcome?

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Jenni Keer is a history graduate who lives in the Suffolk countryside. Her lifelong passion for reading became a passion for writing and she had two contemporary romance novels published in 2019. She
has now embraced her love of the past to write twisty, turny historicals, and The Legacy of Halesham Hall was shortlisted for the Romantic Historical Novel of the Year in 2023.

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My thoughts: this was a really fun, clever and entertaining mystery novel. Forced to relive the same day over and over, Pearl and her new friend Ellery first have fun with this strange new reality and then decide that they need to investigate the disappearance of the house’s owners the Brockhursts and the other guests connection to the couple, though they all deny knowing them.

As Pearl unravels the terrible secrets being kept and attempts to stop having to die every night and reset the timeline, she learns some shocking things, things that change everything she thought she knew.

*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: Crow Moon – Suzy Aspley

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When the crow moon rises, the darkness is unleashed…


Martha Strangeways is struggling to find purpose in her life, after giving up her career as an investigative reporter when her young twins died in a house fire.
Overwhelmed by guilt and grief, her life changes when she stumbles across the body of a missing teenager – a tragedy that
turns even more sinister when a poem about crows is discovered inked onto his back…


When another teenager goes missing in the remote landscape, Martha is drawn into the investigation, teaming up with DI Derek Summers, as malevolent rumours begin to spread and paranoia grows.
As darkness descends on the village of Strathbran, it soon becomes clear that no one is safe, including Martha…

Originally from the north-east of England, former journalist Suzy Aspley has lived in
Scotland for almost thirty years. She writes crime and short stories, often inspired by the strange things she sees in the landscape around her.

She won Bloody Scotland’s Pitch Perfect in 2019 with the original idea for her debut novel and was shortlisted for the Capital Crime New Voices Award.

In 2020, she was mentored by Jo Dickinson as part of the Hachette future bookshelf initiative. Crow Moon was also longlisted for the Caledonia Novel Award. She’s currently working on the second book in the series, and when she’s not writing, she’s either got her nose buried in a book, or is outside with her dogs dreaming up more dark stories.

She lives in Stirlingshire with her family.

My thoughts: this was so good, creepy, weird, gripping, well written and from an exciting new writer in crime fiction.

When a teenage boy goes missing in the small community of Strathban and his body is found with a verse from an old poem about a witch inked on his body, Martha, a grieving journalist and mother of the dead boy’s best friend, who found the body, is drawn into the investigation.

The Scottish poem is sinister and creepy, embedded in the local landscape and the killer is definitely a local and obsessed with it. Martha suspects the parish priest, who is rather intense and knows all the young people who get dragged into the case, including her son.

There’s a terrible hidden tragedy that comes to light as the case races to it’s end, and there’s more as a fire takes hold of the kirk, and Martha has to confront her own personal losses.

I really liked Martha, she has incredible instincts and even wrapped in grief and pain, she has compassion for others and determination to help, even when DI Summers tells her to back of, but it’s such a personal case, she can’t. She thinks the police have the wrong suspect and that proves to be true.

This book had me absolutely hooked from the start and I cannot wait for the next book, I want to see more of Martha and how her next investigation goes.

*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 Country Wedding Murder – Katie Gayle

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The joyous crowd applauds as the happy couple strides down the aisle. This Cotswolds country wedding has everything – friends and family, beautiful flowers and… murder?

When Julia Bird’s ex-husband Peter and his lovely partner Christopher decide to get married in Berrywick, Julia is delighted – after all, who doesn’t love a country wedding? Little does Julia know that normally calm and collected Christopher will turn into a full-on Groomzilla – and that by the end of the night, someone will end up dead.

The morning after the big day, the jolly nuptial mood turns grim when Julia discovers the lifeless body of the caterer, Desmond. Someone locked him in the cold truck and the poor man froze to death. Now looking for a murderer, all eyes are on Christopher who, mid-tantrum, had publicly threatened to kill him. Convinced that Christopher is innocent, Julia vows to find the real culprit.

Julia soon discovers Desmond had a long list of enemies as she races against the clock to clear Christopher’s name. Could his death be the work of the respected wedding planner who was heard exchanging choice words with the victim? Or perhaps it was his wife – ‘til death do them part – who didn’t shed a single tear at his funeral?

But just when Julia thinks she’s cracked the case, her prime suspect is found dead with a knife in their back. Can Julia find the murderer before they strike again?

An utterly gripping, charming cosy mystery set in the English countryside. Fans of M.C. Beaton, Faith Martin and Betty Rowlands will love the Julia Bird Mysteries.

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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 make 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: Julia returns, this time accompanied by her daughter, who’s flown in from Hong Kong to attend her father’s wedding. When the caterer is found frozen to death in the back of his van the next day, Julia’s ex-husband’s new husband (yes, it does get confusing) Christopher is suspect number 1.

But Julia starts investigating, and she finds more and more evidence that points in other directions. Someone is trying to sabotage the catering firm, and there other tangled threads in the dead man’s life that need unravelling before Hayley and her colleague, the rather dim Walter Farmer, can swoop in and slap on the handcuffs.

Another really enjoyable, fun and clever case for Julia Bird and the ever excitable Jake.

*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: Still See You Everywhere – Lisa Gardner

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From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner comes a harrowing new thriller: Frankie Elkin is an expert at finding the missing persons that the rest of the world has forgotten, but even she couldn’t have anticipated this latest request—to locate the long-lost sister of a female serial killer facing execution in three weeks’ time.

Frankie Elkin is an expert at finding the missing persons that the rest of the world has forgotten, but even she couldn’t have anticipated this latest request—to locate the long-lost sister of a female serial killer facing execution in three weeks’ time. 

She has called herself “death,” but people called her the devil. 

The case was sensational. Kaylee Pierson had confessed from the very beginning, waived all appeals. Despite the media’s chronicling of her tragic circumstances—the childhood spent with a violent father—no one could find sympathy for “the Beautiful Butcher” who had led eighteen men home from bars before viciously slitting their throats. 
Now, with only twenty-one days left to live, Pierson has finally received a lead on the whereabouts of the sister who was kidnapped over a decade ago, and she needs Frankie’s help to find her. The Beautiful Butcher’s offer:

When was the last time your search ended with finding the living? 

Unable to resist the chance for a rescue, Frankie takes on Pierson’s request. Twelve years ago, five-year-old Leilani went missing in Hawaii. The main suspect? Pierson’s tech mogul ex-boyfriend, Sanders MacManus. Now, on a remote island in the middle of the Pacific—the site of MacManus’s latest vanity project—fresh evidence has appeared. In order to learn the truth and possibly save a young woman’s life, Frankie must go undercover at the isolated base camp. Her challenge: A dozen strangers. Countless dangerous secrets. Zero means of calling for help. And then the storm rolls in…

Lisa Gardner, a #1 New York Times bestselling thriller novelist, began her career in food service, but after catching her hair on fire numerous times, she took the hint and focused on writing instead. A self-described research junkie, she has transformed her interest in police procedure and criminal minds into a streak of internationally acclaimed novels, published across 30 countries. Her novel, The Neighbor, won Best Hardcover Novel from the International Thriller Writers.  She has also been honored for her work with animal rescue and at-risk children.  An avid hiker, gardener and cribbage player, Lisa lives with her family in New England.

My thoughts: there are some authors who are auto-buys for me (Karin Slaughter, Karen Rose, Louise Candlish) and Lisa Gardner is one of them. I especially love this series because I love Frankie.

Although I do worry about her, Frankie has narrowly avoided death in both previous books and this time she’s working for a serial killer. Oh, Frankie, why?

Pulled into the tragedy of Kaylee Pierson’s life, she’s on her way to a tropical paradise that might just be anything but.

Remote, isolated, no real way to contact the outside world, basically a terrible idea. Although the people staffing the not exactly built retreat are nice, but one of them might be a murderer or a paedophile or in league with the serial killer. But Frankie goes in undercover and soon discovers that Kaylee is not just a killer but a liar, and there is something else going on here.

I really like Frankie, she’s a wonderful character, despite how she sees herself, as a bit of a failure at life. She’s survived plenty of hard knocks and uses her street smarts, ability to read people and quick mouth to get in and out of trouble. This might just be her hardest case yet, the cavalry are too far away, she doesn’t know who to trust and psychopaths can’t be reasoned with.

A corking addition to this series, with all the twists and turns and terrifying moments Lisa Gardner’s known for, I could not put it down and devoured it in one (intense) sitting.

*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: To Kill a Shadow – Julia Castleton

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Julia Castleton is a former Times journalist turned activist blogger. She carries the weight of past trauma and struggles to balance the demands of single motherhood with the challenges of her work.

When a man who has approached Julia with a story is found dead, she is drawn into a political and military conspiracy that reaches high into the corridors of power. Facing the battle of her life, unsure who to trust, Julia must fight like never before to protect her son, save herself and expose the conspiracy ranged against her.

Julia Castleton is the creation of an internationally bestselling and critically acclaimed writing duo. Blurring the lines between fact and fiction, she takes us into a world that could have been torn from the headlines.

My thoughts: I know nothing about the world of international espionage, politics etc apart from what I’ve read and I’m quite happy with it that way. The protagonist – called Julia Castleton – finds herself embroiled in that world after a doctor and army reservist contacts her with an explosive story, but he’s killed before he can pass anything onto her. At his funeral, a supposed friend hands her a dossier, which she publishes without fact checking it first and then all hell breaks loose.

She’s chased and kidnapped, forced to flee for her life, the police raid her home in the middle of the night, her son is made the subject of a social services investigation. But while the dossier seems to have been dodgy, there’s definitely a story there, and despite knowing how badly it could all go, Julia and her PI friend Joe decide to follow the scant leads.

What they find is much, much bigger than they imagined and they have to go right to the top to get help breaking it, even then it could still be a risk.

Julia is also dealing with the demons of her past, a psychotic break some years before, time on the streets, lost memories and disturbing fragments that invade her dreams. But she wants answers about what happened to her.

I think this could be a really interesting series, though at times it skirts the line of incredulity, and Julia can be a bit frustrating as she prevaricates and abandons her five year old son to her sister’s care for days on end. I think she needs the concept of a work/life balance explained to her.

I really liked Joe, he’s a true friend and always comes through for Julia, as does family lawyer Stone, despite her reluctance to engage with her father. She’s lucky to have people around her, as well as her sister, who really have her back. 

*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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#TeamLyons Blog Tour: Risk of Harm – Lucie Whitehouse

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The gripping new crime thriller from the bestselling author of Before We Met and Critical Incidents

Robin Lyons is back in her hometown of Birmingham and now a DCI with Force Homicide, working directly under Samir, the man who broke her heart almost twenty years ago.

When a woman is found stabbed to death in a derelict factory and no one comes forward to identify the body, Robin and her team must not only hunt for the murderer, but also solve the mystery of who their victim might be.

As Robin and Samir come under pressure from their superiors, from the media and from far-right nationalists with a dangerous agenda, tensions in Robin’s own family threaten to reach breaking point. And when a cold case from decades ago begins to smoulder and another woman is found dead in similar circumstances, rumours of a serial killer begin to spread.

In order to get to the truth Robin will need to discover where loyalty ends and duty begins. But before she can trust, she is going to have to forgive – and that means grappling with some painful home truths.

About the Author

Lucie Whitehouse was born in Gloucestershire in 1975, read Classics at Oxford University and now lives in Brooklyn, New York. She is the author of The House at Midnight, the TV Book Club pick The Bed I Made and Before We Met, which was a Richard & Judy Summer Book Club pick and an ITV3 Crime Thriller selection.

@LWhitehouse5

My thoughts: Robin has rejoined the police, but not the Met, she’s working at West Midlands Police under Samir. She’s heading up a team in Force Homicide – and her latest case is not an easy one. A murdered girl found naked and unidentifiable in an old factory popular with the homeless.

Soon the far right have picked up on the fact that, while another team have quickly solved the murder of a Black teenager, this young woman remains both unknown and no one has been arrested. Then another young woman’s body is found, but Robin thinks it might not be the same killer, something is just a bit off.

As the team dig into the case and attempt to identify the first victim, the press are hot on their heels and so is a local far right rabble rouser. Tensions are rising, the bosses are on the war path and Robin is trying to hold everything together.

This second outing for Robin is shocking, gripping and a total thrill ride. Birmingham is in the midst of a knife crime epidemic, things are reaching boiling point and they need to solve this case fast, but it turns out to be much more complicated and far darker than first suspected.

By skipping forward a few months from the events of the first book, we miss out on the teething problems of Robin’s return to work, which allows us to ease into the story and get to know the team after they’ve got used to one another. Skipping over the complicated, messy stuff, getting into the knitty gritty of both the case and Robin’s life, which I really enjoyed. Roll on book three!

*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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#TeamDaniels Blog Tour: The Longest Goodbye – Mari Hannah

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LIES COST LIVES


THE BRAND NEW KATE DANIELS THRILLER

Three years ago police officer Georgina Ioannau was murdered, her killers never brought to justice.
Now the prime suspects have been shot dead within hours of their return to the UK.
Has someone finally taken the law into their own hands?

Seeking out the truth will force Kate Daniels to confront her own past mistakes, and put her career, and her team’s lives, on the line.

The gripping new Kate Daniels thriller about what happens when someone takes the law into their own hands from awardwinning crime writer Mari Hannah.

My thoughts: another utterly gripping and brilliant read from Mari Hannah. Kate and her team are thrust into the closest case to them. Georgina was not just another police officer, she was Kate’s friend. Her death was devastating and since both her children are also police, one that has never gone away.

The DI put in charge of the investigation at the time, Curtis, did a terrible job, possibly intentionally, and no one was ever prosecuted. Now the two biggest suspects, the Bradshaw sons, are back in Newcastle, and then shot dead on the doorstep, their father later killed by a firearms officer.

As Kate attempts to separate herself from the emotions of the case, that firearms officer is in critical condition in hospital, her team are struggling. Putting herself as OIC of reviewing Curtis’ mess and asking Hank to run the new incident – who was the Bradshaw shooter? But gradually it becomes obvious it’s all one case, someone was getting revenge for Georgina – but who?

Digging into her friend’s life and secrets, she realises that despite how close they were, Kate didn’t know Georgina at all. She had secrets, ones she kept from everyone, her friends, her husband, and one of them is the solution to Kate’s questions, and it’s very close to home.

Carmichael comes close to breaking point too, and once again Kate’s relationship with Jo almost cracks under the pressure, it’s Christmas and this case is too hot to wait, so there’s no turkey for any of the MIT this year.

This is an intense and highly tangled case, it could leave some of Kate’s relationships completely ruined and with Bright away, she’s also running the show. Will the pressure finally get to her, pushing herself too hard and spreading herself too thin?

*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 Djinn’s Apple – Djamila Morani, translated by Sawad Hussain

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Winner of an English PEN Translates Award.

Historical fiction meets crime fiction in The Djinn’s Apple, an award-winning YA murder mystery set in the Abbasid period—the golden age of Baghdad.

A ruthless murder. A magical herb. A mysterious manuscript.

When Nardeen’s home is stormed by angry men frantically in search of something—or someone—she is the only one who manages to escape. And after the rest of her family is left behind and murdered, Nardeen sets out on an unyielding mission to bring her family’s killers to justice, regardless of the cost…

Full of mystery and mayhem, The Djinn’s Apple is perfect for fans of Arabian Nights, City of Brass, and The Wrath and the Dawn.

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Djamila Morani is an Algerian novelist and an Arabic language professor. Her first novel, released in 2015 and titled Taj el-Khatiaa, is set in the Abbasid period (like The Djinn’s Apple), but in Kazakh- stan. All of her works are fast-paced historical fiction pieces. She is yet to have a full-length work translated into English. Djamila lives in Relizane, in the west of Algeria.

You can find Djamila on Twitter @DjamilaMorani and  Insta @morani_djamila

You can find Sawad on Twitter @sawadhussain and Insta @sawad18

My thoughts: this was a really sad and moving story of love and revenge, scholarship and the dangers of too much knowledge.

Nardeen’s family are brutally murdered, she swears she will avenge them. Taken in by the doctor Muallim Ishaq, she trains to be a doctor in the Bimaristan (hospital) in Baghdad, then a shining example of hygiene and medicine.

This brings her into contact with the man she believes is behind her family’s deaths. But her mentor is hiding secrets. When she learns what the Djinn’s Apple is and how far some will go to get it, she starts to understand exactly what her father, also a doctor, was caught up in. 

A clever and intense, enjoyable mystery with a smart and rather brilliant young woman as its protagonist. A glimpse into a past much of the world is rather ignorant about.

The historical notes at the end provide context and firmly plant Nardeen in the Baghdad of its past, when it was a shining example of multi-cultural life and education, bringing it into the present and to life once more. A delight.

*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 Graveyard Killings – Wes Markin

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A decades old case….

When the body of a young girl is found exhumed from her grave, DCI Emma Gardner knows there’s more to this grisly find than just misadventure. Penny Maiden was killed in a hit and run accident forty years ago, and her killer was never found…Could someone be trying to right an old wrong?

A DI on the rails…

Determined to bring a dangerous gang of drug dealers to justice, DI Paul Riddick is trying hard to play by the rules. After his previous reckless actions, he knows this is his last chance to stay in the job he loves. But when his private life takes an unexpected turn, Riddick begins to lose control again.

Emma needs Paul to help her with her case, especially when more bodies are found in the same graveyard. But hurt badly by Riddick once before, Emma’s not sure she can trust him again.
But as Paul’s behaviour begins to spiral even more, Emma worries she may have left it far too late to save her old friend Riddick from his own destruction…

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Wes Markin lives in Harrogate and is the bestselling author of the DCI Yorke crime novels set in Salisbury. He is also the author of the Jake Pettman series set in New England. You can find out more by following him. 

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My thoughts: another shocking and gripping case has DCI Emma Gardner calling on her old friend DI Paul Riddick for help as a case of his is connected to hers.

A wave of murders and bodies in the local graveyard has the usual reporters and gossips up in arms. The first has been buried in another person’s grave, that body disinterred and placed on her mother’s final resting place. And if that wasn’t terrible enough, two young people are found bludgeoned to death and placed on a bench in the same graveyard.

Could a local drug dealing gang be involved? The young man was one of them, dealing super strong ecstasy to his friends and other people, and he and his girlfriend were last seen arguing. Did she want him to quit?

And what is the connection between all of this and retired MP Sebastian? And with Riddick’s vendetta back in Bradford?

There’s a lot for Emma to solve, and she’s worried about a strange man who keeps popping up at her house, scaring her au pair, are her kids safe?

Clever, highly readable and enjoyable, this is Emma’s most complicated case yet, but I know she can figure it all out.

*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: Immorality Act – Berend Mets

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Cape Town, in the 1960s.

 Love across the colour bar is a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment.

 John Terreblanche, a police reporter seeking redemption, tells the story of a Xhosa nurse, Promise Madiba, a Dutch doctor, Willem Jansen, and a Malay prostitute, Marja de Koning, who engage in a passionate love triangle in the shadow of the Sharpeville massacre, as South Africa lurches towards becoming a Republic.

 Violent yet tender, Immorality Act spans from Indonesia to Cape Town and is a moving account of the impact of apartheid, racism and colonialism on lives in the twentieth century, as well as a celebration of the ungovernability of the human spirit.

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Dr Berend Mets was born in Indonesia of Dutch parents, and amongst other countries grew up in apartheid South Africa where he became a doctor, anaesthetist and scientist. He came to fiction through an MFA degree after a career of medical, historical and scientific writing. Berend is a Professor of Anesthesiology at the Pennsylvania State University and divides his time between America, the Dutch Caribbean, and Cape Town, South Africa.

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My thoughts: inspired by his experiences and those of his father, Dr Berend Mets has crafted a fascinating and moving story of the second half of the twentieth century. From Indonesia under Japanese occupation and the horrors of WW2 to the Netherlands and then apartheid South Africa, the story of Willem, Marja and Promise is both terribly sad and full of joy.

Falling in love across the colour bar is illegal in 1961, but not something Willem and Promise do intentionally. Meeting in the hospital where they both work, the damaged doctor and the impassioned nurse fall in love and work secretly to end apartheid.

Marja is Willem’s childhood friend, his first love, long thought lost to him. Near death, he saves her life in the operating theatre. As she recovers in Promise’s home, the net is closing in on them. Promise’s political activities and the fact a white doctor has been spending so much time with her has brought scrutiny on them. The Immorality Act forbids sex between the races and it is this law that sees Willem and Marja in court, Promise having escaped.

The framing narrative of a book written by Afrikaans journalist John Terreblanche is interesting and allows for the inclusion of court documents and police reports but does at times feel intrusive  – as does his presence in their lives. He’s not part of their tangled relationship and doesn’t really belong. His guilt at his involvement in the case, only confessed later on, drives him to tell their story, but is it his to tell?

Powerful and moving, evocative and provoking, this is an interesting and intelligent book about a time when love was illegal and the government of South Africa felt it had the right to involve itself in people’s personal lives.

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