Tag: crime fiction

A GLORIOUS SHERLOCK HOLMES-INSPIRED MYSTERY FOR FANS OF NITA PROSE AND JANICE HALLETT

London, 1932.

When Harriet White rebuffs the advances of her boss at the Baker Street building society where she works, she finds herself demoted to a new position… a very unusual position. Deep in the postal
department beneath the bank, she is tasked with working her way through a mountain of correspondence addressed to Baker Street’s most famous resident: Mr Sherlock Holmes.
Seemingly undeterred by the fact that Sherlock Holmes doesn’t exist, letter after letter arrives, beseeching him to help solve mysteries, and Harry diligently replies to each writer with the same response: Mr Holmes has retired from detective work and now lives in Sussex, keeping bees.
Until one entreaty catches her eye. It’s from a village around five miles from Harry’s family estate, about a young woman who went to London to work as a domestic, then disappeared soon afterwards in strange circumstances. Intrigued, Harry decides, just this once, to take matters into her own hands.
And so, the case of the missing maid is opened…

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Holly Hepburn has wanted to write books for as long she can remember but she was too scared to try. One day she decided to be brave and dipped a toe into the bubble bath of romantic fiction with her first novella, Cupidity, and she’s never looked back. She often tries to be funny to be funny, except for when faced with traffic wardens and border control staff. Her favourite things are making people smile and Aidan Turner.
She’s tried many jobs over the years, from barmaid to market researcher and she even had a brief flirtation with modelling. These days she is mostly found writing.
She lives near London with her grey tabby cat, Portia. They both have an unhealthy obsession with Marmite.

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My thoughts: assigned to the basement of the Abbey Road Building Society, which for many years occupied Baker Street, including 221B – home of the road’s most famous resident – Sherlock Holmes, Harriet ‘Harry’ White, is assigned the role of answering the stacks of post sent to the detective.

For the most part she replies as his secretary, thanking people for writing and apologising that the great detective is retired, as per The Last Bow, and no longer taking on cases. However one catches her eye, involving a family from the village on her family estate, and she endeavors to investigate it.

In doing so she recruits family friend Oliver, a solicitor, to help out, dresses up in disguises and attempts to act like the famous Holmes, even if he’s fictional.

This is great fun, funny and witty. Harry is a delightful protagonist and a determined investigator. She also manages to continue to answer the stacks of letters.

Having been to the Sherlock Holmes museum in Baker Street, where these letters now go, although I don’t think they get answered these days, it was lovely to think that someone was writing back and allowing people to continue to believe that someone out there was Holmes, even though as he lived in the Victorian era, he’d be very dead by now.

This is the start of a series and based on this first book and the author’s previous work, this should be a great series. The characters are fun, the story entertaining and clever, I can’t wait!

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

After losing her sister to an overdose, Chief Superintendent Jo Howe is desperate to tackle the world of drugs that consumes the shadowy backstreets of Brighton. Operation Eradicate is her response but not everyone sees it as a positive development.

For self-made millionaire Sir Ben Parsons it is a threat to his business – his colossal empire relies on addicts who survive on Respite Pharmaceuticals’ substitute drugs. With connections in the highest levels of government, media and organised crime, Parsons unleashes a brutal counterattack on Howe.

How will she survive being caught in the line of fire?

Graham Bartlett was the chief superintendent of Brighton and Hove police. His first non-fiction book, Death Comes Knocking, was a Sunday Times bestseller, co-written with Peter James. He has since published Bad for Good and Force of Hate starring Chief Superintendent Jo Howe. Bartlett is also a crime writing advisor helping scores of authors and TV writers inject authenticity into their work.

My thoughts: Brighton is in the grip of a drugs epidemic and Chief Super Jo Howe has devised a revolutionary plan to save the users and get them into treatment and get the dealers into prison. But there are those who oppose her scheme and will do anything to stop it.

Inspired by his job as the real life Chief Superintendent of Brighton and Hove, Graham Bartlett lifts the lid on the darker side of the Sussex seaside. This is an action packed, shocking and totally gripping police procedural thriller.

Jo’s whole life teeters at breaking point and the police force is falling apart around her as her enemies dismantle the services and go after officers and their families in order to put a stop to Operation Eradicate and claw back their money and control. 

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

The 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.