When Dan Khan buys a unique piece of cultural history for £50 from a man in the pub, he thinks all his troubles are over.
He is told it’s the actual typewriter William Shakespeare used when he wrote all his plays.
Dan and his girlfriend Shannon reckon it must be worth millions!
But they don’t realise the vintage machine was stolen from the city’s most notorious crime boss.
And he will stop at nothing to get back the sinister secret it contains…
My thoughts: I do worry about the state of the education system when someone genuinely believes Shakespeare used a typewriter. But that’s why Dan Khan bought one off a dodgy bloke in the pub for £50 and gets himself and girlfriend Shannon embroiled in utter chaos as a result.
There’s some wonderful black humour running through this book as two people with no idea what they’re doing go on the run with a furious criminal and his goons on their heels.
Thankfully they’re being followed by a police detective with a brain, and protected (sort of) by a computer genius who doesn’t want anyone else to get hurt. Between them everything might just get sorted out, although there’s a kidnapping and being held hostage to get through first!
Funny, clever and highly enjoyable. Wouldn’t mind seeing this become a series, with Em reluctantly helping the police with her hacker skills.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
When Alfie Hook settles down to eat his fish and chips by the Hunstanton seaside he hasn’t anticipated it is going to be his last meal. DS Ashley Knight and her Major Investigation Team are called to investigate and when they discover who Alfie is married to, they realise this case is not going to be straightforward. A second body is found in gruesome circumstances at the nearby Paradise Caravan Park, but the team struggle to connect the two victims. Even after hours of interviews with the residents, and many questionable stories, to the police’s frustration, all their alibis check out. What are they concealing? As the bodies mount up and the leads get ever more complicated, Ashley and her rookie partner Hector Fade finally join the dots. But then it’s a race against time to stop the killer striking again… Bestselling Ross Greenwood is back with an unputdownable seaside thriller, perfect for fans of Mark Billingham, Ian Rankin and Peter James. Purchase Link
Ross Greenwood is the author of crime thrillers. Before becoming a full-time writer he was most recently a prison officer and so worked everyday with murderers, rapists and thieves for four years. He lives in Peterborough.
My thoughts: this was another clever and enjoyable crime thriller from Ross Greenwood, set in Norfolk’s seaside towns. This time Hunstanton. When a local delivery driver is found murdered in his van mid way through his fish and chips, it sets off a chain of killings centred around the Paradise caravan park.
There are lots of red herrings and the police go down several cul de sacs looking for answers, following potential suspects, but the more bodies, the more complicated the case. As Ash and her team race to prevent more deaths and find the killer, could the answer have been staring them in the face all along?
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Acacia Pines, USA. Sheriff Cohen’s life is falling apart – his father accidently burned down the retirement home, his wife has moved out, and his son is bullying other kids at school.
When high-school student, Lucas Connor, is abducted, Cohen sees a chance to get his life back on track – to win back his wife and scoop the reward money offered for Lucas’ safe return.
But as the body count rises, it becomes clear that Cohen’s going to have to make the kind of decision from which there’s no coming back … a decision with deadly consequences…
A furiously paced, edge-of-your-seat thriller exposing the dark underbelly of small-town life, His Favourite Graves is also a twisted and twisty story of father and son relationships, and the one last gamble of a desperate man to save everything…
Paul is an award-winning author who often divides his time between his home city of Christchurch, New Zealand, where most of his novels are set, and Europe. He’s won the New Zealand Ngaio Marsh Award three times, the Saint-Maur book festival’s crime novel of the year award in France, and has been shortlisted for the Edgar and the Barry in the US and the Ned Kelly in Australia. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages. He’s thrown his Frisbee in more than forty countries, plays tennis badly, golf even worse, and has two cats – which is often two too many. The critically acclaimed The Quiet People was published in 2021 and was followed in 2022 by The Pain Tourist – a number-one bestseller in three countries.
My thoughts: this was so good, all of the characters are morally compromised, not just the obvious ones. There’s a lot of terrible crimes that have gone unsolved so far, and if Lucas Connor hadn’t been kidnapped, a lot of them would still be a mystery.
Sheriff Cohen has a lot of secrets and is prepared to go to some extreme lengths to try to fix some of his problems, missing issues with his son, who’s not a very nice person and who might be about to get his comeuppance.
Lucas might be a victim, but he’s just as complicated and quite disturbed as well. As the true, horrific extent of how and what his dad has done to protect him is incredible, and not in a good way.
Dark, twisted, disturbing and set in a town I never want to visit.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
THE CAST OF SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING THE APPEAL RETURN FOR A FESTIVE MURDER MYSTERY *
One dead Santa. A town full of suspects. Will you discover the truth?
Christmas in Lower Lockwood, and the Fairway Players are busy rehearsing their festive pantomime, Jack and the Beanstalk, to raise money for the church roof appeal. But despite the season, goodwill is distinctly lacking amongst the amateur dramatics enthusiasts.
Sarah-Jane is fending off threats to her new position as Chair, the fibreglass beanstalk might be full of asbestos, and a someone is intent on ruining the panto even before the curtain goes up. Of course there’s also the matter of the dead body. Who could possibly have had the victim on their naughty list?
Join lawyers Femi and Charlotte as they read the round robins, examine the emails and pore over the police transcripts. Will the show go on?
Janice Hallett is the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Appeal (a Waterstones Thriller of the Month, the Sunday Times Crime Book of the Year and winner of the CWA Debut Dagger award) and the Sunday Times bestsellers The Twyford Code and The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels. She lives in West London.
My thoughts: the Fairway Players are back, with all the bitchy backstabbing and murderous machinations as they put together their festive show – Jack and the Beanstalk, complete with rather elderly, done the rounds Beanstalk.
Emails, social media posts, texts and police transcripts build up the picture of what exactly happened and who the guilty party is.
Darkly humorous and with all the trademark red herrings and crazy goings on that made The Appeal such a hit read intact. A brilliant and entertaining festive crime read.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
This year, the Book Bloggers’ Novel of the Year Award (BBNYA) is celebrating the books that made it into Round Two with a mini spotlight blitz tour for each title. BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 15 finalists and one overall winner.
If you want some more information about BBNYA, check out the BBNYA Website https://www.bbnya.com/ or take a peek over on Twitter @BBNYA_Official. BBNYA is brought to you in association with the @Foliosociety (if you love beautiful books, you NEED to check out their website!) and the book blogger support group @The_WriteReads.
In 1915 California, Dr. Asa Wolf was a specialist in female hysteria. Sadly, some weren’t happy with his particular skills, and now he’s dead. Come along with snoopy Sadie Brown, aviatrix & newspaper columnist, for a delightful, historical romp to discover the killer’s identity. There’ll be a fiery ending you won’t soon forget.
A native of the San Francisco Bay Area and now living in Southern California, P. Austin Heaton writes what she loves to read, murder mysteries and historical fiction. A member of Mystery Writers of America, she’s also an amateur genealogist and history lover — both find their way into her fast-paced novels. Her books contain unforgettable storylines, vivid & quirky characters, and small bits of history. If you like twists and turns and wondering what comes next, you will find her writing addictive.
Zoe just wanted to help. Now she may have a killer in her home.
Zoe is happily married to Ethan until the day a 13-year-old boy shows up on their doorstep. He says his name is Micah and that Ethan is his father. Distressed because his mother is missing, Micah has come to them for help.
Ethan is wary – he didn’t know anything about Micah – but kind-hearted Zoe feels she can’t possibly turn her back on the boy. She welcomes him into their home and does her best to make him part of the family.
But there’s something off about Micah.
He lies constantly, creeps silently around the house and towers over Zoe, observing her every move. And his growing bond with Anna, Zoe’s young daughter, feels all wrong.
So when his mother’s body is found and the police start looking for the murderer, Zoe realizes something terrible…
He might already be in her home.
The Better Mother – the stunning psychological thriller from the best-selling author of Her Husband’s Secret.
Emily Shiner always dreamed of becoming an author but first served her time as a banker and a teacher. After a lifetime of devouring stacks of thrillers, she decided to try her hand at writing them herself. Now she gets to live out her dream of writing novels and sharing her stories with people around the world. She lives in the Appalachian Mountains and loves hiking with her husband, daughter, and their two dogs.
My thoughts: file this under; children are creepy. When Zoe opens the door to a young teenage boy who claims to be her husband’s son – conceived before they met, and whose mother never admitted his existence, she welcomes him in. His mum is missing and he has nowhere else to turn. He quickly bonds with his half sister, Zoe’s daughter Anna, but Zoe is convinced something isn’t quite right about Micah.
His story doesn’t quite add up, then his mother’s body is found, and after snooping on his laptop, it looks like he’s been stalking his dad’s family, and particularly her, for a while. Did he kill his mum?
Unfortunately Zoe’s husband, Ethan, doesn’t seem to be listening to her. And then he admits his ex, Micah’s mum, had been hassling him for money. Did he know he had a son?
Zoe knows she needs to protect Anna at all costs, but who from – Ethan or Micah? With shocking twists and turns, this is a sinister tale of family and fear.
Click on the image to follow the tour
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Lincoln 1997. Veteran customs investigator Frank McBride has been targeting gangs of drugs smugglers for decades. Taking out John Pyke’s team of Lincoln-based criminals is just another operation until suddenly things become interesting. Why has Pyke’s team suddenly become so professional? How has it become so adept at evading surveillance? And who is the mysterious figure who is pulling the strings? McBride relishes having found a worthy opponent. But who is he? And what game is he playing? Michael Butcher wants to know why his grandfather, a retired brigadier living in a tiny Rutland village, has decided to become an international trafficker in narcotics. Involving him in an elaborate game where the price of losing is life in prison. McBride and the Brigadier become enmeshed in a private duel, but only one of them knows the rules of the game.
Michael Dane spent over ten years as an officer in the Customs and Excise National Investigation Service investigating drug trafficking, VAT fraud and smuggling of all kinds. He later retrained as a lawyer and joined the private sector where he investigated fraud and corruption all over the world. He is retired and lives in the Vale of Belvoir.
My thoughts: I’d never really thought of Customs and Excise being involved in and running investigations like this, but it does make sense, as without a national police force, you do need an organisation able to join the dots from point of entry onwards.
The investigation is clever and gripping, with the team following their suspects around the country, wanting to catch them in the act and make arrests, but also follow the links in the chain to the people at the top – take the whole organisation down once and for all.
But an elderly brigadier interferes with their straightforward operation, by getting involved in a bit of old fashioned espionage and helping the drug dealers evade their shadows. Or is he? He might be retired and a little odd, but he might also be playing a completely different game. I felt a bit sorry for Michael, running risks but not knowing exactly what’s going on. I hope we come back to him and see how he gets on in future.
Meanwhile Frank McBride, who does work out what’s going on, because he knows everyone, and his team are closing in on the gang, but not on the mysterious “Peter”, who McBride decides to ignore in favour of busting the dealers, not hard to do when without help, they’re relying on sheer luck to stay out of jail.
A clever, tense and really enjoyable crime thriller featuring interesting characters and a different angle on the genre.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Maria always wanted a family. Now she’s found one.
Imogen has never been so busy – she’s juggling two jobs, has a young family and now she’s pregnant again.
Enter Maria, the perfect housekeeper. Hard working and capable, she seems like the ideal solution to Imogen’s chaotic life. But Maria isn’t at all what she seems – she has a sinister agenda of her own.
Little by little, she installs herself at the heart of Imogen’s family – doing the school run, cooking meals, caring for Imogen’s little girl.
But once she has won the family’s trust, Maria starts to do some digging. And discovers that Imogen has been keeping a terrible secret, a secret which Maria threatens to reveal unless Imogen starts to run this home the way Maria sees fit.
Caught between a rock and a hard place, Imogen has no choice but to comply.
A terrible mistake. Because as the full scale of Maria’s horrifying plan becomes apparent, Imogen realises that everything she holds dear – her marriage, her family, her friends – all may fall victim to The Homemaker.
The Homemaker – the chilling psychological thriller from the best-selling author of The Visitors and What She Knew.
Miranda Rijks is a writer of psychological thrillers and suspense novels. She has an eclectic background ranging from law to running a garden centre.
She’s been writing all of her life and has a Masters in writing. A couple of years ago she decided to ditch the business plans and press releases and now she’s living the dream, writing suspense novels full time.
She lives in Sussex, England with her Dutch husband, musician daughter and black Labrador.
This is her twentieth psychological thriller with Inkubator Books.
My thoughts: this turned creepy really fast and all Imogen wanted was an extra pair of hands. Instead she got Maria – a dream of a housekeeper at first, then a steadily worsening nightmare.
Imogen runs a B & B out of her home, 2 nicely decorated bedrooms with ensuites, a freshly cooked breakfast in the morning. Allowing her to raise daughter Ava, and still offer a hotel consultancy service from home. Despite her husband telling her they don’t need the money, she wants to be independent. But the workload is increasing and she needs some help.
Hiring Maria, who can’t seem to do enough, should be great, but Maria forces her way further into their home and lives. And then Imogen’s friend Tom is killed in a hit and run, and events get worse and worse. Could Maria be behind it all?
Exploiting Imogen’s desire to find her biological parents, isolating her, harming Ava. There seems to be no extreme Maria won’t go to to get what she wants. With shocking results. Imogen needs to stop her, to save her family, but can she?
Twists and turns and shocking moments abound, and it turns the home into a terrifying place, the family might be sharing it with a killer.
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*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
The perfect book for Halloween! Check out Death Rattle by Carter Pugh, where murder mystery meets urban fantasy!
Death Rattle
Publication Date: September 10, 2023
Genre: Murder Mystery/ Urban Fantasy
Murder Mystery meets Urban Fantasy in this coming-of-age tale where nothing is as it seems. Meet Clarke Carpenter, a thirty-year-old nanny and student who desires a life more substantial than her own, full of magic and wonder. After moving to the city, hoping to overcome her insecurities and claim a more vibrant life, her world unexpectedly upturns when she is accused of murdering her roommate. Clarke’s dreams of a fairytale existence are obliterated…or are they? Follow along in this thrilling first installment of the Death Book series as Clarke discovers the mystery of who she is.
She’ll do anything to protect her family… Libby Curtis never wanted children, until she met Nathan, a gorgeous widower with two young children. Now ten years later she can’t imagine her life without Sam and Sienna – she’d do anything for her precious kids. Anything…. So when a missing teenager is found lying on the side of the road, Libby’s first thoughts are for her own kids. Are they safe? Are they home? What Libby doesn’t expect is for her children to be involved in the girl’s disappearance. But when she discovers an item in her stepson’s car linked to the victim Libby’s fears increase. She can’t believe that the sweet boy she’s raised could do something like that. But if not Sam….who? Libby must discover the truth before her family is ripped apart. But someone is determined to make sure their secrets stay hidden – even if the consequences are deadly… Purchase
Amanda Ashby and Sally Rigby are a crime writing partnership. Both authors live in New Zealand, have been friends for eighteen years and agree about everything (except musicals). They decided to collaborate on a psychological thriller which they then entered into a competition, run by Boldwood, and which they won!
My thoughts: I knew from the authors that this would be good, full of twists and turns, with characters you want to trust but aren’t sure of. And boy, does this deliver.
Libby is a paramedic and step-mum to teenage twins Sam and Sienna. Her marriage to Nathan seems solid but recently she thinks he’s been hiding things. Then a young woman is attacked, and Libby is first on the scene – the victim is a friend of her children and she can’t help but see her own kids in the same situation.
Being secretive is part of being a teenager, but Libby’s worried. Is Sam involved with what happened to Heather? Is Sienna up to something, having been spotted hanging around Heather’s house.
Then there’s Gemma, arrived in town investigating a serial killer from years ago, that might have links to Libby’s family. Can Libby keep it together and protect her family if one of them is a criminal?
The plot gets intense, twists and turns abound, I was totally hooked, utterly gripped and there were a few “no” gasps, especially towards the end as all the secrets came to light.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 