Tag: crime fiction

Maggie and Sam take a break from the murder and mayhem of Bishops Well and embark on a relaxing mid-winter cruise across the northern seas. The brochure promises smooth sailing, good food and dazzling entertainment. Sam is hoping to sprinkle the mix with romance.
But nothing goes to plan.
Maggie runs into an old lover, the mesmerising Benedict Rawbotham, who goes out of his way to sweep her off her feet. Sam is left seething with jealousy.
A mayday signal sent by a fishing boat forces the cruise liner off course. But there is something fishy about the rescued crew and Maggie insists that two young women have died on that boat. Alas, no one believes her.
Soon one of the alleged fishermen is also dead and so is one of the cruise passengers. Cordelia Conti Lang, nicknamed the Bitcoin Queen, with links to London’s criminal underworld, is found in her cabin, stabbed to death.
In pursuit of the killer, Maggie hurtles from one disaster to another and Sam begins to fear for her life. Has he taken her on a cruise to hell?

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Although she writes in a wide range of genres, Anna Legat is best known for her DI Gillian Marsh detective series and The Shires, her cosy murder mysteries. Anna is also the author of the historical thriller, Buried in the Past. She lives near Bath.

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My thoughts: another cracking case for the Bishops Well duo of Maggie and Sam. At least, Maggie is keen to investigate and all Sam wants to do is declare his love for her, and it’s a winter cruise to St Petersburg, not the village this time.

I went in April and it was cold then, I can’t imagine how unpleasant it must be in December, beautiful yes, but horribly cold. Sam would rather have gone to the Caribbean, but Maggie has her heart set on this one. Unfortunately there’s a murderer on board.

Maggie herself almost becomes a victim after being taking hostage, except that her kidnapper is a drug runner, not a killer, except in self defense, but it throws the other murderer a clever defense. If it isn’t the bewildered Latvian in Maggie’s cabin, then who could it be?

The victim isn’t a very nice or popular person, widow of a gangster, Bitcoin millionaire, even her own son isn’t keen. And it seems there’s a few people on board with reasons to want her dead. Maggie struggles to make sense of it all. Was it the son? His girlfriend? The ship’s security chief? It’s all a bit confusing, and she seems to be losing time and it’s a bit foggy. 

Sam is exasperated as ever, Maggie on a ship is almost more chaos than Maggie at home, and he can’t seem to find the right moment to tell her how he feels.

Tremendously fun and very tangled, takes the amateur sleuths a while to figure it all out, and put the pieces together, all while exploring wintry Europe from sea.

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

When a neighbour from hell comes to a sticky end, a plucky cop refuses to accept the obvious. Miles Kenworth loves to play his rock music at a deafening volume. The other residents of his apartment block are not so keen.One day, after hearing a commotion, Miles’ next-door neighbour discovers his body lying in a pool of blood. Standing next to the corpse is Jake, the man who lives upstairs. It should be an open and shut case for DS Sunita Roy. But with Jake vehemently protesting his innocence, she decides to dig deeper.Most of the residents wanted Miles shut up for good. But was it really Jake who flipped, or was he just in the wrong place at the wrong time?

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Tony is a former Fleet Street journalist.

SEAT 97 is his fifth novel to be published by The Book Folks, an independent London publisher specialising in crime fiction. The previous four books were all part of Tony’s Midlands series which feature Detective Chief Inspector Gavin Roscoe, an experienced detective and family man, and his sergeant, law graduate and resourceful problem-solver Sunita Roy.

The most recent book in this series, Out For Revenge (Book 4), was published in October 2022. It concerns notorious gangland boss Tadeusz Filipowski – a man with numerous enemies who plans to expand his Midlands drug empire on his release from jail. Among his detractors is a corrupt detective who has in the past helped the drug baron keep one step ahead of the law. When Filipowski is found dead, it presents DS Sunita Roy from Heart of England Police with a tough case to crack. For so many had a grudge against the dead man that she is overwhelmed by suspects. She could normally count on the full support of her boss, DCI Gavin Roscoe, in her investigation into the criminal life of Filipowski. But he has been tasked with an equally crucial investigation – gathering enough evidence against the corrupt detective to bring him to justice. Eventually, it becomes clear the two inquiries are inextricably linked. But, as the two detectives pursue events, they realise someone has been plotting a brutal revenge. A revenge that threatens to put the lives of one of the detectives in great peril.

The previous novel, Murder Of A Doctor (Book 3), was released in May 2022. It was the third mystery tale in the series.
This book concerns a well-respected family doctor who sets off on a morning run and is later discovered dead in woods near his home in Warwickshire. Ambitious young detective DS Roy is determined to solve the case. But the only clues are an expensive necklace and a bus ticket, andthere are many suspects.

Murder On Oxford Lane (Book 1) and The Crossbow Stalker (Book 2) were published in the spring of 2022. Murder On Oxford Lane is about the disappearance of a property tycoon from a sleepy Warwickshire village. Middle-aged DCI Roscoe and his sergeant, DS Roy, are confronted by suspicious deaths as they struggle to uncover what has happened to the businessman.

The Crossbow Stalker concerns a man being targeted in a hate campaign who begs police for help.Then he is shot dead with a crossbow bolt and a handkerchief embroidered with the letter C found stuffed in his mouth. The detectives face an uphill battle to catch the killer.

Tony is currently working on a fifth book in the Midlands series which concerns a man from a wealthy family found dead in his flat after a row with neighbours over his loud music. Tony decided to set this string of novels in Warwickshire and Worcestershire after spending many happy years working as a newspaper reporter in Worcester.He first developed a love of writing at the age of nine when he and a friend produced a magazine called the Globe at their junior school in Sevenoaks, Kent. When he reached his teenage years,growing up in Tunbridge Wells, his local vicar staged one of his plays about Naboth’s Vineyard.

Tony was named student journalist of the year in 1971 in a competition run by Time-Life magazine and went onto become a national newspaper journalist, mainly working for the Sunday People in both its newsroom and investigations department. His very first book to be published, the crime novel Smile Of The Stowaway, was released in December 2018. It concerns a Kent couple who harbour a stowaway and then battle to clear his name when he is charged with murder.

Then, in March 2020, the spy novel The Lazarus Charter was released. It involves foreign agents operating in the UK. The book has kindly been endorsed by Marina Litvinenko, widow of themurdered Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko, and by Stan and Caroline Sturgess, parents of the innocent mother-of-three poisoned with novichok in Salisbury in 2018.Tony, who has written several other novels which are as yet unpublished, has five grown-up children. He is a Life Member of the National Union of Journalists. He lives in South-East London with his partner Lin.

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My thoughts: We’ve probably all had nuisance neighbours who play their tvs, or in this case, music too loud. However I’ve never gone storming round with a cricket bat in hand to sort it out. The neighbour who does in the opening of this book, definitely regrets it when he finds the nuisance downstairs dead in his flat with an axe in his head.

But he’s not the killer, and the murder case is much more complicated than it might seem, it takes in another murder (or possibly two), blackmail, secrets and a nasty attempt to steal a fortune.

Luckily the team under the leadership of DCI Roscoe, and especially clever DS Sunita Roy, don’t go for the obvious and keep digging, though their boss might not be impressed by the cost of this investigation as it includes a trip to Spain to get some very useful answers.

A clever and knotty case with plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader hooked.

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

Where there’s a body in Malvern End, there are secrets to be uncovered…

Jude Gray has worked hard to bring a steady equilibrium to life on Malvern Farm and things are going well.The only fly in the ointment is the foul addition of a new face in the village: staunch townie and chauvinistic sleaze, Des Smith. Jude has nothing but sympathy for his caring, patient wife, Loretta, who has become a regular visitor to the farm for a cup of tea and a chat. But things take a turn for the worse when a hit and run outside The Lamb brings death once again to the village. Is it an accident or is something more sinister afoot?

Perhaps the answer lies in the stranger with red trainers who’s been seen wandering through the village and through Jude’s fields at night. Following the clues, Jude desperately hopes she will find the right answers because the murderer being someone she knows is unfathomable…

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Kate Wells is the author of a number of well-reviewed books for children and is now writing a new cosy crime series set in the Malvern hills, inspired by the farm where she grew up. Boldwood will publish the first title, Murder at Malvern Farm, in August 2023.

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My thoughts: This might only be book two, but I really like this series and the characters of Jude and her friends and family. Sebbie, her nephew, is delightful and very cheeky. Noah, the hunky shepherd continues to be a quiet, comfortable presence in the pink house. Even her sister, who I didn’t love so much before, is growing on me. And Jude’s detective friend Biddie is great, too. Plus, there are puppies and lambs, and if I wasn’t quite so allergic to the countryside, I’d want to move here. Minus the murders, obviously.

This time it all ends very close to home as first new friend Loretta’s rather horrible husband is killed and as the police investigate, Lucy gets arrested as a suspect. But why would she kill Des? There are plenty of other people who didn’t like him.

As Jude tries to connect the dots and save her sister from being charged for a crime she can’t have committed, things take some twists and turns, but Jude’s family is always her priority.

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

A perfect cosy crime for fans of M C Beaton’s Agatha Raisin and Hamish Macbeth series.

Change is coming to Wendlebury Barrow–and not everyone is happy about it…

When the local bus company announces it will be stopping its route through their quaint Cotswold village,the people of Wendlebury Barrow are up in arms. Not least Sophie Sayers, whose driving lessons with her boyfriend Hector get off to a bumpy start. But the locals’ peaceful protests against the decision turn deadly when a body is discovered on the Number 27. No one can work out how Janice Boggins met her demise, let alone how the driver didn’t notice. While the police wait for the post mortem results, Sophie immediately suspects foul play and launches her own investigation. Can she solve the murder before another passenger is hurt?

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Debbie Young is the much-loved author of the Sophie Sayers and St Brides cosy crimemysteries. She lives in a Cotswold village where she runs the local literary festival and has worked at Westonbirt School, both of which provide inspiration for her writing. She is bringing both her series to Boldwood in a 13-book contract. They will be publishing several new titles in each series and republishing the backlist, starting in September 2022.

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My thoughts: I love Debbie Young’s books, they’re funny and clever and a little bit silly. In this case it’s all about buses – and murder.

After the local bus firm suggests it might have to suspend the route through Wendlebury Barrow, people are up in arms, until miserable village resident (and bus picnicker) Mrs Boggles dies on the bus. That cools a lot of the enthusiasm about saving the route.

Sophie Sayers, amateur detective and newly in possession of a driving licence, is determined to find out what happened and why. There’s something a bit off about all the recent sabotage of the buses be connected?

As Sophie investigates and she and Hector are planning on expanding the bookshop, it might also be time to make some changes to their relationship.

I really enjoyed this outing with Sophie and Co, the case is a bit more convoluted than it might sound and Sophie is a good protagonist and has a nose for the truth.

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

They’re the housemates from Hell…

When her disastrous Australian love affair ends, Lou O’Dowd heads to Edinburgh for a fresh start, moving in with her cousin, and preparing for the only job she can find … working at a halfway house for very high-risk offenders.

Two killers, a celebrity paedophile and a paranoid coke dealer – all out on parole and all sharing their outwardly elegant Edinburgh townhouse with rookie night-worker Lou…

And instead of finding some meaning and purpose to her life, she finds herself trapped in a terrifying game of cat and mouse where she stands to lose everything – including her life.

Slick, darkly funny and nerve-janglingly tense, Halfway House is both a breathtaking thriller and an unapologetic reminder never to corner a desperate woman…

Helen FitzGerald is the bestselling author of thirteen adult and young-adult thrillers, including The Donor (2011) and The Cry (2013), which was longlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and adapted for a major BBC drama. Her 2019 dark­comedy thriller Worst Case Scenario was a Book of the Year in the Literary Review, Herald Scotland, Guardian, Sunday Times, The Week and Daily Telegraph, shortlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, and won the CrimeFest Last Laugh Award. The critically acclaimed Ash Mountain (2020) and Keep Her Sweet (2022) soon followed. Helen worked as a criminal-justice social worker for over fifteen years. She grew up in Victoria, Australia, and now lives in Glasgow with her husband.

My thoughts: this is a very darkly comic tale of what happens when you don’t do your homework before taking a job on the other side of the world and end up trapped in a hostel for sex offenders and murderers. Which is what happens to Lou, she doesn’t know anything about the charming inhabitants or the role required of her as the only staff member on the night shift in a house filled with potentially violent men.

She also oversteps the bounds massively, but some of the other staff are worse, and have left her vulnerable. Her completely inappropriate relationship with one of the residents makes her perhaps a bit too trusting when she needs to be clear headed and professional but I did feel sorry for her, the whole experience ends up being a complete nightmare.

I shouldn’t have been laughing as much as I was, but I have a twisted sense of humour that this book really tickled. It was very enjoyable and different to a lot of the crime fiction I’ve read, great stuff.

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