A twenty-year-old cold case unearths dark secrets in the scorching-hot destination thriller from Emily Freud.
Twenty years ago, Mari vanished while backpacking through Thailand with her boyfriend, Luke. He was accused of murder, but has always insisted he’s innocent. Besides, her body was never found.
Now, he’s finally ready to talk. And filmmaker Cassidy Chambers wants to be the one to uncover what really happened, back then, in the dark of the jungle.
But as she delves deeper into the past, Cassidy begins to fear what lies ahead, and the secrets buried along the way.
Emily Freud is the author of My Best Friend’s Secret and What She Left Behind. She has worked on Emmy and BAFTA award winning television series including Educating Yorkshire and First Dates. Emily lives in North London, with her husband and two children. She is currently working on her next novel.
IT’S IN THE BLOOD. Two brothers from the same criminal family die within hours of each other, five miles apart, one on the edge of a Newcastle industrial estate, the other in a busy A & E department of a local hospital, unseen by the triage team. Both victims have suffered horrific injuries. Who wanted them dead? Will they kill again? Investigating these brutal and bloody killings leads DCI Kate Daniels to break some rules, putting her career as well as her life on the line.
As the body count rises in the worst torture case Northumbria Police has ever seen, the focus of the enquiry switches, first to Glasgow and then to Europe ending in a confrontation with a dangerous offender hell-bent on revenge.
My thoughts: starting with the grisly double murder of two brothers, tortured and dumped, this case has Kate and Hank heading all over the place – Glasgow, Edinburgh, Whitby and Spain, in the pursuit of justice.
The two men were sons of a notorious, now deceased, Scottish thug, and it seems their deaths are revenge killings. But no one can find their killers, have they gone to ground north of the border?
The case gets twistier and knottier when one of the killers turns up dead, is someone turning the tables on them? The trail leads to the Spanish coast – famous retirement haunt of many a British criminal and retiree. The dead Allen brothers’ father supposedly died out there, but Kate smells a rat…or a parakeet!
Another truly gripping and grisly installment of the Kate Daniels books, with Kate ordered to take some time off at the end of the case, but can she ever truly unwind?
Gallows Drop is Maria Hannah’s sixth gripping crime novel featuring DCI Kate Daniels.
At dawn on a lonely stretch of road, a body is found hanging from an ancient gallows the morning after a country show. Hours earlier, DCI Kate Daniels had seen the victim alive. With her leave period imminent, she’s forced to step aside when DCI James Atkins is called in to investigate. There’s bad blood between them.
When Kate discovers that Atkins’ daughter was an eyewitness to a fight involving the victim, the two detectives lock horns and he’s bumped off the case. It’s the trigger for a vicious attack on Kate, exposing a secret she’s kept hidden for years and unearthing an even darker one.
Shaken but undeterred, Kate sets out to solve a case that has shocked a close-knit village community. As suspects emerge, she uncovers a curious historical connection with a hangman, a culture of systematic bullying, a web of deceit and a deep-seated psychosis, any one of which could be motive for murder.
My thoughts: this is a horrible and senseless crime, the young man murdered and hung from the gibbet, even DCI Kate Daniels is shocked. And the connections to her one time nemesis DCI Atkins, doesn’t help. Atkins’ daughter Beth, who notably doesn’t use his last name, was best friends with the victim, and is clearly scared.
Kate is supposed to be going on a make or break holiday with Jo, but this case needs her. Atkins is her cover, a drunk, obnoxious man with serious anger issues, he wants to sweep the case under the carpet and pin it on his daughter’s boyfriend. Whether he’s guilty or not. Kate can’t let him do that. Thankfully her bosses have her back. Sadly, it might just be time though for her and Jo.
Hank is struggling, refusing to stay home and recover from his injuries on their last case, he’s still there for Kate, but also still meddling. Straining their friendship to its limits. And now Kate’s awful father is in hospital, seriously ill. With so much on her plate, can Kate solve the case, deal with Atkins and support her dad?
The case is complex and knotty, people’s relationships often are, and Atkins’ bull headed behaviour isn’t helping. Beth won’t tell anyone everything she knows, her fear is eating her alive and her secrets almost overwhelm her. Kate tries to be a friendly ear, but she’s desperate to catch the killer.
I wonder whether Kate will break at some point, she’s yet again put off the rest she needs and has been ordered to take, there’s so much going on and losing Jo will hurt.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own
Alexander Blix is a broken man. Convicted for avenging his daughter’s death, he is now being held in one of Norway’s high security prisons. Inside, the other prisoners take every opportunity to challenge and humiliate the former police investigator.
On the outside, Blix’s former colleagues have begun the hunt for a terrifying killer. Walter Kroos has escaped from prison in Germany and is making his way north. The only lead established by the police is that Kroos has a friend in Blix’s prison ward. And now they need Blix’s help.
Journalist Emma Ramm is one of Blix’s few visitors, and she becomes his ally as he struggles to connect the link between past and present, between the world inside and outside the prison walls. And as he begins to piece things together, he identifies a woodland community in Norway where deeply scarred inhabitants foster deadly secrets … secrets that may be the unravelling of everyone involved.
Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger are both internationally bestselling Norwegian authors.
Jørn Lier Horst first rose to literary fame with his no. 1 bestselling William Wisting series. A former investigator in the Norwegian police, Horst imbues all his works with an unparalleled realism and suspense.
Thomas Enger is the journalist-turned-author behind the internationally acclaimed Henning Juul series. Enger’s trademark is his dark, gritty voice paired with key social messages and tight plotting. Besides writing fiction for both adults and young adults, Enger also works as a music composer.
Death Deserved, the first book in the bestselling Blix and Ramm series, was Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger’s first co-written thriller and was followed by Smoke Screen and Unhinged.
My thoughts: Blix is in prison for the killing of his daughter’s murderer, and as a former detective, he’s a target but keeping his head down seems to be working.
But now his old colleagues need his help, a double murderer is headed to Norway and looking for another inmate at the prison Blix is in. He’s tasked with trying to find out the link between the two men.
His eyes and ears outside are courtesy of Emma Ramm, one of the few people who has stood by him. She’s following a lead to Osen, home town of Blix’s fellow inmate. The answers lie somewhere in the past. And she’s determined to find them.
There’s a lot of leads that seem to go nowhere, with a woman gone missing, and locals with different stories. When the German killer was there as a young teenager, something terrible happened. Is it connected to his current visit? And what really happened?
Blix takes risks to solve the case and catch the killer or killers, putting his safety and freedom at risk. Emma is also put in danger, and she’s no longer sure the story is worth it. Could everything be about to change?
Gripping and carefully building up the tension as the details of the past slowly come to the surface, this is an intelligent and multilayered thriller.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Welcome to the tour for the latest Angela Hardwicke sci-fi mystery by Russ Colchamiro!
Blunt Force Rising: An Angela Hardwicke Sci-Fi Mystery
Publication Date: July 26, 2023
Genre: Sci-Fi Mystery/ Cyberpunk w/ Dark tones
Angela Hardwicke is Eternity’s most daring private eye…
Still reeling from a brutal off-world case, Hardwicke and her protégé Eric Whistler are hired by Ther’eda Ranadyne, the realm’s sole creator of androids, to provide extra security during an industry conference aboard a galaxy cruise ship.
Isolated millions of miles from home, the event quickly devolves into heated arguments between the pro-android community and its detractors, while a murder sets off a harrowing chain of events, the likes of which even Hardwicke has never faced.
In Blunt Force Rising, the claustrophobic fourth novel in Russ Colchamiro’s Angela Hardwicke sci-fi mystery series, she is not only forced to confront unresolved waves of prejudice, bigotry, fear, and trauma… but fight for her very life.
Russ Colchamiro is the author of the rollicking space adventure, Crossline, the zany SF/F backpacking comedy series Finders Keepers: The Definitive Edition, Genius de Milo, and Astropalooza, and is editor of the SF anthology Love, Murder & Mayhem, all with Crazy 8 Press.
Russ lives in New Jersey with his wife, two ninjas, and crazy dog Simon, who may in fact be an alien himself. Russ has also contributed to several other anthologies, including Tales of the Crimson Keep, Pangaea, Altered States of the Union, Camelot 13,TV Gods 2, They Keep Killing Glenn, Thrilling Adventure Yarns, Camelot 13, and Brave New Girls.
After reaching a crisis point at 40, Jenny Watson is offered her dream job running a Shakespeare festival at a Tudor pub. She can hardly believe her luck at this brilliant new start, and chance to escape her unhappy past. The job isn’t all it seems, however.
The pub is remote and her mysterious boss is permanently absent; there’s a 400 year old skull residing in the cellar; and the local actors are less than enthusiastic over her boss’s choice of play. Then there’s the growing conviction that someone’s watching her. Strange messages, withheld calls and shadows on the windows spike temporary attacks of stress-related blindness as she clings to her last chance to live her dream. But as the dark play she’s directing starts to unravel the secrets she’d sworn never to tell, Jenny realises she’s not at the pub by chance . . .
…and soon she finds herself the leading lady in a nightmare replay of her past.
Susan says “I love theatre directing as well as writing, and have found working with Shakespeare’s writing cathartic and inspiring. In my working life, especially teaching adults, I have encountered many women with similar confidence problems, and the book grew out of that experience. It also carries the message that we should never give up on our dreams, no matter what age we are, where we come from, or whoever tells us we are bound to fail.”
Susan has loved writing, books and theatre since childhood, and now loves sharing stories with her small granddaughter. Apart from enjoying time with her family, she has also worked in business, run a theatre arts school for kids and somehow found time to gain a degree in Literature/Creative Writing, and a PhD in Shakespeare! She now writes fiction full-time, runs Shakespeare workshops and directs plays locally.
Available in paperback format at £13.99 from Troubador.co.uk, and in e-book format from Amazon KDP Select at £4.99. Paperback also available online from Waterstones and Barnes & Noble.
My thoughts: apart from all the terrible things Jenny encounters doing her dream job, I’d happily do the same. I am a huge Shakespeare nerd, theatre kid and I studied Titus Andronicus at uni (Hamlet is probably my favourite).
Jenny leaps at the chance to re-open an old pub and revive its Shakespeare festival, although she wants to do Hamlet, the mysterious owner insists on the even more gory and blood soaked Titus.
Making new friends in the local community and slowly building her confidence with Speak Out (a therapy group), she also begins researching the pub and the history of its resident Yorick, a human skull that belongs to someone either called Henry or John, according to neighbour George. Finding that there is a genuine link to the person, and a production of Shakespeare’s play in the 1500s, she digs into the local history, encountering witch trials, a hanging and tragedy.
Unfortunately her own tragic past is coming up to find her. An abusive mother, a rape and a pregnancy at 16, Jenny’s life isn’t a happy one. And now, divorced and alone, apart from the wonderful Mags, she’s starting over. Her aunt, in New Zealand, drops a bombshell – Jenny’s son is in the UK and wants to meet her.
But someone is leaving weird notes and the door keeps unlocking itself. A local woman is attacked, and she looks a bit like Jenny. What is going on? Is Jenny safe?
There’s a lot of turmoil and horror to come, but thankfully Jenny has brilliant friends around her, people who care and want to help, including local teacher and historian Ben.
Gripping and at times shocking, I was enthralled with Jenny’s story and the research she was doing. I love history and as a literary material culture buff, this was right up my street. I think Jenny and I would get along famously. She’s a real survivor and what she has been through is heartbreaking. But there’s so much hope and good will for her, that it left me feeling upbeat and pleased. Shakespeare’s incredible way with words guides Jenny, and even saves her life. A real treat of a book in many ways.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Henri Koskinen, intrepid insurance mathematician and adventurepark entrepreneur, firmly believes in the power of common sense and order. That is until he moves in with painter Laura Helanto and her daughter…
As Henri realises he has inadvertently become part of a group of local dads, a competing adventure park is seeking to expand their operations, not always sticking to the law in the process…
Is it possible to combine the increasingly dangerous world of the adventure-park business with the unpredictability of life in a blended family? At first glance, the two appear to have only one thing in common: neither deals particularly well with a mounting body count. In order to solve this seemingly impossible conundrum, Henri is forced to step far beyond the mathematical precision of his comfort zone … and the stakes have never been higher…
Finnish Antti Tuomainen was an award-winning copywriter when he made his literary debut in 2007 as a suspense author. In 2011, his third novel, The Healer, was awarded the Clue Award for Best Finnish Crime Novel and shortlisted for the Glass Key Award. With a piercing and evocative style, Tuomainen was one of the first to challenge the Scandinavian crime-genre formula, and his poignant, dark and hilarious The Man Who Died became an international bestseller, shortlisting for the Petrona and Last Laugh Awards and now a Finnish TV series. Palm Beach, Finland (2018) and Little Siberia (2019) were shortlisted for the Capital Crime/Amazon Publishing Readers Awards, the Last Laugh Award and the CWA International Dagger, and won the Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel. The Rabbit Factor, the first book in the trilogy will soon be a major motion picture starring Steve Carell for Amazon Studios, and the first two books were international bestsellers. Antti lives in Helsinki with his wife.
My thoughts: we return, for the final time, to the crazy world of adventure theme parks and Henri, the actuary who often seems to wind up solving crimes, instead of his actual job at YouMeFun.
Now living with girlfriend Laura and her daughter, you might think joining the dads club at the school and settling into domesticity, would mean less crime solving and fewer murders. But no, Henri’s ne rivals are a bunch of gangsters, who are attracting all the customers with free entry and free food, but Henri can’t see them lasting long in business. And then the owner is murdered. Which brings the cops to his door, again.
So, in between reassuring his staff and baking cakes to fundraise for the school trip to Paris, Henri sets out to solve a murder, or several, find out what the two dodgy cops are up to, and what this all has to do with horses, before he gets arrested or killed.
Written (and translated) with great wit, this delightfully funny black comedy of theme park shenanigans and espionage, is a wonderful high note for the highly entertaining trilogy to end up. Henri’s life is settled and happy, his crack team at the park are more committed than ever and things just might, finally, be ok.
*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 Izzy O’Brien flees the city centre apartment she shared with her controlling partner, she relocates to the seaside town of Dun Laoghaire, and the house she inherited from her aunt.
Isolated and insecure, Izzy is relieved to be embraced by a tightknit group of female neighbours, who invite her to join their book club.
My thoughts: this was a fun read, full of terrible deeds and not really about a book club at all, although if Louise hadn’t got the members together in the first place, more of them might have survived the events that this blackly comic murder fest entails.
Izzy has run to her aunt’s house, that she recently inherited, to get away from her controlling and angry boyfriend, Adam. Unfortunately he’s not willing to let her go. Louise is a neighbour who invites Izzy to join the book club meeting at her house, where Kate, Tess, Dee and Melanie are all waiting to discuss Sherlock Holmes.
The next morning, by text, they’re informed that Kate is dead. Was it her husband? A jealous lover? Or was it someone at the book club? As events spiral and more violence breaks out, it seems that book club isn’t a cosy safe place, but a hotbed of murder and insanity.
Izzy, her new friend Dylan and the other members are all at risk, and the various husbands and boyfriends have their own unhinged relationships too – the war between Louise’s husband Robert and Melanie’s Alan over the dog shitting in the garden gets spectacularly crazy.
Nothing in supposedly quiet Dún Laoghaire (which I now know how to pronounce, thank you!) where Izzy thought she might find some peace is as it seems when these neighbours go to war!
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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.
In her irresistible new novel, Sunday Times No 1 bestselling author Victoria Hislop shines a light on the questionable acquisition of cultural treasures and the price people – and countries – will pay to cling on to them.
Of all the ancient art that captures the imagination, none is more appealing than the Cycladic figurine. An air of mystery swirls around these statuettes from the Bronze Age and they are highly sought after by collectors – and looters – alike.
When Helena inherits her grandparents’ apartment in Athens, she is overwhelmed with memories of the summers she spent there as a child, when Greece was under a brutal military dictatorship. Her remote, cruel grandfather was one of the regime’s generals and as she sifts through the dusty rooms, Helena discovers an array of valuable objects and antiquities. How did her grandfather amass such a trove? What human price was paid for them?
Helena’s desire to find answers about her heritage dovetails with a growing curiosity for archaeology, ignited by a summer spent with volunteers on a dig on an Aegean island. Their finds fuel her determination to protect the precious fragments recovered from the baked earth – and to understand the origins of her grandfather’s collection. Helena’s attempt to make amends for some of her grandfather’s actions sees her wrestle with the meaning of ‘home’, both in relation to looted objects of antiquity … and herself.
Inspired by a visit to Spinalonga, the abandoned Greek leprosy colony, Victoria Hislop wrote The Island in 2005. It became an international bestseller, has sold more than 6 million copies and was turned into a 26-part Greek TV series. She was named Newcomer of the Year at the British Book Awards and is now an ambassador for Lepra. Her affection for the Mediterranean then took her to Spain, and in the number one bestseller The Return she wrote about the painful secrets of its civil war. I
n The Thread, Victoria returned to Greece to tell the turbulent tale of Thessaloniki and its people across the twentieth century. Shortlisted for a British Book Award, it confirmed her reputation as an inspirational storyteller. Her fourth novel, The Sunrise, about the Turkish invasion of Cyprus and the enduring ghost town of Famagusta, was a Sunday Times number one bestseller.
Cartes Postales from Greece, fiction illustrated with photographs, was a Sunday Times bestseller in hardback and one of the biggest selling books of 2016. The poignant and powerful Those Who Are Loved, was a Sunday Times number one hardback bestseller in 2019 and explores a tempestuous period of modern Greek history through the eyes of a complex and compelling heroine. Victoria’s most recent novel, One August Night, returned to Crete in the long-anticipated sequel to The Island. It spent twelve weeks in the Top 10 hardback fiction charts.
Her books have been translated into forty languages and Victoria was executive producer on the adaptations of three of her novels for Greek television. Victoria divides her time between England and Greece and in 2020, was granted honorary citizenship by the President of Greece. She was recently appointed patron of Knossos 2025, which is raising funds for a new research centre at one of Greece’s most significant archaeological sites. She is also on the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles. Victoria was recently granted an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Sheffield.
My thoughts: Having read several of Victoria Hislop’s previous books, I knew this would be enjoyable, well written, full of history and very interesting but this was also something of a thriller.
Helena is half Greek and spends a few weeks every summer at her grandparents’ home in Athens, a place her mother refuses to return to. Her Yiayia (grandmother) is kind but under the thumb of her husband – a general in the Greek army, and as the military rules the country, an important man, but not a kind one.
As she gets older Helena realises more and more about her family, their place in Greek society and her grandfather’s casual cruelty. She becomes closer to her mother and her Scottish father, a doctor, who is so different from her grandfather.
As an adult Helena meets the charming Nick, who invites her to join him on an archaeological dig in Greece. From there everything changes, initially enthralled by the charismatic young man, she becomes suspicious of him and his charms. Discovering he might well be involved in the theft and sale of priceless antiques is the last straw and Helena begins to plan a way to stop him, and those he works with.
It’s an utterly gripping story of wrongs to be righted, beautiful and ancient artefacts in peril, the illegal antiques market, and a love story too. Helena and Greece. As well as the young art restorer she meets while selling her grandparents’ furniture in Athens.
I was completely hooked and thought Helena a wonderful protagonist, as she learns about Greece’s difficult and complex past, makes new friends and ultimately builds a life, while ensuring some truly wonderful treasures remain where they belong.
As the argument about the Parthenon marbles stolen by Elgin and currently held in the British Museum continues to rumble on (I find that particular gallery dreary and depressing), this is a timely and intelligent reminder that the treasures of the past should be preserved for the future, in their homelands, not sold away to private collectors. A truly delightful story with a powerful message.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
My sister died. Her friends lied. And now I’m going to learn the truth…
A year ago, my twin sister Samantha left me a message: I need you.
A day later, she was dead. I always knew it was suspicious, but no one would listen.
But I’ve just found her journal, tucked into a hidden space in the window seat of our childhood bedroom. It shows who her best friends really are: the fraud. The liar. The cheat. The crush.
Now, they’re all together on a weekend away, in a beautiful wood-panelled cabin in the mountain. And I’m going too. One of them killed her, and I’m going to prove it.
But am I ready for the answers I’m seeking? Because I soon realize that my sister had dark secrets too…
And when fire breaks out on the mountain, leaving us trapped, I must decide: what will I risk to get justice for Samantha? Because finding the truth might cost me my life…
An absolutely compulsive thriller that will have your pulse racing as you flip through the pages at speed. If you like The Hunting Party, Ruth Ware and The Summer House, you’ll love The Weekend Away!
Miranda Smith writes psychological and domestic suspense. She is drawn to stories about ordinary people in extraordinary situations. Before completing her first novel, she worked as a newspaper staff writer and a secondary English teacher. She lives in East Tennessee with her husband and three young children.
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My thoughts: after her sister dies, Stella gives up her life of travel and photography to help her parents run the family dry cleaners, an invitation to join Samantha’s close friends on a weekend away in celebration of their friend leads to confrontation and violence, Stella knows there’s more to her twin’s death and finding a journal filled with secrets means she’s determined to get answers.
The weekend away gets really tense and scary when fire breaks out shortly after a major confrontation between the characters, talk about tension! After Jackson suffers an accident, and the others close ranks, Stella gets frightened, someone here is dangerous.
Utterly gripping, very intense and clever, loads of twists and turns. Never start a business with your friends is the message I’m taking away, especially if one of them is a psychopath!
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Shortlisted for the 2020 Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger award
Newly qualified offshore medic, Danny Verity, arrives on the Cuillin Alpha oil platform shortly before a storm damages the satellite system, severing the crew’s only mode of communication to the mainland.
Storm or sabotage?
Danny is forced to perform emergency surgery on an injured crewmate, whose accident he suspects was the result of sabotage. The man dies, a member of the crew disappears, and yet another is attacked.
Enter the Pied Piper, whose sinister announcements carry his threats through the entire platform.
While the North Sea rages around them, emotions and suspicions run high.
Danny knows he’s the only one who can stop the saboteur. But will the crew trust him?
With no way of calling in help and unable to risk escaping on the lifeboats, everyone aboard the oil platform is trapped. So is the killer… and Danny is determined to smoke him out.
Chris Blackwater is a writer and chartered engineer from Leeds, England. His first novel Emergency Drill, book 1 in the Danny Verity, PI series, set on a North Sea oil platform, was shortlisted for the 2020 CWA Debut Dagger Award. His short stories have appeared in a variety of magazines and anthologies including contributions to the much-missed Mad Scientist Journal.
Book two in the series, Dead Crude, is set in Orkney. Apart from Danny Verity, it features other characters who survived Emergency Drill. He is working on a third book in the series, called Head Hunting.
Chris began writing to entertain himself whilst working on offshore oil platforms and remote power stations. His career has taken him all over the world to unusual locations and introduced him to some remarkable characters. In recent years Chris has gradually drifted down to the south coast of England where he spends his spare time learning to sail and play the flute, though not at the same time.
My thoughts: this is a fast paced, explosive (although not literally) thriller set on a North Sea oil platform. Danny is the new medic on crew – he didn’t expect it to be this eventful.
Starting with the death of another crew member, a series of sabotage events terrify the whole platform and cut them off from the mainland, unable to get help.
Danny joins forces with some of the others on the platform to unmask the Pied Piper claiming responsibility for the incidents, and stop them before anyone else gets killed. But with supplies running low and the power almost out, time is in short supply.
Danny is an interesting protagonist – a former Military Police Officer turned medic, he has skills and experience he tries to put into use during this terrifying case. He has to rely on people he doesn’t know very well, especially Gemma, who acts as his sidekick and insider, while hiding out after almost being killed.
Using his own experiences, which hopefully wasn’t as traumatic, the author sets up this new series of high octane thrillers with a bang.
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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.
ramblingmads 
