Tag: crime fiction

A remote retreat…
Nestled high in the Tuscan hills lies Villa Volpone, home to renowned crime writer Jonah Moore and his creative writing course. It’s also the last place retired DCI Dan Armstrong expected to spend his
retirement! Dan’s no writer, but maybe this break will help him to think about the next chapter in his own life story?
A gruesome murder…
But only days into the course, Jonah Moore is found stabbed to death with his award-winning silver dagger! And Dan finds himself pulled out of retirement with a killer to catch.
Eleven possible suspects.
The other guests all seem shocked by Jonah’s death, but Dan knows that one of them must be lying.
And as he and Italian Commissario Virgilio Pisano begin to investigate it quickly becomes clear that everyone at Villa Volpone has secrets to hide…
But can Dan discover who the murderer is before they strike again?
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T A Williams is the author of over twenty bestselling romances for HQ and Canelo and is now turning his hand to cosy crime, set in his beloved Italy, for Boldwood. The series will introduce us to retired DCI Armstrong and his labrador Oscar and the first book, entitled Murder in Tuscany, will be published in October 2022. Trevor lives in Devon with his Italian wife.

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My thoughts: two warnings, 1, this book will make you hungry so don’t forget your reading snacks and 2, you will immediately want a dog.

Otherwise this is a charming cosy mystery set in the stunning rolling Tuscan hills, a place I’ve only been to once but would happily visit again tomorrow if someone can lend me the cash!

Retired DCI Dan Armstrong is on a writers course – an erotic writing course – his retirement gift from his friends in the Met. He’s not sure he wants to be there. But after befriending the local detective and the host of the course being murdered, well that’s a bit more his thing. So he offers to help out.

In between solving a peculiar murder, he falls in love with Tuscany, and a lovely labrador, and eats amazing Italian food. Minus the murder, it sounds like heaven.

I really enjoyed reading this book, it’s funny and clever and I’m hoping Dan will be wheeled out to assist the Italian constabulary in more capers.

*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 there’s a pack on the hunt, nobody’s safe…

After the traumatic events of the past year, Tuva is back as deputy editor reporting for the Gavrik Posten, but her world will never be the same.

A closed community. Rose Farm is home to a group of survivalists, heavily armed and completely cut off from the outside world.

A missing person. A young woman, Elsa Nyberg, goes missing within the perimeter of the farm compound. Can Tuva talk her way inside the tight-knit group to find her?

A frantic search. As Tuva attempts to unmask the culprit, she gains unique access to the residents. But soon she herself is in danger of the pack turning against her. Can she make her way back to safety and expose the truth?

Will Dean’s most heart-pounding Tuva Moodyson thriller yet takes Tuva to her limits, both professionally and in her personal life. Can she, and will she, make the right choice?

WILL DEAN lives in the middle of a vast elk forest in Sweden, where the Tuva Moodyson novels are set. He grew up in the East Midlands. After studying Law at the LSE, and working in London, he settled in rural Sweden and built a wooden house in a boggy clearing, where he lives with his wife and son, and it’s from this base that he reads and writes. Will Dean is the author of Dark Pines, Red Snow, Black River and Bad Apples in the Tuva Moodyson series. His debut novel in the series, Dark Pines, was selected for Zoe Ball’s Book Club and shortlisted for the Guardian Not the Booker prize. The second, Red Snow, won Best Independent Voice at the Amazon Publishing Readers’ Awards and was longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2020, as was his third novel, Black River. The series is in development for television. Will is also the author of two stand-alone novels, The Last Thing to Burn, shortlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2022, and First Born, both published by Hodder. Will Dean posts regularly about reading and writing on YouTube and you can find him on Twitter, TikTok and Instagram. @willrdean TikTok: will_dean_author YouTube: Will Dean – Forest Author

My thoughts: I love Will Dean’s writing and I love Tuva Moodyson – she’s a great character, clever, stubborn and determined to get to the root of the story, even when she gets into trouble and puts herself in danger.

Investigating a missing person case on a private and somewhat sinister farm, which hosts a group of “preppers” with some extreme beliefs and a disturbing number of weapons, Tuva gets in a little too deep.

The people on the farm are planning to basically cut themselves off and go entirely self sufficient – because they don’t believe the world as we know it can sustain itself. They grow their own food, produce their own power with solar panels, and plan to defend their land and lives with their huge arsenal.

But a worker on their farm is missing and that brings unwanted scrutiny from the police and from Tuva – as the press.

Tuva is still reeling from her last case, which ended with her girlfriend Noora now reduced to a vegetable, cared for by her loving parents, but no longer able to communicate. This is portrayed incredibly sensitively. Tuva still loves her very much, but is beginning to lose hope that Noora will recover. Much as with Tuva’s own deafness, Noora’s terrible sad condition is not sensationalised and is so moving and heartbreaking. It adds another dimension to Tuva’s character and as she’s such a loner, it gives her another connection to the world.

This series in general is brilliant and this latest condition continues to cement Will Dean as one of my favourite writers.

*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 book tour for The Voice by John Reid! Read on for more details!

The Voice

Publication Date: March 31, 2022

Genre: Mystery/ Suspense/ Crime Fiction/ Police Procedural

The world of warfare is changing, and a new weapons delivery system developed secretly in the UK is targeted by an international terrorist gang who set out to steal it on instructions from “The Voice”. “The Voice” is a mysterious mastermind who uses an electronic device to disguise his voice and keep his identity hidden.

DCI Steve Burt is asked by his old Army Commander to search for his son, a serving Army officer who is missing. This unofficial inquiry becomes part of an official investigation and takes the DCI into a world of international intrigue, terrorism, murder and corruption at the highest level of government and the Metropolitan Police. The evidence always leads back to “The Voice” but who is he? Unearthing a phantom is a difficult task even for DCI Burt.

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About the Author

John Reid is the creator of the DCI Steve Burt series of thriller and suspense crime fiction at its very best.

Retirement has given John the time to fulfil his passion for writing, creating the mystery series through his unique creative process. Each main character is fully developed at the beginning of the writing process, with the part they play in each journey evolving organically within the confines of the underlying plot line. This freedom and flexibility creates inventive and compelling story telling that keeps the reader intrigued throughout.

John was born in Scotland and, after serving in the Army, embarked on a career in industry. He has worked in several different sectors in senior roles and was latterly CEO of a large international data capture company. He retired for the first time in 1995 to take on a consultancy designed to help new businesses become established. In 2018 he finally retired from business life to become a full-time author. John lives in Scotland and Portugal with his wife, and they have two grown-up sons.

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My thoughts: I really like this series, it’s gritty and well written, enjoyable and realistic. Even when the crimes are quite extreme. This book is a case in point, a mysterious voice at the end of the phone is prompting people to commit terrible crimes – they can’t really explain why. These crimes seen connected to a new military technology.

DCI Steve Burt is on the case however, and determined to find the person behind The Voice. And he will get his man. He understands how criminals think and this insight guides his investigation.

Gripping, edge of your seat stuff.

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Mick Hardin is home on leave,
recovering from an IED attack, when a body is found in the center of town. It’s
Barney Kissick, the local heroin dealer, and the city police see it as an
occupational hazard. But when Barney’s mother, Shifty, asks Mick to take a
look, it seems there’s more to the killing than it seems. Mick should be
rehabbing his leg, signing his divorce papers, and getting out of town–and most
of all, staying out of the way of his sister Linda’s reelection as Sheriff–but
he keeps on looking, and suddenly he’s getting shot at himself.A dark, pacy crime novel about grief and revenge, and the surprises hidden below the surface, Shifty’s Boys
is a tour de force that confirms Chris Offutt’s Mick Hardin as one of the
most appealing new investigators in fiction.

My thoughts: I like Mick, I don’t entirely understand his relationship with his Sheriff sister but he does at least try to get answers legally, before having to bring out the big guns and leave a nice mess for the Feds to sort out.

What at first looks like a falling out between rival drug dealers takes in a lot more – private military, illegal waste dumping, climate crisis, fracking, and most importantly of all – the complicated messes that are families.

Shifty’s sons are for the most part criminals or useless, except for Ray-Ray, who joined the Marines. He comes home to bury his brothers and joins forces with Mick to get revenge for his family. The law in the hills is a little different to the law in town.

Mick’s a complicated character, between the divorce papers he hasn’t signed, the fragile truce with his sister, the way his grandfather raised him in the woods, he’s interesting. I want to read more – even if he has to head back to the army now his leg’s getting better.

This isn’t a long book, it’s sparing with description, but there’s a lot that happens in its pages, drawing you into a world hidden quietly away in the Kentucky hills, where things are done as they always have been, and where justice isn’t necessarily handed down by a judge.

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

ONE HOUSE
EIGHT KILLERS
NO WITNESSES

Jeanette is the manager of a probation hostel that houses high risk offenders released on license.

At 3am one morning, she receives a call telling her a resident has been murdered.

Her whole team, along with the eight convicted murderers, are now all suspects in a crime no one saw committed…

Don’t miss the first nerve-shredding standalone thriller from Noelle Holten, author of the Maggie Jamieson series.

Noelle Holten is an award-winning blogger at http://www.crimebookjunkie.co.uk. She is the PR & Social Media Manager for Bookouture, a leading digital publisher in the UK, and worked as a Senior Probation Officer for eighteen years, covering a variety of risk cases as well as working in a multi agency setting. She has three Hons BA’s – Philosophy, Sociology (Crime & Deviance) and Community Justice – and a Masters in Criminology. Noelle’s hobbies include reading, attending as many book festivals as she can afford and sharing the booklove via her blog.

Dead Inside – her debut novel with One More Chapter/Harper Collins UK is an international kindle bestseller and the start of a new series featuring DC Maggie Jamieson.

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My thoughts: this was a clever thriller with elements of the locked room and country house murder mysteries. The suspects are all either residents or staff at a probation hostel. One which houses seriously violent offenders. Incredibly unpopular with local residents and in the press.

Danny Wells killed his partner, and now, years later, someone has killed him. The police are sure the killer is connected with the hostel. As is local resident Helen and journalist Sadie. They’re both keeping a close eye on events.

But the killer is spiralling and the secrets of 6 Ripley Avenue are all coming out.

Clever, and with plenty of suspects and red herrings, this is an enjoyable standalone 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.

We’re celebrating the release of page-turning thriller, Inhuman Acts by Brooke French! Read on for more details and don’t forget to try your luck at winning a $25 Amazon gift card!

Inhuman Acts

Publication Date: September 29th, 2022

Genre: Thriller

Publisher: Black Rose Writing

A deadly, incurable disease creeps silent through Chattanooga. And its victims aren’t random.

When inexplicable human rabies cases appear in Tennessee, disease ecologist Letty Duquesne jumps at the chance to trace the virus back to its source. But the closer Letty gets to finding the outbreak’s origin, the further someone will go to stop her.

With an unwanted promotion threatening to take Letty far from the fieldwork she loves, this outbreak feels like her last chance to make a difference. It’s not something she can ignore, especially now. The spillover of zoonotic diseases to the human population is on the rise and violent animal attacks-like the one that killed her sister-are becoming all too common.

Something in nature has gone very wrong.

Local authorities would rather she go home, but Letty can track a source animal like no one else. With the help of disgraced detective Andrew Marsh, Letty follows the virus’s epidemiological trail. But her every move is watched. And the source animal is closer than she thinks.

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About the Author

Brooke French is a recovering lawyer turned writer who lives with her husband and sons between Atlanta and Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. She spends most of her days gleefully researching and writing about fatal viruses, terrorism, and murder.

Brooke is likely on numerous watch lists

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My thoughts: this was a clever, slightly grim, crime thriller. A strange rabies outbreak brings University of Georgia scientist Letty to town, wanting to offer her expertise to the doctors who treated the unfortunate victims (there is no cure for rabies, only a preventative vaccine for humans and animals). But no one wants to know.

Police detective Andrew was the unlucky soul who shot one of the rabies victims. He’s on admin leave while the incident is investigated. A chance meeting with Letty draws him into a somewhat clandestine investigation into the outbreak.

Letty’s digging also brings her into contact with local vet Pete, going through a tough divorce, Letty and he connect and he offers his help with her investigation too. Can Letty trust these friendly men? Is her pal Priya, struck down by a rogue strain of malaria in Cambodia, going to be ok? Will Letty be able to finally grieve her sister’s terrible death?

With zoonotic diseases (like Covid-19) on the rise, this is a timely book in some ways. Letty and her colleagues study the intersection of animal viruses and humans, as we encroach further on the natural world, we risk increasing exposure to things like malaria, zika and rabies. Often without any way to treat and cure these diseases. Letty and scientists like her are at the front line of research into ways to prevent awful viruses reaching humans and while the rabies outbreak turns out to have a very human cause, it could so easily be a case of interspecies contact gone wrong.

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