Paige Dawson: the mother of a murdered child and wife to a dead man.
She has nothing left to live for… until she finds her husband’s handgun hidden in their house.
Why did Ryan need a gun? What did he know about their daughter’s death?
Desperate for the truth, Paige begins to unearth her husband’s secrets.
But she has no idea who she is up against, or that her life isn’t hers to gamble – she belongs to me.
My thoughts: This was a dark and twisted read, it seemed to be going in one direction, and then veered off somewhere unexpected and far more sinister.
Paige’s daughter was kidnapped ten years ago and all that was found was her left arm, and then her husband recently committed suicide. She’s drinking too much, trading sex for drugs with her GP, and struggling to hold her life together.
Things keep happening to her – her husband’s clothes disappear, her daughter’s room is cleared. She’s positive it isn’t her doing this, but who else could it be?
Thankfully her brother, a vicar, is available to offer her support and a hot meal when she hasn’t eaten. But his support might come at a terrible price.
The plot seems like it might be about Paige following up on her late husband’s attempts to hire a hit man, to find out who he suspected of their daughter’s abduction and murder. But then it goes, way, way off from that plot into disturbing places.
If you like your crime thrillers twisted and dark, this is one for you.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
It’s the one piece of evidence that will crack the case . . . but is it too shocking to reveal?
A murdered student. A secret buried in the past. A killer who’s still watching.
Detective Steph Warwick is halfway through her Christmas shopping when she gets the call. The body of a young man has been pulled from the icy River Witham. The victim is Max Barsby, a quiet, hardworking archaeology student with no enemies – or so it seems. But Max didn’t drown. He was murdered. Bludgeoned over the head and left for dead. With the university all but deserted for the holidays, Steph finds herself with few leads and even fewer witnesses.
Meanwhile, Special Constable Jane Bell is investigating a routine break-in when she stumbles across an unexpected link to Max. As Jane and Steph’s paths cross once more, Steph reluctantly brings the warm-hearted mother-of-two into the fold – knowing Jane can reach people – and places – that she can’t.
Their enquiries unearth a mysterious girlfriend, a controversial dig site, and a discovery someone will kill to protect. But when Jane finds a piece of evidence too explosive to share, her silence may prove deadly – for both of them.
Janice was born and grew up in West Lothian, Scotland. After completing an English degree at St Andrew’s University, she moved to London where she lived for ten years doing an assortment of jobs. Her passions are reading, writing and walking in Scotland and the Lake District. She lives in Lincolnshire with her husband and two sons.
My thoughts: A young man has been bludgeoned to death, he’s a student at the university, and doesn’t seem to have many dark secrets. But someone still saw fit to kill him. Is his death connected to the archaeology dig he was volunteering on? Or was it something else?
It’s almost Christmas, there’s no one on campus, the few people the police do manage to speak to only have nice things to say, or didn’t really know Max that well. The police are a bit stumped.
Special Constable Jane Bell and her son Patrick, who is friends with the victim’s cousin, are doing a bit of digging outside of the official investigation and they do find a few things out, including Max’s only real secret. Was it serious enough though to lead to his death?
DI Steph Warwick comes across as pretty prickly, easily annoyed by Jane and Patrick’s unofficial investigation, despite giving them the ok to ask a few questions. If the case were a bit clearer, she’d probably be a bit less cross.
The police follow a few dead ends, but everything has to be checked and ruled out to find the truth and get justice for Max.
Despite how much everyone focuses on the archaeological dig and the warring personalities of two historians Max knew, which is diverting, and adds to the successful solve rate of the police, it distracts from Max’s murder and almost allows a killer to get away with it. But between the two strands of investigation, some CCTV footage and asking the right questions, they do get the truth in the end. Very satisfactory.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Winter storms lash the Isles of Scilly, when DI Ben Kitto ferries the islands’ priest to St Helen’s. Father Michael intends to live as a pilgrim in the ruins of an ancient church on the uninhabited island, but an ugly secret is buried among the rocks. Digging frantically in the sand, Ben’s dog, Shadow, unearths the emaciated remains of a young woman.
The discovery chills Ben to the core. The victim is Vietnamese, with no clear link to the community – and her killer has made sure that no one will find her easily. The storm intensifies as the investigation gathers pace.
Soon Scilly is cut off by bad weather, with no help available from the mainland. Ben is certain the killer is hiding in plain sight. He knows they are waiting to kill again – and at unimaginable cost.
Kate Rhodes is an acclaimed crime novelist and an award-winning poet, selected for Val McDermid’s New Blood panel at Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival for her debut, Crossbones Yard. She has been nominated twice for the prestigious CWA Dagger in the Library award, and is one of the founders of the Killer Women writing group. She lives in Cambridge with her husband, the writer and film-maker Dave Pescod, and visited the Scilly Isles every year as a child, which gave her the idea for the critically acclaimed Isles of Scilly Mysteries series.
My thoughts: I really like this series, and I have a deep love for Cornwall, but have never visited the Scillies, and considering how many murders there are, I don’t know if I would!
Ben Kitto and Shadow find the remains of a young woman buried in a shallow grave on the uninhabited (unless you’re a sea bird) island of St Helens. She’s a victim of people trafficking, and there might be another young woman out there.
The story is full of shocking twists, and big changes are coming for the islands’ police force, and Ben has to keep the team focused even as they worry about their colleague. The outcome of this case might also have implications for Ben’s private life. It’s a real game-changer of a book, reshaping what we know about this version of the Scillies.
I was totally hooked, especially as the weather worsened and events went from bad to worse, it all seemed hopeless and there were still shocks to come. Absolutely cracking.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Chilling murders terrorize a town in the USA, and bring together two detectives to face the hardest tasks of their lives. Jack, a brawny enforcer, and Jill, a brainy beauty, can’t stand each other, but must find the killer before they kill each other. Their journey takes them into the secret world of Incels, Boogaloo Boys, and supremacists. The novel is full of twists, and the shocking finale challenges the boundaries of life and death.
Michael Wendroff is the author of What Goes Around, a debut thriller published by Bloomsbury, which bestselling author Eric Rickstad calls a “brilliant debut,” and bestselling author Lisa Black says, “starts at a
breakneck pace and doesn’t let up until it reaches its unexpected conclusion.” Plus, #1 bestselling author J.D. Black says, “Relentless and gritty, Wendroff expertly weaves a narrative that begs, ‘just one more page…’” The book was inspired by what his mother said to him the second he was born: “Oh! How nice to see you–Again!”
Michael has an MBA in marketing from NYU, and was inducted into their Hall of Fame. He is a global marketing consultant. He shares his time between New York City, Sarasota, Florida, and Lake Garda, Italy. He is married and has three wonderful children.
His mother was an editor (watching his mother scribbling in red ink on manuscript pages at home on weekends prepared him for his own editor’s comments!). She remarried a literary agent, so Michael was friendly with many authors, and even spent a vacation with Robert Ludlum. Watching Ludlum hand-write his 450 page novels on yellow legal pads didn’t dissuade Michael from trying to write a novel (though he’s thankful for his PC).
What Goes Around was launched in the USA, UK, and Australia, and foreign language rights have been sold in Italian, Japanese, and Hungarian. The hardcover went through 3 printings, and now the trade paperback is available (along with audio book and e-book).
My thoughts: After several apparently random killings and the appearance of a group of white supremacists, detectives Jack and Jill are recruited to a multi agency task force to find the killer and stop the racists from causing any more trouble.
More bodies will be added to their ugly tally as they hunt a sniper and the leaders of several rival supremacist gangs. They have a young man on the inside, but in helping them he risks everything he holds dear.
The case is complicated and the idiotic local sheriff doesn’t help, and even the FBI agent in charge seems a bit stumped. But the two detectives will have to overcome their long rivalry and work together to solve their case and end the violence.
Twisting and far from straightforward, this case is intriguing and has something of a metaphysical bent, as old sins come to light amidst the case that change things for many of the characters.
*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 misanthropic horror comedy for people who think humanity had it coming.
Sam Hain is a San Francisco P.I. with a permanently raised eyebrow and moronic homicidal parents he hasn’t seen in 18 years — not since they tried to cast him in a DIY snuff film.
Mike is a demon — or, as he prefers, a diabolical entity — with his own ideas about how best to punish the human race.
When an anonymous letter arrives, along with $500 in cash, asking Sam to investigate a murder in a small town, he’s curious enough to get in the car. That, plus he has nothing better to do.
The victim? A man found dead inside a tumble dryer. The clue? The name MIKE, written in blood above the body. The twist? The letter was postmarked before the murder happened.
Soon, Sam’s navigating a town full of eccentrics: an elderly laundromat owner who speaks fluent profanity, a death metal teen with conservative parents, a bigoted religious fundamentalist, and a hedonistic teacher on Sam’s wavelength who doesn’t believe in small talk. Meanwhile, the local sheriff — experiencing his first murder case in decades — follows Sam around like a kid at Disneyland.
And Mike? Mike is powerful. Mike has plans. And he really, really hates stupid people. In that regard, he and Sam have something in common.
Twisted, sardonic and wildly inappropriate, SAM HAIN is a critically acclaimed murder mystery wrapped in a demonic satire — and it absolutely does not want to be your friend.
Hamid Amirani was born in Iran and came to London not long after. He studied Media and Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Before turning to fiction, Amirani worked across a wide range of media and creative roles – from proofreading and freelance blogging for an American camera bag company, to interviewing director Michael Bay for a print feature. His horror-comedy spec script earned a Recommend from Script Pipeline, the screenwriting platform set up by Donnie Darko producer Sean McKittrick.
In the late 1990s, Amirani was a guest on The James Whale Radio Show after a series of calls as his alter ego GanjaMan led to a studio invitation.
He began writing his debut novel, SAM HAIN, during lockdown, which helped stave off cabin fever. A genre-blending satire, it marks his first full-length work of fiction.
My thoughts: I am aware that I have a rather dark sense of humour, and this book was hilarious, but it won’t be to everyone’s tastes.
PI Sam Hain (yes, his awful parents did that to him on purpose, even though the pagan festival is pronounced slightly differently) is directed to a small town to investigate a murder. There’s a dead man in a tumble dryer (you could definitely get a body in an industrial dryer – they’re huge) but no evidence or explanation as to how he got there.
Working with the small town sheriff, Sam is attempting to figure out what’s going on, when a detective from Oregon arrives, keen to talk to Sam about his awful (really awful( estranged parents. He last saw them when he was 17, and they were trying to kill him. They’ve disappeared after a killing spree that defies explanation.
As it becomes apparent that both cases are connected, the three men team up to try to make sense of all the murders.
Then Mike the demon shows up and things take a much weirder turn.
I really enjoyed this twisted, weird, horror comedy, it made me laugh and is populated with some very unique and memorable characters. The narrator is hilarious and has plenty to say about the world we live in. Hopefully Sam will return in another weird and wacky case at some point.
*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 a tough week, Tanya Kaitlin is looking forward to a relaxing night in, but as she steps out of her shower, she hears her phone ring. The video call request comes from her best friend, Karen Ward. Tanya takes the call and the nightmare begins.
Karen is gagged and bound to a chair in her own living room. If Tanya disconnects from the call, if she looks away from the camera, he will come after her next, the deep, raspy, demonic voice at the other end of the line promises her.
As Detectives Robert Hunter and Carlos Garcia investigate the threats, they are thrown into a rollercoaster of evil, chasing a predator who scouts the streets and social media networks for victims, taunting them with secret messages and feeding on their fear.
My thoughts: The murders in this latest instalment of the Hunter & Garcia books are really grisly. The killer calls the best friend, the husband, the sister, of his chosen victim and forces them to play a horrific game, before killing their loved one in front of them, via video call. There’s nothing they can do to stop him, and each murder is extremely brutal.
Hunter and Garcia can’t find the link between the victims, they seem to have been chosen completely at random, and they have no idea who the killer is. They’re in a race against time to stop him from taking more lives, but when it seems the victims could be anyone, how can they predict where he might strike next?
Hunter also gets a bit of a personal life, meeting the lovely psychology professor in the UCLA library and connecting over their love for Scottish whisky. It’s nice to see Hunter off duty for a change, obviously, his brilliant mind is searching for the killer, but all the previous books have him just working and not sleeping, this gives us another side to his character.
Another edge-of-your-seat, twist-you-won’t- see-coming read, with writing that keeps you hooked (or at least it does me).
*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 being summoned to a crime scene late one Friday afternoon, Detective Mark Turpin arrives to find the body of a man, his face obscured by a plastic sheet wrapped around his head.
When the victim’s final moments are traced to a rented property in the Oxfordshire countryside, Mark discovers another body, one that has been brutally cut to pieces and left to rot.
As the manhunt for the murderer intensifies, Mark uncovers several unresolved cold cases with similarities to his own and exposes a killer who has managed to escape both national and international scrutiny.
Then one of his colleagues disappears without a trace, and Mark is faced with an impossible situation that could plunge his entire future into jeopardy…
Before turning to writing, USA Today bestselling crime author Rachel Amphlett played guitar in bands, worked as a TV and film extra, dabbled in radio, and worked in publishing as an editorial assistant. She now wields a pen instead of a plectrum and writes crime fiction with over 30 crime novels and short stories featuring spies, detectives, vigilantes, and assassins. A keen traveller and accidental private investigator, Rachel has both Australian and British citizenship. You can find out more about Rachel and her books at http://www.rachelamphlett.com.
My thoughts: Another clever case from one of the best crime writers out there. A man is found in a rented office, suffocated by bubble wrap, he was also renting a house locally, which contains another dead body. Who is this man and why does he appear to have committed murder and then been killed himself?
As the detectives unravel the secrets of their gruesome finds, following a trail that stretches across the country and even as far away as Dubai, they’re looking not just for one killer, but possibly two.
When Jan disappears while following a lead, the team must put their investigation on hold to search for one of their own, and time is running out. Has she fallen foul of their killer or someone else?
Clever, twisting and engaging, you’ll be on the edge of your seat as the detectives race to rescue their colleague and find the killer before he escapes.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Choice of Darkness is a tale of blighted love and mass murder based on the hunt for the biggest serial killer in nineteenth-century America.
Jad Adams tells the story of Henry Holmes from the point of view of the detective who tracked him down, burdened by a love betrayed.
Frank Geyer is a detective in Philadelphia who in 1894 is called to investigate the death of Ben Pitezel. He encounters Dr Henry Holmes who says he is acting for Pitezel’s family to collect the insurance money. Holmes had been best friends with Geyer in their home town of Gilmanton, New Hampshire, they have unfinished business over a woman.
Alerted by the insurance company, Geyer seeks Holmes in what becomes a journey to redeem Geyer’s life as he discovers how his former friend left horror after horror in a killing programme across the United States.
Set in the gilded age of American history, Choice of Darkness is a meticulously researched study of this late nineteenth century criminal, and the police methods used to bring him down.
Jad Adams has worked as a television producer and a newspaper journalist. He is best known for his works of history including Decadent Women: Yellow Book Lives, Tony Benn: A Biography and Women and the Vote: A World History. He is the author of another novel, Café Europa.
My thoughts: I knew about HH Holmes from reading Devil in the White City, but this takes an interesting angle on that story, by positioning the detective Frank Geyer, who tracked Holmes across the US, as the protagonist. He’s in a unique position as he and Holmes were childhood friends and Holmes left town with the woman Geyer was planning to propose to.
It starts with him being contacted by an insurance company, Holmes is one of the people coming to Philadelphia to identify a body in order to claim an insurance payout. Holmes says he’s doing it for the dead man’s family, the deceased being his friend and business partner. But as with all of Holmes’ many, many crimes, there’s something off about his sincerity and Geyer is suspicious. He begins looking into the man he knew as Henry Mugett.
From medical schools to police departments from as far away as Texas, the truth about Holmes starts to emerge. He’s a conman, a thief and if Geyer can prove it a murderer. In fact, he’s America’s first serial killer – a term that didn’t even exist back then.
At first Chicago’s detectives don’t want to know, they even throw Geyer in a cell, but later they come to him asking for help. Holmes has gone too far and attracted their attention. Geyer has been inside the “castle” his old friend turned nemesis built in Chicago, the place where dozens of people met their terrible end.
It’s these deaths Chicago want Holmes for, Texas is still after him for horse theft, there’s multiple dodgy insurance claims, the kidnapping that haunts Geyer. Will they find the answers in Holmes’ house of death?
Compellingly written, Geyer is a sympathetic figure, while he does have a personal score to settle, it’s overwhelmed by the many terrible things Holmes has done since they were both young men in Massachusetts.
This was a very interesting and enjoyable angle to take as you feel like you’re in Geyer’s shoes as he traverses the country trying to track Holmes down and bring him to justice.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
On the Island of Philae in the upper reaches of the Nile Valley, Nofret, the new priestess to the Temple of Hathor, has left Dendera in the north where she received her training. She now has her own temple to govern.
The hierarchy makes her welcome, but as she settles into life on the island, she slowly realises that her predecessor’s death may not have been straightforward. Hearing different versions of the event, she takes it upon herself to find out what really happened to the Priestess Safiya and finds that the island holds its own secrets, which lie beneath the temple buildings.
Glennis Goodwin is a British author who has long held an interest in the myths and culture of the Ancient Egyptians. Along with that, the people of southern Africa have also been of interest and in the early 1980s, she was fortunate to live and work in Zambia. In her working life, she has gone from Nursing to Retail and from Academic Publishing to PA, but during that time she never lost the feeling that Africa gave her, and, in those years, had holidays in Egypt and Kenya. In 2004, she aimed to return to her nursing career and enrolled in New Zealand on a refresher course. Settling into life on the other side of the world, she continued to further her career, met her husband and made her home there. Sadly, a brain haemorrhage and slight stroke ended her study, but after her recovery, she found herself wanting to write, something she had longed to do but never seemed to have the time for. Returning to the UK in 2017, she settled down at her computer, and over the following months, the tales of the Eight Deities of the Primordial Chaos came to life in the story of Malian, the altar tender. Her first book, The Eighth Deity, then came into being and The Gods of Chaos, a fantasy adventure series, was born. Now living in a Nottinghamshire village, she has since written Brotherhood of Apep, In the Footsteps of Ra, and The Papyrus of Ma’at, her second, third and fourth books. Her fifth, and final title of the series, The Bow of Horus, is published here. Currently, she is looking to expand her writing while using the knowledge gained from her trips to Egypt and is working on an Ancient Egyptian murder mystery set on the banks of the Nile.
My thoughts: a young priestess is given her own temple of Hathor to lead, but her predecessor’s death was far from a straightforward accident. There is something rotten at the heart of the temple complex of Philae and Nofret must tread carefully, unsure who to trust, as she investigates.
Underneath the complex lies a labyrinth of tunnels and tombs. Someone has been stealing and selling the grave goods of the priests and priestesses resting there, it must be someone working with the temples, assisted by an outsider, but as a newcomer Nofret doesn’t know the island’s secrets.
She puts her life at risk to get answers, both to the thefts and the murders. A special ceremony offers the opportunity to expose the criminals but the answers she uncovers are not as expected. Can she still stop the perpetrators?
Nofret is an intelligent and educated woman, sent to serve her goddess as a child, she’s risen far in the hierarchy of Hathor’s followers. The high priest has somehow missed all the intrigue and crime going on beneath his nose, but as someone with an outsider’s perspective, Nofret can see more clearly.
It’s a clever and intricate plot, replete with secret passages and high risks, not least the crocodiles and hippos along the island’s edge, Nofret has no real allies except a little cat that has adopted her, and possibly the local governor, whom she confides in. Despite its ancient setting, this could easily be a modern-day mystery, people after all, have always been people.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Every room has a secret. Every secret has a price.
Rachel thought marrying Lucas Price would be the beginning of her happily ever after.
Instead, moving into Crestwood, his sprawling seaside estate, feels more like stepping into a nightmare. The shadow of his first wife, Eliza—who died in a tragic fall from the cliffs—haunts every corner of their new home. When ghostly apparitions begin appearing and mysterious messages warn Rachel to leave, she questions her own sanity.
Lucas dismisses her fears and refuses to discuss what happened to Eliza, leaving Rachel isolated and paranoid. Desperate to get to the truth, she starts to investigate Eliza’s death. In a house where nothing is as it seems and everyone has something to hide, Rachel must confront not only the ghosts of the past but the buried trauma of her own dark memories.
And when she finally gets closer to Crestwood’s horrifying secret, she realizes she’s in danger of losing everything she cares about. Including her life.
Theo Baxter loves writing psychological suspense thrillers. It’s all about that last reveal that he loves shocking readers with. He grew up in New York, where there was crime all around. He decided to turn that into something positive with his fiction. His stories will have you reading through the night—they are very addictive!
My thoughts: Rachel clearly never read Rebecca or Bluebeard – if you’re the second wife, be prepared to be haunted by either the dead wife or the husband’s terrible secrets behind locked doors. She’s dealing with both.
Moving into Crestwood, the house her husband and his late wife Eliza designed and built is where her nightmares begin. She thinks there might be a ghost, even if everyone around her insists that’s not possible. Her husband is keeping secrets and has locked the bedroom next to theirs, and won’t discuss it.
But then things start happening even after her therapist switches up her meds to help her sleep. Someone blocks the doors to the room Rachel is working in, someone who can move through the house unseen.
Lucas needs to start talking – the secrets he’s keeping might hold the answers or at least reassure Rachel that he isn’t involved.
There’s a shocking twist and once Rachel starts to get to the truth, she’s not crazy, Lucas has kept a lot from her, and their lives could be the cost.
Clever, full of twists and with a protagonist I really felt sorry for, put in a terrifying situation that’s not her fault.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 