Tag: crime fiction

Tea-shop owner. Matchmaker. Detective?

Sixty-year-old self-proclaimed tea expert Vera Wong enjoys nothing more than sipping a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy ‘detective’ work on the internet (AKA checking up on her son to see if he’s dating anybody yet).

But when Vera wakes up one morning to find a dead man in the middle of her tea shop, it’s going to take more than a strong Longjing to fix things. Knowing she’ll do a better job than the police possibly could – because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands – Vera decides it’s down to her to catch the killer.

Nobody spills the tea like this amateur sleuth

My thoughts: this is very, very funny. Not exactly a surprise from the author of Dial A For Aunts and Four Aunties and a Wedding. Vera owns a small tea shop in San Francisco’s Chinatown and her life is pretty quiet until she finds a dead body in her shop one morning.

Gathering her suspects up, and building a found family along the way, she investigates the death, much to the irritation of Officer Grey at the local police station, who would rather she leave it alone.

Vera is delightful but you definitely don’t mess with her and she’s impossible to say no to. Everyone tries to, but somehow this Chinese Miss Marple bowls you along with her. It might be the mountains of food she keeps making, or just the way she carries on as though no one else spoke, but her determination to solve the mystery of the dead man in the tea shop is compelling.

The people she draws into her orbit, her suspects, slowly come to love her and bond with each other as they’re all lonely. Vera gives them advice and encouragement as well as keeping them very well fed (I was so hungry by the end of this book) so they become less alone and closed off. But does she solve the case? Well, you’ll have to read the book to find out!

*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 mother-of-two Louisa doesn’t return home from work one night, her husband raises the alarm. Investigating the workshop where she ran her mail-order business reveals signs she was taken by force – and DCI Warren Jones is put on the case.

As Warren and his team begin to dig into the missing woman’s life, a complex network of relationships emerges. Who is Louisa’s husband talking to on his second, secret phone? What’s the truth about her relationship with the convicted criminal who works next door? And what happened to Louisa’s university housemate a decade ago?

Can the team break through the lies and get to the truth?

Paul Gitsham started his career as a biologist working in Canada and the UK. After stints as the world’s most over-qualified receptionist and a spell ensuring that international terrorists hadn’t opened a Child’s Savings Account at a major UK bank (a job even duller than working reception) he retrained as a Science teacher.

My thoughts: another cracking case for DCI Warren James and his team. Louisa seems to be a regular mum of two, running her own small business, renting a lock up to do so, although the walking home at 2am seems a bit off. Her husband also seems a bit strange, and the team dig into him and his past. He’s not exactly been faithful and he seems to be keeping secrets.

The couple’s friend went missing when they were at uni, is that significant? And what of their other housemates, which included Louisa’s sister? Who is lying about what? There’s a lot to untangle to get to the truth, where is Louisa and is she still alive?

A lot happens and there’s plenty of juicy stuff to get into, the brilliant twists and turns at the end, just when they think they’ve solved it, but something still feels wrong. Excellent.

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

Meet the craft group swapping decoupage for deception and glues for clues…
Violet Brewer is the owner of Rooney-at-Burrow’s charming wool shop, Brewer’s Loop, and the organiser of its weekly crafting group. Nothing much usually happens in the sleepy little English
village. Until now.
But when Sir Buster Burniston, much-loved owner of nearby Burrow Hall, is found dead, a cloud of mystery lingers in the village air. Or at least it does for Violet and her fellow craft mates in Team C.R.A.B – the Crafters of Rooney-at-Burrow. They are certain that the old man’s death might
not be as cut and dried as Violet’s police officer nephew, Samuel, seems to think. Violet has lived in the village for over sixty years, and something tells her and her creative pals that there is more behind Sir Buster’s sad demise. Violet and her friends are determined to turn detective, despite
what her nephew says. And soon murder is on the cards at their meet and make sessions as they discover a mystery that needs to be unpicked stitch by stitch…

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About the Author
Nigel to no stranger to the worlds of both publishing and crafting. He has published seven previous novels – six glam fiction blockbusters such as Trinity, Addicted and Revenge, which saw him gain fabulous reviews and nicknamed as the ‘UK’s male Jackie Collins’, and a gripping psychological thriller called The Girl Unknown. Quilling Me Softly is his first foray into the cosy crime world.
Crafting is very close to his heart as he has been working as a TV presenter on the UK’s biggest crafting TV channel, Create & Craft, for over 16 years, and he has launched his own successful craft
range, A-May-Zing, as well. He was named top Male Personality Of The Year in the Crafts Beautiful Awards in 2021.
As well as writing and telly hosting, Nigel presents a weekly national radio show on Gaydio, interviewing celebrities from the worlds of TV, film and music. He lives in Brighton and his obsessions include Eurovision, all things 80s, flea markets and juicy reality TV.
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THE HUGE QUILLING ME SOFTLY CRAFT GIVEAWAY (Open Int)
Seeing as Quilling Me Softly is based around the members of a fabulous craft group and Nigel also works in the world of craft it only seems right that the launch of Quilling Me Softly should come with
a massive crafty prize giveaway! Nigel has teamed up with one of the craft world’s most inventive companies, the incredible Lisa Horton Crafts to give away a bumper bundle of crafting goodies worth over £150. Included in the prize bundle are loads of inspirational layering stencils and embossing folders plus the worldwide crafting smash that is the Ulti-Mate Multi Tool – it’s the perfect crafting tool for everyone when it comes to stamping, stencilling and blending.

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My thoughts: I really enjoyed this, can I join Team C.R.A.B? I’m not very crafty but keen to learn, I’m thinking crochet, and I have loads of inkpads and stamps already.

When local dignitary Sir Buster is found facedown in his own lake, it looks like a heart attack. But someone has been sending him threatening notes. And he was very healthy. Could it be murder? Another body seems suspicious and with the local crafting/crime club looking for clues too, the police have plenty of evidence.

I of course love a book with a crime busting pet, but despite belonging to PC Paula, Mr Bublè the ginger tom didn’t do much to solve the case and ginger cats are problematic in my house (Ted, my black cat and boss, has a rival ginger tom he keeps squabbling with!) so although it was of course good to see a cat making himself well known in the village, I’m not allowed to be a fan!

The cast of villagers and Crafters were a total delight, I want Pearl to cook me dinner and Violet and Margaret to tell me all the gossip before I go and rub the ears if Jimmy’s pigs. Delightful. And very good at gathering evidence and solving a much more complex case than it appeared at first glance. More please!

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

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Some debts can only be paid in blood.

A rich socialite is found hacked to death in her Dublin home. It’s the beginning of a killing spree that leaves five apparently unconnected people brutally slain. 

Kate Hamilton, a brilliant and ambitious detective sergeant, is assigned to the case and soon uncovers the connection between the victims – they were all involved in an illegal adoption scheme which was running in Ireland up to the 1980s.

In a deeply traditional society, unmarried mothers were shamed by their families, forced to give birth in secret and surrender their newborns for adoption, fuelling a lucrative and cruel baby trade. 

Now, decades later, it seems someone is taking bloody revenge on those who played a part in the adoption racket.

With each day bringing a new victim, Kate and her team race to stop the bloodshed. But when she discovers she has a personal link with both victims and murderer, Kate realises her own life is in danger as never before.Blood Mothers – the first in the gripping new series featuring DS Kate Hamilton

Gaye admits to a lifelong obsession with crime, and a keen interest in psychology and social history. She credits her parents, who were avid readers, with her love of fiction. When she graduated from Enid Blyton to Agatha Christie at age nine, so began a life of crime… reading.  

She enjoyed an award-winning career as a TV Producer/Director working for the BBC, ITV and RTE. She’s always written in her spare time, and during lockdown, when her husband built himself a workshop at the end of the garden, she seized control (peacefully) and renamed it her writing cabin.  The result was BLOOD MOTHERS.  

Now a full-time writer, she has three adult children and one adorable granddaughter. She lives in Dublin with her husband, to whom she now owes a workshop, two of her grown up kids and two rescue dogs who are not at all grown up, but make for great company at the bottom of the garden.  

Blood Mothers is Gaye Maguire’s first book with Inkubator Books. 

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My thoughts: this was a cracking start to a new crime fiction series, featuring DS Kate Hamilton. The case has a personal connection but not one Kate is immediately aware of.

A series of incredibly brutal killings lead to a private mother and baby home run by the Catholic Church. Someone is taking revenge for the actions of those involved years before, although not on the people directly involved but those more on the periphery, people not carefully protected. The nuns and the Bishop who facilitated the cruel system of forced adoptions are free to carry on their lives, but the victims of this killer are not.

The saddest death is that of Billy, a sweet man with learning disabilities, who worked at the home as the odd job man and bookkeeper, writing down the young women’s details and the births. He’s an innocent, just a little cog in the machine, and has been all but abandoned himself.

But Kate and her colleagues are working through the clues and the mysterious American has left plenty of evidence behind. But the final piece is Kate’s own history, it leads her to the killer and a tense standoff.

Dark, clever, twisting and rather heartbreaking at times, this is an intelligent and compelling read. Looking forward to the next one.

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

A lonely recluse. A missing girl and a community in fear.
When the body of a young local girl is found next to an isolated lake, the main suspect is the old recluse who has lived next to the lake for many years – especially when the young girl’s purse is found on the old man’s doorstep.
But DCI Emma Gardner and her partner DI Paul Riddick aren’t so sure. Why would the old hermit leave such an obvious clue? And who would want to set the old man up?
As they dig deeper into the murder they discover a community in fear, determined to keep hold of long buried secrets. And Riddick is convinced that his own dark past is somehow linked to this crime, too.
Gardner fears that she may never get the answers she needs, until a break leads her down a path she’d rather not face. One that runs directly to her own front door…
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Wes Markin is the bestselling author of the DCI Yorke crime novels, set in Salisbury. His new series for Boldwood stars the pragmatic detective DCI Emma Gardner who will be tackling the criminals of North Yorkshire.  Wes lives in Harrogate and the first book in the series The Yorkshire Murders will be published in November 2022.

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My thoughts: this was a dark and twisting crime thriller, set in North Yorkshire, where long buried secrets threaten to come to light and some will go to great lengths to hide them. Where a murder has the oldest of motives but the clues seem to point in different directions and the detectives are distracted by issues in their personal lives, so it takes a little bit longer to solve.

The body of a young woman, Tia Meadows, is found by the home of a reclusive older man. He knew her father a long time ago, and at first glance all evidence points to him. But digging into the case DCI Gardner finds there’s a lot more going on. Has he been set up? Tia’s father, a man who dominates the local building trade, certainly believes the evidence and goes off to get his own justice, while the police investigate the men in Tia’s life. The answers may lie there instead.

Clever, and well paced, this is a gripping and suspenseful read. As the police work through the suspects and possible motives, their personal lives intrude and distract them, leading to tragedy, before they get back on track. A solid and knotty plot, highly enjoyable.

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

Nothing is more important than family . . .
Matt Forrester has followed in his dad’s footsteps, climbing the police ranks to become a DI. But when he receives an urgent call for help, Matt has to rethink his career. His dad has been murdered, and Matt’s not going to let this case go. It doesn’t help that his current boss is sleeping with his ex-wife.
Hermia Forrester didn’t follow her brother into the police force, instead she works in research at the university. But, she’s not going to let that stop her from helping her brother find out what happened to their dad.
But the siblings soon find themselves surrounded by more danger than they ever imagined. Can they both survive this case or will there be more of their family in the morgue?
The thrilling first instalment in the Forrester Detective Agency Mystery series.
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Anita Waller is the author of many bestselling psychological thrillers and the Kat and Mouse crime series. She lives in Sheffield, which continues to be the setting of many of her thrillers, and was first
published by Bloodhound at the age of sixty-nine. Her first book for Boldwood will be published in August 2022.

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My thoughts: I can already tell that this is going to a be a corker of a series. This book online sets off at a blistering pace and we’re thrown into a shocking and terrible case. Matt’s father and business partner are brutally attacked and killed by unknown assailants. Was it to do with their past careers as police, their current PI business, or something completely different?

Matt hands in his badge to be able to investigate and when his beloved sister Hermia, is also attacked, he and best friend Steve, as well as his former police partner Karen, step up the case. They will stop at nothing to find the perpetrators and land them where they belong – in prison.

Gripping and totally thrilling, this book rattles along at a fair clip, and what the gang uncover is dark and disturbing but if they can survive and solve the case, will change things forever. And then there’s the small matter of a bit of romance too!

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