Someone’s playing tricks on Karen at home and at work. When two cold case files about missing girls turn up on her desk, she’s fuming. When a third file arrives…she blows a fuse.
Her boss demands she takes holiday leave just as Karen discovers her late father was involved in one of the cases. Now she’s compelled to investigate them.
Karen’s accompanied by sometime boyfriend John – but can she trust him or his friend and mapkeeper Mr Binks?
She has formidable detective skills but will they work in places where old-world magic is still powerful?
Karen’s life is in serious danger… but from whom…. or what?
Jane writes novels, short stories and poems, usually with a good dose of humour in them. She’s probably owes it all to her late grandmother who, she’s just found out, also wrote short stories and poems. She tends to get an idea and then run with it whether it be a 100 word short story or an 80 thousand word novel. It all depends on the voices in her head at the time…
My thoughts: this was a quirky blend of crime fiction and supernatural shenanigans. As Karen digs into the cases of 3 missing girls from 50 years ago, she finds a strange link to her father’s death and some seriously spooky goings on. With boyfriend John and partner Macy in tow, she sets off to unravel this mystery.
Then there’s Mr Binks, owner of a curious bookshop, he knows a lot more than he’s willing to share but he also has answers to a few things about the case. But can he be trusted and is he acting in the best interests of himself or the case?
With the team racing across the country and even up into Scotland, this case stretches inter-force cooperation and nearly makes Karen’s boss blow his top (she’s supposed to be holiday, not having around solving cold cases).
A clever and occasionally very peculiar addition to supernatural police procedural novels, a bit like Rivers of London or The King’s Watch.
Click the poster to find the other stops on the tour
*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 a girl disappears, long-buried secrets resurface…
Coco is missing. Her room’s a mess, and her phone is left behind in her dorm at Lainsbury Hall School
Ella, Coco’s childhood best friend, is desperate for her to return, although she knows that if she ever sees Coco again, there’ll be a lot of explaining to do.
Bea knows that her new group of friends attracts drama, and she thinks she has the last shred of common sense between them all. Only, if that was true, she would leave Genevieve, her toxic ex, well alone.
Conrad is confident that Coco will return safe and well. Only, the way his secrets are unravelling, he’s worried he won’t be when this is all over.
Harrison and Coco are the perfect couple. Everyone knows that. But looks can be misleading. Even the smartest boy in school can make a terrible mistake.
In order to navigate the web of secrets and lies that Coco leaves behind, her circle of friends needs to unravel a few of their own.
VB Furlong is a trainee lawyer and writer of young adult novels living in Berkshire, UK. She wrote her first “novel” at ten years old and has not stopped writing since then. As a teenager, VB Furlong wrote for her local paper and an online magazine whilst devouring any book she could find, and in writing for an older teen demographic hopes to instil the same love of books as she had, and still has to this day.
Through her writing she aims to explore many of the issues she faced herself growing up, in the hopes that others facing the same issues feel some solidarity. Her friendships are a huge part of her life and consequently is a major theme in her writing, exploring the way in which we interact with each other, especially in difficult times.
Originally from Mumbles, Swansea, VB Furlong enjoys the sun and the sea, and walking her three dogs across the cliffs. These walks have offered her inspiration for many pieces of writing, including What Happened to Coco.
My thoughts: this was a good YA thriller, revolving around a small group of friends who, when one of their own goes missing, start to ask questions about their relationships with her and what might have happened.
Coco isn’t there in the morning, at the exclusive boarding school she attends, she’s left her mobile behind and the necklace she never takes off, her best friend Ella can’t understand where she’s gone, and her boyfriend Harrison is convinced something sinister has happened.
Turns out Coco has secrets, they all do, and now they’re coming to light. As they start to think back over the last few year, and notice that things have changed, the group fractures and the blame game begins.
Clever and enjoyable, despite being missing from the first page, Coco feels very present, she’s there in everyone’s memories and conversations. None of her inner circle can reconcile the person they thought they knew with what’s happened. The final pages are shocking as the truth comes out about what happened to Coco.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
From the author of One of Us Is Lying comes a brand new addictive thriller.
Ivy, Mateo and Cal used to be close – best friends back in middle school. Now all they have in common is a bad day. So for old time’s sake they skip school together – one last time. But when the trio spot Brian ‘Boney’ Mahoney ditching class too, they follow him – right into a murder scene. They all have a connection to the victim. And they’re ALL hiding something. When their day of freedom turns deadly, it’s only a matter of time before the truth comes out . . . It’s Ferris Bueller’s Day Off with murder, perfect for fans of One Of Us Is Lying and A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder. This explosive new thriller is impossible to put down.
Karen M. McManus is the #1 New York Times and international bestselling author of young adult thriller/mystery novels, including One of Us Is Lying, One of Us Is Next, Two Can Keep a Secret, and The Cousins. You’ll Be the Death of Me will be her next novel, publishing December 2021. Her work has been translated into more than 40 languages worldwide. Karen lives in Massachusetts and holds a master’s degree in Journalism from Northeastern University, which she mostly uses to draft fake news stories for her novels. For more information, visit www.karenmcmanus.com or @writerkmc on Twitter and Instagram.
My thoughts: I am a massive fan of Karen McManus’ writing, her books are cracking, so I was really excited to read this one. Skipping school for the first time, three teens find themselves embroiled in murder, drug dealing and a series of burglaries. It’s up to them to solve the case and find the killer, before they become victims too. It’s also laced with Karen’s trademark dry dark humour and lessons about friendship and honesty. I’ve actually read it twice, having enjoyed it so much, I wanted more!
This feels very cinematic at times, I think it’s the Ferris Bueller vibes, I could definitely see it on Netflix next year. I highly recommend this 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.
What do you do when the one person you thought you could trust might just be the killer you’ve been hunting…?
DS Amelie Davis is utterly devoted to her husband, Edward. Having suffered in silence through years of abuse at the hands of her father, she thought she would never trust another man. Then Edward came along and proved her wrong.
But in the middle of the night, Amelie receives a phone call from an unknown number. The voice at the other end asks: Do you really think you know your husband?
Struggling to separate her past trauma from a case at work in which a series of teenage girls have been found murdered, and watching her husband’s every move with increasing paranoia, Amelie grapples with the fear that her husband is not the man she thought she knew at all. In fact, he might just be the man she’s been hunting…
But what do you do when the man you love might be a killer? Turn him in? Or help him hide…
After studying Spanish at university, A.J. Park trained as an English teacher and actor. He has edited magazines, and taught English, Media Studies and Drama in secondary schools across England. He was also a competitive fencer for seven years. His debut novel, The First Lie, was published in 2019.
My thoughts: terrible murders of young teenage girls, social media, trust, and love all entangle in this clever and complex crime thriller. Amelie keeps losing chunks of time, she’s been told by a strange caller not to trust her husband, and her paranoia is having a terrible effect on her work.
As more young women are found raped and murdered, Amelie realises she has to make an impossible choice and does something really bad, though not as bad as what her husband is up to. If you can’t trust the person you married, who can you?
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
It’s hard to live when you think you deserve to die… When a tired old inmate is found dead in his cell, the prison is obligated to investigate and so DI Barton attends. The men he interviews have been convicted of some of the worst things a human being can do, but it appears likely that the death was due to natural causes. When the house of the dead man is burgled and that crime is followed by a suspicious fire, Barton desperately needs to speak to his widow, but she’s nowhere to be found. In the space of twenty-four hours, everyone he wants to talk to has vanished. Then he receives some post which makes him believe he could be the next to disappear. Barton’s investigation goes full circle, through a series of brutal murders, back to the prison, and all signs are pointing to the fact that he’s made a terrible mistake. There’s a violent killer on the loose, who wants everyone to learn that some people deserve to die. DI Barton is back as Ross Greenwood continues with his bestselling series, perfect for fans of Mark Billingham and Ian Rankin. Purchase
Ross Greenwood is the bestselling author of eight crime thrillers. Before becoming a full-time writer he was most recently a prison officer and so worked everyday with murderers, rapists and thieves for four years. He lives in Peterborough.
My thoughts: this was clever, dark and twisty, I was honestly not sure who our unreliable narrator was at all, I thought it was one man but maybe it was another?
I go to Peterborough a fair bit across the year as my husband plays para-ice hockey there, but thankfully I’ve never stumbled across any terrible things like in this book, I don’t think I’d feel the same about it if I did, the cathedral’s nice if you’re over that way, Katherine of Aragon is buried there.
Back to the book – as well as hunting down a revenge killer, DI Barton is dealing with his mum’s increasing dementia, slowly losing her bit by bit. It’s a horrible disease and awful for the family to go through. He’s overtired and stressed, but chugs down the coffee and McDonald’s breakfast muffins in a bit to keep going. The killer might be murdering terrible people – but no one is above the law.
It’s all very well done, and kept me guessing, especially as a crucial witness is absent for pretty much the entire time and I kept wondering where they were, but it’s all worth it in this compelling and cold as ice book.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Victorian England’s most celebrated lady detective returns in ten new brain-teasing mysteries.
With scheming fraudsters, corrupt doctors, devious forgers and terrible murderers afoot, Hester Lynton, and her trustworthy assistant Ivy Jessop, have their work cut out for them. But amidst the dirt and deprivation of 1800s London, our investigative duo will stop at nothing to catch their criminals.
The Return of Hester Lynton is a collection of ten absorbing cosy detective stories, perfect for fans of Sherlock Holmes, Mrs Gladden and the Lady Hardcastle mysteries.
Tony Evans is a full-time writer. His print publications include eighteen adaptations of classic novels published by Real Reads Ltd. His eBooks include the Hester Lynton mystery series and the Jonathan Harker mystery series. Tony has also written student guides for Hamlet, Dracula and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd: all published by ZigZag Education. He lives with his wife in the Yorkshire Dales.
My thoughts: this was lots of fun as lady detective Hester Lynton and her assistant Ivy Jessop solve a series of crimes, from kidnap to bribery, theft to blackmail. Some of their clients are familiar names, Bram Stoker, who they meet in Whitby (of course) and one Mr Oscar Wilde, celebrated writer and wit, who might have been a little indiscreet.
However Hester and Ivy are always discreet, whether helping a Lady, a celebrity or a housemaid. In the manner of Sherlock Holmes, Hester uses deductive reasoning, disguise and observation to solve these mysteries and her Dr Watson, Ivy, keeps close records and even solves a mystery or two herself.
There were lady detectives in 1800s London, so Hester is in good company as she tackles crimes that have at times baffled Scotland Yard. Very enjoyable 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.
A decades-old mystery of a missing six-year-old haunts a family for generations
In 1935, six-year-old Emily Evans vanishes from her family’s vacation home on a remote Minnesota lake. Her disappearance destroys the family – her father takes his own life, and her mother and two older sisters spend the rest of their lives at the lake house, keeping a decades-long vigil for the lost child. Sixty years later, Lucy, the quiet and watchful middle sister, lives in the lake house alone. Before her death, she writes the story of that devastating summer in a notebook that she leaves, along with the house, to the only person who might care: her grandniece, Justine. For Justine, the lake house offers freedom and stability – a way to escape her manipulative boyfriend and give her daughters the home she never had. But the long Minnesota winter is just beginning. e house is cold and dilapidated. e dark, silent lake is isolated and eerie. Her only neighbor is a strange old man who seems to know more about the summer of 1935 than he’s telling.
Soon Justine’s troubled oldest daughter becomes obsessed with Emily’s disappearance, her mother arrives to steal her inheritance, and the man she left launches a dangerous plan to get her back. In a house haunted by the sorrows of the women who came before her, Justine must overcome their tragic legacy if she hopes to save herself and her children.
HEATHER YOUNG is the author of two novels. Her debut, The Lost Girls, won the Strand Award for Best First Novel and was nominated for an Edgar Award. Her second novel, The Distant Dead has also been nominated for the 2021 Edgar Award for Best Novel. A former antitrust and intellectual property litigator, she traded the legal world for the literary one and earned her MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars in 2011. She lives in Mill Valley, California, where she writes, bikes, hikes, and reads books by other people that she wishes she’d written.
Oh, good question! I’m grateful to everyone who picks up my book and keeps turning the pages. I think the people most likely to do that are people who like slow-building, tense stories that dive deep into their characters and explore the reasons why they behave the way they do. In other words, people who like the psychological aspect of psychological thrillers.
2. What books and authors inspired you?
Mystery writers who create vivid, well-rounded characters, like Kate Atkinson and Tana French, and literary writers like Marilynne Robinson and Kazuo Ishiguro who render complex emotions with understated language. I will never write as well as any of these folks, of course, but I think reading them does help me write a little better.
3. What is your favorite place to read?
Twenty years ago, my husband and I bought an old Victorian house that needed a lot of work. At the end of the renovation, I asked my father, a lawyer by day and carpenter by night, to build me a library so I would finally have a place to put all the books I’d been lugging around in boxes since I was twenty. He built me a masterpiece, a true Edgar Allen Poe Victorian book lair. It’s my favorite place to read and write.
Heather’s library, photo from the author. I am so envious, it looks amazing.
4. How has the pandemic affected your reading (and writing) habits?
I found it very difficult to focus on reading — the stress and uncertainty that hung over everything murdered my attention span. I typically read 40-50 books a year, and in 2020 I think I read five. 2021 has been much better, thank goodness. The same went for writing, although there the problem was that my husband and college-student son were suddenly working and studying in the rooms where I liked to write. But my son eventually went back to college and my husband I have worked out our respective workspaces, so that’s been better, too.
5. As a writer what drew you to the genre your book is in?
I’ve always been a mystery reader, but I have to say I didn’t really see The Lost Girls as a mystery until my publisher started promoting it that way. To me it was a book about family, and how secrets and misguided loyalties can poison the lives of generations. I do think, though, that crafting a story around a murder is a great way to expose who your characters really are behind their polite facades. What makes an otherwise ordinary person commit the most heinous of crimes? What makes someone else keep the truth about that crime a secret? Loyalties, debts, regrets, pride, selfishness – all of these play a part, and they’re all heightened when there’s a murder involved.
6. When planning your next book do you do lots of research in advance or do you do that as needed?
For the most part I research as I go. That’s what’s great about the internet; I can pause in the middle of a sentence and look up what bathing suits were like in the 1930s. Also, if I’m feeling blocked, I can put my novel on hold while I read a book about the Great Depression or comb through the Bible for verses my Puritanical character can obsess over, and still feel like I’m making progress.
7. And finally, are you currently working on a new book and if so, can you say anything about it?
Yes! My next novel is set in a small town in Iowa during the second world war. Like The Lost Girls, it’s something of a coming of age story, as a young girl confronts prejudice and the dark side of patriotism as a member of an “outsider” family. Throw in the murders of several young Mexican orphans and her brother’s secret life and I hope I end up with something that offers a slightly different perspective on World War II than those of the many excellent novels I’ve read that examine this era.
Thank you so much to Heather for answering my questions and giving us all a glimpse into her life and work.
He is one of the most successful City banker in London …
Now he is accused of murder.
Henry Crowne’s case seems decided from the very beginning. His Irish background, financial terrorist connections and City reputation inexorably tilt the scales against until Nancy Wu, former eminent Queen’s Counsel accepts to mount Henry’s defence. Will she manage to unpick the devious manipulations of a most twisted case before the shadows of her own past swallow her down?
Collapse is a political and espionage thriller, the first book in the Henry Crowne: Paying the Price series. If you like The Big Short by Michael Lewis, The Fear Index by Robert Harris and A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks you will enjoy the twists and turns of Freddie P Peters’ latest fast-paced thriller.
Discover Collapse now…
One financial terrorist in prison,
Two City bankers dead,
And … a $350 trillion banking scandal called LIBOR.
The suspicious suicide of two high-profile City bankers brings former QC Nancy Wu and Inspector Jonathan Pole together again in an investigation that implicates the UK government, the Bank of England, and London’s top banking executives.
As the true motive of the deaths continues to elude them, Nancy persuades a reluctant Inspector Pole to involve Henry Crowne. Once a brilliant financier, Henry is now serving a 30-year sentence in the obscure High Security Unit of HMP Belmarsh for financial terrorism.
A $350 trillion scandal is about to explode, rocking the fragile beginnings of the global recovery. Can the unlikely team unravel this complex puzzle before a dark plan destroys it all?
‘Breaking Point’ is a political and espionage thriller, the second book in the ‘Henry Crowne: Paying the Price series. If you liked The Big Short, The Fear Index or the TV series The Body Guard, you will enjoy the twists and turns of Freddie P Peters’ latest fast-paced thriller.
My thoughts: the author got in touch a while ago and very kindly sent me these books for an honest review.
I know virtually nothing about the finance world – I graduated into the mess of the 2008 crisis when all the jobs dried up, and I still don’t fully understand what happened. But these clever thrillers do a good job of explaining the financial skullduggery behind a series of murders and supposed accidents.
I really like Nancy Wu, former barrister, art collector and now advisor to Scotland Yard. She’s smart, connected and a bit scary, I think if you came up against her in court you’d think twice. I also really liked Inspector Pole, he was a fascinating figure and I want more about his back story.
Henry is a bit of an anti-hero, he’s done some terrible things, but is trying to pay for them by helping Pole investigate some highly suspicious deaths in the City. Even though Pole is the one who arrested him. They respect each other’s expertise and insights, even if they’re not exactly friends.
There are lots of twists and turns in Henry’s eventual downfall, some of which he causes himself (don’t walk into your boss’ office and point a gun at him as armed police are storming the building!) But somehow Henry escapes unscathed enough to accept his punishment.
Join me in December for books 3 and 4, and check out the author’s website for exclusive short stories related to the series and more.
As temperatures soar across Europe during the hottest summer for forty years, a series of hoax terrorist attacks is generating panic in London. Then a bus blows up on Oxford Street and the hoaxes have suddenly become real.
Student Brioni O’Brien has been desperately trying to contact her older sister since she unexpectedly returned early from travelling, so when Marissa’s bag is found near the site of the explosion, she fears the worst.
Teaming up with terrorism expert Anna Lockharte to search for Marissa, Brioni discovers that her sister had
Sam Blake’s debut novel, Little Bones, was No 1 in Ireland for four weeks, and was nominated for Irish Crime Novel of the Year. It launched the bestselling Cat Connolly trilogy. Her first standalone psychological thriller, Keep Your Eyes On Me, went straight to No 1 and its follow-up, The Dark Room was an Eason Ireland No 1 for three weeks. Sam is originally from St. Albans in Hertfordshire but has lived at the foot of the Wicklow mountains for more years than she lived in the UK.
Follow her on social @samblakebooks. Visit http://www.samblakebooks.com for news and events and get a bonus free short story in audio & text when you subscribe to her newsletter.
My thoughts: this was a clever and complex thriller that goes in directions that aren’t as predictable as it might first appear. Marissa and Brioni are Irish sisters who get caught up in a plot to cause terror in central London by terrorists. Luckily there’s a whole team of experts looking out for them after Marissa disappears and Brioni goes looking for her.
I liked Brioni a lot, she was pretty smart and determined not to let her sister’s disappearance go ignored, even with all the other things happening. I also really liked Anna, who even though she didn’t know Marissa and had only just met Brioni, she was more then willing to help out and stick by Brioni as she hunts for her sister.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
She’s just a storyteller! E.J. Wood is a thriller writer from England. Although British born, she now resides in Spain, speaks English, and Spanish, and is currently learning German. FacebookInstagramTwitterWebsite
My thoughts: I found this book a bit confusing at times, there seems to be a lot more going on that has nothing to do with the missing child. Her mother is very strange, and seems to have managed to pull the wool over DCI Landon’s eyes, he had no idea who he was living with.
The neighbours who seem to be up to something are also rather odd, and it’s only towards the end that things start to fall into place and their role is explained.
*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 