It’s all fun and games, until someone gets killed.
Meet Jax Diamond, a sharp, sophisticated, skilled, no-nonsense private detective. Or is he? Glued to his side is his canine partner, Ace, a fierce and unrelenting German Shepherd whose mere presence terrorizes criminals into submission. Well, maybe not.
But the two of them are a whole lot smarter than they look. And they have their hands full when a playwright’s death is declared natural causes, and his new manuscript worth a million bucks is missing.
Laura Graystone, a beautiful rising Broadway star, is dragged into the heart of their investigation, and she’s none too happy about it. Especially when danger first strikes, and she needs to rely on her own ingenuity to save their hides.
Join Jax, Laura and Ace on a fun yet deadly ride during the Roaring Twenties that takes twists and turns, and a race against time to find the real murderer before he/she/they stop them permanently.
Award-winning author Gail Meath writes historical romance novels that will whisk you away to another time and place in history where you will meet fascinating characters, both fictional and real, who will capture your heart and soul. Meath loves writing about little or unknown people, places and events in history, rather than relying on the typical stories and settings.
My thoughts: if you’ve watched the TV series Hudson & Rex (based on a German series called Kommissioner Rex) you’ll know that having a German shepherd in a partnership makes crime solving so much better, and that’s the case here as detective Jax Diamond has a canine partner of his own called Ace.
In this case they’re investigating some suspicious deaths and keeping the titular songbird, actress Laura Greystone, safe from a particularly keen stalker. Ace is key in rescuing innocent parties and defending his preferred humans from harm.
Set during the Roaring Twenties, this was a fun and charming read, Laura is perfectly capable of looking after herself, but Jax’s instincts as a detective help them track down the dastardly duo behind a series of shocking murders rocking the theatre world. I’m hoping there will be more of these fun and enjoyable stories to come.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
THE BREAKOUT SUPERNATURAL THRILLER FROM ICELANDIC WRITER JOHANN THORSSON
Detective John Dark’s daughter has been missing for two years. In his frantic and unfruitful search for her two years ago, John Dark overreached and was reprimanded and demoted.
Now suddenly back into the homicide department, Dark is put on a chilling case – a man who killed his wife in their locked house and then dressed the body up to resemble a deer, but claims to remember none of it. A few days later an impossibly similar case crops up connecting the suspects to a prep school and a thirty year old missing persons’ case.
Just as he is getting back into his old groove, a new lead in his daughter’s disappearance pops up and threatens to derail his career again.
Time is running out and John Dark needs to solve the case before more people are killed, and while there is still hope to find his daughter.
In the style of True Detective and Silence of the Lambs, WHITESANDS is a thrilling supernatural crime novel.
“Tense, breakneck storytelling. WHITESANDS is a dash of Thomas Harris swirled with supernatural elements that leave you speeding through the pages.” – Kristi DeMeester, author of SUCH A PRETTY SMILE and BENEATH
“Johann Thorsson’s fast-moving debut WHITESANDS, packs enough incident for a novel twice its size, until it’s impossible to turn the pages fast enough.” – John Langan, author of Children of the Fang and Other Genealogies
“… certainly one of the best thrillers I have read this year.” – Khasif Hussain, The Best Thriller Books
Johann Thorsson is a writer of fiction with a supernatural slant, mainly short stories, mainly in English.
He was born in 1978 in a small town in Iceland (dark and cold, close to the sea). When he was nine he moved to Israel, and later to Croatia. He now resides in the Reykjavik area with his beautiful wife and two little kids.
His work has appeared in numerous publications, including Every Day Fiction, eFiction Magazine, eFiction Horror and Fireside Fiction.
His favorite books are 1984, Flowers for Algernon, I am Legend, The Things They Carried and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman graphic novels. Oh, and Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient. Daniel Woodrell’s Winter’s Bone. Romeo and Juliet. (This could go on for a while).
My thoughts: this was a clever and creepy crime story with revenge at its heart. After a man murders his wife and insists someone else did it, despite all the evidence, Detective John Dark thinks something weird is going on, a second murder convinces him. The only link is that the two killers attended the same boarding school – Whitesands. Did something happen in their shared past that’s finally manifesting?
Dark is an interesting character, tormented by the disappearance of his daughter some years before, he’s never stopped looking, but his bosses need him to focus on his career before he loses his job. He’s willing to believe in the supernatural in order to solve this case, since it genuinely seems to be the case.
I can imagine this book growing into a series where Dark investigates other strange crimes while still hunting for his daughter and turning to both his wife and his partner at the police station Monique as well as his new friend, schizophrenic psychic Daniel, to access as much support as he can.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Before Baker Street, there was Montague. Before partnership with a former army doctor recently returned from Afghanistan, Sherlock Holmes had but the quiet company of his own great intellect. Solitary he might be but, living as he did for the thrill of the chase, it was enough. For a little while, at the least, it was enough. That is, until a client arrives at his door with a desperate plea and an invitation into a world of societal scandal and stage door dandies. Thrust deep in an all-consuming role and charged with the safe-keeping of another, Holmes must own to his limits or risk danger to others besides himself in this the case of the aluminium crutch.
M. K. Wiseman has degrees in Interarts & Technology and Library & Information Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her office, therefore, is a curious mix of storyboards and reference materials. Both help immensely in the writing of historical novels. She currently resides in Cedarburg, Wisconsin.
My thoughts: I enjoyed the previous one of these (here) and was pleased to be reading another of M.K Wiseman’s Sherlock stories, this one set before Dr Watson entered Holmes’ life.
This was quite a complicated case involving false identities, gangsters, land deeds in America, a jilted lover, and a rich uncle keeping secrets. Hired to solve a missing person case, that is slightly more complex due to another person impersonating the missing man, Holmes soon finds himself drawn into the complex lies of Price family. Trying to figure out the whereabouts of the real Tobias-Henry Price, he comes across a safe cracker who is happily in custody and Price’s uncle insists the foppish dandy using his nephew’s name is the real Tobias, but his fianceè insists her Toby is someone else entirely.
Eventually Holmes resorts to disguise and goes undercover in society, where he feels intensely uncomfortable, as well as keeping track of a gang of criminals he thinks are involved. And why is everyone so interested in Price’s aluminium cane?
Obviously Sherlock Holmes is Sherlock Holmes and he solves the case, probably a lot sooner that he says he has, through deduction and his acute understanding of how humans think.
A fiendishly clever case and at times very confusing but all is revealed in the end.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
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.
ramblingmads 