Tag: crime

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Novel Detective – Teresa Dovalpage

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A metafictional mystery set in Cuba past and present about a writer returning to her long-lost hometown, seeking the truth about two suspicious deaths

2020: Teresa, a Cuban-born mystery writer now living in America, gets an unexpected call from her childhood best friend, Estrella, inviting her to Havana. Estrella is determined to get answers about a case that has haunted them both for decades: the purported murder-suicide of a teacher and a student at their high school. Though Teresa doesn’t quite understand why Estrella is taking the story so personally, she’s along for the ride—as she always wanted to write a novel about this case.

1980: Fourteen-year-old Teresita, bespectacled, awkward and mystery novel–obsessed, is “nosy, but not a tattletale.” She knows who’s been skimming off the top of the amphetamine stash in her mother’s pharmacy, which teacher keeps cyanide in his cabinet at school and that their classmate Yoyi is sleeping with their English teacher. Over the course of one fateful day, Teresita gets closer than ever to learning the “Truth of Life”—her catchall term for the intricacies of adult existence— even if it means coming face to face with death.

Directly inspired by the author’s own childhood in Cuba and adult life in the United States, drawing upon the tradition of Latin American magical realism, this is a resonant tale at once personal and
universal, full of nostalgia, candor and danger.

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Win 2 x hardback copies of the book (US only) **


Teresa Dovalpage is the author of fourteen novels, four collections of short stories in English and Spanish, and four theatre plays. Her Havana Mystery series, published by Soho Crime, began with
Death Comes in through the Kitchen (2018).

Subsequent novels include Queen of Bones (2019) named by NBC News as one of the ten best books by and about Latinos of the year; Death of a Telenovela Star (2020); Death under the Perseids (2021), and Last Seen in Havana (2024) which Sarah Weinman praised in The New York Times for exploring “how familial bonds can fray, yet manage to hold steady, across the decades.” Last Seen in Havana was also an Amazon Editor’s Pick for Best
Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense.

The Novel Detective is a metafictional mystery inspired by the author’s own childhood in Cuba and adult life in the United States.

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My thoughts: This was a really interesting way of exploring the author’s own past and a tragic case that had haunted her for years.

Going back to Cuba years after she left, Teresa finds a completely different place to the one she left, but her ghosts wait around every corner. Her childhood friend Estrella wants her help to try to find out who killed their classmate Yoyi and English teacher, who may well have been involved with her.

The two women never really believed that the victims had committed suicide, it didn’t add up, but they weren’t sure who could have been angry enough with both to kill them.

As they explore the new Old Havana and revisit their past, they also piece together the events around the shocking double murder and work out who might have been holding onto a grudge intense enough to kill.

A fascinating and enjoyable read set in a country that I don’t know a lot about but clearly has many stories still waiting to be told.

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

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the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for
fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.**

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Private Inquiries – Caitlin Davies

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The female private detective has been a staple of popular culture for over 150 years, from Victorian lady sleuths to ‘busy-body spinsters’ and gun­toting modern PIs. But what about the real-life women behind these fictional tales – what crimes did they solve, and where are their stories?

In Private Inquiries, Caitlin Davies traces the history of the UK’s female investigators, uncovering the truth about their lives and careers from the 1850s to the present day. Women such as

  • • Victorian private inquiry agent Antonia Moser – the first woman to open her own agency
  • • Annette Kerner, who ran the Mayfair Detective Agency on Baker Street in the 1940s
  • • Liverpool sleuth Zena Scott-Archer, who became the first woman president of the World Association of Detectives

Caitlin also follows in the footsteps of her subjects, undertaking a professional qualification to become a Private Investigator, and meeting modern PIs to disentangle fact from fiction.

Female investigators are on the rise in the UK – and despite the industry’s sleazy reputation, nearly a third of new trainees are women. After a century of undercover work, it’s time to reveal the secrets of their trailblazing forebears.

CAITLIN DAVIES is a novelist, non-fiction writer, award-winning journalist and teacher. She is the author of six novels and seven non-fiction books, including Bad Girls: The Rebels and Renegades of Holloway Prison, nominated for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing (2019), and Queens of the Underworld, a history of professional female crooks. She lives in Kent and is a trained PI.

My thoughts: I’d heard of a couple of the earliest female detectives before – Maud West and Kate Easton, but there were ones in this book I’d not come across before, and Caitlin Davies brings it into the 21st Century as well as training to become a PI herself, which was super interesting.

I really enjoy this sort of history, women who have somehow faded into the background, ordinary women, but once revealed are often so much more interesting than the men around them. It was such a fascinating and enjoyable read. Puts all those crime novels into context too – women really are out there digging into things and doing a better job at going unnoticed than the men in many cases. If you’re interested in women’s history, social history, crime and that sort of thing, this will be right up your street and written in an engaging and enjoyable way too, with a full list of resources if you want more.

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Book Review: The Lost Shrine – Nicola Ford*

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Some of you may remember I reviewed the first in this series of archaeology thrillers last year, The Hidden Bones.

Those of you who don’t, not to worry. You can read it now or just order both books.

One of the things Britain has a lot of is history – reams of it stretching far back beyond written records.

It’s fascinating to see how by gently peeling back layers of earth and building works you can discover amazing things hidden underground.

Written by a real archeologist, Dr Nick Snashall, this second murder mystery amidst the dig on a housing development is filled with drama both past and present.

Clare Hills and her team are asked to take over a dig following the shocking death of previous site supervisor Beth Kinsella. With a ruthless developer keen to get on with the building work, strange locals, and the possibility that the site is more significant than it appears, can Clare solve the mysteries therein before the foundations are poured and the past rests again?

This was another well written, cleverly plotted book, with lively characters and a twisty turny storyline that had me racing through the pages.

If Dr Snashall ever decides to give up her day job as the National Trust’s Archaeologist for Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site and write thrillers full time, I reckon we’d all be ok with that!

And all this week if you’re a fan of ebooks The Lost Shrine is only 99p.

*I was gifted this book in exchange for a review, all words and opinions remain my own.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog tour: Death at the Plague Museum – Lesley Kelly*

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Today I am hosting a stop on the blog tour for Lesley Kelly’s Death at the Plague Museum. And if that title doesn’t intrigue you, I don’t know what will.

Set in a version of Edinburgh where a deadly outbreak of flu has left the need for a Health Enforcement Team, who in this book, the third in the series, are looking into a missing senior civil servant following a top secret meeting held at the Museum of Plagues and Pandemics.

This is a clever and witty book, the pacing is excellent and carries you along through all the twists and turns of the smart plot. The ending is very unexpected and hopefully book four continues the story…

books, reviews

Book Review: Driven – Dane Cobain

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This is the first book about private detective James Leipfold and his tech savvy assistant Maile O’Hara.

A young woman is killed by a car, a car that doesn’t appear to have had a driver. So who killed her?

Leipfold is a down at heel gumshoe, picking up this case on a whim, no client needed. Along the way he recruits an “intern” to complement his old school methods with newer ones. But is he going to solve the case or end up a casualty of it?

I wasn’t sure about this at first, while the initial set up was intriguing, it wasn’t until the plot picked up pace and the case began to unravel that I really got into it.

The characters are interesting – I am looking forward to book 2 and hopefully more back story about the team that now comprises Leipfold Detectives, especially computer genius but enigma Maile.

I love the little details like the way Maile and Leipfold complete crosswords without speaking, and Leipfold’s relationship with police detective Jack Cholmondley (pronounced Chumley fyi).

The London setting is of course familiar to me – from the run down cafe, endless miles of Underground and leafy suburbs around its edges.

The author, Dane Cobain, is something of a literary polymath, having written novels, poetry, non-fiction and edited anthologies, although this seems to be his first detective novel.

Driven is available now.

books, reviews

Book Review: Death in Shetland Waters by

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Signed on to a tall ship Cass Lynch is sailing from Norway to Ireland as part of a race. Things are about to take a nasty turn and Cass will need to keep her wits about her as there’s a stowaway on board and it could turn deadly.

I didn’t realise this was number 6 in a series but I think you can read it as a stand alone without too much trouble, although there are a few references to previous books.

My favourite characters were easily Cat and Rat, I loved the idea of these two buddies hanging out amidst the human drama.

The setting was also intriguing, the Scottish islands, including Shetland, are fascinating and in my day job I have to know a bit about ships (although not so much tall ships).

I think if you’re after a crime thriller that isn’t Scandi noir but still has clever twists, and is a fairly easy going read, then this book and its predecessors will do the trick.

books, reviews

Book Review: Final Girls – Riley Sager

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Firstly we need to talk about this cover – I know it’s not supposed to be important but I love the pink and black aesthetic. That tiny girl fleeing at the bottom is really striking contrasted against the bold white type. It’s very satisfying. 

Quincy is a Final Girl – the lone survivor of a massacre during what should have been a fun weekend in the woods with her friends. 

Sam and Lisa are also Final Girls – a name given to them by the media after surviving brutal killing sprees by dangerous men. All three have taken very different paths to recovery. 

But after Lisa is killed, is Quincy safe? Is she ready to be more than a Final Girl? 

I loved this book, knotty, twisty thriller with flashbacks and a main character whose memory can’t be trusted, who needs to remember to save herself. 

Excellent writing. Just could not put it down. Go and get yourself a copy. Go now, read my blog later. Or you could go follow me on Twitter and win this copy….

books, reviews

Book Review: Good Me Bad Me – Ali Land 

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Written by a former Mental Health nurse, this psychological thriller is vivid and arresting. Milly is almost 16 and has lived a terrible life with her mother, a serial killer. Milly was also the one who turned her in. 
Documenting the lead up to her mother’s trial for 9 child murders, we see the world through Milly’s eyes as she tries to adjust to ‘normal’ life with her foster family. 

Her foster father is also her psychotherapist, preparing her for trial, going through the harrowing childhood she endured and the nightmares that haunt her, but is Milly telling him everything, and does the daughter take after the mother? 

Tightly written and with a nice little twist at the end, I really enjoyed this. I think I prefer more knotty thrillers like this, than the straightforward procedural ones. I want unreliable narrators and secrets, I want to never quite know for sure. 

I found this very satisfying a read.