Hannah Merrill is about to marry the love of her life…
The couple are determined that their low-key celebration will go without a hitch, but there can’t be an ‘I do’ while the vicar is missing. And when he’s found dead – a victim of a poisoning – in the crypt behind the church, Hannah knows only she and Aunt Violet can find out who did it.
Hannah’s beloved thinks she shouldn’t interfere. But if he fails to remember that an independent woman in 1916 doesn’t do what she’s told to by a man, the dead vicar may be the least of his worries…
Then the vicar’s own fiancé appears on the scene, even though nobody knew he was engaged. And suddenly it becomes clear someone has a secret, one shocking enough to kill for.
Will the intrepid pair of amateur sleuths catch the murderer before they kill again? Or will it be til death parts them all?
My thoughts: Hannah is about to get married in her local parish church, the only problem is the vicar is missing. Thankfully they find another who can fill in, but there’s still the question of where the original one went.
When the newlyweds find his body in the crypt, it initially looks like an accident – did he trip and fall down the stairs? The police reveal that the vicar was poisoned. And there’s so many secrets he was keeping – including a fiancé who arrives the following day.
Hannah and Aunt Violet (I love Aunt Violet so much) investigate – they have access that the police don’t, and uncover secrets that someone has killed for in the vicar’s past.
Hannah might now be married, but with her husband involved in war work and crime still happening, she’s going to investigate, with or without his approval.
*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 annual Awards Banquet at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub, and Vivian Steele can’t wait for the star-studded event. She’s attending with her best friend, Carole Lombard, and several acclaimed actresses will be wearing her fashion designs. What she doesn’t expect is for the night to turn deadly.
During the awards ceremony, Carole finds an actress stabbed to death in the restroom. She quickly alerts the staff, but when they return, they can’t find a body. An hour later, another guest screams bloody murder that an actor drowned in the pool outside. Again, the body disappears.
While the guests have a good laugh, Vivian is convinced the murders took place and reluctantly asks Preston Stone, Hollywood’s notorious playboy, for his help in proving her suspicions.
Together, they uncover a sinister killer who has mastered the art of illusion and set his sights on two Oscar-winning stars. Can Vivian and Preston stop the killer in time…and without revealing their well-kept secrets?
A Bloody Banquet is the second book in this exciting new 1930s Stone & Steele mystery series starring a great cast of characters ranging from the rich and famous to Bella and Boris, the canine costars, and a few other endearing folks. (A pretty clean read – series or standalone)
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: Someone is staging murders and no one knows if they’re pranks or something else. Preston Stone and Vivian Steele join forces again to investigate what’s going on. How are a magician and his assistant connected to the strange disappearing bodies?
As three actors meet their tragic deaths, who is killing them or are they really accidents?
Preston and Vivian bicker their way around Hollywood as they investigate, it seems they still can’t be friends like their canine companions are.
The crimes are twisted and the killer is targeting Hollywood’s biggest stars like Clark Gable and Bette Davis next, if Preston and Vivian can’t solve it fast and hand the killer over to the police.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Leighanna Pauley barely escaped consumption. Now, she’s claimed by both Life and Death. Fascinated by justice and why she survived when so many others haven’t, she has a new obsession: the murder of a fellow socialite. But the police have no leads.
The investigation emboldens Leighanna to attend the first ball held at the Carmine Estate. When midnight strikes, the unimaginable takes place. Time stops for everyone but Leighanna. Before her stands the ghost of the dead girl, pleading with Leighanna to catch her killer before someone else is murdered.
In a race against time, Leighanna hunts for clues across Stornshire. Will she be able to solve the case before the murderer strikes again, or will she become just another forgotten victim?
My thoughts: Although Leighanna was fairly exasperating at times – listen to your friends! I quite enjoyed her investigation into the death of a young woman at a party. Leigh wasn’t there as she was sort of dying of TB at the time. Life and Death were both with her, and she hovered between them. Anthropomorphic personifications of Life, Death and Time pop up to move things around as they wait to see which way Leigh will go.
But Leigh is very busy living and trying to solve a murder. She finds clues that the police missed – like a very special pocket watch, and comes to suspect her brother’s best friend, and her nemesis, Casper. But has she got the right man?
Her friends try to help her, but she doesn’t always listen and puts herself in danger, being so quick to make decisions, she doesn’t consider any of the risks.
It’s a fun little mystery, and Leigh is a headstrong young woman in the wrong era – the 1800s are not prepared for a woman detective and neither is society.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, all opinions remain my own.
Cornwall, 1863. On a windswept beach, Maggie Pascoe watches in horror as her family is lost to the sea. Her father and three brothers are among dozens of fishermen from the town of St Branok who perish in a summer storm.
Destitute and alone, she finds comfort in her friendship with widow Norah Bray, whose young son also drowned in the disaster.
But the tragedy was no accident. As Maggie battles to uncover the truth, she hides a devastating secret – one that could destroy her bond with Norah forever.
Inspired by a true story, The Silver Tide is a powerful tale of love, betrayal and one woman’s courageous fight for justice.
Praise for J.H.Mann: ‘J.H. Mann writes compelling fiction set in Cornwall. He transports his readers to rugged coasts…and introduces us to fascinating characters’ – Margaret James, Writing Magazine. ‘If you love Cornwall, storms at sea and an engrossing mystery then look no further’ – Cathie Hartigan, author of Notes from the Lost and the bestselling Secret of the Song. ‘J.H. Mann lovingly evokes the Cornish landscape, from the Atlantic coast to the bleak and threatening moors, for his gripping stories’ – Debi Alper, author of the Nirvana series of thrillers.
J.H.Mann is an award-winning journalist and writer living in the South West of England. His previous novel The Echoing Shore was a Yeovil Literary Prize award winner and the Adult Fiction Winner of the 2025 Selfies Book Awards at the London Book Fair. He has strong family links with Cornwall. His novels are inspired by the many stories told by his mother and father and his own experiences as a shore-based volunteer for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). He lives with his wife, Nicola, and their lively whippet Patch.
My thoughts: Cornwall is beautiful but the ocean is as deadly as it is stunning. The brave crews of fishing boats risk their lives every day, and some, like Maggie’s, sadly lose their lives to the sea.
Alone, with her father’s debts to pay off, Maggie must find a job and leave her beloved home. She’s desperate to find out why the storm warning wasn’t used, theirs was the only village where it wasn’t, and that cost her family their lives. Not only her family, but also her friend’s. Nora lost her son, and is driven by grief.
As Maggie searches for the truth, and campaigns for a Lifeboat in the village harbour, she clashes with the dangerous and wealthy Jed. He wants her gone, and the truth about that night to stay secret.
Maggie is a fascinating protagonist, she takes her terrible loss and uses it to power her resolve to get a Lifeboat and to find the truth, to prevent anyone else from losing their family, as she did. There are some twists and turns in her story – some good, some bad, but her strength and determination see her through.
*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.
The most famous necklace in the world has finally been found…
Bryher Finch’s life isn’t just a disaster, it’s a catastrophe, until a chance invitation to chart her family tree changes everything. As Bryher uncovers the ancestry she never knew about, she stumbles on the find of the century – Anne Boleyn’s ‘B’ necklace, as enigmatic as Henry VIII’s most notorious Queen herself. But Bryher isn’t the only one who wants the necklace…
Adrienne Chinn was born in Grand Falls, Newfoundland, grew up in Quebec, and eventually made her way to London, England after a career as a journalist. In England she worked as a TV and film researcher before embarking on a career as an interior designer, lecturer, and writer. When not up a ladder or at the computer writing, she often can be found rummaging through flea markets or haggling in the Marrakech souk.
Her debut novel, The Lost Letter, was published in 2019. Her second novel, the international bestseller, The English Wife, was published in 2020. Her third novel, Love in a Time of War, the first in a series of four books in The Three Fry Sisters series, was published in 2022. The second book in the series, The Paris Sister, was published in 2023, and the third book, In the Shadow of War, was published in March 2024.
Her next book, a historical timeslip novel, The Queen’s Necklace, will be published in September 2025, followed by the fourth book in The Three Fry Sisters series, set during WWII, in 2026.
My thoughts: Bryher is a bit of a miserable cow at the beginning, she’s clearly been set up but acts enough like a spoilt brat that it’s hard to empathise with her, at first. As she adjusts to her new reality in a version of the UK that seems to be a blend of actual modern Britain and the 1950s (especially when it comes to cousin Betty, who hasn’t joined the 21st century) and the role as Anne Boleyn in a new mini series, she stops being quite so stroppy and brattish. Thankfully.
The dual timeline narrative where sisters Anne and Mary Boleyn live is interesting although they seem very cruel to each other, especially Anne to Mary, which might have been how they were, considering their father constantly compared them to one another (he was such a great dad).
The link is the infamous Boleyn B necklace, worn in several portraits of Anne, lost somewhere in time (probably dismantled and fashioned into other jewellery) and somehow amongst the gems and trinkets hidden in cousin Betty’s mother’s jewellery box.
Betty and Bryher are distant cousins, both descendants of Mary Boleyn’s line (Anne has no direct descendants of course, her daughter Elizabeth I famously the Virgin Queen), whose children had lots of children themselves and whose eldest daughter might have been Henry VIII’s.
But the necklace is desired both in Tudor times and in Bryher’s. Anne takes it from Mary before eventually giving it to her niece, Catherine shortly before her execution (in this story) and Bryher tries to stop two rather unscrupulous men taking it, although she trusts the wrong one. Thank heavens for cousin Betty.
Speaking of cousin Betty, her constant refrain about being family shifts Bryher’s view of her own past, the difficult relationships she had with her mother and sister, the hardships and struggles they had. It softens her as a person and makes her less heartless, more sympathetic, her life has been mostly struggle and just as she thought things were getting better, it’s all been ripped away. I liked her more by this point.
It’s an interesting take on the Boleyn narrative, Anne’s family was pretty awful, her father always scheming to get wealth and power, using his children as pawns. Which ended with two of them executed and the surviving one estranged. The name of Boleyn besmirched for centuries.
*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 murdered suffragette. A missing politician. A stolen artwork.
London, 1910
Coral Fairbanks is a contradiction. As well as a suffragette, she’s a bit-part actress and nude model, earning her the disapproval of her fellow suffragettes. Guy Flynn is an artist. He’s also a detective inspector at Scotland Yard, who doesn’t always see eye to eye with fellow officers in the Metropolitan Police.
When Home Secretary Winston Churchill orders the police to terrorise the suffragettes during an afternoon of violence that becomes known as Black Friday, the battlelines are drawn – and Coral Fairbanks and Guy Flynn are on different sides.
But when a young suffragette is found murdered in the National Portrait Gallery and one of their paintings is stolen – Fairbanks and Flynn must put their differences aside and combine their knowledge to track down the killer.
Introducing an iconic detective duo in Fairbanks and Flynn, this is an exciting and gripping historical mystery, which will delight fans of Agatha Christie, Benedict Brown and T. E. Kinsey
Michelle Salter writes historical cosy crime set in Hampshire, where she lives, and inspired by real-life events in 1920s Britain. Her Iris Woodmore series draws on an interest in the aftermath of the Great War and the suffragette movement.
My thoughts: The first in a new series featuring suffragette, actress and artist’s model Coral Fairbanks who teams up with Met detective and painter Guy Flynn to solve the murder of her fellow suffragette, Marian, in the National Portrait Gallery during a suffrage stunt.
The gallery was mostly empty when Marian was killed, so the suspect pool is small – staff of the gallery, her fellow suffragettes, an MP, his aide, and curiously another MP’s wife, who happened to be there at the same time. A painting was also stolen at the same time.
There’s also a missing Secretary of State, whose wife hasn’t a clue where he’s got to, nor do his colleagues. His house was firebombed roughly the same time and he seems rather connected to the actions the suffragettes have been carrying out.
Coral wants to protect her fellow suffragettes, she can’t imagine any of them are killers, but Flynn knows anyone can snap and do something terrible. Is that what happened here?
I really liked Coral and Flynn, I think they’re going to be an interesting pairing. Flynn empathises with the battle for suffrage, if not with the way the women are going about it. He’s drawn to Coral, they’re both widowed, and Flynn is raising a teenage daughter, who could do with more women around her. Coral is trying to work out what she wants to do with her life now, without her husband, and her acting career on the wane. She’s got good instincts and while she can’t officially be a detective she could be an asset to Flynn.
*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 world on the brink of war. One woman whose courage could change everything.
Paris, 1938. As the world teeters on the edge of war, Lady Pamela More knows her latest assignment is her deadliest yet. Her days as a London society columnist are merely a cover. She must infiltrate the decadent Parisian circles of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor as they openly cavort with fascists and voice dangerous Nazi sympathies.
The nation’s security could be compromised — and Lady Pamela must uncover what, or whom, they might betray. In the glittering salons of Paris, amidst the clink of champagne glasses and careless gossip, dark allegiances fester. The Windsors are charming — and cunning — and Pamela walks a delicate line between loyalty and deception.
But as she steps back into a life of shadows, old temptations resurface, including charismatic American Sid White, whose presence reawakens more than just memories.
Surrounded by spies, traitors and the ghosts of her past, Lady Pamela must decide: how far is she willing to go to protect a country that may never thank her before the city falls to the Nazis?
Originally from Chicago, Sarah Sigal works across theatre, film, and fiction. She has a BA in Theatre Arts and English Literature from Gettysburg College and an MA in Writing for Performance and a PhD in Theatre and Performance, both from Goldsmiths College University of London. She teaches at several universities across the UK and is the author of WRITING IN COLLABORATIVE THEATRE-MAKING (Bloomsbury, 2016), as well as numerous plays and 2 short films. THE SOCIALITE SPY (Lume Books, 2023) is her first novel, the first in a series about the lead character, the socialite spy herself–Lady Pamela More. She lives in London.
My thoughts: As the Second World War breaks out, Lady Pamela More is asked to undertake a dangerous assignment, in Paris as the Nazi army moves towards the city, she must renew her awkward friendship with Wallis Simpson, now married to the former king and living in the city.
She’s not entirely comfortable with the Windsors, especially the spoilt, narcissistic Wallis, who is rude, difficult and spends all her time complaining about the exile the Royal Family and government have imposed on them. Pamela is supposed to report back on the relationship between the couple and the German government, under the cover of writing about French fashion houses.
Her marriage is teetering on the edge at the same time, and her connection with a Jewish American journalist might make it fall. Her friend Lettice is in Paris with her artist lover, and as the Nazis approach, Pamela wants to help them escape the dangers engulfing Europe.
Gripping, intelligent writing and fascinating characters, I really like Pamela, I was reading the previous book in this series when I got the invite for this blog tour, and the society she moves in is an interesting one featuring some of the big names of the twentieth century.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
In Nazi-occupied Italy, keeping secrets could be deadly…
Genoa, 1944: Widowed and alone, Anna Pastorino has been surviving on her wits since the Germans invaded. The daughter of a prominent Jewish antifascist, Anna lives a hidden life in her small flat near the harbour… until an RAF bomb destroys her only shelter.
When a Jesuit priest approaches her offering help, she has no choice but to accept. She follows her new friend, Father Vittorio, to a safe house above a printers’ shop in a quiet street near via Assarotti. But the Tipografia Guichard is more than just a refuge. It’s a forgery workshop: a key part of the secret rescue operation headed by Massimo Teglio, the “Scarlet Pimpernel” of Genoa’s persecuted Jewish population.
Drawn into a world of clandestine resistance, Anna discovers a new sense of purpose, a circle of friends, and a passion that brings her alive. Soon, the little flat above the shop holds more secrets than anyone could imagine. As Anna grows closer to both Teglio and Vittorio, she must confront a past trauma of her own: a secret that might endanger her and everyone she loves.
Kat Devereaux was born near Edinburgh, and lived in the United States, Russia, France, Chile, Germany, and the Czech Republic before finally settling in Italy. She is a writer and translator with a special focus on Italian literature.
My thoughts: I’m not usually keen on war novels, but I found this one both interesting and enjoyable. Inspired by real events and real people who worked tirelessly under risk of arrest and death to help Italy’s Jewish community escape the Nazis and fascists during World War Two.
Blending fact and fiction together through the characters of Anna and Father Vittorio who help the real life Massimo Teglio and don Francesco to forge identity papers to help fleeing families leave occupied Italy for safety in places like Switzerland, Britain and the US.
Father Vittorio wrestles with his health and with the fact he is falling in love with Anna – not only is he a priest, but she’s Jewish, there is no world where they can ever be more than friends and allies. And that’s before he learns something about her that blows up his world.
Anna meanwhile falls for the handsome pilot turned hero Massimo, widowed like she is, their relationship is fleeting but leaves a deep impact Anna feels for the rest of her life. In reality, Massimo continued to risk his life to save Jewish people from the Nazis and went on to live a long life reunited with his daughter and family, despite the deaths of his sister, brother-in-law and their children in Auschwitz. He is rightly remembered as a hero.
This is a bittersweet romance amid the horrors of the war, the risks everyone in this book is taking to help save the lives of innocents brought to life, while also bringing the real-life heroes to a wider audience.
*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 