Tag: reviews

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Blood Pact – Cameron Curtis

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A kidnapped girl. An impenetrable fortress. Sounds like a job for Breed.

Keen to discover what she knows about a looming conspiracy, Breed and Stein plan to question German cabaret performer Käthe Ziegler in New York.

Their plan is derailed when Käthe is kidnapped by a team of professionals. They want her and a piece of jewelry she’s been hiding — an ancient gold seal she stole from the most dangerous man in Europe.

Karl Graf is Germany’s Vice-Chancellor, the head of a secret society of senior
politicians and industrialists, and a man with a plan to reshape the continent. He wants his seal back. He wants Käthe back. And he’s prepared to kill anyone who gets in his way.

Breed and Stein discover that Kathe has been taken to a castle high in the Bavarian
Alps. Against all odds, they climb to the fortress, which sits atop a lethal three-thousand-foot peak.

Inside, they find Käthe, Graf, and the truth about an eighty-year-old conspiracy that
began in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany and ends — in a bloody climax —
on Christmas Eve.

Blood Pact — Book Thirteen in the stunning Breed action thriller series. Perfect for fans of Jason Kasper, Jack Carr, and Lee Child.

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Cameron Curtis has spent thirty years on trade floors as a trader and risk manager. He was on the trade floor when Saddam’s tanks rolled into Kuwait, when the air wars opened over Baghdad and Belgrade, and when the financial crisis swallowed the world.

Having written fiction as a child, he is the author of the Breed action thriller series.

My thoughts: Breed and Stein are in Germany, which is supposed to be an ally, but as they attempt to keep Käthe from her captors, they discover a conspiracy that dates back to during WWII and the Nazi obsession with the supernatural.

As with all the Breed thrillers, the plot moves very quickly and I found the parts where Käthe is relating the history of her family and their relationship with the Grafs, quite slow in comparison.

There’s also a lot of gunfights and dead bodies – obviously they’re mostly henchmen so even their employer doesn’t really care, even when Breed is chucking them down the cliff the German castle they’re holed up in, stands on.

As Käthe fills in the back story, Stein and Breed are working out what the group of powerful politicians are up to in their castle stronghold at Christmas. Could they be preparing to bring down the world as it currently stands and go back to their grandparents’ time?

Thankfully Breed and Stein are there, as there seems to be a mole and worryingly their Director and President might be a bit more involved in this than either operative would like.

We still don’t learn anything about Breed, his past is a closed book, but he does get to be the hero of the hour, and even if he doesn’t believe in the supernatural element of this mission – he is very clear on the potential fall out should it succeed. 

After another success, he and Stein must head back to the US to confront their Director and try to locate the mole – the one who almost cost their lives this time. 

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

books, reviews

Book Review: The Body That Floats – Jayne Chard

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Julia and Frankie visit their friend in Cornwall. When the body of a local property developer washes up on the beach, the police believe the death was accidental, but the sisters have other ideas.

My thoughts: In a quiet Cornish village, Julia and Frankie stumble, or should I say, swim across the body of an unpopular property developer. The local police constable says it’s an accidental drowning, but that doesn’t explain the head injury or the boat.

Problem is, he has almost too many enemies, so they need to narrow it down. Was it the possibly smuggling brother fishermen? The local builder? Or someone else in the village?

Cue a lot of creeping about, trying to find out who was where and when, running into the eccentric neighbour who rescues local wildlife, and wondering whether Julia’s old friend might be involved.

Julia and Frankie’s relationship is a lot better than in the last book, living together and working out what jobs they’re best at and dividing the labour has meant less bickering. There’s still some friction during the case between Frankie’s dive right into it and Julia’s more cautious approach.

Another funny, clever escapade for the sisters, who might never leave home again!

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Night Before the Wedding – Emma Robinson

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Looking out at the crystal clear waters of Sorrento, my heart aches at the loss of the future I’d allowed myself to dream. But Tom’s lie is bigger than I could have imagined. How can we survive it? My decision will shatter more than just my own heart. Am I really ready to say the words that will change everything?

It was supposed to be a week of bliss leading to our dream wedding on the Italian coast. But it’s obvious our families are against it. My mother questions why Tom has controlled so much of the planning, twisting his generous surprise into something sinister. Tom’s daughter, Lily, makes it known she’ll never see me as her mother.

Trying to focus on our dream day, I can’t help but notice a woman who spends every day at the pool, alone. She seems fascinated by Lily in a way that worries me. When Tom finally locks eyes with her, he immediately pales.

This week should have been the best time of our lives but before our future can begin, Tom will confess a secret that could destroy everything. But he’s not the only one who kept a past lie hidden for the sake of happily-ever-after. By the end of the week with both our secrets laid bare, will we really say, ‘I do’?

A totally addictive novel about family secrets which will have you turning the pages long into the night. Perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult, Liane Moriarty and Diane Chamberlain.

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Emma Robinson is a USA Today Bestseller with a passion for stories which explore the power of family and friendship in the most challenging circumstances. Focusing on emotional themes, her novels are both heart-breaking and life affirming.

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My thoughts: Carrie has been whisked off to Sorrento by her fiancé Tom along with her mother and his daughter, to get married. They’ve only known each other eighteen months, and been a couple for eleven, but surely that’s long enough to know what you want?

However, it appears Tom hasn’t been a hundred percent honest, with either Carrie or Lily, and now, in the brilliant sunshine and with days before they tie the knot, the truth is about to come out.

Carrie has to make a lot of decisions in a short space of time  – and not just about her future spouse, as it turns out her overprotective mum might also have a few things to come clean about.

I felt for Carrie, she’s struggling a bit with everything, part of her things have gone a bit fast, and she wants to be a good step-mum to Lily, who at twelve, is pushing back. When she finds out the secrets the people she trusted so much were keeping – she’s furious and has to stand up for herself.

The secrets aren’t life threatening, but they do change things for Carrie, and make her decide to take charge for a change. A really interesting and enjoyable read.

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: We Burned So Bright – TJ Klune

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The world is ending in thirty days.

A wandering black hole is approaching Earth, and soon, everything will be gone. For husbands Don and Rodney, forty years of marriage suddenly feels like no time at all.

One last road trip. One final chance to say goodbye.

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of The House in the Cerulean Sea comes a story about what we owe the people we love when time runs out. Don and Rodney are in a race against the clock, driving from Maine to Washington State to settle unfinished business before the sky breaks.

Is it enough to burn bright, even if nothing remains of the ashes?

Along the way, they encounter a world choosing how to spend its final moments―from impromptu weddings and bright bonfires to those simply sharing a final meal. Under a kaleidoscope sky and a cracked moon, Don and Rodney must look back on a lifetime of highs and lows and ask the ultimate question: was our best good enough?

A bittersweet, life-affirming masterpiece about love, legacy, and the beauty of a life well-lived.

My thoughts: As the end of the world approaches, married couple Don and Rodney decide to carry out a promise they made to someone they both loved. They hope there’s enough time to carry out this final journey, driving from their home in Maine across the country to Washington state.

It’s not a long book, but it is a bittersweet one as Don and Rodney encounter people all trying to get through the last week before the world ends in their own ways. As they go, the two remember their long years together, some happy, some full of pain. They still have a great love and affection for one another, and there’s no one else they’d rather spend the end of the world together.

Some of the people they meet are struggling with the future, others are embracing their last few days, getting married, spending it with their loved ones (human or otherwise). It’s quite a heartwarming, life affirming book, despite the impending apocalypse.

*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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Blog Tour: Murder in Rome – T.A. Williams

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The BRAND NEW instalment in the bestselling, beloved Armstrong & Oscar Cozy Mystery series!

A road leading to Rome

Former DCI Dan Armstrong has been living and working in Florence for nearly three years—yet somehow, Rome has always eluded him. That is, until glamorous TV celebrity Tamsin Goodfaith turns up with a request he can’t refuse: investigate her uncle’s suspicious death in the Eternal City.

Murder at the castle

Philip Hastings was a billionaire financier, found dead at his magnificent—if slightly spooky—medieval castle in the Roman hills. Dan and his faithful canine companion, Oscar, soon find themselves surrounded by luxury, secrets and more suspects than sightseeing opportunities.

This time it’s personal

But when a second murder follows close behind, the case turns dangerously personal. With whispers of ghosts and crumbling alibis, Dan and Oscar must sniff out the truth before he becomes the next
victim. Harder to crack than castle walls—and harder still than stopping Oscar from stealing snacks—this Roman holiday is anything but relaxing.

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I’m a man. And a pretty old man as well. I studied languages at Nottingham University a long time ago and then lived and worked in France and Switzerland before going to work in Italy for seven years. My Italian wife and I then came back to the UK with our little daughter (now long-since grown up) where I ran a big English language school for many years. We now live in a sleepy little
village in Devonshire.

I’ve been writing almost all my life but it was only thirteen years ago that I finally managed to find a publisher who liked my work enough to offer me my first contract.
I started off writing romances but after 28 of them, I knew I wanted to try something different, and so the first of the Armstrong and Oscar cozy mysteries, Murder in Tuscany, was born three years ago.

I’ve been having a lot of fun ever since getting to know the dynamic duo (and introducing them to people all over the world). These books are cosy crime [a genre I didn’t even know existed when I
started writing them). They are murder mysteries, but not gory, over-violent stuff, but stories designed to exercise the brain of the reader and to put a smile on their face.

Maybe it’s because there are so many horrible things happening in the world today that I feel I need to do my best to
provide something to cheer my readers up. My books provide escapism to some gorgeous locations all over my beloved Italy.

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My thoughts: As you might know by now, I love this series, especially the excellent K9 Detective Oscar, who always finds something vital to the case. 

In this installment Dan and Oscar are off to Rome, the Eternal City and somewhere I’d love to visit (I’ve only been to the airport on my way to Venice).

British celeb Tamsin Goodfaith has asked Dan for his help. Her uncle has recently died and she doesn’t agree that it was a tragic accident – she thinks he was murdered. Posing as her friend, and there on a writing break, he gently probes the various family members and staff at the family’s medieval castle outside Rome.

But then two more members of the family die, and the killer must be somewhere in the castle – there’s only the family and three employees, as well as Dan and Oscar. Is there a ghost? Old buildings do attract them and Oscar really hates the suit of armour.

It’s another clever case for Dan and the local police detective inspector, one that has deep roots and will change the family forever. I really enjoyed trying to unravel the clues and solve it before Dan (I failed).

*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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Blog Tour: The Last Secret of Wickham Grange – Zoe Manlow

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When Caroline Alleyn inherits Wickham Grange, all she wants to do is sell up. There are bad memories there, linked to her childhood as the daughter of a single mother – and to all the other mothers she knew in that house.

But her grandmother Frances’s will means that it can’t be sold without the consent of five elderly women, and they all refuse. None of them will tell her why she has to keep a house she doesn’t want. Instead, she is given a stark warning: don’t look for Lizzie Sixpence.

Though Caroline has other worries. Someone is watching her; the house’s elderly tenants are lying to her; and an old man is hoarding mementoes of her past. Then she finds the bones. And Caroline is left with a choice: keep silent, or betray everything her grandmother stood for. Because there is one final secret to be revealed…

Zoe has worked in education services for nearly 25 years, but her heart has always been in writing. When she’s not working, she enjoys baking, collecting antiques, and gardening. She is also slowly decorating and furnishing a large dolls’ house. Originally from Medway, she has a grown-up son and now lives in London with her husband and their enormous dog.

My thoughts: Wickham Grange has been a place of refuge over the years, but now her grandmother has died, for Caroline it is a place of secrets. Planning to sell the building, she has to locate five women who her grandma’s will says she has to get the consent with before she can sell.

As Caroline attempts to unravel the past, she keeps being told to stay out of things, and not to look for the mysterious Lizzie Sixpence.

Caroline, however, is determined to get to the bottom of the secrets and mysteries of the past.

What she finds is shocking, a little heartbreaking and answers both her own and Caroline’s mother’s questions about their family.

*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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Blog Tour: Sarafina – Philip Fracassi

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From USA Today bestselling author, and Bram Stoker nominee, Philip Fracassi, comes a historical horror novel where three brothers go AWOL during one of the most violent battles of the Civil War, but find something much worse waiting in the woods.

Choosing to risk execution rather than be killed in a losing war, three brothers desert their posts and begin a long, arduous journey back home. After weeks of dealing with rough terrain while evading bandits and home guard soldiers–starving, injured, and exhausted–the brothers find a miracle deep in the dark woods. A home.

Living in a remote cabin is a beautiful woman, Sarafina, and her young son, Titus. Sarafina takes the soldiers in, cares for them, feeds them, offers them a place to rest. But the youngest of the brothers is wary–something is not what it seems. After discovering a mysterious creek and a strange underground cavern, he gets a strong sense that the cabin, and the fertile land surrounding it, might be harboring something nefarious, terrifying, and dangerous.

What ensues is a nightmare beyond imagination, an escalation of horrors that the brothers must somehow fight to survive. With tensions high, the country divided, and loyalties put to the test, Sarafina will take readers on an epic journey of modern horror.

My thoughts: Three brothers flee the battlefield of the American Civil War, heading south to home and their sister Ellie. After several near misses, hungry and one of them injured, they stumble across what seems like paradise – a farm, home to Sarafina and her son Titus.

Unfortunately for them, Sarafina isn’t the kind farm wife she appears, she’s something much older and more terrifying. The youngest brother, Ethan, manages to escape and make it home to tell his twin everything that happened. With some help from the family’s priest, they prepare to return and rescue their brothers.

Things don’t go the way that Ethan hoped, and what happens will change the twins’ lives forever.

Creepy and chilling, with Biblical echoes, Sarafina is a dark fairytale (the brothers’ last name is Belle) full of horrors deep in the woods.

*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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Blog Tour: All Cats Are Grey – Susan Barnett

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January, 1942. London is dark – and not just because of the blackout.

The worst of the Blitz may be over, but still the city’s a treacherous place. Buses run without headlights. Bomb rubble lies underfoot. Looters and petty criminals roam the shattered streets. And somewhere in the ruins stalks a serial killer the papers have dubbed The Beast of the Blackout.

As a fear of death, delivered not from the sky but lurking in the bomb sites, grips South London, four unlikely allies are assembled by Civil Defence warden Albert, self-appointed shepherd patrolling his nightly patch. Edwin, Bette and Cat share nothing in common, except one extraordinary secret: each has killed an abuser and got away with it. Now, forged by trauma and driven to deliver retribution to those who hurt and harm, they come together to stop a monster the police have failed to catch.

What follows is a daring hunt through bombed streets and moral grey zones, as the mismatched murderers plot to save the Beast’s next victim, Violet and deliver their own brutal justice. But this is no simple vigilante tale. All brought here by their own harrowing journey, each comes uniquely equipped for the kill: Edwin with his knowledge of poisons, Bette her muscle, Cat her courage, while Albert will weave the net to catch the killer in.

Drawing on meticulous historical research, the novel explores the lurid world of Victorian poisons and poisoners; early silent films and the lasting damage left by the First World War on not just those who fought, but the people they came home to. While rooted in the past, the book also speaks urgently to the present, offering a reflection on what it means to be and feel ‘safe’, and how even now a woman may put herself in danger just walking home alone.

A gripping and morally daring novel, All Cats Are Grey offers a haunting portrait of wartime London, and a powerful meditation on justice, survival and the thin line between right and wrong.

My thoughts: I found this intense and fascinating. As the various characters find their way through the London blackouts, home from work or like Alby, off on his rounds as an ARP warden. However, somewhere in the dark lurks a killer, looking for a young woman to lure to her death.

Unfortunately he picks out the wrong ones this time as neither Bette or Cat are victims – rather they’re killers. Both have had to protect themselves and remove abusers from their lives permanently. Alby had planned to help Cat with this particular monster, but she’s smarter than he realises.

None of the people in this are perfect, far from it, but all of them did what they did for very clear reasons, and you sort of admire them for that. 

The blackout helps hide various sins and crimes, there’s a theme of houses being blown up and burnt down, a way to bring an end to things. Every character is a survivor and while none of them are punished, in a way, they’ve already paid for what they did by their pasts. 

A truly interesting read.  

*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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Blog Tour: The Strange Lives of Eleanor Teague – M K Hill

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There’s something wrong with Haddon Hall…

In 1876, Eleanor Teague lives in a lonely house far from the glamorous London Society she once knew. Confined to Haddon Hall by agoraphobia, bedevilled by nightmares of the death of her daughter, and haunted by the guilt of a terrible crime she committed, Eleanor depends on the household servants and on her husband Ezra, who is kind, patient… and controlling.

But when an apparition appears at her bedside, and mysterious voices urge her to find the ‘Shadow House’,she’s convincedan uncanny presence dwells within the walls of Haddon Hall, and that the staffare lying to her – they, in turn, fear she’s descending into madness.

As Eleanor’s world starts to fracture, the very foundations of Haddon Hall seem to shake. Why is the attic room locked? What is the Shadow House? Who is the strange woman in the woods? The shocking truth will shatter everything Eleanor thought she knew about her life.

A haunting, high-concept thriller with a jaw-dropping twist,The Strange Lives of Eleanor Teaguewill enthral readers of John Marrs, Gillian McAllister and Stuart Turton

M.K. Hill was a journalist and an award-winning music radio producer before becoming a full-time writer. He’s written the Sasha Dawson series – The Bad Place, The Woman In The Wood – and the Ray Drake series – The Two O’ClockBoy and It Was Her – as well as acclaimed psychological thriller One Bad Thing, and the espionage thriller Zero Kill. He lives in London.

My thoughts: This was very clever and without giving anything away, the concept is really well done and sinister, especially given the rapid growth of technology in our century.

Eleanor (who shares a name with my sister) is riddled with guilt about the death of her daughter and the crime she committed. She’s completely dependent on her husband and their tiny household staff for everything, and feels trapped. But something isn’t right.

Her memories are confusing and muddled, things are strange in the house and when her sister and brother-in-law visit, they seem very worried about her.

She is the only person who can find a way through all the mysteries and confusion, her husband becomes increasingly controlling and distant. The staff don’t seem able to help her, referring to Ezra whenever she asks for anything. But she must leave the house, somehow.

Tense, claustrophobic and creepy, Eleanor’s life spirals out of her control and she needs to regain it if she hopes to survive with her mind intact.

*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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Blog Tour: The Woman in the Wall – Heidi Amsinck

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A gruesome discovery in a Copenhagen apartment. A desperate author’s dark secret. A stalker who will stop at nothing, to destroy everything…Jensen returns in her most sinister case yet.

When human remains turn up behind an apartment wall DI Henrik Jungersen finds himself on the trail of a killer who has been hiding in plain sight.

Meanwhile, Jensen should be enjoying maternity leave but life has other plans. Legendary author, Valde Brix, is claiming to be her father. But Brix has an ulterior motive.

Then a woman connected to Brix turns up brutally murdered, and Jensen and her teenage apprentice Gustav become embroiled in Henrik’s investigation.

It soon becomes chillingly clear that the stalker will stop at nothing. And as the danger closes in Jensen realises the threat isn’t just to Brix – her own family is in mortal danger.

Heidi Amsinck a writer and journalist born in Copenhagen has lived in London for many years. A graduate of the MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London, she was previously shortlisted for the VS Pritchett Memorial Prize.  She has written many stories for BBC Radio 4 including The Bellevue Poltergeist series which features Jensen. She is the author of four previous books in the Jensen series: My Name is Jensen, The Girl in the Photo, Back from the Dead and Out of the Dark, as well a book of short stories, Last Train to Helsingor.

My thoughts: This was really good, a twisted, clever case that throws up lots of avenues for the detectives to go down, links between old cases and the new one, new cases coming along while they’re working that might be connected.

When the remains of a young woman are found bricked up in a Copenhagen flat, the police are shocked to discover that she was pregnant when she died. The flat’s owner insists he knows nothing, and suspicion falls on author Valde Brix, who once stayed there.

Brix has contacted Jensen, who’s on maternity leave, he drops a bombshell, he thinks he’s her father. He was in a relationship with her mother at around the right time, but Jensen’s mother is adamant he isn’t. He also asks Jensen to help him investigate a stalker who has been sending anonymous threats.

This brings Jensen back into Henrik’s life, while he’s already having problems at home, can they work together or is it just too complicated?

I really enjoy complex crime books like this, where the characters are as messy as real life and the cases cause them personal chaos. The case does get solved, but there are repercussions that might come up in future books.

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