Tag: #teamorenda

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Collapsing Wave – Doug Johnstone

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Six months since the earth-shattering events of The Space Between Us, the revelatory hope of the aliens’ visit has turned to dust and the creatures have disappeared into waters off Scotland’s west coast.
Teenager Lennox and grieving mother Heather are being held in New Broom, a makeshift US military base, the subject of
experiments, alongside the Enceladons who have been captured by the authorities.
Ava, who has given birth, is awaiting the jury verdict at her trial for the murder of her husband. And MI7 agent Oscar Fellowes, who has been sidelined by the US military, is beginning to think he might be on the wrong side of history.
When alien Sandy makes contact, Lennox and Heather make a plan to escape with Ava. All three of them are heading for a profound confrontation between the worst of humanity and a possible brighter future, as the stakes get higher for the alien Enceladons and the entire human race…

Doug Johnstone is the author of 16 previous novels, most recently The Opposite of Lonely (2023) and The Space Between Us (2023). The Big Chill (2020) was longlisted for Theakston Crime Novel of the Year, Black Hearts was shortlisted for the same award. Three of his books, A Dark Matter (2020), Breakers (2019) and The Jump (2015), have been shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year. He’s taught creative writing and been writer in residence at various institutions over the last decade, and has been an arts journalist for over twenty years. Doug is a songwriter and musician with six albums and three EPs released, and he plays drums for the Fun
Lovin’ Crime Writers. He’s also co-founder of the Scotland Writers Football Club, and has a PhD in nuclear physics.

My thoughts: Sandy and his friends, human and alien are back, but things are not good. The Americans have swept in, built a base and the UK government have just let them. They’re conducting experiments on Lennox, Heather and the Enceladons they’ve managed to capture in the Scottish waters.

After Ava’s trial, she and baby Chloe are brought to this base too, and the experiments intensify, Chloe at the heart of them in some of the most disturbing scenes in the book.

The Enceladons came here as refugees and this is like the government’s moronic “hostile environment” policy on steroids. They are torturing the alien creatures, referring to them as “illegals”, refusing to believe that they’re gentle, friendly creatures who don’t even understand violence.

Obviously the humans who have connected to Sandy, Xander and the other Enceladons are determined to escape and take their tentacled friends with them. They’ve also made some new human friends locally, who will do anything to help, even storm the compound and fight the armed soldiers inside.

There’s lots of quite shocking moments, and it’s a lot darker than The Space Between Us, though there is still hope there, a chance for humanity and the Enceladons to live in harmony, it’s just more complicated and harder.

I don’t know how Doug Johnstone does it, has me howling with laughter at the misadventures of the Skelfs in their books and then has me whispering “no!” at the terrible things that happened here.

Sandy and his kin have such big hearts and are full of love and then there’s us, not trusting and unwilling to believe that anyone, even beings from another world, could be that good and have no ulterior motive.

*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 Descent – Paul Hardistry

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Kweku Ashworth is a child of the cataclysm, born on a sailboat to parents
fleeing the devastation in search for a refuge in the Southern Ocean. Growing
up in a world forever changed, his only connection to the events that set the
world on its course to disaster were the stories his step-father, now long-dead,
recorded in his manuscript, The Forcing.

But there are huge gaps in the story that his mother, still alive but old and frail,
steadfastly refuses to speak of, even thirty years later. When he discovers
evidence that his mother has tried to cover up the truth, he knows that it is time
to find out for himself.

Determined to learn what really happened during his mother’s escape from the
concentration camp to which she and Kweku’s father were banished, and their
subsequent journey halfway around the world, Kweku and his young family set
out on a perilous voyage across a devastated planet. What they find will
challenge not only their faith in humanity, but their ability to stay alive.

Canadian Paul E Hardisty has spent 25 years working all over the world as an
engineer, hydrologist and environmental scientist. He has roughnecked on oil rigs in
Texas, explored for gold in the Arctic, mapped geology in Eastern Turkey (where he was befriended by PKK rebels), and rehabilitated water wells in the wilds of Africa.

He was in Ethiopia in 1991 as the Mengistu regime fell, and was bumped from one of the last flights out of Addis Ababa by bureaucrats and their families fleeing the rebels. In 1993 he survived a bomb blast in a café in Sana’a.

Paul is a university professor and CEO of the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS). The first four novels in his Claymore Straker series, The Abrupt Physics of Dying, The Evolution of Fear, Reconciliation for the Dead and Absolution all received great critical acclaim and The Abrupt Physics of Dying was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger and Telegraph Thriller of the Year. The Forcing (2023) was a SciFi Now Book of the Month, with The Descent out in 2024.

Paul is a sailor, a private pilot, keen outdoorsman, and lives in Western Australia.

My thoughts: The Forcing was a heck of a book and I thought a tough act to follow, but The Descent is incredible. Chronicling not only a sequel featuring Teacher’s step-son, but also exploring how a cabal of wealthy and powerful men helped destroy the world, this is timely, powerful and moving writing.

After the safety of their home is violated, his mother, brother and sister-in-law murdered and their toddler daughter kidnapped; Kewku, his wife and son board Providence, the boat that brought his family to Australia, and head out in search of answers.

Retracing elements of his family’s journey to safety, Kweku hopes to find members of his biological father’s family still alive and rescue his stolen niece. Fuelled by the mysterious Sparkplug’s dispatches from the past, and Teacher’s own account of the terrible climate catastrophe and war, Kweku creates his own narrative of this second voyage of hope.

Sparkplug was the assistant and sometime mistress of Derek Argent, one of the rich, morally corrupt men who orchestrated the  events that have so divided the remnants of humanity. Kweku, Juliette and Leo will risk their lives, their family and their souls on this voyage into the unknown. There are dangers they could never have imagined lurking on the edges of what remains, desperate people and manipulative leaders, many of whom seem to offer much.

Kweku is reading an old copy of The Odyssey, and being a mythology nerd who studied that book, I can see the echoes of some of Odysseus’ misadventures in Kweku’s. As well as those of Teacher and his family in The Forcing. I could probably write whole essays on the similarities and comparisons in these three books, but here is not the place.

There isn’t a lot of hope for humanity here, stripped down to our basest instincts, it’s all murder and sex and violence and greed. Which is a little depressing. But when they return to Australia and the Aboriginal community there, amongst descendants of one of the oldest communities in the world, is hope for a better future. And there’s something incredibly powerful in that. This is a book that deserves to be on the bestseller lists and in readers’ minds for a long 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

Cover Reveal: Boys Who Hurt – Eva Björg Ægisdottir

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Boys Who Hurt – Eva Björg Ægisdóttir, translated by Victoria Cribb out 18th July Link

Fresh from maternity leave, Detective Elma finds herself confronted with a complex case, when a man is found murdered in a holiday cottage in the depths of the Icelandic countryside – the victim of a frenzied knife attack, with a shocking message scrawled on the wall above him.

 At home with their baby daughter, Sævar is finding it hard to let go of work, until the chance discovery in a discarded box provides him with a distraction. Could the diary of a young boy, detailing the events of a long-ago summer have a bearing on Elma’s case?

 Once again, the team at West Iceland CID have to contend with local secrets in the small town of Akranes, where someone has a vested interest in preventing the truth from coming to light. And Sævar has secrets of his own that threaten to destroy his and Elma’s newfound happiness.

Tense, twisty and shocking, Boys Who Hurt is the next, addictive instalment in the award-winning Forbidden Iceland series, as dark events from the past endanger everything…

books

Cover Reveal: One Grand Summer – Ewald Arenz

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One Grand Summer – Ewald Arenz, translated by Rachel Ward out 4th July Link

Sixteen-year-old Frieder’s plans for the summer are shattered when he fails two subjects. To be able to move up to the next year in the Autumn, he needs to resit his exams. So instead of going on holiday with his family, he now faces the daunting and boring prospect of staying at his grandparents’ house, studying with his strict and formal step-grandfather.

 On the bright side, he’ll spend time with his grandmother Nana, his sister Alma and his best friend Johann. And he meets Beate, the girl in the beautiful green swimsuit…

 The next few weeks will bring friendship, fear and first love – one grand summer that will change and shape his entire life.

 A number-one bestseller in Germany and winner of the German Booksellers Prize, One Grand Summer is a moving, beautiful and profound novel about relationships and respect that captures those exquisite and painful moments that make us who we are…

books

Cover Reveal: Happy is the One – Katie Allen

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Happy is the One – Katie Allen out 23rd May  Link 

Imagine you knew exactly when you were going to die…

 Robin Edmund Blake is halfway through his life.

 Born in 1986, when Halley’s Comet crossed the sky, he is destined to go out with it, when it returns in 2061. Until that day, he can’t die. He has proof.

 With his future mapped out in minute detail, a lucrative but increasingly dull job in the City of London, and Gemma to share his life with, Robin has a plan to be remembered forever.

 But when Robin’s sick father has one accident too many, the plan starts to unravel. Robin must return home to the tiny seaside town of Eastgate, learn to care for the man who never really cared for him, and face the childhood ghosts he fled decades ago.

 Desperate to get his life back on schedule, he connects with fellow outsider Astrid. Brutally direct, sharp-witted and a professor at a nearby university, she’s unlike anyone he’s ever met. But Astrid is hiding something and someone from Robin and he’s hiding even more from her.

 A warmly funny, poignant and exquisite novel about coming home and letting go, Happy Is the One asks what is truly important in a chaotic, unpredictable world…

books

Cover Reveal: Shatter Creek – Rod Reynolds

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Shatter Creek – Rod Reynolds out 25th April Link 

Fresh from the scandal at Hampstead County PD, Detective Sergeant Casey Wray works a complex double-homicide that points to a killer on a murderous rampage and a shattering series of discoveries that could end her career … The shocking sequel to the addictive, twisty, bestselling Black Reed Bay…

Hampstead County Police Department is embroiled in scandal after corruption at the top of the force was exposed. Cleared of involvement and returned to active duty, Detective Sergeant Casey Wray nonetheless finds herself at a crossroads when it becomes clear not everyone believes she’s innocent.

Partnered with rookie Billy Drocker, Casey works a shocking daytime double-homicide in downtown Rockport with the two victims seemingly unknown to one another. And when a third victim is gunned down on her doorstep shortly after, it appears an abusive ex-boyfriend holds the key to the killings.

With powerful figures demanding answers, Casey and Billy search for the suspect, fearing he’s on a murderous rampage. But when a key witness goes missing, and new evidence just won’t fit, the case begins to unravel. With her career in jeopardy, Casey makes a shattering discovery that threatens to expose the true darkness at the heart of the murders… with a killer still on the loose…

books

Cover Reveal: The Kitchen – Simone Buchholz

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The Kitchen – Simone Buchholz, translated by Rachel Ward out 11th April Link

Hamburg State Prosecutor Chastity Riley and her colleagues investigate the murders of men with a history of abuse towards women … as a startling, horrifying series of revelations emerge.

 When neatly packed male body parts wash up by the River Elbe, Hamburg State Prosecutor Chastity Riley and her colleagues begin a perplexing investigation.

 As the murdered men are identified, it becomes clear that they all had a history of abuse towards women, leading Riley to wonder if it would actually be in society’s best interests to catch the killers.

 But when her best friend Carla is attacked, and the police show little interest in tracking down the offender, Chastity takes matters into her own hands and as a link between the two cases emerges, horrifying revelations threaten Chastity’s own moral compass … and put everything at risk.

 The award-winning, critically acclaimed Chastity Riley series returns with a slick, hard-boiled, darkly funny thriller that tackles issues of violence and the difference between law and justice with devastating insight, and an ending you will never see coming…

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Yule Island – Johana Gusťawsson, translated by David Warriner

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Art expert Emma Lindahl is anxious when she’s asked to appraise the antiques and artefacts in the infamous manor house of one of Sweden’s wealthiest families, on the island of Storholmen, where a young woman was murdered nine years earlier, her killer never found.

Emma must work alone, and with the Gussman family apparently avoiding her, she sees virtually no one in the house. Do they have something to hide? As she goes about her painstaking work and one shocking discovery yields clues that lead to another, Emma becomes determined to uncover the secrets of the house and its occupants.

When the lifeless body of another young woman is found in the icy waters surrounding the island, Detective Karl Rosén arrives to investigate, and memories of his failure to solve the first case come rushing back. Could this young woman’s tragic death somehow hold the key?

Battling her own demons, Emma joins forces with Karl to embark upon a chilling investigation, plunging them into horrifying secrets from the past – Viking rites and tainted love – and Scandinavia’s deepest, darkest winter…

Born in Marseille, France, and with a degree in Political Science, Johana Gustawsson has worked as a journalist for the French and Spanish press and television. Her critically acclaimed Roy & Castells series, including Block 46, Keeper and Blood Song, has won the Plume d’Argent, Balai de la découverte, Balai d’Or and Prix Marseillais du Polar awards, and is now published in nineteen countries. A TV adaptation is currently under way in a French, Swedish and UK co-production. The Bleeding was a number-one bestseller in France and received immense critical acclaim across the globe. Johana lives in Sweden with her Swedish husband and their three sons.

My thoughts: this is not a Christmas book, despite the title, it’s a creepy, dark read about obsession, murder, and how twisted some minds can get.

And it is also so, so good. Totally compelling, very enjoyable as I like dark, weird stuff, and peopled with very normal individuals, and some very disturbed ones passing as normal. Which of course makes it worse.

There are several narratives that once you realise what’s happening and how they interconnect, build to reveal the total horror that has taken place in the Gussman family’s manor house.

This is the second book I’ve read from this author, and it is deeply chilling but incredibly interesting and her writing (and the excellent work of the translator) just sucks you into the world Johana has created on this island. It’s that good. If you prefer your winter reading to be dark and full of horrors, monsters hidden in plain sight, then this is absolutely for 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.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Dead Sweet – Katrin Júlíusdóttir, translated by Quentin Bates

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When a celebrated government official is found dead after his surprise birthday party, a young police officer uncovers a terrifying world of financial crime, sinister cults and disturbing secret lives. Icelandic politician KatrÍn JÚlÍusdÓttir’s award-winning, breathtaking debut, and first in a chilling series.

When Óttar Karlsson, a wealthy and respected government official and businessman, is found murdered, after failing to turn up at his own surprise birthday party, the police are at a loss. It isn’t until young police officer SigurdÍs finds a well-hidden safe in his impersonal luxury apartment that clues start emerging.

As Óttar’s shady business dealings become clear, a second, unexpected line of enquiry emerges, when SigurdÍs finds a US phone number in the safe, along with papers showing regular money transfers to an American account. Following the trail to Minnesota, trauma rooted in SigurdÍs’s own childhood threatens to resurface and the investigation strikes chillingly close to home…

Atmospheric, deeply unsettling and full of breakneck twists and turns, Dead Sweet is a startling debut thriller that uncovers a terrifying world of financial crime, sinister cults and disturbing secret lives, and kicks off an addictive, mind-blowing new series.

KatrÍn received the Blackbird Award, an Icelandic crime-writing prize, for her first novel, Dead Sweet. Her debut novel was reviewed well by critics and hit the best-selling lists in the first weeks after publication. KatrÍn has a political background and was a member of Parliament from 2003 until 2016. Before she was elected to Parliament, KatrÍn was an advisor and project manager at a tech company and a senior buyer and CEO in the retail sector, as well as the Managing Director of a student union during her uni years.

Translator – Quentin Bates escaped English suburbia as a teenager, jumping at the chance of a gap year working in Iceland. He is the author of a series of crime novels set in present-day Iceland (Frozen Out, Cold Steal, Chilled to the Bone, Winterlude, Cold Comfort and Thin Ice which have been published worldwide. He has translated all of Ragnar JÓnasson’s Dark Iceland series.

My thoughts: this was really good, but also really awful because when the truth comes out about the victim, Óttar, he turns out to have been one bad man and I didn’t really want the cops to find his killer, because weirdly I felt bad for them – not him!

SigurdÍs is a really good investigator, even if she does go off on her own – she just wants to prove to her bosses that she’s a great cop and not keep getting left out of investigations or given paperwork to shuffle.

I really hope this grows into a series as I was completely hooked, the writing (and Quentin’s brilliant translation work) was so gripping and compelling, even as I realised, oh no, he’s guilty of really gross and horrible things, I wanted to keep reading.

*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

Blog Tour: Upstairs at the Beresford – Will Carver

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THERE ARE WORSE PLACES THAN HELL…

Hotel Beresford is a grand, old building, just outside the city. And any soul is welcome.

Danielle Ortega works nights, singing at whatever dive bar will offer her a gig. She gets by, keeping to herself. Sam Walker gambles and drinks, and can’t keep his hands to himself. Now he’s tied up in a shoe closet with a dent in his head that matches Danielle’s broken ashtray.

The man in 731 has been dead for two days and his dog has not stopped barking. Two doors down, the couple who always smokes on the window ledge will mysteriously fall.

Upstairs, in the penthouse, Mr Balliol sees it all. He can peer into every crevice of every floor of the hotel from his screen-filled suite. He witnesses humanity and inhumanity in all its forms: loneliness, passion and desperation in equal measure.

All the ingredients he needs to make a deal. When Danielle returns home one night to find Sam gone, a series of sinister events begins to unfold. But strange things often occur at Hotel Beresford, and many are only a distraction to hide something much darker…

Will Carver is the international bestselling author of the January David series and the critically acclaimed, mind-blowingly original Detective Pace series, which includes Good Samaritans (2018), Nothing Important Happened Today (2019) and Hinton Hollow Death Trip (2020), all of which were ebook bestsellers and selected as books of the year in the mainstream international press.

Nothing Important Happened Today was longlisted for both the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award 2020 and the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. Hinton Hollow Death Trip was longlisted for Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize, and was followed by four standalone literary thrillers, The Beresford, Psychopaths Anonymous, The Daves Next Door and Suicide Thursday.

Will spent his early years in Germany, but returned to the UK at age eleven, when his sporting career took off. He currently runs his own fitness and nutrition company, and lives in Reading with his children. children.

My thoughts: it won’t be a surprise to anyone else in the cult of Carver that this is very, very good. Set before The Beresford, this takes place in the hotel next door, where Mr Balliol watches everyone and everything that goes on.

Carol, the best manager of a hotel ever, ensures the smooth running of the building, making certain that nothing interrupts the guests day. Including a dead body or two.

There’s a conference taking place in the hotel and everything must be perfect, Mr Balliol expects nothing less. But an old friend of his has checked in, and he wonders why now.

Obviously nothing important happened today and the Beresford has its own unique way of ensuring that nothing ever will. The detective asking about the dead man in 731 gets distracted by a long term guest, so doesn’t notice anything else going on, which is probably a good thing.

It’s a brilliant, twisted and utterly engaging read, defying an easily defined genre – is it a crime novel, a thriller, something fantastical? I don’t know. I just know I was totally hooked.

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