Tag: thrillers

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: What Goes Around – Michael Wendroff

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Chilling murders terrorize a town in the USA, and bring together two detectives to face the hardest tasks of their lives. Jack, a brawny enforcer, and Jill, a brainy beauty, can’t stand each other, but must find the killer before they kill each other. Their journey takes them into the secret world of Incels, Boogaloo Boys, and supremacists. The novel is full of twists, and the shocking finale challenges the
boundaries of life and death.

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Michael Wendroff is the author of What Goes Around, a debut thriller published by Bloomsbury, which bestselling author Eric Rickstad calls a “brilliant debut,” and bestselling author Lisa Black says, “starts at a

breakneck pace and doesn’t let up until it reaches its unexpected conclusion.” Plus, #1 bestselling author J.D. Black says, “Relentless and gritty, Wendroff expertly weaves a narrative that begs, ‘just one more page…’”
The book was inspired by what his mother said to him the second he was born: “Oh! How nice to see you–Again!”

Michael has an MBA in marketing from NYU, and was inducted into their Hall of Fame. He is a global marketing consultant. He shares his time between New York City, Sarasota, Florida, and Lake Garda, Italy. He is married and has three wonderful children.

His mother was an editor (watching his mother scribbling in red ink on manuscript pages at home on weekends prepared him for his own editor’s comments!). She remarried a literary agent, so Michael was friendly with many authors, and even spent a vacation with Robert Ludlum. Watching Ludlum
hand-write his 450 page novels on yellow legal pads didn’t dissuade Michael from trying to write a novel (though he’s thankful for his PC).

What Goes Around was launched in the USA, UK, and Australia, and foreign language rights have been sold in Italian, Japanese, and Hungarian. The hardcover went through 3 printings, and now the
trade paperback is available (along with audio book and e-book).

Fun fact: Michael’s great-grandfather was brought over by Thomas Edison from the University of Copenhagen to work with him. He holds a number of patents, including for plastic buttons. Michael
proudly wears button- down shirts whenever he can.

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My thoughts: After several apparently random killings and the appearance of a group of white supremacists, detectives Jack and Jill are recruited to a multi agency task force to find the killer and stop the racists from causing any more trouble.

More bodies will be added to their ugly tally as they hunt a sniper and the leaders of several rival supremacist gangs. They have a young man on the inside, but in helping them he risks everything he holds dear.

The case is complicated and the idiotic local sheriff doesn’t help, and even the FBI agent in charge seems a bit stumped. But the two detectives will have to overcome their long rivalry and work together to solve their case and end the violence.

Twisting and far from straightforward, this case is intriguing and has something of a metaphysical bent, as old sins come to light amidst the case that change things for many of the characters.

*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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Cover Reveal: Breakthrough – Judy Kroll

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Neddy Emory and her brother Charles head up Angiras, a family-owned start-up with a radical innovation that will transform patient care for cystic fibrosis. They’re about to go live with a revolutionary life-saving medical device. But they’ve hit a major snag. Critical
research is unraveling and, to their shock and horror, one-by-one, team members are falling mysteriously ill.

Neddy and Charles race to move the project forward, while struggling to keep their employees safe. Failure is not an option. Without the device, their younger brother Daniel will die. But Neddy begins to suspect the company’s innovative research methods are being tampered with. When probed, Charles gaslights her. He refuses to slow down, claiming he is
Daniel’s only hope.

Torn between loyalty to her family and the welfare of the staff, Neddy desperately searches
for the truth. Then the unspeakable happens. A fatality. Charles appears to finally be persuaded. But his next move shocks her, and she realizes: the danger is only beginning. And she is on her own.

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Judy Kroll worked for over twenty years in large and small corporations, including four years
in the pharmaceutical industry, as a human resources professional and later as a career
counselor. She provided job search assistance to hundreds of individuals, including physicians,
pharmacists, medical device developers, chemists, and other scientists impacted by mergers
and downsizings. She is a practicing yogi (twenty-three years.) Both corporate experiences as
well as many years ‘on the mat’ inspired her book, Breakthrough. Specifically, in both of these
very disparate worlds, she observed the same phenomenon: the devastation wrought when a
much-respected boss or mentor turns out to be unethical, and one must find a new path forward,
seemingly alone.
She lives in northern New Jersey, and in addition to writing, gardening, and practicing yoga,
Judy co-chairs a not-for-profit conservation organization.

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blog tour, books, reviews

Blogathon: The Caller – Chris Carter

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After a tough week, Tanya Kaitlin is looking forward to a relaxing night in, but as she steps out of her shower, she hears her phone ring. The video call request comes from her best friend, Karen Ward. Tanya takes the call and the nightmare begins.

Karen is gagged and bound to a chair in her own living room. If Tanya disconnects from the call, if she looks away from the camera, he will come after her next, the deep, raspy, demonic voice at the other end of the line promises her.

As Detectives Robert Hunter and Carlos Garcia investigate the threats, they are thrown into a rollercoaster of evil, chasing a predator who scouts the streets and social media networks for victims, taunting them with secret messages and feeding on their fear.

My thoughts: The murders in this latest instalment of the Hunter & Garcia books are really grisly. The killer calls the best friend, the husband, the sister, of his chosen victim and forces them to play a horrific game, before killing their loved one in front of them, via video call. There’s nothing they can do to stop him, and each murder is extremely brutal.

Hunter and Garcia can’t find the link between the victims, they seem to have been chosen completely at random, and they have no idea who the killer is. They’re in a race against time to stop him from taking more lives, but when it seems the victims could be anyone, how can they predict where he might strike next?

Hunter also gets a bit of a personal life, meeting the lovely psychology professor in the UCLA library and connecting over their love for Scottish whisky. It’s nice to see Hunter off duty for a change, obviously, his brilliant mind is searching for the killer, but all the previous books have him just working and not sleeping, this gives us another side to his character.

Another edge-of-your-seat, twist-you-won’t- see-coming read, with writing that keeps you hooked (or at least it does me).

*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 Therapy Room – OMJ Ryan

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She shared her darkest secrets. Now someone is using them to destroy her.

New mother Shelly should be enjoying the happiest time of her life. She’s just given birth to a beautiful baby boy, Alfie.
But Alfie’s arrival has triggered something deep inside Shelly and now she finds herself at the mercy of crippling OCD and violent intrusive thoughts that terrify her. Desperate for help, she joins a therapy group led by renowned psychologist Dr Andrea Galanis.

It doesn’t work. Instead of helping, somehow therapy seems to be bringing her very worst fears to life.
What Shelly doesn’t realise is that someone from her dark past has infiltrated the group. And now she is sharing her most private secrets with a person who is determined to rip her life apart, one painful piece at a time.

With everything and everyone she cares about under threat, Shelly has a simple choice – confront the horrifying truth she’s kept hidden for almost twenty years, or face every mother’s worst nightmare – losing the child she loves.

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Hailing from Yorkshire, OMJ Ryan worked in radio and entertainment for over twenty years, collaborating with household names and accumulating a host of international writing and radio
awards. In 2018 he followed his passion to become a full-time novelist, writing stories for people who devour exciting, fast-paced thrillers by the pool, on their commute – or those rare moments of downtime before bed. Owen’s mission is to entertain from the first page to the last.
This is his first psychological thriller with Inkubator Books. OMJ also writes the Jane Phillips crime thriller series.

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My thoughts: Shelly is doing the right thing in getting help and support for her OCD and intrusive thoughts, from a professional. But someone in the group session she attends isn’t who they claim to be and they’re out to get her due to a belief that she did something terrible years ago.

Suddenly her life is in free fall, sacked, accused of theft, her marriage in trouble, and nowhere to turn. Her new friend Jess suggests she needs to take a break and reassess, but can she trust what she hears? 

An obsessive, grieving person is attempting to destroy her, to dismantle her whole life, and it is only when her son is threatened, that she learns why things have become so awful. And has to reveal the truth.

Clever, shocking and full of twists, this will keep you hooked as Shelly’s life is dismantled piece by piece.  

*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: In Her Shadow – Theo Baxter

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Every room has a secret. Every secret has a price.

Rachel thought marrying Lucas Price would be the beginning of her happily ever after.

Instead, moving into Crestwood, his sprawling seaside estate, feels more like stepping into a nightmare.
The shadow of his first wife, Eliza—who died in a tragic fall from the cliffs—haunts every corner of their new home. When ghostly apparitions begin appearing and mysterious messages warn Rachel to leave, she questions her own sanity.

Lucas dismisses her fears and refuses to discuss what happened to Eliza, leaving Rachel isolated and paranoid. Desperate to get to the truth, she starts to investigate Eliza’s death.
In a house where nothing is as it seems and everyone has something to hide, Rachel must confront not only the ghosts of the past but the buried trauma of her own dark memories.

And when she finally gets closer to Crestwood’s horrifying secret, she realizes she’s in danger of losing everything she cares about. Including her life.

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Theo Baxter loves writing psychological suspense thrillers. It’s all about that last reveal that he loves shocking readers with.
He grew up in New York, where there was crime all around. He decided to turn that into something positive with his fiction.
His stories will have you reading through the night—they are very addictive!

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My thoughts: Rachel clearly never read Rebecca or Bluebeard – if you’re the second wife, be prepared to be haunted by either the dead wife or the husband’s terrible secrets behind locked doors. She’s dealing with both.

Moving into Crestwood, the house her husband and his late wife Eliza designed and built is where her nightmares begin. She thinks there might be a ghost, even if everyone around her insists that’s not possible. Her husband is keeping secrets and has locked the bedroom next to theirs, and won’t discuss it.

But then things start happening even after her therapist switches up her meds to help her sleep. Someone blocks the doors to the room Rachel is working in, someone who can move through the house unseen. 

Lucas needs to start talking – the secrets he’s keeping might hold the answers or at least reassure Rachel that he isn’t involved. 

There’s a shocking twist and once Rachel starts to get to the truth, she’s not crazy, Lucas has kept a lot from her, and their lives could be the cost. 

Clever, full of twists and with a protagonist  I really felt sorry for, put in a terrifying situation that’s not her fault. 

*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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Blogathon: I Am Death – Chris Carter

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In this pulse-pounding thriller from bestselling writer Chris Carter, criminal behavior psychologist turned LAPD detective Robert Hunter finds himself engaged in a brutal game to the finish with a ruthless opponent. But no matter what moves Hunter makes, death is coming….

At the Los Angeles International Airport, the body of a twenty-year-old woman is discovered. The autopsy reveals that she had been tortured and murdered in a most bizarre way—but the surprises don’t end there. The killer likes to play, and he left something behind for the cops to find.

LAPD Detective Robert Hunter is assigned to the case but almost immediately a second body turns up. Surrounded by new challenges as every day passes, Hunter finds himself chasing a monster—one with a dark past and whose desire to hurt people and thirst for murder can never be quenched.

My thoughts: After the vacation that wasn’t, Robert Hunter returns to LA to be faced with a new case, another gruesome and violent one. He and Garcia are called out to a body by the airport, the victim was brutally tortured to death, and she won’t be the last.

Taunting the detectives by leaving the message I AM DEATH with each poor victim, the duo feel like they’re getting nowhere, until the killer makes a mistake that will bring Hunter to his door. 

Another shocking and gripping case for Hunter and Garcia – there’s a method of murder in this one that actually succeeded in making me flinch, I am pretty unshockable most of the time. The story has a dual narrative, with a clever twist, and the identity of the killer, and their motivation is something you won’t see coming.

*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 Cow Shed – Emmy Ellis

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Two women. Twenty years apart. One deadly link.

Twenty years ago, Effie vanished without a trace. She was last seen arguing with her cousin Shannon at the pub before storming home — except she never made it.
Suspicion fell on Shannon, but with no body and no evidence, she walked free and the case went cold.

Decades later, a young woman is found strangled in an allotment at the bottom of Shannon’s garden. And once again, Shannon finds herself at the centre of an intense police investigation.
Detective Anna James finds Shannon blunt to the point of rude, but without solid evidence, there’s nothing to hold her on.

With the investigation at a standstill, Anna turns to an unlikely source: her former lover, ex-crime boss Joshua ‘Parole’ Cribbins. He still has connections with the seedy underbelly of the town — and he’s all too willing to help. But getting close to Parole again could cost Anna everything.

Then, a breakthrough leads Anna to a place known as the Cow Shed. What she uncovers there will change everything — and expose the horrifying truth that’s been buried for decades.

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Emmy Ellis lives in Nottinghamshire with her husband and cat. She has five adult children. She loves reading and binge-watching anything to do with crime. She’s an introvert with an extrovert mask she puts on when the need arises. Described as quirky and clumsy, she loves nothing more than seeing people smile…or cringe while reading her novels.

My thoughts: The motive for these murders will make you gasp, it’s truly shocking. But no spoilers here.

After a gap of twenty years, the killer strikes again. After Effie disappeared, rumours swirled around Shannon (who I felt very sorry for) and now there’s a body in her garden, amongst the beetroot.

She’s an innocent victim, but the killer clearly knows her, why taunt her like that otherwise?

The police are stumped, there’s so little to go on. They’re pretty sure the two cases, despite the gap, are connected. But how? Then slowly a trickle of information about the past starts to reach them. And buried within it, the truth about why the killer has risen again after twenty years.

Chilling, compelling, shocking. And so, so good.

*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 Great Deception – Syd Moore

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May 1940. As the Nazis overrun Denmark, Britain counters by invading Iceland. Secret agent Daphne Devine is dropped into occupied territory to assess a clairvoyant in Reykjavik, who may be passing information to the enemy. Alone, Daphne must navigate her way through this strange, frozen landscape, where the Allies aren’t always welcomed with open arms.

When a new lead takes her North into Strandir, the land of sorcerers, she encounters fresh peril and discovers that now she, the hunter, has become the hunted. Daphne must use all her Secret Service training to outwit the enemy agents in her midst.

Twice shortlisted for a CWA Dagger, Syd Moore returns with a thrilling new series, exploring Britain’s secret wartime history.

SYD MOORE has been a Royal Literary Fund fellow and is currently working with them to pioneer ‘Reading Round’ courses in hospices. Her novel The Witching Hour was a Top Twenty bestselling horror title of 2024. She was the first Author in Residence for Essex Libraries and is best known for her Essex Witch Museum Mysteries, which was shortlisted for the Good Reader Holmes and Watson Award in 2018 and 2019. She has been shortlisted twice for a CWA dagger for her short stories. Syd founded the Essex Girls’ Liberation Front and successfully removed the term ‘Essex girl’ from the Oxford dictionary in 2020. She lives in Essex.

My thoughts: This was really interesting, I don’t remember learning about the occupation of Iceland during WW2, yet another thing school forgot to tell us!

Daphne has been sent north in the guise of a journalist for The Times, to write about the occupation and also about a medium who is making claims to be able to communicate with the dead – but might actually be communicating with the Nazis. He’s Icelandic and putting on performances in Reykjavik, making it easy for Daphne to observe him. Conveniently everyone speaks English, or she’d be in real trouble (a large percentage of the Icelandic population does speak some English) as none of her training covered learning the language.

She’s paired up with local journalist Anna as her guide and helper, although Anna doesn’t know everything. There’s also a grumpy British major who can’t really be bothered with Daphne and Septimus, who is supposed to be helping her too – but seems to be disinclined to listen.

Eventually she and Anna, and Anna’s police officer cousin, find themselves heading into the more remote north of the country on the trail of a book that Hitler wants. Out amid the falling snow, danger waits.

This was a really gripping, fascinating read. Daphne hasn’t really been prepared very well, she can’t speak or read Icelandic, her clothes aren’t really warm enough and at times she’s forced to improvise, even recruiting Anna and her cousin Rafn isn’t really something she should have done, but the men she’s reporting to don’t seem to be listening.

But her intelligence is good, she and Anna spot the secret messages the medium is passing on to someone in the audience, they analyse everything he says and does on stage, much more closely than most, and following an order from London, take a big risk with a big reward if they survive the weather and whoever is following them.

It’s a really clever, interesting and enjoyable book, I was hooked from the get go. You will be too.  

*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 Atlantis Covenant – Rob Jones

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The greatest mystery of all time is about to be revealed.

When world-famous archaeologist and ex-soldier Max Hunter finds a mysterious artifact in a tomb beneath the Gates of Nineveh, his lifelong dream of finding Atlantis comes one step closer.
But he’s not the only one looking for it…

His discovery unleashes a high-speed hunt for the lost civilisation between a mysterious Swiss foundation, the FBI, and the world’s most secretive society.

From the dangers of the Iraqi desert to Cuba and the jungles of El Salvador to the enigmatic Valley of the Kings in Egypt, Hunter faces a race against time and murderous enemies who will stop at nothing to claim the greatest prize in history. As he fights for his life, it soon becomes apparent that his enemies are searching for something altogether more sinister than the lost city…

Hunter must use his unique ingenuity and knowledge to decipher the clues and find Atlantis – and its lethal treasures – before they fall into enemy hands.

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Rob Jones has published over forty books in the genres of action-adventure, action-thriller and crime. Many of his chart-topping titles have enjoyed number-one rankings and his Joe Hawke and Jed Mason series have been international bestsellers. Originally from England, today he lives in Australia with his wife and children.

Facebook: @RobJonesNovels
Twitter: @AuthorRobJones
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My thoughts: My friend’s mum is a doctor of archaeology and I don’t think her career has been anywhere near as action-packed as this one week in Dr Max Hunter’s life is. Mostly it seems to have consisted of lots of bits of pots (she’s an expert in Roman Britain) and conferences.

Max Hunter however spends his time getting shot at, chased through deserts, jungles, Paris, Greenland. As you do. But he’s trying to prevent ancient artifacts from falling into the hands of dangerous underworld types, who don’t want to share their discoveries with the world but use them to manipulate it.

He’s long been convinced that the lost island/city/civilisation of Atlantis mentioned by Plato, not only existed, but connected ancient communities across the globe together. He thinks he’s found proof, but there are others who want the same knowledge and will stop at nothing to get it. Teaming up with a specialist unit of the FBI, he’s in a race against time and an old acquaintance to find Atlantis’ remains and stop a terrible weapon from being unleashed.

This is very in the Da Vinci Code, National Treasure adventure mode, but is also funny, doesn’t get confused about geography (one of the things I found incredibly jarring about the Da Vinci Code) and has a much more likeable protagonist. Max’s back and forth with lead FBI agent Amy is entertaining and the addition of other characters stops it from getting boring as they all bring unique elements to the team. He jokes that he’s no Indiana Jones but with his military background and academic knowledge, he’s certainly more of an action hero than someone who’s always worried it’s going to be snakes!

*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: Kiss Her Goodbye – Lisa Gardner

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Recent Afghan refugee and young mother Sabera Ahmadi was last seen exiting her place of work three weeks ago. The local police have yet to open a case, while her older, domineering husband seems unconcerned. At the insistence of Sabera’s closest friend, missing persons expert Frankie Elkin agrees to take up the search just in time for a video of Sabera to surface—showing her walking away from the scene of a brutal double murder.    

Frankie quickly notes there’s much more to the Ahmadi family than meets the eye. The father Isaad is a brilliant mathematician, Sabera a gifted linguist, and their little girl Zahra has an uncanny ability to remember anything she sees. Which given everything that has happened during the girl’s short life, may be a terrible curse.

When Isaad also disappears under mysterious circumstances and an attempt is made on Zahra’s life, Frankie realizes she must crack the code of this family’s horrific past. Someone is coming for the Ahmadis. And violence is clearly an option.

When everything is on the line, how far would you go to protect the ones you love? Frankie is about to find out.

My thoughts: I’m a big fan of Lisa Gardner, and especially of the Frankie Elkin series. This was very good, lots of twists and turns, multiple (not always reliable) narrators, every time Frankie learns something new, it sends her off in a different direction. Her missing person, Sabera, is very complicated and rather than the wife and mother she appears to be, has a lot more going on.

Events in Afghanistan follow Sabera all the way to Tucson, Arizona. She and her husband and daughter are refugees but more than that, Sabera has secrets, dangerous secrets that some will do almost anything to learn. Those secrets put her and her family, her few friends, in terrible danger. The friend who requests Frankie’s help doesn’t know about any of it.

Frankie takes up her new short term job – feeding an iguana and some snakes (she’s not keen, but at least she bonds with the iguana), for a super rich tech nerd off to a convention, she’s also given a driver and cook/housekeeper who become part of her crack team of investigators. And she doesn’t piss off the local police too much, so she even gets some official help, especially as things turn violent and deadly.

Sabera’s story isn’t necessarily what I was expecting but it’s absolutely gripping, shocking and horrifying. Refugees are forced to live in terrible conditions in camps, forced to leave everything behind in order to try to find a safe harbour. Sabera thought she had found that, but trouble lurks around the corner, and Frankie (with a little help along the way) is the only one who can get reunite her with her daughter.

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