Featured

The Invisible by Peter Papathanasiou

Blog tour/social media splash: 5 September 2022

Synopsis

Burnt-out from policework, Detective Sergeant George Manolis flies from Australia to Greece for a holiday. Recently divorced and mourning the death of his father, who emigrated from the turbulent Prespes region which straddles the borders of Greece, Albania and North Macedonia, Manolis hopes to reconnect with his roots and heritage.

On arrival, Manolis learns of the disappearance of an ‘invisible’ – a local man who lives without a scrap of paperwork. The police and some locals believe the man’s disappearance was pre-planned, while others suspect foul play. Reluctantly, Manolis agrees to work undercover to find the invisible, and must navigate the complicated relationships of a tiny village where grudges run deep.

It soon becomes clear to Manolis that he may never locate a man who, for all intents and purposes, doesn’t exist. And with the clock ticking, the ghosts of the past continue to haunt the events of today as Manolis’s investigation leads him to uncover a dark and long-forgotten practice.

My review

After reading The Stoning, the author’s first book about DS George Manolis, last year, I was keen to read the next book in the series and I sped through it in a couple of days last week!

It was published on Thursday 1 September by MacLehose Press and is available in eBook, hardback and audiobook formats.

Look out for my blog tour review later!

Buy the book

The Invisible by Peter Papathanasiou can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in hardback, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Peter Papathanasiou was born in northern Greece and adopted as a baby to an Australian family. His writing has been published internationally by The New York Times, Guardian, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Canberra Times, Daily Telegraph, The ABC, SBS, Huffington Post. He also holds an MA in Creative Writing from City University, London, and a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the Australian National University. His first book, a memoir, Son of Mine, was published in 2019 by Salt.

Twitter: @peteplastic
Facebook: @PeterPapathanasiouWriter
Instagram: @petepapathanasiou
Website: https://fromtheplasticpen.wordpress.com/about/

Blog tour

Thanks to Corinna Zifko at MacLehose Press (Quercus Books) for my copy of The Invisible and for my place on the blog tour.

See the banner below for more stops on the #blogtour.

Featured

The Last to Disappear by Jo Spain

Blog blast: Thursday 12 May 2022

Synopsis

A luxury resort. Three missing women. One body.
When young London professional Alex Evans is informed that his sister’s body has been pulled from an icy lake in Northern Lapland, he assumes his irresponsible sister accidentally drowned. He travels to the wealthy winter resort where Vicky worked as a tour-guide and meets Agatha Koskinen, the detective in charge. Agatha is a no-nonsense single mother of three who already thinks there’s more to Vicky’s case than meets the eye.
As the two form an unlikely alliance, Alex also begins to suspect the small town where his sister lived and died is harbouring secrets. It’s not long before he learns that three other women have gone missing from the area in the past and that his sister may have left him a message.
On the surface, Koppe, Lapland is a winter wonderland. But in this remote, frozen place, death seems only ever a heartbeat away.

Buy the book

The Last to Disappear by Jo Spain can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in hardback, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks. See also Ethical Book Search.

About the author

Jo Spain is the author of the bestselling Tom Reynolds detective series and several number one bestselling standalone thrillers. She began writing full-time when her first book, top 10 bestseller With Our Blessing, was chosen as one of seven finalists in the Richard and Judy Search for a Bestseller competition.

Jo is a full-time screenwriter. Her first show, critically-acclaimed crime series ‘Taken Down’, aired in 2018. In 2021, she co-wrote ‘Harry Wild’, starring Jane Seymour, with its creator, Emmy-award winning David Logan (to air 2022). She is currently working on several international productions, including adaptations of her own novels.

A graduate of Trinity College, Jo lives in Dublin with her husband and four children.

Twitter: @SpainJoanne
Facebook: @JoSpainAuthor

Blog tour

Thanks to Milly Reid at Quercus Books for my place on the blog blast.

See the banner below for more stops on the #blogtour.

Featured

The Beaten Track by Louise Mangos

Cover reveal

Today, I’m delighted to help reveal the cover for The Beaten Track by Louise Mangos.

Synopsis

She thinks she is safe now that she’s home from her travels … but her nightmare has only just begun.
After her stalker takes his life and she’s jilted by a holiday lover, Sandrine comes home from her round-the-world backpacking trip perturbed, penniless and pregnant. She meets handsome, rich Scott who offers her love, security and all she and her new baby could ever wish for.
But their dream is about to turn into a nightmare …

Buy the book

Published by Red Dog Press, The Beaten Track is released on 12 April 2022 in eBook, hardback and paperback. It can be preordered now from the Red Dog Press bookshop.

Limited special edition hardback

Order early to get one of 50 limited edition hardbacks of The Beaten Track. These are dedicated, signed and numbered by the author on bespoke bookplates and arrive giftwrapped and with a luxury bookmark a week before general release.

Link: The Beaten Track: limited edition

When they’re gone, they’re gone!

About the author

Louise Mangos grew up in the UK but has spent more than half her life in Switzerland.

Her debut psychological thriller, Strangers on a Bridge, was a finalist in the Exeter Novel Prize and long listed for the Bath Novel Award. Her second novel, Her Husband’s Secrets (previously titled The Art of Deception), was published in June 2019.

She lives on an Alp with her Kiwi husband and two sons, and when she’s not writing you can find her on the cross-country ski trails or wild swimming in the lake, depending on the season.

She also writes short stories and flash fiction which have won prizes and been published in various anthologies. She has recently completed her MA in crime writing at UEA.

Twitter: @LouiseMangos
Facebook: @LouiseMangosBooks
Instagram: @louisemangos
Website: https://louisemangos.com

Cyprus Kiss by Murray Bailey

Blog tour: 16 to 24 July 2021

Synopsis

Help Me!
Those were the words on the back of a woman’s photograph. And she vanished six months ago.
It’s 1948 and military investigator Ash Carter has arrived in Cyprus.
A gang has been operating for two years, leaving a mark known to police as the kiss of death. Is this something to do with them? And why ask him for help?
After a murder, Carter begins to realise this is personal. In a race against time, Carter must work out the connection between the gang, the missing woman and the murder before it’s too late.

My comments

Apologies, my review for this book will follow at the weekend as I’ve had a hectic time at work recently and fallen behind with my reading.

Set in 1940s Cyprus, Cyprus Kiss is a prequel to the Ash Carter mystery thrillers, and is the start of a series called the Ash Carter Near East crime thrillers.

I really enjoyed the original Ash Carter series – they’re well-plotted, gripping thrillers with lots of twists and turns, tense moments and some scenes of violence. The books are action-packed and fast-paced reads with some startling revelations! I’d definitely recommend them and I can’t wait to find out more about Ash Carter’s earlier life in this new series.

Buy the book

Cyprus Kiss by Murray Bailey is released on 24 July and can be preordered from Amazon on Kindle and in paperback.

About the author

Murray Bailey got his first taste of success when he was published in The Times at 18 and in his local newspaper. Although he went on to pursue a different career, he continued to write and edit and became the editor of an international magazine and editor of four technical books.

I Dare You was the first of his books to be published in 2016. It was followed by Map of the Dead, the first of the series based on his interest in Egyptology. His main series, however, is the Ash Carter thrillers, inspired by his father’s experience in the Royal Military Police in Singapore in the early 1950s.

Murray was born in Greater Manchester, England and has being moving south ever since. He now lives on the beautiful Dorset coast with his wife and family.

Twitter: @MurrayBaileybks
Facebook: @MurrayBaileyAuthor
Instagram: @murraybaileyauthor
Website: https://murraybaileybooks.com/

Thanks

Thanks to Murray Bailey for my digital copy of Cyprus Kiss and for my place on the blog tour.

Street Cat Blues by Alison O’Leary

Publication day blitz

Synopsis

A quiet life for Aubrey?
After spending several months banged up in Sunny Banks rescue centre, Aubrey, a large tabby cat, has finally found his forever home with Molly and Jeremy Goodman, and life is looking good.
However, all that changes when a serial killer begins to target elderly victims in the neighbourhood.
Aubrey wasn’t particularly upset by the death of some of the previous victims, including Miss Jenkins whom Aubrey recalls as a vinegar-lipped bitch of an old woman who enjoyed throwing stones at cats, but Mr Telling was different.
Mr Telling was a mate …
Please note: this is a revised second edition, which is being re-released ahead of the rest of the series.

Competition

Do you have a cat? Do you love cats?

Tweet a picture of your little terror to @RedDogTweets with the hashtag #CatWithABite and you will be entered in the cat hat to win a signed paperback copy of Street Cat Blues!

The competition is UK only and ends at midnight on Wednesday 4 November.

Buy the book

Street Cat Blues by Alison O’Leary can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in paperback, and as an eBook from Kobo and Google Books. Or purchase a copy directly from the Red Dog Press online shop.

About the author

Alison O’Leary was born in London and, during her teenage years in Hertfordshire, she spent large amounts of time reading novels, watching daytime television and avoiding school. Failing to gain any qualifications in science whatsoever, the dream of being a forensic scientist collided with reality when a careers teacher suggested that she might like to work in a shop. Alison doesn’t think she meant Harrods. Later studying law, she decided to teach rather than go into practice and has spent many years teaching mainly criminal law and criminology to young people and adults.

Alison enjoys reading crime novels, doing crosswords, and drinking wine. Not necessarily in that order.

Twitter: @alisonoleary81
Website: https://www.alisonoleary.co.uk

Thanks

Thanks to Meggy Roussel at Red Dog Press for the publicity materials for the Street Cat Blues publication day blitz.

The Bad Mother’s Virus by Suzy K. Quinn

Promotional post

Synopsis

Laughter is good for the immune system.
Single mother, Juliette Duffy, is getting married. Again. And this time, she is determined to make it all the way down the aisle. But you never know what’s around the corner, do you?
Follow Juliette through the trials and tribulations of home schooling, shopping in post-apocalytic supermarkets, trying to stop her 3-year old from licking car door handles and finally scoring a 9-pack of toilet roll.
And then someone goes into hospital …

Note from the author

My lovely readers, this book should have been called The Bad Mother’s Wedding. But after all of us plunging into a rather weird and, for some, very scary, global pandemic, I thought we all needed a bit of cheering up. There are so many real, human, funny and heart-warming stories in the midst of this pandemic, and that’s what I’m hoping to share in this book.

Thank you to everyone who donates to healthcare heroes by reading this book. You are contributing to many good causes and hopefully laughing and feeling good, even if things feel scary or uncertain.

We’ll get through this everyone!

Huge love,
Suzy xxx

Buy the book

The Bad Mother’s Virus by Suzy K. Quinn can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and is also available to read for free on Kindle Unlimited.

100% of profits donated to coronavirus vaccine and healthcare funds.*

* Sales profits currently donated to:
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in support of coronavirus vaccine development
NHS Charities Together

All net book sale profits will be donated. This does not include Kindle Unlimited borrows.

About the author

Suzy K. Quinn is a British fiction author, and writes in three different genres: psychological thriller, comedy and romance.

She was first published by Hachette in 2010 with her debut novel, Glass Geishas (now Night Girls), then self-published a romance series, the Ivy Lessons, which became an international bestseller and a #1 Kindle romance bestseller in the US and UK.

After her second daughter was born in 2013, she self-published the Bad Mother’s Diary series, which also went on to become a #1 Kindle romantic comedy bestseller.

Her novels have been translated into seven languages and have sold over ¾ million copies worldwide.

Suzy lives in Wivenhoe, Essex, with her husband, Demi, and two daughters, and travels to Mexico every year to write and study Mayan story telling. She loves her family, friends and readers, but when pushed to add more to the list, she also loves travelling, food and alcohol.

Twitter: @SuzyKQuinn
Facebook: @suzykquinnbooks
Instagram: @suzy_writes_bestsellers
Website: https://www.suzykquinn.com

Thanks

Thanks to Megan Denholm at ed public relations for my digital copy of The Bad Mother’s Virus and for the promotional materials for this blog post.

The Orphan Thief by Glynis Peters

Promotional blog tour: 20 to 23 January 2020

Synopsis

When all seems lost …
As Hitler’s bombs rain down on a battered and beleaguered Britain, Ruby Shadwell is dealt the most devastating blow – her entire family lost during the Coventry Blitz.
Hope still survives …
Alone and with the city in chaos, Ruby is determined to survive this war and rebuild her life. And a chance encounter with street urchin Tommy gives Ruby just the chance she needs …
And love will overcome.
Because Tommy brings with him Canadian Sergeant Jean-Paul Clayton. Jean-Paul is drawn to Ruby and wants to help her, but Ruby cannot bear another loss.
Can love bloom amidst the ruins? Or will the war take Ruby’s last chance at happiness too?

Buy the book

The Orphan Thief by Glynis Peters can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in paperback now, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Glynis Peters lives in Dovercourt, Essex, England.

She married her school sweetheart in 1979, and they have three children. They also have three grandchildren, with another due in the spring of 2019, the year of their ruby wedding anniversary.

In 2014, Glynis was short-listed for the Festival of Romantic Fiction New Talent Award.

In 2018, HarperCollins/HarperImpulse published her novel, The Secret Orphan. The novel rose to several bestseller positions within a few months of release.

When Glynis is not writing, she enjoys fishing with her husband, making greetings cards, cross stitch and the company of her granddaughters.

Her grandson lives in Canada, and it is for that reason she introduced a Canadian pilot into The Secret Orphan.

Twitter: @_Glynis_Peters
Facebook: @glynispetersauthor
Website: http://www.glynispetersauthor.co.uk
Instagram: @glynispetersauthor

Blog tour

Thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for the promotional material for The Orphan Thief and for my place on the blog tour.

See the banner below for more stops on the #blogtour.