Blog tour: 10 to 20 August 2020

Synopsis

Viewing an apartment normally doesn’t turn into a life-or-death situation. But this particular open house in a small town in Sweden becomes just that when an unsuccessful bank robber bursts in and takes everyone in the apartment hostage.

With the bank robber refusing to communicate demands to the police, fear quickly turns to irritation for those trapped inside. If this is going to be their last day on earth, shouldn’t it be a bit more … dramatic?

As they wait, the eight incredibly anxious strangers slowly begin opening up to one another, revealing long-hidden truths.

And as the minutes tick on, they begin to suspect that the criminal mastermind holding them hostage might be more in need of rescuing than they are …

A poignant, unpredictable locked-room comedy about a crime that never takes place, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they could ever have realised.

My review

Set in a small town in Sweden, on the day before New Year’s Eve, Anxious People tells the story of a 39-year-old pistol-wielding bank robber, who didn’t mean to be a bank robber, and the people who ended up being held hostage in a nearby apartment. They included seven prospective buyers and a real estate agent.

After the hostage situation ends, the two local policemen (father and son, Jim and Jack) interview the witnesses, starting with 20-year-old bank clerk, London. Next to be interrogated is 50-something Zara, who is wealthy and runs a bank, followed by all the other hostages from the apartment.

We slowly learn more about all the characters and their pasts and how they’re involved in the whole scenario. We follow things from various viewpoints so we build up the full picture of what’s been happening and which led us to this point in time. It’s all a lot more complex than it first appears!

The book is written in a social commentary style and includes discussions of rather dark themes, including suicide, mental health, poverty, relationship breakdowns, isolation, but these are interspersed with some comical moments from the eccentric potential apartment buyers and the incompetent bank robber/hostage taker!

This is an intriguing and quirky tale, written in an unusual style, and I wasn’t really sure where it was going at first. I soon got into the rhythm and enjoyed trying to piece all the clues together in this entertaining and unpredictable locked-room mystery.

Overall, this is a fascinating insight into human behaviour and amusingly written, with some witty observations. The character-driven storyline is well plotted and cleverly woven. Just when I thought I understood what was going on, there’d be another curveball or revelation! It’s a touching and emotional read and also rather thought provoking. The diverse cast of characters were realistically drawn and the various connections made between them were heart warming and poignant.

This is the first of the author’s books that I’ve read and I’m keen to read more of his work, especially A Man Called Ove and Beartown.

Buy the book

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in hardback, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Fredrik Backman made his literary debut in 2012 with the global sensation, A Man Called Ove. Wickedly funny, touching and wise, Fredrik Backman’s novels are odysseys of the ordinary man and woman, and stunningly moving tales of everyday courage. His books have sold more than 11 million copies in 46 languages and the film adaptation of A Man Called Ove was nominated for two Academy Awards. Tom Hanks is currently set to adapt and star in an English language version of the film.

Twitter: @Backmanland
Facebook: @Backmanland
Instagram: @backmansk
Website: https://fredrikbackmanbooks.com

Blog tour

Thanks to Laura Nicol at Michael Joseph Books for my copy of Anxious People and for my place on the blog tour.

Blog tour: 3 to 16 August 2020

Synopsis

Who can you trust, if you can’t trust yourself?

Alice Hunter, grieving and troubled after a breakdown, stumbles on the body of her friend and trustee, Harry Rook. The police determine he has been ritually murdered and suspicion falls on the vulnerable Alice, who inherited the place known locally as The Witch House from her grandmother, late High Priestess of the local coven.

When the investigations turn up more evidence, and it all seems to point to Alice, even she begins to doubt herself.

Can she find the courage to confront the secrets and lies at the heart of her family and community to uncover the truth, prove her sanity, and clear herself of murder?

My review

The Witch House tells the story of Alice Hunter, 22, who has recently been released from a mental health unit called Brookfields after suffering a breakdown when her grandmother died. She cared for Frances for three years after she had a stroke.

One autumnal morning, while looking for her friend, Harry Rook, who is the owner of the West Beach Café and Cuckmere Amusement Park, Alice is horrified to find him lying dead in his hut near the car park with various pagan symbols around his body. She touches Harry to see if he’s still alive and ends up catching herself on the murder weapon and her finger starts bleeding. She frantically phones 999 and awaits the arrival of the police and paramedics. As she found the body, the police want to take her witness statement. They seem to assume she must be guilty and DI Collingwood is rather harsh in his questioning of Alice.

Harry was the executor and trustee of Frances’ will, of which Alice is the main benefactor, but her inheritance money is tied up until she’s 30. Alice also owns half of a property company with Mrs Banerjee, as well as a cleaning and care company and a farm.

Alice is rather vulnerable and an unreliable narrator and suffers from panic attacks and has to do breathing exercises. She’s rather shy and paranoid and thinks she’s being watched. She does appear to have an artistic stalker who sends her pen and ink drawings though – or is it a figment of her imagination? The drugs she takes also play tricks with her mind: she suffers from night terrors and leaves the front door open and has had things stolen from the Witch House, which she inherited from her grandma.

Frances has a history of paganism and was High Priestess of the local pagan group, Cuckmere Coven. Several years ago, there was a scandal when the new vicar in the village disagreed with their old ways and banned followers from the church and the pagan meetings stopped or went underground. Frances also had a falling out with the Rook family, which Alice has never been able to get to the bottom of.

Alice isn’t very close with her mum, Helen, who gave up her daughter to Frances when she was younger, and they have a rather fraught and difficult relationship. She doesn’t have many friends apart from Tamsin, who runs the café and whose great uncle is Harry, and Kelly, who’s in her early thirties and is still in Brookfields where the two met.

Four years ago, Alice was due to go to the University of Oxford to study classical history and archaeology before she gives it all up to care for her grandma and then ended up in Brookfields. She decides to do a part-time course at the local university called Romans in Sussex, which is run by the TV presenter Professor Matthew Buckley, to build up her confidence. Alice has a keen interest in archaeology, after finding a Roman coin on the cliffs at Cuckmere Beacon, and she shares this passion with her grandma who had a collection of artefacts, which she discovered in the local area.

After Alice is questioned about Harry’s murder, everyone in Cuckmere already seems to think she’s guilty, due to her pagan connections, being the granddaughter of a supposed witch, and her recent stay in the mental hospital. As she struggles to prove she’s innocent, Alice learns some shocking secrets about her family, and isn’t sure who she can trust – everyone seems to think she’s responsible, including her own mother and Tamsin.

Overall, this was a well-plotted and gripping murder mystery with some intriguing characters and startling family revelations. There was lots of action, several twists and turns, and the archaeology and pagan scenes were fascinating. I was never quite sure whether Alice was telling the truth or not and was flummoxed about who had actually murdered Harry until the killer was revealed!

I really enjoyed this cleverly written, atmospheric and entertaining novel; it was something a bit different from the norm and I liked the way the rather dark story unfolded and all the different threads came together. I’m already looking forward to reading more from the author.

Buy the book

The Witch House by Ann Rawson can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in paperback. Or purchase paperback and hardback editions directly from the Red Dog Press online shop.

About the author

Ann Rawson has long been addicted to story. As a child, she longed to learn to read because she knew there was magic in those pages, the inky squiggles that turned into words and became images in her head – the stories that could transport her away from the everyday. As she grew older, she divined there was truth in books too. They were a glimpse into other minds. Her reading became the foundation of a deep and abiding interest in what makes people tick – and so she soon became hooked on crime fiction.

Age ten, she wrote to Malcolm Saville, author of the Lone Pine Series, enclosing her first short story. He wrote back and encouraged her to continue writing – and she is heartbroken that the letter is long lost. His book, Lone Pine Five, sparked a lifelong interest in archaeology, as it mentions the Mildenhall Treasure which makes an appearance in The Witch House.

A lapsed witch with enduring pagan tendencies, she lives on the south coast. She still thinks of herself as a Northerner, although she’s been in exile for many years. Almost every day she walks on the Downs or the white cliffs with her husband, plotting her next novel while he designs computer systems.

Ann’s debut novel, A Savage Art, was published by Fahrenheit Press in 2016. She has published some short fiction, and in 2019 her memoir piece, If…, was shortlisted for the Fish Short Memoir Prize.

She is currently completing a memoir and working on her third novel.

Twitter: @AE_Rawson
Facebook: @aerawson
Website: www.strawintogold.co.uk

Blog tour

Thanks to Sean Coleman at Red Dog Press for my digital copy of The Witch House and for my place on the blog tour.

Blog tour: 13 July to 14 August 2020

Synopsis

Haunted by their past, the Skelf women are hoping for a quieter life. But running both a funeral directors’ and a private investigation business means trouble is never far away, and when a car crashes into the open grave at a funeral that matriarch Dorothy is conducting, she can’t help looking into the dead driver’s shadowy life.

While Dorothy uncovers a dark truth at the heart of Edinburgh society, her daughter Jenny and granddaughter Hannah have their own struggles. Jenny’s ex-husband Craig is making plans that could shatter the Skelf women’s lives, and the increasingly obsessive Hannah has formed a friendship with an elderly professor that is fast turning deadly.

But something even more sinister emerges when a drumming student of Dorothy’s disappears and suspicion falls on her parents. The Skelf women find themselves sucked into an unbearable darkness – but could the real threat be to themselves?

Following three women as they deal with the dead, help the living and find out who they are in the process, The Big Chill follows A Dark Matter, book one in the Skelfs series. Fast-paced, darkly funny, yet touching and tender, the Skelf family series is a welcome reboot to the classic private investigator novel, whilst also asking deeper questions about family, society and grief.

My review

After reading and really enjoying the first book in the Skelfs series, A Dark Matter, I was keen to join the blog tour for the second book, The Big Chill, and I wasn’t disappointed. This book is even better!

The Big Chill can be read as a standalone as the background is explained but, as it follows on so soon after the other, I’d recommend that you read the first book in the series to get the full picture of the Skelf women and who they are and what they’ve endured.

Set six months after the first novel, in which the patriarch of the Skelf family, Jim, died suddenly from a heart attack, we once again delve into the lives of three generations of the women who have taken over the reins of the family funeral business and private investigator firm in Edinburgh. Dorothy, who’s from California originally, is 70, daughter, Jenny, is 45 and granddaughter, Hannah, is 20.

My attention was caught from the first few pages in this action-packed novel with that dramatic opening! While conducting a funeral at Edinburgh Eastern cemetery, Dorothy is nearly killed when a joyrider in a white Nissan, being chased by a police car, hurtles through the gates and pinballs through the graveyard, knocking over gravestones. When the car eventually comes to rest, in an unusual position, the driver dies after suffering a head injury.

The joyrider is thought to be homeless and the police don’t seem too bothered about identifying him. Dorothy adopts his dog, a border collie who she names Einstein, and is determined to discover who the man was, enlisting Jenny to do the private investigating work.

One of Dorothy’s drumming students, Abi, goes missing and her mum and stepdad don’t seem too bothered about finding her. Dorothy ends up watching Abi’s dad’s flat in an attempt to find her and discovers there’s a whole lot more to the situation than meets the eye.

Jenny also visits her ex-husband, Craig, in prison, where he’s on remand, and ends up having an altercation with him as he knows exactly which buttons to press and continues to try and hurt all three women with his actions and manipulative words.

Hannah is a physics student at the local university and gets close to one of the elderly professors, Hugh Fowler, who insists that the department should honour Hannah’s friend and flatmate, Melanie Cheng, who tragically died. Later on, things take a shocking turn and Hannah is left reeling by what happens with the professor.

With characters you really care about and relate to, The Big Chill is a touching and heartfelt read. All three women, Dorothy, Jenny and Hannah, are still trying to move on after the death of patriarch Jim and the events in the last book are continue to play deeply on everyone’s mind and affect them all.

Hannah is having counselling and trying not to take her lovely, supportive girlfriend, Indy, for granted. Her mum, Jenny, is still in turmoil after ex-husband, Craig’s, awful betrayal and wicked actions, and trying to enjoy spending time with new boyfriend, Liam.

Dorothy is trying to remain strong for the whole family and their colleague Archie, who suffers the bereavement of a close family member and has Cotard’s syndrome (a psychological condition that means he believe he’s dead). Dorothy’s professional relationship and private friendship with Detective Inspector Thomas Olsson continues to blossom and they seem a good match despite the 15-year age gap.

The women have great relationships – they all have a lot going on but are supportive of each other. I think Hannah should think about Indy more though – she can be a bit self-absorbed and self-sabotaging and not considerate of Indy’s feelings. Bearing in mind that Indy lost both her parents in a car crash only four years ago, Hannah leans on her too heavily at times and expects her to be strong and supportive all the time.

Again, there were some lovely detailed and evocative descriptions of Edinburgh and I even checked Google Maps so I could picture where various scenes had happened.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and the series – it’s well written, cleverly plotted and very engaging. There are lots of threads of stories in the book with some great cliffhangers at the ends of chapters. I never knew what was going to happen next and the storyline was very tense at times and kept me on my toes! Lots happens and the book is very entertaining and gripping with several themes but easy to follow and not far fetched. This dark story unfolds well at a good pace and with some dramatic conclusions!

The concept of three generations of women working as both family funeral directors and private investigators is certainly unique and very original and I enjoy finding out more about the various techniques involved in both businesses!

I hear there’s a third book in the series – I hope this is true! – and I’m already looking forward to reading more about the escapades of the Skelfs!

Buy the book

The Big Chill by Doug Johnstone can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle now and in paperback on 20 August, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Doug Johnstone is the author of more than 10 novels, most recently Breakers, which has been shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year, and A Dark Matter, which launched the Skelfs series. Several of his books have been bestsellers and award winners, and his work has been praised by the likes of Val McDermid, Irvine Welsh and Ian Rankin. He’s taught creative writing and been writer in residence at various institutions – including a funeral home, which he drew on to write
A Dark Matter – and has been an arts journalist for 20 years.

Doug is a songwriter and musician with five albums and three EPs released, and he plays drums for the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers, a band of crime writers. He’s also player-manager of the Scotland Writers Football Club. He lives in Edinburgh.

Twitter: @doug_johnstone
Instagram: @writerdougj
Website: https://dougjohnstone.com

Blog tour

Thanks to Orenda Books and Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for my digital copy of The Big Chill and for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 6 to 10 August 2020

Synopsis

For years, Yvonne has tried to keep her demons buried and focus on moving forward. But her guilt is always with her and weighs heavily on her heart.

Kiama has had to grow up without a mother, and while there is so much he remembers about her, there is still plenty he doesn’t know. And there’s only one person who can fill in the gaps.

Lewis wants nothing more than to keep Kiama, his son, safe, but the thought of Kiama dredging up the past worries Lewis deeply. And Lewis doesn’t know if he’s ready to let the only woman he’s ever loved back into his life.

When Kiama seeks Yvonne out and asks her to come with him to Kenya, the place that holds the answers to his questions, she knows she can’t refuse. And this one act sets in motion an unravelling of the past that no one is ready for.

Moving between London and Kenya, and spanning almost two decades, Homecoming is a profound and moving story of love, family and friendship. It’s about coming to terms with your past, opening yourself up to the exquisite pain and pleasure of love, and of what happens when three lost souls, all bound by one person, come together and finally share their truths.

My review

After recently finishing Luan Goldie’s debut novel, Nightingale Point, for The Motherload® Book Club group’s monthly readalong, I was excited to follow it up with Homecoming and I definitely wasn’t disappointed!

Covering nearly two decades and set in London and Kenya, it tells the story of Yvonne and Kiama (his name means ‘light of life’ in Kenyan). They’re connected through Kiama’s mum, Emma, who was Yvonne’s best friend and housemate at university. Emma died suddenly in Kenya when her son was only eight years old.

Ten years later, in September 2020, 18-year-old Kiama decides to return to Kenya to find out more about his mum’s death and try and come to terms with what happened. He remembers certain things about the past but his memories are patchy and mainly influenced by what others have told him over the last decade.

Kiama meets Yvonne (now 40), who he hasn’t seen since his mum passed away, at a coffee shop and asks her to accompany him on his trip as she knew Emma best out of anyone. After thinking about it for a week, Yvonne agrees to go to Kenya with Kiama but reluctantly as she’s hiding a few secrets and feels guilty about things that have happened since he was born and about the events leading up to Emma’s death. She was in Kenya visiting when Emma died in shocking circumstances.

Kiama plans to spend 10 days in Kenya and visit his maternal grandparents, Neil and Cynthia, in Nairobi, see his mum’s old nanny, Purity, who also looked after him for six months, and then head to Mombasa. Kiama’s dad, Lewis, is rather worried that he wants to revisit the past as there’s a lot that his son isn’t aware of; things that went on concerning his mum, dad and Yvonne.

At the start of their trip, Kiama and Yvonne are trying to suss each other out and are rather wary; they only have old memories to go on and Yvonne isn’t exactly sure what Kiama wants to know and wonders whether she should tell him everything about the past or not. He’s still mourning his mum and his nana, who died recently, and struggling to find his way in the world after being spoilt by his dad and nana too much. The trip is an emotional and tense time for Kiama and Yvonne, and brings all kinds of feelings to the surface and various flashbacks.

As the story unfolds, things become clearer and we realise why Yvonne lost touch with Kiama and his dad, we learn more about Yvonne and Emma’s university days and their friendship beyond this, and find out more about Emma’s family (her parents both work for an oil company in Kenya). It’s a rather sad tale: full of regrets, lies, love, complicated relationships and heartache.

I enjoyed the descriptions of Kenya and the difficult conditions in the orphanage in Lari, which was where Emma had worked. The Swahili phrases were also a nice touch.

Homecoming was an engaging and thought-provoking read with some shocking and emotional scenes. It was sad that Yvonne was forced to choose between her best friend and a man. She felt torn between the two and unsure who to remain loyal to. She seemed rather lonely, guilty and deeply affected by all that had happened.

Overall, I really enjoyed this captivating and poignant novel. It was well written and beautifully described and the story built up cleverly as we switched between the two timelines and the past and the truth were slowly revealed. I had sympathy for all the main protagonists, apart from Lewis who seemed a bit selfish, and it was fascinating to see how one wrong decision/omission had such repercussions for them all in the future.

After reading both of the author’s novels back to back, I’m already looking forward to her next book!

Buy the book

Homecoming by Luan Goldie can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in hardback, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Luan Goldie is a Glasgow-born author and primary school teacher who grew up in East London.

Her debut novel, Nightingale Point, was longlisted for the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize. It was also a BBC Radio 2 Jo Whiley Book Club Pick.

Her short stories have appeared in Resist: Stories of Uprising and The Good Journal. She is also the winner of the 2017 Costa Short Story Award.

Twitter: @LuanGoldie
Facebook: @luangoldie
Instagram: @luangoldie
Website: https://luangoldie.co.uk

Blog tour

Thanks to Sian Baldwin at HQ Stories for my digital copy of Homecoming and for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 23 to 27 July 2020

Synopsis

In a world of what-ifs, a connection has been made …

When Ryan spots a young woman on the tube on his commute, he can’t take his eyes off her. Instantly attracted and intrigued, he’s keen to find out more about his mysterious fellow passenger.

The woman he thinks of as Millie spends all day travelling the Underground, unable to leave for reasons unbeknownst to Ryan. For some inexplicable reason, he just can’t shake the feeling he wants to help her escape her endless commute.

My review

Eleven Lines to Somewhere tells the story of Ryan Kennedy (33), a laboratory manager at a university, who commutes to work every day on the London Underground. One day, while people watching, he spots a young woman with ‘nearly red’ hair and, after seeing her several times, he’s smitten and tries to catch the same train as her every day and get on the front carriage, which is where she prefers to sit.

He names the woman ‘Millie’ and tries to ensure that his journey to work coincides with hers, checking the first carriage of each train as it arrives and waiting for the next one if he can’t see her. Millie appears to be in a world of her own, on a mission, and sits there reading her book, without acknowledging anyone around her.

Ryan begins to follow Millie on her daily journeys around the network and is confused by the routes she follows – there’s no pattern to her trips and she gets off at different stops every day, switches lines and, sometimes, waits for hours at a station, like she’s meeting someone. He can’t figure out what she does or where she works and assumes she’s based in several different offices and has meetings around London.

As the story unfolds, we learn more about Ryan, his lodger, Naomi, and the losses that he and his family have suffered. Ryan’s mum, Grace, and his sister, Hana, look after his grandpa (his father’s dad), who is still deeply mourning the death of his son.

We learn more about Millie’s story too – her real name is Sylvie and she has nowhere to be and is trapped travelling the tube for reasons that are revealed later on in the story. There’s a sadness about her and she isn’t sure how to move on and escape her current existence of endless travel.

When Ryan and Sylvie finally connect, we’re left hoping that they will be good for each other and be able to help each other heal and move on from the distressing events in their pasts.

The setting of the London Underground is like a cast of characters in itself as Millie/Sylvie and Ryan travel round the network taking different routes. People’s lives are intersecting like the tube trains: connections made and missed, lives criss-crossing and people passing by without seeing each other.

I liked Ryan but he is slightly stalkerish when he begins to follow Millie and his behaviour does seem rather obsessive at times! He would have been better off just plucking up the courage to speak to her, as opposed to trailing her around!

This is an engaging, absorbing book; one to be read carefully and savoured. It’s a rather meandering read at times – we’re introduced to new characters we haven’t met before and then other characters are discussed and I had to check to see if they had been mentioned before. The characters are strong and intelligently written though and I found them fascinating and relatable. I was curious to see how they’re all connected to the story and to each other.

Overall, this was an intriguing, poignant and thought-provoking novel about family, friendships, relationships, love, loss and grief. It was cleverly plotted and written in an unusual style and I liked the way we gradually built up a picture of each of the different characters and learnt how their past was affecting them from moving forward on their journeys.

I haven’t read the author’s debut novel yet and I look forward to The First Time Lauren Pailing Died, which I’ve heard good things about and sounds a fascinating read.

Buy the book

Eleven Lines to Somewhere by Alyson Rudd can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in hardback, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Alyson Rudd started out as a financial journalist but has been an award-winning sportswriter for 23 years, all of them with The Times, bar a two year stint at The Sunday Telegraph. She has written two non-fiction titles: Astroturf Blonde, about playing football with men and women’s teams, and a biography of Matthew Harding, the Chelsea director who was killed in a helicopter crash.

She is a something of a judging panel addict and decided to write fiction after assessing the entries for the Costa First Novel Award. Her first novel, The First Time Lauren Pailing Died, was published by HQ in 2019.

Alyson, born in Liverpool, is a qualified football coach and referee, married with two sons and lives in south-west London.

Twitter: @allyrudd_times

Blog tour

Thanks to Sian Baldwin at HQ Stories for my digital copy of Eleven Lines to Somewhere and for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 13 July to 14 August 2020

Synopsis

It’s a small story. A small town with small lives that you would never have heard about if none of this had happened.

Hinton Hollow. Population 5,120.

Little Henry Wallace was eight years old and one hundred miles from home before anyone talked to him. His mother placed him on a train with a label around his neck, asking for him to be kept safe for a week, kept away from Hinton Hollow.

Because something was coming.

Narrated by Evil itself, Hinton Hollow Death Trip recounts five days in the history of this small rural town, when darkness paid a visit and infected its residents. A visit that made them act in unnatural ways. Prodding at their insecurities. Nudging at their secrets and desires. Coaxing out the malevolence suppressed within them. Showing their true selves.

Making them cheat.
Making them steal.
Making them kill.

Detective Sergeant Pace had returned to his childhood home. To escape the things he had done in the city. To go back to something simple. But he was not alone. Evil had a plan.

My review

This is the third book in the Detective Sergeant Pace series and follows straight on from the tragic events of the second book, Nothing Important Happened Today. Pace has decided to head home to Hinton Hollow, without telling his girlfriend, Maeve Beauman. He’s accompanied on the train journey back to the small town, which is situated between London and Oxford, by the narrator of the novel, Evil, who has decided to have some fun in the town, home to 5120 residents.

The main story is told over the course of five days and we follow Evil as it cunningly manipulates and persuades people, encouraging them to do things they wouldn’t normally do, leading them astray and dropping hints about the often unpleasant course of action they should take.

Hinton Hollow Death Trip is a difficult book to review and I really think it’s best to read it without knowing too much beforehand. The story is a unique and unusual concept, written in such an original way, unlike anything else I’ve read.

The book contains several plots and we switch between different characters and events, picking up the various threads. I was never sure what was going to happen next but, with Evil involved, you know it’s going to be bad!

The straight-talking social commentary and fascinating, wry observations of life in the book are often uncomfortably true and make you reflect. It’s a really gripping and disturbing read – at times, I felt like Evil would be after me next. The chilling thoughts just worm their way into your mind and really make you question things!

There’s so much tension and suspense in the novel – I constantly felt on edge and agitated. The book is chilling, dark and disturbing; not one for the faint hearted, with its unpleasant, harrowing scenes of animal cruelty and the death of children.

With a claustrophobic setting and twisted storyline, the town of Hinton Hollow is somewhere I’d hate to be – I’d definitely want to take the train out of there, probably screaming as I went!

Overall, I really enjoyed (is that the right word?) this well-woven and cleverly constructed novel and found it fascinating! There were some intriguing twists and it was very entertaining and thought provoking; I’ll definitely be thinking about it for some time to come. I’m just hoping I won’t have nightmares …!

I haven’t read the first book in the series, Good Samaritans, yet so that’s definitely on my list, to see where the story began.

Buy the book

Hinton Hollow Death Trip by Will Carver can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle now and in paperback on 13 August, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Will Carver is the international, bestselling author of the January David series. He spent his early years in Germany, but returned to the UK at age 11, when his sporting career took off. He turned down a professional rugby contract to study theatre and television at King Alfred’s, Winchester, where he set up a successful theatre company. He currently runs his own fitness and nutrition company, and lives in Reading with his two children. Good Samaritans was book of the year in The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph and Sunday Express, and hit number one in the eBook charts.

Twitter: @will_carver
Facebook: @WillCarverAuthor

Blog tour

Thanks to Orenda Books and Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for my digital copy of Hinton Hollow Death Trip and for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 20 July to 1 August 2020

Synopsis

Four victims.
Killer caught.
Case closed … Or is it?

Six years ago, notorious serial killer Christopher Masters murdered four women over a frenzied fortnight in South West London. His last victim, Holly Kemp, was never found – until now.

When Holly’s remains are unearthed in a Cambridgeshire field, DC Cat Kinsella is called in for what should be an open-and-shut case. But immediately she has questions: Why was Holly buried so far away from the other victims? And why was her manner of death different?

With Masters dead and few new leads, Cat has little to go on except her gut instinct, which is telling her that the real killer is still out there.

But if you’d got away with murder, how far would you go to keep the past where it belongs?

My review

Shed No Tears is the third book in the Detective Constable Cat Kinsella series and the first one I’ve read. I was a bit worried that I would be missing some key background information. There were a few mentions of Cat’s father but it works perfectly well as a standalone.

In February 2012, four women were abducted and murdered: Bryony Trent (24, pub manager), Stephanie König (29, German, events management) and Ling Chen (33), plus Holly Kemp (22, car showroom receptionist), whose body was never found. Serial killer, Christopher Masters, was charged with all four murders, despite never confessing to the final killing, as there was solid evidence from a reliable eyewitness that placed Holly at his house, 6 Valentine Street in Clapham, the scene of the murders.

Six years later, Holly’s remains have been found in a farmer’s field in Caxton near Cambridge and DC Cat Kinsella and her partner, Detective Sergeant (DS) Luigi Parnell, have been tasked with finally tying up the loose ends and reinterviewing various people connected with the case.

Cat’s boss, Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Kate Steele, has asked the lead investigator on the ‘Roommate’ case, DCI Tessa Dyer, to give the team some background so that they can get up to speed. As Cat and the rest of the team investigate, there are various loose ends that don’t want to be tied, evidence that doesn’t match the killer’s modus operandi and Cat is rather suspicious of key eyewitness, primary school teacher Serena Bailey, and her perfect and detailed recall of events.

This was a cleverly plotted and entertaining police procedural novel with some great characters and I really enjoyed following Cat’s investigation as she left no stone unturned to solve the case. There were lots of twists and turns, red herrings, many secrets and numerous characters who’d played a part in the events of 2012.

We also learnt a bit more about Cat Kinsella’s complicated private life: her boyfriend, Aiden Doyle, who she met 18 months ago while investigating the death of his older sister, Maryanne. Her gangster father, Michael McBride, is connected with that case and it sounds like I need to read Sweet Little Lies to discover exactly what happened!

Cat is hiding various secrets and is in the verge of being considered corrupt but, in spite of that, she’s an intelligent, dedicated police officer and knows exactly which questions to ask and how to investigate cases in a clever and thorough manner.

Overall, I really enjoyed this gripping and absorbing crime thriller – there were lots of fascinating and detailed elements to the case and I enjoyed trying to work out exactly who was responsible for Holly’s murder. The case unfolded well and I was rather surprised by the explosive ending!

I’ll definitely be going back to read the other books in the series, Sweet Little Lies and Stone Cold Heart, and keeping an eye out for the author’s next book.

Buy the book

Shed No Tears by Caz Frear can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in paperback, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Caz Frear grew up in Coventry, England, and spent her teenage years dreaming of moving to London and writing a novel. After fulfilling her first dream, it wasn’t until she moved back to Coventry 13 years later that the second finally came true.

She has a degree in history and politics, and when she’s not agonizing over snappy dialogue or incisive prose, she can be found shouting at Arsenal football matches or holding court in the pub on topics she knows nothing about.

Her first novel, Sweet Little Lies, was published in 2017, and the second book in the DC Cat Kinsella series, Stone Cold Heart, was released in 2019.

Twitter: @CazziF
Instagram: @cazzifwrites

Blog tour

Thanks to Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers for my copy of Shed No Tears and for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 17 to 23 July 2020

Synopsis

To the outside world, Hannah married the perfect man. Behind the closed doors of their imposing home, it’s a very different story. Nathan controls everything Hannah does. He chooses her clothes, checks her receipts, and keeps her passport locked away. But why does she let him?

Years before, in the midst of a relentless storm, the tragic events of one night changed everything. And Hannah has been living with the consequences ever since. Keeping Nathan happy. Doing as she’s told.

But the past is about to catch up with them.

Set against the unforgiving backdrop of a Cornish fishing port in the ’90s, this is a devastating exploration of the power of coercive control in a marriage where nothing is quite as it seems …

My review

Set near Penzance in Cornwall, The Coast tells the story of Hannah and Nathan Cardew, their 15-year-old son, Alex, and dog, Cass. Nathan is a lawyer while Hannah doesn’t work and is a stay-at-home mum. The family live in New Mill in Trevose House, which was originally Nathan’s family home and used to be much larger but his father, Charles, was a gambler and ended up selling off parts of the estate to pay his debts. He died suddenly on Nathan’s 13th birthday.

Nathan is very controlling and won’t let Hannah do anything without his approval. He tells her what to wear, won’t let her have her own money, checks her receipts, she isn’t allowed to work or have her own car. He expects everything to be done to a schedule – from when meals are served to when they have sex. Their relationship is toxic: he twists her words, gaslights her and tries to convince her that he’s told her things when he hasn’t. He also enjoys putting her down at every opportunity and tries to make her feel grateful that he wants to be with her. Hannah makes excuses for Nathan to Alex and others and claims he’s just overprotective.

Hannah only has one friend, Vicky, who she’s known since they were at nursery together. Vicky is married to Phil and they have four-year-old twins. It’s coming up to her 40th birthday and she wants Hannah to go away for the night but they’re both expecting Nathan to refuse.

To try and retain a small amount of independence, Hannah meets Vicky every Tuesday in secret at a cafe in Penzance and she also sneaks out at night to smoke the pack of cigarettes that Vicky gives her every other week. Nathan has never liked Vicky – he thinks she’s a bad influence, common and a flirt – and he hates smoking. Hannah is also clever with money and uses the cash Nathan gives her carefully; buying cheaper products and pretending to lose receipts so that she can squirrel away a small amount to treat herself, her mum or Alex.

Hannah has routines that keep her going, like doing things on certain days. Her mum is in a care home after a bad fall and she visits her regularly and so does Alex. Her son is the most important thing in her life and the main reason why she hasn’t left Nathan. She can’t escape as she fears what will happen to Alex. She suffered postnatal depression when he was younger and ran away with him. Nathan said she was endangering their baby and took away her passport and bank card and he continues to uses her supposed instability as a threat to stop her from leaving him.

The story is told from the viewpoints of Hannah, Nathan and her ex-boyfriend, Cameron (Cam) Stewart, and switches between 1998 and the present day, which is 15 years later. We learn how Hannah met both men in Newlyn near Penzance when she was working in her dad’s bakery and Cam was a fisherman on The Annamae, and how things developed and the competition between the two men, who knew each other from primary school, as they vied for her affections.

When Alex disappears after an argument with his dad and Hannah’s mum falls ill, these two events are the catalyst for the truth about what happened in the past being revealed. There’s a brooding atmosphere, which is matched by the brewing storm, which is the focus of the key events of 1998 that have shaped the rest of Hannah’s life.

This compelling, well-layered story had me intrigued from the start as we know that something shattering happened 15 years previously that affected Hannah, Nathan and Cam and caused the change in direction of all their lives. Hannah still feels so guilty about what happened in the past and her punishment is her abusive life with Nathan. The coercive control of their relationship is very chilling and you can see how easy it is for someone to be in a situation like that and how difficult it would be to get away, with no money or means of escape, and the terrifying thought of uprooting your entire life.

This was a tense, dramatic and traumatic read at times – I was willing Hannah to fight back, stand up to Nathan and break free from his controlling ways. The scenes with Cam and the other fishermen as they faced the storm were also gripping and very nerve racking. There was a great sense of tension as the story unfolded and the truth was revealed. Nothing is as clear cut as it seems and there were several instances of misdirection and various twists and turns.

Being a fisherman sounds a tough life and it was interesting to get an insight into how difficult a job it is and how harsh and unforgiving the sea and weather conditions are. The men have some good banter though and enjoy their downtime in the pub!

Overall, I really enjoyed this dark, well-written and cleverly plotted novel. There was a great build up as we got to the climax of the story and realised why the main protagonists were behaving as they were. It’s a chilling and disturbing read and one I’m still thinking about days later. The storm scenes were very tense and atmospheric and conveyed the drama and trauma of the events well.

This is the first of Amanda Jennings’ books that I’ve read but I’ll definitely be checking out her others. I already have In Her Wake and The Cliff House on my Kindle.

Buy the book

The Storm by Amanda Jennings can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in paperback, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Amanda Jennings writes psychological suspense and is the author of Sworn Secret, which was published in the UK, US and Italy. It was an Amazon Kindle Top 5 Bestseller in the UK, a Top 100 Bestseller in the US, and reached the Number 1 spot in Italy.

Her second book, The Judas Scar, was published in 2014 and optioned shortly after by a UK film and television production company.

Her third novel, In Her Wake, is set in Cornwall, where her mother’s side of the family is from, and where she spent long and very happy childhood summers.

Her fourth book, The Cliff House, was published by Harper Collins imprint HQ in May 2018.

​Amanda is a regular guest on BBC Berkshire’s weekly Book Club and enjoys meeting readers at libraries, book clubs and literary festivals. She was born in London and lives just outside Henley-on-Thames with her husband, three daughters and an unruly menagerie of pets. She is currently writing her sixth book, which will be set on Bodmin Moor. When she isn’t writing she can generally be found walking the dog or dreaming of mountains or the sea.

Twitter: @MandaJJennings
Facebook: @amandajenningsauthor
Instagram: @amanda_jennings1
Website: https://www.amandajennings.co.uk

Blog tour

Thanks to Sian Baldwin at HQ Stories for my digital copy of The Storm and for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 16 to 20 July 2020

Synopsis

A dead woman. An impossible crime.

Christine de Bertrand wakes up to her worst nightmare: rather than the man she went to bed with, lying beside her is her housemate, Nikki – dead. With no memory of the night before, Christine can’t explain what happened, and the police are baffled.

For DC Gaby Darin, newly arrived from Swansea after her last case ended in tragedy, it’s a mystery she’s determined to solve. When another woman goes missing, Gaby faces a race against time to uncover the link between the two victims and find the man who vanished from Christine’s bedroom. But as Gaby gets close, the killer gets closer – and soon one of Gaby’s own team is in unimaginable danger …

My review

This is the second book in the Detective Gaby Darin series and I was keen to find out what happens next after reading and really enjoying Silent Cry.

The opening scene of Darkest Night introduces a 30-year-old woman called Christine de Bertrand, who lives in a top-floor flat along the West Shore in Llandudno. After a rare night out drinking with her friend, Kelly, she wakes up to find herself in bed with what she thinks is a man she brought home with her. After making him a coffee, Christine pulls back the duvet and is horrified to discover the blood-soaked dead body of her flatmate, Nicola (Nikki) Jones.

Detective Constable (DC) Gabriella (Gaby) Darin has recently moved to St Asaph police station from Swansea and it’s her first weekend off in three months but a knocking at the door of her cottage in Rhos-on-Sea and the appearance of her colleague, Welshman DC Owen Bates, mean her days off are cancelled, especially as half the force are ill with Norovirus! Gaby’s new boss, Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Henry Sherlock, has put her in charge of the murder case.

Christine is taken to Llandudno police station for questioning and interviewed by Gaby and DC Bates in the presence of a solicitor before being moved to the custodial suite at St Asalph’s police station. She protests her innocence, claiming she must have been drugged as she can’t remember anything, and the police can’t find a murder weapon either.

She is profoundly deaf after a riding accident as a child and wears hearing aids but her hearing loss has worsened over the years. Christine, a special needs teacher, divorced her husband, Paul, two years ago for reasons that seem to be unclear to all! He is the headmaster at St Gildas Independent Boarding School in Beddgelert. He is also asked some questions when he visits the police station to try and see his ex-wife.

The novel is mainly set over the course of six days in mid-May, with flashbacks to the University of Cambridge in 2008, where Nikki and Christine were studying classics at St Augusta’s College and Paul was one of their course lecturers.

When a person, Tracy Price, goes missing, police are convinced the two cases must be linked but can’t work out the connection between the women. Tracy, 34, is married to Barry and they have six-year-old twin boys. Police speak to various neighbours and learn that the couple’s marriage might have been in trouble but there appear to be no leads or clues.

Both investigations seem to be dragging on without any results and things take an even more sinister turn when one of the police officers goes missing and can’t be tracked down. It seems that things may be coming to a head in dramatic fashion – is the killer involved in this shocking development?

Gaby is a great protagonist and I really like her personality and the way her character is developing. It’s a shame that her love life is rather disastrous and the only man she has any feelings for is the grumpy and red-haired Irish pathologist, Dr Rusty Mulholland, who behaves very strangely towards her and is scathing of everything she does. He is rather abrupt and has bad manners.

Overall, I really enjoyed this excellent and well-written police procedural. As with Silent Cry, I liked the way we followed the investigation as it developed and were able to hear Gaby’s thought processes as she struggled to put together all the pieces of the jigsaw. The puzzling storyline was cleverly plotted and had some interesting twists and turns and the odd red herring and misdirection. There were some tense moments, lots of suspense, and I had no idea how it was all going to be resolved. I wasn’t sure who the killer was either!

The author has written another gripping, engaging and entertaining book and I’m already looking forward to the next one in the series!

Buy the book

Darkest Night by Jenny O’Brien can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in paperback, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Born in Dublin, Jenny O’Brien moved to Wales and then Guernsey, where she tries to find time to write in between working as a nurse and ferrying around three teenagers.

She’s an avid reader and book blogger, in addition to being a previous Romantic Novel Awards (RoNA) judge.

In her spare time, she can be found frowning at her wonky cakes and even wonkier breads. You’ll be pleased to note she won’t be entering The Great British Bake Off. She’s also an all-year-round sea swimmer.

Twitter: @ScribblerJB
Facebook: @JennyOBrienWriter
Instagram: @scribblerjb
Website: https://jennyobrienwriter.wordpress.com

Blog tour

Thanks to Sian Baldwin at HQ Stories for my digital copy of Darkest Night and for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 16 to 25 July 2020

Synopsis

It starts with a shocking accusation …

Stephanie and Patrick are recently married, with new-born twins. While Stephanie struggles with the disorienting effects of sleep deprivation, there’s one thing she knows for certain – she has everything she ever wanted.

Then a woman from his past arrives and makes a horrifying allegation about his first wife. He always claimed her death was an accident – but she says it was murder.

He insists he’s innocent, that this is nothing but a blackmail attempt. But is Patrick telling the truth? Or has Stephanie made a terrible mistake?

How will it end?

My review

I’ve enjoyed all Shari Lapena’s books: they’re entertaining and thrilling reads and her fifth novel is no exception!

Set in 2018, The End of Her tells the story of Stephanie, 30, and Patrick Kilgour, 32, who live in a suburb in Aylesford, New York, with their four-month-old twins, Emma and Jackie. The couple are finding it hard to cope and surviving on only a few hours’ disrupted sleep as their girls suffer from colic and fuss most of the night. Patrick is an architect and a partner in a small firm and is struggling to concentrate due to the sleep deprivation. His partner, Niall Foote, is concerned by his lack of focus at work.

When a woman from his past turns up for an interview for an admin role at the firm, Patrick is shocked. He hasn’t seen Erica Voss for over nine years, since he left Colorado, and she is a link to a tragic incident in his past. Why is she appearing in his life now? It can’t be a coincidence!

Erica emails and asks to meet Patrick and he reluctantly agrees to see her in a local bar, curious to find out what she wants. A few days later, they meet again and Erica warns him that she is going to ask the police to reinvestigate the death of his pregnant first wife, Lindsey, if him and Stephanie don’t pay her some money to keep quiet. Lindsey’s death was ruled accidental and never properly looked into.

Stephanie’s parents died in a car crash when she was a teenager and, as an only child, she was the sole recipient of their wealth of more than two million dollars. This money was put into a trust and she received it all on her 30th birthday, which was only a couple of months ago. Stephanie and Patrick decided not to make a prenup when they got married, as they were so in love.

Patrick confesses to Stephanie about what happened to his first wife and, at first, she completely believes her husband and is sure he’s innocent of any wrongdoing but then certain things are revealed that make her question whether she actually knows Patrick at all.

Stephanie and Patrick’s seemingly lovely life gets thrown into increasing turmoil as accusations are made, events get out of control and all that they know appears to be falling apart. Will the couple’s marriage be able to survive the strain or will everything be ruined forever?

Erica is cunning and intent on dragging everyone into her web of deceit so that she has as much of a hold over people as she can. She’s done her homework and knows the ins and outs of their lives – she has dirt on several people and knows how to blackmail them. She relies on them not talking to each other – as they feel guilty of their actions – to get away with her misdemeanours. She’s also good at keeping track of people without them being aware that she’s even there – she initially pretends to both Stephanie and neighbour, Hanna Bright, that she’s planning to move into the area and checks out a house that is for sale.

I really felt for poor Stephanie – the twins sounded exhausting and she was really struggling to stay sane due to the lack of sleep. She kept doing daft things as she was so tired and ended up not being able to think straight about anything. She grew closer to Hanna as the story progressed but lacked a good support network to help her through the early baby months.

There were lots of twists and turns in this novel and I wasn’t really sure who to trust – everyone seemed to be keeping secrets and lying about what they were up to. There were several red herrings and some misdirection that had me suspecting all kinds of things! I was trying to guess what was happening and kept changing my mind. This was definitely an intriguing and absorbing read.

Overall, I really enjoyed this dark, chilling, well-plotted story. It was intense and fast paced and I raced through this in a few hours, frantically turning the pages, desperate to find out how it was all going to be resolved. With that dramatic ending, I wasn’t disappointed! I’m already looking forward to the author’s next book.

Buy the book

The End of Her by Shari Lapena is published on 23 July and can be preordered from Amazon on Kindle and in hardback, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Shari Lapena worked as a lawyer and as an English teacher before writing fiction. Her debut thriller, The Couple Next Door, was a global bestseller, the bestselling fiction title in the UK in 2017 and has been optioned for television. Her thrillers, A Stranger in the House, An Unwanted Guest and Someone We Know, were all The Sunday Times and The New York Times bestsellers.

Twitter: @sharilapena
Facebook: @ShariLapena
Instagram: @sharilapena
Website: https://sharilapena.com

Blog tour

Thanks to Thomas Hill at Transworld Books for my digital copy of The End of Her and for my place on the blog tour.

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