Blogger day: 28 May 2020

Synopsis

If there are two sides to every story, someone is always lying …

Jack: Three words to describe my wife: Beautiful. Ambitious. Unforgiving.
Anna: I only need one word to describe my husband: Liar.

When a woman is murdered in Blackdown village, newsreader Anna Andrews is reluctant to cover the case. Anna’s ex-husband, DCI Jack Harper, is suspicious of her involvement, until he becomes a suspect in his own murder investigation.

Someone is lying, and some secrets are worth killing to keep.

My review

Anna Andrews is 36 and a BBC TV news presenter in London but, after two years covering for Cat Jones who was on maternity leave after having two children, she’s relegated to news correspondent when her colleague returns to work.

When a woman is found murdered in the woods in a sleepy Surrey village called Blackdown, Anna is dispatched to the place she used to call home to report on the case. While there, she sees Detective Chief Inspector Jack Harper, head of the Major Crime Team, who is in charge of the investigation and also happens to be Anna’s ex-husband.

Over the course of five intense days, we learn more about ‘Him’ (Jack) and ‘Her’ (Anna), including some background history and the reasons for their split, in alternating chapters. These are interspersed with odd sections from the killer.

As the evidence builds up, both Anna and Jack seem as if they could have the motives and opportunity to have carried out the murder, and it’s obvious that they’re rather unreliable narrators and hiding numerous secrets from their pasts, which still haunt them. Anna drinks too much and Jack has unsuitable relationships.

This was such an intriguing and entertaining novel with lots of twists, turns, red herrings and misdirection. I was suspicious of all the main protagonists at some point and didn’t really trust any of them – there were various clues scattered throughout the book that pointed the finger at most of the characters! 

As this compelling story reached its climax and the pace increased, I was gripped and raced through the novel, desperate for the big reveal. I wasn’t disappointed – the ending was action packed and I held my breath at various points, completely unsure what was going to happen. Going into the final pages, I was trying to think outside the box and suspected two characters as the murderer but was wrong about both!

Overall, I really enjoyed this well-written and cleverly plotted murder mystery thriller – it was engaging and tense, with great characters and some shocking scenes. I’ve already read the author’s last book, I Know Who You Are, and look forward to reading her debut, Sometimes I Lie, which also sounds an intriguing read!

Buy the book

His and Hers by Alice Feeney can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in paperback, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Alice Feeney is a writer and journalist. She spent 15 years at the BBC, where she worked as a reporter, news editor, arts and entertainment producer and One O’clock News producer.

Her debut novel, Sometimes I Lie, was a New York Times and international bestseller. It has been translated into over 20 languages, and is being made into a TV series by Ellen DeGeneres and Warner Bros., starring Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Alice has lived in London and Sydney and has now settled in the Surrey countryside. She writes in her shed with her dog; a giant black Labrador who is scared of feathers.

Twitter: @alicewriterland
Facebook: @AliceFeeneyAuthor
Instagram: @alicewriterland
Website: https://www.alicefeeney.com

Blogger day

Thanks to Sian Baldwin at HQ Stories for my proof and digital copies of His and Hers and for my place on the blogger day.

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

Blog tour: 27 to 31 May 2020

Synopsis

On the hottest day of the year, Caroline Harvey is found dead in Suffolk. Her body is left draped over a cot – but the baby she was looking after is missing.

Hundreds of miles away, Siobhan Dillon is on a luxurious family holiday in France when her husband, Callum, is arrested by French police on suspicion of murder.

As Siobhan’s perfect family is torn apart by the media in the nation’s frantic search for the missing baby, she desperately tries to piece together how Callum knew Caroline.

What happened that night? Was Caroline as innocent as she seemed – or was she hiding a secret of her own?

My review

It’s mid-August and Siobhan Dillon, 44, and her husband, Callum, their 16-year-old daughter, Emma, and Siobhan’s older sister, Maria Wilcox, are staying in Maria’s holiday villa in a tiny village called Saint Juillet on the north-west coast of France.

On the third morning of their holiday, French police arrive to arrest Callum, a TV executive and local celebrity in Ipswich, for the murder of a woman called Caroline Harvey. He denies murder but admits to having had an affair with Caroline for the last 18 months and claims they recently finished their relationship.

Caroline, 33, an illustrator, was stabbed to death in her own flat while looking after her university friend’s one-year-old daughter, Eve, who is still missing. Eve’s parents, Jenny and Rick Grant, are devastated by her disappearance, which occurred while they were visiting Rick’s mother in the Norfolk and Norwich hospital after a recent heart attack.

As the French and English police struggle to coordinate their investigations and put all the evidence together, we’re left wondering who did kill Caroline and if baby Eve is dead too.

Told from several viewpoints, including that of Siobhan, Caroline, Detective Sergeant Alex Wildy (Ipswich police), and junior French police officer, Adele, as well as others, we build up a picture of the characters and it’s fascinating to see how unpleasant and dysfunctional they are!

I liked that the book was set in Ipswich, a town that I’m very familiar with, and it was a good contrast to the hot and idyllic-sounding French location of Saint Juillet.

The storyline was tense, well paced and cleverly plotted and I kept changing my mind about who had committed Caroline’s murder and taken the baby and why! There were some good red herrings and misdirection as the pieces of the puzzle were slowly put together. I did guess nearer the end who was responsible but that was only through a process of elimination and from spotting a few clues!

Overall, I really enjoyed this brilliantly twisty and intriguing read; it was engaging and entertaining and a perfect summer thriller. I’ve already read and enjoyed The Girl Next Door and must read the author’s debut novel, The Doll House, which I already own.

Buy the book

The Babysitter by Phoebe Morgan is released on 28 May and can be preordered from Amazon now on Kindle and in paperback, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Phoebe Morgan studied English at Leeds University after growing up in the Suffolk countryside. She now lives in London.

She previously worked as a journalist and is now Editorial Director at HarperCollins and edits commercial fiction (crime, thrillers, women’s fiction and saga) during the day, and writes her own books in the evenings.

The Doll House was her debut novel. It became a #1 iBooks bestseller and spent over eight weeks in the Kindle top 100. Her second book, The Girl Next Door, published in February 2019 and reached #5 in The Bookseller Heatseekers chart. Her books have sold over 70,000 copies and been translated into eight languages. They are also on sale in the US and Canada.

Twitter: @Phoebe_A_Morgan
Facebook: @PhoebeMorganAuthor
Instagram: @phoebeannmorgan
Website: https://phoebemorganauthor.com

Blog tour

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

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

Blog tour: 18 to 26 May 2020

Synopsis

A child’s life is at stake. Which of the residents of St Andrews is hiding something – and why?

When a baby girl is snatched from the crowd of spectators at a fun run, DI Clare Mackay and her team are in a race against time when they learn that the child has a potentially fatal heart condition.

As Clare investigates she realises this victim wasn’t selected at random. Someone knows who took the baby girl, and why. But will they reveal their secrets before it’s too late?

My review

It’s Sunday 22 September and at West Sands in St Andrews, Scotland, Detective Inspective Clare Mackay has recently returned from a holiday in France with her boyfriend, Geoffrey Dark, and is taking part in a charity fun run along with some of her colleagues.

As the 200 or so runners gather at the start, there’s disruption in the form of around 30 North-East Fife Environment Watch (NEFEW) members, who lay down on the ground in protest at fun run sponsor McIntosh Water’s plan to build a bottled water plant on the nearby Priory Marsh.

When everyone is distracted, a six-month-old girl called Abigail (Abi) Mitchell is taken from her pram and spirited away, through the crowds of spectators. Her parents, Kevin and Lisa, are devastated and can’t understand why anyone would want to take their baby. 

While being interviewed, the parents reveal their daughter has a congenital heart defect and needs regular doses of a medication called digoxin to stay alive. Without this drug, the baby’s doctor reveals she may only live for 48 hours before suffering heart failure and slipping into a coma.

DI Clare Mackay heads up the investigation and rapidly gathers resources from around the local area (Cupar, Dundee, Glenrothes) to focus on the case. Detective Chief Inspector Tony McAvettie is sent to help with the case, much to the dismay of Detective Sergeant Chris West who had a bust up with the DCI the year before. DI Mackay is doing a great job and competently and methodically working through all the evidence with her team but DCI McAvettie is more interested in a possible promotion to Superintendent than the missing baby and wants quicker results so he brings in a new detective inspector called Matt Fuller, much to Clare’s dismay.

It was good to learn a bit more about DI Mackay – after growing tired of renting in St Andrews, she’s recently bought a Victorian cottage and has an English Bull Terrier called Benjy. We also get to know a bit more about DS West and his relationship with PC Sara Stapleton. The book is set over the course of less than a week so it’s difficult to pack that much personal detail in.

Set over the course of six days, this is an action-packed and fast-paced read of a race against time to find a six-month-old baby with a serious heart condition. The case is a baffling one and the police explore every angle but struggle to work out motives for the abduction. The investigation is complicated and, although several people are linked in various ways, DI Clare Mackay and her team have difficulty putting the connections together to solve the case.

An excellently plotted police procedural with great attention to detail and I really felt like I was there, taking part in the investigation. It was a tense and engaging read, with plenty of twists, turns, misdirection and the odd red herring!

Overall, this was a great read and very well written with a good flow. I loved the way the compelling story unfolded and the clues were slowly revealed and various parts of the case were solved. The procedures seemed to be very realistic and true to life and I really wasn’t sure how the pieces of the puzzle were going to come together and how it was all going to be resolved.

I’ve read the author’s debut, See Them Run, and really enjoyed it and this one was even better. The series is developing well – I can’t wait to read Lies to Tell in June and will definitely be preordering!

Buy the book

In Plain Sight (DI Clare Mackay book 2) by Marion Todd can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle now, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Before becoming a full-time writer, Marion Todd worked as a college lecturer, plantswoman, candle-maker and hotel lounge pianist.

Early success saw her winning first prize in the Family Circle magazine short story for children national competition in 1987 and she followed this up by writing short stories and articles for her local newspaper.

As a keen reader of crime fiction, the lure of the genre was strong, and her debut crime novel, See Them Run, was published in 2019.

Marion grew up in Dundee and now lives in North-east Fife, overlooking the River Tay, and is a sometime babysitter for her daughter’s unruly but lovable dog.

Twitter: @MarionETodd
Facebook: @mariontoddwriter
Instagram: @mariondtoddwriter
Website: https://mariontodd.com

Blog tour

Thanks to Sophie Eminson at Canelo for my proof copy of In Plain Sight and to Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 15 to 28 May 2020

Synopsis

It started with a kiss.
And ended with murder,

In Poppy Page’s mind, there are two types of women in this world: those who are faithful to their husbands, and those who are not. Until now, Poppy has never questioned which she was.

But when handsome, charming Matthew Gordon walks back into her life after almost two decades, that changes. Poppy makes a single mistake – and that mistake will be far more dangerous than she could imagine.

Someone is going to pay for it with their life …

My review

My first-ever blog tour post was for Jane Corry’s book, I Looked Away, and I started my blog after winning a copy of the book on Twitter, so it’s great to be reviewing her next book, I Made a Mistake, just under a year later!

I Made a Mistake begins with the tragic incident of a person falling under a train at Waterloo Underground Station one January evening in rush hour. Then we jump back to six weeks earlier and meet Poppy Page, who runs a casting agency that provides extras for TV programmes and films. She’s married to Stuart, a dentist, and they have two children, Melissa, aged 17, and 14-year-old Daisy.

While at the Association of Supporting Artistes and Agents’ Christmas party, Poppy is approached by the handsome 50-something Matthew Gordon, her first boyfriend who she hasn’t seen for over 20 years! He still has the same effect he had on her when they were students at drama school and Poppy struggles to resist his charms, especially when they’re both forced to stay overnight at the hotel where the party is being held due to snow.

Poppy and her family live with Stuart’s mum, Betty, 70, who moved in with them after the death of her husband, Jock, when Daisy was two. She is a great help to the family and has always been around to look after the girls while their parents were busy with work. We discover more about Betty in a series of letters that she’s written to Poppy and find out that her relationship with Jock, who she married in 1970 aged 20, wasn’t as idyllic as their son, Stuart, believed.

Poppy’s father lives in a bungalow in Worthing, but her mother left them when she was young and now lives in Australia with her second husband. Poppy hasn’t had anything to do with her since, ignoring all the letters and cards that she’s sent over the years. Her dad is suffering from forgetfulness and Poppy becomes more and more concerned about him as he has falls, looks rather unkempt and seems bewildered. He drives off without paying for petrol, his fridge is too full of milk, he buys lots of cans of beans and leaves food to burn in the oven. It’s difficult for Poppy to keep an eye on him when she lives so far away and her dad is stubborn and refuses to see the doctor for a check-up.

Early on in the book, we learn that Poppy is being questioned at the Central Criminal Court in London about her relationship with the deceased, Matthew Gordon, so we know that something dreadful has happened to him and assume that he must be the person who was hit by an underground train at Waterloo. How does the story all fit together?

This is a fascinating novel and it was intriguing to see all the various strands of the story come together and discover how everything was connected. There were several dysfunctional relationships and it was interesting to learn more about Betty and see the secrets that she’d been hiding for decades. Poppy was also not being true to herself and had been hiding various feelings for years – she still hadn’t really recovered from the disappointment of not making it as an actress when she was younger.

I Made a Mistake is a well-written and cleverly plotted tale! Just when I thought I had things sussed out, there would be another twist that I hadn’t expected! The book had a great pace and tension to it and it kept my attention throughout, with never a dull moment. It cleverly switched between Poppy and Betty’s stories, interspersed with the odd courtroom scene, and it was an interesting look at relationships and made me really care about both women, especially Betty who’d had a tough life. I also felt anger at the rather unpleasant Matthew who appears in Poppy’s life after several decades and starts disrupting everything that she’s built up and coercing her in various ways.

Overall, I really enjoyed this gripping and entertaining thriller and raced through it in a couple of days. I’ve read three of Jane Corry’s books and enjoyed them all but I think this one is my new favourite! I’ve got the others on my Kindle so I’ll have to check them out soon!

Buy the book

I Made a Mistake by Jane Corry can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle now and in paperback on 28 May, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Jane Corry is a former magazine journalist who spent three years working as the writer-in-residence of a high-security prison for men. This often hair-raising experience helped inspire her The Sunday Times-bestselling psychological thrillers, My Husband’s Wife, Blood Sisters, The Dead Ex and I Looked Away, which have been published in more than 35 countries.

Jane was a tutor in creative writing at Oxford University and is a regular contributor to The Daily Telegraph and My Weekly magazine.

Twitter: @JaneCorryAuthor
Facebook: @authorjanecorry
Instagram: @janecorry
Website: https://www.janecorryauthor.com

Blog tour

Thanks to Ellie Hudson from Penguin Books UK for my proof, digital and finished copies of I Made a Mistake and for inviting me to join the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 14 to 31 May 2020

Synopsis

A helicopter crash results in the pilot and a military policeman burned to death. It’s unclear what they were doing, but this was no accident and the name BlackJack is found at the scene.

Ash Carter knew that the Special Investigations Branch were tracking a killer, and when a faceless body is found in Perak, and he loses contact with the SIB, he races to north-east Malaya to help. There Carter discovers a mysterious town that the locals won’t talk about.

With no sign of his contact and a mounting body count, Carter is drawn into a dark case from which there seems no escape.

This is the fifth book of the series. The sixth and final book is called Singapore Fire and will be released in 2021.

My review

Set in Singapore in the 1950s, Singapore Killer continues the exciting Ash Carter series. The book begins with an explosive start: a helicopter dramatically crashes and catches fire, with the death of the pilot and a military policeman.

Ash Carter was in the British Army’s Royal Military Police and then worked for the internal security secretary of the Singapore government and a private protection force in Malaya. He’s now an independent investigator and is called in to help the Special Investigations Branch (SIB) look into the helicopter accident.

From the evidence, Carter discovers that the silvery grey Sikorsky S-51 didn’t crash as a result of the pilot losing control due to mechanical error and that the training helicopter was set on fire after it came down. The hunt is on for the killer after a metal dog tag with the word ‘BlackJack’ on it is discovered in the helicopter’s fuel pipe.

When Carter set up as an independent investigator, he recruited a Chinese lady, Madam Chau, as a secretary/receptionist. She sounds an amazing character – she’s described as being ‘as wily as a fox and as bad-tempered as a baited bear’ and with a ‘face that was so flat that it looked like she’d been struck with a frying pan’. She reminds Carter of ‘a basset hound – an ugly one’!

Madam Chau is great at helping him to weed out the timewasters – he receives lots of letters asking for assistance, often from women who are pregnant by soldiers who have now disappeared – and she is an excellent translator. Carter investigates the death of a greengrocer who was bitten by a snake and also looks into the disappearance of a dog! Rather different cases from his SIB days!

When Scott ‘Slugger’ Stevenson, head of the Perak Protection Force and Carter’s friend, phones up about a mutilated body, Ash takes on the case and drives to Batu Gajah in Perak, Malaya to investigate.

Two SIB men, Captain John Harwood and Lieutenant Joe Jenkins, are working on classified missions, and Carter checks their recent reports and begins to make connections between his various cases and realises there’s a serial killer on the loose who’s targeting military personnel. After one of the men doesn’t check in, Carter heads to the small town of Bandar Permaisuri, near Terengganu, where he was last seen and, after a tip off from a young waitress, Carter heads to a town called Bandar Putih (‘white town’), which was built by a white man called Jeremiah and has a big fence around it.

Carter joins the rather mysterious commune and cult, which the residents call Shangri-La, and meets the ex-military men who run the place and the women who look after them. As Carter realises that the men are involved in a gold pipeline (trading) and linked in with his hunt for BlackJack, he lays low and tried to work out exactly what’s going on, with help from another of his contacts. This is where things get even more exciting and there are numerous unexpected and disturbing events as Carter gets deeper into the weird cult and BlackJack taunts him and leaves more clues behind.

This was an action-packed, fast-paced read and I really enjoyed following Ash Carter as he attempted to track down BlackJack. There were several sections written from BlackJack’s point of view and it was intriguing to read his evil thoughts.

Singapore Killer was a well-plotted, gripping thriller with some rather gruesome descriptions of murder scenes, as well as several really tense moments that had me holding my breath and frantically turning the pages to see who was going to be taken out next! It had lots of great twists and turns!

There were several strands to the story and lots of characters – it was fun to try and guess the connections and how everything was going to come together. At times, I had to refer back to remember who the characters were and how they were linked but I do have a particularly bad memory for names!!

I haven’t read any of the other four books in the series but I didn’t feel like I was missing out on lots of back stories – there were a few mentions of past events but I didn’t feel confused.

Overall, I really enjoyed Singapore Killer – it was an intense and absorbing read with some fascinating descriptions of military investigations and 1950s Singapore and Malaya and I loved the character of Madam Chau. I’ll have to go back and read Singapore 52, Singapore Girl, Singapore Boxer and Singapore Ghost to get to know Ash Carter better before the final book, Singapore Fire, is released next year!

Buy the book

Singapore Killer (Ash Carter, book 5) by Murray Bailey is released on 1 June 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.

His first work of fiction, I Dare You, was published in 2016 and The Lost Pharaoh continues the ancient Egyptian story glimpsed in Map of the Dead and is his ninth title.

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

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

Blog tour

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

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

Blog tour: 7 to 21 May 2020

Synopsis

‘I nearly drowned and Walter rescued me. That changes everything.’

Leipzig, 1930s Germany

Hetty Heinrich is a perfect German child. Her father is an SS officer, her brother in the Luftwaffe, herself a member of the BDM. She believes resolutely in her country, and the man who runs it.

Until Walter changes everything. Blond-haired, blue-eyed, perfect in every way Walter. The boy who saved her life. A Jew.

Anti-semitism is growing by the day, and neighbours, friends and family members are turning on one another. As Hetty falls deeper in love with a man who is against all she has been taught, she begins to fight against her country, her family and herself. Hetty will have to risk everything to save Walter, even if it means sacrificing herself …

My review

Spanning a six-year time period from August 1933 to August 1939, People Like Us tells the fascinating story of Herta (Hetty) Heinrich who lives in Leipzig in Nazi Germany with her older brother, Karl, mother, Helene, and father, Franz.

Hetty’s father is a writer at a local newspaper called Leipziger but he ends up taking over from the previous owner and editor, Herr Drucker, and acquires a large house in the process. He also works for the Schutzstaffel (SS) and rises up the ranks to become a senior leader.

In 1929, when she was seven years old, Hetty and her brother used to play with a Jewish boy called Walter Keller and one afternoon he saves her from drowning in the local lake. Karl stops playing with Walter and it’s only when Walter and a girl called Freda Federmann are picked on by the new science teacher at school in 1934 and made to leave that Hetty is shocked to discover that this blond-haired and blue-eyed boy is actually Jewish and not ‘pure’ German blood and she should have nothing to do with him.

By this point, Hetty is hearing Hitler’s voice in her thoughts and she has grown up believing in all the Nazi ideology, like anti-semitism and eugenics, which is gaining momentum. Karl has joined the Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth) and Hetty is in the Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM) (League of German Girls) and Karl’s next step is to join the Luftwaffe.

It isn’t until three years later, in 1937, that Hetty sees Walter again. They begin meeting regularly in secret. They’re obviously very conflicted and try to resist their mutual attraction but both admit that they’ve liked each other since they were young. Hetty is confused as she’s seeing life through Walter’s eyes and she starts to challenge her beliefs, especially as she learns more about the current situation and what is happening to Jewish people.

Hetty’s father is spreading more Nazi propaganda through his newspaper and, in his SS role, he is privvy to lots of top secret information.

As Hetty and Walter’s relationship progresses, they put themselves in more and more danger, and the general situation in Germany worsens and the couple are risking everything. There would be severe repercussions, for them and others, if their relationship was discovered.

This is a really powerful historical fiction novel; beautifully written prose and very well researched, with details from the author’s own family background. It was so gripping and tense, and very dramatic – at times, I was holding my breath and wondering what was going to happen next. The fear and terror of people was palpable as various shocking atrocities were committed.

Overall, it was an emotional and poignant story and I really felt for Hetty and Walter, to be in such an awful position and in such danger. This book is so thought provoking and absorbing and I was sad that it had to end. It’s a compelling and heart-breaking, but ultimately hopeful, read and one that will stay with me a long time. I really enjoyed it and look forward to reading more from Louise Fein.

Buy the book

People Like Us by Louise Fein can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle now and on 6 August in hardback, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Louise Fein holds an MA in Creative Writing from St Mary’s University. Prior to studying for her masters, she ran a commodity consultancy business following a career in banking and law. She lives in Surrey with her family. People Like Us is inspired by her family history, and by the alarming parallels she sees between the early 1930s and today.

Twitter: @FeinLouise
Facebook: @louisefeinauthor

Blog tour

Thanks to Victoria Joss at Head of Zeus for my proof copy of People Like Us and for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 14 to 18 May 2020

Synopsis

It’s the stuff dreams are made of – a lottery win so big, it changes everything.

For fifteen years, Lexi and Jake have played the same six numbers with their friends, the Pearsons and the Heathcotes. Over dinner parties, fish & chip suppers and summer barbecues, they’ve discussed the important stuff – the kids, marriages, jobs and houses – and they’ve laughed off their disappointment when they failed to win anything more than a tenner.

But then, one Saturday night, the unthinkable happens. There’s a rift in the group. Someone doesn’t tell the truth. And soon after, six numbers come up which change everything forever.

Lexi and Jake have a ticket worth £18 million. And their friends are determined to claim a share of it.

My review

One Saturday night in April 2019, Lexi and Jake Greenwood are excited to discover that they’re the sole winners of the National Lottery jackpot of £17.8 million! At first, they try and keep calm and don’t even plan to tell their children, 15-year-old Emily and 13-year-old Logan, but before long they’re splashing the cash: making wild purchases, booking expensive holidays to New York and, in the case of Jake, hiring a yellow Ferrari and purchasing a new red convertible one, costing £230,000!

There’s just one problem – their friends, Carla and Patrick Pearson and Jennifer and Fred Heathcote, who they’ve known since they met at antenatal classes for their first-born children over 15 years ago and were part of a lottery syndicate with, until the week before the win!

At the ceremony to hand over their enormous cheque at a local country house, Camberwell Manor, the Pearsons and Heathcotes storm the room proclaiming they were all part of a syndicate. Things get rather unpleasant all round with scuffles and the odd punch being thrown and lawyers are called in to interview the couples the following week to try and resolve the issue.

Logan’s school friends are quite calm and accepting of his win but Emily’s best friend, Megan Pearson, and boyfriend, Ridley Heathcote, are the children of the other couples and, as they’re missing out on the money, don’t take things so well and are cruel to Emily.

Lexi is a nice and kind person and works in the local Citizens Advice Bureau offices. She’s currently helping a man called Tomu Alba, from Moldova, whose wife and two-year-old son were found dead from carbon-monoxide poisoning in their rented flat, just before Christmas in 2014. She’s keen to donate some money to charity rather than blowing the lot on extravagances.

Just My Luck had some great twists and turns and I was shocked by how unpleasant, greedy and toxic several of the characters were, with some rather flawed relationships. They were hiding some dramatic secrets and there were a few incidents that had shocking repercussions for all the families!

A fascinating read and one that shows you that money definitely doesn’t buy you happiness! A big lottery win is life changing and comes with a lot of conflict and negatives, not least begging letters and requests from all and sundry, including family and friends, and it makes you the target of unscrupulous people who are jealous of your good fortune. It affects how others see you and, if you’re not careful, it also changes you as a person.

Overall, I really enjoyed this gripping and entertaining read, which was tense and uncomfortable at times, and I flew through it in a day, desperate to see what happened! I’ve been reading Adele Parks’ books for years and I’m impressed she’s written 20 in 20 years! I must check to see if I’ve read them all!

Buy the book

Just My Luck by Adele Parks can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in hardback, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Adele Parks was born in Teesside in the north east of England. After studying English language and literature at Leicester University, she worked in advertising and as a management consultant.

Her first novel, Playing Away, was published in 2000. Three and a half million copies of her UK editions have been sold and her books are translated into 26 different languages. Adele has published 19 novels in 19 years, and they’ve all hit the bestseller lists. She’s written 16 contemporary novels and two historical ones, Spare Brides and If You Go Away, which are set during and after World War One.

During her career, Adele has lived in Italy, Botswana and London. She now lives in Guildford, Surrey with her husband, teenage son and cat.

Twitter: @adeleparks
Facebook: @OfficialAdeleParks
Instagram: @adele_parks
Website: https://www.adeleparks.com

Blog tour

Thanks to Sian Baldwin at HQ Stories for my proof copy of Just My Luck and for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 8 to 21 May 2020

Synopsis

She says he’s perfect. I know he’s lying …

He caught me watching, and our eyes met. That was when it hit me.
There was something not quite right about my daughter’s new boyfriend …

The doting father

Ed finally meets his daughter’s boyfriend for the first time. Smart, successful and handsome, Ryan appears to be a real catch. Then Abbie announces their plan to get married.

The perfect fiancé

There’s just one problem. Ed thinks Ryan is lying to them.

Who would you believe?

All of Ed’s instincts tell him his daughter is in terrible danger – but no-one else can see it. With the wedding date approaching fast, Ed sets out to uncover Ryan’s secrets, before it’s too late …

My review

When Abbie Collier, 24, brings home new boyfriend of seven months, Ryan Wilson, 33, to meet her parents, her dad, Edward, takes an instant dislike to Ryan after seeing something dark in his eyes. Abbie’s mum, Claire, and nana, Joyce, are smitten though and think he’s wonderful.

Ryan seems a great catch – tall, handsome, caring, kind (charity fundraiser), athletic (marathon runner), intelligent (with a first-class degree in psychology from the University of Manchester), responsible (he was a former lieutenant in the British Army and did two tours of Afghanistan, receiving the Military Cross) and successful (he currently works as a partner at an international recruiting firm) – but, is he too perfect? Ed seems to think so!

After dinner and a game of badminton, Abbie and Ryan announce their engagement, much to Ed’s dismay and he struggles to hide his true feelings, especially when they reveal that the wedding will be taking place in less than six weeks, to ensure that Joyce, who is suffering from cancer, will be able to attend. Abbie will also be moving out of the family home in Nottingham to Ryan’s house in Beeston,

Ed decides to look into Ryan’s background and he goes completely over the top in his investigations and ends up getting into all kinds of bother, not least from his family who think he’s behaving erratically and are concerned for his mental health and try to persuade him to just accept Ryan. Ed is determined to uncover the truth about Ryan and discover exactly what he’s hiding.

Ed is an overprotective father and Abbie feels rather stifled at times but her dad has a good reason to behave the way he does, as we find out later in the story.

But is Ed right about Ryan or is he having a nervous breakdown? His obsession with Ryan grows and begins to affect all areas of his life. Ryan seems a lovely bloke – he even volunteers at the local hospice, where he chats to residents and plays his guitar, and is a special constable with the police!

This book had some great twists and turns and my heart was in my mouth as Ed did one crazy thing after another and put himself in danger! The main protagonists were all hiding various secrets, and I spent a lot of time wondering if any of them were unreliable narrators or not and trying to work out who was telling the truth.

Overall, this was a fascinating and gripping read and I raced through it, desperate to discover how the whole situation was going to end. With plenty of red herrings and misdirection, I was never really sure if I’d sussed things out or not. The book had a great pace and tension to it and it kept my attention throughout, with never a dull moment. Just when you thought things were calming down, something else dramatic would happen!

This is the third of T.M. Logan’s books that I’ve read and I’ve really enjoyed them all. I must read his debut, Lies, soon!

Buy the book

The Catch by T.M. Logan can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle now and in paperback on 11 June, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

The bestselling author, T.M. Logan, was a national newspaper journalist before turning to novel writing full time. His thrillers have sold more than 750,000 copies in the UK and are published in 15 countries around the world, including the USA, South Korea, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Poland, Hungary, Serbia, Greece, Romania and the Netherlands.

His debut thriller, Lies, was one of Amazon UK’s biggest ebooks of 2017, winning a Silver Award at the Nielsen Bestseller Awards, and was followed by his second standalone, 29 Seconds (2018). His third novel, The Holiday, was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick and spent 10 weeks in The Sunday Times paperback top 10, as well as hitting the number one spots on Amazon Kindle, Apple iBooks and Kobo.

Tim lives in Nottinghamshire with his wife and two children, and writes in a cabin at the bottom of his garden.

Twitter: @TMLoganAuthor
Facebook: @TMLoganAuthor
Instagram: @tmloganauthor
Website: https://www.tmlogan.com

Blog tour

Thanks to Zaffre Books and Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers for my proof and digital copies of The Catch and for my place on the blog tour.

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