Blog tour: 2 to 8 March 2020

Synopsis

Finn and Kaz are about to meet for the first time …

Ten-year-old Finn, a quirky, sensitive boy who talks a lot and only eats at cafés with a 5-star hygiene rating, is having a tough time at school and home.

Outspoken Kaz, 59, who has an acerbic sense of humour and a heart of gold, is working at the café when Finn and his mum come in.

They don’t know it yet, but the second time they meet will be a moment which changes both of their lives forever …

My review

One Moment tells the heartbreaking story of 10-year-old Finn Rook-Carter and Kaz Allen, 59, who meet in the café where Kaz works and are then brought together a second time by an awful event, the details of which aren’t revealed till the end of the book, that has far-reaching repercussions for both.

Finn is a rather unusual child: he’s sensitive, emotional and different from others at school and would much rather do gardening (his idol is Alan Titchmarsh) or play his ukulele than play football or computer games. He doesn’t really connect with the other children, who bully him for being different and having curly ginger hair, and his only friend is a girl called Lottie, who seems to be the only one who understands him and they have a lovely friendship.

His parents, Hannah and Martin, are going through a divorce and they can’t decide on the best way to bring up Finn and argue over whether he should sit his SATs or not. Finn is feeling rather lost and confused, and torn between both parents. His dad prefers the tough approach and is more traditional than his mum, who is vegetarian and doesn’t act or dress like other mums, and wishes she could homeschool Finn to protect him from the world.

Kaz has had a tough life. Her dad was abusive to her mum, who was an alcoholic and suffered from depression, and she has looked after her younger brother, Terry, 51, since he was 10, when their mum died. He has mental health problems and hears voices, mainly Matthew Kelly from Stars in Their Eyes, and was finally diagnosed as schizophrenic when he was 18. Kaz works hard in a café to support them both and they struggle to make ends meet as Terry can’t work because he has psychotic episodes when he’s stressed. They live together and she cares for him all by herself, with no respite care, which must be so tough and draining, especially when he’s having a bad spell.

Kaz is lovely; she’s down to earth, sympathetic but matter of fact and a great support and friend to Finn when he’s struggling with his school and home life and, in turn, Finn helps Kaz when she is at a low ebb after problems with her job, her brother and their flat. The two have a lovely friendship and Finn’s dad also warms to Kaz and asks for her help to look after Finn during the holidays. Both characters are described so well and I could hear their voices and emotions and really empathise with them.

One Moment covers issues like bullying, being different, relationship/parenting problems, mental illness and a lack of help from the state when a person needs it most. It’s shocking how poor Kaz and Terry were treated when they needed help and frustrating how a misunderstanding of Terry’s illness caused massive problems for them both and nearly resulted in even more tragic events. Kaz has to fight so hard for Terry and it’s heartbreaking that she has been forced to sacrifice her own dreams and happiness to look after him, and she never complains or takes it out on her brother.

This moving, emotional book is cleverly written from the points of view of Kaz and Finn, before and after a devastating event that links them and affects both their lives. We learn more about both characters and their relationships with others and there’s a great build up to the story’s awful climax, which I hadn’t seen coming.

Overall, I really enjoyed One Moment; it was a touching, poignant read and stirred up a range of emotions. Definitely one that made me think and reflect upon it afterwards. It was absorbing and really tense at times and I was keenly turning the pages to see how things worked out for everyone. I’ve got a couple of the author’s other books on my Kindle so will definitely be checking those out soon.

Buy the book

One Moment by Linda Green can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in paperback, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Linda Green is the bestselling author of 10 novels, which have sold more than one million copies and been translated into 12 languages.

After a 10-year career in regional journalism, she left in 1998 to write her first novel and work as a freelance journalist. Her first novel, I Did a Bad Thing, was published in paperback in October 2007 and made the top 30 official fiction bestsellers list.

Linda was born in North London in 1970 and brought up in Hertfordshire. She lives in West Yorkshire with her husband and son.

Twitter: @LindaGreenisms
Facebook: @LindaGreenAuthor
Website: http://www.linda-green.com

Blog tour

Thanks to Milly Reid at Quercus Books for my digital copy of One Moment and for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 20 February to 3 March 2020

Synopsis

On a stormy summer day in the 1970s, the Aosawas, owners of a prominent local hospital, host a large birthday party in their villa on the Sea of Japan. The occasion turns into tragedy when 17 people die from cyanide in their drinks.

The only surviving links to what might have happened are a cryptic verse that could be the killer’s, and the physician’s bewitching blind daughter, Hisako, the only family member spared death.

The youth who emerges as the prime suspect commits suicide that October, effectively sealing his guilt while consigning his motives to mystery.

Inspector Teru is convinced that Hisako had a role in the crime, as are many in the town, including the author of a bestselling book about the murders written a decade after the incident.

The truth is revealed through a skillful juggling of testimony by different voices: family members, witnesses and neighbours, police investigators and, of course, the mesmerizing Hisako herself.

My review

The Aosawa Murders recounts the story of the 17 murders that occurred at a birthday party for three generations of the affluent and well-respected Aosawa family in the 1970s at their residence in K— city. Six of the deaths were members of the immediate family, four were relatives, and the others were neighbours who attended the party, and a tradesman. They were all killed after ingesting a cyanide-based substance in sake and soft drinks, which had been delivered to the house at 1pm that day by a mysterious man on a motorbike. There were two survivors: the housekeeper who only took a sip of her drink and was seriously ill but recovered, and the family’s blind daughter, Hisako Aosawa, aged 12, who didn’t have anything to drink but had to listen to all the others dying, writhing around in agony, unable to do anything to help.

The main suspect, the man who delivered the drinks to the house, was later found dead in his rented apartment with a suicide note confessing to the murders and all the evidence seemed to point to him, despite the fact he had no real connection to the family and no apparent motive.

In the form of interviews with an unknown narrator, we hear from and learn more about various people connected with the murders: Makiko Saiga, who, 10 years later, wrote a fictional account of the events of that day; her assistant, who helped to carry equipment and transcribe tape recordings of interviews; the housekeeper’s daughter; the detective, Inspector Teru, who was involved with the case; Saiga’s older brother, Sei-ichi; the Young Master from the stationery shop and the tobacconist’s grandson who knew the man who delivered the cyanide-laced drinks to the house; the editor of the book; and we also get to read an excerpt of Saiga’s book, The Forgotten Festival.

The Aosawa Murders is beautifully written, atmospheric and very well translated and I found it intriguing and captivating. So cleverly put together and layered and it definitely made me think carefully while reading. I had to concentrate as the story switched between the different narrators and characters and we learnt more about events and what had happened in the 30 or so years since the awful tragedy and how it had continued to deeply affect all those involved over the decades.

There were some lovely descriptions of Japanese buildings and the weather – the oppressive heat and continuous humidity, the rain that creeps up on you with large raindrops – as well as the mentions of various trees and flowers, like the unusual crepe myrtle flower.

This was a fascinating and absorbing read and I really enjoyed the way all the pieces of the puzzle came together, even if it was slightly confusing at times and I wasn’t alway sure whether I’d interpreted things correctly or not. I’m still not completely sure who was responsible for the dreadful murders and I feel like I need to reread the book to get things straight in my mind as some elements of this dark and mysterious story were rather subtle and implied. Looking back, there were various hints and mentions throughout the book and some features popped up multiple times, discussed by different characters.

Overall, I really enjoyed this compelling book and it was great to read some Japanese crime fiction as a change from my usual crime and psychological thrillers. It’s definitely a genre that I’ll be reading again in the future.

Buy the book

The Aosawa Murders by Riku Onda can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in paperback, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author and translator

Riku Onda, born in 1964, is the professional name of Nanae Kumagai. She has been writing fiction since 1991 and has won the Yoshikawa Eiji Prize for New Writers, the Japan Booksellers’ Award, the Mystery Writers of Japan Award for Best Novel for The Aosawa Murders, the Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize, and the Naoki Prize. Her work has been adapted for film and television. This is her first crime novel and the first time she is translated into English.

Alison Watts is an Australian-born Japanese to English translator and long time resident of Japan. She has translated Aya Goda’s TAO: On the Road and On the Run in Outlaw China (Portobello, 2007) and Durian Sukegawa’s Sweet Bean Paste (Oneworld Publications, 2017), and her translations of The Aosawa Murders and Spark (Pushkin Press, 2020) by Naoki Matayaoshi are forthcoming.

Blog tour

Thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for my copy of The Aosawa Murders and for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 17 to 28 February 2020

Synopsis

Elijah has lived in the Memory Wood for as long as he can remember. It’s the only home he’s ever known.

Elissa has only just arrived. And she’ll do everything she can to escape.

When Elijah stumbles across 13-year-old Elissa, in the woods where her abductor is hiding her, he refuses to alert the police. Because in his 12 years, Elijah has never had a proper friend. And he doesn’t want Elissa to leave.

Not only that, Elijah knows how this can end. After all, Elissa isn’t the first girl he’s found inside the Memory Wood.

As her abductor’s behaviour grows more erratic, Elissa realises that outwitting strange, lonely Elijah is her only hope of survival. Their cat-and-mouse game of deception and betrayal will determine both their fates, and whether either of them will ever leave the Memory Wood …

My review

The Memory Woods tells the story of 12-year-old Elijah North who lives in a stone-built gamekeeper’s cottage near to Rufus Hall in Meunierfields with his mama, papa and older brother, Kyle, 14. While in the woods near his home, he discovers Elissa Mirzoyan, 13, in the cellar of the former head gardener’s cottage on the estate. She was abducted while taking part in a junior chess tournament at the Marshall Court Hotel in Bournemouth with her mum, Lena, and is being held captive. They’d driven down from Salisbury that morning for the tournament.

Elijah is obviously a very confused and deeply disturbed child and he visits Elissa in her underground prison and befriends her but is too afraid to help her, especially as this has happened before, with other girls, and he knows what the consequences are. He seems younger than his years and there are mentions of fairy tales – he calls Elissa by the name of Gretel to his Hansel, almost to lighten the mood of Elissa’s harrowing ordeal. He is friendly with her but untrustworthy and Elissa is very wary.

Detective Superintendent Mairéad MacCullagh from Bournemouth Central police station, who is experiencing her own personal traumas, is in charge of the investigation into Elissa’s disappearance. The teenager was seen being bundled into a white van by an eyewitness, a guest at the hotel.

Elissa is very intelligent and uses her clever mind to work out how to handle things and to try and survive. The basement in which she’s held is dark so, in her mind, she plots out the floor like a chessboard to try and remember where things like her candles, rucksack and bucket are, in relation to the door and the manacle, which is fastened round her wrist. When her abductor visits, she tries to remain calm despite the terror she’s feeling and the physical harm he inflicts on her. She also thinks back to the beginning of the day for any clues, to try and work out if there was a reason why she was targeted and by whom.

The dark and disturbing story is told in alternating viewpoints from Elijah, Elissa and DS MacCullagh and I was quickly drawn into the horrific events in the Memory Wood. The prose is so amazingly descriptive and immersive and I felt like I was there, experiencing the awful traumas that Elissa was enduring, feeling her pain, smelling the awful, disgusting aromas in the basement, and I could also visualise the other characters and places in the book, all so vividly described.

The characterisation is great – Elissa was amazing; so courageous, brave and determined and she really fought to try and survive as she was so desperate to see her mum again. Elijah was such a fascinating and intriguing character, and his past experiences had shaped his life in awful ways. Elissa’s abductor was evil and behaved in shocking, unimaginable ways.

The graphic descriptions of wounds, bodily functions and action certainly aren’t for the fainted hearted and I’d recommend not reading this book in the dark before bedtime!

With twists and turns galore, and instances of double and treble bluffing, this was a cleverly plotted and well-layered story and I wasn’t sure what to believe and who was telling the truth. It was certainly a gripping rollercoaster ride!

Overall, I really enjoyed this twisted, sinister, chilling tale! It was unpredictable, intriguing and mind baffling at times. It was also absorbing, suspenseful and poignant too – I was never sure how it was going to be resolved and was frantically turning the pages to see what happened. I’m really looking forward to the author’s next book and wondering how he’s going to top this one!

Note from the author: origins of The Memory Wood

It started just after our first child was born. I’d catch my wife staring into the middle distance, looking faintly troubled. When I asked her what was up, her answer was always the same. She’d imagined some nightmare scenario involving our son – and was busily planning how to save him. My wife’s anxiety lasted a matter of months. But the episode stuck in my mind.

Two years ago, my son reached the finals of a national chess tournament. One Saturday morning, I drove him to the secondary school that was hosting it. The scene that greeted us was lively and chaotic: hundreds of parents, hundreds of kids. And, because I’d forgotten my book – and perhaps because of the seed planted years earlier by my wife – I began to consider how easily a determined stranger might abduct a child from the venue. As the tournament progressed, I pondered more questions. What if a child were abducted? And what if, far from helpless victim, that child possessed an intellect greatly surpassing its abductor’s? What if this life-or-death struggle became one not of physical strength but of ruthless psychological cunning?

I already had my crime scene. Pretty soon, I had my protagonist: 13-year-old chess prodigy Elissa Mirzoyan, a quietly precocious girl who wakes underground after being snatched on the most important day of her life. Her determination to survive the coming ordeal wouldn’t be driven by mere instinct. It would come from a flat-out refusal to leave her mum alone in the world, and would be tempered by a ferocious hunger for vengeance.

Plotting a novel, for me, always feels more like a process of investigation than invention – the slow reveal of a dirt-covered mosaic. And as I teased out more of this story’s individual tiles, I learned something even more compelling about Elissa’s plight.

While engaging her abductor in increasingly dangerous mind games, she’ll face a separate threat even harder to navigate. It’ll come in the form of a frail young boy, Elijah North, who discovers her subterranean prison while playing in his local woods. Steadily, Elissa will gain Elijah’s trust. But when she persuades him to raise the alarm, he’ll return with a tale too outlandish to be credible.

More of the mosaic revealed itself, at which point I learned something about the story that knocked me flat. And then I had to write the book, just to find out how it ended …

Buy the book

The Memory Wood by Sam Lloyd can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in hardback, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Sam Lloyd grew up in Hampshire, making up stories and building secret hideaways in his local woods. These days he lives in Surrey with his wife, three young sons and a dog that likes to howl. He enjoys craft beer, strong coffee and (rarely) a little silence. The Memory Wood is his debut thriller.

Twitter: @samlloydwrites

Blog tour

Thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for my copy of The Memory Wood and for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 17 February to 4 March 2020

Synopsis

Another murder. Another mystery.

Guests are called to a remote island off the Irish coast to celebrate the wedding of the year – the marriage of Jules and Will. Everything has been meticulously planned, the scene is set, old friends are back together.

It should be the perfect day.

Until the discovery of a body signals the perfect murder.

A groom with a secret.
A bridesmaid with a grudge.
A plus one with motive.
A best man with a past.

It could be any, it could be all … But one guest won’t make it out alive.

My review

On the remote Cormorant Island on the stormy, windswept Irish coast, guests are gathering for the no expense spared wedding of the year between Survive the Night TV star, Will Slater, and Julia (Jules) Keegan, who runs a popular online magazine called The Download, after a whirlwind romance.

The story is told from the alternating viewpoints of the bride, Jules; the wedding planner, Aoife; Hannah, the plus one, who is the wife of Jules’ best man, Charlie; the best man, Jonathan (Johnno); and Olivia, the bridesmaid and Jules’ sister.

The wedding planner, Aoife, and her husband Freddy, a chef, moved to the island from Dublin a year or so ago and bought the crumbling, derelict Folly and restored it to an elegant 10 bedroom property and the Slater–Keegan wedding will be their first event. The island is atmospheric but sounds an undesirable place to hold a wedding: it’s isolated and guests have to get to it via a rather rough boat crossing, it has changeable weather conditions and there are numerous bogs and cliffs for the guests to fall into/off! It sounds rather haunted and a place where bad things happen – there are several superstitious signs and bad omens from folklore.

The groom, Will, was a pupil at Trevellyan boarding school and his father was the headmaster. Several of his former schoolfriends, Angus, Duncan, Johnno, Oluwafemi (Femi) and Peter, are attending the wedding and they all seem to be hiding things, especially from their shared time at the school. The tribal nature of their school environment is in evidence during the stag do and at various points during the wedding. The men are all rather unpleasant and mean and all their joking around and mocking of others has nasty undertones.

The bride, Jules, isn’t the nicest woman either and she has rather difficult relationships with her half-sister, Olivia and her mother, Araminta, and father, who are no longer together. Her dad, Ronan, has a young French wife called Séverine and they have twins. There is definitely a sense that Jules has a past that deeply affects her.

All of the wedding guests seemed to have secrets and I wasn’t sure who to believe half the time. They all had issues and were rather horrible, flawed and toxic characters, many bearing grudges and resentments, and several of them seemingly waiting to get revenge on each other.

From the beginning of the novel, we’re aware that something awful is going to happen on the bleak island during the wedding. Weather conditions are terrible – a storm is raging across the island, the wind is howling, the power keeps cutting out and the lights failing. There’s a sense of foreboding, fear and tension and this ramps up as the story progresses and the chapters get shorter, snappier and more intense. The book is cleverly written and well plotted and layered and I was frantically turning the pages to discover what happened and to whom!

It’s very intriguing and compelling and there were several big reveals and revelations, red herrings, twists and turns. There were hints and clues throughout the book but there were enough suspects to flummox me and I didn’t guess who the killer or the victim were! A very entertaining read!

I really enjoyed the author’s previous murder mystery thriller, The Hunting Party, and will definitely be looking out for her next book and trying some of her others: The Book of Lost and Found, The Invitation and Last Letter from Istanbul.

Buy the book

The Guest List by Lucy Foley can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in hardback, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Lucy Foley studied English literature at Durham University and University College London (UCL) and worked for several years as a fiction editor in the publishing industry, before leaving to write full-time.

The Hunting Party, an instant The Sunday Times and The Irish Times number one bestseller, was Lucy’s debut crime novel, inspired by a particularly remote spot in Scotland that fired her imagination.

Lucy is also the author of three historical novels, which have been translated into 16 languages. Her journalism has appeared in ES Magazine, Sunday Times Style, Grazia and more.

Twitter: @lucyfoleytweets
Facebook: @LucyFoleyAuthor

Blog tour

Thanks to Jen Harlow at HarperCollins UK and Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for my lovely hardback copy of The Guest List and for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 6 February to 12 March 2020

Synopsis

Emily just wants to keep the world away.

After getting into trouble yet again, she’s agreed to attend anger management classes. But she refuses to share her deepest secrets with a room full of strangers.

Jake just wants to keep his family together.

He’ll do anything to save his marriage and bond with his six-year-old son, Alfie. But when he’s paired with spiky Emily, he wonders whether opening up will do more harm than good.

The two of them couldn’t be more different. Yet when Alfie, who never likes strangers, meets Emily, something extraordinary happens.

Could one small boy change everything?

My review

Stay-at-home dad, Jake, is struggling with his six-year-old son, Alfie, who has an undiagnosed form of autism. His wife and Alfie’s mum, Jemma, works full time as a marketing executive and the pair are constantly arguing about Alfie and with each other so Jake decides to attend anger management classes on Saturdays at noon to try and save his marriage. While there, he meets the rather prickly Emily, who is in denial that she should even be going to the classes and won’t reveal why she is there. She has a traumatic past, recently had an affair with a married man and has a difficult relationship with her mum.

Emily’s first impression of Jake isn’t great as he’s flustered and upset because his son has gone missing but she has a surprising immediate connection with Alfie, who was hiding under a table at the class with her!

It’s obvious that Jake deeply loves his son but he is struggling with Alfie’s mood swings and behaviour and how best to handle them and he is quick tempered with him and Jemma. She is also struggling and keeps busy with her work to avoid facing up to the problems in her marriage and the tense relationships with her husband and son.

For Alfie’s sake, Emily and Jake meet up and Emily seems to instinctively know how to handle Alfie’s moods and emotions. She can see something of herself in the little boy and can empathise with how he’s feeling. She is very vulnerable and defensive and a rather self-destructive character and responds to difficult times by drinking heavily, shaving her hair and sleeping with random men.

When Jemma reaches breaking point and leaves home and heads to Paris, Jake needs to return to work full time as a teacher and he asks Emily to give up her work in a café and look after Alfie before and after school. She agrees, rather reluctantly at first, but she soon thrives as Alfie’s nanny and her great rapport with him has surprising results and the two get on very well, much to Jake’s chagrin and he feels a bit put out and left out!

The story is told from the points of view of Emily and Jake but there are also odd chapters from Alfie’s perspective, which help to show how he’s feeling. These are really insightful and show his emotions and how he’s struggling and worrying about various things and how his parents don’t realise why he’s acting the way he is. Alfie struggles when he can’t control a situation and he likes to know exactly what is happening and when. He likes to get things straight in his own mind and he worries about and questions everything in the world. And he doesn’t understand other people, especially confusing adults and his schoolfriends. Alfie is challenging but very sweet and intelligent and I loved his little quirks and thought patterns and Lego fixation.

Lots is left unsaid between Emily and Jake because they’re not sure what the other is thinking and they have several awkward moments where I just wanted them to talk to each other! They also have lots of laughs and fun times with Alfie too and they make some lovely memories together. Emily and Jake slowly grow to care about each other and open up a bit more.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and liked getting to know Alfie, plus the rather defensive Jake and prickly Emily! They rather clashed initially but, with their shared love of Alfie, things started to improve. I really felt for Jake and Emily; they’d both had a tough time of it for various reasons and, until they met and became friends, were struggling to see how their lives could change for the better.

This was an emotional, insightful and thought-provoking read and especially poignant when you learn that the author herself has a son with pathological demand avoidance, a form of autism spectrum disorder, and he was the inspiration for the character of Alfie. I found the story very absorbing and touching and I grew to really like all the main protagonists, and empathise with them, despite their rather shaky start and difficult first impressions!

A lovely debut novel and I’ll definitely be looking out for the author’s next book!

Buy the book

Saturdays at Noon by Rachel Marks can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in paperback, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks. It’s also available as an audiobook and the character of Alfie is narrated by Rachel Marks’ oldest son, Jacob.

About the author

Rachel Marks studied English at Exeter University before becoming a primary school teacher. Despite always loving to write, it wasn’t until she gained a place on the 2016 Curtis Brown Creative online novel writing course that she started to believe it could be anything more than a much-loved hobby.

Her inspiration for her first book came from the challenges she faced with her eldest son – testing and fascinating in equal measure – and the research she did to try to understand him better.

She lives in Gloucestershire with her husband and two young sons. When not writing, she loves travelling, snowboarding and photography.

Twitter: @Rache1Marks
Instagram: @rachelmarksauthor

Blog tour

Thanks to Sriya Varadharajan at Michael Joseph Books for my proof copy of Saturdays at Noon and for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 17 February to 7 March 2020

Synopsis

One juror changed the verdict. What if she was wrong?

‘Ten years ago we made a decision together …’

Fifteen-year-old Jessica Silver, heiress to a billion-dollar fortune, vanishes on her way home from school. Her teacher, Bobby Nock, is the prime suspect. It’s an open and shut case for the prosecution, and a quick conviction seems all but guaranteed.

Until Maya Seale, a young woman on the jury, persuades the rest of the jurors to vote not guilty: a controversial decision that will change all of their lives forever.

Ten years later, one of the jurors is found dead, and Maya is the prime suspect.

The real killer could be any of the other ten jurors. Is Maya being forced to pay the price for her decision all those years ago?

My review

Set in Los Angeles, The Holdout tells the story of Maya Seale who was on the jury of a murder trial in 2009. Fifteen-year-old Jessica Silver, whose father Lou owned a large percentage of real estate in the county, went missing on her way home from school and the prime suspect was her part-time English teacher, Bobby Nock, aged 24. The jurors all found him not guilty after Maya persuaded them that there wasn’t enough evidence – Jessica’s body was never found.

Ten years later, Maya is an attorney after her experience on the jury encouraged her to follow a career in criminal defence. All of the jurors were affected by the case, especially when their names were revealed to the public, and one man, Rick Leonard, has spent his life regretting his decision and trying to find out the truth. He approaches Maya and the other 10 surviving jurors and asks them to take part in the Murder Town podcast, a docuseries for Netflix, which aims to reveal the truth once and for all.

Maya had been romantically linked to Rick during the trial but, afterwards, he wrote a book about their experiences, apologising for the jury’s decision and blaming Maya, so she initially refuses when he asks her to take part. She then reluctantly agrees when her boss, Craig Rogers, senior partner at Cantwell & Myers, persuades her to be involved, and when she discovers that Rick has vital information – new evidence that will definitively incriminate Bobby Nock – that he’ll share during his segment of the podcast, the final one.

For this 10-year reunion, the jurors all meet at the Omni Hotel in Los Angeles, which was where they were sequestered during the trial, when their names were revealed to the press three weeks in and they were forced to move into suites at the hotel. Before the podcast interviews can start, one of the jurors is found dead in Maya’s hotel room and she is thrust headlong into another murder case and must investigate to save herself.

In two timelines, we learn more about Jessica Silver’s murder and Bobby Nock’s trial in 2009 from the points of view of all the jurors and follow Maya’s progress in 2019 as she investigates the juror’s murder while on bail, much to her boss’s dismay as she’s hired him to be her defence attorney. As the various stories unfold, we discover more about all the jurors and both cases and things start to get rather intriguing!

I found it awful how much the original murder trial had seriously affected all the jurors’ lives – each and every one of them was changed by it and most were unable to continue with their lives in the same way and couldn’t leave it behind. They didn’t complete their education, were forced to leave their jobs or changed their careers, all because they were unfortunate enough to be chosen to be on the jury and made the decision, rightly or wrongly, of finding Bobby Nock not guilty.

I liked the main protagonist, Maya Seale, as she was a strong woman who had taken something positive from the difficulty and traumas of the original trial by becoming a defence lawyer. She’d taken part in the system and wanted to use her insider knowledge of how a jury makes its decisions to help others. She is successful and determined: she finished high in her class at UC Berkley Law, was partner in three years at Cantwell & Myers and has done well in her career with many plea bargains negotiated, plus acquittals in all her cases that have gone to trial.

It was intriguing and disturbing to discover, though, that it seems most defence lawyers/attorneys don’t really care whether someone has actually committed an offence or not; they just want to get them off by constructing the best defence and dismantling any evidence that has been put forward. It all sounds rather a complicated game and the team that plays it best is the one that wins, irrelevant of the truth and whether someone is innocent or not!

Overall, I really enjoyed The Holdout – it was a complex, well-layered, entertaining legal thriller and I liked how the story unravelled. It would definitely make a great film with its Agatha Christie style (she is even mentioned in the book!). The well-written, enthralling plot was cleverly split between the two time periods and it was twisty and full of suspense and tense moments.

It’s a fascinating read and I enjoyed getting to know all the jurors – such an interesting mix of people – and learning their secrets. They all had something to hide. Half the time I didn’t know which way things were going to go as new information was revealed and things took yet another unexpected turn. Will definitely be looking out for more from this author and checking out his screenplay, The Imitation Game!

Buy the book

The Holdout by Graham Moore can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle now and in hardback on 20 February, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Graham Moore is a The New York Times bestselling novelist and Academy Award-winning screenwriter. His screenplay for The Imitation Game won the Academy Award and WGA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2015 and was nominated for a BAFTA and a Golden Globe.

His novels, The Last Days of Night (2016) and The Sherlockian (2010), were published in 24 countries and translated into 19 languages. The Last Days of Night was named one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Graham lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Caitlin, and their dog, Janet.

Twitter: @MrGrahamMoore
Facebook: @GrahamMooreWriter
Website: https://mrgrahammoore.com

Blog tour

Thanks to Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers for my digital copy of The Holdout and for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 31 January to 20 February 2020

Synopsis

No matter how far you run … He’s never far behind.

Lisa needs to disappear. And her friend’s rambling old home in the wilds of Yorkshire seems like the perfect place. It’s miles away from the closest town, and no one there knows her or her little boy, Joe.

But when a woman from the local village comes to visit them, Lisa realizes that she and Joe aren’t as safe as she thought.

What secret has Rowan Isle House – and her friend – kept hidden all these years?

And what will Lisa have to do to survive, when her past finally catches up with her?

My review

The House on the Lake is set in two timelines and we meet Lisa Ward and her three-year-old son, Joe, in December 2018 and an unnamed girl and her ex-soldier father in 2002–2004.

Lisa is escaping her abusive and controlling husband, Mark, and, after a long drive, her and Joe arrive at Rowan Isle House, near the village of Harrowby in the Yorkshire Dales and next to a lake. The house is isolated, desolate and dilapidated – it obviously hasn’t been lived in for many years and is filthy, smelly and in a state of neglect, with no running water, electricity, gas or heating. It was Lisa’s friend’s old home and she told her that she could stay there if she ever needed to escape but it’s primitive and not fit for human habitation and Lisa feels awful bringing her son into this environment. Also, Joe is only three and can’t understand why his daddy isn’t with them.

Lisa makes a friend in a local woman called Isobel and she helps by bringing supplies, making the house a bit more hospitable by lighting the ancient stove and looking after Joe. Lisa lives in fear that Mark will discover their whereabouts or someone will work out her past and, although the house is in an isolated location, she finds it claustrophobic and she’s constantly on edge and seeing danger in the shadows.

When we first meet the young girl and her father, Sarge, she has just turned 11 and is celebrating her birthday by attempting to make her first kill with a gun. They live in the house and Sarge trains her like a soldier and they survive off the land and woods. He is a veteran of the Gulf War and is obviously suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and has episodes where he relives his awful past experiences and believes he’s still in the army.

The pair live an isolated life, rarely venturing into the nearby village, as Sarge has a strong mistrust and dislike of the other villagers. He is scared and controls his daughter by training her and she is very naive and young and doesn’t know any different, at first, so is unaware that this isn’t normal.

I felt so sorry for the young girl – it’s no way to live and her father is battling with the demons in his head and is quite frightening and menacing most of the time and even physically hurts her to try and toughen her up and make her a good soldier.

In different ways, both Lisa and the young girl were controlled, dominated and abused by the men in their lives and were too afraid, initially, to stand up to the men and reject this behaviour.

At times, Rowan Isle House appears almost haunted and there’s a strong sense of evil and malevolence and that bad things have happened there. The place sounds horrible in both time periods – so crude and basic, with no mod cons – and I’d hate to have to stay there with a child!

Overall, I really enjoyed this engaging and absorbing book, which is dark and disturbing at times. It was an easy read and I flew through it in a few hours, desperate to learn more about both sets of protagonists and how their two stories were linked. By the end, there certainly had been some shocking revelations and I was surprised by how it was all resolved.

It was a well-written, tense read but quite slow paced. I was waiting for something awful to happen to both characters – there was a great sense of uneasiness, tension and foreboding and the descriptions of the house and both main protagonists were great. I felt like I could smell the house and see the horrors lurking within!

This was the first of the author’s books that I’ve read but I’ll definitely be checking out My Sister’s Bones and Day of the Accident, which I’ve already got on my shelf!

Buy the book

The House on the Lake by Nuala Ellwood can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle now and in paperback on 20 February, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Nuala Ellwood is the author of two bestselling novels: My Sister’s Bones, for which she was selected as one of The Observer’s ‘New Faces of Fiction 2017’, and Day of the Accident.  The House on the Lake is her latest novel.

Nuala teaches Creative Writing at York St John University, and lives in the city with her young son.

Twitter: @NualaWrites
Facebook: @NualaEllwoodAuthor
Instagram: @nualawrites

Blog tour

Thanks to Ellie Hudson at Penguin and Viking Books for my proof copy and finished copy of The House on the Lake and for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 28 January to 11 February 2020

Synopsis

It’s not life that imitates art. It’s death.

Anna Symons. Famous. Talented. Dead.

The body of a famous actress is found mutilated on an ice rink in Manchester, recreating a scene from a blockbuster film she starred in years ago.

DI Erika Piper, having only recently returned to work after suffering a near-fatal attack herself, finds she must once again prove her worth as the hunt for the media-dubbed ‘Blood Ice Killer’ intensifies.

But when another body is found and, this time, the killer issues a personal threat, Erika must do more than put aside her demons to crack the case, or suffer the deadly consequences.

My review

After a year off after being injured in the line of duty, Detective Inspector Erika Piper’s first day back begins with a visit to the ice rink, The Ice Bowl, in Altrincham with her colleague, Detective Sergeant Liam Sutton, to investigate the horrific murder of famous actress, Anna Symons, who has been found laying dead on the ice with awful injuries.

We discover that her death recreates the scene of a violent murder from a film she starred in about five years ago, which was called Blood Ice. The film was based on a book called The Threat and there are two further books in the series: The Violent Threat and The Final Threat. The film of the second book, renamed as Hell Hammer, is due to be released soon.

As the story unfolds, we’re introduced to Anna’s fiancé, Rory Knox, who works in advertising and was in nearby Bradford at the time of her murder. The couple live in London but Anna was visiting her mother in Altrincham for a few days and we discover who she spent the evening with on the night she was killed. We also meet the director of the films, Reuben Amado, the executive producer, Jason (Jay) Krist, and the writer of The Threat trilogy, Ed Bennett, as well as a rather obsessive film student, Ben McCall.

When a second body is discovered, a similarly horrific murder, the police realise they’ve got a sadistic serial killer on their hands and DI Erika Piper’s boss, Detective Chief Inspector Bob Lovatt, who she blames for the incident that saw her injured and out of action for a year, puts pressure on the team to slot the pieces of the jigsaw together and find the killer.

Erika has a good rapport with her colleague, Liam, and they work well together as the tension builds and the action happens thick and fast. She also gets close with Detective Thomas Calder, after splitting up with her rather unsupportive boyfriend, Darren.

Things escalate and the pace steadily increases as the Blood Ice Killer personally targets Erika and time appears to be running out as the finale approaches. Will the police find the murderer before he completes his killing spree?!

A Wash of Black is a superb read and I flew through it in a matter of hours, frantically turning the pages to see how everything was going to be resolved! There were several twists and turns and red herrings. The clues were well littered throughout the book but there were enough suspects to flummox me and I didn’t guess who the killer was!

I really enjoyed this well-written and cleverly plotted police procedural. It was compelling and engaging and well put together, with great details and descriptions. The main protagonist, DI Erika Piper, is a great character – well drawn, strong, caring, relatable and normal – and I look forward to reading more about her in the next book in the series.

Buy the book

A Wash of Black by Chris McDonald 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

Originally hailing from the north coast of Northern Ireland and now residing in South Manchester, Chris McDonald has always been a reader. At primary school, The Hardy Boys inspired his love of adventure, before his reading world was opened up by Chuck Palahniuk and the gritty world of crime.

He’s a fan of 5-a-side football, has an eclectic taste in music ranging from Damien Rice to Slayer and loves dogs.

Twitter: @cmacwritescrime
Facebook: @cmacwritescrime
Website: https://macsbookreview.wordpress.com
Instagram: @macreviewsbooks

Rafflecopter giveaway

Details: The prize is a signed hardback edition of A Wash of Black, along with a ‘Go away I’m reading’ tote bag and a luxury bookmark.

The giveaway runs from 28 January to 11 February, and we (Red Dog Press) will announce the randomly chosen winner on the evening of 11 February 2020 (GMT).

Routes to entry are all on the giveaway link, but basically, sign up to Red Dog Press Reader’s Club (which also gets you discounts in our store, a free eBook, and latest news from us), following us on Twitter. Entrants who tweet our promo tweet get two bonus entries.

Enter here: Rafflecopter giveaway link

Blog tour

Thanks to Dylan at Red Dog Press for my paperback and digital copies of A Wash of Black and for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 1 to 29 February 2020

Synopsis

Continuing the unique, explosive Six Stories series, based around six podcasts comes a compulsive, taut and terrifying thriller, and a bleak and distressing look at modern society’s desperation for attention. Beast will unveil a darkness from which you may never return …

In the wake of the ‘Beast from the East ’ cold snap that ravaged the UK in 2018, a grisly discovery was made in a ruin on the Northumbrian coast. Twenty-four-year-old vlogger, Elizabeth Barton, had been barricaded inside what locals refer to as ‘The Vampire Tower’, where she was later found frozen to death.

Three young men, part of an alleged cult, were convicted of this terrible crime, which they described as a ‘prank gone wrong’. However, in the small town of Ergarth, questions have been raised about the nature of Elizabeth Barton’s death and whether the three convicted youths were even responsible.

Elusive online journalist Scott King speaks to six witnesses – people who knew both the victim and the three killers – to peer beneath the surface of the case. He uncovers whispers of a shocking online craze that held the young of Ergarth in its thrall and drove them to escalate a series of pranks in the name of internet fame. He hears of an abattoir on the edge of town, which held more than simple slaughter behind its walls, and the tragic and chilling legend of the Ergarth Vampire …

My review

In March 2018, the body of a young woman, Elizabeth Barton, was discovered in Tankerville Tower, a 13th century ruin, in the north-eastern town of Ergarth, on the Northumbrian coast. She was found frozen to death, as the area was in the grip of freezing Siberian winds (the ‘Beast from the East’), but had terrible injuries and three young local men (Martin Flynn, Solomon Meer and George Meldby, all in their early twenties) were convicted of her murder. Two years later, after the discovery of graffiti on the Barton family home, which seems to suggest the murder needs to be looked into, online journalist, Scott King, decides to investigate and speak to six people who were connected with the victim.

Scott King has become known for his online Six Stories podcasts, in which he examines complicated cases and carries out six interviews with key witnesses to try and determine the truth of what has happened.

Elizabeth Barton was also an online sensation: a video blogger (vlogger) and influencer, who had a large following on Instagram and YouTube for her shopping and ‘unboxing’ videos and charity work and was taking part in the Dead in Six Days challenge at the time of her death. This was a current internet craze that had been doing the rounds and Elizabeth was the first in the town to take part. It involved carrying out a challenge that has been set by a ‘vampire’ via WhatsApp and then uploading a video of the prank on YouTube. Once they’ve complete their challenge, the person is supposed to pass the vampire’s number on to someone else or they will have to carry out another challenge. This carries on for six days, which is when the vampire comes to kill the person! Elizabeth refused to pass the tasks on as she wanted to meet the vampire called Vladlena and face ‘death’ in her quest for more likes online.

As Scott King interviews the six people in his podcasts, we learn more about everyone connected with the murder, and about Elizabeth herself, and some shocking facts and truths are revealed! It was interesting to see how the parts of the jigsaw fitted together, or didn’t, as Scott got deeper into his investigations. All is not what it seems for most of the people involved! We also learn more about the town, with its smelly abattoir and rather dark, depressing and disturbing history, and about the Ergarth Vampire who is supposed to haunt the Tankerville Tower and surrounding area.

Beast was really thought provoking and a rather dark and creepy read. It’s spookily written and atmospheric and there’s a real sense of darkness and evil. It was rather spine chilling at times and very disconcerting and unsettling. There’s also a sense of foreboding and dread running throughout the book, of the horrors that lurk in this town and in its young people and the pressures they face in this modern internet world. Their need for attention and validation; to be acknowledged, accepted and liked on social media, above all else. It doesn’t seem a healthy way to live and things felt rather depressing and hopeless at times, especially as the people involved were actually young adults rather than children.

Overall, I really enjoyed this well-written and cleverly plotted book. Such an unusual concept and really well done. I wasn’t too sure how it would work at first but each podcast brought a different angle to the proceedings, a different thread, and cleverly stripped back the layers of intrigue, mystery and deception that had been covering this story and indeed the town and its people for the last few years. Compelling stuff and it was interesting to hear a different voice and a different angle to the story in each podcast. Intermingled with the story were supernatural elements and I was never quite sure what to believe and whether there was truth to the whole vampire legend or not!

I imagine this series would be perfect for listening on audio so I’ll have to try one in this format. I’m embarrassed to admit this was my first book from the Six Stories series, and it works fine as a standalone, but I’ll definitely be checking out the other three episodes now: Six Stories, Hydra and Changeling.

Buy the book

Beast by Matt Wesolowski can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in paperback, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Matt Wesolowski is an author from Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the UK. He is an English tutor for young people in care.

Matt started his writing career in horror, and his short horror fiction has been published in numerous UK- and US-based anthologies such as Midnight Movie Creature, Selfies from the End of the World, Cold Iron and many more. His novella, The Black Land, a horror set on the Northumberland coast, was published in 2013.

Matt was a winner of the Pitch Perfect competition at Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival in 2015. His debut thriller, Six Stories, was an Amazon bestseller in the USA, Canada, the UK and Australia, and a WHSmith Fresh Talent pick, and film rights were sold to a major Hollywood studio. A prequel, Hydra, was published in 2018 and became an international bestseller. Changeling, book three in the series, was published in 2019.

Twitter: @ConcreteKraken
Facebook: @Matt-Wesolowski
Instagram: @MattJWesolowski
Website: https://mjwesolowskiauthor.wordpress.com

Blog tour

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

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

Blog tour: 1 to 29 February 2020

Synopsis

Police officer Alexander Blix and celebrity blogger Emma Ramm join forces to track down a serial killer with a thirst for attention and high-profile murders, in the first episode of a gripping new Nordic Noir series …

Oslo, 2018. Former long-distance runner Sonja Nordstrøm never shows at the launch of her controversial autobiography, Forever Number One. When celebrity blogger Emma Ramm visits Nordstrøm’s home later that day, she finds the door unlocked and signs of a struggle inside. A bib with the number ‘one’ has been pinned to the TV.

Police officer Alexander Blix is appointed to head up the missing-persons investigation, but he still bears the emotional scars of a hostage situation nineteen years earlier, when he killed the father of a five-year-old girl. Traces of Nordstrøm soon show up at different locations, but the appearance of the clues appear to be carefully calculated … evidence of a bigger picture that he’s just not seeing …

Blix and Ramm soon join forces, determined to find and stop a merciless killer with a flare for the dramatic, and thirst for attention. Trouble is, he’s just got his first taste of it …

Extract

I’m delighted to share an extract of Chapter 5 of Death Deserved with you today.

Emma got off at the stop near Jomfrubråten. She’d made good use of her tram ride, making a few phone calls to people she knew in the TV 2 building. She’d learned that a taxi had been ordered to collect Sonja Nordstrøm at 7.20 a.m. With a little determined digging, she’d even managed to find out the driver’s name and phone number. Daniel Kvam. She’d called him straight away, but had only reached his voicemail.

For the last ten minutes of the tram journey, she’d thumbed through the first few chapters of Forever Number One, which had left her in no doubt that it would be explosive. Athletes, coaches and family members were told a few home truths, and Nordstrøm more or less accused one of her coaches of having sexually abused her.

Her phone rang just as she crossed Kongsveien.

‘Hi, it’s Daniel Kvam. You just phoned me?’

‘Yes,’ she said, and explained who she was. ‘Thanks for returning my call. It’s about a trip you had arranged for earlier today. You were to pick up Sonja Nordstrøm in Ekeberg at 7.20 a.m., is that right?’

‘That’s right enough,’ Kvam said. ‘But nothing came of it.’

Emma frowned.

‘I waited outside her house for fifteen minutes, at least, but she never came out.’

‘Didn’t you phone her?’

‘Yes, but it went straight to voicemail. I got out and rang her doorbell, but she still didn’t appear, so in the end I drove off.’

Emma said thanks and hung up.

She was now standing outside Nordstrøm’s magnificent villa, a house situated close to Kongsveien. It had to be at least 400 square metres of real estate, she reckoned, with a massive garage, painted white, adjacent. Building materials wrapped in plastic and remnants of packaging from renovation work were piled up in front of one garage door. Brown, compacted cardboard boxes.

The gate was open, which made Emma think Nordstrøm might have driven off somewhere earlier that day or the previous evening – that basically she’d done a bunk. A media circus such as Amund Zimmer had described would take the wind out of most people’s sails, even if you were totally used to it.

Emma stepped on to the tarmac driveway leading down to the house. Stopping at the front door, she rang the doorbell and heard it chime inside.

No answer.

She tried one more time with the same result: no one came to open the door. Taking a few paces back, she peered at the windows on the upper storey, but there was no face peeking back at her from behind the curtains. She couldn’t hear anything either.

She tried the doorbell once again. Still no sound from anyone inside. A flash of inspiration made her try the door handle, and she was taken aback to find the door unlocked. Emma let go of the handle but the door continued to glide slowly open. She took a step forwards. Poked her head ever so slightly into a spacious hallway with dark tiles on the floor.

Something on the floor further inside caused her to knit her brows. A coat stand lying on its side. She saw some shards of glass as well, scattered in front of a frame that must once have held a full-length mirror.

Emma stood still and called out: ‘Sonja Nordstrøm?’

She listened, but there was no response.

The sound of her shoes on the tiled floor in the outer hallway resonated through the house. ‘Hello!’ she shouted again, noticing how shaky her voice had become. Her trepidation did not prevent her from venturing further inside, though, into a huge hall with floor tiles in a checkerboard pattern. She made sure not to trample on the fragments of glass from the full-length mirror.

A high ceiling, with the lights switched on, and a glittering chandelier. A staircase led to the upper storey.

Emma continued to call out to Nordstrøm, but still received no answer.

She looked into the kitchen, where everything was elegant – bright surfaces, cooker and fridge in brushed stainless steel. The dark tiles also covered the floor in here. A cupboard full of wine bottles. Fresh flowers on a colossal table. Two wine glasses on the worktop, just beside a copy of Forever Number One. Emma shouted Nordstrøm’s name again, but heard nothing.

Or …

Yes, she did hear something.

She followed the sound out of the kitchen and into what appeared to be a living room. The TV was on, tuned into some sports channel or other. In the centre of the TV screen, a starting number was attached with a piece of tape. Number one.

Emma stood looking at it for a few seconds. That’s odd, she thought, as she picked up the remote control to switch off the TV. Then, in a split second, felt how deathly still everything had become.

‘Nordstrøm?’

Her voice hardly carried.

She made one more attempt, louder this time. Still no answer.

All of a sudden she did not want to be there. She had to get out. Fast.

She moved quickly. Her foot slid on the loose carpet in the hallway, but she managed to stay on her feet. She had to fight the urge to look back to see if anyone was watching or chasing her.

Once outside, she was able to breathe normally again. Closing the door behind her, she stood puzzling what to do next. A cat emerged from under a bush and disappeared around the corner of the house. Emma took out her phone and called Kasper.

Kasper Bjerringbo was a Danish journalist she had met at a seminar on digital journalism in Gothenburg a few months earlier. He had worked on Ritzau’s crime reporting unit for years. ‘Well, wonders will never cease,’ Kasper said in a thick Danish accent.

‘Hi, Kasper,’ Emma said. ‘Are you tied up?’

‘Yes, at least I am now.’

Emma smiled, and felt her cheeks grow warm.

‘Nice to hear from you,’ Kasper said. ‘It’s been a while.’

‘Yes, it has.’

‘It … we had fun, didn’t we?’

She pictured his black curls, his captivating smile. His very fit, naked body.

‘Yes we did,’ she said.

Until early in the morning, when tiredness had overcome her and she felt the urge to sneak back to her own bed.

‘I need some help,’ she said. ‘Some advice.’

‘What about?’

‘Do you have any experience of … disappearances?’

‘Well, we have a pretty big case going in Denmark right now, in fact.’

‘Oh?’

‘Yes, a footballer who’s been missing for just over a week – maybe you’ve read about him?’ Emma hadn’t. She didn’t pay much attention to football.

‘Why were you wondering?’ Kasper added.

Emma wasn’t sure how much detail she should give him, so, without mentioning Nordstrøm by name, she told him about the missed appointment at TV 2 and about the house being empty, with the front door open.

‘I think something might have happened to her,’ she concluded.

Kasper was quiet for a few seconds. Emma pictured him sitting in his office, playing with his curls.

‘Then you really have no choice. You have to contact the police,’ he said. ‘And you have to tell them you’ve been inside. If you withhold that kind of information, it might cause problems for you later.’

Emma looked up at the house, hoping she would see Nordstrøm’s face in one of the windows. Kasper was right, of course.

‘The police will almost certainly take it seriously, especially if we’re talking about a famous person,’ Kasper added.

‘Thanks,’ she said. ‘I knew I could count on you.’

‘You’re welcome,’ he replied, then paused for a moment. ‘How are things with you otherwise?’ he asked.

‘Fine,’ Emma said.

‘You’re not thinking of coming to Copenhagen anytime soon?’ he added.

Emma smiled. ‘I don’t think so.’

‘That’s a pity,’ Kasper said.

Yes, Emma said to herself. Maybe it was.

‘I have to go now,’ she said, thanking him again for his help.

For a brief moment, after the call ended, she closed her eyes and shook her head. My God. Stupid, crazy behaviour. Copenhagen and Kasper could actually be really enjoyable. At least until the question of where she should sleep arose.

The steady rumble of traffic from Kongsveien made her brush those thoughts away.

‘OK,’ she told herself, taking a deep breath.

Then she dialled the number for the police.

Buy the book

Death Deserved by Thomas Enger and Jørn Lier Horst can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle now and in paperback on 20 February, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the authors

Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger are the internationally bestselling Norwegian authors of the William Wisting and Henning Juul series respectively.

Jørn Lier Horst first rose to literary fame with his No. 1 internationally bestselling William Wisting series. A former investigator in the Norwegian police, Horst imbues all his works with an unparalleled realism and suspense.

Thomas Enger is the journalist-turned-author behind the internationally acclaimed and bestselling Henning Juul series. Enger’s trademark has become a darkly gritty voice paired with key social messages and tight plotting. Besides writing fiction for both adults and young adults, Enger also works as a music composer.

Death Deserved is Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger’s first co-written thriller.

Twitter: @LierHorst and @EngerThomas
Facebook: @JornLierHorst and @ThomasEnger
Websites:
http://www.jlhorst.com
https://thomasenger.com

Blog tour

Thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for my digital copy of Death Deserved and for my place on the blog tour.

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