Blog tour: 9 to 22 December 2019

Synopsis

You always know who you’re meeting online … don’t you?

Four women decide to explore online dating, downloading an app that promises they will swipe their way to love and happiness.

But not everyone is who they seem online. Hidden behind a perfect smile and charming humour, one man appears to be the perfect date. But the night he has planned is unlike any other.

The clock is ticking, and for one woman, this date might just be her last …

My review

All the Wrong Places tells the story of Paige Hamilton, her mother, Joan, her cousin, Heather, and best friend, Chloe.

Paige lives with her mother in a two-bedroom condo in Boston after the break up of her relationship a couple of months before, when she discovered her live-in boyfriend, Noah, in bed with her cousin, Heather.

Paige has had a bad run of luck in recent years: six months ago, she lost her job as a director of strategic planning in an advertising agency when the firm was taken over by a larger New York company. Her father, Robert, died from cancer two years ago and her uncle, Ted, his twin, is now celebrating his 80th birthday with a big party. Paige is still grieving his loss and the injustice that his inferior twin (‘this living, breathing replica’) is alive and her father isn’t.

Her cousin, Heather, has always been incredibly jealous of Paige and copies her in all areas of life – clothes, hairstyles, career, men – and regularly puts Paige down and mocks her. She’s not a very nice person and I was willing her to get her comeuppance!

Chloe discovers that her husband of eight years, Matt, is on lots of dating sites and this is the final straw after years of emotional and physical abuse and affairs and she kicks him out and files for divorce. They have two young children together, Josh (aged 6) and Sasha (aged 4), who struggle to understand what is happening.

In contrast to Paige, Chloe’s mother, Jennifer, is rather unsupportive and selfish and dancing is her passion; she regularly leaves town to take part in competitions across the country. She also drinks heavily and can’t be trusted to look after Josh and Sasha.

Paige’s mother, Joan, is 70 and at an age where she’s worried that every twinge is a brain tumour, stroke or heart attack. She regularly phones Paige complaining of various ailments. She decides to start online dating after Paige encourages her to have a go and helps set up her profile.

The story follows the ups and downs of the women’s lives as they struggle to overcome all the adversities thrown at them, and it was an engaging read as we learnt more about them all and got to know their characters. Interspersed with this are sections where we discover more about the rather menacing and disturbing Mr Right Now as he woos women then works his way through them, quite literally!

I was really intrigued by the premise behind this book – so many people do online dating these days and it’s moved on a lot from when I took part several years ago now! What’s all this swiping business?! It’s rather frightening that you never really know who you’re meeting online and it’s important to take precautions and always meet somewhere public, even if the person you’re meeting seems really charming like Mr Right Now!

I really liked Paige and her mum, Joan, they both seemed lovely and had a great relationship. They both encouraged each other in their dating exploits and Joan was very supportive, even if she rather overshared at times! There were some amusing interchanges between them, with good humour.

The book contained some lovely friendships between women and the undercurrent of evil running throughout the book in the form of serial killer, Mr Right Now, worked really well as he kept popping up and texting women from time to time, just when you’d hoped he’d gone away!

This was an entertaining read and a good mix of genres with the contrast of psychological thriller and women’s fiction. The book was well written and I liked the way the strands and layers of story were put together. The women were all closely linked, even if they weren’t all friendly with each other. The story contained a variety of themes and they were all well handled.

Mr Right Now was a really creepy and menacing character and the thought of someone like that preying on women on dating sites was rather horrific! He was charming and attractive and knew exactly what to say to lure women in.

The ending was great: I enjoyed the way the story was tied up but there was still some ambiguity and you weren’t quite sure what had happened.

This was my first book by Joy Fielding but I’ll definitely be checking out her other books now. Looks like she’s written quite a few!

Buy the book

All the Wrong Places by Joy Fielding can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in paperback, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Joy Fielding is the author of The New York Times bestsellers, Still Life, Charley’s Web, Heartstopper, See Jane Run, and other acclaimed novels. She divides her time between Toronto and Palm Beach, Florida.

Twitter: @joyfielding
Facebook: @Joy Fielding
Website: http://www.joyfielding.com

Blog tour

Thanks to Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers for my copy of All the Wrong Places and for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 9 to 20 December 2019

Synopsis

One killer on the loose. Another setting the rules. A profiler caught in the middle.

A serial killer is terrorising London, removing a body part from each victim and leaving in its place a single pink rose.

Dr Vernon Sange, a multiple murderer awaiting extradition, seems to know the culprit’s identity – but he’ll only talk to profiler Ziba MacKenzie, the woman responsible for putting him away. Though there’s something he wants in return from her. And time is running out.

With one killer whispering in her ear and another running rings around the police, Ziba must play a game in which only her opponent knows the rules, and the forfeit is death.

Victoria Selman’s writing process

Today on my blog, I’m bringing you some content from Victoria about her writing process. Interesting stuff! I can’t wait to read the third book in the Ziba MacKenzie series!

Victoria says:

Most authors I know define themselves as either ‘Plotters’ (someone who plans out a story in great detail before starting to write it). Or ‘Pantsers’ (someone who doesn’t know what’s going to happen until they sit down to write).

With me, it’s a bit of both.

My books tend to be very twisty with plenty of red herrings and misdirection. Someone described them recently as Mindhunter meets James Patterson by way of Thomas Harris, which I rather liked! The point is, to be able to write that way, I need to have a clear sense of where I’m going from the outset, especially if I want to make my reader think one thing, only to trip them up later. That means detailed synopses and chapter outlines which go through various incarnations, before I can even think about beginning a first draft.

Having said that, there’s definitely a ‘pantser’ element to the way I write too. Although it can very much be read as a stand-alone, Snakes and Ladders is the third book I’ve written revolving around ex special forces profiler, Ziba MacKenzie. As a result, I’ve got to know her well and find she takes on a life of her own.

In fact, there’s a scene I was writing in Snakes and Ladders where I suddenly became a viewer rather than creator. I knew what was going to happen in terms of the plot, but the words out Ziba’s mouth felt like they had nothing to do with me. Was this the moment she’d finally get together with the man she’s secretly in love with? Or would she sabotage their chances forever? What came next was more ‘right’ than it could ever have been if I’d planned it out.

And the more I write, the more I find this happens. I have a road map, I know where all the pitstops are and who I’m supposed to meet up with along the way. But sometimes I see a nice view and take a detour. And when I do, I often bump into someone (or something) I wasn’t expecting.

So, what does a typical writing day look like for me?

I start every day the same way (very boring!) I drop my kids off at school, walk the dog in the woods, take a plate of honey toast to my writing room and get cracking. I stop for lunch and my Pilates class and then write some more before heading out on the school run.

The only time it changes is when I’m podcasting. Each season, my ‘working day’ is spiced up with researching mysterious true crime cases and recording new episodes- as well as eating way too many chocolate brownies and gossiping with my co-hosts, Niki and Elle.

Buy the book

Snakes and Ladders by Victoria Selman can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle now and in paperback on 17 December.

About the author

Victoria Selman studied History at Oxford University and Creative Writing at the City Lit. She also holds certificates in Criminal Psychology and Criminal Profiling. She has written for the Independent, Daily Express and Ham & High newspapers and co-hosts a true crime podcast called, Crime Girl Gang with two other authors. Her first novel, Blood For Blood, was shortlisted for the Debut Dagger Award and is a Kindle number 1 bestseller. Snakes and Ladders is her third novel.

Twitter: @VictoriaSelman
Website: http://www.victoriaselmanauthor.com

Blog tour

Thanks to Victoria Selman for my copy of Snakes and Ladders and for telling us about her writing process, 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: 2 to 13 December 2019

Synopsis

It’s been 192 days, seven hours and fifteen minutes since her last drink. Now Astrid is trying to turn her life around.

Having reluctantly moved back in with her mother, in a quiet seaside town away from the temptations and painful memories of her life before, Astrid is focusing on her recovery. She’s going to meetings. Confessing her misdeeds. Making amends to those she’s wronged.

But someone knows exactly what Astrid is running from. And they won’t stop until she learns that some mistakes can’t be corrected.

Some mistakes, you have to pay for …

My review

Astrid Phelps is a recovering alcoholic and has been sober for over six months. After ending up in hospital and spending time in rehab, she moves to the seaside town of Flinstead so that her mum, June, can look after Astrid and keep an eye on her. She attends the local Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings, where she meets an array of people, and tries to follow the 12 steps programme.

While walking on the beach one day, she strikes up a conversation with Josh Carter, who enjoys swimming in the sea, and they end up tentatively beginning a relationship but Astrid isn’t honest with him about her past and neglects to mention her problems. He helps her to get back into her painting and she ends up doing a commission for his father, Richard.

As the book progresses, someone from the past seems to be stalking Astrid and sabotaging her attempts to remain sober. Will she be able to resist the temptations or slip back into a downward spiral of despair, letting herself down again and devastating her poor, long-suffering mother who is desperate to help her.

As a result of her alcoholism, past events and the destructive path she was on with her ex-boyfriend, Simon, Astrid is paranoid and thinks people are talking about her and assumes everyone is out to get her. The story makes for uneasy reading as Astrid’s past life comes back to haunt her and strange things start happening: she smells Simon’s aftershave and receives strange letters and loses things that are significant to her. She’s an unreliable narrator though and I was often left wondering if she was telling the truth or had misinterpreted something or was even reliving false memories as a result of being drunk at the time.

Battling against alcohol addiction is a constant struggle and I spent the whole book on edge, waiting for Astrid to slip up as she was tormented by bad memories and someone from her past, who seemed intent on causing her to relapse. It was an intense, emotional read and made difficult reading as the voices in Astrid’s head kept telling to have a little drink to feel better. Her conflicted emotions and inner torment were well written and I really felt for her, despite all the hurt she’d caused others. She had a lot of guilt, self-loathing and unresolved emotions and kept punishing herself.

Like Astrid, I wasn’t sure who to trust either! Both Josh and Richard seemed to be hiding things and Astrid’s AA acquaintances were all rather complicated characters too and they were obviously all battling their own demons and weren’t very reliable. Even her mum’s and her mum’s friend, Pam, acted strangely at times.

The suspense built throughout the book and I wasn’t sure how everything was going to be resolved and whether Astrid was going to have a happy ending or not. I was hopeful, but not entirely convinced, that she would find the strength to survive.

Overall, I really enjoyed this well-written, tense, foreboding book and I whizzed through it in a couple of days. There were a few twists and turns and red herrings to catch me out! It was another great read from Lesley Kara. I really enjoyed her debut novel, The Rumour, which was also set in Flinstead, and I’m already looking forward to her next book.

Buy the book

Who Did You Tell? by Lesley Kara can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle now and in hardback on 9 January 2020, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Lesley Kara is an alumna of the Faber Academy ‘Writing a Novel’ course. She completed an English degree and PGCE at Greenwich University, having previously worked as a nurse and a secretary, and then became a lecturer and manager in further education. She lives on the North Essex coast.

Her debut novel, The Rumour, is a Sunday Times hardback and paperback bestseller and 2019’s bestselling print crime and thriller debut, as well as a Kindle No. 1 bestseller.

Twitter: @LesleyKara
Website: http://lesleykara.com
Facebook: lesleykarawriter

Blog tour

Thanks to Alison Barrow at Transworld Books for my proof copy of Who Did You Tell? and to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 5 to 9 December 2019

Synopsis

Jacob Reese enjoys the quiet life, running a coffee shop and renting out his cottage in The Hollows, Vermont.

But the calm is shattered when a woman who looks eerily similar to his ex-girlfriend Laura turns up to stay in the cottage, and leaves a mysterious note in the guest book.

Now Jacob’s seeing Laura everywhere — a glimpse of her face across the street, her music box left outside his house, a gift he gave her years before hanging from the trees.

But it can’t be Laura. Because Laura’s dead.

My review

Jacob Reese and his black Labrador, Murphy, live on the outskirts of a little town called The Hollows in Vermont. He runs a coffee shop called Groundworks on Main Street, with the help of manager, Sandy Bellhurst, and rents out a cottage to tourists.

The Hollows is a charming New England town with a main road running through it and 300-year-old buildings plus a church, green and nearby hills and forests, and it’s very attractive to tourists.

Jacob bought his property using the inheritance money from his estranged parents, who passed away within days of each other. His plot of land is next to the woods and contains the main house, a pond and the cottage, which used to be storage for Groundworks but Jacob renovated it and created a one-bedroom building with updated kitchen and bathroom, and a fire pit.

Usually, Jacob is quite particular about who he rents out his cottage to via Be Our Guest (similar to Airbnb but more upmarket with unique properties), only allowing guests who have written at least three reviews on the website to stay there. He breaks this rule after he gets a request from an attractive woman called Rebecca Lowden, who grew up in a town nearby to where Jacob grew up and also has similar favourites to him.

When she arrives, the woman has dark red hair and behaves rather strangely. She makes Jacob feel rather uncomfortable and brings up memories from the past, especially when he spots her holding a stick doll. When she heads off early the next morning, leaving the front door wide open, he’s horrified to see the name ‘Laura Aisling’ scrawled in red lettering in the cottage guestbook. She was his old college girlfriend, who disappeared, and it means that someone knows his secret.

After this, strange things begin to happen and Jacob is forced to close his shop and the cottage as he investigates who the strange Rebecca Lowden was and what she knows about Laura Aisling. He needs to work it out before things escalate even more and his secret is revealed.

The story contained flashbacks, which were done in an unusual manner by linking words. I found this a bit confusing at first but grew to like the way they were done as we learnt more about Jacob and Laura and how they met, and some more about Jacob’s past.

Jacob suffers from vivid, disturbing nightmares as a result of his past – he was involved in some dodgy criminal activities when he was a student as a way of financing his way through college. His parents cut him off after he made too many silly decisions in his life, despite being a privileged only child from a wealthy background.

Jacob has a complicated past but tries to live a quiet life in The Hollows. I liked his character, despite the mistakes he’d made when he was younger, and he was an interesting protagonist. It was lovely to see how much he cared for his dog, Murphy, and how protective he was of him. And he’s loyal to his coffee shop staff and rewards them when they’ve done well and treats them very fairly too.

I was curious to see what would be revealed about Laura and whether she was actually still alive or not. As Jacob tracks down her mother and friends, we learn more about how they were deeply affected by her disappearance. I liked the way the story unfolded as Jacob followed the clues and got a few lucky breaks at times!

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and raced through it in a couple of days. It was engaging and well written and had a good pace, with some intriguing twists and turns and red herrings. I was keen to see how everything would be resolved as Jacob battled with his memories and guilt. I sort of guessed how it would play out but there were some surprising moments! Steve Frech is a new author to me but I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for him in the future.

Buy the book

Dark Hollows by Steve Frech can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in paperback on 20 February 2020, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Steve Frech lives in Los Angeles. In addition to writing, he produces and hosts the Random Awesomeness Podcast, an improv-comedy quiz show that has been performed at Upright Citizens Brigade, The Improv, iO West and Nerdist.

Twitter: @stevefrech

Blog tour

Thanks to Jessica Lee at HQ Stories for my digital copy of Dark Hollows and for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 2 to 15 December 2019

Synopsis

Jeannie always wanted to fall in love, and now she’s finally got the whirlwind romance she dreamed of. Dan’s gorgeous, he’s a successful young vet, and he flew her to New York and proposed on Brooklyn Bridge. Jeannie has to remind herself this is actually her life. It seems too perfect, too magical, to be real. Yet it is.

But now she’s on her way to the wedding she can’t shake off the tight sensation crushing her chest. Is it just nerves … or is this all happening a bit too fast?

Jeannie has one last chance to shout, ‘Stop!’ But just as she grabs it, a bizarre twist of fate throws everything she knows in the air like confetti. What Jeannie learns about Dan, about her own heart, and about the power of love itself, will change her world forever …

My review

After meeting online, Jeannie McCarthy and Dan Hicks have a whirlwind romance and, after five months, he proposes in New York on the Brooklyn Bridge. Jeannie happily accepts and they begin planning the wedding. She should be extremely happy but something feels off and, on the way to the wedding at Longhampton Town Hall, she asks the driver to stop the car …

Jeannie realises that she doesn’t really know Dan and isn’t sure that she should go ahead with the wedding when they know so little about each other and what really makes them both happy. She doesn’t even know his favourite things! Does she truly love him or has she been swept away by the whole romantic idea?

Later on in the book, we meet Dan’s veterinary employer, George Fenwick, and his wife, Rachel, who runs a dog rescue centre and boarding kennels, and the couple also own Dorothy Cottage where Rachel and Dan planned to live temporarily before finding their own place. They welcome Rachel to Longhampton, along with Natalie, who helps out at the kennels, and Debbie, who is a rescue coordinator and rehomes dogs from unlicensed puppy farms. Rachel has helped care for hundreds of dogs for Debbie over the years but all their food, injections, medication, etc costs lots of money, which everyone is struggling to find and raise.

It’s hard to review this book without giving away the entire plot! After a dramatic start, I enjoyed the way the story developed and we discovered more about Jeannie, who I found an interesting and engaging protagonist.

We learnt more about Jeannie’s past and her former friend, Edith, who she was in a band with. And Dan’s best mate, Owen, becomes a good friend to Jeannie and helps her through some difficult moments. Jeannie also gets to know her mother in law, Andrea, who is rather interfering and overbearing but only wants the best for her son!

I was surprised by how the story ended and everything was resolved. I hadn’t expected things to conclude the way they did. It definitely made me reconsider what I’d read about certain characters before and look for hints that I may have missed.

I’m usually more of a thriller or crime reader, only occasionally dipping into fiction like this, but I really enjoyed Unexpected Lessons in Love. It was a light read but had more serious undertones. The characters were interesting and the story flowed well and made me think about love and life! I particularly liked all the dogs in the story and the rather appropriate fundraising idea that Rachel came up with to help pay for their care!

I think this may be my first book by Lucy Dillon but it won’t be my last! A thoroughly enjoyable read, which I whizzed through in a couple of days.

Buy the book

Unexpected Lessons in Love by Lucy Dillon can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle now and in paperback on 9 January 2020, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Sunday Times bestselling author Lucy Dillon grew up in Cumbria and read English at Cambridge, then read a lot of magazines as a press assistant in London, then read other people’s manuscripts as a junior fiction editor. She now lives in a village outside Hereford with a Border terrier, an otterhound and her husband.

Lucy won the Romantic Novelists’ Association Contemporary Romantic Novel prize in 2015 for A Hundred Pieces of Me, and the Romantic Novel of the Year Award in 2010 for Lost Dogs and Lonely Hearts.

Twitter: @lucy_dillon
Website: www.lucydillon.co.uk
Facebook: LucyDillonBooks

Blog tour

Thanks to Hayley Barnes at Transworld Books for my proof copy of Unexpected Lessons in Love and for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 25 November to 8 December 2019

Synopsis

When your dream job turns into a nightmare, who can you turn to? A gripping and chilling suspense novel about the deadly intentions of office life, for fans of The Rumour and Michelle Frances’ The Temp.

What if a prank leads to murder?

When Freya arrives at her dream job with the city’s hottest start-up, she can’t wait to begin a new and exciting life, including dating her new colleague Jay. However, Nicole, Jay’s ex and fellow employee, seems intent on making her life a misery.

After a big deadline, where Nicole continually picks on her, Freya snaps and tells Jay about the bullying and together they concoct a revenge prank. The next morning, Nicole is found dead in her apartment …

Is this just a prank gone wrong? Or does Freya know someone who is capable of murder – and could she be next?

My review

The Pact tells the story of Freya Matthews, a computer coder who gets her dream job at a trendy new start-up tech company called Atypical in San Francisco. Things seem to be going well as Freya solves various tricky computer problems, impressing her enigmatic boss, Julian Cox, the founder and CEO of Atypical, and catching the eye of colleague, Jay Singh.

One of the other coders, Nicole Whittington, takes an almost instant dislike to Freya, mainly because she feels that Freya has stolen her man, and things start to turn nasty as Nicole makes nasty remarks and mocks her clothes, hair, etc.

After months of bullying, Freya begins to dread going into work and, if it wasn’t for Jay’s support and their relationship, she would probably have quit. To teach Nicole a lesson, the pair decide to play a prank on her. Unfortunately, the same night, Nicole is bludgeoned to death in her apartment with a small bronze statue.

Isla Davis, a news reporter on the local newspaper, the San Francisco Times, investigates the murder, with some unofficial help from the lead inspector on the case, Detective Simon Cohen, and she tries to unravel the events that led up to the awful crime.

The book hops about in time, which made interesting reading as I tried to put all the clues together and work out exactly what was going on. It was interesting to see the different viewpoints and try and work out who was telling the truth. We also learnt more about Freya’s difficult past and how she’d had to really work to achieve her dream career, and about Isla’s past life and the moment that spurred her on to become a reporter.

With dark undercurrents of workplace bullying and sexual harassment, The Pact was a relevant, current read on issues facing women in life and at work. The chapters involving Nicole’s bullying of Freya were cleverly written and I found myself getting more and more annoyed at Nicole and hating her for being so nasty to Freya for no apparent reason. It all seemed rather petty as she’d only just met Freya and hadn’t got to know her properly.

It’s frightening how much information is available about a person online and this is another key theme of the book: Julian does research to discover what things Freya is fond of, presenting her with appropriate gifts when she starts the company.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Pact; it was well written and uncomfortable reading at times and rather dark and edgy. I often shared in Freya’s fears and discomfort when she was experiencing stressful moments – the bullying and harassment from Nicole and the stalking via text messages that she endured later on in the book. Many of the characters in the book were rather unlikable and they all seemed to have an underlying nastiness to them to some degree! The book had some clever twists and misdirections, and I liked the ending, although I had guessed what would happen.

I’ll keep an eye out for Amy’s next book and will have to read her debut, Shame on You, which I already have on my Kindle!

Buy the book

The Pact by Amy Heydenrych can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in paperback, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Amy Heydenrych is a writer and book blogger based in South Africa. She has been shortlisted twice for the acclaimed Miles Morland African Writing Scholarship. Her short stories and poems have published in multiple anthologies including Brittle Paper, The Kalahari Review and the Short Sharp Stories anthologies. When she is not writing her own fiction, she ghost-writes books and columns for global tech and financial companies.

Twitter: @AmyHeydenrych

Blog tour

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

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

Blog tour: 25 November to 6 December 2019

Synopsis

Some murder cases you can’t forget. No matter how hard you try.

The body of a woman has been found on a pristine New Zealand beach – over a decade after she was murdered.

Detective Matt Buchanan of the Auckland Police is certain it carries all the hallmarks of an unsolved crime he investigated 12 years ago: when Samantha Coates walked out one day and never came home.

Re-opening the case, Buchanan begins to piece the terrible crimes together, setting into motion a chain of events that will force him to the darkest corners of society – and back into his deepest obsession …

The Sound of her Voice is a brilliantly authentic police procedural by an elite former detective – shortlisted for the 2018 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel.

My review

Written by Nathan Blackwell, a former detective in the Criminal Investigation Branch of the New Zealand police, The Sound of Her Voice tells the story of Detective Matt Buchanan of Orewa police in Auckland.

In a novel spanning over 20 years, from 1995 to the present day, we learn of Matt’s life and career, in and out of the force, and the awful cases that he’s experienced in areas from drug manufacture and corruption, to child abuse, serious violence, rape and murder.

For anyone serving in the police, there’s always that one unsolved case that haunts you and, for Matt Buchanan, this is the disappearance of 14-year-old Samantha Coates, who went missing in March 1999 on the walk home from school. Despite an 18-month investigation, involving 30 CIB officers, no trace of her was ever found and all the leads ran out. Matt still meets regularly with Samantha’s parents, Karen and Rob, in the hope that, eventually, he’ll have some good news for them and that the police will find her body, solve the case and give the family closure.

Matt’s wife, Kate, died in a car crash when their daughter, Hailey, was 10 and this obviously still greatly impacts both their lives. Matt has done a great job bringing up Hailey alone and they have a great relationship. She’s a lovely, well-adjusted girl, despite the tragedy.

During the course of the book, we learn about key moments in Matt’s life, which are all relevant and important to the story. I don’t want to give too much away but there are various nasty, evil crimes, which end up being linked in some way and are all part of a bigger picture. Matt Buchanan seems to be involved in everything to some degree!

He is a rather empathetic character and takes things personally and feels guilty. He always wants to be available for people, especially those who have been the victims of crime. It’s no wonder that he eventually spirals into depression with post-traumatic stress disorder after the various awful events in his life: his wife’s death and the numerous shocking cases with which he’s been involved, especially the ones concerning illicit drugs and gangs, the rapes, sexual assaults and murders of young girls, and the deaths of several police colleagues.

He ends up quitting the police twice at various points in his life when he gets disillusioned by it all and things become too much, and he becomes a low-paid flying instructor at the local aero club and then takes a proper commercial job at Barrier Air. But he’s convinced to return by former colleagues who are desperate for his experience, determination and talent for handling difficult cases.

I really enjoyed this well-written police procedural, which was very cleverly plotted, flowed well and held my interest throughout. I was engrossed in the story and Matt’s life and liked the way everything unfolded and the pieces of the puzzle came together; very clever! I loved the attention to detail and the descriptions of the New Zealand countryside came across well too. It was a very intense and disturbing read and some of the descriptions were very vivid and traumatic!

The glossary at the beginning was very useful – there were a few Kiwi words that I had to Google as I wasn’t sure what they meant. I also liked the fact that real-life crimes (eg the murders of Olivia Hope and Ben Smart in 1998 and the Roast Busters) were referenced in the book as they added a little extra and I checked these out too.

This was a great, gritty and gripping read and I’m really hoping the author writes another book soon! I’ll be keeping an eye out. It’s a shame there can’t really be more about Matt Buchanan as we’re already up to the present day!

Buy the book

The Sound of Her Voice by Nathan Blackwell can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in paperback on 28 November, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Nathan Blackwell was raised on Auckland’s North Shore and attended Westlake Boys’ High School before commencing a 10-year career in the New Zealand Police. Seven of those years were spent as a Detective in the Criminal Investigation Branch, where he was exposed to human nature at its strongest and bravest, but also at its most depraved and horrific. He investigated a wide range of cases including drug manufacture, child abuse, corruption, serious violence, rape and murder. Because some of his work was conducted covertly, Nathan chooses to hide his true identity.

Twitter: @Nathan_B_Author
Website: http://www.nathan-blackwell.com

Blog tour

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

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

Blog tour: 11 to 24 November 2019

Synopsis

For fans of J. P. Delaney’s The Girl Before comes a thriller that makes us question our relationship with technology and the lengths we would go to, to keep our family safe.

Three years ago, Nikki and Ethan Rhodes suffered a devastating loss when their four-year-old daughter Grace was tragically killed in a road accident. Ethan, a radio personality, escapes into work, leaving Nikki to care for their remaining child, Bella, who hasn’t spoken since that day.

Seeking a fresh start, the family moves into a revolutionary new house designed by renowned architect, Catriona Fisher. The house features a state-of-the-art security system, along with every amenity you could dream of.

For the Rhodes’ this is a chance to finally pick up the pieces and get on with their lives in a place where they feel totally safe.

But what if 17 Church Row isn’t the safe haven that they think it is?

My review

17 Church Row tells the story of Nikki and Ethan Rhodes who decide they need a fresh start after the death of their daughter, Grace, three years before. The devastating accident left their other daughter, Bella, Grace’s twin sister, mute and she can only communicate via her tablet; typing in sentences, which are then read in an emotionless voice.

The move from their busy, bustling Bedford Street house in St John’s Wood to a futuristic house in a quiet Kensington cul-de-sac called Church Row is, hopefully, a new start for the family; an opportunity to finally move on and escape the haunting memories of their precious daughter, which still make them anxious and uneasy in their house, reliving the awful past events.

The stunning, one-off house, designed by architect Catriona Fisher, has a virtual assistant called Alice for ‘their comfort and convenience’, who is supposed to help make the family’s lives as easy as possible and keep them all safe and secure. There’s even a panic room! Alice opens and closes doors, adjusts the temperature, makes coffee, orders shopping/food, makes lists, make phone calls, play music/TV programmes, give reminders, etc, etc. Anything you could need really!

There are cameras in most of the rooms, which help Nikki to keep an eye on Bella and make sure she’s safe and she can also ask Alice to locate her daughter. Oddly, Catriona Fisher also uses the cameras to spy on the family, without their knowledge!

Alice follows their every command and, as the next generation in artificial intelligence, is even capable of intelligent thought and can anticipate their needs. She can also learn emotions and speak in a human-like manner with different intonations to her voice. Is it all too good to be true though?! These things generally are! A few minor glitches in the system make Nikki concerned, especially when their housekeeper, Sofia, ends up in hospital after a fall. And from a smooth running system, things start to fall apart and everything turns a bit nasty, in more ways than one!

Interspersed in the chapters are asides from someone called Katy who mentions her father, with whom she seems to have a rather intense relationship. All rather intriguing and we learn more about them as the story progresses.

The concept of Alice was all very eerie and slightly menacing. I didn’t really trust her as she was rather controlling and obtrusive. I find it bad enough when my Alexa listens and butts in, let alone an Alice who is trying to take charge of everything, without asking her owners!

The tragic death of Grace in an accident outside their home was so awful and I particularly felt for her twin, Bella, who basically lost her other half at such a young age. And the constant reminders in Bella for Nikki and Ethan of what Grace would be like were heartbreaking. Nikki’s emotions and feelings of panic were hard to read; the death of a child and constant reminders must be awful.

This well-written book held my interest throughout and had some good twists and turns that I hadn’t seen coming. The concept was intriguing and rather chilling, and I could easily see something similar happening in real life! I don’t really trust those Alexas, Googles or Siris!

This was a thrilling read and I really enjoyed how the rather dark story developed. The ending was particularly nail biting and I was frantically turning the pages to see how it would all be resolved and the loose ends tied up!

I hadn’t heard of James Carol before but I’ve now purchased another of his books, Kiss Me, Kill Me, and will be keeping an eye out for him in future.

Buy the book

17 Church Row by James Carol can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in paperback, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

James Carol is the author of The Killing Game, which was shortlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award. He has also written the bestselling Jefferson Winter series. Broken Dolls, the first of these, was published in 2014 to rave reviews and reached #1 on the Amazon fiction and thriller charts. In addition, James also wrote a series of eBooks set during Winter’s FBI days. Presumed Guilty is the first of these.

James lives in Hertfordshire with his wife and two children. When he’s not writing he can usually be found in a pair of headphones, recording and producing music.

Twitter: @JamesCarolBooks
Website: https://www.james-carol.com

Blog tour

Thanks to Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers and Zaffre Books for my digital copy of 17 Church Row and for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 21 October to 24 November 2019

Synopsis

Kate Collins has been ghosted.

She was supposed to be moving in with her new boyfriend Scott, but all she finds after relocating to Brighton is an empty flat. Scott has vanished. His possessions have all disappeared.

Except for his mobile phone.

Kate knows she shouldn’t hack into Scott’s phone. She shouldn’t look at his Tinder, his calls, his social media. But she can’t quite help herself.

That’s when the trouble starts. Strange, whispering phone calls from numbers she doesn’t recognise. Scratch marks on the walls that she can’t explain.

And the growing feeling that she’s being watched …

My review

Ghoster tells the story of paramedic, Kate Collins, who met her boyfriend, Scott Palmer, on a digital detox weekend retreat. She lives in Leeds and Scott lives in Brighton so they conduct their budding romance from afar at first. After dating for a few months, Scott invites Kate to move in with him and she gives notice on her flat and transfers her job to Leeds.

The day before she’s due to move, there’s radio silence from Scott – no texts, calls, tweets, nothing. Her best friend, Izzy, does her best to reassure her when they go out for drinks the day before Kate is due to move. She’s worried that he’s changed his mind – or is dead! – but things are too far gone by this point and she has to go ahead with her relocation.

On arrival in Brighton, there’s no sign of Scott. His luxurious seafront apartment in the Van Spencer building is deserted; the electricity is off, all his stuff has gone and there’s no evidence that he was ever there. Totally bemused, Kate isn’t sure what to do at first – she’s moved her whole life here so has no one local to call upon for help.

After spending a lonely night in the flat, Kate discovers Scott’s mobile abandoned on the balcony. She is reluctant to do anything with it at first, but curiosity gets the better of her and she realises that it’s the only way she’s going to be able to understand what’s happened and why Scott has left and when.

This is when things start getting weird and the story takes a sinister, supernatural turn, and freaky stuff begins happening!

I loved the main protagonist, Kate, who is so matter of fact and kept coming up with little asides, often amusing, to justify her actions and reassure herself that everything was going to be ok. She is hilarious at times and her observations and wry comments really made me laugh and brought some light entertainment to the tense proceedings!

We learn that Kate has a bad addiction to social media and, after a mobile-related incident involving her Venezuelan ex, Rudolpho, which badly affected Izzy, Kate downgraded her phone to an old Nokia and removed herself from Facebook, Twitter, etc.

She was rather daft to let things with Scott move quite so fast in the first place; she didn’t really know him after four months of dating and her observations of his ‘hungry wolf look’ and ‘wolfish grin’ were hints that he couldn’t really be trusted.

I was reading Ghoster late at night one evening and it started to freak me out, especially when my cat jumped on my bed!! Such a deeply unnerving book – things started to really ramp up and it turned more chilling and sinister as the story progressed. I was surprised that it had a supernatural/paranormal element to it, but this only added to the intensity of this well-written story.

It was also an interesting commentary on the use of social media – too many of us are head down in our phones all the time, constantly refreshing, obsessed with the next message or email, or scanning Facebook or Twitter the next update. We should all put down our phones and embrace the world and talk to other people!

Ghoster was certainly a different book; I really enjoyed it, despite being disturbed and unnerved by its intense creepiness. I’ve added Arnopp’s other book, The Last Days of Jack Sparks, to my wanted list now and will have to check out his short stories. I’ll look forward to reading any other books he writes.

Buy the book

Ghoster by Jason Arnopp can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in paperback, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Jason Arnopp is the author of the novels Ghoster and The Last Days Of Jack Sparks, the latter acclaimed by the likes of director Ron Howard.

​He has also written fiction and non-fiction for the worlds of Doctor Who, Friday The 13th, Black Mirror ​and The Sarah Jane Adventures. His other fiction books include Beast In The Basement, A Sincere Warning About The Entity In Your Home and Auto Rewind.

Twitter: @JasonArnopp

Blog tour

Thanks to Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers for my proof copy of Ghoster and for my place on the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 8 to 12 November 2019

Synopsis

Claire is beautiful.
Claire is famous.
Claire has a handsome husband and a house to die for.

But Claire doesn’t know any of that. Claire isn’t even sure who she is …

When Claire Wright wakes in hospital, she sees a stranger staring back at her in the mirror. With no memories from before the devastating car accident that left her and her father with life-changing injuries, she must navigate the life of a stranger along with all the mistakes her former self left behind.

As Claire discovers the person she used to be she must also unravel the mystery that surrounds the accident. But the more Claire uncovers, the more she will be forced to face up to the dark secrets from her life before …

My review

Her Perfect Lies tells the story of Claire, a famous professional ballerina, who is leaving hospital and going home two weeks after she was involved in a car accident with her father, Tony. She has lost her memory and remembers nothing of the crash, which caused Tony serious injuries (his spine was severely damaged) and he’s rather confused about exactly what happened too, denying Claire was in the car at first.

When Claire looks in the mirror, she sees a stranger. She remembers nothing about anything. Things even taste different and there are hints that her personality changes. Such a frightening position to be in! I’d be terrified.

Claire’s husband, Paul, a doctor, seems rather controlling: he wants to watch her take medication, won’t eat with her, won’t let her go to her ballet studio and invites their friends over for a dinner party without even asking her. And he’s not very affectionate or caring – he only visits her twice in the two weeks she’s in hospital and they don’t even share a bedroom at home.

Claire’s mother, Angela, is absent, supposedly away looking after an elderly relative, Aunt Judy, but it seems rather bizarre that she hasn’t rushed back, with both her daughter and husband in a serious condition in hospital!

Everything is so unsettling for Claire; she’s disconnected from her past, present and future but trapped in the house as being outside is so frightening and overwhelming. She feels fragile and out of control as her mind struggles to make sense of everything and she begins to suffer from bad nightmares that never have a resolution – someone close is threatening and chasing her; an ominous presence but one which disappears before she can see the person’s face. Claire struggles to get any memories back and ends up going to a hypnotherapist, Dr Matilda Brown, to try and free her locked-up mind.

As she starts to discover more about her past and uncovers traumatic events, Claire feels even more lost and alone. She is being accused of awful things but can’t even defend herself as she doesn’t know what has happened.

This was a tense, uneasy read and I could really feel Claire’s fear. She didn’t know who she was, she’s learning about everything for the first time and she doesn’t know or trust her husband, Paul, her father, Tony, her best friend, Gaby, or even the housekeeper, Nina. Everyone seems to have ulterior motives and be hiding secrets and not telling Claire the truth about her life, whether to protect her or themselves is unclear. The only one she can trust is their labrador, Molokai!

Claire is such an unreliable narrator, understandably, that I really didn’t know which direction this one was going to go in. There were a few twists and turns, as well as red herrings, and my guesses of how it was all going to be resolved were a bit wide of the mark!

Overall, I enjoyed this one, it was such a intense and claustrophobic read and I finished it after a couple of days. I think I need something a bit lighter now to recover!

Buy the book

Her Perfect Lies by Lana Newton can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle now and in paperback on 23 January 2020, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Lana Newton grew up in two opposite corners of the Soviet Union: the snow-white Siberian town of Tomsk and the golden-domed Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. At the age of 16, she moved to Australia with her mother. Lana and her family live on the Central Coast of New South Wales, where it never snows and is always summer warm.

Lana studied IT at university and, as a student, wrote poetry in Russian that she hid from everyone. For over a decade after graduating, she worked as a computer programmer. When she returned to university to complete her history degree, her favourite lecturer encouraged her to write fiction. She hasn’t looked back, and never goes anywhere without her favourite pen because you never know when the inspiration might strike.

Lana’s short stories appeared in many magazines and anthologies, and she was the winner of the Historical Novel Society Autumn 2012 Short Fiction competition. Her novels are published by HQ Digital, an imprint of Harper Collins UK.

Lana also writes historical fiction under the pen name of Lana Kortchik.

Find out more about Lana on her website or follow her on Twitter or Facebook.

Blog tour

Thanks to Jessica Lee at HQ Stories for my digital copy of Her Perfect Lies and for my place on the blog tour.

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