Blog tour: 19 August to 2 September 2019

Synopsis

How far would you go to keep your family safe?

Angie Watts used to have everything. A beloved husband. Three adored children. A lovely home.

Angie’s life is shattered when her troubled son, Liam, falls in with a bad crowd. And after her son’s choices lead to the murder of her husband, it’s up to Angie to hold what’s left of her family together.

Her son is missing. Her daughter is looking for help in dangerous places. And Angie is fighting just to keep a roof over their heads.

But Angie is a mother, and a mother does anything to protect her children. Even when her world is falling apart …

* * * * *

A mother will protect her family whatever it takes …

A missing son. A mother’s secret. A family in trouble.

If home is where the heart is, what happens when it breaks?

My review

Home Truths by Susan Lewis is a thought-provoking read and tells the story of Angie Watts and her husband, Steve, and their children, Liam, Grace and Zac. Steve is a well-known and respected painter and decorator and has a good relationship with many local business people, including his boss, Hari Shalik, who asked them to move to the coastal town of Kesterly so that he could put him in charge of all his development projects.

Nothing seems to go right for the family after Liam’s early descent into drugs when he falls into the wrong crowd at school and joins the biggest gang on the estate, and the subsequent death of Steve sends Angie’s life and her children’s lives spiralling out of control. Liam runs off in despair at his part in Steve’s death and Angie is left to try and pick up the pieces.

Poor Angie is foiled at every turn as she tries her hardest to support her family by taking on extra jobs to make ends meet but it’s never enough and she really struggles. She’s evicted from the lovely family home that Steve helped to build, and her debts continue to mount up. She also still hopes that they will be reunited with Liam but her attempts to find him fail.

Luckily, she has the amazing support of her sister, Emma, who she works alongside at Bridging the Gap, which provides housing and support for vulnerable adults. Emma is there to help her look after the children when times get tough, despite being a single mother of two children herself.

Meanwhile, Angie’s teenage daughter, Grace, is vulnerable and is targeted by an internet predator and in danger of getting tangled up in something which may have awful consequences, and Angie is totally unaware of what’s going on.

Angie has a torrid time and it sounds like she’s really struggling and everything is conspiring against her but she’s embarrassed by her situation and doesn’t like to let on how bad things are. She’s a strong character who fights for her children and, with a little help from her friends, she attempts to regain control of her life.

I really enjoyed this thought-provoking and emotional family drama, which was an interesting insight into current social issues including poverty, debt, homelessness, universal credit and the working poor and really made me thing about how difficult things can be for people, often through no fault of their own when their lives hit a bad patch.

It was a poignant and intense read and I really felt for Angie as she struggled to hold her family together and was hoping that things would work out for her in the end.

Surprisingly, this is the first book by Susan Lewis that I’ve read! Sounds like I’ve got a large backlist to work through now!

Buy the book

Home Truths by Susan Lewis can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in hardback, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Susan Lewis is the bestselling author of over 40 books across the genres of family drama, thriller, suspense and crime, including her most recent novel, The Sunday Times best seller, One Minute Later. She is also the author of Just One More Day and One Day at a Time, the moving memoirs of her childhood in Bristol during the 1960s.

Susan has had quite the career. At 18 years old, she got a job at HTV in Bristol and then, four years later, moved to London to work for Thames. She worked as a secretary in news and current affairs before training as a production assistant, working on light entertainment and drama.

Susan has lived in Hollywood, where she was neighbours with George Clooney, and the South of France, before moving to her current home in Gloucestershire, which she shares with her husband, James, stepsons, Michael and Luke, and mischievous dogs, Coco and Lulu.

Twitter: @susanlewisbooks

Blog tour

Thanks to Rebecca Bryant at HarperFiction PR for my lovely hardback copy of Truth Hurts and for inviting me to join the blog tour.

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

Blog tour: 19 to 28 August 2019

Synopsis

Has the killer in DC Maggie Neville’s cold case returned after a decade of silence?

Katy Pope was seventeen when she was brutally murdered on a family holiday in Majorca. Despite her mother’s high rank in the Met and the joint major investigation between the British and Spanish police, Katy’s killer was never caught.

Ten years later, Katy’s family return to the Spanish island to launch a fresh appeal for information, taking with them the now skeletal team of investigating Met detectives, and newly seconded Maggie as the family liaison officer.

But Maggie’s first international investigation quickly goes from being more than just a press conference when another British girl there on holiday goes missing, and Katy’s killer announces that it’s time for an encore …

My review

Dead Guilty is the fourth novel in Michelle Davies’ critically acclaimed DC Maggie Neville series. I haven’t read any of the previous books but that didn’t spoil my enjoyment of this one, as some of Maggie’s past history was explained as the story progressed.

Set in Majorca, we meet the Pope family of Patricia, Philip and their son, George, who are returning to the Spanish island 10 years after their daughter, Katy, was abducted and murdered in the town of Saros. Her murderer has never been found and they are hoping that a memorial service, with journalists, Met officers and Majorcan police in attendance, will help to keep the case alive, jog a few memories and maybe provide a breakthrough to bring the killer to justice.

After a few turbulent years in the police force, DC Maggie Neville has been transferred from a criminal investigation department (CID) in rural Buckinghamshire to a murder investigation team in Islington. She is assigned as the family liaison officer (FLO) for the Popes while they are in Majorca.

The story unfolds well as we follow Maggie and the other members of the Operation Pivot case as they speak to past suspects (including Katy’s boyfriend, Declan) and witnesses and go over the statements, alibis and evidence that were collected in 2009.

Katy’s mother, Patricia, is a rather abrasive, domineering lady, who keeps her husband in check, and we discover that she was a chief superintendent in the Met when Katy was murdered on their family holiday, which explains why she offends everyone around her! Maggie performs her FLO role with skill and does well to calm Patricia down, earn her trust and get her on side.

While preparing for the memorial service, we learn that another British woman, Jade Reynolds, has gone missing from near the beach at Saros, leaving her fiancé and parents desperately searching for her. Despite her disappearance being similar to Katy’s and in the same area, the Spanish police are at odds with the British police and deny that there’s a link between the two cases, saying it’s just a coincidence.

From this point on, there are several twists and turns and red herrings as we’re led down one path then another in the hunt for Katy’s killer and Jade’s abductor. I was gripped as the well-structured story unravelled and was willing Maggie and the other officers to solve the case, despite the incompetent investigating of the local police and the Spanish jurisdiction hampering their efforts.

Overall, I really enjoyed this well-written police procedural novel and I was captivated as the investigation unfolded and I hadn’t guessed how it would all resolve. Maggie is an interesting protagonist with a complex private life and I’ll definitely be reading the other three books to see what I’ve been missing out on! I’m curious to see how the series and Maggie’s character develop in the future.

Buy the book

Dead Guilty by Michelle Davies can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in paperback, and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Michelle Davies spent her formative years as a reporter on a local newspaper in Buckinghamshire and interviewed many relatives of serious victims during that time.

Later, as a freelance journalist for women’s magazines, she secured an interview with Kerry Needham, whose son Ben Needham went missing in Kos in 1991 when he was a toddler. It was hearing her talk about it that gave Michelle the idea for making her central police character a family liaison officer.

Michelle has written three other books in the DC Maggie Neville series: Gone Astray, Wrong Place and False Witness.

Twitter: @M_Davieswrites

Blog tour

Thanks to Grace Harrison from Pan Macmillan for my copy of Dead Guilty and to Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me to join the blog tour, which is only my third ever one!

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

Blog tour: 22 July to 1 August 2019

Synopsis

When Grace’s fiancé vanishes without a trace the night after proposing, her life is turned upside down. But has Nick walked out on her, or is he in danger?

As Grace desperately searches for answers, it soon becomes clear that Nick wasn’t the uncomplicated man she thought she knew. And when she uncovers a hidden tragedy from his childhood, she realizes an awful truth: that you can run from your past – but your secrets will always catch up with you …

My review

Set in 2018, The Night You Left by Emma Curtis tells the story of Grace, her 10-year-old daughter, Lottie, her boyfriend, Nick, and their dog, Toffee. Nick has been acting a bit off recently and seems distracted but he claims it’s due to work stress and office politics. One spring afternoon, on a family walk, he proposes to Grace on Wimbledon Common. Shockingly, the next evening, he goes missing, without warning, before they can share their good news with Lottie or anyone else.

As we learn more about Grace and her past, interspersed with flashbacks from Nick and a girl called Taisie to a fractious holiday in Devon in 2000 involving three families, it seems that no one can be trusted and they all have something to hide.

When we were introduced to the families that were holidaying in Devon – Nick and his parents, Taisie, Izzy, Alex, Rory and their parents, plus twins, Pansy and Freya, and their parents – I was slightly confused by who was who initially. I probably would have done a search if I’d been reading on Kindle to remind myself of the characters!

Nick’s parents, Tim and Cora, are desperate to find out what’s happened to their son and descend on Grace and Lottie and announce that they’ll be staying for three weeks. Nick’s Mum is rather disagreeable and doesn’t hide her hatred of Grace, who she thinks isn’t good enough for her son. She was described well and I found myself really disliking her. Most of the males (Angus, Patrick and Tim) in the story were rather unsavoury in different ways too!

I really enjoyed this book and raced through it in less than two days, desperate to unravel the story and discover the truth about Nick’s disappearance and find out the various secrets that everyone seemed to be hiding. The Night You Left was well written and I liked how the story had different layers with lots of twists and turns. I hadn’t guessed how it was going to turn out and was shocked by the ending. A cleverly woven tale!

This is the first of Emma Curtis’ books I’ve read and I’ll definitely be checking out her others, One Little Mistake and When I Find You.

Buy the book

The Night You Left by Emma Curtis can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle now and in paperback from 5 September and as an eBook from Kobo and iBooks.

About the author

Emma Curtis was born in Brighton and now lives in London with her husband. After raising two children and working various jobs, her fascination with the darker side of domestic life inspired her to write her acclaimed debut novel, One Little Mistake. The Night You Left is Emma’s third novel.

Twitter: @EmmaCurtisBooks

Blog tour

Thanks to Hannah Bright from Transworld (part of Penguin Random House) for my proof copy of The Night You Left (and a sparkly ring, a nice little touch!), and for inviting me to join the blog tour, which is only my second ever one!

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

Blog tour: 27 June to 22 July 2019

Synopsis

Every Monday, 49-year-old Ellie looks after her grandson Josh. She loves him more than anyone else in the world. The only thing that can mar her happiness is her husband’s affair. But he swears it’s over now, and Ellie has decided to be thankful for what she’s got.

Then one day, while she’s looking after Josh, her husband gets a call from that woman. And just for a moment, Ellie takes her eyes off her grandson. What happens next will change her life forever.

Because Ellie is hiding something in her past.

And what looks like an accident could start to look like murder …

My review

After reading and enjoying another of Jane Corry’s books, The Dead Ex, I couldn’t wait to get started on her new book, I Looked Away. It tells the story of young grandmother, Ellie, 49, who enjoys looking after her grandson, Josh, every Monday. One day, while distracted by her husband, Roger, chatting on the phone to the woman he had an affair with, Ellie takes her eyes off Josh and … we’re left wondering what happens next!

In the rest of the book, we learn a bit more about Ellie’s past and are introduced to Jo, a homeless woman, who ends up travelling around the country to escape her demons. With flashbacks to their pasts, we build up a picture of their lives and the traumatic and turbulent experiences of both women.

This book was such a page turner that I read it in a few days. The chapters switched between Ellie and Jo, with various memories, past and present. Interspersed are mentions of various wildflowers plus italicised sections from another voice, who is not identified. At times, I wasn’t sure what was happening but felt urged to go with the flow and read on. As the story unfolds and we learn the truth, everything becomes much clearer and we see how the two women are linked.

I really enjoyed this book, it was definitely engaging and enthralling and an interesting insight into the lives of homeless people and the struggles they face. Ellie had her own battles to overcome and her childhood was so difficult and upsetting that I really felt for her. Jo was also a strong women who had been dealt a bad hand in life.

Overall, a cleverly woven book and definitely one that I would recommend if you enjoy psychological thrillers.

Buy the book

I Looked Away by Jane Corry can be purchased from Amazon in Kindle and paperback and from Kobo as an eBook.

About the author

Jane Corry is a former magazine journalist who spent three years working as the writer-in-residence of a high-security prison for men. This often hair-raising experience helped inspire her The Sunday Times-bestselling psychological thrillers, My Husband’s Wife, Blood Sisters and The Dead Ex, which have been published in more than 35 countries. Jane was a tutor in creative writing at Oxford University and is a regular contributor to The Daily Telegraph and My Weekly magazine.

Twitter: @JaneCorryauthor
Facebook: Jane Corry Author

Blog tour

Thanks to Ellie Hudson and Georgia Taylor from Penguin for my proof copy of I Looked Away and for inviting me to join the blog tour, which is my first ever one!

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