Book Synopsis:

The killer is just getting started…

When three wife beaters are themselves found beaten to death, DC Maggie Jamieson knows she is facing her toughest case yet.

The police suspect that Probation Officer Lucy Sherwood – who is connected to all three victims – is hiding a dark secret. Then a fourth domestic abuser is brutally murdered.

And he is Lucy’s husband.

Now the police are running out of time, but can Maggie really believe her friend Lucy is a cold-blooded killer?

Dead Inside is available in ebook and paperback now. You can purchase your copy using the link below.

My Review:

Dead Inside is a deeply moving, realistic read from a fantastic new author. I absolutely loved her first book so couldn’t wait to read more. I tend to like books with female detectives in it and therefore liked following strong, confident Maggie as she attempted to solve the case.

The author has taken the difficult subject of domestic abuse and managed to sensitively portray it. It seemed frightening realistic at times and I found myself feeling that everything was happening to me. The author manages to perfectly describe the fear and the power that someone can have over you which made for uncomfortable reading at times. My understanding is that the author has a personal experience of this which made the book more chilling for me as I realised this is what it’s actually like.

This book gripped me from the start with the wonderful writing style and fabulous storyline ensuring I was glued to the book. I so enjoyed reading about Maggie again and following her as she tried to solve her case. The style of the book reminded me of Sarah Hilary so if you enjoy those books I think you’ll ever this one.

Huge thanks to Sarah Hardy for inviting me onto the blog tour and to One Chapter for my copy of this book via Netgalley.

About The Author:

Noelle Holten is an award-winning blogger at http://www.crimebookjunkie.co.uk. She is the PR & Social Media Manager for Bookouture, a leading digital publisher in the UK, and a regular reviewer on the Two Crime Writers and a Microphone podcast. Noelle worked as a Senior Probation Officer for eighteen years, covering a variety of cases including those involving serious domestic abuse. She has three Hons BA’s – Philosophy, Sociology (Crime & Deviance) and Community Justice – and a Masters in Criminology. Noelle’s hobbies include reading, author-stalking and sharing the booklove via her blog. Dead Inside is her debut novel with One More Chapter/Harper Collins UK, an international kindle bestseller and the start of a new series featuring DC Maggie Jamieson. Connect with Noelle on Social Media here: Twitter: (@nholten40) https://twitter.com/nholten40 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/noelleholtenauthor/ Blog FB page: https://www.facebook.com/crimebookjunkie/ Instagram: @crimebookjunkie

Book Synopsis:

The river can lead you home. Or it can take you under…

In their ramshackle Somerset home, its gardens running down to the river, the Sorrells have gathered for a last-minute wedding.

Lucy is desperate to reunite her fractured family. Eve is fighting to keep her perfect life together. Their mother, Kit, a famous author whose stories have run dry, still seethes with resentment towards her youngest child. And Margot, who left home eight years ago under a black cloud, is forced to come face to face with her darkness…

As the family come together for a week of celebration and confrontation, their relationships are stretched to breaking point. But can you ever heal the wounds of the past?

A spellbinding family drama about sisterhood, secrets and forgiveness – this is a truly unforgettable read.

The River Home is published in ebook and hardback tomorrow. You can pre-order your copy using the link below.

My Review:

The River Home is a beautiful, emotional read which will definitely stay with me for a long time.

At its heart it’s a real explanation of families and the complex relationships they contain. I always enjoy these kind of stories as they are ones that anyone can relate to, especially when it comes to the complicated feelings they can evoke. The author perfectly describes these and how they can be both our support network but also help mould us for future life – though not always in a good, positive way.

The characters were brilliant creations and ones that I felt I warmed to instantly. They were all very realistic characters who I felt I went on an incredible journey with. I laughed and cried alongside them which made for very emotional and powerful reading. The plot is well developed and swaps between the past and the present as we get a glimpse into the background of this family. There is definitely some history there with lots of hurt feelings and misunderstandings to pick through until we come to the heart of the problems. The ending had me feeling happy, sad and more than a little overwhelmed.

Huge thanks to Alainna from Orion for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book.

About The Author:

Hannah Richell was born in Kent and spent her childhood years in Buckinghamshire and Canada. After graduating from the University of Nottingham she worked in the book publishing and film industries in both London and Sydney. She is a dual citizen of Great Britain and Australia and currently lives the South West of England with her family. Hannah is the author of international bestsellers Secrets of the Tides (published in the US as The House of Tides) and The Shadow Year. The Peacock Summer is her third novel. Her books have been translated into fourteen languages.

Twitter: @hannahrichell

Book Synopsis:

Sunderland, 1943: With the future of Britain uncertain, the shipyard girls fight to keep their lives on an even keel.

Head-welder Rosie is just about managing to keep her double life hidden from little sister Charlotte’s prying eyes. But Charlotte senses something is up and, with a secret this big, the truth is bound to come out.

After a whirlwind wedding, Polly must bid farewell to her sweetheart as he returns to the front line.

And there is something odd about yard manager Helen’s newest recruit Bel. But in resolving to uncover the truth, Helen might discover more than she bargained for…

Only by rallying together will the shipyard girls triumph.

Triumph Of The Shipyard Girls is published in ebook and paperback tomorrow. You can pre-order your copy using the link below.

My Review:

I’m such a huge fan of this fantastic series so you can imagine my excitement when I heard there was another book to enjoy.

As always I was immediately drawn into the story and really enjoyed catching up with all the girls again. I have always loved the way the author writes these book so that the reader feels like they are really there watching everything unfold. I love feeling like I’m one of the gang and that I know these girls personally as if we were real friends.

Rosie and Charlotte take centre stage again in this book which always means that the storyline is going to be interesting. I’ve slowly warmed to Charlotte over the last two books though she still upsets me sometimes with her attitude. It was interesting to learn more about Rosie and Hannah’s past and to find out the truth about Raymond.

This book also describes the awful situation in Sunderland during the war and all the destruction it took. It was quite heartbreaking to read about all that happened and how it affected everyone. This is the eighth book in the series and while it could perhaps be read as a standalone (as most things are explained), I think it is best read in order. If you are a fan of WW2 fiction or sagas then you’ll love this book.

Huge thanks to Rachel Kennedy from Arrow publishing for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book via Netgalley.

About The Author:

Nancy Revell is the author of the Shipyard Girls series, which is set in the north-east of England during World War II.

She is a former journalist who worked for all the national newspapers, providing them with hard-hitting news stories and in-depth features. Nancy also wrote amazing and inspirational true life stories for just about every woman’s magazine in the country.

When she first started writing the Shipyard Girls series, Nancy relocated back to her hometown of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, along with her husband, Paul, and their English bull mastiff, Rosie. They now live just a short walk away from the beautiful award-winning beaches of Roker and Seaburn, within a mile of where the books are set.

The subject is particularly close to Nancy’s heart as she comes from a long line of shipbuilders, who were well known in the area.

Book Synopsis:

A city in darkness. A building in lockdown. A score that can only be settled in blood…

Working off the books for FBI Special Agent Alex Monroe, Florida bounty-hunter Lori Anderson and her partner, JT, head to Chicago. Their mission: to entrap the head of the Cabressa crime family. The bait: a priceless chess set that Cabressa is determined to add to his collection.

An exclusive high-stakes poker game is arranged in the penthouse suite of one of the city’s tallest buildings, with Lori holding the cards in an agreed arrangement to hand over the pieces. But, as night falls and the game plays out, stakes rise and tempers flare.

When a power failure plunges the city into darkness, the building goes into lockdown. But this isn’t an ordinary blackout, and the men around the poker table aren’t all who they say they are. Hostages are taken, old scores resurface and the players start to die.

And that’s just the beginning…

Deep Dark Night is available in ebook and paperback now. You can purchase your copy using the link below. They are also available in your local Asda or Tesco at the moment- pop one in your shopping 🙂

My Review:

Wow what a fabulous, entertaining and gripping read this was. I have enjoyed this series from the start, especially as it features Lori Anderson who is one of my all time favourite female protagonist. I have always liked how smart and clever she is which makes her hugely enjoyable to read about. She always seems a very real character as she isn’t always able to fool the bad guys.

This book features the manipulative and morally corrupt Agent Monroe who is a character I always love to hate. He has one final (so he says) case for her which puts Lori in one of the most intense, nail biting situations she’s been in yet. She ends up playing a very high stakes poker game in what is essentially a locked room which leads to some incredibly tense, exciting scenes which made the book very hard to put down. I found myself on the edge of my seat (my husband actually asked me if I was ok) as I read these scenes. It was incredibly exciting as I really didn’t know which way the book was going to go. This author is not afraid to out her characters in harm’s way so I definitely feared for her safety. I’m so excited to read more in this series.

Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Orenda for my copy of this book.

About The Author:

Steph Broadribb was born in Birmingham and grew up in Buckinghamshire. Most of her working life has been spent between the UK and USA. As her alter ego – Crime Thriller Girl – she indulges her love of all things crime fiction by blogging at crimethrillergirl.com, where she interviews authors and reviews the latest releases. Steph is an alumni of the MA in Creative Writing (Crime Fiction) at City University London, and she trained as a bounty hunter in California. She lives in Buckinghamshire surrounded by horses, cows and chickens. Her debut thriller, Deep Down Dead, was shortlisted for the Dead Good Reader Awards in two categories, and hit number one on the UK and AU kindle charts.
My Little Eye, her first novel under her pseudonym Stephanie Marland was published by Trapeze Books in April 2018.
Follow Steph on Twitter @CrimeThrillGirl and on Facebook facebook.com/CrimeThrillerGirl or visit her website: crimerthrillergirl.com

Book Synopsis:

Black River is an electrifying return for relentless reporter Tuva Moodyson, from the author of Dark Pines and Red Snow.

FEAR                                                           

Tuva s been living clean in southern Sweden for four months when she receives horrifying news. Her best friend Tammy Yamnim has gone missing.

SECRETS

Racing back to Gavrik at the height of Midsommar, Tuva fears for Tammy s life. Who has taken her, and why? And who is sabotaging the small-town search efforts?

LIES

Surrounded by dark pine forest, the sinister residents of Snake River are suspicious of outsiders. Unfortunately, they also hold all the answers. On the shortest night of the year, Tuva must fight to save her friend. The only question is who will be there to save Tuva?

Black River is available in ebook and hardback now. The ebook is currently only 99p. You can purchase your copy using the link below.

My Review:

I’m such a huge fan of this series which are always fantastic, addictive reads. I was a little worried at the end of the last book when Tuba moved away from quickly and slightly strange Gavrik so I was happy to see her back there even though it wasn’t for a happy reason.

I actually thought we’d seen all the strange characters we could in Gavrik but Snake River is somewhere that literally made my skin crawl when Tuva first visits it. The potential for strange and dodgy things to happen there is huge, especially some of the weird characters there. Sally, also known as The Breeder as she breeds snakes, was my favourite character from there as she made me smile but also shudder due to her strange quirks, especially the descriptions of the snake skin she glues to her nails.

The author does a great job of setting the scene in the book and I enjoyed being back in Gavrik. The small time claustrophobic atmosphere helped create a lot of the tension and mystery in the story as everyone knows each others business but no-one is willing to talk about it which made me suspicious of everyone. The midsummer madness was a fascinating addition to the plot as it brings with it a lot of problems that I hadn’t fully considered before, including insomnia which made for interesting character motivation and means the police don’t think take Alison’s disappearance seriously which I found very intriguing.

Once again the author has written a wonderful book that whilst not fast paced is very addictive and I found hard to put down. The author’s fantastic writing style just drew me into the book and made me feel that I was Tuva, experiencing everything from her point of view which I thought very clever. I’m very excited to read more from this series now, especially as the book ended on a clifthanger as such.

Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Point Blank for my copy of this book.

About The Author:

Will Dean grew up in the East Midlands and had lived in nine different villages before the age of eighteen. After studying Law at the LSE and working in London, he settled in rural Sweden where he built a house in a boggy clearing at the centre of a vast elk forest, and it’s from this base that he compulsively reads and writes. His debut novel, Dark Pines, was selected for Zoe Ball’s Book Club, shortlisted for the Guardian Not the Booker prize and named a Daily Telegraph Book of the Year. The second Tuva Moodyson mystery, Red Snow, was published in January 2019 and won Best Independent Voice at the Amazon Publishing Readers’ Awards, 2019.

Book Synopsis:

Set between Cubas twenty years apart, Havana native Teresa Dovalpage’s new murder mystery explores lingering grudges between old friends and lovers separated by Castro’s final sanctioned raft exodus.
 
Juan, a Cuban construction worker who has settled in Albuquerque, returns to Havana for the first time since fleeing Cuba by raft twenty years ago. He is traveling with his American wife, Sharon, and hopes to reconnect with Victor, his best friend from college—and, unbeknownst to Sharon, he also hopes to discover what has become of two ex-girlfriends, Elsa and Rosita.
 
Juan is surprised to learn that Victor has become Victoria and runs a popular drag show at the local hot spot Café Arabia. Elsa has married a wealthy foreigner, and Rosita, still single, works at the Havana cemetery. When one of these women turns up dead, it will cost Padrino, a Santería priest and former detective on the Havana police force, more than he expects to untangle the group’s lies and hunt down the killer.

Queen Of Bones is available in ebook and hardback now. You can purchase your copy using the link below.

My Review:

I thought this was a very enjoyable murder mystery set in Cuba which is a country that’s always held some intrigue for me.

Firstly I found it interesting to learn about the modern day Cuba compared to how it was in the past. The reader gets to experience the differences through Juan’s eyes as someone who hasn’t been in the country for years. I didn’t know much about its history so it was fascinating to find out more about it.

The cultural changes are further emphasised by the contrast between transgender Victoria and the descriptions of the Santeria religion which is quite conservative. I’d never heard of this religion before which is a mix of African deities and Catholic saints so I enjoyed finding out more about it, especially as it helped me to realise why some of the characters acted the way they did.

The murder mystery was fun to follow and to try to work out everything alongside the characters. I did guess who it was fairly early on but did want to keep reading so I could find out why they did it. There are a few stories happening alongside each other, with some false leads along the way which did have me second guessing myself but it was satisfying to see it all come together at the end.

Huge thanks to Rachel from Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book.

About The Author:

Teresa Dovalpage was born in Havana, Cuba. She earned her BA in English literature and an MA in Spanish literature at the University of Havana, and her PhD in Latin American literature at the University of New Mexico. She is the author of twelve other works of fiction and three plays, and is the winner of the Rincón de la Victoria Award and a finalist for the Herralde Award. She lives in New Mexico.

Book Synopsis:

The drinks are flowing.
The music is playing.
But the party can’t last.

With the Blitz over and London reeling from war, jazz musician Lawrie Matthews has answered England’s call for help. Fresh off the Empire Windrush, he’s taken a tiny room in south London lodgings, and has fallen in love with the girl next door.

Touring Soho’s music halls by night, pacing the streets as a postman by day, Lawrie has poured his heart into his new home – and it’s alive with possibility. Until, one morning, he makes a terrible discovery.

As the local community rallies, fingers of blame are pointed at those who had recently been welcomed with open arms. And, before long, the newest arrivals become the prime suspects in a tragedy which threatens to tear the city apart.

Atmospheric, poignant and compelling, Louise Hare’s debut shows that new arrivals have always been the prime suspects. But, also, that there is always hope.

Ths Lovely City is available in ebook and hardback now. You can purchase your copy using the link below.

My Review:

This Lovely Life is a fascinating look into postwar London which manages to be both poignant and hopeful at the same time.

Firstly the author does a great job of setting the scene in this book and I felt completely transported to postwar London. As you could well imagine the atmosphere at the time was quite unsettled, tense and suspicious after so many years or fear which is vividly described in the book. I haven’t read much about this period so found all the historical details very interesting especially learning more about the windrush generation and their experiences here. The shabbiness of London is contrasted well with the fun and hopefulness of the time too which helped bring some light moments in an otherwise sad book.

There are some fantastic characters in this book who I enjoyed getting to know. Lawrie was definitely my favourite character and I loved how positive he tries to be even when faced with daily discrimination. DI Rathbone on the other hand- ooh how I hated him! He’s such a nasty, cruel and racist man that I wished I could have reached into the book to give him the slap he really deserved. I felt my blood rise with indignation for Lawrie as he was so horrible to him!

This is a book that is great to get lost in as there is always something going on to keep the reader absorbed in the story. There are some twists that took me by surprise but ultimately this is a story of joy and hope in a bleak time which was brilliantly written. I think this would make a great book club read as there would be lots to discuss.

Huge thanks to Joe Thomas for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book.

About The Author:

LOUISE HARE is a London-based writer and editor with an M.A. in Creative Writing from Birkbeck, University of London. In 2016, her short story “The Odyssey of Dee Lennox” was shortlisted for the Just Write Creative Writing Competition, and in 2017 she was a finalist for the prestigious Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize. This Lovely City is her first novel.

@LouRHare
louisehare.com

Book Synopsis:

A year ago, Charlie’s life seemed to be following a plan: she had a beautiful house, a lovable dog and an upcoming wedding. But she felt trapped. A few months before the big day, ignoring the warnings from her family, she abandoned her life and fled to the other side of the world in a bid for freedom.

But when her mother unexpectedly falls ill, Charlie has to cut her trip short. She flies home, but by the time she gets to the hospital, it’s too late.

Her mother is gone, but she’s left a mystery behind. Why did she buy a canal boat, and where did the money for it come from? As Charlie attempts to work through her grief and pick up the pieces of her life, she follows the threads of her mother’s secret past – but has she missed her chance to learn the truth?

You Never Told Me is published in ebook and paperback on the 19th March 2020. You can pre-order your copy using the link below.

My Review:

Firstly I have to say that this book was not what I was expecting. It was a far deeper, emotional book then I thought and I have found myself continuing to think about it long after I’ve finished reading it.

This is a book about identity and how well we know ourselves which was fascinating to read about. I liked following Charlie as she tried to solve the mystery and whilst doing so learns more about herself and her family. It was interesting to see how we can be wrong about our assumptions and how quick we can be to form an opinion on a person.

I loved the wonderful, vivid descriptions of what life is like living on a narrow boat. I went on many narrow boat holidays as a child so have a bit of an idea about what it would involve, so I really enjoyed this part of the book. The smallness of the narrow boat also helps create some atmosphere too as it makes things quite claustrophobic which makes things very intense at times.

The author cleverly takes the reader on a journey of discovery which is incredibly absorbing and hard to out down as I was soon lost in the story I liked the gradual unraveling of family secrets and hidden secrets which was very intriguing to follow. I will be recommending this book to everyone.

Huge thanks to Emma from Damp pebbles tours for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book.

About The Author:

Sarah Jasmon lives on a canal boat in Lancashire, which is also the setting for her two novels – The Summer of Secrets and You Never Told Me. She has written short stories for a wide selection of publications and in 2018 was shortlisted for the Harper’s Bazaar short story competition. She is an Associate Tutor in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University, and is currently studying for a PhD in Creative Geography.