Good evening I’m thrilled to finally be able to share my extract from The Dark Web as part of the Urbane Books Christmas Extravaganza! Apologies to all for late post my little girl is now ill too so this fantastic are quite hectic as I’m sure you can imagine.

The Dark Web is available now in ebook and paperback, the ebook is currently only 99 p but you can purchase a copy of both here

Before I share my extract with you here is a little bit about the book.

Book Synopsis:

The latest thrilling instalment in the gripping African Diamonds trilogy!

The tentacles of the Dark Web are tightening their grip around the world. From Moscow to Shanghai, Washington, UK, the Middle East and Europe, nowhere is beyond their reach.

When a computer scientist dies mysteriously in Dubai, Jenny Bishop’s nephew, Leo Stewart, is hired to replace him. Leo’s life is soon in danger, but he is the only person who can find the key to prevent an impending global cyber-attack. With the help of Jenny and old and new friends, he must neutralise the threat before the world’s vital services are brought to a halt in a flagrant attempt to once again redraw the borders of Europe and Asia. Can the deadly conspiracy be exposed before the world is thrust into a new Cold War?

Christopher Lowery delivers a gripping final chapter in the bestselling African Diamonds trilogy, with a thriller that is powerfully resonant of today’s global dangers, hidden behind the ever-changing technological landscape.

The perfect read for fans of Gerald Seymour, Wilbur Smith and Frederick Forsyth.

Extract: Prologue 

Shanghai, People’s Republic of China
Monday, 9 July 2012
‘That man from the syndicate called again, that’s the fifth time since we turned them away.’ Madame Xiu Lee-Win poured a glass of green tea for her husband.
‘What did you say?’
‘The same as every time they came and every time they’ve called, “The company is not for sale, please stop pestering us”.’
‘I don’t understand their obsession with our business,’ Chongkun Lee-Win sipped his tea. ‘There’s dozens of microprocessor companies around just as good as ours. If they’ve got the kind of money they say, they can take their pick. Just keep refusing, dearest,
and they’ll finally realise we won’t change our minds.’
‘I suppose so, but I’m tired of answering the phone and hearing that man’s voice. And he said a peculiar thing before he rang off this time.’
‘And that was?’
‘He said, “I think it’s time to convince you to sell”.’
‘I don’t know how they’d do that. They’ve already offered a fair price. Don’t worry about it, just ignore them and they’ll go away.’

‘You’re right, I’ll stop answering the phone. I’ll get the Filipino girl to answer in Spanish, that’ll put them off. Anyway, how was your day?’
‘Excellent. We just got the second quarter results and they’re very good, we’re ten per cent ahead of revenue forecasts with two per cent gross margin improvement. We can afford to continue to invest in our development programmes without worrying about
cash flow.’
‘You’re talking about the ACRE project, aren’t you? How’s it coming along?’
‘We’re making good progress; Han and I were reviewing the latest test results this afternoon. I think we’re still a year or two from perfecting it, but you know how long it takes to transform a concept into a working solution.’
She wagged a finger fondly at him. ‘You’d better deliver it soon or you’ll be embarrassed in front of the world. Remember? I told you not to authorise those press releases last year. “Announcing ACRE, The Ultimate Level of Encrypted Transmission from Lee-
Win Micro-Technology”. You could be prosecuted under the Trade Descriptions Act.’
Her husband laughed and kissed her cheek. ‘Nonsense. It was a smart move, it brought us lots of publicity and new customers. They’re all waiting for ACRE and we’ll get there in the end. It’s just a
matter of time and money and the breakthrough will come, you’ll see.’

‘Yes, it certainly is. According to the cost summary I saw on your desk, we’ve invested over $40 million since you came up with the concept two years ago. And you were sixty years old last month, are you going to follow that dream into retirement?’
‘It’s not just a dream, Xiu. ACRE is much more than that. Do you remember how we pioneered the change in the concept of CPUs and microprocessors back in the eighties? Now we’re going to do the same thing for encrypted transmission. I forecast that five years from now, Automatic Constant Recurring Encryption will be the de facto system of protecting and transmitting data all over the world.’

‘If you say so, darling. You can keep up the project, just don’t
stress about it constantly, or it will be the death of you.’

Thursday, 26 July 2012

It was six-thirty on a dark, rainy morning when Chongkun climbed
into his white 2009 Volkswagen Golf. Although he had a chauffeur and several other cars, including a 1999 Rolls Royce Silver Spirit Mark IV, he preferred to weave through the traffic in the little saloon and drop it in the employees’ parking lot behind the Lee-
Win building in Pudong, leaving the luxury travel for his wife. The sky was black with heavy rainclouds, and he strained to see through the windscreen wipers as he drove slowly along the street lit up by the headlights of the passing cars. Their colonial-style town house in the Jing’an area was about fifteen kilometres from the office, on
the other side of the Huangpu River. Chongkun would meet their two sons, Junjie and Jiang, for a coffee before work and chat over the day’s programme. Both were married and worked with him in the microprocessor business, as heads of finance and marketing respectively. Although the family owned several other companies
involved in manufacturing and commerce, he loved the challenge
of the continual innovations in the world of the Internet, often led by Lee-Win under his stewardship.

Chongkun always took the same route to work. Experience had taught him it involved the fewest hold-ups, and the trip took less than thirty minutes at that time in the morning. He made his way to the Fuxing East Road to cross the river by the tunnel and then come
down Century Avenue to the business park. At the roundabout near the Xiao Taoyuan Qingzhensi Mosque, the cars were bunched up, nervous drivers waiting for a gap to enter the traffic. As Chongkun inched his car forward, a massive black Hummer pulled alongside him on the right and a green Ford saloon came up on his left side,
moving to the inside lane of the roundabout.  The Hummer also moved ahead and he drove slowly out with it, protected by the saloon on his left. Suddenly he felt a soft impact from behind and the Golf was pushed several metres forward, onto the roundabout.

He jammed his foot on the brake and looked in the rear-view mirror. An old red Land Rover had run into the back of his car. The Ford on his left had stopped, and he looked past it to see a Tsingtao Beer truck bearing directly down on him. The Hummer had also stopped on his right, and he pushed the throttle flat to the floor to try to get past it and over the roundabout.

The fully loaded lorry smashed into the Golf, pushing it into the Hummer. The little car was crushed to half its size, with Chongkun inside. It took the firemen three hours to extricate his
dead body from the wreckage. The Land Rover had disappeared from the scene. In the dark, pouring rain no one was sure what had happened and why he had driven into the path of the truck.
The verdict of the inquest was accidental death, but his heartbroken widow didn’t believe it. In October, she sold Lee-Win Micro-Technology to the syndicate for twenty per cent less
than their original offer, and the Lee-Win family left Shanghai and settled in Macau.

Xiu Lee-Win’s prophesy had proved to be accurate, but not for the
reasons she supposed.

About The Author:

Christopher Lowery is a ‘Geordie’, born in the northeast of England, who graduated in finance and economics after reluctantly giving up career choices in professional golf and rock & roll. Chris left the UK for Switzerland in 1966 and has lived and worked in six different countries over the last 50 years. He was a real estate developer and Telecoms/Internet entrepreneur and inventor and has created several successful companies around the world, notably Interoute Communications, now Europe’s largest cloud services platform provider and Wyless Group, now part of Kore Telematics, one of the world’s largest Internet of Things providers.

In 2014, Chris started writing historically/factually based thrillers and the first two volumes of his African Diamonds Trilogy – The Angolan Clan & The Rwandan Hostage, were published by Urbane Publications, a UK publisher. These books are based upon his family’s experiences during the Portuguese Revolution of the Carnations of 1974 and his daughter’s work as a delegate with the ICRC in Rwanda in 1996. The third volume, The Dark Web, was published in April 2018, and draws on his experience as one of the creators of The Internet of Things, between 2002 and 2016. His fourth book, The Mosul Legacy, an unrelated story, will be published in September 2018. His illustrated All About Jack stories for children are written in humorous verse, and were published privately.

Book Synopsis:

The deliciously sinister new novel from the No 1 bestselling author of Richard and Judy Book Club pick, Lying in Wait‘

‘I could probably have been an actress.
It is not difficult to pretend to be somebody else.
Isn’t that what I’ve been doing for most of my life?’

Cordelia Russell has been living on the French Riviera for twenty-five years, passing herself off as an English socialite. But her luck, and the kindness of strangers, have run out.

The arrival of a visitor from her distant past shocks Cordelia. She reacts violently to the intrusion and flees her flat to spend a drunken night at a glittering party. As dawn breaks she stumbles home through the back streets. Even before she opens her door she can hear the flies buzzing. She did not expect the corpse inside to start decomposing quite so quickly . . .

Skin Deep is available now in paperback and ebook, purchase your copy here.

My Review:

Ooh I did enjoy this dark, unsettling and addictive book.  It’s the sort of book that you sit down to read a chapter of and then before you know it two hours have gone by!

I really didn’t like the main character Delia, which is unusual for me.  She is a very vain, calculating person who I was unable to feel much sympathy for despite all the hardships she faces throughout her life.  Her obsession with her looks and the importance she places on her beauty made me further dislike her.  The story is told from her point of view and I thought she was quite an unreliable narrator as I didn’t feel I could trust what she was saying.

This book follows Delia through her life from nine years old and the tension in the book gradually increases as the reader learns more about the type of person Delia is.  There are quite a few chilling events in her story which further increased my unease as I was never sure what she would do next.  I felt that I had to keep reading to find out more about her and to see what she’d do next.

Skin Deep is an utterly addictive book which gripped me from the start and I found very difficult to put down.  When I wasn’t able to read it I found myself constantly thinking about it and plotting ways I could read a few more pages.  A sure sign of a fantastic book!

This is the fourth book by this author but the first I have read and I can’t wait to read more from her.  It would make a great book club book as there is lots to discuss which is why it’s was chosen for the Richard and Judy book club!  If you like dark, unsettling and thrilling books then you’ll love this book!

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

About The Author:

Liz Nugent is an Irish novelist, born in Dublinin 1967.

Liz Nugent attended Holy Child Killiney Secondary School Co.Dublin.

Her first novel Unravelling Oliver (PenguinIreland) won an Irish Book Award in 2014 and has been translated into seven languages, including Spanish, Italian and French. It was published by Scout Press (Simon & Schuster) in the US in August 2017.^[1][2]

Her second novel Lying In Wait also won an Irish Book Award and was selected for the Spring list of the UK’s Richard & Judy Book Club in 2017, winning the overall Readers’ Vote ^[3] and was published in the US in June 2018.^[4]

Her third novel Skin Deep was published in April 2018.^[5][6]

She lives in Dublin with her husband.

(Author picture taken from Amazon and bio from Wikipedia)

Good morning everyone I’m on the blog tour for Stoned Love by Ian Patrick today and I have a great guest post to share with you.

Stoned Love is available in ebook and paperback now.  The ebook is currently only £2.49 but you can purchase a copy of both here.

Before I share my guest post with you here is a little bit about the book.

Book Synopsis:

Detective Sergeant Sam Batford has been lying low at a remote safe house in the highlands of Scotland. He’s doing his best not to attract the attention of the enemies he made, on both sides of the law, during his last under-cover operation but Batford knows he’s just killing time until he’s called to account.

Inevitably the sharks begin to circle and as Batford is called back to front-line action in London he’s thrown into a deadly game of cat and mouse where it seems everyone is out to get him.

After having to endure a frustrating resolution to their previous undercover operation together DCI Klara Winter from the National Crime Agency is determined to prove that Batford has crossed the line into criminality and finally bring him to face justice.

All Sam Batford wants is to outwit his enemies long enough to stay alive and come out ahead of the game.

Ian Patrick’s previous Sam Batford novel, RUBICON has been optioned by the BBC.

Guest Post: 

Inspiration

This is a strange one for me to answer, as my protagonist, Sam Batford, isn’t your average DS! For a start he’s corrupt. I guess most writers / readers would think that writing crime as a retired cop or anyone with a background knowledge of policing would be easier. I’d argue It’s somewhat harder. The reason being is that we have to make the story entertaining. The realities of police work are far from this. There can be many days of waiting around on surveillance where your target doesn’t leave home.

My books explore the world of covert policing and the same can be said of this area of police work. As I wrote the first in the series, Rubicon, the strangest thing occurred. My protagonist became corrupt. My mind clearly wanted more of a challenge than writing the thing in the first place!

A key part of covert work is to be vigilant to corruption. This is why there’s security vetting you must pass before you can enter the command and random drug testing is the norm too. On occasions you could be handling significant sums of money. That money must be accounted for. It’s not the officers but ultimately yours, the taxpayer.

With this awareness you begin to see how those officers with a criminal intent could exploit the system. I’m not saying they’d succeed but the potential is there. I had a small team to manage and we were a tight unit. If there was a sniff of corruption then we would have happily nicked each other and ensured a conviction. So the inspiration happened and I ended up turning my own beliefs upside down to get the character that is DS Sam Batford.

Writing characters’ like him has its moments. I often ask myself, how can he get away with this? That’s also why I enjoy him as he provides the challenge through writing I miss from policing.

I’m so grateful to be included on your blog and thank you for all the support you give to so many authors. Without good people like you my writing wouldn’t be getting the recognition of readers that it is.

IP

My pleasure Ian! Thanks for a great guest post, I wish you all the best with your new book!

About The Author:

Good morning everyone I’m on the blog tour for Edna’s Death Cafe by Angelena Boden today and have a great guest post to share with you.  Thanks so much to the lovely Sarah for letting me post a guest post instead of a review as my ten month old has a bad cold, isn’t sleeping and is very clingy.

Edna’s Death Cafe is available in ebook now for the bargain price of £2.99.  You can purchase your copy here.

Before I share my guest post with you here is a little bit about the book.

Book Synopsis:

As in life, death is not without its agenda. This is something seventy-nine year old Edna Reid finds out when her partner, Ted, suddenly dies.

To cope with her loss, she sets up a Death Cafe to break down the taboo around death and to encourage other members of the community to discuss it openly. Over tea and cake, the participants hide their fears behind a veil of dark humour.

Religious fanaticism clashes with Victorian spiritualism as Edna’s meetings trigger lively conversations on the fragility of life, anxiety over dying, cost of funerals, and making sure long-lost greedy relatives don’t benefit from inheritances.

Soon, a series of events begin to unfold which threaten to undermine Edna’s livelihood and the Death Cafe meetings. These events just happen to coincide with the arrival of a mysterious stranger into the village.

Who is she and why is she so hostile to Edna?

Guest Post:

DYING TO EAT

Food is the essence of life. Without it we would die which is ironic considering the last thing we want to do is eat when someone we love has died. Notice I am not using euphemisms of passed away or called to be an angel. It’s because I believe that to conquer a fear we need to name it.
The first time we are faced with having to eat publicly after a death is usually at the funeral. Well-wishers encourage us to ‘keep up our strength,’ or ‘to just have a little something.’ The funeral tea or wake is about sharing memories over platefuls of nibbles, maybe some favourites of the deceased, and raising the mood.

We get buried in food when news breaks of a death of a close family member. Plied with soups, stews, curries and sponges by neighbours and friends the moment the news of a death breaks, eating is often the last thing we want to do yet the act of making comfort foods for those who need comforting replaces a need to search down the back of the sofa for those lost words of consolation.
Fridges and freezers get packed to overflowing so that no-one has to think about what to buy, prepare and cook. The business of grief needs all available energy.

There lies the problem. We should eat but our stomach tells it isn’t not ready. If we could swallow a little of the creamy pasta, not only would we bring relief to those desperate to find a way to heal our broken hearts but also to ourselves as a small act of defiance against the raging beast of grief which feeds on our loss like a vampire guzzling blood.
The link between grief and loss of appetite is often seen as an emotional one but from my experience it was physical. Nausea, a weakness in the joints, muscle fatigue, brittle hair, insomnia and an inability to stop crying went on for months. My body craved essential vitamins and minerals but I didn’t care if I never ate another morsel.

Everyone has their own way of dealing with this dangerous situation but it needs support from family, friends and medics. Swallowing was my biggest problem and it was liquid compounds three times a day that helped make the switch back to regular eating. It took two hours to drink one small bottle in between sleeping but it was a start. Small portions of nursery food followed – banana and custard, ice cream, then liquidised soups, white fish. It took time and maybe my situation was unusual.
Foods that triggered painful memories were avoided for a long time and nobody should be pushed into eating more than they can manage as in the ‘just one more mouthful’ scenario of our childhood tussle with Brussel sprouts.
Emotions can shut down our appetite or they can scream out to be fed. Grief eating is common but if we stuff down excess carbohydrates which are known to be mood lifters then we run the risk of weight gain, feeling unwell and in some cases self-hate. Extremes are never helpful, especially when it comes to maintaining good health and what we need for a full physical recovery.
Water is essential as opposed to alcohol which is not. I drank lots of it with lemon or Vitamin C tablets mixed in. As taste returns from its shocked state, like the rest of the body, we become attracted by colourful, natural foods; berries, peppers, tomatoes, aubergines, honey and find ourselves returning to a new sort of normal.

Food is best eaten with a companion. The lonely bereaved know they have to look at an empty place setting across the table so stop eating. If this is you, then take a tray, put on some music, watch TV, do something different. If you know of someone who has been bereaved and is alone, don’t just take a pot of macaroni cheese over. Ask if you can eat with them or better still invite them to your home once a week as something to look forward to. It’s important to tell them that you would really like that.
Some of this might resonate with you. Or maybe not. We are all so different and respond to grief in our individual ways. Some prefer to be alone to process their thoughts, others are terrified of the strength of their own emotions.

All I can say is that a portion of chips was worth more than words to me in the early days. Especially when shared. Even though that contradicts everything in this blog, I think Edna would approve of that. 

If you’ve been affected by any issues in this blog, you can speak to:- https://www.cruse.org.uk/
https://www.samaritans.org/
They can put you in touch with specialist support groups.

About The Author:

Angelena Boden has spent 35 years writing and delivering training programmes on resolving conflict, interpersonal skills and advanced communication. Amongst her many international projects, she set up a charm school for nightclub door staff in the 80s, worked in Belfast on a skills development programme to help people on the Shankill Road get back into work and has helped large numbers of young unemployed and ex-offenders to find their place in society.
She speaks four languages and has travelled extensively.

Angelena writes dark, compelling fiction which are described as gripping psychological thrillers and domestic noir. She is keen to connect with readers via twitter @AngelenaBoden

Good morning everyone I’m pleased to finally be able to share my review of The Doll Collector by Joanna Stephen-Ward today as part of the blog tour.  Huge apologies to Emma and Bloodhound books for the delay in posting this, my ten month old has got his first cold and is very clingy which makes doing anything difficult.

Before I share my review with you here is a little bit about the book.

Book Synopsis:

A couple and their young son burn to death in a house fire.

A girl dies from a nut allergy.

A woman falls under a train during the rush hour.

An accountant falls down the steps to his basement.

Their deaths appear to be accidents but Gloria knows they were murdered because she murdered them. And every time Gloria kills she buys a doll.

But how many dolls will she need to keep her satisfied?

When Gloria takes a room as a lodger her behaviour starts to spin out of control. Gloria wants love and happiness and friendship and she will do anything she can to get what she wants…

The Doll Collector is available now in ebook and paperback.  The ebook is currently only 99p but you can purchase a copy of both here.

My Review:

The Doll Collector is an unsettling, surprising book which was a very intense read.  The blurb sells it as a serial killer book but I actually think it’s a lot more complicated than that as there is quite a complex plot going on.

The author has created some very interesting characters that whilst obviously not very nice people, and quite disturbed in the case of Gloria,  have something about them that makes you feel sorry for them.  Gloria for example is obviously a very complex character whose desperate need for love makes her behave a little obsessively flinging herself on any available male.  However she has obviously had a traumatic past being abandoned by her parents in a filthy bedsit which has caused most of her problems and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her at times.  The same could be said for Ian, one of the estate agents who is definitely a nasty piece of work through most of the book but is influenced heavily by his dad who has some very strong views on how things should be.  I also felt a bit sorry for him as despite being under his dad’s thumb he does have a conscious and realises that he is behaving wrongly.

My favourite character was Maurice who seemed like a very gentle, kind man who has fallen on hard times since the death of his mother.  His constant battle with Ian and his father over the rent for his flat is heartbreaking to read about especially when you realise the back story involved in all of it.  I was very nervous for him when he gets Gloria as a lodger and hoped that he wouldn’t become part of her macabre doll collection as I had developed a bit of a soft spot for him.

The story is incredible fast paced which makes the book hard to put down.  There is always something happening with one of the characters that makes you want to continue reading to find out how it all plays out.  Gloria along with Ian and his dad are very unpredictable characters who the reader is never sure what they are going to do next.  This also made me want to continue reading as I wanted to make sure Maurice was ok.

I wasn’t too sure about the ending of this book as I felt it was a bit too perfect and it all got tied up nicely in a bow.  I also didn’t feel that Ian deserved the ending he had which upset me a bit.

This is the first book by this author I have read and I’d definitely be interested in reading more from her in the future.  If you like intense books with complex characters and plot than you’ll love this book.

Huge thanks to Emma from Bloodhound books for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book via Netgalley.

About The Author:

Joanna Stephen-Ward was born in the Australian outback, and grew up in Melbourne. Her school days were spent dreaming about being an opera singer or a writer. To the exasperation of her parents and teachers she spent her final year sitting at the back of the classroom writing a novel set in WW2.

When she left school she went to an opera school where she was taught drama, movement and language pronunciation and had small roles in the workshop productions. She was not good enough to become a professional opera singer, but the seeds of her novel Vissi d’arte were sown.

She left Australia and spent a year travelling around Europe and the UK. While working in outpatients for the NHS she met Peter and they married in 1985. They lived in Richmond Surrey and she worked at The National Archives, an enthralling place for anyone interested in history or crime.

Having been brought up as a lonely only child, she was astonished to discover in 2010 that she was one of eight children. She and her sister had last been together on a verandah in the outback when they were babies. They had a joyous reunion in Cornwall in 2012.

Joanna has written seven novels and is working on her eighth.

Book Synopsis:

The centre for women’s reproductive health offers a last chance at hope – but nobody ends up there by choice.

Its very existence is controversial, and to the demonstrators who barricade the building every day, the service it offers is no different from legalised murder.

Now life and death decisions are being made horrifyingly real: a lone protester with a gun has taken the staff, patients and visitors hostage.

Starting at the tensest moment in the negotiations for their release, A Spark of Light unravels backwards, revealing hour by urgent hour what brought each of these people – the gunman, the negotiator, the doctors, nurses and women who have come to them for treatment – to this point.

And certainties unwind as truths and secrets are peeled away, revealing the complexity of balancing the right to life with the right to choose.

A Spark Of Light is available now in ebook and hardback, purchase your copy here.

My Review:

A Spark Of Light is a gripping, thought provoking and powerful book that was a fantastic read.

The story is set in a women’s reproductive centre which is considered controversial to some as its where woman can go for abortions.  It opens straight into the action where a hostage situation has just been resolved and the survivors are being treated in hospital.  It then, unusually, goes backwards in time describing what happened whilst the hostage situation was going on and how the gun man stormed into the clinic.

I must admit I did find this timeline a little confusing at first and it took me a while to get used to it.  I think my main concern at the beginning was where the story was going as I couldn’t understand how it would work having started at the end.  I needn’t have worried as the author is very clever and gradually let’s the reader know more about their characters and their reasons for being there which I found really fascinating.  It was very interesting to see how she does this and subtly fits in background information into the story.

I liked all the characters and thought they all behaved very bravely in a difficult situation.  It was very intriguing,  though heartbreaking at times, to learn more about each of them and why they were at the clinic that day.  I’m not sure I had a favourite character as they were all so varied and I felt sympathy for all of them as they all had quite poignant back stories.  I wasn’t so sure about Janine though as I found her very frustrating in her stubbornness to change her view.  I wished I could have told her to be quiet as I felt that the way she expressed her view was very inappropriate at times.

The subject of abortions and a woman’s right to choose is a very timely subject, especially as it continues to be a much debated one.  The author handles this subject really well, showing both sides of the story but never persuading the reader to either side.  I though this was superbly done and it was very interesting to read about the two sides to the subject.

The story develops at a great speed with lots of actions and revelations that keeps the reader on their toes.  There were a few twists that I didn’t see coming which ensured I was thoroughly gripped and unable to put the book down.  The ending ( or should that be the beginning?) was surprising and made me want to start the book all over again!

I’ve read lots of Jodi Picoult’s book and I always find them hugely enjoyable! I can’t wait to read more from this talented author.

Huge thanks to The Pigeonhole for allowing me to read A Spark Of Light through them.  I’ve already put this on my Christmas list for a hard copy of this book as I want to put it on my keep forever shelf.  If you like powerful, thought provoking and emotional books then you’ll love this book!

About The Author:

Good morning everyone I’m pleased to finally be sharing my guest post from the wonderful Wendy H Jones which was meant to be part of the Antiques And Alibis blog tour.  Huge apologies for the late post I’ve had one sick child after another unfortunately!

Antiques And Alibis is available in ebook and paperback now.  The ebook is currently only £2.99 but you can purchase a copy of both here.

Before I share my guest post with you here is a little bit about the book.

Book Synopsis:

Cass Claymore, a red headed, motorbike riding, ex-ballerina inherits a Detective Agency, and accidentally employs an ex-con dwarf and an octogenarian. Hired by a client who should know better, Cass has no leads, no clue and a complete inability to solve a case. Still a girl needs to eat and her highbred client’s offering good money. Join her as, with bungling incompetence, she follows a trail littered with missing antique teddies, hapless crooks, a misplaced Lord of the Realm and dead bodies. Will Cass, and Scotland, survive?

Guest Post: Favourite Charactor To Write
This is a tough one as I have four series out. How on earth do you choose? I’ve decided to choose one from each series and give you a flavour of my writing.

The main character in the DI Shona McKenzie Mysteries has to be Shona herself. She is many faceted and it has been fun to get to know her. She is a woman who knows her own mind and has strong opinions on things. She started out as a drinker of fine wine. I used to be an Army Officer and I know about wine, so this worked out beautifully. Oh, no. Shona was having none of it She was whisky drinker and would not move from this stance. In fact, she drinks Talisker. Nothing else will do. She is also totally against swearing and has everyone in the nick speaking like angels. This is fun in a Scottish police station. It leads to some comedic moments and allows me to show the other characters in a different light.

In the Cass Claymore Investigates series, I cannot choose between Cass or her assistant, Quill. Cass is a red headed, motorbike riding, ex-ballerina who inherits a private detective agency. She has no earthly clue what she is doing so half the time has no clues to the case either. She has two aspects to her character. The first is her can do, nothing will stop me getting on with life attitude. The other is the one who misses being a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet. After her first book, I am looking forward to getting to know her more.

The other character in Antiques and Alibis is Cass’s assistant, Quill. He’s an ex-con dwarf, who has been foisted on her by her friend Lexie. She doesn’t want an assistant but this one turns out to be an asset. He is dapper, eloquent and charms all the ladies. E very lady in th book, apart from Cass, falls in love with him. I’m fast finding out that real-life readers are falling in love with him as well.

In the Fergus and Flora Mysteries, I love both Fergus and Flora. However, Flora takes a slight edge. She is a direct descendent of the original Flora MacDonald of Over the Sea to Skye fame. She has her ancestor’s feisty nature and this gives me a lot of scope to develop her character. Despite this, she relies on Fergus for support and stability. They work brilliantly together as he is steadier and less flighty than his detective partner.

This brings me on to wee Bertie the Buffalo, Scotland’s very own wee escape artist. He’s based on the real-life story of a young buffalo who went missing in Fife in December 2017. He’s a wee cracker and I loved writing his story.

Writing characters is both one of the most exciting and one of the most difficult parts of being an author. Yet, it brings so much pleasure and seeing readers fall in love with them is pure joy.
About The Author:

Book Synopsis:

Cleo knows she should be happy for her brother Mark. He’s managed to find someone new after the sudden death of his first wife – but something about Evie just doesn’t feel right…

When Evie starts having accidents at home, her friends grow concerned. Could Mark be causing her injuries? Called out to their cliff-top house one night, Sergeant Stephanie King finds two bodies entangled on blood-drenched sheets.

Where does murder begin? When the knife is raised to strike, or before, at the first thought of violence? As the accused stands trial, the jury is forced to consider – is there ever a proper defence for murder?

And So It Begins is available now in all formats, you can purchase your copy here.

My Review:

I’m a huge fan of Rachel’s so I was very  excited to be offered an advanced copy of And So it begins.

The thing I most liked most about this book was that it wasn’t just a crime thriller but it also covered the important issue of domestic abuse and confirmed the age old saying that you never know what goes on behind closed doors.  The story is told from three different perspectives and goes back and forth in time covering how Mark & Evie met through to the court case.  I felt this was brilliantly done as it enabled the reader to understand more about the characters and their relationship.  It was fascinating to read events from the different points of view but also to watch the court case unfold and the different sides putting their cases forward.

The characters are all very different from each other and developed well throughout the book.  Although I didn’t warm to any character particularly, I did enjoy learning more about Mark, Evie and Cleo’s relationship with each other which was full of secrets.  It was great to see all the pieces of their relationship slowly fit together.  Stephanie was an interesting character and she is obvious a very competent detective but her side of the story wasn’t as interesting for me as the court case that was unfolding.  I do wonder whether her part was needed in the book as it was the mystery surrounding Evie, Mark and Cleo that I found most interesting.

The book is very fast paced with lots of action happening which made it hard to put the book down.  The author was very good at keeping me guessing and my opinion about what happened changed frequently throughout the book.  There were lots of surprising twists that took me by surprise and ensured I kept reading as I was desperate to find out how things would end.  The ending was fantastic and not at all how I thought the book would end.  It’s definitely one I’ll be thinking about for a while.

I’ve read lots of Rachel’s books and I’m pleased to say I think she’s just getting better and better.  I really look forward to reading more from her in the future.

Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Becky from Headline for my copy of this book.  If you like fast paced, twisty crime thrillers you’ll love this book!

About The Author:

Rachel Abbott’s debut thriller, Only the Innocent, was an international bestseller, reaching the number one position in the Amazon charts both in the UK and US. This was followed by the number one bestselling novels The Back Road, Sleep Tight, Stranger Child, Nowhere Child (a short novel based on the characters from Stranger Child), Kill Me Again and The Sixth Window. Her most recent novel, Come a Little Closer, is available from February 2018.

Rachel’s novels have now been translated into over 20 languages and her books have sold over 3 million copies in the English language.

In 2015 Amazon celebrated the first five years of the Kindle in the UK, and announced that Rachel was the #1 bestselling independent author over the five-year period. She was also placed #14 in the chart of all authors. Stranger Child was the most borrowed novel for the Kindle in the first half of 2015.

Rachel splits her time between Alderney – a beautiful island off the coast of France – and the Le Marche region of Italy, where she is able to devote all her time to writing fiction. For more information, see Rachel’s website, or follow her on Twitter.

Rachel’s website can be found at

Website : http://www.rachel-abbott.com
Blog : http://rachelabbottwriter.com/
Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/RachelAbbott1Writer
Twitter: @RachelAbbott

Book Synopsis:

After a whirlwind romance, a young woman returns to the opulent, secluded mansion of her new fiancé Max Winter – a wealthy senator and recent widower – and a life of luxury she’s never known. But all is not as it appears at the Asherley estate. The house is steeped in the memory of Max’s beautiful first wife Rebekah, who haunts the young woman’s imagination and feeds her uncertainties, while his very alive teenage daughter Dani makes her life a living hell.

As the soon-to-be second Mrs. Winter grows more in love with Max, and more afraid of Dani, she is drawn deeper into the family’s dark secrets – the kind of secrets that could kill her, too.

Inspired by the classic novel Rebecca, The Winters is a riveting story about what happens when a family’s ghosts resurface and threaten to upend everything.

The Winters is available in ebook and hardback now, purchase your copy here.

My Review:

Rebecca is one of my favourite books so I was a little nervous about reading The Winters which is based on the classic story.  I needn’t have worried though for whilst there are elements of Rebecca in the story the author has added a modern slant which makes it very original.  These are done by firstly moving the setting of the book to The Hamptons giving the book quite an American feel. The inclusion of a daughter rather also adds a new edge to the book and helps provide an enemy to the main character instead of the housekeeper in the original story.

The main character is a very fascinating one as, like in Rebecca, we never find out her name but follow the story entirely from her point of view.  She comes across as being very innocent and unworldly which immediately made me suspicion, wondering whether she had an ulterior motive.  I was very interested to find out more about her.  The daughter is another very interesting and colourful character whose hatred for her new stepmother is almost palpable.  I wasn’t sure whose side I was on throughout the book so I sometimes enjoyed the arguments between the two of them.

The plot is quite fast paced with a creeping sense of unease which gradually increases as the book develops.  The tension is also racked up as we learn more about the characters and their stormy relationship with each other.  There is a definite feeling that something has to happen to break the tension and atmosphere so the reader is on edge trying to figure out what it will be.  I often found that what I thought would happen didn’t and the actual twists took me by surprise which I thought was very cleverly done!

This is the author’s debut novel and I’m very interested in reading more from her in the future.  If you like atmospheric, tension filled books with a gothic feel to them or a different take on a classic book then you’ll enjoy The Winters.

Huge thanks to Mia from Vintage books for my copy of this book and for inviting me onto the blog tour.

About The Author:

Lisa Gabriele is the author of several bestselling novels. Her writing has appeared in Glamour Vice, Elle, the New York Times Magazine and Salon as well as various anthologies, including The Best American Nonrequired Reading series. An award-winning T.V. producer, she has lived in Washington D.C. and New York City, and now lives in Toronto.

Book Synopsis:

September, 1941: Mary arrives in war-torn London nursing a broken heart and a painful secret.

When she is offered her dream post as an assistant in the fabric department at Liberty store, she knows this is the fresh start she needs. Amid the store’s vibrant prints and sumptuous interiors, Mary finds a new family who can help her to heal.

But not everyone will give Mary such a warm welcome, and the trauma of her past will soon catch up with her.

As Mary and the Liberty Girls endure the heartache and uncertainty of war, it will take a steady heart to keep the magic of Christmas alive.

Christmas At Liberty’s is published today in ebook and hardback, purchase your copy here.

My Review:

Christmas At Liberty’s is a wonderful, magical book that I absolutely loved! I’ve always enjoyed a book that is set in a department store especially when it’s set in one as famous as Liberty’s!

The descriptions of the colourful displays and the lovely sense of togetherness that the staff had was fabulous to read about.  The staff are a wonderful team and I enjoyed reading about all their interactions with each other.  It was interesting to learn about the activities on offer for the staff outside of the shop and that they often competed in sports activities against the other big department stores around! I would have loved to have worked there too.

The author has created some truly fantastic characters in this book which I grew very fond of and was sorry to leave when the book ended.  My favourite character was Mary as I admired her bravery and determination to start afresh.  I felt very sorry for her regarding her mysterious past as I felt she was very embarrassed about it.  Her lovely relationship with her landlady Dot and fellow lodger Alice were heartwarming to read about.  I loved the descriptions of their home life together and watching Mary develop confidence in herself through them.

The story develops at a great pace that allows the reader to understand more about the characters and their lives so that they start to feel like old friends.  I was soon totally absorbed in the story and felt like I was there with them watching it all unfold.  The mystery surrounding Mary’s past was very intriguing and ensured that I kept reading to find out what had happened.

This is the first book by this author I have read and I can’t wait to read more from her.  I’m very pleased that this is the start of a new series as it means I’ll be able to visit the characters and Liberty’s again.

Huge thanks to Arrow Publishers for my copy of this book via Netgalley.  If you like absorbing, heartwarming books then you’ll love this book!

About The Author:

Fiona Ford is the author of the Liberty Girls series, which is set in London during the Second World War.

Fiona spent many years as a journalist writing for women’s weekly and monthly magazines. She has written two novels under the pseudonym, Fiona Harrison, as well as two sagas in her own name in the Spark Girls series.

Fiona lives in Berkshire with her partner.

Follow The Blog Tour:

There is currently a blog tour in progress for this book, so if you liked the sound of this book from my review do go check out these other blogger’s reviews!