Paula Longhurst's Blog, page 13

Full Scoop, Jill Orr

Tragedy strikes at the Tuttle Times and a file comes into Riley Ellison's possession. Clues to her grandfather’s murder. Riley and close colleague Will Holman decide to follow the trail of breadcrumbs scattered by two now dead men. All the while Riley is becoming closer to Ash Campbell whilst still being distracted by her ex, DEA agent Jay.

Just as it seems the Tuttle Times team are close to solving the case, Albert Ellison’s killer reaches out to Riley with an impossible choice. How far will Riley go to protect everyone she holds dear?

Gone By Midnight, Candice Fox

Third in the highly entertaining Crimson Lake series. Sara Farrow’s son vanishes from a locked hotel room where three other kids were sleeping. Enter Crimson Lake’s most unlikely pair of investigators disgraced cop Ted Conkaffey and his partner – convicted killer Amanda Pharrell.This is just the kind of puzzle that gets Amanda’s blood up but after the death of detective Pip Sweeny on their last case the police chief doesn’t want her involved -but this is Amanda we’re talking about. Ted is concerned with finding the boy but he's also just been granted a few precious days with his daughter and doesn’t want jeopardize his chances of more visits and every day that passes means less chance of the Farrow boy being found alive…

Last Trial, Scott Turow

I always think I'm not a legal thriller girl and then I read one and love the genre all over again. Turow is so good at keeping the court room action moving and his latest is no exception.

Sandy Stern is at the end of a long and distinguished legal career, at 85 he’s ready to retire but there’s one last case to be defended. Stern’s client (and life-long friend) a renowned drug company CEO accused of murder, insider trading and fraud has begged Stern and his daughter Marta’s law firm to act as counsel.
Marta thinks the case is too much for Stern, who is only recently recovered from a serious road accident
Once the trial is underway, amidst the familiar cut and thrust of argument and counter-argument, Stern finds himself wondering if he really knows the defendant at all and what bombshells the witnesses for the prosecution will drop next.

Enigma Game, Elizabeth Wein

1940: young Jamaican Louisa Adair moves from war torn London to the windy wilds of the Limehouse pub in Scotland as a paid companion to Jane Warner. Jane is in her eighties, a former opera singer and German. The pub is close to RAF Windyedge where Squadron Leader Jamie Beaufort-Stuart's team have been picking up some strange transmissions recently.

One night a mysterious visitor arrives at the airbase with a classified decoding machine, unable to give it to his contact 'Calypso' the man hides the device somewhere in the pub and gives Louisa the 'key'. Louisa becomes friends with Volunteer Ellen McEwen who is no stranger to prejudice herself. Beaufort-Stuart is convinced there is a spy operating at Windyedge and defying his commanding officer joins forces with Ellen, Louisa and Jane to strike back at the enemy. But is the intelligence sound, or is this a carefully crafted trap?

An update in the time of Corona

It has been a while since I posted. TKE has been weathering the pandemic but we had to close our doors to browsing due to the Mayor's stay home order but work did not stop, if anything it intensified. Internet orders rolled in, our 11:00 a.m.storytimes went online (FB and Instagram) and we added a chapter book storytime at 2:00 p.m. With only a skeleton staff we couldn't get the orders out and answer the phones. So the phones went on the back burner, new skills, new procedures were developed, implemented and in a matter of days we were on top of the orders. Weeks later, the lockdown is easing (too fast - we think) so we continue to keep the store closed to browsing, contactless curbside pick-up is now in effect and our delivery team are back on the job for those customers who don't want to venture out. We practice social distancing, we wear masks (to protect ourselves and our co-workers) and gloves and sanitize everything that doesn't move and we've even managed to start answering a few phone calls in between mountains of texts, instagram messages and emails.

We are bookworms, not scientists and if you are interested there is a manifesto on the front page of TKE's website that explains our reasons for staying closed for the time being but the upshot is that we love our customers and we don't want to risk their health or our own. Frankly, I hate wearing a mask, but I chose to do so at work and in public because you can have this thing and not know it.

Another casualty in the bookstore world is in-store events and book launches. My new book, Rollover, A Nikki Doyle Novel was published in March and the reading and signing would've been a couple of weeks ago. Despite that the book is selling well and getting some great reviews, such as:

Nikki Doyle, Rollover's intriguing and intelligent heroine, builds new lives for jackpot lottery winners escaping the notoriety caused by their big win. It's definitely not her fault when dark secrets emerge from the past and things go awry. Paula Longhurst makes us feel the London setting in our bones, and gives us a page-turner with well-drawn, unexpected characters, and an insider look at the perils of sudden fame and fortune.

Sue Cox, author of Man on the Washing Machine

Featuring an inventive premise, a cast of engaging characters and surprisingly dark undertones; Rollover is fast, pithy and fun.

Chris Ewan, author of The Good Thief's Guide to...mystery novels

Paladin, David Ignatius

Paladin is the name of cyber security expert Michael Dunne’s fledgling company. Ex-CIA, disgraced and looking to root out the people who destroyed his life and sent him to jail. Dunne's main focus is hacker/journalist Jason Howe whose wiki leaks type organization Dunne was trying to penetrate. When he finds Howe’s team they've evolved into something else and their latest exploit has nothing to do with justice...

End of October, Lawrence Wright

The Kongoli flu virus first showed up in an internment camp in Indonesia. The world health organisation asks Dr. Henry Parsons to investigate. Henry is on his way home to his family and his CDC job in Atlanta but he agrees. At the camp he takes the usual precautions-mask and gloves-even though he’s in a hurry. By the time he finds the dead team of MSF researchers and has quarantined the camp his local driver has left the camp headed for the Haj at Mecca unknowingly carrying the deadly virus.
A global pandemic is coming, unleashing consequences no one is prepared for.
This may be fiction but we are currently living it.

Providence, Max Barry

Seven years ago Earth made first contact with an alien race - it didn’t go well - and earth took its armies into space, sustaining heavy loss of life.
As support for the war waned the military industrial complex created the Providence class of warship. Run by powerful AI and a skeleton crew of four who are basically window dressing to keep the public onside. At the launch of the Providence Five it becomes pretty clear to the reader that these four (with one exception) shouldn't be in charge of a lemonade stand, let alone a multi billion dollar weapon of war.
Months later the crew are deep in uncharted space, cut off from earth communication; locked in the fight of their lives with an enemy who seem to get smarter with every encounter and a ship which is rejecting their commands.
(N.B Other Max Barry titles include Jennifer Government, Machine Man and Lexicon)

Victim 2117, Jussi Adler-Olsen

Department Q fans get the story we’ve all been waiting for. Assad has been the janitor since Carl Morck started handling the coldest of cold cases but we’ve all suspected that behind the prayer mat and the mint tea lurked a much more complex personality.
To the press, victim 2117 is the latest refugee to die in the Mediterranean Sea. To a young Copenhagen teen she is the excuse to unleash a violent crime spree that he has been warning the police about for months. To a terrorist she’s a stepping-stone to a plot years in the making. And to Assad? She’s a chance to take down the man who wiped out his family.

88 Names, Matt Ruff

The service that Sherpa Inc performs is quite illegal. For a hefty price John Chu and his talented team will save you hundreds of hours of game play by leveling up your avatar in ‘Call to Wizardry’ and taking clients on dungeon raids they couldn’t possibly handle on their own. IRL, John is a nerd with a badass mum who does top secret government stuff and he’s just acquired a new client who wishes to remain anonymous and  whom John suspects could be a powerful dictator from a country starting with the letter K. He’s also in the crosshairs of a Chinese agent and worse his very pissed off ex-girlfriend, Darla, a woman who likes her revenge served cold.