Malcolm Blair-Robinson's Blog, page 48

Zara Vine: Download or Paperback: From £1.99

Compact Size edition, bag and pocket friendly paperback and phone friendly download

Zara Vine is a modern detective with a troubled history. Dubbed the She Wolf, she drives all before her in the search for answers and uncovers crimes of world class horror in Book One. As the youngest Detective Superintendent of the Metropolitan Police she is forced to resign because of an armed response in which an innocent is shot. Her career in tatters, her marriage over and worst of all, the death of her only child, she decides to leap to oblivion from a famous cliff top. Saved by a Samaritan, she self-drives a rebirth and joins the smallest UK Police Force. Initially tasked with Cold Cases, she is called in to solve a series of murders with sinister undertones and national implications.

But who exactly is she? Who are her real masters? What is her agenda? Compelling, taut with emotion, passion and fear, Zara Vine will draw you in and grip you right through to the stunning conclusion. 

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The Budget: End of Austerity?

Not really. To paraphrase Churchill, it is not the end, or even the beginning of the end, but it might be the end of the beginning. There were no more cuts announced. But there were very few cuts cancelled and many remain in place to kick in. Instead of widely predicted tax rises, there were tax cuts. But the overall package, when the numbers are crunched, benefits the most well off the most and the least well of the least. It is not socially just, but it is socially expedient. Enough has been done to take the heat out of extreme situations without ending them. Public services remain in crisis, short of cash and at their wits end to deliver.

It all sounds good on the airwaves and podcasts, but when the moment comes for the case to be answered on doorsteps up and down the country, it will be found wanting at almost every level. And then there is Brexit. It has gone very quiet on that front.

The calm before the storm?

Tor Raven Political Thriller: Download or Paperback

 

Set in the mid nineteen nineties, this fast moving thriller lifts the curtain on sex, sleaze and corruption in high places. Tor Raven’s novel captures the mood of those times with a host of fictional characters who engage in political intrigue, money laundering and murder, pursued by an Irish investigative journalist and his girlfriend, the daughter of a cabinet minister found dead in a hotel room after bondage sex.

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Political Dynamic Changing: And It is Not About Brexit.

In the UK Brexit dominates everything and more on that over the next few days. Just to say for now a new question is creeping into the political calculation on that issue. Is Brexit doomed to fail? Something we will explore soon.

But for now let us look at what it means to be on the left with its the modern form of Socialism. Once all about improving the lives of workers and nationalization, Socialism is now about  much more and over a wider canvass. It still includes the challenge to capital,  but it also embraces as its central theme the ideal of truth challenging power, the weak standing up to the strong, the inclusion of the vulnerable, fairness for the ordinary in the way the economic cake is shared and the priority of wealth creation at the base of the economy, over the stoking of asset inflation at the top. It is no longer about the individual. It is about everyone together. About the quality of the shared outcome, not the unfettered freedom of the market.

It is about the many not the few. No longer is it about me first. It is about you too.

 

Zara Vine: Read Now!

 

Readers asked the author ‘What inspired you to write this new series?’

Tor Raven replied.

‘First I read nearly a hundred modern thrillers, all on Kindle, in the crime genre, written often by female authors. A few were American, the rest were British, Scandinavian and Icelandic. I learned the kind of thing go getters like to read, very different in style to the traditional stuff I had been writing. I spent time talking to young people, absorbing how they use and speak English, which has evolved significantly since social media burst upon us. I saw that a lot of fiction is read on phones while multi-tasking, or on tablets if more relaxed. It is rare to see a book on a plane or train now. But for those who prefer, in addition to the e-book, Zara also comes in full size paperback with easy read print.

The pressures in our modern society cry out for a strong heroine who knows her mind and thrives on challenge. Zara will not let you down. As for the choice of name? It is international and once you say Zara Vine twice it sticks in your head and you never forget it. Finally, to introduce her to you, I selected the darkest subject matter that troubles everybody and is shaking all public institutions, especially the church, to the core.

Now read Book One! You will be gripped from the start and I think you will like Zara Vine. This is the first in a series, so there is lots more Zara to come.’

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Romantic Mystery: Download or Paperback.

 

 

The narrow, ordered life of a gentle but almost reclusive artist, Jane Block, is disturbed when a bequest, intended for her dead mother, passes to her. Mystery surrounds the nature of the inheritance and Jane is led on a sinister trail to secrets of the past, forcing her to confront her own fears and inhibitions. She finds herself caught in a frightening quest to unravel a mysterious cover-up from World War Two, and in so doing finds intrigue, love and betrayal.

Amazon.uk

Amazon.com

Are American Politics Turning Ugly?

Politics across the democratic world are becoming more strident and divided. Extremist parties everywhere are thriving at the ease of promoting their dogma on social media platforms, fueled by the general discontent throughout the West at the uneven spread of prosperity since the 2008 crash.

But what make America different is the way President Trump has been the leader in the political hate movement, stirring through campaign rallies and twitter feeds anger and prejudice on a scale unknown in American politics for decades. The arrival of post bombs, fortunately none detonated, as come as a shock to everyone including the President. He now calls for tolerance and unity. To achieve that he will have to change his own tune. The big question is, will he?

Indeed can he?

Hitler And Churchill: Wartime Secrets Revealed

A 

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Adolf Hitler is reviled as the greatest tyrant in history. Yet behind this well-deserved image, there was a man with personal and political secrets known to very few and almost unknown to conventional historians. This remarkable novel reveals his hitherto unknown connection with England, including a doomed love affair and a secret pact with Churchill. It is based on the personal story of the author’s close family and includes a non-fiction Author’s Memoir. This gives personal biographical details and recollections, which reinforce Tor Raven’s conviction that his interpretation of real historical events is more accurate than the accepted truth. He gives you the opportunity to be the judge.

Tor Raven Transatlantic Thriller: Download and Paperback

At the heart of the British State lies a secret to keep which a cabal of shadowy establishment figures is authorised to kill. At the centre of the drama is a family with baggage from the past which has access to the truth and determines to expose it. That provokes a battle of wits among security services on both sides of the Atlantic, with links into Russia, Germany, France and Africa. A gripping narrative taking place in the modern day with a cast of ruthless characters determined to kill their way to victory. Male and female, old and young, engaging yet sinister, none quite what they seem. A sophisticated thriller of unusual pace and power written in an edgy modern style. Over 400 pages.

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Brexit: Government in Turmoil

It is now impossible to see a way forward or predict what will happen.  On the one hand May declares she is 95% there for a good deal, but on the other she is faced with her own party split in every direction, able to agree about nothing and resorting to the language of gangland. On the other hand it is very unlikely that she will be able to get any deal through parliament, because of a lack of consensus on what would be good for the country. Members are vociferous about what they are against, but woolly and unreal about what they are for.

On top of that comes the infamous border issue with Northern Ireland. There are only two solutions which will actually work. Neither is acceptable enough to go forward. Either the whole UK stays in the customs union and the single market or Northern Ireland, which voted Remain, dumps the DUP and joins up with the South to create a united Ireland. This is bound to happen sooner or later anyway. Remember how impossible a united Germany once seemed?

Now we move onto the EU and what it collectively can accept. Unlike the unitary single state of the UK, now sundered politically in a fashion unknown for centuries, the EU 27 stand firm, united and of one mind. And whatever waffle comes out of London about close and enduring relationships, it will never agree to anything that compromises any part of its Union. So it looks as if we are already on the cliff edge. The government may survive for years or it may be gone within a week. Parliament may come to its senses or it might be forced to delegate the decision to the people in a second referendum.

So the two most likely outcomes now are that either we crash out with no agreement into legal mayhem.

Or we have a cup of tea, clear our heads and crash back in.