Malcolm Blair-Robinson's Blog, page 49

Zara Vine: Download or Paperback from £2.99

 

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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Khashoggi: Trump Not Satisfied

President Trump’s most recent remark that he is now not satisfied with the Saudi explanation that the journalist died in a fight at the consulate in Turkey, in the midst of a conversation with Saudi officials, was greeted with incredulity across the world. One man fighting fifteen officials? Why were the officials flown in for this meeting? Why was one of them a pathologist carrying a bone saw in his luggage? Where is the body? Why did the Saudi government lie and say he had left the building in one piece?

Initially Trump, whose strategy was to create a pathway down which his ally, in whom he has invested far too much political capital, could escape from a calamitous miscalculation more or less unscathed, declared the explanation plausible and one he could likely accept. A backlash from almost everyone both inside and outside the US has provoked a rethink. Now it is up to Turkey to come forward with the outcome of its extensive investigation, backed by evidence which leaves no room for doubt. Only then can a decision be made about punishing the Saudis. Meanwhile America needs to re-evaluate its strategy in the Middle East. Too many eggs in too few baskets in an area where almost everything is wrong is asking for the very kind of trouble Trump now finds himself in.

Romantic Mystery: Download and Paperback

 

 

The narrow, ordered life of a gentle but  reclusive artist,  is disturbed when a bequest, intended for her dead mother, passes to her. Mystery surrounds the nature of the inheritance and Jane Block 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.

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Spooky Thriller: Popular Chiller from 99p

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St.John Whilloe is the black sheep member of a wealthy legal family, whose firm of solicitors looks after the affairs of many of the top families in the country. He is consulted by a young woman who claims to be frightened by her husband. Things are not as they seem and St.John finds himself drawn into a complex web of intrigue and murder. He is soon in a race against time to solve a mystery with roots in a tortured family history, with sinister paranormal undertones.

The War In Yemen

Shocking as the murder of Jamal Khashoggi undoubtedly is and welcome as the widespread withdrawal from attending ‘Davos in the Desert’ of most of the leading politicians from the West including the US and UK is also, it is time to turn the same level of determination to stop the war in Yemen.

Up to 13 million civilians now face death by famine as a consequence of the ruthless air bombardment by the Saudis on the Iran backed rebels. Nothing can justify this. What is more 90% of the weapons used are manufactured and supplied by the US and UK, allies of the increasingly isolated Saudi regime. It is time to tell them that the price of the alliance is that the bombing stops. Whist allowing room for compromise to preserve the partnership if feasible, we must give a powerful signal to the Saudis that all is not well with them.

Zara Vine: Three Way Choice

Using the full potential of digital publishing linked to formatting and uploading skills, I am able to offer readers a choice of book style in the new gripping  Zara Vine Dark Crime Series to suit their taste and mood. This may be a first, so be one of the first buy! Contents identical for all. Click links for full details. In paperback and Kindle   Amazon UK.  Amazon US. 

 

This is the original with full Maff Robinson designed wrap around cover, part hand painted, part digital. The book is in the American 6 x 9 inch format with #14 case print, making it a very easy read.

 

 

 

 

 

Here we have the British popular paperback size, 5 x 7 inch, which fits more easily into a bag or pocket when travelling, with an impact cover which cannot be missed if you read in public! #12 case print to make for a compact package.

 

 

 

 

 

A combination of the Maff Robinson Image and digital, 6 x 9 inch format but with the smaller case #12 print, making a slimmer volume.

Trump Wants Proof.

One cannot disagree with the principle of innocent until proven guilty. But the accused has, before coming to trial,  to explain their proximity to whatever crimes they are alleged to have committed. Failure to do so convincingly leads to prosecution. During the trial the principle of innocence applies.

In the case of Saudi Arabia, the journalist enters the consulate and fails to emerge. Up to fifteen Saudi security agents are known to have entered the building including a post mortem doctor armed with a bone saw. Recordings apparently exist of Mr. Khashoggi’s interrogation, torture and death in the consulate. There is even more we are not being told. The Saudi Government must explain all this. Denial is not enough. Until it can prove all these things did not happen, or happened without its authority (insiders say that notion is the most implausible of all), the Saudi Government remains a suspect. In fact the only one.

Brexit and May:The End Game Nears

As the weekend draws to a close no one doubts that we are now entering the end game of the dramatic fight in the Tory party over what kind of Brexit to go for. But nobody has a clue how the game will end.

I think it is no exaggeration to say that never since the industrial revolution has Britain been so badly served by its governing class. Without taking sides, one can see that Brexit is a legal and administrative process of such complexity that it is unique. This does not mean it cannot be done. But to do it requires cool heads and calm nerves and a unity of purpose among all those tasked to deliver the project. Instead we have been living in one long continuous row. In the Tory party. Which is the government.

Now we learn that a cabinet rebellion is openly proposed by a former minister, in the national interest. Certain cabinet ministers are said to be meeting over a Pizza to discuss tactics before the next scheduled cabinet on Tuesday, prior to May’s visit to the Brussels summit on Wednesday. The Brexit Secretary has rushed to Brussels for talks with the head of the EU negotiating authority. The Scottish Secretary (a member of May’s cabinet) and Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Conservatives in Scotland, have written to the PM and said they will not tolerate different treatment of Northern Ireland to the rest of the UK to solve the Irish border issue. The DUP have threatened to vote down the budget if they do not get their way. European politicians are exasperated by the impossibility of conducting negotiations with a country which cannot agree what it wants.

Anything can happen now,  so no predictions what. Except we may be headed for another fudge. But it might be too late even for that.

Zara Vine: Now In Three Styles

Using the full potential of digital publishing linked to formatting and uploading skills, I am able to offer readers a choice of book style in the new gripping  Zara Vine Dark Crime Series to suit their taste and mood. This may be a first, so be one of the first buy! Contents identical for all. Click links for full details. In paperback and Kindle   Amazon UK.  Amazon US. 

 

This is the original with full Maff Robinson wrap around cover, part hand painted, part digital. The book is in the American 6 x 9 inch format with #14 case print, making it a very easy read.

 

 

 

 

 

Here we have the British popular paperback size, 5 x 7 inch, which fits more easily into a bag or pocket when travelling, with an impact cover which cannot be missed if you read in public! #12 case print to make for a compact package.

 

 

 

 

 

A combination of Maff Robinson Image and digital, 6 x 9 inch format but with the smaller case #12 print, making a slimmer volume.

Brexit: Crunch Time Coming

In the mounting tension and confusion with dissenting ministers, threatening partners and a rebellious party, which we  optimistically call the government, I begin to detect three possibilities.

The first is that we crash out without reaching an agreement. This will trigger widespread disruption of everything, a plunge in asset values, especially housing, shortages, queues, a crisis in business and manufacturing, job losses and tax rises. In short it would be a self inflicted disaster which would bring about the collapse of the government and the massacre of the owners of the fiasco, the Tory party, at the following election. It will  lead to likely Scottish independence, as shackled to a disaster, would hardly be the popular choice in a referendum in such circumstances. It will also lead to the detachment of Northern Ireland, which like Scotland voted to remain, into some kind re-union with the south, most likely as a self governing province. The UK would be England and a restive Wales.  For all those reasons, in spite of her mantra that no deal is better than a bad deal, May knows she cannot go there. So does the DUP leader, Arlene Foster.

So this is her current plan. To agree, if unable to secure a long term agreement with the EU, to have the whole United Kingdom remain in the Customs Union, subject to all its rules, indefinitely. That will protect the economy, jobs and normal everyday life. The hard Brexiteers will go ballistic and those of them in the government will resign en masse. But May knows that the majority of both the Tory and Labour parties will back her, together with the SNP and the DUP as well as the majority in the House of Lords. And she knows too that in a second referendum, the alternative hard Brexit would lose big and if staying in were an option on the ballot paper, that would win comfortably overall.

The final possibility is that the government collapses quite soon and before anything can be formalised. Then it’s Corbyn.