Veronika Jordan's Blog, page 103

Rough Country by by T.J. Brearton

A young girl murdered. A town with a dark secret.

A young girl, Kasey, is murdered in the woods of northern New York, a strange symbol carved into her stomach. Investigator Reed Raleigh, Major Crimes, is tasked with finding the killer.

#RoughCountry #TJBrearton @inkubatorbooks @damppebbles #damppebblesblogtours Facebook @damppebblesblogtours 

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Reed has his own troubles. He’s in therapy, divorced, estranged from his son. But he desperately needs to solve this case – his own stepdaughter vanished when she was a teenager and Reed knows all about the agony of having no closure. No way is he letting Kasey’s mother go through that.

But as Reed begins to dig, the case grows ever more complex. Why is Kasey’s boyfriend acting so strangely? And why is her mother lying to the police?

As evidence of Kasey’s bizarre secret life starts to emerge, Reed realises this case isn’t just about a dead girl. There’s something much bigger at play in this small rural town, a decades old secret that needs to be protected. At any cost. 

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My Review

This book was nothing like I expected. It started out as the usual police procedural – a teenage girl turns up dead with a strange symbol carved into her stomach. She’s been strangled. Not much else to go on. A jaded cop with a troubled background, divorced, in therapy, hardly ever sees his teenage son. His step-daughter vanished when she was a child – her body never recovered.

But then everything changed. And boy did it change. Suddenly we have two dramatic suicides, a town full of secrets, similar cases going back 50 years and Reed in the middle trying work out the connections. Almost everyone is a suspect. Or is that because they are all guilty? Is it about underage sex? Or drugs? Or pseudo-religious control? This is small town America at its worst and worse than its worst. And if you feel you need to suspend disbelief, then take a look at old newspaper clippings. This kind of thing really did happen and still does. It even happens in the UK. Scientology has around ten locations here.

But we are not just talking about David Koresh or Jim Jones or L Ron Hubbard – the big players who still make the national and international news to this day. Children of God – which became Family International in 2004 – not only permitted sex with children but actually encouraged it, believing it was ‘a divine right’. It still exists today but without the underage sex. Others include the Sullivanians and Heaven’s Gate. Most of these cults originated in the 1950s though I have no idea why that is.

I can’t say too much more or I will give away the plot and that would spoil things. Suffice to say that once Reed and his colleagues start to dig, what they discover is beyond anything they could have imagined.

This book is so well written and exciting that I read the whole thing in three sittings. I love this kind of thing. I am fascinated by cults and how people get drawn in. Rough Country explores these themes as well as being a traditional who-dunnit. Brilliant stuff.

Many thanks to @damppebbles for inviting me to be part of #damppebblesblogtours and to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

About the Author

T.J. Brearton’s books have reached half a million readers around the world and have topped the Amazon charts in the US, UK, Canada and Australia. A graduate of the New York Film Academy in Manhattan, Brearton first worked in film before focusing on novels. His books are visually descriptive with sharp dialogue and underdog heroes. When not writing, Brearton does whatever his wife and three children tell him to do. They live happily in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. Yes, there are bears in the Adirondacks. But it’s really quite beautiful when you’re not running for your life.

T.J. is the author of Into Darkness, Road to Mercy and other crime thrillers. Rough Country will be his third novel published with Inkubator Books.

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Social Media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tjbreartonauthor/

Website: http://tjbrearton.net/

Purchase Links:

US: https://www.amazon.com//dp/B08MWLZFYV/

UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk//dp/B08MWLZFYV/

Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski

Set in early 1980s Poland against the violent decline of communism, a tender and passionate story of first love between two young men who eventually find themselves on opposite sides of the political divide.

#SwimmingintheDark #debutauthors @BloomsburyBooks

When university student Ludwik meets Janusz at a summer agricultural camp, he is fascinated yet wary of this handsome, carefree stranger. But a chance meeting by the river soon becomes an intense, exhilarating, and all-consuming affair. After their camp duties are fulfilled, the pair spend a dreamlike few weeks camping in the countryside, bonding over an illicit copy of James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room. Inhabiting a beautiful natural world removed from society and its constraints, Ludwik and Janusz fall deeply in love. But in their repressive communist and Catholic society, the passion they share is utterly unthinkable.

Once they return to Warsaw, the charismatic Janusz quickly rises in the political ranks of the party and is rewarded with a highly-coveted position in the ministry. Ludwik is drawn toward impulsive acts of protest, unable to ignore rising food prices and the stark economic disparity around them. Their secret love and personal and political differences slowly begin to tear them apart as both men struggle to survive in a regime on the brink of collapse.

Shifting from the intoxication of first love to the quiet melancholy of growing up and growing apart, Swimming in the Dark is a potent blend of romance, post-war politics, intrigue, and history. Lyrical and sensual, immersive and intense, Tomasz Jedrowski has crafted an indelible and thought-provoking literary debut that explores freedom and love in all its incarnations.

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My Review

It’s six o’clock in the morning. I awoke at five and had to finish this book. So many thoughts in my head. I was compelled to get up and write this review. For me this was more than just a story. It was my heritage.

Let me explain. My father was Polish. He left in 1939 at the age of sixteen having joined the army (lying about his age as many did) to fight for freedom. He was taken prisoner to Russia and after two years escaped and came to England where he joined the RAF Polish Squadron. He was unable to return for political reasons I won’t go into.

Whenever Ludwik in the book talks about Granny I think of my Granny Anna. She died in 1966. I never met her. My father said she never cut her hair. It was so long she could sit on it. Oh how I loved her! I wanted to be called Anna, be like Anna.

In 1978 it was safe for my father to return so I went with him and his second wife and her eldest daughter. One of his sisters had died a few hours before we arrived. We had to go to the funeral. She was laid out in an open coffin. She was tiny – her little feet sticking out of her black dress, a gold cross wrapped round her hands. I had never seen an open coffin in England. It’s not done.

We stayed with another sister. It was very rural and seemed ‘backwards’ to us. There were horse drawn carts along the road and chickens running free. We rarely spoke about politics or the Party. I realise now it was too dangerous.

We visited my aunt in a convent in Krakow where she had been a nun since she was fifteen. We slept on thin mattresses on an iron bed. She had nothing – just a bible and my Christmas cards in her bedside table drawer. I loved her too. These people were my Polish family.

Another time we went to Warsaw. It was wonderful! Like London! Little did I know what was lurking in dark corners, like Ludwik and his leaflets waiting to break free.

Reading this book brought it all back to me. Of course I cannot identify with Ludwik’s sexuality and his love for Janusz or his pain, but the sadness of the politics resonates with me. The book is so beautifully written – a love story tinged with the desperation of so many people’s plight. I remember having to queue for petrol and then being told we needed to buy vouchers first. Then we waited four hours for the petrol truck to arrive. My father’s extended family fed us everywhere we went, fed us well, even though they had so little.

The night before we left, we visited my father’s old school friend he hadn’t seen since before the war. They drank brandy till they laughed and cried. My father was sobbing. My step-sister said it was the brandy but I knew it was more. Family and friends – all lost, some never regained.

This morning I am Polish. I am there in 1978 but this time with a greater understanding. This book has given that to me. This is a story about love in all its forms, about passion and how politics can drive two people apart. Ludwik yearns for freedom, unable to ‘play the system’. Janusz is good at playing it. He uses it to rise in the ranks. Does he really believe in it? Did anyone? I doubt it, but it was better than being poor, while prices sky-rocketed and people queued for food they couldn’t afford. In the countryside they grew their own, made pickles, kept them in the cellar. Kept chickens. Picked mushrooms in the woods.

But for Janusz, pretending was not enough. He needed to be himself. My cousin’s husband ‘played the system’. For ten years. They had a lovely flat, a TV, a huge stereo. It was all a sham. But he was trusted. One day they just upped and left. Went to America and never looked back.

I want to thank the Pigeonhole, without whom I would never have discovered this wonderful novel and to my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read. But most of all I want to thank the author for bringing back my heritage and my true self. I will be forever in his debt. Thank you Tomasz. And thank you also to my father Kazimierz Urbanowski 1923 – 2000.

About the Author

Tomasz Jedrowski is a graduate of Cambridge University and Université de Paris. He was born in Germany to Polish parents, and has lived in several countries, including Poland, and currently lives in Paris, France, where he works in high-fashion. He speaks five languages and writes in English. This is his first novel.

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The Stairwell by Dean Bryant

Frightful visions. An unknown manipulator. A force from beyond reason.

Brandon Chapman arrives home to a horrific scene. His wife, Stephanie, is exhibiting behaviour that he can only describe as that of someone possessed – yet he doesn’t even believe in the supernatural. He soon realises that it was nothing other than a frightful, haunting vision.

@DeanBryantBooks #TheStairwell @Darkstrokedark @damppebbles #damppebblesblogtours Facebook @damppebblesblogtours 

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After discovering a dark secret about Stephanie, Brandon meets a strange figure with knowledge about his own life that no one could possibly know. As his visions become more frequent and terrifying, he begins to question his sanity.

Brandon must either side with this figure or his wife before his daughter comes to harm.

Alice Hamilton, a shy and quiet university student, meets handsome Niel Curtis whilst on a night out with friends. They very quickly fall for one another, but their happiness is short-lived when Niel ends up in a coma after a traffic accident.

Alice fears he may never wake up again and, unaware of the consequences, strikes a deal with a strange voice. When Niel awakes, his behaviour changes drastically, and Alice – like Brandon – becomes subject to nightmarish, violent visions.

Are Brandon and Alice caught in a never-ending nightmare?

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My Review

I’m not a true horror fan and I’ve never read Stephen King (though I’ve seen a few of the films based on the novels), but I have read James Herbert, plus the classics like Dracula and Frankenstein. So when I say I’m not a ‘horror’ fan I really mean slasher-type horror. I do like a bit of supernatural haunting however and add to that a smattering of Faustus selling his soul to the devil and I’m straight in there.

The Stairwell is a homage (in my humble opinion) to the good old horror stories such as The Omen and The Exorcist with a bit of Drag Me To Hell thrown in for good measure. Nothing like a bit of demonic possession!

But on to the story! Brandon was brought up in care, having been adopted as a baby. After a series of failed foster homes, he finally finds happiness with Stephanie, they marry and have a beautiful daughter Lily. All is going reasonably well until Brandon starts having visions – or rather nightmares – that involve his wife killing Lily. Brandon will do anything – and I mean ANYTHING – to make them stop.

In the meantime Alice is a quiet, shy, university student who meets a gorgeous guy named Niel and they fall instantly in love. Then Niel has a terrible accident, leaving him in a coma and Alice promises to do anything – and I mean ANYTHING – to turn the clock back.

Both Alice and Brandon are plagued by terrible visions – visions of gruesome murders, eyes with black veins and no pupils, tentacles reaching out and black gunge expelling like vomit from screaming mouths. And voices in their head that tell them what awful things they must or must not do in order to survive and protect their loved ones. But how much of it is real and how much is a figment of their own imagination? We know Brandon likes a drop of gin or ten but why poor Alice? Who is going to believe her if she tells them about that terrible night and the promise she made?

I noticed that one review on Goodreads (thanks Charlie Tyler) said this book is so ‘super-scary’ it’s ‘not for the timid and certainly not to be read before bedtime’. I disagree. What better time to read than under the covers with the full moon shining through the curtains, making shadows on the walls, while wolves howl in the dark forest….. OK. I exaggerate. Read it at bedtime at your peril, but not if you live alone and there’s a thunderstorm etc. You get the picture.

I have to admit that I’m not easily terrified by supernatural goings on, but I am repulsed by anything too gross and gruesome (but you still have to read on don’t you). This book has both these things in spadefuls and I enjoyed every minute!

Many thanks to @damppebbles for inviting me to be part of #damppebblesblogtours

About the Author

Dean has always loved writing, ever since his primary school teacher wrote “another cracker from the pen of Dean Bryant” on his English homework. He loves writing horror and dark thrillers as they allow him to be as imaginative as possible. He won a nation-wide poetry competition when he was 11 and went on to never write another poem.

He’s a huge fan of the classic horror authors Stephen King and Dean Koontz, with Midnight being his favourite book of all time. He studied Psychology at university which made him the friend everyone goes to for advice.

Dean lives in London with his partner of ten years, who also doubles as a beta-reader and critic. He is a type 1 diabetic, which hasn’t stopped him eating cake, he just has to do a lot of mental math first.

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Social Media:

Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/deanbryantauthor/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DeanBryantBooks

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deanbryantauthor/

Website: www.deanbryant.com

Purchase Links:

Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/3nwgOOY

Amazon US: https://amzn.to/34AtYSr

Art and Soul by Claire Huston

There’s no problem Becky Watson can’t fix. Except her own love life…

Struggling single mother Becky Watson longs to revive her career as a life-fixer, working miracles to solve her clients’ problems, no matter how big or small. Since the birth of her two-year-old son she has been stuck preventing wedding fiascos for the richest and rudest residents of the Comptons, a charming, leafy area of southern England known for its artistic heritage.

So when semi-reclusive local artist Charlie Handren reluctantly hires Becky to fix his six-year creative slump, she’s delighted to set him up with a come-back exhibition and Rachel Stone, the woman of his dreams.

Though they get off to a rocky start, Becky and Charlie soon become close. But as the beautiful Rachel becomes Charlie’s muse, Becky is forced to wonder: will giving Charlie everything he wants mean giving up her own happily ever after?

A heart-warming, uplifting romance served with a generous slice of cake.

#ArtandSoul @ClaraVal

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My Review

I am not generally a reader of romance but every now and again when I have had a surfeit of serial killers, twisty suspense and police procedurals, I need a break from all that heart-wrenching and gore.

Art and Soul really hits the spot. It’s not at all fluffy and silly – in fact it has an element of real literature – I feel the author has a ‘literary’ novel just waiting to get out. Lots of references to artists, Shakespeare and Marlowe lift it above the usual sugary tales of will they won’t they. It’s also so beautiful written, I feel the author’s talent will be wasted on pure romance books. I don’t mean to insult the genre, but I think there is so much more to come from her.

As the main protagonist, Becky is a feisty, bossy woman approaching 40 who knows she is good at her job as a ‘fixer’ but has no confidence in her own attractiveness. She has been ‘once bitten, twice shy’ in a relationship with a married man (she had no idea he was married) that left her with Dylan – an adorable toddler who charms his way into her friends’ affection.

Then there is Charlie – an almost 50-year-old artist who has fallen into a creative slump after his wife Mel leaves and his reviews are terrible. But it’s the periphery characters who really made this book for me. We have best friend Ronnie, who own Sweets the cake shop, and is direct to the point of rudeness, but never nasty. Always truthful, wise and trying to help. Handsome ladies’ man Virgil – I almost loved him best – he is so funny. Dashing Lloyd – but is he really a secret villain and philanderer? Charlie’s teenage daughter Phoebe and the beautiful but ghastly Rachel and her mother Barbara Stone – both involved in the snooty world of art in the leafy suburb The Comptons.

I can’t fault this story. It’s fab and uplifting and just what we need to cheer us up during second lockdown. Well done Claire – you deserve every success and I look forward to your next book.

PS and as someone who recently took up abstract or ‘non-figurative painting’ I am looking for my muse to visit me in my dreams. Get down Pancake (my 16-year-old Jack Russell) – I don’t mean you!

About the Author

Claire Huston lives in Warwickshire with her husband and two children. Art and Soul is her first novel.

A keen amateur baker, she enjoys making cakes, biscuits and brownies almost as much as eating them. You can find recipes for all the cakes mentioned in Art and Soul on her website along with over 100 other recipes. This is also where she talks about and reviews books.

As well as her website, you can find her on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram: linktr.ee/clairehuston_author.

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The Phoenix Project (DI Jack MacIntosh #1) by Michelle Kidd

How long can the past remain buried?

A simple message in a local newspaper. A set of highly sensitive documents left in the back of a London black cab. Both events collide to cause Isabel Faraday’s life to be turned upside down.

#ThePhoenixProject #DIJackMacIntosh @AuthorKidd @damppebbles #damppebblesblogtours Facebook @damppebblesblogtours 

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Growing up believing her parents died in a car crash when she was five, Isabel learns the shocking truth; a truth that places her own life in danger by simply being a Faraday. Detective Inspector Jack MacIntosh of the Metropolitan Police races against time to save her, and at the same time unravels long forgotten secrets involving MI5, MI6, the KGB and NASA. Secrets that have lain dormant for twenty years. Secrets worth killing for. With kidnap, murder and suicides stretching across four continents, just what is the Phoenix Project?

The Phoenix Project is the first Detective Inspector Jack MacIntosh novel.

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My Review

This was certainly a rollercoaster of a ride. It took a while for me to understand what was going on. At first I thought it was going to be too complicated with all the different characters, but eventually I managed to work out who they were. Until they changed. All those different identities. Phew! I’m exhausted.

The pace never let up. In fact the further into the book the faster it got, racing from London to Paris and back again, then back to Paris, to America and even to Europe. The bodies piling up. The mystery more intriguing by the hour.

I’m not going to attempt to outline the plot. It would be far too complicated and I’d probably get it wrong but suffice to say Isabel Faraday is caught up in a web of lies and deceit that began when she was five years old with the death of her parents. What they were involved in was top secret involving an off shoot of NASA known as PRISM and an experiment in space called The Phoenix Project. And when it all went disastrously wrong the truth had to be covered up. Even if it meant innocent people had to die. Including Isabel herself.

But Detective Inspector Jack MacIntosh of the Metropolitan Police is not going to let that happen. Like a terrier with a bone he will never let go until the truth is out and Isabel is safe. What a great TV series this would make! Another one for my favourite actor David Tennant (though I can’t remember how old Jack is supposed to be) or that guy from Silent Witness. Look out for book number two in the series. I wonder where it will take us.

Many thanks to @damppebbles for inviting me to be part of #damppebblesblogtours

About the Author

Michelle Kidd is a self-published author known for the Detective Inspector Jack MacIntosh series of novels.

Michelle qualified as a lawyer in the early 1990s and spent the best part of ten years practising civil and criminal litigation.

But the dream to write books was never far from her mind and in 2008 she began writing the manuscript that would become the first DI Jack MacIntosh novel – The Phoenix Project. The book took eighteen months to write, but spent the next eight years gathering dust underneath the bed.

In 2018 Michelle self-published The Phoenix Project and has not looked back since. There are currently three DI Jack MacIntosh novels, with a fourth in progress.

Michelle works full time for the NHS and lives in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. She enjoys reading, wine and cats – not necessarily in that order.

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Bibliography:

The Phoenix Project (DI Jack MacIntosh book 1)

Seven Days (DI Jack MacIntosh book 2)

The Fifteen (DI Jack MacIntosh book 3)

Social Media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorKidd

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michellekiddauthor

Website: https://www.michellekiddauthor.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michellekiddauthor/ 

Purchase Links:

Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/3nLLqMQ

Amazon US: https://amzn.to/2IkU6Jz

The Chalet by Catherine Cooper

Four friends. One luxury getaway. The perfect murder.

French Alps, 1998

Two young men ski into a blizzard… but only one returns.

20 years later

Four people connected to the missing man find themselves in that same resort. Each has a secret. Two may have blood on their hands. One is a killer-in-waiting. Someone knows what really happened that day. And somebody will pay.

#TheChalet @catherinecooper

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My Review

Quite hard to leave a review of The Chalet without spoilers but I’ll do my best.

The Chalet is told from the point of view of a number of characters including Ria, Hugo and Adam. It takes place during two timelines (mainly – I won’t give away the third) – 1998 when two brothers Adam and Will – take their girlfriends on a skiing holiday. There is tension right from the start and then on one fateful day they go off-piste during a storm with two guides Cameron and Andy. They get separated and there is a terrible accident. Only one brother returns. No body is ever found.

Over twenty years later four people are staying at the same resort. During their stay a body is found in the snow. Is it connected and what connects Ria, Hugo, Simon or Cass to that terrible event in 1998? Who are they really? Someone is hiding a secret and certain people are not who they seem.

I was really enjoying the set up of the two stories but I didn’t really get into it totally until the introduction of third character and her important story. This was the part I enjoyed the most even though it is harrowing and sad.

It was a great read with so many twists and I could never make up my mind about who was who. I found the whole skiing/chalet part a brilliant setting for a thriller. I have never been skiing and never wanted to. Just the thought of going up in that ski lift is enough to put me off (I don’t like heights). I used to work with a family who went skiing about three times a year. They all adored it apart from one daughter who said the idea of flying down a mountain on two pieces of wood just didn’t appeal. I agree. I feel her pain.

Many thanks to Pigeonhole, the author and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read. It was fun trying to work out what was going on. Many thanks also to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

About the Author

Let’s hear from Catherine herself:

“I am a freelance journalist living in the South of France with my husband and two teenage children. We moved from London in 2009 so that the children could grow up bilingual and we could all ski more, and to enjoy a more relaxed pace of life.

I learned to ski on a school trip when I was 14 and have loved it ever since.

I’m an avid thriller reader and have been since I discovered Agatha Christie as a child.

The Chalet is my first published full-length novel, though I have also written several (unpublished) thrillers for teens and a (what used to be called) chick lit novel set in TV production.

Other than skiing and reading I love travel, theme parks (the pic on this page was taken on a rollercoaster in Spain) and I spend far too much time on social media. Some of my other favourite things include Alan Partridge, sparkly flip flops and salt and vinegar crisps.”

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When the Music Stops by Joe Heap

This is the story of Ella. And Robert. And of all the things they should have said, but never did.
‘What have you been up to?’
I shrug, ‘Just existing, I guess.’
‘Looks like more than just existing.’
Robert gestures at the baby, the lifeboat, the ocean.
‘All right, not existing. Surviving.’
He laughs, not unkindly. ‘Sounds grim.’
‘It wasn’t so bad, really. But I wish you’d been there.’

#WhentheMusicStops @Joe_Heap_ @HarperFiction #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours

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Ella has known Robert all her life. Through seven key moments and seven key people their journey intertwines. From the streets of Glasgow during WW2 to the sex, drugs and rock n’ roll of London in the 60s and beyond, this is a story of love and near misses. Of those who come in to our lives and leave it too soon. And of those who stay with you forever.

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My Review

Every now and again I come across a book that is so unique, so different, that I am left reeling. When the Music Stops is one of those books.

The story takes us through the ‘seven stages of woman’ (inspired by Shakespeare’s seven stages of man in As You Like It *) – from Ella’s life as a child in Glasgow and her first experience of losing someone close to her when she was still a child, to now, when she is old. She is on a boat. It is starting to sink and is gradually filling with water. Ella is 87 and alone apart from a baby which she discovers in a room which has been turned into a nursery. The baby is very young and needs looking after. This part really stressed me out while I was reading. I kept praying nothing would happen to him.

As she grows up, she meets a lot of people while playing the guitar in various bands and as a session musician. A few of those people have a marked impact on her life and some of them die too soon – I’m sure we have all experienced this. My friend Sally suddenly left school one day when we were about 14 and never returned. We all knew she was ill. I didn’t see her again until she was 35. In the intervening time she had married, divorced, miscarried twice, had kidney failure and a heart attack. She died a few months later. She was 36. I think she would be on my boat if I had one, along with my sister who died before I was born.

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Suddenly Ella is no longer alone on the boat. Her first visitor is someone we know to be dead. We then go back to Ella’s twenties, where someone else close to her dies and they also turn up on the boat. We know they are dead and that Ella is not, and I still kept worrying about the baby, not being sure if he was really there, other than the fact that he needed feeding and changing. Like the dog in the laundry basket in The Sixth Sense, to begin with I just wasn’t sure if he was also dead.

One constant in Ella’s life is Robert, also a musician – music is the theme that runs through Ella’s life – and the older brother of her best friend Rene. He is always there, yet not there, and neither can admit how they really feel. They seem to live parallel lives, which never come together. As the reader you really want them to.

Towards the end I was totally overwhelmed and had to take a break or I would have started crying and not been able to stop. Writing this review made me cry. It is rare for a story to have such a profound effect on me and make me feel so happy and sad at the same time. This is one book I will definitely read again (and I almost never do that). One of my top three books of 2020.

Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours and to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

About the Author

Joe Heap was born in 1986 and grew up in Bradford, the son of two teachers. His debut novel The Rules of Seeing won Best Debut at the Romantic Novel of the Year Awards in 2019 and was shortlisted for the Books Are My Bag Reader Awards. Joe lives in London with his girlfriend, their two sons and a cat who wishes they would get out of the house more often.

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A note from Joe:
At a summer season in Ramsgate, 1959, two ice skaters held a party. My grandfather, a Glaswegian saxophonist who would rather have gone to the pub, was convinced by a comedian on the same bill to come along. My grandmother, another one of the ice skaters, sat down next to him and spilt her drink in his lap. Though she has since denied it, her first words of note to him were ‘Oh no, not another Scot.’ Nobody could have guessed how much would spin off that moment, myself and this book included.

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“All the world’s a stage” – Jacques’ monologue from As You Like It by William Shakespeare *

Unspoken by T.A. Belshaw

A heart-warming, dramatic family saga. Unspoken is a tale of secrets, love, betrayal and revenge.

Unspoken means something that cannot be uttered aloud. Unspoken is the dark secret a woman must keep, for life.

#Unspoken @tabelshaw @damppebbles #damppebblesblogtours Facebook @damppebblesblogtours 

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Alice is fast approaching her one hundredth birthday and she is dying. Her strange, graphic dreams of ghostly figures trying to pull her into a tunnel of blinding light are becoming more and more vivid and terrifying. Alice knows she only has a short time left and is desperate to unburden herself of a dark secret, one she has lived with for eighty years.

Jessica, a journalist, is her great granddaughter and a mirror image of a young Alice. They share dreadful luck in the types of men that come into their lives.

Alice decides to share her terrible secret with Jessica and sends her to the attic to retrieve a set of handwritten notebooks detailing her young life during the late 1930s. Following the death of her invalid mother and her father’s decline into depression and alcoholism, she is forced, at 18 to take control of the farm. On her birthday, she meets Frank, a man with a drink problem and a violent temper.

When Frank’s abusive behaviour steps up a level. Alice seeks solace in the arms of her smooth, ‘gangster lawyer’ Godfrey, and when Frank discovers the couple together, he vows to get his revenge.

Unspoken. A tale that spans two eras and binds two women, born eighty years apart.

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My Review

I actually read the whole book in one day. Each time I was about to put it down I saw another chapter about one of the characters and I though ‘just one more bit’ until I realised it was one in the morning and I was almost finished. Just had to get to the end.

Jess has allowed herself to be treated like a doormat by her live-in boyfriend Calvin. I can honestly say that I disliked Calvin more than any other character – not just in this book – but in others I have read recently. I even disliked him more than Frank who came from an age where many men behaved like that, but Calvin didn’t even have that excuse (not that it’s EVER an excuse).

As for the behaviour of some of the others! Sam (calls herself Jess’s best friend – with friends like that who needs enemies as they say) and Tania. Tania? Words fail me. What were they thinking. Poor Jess. But she has her great-grandmother Alice (who is almost 100 years old) who she calls Nana. Calvin even mocks Jess for calling her Nana. Shut up Calvin. I’m Nannie and my grandchildren’s other grandmother is Nana. My husband is Bunky – I bet you’d love that Calvin you tw*t!

Anyway, back to the story. Alice has a terrible secret which she wants to tell Jess so she can unburden herself before her time comes. She knows it’s near. She dreams about a tunnel and going towards the white light. This was a teeny bit corny at times – sorry. Anyway she begins to tell Jess all about her childhood, growing up on a farm, her family, the pigs (yes they are important – all will be revealed) and the night she first ‘encountered’ Frank. Some of this is all rather harrowing but there is comedy in her friendship with feisty Amy, who lives just up the road.

Alice finds herself pregnant at 18 thanks to that ‘encounter’. I found her attitude towards her baby rather unsettling. Much as I liked Alice I couldn’t understand that part. No wonder her daughters grew up to be so awful. But I digress.

As Alice grows weary and struggles to continue her story, she tells Jess to go in the attic and get a box containing her memoirs. Everything she needs to know is in there.

This is a great story in spite of the tunnel and white light (all a bit Poltergeist) and I really enjoyed it. It would have been good to know more about afterwards but I gather there’s a sequel coming.

Many thanks to @damppebbles for inviting me to part of #damppebblesblogtours

About the Author

T A Belshaw is from Nottingham. Trevor writes for both children and adults. He is the author of Tracy’s Hot Mail, Tracy’s Celebrity Hot Mail and the noir, suspense novella, Out Of Control. His new novel, the family saga, Unspoken, was released in July, 2020

His short stories have been published in various anthologies including 100 Stories for Haiti, 50 Stories for Pakistan, Another Haircut, Shambelurkling and Other Stories, Deck The Halls, 100 Stories for Queensland and The Cafe Lit anthology 2011, 2012 and 2013. He also has two pieces in Shambelurklers Return 2014.

Trevor is also the author of 15 children’s books written under the name of Trevor Forest. The latest. Magic Molly The Curse of Cranberry Cottage was released in August 2015. His children’s poem, Clicking Gran, was long listed for the Plough prize (children’s section) in 2009 and his short poem, My Mistake, was rated Highly Commended and published in an anthology of the best entries in the Farringdon Poetry Competition.

Trevor’s articles have been published in magazines as diverse as Ireland’s Own, The Best of British and First Edition.

Trevor is currently working on the sequel to Unspoken and the third book in the Tracy series; Tracy’s Euro Hot Mail.

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Pine by Francine Toon

They are driving home from the search party when they see her.

The trees are coarse and tall in the winter light, standing like men. Lauren and her father Niall live alone in the Highlands, in a small village surrounded by pine forest. When a woman stumbles out onto the road one Halloween night, Niall drives her back to their house in his pickup. In the morning, she’s gone.

In a community where daughters rebel, men quietly rage, and drinking is a means of forgetting, mysteries like these are not out of the ordinary. The trapper found hanging with the dead animals for two weeks. Locked doors and stone circles. The disappearance of Lauren’s mother a decade ago.

Lauren looks for answers in her tarot cards, hoping she might one day be able to read her father’s turbulent mind. Neighbours know more than they let on, but when local teenager Ann-Marie goes missing it’s no longer clear who she can trust.

In spare, haunting prose, Francine Toon creates an unshakeable atmosphere of desolation and dread. In a place that feels like the end of the world, she unites the gloom of the modern gothic with the pulse of a thriller. It is the perfect novel for our haunted times.

#Pine @FrancineElena

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My Review

Pine is the story of Niall and his daughter Lauren, aged 10, and her mother Christine who disappeared shortly after Lauren was born. Niall never talks about what happened, lives in chaos and drinks constantly to blank out the memories.

But this book is far more than just a mystery or the story of a missing person. It’s really about life in a remote Highlands village where strange things happen, superstition is rife and people believe in all kinds of supernatural goings on.

Christine came to the village from Edinburgh and was not easily accepted by some of the villagers. She was even regarded as being a witch. What with the rumours, Niall’s behaviour and leaving Lauren often unwashed and wearing second-hand clothes, she is a target for the school bullies such as horrible Maisie. Only Billy is Lauren’s true friend.

Some of the villagers try to look out for her, but Niall is too proud to accept help. Actually I really disliked him – I don’t care how upset he still is after the disappearance of his true love – he hardly seems to care for his daughter, often leaving her ‘home alone’ with no heating or decent food.

It’s beautifully written, poetic, dark and atmospheric and when Ann-Marie goes missing it reaches a whole new level of darkness. I still cannot decide whether to leave four or five stars on Amazon/Goodreads because at times very little happens to move the story forward, style leads over substance and the ending, as others have pointed out, feels a bit rushed. But all in all I really enjoyed it and there’s no denying it is a stunning book.

Many thanks to The Pigeonhole and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read.

About the Author

Francine Toon grew up in Sutherland and Fife, Scotland. Her poetry, written as Francine Elena, has appeared in The Sunday Times, The Best British Poetry 2013 and 2015 anthologies (Salt) and Poetry London, among other places. Pine was longlisted for the Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award. She lives in London and works in publishing.

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In the Clearing by J P Pomare

Amy has only ever known what life is like in the Clearing. She knows what’s expected of her. She knows what to do to please her elders, and how to make sure life in the community remains happy and calm.

That is, until a new young girl joins the group. She isn’t fitting in; she doesn’t want to stay. What happens next will turn life as Amy knows it on its head.

Freya has gone to great lengths to feel like a ‘normal person’. In fact, if you saw her go about her day with her young son, you’d think she was an everyday mum. That is, until a young girl goes missing and someone from her past, someone she hasn’t seen for a very long time, arrives in town.

As Amy and Freya’s story intertwines the secrets of the past bubble up to the surface. This rural Aussie town’s dark underbelly is about to be exposed and lives will be destroyed.

@JPPomare @HodderBooks #InTheClearing

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My Review

What a great story! It’s creepy and terrifying – there were times when I was actually scared to read on.

There are two main protagonists – teenager Amy who lives in The Clearing, and Freya, mother of Aspen and Billy. Amy has never known anything else outside the world of the cult in which she lives. Beatings, hunger, torture – these are all part of her everyday life. The cult is run by Adrienne – Protect the Queen – and Adam, who gets up to some really weird stuff. They are the ‘mother’ and ‘father’ to ten children, of which Amy is the eldest, until they take another child they call Asha. Adrienne needs 12 children for her ‘family’ to be complete. They must all be fair haired and blue-eyed – in fact there are hints that their hair is dyed white if it’s too dark.

Freya lives in the middle of nowhere, with her young son Billy and a big scary dog called Rocky, who is trained to attack strangers who threaten their safety. We know that something bad happened to Freya’s first son Aspen, which meant that she ‘lost’ him, but it takes a while till we find out exactly what. Freya’s ex is called Wayne (the boys’ father) and he seems to have a part in all this. But what is Freya really afraid of?

Freya and Amy’s lives are connected but we don’t know how or why until quite a way into the book. You will be shocked and surprised. I can’t really say much more without spoilers, but be assured this book will keep you up at night, sometimes in a good way and sometimes because you will be too scared to go to sleep. I loved this book. Totally different. They say you can never escape from a cult and you’ll never escape from the effect this book will have on you. In a good way that is!

Many thanks to #NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

About the Author

J. P. Pomare was raised on a horse farm in rural New Zealand where he lived until he was eighteen before deciding to travel. After years abroad, including a twelve months living in North America, he settled in Melbourne, Australia and has lived there since.

His debut novel Call Me Evie was released to critical acclaim and won the 2019 Ngaio Marsh Award for best first novel. In The Clearing is his second novel.

J.P. is also the host of the podcast On Writing.

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