Veronika Jordan's Blog, page 14

An Ethical Guide To Murder by Jenny Morris

THE DARKLY TWISTED DEBUT THRILLER OF THE YEAR

How to Kill Your Family meets The Power in this entertaining and thought-provoking read, that asks:

If you had the power between life and death, what would you do?

Thea has a secret. She can tell how long someone has left to live just by touching them. Not only that, but she can transfer life from one person to another – something she finds out the hard way when her best friend Ruth suffers a fatal head injury on a night out.

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Desperate to save her, Thea touches the arm of the man responsible when he comes to check if Ruth is all right. As Ruth comes to, the man quietly slumps to the ground, dead. Thea realises that she has a godlike power: but despite deciding to use her ability for good, she can’t help but sometimes use it for her own benefit.

Boss annoying her at work? She can take some life from them and give it as a tip to her masseuse for a great job.

Creating an ‘Ethical Guide to Murder’ helps Thea to focus her new-found skills.

But as she embarks on her mission to punish the wicked and give the deserving more time, she finds that it isn’t as simple as she first thought. How can she really know who deserves to die, and can she figure out her own rules before Ruth’ borrowed time runs out?

My Review

It’s an interesting concept! “Punish the wicked and give the deserving more time. It’s that simple. Right?” Only it’s not. Giving the deserving more time is easy, especially if it’s a child, but who do you take it from? Take a few months or weeks here and there? Or ‘kill’ people you believe should be eliminated? And who decides who is wicked? Well, Thea and Sam think they have it right, though I think Thea is being coerced by Sam who promises to help her find the drunk driver who killed her parents and left her by the side of the road. He has his own agenda.

Let’s just backtrack for a second. Thea has a superpower of sorts. She can see how long people have left to live just by touching them, so when best friend Ruth hits her head in a nightclub and is about to die, Thea takes the life from the nearest stranger and gives it to Ruth. Except he didn’t deserve to die. It was a terrible mistake.

Moving on, the problem is that Thea sometimes chooses people that have hurt others, but doesn’t take into consideration that they didn’t ask for her help. And it frequently backfires. “I hate my parents or partner” doesn’t mean you want them removed from the face of the earth.

Of course Thea can ‘get away with murder’, so to speak, as who would believe that she can suck the life out of people with her power. Except Police Officer Stewart is suspicious, but he can’t work out what’s going on.

An Ethical Guide to Murder is really a morality tale, with a lot of dark humour thrown in. Entertaining and thought provoking, it will keep you up at night wondering whether Thea’s actions can ever be justified.

I can’t remember the last time I cried this much at the end of a book. Not just a sniffle, but real blobby tears, running down my face. It’s brilliant.

Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours

About the Author

Jenny Morris lives in Crowborough, the home of Winnie the Pooh and an outrageous number of charity shops. She has a PhD in Cognitive Psychology and works as a behavioural scientist. When not reading or writing, she enjoys galloping around the Ashdown Forest on a horse, foraging for mushrooms and getting way too intense about board games at the pub.

Into Thin Air by Ørjan Karlsson translated by Ian Giles Jakob Weber #1

When nineteen-year-old Iselin Hanssen disappears during a run in a popular hiking area in Bodø, northern Norway, suspicion quickly falls on her boyfriend.

For investigator Jakob Weber, the case seems clear-cut, almost unexceptional, even though there is some suggestion that Iselin lived parts of her life beneath the radar of both family and friends.

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But events take a dramatic turn when another woman disappears in similar circumstances – this time on the island of Røst, a hundred kilometres off the coast, in the wild ocean. Rumours that a killer is on the loose begin to spread, terrifying the local population and leading to wild conspiracies. But then Jakob discovers that this isn’t the first time that young women have vanished without a trace in the region, and it becomes clear that someone is hiding something … and another
murderous spree may have just begun…

My Review

I hope this is the start of a new series as I am obsessed! I just looked it up and there is a book 2 though I can’t see a translation yet.

There are so many crime thrillers out there, but this is up at the top with the best. Because it’s Scandi Noir, it’s gritty and dangerous, and there are so many twists and turns that will leave you breathless. All the way through you’ll be thinking – it’s him, no it’s not, it’s someone else, then back and forth. Red herring after red herring.

The main characters – Jakob Weber (and Garm the Jack Russell), Amman, Fine and Noora are brilliantly written, as are the potential villains. Even some of those who may or may not be the killer are awful, with no respect for women. They form part of the sub-plot, and I feel they will be further progressed as the series continues.

There are some who might find certain aspects of the finale a bit over the top, but I loved it. I never expected it. It was brilliant.

I have to admit that I love Nordic Noir best of all the Scandis – there is something so atmospheric about the settings, that only Icelandic Noir comes close to. One of my favourite books of the year so far.

Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours

About the Author

Ørjan Karlsson grew up in Bodø, a town north of the Arctic Circle. He holds a master’s degree in sociology and received officer training in the army. He has participated in international missions
for the EU, UN, and NATO, and has worked for the Norwegian Ministry of Defence and the Directorate for Civil Protection. Ørjan has written a large number of thrillers, sci-fi novels and
crime novels for adults, including an acclaimed thriller series featuring Major Frank Halvorsen and Lieutenant Ida Vinterdal of the Norwegian special forces. Up in Thin Air, the first book in the Jakob Weber series, is his sixteenth novel.

Follow Ørjan on X @orjankarlsson, Instagram @orjan_nk and facebook.com/orjan.karlsson.

About the Translator

Ian Giles has a PhD in Scandinavian literature from the University of Edinburgh. Past translations include novels by crime and thriller luminaries such as Arne Dahl, Carin Gerhardsen, Michael Katz Krefeld, David Lagercrantz, Camilla Läckberg and Gustaf Skördeman. His translation of Andreas Norman’s Into a Raging Blaze was shortlisted for the 2015 CWA International Dagger.

The Teacher of Auschwitz by Wendy Holden

‘Haunting and beautiful. Excruciatingly vivid, The Teacher of Auschwitz is rigorously researched and true to the history, powerfully conveying what a smart, loving and energetic man Fredy was.’ Dr Elizabeth Baer, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

‘The closest possible narrative a person who did not experience those times herself, could have written… which will do justice to Fredy and all those victims.’ Dita Kraus, the real-life inspiration for The Librarian of Auschwitz and one of the last known survivors of the children’s block.

Fredy built a wall against suffering in their hearts…

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At the dark heart of the Holocaust, there was a wooden hut whose walls were painted with cartoons; a place where children sang, staged plays and wrote poetry. Safely inside, but still in the shadow of the chimneys, they were given better food, kept free of vermin, and were even taught meditation to imagine full stomachs and a day without fear. The man who became their guiding light was a young Jewish prisoner named Fredy Hirsch.

But being a teacher in such a brutal concentration camp was no mean feat. Whether it was begging the SS for better provisions, or hiding his homosexuality from his persecutors, he risked his life every day for one thing: to protect the children from the mortal danger they all faced.

Time is running out for Fredy and the hundreds of children in his care. Can he find a way to teach them the one lesson they really need to know: how to survive?

From the bestselling author of Born Survivors, comes an assiduously researched and powerful new novel. Drawn from archives and survivor testimonies, historian and biographer Wendy Holden tells the inspirational and uplifting true story of Fredy Hirsch: The Teacher of Auschwitz.

My Review

No matter how many books I read about the holocaust, ‘man’s inhumanity to man’ never ceases to shock and disgust me. How anyone can carry out this level of cruelty is beyond me, particularly on children. If it ever ceases to upset me, then there is something very wrong.

The Teacher of Auschwitz is different from the books I have read in the past. It is told from the point of view of a young Jewish man named Fredy Hirsch. It’s based on a true story, and many of the other characters are also real. I can’t pretend it won’t upset you, because it will and it should. The worst parts are about the children who Fredy is trying to protect by teaching them about hope and survival. He does this through sport, art, poetry and drama, enlisting the help of others with the relevant skills.

But he can’t save them all, and many parts of the book are deeply harrowing, particularly the story of the 1200 Bialystok orphans, who arrived on the ‘special’ transport. Fredy is determined to find out more about them, in spite of putting himself at risk.

Other than Fredy, one man stood out for me, a shining light in the darkness. Viktor Pestek was a 19-year-old Rottenführer who was so shocked by what he saw at Auschwitz, that he sneaked information to Fredy from the resistance, and tried to help prisoners to escape, so they could tell the world what was really happening. He was a real person and you can read more about him at the end of the book. At the apposite end of the scale, names such as Eichmann and Mengele chilled me to the bone.

It’s a brilliantly written and researched book that combines fiction and non-fiction, and evokes emotions so strong that never go away even after all these years. When the allies finally liberated the camps, I can’t imagine what it must have been like to witness the horrors therein.

Many thanks to @Tr4cyF3nt0n for inviting me to be part of the #CompulsiveReaders #blogtour

About the Author

A journalist for eighteen years, ten on the Daily Telegraph of London, her first novel The Sense of Paper was published by Random House, New York, in 2006 to widespread critical acclaim. Her non-fiction titles have chiefly chronicled the lives of remarkable subjects. The latest is Born Survivors, the incredible story of three mothers who defied death at the hands of the Nazis to give life. She has also written the memoir of the only woman in the French Foreign Legion in Tomorrow To Be Brave, and about the mother of a woman killed after marrying a Sudanese warlord in Till The Sun Grows Cold. She wrote A Lotus Grows In The Mud – the memoir of actress Goldie Hawn – and Lady Blue Eyes, the autobiography of Frank Sinatra’s widow Barbara, all of which were New York Times and Sunday Times bestsellers.

She also wrote the international bestseller Ten Mindful Minutes, her second book with Goldie Hawn and the first in a series of books for parents and children. She wrote Kill Switch, the memoir of an honourable British soldier wrongly imprisoned in Afghanistan as well as Behind Enemy Lines, about a young Jewish spy who repeatedly crossed German lines. Her book Memories Are Made Of This, a biography of Dean Martin as seen through his daughter’s eyes has become an enduring bestseller and she worked with Billy Connolly on Journey To The Edge Of The World his TV-companion travel guide to the Northwest Passage screened around the world. She co-wrote American male supermodel Bruce Hulse’s explosive memoir, Sex, Love And Fashion. Other works have included Central 822, the autobiography of a pioneering policewoman at Scotland Yard which was dramatised on BBC Radio, Biting The Bullet, charting the remarkable life of an SAS wife, and Footprints In The Snow, the story of a paraplegic made into a British TV drama starring Caroline Quentin. Wendy was also responsible for the bestselling novelisations of the films The Full Monty and Waking Ned. Her first book, Unlawful Carnal Knowledge the true story of the controversial Irish abortion case was banned in Ireland. Shell Shock, her history of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, went with an award-winning Channel 4 television documentary series. She lives in Suffolk, England, with her husband and two dogs and divides her time between the UK and the US. 

A Council of Dolls by Mona Susan Power

The long-awaited, profoundly moving, and unforgettable new novel from PEN Award–winning Native American author Mona Susan Power, spanning three generations of Yanktonai Dakota women from the 19th century to the present day.

From the mid-century metropolis of Chicago to the windswept ancestral lands of the Dakota people, to the bleak and brutal Indian boarding schools, A Council of Dolls is the story of three women, told in part through the stories of the dolls they carried….

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Sissy, born 1961: Sissy’s relationship with her beautiful and volatile mother is difficult, even dangerous, but her life is also filled with beautiful things, including a new Christmas present, a doll called Ethel. Ethel whispers advice and kindness in Sissy’s ear, and in one especially terrifying moment, maybe even saves Sissy’s life.

Lillian, born 1925: Born in her ancestral lands in a time of terrible change, Lillian clings to her sister, Blanche, and her doll, Mae. When the sisters are forced to attend an “Indian school” far from their home, Blanche refuses to be cowed by the school’s abusive nuns. But when tragedy strikes the sisters, the doll Mae finds her way to defend the girls.  

Cora, born 1888: Though she was born into the brutal legacy of the “Indian Wars,” Cora isn’t afraid of the white men who remove her to a school across the country to be “civilized.” When teachers burn her beloved buckskin and beaded doll Winona, Cora discovers that the spirit of Winona may not be entirely lost…

A modern masterpiece, A Council of Dolls is gorgeous, quietly devastating, and ultimately hopeful, shining a light on the echoing damage wrought by Indian boarding schools, and the historical massacres of Indigenous people. With stunning prose, Mona Susan Power weaves a spell of love and healing that comes alive on the page.

My Review

When I was in my teens in 1970 I saw the film Little Big Man with Dustin Hoffman. What stuck with me was a scene in which a fleeing Native American Indian woman was shot from behind by the US troops, killing the baby she was carrying on her back. It has never left me. I fear the horrendous scene with Blanche at school will be the same.

While Little Big Man is set decades earlier (mid 1850s), the treatment of Native American Indians hadn’t changed by the last century. Regarded as savages who needed to be ‘civilised’, they were forced to adopt Catholicism with all its cruelty and prejudice. They were sent to ‘Indian’ schools, forced to go to church and were not allowed to speak in their own language.

The level of cruelty is astonishing, as is the lack of respect for their culture. It was virtually wiped out. In The Council of Dolls, we follow three women – grandmother Cora at the start of the century, her daughter Lillian in the 1930s and Sissy, growing up in the 1960s.

But we start with Sissy, born in 1961, a decade when segregation of blacks and whites was still the norm, Native American Indians were regarded as primitive barbarians. Sissy is given a dark skinned doll, who she names Ethel after her godmother, and she talks to it. It talks back, giving her advice and comfort. Sissy’s mother is Lillian, whose treatment of her daughter is erratic and often abusive by today’s standards.

We then follow Lillian born in 1925, who is sent to the Carlisle Indian boarding school, where the nuns are cruel to her and her sister Blanche. Regardless of how clever the children are – Lillian could read at four years old – they are taught to be manual workers, cleaners and housekeepers to white people. Lillian has a doll she calls Mae, who she talks to like Sissy does to Ethel.

In part three, we follow Cora born in 1888, and her eventual husband Jack, who we know from later will ‘go bad’, exacerbated by the hard liquor that he is addicted to – the liquor introduced by white men to a nation that had never tasted it and often drove them mad. Cora has a buckskin and beaded doll she calls Winona.

Part four is all about Sissy – now Jesse – at fifty years old. She reflects on the three generations, and the Council of Dolls that have helped shape their lives. The dolls are their mentors, their comfort and their focus for love. Incidentally, the names of the three women were those they had to use instead of their real names, considered too native, and part of their indigenous culture.

I don’t know what else to say – I am slightly loathe to try and analyse the story too deeply as it’s not my country or my culture, but like the Aboriginals in Australia, who were the real ‘owners’ of the land, they were shoved out and made to feel like they were the usurpers. There is no justification for white men’s behaviour and some of the blame must lie at the feet of religion – I apologise to those who will disagree, but it’s a fact.

A brilliant book which everyone should read. Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of the #blogtour and giving me the opportunity to read this wonderful book.

About the Author

Mona Susan Power is the author of four books of fiction, including The Grass Dancer (a National Bestseller awarded a PEN/Hemingway Prize), Roofwalker (a collection of stories and essays awarded the Milkweed National Fiction Prize), Sacred Wilderness (a novel which received the Electa Quinney Award), and A Council of Dolls (winner of the Minnesota Book Award and High Plains Book Award, longlisted for the National Book Award and the Carol Shields Prize). She’s a graduate of Harvard College, Harvard Law School, and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She is also the recipient of several grants in support of her writing which include an Iowa Arts Fellowship, James Michener Fellowship, Radcliffe Bunting Institute Fellowship, Princeton Hodder Fellowship, USA Artists Fellowship, McKnight Fellowship, and Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Fellowship. Her short stories and essays have appeared in numerous publications and anthologies including The Best American Short Stories series, The Atlantic Monthly, The Paris Review, The Missouri Review, Ploughshares, and Granta.

Mona is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe (Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋna Dakhóta), born and raised in Chicago. During her childhood she was a member of the Chicago Indian Village movement, a group organized to protest the conditions of Native people lured to urban areas with promises of secure jobs and good housing, that seldom materialized. In 1979, a documentary following the experiences of this group was nominated for an Academy Award. Mona attended the Oscar ceremonies that year as a guest of the director, Jerry Aronson.

She currently lives in Minnesota, where she’s working on other novels, including, The Year of Fury.

​

The Time of The Fire by Emma Kavanagh

Northern California, end of summer. Fire Hazard Severity Zone: Very High.

A mysterious death.
On the anniversary of her mother’s death, CEO-in-waiting Robyn Sandoval goes for a morning run. She knows her father – a local fire fighting hero – is desperate to speak to her, to tell her something he wants her to know before she starts her new job leading the corporation that owns most of their Northern Californian town of Destino. But when Robyn arrives, she finds him dead.

A devastating fire.
Meanwhile, after months of drought, a freak forest fire ignites on the mountain ridge looming over the town. Destino has never burned; its unique position protected by the seemingly insurmountable barrier of the ridge, a favourable wind direction, and a belief long held by the community that they are categorically safe.

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A life split in two.
Robyn is shaken to the core by her father’s death, and her life is shattered in two, the fabric of her reality shorn by the sheer force of her grief.

The next time she wakes, everything is different: her father is alive, and there’s no sign of the fire on the ridge.

To understand what is happening, she has to confront not only the secrets of her past but both versions of her present. Because back in her world, the fire is spreading and the time to find answers is running out…

My Review

I can’t pretend that I understood the concept of Time Of The Fire, but I really enjoyed it nonetheless. Zeke tries to explain to Scarlett about the many-worlds theory, using quantum physics and Schrödinger’s cat. She says she has a headache. So have I.

The idea of the many-worlds theory is that something so devastating happens that the world splits in two. In one world Harper Morgan is killed in a car crash in a terrible storm on her way back to her home in Destino. This is the prologue, the opening chapter of the book. Her husband Mack puts their daughter up for adoption and she becomes Robyn Sandoval, daughter of Eve and Alex Sandoval, and CEO-in-waiting of their massively successful company.

Initially, we follow Robyn, thirty years later. She is out for a run with her dog Hector, when she pops in to see Mack, only to find him dead on the bed. It’s evident that he has been murdered, but who would want to kill him?

We also follow Mags, who has left her husband to return to Destino to run her mother Bonnie’s diner. But it’s Scarlett Morgan who is Robyn’s alter-ego, except that’s not what she is. She is Robyn in another life, when the events of thirty years ago had happened quite differently.

But what makes this book so exciting is that it is set against the backdrop of a devastating fire (coincidence that I am reading this while the fires in Los Angeles are happening). Destino hasn’t had a fire for over 100 years and no-one is really prepared. In fact they believe themselves to be untouchable, invincible.

I was confused initially, but then it all came together and I couldn’t wait to see how it would be resolved. I loved both Robyn and Scarlett, and Mags in particular. Stick with it. It’s different, but it’s very clever and totally unique (for me anyway).

Many thanks to @Tr4cyF3nt0n for inviting me to be part of the #CompulsiveReaders #blogtour and to NetGalley for an ARC.

About the Author

Emma Kavanagh was born and raised in South Wales. After graduating with a PhD in Psychology from Cardiff University, she spent many years working as a police and military psychologist, training firearms officers, command staff and military personnel throughout the UK and Europe. She lives in South Wales with her husband and young sons.

The Bookseller by Tim Sullivan The DS Cross Mysteries #7

THE SETTING
The body of a bookseller is discovered, lying in a pool of blood in his Bristol bookshop. Police have one question: how did the man meet such a violent, murderous end in this peaceful place?

THE CONFLICT
DS Cross’s ability to dismiss red herrings is challenged by a worrying development in his personal life. Hopelessly distracted, he needs to rely on those around him in a way he has never been comfortable doing before.

THE MURDER PLOT
It may be a quiet profession, but it’s full of passionate, ambitious characters who know the value of a rare book. Their extensive reading means they also know how to get away with murder.

But is that enough to fool the tenacious DS George Cross?

My Review

I feel I need to recap for anyone who hasn’t read any of the other books in the series, so here goes. ‘DI George Cross is on the neurodivergent spectrum (he refers to it as autism spectrum disorder) and takes everything literally. He doesn’t get jokes or irony which can be very confusing for his colleagues and intimidating for the criminals.’

His colleague DS Josie Ottey understands him though, and recognises that he is the best officer on the Avon and Somerset Major Crime Unit (MCU). But socially, he is, shall we say somewhat awkward. Near the beginning of the book Josie is promoted, technically making her his boss. This is an issue for George as he is worried that she will move and he’ll get a new partner.

In the meantime, we have seen George’s parents reunited, but Raymond suffers a stroke and ends up in hospital. George is reconsidering his career with the police.

So on to the story. This time it’s a bookseller who has been murdered, but what possible motive could there be. Is it something personal or to do with the value of antique books? And are they worth murdering for?

There are a lot of characters with complicated relationships, so it will take some unravelling for both the police and for us, the readers. It’s hard to say much more at this point, because we don’t yet know who has been murdered. Suffice to say, it’s a good story with plenty of intrigue, spice and suspense, made even more so with the added interest of George and his family and colleagues. Roll on the next one!

Many thanks to The Pigeonhole, the author and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read. It will be my last Pigeonhole book, as the book club is folding, and I shall miss it after all these years.

About the Author

Tim Sullivan is a crime writer, screenwriter and director whose film credits include A Handful of Dust, Jack and Sarah and Cold Feet. Early in his career he directed Jeremy Brett’s iconic portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in ITV’s The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes¸ cementing his lifelong passion for crime fiction.
 
Tim’s crime series, featuring the socially awkward but brilliantly persistent DS George Cross, has been widely acclaimed and topped the book charts. The Bookseller is the seventh in the series.
 
He lives in North London with his wife Rachel, the Emmy Award-winning producer of The Barefoot Contessa and Pioneer Woman. To find out more about the author please visit TimSullivan.co.uk

Follow him at:
Twitter: @TimJRSullivan
Facebook: Tim Sullivan novels
Instagram: @timsullivannovelist
TikTok: @timsullivanauthor

Your Child Next by MJ Arlidge and Andy Maslen

IN THE FAKED VIDEO, YOUR DAUGHTER IS DEAD. AND IF YOU DON’T PAY, SHE’LL DIE FOR REAL.

Things have been difficult for Annie since her husband left; her teenage daughter, Isla, has become a ghost of her former self. Annie’s terrified that Isla might hurt herself, and she’ll lose her, too. So when Annie receives a video of herself crying at Isla’s funeral, she’s immediately sick to her stomach.

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Confused and horrified, Annie races upstairs to check on Isla, who is perfectly alive and well. The video has been faked. But who sent it and what do they want?

One dark truth soon becomes clear: Isla will die for real if Annie doesn’t give the sender the money they’re looking for, or if she goes to the police. But Annie’s not sure she has the cash, which leaves her with one choice: find the blackmailer and stop them in their tracks.

Your Child Next is a thrilling and unputdownable novel that asks you how far you’d go to protect the ones you love. Perfect for fans of Harlan Coben and Steve Cavanagh.

My Review

Your Child Next never lets up for a second. It races along from one exciting scene to another and then smacks you in the face with even more.

Our two main protagonists – Annie and Michael – don’t know each other. But they are both being blackmailed (directly or in Michael’s case it was his late wife who had been targeted) and asked to hand over £1,000 a month in order to protect their teenage children. If they don’t, the kids will be put in danger. The kids of course, don’t believe any of it, but then they wouldn’t, would they.

Our two ‘villains’ are Maya, with her red leather biker’s jacket and lips to match, and her psychopathic partner Ollie. We discover their relationship later on. Mostly, they use others to do their dirty work (Ollie is too unpredictable to be trusted), by threatening them with – yes you guessed it – their children’s safety. And it works. What could be worse than turning your parental anxieties against you? Apart from kidnapping your dog – and yes they’ve done that as well.

Now personally, I would have gone straight to the police, even if I was warned not to, but no-one ever does in these stories. And if they had, it would have changed everything. Because we love a story where ordinary people take the law into their own hands.

I believe it’s hard to write ‘action’ scenes but in Your Child Next the author/s handle it very well without getting bogged down in the realms of confusion as is often the case. Like watching a game of Twister at an alcohol-fuelled party, it can be hard to work out who’s down on the floor and who’s balanced on one arm and a leg before tipping over into the abyss (in the book not the game of Twister). I can definitely see this being made into a TV series, it would be perfect.

Many thanks to @Tr4cyF3nt0n for inviting me to be part of the #CompulsiveReaders #blogtour and to NetGalley for an ARC.

About the Authors

MJ Arlidge has worked in television for the last twenty years, specialising in high-end drama production, including prime-time crime serials Silent Witness, Torn, The Little House and, most recently, the hit ITV show Innocent. In 2015 his audio book exclusive Six Degrees of Assassination was a number-one bestseller. His debut thriller, Eeny Meeny, was the UK’s bestselling crime debut of 2014 and has been followed by ten more DI Helen Grace thrillers – all Sunday Times bestsellers.

Andy Maslen was born in Nottingham, in the UK, home of legendary bowman Robin Hood. Andy once won a medal for archery, although he has never been locked up by the sheriff.
He has worked in a record shop, as a barman, as a door-to-door DIY products salesman and a cook in an Italian restaurant.
 He lives in Wiltshire with his wife, two sons and a whippet named Merlin.

The Axeman’s Carnival by Catherine Chidgey

In this darkly comic work of literary satire by New Zealand’s most acclaimed and best-selling novelist, Tama, a talking magpie and social media influencer, is the sole witness to a marriage in freefall.

Tama is just a helpless chick when he is rescued by Marnie. ‘If it keeps me awake,’ says Marnie’s husband Rob, a farmer in the middle of a years-long drought, ‘I’ll have to wring its neck.’ But with Tama come new possibilities for the couple’s future. Tama’s fame is growing, and with it, his earning potential. The more Tama sees, the more the animal and the human worlds – and all the precarity, darkness and hope within them – bleed into one another. Like a stock truck filled with live cargo, the story moves inexorably towards its dramatic conclusion: the annual Axeman’s Carnival.

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Part trickster, part surrogate child, part witness, Tama is the star of this story. And although what he says to humans is often nonsensical (and hilarious), the tale he tells makes disturbingly perfect sense.

The Axeman’s Carnival is Catherine Chidgey at her finest – comic, profound, poetic and true.

My Review

The whole book is written from the point of view of Tama (short for Tamagochi), a rescued Magpie. I kid you not. It’s very strange to start with when he is in the egg (says someone who has written a short story from the point of view of a spider), but once you realise what’s going on it makes sense.

Tama is devoted to Marnie who rescued him and soon learns tricks and human speech. He repeats everything she says, actually he repeats everything he hears, including foreign languages, and a lot of swear words. So be careful what you say in front of him if you have something to hide. Because sooner or later he’ll remember that incriminating phrase or sentence. The author is very clever with this, because he naturally doesn’t understand what he is saying, though occasionally he appears to.

He becomes an internet sensation. He wears tiny outfits and Marnie posts pictures online. People flock (excuse the pun) to see him. They turn up at the house uninvited and Rob is furious. But then Rob is always furious, always on the edge of a precipice of rage. Marnie defends him, even though his behaviour is indefensible. It’s the usual – it’s not me, it’s the drink. We have no sympathy, Rob, you vile specimen. Then Tama rescues them from financial disaster, and Rob is all sweetness and light in front of Tama’s adoring fans.

I didn’t like Marnie’s older sister Ange – you’ll understand why later in the book. Or her mother Barbara. A silly woman, always telling Marnie she’s too fat and she should be careful with such an ‘attractive’ husband like Rob. If only she knew the truth.

If I had one criticism, much as I love Tama. I would have liked multiple points of view, definitely Marnie, maybe even Rob.

Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours

About the Author

Catherine Chidgey’s The Axeman’s Carnival was a number one bestseller in the author’s native New Zealand, as was her previous novel Pet (Europa, 2023). Chidgey’s many awards include the Prize in Modern Letters, the Katherine Mansfield Award, the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship, the Janet Frame Fiction Prize, and the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction. She lives in Ngāruawāhia and lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Waikato. 

Not My Country by AE Dean

England in the mid-2030s. It’s no longer a good place to grow old, nor is it a good place to be young.

Louise is in her seventies and has travelled for most of her life, but there’s nothing left for her except the careful plans she’s made for one final journey.

Adam is in his mid-twenties with his whole life before him. He’s not from the UK, but his dream of a life there died shortly after arriving on British shores.

Now he wants to go home.

#NotMyCountry X(Twitter) #AEDean @ZooloosBT 
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Their journey begins when this mismatched pair are thrown together.

They have to discover their common humanity and overcome the age gap as well as the wealth of cultural differences which divides them.

My Review

It’s been years since 75-year-old Louise has seen a homeless person on the street. After all, they were all ‘homed’ and settled years back. So seeing one is a shock.

Her comments on immigrants are typical of her generation – are economic migrants taking places from true refugees from war torn countries? She’s not sure, but we need to stop the boats, the traffickers. Many people I know would agree with that. Isn’t it one of the reasons we did Brexit? We’d lost our national identity and wanted our sovereignty back. As a second generation immigrant of Polish/Jewish heritage, it’s never been my view. But my parents were welcomed with open arms and post-war my father became a civil engineer and worked in the UK all his life.

Adam is one of those ‘unwanted’ immigrants. Having arrived from France in an inflatable boat, he is now on the run, trying to find the land of milk and honey he dreamed about. But that land is long gone. He’s not welcome here – immigrants are often beaten up and handed in – a reward being available for those who do so. Now he just wants to go home to North Africa.

Ten years in the future, both political parties have failed miserably to sort out the country, and someone has to be blamed. Far right parties full of rhetoric and empty promises have the answer as far as many are concerned, and they are now in power. But for Louise, she no longer recognises her home, and having lost her husband Mike a few years ago, she decides to sell up and travel across Europe in her old camper van. And that’s when she meets Adam.

Not My Country is part story and part reflection on just how bad society could become if we allow it to happen. France is the same – maybe even worse. We have lost our humanity. We can see it in America. It will certainly make you think, but it’s a very bleak outlook and I hope we never get there.

Many thanks to @ZooloosBT  for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

PS Please don’t start trolling me about ‘my’ views. These are the views of the characters in the book and don’t reflect my own. I was a staunch remainer and still am.

About the Author

‘A life spent living and working in the multicultural atmosphere of London furnished A. E. Dean with a wealth of material about which to write, once retired and settled in the British Midland/

Not My Country is the first of but hopefully not the last book published in this later-life authorial career.’

A.E’s Social Media
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61565553996984
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/a.e.deanauthor/

Book Links
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218648242-not-my-country
Purchase Link: https://mybook.to/notmycountry-zbt

The Ravenswood Witch by Jenni Kerr

‘There are a lot of shadows at Ravenswood, so you will need to be strong…’

The year is 1885 and a young woman is on the run, knowing if she’s caught, she’ll be hanged for murder. Moments from a safe haven, she collides with a gruff stranger, falling and breaking her ankle.

To her surprise, the man – Marcus Greybourne – convinces the local constable that she is his reclusive wife of ten years, Luna. He carries her back to the neglected and crumbling Ravenswood Hall, promising if she agrees to maintain this charade, he will keep her safe until her injuries have healed.

But the house is haunted by shadows and secrets. What’s more, the real Luna Greybourne is missing, without trace. Scratches and marks made by her around the house suggest witchcraft; and indeed Luna is known locally as the Ravenswood Witch; her reputation in tatters, like the wallpapers of the padlocked rooms she’d destroyed.

As strange happenings in the house continue, outside the screech of a raven echoes across oppressive woods that seem alive with dark magic. And the woman who is now pretending to be Luna can’t help but fear she’s escaped the noose for a far more terrible fate…

My Review

Omg that twist! And if that wasn’t enough, yet another! I was telling my friends earlier over coffee that I’m quite naive when it comes to trusting people, so I would have been taken in as well. In fact the deceit could apply to quite a few of the characters in this book who may not be who we think they are. So keep guessing!

But first I must mention the raven, Bran. I love a book with a Corvid at its heart – and I’ve read quite a few. Dive into a Gothic mystery and there’s bound to be a crow or a raven in there somewhere. But if you don’t want people to think you are a witch, maybe don’t have a raven as your ‘familiar’. It’s nearly as bad as having a black cat.

The Ravenswood Witch opens with a young woman on the run literally crashing into the ‘master’ of Ravenswood Hall, Marcus Greybourne. She breaks her ankle and he takes her home where she is put to bed and invited to stay until her bones have healed. The housekeeper helps look after her, but all is not as it seems. The house is dark and eerie, and much of it has been destroyed, even the wallpaper has been ripped from the walls. And there are spooky goings on at night, like footsteps in the attic, faces at the window, messages written in the dust and a self-igniting fire at the end of the young woman’s bed. Someone wants her to leave, that’s for sure.

I adored this book, listening to it on Audible, the narration is excellent, one of my favourites. There is a supernatural element to the story, which really lifted it for me, and a lot of superstition surrounding witches and witchcraft. Highly recommended, especially as an audio book.

About the Author

Jenni Keer is a history graduate who embarked on a career in contract flooring before falling in love and moving to the Suffolk countryside. Her lifelong passion for reading became a passion for writing and she had two contemporary romance novels published in 2019. She has now embraced her love of the past to write twisty, turny historicals, and The Legacy of Halesham Hall was shortlisted for the Romantic Historical Novel of the Year in 2023. Her latest release, At The Stroke of Midnight, has been described as Rebecca meets Agatha Christie meets Groundhog Day.

Living with four grown up children and three cats (but just the one husband) she is frustrated by their inability to appreciate that when she’s staring into space, she’s actually working, and that watching television counts as research. Much younger in her head than she is on paper, she adores any excuse for fancy-dress and is part of a disco formation dance team.