Veronika Jordan's Blog, page 19

The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins

When a small bone at the centre of a famous sculpture is revealed to be human, three people become intimately connected by the secrets and lies that put it there.

Set on a Scottish tidal island connected to the mainland for just a few hours each day, and home to only one inhabitant, The Blue Hour asks questions of ambition, power, art and perception.

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Paula Hawkin’s singular fourth thriller cements her place among the very best of our most nuanced, powerful and stylish storytellers.

My Review

What a cast of mostly unlikable characters! First of all we have James Becker (actually he’s quite nice), highly intelligent, working class, a self made man with a PhD. Curator at Fairburn House, but totally paranoid about his pregnant wife Helena, who was previously engaged to Sebastian Lennox, heir to Fairburn when his mother dies. James is also obsessed with the late Victoria Chapman, the artist whose work was bequeathed to the Fairburn gallery. It’s one of her works – a sculpture called Division II – that starts the whole investigation, when one of the bones used is believed to be human.

Vanessa was extremely talented, but highly strung and vicious when she wanted to be. She lived on an island in the Scottish Highlands, where she could paint and create her ceramics. One day she breaks her wrist in a fall and that’s when she meets Dr Grace Haswell.

Grace, I initially thought was on the spectrum, obsessive and socially awkward, but then I began to think it was something far more sinister than that. She can’t help being short, fat and ugly (not my description), but she is obsessed with Vanessa in a rather unhealthy way. And anyone else who deserts her.

Vanessa’s husband Julian is tall, blond and handsome. Grace hates him. He’s also unfaithful, scheming, greedy and unreliable. However, Vanessa wasn’t averse to the odd affair herself, including with her gallerist, Douglas Lennox, who she slept with when she felt like it. Before he was accidentally shot that is.

But worst of all we have Lady Emmeline, wife of the late Douglas and mother of Sebastian. Now I know she had every reason to hate Vanessa, calls her a whore etc, but she also hates Becker, partly because he stole her son’s fiance, but also because he’s working class and not fit to move in their upper class society. She actually asks him about his mother who died when James was a child – ‘And was she also a whore?’ And on one occasion, she does something so awful (I won’t say what), and when the child witnessing it won’t stop crying, she says ‘anyone would think I shot her mother’.

The Blue Hour is a story of art, obsession, isolation, murder and greed. It’s brilliant. I read it in two sittings.

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

About the Author

PAULA HAWKINS worked as a journalist for fifteen years before writing her first novel. Born and brought up in Zimbabwe, she moved to London in 1989. Her first thriller, The Girl on the Train, has sold more than 23 million copies worldwide. Published in over fifty languages, it has been a No.1 bestseller around the world and was a box-office-hit film starring Emily Blunt. Paula’s thrillers Into the Water and A Slow Fire Burning were also instant No.1 bestsellers.

The Burning Stones by Antti Tuomainen translated by Don Bartlett

Saunas, love and a ladleful of murder…

A cold-blooded killer strikes at the hottest moment: the new head of a sauna-stove company is murdered … in the sauna. Who has turned up the temperature and burned him to death?

The evidence points in the direction of Anni Korpinen – top salesperson and the victim’s successor at Steam Devil.

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And as if hitting middle-age, being in a marriage that has lost its purpose, and struggling with work weren’t enough, Anni realizes that she must be quicker than both the police and the murderer to uncover who is behind it all – before it’s too late…

My Review

I think it will take me some time to get the images of the first murder out of my head. I’m not going to say any more. I don’t want to be reminded.

Then there are the sprats. I ate them once as a child and was immediately sick, and I have never eaten them since. The thought of them still fills me with horror!

Finally we have the ‘bumlet’. It’s a square of folded linen designed for hygiene purposes. I wasn’t sure if it’s an actual ‘thing’ or just created for the story. Of course I googled it and apparently the Finns (who invented the sauna) also like the extra protection from the heat. They take their saunas much hotter than we do in the UK.

But we also don’t really do naked in the UK. And if we did, we would sit on a neatly folded towel, with another one over any naughty bits. In the case of our first victim, it would have taken more than a double thick bumlet or a folded towel to save him from overheating.

Anni Korpinen is our narrator. Following the impending retirement of Erkki ‘The Stove King’ Ruusulu and the horrific murder of his successor Ilmo Räty, she is now in line to be the next CEO of Steam Devil sauna stoves. She is also the number one suspect in the murder as she has motive, means and opportunity. Chief of police Kiimalainen couldn’t care less about any of these – he is gunning for her because of an age old feud with her father over an Elk. I kid you not.

Anni is married to Santeri who is obsessed with Formula One and former racing drivers’ old socks. Thirty years ago she was engaged to police officer Janne who she jilted, but that’s a whole separate story.

Incidentally, the translation is seamless. Hard to believe The Burning Stones was written in a foreign language, especially as Finnish is considered one of the hardest languages to learn.

I loved this book. It’s very different from the Adventure Park trilogy, where our intrepid hero Henri Koskinen was an actuary. Anni Korpinen is a sauna stove salesperson, though I’m not sure that’s any more exciting. And she doesn’t have a cat. If there’s a follow up can she have one of Schopenhauer’s kittens please.

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

About the Author

Finnish Antti Tuomainen was an award-winning copywriter when he made his literary debut in 2007 as a suspense author. In 2011, his third novel, The Healer, was awarded the Clue Award for Best Finnish Crime Novel and shortlisted for the Glass Key Award. With a piercing and evocative style, Tuomainen was one of the first to challenge the Scandinavian crime-genre formula, and his poignant, dark and hilarious The Man Who Died became an international bestseller, shortlisting for the Petrona and Last Laugh Awards and now a Finnish TV series. Palm Beach, Finland (2018) and Little Siberia (2019) were shortlisted for the Capital Crime/Amazon Publishing Readers Awards, the Last Laugh Award and the CWA International Dagger, and won the Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel. The Rabbit Factor, the first book in the trilogy will soon be a major motion picture starring Steve Carell for Amazon Studios, and the first two books were international bestsellers. Antti lives in Helsinki with his wife.

Orenda Books is a small independent publishing company specialising in literary fiction with a heavy emphasis on crime/thrillers, and approximately half the list in translation. They’ve been twice shortlisted for the Nick Robinson Best Newcomer Award at the IPG awards, and publisher and owner Karen Sullivan was a Bookseller Rising Star in 2016. In 2018, they were awarded a prestigious Creative Europe grant for their translated books programme. Three authors, including Agnes Ravatn, Matt Wesolowski and Amanda Jennings have been WHSmith Fresh Talent picks, and Ravatn’s The Bird Tribunal was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award, won an English PEN Translation Award, and adapted for BBC Radio Four ’s Book at Bedtime. Six titles have been short- or long-listed for the CWA Daggers. Launched in 2014 with a mission to bring more international literature to the UK market, Orenda Books publishes a host of debuts, many of which have gone on to sell millions worldwide, and looks for fresh, exciting new voices that push the genre in new directions. Bestselling authors include Ragnar Jonasson, Antti Tuomainen, Gunnar Staalesen, Michael J. Malone, Kjell Ola Dahl, Louise Beech, Johana Gustawsson, Lilja Sigurðardóttir and Sarah Stovell.

Estella’s Revenge by Barbara Havelocke blog tour

ESTELLA’S REVENGE IS OUT TODAY IN PAPERBACK

Think you know Great Expectations? Think again

Raised in the darkness of Satis House where the clocks never tick, the beautiful Estella is bred to hate men and to keep her heart cold as the grave.

She knows she doesn’t feel things quite like other people do but is this just the result of her strange upbringing?

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As she watches the brutal treatment of women around her, hatred hardens into a core of vengeance and when she finds herself married to the abusive Drummle, she is forced to make a deadly choice:

Should she embrace the darkness within her and exact her revenge?

A stunningly original, gripping Gothic read, perfect for fans of Stacey Halls, Madeline Miller and Jessie Burton.

My Review

I’ve always loved Great Expectations in all its iterations – my husband loves the 1946 film version where John Mills plays Pip (I think he is far too old), but my favourite is the TV mini series where Gillian Anderson portrays Miss Havisham. As a child, the scene where Miss H goes up in flames terrified me and still does.

As an aside, for my OU degree creative writing module, I wrote a short story called Miss Havisham’s Ghost. It earned me a good mark, but it never saw the light of day, as it got woven into another story a couple of years later. Just goes to show that we all have a budding Dickens in us somewhere!

But back to Estella’s Revenge. I absolutely loved it and have given it a worthy five stars. The writing is impeccable and immaculate. The plot is original and entertaining. It’s not a retelling of GE though, you have to remember that – it’s the story from Estella’s point of view, NOT Pip’s, so anything can happen, and it does. There are a lot of the original characters, but also others that are new.

But – if I could keep two things from the story I know and love, it would be Estella and Pip coming together at the end (soppy Love Actually stuff I know), and Bentley falling off his horse and breaking his neck after being cruel to it ie the ‘horse’s revenge’. To discover whether either of these happen in Estella’s Revenge, you’ll have to read it to find out.

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

About the Author

Barbara is an international bestselling author, whose psychological thrillers have topped Amazon and Kobo. Her writing career started in journalism, interviewing the real victims of crime – and the perpetrators. The realistic, complex characters who populate her fiction reflect this deep understanding. When not writing, Barbara is found walking her two dogs, Scamp and Buddy, or taking photos of wildlife.

Dark As Night (An Áróra Investigation Book #4) by Lilja Sigurðardóttir translated by Lorenza Garcia

When Áróra receives a call telling her that a child she’s never met is claiming to be her missing sister reincarnated, she is devastated … as ridiculous as the allegations might seem.

For three years she has been searching for her sister without finding a single clue, and now this strange child seems to have new information.

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On the same day, Icelandic detective Daníel returns home to find a note from his tenant, drag queen Lady Gúgúlú, giving notice on her flat and explaining that she has to leave the country. Daníel is immediately suspicious, and when three threatening men appear, looking for Lady, it’s clear to him that something is very wrong…

And as Iceland’s long dark nights continue into springtime, that is just the very beginning…

My Review

This series started in book one Cold As Hell when Áróra returned to Iceland from England, where she was living with her English mother (her father was Icelandic), to search for her missing sister Ísafold. The sisters have been estranged because of Ísafold’s abusive relationship with boyfriend Björn.

Lots of things have happened since then, but it has been assumed by everyone, including the police, that Ísafold is dead and that Björn murdered her and hid her body somewhere out there. But without a body, there can be no closure for Áróra.

Áróra is now in a proper relationship with police officer Daniel (it’s been brewing since the beginning). They don’t live together yet.

But back to the story proper. In fact there are two stories. Áróra receives a strange phone call from a woman who claims that her three year old daughter believes she is the reincarnation of Ísafold. The child appears to know things that only a handful of people know – Áróra, her mother, Daniel and the officers assigned to the case. Áróra is devastated, angry and upset. Daniel is sceptical – he doesn’t believe any of this stuff.

On the same day, Daniel returns home to find a note from his tenant, drag queen Lady Gúgúlú. It just says goodbye, you can dump my stuff, I won’t be coming back, in fact I’m leaving the country, family matters blah blah. But Daniel doesn’t believe a word of it. She wouldn’t have left her phone and other important personal items. She would have said goodbye. Then three men appear looking for her, and their behaviour is definitely suspicious.

And so we follow the two stories, both becoming more and more complicated, especially that of Lady Gúgúlú. It’s far more involved and dark that we could have ever imagined. But Áróra is good at this sort of thing. Follow the money and you’ll discover the truth. But what about the child? Is she really Ísafold? Or is this some horrible ruse by the parents to use Áróra’s heartache to their own ends.

I loved the supernatural element of the story. I used to watch an American TV series years ago where the police actually met with psychics to discover the locations of missing persons. It fascinates me. But a three year old?

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

About the Author

Icelandic crime-writer Lilja Sigurðardóttir was born in the town of Akranes in 1972 and raised in Mexico, Sweden, Spain and Iceland. An award-winning playwright, Lilja has written four crime novels, with Snare, her English debut shortlisting for the CWA International Dagger and hitting bestseller lists worldwide. Trap soon followed suit, with the third in the trilogy Cage winning the Best Icelandic Crime Novel of the Year, and was a Guardian Book of the Year. Lilja’s standalone Betrayal, was shortlisted for the Glass Key Award for Best Nordic Crime Novel. The film rights have been bought by Palomar Pictures in California. Lilja is also an award-winning screenwriter in her native Iceland. She lives in Reykjavík with her partner.

Orenda Books is a small independent publishing company specialising in literary fiction with a heavy emphasis on crime/thrillers, and approximately half the list in translation. They’ve been twice shortlisted for the Nick Robinson Best Newcomer Award at the IPG awards, and publisher and owner Karen Sullivan was a Bookseller Rising Star in 2016. In 2018, they were awarded a prestigious Creative Europe grant for their translated books programme. Three authors, including Agnes Ravatn, Matt Wesolowski and Amanda Jennings have been WHSmith Fresh Talent picks, and Ravatn’s The Bird Tribunal was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award, won an English PEN Translation Award, and adapted for BBC Radio Four ’s Book at Bedtime. Six titles have been short- or long-listed for the CWA Daggers. Launched in 2014 with a mission to bring more international literature to the UK market, Orenda Books publishes a host of debuts, many of which have gone on to sell millions worldwide, and looks for fresh, exciting new voices that push the genre in new directions. Bestselling authors include Ragnar Jonasson, Antti Tuomainen, Gunnar Staalesen, Michael J. Malone, Kjell Ola Dahl, Louise Beech, Johana Gustawsson, Lilja Sigurðardóttir and Sarah Stovell.

The Enlightenment Club by Chris West

It’s 1975. Bright, dissatisfied teenager Stella Tranter wants to learn about big things: philosophy, great art, love.

Her quest leads her to the select ‘Enlightenment Cub’ and the charismatic Dr Stanislas Licht. And to trouble.

Thrown out of college, she continues her search in London. Is she really cut out for being a part-time roadie for a punk band, fronted by her outrageous sister? Probably not, but being her, she gives it a go.

Her ultimate goals continue to elude her, however, and she decides to settle for a quiet life with well-meaning but slightly dull Bobby. But memories of the Enlightenment Club haunt her, whispering that she must find more, do more, learn more, be more… When she meets Alex, a talented, lonely, experimental composer, she knows she must break free. But at what cost? Passion, it soon turns out, can exact a terrible price. 

This is a book about dreams and how tough it can be to fulfil them. It is about identity, aspiration and change. It is about music, and its power to inspire (but also, maybe, to mislead).

Prizewinning author DJ Taylor has described it as ‘delicately written, with big themes boiling away beneath the surface.’

My Review

It’s 1971 and I’m doing my A levels at the local tech. I apply for Bristol University to read English and – yes you guessed it – Philosophy. I even get as far as a group interview where a load of Old Etonians discuss a load of old you know what. I don’t get in, so I do a foundation year at the Art College instead, followed by Fashion Writing at The London College of Fashion. We have a blast. Go to shows, drink Bucks Fizz at eleven in the morning, while an over-tanned Judith Chalmers does the commentary. So I ‘get’ Stella, though I never got thrown out or tipped a bowl of soup over anyone’s head.

The Enlightenment Club that Stella goes to is a bit like the Dead Poets Society, or in this case the dead philosophers society. Looking back, it seems very pretentious. It encourages us to be so much more, while everyone else is telling us to be so much less. Be a free thinker. Find your one point of certainty say the philosophers. Get married to boring Bobby, study typing and shorthand (so you can work for a man who is not half as clever as you are), says everyone else.

But instead of enhancing Stella’s life, it actually makes her dissatisfied with everything. I think for Stella, the problem is that she takes it all too literally. Her sister Lucy on the other hand, embraces the latest trends. She fronts a punk band even though Stella is the far better singer and dresses like Poly Styrene from X-Ray Spex, while they bash away at their terrible music. Stella prefers Mozart’s Requiem. Get over yourself Stella, I want to say.

Stella marries boring Bobby. Everyone is pleased (or relieved). But she’s still unhappy. And then she meets Alex, a ‘talented, lonely, ‘experimental’ composer’. Or is he? Talented that is. What a vile human being he is underneath. A bowl of soup over his head just wouldn’t hack it. But it would have been cheaper, Stella.

And finally, I love Abba! And though they weren’t ‘cool’ in the eighties and nineties, they were actually very accomplished musicians, song writers and music producers. So while you are starving for your Great Art in your self-imposed garret Alex, defined by your musical snobbery, remember that.

I just adored this book. It has everything for me (apart from any gruesome murders). It made me think, and remember my teenage (and twenty-something) angst, and be glad I managed to shed that layer of pretentious pomposity. Ha!

Many thanks to @lovebookstours for inviting me to be part of #TheEnlightenmentClub blog tour.

About the Author

“I grew up in a country village north of London. As a boy I filled endless notebooks with stories – not all of them finished! As a young man I played in various (unsuccessful) bands, then worked in the City of London. I studied philosophy and economics as a ‘mature’ student (though I wasn’t very mature). After leaving uni I went backpacking in China, and wrote a book about that adventure which came out in 1991. Since then, writing has (along with family) been at the heart of my life, though I’ve had other jobs, too, largely in Marketing and PR, working with small businesses. In 2008, I found an old stamp album in the attic of my parents’ old house, and became fascinated by the contents and the way they seemed to mirror history. Each stamp was a tiny, rectangular time machine! In the end, I had to write a book along these lines: A History of Britain in 36 Postage Stamps was the result. I have now done the same for the USA – a fascinating journey into American history (and a great pleasure to collect the nation’s stamps). I live in North Hertfordshire with my wife and daughter.”

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The Foster Daughter by Sonya Bateman

My daughter was murdered by my husband. Now I have a new little girl to look after. I have no idea who she is.

It’s been five years since my daughter was killed. It still hurts every day. I’ll never be over it but I am finally moving on with my life.

It’s pitch black when I wake up. I hear a child screaming outside. There’s a little girl in my back yard. She can’t be older than five. She has terrified blue eyes.

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Somebody has left her here. When nobody claims her, I take her in. After all, I’m a professional foster parent. I will look after her like she’s my own child. But she won’t even tell me her name.

I have no idea who I’ve brought into my house.

My Review

This was such a fast paced, exciting read. I literally couldn’t put it down. There were so many twists, so many characters, plus all the foster children then and now, that I had to keep taking a deep breath to keep up for fear of hyperventilating!

It’s been five years since Kat’s daughter Marisol was murdered. Her husband Tyler was convicted and sent to prison, but new evidence has come to light and he could be innocent.

Kat’s mum and dad were foster parents, but when her mum died, her dad had his licence revoked, so Kat took over. All the brothers and sisters were grown up and had left apart from Evie who ran away. Then there was Naomi, who hated everyone and everything, but especially Kat – the only ‘bio’ kid.

Kat’s dad Joe, a weatherman on TV, has also died and Kat has returned to her childhood home for the funeral. It’s just like she remembers, all the kids having a profile on the ‘Hearth Wall’.

But it’s not long before things start to take a sinister turn. Notes accusing her dad of stuff, threatening Kat, etc. Kat starts to suspect everyone. And then a child, around five years of age, is trapped in the holly bush in the garden, screaming. Kat manages to get her out, but there is no-one to take her in at the moment, so she offers. She still has her fostering licence. She calls the child Holly. Everyone says she looks just like Marisol.

Towards the end I became suspicious of one or two people (one turned out to be correct) but had no idea why. What would be their motive? And what about Joe? Please not another lovely dad turns into pedo scenario. By this point I had no idea, I just had to get to the end. And everything was turned on its head. A perfect example of how to keep the readers on their toes from start to finish. Brilliant!

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

About the Author

Sonya Bateman is an award-winning copywriter and novelist, a mid-eighties to late- nineties fantasy movie enthusiast, coffee hoarder, and collector of cool rocks who spent a not-insignificant portion of her childhood climbing trees in order to read books in peace. She grew up in Central New York, where the seasons are Winter and Road Construction and “not the city” is officially part of everyone’s address. Sonya has been writing professionally for more than 15 years. She currently lives in a big house in a little city, still in Central New York (not the city), with her husband, son, and feline overlords. She writes fast-paced urban fantasy and twisty, shocking psychological fiction that may leave you suspicious of your friends and neighbours—and sleeping with the lights on.

Sonya’s Social Media
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sonyabatemanauthor

Joffe Books’ Social Media
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Website: https://joffebooks.com/

Book Links
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/219380755-the-foster-daughter
Purchase Link: https://mybook.to/thefosterdaughter-zbt

All The Gear, No Idea! by Allison Lee Book Two

Allison’s first venture into life on the smallholding was not without its challenges.

After months of battling for planning permission, she decided the location wasn’t right for her after all, and new plans were made.

Packing up her belongings along with a menagerie of animals, three dogs and a husband, she upped sticks and relocated to a 17th-century converted barn situated over twelve hundred feet above sea level.

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Like an audition for the role of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, Allison found herself battling the elements, threatened to be blown away like the classic tornado storm in Kansas as she tethered down field shelters and rounded up pygmy goats wearing her pyjamas and waterproofs in the dead of night.

The second book in the series of an amusing and honest account of real life as a smallholding owner.

My Review

A follow up to book one, in which Allison and husband Mark started a smallholding with a menagerie of animals including pygmy goats, micro pigs, miniature ponies, dogs of course and chickens. It was hard work and it soon became evident that the location wasn’t right. So they sold up and moved to a huge house 1200 feet above sea level. The weather was terrible, the house took over a year to renovate, and they lost Bruce.

Bruce was an almost 17 year old Border Terrier. In 2021, we lost our almost 17 year old Jack Russell called Pancake. Just like Allison, we just kept putting off the inevitable, until her dementia was so severe, we knew the time was right. It was a bright sunny day and we sat with her outside. Once it was over she looked at peace and if she could have said thank you I’m sure she would. I cried when I read about Bruce – I’m crying now writing this.

How do you fill that gap, that enormous hole in your heart? Eventually you get another dog – in Allison and Mark’s case it was a Border Terrier called Barney – we haven’t yet. You can never replace them, but a puppy can also help you heal.

Allison also acquires a pair of Valais Blacknose sheep. Considered the cutest breed of sheep, don’t be fooled by their appearance. They are big, have horns, and need shearing twice a year. But never let it be said that Allison isn’t up to a challenge. Joan and Jett are going to be mums soon, and Allison also has Kevin and Kerry. I think she ends up with seven, the maths may be wrong here.

I really enjoyed book two and I’m looking forward to book three. Can Allison and her menagerie survive more winters in their ‘forever’ home? Personally I think she should come down here to the Cotswolds, where the weather is far more temperate. However, It is also VERY expensive, though I believe Herefordshire is a good compromise and still close enough for me to come and visit. I just have to meet all those animals. I can even help with the lambs…

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

About the Author

Allison Lee first started writing education and non-fiction books in 2006 based on her
profession at the time in the Early Years. Having always harboured a passion for writing a novel, she got her ideas for her debut book when she and her husband bought a remote cottage set in the heart of Snowdonia, where they escape for holidays and weekends, allowing Allison to indulge her passion for writing.

Allison and her husband have two sons and two beautiful granddaughters. They live on a small holding in Yorkshire with their four dogs and animals, including sheep, pigs, goats, donkeys, ponies and chickens. Allison’s hobbies, besides caring for her beloved animals, are growing fruit and vegetables and supporting wildlife.

Social Media Links
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/allison.lee.754703
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allisonlee1967
Website: https://allisonlee.co.uk

Blossom Spring Publishing’s Social Media Links
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Book Links
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/214960028-all-the-gear-no-idea
Purchase Link: https://mybook.to/allthegear-zbt

The Portrait Girl by Nicole Swengley

The Portrait Girl thrusts its bereaved and beleaguered heroine, jewellery designer Freya Wetherby, into an astonishing world of re-enacted Victorian art salons and the devious machinations of modern art theft.

Seeking the identity of a miniature portrait found in her late mother’s belongings, Freya becomes enraptured not only by this mysterious young woman but also by the hypnotic personality of art collector Ralph Merrick and his colourful entourage, including the dangerously attractive ‘Jack.’

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Thoroughly researched, the milieu in which The Portrait Girl would have moved is beautifully rendered by Swengley, as are the artworks and jewellery designs imagined in the novel. Freya’s own contemporary world and circumstances form a dramatic backdrop to the seductive ‘time slip’ episodes, a mirage created by Merrick that draws her into his web.

Ideal for fans of commercial fiction with compelling female heroines, this thrilling story has a literary quality and elements that will appeal to readers of historical fiction, as well as those with a passion for art and design.

My Review

I had no idea what to expect when I started reading The Portrait Girl. What we know is that Freya’s mother has just died and Freya needs to clear out her cottage and then decide whether to sell it, rent it out or keep it. Unfortunately, the jewellery business she ran with her husband failed and it also saw the end of their marriage. She is now on her uppers, and it appears her ex-husband sold one of her designs without crediting her or paying her a fee.

While going through her mother’s things, Freya discovers a portrait miniature, but she has no idea who the subject is or what it has to do with her family. Determined to discover its secrets, she finds herself drawn into the world of art collector Ralph Merrick and his ‘salons’. Merrick invites his friends and colleagues to take part in Victorian evenings, where everyone dresses up and becomes a character. For the evening Freya is known as Emily Meadowcroft, and everyone seems to know her.

It’s all a bit strange and Freya’s best friend Brooke fears for her safety. Something more than a bit of fun is going on at these salons. I have to say at this point, that one of the evenings is different from the others. It’s a seance with a medium and everything, and I would give this book 5 stars for that chapter alone. It was brilliantly written and so vivid, I could have been part of it.

The Portrait Girl was very different from my usual books. We swing back and forth from now to the 1880s, but much of it is not the real 1880s, but Merrick’s parties where everyone behaves as though it is. And no-one is ever out of character. Who are these people, particularly Jack, with whom Freya appears to be smitten. But is she smitten with Jack or the real person pretending to be him.

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

About the Author

Nicole Swengley is a highly regarded and experienced journalist who has written about art and design for titles such as The Times, Financial Times, the Telegraph, London Evening Standard and many others. A past student of the Faber Academy, Nicole has written non-fiction books for Collins and Adlard Coles, and has had several short stories published.

Nicole 13

My 4 Favourite Audiobooks of 2024 – Part Three

Here are my favourite audiobooks of the year Part Three.

We Begin At The End by Chris Whitaker

There are thousands of ratings and reviews of this book, so I’m not going to try and precis it. It’s been done so many times already and there is nothing I can add.

But as for my feelings – well there were so many moments when I cried. Especially towards the end. Duchess tries her best to protect her little brother Robin, but everything she does makes his situation worse. One thing she says results in the saddest moment of the whole story for me.

Sometimes she drove me mad, other times I wanted to hug her. I wanted to remove her bitterness, without damaging her strength and spirit. ‘I am the outlaw Duchess Day Radley,’ she says. And five-year-old Robin is a prince. Except she is really a vulnerable thirteen-year-old who has lost everyone who could take care of her.

For my full review click here

The Phoenix Ballroom by Ruth Hogan

I’ve read all of Ruth’s novels, a couple of them twice (almost unheard of for me). The Phoenix Ballroom is her fifth and it’s wonderful. But don’t expect something earth shattering that will change the world as we know it. This is a feel-good novel about hope and happiness across the generations. A book to be savoured when you are feeling down, a book to lift your spirits. And of course when you are already happy.

Venetia Hamilton Hargreaves has just lost her husband Hawk after fifty years of marriage. She knows she is going to be lonely, but her son Heron thinks she needs a ‘granny nanny’ to look after her. She is horrified. She’ll manage, she’s not exactly in her dotage.

For my full review click here

The Burial Plot by Elizabeth Macneal

This is no reflection on the book, but I found it quite stressful to listen to at times. It’s because of Crawford. I want to hide behind the sofa. His plotting is just too awful. And it only gets worse. Is there no end to his scheming?

One of my favourite things about the book is the characters. First of all we have Bonnie, who has run away from her comfortable home to avoid being married off to a creepy man old enough to be her father. She goes to London where she meets Crawford, handsome and charming, he coerces her into doing his bidding, as he does his friend Rex (whose interest in Crawford is somewhat unhealthy). In fact they are little more than a couple of con artists, but Crawford has set his sights on a much higher ambition.

For my full review click here

The Story Collector by Evie Gaughan

The Lost Bookshop was one of my top five books of 2023 so it came as no surprise that I would love this one. And I did. It’s a dual timeline novel – Anna’s story set one hundred years ago, and Sara’s story set in modern times.

Anna is a young farm girl, her head turned by the son of the local landowner. But then she meets Harold, an American scholar studying at Oxford University, who is writing his thesis on the fairy stories that abound on the West Coast of Ireland. He needs someone who speaks the language to translate for him, and after much discussion, it is agreed that Anna is perfect for the task.

For my full review click here

Rough Justice by Biba Pearce (Shrap Nelson #1)

A HOMELESS VETERAN, MURDERED.

When ex-military investigator ‘Shrap’ Nelson finds her fellow homeless veteran burned to death under a railway bridge, she knows there’s more to his murder than meets the eye.

Doug was the friend who saved her life two years ago, and now she owes it to him to uncover the truth.

#Rough Justice X (Twitter) #BibaPearce  IG author_bibapearce #blogtour #shrapnelspon

ON THE GRITTY STREETS OF LONDON
Armed only with her sharp intellect and military training, Shrap must rely on her wits and a crew of outcasts to piece together the puzzle. Battling crippling PTSD, she pushes herself out of her comfort zone and into a world she thought she’d left behind.

WHERE A POWERFUL ENEMY LURKS IN THE SHADOWS
As Shrap digs deeper, she uncovers a trail leading to a formidable figure in the London underworld. This ruthless adversary will stop at nothing to keep their secrets buried. Hunted by a dangerous enemy, Shrap must stay one step ahead to avenge her friend and save herself from becoming the next victim. Solving this case could be Shrap’s redemption, but failure will destroy her. In a world where crime never sleeps, justice comes at a steep price.

My Review

What a great new series this promises to be! ‘Shrap’ Nelson is ex-military, but following a stint in Afghanistan, where her friends died in a mortar attack and she was beaten, tortured and left to die, she is suffering from crippling PTSD. No longer able to cope, she lives on the streets.

But when her friend Doug, also ex-military, is killed in a brutal and horrific manner, she cannot deny her past. In the meantime, the police have discovered the body of a murdered sex worker and pinned the crime on poor Doug, saying he then killed himself, by setting himself on fire. Shrap knows it’s not true and she is determined to get justice for Doug.

During her ‘investigations’, she meets DC Trevelyan who also has doubts about Doug’s guilt. What motive could he possibly have had for killing the girl? Trevelyan can’t accept Shrap’s help officially, but she is really good at obtaining information, albeit her methods are unorthodox and often not quite legal. And that’s putting it mildly. She regularly gets beaten up in the process, but her military training means she gives as good she gets.

Shrap and Trevelyan are soon drawn into the seedy side of strip clubs, drugs, murder and the London underworld. And these people mean business.

This was a very exciting read and I’m really looking forward to meeting Shrap and Trevelyan again in Book 2 An Unlikely Saviour.

Many thanks to the author for inviting me to be on the blog tour.

About the Author

Biba Pearce is a British crime writer and author of the DCI Rob Miller series. Biba grew up in post-apartheid Southern Africa. As a child, she lived on the wild eastern coast and explored the sub-tropical forests and surfed in shark-infested waters. Now a full-time writer with more than twenty-five novels under her belt, Biba lives in leafy Surrey and when she isn’t writing, can be found walking through the countryside or kayaking on the river Thames.