Veronika Jordan's Blog, page 51

Silent Death by Mariëtte Whitcomb Cover Reveal

Two years ago, five women went missing. Last year, ten disappeared. Both times, it happened in December.

Now it’s December again, and five more have vanished. To social worker, Madison Taylor, the women are not only her clients. They are her friends. Despite the recent discovery of the remains of five females, the police continue to be unhelpful because of the lifestyle the missing women lead.

Even after Madison is attacked and threatened, she stays determined to uncover the truth. How does her attacker know about the monster from her past? Madison’s identity was never made public.

Is this the work of a serial killer or something even more horrific?

Title: Silent Death
Series: Death Trilogy Book 2
Author: Mariëtte Whitcomb
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Cover Design: Jabber Media
Release Date: November 15, 2023

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Here is the cover of this fantastic new psychological thriller by one of my favourite authors Mariëtte Whitcomb:

About the Author

Mariëtte Whitcomb studied Criminology and Psychology at the University of Pretoria. An avid reader of psychological thrillers and true crime books, writing allows her to pursue her childhood dream to hunt criminals, albeit fictional and born in the darkest corners of her imagination. When Mariëtte isn’t writing, she reads or spends time with her family, friends, and her two miniature schnauzers.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/197771959-silent-death
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/silent-death-by-mariette-whitcomb

PreOrder Links:
Universal: https://books2read.com/silentdeath
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Apple Books: https://apple.co/3Q17ulB
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Kobo: https://bit.ly/44mXKqV

In The Series:
Death Isn’t Enough (Death Trilogy Book 1)
Universal: https://books2read.com/deathisntenough
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3QxC8VA
Apple Books: https://apple.co/3QvdBjK
B&N: https://bit.ly/3qhX4Fk
Kobo: https://bit.ly/444JTVX

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Website/Newsletter: https://mariettewhitcomb.com
Email: mariette@mariettewhitcomb.com
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Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/goodsreadscommariettewhitcomb
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/mariette-whitcomb

Artificial Wisdom by Thomas R. Weaver Release Day Launch

SALVATION HAS A PRICE.

An enthralling murder mystery with a vividly realised future world, forcing readers to grapple hard hitting questions about the climate crisis, our relationship with Artificial Intelligence and the price we would be willing to pay, as a species, to be saved. Perfect for fans of Blake Crouch, Neal Stephenson, Philip K Dick, Kim Stanley Robinson and RR Haywood.

It’s 2050, a decade after a heatwave that killed four hundred million across the Persian Gulf, including journalist Marcus Tully’s wife. Now he must uncover the truth: was the disaster natural? Or is the weather now a weapon of genocide?

A whistleblower pulls Tully into a murder investigation at the centre of an election battle for a global dictator, with a mandate to prevent a climate apocalypse. A former US President campaigns against the first AI politician of the position, but someone is trying to sway the outcome.

Tully must convince the world to face the truth and make hard choices about the future of the species. But will humanity ultimately choose salvation over freedom, whatever the cost?

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About the Author

“I write stories about tomorrow to help make sense of today. My debut novel, Artificial Wisdom, launches in the UK in October 2023. Aside from writing, I’m a tech entrepreneur. My last startup was acquired by Just Eat Takeaway; my new one is still in stealth but backed by a major Silicon Valley tech accelerator.”

Clues To You by Claire Huston

One murder mystery weekend. Two rival sleuths. They’re looking for answers. But will they find love?

Kate Brannon is delighted to be attending her first murder mystery weekend in a movie-worthy Victorian manor house. Still getting over being dumped, cracking the case would be a welcome boost to her flagging confidence. And the prize money wouldn’t hurt either. But Kate’s dreams of victory become a nightmare with the arrival of Max Ravenscroft. Smart, enigmatic and annoyingly handsome, Max is Kate’s sleuthing nemesis.

When she and Max are forced to work together, Kate despairs. But, as the investigation brings them closer, she finds being his partner in solving crime isn’t all bad. With growing suspicions that the game is rigged against them, can Kate and Max beat the odds to find the killer? And, as their partnership deepens, can they find romance too?

A sweet romantic comedy with a cosy mystery at its heart. Perfect for fans of Kathryn Freeman, Laura Jane Williams and Katie Fforde.

This rivals-to-lovers romance is a standalone romcom and part of the Love in the Comptons collection.

My Review

After a hiatus of over three years, Kate Brannon, her best friend Bella and her fiancé Ethan, and the annoying-but-incredibly-handsome Max Ravenscroft, embark on a murder mystery weekend at a lavish manor house in the countryside. But this isn’t just any old amateur sleuthing. This is the real deal. The crème de la crème of murder mystery weekends.

Run by Roger Merryman, it has so far never been won, and the prize fund is now £50,000. Teams can work together or submit their solution individually. Kate and Max have always been rivals, so how is this ‘team’ going to work? Can they put their differences behind them and work together?

Kate is a primary school teacher and has recently split up from fiancé Paul – actually he virtually threw her out, having started a relationship with the secretary at Kate’s school. He’s not her favourite person right now. Max, on the other hand, is being charming to Kate, completely different from before.

The mystery is a story in itself, very Agatha Christie and set in 1932, but of course we don’t find out the solution until the end of the book, when our super sleuths will also find out who has won. It’s all great fun – a cosy mystery within a cosy mystery – with a dash of romance in a beautiful setting.

I love the actors (all professional of course) who are there to play the characters in this ‘murder most horrid’. They are such an integral part of the book. I particularly like Lucille, and of course the Wooster-like Archie, or in his own words, ‘Jolly good fun, what. Tinky tonk old girl.’

Another ripping yarn from Claire – probably my favourite so far. Many thanks to the author for an ARC.

About the Author
Claire Huston lives in Warwickshire, UK, with her husband and two children. She writes uplifting modern love stories about characters who are meant for each other but need a little help to realise it.

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, her first novel, at clairehuston.co.uk along with over 150 other recipes. This is also where she talks about and reviews books.

Social Media Links
You can also find Claire on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Goodreads and Pinterest:
https://linktr.ee/clairehuston_author

My Top 8 Books of 2023 – Part Three

Here are my favourite eight books of the third quarter of 2023. One or two of these might make it into my top four books of 2023. Still a way to go. Once again only a bit of ‘crime’, as a crime novel needs to be totally unique and exceptional to make it into my favourites. So here we go.

Saving Grace by Cristina Slough

Wow! This was a serious page-turner. Exciting, twisted, full of turns of events and utterly mind-blowing.

There are two narrators – Jennifer Mack is an ambitious journalist, who has returned to her home town in Cornwall to write for the local rag. At least that’s how she sees it. Below her. What is there to write about in this sleepy, tourist-driven county? Until a body turns up in the sea. And there’s a message carved dep into the girl’s back – Grace Number 1. When a second body turns up miles away in an abandoned video store in London with Grace Number 2 etched into the flesh, Jennifer knows she’s on to something. This could be the making of her career, and the story is hers. Apart from her nemesis, Hayley, who is trying to undermine her at every opportunity and steal the story from under her nose.

For my full review click here.

The Bleeding by Johanna Gustawsson

The Bleeding is dark, very dark. Not at first, when it dabbles in rituals and spiritualism, but as the three stories of Lucienne in Paris in 1899, Lina in 1949 post-war Quebec and Detective Maxine Grant in 2002 progress and come together, it becomes increasingly scary. With a twist at the end, which as they say, I really didn’t see coming.

It’s 2002 and Maxine, partner Jules and forensic psychologist Gina are investigating a horrific murder. Ex school-teacher Pauline Caron is accused of stabbing her husband 31 times in a most violent and frenzied fashion. But why should she do that? They were a devoted couple, who mainly kept themselves to themselves. She was loved at school by her pupils. But she has secrets and they are far worse than anyone could imagine.

For my full review click here.

Salt and Skin by Eliza Henry-Jones

I’ve only ever read two books that I can compare this with, and they are She Never Told Me About The Ocean by Elizabeth Sharp McKetta and The Unravelling by Polly Crosby. They all have that same whimsical, magical unworldliness, and the first two became my top books of the year in 2021 and 2022. I have a feeling Salt & Skin will be in my top books of 2023.

It’s hard to describe what Salt & Skin is about, because it’s so much more than a story. It’s beautiful, lyrical and filled with superstition and magic. It’s about a family and their journey across the world to find a new beginning, but it’s also about motherhood, grief, love and community. It’s about the witches who were executed in the 17th century and the religion that fears them and would still persecute them if they could.

For my full review click here.

Arrietty by Abby Davies

So what if you woke up one day to find everything you thought you knew was turned on its head. Not once or twice but again and again. You can’t trust anyone. You maybe can’t even trust yourself.

Arrietty is almost impossible to review because everything is a spoiler. Suffice to say that one night at midnight her mum walks out and is never seen again. There is only her father, who won’t tell her what happened, and her little brother Eddie. Eddie is four years old and Arrietty adores him.

The story is told in two timelines – now and two years earlier. There was significant trauma in her life, but we don’t know what it was. We hear from her mum Sofia’s point of view as well as from Arrietty’s.

For my full review click here.

Scrap by Kathy Biggs

I’m including this because it’s completely different from anything else I have read this year.

It’s six o’clock in the morning and I’m sitting in bed crying. Not because I have to get up – I don’t – but because I just finished reading Scrap. Partly because I didn’t want it to end and partly because it did and it was sad, happy and emotional all at the same time.

What a book! All the main characters – Mackie, Sharon and Trev have their own back stories. They work together at Tranter’s Scrap Yard, which is where they discover the kid. He’s found in an old Merc at the top of a pile of cars, dehydrated and malnourished, because he’s been there for days. Thank goodness they didn’t crush the car.

For my full review click here.

The Graces by Siobhan MacGowan

I absolutely loved The Trial of Lotta Rae and The Graces is just as brilliant. It’s probably more my genre to be honest. Anything that includes mysticism, prophecy, alternative religions, healing, superstition etc is right up my street.

It’s beautifully written, with Rosaleen – The Rose – such an interesting character. She is so young and naive really, and it’s very easy for her to be taken advantage of in the big city of Dublin after a sheltered life in the Co Clare countryside.

The heartbreak is devastating, and brave, the subjects dealt with sympathetically and with compassion. Such tragic circumstances, which had me in tears many times. I can say no more.

For my full review click here.

The Trap by Catherine Ryan Howard

Very very clever. There are so many crime novels out there, but this is in a class of its own. It’s so intricately plotted that when I had finished it, I had to go back and re-read some of it. Did it really happen like that? It’s going to be very hard to write about because every passage, every clue, is a spoiler. So this will be a short review.

We open with a young woman walking along a lane in the dark. She’s putting herself in extreme danger – she knows that – but how else can she trap the man who took her sister. How else can she find out what really happened? By using herself as ‘bait’ and hoping he’ll take it.

For my full review click here.

The Murmurs by Michael J Malone

I adored this book. I couldn’t wait to read it. Really spooky and scary, but the most terrifying part is when we go back in time to the ‘witches’ who were accused of witchcraft, forced to confess and then strangled before their bodies were thrown on the bonfire.

Annie Jackson comes from a line of women who have a ‘gift’ or is it a curse? She knows when someone is going to die and how. But when she tries to warn them, she is treated like a mad woman, even when she is only twelve years old. She can see the person dying, their faces turn into skulls, and she hears sounds and voices which are referred to as ‘the murmurs’.

For my full review click here.

Magic in Errors by Sneha Babu Release Day Launch

His world. Her world. My world. Your world. It’s all the same, yet entirely different. It’s nothing but another one of God’s oxymorons laughing at us. Some people spend their entire life waiting for an epiphany. While some live. 

Sneha Babu’s debut novel Magic in Errors unravels a story showing how the Universe works in beautiful and heart-breaking ways—beginning with a neon-colored hair tie. Over the course of a few days, this seemingly insignificant accessory passes through the hands of six people; strangers, lovers, friends, and enemies. Every encounter sets off a chain reaction of events, forever altering their lives in ways they never could have imagined.

Amidst their unique struggles, a slum boy, musician, policeman, celebrity, movie agent, and businesswoman grapple with the struggle to truly live rather than merely survive. Their lives intertwine in intricate ways, as they confront devastating choices, experience powerful emotions, and endure lasting tragedies, even long after one of them murders another.What lessons can the world teach us? Does it always pay to be kind? How could someone be connected to a person they have never met? How can a hair tie change the course of someone’s life? Find out in Magic in Errors.

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Jump Cut by Helen Grant

The Simulacrum is the most famous lost movie in film history – would you tell someone your darkest secrets, just to lay hands on a copy? 

104-year-old Mary Arden is the last surviving cast member of a notorious lost film. Holed up in Garthside, an Art Deco mansion reputed to be haunted, she has always refused interviews. 

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Now Mary has agreed to talk to film enthusiast Theda Garrick. In return she demands all the salacious details of Theda’s tragic past. Only the hint of a truly stupendous discovery stops Theda walking out. 

But Mary’s prying questions are not the only thing Theda has to fear. The spirit of The Simulacrum walks Garthside by night, and it will turn an old tragedy into a new nightmare…

My Review

The book begins with Theda Garrick attending her husband’s funeral. She is devastated, but at this point we know nothing of the circumstances surrounding his death. Seven months later she has secured herself an interview with 104-year-old film star Mary Arden (born the same year as my own mother). My mother used to tell me about the film stars she and my grandmother adored – Theda Bara, Clara Bow, Greta Garbo (her favourite) and later Veronica Lake after whom she named me, albeit with a different spelling.

Others have tried to meet Mary Arden and failed, so why has Theda succeeded?

On the way to Mary’s Art Deco home Garthside, Theda drives into a ford and breaks down. The weather is horrendous, but luckily she is rescued by the lovely Angus, who manages to tow her out and then gives her a lift to Garthside. But I digress.

Theda is scheduled to meet Mary the following afternoon – in the meantime she is shown around by the strange Mrs Harris, who warns her never to enter the double doors which lead into the West Wing, where Mary lives.

The first thing Mary tells Theda the next day, is that she can only give her an hour each day as she gets too tired. She also informs Theda, that for everything she is prepared to reveal, Theda must give her something in return. That’s the deal, and Theda must decide just how much she wants The Simulacrum, the most famous lost movie in film history.

I love that the way we discover what happened to her husband Max is told by Theda herself as part of the tit-for-tat arrangement. But I never could have imagined how this book would pan out when I started reading. Chilling, creepy, and sinister, I loved every scary minute.

Many thanks to @lovebookstours for inviting me to be part of the #JumpCutTour

About the Author

Helen Grant (born 1964 in London) is an author of novels for young adults, now based in Scotland. Her first novel, The Vanishing of Katharina Linden, was published by Penguin Books in April 2009. It was shortlisted for the Booktrust Teenage Prize and the CILIP Carnegie Medal. It has also been published in Germany as Die Mädchen des Todes, and has been published in Spain, Holland and the US. Her second novel, The Glass Demon, was published by Penguin in May 2010. It was shortlisted for the ITW Awards Best Paperback Original category. Her third novel Wish Me Dead was published in 2011 and nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal.

In addition to her novels for young adults, she has been a regular contributor to the M.R. James Ghosts & Scholars Newsletter. Her short fiction and non fiction have been published in Supernatural Tales, All Hallows and by the Ash Tree Press. She has also provided a new translation of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Das Öde Haus in The Sandman & Other Night Pieces (Tartarus Press). In 2018 Helen’s Ghost was published by Fledgling Press. Ghost was the first of Helen’s books to be set in Scotland. Jump Cut was published in September 2023.

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The Book Club Murders by Alan Gorevan

When Izzy O’Brien flees the city centre apartment she shared with her controlling partner, she relocates to the seaside town of Dun Laoghaire, and the house she inherited from her aunt.

Isolated and insecure, Izzy is relieved to be embraced by a tight knit group of female neighbours, who invite her to join their book club.

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However, the town is not as sleepy as she thinks.

And her ex-boyfriend is not ready to let her go.

My Review

I’m so glad I’m not a member of this book club. I don’t think they ever get round to discussing the books. Too busy with the local gossip. And that’s before things get really serious. We only talk about crime novels and serial killer thrillers at any book club I belong to. We don’t act them out for real – thankfully. At least I don’t.

Izzy O’Brien has been forced to escape from her controlling fiance Adam. She’s fed up with his behaviour – he weighs her every day to check she’s exactly 100lbs. What? I haven’t weighed that since I was 12. He cuts her off from her family and friends. He’s jealous of everyone. Typical coercive control. Luckily she inherited her late Aunt Elaine’s house in the seaside town of Dun Laoghaire, so that’s where she goes.

But as soon as she arrives, she knows Adam has followed her. He’s not going to let her go. She finds companionship over the road at Louise and Robert’s house, where the book club is meeting. Well, Louise is there – Robert has gone to the pub as usual to cause trouble. Then there’s Baxter the Labrador. The poor dog is not responsible for Robert’s behaviour.

However, the book isn’t called The Book Club Murders for nothing. There will be plenty of those to come and plenty of twists and turns along the way. Poor Izzy thought she was getting away to make a new start, but she seems to have gone from out of the frying pan into the fire.

Towards the end the book descends into total madness and mayhem – until then it wasn’t that funny – but all I can say at this point is ‘here’s Johnny?’

Many thanks to @zooloo2008 for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the Author

Alan Gorevan is an award-winning thriller writer and intellectual property attorney. He lives in Dublin.

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Website : https://www.alangorevan.com/

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murders

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The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods

On a quiet street in Dublin, a lost bookshop is waiting to be found…

For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives.

But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books. And by unlocking the secrets of the shelves, they find themselves transported to a world of wonder… where nothing is as it seems.

My Review

I love this book so much. It’s gone straight to the top of my favourite books of the year – maybe even the decade. I kept thinking it reminded me of the books of another author, but it was only towards the end that I remembered who that was – Menna Van Praag.

Magical realism is one of my favourite genres, though occasionally it disappoints, because there are books which fall too much into the fantasy genre. The Lost Bookshop, however, is perfect.

The story is told in two timelines with three different narrators. It begins in 1921, after the 1st World War, and our narrator is Opaline Carlisle. Her much older brother Lyndon wants to marry her off, but she escapes to Paris and finds a job in a bookshop. I loved Opaline so much that on one occasion, when her story was particularly harrowing, I jumped two chapters to find out what happened to her. Then of course I went back to whoever should have come next.

In the present, we alternate between Irish girl Martha and English scholar Henry. Martha has just escaped an abusive marriage to Shane and found a job as housekeeper to the very elderly actress, Madame Bowden. Her job comes with a basement flat. Henry is writing a thesis on a lost bookshop, which he has stumbled upon, but then it appears to have vanished. He knows it was somewhere by the house where Martha now lives. Or is it the house?

As we jump back and forth from Opaline to Martha and Henry, and back again, we begin to see the connections. And we start to ask whether it’s all just coincidence or was it somehow meant to be. I just can’t enthuse enough about this book. I never want to erase its beauty from my memory. I cried (in a good way) so many times – it’s breathtaking, mystical, magical and bewitching – I’m running out of words to describe it. Oh yes – extraordinary.

About the Author

Evie Woods is the pseudonym of Evie Gaughan, bestselling author of The Story Collector, The Heirloom and The Mysterious Bakery On Rue De Paris. Living on the West Coast of Ireland, Evie escapes the inclement weather by writing her stories in a converted attic, where she dreams of underfloor heating. Her books tread the intriguing line between the everyday and the otherworldly, revealing the magic that exists in our ordinary lives.

All Grown Up By Catherine Evans

Neveah (pronounced Ner-vay) is fifteen. A school- kid. With a secret life. She’s a digital freelancer, and is having an affair with her biggest client, Giles.

Giles is married. He thinks Neveah is twenty-two. She’ll do just about anything to stop him from finding out her true age. But secrets have a way of spilling out. With devastating consequences.

But this is not just Neveah’s story. It tells of those connected to her too, including Billy whose life spins into turmoil when he makes some bad decisions. Each brilliantly executed character has their own secret, and nobody is spared in Catherine Evans’ exploration of the murkiness of contemporary sex.

All Grown Up examines the early sexualisation of young girls and toxic masculinity amongst boys, confronting the reader with important questions about consent and underage sex. Why do some young girls become sexually active sooner than is good for them? If a man has sex with a girl who lies about her age, is he still culpable? If society is at fault for teaching both girls and boys a warped view of sex, who is really to blame when it goes wrong?

All Grown Up is a brave, unflinching and gripping work from an exciting new voice in fiction.

Guest Post – Introduction to All Grown Up
“All Grown up is my second novel. It’s about a neglected fifteen-year-old schoolgirl who moonlights as a digital freelancer. She’s very bright and resourceful, and has big plans for herself. She wants to go to university, and she knows she won’t get any help from her parents, so she has come up with her own solution. She embarks on an affair with her client, Giles, who is married. He believes that she’s an independent woman of twenty-two.

“When a man has sex with an underage girl, even if she has lied about her age, is he still culpable?”

“The entire story was inspired by a strikingly poised schoolgirl I saw on a London bus. She was surrounded by her schoolmates, but her dignity and extreme self-possession marked her out, and I found myself thinking about her long after the bus journey was over. I realised that if she had been wearing an evening gown or a business suit, I would have taken her completely at face value.

“Anyone can set themselves up with a website and get a few business cards printed. It astonishes me how tech savvy even very young children are. Could it be that … and then the story took over.

“The book is about the early sexualisation of young girls and society’s collusion in this process, including by the girls themselves. Young girls like to test the boundaries of their own power, and often put themselves into dangerous situations, believing themselves to be completely in control. They are not mature enough to consider the long term consequences of what they are doing.

“The book also examines toxic masculinity amongst boys. Boys are also vulnerable and need protection, and yet there is a lot of posturing and competition amongst them, and there are very few good role models to teach them how to navigate relationships in a healthy and sensitive manner. Early sexualisation and toxic masculinity have always been societal issues, but nowadays, teens are not able to make their mistakes in private. Now, social media is a constant pressure, and they can find themselves excoriated, canceled or marked out for censure or ridicule in a horribly public way. To add to all these pressures is the easy access to pornography, which has distorted young peoples’ expectations of a normal, healthy sexual relationship. The pressure on girls to look and behave in a certain way is immense. Nor are boys exempt from this pressure. As a society, we need to come up with more imaginative ways to keep our teens safe, and I hope the book proves to be both entertaining and thought-provoking in equal measure.”

Many thanks to READ Media for inviting me to share a guest post from #AllGrownUp.

About the Author

Catherine Evans was born in South Africa and grew up in Swaziland and Malawi. After a degree in English Literature and Psychology with UNISA (the University of South Africa), she worked in the City for twenty years. She is currently a Non-Executive Director for Phoenix Copper Limited, which focuses on the exploration of green metals in Idaho, USA. She lives in Oxfordshire with her husband and daughter. She also has three stepdaughters. She is the author of The Wrong’un. All
Grown Up is her second book.

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Her No1 Fan by Abby Davies

Rachel Brown plays Doctor Elouise Sparks in the popular TV series ‘Emergency’. Though successful in her career, Rachel has just learned that her chance of conception is small, and she is devastated by the information.

That’s when Mikey Bell takes Rachel from her home to a remote mountain cottage. But Mikey’s motive isn’t ‘normal’. He has a strange request. The good news is that if Rachel can deliver by Christmas Day, he’ll let her go.

But someone else in the cottage is not on the same page as Mikey. This person has different designs for Rachel, and the bad news is that this No.1 Fan has no intention of ever letting her leave.

My Review

This was so fast-paced and relentless that after reading it in two sittings, my head was spinning. From one horrific event to another, the shocks just never stopped coming.

When TV actress Rachel Brown is kidnapped by a lunatic, you know it’s not going to end well. And if you thought her No 1 fan Mikey is nuts, just wait until you meet his nana. I was definitely reminded of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho more so than Misery, except that the old lady in this case isn’t dead – yet.

Rachel is married to Jacob, who also plays her husband in the TV series Emergency. One night, Jacob is beaten up outside their home by a man in a blue anorak, the same man Rachel believes was stalking her earlier. He probably won’t come back again the police tell her. They rarely do. Wrong! And so the nightmare begins.

Did I already tell you what Mikey’s other obsession is apart from Rachel’s character in Emergency? No. Well it’s Christmas and all things related. He wears a Christmas jumper the year round, keeps a dust- covered plastic tree up in the corner of the room where he hides Rachel, and hangs tinsel around the place. And he sings corny Christmas songs to himself, like Rocking Around The Christmas Tree and Let It Snow.

This was so good! You can’t beat a fast-paced thriller that never lets up, a likeable main protagonist and a lunatic perp with an evil nana. Once you start reading, clear the decks, skip work, make a flask full of tea, get some snacks in and keep going till the end. You won’t be disappointed. It’s brilliant!

Incidentally, I love the cover. It’s really beautiful and the colours are stunning.

Many thanks to the author @Abby13Richards for a pre-publication copy.

About the Author

Abby Davies was born in Macclesfield in 1984. She grew up in Bedfordshire in a seventeenth century cottage near Flitton Moor and started writing ‘thrillers’ when she was seven years old. After reading English Literature at Sheffield University and training to be an English teacher, she wrote novels in her free time.

She was shortlisted for the Mslexia Novel Competition in 2018 and longlisted for the Blue Pencil Agency First Novel Award in 2019. Her debut Mother Loves Me was published by HarperCollins in 2020. The Cult came out in 2021. Arrietty was her third novel followed by Her No1 Fan.

She lives in Wiltshire with her husband, daughter and two crazy cocker spaniels.