Veronika Jordan's Blog, page 54

The Trap by Catherine Ryan Howard

It’s the nightmare scenario that every girl is warned about, and she knows the dangers all too well – but what other choice does she have?

As they drive, she alternates between fear and relief – one moment thinking he is just a good man doing a good thing, the next convinced he’s a monster. But when he delivers her safely to her destination, she realises her fears were unfounded.

#TheTrap @cathryanhoward #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #BlogTour

And her heart sinks. Because a monster is what she’s looking for, to discover what happened to her missing sister. She will try again tomorrow night. But will the man who took her sister take the bait?

My Review

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.

Women have gone missing and the police are getting nowhere. Operation Tide has been set up to find the women and catch a serial killer. But they are no further forward.

Lucy’s sister Nicki was one of those women. Where is she? No-one seems to care, not to the extent that 17-year-old Jennifer Gold attracted the media’s attention. But then Jennifer was a pretty, perfect, innocent teenager – the poster-girl for a missing persons investigation – while Nicki was drunk and had walked off into the night without even saying goodbye to her friends. She had it coming therefore, didn’t she.

FLO Denise Pope doesn’t agree. Together with Angela from the MPU, they are looking into other disappearances.

There are so many twists and surprises in this book. When you finish reading you’ll think ‘how did I not see that coming?’ because I guarantee you won’t. Smart, perfectly constructed, a masterpiece for our times. And the chapters written from the point of view of the killer are chilling and at times rather graphic.

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

About the Author

Catherine Ryan Howard is an internationally bestselling author from Cork, Ireland. Her work has been shortlisted for the CWA’s John Creasey New Blood and Ian Fleming Steel Dagger awards, and in 2019 her novel The Liar’s Girl was a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best Novel. The Nothing Man was a no. 1 bestseller in her native Ireland. She currently lives in Dublin, where she divides her time between the desk and the sofa.

Stay by Jane Bailey

I simply slung my rucksack on my shoulder and climbed into the car – and into the life – of perfect strangers.

It was meant to be Caitlin’s perfect summer, but betrayed by her best friend and her boyfriend, she finds herself hitchhiking home alone, heartbroken, and penniless.

When a smiling family pulls up on the roadside to help her on her way, she’s relieved – they seem so friendly, safe. And when they offer her a warm bed in their isolated house for the night, she’s grateful not to have to travel back alone in the dark. In any case, she’s in no rush to get home, where a grave secret is lying in wait to blow her family apart.

#Stay @JaneBailey15 @orionbooks #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #BlogTour

One night soon turns into two, and then three. The increasingly spellbinding couple wants her to stay, and why shouldn’t she? Their children need a tutor, and the longer she can avoid home, the better. But then an older member of the household warns her to leave immediately. And when her phone suddenly goes missing, when she realises that this perfect family is a perfect lie, it might not be so easy for her to leave…

My Review

I love a book that’s set in my home county, though I didn’t recognise the places mentioned in Stay, apart from the nearest town being Cheltenham, where I live. I was also excited to learn that the author is Writer-in-Residence for Cheltenham Festivals.

I simply adored Stay! Caitlin is both smart and naive at the same time. She knows what’s going on, but she isn’t mature enough to deal with it. And then there’s the children – thirteen-year-old Henna and five-year-old Daisy. They need her, they trust her and she is starting to love them back. Is she the only person who is trustworthy in this strange set-up?

And it is strange. Marcus and Mimi are married – or are they? You wouldn’t think so at times. They grow weed on an industrial scale in polytunnels, have secret ‘offices’ and supposedly rescue unmarried mothers. It’s the pandemic (remember that?), so the children don’t go to school, but they don’t have the internet so they can’t learn online. Then in walks Caitlin, perfectly placed to tutor them.

And she is very happy to do so until her phone disappears and no-one wants to help her find it or go into the nearest big town to get a charger or even replace it if it can’t be found. She desperately wants to tell her mum and sisters that she is OK. The only way she can contact them is by mail.

Initially there seems to be a simple reason for everything, but she soon realises that she is trapped, and not just by the pandemic. What’s more, she doesn’t even know exactly where she is if she wanted someone to come and get her. She just knows she’s in Gloucestershire, a long way from her home in Cornwall.

Stay is a slow burn, with us the reader, discovering the truth alongside Caitlin, as it becomes more terrifying and sinister. It’s a great story – I haven’t really read anything like this before.

There is also a backdrop of traditional folk songs, which Caitlin learnt from her grandmother, and sings to the girls at night, sometimes making up her own words.

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

About the Author

Jane Bailey was born and brought up in Gloucestershire, where she now lives. She has written seven novels, including Lark Song, What Was Rescued and Tommy Glover’s Sketch of Heaven, and has been shortlisted for the Dillons Fiction prize and the RNA award. She has edited four anthologies of work by young people as Writer-in-Residence for Cheltenham Festivals, First Story and Gloucestershire Hospitals Education Service.

Cogrill’s Mill by Jack Lindsey

George Cogrill is troubled. He has been made to give half of his inheritance, which includes his beloved Water Mill, to Vicky Gloam, a gorgeous female photographer.

He finds himself becoming increasingly drawn to her but there are dark forces at work determined to wrench the mill from his grasp and threaten his very existence.

This is a humorous tale of treachery and intrigue, featuring romance and murder. Beautiful women, scheming villains, a dog that inherits a fortune and a cat that does not exist, all combine to ensure that his life will never be the same again.

My Review

Absolutely bonkers, reminded me initially of Blandings with George looking like Jack Farthing as the dopey Freddie (not at all like the dastardly George in Poldark). I couldn’t get that image out of my head, so I stuck with it.

George Cogrill is trundling along quite nicely, thank you, making cider for his own consumption and living off his inheritance. He has no ambitions, no plans to marry and no chance of producing a legitimate heir. Unfortunately for George, if he doesn’t do anything with his life by the time he is thirty (which he is now), he will forfeit half of it, including his beloved Water Mill to photographer Vicky Gloam, whose father was conned by his own father many years before. Vicky is a photographer, albeit a not very good one, and moves into the Mill with her arty-farty, Bohemian friends.

He was informed of all this by his Aunt Jane, a formidable woman who rides round on an old motorcycle – British of course. She owns a stately home and has a dog called Winchester who is set to inherit if George can’t sort himself out. And a cat called Mable (Mabel?) who doesn’t appear to exist.

I couldn’t work out exactly where it was set – seems a bit Forest Of Dean to me by the accents – or when. I didn’t realise initially that it was actually written in 2005, so my fellow book club Pigeons and I surmised the 80s or 90s.

It started out very witty and surprising, though often too much detail, which I was desperate to cut out. But then it got more bonkers by the minute and lost its way, which is a great shame. It has some really good characters, though there are only so many ridiculous names before it ceases to be funny. An engaging, light read, which could do with some editing and bringing up to date and a bit more emotional engagement. I still really enjoyed it.

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

About the Author

Jack Lindsey is a pen name of Keith Jahans. He formed Peatmore Press as an online magazine in 1996 to publish and promote his writing. In 2008 he left his microbiology job at Defra’s Veterinary Laboratories Agency and established Peatmore Press as a Limited Company the following year.

His first novel, Cogrill’s Mill, was released as an e-book in 2005 and as a paperback book in 2009. He decided to use the pen name of Jack Lindsey for this novel to separate his fictional work from that he has published as a microbiologist. A second novel, Victim of Compromise, written under a second pen name of Luke Johnson, was published on 15 February 2010. Crime and Passion, a collection of twelve contrasting short stories by Luke Johnson and Jack Lindsey, was published in ebook format in August 2011. This was followed by four audiobooks, the first of which was released at the end of 2011. A second Jack Lindsey novel, Gifford’s Games, was launched in June 2012 in the month preceding the London Olympic Games (it has nothing to do with the Olympics but everything to do with games). New Beginnings, a collection of short stories written under his own name, was published in August 2014. 

In October 2013 he published his first non-fiction book, American Road, as an ebook in kindle and epub formats describing a motorcycle journey in words and pictures he undertook in the Southwest of the USA during 1982. Then following successful sales on Amazon he followed this in April 2015 with the publication of Bike Travelling Man in Kindle format describing his experiences with two motorcycles.

He lives in England and spends a lot of his time writing and travelling. Further information about him can be found by visiting his website at http://peatmore.com.

Clues To You by Claire Huston Cover Reveal

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?

And here is the fabulous cover:

Clues To You will be published on 19th September. To pre-order, please use this link https://mybook.to/CluesToYou

About the Author

Claire Huston lives in Warwickshire with her husband and two children. Art and Soul was her first novel. Elle’s A-Z of Love is her second.

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

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

Becoming Liz Taylor by Elizabeth Delo

Val looked around. The baby appeared to be all on its own. There was no sign of a mother. No sign of anyone.

Val didn’t think about it. She didn’t even break her stride. She kicked the brake off the pram and pushed it as if she did it every day.

#BecomingLizTaylor @elizabeth_delo @AllenAndUnwin #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour

Val, a widow living in Weston-super-Mare, spends lonely evenings dressing up as the movie star Elizabeth Taylor. It seems to be a way of coping with the loss and sadness she has experienced in her life. One day, when Val sees a pram left unattended on the seafront, on a whim she kicks off the brake and walks away with it…

Set in the present and the 1970s, Becoming Liz Taylor is a vivid and touching depiction of love, loss and bereavement – thought-provoking, moving fiction for fans of Rachel Joyce, Emma Healey and Ruth Hogan.

My Review

This would be a great bookclub read because the main discussion is – do we feel sorry for Val? In order to ‘root’ for her (as someone put it in a review) we have to assume that her overwhelming grief following her loss, led her to completely lose sight of reality and what she has done.

I had three issues with this. Firstly, why it took her almost 50 years to completely lose it, secondly, she made an assumption that she was ‘rescuing’ a neglected baby from a teenage mother who wanted someone to take it, and finally, I felt desperately sorry for her son Rafe. He never recovered from the feeling of being second best, being told he was a difficult child, and from the embarrassment of his mother’s obsession with dressing up like Elizabeth Taylor – fur coat, drawn on eyebrows, beauty spot, the lot.

I’ve often wondered whether Madeleine McCann’s siblings have ever been able to have a normal life, or whether their parents have been so wrapped up in grief that they couldn’t love the other two. And then there was my own mother, who lost my sister at 17 months to tubercular meningitis before I was born. There were no photos of myself or my brother when we were babies or toddlers. And yes, she would often talk about how perfect my sister was (compared to me I guess). But I did understand, really I did, and while she always had delusions of grandeur, she never went out dressed as a film star, or stole a baby.

Because that is what Val has done. Taken a baby from under the big wheel at Weston-Super-Mare’s seafront and walked off with it. I say ‘it’ because she doesn’t discover whether it’s a boy or a girl for ages. She doesn’t look back to hear the hysterical mother screaming, she just keeps on walking. Then she goes home, gets her car, straps the baby’s carrycot into the front seat and starts driving.

It was heartbreaking to witness her total disintegration, but also to read about poor Rafe, whose sad lifestyle after his relationship has broken down is like witnessing a car crash. He hasn’t seen his mother in decades. Can they ever be reunited? I hoped for that more than anything else.

But back to whether we have sympathy for Val. The jury is still out, but ultimately, this shows what a well-written and emotional book this is, otherwise it wouldn’t have raised all these questions.

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

About the Author

Elizabeth Delo trained as a teacher and has worked in schools in London, Birmingham, Paris and Somerset. After writing fiction in her spare time for many years, Elizabeth took a break from teaching to do a master’s degree in creative writing at Bath Spa University, graduating with Distinction. She runs creative writing classes and has worked as a freelance editor. She lives in Somerset with her husband and has three children.

A Generation of Vipers by Sarah Yarwood-Lovett

A killer is hiding in plain sight, like a snake in the long grass…

When Dr Nell Ward stumbles across a woman’s body amongst the purple heather on Furze Heath, she was on the lookout for nests of poisonous adders.

But something is lurking out here far more dangerous than vipers.

#AGenerationOfVipers @Sarah_Y_L @emblabooks @Tr4cyF3nt0n #CompulsiveReaders #blogtour

A cold-blooded killer is on the loose and this is not his first victim. As DI James Clark begins to investigate, a pattern emerges pointing towards this being the work of a serial killer. Every victim shares the same physical characteristics – all of which are a match to Nell herself.

As Nell is pulled into a tightly coiled mystery, she can’t help feeling someone is tracking her every move…

Can she unmask the murderer before they strike again?

My Review

I was ready to give this 4 stars – a police procedural albeit with an ecological twist – but then it became so exciting and fast-paced, with an unexpected outcome that I upped it to 5 stars (at least). I was reading while sipping my cappuccino, after my swim at our local Lido, I carried on reading with my lunch (home-made kedgeree in case you are interested, though I am sure you are not) and then kept going until I had finished it by about 4pm. I just couldn’t stop reading. Oh that ending! I’m so excited but I can’t say why.

This was a serial killer thriller with a difference. Particularly if you like bats and snakes and I love both. I’ve often had a python wrapped round my shoulders (yes that sounds weird), but I do enjoy an animal encounter, though more often they are of the furry rather than scaly kind.

This is the fourth book in the Nell Ward series, but it can be read as a standalone. There are references to Nell’s past history – we know that detective James is her ex and that current boyfriend Rav has been in an accident, leaving him with life-changing injuries. We also know that her family are wealthy aristocrats, but Nell is very down-to-earth. Her working team is great, though the three new members of staff are all a little weird.

That’s the background, now for the story. Basically, four women have been murdered and the evidence points to it being the work of a serial killer. The MO is similar enough and the ligature used is identical in all the cases. It’s not yet been identified, but the marks it leaves are the same. Even more worrying is that Nell looks just like the victims. Both James and Rav fear for her safety.

But Nell won’t be deterred, not when there are adders and lizards to be relocated and bats to be nursed back to health. That means going out at night to the very place she found the fourth victim, out on the heath. Well, you would wouldn’t you? Actually I wouldn’t, but then maybe I’m just a wimp with a penchant for pythons. Or not an idiot.

This was a cracker of a read, I was breathless by the end. I’m not sure if it was realistic, bizarre or slightly tongue-in-cheek, but it was brilliant all the same. A perfect story on a summer’s day and a great holiday read.

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

About the Author

After spending sixteen years as an ecologist, crawling through undergrowth and studying nocturnal habits of animals (and people), Dr Sarah Yarwood-Lovett naturally turned her mind to murder. She may have swapped badgers for bears when she emigrated from a quaint village in the South Downs to the wild mountains of the Pacific Northwest, but her books remain firmly rooted in the rolling downland she grew up in.

Forensically studying clues for animal activity has seen Sarah surveying sites all over the UK and around the world. She’s re-discovered a British species thought to be extinct during her PhD, with her record held in London’s Natural History Museum; debated that important question – do bats wee on their faces? – at school workshops; survived a hurricane on a coral atoll whilst scuba diving to conduct marine surveys; and given evidence as an expert witness.

Along the way, she’s discovered a noose in an abandoned warehouse and had a survey de-railed by the bomb squad. Her unusual career has provided the perfect inspiration for a series of murder mysteries with an ecological twist – so, these days, Sarah’s research includes consulting detectives, lawyers, judges and attending murder trials

The Invisible Women’s Club by Helen Paris

A joyous and refreshing read about the power of unlikely friendships, women’s voices, and a reminder that it’s never too late to find joy and meaning later in life.

One woman’s journey from invisibility to being seen once more, as she strives to save her beloved community allotment, perfect for fans of The Lido and Keeper of Stories.

Ignored. Overlooked. But they’re about to prove everyone wrong…

#TheInvisibleWomensClub @drhelenparis @DoubledayUK   #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour

Janet Pimm is used to being invisible. 70 something, with her beloved allotment for company, she simply doesn’t need anyone else.

But when the local council threaten to close the allotments, Janet will do anything she can to try to save them – even enlisting the help of her irritatingly upbeat and interfering neighbour, Bev.

As the two women set off on a journey together, Janet begins to realise that perhaps she isn’t so happy to blend into the background after all. And that maybe there’s more to Bev that she first thought. As the bulldozers roll in and they fight to save the place Janet loves most, both women find their voice again and no one can silence them now…

A story of friendship, female lives post-menopause, community spirit and the importance of connection and finding your voice.

My Review

Janet is 72 years old. She’s antisocial and keeps herself to herself. She hides from her neighbour and throws away the friendly notes that get pushed through her door. She doesn’t need a friend. Especially one who feels sorry for her because she is old. And she has her allotment, though she never feels she is part of the community. In fact she has names for them, and they are not very flattering. The Power Ballads, the Steer Manures, Felicity bloody Kendall etc. But she likes Patrice. She’s OK and respects Janet’s relationship with her plants. They are health-giving and medicinal. Not just a load of pretty petals like FbK’s with her matching floral dresses.

I’m 70. I have little in common with Janet, apart from the fact that I live in Cheltenham, the home of GCHQ, where she worked until she was pushed out. I am about to retire, because I want to. I have two volunteering roles lined up – I used to volunteer at Chedworth Roman Villa (yes it’s National Trust). I swim three times a week and do yoga. I’m never lonely – I have loads of friends. And I have a husband, two sons and four granddaughters and until recently a Jack Russell. Unlike Janet who has no-one. She’s become so used to being alone that she rejects any attempts to become anyone’s pity project.

How wrong she is. She can’t see that people find her interesting. Bev doesn’t feel sorry for her, she wants to be her friend. Even though she’s happily married to Eddie, she feels lost. She’s angry and menopausal and she wants to shout about it.

But back to the allotment. Incidentally, we are on the waiting list – it’s three years – they are still popular, even more so now when everyone wants to be green. Seaview has 120 plots and they are all lovingly tended. They even grow vegetables for the cafe in Hastings which feeds refugees.

Then one day the council turns up, putting Biohazard tape all over the place, claiming there is knotweed present and it’s a dangerous, invasive species (bit like the grey squirrel but not as cute). They plan to bulldoze the whole site, destroying everyone’s plots, but Janet isn’t having any of it. From her days at GCHQ she knows there is something fishy going on and she plans to prove it.

The Invisible Women’s Club is all about friendship, community, sisterhood, being ignored and fighting back. In the words of the song – ‘We shall not be moved...Just like a tree that’s standing by the water side…We shall not be moved‘ this is an inspiring and emotional read which left me in tears.

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

About the Author

Helen Paris worked in the performing arts for two decades, touring internationally with her London-based theatre company Curious. After several years living in San Francisco and working as a theatre professor at Stanford University, she returned to the UK to focus on writing fiction.

The Graces by Siobhan MacGowan

Bestowed with the graces. Condemned by a secret. Redeemed by a lie.

Dublin, 1918. Rosaleen The Rose. A seer and a healer. Revered within the Mesmerist circles, she was acclaimed for her gifts of prophecy and healing amongst Dublin’s fashionable society. But the shocking realisation of her last extraordinary prophecy will see her famed throughout the city.

One summer night at Mount St Kilian Abbey, Brother Thomas watches a candlelit procession of pilgrims, come to walk the Way of the Rose on the anniversary of their idol’s death. Now a shrine, the bell tower has seen tragedy – one that others would only whisper of.

Then, a padre arrives at the Abbey and reveals the deathbed confession that Rosaleen Grace made to him three years before. The tragedy of what occurred at the bell tower is well known, but this reveals an even greater horror – a heinous crime to which St. Kilian’s once-beloved Abbot, now imprisoned, has confessed. But the Rose has a different tale to tell.

Never to be spoken of. Never to be revealed. What lies beneath the Rose.

My Review

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.

Rosaleen’s gift of sight is feared in her village in Clare and her family feels it would be better for her to go to Dublin to live with her aunt and uncle in their guest house. She can work in the house, helping with the light chores. It all works out well until she is introduced to a group of people calling themselves Mesmerists. They believe that illness is caused by blockages to the flow of magnetic fluid in the body and that your own body will cure you. They think that doctors are quacks who are trying to poison you with their snake oil. I couldn’t help but think of anti-vaxxers during Covid. I remember a number of people telling me that your body’s immune system will prevent you from getting ill. But that depends on how ill you really are and how strong your immune system is.

It doesn’t take long before the group realises that Rosaleen has not just the gift of sight, but also of healing. She can lay her hands on people and use their ‘spring’ to heal themselves. Soon she becomes known as The Rose and is revered all over Dublin. But Rosaleen knows too well how things can go wrong in a heartbeat.

This is not a simple tale of happiness and romance – it is one of tragedy and dark secrets. Of unrequited love set against a backdrop of political unrest and the fight between Protestant and Catholic, of being part of the UK or embracing Home Rule. The background politics is quite subtle, but it’s always there.

The Graces is just so good, evocatively crafted, with every wonderful character brought to life. I adored it.

About the Author

Siobhan MacGowan is a journalist and musician who lived and worked in London for much of her life before returning to Ireland several years ago. She is from a family of great storytellers, the most prominent of which is her brother, Shane MacGowan of The Pogues.

Death Isn’t Enough by Mariëtte Whitcomb Cover Reveal

Noa Morgan worked hard to put the past and Emily behind her. Not that she remembers much about the forty days she spent in captivity.

When Noa realises she is being stalked, she knows it’s him. Despite everything she’s done, he’s found her. And now he’s killing innocent women, leaving an item at each crime scene still vivid in her memory.

With the body count rising, Noa can no longer hide the truth from her new friends. Not if she wants to keep them alive.

The worst part is … that Emily died for nothing.

#DeathIsntEnough #MarietteWhitcomb #CoverReveal #PsychologicalThriller

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

Release day: 13 September 2023.
Preorder Death Isn’t Enough: https://books2read.com/deathisntenough
Add to your TBR on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/…/195630712-death-isn-t-enough

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.

Social Media Links

Website/Newsletter: https://mariettewhitcomb.com
Email: mariette@mariettewhitcomb.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mariettewhitcombauthor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mariettewhitcomb/
Tiktok: tiktok.com/@mariettewhitcomb
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/mariettewhitcomb
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/goodsreadscommariettewhitcomb
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/mariette-whitcomb

The Belladonna Maze by Sinéad Crowley

An old house can hold many secrets. Hollowpark in the west of Ireland certainly does. At the heart of the gardens is an intricate maze, named after a deadly poison, Belladonna.

If you know the way through, it’s magical, a hiding place and playground like no other. If you don’t, it’s a place of fear and sinister riddles, where a young girl once went missing and was never seen again.

Grace comes to Hollowpark as a nanny for young Skye FitzMahon. Soon the mysterious past of Hollowpark has seduced her.

Who is the woman she sometimes glimpses in an upstairs window? Or the apparition who keeps showing up unexpectedly, pleading, ‘Find me’. And how can she fight her growing attraction to Skye’s father?

My Review

I absolutely loved reading this with my Pigeonhole book club. It’s so much more fun when you can comment throughout the book. And we certainly did that.

The book is set in three timelines. We have the early 1800s when we meet Deirdre and her family, who own Hollowpark Hall, with its deadly Belladonna Maze. A quick aside – our friends planted a maze during the year of the late Queen’s Jubilee at Symonds Yat. It is known as the Jubilee Maze, unsurprisingly. It opened officially on the day of the then Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s wedding and we were there. Thankfully no Belladonna or ghosts (though you can never be sure about the latter).

Secondly, we have 2007, when nanny Grace meets the Fitzmahons while she is working at a holiday hotel in Greece. Patrick and Isla ask her to return to Ireland with them and be a permanent nanny to toddler Skye. She accepts and travels to Ireland where she will live at the Hall. It’s there that she meets Patrick’s mother Delia, a formidable woman who is fiercely protective of Hollowpark.

And finally we have 1973 when a teenager goes missing on Halloween night.

It’s all very spooky and scary with its feel of a Gothic mystery and more secrets than you can shake a stick at. But is Grace the only one who sees the ghost of a teenager, pleading with her to ‘find me’? Or the woman in the window, dressed like someone from 200 years ago?

I couldn’t wait to read on – my only criticism being that it goes a bit bonkers towards the end, but that’s never put me off a book. Anyone who reads my reviews will know that I love a bit of nuttiness and eccentricity.

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

About the Author

Sinéad Crowley is a writer and broadcaster, whose three DS Claire Boyle crime novels were all nominated for the ‘Best Crime’ category at the Irish Book Awards, with the first two becoming Irish Times bestsellers. She is currently Arts and Media Correspondent with RTE News, the Irish national broadcaster. The Belladonna Maze moves away from crime, and is published by Head of Zeus in 2022.