Veronika Jordan's Blog, page 57

In My Toaster by Paul Guy Hurrell

In my Toaster is the second book in the series and follows on from What’s in my Fridge. This inspirational story deals with loneliness of Tracey the younger sister of Terry. In this adventure Tracey has become lonely because her father has become stuck in New Zealand due to the pandemic and the travel restrictions.

Her brother Terry is older now and is always playing out with his friends or up in his bedroom on his PlayStation. Her mother’s time is taken up by running the home and she has little or no time for her daughter, like she used to.

On this morning following a missed FaceTime call from her father the evening before. Tracey goes to put her bread into the toaster for her breakfast. Tracey is pulled into the toaster before been shot out of it. The ceiling crumbles away and Tracey lands on the tip of a tree with birds flying around.

#InMyToaster #PaulGuyHurrell @BlossomSpring3 @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour

On her magical adventure she meets Sam a Titfur bird who carries a Needed Bag which will produce items they need on their journey. On Tracey’s journey to get back home she will have to be rescued by Sam from the moving pavement, cross through the up river only with an umbrella and cross over the bridge to nowhere.

Avoid the Chatterings who will keep you talking for hours, by hiding under a picnic blanket. She will have to find and get to Peter Smith the wizard who can help her get back home, but not before she has to go down the longest and fastest slide. This slide descends into the creator where the wizard lives in his wood stack where magic happens. The slide has loop de loop, corkscrews and parts missing but this is the only way down to the wizards house.

Tracey must avoid the purple rings which will send her into the cannon that will shoot her back out of the creator. All this in her Unicorn slippers.

My Review

Tracey is lonely. Brother Terry is always out with his friends or playing computer games with them online. But the main reason for Tracey’s unhappiness is that her father was working in New Zealand when Covid struck and he couldn’t get home. They FaceTime and speak on the phone, but she hasn’t seen him for months and she misses the hugs and him tucking her in at bedtime.

Then one morning when her mum asks her if she can make her own toast, she is sucked into the toaster and thrown out again, landing on top of a tree in a strange land. Here she meets Sam the Titfur bird who helps her to find Peter Smith aka Wimpole the Wizard, who lives in a shack at the bottom of a slide and can help her to get home.

She must however avoid being seen by the Chatterings, who will keep her and Sam talking for hours, be rescued from a moving pavement, traverse a river with just an umbrella and cross over the bridge to nowhere. She must definitely not step on the purple rings.

Poor Tracey is still in her Unicorn slippers which are getting very wet, and though she is having fun on the slide, it’s not the same as being home with her dad. Will she get a surprise when she finally gets back? This is another lovely story from Paul Guy Hurrell, this time dealing with loneliness.

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

About the Author

“I was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, England in 1960 to a single parent family. I am the youngest of five siblings – four boys and a girl. I was brought up on a council estate and my family had very little, just like many other families on the estate at the time. I attended two schools as I grew up Bentley Lane Infants/Junior School and then onto Stainbeck High School. For me school was always hard, mainly because of my absenteeism. I wasn’t ill, it was just my mum didn’t send me (empty nest syndrome). Looking back at my school years there is a good chance I spent more times at home, than I did in school.

“I officially left school in 1976 and my first full time job was making special mirrors, the ones you see in pubs. I didn’t last long there before I got bored. I had a number of other jobs after that, but I didn’t stay long in any of them. One job I stayed a full day before not going back, but my record for the shortest stay was 4 hours, I walked away from this job after the hourly rate was cut from 90p an hour, down to 70p an hour.

“The following year I was forced to take a job, back at Stainbeck High School repairing school desks. While here I met my wife, Beverley. We are still together and have two wonderful grown- up children and three grandchildren. I worked for Leeds City Council, in the Housing section for 22 years, before retirement. Since retiring I have the time to carry out one of my first loves, writing stories.”

Follow Paul at:
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/paul.hurrell.35GoodReads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/123195160-in-my-toaster
Buy Links – https://mybook.to/inmytoaster-zbt

The Fascination by Essie Fox

Twin sisters Keziah and Tilly Lovell are identical in every way, except that Tilly hasn’t grown a single inch since she was five. Coerced into promoting their father’s quack elixir as they tour the country fairgrounds, at the age of fifteen the girls are sold to a mysterious Italian known as ‘Captain’.

#TheFascination @essiefox @OrendaBooks #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour 

Theo is an orphan, raised by his grandfather, Lord Seabrook, a man who has a dark interest in anatomical freaks and other curiosities … particularly the human kind. Resenting his grandson for his mother’s death in childbirth, when Seabrook remarries and a new heir is produced, Theo is forced to leave home without a penny to his name. Theo finds employment in Dr Summerwell’s Museum of Anatomy in London, and here he meets Captain and his theatrical ‘family’ of performers, freaks and outcasts.

But it is Theo’s fascination with Tilly and Keziah that will lead all of them into a dark web of deceits, exposing unthinkable secrets and threatening everything they know…

My Review

This is one of my favourite books of the year so far. I simply adored it. I don’t read that much historical fiction, but when I do it has to be unique and something special and this is. It’s the third book I’ve read this year which involves music halls, entertainers and ‘freak shows’, and The Fascination did not disappoint.

It’s mainly the characters – Theo Seabrook, disowned grandson of Lord Seabrook, the twins Keziah and Tilly, sold by their quack medicine-man father to the mysterious ‘Captain’, Aleski Turgenev based on real-life Fedor Jeftichew, better known as the Dog-Faced Boy, a sideshow performer in Barnum’s circus, Martha who hid her face because of a disfiguring harelip and Dr Eugene Summerwell, owner of the Museum of Anatomy in London, who becomes Theo’s employer.

But it’s not just the characters. The setting is just as important. Dorney Hall is the seat of Lord Seabrook, with its freakish exhibits, its dark secret corridors and the ‘satanic gatherings ‘where ‘persons of quality’ would meet to engage in sordid practices akin to the real stories of the Hellfire Clubs of the eighteenth century. Linden House is where the twins, Captain, Aleski and Martha reside, while the aforementioned museum contains strange items like swan’s wings for sale and displays so-called freaks of nature. The music halls and theatres such as the famed Royal in Drury Lane is where Tilly performs.

For those still inclined to witness the bizarre, Victor Wynd’s Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art and Unnatural History can be found in East London, while equally macabre displays are to be found in the Hunterian Museum, currently owned by the Royal College of Surgeons. With thanks to the author for these and many more historical details.

The story follows Keziah (the first person narrator) and her twin sister Tilly from when they were assisting their father in selling his ‘elixir’ said to cure all ills. Their mother has died and Pa has found himself another woman. The girls are displayed with claims that Keziah, who took the elixir was grown to a ‘normal’ height, while Tilly refused and was now the size of a small child. In fact it was the other way round and Tilly was hooked on the medicine (probably a mixture of laudanum and other substances).

When one night the twins decide to escape, Pa catches them, thrashes them and finally sells them to the ‘Captain’. In the meantime, Theo (he is narrated from the third person point of view) has been thrown out of his home, because his grandfather has taken a new wife, who has produced a legitimate heir. Theo is the bastard son of Lord Seabrook’s dead daughter, Theodora.

Theo goes to live with his governess Miss Agnes Miller, but after a few years finds employment with Dr Summerwell at the museum. And so the links between Theo and the twins begin to reveal themselves, together with all manner of dreadful secrets and terrible goings-on at Dorney Hall.

The story is interwoven with the tale of Snow-White and Rose-Red as Keziah remembers her Ma saying that it was ‘a mirror of their own lives’.

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

About the Author

Essie Fox was born and raised in rural Herefordshire, which inspires much of her writing. After studying English Literature at Sheffield University, she moved to London where she worked for the Telegraph Sunday Magazine, and then book publishers George Allen & Unwin, before becoming self-employed in the world of art and design. Essie now spends her time writing historical gothic novels. Her debut, The Somnambulist, was shortlisted for the National Book Awards, and featured on Channel 4’s TV Book Club. The Last Days of Leda Grey, set in the early years of silent film, was selected as The Times Historical Book of the Month. Essie is also the creator of the popular blog: The Virtual Victorian. She has lectured on this era at the V&A, and the National Gallery in London.

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 East Indian by Brinda Charry

Inspired by a historical figure, an exhilarating debut novel about the first native of the Indian subcontinent to arrive in Colonial America—for readers of Esi Edugyan and Yaa Gyasi.

Meet Tony: insatiably curious, deeply compassionate, with a unique perspective on every scene he encounters. Kidnapped and transported to the New World after traveling from the British East India Company’s outpost on the Coromandel Coast to the teeming streets of London, young Tony finds himself in Jamestown, Virginia, where he and his fellow indentured servants—boys like himself, men from Africa, a mad woman from London—must work the tobacco plantations. Orphaned and afraid, Tony initially longs for home. But as he adjusts to his new environment, finding companionship and even love, he can envision a life for himself after servitude. His dream: to become a medicine man, or a physician’s assistant, an expert on roots and herbs, a dispenser of healing compounds.

Like the play that captivates him—Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream—Tony’s life is rich with oddities and hijinks, humor and tragedy. Set during the early days of English colonization in Jamestown, before servitude calcified into racialized slavery, The East Indian gives authentic voice to an otherwise unknown historic figure and brings the world he would have encountered to vivid life. In this coming-of-age tale, narrated by a most memorable literary rascal, Charry conjures a young character sure to be beloved by readers for years to come.

My Review

This was a wonderfully written story, but hardly a laugh a minute. Life was very hard in the 1600s and it was especially hard for ‘Tony’, the first East Indian to arrive in Jamestown, Virginia.

We start the story in the British East India Company’s outpost on the Coromandel Coast. Tony (that wasn’t his real name – it was given to him later) lives with his mother and uncle. His mother is a courtesan (that’s a high class prostitute to you and me) and exceptionally beautiful (though this may be seen through a child’s eyes). When she dies, Tony travels to London where he wants to become a medicine man. But he is kidnapped and transported to America, where he ends up an indentured servant. On the journey he befriends two other boys, Dick and Sammy, and also ‘Mad Marge’, a ‘lunatic’ as she was referred to in those days.

Once he begins his work on the tobacco plantation, he meets other servants like Bristol and Cuffee from Africa, and Flynn who wants to learn to speak the language of the Native American ‘Indians’ as they were known – many of his fellow workers believe Tony must be one of them – so he can go and live with them. In fact no-one knows where Tony comes from – he’s not dark enough to be African, he’s not a Turk, though he is often referred to as a ‘moor’, and East India was so far unheard of.

The boys’ master initially is a man called Ganter, whose treatment of nine-year-old Sammy is so awful, I won’t describe it here – in fact we never get the details, we just know.

Tony is a likeable character, who sympathises with the plight of the underdog, and is saddened by the ill-treatment of his fellow servants, this is ‘before servitude calcified into racialized slavery‘. His dream is still to become a medicine man and he slowly begins to learn as a physician’s assistant, but we know that he will never be fully accepted unless he is working alongside his mentor. It was interesting to note that sick people were often given ‘Jimson Weed’ to cure their ills. Otherwise known as Datura, it is highly toxic, addictive and kills in large quantities. It grows here in the UK – don’t touch or ingest it!

This is an amazing, well-researched tale of love, hope and coming-of-age. I adore the references to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Tony talks constantly about the Fairy King and Queen’s feud over the Indian boy, saying that he never discovers what becomes of him. But he actually likens himself more to Puck, getting up to mischief and playing tricks.

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

About the Author

BRINDA CHARRY is an academic who specialises in the work of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. She has a special interest in race and intercultural encounters in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and has published several books and articles in the field. Her novels and short stories, published in India, have won several awards. Born and raised in Bangalore, Brinda now lives in New Hampshire, USA.

Vulcana by Rebecca F John

An inspirational fictional telling of Welsh Victorian Strongwoman Kate Williams

Vulcana is a fictional telling of the real story of Victorian ‘strongwoman’ Kate Williams (born 1874), starting when she runs away from home at 16 to travel with the love of her life, William Roberts.

They perform in music halls as Atlas and Vulcana – the climax of their act is that Kate can lift William over her head.

#Vulcana @Rebecca_Writer @honno #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour 

She and William present themselves to the public as brother and sister as they travel the world because William is already married, and William’s wife brings up Kate’s children with her own.

Kate is driven by love: for William, for her children, for performing, and for life, and Rebecca’s gorgeous, immersive writing fits perfectly this brave, unconventional woman and her amazing story.

My Review

Seeing as my son is a novice strongman, how could I not want to read this book. The feats of strength they perform today would no doubt make Atlas and Vulcana look tame in comparison, but while Atlas – William Roberts – may not have been all he purported to be, Kate was undoubtedly exceptionally strong for a woman.

Kate ran away from home when she was sixteen to be with William, who she had met when she was fifteen. He was twelve years her senior and already had a wife Alice, who was a number of years older than him (old enough to easily be Kate’s mother), and they already had five children (reportedly). While Kate remained passionately in love with William until the day she died in 1946 at the age of 72, his relationship with Alice was very different. Kate and William had at least four children together, or maybe six – accounts vary – though they never married. Alice looked after them as well as her own, while Atlas and Vulcana toured, often for months at a time. It all seems a bit strange to us, but Alice was happy with the arrangement and she and Kate became good friends.

Much of the story is based in fact – Vulcana did stop a runaway horse with her bare hands when she was thirteen, she really saved two boys from drowning in the River Usk, she led the police to the arrest and hanging of Dr Crippen for murdering his wife, and rescued four horses from a fire in a burning theatre. In fact Kate loved animals, and any suffering really upset her.

A lot of the story, however, is fictionalised. We wouldn’t have insight into her relationship with Williams, their sex life (how could we know), the lives of the children when they were with Alice and the history of the other members of the troupe like Mabel, Abe and ‘Hatty’ Hatfield.

Kate was friends with the renowned music hall artist Marie Lloyd, whose tragic death in her early fifties is well documented, and also briefly followed the suffragette movement. But Kate’s real passion was that women should be strong, they should cast off the stays and corsets that actually damaged their insides, and take regular exercise to remain healthy. It’s something that we believe to be so important today – she was ahead of her time by decades.

I loved this book. It’s so beautifully written. The ‘future’ in 1939 when Kate is hit by a taxi and believed to be dead and seven years later when she is remembering her life brought tears to my eyes. What an amazing woman she was. She will be burned in my memory forever.

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

As an aside, my husband is related by marriage to another music hall ‘legend’ named Lydia Thompson – she was briefly married to riding-master John Tilbury, who was killed in a steeplechase race in 1864. Thompson was a professional actress, comedienne and burlesque dancer, who left home at fourteen (even younger than Vulcana), to go on the stage. This was fifty years earlier. Her performances were considered ‘to transgress the boundaries of propriety’. Described as an ‘idiotic parody of masculinity’, and ‘monstrously incongruous and unnatural,’ in America she was both hated and adored. Like Kate’s daughter Nora, Lydia’s daughter Zeffie Tilbury appeared in a number of Hollywood films. There is far more documented about Lydia Thompson, than there is about Kate Williams, such is the pity.

About the Author

Rebecca F. John was born in Llanelli. Her first novel, The Haunting of Henry Twist (Serpent’s Tail, 2017) was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award. She won the PEN International New Voices Award 2015. In 2017 she was on the Hay Festival’s ‘The Hay 30’ list. Her stories have been broadcast on Radio 4. She lives in Swansea with her dogs. Her previous book for Honno, Fannie, was published in January 2022 and was Waterstones Book of the Month for Wales and the BCW Book of the Month.

Marple by Various

A brand-new collection of short stories featuring the Queen of Mystery’s legendary detective Jane Marple, penned by twelve remarkable bestselling and acclaimed authors.

This collection of a dozen original short stories, all featuring Jane Marple, will introduce the character to a whole new generation. Each author reimagines Agatha Christie’s Marple through their own unique perspective while staying true to the hallmarks of a traditional mystery.

Naomi Alderman
Leigh Bardugo
Alyssa Cole
Lucy Foley
Elly Griffiths
Natalie Haynes
Jean Kwok
Val McDermid
Karen M. McManus
Dreda Say Mitchell
Kate Mosse
Ruth Ware

Miss Marple was first introduced to readers in a story Agatha Christie wrote for The Royal Magazine in 1927 and made her first appearance in a full-length novel in 1930’s The Murder at the Vicarage. It has been 45 years since Agatha Christie’s last Marple novel, Sleeping Murder, was published posthumously in 1976, and this collection of ingenious new stories by twelve Christie devotees will be a timely reminder why Jane Marple remains the most famous fictional female detective of all time.

My Review

I’m not going to attempt to review all 12 stories so I’ll pick out the ones that ‘spoke’ to me in Miss Marple’s ‘voice’. Plus one that was totally different.

Starting with The Second Murder At The Vicarage by Scottish crime writer Val McDermid. I could hear Joan Hickson (my favourite) speaking and see her as Jane Marple in the 1980s TV series. Of course we all know that Agatha Christie wrote a novel called Murder At The Vicarage in 1930, which was later adapted into a play. In McDermid’s version, there is a degree of humour which makes it all the more entertaining.

‘To have one murder in one’s vicarage is unfortunate; to have a second looks like carelessness…’ Where have I heard that before? Must be none other than Oscar Wilde himself!

The story is narrated by the vicar in this instance. The dead maid is called Mary, but she is not ‘our maid’. She was, but not any more. Anyone who had dined at the vicarage, ‘could bear testament to the literally diabolical nature of Mary’s cooking.’ I doubt that was sufficient motive for her murder though.

The Unravelling by Natalie Haynes is definitely near the top of my list. When pigman Martin arrives in town and gets a job with Mr Syme, all hell breaks loose outside Weavers the haberdashers, when the pigs get loose. An argument between Weaver and Martin breaks out and then Martin is found dead with an arrow sticking out of his back. A mystery to everyone, except of course to Miss Marple who explains it’s about unravelling the wool, not the other way round.

Miss Marple’s Christmas by Ruth Ware is much gentler than the first four stories. In other words, there is no murder, just a complicated tale of fraud and deception. Miss Marple has to stay overnight with friends on Christmas Day, when they are snowed in. It’s a motley bunch with a couple named the Dashwoods that Colonel Bantry doesn’t actually remember inviting, together with their nephew Ronald, sent down from Oxford for gambling and such like.

Nothing gets past Jane Marple, especially a mystery that involves pins, mistletoe and Dorothy L Sayers. An ‘absolutely damnable business’ and it’s all terribly Agatha Christie.

Murder At The Villa Rosa by Elly Griffiths takes place on the Amalfi Coast and begins with the narrator, author Felix Jeffries, telling us that he is going to kill Ricky Barber. Feeling he cannot do this successfully at home, surrounded by his wife and children, he travels to Italy to stay at the awe-inspiring Hotel Villa Rosa. But all is not as it seems. He meets the other guests, including Miss Marple of course, in her tweed suit, but no knitting – it’s a winter pastime she says.

There are all sorts of strange goings on and while not very typical Marple, this was definitely one of my favourites, maybe because I loved Felix’s narration.

The Murdering Sort by Karen M. McManus introduces us to yet another narrator. This time it’s seventeen-year-old Nic, the great-great-niece of Jane Marple. Her best friend is American heiress Diana Westover. They are inseparable. This is one of those intricate plots with lots of potential suspects. Who would be prepared to kill someone for the inheritance? Because surely these people are not the murdering sort. ‘The problem with that, you see,’ muses Miss Marple, ‘is that no one is ever the murdering sort until they are.’

I loved this. Even though it is more modern that most of the others, I really felt the Marple vibe, though I know some of my fellow readers didn’t.

The Mystery Of The Acid Soil by Kate Mosse. Even if this wasn’t one of my favourites – which it is – how could I not include a story by Kate Mosse. I have read so many of her books. She is one of the most accomplished authors of historical fiction today.

It’s very typical Miss Marple, sticking closely to Agatha Christie’s voice – I have this on good authority from my fellow readers as I don’t have enough experience to judge. It all takes place in Sussex, where Miss Marple is staying with her friend Emmeline for three weeks. Two deaths and a disappearance in a short space of time. Has there been foul play? That’s for Miss Marple to work out.

Many thanks to The Pigeonhole and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read. The interaction with my fellow readers was a big part of the enjoyment.

The Expectant Detectives by Kat Ailes

For Alice and her partner Joe, moving to the sleepy Cotswold village of Penton is a chance to embrace country life and prepare for the birth of their unexpected first child.

He can take up woodwork; maybe she’ll learn to make jam. But the rural idyll they’d hoped for doesn’t quite pan out when a dead body is discovered at their local antenatal class and they find themselves suspects in a murder investigation.

#TheExpectantDetectives @Kat_Ailes @bonnierbooks_uk @Tr4cyF3nt0n #CompulsiveReaders #blogtour

With a cloud of suspicion hanging over the heads of the whole group, Alice sets out to solve the mystery and clear her name, with the help of her troublesome dog, Helen. However, there are more secrets and tensions in the heart of Penton than first meet the eye. Between the discovery of a shady commune up in the woods, the unearthing of a mysterious death years earlier and the near-tragic poisoning of Helen, Alice is soon in way over her head.

My Review

It’s been decades since I had my two sons. Born in the mid-eighties, it was the beginning of the whole natural labour, water birthing, NCT bonding (it was really cheap to join back then) and ‘breast is best’ movement. Except it stuck around. Had we done our pelvic floor exercises every day? Were we prepared for the breathing during contractions? We talked openly about constipation, piles and heartburn. Husbands would be there on the labour ward, helping us choose the right mood music when the time came. I was so disappointed when after 14 hours of natural labour I gave in and had an epidural.

We never talked about what to do with the baby afterwards. At least not until the midwife showed us how to fold a towelling nappy and gave us a free Guiness for the iron content. I lasted three months before I gave in yet again and resorted to Pampers. Same with breastfeeding. I lasted about three months. What a failure I was made to feel (by the books and magazines I read).

Oh how this novel took me back! Yes, things have changed. Terry nappies to disposables and now it’s all reusable TotBots. I attended antenatal classes at the hospital as well as the NCT. When they showed us a cesarean section I suddenly needed to pop out to the toilet, because it wasn’t going to happen to me. My first would be born in under an hour (like I was), ha ha. Actually, my second was, but that’s another story and I’m supposed to be reviewing the book – not reliving those forceps.

I found this book absolutely hilarious. I felt for Alice, I sympathised, I emphasised, I could relate to the naivety, the denial, the mess….the snacks. Especially the snacks. Though not to investigating a murder. Luckily that wasn’t part of the dynamic of our friendship group. We talked about knitting booties for baby (not really), would baby be late or early, what was involved in being induced – no-one planned to give birth naked in a yurt – they hadn’t become trendy yet – under a full moon.

Heavily pregnant Alice and her boyfriend Joe have moved from London to a Cotswold village – not a real one I don’t think – I live in the Cotswolds and I don’t recognise a Penton. They don’t want the baby brought up amongst the traffic and the smog of the city. They want a healthy life in the country, somewhere they can also walk their unruly dog, Helen. In my head I imagined Helen to be a crazy, short-legged, stumpy-tailed Jack Russell, probably because we lost our crazy, short-legged, stumpy-tailed Jack Russell eighteen months ago and I still miss her. But Helen is very different, all blond fur and long legs.

Alice doesn’t know anyone, but following Hen’s sudden delivery at the antenatal class, while a murder is going on downstairs (by that I mean the actual floor below, not Hen’s downstairs if you get my drift), she soon becomes friends with Poppy and her wife Lin, Ailsa from the commune (sort of) and of course Hen, plus hitherto unnamed baby.

Together, they try to solve the murder, much to the annoyance of Detective Jane Harris, who thinks they should stay out of it. But they won’t be deterred and Alice’s musings made me laugh out loud at times.

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

About the Author

Kat Ailes’ debut novel, The Expectant Detectives, was runner-up for the Comedy Women in Print Unpublished Prize 2021. She works as an editor and freelanced for several years to allow her to take a couple of belated gap years, including hiking the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada. She now lives in the Cotswolds with her lovely husband and son and her beautiful but foolish dog.

The Girls of Summer by Katie Bishop

‘That place has been my whole life. Everything I thought I knew about myself was constructed in those few months I spent within touching distance of the sea. Everything I am is because Alistair loved me.’

Rachel has been in love with Alistair since she was seventeen. Even though she hasn’t seen him for sixteen years and she’s now married to someone else.

Even though she was a teenager when they met.
Even though he is twenty years older than her.

She’s found it impossible to let go of their summer together on a remote, sun-trapped Greek island.…until now.

#TheGirlsOfSummer @WhatKatieBWrote @TransworldBooks #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour #metoo

When Rachel unexpectedly reconnects with a girl that she knew back then, she is forced to re examine her memories of that golden summer and confront the truth about her relationship with Alistair and about her time working for an enigmatic and wealthy man on the island. And when Alistair returns, the pull of the past could prove impossible to resist…

My Review

What started off as a fun read about a holiday on an idyllic Greek island slowly turned into something more sinister.

Seventeen-year-old Rachel arrives with her best friend Caroline to simply enjoy the sunshine, make friends and get drunk. But when the money starts to run short, they join another group of teenage girls which includes Helena, Keira and Priya, who share a house and work at a beach bar. Rachel is the last to join them and it’s here that she meets the charismatic Alistair, handsome, charming and twenty years older than her.

She is attracted to him to the point of obsession (at 17 I’m afraid I’d have seen him as creepy – hindsight is a wonderful thing though), so when Caroline goes home to return to college and finish her A levels and go to university, Rachel decides to stay. On a number of occasions, the girls, plus Agnes who is a few years older, are asked to attend parties and entertain Alistair’s boss’s wealthy friends – the alarm bells are ringing so loudly you could have heard them from the mainland. But Rachel and her friends are too happy and drunk to see it.

When Alistair says to Rachel, ‘God, you’re so young,’ that for me was the trigger warning. Of course she is. And so are the others.

That was ‘Then’. In the ‘Now’ sixteen years later, she is married to Tom, but she can’t let go of the past. When they holiday on the same Greek Island, she bumps into one of the girls she met back then and everything changes.

Was life really so idyllic on the island? Was Alistair in love with her or is that what she still wants to believe? At 17, Rachel was naive, but 16 years later she must face the reality of their ‘relationship’ whatever the outcome. Some of the revelations are unexpected, earth-shattering and twisted. This is a book about how we perceive things, until we are made to accept the truth. An important book for today.

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

About the Author

KATIE BISHOP is a writer and journalist based in Birmingham, UK. She grew up in the Midlands before moving to Oxford to work in publishing in her early twenties. Whilst working as an assistant editor she started writing articles in her spare time, going on to be published in the New York Times, Guardian, Independent and Vogue. Katie started writing The Girls of Summer during the first UK COVID lockdown, after becoming increasingly interested in stories emerging from the #MeToo movement. The novel is inspired by her own experiences of backpacking, and by her interest in how personal narratives can be reshaped and understood in light of cultural and social changes. In 2020, Katie moved back to the Midlands, and now lives in Birmingham with her partner. She is a full-time writer.

Katie says: “My novel explores themes of consent, power, and memory through the story of a woman reliving a memorable summer in her late teens. Through her emerging memories the novel explores abuse and victimhood, and how victims can rewrite narratives of trauma.

I was initially thinking about writing a book that encapsulated some of the nostalgia and excitement of ‘the one that got away’, but at a time when the #MeToo movement was evolving quite rapidly I started to reflect on my own past relationships differently.

Myself (and a lot of women that I spoke to) were starting to understand their formative relationships and sexual experiences in a different light. I started to think about how I could use the idea of ‘the one that got away’ to explore this reckoning, and how it feels to realise that a relationship that profoundly impacted you could be interpreted in a different light.

The Girls of Summer is a book for every woman. One of the things that I have found most interesting about bringing The Girls of Summer into the world has been the conversations that I’ve had along the way. Almost every woman that I talk to about the book has their own story, their own personal reckoning. An experience they are reminded of that, as an adult, they have had to make peace with.

The #MeToo movement bought about solidarity and empowerment, but it also opened up vast wells of trauma, shame and pain. We have all seen women coming together to shoulder this burden, and to help each other through this. I hope that The Girls of Summer reflects both the horror and the hope of this collective experience.”

Killing The Girl by Elizabeth Hill

A perfect life, a perfect love – and a perfect murder.

Loving Frankie was easy but teenage Carol wasn’t the only woman Frankie charmed. Tired of Frankie’s cheating ways, Carol kills him and buries him in her orchard.

Forty years later Frankie’s grave will be found and Carol’s guilt revealed. As she writes her confession before they arrest her, she discovers other friends lied. The truth should free her, but their betrayal demands revenge. Will she atone for her sins and kill the innocent girl she was, or will that girl exact retribution?

#KiilingTheGirl #ElizabethHill @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour

Read Killing The Girl and ask yourself what would you do if you had a Frankie in your life?

Winner of a ‘Chill With A Book Premier Readers Award’ and ‘Chill With A Book’ book of the month for October 2020.

My Review

After I finished reading this book I was left wondering if I had really understood it. Carol is a very complex character. I can’t pretend that I liked her that much. I have to remember how young she was in 1970, when she became obsessed with Frankie. I say obsessed because I don’t believe it was true love.

Frankie was handsome, charming, charismatic – all the things the other boys were not. And four years older than her. His parents lived in London, his father an eminent gynecologist and his mother a social snob. Carol’s family and friends were working class. Frankie’s family would never accept her as marriage material.

Most of the time I wanted to shake her. Don’t be fooled by his charm, I would say to her. Don’t throw your life away for him. He’s a playboy and a narcissist and he’s just after your inheritance so he can live it up in France with his horrible university chums.

In 2016, Carol’s home, Oaktree House, is about to be demolished, so she has written her confession. When they dig up the garden – which they will inevitably do – they will find Frankie’s body buried under the bushes. She knows this because she killed him when she made the first of many horrifying discoveries. But those discoveries will pale into nothing compared to the secrets she uncovers later on.

Carol sees herself as a ‘victim’, her life having been ruined by the three men who have tried to control her. But she’s actually driven by obsession, sex and jealousy. Sometimes I found her ‘thoughts’ unbearable to read. At times I wondered if she’s schizophrenic and there is this other girl living inside her head. But maybe that’s because she’s forever taking diazepam or antidepressants or being treated for her mental instability in a psychiatric hospital. It takes her decades to realise that she is not unstable, but that she has been made to believe it by others.

However, I may have got it completely wrong. Perhaps if she was nicer and stopped saying everyone was only interested in their own problems when she is only interested in her own, I would have been more sympathetic.

It’s wonderfully written, full of beautiful descriptive language that really draws you in, and while at times it messed with my head, I really loved it.

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

About the Author

Elizabeth loves writing about women who kill. She has published a short story for fans of dark humour called, My Best Christmas Ever, as well as an award-winning novel, Killing The Girl.

We all love a great murder mystery and Killing The Girl explores the reasons why an ordinary woman kills. What pushes her to her limit of endurance and sanity? Could that woman be you?

That theme is also explored with a humorous slant in her dark short story, My Best Christmas Ever. What would you do if you discovered your husband was having an affair just before Christmas?

Killing The Girl has been awarded an Indie BRAG medallion and a ‘Chill With A Book’ Premier Readers Award – also winning Book Of The Month for October 2020.

Elizabeth is now working on her second novel; Safe With Me. Women who kill, and their reasons, are the impetus behind her novels. Elizabeth is a member of The Alliance of Independent Authors, The Bristol Fiction Writers Group, and Noir At The Bar, Bath. She was a speaker at the 2019 Bristol Festival of Literature. Elizabeth lives in Bristol, UK.

Follow Elizabeth at:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wickedwriteruk
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/wickedwriteruk/
Website : https://wickedwriter.uk/

Book Links
Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60615510-killing-the-girl
Buy Link – https://mybook.to/wwIiUmT

BlackJack (Jax Diamond Mysteries #5) by Gail Meath

A lifetime game of solitaire turns into a vicious family feud.

New York City 1923
Back in the city after a nightmare vacation, PI Jax Diamond and his courageous canine partner, Ace, just can’t catch a break when three quick and easy cases explode into a massive mess of unrelated major crimes with victims, dead and alive, piling up.

#BlackJack @GailMeathAuthor @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour

Laura Graystone’s career soars as she rehearses for her new Broadway musical. Yet, she senses something’s amiss when Jax spends more time with a new buddy aboard a steamboat than solving crimes. With the help of their friends and a mysterious stranger, Laura and Ace set out to get to the bottom of it.

It’s a whirlwind of twists and turns as Jax discovers there is far more to a family than just blood relatives. And who knows? They may just solve the biggest case of his life.

My Review

I do enjoy the Jax Diamond Mysteries and this is my fourth and possibly my favourite. We’ve moved on a bit, though Jax and Laura have only known each other a few months, but it’s obvious they are deeply in love.

Laura has the starring role in a new musical called Songbird, which opens in a few days on Broadway, while Jax is up to his ears in new cases. There’s a missing woman called Mary, a man thrown out of a window, a fire that kills two people and Laura thinks she’s being followed. A mysterious woman keeps popping up, but so does a man ‘bearing gifts’. All very strange and worrying.

But it’s Jax’s police mate’s wife’s birthday and Jax just happens to be doing some investigation work for a man named Nick Gallo, who owns The Cabaret – a fabulous floating night club. Instead of payment, Jax asks Nick if he could have a table for four for Carla’s birthday and Nick happily agrees.

Towards the end of a brilliant evening, Nick asks Jax to work for him, but it’s not his usual line of work. And everything else now takes a back seat. What’s up with Jax? Laura is worried, as is Jax’s sidekick, German Shepherd Ace.

It’s all far more complicated than Jax realises. Is he being taken for a mug or using the opportunity to earn big bucks? We’ll have to see how the intricate plot works itself out and there are certainly plenty of surprises along the way.

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

About the Author

Award-winning author Gail Meath writes historical romance novels that will whisk you away to another time and place in history where you will meet fascinating characters, both fictional and real, who will capture your heart and soul. Meath loves writing about little or unknown people, places and events in history, rather than relying on the typical stories and settings.

Follow Gail at:
Facebook: https://facebook.com/Gail-Meath-Author-121289219261348
Instagram: https://instagram.com/gailmeathauthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GailMeathAuthor
Website: https://www.gailmeath.com

Book Links
Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/123249559-blackjack
Buy Links – https://geni.us/MPxvbiw

Sun Damage by Sabine Durrant

Reminiscent of the works of Patricia Highsmith and Lucy Foley, a compulsive psychological thriller—“the perfect poolside reading” ( Guardian )—involving gorgeous grifters on the loose in the south of France who prey on a group of unsuspecting vacationers . . . and each other.

The heat is intense. The secrets are stifling. And there is no escape. In a tiny village in Provence, nine guests arrive at a luxury holiday home. The visitors know each other well, or at least they think they do. The only stranger among them is Lulu, the young woman catering their stay. But Lulu is not exactly the woman on the video the guests thought they’d hired. Turns out Lulu has plenty to hide—and nowhere to run as the heat rises. In this seemingly idyllic getaway, under the scorching sun, loyalties will be tested, secrets exposed, and tensions pushed to the brink . . . Dripping in intrigue, Sun Damage is a glamorous, witty, and totally riveting story chock full of secrets, lies and . . . more lies.

My Review

There were so many secrets, lies and ‘oh no’ moments that at times I was stressed reading. I wanted to hide behind the sofa like we did as kids when the Daleks arrived in Dr Who.

Ali is very likeable, even though she really shouldn’t be. Brought up in care, her foster family finally gave up on her, keeping her sister Molly and letting her go. Life was hard until she met Sean, the ultimate hustler who taught her everything she knew. They travelled together around the world, from India to Morocco and on to Europe. The idea is to find your ‘mark’, work out the ‘con’ and leave with the poor sucker’s money.

In a tiny village in Provence, the Otty family and their guests arrive at their luxury holiday home. Posh girl Lulu is there to look after them. She’s a trained chef and intends to keep them in the style to which they are accustomed. But Lulu is not what she seems and the family and their guests have their own secrets to hide. Lots of them, which makes the whole story more interesting.

It’s a brilliant read – intriguing, smart, clever and endlessly entertaining. I highly recommend Sun Damage as a holiday read – just watch who you trust if you are offered something that appears to good to be true.

Many thanks to The Pigeonhole, the author and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read. The interaction with my fellow readers was a big part of the enjoyment.

About the Author

Sabine Durrant is the author of five psychological thrillers, Under Your Skin, Remember Me This Way, Lie With Me, a Richard & Judy Bookclub selection and Sunday Times paperback bestseller, Take Me In and Finders, Keepers. Her previous novels are Having It and Eating It and The Great Indoors, and two books for teenage girls, Cross Your Heart, Connie Pickles and Ooh La La! Connie Pickles. She is a former features editor of the Guardian and a former literary editor at the Sunday Times, and her writing has appeared in many national newspapers and magazines. She lives in south London with her partner and their three children.