Veronika Jordan's Blog, page 58

The Last Dance by Mark Billingham

The first new series in two decades from multi-award-winning international bestseller Mark Billingham that introduces Detective Miller – a man who’s unique, unconventional, and criminally underestimated.

Maverick sleuth Declan Miller is back at work following the murder of his wife (and amateur ballroom dancing partner) Alex. Working with new partner and heavy metal enthusiast DS Sara Xiu, he is tasked with investigating the double killing of gangland family scion Adrian Cutler and IT consultant Barry Shepherd at the Sands Hotel. Initial evidence suggests a hired gun and a botched job.

The search for the hitman begins and Miller begins to reconnect with his old network – his ballroom dancing friends, homeless informant Finn, and even the ghost of his wife who keeps showing up in his kitchen. The fact Alex had been investigating the Cutler family prior to her death complicates things, and as Miller gets closer to the truth, he realises the danger is walking right up to his doorstep…

My Review

If you had to work with Detective Declan Miller in real life he’d be a total twat (can I use that word?). He’d drive you round the bend. Making a joke out of everything and coming out with irritating one-liners which new partner Sara Xiu doesn’t get.

‘A lot of men sleep around,’ Xiu said.
‘A lot of men who aren’t married to Michelle Cutler. She’s almost certainly got ‘hitman’ in her phone book somewhere. Right between ‘hairdresser’ and ‘homeopath’.’
‘I’m not convinced.’
‘You’re probably right,’ Miller said. ‘I doubt she has a homeopath.’

Miller’s wife Alex, also a police officer, was shot six weeks ago and Miller still talks to her and listens to her voice on the answerphone. They had two pet rats called Fred and Ginger. Yes, you guessed it, named after the famous dancers of yesteryear, because Miller and Alex had a hobby – ballroom dancing. And they were getting really good at it before Alex was killed.

Miller has returned to work (too early most people think) and is called out to investigate a double murder, execution style, in adjoining rooms in a less than salubrious hotel. There appears to be no connection between the victims – one was a member of the Cutlers’ gangland family, the other was an IT Consultant called Barry.

Did the killer shoot Barry, realise they’d made a mistake, and go on to kill Adrian Cutler? It couldn’t be that simple could it? Miller is determined to get to the bottom of it in his own inimitable way.

In order to do so he has to visit, not just the Cutlers, but also another ‘gangster’ Ralph Massey at the Majestic Ballroom and a prostitute (you are not allowed to call them that these days) called Scarlett Ribbons. He enlists the help of homeless girl Finn, his ballroom dancing mates (who are a bit like the Thursday Murder Club), and an ex-crim nicknamed ‘Chesshead’.

This was such fun! Miller is endlessly irritating, Xiu has secrets yet to be revealed, and who killed Alex?

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

Mark Billingham has twice won the Theakston’s Old Peculier Award for Crime Novel of the Year, and has also won a Sherlock Award for the Best Detective created by a British writer. Each of the novels featuring Detective Inspector Tom Thorne has been a Sunday Times bestseller. Sleepyhead and Scaredy Cat were made into a hit TV series on Sky 1 starring David Morrissey as Thorne, and a series based on the novels In the Dark and Time of Death was broadcast on BBC1. Mark lives in north London with his wife and two children.

What’s In My Fridge? by Paul Guy Hurrell

Terry, ten years old, is being bullied at school due to his weight. He particularly hates going to school on Fridays because this is P.E. day.

One Friday, feeling glum as ever at the prospect of going to school, Terry reaches into the fridge for his packed lunch box, and is suddenly pulled into the fridge, thrusted into a magical world where an adventure awaits him. In this strange land that he finds himself in, Terry rides a giant worm, takes the best and worst taxi ride ever, meets a queen and the Tippytappies as well as walking behind the stinking Gobulator all the way to Hope city.

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

After meeting many more different characters on his journey, Terry has learnt a lot about courage and is ready to stand up to the school bully, with a little help from Theodore the dragon and his four baby dragons.

An inspirational children’s story of hope and bravery!

My Review

This book is for all the children who are being bullied, for those who have been bullied in the past, and for their parents who often didn’t know it was going on (I count myself amongst the latter). Sometimes they don’t tell anyone at home in case you go in and tell the teacher and that only makes the bullying worse.

This is what life is like for Terry, every single day. Because Terry is overweight and the other children (one in particular because there is often a ringleader and he or she scares the weaker ones into ganging up to make sure they don’t become the next target) join in. They call him names like fatsuma (because of his orange coat), fatty, lardy, you know the usual stuff. He hates going to school, which is such a shame, because apart from PE which he struggles with, he is a really good student.

Then one day, he has forgotten his packed lunch again – a stalling tactic – but when he opens the fridge to get it, he is pulled into a magical world where he meets all sorts of creatures, like Polly the guide, a family of dragons (the baby dragons are my favourites), talking taxis and the Blue Queen.

The book is a testament to the author’s vivid imagination and will delight young readers and parents everywhere. Even a few bullies may start thinking about their behaviour when they read this book, because they never win in the end. Bravo Terry and others like you. We are on your side.

Thirty plus years ago my youngest son was Terry. It ruined his school experience and coloured his life for years. But just last week he used his size to his advantage and took part in his first novice strongman competition. Where are you now bullies?

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 sibling’s – 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.35
GoodReads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61275107-what-s-in-my-fridge
Buy Links – https://geni.us/cyN1P

Thirty Days of Darkness by Jenny Lund Masden – translated by Megan Turney

A snobbish Danish literary author is challenged to write a crime novel in thirty days, travelling to a small village in Iceland for inspiration, and then the first body appears…

Copenhagen author Hannah is the darling of the literary community and her novels have achieved massive critical acclaim. But nobody actually reads them, and frustrated by writer’s block, Hannah has the feeling that she’s doing something wrong.

#ThirtyDaysOfDarkness @JennyLundMadsen @OrendaBooks #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #BlogTour #NordicNoir

When she expresses her contempt for genre fiction, Hannah is publicly challenged to write a crime novel in thirty days. Scared that she will lose face, she accepts, and her editor sends her to Húsafjörður – a quiet, tight-knit village in Iceland, filled with colourful local characters – for inspiration.

But two days after her arrival, the body of a fisherman’s young son is pulled from the water … and what begins as a search for plot material quickly turns into a messy and dangerous investigation that threatens to uncover secrets that put everything at risk … including Hannah.

My Review

Well this was different, not your average crime novel. But then Danish writer Hannah Krause-Bendix is not your average author. Her books are rather high-brow, literary, full of deeper meaning and she pours scorn on everyday crime writers who she believes have no talent and write books that are formulaic. Especially her arch nemesis Jørn Jensen who churns them out one after another and is making a fortune. And she is not. In fact hardly anyone reads her books.

Following a public spat with Jørn at a book fair (their constant banter is very entertaining), Hannah agrees to a bet. She has to write a crime novel in a month. For peace and inspiration, her editor sends her to Húsafjörður in Iceland, where she will stay with an older lady called Ella. There will be no distractions (apart from the cold and the snow), so she can just get on with it.

So far so good, but then the first body appears. It’s that of a young man, who supposedly drowned, but could it have been something more sinister and could it be material for Hannah’s book.

Hannah is very annoying. Not only is she so up herself she can’t help being arrogant and irritating, but she is also unbelievably nosy. She asks inappropriate questions of just about everybody, and lies about her reasons for doing so. She is told by local police officer Viktor to stay out of it, but that’s like a red rag to a bull. Oh and did I mention she’s an alcoholic.

In poking around she has put herself in danger, but does she heed the warnings? No of course not. What starts as a simple death by misadventure becomes a fabulous Icelandic romp with plenty of intrigue and dark humour. I really enjoyed it.

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

About the Author

Jenny Lund Madsen is one of Denmark’s most acclaimed scriptwriters (including the international hits Rita and Follow the Money) and is known as an advocate for better representation for sexual and ethnic minorities in Danish TV and film. She recently made her debut as a playwright with the critically acclaimed Audition (Aarhus Teater) and her debut literary thriller, Thirty Days of Darkness, first in an addictive new series, won the Harald Mogensen Prize for Best Danish Crime Novel of the year and was shortlisted for the coveted Glass Key Award. She lives in Denmark with her young family.

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.

Arrietty by Abby Davies Cover Reveal

Our loved ones protect us. 

So what if you woke up one day to find yours gone?  Your mum, your friends, your freedom – all gone.  And the one person you trust may be hiding a terrible secret. 

Welcome to Arrietty’s life. 

Here is the fantastic cover for Abby’s new psychological thriller Arrietty:

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 is her third novel.

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

Check out the video clip below:

The Sewing Factory Girls by Posy Lovell Cover Reveal

The Sewing Factory Girls is Posy Lovell’s heartwarming and moving novel inspired by the brave, hardworking women who fought to improve working conditions at the Singer Factory in Clydebank. It is an uplifting and emotional novel of friendship and courage, for readers who enjoy fiction based on real life stories.

Like half of all the young women living in Clydebank in early 1911, Ellen works at the Sewing Machine factory. So does her big sister, Bridget, Bridget’s fiancé Malcolm, and her new friend Sadie, who has recently come back home after the death of her father to help her mum look after her siblings.

For Sadie, the factory is a way to make ends meet. But Ellen has sewing in her veins. She sings in the factory choir, helps organise the gala days and is even making Bridget’s wedding dress on her beloved sewing machine. But after the excitement of the wedding dies down, things take a turn for the worse. Ellen discovers that the work of the cabinet polishers – her job – is to be reorganised, and they will be doing more work for less pay.

Ellen feels like it is a betrayal – the sewing factory is her family and they’ve let her down. Sadie is more pragmatic. But she tells Ellen about trade unions and how at the factory she worked in before, there was a strike. And Ellen gets an idea…

The events of the strike will throw Ellen, Bridget and Sadie’s lives into turmoil but also bring these women closer to each other than they could ever have imagined.

The Sewing Factory Girls will be published on 13th June by @orionbooks. Here is the fab cover to tempt you:

Many thanks to @Tr4cyF3nt0n for inviting me to be part of the cover reveal.

About the Author

Posy Lovell is a pseudonym for British author and journalist Kerry Barrett. Born in Edinburgh, she moved to London as a child with her family. She has a passion for uncovering the role of women in the past. She lives in London with her family and is the author of The Kew Gardens Girls.

The Other Couple by Diane Jeffrey

Two couples. A fatal accident. And a decision that changes everything…

Kirsten and Nick are enjoying a weekend away until, on their drive home, they accidentally run over and kill a man. They should call for help – but they have too much to lose, and no one can know the real reason they’re here. Instead, they make a split-second decision to conceal the accident.

Amy and Greg have just celebrated their tenth wedding anniversary. Amy is expecting a baby, and they couldn’t be happier. So when Greg fails to come home from a dog walk one weekend, Amy knows the police are wrong to believe he left of his own accord. Someone must be behind Greg’s disappearance, and Amy won’t give up until she gets justice – or revenge.

If you had nothing left to lose, how far would you go to find the truth?

My Review

Well this was totally unexpected. I’ve read two other books by this author, but this is way out in front for me. How it starts, one selfish couple – Kirsten and Nick Taylor from London – her an ambitious high end estate agent, him a successful barrister. The ‘other couple’ are Amy and Greg Wood, a primary school teacher and a surfer dude with his own shop. They live in Devon.

The two couples couldn’t be more different. Amy and Greg are very ordinary in comparison to the flashy Taylors. They’ve been married ten years, are expecting a baby, and have a fox-red labrador called Rusty.

One rainy night, Greg takes Rusty out for a walk and doesn’t return. The police think he probably decided to leave her, but why take the dog? Amy on the other hand, knows he wouldn’t have left her. He wasn’t like that. He must have met with an accident, but where is he?

Kirsten and Nick are on their way home from a weekend away, when they run over a man and kill him. They need to call an ambulance, call the police, but that would ruin both their lives. So they make the decision to hide the body and conceal the crime. As you do. But then they have secrets, big ones.

And that’s where it gets really interesting. Never underestimate a woman out for revenge. This was way more exciting than I expected. Because some people will do anything to discover the truth and exact their revenge. Very clever and well thought out. I loved it.

Many thanks to the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

About the Author

Diane Jeffrey is a USA Today bestselling author. She grew up in North Devon and Northern Ireland. She now lives in Lyon, France, with her husband and their three children, Labrador and cat. Diane’s is the author of four psychological thrillers, all of which were Kindle bestsellers in the UK, the USA, Canada and Australia. THE GUILTY MOTHER, Diane’s third book, was a USA Today bestseller and spent several weeks in the top 100 Kindle books in the UK. Her latest psychological thriller, THE SILENT FRIEND, is set in Belfast and Lyon. It was published in ebook in November 2020 with the paperback and audiobook to follow in 2021.

Diane is an English teacher. When she’s not working or writing, she likes swimming, running and reading. She loves chocolate, beer and holidays. Above all, she enjoys spending time with her family and friends. Click on the link to visit Diane’s website: www.dianejeffrey.com

The Little Book of Plants for Pollinators by Maureen Little

Today is my turn on the blog tour, so how appropriate to post an extract and feature on World Bee Day , 20th May 2023.

Maureen Little is an author, gardener and bee-keeper who has worked in horticulture for over 40 years. She has given lectures at RHS Wisley, the Garden Museum in London, the Herb Society and gardening groups and societies nationwide. Maureen has a monthly gardening feature on local community radio Ribble FM. Maureen is a full member of the Garden Media Guild, and the author of The Bee Garden  and The Little Book of Popular Perennials. The Little Book of Plants for Pollinators is her latest book.

Maureen Little knows how important pollinators are and has decided it’s time to share her knowledge of how to draw them in. The Little Book of Plants for Pollinators (out in May) includes a compilation of one hundred plants including annuals and biennials, perennials, shrubs and sub-shrubs, and trees.

So here is an extract to whet your appetite.

Introduction

‘It probably goes without saying – but I make no apology for saying it again – that pollinating insects are vital to our planet’s ecology and economy, and our well-being. Quite simply, without insects our ecosystem would fail. All wildlife depends on pollinating insects to provide food – both in terms of the insects being an integral part of the food chain themselves, but also the seeds, berries and nuts that are the result of pollination and provide food for adult birds and other animals.

‘From an economic point of view, insects are essential for the effective pollination of many commercial crops – apples, strawberries, and oilseed rape, for example.

‘It has been estimated that pollinators of all kinds are responsible for nearly £700 million worth of crops every year in the UK alone. Worldwide, 35% of global crop production is dependent on insect pollinators to some extent. Without them we would be scuppered.

‘Who does not delight in seeing a butterfly flitting from flower to flower, or the steady thrum of bees visiting a lavender bush? And how many pollinators are sources of inspiration for music, literature, art, education, and religion? Such things cannot be given a price tag but without them the world would be a much poorer place.

‘Nearly everyone has heard of Rimsky-Korsakov’s music entitled ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’. Did you know that Grieg wrote a piano piece called ‘The Horsefly and the Fly’; and Nyman has written ‘Where the Bee Dances’ for soprano saxophone?

‘The bad news is that because of a variety of circumstances, including climate change, the use of pesticides, and the loss of natural habitat (to name a few examples), insect pollinators – be they bees, butterflies, moths, true flies, wasps, or beetles – have been in steady decline over many years.

‘A 2017 report from a study in Germany demonstrated that over a period of 27 years, across 63 locations in protected nature reserves, there was a 76% drop in the number of insects recorded. This figure is for all insects, not just pollinators, but the trend is disturbing, to say the least.

‘The good news is that we gardeners can all do something to help. Albeit in a modest way, we can assist in redressing the balance. We may not be able to have an immediate effect on climate change, but we can make a difference by the way we travel, the energy we use, how much we recycle, and the food we eat, for example.

‘We can banish all pesticides from our gardens, and to help compensate for the loss of insects’ natural habitat we can include plants in our gardens that are good for all kinds of pollinators – which is what this book is about.

‘Each of us growing just a handful of pollinator-friendly plants would provide an enormous resource for our insect friends – in fact the phrase ‘Think Globally, Act Locally’ could have been invented for pollinator-friendly gardeners.

‘But how do you choose which plants will be of benefit to pollinators? There are numerous lists of pollinator-friendly plants. But as Garbuzov and Ratnieks point out: ‘A list is only as good as the data that went into it.’ They go on to suggest that: ‘Lists can raise public awareness. […] Therefore, lists of plants recommended to help pollinators via gardens are in a good position to raise awareness, educate, and enthuse a very large audience. As long as future lists state their limitations and encourage their readers to think for themselves and outside the confines of the list, they can be useful tools in communication from scientists to gardeners and conservationists.’

‘This is why I am setting out my ‘plant stall’ now by saying what this book is about and explaining the criteria I have used. I hope the information and suggestions that I give prove useful.’

What This Book Is About

‘As the title says, it is about plants for pollinators. These plants also have to be garden-worthy, and an added criterion is that they should also be suitable for an ‘average’ garden.

‘Let us look at the first criterion – that any plant that I have chosen should be of benefit to pollinators. Not all the plants included in this book are attractive to all pollinators, but I have tried to include a range of plants that will benefit a variety of insect pollinators, including bees (honey bees, bumblebees, and solitary bees), butterflies, moths, flies (including hoverflies), wasps, and beetles. My choices are based on as much scholarly research as possible, existing recommendations, and my observations from when I owned a pollinator-friendly plant nursery.’

If you found this extract interesting, you will love this book. It’s full of facts about bees, butterflies, moths, beetles and other pollinators, and beautiful pictures. It will guide you in your journey to make your garden more pollinator-friendly and help you to understand why this is so important for our future.

As Maureen says: ‘Each of us growing just a handful of pollinator-friendly plants would provide an enormous resource for our insect friends.’

Many thanks to READ Media for inviting me to share an extract from The Little Book of Plants for Pollinators.

Lyrics for the Loved Ones by Anne Goodwin

A fter half a century confined in a psychiatric hospital, Matty has moved to a care home on the Cumbrian coast. Next year, she’ll be a hundred, and she intends to celebrate in style. Yet, before she can make the arrangements, her ‘maid’ goes missing.

Irene, a care assistant, aims to surprise Matty with a birthday visit from the child she gave up for adoption as a young woman. But, when lockdown shuts the care-home doors, all plans are put on hold.

But Matty won’t be beaten. At least not until the Black Lives Matter protests burst her bubble and buried secrets come to light.

Will she survive to a hundred? Will she see her ‘maid’ again? Will she meet her long-lost child? Rooted in injustice, balanced with humour, this is a bittersweet story of reckoning with hidden histories in cloistered times.

Lyrics for the Loved Ones is the stand-alone sequel to Matilda Windsor Is Coming Home.

My Review

I am still reeling from the sheer brilliance of this book. I have previously read Matilda Windsor is Coming Home, which I thoroughly enjoyed (though parts were difficult for me to read – you can see my review for the reasons) and Stolen Summers, but Lyrics for the Loved Ones is in a league of its own.

I confess it did take me a while to work out who was who and the relationships between eg Gloria, Tim and Brendan, Wesley and Oh My Darling (Clementine), Denise aka Mrs Jefferson and Goodnight Irene and Scarlett, who Matty calls Bluebell etc. Then there are the Loved Ones ie the rezzies (residents), their rellies (relatives) and all the other names for the various characters. I loved the names. I tried to work out the connections with Matilda Windsor, but could only remember Irene and her relationship with Matty’s brother Henry.

Approaching her hundredth birthday, Matty’s celebration is put in jeopardy with the arrival of Covid. The nursing home in Cumbria is in lockdown, along with the rest of the country, the Loved Ones mostly confined to their rooms. No visitors allowed, insufficient PPE, hospitals and the NHS overwhelmed, we were told to stay home and only go outside to exercise for a maximum of one hour a day. And self-isolate if elderly or clinically vulnerable. I shudder to think about it.

Down in Bristol, Tim and Brendan are about to get married. But Tim’s mum Gloria doesn’t know about Tim’s illness, while she keeps secrets from him. How does this connect with Matty 300 miles away? I was quite a way into the book before this began to make sense. Then suddenly it all became clear.

At times very emotional, at others filled with warmth and humour, it’s so beautifully written, it’s stunning. It will stay with me for a long time and is one of my favourite books of the year so far.

Many thanks to the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

About the Author

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.

Anne writes about the darkness that haunts her and is wary of artificial light. She makes stuff up to tell the truth about adversity, creating characters to care about and stories to make you think. She explores identity, mental health and social justice with compassion, humour and hope.

An award-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.

Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.

Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

Purchase links
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Books2Read.com
Google Books

One Puzzling Afternoon by Emily Critchley

On a suburban street filled with secrets, 84 year old Edie Green must look back into the past to discover what happened to her friend Lucy, who went missing years before . . .

A mystery she can’t remember. A friend she can’t forget.

I kept your secret Lucy. I’ve kept it for more than sixty years . . .

It is 1951, and at number six Sycamore Street fifteen-year-old Edie Green is lonely. Living alone with her eccentric mother – who conducts seances for the local Ludthorpe community – she is desperate for something to shake her from her dull, isolated life.

#OnePuzzlingAfternoon @EmilyMCritchley @ZaffreBooks @Tr4cyF3nt0n #CompulsiveReaders #blogtour

When the popular, pretty Lucy Theddle befriends Edie, she thinks all her troubles are over. But Lucy has a secret, one Edie is not certain she should keep . . .

Then Lucy goes missing.

2018. Edie is eighty-two and still living in Ludthorpe. When one day she glimpses Lucy Theddle, still looking the same as she did at fifteen, her family write it off as one of her many mix ups. There’s a lot Edie gets confused about these days. A lot she finds difficult to remember. But what she does know is this: she must find out what happened to Lucy, all those years ago . . .

My Review

What an emotional read. Oh my God! 84-year-old Edie lives with dementia and the passages where she is struggling to separate the past from the present are heart-breaking. At times she doesn’t recognise her own son Daniel or even her beloved granddaughter Amy.

It’s 2018 and Edie has just seen her friend Lucy, looking the same as she did when they were teenagers. But it can’t be real because Lucy vanished in 1951 and was never seen again. And Edie is determined to find out what happened to her, if only she could remember. For some of my buddy readers, who have personal experience of dementia, this was often hard to read.

The story is written in two timelines – 2018 and 1951. As Edie remembers more snippets of information relating to her friendship with Lucy, what actually happened is revealed bit by bit through the flashbacks. I’m not always a fan of flashbacks, but this is different.

In 1951, Edie lives with her mum, who conducts séances and is a bit of a local celebrity, and her dreadful step-father Reg. What a horrible man! She attends the local school along with Lucy and wants to stay on and study so she can become a teacher. Only that wasn’t the usual path girls from families like hers took – they ended up working at the undergarment factory.

Lucy, on the other hand, comes from a well-off family – her father is the mayor – so why is she friends with Edie? Well, Edie knows Lucy’s secrets, so it’s a bit of a friendship of necessity on Lucy’s part, and flattery on Edie’s.

Such a beautiful, well-written story – I simply adored it.

Many thanks to @Tr4cyF3nt0n for inviting me to be part of the #CompulsiveReaders #blogtour and also to The Pigeonhole, the author and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read.

About the Author

Emily Critchley grew up in Essex. She has lived in Brighton and London and now lives in Hertfordshire where she works as a librarian. She has a first class BA in Creative Writing from London Metropolitan University and an MA with distinction in Creative Writing from Birkbeck University of London. Her YA debut Notes on my Family was nominated for the Carnegie, long listed for the Branford Boase, and book of the week in the Sunday Times, and her middle grade novel The Bear who Sailed the Ocean on an Iceberg was published in October 2021, both by independent publisher Everything With Words. One Puzzling Afternoon is her debut adult novel.

The Dark Is Always Waiting by TJ Brearton

A PUBLIC SHOOTING

After surviving a public shooting and saving someone in the process, Alex Baines’s life is forever altered. His marriage hangs by a thread. His leg is shattered from a bullet wound. And evidence is piling up that the attack was not random…

A GUNMAN WITH SECRETS

State Investigator Raquel Roth has never seen a case like this. A criminal who makes major mistakes, yet seems to have a master plan. And is someone pulling his strings?

A WOMAN WHO WOULD DO ANYTHING TO KEEP HER FAMILY SAFE

Corrine Baines begins to worry someone is after her and her children, too. Everyone becomes a suspect in the plot to hurt her husband — who can she trust?

While the investigators race to prevent a terrifying new development in the case, Alex must confront the man who tried to kill him.

And Corrine must fight for her life… and the life of her children.

THE DARK IS ALWAYS WAITING is a crime thriller that will make you question what’s real until the very end, from one twist to the next. Find out the truth and start reading! *This book was previously published as Breathing Fire, but has been completely revised into this definitive version.

My Review

OMG this was brilliant. I think this is the seventh or eighth book I have read by this author (one still to be published for which I was a beta reader) and maybe – probably – my favourite. There I said it.

I read it in two days on holiday. I love a good crime novel with a bit of religion chucked in the mix.

Dr Alex Baines is a neuroscientist, who lectures on science versus religion, has a podcast and has published four books. As far as he is concerned science can be proved using evidence, while religion is based on faith and therefore unproven. Unfortunately this isn’t popular with right-wing religious fundamentalists of both Islam and Christianity. They believe he is the portent of doom, and the reason why the world is going to hell in a handcart (except he doesn’t of course believe in hell).

So when he is almost shot and then wounded in the leg while saving someone’s life at a public appearance, his life changes forever. But was this a random attack or an act of domestic terrorism? And if it is personal, does that mean that his wife Corrine, and children Kenneth and Freda could also be in danger? And who can Corrine trust? Almost no-one it would seem. Can she even trust her own husband?

For State Investigator Raquel Roth, the case takes on twist after twist where everyone is a suspect. This is not your average perp – he doesn’t seem to care that he is in custody. Then one surprising turn of events that involves Alex confronting the gunman is totally outside everyone’s experience. Should he do it?

This was such an exciting read. I was sorry when it finished. I really loved everything about this book. My only question left at the end – do we agree with Alex? Or are we on the side of religion?

Many thanks to the author and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for a review.

About the Author

T.J. Brearton’s books have reached half a million readers around the world and have topped the Amazon charts in the US, UK, Canada and Australia. A graduate of the New York Film Academy in Manhattan, Brearton first worked in film before focusing on novels. His books are visually descriptive with sharp dialogue and underdog heroes. When not writing, Brearton does whatever his wife and three children tell him to do. They live happily in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. Yes, there are bears in the Adirondacks. But it’s really quite beautiful when you’re not running for your life.