Veronika Jordan's Blog, page 72

The Volunteers by Cat On A Piano / Theatrephonic

The Volunteers – we give consent.

The angels arrive in a flying box. Every three or four generations. They take a number of willing volunteers from the colony. They have consent.
But what happens to them afterwards?

A short story written by Silvandar
Directed by Emmeline Braefield

Narrated by Ashley Shiers

Produced by Cat on a Piano Productions 

Music:
Starcrasher by TrackTribe
Into the Void by TrackTribe
Away by Patrick Patrikios

The Theatrephonic Theme tune was composed by Jackson Pentland
Performed by
Jackson Pentland
Mollie Fyfe Taylor
Emmeline Braefield

Cat on a Piano Productions produce and edit feature films, sketches and radio plays.

Their latest project is called @Theatrephonic, a podcast of standalone radio plays and short stories performed by professional actors. You can catch Theatrephonic on Spotify and other platforms.

For more information about the Theatrephonic Podcast, go to catonapiano.uk/theatrephonic, Tweet or Instagram @theatrephonic, or visit their Facebook page.

And if you really enjoyed this week’s episode, listen to Theatrephonic’s other plays and short stories and consider becoming a patron by clicking here…

Into The Woods by Lorraine Murphy

A lost child. A broken marriage. A ticking time bomb.
 
Karen will do anything for her eight-year-old daughter, Scarlett. Even holding together a marriage that is way past broken.
 
So when Scarlett disappears from their rural home, Karen is one hundred percent focused on a single goal – finding her little girl as soon as possible.

#IntoTheWoods @MurphyLorr @inkubatorbooks @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour

And time is of the essence. Because Scarlett is profoundly deaf and would live in utter silence if it wasn’t for her high-tech hearing aids. Karen knows that within hours their batteries will run out, leaving her daughter even more isolated and vulnerable.

As the search for Scarlett intensifies, shocking secrets are revealed and Karen realises she may have to look for answers closer to home.

When the reason for Scarlett’s disappearance finally becomes clear, Karen finds she is living her own worst nightmare – her daughter is in deadly danger and time is running out.

My Review

A short, sharp book, so scary and atmospheric – at times I was almost too nervous to read on. Not helped by the fact that I have an eight-year-old granddaughter named Scarlett. Should I peek at the end to see what happens? I admit I’ve done this when there is a dog in the story, just to make sure it survives. Did I peek? I’m not saying.

Into The Woods is written from the point of view of three different characters, including Karen, Scarlett’s mum and her husband Paddy. Karen is not always likeable, but naturally we have sympathy for her situation.

Husband Paddy is a prat. I’m sorry but there’s not really much else I can say about him. In fact both Karen and Paddy are too obsessed with work. Paddy is never at home – he’s always away in London – and Karen is always on her phone, organising her next venture and living out her life on social media. Paddy never goes online. I wonder why.

A year ago, Karen spoke publicly about her early thoughts on motherhood. She admitted that she didn’t really want children, and talked about the depression she suffered as a result of everything that had happened to her, including Scarlett being born prematurely at 26 weeks and being profoundly deaf. And because of something she said, the backlash was enormous and venomous and she claims she was ‘cancelled’.

When Scarlett disappeared, Karen was so busy on the phone that she hadn’t realised her daughter was missing for over an hour. Paddy, of course, wasn’t there, and he hadn’t seen Scarlett since he left for London that morning. A perfect excuse to blame each other.

There is so much tension in their marriage, you wonder how they are still together. You could cut the atmosphere with a knife, something which is not lost on the police officers who are there to search for Scarlett. And it’s a race against time, as once the batteries in Scarlett’s cochlear implants run out, she will no longer hear anything and she will be terrified.

This was such a brilliant book. Full of tension and malice. Parts were almost unbearable to read. Just let it be said that no dogs were hurt in the making of this story. I can’t say any more…

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

About the Author

Lorraine Murphy takes everyday situations and twists them into terrifying tales. She is the author of Into the Woods and numerous published, and winning, flash fiction stories. A software engineer by profession, she’s had many careers including slimming club leader, adult educator, charity co-founder, chairperson, activist and entrepreneur. As a teenager, she adored Stephen King and later found herself on the jury of an infamous murder trial.

When she’s not writing, Lorraine is always into something, whether it be competing in/for her local Toastmasters club or jumping out of a fully functional airplane. She lives in Westmeath, Ireland with her husband Brendan and three taller children.

Into The Woods is her first psychological thriller with Inkubator Books.

Follow her at:
Twitter : https://twitter.com/MurphyLorr
Website : http://www.lorraineamurphy.com/

Buy Link – https://geni.us/VqrvU

Painted Fire by Mark Fowler

Actress Kate Tolle falls victim to an illness that baffles the medical world.

In desperation her husband Ben appeals to the public, and an anonymous benefactor comes forward. Soon the couple find themselves on a flight bound for San Francisco. Where the enigmatic Merle is waiting.

#PaintedFire @MFowlerAuthor @SpellBoundBks @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour

Kate’s health appears to improve as people around her die horrifically. Merle tells Ben that healing comes at a price and questions what he’s willing to pay.

But what does Merle want? And what is the chilling truth waiting out in the desert … in Las Vegas and beyond?

My Review

This was a very bizarre book. It’s kind of a thriller, but then again it’s not. It’s a murder mystery, but only in as much as people get murdered. It’s fantasy, but only if you believe in Merle. I was very slightly reminded of Mr Wednesday in Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, and the way Ben and Kate just follow Merle from California to Nevada and meet his ‘friends’. Everywhere they go, everyone seems to know him.

But back to the beginning. Kate has fallen victim to a mysterious illness and no-one in the UK knows what is wrong with her or how to cure it. She has terrible, dark nightmares and is getting weaker all the time. Then they get an offer from an anonymous benefactor to go to America and soon become celebrity news. So off they go to San Francisco to meet the person who is going to help Kate.

While staying in a very expensive hotel, paid for of course by the benefactor, Ben leaves Kate for a few minutes to go and get a drink in the bar. And it’s there that he meets Merle for the first time. A tiny figure (again I visualise Neil Gaiman’s leprechaun) though this one is dressed in a white suit, with a buttonhole and bow tie. The latter appear to change colour every time Ben sees him, but the white suit never does.

‘The buttonhole and bow tie alone continued to defy expectations, now becoming a blue so deep and dark that it threatened at any moment to proclaim itself midnight.’

So is Merle a kind person trying to help Ben and Kate or does he have a more sinister agenda? And does he really have the power he claims?

‘Was this man unhinged, dangerous, or just having fun at the expense of some innocent abroad?’

That’s for me to know and you to find out, as they say. Painted Fire is a superbly written book and the author has a wonderful way with words. This has to be one of my favourite examples.

‘The place hummed with death, was alive with death.’ What a great phrase that is!

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

About the Author

Mark writes detective crime fiction, and psychological and supernatural thrillers. He is the author of the popular Tyler & Mills detective crime series set in Staffordshire. RED IS THE COLOUR was shortlisted for the 2018 Arnold Bennett Prize and begins with the grim discovery of a schoolboy who disappeared thirty years earlier. BLUE MURDER involves a missing singer and a murdered guitarist, elevating an obscure band to sudden fame and fortune. THE DEVIL WORE BLACK unveils the mystery of a crucified priest. The latest book in the series, THE SMELL OF COPPER, finds Tyler out on a limb as the detectives uncover high level police corruption. All the books can be read as standalone crime novels.

Other detective mysteries include THE BATHROOM MURDERS. A series of women are found hacked to death while taking a shower. This is the first in a new series set in Manchester, featuring female detective Charlie Reed. TWIST has the eponymous private investigator returning, against his better judgement, to the city of nightmares to look into the strange case of a dead philosophy student. THE MAN UPSTAIRS introduces hard boiled Frank Miller, discovering he’s a fictional detective and that his author is plotting to kill him.

Mark also writes psychological and supernatural thrillers. SILVER finds journalist and crime writer Nick Slater obsessed with an unpublished manuscript that a best-selling author was working on when she was murdered, and which her family refuse to publish. SEXTET explores the twisted rivalry between twin sisters, the weird games they played as children, and the rising murder rate in a small English town. COFFIN MAKER is a gothic tale. Death is sent two apprentices amid warnings from an out-of-favour priest that the devil has arrived on Earth. Mark’s latest book PAINTED FIRE finds a writer travelling to America’s West Coast in a desperate bid to find a cure for a baffling illness afflicting his wife. An anonymous benefactor has offered to help, but at what price?

Follow him at:

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/marklfowlerauthor
Twitter : https://twitter.com/MFowlerAuthor
Instagram :https://www.instagram.com/markfowler8780/

Buy Links – https://geni.us/Yfqb

The Last Supper by Rosemary Shrager

The irresistible debut novel from celebrity TV chef Rosemary Shrager where cosy crime and cookery collide!

When an old television rival, Deirdre Shaw, is found dead at the Cotswolds manor house where she was catering for a prestigious shooting weekend, Prudence is asked to step into the breach. Prudence is only too happy to take up the position and soon she is working in the kitchens of Farleigh Manor.

But Farleigh Manor is the home to secrets, both old and new. The site of a famous unsolved murder from the nineteenth century, Farleigh Manor has never quite shaken off its sensationalist past. It’s about to get a sensational present too. Because, the more she scratches beneath the surface of this manor and its guests, the more Prudence becomes certain that Deirdre Shaw’s death was no accident. She’s staring in the face of a very modern murder. . 

My Review

It’s all a bit too cosy for me – I prefer my crime to be really dark and grisly – but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Probably more so because I was reading with my online book club and we had a laugh exchanging comments. Nothing really original here, but entertaining nonetheless.

First the negatives and then I’ll move on to the positives and there were a lot. As a vegetarian, I found the food they were serving at the manor really stomach-churning. Sorry, but that’s just me and I know many people who would love to chomp down on raw venison and hung pheasant, accompanied by heart-attack inducing sauces. But I’ll have the raspberry roulade for dessert please. And the recipe.

Then there is Prudence herself. I hate it when sixty-somethings are always made out to be IT dinosaurs. I’m slightly younger than Rosemary and older than Prudence and I can still give many of my colleagues a run for their money on the computers at work. ‘Ask Veronika to show you how to use the new software – she’s the expert,’ my colleague was told by the 30-year old in support. How refreshing it would be for Prudence to say to Suki, ‘move over, let the ‘expert’ check it out on the iPad, mobile phone (why is it always an overpriced iPhone?). We all became experts when we found out many years ago that we could order shoes online.

Then there’s granddaughter Suki, giving the reader the impression that all teenagers do is get drunk and stay in bed till lunchtime….OK, maybe I’ll park that one for now.

And Numbers. Irritating name, irritating way of speaking – just irritating all round. In fact I probably preferred the guests and that’s really saying something.

So to the positives. it’s fun, it’s entertaining, it had some clever twists and some ghastly, well-written characters amongst the guests. It’s set in the beautiful Cotswolds, where I live (though a reference or two to a town I recognise is always fun). It’s a great choice for a book club or to read on the plane. It’s a quick read and not taxing on the brain. It’s just a bit formulaic. Would I read the next book in the series? Maybe. Would I watch it on TV? Definitely. Just get Prudence to do a crash course in computers at a local community centre first.

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

About the Author

National treasure Rosemary Shrager endeared herself to the nation when she took part in I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! where she proved she could cook just about anything, anywhere. Her most recent tv appearances have been equally well received – Netflix’s Best Leftovers Ever!, Cooking with the Stars, where Rosemary mentored Johnny Vegas throughout the series , and Fishing Scotland’s Lochs and Rivers for Channel 5.

First and foremost Rosemary is a talented and versatile chef who loves talking about food almost as much as she loves cooking. During lockdown she began her own online demonstrations on Facebook and YouTube, and she has now begun her own virtual cookery school, details for which are on http://www.rosemaryshrager.com.

When not teaching and cooking, Rosemary avidly reads and watches crime fiction, so much so that she wondered whether she had it in her to write a book in which crime and cookery collide… and The Last Supper is the winning result, introducing Rosemary to a new crime readership who in turn will be treated to several more outings with retired celebrity chef Prudence Bulstrode over the coming years.

Cover Reveal – One Moment by Becky Hunter

An emotional, heart-wrenching and uplifting debut about friendship, love and sacrifice, perfect for fans of David Nicholls and Holly Miller.

One moment in time can change everything…

The day Scarlett dies should have been one of the most important of her life. It doesn’t feel fair that she’ll never have the chance to fulfil her dreams. And now, she’s still … here … somehow, watching the ripple effect of her death on the lives of those she loved the most and unable to do anything about it.

@Bookish_Becky (Twitter) and @beckyhunterbooks (Instagram)
@CorvusBooks (Twitter) and @atlanticbooks (Instagram)
#RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours

Scarlett’s best friend Evie cannot contemplate her life without Scarlett, and she certainly cannot forgive Nate, the man she blames for her best friend’s death. But Nate keeps popping up when she least expects him to, catapulting Evie’s life in directions she’d never let herself imagine possible. Ways, perhaps, even those closest to her had long since given up on.

If you could go back, knowing everything that happens after, everything that happens because of that one moment in time, would you change the course of history or would you do it all again?

Here is the fabulous cover. The book is published by Atlantic / Corvus on 2 March 2023

Becky Hunter worked for many years in London in the publishing industry, before taking a career break in Mozambique, where she volunteered with horses and decided to give writing a go. She now works as a freelance book publicist. One Moment is her debut novel.

Broken Screams by Sally Rigby

Scream all you want, no one can hear you….

When an attempted murder is linked to a string of unsolved sexual attacks, Detective Chief Inspector Whitney Walker is incensed. All those women who still have sleepless nights because the man who terrorises their dreams is still on the loose.

#BrokenScreams @SallyRigby4 #CavendishandWalker Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour

Calling on forensic psychologist Dr Georgina Cavendish to help, they follow the clues and are alarmed to discover the victims all had one thing in common. Their birthdays were on the 29th February. The same date as a female officer on Whitney’s team.

As the clock ticks down and they’re no nearer to finding the truth, can they stop the villain before he makes sure his next victim will never scream again.

Broken Screams is the twelfth book in the acclaimed Cavendish & Walker series.

My Review

This will be my fifth Sally Rigby blog tour! Sally is one of my favourite crime fiction authors featuring one of my favourite duos – Cavendish and Walker. As I’ve said before, you know it’s going to be short, sharp, pacy detective fiction at its best.

This time we have a serious sexual assault in the park. The victim was not only raped, she was punched in the face, threatened and a leather glove pushed over her mouth. She also had marks around her neck as if someone had attempted to strangle her. She managed to get away, but the next victim might not be so lucky.

It turns out though, that she was one of a string of victims, over a period of eighteen months, each one getting more violent. All of them were born on the 29th February, the only link between them. Will the rapist strike again and who will be the next victim? Police Officer Meena Singh, who recently joined Whitney’s team, shares the same birthday. Could she be on his ‘list’?

Detective Chief Inspector Whitney Walker and forensic psychologist Dr Georgina Cavendish could have only days before the killer strikes again, but where do they even start. No witnesses, no motive and no DNA. It’s going to be a nightmare to solve but that has never stopped them in the past.

Another rollicking good ride from this author, hopefully there will be lots more to come. And when are we going to see them on TV please?

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

About the Author

Sally Rigby was born in Northampton, in the UK. She has always had the travel bug, and after living in both Manchester and London, eventually moved overseas. From 2001 she has lived with her family in New Zealand (apart from five years in Australia), which she considers to be the most beautiful place in the world.

After writing young adult fiction for many years, under a pen name, Sally decided to move into crime fiction. Her Cavendish & Walker series brings together two headstrong, and very different, women – DCI Whitney Walker, and forensic psychologist Dr Georgina Cavendish. Sally has a background in education, and has always loved crime fiction books, films and TV programmes. She has a particular fascination with the psychology of serial killers.

Follow her at:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sally-Rigby-131414630527848
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sally.rigby.author/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SallyRigby4

Buy Links – https://geni.us/Bik4k

Don’t Leave by Pru Heathcote

JANE is a young woman grieving for her child, who is taken to a remote holiday cottage on the Northumberland coast.

From the moment she arrives at the cottage with her much older and over-protective husband, Peter, Jane keeps catching glimpses of a little girl and hearing a child crying.

#DontLeave #PruHeathcote @RedDragonbooks @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour

Peter is convinced these are hallucinations, as Jane has been diagnosed with schizophrenia – a diagnosis she doesn’t agree with.

She sets out to discover who or what the child could be.
A ghost?
A real child?
Or something else?

My Review

I loved this book. I read it in about three sittings and would have read it in one go if I had been on holiday. And I would NEVER have guessed the reality of what was happening in a million years.

Following the tragic death of Jane and Peter’s young daughter Angela, Peter decides that it would do Jane good to give up work for a while and spend some time in a cottage by the sea in a remote location off the coast of Northumberland. They will be away from everyone and everything and Jane will be able to come to terms with her loss.

But no sooner have they arrived that strange things begin to happen. Peter believes that her sightings, visitations, whatever you wish to call them, are hallucinations, caused by her diagnosis of schizophrenia. Except Jane disagrees with the diagnosis and even stops taking her medication as it makes her groggy. And Jane believes the little girl in the red Minnie Mouse top is real.

She sees her everywhere – through the window, in the garden, on the beach. She asks her peculiar next-door neighbour Mrs Mortimer (who Jane and Peter call Morticia) if anyone has a child staying with them nearby, as she is worried that she may be in danger out alone so close to the cliffs.

It’s a mystery, but then so is Mrs Mortimer. Her cottage is the other half of theirs (it was originally one house) and she does the cleaning and tidying for each new holiday tenant on behalf of the landlord. Her backstory is as interesting as Jane’s hauntings.

This book is so good. Intriguing, a little scary at times (though not too much), ghostly and creepy.

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

From the Author

‘I’ve always loved telling stories and putting them down on paper as soon as I could write. I began my working life in Hertfordshire as a local newspaper reporter – obits, weddings, Uncle George’s Kiddies’ Corner – then went on to teenage magazines (Fab and Rave) and women’s magazines.

‘I moved to Northumberland forty years ago and worked as an adult education tutor, teaching any subject I didn’t need a qualification for, including creative writing.

‘Over the years I’ve written dozens of stories for magazines, a commissioned biography, and several plays, one of which was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe. It was one of my plays that formed the basis for my novel Don’t Leave, winning entry in the 2020 Lindisfarne Prize, written during the first Lockdown.’

‘I’m married, with three grown-up children and two grandchildren. I live in Warkworth, a village on the Northumberland coast, an area that provides most of the inspiration for my stories.’

Follow her at:
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/pru.heathcote

Buy Link – https://geni.us/e7fKV

Absent Victim by David Roy

No body, no motive, no name…so who did she kill?

When wealthy divorcee Stephanie Kuler asked a private detective to investigate a murder, he told her to go to the police instead. But when she told the rest of the story, he took the case.

#AbsentVictim @DavidRo02674885 @hobart_books @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour

There was no body, no reason to kill and no name for her supposed victim, but she knew she was the murderer. Solving the mystery meant jail for her and a headache for him.

Premonition, false memories, deja vu…the mind playing tricks or reality distorted through time?

The unmissable new thriller from David Roy explores the dark side of memory and its impact on us all.

My Review

A very different book I have to say, but entertaining and totally unique. Wealthy divorcee Stephanie Kuler hires a private detective (the narrator whose name is never mentioned) to investigate a murder which she claims to have committed. However, there is no victim to name, no body, and no date when it took place, or where.

Sometimes it is a brilliant murder mystery, while at other times it is a way for the author to put forward his own, sometimes controversial, views:

‘The news was full of stories of protest, the rhetoric of BLM given over to a struggle with anyone whose views might differ. It was peaceful protestors versus right-wing thugs, The press and television media had created the story they wanted and now it was just a case of ensuring the protagonists acted it out for them.’

He says how Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela never resorted to these tactics. Then he mentions Brexit, but I never really got whether he was pro or anti. I got the impression maybe pro, but he didn’t seem like a Brexiteer.

There are also lots of references to the Troubles in Northern Ireland where the book is set. Once again the narrator can be very politically incorrect, particularly in his view of the types of people who do, or believe, certain things.

But the main thread running through the whole book is that of the pandemic. It is set during the first year of lockdown, pre-vaccinations and even pre-masks. And Boris and co on TV every night giving us instructions on what we must do to stay safe. Little did we know who would be the worst rule-breakers later on. Everyone is social-distancing, in theory, though there are plenty who don’t.

Then there is Billy, also ex-army like our narrator and his ‘Billy-isms’, his strange way of speaking. Zombies (a bit of a Billy obsession) are ‘a fig roll‘ of his imagination, he says Gongle instead of Google and that he was waiting for some fish to come home to roost. There are also the names he uses for everyday objects such as the interweb machine (computer), corporate transport module (bus), linked corporate transport module (train) or individual transport module, ITM for short (car). Sometimes I have to admit, I didn’t get the relevance.

I loved the narrator’s comedy take on things. It was just like the banter I have with my younger son, my one daughter-in-law and a colleague at work. Others often don’t get it. In the book only Stephanie’s friend Georgina is totally on his wavelength and I really enjoyed their interactions.

A highly recommended, interesting read.

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

About the Author

David Roy was born in Bangor, Northern Ireland in the mid ’60s. After a number of years in the army he left a life in uniform to read for a degree, ultimately qualifying as a secondary school teacher.   He is the author of many books, the first written in 1994 as an account of his service in the first Gulf War. His book ‘The Lost Man’, the first of his Ted Dexter adventures, featured on ITV ‘The Alan Titchmarsh Show’; where it was shortlisted in The People’s Novelist competition. 

As well as being a soldier, David has been a dishwasher, a teacher, a civil servant, a security guard, a welfare assistant and an ambulance crew member. He is married and now lives in the north of England with his wife and two daughters.

Follow him at:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigdaveroy/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DavidRo02674885 

Buy Link – https://geni.us/PYFx

On The Scent by Cat On A Piano / Theatrephonic

Sniffing out the culprits.
‘Two sugars please, love.’

My absolute favourites these two. I’ve followed their adventures from the start and they are just brilliant. And how would Arthur solve the latest crime of the stolen perfume without Deirdre’s help?

Written by Barbara Jennings
Directed by @EBraefield

Helen Fullerton @HelenFullyActor as Diedre Meadowes
and
Jonathan Legg @Jondlegg as DI Arthur Meadowes

Produced by Cat on a Piano Productions

Music:
I Have a Reservation by TrackTribe
Get Yer Glow byt Dan Lebowitz
Spring in my Step by Silent Partner

The Theatrephonic Theme tune was composed by Jackson Pentland
Performed by
Jackson Pentland
Mollie Fyfe Taylor
Emmeline Braefield

Cat on a Piano Productions produce and edit feature films, sketches and radio plays.

Their latest project is called @Theatrephonic, a podcast of standalone radio plays and short stories performed by professional actors. You can catch Theatrephonic on Spotify and other platforms.

For more information about the Theatrephonic Podcast, go to catonapiano.uk/theatrephonic, Tweet or Instagram @theatrephonic, or visit their Facebook page.

And if you really enjoyed this week’s episode, listen to Theatrephonic’s other plays and short stories and consider becoming a patron by clicking here…

The Girl In The Photo by Heidi Amsinck (A Jensen Thriller #2)

Not all little old ladies are so innocent …

When ninety-year-old Irene Valborg is found brutally murdered in an affluent suburb of Copenhagen, her diamond necklace missing, it looks like a burglary gone wrong. When two more victims are attacked, the police lament a rise in violence against the elderly, but who is the young girl in the photo found by DI Henrik Jungersen on the scenes of crime?

Impatient to claim her inheritance, Irene’s daughter hires former Dagbladet reporter Jensen and her teenage apprentice Gustav to find the necklace. Questioning his own sanity, while trying to fix his marriage, Henrik finds himself once more pitched in a quest for the truth against Jensen – the one woman in Copenhagen he is desperate to avoid.

My Review

It all starts with the brutal murder of a little old lady in her mansion in an affluent district of Copenhagen. Bashed over the head with an ornamental elephant. Her Alsatian, Samson, is tied up in the garden and her house is like a fortress. So how did the killer get in and why is the dog well-fed and watered?

Just the first in a series of murders, two more elderly people – one on his allotment, the other in a nursing home. But how are they connected, or are they? A photo was left near the victims, though not in full view. Is it the same girl in the photos and what does it have to do with the murders?

This is the second novel in the Jensen Thriller series and it gets better and better. Jensen is almost as annoying as she was in the first book, though I liked her a lot more this time. DI Henrik Jungersen is still a slob, loud, rude and a bit of a creep where women are concerned. Following his affair with Jensen in book one, his wife has thrown him out and he is living at the office. I don’t know what Jensen ever saw in him.

But fellow Pigeon’s favourite character is still seventeen-year-old Gustav, all gangly legs and insatiable appetite. Typical teenager then. But he has a dark secret (he was expelled from school because of it) and no-one is talking. Jensen, with her investigative journalist’s hat on, is determined to find out.

However, there is so much more to this story. Another couple of threads run through it, which are no doubt setting up book three. I can’t wait!

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

About the Author

Heidi Amsinck, a writer and journalist born in Copenhagen, spent many years covering Britain for the Danish press, including a spell as London Correspondent for the broadsheet daily Jyllands-Posten. She has written numerous short stories for radio, including the three-story sets Danish Noir, Copenhagen Confidential and Copenhagen Curios, all produced by Sweet Talk for BBC Radio 4. A graduate of the MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London, Heidi lives in London. She was previously shortlisted for the VS Pritchett Memorial Prize. Last Train to Helsingør is her first published collection of stories. Her crime novel My Name is Jensen, set in Copenhagen, was published in August 2021. The Girl In The Photo is the second in the series.