Veronika Jordan's Blog, page 78

No Less The Devil by Stuart McBride

‘We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.’

It’s been seventeen months since the Bloodsmith butchered his first victim and Operation Maypole is still no nearer to catching him. The media is whipping up a storm, the top brass are demanding results, but the investigation is sinking fast.

Now isn’t the time to get distracted with other cases, but Detective Sergeant Lucy McVeigh doesn’t have much choice. When Benedict Strachan was just eleven, he hunted down and killed a homeless man. No one’s ever figured out why Benedict did it, but now, after sixteen years, he’s back on the streets again – battered, frightened, convinced a shadowy ‘They are out to get him’ and begging Lucy for help.

It sounds like paranoia, but what if he’s right? What if he really is caught up in something bigger and darker than Lucy’s ever dealt with before? What if the Bloodsmith isn’t the only monster out there? And what’s going to happen when Lucy goes after them?

My Review

I really don’t know what to say about this. It started out as a five-star read and I was very excited to read on. I did find DS Lucy’s McVeigh’s behaviour slightly odd at times and when we discover why she is suffering from PTSD, we begin to understand, though certain things about how she dealt with it made me wonder how she is still a police officer. There is a difference between justice and revenge.

Her sidekick Duncan ‘The Dunk’ Fraser is brilliant, always having a go at the posh twats with his very left-wing politics. I get the feeling the author is trying to tell us something through Dunk.

Lucy and Dunk are trying to catch a serial killer nicknamed the Bloodsmith, who has committed the most heinous of crimes, gutting his victims, leaving their entrails hanging out and taking their organs with him as souvenirs. It couldn’t get any worse if Jack the Ripper had been his accomplice.

We also have two parallel murders of homeless men. The book actually begins with an eleven-year old girl called Allegra and her friend Hugo killing the unknown ‘Malcolm’ with horrifying ferocity. Sixteen years ago Benedict Strachan also killed a homeless man with the help of an unknown accomplice. Benedict is now out of prison and Lucy seems more obsessed with him than with catching the Bloodsmith.

And this is where it all changed. About three quarters of the way through, the book became more about Lucy than the crimes – her childhood, her PTSD, her doubts in her own sanity, her delusions – and I began to lose patience.

So I’m sorry but the last quarter just didn’t work for me, which is a shame because it started so well. Brilliant characters, hilarious banter between the officers, great descriptions and everything you could want from a crime novel. So what happened? I’ve no idea. Maybe it just got too weird. I’m still giving it four stars though as the writing is great and I’m sure many readers will love the twist.

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

About the Author in his own words

The life and times of a bearded write-ist.

Stuart MacBride (that’s me) was born in Dumbarton — which is Glasgow as far as I’m concerned — moving up to Aberdeen at the tender age of two, when fashions were questionable. Nothing much happened for years and years and years: learned to play the recorder, then forgot how when they changed from little coloured dots to proper musical notes (why the hell couldn’t they have taught us the notes in the first bloody place? I could have been performing my earth-shattering rendition of ‘Three Blind Mice’ at the Albert Hall by now!); appeared in some bizarre World War Two musical production; did my best to avoid eating haggis and generally ran about the place a lot.

Next up was an elongated spell in Westhill — a small suburb seven miles west of Aberdeen — where I embarked upon a mediocre academic career, hindered by a complete inability to spell and an attention span the length of a gnat’s doodad.

And so to UNIVERSITY, far too young, naive and stupid to be away from the family home, sharing a subterranean flat in one of the seedier bits of Edinburgh with a mad Irishman, and four other bizarre individuals. The highlight of walking to the art school in the mornings (yes: we were students, but we still did mornings) was trying not to tread in the fresh bloodstains outside our front door, and dodging the undercover CID officers trying to buy drugs. Lovely place.

But university and I did not see eye to eye, so off I went to work offshore. Like many all-male environments, working offshore was the intellectual equivalent of Animal House, only without the clever bits. Swearing, smoking, eating, more swearing, pornography, swearing, drinking endless plastic cups of tea… and did I mention the swearing? But it was more money than I’d seen in my life! There’s something about being handed a wadge of cash as you clamber off the minibus from the heliport, having spent the last two weeks offshore and the last two hours in an orange, rubber romper suit / body bag, then blowing most of it in the pubs and clubs of Aberdeen. And being young enough to get away without a hangover.

Then came a spell of working for myself as a graphic designer, which went the way of all flesh and into the heady world of studio management for a nation-wide marketing company. Then some more freelance design work, a handful of voiceovers for local radio and video production companies and a bash at being an actor (with a small ‘a’), giving it up when it became clear there was no way I was ever going to be good enough to earn a decent living.

It was about this time I fell into bad company — a blonde from Fife who conned me into marrying her — and started producing websites for a friend’s fledgling Internet company. From there it was a roller coaster ride (in that it made a lot of people feel decidedly unwell) from web designer to web manager, lead programmer, team lead and other assorted technical bollocks with three different companies, eventually ending up as a project manager for a global IT company.

But there was always the writing (well, that’s not true, the writing only started two chapters above this one). I fell victim to that most dreadful of things: peer pressure. Two friends were writing novels and I thought, ‘why not? I could do that’.

Took a few years though…

Tunnel Of Mirrors by Ferne Arfin

June 1907. Rachel Isaacson, a spirit child, is born into a large and rigidly orthodox Jewish family in the Lower East Side. Hungry for freedom, dominated by a tyrannical father and haunted by inexplicable visions and voices, Rachel’s quest for independence leads her into a marriage of convenience with tragic consequences.

Across the Atlantic, Ciaran McMurrough, storyteller, fiddler and cliff climber, leads a life of pastoral innocence on Rathlin Island, off the coast of Ulster. Fatherless, his parentage shrouded in mystery, Ciaran’s upbringing, in a tight-knit and isolated Catholic community, does not prepare him for the violence and subtlety of political passions during and immediately following the Irish Civil War.

#TunnelOfMirrors @Ferne_Travels #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour

Rachel and Ciaran meet on the docks of lower Manhattan in 1928. Outcasts in their own communities – one by choice, one by chance – are they destined to repeat an eternal pattern of love and loss? Or can they break the cycle of their past.

My Review

‘God forbid,’ said Jacob, ‘that my son should be visited with the misery of daughters.’ And all I could think of was how my mother had said her father had felt the same way. But my mother was very different to Rachel in Tunnel of Mirrors and the hurt of that rejection followed her for her whole life.

Rachel is wilful and anarchic, she is the bane of her traditional, orthodox Jewish father’s life. The youngest of his many children, she has always been different, chanting songs reserved for men only to sing and saying that she heard this or that from birds and animals, or from her Bubbie Ruchel who died before she was born. The children at school think she has the evil eye.

The lives of Rachel and Ciaran run parallel and we swap from one to the other – Rachel, in New York, and Ciaran, in Ireland. Rachel is desperate to leave the tyranny of her father’s orthodoxy and make a life of her own. In her desperation, she marries a small time crook who thinks he’s Al Capone, only more handsome, but it all goes horribly wrong and she is left alone, unable to divorce him as he has disappeared.

Ciaran, who near the end says he is almost twice Rachel’s age, is still in Ireland, living with his mother Flora, (though at this point Rachel probably wasn’t even born) until inadvertent involvement in the ‘troubles’ causes him to flee. He often dreams of someone that he will eventually meet, as Rachel does as well. Neither understand the significance.

‘For isn’t it true that though a man may dream of what he sees, what he sees is often made of what he dreams’.

This is such a beautiful, lyrical book, that uses language and poetry to draw beautiful images, as fantastical as the stories that Ciaran tells anyone willing to listen – stories of the old days, the old country and the sidhe, the faery folk of Irish folklore, said to live beneath the hills and often identified as the remnant of the ancient Tuatha Dé Danann.

I loved this book so much. I can’t even begin to describe my feelings. The weaving of Jewish and Catholic history and religion is so well told and researched and is one with which I am familiar as it is my own experience, though obviously many decades later.

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

About the Author

Ferne Arfin was born in New York and now makes London her home. She earned a degree in journalism, speech and drama at Syracuse University in New York and worked as a journalist, copywriter and actress before earning an MA in Creative Writing, with Malcolm Bradbury, at the University of East Anglia. She works as a travel writer and lives in London with Lulu, a feisty and well-travelled West Highland terrier.

Date With Betrayal by Julia Chapman

In the seventh novel in Julia Chapman’s Dales Detective series, Date with Betrayal, betrayal is rife in the idyllic Yorkshire Dales as Samson O’Brien, owner of the Dales Detective Agency, is targeted by a hitman.

Can Bruncliffe save him? A brilliantly engaging and witty mystery, perfect for fans of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club and M. C. Beaton’s Agatha Raisin series.

#DateWithBetrayal #DalesDetective @DalesWriter Instagram: @juliachapmanauthor @panmacmillan #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour

Death is coming to Bruncliffe: its target is Samson O’Brien. Oblivious to his impending date with fate, Samson is busy juggling a number of cases at the Dales Detective Agency. Too busy, in fact, to notice his partner behaving oddly. Because Delilah Metcalfe knows what is coming. A hitman. Sent from London with one objective: to finally silence the troublesome O’Brien before his corruption case can make it to court.

With Samson’s life in peril, and betrayal around every corner, Delilah has no choice but to call in favours from all of her Bruncliffe connections in order to counteract the menace threatening to engulf the Dales town. The only trouble is the townsfolk have long memories and deep grievances when it comes to Samson O’Brien. Trust must be earned and they will take some convincing before they put themselves in danger in order to save him.

And even then, it might not prove enough . . .

My Review

Not having read the first six novels in the series, it took me a while to work out who was who apart from the dog, Tolpuddle, a Weimaraner with separation anxiety issues. So I’ll never know where the name came from. Maybe he’s a ‘martyr’ to his issues!

Not my usual feast of bloody serial killings awash with gore and body parts, and sacrificial murder with religious undertones, Date With Betrayal is more of a cosy mystery. It involves the targeting of our hero, ex-cop Samson O’Brien, by a hitman, due to his time in the Met when he worked undercover. Obviously if I’d read the other books, I would know more about this, but I know he came home to the village of Bruncliffe in the Yorkshire Dales and started the Dales Detective Agency with Delilah Metcalfe.

Samson adores the delectable Delilah, (yes the names made me hoot) and she adores him, but they struggle to get together on a personal level, and I’m guessing this has been going on for some time.

But who is the hitman and who hired him? This is all part of the ‘mystery’ and there is a hilarious scene in the pub when landlord Troy is trying to work out which of three customers is the culprit.

We also have numerous other quirky and eccentric characters who have been involved since the beginning I’m guessing – Samson’s father Joseph, the inscrutable Ida Capstick, glamorous Hannah and her horse, DCI Frank Thistlethwaite and the elderly residents of Fell Lane, including Eric who walks around with a portable oxygen cylinder (how’s he going to go after the hitman unless he hits him with it?). Together with Delilah, they set out to stop the hitman killing Samson and their antics are hilarious.

Date With Betrayal is full of charm, warmth and humour and I absolutely loved it even though I was, at times, as confused as the residents of Fell Lane. Actually that’s not true – they are all as sharp as the members of The Thursday Murder Club.

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

About the Author

Julia Chapman is the pseudonym of Julia Stagg, who has had five novels, the Fogas Chronicles set in the French Pyrenees, published by Hodder. She is also the author of the Dales Detective series which follows the adventures of Samson O’Brien and Delilah Metcalfe as they solve cases in the Yorkshire Dales.

Born with a wanderlust that keeps her moving, Julia has followed her restless feet to Japan, Australia, the USA and France. She spent the majority of that time as a teacher of English as a Foreign Language but also dabbled in bookselling, pawnbroking, waitressing and was once ‘checkout chick of the month’ at a supermarket in South Australia. She also ran an auberge in the French Pyrenees for six years with her husband. Having spent many years wandering, she is now glad to call the Yorkshire Dales home. Its distinctive landscape and way of life provide the setting for her latest set of novels, the Dales Detective series.

The Trial of Lotta Rae by Siobhan MacGowan

Set in suffragette London. Lotta Rae is a working-class 15-year-old, raped by a wealthy gentleman, who makes the brave decision to testify in court. William Lindon is a barrister about to lose everything. Both have decisions to make that will change the course of their lives and the lives of everyone around them for generations to come.

Atmospheric historical novel set in 20th-century Suffragette London interweaving fact and fiction from a compelling new voice.

Lotta Rae is a young working-class woman who is viciously attacked by a wealthy gentleman. Lotta’s family are firm believers in justice, so Lotta makes the brave decision to testify in court against her attacker. The guardians of justice support her, or so it seems.

William Linden is a barrister about to lose everything. He is failing to live up to his father’s formidable reputation and if he loses one more case, how will he house, clothe and feed his wife and young son?

Both Lotta and William have decisions to make that will change the course of their lives and the lives of everyone around them for generations to come.

Notorious after her trial and unable to return to the life she had before her attack, Lotta’s quest for her own form of justice takes her from the streets of Spitalfields to a Soho brothel, into the heart of the Suffragette movement, to an unimaginable place. One she could never have foreseen.

My Review

Working class 15-year-old Lotta Rae, having been brutally attacked and assaulted by a man of high standing, an investor at the company where she works, is persuaded to have him prosecuted for rape. In fact it’s her father, Pap, who reports the crime and so the divide between rich and poor becomes obvious.

Because when Lotta is defended by barrister William Linden, little does she know that those in power will simply throw her to the wolves. ‘Evidence’ comes to light that she is not a virgin, so her accusation of rape is dismissed, because she is obviously ‘a woman of ill-repute’ and her attacker walks free, HIS reputation intact. That’s how it was – and I don’t think much changed for many many years, a woman’s sexual history playing against her in court.

Lotta also doesn’t know initially that Linden was told to lose the case or his failing career would be over. Putting his own family first, he uses his wily ways to get Lotta to trust him, drawing her into his web of deceit. The stress and shame of the court case results in Pap taking the law into his own hands and so a series of tragedies begin.

Oh Lotta! How much sadder could your life become? I loved this book, but some mornings I would wake and dread reading the next stave (we read in 10 staves with The Pigeonhole) thinking ‘can things get any worse for her?’ And they did, till by the end I was in floods of tears, but not just for Lotta.

But don’t be put off. Siobhan MacGowan is a poet as well as a novelist, her use of language so lyrical and beautiful that I almost couldn’t bear it at times. And the historical details about World War One and the suffragette movement added to my appreciation of this wonderful, heartfelt read. A true masterpiece.

But in times to come it will be this part that I remember the most vividly. Shortly after another tragedy which I can’t mention because of spoilers, Lotta visits a spiritualist in Camden.

‘…I can see much suffering in your life. You have lost someone dear, perhaps more than one,’ she says. ‘And I see trouble there…perhaps one who….has wronged you greatly.’

‘Perhaps you are finding it hard to forgive….perhaps it is in forgiveness that your suffering will ease.’

‘Forgiveness is not about pardoning the other person their wrongdoings….It is not about forgiving but forgoing. Letting go. In that acceptance you are released. You can banish the wrongdoer from your life, for it is not they but your own feelings of hatred and resentment that keeps you bound to them.’

There is a lot more of what she tells Lotta which tore at my heart. She was so right. But so difficult to believe in and follow the advice.

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

About the Author

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

The Woman Who Knew Faces (Karen Thorpe series #3) by Jane Badrock

One tenacious cop, one amazing artist.

There’s a big operation underway and DS Karen Thorpe is feeling left out. Then she meets Emma, with the ability to memorise faces, and Karen’s re-energised with her potential crime-solving contribution. But she’s not the only one.

#TheWomanWhoKnewFaces @janebadrock @QuestionPress @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour

A body turns up and Karen is finally called up to work with the Met. But Emma’s gone missing. Is it connected? Where is she? Who can she trust?

It’s a race against time as the new team try to catch a major crime ring before they carry out their horrific activities.

My Review

Another fantastic read from Jane Badrock, featuring the inimitable DI Karen Thorpe and her new team, plus live-in partner and head of forensics, John Steele. In the previous book, Karen and John’s relationship was definitely on-off, but they seem to have settled into a life of domestic bliss, ha ha. As we discovered, Karen is tough, impetuous and pathologically disorganised, while John is the exact opposite, but they seem to rub along quite nicely.

Three Little Girls is one of my favourite detective novels of all time, partly because of the supernatural element which was missing in The Woman Who Knew Faces, but I still loved it, However, the subject matter is much grittier this time, though both are equally disturbing. Three Little Girls managed a degree of humour (in the eccentric characters, not the subject), but book three revolves around child sex trafficking and ‘hunting parties’ with some really vile and sick paedophiles, so no humour there.

At the beginning of the book, we are introduced to court artist Emma, whose ability to memorise and draw faces in extraordinary detail makes her invaluable to the police, but also a risk to those she can recognise in the trafficking rings. Emma is autistic so any change to her routine upsets her and Karen must tread carefully when asking Emma to come and work with her.

I’d just like to say that the only reason I didn’t give this five stars (I almost never do for police procedurals) is because I would then have to give Three Little Girls six stars at least. But it’s a definite 4.5 stars from me.

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

About the Author

Jane writes novels, short stories and poems, usually with a good dose of humour in them. She’s probably owes it all to her late grandmother who, she’s just found out, also wrote short stories and poems. She tends to get an idea and then run with it whether it be a 100 word short story or an 80 thousand word novel. It all depends on the voices in her head at the time…

Let’s Pretend by Laura Vaughan

When you fake it for a living, the truth is hard to find…

Former child star Lily Thane is now a struggling thirty-something actress. Her old stage-school buddy, Adam Harker, is on the brink of making it big, but he needs an appropriate red-carpet companion to seal the deal, and Lily fits the bill.

Soon after signing on the dotted line, Adam’s dark side starts to surface and their perfect fauxmance turns toxic.

But when Adam winds up dead in a swimming pool, Lily is the only person who cares enough to find out why. She’s convinced someone was out to get Adam – and now they’re after her…

My Review

Lily and Adam’s fauxmance is not the only thing in this book that is toxic. Adam himself, Talia, cousin Dido, the Momager, best friend Nina, even Lily herself, are all toxic in their own way. I quite liked Rafael, because he seems to be the only one who knows who and what he is. And most of all I disliked Dan, who thinks he is so nice, but is actually a hypocrite of the worst kind. Even Lily’s stalker Zalandra is more honest.

But back to the story. Lily was briefly a child star in a Christmas film in which she played ‘Little Lucie’ and shot to fame. From then on success has been hard to sustain. Weight loss and a nose job in her teens helped, but desperation and a pushy mum/manager did not.

Then one day she bumps into Adam Harker, short, plump, spotty teenager-turned-heart-throb (how did that happen?) from drama school and he seems determined to re-kindle their previously non-existent romance. Because Adam wants something from Lily and it’s not what she imagines.

My only issue with this fabulous book is why everyone is so in love with Adam. Alcohol-fuelled and drug-addled, he’s really not very nice. A taker, he gives nothing in return. The day he bites Lily on the face would have been my swift exit. But Lily is desperate for fame and she will do almost everything and anything to attain it.

For someone like me who has never been to a party where anything stronger than weed was smoked, the lines of cocaine on the table where the wine is usually laid out, was a real eye-opener, though I hope I never experience it. I’d like to keep my septum thanks very much.

I really enjoyed this book, though it is sad to imagine that all budding stars behave like this. I really hope not, but I am not naive enough to think it’s all sweetness and light. I look forward to this author’s next book.

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

About the Author

Laura Vaughan grew up in rural Wales and studied Art History in Italy and Classics at Bristol and Oxford. She got her first book deal aged twenty-two and went on to write eleven books for children and young adults. She lives in South London with her husband and two children. The Favour was her first novel for adults. This is her second.

My Top 8 Books of 2022 – part one

Here are my favourite eight books of the first quarter of 2022. So far I’ve read some good books. 

Tapestry by Beth Duke

“We’re all part of a tapestry bigger than any of us can imagine, weaving in and out and creating a glorious picture. All of us from the beginning of time.”

What a lovely thought. My brother had his DNA done and assuming he and I are exactly the same ethnicity, it was quite revealing. Not the 49% Ashkenazi Jew – we kind of guessed that – but the rest. Eastern European, Scandinavian and 6% African. We are all descended from the slaves brought over from Africa, but most of us don’t have Creek ancestors, more’s the pity. Both are very important in Tapestry.

For my full review click here

Nasty Little Cuts by Tina Baker

It’s just a book! Only fiction. But somehow Nasty Little Cuts is so much more. How can you get stressed over a work of fiction I hear you ask? Believe me, you can.

Having had a terrible nightmare, Debs wakes up in the middle of the night to find an intruder in her kitchen. Only it’s not an intruder – it’s her husband Marc. And he’s holding a knife. And so the real nightmare begins.

For my full review click here.

The House of Footsteps by Mathew West

So many theories! So many wrong ideas! The joys of reading with my online book club The Pigeonhole.

I just loved this book, every single spooky, scary moment. Written in a dark and picturesque style with touches of Jane Eyre (‘reader I married him’) and the ambiguity of The Turn of the Screw, The House of Footsteps is both Gothic and horror fiction. Are the house, the grounds and the lake haunted? Is it all a figment of Simon’s imagination brought about by his somewhat nervous disposition? What is real and what is not?

For my full review click here.

Twelve Secrets by Robert Gold

This was so good. If I hadn’t read it with the Pigeonhole book club in twelve staves I would have read the whole thing in one go. Stayed up all night if necessary. So many secrets, so many mysteries, so many red herrings – this book has it all.

Then we have the characters, all well developed – some nice like true crime journalist Ben Harper and his school friend Holly, some not so nice like Sarah’s ex-husband James or Ben’s boss Madeline Wilson, and some downright nasty like Holly’s father-in-law Francis Richardson. But does that make any of them killers? Or just the keeper of secrets?

For my full review click here.

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

I’ve read The Hunting Party and The Guest List, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed, but this is something else. I just loved this book. I read it at work in my break, in bed, in the car, in the hot tub – I just couldn’t put it down.

One of the things I particularly liked about the book is the way it’s written from the point of view of each main character in turn. First we have Ben, but his is short-lived as something happens to him which his sister Jess can hear on her phone. Then she can’t get hold of him again.

For my full review click here.

Karma And The Art Of Butter Chicken by Monica Bhide

I’ve been a huge fan of this author since I was invited to be on the blog tour for the wonderful The Soul Catcher. In fact Monica, knowing how much I loved the book, asked me if I would like a copy of Karma And The Art of Butter Chicken. I said I would be delighted. I had just started reading it when I was even more delighted to be invited on the blog tour, so here I am.

Such a thoughtful novel with the most delightful cast of characters – Eshaan Veer Singh, our main protagonist, Dr Sinha who lives near to the monastery where Eshaan lives with Lama Dorje and the other monks, his daughter Kitt, the love of Eshaan’s life, their friend Loveleen, unmarried and pregnant, the oddly named Radio Rani, and too many more to list.

For my full review click here.

No Way Back by TJ Brearton

I’ve read quite a few books by this author (including Books 3 and 4 in the Shannon Ames series) and my favourite has always been Rough Country. So I can’t believe I’m saying this, but No Way Back may have just jumped to the top of the list. I read it in two sittings. I know it’s a cliché but I really couldn’t put it down.

In Book 5, Special Agent Shannon Ames of the FBI has been reassigned to the New York Field Office, the biggest in the country. It’s only her first week, when Kristie Fain, aide to US Senator Joel Nickerson, has been kidnapped in broad daylight while walking to the train station. What do the kidnappers want? Her wealthy druggie musician boyfriend Mateo (no idea what she sees in him) has an even wealthier father back home in Peru, but he hasn’t been asked for a ransom.

For my full review click here.

The Lake Templeton Murders by HS Burney

Another book I couldn’t put down. Fast-paced, action-packed, full of excitement including murder, corruption, embezzlement, drug dealing and fraud, I gave up trying to work out who dunnit and just concentrated on keeping up with the story. No mean feat I hasten to add.

Private Investigator Fati Rizvi tears around Vancouver and Lake Templeton like a headless chicken on steroids, often with the help of her chemically-fuelled, tattooed, and multiple-earinged, sidekick Zed. But don’t be fooled. Fati has her own methods of investigation – that’s why she left the police force – and often uses somewhat shady methods of gaining information, plus enlisting the help of her ‘contacts’.

For my full review click here.

The Lake Templeton Murders by HS Burnley

An edge-of-your seat murder mystery set in a forgotten, ocean-facing town on Vancouver Island!

A body washes up on the shores of Lake Templeton, a small town on the coast of Vancouver Island. Sharon Reese, the victim, was a dedicated government employee. Everyone liked her, but no one knew much about her. Was she hiding something? Maybe a questionable past riddled with scandal. And did it lead to her plunge to death, in a drunken stupor, off the dock outside her secluded lakefront lodge?

Was it an accident? A suicide? Or cold-blooded murder? Private Investigator, Fati Rizvi, is determined to find out. 

#TheLakeTempletonMurders @hsburneyauthor @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour

Fati arrives in Lake Templeton to find secrets that run as deep as the City’s sewers.

Everyone is hiding something and nothing is as it seems. A cult escapee. A corrupt politician. A struggling airline. A multi-million dollar public-private project to revitalize the Lake Templeton waterfront. How are they all connected? 

As Fati valiantly unravels the knots, another body is found on the shore. Is it the same killer? ​ And can Fati stop them before they strike again?

My Review

Another book I couldn’t put down. Fast-paced, action-packed, full of excitement including murder, corruption, embezzlement, drug dealing and fraud, I gave up trying to work out who dunnit and just concentrated on keeping up with the story. No mean feat I hasten to add.

Private Investigator Fati Rizvi tears around Vancouver and Lake Templeton like a headless chicken on steroids, often with the help of her chemically-fuelled, tattooed, and multiple-earinged, sidekick Zed. But don’t be fooled. Fati has her own methods of investigation – that’s why she left the police force – and often uses somewhat shady methods of gaining information, plus enlisting the help of her ‘contacts’.

Everyone in this story seems to be shady or hiding secrets – some more than others. But are they capable of killing someone in cold blood? Someone obviously is, because the body that turns up on the shore looks like it could be the victim of a murder. The police aren’t convinced – yet – but Fati has a nose for these things and the death of Sharon Reese smells suspicious.

This was seriously exciting stuff. When the evidence appears to point to one possible killer, it appears they may not be guilty of murder, but they are sure as hell guilty of something.

This is definitely one of my favourite books of the year so far. I really hope there’s a sequel, because I need to know more.

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

About the Author

HS Burney writes fast-moving, action-packed mysteries set against the backdrop of majestic mountains and crystalline ocean in West Coast Canada. She loves creating characters that keep you on your toes. A corporate executive by day and a novelist by night, HS Burney received her Bachelors’ in Creative Writing from Lafayette College. A proud Canadian immigrant, she takes her readers into worlds populated by diverse characters with unique cultural backgrounds. When not writing, she is out hiking, waiting for the next story idea to strike, and pull her into a new world. 

Follow her at:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HS-Burney-Author-113028981189771
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hsburneyauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hsburneyauthor
Website : www.hsburney.com

Buy Links
Amazon UK https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lake-Templeton-Murders-Private-Investigator-ebook/dp/B09KMDQBQ1
Amazon US https://www.amazon.com/Lake-Templeton-Murders-Private-Investigator-ebook/dp/B09KMDQBQ1

No Way Back (Shannon Ames, #5) by TJ Brearton

She must uncover the truth. Or a young woman dies.

A quiet Manhattan street. Kristie Fain is walking to the train when she is snatched by a couple of strangers.

Special Agent Shannon Ames has just been reassigned to the New York Field Office, the biggest in the country. Since Kristie Fain is an aide to a US Senator, Shannon and her FBI team are given the case.

It’s immediately clear it’s anything but straightforward. Fain’s boyfriend, a rich Peruvian musician, is hiding something. Senator Nickerson’s staff are cooperative, but don’t seem to be sharing all they know. And who is the mystery man, masquerading as a cop, beating up potential witnesses?

#NoWayBack #TJBrearton  @inkubatorbooks

As Shannon gets deeper, she finds herself caught up in a web of lies and deceit. Someone powerful is pulling the strings and they will do anything — including murder — to stop her investigation.

This time, she can’t afford to play by the rules. If she does, Kristie Fain will die. So Shannon risks everything to save the young aide. And finds herself trapped — with no way back.

My Review

I’ve read quite a few books by this author (including Books 3 and 4 in the Shannon Ames series) and my favourite has always been Rough Country. So I can’t believe I’m saying this, but No Way Back may have just jumped to the top of the list. I read it in two sittings. I know it’s a cliché but I really couldn’t put it down.

In Book 5, Special Agent Shannon Ames of the FBI has been reassigned to the New York Field Office, the biggest in the country. It’s only her first week, when Kristie Fain, aide to US Senator Joel Nickerson, has been kidnapped in broad daylight while walking to the train station. What do the kidnappers want? Her wealthy druggie musician boyfriend Mateo (no idea what she sees in him) has an even wealthier father back home in Peru, but he hasn’t been asked for a ransom.

Or is it something to do with TIK, a political organisation who dress in black and wear make-up reminiscent of Insane Clown Posse, an American hip-hop duo that was popular with millennials in the nineties. Yes I did my research. And then we have someone who calls himself ‘Riley’ and passes himself off as a cop. What is his part in all this and whose side is he on? Or is it something closer to home?

Book 5 is all about politics, lies, deceit, money, power and how easy it is to manipulate politicians if you are prepared to go to any lengths that include kidnapping, deepfaking (look it up), and even murder. And this time Shannon has to resort to unorthodox methods if she is to find Kristie in time, whatever the risks to both her life and career.

Absolutely brilliant and I can’t wait for the next book in the series.

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.

Entitled by Gill Merton

In 1971, Nan Douglas and her toddler twins arrive on the remote island of Inniscuiilin, long-lost family of the eccentric Miss Campbell. 

For fifteen years they all live quietly up at the Big House, until the twins start planning their future – forcing Nan to confront their past… Because someone, somewhere believes that the twins aren’t twins. That they’re not even Nan’s children. And that Nan isn’t Nan.

#Entitled @gill_merton @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour

Only Nan herself can prove them wrong – but it’s a gamble. Win or lose, she’s still at risk of losing her beloved family.

My Review

In the first third of the book we are introduced to three of the main characters. Malcolm is a doctor who marries Martha, who also works in medicine, but as a researcher. Finally we have Sarah, who had a brief fling with Malcolm at university where he was studying medicine and she was training to be a nurse. Unfortunately their relationship did not end well and she had to give up her studies.

Sarah then marries Robert, but their marriage ends in tragedy. With no children of her own, she takes a job as a live-in nanny, but when the family move overseas, she goes to work for another couple. And that is where the story really begins.

Nan Douglas and her toddler twins arrive on the remote island of Inniscuiilin, long-lost family of the eccentric Miss Maud Campbell. She is welcomed into the family and into the small community where Maud is both loved and feared. Nan has secrets that could tear her life apart, but Maud also has her secrets.

They all live together happily until the twins are in their teens and start wanting a life of their own and that is where the trouble starts. How can Nan help them without putting her future at risk?

Even though we know that Nan has done something terrible, we still love her and root for her, probably because we understand what drove her (even if we don’t approve) and also because her motives were good. Or were they?

This is also about entitlement, the haves and the have-nots and one woman’s attempt to make things right. A very different book which I thoroughly enjoyed.

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

About the Author
Gill Merton is the nom de plume of five writers based around Edinburgh and the Lothians:

Simon Bramwell
Coreen Connell
Sheila Corrigan
Anne Hamilton
Elizabeth Nallon

Entitled is their first collaborative novel, adapted from an original short story by Sheila Corrigan, and was made possible by funding from The National Lottery Awards For All.

Earlier publications include:
The Writing Group:  an original stage/radio play (First recorded 2017)
A Way With Words: an anthology of prose and poetry (Pilrig Press, 2015)

Follow them at:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/gill_merton

Buy Links
Amazon UK https://www.amazon.co.uk/Entitled-Gill-Merton/dp/B09S64XZY8/
Amazon US https://www.amazon.com/Entitled-Gill-Merton-ebook/dp/B09V36WL8F