Veronika Jordan's Blog, page 79

Every Parent’s Dream by Cat on a Piano Productions / Theatrephonic

Every parent’s dream – the perfect teenager…

‘I ain’t saying it was perfect here in Happy Valley. Then they came across the water. They were a bit different….a bit ‘creepy.’

Where did Frank and Audrey go wrong? They read all the books. How to be perfect parents. Raise the perfect son. Now Audrey is terrified when Sammy comes through the door. He drinks and takes drugs. Got expelled from three schools. Stole their savings. Brought misery to his parents.

Then they saw a flyer. It said: ‘Every parent’s dream – the perfect teenager.’ Enter Stefan. He’s like a teenage male Stepford Wife. Perfect in every way.

So what about Sammy? Well he’s being exchanged. Booted out.

And life is about to change forever. Brilliant and quite scary.

Written by Richard Fitchett
Directed by Emmeline Braefield

With:
Matt Salmon as Sammy and Stefan
Sally Hyde Lomax as Audrey
and
Anthony Young as Frank

Produced by Cat on a Piano Productions

Music:
Percolate by Loopop
Waltz to Death by Sir Cubworth

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 Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

Welcome to No.12 Rue des Amants: a beautiful old apartment block, far from the glittering lights of the Eiffel Tower and the bustling banks of the Seine. Where nothing goes unseen, and everyone has a story to unlock.

The watchful concierge
The scorned lover
The prying journalist
The naïve student
The unwanted guest

#TheParisApartment @luceyfoleytweets @fictionpubteam Instagram: @luceyfoleyauthor #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour

Something terrible happened here last night. A mystery lies behind the door of apartment three. Only you – and the killer – hold the key . . .

My Review

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.

Jess is actually his half-sister. Their mum died when they were children and while Ben was adopted into a wealthy family, Jess was passed from pillar to post, from one foster home to another. Ben is a well-educated, charismatic, charming and successful journalist, while Jess is full of self-doubt and has been working in a scruffy pub full of undesirables and a landlord known as ‘the pervert’. Ben mainly writes reviews of restaurants, but what was he investigating lately that may have put his life in danger?

Jess hasn’t seen Ben for a while, but she decides to chuck in her ghastly job and visit him in the Paris apartment where he lives. And it’s then that we hear from the other inhabitants. We have Nick who was Ben’s best friend at university, the beautiful, wealthy, fifty-year-old Sophie who lives on the top floor with her husband, shy nineteen-year-old Mimi who shares the apartment with free-spirited Camille and vile, drunken Antoine whose wife Dominique has just left him. And then we have the elderly female concierge, who lives in a tiny ‘hut’ by the entrance.

The apartment building itself is also like another character. Secret doors into back stairs, unused maid’s quarters in the attic, a spooky wine cellar nicknamed the Cave in the basement and the hut where the concierge lives.

This book has so many secrets and unresolved mysteries. In fact Sophie seems to have more secrets than anyone else. Her immaculate clothes, Hermes scarf tied round her neck in the Parisienne style, her shiny bobbed hair and her model-like figure. As far as her husband is concerned, it’s better to be old than overweight, even by a few pounds.

I literally flew through this book. It’s just so good and everyone is fascinating in their own way. One of my favourite books of the year so far.

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

About the Author

Lucy Foley is a No.1 Sunday Times bestselling author. Her contemporary murder mystery thrillers, The Hunting Party and The Guest List, have sold over a million copies worldwide and also hit the New York Times and Irish Times bestseller lists. The Guest List was a Waterstones Thriller of the Month selection, a Reese’s Book Club pick, it was chosen as one of The Times and Sunday Times Crime Books of the Year, and it won the Goodreads Choice Award for best mystery/thriller.

Lucy’s novels have been translated into multiple languages and her journalism has appeared in publications such as Sunday Times Style, Grazia, ES Magazine, Vogue US, Elle, Tatler and Marie Claire. Lucy lives in Brussels with her husband and their baby son.

The Purple Shadow by Christopher Bowden

In the years before the war, Sylvie Charlot was a leading light in Paris fashion with many friends among musicians, artists and writers. Now she is largely forgotten.  

Spending time in Paris during a break in his acting career, Colin Mallory sees a striking portrait of Sylvie.  Some think it is a late work by Édouard Vuillard but there is no signature or documentary evidence to support this view.
 
The picture has some unusual qualities, not least the presence of a shadow of something that cannot be seen. Perhaps the picture was once larger.  

#ThePurpleShadow #ChristopherBowden @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour

Colin feels an odd sense of connection with Sylvie, who seems to be looking at him, appealing to him, wanting to tell him something.  Despite a warning not to pursue his interest in her portrait, he is determined to find out more about the painting, who painted it, and why it was hidden for many years.  
 Colin’s search takes him back to the film and theatre worlds of Paris and London in the 1930s – and to a house in present-day Sussex.  

As he uncovers the secrets of Sylvie’s past, her portrait seems to take on a life of its own.    

My Review

When out-of-work actor Colin Mallory is invited to dinner at the Paris home of Madame Ducasse, he is drawn to a painting of Sylvie Charlot, a leading light in Paris fashion in the 1930s. Many of her friends and peers were musicians, artists and writers, but now she is largely forgotten.

Colin is unsure why he so fascinated. Maybe it’s simply the beauty of the picture and its subject, maybe it’s the fact that there is a purple shadow on the rug in front of her which seems to come from nowhere, or maybe it’s that Sophie’s expression changes each time he looks and the shadow appears to move. His friend, art expert Paul agrees with him.

It’s a marvelous painting and is thought to be a late work by celebrated artist Édouard Vuillard. However, there is no signature or documentary evidence to support this view. Colin believes that the portrait is half of a bigger one and the shadow is that of another figure. He is determined to discover who else was in the picture.

His search takes him back to the film and theatre worlds of pre-war Paris and London, a dashing actor called Charles Kent, and to a house in present-day Sussex.  

This is a gorgeous, mysterious, clever story and I absolutely loved it.

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

About the Author

Christopher Bowden lives in south London. He is the author of six novels, each with a colour theme. His books have been praised variously by Andrew Marr, Julian Fellowes, Sir Derek Jacobi, and Shena Mackay. Of his third novel, The Red House, Sir Derek said, “Very entertaining, cleverly constructed and expertly paced. I thoroughly enjoyed it.”

Follow him at:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christopher.bowden.90
Website: http://www.christopherbowden.com/

Buy Links
Amazon UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Purple-Shadow-Christopher-Bowden-ebook/dp/B01JLMD7N4
Amazon US – https://www.amazon.com/Purple-Shadow-Christopher-Bowden-ebook/dp/B01JLMD7N4

A Life For a Life by Carol Wyer

Nobody can get into the mind of an erratic killer—except an unpredictable detective.

When a young man is found lying on a station platform with a hole in his head, DI Kate Young is called in to investigate the grisly murder. But the killing is no one-off. As bodies start to pile up, she is faced with what might be an impossible task—to hunt down a ruthless killer on a seemingly random rampage.

#ALifeForALife @carolewyer @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour

Meanwhile, Kate has her own demons to battle as she struggles to come to terms with her husband’s death. And she is hell-bent on exposing corruption within the force and bringing Superintendent John Dickson to justice. But with the trail of deception running deeper—and closer to home—than she could ever have imagined, she no longer knows who she can trust.

With her grip on reality slipping, Kate realises that maybe she and the killer are not so different after all. But time is running out and Kate is low on options. Can she catch the killer before she loses everything?

My Review

I couldn’t wait to read on each night to find out what happened. However, as this is the third book in the series, there is one story that is ongoing, but the other is totally standalone and exciting.

The book opens with a horrific car crash on the motorway. The driver, his pregnant wife, his sister and her four children are all involved. Then we jump to a body found on the station platform, a hole in the dead man’s head. It looks like an execution. But this is only the first body and the method of despatch is the same in all of them. So what connects the victims and what links them to what has now become the work of a serial killer? For DI Kate Young this is her most baffling case yet.

Kate’s team is made up of some great characters: tall, broad-shouldered, handsome DS Morgan Meredith, DS Emma Donaldson, whose childhood was very traumatic and recently added DC Jamie Webster who Kate doesn’t yet trust. When the team are no further forward enter eccentric profiler Samuel Links. What can he tell them about the killer? A great deal it would appear.

Turn the clock back one year exactly and Kate’s journalist husband Chris met an untimely death. It comforts her to ‘talk’ to him and get his advice. Was he silenced as part of Kate’s covert investigation into Superintendent John Dickson? It all revolves around child sex trafficking and prostitution and Kate believes Dickson is involved. All she needs is proof and to find two girls called Rosa and Stanka. But everyone is scared and rightly so.

For about 12 years a pair of swans named George and Zelda lived together happily on the lake in Pittville Park near my home. They were inseparable and many cygnets were the result. Some of you may even recall that George was shot through the eye with a crossbow – it made the national news – but he made a full recovery. Then last year Zelda died and George has been lonely ever since. Why am I telling you this? You’ll find out later on in the book.

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

About the Author

USA Today bestselling author and winner of The People’s Book Prize Award, Carol Wyer’s crime novels have sold over one million copies and been translated into nine languages. A move from humour to the ‘dark side’ in 2017, saw the introduction of popular DI Robyn Carter in Little Girl Lost and proved that Carol had found her true niche. February 2021 saw the release of the first in the much-anticipated new series, featuring DI Kate Young. An Eye For An Eye was chosen as a Kindle First Reads and became the #1 bestselling book on Amazon UK and Amazon Australia. 

Carol has had articles published in national magazines ‘Woman’s Weekly’, featured in ‘Take A Break’, ‘Choice’, ‘Yours’ and ‘Woman’s Own’ magazines and the Huffington Post. She’s also been interviewed on numerous radio shows discussing ‘Irritable Male Syndrome and Ageing Disgracefully‘and on BBC Breakfast television.

She currently lives on a windy hill in rural Staffordshire with her husband Mr. Grumpy… who is very, very grumpy. When she is not plotting devious murders, she can be found performing her comedy routine, Smile While You Still Have Teeth.

To learn more, go to www.carolwyer.co.uk, subscribe to her YouTube channel, or follow her on the links below.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carol-E-Wyer/221149241263847 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carolwyer/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/carolewyer 
Website : https://www.carolwyer.co.uk

Buy links:
Amazon UK : https://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Detective-Kate-Young-Book-ebook/dp/B09BCPR894
Amazon US : https://www.amazon.com/Life-Detective-Kate-Young-Book-ebook/dp/B09BCPR894

Shaking Hands With The Devil by Bryan J Mason

‘WE ARE ON THIS CASE LIKE A BONER FIDO BLOODHOUND…
AND MY MEN ARE BARKING AT THE LEASH’

In this darkly comic novel, Clifton Gentle is an ordinary man without much to distinguish him. Not much, that is, apart from being a serial killer who is leaving bits of his young male victims scattered around North London.

 #ShakingHandsWithTheDevil @BryanJMason @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour

DCI Dave Hicks is the larger than life policeman determined to catch him. His attempts to find ‘the nutter’ through a combination of spoonerisms, personal abuse and a belief that something will turn up don’t go well. All that turns up are yet more body parts.

In a sleazy London dogged by growing squalor and an IRA bombing campaign in the last days of Margaret Thatcher’s premiership, the gruesome murders spur an over-the-top media and merchandising frenzy.

The hunt becomes an increasingly personal one and a race against the clock as Clifton, Dave Hicks, a would-be victim, and a copycat killer each try to uncover what – or who – they hold responsible for their own problems.

My Review

Two men, like chalk and cheese, and the only thing in common is the body parts that keep turning up around London. Because one of these men is a serial killer and the other is the police officer on his trail.

Clifford Gentle is a quiet man who lives alone and works in a mundane job. Little do his workmates know that he is the serial killer or ‘Cereal Killer’ as he becomes known (the book will explain), responsible for almost twenty murders and dismemberments.

Larger than life police officer DCI Dave Hicks is determined to catch ‘the nutter’ as he calls him. A huge man with a large beard, Hicks lives across the road from his mum, who still does all his cooking and cleaning. He loves his mum, almost as much as she loves him. She dotes on him and feeds him massive, unhealthy meals every day, which no doubt partly account for him being larger than life. Hicks also has a way with words, or probably doesn’t: ‘Everything fits in with my previous proboscis,’ he tells the press upon discovery of yet another body.

This book is at times gruesome and at times hilarious. It has all the makings of a great detective novel, plus Dave’s ridiculous spoonerisms, his ineptitude, very-un-PC banter from his co-workers and a philosophical killer. Because Clifford Gentle struggles with his life, his sexuality and frequently his motives. What he really needs is a hobby – other than chopping up his hapless victims.

You need to be prepared to be offended, disgusted and broad-minded in equal measures to enjoy this book (the humour made me wince at times), but this was written in the eighties about life in the eighties at the end of Thatcher’s government. And the ending is worth waiting for as the initial horror has smatterings of a farce, but you’ll have to wait till you get there to find out.

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

About the Author

Bryan J Mason wrote his black comedy about a serial killer in the late 1980s, but reluctantly put it away in a drawer after his agent narrowly failed to get it published. He concluded that he was a failed author, so might as well be a failure at something else instead. However, every ten years or so he dug it out and read it and each time he did was surprised to find that he still found it funny. He has now managed to get it published after making some changes, including firmly placing the action in the late ʼ80s and early ʼ90s for today’s reader.

He has worked as a brush salesman and rent collector, made sound effects for BBC Radio and been a tax inspector and occasional actor. He writes regular theatre reviews for StageTalk Magazine and Bristol 24/7. He is a member of the Crime Writers Association and currently working on a new novel featuring a Jewish detective investigating a series of serial killings in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, called An old Tin Can. Bryan lives in Bristol with his wife and has two children in their twenties.

Follow him at:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bryanjmason89/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bryanjmason/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BryanJMason
Website: www.bryanjmason.com

Buy Links
Amazon UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shaking-Hands-Devil-Bryan-Mason-ebook/dp/B09GKQF66Z
Amazon US https://www.amazon.com/Shaking-Hands-Devil-Bryan-Mason-ebook/dp/B09GKQF66Z

Dead Medieval Princess by Cat on a Piano Productions / Theatrephonic

Dead Medieval Princess – “she died 700 years ago!”

Kate wants her essay to show how personal and political lives merged in Medieval Portugal. But she can’t find any information about a dead princess or that anyone tried to pursue justice. She was murdered by her husband who faced no repercussions.

We move to today – at crimes motivated by misogyny. How can we make women’s lives safer? The police don’t seem to care. When Amber is frightened of a group of youths one evening, the police officer even suggests that she may have ‘encouraged’ it.

Kate’s essay only earns her 50% because she concentrated on the dead princess and didn’t meet the requirements. So Kate decides to write about her for her dissertation. But she can’t find enough information. Women’s lives were barely documented in the Middle Ages. Her sponsor advises her to broaden her subject, but while Kate agrees, she takes a very different approach.

Written and directed by Vivi Bayliss

With:
Lydia Kenny as Kate
Catherine Mclean as Amber
AJ Deane as Professor Castor and the Police Office
and
Emma Wilkes as Professor Macrides and the News Reporter

Produced by Cat on a Piano Productions

Music:
Yonder Hill and Dale by Aaron Kenny
Jupiter’s Smile by The 126ers
A Baroque Letter by Aaron Kenny

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…

Sundial by Catriona Ward

You can’t escape what’s in your blood…

All Rob wanted was a normal life. She almost got it, too: a husband, two kids, a nice house in the suburbs. But Rob fears for her oldest daughter, Callie, who collects tiny bones and whispers to imaginary friends. Rob sees a darkness in Callie, one that reminds her too much of the family she left behind.

She decides to take Callie back to her childhood home, to Sundial, deep in the Mojave Desert. And there she will have to make a terrible choice.

Callie is worried about her mother. Rob has begun to look at her strangely, and speaks of past secrets. And Callie fears that only one of them will leave Sundial alive…

The mother and daughter embark on a dark, desert journey to the past in the hopes of redeeming their future.

My Review

I loved The Last House on Needless Street so I was excited when this appeared on my bookclub The Pigeonhole. However, Sundial is something very different. I’m not sure it was really for me but I still enjoyed it – if that’s the right word.

Totally surreal, and at times horrific, (but it does warn you that this falls partly into the horror genre), mother Rob just wants an ordinary life. But 12-year-old daughter Callie hurts her little sister Annie, keeps pictures made from real animal bones (did she kill them?) so she can talk to them and also talks to an imaginary friend who she calls Pale Callie.

Husband Irving is horrible to Rob. He hurts her, puts maggots in her suitcase (who does that?) and threatens her when she says she wants to leave him.

But it’s Callie that is Rob’s main concern. So they take a trip to Rob’s childhood home Sundial, in the Mojave desert, where she will have to make a life-changing decision.

But all is not as it seems. Who really were Rob’s ‘parents’ Falcon and Mia? What happened to her twin sister Jack and what was the ‘puppy farm’ nearby? Some of the concepts are literally terrifying. At times I really had no idea what was going on.

This is a brilliant book but I have to say that if this story evolved from my own imagination I’d be quite worried!

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

About the Author

Catriona Ward was born in Washington, DC and grew up in the United States, Kenya, Madagascar, Yemen, and Morocco. She read English at St Edmund Hall, Oxford and is a graduate of the Creative Writing MA at the University of East Anglia.

Stephen King praised her gothic thriller, saying: ‘The buzz building around Catriona Ward’s The Last House on Needless Street is real. I’ve read it and was blown away. It’s a true nerve-shredder that keeps its mind-blowing secrets to the very end. Haven’t read anything this exciting since Gone Girl.’ It was published in 2021 by Viper (UK) and Tor Nightfire (USA).

Sundial was published by Nightfire (US) and Viper (UK) in March 2022.

Ward’s second novel Little Eve won the 2019 Shirley Jackson Award, as well as the August Derleth Prize at the British Fantasy Awards, and was a Guardian best book of 2018. Little Eve will be published in the US by Tor Nightfire in October 2022.

Ward’s debut Rawblood also won the 2016 August Derleth, making her the only woman to have won the prize twice. Her short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies. ‘The Pier at Ardentinny’ was shortlisted for the ALCS Tom Gallon Trust Award organised by the Royal Society of Literature. She lives in London and Devon.

Reputation by Sarah Vaughan

The bestselling author of Anatomy of a Scandal—soon to be a Netflix series—returns with a new psychological thriller about a politician whose less-than-perfect personal life is thrust into the spotlight when a body is discovered in her home.

As a politician, Emma has sacrificed a great deal for her career—including her marriage and her relationship with her daughter, Flora.

A former teacher, the glare of the spotlight is unnerving for Emma, particularly when it leads to countless insults, threats, and trolling as she tries to work in the public eye. As a woman, she knows her reputation is worth its weight in gold but as a politician, she discovers it only takes one slip-up to destroy it completely.

Fourteen-year-old Flora is learning the same hard lessons at school as she encounters heartless bullying. When another teenager takes her own life, Emma lobbies for a new law to protect women and girls from the effects of online abuse. Now, Emma and Flora find their personal lives uncomfortably intersected…but then the unthinkable happens.

A man is found dead in Emma’s home. A man she had every reason to be afraid of and to want gone. Fighting to protect her reputation, and determined to protect her family at all costs, Emma is pushed to the limits as the worst happens and her life is torn apart.

Another breathless and twisty novel from an absolute “master of suspense” (CrimeReads), Reputation brilliantly illustrates that it isn’t who you are that matters…it’s who people think you are

My Review

When Emma Webster gives up her teaching job to become an MP her life is turned on its head. Her marriage breaks down, her relationship with her daughter is damaged, and she becomes the victim of countless insults, trolling and threats. These include rape threats and even having acid thrown in her face. But she is determined to carry on.

However, she is unnerved by the negative attention, particularly after being accused of only being interested in women’s issues. At one of her surgeries, she is accosted by the father of a soldier, badly affected by PTSD, who accuses her of not caring about what they have been through.

The issue she focuses on is that of ‘revenge porn’ and online abuse against women, a crime she believes needs more legal protection for the victims, more so after one of her constituents tells her what happened to her sister. Emma works with journalist Mike Stokes to bring online abuse into the public eye and gets the law changed.

But in order to be taken seriously, you have to make sure your own reputation is unblemished. Then two separate things happen. Her 14-year-old daughter Flora is subjected to endless bullying at school which results in her taking matters into her own hands and then a man’s body is found at the bottom of the stairs in Emma’s London home. But are they linked? And is Emma telling the truth about what happened?

This is the story of the lengths to which one woman will go to protect her family but can she save her own reputation in doing so. It’s a cracker of a read.

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

About the Author

Sarah Vaughan read English at Oxford and went on to be a journalist. After training with the Press Association, she worked for The Guardian for 11 years as a news reporter, health correspondent and political correspondent before leaving to freelance and write fiction. Her 3rd novel, Anatomy of a Scandal, was an instant international bestseller, a Sunday Times top five bestseller, a kindle number 1 bestseller, a Richard & Judy pick, and was longlisted for the Theakson’s Old Peculier Crime Novel and shortlisted for awards in France, Sweden and the UK. It has been translated into 22 languages and is being adapted for TV. She lives in Cambridge with her husband and two young children.

Karma and the Art of Butter Chicken by Monica Bhide

Raised by Buddhist monks in Delhi after his mother’s untimely and tragic death, Eshaan sets out on the challenging quest to feed and nourish the hungry so they do not suffer her same fate. His attempts to achieve this monumental goal are constantly thwarted. And when his former girlfriend returns from Europe with a handsome fiancé in tow, his life becomes even more complicated.

A sliver of hope appears in the form of a local TV cooking competition. Winning would offer the solution to all his problems: money for his mission and the chance to impress the girl he loves. But to win this competition, Eshaan first must face a secret that has the potential to destroy his life and his dreams.

#KarmaAndTheArtOfButterChicken @mbhide #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours

Can a young life that has been defined by a crisis ever really thrive? Will Eshaan’s pain-filled spirit ever hear the songs of salvation that the Universe sings for him, or will his demons ultimately win?

Celebrated food writer Monica Bhide dishes up a page-turning story of sacrifice, determination, and an honest exploration of the human spirit. Set in contemporary India and seasoned with gentle love, dramatic loss, enchanting poetic verse, and exotic food, Karma and the Art of Butter Chicken will take you to a place where past and present keep uneasy yet delicious company.

The cover photograph is by the talented and award-winning photographer, Simi Jois. 

My Review

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.

However, I must briefly mention one of my favourites – Rani the Dogman – who brings his ten dogs to guard the entrance to Buddha’s Karma Kitchen, because I had this vision, not of a pack of Dobermans and Rottweilers, but a raggle-taggle group of barking, snapping Chihuahuas and scruffy terriers.

I loved this book! Such a mix of modern ideas – same-sex marriage (though still frowned upon by many in India), children born out of wedlock, trans people, Bollywood and designer fashion. Then on the other hand we have superstition – particularly from Mr Merry Merha who hates his neighbour Loveleen, not just because she is unmarried and pregnant, but also because she has a black cat which he believes is bad luck. ‘You are a witch,’ he screams at her during one of their weekly arguments. Dr Sinha’s sister Kimi Bua is also superstitious – everything not done according to tradition is not auspicious and will therefore curse the parties involved. Two different worlds colliding at every turn.

I dare you not to fall a little in love with Eshaan. He is so kind and generous, if a bit naive at times, and we feel his pain and suffering. We just want him to be happy. But he is his own worst enemy, Can he overcome his guilt and his demons in order to find happiness and fulfil his dreams? Wonderful stuff!

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

About the Author

Monica Bhide is an award-winning writer, accomplished literary coach, gifted poet, storyteller, and educator with a lyrical voice and universal appeal. As a bestselling fiction and internationally renowned cookbook author, Monica is known for sharing food, culture, mystery, and love in her writing.

A respected writing authority, Monica appears regularly on NPR and conducts sold-out workshops on writing, food, culture, and scheduled speaking events at prestigious venues as the Smithsonian Institution, Sackler Gallery, Les Dames d’Escoffier, Georgetown University, and Yale University. She has taught all over the world including conferences in London, Dubai, US etc. She has also been the “Writing Coach in Residence” for the annual conference of the Association of Food Journalists.

Monica’s short story collection, The Devil in Us, topped the list on Kindle as a bestseller in its category of Literary Short Fiction. Her memoir, A Life of Spice, was picked by Eat Your Books as one of the top five food memoirs of 2015.

Top Chef’s Padma Lakshmi picked Bhide’s Modern Spice (Simon & Schuster, 2009), as one of the “Best Books Ever” for Newsweek in 2009.

The Chicago Tribune named Monica “one of the seven food writers to watch in 2012”.

In April 2012, Mashable.com picked her as one of “the top ten food writers” on Twitter.

Her work has garnered numerous accolades and has been included in four Best Food Writing anthologies (2005, 2009, 2010, and 2014).

As a noted international food writer, Monica has built a diverse and solid audience through her books and articles in top-tier media such as: The New York Times, The Washington Post, Ladies Home Journal, AARP-the Magazine, Parents Chicago Tribune , Christian Science Monitor, Bon Appétit, Town and Country Travel, Food and Wine, Cooking Light, Coastal Living, Health, Better Nutrition, and many others.

Monica lives in Virginia with two sons.

Website: www.monicabhide.com.
Twitter: @mbhide
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The Killing Kind by Jane Casey

He tells you you’re special…
As a barrister, Ingrid Lewis is used to dealing with tricky clients, but no one has ever come close to John Webster. After Ingrid defended Webster against a stalking charge, he then turned on her – following her, ruining her relationship, even destroying her home.
 
He tells you he wants to protect you…
Now, Ingrid believes she has finally escaped his clutches. But when one of her colleagues is run down on a busy London road, Ingrid is sure she was the intended victim. And then Webster shows up at her door…

#TheKillingKind @JaneCaseyAuthor @fictionpubteam #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour

B ut can you believe him?
Webster claims Ingrid is in danger – and that only he can protect her. Stalker or saviour? Murderer or protector? The clock is ticking for Ingrid to decide. Because the killer is ready to strike again.

My Review

Gosh what a complicated story, though I mean that in a good way. And what fascinating characters. Who can you trust? Who is lying? So many clues but are they red herrings? I had my suspicions, but I was often totally wrong, though one or two I didn’t trust and proved right. I can’t say more except trust no-one. Because anyone could be guilty, though sometimes it’s the guilty we need to trust.

We have all heard about the ‘policeman’s nose’, that instinct they often claim to have acquired. But in court, it’s only evidence that counts, especially when you yourself are a lawyer like Ingrid.

I’m not alone (I have read other reviews) in enjoying – I won’t say liking – the character of John Webster (stalker, thief, possible killer) more than Ingrid herself. She’s a barrister, who finds herself the possible target of some kind of revenge killing. This is the conclusion she comes to when her colleague Belinda dies under a lorry, assumed to be an accident. But Belinda was carrying Ingrid’s umbrella, so Ingrid believes she herself was the intended target.

But was she, or is she being paranoid? Other things happen that make her think she is right, but does that mean everything is connected? Because if it is, she hasn’t a clue who or why.

It’s interesting that the law is brought into question here. Is it ever right to defend in court someone who has done something terrible, committed a heinous crime. I personally know the solicitor who defended Rose West. His mum once said to me that she didn’t understand how he could defend someone so evil. But in law, everyone is entitled to a fair trial – even murderers. Innocent until proven guilty and all that.

By the time you get to the end, there are so many twists, turns and threads to pull together, but this author manages to do that perfectly, with each ‘reveal’ dealt with one by one. Absolutely superb and very different from the usual crime thriller. And I’d love to see John Webster in another novel, even if that is a bit weird.

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

About the Author

Jane Casey is no stranger to the crime world. Married to a criminal barrister, she’s got the inside track on some of the country’s most dangerous offenders, giving her writing an unsettlingly realistic feel. This authenticity has made her novels international bestsellers and critical successes. They have been nominated for several awards and in 2015 Jane won both the Mary Higgins Clark Award and Irish Crime Novel of the Year for The Stranger You Know and After the Fire, respectively. In 2019, Cruel Acts was chosen as Irish Crime Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. It was a Sunday Times bestseller. Born in Dublin, Jane now lives in southwest London with her family.