Veronika Jordan's Blog, page 83

Art History by Cat on a Piano Productions / Theatrephonic

This Friday 31st Theatrephonic round up their Christmas series with the perfect piece to end the year.

‘Art History’

For her end of term Art History module, Saskia wants Lisa to examine a work of art in her house or a painting to which she feels a connection. But Lisa is struggling to be objective. The painting she has chosen is the last one her ex-husband gave her. What is the legacy of the work, asks Saskia?

Well, it was painted by a man who’s partner was also …..ing my husband, and anyway, he was a dog painter really and I’m not a dog person.

Stay away from anecdotes Lisa. Context!

In the future we won’t need to know about art history, says Lisa. Post oils, it will be more about foraging and food fermentation.

‘Bye Saskia, I’ve got a sack of cabbages to shred.’

Very clever and very funny. I loved this.

Written by @geraldine.brennan
Directed by @ebraefield

Starring 
Geraldine Brennan @geraldine.brennan as Lisa
Zoe Cunningham @zoefcunningham as Saskia
and Michael Luke Walsh as Dad

Music:

Love Explosion by Silent Partner

Produced by Cat on a Piano Productions

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…

I Know What You’ve Done by Dorothy Koomson

What if all your neighbours’ secrets landed in a diary on your doorstep?
What if the woman who gave it to you was murdered by one of the people in the diary?

What if the police asked if you knew anything? Would you hand over the book of secrets? Or … would you try to find out what everyone had done?

I Know What You’ve Done is the unputdownable thriller from the Queen of the Big Reveal.

My Review

Well this had us all guessing! And getting it wrong over and over. What a corker! Who can we trust? Who do we believe is telling the truth? No-one probably.

The story revolves around a diary left with Rae by her distinctly unfriendly neighbour Priscilla, after she’s been bonked on the head by person or persons unknown. The diary is full of secrets about some of the residents of the street, so who is implicated and who had a motive to try and kill Priscilla, and not just because she’s a snooty cow. And if you were Rae, would you hand the diary over to the police or try and read it first? Well of course you’d hand it over, but this is fiction and there wouldn’t be a story if she did.

I know Brighton has its seedier side (what town doesn’t), but the innocently-named Acacia Villas is a real den of iniquity. All those crims in one tree-lined, residential street. Makes me start wondering about my own neighbours (she says shutting the curtains and hiding the diary).

Rae is fleeing from something that happened in London. She’s married to Clark, whose demented ex, Lilly, is trying to get him back. Bryony is married to Grayson, but he’s vile and we all hate him almost as much as she does. And Dunstan happens to be the Police Officer who arrived on the scene when Priscilla collapsed on Rae’s doorstep. The story unfolds from different characters’ points of view, which makes it more interesting if initially slightly confusing.

And when you get the ‘final’ twist, there’s another to follow. So just how far would you go to keep your secrets?

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

About the Author

“Hello, my name’s Dorothy Koomson and I’ll try to make this bit that’s all about me as interesting as possible.

“I wrote my first novel called There’s A Thin Line Between Love And Hate when I was 13. I used to write a chapter every night then pass it around to my fellow convent school pupils every morning, and they seemed to love it.

“I grew up in London and then grew up again in Leeds when I went to university. I eventually returned to London to study for my masters degree and stayed put for the following years. I took up various temping jobs and eventually got my big break writing, editing and subbing for various women’s magazines and national papers.

“Fiction and storytelling were still a HUGE passion of mine and I continued to write short stories and novels every spare moment that I got. In 2001 I had the idea for The Cupid Effect and my career as a published novelist began. And it’s been fantastic. In 2006, third novel, My Best Friend’s Girl was published. It was incredibly successful – selling nearly 90,000 copies within its first few weeks on sale. Six weeks later, it was selected for the Richard & Judy Summer Reads Book Club and the book went on to sell over 500,000 copies. Oh, there I go again, this is meant to be about me, not my novels.

“Okay, back to me. I recently spent two years living in Sydney Australia, and now I’m back in England. But I can’t say for how long I’ll be in the UK for because I’ve been well and truly bitten by the travel bug.”

My Top 8 Books of 2021 – part four

Here are my favourite eight books of the fourth quarter of 2021. So far this has been a good year for books if for nothing else, so it was a really difficult decision. Please note that there may be books amongst the list that are not published until 2022, but these are books I have read this year and may be ARCs.

The Flight of the Shearwater by Alan Jones

Flight of the Shearwater continues the journey of the Kästners – the relationship between Erich and youngest daughter Antje and their mother Maria and sister Eva declining all the time. This disagreement revolves around the relationship with their lifelong friends and housekeepers – the Nussbaums who happen to be Jewish. While I do understand that Maria and Eva are afraid of repercussions – who can say if any of us would have been brave enough in the face of the SS or the Gestapo – I can’t help feeling that in their case it was more about their standing in society and Maria’s relationship with the Countess and finding Eva a well-connected husband.

For full review click here

A Woman Made of Snow by Elisabeth Gifford

This is one of the most beautifully written books I have read this year. Once again we have two timelines – Caroline, Alasdair and baby Felicity in 1949, being forced to live in Kelly Castle with Alasdair’s opinionated mum Martha, after their cottage in the grounds is flooded, and the mystery of who was Alasdair’s great-grandmother, for whom there is no grave, no pictures and whose name has been removed from the family tree.

For full review click here

The Unravelling by Polly Crosby

‘The sea is made up of unspeakable sadness.’ This is a sentence you will read many times in this extraordinary book.

Tartelin, a young woman who has recently lost her mother, travels to the tiny, remote island of Dohhalund in the middle of the North Sea, to work for Miss Stourbridge. Her job will be to catch butterflies and kill them, so they can be pinned and studied. It’s a strange request and one that Tartelin doesn’t realise will have such a profound effect on her.

For full review click here

The Every by Dave Eggers

Is this the future? One where people are happy to give up their freedoms in exchange for a life without crime, false friendships and anxiety. But there’s a catch. Constant monitoring and surveillance. Scared to say anything in case it tips your algorithms into the negative, and never get cross with your kids, it’s all being recorded. There’s no hiding place because the Every has the technology.

For full review click here

The Soul Catcher by Monica Bhide

This is an author who is not afraid of tragedy. The worst can happen and sometimes it does. But there is also love and joy.

The narrative goes round in a circle of short stories. We begin with Yamini – the Soul Catcher in the title. She uses her supernatural power to heal people – it is her destiny and one from which there is no escape.

For full review click here

Three Little Girls by Jane Badrock

What a crazy roller coaster of a ride. I just loved this book. Fantastic cast of characters – DI Karen Thorpe, tough, clever, untidy, her on-off boyfriend John Steele, head of forensics, Karen’s opposite, tidy and organised. But I especially loved ‘wee’ book shop owner and map-keeper Mr Binks. Who is he and what does he really do? Can we trust him?

For full review click here

The Visitors by Caroline Scott

This is such a beautiful book. Exquisitely written using sensitive, evocative language, we really feel we are there in Cornwall and in the trenches in France during the Great War.

It’s 1923 and Esme has been widowed for seven years. Her husband of only a few months went to war in France but after two years of regular letters, they suddenly stopped. Then one fateful day the letter she dreads arrives and she is informed that he has died.

For full review click here

The Last Checkmate by Gabriella Saab

I often cry at the end of a book, especially if the ending is sad, but I have to admit I cried throughout most of The Last Checkmate. After so many years have past since the holocaust I still struggle with the notion that there are people out there who can do these things to one another. And those who not only believed the killing and torture was OK but that it was actually justified – the destruction of an entire race was justified. But this story is not about the Jews, it’s about one 14-year-old girl who joined the Polish resistance in Warsaw with her ‘friend’ Irena and got caught, and how she survived the horrors of Auschwitz.

For full review click here

Mr Jones by Alex Woolf

Ben hears noises in his basement and witnesses weird goings-on in his local park. His eight-year-old daughter Imogen starts receiving messages from someone claiming to be her missing mother. And then there is Mr Jones —the man who haunts the imaginations of the children at Imogen’s school. But they are just stories, surely? Ben soon develops a creeping suspicion that someone is out to kidnap his daughter. Are his fears real or a result of his own stress-induced paranoia?

Alex Woolf’s psychological thriller explores loss, fear and an overwhelming desire to keep those we love safe from harm.

My Review

I desperately wanted to give this five stars for the wonderful writing, the creepiness, the originality etc. Unfortunately the ending was not what I expected or needed and it left me finding my own metaphorical interpretation, otherwise it wouldn’t have worked for me.

The blurb says ‘Alex Woolf’s psychological thriller explores loss, fear and an overwhelming desire to keep those we love safe from harm.‘ In a lot of ways I didn’t need the plot being explained to me or turned into something physical or even metaphysical – I was happy for my imagination to take me there.

As readers I think we need everything tied up at the end in its own little box, but I think Mr Jones goes beyond that. You hear people say – this is so good, all the loose ends were tied up very neatly thanks, but in this case I didn’t want them tied up. I didn’t want an explanation for everything (albeit natural or supernatural). I rather like Shakespeare’s ‘he descended into madness’ for absolutely no apparent reason (you’ll need to read the book for that to make sense). I don’t need to know that the fairies at the bottom of the garden are actually aliens (God help us) – note there are no aliens here (thank goodness) or fairies.

Ben’s wife has disappeared and he appears to find it easier to believe that she was murdered (or at least died) than accept that she walked out on him and his eight-year-old daughter Imogen. Right at the end Ben muses that ‘…maybe she just didn’t love Imogen that much. There is no iron law of the universe, ‘he says’ ‘that a mother has to love her child.’

In the meantime, a totally separate character called Roy is writing a book based on a horrific event that occurred in 2003. But are they in some way connected? And who is Amy and why is she so keen for her son Alex to be Imogen’s best friend?

The bizarre plot and Ben’s memory lapses are very confusing but in a way that makes you want to read more – if I wasn’t reading in ‘staves’ with the Pigeonhole bookclub I’d have devoured the whole lot in a day.

To hell with it. I’m going to give it five stars anyway.

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

About the Author

Alex Woolf was born in London in 1964. He has worked as a writer and editor for over 20 years and has published over 40 works of fiction and non-fiction, mainly for young adults. His fiction includes the Chronosphere series, a science-fiction trilogy published by Scribo, and Soul Shadows, an interactive e-novel published by Fiction Express, and shortly to be published in print by Capstone. His short fiction has won or been shortlisted for several competitions. He lives in Southgate, North London, with his wife and two children.

Sweet Singing in the Choir by Cat on a Piano Productions / Theatrephonic

Here is a special minisode for you this Friday (Christmas Eve)

‘Sweet Singing in the Choir’
A Christmas Case

It’s our friend DI Arthur Meadowes and his long-suffering wife Deirdre again with another exciting tale of burglary and carol singing.

Deirdre needs to practice her singing but Arthur has a case to crack. How will it all turn out? I love this pair – I hope we see lots more of them in the future.

Written by Barbara Jennings
Directed by @ebraefield

Starring Helen Fullerton @helenfullertonactor and Jonathan Legg @jondlegg

Music:
Silent Night, performed by Amicantus Choir
Hark! The Herold Angels Sing, performed by Amicantus Choir
Oh Come All Ye Faithful, performed by Amicantus Choir

Lucky patrons got this episode early, on Wednesday. If you fancy getting early episodes as well as bloopers, Q&As and bonus episodes, visit www.patreon.com/theatrephonic

Produced by Cat on a Piano Productions

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 Murder Mile (Dr. Jo McCready #1) by Lesley Mcevoy

Evil never dies…

Forensic Psychologist, Jo McCready is assisting DCI Callum Ferguson on a murder inquiry, when one of her patients is found brutally murdered. 

Jo was the last person to see Martha Scott alive. She was helping Martha unlock a repressed memory. But during the session, Jo unlocked more than she bargained for. An alter personality introduced himself as the reincarnation of Jack the Ripper – and thanked Jo for setting him free to kill again.

As Ferguson’s team race to find Martha’s killer, a series of copycat killings begin, replicating ‘The Autumn of Terror’ in 1888. But if Jack is just a figment of Martha’s damaged mind, who killed her?

As the body count rises, Jo must construct a profile to stop the murderer recreating the terror of the most infamous serial killer of all time.

But not everyone is on Jo’s side. The Police Intelligence Unit have their own profiler, Liz Taylor-Caine, who resents Jo’s involvement as a contributing expert in the case.

Suspicion about Jo’s involvement in the killings increases when someone close to the team becomes one of Jack’s victims.

And as the anniversary of the final and most gruesome of all the killings looms, Jo discovers that the killer has one murder on his mind that is far closer to home…

My Review

OMG I want to see this as a TV series – pleeease. It would be so good. I can even help cast it (as I often do on here). Maybe Keeley Hawes as Jo?

Do you remember the series Whitechapel starring Rupert Penry-Jones? The first series was broadcast in 2009 and was about the search for a modern copycat killer replicating the murders of Jack the Ripper.

In The Murder Mile, the killer actually believes he is ‘Jack’ and that he is on a mission to act out the gruesome crimes committed in 1888 over an area of London that became known as ‘the murder mile’.

But back to the beginning. Forensic Psychologist, Jo McCready is asked by DCI Callum Ferguson, with whom she is/is not having a bit of a fling to help profile the Towpath killer, but this causes ripples in The Police Intelligence Unit as they have their own profiler, Liz Taylor-Caine, who resents Jo’s involvement as a contributing expert in the case. Anyway to cut a long story short, Jo is right and Liz is wrong – more animosity between them.

In the meantime Jo has been visiting a young woman called Martha who is trying to unlock a repressed memory, but when Martha is murdered, we know we have another killer on the loose. And so the story unfolds and the body count rises, each crime being an exact copy of Jack the Ripper’s murders, albeit in another city.

This book was just brilliant. It’s so exciting with so many twists and turns and a wonderful dog called Harvey who we all came to love. Well drawn characters with Jo’s work as a profiler adding more depth to the suspects. I loved it.

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

About the Author

Lesley McEvoy was born and bred in Yorkshire and has had a passion for writing in one form or another all her life. The writing took a backseat as Lesley developed her career as a Behavioural Analyst / Profiler and Psychotherapist – setting up her own Consultancy business and therapy practice. She has written and presented extensively around the world for over 25 years specialising in behavioural profiling and training, with a wide variety of organisations. The corporate world provided unexpected sources of writing material when, as Lesley said – she found more psychopaths in business than in prison! Lesley’s work in some of the UK’s toughest prisons was where she met people whose lives had been characterised by drugs and violence and whose experiences informed the themes she now writes about. Deciding in 2017 to concentrate on her writing again, Lesley produced her debut novel, The Murder Mile published by Bloodhound Books in May 2019. In December 2019, she was signed by Rogers, Coleridge and White Literary agency in London and is represented by Jon Wood.

The Last Checkmate by Gabriella Saab

Readers of Heather Morris’s The Tattooist of Auschwitz and watchers of The Queen’s Gambit won’t want to miss this amazing debut set during World War II. A young Polish resistance worker, imprisoned in Auschwitz as a political prisoner, plays chess in exchange for her life, and in doing so fights to bring the man who destroyed her family to justice.

Maria Florkowska is many things: daughter, avid chess player, and, as a member of the Polish underground resistance in Nazi-occupied Warsaw, a young woman brave beyond her years. Captured by the Gestapo, she is imprisoned in Auschwitz, but while her family is sent to their deaths, she is spared. Realizing her ability to play chess, the sadistic camp deputy, Karl Fritzsch, decides to use her as a chess opponent to entertain the camp guards. However, once he tires of exploiting her skills, he has every intention of killing her.

#TheLastCheckmate @GabriellaSaab_ @Harper360UK #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour

Befriended by a Catholic priest, Maria attempts to overcome her grief, vows to avenge the murder of her family, and plays for her life. For four gruelling years, her strategy is simple: Live. Fight. Survive.

By cleverly provoking Fritzsch’s volatile nature in front of his superiors, Maria intends to orchestrate his downfall. Only then will she have a chance to evade the fate awaiting her and see him punished for his wickedness.

As she carries out her plan and the war nears its end, she challenges her former nemesis to one final game, certain to end in life or death, in failure or justice. If Maria can bear to face Fritzsch—and her past—one last time.

My Review

I often cry at the end of a book, especially if the ending is sad, but I have to admit I cried throughout most of The Last Checkmate. After so many years have past since the holocaust I still struggle with the notion that there are people out there who can do these things to one another. And those who not only believed the killing and torture was OK but that it was actually justified – the destruction of an entire race was justified. But this story is not about the Jews, it’s about one 14-year-old girl who joined the Polish resistance in Warsaw with her ‘friend’ Irena and got caught, and how she survived the horrors of Auschwitz.

My Polish father was 16 when the war broke out, but he didn’t live in Warsaw. He was ‘lucky’. He joined the army and was taken prisoner in freezing, northern Russia until he escaped and found his way to the UK.

The Last Checkmate is one of the most moving books I have ever read, if not the most. And Maria is such an inspiring character. How she survives the horror is anyone’s guess, especially without hope. Because we know from the very beginning that her mother, Tata, nine year old sister and four year old brother were murdered as soon as they arrived at Auschwitz. She knows because she recognises her sister’s golden curls amongst the piled up bodies, ready for disposal in the crematorium. That image of her sister’s golden curls is the one that will never leave me.

Then there’s the guilt. She believes that it is her fault that her family were arrested, because she got caught on one of her assignments. It is only after meeting a humble Catholic priest that she understands that what she needs to do for her family is to ‘live, to fight and to survive’. And she does this by playing chess against the sadistic camp deputy, Karl Fritzsch. She knows that eventually he will tire of her and she will be shot like the rest of her family. Unless she can devise a plan to have him removed to another camp.

This book is amazing. It’s hard to believe it’s a debut. The images of the concentration camp, the treatment of prisoners, the cruelty, the torture, the killing of children, it doesn’t bear thinking about. But we must never forget and it’s our duty to make sure it never happens again.

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

About the Author

Gabriella Saab graduated from Mississippi State University with a bachelor of business administration in marketing and now lives in her hometown of Mobile, Alabama, where she works as a barre instructor. While researching The Last Checkmate, she travelled to Warsaw and Auschwitz to dig deeper into the setting and the experiences of those who lived there. The Last
Checkmate is her first novel.

Her Perfect Secret by TJ Brearton

It’s him. Tom. The boy whose mother I helped put in prison for life.

I recognise the sharp nose and flare to the nostrils. His thick eyebrows and defined cheekbones. But mostly it’s the eyes. Sea green. But my daughter, Joni, keeps calling him Michael. And they’re here at the lake house telling us they’re getting married.

It can’t be him. But even if it is, what can I say? Suddenly I’m thrust back fifteen years, looking through photos of a violent and bloody crime scene. I can’t be sure.

We haven’t been the perfect family. Joni went through a rebellious phase. Her dad had an affair. But we got through it together. I will do anything to protect us, to protect the life we’ve fought for. Anything…

My Review

This is a book full of secrets, suspense and unexpected twists from one of my favourite authors. It’s so good you’ll gasp out loud at some of the goings on.

It may be called Her Perfect Secret but they are far from the perfect family. Is Emily an unreliable narrator? I wasn’t sure. She certainly knows more than she’s letting on. And what about husband Paul, who had an affair, although she insists they’ve worked their way through it – together.

Then we have Tom, “I recognise the sharp nose and flare to the nostrils. His thick eyebrows and defined cheekbones. But mostly it’s the eyes. Sea green,” but daughter Joni keeps calling him Michael and tells mum and dad that they are engaged to be married. So is Michael really Tom, the damaged boy who Emily treated 15 years ago after the violent murder of his father by his own mother. And if he is, then how did he meet Joni? Was it a coincidence? There are no coincidences in good thrillers -and this is far too sophisticated a thriller to resort to that old trick. So did Michael/Tom plan it and could his mother be behind it? I had no idea, but in a good way.

And if he is Tom then is Emily safe with him in the remote lake house knowing what she knows and is Joni safe with him? But is he the real danger? I was exhausted trying to work it all out! What a rollercoaster!

Many thanks to the author for allowing me to be the ‘first brave’ reader (his own words) and giving my honest opinion along the way. My review is totally unbiased. 4.5 stars.

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.

Christmas at No 5 by Cat on a Piano Productions / Theatrephonic

Merry Christmas!
It’s the season of giving with ‘Christmas at No. 5’
Friends are the family you choose.

Four people (and one child) living in a block of flats in separate apartments. They speak to each other occasionally, even know each other’s names, but they never socialise, never even borrow the sugar or drop in for a cup of tea. Well it’s hard to admit you are lonely, especially at Christmas, when you should be out with friends or spending time with family.

Christmas at no 5 is also about judgement and misconceptions.

This is such a lovely play as each person’s story is gradually revealed. I loved it.

Written and directed by Danielle Lade

With:
Emmeline Braefield as Rachel
Sam Jordan as Simon
Jayne Lloyd as Jan
Lydia Kenny as Taylor
and
Scarlett Lade as Holly

Produced by Cat on a Piano Productions 

Music:
Sussex Carol by Vaughan Williams, performed by Amicantus Choir
12 Days of Christmas by Jingle Punks
Holly Dazed by RKVC
Christmas Homecoming by Aaron Kenny
Christmas Village by Aaron Kenny
Deck the Halls by E’s Jammy Jams
Holiday Brass Ensemble by Doug Maxwell, Media Right Productions
Prizefighter by Norma Rockwell
O Christmas Tree by Jinhle Punks
Waltz of the Flowers by Tchaikovsky
O Little Town of Bethlehem, performed by Amicantus Choir.

Produced by Cat on a Piano Productions

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 Wakening by JG Faherty

Fifty years ago, Father Leo Bonaventura, a young exorcist, cast a demon out from a young boy in Central America. The demon, Asmodeus, vowed revenge.

Now the demon has returned, in the same town where Bonaventura is a retired priest nearing the end of his life. At the same time, the possession of a young girl brings together an unlikely group of people, all of whom are linked in their pasts in some way: A group of paranormal investigators, including twin psychics.

#TheWakening @jgfaherty @flametreepress @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour

Robert Lockhart, a defrocked priest with a dark secret that only the twins know. A father whose dead wife was a college girlfriend of Robert’s and once conjured an evil spirit with him through a Ouiji board. Now they must all join forces and help Father Bonaventura rid the town not only of Asmodeus, but also the plague of poltergeists that have followed the demon into our world.

My Review

It’s a long time since I’ve read a book in this genre. It’s like Dennis Wheatley meets Ghostbusters with a bit of The Exorcist thrown in for good measure. Anyone in my age bracket will remember the scene in A Devil Rides Out where the protagonists form a protected circle and fight off a giant tarantula – ‘don’t leave the circle’, finally throwing holy water at it. The film ends with Christopher Lee reciting the final words of the ‘Susamma Ritual’ to cast out the devil. Great stuff!

But in The Wakening, instead of the ‘Goat of Mendes’ ie the devil himself, we have one of his minions, a demon called Asmodeus, except this one has five heads (one of which happens to be a goat), who has returned to get revenge on Father Leo Bonaventura (the priest and exorcist, who originally cast him out) by possessing the body of a young girl and making the townspeople hold orgies, jump off cliffs and kill each other.

Robert Lockhart, a defrocked priest, has conducted numerous unofficial exorcisms, but he has a very dark and sinister past. Together with a group of reality show ghosthunters and twin psychics, Bobby and Father Leo must band together to fight the evil which is gripping the small town of Hastings Mills. But why this town in particular? It appears there are links to a number of other incidents of demonic possession over the years.

And did I mention poltergeists? Lots of them and they seem to be attracted to Asmodeus and enjoy throwing pictures, toys and furniture around.

This is not a book for the squeamish or faint-hearted. It can be quite graphic at times and includes demonic possession, orgies, weeping and gnashing of teeth, extreme violence, sex and nudity. So if that’s just up your street, go for it.

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

About the Author

A life-long resident of New York’s haunted Hudson Valley, JG Faherty has been a finalist for both the Bram Stoker Award® (THE CURE, GHOSTS OF CORONADO BAY) and ITW Thriller Award (THE BURNING TIME), and he is the author of 8 novels, 11 novellas, and more than 75 short stories. He writes adult and YA horror, science fiction, paranormal romance, and urban fantasy. He grew up enthralled with the horror movies and books of the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, and as a child his favorite playground was a 17th-century cemetery. Which explains a lot.

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

Buy Links:
Amazon UK https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wakening-JG-Faherty/dp/178758593X/
Amazon US https://www.amazon.com/Wakening-JG-Faherty/dp/178758593X