Mark West's Blog

The Sixteenth Annual Westies - review of the year 2024

And so 2024 draws to a close. It's been another up-and-down year for me, what with moving house (nice big study!), breaking my hand just after we moved in (not my smartest move ever), Dude going into his second year at Uni (I still miss him as much as when he first left) and two books published - TO SEE TOO MUCH and the box-set SEASIDE PSYCHOLOGICAL. I've also read a lot.

Which means that it's now time to indulge in the annual blog custom and remember the good books of 2024.

Once again, it's been a great reading year (though I managed ten books fewer than last year), with a nice mix of brand new novels, a lot of books that have languished on my TBR pile for too long, some good second-hand finds (which jumped straight to the top of the pile) along with some welcome re-reads.

My target for the year was to read twelve novelisations and I achieved it - some of them were good, a couple were dire, but some were absolutely brilliant.

As always, the top 20 places were hard fought and, I think, show a nice variety in genre and tone.

So, without further ado, I present the Sixteenth Annual Westies Award - “My Best Fiction Reads Of The Year” - and the top 20 looks like this:

1: Under A Summer Skye, by Sue Moorcroft2: E is For Evidence, by Sue Grafton3: Kill For Me, Kill For You, by Steve Cavanagh4: Last Night Of Freedom, by Dan Howarth5: Blacktop Wasteland, by S A Crosby6: New Blood, by Richard Salem7: Early Autumn, by Robert B. Parker8: A Savage Place, by Robert B. Parker9: French Postcards, by Norma Klein10: Gregory's Girl, by Gerald Cole11: Death Walkers, by Gary Brandner12: One Of The Dead, by Richard Farren Barber13: Grange Hill Rules O.K.?, by Robert Leeson14: No Time For Goodbye, by Linwood Barclay15: Creepers, by David Morrell16: Han Solo At Stars' End, by Brian Daley17: Charlie Says, by Neil Williamson18: The Night Boat, by Robert McCammon19: The Only Suspect, by Louise Candlish20: The Shadow Friend, by Alex North

The Top 10 in non-fiction are:
1: Cinema Speculation, by Quentin Tarantino2: I Am Spock, by Leonard Nimoy3: The Star Wars Vault, by Stephen J Sansweet4: Berserker!, by Adrian Edmondson5: The Devil's Candy, by Julie Salamon6: Star Trek Memories, by William Shatner7: The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck, by Mark Manson8: Cinefex 42, by Various9: Cinefex 25, by Various10: The Killers: Destiny Is Calling Me, by Jarret Keene

Stats wise, I've read 79 books - 46 fiction, 13 non-fiction, 14 comics/nostalgia/kids and 6 Three Investigator mysteries.
Of the 73 books, the breakdown is thus:
4 biography
12 horror
14 film-related
5 drama (includes romance)
24 crime/mystery
4 sci-fi
5 nostalgia
5 humour

All of my reviews are posted up at Goodreads here

In case you’re interested, the previous awards are linked to from here:

2023202220212020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009

Under A Summer Skye, by Sue Moorcroft

As regular readers of the blog will know, I've been friends with Sue Moorcroft since we first met at the Kettering Writers Group in 1999 (we genre writers were consigned to the back of the room, where we had a great laugh).  Since then she's gone from strength to strength, hitting number one in the Kindle Bestseller charts (with The Christmas Promise) on her way to becoming a Sunday Times Best Seller, while her novel  A Summer To Remember  won the Goldsboro Books Contemporary Romantic Novel Award 2020.  As well as featuring her a lot on blog (to see more, click this link), I'm pleased to be part of the blog tour for her latest novel,  Under A Summer Skye , which has just been published in paperback and e-book.
A chance encounter is about to change everything for Thea Wynter.
The moment she arrived on the Isle of Skye, life changed for Thea. Running from a succession of wrong turns, she comes to the island in search of blue sea, endless skies, and mountains that make the heart soar. Here, she feels at peace.
As head gardener at Rothach Hall, life is exactly how she wants it, with her days spent working in the glorious clifftop garden and her evenings in the cosy local village.
But an encounter with a stranger from the mainland brings with it an unexpected turn – and only time will tell if he is friend or foe.
It seems that even on Skye, life can catch up with you, and Thea is soon faced with the past she left behind – and with it, the family she’s never met…
From old lives to new beginnings, lose yourself on the beautiful Isle of Skye with Thea as she discovers how many possibilities life can truly hold if you look hard enough.
* * *Thea Wynter is head gardener at Rothach Hall and enjoys her life, with days spent working hard in glorious gardens and evenings at the cosy village pub with her friends and sister. But Thea has a secret. She’s running from her old life and now it’s catching up with her while, at the same time, she meets a mysterious stranger who might be friend or foe.
The latest novel from the ever excellent Sue Moorcroft is the first book in the Skye Sisters trilogy (the first trilogy Moorcroft has embarked upon) and takes place, mostly, on the Isle of Skye. The isle plays a key role, in both this and (presumably) the next two books and Sue paints it wonderfully, from the views to the colours, from the roads to the buildings, making the place feel alive. The same can be said of her characters who, as always, spring off the page. 
Thea is a conflicted woman, who tries to do the right thing but sometimes doesn’t, who adores her adopted sisters and parents, who’s been hurt in love but is trying to escape from a mistake she made years before, where a man was injured - his fault, not hers - but for which she managed to cop the blame of the public. Ezzie, who works at Rothach Hall, is equally well sketched, perhaps more vulnerable (as we later discover) but acting as a perfect foil for her younger sister. The eldest sister, Valentina, lives away from Skye and has less of a part to play here, so it’ll be interesting to see her story explored in another book. The sense of family that’s created, both blood and adopted, is sensitively explored and adds real weight to the emotions of the piece.
The characterisation is thorough and all of them - from the leads to the support - are relatable (even the ones who serves at the antagonists) and I quickly came to care for Thea and her situation, especially when family matters take a shift about halfway through. Dev, the romantic lead, is as conflicted as the object of his affections and that’s played out so well, you feel for him even knowing that the news will come out at some point - hey, it’s a Sue Moorcroft novel. There are always obstacles. 
With some nicely-timed comic relief from Daisy the dog, who initially brings Thea and Dev together, a sure sense of place - both in Scotland and France - and a good pace, this is a cracking novel that shows Moorcroft on top form. I’m really looking forward to reading the stories of the other two sisters now.
* * * 
Buy the book here - books2read.com/MoorcroftUASS
* * *Sue Moorcroft is an international bestselling author and has reached the #1 spot on Kindle UK. She’s won the Goldsboro Books Contemporary Romantic Novel Award, Readers’ Best Romantic Novel award and the Katie Fforde Bursary. Published by HarperCollins in the UK, US and Canada and by other publishers around the world.

Her short stories, serials, columns, writing ‘how to’ and courses have appeared around the world.

Born into an army family in Germany, Sue spent much of her childhood in Cyprus and Malta but settled in Northamptonshire at the age of ten. An avid reader, she also loves Formula 1, travel, family and friends, dance exercise and yoga.
Website: www.suemoorcroft.comBlog: https://suemoorcroft.wordpress.com/ 
Facebook: sue.moorcroft.3
Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/SueMoorcroftAuthor
Twitter: @suemoorcroft
Instagram: suemoorcroftauthor
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suemoorcroft
Amazon author page: Author.to/SueMoorcroft

The Fifteenth Annual Westies - review of the year 2023

And so 2023 draws to a close. It's been another up-and-down year for me (Dude left for university in September and I can report that not only is empty-nest syndrome an actual thing, it's also bloody horrible), but it's been creatively satisfying and I've read a lot.
Which means that it's now time to indulge in the annual blog custom and remember the good books of 2023.
Once again, it's been a great reading year for me (one more book than last year, as it happens), with a nice mix of brand new novels, a lot of books that have languished on my TBR pile for too long, some good second-hand finds (which jumped straight to the top of the pile) along with some welcome re-reads.
My target for the year was to read twelve biographies and I achieved it - some of them were good, a couple were dire, but some were absolutely brilliant (Sam Neill and Geena Davis, I'm looking at you).
As always, the top 20 places were hard fought and, I think, show a nice variety in genre and tone.
So, without further ado, I present the Fifteenth Annual Westies Award - “My Best Fiction Reads Of The Year” - and the top 20 looks like this:
1: Double Indemnity, by James M Cain2: A Love Letter Christmas, by Sue Moorcroft3: C Is For Corpse, by Sue Grafton4: Looking For Rachel Wallace, by Robert B Parker5: It's My Life, by Robert Leeson6: When You Comin' Back, Range Rider?, by Charles Heath7: D Is For Deadbeat, by Sue Grafton8: Point Blank, by Richard Stark9: The Deep, by Peter Benchley10: Carnosaur, by Harry Adam Knight11: Are You Awake?, by Claire McGowan12: The Night Shift, by Alex Finlay13: The Burning Girls, by C J Tudor14: The IT Girl, by Ruth Ware15: Nightfall, by John Farris16: Faithless, by John L Williams17: The Ideal Couple, by Anna Willett18: Gila!, by Les Simons19: The Guilty Couple, by C L Taylor20: Video Night, by Adam Cesare

The Top 10 in non-fiction are:
1: INXS: Story To Story, by Anthony Bozza & INXS 2: Did I Ever Tell You This?, by Sam Neill3: Dying Of Politeness, by Geena Davis4 All About Me!, by Mel Brooks5: We Could Be Heroes, by Paul Burston6: The Making Of Raiders Of The Lost Ark, by Derek Taylor7: Blondie, by Fred Shruers8: England's Dreaming, by John Savage 9: Chasing The Light, by Oliver Stone10: The Director Should Have Shot You, by Alan Dean Foster

Stats wise, I've read 89 books - 40 fiction, 28 non-fiction, 14 comics/nostalgia/kids and 7 Three Investigator mysteries.
Of the 82 books, the breakdown is thus:
12 biography
10 horror
16 film-related
4 drama (includes romance)
27 crime/mystery
4 sci-fi
0 nostalgia
9 humour
All of my reviews are posted up at Goodreads here

In case you’re interested, the previous awards are linked to from here:

20212020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009

The Ideal Couple, by Anna Willett

I am pleased to be part of the blog tour for Anna Willett's new novel from The Book Folks,  The ideal Couple .
When detectives try to close a missing persons case, a small town’s twisted secrets begin to unravel…
A couple disappear in a region of the outback known for its gold mining. Some three years on, there is still no trace of them.
Detective Veronika Pope is handed the cold case. It’s cold only in name. When she turns up to the godforsaken town where the couple were last seen, the heat is sweltering; suspicion simmering.
The detectives stay in the same seedy hotel as the couple did. The townsfolk aren’t welcoming. Nobody wants the cops probing into their affairs.
From what Pope can gather, the missing duo were the perfect couple. Loving. Happy together. The picture of marital bliss.
Assuming a murder but missing a motive, the detectives do make progress. They might even find the bodies, as the trail is hot. Almost too hot to touch.
Pope is in serious danger of getting burned…
* * *My review:Veronica Pope runs a cold case squad out of Perth and is called in, with her partner Jim, to investigate the disappearance of an apparently loving couple three years ago in the small outback town of Iron Creek. The red-dust coated ten streets are home to a hotel, a garage, a museum and a handful of people waiting for life to pass them by. The rest of Pope’s team are back at base, investigating the missing couple’s blended family and in-laws.
This is the fourth book in the Pope series but the first I’ve read and, apart from a couple of mentions of previous cases and a tease of her past that looks like it will be resolved in book 5, it’s a solid standalone that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Iron Creek literally comes to life, you can almost feel the heat and the oppressive dust and feel the knocks the townsfolk are taking. The characterisation is smart and brisk, giving us a life-story in a paragraph sometimes and leaving the reader to figure things out the next. The case itself is well plotted and constructed - it took me a while to get the main villain - and there’s plenty of grubbiness amongst the sweat to keep the attention as the pace crackles.
An excellent read which I would highly recommend and now I’m going to dive into the earlier cases! 
* * *
* * * Anna Willett was born in the United Kingdom and emigrated to Australia with her family when she was six years old. She developed a love of reading thanks to her mother who introduced her to authors such as Stephen King, Mario Puzo and John Steinbeck to name just a few.
Although her reading tastes are eclectic, when it comes to writing, Anna is drawn to thrillers and dark tales. Anna writes about the shadowy side of the human experience and how ordinary people cope in extraordinary situations. Common tropes in Anna’s writing include people who get into trouble after they leave the safety of the city and the rupturing of domestic bubbles in which those who one is supposed to trust become a threat.
Anna lives in Western Australia with her husband and their two children. When she’s not writing or reading, she enjoy movies, dining out and bushwalking with her dogs.

THE IDEAL COUPLE is the fourth title in the Cold Case Mysteries series featuring Veronika Pope and the full list of books is as follows:
1. THE WOMAN BEHIND HER2. THE FAMILY MAN3. THE NEWLYWED4. THE IDEAL COUPLE
* * *
* * * Purchasing links:
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CHJXJ7W5/US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHJXJ7W5/AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0CHJXJ7W5/

Website: https://thebookfolks.comWebsite - https://www.annawillett.info/Insta:@the_book_folksTwitter: @thebookfolksFacebook: http://facebook.com/thebookfolksBlog: https://thebookfolks.com/blog/

Temporary hiatus

Unfortunately, the Strange Tales site is going into a temporary hiatus but will return at some point in the near future.
In the meantime, further details about my thrillers can be found at https://mewthrillers.blogspot.com/ or using the normal www.markwest.org.uk address.
Thanks for all your support to this point, I'll see you here again soon.

The Piper's Children, by Iain Henn

I am pleased to be part of the blog tour for Iain Henn's new novel from The Book Folks, The Piper's Children . A baffling mystery sets an FBI agent on a dangerous path...
Park rangers are puzzled when a child is found wandering alone in the middle of a forest near Seattle.
Stranger still, he speaks a peculiar language that sounds a little like German, and is dressed in clothes people wore in the Middle Ages.
With no one having reported him missing, FBI Special Agent Will McCord assembles a dedicated unit to investigate the case, placing Detective Ilona Farris at its head.
Their relationship is edgy. They used to be an item. But McCord knows Farris is the best person for the job. Especially when more children turn up in similar circumstances.
Farris isn’t convinced that she is in fact the right person. Memories of a traumatic incident in her own childhood begin to emerge, and threaten to cloud her judgement.
Can she bury her demons and solve the mystery of these children, seemingly lost in time?
* * *My review:
Starting with a bang - and a touch of surrealism - Henn hits the ground running and puts us straight into the story. Ilona Farris is drafted into a newly set up FBI team, headed by her ex-lover, when a boy is found in a Seattle forest speaking German and apparently on the run from the Pied Piper. 
Things get a lot weirder from that point on, but the pacing and structure keep you completely on board at all times. Peopled with believable characters - the best of which is Farris herself, sporting both a secret and a terrifying experience from her childhood that will help the investigation - and a keen sense of location, this works perfectly and is never less than readable. 
Red herrings abound, there’s a lot of suspense and weirdness as well as a plot that makes perfect sense once you discover all the details. I thoroughly enjoyed this and look forward to more stories about the team. Very highly recommended.
* * *Born in Sydney, Australia, Iain Henn worked for many years in print media production for newspapers, magazines, and direct marketing agencies, and as a writer for small business websites.
He has written fiction from a young age. Somewhere in his house, there is still a framed copy of his first published story, a ‘5-minute fiction’ tale in Woman’s Day. Since then, he has never looked back, having short stories published in various magazines worldwide, and now his suspenseful thrillers and mysteries. 
Commenting on what influenced his writing journey, he describes a moment that has stayed with him. On his first day in his first job, as a teenage messenger boy, he left the office via a back exit into a narrow alleyway where he saw the body of a man crumpled on the ground. He had just jumped out of a window from the neighbouring building. The paramedics were already approaching. When Iain returned an hour or so later, the body and the surrounding activity were gone, there was just a chalk outline on the ground where the body had been. Ever since he has wondered who that man was, what led him to suicide, and what his future might have been had he lived. Decades later, that chalk outline is often on the writer’s mind when telling the stories of his characters’ lives.
Authors who have inspired Iain include Daphne Du Maurier, Ken Follett, Michael Crichton, Tess Gerritsen, Michael Robotham, and Harlen Coben. He lives on the New South Wales coast with his wife.
* * * Purchasing links:
Universal Amazon Link - https://geni.us/ppBS
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C5XNK6W8US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/ B0C5XNK6W8CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0C5XNK6W8AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0C5XNK6W8

Website: https://thebookfolks.comInsta:@the_book_folksTwitter: @thebookfolksFacebook: http://facebook.com/thebookfolksBlog: https://thebookfolks.com/blog/

Temporary hiatus

Unfortunately, the Strange Tales site is going into a temporary hiatus but will return at some point in the near future.
In the meantime, further details about my thrillers can be found at https://mewthrillers.blogspot.com/ or using the normal www.markwest.org.uk address.
Thanks for all your support to this point, I'll see you here again soon.

An Italian Island Summer, by Sue Moorcroft

Regular readers of the blog will know I've been friends with Sue Moorcroft since we first met at the Kettering Writers Group in 1999 (we genre writers were consigned to the back of the room, where we had a great laugh).  Since then she's gone from strength to strength, hitting number one in the Kindle Bestseller charts (with The Christmas Promise) on her way to becoming a Sunday Times Best Seller, while her novel  A Summer To Remember  won the Goldsboro Books Contemporary Romantic Novel Award 2020.  As well as featuring her a lot on blog (to see more, click this link), I'm also pleased to be one of her beta-readers and thoroughly enjoyed her latest novel, An Italian Island Summer , which has just been published in paperback and e-book.
Will one summer in Sicily change her life for ever?
After her marriage falls apart, Ursula Quinn is offered the chance to spend the summer working at a hotel on a beautiful island off the coast of Sicily, Italy. Excited by a new adventure, she sets off at once.
At Residenza dei Tringali, Ursula receives a warm welcome from everyone except Alfio, son of the Tringali family. He gave up his life in Barcelona to help his mother Agata with the ailing business, and is frustrated with Ursula’s interference – and she in turn is less than impressed with his attitude. As they spend more time together, though, they begin to see each other in a different light.
But what with Ursula’s ex-husband on her tail, family secrets surfacing and an unexpected offer that makes Alfio question his whole life, there’s plenty to distract them from one another. Can she face her past and he his future, and together make the most of their Sicilian summer?
* * *A new book by Sue is always welcome and this time we see the return of a character, Ursula, who played a role in one of her earlier novels. As always, there are plenty of twists and turns as we follow the story of Alfio and Ursula and part of the fun is watching the blocks put into their path and how they might get around.
Told with Sue's usual sure-hand skill, the book moves at a good pace and is filled with characters who burst into life from the page. Family life, in all its forms, is well represented, there's a lovely and lovable cat and the antagonists are realistically horrible. With a well realised - and used - central location, a lovely atmosphere that is well maintained and some great writing, this is another winner!* * *
Buy the book from Amazon here
UK hereUSA here

Sue Moorcroft is an international bestselling author and has reached the #1 spot on Kindle UK. She’s won the Goldsboro Books Contemporary Romantic Novel Award, Readers’ Best Romantic Novel award and the Katie Fforde Bursary. Published by HarperCollins in the UK, US and Canada and by other publishers around the world.

Her short stories, serials, columns, writing ‘how to’ and courses have appeared around the world.

Born into an army family in Germany, Sue spent much of her childhood in Cyprus and Malta but settled in Northamptonshire at the age of ten. An avid reader, she also loves Formula 1, travel, family and friends, dance exercise and yoga.
Website: www.suemoorcroft.comBlog: https://suemoorcroft.wordpress.com/ 
Facebook: sue.moorcroft.3
Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/SueMoorcroftAuthor
Twitter: @suemoorcroft
Instagram: suemoorcroftauthor
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suemoorcroft
Amazon author page: Author.to/SueMoorcroft

The Missing American, by Julie Highmore

I am pleased to be part of the blog tour for Julie Highmore, making her debut with The Book Folks with her novel The Missing American .
New to the private investigator game, Edie Fox is delighted when a handsome American client with disconcertingly dazzling teeth asks her to find his missing cousin, Isabella. Especially when he leaves her a bundle of cash to get started.
However, the case quickly gets complicated, and so does her life when a one-night stand from her Oxford university days gets in touch and asks if her 26-year-old daughter, Maeve, is also his child. Judging a chaotic home, a brimming wine glass, a daughter besotted with her new-found daddy, and a rekindled old flame, Edie must try to focus on the job.
But with unreliable witnesses, a less than trustworthy client, and an assistant with her mind on other things, Edie will be up against it and risks losing all.
THE MISSING AMERICAN is the first book in a series of hilarious cozy mysteries by bestselling author Julie Highmore. Look out for the next book in the series, THE RUNAWAY HUSBAND, coming soon!
* * *Edie Fox is new to the private investigating business and delighted when a handsome American client asks her to find his missing cousin, Isabella and hands over a bundle of cash. The case quickly gets complicated, however and so does her life when the father (a one-night-stand from her university days) of her twentysomething daughter Maeve, turns up out of the blue. With a chaotic home-life, a rekindled old flame and a job with unreliable witnesses and an untrustworthy client, Edie is up against it as she tries to find Isabella.
I'm not well read in the cosy crime field but the blurb for this was intriguing and, with news that a second book is on the way, I decided to give it a go and I’m really glad I did. Told with a clear, dry voice, this reminded me of the hardboiled novels of the forties with Edie’s ever complicated homelife impeding on the case (and vice versa) and her observations about events were often very humorous. The case twists and turns, almost everyone’s a suspect and there’s a lovely sense of location (it’s set in the less desirable areas of Oxford) that really grounds the whole piece. It’s also not afraid to show the seamier side of life, which was refreshing. 
Edie is a fantastic character, fully rounded and believable and even though she’s an amateur, she puts the clues together well. With a varied and often eccentric supporting cast, all of them fully living and breathing and with plenty of smart lines to amuse, there was a touch of “The Beiderbecke Affair” about this and that just made me love it all the more. Very highly recommended.
* * *The daughter of an RAF officer, Julie Highmore moved around a lot as a child but eventually settled in Oxford in her twenties. After having three children, she studied first at Westminster College, then Oxford Brookes University and gained a first class degree in English. As part of the course, she studied creative writing with Philip Pullman, who encouraged her to continue with her writing after graduation. This she did, and her published work includes nine rom-com novels, and more recently, a crime fiction series for The Book Folks.
When not writing, Julie enjoys music, binge-watching a good TV series, country strolls, doing the New York Times crossword and hanging out with her husband and ever-expanding family.
Click here for more info on the writer: https://thebookfolks.com/author/julie-highmore/
The Missing American features the somewhat flawed, Oxford-based private investigator, Edie Fox; a single mother and very young grandmother who inadvertently gets her precious family caught up in her first big case. The Oxford she knows is based in the more edgy and diverse east of the city, full of small Victorian houses, students, cafes, delis and retired lecturers.
Purchasing links UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C23XYCKG/US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C23XYCKG/CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0C23XYCKG/AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0C23XYCKG

Social Media links Website: https://thebookfolks.comInsta:@the_book_folksTwitter: @thebookfolksFacebook: http://facebook.com/thebookfolksBlog: https://thebookfolks.com/blog/Julie’s Twitter: @JulieHighmore

Temporary hiatus

Unfortunately, the Strange Tales site is going into a temporary hiatus but will return at some point in the near future.
In the meantime, further details about my thrillers can be found at https://mewthrillers.blogspot.com/ or using the normal www.markwest.org.uk address.
Thanks for all your support to this point, I'll see you here again soon.