The Fortunes Of Olivia Richmond by Louise Davidson

 

The Fortunes of Olivia Richmond by Louise Davidson.

Published 26th October 2023 by Moonflower Books.

From the cover of the book:

After a terrible tragedy, governess Julia Pearlie finds herself with no job, home, or references. When she’s offered a position as companion to Miss Olivia Richmond, her luck appears to be turning. But Mistcoate House is full of secrets.

Olivia has a sinister reputation. The locals call her the Mistcoate Witch, thanks to her tarot readings, and her insistence that she can speak to the dead. Her father, Dr Richmond, believes this to be girlish fantasy and is looking to Julia to put a stop to it.

Determined to prove herself and shake off her own murky history, Julia sets to work trying to help Olivia become a proper young lady. However, as she becomes a fixture at Mistcoate, it is soon clear that there may be more to Olivia’s stories than Dr Richmond would have Julia believe – not least because somehow, Olivia seems to know something of the darkness that Julia desperately hoped she had left behind.

As the danger grows, and the winter chill wraps around the dark woods surrounding Mistcoate, Julia will have to fight to uncover the truth, escape her past – and save herself. Original and engrossing, this chilling Victorian Gothic ghost story is an outstanding piece of storytelling, perfect for fans of Sarah Perry, Erin Morgenstern and Jessie Burton.

***********

Caught up in a family tragedy at her previous position, governess Julia Perlie is unable to find work, and is forced to rely on the charity of her reluctant relatives. When a much needed legacy from her recently departed mother goes entirely to her brother, Julia is desperate to escape her predicament, but without a good reference it is almost impossible to gain employment in another household.

Then a curious chance comes Julia's way. A Dr Richmond requires a companion for his teenage daughter Olivia to prepare her for her upcoming debutante season in London, and he does not seem too concerned about Julia's sketchy references. However, when she arrives at the less than welcoming Mistcoate House in Norfolk, her chance for a new start does not look quite as rosy as she hoped. The house and its inhabitants are eerily sinsiter, and locals whisper that Olivia is cursed, naming her the Mistcoate Witch. Although Julia is initially inclined to agree with Dr Richmond's curt assessment that his daughter's strange ways are down to girlish folly, she cannot deny that Olivia knows rather more about people's private lives than seems usual - including the dark secrets that she is keeping...

In this deliciously creepy debut, Louise Davidson weaves a tale that thrums with oodles of Gothic gorgeousness. Combining elements of compelling mystery and beautifully crafted Victorian ghost story, Davidson channels brooding Bronte-esque atmosphere in her disquieting setting and the Jane Eyre like situation of her protagonist Julia, drawing you in and making you jump at shadows.

As Julia gradually uncovers the weird goings on in the Richmond family, you begin to learn of her past and the tragedy and heartbreak that have marked her, and Davidson injects genuinely terrifying undercurrents of horror that play nicely with the the threads of secrets, lies, passion, betrayal, and spiritualism. There are gripping twists and turns, and you are never quite sure what is real of imagined, but one thing you are sure of is that you desperately need Julia to draw on her courage to foil the plans of the melodramatic villains of the piece.

I could not put this terrifying story down, and absorbed it in a single chilling bite. It is full of menace, and will incite you to indignant rage at the patriarchal injustices Davidson writes about so well, especially when if comes to the horrific treatment of 'difficult' women deemed to be 'hysterical'. The perfect read for spooky season - with a fabulous feminist kick!

The Fortunes of Olivia Richmond is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Moonflower Books for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author:

Louise Davidson was born in Belfast and has always worked in the creative arts in some capacity - from assistant to theatre directors to teaching scriptwriting classes in prisons to teaching English and drama to A-Level students. 

Growing up in Northern Ireland backgrounded by the Troubles led to a fascination with history, and this combined with her love of all things gothic inspired her to write her first book, a dark Victorian thriller set in a neglected and isolated mansion. 

Louise lives in London with her husband and step-son, and in her spare time is working on fulfilling her ambition to visit every museum in the city. 

The Fortunes of Olivia Richmond is her debut novel.

White As Snow (An Áróra Investigation Book Three) by Lilja Sigurđardóttir

 

White as Snow (An Áróra Investigation Book Three) by Lilja Sigurđardóttir.

Translated by Quentin Bates.

Published 12th October 2023 by Orenda Books.

From the cover of the book:

On a snowy winter morning, an abandoned shipping container is discovered near Reykjavík. Inside are the bodies of five young women – one of them barely alive.

As Icelandic Police detective Daníel struggles to investigate the most brutal crime of his career, Áróra looks into the background of a suspicious man, who turns out to be engaged to Daníel's former wife, and the connections don’t stop there…

Daníel and Áróra’s cases pit them both against ruthless criminals with horrifying agendas, while Áróra persists with her search for her missing sister, Ísafold, whose devastating disappearance continues to haunt her.

As the temperature drops and the 24-hour darkness and freezing snow hamper their efforts, their investigations become increasingly dangerous … for everyone.

Atmospheric, twisty and breathtakingly tense, White as Snow is the third instalment in the riveting, award-winning An Áróra Investigation series, as crimes committed far beyond Iceland’s shores come home…

Shortlisted for The Blood Drop – Icelandic Crime Novel of the Year, 2022

***********

In the midst of an Icelandic winter, an abandoned shipping container is found in Reykjavík that holds a grim discovery. Inside are the bodies of five young women, who appear to have been left to die in the freezing temperatures. Miraculously, one of them is still alive, and police detective Daníel Hansson desperately hopes she will be the key to explaining the mystery behind this shocking crime scene - if she survives.

As Daníel and his team struggle to make headway in their investigation, Áróra is distracted from her continuing search for her missing sister by a request from Daníel to help his ex-wife Elín delve into the murky past of the much younger Russian man she hopes to marry.

While the snow falls, Daníel and Áróra find themselves embroiled in the world of organised crime, where black hearts care nothing for the vulnerable lives they exploit in pursuit of their own ends, and as the threads of their separate investigations cross-over, danger looms...

White as Snow is the third cracking instalment of the Áróra Investigations series. It can be read as standalone, but is so much better if you have read the previous books, Cold As Hell and Red as Blood, as the backstories of Daníel and Áróra add an extra dimension.

The search for a gang of unscrupulous villains engaged in the very worst kind of people trafficking lies at the heart of the chilling tale, which Sigurđardóttir gives real power to by shining a light on the desperation of the victims who become trapped by them. The case hits Daníel hard, and he feels the pressure of searching for elusive clues while keeping his precious witness safe from those who mean her harm. In parallel, Áróra is persuaded by Daníel to pry into the domestic affairs of his ex-wife, who is trapped in a toxic relationship that brings to the surface uncomfortable memories for Áróra in more ways than one.

The threads of the story weave beautifully together with atmospheric menace, flipping between the disturbing logistics of the people trafficking operation, the teamwork of Daníel and his team, and Áróra's sleuthing, bringing in fascinating elements of police procedural on a local and international scale, and gritty detective noir set against a deliciously described wintry backdrop. The crime story draws you in, with juicy reveals that tie Daníel and Áróra's seemingly unconnected plotlines together, building suspense and keeping you turning the pages as all the little pieces fall into place.

This book impresses with so much more than a well-conceived crime mystery, because around the gritty thrills and spills Sigurđardóttir embroiders details that pick out so much about the complicated feelings that make up the human condition and how they colour the judgement of the characters. She delves into the search for identity; the yearning of those who long for love and human connection; the joy and heartache of family (both blood and found); and the complex emotional baggage that comes with past and present romantic relationships... not to mention, the way she packs a real punch in following the heartrending tales of the victims of human traffickers. This is a crime story with layers, and Quentin Bates does an excellent job ensuring his translation gives them all their moment to shine.

This is another chilling winner from Sigurđardóttir, in a series that just gets better and better. More please!

White as Snow is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats. You can support indie publishing by buying direct from Orenda Books HERE.

Thank you to Orenda Books for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review, and to Random Things Tours for inviting me to be a part of this blog tour.

About the author: 

Icelandic crime-writer Lilja Sigurdardóttir was born in the town of Akranesin 1972 and raised in Mexico, Sweden, Spain and Iceland. 

An award-winning playwright, Lilja has written four crime novels, with Snare, the first in a new series and Lilja's English debut shortlisting for the CWA International Dagger and hitting bestseller lists worldwide. Trap soon followed suit, with the third in the trilogy Cage winning the Best Icelandic Crime Novel of the Year, and was a Guardian Book of the Year. 

Lilja's standalone Betrayal, was shortlisted for the Glass Key Award for Best Nordic Crime Novel. 

In 2021, Cold as Hell, the first in the An Áróra Investigation series was published, with Red as Blood to follow in 2022. The film rights have been bought by Palomar Pictures in California. 

Lilja is also an award-winning screenwriter in her native Iceland. She lives in Reykjavík with her partner.

About the translator:

Quentin Bates escaped English suburbia as a teenager, jumping at the chance of a gap year working in Iceland. For a variety of reasons, the gap year stretched to become a gap decade, during which time he went native in the north of Iceland, acquiring a new language a new profession as a seaman and a family, before decamping en masse for England. 

He worked as a truck driver, teacher, netmaker and trawlerman at various times before falling into journalism, largely by accident. 

He is the author of a series of crime novels set in present-day Iceland (Frozen Out, Cold Steal, Chilled to the Bone, Winterlude, Cold Comfort and Thin Ice which have been published worldwide. 

He has translated all of Ragnar Jónasson’s Dark Iceland series.

A Third Is Darkness (BlackJack Book Three) by Murray Bailey

 

A Third is Darkness (BlackJack Book Three) by Murray Bailey.

Published 3rd November 2023 by Three Daggers.

From the cover of the book:

Judge not the man...

Charles Balcombe cannot control his alter ego.

BlackJack is killing for fun and DI Munro knows his partnership with Balcombe can’t continue.

While Balcombe seeks help, Munro is asked to work for the Hong Kong governor’s aide-de-camp. He seems to be sidelined as Garrett resumes his hunt for the Squeezed-heart murderer. But people have secrets and the more Munro investigates, the murkier they seem.

When people start dying and with Balcombe’s help, Munro tries to get to the bottom of a conspiracy of silence.

Will he find the truth? Will Garrett catch his killer? Will Balcombe learn the truth about himself?

As the psychoanalyst told him: a third of the mind is darkness. If you dig too deep, be prepared. You won’t like what you find there.

***********

Charles Balcombe is in trouble. His alter ego, BlackJack, is out of control. BlackJack's increasingly reckless killing sprees in the criminal underbelly of Hong Kong are threatening to destroy the fragile arrangement that Balcombe has established with DI Munro. Persuaded to seek help, Balcombe begins visiting psychotherapist Georgina Swift, and Munro hopes it will be enough to keep BlackJack contained, for Garrett is once again on the track of the Squeezed-Heart murderer, and Balcombe is still his number one suspect.

With his fingers firmly crossed, Munro calls on Balcombe's considerable investigative talents to assist with a hush-hush case searching for the missing daughter of the Hong Kong governor's aide-de-camp. Under no illusions that progress will be hampered by a desire to maintain appearances, even Munro and Balcombe are shocked at the scale of the conspiracy of silence they uncover.

In this excellent third instalment of the BlackJack series, Murray Bailey builds nicely on the groundwork of the previous books to plunge into the melting pot of 1950s colonial Hong Kong like never before... and to delve intriguingly into the mind of a killer. Note: You do need to have the previous books, Once a Killer and Second to Sin, before this one. 

This is a story all about the need to contain dark secrets, and Bailey slickly weaves this theme throughout a tricky investigation that has Balcombe and Munro working together once more in their unconventional partnership, and in Balcombe's attempts to stop himself being overwhelmed by the monster within. Both Balcombe and Munro hit crisis points in this book, and must choose their paths with care. Munro's career continues to be on the line, as the pesky Garrett breathes down his neck in his desire to bring the Squeezed-Heart murderer to justice, and he is given the impossible task of getting to the truth of disturbing goings on at the very top of Hong Kong society - all while dealing with his own heartbreak and guilt. Meanwhile, Balcombe finally admits the time has come to open up about his inner demon, before he is lost forever to the darkness that is consuming him, which has him confronting his debauched lifestyle... and his illuminating repressed memories.

Bailey goes all out to blend their parallel battles for survival into a story that gets beneath the glossy surface of 1950s Hong Kong, exposing the inequalities and injustices, the entitlement and the corruption, the glamour and the grittiness, that make up the mass of contradictions at the heart of the colony. He has such a knack of immersing his readers in time and place, while contriving a crime story that fits like a glove into its setting, and this book is no exception. As I have come to expect from Bailey, there are all the thrills, spills and suave moves from the classic Bond playbook; luscious vibes of noir detective fiction that pit gangsters against morally grey 'good guys'; and the authentic punch of storylines that speak volumes about an author who understands the history he is writing about. This book also brings an extra touch of sparkle with a tongue-in-cheek Hollywood thread to the story, that has Balcombe acting as a stand-in for Clarke Gable no less. 

In many ways, this is Baliey's most complex book to date, with layered themes that complement the crime elements. The plotlines twist and turn in menacing style, carrying you towards a very exciting (and somewhat enigmatic) climax that has you rooting for Balcombe completely, despite all his troubling history.

What does all this mean for the future of BlackJack? I am not sure, but I sincerely hope this will not be his last literary outing...

A Third is Darkness is available to buy now in paperback and ebook.

Thank you to Murray Bailey for sending me a copy of this book, in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Murray Bailey Is the author of Amazon bestseller Map of the Dead, the first of the series based on his interest in Egyptology. His main series however is the Ash Carter thrillers, inspired by his father's experience in the Royal Military Police in Singapore in the early 1950s.

Murray is well traveled, having worked in the US, South America and a number of European countries throughout his career as a management consultant. However he also managed to find the time to edit books, contribute to articles and act as a part-time magazine editor.

Murray lives on the south coast of England with his family and a dog called Teddy.

The Beaver Theory (Rabbit Factor Book Three) by Antti Tuomainen

 

The Beaver Theory (Rabbit Factor Book Three) by Antti Tuomainen.

Translated by David Hackston.

Published 12th October 2023 by Orenda Books.

From the cover of the book:

Can everyone’s favourite insurance mathematician, Henri, combine the increasingly dangerous world of adventure parks with the unpredictability of blended-family life? He’s about to find out in the final instalment of the hilarious, nail-biting Rabbit Factor Trilogy.

Henri Koskinen, intrepid insurance mathematician and adventure-park entrepreneur, firmly believes in the power of common sense and order. That is until he moves in with painter Laura Helanto and her daughter…

As Henri realises he has inadvertently become part of a group of local dads, a competing adventure park is seeking to expand their operations, not always sticking to the law in the process…

Is it possible to combine the increasingly dangerous world of the adventure-park business with the unpredictability of life in a blended family? At first glance, the two appear to have only one thing in common: neither deals particularly well with a mounting body count.

In order to solve this seemingly impossible conundrum, Henri is forced to step far beyond the mathematical precision of his comfort zone … and the stakes have never been higher…

***********

Insurance actuary, Henri Koskinen is all set for a new adventure by moving in with his girlfriend, painter Laura Helanto, and her daughter, Tuuli. Many things about blended family life are bewilderingly incompatible with Henri's tenets of order and logic, and he is not too sure about the responsibilities that appear to come with being a 'school dad', but nevertheless he feels things are really looking up.

As Henri is getting his head around his new living arrangements, and the utter chaos of the extra-curricular activities of his fellow 'school dads', a challenge far greater than anything that has come before suddenly crops up where YouMeFun is concerned. Across town, a new adventure park, Somersault City, has just opened and it is hitting Henri's business hard. Henri and his faithful team are at a loss to work out how to compete with the newer attractions, free entry and food, and star-studded entertainments for parents, that are taking away their customers.

Henri decides to check out the competition for himself, and when he meets the shady crew running the operation, headed up by wannabe cowboy Ville-Pekka 'VP' Hayrinen, he is shocked to discover that they not only seem to be following a non-sensical business model, but they also want to grind YouMeFun into the dust in the process. When 'VP' subsequently ends up dead with an over-sized ice cream cone where nature never intended, Henri finds himself being fitted up for the murder by two hot-shot cops who have an agenda all of their own. Henri is going to need more than his mathematical skills to overcome the biggest hurdle of his adventure park career yet, especially now has family responsibilities...

Welcome to the final, joyful instalment of the Rabbit Factor trilogy by Antti Tuomainen. Henri is back in the thick of it once more, fighting to save YouMeFun, and his own skin, from the unscrupulous!

This third book is all about family, with three storylines that weave seamlessly together. As Henri takes baby-steps in the roles of live-in partner to Laura Helanto and father to her daughter Tuuli, his emotional development hits the steepest learning curve yet. On the YouMeFun front too, new feelings are stirring, with the team backing Henri to the hilt while he gets to grips with another fine mess that is not of his making. And in a triple, heart-string-plucking whammy, Henri works mathematical magic with the disorganised 'dads' group' to bring hope on the Parisian horizon. Amongst all the marvellous mayhem that ensues, Henri's capacity to understand love, friendship, human connection, and the benefits of 'going with the flow' blossoms, but he has many trials and tribulations to work through before the warm and fuzzy ending eventually dawns. 

Henri's mathematical superpowers remain his core strength, despite being disparaged by his unwitting enemies, but he also has a lot of other skills and qualities at his disposal, honed through the battles he has been forced into since becoming the unexpected owner of an adventure park. The courage, determination, and resourcefulness of Henri and his team are not to be underestimated; and in a lovely twist, the inscrutable Detective Inspector Pentti Osmala has an intriguing role to play too, as he and Henri continue their 'so-much-left-unsaid' sparring.

I adored this book from start to finish. It is packed with Tuomainen's brand of dark, tongue-in-cheek humour that I have come to love so well. The absurd situations Henri continues to find himself in bring chuckle-worthy thrills and spills, with investigations of a giant beaver; the well-timed use of a spray can; some eye-opening horseplay; and ninja-like reactions with household implements... and if that was not enough to keep you entertained, there is the perfect level of emotional content to warm the cockles of your heart sufficiently to keep you toasty through the chills of a Finnish winter.

I am utterly bereft that this is the last book of Henri's adventures, but it is a fine conclusion to everything that has come before, and I tip my hat to the talented translator David Hackston for doing such a cracking job bringing Tuomainen's quirky comic genius to an English-speaking audience. A truly epic ending, to a fabulous trilogy!

The Beaver Theory is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats. You can support the very best in indie publishing by buying direct from Orenda Books HERE.

Thank you to Orenda Books for sending me a proof of the book in return for an honest review, and to Random Things Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author: 

Finnish Antti Tuomainen was an award-winning copywriter when he made his literary debut in 2007 as a suspense author in 2013, the Finnish press crowned Tuomainen the 'King of Helsinki Noir' when Dark as My Heart was published. 

With a piercing and evocative style, Tuomainen was one of the first to challenge the Scandinavian crime genre formula, and his poignant, dark and hilarious The Man Who Died became an international bestseller, shortlisting for the Petrona and Last Laugh Awards. Palm Beach Finland was an immense success, with Marcel Berlins (The Times) calling Tuomainen 'the funniest writer in Europe'. Little Siberia (2020), was shortlisted for the CWA International Dagger, the Amazon Publishing/Capital Crime Awards and the CrimeFest Last Laugh Award, and won the Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year. The Rabbit Factor (2021), the first book in Antti's first ever series,is in production by Amazon Studios with Steve Carell starring. The Moose Paradox, book two in the series was out in 2022.


About the translator:

David Hackston is a British Translator of Finnish and Swedish literature and drama. Notable publications include The Dedalus Book of Finnish Fantasy, Maria Peura’s coming-of-age novel At the Edge of Light, Johanna Sinisalo’s eco-thriller Birdbrain, two crime novels by Matti Joensuu and Kati Hiekkapelto’s Anna Fekete series (which currently includes The Hummingbird, The Defenceless and The Exiled, all published by Orenda Books). He also translates Antti Tuomainen’s stories. In 2007 he was awarded the Finnish State Prize for Translation. David is also a professional countertenor and a founding member of the English Vocal Consort of Helsinki. 

Can You Forgive Her? (Palliser Book One) by Anthony Trollope

 

Can You Forgive Her? (Palliser Book One) by Anthony Trollope.

This edition published 8th March 2012 by Oxford World Classics.

From the cover of the book:

'She loved him much, and admired him even more than she loved him...Would that he had some faults!'

Alice Vavasor is torn between a risky marriage with her ambitious cousin George and the safer prospect of a union with the formidably correct John Grey. Her indecision is reflected in the dilemmas of her friend Lady Glencora, confined in the proprieties of her life with Plantagenet Palliser but tempted to escape with her penniless lover Burgo Fitzgerald, and of her aunt, the irreverent widow Mrs Greenow, who must choose between a solid farmer and an untrustworthy soldier as her next husband. Each woman finds her choice bound up with the cold realities of money, and the tension between public expectation and private inclination.

Can You Forgive Her? is the first of Trollope's six Palliser novels, and its focus on the exercise of power, whether in the masculine world of parliament and the professions, or within the domesticities of friendship, courtship, and marriage, signals a new breadth and diversity of interest in his fiction.

***********

Alice Vavasor has grown up to be responsible for her own fate and fortunes, mostly without the interference of her grander relatives, but when it comes to marriage she is in two minds about what she wants. She is torn between marriage to the staid and sensible John Grey, who she loves, or rekindling a relationship with her reckless cousin George, who offers her the chance to have a purpose in life by financing his political ambitions. 

Meanwhile, her aristocratic friend Lady Glencora has been persuaded to settle for marriage to rising political star, the rather boorish Plantagenet Palliser (who we first met engaging in an awkward flirtation with the former Griselda Grantly in the Barstetshire novel The Small House at Allington), after being parted from the handsome, but penniless cad Burgo Fitzgerald. Glencora is convinced she cannot make her husband happy and longs to runaway with her former lover, but to do so would ruin her reputation.

And if two love triangles were not enough, Alice's aunt, the merry widow Mrs Greenow, is engaging in a flirtation with two men, while half-heartedly maintaining a period of mourning for her recently departed spouse - wealthy gentleman farmer Mr Cheeseacre, and his rather less respectable, dashing friend Captain Bellfield.

As in Trollope's Barsetshire books, this is a story very much about marriage and money, but it revolves around the world of politics rather than ecclesiastical circles. I was a bit worried that there would be too much in the way of politics, at the expense of more compelling storylines, but how wrong I was! The political wranglings are engagingly central to the plot, and this is a novel packed to the gills with drama! The rakish rotters in this tale are truly bad, in a way not even touched upon in the villains in the Barsetshire novels, and Trollope is not afraid to incorporate real darkness into their personalities and deeds - George Vavasor in particular is spectacularly awful.

Alongside the hefty kick of menace and dread these baddies elicit, there is plenty of Trollope's typical gentle humour, rambling romantic suspense, and sharp social commentary, and his characterisation is a joy. Many of these characters go on meaningful journeys across the course of this novel, getting to know themselves and what they want through their trials and tribulations, and making choices that fulfil the expected roles of men and women in Victorian Britain. Some of these are a little troubling from a modern perspective, especially since I completely understood the desire of the female characters to have some agency in their own lives. Does Alice Vavasor really need forgiving for wanting some purpose in her life, rather than submitting to a 'lord and master'? I think widow Greenow (my firm favourite) gets the balance right in the end, but I leave you to make up you own minds.

This was a great first foray into the Palliser series, which I have not read before, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know a whole new set of players on Trollope's literary stage. I am really looking forward to getting started on book two next, Phineas Finn.

Can You Forgive Her? is available to buy now in various formats.

About the author:

Anthony Trollope (1815-82) became one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of Trollope's best-loved works revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire, but he also wrote penetrating novels on political, social, and gender issues and conflicts of his day.

Devil's Breath by Jill Johnson

 

Devil's Breath by Jill Johnson.

Published 6th July 2023 by Black and White Publishing.

From the cover of the book:

I've always been better with plants than people...

Eustacia Rose is a Professor of Botanical Toxicology who lives alone in London with only her extensive collection of poisonous plants for company. She tends to her garden with meticulous care. Her life is quiet. Her schedule never changes. Until the day she hears a scream and the temptation to investigate proves irresistible.

Through her telescope, Professor Rose is drawn into the life of an extraordinarily beautiful neighbour, Simone, and nicknames the men who visit her after poisonous plants according to the toxic effect they have on Simone. But who are these four men? And why does Eustacia Rose recognise one of them?

Just as she preserves her secret garden, she feels inexplicably compelled to protect her neighbour, but Eustacia soon finds herself entangled in a far more complicated web than she could ever have imagined. When her precious garden is vandalised and someone close to Simone is murdered with a toxin derived from a rare poisonous plant, Eustacia becomes implicated in the crime.

After all, no one knows toxic plants like she does . . .

***********

Professor Eustacia Rose is an expert in poisonous plants. She lives alone in London, follows a strict routine, and tends her secret, roof-top garden of toxic botanical specimens with great care. Her past experience has taught her that it is best to eschew human contact, but she is not above a little spying on her neighbours through her telescope, even if she rarely understands their behaviour.

Eustacia's quiet, ordered life goes off the rails when she hears a scream from the flat of the beautiful neighbour she has nicknamed Psycho after her hypnotic Psychotria elata plant. Eustacia gets drawn into watching the curious goings on in Psycho's life, especially when it comes to the four men who visit her - men Eustacia also gives pseudonyms based on plants from her sinister collection, depending on their unwholesome characteristics. 

Her fascination with Psycho tempts Eustacia into the outside world, but when she finally meets the woman who calls herself Simone, her life is thrown into chaos. After inviting Simone to see her unusual plant collection, Eustacia's precious garden is ransacked, and some of her poisonous specimens are stolen. Then someone close to Simone is murdered in highly suspicious circumstances, implicating Eustacia in the crime...

To clear her name, Eustacia must get to the truth about Simone's life, the men she spends time with (one of whom she is sure she recognises from her own troubled past), and their connection with the plants that have been stolen from her collection. No one knows toxic plants like Eustacia does, and the combination of her special knowledge and her fierce intelligence make her a force to be be reckoned with, even if she finds human beings unfathomable.

Eustacia makes for a delighful protagonist in this cracking detective fiction novel from Jill Johnson. When we meet her it seems as though she has always lived a reclusive existence, pursuing her obsessions in eccentric style, dressing in her late father's clothes, and preferring the simplicity of her own company. However, as the story unfurls from bud to full bloom, the threads of this compelling mystery weave beautifully together to reveal not just the truth behind a curious murder, but also how and why Eustacia lives as she does. Johnson has fashioned a glorious crime yarn with intensely emotional storylines about Eustacia's personal heartbreak and the injustices she has been forced to accept, and it is an addictive blend. 

There are elements here of Golden Age sleuthing novels, especially in terms of Johnson's devilishly devious plot and Eustacia's character, which I absolutely loved. Her intellectual powers, her incredible knowledge about her subject of choice, and her left-of-field points of view prove to make her a natural detective. But more than that, the chain of events that force her out of her roof-top lair prove to take her on a personal journey that hits that bitter-sweet emotional spot to perfection. 

I adored this book. It is slick, smart, funny and heartwarming in equal measure, with great characters - I particulary enjoyed the night-time snail-throwing Susan, and the well-meaning DCI Roberts, whose interactions with Eustacia were a joy. I sincerely hope it will be the first in a long-running series of Professor Eustacia Rose mystery stories, because I am hooked! 

Devil's Breath is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Ed PR and Black & White Publishing for sendung me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author: 

 

Settled Blood (DCI Kate Daniels Book Two) by Mari Hannah

 

Settled Blood (DCI Kate Daniels Book Two) by Mari Hannah.

This edition Published 18th May 2023 by Pan Macmillan.

From the cover of the book:

When a young girl is found dead at the base of Hadrian’s Wall, it’s not long before Detective Chief Inspector Kate Daniels realizes that her death was no ordinary homicide. She was thrown from a great height – and was probably alive before she hit the ground.

When a local businessman reports his daughter missing, has Daniels found the identity of the victim, or is a killer playing a sickening game?

As the murder investigation team delves deeper into the case, half-truths are told and secrets exposed. And while Daniels makes her way through a mountain of obstacles, time is running out for one terrified girl . . .

Settled Blood is Mari Hannah’s second gripping crime novel featuring DCI Kate Daniels.

***********

When the body of a girl is found in the wilds near Hadrian's Wall, the police are baffled about how it came to be there, because of the complete lack of scene-of-crime evidence. DCI Kate Daniels is called in as SIO and is horrified to discover that the catastrophic injuries the victim received came as the result of being dropped from a great height - and that she was probably alive when she hit the ground. 

The case gets rapidly more complicated when a wealthy businessman discloses his daughter has gone missing. Rather than giving the investigation direction, Daniels and her team suddenly become embroiled in reports of disappearing Durham University students bearing a striking resemblance to the victim. This is an investigation that centres on a complex web of secrets and lies, and as the police wade through them all to get to the truth, it becomes clear that somewhere out there is a girl whose life hangs in the balance. Can they find her before time runs out?

Settled Blood is the second book in the DCI Kate Daniels series. It starts with a terrifying bang at a famous beauty spot, and burgeons into a twisty case that brings with it a bevy of red herrings and blind alleys before Daniels and her team can understand what lies behind a shockingly bizarre murder.

Hannah does a fine job of leading you down the garden path multiple times in this story, with cases that cross over each other around missing girls, mistaken identity, prostitution, and the desperate acts of a broken mind out for vengeance. The clues come from oodles of solid police procedural content, which keeps you compulsively turning the pages as the plot flips between tense, slow-burn elements, and pacy action scenes, all the way to the heart-in-your-mouth finale.

There are some meaty themes running through this second book that delve nicely into difficult family relationships, loyalty, secrets, and twisted notions of guilt, and alongside the highly addictive investigative shenanigans Hannah treats you to compelling storylines that build on what we learned about Daniels' personal life and the colleagues that make up her team in the first book, The Murder Wall, too. 

I thoroughly enjoyed my second adventure with DCI Kate Daniels, and am really looking forward to more in book three, Deadly Deceit.

Settled Blood is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Pan Macmillan for allowing me access to an ecopy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Compulsive Readers for inviting me to be part of #TeamDaniels.

About the author:

Multi-award winning Mari Hannah is the author of the Stone & Oliver crime series, the Ryan & O'Neil series and the DCI Kate Daniels series.

In July 2010, she won a Northern Writers' Award for Settled Blood. In 2013, she won the Polari First Book Prize for her debut, The Murder Wall. She was awarded the CWA Dagger in the Library 2017 as the author of the most enjoyed collection of work in libraries. In 2019, she was awarded DIVA Wordsmith of the Year. In that same year, Mari was Programming Chair of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Festival. In 2020, Mari was named as DIVA 'Wordsmith of the Year' and won Capital Crime's 'Crime Book of the Year' award.

She lives in Northumberland with her partner, a former murder detective.

Stigma (Blix And Ramm Book Four) by Jorn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger

 

Stigma (Blix and Ramm Book Four) by Jorn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger.

Translated by Megan E. Turney.

Published 12th October by Orenda Books.

From the cover of the book:

Incarcerated in a Norwegian high-security prison, a broken Alexander Blix joins forces with Emma Ramm to find a ruthless killer who has escaped from a German jail. Pulse-pounding Nordic Noir.

Alexander Blix is a broken man. Convicted for avenging his daughter’s death, he is now being held in one of Norway’s high-security prisons. Inside, the other prisoners take every opportunity to challenge and humiliate the former police investigator. On the outside, Blix’s former colleagues have begun the hunt for a terrifying killer. Walter Kroos has escaped from prison in Germany and is making his way north. The only lead established by the police is that Kroos has a friend in Blix’s prison ward. And now they need Blix’s help.

Journalist Emma Ramm is one of Blix’s few visitors, and she becomes his ally as he struggles to connect the link between past and present, between the world inside and outside the prison walls. And as he begins to piece things together, he identifies a woodland community in Norway where deeply scarred inhabitants foster deadly secrets... secrets that maybe the unravelling of everyone involved.

***********

Former police investigator Alexander Blix is in prison after killing the man responsible for his daughter's death. Life in a high security prison is less than ideal for an ex-lawman, especially one who has put some of his fellow inmates behind bars. In his broken state he cares little for what happens to him now, although his lawyer still hopes his conviction can be appealed.

In Germany, murderer Walter Kroos has escaped from prison. Police suspect Kroos may be heading for Norway, and as luck would have it, Blix is ideally placed to help out with the case - if he can convince one of his fellow prisoners to reveal information about Kroos' past. 

Outside the prison walls, Blix's on-off sidekick, journalist Emma Ramm, is keen to help him in any way she can. Acting on the tips Blix passes to her, she sets off to the woodland community where he believes Kroos may surface. As Ramm uses her skills to gather information, Blix begins to put the pieces of a complex puzzle together. He is convinced that the secrets this community is hiding are key to capturing a killer... 

Stigma is the fourth book in the excellent Nordic crime series penned by bestselling authors Jorn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger, that brings together seasoned investigator Alexander Blix and young journalist Emma Ramm. Blix begins this book in prison for avenging his daughter's murder, and he has little left to live for, but he still has friends who are unwilling to give up on him - especially Emma Ramm, who once more owes him a debt of gratitude for saving her life.

Over the course of the series, Blix and Ramm have developed an unconventional working relationship, in which their skills complement each other perfectly. Both have been through difficult times personally and professionally, but Blix is in the darkest of places at the beginning of this book, trapped and without hope, while Ramm is free to pursue an investigation on the outside. This allows our authors to slickly combine elements of violent action with slow burn tension in a way they have not done for Blix and Ramm before, and in many ways it makes this the most complex and compelling instalment to date. 

Blix must find a way to establish kinship with former enemies under the most trying of circumstances, while coming to terms with overwhelming grief. As his investigative powers stir within him, he finds a life-line through his renewed sense of purpose. Meanwhile, Ramm must draw on her own instincts to draw out the secrets of a lakeside community with tight lips and long memories, while being stalked by a killer. The story twists and turns in classic Lier Horst and Enger style, as the parallel plotlines weave together, cutting back and forth between Blix and Ramm's endeavours to build layer upon delicious layer of suspense around the drama that unfolded during a fateful summer long-ago. This really keeps you guessing, gradually altering your perception of where the story is leading you as the reveals drop, ramping up an atmospheric sense of menace as the consequences of old sins come back to haunt those involved. 

Along the way, this book delves beautifully into many aspects of stigma, guilt, alienation, and what can happen when loose tongues fill in the gaps about whispered secrets. Lier Horst and Enger draw the characters in shades of grey, examining how injustice can scar the mental health of those affected by enforced silence, and warp how others view them. This makes for a seriously thought provoking book. Turney does a cracking job in translating the text to retain every last ounce of suspense, and conflicted emotion, to keep you fully immersed in both the drama and all the nuances of the story too.

Fans of this series will be aware that our dashing duo Lier Horst and Enger love a cliff-hanger ending to keep you salivating for the next book to come, and this one is no exception. What a seres! I cannot wait for book five!

Stigma is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats. You can support the very best in indie publishing by buying direct from Orenda Books HERE.

Thank you to Orenda Books for sending ne a proof of this book in return for an honest review, and to Random Things Tours for inviting me to be part of the blog tour.

About the authors:

Thomas Enger is a former journalist. He made his debut with the crime novel Burned (Skinndød) in 2010, which became an international sensation before publication. Burned is the first in a series of five books about the journalist Henning Juul, which delves into the depths of Oslo’s underbelly, skewering the corridors of dirty politics and nailing the fast-moving world of 24-hour news. Rights to the series have been sold to 28 countries to date. 

In 2013 Enger published his first book for young adults, a dark fantasy thriller called The Evil Legacy, for which he won the U-prize (best book Young Adult). Killer Instinct, another Young Adult suspense novel, was published in Norway in 2017. Rights have been sold to Germany and Iceland. Enger also composes music, and he lives in Oslo.

Jørn Lier Horst first rose to literary fame with his No.1 internationally bestselling William Wisting series. 

A former investigator in the Norwegian police, Horst imbues all his works with an unparalleled realism and suspense.

The Man Of Her Dreams by Sarra Manning

 

The Man of Her Dreams by Sarra Manning.

Published 9th November 2023 by Hodder and Stoughton.

From the cover of the book:

Is he too good to be true?

Meet Theo. Handsome, sexy, funny. kind. And he can cook.

He's literally the man of Esme's dreams. But Esme's sensible enough to know that you can't just manifest your perfect boyfriend then have him turn up on your doorstep.

Or can you?

***********

A difficult relationship with her warring parents, an older sibling she has never clicked with, and a disastrous marriage that only lasted two years have all taught Esme that is is better not to rely on others for your happiness. Eight years on from the acrimonious divorce that broke her, Esme cannot bring herself to trust men, relying on escaping into her daydreams - the only place where the ideal man actually exists.

After going through a traumatic wisdom tooth extraction, Esme is feeling grim when she has to pretend to be cheerful at yet another hen night, but something about this one is different... she finds herself opening up about her 'dream man' and wishing for him in a new age crystal ceremony. 

When later that night she gets into a accident and has to go to hospital to have a head wound stitched together, she meets a man who might just be what she has been looking for all along. Theo is handsome, sexy, kind, and seriously hot. He really is 'the man of her dreams', and he is attracted to her too. Has Esme somehow manifested her Mr Right?

I absolutely loved this twist on the boy-meets-girl rom-com from Sarra Manning, who is rapidly becoming one of my favourite romance writers. Esme feels she has been let down by her family and the men in her life, and finds it very difficult to allow herself to let her vulnerabilities show. She spends a lot of time day dreaming about the perfect man, and knows exactly what she wants him to be like, so she is astounded when Theo drops into her life in a most unexpected way.

As the story progresses, and Esme gives her heart and soul to Theo, Manning tells their tale with oodles of seriously emotional heft and bags of humour. It goes without saying that the course of true love does not run smooth, but Manning flips all the ususal tropes in the most original and affecting way, and then throws in the most delicious ending to bring everything full-circle to a truly wonderful conclusion.

Themes of family, heartache, and second chances run through this gorgeous book. It is definitley a slow-burn tale, but Manning keeps you fully invested in Esme's journey from start to finish, and leaves you with a heartwarming finale full of hope. I adored it.

The Man of Her Dreams is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Hodder and Stoughton for sending me a Netgalkey copy of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author:

Sarra Manning has been a voracious reader for over forty years and a prolific author and journalist for twenty-five.

Her novels, which have been translated into fifteen different languages include Unsticky, You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, The House of Secrets and Rescue Me, published in 2021. Sarra has also written over fifteen YA novels, and light-hearted romantic comedies under a pseudonym.

She started her writing career on Melody Maker and Just Seventeen, has been editor of ElleGirl and What to Wear and has also contributed to the Guardian, ELLE, Grazia, Stylist, Fabulous, Stella, You Magazine, Harper's Bazaar. She is currently the Literary Editor of Red.

Sarra has also been a Costa Book Awards judge and has been nominated for various writing awards herself.

She lives in London surrounded by piles and piles of books.

Still Life (Karen Pirie Book Six) by Val McDermid

 

Still Life (Karen Pirie Book Six) by Val McDermid.

Published 4th February 2021 by Sphere.

From the cover of the book:

'The bodies never stay buried forever . . .' 

On a freezing winter morning, fishermen pull a body from the sea. It is quickly discovered that the dead man was the prime suspect in a decade-old investigation, when a prominent civil servant disappeared without trace. 

DCI Karen Pirie was the last detective to review the file and is drawn into a sinister world of betrayal and dark secrets. But Karen is already grappling with another case, one with even more questions and fewer answers. 

A skeleton has been discovered in an abandoned campervan and all clues point to a killer who never faced justice - a killer who is still out there. 

In her search for the truth, Karen uncovers a network of lies that has gone unchallenged for years. But lies and secrets can turn deadly when someone is determined to keep them hidden for good . . . 

The number one bestseller and unrivalled queen of crime Val McDermid is back with her most exhilarating, breath-taking thriller yet.

***********

The body of a man is pulled from the Forth estuary one chilly February morning. All the signs point to murder, but his identity is shrouded in mystery, even though his French passport bears the name Paul Allard.

DCI Karen Pirie of the Historic Crimes Unit is reeling from the news that the man who brutally murdered the love of her life is about to be released from prison. Caught between the desire to make him pay for the pain she carries, and her dedication to her job, Pirie is feeling distracted. Then a curious case comes her way. At the house of a woman recently killed in a road traffic accident, skeletal remains have been found inside an old VW van. Who these bones belong to, and how they came to be in the garage of the woman who died is a puzzle. Somewhere out there is killer, and it is going to take a lot of work on the part of Karen and her sidekick Jason to track them down.

Pirie's life gets even more complicated when it appears that the body found in the estuary might be related to the unsolved disappearance of a Scottish civil servant ten years ago. As she was the last person to review the cold case, and her boss fears political ramifications if this brings new evidence to light, Pirie is put in charge of the investigation into the Paul Allard murder on top of her busy work load.

Now pursuing two historic cases, and trying to balance her feelings about relationships old and new, it is going to take all of Pirie's experience and intuition to bring these lines of inquiry to successful ends. Her career is on the line, and both bodies bring dark secrets to the surface... secrets that some will go to great lengths to keep buried.

Val McDermid is at the top of her game in this cracking sixth police procedural in the DCI Karen Pirie series, taking her tenacious historic crimes investigator from Scotland, to London, Paris and Dublin to solve two parallel cases which both unearth dark secrets, crimes of passion, dodgy dealing, and false identities. Along the way, Pirie's team expands to include a brand new character, young and eager DS Daisy Mortimer, who proves to be a great asset in the Allard investigtion, while DC Jason 'Mint' Murray returns as her faithful protogé at the HCU in the body-in-the-van case.

Moving back and forth between the investigative nitty gritty, and broken up with Pirie's struggles to come to terms with upheaval in her personal life, Still Life is as deliciously twisty as you would expect from the legendary crime writier McDermid. This is a masterclass in taut plotting, with both cases proceeding at a perfect pace through intelligently contrived turns. Meticulous police work, backed up with logic, technological wizardry, and good old-fashioned cop hunches uncover the clues needed to drive Pirie and her colleagues onwards, and I found myself totally hooked after only a few pages in. 

McDermid floods this delicious book with layer upon layer of themes and social commentary around realtionships, politics, and the differerences between police forces across borders. I particularly enjoyed how she explores forgiveness and coming to terms with sins of the past, alongside the darkest of betrayals, and this book delves nicely into the world of art and the pitfalls that come with ensuring provenance and authencitiy of paintings. As always, Pirie doggedly fighting her corner when it comes to the importance of solving historic crimes is key too.

 If you love a slick police procedural that keeps you on your toes, packed with great characters, well conceived twists and plenty of action, then this is definitely the book for you. I cannot wait to continue the story in McDermid's brand new Karen Pirie book, the highly anticipated Past Lying!

Still Life is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Sphere for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author:

Val McDermid is a number one bestseller whose novels have been translated into more than forty languages, and have sold over eighteen million copies. She has won many awards internationally, including the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year and the LA Times Book of the Year Award. 

She was inducted into the ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame in 2009, was the recipient of the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger in 2010 and received the Lambda Literary Foundation Pioneer Award in 2011. In 2016, Val received the Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award at the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival and in 2017 received the DIVA Literary Prize for Crime, and was elected a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 

Val has served as a judge for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Man Booker Prize, and was Chair of the Wellcome Book Prize in 2017. She is the recipient of six honorary doctorates and is an Honorary Fellow of St Hilda’s College, Oxford. 

She writes full-time and divides her time between Edinburgh and East Neuk of Fife.

Breathless by Amy McCulloch

 

Breathless by Amy McCulloch.

Audio book narrated by Katie Leung.

Published 22nd February 2022 by Penguin.

From the cover of the book:

SIX STRANGERS. 

ONE KILLER. 

AND NO ESCAPE . . .

Journalist Cecily Wong is offered the chance of a lifetime: to join an elite team on one of the world's tallest mountains.

But things quickly start to fall apart.

An unexplained theft. A horrible accident.
A terrifying note: There's a murderer on the mountain.

Six strangers set out . . . How many will return?

***********

Journalist Cecily Wong has been offered the chance of a lifetime. Mountaineer Charles McVeigh has invited her along to witness the last leg of his incredible record breaking attempt to conquer all fourteen of the world's highest mountains in a single year, 'alpine style' without oxygen or the benefit of fixed ropes. If Cecily can make it to the summit of the final mountain, Manaslu in Nepal, she will be granted an exclusive interview with Charles - an interview that will establish her as a serious journalist in her field. More than that, if she can finally make it to the top of a mountain, she will be able to prove to herself that her previous climbing failures are a thing of the past.

Almost as soon as Cecily arrives in Nepal, she begins to doubt that she has made the right decision. The training for the ordeal ahead is tougher than she anticipated, and she is surprised to learn that she will be climbing with a group of complete strangers - some of whom she is reluctant to trust in such a dangerous place. It does not help that rumours abound that Charles might not be quite all he is cracked up to be, and there are disturbing whispers that a far higher number of climbers have fallen foul of the mountains this season than usual. As the group head up the mountain, Cecily's suspicion that something is not right about this climb refuses to go away. Is there a killer on the loose, or is she letting the extreme altitude get to her...

Breathless is Amy McCulloch's first foray into writing a thriller for an adult audience, and it has all the tense, snowy vibes that I love. As you follow Cecily's attempt to make the summit of one of the world's most dangerous mountains in pursuit of the story that will make her reputation, McCulloch's own experience of climbing Manaslu brings a solid punch of authenticity to the technical, physical and mental strain she must endure. McCulloch holds nothing back about the dangers involved, and quite how challenging this environment is to simply exist in, let alone to attempt a feat that will push to your limits... and beyond.

 This provides a solid base for her to weave an atmospheric tale full of menace and suspicion that plays beautifully alongside Cecily's self-doubt. Despite the constant reassurances of those around her that she is only letting the mountain get to her, Cecily's suspicion that dark deeds are afoot prove to be true. The murderer on the mountain is not easy to spot, because McCulloch throws a lot of red herrings your way about the methods and motives of several of the characters Cecily meets on her journey, and I second guessed myself a lot as this story unfurled. The suspense builds nicely as the climbers get ever closer to the 'death zone', and as the weather worsens, the truth is revealed in a blow by blow climax that leaves you as 'breathless' as Cecily herself. 

I learned so much about serious climbing in this tale - more than enough to know it is not for me. However, McCulloch also explores nicely what makes people decide to head for the roof of the world, as well as the reality of the costs involved in human and monetary terms. I think this highlights the role of the incredibly courageous sherpas who make it possible for not only serious climbers, but those who are sometimes little more than tourists, to visit these mighty peaks too.

Katie Leung does a marvellous job of narrating the audio version of this thriller. She tackles the accents well, and she completely drew me into the story. I really felt I was alongside Cecily as she battles the mountain, and tries to lay her own ghosts to rest while following her journalistic instincts. I was terrified for a good portion of the book, which I think is the best compliment I can pay to Leung's voice talents. 

If you love a snowy thriller as much as I do then this book should definitely be on your reading pile. It was so good that I immediately bought McCulloch's brand new thriller Midnight as soon as I finished it - I cannot wait to read it!

Breathless is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats.

About the author:

Amy McCulloch is the Chinese-White author of eight novels for children and young adults, including the #1 bestselling YA novel The Magpie Society: One for Sorrow. 

In September 2019, she became the youngest Canadian woman to climb Mt Manaslu in Nepal -- the world's eighth highest mountain. She also summited the highest mountain in the Americas, Aconcagua, in -45C and 90kmph winds, and has visited all seven continents. 

Breathless is her adult fiction debut.

My Book Of Revelations by Iain Hood

 

My Book of Revelations by Iain Hood.

Published 27th September by Renard Press.

From the cover of the book:

The countdown to the millennium has begun, and people are losing their heads. 

A so-called Y2K expert gives a presentation to Scotland's eccentric Tech Laird T.S. Mole's entourage in Edinburgh, and soon long hours, days, weeks and months fill with seemingly chaotic and frantic work on the 'bug problem'. 

Soon enough it'll be just minutes and seconds to go to midnight. Is the world about to end, or will everyone just wake up the next day with the same old New Year's Day hangover? 

A book about what we know and don't know, about how we communicate and fail to, My Book of Revelations moves from historical revelations to the personal, and climaxes in the bang and flare of fireworks, exploding myths and offering a glimpse of a scandal that will rock Scotland into the twenty-first century. 

As embers fall silently to earth, all that is left to say is: Are we working in the early days of a better nation?

**********

I think it is fair to preface this review with the statement that Iain Hood's work is incredibly difficult to sum up in a few words, but I am going to have a stab at explaining why his funky, oft stream of consciousness, experimental narrative style is very much worth your time...

Hood's third book, My Book of Revelations, revolves around the notion that humankind has the circular propensity to foretell its doom, and to revel in the idea that the end is nigh. Beginning with a fascinating journey through the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, and the establishment of time zones across the globe, Hood then really gets going into the weird events surrounding the mania that the world would end as the clock ticked over into a new millennium at the birth of the year 2000.

In the run-up to the zero hour of New Year's Eve 1999, talk abounds that the mysterious Y2K bug will bring civilisation to its knees, which you will surely remember if you are old enough. Something must be done to save us all from our doom, and Hood brings forth a knight in shining armour in Edinburgh to take up the quest on behalf of Scotland's tech giant T.S. Mole, head of Molestrix. Said knight, who remains largely unnamed (I was not quite sure of the accuracy behind a single ironic mention of a company email address) talks his way into the job of ensuring that Molestrix's systems are safe from the dreaded bug - except the problem is he has done so with the help of his genius friend Patrick, and he has no idea how to do the wonders he has promised.

What follows is a darkly comic chain of events in which our knight must be seen to be working hard at his task, when what he is actually doing is requesting ever more expensive hardware that he has read about in FHM, which he uses to surf the flourishing world of internet shopping and think up catchy titles for the short stories he will never write. The weeks, days, and hours are counting down, but as long as our hero seems to be working himself to the point of exhaustion, even the astronomical hardware bill eventually gets approved without comment. There are lots of chuckles to be had here if you work, or indeed live with, anyone who works in tech, but there is a poignant undercurrent of loneliness pervading this part of the book on the part of our hero which is rather melancholy too.

This is where things get a bit strange. Hood suddenly changes tack, a he is wont to do, with a bizarre section detailing an email thread between our hero and his friend Patrick... at least mibby it is? He then follows this by a surreal masterstroke of epic proportions with deep and meaningful conversations between Muriel Spark and Jean Cocteau, and reflections on Scottish independence... you have to be there really. The whole complicated, challenging with charm, piece ends up back with our knight - but I leave you to discover how he fares. 

If you like your books to have a well defined structure, then this is not for you. Hood's ideas of beginning, middle and end are unconventional to say the least. However, if you are up for some satire that ambles through space, time, and the human condition, then there are nuggets of gold in them thar Scottish hills. I especially enjoyed how Hood uses counting up and down to the potentially apocalyptic New Year's Eve night, and the way he explores ideas about a better world. I also loved his highly nostalgic visit to the 1980s, and the thread around the small-but-mighty purple genius, Prince himself, and his timeless song 1999.

Push your boundaries, go with the flow, and enjoy something a little bit different that is curiously both playful and profound... I give you Iain Hood.

My Book of Revelations is available to buy now in paperback. You can support indie publishing by buying direct from Renard Press HERE.

About the author:

Iain Hood was born in Glasgow and grew up in the seaside town of Ayr. He attended the University of Glasgow and Jordanhill College, and later worked in education in Glasgow and the West Country. He attended the University of Manchester after moving to Cambridge, where he continues to live with his wife and daughter. 

His first novel, This Good Book, was published in 2021, followed by Every Trick in the Book in 2022.