Christmas At Thompson Hall And Other Christmas Stories by Anthony Trollope

 

Christmas at Thompson Hall and Other Stories by Anthony Trollope.

This edition published 6th November 2014 by Penguin Classics.

From the cover of the book:

Anthony Trollope's heartwarming tales of Christmas, presented in a beautiful hardcover edition perfect for giving as a gift.

Christmas at Thompson Hall collects the best Christmas tales of Anthony Trollope, the enormously popular author of the Chronicles of Barsetshire and Palliser series of novels. 

Mostly set in Trollope's imaginary county of Barsetshire, the stories depict the festive period with all Trollope's trademark zest, humour, and cheerfulness, and offer rich and psychologically acute portrayals of the middle class and gentry of Victorian England at Christmas time.

***********

Christmas at Thompson Hall is a charming collection of festive short stories from one of my favourite classic authors, Anthony Trollope.

The book begins with the pick of the bunch, Christmas at Thompson Hall, after which the collection is named. This follows the marital shenanigans of one Mr and Mrs Brown over a mustard poultice in a Parisian Hotel, on their way to a long-awaited family reunion in England... and the hilarious consequences once they arrive at Thompson Hall. This story is the main event perfectly represents everything I love about Trollope, and it really made me chuckle.

Following on from this tale, Trollope delves into traditional Victorian family Christmases in Christmas Day at Kikrby Cottage and The Mistletoe Bough, which both evoke his full-length novels nicely by focusing on marriage, money, and romantic misunderstandings, and one even has a Barchester-esque ecclesiastical setting. Both are lovely reads, with just the right amount of emotional content, although Kirkby Cottage is perhaps a little long-winded before it arrives at its happy ending.

Next comes The Two Generals, and for me, this is where things go a little awry in this collection. The story follows the family breakdown of two brothers who find themselves on opposite sides of the American Civil War, and rivals for the hand of an heiress. This does not sit well with the cosy vibes of the other stories, and although it does show Trollope's political and moral sides, it seems out of place. Nevertheless it is an interesting study if you have not read Trollope before, even if it does not hit the same festive sweet spot as the other stories.

Finally, the collection rounds off with another humorous festive offering in a short and sweet, side-swipe about family fallings out over money in Not If I Know It, which picks up perfectly on the financial themes of Trollope's novels. This one will certainly leave you with a smile on your face - and I hope a hankering to read more Trollope.

I thorough enjoyed reading this collection with the Trollope readalong gang, and it has opened up an avenue into Trollope's work that I have not considered before. I see more Trollope short stories on my horizon, after I have worked my way through the Palliser novels in 2024! 

Christmas at Thompson Hall is available to buy now in multiple 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.

Christmas By Candlelight by Karen Swan

 

Christmas by Candlelight by Karen Swan.

Published 26th October 2023 by Pan Macmillan.

From the cover of the book:

It’s three days before Christmas and starting to snow when high-flier Libby and her new boyfriend reluctantly attend her university reunion.

Hosted by Archie Templeton – the heartbreaker of their group – at his grand family estate in Yorkshire, the night is a great success until they go to leave: the road is now blocked with snow.

At first, being snowed in together is fun. But as hours pass everyone grows restless.

Then the power goes out . . .

Hunkered down together by candlelight, they reminisce about old times – and tensions soon start to rise. Secrets from the past begin to unravel and Libby is confronted with a truth she has long tried to deny.

***********

Three days before Christmas, rising legal star Libby and her colleague/part-time boyfriend, Max, head to a once grand country house in Yorkshire, for a long-overdue reunion with her former university friends. Libby has been avoiding this moment for nine long years, especially since she has history with the complicated lord of the manor of this crumbling mansion, Archie Templeton.

Libby is happy to see her former friends, but all the old feelings of inferiority that used to plague her soon come flooding back, despite the fact that she is now a very different person to the quiet, straight-laced student they remember. She does not know how to behave around Archie, and it is very difficult to know how to negotiate the relationship dynamics among the group when she has not been close to them for a long while. Fortunately, this is only going to be a flying visit... or is it?

While the housemates have been catching up, the snow has been falling outside, and it becomes clear that Libby and Max are now snowed in. Despite making the best of a bad situation, tensions amongst the group soon start to arise, and when the power goes out, their candlelit reminiscences turn to the secrets they have been keeping. It is time for Libby to make some choices about the things she has tried so hard to forget.

The novel unfurls in two timelines - one following the events around the housemates during their final days at Durham University, and the other what happens after Libby arrives at Archie's mansion in Yorkshire. At first glance, this begins very much in cosy Christmas rom-com country, with friends falling back into former relationship patterns, and romantic yearnings from years past bubbling back up to the surface. However, as Swan moves back and forth between 2014 and 2023, things take a surprising turn.

Underneath this glittery, snow-bedecked cover, Swan gradually builds layer upon beautifully crafted layer, incorporating some heavy themes into the domestic dramas of these characters, which she handles with a deftness that is very impressive. A sinister element subtly emerges that links past and present, and the timelines come crashing together in an unexpected way that delves into the history that lies between those who have bonded through intense experiences, and the lengths they will go to in order to protect the ones they care about.

This is a book that ticks so many boxes. It has all the emotional content you need to make the tears flow; bags of romantic suspense; the punch of a cracking psychological thriller; and a story that cleverly explores love, family, friendship, expectation, and the different faces we show to the world. It is not your average Christmas read, but it is an absolute corker!

Christmas by Candlelight is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats.

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

About the author:

Karen Swan is the Sunday Times Top Three and international best-selling author. Her novels sell all over the world and she writes two books each year - one for the summer period and one for the Christmas season. Her books are known for their evocative locations and Karen sees travel as vital research for each story. She loves to set deep, complicated love stories within twisting plots.

She lives in Sussex with her husband, three children and two dogs.

The Adventure Of The Christmas Pudding by Agatha Christie (Audio Book)

 

The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding by Agatha Christie.

Narrated by Hugh Fraser.

From the cover:

Released 27th December 2006 by Harper Collins.

First came a sinister warning to Poirot not to eat any plum pudding...then the discovery of a corpse in a chest, but what can link these baffling cases? The little grey cells of Monsieur Hercule Poirot! 

Feast yourself on these intriguing crime mysteries from the distinctive hand of the queen of crime fiction. 

Stories include:

- The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding

- The Mystery of the Spanish Chest

- Four-And-Twenty Blackbirds

- The Under Dog

- The Dream

************

This little collection was a comforting reread for me - this time, enjoyed solely through the dulcet tones of one of my favourute narrators, the lovely Hugh Fraser, via audio book.

It begins with the main event, the charming short story The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding, featuring my favourite little Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. This is the one I was really here for this year, because of the festive vibes. 

Poirot is reluctantly persuaded away from his quiet Christmas pursuits to rescue a foolish foreign prince, who has allowed a precious ruby to be stolen by the young woman he was having an affair with. Should the prince's family and fiancée become aware of his indiscretions the scandal would provoke a diplomatic incident, so Poirot's quest is to retrieve the gem as quietly as possible. 

An undisclosed source points Poirot in the direction of Kings Lacey, the home of the unsuspecting Colonel Lacey, where the thief may be hiding out with her accomplice. Poirot artfully wrangles an invitation to spend Christmas with the family, much to the bemusement of the stuffy Colonel, and sets his little grey cells to the task.

During a stay which involves lots of festive goodies, and family amusements in the traditional English style, the ruby puts in an unexpected appearance in the Christmas pudding. Shenanigans have been afoot intended to hoodwink our little Belgian detective on more than one front, but Poirot is way ahead of the game, and he manages to use a put-up murder arranged by the children of the house for his entertainment to trap the jewel thieves. Magnifique!

In completing his quest, Poirot also makes friends among the domestic staff, and sorts out some tricky relationship issues in the insightful way he has, allowing Christie to tie up all the loose ends in a very satisfying bow. It is deliciously festive little tale, full of fun, and one of my favourite Poirot short stories.

The collection continues with four other Poirot short stories that involve a mix of spontaneous, passion driven murders, and carefully calculated demises motivated by avarice - The Mystery of the Spanish Chest, Four and Twenty Blackbirds, The Under Dog, and The Dream. Poirot solves them all without too much trouble with his usual method and order, and intriguingly, a little Sherlock Holmes flair. They are less endearing than the Christmas story, for me, but nevertheless they are devilishly tricky at times, and a nice showcase for Poirot's deductive powers. 

The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding is available to buy now in various formats. 

About the author:

Agatha Christie is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in English with another billion in over 70 foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time and in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 20 plays, and six novels written under the name of Mary Westmacott.

Silent Waters by L.V. Matthews

 

Silent Waters by L.V. Matthews.

Published 14th September 2023 by Welbeck.

From the cover of the book:

Is blood thicker than water?

At five a.m. one summer's morning, police diver Jen Harper wakes to find herself submerged in the silt of a river with no memory of how she got there.

Forty-eight hours later, she's called to dive in the same river in search of a missing woman, Claudia Franklin.

But for Jen, this is no ordinary job. Her and Claudia's families were entangled for decades – there is unresolved resentment between them, unspoken secrets.

Jen hasn't seen Claudia for twelve years now. Or has she?

***********

Police diver, Jen Harper, awakes early one morning to find herself submerged in the river, with no memory of how she came to be there. Her childhood habit of sleepwalking has come back to haunt her in the wake of a whole mass of anxieties about her life and family, but her nightmares are only just beginning... Later that same week, Jen is called to the same spot to search for the body of a missing woman, Claudia Franklin. A woman she has not seen for twelve years... or has she? 

Unable to admit that her and Claudia's families share uncomfortable history, Jen finds herself caught up in a web of lies intended to protect herself, her son, and her brother. But before long, she realises that she might actually be protecting a murderer too... 

Silent Waters is a twisty tale that is part unconventional police procedural and part gripping family drama. It did take me a while to get my head around the story, as it is very fragmented to begin with, but once I settled into Matthew's writing style I really liked how she builds this tale around a group of almost entirely unlikeable characters with a bevy of family secrets between them. Threads of enforced silence, abuse of trust, obsession, and guilt thrum through the complicated chain of events that Matthews conjures up in these pages, and I particularly enjoyed how she plays with the notion of the lengths that people will go to to protect the ones they love from harm.

I think this is the first book have read that delves into the work of police divers, which Matthews brings to life in all its menacing and macabre glory. This adds a fascinating edge to the police procedural side of things. There are some great elements set around the highly competitive world of the sport of diving too, which provide lovely fodder for the parts of the story around dark deeds and betrayal, and make for a cracking climax.

This is not a book that grabs hold of you from the beginning, despite the unsettling scene that Matthew's forces upon you straight out of the gate, but it gradually gets under your skin - the direction it takes is intriguing, and once the reveals come, it sets you reeling. It is well worth diving into...

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

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

About the author:

For over ten years L V Matthews worked both in domestic and international sales for major UK publishing houses, before leaving to pursue a career in writing.

SILENT WATERS is her newest thriller novel (out July 2023)

THE TWINS was a Richard and Judy Bookclub pick.

Also available, Liv's debut, THE PRANK.

All published by Welbeck.

A Game Of Thrones (Song Of Ice And Fire Book One) by George R.R. Martin (Audio Book)

A Game of Thrones (Song Of Ice and Fire Book One) by George R.R. Martin.

Audio book narrated by Ray Dotrice.

Released 3rd November 2015 by Harper Collins.

From the cover:

HBO’s hit series A Game of Thrones is based on George R. R. Martin’s internationally best-selling series A Song of Ice and Fire, the greatest fantasy epic of the modern age. A Game of Thrones is the first volume in the series.

Summers span decades. Winter can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne has begun.

As Warden of the north, Lord Eddard Stark counts it a curse when King Robert bestows on him the office of the Hand. His honour weighs him down at court where a true man does what he will, not what he must … and a dead enemy is a thing of beauty.

The old gods have no power in the south, Stark’s family is split and there is treachery at court. Worse, the vengeance-mad heir of the deposed Dragon King has grown to maturity in exile in the Free Cities. He claims the Iron Throne.

Winter is coming...

 ************

I think you would probably have had to be living under a rock for the past the past few years not to have heard about the hit HBO television series A Game of Thrones, based on the books by fantasy author George R.R. Martin. Along with millions of others, this series consumed my family from the time it was first broadcast in 2011, all the way to the questionable events of season eight - but that is a discussion for another time...

It has long been a wish of mine to start reading the books from the beginning, so this year I finally took the plunge with book one of Song of Ice and Fire, A Game of Thrones, despite the slight trepidation that Martin has not yet completed the series. My chosen format has been the audio book narrated by actor Ray Dotrice (who, incidentally appeared in Season Two of the TV series as pyromancer Hallyne), and I have slowly ambled through the epic 33 hours and 45 minutes of this adventure over the last couple of months.

It is not my intention to regale you with the ins and outs of this story, as a lot happens over the course of these 800-odd pages, however, for the uninitiated, they are mostly concerned with the bloody machinations that come with powerful families vying for the right to rule the seven kingdoms of Westeros. The story begins in the far north of Westeros, where Warden of the north, Lord Eddard Stark, is visited by his old friend and brother-in-arms, King Robert Baratheon, with his sizeable court in tow. Robert begs him to come south to Kings Landing to act as his close advisor, Hand of the King, after the previous one died in murky circumstance. Stark is torn between wanting to remain at home at his beloved Winterfell with his family, and his duty to his King, but after much soul-searching, off to the south he goes in the company of his two daughters, Sansa and Arya... and so begins the splitting up of his family, and a sprawling series of books filled with war, dark deeds, and astonishing acts of treachery.

Along the way you become familiar with a grand cast of players, many of whom share their points of view in the text of this book, such as noble Eddard; his wife Catelyn; some of their children (notably Sansa, Arya, and Bran); Eddard's bye-blow Jon Snow; the King's dwarf brother-in-law, Tyrion Lannister; and across the Narrow Sea, the exiled daughter of the mad king deposed by Robert Baratheon, Daenerys Targaryen, whose brother yearns to regain his birthright. From their stories, bristles a smorgasbord of twisting plots that are carried along through the series.

Martin's plotting is delicious, and as you swing back and forth between the different narratives, the story carries you along on a tide of betrayal, war, and the intricacies of ambitious long-games... with a sprinkling of folk lore and magic. The characters are well drawn, and you become completely immersed in their fates, even when you can see from the beginning where their more noble ideas will make them prey to the rotters among them. I acknowledge that much has been made about the violence against women in Martin's books, but his world in based in a greater part on very real history with its false notion of chivalry, so this comes with the territory. In fact, there is violence here against everyone, and Martin includes some kick-ass female characters for you to get behind from the outset. It is also worth mentioning that the first season of the TV series actually follows this story very closely, which was rather surprising given that propensity of adaptations to diverge wildly from their source material. Excellent stuff!

I must admit that I am not in love with Dotrice's narration, despite the fact that it has been much lauded, but I did get used to his halting style eventually, and the many hours of the audio book slipped by nicely - taking you all the way to a cracking finale that leads into the following book, A Clash of Kings. I have already bought the audio book of the next adventure, and look forward to settling into more of Martin's wondrous story-telling in 2024. 

Here there be dragons... 

A Game of Thrones is available to buy now in hardcover, paperback, ebook and audio formats.

About the author:

George R.R. Martin is the globally bestselling author of many fine novels, including A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, and A Dance with Dragons, which together make up the series A Song of Ice and Fire, on which HBO based the world’s most-watched television series, Game of Thrones. Other works set in or about Westeros include The World of Ice and Fire, and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. His science fiction novella Nightflyers has also been adapted as a television series; and he is the creator of the shared-world Wild Cards universe, working with the finest writers in the genre. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (Audio Book)

 

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.

Narrated by Ray Porter.

Released 4th May 2021 by Audible Studios.

From the cover:

A lone astronaut must save the earth from disaster in this incredible new science-based thriller from the number-one New York Times best-selling author of The Martian.

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself will perish.

Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, he realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Alone on this tiny ship that's been cobbled together by every government and space agency on the planet and hurled into the depths of space, it's up to him to conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And thanks to an unexpected ally, he just might have a chance.

Part scientific mystery, part dazzling interstellar journey, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian - while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.

***********

I actually listened to this excellent audio book some months ago, but it is so difficult to know how to approach writing a review that I have left it to the end of the year before sharing my thoughts with you about it.

I love Andy Weir's books, his stories are always beautifully put together with engaging characters, and absolutely cracking thrills and spills - and Project Hail Mary is his best yet. There is a lot I cannot tell you about the story, because much of its magic lies in the twists and turns that arise, but basically the premise revolves around a lone astronaut on a mission to save the planet from a cataclysmic event that spells doom for the Sun. 

The astronaut, Ryland Grace, awakes to find he is the sole survivor of the mission, but he cannot remember who he is, or why he is there. The story unfurls in two parallel timelines from the point of view of Grace as he recovers his memories of the events that have led him to being on the Hail Mary in one, and he works through the challenges that face him as the single person carrying the fate of the world on his shoulders in the other. Eventually, the timelines clash together in such a clever way too.   

It is absolutely compelling stuff, packed with even more fascinating science that The Martian, and Weir has you standing shoulder to shoulder with Grace while he finds ways to solve the significant problems on his plate - in fact, if you have ever wondered about the value of learning STEM subjects, then this book is absolute cheerleader for how important they are.

And this is where I find myself with the impossibility of telling you why everything else Weir threads into this story makes it so emotional and life affirming - you are just going to have to take my word for it that this is Weir's finest work yet... and I have no idea how they are going to convey its magic in the planned film adaptation on the horizon, staring Ryan Gosling as Grace. I have my doubts that it can be done.

If you can, I highly recommend experiencing this book in audio format, because Ray Porter does an outstanding job of narrating Grace's story with rare intimacy and powerful emotion. There is a point in this story when I actually found myself bursting into tears, and I sobbed on and off throughout the rest, which I really was not expecting. There are tonnes of laughs along the way too. Just superb!

Project Hail Mary is available to buy now in gardcover, paperback, ebook and audio formats.

About the author:

ANDY WEIR built a two-decade career as a software engineer until the success of his first published novel, The Martian, allowed him to live out his dream of writing full-time.

He is a lifelong space nerd and a devoted hobbyist of such subjects as relativistic physics, orbital mechanics, and the history of manned spaceflight. He also mixes a mean cocktail.

He lives in California.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (Audio Book)

 

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

Narrated by Hugh Grant.

Released 21st December 2020 by Audible Studios.

From the cover:

Audible Studios presents a brand new recording of Charles Dickens' timeless seasonal story A Christmas Carol, performed by Hugh Grant.

First published in 1843, it tells the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a mean and unpleasant man who dislikes people generally and Christmas especially.

One Christmas Eve he is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come and given a glimpse of the many homes and lives which Scrooge has touched in his wretched life to date. After their visits, Scrooge is transformed into a kinder, gentler man.

***********

I am not sure that A Christmas Carol needs much of an introduction. However, just in case you are not familiar with the story, it tells the tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, the mean old skinflint who hates everyone, and pretty much everything (except money), especially Christmas.

Over the courses of this much loved short story, Dickens makes Scrooge see the error of his ways through the intervention of four unexpected, spectral visitors, on Christmas Eve. The first is his deceased business partner, Jacob Marley, who has very little in the way of comfort to offer him about what awaits him after his own demise, and warns him that three spirits will be visiting him to try to bring about his redemption. Then, in turn, Scrooge is visited by the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come, whose lessons turn him into someone who understands the message of Christmas, and transform him into a very different kind of man.

It is an absolute Christmas classic, and the fodder for many an adaptation on stage and screen (both in the original version and as a trope) - more than one of which always make it on to my viewing schedule during the festive season. However, I also like to go back the original text in the run up to the big day, and this year this has been in the form of the Audible Studios unabridged, audio book narrated by Hugh Grant, which is one I have not listened to before.

For 2 hours and 44 minutes, while I was wrapping Christmas presents, Hugh Grant's dulcet tones kept me company through the story of Scrooge's change of heart. This a version on the softer, gentle side, without scary sound effects, and although there are definitely chills and plenty of gravitas in Dicken's words, this is more PG than some of the other narrations I have listened to. It was hugely enjoyable though, and Grant particularly excels in portraying the poignant scenes in which Scrooge regrets his life choices, and those when he becomes 'as light as a feather'.

I can highly recommend this as a family friendly, festive listen - and it is currently free to Audible members as part of the Audible Plus catalogue!

Christmas tradition box ticked for the 2023 season!

A Christmas Carol is available to buy now in multiple formats.

About the author:

Charles Dickens was born in 1812 near Portsmouth where his father was a clerk in the navy pay office. The family moved to London in 1823, but their fortunes were severely impaired. Dickens was sent to work in a blacking-warehouse when his father was imprisoned for debt. Both experiences deeply affected the future novelist. In 1833 he began contributing stories to newspapers and magazines, and in 1836 started the serial publication of Pickwick Papers. Thereafter, Dickens published his major novels over the course of the next twenty years, from Nicholas Nickleby to Little Dorrit. He also edited the journals Household Words and All the Year Round. Dickens died in June 1870.

Lowbridge by Lucy Campbell

 

Lowbridge by Lucy Campbell.

Published 6th July 2023 by Ultimo Press.

From the cover of the book:

A missing girl. Decades of silence. A secret too big to bury.

1987: It’s late summer and a time of change when a 17-year-old girl leaves the local shopping centre in the sleepy town of Lowbridge and is never seen again. Her unsolved disappearance is never far from the town’s memory. There’s those who grew up in the shadow of her loss whose own lives were altered forever, and those who know more than they’re saying.

It just takes an outsider to ask the right questions. 

2018: Katherine Ashworth, shattered by the death of her daughter, moves to her husband’s hometown. Searching for a way to pick up the pieces of her life, she joins the local historical society and becomes obsessed with the three-decades-old mystery.

As Katherine digs into that summer of 1987, she stumbles upon the trail of a second girl who vanished and was never missed because no one cared enough to see what was happening in plain sight. Her trail could lead right to Katherine’s door.

In a town simmering with divisions and a cast of unforgettable characters, Lowbridge is a heart-wrenching mystery about the girls who are lost, the ones who are mourned and those who are forgotten.

***********

1987. In the small town of Lowbridge, amid a summer of turmoil over plans to establish a women's centre in its environs, a seventeen-year-old girl goes missing. Tess Dawes is never seen again. Her disappearance marks those left behind in different ways, but no one is unmoved by the tragedy.

2018: Katherine Ashworth, rocked by the loss of her teenage daughter moves to Lowbridge, the childhood home of her husband Jamie. Her grief has consumed her and driven a wedge between the couple, but she finds a lifeline in the town's sleepy historical society, where she becomes interested in the case of Tess Dawes.

As Katherine digs into the events surround Tess' disappearance, she discovers that more than one girl went missing that summer, and she is determined to find out what happened to them both - even if it means stirring up memories that many in this small town would prefer were left alone.

The story unfurls in two timelines, one following events around the time when Tess went missing, and the other following Katherine's rooting into the past as a way to save herself from the pit of despair she has fallen into. It did take me a while to get into the rhythm of Campbell's writing, but once you begin to see the shape of the story, it becomes clear that she has much more than your usual small town Aussie crime yarn in mind.

Using the compelling mystery of a missing girl as the framework for this novel, Campbell weaves intricate themes to explore women's rights, delving into the gulf between those with bright futures and those facing hard choices to survive. Expectation, entitlement, and the assumptions people make are all touched on with a deft hand before the truth behind what happened to Tess Dawes is revealed - and Campbell does a splendid job shining a light on the things that have changed since 1987, and the things that remain the same.

What Campbell also does incredibly well is to probe the many faces of grief and loss. I am very impressed with how she looks at the way inconsolable grief can affect those left behind. She writes with real insight into the way loss can tear relationships asunder, especially through the emotionally heart-wrenching scenes between Katherine and Jamie, but she also shows how it can bring people together to promote healing. Ultimately, through all the sadness in these pages, this is actually a story about acceptance and hope, which I was not expecting.

This is a promising debut, and I have to admire Campbell's ambition in touching on so many challenging issues in telling this story. While there are moments when the crime and emotional elements do not quite gel, and the pace of the story falls away, this book shows all the signs of a writer that will get better and better as she hones her craft. I really look forward to reading what comes next from the pen of Lucy Campbell.

Lowbridge is available to buy now in Hardcover, ebook and audio formats.

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

About the author:

Lucy Campbell has worked as a writer and sub-editor across magazines, newspapers and non-fiction books. Lowbridge is her first novel. She lives in Canberra with her husband and three children.

Yule Island by Johana Gustawsson

 

Yule Island by Johana Gustawsson.

Translated by David Warriner.

Published 23rd November 2023 by Orenda Books.

From the cover of the book:

Art expert Emma Lindahl is anxious when she's asked to appraise the antiques and artefacts in the infamous manor house of one of Sweden's wealthiest families, on the island of Storholmen, where a young woman was murdered nine years earlier, her killer never found.

Emma must work alone, and the Gussman family apparently avoiding her, she sees virtually no one in the house. Do they have something to hide?

As she goes about her painstaking work and one shocking discovery yields clues that lead to another, Emma becomes determined to uncover the secrets of the house and its occupants.

When the lifeless body of another young woman is found in the icy waters surrounding the island, Detective Karl Rosén arrives to investigate, and memories his failure to solve the first case come rushing back. Could this young woman's tragic death somehow hold the key?

Battling her own demons, Emma joins forces with Karl to embark upon a chilling investigation, plunging them into horrifying secrets from the past – Viking rites and tainted love – and Scandinavia's deepest, darkest winter…

***********

Art appraiser Emma Lindahl is sent by a prestigious auction house to value the rumoured treasure trove of antiques at the manor house of one of Sweden's wealthiest families, the Gussmans. She is anxious to live up to the responsibility placed upon her, but the location of the manor house on the island of Storholmen makes her feel uneasy, given the island's connection to the brutal murder of a young girl nine years ago.

When Emma arrives at the house, the sheer scale of the job ahead of her does nothing to alleviate her nerves, especially as the Gussman family seem almost hostile to her presence. Moving from room to room on the ridiculously strict timetable dictated by the family, the days begin to blur into one, despite the remarkable array of artefacts within them... until she makes a shocking discovery that could be a piece of the puzzle to the mystery of the murder that has made this island infamous.

Detective Karl Rosén is tortured by his inability to solve the murder of 'the hanging girl' on the island of Storholmen nine years ago. When the body of another young girl is found in the freezing waters off the island, bearing similar marks, he is hopeful that her death may unlock the answers to these bizarre ritualised killings. Emma's discovery brings her and Karl together, and they unexpectedly find themselves teaming up in an attempt to finally bring a murderer to justice, but they are unprepared for the secrets from the past that they uncover - secrets of Viking rites and dark deeds that touch upon their own tragedies...

Johana Gustawsson is the queen of the a gritty noir crime story threaded with the icy chill of horrors from your darkest nightmares, and in Yule Island she proves once again that she can do this with consummate skill. This novel is packed with troubled characters hiding secrets, including Emma and Karl our unlikely crime-busting pair, and the deeply unsettling location of Storholmen makes the ideal backdrop for Gustawsson to weave her spell-binding magic against.

In a masterclass of plotting and misdirection, the story unfurls in the past and present with elements of fast-paced, macabre treasure hunt, and slow-burn Gothic hair-raiser, which come together in a delicious whole. Gustawsson subtly seduces you into falling into all her well-laid traps, before flooring you with oh so beautifully contrived twists and turns - which I promise, you will not see coming - and to top it all, in a spark of absolute genius, she drops in a moment of exquisite clarity that only the very best writers can pull off.

Bursting with echoing themes of motherhood and madness, Viking rituals and intense relationships, this is a novel which completely consumes you and scares you witless. The unbearable tension, the claustrophobic atmosphere, the visceral chills, and the images Gustawsson conjures in your imagination... all this will linger long after you have closed the cover on this stonking thriller. I am so impressed with the work of translator David Warrinder here too, maintaining pace and spot on tone throughout.

Yule Island easily makes on to the list of my books of 2023, folks. It is, quite simply, sublime.

Yule Island is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats. You can support the best of 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 part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Born in Marseille, France, and with a degree in Political Science, Johana Gustawsson has worked as a journalist for the French and Spanish press and television. Her critically acclaimed Roy & Castells series, including Block 46, Keeper and Blood Song, has won the Plume d’Argent, Balai de la découverte, Balai d’Or and Prix Marseillais du Polar awards, and is now published in nineteen countries. A TV adaptation is currently underway in a French, Swedish and UK co-production. The Bleeding – a number one bestseller in France and the first in a new series – was published in 2022. Johana lives in London with her Swedish husband and their three sons.

About the translator:

David Warner translates from French and nurtures a healthy passion for Franco, Nordic and British crime fiction. Growing up in deepest Yorkshire, he developed incurable Francophilia at an early age. Emerging from Oxford with a Modern Languages degree he narrowly escaped the graduate rat race by hopping on a plane to Canada – and never looked back. More than a decade into a high-powered commercial translation career, he listened to his heart and turned his hand to the delicate art of literary translation. David has lived in France and Quebec, and now calls beautiful British Columbia home.

Past Lying (Karen Pirie Book Seven) by Val McDermid

 

Past Lying (Karen Pirie Book Seven) by Val McDermid.

Published 12th October 2023 by Sphere.

From the cover of the book:

Edinburgh, haunted by the ghosts of its many writers, is also the cold case beat of DCI Karen Pirie. So she shouldn't be surprised when an author's manuscript appears to be a blueprint for an actual crime.

Karen can't ignore the plot's chilling similarities to the unsolved case of an Edinburgh University student who vanished from her own doorstep. The manuscript seems to be the key to unlocking what happened to Lara Hardie, but there's a problem: the author died before he finished it.

As Karen digs deeper, she uncovers a spiralling game of betrayal and revenge, where lies are indistinguishable from the truth and with more than one unexpected twist . . .

The Queen of Crime Val McDermid is at the top of her game in her most gripping and fiendishly clever case yet.

***********

April, 2020. With the nation in lockdown to control the spread of Covid-19, the Scottish Historic Crimes Unit is whiling away the hours out of the office, mulling over unsolved case files without much success. Then the glimmer of a breakthrough comes their way via an archivist who has found disturbing similarities between the plot of an unpublished manuscript of a famous author, and the unsolved case of the disappearance of a young woman called Lara Hardie some months ago.

From their respective lockdown locations, DCI Karen Pirie, DS Daisy Mortimer, and DC Jason 'Mint' Murray set to work trying to establish if this manuscript holds the key to finding out what happened to Lara, and they discover that there are far too many similarities between fact and fiction to discount this as a coincidence. Could this actually be the confession of cold, calculating killer? Unfortunately, the author in question is now dead and unable to shed any light on how and why his plot about the perfect crime seems to chime so much about the mystery of Lara's disappearance... 

Past Lying picks up shortly after where Still Life left off, with the HCU team trying to negotiate the ups and downs of their personal and professional lives against the background of the unprecedented events of the first Covid lockdown. As the pandemic spreads, Pirie and the gang must do their best to pursue an investigation that throws up all kinds of tricky challenges, especially those that arise from following lockdown guidelines that some people take more seriously than others.

In a stroke of genius, the plot hinges on the world of the crime author, and McDermid has a ball creating some pretty despicable writers to weave her tale around. There are so many scenes about the writing process, the dizzy heights that can be reached when your writing career is on the up, and the dark depths that can come if the toss of the dice sends you plummeting back to obscurity, that its hard not to wonder who McDermid based her characters on - even though she maintains they are fictional. The mind boggles, especially when it comes to the lengths these characters will go to to get that elusive best-seller, and yet there is enough authenticity underlying so many of their shenanigans, that you will be side-eyeing the crime writers who deal in death and mayhem from now on.

As is the way with McDermid's deliciously clever crime stories, this is a novel that pulls you in completely with beautifully contrived twists and turns, before knocking you sideways. But there is so much more, because she knows just how to fill out a story with all the human elements you need to make it a cut above too. It is easy to forget quite how terrifying the world was in 2020, but through the experiences of Pirie and her team all the old unsettled emotions we felt during the Covid lockdown come rushing back with a full on slap - the isolation; the fear; the toll of enforced proximity on more than a few relationships; the impact of loss; and the heartbreak of separation from loved ones. It is spot on! I love the way McDermid really gets to grips with how difficult it must have been to investigate crime in a lockdown too - not something I have thought about before.

I loved this book: it is so darned slick. McDermid makes it look easy, but the characters in this story explore only too well how difficult it is to get crime writing right. It is always a joy to read one of McDermid's books, and this one has certainly been worth the wait. I hope the next Karen Pirie book comes along soon! 

Past Lying is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook, and audio formats.

Thank you to Sphere for sending me a proof 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.

Sleeping Murder (Miss Marple) by Agatha Christie

 

Sleeping Murder (Miss Marple) by Agatha Christie.

This edition published 13th October 2022 by Harper Collins.

From the cover of the book:

A strange house...
A ghost from the past...

As soon as she moves into Hillside, Gwenda knows there’s something strange about this house.

A sealed room. A hidden door. The apparition of a young woman being strangled.

But strangest of all – this all seems quite familiar.

As her friend Jane Marple investigates, the answer seems to lie in a crime committed nearly twenty years ago.

The killer may have gotten away with murder. But Miss Marple is never far behind.

Never underestimate Miss Marple...

***********

Newly-weds Gwenda and Giles Reed met in New Zealand where Gwenda was brought up. They decide to settle down to married life in Giles' homeland, so Gwenda heads to England first to find a home. After a fruitless search, she is drawn to a house called Hillside in Dillmouth, Devon, and decides this is the one for them.

Gwenda sets to work organising improvements to Hillside in preparation for Giles' arrival. Right from the start, there are things about the house that feel familiar, even though she is sure she has never been in England before. She is at a loss to explain how she knows the pattern on the wallpaper that used to hang in the nursery, that there used to be connecting doors between the sitting room and the dining room, and that the steps in the garden seem to be in the 'wrong place' - but most worryingly of all, she is concerned about the vision of a young woman called 'Helen' lying strangled at the bottom of the stairs that keeps plaguing her.

Gwenda begins to feel she is losing her mind, but then she meets Miss Marple, and she is reassured by the old lady's belief that the answers might lie in very real events that took place during Gwenda's childhood. Despite Miss Marple's advice to let 'sleeping murder' lie, Gwenda and Giles are determined to find out the truth. Miss Marple has no option but to become part of the investigation - especially since she seems to be the only one who can see that delving into the past could be very dangerous indeed...

It has been a while since I have been an an adventure with dear old Miss Marple as part of my Agatha Christie journey this year, so I really enjoyed immersing myself in her more gentle crime-busting methods once again - particularly as Sleeping Murder is a Marple mystery that I have not read before.

The story begins with Gwenda's uncanny experiences at Hillside, and develops into a double sided investigation. On one side, Gwenda and Giles track down leads about the mysterious 'Helen' with the gusto of youth (guided by Miss Marple's often cryptic advice); and on the other, Miss Marple engages in her more canny sleuthing in her characteristic guise of a harmless old biddy. The clues begin to emerge slowly as the trio find out more about Helen, and Christie devises some lovely red herrings to keep you off the scent of who may, or may not, be guilty of causing her demise, by providing a set of very plausible suspects among the men in Helen's life that were 'on the spot' nearly twenty years ago.

Christie delves nicely into murky memories of the past in this tale, hinging the plot on snippets of hearsay, and differing opinions of the murdered woman. She runs recurring themes of unhappy relationships, and mental instability hidden beneath outwardly respectable facades through the story - and I love the way she contrasts the trusting tendencies of Gwenda and Giles with Miss Marple's hard-learned cynicism. Miss Marple's razor sharp ability to spot inconsistencies, half truths, and deliberate attempts to pervert the truth are key, and she saves the day most delightfully at the climax of  the story! Go Miss Marple!

“It's very dangerous to believe people, I haven't for years.” Miss Marple

 

This ambles along very enjoyably through clever twists and turns, and keeps you guessing all the way to the shocking truth that Miss Marple spotted early in the proceedings. I loved that the final flourish takes place in a location I know very well too - on the terrace of the Imperial Hotel in Torquay! What a perfect choice to round off a year of Christie delights exploring the methods and motives in her books.

This is my December choice for #ReadChristie2023 exploring strangulation as a method of murder. I alternated between the text, and the fabulous audio book narrated by Stephanie Cole - whose dulcet tones are just perfect for Miss Marple. 

Sleeping Murder is available to buy now in multiple formats.

About the author:

Agatha Christie is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in English with another billion in over 70 foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time and in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 20 plays, and six novels written under the name of Mary Westmacott.

Survivor's Guilt (Erin McCabe Mysteries Book Two) by Robyn Gigl

 

Survivor's Guilt (Erin McCabe Book Two) by Robyn Gigl.

Published 7th December 2023 by Verve Books.

From the cover of the book: 

The death of millionaire businessman Charles Parsons seems like a straightforward suicide. There's no sign of forced entry or struggle in his lavish New Jersey mansion - just a single gunshot wound from his own weapon.

But days later, a different story emerges. Computer techs pick up a voice recording that incriminates Parsons' adoptive daughter, Ann, who duly confesses and pleads guilty.

After the case is brought to her attention by an unlikely source, Erin McCabe and her law partner, Duane Swisher, soon realise that pieces of Ann's story don't fit together. Ann clearly knows more than she's willing to share, even if it means a life sentence. Who is she protecting, and why?

As their investigation deepens, Erin and Swish find themselves caught in a web of human exploitation, unchecked greed, and murder - before learning the horrifying truth... 

***********

A millionaire businessman is found dead in his New Jersey home, apparently the victim of suicide. However, a seemingly open and shut case becomes much more complicated when a recording of the crime falls into the hands of the police, indicating that his adopted daughter, Ann, murdered him. When confronted with the evidence, Ann confesses to the crime, and pleads guilty at her trial.

Ann's case comes to the attention of lawyer Erin McCabe, and her legal partner Duane Swisher, through a go-between who feels parts of her story do not add up. McCabe and Swisher rapidly come to the same conclusion, and they also see an intriguing connection to one of their own cases. McCabe is convinced she can persuade Ann to trust her with the truth. Is Ann protecting someone, and if so, why?

Survivor's Guilt is the second legal thriller featuring transgender lawyer Erin McCabe, and it delves into the murky world of corporate greed, technological snooping, exploitation, and the very worst kind of abuse, to create a story that is as thought-provoking as it is compelling.

The story begins in slow burn country with leads gradually being uncovered by McCabe, Swisher and colleagues, interspersed with enjoyably melodramatic scenes from the points of view of a cast of thoroughly bad villains who are keen to protect their interests at all costs - and some nice glimpses into the hearts and minds of a select group of other characters, whose involvement is gradually revealed as the twists and turns play out. There is a lot in the early sections of the book around McCabe's personal life, which makes it difficult to pick up the threads of the investigation, but this part of the story fades into the background as the stronger crime elements come to the fore and the story takes off.

Once Gigl gets into her stride, with lashings of very nicely conceived legal thriller shenanigans, this book becomes a proper page-turner. Gigl's extensive experience as an attorney clearly feeds into the intricacies of how different law and order agencies work alongside each other, and how cases come together on both the defence and prosecution sides. The courtroom scenes are especially thrilling. Gigl excels at conveying the atmospheric highs and lows of a high profile trial, and she plays the suspense inside the court beautifully against the action scenes happening in tandem outside the courthouse walls. 

Along the way, Gigl explores some lovely themes around gender and identity, working them into McCabe's personal and professional lives. This offers some fascinating insight into the life of a trans character who has transitioned later in life, especially when it comes to the lesser explored challenges facing them in their career. Gigl also examines a wealth of themes around victimhood, surviving abuse, misplaced guilt, justice, and good old fashioned revenge, that add pleasing depth to the thriller elements. And the way she touches on surveillance techniques is chilling!

This is an interesting read, and once the story gets going it really pulls you in. On the whole, the characters are nicely filled out, and although I think the more one-dimensional villains may divide the crowd, I found their old-school badness rather entertaining - and they certainly allow Gigl to get to grips with where she wants to take this book from the start... all the way to the very satisfying epilogue, that made me smile. 

Survivor's Guilt is available to buy now in paperback and ebook.

Thank you to Verve Books 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:

Robyn Gigl is the author of the Erin McCabe legal thriller series and an attorney, speaker and activist who has been honored by the ACLU-NJ and the New Jersey Pride Network for her work on behalf of the LGBTQ+ community. Robyn is a partner at Gluck Walrath, LLP in Freehold, New Jersey, where she handles complex commercial and employment litigation. She has been selected as a NJ Super Lawyer since 2010 and as one of the Top 50 Women Lawyers in NJ in 2020 & 2021. Robyn is a member of the Board of Directors of Garden State Equality, NJ's largest LGBTQ+ Civil Rights Organization. A frequent lecturer on diversity issues, she lives in New Jersey where she continues to practice law by day, and work on her next novel by night. Fortunately, she has a very boring social life.

Dead Sweet by Katrin Juliusdottir

 

Dead Sweet by Katrin Juliusdottir.

Translated by Quentin Bates.

Published 7th December 2023 by Orenda Books.

From the cover of the book:

A murder is just the beginning…

When Óttar Karlsson, a wealthy and respected government official and businessman, is found murdered, after failing to turn up at his own surprise birthday party, the police are at a loss. It isn't until young police officer Sigurdís finds a well-hidden safe in his impersonal luxury apartment that clues start emerging.

As Óttar's shady business dealings become clear, a second, unexpected line of enquiry emerges, when Sigurdís finds a US phone number in the safe, along with papers showing regular money transfers to an American account. Following the trail to Minnesota, trauma rooted in Sigurdís's own childhood threatens to resurface and the investigation strikes chillingly close to home…

Atmospheric, deeply unsettling and full of breakneck twists and turns, Dead Sweet is a startling debut thriller that uncovers a terrifying world of financial crime, sinister cults and disturbing secret lives, and kicks off an addictive, mind-blowing new series.

***********

The body of wealthy civil servant and businessman Óttar Karlsson is found on a beach, after he failed to arrive at his surprise birthday party. The signs point to him having been murdered, but why anyone would want to harm such a respected member of Reykjavik's political set is a mystery.

Young police officer Sigurdís is keen to get involved in her first major case, but having only just returned to active duty after assaulting a member of the public (albeit with good reason), her boss is reluctant to assign her more than administrative tasks. However, when her observational skills bring about the important discovery of a hidden safe in the victim's luxury apartment, she finds herself involved in the thick of an unusual murder investigation.

As the enquiry develops, it becomes clear that Óttar Karlsson's reputation for transparency and integrity was nothing but a sham. The sheer scale of his shady business dealings leads the police to the conclusion that this must be the reason for his murder... but Sigurdís is not so sure. The discovery of an American phone number among Karlsson's paperwork, and a series of payments to a bank account in Minnesota, whisper of an even darker side to Óttar Karlsson, and Sigurdís' own experiences of trauma make her the ideal person to uncover the disturbing truth about the man so many held in high regard...

Dead Sweet is the first in an intriguing new series by debut author Katrin Juliusdottir. At first sight, this is a tale of financial misconduct in the wake of the Icelandic economic collapse, which thrums with the weight of Juliusdottir's political and tech company backgrounds, but it soon becomes clear that she has something much more sinister in mind. Building on a cleverly wrought framework that combines far-reaching domestic and international plotlines, Juliusdottir sows the seeds of an unsettling Nordic noir crime yarn, and before you know it she has subverted the story into one rife with themes of manipulation and abuse that burgeon to encompass, not just the present police investigation, but also Sigurdís' personal life. 

Juliusdottir takes great care with her characters in this story, doing an excellent job of introducing you to their strengths and weaknesses, and all the little shades of grey that make them who they are. This is especially true of the police team and family members surrounding Sigurdís, who I look forward to getting to know and love over the course of this series. Sigurdís is written with lots of depth, and insight, and she discovers a lot about herself as the story progresses. She carries many burdens from the domestic abuse she lived through as a child, and Juliusdottir uses this nicely to explore facets of fear, control, insecurity, and guilt that are also reflected through the lives of many of the other characters - particularly those connected to the 'real' Óttar Karlsson, who she strips back beautifully to their bare bones, as the twists come thick and fast towards the end of the book.

For a debut, this novel shows a lot of promise. Juliusdottir's writing flows well, and she knows how to bring her obvious knowledge to bear to flesh out slick plotlines with authenticity and atmosphere. There is nothing lacking in thrills, spills and suspense, and I love, love, love the way Juliusdottir plays with the aspects of 'Dead Sweet' throughout. I would have liked a touch more bite given the subject matter, but I have no doubt this is something that will come as Juliusdottir hones her craft. Quentin Bates does a great job, as always, keeping the pace and intensity going, which is impressive given the breadth of this story.

It is always such a joy to be in at the beginning of an author's journey, particularly one writing in one of my absolute favourite genres. I predict great things Katrin Juliusdottir, and am really looking forward to book two!

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

Thank you for 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 part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Katrín received the Blackbird Award, an Icelandic crime-writing prize, for her first novel, Dead Sweet in 2020. Her debut novel was reviewed well by critics and hit the best-seller lists in the first weeks after publication. 

Katrín has a political background and was a member of Parliament from 2003 until 2016. Before she was elected to Parliament, Katrín was an advisor and project manager at a tech company and a senior buyer and CEO in the retail sector, as well as the Managing Director of a student union during her uni years. She worked from a young age in the fishing industry, as a store clerk and took night time shifts at a pizza place. She studied Anthropology and has an MBA from Reykjavík University. 

She was raised in Kópavogur, about 15 minutes' drive from downtown Reykjavík. She now lives in the neighbouring town of Garðabær with her family. She is married to author Bjarni M. Bjarnason, who encouraged her to start writing. They have four boys.

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.

On The First Day Of Christmas by Faith Hogan (Paperback Release)

 

On the First Day of Christmas by Faith Hogan.

Published in paperback 12th October 2023 by Aria.

From the cover of the book:

This Christmas, everything will change...

When Liv Latimer says goodbye to her fellow nurses and finishes work for the holidays, she's looking forward to a Christmas to remember with her boyfriend Eddie.

But as she leaves the hospital, tragedy strikes and Liv is faced with a choice. Will she ignore her instincts and go home as planned? Or will she stay, and potentially change the course of her life as she knows it?

Whatever choice she makes, Liv is about to discover that fate finds a way...

From the bestselling Irish author of The Ladies' Midnight Swimming Club comes an emotional and uplifting festive story about love, family and how a split-second decision can change your life.

***********

It is Christmas Eve and nurse Liv Latimer is looking forward to heading home to Ballycove, on the beautiful west coast of Ireland, to spend some time with her family for the holiday. She is sure that this will be a very special one too, as she is convinced that her boyfriend Eddie will finally be asking her to marry him.

But as Liv leaves the hospital, she is involved in an incident that leaves her with a choice. Should she head home as planned, or stay behind in Dublin and follow the pull of destiny that is tugging at her..?

What could be nicer that a story that takes you back to glorious Ballycove, where it is always like being among old friends? Well, how about a story that takes place in Ballycove at Christmas? Now you are talking! But this is also an unusual Ballycove story, because in On the First Day of Christmas Faith Hogan works the cleverest of Christmas magic, with two parallel story lines for Liv that diverge at a fateful moment in time.

In one she continues on to Ballycove and the family reunion she has been looking forward to, and in the other she follows her instincts and stays in Dublin. It is really difficult to talk about either of the timelines without spoilers, but suffice to say that both offer Liv a chance to reflect on where life has brought her, but in different ways. In true Sliding Doors style, it is hard to tell which timeline will ultimately prove to be the one that offers Liv the happiness she has been looking for since the tragic death of her twin sister Rachel.

It is easy to keep track of the parallel stories in the text as they are helpfully printed in different fonts, and they swap back and forth to build up a picture of what fate holds for Liv in each one. Many of the same characters crop up in both - notably Eddie and his awful mother Barbara; Liv's parents and younger sister Maya; and Liv's best friend Pete and his deceitful girlfriend Anya. There are name drops for some other familiar faces you might know if you have spent any time in Ballycove too. As each storyline unfurls, Hogan moves back and forth between them more frequently, which builds pace beautifully, until they come crashing together in the most unexpected manner.

There are so many things I love about this book, including the delicious way Hogan keeps where her real intentions lie hidden until the climax of the story. As in all her books, this one revolves around the trials, tribulations, hopes and dreams we can all relate to about family, friendship, loss, and the pivotal decisions that we make. She has such a talent for working these themes through to heart-warming, bittersweet conclusions, and the same is true of this story. But there is also an extra dimension here that makes the absolute best of the magic that comes with a tale set at Christmas, by weaving in the enchanting whisper of a supernatural guiding hand from Liv's late sister Rachel to ensure everything works out the way it should.

This is a reread for me, and I adored it just as much as I did first time around. The way Hogan uses the idea of 'the road not taken' is so moving, and her use of the colours green and gold throughout to tie Liv and Rachel together is very clever. This story made me laugh, it made me cry, and it even made me angry at times (Eddie, Barbara and Anya I am looking at you here!). I finished with a heart that was full, and many tears shed - and I would not have changed a thing. What an excellent book to get the festive reading season underway!

On the First Day of Christmas is available t buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats.

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

About the author:

Faith Hogan is an award-winning, million copy best selling author. She is a USA Today Bestseller, Irish Times Top Ten and Kindle Number 1 Best Selling writer of nine contemporary fiction novels. Her books have featured as Book Club Favorites, Net Galley Hot Reads and Summer Must Reads. She writes grown up women's fiction which is unashamedly uplifting, feel-good and inspiring.

Her new summer read The Guest House By The Sea is out now and it's a great big welcome back to Ballycove for her readers.

She writes twisty contemporary crime fiction as Geraldine Hogan.

She lives in the west of Ireland with her family and a sausage-loving Labrador named Penny. She's a writer, reader, enthusiastic dog walker and reluctant jogger - except of course when it is raining!

 November 2023 Reading Round-Up

I read some absolute crackers in November! You can find my reviews for each book from this selection by clicking on the pictures below:

Shot with Crimson by Nicola Upson

The Blue Monsoon by Damyanti Biswas

The Ideal Couple by Anna Willett

The French Chateau Escape by Gillian Harvey

The Wolf by Samuel Bjørk

Rebellion by Simon Scarrow

Mary: Or the Birth of Frankenstein by Anne Eekhout

Upstairs at the Beresford by Will Carver

Julia by Sandra Newman

The Marlow Murders by Biba Pearce

Unnatural Death by Patricia Cornwell

Peril at End House by Agatha Christie

The Continental Affair by Christine Mangan

His Favourite Graves by Paul Cleave

Her by Mira V. Shah

Joe Nuthin's Guide to Life by Helen Fisher

Arctic Sun by Jack Grimwood

Lots of festive gems, and a few fab thrillers coming in December!

Watch this space...

If you have enjoyed my pictures, why not head to my IG account @brownflopsy for more!