Murder In Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie

 

Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie.

This edition published 22nd March 2018 by Harper Collins.

Originally published 1936.

From the cover of the book:

An archaeologist’s wife is murdered on the shores of the River Tigris in Iraq…

It was clear to Amy Leatheran that something sinister was going on at the Hassanieh dig in Iraq; something associated with the presence of ‘Lovely Louise’, wife of celebrated archaeologist Dr Leidner.

In a few days’ time Hercule Poirot was due to drop in at the excavation site. But with Louise suffering from terrifying hallucinations, and tension within the group becoming almost unbearable, Poirot might just be too late…

***********

Nurse, Amy Leatheran, is asked to join a dig on the banks of the River Tigris in Iraq, by celebrated archaeologist Dr Leidner, who is concerned about the health of his wife Louise. She is excited about the prospect, but as soon as she arrives she feels there is something off about the atmosphere here - the tension amongst the party is palpable.

'Lovely Louise' is clearly suffering from acute anxiety, but whether she really has cause to fear the danger she claims has followed her from her past, or whether she is simply paranoid, is unclear. It is only when Louise is murdered that they all wonder whether she was actually telling the truth about the peril stalking her.

Fortunately, Hercule Poirot is on hand in Iraq to delve into the matter...

Murder in Mesopotamia is one of Christie's wonderfully atmospheric locked-room mysteries that thrums with lots of delicious detail garnered from her own first-hand experience of being part of an archaeological dig, at the side of her second husband Max Mallowan.

The story is narrated from the perspective of Amy Leatheran, who has been co-opted as part of an on-going dig to attend to Louise Leidner, the seemingly neurotic wife of the celebrated American archaeologist in charge. Amy introduces us to the various members of the dig, their relationships to each other, and her take on the obvious tensions running high within the party - and eventually, to the reasons why Louise is so worried for her safety at the hands of a former husband who she denounced as a spy, even though he is supposed to have died years before in a train crash.

When Louise is subsequently murdered, a victim of a fatal head injury received in a room which no one could have possibly entered without being seen, it is a total mystery. Hercule Poirot, who is serendipitously in the locale, is asked to direct the power of his little grey cells to the matter, which he unravels with the help of nurse Amy.

Amy's personality shines through this story, and really enjoyed her outsider's view of whole situation, particularly when it comes to Poirot's modus operandi, and the revelations that come as his unconventional methods blow the case wide open. Her observations of the party, and of Poirot himself, are absolute gold, and there is a lot of humour to be had from them.

The mystery itself is incredibly clever, riddled with twists that turn on secrets and psychological manipulation, and has a literally 'cracking' solution to locked room problem. As is Christie's forte, she delves into dark emotions, especially jealousy. Everything hangs of the complexities of the character of murdered woman, whose different faces are revealed through the testimonies of others, but the story is also filled out with threads about addiction and the smuggling of artifacts which add extra spice.

This was the perfect bonus book to follow my recent read, Christie's non-fiction, archaeological memoir Come Tell Me How You Live, which was my July pick for #ReadChristie2025. I listened to the audio book narrated by Anna Massey, who makes a wonderful Amy Leatheran.

Murder in Mesopotamia 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.

The Heretic Cypher (The Egyptian Stones Book One) by Murray Bailey

 

The Heretic Cypher (The Egyptian Stones Book One) by Murray Bailey.

Published in paperback 14th July 2025 (ebook 25th July 2025) by Three Daggers.

From the cover of the book:

When Egyptologist Alex MacLure’s friend and mentor dies he’s stunned to discover she’s left a message—hidden, encoded, and meant only for him.

With a mysterious artifact and a trail of cryptic symbols, Alex is thrust into a deadly race against time. What begins as a quest to finish her research quickly spirals into a chilling conclusion: her death was no accident. She was murdered for what she discovered.

Now he’s the next target.

Hunted by a ruthless adversary, Alex finds himself swept from the academic halls of London to the heart of Egypt’s oldest sites.

As he races to decode a forgotten truth buried beneath centuries of deception, powerful enemies close in—willing to kill to protect a secret—a revelation so explosive, it could rewrite everything we know about ancient Egypt and religion.

***********

When Egyptologist Alex MacLure's close friend, Dr Ellen Champion, dies under suspicious circumstances he is determined to find out why. Could her demise be related to the research she had been undertaking into Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon's infamous discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922? If so, why?

With the police eyeing him as a suspect, and the feeling that he is being followed, Alex knows he must tread carefully. Armed with the knowledge that Emma had been decoding mysterious symbols that appeared to reveal a big secret about the tomb and its contents, and the discovery of an enigmatic clue that she has left him to follow, Alex sets off on a quest to complete her research.

The trail takes him from the streets of London, to the dreaming spires of Oxford, and finally to the burning sands of Egypt. It becomes clear that Emma was murdered for what she knew by a powerful enemy hiding in the shadows, and they will stop at nothing to prevent an ancient secret from getting out...

In a delicious mash-up of Wilbur Smith, Dan Brown, Indiana Jones, National Treasure, and Tomb Raider Murray Bailey takes an exciting leap into a contemporary thriller that is entertainingly different from his area of interest in the 1940s/1950s that I am familiar with.  

The story unfurls largely from the perspective of Egyptologist Alex MacLure, who is dragged into a murky world where his interest in the symbolism of numbers gives him a curious edge in a dangerous treasure hunt for lost artifacts related to Carter and Lord Carnarvon's discoveries. The narrative is spiced up by intriguing sections about the police investigation into Emma's death, as well as additional juicy threads about the machinations of those who are keen to stop Alex in his tracks for different reasons of their own (which become evident as the story progresses).

The action moves super fast between locations as Alex makes his discoveries, finds allies to aid him in his cause, and dodges those who are out to get him, which makes for a very exciting story. I did want to yell at him at times to be a bit more guarded in who trusts, as this gets him into more than one sticky situation, but he is very likeable, and the left-of-centre way his brain makes leaps forward as the plot twists and turns around connections and puzzles really keeps things interesting.

A lot of fascinating information about Egyptology, archaeology, mythology, religion, mathematics, and mysticism comes at you quickly in this thriller, so you do have to pay close attention, but the payoff at the gripping conclusion makes this attention to detail so worthwhile. And it is a conclusion that keeps you perilously perched on the edge of your seat too!

This is unlike anything I have read from Murray Bailey before, but his central themes of secrets, conspiracy, deception, and absorbing history are here in spades, and this story provides just as much 'bang for your buck' as I have come to know and love from his books. I galloped through it in a single sitting, and cannot wait for the next book in the series, The Mark of Eternity, which is coming next year.

The Heretic Cypher is available to buy now in paperback, and ebook formats.

Thank you to Murray Bailey for providing me with an e-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 the Ash Carter thrillers, inspired by his father's experience in the Royal Military Police in Singapore in the early 1950s. From the prequel series, based in Cyprus and Israel, The Prisoner of Acre won the 2025 Page Turner Award. A post-Singapore series is based in the Philippines. The Heretic Cypher is the first book of a trilogy featuring a young Robert Langdon-type character decrypting secret messages written by an ancient Egyptian.

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 was born in Manchester and now lives on the south coast of England with his family and two dogs, Teddy and Muffin.

Divinity Games (Kanha and Colbey Book Three) by Lou Gilmond

 

Divinity Games (Kanha and Colbey Book Three) by Lou Gilmond.

Published 17th July 2025 by Armillary Books.

From the cover of the book:

When opposition MP Harry Colbey uncovers a corrupt plot between senior government ministers and a big tech organisation intent on enriching its owners, he finds himself the target of a strange form of harassment. His train pass and credit cards won't work, his phone won't get signal and every traffic light he comes to is red. Only his colleague, Esme Kanha, believes him. She's investigating the suspicious death of another anti-corruption MP.

But when Colbey's daughter gets engaged to the son of one of the tech company's owners, he is forced to venture straight into the heart of the sinister elite. Colbey intends to expose them – but in a world dominated by AI, where every movement is tracked and every conversation listened to, the stakes are dangerously high.

The ‘terrifying’ conclusion to the Kanha and Colbey thriller series.

***********

If MP Harry Colbey thought being in opposition would make his fight against the insidious spread of AI harder, he is now finding that being pushed even further into the wilderness as an Independent might be making it a battle he can no longer win. Forced to hold-up inside Westminster since he has been denied access to his credit cards, bank account, travel pass, and even his library card courtesy of Henri Lauvaux's terrifying AI creation, Divinity, Colbey's options are limited - not to mention the fact that the last time he saw daylight he was attacked by drones that meant to do him serious harm.

Meanwhile, Colbey's confederate (and lover), MP Esme Kanha has been banished to the back benches, having lost her coveted position of Chief Whip in the moves and counter moves that have played out. But she is determined to keep fighting against the political corruption that now has Lauvaux's Alcheminna empire with its fingers in every conceivable pie related to public life and the security forces. Somehow she must find incontrovertible evidence that democracy is being subverted by The Owners, a powerful elite with a dangerous agenda, in a world where the truth is increasingly difficult to establish.

When Colbey's daughter gets engaged to the son of one of the central players among The Owners, he is catapulted into the heart of a nest of vipers. It is a dangerous place to be, but it might also give him a chance to search for cracks in the ever-strengthening walls of their entitled palisade... especially if Kanha is able to get the evidence of wrongdoing that they need to aid their cause.

Building of the beautiful wrought previous novels in the Kanha and Colbey series, Lou Gilmond pulls out all the stops in this blockbuster third outing to create a political-thriller-meets-near future-chiller that keeps you enthralled from the first page to the last.

Colbey and Kanha are really up against it in this novel, facing the sheer enormity of trying to prove what is going on in the corridors of power as Lauvaux sees his megalomaniac-level plans coming to fruition. With Orwellian levels of dystopian devilry (and a lovely nod to 1984) Gilmond has an absolute ball spinning her threads to speculate about what could happen in a society where AI not only sees, hears, and reads everything, but is also given the power to manipulate at will.

This is one of my favourite series of recent years, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. I love so many things about what Gilmond achieves with it on literary, and thought provoking fronts. Her characters are wonderfully engaging, especially Colbey and Kanha, who it is a joy to follow in their quest to uphold democracy, even if they know the system is far from perfect. They are surrounded by a fabulous supporting cast, and the antagonists are genuinely frightening. And yet nothing that Gilmond has them doing seems beyond credibility, given the bitter taste of a near future that does not seem too far away.

This book is a delicious culmination of everything that has come before, weaving themes of surveillance, propaganda, power, truth, security, and privacy into an intelligent, exciting, and often witty story that comes full circle from Gilmond's opening gambit in Dirty Geese (Book One). Although this is said to be the conclusion to the series, there is an unsettling twist at the end that could be a hook into another adventure for Kanha and Colbey... I will keep my fingers crossed!

Gilmond's writing is as good as any of the renowned political thriller authors plying their trade today - if you have yet to discover it, then you are in for a treat!

Divinity Games is available to buy now in hardcover, paperback, and ebook formats.

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

About the author:

Based in Oxford, UK, Lou Gilmond is an author of mystery and thriller fiction, screenplays and travel books.

The Village Cafe In The Loire by Gillian Harvey

 

The Village Cafe in the Loire by Gillian Harvey.

Published 12th July 2025 by Boldwood Books.

From the cove of the book:

High-flyer Becky Thorne cannot believe what she’s being told. She doesn’t need to be signed off for burnout! Life has been a bit chaotic lately, that’s all. As if dealing with her enviable job and permanent meddling from her mother aren’t enough, she’s also inherited a café in the Loire from an estranged great-aunt, complete with sitting tenant who refuses to budge.

But nobody stands in Becky’s way! Ignoring her best friend Amber’s advice, she decides to storm over to France and sort the tenant out. Then she can finally get the café sold and jump back on the career ladder.

What she doesn’t count on is the tenant being Pascale, who is six feet of tall, dark, handsome and extremely grumpy about her plans for change. Not to mention the village and the secrets it holds about her past.

Becky’s path to success is all planned out. But the Loire has a magic she might not be able to resist…

***********

Becky's career was going well, or so she thought, but the pressure of being a director at a London advertising agency gradually crept up on her unawares. After an unfortunate incident in which a laptop was sent hurtling in the direction of the office intern, Becky finds herself signed off for a month due to 'severe burnout'. As someone used to climbing the ladder to corporate success, Becky does not know what to do with herself. Relaxing is simply not part of her make-up, but she needs to get her head together if she is going to achieve a coveted position on the board of the advertising agency.

She decides to head to France, where she has recently been bequeathed a little cafe in the Loire by her great-aunt Maud, who she had not seen since she was a child. She had been planning to sell the cafe and invest in a swanky new London apartment, but now might be just the time to tackle the unexpected headache the news of a sitting tenant at the property has brought...

After a heart-breaking diversion in Harvey's last book, Midnight in Paris, she is back to her more typical fictional fare with a story of new beginnings in the beautiful Loire. The story begins with Becky suffering a melt-down at work which forces her to reassess the things she really wants in life, through the revelations that come with returning to a place she loved in her childhood.

Becky begins her visit full of big plans for the the cafe, but as she bumps heads with the 'sitting tenant', handsome writer Pascale, and reconnects with her past, she begins to realise she has been ignoring almost all other aspects of her life in pursuit of her career - including being a terrible friend to her bestie Amber. 

New beginnings dawn, including a lovely slow-burn romance with gentle Pascale, via all the necessary bumps in the road you need in this kind of story. There is plenty of humour, lots of charming French content, a heart-warming twist or two, and the kind of examination of complicated family relationships that Harvey does so well,  particularly when it comes to the expectations of over-protective (aka domineering) mothers.

Time to slow down with a cup of coffee, and the perfect slice of summer escapism Gillian Harvey style!

The Village Cafe in the Loire is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Boldwood Books for granting me access to an e-copy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Rachel's Random Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Gillian Harvey is an author and freelance writer who lives in Norfolk.

Her novels, including the bestselling A Year at the French Farmhouse and The Riviera House Swap, are often set in France, where she lived for 14 years.

Come, Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie

 

Come, Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie (as Agatha Christie Mallowan).

Published 27th August 2015 by Harper Collins.

Audio Book narrated by Judith Boyd.

From the cover of the book:

Agatha Christie’s personal memoirs about her travels to Syria and Iraq in the 1930s with her archaeologist husband Max Mallowan, where she worked on the digs and wrote some of her most evocative novels.

Think you know Agatha Christie? Think again!

To the world she was Agatha Christie, legendary author of bestselling whodunits. But in the 1930s she wore a different hat, travelling with her husband, renowned archaeologist Max Mallowan, as he investigated the buried ruins and ancient wonders of Syria and Iraq. When friends asked what this strange ‘other life’ was like, she decided to answer their questions by writing down her adventures in this eye-opening book.

Described by the author as a ‘meandering chronicle of life on an archaeological dig’, Come, Tell Me How You Live is Agatha Christie's very personal memoir of her time spent in this breath-taking corner of the globe, living among the working men in tents in the desert where recorded human history began. Acclaimed as ‘a pure pleasure to read’, it is an altogether remarkable and increasingly poignant narrative, a fascinating, vibrant and vivid portrait of everyday life in a world now long since vanished.

***********

Come, Tell Me How You Live is a short autobiography/travelogue by Agatha Christie (writing as Agatha Christie Mallowan) about her experiences accompanying her second husband, renowned archaeologist Max Mallowan, on his digs in Iraq and Syria. 

Written in the 1930s (although not published until 1946) it is full of delicious, and often humorous, reminiscences of travelling to far away places to delve beneath the sand in search of pre-history, but it is anything but dry and dusty. Instead Christie, who goes to great pains to say it is not an account of history, regales her audience with golden nuggets about the human side of the expeditions - right from the necessary arrangements before setting off (buying clothes and packing); the logistics of travel, living accommodations, and staff; the people they meet; and lots of lovely episodes that take place while they are in foreign climes.

I did not really know what to expect from this book, but I found it so engaging. Christie's love of travel (especially trains), her spirit of adventure, and her fascination with what makes people tick seeps from the page. It is full of intriguing detail about travel, expeditions, and the landscape and culture of the Middle East in the 1930s, and proved to be required reading when it comes to the background of her mysteries with archaeological settings.

This book was my July pick for #ReadChristie2025 for the prompt Archaeologists for this year's theme of Characters and Careers. I listened to the excellent audio book narrated by Judith Boyd - although i do recommend having a text copy to refer to as well, as it is full of photographs and maps which really enrich the experience. 

Come, Tell Me How You Live is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio 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.

Seascraper by Benjamin Wood

 

Seascraper by Benjamin Wood.

Published 17th July 2025 by Viking.

From the cover of the book:

Thomas lives a slow, deliberate life with his mother in Longferry, working his grandpa’s trade as a shanker. He rises early to take his horse and cart to the grey, gloomy beach to scrape for shrimp; spending the rest of the day selling his wares, trying to wash away the salt and scum, pining for Joan Wyeth down the street and rehearsing songs on his guitar. At heart, he is a folk musician, but it remains a private dream.

When a striking visitor turns up, bringing the promise of Hollywood glamour, Thomas is shaken from the drudgery of his days and begins to see a different future. But how much of what the American claims is true, and how far can his inspiration carry Thomas?

Haunting and timeless, this is the story of a young man hemmed in by his circumstances, striving to achieve fulfilment far beyond the world he knows.

***********

Thomas lives a hard life with his mother in Longferry, following in his grandfather's footsteps as a traditional cart shanker. Fishing for shrimp with a horse and cart is brutal, dirty work, and it provides little more than a poor living for him and his mother.

What Thomas longs for is the opportunity to become a folk singer, and to find a way to impress Joan Wyeth down the street, but he cannot see a way to make either dream come true. But then an American visitor called Edgar arrives at his door, promising him the chance to become involved in a Hollywood film production, and Thomas sees a different future beckoning...

Benjamin Wood's atmospheric novel packs a powerful punch, which is very laudable for a book of under two hundred pages. It follows twenty-year-old shanker Thomas over two days in his life which provide a real turning point for a young man who longs for change.

Wood introduces Thomas as he goes about his early morning ritual dragging the perilous sands in the bay for shrimp, as his grandfather did before him, in a profession he was drawn into out of the necessity to support himself and his single mother. It is far from the life Thomas wishes he was living, but he has had to cast his dreams aside to face harsh reality.

Then comes a transformative twist in Thomas' fate. He gets caught up in Edgar's infectious enthusiasm for an adaptation of an unusual book, and takes him on a tour of the sands that Edgar is convinced would make the perfect location for the film. During their foggy adventure, fraught with danger, something strange happens to Thomas that gives him the means to break out of his claustrophobic life... but things are not quite as they appear.

Wood's book is curiously timeless, and it is easy to think that this is a historical fiction novel set in an age long ago, particularly given Thomas' living conditions and his traditional way of life. However, as the story develops you begin to see that he is actually living in post-war Britain (probably 1960s), which works beautifully with the theme of being stuck in the past. 

Edgar becomes the catalyst for Thomas to confront the way he is caught between the life that has been set out for him, and the one he wants to pursue, and what follows is wreathed in lovely threads about belonging, dislocation, sacrifice, and complicated family relationships. There are subtle undercurrents at play between Thomas and his mother that cleverly echo the danger out on the sands too.

What begins as a bleak story ends on a hopeful note, via an original speculative twist that I absolutely did not see coming, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Wood's writing is wonderful and I cannot wait to explore more of his literary novels. 

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

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

About the author:

Benjamin Wood's first novel, The Bellwether Revivals, was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and the Commonwealth Book Prize, and won Le Prix du Roman Fnac. A finalist for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, his other works have been shortlisted for the Encore Award, the CWA Gold Dagger Award and the European Prize for Literature. He is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at King's College London and lives in Surrey with his wife and sons.

The Betrayal Of Thomas True by A.J. West (Paperback Release)

 

The Betrayal of Thomas True by A.J. West.

Published in paperback 3rd July 2025 by Orenda Books.

From the cover of the book:

The only sin is betrayal…

It is the year 1715, and Thomas True has arrived on old London Bridge with a dangerous secret. One night, lost amongst the squalor of London's hidden back streets, he finds himself drawn into the outrageous underworld of the molly houses.

Meanwhile, carpenter Gabriel Griffin struggles to hide his double life as Lotty, the molly's stoic guard. When a young man is found murdered, he realises there is a rat amongst them, betraying their secrets to a pair of murderous Justices.

Can Gabriel unmask the traitor before they hang? Can he save hapless Thomas from peril, and their own forbidden love?

Set amidst the buried streets of Georgian London, The Betrayal of Thomas True is a brutal and devastating thriller, where love must overcome evil, and the only true sin is betrayal…

***********

London, 1715. Young Thomas True has run away from his unhappy life in the village of Highgate. His new residence perches amongst the tumbledown shops and houses on the old London Bridge, but living a stone's throw away from the squalid maze of the City's backstreets is not the place to forget the doubts that have led him to flee his strict religious upbringing. In the shadow of St Paul's Cathedral, Thomas' wanderings in the City's dark and gritty underbelly bring him to the door of Old Mother Clap's, the infamous molly house, where he finally feels at home.

By day, Carpenter Gabriel Griffin is working on the finishing touches of the Cathedral, but at night he stands guard at Mother Clap's as its impassive guard Lotty. He knows all about living a double-life, torn between his grief for the wife and child he has lost and the desires he cannot deny. When one of the mollies is found murdered, he realises that there must be a rat among them, however impossible this seems.

As Gabriel tries to track down the traitor, he finds himself becoming attracted to the apparently innocent newcomer Thomas, but he is distracted by the need to look at every member of his molly family with a suspicious eye. Who among them would sell their secrets, when their very motto is 'Always Together'? Can he save them, and himself, from the gallows, and finally find happiness?

In A.J. West's stunning second novel, he brings the hot-bed of Georgian London alive to explore the secretive world of the City's molly houses. Having consumed a wealth of historical fiction (and non-fiction) set in London, I was aware about the city's molly houses, but I think this is the first book I have read that really explores what it would have been like to have been part of this world. You can feel the care West has taken to make this novel as authentic as possible, especially through the considerable research he has clearly undertaken into London's gay history.

It is hard to encapsulate what London was like in 1715, at the very beginning of the shiny, new Georgian era, with the bizarre juxtaposition with the older, seedy parts of the City, and the stately environs that rose from the ashes of the Great Fire, but West vividly captures the contrasts and contradictions of the time to perfection. And more than that, he extends this feeling of a constant struggle to reconcile different natures of this city to the souls of his characters too.

Essentially, this is a period murder mystery, which has Gabriel desperately trying to find a traitor against the backdrop of a city openly hostile to the mollies. Caught between the necessity of living outwardly respectable existences, and the call of their true natures, West's mollies drive the tempo of this story, in all their fevered, glorious double-life wonder - reflecting the light and dark of the city that surrounds them. He also offers very clever clashes of perspective by looking at events through the eyes of jaded Gabriel, with all his inner turmoil, and achingly vulnerable Thomas, who steps wrong time and time again as he negotiates this new life.

My heart was in my mouth for almost the entire story. Public hangings, political machinations, religious fervour, and power games combine to make a perfect storm of peril unleashed by mobs, assassins, and devious magistrates with private agendas. West weaves threads of mystery and danger relentlessly around the lives of his characters to create a historical thriller with immense power, keeping you guessing about who The Rat at the heart of the story really is - and when the truth comes it shocks you to the core.

My goodness, this book utterly broke me, carrying me through every moment of the joys and sorrows of Mother Clap's molly family. While this is a work of fiction, West faithfully portrays the lives of men who were consumed like moths by the flame of their existence, standing and dying together, simply for the freedom to love each other as they wished. What a heart-breaking, beautiful, and unforgettable story of love and courage.

**A version of this review was originally published July 2024 for the hardcover release.

The Betrayal of Thomas True is available to buy now in hardcover, paperback, ebook and audio formats. You can buy direct from Orenda Books HERE.

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

About the author:

A.J. West grew up reading books to escape his shyness at school and discovered an early talent for writing fiction which led to an award-winning career as a BBC television newsreader and reporter.

He has also written for national newspapers and magazines and has appeared on television programmes including BBC Breakfast, Good Morning Britain, This Morning and the legendary reality television show, Big Brother, where he became an instant household name... though the specific household has yet to be identified.

Today, A.J. lives in South London with his husband, Nicholas Robinson.

Hard Copy by Fien Veldman

 

Hard Copy by Fien Veldman.

Translated by Hester Velmans.

Published in paperback 5th June 2025 by Apollo.

From the cover of the book:

Spending long hours in her claustraphobic office cubicle, a customer service assistant is struggling. Isolated, frustrated and lonely, she finds comfort in only one thing: the office printer. As she confides in the printer about her hopes and dreams, her fears and her past, it becomes clear to her that he is listening. But to her employees, the blossoming relationship is a worrying cry for help.

Diagnosed with burnout and placed on leave, she faces severance and – worse – separation from her beloved printer. But she's not about to give up on her only friend without a fight. And, it turns out, neither is he.

***********

A customer service representative spends long hours alone in her tiny office. Lonely and isolated from her colleagues she confides her hopes and dreams to the office printer, and he seems to be the only one that really listens.

When her odd behaviour results in her being sent home on leave to 'recover from being stressed and overworked', the separation from her beloved printer hits her hard. She is determined to find a way for them to be reunited.

This quirky little story of girl-meets-printer is one of those strange books that somehow works, despite its weird premise. The story unfurls through a mix of narratives, largely from the point of view of our unnamed customer service protagonist, who flips between detailing the grinding tedium of an office job that plays on her anxiety issues, and reminiscing about sinister episodes from her childhood which give intriguing insight into her alienation from the world at large. Veldman also throws in a few enlightening snippets from other office based characters later in the story, including from the printer himself, and a compelling mystery about an enigmatic parcel.

The story is surprisingly emotional. You find yourself rooting for the lonely young woman, and longing for the unlikely couple to find a way back to each other in the face of pretty weighty obstacles on the job and personal fronts. There are some lovely threads about how the change in her work situation gives her the courage to turn her world around, and Veldman incorporates entertaining pitch black humour to the piece.

Veldman also touches on fascinating subjects in parallel with the off-beat romance, through the musings of the characters: capitalism, poverty, coming of age, office and sexual politics, and of course, the problem of loneliness in modern society, are all explored in the most thought provoking ways.

Beautifully translated by Hester Velmans, I thoroughly enjoyed this strange, and satisfying story. 

Hard Copy is available to buy now in hardcover, paperback, ebook and audio formats.

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

About the author:

Fien Veldman is the 2021 recipient of the Joost Zwagerman Essay Award for her essay 'Not really making it', about growing up in a working-class neighbourhood in Leeuwarden. In 2018 she won the Elise Mathilde Essay Award for her essay 'Borders, doors and eyes open'. Hard Copy is her debut novel.

Getting Away by Kate Sawyer

 

Getting Away by Kate Sawyer.

Published 3rd July 2025 by Zaffre.

From the cover of the book:

Margaret Smith is at the beach.
It is a summer day unlike any other Margaret has ever known.

The Smith family have left the town where they live and work and go to school and come to a place where the sky is blue, the sand is white, and the sound of the sea surrounds them. An ordinary family discovering the joy of getting away for the first time.

Over the course of the coming decades, they will be transformed through their holiday experiences, each new destination a backdrop as the family grows and changes, love stories begin and end -- and secrets are revealed.

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The Smith family are at the seaside. For young Margaret, this is her first getaway and so exciting, but it brings mixed emotions for her parents - especially her mother Elizabeth. Over the years, the Smith family grows. Each generation is altered by their own getaways as love, loss, pain, pleasure, and secrets take their toll...

Having read Sawyer's incredible last book, This Family, which takes place over a single day, I knew how beautifully she can capture the shifting dynamics within a family, particularly when it comes to the fall out when secrets are revealed. 

In this gorgeous follow-up story, Sawyer ups her game by spreading out the saga of her literary family over a whopping time span from the 1920s to the 2020s, with a whole new twist on the domestic drama angle by only dropping in on them during significant family holidays and getaways in each decade. This is a really interesting way to tell their story, as you find yourself catching up on the events of intervening years solely through their interactions when they are away from home - ostensibly having a good time on the surface, but each musing on their own secrets and heartache.

As the points of view switch back and forth between the characters, starting with the small set-up of Margaret and her parents, and widening to incorporate sons, daughters, and their romantic partners down through the generations, these moments are curiously enough to tell a detailed account of their history, love stories, triumphs and tragedies. You find your heartstrings getting a good work out as they reach relationship milestones, and work through the ripples of their revelations in time. There are big waves and small, but Sawyer manages to give each of them equal power, which is very impressive.

This is one of those books that meanders and comes full circle, working its way under your skin in the process. There is a lot of sadness in these pages, especially when it comes to generational trauma, but there are also hopeful and tender moments that deeply touch your heart. Once again, Sawyer proves that she can get to the crux of knotty family dynamics, and explore the complexities of love, loss coming of age, break-ups and reconciliations with a deft touch. I loved it.

Getting Away is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Zaffre for providing me with a proof copy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Compulsive Readers for inviting me to join this blog tour.

About the author:

Kate Sawyer worked as an actor and producer before writing several short films then turning her hand to fiction. Her second novel This Family was a Waterstones Book Of The Month and Paperback of the Year. Her debut, The Stranding, was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, won the East Anglian Book Award for fiction, was adapted for BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime and is being developed for the screen. Kate produces the annual Bury St Edmunds Literature Festival, in the Suffolk town she grew up in and returned to after the birth of her daughter.

 June 2025 Reading Round-Up

June was a busy, busy month, but I managed to squeeze in ten pretty spectacular books. You can find you way to my reviews by clicking on the pictures below:

The School Gates by A.A. Chaudhuri

The Secrets of the Bees by Jane Johnson

Double Room by Anne Senes

Kill Them With Kindness by Will Carver

Broken by Jon Atli Jonasson

Book Boyfriend by Lucy Vine

Making It So by Patrick Stewart

Murder Tide by Stella Blomkvist

Crooked House by Agatha Christie

Overland by Yasmin Cordery Khan

And as a sweltering June passes into (hopefully) a less sticky July, more books are on the horizon....

Overland by Yasmin Cordery Khan

 

Overland by Yasmin Cordery Khan.

Published in paperback 8th May 2025 by Apollo.

From the cover of the book:

It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime: the open road, London to Kathmandu, just three young people looking for adventure. No one could have predicted the way it ended, and for fifty years the truth has been buried. But now, Joyce is ready to tell her story.

London, 1970. Fresh out of a dead-end job, Joyce answers an ad in the local paper: Kathmandu by van, leave August. Share petrol and costs. Joyce is desperate to escape life in suburbia, and aristocrat Freddie looks like he can show her a wild time.

Together with Anton, Freddie's best friend from boarding school, they embark on the overland trail from London to Kathmandu in a beaten-up old Land Rover. But as they cross the borders into Asia, Freddie can't outrun his family's history, leading to devastating consequences for everyone.

Overland is a novel about youth, privilege, class and the sharp echoes of British imperialism from one of the most exciting new voices in literary fiction.

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London, 1970. Joyce yearns to leave the drudgery of her suburban life behind. When she spots an ad in the local paper: 'Kathmandu by van, leave August. Share petrol and costs', she sees it as a golden opportunity to escape.

Joining aristocrat Freddie and his best friend Anton for an adventure in a beaten up Land Rover seems like an impossible dream for someone like Joyce. They being their journey with hopeful hearts, but as the trio cross borders on the hippie trail, Joyce and Anton are dragged into the mire of Freddie's emotional baggage, and the dream turns sour...

Told in retrospective form through Joyce's narrative fifty years after her fateful trip with Freddie and Anton, Overland is compulsive reading about a time when hundreds and thousands of travellers completed the journey overland from Britain to India in pursuit of culture, a lifestyle free of convention, and the search for spiritual enlightenment. Unfortunately for our three adventurers, rather than finding what they were searching for, they end up losing themselves in the twists and turns of a long and winding journey that ends in tragedy.

Through Joyce's now jaded eyes, the story of her coming of age from unhappy suburban housewife to the sort of person her young self could never have envisaged, totally immerses you in time and place. Khan's novel rings with authenticity about the once well-trodden, but now impossible, overland journey through Europe, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, as Joyce gets to know her travelling companions, and their secrets - spilling her own in turn. 

The pages flew by as I was pulled into the increasingly dark story, and my emotions were well and truly tugged as Joyce tries to keep a hold on the vestiges of the person she believes herself to be while acting as protector for her 'boys'. Stark clashes of culture, and the wildly differing ideologies of the fellow travellers they meet on the trail, prove to be more of a challenge than any of them anticipated. The frailties they each wished to leave behind are exposed, and while Joyce and Anton fantasise about impossible futures, self-destructive Freddie falls apart (hastened by the psychologically fracturing impact of the heavy drug culture amongst the 'freaks' they meet).

Youth, expectation, privilege, and social class are insightfully dissected, bound up in a truly impressive literary novel that has Khan subtly tempting you on with timely titbits about the mystery at the heart of the story. Her background as a historian adds wonderful substance to this tale too, obliquely exploring the scars left by British colonialism while the dramatic events between the three travellers play out in the foreground.

I adored this book from wistful beginning to shocking end, via all its shades of love, loss and hard lessons, utterly addicted to Khan's writing, and the melancholy edge of a tale all about a past lost in the mists of time. Superb.

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

Thank you to Head of Zeus for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest reivew.

About the author:

Yasmin Cordery Khan is a British historian and novelist, and teaches at the University of Oxford. She is the author of the Great Partition, The Raj at War (also published in the US as India at War) Edgware Road and Overland. She has been long listed for prizes including the Orwell Prize, the Authors' Club of Great Britain First Novel Prize, the PEN Hesell-Tiltman and won the Gladstone Prize for history.