Death Rite (Detective Hazel Todd Book 1) by Kerry Watts (Exctract)

 

Death Rite (Detective Hazel Todd Book 1) by Kerry Watts.

Published in ebook 14th October 2021, and in paperback 25th November 2021, by Canelo/Hera Books.

From the cover of the book:

Their next breath will be their last...

Forty years ago, the name Rachel McMahon was synonymous with evil. After killing four men in the most brutal of ways, the world rejoiced as she was locked up.

Now Rachel has done her time, repented for her crimes, and is ready to live a quiet life back in Scotland under a new name.

But then the killings start again. As the bodies of fathers and sons appear on the streets of Perth, their deaths echoing those from Rachel’s murder spree four decades ago, DCI Hazel Todd and her squad are called in to track down a murderer taunting them at every step.

Could Rachel really have reformed – or is a copycat killer trying to finish what she started? And as the murders get closer to Hazel, it’s a race against time to stop a psychopath with their own twisted agenda…

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

As part of the blog tour for the first book in this new crime series from Kerry Watts, it is my absolute pleasure to bring you an extract from Death Rite:

Such a handsome young man, DCI Hazel Todd thought when she stared into the red 2010 Fiesta. What a waste. Knowing this was a regular spot where sex workers picked men up, she couldn’t rule out a connection. The man, who looked barely into his twenties, if that, was slumped back in the driver’s seat, his head tilted just a fraction onto his left shoulder, a gaping hole where his stomach should be. She wondered if he’d brought a girlfriend here for some ‘alone time’. Somewhere they could be away from prying eyes. Had something gone terribly wrong? An argument perhaps. Hadn’t Hazel and Rick spent many nights up Kinnoull Hill looking for ‘alone time’? At fifty-two now though that was a distant memory, a very distant memory. That and the fact they were divorced.

The contradiction of the scene was stark. Although his abdomen was blood-soaked, barely a hair looked out of place and Hazel could smell the sweet scent of his hair gel a little over the stench of the dried blood that was staining his blue T-shirt. He looked smart. His jeans and trainers certainly weren’t Primark, and the car looked and smelled clean, not like a young lad’s car at all. No empty crisp bags or drinks cans. If it weren’t for the huge hole in his body he could easily be mistaken for being asleep.

The sunrise over the water of the harbour added to the bitter-sweet atmosphere. The crisp, clear chill of the October morning meant that when Hazel’s warm breath hit the air, it left streaks of condensation behind. The sound of the heavy door to a garage being hauled open rattled into the air, scattering a flock of seagulls that had gathered for scraps outside the café where tables were normally set up for breakfast diners. Mainly warehouse workers and the men who worked in the units closer to the Friarton waste depot which was a quarter of a mile further along the road. She wasn’t surprised none of the workers had found their victim with the Fiesta being tucked along the track. Far enough away from the main road that ran alongside the river until it stopped at the harbour’s edge to be away from sight. The rarely used slipway being just a few hundred metres away. Had the harbour café not been located where it was, Hazel feared it might have been days before the lad’s body was found. She wondered if their killer had requested this secluded location deliberately.

‘Keep them back, will you,’ Hazel shouted to her DC, unwilling to have a bunch of nosy mechanics trampling over her crime scene. ‘In fact, Andrea,’ she added. ‘Get the road shut off.’

The body may have been found deeper along the track that ran alongside the river, but she wasn’t taking any chances.

*****

Death Rite is available to buy now in ebook, and in paperback from 25th November, from you favourite book retailer - of via the link HERE.

Thank you to Hera Books for sending me an ecopy of this book, which I will be reading and reviewing soon, and to Danielle Price at The Reading Closet for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Kerry Watts grew up in Perth, Scotland, and still lives there today. Kerry specialises in crime fiction, and loves to put her characters in impossible situations just to see what happens. Her experience as a psychiatric nurse heavily influences her writing, while authors who inspire her work include Jeff Lindsay and Thomas Harris.

The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke

 

The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke.

Published 30th September by Harper Collins.

From the cover of the book:

Upon the cliffs of a remote Scottish island, Lòn Haven, stands a lighthouse.

A lighthouse that has weathered more than storms.

Mysterious and terrible events have happened on this island. It started with a witch hunt. Now, centuries later, islanders are vanishing without explanation.

Coincidence? Or curse?

Liv Stay flees to the island with her three daughters, in search of a home. She doesn’t believe in witches, or dark omens, or hauntings. But within months, her daughter Luna will be the only one of them left.

Twenty years later, Luna is drawn back to the place her family vanished. As the last sister left, it’s up to her to find out the truth . . .

But what really happened at the lighthouse all those years ago?

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

Liv Stay arrives on the remote Scottish island of Lòn Haven, with her three daughters, fifteen-year-old Saffy, nine-year-old Luna and seven-year-old Clover. She is trying to escape the chaos of their lives, and hopes that their stay here might offer some respite from the tough choices she is going to have to make very soon. The artist's commission that has drawn Liv to this island is a strange one - she has been employed to paint an arcane mural on the inside of a half-ruined lighthouse named The Longing. and their home for the duration is a bothy perched high on the clifftops beside the lighthouse. 

It's an eerie, windswept place that evokes unsettling feelings, and although Liv doesn't believe in superstitious talk about fairies, ghosts and witches, the history of the site cannot be denied - for this was where local women were imprisoned under the ground on which the lighthouse now stands,  while awaiting execution during James VI's witch hunts. This is a place that is said to be cursed, and whatever the truth, islanders have been going missing without explanation ever since. Within months, Liv, Saffy and Clover have disappeared too, leaving Luna all alone...

Twenty years later, Luna receives a call that leads her back to Lòn Haven for a reckoning. The time has come for her to dig deep and recall those forgotten memories, to try to get to the truth about The Longing and what happened to her family all those years ago...

The Lighthouse Witches is a fabulous immersive tale that swallows you up with its creepy Gothic vibes. The story plays out in three timelines - the history of the witch trials and what followed in their wake hundreds of years ago; the months that Liv and her daughters live on Lòn Haven; and the events that bring Luna back to the island twenty years later. All three weave together like a spell, bringing in delicious threads of folklore; witchcraft; dark tales of cursed children; and the strange otherness that clings to such remote communities, where everyone knows each other's secrets and the shadows of history linger long into the modern day.

I can't say too much about how the secrets of The Longing are uncovered, of the startling truths that are revealed, without giving away too much of the game, so you will have to discover these for yourselves - and trust me, you really, really want to. Cooke spins this story out in a way that I have not seen before, starting with a solid base of the Gothic kind and gradually transforming it into something else entirely, by combining a classic witchy yarn with modern domestic noir, and then heading off in the direction of Black Mirror country. It works superbly well and kept me enrapt from the first page to the last. The location is breath-taking perfection, right out of you nightmares, and the way Cooke uses the backdrop of a wild and remote Scottish island is a delight too.

If you are looking for one book to read this spooky season that will give you chills, thrills and unique surprises, then this, dear readers, is the novel you need. This is seriously good!

The Lighthouse Witches is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats, from your favourite book retailer.

Thank you to Harper Collins for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

C. J. Cooke (Carolyn Jess-Cooke) lives in Glasgow with her husband and four children. C J Cooke's works have been published in 23 languages and have won many awards. She holds a PhD in Literature from the Queen's University of Belfast and is currently Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow, where she researches creative writing interventions for mental health. Two of her books are currently optioned for film.

The Hiding Place by Amanda Mason

 

The Hiding Place by Amanda Mason.

Published 14th October 2021 by Zaffre.

From the cover of the book: 

Some secrets can never be concealed . . .

Nell Galilee, her husband and twelve year old step-daughter Maude rent a holiday cottage by the sea, needing time and space away from home. Nell grew up in this small, wind-blown town and has mixed feelings about returning, and it isn't long before she is recognised by a neighbour, seemingly desperate to befriend her. The cottage has been empty for some time, and from the start Nell feels uncomfortable there. Something isn't quite right about this place . . .

Maude, furious about being brought here against her will, soon finds herself beguiled by the house's strange atmosphere. There are peculiar marks in the roof beams above her bedroom, and in another room, a hiding place, concealing a strange, unnerving object.

As the house gradually reveals its secrets, Nell becomes increasingly uneasy - and Maude spellbound. But these women - and the women that surround them - are harbouring their own secrets too, and soon events will come to a terrible head . . .

A brilliant, unsettling and chilling novel of mothers and daughters, truth and deception and the lengths people will go to, to obtain power over their own lives, The Hiding Place is the second chilling novel from the acclaimed author of The Wayward Girls.

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

Nell Galilee returns home to the small, seaside town of her childhood in the company of her husband Chris and stepdaughter Maude. This is a town that holds unsettling memories for Nell, but fortunately their stay will be brief, as they are only here to attend a family celebration. Their home for this short holiday is a quirky holiday cottage called Elder House, in the tucked away Bishops Yard, but something about this house feels wrong to Nell as soon as she sets foot in the place. She can't quite put her finger on what it is, although she seems to be the only one of the three that finds the house unnerving.

Things are tense between the three from the start. Maude is under a black cloud from recent episodes that are vaguely hinted at, but we know from the beginning that she is finding it difficult to adjust to being an older sibling now her mother and stepfather have had a new baby, and her relationship with Nell seems strained. Nell longs for the close bond they used to share, Chris seems at a loss with how to broker peace between the two females in his life, and the atmosphere between them is amplified by the weird vibes that Elder House gives off - and the odd happenings that have them jumping at shadows.

When Nell makes an eerie discovery behind a hidden panel in the wall, they begin to learn something of the secrets that tell of Elder Cottage's traumatic history, and Maude becomes consumed by the magic that thrums in very fabric of the house. The residents of the past seem to have been trying to protect themselves from something dark, but what could it be? Events start to spin out of control when Chris is called away, leaving Nell and Maude alone. They are both harbouring secrets that cannot be contained, as are the women who live around them in Bishops Yard. This house demands a sacrifice, but who will pay the price? 

Where to start? This is so much more than your average spooky tale, and Amanda Mason does such a wonderful job of incorporating a myriad of deep themes into the telling of it, which I am going to try to hint at without giving away any spoilers about the plot, because you really need to discover its secrets for yourself.

This is a novel rooted in folklore, hitting just the right spot to tickle the primitive part of your brain that feeds your darkest nightmares, but by exploring exactly how and why people use superstition to deal with their everyday fears Mason is able to interwork both historical and contemporary themes around mental health, desire, secrets, betrayal, obsession, motherhood, and rather interestingly the need to protect, which makes this a very modern ghost story. She starts with a haunted house, always a brilliant beginning, and then proceeds to let her imagination run riot with very mortal emotional threads of anxiety, the need to be loved, jealousy and aching need, that feed the supernatural elements of the tale superbly.

For a claustrophobic story there are quite a few characters in these pages, bringing in quite a few residents in and around Bishops Yard, which I did find surprising at first, but each and every one has a part to play in how the story, and its closely guarded secrets, unfurl and they are used very effectively to layer the themes examined. It is the relationships between the different generations of women here that conjures up literary magic, almost like weaving a spell among a coven of witches, and as the story moves back and forth between them all the plot thickens like pitch - and is just as black at heart!

I love the idea that the ordinary objects people use to make them feel secure, or as totems for good luck or deep yearning, become imbued with a kind of mystic power that can stand the test of time, and Mason carries this idea right through the story, contrasting how such items can become a form of protection and a source of dark magic. It's really rather clever.

This is one of those creepy tales that grabs you at the first page and holds you spellbound until every little twist and turn has played out. It's a highly entertaining mix of classic horror and bang up-to-date spine-chiller that begs to be consumed in one delectable sitting, making it a perfect Halloween read - daytime reading recommended! 

The Hiding Place is available to order now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats from your favourite book retailer.

Thank youto Zaffre Books for sending me a Netgalley cooy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers Tours for inviting me to take part in this blog tour.

About the author:

Amanda Mason was born and brought up in Whitby, North Yorkshire. She studied Theatre at Dartington College of Arts, where she began writing by devising and directing plays. Her short stories have been published in several anthologies; The Hiding Place is her second novel following her debut The Wayward Girls.

The Stoning by Peter Papathanasiou

 

The Stoning by Peter Papathanasiou.

Published 7th October 2021 by MacLehose Press.

From the cover of the book:

A small town in outback Australia wakes to an appalling crime.

A local schoolteacher is found taped to a tree and stoned to death. Suspicion instantly falls on the refugees at the new detention centre on Cobb's northern outskirts. Tensions are high, between whites and the local indigenous community, between immigrants and the townies.

Still mourning the recent death of his father, Detective Sergeant George Manolis returns to his childhood hometown to investigate. Within minutes of his arrival, it's clear that Cobb is not the same place he left. 

Once it thrived, but now it's a poor and derelict dusthole, with the local police chief it deserves. And as Manolis negotiates his new colleagues' antagonism, and the simmering anger of a community destroyed by alcohol and drugs, the ghosts of his past begin to flicker to life.

Vivid, pacy and almost dangerously atmospheric, The Stoning is the first in a new series of outback noir featuring DS Manolis, himself an outsider, and a good man in a world gone to hell.

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

I adore an Australian outback thriller just as much as I love one that is set in a place bedecked with ice and snow. There is something about extremes of temperature that seems to bring out the very worst in people, especially in a claustrophobic small town environment, and in this delicious debut Peter Papathanasiou presents us with a cast of characters who fit the bill beautifully.  

The outback town in question is Cobb, a small community that has definitely seen better days - something that is immediately apparent to DS George Manolis when he is sent back here, his boyhood home, to investigate the brutal stoning to death of a local school teacher. The Cobb that greets him is nothing like the bustling town he remembers from the days when his father ran the popular milk bar, instead it is a place without hope, full of drunks and junkies, characterised by tension between whites and Aboriginals, and overshadowed by the unwanted refugee detention centre located on the outskirts.

Reeling from the recent death of his father and break up of his marriage, Manolis is not in a good place and the realisation that this is going to be a thankless task given the state of the run-down local police force, the hostile locals, and the general conviction that the crime is the work of one of the immigrants housed in the 'brown house', makes him want to climb back into his car and head straight back to civilisation. However, he is a man with a mission and he must see it through.

The local officer in charge Sergeant Fyfe is mostly absent, emotionally and physically, and his colleagues are not pleased about accepting the authority of a know-it-all cop from the city, but Manolis soon develops a working relationship with two promising constables who desperately need leadership - Constable Smith, known as Sparrow, the only Black cop in town, and Constable Kerr, Cobb's lone female cop.

There are sinister goings on in Cobb: crime and truculent kangaroos are rife, and there is zero respect for law and order from either the human or animal population. The town almost universally lays the blame for its ills on the refugee detention centre - although no one seems to know the truth about what goes on within its secretive walls - and the angry residents are spoiling for a lynching rather than a professionally conducted police investigation. As Manolis does his best to run the gauntlet of the town's simmering anger, and follow the sketchy trail of evidence to find a murderer, the ghosts of his own past start to haunt him by throwing up questions about his family's past. There is more than one truth to uncover in this town and Manolis is just the outsider for the job.

The Stoning is a gripping outback murder mystery that dials the noir gauge up the max. Papathanasiou writes so convincingly that you can feel yourself right there in the midst of the scorching heat and dust, surrounded by the flora and fauna of the outback. Ostensibly a slick police procedural about a new cop in town, it works in a host of complex themes around small town dynamics and the fear of those that are different, that give it real depth and emotional intelligence. 

I really enjoyed how Papathanasiou infuses this story with many layered threads around the subject of  alienation, contrasting instances where this can bind people together and cause irrevocable divisions in a small community, in society at large, and throughout history. This divides the well drawn characters into two separate types - the ones that despise outsiders of all types, and those that feel a kinship with them. For the most part it is the discrimination of the first set of characters that drive this story, building incredible tension and a very real feeling of danger as Manolis goes about trying to solve this case. The sense that barely contained violence lies just under the surface of this small community, and that it might explode at any time is tangible.

But it is not just the neatly created small town suspense that makes this such a great read, because Papathanasiou brings in an extra dimension which is rather clever, and that is the presence of a refugee detention centre in Cobb. If weird insular community affairs were not enough to cause trouble, this opens up a whole new can of worms. It becomes very easy for Cobb to lay the blame for their ills at the door of the refugees foisted upon them, particularly given the religious overtones of the killing, and some of the residents of the town are not afraid to play on this for their own ends. There are some pretty hateful views expressed in these pages, but it also explores some thought provoking issues around the subject of immigrants, both in contemporary and historical terms - particularly through the history of Manolis' own father's Greek heritage, and his grandfather's flight to safety during the break up of the Ottoman Empire.

I think my favourite thing about this book is the way it brings together an engaging little band of outsider crime fighters in Manolis, Sparrow and Kerr, and develops their relationships over the course of the story. Manolis is a good man, but he feels adrift in his own life following the loss of his father and his divorce, and he is the obvious outsider despite his roots in Cobb. Sparrow is an Aboriginal man in a white world, alienated from his own people and his colleagues by his race, choice of job and sexuality. Kerr is the lone female on the force, facing discrimination from not only her boss and colleagues, but also through the backward attitude towards women in Cobb, especially because of her choice of career. Their joint status as outsiders of one sort or another binds them to each other, and eventually makes them not only friends, but successful in their endeavours - even though plenty of sparks fly between them as we learn of the history of their trials and tribulations. Through them we get the sense that hope and decency can prevail, which was much needed after being put through the mill with such a dark and disturbing plot.

This is a gripping and thoroughly compelling read: at times funny in that sardonic noir way, while also being heart-piercingly sad, and profoundly shocking, with beautifully conceived twists and turns - and a chilling revelation at the end.  I read the whole thing in one jaw-dropping session, delighted when I turned he final page to know that this is the first part in a new series following DS Manolis. I cannot wait for the next instalment.

The Stoning is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats from your favourite book retailer.

Thank you to MacLehose Press 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:

Peter Papathanasiou was born in northern Greece in 1974 and adopted as a baby to an Australian family. His debut book, a memoir, was published in 2019 as Son of Mine by Salt Publishing (UK) and Little One by Allen & Unwin (Australia). His debut novel, a work of crime fiction, was published in 2021 as The Stoning by MacLehose Press (UK) and Transit Lounge (Australia), and in 2022 by Polar Verlag (Germany). Peter’s writing has otherwise been published by The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, The Seattle Times, The Guardian UK, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Good Weekend, ABC and SBS. He holds a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from City, University of London; a Doctor of Philosophy in Biomedical Sciences from The Australian National University (ANU); and a Bachelor of Laws from ANU specialising in criminal law.

Substitute by Susi Holliday

 

Substitute by Susi Holliday.

Published 12th August by Thomas and Mercer.

From the cover of the book:

Three people live. Three people die. You make the choice.

Like any mother, Chrissie wants to protect her family. She would do anything to keep them safe. So when a mysterious stranger turns up at her door, offering to prevent the deaths of the people she loves, it sounds too good to be true. The only problem: she must choose someone to die in their place. A substitute.

When her daughter Holly has a terrible accident, Chrissie has no option but to enter the programme. In that horrifying moment, she would do anything to save her. But even after Holly makes a miraculous recovery, Chrissie is convinced it’s just a coincidence. After all, who can really control the laws of life and death?

But as the dangers to her family escalate and her chosen substitutes begin to disappear, Chrissie finds herself in an underworld of hidden laboratories and secretive doctors. And the consequences of playing by their rules are far deadlier than she ever imagined…

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

Chrissie is a young woman who has never really recovered from the trauma of losing her mother, especially since she was not at her side when she died - something that she blames her father for, causing a rift between them that has made them estranged from each other for many years.

With the birth of her daughter Holly, Chrissie's unresolved grief triggers post-natal depression, and although Holly is now nursery age Chrissie has not been able to get her life back on track since. She spends her days working from home sporadically as a graphic artist when Holly is at nursery, rarely leaving the house, and her relationship with her husband is strained - thank goodness for her best friend Wendy, who takes charge of Holly during the week and is like another member of the family.

Chrissie's fears make her worry about the safety of her family more than most, so when a stranger called Joseph turns up at her door promising her the opportunity to ensure that her loved ones need never come to harm she is intrigued. Although she initially thinks this must be a scam, she is eventually persuaded to humour the mysterious Joseph by agreeing to accept his offer and nominates three loved ones to be protected under the scheme - there is only one catch... she must also nominate three other people to die in their place. Assured that no one really has the power over life and death, she thinks nothing more about what she has agreed to. 

When Wendy is badly injured in a car accident and the substitute Chrissie nominated dies of a heart attack, she puts it down to co-incidence. However, when Holly also becomes unwell and miraculously recovers too, she has no choice but to accept that everything she has agreed to is very real. Chrissie has become embroiled in something far bigger and more dangerous than she knows. Someone connected with the scheme is out for revenge and Chrissie's family are the target for his twisted schemes. As she tries to get to the bottom of what is going on, she uncovers a world of underground laboratories and murky government experiments that connect to her own past. What is really going on here?

I thoroughly enjoyed Susi Holliday's last book, The Last Resort (review HERE) with its compelling themes around the dark side of technology and social media, so I was very pleased to find this book is based upon another intriguing sci-fi premise - the notion that you can nominate another person to die in the place of a loved one.

The story plays out in three plotlines that weave together: the first introduces us to Chrissie and her family; the second brings in the mysterious Joseph with his complicated agenda; and the final storyline delves into the past with details of a secret scientific project that Chrissie's father was involved in. As you move back and forth between the points of view of Chrissie and Joseph in the present, and Chrissie's father in the past, you come to understand the hows, whys and wherefores  - and all three threads collide at the end of the book in a nightmarish sci-fi climax

Chrissie's domestic dramas are a bit predictable, and even though I can see where Holliday was going with this side of the story, I would have preferred a bit less of the relationship wrangling and more of a hard-edged sci-fi thriller, because those parts of the tale are very exciting indeed. The underlying concept of substituting one life for another is darkly entertaining, and Holliday clearly has a lot of fun with the mystery, science and revenge elements of the story, bringing in chilling themes around batty boffins who are tempted to tread where they really should not go, sinister government agencies consumed with power, and callous betrayals of friendship, which reminded me very much of the thrillers of Michael Crichton - and there is a lovely undercurrent of Stephen King at times too. These parts of the tale are tense and really gripping, and despite the slower domestic elements, do make the book quite a page-turner once it gets going.

This is a quick and fun read that will set your mind thinking, and I am looking forward to seeing where Holliday's imagination takes her next.

Substitute is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats from your favourite book retailer. 

Thank you to Susi Holliday for sending me an ecopy of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author:

Susi Holliday grew up near Edinburgh and worked in the pharmaceutical industry for many years before she started writing. A life-long fan of crime and horror, her short stories have been published in various places, and she was shortlisted for the inaugural CWA Margery Allingham Prize. She is the bestselling author of eight novels and a novella, several of them written as SJI Holliday. Along with three other female authors, she provides coaching for new crime writers. 

Kings Of A Dead World by Jamie Mollart

 

Kings of a Dead World by Jamie Mollart.

Published 10th June 2021 by Sandstone Press.

From the cover of the book:

The Earth's resources are dwindling. The solution is the Sleep.

Inside a hibernating city, Ben struggles with his limited waking time and the disease stealing his wife from him. Watching over the sleepers, lonely Peruzzi craves the family he never knew.

Everywhere, dissatisfaction is growing.

The city is about to wake.

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

This is the kind of book with a short and sweet blurb that gives you no real idea of the delights that await within its pages!

The story unveils its pattern in the first few chapters, introducing us to a chilling dystopian future.  To set the ball rolling we meet Ben and Rose in a chapter that tells us the the city is AWAKE: as they arise from their sleep pods and go about their unenviable existence, living hand to mouth in their tiny apartment. The next chapter introduces us to Peruzzi, the Janitor of the city, who overlooks his charges from on high in his luxury compound, with the help of his virtual assistant Ripley - the city is now SLEEPING and he has tasks to perform to ensure the city may wake again. 

The first thing you ask yourself is why? And the answer is an intriguing one, for this is a future where the impact of climate change has hit hard and there is simply not enough food or fuel to support the population. The solution arrived at lies in alternating periods of sleep and awake times, each for a duration of three months at a time, staggering the periods that cities are awake the world over. Participation is compulsory, and sleep patterns are controlled via the chips inserted in each person's head, which can incidentally also control behaviour by putting trouble makers to sleep during waking periods should they prove to be fractious. Peruzzi is the man in charge of this city, and although he has never set foot in its streets, he takes his responsibilities seriously, even if he is not always happy about it.

Interestingly, this is a book that delves into the how of the matter too, because Mollart also takes us back in time to the period BEFORE when the legacy of environmental changes that have been left unchecked can no longer be ignored. Society is breaking down and while governments wrangle in their ivory towers about possible strategies for the future, unrest among the masses is rife. This part of the story is told through the eyes of a member of a revolutionary party fighting for change, as the dynamic between its members warps, and their methods become increasingly more violent in pursuit of their aims. It's not immediately obvious how this person and their comrades fit into what follows, but as their part of the tale interweaves with the present goings in the city as it swings between AWAKE and SLEEPING time, all becomes clear. 

This is a tale full of complex and circular themes about environment, control, society and the human condition. As events in the present spin out of control, Ben is forced to confront some home truths and Peruzzi comes to learn that all is not quite as he has been told about the world he and his charges are living in. Mollart spins his threads with finely judged precision, upping the tempo as events across the board play out, until they all collide in a pitch perfect ending that has scope for a sequel that I really, really want to read!

There is way too much excellence on show here for me to delve into a brief review, but this is a cracking tale that mixes elements of classic sci-fi with bang up to date themes. I really enjoyed the way Mollart brings something fresh and deeply affecting to this tale by turning the political preoccupations that drove the best sci-fi writers of the past into fears about environmental catastrophe, as this makes this book so relevant for a modern audience. Some of the scenes depicted in this book are visions of a future so close you can almost taste it, and if that doesn't scare the bejesus out of you then you are made of stronger stuff than I am. 

This is one of the most exciting and thought provoking sci-fi reads I have read in a very long time. It's intelligently written by someone who clearly knows how to entertain and raise awareness at the same time, and it is full of the most delicious nods to sci-fi gems that made me chuckle at many points in the story. But this is also a very human tale; the relationship between Ben and Rose is loving and tender, and heartbreakingly sad for reasons you will have to read this stonking book to find out about yourself, and Peruzzi's search for connection is profoundly moving. The way the storylines all touch at the end of the book is a delight too.

I am fully aware that my words have come no where close to telling you how brilliant this book really is, but take my word for it, from the winning title on the cover to the very last page, this is gold!

Kings of a Dead World is available to buy now in hardback, ebook and audio formats, from our favourite book retailer. 

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

About the author:

Jamie Mollart runs his own advertising company, and has won awards for marketing. Over the years he has been widely published in magazines, been a guest on some well-respected podcasts and blogs, and Patrick Neate called him 'quite a writer' on the Book Slam podcast. He is married and lives in Leicestershire with his family.

He's a member of the newly launched Climate Fiction Writers League, a group of global authors all raising awareness about climate change through their writing.

His debut novel, The Zoo, was on the Amazon Rising Stars 2015 list.

Kings of a Dead World is his second novel.

Bright Lies (Audio Book) by A.A. Abbott

 

Bright Lies (Audio Book) by A.A. Abbott.

Released 2nd August 2021 by Perfect City Press.

Narrated by Eilidh Beaton.

From the cover:

She thought she had the perfect stepfather. So why is she running for her life?

Emily longs to be an artist. So she’s thrilled when her famous and talented stepfather offers to act as her mentor. But when his teachings take a darker turn, she flees his fancy home.

Bad boy Jack has made good as a hot DJ. Then he sees thugs attack a rough sleeper, and shocking memories spur him to her rescue. He doesn’t know she’s only 15 and running from a deadly predator.

Emily’s hopes of safety are crushed when her stepfather hunts her down. Now Jack faces the hardest choice of all. If he protects Emily from the fiend who’s stolen her childhood, he’ll kiss good-bye to his future.

What would you sacrifice to save a life?

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

Emily lives with her single mother in a little cottage on the outskirts of Bath. Their lives may be a struggle sometimes, but she is happy, has good friends, and dreams of one day becoming an artist. Their lives take an unexpected turn when they attend an art show for the talented and swoonable artist David, who seems to take an instant shine to Emily's mother. A whirlwind romance ensues, and it is not long before wedding bells are on the horizon.

After the wedding, Emily and her mother find themselves living a very different sort of life in a big house, with everything they have ever wanted. Emily is even given the chance to attend a private school which promises to nurture her artistic abilities - something she is very excited about, despite the need to leave her friends behind.

At first, David seems the perfect husband and step-father, setting Emily's mother up in her own floristry business, and assisting Emily with her homework, helping her develop her artistic skills, and even being a shoulder for her to cry on as she struggles with life at her new school- but it becomes clear that David is not quite the man he appears to be. His motives are far from pure, and his plans for Emily are a long way away from those of a caring parent. Emily is forced to grow up fast, but she truly believes David loves her, and they will spend their lives together once she is old enough for their secret relationship to be declared to the world. However, as time passes, Emily comes to learn that she is being used by David, and she takes the difficult decision to run away from home to escape his attentions.

The other half of this story tells the tale of Jack. Jack is a young man who has had a difficult upbringing through no fault of his own, and often gets into trouble by using his fists a bit too freely. After the fallout from a violent altercation at a party in Bristol, Jack becomes homeless, taking odd jobs and working at festivals, until he finally ends up in Birmingham where he lands himself a job as an upcoming DJ in a club. For once, his future is looking bright, but fate has another twist in store for him when he intervenes to protect a young rough-sleeper from being attacked.

This rough-sleeper is Emily and Jack takes her under his wing, showing her the ropes of living on the fringes as a squatter and casual worker - he has no idea that she is only 15 and on the run from her sleazy step-father, and Emily keeps her secrets close. Love and trust begin to blossom between them, with the promise of safety and security, but it is only a matter of time before cruel destiny catches up with Emily and Jack is forced to make a choice - will he sacrifice his own future to save Emily's?

Bright Lies is a compelling and emotional story that will tie you in knots. Both Emily and Jack's tales are those of vulnerable young people who have been taken advantage of by those who should have known better, and what happens to them is completely heart breaking. 

As Emily's story plays out, transforming her from a normal, innocent young girl into a troubled teenager a gut-wrenching tension builds. From quite early on you are aware that David's behaviour is predatory, but Emily is too naive and trusting to understand where his attentions are leading, and his consummate charm and accomplished lies keep everyone in the dark, including Emily's mother. Emily becomes consumed by her belief that he loves her, and it makes you sick to your stomach. Jack's story unveils rather differently and although you are aware from the beginning that his background has been troubled, and he can be triggered into violence, it is not until much later in the book that you understand exactly what makes him tick - and how his past has shaped him. At so many points you ache to help them both, as you become completely invested in their stories. Abbott manages to get right inside the heads of both teenagers, and you feel every ounce of their hopes, dreams and conflicted feelings. I really enjoyed the slow burn build up to the point where their stories must collide, and when they do, the suspense becomes almost unbearable as you wait for the inevitable climax that will determine the course of their lives.

I must admit I did approach this audiobook with some trepidation, as it revolves around some very distressing themes, but A.A. Abbott handles the subjects of domestic violence, child abuse and sexual grooming sensitively. You are in no doubt about what is happening at any point in the story, but rather than dwell on the distressing details of the abuse itself Abbott keeps the worst of it in the wings. I have to say that she rather cleverly treats you to a masterclass in how sexual predators like David operate - the building of trust, the gradual isolation, the flattery and attention, and the web of lies and deceit that can trap the innocent. It's upsetting enough, but remains at a level that lets you concentrate on how the story unfurls rather than be overwhelmed in the telling of it. 

I was really impressed with the narration of this book by Eilidh Beaton - this is the second book I have listened to voiced by her and she is rapidly becoming one of my favourite narrators. She handles all the accents here beautifully, and infuses the diverse cast of players with so much character. I was completely creeped out by her performance as David - the smooth, persuasive tone of voice she conjures up for him is unsettling perfection!

This story completely hooked me from the start to the emotional ending. It's powerful, worryingly believable and one that will stay with you! 

Bright Lies is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats from your favourite book retailer. 

Thank you to A.A. Abbott for allowing me to listen to this story in return for an honest review, and to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

British crime thriller writer A.A. Abbott (also known as Helen Blenkinsop) loves to escape with an exciting and emotional read, and that’s what she aims to write too. Based in Bristol, she’s also lived and worked in London and Birmingham. All three cities feature in her pacy suspense thrillers. Her latest psychological thriller, Bright Lies, begins in North Somerset with a posh art exhibition in Bath. Young Emily meets the man who will change her life and cause her to run away to a squat in Birmingham, work in a nightclub and get further entangled in a web of lies. To write Bright Lies, Helen has had advice from thirty beta readers on subjects as varied as police procedure, drug abuse, grooming, art, music, DJing and clubbing. She’s grateful to them and to her editor, Katharine D’Souza, for making huge improvements to the story.

Helen’s earlier 5 book Trail series is a lighter read focused on a vodka business. Snow Mountain is a premium vodka made in the former Soviet Union, and its owners have blood on their hands. The saga follows the fortunes of two families running the business and what happens when they fall out with each other and with a London gangster. Glamorous heroine Kat is the girl readers love to hate at the beginning of the series, but by the last book, she has won them over. Book research for the series included prison life, hotel research and vodka. Helen especially enjoyed a tour and tasting with the helpful folk at the Chase Distillery in Herefordshire.

Like 10% of us, many of Helen’s family are dyslexic. While she is not, she wants her books to be enjoyed by readers with dyslexia and visual impairment too. She publishes her thrillers in a Large Print dyslexia-friendly edition as well as the standard paperback and Kindle versions. (You can also adjust the font on your Kindle to suit your needs.) Audiobooks are definitely on the cards.

Helen likes speaking to book groups, business networks and social circles, and reading thrillers and short stories at live fiction events and on Zoom. If you're a book blogger, litfest organiser, reviewer or simply adore books, she’d love to hear from you.

Helen is a member of the Alliance of Independent Authors, Bristol Fiction Writers' Group, and Birmingham's New Street Authors.

Find out more and get a free e-book of short stories at https://aaabbott.co.uk/

Cheltenham Literature Festival 

This October, Cheltenham Literature Festival returns for an international literary celebration like no other. Showcasing literary legends, fresh new voices and the biggest books of the year, there is something on offer for everyone: from stars of the stage and screen to incisive political debate, the programme spans history, food, travel, poetry and spoken word, art, sport, faith, philosophy, fashion, psychology, science, nature, business and much more.

As part of the festival, I will be reading and reviewing one of the books being showcased, but alas my book has not arrived yet. So, in the meantime it is my pleasure to bring you some details about the festival and how you can access some of the fabulous events on offer!

About the festival:

Cheltenham Literature Festival is the world’s first literature festival, leading the way in celebrating the written and spoken word, presenting the best new voices in fiction and poetry alongside literary greats and high-profile speakers, while inspiring over 9,000 school children with a love of books through its Literature for Schools programme. 

Cheltenham Literature Festival is part of Cheltenham Festivals – a charity delivering a pioneering year-round educational programme culminating in four internationally-acclaimed Jazz, Science, Music and Literature Festivals. Cheltenham Festivals creates experiences that bring joy, spark curiosity, connect communities and inspire change.

The Festival has an accompanying year-round programme of education and talent development outreach including its flagship Reading Teachers = Reading Pupils project which has rolled out nationally, enabling teachers and their pupils to rediscover the joy of reading. The other programmes include: the award-winning Beyond Words, a creative writing project working with vulnerable young people unable to access mainstream education in Gloucestershire, Words That Burn, a national human rights poetry project created in partnership with Amnesty International and Write Now, a unique mentoring, workshop and networking project that nurtures young people’s creative writing abilities.

Festival Theme: Read the World

2021 sees the launch of Read the World, a major new three-year theme for the Times and The Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival.

Selecting the books that help us explore and understand the world and bringing together a cohort of internationally renowned speakers and thinkers, the Festival is your passport to a world of ideas. Bringing together world-leading names and fresh new voices we will be exploring the key issues of the day from a range of different perspectives and understanding more about cultural norms from around the globe.

As the world’s first-ever literature festival (est. 1949) we sit at the heart of a dynamic global network of book festivals, as well as benefitting from rich partnerships with universities, think tanks and a range of cultural partners across the globe Through these connections we will bring you one of our most diverse line-ups to date and continue to lead the way in producing world-class programmes that push the envelope of what literature festivals can do, and who they are for.

Building on the success of last year’s Festival, which combined digital events and live audiences, we will be beaming in talent from across the globe and reaching digital audiences across the world.

The programme for live events can be found HERE and the digital programme HERE.

Please check out the tour banners below for all the wonderful bloggers taking part on this tour!

Cheltenham Literature Festival details provided courtesy of  CheltenhamLitFest.

The Cove (Audio Book) by L.J. Ross

 

The Cove (Audio Book0 by L.J. Ross.

Released 31st August 2021 by Audible Studios.

Narrated by Clare Corbett.

From the cover:

The perfect escape....

Gabrielle Adams has it all – brains, beauty, a handsome fiancé and a dream job in publishing.

Until, one day, everything changes.

The ‘Underground Killer’ takes his victims when they least expect it: standing on the edge of a busy Tube platform, as they wait for a train to arrive through the murky underground tunnels of London.

Gabrielle soon learns that being a survivor is harder than being a victim and she struggles to return to her old life. Desperate to break free from endless nightmares, she snatches up an opportunity to run a tiny bookshop in a picturesque cove in rural Cornwall.

She thinks she’s found the perfect escape, but has she swapped one nightmare for another?

Suspense and mystery are peppered with romance and humour in this fast-paced thriller, set amidst the spectacular Cornish landscape.

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

Gabrielle Adams is a woman who seems to have it all - she's smart, attractive, has a prestigious job in publishing, and is engaged to a handsome, upcoming literary agent. Her future seems bright, but a few clouds do seem to be drifting on the horizon when we first meet her at her publishing house's Christmas party, hinting that perhaps not all is quite as rosy as it seems. Everything is suddenly brought into sharp focus by what happens after she leaves the party and heads to catch the tube home, for as Gabrielle waits on the platform, somewhat jittery about standing there alone at night after reading all about the killer stalking the tube lines, an unknown assailant pushes her into the path of an oncoming train.

Lucky to survive this attack, which appears to have marked her as the latest victim of the 'Underground Killer', we meet up with Gabi six months later. Her life has been turned upside down, and the PTSD that plagues her after that fateful night has made her lose all confidence in herself. She has resigned from her job, feeling unable to work in a stressful environment any more, and her relationship with her fiancé has broken down. Gabi needs a new start and a change of both pace and location, so when she sees a job advertisement for a manager of a little bookshop in a gorgeous Cornish cove she decides takes the plunge (pardon the pun!).

Life in Carnance is a world away from the busy London scene she has left behind, but her fears and memories still haunt her and she does her best to hide them from her new neighbours. Gradually, she starts to settle into a different way of life, putting her past into perspective, making friends and even beginning a tentative romance, but her world is rocked once more when she witnesses a murder one stormy night. Is this tiny Cornish community really the haven she was looking for, or does danger still stalk her?

The Cove is the first in a new series of Summer Suspense Mysteries from crime author L.J. Ross and it delivers on every front. Ross brings in lovely elements of mystery, thriller, domestic drama and romance in the telling of Gabi's story, weaving in threads of trauma, mental health, secrets, betrayal and revenge that kept me transfixed, building first-class tension and dropping some great WTF moments along the way.

The move in location from gritty London to picturesque Cornwall works so well, lulling you into a false sense of security with the feeling that the story is going to play out as a gentle heart-warming tale of becoming whole again, until the intense small-town vibes kick-in. Then we are off with the twists, turns and tension of a classy murder-mystery that packs in enough red-herrings to make even Christie proud. Ross also uses the wilder side of Cornwall to perfection in ramping up the unsettling atmosphere, whipping up the stormy weather just as events start to spiral out of control.

As in all the best murder-mysteries, I suspected practically everyone of being guilty of dark deeds until the puzzle pieces all slotted into place, which I always find very entertaining, and there is a nicely conceived surprise along the way that I really did not see coming. Ross uses the bookish themes in the story as really interesting plot devices too. I love it when you find yourself getting so caught up in an audio book that you have to sit down and let the narrator's voice wash over you, and this is one of those stories. I should add here that the move in location and mix of characters does mean there are a lot of accents for a narrator to tackle here, but Clare Corbett pulls them all off with aplomb, allowing you to fully concentrate on the story which is so important in an audio book.

As my first introduction to the books of L.J. Ross this has been a winner. I very much enjoyed the way she combined great characters, locations and storylines to keep my interest throughout, and am looking forward to delving into more of her books in the future.

The Cove is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats from you favourite book retailer.

Thank you to L.J. Ross and The Book Club Audible Listeners Facebook group for providing me with an audio version of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author:

LJ Ross is an international bestselling author, best known for creating atmospheric mystery and thriller novels, including the DCI Ryan series of Northumbrian murder mysteries which have sold over 6 million copies worldwide.

Her debut, Holy Island, was released in January 2015 and reached number one in the Amazon UK and Australian charts. Since then, she has released a further twenty novels, all of which have been top three global bestsellers and seventeen of which have been UK #1 bestsellers. Louise has garnered an army of loyal readers through her storytelling and, thanks to them, several of her books reached the coveted #1 spot whilst only available to pre-order ahead of release. Her eleventh novel, The Infirmary, is a prequel story and is also available as a major Audible Originals audio-drama starring Tom Bateman, Kevin Whately, Bertie Carvel, Hermione Norris and Alun Armstrong.

In addition to her DCI Ryan series, Louise has created a new series of thriller novels based around the central character of ‘Dr Alexander Gregory’, whose work as a psychological profiler takes him around the world. The first three books (Impostor, Hysteria and Bedlam) were #1 bestsellers and were narrated in audio by the actors Hugh Dancy (Impostor & Hysteria) and Richard Armitage (Bedlam). She is also writing several standalone romantic suspense novels featuring strong female protagonists which will be available in 2021.

The novels are available to purchase in e-book, paperback and audiobook formats on the Amazon store, as well as in libraries and book shops around the world.

Louise was born in Northumberland, England. She studied undergraduate and postgraduate Law at King’s College, University of London and then abroad in Paris and Florence. She spent much of her working life in London, where she was a lawyer for a number of years until taking the decision to change career and pursue her dream to write. Now, she writes full-time and lives with her husband and son in Northumberland, where she enjoys reading all manner of books, travelling and spending time with family and friends.

Louise is a keen philanthropist, and is pleased to have supported numerous non-profit programmes in addition to founding several of her own, including the Lindisfarne Reading Challenge and the Lindisfarne Prize for Debut Crime Fiction.

The Cove is the first book in her new Summer Suspense Mysteries series.

To All The Living by Monica Felton

 

To All The Living by Monica Felton.

Published 23rd September 2021 by The Imperial War Museums as part of their Wartime Classics series. First published in 1945.

From the cover:

In January 1941 Griselda Green arrives at Blimpton, a place ‘so far from anywhere as to be, for all practical purposes, nowhere.’

Monica Felton’s 1945 novel gives a lively account of the experiences of a group of men and women working in a munitions factory during the Second World War. 

Wide-ranging in the themes it touches on, including class, sexism, socialism, fear of communism, workers’ rights, antisemitism, and xenophobia, the novel gives a vivid portrayal of factory life and details the challenges, triumphs and tragedies of a diverse list of characters. 

Adding another crucial female voice to the Wartime Classics series, To All the Living provides a fascinating insight into a vital aspect of Britain’s home front.

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

To All The Living is the newest addition to the fascinating Wartime Classics series from the Imperial War Museums, which introduces forgotten novels from WWII to a modern audience. The women writers of the era have been especially overlooked, so it is great to see that this one is written by the female author Monica Felton.

In Felton's book we get a glimpse of the lives of the men and women working in a sprawling munitions factory in the remote fictional town of Blimpton, in 1941. Her examination of their experience supporting the war effort on the home front is comprehensive, covering a swathe of themes on both personal and political fronts, that combine bureaucracy, ideology, the practical difficulties of managing and staffing such an enterprise, and some very intimate dramas from a substantial cast of characters from all walks of life. This makes the novel somewhat sweeping and as rambling as the very nature of the munitions factory itself, and there is more than enough to hold the attention of anyone intrigued by the nitty gritty of life during wartime.

There is so much detail here about how the factories supplying the mechanics of war operated. This was repetitive and tiring work, for which the workers were paid very little, and Felton shows exactly why such factories found it hard to recruit and retain the staff they needed to run a smooth operation - it also shines a light on exactly why the decision was taken in December 1941 to conscript women to contribute to the war effort.

For all the intriguing factual information Felton lays out here, it is the human element of the book that is the most compelling. She delves deep into the lives of the ordinary people who find themselves rubbing shoulders with those that they would otherwise never have met, and engaging in the kind of work that would have been completely alien to them in peace time. The contrast in education, class, political views and social conventions among our cast of players is really brought to the fore as so many people from all over the British Isles are thrown together in Blimpton, uniting some of them with a sense of community and kindness, and driving others apart with simmering tensions and seemingly unavoidable clashes. Blimpton becomes a microcosm for the world at large, and discrimination and fear guide the actions of more than a few of its residents. Much of this is very telling about Felton's own wartime experiences, her ideological leanings, and her views of social mobility.

This is a book that focusses on both men and women, but for me it is the women who are the most interesting in this novel. In particular, you get a real sense of the sadness of those parted from their loved ones, and the grief of the women who have lost husbands or sweethearts and have found themselves torn away from the future they envisioned. Their pressing need to find a way to support themselves is poignantly tangible, and it is desperation that has brought many of them to Blimpton. There is plenty of gritty reality in these pages, and an atmosphere that reflects the despondency of a country beset with shortages and little in the way of good news, but there is also friendship, camaraderie, romance, humour, and a real sense of bloody-minded determination too. 

I think it is fair to say that this is a book that takes a little while to get your head around as the style is very much of its time, the themes are diverse, and there are a lot of characters to keep track of (helpfully there is a list of characters at the beginning for you to refer to if needed). There are also references to more than a few political events and faces that would have been familiar to readers when this book was published, but are not well known to audiences today, which sometimes means Felton's more sardonic allusions get a bit lost - especially the in-jokes between characters.

However, this is a story that it is really worth the effort, as I found myself becoming rather fond of some of the characters and very invested in their lives, and the wealth of social history packed into the telling of their stories is incredible. This is a story of the home front as you have never seen it before, and it will make you think about aspects of the Second World War in whole new way.

To All the Living is available to buy now in paperback from your favourite book retailer.

Many thanks to the Imperial War Museums for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Monica Felton (1906–1970) was a feminist, socialist, peace activist and a pioneering proponent of town planning. During the Second World War she served in the Ministry of Supply, on which her publications Civilian Supplies in Wartime Britain and her novel To All the Living are based. 

In later life Felton became something of a pariah after taking an unauthorised trip to North Korea in 1951. On her return from this trip she accused American troops of atrocities and British complicity, and there was a media and establishment backlash. As a result, Felton became increasingly isolated in Britain and moved to India, where she died in 1970.