The Descent (The Forcing Book Two) by Paul E. Hardisty

 

The Descent (The Forcing Book Two) by Paul E. Hardisty.

Published 29th February 2024 by Orenda Books.

From the cover of the book: 

Kweku Ashworth is a child of the cataclysm, born on a sailboat to parents fleeing the devastation in search for a refuge in the Southern Ocean. Growing up in a world forever changed, his only connection to the events that set the planet on its course to disaster were the stories his step-father, long-dead, recorded in his manuscript, The Forcing.

But there are huge gaps in the story that his mother, still alive but old and frail, steadfastly refuses to speak of, even thirty years later. When he discovers evidence that his mother has tried to cover up the truth, and then stumbles across an account by someone close to the men who forced the globe into a climate catastrophe, he knows that it is time to find out for himself.

Determined to learn what really happened during his mother's escape from the concentration camp to which she and Kweku's father were banished, and their subsequent journey halfway around the world, Kweku and his young family set out on a perilous voyage across a devastated planet. What they find will challenge not only their faith in humanity, but their ability to stay alive.

The Descent is the devastating, nerve-shattering prequel to the critically acclaimed thriller The Forcing, a story of survival, hope, and the power of the human spirit in a world torn apart by climate change.

***********

Two years after the death of his step-father, Teach, Kweku Ashworth rereads the manuscript he left behind, telling what he knew of The Forcing that brought the planet to its knees through an unstoppable climate emergency. Kweku knows the importance of these stories in recording the events that led his family to travel half-way across the world to their refuge in Australia, and feels it is time for this knowledge to be spread to other survivors on this devastated planet.

Kweku begins broadcasting Teach's words on a short-wave radio, hoping that someone out there will hear them. Unexpectedly, he receives a response from a woman calling herself Sparkplug with her own shocking revelations about how The Forcing was managed, and her complicity in the planet's descent into chaos. She also feels it is time for her story, The Descent, to be told.

As Kweku begins to put together more pieces of the puzzle about how ruthless corporations and corrupt politicians turned their back on the truth to line their pockets, he realises that there are gaps in Teach's stories that need to be filled - gaps that his mother is reluctant to explain. But before he can understand why his parents kept secrets from him, tragedy comes to his family's haven in the Southern Ocean. It is time for Kweku and his own young family to go on a dangerous quest for the truth, and what they discover will not only reveal the full impact of the past, but also the reality of the world they are now living in.

Following on from Paul E. Hardisty's incredible climate emergency thriller, The Forcing, which should absolutely be required reading for all, The Descent revisits the same timely themes in a way which is brilliantly both prequel and sequel to the first book. You do have to have read The Forcing before reading The Descent - you can thank me later for the way it will open your eyes to what is going on right now around the world.

The story unfurls in two cracking storylines - one in the near future following Kweku and his family's fight to survive, and the other through Sparkplug's revelations about the horrific events that led to the collapse of society. Kweku's part in the novel builds beautifully on Hardisty's writing in the earlier book to give you a disturbing wider view of the way people are scratching together an existence in a world that has changed for ever, and plays out in a series of edge-of-your seat scenarios that make for a thrilling dystopian nightmare all of their own. But the real magic comes from the way Sparkplug's narration gradually completes the tale of how The Forcing was not only managed, but how its instigators planned to ride out the storm while engineering the destruction of the society that raised them as gods. Both storylines feed into each other with masterful storytelling, with deliciously contrived links between the two in terms of characters and history, until they collide in explosive style.

Both threads of this tale are full of unsettling acts and intent. Kweku's side of the novel carries with it the biggest emotional punch, exploring poignant themes of family, love, and humanity. However, as a huge fan of the prescient nature of the first book, for me, it is Sparkplug's side of the novel that is the most chilling, and the one which carries with the most significance in guiding us through the difficult times ahead. I do not think it is any mistake on Hardisty's part that Sparkplug's narration begins with a climate emergency conference in 2024, where attempts to educate are cynically subverted by greed. Hardisty almost offers a blueprint of how repudiation can lead to the most horrific of futures, with sharp insight into the insidious tactics that can be employed to distract from the truth. Some of the most upsetting scenes in this story are those which describe the sordid veracity of obscene consumerism while the planet burns, and those where callous acts lead to slaughter in pursuit of a fast buck - which feel all too real.

While this has a difference in tone to the first book, with two threads that are equally pacy, it is every bit as terrifying and awareness-raising. There are lessons to be learned here: ways to act that still offer us hope - and with a US presidential election on the horizon that could be potentially disastrous should a certain figure return to the Oval Office, I have my fingers crossed that more people will take notice of them. Another must-read book from Paul E. Hardisty!

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

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

About the author:

Canadian Paul E Hardisty has spent 25 years working all over the world as an engineer, hydrologist and environmental scientist. He has roughnecked on oil rigs in Texas, explored for gold in the Arctic, mapped geology in Eastern Turkey (where he was befriended by PKK rebels), and rehabilitated water wells in the wilds of Africa. He was in Ethiopia in 1991 as the Mengistu regime fell, and was bumped from one of the last flights out of Addis Ababa by bureaucrats and their families fleeing the rebels. In 1993 he survived a bomb blast in a café in Sana’a. 

Paul is a university professor and CEO of the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS). 

The first four novels in his Claymore Straker series, The Abrupt Physics of Dying, The Evolution of Fear, Reconciliation for the Dead and Absolution all received great critical acclaim and The Abrupt Physics of Dying was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger and Telegraph Thriller of the Year. The Forcing (2023) was a SciFi Now Book of the Month, with The Descent out in 2024.

Paul is a sailor, a private pilot, keen outdoorsman, and lives in Western Australia.

The Trials Of Lila Dalton by L.J. Shepherd

 

The Trials of Lila Dalton by L.J. Shepherd.

Published 1st February by Pushkin Vertigo.

From the cover of the book:

You are standing in the middle of a courtroom.

The judge, jury and prosecution team are waiting for you to speak.

But you have no idea who you are.

Lila Dalton finds herself the lead defence for a man accused of a terrible crime, his fate in her hands. She doesn’t know how she got there, but is surprised to discover that she possesses legal knowledge, and that everyone else seems to know who she is.

Outside the courtroom, things are even more unnerving: the courthouse is on a peculiar island where the locals are hostile, threats are slipped beneath her door, and her phone calls are tapped. Hints from strange sources suggest that someone from her forgotten past is in very real danger ― but are the threats genuine, or a warning from her missing memories?

As the trial progresses, Lila must decide who and what she can trust ― and whether that includes herself...

***********

Lila Dalton finds herself standing in a courtroom at the beginning of a trial into the alleged crimes of a mass murderer. The judge, jury, and prosecuting counsel all stand ready, and the accused man stares out blankly from the dock. The courtroom waits for the first words of the defending counsel... the problem is that Lila is the barrister appointed for the defence, and she has no memory of her life before this moment, including any details of the case.

In flashes, Lila's knowledge of legal procedure comes back to her as she sets about preparing to fight a case that seems impossible to win. The weirdness of her situation, bizarre interruptions, and the disorienting memories of a blue-eyed man that keep plaguing her, are throwing her off her game too. 

Events only get stranger when she discovers that this courthouse is very deliberately housed on a remote island in the Atlantic, from which there seems to be no escape, and threatening messages keep coming her way telling her something very bad will happen to someone close to her if she does not manage to get her client acquitted. What is really happening here, and who can she trust - if anyone?

The Trials of Lila Dalton is not your normal legal thriller. Instead, debut author, Human Rights barrister L.J. Shepherd, uses her own experience of defending high-profile cases to create a mind-bending, twisty novel that thrums with unsettling, claustrophobic vibes in a Black Mirror vein - and like the best of the speculative stories that the Black Mirror series portrays, this book also explores some very thought-provoking themes.

The story unfurls in the first person through Lila's eyes, which works beautifully in this menacing context. You are confined to viewing the small cast of characters, from her legal colleagues to the oft hostile locals, solely through the lens of Lila's perceptions of them, which shifts markedly over the course of the story. It is hard to explain quite how brilliant this novel is without spoilers, but without giving the game away, I can tell you that Shepherd cleverly subverts what you think will be a tense court-room drama into something very different, exploding the storylines with threads of manipulation, conspiracy, extremist ideologies, and anarchy, set in a surreal island location peopled with a hotch-potch of characters with shady agendas.

You do have to concentrate to keep track of the shifting memories; time jumps; jarring visions that keep Lila in an endless cycle of deja-vu; and the sheer scope of lies-within-lies that flood the story; but Shepherd's writing pulls you seductively towards the search for the truth at Lila's side. I could not look away until all the twists, turns, and cleverly contrived intricacies of the story worked themselves out in the slick, and provocative conclusion.

Shepherd does an incredible job of taking you through courtroom protocol; the work that goes into a high-profile jury trial; the impact of the evidence presented on the legal team; and how a barrister needs to think on their feet; in a way that I have rarely seen done so well. But more than that she explores a bevy of timely questions around justice; truth; and how to combat terrorism (especially domestic terrorism); and uses the story to cast a penetrating eye on the future of the kind of worryingly dystopian political policies we see coming into being in the present. Lots to ponder on here.

I think this is a book likely to divide the crowd, especially for those expecting a conventional courtroom yarn, but if you enjoy a story that sends you diving down a whole warren full of rewarding rabbit-holes in parallel with the characters, then you will love it as much as I have. I cannot wait to see what springs from the pen of L.J. Shepherd next!

The Trials of Lila Dalton is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook, and audio formats.

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

About the author:

L.J. Shepherd lives in Cardiff with her rescue cat, Coral. She studied English Literature at Christ Church, Oxford. After graduating, she decided to pursue a career in law and began practising as a barrister in 2017. Since then, Laura has prosecuted and defended in many jury trials in the Crown Court. She is now a Human Rights barrister instructed in high-profile public inquiries.

The Dancer's Promise by Olivia Horrox

 

The Dancer's Promise by Olivia Horrox.

Published 31st January 2024 by Embla Books.

From the cover of the book:

When their father loses the family fortune, and their mother locks herself away, sisters Grace and Clementine are left to raise themselves in a grand London house that is slowly falling apart around them.

Each of them is determined to one day restore their fortunes and their family name and make a promise to do just that.

Clementine dreams of being a star on stage, a celebrated ballerina who will tour the world, earning fame and fortune. She is adamant she won't put her fate into a man's hands, but take charge of it herself.

Grace, in contrast, sees security in a good marriage. Their eligible new American neighbour, with wealth, charm and looks, seems like the perfect match.

But when Clementine falls unexpectedly in love, it throws both sisters' lives into turmoil and forces each of them to ask if they are prepared to break their promise for a chance at true love...

A beautifully imagined historical novel about the bond between sisters and a changing world. Perfect for fans of Tracy Rees, Lucinda Riley and Kate Morton.

***********

London, 1936. Since the death of their father, sisters Grace and Clementine have been struggling to keep their family together. While their mother confines herself and her perpetual black moods to her bedroom, their state of genteel poverty is becoming unsustainable, despite Grace's best efforts to keep their heads above water through her job at the London Library.

Clementine dreams of becoming a ballet star, and touring the world. She hopes to win a coveted place at the Vic-Wells troupe with her dance partner and close friend, Rudi, who she has been dancing with since she was a child. She has the talent, but her stern mother's disapproval threatens to dash her hopes before they can become reality. Grace's hopes are simpler, but just as dear to her. She yearns for the contentment of marriage and motherhood, with the man she has secretly given her heart to, even though she knows her mother will never approve of her choice.

When a wealthy, charming American, August Draper, becomes their neighbour, he brings turmoil to Grace and Clementine's lives. Their mother is determined that Grace will become his wife and save the family fortunes - a situation that Grace becomes resigned to, even though she loves another. Single-minded Clementine finds herself caught between her hopes and her heart too, forced to make difficult choices she was not expecting. What does the future hold for these sisters?

The Dancer's Promise is a  story of love, loss, family, and fighting for your dreams, set in the 1930s. The mainstay of the story is the relationship between sisters Grace and Clementine, and their courage in dealing with the twists of fate that threaten to shatter the dreams each of them hold so dear.

This a slow-burn, coming-of-age story, told from the point of view of younger sister Clementine, who feels the greater burden of her mother's wrath, for reasons which become clear as the story unfurls. This allows Horrox to immerse the reader in the world of the ballet dancer through Clementine's ambitions, which will thrill fans of the classic terpsichorean art. There is so much detail from behind the scenes of dance, and about the glamour of the performances on stage - especially when it comes to the fierce rivalries and the sacrifices which must be made to be a prima ballerina, and the chemistry between dance partners.

In contrast, Grace's story happens mostly off stage (if you will pardon the pun). The knowledge you glean of the emotional twists and turns that befall her, as she is caught between her dreams and her duty, mostly comes through Clementine's eyes . Much of what happens to Grace feeds into Clementine's tale, and yet we never really see into her heart and mind, which I thought was a shame. There were some really interesting social history elements of Grace's storyline that Horrox could have explored to broaden the appeal of the novel for readers less engaged with ballet too.

My favourite parts of this story are those which delve into the bond between the sisters; and into the historical setting, which Horrox does a nice job to brings alive with her evocative writing. This was a time of great change for women, and I enjoyed how she touches on shifting attitudes through her female characters, although this is essentially a historical romance rather than a feminist story. In many ways, the feel of this book reminds me of a grown-up version of Noel Streatfeild's ballet stories, which I found quite nostalgic - definitely worth your time if you grew up reading that series, and enjoy a well- woven, gentle historical romance.

The Dancer's Promise is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats.

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

About the author:

Olivia Horrox studied English Literature and Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, and wrote her dissertation on post-WW1 societal changes in The Great Gatsby which has inspired her own writing.

 She lives in London with her husband and a very cantankerous cat called Coco. 

 January 2024 Reading Round-Up

2024 is already shaping up to be a year of fabulous reads!

January has kicked off with fourteen scorchers. You can find my reviews by clicking on each of the pictures below.

The Dancer by Oskar Gudmundsson

One of the Good Guys by Araminta Hall

The Library of Heartbeats by Laura Imai Messina

The Guests by Agnes Ravatn

Deadly Deceit by Mari Hannah

Monument to Murder by Mari Hannah

The Knowing by Emma Hinds

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

Halfway House by Helen Fitzgerald

Moscow X by David McCloskey

Love Letters on Hazel Lane by Jennifer Page

First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston

The Happiest Ever After by Milly Johnson

In the Blink of an Eye by Jo Callaghan

More fabulous books coming up in February!

If you like ny photos, why not head over to Instagram for more?

You can find me at @brownflopsy

In The Blink Of An Eye by Jo Callaghan

 

In the Blink of an Eye by Jo Callaghan.

Published in paperback 4th January 2024 by Simon and Schuster.

From the cover of the book:

In the UK, someone is reported missing every 90 seconds.
Just gone. Vanished. In the blink of an eye.

DCS Kat Frank knows all about loss. A widowed single mother, Kat is a cop who trusts her instincts. Picked to lead a pilot programme that has her paired with AIDE (Artificially Intelligent Detective Entity) Lock, Kat's instincts come up against Lock's logic. But when the two missing person's cold cases they are reviewing suddenly become active, Lock is the only one who can help Kat when the case gets personal.

AI versus human experience.  

Logic versus instinct.

With lives on the line can the pair work together before someone else becomes another statistic?

***********

DCS Kat Frank knew it would be hard to return to work after the death of her husband, but she was not expecting the challenges to include heading up a pilot programme testing the introduction of technology intended to put her out of a job. Partnered up with AIDE (Artificially Intelligent Detective Entity) Lock, a state-of-the-art virtual detective, Frank is convinced that Lock's logic can never replace the gut instincts she has developed over her twenty-five years in the police force - and as her small team begin to look into cold case missing person files, she sees little to change her opinion.

Frank, Lock, Lock's creator Professor Okonedo, and Frank's handpicked officers, DI Hassan and DS Browne, get stuck into reviewing the cases of two missing young men, settling into a working relationship that seems fraught with difficulties - not least due to Frank and Lock's inability to concede that each of them might have something to teach each other. But when, against the odds, they uncover new information that brings these cases back to life, Frank and Lock find themselves unexpectedly on the same side - and Lock is the only person Frank can rely on when a twist of fate brings danger to her own door.

In the Blink of an Eye is an astonishingly accomplished debut novel, in a near future setting that is so real you can almost taste it. Callaghan's quite brilliant premise is to bring together two detectives whose views on what each other bring to the table could not be more different - the very human DCS Frank and the AI detective- of-the-future Lock - and let the sparks fly.

The story unfurls through two separate cases that highlight a whole parcel of preconceptions on the part of individual members of the team - including Lock. As the threads of the investigations twist and turn, the plot hinges on a series of moments that starkly contrast and compare Frank and Lock's firmly held beliefs in instinct and logic. Frank's crippling grief and her worries for her son are palpable things, central to the relationship that develops between her and Lock, but Callaghan also takes great care to fill out all her human characters through glimpses of their personal lives, to powerful effect when the threads collide in spectacular style.

This cracking crime novel thrums with emotion, especially when it comes to loss, which I think comes very much from the place Callaghan was in when she wrote it (I promise you an Acknowledgment chapter at the end which will make you cry). There are so many relatable moments, and some lovely flashes of humour too. It touches on so many issues around modern policing; tight budgets; the pitfalls and benefits of AI technology; reliance on hard statistics; how unconscious bias plays a part in our thought processes; and rooting out prejudice and racism - as well as offering a really thought provoking look at cutting edge experiments in more than one sphere. But more than anything, it is a superb exploration of what it means to be human.

My heart was in my mouth throughout this super slick, original police procedural. I absorbed it in one delicious bite, and had a little cry at the surprisingly touching ending. It has real legs to run and run as a series, and I cannot wait to read book two, Leave No Trace, which is out at the end of March. More please!

In the Blink of an Eye is available to buy now in hardcover, paperback, ebook and audio formats.

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

About the author:

Jo Callaghan works full time as a senior strategist, carrying out research into the future impact of AI and genomics on the workforce. She was a student of the Writers' Academy Course (Penguin Random House) and was longlisted for the Mslexia Novel Writing Competition and Bath Novel Competition.

 After losing her husband to cancer in 2019 when she was just forty-nine, she started writing In the Blink of an Eye, her debut crime novel, which explores learning to live with loss and what it means to be human. 

She lives with her two children in the Midlands, where she spends far too much time tweeting as @JoCallaghanKat and is currently working on further novels in the series.

The Happiest Ever After by Milly Johnson

 

The Happiest Ever After by Milly Johnson.

Published 15th February 2024 by Simon and Schuster.

From the cover of the book:

Polly Potter is surviving, not thriving. She used to love her job – until her mentor died and her new boss decided to make her life hell. She used to love her partner Chris – until he cheated on her, and now she can’t forget. The only place where her life is working is on the pages of the novel she is writing – there she can create a feistier, bolder, more successful version of herself – as the ­fictional Sabrina Anderson.

But what if it was possible to start over again? To leave everything behind, forget all that went before, and live the life you’d always dreamed of?

After a set of unforeseen circumstances, Polly ends up believing she really IS Sabrina, living at the heart of a noisy Italian family restaurant by the sea. Run by Teddy, the son of her new landlady Marielle, it’s a much-loved place, facing threat of closure as a rival restaurant moves in next door. Sabrina can’t remember her life as Polly, but she knows she is living a different life from the one she used to have.

But what if this new life could belong to her after all?

***********

Somewhere along the line, Polly Potter's life has taken a wrong turn. She used to love her job helping failing business on the way to success, until her beloved boss died and was replaced by one who constantly side-lines and belittles her. She used to love her partner Chris too, but there is no denying she is now desperately unhappy in her relationship, especially since she discovered he was having an affair. Polly's respite comes from the characters she writes in the stories she works on with her creative writing group - especially the fictional Sabrina Anderson, who has developed into a bolder and braver version of herself.

Polly has come to realise that she needs to make some changes, and the first one is to leave Chris and make a fresh start. However, after a massive shock at the venue where Polly's unpleasant sister-in-law was supposed to be renewing her vows, her exit plan goes awry. Polly ends up making an unplanned, hasty escape for the seaside town of Shoresend, where she meets with an accident... and when she awakens, her confused state leads her to believe that she really is the feisty Sabrina.

Taken in by the warm hearted Marielle Bonelli, 'Sabrina' finds herself working at the much-loved Italian restaurant owned by Marielle's son, Teddy - a family business facing closure after suffering from a dirty tricks campaign by the chain of soulless Italian restaurants that plan to open up next door. Sabrina has arrived just in time... she may not remember who she really is, but she does know a thing or two about saving businesses from her life as Polly. This could be the perfect way to pay back the people who have shown her such kindness - particularly Teddy - and work through her own issues too. Maybe Sabrina and Polly can be one and the same after all?

The story begins with a tense countdown to the renewal of vows ceremony for Polly's horrendous sister-in-law, the hilariously named Camay (which constantly reminded my of the pink soap from my childhood), in which Johnson gives you a maddening eyeful of Polly's personal and professional lives. It then unfurls through the very best kind of 'memory loss' caper from 'Sabrina's' arrival among the Bonetti family, where she proves to be the catalyst to the resolution of family dramas, and the fight to save the family restaurant business - after the required number of bumps in the road to the 'happiest ever after', of course. Hurray!

As expected, it is Johnson's female characters that steal the show, beginning with Polly's journey to be her best self as Sabrina, and taking in a choice cast of women of all ages, including Marielle's delightful friends, the Mad Cows. Through them, Johnson explores a wealth of themes around marriage, motherhood, expectation, and the joys and heartache of different kinds of families, which evoke so many emotional highs and lows - before building up to the kind of ending that makes your eyes brim over with happy tears. Johnson's sparkling wit is threaded throughout, and her fans will be delighted to see the Daily Trumpet making an appearance once more - particularly the lovely way Johnson involves them in the Polly-Sabrina story to wonderfully comic effect.

I adored this novel. Milly Johnson's stories are always full of great characters to love and loathe; the warmth of true friendship; gentle romances to swell your heart; and a delicious sense of community; while also exploring many a knotty issues around love, loss, and difficult relationships - and The Happiest Ever After, Johnson's twenty-first book, does all of this to perfection. It is the ideal, escapist antidote to a grey Winter's day. 

The Happiest Ever After is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Books and the City for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Milly Johnson was born, raised and still lives in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. A Sunday Times bestseller, she is one of the Top 10 Female Fiction authors in the UK, and has sold millions of copies of her books sold across the world. The Happiest Ever After is her twenty-first novel.

 Milly's writing highlights the importance of community spirit and the magic of kindness. Her books inspire and uplift but she packs a punch and never shies away from the hard realities of life and the complexities of relationships in her stories. Her books champion women, their strength and resilience, and celebrate love, friendship and the possibility and joy of second chances and renaissances.

First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston

 

First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston.

Published 2nd January 2024 by Headline.

From the cover of the book:

Everything she is about to tell them is a lie...

Evie Porter has everything a girl could want: a doting boyfriend, a house with a picket fence, a fun group of friends.

The only catch: Evie Porter doesn't exist.

First comes the identity. Once she's given a name and location by her employer, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it.

Then the mark: Ryan Sumner.

The last piece of the puzzle is the job. For Evie, this job feels different. Ryan has gotten under her skin and she's started to picture another kind of life for herself - one where her boss doesn't pull the strings. But Evie can't make any mistakes. Because the one thing she's worked her entire life to keep clean, the one identity she could always go back to - her real identity - just walked right into this town. A woman, who looks just like her, has stolen her name - and she wants more. As Evie's past begins to catch up with her, can she stay one step ahead to save her future?

***********

Evie Porter seems to have everything a Southern girl could want, right down to the house with a white picket fence, and the perfect boyfriend - handsome and wealthy Ryan Sumner. But things are not quite as story-book romance as they seem, for Evie Porter does not exist. She is simply the latest in a long line of fake identities Evie has adopted over the last few years, as a necessary part of the cons she engages in for her mysterious boss, Mr Smith.

Evie has no idea what Mr Smith wants from her latest mark, Ryan, as yet... but she is under no illusion that she must ensure this latest con goes as smoothly as possible, given the hash she made of her last job. Unfortunately, her judgement is becoming clouded by the fact that she has started to develop feelings for Ryan. 

Caught between an unexpected yearning to end her ghost like existence and the need to protect herself from Mr Smith's unforgiving temper, Evie feels like she is walking a tightrope over a long drop. Then something happens that threatens the one thing she has kept sacred - the true identity she one day hopes to return to. For a woman bearing Evie's real name has just walked into town pretending to be her...  and Evie knows the stakes this time are even higher than she thought.

First Lie Wins is a cracking thriller full of delicious suspense, that follows the adventures of a young confidence trickster, who marches to the beat of a dangerous master. Evie never knows where she will be sent next, or who her mark will be, but she has proven herself to be adept at the shady assignments 'Mr Smith' sends her way - until the one job that goes horribly awry, and blots her copy book.

The story unfurls with perfect pace and timing in the present and the past, as Elston weaves multiple threads around Evie's current scam and the past assignments that have led her here. It is impossible to tell you much more without spoilers, but be assured you will be unable to look away until the timelines collide in a quite brilliant twist and twist again ending. It takes a lot of skill to pull you into an intricate plot with a morally grey protagonist like Evie, but Elston does this beautifully, keeping you guessing about where the story is heading, before hitting you with revelatory scenes that flip your perception in glorious style - which is ever more impressive considering this is her first thriller for an adult audience.

Elston's superb storytelling, character development, and pitch perfect reveals play out in a seamless drama with an enjoyably cinematic feel. It is an ideal candidate for a television adaptation, so I am delighted that one is now in development. I really hope it does this tense and super slick thriller justice, because this has been one of my favourite reads of the year so far. 

If you love a fast paced, clever story in the vein of Megan Miranda that this is definitely the book for you. I cannot wait to see what comes next for Ashley Elston - I predict a great future!

First Lie Wins is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.

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

About the author:

Ashley Elston lives in North Louisiana with her husband and three sons. She was a wedding and portrait photographer for ten years so most of her Saturday nights included eating cake, realizing no shoe is comfortable after standing for more than six hours and inevitably watching some groomsman do the alligator across the dance floor. Now, Ashley helps her husband run their small business and she writes as often as possible.

Love Letters On Hazel Lane (The Little Board Game Café Book Two) by Jennifer Page

Love Letters on Hazel Lane (The Little Board Game Café Book Two) by Jennifer Page.

Published 4th January by Aria, Head of Zeus.

From the cover of the book:

Scrabble fan Jo always seems to pick the wrong guys. Now she's moved to the Yorkshire village of Hebbleswick, and decided to give dating one last chance. This time, there's a catch: she will only date men whose names would score highly in her beloved word game.

After Tarquin (16 points) proves just as disappointing as the rest, she meets low-scoring local doctor Ras (3 points). Her rules mean she can't date him – but when he asks her to organise a Scrabble festival with him, she can't say no.

As the event draws nearer and Jo and Ras grow closer, will Jo ignore her rule and let true love blossom over the triple letter scores?

***********

Following the break-up of her marriage to a controlling husband, Jo moves to the quaint Yorkshire village of Hebbleswick, for a fresh start. It is hard being the new person in town, and Jo is feeling lonely - especially since her best friend Gemma moved away, and Leona, the new girl at Pop! Productions where Jo works, seems to have frozen her out of the get togethers she used to be invited to.

With her confidence at an all time low, Jo decides it is time to get back out there, and gives internet dating a go to find her perfect man. Sadly, relying on misleading bios and blurry photos does not seem to be giving her the results she was looking for. All Jo really wants is someone kind and caring who loves her favourite board game, Scrabble, just as much as she does... and this gives her an idea. She will pick her prospective partner on the basis of how high their names would score in Scrabble! What could go wrong?

However, when the promising scoring Tarquin (16 points) proves a disaster, but local doctor Ras (only 3 points) ticks all her boxes, Jo is forced to rethink her strategy - especially as Ras even runs a local Scrabble club. Friendship blooms between Ras and Jo, and soon they are working together on a Hebbleswick Scrabble festival, but can they ever become more than friends?

In this endearing follow-up to her debut rom-com, The Little Board Game Cafe, Jennifer Page returns to her beloved world of board games - this time focusing on that stalwart of many a family get-together in our household, good old Scrabble. Love Letters on Hazel Lane is also full of many of the other themes Page is so good at exploring: love, loss, loneliness, friendship, family, and community - and she ups the emotional ante here by introducing a protagonist who is recovering from a controlling relationship that has knocked the stuffing right out of her too.

Jo begins this story in a bad place, stuck in a job with a toxic environment, and finding that her tentative steps towards trusting another man only bring her more heartache. But all is not lost, because Page surrounds her with a glorious set of characters who can really help her on the way to healing and happiness - after the required number of twists, turns, and bumps in the road, of course. For readers of Page's previous book, The Little Board Game Cafe, many of these characters will be familiar faces, but this is a standalone story which can be enjoyed on its own - I do recommend going back and reading the first book as well though, for the ultimate heart-warming hit, as it is gorgeous.

The way Jo grows in confidence in these pages, facing her demons, and blossoming into the person she was always meant to be, made this story for me. Page weaves some serious subjects into her journey, which she handles with sensitivity, and everything dovetails nicely into the gentle romance that plays out between Jo and Ras. I thoroughly enjoyed how much Page waves the flag for community enterprises in helping those experiencing loneliness too - something that really comes across as being close to her own heart.

This was a joy to read, confirming Page's ability to write a comforting story full of love, romance, and hope - with an entertaining side-order of board game fever. I loved it. Roll on book three!

Love Letters on Hazel Lane is available to buy now in paperback and ebook.

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

About the author:

Jennifer Page lives near Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire with her husband Hermi and his very – no, make that extremely – large collection of board games. Her debut novel, The Little Board Game Cafe published on 13th April 2023. Jennifer writes light-hearted, cosy romantic fiction which was initially inspired by her own dating adventures. Before she met Hermi, she was single for 13 years and had pretty much given up on meeting The One.

When she isn’t writing, Jennifer can usually be found playing board games; since she met Hermi, she’s become even more obsessed with them than he is! She also loves cooking (though she’d never claim to be any good at it!), caravan holidays and walking in the beautiful Yorkshire countryside.

Moscow X (Damascus Station Book Two) by David McCloskey

 

Moscow X (Damascus Station Book Two) by David McCloskey.

Published in paperback 18th January 2024 by Swift Press.

From the cover of the book:

A daring CIA operation threatens chaos in the Kremlin.

But can Langley trust the Russian at its center?

CIA operatives Sia and Max enter Russia to recruit Vladimir Putin's moneyman. Sia works for a London firm that conceals the wealth of the super-rich. Max's family business in Mexico, a CIA front since the 1960s, is a farm that breeds high-end racehorses.

They pose as a couple, and their targets are Vadim, Putin's private banker, and his wife Anna, who is both a banker and an intelligence officer. As they descend further into a Russian world dripping with luxury and rife with gangland violence, Sia and Max's hope may be Anna, who is playing a game of her own. 

Careening between the horse ranch and the dark opulence of Saint Petersburg, Moscow Xis both a gripping and a daring work of political commentary on the conflict between Washington and Moscow.

***********

CIA Station Chief, Artemis Aphrodite Proctor returns to Langley under a cloud after an unfortunate run-in with with her Russian opposite numbers in Tajikistan. Unrepentant, Proctor is sure she is in for a couple of years of drudgery in the 'Penalty Box', but as luck would have it, the perfect job opens up for her as the head of a new department running all 'spooky' Russia operations, Moscow X. 

In St Petersburg, beleaguered General Andrei Agapov's star is on the wain. Agapov has become the target of the Machiavellian power games of Vassily 'Goose' Gusev, former head of the FSB. As his empire becomes subsumed by Goose, ostensibly for the good of mother Russia, Agapov now finds himself minus two hundred and twenty-one bars of his gold reserves. Fearing for his life, Agapov arranges a clandestine meeting with his banker daughter, Anna, at their horse breeding facility, to ask her to trace the stolen money and try to find out what Goose is up to.

In London, Hortensia 'Sia' Fox is under deep cover for the CIA at a bank specialising in hiding the ill-gotten gains of its shady clientele. The job of dispersing the funds Goose has obtained from Agapov has fallen into her hands, and it presents an intriguing opportunity to disrupt the plans of the money-men behind Putin - a plan that gets the go ahead from Sia's thrilled boss, Proctor. But how to begin?

As the mission comes together, it becomes clear that the way in will be through the Agapov's equine interests, and the perfect partner for Sia comes in the shape of Mexican stud-farm owner, Maximiliano Castillo, whose family business has been in cahoots with the CIA since the 1960s. Posing as romantic partners, Sia and Max set their sights on banker couple, Agapov's daughter Anna and her  husband Vadim, who just happens to be Putin's personal banker. But what they do not know is that Anna is also an intelligence operative for the SVR who would dearly love to turn these CIA agents to her own crusade of vengeance...

Moscow X is the cracking follow-up to David McCloskey's best-selling debut, Damascus Station, featuring CIA operative Artemis Proctor. This is a slow-burn thriller reminiscent of the seductive charm of Le Carre, with intricately woven threads packed with delicious detail about the workings of the CIA, alongside a glimpse into the murky machinations of Putin's Russia, that thrums with chilling authenticity. The story ebbs and flows, with bursts of gripping action, and I loved how McCloskey switches things up by flipping location between London, Langley, Moscow, St Petersburg, and a sideways jaunt to Mexico, which keeps things interesting.

McCloskey's characters are beautifully drawn, on all sides of this international ensemble piece. I was so impressed with the way he takes the time to show you all the little shades of grey that make up their personalities without resorting to lazy caricatures, and delves into the fall-out of the difficult family relationships that have shaped them - which makes all the difference when a story is as complex as this one. His kick-ass female characters are particularly impressive, especially the ball-busting Artemis Proctor (who I am totally enamoured with), but it is actually the cat-and-mouse, move-and-counter-move that plays out between Sia and Anna that makes this novel so darned compelling. Sia and Anna both have incredible storylines, and you find yourself splitting your allegiance equally between them in their oft conflicting efforts to derail the plans of Putin's money men. It is not easy to pull this off well, but McCloskey does this with aplomb... the simmering emotion, the closely guarded long-games, the things left hanging unsaid... Superb writing!

If ever there was a novel that hits the perfect spot for a contemporary view of the complex relationship that Russia has with the West in the post-'special military operation' in Ukraine days (aka invasion of Ukraine to you and me), then this is it. McCloskey offers incredible insight into modern Russia, and the intelligence operations that hope to inveigle themselves into the secretive world of the power hungry entourage that surrounds Putin - and the ways in which sanctions can be subverted if you have enough money. There are so many lovely little details that colour in the backdrop in this story too that I am inclined to think that at least some of them must be true, but in any case, McCloskey's CIA analyst credentials give everything a patina of gritty realism that makes this a cut above the espionage thriller crowd.

This is not a spy yarn that you can fly through at fever pitch, despite the intensity of the story, but one to be savoured for all its well-conceived twists and turns on the way to an immensely satisfying conclusion. I absorbed it from cover to cover, and cannot wait to go back and read the first book in the series, Damascus Station, for more Artemis Proctor. I will also be counting down the months until the publication of book three, which is expected in January 2025. More please!

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

Thank you to Swift Press for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

David McCloskey is a former CIA analyst and consultant at McKinsey & Company. 

While at the CIA, he wrote regularly for the President’s Daily Brief, delivered classified testimony to Congressional oversight committees, and briefed senior White House officials, Ambassadors, military officials, and Arab royalty. He worked in CIA field stations across the Middle East. 

During his time at McKinsey, David advised national security, aerospace, and transportation clients on a range of strategic and operational issues. 

David holds an M.A. from the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies, where he specialized in energy policy and the Middle East. 

He lives in Texas with his wife and three children.

Halfway House by Helen Fitzgerald

 

Halfway House by Helen Fitzgerald.

Published 18th January 2024 by Orenda Books.

From the cover ofthe book:

They’re the housemates from Hell…

When her disastrous Australian love affair ends, Lou O’Dowd heads to Edinburgh for a fresh start, moving in with her cousin, and preparing for the only job she can find … working at a halfway house for very high-risk offenders.

Two killers, a celebrity paedophile and a paranoid coke dealer – all out on parole and all sharing their outwardly elegant Edinburgh townhouse with rookie night-worker Lou…

And instead of finding some meaning and purpose to her life, she finds herself trapped in a terrifying game of cat and mouse where she stands to lose everything – including her life.

Slick, darkly funny and nerve-janglingly tense, Halfway House is both a breathtaking thriller and an unapologetic reminder never to corner a desperate woman…

***********

When Lou O'Dowd's relationship with a married man ends badly, she is desperate for a new start. Her sketchy employment history makes it difficult to find an appealing job where she lives in Melbourne, Australia, so she hits on the idea of joining her cousin in Edinburgh for a Scottish adventure - and blags her way into a job covering the night shift in a halfway house for serious offenders on parole, which she is sure will give her the purpose she is searching for.

However, Lou is completely unprepared for the reality that shatters her illusions on the very first night of her new job - for within the walls of the impressive Edinburgh townhouse that serves as the halfway house lurk two murderers, a celebrity paedophile, a sex pest, and a neurotic drug-dealer, who are much more of a handful than she anticipated. The fresh start among the 'castles' of Scotland that Lou was looking for soon descends into chaos, and unexpected dangers threaten not just her own life, but the lives of her loved ones too...

I was first introduced to the work of Helen Fitzgerald in a thrilling baptism of fire through her book Worst Case Scenario about a Scottish social worker on the edge, so I knew I was in for quite a ride with Halfway House - and I was not disappointed!

This brand new, darkly comic thriller delves into a bevy of similar themes - which is not surprising given Fitzgerald's background in social work - this time through the experiences of Aussie ex-pat Lou, whose eyes are well and truly opened about the reality of working with serious offenders who are out on licence in the community. The story begins with a delicious prologue in which Lou is branded as #TheImpaler which makes it clear from the outset that events are going to get pretty hairy for her, and then rewinds to two months earlier to unfurl in all its unnerving glory. 

Lou is a tricky protagonist to like, and her ability to make good choices is hampered by her selfishness, her tendency towards being a fantasist, and a decidedly off-kilter moral compass. However, I did find myself warming to her as Fitzgerald reveals how and why Lou finds making meaningful connections difficult, and there are lovely little glimmers of the Lou inside that occasionally shine through the utter mess she gets into, revealing the kind of person she could be given different circumstances. Eventually, I was totally on her side through every breathtaking move and counter move for survival she became embroiled in within the walls of that horrifying halfway house, which I thought was beautifully managed by Fitzgerald. 

For a book of under 300 pages, this little gem is packed with insight, observations, and subtle commentary about so many themes, particularly the more unsettling aspects of the world of social work. You find yourself pondering on a knotty mass of issues about reintegration of serious offenders back into society, especially addicts and those convicted of sexual and manipulative crimes; and I cannot help but feel some of the more bizarre approaches to modifying behaviour to within more acceptable bounds that Fitzgerald pokes fun at are uncomfortably based on truth. She also takes some intriguing sideswipes at the kinds of people attracted to working in this environment, and what their motivations might be. And I am really impressed at how she incorporates the media frenzy around high-profile crimes, and the way they are reported in this story - and the unintended consequences of the information you share on social media. There are some lovely bits about family too - including the curious, often transient, bonds of found family.

It seems odd to describe this one as a 'caper', given the subject matter, but this book is packed to the rafters with disconcerting situations steeped in pitch black humour in Fitzgerald's characteristic vein. Once you start reading, you cannot stop until all the surreal twists and turns work themselves out in a frantic, headlong journey towards the incongruous conclusion... which definitely makes this a 'caper' in my book. Highly recommended if you enjoy an offbeat style that makes you laugh at the darker side of life. I absorbed it in one tasty bite! 

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

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

About the author:

Helen FitzGerald is the bestselling author of ten adult and young adult thrillers, including The Donor (2011) and The Cry (2013), which was longlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, and adapted for a major BBC drama. Her 2019 dark-comedy thriller Worst Case Scenario was a Book of the Year in the Literary Review, Herald Scotland, Guardian and Daily Telegraph, shortlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, and won the CrimeFest Last Laugh Award. 

Helen worked as a criminal justice social worker for over fifteen years. She grew up in Victoria, Australia, and now lives in Glasgow with her husband.