What if the truth really did come out… even just for an hour?
Barbara is a curious soul who lives to read books. She’s a mum, a wife, a reader, a cat-owner and someone who still believes that kindness matters. Then one rainy afternoon, she steps into a peculiar little shop in her local town and leaves with something extraordinary: a vial of tea that compels anyone who drinks a drop of it tell the truth — for exactly sixty minutes.
Bookstagram Tour: 2nd – 6th June
Genre: Contemporary | Family Life | Women’s Fiction
Publisher: Bloodhound Books
At first, Barbara experiments carefully. Harmlessly. But when politics creeps closer to home and a dangerous new movement begins to take hold of her community, the temptation to use the tea for some greater purpose becomes impossible to ignore.
As neighbours, friends and families are drawn into a plan that could change far more than a council election, Barbara must decide how much power is too much, and whether honesty really is the best policy when the stakes are this high.
Sometimes all it takes to change everything is the truth.
My Review
If you voted for Brexit or plan to vote Reform in the next election, then this book is probably not for you. There are a lot of parallels, particularly the ‘Change’ party, and its councillors and MPs. And it’s not flattering or sympathetic.
Barbara Truscoe is a fairly ordinary wife and mother, living in a fairly typical suburban cul-de-sac. She gets on really well with her neighbours and her kids are pretty OK. Daughter Dani is twenty-one and supposedly intelligent, even though she says ‘like’ in every sentence. Teenage son Leo is not your average teenager – studious and thoughtful, and no drugs or getting drunk every weekend – though he does admit to getting up to a bit of naughtiness when under the ‘tea of truth’.
Because Barbara sheltered from the rain in a bookshop called Surprises, which doesn’t appear to exist. She purchased four ‘perfect’ books for her family and the owner Jean gave her a small bottle of ‘truth drops’. ‘Just one drop of this in any drink, although it prefers builder’s tea, it has to be said,’ Jean told her. ‘… just one drop in any drink and the imbiber is compelled to tell the truth for exactly one hour…. I firmly believe you can be trusted with this responsibility.’
But the Tea of Truth isn’t just for fun. It can change everything if you are willing to go that far. So when Dani slips a drop into Change’s prospective councillor’s drink at a hustings, he tells the truth and it’s not pretty.
Neighbour Nicola Lambert was married to a total loser, and 18-year-old son Robbie is looking to go the same way, following his father’s right wing views and obsession with Poundland Andrew Tate, Troy Hunt. In the meantime Milly Dobson from Dani’s old school is assisting Change’s leader Trevor Jensen with the local elections, and recruits Robbie to take promotional photos. And then of course there’s the cat – the Duchess of Poppet – who has an opinion about everything.
I loved this book. I found it very funny and really on the mark with what’s going on in politics in the UK at the moment.
Many thanks to @lovebookstours for inviting me to be part of the #bookstagram tour.
About the Author
Peter Berry (known as PB to friends) was born in Surrey at the end of the 1960s and miraculously graduated from the University of York with a degree in history. He used this knowledge of the world to begin a career in PR which quickly lead to working in telly, theatre and film. In the 1990s he worked with Channel 4 publicising many of their US imports – Friends, E.R., Oprah Winfrey, Frasier and the short-lived but much loved by eight people, Bakersfield. He also used to receive Christmas phone calls from the actor, James Stewart.
In 1996, he ambled into the music industry and spent ten high-speed years working with musicians as diverse as Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Steps, The Who, Groove Armada, Meat Loaf (always two words), George Benson, Billy Ocean, Atomic Kitten and many more. In 2001, he began working with Jamie Oliver and ultimately became the chef’s Head of PR, travelling the world and eating delicious food; the toughest of gigs indeed. In 2016, he started the food PR business, Berry & Green with the excellent Chloe Green (no relation to Suzanne Green in Lunch with the Deadly Dozen).
In 2019 he started writing a novel on the basis that, despite the excitement of the previous thirty five years, he hadn’t actually ever created anything interesting (apart from a three page biography of The Blue Nile in 2004 which was quite good). The result, after four years, eighteen drafts, numerous rejection letters and four title changes, is Lunch with the Deadly Dozen. He lives in Hertfordshire with his wife, two daughters and a cockerpoo. He listens to music every day and is probably doing that right now.
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+ 1960s, 1970s, adoption, childhood, family, fiction, friends, grief, Iceland, Iceland noir, lies, review, Scandi noir, secrets, sisters
Home Before Dark by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir translated by Victoria Cribb
November, 1967, Iceland. Fourteen-year-old Marsí has a secret pen pal – a boy who lives on the other side of the country – but she has been writing to him in her older sister’s name.
Now she is excited to meet him for the first time.
But when the date arrives, Marsí is prevented from going, and during the night her sister Stína goes missing – her bloodstained anorak later found at the place where Marsí and her pen pal had agreed to meet. November, 1977. Stína’s disappearance remains unsolved. Then an unexpected letter arrives for Marsí. It’s from her pen pal, and he’s still out there…
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Desperate for news of her missing sister, but terrified that he might coming after her next, Marsí returns to her hometown and embarks on an investigation of her own.
But Marsí has always had trouble distinguishing her vivid dreams from reality, and as insomnia threatens her sanity, it seems she can’t even trust her own memories. And her sister’s killer is still on the loose…
My Review
What starts off as a slow burn, picks up pace and becomes creepier and more unsettling with every chapter. It’s told from the point of view of Marsí in November 1977, and then goes back and forth to her older sister Stína up until she went missing in November 1967.
Stína appears to have vanished completely, but how is that possible? Her body has never been found, but some believe she wanted to get away enough to leave the country and never return. That makes Marsí cross as she doesn’t believe Stína would do that to her or her parents.
The parents are a bit odd. Their mother wanted to be an actress, but had to give it up when she got married and became pregnant with Stína. Their father owns an intensive chicken farm, which is horrendous, with hens pecking other hens to death. It makes me glad I don’t eat chicken. In one part, the father is feeding chicken meat to his pet chickens, and Marsí is understandably horrified. She won’t ever eat chicken.
While searching for links to her sister’s disappearance Marsí discovers that the house where her sister studied art was previously a home for unmarried mothers called Reykir. This was during the second world war. Reykir is relevant to the story, as are various other characters in the book. There are a number of twists – including one major one – and eventually it all comes together. It’s very cleverly written and I gave up trying to guess what had happened. What makes it all the more complicated is that Marsí is an unreliable narrator, unable to separate her visions and dreams from reality.
Suffice to say I really enjoyed it and look forward to more from one of my favourite authors in one of my favourite genres – Iceland Noir. I love that Iceland is a character in itself. It’s so different from anywhere I have ever been.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
About the Author
Born in Akranes, Eva Björg Ægisdóttir studied for an MSc in Globalisation in Norway before returning to Iceland and deciding to write a novel. Her debut, The Creak on the Stairs, was published in 2018, becoming a bestseller in Iceland and going on to win the Blackbird Award and the Storytel Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year. It was published in English by Orenda Books in 2020, and became a number-one bestseller in ebook, shortlisting for Capital Crime’s Amazon Publishing Awards in two categories, and winning the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger. Girls Who Lie, Night Shadows, You Can’t See Me and Boys Who Hurt soon followed suit, shortlisting for the CWA Crime in Translation Dagger, the Capital Crime Awards, and the Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel. You Can’t See Me won the Storytel Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year in Iceland in 2023. In 2024, Eva won Iceland’s prestigious Crime Fiction Award, the Blood Drop, for Home before Dark and was shortlisted for the coveted Glass Key. The Forbidden Iceland series has established Eva as one of Iceland’s bestselling and most distinguished crime writers, and her books are published in eighteen languages with more than a million copies sold.
Follow her on @evaaegisdottir
About Orenda Books
Orenda Books is a small independent publishing company specialising in literary fiction with a heavy emphasis on crime/thrillers, and approximately half the list in translation. They’ve been twice shortlisted for the Nick Robinson Best Newcomer Award at the IPG awards, and publisher and owner Karen Sullivan was a Bookseller Rising Star in 2016. In 2018, they were awarded a prestigious Creative Europe grant for their translated books programme. Three authors, including Agnes Ravatn, Matt Wesolowski and Amanda Jennings have been WHSmith Fresh Talent picks, and Ravatn’s The Bird Tribunal was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award, won an English PEN Translation Award, and adapted for BBC Radio Four ’s Book at Bedtime. Six titles have been short- or long-listed for the CWA Daggers. Launched in 2014 with a mission to bring more international literature to the UK market, Orenda Books publishes a host of debuts, many of which have gone on to sell millions worldwide, and looks for fresh, exciting new voices that push the genre in new directions. Bestselling authors include Ragnar Jonasson, Antti Tuomainen, Gunnar Staalesen, Michael J. Malone, Kjell Ola Dahl, Louise Beech, Johana Gustawsson, Lilja Sigurðardóttir and Sarah Stovell.
+ crime fiction, Danish Noir, Denmark, fiction, murder, murder mystery, retreat, review, Scandi noir, thriller, writer
Under the Blazing Sun by Jenny Lund Madsen
Hannah is miserable. Her love life is in ruins, her contract demands a sequel to her bestselling crime debut―and she’s out of ideas.
After a mortifying TV interview, her agent ships her off to a sun-drenched Sicilian villa with a simple order: finish the book. No distractions. No excuses.
But inspiration doesn’t strike―murder does.
When a night out ends in murder, Hannah finds herself at the centre of a murder investigation… again. The police want her out of the way, and the only person who seems to believe her is a young but charming Italian police officer. That is, until she doesn’t.
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Soon Hannah is chasing suspects, fleeing crime scenes, and doing whatever it takes to avoid becoming the next victim. She came to write a crime novel. Now she’s trapped inside one.
Dark, sly and deliciously atmospheric, Under the Blazing Sun is the second novel in the award-winning series featuring accidental sleuth and disgruntled literary author Hannah, whose pursuit of plot twists keeps turning dangerously real.
My Review
Hannah’s a prickly individual. Having stormed out of a TV interview her agent Bastian tells her that he needs her second crime novel NOW. She owes him for the advance. He then suggests that she goes to Sicily where she can stay in a luxurious villa – albeit in the middle of nowhere – and write in peace and quiet. A retreat of sorts.
But things don’t quite work out that way. Having got completely lost walking home from the nearby village where she met a nice couple who gave her their contact details, she has no option but to ring them and ask for help. They take her back to theirs for the night as she’s quite drunk and exhausted, when tragedy strikes.
Hannah is now a witness to the murder of someone she barely knows, and is soon embroiled in yet another mystery. At least it’s inspiration for book two, though that makes the police suspicious.
I really enjoyed Under The Blazing Sun – it’s great fun – personally for me even more so than book one. The last few chapters are fast and furious.
If I had one word of advice for Hannah (other than ‘chill’), it would be to cut back on the wine. First night in a villa that she barely knows how to find in daylight, let alone in the pitch dark, and off she goes on foot, gets plastered, and then spectacularly lost. She could have driven her hired Fiat Panda (I’ve owned two of those), had one small glass of wine, and not been a witness/suspect in a murder. Well done Hannah! Roll on book three!
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
About the Author
Jenny Lund Madsen is one of Denmark’s most acclaimed scriptwriters (including the international hits Rita and Follow the Money) and is known as an advocate for better representation for sexual and ethnic minorities in Danish TV and film. She recently made her debut as a playwright with the critically acclaimed Audition (Aarhus Teater) and her debut literary thriller, Thirty Days of Darkness, first in an addictive new series, won the Harald Mogensen Prize for Best Danish Crime Novel of the year and was shortlisted for the coveted Glass Key Award. She lives in Denmark with her young family.
About Orenda Books
Orenda Books is a small independent publishing company specialising in literary fiction with a heavy emphasis on crime/thrillers, and approximately half the list in translation. They’ve been twice shortlisted for the Nick Robinson Best Newcomer Award at the IPG awards, and publisher and owner Karen Sullivan was a Bookseller Rising Star in 2016. In 2018, they were awarded a prestigious Creative Europe grant for their translated books programme. Three authors, including Agnes Ravatn, Matt Wesolowski and Amanda Jennings have been WHSmith Fresh Talent picks, and Ravatn’s The Bird Tribunal was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award, won an English PEN Translation Award, and adapted for BBC Radio Four ’s Book at Bedtime. Six titles have been short- or long-listed for the CWA Daggers. Launched in 2014 with a mission to bring more international literature to the UK market, Orenda Books publishes a host of debuts, many of which have gone on to sell millions worldwide, and looks for fresh, exciting new voices that push the genre in new directions. Bestselling authors include Ragnar Jonasson, Antti Tuomainen, Gunnar Staalesen, Michael J. Malone, Kjell Ola Dahl, Louise Beech, Johana Gustawsson, Lilja Sigurðardóttir and Sarah Stovell.
Rain, rain go away, come again another day.
It’s playground day for Ziggi the dog, but it’s pouring with rain! Ernest, the flea who lives in Ziggi’s ear, is relieved – he’d rather stay at home with a nice cup of tea. But then Ziggi decides to try out her Go Away Rain Dance with all sorts of weird and wonderful animals. Poor Ernest..
Pages: 44
Publisher: HB Publishing House
Genre: Children’s Fiction 3+
My Review
Ziggi wants to go to the playground, but it’s no fun in the pouring rain. And Ernest the flea who lives in Ziggi’s ear would rather watch a movie. So Ziggi decides to do a Go Away Rain Dance to stop the rain. She wants Ernest to join in but Ernest thinks it’s a silly idea. I think he’s a bit embarrassed to be honest. Ziggi asks the other creatures to join in. But nothing works and eventually Ziggi agrees.
The other animals were having so much fun they didn’t want to stop. But then…. a gust of wind blew the clouds away and the sun came out! Ziggi said it was because everyone joined in, including Ernest in the end.
It was brilliant. Everyone played and Ziggi could zip and zoom on the zip wire like Superdog in the Superdog movie.
And once you’ve read this great book you can have a go at the activities. Can you do a Go Away Rain Dance like Ziggi and all her friends?
Many thanks to Hygge Book Tours for inviting me to be part of #TheGoAwayRainDance #blogtour
About the Author
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Website: www.claireflewis.com
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Detective Inspector January David has always put his professional before his private life, but the two worlds are about to clash horrifically as he visits his latest crime scene.
He is confronted by a lifeless figure suspended ten feet above a theatre stage, blood pouring from her face into a coffin below.
This gruesome execution is the work of an elusive serial killer. Three women from three different London suburbs, each murdered with elaborate and chilling precision. And as January stares at the most beautiful corpse he’s ever seen, he detects the killer’s hallmark. But Girl 4 is different: she is alive – barely. And January recognises her…
My Review
It started with The Beresford, since which I have read everything Will Carver has ever written. So I decided it’s time to go back to the very beginning with Girl 4, book one in the January David series.
January David is our leading protagonist. He’s a police officer with a touch of the psychic. This doesn’t endear him to one of his colleagues, Murphy, the other, Poulson, being more open-minded about Jan’s visions.
I listened on Borrowbox and while there are only two narrators – one male and one female – there are many different voices and points of view. These include January himself, the serial killer Eames, and Jan’s dreadful wife Audrey, who I really disliked. Not only has poor Jan got to endure Poulson’s laddish idea of a stag night, he has to go along with Audrey’s over the top, pretentious wedding. I wasn’t always keen on the narration, Jan doesn’t sound like I imagine him, but the worst is Murphy’s Irish accent – luckily he doesn’t get to say much.
As with most of Carver’s books, Girl 4 is not for the faint hearted. The descriptions of the killings are extremely graphic, as are Jan’s visions of the ‘smiling man’, who is trying to tell him something. We also learn that Jan’s sister Kathy was taken as a child and never found, his father was a magician who blamed Jan for losing her, and he hasn’t seen his mother for years.
You will either love this book as I did, or you will hate it, and probably never read Carver again. I love all his work although he evolves over the years. Just because you don’t take to the January David series doesn’t mean you won’t love the (very) dark humour in The Beresford, or even darker in Psychopaths Anonymous.
Carver is an acquired taste but I personally believe he’s one of the best authors of our time.
About the Author
Will Carver is the international bestselling author of the January David series and the critically acclaimed, mind-blowingly original Detective Pace series, which includes Good Samaritans (2018), Nothing Important Happened Today (2019) and Hinton Hollow Death Trip (2020), all of which were ebook bestsellers and selected as books of the year in the mainstream international press. Nothing Important Happened Today was longlisted for both the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award 2020 and the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. Hinton Hollow Death Trip was longlisted for the Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize, and was followed by the literary thrillers, The Beresford, Psychopaths Anonymous, The Daves Next Door, Suicide Thursday and Upstairs at the Beresford. Will spent his early years in Germany, but returned to the UK at age eleven, when his sporting career took off. He and his partner run their own fitness and nutrition company, and live in Reading with five children and a tortoise.
+ 1930s, 1940s, childhood, family, family drama, female friendship, fiction, germany, grief, Historical fiction, holocaust, jewish history, love, memoir, nazi germany, relationships, review, secrets, sisters, World War Two, WW2
The Nowhere Sisters by Jan Casey
Berlin, 1938. One journey will change their lives forever.
Twelve-year-old Margarete has lost everything — her parents, her home, and the fragile safety of the orphanage she once knew.
When the Nazis target Jewish families across Germany, Margarete is placed on a Kindertransport train bound for England. She expects to face the terrifying journey alone. Until a small, frightened girl is thrust into her arms.
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Four-year-old Ilse is crying for someone to protect her. In that moment, Margarete makes a desperate choice that will change both their lives forever. She tells a lie. She tells the world they are sisters.
As they travel across Europe to an uncertain future, Margarete vows to protect Ilse. But when they arrive in England, their fragile new family is at risk of being torn apart.
Now Margarete must fight harder than ever to keep the promise she made. Because sometimes the strongest families aren’t the ones we choose. And sometimes a single brave lie can change everything.
My Review
It’s 1938 and ‘Twelve-year-old Margarete has lost everything — her parents, her home, and the fragile safety of the orphanage she once knew.’ Because Margarete is Jewish and is ‘lucky’ in that she is being sent to England on a Kindertransport train. My mother and her mother – also Jewish – were living in Vienna at the time. My mother was 22. They were also escaping to England. When I say they were lucky, they could have been sent to Auschwitz or Belsen and been ‘exterminated’ along with six million other Jews.
While waiting for the train, a large man thrusts a small child into Margarete’s arms. The child is called Ilse and looks like a beautiful angel. And in that moment Margarete vows to protect her. So she tells everyone that Ilse is her sister, who had been sent to a different orphanage.
After a traumatic journey by train and boat, they arrive in England where Ilse will be fostered. But Ilse won’t leave Margarete, so she screams and screams until the Kingfishers decide to take both girls. And so they stay together, Margarete being terrified of her lie being discovered.
But in spite of Margarete’s friendship with the Kingfishers’ daughter Judith, life is not easy for her. She has none of Ilse’s looks or charms, and clashes with Mrs Kingfisher at every turn.
And so we follow the lives of the three girls, their relationship with each other, and with the foster parents. They are often bullied at school for being German. They change their names to Margaret and Elsie to sound more English, and while Elsie doesn’t care about her Jewish roots, Margarete wants to celebrate the Jewish festivals and attend the Synagogue. She has to leave school at 14 to work in a factory.
It’s such an interesting and inspiring journey and an insight into some of the most harrowing experiences of children during the war. Margarete is haunted by the memory of Kristallnacht – the Night of Broken Glass – and also of the SS soldiers who constantly checked them on the train, looking at the tags round their necks. Ilse remembers little apart from being hidden in a dark, dusty cupboard under the stairs, and making a sock doll which she called Kathe to take on the journey to England.
It’s very moving and while the girls’ childhood was emotional and harrowing, it was the last few chapters that had me in tears.
Many thanks to @ZooloosBT for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the Author
Jan Casey is the author of several novels portraying the lives of some of the ‘forgotten heroines’ of WW2, employed variously as construction workers, bomb trackers, letter censors and war artists. The Women of Waterloo Bridge, Women At War, The Woman with the Map, The Letter Reader, and The War Artist, all published by Aria (Head of Zeus). She spent part of her childhood in California, but later moved back to the UK. She has an M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Norwich, where she lives.
Connect with Jan
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+ audio book, audio drama, crime fiction, fiction, murder, review, thriller, USA
The Murder Inn by James Patterson and Candice Fox Bill Robinson #2
Returning to the rocky shores of Massachusetts, Bill Robinson has to solve a string of murders if he wants to save his inn. Murder House, The Beach House, Honeymoon –James Patterson is the master of thrills on the water.
The Inn at Gloucester is the lone structure on a rocky Massachusetts shoreline. Former Boston police detective Bill Robinson runs the place as a refuge from life’s cruel disappointments. When two strangers arrive for a temporary stay among the permanent residents, they’re welcomed with no questions asked by Sheriff Clayton Spears, who lives on the second floor.
There’s another new resident in town. A crime boss. And he doesn’t like the close watch Robinson and Spears keep over Gloucester.
Local criminals are turning up dead. The Inn is under surveillance. Teaming up with Sheriff Spears and three fearless residents—Army veteran Nick Jones; former FBI agent Susan Solie; and mysterious groundskeeper Effie Johnson—Robinson begins a risky defense of his town, his chosen family, and his home.
My Review
Book Two in the Bill Robinson series by James Patterson and Candice Fox is again exciting and entertaining. However, it’s so far fetched that when I told a couple of friends about the ‘old woman’ shooting an intruder’s head off, putting her headless body in a plastic bag, and then in a suitcase which she loads into her truck, we all laughed.
Just to recap, Bill Robinson was thrown out of the police force in Boston and is starting again in a small town called Gloucester not too far away. But tragedy strikes when his wife Siobhan is killed and he finds himself running The Inn – a b & b that appears to attract the type of people who are also running away from something.
Bill is now in a relationship with retired FBI agent Susan, and most of the same people are still living at the Inn. Then a mysterious woman arrives with her young son Joe, and Sheriff Clayton Spears is smitten. But ex-gangster Vinny is suspicious that they are not who they say they are.
In the meantime, we have a new crime boss called Driver, who is linked to a historical murder, and he doesn’t like Robinson and Spears. In another thread, Nick reveals what really happened in Afghanistan a number of years ago and decides to take matters into his own hands.
I once again listened on Borrowbox and enjoyed the lively narration. But why oh why did you kill my favourite character?
About the Authors
Candice Fox is the middle child of a large, eccentric family from Sydney’s western suburbs composed of half-adopted and pseudo siblings. The daughter of a parole officer and an enthusiastic foster-carer, Candice spent her childhood listening around corners to tales of violence, madness and evil as her father relayed his work stories to her mother and older brothers.
As a cynical and trouble-making teenager, her crime and gothic fiction writing was an escape from the calamity of her home life. She was constantly in trouble for reading Anne Rice in church and scaring her friends with tales from Australia’s wealth of true crime writers.
Bankstown born and bred, she failed to conform to military life in a brief stint as an officer in the Royal Australian Navy at age eighteen. At twenty, she turned her hand to academia, and taught high school through two undergraduate and two postgraduate degrees. Candice lectures in writing at the University of Notre Dame, Sydney, while undertaking a PhD in literary censorship and terrorism.
James Patterson is the most popular storyteller of our time and the creator of such unforgettable characters and series as Alex Cross, the Women’s Murder Club, Jane Smith, and Maximum Ride. He has coauthored #1 bestselling novels with Bill Clinton, Dolly Parton, and Michael Crichton, as well as collaborated on #1 bestselling nonfiction, including The Idaho Four, Walk in My Combat Boots, and Filthy Rich. Patterson has told the story of his own life in the #1 bestselling autobiography James Patterson by James Patterson. He is the recipient of an Edgar Award, ten Emmy Awards, the Literarian Award from the National Book Foundation, and the National Humanities Medal.
+ Canada, child abduction, child abuse, fiction, friendship, kidnapping, murder, obsession, politics, review, thriller
Wednesday Night Whites by Marci Lin Melvin
As women go missing and the small village of Chester, Nova Scotia, grapples with murder after murder, domestic violence is at an all-time high.
There’s only one common theme. The men charged with assaulting their girlfriends and wives belong to a secret club called the ‘Wednesday Night Whites’.
But who’s running the show?
Bookstagram Tour: 18th – 24th May
Genre: Crime | Mystery
Pages: 360
Publisher: Her Island Press
The police are overwhelmed and the scant evidence they have is circumstantial; not even enough to lay a charge.
When famed Nazi-hunter, Padraig Cassidy, moves to the village, the terrified residents believe he’s their only hope. And so Padraig begins the most dangerous investigation of his career.
As violence escalates, Padraig—and a group of trusted colleagues—begin to unravel secrets that threaten to destroy them all.
My Review
I hardly know where to start. When I got to the end I thought ‘what the hell did I just read?’ It’s deep and meaningful with the focus on vulnerable women and white supremacy, but it’s also quirky and rather strange at times. So did I guess the abductor and alleged killer of the missing women? No I didn’t. I had my own theory (which I’m rather proud of to be honest) but I can’t say any more as it might give too much away.
There is another major twist, which I wasn’t that keen on – a bit too far-fetched for me – but it didn’t distract from my enjoyment. The whole book is so fast-paced that I just kept reading and reading.
Lawyer Zale, who like her boss Crandel Christmas is ‘Indigenous’ – I had to look that up, but I’m not going to explain as I’m sure I’ll get it wrong – is being stalked by fellow lawyer Ruben Hollywood, who believes himself to be the grandson of Heinrich Himmler. He’s a nasty piece of work, who considers it his right to be superior to women and non-whites. He’s quite scary but in fact his childhood is even scarier.
As well as Crandel and Ruben, there is a third partner at Christmas, Hollywood and Bear. His name is Jamie Bear, and he also had a terrible childhood. He’s rather an unattractive specimen (not that he can help it), whose wife Dahlia dotes on him for some unknown reason, but each to their own I suppose.
Crandel’s wife Carolyn blames herself for the kidnapping of their only child Aponi, yet they still live together, even though they hardly speak to each other. It’s very sad.
Then we have poor Nora, who lives with her abusive husband Earle in the middle of nowhere, and their ‘adopted’ child.
That’s all I can say really. Just be assured that it’s one of the best books I have read in a long time, totally different and absorbing, with a message that runs through it, and it is very relevant in our current climate of racism and misogyny.
Many thanks to @lovebookstours for inviting me to be part of the #WedenesdayNightWhites blog tour.
About the Author
Marci Lin Melvin is a recently retired Family and Provincial Court Judge. She sat on the bench for over fifteen years. Prior to her appointment, she spent twenty-five years practicing family and criminal law. She is a novelist and playwright from Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, and has written since she was a young child.
All proceeds from the sale of Marci’s novels and children’s books have been donated to various charities including the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, Atlantic Chapter; Prostate Cancer Canada; Canadian Tire Jumpstart; the Two Rivers Wildlife Park in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia; and school breakfast programs.
She loves dogs, having once had the pleasure of sharing her space with ten. She now has only three, is married, and has three children, and five grandchildren.
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+ 1950s, audio book, cosy mystery, fiction, ghosts, Historical fiction, murder, murder mystery, review, serial killer, supernatural
Murder At The Spirit Lounge by Jess Kidd Nora Breen Investigates Book #2
In the second installment of the Nora Breen Investigates series – ‘perfect for cozy mystery lovers’ (Book Riot) – beloved former nun Nora Breen returns, this time to track down a ghostly killer before it’s too late.
When Dolores Chimes, a famous medium, arrives in Gore-on-Sea, even surly Detective Inspector Rideout is lured in by her promises of messages for the afterlife.
But after a reading goes disastrously wrong, Dolores loses her life—and the six sitters at the séance with her fall victim to supernatural deaths themselves in the days following the nightmare of a reading.
Determined to unveil the truth, Nora finds herself chasing a ghostly serial killer she believes to be responsible, before the sixth victim—Detective Rideout himself—perishes along with the others.
My Review
Murder at Gulls Nest ‘stars’ Nora Breen, ex-nun turned Miss Marple. It’s very different from Jess Kidd’s other novels, but it still has the same ring to it. Murder at the Spirit Lounge is the second in the series and it’s even better.
I literally couldn’t wait for this and I was not disappointed. New narrator but just as good. I listened to it with Audible.
Dolores Chimes, a famous medium, arrives in Gore-on-Sea and organises a séance in the ‘Spirit Lounge’ with six sitters, all personally invited by Dolores. One of them happens to be Detective Inspector Rideout himself.
But before Dolores is cold in her grave – or at least on the autopsy table – two more of the sitters have met a grisly end. Who will be next? And is the detective also in danger?
There are ghostly sightings of an airman, and it just so happens that disgraced pilot Evelyn Leighton drowned himself in the lake at the home for disabled and mentally disturbed survivors of the 2nd World War. But what is his story?
The book is a mix of cosy crime, dark humour and a touch of the supernatural. I loved it and now have to wait for book three.
About the Author
Jess Kidd was brought up in London as part of a large family from county Mayo and has been praised for her unique fictional voice. Her debut, Himself, was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards in 2016. She won the Costa Short Story Award the same year. Her second novel, The Hoarder, published as Mr. Flood’s Last Resort in the U.S. and Canada was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year 2019. Both books were BBC Radio 2 Book Club Picks. Her latest book, the Victorian detective tale Things in Jars, has been released to critical acclaim. Jess’s work has been described as ‘Gabriel García Márquez meets The Pogues.’
When reporter Martha Strangeways is summoned to investigate the discovery of body parts on a remote railway track, she’s drawn into a strange case, as her own past comes back to haunt her…
The atmospheric, chilling series continues…
Rituals
Secrets
A killer who will protect them at any cost…
Martha Strangeways has settled into a quiet life in Strathbran, after the horrific events that traumatised the village a year earlier. But all this is turned upside down when her friend at Glasgow CID, DI Derek Summers, calls on her to help with a disturbing case: a human ear, with an unusual Celtic earring, has been found next to a railway line in the Highlands.
When the body of a young woman wearing matching jewellery turns up at a landmark church shortly after, the mystery deepens. Why has she been laid out in a ritualistic fashion? Does her trek along the little known Cailleach Way have anything to do with her death? And who is running the Facebook group where she posted details of her journey to the shrine of the Bone Mother goddess?
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As Martha tries to unpick the threads, she finds herself entwined with a ghost from her own past, and in conflict with the owner of a project that threatens to destroy the goddess’s sacred land.
With Halloween approaching, and someone determined to protect the goddess at all costs, can Martha and Summers catch the killer before they strike again, and this time much closer to home.
When another teenager goes missing in the remote landscape, Martha is drawn into the investigation, teaming up with DI Derek Summers, as malevolent rumours begin to spread and paranoia grows.
As darkness descends on the village of Strathbran, it soon becomes clear that no one is safe, including Martha…
My Review
As with the first Martha Strangeways book, Crow Moon, I still struggle with knowing that Martha’s three-year-old twins had died in a fire. I understand it gives depth to her character, but it still makes it hard to read. Somehow, it doesn’t seem necessary.
But moving on, I love everything else about the book. Anything Gothic, folklore, local myths is probably my favourite genre.
Basically, the premise of the book revolves around a local legend in which the Bone Mother goddess protects the land. There is a shrine dedicated to her. Disturbing the shrine will cause havoc for those around. But a developer is going to flood the land where he is building an energy plant, using sustainable methods. So which is more important? A Facebook group has been set up encouraging young women to trek alone to the shrine. ‘Alone’ should have rung a few bells.
Then an ear is found with a Celtic earring followed by a body with a matching earring. It all looks ritualistic but is it connected to the trek? DI Derek Summers of Glasgow CID calls on Martha to help him investigate the killing as things take a more sinister turn.
The story is far more complex than I have made it sound, with quite a few characters you will both love and hate. In fact there are a lot of characters, but it’s not at all confusing as with some books. And as with Crow Moon, the whole story is creepy and atmospheric, with a modern Gothic feel, set in the village of Strathbran (the name means Glen of Ravens), in a remote part of Scotland. It’s just my kind of book.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
About the Author
Originally from the north east of England, former journalist Suzy Aspley has lived in Scotland for almost 30 years. She writes crime and short stories often inspired by the strange things she sees in the landscape around her. She won Bloody Scotland’s Pitch Perfect in 2019 with the original idea for her debut novel and was shortlisted in the London Capital crime festival’s new voices award. Her novel, Crow Moon, was longlisted for the Caledonian Novel Award, and shortlisted for the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize and the Val McDermid Debut Award. Herald Scotland called it 2024’s most ‘eagerly awaited debut’. She lives in Stirlingshire with her family and multiple dogs.
About Orenda Books
Orenda Books is a small independent publishing company specialising in literary fiction with a heavy emphasis on crime/thrillers, and approximately half the list in translation. They’ve been twice shortlisted for the Nick Robinson Best Newcomer Award at the IPG awards, and publisher and owner Karen Sullivan was a Bookseller Rising Star in 2016. In 2018, they were awarded a prestigious Creative Europe grant for their translated books programme. Three authors, including Agnes Ravatn, Matt Wesolowski and Amanda Jennings have been WHSmith Fresh Talent picks, and Ravatn’s The Bird Tribunal was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award, won an English PEN Translation Award, and adapted for BBC Radio Four ’s Book at Bedtime. Six titles have been short- or long-listed for the CWA Daggers. Launched in 2014 with a mission to bring more international literature to the UK market, Orenda Books publishes a host of debuts, many of which have gone on to sell millions worldwide, and looks for fresh, exciting new voices that push the genre in new directions. Bestselling authors include Ragnar Jonasson, Antti Tuomainen, Gunnar Staalesen, Michael J. Malone, Kjell Ola Dahl, Louise Beech, Johana Gustawsson, Lilja Sigurðardóttir and Sarah Stovell.
WAS AN ASSASSIN’S ROLE AKIN TO A CEO’S ROLE? BOTH NEEDED SOME SUSPENSION OF MORALITY, A WILLINGNESS TO DO THINGS THAT MOST WOULD NOT, OR COULD NOT.
After retiring from active corporate life, sixty-year-old Ishmael Dollah keeps himself busy with regular runs around the city, tennis at the club and his book club meets. Life is good—a bit staid maybe, but good. That is until, one day, he hears of his beloved daughter-in-law’s rumoured affair. Suddenly Ishmael’s perfect world is turned upside down.
Never one to give in, Ishmael decides to take matters into his own hands. He’ll apply his sharp mind and ruthless boardroom tactics to plan not a hostile takeover, but a carefully orchestrated act of vengeance.
As he treads the fine line between right and wrong, blurring it to suit his needs, Ishmael realises he rather enjoys the process. Sixty Is the New Assassin is an intriguing blend of dark humour and suspense that will keep the reader hooked up to the very end.
My Review
This was hilarious! I loved every minute. I did guess a couple of things, but I think I was supposed to.
Sixty-year-old Ishmael Dollah is an asshole. Not my words – he calls himself that all the time. He’s a retired CEO, the ruthless type that takes companies and breaks them apart, leaving people jobless and desperate, but he doesn’t care. His wife Nysa is a kind, creative, beautiful woman. Why they are together is anyone’s guess.
They have one son whose wife is like a daughter to them. Then one day at a company ‘do’, Ishmael hears a rumour that she is having an affair and he decides to interfere. NEVER interfere in your grown-up children’s lives. It can only end in disaster. To make things worse, he doesn’t confide in Nysa, so she even imagines Ishmael is the one having an affair. He’s up to something, she can tell when he’s lying.
Now at this point, most people would talk to their son, or his wife, or suggest marriage guidance, or divorce or whatever. But not Ishmael. When he takes things into his own hands, we know it’s going to be murder. Because the book is called Sixty Is The New Assassin. I just loved it! Ishmael has no boundaries or moral compass, which makes it even funnier. I just may never use chopsticks again.
Many thanks to Hygge Book Tours for inviting me to be part of the #blogtour
About the Author
For many years, Shesh was an author in denial. He wrote stories and articles but shared them only withhis family and close friends, and felt like an imposter doing so.
Two years ago, Radhika, his wife and muse, gave him an ultimatum. Publish or perish, she said. Given that her kitchen was stocked with sharp implements and unlabelled bottles containing suspicious powders, Shesh began writing in earnest. When Earnest objected, Shesh moved to his laptop.
Sixty Is The New Assassin is the first of 12 novels – The CEO Assassin series. Featuring Ishmael Dollah, an unremarkable retired CEO, the series traces the evolution of a corporate honcho into a remorseless assassin. Set in Singapore, the ‘safest country in the world’, Ishmael’s targets find their misplaced complacence fatal. Ishmael Dollah finds that he is well suited to graduate into his new vocation. In his
years as a CEO, he has learnt to be amoral, relentless and goal-focused. The perfect qualities for someone who needs to take a life and then attend a cocktail reception.
Shesh is a voracious reader. He has always been irritated by protagonists ruled by angst or past tragedies. Ishmael has no such qualms. He is a happy, well adjusted assassin with no dark secrets. Ishmael loves his family, his country, and his life. Murder is just icing on the cake.
The second book in the series, Assassins Are Our Greatest Assets came out in January 2026, and the next in the series is slated for September 2026.
Shesh can be reached only if you have an assignment for Ishmael Dollah.
Shesh is married to Singapore’s best home baker, Radhika (www.sinsationsbyradhika.com). They have two children, both of whom are in Singapore building a start-up in the physical fitness space.
Where can you find him?
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@radreads_25
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Nearly 500 years ago, a woman was burned… and this village never forgot.
Lonely widow Susan Reid, scarred by a childhood accident, makes an impulsive decision to start again in a remote Cornish village. Polherron is picturesque, steeped in myths and ancient traditions – the perfect place to disappear into a quieter life.
As Susan settles in, she becomes drawn to a local legend: Edyth Legge, a young woman burned for witchcraft in the sixteenth century. With the village preparing for the Day of the Haegtesse — an annual festival marking the anniversary of Edyth’s death — Susan begins to sense she’s being watched. Then, when a child goes missing, the cracks in Polherron’s charm begin to show.
Bookstagram Tour: 5th – 11th May
Genre: Gothic | Mystery | Folklore | Psychological Thriller
Pages: 326
Publisher: Bloodhound Books
She soon meets Jeremiah, a hermit who lives near the Dipping Pool – the place Edyth was tortured during the witch trials. Susan bonds with Jeremiah, and despite her fears about some of the locals, she trusts her new friend. And as the festival approaches and long-buried rituals stir back to life, Susan realises that this idyllic village hides a secretive community steeped in dark folklore.
Can Susan find the strength to confront her past and the people around her before the village decides her fate?
My Review
I love a bit of Gothic mystery, mythology and folklore so I knew this book would be right up my street. It’s creepy and atmospheric and set in a hot summer where the heat adds to the sense of dread.
At the age of three, now 63-year-old widow Susan Reid was scarred in a terrible accident in her home. Her birth parents were convicted of child neglect and she went to live with her adopted family. After her husband Robert died young, followed by her mother and then her father, both of whom she cared for, Susan feels she has no purpose in life, her ever-growing pile of tablets are lined up, just in case.
Then one day an old friend suggests she take a holiday, so off she goes to rural Cornwall, where she has a lovely week and ends up being persuaded to buy a cottage in a village called Polherron, by estate agent and ‘Mester’ Colin Hussey. Locals warn her off and even the taxi doesn’t want to drop her there, but she goes ahead anyway.
The village has an annual tradition called the Day of the Haegtesse, in memory of a young woman – Edyth Legge – who was burnt at the stake for being a witch in the sixteenth century. Witches were tried first by being ducked underwater. If they drowned they were innocent, if they survived they were burnt at the stake. Not exactly a win-win situation.
One of the reasons Edyth was thought to be a witch was a birthmark on her face in the exact same place as Susan’s scar. I’m not going to tell the whole story – suffice to say it’s all getting a bit uncomfortable for Susan and the only person she can really trust is Jeremiah, know as The Hermit.
It’s a great story, full of myth, suspense and a sense of foreboding. I think we know what’s going to happen, we just don’t believe it. My only reservation is that it could have moved a bit quicker, but I loved it anyway.
Many thanks to @lovebookstours for inviting me to be part of #TheBoneGarden tour.
About the Author
Tess Burnett grew up in Hertfordshire before moving to beautiful Dorset. She currently lives in the mountains of rural Ireland, where she runs a tiny holiday rental with her husband.
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