Month: December 2020

Blog Tour: ‘Foul Play’ card game

Something a bit different on the blog today – a blog tour stop for a new murder mystery card game!

This blog tour has been arranged by Damp Pebbles Blog Tours – with thanks to After Dark for my copy of the game in exchange for an honest review. As always, opinions are entirely my own.

From the Game Creators:

FOUL PLAY

The Murder Mystery Card Game

The Manor House Murder

A game for 2 – 5 players | Age 14 +

£8.95 + p&p

www.foulplaygame.co.uk

Facebook : @afterdarkmystery | Twitter : @afterdarkmurder | Instagram : @afterdarkmurder

Email : info@afterdarkmurder.co.uk

The Game

Welcome to Edwardian England. The Lord of the Manor is dead! The servants are our lead suspects and it’s up to you to unearth the evidence, seek out the suspects and catch the culprit in order to scupper the other sleuths, and win this game of murder!

There’s more than one way to catch a killer though. So what’s it gonna be? Good Cop or Bad Cop? These two game versions come with their own set of rules and tactics to crack the case and finger your suspect, but will you use fair play or FOUL PLAY?

The Game is Afoot! Playing as detective, you’ll need to find the three evidence cards that point to a specific suspect in order to catch a killer in this crazy criminal caper. Will you uncover them in the crime scene? Could the other detectives be willing to collaborate and share their findings? Or will you resort to more tricky tactics, and plunder the proof you need to solve this crime?

History of Foul Play

What’s a Murder Mystery Events Company to do?

With a pandemic sweeping the nation and no sign of being able to perform their confounding criminal cabarets or incredible interactive investigations any time soon, they needed to come up with a plan, another way to provide mystery to the masses (and provide income to keep themselves afloat)!

Well, lockdown does strange things to people, especially actors who can’t go out and perform. So one fateful evening, Ben & Lee Cooper-Muir decided to come up with a whole new way to murder people. Keeping their cards close to their chests they plotted and schemed until Foul Play : The Murder Mystery Card Game was born. So, what to do next? This is where After Dark enters the picture. After all, Ben and Lee were two of the operators of the infamous murder mystery company. Maybe they could collaborate to bring the game to the masses. When Lockdown restrictions were eased a top-secret meeting was held with the other criminal masterminds behind After Dark, Helen Burrows, Sophie Webster & Tom Fisher and a pact was made. The game would be launched and licensed under the After Dark banner.  In true After Dark style, the team burst into action and then began the beta testing, design updates, promotional planning, character changes, proofing, proofing and more proofing until finally all the kinks were ironed out, mysteries solved, and FOUL PLAY came to life!

We hope you enjoy playing it, and although we all hope to be back performing soon, WATCH THIS SPACE! Now we know we can create and produce games we’ve got a lot more fun things planned for the future! 

My Review:

I jumped at the chance to review a murder mystery card game on my blog – my family love a game and Cluedo is a favourite so I hoped we would enjoy this one.

The premise is easy to understand – you either play the ‘good cop’ version where you race to find the culprit, or ‘bad cop’ mode where you try to frame anyone you can!

We played the first go through as a bit of a dummy run but that was all we needed – after this, even my 10 year-old took to the game quickly and had no problems following play. The trickiest bit was working out the playing space with the ‘crime scene’ and other piles of cards. We did find the ‘bad cop’ version a bit easier to follow for the children though as this was more about collecting combinations of cards and so a bit simpler than competing to deduce the single solution in the ‘good cop’ mode.

The game itself isn’t complicated but takes a bit of brain-work and following the cards held by other players – if you lose concentration then you are in for a frustrating time as you chase clues and try to avoid the useless red herrings!

The game cards are well made and the illustrations are appealing – I loved the range of culprits and the way that the clues gradually narrow them down based on their clothes, physical appearance and other items in their pictures.

We played mainly as a 3 – me and my 12 year-old son and 10 year-old daughter. This worked really well and we had a lot of fun stealing clues from each other, collaborating or passing off the dreaded red herrings. The game worked well as a game for 4 too on the occasion we managed to rope in my husband for a round.

The game is suggested for those aged 14+ but my children had no problems picking up the game and there was no unsuitable content – nothing they aren’t already familiar with through Cluedo, anyway. In fact, my daughter won every single game we have played so far which is either incredible luck or more skill than the rest of us have!

I’d recommend this as a fun family card game. It doesn’t take long to learn to play and I think it has plenty of scope for repeated playing – each round would be different and varied. It certainly was a winner with my family and will be a game we play many more times over this Christmas period.

WWW Wednesday – 9th December, 2020


WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Taking on a World of Words. Anyone can take part and it is a great way of sharing what you have just finished reading, what you are currently reading and what is next on the TBR.

Links are provided for books already published – thanks for supporting my blog with any purchases (at no extra cost to you!)

What have you recently finished reading?

I’ve just finished ‘Lie Beside Me’ by Gytha Lodge which was one of the NetGalley 2021 ARCs that I was keen to read. This is a story that opens with a woman waking up next to a dead man she doesn’t recognise…and then follows the police investigation to determine the killer. It’s the latest in the series featuring DCI Sheens and it is another solid and tense police procedural. A review will follow nearer publication date but fans of Lodge’s previous books will not be disappointed.

I’ve also just finished listening to ‘Going Solo’ by Roald Dahl which is read by Dan Stevens. My kids and I loved the audiobook of ‘Boy’, the book before this one, and enjoyed the tales of Dahl’s experiences working for the Shell Company in Africa and flying for the RAF in World War II. This was a nostalgic one for me because I read this book repeatedly as a child. It is darker than I remember and my daughter didn’t love it as much as ‘Boy’ for this reason, but I think it is still a classic.

What are you reading now?

I am reading a *TOP SECRET* book which I’m not allowed to talk about yet because I’m on the BBYNA judging panel which will announce its winners before Christmas.

I’m also working my way through some lighter reads – I’ve started both Claudia Winkelman’s ‘Quite’ and ‘Toksvig’s Almanac 2021’ by Sandi Toksvig (which I bought after seeing her speak about it at a live online event). I felt like I needed a cheery read to get me through to the end of term! I’ve got the Toksvig book on audio too through NetGalley and it is lovely to hear Sandi’s cheery voice narrating.

What do you think you will read next?

I still have a shocking NetGalley backlog but ‘Hyde’ by Craig Russell is up next, as well as ‘Dangerous Women’ by Hope Adams.

The new Katie Fforde book (‘A Wedding in the Country’) is also calling me as a lighter read!

Header photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash.

Blog Tour: ‘The Watchful Neighbour’ by Debbie Viggiano

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for ‘The Watchful Neighbour’ by Debbie Viggiano. Today is also the publication day of this book so do buy your copy now!

This is a blog tour for Rachel’s Random Resources and I thank Rachel and the author for my copy of the book for review. As always, opinions are my own.

From the Publisher

When Jade Ferguson’s affair with a married man abruptly ends, she’s devastated.

There is no quick fix for a broken heart.  A fresh start is required.

New job. New home. New neighbours.

The residents of Gresham Terrace seem pleasant enough.

Except for one…

An absolutely gripping debut psychological thriller.

Purchase Links

US – https://www.amazon.com/Watchful-Neighbour-absolutely-psychological-thriller-ebook/dp/B08MDL32X4

UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Watchful-Neighbour-absolutely-psychological-thriller-ebook/dp/B08MDL32X4

My Review

I do like a psychological thriller – something creepy and tense that doesn’t end with the main character’s husband being a secret killer! It seemed a no-brainer when I was invited on this tour – no serial killer husbands in sight!

In this story, Jade Ferguson finds herself down on her luck. Her affair with a married man has got her fired, she had a breakdown and he never even left his wife as he promised (shock!) She finds herself in a little rented house on Gresham Terrace and working in a job she hates to make ends meet.

Jade’s suspicions are raised about a man called Greg Good who is the local Neighbourhood Watch contact and who just happens to be her neighbour. She is sure that he is being a little too watchful over her and hates the fact that he is a key holder for her landlord…

As Jade’s certainty grows that Greg is causing trouble, the other residents of Gresham Terrace can’t seem to see the problem. So is it all in Jade’s mind?

What I liked about this book was the fact that Jade is established as an unreliable narrator from the beginning. She has spent time in a psychiatric unit prior to the events of the novel and the reader is never sure what is her own paranoia and what is real. This continues all the way through the book as strange things happen and the reader is kept in the dark about the truth. This kept me guessing and I liked the fact that I was never sure!

I also liked the fact that the action nearly all takes place within a few homes in Gresham Terrace. This gave the book a claustrophobic feel as Jade and her neighbours navigated their relationships with each other. Indeed, there are few outlets for Jade to discuss her feelings as she is presented as not getting on with her work colleagues and not being close to her family – this made it more tense as the reader constantly questioned what the sane onlooker would make of her behaviour.

The plot itself is clever and constantly twists away from what is expected – all the little things that happen to Jade seem to escalate but might have rational explanations (up to a point). It certainly kept me turning the pages as I was keen to know what happened.

My only quibble was that I guessed some of the ending but I’m not giving any spoilers to explain that further!

I’d recommend this to anyone who enjoys psychological thrillers that feel tense and claustrophobic – this one has a small cast but Viggiano is excellent at making us constantly question our feelings about all of them!

About the Author

Prior to turning her attention to writing, Debbie Viggiano was, for more years than she cares to remember, a legal secretary. She lives with her Italian husband, a rescued pooch from Crete, and a very disgruntled cat. Occasionally her adult children return home bringing her much joy… apart from when they want to raid the fridge or eat her secret stash of chocolate. Tweet @DebbieViggiano or follow her on Facebook!

Social Media Links –

Twitter: @DebbieViggiano

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/debbie.viggiano.5

Instagram: debbieviggiano

‘My Dark Vanessa’ by Kate Elizabeth Russell

This novel – published in March 2020 – is one that I’ve seen a lot of discussion about on book Twitter. With that in mind, I thought I’d revisit my review which was written pre-blog.

Vanessa Wye is 32 years old and working in an upmarket hotel when we first meet her. Gradually, the story of what has brought her to this point in her life is revealed and it’s a shocking and sad story.

As a 15 year old, she became involved with her boarding school teacher, a 45 year old man called Jacob Strane. His relationships with underage girls are being investigated by the school and media and Vanessa is asked for her experiences.

What makes this a very uncomfortable read is that it is narrated in the first person by Vanessa. The grooming and abuse is revealed in graphic detail, but the most shocking element is that Vanessa feels that she is the exception to Strane’s victims, the one he truly loved.

The reader is put in the difficult position of seeing Vanessa and Jacob’s relationship for what it truly is – a predatory older man abusing a schoolgirl – while Vanessa cannot. She defends him while the reader can see that he is an inadequate, manipulative and repulsive man who takes advantage of a vulnerable child.

I cannot say that I enjoyed this (as it is an uncomfortable read), but it was certainly an eye-opener. It made me realise why some victims do not speak out and why some might actually defend their abusers.

Vanessa is a highly believable character and the story follows her thought processes in a way that the reader can understand even as they see how she is being manipulated. The impact of the abuse on Vanessa’s life is evident: at 32, she struggles to maintain relationships and is a drink and drug user.

Although the book isn’t enjoyable in a conventional sense, I am so glad that this story has been told. Too often, abuse victims are portrayed as flirtatious, knowing young women whereas here is a girl whose innocence is destroyed by a person in a position of trust – although she feels responsible for the events, the reader is in no doubt that the blame lies entirely with the adult.

An important, well-written but ultimately uncomfortable read.

If you’d like a copy of this book, please use my affiliate link. This generates a small amount of commission for me at no extra cost to you – thank you for supporting my blog!

Header photo with thanks to Element5 Digital for sharing their work on Unsplash.

‘Rebecca’ by Daphne du Maurier

In November, the readalong book for the lovely bunch at The Write Reads was ‘Rebecca’ by Daphne du Maurier, a book we arrived at after a voting process.

I’ll admit, I wasn’t wildly excited to read this one as I had had multiple attempts at it before, never getting beyond the Monte Carlo section at the start of the novel. It seemed too slow and I was profoundly irritated by the narrator. Still, I thought I’d give it another go.

I need to say at this juncture that I probably would have fallen at the same hurdle as before if it hadn’t been for the reading group and their hilarious takes on the events of the novel. Thank you all for keeping me going!

It is virtually impossible to write about a book that people know (and love) so deeply! My own feelings about the novel are actually very mixed, so here’s what I thought:

The Good…

Despite this being a hugely popular book and everyone in the world (seemingly) knowing the story, I had somehow managed to avoid all spoilers. What happened, then, came as an absolute surprise to me! In a good way, I think, as I was expecting endless more Monte Carlo dinners and points of etiquette…which I really wasn’t in the market for. A startling amount of dramatic things happen in the novel which I really didn’t anticipate given my extensive knowledge of the early part of the book and the dinner rituals of wealthy travellers.

For me, one of the strengths of the book was Manderley itself. I loved the fact that the house takes on such an imposing presence in the book and the description is atmospheric. There is a real sense of impending doom even in the exposition about how beautiful Manderley is at the start of the novel and I was intrigued.

I also thought that some of the characters were excellent – Mrs Danvers is chillingly awful, Beatrice is lovely but clueless and I liked the calmness of Frank – in an otherwise crazy cast, Frank acted as the totem of sanity by which all others could be measured! I also liked the bits with a dog, to (mis)quote ‘Shakespeare in Love.

My absolute favourite line in the whole book was ‘I had an uneasy feeling we might be asked to spend the approaching Christmas with Beatrice. Perhaps I could have influenza.’ Hurrah! Du Maurier has a sense of humour, I feel seen and all is well. That feeling didn’t last, but it was a high point for me.

The Bad…

My main issue with the novel was the narrator. The emphasis on her being young and naïve was wearying – I understand why the character was established like this in order to contextualise the later character arc, but it was repetitive and I lost all sympathy for her. She was the ultimate wet blanket at the start…and don’t even get me started on her reactions to Maxim’s ‘news’ later on.

I really don’t want to give spoilers so I’ll be vague – I thought there were some really odd moments all centred round the narrator’s immaturity. Yes, we can blame the narrator’s naivety to some extent, but these made her seem like a small child. The whole costume ball thing was weird, the reaction to the smashed ornament bizarre and she also runs away from visitors.

Actually, re-reading that, I kind of get the visitor thing…

Still, I didn’t find her a particularly sympathetic narrator and it was hard to empathise with her and her strange ideas. One of the weirdest was her obsession with Maxim who – I thought – seemed like a distinctly cold fish. I didn’t see the appeal at all. At any point.

And the Ugly…

Some of the novel is clearly ‘of its time’ and I don’t want to get into the politics of applying our modern sensibilities to history. I think we live and learn and it is sometimes useful to see relics of an earlier time, be shocked, and realise how far we’ve come. Still, the descriptions of Ben were uncomfortable.

So, there we have it. Another classic ticked off the bucket list and an enjoyable experience that probably has more to do with my reading buddies than the book itself. Still, I did quite like it – I’m not sure it would persuade me to read anything else by du Maurier, although I am glad I read this one.

To summarise, a mixed bag of a book for me but Manderley and the twisty plot kept me going, even as I cursed the general feebleness of the narrator.

WWW Wednesday – 2nd December, 2020


WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Taking on a World of Words. Anyone can take part and it is a great way of sharing what you have just finished reading, what you are currently reading and what is next on the TBR.

Affiliate links are provided for books – thanks for supporting my blog with any purchases (at no extra cost to you!)

What have you recently finished reading?

It’s been a slow reading week as I’ve found it quite hard to concentrate on books – my mind has moved into Christmas mode and I’ve spent a long time online shopping. Black Friday was not helpful with my attempt to stem the book buying…

I finally finished with the readalong of ‘Rebecca’ by Daphne du Maurier with The Write Reads lovelies. Their cheery chat, wild speculation and hilarious takes on the novel kept me going and I did even grow to quite enjoy this book. I still think the ending is more ‘huh?’ than I’d like, but my review will be up tomorrow.

I also read ‘The Last House on Needless Street’ by Catriona Ward, an ARC that’s due for publication next year. I thought I’d race through this, but it proved darker and murkier than I anticipated. My review will follow once I have wrapped my brain around what I think of it!

What are you reading now?

I’m going to have to stop mentioning Natalie Haynes’ ‘Pandora’s Jar’ as I have been reading it for an eternity. It is very good, but needs my full attention and that has wandered to Christmas!

I’m reading ‘Lie Beside Me’ by Gytha Lodge and loving the mystery so far. I love this series anyway so I knew this would be a win.

What do you think you will read next?

I’m still really excited about ‘Madam’ by Phoebe Wynne – this is definitely at the top of the pile.

I also feel like I need something cheerful after the batch of murderers and abusers I’ve worked my way through in literature form recently. They’re not my usual genres, but I’m thinking ‘The Summer Job’ by Lizzie Dent or ‘A Wedding in the Country’ by Katie Fforde might do nicely – thanks to NetGalley for the ARCs.

As always, thanks to NetGalley, publishers and authors for giving me opportunities to read some fabulous books. Opinions are always entirely my own and not influenced by free copies of books.

Header photo with thanks to Sincerely Media for sharing their work on Unsplash.