From the Publisher:
A ransacked room. A dead politician. A burglary gone wrong–or a staged murder?
THE DETECTIVE
DS George Cross loves puzzles–he’s good at them–and he immediately spots one when he begins investigating the death of former mayor Peggy Frampton. It looks like a burglary that went horribly wrong to most but George can see what others can’t–that this was murder.
Continue reading Blog Tour: ‘The Politician’ by Tim SullivanWelcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for ‘The Woman in the Wood’, the second book in the series featuring DI Sasha Dawson.
Thanks to Random Things Tours and Head of Zeus for my copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
This book was published in hardback in March 2021 – this blog tour coincides with the paperback publication.
From the Publisher:
A reality TV star becomes a suspect in an Essex murder case in the sharp, funny and moving new thriller from M.K. Hill.
Three years ago, Danny ‘Abs’ Cruikshank, star of reality show ‘Laid in Essex!’, was living the dream. And then, on the night of the party, everything changed.
It was supposed to be an intimate weekend gathering. Just a few close friends in a remote cottage in Wales. But after a night of heavy drinking in the village pub, a local girl was reported missing, presumed dead. Abs and his friends had been the last to see her alive.
No-one was ever charged, but the controversy destroyed Abs’s career. So now, three years later, the celebrity who once captured the heart of millions is opening Southend’s new branch of Quidstore. And then one of Abs’s mates is murdered. Does someone know what really happened that night in Wales?
DI Sasha Dawson and her team must race against the clock to find the killer before they strike again – but first she must discover what happened to Rhiannon Jenkins on the night she vanished. Will the truth set Abs free? Or bury him?
My Review:
Crime fiction is my go-to genre so I was delighted to get a place on the blog tour for ‘The Woman in the Wood’ by M. K. Hill. I haven’t read the first book in the DI Sasha Dawson series, but this works beautifully as a stand alone.
The novel opens with the death of a man on Hockley Station and DI Sasha Dawson of Essex Police is called in to investigate. She recognises the victim’s name from a list of people questioned about the disappearance of a young woman in Wales three years previously – a disappearance that made headline news as a star of reality TV show ‘Laid in Essex!’, ‘Abs’ Cruikshank, was also questioned.
As Sasha and her team look deeper into the events surrounding the mysterious death, it seems that Abs and his friends are again going to be forced back into the spotlight…
When I picked up the book, I hadn’t really registered the Essex connection – it was lovely to read a book about the areas I grew up in, even if the events are slightly sinister! Hockley, Hadleigh, Southend, Chelmsford…I could picture it all! Even the reality TV dimension – here ‘Laid in Essex!’ – was familiar to me; anyone who has lived in Essex has surely been repeatedly asked if they know ‘Sugar Hut’ in Brentwood, the club featured in ‘The Only Way is Essex’. Reality TV and Essex – it seems – go hand in hand in people’s minds.
(Answer: no, I’ve never been there, Sorry).
Essex connection aside, I could not put this book down. I have cooked meals, done chores and generally ignored my family in the company of DI Sasha Dawson!
One of the real strengths of the book is the plotting. As the novel progresses, we find out more about the fateful night in Wales when the young woman went missing and this thread is cleverly entwined with the present-day lives of those who were there. There were so many twists and turns on the way through this story that I’m surprised I don’t have whiplash! There are some really tense moments too as the characters fight for survival against an unknown threat.
I also really liked the character of DI Sasha Dawson – she’s a likeable, slightly workaholic forty-something who is juggling her stressful job with family life. I could definitely relate to Sasha, although I wasn’t sure whether references to her family tragedy perhaps relate to the first book in the series. Definitely one I need to look into!
Overall, I thought this was a clever and engaging police procedural. The supposedly glamorous reality TV element is interesting but never overshadows the grim truth of the murder investigation – and the race to the finale is proper heart-in-mouth territory. I’d recommend this to anyone who likes their crime novels packed with tension, twists and turns – there is so much to get your teeth into here.
About the Author:
Mark Hill was a journalist and an award-winning music radio producer before becoming a full-time writer. The first novel in the Sasha Dawson series, ‘The Bad Place’, was described as ‘everything a police procedural should be’ by The Times, who also named it as their Crime Book of the Month. He lives in London.
Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for ‘The Distant Dead’ by Lesley Thomson, the latest in the Detective’s Daughter series.
Thanks to the publisher, Head of Zeus, for inviting me on the blog tour and for gifting me a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
From the Publisher:
A woman lies dead in a bombed-out house. A tragic casualty of the Blitz? Or something more sinister? Sixty years later, the detective’s daughter unearths the truth… From the number 1 bestselling author of The Detective’s Daughter.
LONDON, 1940
Several neighbours heard the scream of the woman in the bombed-out house. One told the detective she thought the lady had seen a mouse. Another said it wasn’t his business what went on behind closed doors. None of them imagined that a trusting young woman was being strangled by her lover.
TEWKESBURY, 2020
Beneath the vast stone arches of Tewkesbury Abbey, a man lies bleeding, close to death. He is the creator of a true-crime podcast which now will never air. He was investigating the murder of a 1940s police pathologist – had he come closer to the truth than he realised?
Stella Darnell has moved to Tewkesbury to escape from death, not to court it. But when this man dies in her arms, Stella, impelled to root out evil when she finds it, becomes determined to hunt down his killer and to bring the secrets he was searching for into the light…
My Review:
I was drawn to this book by the prospect of a dual narrative – 1940 and 2019 – because I love the idea of the events of the past having their echoes in the present day.
This book begins with the murder of a young woman, Maple Greenhill, in a house abandoned during the Blitz in London during the Second World War. Although her murderer is revealed early on, this crime continues to reverberate down the years as people involved with the original investigation are hiding secrets. When a true crime podcaster is murdered in 2019 in Tewkesbury Abbey, it seems he was about to reveal something about the 1940 murder…
I loved the premise of this book and the balance between 1940 and 2019 is managed well by the writer. As a sucker for historical fiction, I particularly loved the 1940 scenes and some engaging writing about London in the war.
This is the eighth book in the series to feature Stella Darnell who is (from what I gathered) a cleaner and private investigator who has ended up fleeing London and settling in Tewkesbury. However, her new job cleaning Tewkesbury Abbey doesn’t provide her with much escape from her investigative past and it isn’t long before she is at the centre of a new mystery.
I think this book would probably be slightly easier to follow if you have read the previous ones in the series. Although a lot of the back-story is explained, I did find it a bit tricky to remember some of the finer details and get a sense of some of the characters – I guess they would be familiar if you know the series.
That said, I liked Stella as a main character – she seemed strong and clever, resilient and engaging. I didn’t fully understand the situation with Jack, but I liked him too – and the marvellous Lucie.
The novel is really well plotted – it kept me reading as I tried to keep one step ahead of Stella and her investigations. I totally failed, fell for every red herring going and didn’t identify the final solution – hats off to anyone who does because it is very involved and cleverly revealed.
I’d recommend this especially to those who are already familiar with the series and the relationship between Jack and Stella, the cleaning agency and the reasons Stella is in Tewkesbury. For those new to the series, I’d still recommend the writer but perhaps suggest starting with book one. However, this writer clearly has lots to offer so do pick up a copy!
About the Author:
Lesley Thomson is the author of the Detective’s Daughter series of West London-set mysteries featuring private investigators Stella, a cleaner, and Jack, a tube driver. The first novel, The Detective’s Daughter, became an ebook phenomenon in 2013, staying at number 1 in the digital charts for 3 months. Since then, the series has gone on to sell 800,000 copies worldwide. Lesley is an active member of the UK crimewriting community, and appeared at several crime festivals in 2019, including CrimeFest, Harrogate, Morecambe & Vice and Capital Crime. She lives in Lewes with her partner and her dog.
