Blog Tour: ‘Stealing the Spanish Princess’ by Bea Green

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for ‘Stealing the Spanish Princess’ by Bea Green, a clever art crime mystery with an eccentric detective.

With thanks to Random Things Tours for my copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

From the Publisher:

In this captivating and dazzling art crime mystery, eccentric detective Richard Langley hunts for a 16th-century masterpiece by the artist El Greco. 

The thief stole the priceless painting from an apartment in Kensington, London, and in the process knifed to death a Russian woman. 

DCI Richard Langley from Scotland Yard’s Art and Antiquities Unit joins colleagues from Homicide as they pursue a trail that leads them to St Petersburg and then to Madrid. 

Following closely in their footsteps is a maverick private investigator hired by the painting’s owner. Knowing how hard it is to sell on stolen artworks of that calibre, Richard wonders what the motive behind its theft might be. 

The answer, when it comes, takes everyone by surprise.

My Review:

As someone who loves crime novels, I’ve always kind of wondered what kind of detective I’d make. However, my squeamishness would inevitably exclude me from anything too nasty or gritty or potentially unpleasant – so I’d kind of considered a place on the police art fraud team about my only option!

It turns out DCI Richard Langley – the focus of this novel – got my job.

In this book, DCI Richard Langley of Scotland Yard’s Art and Antiquities Unit joins forces with the Homicide team to solve the mystery of a missing painting and a dead woman. The painting’s Russian owner is keen to reclaim his painting – apparently verified as being by famed artist El Greco – and perhaps less concerned about the demise of his girlfriend, left bleeding in the bedroom where the painting was cut from its frame. Langley and his colleagues follow a trail that takes them across Europe and which leads to some interesting revelations…

I’ll admit that this book hooked me in from the start – a scene in which Langley is scrutinising a mummified foot and pondering the nature of looted antiquities. I found the art crime bits really interesting – I found out a lot about how paintings are verified, restored, copied and stolen.

Although DCI Langley seems to be a department of one (I guess there isn’t too much funding for his line of work when more pressing policing matters need attention), the addition of the Homicide team is welcome here. CI Abdul Hazim is an interesting partner to give DCI Langley on this case, but it is DI Eilidh Simmons who steals the show – she is my favourite character of the three and (I hope) a possible love interest for Richard if this book becomes a series. Please let this book become a series!

Richard himself is a likeable lead, although I wanted to know him a little better – I did have questions as he is a bit of an enigma in some regards. He comes across as an academic trapped in Scotland Yard and surrounded by people who neither understand nor care about his passion for art. The fact his office is deep in the basement and forgotten about is telling for the reader (but appreciated by Richard!) In my head, he’s like a sexy Indiana Jones of the art world…definitely a figure I can get behind!

Another really appealing aspect of this novel is the setting. Although the story starts in London, we also travel (with Richard Langley) to Madrid and St Petersburg – the latter instantly recognisable from my own travels there and I longed to wander the Hermitage Museum a little longer with my art expert.

I also loved that the missing painting was so much more than just an expensive stolen canvas. In the hands of the writer, this became a vivid portrait with a back-story and historical significance. I really wanted to see the picture so it was interesting to read in Bea Green’s biography (below) about the inspiration for the novel.

I’d heartily recommend this to those crime fiction fans who like a story told with intelligence, wit and verve. This isn’t your standard police procedural as the investigation is multi-layered, Europe-wide and not always totally above board (thanks to maverick private investigator Mike Telford). It is a fascinating and lively novel and I hope there will be more to come from this writer.

About the Author:

Bea Green has had a somewhat roving life as the daughter of a British diplomat. Her mother is Spanish and growing up Bea spent every summer at her grandfather’s olive tree farm in Andalusia. This olive tree farm was the inspiration for her contemporary romance book, La Finca.

Bea studied Art throughout school and then did Art History for two of her four years at St Andrews University, where she met her husband. She graduated with an MA in English Literature.

Her interest in art was fostered by her father and her Spanish grandmother. Her Spanish grandmother accompanied her to many of Madrid’s art galleries and several of El Prado’s paintings are fondly remembered in Bea’s art crime book, Stealing the Spanish Princess.

‘Stealing the Spanish Princess’ was inspired by a Spanish painting, Lady in a Fur Wrap, at Pollok House, Glasgow. When Bea wrote ‘Stealing the Spanish Princess’ there was a huge debate among art experts about the painting, with some claiming it was painted by El Greco. Some experts thought the painting was of Princess Catalina Micaela, daughter of the Spanish King, Philip II.

Bea Green has lived in Edinburgh since leaving St Andrews University, with her Glaswegian husband and two daughters. She also maintains close links with her family in Spain.

Woah-oh, I’m halfway there!

I’m halfway to my Goodreads 2021 target of 100 books!

With 50 (mostly) great books under my belt, I thought it was time to take stock and pick my favourites so far.

These five in particular have helped light up my 2021…

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Continue reading Woah-oh, I’m halfway there!

Blog Tour: ‘A Bad Bad Thing’ by Elena Forbes

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for this complex police procedural and the first in a series to feature DCI Eve West.

With thanks to Damp Pebbles for organising the tour and for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Continue reading Blog Tour: ‘A Bad Bad Thing’ by Elena Forbes

How I Choose My TBR

As a life-long bookworm, I’ve made it my mission to read ALL THE BOOKS.

Everything I liked the sound of – added to the TBR. Recommended by someone I trust – added to the TBR. Interesting cover – added to the TBR.

You get the picture – a love of books and an endless TBR.

However, I do (kind of) accept that I cannot read every book.

In fact, my journey into blogging has really made me focus on the elements of books that I really love. I’ve had to really think before I request yet more books – and there are definitely things that tick the boxes for me.

So here we go – an insight into my muddled mind and the TBR that I am desperately trying to tame… I love all these things independently but where they combine is pure magic!

(Disclaimer:  I still reserve the right to read randomly and at whim - that's one of the true pleasure of reading!)
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Continue reading How I Choose My TBR

Blog Tour: ‘Last Place You Look’ by Louisa Scarr

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for ‘Last Place You Look’ by Louisa Scarr. This fab new police procedural will be published by Canelo Crime in paperback and digital formats on 8th April 2021.

This tour is organised by Damp Pebbles. As always, thanks to the publisher, author and tour organiser for my gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

Continue reading Blog Tour: ‘Last Place You Look’ by Louisa Scarr

‘The Islanders’ by S V Leonard

This book was published on 11th March by Canelo.

I’ll admit that I was intrigued by the prospect of this book – a crossover of Agatha Christie’s ‘And Then There Were None’ and Love Island! The idea of a murder mystery under the all-seeing eye of a reality TV programme was definitely an attraction as I’d read and enjoyed ‘Dead Famous’ by Ben Elton on a similar theme many years ago.

This book centres on an ex-police officer, Kimberley King, who is invited to take place on a reality TV programme on a remote Greek island. The show – ‘LoveWrecked’ – is scheduled to have a number of young, beautiful people take part, but only a few make it to the island before it is cut off from the outside world. Along with the show’s producers and a cameraman, the contestants are pulled into a dark and disturbing situation when corpses start turning up with alarming regularity. Who is the Judge pulling all the strings and will anyone survive?

This was an engaging and fun read – I raced through it to find out what happened. It is cleverly plotted and fast-paced – I liked the fact that the narrative was broken up with chapters of news reports or social media feeds or emails. I also enjoyed the fact that – like Kimberley King – I was useless at working out the solution and was kept guessing to the end.

I found I didn’t have much sense of the characters as individuals, although I guess that is partly due to the reality TV element – how much do you really know about people just from watching them interact? The focus is mainly on Kimberley and you do get a bit more of a sense of her. I think I just accepted that the surface-level characterisation and back-stories were inevitable given the social media and reality TV premise.

Yes, some of it is far-fetched and perhaps doesn’t hold water entirely, but I’d recommend you suspend disbelief and just immerse yourself in the story. There’s certainly plenty to keep you reading – lots of dodgy characters to suspect, lots of twists, lots of deaths. It’s a lively story with a fun setting – so just enjoy!

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

If you’d like a copy of this book, please use my affiliate link below – thanks for supporting my blog with any purchases.

Header photo by Raimond Klavins on Unsplash.

‘Lie Beside Me’ by Gytha Lodge

Happy publication day!

This is the third book in the DCI Jonah Sheens series by Gytha Lodge, following on from ‘She Lies in Wait’ and ‘Watching from the Dark’. Both the previous books were excellent, so I was pleased to be granted an advance copy of ‘Lie Beside Me’ for review. As always, opinions are entirely my own.

This book opens with a nightmarish scene – a young woman wakes in her bed with a dead man next to her. She doesn’t recognise him and she cannot remember the events of the night before. DCI Sheens and his team at Southampton Police are called in, but by the time they arrive, things have changed…

What follows is a clever police procedural in which Sheens and his team are called upon to investigate some tangled relationships and shady people with things to hide. As they get nearer to the truth of what happened that snowy night in Southampton, the stakes are raised once again and it is clear that the death is part of something much bigger.

As expected, this is a compelling and engaging story that covers all aspects of the police investigation – we see the interviews with suspects, the pathology, the crime scene examination, the digital analysis and the lives of those investigators at the heart of the Southampton team. For crime fiction fans (me included), this is pretty fascinating stuff – although it might not hit the spot for adrenalin junkies who like their reading more on the thriller side of things. There are some genuinely tense and creepy moments, but the focus is the unpacking of the story of what happened on the night in question.

I really liked the way that the narrative shifted between the investigation and a first-person insight into the woman at the centre of the investigation, Louise Reakes. It was interesting to hear how she started to piece together the events of the evening in tandem with the police team.

Normally I prefer crime novels that focus on the investigation and do not dwell too much on the private lives of the police officers. However, there was a sub-plot in this book centred around a female police officer, Juliette Hanson, which I thought was intriguing – I’d love to see her developed as a character even more in the next novel as she felt particularly authentic and convincing.

Overall, this is another excellent addition to the DCI Jonah Sheens series and one that I would recommend. Although this could easily be read as a stand-alone, I would still suggest starting with the first book in the series as it would enhance your understanding of the team dynamics. This is a lively and well-paced story that will keep you turning the pages to the (satisfying) end.

If you would like a copy of this book, please use my affiliate link below – thanks for supporting my blog with any purchases.

Header photo by J Shim on Unsplash.

‘The Sanatorium’ by Sarah Pearse

This book was published on 18th February, 2021.

The setting of this book was the thing that really drew me in to this novel – a thriller set high in the Swiss Alps, in an old sanatorium turned into a luxury hotel. Throw in a storm and avalanches that cut off the resort from the outside world and you have the perfect recipe for a tense and terrifying murder mystery.

The book centres on Elin Warner, a police officer on extended leave, who arrives at the hotel for her brother’s engagement celebrations. She has many personal struggles in her past and is estranged from her brother, Isaac, so is already uncomfortable with the idea of a family reunion when his fiancée, Laure, goes missing. As Elin starts to investigate the disappearance, the hotel gets cut off from police support and Elin finds herself thrown into a much bigger mystery than she first anticipated…

This book is certainly very tense – there were several points where I think I stopped breathing as I waited to find out what happened! The pace of the novel is well managed and kept me reading as I was keen to discover the truth, and there were plenty of twists along the way.

Pearse handles the setting of the old sanatorium very well – there is something very unnerving about a place of past suffering being turned into a luxury hotel and this is conveyed well. Elin never feels comfortable in the building and this puts the reader constantly on edge as she is faced with stark minimalism in the hotel’s furnishings, uncompromising weather conditions and eerie reminders of the past.

The relationships between the characters are also presented well. There is a real tension between Elin and Isaac which is believable, although I personally didn’t really like the repeated references to their shared past – while explaining their poor relationship, I thought this detracted a bit from the main narrative.

I’d recommend this book to anyone who likes tense and chilling mysteries. It is engaging and lively and will definitely keep you reading until you know what happened and – more importantly – why!

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Header photo by Marsumilae on Unsplash

‘Daughters of Night’ by Laura Shepherd-Robinson

Finally! Happy publication day to this brilliant, 5-star slice of historical fiction!

I’ll admit I read this nearly a year ago before the publication was delayed by the pandemic. For those of you not lucky enough to have an advance copy, the wait is over…please do buy this now.

Here’s my review that I originally filed with NetGalley – thanks to them for a copy of this brilliant book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book so much!  Although it's outside of my usual historical period of interest (I am obsessed with Victorians), I'm glad I took my chances as this is an amazing novel.  

Beautifully written and extensively researched, this is an absolute gem of a historical novel. Although it is ostensibly a murder mystery, that feels too restrictive a genre for this book which roams freely through social history, politics, art and ethics and manages to do so with engaging characters and a pin-sharp focus on historical detail.

Caro Corsham is our heroine here, a character who apparently features in Shepherd-Robinson's first novel, 'Blood and Sugar'. I haven't read the first book but am about to remedy that situation! Caro is a likeable and lively heroine, grappling with her own secrets while also seeking justice for a murder she almost witnesses;. the novel opens with a killing at the pleasure gardens in Vauxhall and it is Caro who finds the dead woman.

This discovery leads Caro (and us as readers) deep into the seedier side of Georgian London, a world of brothels and prostitution and gin houses and moneylenders and crime. Her investigation is helped by thief-taker Mr Child, himself struggling with his past and secrets. Together, they roam through polite (and much less polite) society, uncovering the secrets of a club of influential men and the prostitutes they hire. In the process, they reveal lies and unleash great danger.

It's almost impossible to sum up the plot of the novel and I don't feel that I have done it justice. Suffice it to say that it is intricately plotted with a host of characters who are all flawed in their own ways. I was totally convinced I had solved it several times, only for the next twist to ruin my thinking!

This is a treat of a novel for anyone who loves a clever, twisty murder mystery. It will keep you turning pages and guessing late into the night and the end, when it comes, is satisfying and credible.

If you’d like your own copy of this (and you really would!), please use my affiliate link below. Thanks for supporting my blog with any purchases.

Header photo by Ameen Fahmy on Unsplash.

‘Dark Truths’ by AJ Cross

I love crime fiction and was intrigued by the idea of a forensic psychologist being involved in a murder mystery – mainly, I think, because I’m not sure what a forensic psychologist is, but it sounds interesting!

This is the first in the series featuring Will Traynor helping the police with investigations and is an extremely promising start. Thanks to NetGalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book opens with the brutal murder of a jogger on a popular trail. Her head is removed from the scene in a gruesome and horrifying twist, but forensic investigations of the nearby area uncover a whole host of other problems that need dealing with too. Detective Inspector Bernard Watts is put in charge of the investigation with an inexperienced rookie police officer, PC Chloe Judd, for support. Together, they begin to uncover the truth about the crime, aided by criminologist Will Traynor – who seems to have his own agenda.

This is a well-paced and engaging police procedural. I found that there were plenty of events and twists to keep me reading and enjoyed the interaction between the main characters – including a fabulous and likeable forensics expert, Dr Chong, who I hope features in future books. PC Chloe Judd is also an interesting character and I liked the fact that she is still learning – it was good to see a more insecure and relatable police officer starting to find her feet.

I was less sure about the character of Will Traynor. I thought that he would be more central to the investigation, but actually Watts and Judd are the key figures. He made some interesting observations on the investigation, but also seemed a bit of a liability! I’d be intrigued to see how his story is developed in future books.

Overall, this is a well-written and cleverly-plotted crime novel. I am certainly looking forward to the next book in the series by A J Cross and would recommend this to those who love a twisty police investigation.

If you’d like a copy of this book, published in paperback on 4th February 2021, please use my affiliate link below – thank you for supporting my blog with any purchases.

Header photo with thanks to Ahmed Adly on Unsplash.