Random Things Tours Archives - The Quick and the Read

Blog Tour: ‘The Agatha Christie Puzzle Book

Thanks to Random Things Tours and Laurence King Publishing for my invitation to join the blog tour for this puzzle book based on the Queen of Crime’s best-loved novels.

Opinions, as always, are entirely my own.

From the Publisher:

Can you work out whodunnit, with what and why like Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot? Put your armchair detective abilities to the ultimate test…

Do you have the flair, order and method of Poirot,

or the unassuming, shrewd intelligence of Miss Marple?

You’re going to need it…

A mystery is afoot. With a missing librarian and 100 perplexing clues left behind, can you solve the mystery and follow the trail of the crime?

Brush off your moustache, collect your knitting needles and put your little grey cells to good use with this puzzling series of events.

Immerse yourself in the world of Agatha Christie.

My Review:

What’s not to like? Agatha Christie and puzzles? Sounds like a match made in heaven to me, especially when the book is produced by the brilliant Laurence King Publishing who are also responsible for some beautiful literary jigsaw puzzles (including an Agatha Christie collection).

I was intrigued by how the book would hang together, but it actually works well – there’s little bits of narrative and a selection of puzzles arranged around a number of the most famous and popular of Christie’s books. It’s a book that you can easily dip into whether you know everything about Christie’s writing or whether you know absolutely nothing.

The puzzles themselves are varied and engaging – some (the word searches and gridwords) are quite easy, but there’s some really tricky ones in there too. I love logic puzzles and I was well served with some fiendish tests of reasoning. I liked the fact that the puzzles were themed too, e.g. lots of train-related puzzled for the ‘4.50 from Paddington’ chapter, word puzzles for ‘The ABC Murders’, hieroglyphics and pyramid-puzzles for ‘Death on the Nile’. The puzzles were varied and generally well explained (I only found one where the instructions baffled me!)

There is a final puzzle that brings together a solution to the over-arching story by asking you to revisit some of the puzzles. I love this idea, but haven’t managed to solve it yet because the puzzles themselves are keeping me very busy. There’s certainly plenty to do in this book!

This would make a great Christmas present for the puzzle fans in your life. Obviously, the core audience will be Agatha Christie fans who also like puzzles, but I did a few of these with my teen daughter and they were accessible to her, especially the crosswords, word searches and word grids. There’s so much variety that everyone will find something to enjoy. It’s a nice, gift-able book (and the answers are in the back for those moments when you’re completely stumped!)

Highly recommended!

About the Author:

Born in Torquay in 1890, Agatha Christie became, and remains, the bestselling novelist of all time. She is best known for her sixty-six detective novels and fourteen short story collections, as well as the world’s longest-running play, The Mousetrap. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation too. Agatha Christie Limited (ACL) has been managing the literary and media rights to Agatha Christie’s works around the world since 1955, when the company was set up by Christie herself. The company is managed by Christie’s great-grandson, James Prichard. Follow Facebook @OfficialAgathaChristie, Instagram @officialagathachristie and X @agathachristie to keep up to date.

Blog Tour: ‘Stoic in Love’ by Annie Lawson

A huge thanks to Random Things Tours and Murdoch Books for inviting me onto the blog tour for this funny, engaging and enlightening little gem!

As always, opinions are entirely my own.

From the Publisher:

You’re on date #17 since your last relationship ended in flames and within a minute of meeting Tom at a bar you realise you’ve made a huge mistake. You head to the bathroom to text your friend and complain about how your date says ‘aaaahh!’ after every sip of beer, seems to style himself after Boris Johnson and definitely
sniffed your hair. Ten seconds later, you realise you accidentally texted Tom instead. You sit frozen on the loo, wondering if there’s a back exit or if you should fake your own death instead of facing the music. You wonder how you ended up here again, locked in a small room, hiding from a man.

Whether it’s dating someone wearing horns and a kaftan, a relationship where blobs of toothpaste are left smeared in the bathroom sink, or being dumped via text with just one word – enough! – the philosophy of the Stoics can help us all navigate the life cycles of love. Across more than 40 rules, from dating tips like Do your due diligence to relationship advice like Don’t tell your partner to calm down to break-up wisdoms like Resist putting your foot in your mouth, Annie Lawson applies ancient wisdom to the modern world of being in love, out of love, lovesick, love-bombed or just love-tired. She reminds us that life is all about change and to keep our focus on the things we can control – like our thoughts and actions – and to let go of the things we can’t, like finding a date’s living room is a shrine to Manchester United. Love and its rocky pursuit often sucks but fortunately, not always, and Stoic in Love helps us realise that we can all use a little help in getting together and staying together. Or getting the hell out of there.

My Review:

I just really loved the sound of this one – funny, relatable commentary on relationships peppered with sage advice from the ancient Stoics. I can’t admit to being an expert on either relationships or the Stoics, so I thought I’d give it a go!

The first thing that really stood out to me was the quality of the illustrations. Most of the chapters have a full page illustration at the start and they’re really well done and cute – the elephant in the room was my favourite. Each chapter ends with a quotation from one of the Stoics accompanied by a picture, so I got very used to my friends Seneca, Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus turning up with their words of wisdom.

The book is split into 3 sections, covering Dating, Relationships and Breaking Up. In each section, there are a number of short chapters (there are 45 ‘Rules’ covered in total) and each one follows the same formula – a contextualising/explanation of the rule, then the advice from the Stoics and – finally – the ‘Final Word’ from one of the key philosophers. I enjoyed this format as it was so easy to dip in and out of, plus equally quite addictive once you start reading – I didn’t think this would be a book to read from cover to cover, but I ended up doing just that.

Yeah, the Stoics’ advice mapped onto modern relationships is cleverly done and interesting, but the real joy is in Lawson’s writing. She’s hilarious and packs each chapter with anecdotes, case studies, references to popular culture, research and jokes. Although it tackles some tricky topics – the ‘Break Up’ section in particular – it’s all approached with humour and makes everything seem relatable and manageable.

There’s some really good advice too – some of it is obvious stuff (e.g. ‘Avoid red flags’, ‘Avoid the wrong person’), but there’s some really sensible tips too. I liked ‘Remember that you can be happy or you can be right’ and ‘Remember it’s not you, it’s them (actually, it’s probably you)’ – both made me laugh a lot, but also the Stoic advice about taking responsibility for your own actions and the things you can control were food for thought too.

I’d recommend this if you’re after a fun, entertaining read – there’s also the added bonus that you’ll pick up some advice from the ancients that will be useful in more than love. Read and enjoy – and perhaps become a tiny bit wiser!

About the Author:

Annie Lawson is a former journalist who has had a diverse love life, from a first pash as a teenager with braces to several boyfriends including one who alphabetised cereal packets, and finally to marriage, which ended. This all taught her that the
key to a good relationship is not only lots of storage, regular holidays at a nice resort and someone who is funny, but finding a partner to do nothing with. She now works on the dark side of the corporate world and is a devoted student of the Stoics, taking every opportunity to apply their wisdom to life’s hard things – from the workplace
to matters of the heart.

Blog Tour: ‘Small Bomb at Dimperley’ by Lissa Evans

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Lissa Evans’ latest novel, ‘Small Bomb at Dimperley’. Thanks to Random Things Tours and Doubleday for my copy of the book for review – opinions, as always, are my own.

From the Publisher:

The newest novel by the brilliant Lissa Evans, a historical fiction tale about a family and their country house needing to change with the times in the aftermath of the Second World War.

It’s 1945, and Corporal Valentine Vere-Thissett, aged 23, is on his way home. But ‘home’ is Dimperley, built in the 1500s, vast and dilapidated, up to its eaves in debt and half-full of fly-blown taxidermy and dependent relatives, the latter clinging to a way of life that has gone forever.

And worst of all – following the death of his heroic older brother – Valentine is now Sir Valentine, and is responsible for the whole bloody place.

To Valentine, it’s a millstone; to Zena Baxter, who has never really had a home before being evacuated there with her small daughter, it’s a place of wonder and sentiment, somewhere that she can’t bear to leave. But Zena has been living with a secret, and the end of the war means she has to face a reckoning of her own…

Funny, sharp and touching, Small Bomb at Dimperley is both a love story and a bittersweet portrait of an era of profound loss, and renewal.

‘Lissa Evans’ writing is so incredibly assured and affecting. I loved the world and the characters so much and it just seemed like the perfect novel to be read in such dark times. Joy and love found in the ruins, the hope after the horrors, simply gorgeous – a true balm.’

GRAHAM NORTON

‘Loaded with period detail, primed with characters you feel you’ve known for years, Small Bomb at Dimperley explodes comically, lovingly and very slightly wistfully into absolute delight. My best book (by a country mile) this year.’

HILARY MCKAY

My Review:

I love Lissa Evans’ books – she always manages to balance some hard-hitting and tragic ideas with such an incredible warmth and humour. I adored ‘Crooked Heart’ and ‘V for Victory and so couldn’t wait to read ‘Small Bomb at Dimperley’ to see if Evans’ version of a different aspect of World War II would be as fabulous.

It is. It really is.

‘Small Bomb at Dimperley’ takes a different focus from the previous books that focused more on London, evacuees and the Blitz. In this book, the focus is Dimperley, a huge mish-mash of a stately home, and those who live there.

It’s 1945, so the war is ending, and aristocratic families like the Vere-Thissetts of Dimperley are needing to navigate a very different political landscape – one that is more hostile. Added to this, the family hierarchy has been shaken by death and a brain fever, leaving the youngest son as heir to Dimperley. As he returns from war and now titled Sir Valentine, this heir finds he has large shoes to fill in the wake of his heroic big brother. His house is dilapidated, running on reduced staffing and populated by a selection of his eccentric relatives, plus a young woman and her daughter who stayed on after Dimperley was used as a maternity home during the war. It’s up to Valentine to come to terms with his new situation and work out how he can keep Dimperley afloat.

From the second I picked up this book, I knew that the world of Dimperley was one that I wanted to spend time in. While bad things happen – various deaths, poor Ceddy’s illness, Valentine’s wounds – this is an often charming look at a family clinging to an outdated way of life. It’s packed with interesting characters and astute observations on human behaviour – it made me laugh out loud several times with the slightly sharp comments and presentation of human foibles (such as Alaric’s obsession with the correct use of titles). At times, it felt a bit like the world of Nancy Mitford’s ‘The Pursuit of Love’ – often affectionate and charming, but also witty and arch. It never slips into being too cosy or twee, but remains appealing and immersive for the reader.

As always, the characters are beautifully drawn – Zena is glorious in her attachment to Dimperley and love for her daughter and my heart goes out to Valentine, returning from war to a chaotic mess. I also loved Miss Hersey – remnant from when the house was packed with servants before the war but now dealing (pretty competently) with being the last remaining one still resident there. There are lots of quirky, engaging characters throughout – some of whom I was intrigued to learn more about, such as the two daughters returning from a wartime spent in the USA.

It’s a book I could write lots about as I found lots to love. However, I’d really just recommend that you pick up a copy and immerse yourself in the world of Dimperley. It’s a world that was archaic even in 1945, losing relevance further as the post-war world adapted to seismic change. However, it’s a lovely place to spend a few hours in the company of some lovely characters.

About the Author:

LISSA EVANS is an iconic director, producer and author of historical fiction with a devouted fan base. She has written books for both adults and children, including the bestselling Old Baggage, Their Finest Hour and a Half, longlisted for the Orange Prize, Small Change for Stuart, shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and the Costa Book Awards amongst others, and Crooked Heart, longlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Blog Tour: ‘Northern Boy’ by Iqbal Hussain

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for this fabulous, uplifting, heartwarming book! Thanks to Random Things Tours and Unbound for my spot on the tour and also my copy of the book for review. As always, opinions are entirely my own.

From the Publisher:

It’s 1981 in the suburbs of Blackburn and, as Rafi’s mother reminds him daily, the family moved here from Pakistan to give him the best opportunities. But Rafi longs to follow his own path. Flamboyant, dramatic and musically gifted, he wants to be a Bollywood star.

Twenty years later, Rafi is flying home from Australia for his best friend’s wedding. He has everything he ever wanted: starring roles in musical theatre, the perfect boyfriend and freedom from expectation. But returning to Blackburn is the ultimate test: can he show his true self to his community?

Navigating family and identity from boyhood to adulthood, as well as the changing eras of ABBA, skinheads and urbanisation, Rafi must follow his heart to achieve his dreams.

My Review:

There was so much that drew me to this book – the word ‘uplifting’ in any blurb is always appealing, plus I loved the idea of a 1980s setting (not that I’m old enough to remember the 80s too well…!) The fact the book is published by Unbound was also very promising – I’ve loved all the books I’ve read from that publisher and often find their books fabulous quality, quirky and offbeat.

I wasn’t disappointed at all – this is a story of Rafi Aziz, the ‘northern boy’ growing up in 1980s Blackburn but dreaming of stardom. He’s talented, has the support of his lovely teacher Mr H and best friend Shazia – but, unfortunately, not his family. They think his Bollywood fascination is a phase and something he will outgrow, plus being a flamboyant kid in 1980s Blackburn isn’t exactly smoothing Rafi’s way at school. Especially as the dreaded Everton High School beckons…

The story starts 20 years after Rafi’s tricky school days with Rafi travelling back to the UK for Shazia’s wedding. He’s made a success of his life with musical theatre roles, a serious boyfriend and a happy existence in Australia where he has chosen to settle. Coming back to Blackburn forces Rafi to relive his past and face up to some unfinished family business.

The 2001 sections of the novel are great – Rafi travelling back to the UK, meeting up with friends and family, attending the wedding and sorting out the family stuff. However, the 1981 sections are just amazing – really evocative of a life growing up in a small community where everyone knows everyone else’s business. It’s a childhood of shared bedrooms and ‘Smash Hits’ and local news on TV, ‘Bunty’ and Jim Davidson and the man from the Milk Tray adverts. I may not have grown up northern, or a boy, or Pakistani, or a Bollywood wannabee, but – wow – was it relatable.

It’s also a vivid picture of the Pakistani community in Blackburn – I really loved the descriptions of the cultural elements (the food, the clothes, the Bollywood films) alongside the trappings of a 1980s British childhood. There are some brilliant characters in there too – Shazia is a bit of a force of nature, Rafi’s siblings prove problematic at times (as with all siblings!) and Mrs Kappor is wonderfully opinionated. Rafi’s mother is also subtly portrayed, at once evoking sympathy and something much less positive as the novel progresses.

I always worry that novels like this are going to prove a bit too ‘gritty’ for me, but that isn’t the case here. While bad things do happen and Rafi has a tough time, the overwhelming feeling from the novel is heartwarming. It’s genuinely uplifting and funny and sweet and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

About the Author:

Iqbal Hussain is a writer from Blackburn, Lancashire and he lives in London. His work appears in various anthologies and on websites including The Willowherb Review, The Hopper and caughtbytheriver. He is a recipient of the inaugural London Writers’ Awards 2018 and he won Gold in the Creative Future Writers’ Awards 2019. In 2022, he won first prize in Writing Magazine’s Grand Flash competition and was joint runner-up in the Evening Standard Short Story Competition. In 2023, his story ‘I’ll Never Be Young Again’ won first prize in the Fowey Festival of Arts and Literature short story competition. He was also Highly Commended in the Emerging Writer Award from The Bridge Award. Northern Boy is his first novel.

Blog Tour: ‘Bright Stars of Black British History’ by J.T. Williams

Thanks to Random Things Tours for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this beautiful book for review – as always, opinions are entirely my own.

From the Publisher:

A dazzlingly illustrated collection presenting the extraordinary life stories of fourteen bright stars from Black British history, from Tudor England to modern Britain.

Brought to life through hand-painted illustrations by award-winning illustrator Angela Vives, this important and timely book from author and educator J. T. Williams brings the lives of fourteen shining stars from Black British History into the spotlight, celebrating their remarkable achievements and contributions to the arts, medicine,
politics, sport and beyond.

Featuring a constellation of iconic individuals – including storytelling freedom fighter Mary Prince, football star and World War I soldier Walter Tull, and Notting Hill Carnival founder Claudia Jones – ‘Bright Stars of Black British History’ shines a light on the courage, resilience and talent of remarkable individuals who have left a lasting mark on our collective history.

My Review:

Blog Tour: ‘Last to Leave’ by Lucy Martin

Thanks to Random Things Tours for my place on the blog tour and copy of this book for review – as always, opinions are entirely my own.

The Blurb:

When Hannah Lloyd falls from her third-floor balcony at the end of her birthday lunch party, suspicion falls immediately upon the three guests who had only just left the apartment, alongside Hannah’s estranged husband Adam and a jealous neighbour with an axe to grind. But as the investigation develops, so does the network of suspects, eventually revealing a chilling connection between the crime and those in charge of preventing it. Forced to work alongside her arch-nemesis DCI Matt Preedy, DS Ronnie Delmar finds herself looking over her shoulder at her own colleagues and questioning the motives of those she thought she trusted.

My Review:

Blog Tour: ‘The Turnglass’ by Gareth Rubin

Thanks to Random Things Tours for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of the novel for review. Opinions are entirely my own.

This book was published in hardback on 31st August 2023 by Simon and Schuster.

Blog Tour: ’42: The Wildly Improbable Ideas of Douglas Adams’, edited by Kevin Jon Davies

Thanks to Random Things Tours for inviting me onto the blog tour for this book and for the beautiful copy for review. The book is out now and published by the fabulous people at Unbound.

As always, opinions are entirely my own.

From the Publisher:

-A full-colour compendium of hundreds of never-before-published artefacts from Adams’ archive, including diary entries, notes and musings, letters, photographs, scripts, poems and more.

– Authorised by the estate of Douglas Adams, it includes personal memorabilia from his family.

– Features a foreword from Stephen Fry and letters written after Adams’ death from friends and fans: Neil Gaiman, Margo Buchanan, Dirk Maggs, Robbie Stamp, Arvind David.

When Douglas Adams died in 2001, he left behind 60 boxes full of notebooks, letters, scripts, jokes, speeches and even poems. In 42, compiled by Douglas’s long-time collaborator Kevin Jon Davies, hundreds of these personal artefacts appear in print for the very first time.

Douglas was as much a thinker as he was a writer, and his artefacts reveal how his deep fascination with technology led to ideas which were far ahead of their time: a convention speech envisioning the modern smartphone, with all the information in the world living at our fingertips; sheets of notes predicting the advent of electronic books; journal entries from his forays into home computing – it is a matter of legend that Douglas bought the very first Mac in the UK; musings on how the internet would disrupt the CD-Rom industry, among others.

42 also features archival material charting Douglas’s school days through Cambridge, Footlights, collaborations with Graham Chapman, and early scribbles from the development of Doctor Who, Hitchhiker’s and Dirk Gently.

Alongside details of his most celebrated works are projects that never came to fruition, including the pilot for radio programme They’ll Never Play That on the Radio and a space-inspired theme park ride.

Douglas’s personal papers prove that the greatest ideas come from the fleeting thoughts that collide in our own imagination, and offer a captivating insight into the mind of one of the twentieth century’s greatest thinkers and most enduring storytellers.

My Review:

Blog Tour: ‘The Dive’ by Sarah Ochs

I’m delighted to join the blog tour for this new travel thriller!

Thanks to Random Things tours for my place on the tour and copy of the book for review. Opinions are always my own.

From the Publisher:

Set in the seedy world of Thailand’s infamous party islands. A place where backpackers go to find themselves – or get lost forever. When a young woman turns up dead during a scuba diving lesson, the morning after a full moon party, the diving instructor and her group of ex-pat friends realise they aren’t the only people who have fallen in love with paradise. A killer has too.

Escape to paradise.
Scuba diving instructor Cass leads her students out for their first dive off the beautiful coast of Koh Sang, Thailand’s world-famous party island. It’s supposed to be a life-changing experience, but things quickly spiral out of control…

Leave your secrets behind.
By the time she gets back to the shore, one of her students is dead, another badly injured, and she knows that her idyllic life is about to be smashed to pieces on the rocks.

But don’t get lost for ever…
Someone has discovered Cass’s secret, and on an island as remote as this, accidents happen. Plenty of backpackers choose to stay here for ever – but some are never heard from again…

Blog Tour: ‘Between Us’ by Mhairi McFarlane

Today, I’m delighted to join the blog tour for Mhairi McFarlane’s latest romcom – thanks to Random Things Tours for inviting me to join the tour and for my copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.