Random Things Tours Archives - Page 3 of 4

Blog Tour: ‘The Woman in the Wood’ by M. K. Hill

Welcome 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.

August Wrap-Up and September TBR

It’s been a slower reading month after July’s 17 books (a record for me!) Still, I’ve read some brilliant books this month – 11 in total. All were 4 stars with the exception of one FIVE STAR read at the start of the month…

This puts me on 92/100 on my Goodreads challenge – the end is in sight!

Links on my blog are Amazon Affiliate ones - thanks for supporting my blog with any Amazon purchases at no extra cost to you.

Blog Tour: ‘The Black Dress’ by Deborah Moggach

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for ‘The Black Dress’ by Deborah Moggach.

Thanks to Random Things Tours and Headline/Tinder Press for having me on the tour and for my copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was published on 22nd July, 2021.

From the Publisher:

From the ‘Sunday Times’ bestselling author of ‘The Carer’, Deborah Moggach’s ‘The Black Dress’ is a beautifully observed, darkly funny, tender and surprising novel about life changes and the unexpected twists and pleasures of being alone.

Pru is on her own. But then, so are plenty of other people. And while the loneliness can be overwhelming, surely she’ll find a party somewhere?

Pru’s husband has walked out, leaving her alone to contemplate her future. She’s missing not so much him, but the life they once had – picnicking on the beach with small children, laughing together, nestling up like spoons in the cutlery drawer as they sleep. Now there’s just a dip on one side of the bed and no-one to fill it.

In a daze, Pru goes off to a friend’s funeral. Usual old hymns, words of praise and a eulogy but…it doesn’t sound like the friend Pru knew. And it isn’t. She’s gone to the wrong service. Everyone was very welcoming, it was – oddly – a laugh, and more excitement than she’s had for ages. So she buys a little black dress in a charity shop and thinks, now I’m all set, why not go to another? I mean, people don’t want to make a scene at a funeral, do they? No-one will challenge her – and what harm can it do?

Praise for Deborah Moggach…

‘Full of warmth and humour, as well as blistering truths’
Daily Mirror

‘Moggach is at the height of her powers’
Sunday Times

‘Unputdownable, fun and tender with characters that jump off the page. Perfection’
Marian Keyes

My Review:

I’d not read a Deborah Moggach book before this one – but I’d heard good things and was keen to dive in. In particular, I liked the quite dark and interesting storyline of this book and was intrigued…

The central character in this book, Pru, finds herself suddenly alone at the age of 69. Although she doesn’t really miss her husband, she misses the security of coupledom a bit. Buoyed by her friend Azra, Pru begins her search for a new man – a search which takes a rather unconventional turn when Pru finds herself at a funeral and spots the potential of new widowers as an untapped target market.

Although the idea of preying on newly-single men at their wives’ funerals is dark and shocking, it becomes something much more interesting in Moggach’s skilled hands. Pru is given such an emotional depth through her first person narration that the reader can instead read her desperation with poignancy. She may make odd decisions, but actually it all makes sense in the context of the novel and the things she faces.

Ah, yes, the things Pru faces! This is a novel that is constantly surprising and revelatory – there are some big turns in the book which I don’t want to go into (no spoilers here!) However, suffice it to say that this isn’t a gentle book about the older generation’s search for love. Moggach is never that predictable and Pru has a lot to bear – including some real shockers!

I liked Pru a lot as a central character – it was refreshing to read about an older character with the possibility of a new beginning, although I should have expected this from the author of the book that became ‘The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’. The novel is essentially a snapshot of a woman at a vulnerable but also potentially exciting point in her life.

Along the way, we meet a whole cast of well-developed and intersting characters, all flawed in their own ways. Evan is one that really stuck with me – the depiction of him reeling from his wife’s death is heartbreaking. Azra is also a fascinating character, maybe not all for good reasons – she is written with vim and vibrancy and almost jumps off the page.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and read it in one sitting during the July heatwave. I felt that it had emotional interest and humour, but also a clever plot structure that made me feel that I was on constantly shifting ground. There is honestly never a dull moment. I also liked the fact that a book ostensibly about finding a man also focused extensively on female friendship and the love of family too.

I’d recommend this to anyone looking for an immersive and engaging read. Once you get sucked into Pru’s world, as crazy as it is at times, you won’t want to leave – and you won’t put the book down until you have finished Pru’s journey.

About the Author:

Deborah Moggach, OBE, is a British novelist and an award-winning screenwriter. She
has written twenty novels, including ‘Tulip Fever’, ‘These Foolish Things’ (which became the bestselling novel and film ‘The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’), and ‘The Carer’. She lives in London.

Blog Tour: ‘Cut From The Same Cloth: Muslim Women on Life in Britain’ edited by Sabeena Akhtar

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for ‘Cut From The Same Cloth’, a fascinating collection of Muslim women’s writing about their experiences of life in Britain.

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

From the Publisher:

● Perceived as the visual representation of Islam, hijab-wearing Muslim women are often harangued at work, at home and in public life yet are rarely afforded a platform to speak on their own terms.

● From modern pop culture to anti-Blackness, faith and family, politics, education, creativity and working life; Cut From The Same Cloth? Is an anthology which gives visibly Muslim women creatives a space to speak to the matters that mean most to them.

Do you wear that at home? Where are you really from? Does he make you wear that? Do you support acts of terror? Do you believe in ‘British values’? Can I see your hair? Do you have equality? Are you hot in that? Can you be a feminist? Why don’t you just take it off? Do you wear that in the shower? Are you oppressed?

Whether it’s awkward questions, radical commentators sensationalising their existence, non-Muslims and non-hijabis making assumptions, men speaking on their behalf, or tired stereotypes being perpetuated by the same old faces: hijabis are tired. Cut from the Same Cloth? seeks to tip the balance back in their favour, with the space to offer honest insight into the issues that really affect their lives.

Here, twenty-one middle and working class contributors of all ages and races look beyond the tired tropes, exploring the breadth of their experiences and spirituality. It’s time we, as a society, stopped the hijab-splaining and listened to the people who know.

It’s time for change.

My Review:

Having just read ‘The Seven Necessary Sins of Women and Girls’ by Mona Eltahawy, leading Egyptian/US feminist (review here), I was intrigued by her discussion of intersectional feminism and her Muslim faith. Therefore, I jumped at the chance to read this collection of essays by Muslim women which focuses more on Britain than Eltahawy’s (excellent) book.

The essays are very wide-ranging and discuss an array of topics important to Muslim women living in Britain today. The writers each give their unique takes on issues from their own individual experiences – and the results are as varied and fascinating as you would expect.

From reading about how Covid-19 has impacted one woman’s experience of Ramadhan, to discussions on modesty, Muslim motherhood and witnessing the tragedy of Grenfell, this is a collection of essays that are continually engaging and thought-provoking.

As the essays are so wide-ranging, it is difficult to review the overall collection in a meaningful way. However, for me, the most eye-opening pieces of writing were those that catalogued actual lived experiences. The eye-witness account of Grenfell was heartbreaking to read and it was genuinely shocking to hear about the racist treatment of Black African Muslim women in Britain. The concept of misogynoir – the fact that Black women face a double oppression based on their gender and race – really came into sharp focus.

I’ll admit to (shamefully) not knowing much about Islam, so it was enlightening for me to be able to understand more about how religion impacts women’s lives. I didn’t always understand the choices that the women made – as a white, non-faith Brit, this was outside of my own experiences – but it was always interesting to see how other British women live their lives.

It is important to note that this isn’t a book to explain or justify choices made by Muslim women – one of the early essays states absolutely correctly that ‘I am not an essay to show your friend “what Muslims think about X”.’ Instead, the essays were as unique as the women themselves and I loved them.

I’d recommend this anthology to anyone interested in women’s lives and experiences in 21st century Britain. There is some levity and humour, but mainly the collection highlights the difficulties and challenges that Muslim women navigate every day – the Islamophobia, the misogyny, the racism – and it is a powerful book.

About the Editor:

Sabeena is a writer, editor and the Festival Coordinator of Bare Lit, the UK’s principal festival celebrating remarkable writers in the diaspora. She is also the co-founder of the Primadonna Festival which spotlights the work of women writers, and of Bare Lit Kids. She will be available for events around publication, and can be found tweeting at @pocobookreader

WWW Wednesday – 17th February, 2021

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 mentioned – thanks for supporting my blog with any purchases (at no extra cost to you!)

What have you recently finished reading?

It’s been two weeks since my last WWW Wednesday so it looks like I’ve been extra-productive on the reading front!

I finished reading ‘Ruthless Women’ by Melanie Blake (from NetGalley) – this is due to be published in April but is well worth looking out for! It’s a Jackie-Collins-style novel packed with glamorous and strong women, high-powered jobs and tonnes of secrets and lies! It’s based around a soap opera set off the coast of Jersey and is a whole lot of fun. My review will follow nearer the publication date.

I finally finished ‘Maiden Voyages: Women and the Golden Age of Transatlantic Travel’ by Sian Evans. It has taken me ages because it kept getting bumped by blog tour books, but it is absolutely fabulous! The golden age of transatlantic travel sure was glamorous for some, hard work for others and extraordinarily dangerous for those sailing during war time (or with Violet Jessop – the ‘unsinkable stewardess – who had an appalling track record of being on doomed ships!) My glowing review is here.

I also read (for a blog tour with Random Things Tours) ‘Botanical Curses and Poisons: The Shadow Lives of Plants’ by Fez Inkwright. This book is a beautifully-illustrated and fascinating guide to plants of the more lethal variety! Thanks to the publisher, Liminal 11, for the review copy in exchange for my honest opinions. My review is here.

I also managed to squeeze in two gripping and – quite frankly – terrifying crime novels. I raced through both of these with my heart pounding – watch out for them!

First up was ‘The Broken Ones’ by Carla Kovach, the latest in the series featuring DI Gina Harte. In this excellent instalment, young women are being taken off the streets and it is clear that a very disturbed character is responsible – someone who must be stopped before he kills again. My review will be on the blog nearer the publication date in March 2021.

I also read ‘Dog Rose Dirt’ by Jen Williams which also proved very scary! This is about a young woman who finds out that her mother was writing to a serial killer in jail throughout her life. After her mother’s suicide, a series of copycat killings begin and she is forced to confront her mother’s past in order to help the current investigation. This one isn’t published until July 2021 and my review will follow.

Both of these were NetGalley reads – thanks to NetGalley for my free copies in exchange for honest reviews.

What are you reading now?

I’ve got two buddy reads on the go at the moment – luckily they are so different that there’s no way I’ll get them confused!

I’m reading ‘Paris by Starlight’ by Robert Dinsdale with my Tsundoku Squad lovelies. This is a slightly whimsical tale of a group of displaced people who end up in Paris but bring the magical ways of their old country with them. The people live by night by the light of their beautiful illuminated flowers and according to their book, ‘The Nocturne’. I’m halfway through and the descriptions are glorious – but I cannot see at all where it is going!

I’m also reading (with the fabulous Write Reads gang) ‘Cemetery Boys’ by Aiden Thomas, a Latinx tale centred around a trans boy in Los Angeles who wants to join his family in being able to release the dead into the afterlife. I’m halfway through this as well and am still not quite sure what I think – the setting is fabulous, the Day of the Dead a very promising element still to come, the representation is great, characters good…but I am finding the plot a bit uneven at the moment.

My next blog tour is ‘Seven Days’ by Michelle Kidd so I’ve also started reading this fast-paced and tense sequel to ‘The Phoenix Project’ (which I read last year). It is early days, but I’m enjoying my reunion with DI Jack MacIntosh so far! Review to follow on the blog next week.

What do you think you will read next?

I’m supposed to be doing a Poirot readalong but have failed to fit in ‘The Mysterious Affair at Styles’ by Agatha Christie – I need to catch up before we move on to ‘Murder on the Links’.

I have rather over-enthusiastically embraced blog tours in March and so have a good few books to read. I’ll shortly be reading ‘The Shadowy Third: Love, Letters and Elizabeth Bowen’ by Julia Parry, ‘Nick’ by Michael Farris Smith and ‘Behind Closed Doors’ by Catherine Alliott. All look absolutely brilliant and I cannot wait to dive in.

Thank to NetGalley for the books in exchange for an honest review.

‘Botanical Curses and Poisons : The Shadow Lives of Plants’ by Fez Inkwright

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for this fascinating book about the dark side of plants! This tour is organised by Random Things Tours.

The book is published by Liminal 11, a mind, body, spirit publisher (email: Hello@liminal11.com).

With thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

From the Publisher:

Discover the fascinating folklore, lurid histories, and malignant properties of toxic plants.

‘If you drink much from a bottle marked ‘poison’, it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later.’
– Lewis Carroll, ‘Alice in Wonderland’

Poisonings are among the most memorable deaths in history, from the Roman Empire to the Medieval era and beyond. Concealed and deliberate, it’s a crime that must be planned in advance. And yet there is a fine line between healing and poisoning – Paracelsus argued that only the dosage matters!

In ‘Botanical Curses and Poisons’, illustrator, author, and folklorist Fez Inkwright returns to archives to uncover the fascinating folklore, lurid histories, and untold stories behind deadly plants, witching herbs and fungi.

Filled with beautiful illustrations, this treasury of folklore is packed with insight, lore, and the revealed mysteries of everyday flora.

‘Botanical Curses and Poisons’ is printed in hardcover with metallic foiling, a ribbon bookmark, black-and-white illustrations on nearly every page, and a wealth of folklore history and poetry about the deadly plants within!

From the creator of ‘Folk Magic and Healing’ (2019).

My Review:

I should begin by stating my credentials in the worlds of botany, healing and…er…poisoning. Zero. I have no experience at all, can kill any houseplant and would struggle to identify any greenery at any time. This is not my specialist area, but regular readers of the blog will know I’m a huge crime fiction fan and kind of fascinated with Queen Agatha’s poisoning expertise!

So I’m coming to this book as a complete beginner, albeit one with a bit of a morbid curiosity.

Firstly, I should say that this is a gorgeous book. It’s a beautiful hardback with foil detailing on the cover, beautiful endpapers and a ribbon bookmark. It is also packed with fabulous black and white illustrations so that even the most beginnery beginner in the world of plants (i.e. me) can see what is being talked about. So far, so gorgeous…

The text itself is arranged (around the lovely illustrations) so that it introduces the history of poisoning, witches and the fine line between curing and killing, before turning into an A to Z of Plants. Lots of the sections are introduced with snippets of poems, literature and ancient wisdom on the plants, something I loved as it rooted the material more in ‘my world’ of books and writers.

I found this book absolutely fascinating from the first word. In particular, it was really intriguing to think about the world of botanical poisons as within the female domain – I really liked the way that Inkwright drew out the connections between herbalism and witchcraft, although the tragedy of this is also indicated in the descriptions of the historical persecution of witches. The explanation of witches’ ability to fly in the ‘Witching Herbs’ section is also intriguing and called up images of Terry Pratchett’s famous witch, Granny Weatherwax, lying with her sign ‘I ate’nt dead’ while her mind is elsewhere.

The book is absolutely packed with information about each of the plants; it covers not only the usages and known facts, but also lots of information about the history and symbolism of each.

For example, the section on ‘Apple’ explores all the cultural associations, from Eve and the the Garden of Eden to Ancient Greek mythology, folklore around blood-marked apples, the Gaelic festival of the dead and enchanted apples being possessed by demons. And that is just one entry!

I was absolutely captivated and found myself taking notes during sections that would help with my day job (English teacher – some of those literary allusions and symbols suddenly clicked into place for me!)

It’s all so interesting that it’s hard to pick highlights. I found myself sharing information with my son on Mandrakes (he’s a huge Harry Potter fan!) and I was particularly fascinated by the Poppy entry – as someone who loves historical fiction set in the Victorian era, the information about opium and morphine was definitely of interest. Poor Alice Blunden though, buried alive twice after imbibing too much poppy tea!

Another entry that I found particularly engrossing was about Violets – I knew of their associations with death (something I always kind of ignored as I personally love this flower!) but I didn’t really know why. Well, I do now – and I had my mind blown by the connections with the purple used as half-mourning colours in the Victorian period (again, my personal obsession surfaces!) So many connections that I didn’t fully understand or just hadn’t made…

I honestly could go on and on picking out interesting sections and stories, but I instead suggest that you buy this fabulous book for yourself. It would also make a brilliant gift for any gardener, or anyone interested in folklore, herbalism or just how plants have taken on symbolic status in literature and culture.

This is one book that you will not regret buying and I can guarantee that you – like me – will return to its pages again and again.

About the Author

Fez Inkwright is an illustrator, author and folklorist. Her greatest passions are botany, nature, primitive religions, and folklore, which flavour most of her work. For the past eight years she has produced work for children’s books, hand-drawn maps and tattoo design and now spends her time indulging in conservation work and writing. She lives in Bristol with two cats and several hundred bees.

WWW Wednesday – 3rd February, 2021

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

What have you recently finished reading?

This week, I’ve read ‘Dark Truths’ by AJ Cross, an engaging and well-plotted police procedural with a forensic psychologist (Will Traynor) as part of the investigative team. This is published in paperback tomorrow and will be reviewed on the blog soon. It is definitely worth keeping an eye out for as this is the first in what looks to be a very promising series. Thanks to NetGalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

What are you reading now?

I’m reading ‘Ruthless Women’ by Melanie Blake (from NetGalley) which is a glamorous whirlwind of a book! Think Jackie Collins, if Jackie Collins wrote about a soap opera set on a small island near Jersey. Everyone is plastic-surgeried up to their eyeballs and as backstabby as hell, but it is a fun read. I particularly like that the cast is packed with strong older women. I’m about halfway through and still not quite sure where it is all headed!

I’m still (yes, still!) reading ‘Maiden Voyages: Women and the Golden Age of Transatlantic Travel’ by Sian Evans. This week, I read about the glamorous side of cruise liners between the wars – I loved the tales of the celebrities, royalty and movie stars at sea, plus those less-than-scrupulous characters willing to exploit the wealthy to make their own living on the ships. The world of extortion, professional gamblers and gold-diggers is presented through fascinating anecdotes. Yes, I’m making slow progress on this book – but it is fabulous!

I’m also still reading ‘Perimenopause Power’ by Maisie Hill (from NetGalley). It is quite science- heavy and so isn’t one I can zip through, but it is interesting.

What do you think you will read next?

I have a blog tour for the fascinating-sounding ‘Botanical Curses and Poisons: The Shadow Lives of Plants’ by Fez Inkwright. The tour is being organised by Random Things Tours and the book itself is absolutely beautiful – thanks to the publisher, Liminal 11, for the review copy in exchange for my honest opinions. I can’t wait to dive in!

I’m still planning on reading Agatha Christie’s ‘The Mysterious Affair at Styles’ so I can catch up with a Poirot readalong this month. I got my Kindle copy free from Project Gutenberg.

I hope you’ve had a great reading week! As always, thanks for reading and please do follow my blog for more updates.

Thank to NetGalley for the books in exchange for an honest review.

Header photo with thanks to Nadya Shuran for sharing their work on Unsplash.

January Wrap-Up and February TBR

It has been – quite simply – the longest month ever. I’ve found it hard to concentrate on reading at times and have fallen back on the genre that I know keeps me engaged – crime fiction!

I’ve read 10 books this month, of which 7 were crime novels.

Links below are affiliate ones – thank you for supporting my blog with any purchases.

January Wrap-Up

I started the month with the rather interesting ‘How Not To Be Wrong: The Art of Changing Your Mind’ by James O’Brien. I loved his previous book (‘How to be Right’), but was particularly fascinated by O’Brien’s exploration of his own prejudices and entrenched beliefs. It certainly gave me food for thought and I would recommend it.

Next up were a slew of brilliant crime novels that I would recommend whole-heartedly.

I read ‘Dark Memories’ by Liz Mistry, the latest in the DS Nikki Parekh series set in the seedy underworld of Bradford. This is a shocking tale of crime and abuse, but the fabulous Parekh/Malik investigative team at the heart of the novel makes it compelling. My review (for a blog tour for Rachel’s Random Resources) is here.

Another blog tour read was ‘Silent Graves’ by Sally Rigby and this proved another excellent police procedural. Although is the 9th book in the Cavendish and Walker series (a female duo of investigators), I think it works well as a standalone. In this book, West Mercia Police are grappling with a historical case as two skeletons turn up on a building site. You can read my blog tour review (for Damp Pebbles) here.

This was followed by ‘The Appeal’ by Janice Hallett which I read as a buddy read organised by Viper Books. Along with the lovely LockyLovesBooks, I tried to guess the murderer in this innovative and engaging crime novel – a novel presented through the emails, voicemails and texts of its main protagonists. I proved a terrible detective but had a lot of fun – you can read my review here.

Next up was ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’ by Agatha Christie. I read this with my blogger friends at The Write Reads and we had a lot of fun discussing it – although, once again, I got nowhere near the solution! A classic crime novel with such clever plotting – Christie really was a master of her craft!

After this, I had a brief break from crime to read Margaret Atwood’s new poetry collection, ‘Dearly’. This is a beautiful and insightful book about loss, grief, ageing, female bodies and the environment – and I loved it. I was lucky enough to have both the hardback (purchased) and audiobook (from NetGalley) – you can read my review about both formats here.

Following this, I went back to crime for the tense and pacey ‘The Jigsaw Man’ by Nadine Matheson – I won a copy of this from the publisher and was so excited to read it ahead of publication. This serial killer crime novel is gruesome and terrifying – and I raced through it. My review will follow nearer publication later on in February.

Another blog tour read followed, ‘Bad Habits’ by Flynn Meaney. This is a very funny and lively YA comedy which sees its heroine, Alex, try to stage a version of ‘The Vagina Monologues’ at her strict Catholic boarding school. Thanks to the publisher (Penguin) and NetGalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review. My review, for The Write Reads, will be on the blog tomorrow.

My last books of the month took me back to crime fiction (of course!).

I read ‘An Eye for an Eye’ by Carol Wyer for a Damp Pebbles blog tour – this is another brilliant police procedural with a female lead, in this case the damaged but insightful DI Kate Young. The plotting of this one, based around a serial killer in Staffordshire, is so clever and it is an absolute page turner. My review is due up on 7th February.

I finished this month with ‘Dark Truths’ by AJ Cross, another cleverly-plotted police procedural featuring DI Bernard Watts and his rookie sidekick, PC Chloe Judd investigating the brutal murder of a jogger on a rural trail. They are being helped in their investigations by forensic psychologist Will Traynor, but he seems to have his own agenda… This is the first in a series featuring Traynor and I look forward to reading more. The paperback is published on 4th February and my review will follow on the blog.

As always, thanks to blog tour organisers, publishers, authors and NetGalley for granting me access to books in exchange for an honest review.

February TBR

As always, I have more books to read than I can possibly get through! Any TBR I write is always a small proportion of books I have to read for blog tours, books I should read for NetGalley and a wish list of many other fabulous-looking reads. I am never accurate in predicting what I will actually read!

So, here is my best guess of books that have caught my eye for February. Affiliate links are at the end of the list for anyone who likes the look of any of these…

I have a blog tour for ‘Botanical Curses and Poisons’ by Fez Inkwright in February and am looking forward to diving into this beautiful book about the darker side of plants.
I also have a blog tour for ‘Old Bones’ by Helen Kitson (published by the excellent Louise Walters Books) in February too – this looks to be a gorgeous and gentle story of a group of older women.
My final blog tour for the month will be ‘Seven Days’ by Michelle Kidd. I thoroughly enjoyed the first book in this series, ‘The Phoenix Project’, and look forward to another lively thriller.
I also want to read ‘Ruthless Women’ by Melanie Blake, sold to me by NetGalley as a thriller about ambition on the set of a soap opera. I’m looking forward to glamour, glitz and some…ruthless women!
NetGalley have also granted me the fabulous-looking ‘Circus of Wonders’ by Elizabeth Macneal. I loved her first book, ‘The Doll Factory’, and cannot wait to read this new slice of quality historical fiction.
I’m also going to be reading ‘Paris by Starlight’ by Robert Dinsdale with my lovely blogger friends in the Tsundoku Squad. This is a new writer to me but I look forward to chats and lots of fun with them.
Agatha Christie’s ‘The Mysterious Affair at Styles’ is also on my February list as I join a Poirot readalong with The Write Reads crew. I need to catch up this book – Poirot Book 1 – before I can join the chat there!
Finally, I really want to clear some of my NetGalley shelf – it has more fabulous books in it than I can list and I am determined to make some headway this month. If only I can keep away from the ‘Request’ button…

That’s the plan anyway. See you here in a month’s time when I reveal that I actually read 10 more police procedurals because I am OBSESSED…

Header photo with thanks to Tim Wildsmith on Unsplash.

Have a fab Feb – K x

Blog Tour: ‘The Chalet’ by Catherine Cooper

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for ‘The Chalet’ by Catherine Cooper. This blog tour is organised by Random Things Tours. The book was published on 12th November, 2020 by Harper Collins.

With thanks to the blog tour host, author and publisher, as well as NetGalley, for my free review copy.

From the Publisher:

Four friends. One luxury getaway.

The perfect murder.

‘I was gripped from start to finish’ CASS GREEN

FRENCH ALPS, 1998
Two young men ski into a blizzard… but only one returns.

20 YEARS LATER
Four people connected to the missing man find themselves in that same resort.

Each has a secret.

Two may have blood on their hands. One is a killer-in-waiting. Someone knows what really happened that day.

And somebody will pay.

An exciting new debut for anyone who loves RUTH WARE, LUCY FOLEY, and C.L. TAYLOR.

My Review:

This felt like a strange book to be sitting down to at any time other than a bitter cold winter’s evening – a book set in a snowy ski resort and rooted in the treacherous conditions of a bitter blizzard!

Still, this was an engaging and pacy read that I devoured in one sitting – almost unheard of for me. It is really quite astounding that this is a debut novel from Catherine Cooper as it feels very assured.

The narrative moves between a tragedy in 1998 (when two brothers were lost in a snowstorm in the French Alps) and the modern day. Twenty years later, four friends hire a luxury chalet in the same French ski resort, but it soon becomes apparent that there are tensions under the surface and no-one is quite as they seem – and links back to the day the brothers got lost on the mountain begin to become evident.

Many of the characters are quite unpleasant, but this makes for an interesting and toxic environment and the luxury chalet soon becomes a claustrophobic nightmare.

The characters are all well developed and have their parts to play in the narrative. Ria seems to dislike her husband, Hugo, and keeps her secrets well hidden. Hugo is trying to impress an obnoxious client, Simon, and his downtrodden wife, Cass. Chalet girl, Millie, is trying to keep their holiday on track and chalet owner, Cameron, is there to promote his business. All these characters thrown together, each presenting their own stories through first person narration, make for a twisty and engrossing story as it becomes clear that someone is seeking revenge for the 1998 events.

This reads as a confidently plotted novel with plenty of twists and turns. I am genuinely surprised that it is a debut as the plot strands are so cleverly woven together and the range of narrative voices well-handled.

I’d recommend this to anyone who enjoys psychological thrillers as we do get to see the workings of the minds of various characters and what has brought them to the French Alps. As secrets are revealed and lies are told, you will want to carry on reading into the night!

About the Author:

CATHERINE COOPER is a freelance journalist writing for many national
newspapers and magazines, specialising in travel. Most recently she has
written several ski pieces for the Guardian and is currently compiling a 50
best family holidays round up for the Telegraph. She also makes regular
appearances as a talking head on daytime TV. She lives in France with her
husband and two teenage children, and is a keen skier.

Blog Tour: ‘Betrayal’ by Lilja Sigurdardottir – Extract

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour organised by Random Things Tours for ‘Betrayal’ by Lilja Sigurdardottir.

I’m pleased to be able to present to you an extract from this tense, Icelandic thriller which was published by Orenda Books on 15th October, 2020.

From the Publisher:

Burned out and traumatised by her horrifying experiences around the world, aid worker Úrsula has returned to Iceland. Unable to settle, she accepts a high-profile government role in which she hopes to make a difference again.

But on her first day in the post, Úrsula promises to help a mother seeking justice for her daughter, who had been raped
by a policeman, and life in high office soon becomes much more harrowing than Úrsula could ever have imagined. A homeless man
is stalking her – but is he hounding her, or warning her of some danger? And the death of her father in police custody so many
years rears its head once again.

As Úrsula is drawn into dirty politics, facing increasingly deadly threats, the lives of her stalker, her bodyguard and even a witch-like cleaning lady intertwine. Small betrayals become large ones, and the stakes are raised ever higher…

The award-winning internationally bestselling author Lilja Sigurðardóttir returns with Betrayal, a relevant, powerful, fast-paced thriller about the worlds of politics, police corruption and misogyny that feels just a little bit too real…

The Extract:

Úrsúla was surprised at her own surprise: she was taken aback by just how much of a shock the note was. She was already kicking herself for having forgotten to lock the car. It hadn’t occurred to her that by parking in the spot marked Minister, she was telling everyone which vehicle was hers. Clearly every fruitcake in the country had an opinion on everything imaginable, and that seemed to include her appointment as minister of the interior.

The devil’s friend loses his soul and brings down evil, the note read, the last few words an almost illegible scrawl. It looked like someone had decided she had made friends with the devil himself.

There was nothing unusual about politicians being lambasted for entering into coalitions with people someone was unhappy with, but as she was not linked to any party, she had somehow imagined that this kind of criticism wouldn’t come her way. All the same, people ought to be used to seeing political parties working together when the parliamentary term was so far advanced, and anyway she’d simply been called in to finish the work begun by Rúnar. She screwed the note into a ball and flicked it aside, and it was lost among the mess of paper, juice cartons and sweet wrappers that filled the footwell. She reminded herself that this weekend the car would need to be cleaned as the smell was becoming overpowering. She sighed and tried to relax, to let her racing heartbeat slow. She had been aware before taking the job that she wouldn’t be popular with everyone and that she’d get to hear about it. But the note in the car had still been upsetting. Somehow it was too close to home, too personal. In future she’d leave the car in the other car park with all the others.

As she parked outside her house, she wound the window shut – the smell in the car had forced her to drive home with it halfway open. There had to be half a sandwich turning green somewhere down there, or something in the junk in the back. She’d have to ask Nonni to clean the car. Judging by the emails waiting for her and the long jobs list, there wouldn’t be much opportunity to do it herself. This weekend would have to be spent getting herself up to speed on everything the ministry did.

‘Congratulations, my love!’ Nonni called out as she opened the front door. ‘You made it through day one!’

Kátur bounced towards her, his furry body twitching with delight at seeing her again, and as usual she dropped to her knees to greet him. She held his little head in both hands, kissed the top of his head and breathed in the smell of newly bathed dog. Nonni regularly gave him a bath and used shampoo on him, even though Úrsúla had warned that it wasn’t good for dogs.

‘Lovely to see you, Kátur,’ she whispered into his fur as his tail wagged furiously. There was no limit to how much she loved this little dog. He had kept her sane when she had moved back home, becoming the compass that showed her the way back to love. He had helped her put aside her weapons and lower the defences she had erected around herself somewhere between the Ebola epidemic in Liberia and the refugee camps in Syria.

The dog wriggled from her arms, ran halfway along the hall into the apartment, and then back to her. That was what he always did, scampering between her and the family, as if he were showing her the way home to them. This was guidance she certainly needed, as since moving back to Iceland she had felt at a distance from them, as if they were on the far side of some invisible barrier that she had been unable to break through.

She took a deep breath, taking in the warmth of the household, and for a moment she was gripped by a doubt that she had done the right thing by jumping into a ministerial role. There was no getting away from the fact that it would mean less time at home, less energy to devote to the children, less time for Nonni. There would be less time for her own emotional recovery. But it was only for a year, the twelve remaining months of the parliamentary term.

‘Pizza!’ the children chorused the moment she stepped into the kitchen. They were busy arranging toppings on pizza bases, and she could see Nonni was preparing a seafood pizza just for the two of them. There was an open bottle of white wine on the worktop, a glass had been poured for her, and the dining table was set with candles.

‘You’re a dream,’ she sighed, kissing the children’s heads and wrapping her arms around Nonni. He was warm to the touch, freshly shaved and sweet-smelling, and she felt her heart soften with gratitude, blended with doubt that she genuinely deserved such a perfect man. This was how it had been for more than a year. Every time she felt a surge of warmth and affection towards him, it was accompanied by an immediate surge of bad feeling. There was guilt, regret and self-loathing. Why couldn’t she simply love him as she had loved him before?

‘So how’s it looking?’ he whispered and handed her a glass of wine.

She sat on a barstool and sipped. She’d tell him tonight, when the children had taken themselves off to bed. She would tell him how the day had begun, how she had been prepared for the first interview of the day, expecting to be getting to grips with complex and demanding issues, only to be faced with such a painful and difficult personal case.

The face of the mother who had sat opposite her that morning, rigid with anger and sorrow, remained vividly in her mind. As she watched her own daughter arrange strips of pepper to form a pattern on a pizza, she felt a stab of pain in her heart: she was only two years younger than the girl who had been raped.

About the Author:

Icelandic crime-writer Lilja Sigurdardóttir was born in the town of Akranes in 1972 and raised in Mexico, Sweden, Spain and Iceland. An award-winning playwright, Lilja has written four crime novels, including
Snare, Trap and Cage, making up the Reykjavik Noir trilogy, which have hit bestseller lists worldwide. The film rights have been bought by Palomar Pictures in California. She lives in Reykjavík with her partner.

Praise for Lilja Sigurdardottir:

‘Tough, uncompromising and unsettling’
Val McDermid

‘Stylish, taut and compelling and a film adaptation is in the pipeline. With characters you can’t help sympathising with against your better judgement, Sigurdardottir takes the reader on a breathtaking ride’
Daily Express

‘ The seamy side of Iceland is uncovered in this lively and original debut as divorcee Sonja finds herself coerced into drug trafficking while her banker girlfriend Agla fends off a criminal investigation
in the aftermath of the financial crash. Tense, edgy and delivering more than a few unexpected twists and turns’
The Sunday Times Crime Club Star Pick

‘A tense thriller with a highly unusual plot and interesting characters’
The Times

‘One of the darkest and most compelling series in modern crime fiction…Tackling topical issues, Cage will tell you a great deal about why the world’s in the state it is, while never neglecting its duty to
entertain’
S Magazine

‘ The key to Sigurðardóttir ’s writing is her deep empathy for her characters. Like in Sallis’s work, these are ordinary people having to face the vagaries that life throws at them. In this instance, she writes lucidly about the power of corporations, and the ease with which our current societal
systems can become brutally corrupted. In keeping with a lot of Icelandic fiction, Cage is written in a clean, understated style, the author letting the reader put together the emotional beats and plot developments. Smart writing with a strongly beating heart’
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