Friday 5 November 2021

#BlogTour - The Lost by Simon Beckett




A MISSING CHILD

Ten years ago, the disappearance of firearms police officer Jonah Colley’s young son almost destroyed him.


A GRUESOME DISCOVERY


A plea for help from an old friend leads Jonah to Slaughter Quay, and the discovery of four bodies. Brutally attacked and left for dead, he is the only survivor.


A SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH


Under suspicion himself, he uncovers a network of secrets and lies about the people he thought he knew – forcing him to question what really happened all those years ago…


THE LOST is a twisty thriller which keeps you guessing until the end. Jonah Colley, a London police detective, whose life has been indelibly marked by the disappearance of his infant son 10 years previously, a disappearance that Jonah tortures himself about. He blames himself for the loss of his son, as does his ex-wife, who left him in the aftermath. Colley lost his son, his wife and, as a direct result, his best friend. When that estranged friend calls him late one night, panicked, begging for his help, Jonah drives to a desolate quay on the Thames where he discovers several dead bodies before being attacked and left for dead. As he recovers, Jonah finds that he is suspected of knowing more about the events of that night than he his telling, perhaps even that he is involved in the crimes. As he tries to discover the truth, Jonah begins to believe that there is a connection with his son’s disappearance.


Simon Beckett has delivered a tense, claustrophobic crime novel, a dark mystery in which the central character, and the reader, do not know what to believe or who to trust. It is a gripping story, a breathless page turner with believable and engaging characters. This was my first exposure to Simon Beckett and I really enjoyed it. It will be interesting to see where he takes the character next, THE LOST being the first in a series, and I look forward to discovering his previous series.




Tuesday 2 November 2021

#BlogTour - Far From the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson


The colony ship Ragtime docks in the Lagos system, having traveled light-years from home to bring thousands of sleeping souls to safety among the stars. 

Some of the sleepers, however, will never wake – and a profound and sinister mystery unfolds aboard the gigantic vessel. Its skeleton crew make decisions that will have repercussions for the entire system – from the scheming politicians of Lagos station to the colony planet of Bloodroot, to other far flung systems and indeed Earth itself.


‘Space is the Brink of Death’


I really was not expecting this. I have never read Tade Thompson before but the description of FAR FROM THE LIGHT OF HEAVEN promised a slice of exciting space opera, and it is an entertaining read. I was not expecting to be drawn in so deeply, to become so invested in the characters, to discover one of my favourite reads of the year.


Ostensibly a locked door murder investigation set in space, FAR FROM THE LIGHT OF HEAVEN is a thrilling, puzzling mystery novel, an incredibly well written and satisfying one, but it is so, so much more. Michelle ‘Shell’ Campion is an inexperienced captain of a ship taking a ten year journey to the colony planet of Bloodroot. It is pretty much a ceremonial position as the ship is really piloted by the AI that controls all its functions. On waking however, Shell discovers several of the cryogenically suspended passengers dead, cut to pieces to the extent that it is impossible to confirm how many bodies she has found. Aided by Fin, an investigator dispatched from Bloodroot, Shell starts to piece together the evidence, despite a seemingly compromised AI, but soon finds she and her companions are fighting for their lives. 


The mystery is as gripping as the best noir, Thompson proving to be a great storyteller and the plot races breathlessly. But he also draws on his Nigerian, Yoruba heritage to comment on colonialism, on capitalism, on race and our treatment of ‘others’. The characters are fully rounded and totally believable, funny, frustrating, realistic. There are no absolutes, no archetypes. When the ‘villain’ is revealed, the reader is both horrified and sympathetic, the events which lead to the climax of the novel truly tragic.


I thoroughly loved FAR FROM THE LIGHT OF HEAVEN and doubt I would have discovered the book, or the author, without the invitation to take part in the BlogTour. So thanks to Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers, @Tr4cyF3nt0n, and Orbit Books, @orbitbooks for the opportunity to take part and I really look forward to discovering Tade Thompson’s Rosewater series.




Thursday 16 September 2021

REPOST The Survivors by Jane Harper Now out in paperback


My rating: 5 of 5 stars 


I have always been a sucker for 'returning home' novels and, in recent years, perhaps any year, Jane Harper's THE DRY was one of the best. THE SURVIVORS is a close second. Like her debut, this novel concerns a man returning home after a tragedy. Kieran returns to Tasmania, to a small coastal town where, several years ago his brother, Finn, died in circumstances for which Kieran has always felt guilt. Finn did not die alone and others blame Kieran too. Not long after Kieran, his girlfriend and their baby daughter arrive back in Evelyn Bay another suspicious death occurs...

Jane Harper has spun another tale of going home, to suspicion, to gossip, to retribution? THE SURVIVORS is tightly plotted and suspenseful, but it is the author's ability to draw realistic, fully-rounded and flawed characters, and her sense of place which makes the book stand out. You can feel the sand blowing against your shins, hear the waves crashing around the feet of the statues which stand in the surf and which give the novel its title. But, of course, the real survivors are those whose lives have been impacted by decisions made in the past. The book is a tour de force which builds to a climax as storms, both physical and metaphorical, rise and threaten to devastate everything in their path.



Friday 10 September 2021

#BlogTour - Resistance by Mara Timon

Three women. One mission. Enemies everywhere.

May 1944. When spy Elisabeth de Mornay, code name Cécile, notices a coded transmission from an agent in the field does not bear his usual signature, she suspects his cover has been blown– something that is happening with increasing frequency. With the situation in Occupied France worsening and growing fears that the Resistance has been compromised, Cécile is ordered behind enemy lines.

Having rendezvoused with her fellow agents, Léonie and Dominique, together they have one mission: help the Resistance destabilise German operations to pave the way for the Normandy landings.

But the life of a spy is never straightforward, and the in-fighting within the Resistance makes knowing who to trust ever more difficult. With their lives on the line, all three women will have to make decisions that could cost them everything - for not all their enemies are German.


Mara Timon's follow up to last year's excellent CITY OF SPIES continues the story of Special Operations Executive agent, Elisabeth de Mornay as she is dropped behind enemy lines in Occupied France in the weeks leading up to the D-Day Landings. As part of an all-female team, Elisabeth works with the resistance against the occupying Nazi force, sending coded messages back to London, attempting to disrupt German plans, and spreading disinformation about the anticipated Allied 'invasion' of Normandy. Posing as a German/Alsatian gentlewoman, Elisabeth finds that she is not readily accepted by the Réseau with which she is working, indeed comes to suspect that there may be a traitor in the resistance network.

RESISTANCE is an exciting novel, tense and claustrophobic. Mara Timon captures perfectly the suspicion and fear, the simultaneous 'living on the edge' thrill of WWII spycraft. The plot does not let up, it drives forward with increasing anxiety. The characters, on both sides, are realistic and very well drawn, the dialogue convincingly authentic. While primarily an espionage thriller, the book does not shy away from the horrors of war. I thoroughly enjoyed the book as entertainment and was also inspired to dig a bit deeper into the historical reality against which the story takes place, and the author's notes at the end offer some guidance to those who want to understand the background.

RESISTANCE is superb, even better than CITY OF SPIES, and I look forward to seeing what Mara Timon comes up with next.

Thanks to Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers @Tr4ctF3nt0n, Vicky Joss of Bonnier Books @VickyJoss1 and Mara Timon @MaraTimon for the invitation to the Blogtour.



Thursday 19 August 2021

#BlogTour - The Saboteur by Simon Conway

The terrorist Guy Fowle has escaped from prison.

Jude Lyon of MI-6 has been saved from a Syrian ambush by his lover - and enemy? - Yulia Ermolaeva. 


A mysterious Russian has been murdered in London and his thumb cut off.


The Chancellor of the Exchequer has made an unfortunate social connection at a party, which he hopes he can keep secret.


And suddenly, the world is literally going up in flames.


Jude needs to start putting together the pieces of this jigsaw and quickly, because someone is putting into play a terrifying Russian plan to disable and destroy the UK. Once it has begun, it is designed to be impossible to stop.


Bad enough if that someone is the Russian government. Worse if it is the psychopathic genius Fowle, otherwise known as The Stranger.


Packed with stunning action, political intrigue, authentic tradecraft, emotion, shocks and nail-biting suspense, The Saboteur takes the spy thriller to new heights.


THE SABOTEUR carries on from Simon Conway’s excellent 2020 novel, THE STRANGER, which introduced MI6 agent, Jude Lyon, and sociopathic terrorist mastermind, Guy Fowle. In the aftermath of Fowle’s attack on the Houses of Parliament, the terrorist has been captured, but escapes during a chaotic court appearance. And we are straight into the action. And what action…


Simon Conway delivers a sequel, although it works as a standalone, in which everything is turned up to 11. Fowle’s actions are apocalyptic and, as Lyon pursues him, the survival of the United Kingdom itself is at stake. The novel is an exciting blend of le Carré-style espionage, James Bond action, with a healthy dose of cynicism about the motives of the British political elite. There are many characters who could have stepped out of today’s headlines and it is difficult not to see echoes of Brexit and the UK Government’s mishandling of many aspects of the Covid19 response in Conway’s Whitehall.




#BLOGTOUR - HALF PAST TOMORROW BY CHRIS MCGEORGE

Shirley Steadman, a 70 year old living in a small town in the North East of England, loves her volunteer work at the local hospital radio. She likes giving back to the community, and even more so, she likes getting out of the house. Haunted by the presence of her son, a reluctant Royal Navy officer who was lost at sea, and still in the shadow of her long dead abusive husband, she doesn’t like being alone much.

One day, at the radio station, she is playing around with the equipment and finds a frequency that was never there before. It is a pirate radio station, and as she listens as the presenter starts reading the news. But there is one problem – the news being reported is tomorrows. Shirley first thinks it is a mere misunderstanding – a wrong date. But she watches as everything reported comes true. At first, Shirley is in awe of the station, and happily tunes in to hear the news.  


But then the presenter starts reporting murders – murders that happen just the way they were reported. 


And Shirley is the only one who can stop them.


This was fun. Bloody, but fun. The prologue details the 2012 suicide of Gabe Steadman who throws himself off a Royal Navy ship. Present day, his mother, Shirley, a retired teacher volunteers at a local hospital radio, taking requests, interacting with and cheering up patients in the wards, and returns home to share her day with her cat, Moggins, and the ghost of her son, for whom she makes bacon and banana sandwiches, which he doesn’t eat, because he is dead.


One day Shirley stumbles upon a pirate ratio station which shares local news stories of small occurrences in Chester-le-Street, the baths closing down, the local baker falling off a ladder. Next day, the local baker having fallen off a ladder, Shirley realises that the news bulletin she heard was reporting the news a day early. When a minor milk float crash happens the day after it was reported, Shirley sets off to investigate. It is an intriguing mystery for the retired schoolteacher, something on which to exercise her mind and take her away from the machinations of the embroidery circle. And then the radio news predicts a murder…


In HALF-PAST TOMORROW, Chris McGeorge has delivered a twisty mystery-thriller which is in turns delightful, gentle and cosy, then bloody and shocking. The book keeps the reader engaged and full of questions, not only about the central radio news plot, but also why, and how, Shirley communicates with her son. There is humour and creepiness. The characters are great fun. There are superficial similarities with THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB but, only in tone, and pensioner protagonists, and the books are very different although readers of one would like the other, I feel.


I enjoyed HALF-PAST TOMORROW thoroughly. It is well plotted, well told, and everything is neatly and convincingly tied up at the end. 


Thanks to Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers @Tr4cyF3nt0n, Orion Publishing @orionbooks and the Author, @crmcgeorge for the invitation to the BlogTour.




Monday 26 July 2021

#BlogTour - Notes From the Burning Age by Claire North


From one of the most imaginative writers of her generation comes an extraordinary vision of the future.

Ven was once a holy man, a keeper of ancient archives. It was his duty to interpret archaic texts, sorting useful knowledge from the heretical ideas of the Burning Age - a time of excess and climate disaster. For in Ven's world, such material must be closely guarded, so that the ills that led to that cataclysmic era can never be repeated.


But when the revolutionary Brotherhood approaches Ven, pressuring him to translate stolen writings that threaten everything he once held dear, his life will be turned upside down. Torn between friendship and faith, Ven must decide how far he's willing to go to save this new world, and how much he is willing to lose.


Notes from the Burning Age is the remarkable and captivating new novel from the award-winning Claire North that puts dystopian fiction in a whole new light.


NOTES FROM THE BURNING AGE is a thrilling story of future dystopia, a warning about global warming and man’s need for war, a lament that it may be too late for change and that we have already sown the seeds for the events in the novel, all of these… Like Claire North’s previous novel, THE PURSUIT OF WILLIAM ABBEY, the story can be read on many levels, and the more you think about it, the more you have to think about it.


The story is told by Ven, a former holy man, in a world devastated by climate change and the industry which led to it, now caught between his former life in Temple and The Brotherhood, a revolutionary organisation who believe that man should once again tame the planet and exploit her resources to humanity’s ‘benefit’… 


“The Burning Age was too short-sighted. We shaped the world; built towers, seeded the sky, dug the earth, walked on the moon, built wonders and cured diseases. We waged wars, drained seas, built palaces in the desert. But we consumed too much. Ran too fast. … We were nearly wiped out, the peoples scattered to the furthest corners by deserts and storms. This time, we will do better. Our mistake was thinking that the fruits of man’s Labour must be shared with all. Now we know it is only for the few to lead, wisely and well.”


So speaks one character, and it is impossible to read without hearing similar sentiments from current politicians the world over, those who refuse to accept the damage human beings are doing to the planet, those who believe a trendy pledge to work towards carbon neutrality is enough. The Burning Age is now.


NOTES FROM THE BURNING AGE is as thought provoking as it is entertaining. Like any previous Claire North novel I have read, it is a book that defies genre. It is an incredible novel which deserves, almost demands, to be read more than once. It is beautiful and horrifying, hopeful and heartbreaking, the writing is stunningly good. I cannot recommend this enough.


Thanks to Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers @Tr4cyF3nt0n, Orbit Books @orbitbooks and, of course, Claire North @ClaireNorth42 for the opportunity to share in the BlogTour.





Sunday 25 July 2021

#BlogTour - I Know What I Saw by Imran Mahmood


I saw it. He smothered her, pressing his hands on her face. The police don't believe me, they say it's impossible – but I know what I saw.

This is Xander Shute: once a wealthy banker, now living on the streets.

As he shelters for the night in an empty Mayfair flat, he hears its occupants returning home, and scrambles to hide as the couple argue. Trapped in his hiding place, he soon finds himself witnessing a vicious murder.

But who was the dead woman, who the police later tell him can’t have been there? And why is the man Xander saw her with evading justice?

As Xander searches for answers, his memory of the crime comes under scrutiny, forcing him to confront his long-buried past and the stories he’s told about himself.

How much he is willing to risk to understand the brutal truth?


I have had Imran Mahmood’s debut novel YOU DON’T KNOW ME on my To Be Read pile since it came out, in both ebook and audiobook, and have not got found to reading it yet. Having finished his second novel I KNOW WHAT I SAW, I have no idea what I was thinking - Mahmood has just moved closer to the top of the list.


I KNOW WHAT I SAW is a thriller which pulls you in from the first scene and doesn’t let go until the stunning conclusion. Set over a couple of weeks, the novel is narrated by Xander Shute, a homeless man, once a successful banker, now living on the streets of London. Taking shelter in a seemingly empty Mayfair apartment, Xander witnesses the apparent murder of a woman by her lover. Feeling guilty that he did nothing to prevent the crime, Xander reports the murder to the local police giving a detailed description of the flat and what little he saw of the couple. The police investigation reveals no body, no signs of a struggle, and the photos of the scene do not match the details of Xander’s recollection.


Xander Shute is an incredibly well-drawn character, a man on the streets, seemingly by choice, plagued with memory issues, possibly a liar, certainly an unreliable narrator. The more Xander tries to convince himself, and the reader, of what he saw, the more doubt creeps in. As he recalls his former life, his friends, his girlfriend, his brother, and, particularly, the latter’s death, the more pieces fall into place, the less likely it seems that Xander could have witnessed the crime he maintains he saw, the less likely things could have happened as he recounts them. When it becomes apparent that former friends recall events differently from Xander, the mistrust of him as a narrator grows. But, is Xander wilfully misleading the reader, could he in fact be guilty of some crime, perhaps even murder, himself?


Imran Mahmood weaves an intricate web from which it is impossible to unravel the truth. Xander is a sympathetic storyteller, and Mahmood makes us really empathise with his narrator’s life on the street. I imagine many of us are guilty of avoiding the homeless, passing by ‘beggars’ without taking the time to wonder how they got to this point. Do they, like Xander, divide the city into ‘zones’ of safety and peril? Have they experienced some tragedy from which running away seemed to be the only choice? I KNOW WHAT I SAW has certainly made me think and, I hope, I will not simply walk past in future.


Thanks to Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers @Tr4cyF3nt0n, Bloomsbury Raven Books @BloomsburyRaven and, of course, Imran Mahmood @imranmahmood777







Monday 12 July 2021

#BlogTour - Mimic by Daniel Cole (Audiobook)


In life she was his muse . . .

In death she’ll be his masterpiece


1989: 
DS Benjamin Chambers and DC Adam Winters are on the trail of a serial killer with a twisted passion for recreating the world’s greatest works of art through the bodies of his victims. After Chambers nearly loses his life, the case goes cold due to lack of evidence. The killer lies dormant, his collection unfinished.


1996: DS Marshall has excelled through the ranks of the Metropolitan Police Service, despite being haunted by the case that defined her teenage years. Having obtained new evidence, she joins Chambers and Winters to reopen the case. However, their resurrected investigation brings about a fresh reign of terror, the team treading a fine line between delivering justice and becoming vigilantes in their pursuit of a monster far more dangerous and intelligent than any of them had anticipated…


* * * * *


MIMIC is a London-set novel about the pursuit of a ‘theme’ serial killer. The discovery of a naked bodybuilder on a plinth in Hyde Park, his body arranged in a recreation of Rodin’s Thinker, sets DS Benjamin Chambers on a mission to track down the killer, once he has convinced his boss that the victim didn’t climb up on to the plinth, naked, on a cold winter’s night, and commit suicide… Along the way Chambers picks up a couple of ‘sidekicks’ in DC Winters and DS Marshall. All three are well-drawn characters with talents and flaws, who complement, and hinder, each other in the progress of the investigation.


Starting in 1989, there are a couple of time jumps, the first of which felt, to me, slightly awkward, Daniel Cole having introduced his characters, only to have to reintroduce them and update the reader on where they have been. It’s a minor point though, and Cole quickly recovers, with Winters in particular injecting some humour to balance the startling nature of the crimes. The key to the book, as with the more successful narratives of this genre (think of, say, the movie ‘Se7en’) is a convincing villain and an absorbing ‘theme’ to the murders. In this case the killer arranges his victims in the manner of great sculptures, taunting the investigators as he does so. 


Half the fun - and it shouldn’t really be fun, should it? - in stories of this type is in the gruesome manner by which the killer sets about creating his ‘scenes’ or, in this case, ‘art.’ The tableaux that the killer creates, replicating great artworks, are horrific, and visceral, and thrilling. Of course, such intricately designed murders require quite a suspension of disbelief from the reader. It is to Cole’s credit that, while reading, you don’t stop and wonder just how the killer could have done what he does without being discovered; where did he get the time? But it is the discovery of the artist’s ‘muse’ which kicks the plot into top gear and, from there, Cole barely gives the reader time to breathe.


The story is well-constructed and, in the audio version, brought to life by the narration by Jude Owusu, who performs the dialogue especially well. He makes the interactions between the three main characters exceptionally convincing. A really entertaining listen.


Thanks to Orion Books @orionbooks, Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers @Tr4cyF3nt0n and, of course, Daniel Cole @danielcolebooks for the opportunity to join the Audiobook Tour.



Friday 25 June 2021

#BlogTour - Truth or Dare by M.J. Arlidge

DO YOU WANT TO PLAY THE GAME?

THE BRAND NEW THRILLER FROM THE MIND OF MILLION-COPY BESTSELLER M. J. ARLIDGE


A crimewave sweeps through the city and no-one is safe. An arson at the docks. A carjacking gone wrong. A murder in a country park. What connects all these crimes without causes, which leave no clues?


Detective Inspector Helen Grace faces the rising tide of cases which threatens to drown the city. But each crime is just a piece of a puzzle which is falling into place.


And when it becomes clear just how twisted and ingenious this web of crime is, D.I. Grace will realise that it may be impossible to stop it . . .


THE BEST BOOK YET FROM THE MASTER OF THE KILLER THRILLER.


* * * * *

TRUTH OR DARE is the tenth book in M.J. Arlidge’s Southampton-set police procedurals featuring D.I. Helen Grace, his dedicated, if unorthodox, series protagonist. This time D.I. Grace is faced with a spate of unsolved, and seemingly unconnected, murders and violent crimes. Under pressure from her superiors and from the local press, to whom her former lover, and ambitious deputy, D.S. Hudson, is feeding information aimed at bringing Grace down, Helen struggles to make sense of the crimewave and, perhaps, to save her career. 


The investigation into the crimes is engrossing as D.I. Grace becomes increasingly convinced that these are not random occurrences, that there is a link between them, if only she could find the connection. But it is the subplot involving Hudson’s machinations that really drives the novel along. Hudson is a deliciously drawn character and, for me, the real antagonist. Possessing investigative skills but no empathy, and driven by self-interest, Hudson wants to lead the department and will stop at nothing in his campaign to remove Helen Grace. There is more than a touch of Iago in Hudson as he foments suspicion and mistrust in the team and encourages his superiors, already wary of adverse publicity and irritated by their D.I.’s unconventional approach, to see the team’s apparent failings as Grace’s alone. I became more and more frustrated and angry, but no less entertained, by Hudson’s success in undermining his boss. 


As you might expect from an author so well-versed in TV crime dramas, the novel is very televisual and moves at an rapid pace. TRUTH OR DARE is an exciting and engaging book and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. 


Thanks to Orion @orionbooks and Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers @Tr4cyF3nt0n for the invitation to take part in the Blogtour.




Tuesday 22 June 2021

Hostage by Clare Mackintosh

You can save hundreds of lives.
Or the one that matters most . . . 

The atmosphere on board the first non-stop flight from London to Sydney is electric. Celebrities are rumoured to be among the passengers in business class, and the world is watching the landmark journey.

Flight attendant Mina is trying to focus on the passengers, instead of her troubled five-year-old daughter back at home - or the cataclysmic problems in her marriage.

But soon after the plane takes off, Mina receives a chilling anonymous note. Someone wants to make sure the plane never reaches its destination. They're demanding her cooperation . . . and they know exactly how to get it.

It's twenty hours to landing.
A lot can happen in twenty hours . . .

Prior to HOSTAGE, the only book by Clare Mackintosh that I have read is AFTER THE END, an intensely emotional and personal novel. Her latest is a completely different novel, a thriller about an aeroplane hijack, the current terminology is 'high concept' I believe; the books really could not be further apart - at least in plot terms. What they share is the author's stunning ability to craft an absorbing story and her gift for character and relationships.

HOSTAGE is a thrill-ride from start to finish. When Mina swaps shifts with a colleague, so that she can crew the first, historic, non-stop flight from London to Sydney, but, primarily, to escape the pressures of her relationships - with Adam, the husband she believes has cheated, and Sophia, their adopted daughter, precocious and loved but demanding, diagnosed with ‘a sea of acronyms’ - she cannot foresee that hijackers will use those relativity force her to help them take the plane. 

The plot alternates between the plane, where Mina finds a note threatening her family should she refuse to aid the hijackers, and her home, where the terrorists follow through on the threat. It is, at times, unbearably tense - can Mina outwit the hijackers, will Adam and Sophia survive - and Clare Mackintosh handles the beats perfectly, ramping up the suspense. If this was all she did, HOSTAGE would still be a remarkable thriller, but it is the characterisation which sets the novel apart. The family relationships are complex, realistic and believable; the terrorists are environmentalists and the author paints them so well that you find yourself sympathising with their aims, questioning the damage that we continue to do to the planet, even as you are repulsed and horrified by their methods. 

HOSTAGE is an outstanding work. Thanks to Little Brown, particularly Francesca Banks for the invitation to review the book. Now to the back catalogue…

Wednesday 9 June 2021

#BlogTour - The Pact by Sharon Bolton

 A golden summer, and six talented friends are looking forward to the brightest of futures – until a daredevil game goes horribly wrong, and a woman and two children are killed.


18-year-old Megan takes the blame, leaving the others free to get on with their lives. In return, they each agree to a ‘favour’, payable on her release from prison.


Twenty years later Megan is free.


Let the games begin . . .



THE PACT is a twisty, and twisted, thriller about a careless, thoughtless crime and its long-lasting impact on the lives of those who perpetrate it. It takes a really talented author to produce a novel as enthralling and entertaining as this one with protagonists so thoroughly unlikeable. The teenagers, whose late night thrill ride the wrong way down the A40 ends in the deaths of a young family, are spoiled and entitled; the adults they become twenty years later are, despite the apparent successes they have made of their lives, just as nasty. The exception, at least in terms of her success, is Megan, who for some reason takes full responsibility for the crash that has the potential to ruin all their lives; she is however no more likeable than the others.


That Sharon Bolton not only keeps these people interesting but makes the reader care about what happens to them is astounding. The novel rattles along at a fast pace, told from the viewpoints of each of the group, so willing to accept Megan’s offer yet so anxious to avoid the consequences of the pact they agree to. The real pleasure is in watching the relationships unravel as the group start to become suspicious each other. It is frantic and fun.


Thanks to Tracey Fenton of Compulsive Readers @Tr4cyF3nt0n and Trapeze Books @TrapezeBooks for the invitation to the BlogTour.



Thursday 6 May 2021

#BlogTour - Geiger by Gustaf Skördeman

 The landline rings as Agneta is waving off her grandchildren. Just one word comes out of the receiver: ‘Geiger’.

For decades, Agneta has always known that this moment would come, but she is shaken. She knows what it means.


Retrieving her weapon from its hiding place, she attaches the silencer and creeps up behind her husband before pressing the barrel to his temple.


Then she squeezes the trigger and disappears – leaving behind her wallet and keys.


The extraordinary murder is not Sara Nowak’s case. But she was once close to those affected and, defying regulations, she joins the investigation. What Sara doesn’t know is that the mysterious codeword is just the first piece in the puzzle of an intricate and devastating plot fifty years in the making . . .


 GEIGER is a surprising novel which retains the ‘small’ while dealing with big, potentially cataclysmic post-cold war themes. By that I mean that, while many ‘big’ espionage novels tend to deal with macro events, often at the expense of character, Gustaf Skördeman’s debut has all the excitement of the thriller while retaining the character and small details of the detective-crime novel, and successfully marries the two into a very satisfying whole. 


The beginning of the book lulls the reader. The opening is slow and deliberately paced as the Broman family, popular, retired Swedish television entertainer, Stellan, his wife, their daughters and grandchildren, gather for a family dinner. It is a very ‘literary’ opening, a upper-middle class family, the musings of one of the daughters, the quiet tensions in such gatherings - it isn’t clear where this is going. And then, once the extended family has left, the mother, Agneta, takes a call and immediately shoots her famous husband in the head, and disappears. 


Where many novels would concentrate on Agneta’s mission, on what drives her, this story concentrates on the investigation into Stellan’s murder, an investigation into which Detective Sara Novak is drawn due to her history with the family. This history, the complicated relationship Sara had with the Broman sisters, with her own mother, who was the Stellan’s maid, as well as her current relationships with her own husband and children, drive the plot. Suspecting that Agneta has been taken by her husband’s killers, the investigation concentrates on Stellan, his past as Sweden’s ‘uncle’, his social life with the rich and powerful in media and politics, on trying to find who would have reason to kill him. This leads to shocking revelations which impact on Sara, her family, and, potentially, on peace in Europe. And, at points in the novel, we catch up with Agneta…


I enjoyed GEIGER a lot. It has been compared with I Am Pilgrim but I don’t see it. It’s much, much better than that.


Thank you @ZaffreBooks and @Tr4cyF3nt0n #CompulsiveReaders for the invitation to the #BlogTour.


Sunday 4 April 2021

#BlogTour - Rites of Spring by Anders de la Motte

Southern Sweden: Beautiful countryside, endless forests, coastal walks, dark days - and even darker nights. But beneath the beauty lies a dark heart . . .

Skåne, 1986: On the night of Walpurgis, the eve of May Day, where bonfires are lit to ward off evil spirits and preparations are made to celebrate the renewal of spring, a sixteen-year-old girl is ritualistically murdered in the woods beside a castle. Her stepbrother is convicted of the terrible deed and shortly after, the entire family vanishes without a trace.


Spring, 2019: Dr Thea Lind moves into the castle. After making a strange discovery in an ancient oak tree on the grounds, her fascination with the old tragedy deepens. As she uncovers more and more similarities between her own troubled past and the murdered girl, she begins to believe that the real truth of the killing was never uncovered.


What if the spring of 1986 claimed more than one victim?



‘Ok, I admit it. I’ve become completely obsessed with the mystery of Elita Svart. A dead girl whose spirit seems to hover over the area, even though her house was boarded up the day after her funeral. A dead girl whom nobody wants to talk about, yet someone still lays flowers on her grave.’

When Thea Lind moves with her husband to the village in which he grew up, and in which she is to be the new GP, she finds herself drawn to a Polaroid image of a teenage girl, dressed in white, bound at the wrists in ribbons held by four younger children in animal masks; a girl who died, was murdered, in an apparent ‘spring sacrifice’ to the Green Man. As her interest increases, the mystery deepens. Why does no one in the village, including her husband and in-laws, want to speak about the murder? Was Elita Svart complicit in her own murder? Is the man found guilty truly responsible for the death?

The book is chillingly atmospheric. Thea’s investigation is intercut with flashbacks to the events of Walpurgis Night, 1986 and extracts from a letter left by the murdered girl. The plot is purposely slow which only adds to the growing feeling of unease. Indeed, the novel reads very much like a gothic horror novel, reminding me of Harvest Home, of the Wicker Man, and of Midsommar. At times, the prose, and the pace, is reminiscent of Shirley Jackson. There is a strangeness, a coldness to many of the characters which, again, really fits the gothic tone of the narrative and adds to the reader’s disquiet and uncertainty. 


Anders de la Motte has a great feel for the Swedish countryside in which the action takes place and he weaves the folklore, pagan rituals and beliefs into an unsettling mystery. RITES OF SPRING is unlike any other ‘Scandi-crime’ novels I have read. I look forward to the other seasons in the Skåne quartet.

Thanks to @ZaffreBooks @Tr4cyF3nt0n @AndersdelaMotte for the invitation to take part in the BlogTour.




Friday 26 March 2021

#BlogTour: Trust Me by T. M. Logan

Trust Me

Two strangers, a child, and a split second choice that will change  everything . . .

Ellen was just trying to help a stranger. That was how it started: giving a few minutes respite to a flustered young mother sitting opposite her on the train. A few minutes holding her baby while the mother makes an urgent call. The weight of the child in her arms making Ellen’s heart ache for what she can never have.

Five minutes pass.

Ten.

The train pulls into a station and Ellen is stunned to see the mother hurrying away down the platform, without looking back. Leaving her baby behind. Ellen is about to raise the alarm when she discovers a note in the baby’s bag, three desperate lines scrawled hastily on a piece of paper:

Please protect Mia

Don’t trust the police

Don’t trust anyone

Why would a mother abandon her child to a stranger? Ellen is about to discover that the baby in her arms might hold the key to an unspeakable crime. And doing the right thing might just cost her everything . . .


On a train to Marylebone Station, Ellen holds a young woman’s baby girl while the mother takes an important call. As the train pulls out of the next stop, Ellen is shocked to see the young woman on the platform, abandoning the child in her care, along with a note telling her to trust no one including the police. Arriving in London, and convinced that she is being followed by a strange man who had sat opposite her on the train, Ellen resolves to take the child to a police station. Instead, she finds herself abducted and held hostage...

TRUST ME is a fast moving thriller, full of twists and turns, red-herrings and believable characters. Largely narrated by Ellen, a sympathetic character, whose choices make sense based on her situation and what she tells us about herself, the story is one of suspicion and paranoia. Ellen is thrust into a situation that she does not understand. Having had failed IVF treatment, abandoned by her husband, who is now expecting a child with his girlfriend, Ellen is naturally drawn to the baby. But she does not know who to trust.

T. M. Logan has a real talent for thrilling, psychological mystery. The story is told in short chapters, cliff-hangers which make the reader want to press on. We learn just enough about the supporting cast to make us share Ellen’s confusion and suspicions. The ending is perhaps telegraphed a little, but it doesn’t matter; TRUST ME is exciting and entertaining. It keeps the reader guessing and moves with an intensity and breathlessness; an ideal lockdown read.

Thanks to T. M. Logan, Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers and Zaffre Books for the invitation to take part in the Blogtour.

View all my reviews

#BlogTour: The Fall of Koli by M. R. Carey

The Fall of Koli The Fall of Koli by M.R. Carey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Fall of Koli is the third and final novel in the breathtakingly original Rampart trilogy – set in a strange and deadly world of our own making.

The world that is lost will come back to haunt us . . .

Koli has come a long way since being exiled from his small village of Mythen Rood. In his search for the fabled tech of the old times, he knew he’d be battling strange, terrible beasts and trees that move as fast as whips. But he has already encountered so much more than he bargained for.

Now that Koli and his companions have found the source of the signal they’ve been following – the mysterious “Sword of Albion” – there is hope that their perilous journey will finally be worth something.

Until they unearth terrifying truths about an ancient war . . . and realise that it may have never ended.

published by Orbit Books 

Tuesday 2 March 2021

Alan Parks' Harry McCoy series


I never do this!

“For a bit of excellent Tartan Noir”, said my Glaswegian pal, “try Alan Parks starting with Bloody January.” So, Paul’s recommendations being highly valued, I started with BLOODY JANUARY. A couple of weeks later, I had read all four of Park’s Harry McCoy novels back-to-back.


BLOODY JANUARY introduces Glasgow Detective Harry McCoy. It’s January 1973 and McCoy witnesses the murder of a young girl in Glasgow’s central bus station whose killer commits suicide before he can be apprehended. Investigating, McCoy finds links to a high-powered family, and to his own past. Part of that past is Stevie Cooper, a career criminal, pimp, drug dealer, and gang boss, whose stock is rising in the Glasgow underworld. Cooper is also Harry McCoy’s friend and sometime protector.

FEBRUARY’S SON finds McCoy investigating the death of a young Glasgow Celtic football star, murdered in grisly circumstances. McCoy uncovers links to a Glasgow crime family. Then the bodies start to pile up…


The third novel, BOBBY MARCH WILL LIVE FOREVER, jumps to August 1973 with Glasgow in the middle of a heatwave. A young girl has gone missing, a citywide manhunt in operation, but McCoy is shut out of the investigation run, as it is, by an old adversary in the force. Reduced to following up a series of small time bank robberies, McCoy also looks into the apparent overdose death of fading Glasgow rock star, Bobby March. This is possibly my favourite of the novels, with a fever-dream-like visit to ‘70s Belfast a highlight.

THE APRIL DEAD. April 1974. Bombs are going off in Glasgow but, despite the city sharing some of Northern Ireland’s sectarianism, this doesn’t feel like the IRA to Harry McCoy. Meanwhile, Harry is approached by the father of a US sailor who has gone missing from a nearby American naval base.


All four novels are well plotted mystery-thrillers, Alan Parks clearly knowing how to construct a story. But it is the characters and the setting, the atmosphere that sets these books apart. Parks’s Glasgow is a dark, bleak place populated by drug dealers, prostitutes, criminal gangs, the homeless, good and bad polis, police in the Glasgow vernacular. It feels authentic, as much a character in the stories as Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles or Lawrence Block’s New York. 


McCoy is not a dirty cop, or polis, but he is conflicted. He has a strong sense of morality, knows what is right and wrong, but the dividing line doesn’t always tally with where others, particularly other polis, would consider it to be. He has allies in his boss, Murray and his new partner, Wattie, but continually tests their support. He has a complicated relationship with Stevie Cooper, to whom he has a strong loyalty due to their shared past when Cooper protected the young McCoy, often suffering in his stead. But McCoy is not blind to Cooper’s sociopathic nature. In Cooper, we see echoes of Hawk in Robert B. Parker’s Spenser novels or Mouse in Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins stories. Cooper is no sidekick, no gangster with a heart of gold. He is a genuinely dangerous man, one whom McCoy reluctantly allows to run, feeling perhaps that Cooper is a better alternative to his criminal rivals, but knowing that there will be a reckoning and that he will someday have to take Cooper down. The reader, and Harry McCoy, suspect that this may prove impossible.


This is simply one of the best continuing series out there at present and can stand with the best of any era. Think Raymond Chandler, Ross MacDonald, William McIllvaney, Ian Rankin. Yes, all the standard elements are there and, in lesser hands, the books could be clichéd but they transcend the genre. Violently. Viscerally.


The only real problem is that, now that I have caught up, it’s going to be a long wait for the next in the series. I can’t wait for May, whenever that might be…

#BlogTour - Still See You Everywhere by Lisa Gardner

A remote tropical island. Countless dangerous secrets. No way to call help. ‘A  master of the thriller  genre’ David Baldacci ‘Full-on  acti...