Ooooo, I didn’t see that coming!

It has been so great to catch up with DCI Timothy again. Due to other blogging commitments this is the first chance I’ve had to continue with this excellent series and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this story. I think this has been my favourite book yet, but I’ll probably say that about them all!

Timothy is back within a team having recovered from being attacked (read the previous books first, if you haven’t already!). He’s still not 100% though and it shows at times. It’s also having an impact on his marriage. I enjoy that we see this personal side to the character’s story. It makes them all the more real.

In Stains of Suspicion a body is found under a tarpaulin in a carpark and it’s assumed by the witness that it is the body of a child but, is in fact a tiny older lady. The family are located and informed and an investigation begins. It soon transpires that the lady has died of a heart attack, but how did she covered herself up?? Her car is also missing. It doesn’t make much sense and the team have their work cut out if they are to prove this lady was indeed murdered.

To add further intrigue to the story, a man they believed to be the victim’s brother insists that this lady isn’t his sister. So, who is this woman and whatever happened to his real sister??

The victim’s family are interesting to say the least. There are four children, one of whom was adopted and all as different as they can be. They have odd relationships. The (older) husband is suffering with dementia and is now in a care home but seems to have been quite controlling and abusive in the past. This woman’s life is quite a mystery. I enjoyed following the team as they put the pieces of the puzzle together and figured out the facts.

The suspense had me completely gripped and I was totally shocked when the truth was revealed. This killer is nothing short of brutal! Their matter of fact attitude made my blood run cold. Another brilliant murder mystery, full of surprises and intriguing characters. I highly recommend.

I’ve already started the next book in the series, The Calibre of Death.

Watch this space for my review!

ICYMI…..

Local authors

The Bridport Dagger by Alison Lingwood

Q&A with author, Alison Lingwood

A Wild Kind of Justice by Alison Lingwood #BookReview

happy reading 🙂

Welcome to my stop on Clio Gray’s Deadly Prospects blog blitz with Love Books Tours!

Many thanks to Kelly @ Love Books Tours for arranging the following interview with Clio Gray…..

Where did/do you get your ideas from?
I have a massive Paper Museum (over 100 box files) filled with articles, book extracts and snippets I’ve read and come across for the past thirty five years (scary! Destined to be a librarian!) so I usually start from some interesting historical fact and read up and research it further, and then connect it to another and another until I have the bones of a story.

Are any of your characters based (however loosely) on anyone you know?
No, although I do occasionally pinch characteristics – for example, I saw a man at an airport with an incredibly long and rectangular face and that I have used.

How do you pick your characters’ names?
I’ve got a little booklet with loads of names written down that I have come across over the years. Whenever I come across one that interests me, in it goes. And when I need one I flip through until I find one (or adapt one or another) that fits

Can you share your writing process with us, in a nutshell?
Dogs walked, fed and rested, cats fed so they don’t start yowling annoyingly, I just turn on the laptop, pour a cool glass of home-made wine (not very alcoholic!), pull the blinds, switch on the table lamps, read what I wrote the previous day and start writing.

Who are your top 5 favourite authors?
Oh good grief! Too many to choose from!
Mervyn Peake has to be up there, along with the poet Charles Causley. Have recently been very impressed with Olga Tokarczuk, and Lucy Cooke’s book ‘The Unexpected Truth about Animals’ had so much interesting stuff in it I went out and bought. Perhaps my favourite is Rev. J Wood, one of those polymath Victorians who wrote about anything and everything and his pages are crammed to bursting with unusual facts and amazing illustrations.

Were you a big reader as a child?
Yes! Library visit every Saturday Morning, and mother always had loads of books around the house. I remember the first one I ever owned, when I was three. In fact I think I still have it somewhere.

When did you start to write?
When I moved up to Scotland I couldn’t get work for five long years. That’s when I started scribbling a first novel – pretty awful, although honestly I’ve read worse! So glad it never got published or I would be ashamed of it every day.

If you could re-write the ending to any book what would it be and what would you change?
I’ve just read Soji Shimada’s Murder in the Crooked House and the ending was so ludicrous it had me practically throwing the book across the room. Ingenious, but utterly preposterous. Would like to have taken some of the ideas in it and rewritten the whole thing!

Is there a book you wish you had written?
The Shipping News by E Annie Proulx, or Dirt Music by Tim Winton. Both are modern masterpieces.

If you could invite any fictional character for coffee who would it be and where would you take them?
I wouldn’t! I hate coffee and I hate going out and I hate chatting

What are you working on right now?
I’m working on what I’m loosely calling my Albanian Trilogy. It involves the Pfiffmaklers, a family-based Travelling Theatre group who get tangled up in the fights for Independence in the troubled area of Serbia, Croatia and Albania. The second one also ties in with Philbert and his pig from The Anatomist’s Dream and gives them an ending of sorts.
I’ve also just completed a sequel to The Legacy of the Lynx

Tell us about your last release?
My last release was Hidden Pasts, the third in the Scottish Mystery series. Set on Hestan Island and having reverberations with a great many things going on today (problems in Crimea, subjugation of minorities, fear of The Other) despite being set in the mid 19th-c. And a spot of murder, naturally.

Do you have a new release due?
Archimimus, the life and times of Lukitt Bachmann will be published by Urbane in October 2019
How a boy from the mountains is turned into an assassin…

What do you generally do to celebrate on publication day?
I don’t. By the time that happens I’ve already moved on to something new!

How can readers keep in touch with you?
I’m always delighted to hear from readers and can be reached through my website or my publishers

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions, Clio!

Blurb

Deadly Prospects is book 1 in the Scottish Mystery series. 1869, Sutherland, Scotland. For years the people of this remote area of the Highlands have lived a hard life. Now a local Gold Rush has attracted the Pan-European Mining Company to the area, and Solveig McCleery is determined to re-open the Brora mines and give the population the riches they deserve. But when work starts on re-opening the mines, the body of a prospector is discovered, and odd inscriptions found on stones near the corpse. Before the meaning of these strange marks can be deciphered another body is discovered. Are these attacks connected to the re-opening of the mines? Will Solveig’s plan succeed in bringing peace and prosperity back to the area? Or has she put in motion something far more sinister?

Buy Link 

https://amzn.to/2lwZTQR

ABOUT CLIO GRAY

Clio was born in Yorkshire, spent her later childhood in Devon before returning to Yorkshire to go to university. For the last twenty five years she has lived in the Scottish Highlands where she intends to remain. She eschewed the usual route of marriage, mortgage, children, and instead spent her working life in libraries, filling her home with books and sharing that home with dogs. She began writing for personal amusement in the late nineties, then began entering short story competitions, getting short listed and then winning, which led directly to a publication deal with Headline. Her book, The Anatomist’s Dream, was nominated for the Man Booker 2015 and long listed for the Bailey’s Prize in 2016.

Welcome to my stop on Anne Coates’ Dancers In The Wind blog tour with Love Books Tours!

Many thanks to Kelly @ Love Books Tours for arranging the following guest post by Anne Coates…..

Minor characters – major roles

When I first wrote Dancers in the Wind I hadn’t envisaged it as the beginning of a series. Then Urbane offered to publish it, and Matthew Smith saw it as the first of a trilogy (but has happily agreed to book number four!). For this reason I am truly grateful that I took time to ensure that my “minor” characters were more than two-dimensional and had back-stories and lives of their own.
Received wisdom is that any “chain” is only as strong as its weakest link. This applies to characters in film, TV programmes, theatrical performances
– and books. One bad actor can ruin a whole production. When writers introduce a character they don’t have to give all the details of their lives but they weave information into the narrative and their reactions gradually reveal their personalities. Although a character may have minor role, the impact they have on the plot may be of major importance.
The parents of my protagonist, Hannah Weybridge, have cameo parts as they have moved, much to their only daughter’s chagrin, to France. Hannah feels deserted on more than one level. Her baby’s father, Paul, is not on the scene and her best friend Liz Rayman has gone off to work for a charity in Somalia. Both of them are “off stage” so to speak but hopefully the reader will want to know more about them and follow their fortunes in later books.
In writing Dancers I created a world set in 1990s London for Hannah and her friends. Linda, Dave, James and Joe are involved in the story and fortunately for them they survive and move with Hannah into Death’s Silent Judgement. But there are other characters who have grown with the series. In Dancers, Sam who works at the Lost Property Office at Kings Cross and is DI Tom Jordan’s informant, wormed his way into this author’s heart. All the groundwork was there for him to have a bigger role in the sequel. However there are characters I have taken great delight in killing off – sooner or later they get their comeuppance – and others whose deaths I have mourned.

© Anne Coates, 2019

Blurb

SHE IS HUNTING FOR THE TRUTH, BUT WHO IS HUNTING HER?

Freelance journalist and single mother Hannah Weybridge is commissioned by a national newspaper to write an investigative article on the notorious red light district in Kings Cross. There she meets prostitute Princess, and police inspector in the vice squad, Tom Jordan. When Princess later arrives on her doorstep beaten up so badly she is barely recognisable, Hannah has to make some tough decisions and is drawn ever deeper into the world of deceit and violence.

Three sex workers are murdered, their deaths covered up in a media blackout, and Hannah herself is under threat. As she comes to realise that the taste for vice reaches into the higher echelons of the great and the good, Hannah realises she must do everything in her power to expose the truth …. and stay alive.

ABOUT ANNE COATES

For most of her working life in publishing, Anne has had a foot in both camps as a writer and an editor, moving from book publishing to magazines and then freelancing in both. Having edited both fiction and narrative non-fiction, she has also had short stories published in a variety of magazines including Bella and Candis and is the author of seven non-fiction books. Telling stories is Anne’s first love and nearly all her short fiction as well as Dancers in The Wind and Death’s Silent Judgement began with a real event followed by a ‘what if …’. That is also the case with the two prize-winning 99Fiction.net stories: Codewords and Eternal Love.

Buy Link 

https://amzn.to/2lJsgLW

happy reading 🙂

Welcome to my stop on Joe Hakim’s The Community blog tour with Love Books Tours!

Many thanks to Kelly @ Love Books Tours for arranging the following interview with Joe Hakim…..

For those who don’t know already, could you tell us about yourself and your book(s) please?

Hello. I’m Joe Hakim. I’m a writer and I live and work in Hull. The Community is my first novel, but I’ve been trying to scrape by as a freelance creative-type for a few years now. I’ve worked a lot in spoken/word and performance poetry, and I’ve also dabbled in theatre and short fiction.

The Community is a scifi/horror novel set in my hometown. It’s about a group of estranged friends who find themselves drawn back together by a mysterious sinister force.

Where did/do you get your ideas from?

That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it? I could rattle on about the interplay between the conscious and subconscious, but no one wants to hear about that do they? They want a solid bit of advice and I don’t blame them.

I think when the germ of idea pops into your head, if you ask it a simple question and it will grow into something more tangible. It’s the ‘what if?’ thing. There are many strands that have gone into The Community – some of which I’m still trying to untangle myself – but the thing that really set the ball rolling was a simple question: ‘What would happen if an alien entity invaded the place where I live?’

Are any of your characters based (however loosely) on anyone you know?

If I answer this question with a ‘yes’, I’m potentially committing career (and relationship) suicide, so I’m going to say ‘no’.

In all seriousness, I think most writers cherry-pick aspects of people they’re familiar with or interact with. A turn-of-phrase, a personality quirk, an anecdote… writers are thieves. It’s part of the process. And of course, some aspect of the writer will usually pop up in the characters as well. That’s why it’s best to avoid getting into relationships with writers.

Only joking.

How do you pick your characters’ names?

Funnily enough, I find picking characters names a bit of a nightmare. I put in place-holder names to begin with, and then I agonise over finding more suitable names: scouring the phonebook, looking at the spines of the books that I own, sticking the telly on, things like that. And then, after a couple of days I come to terms with the fact that I’m massively overthinking it and stick with the initial placeholder names.

Every. Bleeding. Time.

Can you share your writing process with us, in a nutshell?

Not really, no. And I’m not being obstinate or anything like that. Because I work in a lot of different mediums which involve a lot of collaboration, I tend to a bit all over the place. It pains me to admit it, but the only kind of routine I have is a shamefully boring one. When I get up, I set about the business aspect of what I do, which is send emails, chase up invoices, admin work and expenses, stuff like that. I used to avoid doing that stuff as much as possible, because it’s the antithesis of creativity and art, but if you want to function – and more crucially earn money – as a freelance artist or creative of any kind, you have to wrap your head around that aspect of it. And as I’m getting older, I find that if I get up and get that out of the way early in the morning, it leaves me the rest of the day and night to focus on the most important part of what it is I do: the creative bit.

I write every day, but I have no set pattern or system. It shifts according to the needs of the work.

Sorry if I’ve bored everyone’s socks off there.

If you could meet any author, who would it be and what would you ask them?

Alan Moore.

How’s it going Alan?
Were you a big reader as a child?

Yes. I was very fortunate. Due to various familial vicissitudes which I won’t go into here, I spent a lot of my childhood with my Grandma Topsy. She was big into reading, very insistent actually. She believed that reading and literacy in general was an essential part of life. I became a member of Carnegie Library on Anlaby Road (in Hull) when I was three years old, and for years she would take me every Saturday to get more books and to buy comics.

When did you start to write?

I distinctly remember writing stories and poems from an early age at primary school, but I think that’s a bit of a cop-out answer.

I still find it strangely uncomfortable referring to writing as a ‘career’, but my first published piece of writing appeared on thisisull.com, an arts and culture website based in Hull, sometime around 2005. That was when it all started for me.
If you could re-write the ending to any book what would it be and what would you change?
Is there a book you wish you had written?

I’m going to have to give another cop-out answer here. I’ve honestly never read something and thought: ‘Well, what you should have done is…’

And again, there are many, many books that I love and admire, but I’ve always been aware that the reason I’m reading them is because I could have never written them. If that makes sense.

If you wrote an autobiography, what would your title be?

‘I’ve Got A Thing For Vinegar: The Joe Hakim Story’

If you could invite any fictional character for coffee who would it be and where would you take them?
Kilgore Trout. There’s a place near me that make Scotch Eggs that are the size of a baby’s cranium. I think he’d be well into them.

What are you working on right now?

I have a collection of short stories, ‘Full of Pins’, which is currently being rejected by all good agents and publishers everywhere.

I’m working on an interactive theatre piece called ‘Omni-Science’ with Brick by Brick theatre company. It’s wild, check it out:
https://brickbybricktheatre.weebly.com/

I host a weekly arts and culture show on BBC Radio Humberside every Thursday 7-10. Tune in, I need the listeners.

I’m about to embark on a project with photographer Graeme Oxby.

I’m in the very early stages of what I hope will be my next novel. It’s set in a very specific time period, so I’m having to do a lot of research, so I’m consulting with my Wise Owls at the moment.

Tell us about your last release?

‘The Science of Discontent’. It’s an album of spoken word and music, a collaboration with my mate Ashley Reaks:
https://ashleyreaks.bandcamp.com/album/the-science-of-discontent
What do you generally do to celebrate on publication day?

Get drunk.

How can readers keep in touch with you?

You can find me on that twitter @JoeHakim_ . Remember the underscore at the end, or you’ll end up harassing some poor guy in America. Oh, and keep it clean people.

Is there anything else you would like us to know?

They will fill the void within you all.

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions, Joe 🙂

Blurb

A northern coastal city. A sinister, extra-dimensional intelligence is taking hold…

Joe Hakim draws the reader into the heart of a disenfranchised community impacted by strange forces beyond its control. A group of friends: separated by time, choices, and circumstance are reunited by their shared encounters with an uncanny presence that looms over their lives. The seeds were sewn in their childhoods, now they must try and understand what is happening, before it is too late.

Raw and uncompromising, The Community fuses social commentary with a dose of sci-fi horror, to cast a light on an existence spent in the Void.

Buy Link 

https://amzn.to/2kcE1dd

happy reading 🙂

The Art of Hiding has been on my Netgalley list for far too long, so my apologies to the author and publisher for that. It was absolutely worth the wait though!

This is a thought provoking story. One which certainly made me think about what I would do if I found myself in Nina’s position, but I guess none of us know unless we have had to face such devastation.

Nina is a very relatable and likeable character. She’s a housewife/stay-at-home mother with two sons and a husband who earns enough for her to take care of their large home. We don’t have a large home, but I have been lucky enough to be able to stay at home to bring our two children up and I will always be grateful for that. We had to make sacrifices for me to do so, in the early years, but we always managed, and things have become more comfortable as time has gone on. My children are now grown up and I have been back in work, part-time, since October and I totally related to Nina’s frustrating job search. Having a large gap in employment makes it so difficult for mothers to get back in to work. It’s quite ridiculous really. Everyone wants experience but no-one wants to give you any! Even cleaning vacancies wanted NVQ level two and at least two years experience. Twenty years as a housewife apparently isn’t sufficient!! I did have to smile to myself when being a cleaner is mentioned in Nina’s desperation to find a job, because who would seriously be a cleaner if they had any other choice?? Me! I’m part of a lovely housekeeping team in an elderly residential home, very near to where I live, and I couldn’t be happier. It always frustrates me when it’s portrayed as a last resort, if all else fails job, but that’s just a personal thing.

Anyway, I did really feel for Nina. I can’t even begin to imagine how I would move on from losing my husband so suddenly and finding out my whole life as I know it will be no more. I guess, like Nina, my children would give me the strength to face independence with courage and determination. I can only hope I would be so strong. She is quite an inspiration.

The boys are lovely characters also. They made me smile a lot throughout this story and my heart truly went out to them.

I liked Tiggy too, she’s a bit feisty.

This book is a character driven tale of devastating loss and finding a light at the end of a seemingly long, dark tunnel. The emotion, at times, is almost palpable and I think this family’s story will make most readers think about their own lives and what is really important to them.

Many thanks to the author and publisher for my review copy via Netgalley.

happy reading 🙂

Welcome to my stop on Kristy McCaffrey’s Deep Blue blog blitz with Love Books Tours!

Many thanks to Kelly @ Love Books Group for arranging the following interview with Kristy McCaffrey…..

For those who don’t know you already, could you tell us about yourself and your book(s) please?

Thanks so much for having me today! My name is Kristy McCaffrey and I write contemporary adventure romance as well as historical western romance novels. I’m an Arizona native, and live with my husband in the desert north of Phoenix with our two dogs and youngest child. My three older kids are grown and gone. My education is in engineering, but I’ve been a passionate writer since I was seven years old.

Where did/do you get your ideas from?

Book ideas come from everywhere: the news, magazines, the internet, tv, films, and my own curiosity.

Are any of your characters based (however loosely) on anyone you know?

Sometimes I use real people as inspiration, but ultimately I develop the character that I need for my story. Character and plot go hand-in-hand for me.

How do you pick your characters’ names?

I often use a baby book to get started, but sometimes I’ll change a name well into writing the story if the current one doesn’t seem to fit. I also love to watch the end credits of movies. Lots of great names to choose from.

Can you share your writing process with us, in a nutshell?

I mostly write in the afternoons. I tend to plot a little, then write, then get stuck so I’ll plot a little more again. Rinse and repeat.

Who are your top 5 favourite authors?

Jane Austen, Katherine Neville, Anne McCaffrey (no relation), Marion Zimmer Bradley, Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes.

If you could meet any author, who would it be and what would you ask them?

Katherine Neville, author of THE EIGHT, an ambitious and complicated novel that I love so much. I’d simply want to talk craft with her.

Were you a big reader as a child?

Yes. Nancy Drew books and Charlotte’s Web were favorites.

When did you start to write?

I’ve been writing compulsively and for fun since I was a child, but I didn’t write my first novel until I was 32 years old and had four children under the age of five underfoot.

If you could re-write the ending to any book what would it be and what would you change?

If you mean one of my own books, I wouldn’t. I’m pretty happy with how each of them ended. As for other books, I’m going to extend the criteria a bit to include the season finale of ‘Game of Thrones.’ I hope I’m not spoiling it for anyone since plot points have been plastered all over the internet, but I would change Dany’s character arc. She wouldn’t die, and she’d be on the throne.

Is there a book you wish you had written?

Yes, THE EIGHT by Katherine Neville.

If you wrote an autobiography, what would your title be?

The Art of Sleeping-In

If you could invite any fictional character for coffee who would it be and where would you take them?

This was harder than I thought it would be. I hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to choose film characters. I’m a sucker for a strong female lead in a movie. Here’s a few of my favorites: Bess Armstrong from Jaws 3-D; Kate Bosworth from Blue Crush; Sandra Bullock from Practical Magic; Reese Witherspoon from Legally Blonde; Brie Larson from Captain Marvel. Where would we go? A girl’s weekend at a nice resort—hit the spa, eat out, and have a great time chatting about life.

What are you working on right now?

I’m working on Book 3 in my Pathway Series, ANCIENT WINDS. This will feature Brynn Galloway and Dr. Tristan Magee as they search for an ancient artefact. It will be a mix of ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ and ‘The X-Files.’

Tell us about your last release?

DEEP BLUE (The Pathway Series Book 1), is the first book in a new contemporary adventure series I launched last year. Dr. Grace Mann travels to Guadalupe Island, near Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, to freedive with the great white sharks who arrive each fall to mate and feed. Filmmaker Alec Galloway is hired to film a documentary about her, but can he do his job when Grace’s passionate focus on the sharks might endanger her life? I’ve long loved the ocean and in college I dreamed of studying marine biology (instead I got two engineering degrees). I’ve always wanted to write a book featuring sharks, and this story combines my love of daring exploration, environmental awareness, and animal conservation. The sharks aren’t the villains in my novel. That was very important to me as I developed the plot. In future books, I’ll be tackling topics such as: deciphering the language of sperm whales and efforts to stop elephant poaching in Africa.

Do you have a new release due?

COLD HORIZON (The Pathway Series Book 2) released this past June, and features Alec Galloway’s brother, Tyler. Here’s the blurb: Two years ago, Lindsey Coulson lost her sister on K2, the second highest mountain on earth. Searching for answers, she sets out to climb the Savage Mountain. Mountaineer and freelance writer Ty Galloway has assembled a small team to conquer K2 and welcomes the esteemed climber. But K2 is a force unto itself, as is Lindsey. Both will test his limits. Both will test his heart.

What do you generally do to celebrate on publication day?

My husband takes me to lunch.

How can readers keep in touch with you?

Website: https://kmccaffrey.com/
Newsletter: https://kmccaffrey.com/PathwayNewsletter
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorKristyMcCaffrey
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/McCaffreyKristy
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristymccaffrey/

Is there anything else you would like us to know?

If you sign up for my newsletter, you’ll receive a download link for a free exclusive follow up novella to DEEP BLUE called DEEP BLUE: AUSTRALIA. It’s a fun and extra story about Alec and Grace.

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions, Kristy 🙂

😊

Deep Blue

Blurb

Don’t miss this first book in a suspenseful new series!!

In the deep blue ocean lives an ancient predator…

Dr. Grace Mann knows great white sharks. As the daughter of an obsessed shark researcher based at the Farallon Islands, Grace spent her childhood in the company of these elegant and massive creatures. When a photo of her freediving with a great white goes viral, the institute where she works seeks to capitalize on her new-found fame by producing a documentary about her work.

Underwater filmmaker Alec Galloway admires Dr. Mann and jumps at the opportunity to create a film showcasing the pretty biologist. As he heads to Guadalupe Island in Baja California Sur for a three-week expedition, it’s clear that his fan-boy crush on Grace is turning into something more serious. But even more pressing—Grace’s passionate focus on the sharks just might get her killed.

Author Bio

Kristy McCaffrey has been writing since she was very young, but it wasn’t until she was a stay-at-home mom that she considered becoming published. A fascination with science led her to earn two mechanical engineering degrees—she did her undergraduate work at Arizona State University and her graduate studies at the University of Pittsburgh—but storytelling has always been her passion. She writes both contemporary tales and award-winning historical western romances.

With the release of Deep Blue, Kristy is launching The Pathway Series, a project she’s been developing for years. Each book will combine her love of animal conservation and environmental awareness, while also shining a light on unique and diverse locations around the world. Come along for high adventure with honorable heroes, determined heroines, and Kristy’s trademark mysticism.

An Arizona native, Kristy and her husband reside in the desert where they frequently remove (rescue) rattlesnakes from their property, go for runs among the cactus, and plan trips to far-off places like the Orkney Islands or Machu Picchu. But mostly, she works 12-hour days and enjoys at-home date nights with her sweetheart, which usually include Will Ferrell movies and sci-fi flicks. Her four children have nearly all flown the nest, and the family recently lost their cherished chocolate Labrador, Ranger, so these days a great deal of attention is lavished on Ranger’s sister, Lily, and the newest addition to the household—Marley, an older yellow Labrador they rescued in early 2018. Both dogs are frequently featured on Kristy’sInstagram account, so pop over to meet her canine family.

“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” – John Muir

Connect with Kristy

Website: http://www.kristymccaffrey.com

Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/didEqv

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/AuthorKristyMcCaffrey

Twitter:  https://www.twitter.com/McCaffreyKristy

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristymccaffrey/

Buy Link

https://amzn.to/2XYgKKV

–

happy reading 🙂

Welcome to my stop on Noelle Holten’s Dead Inside blog tour with BOTBSPublicity! I am absolutely OVER THE MOON to be sharing my thoughts on this awesome debut with you today 🙂

Well, Dead Inside had me completely captivated from page one! If I didn’t know already there is no way in a million years that I would have thought this is a debut novel. Noelle Holten obviously has a natural talent for writing.

Dead Inside features a diverse number of characters, some much more likeable than others. I love that some of them have names very familiar to me in the book blogging world! They must be over the moon to be immortalised forever within this story.

Lucy is a very likeable character and one who I really felt for. Her husband, Patrick, is a proper nasty piece of work. Having never been in an abusive relationship it’s difficult to understand why some women stay with these men. Lucy especially, given her job as a probation officer dealing with domestic abuse offenders. I understood her love for the children though, even though she isn’t their mother, and the responsibility she feels for keeping them safe.

Patrick is one of a few characters who seem to think that women are there to serve whatever purpose they desire. These men truly made my skin crawl and to be honest they don’t really deserve to be called men. They are despicable excuses for human beings.

When these men end up dead, brutally murdered, DC Maggie Jamieson and the team are tasked with finding out what connects them all and who might be capable of such horrific violence.

When it’s realised that Lucy is connected things just go from bad to worse and the story becomes even more intriguing.

I can’t begin to tell you how fast-paced and tense this story is. The short chapters add to the tension and the need to read just one more (or two, or three, or twenty!). Raw emotion pours off the pages and the ending just blew me away. It’s completely heart-breaking. I have no doubts that the story will stay with me for a very long time to come.

Such an excellent start to a new series. I can’t wait to read book two!

Many thanks for the opportunity to join in with the blog tour to celebrate the paperback release of Dead Inside. I can’t recommend highly enough!

Book Description:

‘Hugely confident … harrowing, visceral … recommended’ Ian Rankin

‘Kept me hooked’ Angela Marsons

‘An excellent read’ Martina Cole

‘Gritty, dark and chilling’ Mel Sherratt

A dark and gripping debut crime novel – the first in a stunning series – from a huge new talent.

The killer is just getting started…

When three wife beaters are themselves found beaten to death, DC Maggie Jamieson knows she is facing her toughest case yet.

The police suspect that Probation Officer Lucy Sherwood – who is connected to all three victims – is hiding a dark secret. Then a fourth domestic abuser is brutally murdered.

And he is Lucy’s husband.

Now the police are running out of time, but can Maggie really believe her friend Lucy is a cold-blooded killer?

Author Bio:

Noelle Holten is an award-winning blogger at www.crimebookjunkie.co.uk. She is the PR & Social Media Manager for Bookouture, a leading digital publisher in the UK, and a regular reviewer on the Two Crime Writers and a Microphone podcast. Noelle worked as a Senior Probation Officer for eighteen years, covering a variety of cases including those involving serious domestic abuse. She has three Hons BA’s – Philosophy, Sociology (Crime & Deviance) and Community Justice – and a Masters in Criminology. Noelle’s hobbies include reading, author-stalking and sharing the #booklove via her blog.

Dead Inside is her debut novel with Killer Reads/Harper Collins UK and the start of a new series featuring DC Maggie Jamieson.

Connect with Noelle on Social Media here:

Twitter: (@nholten40) https://twitter.com/nholten40

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/noelleholtenauthor/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Noelle-Holten/e/B07HZ685TL

Blog FB page: https://www.facebook.com/crimebookjunkie/

Instagram: @crimebookjunkie

happy reading 🙂

Penshaw is book thirteen in the DCI Ryan Mysteries series and it’s every bit as entertaining as all the previous books, which I have read and LOVED! I feel like I am becoming very repetitive in my reviews of this series, but honestly, I can’t recommend them highly enough. Each book is unique, but similar at the same time, if that makes sense!? The main characters are very familiar to me now and I talk about them as if I know them in real life! (I think my husband thinks I’ve lost the plot! Lol!) However, each new book brings a fresh challenge to Ryan and the team.

This book finds DCI Ryan and his team investigating the seemingly accidental death of an elderly man, in his own living room. His wife was unable to get him out of their house in time when it went up in flames. Something doesn’t sit right with Ryan though and it’s soon obvious that there is far more to this family’s story. I really enjoyed the ex-mining community aspect of this book. My father-in-law and my brother-in-law were miners back in the day and whenever I’ve heard them talk about their time down the pit it’s always been obvious that they were all more than just colleagues to each other, they were family and it was less of a job and more of a way of life. I can only imagine how difficult life must have been for these families when the pits were closed, and their lives were completely turned upside down! The end of an era and not something everyone found easy to move on from.

This book also see’s Lowerson getting himself involved in a sticky situation (putting it very mildly!) again. Just as he seemed to be getting his life back on track.

Ryan is tasked with helping to uncover a mole within the department. A task which doesn’t really sit well with him, but he is confident it isn’t anyone within his own team and that he will soon get to the bottom of it all.

As always nothing is ever straight forward, and I was treated once again to a fast-paced crime thriller which kept me glued to my kindle as often as I could possibly manage around real life!

I love that some of the characters are all loved up and that there is a little bit of romance and happiness amongst all the murder.

I love how Samantha has impacted on Phillips and MacKenzie and I look forward to how their relationships develop.

I have my fingers crossed for Lowerson and Yates!

I can’t wait for book 14!

New to this series? Start here…..

happy reading 🙂

I listened to Resthaven on Audible and thoroughly enjoyed it!

Kaylee finds herself involved in a scavenger hunt, with friends, in an abandoned retirement home, which is quite creepy in itself. When she finds a young, deaf boy she promises to get him to safety, but soon finds that they have been locked in and her friends are no where to be seen. Now, as an adult this would scare the crap out of me, so I can understand the fear of this teenage girl. Her attempts to escape are not made easy with one obstacle and another and it’s quite a tense fight for freedom at times. Also, not is all as it seems and there is a surprising twist as truths are uncovered along the way.

If you’re a fan of action/adventure/mysteries then I think you would enjoy this story, whatever your age. I think it was very well narrated also, by Randi Larson.

Many thanks to the author for my review copy via Carla Buckley.

happy reading 🙂

Today I’m joining in with Meggy @ Chocolate ‘n’ Waffles with her Positivity Wave!

Here’s what made me happy this week…..

Facebook memories…..

I received a lovely signed copy of Torment from Mark Tilbury!

We had a lovely barbecue at Fr. Chris’ on Saturday, despite the bad weather that was forecast!

Saturday night we had a lovely evening out celebrating my Auntie Jayne’s 50th Birthday

Google collages of our trip to Llandudno

Google memories

My beautiful cousin Zoey was in our local newspaper this week…..

https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/beauty-salon-worker-drops-three-3198936?fbclid=IwAR3N329cv7WNBCrPPGovGZChYdkKtXQDsHMX2RgPTQVtlFBsncPVvwEwpns

On Wednesday I spent the afternoon with my Mum. We had lunch and did a bit of shopping before we met up with our Women’s Fellowship ladies to watch The Lion King at the cinema 🙂

Yesterday I had a new haircut!

What made you happy this week?