June 17

The Desire Card – Lee Matthew Goldberg

Any wish fulfilled for the right price. That’s the promise the organization behind The Desire Card gives to its elite clients – but sometimes the price may be more menacing than anyone could ever imagine.

Harrison Stockton has lived an adult life of privilege and excess: a high-powered job on Wall Street fuels his fondness for alcohol and pills at the expense of a family he has no time for. Quite suddenly all of this comes crashing to a halt when he loses his job and at the same time discovers he almost certainly has only months left to live.

Desperate, and with seemingly nowhere else left to turn, Harrison activates his Desire Card. What follows is a gritty and gripping quest that takes him from New York City to the slums of Mumbai and forces him to take chances, and make decisions, he never thought he’d ever have to face. When his moral descent threatens his wife and children, Harrison must decide whether to save himself at any cost, or do what’s right and break his bargain with the mysterious group behind The Desire Card.

The Desire Card is a taut, fast-based thriller, from internationally acclaimed author Lee Matthew Goldberg, that explores what a man will do to survive when money isn’t always enough to get everything he desires.

 

My thanks to Emma at Damppebbles for the chance to join the blog tour.  I received a copy of The Desire Card from the publishers, Fahrenheit Press, so I could participate in the tour.

 

Harrison Stockton has given everything he has to his employer.  His family hardly see him, he works long unforgiving days, skips his medicals and lives life to an excess which has led to a deterioration in his physical appearance and his health is suffering.  But that is coming to an end as Harrison is about to be fired.  He hasn’t made the grade and his ruthless employer has decided he doesn’t get any more chances.

Naturally Harrison is devastated and tries to persuade his employers they should keep him. But the damage is done and Harrison is gone. However in a small chink of humanity there is a special addition to his severance – a card which offers the bearer the chance to have their desire fulfilled. Naturally there is a price to pay.

Harrison struggles to get his family to accept him now that he is jobless. They are so used to his absence they cannot adjust to him being around – naturally Harrison has no idea what his family do from day to day.

Harrison’s employment woes are not his only concern. A terminal liver condition leaves him facing an early death and rhe chance of finding a donor is slim.

Reaching out to an old friend in India Harrison travels to Mumbai. His friend has located a liver donor and can operate at his private clinic if Harrison can pay his way. The trip will change Harrison’s life but perhaps not how he expected.

When facing impossible choices can Harrison resist the lure of The Desire Card? One call to the mysterious people who operate the card and his problems could be solved. However the costs are high – how desperate does a man have to be?

The Desire Card is a terrific thriller – consequences and dilemmas, truth and many, many lies made this an engrossing read. Harrison is not the most likeable of characters but there is a compulsion to keep reading about him. Master of his own downfall or a weak man who will do what he can to survive?  Pages flew by as I followed his story and I have no doubt you would experience the same pull to this tale.

 

The Desire Card is published by Fahrenheit Press and is available in paperback and digital format.  You can order a copy here: http://www.fahrenheit-press.com/books_the_desire_card.html

If you order a paperback copy of the novel, Fahrenheit Press also give you a digital copy – cool stuff!

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May 22

Baby Doll – Hollie Overton

Baby DollYou’ve been held captive in one room, mentally and physically abused every day, since you were sixteen years old.

Then, one night, you realize your captor has left the door to your cell unlocked.

For the first time in eight years, you’re free.

This is about what happens next …

Lily knows that she must bring the man who nearly ruined her life – her good-looking high-school teacher – to justice. But she never imagined that reconnecting with her family would be just as difficult. Reclaiming her relationship with her twin sister, her mother, and her high school sweetheart who is in love with her sister may be Lily’s greatest challenge. After all they’ve been through, can Lily and her family find their way back after this life-altering trauma?

Impossible not to read in one sitting, Baby Doll is a taut psychological thriller that focuses on family entanglements and the evil that can hide behind a benign facade.

 

My thanks to the publishers for the review copy I received through Netgalley

So many crime stories that we read feature a kidnap or abduction and we follow the police or the central character in their quest to rescue the abductee before harm can befall them.  Sometimes the hero arrives in the nick of time, other times the abductee is not so lucky the hero will do some soul searching and vow to save the next person (as there is nearly always a next person).

Baby Doll doesn’t follow this pattern.

In Baby Doll the story begins with the abducted girl (Lily) realising that the door to her prison has been left unlocked. She has been a captive for over 8 years, beaten, raped, terrorised and left broken by a man she once thought she could trust. The story begins after all these things have occurred. There is no hero coming to the rescue, no flashback of an investigation to track her down – just a mistake by the man that took her captive which offers Lily a chance of freedom. If she can take it!

Hollie Overton has taken one of the most neglected part of crime fiction – the aftermath.  Lily comes home to her family after 8 years but so much has changed.  Her twin has felt her loss most terribly, that strong bond stretched to a breaking point for the sister left at home.  Lily’s parents took her disappearance hard and for Lily there will be some horrible truths to face as she tries to pick up her life again.

But most chilling of all is the fact the man that kidnapped Lily and turned her into a victim over such a long period of time is not going to surrender quietly.  He is a master manipulator and will use any means possible to deflect any possible blame or suspicion from himself.  Although this may seem a pointless task there will be unpleasant confrontations for Lily and her family – nothing will ever be the same again.

I have to say that Baby Doll was, at times, quite a harrowing read but it is a really well told story. The fallout of Lily’s ordeal impacts upon the whole community and there are some heart-warming moments and some shocking revelations too.  I can honestly say that I had no idea where Hollie Overton was taking the story, how it could reach an ‘end’ or if Lily would find peace.  I cannot tell you how any of those questions pan out but I was not disappointed when I turned that last page.

Don’t be fooled by the light tone of the title as there is a sinister undertone to that phrase. This is a strong debut from Hollie Overton, which I hope will cause a buzz when it is released as this is a dark tale of survival. One to watch.

 

Baby Doll is published by Century and is available from 30 June 2016 in Hardback and Digital format.  You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Baby-Doll-Hollie-Overton/dp/1780895062/ref=sr_1_1_twi_har_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1463951109&sr=8-1&keywords=baby+doll+hollie+overton

 

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