July 18

Dead Man Driving – Lesley Kelly

 

I received a review copy from the publishers prior to taking part in the blog tour.

 

The pandemic crime series which began before the readers found themselves living through a real-life pandemic. It was a fascinating idea before 202o and with the benefit of hindsight it is quite remarkable which elements of this “fiction” came to pass. Lesley Kelly’s post-pandemic Edinburgh is a fascinating city where lives have been devastated, people are trying to retain some semblance of normal and the political situation is at the “eggshell deplomacy” where the pandemic and the fallout is casting a huge shadow over everything.

This is the fifth book in the Health of Strangers series, we follow the Health Enforcement Team (a decidedly rag-tag bunch) who are tasked with ensuring the residents of their area of the city turn up for the compulsory regular health assessment checks. Their roles aren’t popular and people are don’t take kindly to a visit from the HET so, as you can imagine, their job satisfaction levels are not high.

As we rejoin events in this new book things in Edinburgh are not going well, food is in short supply and people are taking to the streets in protest. As the police are already stretched the politicians step in and decide it would be a good idea if the HET teams also step up and help maintain the peace. For one of their number it’s a step too far as she is already threatening court action against her employers as she’s being made to undertake tasks which don’t fall into her job description. However, a new Team Leader has been appointed to oversee the HET and she’s a career administrator with no practical experience of life on the frontline – the rules are the rules and there should be no reasons why the rules should not be followed.

Unfortunately the rules are not written to cope with the discovery of a terrorist cell operating within the city.  A van full of luxury food goes astray en-route to a grand function due to be hosted by a prominent MSP. When the van is discovered so too is a a dead body and that discovery will lead to the revelation of terrorists in the city. For Mona and her colleagues at the HET team their days are about to be filled with international terrorists (though has Mona already met one of their suspects?). They are also dealing with the fallout of their latest investigation which had revealed a rogue operator within their team and in the aftermath of that discovery there are lots of red herrings floating around and police investigations are hampered by the false leads which were left for them to find, old loyalties within the team and an overwhelming level of suspicion between colleagues.

What makes these books sing for me is the humour which Lesley Kelly injects to proceedings. Dark humour and dry sarcasm is very much a feature of Scottish day to day life and the dialogue in Dead Man Driving perfectly captures the tone you’d expect from harassed and long suffering public servants faced with unwelcome challenges on a daily basis.

I can’t begin to tell you how much I am loving the evolution of this series and these characters. Where Mick Herron makes incompetent spooks an unmissable read, this is Lesley Kelly making the misfits in government healthcare equally essential reading. They are hopeless, frustrating and occasionally blessed with a flash of inspiration and they are wonderful to follow.

If you’re looking for a new Scottish Crime Fiction series to follow then you should look no further than the Health of Strangers books. A firm favourite.

 

Dead Man Driving is published by Sandstone Press and releases on 20 July 2023 in paperback, digital and audiobook format. You can order your copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0C5GF8BGW/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

 

 

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January 4

Mirrorland – Carole Johnstone

One twin ran. The other vanished. Neither escaped…

DON’T TRUST ANYONE
Cat’s twin sister El has disappeared. But there’s one thing Cat is sure of: her sister isn’t dead. She would have felt it. She would have known.

DON’T TRUST YOUR MEMORIES
To find her sister, Cat must return to their dark, crumbling childhood home and confront the horrors that wait there. Because it’s all coming back to Cat now: all the things she has buried, all the secrets she’s been running from.

DON’T TRUST THIS STORY…
The closer Cat comes to the truth, the closer to danger she is. Some things are better left in the past…

 

I received a review copy from the publishers via Netgalley

 

In 2022 I read and reviewed fewer books than I wanted. I began 2023 with a determination to read some of the titles I hadn’t managed to get to last year and make sure I reviewed them too! Doesn’t seem too much to ask for a bookblogger…

As the New Year bells rang out I was finishing Mirrorland by Carole Johnstone. Scottish based, a dark and twisty story (gothic is a word which I have seen used more than once in connection with this story) and extensive use of flashback chapters to a time when twins Cat and El were children.

Their childhood is very much central to the story set in current times (2018 as it turns out) as the characteristics of each twin is embedded during their troubled formative years and when we first meet Cat in 2018 the sisters have not spoken for many years, Cat is living in America while El has remained in Scotland and is married to their childhood friend Ross. But Cat is finally making the return trip to Scotland as El has taken her boat out to sea and both El and the boat are missing.

Cat is utterly convinced that El is alive. As a twin she would know if something had happened to her sister. When she returns to her childhood home (where El and Ross now live) she starts receiving strange messages – warnings – and then emails begin to arrive each seem to be from El who is sending Cat on “treasure hunts” similar to those the girls played many years before. Cat believes the language and the clues can only have come from her sister, so where is she and why is she hiding from her husband and twin?

Carole Johnstone makes excellent use of flashbacks to past events to reveal more and more about the relationship between El and Cat, El and Ross and Ross and Cat. But pivotal to the story is Mirrorland. The place where the girls spent their childhood – a fantasy construct within their house and garden where clowns, pirates were real, they could hide from The Witch in their house and live out the stories they enjoyed.

If truth be told I did sometimes lose track of what was a fantasy memory and what was Cat on a present day treasure hunt – reading in a busy Christmas house was not condusive to keeping firm hold of the story thread. It got to the point where I was doubting everything all the characters were saying, I doubted their actions were genuine and I second guessed everything as it happened. This is what I want from a thriller – that uncertainty and the need to find out what actually happens kept me coming back for chapter after chapter.

A good start to my reading year as I had fun with Mirrorland.

 

Mirrorland is published by HarperCollins and you can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/mirrorland/carole-johnstone/9780008361426

 

 

 

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June 17

Phosphate Rocks – Fiona Erskine

 

 

As the old chemical works in Leith are demolished a long deceased body encrusted in phosphate rock is discovered. Seated at a card table he has ten objects laid out in front of him. Whose body is it? How did he die and what is the significance of the objects?

 

I received a review copy from the publisher through Netgalley.

 

 

 

It doesn’t matter what you may think this book is about.  If you read the brief, teasing  blurb above that’s only going to scratch the surface of the story in Phosphate Rocks.

As I read the book I tweeted a few times that I had no idea how I was going to review it.  That hasn’t changed, I am not sure how to succinctly articulate the utter pleasure I experienced reading Phosphate Rocks. Or the anguish, the horror, the fascination or the fun. This book had it all and, when it was done, I wasn’t.  I wanted more. I wanted to keep reading about these remarkable overlooked heroes of their craft.

So what’s it about?

Well there’s a dead body in an old chemical plant in Leith (Edinburgh).  The site is no longer active but before everything closed down it seems, somehow, a huge shroud of phosphate rock encased a work hut. Inside that hut was a dead body sat at a table. Laid out on the table in front of the corpse were ten objects which the police hope John Gibson, former shift manager at the site, can use to identify the deceased.

Sitting in a police station, years after his plant had closed down, John identifies each of the ten objects and tells Detective Inspector Rose Irvine the story behind each item.  With each passing object the reader gets to know more about the men that worked the site, the work they undertook and how chemicals and materials from around the world would pass under the nose of these Edinburgh workers.

Also filling in the reader with background information is author, Fiona Erskine, who gives each object a quirky and fascinating science lesson.  You learn about chemicals, reactions, inventions and discoveries.  Reading this book taught me how chemicals move around the world, how they need carefully stored and cared for and how it’s the plant workers that know best how to keep a busy chemical site ticking over – not the managers, chemists or owners.  It may not sound like slipping chemistry learning into a crime story could be fun or engaging but it is utterly absorbing (though Fiona will likely correct me on what absorption actually is).

The stories behind each of the objects are wonderful.  Although this book is a work of fiction I am 100% convinced that many (if not all) of the stories are entirely anecdotal and based on actual events from the site. Why tie a long string around the neck of a whisky bottle?  Who had the best dressed Barbie Doll in Scotland?  Why should you not hit a pipe with a hammer and…is that an author cameo we see before us? If many events in the book are indeed based on actual events it may go a long way towards explaining why the book is so engaging. Nothing feels forced, overdone or over-exaggerated.  The guys (and in the main it is guys) working on the site all feel utterly real and entirely plausible. I defy you not to warm to them.

The true hero of the piece is John Gibson.  He is taken on a journey back through his working life and the stories he tells DI Irvine bring back memories of old colleagues – some more fondly remembered than others.  John and DI Irvine are a charming pairing through the story too their conversations, some of which take place away from the police station when Irvine tracks him down to his favourite restaurant, are a cautious but intricate dance. Neither party is willing to overshare but both appear to crave more knowledge about the other.

Phosphate Rocks is a crime story.  There is a dead body, there are clues to help the investigators determine his identity and there is a man helping police with their enquries at the police station.  But Phosphate Rocks is so much more.  It is a story of a life (John Gibson), of many lives, of a plant that no longer dominates its corner of Leith and of the men who for years kept that plant ticking over. Clever men, inventive men, hard men and men with secrets. But I felt Phosphate Rocks is also a love story.  I read of a time now gone which is much missed, a love of science and method and process and of low paid staff performing dangerous and skilled work.  An affection of the cameraderie, the respect for John Gibson and the responsibility he held for the staff on his shift.  It’s funny then it’s tragic and I want you all to read this story too.

Phosphate Rocks, currently my book of the year. It will take something incredible to top this one.

 

Phosphate Rocks is published by Sandstone Press and is available from today in paperback and digital format.  You can get your copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08TR21QGZ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

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May 14

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Helen Fields

The Library is growing and week on week fabulous books are being added to the shelves.  If tentative plans pan out there may even soon be a twist which nobody saw coming.  I am loving inviting guests to join me and share their reading recommendations. I had hoped this feature would allow some fabulous books to be showcased but the enthusiasm I see each week for the new books my guests discuss has far exceeded my expectations.  Thank you all for making each new Decades post the best part of my blogging week.

So what is Decades?

I am curating the Ultimate Library.  I started with no books and have been inviting guests to select five books they would like to see added to the Library shelves so we can compile a collection of the best books.  There are just two rules my guests must follow:

1 – You can select ANY five books
2 – You can only select one book per decade and you must select from five consecutive decades.

Today I am joined by Helen Fields.  Helen is the fourteenth Decades guest and has added five outstanding titles to the Library.  To be honest I cannot believe it took fourteen guests before two of her selections made their way into the Library – Iconic. You can try guess which two I had in mind.

I’ll hand over to Helen and allow her to introduce herself (I never like to do the introductions incase I miss something important) and then she will share her five recommended reads.

DECADES

An international best-selling author, Helen is a former criminal and family law barrister. The last book in her detective series, ‘Perfect Kill’ was longlisted for the Crime Writers Association Ian Fleming Steel Dagger in 2020, and others have been longlisted for the McIlvanney Prize, Scottish crime novel of the year. Helen also writes as HS Chandler, and has released legal thriller ‘Degrees of Guilt’. In 2020 Perfect Remains was shortlisted for the Bronze Bat, Dutch debut crime novel of the year. The series has been translated into 18 languages, and also sells in the USA, Canada & Australasia. Her historical thriller ‘These Lost & Broken Things’ came out in May 2020. Her first standalone thriller – The Shadow Man – from HarperColllins was published in 2021. Her next book comes out in February 2022 but she’s not allowed to tell you the title yet!

Helen can be usually be found on Twitter @Helen_Fields. For up to date news and information her website is at www.helenfields.co.uk. For Facebook check out Helen Fields Author.

 

 

A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute (1950)

Honestly, if this book doesn’t make you cry at least once when you’re reading it, then you have no soul. I will die on this hill. It is one of the most affecting books I’ve ever read. I couldn’t read anything else for months after I finished this book.

 

 

 

 

 

Papillon by Henri Charrière (1969)

I fell in love with the Steve McQueen (original) movie first which prompted me to read the book, and I’m so grateful that I did. A (mostly) autobiographic story of a man incarcerated on various French colony islands who faces cruelty and hardships beyond belief before his death defying escape. I promise, you will join him in that cell as you read.

 

 

 

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson (1971)

More journalism than fiction. An explosively colourful tale of the highs and lows of Vegas. Drugs, sex and rock n roll. It’s seedy, it’s insightful, as well as funny and (in its time) very shocking. Just razor-sharp writing and an unfiltered look at America’s depths.

 

 

 

 

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (1985)

Atwood said she didn’t write anything in this book that hadn’t actually happened somewhere in the world, to the extent that calling it dystopian fiction is almost misleading. One of those books that came around again, and maybe we listened more carefully the second time. Atwood’s writing never gets too clever for itself. She does two things brilliantly in their simplicity: character and plot. This is one of the books that will define humanity in the future.

 

 

 

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres (1994)

Just because I loved it. Stunning escapist fiction with a superlative sense of time and place. For a brief moment in time absolutely everyone was reading this book. Didn’t we all fall just a little bit in love?

 

 

 

 

Did you spot the iconic book of its era?  Yep, could easlily be any of the five.  Thanks to Helen for finding time to share her selections. It never stops being a thrill when my most-read authors join me here at Grab This Book.

If you would like to visit my Library and see all the selections which have been made thus far then you just need to click this link: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=5113

 

DECADES WILL RETURN

 

 

 

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January 16

The Library of the Dead (Edinburgh Nights 1) -T. L. Huchu

When ghosts talk, she will listen . . .

Ropa dropped out of school to become a ghostalker – and she now speaks to Edinburgh’s dead, carrying messages to the living. A girl’s gotta earn a living, and it seems harmless enough. Until, that is, the dead whisper that someone’s bewitching children – leaving them husks, empty of joy and life. It’s on Ropa’s patch, so she feels honour bound to investigate. But what she learns will change her world.

She’ll dice with death (not part of her life plan . . .) as she calls on Zimbabwean magic and Scottish pragmatism to hunt down clues. For Edinburgh hides a wealth of secrets. And in the process, she discovers an occult library and some unexpected allies. Yet as shadows lengthen, will the hunter become the hunted?

Opening up a world of magic and adventure, The Library of the Dead by T. L. Huchu is the first book in the Edinburgh Nights series.

 

My thanks to Jamie-Lee at Black Crow for inviting me to read The Library of the Dead.  I received a copy of the book from the publishers through Netgalley.

 

Book One of the Edinburgh Nights series.  Perfect.  Not the first in the “Ropa” series but the Edinburgh Nights series.  Why is that a good start?  Quite simply if the series is named after a character then you know that no matter how bad things get – the lead character will pull through.  Reacher, Rebus, Baggins, Morse…okay maybe not Morse but you get my point. But The Library of the Dead is about the Library, it is the Edinburgh Nights series – will our lead character, Ropa, make it to the end of the book?  Well I am not sharing but lets just say she is in for a terrible experience in the first of T. L. Huchu’s series.

Ropa lives in Edinburgh, in a caravan with her gran.  She makes money by meeting the dead around the city and taking messages back to their relatives who will pay for the message.  I particularly liked the family of bakers who were receiving recipes from beyond the grave as secret of the perfect battenburg was a closely guarded secret until it was too late to pass it to the next generation.

Edinburgh is very recognisable to anyone that has visited the city, Ropa covers a lot of ground and even a ‘Weegie like me could identify many of the areas she visited.  However, Edinburgh is not recognisable as we know it.  “God Save The King” is a greeting with “Long May He Reign” the response. Money is shillings again, technology such as mobile phones does exist but the city feels poor and the vibe was of a historical setting. All my confusion made the story feel nicely jarred with reality and I had no issues accepting the fantasy themes of magic, ghost whispering and the catalogue of fantasy horrors which will creep into story.

A ghost approaches Ropa – she is worried for he young son.  Although she has died she cannot rest until she knows her son is safe.  Ropa approaches the family but they are not helpful, she has a mission to fulfil but chasing down what is seemingly a lost cause does not pay the bills. After meeing a friend from school Ropa may finally catch a break.  Her friend has a job in a secret place and he thinks Ropa may find what she is looking for there – a secret library where magic is commonplace and actively practiced.  The only problem for Ropa is that her magical skill – speaking with ghosts is rather primitive for the fussy and traditional users of the library.  There is also the small matter of her unexpected arrival in a place which was meant to be a closely guarded secret – a price to be paid.

Ropa wants information about young children disappearing around the city.  When one child makes it home after a period of absence he has changed – hidden away by his family Ropa manages to see the child…head and face aged and withered.  What dark process could have inflicted this child?  Is the ghost of the worried mother going to discover her missing son is also going to age in this unnatural fashion?

Chasing down a lead one night Ropa spots something unexpected inside a house, she decides to break in to investigate futher.  Inside she stumbles upon a clue which may just explain what has happened to the missing childre however entering the house was the worst mistake Ropa has made in her young life.  It may also be the last mistake she makes.

The Library of the Dead pitches nicely between fantasy and light horror.  The initial confusion I experienced while trying to pigeonhole an identifiable time and society structure for Edinburgh soon became irrelevant as I just accepted the story as a fantasy tale in a setting I knew. The characters are will defined and each needs an edge to survive in this slightly dark world.  I read less fantasy than I once did but this was a treat and I was extremely glad I picked it as one of my first reads of the year – a strong start and I very much look forward to more in this series. More Library, more horrors and a bit of magic to keep everything unpredicable.

 

The Library of the Dead is published by Tor and will release in hardback, digital and audiobook on 4 February 2021.  You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Library-Dead-Edinburgh-Nights-ebook/dp/B08JM2P3L1/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&qid=1610798054&refinements=p_27%3AT.+L.+Huchu&s=digital-text&sr=1-1&text=T.+L.+Huchu

 

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July 21

Murder at the Music Factory – Lesley Kelly

 

The body of Paul Shore toppled onto him, a stream of blood pooling around them on the concrete. Bernard lay back and waited to see if he too was going to die.

An undercover agent gone rogue is threatening to shoot a civil servant a day. As panic reigns, the Health Enforcement Team race against time to track him down – before someone turns the gun on them.

 

My thanks to Sandstone Press for my review copy.

 

A pandemic has caused a huge loss of life. The Health Enforcement Team (HET) was established in the aftermath of the virus to ensure people continued to be checked for possible infection – it is a thankless job and the HET does not attract elite applicants. However, the HET are our principle characters in Lesley Kelly’s Health of Strangers series; crime stories all set in post viral outbreak Edinburgh. Murder at the Music Factory is the 4th book in the series – it can be read as a stand alone thriller.

When I encountered the HET in the first Health of Strangers book it was June 2017 the idea of a pandemic sweeping through the world and changing life as we know it just seemed a clever piece of fictional world creation by Lesley Kelly. Then 2020 happened and…well, you know how that has turned out.

In Murder at the Music Factory the virus is under control and life has returned to a new normal.  This means I may need to stop referring to the series as dystopian, perhaps idyllic would be more appropriate?  For the Health Enforcement Team there is a more pressing issue confronting them – someone has shot a civil servant and poor Bernard, HET’s perpetual unlucky sod, was on the scene as it happened.  It transpires nobody in the HET or any civil servant is safe as the shooter has threatened to target one of their number each day.  A manhunt ensues but what could be behind these attacks?

As more incidents occur a pattern is established, the victims are not being selected randomly and the common link ties back to the Scottish Government and one high profile MSP. Is the shooter trying to ensure something remains a secret?  Is there any link between the shootings and the disappearance of a legendary musician?  The alternative pop-star is an obscure figure on the music scene but it appears he may also have held some obsure and unwelcome opinions which border on the fantatical. If the shooter and the musician are not connected then Mona, Bernard and the HET team have twice as many problems to contend with.

I hold my hand up to confessing my love for this series.  I have enjoyed all the previous Health of Strangers books and Murder at the Music Factory was no exception. The new title is one of the few I actively watch out for each year.  The characters are developing with each new instalment and I long to read more about them. Each book is engaging, funny, thought provoking and there is now a suspicion of a political conspiracy theory to keep me hooked.  Honestly, if you are not reading these books you are missing a treat.  More please.

 

 

Murder at the Music Factory is published by Sandstone Press and is available in paperback and digital format.  You can order a copy here:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07YF6PYF4/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0

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July 20

The Big Chill – Doug Johnstone

Running private investigator and funeral home businesses means trouble is never far away, and the Skelf women take on their most perplexing, chilling cases yet in book two of this darkly funny, devastatingly tense and addictive new series!

Haunted by their past, the Skelf women are hoping for a quieter life. But running both a funeral directors’ and a private investigation business means trouble is never far away, and when a car crashes into the open grave at a funeral that matriarch Dorothy is conducting, she can’t help looking into the dead driver’s shadowy life.
While Dorothy uncovers a dark truth at the heart of Edinburgh society, her daughter Jenny and granddaughter Hannah have their own struggles. Jenny’s ex-husband Craig is making plans that could shatter the Skelf women’s lives, and the increasingly obsessive Hannah has formed a friendship with an elderly professor that is fast turning deadly.
But something even more sinister emerges when a drumming student of Dorothy’s disappears and suspicion falls on her parents. The Skelf women find themselves sucked into an unbearable darkness – but could the real threat be to themselves?

Following three women as they deal with the dead, help the living and find out who they are in the process, The Big Chill follows A Dark Matter, book one in the Skelfs series, which reboots the classic PI novel while asking the big existential questions, all with a big dose of pitch-black humour.

 

My thanks to Orenda Books for providing a review copy to allow me to participate in the blog tour and to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for giving me the opportunity to join the tour.

 

Picking up from events in last year’s A Dark Matter, Doug Johnstone takes us back to Edinburgh and reunites us with the Skelf family.  The Skelf women are three generations of one family and they all work for the family businesses: undertakers and private investigators. As The Big Chill continues the family story is really is advisable to have read A Dark Matter – as both books are excellent reads this should not be too much of a problem.

It would be nice to think that during the six month period between the two books life had been a bit quieter for the Skelf family.  Events in A Dark Matter were devastating for the family and a convalecence spell would have been required.  As we rejoin their story we learn the youngest Skelf, Hannah, has been attending therapy sessions to help her come to terms with recent events. Hannah’s mother Jenny is also healing and is forging a new relationship while trying (and failing) to leave behind all memories of her ex-husband Craig. It is Jenny’s mother Dorothy that seems to have life more under control than her daughter and grand-daughter. The family matriach is still very much active in the family businesses and as The Big Chill opens we see Dorothy in a cemetry as another client of the Skelf’s is laid to rest. However the deceased does not get their eternal sleep off to the most restful start as a car crashes through the cemetry gates and heads straight at the funeral party only to end up in the open grave.

Dorothy is shaken by the incident and when she learns the driver died in the incident but cannot be identified by the police she begins a personal investigation and tries to trace the young man who nearly ended her life at the end of his own life. Dorothy also has a personal investment in another “case” which requires her investigative skills. She has been tutoring a young teenager who wants to learn to play drums – the girl didn’t show for a lesson and Dorothy goes to visit the girl’s mother to ask after her.  Dorothy is puzzled by the reaction of the mother and the girls step-father; both seem upset she is missing yet their reaction to Dorothy’s interest is strange so she takes it upon herself to try and trace her student.

Doug Johnstone keeps all three Skelf women in the spotlight as the book progresses. Each get a chapter where they are the focus and their stories zip along nicely.  Although Dorothy is chasing down potential leads to satisfy her personal curiosities it is Hannah’s chapters where the most tragedy seems to arise this time around.  Ignoring the fact she works in a funeral home, Hannah appears to be facing a distressing number of deaths.  I am trying to avoid steering into “spoiler” territory but early in the book she is preparing to speak at a memorial service for a friend when a random encounter brings fresh hurt and a lot of unanswered questions.

The third Skelf, Jenny, was having a quieter story this time around until suddenly she wasnt. Again I veer away from potential spoilers but as you can see from the blurb (above) her ex-husband is causing problems for the Skelf family and if he gets his way then life for Dorothy, Jenny and Hannah will never be the same again.

I always have a huge sense of anticipation when I pick up a new Doug Johnstone book. He is a wonderful storyteller but he also has a wicked imagination so his books never go where I think they will. I have given up on trying to second guess where the Skelf story is heading I just strap myself in and let him take me on the emotion rollercoaster.  Love these stories – you should all be reading them.

 

The Big Chill is published by Orenda Books and is available in paperback and digital format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0885ZNW86/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

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April 14

Death at the Plague Museum – Lesley Kelly

The pandemic is spreading.

On Friday, three civil servants leading Virus policy hold a secret meeting at the Museum of Plagues and Pandemics. By Monday, two are dead and one is missing.

It’s up to Mona and Bernard of the Health Enforcement Team to find the missing official before panic hits the streets.

 

 

 

I received a review copy of Death at the Plague Museum from the publishers who also invited me to join the blog tour.

 

I got permission from the publishers to use enthusiastic sweary words to describe how much I enjoyed Death at the Plague Museum. I could use them, mainly as adjectives, but I will keep it clean. Just know that I am a huge fan of these books (The Health of Strangers series) and I would like lots more people to spread the booklove and chat with me about them.

Plague Museum is the third novel in the series. Reading the earlier  books is  not essential but will give a better understanding of the characters.  In brief, our focus is on the staff of the HET. The books are set in Edinburgh but after a virus has swept through the city and very careful steps are now being taken to monitor the populous to restrict further infection. We follow the HET employees who enforce the health checks and ensure the city residents try to restrict infections spreading.

A prominent advocate of the health screenings has vanished just as her routine check up is due. The negative publicity of her missing the health check she so stringently advocates has to be kept in check and the missing woman found as a matter of urgency. It falls to Mona, Bernard and their colleagues to track her down.

Matters are complicated by the unexpected death of another prominent figure in the anti-virus reforms – a known associate of the missing woman.

With a death to be explained and a missing woman to be found there is a great mystery story at the heart of Death at the Plague Museum. Where these stories really shine is the focus on the lives of the cast – they are so much more than their  respective jobs and Lesley Kelly gives them a chance to shine.  I want to read about them because they are so much fun to watch.

Written with wonderfully dark humour and the wry observational opinions I always expect from Scottish characters I get so much enjoyment from this series.

It is time you became acquainted with the Health of Strangers. Bloody marvellous.

 

 

Death at the Plague Museum is published by Sandstone Books and is available to order here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Plague-Museum-Health-Strangers-Thriller/dp/1912240521/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_3?crid=2USWGM0E3BKZ&keywords=death+at+the+plague+museum&qid=1555238088&s=gateway&sprefix=death+at+the+pla%2Caps%2C150&sr=8-3-fkmrnull

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February 21

The Haunting of Henderson Close – Catherine Cavendish

Ghosts have always walked there. Now they’re not alone.

In the depths of Edinburgh, an evil presence is released.

Hannah and her colleagues are tour guides who lead their visitors along the spooky, derelict Henderson Close, thrilling them with tales of spectres and murder. For Hannah it is her dream job, but not for long. Who is the mysterious figure that disappears around a corner? What is happening in the old print shop? And who is the little girl with no face?

The legends of Henderson Close are becoming all too real. The Auld De’il is out – and even the spirits are afraid.

 

I received a copy of this book from the publishers to provide a review as part of the blog tour.

 

I find it surprising that there are not more horror stories set in Edinburgh’s Old Town.  If you have ever have the opportunity to visit the narrow streets of the Scottish capital then you will know how atmospheric it can feel.  The city has its fair share of ghost stories and there are plenty of ghost tours and accompanied ghost walks to entertain residents and visitors alike.

That is what makes The Haunting of Henderson Close so appealing – the key characters in the story (well in the modern day part of the tale) are staff at a ghost walk.  Clad in period costume and taking the role of real characters who lived in their corner of the Old Town, Hannah and her colleagues tell eerie stories of days gone by. They give tourists a look into the past and explain what life was like in olden days when the streets were slums and disease was rife.

Hannah is the lead character in The Haunting of Henderson Close.  She is just starting in her new role as cast member on the tours.  As she finds her feet and learns the background to the people and the houses she needs to discuss we get glimpses of strange figures in places they should not be.  Cold gusts of wind on a still day and the sensation of being watched.

The author does a fabulous job of capturing the sense of location, the narrow streets, dark corners all make the chilling encounters seem so vivid.  As we get drawn into the story the peril to Hannah and her colleagues increases.  Soon the visions and visitations will escalate, danger becomes more imminent and Hannah even finds herself experiencing a flashback? (maybe) to decades previously when the streets buzz with the poorest wretches of Edinburgh’s past.

To build on the experiences Hannah is encountering we are also taken back in time to meet people who lived in the streets of the Old Town.  Some of those we meet are not destined to end their lives peacefully and we begin to question if their spirits are those that Hannah is encountering in modern day.

The time hops in the story become more significant as we get drawn into events (no spoilers as to why) but it was a nice shift in the narrative which I felt worked well and made me keen to keep reading.

If supernatural chills are what you seek then The Haunting of Henderson Close is highly recommended.

 

The Haunting of Henderson Close is published by Flame Tree Press and is available in digital, paperback and audiobook format.  You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Haunting-Henderson-Fiction-Without-Frontiers-ebook/dp/B07L9L8P9Z/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1550695144&sr=8-1&keywords=catherine+cavendish

Category: From The Bookshelf | Comments Off on The Haunting of Henderson Close – Catherine Cavendish
September 18

Hunter’s Revenge – Val Penny

Hunter by name – Hunter by nature: DI Hunter Wilson will not rest until his friend’s death is avenged.

DI Hunter Wilson is called to the scene of a murder. He is shocked to find the victim is his friend and colleague, George Reinbold.

Who would want to harm the quiet, old man? Why was a book worth £23,000 delivered to him that morning? Why is the security in George’s home so intense?

Hunter must investigate his friend’s past as well as the present to identify George’s killer.

When a new supply of cocaine from Peru floods HMP Edinburgh and the city, the courier leads Hunter to a criminal gang, but Hunter requires the help of his nemesis, the former Chief Constable, Sir Peter Myerscough, and local gangster, Ian Thomson, to make his case.

Hunter’s perseverance and patience are put to the test time after time in this taut crime thriller.

 

My thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for the opportunity to join the blog tour.

 

Hunter’s Revenge is the second in The Edinburgh Crime Mysteries series and follows on from the events depicted in the first book: Hunter’s Chase.  I came to Hunter’s Revenge without having first read Hunter’s Chase and I did feel that I would have benefited from reading the first book before tackling Hunter’s Revenge.  While the author does explain the key details that a new reader will need to know to follow the friendships and dynamics, there were a few instances where I felt I had missed something or that I was reading a spoiler from the earlier book.

But that should not detract from the fun to be had with Hunter’s Revenge.   A colleague of DI Hunter Wilson has been gunned down in his own home. The killer escaped undetected but the clinical efficiency which they displayed when committing the murder suggests a professional hit.

The background of the dead man is something of a mystery to the police, despite their long association with him and some digging into his past will be required.  Readers get a head-start in this regard as the prologue takes us back to Eastern Europe some decades ago and a tragic accident which will define a life and end more than one.

This is a complex multi-layered tale and we get more to ponder than a single murder.  Drugs are causing unwelcome problems in Edinburgh prison and the police will need to use all resource available to try to stem the influx of the produce.

The dynamic between the characters was pleasing and there was a good level of dark humour on display – something I find important in my Scottish crime fiction!

Good reading in Hunter’s Revenge and I enjoyed the time I spent with this one.

 

 

Hunter’s Revenge is published by Crooked Cat Books and is available in digital and paperback format.  You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hunters-Revenge-Edinburgh-Crime-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B07DY8WHZQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1537120711&sr=1-1

 

 

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