September 13

The Ice Coven – Max Seeck

Are you ready for the darkest case of Jessica Niemi’s career?

A young woman’s corpse washes up on a near-frozen beach.

Then, two famous Instagram influencers go missing.

All three have ties to a cult, famous for their cruel and violent worship.

But before Jessica can save the girls, an old enemy emerges and threatens to destroy her.

Soon, she is hunting for much more than just the truth . . .

 

My thanks to at Maddie at Welbeck Publishing for my review copy and for the opportunity to join the blog tour

 

The Ice Coven releases this week and I am flagging it up as a book to be watching out for. I really enjoyed this Scandanavian thriller and at times found myself wondering how Max Seeck had managed to get so much story into 400 pages.

Two social media influencers have disappeared after a large launch party for the new album of one of Finland’s best rap artists. The missing pair were once a couple (no longer) and while Lisa Yammamoto was very visible at the party her former boyfriend would not have been welcome. So why have they both disappeared?

More alarmingly for Jessica Niemi and her colleagues is a picture which appears on Lisa’s Instagram feed after her abduction which shows a remote lighthouse and has a haunting stanza below the image which speaks of Death and a frozen tomb.

While looking for leads at Lisa’s apartment Jessica finds the girl was a talented Manga artist and had many characters images on her walls. One image catches particular attention as the clothing Lisa drew on the Manga girl was identical to those worn by a murder victim pulled from the water after Lisa had disappeared.

How does a missing Finnish Social Media star link to a dead Ukrainian woman? Jessica is made lead investigator but the reader knows this is so her new boss can set Jessica up to take the blame if this high profile case goes wrong.

It’s an unusual but exciting twist to have the department head actively working against the lead character and the tension between Jessica’s team is very evident – even to Jessica.

I am scratching the surface of this story as it’s an intense one and I don’t want to reveal too much here. The Ice Coven felt much more accessible than many other Scandi thrillers I have read and that is a huge plus when I am recommending it.

Translation responsibilities seem to sit with Kristian London (who also translated Seeck’s The Witch Hunter). An excellent job completed by London, the prose flows smoothly, there are still some Finnish phrases in the text which reminded me this is very much a Scandanavian tale and bring the story firmly back to its setting. Great stories such as The Ice Coven would not be available for me to read were it not for the work put in by Kristian London and all the other translators who graft to ensure the best books make it to the widest possible audience.

Not the first Jessica Niemi thriller but this can be read as as stand-alone – the author references past incidents and events but at no point did I feel I was missing something important in The Ice Coven as a consequence of not having read the earlier work. So put aside any qualms you may have and feel confident picking up this book knowing a cracking thriller awaits.

 

The Ice Coven is published in hardback, digital and audiobook on 16 September and can be ordered here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08ZJVQ7JD/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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September 9

Black Reed Bay – Rod Reynolds

Don’t trust ANYONE…

When a young woman makes a distressing middle-of-the-night call to 911, apparently running for her life in a quiet, exclusive beachside neighbourhood, miles from her home, everything suggests a domestic incident.

Except no one has seen her since, and something doesn’t sit right with the officers at Hampstead County PD. With multiple suspects and witnesses throwing up startling inconsistencies, and interference from the top threatening the integrity of the investigation, lead detective Casey Wray is thrust into an increasingly puzzling case that looks like it’s going to have only one ending…

And then the first body appears…

 

I received a review copy from Karen at Orenda Books and I would like to thank Anne Cater at Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to join the Black Reed Bay blog tour.

 

Hi, can we have our ball back please? Everything was fine until Rod Renolds came along with Black Reed Bay and utterly smashed it out of the park.

I should just stop there. Read it, loved it and basically I didn’t want it to end. The lead character, Casey Wray, is one of the strongest and most interesting new headliners I have encountered for a long time and I want to read more about her. Rod Reynold’s writes beautifully and builds a world around his reader which keeps you hooked on the story he is telling.

Everything starts with a panic call to the police. A young woman is running down a street in a nice residential area but is clearly terrified of something, what is she is trying to escape from? She manages to give the police details of her location but not what the threat is. Then the call ends abruptly and the woman disappears before the police can respond.

Casey Wray and her partner Cullen are investigating but it seems everyone they speak with has a different version of events. Many residents saw the missing woman run down the street and the man she had been visiting (and Casey’s chief suspect) agrees she had been at his home before panicing and running out. But nobody knows where she went and (crucially) nobody wanted to open their door to help her.

Staying well clear of spoilers makes it tricky to outline why I enjoyed this book as much as I did. Casey’s missing person enquiries see her stumble into a much bigger concern. This puts Casey and her colleagues into closer contact with other departments within the police and this isn’t the best of time to put her boss under pressure as he is feeling the pinch too. An internal investigation focusing on how a violent and intoxicated suspect was brought under control with “excessive force” means the whole team feel they are being picked on by the top brass.

Casey’s investigation is detailed, compassionate and thorough, the author has given real life and energy to his characters and I was utterly absorbed by what I was reading. This, in turn, made some of the shocking twists more dramatic and gave them bigger impact. The missing woman’s family are anxious, worried, angry and desperate, this rubs off on Casey and on the reader and your investment in this story grows.

Late night phone calls, screaming women and then a body is found, everything is escalating and Casey and Cullen are in the thick of it. This is page-turner central, the kind of book I love to read with the drama and tension you always hope your next read will offer.

Consider me a very happy, satisfied reader. Black Reed Bay – read it!

 

Black Reed Bay 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/B08T65D9XX/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

 

 

 

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September 6

Five Minds – Guy Morpuss

SHARING A BODY CAN BE MURDER

The Earth’s spiralling population has finally been controlled. Lifespans are limited to eighty years, except for those who make an extreme choice: to become a commune. Five minds sharing one body, each living for four hours at a time. But with a combined lifespan of nearly 150 years.

Alex, Kate, Mike, Sierra and Ben have already spent twenty-five years together in what was once Mike’s body, their frequent personality clashes leading to endless bickering, countless arguments, and getting themselves stranded on a Russian Artic freighter. Wanting to buy upgrades for their next host body, they decide to travel to a Death Park where time can be gambled like money. But things go very wrong when Kate accepts a dangerous offer, and one of them disappears.

Someone is trying to kill off members of the commune. But why? Is one of them responsible? Or is an outsider playing a deadly game? It’s hard enough to catch a murderer. It’s almost impossible when you might be sharing a body with them…

 

I received a review copy from Viper and I thank Anne Cater at Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to host this leg of the Five Minds blog tour.

 

Where to start with Five Minds? How to explain Five Minds? This is an absolute belter of a crime story. It’s high concept, cleverly constructed and has all the tension and thrills I want from my murder stories.

But it’s a bit “different” with Five Minds sharing a body, all taking an alloted time to live while the other Minds are dormant and waiting for their allocated time to roll around again. So readers have five main characters to get to know and we learn they can only communicate with each other by leaving messages for the other people inhabiting their body. Guy Morpuss explains it so much more effectively in the book and being able to see what Kate, Mike, Sienna, Alex and Ben are telling each other allows the reader to understand the dynamics of each character.

Although big decisions need to be made by unanimous vote (thus taking 24 hours) sometimes snap decisions are needed and the Mind which makes that choice has to hope the others agree. This takes conflicted main character to a whole new level!

In Five Minds our commune of Minds are in danger, a synthetic lifeform has challenged Kate to a game. The prize is more time (time is lifetime and everyone can trade some of their hours to prolong their lifespan). Kate has no time to consult the others so agrees to the android’s challenge and from here our Five are in danger. Someone, for reasons they don’t know, is trying to kill each of the Minds within the body.

Within the world where Five Minds is set are game zones. The desperate souls who are reaching the end of their lives can play in the games to try to win more time. Fail and it’s an early death. Our Five must play these games and Guy Morpuss has devised some absorbing challenges for them. The games are physical challenges, there are moral and reasoning dilemma scenarios to navigate or problem solving challenges to overcome. Failure isn’t an option but what happens if a third party is trying to rig the odds against you?

Five Minds is quite unlike anything else. A murder tale in a fantasy reality and obviously this may not appeal to everybody. But if you pass on this excellent book then it will be your loss – how refreshing to have something so wonderfully different to enjoy. Embrace the unusual and go with it.

 

Five Minds is published by Viper and is available in hardback, digital and audiobook format.  You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08QB1L1JW/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

 

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September 4

A Slow Fire Burning – Paula Hawkins

‘What is wrong with you?’

Laura has spent most of her life being judged. She’s seen as hot-tempered, troubled, a loner. Some even call her dangerous.

Miriam knows that just because Laura is witnessed leaving the scene of a horrific murder with blood on her clothes, that doesn’t mean she’s a killer. Bitter experience has taught her how easy it is to get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Carla is reeling from the brutal murder of her nephew. She trusts no one: good people are capable of terrible deeds. But how far will she go to find peace?

Innocent or guilty, everyone is damaged. Some are damaged enough to kill.

Look what you started.

 

I received a review copy from the publishers. My thanks also go to Anne Cater at Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to join the tour for A Slow Fire Burning.

 

A Slow Fire Burning: a book which took a little while to draw me in – the classic slow burn thriller. And that’s exactly what this story was; even though the prologue tells of a young girl fleeing from a man who seems to have harmed her friend and the first chapter introduces us to Laura as she tries to wash blood from her t-shirt. Indeed the first five pages tell of danger, violence and two vulnerable women so you can’t say Paula Hawkins isn’t grabbing your attention from the get-go.

And once the reader gets past those first five pages there is soon a brutal murder to read about local busybody, Miriam, finds a dead man sprawled on the floor of his houseboat. Miriam tries to keep track of all the activity on the houseboats beside her own so she knows the man in question had entertained young Laura a few days earlier and even finds something belonging to Laura by his body but she isn’t going to leave that for the police to find…why not? I wondered.

Once the murder has been discovered, and Miriam has the chance to chat with the police about what she may have seen, Paula Hawkins takes us through the players in this clever drama. This is when the perception of a slow burn may kick in as we learn about the lives and background of those involved.

The murdered man’s aunt is Carla who recently lost her sister too. Carla experienced the ultimate tragedy many years earlier when her son, as a toddler, died while under the care of Carla’s sister. Her son’s death placed too much strain on Carla’s marriage to Theo and the marriage ended but the couple stay just a few streets apart and Carla still spends time with Theo. Theo is a successful novelist with a smash hit in his past, however, there is a suggestion he took inspiration from events in Miriam’s life and there is a history of bad feeling between the pair. Switch back to Laura, a troubled girl who was injured as a child by a hit and run driver leaving her with a damaged leg, a trigger temper and the inability to always think clearly and rationally. Laura earns a few extra quid by collecting shopping for Irene who is now in her 80s and not as mobile as she was. Irene was Angela’s next-door neighbour.  Who is Angela?  Well that would be Carla’s sister, Theo’s sister-in-law and the woman responsible for looking after Carla’s son the night he died. Angela died just a couple of weeks before events in the story commenced.

Phew, there are a fair few connections in that ensemble and Paula Hawkins establishes each character and covers their background with great care. She is seeding plot threads and throwing out red herrings and it is skillfully done. Okay it does mean the murder is slightly pushed to the background and this may give the impression we are not getting anywhere but we are, everything is leading somewhere and your reward as a reader is to getting to know these people and understanding their lives because nothing is quite what it seems.

You finish reading A Slow Fire Burning and you know you have finished reading a great story. That’s what we want, a book to set up a cast, push them and stretch their emotions to limits they didn’t know they had and stepping back to see how they react. Unpredictably!

 

 

A Slow Fire Burning is published by Doubleday and is available in Hardback, digital and audiobook format.  You can order your copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/a-slow-fire-burning/paula-hawkins/2928377051112

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August 30

Camp Death – Jim Ody

The place had a gruesome past that nobody wanted to talk about…

Camp Deathe is now a great place to spend the summer. Ritchie soon finds a group of outsiders like himself. Teenagers who ignore the organised activities, and bunk off in the old abandoned cabins deep in the woods. The cabins that have a history.

The campfire monster stories were meant to just scare them. Nobody expected them to come true. Then one of the teenagers disappears in the middle of the night.

Something is watching them. It hides in the woods and hunts at night.

Ritchie will have to uncover the secrets of the camp, and understand his own problems in order to survive.

 

I recieved a copy from the publishers, Question Mark Horror, in order to participate in the blog tour

 

The first Question Mark Horror title (though I did review Ouija at the start of the two books one tour campaign). Both Camp Death and Ouija are YA horror titles which fit nicely into the Point Horror space in the reading lists. I have long been a fan of horror fiction but I was just a bit too old to have enjoyed Point Horror as I was growing up; jumping straight into King, Herbert, Laymon and Hutson and catching Peter James in his pre-crime days.

If I had grown up reading the YA fiction then I know I would have inhaled the Point Horror titles and would absolutely be all over the Question Mark Horror books too, they are nicely pitched creepy titles which don’t take the scare too far but still leave readers unsettled – particularly if their imagination fills in the extra details.

Camp Death, actually Camp Deathe, is a summer resort deep in the woods where families can spend some quality time away from the hustle and the bustle and where parents can fill their children’s days with activities so they get a break from parenting. Sounds ideal. However, the camp which Ritchie and his family arrive at has a dark history and the kids in the know will try to terrify the new arrivals with tales of death and a strange beast which is said to roam the woods around the cabins.

As is the case when any group of kids are thrown together there are dominant characters and they have their hangers-on. The other children scrabble for attention and try to raise their position in the pecking order and rivalries and jealousy are such good triggers for incidents. The other inevitable when you have a group of boys and girls is that attractions will form and for young teenagers this is an awkward period of self awareness and the early discoveries of future freedoms. In short – Ritchie meets a girl he likes but there is a bigger boy also trying to catch her eye.

Realising Ritchie is a potential rival sees a concerted effort to undermine Ritchie in the eyes of the group. This begins as snide asides but soon escalates to a dangerous attempt to leave him alone, bound and at the mercy of the mysterious “beast”. Though for readers the existence of the beast isn’t rumour and campfire stories, we have been witness to the damage it can do.

This is classic horror fare and Jim Ody does a great job of keeping the tension and suspicion going through the story and I confess I did not see that ending coming! The story deals with bullying, self awareness, family stress and one other two (spoilerish) themes – all areas which I felt my younger self would have benefitted from reading more of when I was in my formative years.

Both Camp Death and Ouija herald strong starts for the Question Mark Horror series and I look forward to seeing what they may bring for us next. If you enjoy a chilling tale then this has death, monsters and rivalry where the good guy getting the girl is not guaranteed.

 

Camp Death is available in paperback and digital format and you can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0999JVT1F/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

 

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August 20

Ouija – Zoé-Lee O’Farrell

The only thing for certain is the deaths were no accident.

Rayner High School once a prestigious school stands in ruins after such a terrible event.

A year later, a group of friends return to the abandoned school and their nightmare begins.

Something wants to get out and won’t take NO for an answer…

 

 

My thanks to Zoe-Lee O’Farrell for the opportunity to join the Question Mark Horror Blog tours.

I received a review copy of Ouija and Camp Death from the publishers so I could participate in this double-header blog tour.

 

I missed out on Point Horror as a reader, I was already onto King, Herbert, Laymon and Hutson when the Point Horror titles were at a peak. However, I was a young bookseller back in the day and I sold dozens of them, usually to the same faces every couple of weeks as a wave of young horror readers came to our bookshop to get their latest fix.

Question Mark Horror seem to be tapping into the same target readership as both Ouija and Camp Death are chillers but keep on the careful side of being too detailed with the depictions of carnage. YA readers will have a ball with these though and it is always great to see horror titles being enjoyed.

This leg of the Two Books One Tour is about Ouija by Zoé-Lee O’Farrell and the name is a big clue as to where the menace lies. Six childhood friends decide they will use an ouija board to communicate with the dead.  Not only do they feel this is a sensible thing to do, they decide to do it in the old school in their town, a building no longer in use after it was the scene of an horrific massacre where staff and students died at the hands of an unknown assailant. Though perhaps this is a mystery which the ouija board could help cast some light upon?

The book opens with a flashback to the start of the massacre in the school but before we can get too much idea as to what may be about to unfold the narrative switches to the six friends who will be the stars of the show. Readers get to learn about each of the kids and understand the group dynamic. It’s clear there are some rivalries and hidden affection but they seem a tight group despite not all of them being keen to venture into Rayner High School and communicate with the spirits.

Soon the friends are slipping out their homes and making their way to the ruined building. Their final destination (as it were) is to be the Headmaster’s study but as they edge their way along the dark corridors we can see they are not the only ones moving around the old school that night. Without getting into too much more detail things do not go to plan and the friends don’t get to complete their ritual properly, have they left a path open for any of the spirits?

It isn’t long before unexplained incidents start happening around some of the group and each becomes increasingly unnerved. Their terror is complete when one of their number dies and the readers soon learn that one death is only just the beginning.

As I tend to read at night I will confess Ouija had me nervously glancing into the dark corners of my room on more than one occasion. It’s a relatively quick read and the story zips along at a very satisfying pace which meant we got to the darker events pretty quickly. Fans of horror films and chilling fiction will get their kicks from this one as there are plenty of recognisable horror devices brought into play. Good fun and always a treat to get a new horror read, I look forward to seeing what Question Mark Horror will have for us in future.

 

Ouija is available in digital format and can be ordered here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0997CPK3J/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

The Question Mark Horror tour is a two book affair and I will be back with my thoughts on Camp Death at the end of the month

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August 12

Half-Past Tomorrow – 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.

 

My thanks to Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers for the opportunity to join the blog tour. I recieved a review copy from the publishers ahead of the tour.

 

Half-Past Tomorrow drew me in the second I read the blurb – a radio news report which is giving tomorrow’s news stories? Knowing 24 hours in advance of events which are going to happen is unsettling but to learn a murder will take place? What would anyone do in those circumstances?

Fortunately this dilemma doesn’t fall on the readers but lands at the feet of Shirley Steadman. Shirley is a pensioner who volunteers at her local hospital radio. She has had a tough life but the death of her abusive and dominating husband, coupled with the tragic suicide of her son have given Shirley a peace and inner steel which makes her a feisty and determined principle character.

Shirley is at the hospital when she finds an old radio set as she waits to begin her show. While spinning through the frequencies she finds a pirate radio station Mallet which heads into the news as Shirley is listening. She realises this station is VERY local to her home in the North East of England and enjoys listening to an amateur broadcaster sharing enthusiasm over local events.

The last story on the news tells of a local baker falling off a ladder outside his shop. Shirley hadn’t heard about the event and doesn’t give it much thought until the next day when her son-in-law also recounts the story about the baker but makes it clear it had just happened. Shirley heard about the ladder fall before it happened – she needs to understand how.

Worried she may be mistaken, Shirley tries to talk it through with her son Gabe. Gave died at the start of the book, took his own life while at sea. Yet he sometimes appears to Shirley in her kitchen and once she got passed the initial hysterical screaming she began to speak with her when he appears.

Half-Past Tomorrow shows how Shirley becomes obsessed by the pirate radio show and its predictive news reports. Despite health issues restricting her investigations Shirley doggedly chases down the reported incidents and soon becomes entangled in a way she could not have predicted.

Safe to say I had a lot of fun reading this book, I had absolutely no idea how Chris McGeorge was going to find a way Shirley could “solve” her pirate radio mystery. That need to see how the story would play out kept me hooked.  There were more than a few surprises along the way that I really enjoyed too.

 

Half-Past Tomorrow is published by Orion and is available in paperback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08V95SMCB/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

 

 

 

 

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July 27

Girls Who Lie (Forbidden Iceland 2) – Eva Björg Ægisdóttir

When single mother Maríanna disappears from her home, leaving an apologetic note on the kitchen table, everyone assumes that she’s taken her own life … until her body is found on the Grábrók lava fields seven months later, clearly the victim of murder. Her neglected fifteen-year-old daughter Hekla has been placed in foster care, but is her perfect new life hiding something sinister?

Fifteen years earlier, a desperate new mother lies in a maternity ward, unable to look at her own child, the start of an odd and broken relationship that leads to a shocking tragedy.

Police officer Elma and her colleagues take on the case, which becomes increasingly complex, as the number of suspects grows and new light is shed on Maríanna’s past – and the childhood of a girl who never was like the others…

 

My thanks to Karen at Orenda Books for my review copy and to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to host this leg of the Girls Who Lie Blog Tour.

 

After last year’s introduction to the Forbidden Iceland series (The Creak on the Stairs) it is a welcome return for Elma the Icelandic police officer who is the lead character and the investigator tasked with these challenging investigations.

Seven months before our story begins a single mother (Maríanna) left her house and walked out on her teenage daughter. At least this is how things appeared, Maríanna had left a note for her daughter which seemed to apologise for her decicion to leave. She never returned and given that it was common knowledge Maríanna had struggled with parenting and had trouble bonding with her daughter nobody really questionned the initial decicion that she had taken her own life.

Back to the present and Elma is in an Icelandic cave and looking at Maríanna’s body. The seven months have not left Maríanna in an easily recognisable state but the cave protected her body from many of the elements and the police pathologist is certain that Maríanna did not take her own life.  The police are now looking at a murder investigation but seven months on many memories are clouded and the questions which should have been asked when Maríanna first disappeared are less easily answered.

Interspersed between the chapters which track Elma’s investigation are some flashback/memory sections where a young mother recounts the problems she is experiencing. She did not wish to be a mother and she does not think she can do it.  As her child grows older the subsequent sequences show the pair have no relationship and the mother cannot control (or even communicate with) her daugher. These are awkward and uncomfortable reads and while it sounds like you are reading Maríanna’s story you just cannot be sure this is the case.

As for Maríanna’s daughter. When she was young she would do short foster stays with a family. This would be at times when Maríanna was unable to cope, when she went off the rails for a period and just week on week. The foster family hoped Maríanna would put her daughter to them permanently but Maríanna never made that step and kept bringing her daughter home week on week.  Once Maríanna walked out on her apparent suicide the foster arrangement became permanent. Now there is a new family structure in place, a happy family, and the police coming round to ask questions will not be condusive to a quiet and relaxing situation. Expect people to lie to protect their positions and the life they have established for themselves – afterall, the book is call Girls Who Lie.

When you’re reading translated fiction and you totally forget you are reading translated fiction then you know you have been well cared for by a top notch translator. All the plaudits to Victoria Cribb for taking Girls Who Lie and bringing it to the English speakers (readers) who would otherwise have missed out on Elma’s second outing.

It feels a slow burn at times and Elma even notes  but the journey through Girls Who Lie is absolutely worth it and I hope you find you enjoyed it as much as I did.

 

 

Girls Who Lie is available in paperback, digital and audiobook format.  You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08T5VZ6MK/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

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July 23

The Beresford – Will Carver

Just outside the city – any city, every city – is a grand, spacious but affordable apartment building called The Beresford.

There’s a routine at The Beresford.

For Mrs May, every day’s the same: a cup of cold, black coffee in the morning, pruning roses, checking on her tenants, wine, prayer and an afternoon nap. She never leaves the building.

Abe Schwartz also lives at The Beresford. His housemate, Sythe, no longer does. Because Abe just killed him.

In exactly sixty seconds, Blair Conroy will ring the doorbell to her new home and Abe will answer the door. They will become friends. Perhaps lovers.

And, when the time comes for one of them to die, as is always the case at The Beresford, there will be sixty seconds to move the body before the next unknowing soul arrives at the door.

Because nothing changes at The Beresford, until the doorbell rings…

 

My thanks to Karen at Orenda for my review copy and to Anne Cater at Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to host this leg of the blog tour for The Beresford.

 

I never do this; pleae indulge me for a second.  That Cover. Love it.  I can happily ignore 99% of book covers without needing to comment but that one’s a cracker.  I wonder if Orenda realise they are saving the very best covers for their supernatural stories?  Quite right too – a good horror tale needs a suitably grabbable skin wrapped around it.

So a horror story about a house called The Beresford. But not a haunted house story, this book is all about the people who come to live in The Beresford. And those who come to die.

It seems the cycle is inevitable.  A new resident will arrive to stay in The Beresford exactly sixty seconds after the last breath of life leaves one of the current occupants. In that sixty seconds a body has to be hidden and Mrs May (the owner of The Beresford) will come out from her room and introduce herself to the new resident and try to help them settle in.

Mrs May is the old lady at the heart of the story. The enigma. She jokes she is 100, 150, 1200 years old but her residents just see a kindly old woman who is rather set in her ways and appears to be a bit of a matchmaker if her residents are suitability single and lonely.

Nobody arrives at The Beresford with murder in their heart but once they get inside those cheap but surprisingly spacious rooms something changes. A trigger moment will arise and a moment of madness will lead to the next corpse on the floor.  The clever ones will cover up their crimes and kindly old Mrs May will just make a few subtle suggestions about “cleaning up”.  In some instances Mrs May will need to take direct intervention and tell the murderer how to dispose of a body.

Mrs May knows everything that happens at The Beresford and down the years she has become very adept at body disposal.

What a clever, twisted and entertaining story this was.  The constant knowledge someone in the story was going to be killed. Rooting for a favourite or waiting for the irritating ones to be erased but always compelling.  There are 1,000 stories which could be told about the people that visit The Beresford and 1,000 more about the people that come looking for them when they are gone.  I could have read all 2,000 of them.

This isn’t a scary horror tale in the jump-scare, something’s behind me mould. This is a disturbing story of demonic forces, murder and dismemberment and one for the reader to try to understand what is happening then try to understand how the story could possibly find closure.  It’s the best I have read from Will Carver and major kudos to him for delivering such an accessible, readable and utterly enjoyable horror tale.

 

 

The Beresford is published by Orenda Books and is available in paperback, digital and audiobook format.  You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08WRMCLVQ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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July 22

The Murder Box – Olivia Kiernan

At first, Detective Chief Superintendent Frankie Sheehan believes the murder mystery game sent to her office is a birthday gift from one of her colleagues. But when Frankie studies the game’s contents, she notices a striking resemblance between the ‘murder victim’ and missing twenty-two-year-old Lydia Callin.

As Frankie and her team investigate, a series of grisly crimes connected to the game are discovered across Dublin city and Lydia’s involvement with a shadowy network of murder mystery players becomes clear.

On the hunt for Lydia’s murderer, Frankie is drawn more deeply into the game. Every successful move brings her closer to the killer. But the real question is not what happens should she lose — but what happens if she wins.

 

I received a review copy from the publishers via Netgalley

 

I haven’t read any of Olivia Kiernan’s previous novels but the blurb for The Murder Box drew me in so I jumped at the chance to read it. Best decision I could have made – it’s a cracker!  This is also me exploring a new way to say “you don’t need to have read any of the previous books in the series to enjoy The Murder Box”.

Yes, this is the fourth book to feature Frankie Sheehan but (honestly) let me assure you that not having read the first three will not hinder your enjoyment one iota. I do now face the problem of having to find time to go back and read the first three books now that I know about them, but that is a nice problem to have – I always think that discovering a new (to me) author is one of the outcomes at the end of any book.

In The Murder Box Sheehan takes delivery of a murder game.  It arrives for her birthday but she doesn’t know who may have sent it.  Sheehan and her colleagues have been overwhelmed with the ongoing investigation into the disappearance of a local celebrity and Frankie hasn’t had much time to consider her birthday and it seems she doesn’t have many friends she would be sharing her day with anyway.

When Sheehan and her partner open the gift box and examine the murder game inside they are initially taken with the idea and, as detectives, they spend a little time contemplating the murder at the heart of the game. There are “clues” in the game which include an earing from the victim, a pathology slide with what appears to be human tissue under the slide and background reading on the “victim” and her last movements before she met her end.

Sheehan is impressed with the detail of the game which arrived in her Murder Box but is too busy to linger on it for long – that is until a woman arrives at the police station to report the disappearance of her flatmate and Frankie thinks she recognises the name of the missing woman. Lydia Callan isn’t just a character created for a role-play game, she seems to be a resident of Dublin and her current whereabouts are unknown.

The Murder Box is a police procedural and a race against time read.  I really enjoyed this one and not just beacuse I love reading good murder stories and enjoy gaming too (a happy coincidence).  The story is brilliantly paced, the frustration of the police is evident and they are already swamped with work as they try to find their missing celeb while cautiously trying to establish if they have been handed a murder investigation in a gift-wrapped box.

Fun, thrilling and very cleverly constructed. I had several guesses at identifying a murderer and I was wrong each time. It’s great when books do that to me – draw me in, keep me guessing and cleverly fool me. Highly recommended and I want to read more Frankie Sheehan stories now.

 

The Murder Box is available in hardcover, digital and audiobook format and is published by riverrun.  You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0875RYCVX/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

 

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