From The Bookshelf – Page 6

The House of Footsteps – Mathew West

If you loved The Haunting of Hill House, welcome to Thistlecrook…

It’s 1923 and at Thistlecrook House, a forbidding home on the Scottish border, the roaring twenties seem not to have arrived. But Simon Christie has – a young man who can’t believe his luck when he gets a job cataloguing the infamous art collection of the Mordrake family. Yet from the moment he gets off the train at the deserted village station he can’t shift a headache and a sense that there’s more to the House and its gruesome selection of pictures.

Simon’s host is glad of his company, but he gets the feeling the house is not so welcoming. As his questions about the Mordrakes grow, he finds answers in surprising places. But someone is not pleased that old secrets are stirring.

As night falls each evening, and a growing sense of unease roils in the shifting shadows around him, Simon must decide what he can trust and ask if he can believe what he sees in the dusk or if his mind is poisoned by what has happened before in this place between lands, between light and dark.

My thanks to Harper North for the review copy I received ahead of publication day through Netgalley.

Simon Christie was too young to serve in the Great War so he and his friends are cutting around Edinburgh after their studies finished. Unfortunately for Simon, his father decides it is time he found himself a job and Simon cannot help but agree. A degree in Art History sets him up nicely for a position with an auction house and Simon is ready to take on what the world can throw at him.

What he may not have expected was the opportunity to visit Thistlecrook House, home of the Mordrake family and to catalogue their collected artworks. It has long been rumoured the Mordrakes have a vast collection of art treasures – even a Da Vinci – so Simon boards a train from Edinburgh and sets off South. Thistlecrook House sits apart from a tiny village on the Scottish/English border and is not an easy place to access. Simon will spend his days assessing the art collection and will rely upon the hospitality of his host for food and accommodation.

His arrival at Mordrake House follows a disconcerting series of encounters in the nearby village. Mordrake House has has reputation and the locals are wary. It also appears his host is a widower following the tragic death of his wife, drowned in the lake in the grounds of his home. Steeled with this knowledge, Simon is respectful of his host’s odd behaviour and secluded lifestyle. For when he arrives at Mordrake house the vast home is almost empty of life bar his host, an ever-present butler (who does not take a shine to Simon) and a few members of staff.

Tension mounts as Simon spends more time in the strange house. The artwork he has to assess has a singular and disturbing theme, many pieces are shocking or distasteful to the young man and he feels the drain spending time with them. Some rooms have an overpowering impact upon him too a compromise has to be found for his workspace as the attic which houses many of the art is overwhelming. But not all spaces in the house are negative places. In a library Simon encounters the other resident in the house. A young woman who enjoys curling up to read her book while keeping out of the way of everyone else.

With an ally in the house we find Simon can chat through some of his concerns and soon his infactuation with his new friend will start to distract from the work he is meant to undertake. Not that Simon needs any more distraction, his nights are plagued by the sound of footsteps. A heavy-footed individual spends hours each night walking the corridors and rooms of Thistlecrook House. The noise is distracting, upsetting and inescapable for Simon. He is particularly alarmed when he sees the shadow of this unknown person walking past his door.

As the story develops the tension cranks up. Mathew West has done a fabulous job of keeping the story flowing, the chills mounting and Simon’s story appears to be one which puts him on a path towards a dangerous confrontation. I really enjoyed The House of Footsteps and felt it perfectly pitched to deliver the creepy vibes.

The House of Footsteps releases on February 3rd and I’d strongly recommend getting a pre-order in place.

The House of Footsteps is published by Harper North and will be available from 3 February 2022. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-house-of-footsteps/mathew-west/9780008472931

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January 24

How Much For A Happy Ending – S E Winters

It was only a few photos. We needed the money. No one would have to know…

Growing up on a council estate in Thatcher’s Britain is no simple task. Bullied at school, with a rocky home life and a desire to escape the trappings of working-class life, Sinead discovers boys, recreational drugs and the nineties club scene.

After a string of abusive partners, she struggles as a skint single mum. A chance meeting offers her a new life of glitz and glamour, but it’s not all it seems. Plunged into a world of adult entertainment, Sinead finds herself in the heart of the UK glamour modelling industry, later becoming a dominatrix to make ends meet.

After paying the price of her own self-exploitation, she has the determination to forge a new career as a therapist, with bad decisions galore along the way.

In this autobiographical novel, a now forty-something Winters pulls no punches as she recounts the tales in graphic detail, with down-to-earth wit, refreshing honesty and an unapologetic potty mouth! Hilarious and sometimes heartrendingly uncomfortable, Sinead will make the reader squirm in their seat as she dishes the dirt on the tease and the sleaze of the adult industry.

Love or hate her, she says the things we’ve all probably thought at one time or another.

I received a review copy from the publishers through Netgalley.

Last year I discovered biographies are not just a stream of dry facts or a film by film summary of a starlet’s life. A life is colourful and fascinaing and if that story is well told then an engaging read can follow. I hopped onto Netgalley and for the first time I headed to the biography section. There were several books which just looked to be as dry as the desert sun. Some “celeb” stories for people I had never heard of and in the mix was a title which stood out: How Much For A Happy Ending? It caught the eye and I liked the use of an ironic pun for a title so I had a scan of the blurb and it didn’t sound like it would be boring. I was right, it’s many things but boring isn’t one of them!

From a young age our narrator, Sinead, takes the reader through her early awakening sexuality. Her upbringing in a council estate and her relationship with her seemingly unconventional parents and then her story moves into her relationships with troubling partners. Through the story Sinead’s developing sexual confidence grows and she finds herself turning to various ways to use her body and knowledge to earn a wage. It should be made clear that Sinead isn’t setting out to paint a rosy story of positive life experiences but the humour is often self-deprecating and she keeps a confidence in herself (in the main) to push through challenging situations.

After a few youthful encounters Sinead realises she has the confidence in her body to turn her hand to modeling. She speaks openly about the pressure young women can find themselves put under to offer more than just pictures and also the variety of pictures which could be taken may also shock some readers. Time and time again Sinead finds herself in new and unfamiliar situations and must decide how best to contend with the dilemmas she faces. The night she tried to become a model for tv chat numbers is told with humour but the pressure of the situation for a young woman to face alone is also somewhat concerning.

From photoshoots, to TV appearances (walking naked down the high street) and then to more personal one to one liaisons – while always keeping on the right side of appropriate behaviour – there are shocks, tears and upsetting events. It can be a hard read but the tone is kept light and matter of fact so despite the seriousness of a situation you feel the author is just looking to tell a story rather than use examples of behaviours to seek to change the world. There will be things which will feel inappropriate and some of these are between Sinead and her partner rather than any clients or firms she is working with. We are all different and all have different desires did feel like an approach which is used more than once.

Very much not my normal type of read but it was interesting and even educational (though I am not sure when I may ever need to use some of the knowledge I gained). Possibly not for the more prudish reader, the scenes of a sexual nature are not presented in vivid technicolour but discussed in mature and sensible manner – the book is better for this non-glorification of our desires.

I will be looking to read more biographies over time, perhaps not one quite so eye-opening as this!

How Much For A Happy Ending? is published in paperback and digital format and can be ordered here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09GPSTH6S/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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January 18

The Twyford Code – Janice Hallett

It’s time to solve the murder of the century…

Forty years ago, Steven Smith found a copy of a famous children’s book by disgraced author Edith Twyford, its margins full of strange markings and annotations. Wanting to know more, he took it to his English teacher Miss Iles, not realising the chain of events that he was setting in motion. Miss Iles became convinced that the book was the key to solving a puzzle, and that a message in secret code ran through all Twyford’s novels. Then Miss Iles disappeared on a class field trip, and Steven has no memory of what happened to her.

Now, out of prison after a long stretch, Steven decides to investigate the mystery that has haunted him for decades. Was Miss Iles murdered? Was she deluded? Or was she right about the code? And is it still in use today?

Desperate to recover his memories and find out what really happened to Miss Iles, Steven revisits the people and places of his childhood. But it soon becomes clear that Edith Twyford wasn’t just a writer of forgotten children’s stories. The Twyford Code has great power, and he isn’t the only one trying to solve it…

My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to host this leg of the tour. I received a review copy of the book from the publishers through Netgalley.

It’s quite a thought to finish The Twyford Code in mid-January and wonder if ANY book this year will come close to matching the intricate planning and devious distractions which Janice Hallett delivers here.

As a child Steven Smith attended an inner city school where he did not shine. Unable to read, school was just a place he attended and it took him away from what seems a troublesome home life.

But one year he had a teacher (for RE) who really seemed to cut through and make a difference in Steven’s life – Miss Iles. Steven and a cluster of his friends seemed to get more from Miss Iles than any other class they attended. One memorable day Steven found a book on a bus, a children’s story by Edith Twyford. Miss Iles has an immediate reaction- it’s a banned book she tells him.

Twyford’s attitudes are very outdated and unpalatable for a modern readership. Of course for a group of adolescents a banned book is instantly more fascinating. But then the bombshell…Miss Iles tells them of a code hidden within the books.

She takes her small class on a trip to Twyford’s cottage down in the English South-West and on that trip Miss Iles disappeared. The kids got home (Steven cannot recall how) and Miss Iles was never seen again.

Years later Steven is newly out of prison (we discover why through the story) and he is looking to find out exactly what happened to Miss Iles on that trip and more importantly he wants to get to the bottom of The Twyford Code – it’s a puzzle which is the focus on dedicated Internet forums and the prize for solving it seems to vary from wealth, health cures and even secrets of extra-terrestrial life.

Steven has learned how to read while in prison and seems to have a natural aptitude for problem solving. Picking up a copy of one of Twyford’s books he sees messages in the words. A return to her cottage suggests a picture clue remains in her study. The hunt is on – who killed Miss Iles, what’s the treasure for solving the code and who are these mysterious strangers who seem to twart their progress at every turn?

The story is excellent. The codes and puzzles which the author uses through the book must have taken an eternity to properly thread into the narrative. I love clever stories and this is fiendishly well done. But this is a spoiler-free zone so I can’t get into the details of what shone through in terms of clever tricks.

One slight rain-cloud hung over The Twyford Code for me. Steven tells the story through audio recordings. That’s to say he turns on a recorder and we see the transcript of his conversation and the responses from others. It’s an interesting quirk and the software on the old iPhone he is using can sometimes make transcript errors – “Miss Iles” becomes “missiles” for the reader. And there are other instances.

Personally I found this narrative style quite tricky to read and it took some of the enjoyment out of the book. My reading fun became an unusual effort of concentration. The story kept me going to the end though as I did want to see how matters resolved. I suspect many people will have no issue with the narrative style but I think I would have preferred to read this through audiobook.

In brief, a great puzzle adventure which will command your attention.

The Twyford Cods is available in hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0984VDLWF/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

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January 18

Remember My Name – Sam Blake

If she’d turned off her phone, instead of listening in, perhaps no one would have died…

When Cressida Howard catches her entrepreneur husband playing away from home, she hires security expert Brioni O’Brien to get the evidence she needs for a speedy and financially rewarding divorce.

But what Brioni uncovers goes beyond simple infidelity. Because Laurence Howard is also in bed with some very dangerous people. Bribery and blackmail are the least of his worries as someone comes after the women in his life – someone who is out to destroy Laurence and his empire, whatever the cost.

And Cressida and her teenage daughter could soon be collateral damage, if she and Brioni don’t act fast.

My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to join this leg of the Remember My Name tour. I received a review copy from the publisher.

This was fun. I sat down with Remember My Name half expecting a domestic noir story about infidelity in suburbia. This was my fault – I focused on the words “playing away from home” in the blurb when the bigger clue was “security expert Brioni”. You see this story does begin with Cressida suspecting her husband of cheating on her but her husband is head of a large online platform and the couple are very successful, thank you very much.

Michael, the possibly cheating husband is spending long hours in the office and neglecting his wife and their teenage daughter. During a phone call Cressida hears Michael seemingly drinking with a woman she doesn’t know (Nina) and the pair don’t seem to be discussing business.

Cressida enlists the support of Brioni. Brioni will dig into Michael’s life and try to find evidence of infidelity so Cressida may have any evidence she needs to pursue a divorce should she need to.

Brioni finds who Nina is and her alarm bells also ring when she learns about Kate, manager of a company working within Michael’s organisation and someone Michael seems unnecessarily close to. He has been buying Cressida, Nina and Kate expensive gifts. Brioni has suspicious so she hacks the company computer system to dig deeper.

At this stage the story ramps up and Sam Blake treats readers to boardroom drama as Michael’s firm are trying to secure a huge merger with an American firm with a dubious reputation. There are attempts on the lives of some of the key characters, a body is discovered by one of Brioni’s friends and nobody seems able to trust anyone else. It’s gripping and really, really good fun to read.

My perceived domestic drama became a business/tech thriller with high stakes and near death incidents. Wonderful.

The story zips along at a great pace, characters are all fun to follow as each seem to be playing their own game within the plot and the twists and turns the plot took were hugely enjoyable. As I said earlier – this was fun.

Remember My Name is available in digital format, paperback and audiobook too. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0997PD57Y/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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January 17

Bitter Flowers – Gunnar Staalesen

Fresh from rehab, Norwegian PI Varg Veum faces his most complex investigation yet, when a man is found drowned, a young woman disappears, and the case of a missing child is revived. The classic Nordic Noir series continues…

PI Varg Veum has returned to duty following a stint in rehab, but his new composure and resolution are soon threatened when a challenging assignment arrives on his desk.

A man is found dead in an elite swimming pool and a young woman has gone missing. Most chillingly, Varg Veum is asked to investigate the ‘Camilla Case’: an eight-year-old cold case involving the disappearance of a little girl, who was never found.

As the threads of these apparently unrelated crimes come together, against the backdrop of a series of shocking environmental crimes, Varg Veum faces the most challenging, traumatic investigation of his career.

I am grateful to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to host a leg of the Bitter Flowers tour. I was provided with a review copy of the book but I read a purchased copy.

Bitter Flowers takes us back to Bergen for another meet up with Private Investigator, Varg Veum. I have now read quite a few of the stories in this series and enjoy Veum’s understated but dogged determination. He he is a sleuth that grinds out results rather than dashing from scene to scene so the cases he investigates feel smarter and multi layered forcing Veum to dig deep and uncover information to progress his case.

In Bitter Flowers we join the story as Varg is being taken to his new job by his physiotherapist. He has been in recovery and slowly returning to full health, the alcohol he had been reliant upon is out of his systems and he wants to keep it that way.

His new role is to run a security check on a luxurious residential property and make the house seem occupied while the owners are in Spain. His physiotherapist has found him this post and she is taking him to the property for the first time. Veum also feels she may be flirting with him, they have been close during his rehab but she made it clear she had a boyfriend.

On arrival, while Veum looks around the large house, he has the feeling they are not alone in the property. Veum isn’t wrong – a body is floating in the indoor swimming pool. He hauls him out but by the time he is out of the water his physiotherapist is gone and a man has called the police. Who made the call? Where did his friend go?

His pursuit of answers leads Veum into the heart of an environmental dispute. The family that own a plant which produces toxic waste are central to his investigation but the family have their own problems, campaigners are mounting angry protests at the chemicals escaping from their factory.

In another surprise twist there also seems to be a connection to a famous cold case. A young child disappeared from her family home in 1979. Over seven years later (this story is set in the late 1980s) the girl has never been found. Now Veum finds himself chatting to her (divorced) parents and is uncovering new evidence.

His interest in multiple cases draws unwelcome attention though and he may not realise it but Veum is putting a target on his back.

Bitter Flowers felt the most accessible of Gunnar Staalesen’s books and I flew through this story in just two days. Translation thanks to Don Bartlett – the hand behind the previous Varg Veum books I have read – who has delivered another beauty with some devastating moments of poetic tragedy.

Lots to love in this series and I think this is my favourite so far.

Bitter Flowers is published by Orenda Books and is available in digital, paperback and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B099P8KXZ6/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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January 5

Opal Country – Chris Hammer

Opals…

In the desolate outback town of Finnigans Gap, police struggle to maintain law and order. Thieves pillage opal mines, religious fanatics recruit vulnerable youngsters and billionaires do as they please.

Bodies…

Then an opal miner is found crucified and left to rot down his mine. Nothing about the miner’s death is straight-forward, not even who found the body. Homicide detective Ivan Lucic is sent to investigate, assisted by inexperienced young investigator Nell Buchanan.

But Finnigans Gap has already ended one police career and damaged others, and soon both officers face damning allegations and internal investigations. Have Ivan and Nell been set up, and if so, by whom?

Secrets…

As time runs out, their only chance at redemption is to find the killer. But the more they uncover, the more harrowing the mystery becomes, and a past long forgotten is thrown into scorching sunlight.

Because in Finnigans Gap, nothing stays buried for ever.

My thanks to the publishers for providing a review copy through Netgalley.

This book clocks in at over 500 pages and over the Christmas period I worked my way through the adventures of Ivan Lucic and Nell Buchanan as they investigated the murder and crucifiction of an opal miner – found down his own mineholding and left for an unknown period of time. In terms of memorable murders in crime fiction I cannot think of any other books which open with a crucifictions down a mine. This got my attention from the get-go.

And after grabbing my attention Chris Hammer had no plans to let it go. There’s loads going on in Opal Country and I really enjoyed this trip to the remote (and very hot) Australian wilderness. The story takes place in and around Finnegans Gap and our lead character Ivan Lucic is dropped into the town totally unprepared for the heat and isolation he encounters. He is paired up with local cop Nell Buchanan who provides the local knowledge and expertise which will make the pair a strong team.

But Ivan and Nell don’t click all the time and there are times when the partnership is strained, particularly when past events find their way from the city to Finnegans Gap and internal affairs come to pay Ivan a visit. This element of the story links to other Hammer stories but readers do not need to have read the earlier books (though I recommend you do as they are great). The reason for an internal affairs police officer visiting Ivan in this book is clearly explained to ensure you understand the position he has found himself in when events in Opal Country begin.

I found the background to Opal Country fascinating too. I knew little of opals and how they are mined but this is an integral part of the story building and Chris Hammer takes his readers through the problems the miners face making it an integral part of the story as he builds the backgrounds of the town and the key players in this thriller. Smoothly done and it ensured I was sufficiently up to speed when mining rivalries reared their heads.

While I was reading Opal Country I did refer to the book as “a beast”. There were times in the middle third of the story where I felt I was reading but not actually making any progress through the book (in terms of completion). But despite that faux sense of no-progress I was loving the story and there was lots of information to take in. It’s a big book but it’s a cracking story and I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to read this ahead of publication.

Chris Hammer has become one of the names I now look out for. Clever plotting, strong characters and memorable stories – I am already looking forward to the next one.

Opal Country is published on 6 January by Wildfire Books and you can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/opal-country/chris-hammer/9781472295880

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December 21

The Undiscovered Deaths of Grace McGill – C.S. Robertson

Death is not the end. For Grace McGill, it’s only the beginning. When people die alone and undiscovered, it’s her job to clean up what’s left behind – whether it’s clutter, bodily remains or dark secrets.

When an old man lies undetected in his flat for months, it seems an unremarkable life and an unnoticed death. But Grace knows that everyone has a story and that all deaths mean something more.

A stand-out novel with a unique narrative voice and an unguessable mystery, you are guaranteed to remember Grace McGill.

My thanks to the publishers who provided a review copy through Netgalley.

I don’t know where to start with this review. To be honest I just want to say:

Don’t read anything about this story.

Avoid all spoilers.

Just start reading and don’t stop.

Thank me later.

I’m not sure that will be quite enough. Even if I add *****Five Stars***** you would probably want a bit more. Okay I will do what I can but seriously, avoid spoilers.

Grace McGill lives in Glasgow. She works for herself and offers a specialist cleaning service – she cleans houses which have been neglected for prolonged periods of time and need to made habitable for a new resident. Often the reason the houses need a particularly deep clean is because the prevoius resident of the house has died in the house and nobody has noticed for a lengthy period of time. The Undiscovered Deaths part of the title suddenly clicks with the reader.

Needless to say the content of this story can be and may be upsetting for some readers. I don’t often include warnings when putting together a review but this time I feel it important to highlight that C.S. Robertson does not shy away from the work Grace McGill undertakes and the steps she may need to take to clean a home. It’s not detail which is included for shits and giggles, it forms an important part of understanding Grace and is dealt with factually and then the story proceeds.

Grace herself is a fascinating and unforgettable character. She lives alone (with a cat) and knows that people have trouble accepting what she does for a living. Even the cops who will contact her with new work can find her tricky to engage with. But Grace takes her work very seriously and wants to ensure she does right by the people she is cleaning up behind. She gets a quite unique insight into their lives and she is always respectful to their memory.

But Grace is now facing a strange dilemma. She has noticed something in one of the houses she is cleaning which does not seem to belong there. It is similar to an item she found at a previous house-clean. Curiosity leads Grace to a funeral and in turn she heads out of Glasgow to the Isle of Bute. Many years ago the island made the news and Grace has to consider the possibility a long-forgotten story may have a resolution in an untidy Glasgow flat.

I can’t say much more and I don’t want to say much more about the story. I DO want to say more about the writing which I found to be gobsmackingly good. C.S. Robertson tells a compassionate, haunting and unforgettable story and I loved reading about Grace. She dominates the story and shows a savvy inner strength when facing very challenging circumstances.

The Undiscovered Deaths of Grace McGill is out in January – I cannot wait for everyone to read this too.

The Undiscovered Deaths of Grace McGill is published by Hodder & Stoughton on 20 January 2022. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-undiscovered-deaths-of-grace-mcgill/c-s-robertson/9781529367645

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December 20

The Gift – Eleanor’s Story – RA Williams

The North Atlantic, 14 April 1912. Amid the chaos of the sinking Titanic, a young Eleanor Annenberg meets the eyes of a stranger and is immediately captivated. As the ship buckles around them, she follows him down into the hold and finds him leaning over an open sarcophagus, surrounded by mutilated bodies. She catches but a glimpse of what lies within before she’s sucked into a maelstrom of freezing brine and half-devoured corpses. Elle is pulled out of the water, but the stranger – and the secrets she stumbled upon – are lost. Unintentionally, however, he leaves her a gift; one so compelling that Elle embarks on a journey that pulls her into a world of ancient evils, vicious hunters and human prey to find the man who saved her that fateful night. From trench warfare at Cape Helles in 1915 to a shipwreck in the tropical shallows off the Honduran coast, from a lost mine beneath the towering Externsteine in a Germany on the verge of war to the gothic crypts of Highgate Cemetery in London, Elle gets closer to a truth she has sought for most of her life. But at what cost? Gifts, after all, are seldom free.

I received a reveiew copy from the publishers. I would also like to thank Anne Cater at Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to host this leg of the blog tour for The Gift.

If The Gift was a movie (oh what a movie it would make) then it would absolutely be crying out for some between scene interludes where a series of dots track the progress of the story location across a map of the world. It begins on board the Titanic but events will see us in the trenches of Gallipoli during WW1, to lecture halls in the USA and then out in the ocean around the carribean. It’s a story which crosses continents and wherever the adventures take us there is always the threat of an unknown evil lurking in the background.

Onboard the Titanic during her maiden fateful voyage we meet Elle, a feisty 17 year old who is travelling with her parents. She is fending off unwelcome attentions of bankers and businessmen when the ship strikes the iceberg. But below decks one of the crew has discovered a horror in one of the holds, before alarm can be raised he is captivated by the sight of something watching him from the darkness, he will never see the light again.

As the alarm on the ship is raised Elle is below decks – she hears the shouts of alarm but not of the disaster which looms for Titanic, for a much more pressing danger below decks. There are names shouted, warnings, shotguns are discharged and one name – Balthazar stands out in the chaos.

It’s a dark, eerie and exciting opening to this story and the sinister, gothic danger continues. RA Williams has done a terrific job of teasing chills and keeping the reader’s attention. Action quickly switches from Titanic lifeboats to trench warfare at Gallipoli. This time we see a promoted soldier in no mans land, crawling through carnage to bring his own terror to the enemy as he hunts down snipers and enemy soldiers ensuring his own platoon stay safe. It is while he hunts among the bodies of the fallen that a “devil” is spotted – a creature which could not be explained but one that someone else may have seen.

The scenes in the trenches were particularly engaging. I loved this part of the story and the thinly veiled contempt which is shown to the officers who secure themselves safely away from the action is terrifically scripted.

Through the story is a constant threat of an undead evil. Mayan gods are mentioned, bats, ressurection and powerful sentinels. There is so much detail given about these mysterious forces that you will become captivated by the story which unfolds.

Elle grows into Eleanor and she is a successful academic. People travel many hundreds of miles to hear her speak about mysterious carvings, messages from history which crop up in new places around the world seemingly suggesting an old tale has spanned the globe when travel was extremely limited. The common theme – A Gift. While a gift would seem to be a positive story in these tales it really does not have a good association, fear and death seem more common companions.

The Gift comes as a fast flowing adventure tale with lashings of detail of evil forces. I loved it.

The Gift is published by Whitefox Publishing and is available in hardback. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-gift-book-1-eleanor/ra-williams/9781913532956

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December 15

Cover Reveal: Rockdown in Lockdown – Adam Maxwell

I don’t often do cover reveals but the Kilchester books by Adam Maxwell are firm favourites in the Grab household and I am extremely excited to be able to join the blogger reveal of the cover of the latest title:

Rockdown in Lockdown

The cure for all your Covid blues…

The Blurb

Katie – other characters can be found lurking on blog posts shared today by some of my fellow bloggers.

Violet Winters was a master criminal. A one-woman crimewave. Until lockdown happened. Now she’s stuck in the house catching up on box sets and ordering crap off the internet.

And then she finds out about The Lakehouse. A former rehab facility, the residents have been thrown out and replaced with a roll-call of some of the most dangerously stupid celebrities in this hemisphere all indulging in a torrent of excess while the rest of the world cowers in their beds.

And that doesn’t sit well with Violet.

At the centre of the The Lakehouse is a vault and inside… the combined riches of every one of these over-privileged idiots. Violet hatches a cunning plan to pull off an audacious robbery and begins by planting a man on the inside.

But when does anything ever go to plan?

With a social media starlet hell-bent on revealing Violet’s identity to her millions of followers and a deranged MMA fighter on their trail things rapidly go from bad to worse.

If she can pull off the world’s only socially-distanced heist, it will be the stuff of legend.

If she can’t she might very well end up floating face-down in the lake.

Rockdown in Lockdown is the latest book in the Kilchester series. It mixes high-octane heist shenanigans with sharp, surreal wit.

The Giveaway

Rockdown in Lockdown will be published on the 20th January 2022 and the author is giving away signed copies of the hardback edition (shipping anywhere in the world included). To enter all you need to do is visit Adam’s website https://www.adammaxwell.com/giveaways/rockdown-in-lockdown/ and everyone who enters will receive a free Kindle copy of the Kilchester Christmas short story ‘Come On Steal The Noise’.

The Author

Crime writer. Idiot. Genius. Liar. Adam Maxwell is at least three of these things.

Adam lives in the wilds of Northumberland with his wife, daughter and an increasingly irritated cat. If you wave to him there is every chance he will consider waving back.

Rockdown in Lockdown is available to pre-order now as an ebook, with real-book pre-orders arriving any minute!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09N4WT1TL

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December 12

The Christmas Murder Game – A.K. Benedict

Twelve clues. Twelve keys. Twelve days of Christmas. But who will survive until Twelfth Night?

Lily Armitage never intended to return to Endgame House – the grand family home where her mother died twenty-one Christmases ago. Until she receives a letter from her aunt, asking her to return to take part in an annual tradition: the Christmas Game.

The challenge? Solve twelve clues, to find twelve keys. The prize? The deeds to the manor house. Lily has no desire to win the house. But her aunt makes one more promise: The clues will also reveal who really killed Lily’s mother all those years ago.

So, for the twelve days of Christmas, Lily must stay at Endgame House with her estranged cousins and unravel the riddles that hold the key not just to the family home, but to its darkest secrets. However, it soon becomes clear that her cousins all have their own reasons for wanting to win the house – and not all of them are playing fair.

As a snowstorm cuts them off from the village, the game turns deadly. Soon Lily realises that she is no longer fighting for an inheritance, but for her life. This Christmas is to die for… let the game begin.

My thanks to Eleanor Stammeijer at Bonnier Books for my review copy.

If you are thinking of gifting a book to someone this festive period and you know they are a fan of classic crime, locked room mysteries or love a story with some puzzles to work on as the story unfolds then AK Benedict’s The Christmas Murder Game is the book you should be wrapping for that person. If you are also a fan of those things then I would recommend getting a second copy for yourself. This one is FUN.

Okay maybe it isn’t fun for the victims in the story, all members of the same family who have been called to the family home, Endgame House, after the death of the family matriach. In years gone by all the children in the family would take part in the Christmas Game where clues were provided and had to be solved with presents at stake. Lily loved the games and knew Endgame House so well that she could easily solve the clues, however, she didn’t enjoy the tempers from some of the family members who fared less well so she shrunk into the background and let others claim the prizes.

Years earlier Lily vowed never to return to Endgame House after her mother died, leaving Lily to fend for herself at far too young an age. But it was her aunt’s dying wish that all the family (Lily included) return to Endgame House to pay the Christmas Game one last time as her death meant someone had to win the Game to win Endgame House. With a huge ancestral home going to the winner the former hotel is filled with squabbling kin who all want to best the other.

There will be daily clues and the chance to win keys. The correct key will open the door to a secret room hidden within Endgame House and for the winner the whole house. Lawyers have been consulted and the competition will be legally binding but only the family and a housekeeper will be resident during the twelve days of Christmas while the game plays out. The fact the guests all arrive as a heavy blizzard descends means they will all be trapped within Endgame House irrespective of how the rules were devised. Nobody can get in, nobody can get out so when one of their number is found dead there is only one possible truth – there is a killer in their midst who will stop at nothing to win the Christmas Game and take ownership of Endgame House.

AK Benedict has worked wonders with this story. It’s a Christie-esk murder tale. It’s Doctor Who’s Robots of Death (without the robots) and it’s a puzzle fan’s dream as there are anagram challenges and christmas books to identify which the author has peppered through each “day of Christmas”. I will confess to doing badly at those challenges but I had lots of fun trying (stress trying) to do well!

Lily shines through this story and she drives the narration. There are unexplained and unusual incidents, creepy noises from empty parts of the house and a murderer in their midst but Lily also has to contend with a return to the place of her mother’s death and that is hitting much harder than she had expected. Lily is beautifully written and I got much more invested into her plight than I ever did with the procession of characters Dame Agatha tripped out in her English Country Manor tales.

The Christmas Murder Game has the feel of a classic crime thriller but is very much a modern tale – when a Playstation was mentioned at one point it made me realise this wasn’t a book written in the Golden Age of crime fiction though I had that sepia tinted impression a number of times.

This is the perfect time of year to be picking up this book but don’t take too long and risk spoilers, the fun really is in not knowing where this story will take you. Charming with some nasty murders – great fun!

The Christmas Murder Game is published by Bonnier Zaffre and is available in hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-christmas-murder-game/alexandra-benedict/9781838775384

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