16th May 2019 – White Tulip Candles

Conviction by Denise Mina – Book Review

16th May 2019 lel2403

PUBLISHERS BLURB

A twisting, darkly comic, thrill-a-minute ride across Europe. If you loved Killing Eve, you’ll devour Conviction’ Erin Kelly

‘Denise Mina brilliantly manages to be funny, heart-wrenching, gut-punching and addictive all at once: a fabulous, captivating novel’ Nicci French

From ‘the woman who may be Britain’s finest living crime novelist’ (Daily Telegraph), Conviction stars a strong female protagonist who is obsessed by true crime podcasts and decides, one day, to investigate one of the unsolved crimes herself.

It’s just a normal morning for Anna McDonald. Gym kits, packed lunches, getting everyone up and ready. Until she opens the front door to her best friend, Estelle. Anna turns to see her own husband at the top of the stairs, suitcase in hand. They’re leaving together and they’re taking Anna’s two daughters with them.

Left alone in the big, dark house, Anna can’t think, she can’t take it in. With her safe, predictable world shattered, she distracts herself with a story: a true-crime podcast. There’s a sunken yacht in the Mediterranean, multiple murders and a hint of power and corruption. Then Anna realises she knew one of the victims in another life. She is convinced she knows what happened. Her past, so carefully hidden until now, will no longer stay silent.

This is a murder she can’t ignore, and she throws herself into investigating the case. But little does she know, her past and present lives are about to collide, sending everything she has worked so hard to achieve into freefall.

Conviction is the compelling and unique new thriller from multiple award-winner and author of THE LONG DROP, Denise Mina.

MY REVIEW

This is a wonderful twisty tale about Anna McDonald, she had a past life that she’s kept secret from her lawyer husband. One morning, listening to a podcast she hears a name she knows…Leon!

He has died on a yacht, purportedly by explosives planted by chef, Amila.

Her life then takes a miserable turn as her husband Hamish leaves her, taking her two daughters with him.

To keep herself occupied she decides to look into Leon’s death, Alison with the troubled Fin….

The story travels to Italy and France and we find out the truth of Anna’s past and she is now in danger….there are some strong characters, from hired assassins to the incredibly wealthy to keep this crime thriller tearing along at breakneck speed. It has humour and heartbreak and is an incredibly entertaining read.

I would like to thank the Pigeonhole and the author for the opportunity to read this book for free and this is my honest and unbiased review

Book reviews, Cosy mystery

Rough and Deadly by Paula Williams – Book Review

16th May 201915th May 2019 lel2403

PUBLISHERS BLURB

Everyone knows Abe Compton’s Headbender cider is as rough as a cider can get. But is it deadly?

When self-styled ‘lady of the manor’, Margot Duckett-Trimble, announces she wouldn’t be seen dead drinking the stuff, who could have foreseen that, only a few days later, she’d be found, face down, in a vat of it?

Kat Latcham’s no stranger to murder. Indeed, the once ‘sleepy’ Somerset village of Much Winchmoor is fast gaining a reputation as the murder capital of the West Country and is ‘as sleepy as a kid on Christmas Eve’ when it’s discovered there’s a murderer running loose in the community again.

Kat has known Abe all her life, and she is sure that, although he had motive, he didn’t kill Margot. But as she investigates, the murderer strikes again. And the closer Kat gets to finding out who the real killer is, the closer to danger she becomes.

This second Much Winchmoor mystery is once again spiked with humour and sprinkled with romance – plus a cast of colourful characters, including a manic little dog called Prescott whose bite is definitely worse than his bark.

MY REVIEW

Kat (Katie Latcham) is back in the village after her life in Bristol didn’t work out as she’d hoped.

She’s a freelance journalist and an amateur ‘Miss Marple’…as she had helped catch a murderer before…

In this tale, A local, rather snooty woman is found dead in a vat of cider after a disagreement with the brewer, Abe and he is of course the number one suspect, but Kat intends to use her skills to clear his name….just who is responsible ?

This is a fun, cosy-mystery with great characters, humour, romance and of course the odd murder. A thoroughly entertaining read.

Thank you to Rachel’s Random Resources for the opportunity to participate in this blog tour and for the promotional materials and a free copy of the ebook. This is my honest, unbiased review.

Purchase Link

https://mybook.to/roughanddeadly

Author Bio –

Paula Williams is living her dream. She’s written all her life – her earliest efforts involved blackmailing her unfortunate younger brothers into appearing in her plays and pageants. But it’s only in recent years that she discovered to her surprise that people with better judgement than her brothers actually liked what she wrote and were prepared to pay her for it.

Now, she writes every day in a lovely, book-lined study in her home in Somerset, where she lives with her husband and a handsome but not always obedient rescue Dalmatian called Duke. She started out writing fiction for women’s magazines (and still does) but has recently branched out into longer fiction. She also writes a monthly column, Ideas Store, for the writers’ magazines, Writers’ Forum.

But, as with the best of dreams, she worries that one day she’s going to wake up and find she still has to bully her brothers into reading ‘the play what she wrote’.

Social Media Links –

Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/paula.williams.author

Blog. paulawilliamswriter.wordpress.com

Twitter. @paulawilliams44

Website. paulawilliamswriter.co.uk

Book reviews, Psychlogical thriller

Blood List by Ali Carter – Book Review

16th May 201915th May 2019 lel2403

PUBLISHERS BLURB

Think the Lake District is a lovely place to visit? Think again. A Psychological & Chilling Thriller set in and around the fictional town of Kirkdale in Cumbria. One by one the young women of Kirkdale are being found grotesquely murdered, with no clues as to why.

Lying between the great lake Kirkwater and the base of Kirkby Pike, although beautiful, Kirkdale isn’t exactly the most exciting place on the planet. But after young reporter Jenny Flood moves into the relaxed Cumbrian town, it sets a catalogue of events in motion that brings this comfortable community to its knees.

When middle aged G.P. Charlotte Peterson discovers Jenny has followed her from Bradenthorpe, six years after a fling with her philandering doctor husband Miles, it stirs deeply buried mental health issues from her youth. In the run up to the Kirkdale country show, the arrival of this third and most recent adversary triggers the already edgy and emotionally scarred Charlotte into finally stepping over the edge. Her longing to destroy Jenny has been on a slow and very resentful burn for years, now the reality of achieving that presents itself as a genuine possibility.

Can journalist Andrew Gale protect new colleague Jenny, girlfriend Gina and her best friend Molly from the psychotic GP’s insane agenda? How will sarcastic ex Met. Officer Harry Longbridge deal with Andrew’s continued interference?

Then there’s the unexpected arrival of an American mystery woman. And just who is on the Blood List?

MY REVIEW

Blood List is the debut thriller by Ali Carter….and what a debut!

Charlotte Peterson is a GP, so is her errant husband, Miles….she is at the end of her tether with his constant philandering…the pressure is clearly affecting her mental health.

Andrew works at the local paper….and when checking on his colleague, he finds her body with a horrific wound…

There’s also Jenny, new to the area also working at the paper, she had an affair with Miles a few years earlier…..her brother, Jason is schizophrenic and reducing his meds and hearing voices….

Molly, has prescient visions and tells friends Andrew and Gina about them…can she see who the murderer is?

Other bodies turn up with the same wound….who is murdering these women?

There are many characters and secrets is this wonderfully original thriller with its range of characters from quirky to downright psychotic….incredibly tense and while you do know who the killer is quite early….it still keeps you on tenterhooks as to who will survive….the final chapters are gasp inducing….Brilliant

Thank you to Anne Cater and Random Things Tours for the opportunity to participate in this blog tour and for the promotional materials and a free copy of the book in exchange for my honest, unbiased review.

You can buy a copy here (click on the image)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Ali Carter was born in Surrey in 1958 and moved to East Anglia in 2003, settling just outside King’s Lynn 4 years later where she currently lives with her husband, 5 dogs and 6 cats. (Yes she knows the dog/cat thing is a bit mad!)

She originally found some success in writing poetry in the 80’s and 90’s, but inspiration for her debut novel ‘Blood List’ came after the Shipman case hit the headlines – a few years later the dark and deeply psychotic G.P. ‘Charlotte’ was born. The full story took its time in completion however as there was a very long period of writer’s block about three quarters of the way through the book. It was an author friend who finally persuaded her to pull it out of the laptop and finish it, for which she will be eternally grateful. At the time of writing, a sequel is in its infancy which she sincerely hopes won’t take another 12 years to come to fruition!

Ali is also a proud mum to two grown up sons, and an extra proud nanny to her adorable granddaughter, although at only 5 she won’t be reading ‘Blood List’ anytime soon!

She hopes you will enjoy her first long awaited thriller, and you can follow Ali on Twitter @alicrimewriter and on her website at alicarterauthor.com

Blood List by Ali Carter