#Blogtour The 12 Murders of Christmas by Sarah Dunnakey

It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour The 12 Murders of Christmas by Sarah Dunnakey.

About the Author

When she's not writing fiction, Sarah writes and verifies questions and answers for a variety of TV quiz shows including Mastermind, University Challenge and Pointless. She has an honours degree in History and has previously worked as a librarian, an education officer in a Victorian cemetery and an oral history interviewer.

Sarah has won or been shortlisted in several short story competitions and her work has been published in anthologies and broadcast on Radio 4. She won a Northern Writer's Award, from New Writing North for her debut novel The Companion, and the NWA Arvon Award in 2019. She lives in West Yorkshire on the edge of the Pennine Moors. Follow @SarahDeeWrites on X

About the book

12 murderous mysteries to read. 19 perplexing puzzles to solve. 1 mystifying murder to crack…

Mastermind Puzzlemaster Sarah Dunnakey cordially invites you to crack the code of who killed Edward Luddenham. It’s the first anniversary of the mysterious death of Edward Luddenham, found dead at his home on the Yorkshire moors one frosty Christmas Eve.

Now twelve people gather at his manor house for the reading of the Will. Each has their own motivations for coming: curiosity, duty, unrequited love, desperation, greed. They have been instructed to bring a “festive mystery story” to share. But all you need is a pencil.

Safe from the biting cold and the relentless snowfall outside, settle in with your favourite tipple in hand, as the storytelling begins. Though you’ll need to keep your wits about you – for among the guests is Edward’s killer… Can you work out the puzzles and unmask the murderer before they strike again?

Review

In perhaps slight echoes of certain stories written by Christie, where people and their pasts are brought together to expose their secrets, in this case it is to solve the murder of Edward Luddenham, the story becomes a mystery hidden in a box full of puzzles. Each guest asked to present their own tale of murder, mayhem or mystery. Some of the stories certainly reveal a lot about the individual characters.

Each story becomes a crime scenario or a mystery to be solved by the narrator or the intent listeners. The question is where will the stories lead those looking for the answers about Luddenham. What is the point of them sharing at all? Unless of course the answer to the ultimate question is hidden in plain sight.

It's a wonderful mixture of old meets new. This homage to Christie invites readers to help solve puzzles in order to solve the crime. Such fun, and a great read - in fact it's the perfect festive gift for a fellow reader. I highly recommend it, there is something for everyone in it. Hopefully there will be more.

Buy The 12 Murders of Christmas at Amazon uk or go to Goodreads for other retailer. Publisher ‏: ‎Avon; pub date 7 Nov. 2024. Buy at Amazon com.

#Blogtour I Will Find The Key by Alex Ahndoril

A brilliant murder mystery from Alex Ahndoril, the new pseudonym for the No.1 international bestselling author, Lars Kepler.

It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour I Will Find The Key by Alex Ahndoril.

About the Author

Alex Ahndoril is pseudonym of the best-selling Swedish crime author Lars Kepler

About the book

A man walks into a private investigator's office, holds up a photograph and says: 'I want you to find out if I killed this man.'

Private investigator Julia Stark receives an unannounced visit at the office. The man at the door is one of the owners of a successful family business. The day before, he was present at a board meeting and dinner at his estate in the northwestern part of Sweden. The following morning, he finds a photograph in his phone of a bloody man, tied up with a bag over his head.

Due to alcohol-related amnesia, the man has no idea where the picture comes from and wants to hire Stark Detective Agency to clear his name before the police get involved. Julia asks her ex-husband Sidney Mendelson to take time off from the City Police and assist her in the investigation. There is still a glimmer of hope left in Julia that this might be her chance to win him back.

Welcomed as guests at the opulent estate, Julia and Sidney begin to search for the truth while dining and socializing with each of the family members that could theoretically be involved in the murder. She's solved every mystery. But none like this . . .

Review

With pseudonyms I think it is best to put any prior knowledge of the author behind the pseudonym and their work to the far back of your mind. The whole point is being able to approach writing and/or genres without being bogged down with the expectation of previous successes or failures. Seeing and experiencing them and their work like a tabula rasa. Saying that I'd completely forgotten this is Lars Kepler.

I enjoyed the way the setting stepped away from the easy grasp and availability of modern sleuthing and instead took the reader back to old school basics, a tinge of Christie and Doyle I think. An old mansion and playing the part with cocktails and the proper etiquette for dinner.

I must admit there isn't much clarity on how Julia arrives at a lot of her insights and often appears to be taking part in her own version of Tommy and Tuppence - the post-divorce era of course. I can imagine this being highly entertaining in a screen version.

Does the author step away from preconceived notions - absolutely. In fact let's see more from Ahndoril. Is this the first of many crime encounters and mysteries for the Stark Detective Agency? Will we find out more about what makes Julia and Sid tick, especially as an ex-couple and as a newly formed work team. I'm looking forward to finding out.

Buy I Will Find The Key at Amazon Uk  or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher ‏: ‎Zaffre; pub date 7 Nov. 2024. Buy at Amazon com.

#Blogtour Fall of Ruin and Wrath by Jennifer L. Armentrout

It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour Fall of Ruin and Wrath (Awakening #1) by Jennifer L. Armentrout.

About the Author

Jennifer L. Armentrout is a No. 1 New York Times and international bestselling author and lives in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. When she’s not hard at work writing, she spends her time reading, watching bad zombie movies, pretending to write and hanging out with her husband and her small menagerie. This includes her Border Collie, Artemis, and her Border Jack, Apollo. Also six judgmental alpacas, two rude goats and five fluffy sheep.

In early 2015, Jennifer was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a group of rare genetic disorders that involve a breakdown and death of cells in the retina, eventually resulting, among other complications, in vision loss. Since this diagnosis, educating people on the varying degrees of blindness has become another passion for her – right alongside writing, which she plans to do for as long as she can. Jennifer has been nominated for and won numerous awards for her young adult and adult fiction.

About the book

She lives by her intuition. He feeds on her pleasure.

Long ago, the world was destroyed by gods. Only nine cities were spared. Separated by vast wilderness teeming with monsters and unimaginable dangers, each city is now ruled by a guardian―royalty who feed on mortal pleasure.

Born with an intuition that never fails, Calista knows her talents are of great value to the power-hungry of the world, so she lives hidden as a courtesan of the Baron of Archwood. In exchange for his protection, she grants him information.

When her intuition leads her to save a traveling prince in dire trouble, the voice inside her blazes with warning―and promise. Today he’ll bring her joy. One day he'll be her doom.

When the Baron takes an interest in the traveling prince and the prince takes an interest in Calista, she becomes the prince’s temporary companion. But the city simmers with rebellion, and with knights and monsters at her city gates and a hungry prince in her bed, intuition may not be enough to keep her safe.

Calista must follow her intuition to safety or follow her heart to her downfall.

Review

Calista distributes her talent, her intuitions and what she can 'see' in a way that can be described as constructive to some and perhaps less hurtful to others. Sometimes it's better not to tell the person asking everything she knows is coming. In a way Calista also does this to herself. She knows what the future holds for herself, but is perhaps unwilling to fall into the trap of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

There couldn't be a better way to describe her situationship with Thorne. Is it a case of replacing one arrangement of necessity for another, and both are have a relationship core of lack of power and definitely a level of inequality.

I'm not sure whether this book declares the allegiance of Awakening very clearly. It is sometimes high-fantasy, romance and then romantacy. It is a mixture that doesn't allow for a clear definition and makes it feel a bit like a unreliable narrator who leans towards a long nip of moonshine now and again, whilst conjuring up moments of reckless and breathless abandonment. Then filtered into the story is the intricate world and character building - there are plenty of speculations where certain arcs could be heading, can't wait - which tends to speak more to high fantasy. Instead of pick a lane, I'm like buckle up and let's see where this is headed.

This author always has a nod to the early days of urban supernatural fantasy flair, and yet also manages to deliver to newer sub-genre readers that are hungry for sustenance. Not an easy task, probably falls under many a critical eye, but a great read nevertheless. Looking forward to reading where this heads next.

Buy Fall of Ruin and Wrath at Amazon uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher ‏: ‎Tor; pub date 14 Sept. 2023. Buy at Amazon com.

#Blogtour Gone With the Penguins by Hazel Prior

It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour Gone With The Penguins by Hazel Prior.

'From the No.1 bestselling author of Away with the Penguins comes the heart-warming and charming final chapter of Veronica McCreedy's story.'

About the Author

Hazel Prior lives on Exmoor with her husband and a huge ginger cat. As well as writing, she works as a freelance harpist. 

Hazel is the author of Ellie and the Harp-Maker, the #1 ebook and audiobook bestseller Away with the Penguins and its follow-up, Call of the Penguins. Gone with the Penguins is her fifth novel. Follow @HazelPriorBooks on X

About the book

"Emperor penguins defy the odds, and I shall too.” - Still fiery and feisty at eighty-seven, Veronica McCreedy, the very first Penguin Ambassador, is determined to prove that nothing is impossible when you put your mind to it.

Eileen, Veronica’s ever-patient assistant, is content taking care of other people. But when a new adventure calls, it makes her question everything...

Ten-year-old, penguin-obsessed Daisy can’t wait to be reunited with Mrs McCreedy in her huge house by the sea for the school holidays.

When they discover that the local Sea Life Centre is under threat, the unlikely trio are determined to save it and the penguins that live there.

Inspired by the penguins and fuelled by Darjeeling tea and finger sandwiches, they embark on an epic fundraising walk. But soon, their mission becomes so much more and it might just lead each of them to a new beginning...

Review

As I often do with books, I pondered the most on the ending, perhaps because it says the most about this book and the trilogy. There is a clear separation of threads, how they connect and where the disconnect is. You see the human factor, the animal's view - albeit through the eyes of the character and writer, and the environment. I think it's important to note that the environments can also be viewed as two and then again as a third entity when envisioned as a result of current and impending changes.

It's not only a story about conservation, about sustaining the planet for all living species - it's also one about human hierarchy and where society places us in the rankings. Veronica's journey is an example of ageism and being the forgotten group, and how the majority of society is only too happy to appease and quieten older generations. At some level their lack of importance is mirrored in the way the world is only too happy to ignore the Pip's and their environment.

It's a superbly poignant story that doesn't preach or try to whack the reader around the head with truths, facts and realities. It invites you to take a seat on a sweet, often funny and sometimes tongue-in-cheek ride, perhaps with the hope that you will take away the fun stuff and the important messages within.

Buy Gone With the Penguins at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Penguin; pub date 7th November 2024 | Paperback Original | £9.99. Buy at Amazon com.

#Blogtour Someone to Blame by J.J. Green

It's my turn on the Blogtour Someone to Blame by J.J. Green.

About the Author

J. J. Green is an Irish writer who hails from Donegal and lives in Derry. She writes both fiction and non-fiction. Her non-fiction work is published as political essays focusing on economic and environmental injustice. Her first novel, The Last Good Summer, was published in February 2023. Someone To Blame is her second novel. Follow @JJGreenwriter on X

About the book

Shay Dunne is a poison pen. Not that she wants to be one. But a recent tragedy in her life has left her hell-bent on dishing out some punishment to the two people she blames. Sending them a letter containing a vague accusation will do the trick.

Only the letters set in motion a series of unintended consequences, and Shay soon discovers that in the close-knit Irish village she calls home, a community still reeling from Covid, there are sinister secrets everywhere.

Review

Buried beneath what could be perceived as tale of betrayal, deceit and mistrust that is the surface of a hidden layer of chaos, is perhaps just a little bit more when you peel back the layers. The title speaks of blame, which is often an emotion that goes hand-in-hand with grief. The need to place it at any door, except our own. Blame means the sound of guilt is less noisy.

Shay is struggling with anger and grief. A recent tragedy awakens a spontaneous need to cause pain and disruption to those she feels are responsible for said tragedy. How better than to cast accusations and cause worry, whilst remaining hidden from view.

Her small actions set a series of counteractions in motion, which lead to castles built upon lies crumbling and people getting their own ideas on how to get revenge - with the finger of blame pointed straight in Shay's direction.

It's a story of regret, loss and consequences. Perhaps most poignant is the way the plot mirrors human behaviour no matter the era, people or place. We all have something to hide, which we are most likely to think of when accused, even when said accusation is a mere guess.

Buy Someone to Blame at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher ‏: ‎The Book Guild Ltd; pub date 28 Oct. 2024. Buy at Amazon com.

#Blogtour Karla's Choice by Nick Harkaway

It's a absolute pleasure to take part in the Blogtour Karla's Choice by Nick Harkaway.

'A gripping new novel set in the universe of John le Carré's most iconic spy, George Smiley, written by le Carré’s son, the acclaimed novelist Nick Harkaway.'

About the Author

Nick Harkaway is the author of eight novels: The Gone-Away World, Angelmaker, Tigerman,  Gnomon, The Price You Pay (as Aidan Truhen), Seven Demons (as Aidan Truhen), Titanium Noir and Karla’s Choice. He has variously been described as "JG Ballard's geeky younger brother" and "William Makepeace Thackeray on acid" and compared to Martin Amis, Thomas Pynchon and Haruki Murakami. 

Harkaway's real name is Nicholas Cornwell and he is the fourth son of the David Cornwell (who wrote as John le Carré) and his second wife Jane Cornwell. In 2021, after the death of John le Carré, Harkaway took the writer's role in bringing the final unpublished le Carré novel, Silverview, to publication. He said then that the point of the exercise was that he be as invisible as possible. In 2022 he was called upon to do the final work on A Private Spy, the collected edition of his father's letters, after his older brother Tim Cornwell, who was editing the work, sadly died. He lives in London with Clare and their two children, and a very needy dog. Visit nickharkaway.com

John le Carré was born in 1931. For six decades, he wrote novels that came to define our age. The son of a confidence trickster, he spent his childhood between boarding school and the London underworld. At sixteen he found refuge at the University of Bern, then later at Oxford. A spell of teaching at Eton led him to a short career in British Intelligence (MI5 and MI6). 

He published his debut novel, Call for the Dead, in 1961 while still a secret servant. His third novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, secured him a worldwide reputation, which was consolidated by the acclaim for his trilogy, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People. At the end of the Cold War, le Carré widened his scope to explore an international landscape including the arms trade and the War on Terror. His  memoir, The Pigeon Tunnel, was published in 2016 and the last George Smiley novel, A Legacy of Spies, appeared in 2017. He died on 12 December 2020. His posthumous novel, Silverview, was published in 2021.

About the book

Set in the missing decade between two iconic instalments in the Smiley saga, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Karla’s Choice marks a momentous return to the world of spy fiction’s greatest writer as the legacy passes from father to son.

It is spring in 1963 and George Smiley has left the Circus. With the wreckage of the West's spy war with the Soviets strewn across Europe, he has eyes only on a more peaceful life. And indeed, with his marriage more secure than ever, there is a rumour in Whitehall – unconfirmed and a little scandalous – that George Smiley might almost be happy.

But Control has other plans. A Russian agent has defected in the most unusual of circumstances, and the man he was sent to kill in London is nowhere to be found. Smiley reluctantly agrees to one last simple task: interview Susanna, a Hungarian émigré and employee of the missing man, and sniff out a lead. But in his absence the shadows of Moscow have lengthened. Smiley will soon find himself entangled in a perilous mystery that will define the battles to come, and strike at the heart of his greatest enemy…

Review

Nostalgia is what I felt reading this - it's quite uncanny how the author hits the nail on the head from a le Carré style perspective, and yet simultaneously manages to infuse their own voice into the story. It's a little bit like stepping back into time, old school spydom and worldbuilding. It's less about tempo and more about the plot, setting and descriptive text becoming the dialogue enveloping the actual dialogue. The dialogue itself is pithy, sharp, a weapon of destruction when wielded with intent.

Pitting, plotting and battles of the minds. The Cold War that many have forgotten, even more have no real concept of, and of course that includes the machination of the spy networks that used to have a different set of rules.

I think its a wonderful hook to draw new readers (and the original Smiley readers) back into this world. In particular with a breath of fresh air that evokes memories of old, whilst giving a variety of homages to the way the main character has been portrayed, redeveloped and experienced.

In an era where Herron is pulling readers and viewers with the kind of spydom le Carré's world was and is, I welcome and open the door to the old friend that left such a lasting imprint in the first place. It's a worthy accolade, let's have some more.

Buy Karla's Choice at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Viking Books | Hardback | pub date 24.10.2024 | £22.00. Buy at Amazon com.

#Blogtour The Sunny Side of the House by David G. Bailey

It's my turn on the Blogtour The Sunny Side of the House: When Life Gives You Strawberries – Memories of a Fenland Boy by David G. Bailey.

About the Author

David G. Bailey's debut publication in 2021 was Seventeen, a football fantasy adventure novel aimed at and beyond young adults. Them Roper Girls (2022) returned to a world more recognisably our own, tracing in their own voices the lives of four sisters over more than sixty years from their 1950s childhood. 

A husband of a Roper sister takes centre stage in Them Feltwell Boys (2023). With the same gritty realism and sometimes dark humour found in its predecessor, this follows Ray Roden's crude attempts at teenage love in counterpoint to his cynical womanising as an adult. The Sunny Side of the House (2024) is a first venture into non-fiction in another projected series, When Life Gives You Strawberries - Memories of a Fenland Boy. The origin story of Seventeen appears within the clear-eyed narrative of a 1960s boyhood in East Anglia, where both David's contemporary novels are partly set. He currently lives in the Midlands.

To read more of and about David's work, including a quarterly newsletter and new content daily comprising extracts from diaries and other writing over more than fifty years, visit his website davidgbailey.com. Visit David Bailey on @dgbaileywriter on X,  @davidgbaileywriter on Instagram

About the book

You can’t choose your mum and dad, even when they choose you.

In my early teens I had a taste for horror comics. In one strip I read of a handsome young couple at last alone in their honeymoon suite. He is crisply suited, clean-cut. She, lovely in her wedding finery, offers him the chance to watch her disrobe.

The bride is not shy. She reveals herself, frame by frame, to be a hideous crone gloating at having tricked her new husband. He is unfazed, setting her to screaming as he removes his own head to stow it, grinning still, under his arm. Years later, when I thought of writing a memoir or fictionalised account of my parents’ marriage, the title I toyed with was ‘The Hag and the Head’.

If this gripping narration of a 1960s Fenland boyhood sometimes reads like fiction, the detailed evocation of characters and events, by turns humorous and traumatic, anchors it in remembered facts. The author does not soft-pedal the dysfunction at the core of a wide, supportive family in which the boy faces adult challenges, including jarring discoveries about his parents’ past and wartime history.

Review

I often feel in memoirs that brevity is the gatekeeper to the core emotions connected with memories. A coping mechanism that has become a life companion, and indeed one that is hard to detach yourself from. Behind the brevity - the gate - lies a certain level of disconnect or disassociation, which is the key to said gate. Everything seen through the coping mechanism and retold for self and scores more - it becomes a way of life.

That was my experience when reading, perhaps equally you recognise elements of self in the way you retell things or the way actions and words are framed for strangers ears or eyes. It's what resonated with me, and that in itself is testament, because any resonance with words, story, memoir is better than none at all.

I wonder also how often this picture of dysfunction that functions with often invisible threads of a greater socially, economic and familial expected connections, is actually the truth for the majority of us. Life, in general, isn't a picket fence adventure with a delightfully inspiring family and bountiful chapters of joy and peace. It's usually a roller coaster ride of trauma, pain and realisations with moments of laughter and snuck in for normality.

It's a story full of self- deprecation, humour and insightful observations. The magnifying glass observation from above, but in a way that doesn't sever heads or pass judgement - well perhaps a bit here and there. 

Buy The Sunny Side of the House at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher ‏ : ‎ SilverWood Books, pub date 17 Aug. 2024. Buy at Amazon com.