#Blogtour Heart, Be at Peace by Donal Ryan

It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour Heart, Be at Peace by Donal Ryan.'

'A stunning lyrical novel from the Number one bestselling author Donal Ryan about love, loss, hope and connection.'

About the Author

Donal Ryan is an award-winning author from Nenagh, County Tipperary, whose work has been published in over twenty languages to major critical acclaim. The Spinning Heart won the Guardian First Book Award, the EU Prize for Literature (Ireland), and Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards; it was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Desmond Elliott Prize, and was voted 'Irish Book of the Decade'. 

His fourth novel, From a Low and Quiet Sea, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award 2018, and won the Jean Monnet Prize for European Literature. His novel, Strange Flowers, was voted Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards, and was a number one bestseller, as was his most recent novel The Queen of Dirt Island, which was also shortlisted for Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. Donal lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Limerick. He lives with his wife Anne Marie and their two children just outside Limerick City.

About the book

2019. Small town rural Island. 21 voices. - A standalone novel that can also be read as a companion to Donal Ryan's multi-award-winning bestseller, The Spinning Heart, voted ‘The Irish Book of the Decade’.

‘I said it before. Madness comes circling around. Ten-year cycles, as true as the sun will rise…’ Some things can send a heart spinning; others will crack it in two.

In a small town in rural Ireland, the local people have weathered the storms of economic collapse and are looking towards the future. The jobs are back, the dramas of the past seemingly lulled, and although the town bears the marks of its history, new stories are unfolding.

But a fresh menace is creeping around the lakeshore and the lanes of the town, and the peace of the community is about to be shattered in an unimaginable way. Young people are being drawn towards the promise of fast money whilst the generation above them tries to push back the tide of an enemy no one can touch…

Review

I highly recommend not only reading this, but also giving the audio version a twirl. It gives the read/listen a slightly more in person cultural feel. The ingrained identities that can be accurately experienced, the individuality of characters and personas more accurately felt - I can imagine this being a great theatrical experience.

Although this can be read as a standalone, it is a follow-up to The Spinning Heart, I am of two minds whether to suggest reading one before the other. I think the two books work both in tandem and as solitary experiences, not sue whether that was intentional or it's just a case of whatever takes your fancy when it comes to the happenstance of literary beauty that captures people, thoughts, culture and country in such an intensely personal way.

Ryan certainly knows how to sit inside his characters heads, hearts and souls - and equally how to place the reader beside them as they rage, toil, reminisce, regret, weep and sometimes wander to a point called peace. In a sense the word peace, and indeed this book, becomes an exploration and even explanation of living, of life and both the inner and outer daily barter we have with ourselves.

The whole book is also a six degrees of separation woven web of human interactions and reactions. How each person responds and reacts differently depending on on their own frame of reference and subsequently can have a completely different response someone else. That sounds like something or nothing, but when told with such an eloquence and insight it becomes an amazing read. 

Buy Heart, Be at Peace at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Doubleday; pub date 8th August 2024 | Hardback | £16.99. Buy at Amazon com.

#Blogtour Fire and Bones by Kathy Reichs

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of the Temperance Brennan series - Fire and Bones by Kathy Reichs, Temperance Brennan book 23. It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour!

About the Author

Kathy Reichs’s first novel Déjà Dead, published in 1997, won the Ellis Award for Best First Novel and was an international bestseller. Kathy was also a producer of Fox Television’s longest running scripted drama Bones, which is based on her work and her novels. 

Kathy uses her own dramatic experiences as a forensic anthropologist to bring her mesmerizing thrillers to life. One of very few forensic anthropologists certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology, Kathy divides her time between Charlotte, North Carolina, and Montreal, Québec. Follow @KathyReichs on X

About the book

It's never easy working fire scenes. - Called to Washington, DC to analyse the victims of a mysterious arson attack, Tempe quickly finds her misgivings justified. The fire site is in Foggy Bottom, a neighbourhood with a colourful history, and as the pieces start falling into place, the property’s ownership becomes more and more suspicious.

Sensing a good story, Tempe teams up with a new ally, telejournalist Ivy Doyle. Delving into the past, the duo learns that back in the Thirties and Forties the home was the hangout of a group of bootleggers and racketeers known as the Foggy Bottom Gang. Though interesting, this fact seems irrelevant – until the son of one of the gang members is shot dead at his farm in Virginia.

When another Foggy Bottom Gang-linked property burns to the ground, claiming one more victim, what might have been coincidence starts to look more like targeted attacks. As she and Ivy dig deeper, Tempe’s instincts point towards the obvious: somehow, her every move since coming to Washington has been anticipated in advance. And every path forward brings with it a lethal threat.

Review

Might just be me, but I find some of the shorter Tempe books tend to pack more of a punch, especially when it comes to core issues incorporated into the story. Often ends up being an interesting learning experience, despite the gruesome murders along the way. I still occasionally whip out what I learnt about Burmese Pythons and the Everglades in one of said shorter books.

Tempe is drawn into a string of fire related deaths, the place and property seem to to play an important part in the solution. In a tense exquisitely detailed venture into forgotten crimes and the waves they often create far into the future, this crime takes a bite out of history to weave an unforgettable tale.

This one is also a testament to what a talented storyteller the author is - it ends with mixed feelings of nostalgia, helplessness and the realisation that sometimes there is no such thing as justice for the most heinous of crimes.

Still going strong after all these years, with no sign of the popularity of this fan favourite diminishing, the Tempe series is the gift that keeps on giving. Always an auto-buy author for me, because Reichs always delivers a great read.

Buy Fire and Bones at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Simon and Schuster Uk; pub date 6th August 2024 | £20.00. Buy at Amazon com.

#Blogtour Costanza by Rachel Blackmore

It's an absolute pleasure to take part in the Blogtour Costanza by Rachel Blackmore. This book is going on my favourites of the year list.

About the Author

Born in Birmingham, Rachel spent her childhood in the Northeast, then the Midlands. She studied history at King's College London, where her fascination for women's history took root. After a brief stint in politics, Rachel built a career in corporate communications. In 2021, she was runner-up in the Harper's Bazaar Short Story Competition and won the Irish Writers Centre 2022 Novel Fair. Rachel lives in London with her three teenagers, two cats and one dog. Follow @rjblackmore1 on Twitter

About the book

History calls her a Muse. Temptress. Fallen woman. This is her story.

It’s 1636 and Rome hums with gossip and sin. Costanza Piccolomini is a respectable young wife - until she meets world-famous sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini, whose jet-black gaze matches his dark temper. From the second they set eyes upon each other, a fatal attraction is born.

Their secret love burns with a passion that consumes them. But with every stolen kiss and illicit tryst, Costanza's reputation is at stake. And Bernini has a more dangerous desire: he wants to immortalise Costanza in marble. When Bernini unveils his sculpture of Costanza it marks the beginning of a scandal which will rock Roman society. For Bernini would rather destroy Costanza than let her go.

Betrayed. Abandoned. Banished. This was meant to be the end of Costanza’s story. But Costanza is no ordinary woman: from the ashes, she will rise …

Costanza is a dizzying and sensual historical novel that brings to life a feminist icon who has been written out of history.

Review

I came away from this story, a retelling of a moment in history captured in art, with the feeling that the winner tells the history and it's always men doing the writing. Also that great art, memorable deeds and life-changing moments in history always excuse the misdeeds and whitewash the crimes.

Seen from the perspective of Costanza the Bernini brothers emerge as the predators they most certainly were. Passion, muse, inspiration all sound rather romantic and exciting for all parties involved, right? It sounds a little different when those words are exchanged for coercion, blackmail, non-consensual acts or possessive behaviour. Having someone carve up a women's face to deconstruct the beauty at the core of said inspiration is unforgivable, to try and destroy her reputation and life equally so.

It all sounds so reminiscent of the kind of misogynistic and abusive crimes we see in modern times, which of course just proves endemic and ingrained the violence and mistreatment of women and girls is in all societies. Interesting how everything is framed with such a dainty brush of romanticism. Oh how the great man was tortured, inspired and captivated by insert any woman/girl - poor man couldn't control himself and wasn't to blame for insert crime against woman/girl.

Loved this book. Brilliantly written with a touch of historical nuance, a deep sense of poetic beauty and both the consumerism and power of artistic talent. The author bows to the lasting legacy of creativity whilst simultaneously asking whether the legacy and talent should ever warrant erasing the truth.

Give this a Medici or Rome tv series development and it is guaranteed to be a hit, between the visual beauty of the art and the passion of the characters - it would be an intriguing venture. Equally important would be taking the core of this retelling and giving the power back to Costanza - where it belongs.

Buy Costanza at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Renegade Books; pub date 1st August 2024 / HB / £18.99. Buy at Amazon com.

#Blogtour The Trap by Ava Glass

It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour The Trap by Ava Glass. - The Trap by Ava Glass is published by Penguin in Paperback (£9.99).

About the Author

The Trap follows Ava Glass’ debut spy thriller The Chase and her critically acclaimed 2023 thriller The Traitor, which was a Grazia Book of the Month, Sunday Times Book of the Year, Washington Post Book of the Year, Cosmopolitan Book of the Year, and Richard & Judy Book Club pick.

Film rights to The Chase and The Traitor have been acquired by the producers of The Night Manager, who are currently working on a pilot, now in the final stages. Next step will be casting!

One of very few women shortlisted for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, the UK’s spy fiction prize, and one of the vanishingly few female authors writing about spies, Ava Glass is breaking down the door to the most male dominated genres in the English language – the espionage novel.

Ava Glass’ fiction is based on her first-hand experience working with female spies for the British government, which has seen her dubbed “the new queen of spy fiction” by The Guardian. This alongside a decade working as an investigative journalist and crime reporter in America covering homicides for publications including the New York Times and Reuters makes her writing both fresh and dangerously believable. Follow @AvaGlassBooks on X

About the book

Edinburgh. The 50th annual G7 Summit is being hosted by the UK, and intelligence agent Emma Makepeace, has less than a week to decode, defuse and disable a deadly threat to the leaders of the free world.   

The Russians are in town and Emma and her team know a high-profile assassination is being planned. But who is their target? And who is the assassin? There is only one way to find out. Emma must set a trap using herself as bait.

From the majesty of the Scottish Highlands to Europe’s most lavish hotels, using private jets, phone taps, and her training and instincts honed by three years hunting Russian spies, Emma Makepeace must trick her way into the moneyed, champagne-fuelled playground of the super-rich in order to trap the killer.

But Emma doesn’t count on liking her target, or the fact that he might actually fall for her, and with the clock ticking and her cover wearing increasingly thin, danger looms over her. One false move and they could both be dead.

This summer’s hottest read by “The new Queen of Spy Fiction” (The Guardian) Ava Glass’s storytelling is compulsively readable, combining twisting plotlines, intelligent dialogue and ambiguous characters, all skilfully brought together in an epic climax. Never before has spy fiction been so nail-bitingly real. 

Review

Intel suggests someone is planning something big at the G7 summit in Edinburgh. The presence of certain high value targets in the same place as particular agent who is known for being in the midst of plots to destabilise countries, political spheres and just peace in general - it's a recipe for well-planned disaster. No wonder Emma ends up smack bang in the middle.

It's interesting how the relationship between Emma and Kate evolves - from initial irritation to an acknowledgement of similarities, and what could be deemed as recognition of the need to recruit. I wonder if there is an element of disassociation when it comes to ignoring the negative aspects of her job, because they outweigh the thrill and the positives.

If The Traitor and/or this series in general gets developed I hope they get the casting right. Whoever embodies Emma will have to be the same follow your instinct, tough cookie with the ability to adjust to the need of the moment, and the operative who never hesitates to do whatever necessary to achieve her goal. 

This is the kind of series with the potential to go a long way, and it's refreshing to have a spy thriller series with a female main character. All Emma needs now is to be pulling those strings herself.

Buy The Trap at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Penguin | August 1st 2024 | £8.99| Paperback Original. Buy at Amazon com.

#Blogtour Imposter Syndrome by Joseph Knox

Absolute pleasure to take part in the Blogtour for Imposter Syndrome by Joseph Knox.

About the Author

Joseph Knox has lived in Stoke on Trent, Manchester and London. In 2020, he became an Irish citizen. His debut novel Sirens was a bestseller and has been translated into eighteen languages. The Smiling Man and The Sleepwalker are the second and third books in the Waits trilogy. His first standalone novel, True Crime Story, was a Times number one bestseller. Follow @josephknox__ on X

About the book

When you’re living a lie, you find it’s best to avoid close attachments…

Lynch, a burned out con-artist, arrives, broke, in London, trying not to dwell on the mistakes that got him there. When he bumps into Bobbie, a rehab-bound heiress - and when she briefly mistakes him for her missing brother - Lynch senses the opportunity, as well as the danger…

Bobbie’s brother, Heydon, was a troubled young man. Five years ago, he walked out of the family home and never went back. His car was found parked on a bridge overlooking the Thames, in the early hours of the same morning. Unsettled by Bobbie’s story, and suffering from a rare attack of conscience, Lynch tries to back off.

But when Bobbie leaves for rehab the following day, he finds himself drawn to her luxurious family home, and into a meeting with her mother, the formidable Miranda. Seeing the same resemblance that her daughter did, Miranda proposes she hire Lynch to assume her son’s identity, in a last-ditch effort to try and flush out his killer.

As Lynch begins to impersonate him, dark forces are lured out of the shadows, and he realises too late that Heydon wasn’t paranoid at all. Someone was watching his every move, and they’ll kill to keep it a secret. For the first time, Lynch is in a life or death situation he can’t lie his way out of.

Review

Reading this made me realise I have to dust off my copy of True Crime Story and read it again, also that I wish I were in charge of a streaming service so I could buy books to develop into screen material, whilst also being aware that there probably isn't enough money in the world to do fair justice to the amount of cracking books there are. This is one of those reads that would be a spectacular on-screen experience - given the right eye for cast and detail.

Lynch is a pinball in a machine without a task or a purpose, just trailing around until the right moment or opportunity comes around. Bobbie enters his universe of lies, convenience and the world of con. It appears at the time, as if two troubled souls in need of support and driven by trauma, need something from each other. Essentially this is what leads Lynch into his next falsity - he becomes the long lost brother of Bobbie.

The more he gets involved the more Lynch appears determined to find out what happened to Heydon, the man he shares a face with. A simple con turns into something closer to - the deeper the secrets the more destructive they are - with a side dish of criminal intent and a smidgen of gangster style justice.

It's riveting piece of fiction, with the kind of ending that makes me hope we see Lynch again in some capacity. The charming con-man with an unhealthy lack of any sense of danger, who is so quick on his feet that the reader can't help but want him to succeed, perhaps because of the sheer audacity at times. It's a great read and I highly recommend it.

Buy Imposter Syndrome at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Doubleday Uk; pub date 11th July 2024 | Hardback | £18.99. Buy at Amazon com.

#Blogtour Into The Flames by James Delargy

It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour Into The Flames by James Delargy.

About the Author

James Delargy was born and raised in Ireland, and lived in South Africa, Australia and Scotland before ending up in semi-rural England, where he now lives. He incorporates a diverse knowledge of towns, cities, landscapes and cultures picked up on his travels into his writing. His first novel, 55, was published in 2019 by Simon & Schuster and has been sold to 21 territories to date. It was followed by the standalone thrillers Vanished (2021) and Into the Flames (2024). Follow @JDelargyAuthor on X

About the book

A town under fire. A detective with something to prove. A killer hiding in plain sight. - The small town of Rislake in the picturesque Blue Mountains is about to be engulfed by a major bushfire. The order has been given for the residents to clear out. But a last sweep uncovers one person is missing: Tracey Hilmeyer, wife of one of the firefighters tackling the blaze.

Detective Kennard is in town to help with crowd control, but instead he finds himself driving straight towards the inferno to look for Tracey at the Hilmeyer home. When he gets there, he finds her dead at the bottom of the stairs, and it’s clear she was murdered.

With the evacuation almost complete there is barely enough time to save the living never mind the dead. But Detective Kennard has something to prove and cannot let this one go. Can he solve her murder before the crime scene, and the entire town, turns to ash?

Review

I think what the author does really well in this book, is describing the voice and imagery of the fire. I'm not sure people realise the level of destruction wildfires can cause. It's more than just a fire burning with such fierce intensity that it devours everything and anybody in its path. It's the miniscule details that help give the situation and the reader a 'right there in the moment' feeling. The tension, the fear, the heat - it's all part of the web around the core.

The core being the crime Kennard is trying to solve, and within that is a complex inner emotional product that he carries around with him. Blame and guilt live rent-free in his head, which is why he is unable to let go of a subconscious need to save and succeed. The save part is especially relevant. He couldn't save the boy, so he has to find the killer.

As I mentioned above, I think the strength of the story is the way the reader is drawn into the moment with such a visceral connection that at times you struggle to breathe in a room full of smoke. Interestingly it almost invites you along to disagree with decision making, especially when Kennard places lives before safety, solving the case before putting many others at risk. It is part and parcel of his inner turmoil.

I enjoyed the read a lot and wouldn't hesitate to read more and to recommend to other readers of course.

Buy Into The Flames at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Buy at Amazon com. Publisher: Simon and Schuster Uk, Paperback Original | pub date 4th July 2024 | £9.99. Buy at Amazon com.

#Blogtour The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby by Ellery Lloyd

It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby by Ellery Lloyd. 'From the bestselling authors of Reese Witherspoon bookclub pick The Club'

About the Author

Ellery Lloyd is the pseudonym for London based husband-and-wife writing team Collette Lyons and Paul Vlitos.

Collette is a journalist and editor, former content director of ELLE UK and editorial director at Soho House. She has written for The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Times.

Paul is the author of two previous novels, Welcome to the Working Week and Every Day Is Like Sunday. He is the programme director for English literature with creative writing at the University of Surrey. Follow @ElleryLloyd on X

About the book

Some women can’t be painted out of history . . . A story of love and madness, of obsession and revenge. Paris, 1938: Runaway heiress Juliette Willoughby perishes, with her married lover, in an accidental studio fire alongside her Surrealist masterpiece, Self-Portrait as Sphinx. 

Cambridge, 1991: Two art history students stumble across proof something sinister was at play in Juliette's death, threatening to expose the long-buried secrets of the artist's aristocratic family.

Dubai, now: An art dealer is accused of the brutal murder of his oldest friend – the last surviving member of the Willoughby dynasty. Three suspicious deaths over the course of a century. Is the key to unlocking them all hidden in Juliette Willoughby’s lost painting?

Review

When Caroline is asked to go through the large collection of a prominent family to look for pieces of the story of a tragic forgotten artist called Juliette Willoughby, she has no idea that will stumble upon a mystery and a cover-up. Perhaps it's also more of push than a stumble. Either way it is a dangerous path to wander, this search for the truth about an elusive painting and talented artist - known only for her tragic and sudden death.

What emerges is a piece of a puzzle that doesn't seem to have a place to fit. Could it be possible that the painting survived the fire. If so, how did it, why and where. Is this a way to show the world the talented art of Juliette Willoughby - a woman with a name and talent that disappeared into obscurity. That in itself is a worthy element of this story, the way hidden figures create a world, but are never given the accolades for their work.

This would make a perfect on-screen extravaganza - a Gosford Park meets Christie with a smidgen of Saltburn. The casting would be a treat. I love the way this author duo brings in a variety of sub-genre styles to create a story within a story, which in itself is carried within a larger frame of a mystery. It's a great read, one that delivers home truths and the complexity of class structures with the element of charm that keeps everyone coming back for more.

As always an incredibly delicate and finely woven plot that keeps the reader riveted until the last page.

Buy The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher : ‎Macmillan pub date 20 Jun. 2024. Buy at Amazon com.