#Blogtour Love & Care by Shaun Deeney

It's my turn on the Blogtour Love & Care by Shaun Deeney.

About the Author

Shaun Deeney is a former journalist and Emmy award-winning film and TV producer. He has made current affairs programmes for ITV on social issues, including care. He is also the creator of a podcast on caring for his mother called Love and Care. Shaun has a degree in English and American Literature from Kent at Canterbury. He has two daughters and loves listening to Frank Sinatra. For more information visit shaundeeney.com.

About the book

Shaun is finally free of responsibilities to anyone but himself; single, with two grown up daughters, he is just embarking on a new life in a new country when he gets a call to say his father is dying.

His mother has Parkinson's Dementia and is in a care home. Shaun faces a stark choice: should he give up his new-found freedom, or turn his back on the woman he'd fought so hard to protect, not least from his own father? Shaun's mother had loved and cared for her son all her life. Could he now do the same for her?

Review

It's a peculiar thing to experience, the next stage of life and having to take on certain on certain responsibilities when life comes full circle. The child becomes the carer to the parent. The once strong person in charge becomes vulnerable, frail and needs support.

There is always someone who ends up having to make a choice about stepping in, the question in this case is whether the past can be laid to rest to do so. You have to be able to separate the past and the present.

I think this is a read that will resonate just slightly more with readers who have lived experience of the subject matter. In fact perhaps those who are at different stages of their caring journey will be able to draw from it, both emotionally and practically,

It's an emotional read, but written with the ability to see the humour in situations that are often fleeting moments, anchors to the past often appearing in the present like small wormholes. The strength needed to be the reverse role, especially when the past still lays on a person like the rubble from a implosion.

The feeling of having a a slipping grasp on what used to be, which is an emotional minefield, is evident throughout the book. Its also what makes the read  frank, poignant and memorable.

Buy Love & Care at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher : ‎Endeavour pub date 9 Feb. 2023. Buy at Amazon com.

#BlogTour 18 Tiny Deaths by Bruce Goldfarb

Today it's a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour 18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics by Bruce Goldfarb

About the Author
Bruce Goldfarb is the executive assistant to the Chief Medical Examiner for the State of Maryland, US, where the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death are housed. He gives conducted tours of the facility and is also a trained forensic investigator. He began his career as a paramedic before working as a journalist, reporting on medicine, science and health.

He collaborated with Susan Marks - the documentary filmmaker who produced the 2012 film about Frances Glessner Lee and the Nutshells titled Of Dolls and Murder.

Follow @bruce_goldfarb on Twitter, on Amazon, on Goodreads, Visit brucegoldfarb.com, Buy 18 Tiny Deaths

About the book
18 Tiny Deaths is the remarkable story of how one woman changed the face of murder investigation forever.

Born in 1878, Frances Glessner Lee’s world was set to be confined to the domestic sphere. She was never expected to have a career, let alone one steeped in death and depravity. Yet she was to become known as ‘the mother of forensic science’.

This is her story.

Frances Glessner Lee’s mission was simple: she wanted to train detectives to ‘convict the guilty, clear the innocent and find the truth in a nutshell’. This was a time of widespread corruption, amateur sleuthing and bungled cases. With the help of her friend, the pioneering medical examiner George Magrath, Frances set out to revolutionise police investigation.

Her relentless pursuit of justice led her to create ‘The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death’, a series of dollhouse-sized crime scene dioramas depicting actual cases in exquisitely minute detail that Lee used to teach homicide investigators.

They were first used in homicide seminars at Harvard Medical School in the 1930s, and then became part of the longest running and still the highest regarded police training seminar in America.

Celebrated the world over by scientists, artists and miniaturists, these macabre scenes helped to establish her legendary reputation as ‘the mother of modern forensics’, influencing people the world over, including Scotland Yard. Frances wanted justice for all. She became instrumental in elevating murder investigation to a scientific discipline.

Review
'Follow the evidence where it leads' - Frances Glessner Lee presented facts not speculation. Indeed it is the milestone of forensic science that those investigating ensure they not lead the evidence to where they think it should lead them.

Lee changed the face of crime investigations by creating 18 dollhouse-sized dioramas of crime scenes in order to teach investigators about collecting evidence and using every small detail to come to their possible conclusions.

With all the modern technology advancements in police and forensic science, especially in the last three to four decades, one wouldn't be remiss in thinking that the Nutshell Studies are obsolete. They aren't and never will be. They are not only a fascinating piece of crime-solving police science history they were and possibly still are an irreplaceable teaching tool - well perhaps before the age of virtual imagery.

They are in their own way, each and every one, small boxes of intricate art, which to this day are still revealing new details.

I found it quite paradox that a book about a woman who struggled to make her place in a field ruled by men because of her gender, although it was certainly easier given the position of her family in society, that a lot of this story was about the men in her life and the ones who surrounded her.

Then again wasn't that the way of the world and often still is - that the accomplishments of women pale in comparison to those of the opposite gender. Fortunately her legacy and contribution to forensic science and crime scene investigation will always be part of history, and so it should be.

Buy 18 Tiny Deaths at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Endeavour; pub date 2 April 2020 - £16.99 Hardback (including 16 pages of colour photographs). Buy at Amazon com.

#BlogTour The Dark Side of the Mind by Kerry Daynes

Today it's a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour The Dark Side of the Mind by Kerry Daynes.

About the Author
Kerry Daynes is a Consultant and Forensic Psychologist, speaker and media commentator. For over twenty years her average week has involved working with everything from stressed-out parents to serial killers and she is a sought-after court-appointed expert witness. Kerry regularly appears on international television networks and in the media; she was 'The Profiler' over three series of Discovery's top-rated 'Faking It' documentaries.

Kerry is Patron of the National Centre for Domestic Violence and Talking2Minds. She is an advocate for better conversations about mental distress and alternatives to the culture of psychological 'disorder'. Kerry lives in Cheshire with two huge dogs and yes, she is a proud natural ginger.

Follow @KerryDaynes on Twitter, on Facebook, on Amazon, on Goodreads, Visit kerrydaynes.online, Buy The Dark Side of the Mind

About the book
Welcome to the world of the forensic psychologist, where the people you meet are wildly unpredictable and often frightening. The job: to delve into the psyche of convicted men and women to try to understand what lies behind their often brutal actions.

Follow in the footsteps of Kerry Daynes, one of the most sought-after forensic psychologists in the business and consultant on major police investigations. Kerry's job has taken her to the cells of maximum-security prisons, police interview rooms, the wards of secure hospitals and the witness box of the court room. Her work has helped solve a cold case, convict the guilty and prevent a vicious attack.

Spending every moment of your life staring into the darker side of life comes with a price. Kerry's frank memoir gives an unforgettable insight into the personal and professional dangers in store for a female psychologist working with some of the most disturbing men and women.

Review
In the first chapter Daynes talks about a questionnaire she had to put to convicted sex offenders at the beginning of her career. A long questionnaire about the victims reactions to each type of action or practice ( assault). A shockingly misogynistic attempt at placing blame on the victims all in the name of science and the attempt to understand the predator better.

Nowadays one can take a step back and recognise that the questions, especially whilst being asked them by a woman - potential prey, as the opportunity to delve into and enjoy their deviancy with an audience to watch them do so. Very much the result of being part of a patriarchal society, where man dictates that certain responses lead to specific outcomes for the victims, as opposed to the deviant being held accountable. Much like the common stereotypical tropes such as: you wore a tight dress, you walked home alone, you smiled at him, ergo you deserved it and are to blame for the assault.

It's one thing to know that society is ruled in favour of a certain gender, and that women get the short end of the stick when it comes to justice, pay, treatment by others in general, it's quite another when you read examples of this lack of equality. I've been there and done that. My ex was guilty of so many things, but a male dominant court favoured him, regardless of what he said or did. I think my rudest awakening was when he manipulated a female member of the team to believe his schtick and I was deemed to be arrogant and to blame for everything for having the sheer gall to educate myself.

Luckily for me I got back up every time I was knocked down, but it taught me some important lessons. One of which is that anyone in the mental health profession is fallible, capable of human error and only as capable as the theory they have learnt. Theory doesn't prepare you for reality or give you the advantage of actual experience. The feeling of being disenfranchised and disillusioned is worse when the misogyny is perpetrated by members of your own gender.

That element of honesty is what makes this book a great read - not the fascinating experiences and the way Daynes has made her mark in her field of expertise, but the way she lets readers partake in her most vulnerable moments.

There is also an attempt to address the way society views both sides. There is no them and us - there is just us. Much like we now view the majority of experimental horrors to 'cure' mental health and deviancy in the last few centuries, as harmful and the work of quacks. In future the evolved (hopefully) communities of science and medicine may think the same of 20/21st century diagnostic approaches, and find a more inclusive way forward with less labels and better comprehension.

I digress - mainly because it is a fascinating book I could talk or write about for hours (I know, poor you). I highly recommend you take a gander at the dark side.

Buy The Dark Side of the Mind at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Endeavour; pub date 20 Feb. 2020. Buy at Amazon com.

#BlogTour The Scribe by A. A. Chaudhuri

Today it's my turn on the BlogTour the Scribe by A.A. Chaudhuri. It's a psychological thriller full of suspense and machinations. An interesting combination of legal thriller and serial killer.

About the Author
A. A. Chaudhuri is a former City lawyer. Once a highly ranked British junior tennis player, she went on to gain a degree in History at University College London, then trained as a solicitor and worked for several major London law firms before leaving law to pursue her passion for writing. In addition to books featuring the feisty Maddy Kramer, she has written four stand-alone novels, including racy thriller, Illicit Retainers, and political thriller, The Darker Side of White. She lives in Surrey with her family.

Follow @AAChaudhuri on Twitter, on Amazon, on Goodreads, Visit aachaudhuri.com
Buy the Scribe

About the book
Making it as a lawyer has always been a cutthroat business. But now that a sadistic serial killer is on the loose the consequences could prove deadly…

A killer is targeting former students of The Bloomsbury Academy of Law. The victims – all female – are gruesomely butchered according to a pattern corresponding with the legal syllabus.

Even more disconcerting are riddles sent by the killer to investigating officer, Chief Inspector Jake Carver, offering clues as to who is next and where they will die.

Up-and-coming lawyer Madeline Kramer, a former classmate of a number of the slain, soon finds her life turned upside down by the savagery. And when she decides to help Carver track down the killer, she places herself in mortal danger. Can Maddy unscramble the complex riddles, save her own life and those of others destined to die?

A. A. Chaudhuri’s Ripper-like mystery The Scribe throws down a challenge even hardened crime thriller fans will be unable to resist.

Review
Ever wonder what happens to the victims of narcissistic, ambitious and ruthless individuals. The majority of them move on, but sometimes there will be one person who doesn't forgive or forget. In this scenario that person has waited a long time to get the kind of revenge they think they deserve. Painful, brutal and horrific revenge.

The killer is confident and likes to play with Chief Inspector Carver as if he were a fiddle for the taking. It's part of the appeal and it exudes confidence or is it just the mind of a mentally unstable person?

Maddy and Carver inadvertently become sort of kinda partners when Maddy is drawn into this series of murders. She finds herself in the midst of this dangerous situation and also determined to find the killer and stay alive at the same time.

It's a psychological thriller full of suspense and machinations. An interesting combination of legal thriller and serial killer. If anything it should make us more wary of treating people like second thoughts or in a cruel way. You just never know how their emotions may manifest and come back to bite you one day. When I say bite I mean kill.

The women in this book are portrayed as somewhat shallow and vindictive, which is often the way ambitious women tend to be described or rather perceived, especially by men. When a man takes what he wants without a thought to others he is considered manly and assertive.

Chaudhuri likes to mix the keeping you on your toes element of the psychological thriller with the vibe of a more vicious read. It's caustic, brutal and in your face at times. Simultaneously it plays along like murder mystery.

Buy The Scribe on Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Endeavour Media: Paperback pub date: 8 July 2019. Buy at Amazon com.