#BlogTour On The Edge by Jane Jesmond

 It's my turn on BlogTour On The Edge by Jane Jesmond.

About the Author

On The Edge is Jane Jesmond’s debut novel and the first in a series featuring dynamic, daredevil protagonist Jen Shaw. Although she was born in Newcastle Upon Tyne, raised in Liverpool and considers herself northern through and through, Jane’s family comes from Cornwall. Her lifelong love of the Cornish landscape and culture inspired the setting of On The Edge. 

Jane has spent the last thirty years living and working in France. She began writing steadily six or seven years ago and writes every morning in between staring out at the sea and making cups of tea. She also enjoys reading, walking and amateur dramatics and, unlike her daredevil protagonist, is terrified of heights! Follow @AuthorJJesmond on Twitter, Visit jane-jesmond.com

About the book

Jen Shaw has climbed all her life: daring ascents of sheer rock faces, crumbling buildings, cranes – the riskier the better. Her entire life revolved around free climbing, and the adrenaline high it gave her. Until one day her luck ran out and someone she cared about got hurt. So she’s given it all up now. Honestly, she has.

Yet, when Jen awakens to find herself drugged and dangling off the local lighthouse during a wild storm less than twenty-four hours after a family emergency takes her home to Cornwall, she needs all her skill to battle her way to safety.

Then the real challenge begins. Jen must embark on a high-stakes, action-packed search for the truth in order to figure out whether she’s fallen back into her old risky ways, or if there is a more sinister explanation hidden in her hometown. Only when she has navigated her fragmented memories and faced her troubled past will she be able to piece together what happened – and trust herself to fix it.

Review

What gives this read an edge - no pun intended - is the fact the unreliable narrator is so unreliable she makes it easy for the bad guy, and that includes the fact Jen herself is possibly the bad guy. A sketchy drug-riddled past puts her in the curious position of not believing herself and no other person believing her either.

When an family member calls her home she finds her nightmares become the reality when she ends up dangling off a lighthouse in the middle of a storm. An attempt to end her life, but did she put herself in that dangerous position or was it someone else? Was the itch to dance with death, to feel the rush of adrenaline - her drug of choice above all others - is it the reason she finds herself bobbing off a lighthouse like helpless fish on a hook.

It's a web woven out of lies, denial, doubt, blame and guilt. A fast-paced thriller with plenty of potential as the series progresses. The author keeps readers on their toes by creating a framework of instability. She doubts, you doubt. The fog that Jen manifests, or rather the author manifests, is what drives the story, thrill and mystery.

Buy On The Edge at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Published by Verve Books, pub date 26th October 2021, Paperback Original, £9.99. Buy at Amazon com.

#BlogTour The Distant Dead by Heather Young

 It's my turn on the BlogTour The Distant Dead by Heather Young.

About the Author

Heather Young is the author of two novels. Her debut, The Lost Girls, won the Strand Award for Best First Novel and was nominated for an Edgar Award. The Distant Dead was named one of the Best Books of Summer 2020 by People Magazine, Parade, and CrimeReads.

A former antitrust and intellectual property litigator, she traded the legal world for the literary one and earned her MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars in 2011. She lives in Mill Valley, California, where she writes, bikes, hikes, and reads books by other people that she wishes she’d written.

Follow @HYoungwriter on Twitter, Visit heatheryoungwriter.com

About the book

A body burns in the high desert hills. A boy walks into a fire station, pale with the shock of a grisly discovery. A middle school teacher worries when her colleague is late for work. When the body is identified as local math teacher Adam Merkel, a small Nevada town is rocked to its core by a brutal and calculated murder.

In the seven months he worked at Lovelock’s middle school, the quiet and seemingly unremarkable Adam Merkel had formed a bond with just one of his students: Sal Prentiss, a lonely sixth grader who lives with his uncles on a desolate ranch in the hills. It is Sal who finds Adam’s body, charred almost beyond recognition, half a mile from his uncles’ compound.

Nora Wheaton, the school’s social studies teacher, sensed a kindred spirit in Adam – another soul bound to Lovelock by guilt and duty. After his death, she delves into his past for clues to who killed him. Yet, the truth about Adam’s murder may lie closer to home. For Sal’s grief seems shaded with fear, and Nora suspects he knows more than he’s telling about his favourite teacher’s death.

This unforgettable thriller brings a small American town to vivid life, filled with complex, troubled characters wrestling with the weight of the past, the promise of the future and the bitter freedom that forgiveness can bring.

Review

It begins with sadness defined as a great act of the gods and ends with the acceptance of the fact humanity is full of imperfections and there is no clear line between right or wrong. Sometimes the noblest of gestures can be the selfish of acts. The dead have no thought for the living.

The story works in circles around the untimely tragic death of a local maths teacher. His death becomes a staunch memory in the maelstrom of modern desperation and vulnerability that destroys populations quietly bit by bit.

In the last few chapters Nora alludes to the aspect of selfishness in regards to Adam and his actions, but perhaps more so because his needs or desperation supersede the wellbeing of a young man. No thought to how his actions will reverberate and cause damage after the fact.

The story is an exploration of death in a certain type of environment - the rural small town community with all its idiosyncrasies both of the surroundings and the mindset of those who live there.

I really enjoyed the way the author managed to bring the story full circle and end the book as it began with a tragedy and mystery - in a cave. It gives everything a sense of connection. It shows us our differences and similarities. It's a mystery, a domestic thriller of sorts, but it really draws on other genres and in doing so Young creates this nostalgic mysterious rift of moving sand and time. It's a slow burner, an atmospheric dark read.

Buy The Distant Dead at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher : Verve Books pub date March 18, 2021. Buy at Amazon com.

#BlogTour Dead and Gone by Sherryl Clark

Happy Publication Day and it's time to kick off the BlogTour Dead and Gone by Sherryl Clark today! It's the sequel to Trust Me, I'm Dead, Sherryl's debut Aussie crime novel.

About the Author
Sherryl Clark has had 40 children’s and YA books published in Australia, and several in the US and UK, plus collections of poetry and four verse novels. She has taught writing at Holmesglen TAFE and Victoria University. She recently completed a Master of Fine Arts program at Hamline University, Minnesota, and is now studying for a PhD in creative writing.

Sherryl's debut novel, Trust Me, I'm Dead, was shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger. It is the first novel in the Judi Westerholme series, followed by Dead and Gone.

Follow @sherrylwriter and @Verve_Books on Twitter, on Goodreads, on Amazon,Visit sherrylclarkcrimewriter.com, Buy Dead and Gone

About the book
There's nothing more dangerous than revenge. Judi Westerholme has been through it. Brave and strong-willed, she's just about coping in her new role as foster parent to her orphaned niece, taking a job at the local pub to help make ends meet. Then the pub's landlord and Judi's friend, army veteran Pete 'Macca' Maccasfield, is murdered, and her world is suddenly turned upside down.

Despite warnings from the city police to keep out of it, Judi can't help but get involved in the search for Macca's killer. But she soon becomes deeply entangled with some ruthlessly dangerous men. She must act fast and think smart to work out what they want - before anyone else gets hurt...

Long buried secrets resurface in Sherryl Clark's pacy crime novel that pushes Judi Westerholme to her limits to protect the people she loves most.

Review
This is the sequel to Trust Me I'm Dead the first in the Judi Westerholme series, but can absolutely be read as a standalone novel.

Judi's boss Macca is murdered, which throws her for a loop, not only because they were great friends but also because the police think it was down to his involvement in something dodgy. His corpse hasn't even been buried before the first vultures arrive to pick at the bones.

Simultaneously Judi has to deal with the fact she might lose Mia. She is torn between it might be better for her niece to live with her maternal grandparents and wanting to keep her promise to take care of her. Mia has become a constant fixture in her life and can always be counted on to throw some light or reality into any serious situation. I respect any woman who thinks of cake in the most curious of moments.

Clark has a very specific style to both her writing and the tone of her work. It's not quite staccato or abrupt, but it is terse at times. Sharp corners and quick direction changes. I liked it. It gives the story this tough as old boots feel without resorting to misogyny or macho tropes. The same applies to the main character, Judi isn't a marshmallow fluff happy ever after girly type and yet also doesn't come off as wanting to be one of the guys. I really enjoyed the balance Clark found in both the plot and characters.

It's a jolly good read and a series with plenty of potential.

Buy Dead and Gone at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Verve books; pub date Ebook: 25 June 2020 | Paperback pub date: 27 August 2020. Buy at Amazon com. Buy at Verve Books.