The Snowman by Jo Nesbo

This is how you do crime Scandinavian style.

Harry Hole is a sober alcoholic, well sort of, sometimes. His inner demons are always there lurking just below the surface, waiting to drag him back down below the murky depths of his disease.

He finds himself drawn into the cat and mouse game of a vicious serial killer called The Snowman, who leaves behind an icy calling card after every kill.

His superiors seem reluctant to accept the existence of a serial killer, which is detrimental to his investigation, and leads to quite a few mistakes. Harry is also saddled with a new colleague and she brings a whole load of baggage with her. Sometimes her actions and statements set his alarm bells ringing. Is she just not up to the job or is something else going on?

I had the Snowman pegged from the beginning. There was just something in the attitude, the demeanour, and in general in the air. A particularly clever talent of the author, to be able to point all the arrows in every direction but at the culprit, and yet at the same time being able to leave a subliminal trail leading straight to the killer.

Nesbo is a master storyteller with an instinct for crime. It will be interesting to see how the story translates onto the big screen, and whether or not they can accurately portray this particular setting and main character without losing the gritty charm.

Buy The Snowman at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

Blog-Tour: The Man Who Died by Antti Tuomainen

Today is my stop on the Blog-Tour for The Man Who Died by Antti Tuomainen. It is a well-written entertaining crime, which technically has both taken place and not happened yet. It's infused with dark humour and almost slapstick like murderous scenarios. Oh, and let me just give a shout-out to David Hackston for the excellent translation.

About the Author
Finnish Antti Tuomainen (b. 1971) was an award-winning copywriter when he made his literary debut in 2007 as a suspense author. The critically acclaimed My Brother’s Keeper was published two years later. In 2011 Tuomainen’s third novel, The Healer, was awarded the Clue Award for ‘Best Finnish Crime Novel of 2011’ and was shortlisted for the Glass Key Award. The Finnish press labelled The Healer – the story of a writer desperately searching for his missing wife in a post-apocalyptic Helsinki – ‘unputdownable’.

Two years later in 2013 they crowned Tuomainen ‘The King of Helsinki Noir’ when Dark as My Heart was published. The Mine, published in 2016, was an international bestseller. All of his books have been optioned for TV/film. With his piercing and evocative style, Tuomainen is one of the first to challenge the Scandinavian crime genre formula, and The Man Who Died sees him at hisliterary best.
Follow @antti_tuomainen on Twitter on Facebook: facebook.com/antti.tuomainen
Visit anttituomainen.com
Buy The Man Who Died

About the book
A successful entrepreneur in the mushroom industry, Jaakko Kaunismaa is a man in his prime. At just 37 years of age, he is shocked when his doctor tells him that he’s dying. What is more, the cause is discovered to be prolonged exposure to toxins; in other words, someone has slowly but surely been poisoning him. Determined to find out who wants him dead, Jaakko embarks on a suspenseful rollercoaster journey full of unusual characters, bizarre situations and unexpected twists.
With a nod to Fargo and the best elements of the Scandinavian noir tradition, The Man Who Died is a page-turning thriller brimming with the blackest comedy surrounding life and death, and love and betrayal, marking a stunning new departure for the King of Helsinki Noir.

Review
I know this is a departure for Tuomainen from his previous noir crime, but it won't come as a surprise to anyone that this tongue-in-cheek backwards crime story lives up to the reputation that precedes him. This story is written like an Agatha Christie with a vicious streak.

Jaakko is confused by his terminal diagnosis at first. He doesn't really grasp the fact that he is living on borrowed time, and he certainly doesn't comprehend that this is something persons unknown have done to him. From one moment to the next he has become the living dead, although I have to say he makes zombies a lot more appealing.

I think anyone would do the same in his position. Find the murderer before the murder actually takes place. He discovers that his seemingly perfect life is actually a sham. Enemies galore are crawling out of the woodwork.  His career, his marriage and his friendships are all part of a great conspiracy or is it just the illness slowly destroying his grey cells?

On a side note I really enjoyed the way he kept going around thinking and saying 'I have been murdered, you murdered me.' Hilarity is hidden in the seriousness of the situation. Jaakko is the kind of character you can't help but love. He is just a normal man in the middle of unusual circumstances trying to regain his balance and take control of what is left of his life.

The plotting is meticulous, the humour is subtle and yet at the same time sharp, and the main character is quite simply sublime as the victim to be. Tuomainen is definitely an author I will be returning to.

Kudos to the author for creating the kind of read you recommend to others, and the excellent translation by David Hackston.

Buy The Man Who Died at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.
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Blog-Tour: Maria in the Moon by Louise Beech

Today I am thrilled to welcome an author from my local area, and to be taking part in the Blog-Tour for Maria in the Moon by Louise Beech. It is a remarkable read you don't want to miss.

About the Author
Louise Beech is an exceptional literary talent, whose debut novel How To Be Brave was a Guardian Readers’ Choice for 2015. The sequel, The Mountain in My Shoe was shortlisted for Not the Booker Prize. Both books have been number one on Kindle, Audible and Kobo in USA/UK/AU. She regularly writes travel pieces for the Hull Daily Mail, where she was a columnist for ten years. Her short fiction has won the Glass Woman Prize, the Eric Hoffer Award for Prose, and the Aesthetica Creative Works competition, as well as shortlisting for the Bridport Prize twice and being published in a variety of UK magazines.
Louise lives with her husband and children on the outskirts of Hull – the UK’s 2017 City of Culture – and loves her job as a Front of House Usher at Hull Truck Theatre, where her first play was performed in 2012. She is also part of the Mums’ Army on Lizzie and Carl’s BBC Radio Humberside Breakfast Show.
Follow @LouiseWriter @Orendabooks #MariaintheMoon
Visit louisebeech.co.uk
Buy Maria in the Moon

About the book
‘Long ago my beloved Nanny Eve chose my name. Then one day she stopped calling me it. I try now to remember why, but I just can’t.’
Thirty-two-year-old Catherine Hope has a great memory. But she can’t remember everything. She can’t remember her ninth year. She can’t remember when her insomnia started. And she can’t remember why everyone stopped calling her Catherine-Maria.
With a promiscuous past, and licking her wounds after a painful breakup, Catherine wonders why she resists anything approaching real love. But when she loses her home to the devastating deluge of 2007 and volunteers at Flood Crisis, a devastating memory emerges … and changes everything.
Dark, poignant and deeply moving, Maria in the Moon is an examination of the nature of memory and truth, and the defences we build to protect ourselves, when we can no longer hide…

Review
Maria in the Moon has echoes of Eleanor Oliphant, especially when it comes to the anti-heroine type of main character. Another common denominator is the fact I enjoyed both stories, because the authors travel far off the well beaten path of literary clichés.

Catherine-Maria has this strange need to help others, she does this by volunteering at crisis helplines, which brings her into contact with people at their most vulnerable moments and often their last moments. Regardless of her own issues, and there are plenty of those, she always manages to wrangle herself into a position where she is confronted with the worst case scenarios in society. Her new pet project is a helpline set up to help the victims of the 2007 floods of Hull and East Yorkshire.

Part and parcel of the volunteering is being known under an alias. This is to keep both the volunteers and the callers safe. In Catherine's case the pseudonym is also an important part of her identity crisis. How can she be Catherine-Maria when she doesn't really know where Catherine-Maria went.

She knows Catherine, the promiscuous danger loving girl with a prickly attitude and a sharp-edged tongue. She knows all the personalities and names she pretends to be. She is a walking, talking example of coping mechanisms. The question is what is she trying to cope with, because at this point she doesn't have a clue. The only thing she knows is she can't remember entire years from her past, and someone is haunting her both at night and during the day.

She meets Christopher there, yet another man she connects with via her volunteer work. At this point one could start to question whether her romantic relationships are just an involuntary reaction to the emotional distress caused by the phone conversations she has to navigate and digest.

Another major part of her story, and the person who steers the majority of her reactions, is her mother. Their relationship is complex and most certainly the cause of many of her problems. Their problems go beyond the normal mother and daughter conflicts.

Maria in the Moon is a cold realistic 'look in through the window' approach to a highly sensitive subject. Beech pulls it off like a million dollar art heist. Although Catherine isn't the most sympathetic of characters, which is completely on par with a real situation of this kind, she does build a tenuous rapport with her audience, the readers. Kudos to Beech for being able to convey the confusion, pain, anger and desperation of the emotional turmoil and most importantly the complexity of the situation.

A commendable and memorable read.

Buy Maria in the Moon at Amazon UK or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

The Girl from Ballymor by Kathleen McGurl

McGurl does love playing with the past and the present, especially in relation to genealogy. She hones her craft, which is evident with each new book.

The author takes us from the present with Maria in Ireland to the past with Kitty and Michael in the same village.

Maria suffers from doubt and insecurities, a theme which plays a pivotal role in the story. The relationship with her mother is strained and complicated, which has repercussions in her own life. She thinks the lack of maternal instinct is genetic rather than learned behaviour.

She has decided to combine a few days off with her family research. Following the trail of her famous ancestor she ends up in a remote Irish village trying to discover what happened to the mother he left behind.

McGurl has incorporated an important part of Irish history in her story. The potato famine or Great Famine (an Gorta Mór) of Ireland decimated the population. Over a million men, women and children died of starvation and over a million more emigrated to escape the situation in Ireland. It is fair to say that it not only changed the population, it also changed the political climate and set a path of opposition between the English and Irish that still exists today. The Irish started to oppose English Rule in earnest and rise up against the injustices thrust upon them by their English masters.

Maria finds comfort in the present by trying to uncover the secrets of the past and solve a mystery at the same time. It is an emotional read, especially because the scenarios are down to earth and realistic, both the ones in the present and in the past.

McCurl knows how to create the kind of characters readers can relate to. She writes stories that make you ponder and feel for the people you are reading about.

Buy The Girl from Ballymor at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

Follow @KathMcGurl  @HQStories @HQDigitalUK

Visit kathleenmcgurl.com

Read The Daughters of Red Hill Hall by Kathleen McGurl
Read The Emerald Comb by Kathleen McGurl.
Read The Pearl Locket by Kathleen McGurl.
Read about Kathleen McGurl here.

Puzzle Girl by Rachael Featherstone

Cassy is an ambitious modern woman. Her life seems perfect until her boyfriend decides to dump on her from a height. It throws her for a loop and makes her doubt she will ever find someone she can trust.

I enjoyed the idea of notes relayed via puzzles and a puzzle book. This kind of communication set-up between potential lovers isn't a new idea, and to be honest that doesn't matter because the notes are secondary to the doctor's surgery, which takes the main stage in this entertaining story.

The funniest part of the book is the whole making up excuses to get into the surgery to make notes in this one scrabby little puzzle book. The author has doctor receptionists down to a tee, well the majority of them. It's as if they go to a special school to learn to be obnoxious and condescending. Their complete control and power over the front desk often gives them delusions of grandeur, then again they do hold the key to the door.

Cassy becomes obsessed with finding what she believes to be the perfect man, the kind of man who loves solving puzzles just as much as she does. Perhaps Mr Right isn't quite who she expects him to be.

Featherstone leads readers up the garden path and presents them with the obvious answer, then she does a sharp left turn and everything is up in the air again. The puzzle girl ends up trying to solve the mystery of the puzzle man. This story has exactly the right combination of humour, sass and heartache to be an entertaining read.

Buy Puzzle Girl at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

Follow @WriterRachael @AccentPress

The Limehouse Golem by Peter Ackroyd

This a quite a complex story, so I am interested to see how it translates to the big screen.

It starts with the impending death of Elizabeth Cree aka Lizzie. Charged with the murder of her husband John Cree, the reader is taken back to her childhood, her first days of freedom and her life on the boards performing as everyone but herself.

Other than the Victorian setting, the other aspect of this murder mystery with a gothic vibe, is the deliberate confusion about who the guilty party is. We are given a tour of the mind of the Golem, often during the brutal killings. Then there are the incidents Lizzie is involved in, and let's not forget what happens after Lizzie meets her unfortunate end. (Sorry, you will have to read all about it)

My point is, Ackroyd leaves the reader with a certain question of doubt. Is the 'Golem' really responsible or is Lizzie more than a determined young woman with a troubled past? Is everything as it seems, and what are the chances of different killers coming into contact with each other?

The story gives the reader a great taste of life in the music-halls, the streets of London, and the bawdy entertainment that brightened up the bleary and tough era. Ackroyd brings a macabre and twisted flavour to the bleakness of the setting.  It's all about the killing, and yet at the same time it has nothing to do with it at all.

Buy The Limehouse Golem at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

Blog-Tour: Keep You Safe by Melissa Hill

Today is my stop on the Blog-Tour for Keep You Safe by Melissa Hill. It really is my pleasure to introduce you to this controversial little gem of a book. I'm sure it will generate plenty of discussions and reactions.

About Melissa Hill
A USA Today and No. 1 Irish times and Italian best-seller, Melissa Hill’s books are translated into 25 different languages. One of her titles has been optioned for a movie by a major Hollywood studio, and another is currently in development for TV with a top US production company. Visit her website at www.melissahill.ie or contact her on Twitter @melissahillbks, or melissahillbooks on Facebook and Instagram. Follow @HQStories
Buy Keep You Safe

About the book
What if your choice for your child could harm someone else’s?

Every mother faces impossible choices. Vaccination is one of the hardest. For single mum Kate O’Hara, there was no decision to make. Her daughter Rosie is one of a small percentage of Irish children who can’t be vaccinated against measles. All Kate can do is hope that her little girl is safe.

For mummy blogger Madeleine Cooper, it was a leap of faith she wasn't prepared to take when she and her husband declined controversial measles jabs for their daughter Clara. All she can do is pray that it’s the right decision.

But when classmates Clara and Rosie both become sick will Kate pay for Madeleine’s choice?

Review
There is no denying that this is a hot topic. There are plenty of parents, who choose not to vaccinate their children. They will hit you with a multitude of arguments of why it's the healthier choice for their children, of course it may be at the expense of your child or mine, but the most important factor is that their conscience is clean.

They are convinced the vaccines can be linked to autism, a false fact that has been debunked. The one in every thousand statistics make it seem as if every child will be the one who has a severe reaction. I can understand and feel empathy for the parents trying to protect their children, however the fact these same parents rely on the so-called herd-immunity to keep their own children safe and healthy automatically negates all their arguments for not vaccinating. If you are so convinced that vaccinations are a bad choice and a danger to children then surely you would want them abolished entirely instead of hoping the rest of the vaccinated herd keeps your own baby healthy, right?

Although I believe in vaccinations I also firmly believe that Health Services have a duty of care to children and parents. Vaccines need to be regularly checked and researched. Eradicating dangerous illnesses whilst keeping patients safe should be a priority, as opposed to the growing wealth and influence of big pharmacy. I have lived in a variety of European countries and the vaccines differ from country to country, so over-vaccination and unnecessary vaccinations need to be vetted better. Fact is that anti-vaxxers are the reason certain diseases are making a reappearance again, for instance polio in certain western societies.

At the same time the Health Services need to inform people better and make a more concentrated attempt to debunk myths and wrong information being spread by worried parents.

I really smirked at the 'it wasn't as if she used the blog or any other media she was involved in to foist her opinions on anyone else, and it was just a bit of light-hearted fun' paragraph. The sad thing is Madeleine truly believes that, and I'm guessing the majority of Mommy bloggers would say the same thing, however subconsciously they know that is the farthest thing from the truth. It's all about telling the world your opinion, and of course about how many followers you can attract while doing so. The more funny, snarky or original you sound the better. Regardless of whether you may be spreading dangerous information and pseudo science disguised as facts. Goop springs to mind. There is nothing worse than a sanctimonious supposed do-gooder being able to convince an audience of false facts, just because they are popular.

If you are putting your opinions out there then you also have a duty of care. I think many people who have a social media following tend to forget or rather they decide not to acknowledge it, because the end count is more important.

Kate and Madeleine both made choices for their children, however Kate makes hers because the vaccine does present a proven danger to her child, as opposed to the presumed danger Madeleine thinks exists..

Hill gives an excellent balanced view of both sides of the argument, there is no bias towards either side of  the vaccination issue. Both the anti-vaxxers and vaxxers get their day in court. She also plays around with the question of guilt when it comes to sending an ill child into society when they are a probable danger to other children. It made me think of these idiotic chicken pox lollipops and parties some parents have, when they think having the child contract a contagious disease sooner rather than later or at all, is a brilliant idea.

Ultimately the reader decides, and the author makes sure all the opinions are well-represented and both her main characters are flawed and realistic. We all have to make these decisions as parents, and we try do it to best of our ability. with the welfare of our children at heart.

Hill manages to keep the story well-paced and captivating, despite the seriousness of the topic. It never bows under the pressure of blame or conscience, instead it informs and educates. A good book doesn't always have to be entertaining. Sometimes, and this was one of those moments, it needs to be more than that.

Buy Keep You Safe at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.