#Blogtour Last Testament in Bologna by Tom Benjamin

It’s a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour Last Testament in Bologna by Tom Benjamin.

About the Author

Tom Benjamin grew up in the suburbs of north London and began his working life as a journalist before becoming a spokesman for Scotland Yard. He later moved into public health, where he led drugs awareness programme FRANK. He now lives in Bologna. Follow Tom @Tombenjaminsays on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or at tombenjamin.com

About the book

Last Testament in Bologna is the fourth in Tom Benjamin’s critically-acclaimed Bologna-set series featuring British private detective Daniel Leicester. 

When an old man makes a bequest to investigate the mysterious death of his son, English detective Daniel Leicester follows a trail to one of Bologna’s wealthiest families – makers of some of the world’s most coveted supercars – and discovers that beneath the glamour of the Formula One circuit lurk sinister interests that may be prepared to kill to keep their secrets.

Review

The Comandante has a way of asserting his competence without really doing anything other than having a specific presence when he is around people. If that is not enough then a reminder of his career credentials seems to put people in their place. I think Daniel has taken on a wee bit of that reputation.

The above can be enough of an explanation for their new case, a rather unusual way to to hire investigators though, and certainly a way to ensure the potential suspects are already wary of your motives.

As Daniel navigates a powerful, very competitive field of sport, which is a very lucrative business, ergo one that may compel certain individuals to commit crimes, he learns that perhaps a grieving father had good reason to suspect the narrative of his son falling foul of his own incompetence.

In direct comparison to this we have Daniel struggling with his own family complications and similar reckless attitudes, whilst gives the story an element of relatability, both in regards to the case and life in general. It’s what makes the series so appealing.

I think this series is steadily evolving and improving – it has Dibdin vibes – where surroundings, culture and strong, memorable characters create the kind of read you remember. More importantly it is the perfect recipe for a good read.

Buy Last Testament in Bologna at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher ‏: ‎ Constable; pub date 9 Nov. 2023. Buy at Amazon com.

#Blogtour House of Kwa by Mimi Kwa

It’s a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour House of Kwa by Mimi Kwa.

About the Author

Mimi Kwa has been a journalist and television newsreader for twenty years as well as appearing in TV series and commercials. She and her partner, John, live in Melbourne, with their four children, a cavoodle and a burmese cat. Mimi loves to paint and write. This is her first book.

About the book

Wild Swans meets Educated in this riveting true story spanning four generations – The dragon circles and swoops … a tiger running alone in the night  

Mimi Kwa ignored the letter for days. When she finally opened it, the news was so shocking her hair turned grey. Why would a father sue his own daughter?

The collision was over the estate of Mimi’s beloved Aunt Theresa, but its seed had been sown long ago. In an attempt to understand how it had come to this, Mimi unspools her rich family history in House of Kwa.

One of a wealthy silk merchant’s 32 children, Mimi’s father, Francis, was just a little boy when the Kwa family became caught up in the brutal and devastating Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during World War II. Years later, he was sent to study in Australia by his now independent and successful older sister Theresa. There he met and married Mimi’s mother, a nineteen-year-old with an undiagnosed, chronic mental illness. Soon after, ‘tiger’ Mimi arrived, and her struggle with the past and the dragon – began …

Riveting, colourful and often darkly humorous, House of Kwa is an epic family drama spanning four generations, and an unforgettable story about how one woman finds the courage to stand up for her freedom and independence, squaring off against the ghosts of the past and finally putting them to rest. Throughout, her inspiration is Francis’s late older sister, the jet-setting, free-spirited Aunt Theresa, whose extraordinary life is a beacon of hope in the darkness.

Review

I have to admit the last sentence of the last chapter (not the epilogue) made me smirk. It just encapsulates the history, the heritage, the genealogy, the family web and entirety of this memoir, with such accuracy. The fragile balance between sanity, safety, happiness and peace, which appears to be in a constant state of imbalance because at the core is always this expectation of living up to tradition of prior generations.

It’s a fascinating memoir, there is no question that House of Kwa brings its own building size sense of history, myth and importance with it. That is drawn in direct comparison to the present generations and their attempt to navigate deeply ingrained entitlement.

I think it’s fair to say that it takes an almost out of body observation of self, loved ones and family to be able to not only view and engage her family members in a way that is compassionate, and yet simultaneously stand her ground and fight for what is right.

I really enjoyed the read, Mimi is commendable for being so patient and coming out the other side without falling prey to the traditions and expectations of such an auspicious legacy, and equally finding firm footing in a chaotic modern version of family.

Buy House of Kwa at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher ‏: ‎HarperCollins pub date 9 May 2024. Buy at Amazon com.

#Blogtour The Night in Question by Susan Fletcher

It’s a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour The Night in Question by Susan Fletcher.

*From the literary award winning, bestselling and critically acclaimed novelist Susan Fletcher comes a novel about the richness and adventures of one woman’s life – a joyful, brave, unconventional life, brimming with love and loss in all its forms.* 

About the Author

Susan Fletcher was born in Birmingham and studied English Literature at the University of York. 

Whilst taking the MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, she began her first novel, Eve Green, which won the Whitbread First Novel Award (2004) and Betty Trask Prize (2005). Since then, Susan has written seven novels – whilst also supplementing her writing through various roles, including as a barperson, a cheesemonger and a warden for an archaeological excavation site near Hadrian’s Wall. Most recently, she has been a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the University of Worcester. She lives in Warwickshire. Follow @sfletcherauthor on X

About the book

#“Florrie knows that love, the proper, deep, extraordinary kind – is not about you. Real love is about them, always – about the person who you love above all others, whose happiness you long for above all other things.  With love, you want the best for them.  You want their contentment, their safety.  You want them to laugh freely, to dance, to live a long, healthy life of joy and gratitude – even if this happens away from you, even if your beloved never knows your name.  For that person you’d deny yourself a thousand things in your own life if it meant they had just one of them – just one.  

For one has, with love, the curious notion that you can pass on your own allowance of happiness to them, in some fashion, as if bequeathing pennies that you’d rather they spent, not you.”  – Joy? Here. Have all of mine. 

Review

I think this author has a particular strength when it comes to creating characters the reader becomes invested in. Deeper emotional connections, perhaps because the characters resonate with a specific part of our experiences or our frame of references.

This time the characters and story is woven together with a potential mystery at the core. It allows for a greater exploration of love, life, both lived and lost. In a sense the inner core, when you move through the forest of suspicion and questions, is about the beginning and the end – a path well travelled.

I loved the way this story became an multi genre experience with a literary vibe. The descriptive prose evokes poetic imagery, which is then drawn in a direct contrast to the ageing in Florrie. Knowing that her vivacious and colourful journey is slowing down and declining. Her health and changes that come with aging have become a burden that attracts vicious tongues, and yet despite all that she lives in a world that sees the beauty and joy in the fleeting moments.

I enjoyed the read – will we hear more from Florrie? Or is the path to the end exactly what the readers want for her. It’s a story that travels smoothly from present to past and back again, and sometimes part of that past clings tightly to the travelling ever evolving memory.

Buy The Night in Question at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Bantam; pub date 18th April 2024 | Hardback | £14.99. Buy at Amazon com.

#Blogtour What Everyone Knows About Britain *(Except the British) by Michael Peel

It’s my turn on the Blogtour What Everyone Knows About Britain *(Except the British) by Michael Peel.

About the Author

Michael Peel first joined the Financial Times in 1997. Since then, he has been a foreign correspondent posted in West Africa, the Middle East, South-East Asia, and Europe. Peel’s work has won awards, including from the UK Foreign Press Association and the US Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. He has also written for many other publications including the London Review of Books and TLS. He has appeared on the BBC, Sky and other broadcast media. Follow @Mikepeeljourno on X

About the book

How do you see Britain? That might depend on your point of view, and as long time British foreign correspondent, Michael Peel has come to understand, it can look very different from outside.

It’s tempting to think of the UK as a fundamentally stable and successful nation. But events of the past few years, from Brexit to exposés of imperial history, have begun to spark fierce public debates about whether that is true. Is Britain, just a marginal northern European island nation, marked by injustices, corruption and with a bloody history of slavery, repression and looting?

And yet UK politics, media, and public opinion live constantly in the shadow of old myths, Second World War era nostalgia, and a belief in supposedly core British values of tolerance, decency and fair play. British politicians regularly exploit a damaging complacency that holds that everything will turn out okay, because, in Britain, it always does.

In What Everyone Knows About Britain, Michael Peel digs into the national consciousness with the perspective of distance to pull apart the ways in which we British have become unmoored from crucial truths about ourselves. He shows us that from many perspectives we are no different from other countries whose own national delusions have seen them succumb to abuses of power, increased poverty and divisive conflict.

The battle over Britain’s narrative is the struggle for its future and its place in the world. So, how do we escape the trick mirror – and see ourselves as we really are?

Review

I have to say that Peel ends this books with a lot more positivity and confidence in certain aspects of the people in Britain than I have. I’m guessing it’s better than assuming the worst. We are already on a steady path of exploitation via extremists for destructive purposes. Not sure the people in power have any grip on a possible a constructive role.

The truth is Brexit has decimated our role and previously steadfast position on the global landscape. Having negotiated ourselves out of the power position and into a minor role, we still expect the assumption of power by others. Equally it is worth noting that everything the concept was sold on has merely meant the people of Britain are having to put their hands in their pockets more often – for money and to keep quiet.

Also – just on a side note – perceiving the country as in a better position in regard to racial prejudice in comparison to other EU countries, it’s a fallacy. Sounds great though, but it is blatantly disregarding the white supremacy bubbling in the guise of national pride. The difference compared to other EU countries is that they have stopped trying to hide the bigotry, racism and xenophobia. Groups and supporters growing bigger in direct correlation to a lack of governance, which brings us back to the extremists exploiting the narrative for destructive purposes. 

I really enjoyed the dissection, especially from someone who has the added bonus of seeing and experiencing from the outside. Britain is very insular, having a lengthy experience off the island is the only way to comprehend our strengths, weaknesses and what kind of impact our self-imposed Brexit rules are actually having. It’s a great read, and one that will start many a conversation.

Buy What Everyone Knows About Britain at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher ‏: ‎Monoray; pub date 25 April 2024. Buy at Amazon com.

#Blogtour The Coming Storm by Greg Mosse

It’s a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour The Coming Storm by Greg Mosse.

‘Greg Mosse’s debut novel The Coming Darkness, was a Sunday Times Thriller of 2022, and a Waterstones Thriller of the Month 2022 and widely reviewed. Mosse’s second novel The Coming Storm, sees the return of his anti-hero the French special agent Alex Lamarque, and is part of the new genre of “Cli-Fi Fiction” or Climate Change Fiction that is looking to predict what a post climate change future might look like.‘

About the Author

A theatre director, playwright and actor Greg Mosse is the founder and director of the Criterion New Writing programme at the Criterion Theatre in London, running workshops in script development to a diverse community of writers, actors and directors. In addition, since 2015, Greg has written, produced and stage 25 plays and musicals.

Greg set up both the Southbank Centre Creative Writing School – an open access program of evening classes delivering MA level workshops – and the University of Sussex MA in Creative Writing at West Dean College which he taught for 4 years. 

The husband of the bestselling novelist Kate Mosse, Kate’s hit novel Labyrinth was inspired by a house that Greg and his mother bought together in the French medieval city of Carcassonne, where the couple and their children spent many happy summers. Following the success of Labyrinth, Greg created the innovative readers-and-writers website mosselabyrinth.co.uk MosseLabyrinth. The first of its kind MosseLabrynth was the world’s first online accessible 3D world, and the inspiration for Pottermore – the popular Harry Potter website. 

A multilinguist, Greg has lived and worked in Paris, New York, Los Angeles and Madrid and has worked as both an interpreter at a variety of international institutions and a teacher in the UK.

Greg and Kate live in Chichester, where Kate’s parents founded the Chichester Festival Theatre, they have two grown up children. Visit @GregMosse on X

About the book

In this chilling dystopian thriller climate change is coming for us all.

Greg Mosse’s debut novel The Coming Darkness, was a Sunday Times Thriller of 2022, and a Waterstones Thriller of the Month 2022. Mosse’s second novel The Coming Storm, sees the return of his anti-hero the French special agent Alex Lamarque.

By 2037 the world’s been torn apart by global warming, religious wars and viruses. Against this turbulent setting French special agent Alex Lamarque is hunting eco terrorists attacking energy services and supply lines.

Battling with personal tragedy on one hand, and the intrusion of new-found celebrity on the other, Alex must re-emerge from self-imposed exile to reunite with Mariam – the woman he loves – and Amaury – his truest friend – to face the fight of their lives.

From the streets of Paris, the lithium mines of Southern Mali, and the mighty Aswan Dam, they come up against forces whose intentions are as devious as they are malign. Time is against them, and there’s more at stake than ever. Can they survive The Coming Storm?

A massive new talent in British fiction, Greg Mosse’s storytelling is complex and finely crafted, combining twisting plotlines, intelligent dialogue and ambiguous characters, all skilfully brought together in an epic climax. Never before has dystopian fiction been so chillingly real.  

Review

This is the second book in The Coming Darkness, and where the first book was a preparation of the storm – now it’s here. Was it just me or was this book darker, more morose and calculated? It absolutely leads into the futuristic dystopian aspect of a world and societies hit by the catastrophic changes of climate change. It’s certainly more concerning and frightening because it is written in the impending future and we can already see where the road is headed in our real life scenario.

The author creates a variety of threads – webs of collusion, of connections and of common ground – each thread its own microcosm of the fallout. The characters also seem to take more of a centre stage, as we delve into motivation, family ties and personal accountability.

I found some of the responses to the immediate situations and impending crisis quite interesting. Possibly because the constant threat, the steady flow of threats and danger has made the majority of people desensitised to violence and death. That includes the main characters, despite how much the contrary appears to be true.

It’s a captivating piece of dystopian fiction, which commandeers the stage with a believable concept – some parts we could eventually be living one day – some we are battling at the moment. It’s complex, and yet simultaneously easy to comprehend. 

Buy The Coming Storm by Greg Mosse at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Moonflower Books | pub date 25th April 2024 | £9.99| Paperback Original. Buy at Amazon com.

#PublicationDayBlitz The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou

It’s a pleasure to take part in the Publication Day Blitz The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou by Eleni Kyriacou.

 Author photo: credit – Jon Cartwright

About the Author

Eleni Kyriacou is an award-winning editor and journalist. Her writing has appeared in the Guardian, the Observer, Grazia, and Red, among others. She’s the daughter of Greek Cypriot immigrant parents, and her debut novel, She Came To Stay, was published in 2020. Her latest novel, The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou, is inspired by the true-crime story of the penultimate woman to be executed in Britain. Follow @EleniKWriter on X and elenikwriter.com.

About the book

They have told so many lies about me.

London, 1954. Zina Pavlou, a Cypriot grandmother, waits quietly in the custody of the Metropolitan police. She can’t speak their language, but she understands what their wary looks mean: she has been accused of the brutal murder of her daughter-in-law.

Eva Georgiou, Greek interpreter for the Met, knows how it feels to be voiceless as an immigrant woman. While she works as Zina’s translator, her obsession with the case deepens, and so too does her bond with the accused murderer.

Zina can’t speak for herself. She can’t clear her own name. All she can do is wait for the world to decide… Is she a victim? Or is she a killer?

A compelling historical crime novel set in the Greek diaspora of 1950s London – that’s inspired by a true story – The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou is perfect for fans of Erin Kelly, Sara Collins, and Jessie Burton.

Review

Both sides of the coin of justice play a role in this story. The disparity created by a lack of support for accused who are unable to communicate in the language of their chosen country, the way the press and prejudice create a specific frame of reference that has undue influence over the opinions and thereby also possibly court, judge and jury.

On the other side there is pesky legislation (depending on court and country) that often comes into play about the use of prior information that could also influence one way or the way. In this particular scenario Eva keeps pertinent information from the authorities, which could determine a different outcome for Zina, although I’m certain it is the attempt to save the woman.

She sees parallels between her own experiences and the way her mother was treated as an non-English speaking person from a foreign country. It’s at the core of her interactions with Zina, despite I think knowing what the truth is – deep down she knows she is capable, but the lack of fairness and inequality towards this woman override everything else.

I really enjoyed the way the author shed a light on the way recognising systemic bias can influence the most important institutions, regardless of guilt or innocence – all deserve an equal chance in court.

It’s a captivating read, a tale with a factual story at the core. The unpicking of Zina and Eva, the scrutiny of life as an immigrant and way we interact with others, especially when others look and sound different. It’s a fantastic book I hope to read more by this author.

Buy The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher ‏: ‎Head of Zeus — an Aries Book; pub date 25 April 2024. Buy at Amazon com.

#Blogtour The Other Tenant by Lesley Kara

It’s my turn on the Blogtour The Other Tenant by Lesley Kara, published by Bantam Press – 25th April 2024.

‘From the Sunday Times bestselling author comes a gripping new thriller that asks how well you really know the people you share a home with… After all, living with strangers can be murder…‘

About the Author

Lesley Kara is the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Rumour, Who Did You Tell?, The Dare and The Apartment Upstairs. The Rumour was the highest selling crime fiction debut of 2019 in the UK, and a Kindle No.1 bestseller. Lesley is an alumna of the Faber Academy ‘Writing a Novel’ course. She lives in Kent.

You can follow Lesley on Twitter @LesleyKara or visit her website at lesleykara.com

About the book

The Queen of the killer twist is back in this gripping closed-circle thriller about an unusual home full of strangers, with a murderer in their midst… 

Marlow has always lived in unusual places. But when she accepts a position as a live-in property guardian, she finds herself moving somewhere she swore she’d never return to. Right from the start, she knows it’s a terrible mistake. The elegant Victorian school is due to be turned into luxury apartments, but its eerie, empty corridors are full of Marlow’s worst memories.

And now something sinister is happening on the site. One of the other tenants has disappeared without warning, and Marlow suspects that the nine other guardians know far more than they’re letting on. She’s determined to find out what happened to the missing woman – but which of these strangers can she trust? And can she uncover the truth before her own past catches up with her?

Review

From a plot scenario perspective I was in two minds about the concept of being a property guardian – by the way is this a thing? The idea of living in extraordinary spaces, unusual or perhaps those reserved for the more privileged, it’s intriguing. A little bit like treasure hunting, urban exploring and the appreciation of spaces.

The flip-side includes the trauma inducing deserted places, the shabby and spooky ones, but the dealbreaker for me would probably be the having to share living space with complete strangers on the spur of a moment. Frequently changing people and no control over how many or how often it may happen. Unless we are talking desperate measures, the apocalypse or a zombie invasion, I’m not sure I would ever agree to the above.

I think it’s the combination of enticing and trust your gut instinct that makes the concept such a great idea, because the reader kind of knows it has the potential to go really wrong for someone – is that someone Marlow?

Marlow finds herself right back at the core of her inner trauma when her role as property guardian takes her right back to her previous life, this time with a bunch of strangers who seem curiously disinterested in the disappearance of the person she is replacing.

It’s very much an atmosphere and space/place driven story, the author uses the evoked visuals to create a constant current of danger, fear and suspicion. It’s a great read.

Buy The Other Tenant at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Bantam Press; pub date 25th April 2024 | Hardback | £14.99. Buy at Amazon com.

#Blogtour Five Bad Deeds by Caz Frear

It’s a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour Five Bad Deeds by Caz Frear.

About the Author

Caz Frear has a first class degree in History and Politics, and spent twelve years working as a headhunter before she started writing. She hasn’t lost her enthusiasm for networking, and is a popular member of the crime fraternity. She lives in Coventry with her husband. 

Her debut, the number one bestseller Sweet Little Lies, was the winner of the Richard & Judy Search for a Bestseller Competition 2017 and went on to sell over 250,000 copies. It was followed by Stone Cold Heart and Shed No Tears, both of which feature her police detective Cat Kinsella. Five Bad Deeds is her first standalone thriller. Follow @CazziF on X

About the book

One Womans Secret, Two sides to every story, Three deadly betrayals, Four potential suspects, Five bad deeds.

Ellen Walsh has done something very, very bad. If only she knew what it was . . .

Teacher, mother, wife, and all-around good citizen Ellen is juggling non-stop commitments, from raising a teen and two toddlers to job-hunting, to finally renovating her dream home, the Meadowhouse. Amidst the chaos, an ominous note arrives in the mail declaring:

Sooner or later everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.

Why would someone send her this note? Ellen has no clue. She’s no angel – a white lie here and there, an occasional sharp tongue – but nothing to incur the wrath of an anonymous enemy.

Everyone around Ellen – her husband, her teenage daughter, her sister, her best friend, her neighbours – can guess why, though. They all know from bitter experience that while Ellen’s intentions are always good, this ultimately counts for very little when you’ve (unintentionally?) blown up someone’s life. Could the five bad deeds that come to haunt Ellen explain why things have gone so horribly wrong?

As she races to discover who’s set on destroying her life, Ellen receives more anonymous messages, each one more threatening than the last . . . and each hitting closer and closer to home and everything she cherishes.

Review

I really enjoyed the vibe of this story – deliciously wicked undertone of authenticity and lack of clarity when it comes to black or white – everyone has their own version of somewhere in between. Sharp wit, thoughtless jibes, nasty intentions – no wonder someone has had enough and wants to expose the hypocrisy.

Interestingly Ellen doesn’t really evoke sympathy, empathy or much compassion. I think the majority of readers understand why Orla makes Ellen ragey, why hubby frustrates her, why the twins make her feel as if her life is a constant cycle of chaos. Her sister is somewhere between frenemy and jealous friend, her friends a necessity for appearances – actually that seems to be a lot of negativity, perhaps because it is and she is.

That’s without even wandering into the murky secrets Ellen keeps locked away, not well enough it seems. Someone is out to expose her one secret at a time – she isn’t the only one keeping secrets though. As the threats pile in Ellen becomes a little less cautious and a lot more willing to keep her life intact.

It’s a riveting psychological thriller. The sharp-tongued and brutally honest main character resonates, mainly because life really is just a series of choices, secrets, compromises and challenges. Some of us can cope with them without doing anything drastic, other people not so much. Highly recommend.

Buy Five Bad Deeds at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Simon and Schuster Uk; pub date 11th April 2024 | Hardback £14.99. Buy at Amazon com.

#Blogtour Death in Nonna’s Kitchen by Alex Coombs

It’s a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour Death in Nonna’s Kitchen by Alex Coombs. It’s the second book in the An Old Forge Café Mystery series.

About the Author

Alex Coombs was born in Lambeth in South London and studied Arabic at Oxford and Edinburgh Universities. Murder on the Menu was his first book in the new series: the Old Forge Café Mysteries. Alex lives in the Chilterns. Follow @AlexCoombsCrime on X

About the book

When famous TV chef Matteo McLeish turns up at the Old Forge Café and offers chef Charlie Hunter a place in his kitchen for the duration of Hampden Green’s local opera festival, she thinks it’s because he rates her cooking skills. In fact it’s because he’s heard she’s good in a crisis. The wholesome star of Nonna’s Kitchen is being blackmailed by one of his team.

Tempted by an improbably large pay cheque and the boost to to her CV, Charlie accepts his offer. Does the threat lie close to home, or back in Italy with Matteo’s culinary roots? And can Charlie find the blackmailer before she’s swept up in an avalanche of death and scandal?

Review

At first Charlie thinks Matteo the celebrity TV chef wants her for her kitchen talents, but it turns out her sleuthing skills are a much higher priority for him. Oh well, as long as everyone thinks Matteo has picked her to be part of his skilled staff, because she is an excellent chef, that’s all that matters, right? Charlie doesn’t take appearances that seriously, she does however put her restaurant first – always.

Matteo expects Charlie to find a blackmailer, a snake hidden among his own team. Someone intent on destroying his reputation and that of his loved one. At least it seems as if that is all that is at stake, until death comes knocking and that changes everything.

Although the cast of characters from the first book come into play, they do stand in the shadow of Matteo and his team of kitchen experts a wee bit. I’d love to see a little more of some of the characters who had quite comical moments before, although Charlie is definitely the one at the centre of everything. 

I can envision this as screen series, with plenty of food and dessert shots for the foodies of course, but it definitely has a quaint cosy mystery element to it, despite the fact it does wander into more subjects at times. This is the second book in the series, but it can absolutely be read as a standalone book. 

Buy Death in Nonna’s Kitchen at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: No Exit Press; pub date 11 April 2024 – £9.99. Buy at Amazon com.

#Blogtour The Secret Keepers by Tilly Bagshawe

It’s a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour The Secret Keepers by Tilly Bagshawe.

About the Author

Tilly Bagshawe is the internationally bestselling author of nineteen previous novels and has written for newspapers and magazines including the Sunday Times, Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph. She lives in London with her husband and 4 children. She is available for interview and to write features. 

About the book

Sweeping from the French Riviera to the wind-blown Cornish cliffs, this is a spellbinding novel about the fates and fortunes of the Challant family – and the devastating secrets that echo through the years . . 

The beautiful bastide at Beaulieu-sur-Mer has always been an idyllic retreat for the Challant family, a place of glorious memories and sun-drenched summers. But the summer of 1928 changes everything. 

One humid, stormy night, a young local boy suffers a fatal accident in the bastide’s grounds – and the suspicious circumstances around his death sets off a chain of whispers in the town on the Riviera. 

For the Challant children, they have no choice but to move on and leave those terrible events in the past. But through the years of loves and losses, marriages and betrayals, the Challants’ lives will always be tainted by that night. And it’s only by unlocking devastating family secrets that they’ll finally be set free…

Review

The Challant children are wedged between a mother who secretly despises herself and her husband for not being able to live the life she wants. Her soul wants to be the artist, and yet she is as caged as the birds she treasures in her remarkable aviary. Her husband rules the roost with a patriarchal sense of superiority. 

As the reader moves from the adult children in the future back to important periods in their past, it becomes clear that a tragic event has not only triggered a lifetime of fears and insecurities, but perhaps also determined the paths the children have taken. The adults they grow into, the baggage they carry and the secrets they keep – it has the potential to destroy them.

I think Bagshawe deviates from her usual popular recipe with this book – it has more of a family and tortured emotional bond meets the demands of unresolved trauma vibe. Evolving from the physical to the fraught webs of the kind of relationships that weave webs of invisible patterns across both decades and people.

It’s contemporary fiction with a steadfast hold in the past. A story driven by past fears, trauma, conflicted feelings of guilt, and at the core of it all is a tragic mystery.

Buy The Secret Keepers at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Harper Collins; pub date 11th April 2024 | PBO | Audio | Ebook | £8.99. Buy at Amazon com.