#Blogtour Tell Me Lies by Teresa Driscoll

It’s a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour Tell Me lies by Teresa Driscoll. From the two-million copy bestselling author of Her Perfect Family and I Will Make You Pay.

About the Author

Teresa Driscoll is a former BBC TV news presenter whose psychological thrillers have sold nearly two million copies across the world. Her first thriller I Am Watching You hit Kindle Number 1 in the UK, USA and Australia and has sold more than a million copies in English alone. 

Teresa writes women’s fiction as well as thrillers and her work has been optioned for film and sold for translation in more than 20 territories. For decades Teresa was a journalist working across newspapers, magazines and television. Covering crime for so long, she was deeply moved by the haunting impact on the relatives, the friends and the witnesses and it is those ripples she explores now in her darker fiction. Teresa lives in glorious Devon with her family and blogs regularly about her ‘writing life’ on her website, www.teresadriscoll.com. Follow @TeresaDriscoll on Twitter

About the book

From bestselling author Teresa Driscoll comes a chilling thriller of past secrets and present terror. Deep in a rural hideaway, it’s only the owls watching them … right?

After a betrayal that sent their marriage into freefall, Hannah and Sam are desperate for a fresh start with their eight-year-old daughter Lily—and where better than picture-perfect Owl Cottage in beautiful Cornwall. But something about the holiday home stirs dark memories for Hannah …

When she finds dead creatures on the doorstep and hears mysterious knocks at the door, Hannah can’t help wondering whether someone is messing with her—or whether the past she’s been running from has finally claimed her sanity.

As the disturbing events at Owl Cottage seep out into the local community and the police become involved, Hannah turns to Sam for help. But he dismisses her worries, and she begins to wonder if she was wrong to ever trust him. Are the memories making her paranoid, or is this something more sinister than she dares imagine?

Review

I think Hannah is a curious character in the sense that she can appear to tick boxes and perhaps even irritate readers to the point of manoeuvring herself into the position of prime suspect or guilty party.  At the very least she then emerges as the hypersensitive cuckolded wife leaning towards sightly unhinged.

It’s easy to believe she is merely manifesting fear in a certain way, because there has been massive betrayal and upheaval in her recent life. Playing into that is the unresolved trauma she is unaware of or rather of the magnitude of her unresolved subconscious issues.

I thought the author did a great job of not only highlighting the skewing of boundaries when it comes to lived trauma, generational trauma being projected on to the next person in line and perhaps not being able to comprehend where one stops and the reality of a situation happening now ends. How women are gaslit on a daily basis when it comes to mental health, medical issues and just life in general.

It’s a dark domestic psychological thriller that keeps the reader guessing for quite a while. It has that creepy isolated atmosphere fuelled by what appears to be paranoia and a healthy dose of mistrust. You know what they say though – it isn’t paranoia when they are really out to get you, right?

Buy Tell Me Lies at Amazon uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher ‏: ‎Thomas & Mercer pub date 18 April 2023. Buy at Amazon com.

#BlogTour A Stolen Memory by David Beckler

Antonia Conti returns in the explosive sequel to A Long Shadow! Don’t miss A Stolen Memory by David Beckler.

About the Author

Born in Addis Ababa in 1960, David Beckler spent his first eight years living on an agricultural college in rural Ethiopia where his love of reading developed. After dropping out of university he became a firefighter and served nineteen years before leaving to start his own business. David began writing in 2010 and uses his work experiences to add realism to his fiction. 

The first in his Antonia Conti series, A Long Shadow, was inspired by David’s concerns about the growing role corruption and privatisation play in public life, and was published in October 2022. David lives in Manchester, his adopted home since 1984. Follow @DavidBeckler1 on Twitter, Visit davidbeckler.com

About the book

London, the near future. GRM, a shadowy company running private prisons, has introduced a programme to alter prisoners’ memories, removing those that led to their criminal behaviour. When journalist Antonia Conti hears rumours that the technology has deadly side effects, she decides to investigate.

Antonia has looked into GRM’s corrupt dealings with the government before – and she knows they are merciless. It’s not long before she finds herself narrowly escaping a horrific car accident that leaves a whistle blower dead. 

She enlists her old friend DI Russell Chapman to check out the supposed ‘accident,’ and discovers that he’s already investigating three other deaths that appear suspiciously linked to her own investigations.

But the deeper Antonia probes, the more her friends and colleagues are at risk. Whatever sinister experiments GRM are conducting, they are determined to keep them secret – by any means necessary. Can Antonia and Chapman thwart them before anyone else loses their mind – or their life? 

Review

Looking for solutions when it comes to criminal behaviour, seems like such an obvious thing to back and support. The current methods or justice system doesn’t appear to be working – time for new solutions, right. The idea sounds very dystopian and a way to address quite a few deviant and violent behaviours. Erase the memories, reduce triggers that cause the behaviours – it all seems so simple.

Yeh, aside from the fact nothing is ever that easy I’m sure it would be a very profitable venture for any company. The real problem is that if you can manipulate people that easily, and their behaviour, then someone is going to use the technology for nefarious purposes. Enter this premise stage left.

This is the sequel to A Long Shadow, and I think it is fair to say both Conti and the author are just getting started. Corruption, greed and power is a very deep and endless source of material. The question is how Antonia is going to keep herself from being swallowed up by the pit.

The author gives us the kind of premise that can become a bit of a moral dilemma, in the sense that a lot of people could be persuaded to ignore the clear negative aspects of this idea and the collateral damage, because of the profit margin and many ways this can used to control, but also because the conscience of the do-gooders in society will be easily swayed by an easy-fix. A little bit like when everyone thought a lobotomy was an insta-fix for every and any illness.

This main character is getting a bit of a reputation for being fearless and relentless. Can’t wait to see where this series goes next.

Buy A Stolen Memory at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher Thomas & Mercer, pub date 19th January 2023 | £8.99 | Paperback Original. Buy at Amazon com.

#Blogtour Death in Heels by Kitty Murphy

It’s a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour Death in Heels by Kitty Murphy.

About the Author

Kitty Murphy lives with her husband, Roger, on the very westerly edge of CO. Clare, Ireland. She adores drag in all its forms and crime fiction in all its chilling splendour. Kitty is bi/queer. From a well spent youth divided equally between the library and the LGBTQ+ scene, it was only a matter of time until both worlds collided in a flurry of fictional sequins. Follow Kitty on Instagram: @kitty_murphy writes or on Twitter: @scribblingink1

About the book

When Fi went to support her best friend’s drag debut, she didn’t imagine a killer would be going to watch it too. And they’re waiting for their grand finale…

Fi McKinnery is overwhelmed with pride, watching her best friend Robyn perform his drag debut as the dazzling Mae B at Dublin’s premier drag club Trash. But the evening is ruined when bitchy young queen Eve Harrington lampoons Mae B’s performance and ruins the show. Eve is unceremoniously evicted from the club, and later that night Fi finds her dead, face down in a flooded gutter.

The police decide it was an accident and the queens are keen to move on as well,  but Fi isn’t so sure. Eve had plenty of enemies with her casual cruelty and many people might have wanted her dead. Fi is determined to uncover the truth, even though her ‘Hagatha Christie’ sleuthing is driving a wedge between her and Robyn, whose star is now rising at TRASH.

Something dark is lurking beneath the feathers, glitter and sequins of Dublin’s drag scene. Fi is determined to protect her friends, even as they distance themselves from her. Can she stop the killer before more people die?

Review

I wonder if Fi realises that supporting and encouraging her friend Robyn to emerge themselves into the world of drag is also a step that will lead to humiliation and death. Is her quest to find a vicious murderer also the beginning of the end of their friendship, even if Fi is only trying to keep her friend safe. Fi has become a hazard to the newly found sanctuary and their community.

It’s interesting to watch Robyn slowly be drawn into the close circle of the drag queens. Home has finally opened its doors, and same embraces same, whilst simultaneously drawing a line between Fi and Robyn. As she investigates the death Robyn takes on a defensive stance and begins to regard Fi as the enemy.

Aside from Robyn escaping the cocoon of societal norms and boundaries, and the journey to face internal and external fears and threats, I found the cracks that appear in the relationship between Fi and Robyn quite deep. Once inseparable and supportive of each other, one of the friends finds themselves fighting to fix the chasm that has appeared between them. I’m sure the question of whether finding the killer is worth throwing their friendship away is one that hovers in the background, and equally whether it is sustainable after Robyn finds a new place to become the inner butterfly that has been waiting to emerge.

It’s a murder mystery, one that fits under the genre heading of crime, but it ventures beyond the vast space all things murder and mayhem encompasses – it’s also a tale of coming-of-age, of coming out, of discovery of self. Perhaps most importantly it’s a story about finding a safe space where you belong and are accepted for each and every facet of your self.

Buy Death in Heels at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Thomas and Mercer, Pub date 1st January 2023. Paperback – £8.99. Buy at Amazon com.

#BlogTour #Audiobook No Place To Run by Mark Edwards

It’s a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour for the Audiobook version of No Place to Run by Mark Edwards.

About the Author

Mark Edwards writes psychological thrillers in which scary things happen to ordinary people. Mark has sold over 3.5 million books since his first solo novel, The Magpies, was published in 2013 and has topped the bestseller lists numerous times. His other novels include Follow You Home, Here To Stay and The House Guest. 

He has also published six books co-authored with Louise Voss. His last book, The Hollows, was published in July 2021. Mark lives in the West Midlands, England, with his wife, their three children and two cats. He Tweets at @mredwards

About the book

Two years ago, on a trip to Seattle to visit her brother Aidan, fifteen-year-old Scarlett vanished into thin air.

After years of false leads and dead ends, Aidan has almost given up hope. But then a woman sees a girl running for her life across a forest clearing in Northern California. She is convinced the girl is the missing Scarlett. But could it really be her?

Heading south, Aidan finds a fire-ravaged town covered in missing-teenager posters. The locals seem afraid, the police won’t answer any questions and it looks like another dead end―until a chance meeting with returned local Lana gives Aidan his first clue. But as they piece together what happened, Lana and Aidan make deadly enemies. Enemies willing to do anything to silence them. Only one thing matters now: finding Scarlett ― even if it kills him. 

Review

This review is based on the audiobook version – I personally often find listening and reading experiences of the same book or material to be completely different, despite the subject matter. Possibly because the narrator replaces a lot of the imaginary character constructs, and situational reactions and tensions, one automatically creates whilst reading. That’s a pretty long-winded way of saying that I am also going to be reading the hardcopy or digital version of this story.

When Aidan decides to solve the mystery of his teenage sister, who disappeared into thin air a few years prior, he doesn’t realise he will end up having to wade through a quagmire of deception, greed, and ruthless corruption. He finds a companion in Lana, who like himself is looking for a missing loved one – in a town covered in missing posters. Sounds creepy, right? Yeh, it goes to places you just won’t expect it to.

Having read prior work by this author I think it’s fair to say that although this also carries the trademark slow-building and burning when it comes to storytelling, it is also the most boundary pushing and extensive in terms of scope. There was definitely an aspect of opening new doors and seeing where that leads us, especially in regard to combining genres. It’s more speculative, and tugs quite a few ripcords when it comes to controversial topics and indeed 21st century problems.

It’s a captivating, has the potential to be a more than one-of, mystery come thriller. A slight deviation from the usual books by this author, but I am absolutely here for it. I love it when an author goes beyond the realms they might be boxed into for a variety of reasons – the results are often a great reading or listening experience.

Buy No Place to Run by Mark Edwards at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publication: Thomas & Mercer, pub date 21st June 2022 | Paperback -£8.99. Buy at Amazon com.

Listening Length – 10 hours and 11 minutes, Author – Mark Edwards, Narrator – Will M. Watt. Whispersync for Voice – Ready, Audible.co.uk Release Date – 21 June 2022, Publisher – Brilliance Audio, Program Type – Audiobook, Version – Unabridged, Language – English.

#BlogTour In For the Kill by Ed James

Today it is my pleasure to host the BlogTour for In For the Kill by Ed James. His DI Fenchurch series is infused with the feel of the ordinary man dealing with everyday problems, as opposed to unrealistic fictional scenarios.

About the Author

Ed James writes crime fiction novels, predominantly the Scott Cullen series of police procedurals set in Edinburgh and the surrounding Lothians – the first four are available now, starting with Ghost in the Machine which has been downloaded over 280,000 times and is currently free. Bottleneck (Cullen 5) is out on 17-Mar-14. He is currently developing two new series – DI Simon Fenchurch and DS Vicky Dodds, set in London and Dundee respectively. He also writes the Supernature series, featuring vampires and other folkloric creatures, of which the first book Shot Through the Heart is out now and free.

Ed lives in the East Lothian countryside, 25 miles east of Edinburgh, with his girlfriend, six rescue moggies, two retired greyhounds, a flock of ex-battery chickens and rescue ducks across two breeds and two genders (though the boys don’t lay eggs). While working in IT for a living, Ed wrote mainly on public transport but now writes full time.

Follow @EdJamesAuthor on Twitter @EdJamesAuthor on Facebook

Visit edjamesauthor.com/

 About the book

A university student is found strangled to death in her bedroom, but when the embattled DI Simon Fenchurch is called in to investigate, the case strikes dangerously close to home.

On the surface, the victim was a popular, high-performing student. But as secret grudges against her emerge, so too does evidence that she was living a double life, working on explicit webcam sites for a seedy London ganglord. Everyone Fenchurch talks to knows a lot more than they’re willing to tell, and before long he’s making new enemies of his own—threatening to push him and his family past breaking point.

With too many suspects and not enough facts, Fenchurch knows his new superiors are just waiting for him to fail—they want him off the case, and off the force for good. His family is in more danger than ever before. So how deep is he willing to dig in order to unearth the truth?

Review

The endearing quality of DI Fenchurch and his stories is the absolute chaos. The reader just jumps along for the ride, and it is certainly a fast and wild one. He is also a normal man. He doesn’t have super human strength or have a genius IQ. Fenchurch is just a normal kind of guy trying to do his job to the best of his ability, whilst dealing with the emotional upheaval of his family problems.

After finally finding the daughter, who was kidnapped a decade ago, he and his wife are finding it hard to come to terms with her lack of interest in them. Chloe displays oppositional and risk-taking behaviour. She is convinced that her bio parents are the enemy and the criminals, because they are the ones who had her ‘real’ parents put in prison.

Chloe wants space, her friends want them to give her space, which is good advice and yet hard to follow. None of them are taking the side of her bio parents into consideration. I can’t imagine anything more upsetting than losing a child and regaining an enemy. How does a parent deal with that?

The extremely difficult family situation is exacerbated by the fact his work and family life have become intertwined in this latest murder case Fenchurch is working on. Now he has to keep his distance to Chloe as a father, and yet try to determine her involvement in the murder of a young woman at the same time.

I liked the way Ed James combines the police procedural with one of the most traumatic events a parent can go through, and he does it without being overly dramatic. The scenes between the parents and grandparents are exactly how I imagine they would be. Nothing like a soap opera drama or TV movie event.

James writes a pithy, tumultuous and emotional read, with a sub-layer of wit and breath of realism. It is a fast-paced story with characters readers can identify with.

Buy In For the Kill at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

Published by Thomas & Mercer 19th April 2018

@AmazonPub