Tag Archives: Isobel Blackthorn

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#BlogTour A Prison in the Sun by Isobel Blackthorn

Today it’s my turn on the BlogTour A Prison in the Sun by Isobel Blackthorn.About the Author

Isobel Blackthorn is an award-winning author of unique and engaging fiction. She writes dark psychological thrillers, mysteries, and contemporary and literary fiction. Isobel was shortlisted for the Ada Cambridge Prose Prize 2019 for her biographical short story, ‘Nothing to Declare’. The Legacy of Old Gran Parks is the winner of the Raven Awards 2019. Isobel holds a PhD from the University of Western Sydney, for her research on the works of Theosophist Alice A. Bailey, the ‘Mother of the New Age.’ She is the author of The Unlikely Occultist: a biographical novel of Alice A. Bailey.

About the book

After millennial ghostwriter Trevor Moore rents an old farmhouse in Fuerteventura, he moves in to find his muse. Instead, he discovers a rucksack filled with cash. Who does it belong to – and should he hand it in… or keep it? Struggling to make up his mind, Trevor unravels the harrowing true story of a little-known concentration camp that incarcerated gay men in the 1950s and 60s.

Review

A man on trip to find himself and his muse. Trevor is intrigued by his surroundings at first even if they are bleak and dusty, but is appalled when he finds the bedroom window of his holiday dwelling would have had a first hand view of the unlawfully detained prisoners at work in the stony desolate earth. He is reluctant to embrace it as an inspiration, because of what he has been through with his ex-wife.

Built in a stony desert, on the wasteland of an abandoned old airport, without water or the basic minimum conditions needed to sustain life – the remains of the Agricultural Penitentiary Colony of Tefia, which is on the island of Fuerteventura, stand. It is a symbol of the brutality of the Franco regime, one I am sure many of the descendants of those in charge still try to gloss over or deny, as they do with the majority of the atrocities committed during the Franco regime.

Dozens of men were beaten, humiliated and forced to work hard labour for years. Why? Because Franco believed a regime of hard and healthy work would cure them of their sexual preferences. Arrested under a law that liberally encompassed everything from troublemakers, pimps and vagrants – they were condemned and punished for their homosexuality.

Trevor is still struggling with the fact his ex-wife is living with a woman, which is quite a bizarre obstruction to his writing, because he himself appears to struggle with attraction to the same gender. So it’s fair to say confronting one would actually mean confronting oneself, which he is reluctant to do.

Whilst searching for a muse or some sort of inspiration he accidentally, as only an overweight middle-aged white guy on holiday abroad can do, stumbles upon a rucksack that contains something valuable and something unique and irreplaceable.

I’m glad Blackthorn worked this into the plot, because although I am aware of many of the atrocities during this period I wasn’t aware of the prison on Tefia. Kudos to her for that. Once again the author works her trademark talent for describing the surroundings into the story.

It’s urban crime, well perhaps rural crime which delves into history and more importantly crimes against the homosexual community. As always a story that delivers more.

Buy A Prison in the Sun at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Magnum Opus – A Next Chapter Imprint; pub date November 19, 2019. Buy at Amazon com.

Read my reviews of The Unlikely Occultist, A Perfect Square and A Matter of Lattitude by Isobel Blackthorn.

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#BlogTour The Unlikely Occultist: A Biographical Novel of Alice A. Bailey by Isobel Blackthorn

Today it’s my turn on the BlogTour The Unlikely Occultist: A Biographical Novel of Alice A. Bailey by Isobel Blackthorn.About the Author

Isobel Blackthorn is a prolific novelist of unique and engaging fiction. She writes across a range of genres, including psychological thrillers, gripping mysteries, captivating travel fiction and hilarious dark satire.

Isobel holds a PhD in Western Esotericism for her ground-breaking study of the texts of Theosophist Alice A. Bailey. Her engagement with Alice Bailey’s life and works has culminated in the biographical novel, The Unlikely Occultist.

Follow @IBlackthorn on Twitter, on Facebook, on Instagram, on Goodreads, Visit isobelblackthorn.com, Buy The Unlikely Occultist

About the book

Librarian Heather Brown discovers the fascinating life of Alice Bailey – a long forgotten occultist.

Back in 1931, Alice is preparing to give a speech at a Swiss summer school. But how can she stave the tide of hatred and greed set to bring the world to its knees?

Soon after, Alice is put on Hitler’s blacklist. What she doesn’t realize is the enormity of her influence to the world, and the real enemies who are much closer than she thinks.

A dynamic and complex figure, Alice Bailey’s reach was huge. She was influential among people and organizations of global power, especially the United Nations, and is widely regarded as the Mother of the New Age.

Yet today she is maligned by fundamentalist Christians, Theosophists, Jews, academics and above all, by conspiracy theorists. Are any of these groups justified in rejecting the unlikely occultist?

Review

It won’t come as a much of a surprise that there are plenty of invisible women in history who have influenced life the way we know it, and yet we are completely unaware of them. When I say we I mean the majority of society or the world even, depending on which domain the person has influenced.

Alice A. Bailey is one of those women. She made her mark on the world in her field of interest and expertise, and in many other areas. Creating a ripple in a large body of water, and yet she was ridiculed for it and scorned into obscurity. Blackthorn puts forth some interesting theories for the reasons why Bailey was discredited. In the end competition and the fight for recognition in areas that were deemed non-scientific (pseudoscience) and based on theory rather than fact, was fierce. Perhaps more so between women trying to assert themselves in a male dominated world and those who thought nothing of borrowing ideas.

It would be remiss of me not to mention the reasons that are more frequently mentioned in regards to Bailey and her fall from grace. Some of her work has a very clear anti-Jewish slant. Sentences such as: ‘Today the law (karma) is working and the Jews are paying the price, factually and symbolically, for all they have done in the past’. For someone who had such concise thoughts on how to help those in need, her thoughts and New World Order ideology was often a stark contrast.

I think it’s fair to say that Blackthorn definitely gives readers the opportunity to learn about an influential writer, who has a body of work with not enough recognition. The attempt to dissect and study her life, relationships and work comes together in a way that sheds a favourable and fair light on Bailey. The combination of fact and fiction brings her name and influence to the table and perhaps even a 21st century view on the woman and her legacy.

Buy The Unlikely Occultist: A Biographical Novel of Alice A. Bailey at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Creativia; ecopy pub date 4 Dec. 2018.   Buy at Amazon com.

Read my reviews of A Matter of Latitude and A Perfect Square by Isobel Blackthorn.

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Happy 10th Anniversary Odyssey Books!

Today It’s a pleasure to help Odyssey Books celebrate 10 years as an Australian publisher. You and I are celebrating with them.

Odyssey Books – Where books are an adventure

It’s their birthday, and they have a gift for you – “A Perfect Square” by Isobel Blackthorn – an unusual, dark mystery packed with intrigue – will be $0.99/£0.99 on July 14th, 2019. 

Drop by odysseybooks.com.au to have a look at all the great books they have to offer. 

Follow @OdysseyBooks on Twitter

Read all about 100 books in 10 years

About the Author

Isobel Blackthorn is a prolific novelist of original fiction across a range of genres, including psychological thrillers, gripping mysteries, captivating travel fiction and hilarious dark satire.

Isobel holds a PhD in Western Esotericism for her ground-breaking study of the texts of Theosophist Alice A. Bailey. Her engagement with Alice Bailey’s life and works has culminated in the biographical novel, The Unlikely Occultist.

Isobel carries a lifelong passion for the Canary Islands, Spain, her former home. Many of her novels are set on the islands, including The Drago Tree, which was released in 2015 and is now in Spanish translation, Clarissa’s Warning and A Matter of Latitude. These novels are setting rich and fall into the broad genre of travel fiction, and the novels are as much stories about the islands themselves as they are straight-ahead entertainment.

Isobel has led a rich and interesting life and her stories are as diverse as her experiences, the highs and lows, and the dramas. Some of her writing is dark, like the psychological thriller, Twerk, which is based on six years of research and first-hand accounts of dancers working in what are euphemistically called gentlemen’s clubs.

A life-long campaigner for social justice, Isobel has written, protested and leant her weight to a range of issues including family violence. A Londoner originally, Isobel currently lives near Melbourne, Australia.

Follow @IBlackthorn on Twitter, on Facebook, on Instagram, on Goodreads, Visit isobelblackthorn.com

About the book

When pianist Ginny Smith moves back to her mother’s house in Sassafras after her breakup with the degenerate Garth, synaesthetic and eccentric artist Harriet Brassington-Smythe contrives a creative collaboration to lift her daughter’s spirits: an exhibition of paintings and songs.

Mother and daughter struggle to agree on the elements of the collaborative effort, and as Ginny tries to prise the truth of her father’s disappearance from a tight-lipped Harriet, both are launched into their own inner worlds of dreams, speculations and remembering.

Meanwhile, another mother and artist, Judith, alone in a house on the moors, reflects on her own troubled past and that of her wayward daughter, Madeleine.

Set amid the fern glades and towering forests of the Dandenong ranges east of Melbourne, and on England’s Devon moors, A Perfect Square is a work of remarkable depth and insight.

“Similar to Kandinsky’s brush that flawlessly moves from concrete to abstract, and from material to spiritual, A Perfect Square delicately blends family romance, art history, esoteric theories, and human drama as it traces the main protagonist’s search for her father that imperceptibly becomes the search for wisdom and transcendence.” Vladimir Golstein, Professor of Russian literature, Browns University, NY.

Review

I have read A Matter of Latitude by Blackthorn, which is a story about conservation and land corruption. A political and criminal excursion into corruption on a flesh eating level. Greed eating away at society.

This story however is completely different. It’s actually quite clever how the author melds art, science, maths, philosophy and perhaps even spirituality together to create an intriguing read.

It’s about the often complex relationships we have with those closest to us – in this case mothers and daughters. To be fair those are some of the most complicated relationships and always worth an examination.

Multiple relationships take place and a correlation is drawn between the relationships between the mothers and their daughters, although I admit I was more invested in Harriet and Ginny

I think it is the kind of story that keeps on giving. I can see myself coming back to it after reflection or reading it again to discover the finer nuances of the story.

It dives into what art and creativity can mean to each individual and the power of it. Creation equals a freedom and inner peace some can tap into.

It’s literary fiction with a strong artistic and musical vibe. A drawing of conclusions and analysing of perceptions to discover the answers. I found the mathematical integer side of it all quite fascinating, perhaps because Blackthorn used art and music as opposed to unrelatable equations.

Buy A Perfect Square at Odyssey Books.

Buy A Perfect Square at Amazon Uk.

Buy A Perfect Square at Amazon com.

Don’t forget to drop by Odyssey Books and find your own adventure!

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#BlogTour A Matter of Latitude by Isobel Blackthorn

Today it’s my turn on the BlogTour A Matter of Latitude by Isobel Blackthorn. It’s an environmental thriller about corruption combined with the eccentricities of expats.

About the Author

Isobel Blackthorn is a prolific novelist of original fiction across a range of genres, including psychological thrillers, gripping mysteries, captivating travel fiction and hilarious dark satire.

Isobel holds a PhD in Western Esotericism for her ground-breaking study of the texts of Theosophist Alice A. Bailey. Her engagement with Alice Bailey’s life and works has culminated in the biographical novel, The Unlikely Occultist.

Isobel carries a lifelong passion for the Canary Islands, Spain, her former home. Many of her novels are set on the islands, including The Drago Tree, which was released in 2015 and is now in Spanish translation, Clarissa’s Warning and A Matter of Latitude. These novels are setting rich and fall into the broad genre of travel fiction, and the novels are as much stories about the islands themselves as they are straight-ahead entertainment.

Isobel has led a rich and interesting life and her stories are as diverse as her experiences, the highs and lows, and the dramas. Some of her writing is dark, like the psychological thriller, Twerk, which is based on six years of research and first-hand accounts of dancers working in what are euphemistically called gentlemen’s clubs.

A life-long campaigner for social justice, Isobel has written, protested and leant her weight to a range of issues including family violence. A Londoner originally, Isobel currently lives near Melbourne, Australia.

About the book

From the acclaimed author of The Drago Tree comes a riveting thriller about survival, revenge and long-hidden secrets.

When local Lanzarote anti-corruption activist, Celestino, is T-boned on a lonely stretch of road, he knows the collision was no accident.

Wounded and fearing for his life, he hides in an abandoned fishing village, waiting for a chance to make it home. Meanwhile his wife, English expat Paula, is distraught. Her pursuit of answers is deflected when her neighbor, troublesome retiree Shirley Mobad, co-opts Paula on her escapades around the Canary Islands.

Paula’s search for her husband quickly descends into mayhem, danger and intrigue. Before long, she realizes she’s being followed. She needs answers, and fast.

But where is Celestino, and will he ever make it back alive?

Review

I really enjoyed the way Blackthorn combined suspense with an authentic feel for the surroundings and the native inhabitants. The struggle of ex-pats to fit in, despite loving the country they have adopted. You can live in a foreign country, speak the language fluently, adapt to the country and new culture, and yet many decades after living there still be considered an outsider or the foreign person.

Paula does something I found quite pedantic, despite admitting to not being fluent enough in the new language to be hired in the industry she trained in, she keeps correcting others. Be fluent – then correct others.

The story starts with the attempt on Celestino’s life, and I will admit for a moment I thought I was in a post-apocalyptic plot. The beginning of the book really set the stage, even if it threw me for a minute. Meanwhile his wife and child are waiting for him to turn up, and when he doesn’t Paula starts to investigate his disappearance.

I thought the subtle pressure pot plot of the paintings was an extremely interesting way to go about this story-line. The guilty know exactly what is staring them in the face, hence the reactions, but it takes a while for the meaning of the pictures to sink in for others.

At the heart of this plot is the corruption that allows companies and people to profit off the destruction of our environment, but instead of going for other more well-known industries who are guilty of this, the author shows us how corrupt works at a lower level.

The kind the working man can see and is dragged into, albeit inadvertently. The real estate industry is highly exposed to corruption. It is a way to launder money and evade taxes, and on a more fundamental level it exposes the environment and thus humans, to an even greater risk.

When land, fields, property and houses are gained by fraudulent means and sold on to developers. Bought under false pretences, with the sellers passing on property on the basis of it not ruining or the buyers changing the environment. To do so these buyers have to be working hand in hand with the local and sometimes national government departments to get planning permissions. The corruption flows deep and steady.

It’s an environmental thriller about corruption combined with the eccentricities of expats.

Buy A Matter of Latitude at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Buy at Amazon com.