#BlogTour The Coffin Club by Jacqueline Sutherland

It’s a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour The Coffin Club by Jacqueline Sutherland

About the Author

Jacqueline (Jack) Sutherland worked in corporate PR and marketing for over twenty years and now works part time as a copywriter. A few years ago, she bought her husband a beehive for his birthday, and she draws on her knowledge of beekeeping in her debut thriller, The Coffin Club. She began writing the novel on the 2020 Faber Academy course. Jack lives in Guildford with her husband and their four boys. Follow @writerjac on Twitter

About the book

Everyone deserves a second chance. Don’t they? – After losing her husband in a car accident, leaving her permanently scarred, wealthy widow Kat Alexander moves to the countryside to start a new life. Mourning not only her husband, but her last chance of motherhood, Kat is distraught.

Encouraged by her new and only friend Ginny, owner of the local animal sanctuary, Kat joins Young and Widowed, dubbed ‘The Coffin Club’ by its members.

There she meets young Spanish widower, Nico. Instantly drawn to each other, Nico seems like Kat’s perfect match. He is kind, caring, handsome, eager to settle in the UK, and most importantly, a father to five-year-old Magdalena, ‘Midge’.

This could be Kat’s shot at the one thing she has always wanted: to be a mother. But sometimes, be careful what you wish for…

Review

This is probably a less is more kind of review – to ensure the true nature of the twist and characters remain a bit of a mystery, although the blurb is a hint of what lies ahead.

Kat is still fully present in her trauma. Losing her husband and also the chance of fulfilling a dream she has had forever – it has changed her and made life difficult to cope with. A friend introduces her to a group of people who are trying to cope with similar trauma, and another door opens in her very closed door life.

I think Kat is the kind of character readers will be on the fence about – what’s wrong with having a bit of direction in life. Okay, here and there we may have a bit of collateral damage, but it might all come together in the end, and that’s the most important thing – right?

Kudos to the author for the ending – it was just right. Nice and prickly, satisfying and left open to the vast realms of further plans, err accidents. It works as a standalone, but wouldn’t it be fun to hear from Kat again in the future.

It’s a deliciously dark read with a main character who knows no boundaries when it comes to her expectations and her agenda, she plans long-term and has no regrets. What’s not to like?

Buy The Coffin Club at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Point Blank; pub date 7 April 2022 – Hardback £14.99. Buy at Amazon com. At Point Blank – One World Publications.

#BlogTour The Comfort of Monsters by Willa C. Richards

It’s a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour The Comfort of Monsters by Willa C. Richards.

‘Set in Milwaukee against the real-life crimes of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, the searing tale of a missing girl and a family devastated by her disappearance.’

About the Author

Willa C. Richards is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop where she was a Truman Capote Fellow. Her work has appeared in The Paris Review and she is the recipient of a PEN/Robert J. Dau Prize for Emerging Writers. The Comfort of Monsters is her debut novel.

Willa was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1990. Both her parents are archaeologists and professors at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has three sisters and a brother. The Comfort of Monsters was inspired by a case her mother worked on as an historic archaeologist. In 2014 she was contacted by a family who, based on a tip-off they received from a psychic, believed their missing daughter was buried in an old cemetery on the Milwaukee County grounds. Willa’s mother helped organise the excavation over that summer, and Willa volunteered as a field tech along with a handful of others. No remains were ever found.

About the book

Summer 1991 was the summer the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel dubbed ‘the deadliest in the history of Milwaukee’ as the victims of Jeffrey Dahmer’s killing spree were revealed and dominated the headlines. The disappearance of teen Dee McBride is overlooked by an over-worked and broken justice system.

2019 nearly thirty years later, Dee’s sister, Peg, is still haunted by Dee’s disappearance. Desperate to find answers, the family hire a famous psychic and Peg is plunged back into the past. But exploring the depths of her own memories raises terrifying questions. How much trust can we place in our own recollections?

Review

Thirty years after the disappearance of her sister Dee, Peggy is still invested and obsessed with finding out the truth, and more importantly with finding Dee. The problem is she can’t get anyone to listen and no body means no crime.

Set around the real events in Milwaukee and a certain prolific serial killer, who found it easy to prey with such audacity perhaps because his victims were viewed in such a negative way. It’s often hard to believe this is fiction, because the facts are woven into the fabric of this tale in such subtle way.

This is clearly an author to watch, an incredibly talented writer. Being able to create a captivating story without a bog standard ending, despite the fact plenty of readers will probably demand a solution – it’s not only indicative of said talent, it also sails as close to reality as you can possibly get.

Richards captures the true picture of the devastation a disappearance leaves in its wake, especially when the presumption is a non-voluntary disappearance linked to a possible crime. The people, loved ones, who are left behind become living fatalities of the same crime. It’s one thing knowing and dealing with the aftermath. It’s quite another to never know and to spend the rest of your life trying to find out what happened, to be able to lay their bones to rest.

It never goes away and it crushes those left behind – the thought of what they went through and that the victim still belongs to the perpetrator because they are the only person who knows what happened. It’s all about power and the power of suggestion, and how the imagination is often a bigger weapon against ourselves than the actual truth.

This is definitely going on my favourite reads of the year list. I can’t wait to recommend it to people.

Buy The Comfort of Monsters at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Buy at Amazon com. Buy at Point Blank.

#BlogTour Bad Apples by Will Dean

 It’s a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour Bad Apples by Will Dean. – TV Rights to Dark Pines have been optioned by Lionsgate, the producers of Mad Men, with plans for a multi-part series featuring Tuva Moodyson.

About the Author

Will Dean grew up in the East Midlands and lived in nine different villages before the age of eighteen. His debut novel, Dark Pines, was selected for Zoe Ball’s Book Club, shortlisted for the Guardian Not the Booker prize and named a Daily Telegraph Book of the Year. The second Tuva Moodyson thriller, Red Snow, won ‘Best Independent Voice’ at the Amazon Publishing Readers’ Awards, 2019, and was longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2020. 

The third novel, Black River, has been longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2021. Rights for the series have been sold in eight territories (France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Poland, Czech Republic, China and Turkey). Will lives in Sweden where the Tuva Moodyson novels are set. Follow @willrdean on Twitter 

About the book

A murder – A resident of small-town Visberg is found decapitated in the forest. A festival – An isolated hilltop community celebrates ’Pan Night’ after the apple harvest.

A race against time – As Visberg closes ranks, there could not be a worse time for Tuva Moodyson to arrive as deputy editor of the local newspaper. Tuva senses the scoop of her career, unaware perhaps that she is the story…

Set in Sweden’s Halloween season, when the forests are full of elk hunters and the town of Visberg is thick with the aroma of rotting fruit, Bad Apples is a thrilling introduction for readers new to the series, and for die-hard #TeamTuva fans, a heart-stopping rollercoaster…

Review

Come on! You can’t end a book like that – there are cliffhangers and then there are specific methods of torture designed to bring pain to bookworms. Arrgh!

This is the fourth installment in the fabulously riveting Tuva Modyson series, and this one isn’t just another cracking read, it’s a fast-paced smorgasbord of criminal aptitude and deviancy. Dean never disappoints and always delivers the goods.

Tuva returns to Gavrick – yeh we have no idea why she would be so foolish either – to restart in a new location with old friends and new characters. The combination of the isolated, dense and often overpoweringly menacing surroundings and the crime story unfolding around Pan Night is both terrifying and a stroke of genius, from a crime perspective.

The people of Gavrick give their hidden passion, otherwise controlled impulses and perhaps criminal inclinations free reign during this time. It makes it difficult for Tuva to find a ruthless and vicious killer, who thinks nothing of adding to their bloody repertoire.

This series just keeps getting better, indeed the same can be said about Dean’s work in general. I can’t wait to see this on-screen. I do hope they get the atmosphere and casting right.

Buy Bad Apples at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher ‏: ‎Point Blank;  pub date 7 Oct. 2021. Buy at Amazon com.

#BlogTour The Khan by Saima Mir

I really enjoyed this read, so it’s a pleasure to take part in tthe BlogTour The Khan by Saima Mir.

About the Author

Saima Mir is a British Pakistani journalist who grew up in Bradford. She has written for The Times, the Guardian and Independent. Her essay for It’s Not About The Burqa (Picador) appeared in the Guardian and received over 250,000 hits online in two days. Saima has also contributed to the anthology The Best, Most Awful Job: Twenty Mothers Talk Honestly About Motherhood. Saima lives in London. 

Follow @SaimaMir on Twitter, on Goodreads, Visit saimamir.com

About the book

A successful lawyer, Jia Khan’s London life is a long way from the Northern streets she knew as a child, where her father, Akbar Khan, was head of the Pakistani community and ran the local organised crime syndicate. His Jirga rule – the old way – was violent and bloody, but it was also justice of a kind.

When her father is murdered, Jia must return to his community. In the past, the police relied on Akbar Khan to maintain the fragile order of the streets. But a bloody power struggle has broken out among the various communities and now, nobody is safe.

Justice needs to be restored, and Jia is about to discover that justice always comes at a price. Against a backdrop of racial divides, misogyny and prejudice, THE KHAN is a thrilling crime debut, set in a world rarely explored in fiction.

Review

Jia is a woman with strength born from an upbringing that had the intention to insert her at the top of the food chain, but she had the audacity to turn away from a pre-determined life. In fact the only reason she was able to was the fact she is like her father – a man who rules his criminal empire with an iron fist.

Her sister has asked her to return, which means she will be confronted with residual anger and sorrow at both her behaviour and the actions that caused her departure. An unexpected death changes everything, including taking steps on a path she thought was closed to her – she hoped it was. She is her father’s daughter though and always will be.

It has a Gangs of London meets the Sicilian roots of the Godfather vibe. Very urban gritty and brutal, however that modern aspect is almost secondary to the main vein that flows through the story – the ancient bloodline, the cultural importance of actions and choices, and the division between the two.

Then there is the juxtaposition of Jia and her position, which is more contradiction in itself or rather her gender in a male dominated society and culture.

I loved this read. It’s an excellent debut novel. Mir balances truth and misconceptions with systemic racism, societal expectations and the way culture of old shapes and divides generations. Generations who have adapted to their environment and become part of Western culture, whilst abiding by the rule of old. Not an easy place to be for either generation.

I also loved the title and the essence of tribe it contains, which is what drives this story like a silent force pushing from every corner. They are the people – they are The Khan and simultaneously in the hierarchy of this family there is also The Khan. It’s extremely clever, succinct and most importantly the kind of read I love to recommend.

Buy the Khan at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Published by Point Blank; pub date 1 April 2021 – Hardback £14.99. Buy at Waterstones.

#BlogTour The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone by Felicity McLean

Today it’s my turn on the BlogTour The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone by Felicity McLean. It’s a psychological thriller which also belongs in the category of literary fiction.

About the Author

Felicity McLean was born in Sydney Australia. She graduated at Sydney University with a BA in English and Australian literature and worked as a book publicist before embarking on a freelance career. Her journalism has appeared in The Daily Telegraph, The Courier Mail and the Big Issue, among others, and she has ghost-written celebrity autobiographies. The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone is her first novel. She lives with her English husband and two young children in Australia.

Follow @FelicityMcLean on Twitter, on Goodreads, Visit felicitymclean.com

Buy The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone

About the book

‘We lost all three girls that summer. Let them slip away like the words of some half-remembered song and when one came back, she wasn’t the one we were trying to recall to begin with.’

Tikka Molloy was eleven years old during the long hot summer of 1992, growing up in an isolated suburb in Australia surrounded by encroaching bushland. That summer, the hottest on record, was when the Van Apfel sisters – Hannah, the beautiful Cordelia and Ruth – mysteriously disappeared during the school’s ‘Showstopper’ concert, held at the outdoor amphitheatre by the river.

Did they run away? Were they taken? While the search for the sisters unites the small community, the mystery of their disappearance has never been solved. Now, years later, Tikka has returned home and is beginning to make sense of that strange moment in time. The summer that shaped her. The girls that she never forgot.

Review

It has the same kind of nostalgic ‘caught in time’ essence of The Girls by Emma Cline. The coming of age and introspective reflection on childhood friendships like Stand by Me. This comfortable vibe of the carelessness and freedom of long gone eras, which cannot be replicated in the 21st century.

This essence surrounds the story and only opens up a narrow path, a door or lets us look behind the curtain at specific moments. These moments speak of something dark, nefarious and relentless waiting there for the right opportunity.

The story begins as it ends with Tikka’s obsession with the disappearance of her childhood friend and her two sisters. Instead of focusing on the loved ones and how they have dealt with the situation, the author shows the tragedy from the perspective of a then young girl. Someone who lost her friends and subsequently has spent years wondering not only why, who and where, but also whether something she didn’t do is the actual reason for their disappearance.

You can feel it, almost touch it even. A conversation or situation that bodes ill intent. A quick moment of brutal violence or the suggestion of a threat. When combined with the fact there is no solution, well it creates the perfect captivating read.

McLean uses the obsessive aspect of the missing children to plot, despite not giving the reader what they want the most. Instead she places us, the readers, in the middle and then sets flares off in a variety of locations and by multiple personas. The result is the belief the solution is in immediate grasp only to be ripped away again.

It’s a psychological thriller which also belongs in the category of literary fiction. It lets readers taste the danger at certain moments and then dangles a more innocent scenario in front of them. It’s what makes this book so compelling, and the fact McLean concludes the story with what we started with. It’s a bold move, a realistic one, and it’s a great read.

Buy The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Published by Point Blank; pub date 6 June 2019. Buy at Amazon com. Buy at Point Blank. Buy at Waterstones.

#BlogTour Red Snow by Will Dean

It’s my turn on the BlogTour for Red Snow by Will Dean today. It’s witty, eccentric and down-to-earth, and I thoroughly enjoyed the sarcastic quips. Dean is definitely an author to watch. Happy Publication Day!

About the Author

Will Dean grew up in the East Midlands, living in nine different villages before the age of eighteen. After studying at the LSE and working in London, he settled in rural Sweden with his wife. He built a wooden house in a boggy forest clearing at the centre of a vast elk forest, and it’s from this base that he compulsively reads and writes.

Follow @willrdean @PtBlankBks on Twitter #RedSnow

Buy Red Snow

About the book

Two Bodies – One suicide. One cold-blooded murder. Are they connected? And who’s really pulling the strings in the small Swedish town of Gavrik?

Two Coins – Black Grimberg liquorice coins cover the murdered man’s eyes. The hashtag #Ferryman starts to trend as local people stock up on ammunition.

Two Weeks – Tuva Moodyson, deaf reporter at the local paper, has a fortnight to investigate the deaths before she starts her new job in the south. A blizzard moves in. Residents, already terrified, feel increasingly cut-off. Tuva must go deep inside the Grimberg factory to stop the killer before she leaves town for good. But who’s to say the Ferryman will let her go?

Review

I have been hearing and seeing a lot about Will Dean lately. Bloggers, readers and reviewers were quite impressed by Dark Pines, the first book in the Tuva Moodyson series. This is the second book, and less than halfway through it I went and bought the first book, which says a lot about the strength of his writing and his talent for telling a story.

This time Tuva happens to notice a link between some tragic accidents and deaths with the biggest local employer. At first they just seem to be random events, but when certain events start linking back to her habit of asking too many questions, she starts to wonder whether something more nefarious is afoot.

It’s witty, eccentric and down-to-earth, and I thoroughly enjoyed the sarcastic quips. Instead of presenting the surroundings as the romanticised version most people have of Sweden or Scandinavian countries in general, the author presents a more realistic image of the living conditions and the population.

That particular hardened, brusque attitude towards life is what makes this series so charming, and of course let’s not forget Tuva herself. She is definitely a memorable character. At times it seems as if she just accidentally falls into trouble then her gut instinct kicks in and she starts to dig like a dog who has caught a scent.

For me the most interesting element of Tuva’s character is her deafness. In particular how the author describes the perhaps trivial details of her daily existence in relation to her non-hearing and hearing with hearing aids. Instead of embracing the joy of being able to hear, which is how the deaf are usually described, it’s more about enjoying the silence. The small details about wearing the aids, how they fit and feel, the impact of low level noise on her –  it makes all the difference to the story and the character.

It’s an unusual combination of comfortable pace, uncooperative characters – including Tuva, a snarky sense of humour with a noirish vibe. I look forward to seeing where Dean takes Tuva next.

Buy Red Snow (A Tuva Moodyson Mystery #2) at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

Publisher: Point Blank; pub date 10 Jan. 2019

Buy Dark Pines (A Tuva Moodyson Mystery #1)