A new start means new neighbours, from present and past…
When Alice discovers her husband has been cheating there are just three things she wants; their gorgeous second home in Yorkshire, their spaniel William, and a quiet life.
But no sooner than she arrives in Great Fencote, strange things begin to happen. A skinny-dipping swimmer disappears without trace, only to pop up behind the counter of a local coffee shop. Someone seems to be crying at night, but she can’t work out who. And equally unsettling is the incredibly sexy builder she employs to turn her barn into a holiday let.
Old houses hide old secrets, but is The Cheesemaker’s House ready to share the tragedy in its past? And can Alice, café owner Owen, and builder Richard, find a way to lays its ghosts to rest for once and for all?
The perfect read for fans of Barbara Erskine, Kate Ryder and Jenni Keer.
The Cheesemaker’s House was Jane Cable’s debut novel and reached the final four of the Alan Titchmarsh Show’s People’s Novelist competition. Jane now writes under her own name for Sapere Books and as Eva Glyn for Harper Collins imprint One More Chapter.
“The gift here is to make you want to read on.” Jeffery Archer
For a very limited time only, The Cheesemaker’s House is only 99p!
Author Bio –
Jane Cable writes romance with a twist and its roots firmly in the past, more often than not inspired by a tiny slice of history and a beautiful British setting.
After independently publishing her award-winning debut, The Cheesemaker’s House, Jane was signed by Sapere Books. Her first two novels for them are contemporary romances looking back to World War 2; Another You inspired by a tragic D-Day exercise at Studland Bay in Dorset and Endless Skies by the brave Polish bomber crews who flew from a Lincolnshire airbase.
Jane lives in Cornwall and her current series, Cornish Echoes, are dual timeline adventure romances set in the great houses of the Poldark era and today. She also writes as Eva Glyn.
1949 It is the coldest winter Orcades Island has ever known, when a pregnant sixteen-year-old arrives at Fairmile, a home for ‘fallen women’ run by the Catholic Church. She and her baby will disappear before the snow melts.
2013 Frankie Gray has come to the island for the summer, hoping for one last shot at reconnecting with her teenage daughter, Izzy, before starting a job as a deputy sheriff. They are staying with her mother, Diana, at The Fairmile Inn, soon to be a boutique hotel, but when an elderly nun is found dead in suspicious circumstances, and then a tiny skeleton is discovered in the grounds of the house, Frankie is desperate for answers.
At once an evocative, unsettling tale of past misdeeds and a crime thriller that will have you reading with your heart in your mouth, The Only Child is compulsively addictive storytelling from the bestselling author of The Botanist’s Daughter.
MY REVIEW
The storyline goes back and forth between 1949 and 2013.
In 1949 we are introduced to ‘The Girl’. I liked this mystery as it kept me guessing who she could be in the present timeline until it is revealed later in the book. The Girl is 16 years old and having got pregnant is sent away by her parents to have the baby. This was frequently how pregnant unmarried girls were dealt with at this time, bringing shame and embarrassment on their families. She is sent to Fairmile, on Orcades Island in the Pacific Northwest, a mother and baby home run by nuns. The girls have little choice other than to give away their babies to the nuns, to be adopted by a proper Catholic married couple. This left the distraught girls with lifelong psychological problems.
The Girl is given the name of Brigid by the strict nuns when she arrives, as real names are banned. This was common practice in these homes.
In the 2013 timeline, Frankie Gray
has moved to Orcades Island from Sydney for a new job as deputy in the local small police force. She is staying with her mother at an old rundown house, Fairmile, which her mother has bought and is preparing for it to be a boutique hotel.
Frankie has been at Fairmile for just 3 weeks when a body is discovered. A 90 year old ex nun. Found dead in her nursing home – where Frankie’s own gran lives. She was tied to the bedpost and some nettles left in a jar. Not long after, the remains of a newborn baby are found when excavating at Fairmile.
Izzy, Frankie’s teenage daughter, joins her from LA for the summer at Fairmile. Frankie hopes to reconnect with Izzy
after leaving her behind to live with her dad so she could go to work in Sydney, putting her career before her family.
As Izzy gets more involved with a boy, Frankie gets more concerned about her safety as she is going out late to parties with him, and Frankie has a gut feeling something bad is going to happen to her. Her police background means she is not trusting of many people.
I enjoyed every page of this emotive and wonderfully written novel. Both timelines were equally compelling, and I found myself lost in both Frankie and Brigid’s stories, with a tear in my eye more than once!
The two timelines weave together extremely well, leaving me on a knife edge each time one moved to the other, and I loved the kindness of strangers when needed the most.
I have a few other books by Kayte Nunn I will be moving up my TBR!
I will certainly be recommending this book.
Huge thanks to Ellen at Orion for inviting me onto the blog tour.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kayte Nunn is the internationally bestselling author of seven novels including The Botanist’s Daughter, The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant, The Silk House, The Last Reunion and The Only Child. They are available worldwide in English, and have been translated into eleven languages.
The Botanist’s Daughter won the 2020 Winston Graham Historical Fiction Prize.
Her books have been described as ‘deliciously immersive’ (The Daily Telegraph), offering ‘compelling storytelling’ (Australian Women’s Weekly), and ‘sensitive, atmospheric and often heartbreaking’ (Who Weekly).
She was brought up in England, lived in the US for a number of years as a child and now calls the Northern Rivers of NSW, Australia, home.
This time there’s more at stake than just her life—now they want to take her past.
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 when a stolen lorry ploughs into a whistle-blower’s car, leaving him dead and her trapped in the burning vehicle, she’s convinced GRM are responsible. Enlisting her old friend DI Russell Chapman to check out the supposed ‘accident’, she discovers that he’s already investigating three other deaths that appear suspiciously linked to her own investigations.
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 life? Or their mind?
MY REVIEW
This is the second book in the series, and having read the first last week I couldn’t wait to find out what Antonia Conti and DI Russell Chapman got involved in next. It is readable as a stand alone but you won’t want to miss book one which will give you a good introduction to the friendship between Conti and Chapman.
Again they are embroiled in the dark goings on of GRM, having tried but failed to bring down this powerful company in book 1. It is now 6 months later, and this time it appears they are undertaking tests on prisoners minds, apparently trying to take away or replace some of their memories. This procedure can have devastating consequences. The prisoners are banned from discussing the process but one prisoner’s mother gets in touch with Antonia to tell her what is happening.
Antonia again seeks the help of DI Russell Chapman to investigate this claim.
Most prisons are now run privately, in the near future when the book is set so there is little protection for the prisoners and the owners have a free hand to do what they want.
Along the way, Chapman is faced with investigating two suicides of men who just happen to be setting up a company to compete with GRM. The owner, Gustav Reed-Mayhew, would not like that one bit.
I was really pleased that Sabirah and her two children appear again in book two. Sabirah, fighting to stay in the UK after being summoned by the Internal Security Agency, is helped by a solicitor from her native country of Syria. But can he be trusted?
A few new characters appear in this book keeping the storyline fresh; one of which is Adam, a firefighter who rescues Antonia from a car crash.
Can Antonia be protected from whoever is out to get her?
Will she find sufficient evidence to bring down the powerful GRM this time?
I am eternally grateful to Rhiannon at FMcM Associates for introducing me to this author. David writes such incredibly fast paced thrillers chock full of action and storylines, and completely believable well developed characters who jump off the page. I love the friendship between Chapman and Conti, and the new firefighter Adam who soon becomes a great ally and source of protection for Conti.
I really didn’t know who to trust in this one! Who could Conti really rely on?
I’m looking forward to book three now, which is out in a few months.
Thank you again Rhiannon at FMcM Associates for kindly supplying copies of both books for me to review. I’ve found a new author to add to my favourites list.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I write fast-paced action thrillers populated with well-rounded characters.
Born in Addis Ababa in 1960, I spent my first eight years living on an agricultural college in rural Ethiopia where my love of reading developed. After dropping out of university I became a firefighter and served 19 years before leaving to start my own business.
I began writing in 2010 and use my work experiences to add realism to my fiction.
The Mason and Sterling series centre on two ex-Royal Marines, Byron who now runs a security company and Adam who is a firefighter. A strong cast of characters support my protagonists. Long Stop Books published Brotherhood, the first novel in the series, in September 2019 and the second, The Profit Motive, on December 16th 2019. The third, Unprotected, will come out in early 2020. Brotherhood is set in Manchester and The Profit Motive in Manchester and Wenzhou, China.
I live in Manchester, my adopted home since 1984. In my spare time I try to keep fit—an increasingly difficult undertaking—listen to music, socialise and feed my voracious book habit.
Get a free copy of Forged in Flames, the opening Mason and Sterling novella when you sign up to my mailing list. https://dl.bookfunnel.com/vyox15ikyl
Among the cobbled streets of the Somerset town of Frome, Lou is embarking on the start of something new. After the death of her beloved mother, she takes a deep breath into the unknown and is opening her own vintage clothes shop.
In upstate New York, Donna has just found out some news about her family which has called into question her whole upbringing. The only clue she has to unlock her past is a picture of a yellow dress, and the fact it is currently on display in a shop in England.
For Maggy, she is facing life as a 70-something divorcee and while she got the house, she’s not sure what to fill it with now her family have moved out. The new vintage shop in town sparks memories of her past and reignites a passion she’s been missing…
Together, can these three women find the answers they are searching for and unlock a second chance at a new life?
It’s never too late to start again…
MY REVIEW
Having read and loved all of Libby’s books to date, I was very keen (couldn’t reply to the email quick enough!) to join the blog tour for her latest book.
This was an absolute joy to read. I did have to stop a number of times as I couldn’t read through the tears, both sad and happy, as I was completely absorbed in the lives of Lou, Donna and Maggy.
After her mother dies, Lou follows her dream and her love of vintage clothing by investing her savings into opening a vintage clothes shop in Frome. Her shop is situated alongside a few other small businesses who’s owners quickly become friends. She carefully hangs her mother’s beloved handmade yellow dress, which meant so much to her, on the wall of her shop.
Donna is in her 60’s and lives in America. Her life is happily tootling along when she finds out a shocking revelation about her past, so shocking she travels to Frome to a little vintage clothes shop she found on the internet where she believes she will find out more.
When Donna appears in the shop out of the blue from America, Lou’s life is turned upside down as this stranger brings information about family Lou didn’t realise she had. In fact Lou believed she had no living relatives.
In order to save money, Lou lodges with Maggy. 70ish and recently divorced, Maggy is lonely and wondering what to do with the rest of her life. She has taken to mooching around in boring black and grey clothes, a reflection on the way she feels about life. Although she loves her grandchildren, she is getting a bit fed up of being taken for granted with being expected to babysit at the last minute. When Lou moves in, Maggy begins to feel she could have a brighter future ahead of her as Lou’s positive personality and bright clothes begin to rub off. Maggy begins to wear brighter clothes purchased from Lou’s shop. A nice bright scarf here, and a nice bright orange jumper there. Maggy had worked in a clothes shop in her youth so knows a fair bit about fashion.
The three ladies very quickly form a strong bond and when disaster hits Lou’s shop they are there for her.
They come to realise life is short, and should be lived to the full. Wear the yellow boots if you want to, no matter what your age!
I enjoyed the flashbacks to when Maggy was younger, when she had a fling with a handsome man who disappeared from her life overnight. She decided to marry safe but boring Alan, but always wondered what happened to the possible one that got away. I also enjoyed the flashbacks to when Lou’s mother was young.
I have already recommended this book over coffee to my friend who will be buying the kindle version. And that was before I had finished it. Now I can recommend it to everyone who needs an uplifting and heartwarming read. Another gorgeous book from this hugely talented author.
Thank you Ellen at Orion books for inviting me along on the blog tour.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Libby Page graduated from The London College of Fashion with a BA in fashion journalism before going on to work as a journalist at The Guardian. After writing, her second passion is outdoor swimming. Libby lives in London, where she enjoys finding new swimming spots and pockets of community within the city. The Lido is her first novel. Follow her on Twitter @LibbyPageWrites and Instagram @TheSwimmingSisters.
In this dystopian vision of London, public safety is in private hands—and nobody is beyond the reach of the ‘law’.
The constant threat of terrorism has left London under round-the-clock surveillance and in the tightening grip of privatised security firms. Journalist Antonia Conti suspects one such organisation—GRM—not only of being behind several women’s disappearances, but of financing the widespread violence it claims to fight.
When a gang of hitmen use rampant state surveillance to track Antonia down, she narrowly escapes with her life. But then one of them turns up dead—covered in her DNA—and Antonia finds herself the prime suspect in his murder.
DS Russell Chapman needs to bring her in. But evidence that Antonia has been framed quickly stacks up and when a personal grudge between her and GRM’s shadowy head of security is revealed, he begins an uncomfortable partnership with her.
Together, the pair delve beneath the surface of the corporate machine and soon find themselves embroiled in a dark and violent underworld even they had barely dared imagine. Will they find the evidence to bring GRM down? And can they keep Antonia’s name off the list of missing women?
MY REVIEW
Buckle up readers, you are in for a seriously fast paced, action packed, high octane ride. Absolutely fantastic thriller which has everything I look for in a great read. I can’t tell you how many times I held my breath!
Set in a dystopian version of London in the near future. Antonia Conti is a reporter, working undercover at GRM; a company which has its fingers in many pies. Antonia believes they are paying someone in the government to favour their contracts. They carry out contracts for certain jobs which have been outsourced to private companies, such as security and surveillance; including operating the CCTV system around the roads and streets.
When Antonia is attacked on her way home late one night, her attackers don’t know she is one kick ass woman, proficient in boxing, and can look after herself. When her attacker is found dead, and evidence puts her at the scene, she is called in for questioning. DS Chapman doesn’t believe she is guilty although he feels she is hiding something.
Conti and Campbell later team up, making an incredible partnership, to try to get to the bottom of what GRM are involved in and get enough evidence to bring the company down. It is personal for Conti as her friend is one of the girls who worked for GRM and disappeared. Terrorism. Corruption. Murder. Missing girls. This book has it all and much more.
I’m lucky to have book 2 in the series – A Stolen Memory – which was released in January and I can’t wait to find out what is next for Conti. Look out for my review coming very soon!
Thank you Rhiannon at FMcM for giving me the opportunity to review this extraordinarily brilliant thriller which I would love to see made into a film.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR – in his own words
I write fast-paced action thrillers populated with well-rounded characters.
Born in Addis Ababa in 1960, I spent my first eight years living on an agricultural college in rural Ethiopia where my love of reading developed. After dropping out of university I became a firefighter and served 19 years before leaving to start my own business.
I began writing in 2010 and use my work experiences to add realism to my fiction.
The Mason and Sterling series centre on two ex-Royal Marines, Byron who now runs a security company and Adam who is a firefighter. A strong cast of characters support my protagonists. Long Stop Books published Brotherhood, the first novel in the series, in September 2019 and the second, The Profit Motive, on December 16th 2019. The third, Unprotected, will come out in early 2020. Brotherhood is set in Manchester and The Profit Motive in Manchester and Wenzhou, China.
I live in Manchester, my adopted home since 1984. In my spare time I try to keep fit—an increasingly difficult undertaking—listen to music, socialise and feed my voracious book habit.
Get a free copy of Forged in Flames, the opening Mason and Sterling novella when you sign up to my mailing list. https://dl.bookfunnel.com/vyox15ikyl
From award-winning Eritrean author Haji Jabir comes a profoundly intimate novel about one man’s tireless attempt to find his place in the world.
Dawoud is on the run from his murky past, aiming to discover where he belongs. He tries to assimilate into different groups along his journey through North Africa and Israel, changing his clothes, his religious affiliations, and even his name to fit in, but the safety and peace he seeks remain elusive. It seems prejudice is everywhere, holding him back, when all he really wants is to create a simple life he can call his own. A chameleon, Dawoud—or David, Adal, or Dawit, depending on where and when you meet him—is not lost in this whirl of identities. In fact, he is defined by it.
Dawoud’s journey is circuitous and specific, but the desire to belong is universal. Spellbinding to the final page, Black Foam is both intimate and grand in scale, much like the experiences of the millions of people migrating to find peace and safety in the twenty-first century.
MY REVIEW
I realise how fortunate I am to have a happy home with friends and family around me when I read such heartbreaking novels about the difficulties people face in some countries.
In this book, the author explores the need to belong. To have friends and family. To call somewhere home. As well as raising awareness of the plight of refugees.
A young Eritrean man has escaped his difficult past by changing his name and pretending to be a Jew, in order to join bus loads of Jews heading out of Eritrea via Ethiopia and towards what they hope will be their salvation.
The dangerous and mostly unfriendly journey to what he hopes will be his own salvation sees him living in cramped refugee camps pending moving on to the next stage of his journey, constantly hoping he will eventually be moved to a permanent residence. He can choose a country from a long list, but he has to pass an interview.
Changing his name and his clothes a number of times to fit in with his current surroundings and hiding his true story, he begins to wonder who he really is. What is true and what he has made up. He never fits into the depths of his surroundings, feeling as if he is just floating on the surface like black foam.
He finds a handful of people who help him along the way, but mostly for their own benefit.
My heart broke for this lonely but strong willed young man. No doubt there are thousands of refugees with similar stories to tell. Fleeing danger in their own countries and trying to find somewhere safe to belong and call home.
A powerful and hard hitting story, written with much depth and feeling which is going to stay with me for a long time.
BLOG TOUR STOPS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Haji Jabir is an Eritrean novelist who was born in the city of Massawa on the Red Sea Coast in 1976. He currently lives in Doha, Qatar, where he works as an Al Jazeera journalist. Jabir’s creative aim is to shed light on Eritrea’s past and present and to extricate his homeland from its cultural isolation. He is one of the most important Arabic-language authors of his time. He has published four novels: Samrawit (2012), winner of the Sharjah Award for Arab Creativity in 2012, Fatma’s Harbour (2013), The Game of the Spindle (2015), which was longlisted for the 2016 Sheikh Zayed Book Award, and Black Foam (2018)
Welcome to Bumblebee Barn, home to wonderful animals, stunning views and spectacular sunsets – and resident young farmer, Barney. While Barney loves his life at Bumblebee Barn – a farm that has been in his family for generations – he’s struggling to find someone to share it with. The early mornings quad biking through muddy fields and the long hours looking after the crops and animals are proving to be a deterrent to finding love. So when his sister, Fizz – desperate for Barney to find his soulmate – sees an advert for Love on a Farm, a new reality TV show to help farmers find love, he has nothing to lose by applying. Afterall, he isn’t meeting anyone suitable down the traditional route and surely he won’t be picked anyway…? Thrown into the chaos of reality TV, Barney could never have expected that his whole life would be turned upside down, with buried secrets to be uncovered and his heart on the line. With his family and friends rooting for him, could the magic of Bumblebee Barn heal his broken heart and help him find love on the farm?
MY REVIEW
What an absolute joy to read.
I have read just one of Jessica’s books previously and loved it so much I jumped at the chance of reading this one for the blog tour.
It is written in alternating chapters from Barney and Amber.
Barney is a young farmer who has been unlucky in love and is now feeling lonely on his farm and is ready to find someone to share his life with. His lovely sister Fizz, who is a great character and works at the hedgehog rescue centre, persuades him to sign up for a reality TV show, Love on the Farm, to see if he can find the love of his life that way. Unsure at first, he decides to give it a go.
He is accepted, nicknamed ‘Farmer Hottie’ by Zara, the producer’s assistant.
Amber, the producer, pays him a visit.
Amber has her own love life failings and is currently back with an ex. She was very reluctant to produce this programme as she hates reality shows after what happened to her younger sister, but decides to take the job for personal reasons.
The filming starts, but the production company who came up with the idea decide they want to change the format to make it more watchable. Amber is fuming and her director quits.
The show carries on, and Amber and Barney realise they have feelings for each other. But with all their emotional baggage will they find love at the farm?
An absolutely gorgeous story, expertly written. Characters I bonded with and hoped they would find happiness. The supporting characters were all extremely well written and developed.
Yes I loved this book and I can’t recommend it highly enough if you want an uplifting read, with a bit of a cry!
Thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for my spot on the blog tour.
Death stalks Mexton When a spate of poisonings hits the town of Mexton, DC Mel Cotton and her colleagues are left perplexed. All the deaths seem to be ingeniously planned and the police cannot see anything obvious to connect the victims.
Is a vigilante at work? Jenny Pike, reporter for the Mexton Messenger, seems to think there’s a link and she’s not afraid to publish her controversial theories. All the victims seem to have got away with harming people in some way. Is that the connection?
Fear from the East Already stretched to the limit, Mel and her colleagues also face another huge challenge. A ruthless Albanian gang has launched a crime wave in the area and someone has murdered a notorious blackmailer.
How will the team cope? With a serial poisoner at large, is anyone safe?
Fatal Dose is the thrilling sequel to the critically-acclaimed Fatal Trade and Fatal Hate by the brilliant Brian Price
MY REVIEW
This is the third outing for DC Mel Cotton and my favourite so far. I’m hoping for more! Brian is firmly in my list of top crime authors.
We begin with a prologue, and I am a big prologue fan. We are introduced to the poisoner and how his fascination with poisons began.
The police force in Mexton certainly have their hands full. Set during covid, Mel and the team are swamped with poisoning victims and are finding it difficult to discover a link between them.
Then the body of a blackmailer is found stabbed. If that’s not enough, a dangerous and violent Albanian gang rear their heads. There are attacks on police officers which puts the team under even more pressure.
Bit by bit, they begin to find the clues they desperately need to track down a very clever poisoner. The investigation into the murder of the blackmailer and the Albanians carried through the book very well. There is a lot going on but it is easy to follow. The author does recap the story so far a few times which helps.
The book is written in short paragraphs which contain so much action! Non stop murders, and many bad people. The body count must be even higher than a Jack Reacher novel and I loved every minute. I quite enjoyed the fact there wasn’t too much waffle about the personal lives of the team. It was all about the action. And so much action is fitted in those pages.
This is definitely one of those books which is difficult to put down, and I was constantly thinking about it when I wasn’t actually reading it.
Bravo Mr Price on another stonkingly good thriller.
Thank you as always to Rebecca at Hobeck Books for my spot on the blog tour.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brian Price is a chemist and biologist who retired from the Environment Agency in 2016. He is the author of Crime Writing: How to write the science and runs a website offering tips on science for crime writers (www.crimewriterscience.co.uk). He taught science and technology courses for the Open University for 26 years. He has advised number of leading crime writers on scientific aspects of crime.Brian’s first crime novel, Fatal Trade, was published, as an ebook and paperback, by Hobeck Books on 14th September 2021. A free novella, Fatal Beginnings, is available from Hobeck Books at www.hobeck.net. The sequel, Fatal Hate, was published in April 2022 and third novel in the series, Fatal Dose, came out on 31st January 2023.Several of his short stories appear in the anthologies Cuckoo, Lock and Key and Seventy Three, produced by the writing group Writers in Stone, and he has had stories published in the charity anthologies, The Dark Side of Christmas and Cooking the Books (published by Hobeck). His short story The Scent of an Ending appeared in the Crime Writers Association collection Music of the Night.Find out more about Brian at www.brianpriceauthor.co.uk
Almost every day it seems that our world becomes more fractured, more digital, and more chaotic. Sheila Liming has the answer: we need to hang out more. Starting with the assumption that play is to children as hanging out is to adult, Liming makes a brilliant case for the necessity of unstructured social time as a key element of our cultural vitality. The book asks questions like what is hanging out? why is it important? why do we do it? how do we do it? and examines the various ways we hang out – in groups, online, at parties, at work. Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time makes a smart and funny case for the importance of this most casual of social structures, and shows us how just getting together can be a potent act of resistance all on its own.
MY REVIEW
An interesting observation and discussion of the joy of just hanging out and enjoying the moment, and time with family and friends.
In this book, the author explores hanging out in a variety of situations for example at parties and at work. In the first chapter she discusses how we can feel about hosting the perfect party, the different reasons we go to parties (we want to / we feel we have to) and the Facebook generation, where online hanging out and posting photos of hanging out at parties, or indeed anywhere, became a thing. I enjoyed reading about the paper invitations which she used to pop into peoples post lockers at university. Then people started using Facebook and the party invitations were sent through Facebook leaving those not on the platform without an invitation.
With the pandemic, we have all become more used to hanging out online via the likes of Zoom and FaceTime, which is fine and even better for some, but this book tries to convince us to socialise in person more. Personally, I am loving being back to meeting my friends and hanging out in coffee shops for a face to face chat, but I can see that kind of social interaction being difficult for a lot of people. The last chapter of the book gives the reader suggestions on how to start the ball rolling.
The author discusses excerpts from various books, films and poems which feature examples of hanging out, as well as drawing on and sharing her own experiences. I particularly enjoyed her story of travelling to Scotland alone with no one to meet her at the other end, then staying alone in a friend’s flat. Luckily she met a group of people she didn’t know but who were happy for her to hang out with them.
Let’s all try to focus more on real life hanging out and less time on our screens. I’m not a psychologist, but I’m guessing it must help our mental health. It does for me.
I enjoyed reading this book which is something different to my usual fiction novels and definitely made me think and laugh!
Thank you Nikki at Melville House for sending me a proof of this stunning book which I hope will attract many readers. It is definitely one I would pick up.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sheila Liming (b. 1983) was born in Seattle, WA and educated at The College of Wooster (Wooster, OH) and Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA). Her writing and research looks at American literature in the context of American institutions, like libraries and office buildings. She is the author of WHAT A LIBRARY MEANS TO A WOMAN (University of Minnesota Press, 2020) and OFFICE (Bloomsbury, 2020). She teaches at Champlain College in Burlington, VT, where she is Associate Professor in the Professional Writing program.
After Germany’s invasion of Poland, the world is holding its breath and hoping for peace. At home, the Nazi Party’s hold on power is absolute.
One freezing night, an SS doctor and his wife return from an evening mingling with their fellow Nazis at the concert hall. By the time the sun rises, the doctor will be lying lifeless in a pool of blood.
Was it murder or suicide? Criminal Inspector Horst Schenke is told that under no circumstances should he investigate. The doctor’s widow, however, is convinced her husband was the target of a hit. But why would anyone murder an apparently obscure doctor? Compelled to dig deeper, Schenke learns of the mysterious death of a child. The cases seem unconnected, but soon chilling links begin to emerge that point to a terrifying secret.
Even in times of war, under a ruthless regime, there are places in hell no man should ever enter. And Schenke fears he may not return alive . . .
MY REVIEW
Berlin, 1940. Germany is gripped by a spell of freezing weather. Food is rationed. The war is underway, but hopes are high it will end soon as the German people mistakenly believe Hitler is a man of peace.
Criminal Inspector Horst Schenke of the Kripo, the criminal investigation department of the police force, is approached by a woman who recently helped him catch a murderer. She asks for his help to investigate the apparent suicide of a friend’s husband, a doctor and member of the Nazi party. His wife believes he was murdered. He feels he owes her this so begins investigating. He finds sufficient evidence that this death points to murder but he is told by his superiors the verdict of suicide will not be changed. Someone high up does not want an investigation. Schenke is warned off investigating further by his superiors and then again after being abducted and threatened with death if he carries on.
He returns to his investigation of forgeries of ration coupons but he is approached by another third party this time asking him to investigate the deaths of a number of disabled children at a clinic. Are these children being ‘removed’ as the Nazi’s aim is to produce a purer and stronger Germany? An Aryan race.
Putting his life in danger to find the truth, Schenke carries out his investigations secretly and it becomes apparent these cases may be linked. Could the mild mannered doctor have been involved in the horrendous murders of innocent children?
Can Schenke solve all three cases and come out with his life?
Well this is absolutely one of those books which grabbed me right from the beginning. Schenke and his assistant Hauser with the help of ex-Gestapo Liebwitz – a character I particularly liked due to his matter-of-factness even in the most life threatening situations – are the good guys. The police who have not succumbed to the Nazi ideology although of course are unable to speak out against them as it would put their lives at risk.
A non stop action thriller which kept me guessing who was behind the cover up.
I have not read the previous book in this new Berlin Wartime Thrillers series, Blackout, but as Schenke is already one of my favourite detectives after reading this I will be getting hold of a copy! This is easily readable as a stand alone and I don’t feel I have missed out by not reading book 1, but I really want to!
Many thanks to Sophie and Jess at Ransom PR for my copies of the book and my spot on the tour.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Simon Scarrow is a Sunday Times No. 1 bestselling author. After a childhood spent travelling the world, he pursued his great love of history as a teacher, before becoming a full-time writer. His Roman soldier heroes Cato and Macro made their debut in 2000 in UNDER THE EAGLE, and have subsequently appeared in many bestsellers in the Eagles of the Empire series, including CENTURION, INVICTUS and DAY OF THE CAESARS.
Simon Scarrow is also the author of a quartet of novels about the lives of the Duke of Wellington and Napoleon Bonaparte, YOUNG BLOODS, THE GENERALS, FIRE AND SWORD and THE FIELDS OF DEATH; a novel about the 1565 Siege of Malta, SWORD & SCIMITAR; HEARTS OF STONE, set in Greece during the Second World War; and PLAYING WITH DEATH, a contemporary thriller written with Lee Francis. He also wrote the novels ARENA and INVADER with T. J. Andrews.
For exciting news, extracts and exclusive content from Simon visit http://www.simonscarrow.co.uk, follow him on Twitter @SimonScarrow or like his author page on Facebook/OfficialSimonScarrow.
Two Heads Are Better Than One 