Jim Webster

This is fantasy that holds a mirror up to our own word, and isn't very different. If you love character-driven stories, they're all here.

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Book description

More of the wit, wisdom and jumbled musings of Tallis Steelyard. Discover the damage done by the Bucolic poets, wonder at the commode of Falan Birling, and read the tales better not told. We have squid wrestling, lady writers, and occasions when it probably wasn't Tallis's fault. He even asks the great question, who are the innocent anyway?

My review - 

The book begins with the perils of being a painter’s apprentice. Someone has to rearrange the sitters’ hair, add the artful blossoms and dust away the crumbs from their snacks.

Several young men are sent to liberate valuable artefacts that are later sold for the upkeep of an asylum for the poor. Should things be black and white, right and wrong, or is it all about nuances, checks and balances?

We touch on fire-fighting, lady writers, solstice celebrations and more. Port Naain. All human life is there, and it’s documented with humour and acute observation.

About the author

Jim Webster is probably fifty something, his tastes in music are eclectic, and his dress sense is rarely discussed in polite society. In spite of this he has a wife and three daughters.
He has managed to make a living from a mixture of agriculture, consultancy, and freelance writing. Previously he has restricted himself to writing about agricultural and rural issues but including enough Ancient Military history to maintain his own sanity. But seemingly he has felt it necessary to branch out into writing SF and fantasy novels. 
He lives in South Cumbria.

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Just a thought 

The love of books is among the choicest gifts of the gods.
― Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Lexie Conyngham

The latest in the Murray of Letho series is just as exciting and unfathomable as the earlier books. Although this is number 11 in a series, I think they all stand well alone.

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Book description

A violent double murder in a lonely, empty house. 
Not the kind of mystery that Charles Murray and his old friend Blair expect to find when they are trapped in snowbound Aberdeen. Tangled with dangerous whisky smugglers and an unexplained local illness, the solution is far from clear – and does it involve a missing box of human bones? 
This is the eleventh book in the Murray of Letho series.

My review -

Charles Murray and his friend Blair are ashore at Aberdeen after terrible storms throughout which Murray was dreadfully seasick. While they are there, they find themselves in the midst of a murder investigation or two. A local doctor has died of typhus too, and people are going down with some kind of poisoning. There is a big cast, all well fleshed-out, and there’s no shortage of possible killers. As always, Murray unpicks the plot – I never get there before him! A lovely period story with a great deal going on. This series has been a favourite with me for a long time.

About the author

Author of three historical crime fiction series: Murray of Letho, Hippolyta Napier, and Orkneyinga Murders, Lexie lives in North-East Scotland and after some years of trying the traditional methods (with absolute and complete lack of success) she was persuaded to test her limited technical skills with e-books. When she isn't writing (that would be Sundays) she teaches, knits, gardens, drinks wine or whisky, and sits looking thoughtful while random facts wander around her head. 

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Just a thought

In books I have traveled, not only to other worlds, but into my own.
― Anna Quindlen

Murder by Request

A new 'cosy' series from Lynda Wilcox, featuring a lady vicar you'd want on your side in times of trouble.

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Book description 

Meet Agnes Merryweather, the cat-rescuing, crime solving vicar of St Octavia’s church in the heart of the English Cotswolds. She has a lot on her plate, trying to organise the annual fête and keep all the participants happy ­- yet the ladies of the Women’s Institute are in a jangle over jam, the local dancing teacher demands to perform in the church, and all is far from sweetness and light.

Add in an absconder from the nearby open prison, and a murdered car salesman, and Agnes is up to her neck in trouble.

Can she solve all her problems and catch a killer before coming face to face with the bishop at the fête’s opening ceremony?

My review - 

Agnes Merryweather is a vicar in a small village. She has a body and an absconded villain on her hands. To add to that, the village fete seems to be going down the pan. This story is gentle, funny but edged with danger. I love the image of the rural community with its embattled vicar. The village fete problems rang very true too! It’s bursting with characters and is a snapshot of English village life. This is a lovely read and the ‘stained glass window’ cover image is just brilliant. It’s the start of a series and I look forward to more. Great stuff.

About the author

My first piece of published writing was a poem in the school magazine. In my twenties I wrote Pantomime scripts for Amateur Dramatic groups and comedy scripts for radio. Now I write fantasy stories for older children (10-13) and funny cozy mysteries for adults.

I live in a small town in England, in an untidy house with four ageing computers and my (equally ageing but very supportive) husband. I enjoy pottering in the garden where I grow brambles, bindweed and nettles along with roses and lillies. I also appear to very good at growing slugs! They certainly feed well on everything but the brambles and weeds.

Most of all, I love writing - it gets me out of doing the housework - and I also read a lot and enjoy good food and wine.

So, there you have it. I write, I read, I drink red wine - but not, necessarily, in that order!

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Just a thought 

Thank God for books and music and things I can think about.

― Daniel Keyes

Broadland

My first David Blake book, though he has written a fair number of books in the humour category.  This is the first in a series and a fine taste of things to come.

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Book description

When a girl’s body is found strangled, raped, and horrifically mutilated by a boat’s propeller, deep in the heart of the Norfolk Broads, newly arrived Detective Inspector John Tanner is asked to assist with the investigation. 

At first, all the evidence points to a man who had a multi-million pound reason to kill her. But when an alibi is produced from an unexpected source, and another body appears at the base of a slipway, Tanner finds himself turning to local girl, Detective Constable Jenny Evans for help. 

As a more romantic relationship develops between them, they find themselves facing a race against time to identify a lethal adversary, one with a lust for blood and a mind set on revenge.

Set within the mysterious beauty of the Norfolk Broads, this fast-paced British detective series is a murder mystery with a slice of humour and a touch of romance, one that will have you guessing until the very end, when the last shocking twist is finally revealed. 

My review -

First in a new series set in the Norfolk Broads. I enjoyed the characters, and DI Tanner’s growing relationship with his new colleagues after his transfer from London. It’s a good puzzle and several times I thought I’d sorted who was guilty – but things aren’t as simple as I believed them to be. This has all the signs of being a very enjoyable new series. Certainly this first volume is.

About the author

David Blake is a full-time author living in North London. To date he has written fourteen books along with a collection of short stories. He’s currently working on his fifteenth, St. Benet’s, which is the follow-up to his debut crime fiction thriller, Broadland.

When not writing, David likes to spend his time mucking about in boats, often in the Norfolk Broads, where his crime fiction books are based.

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Just a thought - 

Most of what makes a book 'good' is that we are reading it at the right moment for us.

― Alain de Botton

Sleep

CL (Cally) Taylor writes jolly gripping psychologial thriller. This is a good example.

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Book description

All Anna wants is to be able to sleep. But crushing insomnia, terrifying night terrors and memories of that terrible night are making it impossible. If only she didn’t feel so guilty…

To escape her past, Anna takes a job at a hotel on the remote Scottish island of Rum, but when seven guests join her, what started as a retreat from the world turns into a deadly nightmare.

Each of the guests have a secret, but one of them is lying – about who they are and why they're on the island. There's a murderer staying in the Bay View hotel. And they've set their sights on Anna.

Seven strangers. Seven secrets. One deadly lie.

Someone’s going to sleep and never wake up…

My review -

What would deprive you of sleep? In Anna’s case it was guilt. Her involvement in a car accident in which two co-workers were killed and one paralysed, even though it wasn’t her fault, leaves her afraid of sleeping. When she does, she has night terrors and wakes screaming. She feels someone is stalking her and continues to feel like then after she moves to a remote Scottish island.

The author has always, to my mind, been good at creating tension, paranoia and fear. I have my eye on a suspect time and again only to be proved wrong. I really enjoyed this book and the snapshot of the lives of those staying on the island with Anna.

About the author

C.L. Taylor is the Sunday Times bestselling author of six gripping psychological thrillers. They are not a series and can be read in any order:

2014 - THE ACCIDENT
2015 - THE LIE
2016 - THE MISSING
2017 - THE ESCAPE
2018 - THE FEAR
2019 - SLEEP

She has also written a Young Adult thriller, THE TREATMENT, which was published by HarperCollins HQ and is currently writing her second, which will be published in June 2020.

C.L. Taylor's books have sold in excess of a million copies, been number one on Amazon Kindle, Kobo, iBooks and Google Play and have been translated into over 25 languages and optioned for TV. THE ESCAPE won the Dead Good Books ‘Hidden Depths’ award for the Most Unreliable Narrator. THE FEAR was shortlisted in the Hearst Big Book Awards in the 'Pageturner' category.

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Just a thought - 

My grandma always said that God made libraries so that people didn't have any excuse to be stupid.
― Joan Bauer

Savage Games

A worthy follow up to Savage Lies - and I think it's even better. Well developed characters and a cunning story.

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Book description

Deep in the New Forest, a body is hidden in the branches of a towering fir tree in an area known as Dead Maids Wood. When John Savage learns that the body belonged to an old school friend, he sets out to discover who was responsible.
 
Together with brilliant computer hacker Tannaz, he discovers his friend was down on his luck, living among those who society would rather forget - the dregs, the desperate and the homeless. Entering this dark and hidden world, Savage soon discovers that the death of his friend was just the tip of the iceberg...

My review -

Savage Games is that difficult to pull off second in a series. I loved Savage Lies and I think this is even better. Ex-SAS John Savage, still battling his own PTSD demons, determines to right some serious wrongs after an old friend from school is found dead. The plotting is tight, the pace fast and the characters are believable. For such a serious subject it’s surprisingly funny too. Savage and his assistant and IT expert Tannaz have clever mouths and don’t know when to button them. I cringed a few times expecting the worst but these two can fend for themselves. Even though it’s a second book, it would read well as a stand-alone. I’m now a huge fan of these characters and look forward to more from John Savage. Erm, I mean Peter Boland!

About the author

After studying to be an architect, Pete realised he wasn't very good at it. He liked designing buildings he just couldn't make them stand up, which is a bit of a handicap in an industry that likes to keep things upright. So he switched to advertising, writing ads for everything from cruise lines to zombie video games.

After meeting his wife Shalini and having two awesome children (their words), he was amazed when she sat and actually wrote a book. Then another and another. They were good too. Really good. So he thought, I'll have a go at that.

He soon realised there's no magic formula. You just have to put one word in front of the other (and keep doing that for about a year). It also helps if you can resist the lure of surfing, playing Nintendo Switch with his son, watching America's Next Top Model with his daughter and drinking beer in a garden chair.

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Just a thought 

 You cannot open a book without learning something ― Confucius

The Passengers

Have you ever heard of a technological innovation and thought ironically, 'What could possibly go wrong'? Well - here it is!

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Book description

When someone hacks into the systems of eight self-drive cars, their passengers are set on a fatal collision course. 

The passengers are: a TV star, a pregnant young woman, a disabled war hero, an abused wife fleeing her husband, an illegal immigrant, a husband and wife - and parents of two - who are travelling in separate vehicles and a suicidal man. Now the public have to judge who should survive but are the passengers all that they first seem?

My review -

John Marrs is very good at taking a modern scientific or technological breakthrough and then transposing it into a near future. As he did with DNA in The One, he now does with driverless cars. I can’t be the only one who’s thought, ‘Self-driving cars? What could possibly go wrong?!’ but the author takes things a step further. We can all envisage possible failures and breakdowns but it takes a vivid imagination to create this story. Your heart will be in your mouth. It becomes exciting, horrifying, heart-breaking. You must read it.

About the author 

John Marrs is the author of #1 Best Sellers The One, The Good Samaritan, When You Disappeared, Welcome to Wherever You Are and Her Last Move. The One has been translated into 20 different languages and is to be turned into a a ten-part Netflix series in 2019.
After working as a journalist for 25-years interviewing celebrities from the world of television, film and music for national newspapers and magazines, he is now a full-time writer.

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Just a thought 

Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries.― Anne Herbert