Killing the Girl

A new author is a great way of widening your reading. Elizabeth Hill has written a book I really enjoyed. Here's to the next.

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Book description

For over forty years Carol Cage has been living as a recluse in her mansion, Oaktree House. Fear is her constant companion. She’s been keeping a secret – and it’s about to be unearthed.

When she receives a compulsory purchase order for her home, she knows that everyone is going to find out what she did to survive her darkest weeks in 1970. She writes her confession so that we can understand what happened because she wasn’t the only one living a lie. The events that turned her fairy-tale life into a living hell were not all they seemed.

She’s determined not to pay for the mistakes of others; if she has to face justice, then they will too.

Carol Cage has a terrible secret … and she’s about to exact retribution on everyone who had abandoned her.

My review 

Carol, in her teens, comes under the spell of the charismatic Frankie and after he charms her and gives her jewellery she marries him. She’s not the only one he’s charmed, she discovers. The murky past comes to light when the home Carol inherited is demolished to make way for building and she has to relocate nearby. This is a terrific tale of obsession, envy, friendships made and broken, secrets hidden, and I was glued to it all the way. ‘The Girl’ that Carol was in 1970 is still inside her as she battles her demons in 2016. This is a really good read.

About the author

After a career Credit Management and Litigation Elizabeth is now a full-time novelist.

Enjoying a good psychological/crime mystery story, but tiring of them being based on the murder of women, her books reverse that premise so that men are at risk of being murdered in the course of a great story! 

Her debut novel is about a young girl who makes mistakes because of the confusing messages and expectations of 1970s society. She pays for those mistakes in a devastating way but grows stronger in the process.

Find out more on her website wickedwritersite.wordpress.com

Elizabeth lives in Bristol, UK.

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Just a thought 

Books, the children of the brain ― Jonathan Swift

Last Orders

A novella in the Danny Lancaster series by Bill Todd. Short, sharp and full of memorable characters.

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Book description

Big Eddie Archer is throwing a celebrity party for the reopening of The Bellerophon public house. When singer Paul Toopen, star of TV reality show Dreamboat, goes missing there is only one man the pub’s guv’nor can call on. 
But Danny Lancaster is off his game after overdoing Eddie’s free hospitality at last night’s dress rehearsal. Fans besiege the pub and the media are everywhere. This could be a public relations disaster but Eddie reckons if Danny can crack the case before closing time it will make the new Bellerophon famous.
Danny’s head is pounding but Eddie’s star guests might just be trapped in a pub with a killer. And the clock is ticking down to last orders. #TheBigBellBash

My review - 

This novella length Danny Lancaster story puts us in the classic locked room situation, but there are over one hundred people in the room with Danny, and one has committed a murder. Two of the stars of a reality TV programme are present at the reopening of The Bellerophon, and there’s huge media interest. We see the efforts of staff to prevent people leaving and the vlog reports transmitted live from the pub. It’s a great story, with the clock ticking and so many people who could be in the frame. Danny’s incentive for sorting it out is the promise of free beer for life. An excellent read.

About the author

I've spent most of my working life as a journalist on local and national newspapers. 
You meet a lot of people, see things, learn stuff. For a crime writer, it's a plot factory.
Before journalism I tried my hand at odd jobs including furniture removals (watch out for the flat-packs, they tend to pack flat when lifted!), photography, teaching and running a magazine group.
I've done quite a bit of travel writing. It's not all cocktails under the palm trees but it is a fantastic job that's taken me to more than 40 countries, from the white wastes of Arctic Finland to the deserts of Namibia.
People often ask my favourite place. In an age of globalisation, many destinations look the same but Iceland and Namibia are like stepping onto another planet. Go if you can.
I've enjoyed a long love affair with Western Crete. The mountains, coastline, food and people make me wonder if I lived there in some previous life. I just have to watch the waxed wings on a hot day.
I was delighted and surprised to receive the Ed Lacy travel award in 2007.

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Just a thought

Never put off till tomorrow the book you can read today ― Holbrook Jackson

LA'LUN

La'lun, meaning little one, is a YA book set mostly in the English Lake District. It's a great read.

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Book description

When Camille discovers the secret her grandmother has protected for decades she knows that to tell anyone would be to tell everyone - with terrible consequences. But it could also bring the rest of her family back into her life. This is a story about love and loyalty, truth and lies. Real news, fake news and how far you'd go to protect what you love. It's a story for now with its roots in ancient folklore. Set in the Lake District, it's the story of a young person finding her place in the world by discovering something the rest of the world knows nothing about. The more she learns of the past the more she can see of her own future.

My review 

La’un (Little one). I really enjoyed this Young Adult novel. Camille is forced to leave school and live with her frosty grandmother and some ancient distant cousin, her grandmother’s age. Gradually she becomes aware that there’s something going on that she’s not aware of. She’s a typical feisty, opinionated teenager and doesn’t take kindly to being told there are things she can’t do and places she can’t go. Her grandmother otherwise treats her very well, indulging her love for art by buying her as much as she wasn’t in the way of art materials. Her only friend there, Sarah, has an older brother who is a reporter and desperate for a scoop which makes him a danger to the family secret that Camille manages to discover. The characters are very well drawn and the secret quite unexpected. I would read more by this author.

About the Author

J N Harris has no author profile on Goodreads or Amazon but he is John Harris, professional storyteller who takes his stories into schools. 

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Just a thought

Books are a narcotic ― Franz Kafka

The Black Ditch

Powerful debut novel from Simon J Lancaster. First of a proposed trilogy - and I'm up for reading the rest.

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Book description

LAURIE STERNE feels like he’s been cut adrift in space. His father has been shot dead, caught in the crossfire of a gangland war that has also claimed his boss’s life. Laurie is a refugee who lost his adoptive mum years before and doesn’t know where he was born, let alone who his birth parents were. But he’s not alone in the world: someone is trying to kill him.
This is London, 2050, a dumping ground for climate refugees and dissidents. Gangs rule, murder goes unpunished and the police make sure you can’t escape.
In his struggle to stay alive, he finds an ally: his former boss’s secret daughter.
But with the killer predicting his every move, is the man without a past being betrayed by the woman who seems to offer him a future?

My review -

It’s 2050 and some things we are aware of now have come to pass. Basements in London flood at high tide because of the rising sea-level. Tower blocks are ruled by gangs and London is effectively a prison city. The government, known as Jack, is a dark threat in the background. The gangs do their work for them – people are killed with no comeback. Laurie Stern, even in such a place, falls in love.

This is a grim foretelling of the future and the direction of modern politics makes it seem all too possible. I enjoyed the chase aspects of this story. Laurie doesn’t know, right to the end, who he can trust, and his life is on the line. The story is very readable and becomes extremely exciting as Laurie’s life is in danger. This is the first of a proposed trilogy and it’s intensely dark and very gripping. I’ll be reading the rest.

About the author

Simon J Lancaster is the author of The Black Ditch, the first in the Laurie Sterne trilogy of dystopian future thrillers. Prior to writing novels he was a national newspaper journalist in London, as well as a music critic and private pilot. He has written short stories and plays and, after reading extensively about climate change, concluded that the fantasy gun-play of contemporary-set action novels would be the lived experience of our coming world.

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Just a thought

Books, the children of the brain ― Jonathan Swift,

Tallis Steelyard x 2

Two new Jim Webster publications is a cause for smiles. They always entertain.

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Book description

More of the wit, wisdom and jumbled musings of Tallis Steelyard. Not only have we got Gentlemen behaving badly, we see Port Naain by starlight and meet ladies of wit and discernment. There are Philosophical societies, amateur dramatics, the modern woman, revenge, and the advantages of a good education. All human life is here, or at least such of it as Tallis will admit to.

My review 

Another great set of stories as told by jobbing poet Tallis Steelyard. Fights abound and artists and poets are not the least amongst the fighters. I love these stories and sometimes think if someone were to drop me anywhere in Port Naain I could find my way, well, not home, but at least to Tallis and Shena’s barge. Jim Webster always gives us humour, wit and a wisdom he wears lightly. People like him should be running the country.

And another!

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Book description

We continue to explore the wit, wisdom and jumbled musings of Tallis Steelyard. In this invaluable publication Tallis Steelyard discusses the ways in which a writer can bring their work to the attention of the masses and more importantly, sell the book to them. As well as this, we have the importance of getting home under your own steam, music and decorum, brass knuckles for a lady, and of course, a few simple spices. 
Surely this is the one essential book that every aspiring novelist should both purchase and study

My review -

Another set of stories from Poet Tallis Steelyard. Amongst other short tales, he advises on selling your written word. The world, even the invented world of Tallis and friends, has much to say on this. As we know, people you’ve never heard of will offer you a book on how to sell your novel and get rich. Jim Webster has once again sorted the gold from the dross and presented it as stories. There’s a lot of truth in them!

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

Some say life is the thing, but I prefer reading ― Ruth Rendell

A Boy and his Dog at the End of the World

C A Fletcher has created a horribly believable petering out of humanity and here, almost at the end, is a very memorable story.

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Book description

My name's Griz. 
I've never been to school, I've never had friends, in my whole life I've not met enough people to play a game of football. My parents told me how crowded the world used to be, before all the people went away, but we were never lonely on our remote island. We had each other, and our dogs.
Then the thief came. 
He told stories of the deserted towns and cities beyond our horizons. I liked him - until I woke to find he had stolen my dog. So I chased him out into the ruins of the world.
I just want to get my dog back, but I found more than I ever imagined was possible. More about how the world ended. More about what my family's real story is. More about what really matters.

My review 

I love this book! It takes a while to get used to not having speech marks but it soon becomes like the chatting of a young friend. About a third of the way through I feared it would run out of steam but it picked up again and right the way through to the end it was an exciting and sometimes surprising read. It brilliant portrays a dystopian future but one far less bleak than The Road (although I loved that too). The dog plays a significant part in the story but mainly it’s the strength of will and resilience of one young person against a very sparsely populated country. So few people, in fact, that a stranger is treated with suspicion. It’s a one-off. Do read it.

About the author

C. A. Fletcher has children and dogs. He lives in Scotland and writes for a living.

I received a review copy of this book from Amazon Vine.

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Just a thought

Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future ― Ray Bradbury

A Wolf at the Gate

Second in the Orkneyinga murder mysteries by Lexie Conyngham.

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Book description

Ketil had not intended to return to Orkney, but when you work for Thorfinn Sigurdarson, you obey orders. Thorfinn wants him back to help with a visiting Abbot from Saxony, escorted by an old colleague of Ketil’s. Then people who know the Abbot start dying, and Ketil must once again work with his friend Sigrid to find out why – and to face dark memories from his own past.This is the second in the Orkneyinga Murders series.

My review - 

This is a second outing for Ketil and his childhood friend Sigrid. Ketil had been called back to Orkney when the bishop of Colonia and his colleague and follower Otto arrive. There’s a death soon after and the victim knew the bishop. All communication between the groups is complicated by the need to translate. It’s a really interesting puzzle as so many people could have so many reasons to want the victim dead – and then there are more deaths. Is it the same killer? This story is well set in time and place and the little details make it come alive. Sigrid, a worker in wool, is teaching someone nailbinding. I had to Google it. You can see YouTube videos. I love this little detail bringing Viking life to my own living room.

If you love mysteries if you’re fascinated by history, or if you’re partial to a little yarn-craft, this book will delight you. It’s a whole lot of story for your money.

About the author

Lexie Conyngham is a historian living in the shadow of the Highlands. Her Murray of Letho novels are born of a life amidst Scotland's old cities, ancient universities and hidden-away aristocratic estates, but she has written since the day she found out that people were allowed to do such a thing. Beyond teaching and research, her days are spent with wool, wild allotments and a wee bit of whisky. 

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Just a thought

Wear the old coat and buy the new book ― Austin Phelps