Blood Truth, Matt Coyle

Readers of this blog will know my penchant for discovering a series in the middle and having to go back and start over, well it's happened again. Great noir, set in San Diego.

PI Rick Cahill’s disgraced ex-cop father Charlie, keeps coming back to haunt him.

He’s called to his childhood home, the renovators have found something hidden away in the walls; a safe that belonged to Charlie. Rick, in the middle of a case with personal overtones (his client is former girlfriend Kim.) arranges to have the safe opened. 

The contents appear to prove that Charlie Cahill was dirty. What Rick doesn’t realize is that he’s been watched all this time, by powerful people who've killed before and will kill again to keep their secrets buried. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, he’s a murder suspect. Again.

Her Beautiful Monster, Adi Tantimedh

Second in the Golden Sentinels PI trilogy. Ravi and the team of genius misfits from Sentinels’ London office defraud a fraudster, seek the beneficiaries of a Russian oligarch’s will and get caught up in an ICE raid during some gnarly fires in LA and that’s just the official stuff.
Unofficially, Olivia is ‘vacationing’ a la Crazy Rich Asians in Hong Kong; attempting to free a publisher from Chinese clutches. Benjamin is happily drowning in NDAs, a small price to pay for piloting top secret driverless cars and drones around LA and Ravi is trying to stop his family from getting into bed with the local loan shark whilst trying to reignite some parental passions. And all the while the gods are gathering because Ravi is about to unleash some serious chaos and they want a ringside seat.

You Can Run, Steve Mosby

No one is going to catch the Red River Killer he’s too smart for the police to apprehend him. He didn’t count on dumb luck, though. A freak accident exposes his hideout and rescues his intended victim. Soon a manhunt is underway for Blythe the killer on the run; he seeks help from the worm, a witness who has kept Blythe’s crimes a terrible secret for reasons too twisted to explain. When the husband of one of the victims questions the number of bodies recovered; Detective Inspectors Emma Beck and Will Turner get a feeling that they aren’t seeing the whole picture. 

Will wants to solve this case, one of his exes was an early victim of the Red River Killer a secret that even Emma doesn’t know. With the press on their backs and their superiors breathing down their necks an unlikely hero emerges but Will still senses something, amiss, something, contrived and he and Emma have got 72 hours to nail this case shut or watch a killer walk into the arms of an adoring press.

Whispering Room, Dean Koontz

Second in the Jane Hawk series finds Jane still on the run from the powerful 'Arcadians' but as they are learning to their cost she doesn't always run away from them. Jane, using her FBI training and wealth of experience acts as an instrument of vengeance for all of the people, including her husband, killed because their names were on a list of people the Arcadians wanted eliminated. She's also fighting to keep her son safe from a world the Arcadians envisage as paradise. Her target? D.J. Michael, the millionaire philanthropist, whose real agenda is nothing less than mind controlling the entire population. And it seems she's close to having a shot at him, if she can survive his security forces, who intend to rip her limb from limb.

Into The Drowning Deep, Mira Grant

This isn't my usual read, I'm not a huge horror fan but this drew me in. I mean killer mermaids, c'mon. Well written, plenty of marine science geekery, a disaster movie element, shady entertainment companies, and characters you can root for, or boo.

Here's the review  

Seven years ago Imagine Entertainment sent a ship, The Atargatis, out to the Marianna trench, their mission to find and film what we would call ‘mermaids’. The mission was a disaster, the vessel was lost as sea and there were no survivors. What did survive was the footage which Imagine fought tooth and claw to keep under wraps and which was leaked by a relative of the crew. Depending on who you talked to over the years it was either the greatest maritime tragedy or the greatest hoax of our time.

Victoria ‘Tory’ Stewart’s big sister Anne was among the missing and she has devoted her career to research that might uncover her sister’s fate. Now, seven years later, Imagine are back, offering big incentives to get Tory and her research partner to reprise that voyage. Tory and a massive group of scientists, security ‘experts’, camera crews, big game hunters and Imagine spokeswoman and geek goddess Oliva Sanderson; under the auspices of the enigmatic Theo Blackwell and Dr. Jillian Toth, the expert on ‘mermaids’. Packed onto The Melusine a Disney Cruise line style behemoth. This time Imagine is taking no chances, they’ve built massive shutters into the design that will cut off the open decks of the ship at the first sign of danger. One slight flaw in that plan, the shutters aren’t responding and what lurks at the bottom of the Marianna Trench is centuries old, and very very hungry.

Quantum Spy, David Ignatius

Quantum computing has become the new arms race between China and the U.S. Qubits, decoherrence and quantum annealing are terms flying around Silicon Valley labs. Some of those labs are being targeted by the Chinese as soon as they become US government funded assets.

The FBI are convinced there is a mole feeding information to the Chinese and a small team is put together to flush the mole out. One team member, agent Harris Chang an American born Chinese, is about to learn that there's a murderously thin line between trust and betrayal and that once you cross it coming back is damn near impossible.

From Here To Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death, Caitlin Doughty

Caitlin Doughty looks at how different countries handle death and dying. Let's face it most Americans are petrified of death and wouldn't even have a loved one's dead body in their house, even if their passing was peaceful. It was a different story for our ancestors, as Caitlin reveals. And whilst funeral pyres, 'recomposition’ and natural burials are making slow inroads in the US; countries like Japan and Mexico, amongst others, embrace death, devoting days to commune with their loved ones who have long passed over (although, in Mexico they aren't afraid to take advice from 007!)

A fascinating, funny and kind of spiritual look at how different cultures view the D word.

13 Minutes, Sarah Pinborough

Teens, especially teen girls have so much drama. The whole school is like a beehive, workers, drones, queen bees and wanna bees. So when the queen bee almost drowns...

13 Minutes, that's how long Natasha Howland's heart stopped for. Did she fall in or was she pushed into the icy waters. Natasha feels she's still in danger because with friends like hers...

An Unkindness of Magicians, Kat Howard

Harry Potter's TriWizard Tournament meets The Night Circus in present day New York City

'Fortune's Wheel has begun its Turning. When it ceases rotation, all will be made new.'

The Turning normally happens once every twenty years. It is a competition where the magical Houses of the Unseen World challenge each other's champions to duels, which become increasingly deadly as the stakes get higher. There can only be one winner and for the last few turnings that has been the House of Merlin.

Now The Turning has come early, it always causes upheaval in the magical world and this time is no exception. Magic is mis-firing. The heirs of Houses Merlin and Prospero have become disenchanted or disinherited, the smaller houses are jockeying for position and into this melee step Sydney and Harper.

Sydney, a real life Hermione Granger comes from the House of Shadows, although she is well aware of who sent her there. Shadows provides the pool of magic which all the Houses draw from because if you use your own magic, as Sydney does, there is a price to be paid. She represents Laurent Beauchamp who hopes to establish his own house by winning the tournament.

Harper is a mundane (a muggle), she can summon just enough magic to her to light a candle and give herself a bloody nose doing it. Her best friend, Rose was murdered for her magic by a man from the unseen world and Harper intends to avenge her and she thinks Sydney can help, if she can find her.

The Late Show, Michael Connelly

Cops who work the 'late show' in Hollywood CA don't normally close cases, they start them but when night turns to day their investigations are taken over by the day shift. It's not where Renee Ballard would have wanted to end up but after accusing a senior officer of sexual harassment and watching her ex-partner refuse to back her up, this is her life now. Ballard and her new partner, Jenkins catch an assault where the victim was left for dead and it pushes Renee's buttons. She manages to hold on to the case and work it under the radar on her downtime. As she gets closer to nailing a vicious serial attacker her attention is split between her case and a high profile shooting in a downtown nightclub where the shooter remains unidentified.

Detective Ballard is tough, feisty, a little Kate Beckett-esque, this has enough twists and turns to keep police procedural fans happy but still manages to throw a few curve balls into the mix.

The Sorbonne Affair, Mark Pryor

Hugo Marston, head of security for the US Embassy in Paris is at Isabelle Severin's funeral when he is approached by American romance novelist Helen Hancock. Her story sounds a bit far-feteched; someone has been spying on her, possibly to steal her work. Hugo suggests bringing in the police in the shape of Camille Lerens and a spy camera is found in Helen's suite at the exclusive Sorbonne Hotel. Before Camille can proceed with an investigation a murder occurs at the same hotel and within hours some of the footage from the spy camera, some very revealing footage is uploaded to the internet. Hugo finds himself drawn into the investigation because the bodies stacking up are all Americans and it seems that his involvement has drawn the ire of the killer.

Meanwhile Tom Green is obsessing over the release of convicted bank robber Rick Cofer who swore revenge on Tom and Hugo back when both worked for the FBI. Cofer is heading their way and may already be hunting his quarry on the streets of Paris.

Sourdough, Robin Sloan

From the writer of ‘Mr Penumbra’s 24 hour book store’ comes a charming Bay Area tale of robots, software and sourdough.

The 'clement street starter' is the last delivery from the hole in the wall food place that genius software engineer Lois Clary has been ordering from every night since they left a menu taped to her door. The two Mazg brothers that run it are leaving the country in a hurry and the key to their mouth-watering sour dough is now Lois' room mate. A very musical and lively room mate.

Soon, Lois has the baking bug and is supplying her neighbours and the canteen at her employer; robot arm maker General Dexterity. She has also discovered, a club for woman named Lois and the Marrow Fair, a group of cutting edge food technologists based out at now-abandoned Alameda air base, Lois, with email encouragement from the Mazg brothers (and some Mazg music) begins to explore the starter's origins. Without realizing it, Lois has hitched her star to a seething clump of microbes, which is becoming more demanding by the day.

Gone To Dust, Matt Goldman

Twin cities private eye Nils Shapiro's newest client is Edina PD. They have a murdered divorcee and a calculating killer who 'dusted' up the victim's house and contaminated their crime scene. CSI won't be solving this one.

Nils and his old police academy graduates buddies might though. Shap is an interesting character, hope we see more of this new-fashioned gumshoe.

Bedlam Stacks, Natasha Pulley

Smuggling for the East India company nearly cost Merrick Tremayne his leg. Stuck back in England in a crumbling ruin that his brother refuses to even try and repair, Merrick spends most of his waking hours in the greenhouse where his great grandfather, explorer Harry Tremayne planted the exotic plants he found in Peru, Merrick can keep anything alive except the strange tree that Harry planted in the garden which has just blown up the house! Merrick convinced he is going mad, the other thing Harry brought back was a statue and it appears to be moving of its own accord.

Before he completely loses his marbles Merrick is recruited into another smuggling operation, this one destined to fail, his attempt to obtain cuttings from the cinchona trees that sit just above the tiny settlement Harry visited known as New Bethlehem or Bedlam for short is liable to get him killed by the people controlling the quinine trade. That will be grounds to bring in the army. What Merrick and his companions find is a place caught in time, protected by ancient beings and more of the moving stone statues and a link back to his great grandfather, a priest named Raphael.

Nine Tailed Fox, Martin Limón

Another entry in the excellent Sueño/Bascom military investigators series. GI’s are going missing, three so far, in different towns all over South Korea. The army brass have congress breathing down their necks and want Sueño and Bascom to find the missing men, pronto. 

GI’s are no angels but the missing trio had been up on assault charges against local women. Some locals think the triads are to blame, some quote legends of the gumiho a centuries old nine tailed fox disguised as a woman. The truth probably lies somewhere in between and the only way Sueño can see to solve the case is to set a trap; with himself as bait. 

Fox Hunter, Zoë Sharp

Close protection specialist Charlotte (Charlie) Fox is on the trail of her boss, Sean Meyer; who appears to have gone rogue and killed one of a group of men who got away with assaulting Charlie in her squaddie days. Parker Armstrong sends her to the Middle East with instructions to deal with Meyer, fast and by any means necessary.

Charlie's arrival in Iraq coincides with a vicious attack on the convoy she's travelling in but was she the target? Charlie doesn't like being warned off it only makes her more determined to find out the truth. In amidst the groups of local arms dealers, smugglers, black ops teams from both superpowers lies a path to Sean and she's determined to follow it, to the end.

The Mapmaker’s Daughter, Katherine Nouri Hughes

A fascinating blend of historical fiction and fact. This is the story of Nurbanu; born Cecilia Baffo Veniero, she’s not even a teenager when the Ottoman Empire sweeps across her tiny island capturing her and hundreds of other young children.

Cecilia’s education brings her to the attention of the Sultan and starts her rise to becoming one of the most powerful and influential women of her age. Nurbanu, quarantined with a mystery illness uses her time to document her story and explain some of the hard choices she had to make to preserve her Sultan’s dynasty.

Bibliomysteries, Edited by Otto Penzler

This collection of short stories all involve books, bookstores, booksellers, libraries and book collectors. Mystery authors like Max Allen Collins, Mickey Spillane, Anne Perry, Jeffrey Deaver, Laura Lippman and many more.

Discover tales like the Mexican drug lord with a fatal weakness for rare books. A character library deep in the English countryside, a bookseller detective, Columbo hunting down the killer of a rare book dealer and a mythical book that turns out to be all too real. Like a box of fine chocolates there is something for every bibliophile.

The Amber Shadows, Lucy Ribchester

Bletchley Park, 1941. The place is chock-full of secrets, some more dangerous than others. Honey Deschamps, one of the Park's decryption administration team has been receiving some very odd mail, postmarked Leningrad. It stirs childhood memories of her real father. Could he still be alive and trying to make contact with her, or is this some bizarre test of her loyalty to queen and country? An atmospheric little psychological thriller with insights (good and bad) into life on the home front during WWII.

Clockwork Dynasty, Daniel H Wilson

'all who breathe do not live; all of touch do not feel; and all who see do not judge. Behold the...automat'

June Stefanov has always been fascinated by ancient technology. She has carried her grandfather's tale of an avenging angel impervious to bullets at the battle of Stalingrad for almost as long as she's worn the strange relic he left her around her neck. She has a grant from the mysterious Kunlun Foundation to document and research mechanical antiquities but someone is always a step ahead of her, vandalizing the ancient tech before she can research it but not this time, this time June uses modern methods to wrest a message from her quarry and breaches a hidden world. June reluctantly allies with Peter who has lived among humans for centuries, a warrior who serves no master as his kind slowly dies out. June may hold the key to saving his race, if Peter can keep her alive.

Yesterday, Felicia Yap

Imagine a world where memory is the class divide. After the age of 18 Monos only retain a day of memory. Duos, the elite retain two days worth. Apple's iDiary has superceeded pen and paper and mixed marriages like Mark and Claire Evans' are rare. Mark Evans is a successful novelist and rising political star. Claire, is a Mono housewife.

Mark's mistress Sophia has just been dragged lifeless from the Cam and her diary implicates him in more than infidelity. Sophia claimed to not need an iDiary she claimed to remember everything but DI Hans Richardson reasons that anyone that crazy would lie to their iDiary.

Mark, Claire, DI Richardson and Sophia are the storytellers. All have secrets, even Richardson who is determined to bring Sophia’s killer to justice in his trademark single day.

Dead on Arrival, Matt Richtel

Delta flight #194 inbound to Steamboat Springs has lost contact with the tower. The pilots land the plane but what they find on the runway scares the hell out of them. There’s a doctor on the manifest, one Lyle Martin, in town for an infectious diseases conference and he’s called up to the flight deck. Grumpy and still a little hung over he doesn’t know that this call will save his life. He and the crew; trigger happy co-pilot Jerry and Captain Eleanor Hall seem to be the only survivors of a pandemic that struck whilst they were in the air and now it’s on the plane…

The Marriage Pact, Michelle Richmond

To newlyweds Jake and Alice, The Pact seems like an exclusive club. Beautiful people, lavish parties; a few rules which they are too loved up to really take in and they won't break those rules, will they?

And even if they do break a rule or two, what's the worst that could happen?

Brave New World

Because of 'the book' (and yes, yes I know, I still haven't fixed the banner at the top of the blog) circumstances are applying more pressure than I'm used to. Working on a sequel, blurbing, working, being dragged out to socialize (I really like the socializing bit, it's just the getting there, in a recent chat on FB, I chose teleportation as my most-wanted super power) but I digress. The brave new world of marketing is what prompts this post. I've had to look out from my little corner of the blogosphere and in doing that I've discovered other bloggers who like me do this for the love of books. I've even reached out to a few of them and if that's you and you're reading this then know that I didn't just stick a pin in the phonebook. The blogs I've contacted have similar tastes to me, and I've picked up a few 'must reads' from reading their posts.

August has got some crackers coming including reviews of The Marriage Pact, Yesterday, Clockwork Dynasty, Dead on Arrival, Fox Hunter, Bedlam Stacks and The Map Maker's Daughter.

Library of Light and Shadow, M.J. Rose

It is 1925 and post war New York is a glamourous place. Gifted young artist Delphine Duplessi, a favourite on the society party circuit is known for her ‘shadow paintings’ portraits that lay bare the subject’s darkest secrets. Delphine herself has a secret; her talent is enhanced by powers passed down through the Duplessi line. When her ‘gift’ leads to tragic consequences, Delphine, along with her twin brother and business manager Sebastian sail back to France. Back home Delphine tries to heal, her mother, legendary witch La Lune tries to help her, whilst Sebastian does his best to lure her back to painting again.

Sebastian springs a commission on her, Emma Calve, former opera singer and now owner of a Chateau that has links to alchemist Nicolas Flamel, wants to hire Delphine to ‘shadow paint’ the building and reveal the secrets that Flamel allegedly hid there in the Library of Light and Shadow.

And Delphine is hiding something, someone else from her family, her ex-lover Mathieu. The daughters of La Lune are cursed by love but her love for this man may destroy them both. 

The Boy Who Saw, Simon Toyne

Second in the Solomon Creed series.

With less than a month until the French elections, the mysterious Solomon Creed arrives in the small town of Cordes-sur-Ciel looking for Josef Engel, the tailor who sewed the label "Made to treasure for Mr. Solomon Creed." into his jacket. If anyone knows more about his identity it will be Engel.

What he finds is Engel's bloody corpse and the police, who found Solomon at the scene, are quick to lock him up as the murderer. During his interrogation Solomon learns that the killer was seeking a list, possibly tied to the survivors of a notorious Nazi prison camp massacre at the end of WWII. Reasoning that Engel's surviving family could still be in danger. Solomon escapes custody, taking Marie-Claude, Engel's grand-daughter and her young son Leo with him. Marie-Claude has been researching her family history (even though Engel expressly forbade her to do so) and she has learned the location of the prison camp in which her grandfather was held, Mulhouse, close to the German/Swiss border. but she cannot suspect the terrible secret hidden at the camp for all these years. A secret wound around someone who looks a lot like Solomon Creed...

Watch Me Disappear, Janelle Brown

It’s been a year since Billie Flanagan went missing, hiking alone in the Desolation Wilderness. They never found her body but her busted up cellphone and single hiking boot tell the story. Billie, the force of nature that swept Jonathan off his feet and into a proposal of marriage just six weeks after meeting her is dead.

Their daughter, Olive has started having ‘visions’ of her mother and her conclusion is that Billie is still alive somewhere, maybe being held against her will. Jonathan, now writing a book of his life with Billie and just about coming to terms with her absence tries to discourage Olive’s attempts to locate her missing mom. And then, a chance comment from one of Billie’s best friends makes him wonder if he really knew his wife at all. If he built a story around her to protect himself and keep their family together and he starts to dig…

Ten Dead Comedians, Fred Van Lente

Ten stand-up comedians, a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration too good to ignore on a luxury private island and a killer, picking them off one-by-one. A sly homage to Agatha Christie's 'And Then There Were None', with monologues.

If We Were Villains, M.L. Rio

This comes under the heading of 'how the hell did I miss this?'

M.L. Rio's debut novel (published in April) landed in my lap last week.

I loved the almost claustrophobic feel of the conservatory, the small group of fourth year students almost felt a little Hogwarts-y to me and the careful unfolding of the story kept me riveted.

Here's the review

Theater, in the right hands can be magical, casting a spell on the audience, the actors performing a personal alchemy to become any character you can imagine. Ten years ago Oliver Marks (our narrator), a student, in his final year at Dellecher Classical Conservatory where the not so simple act of completing four years of Shakespearean training guarantees their graduates a place in any of the best acting companies in the world. The pressure is ramping up on everyone closeted in the 'the tower'. Apart from Oliver, the others are James, Meredith, Richard, Alexander, Fillipa and Wren. The seven speak a kind of pigeon Shakespeare and live and breath the bard. On the opening night of 'Julius Caesar' the wrap party becomes a tragedy all its own and formerly good-natured rivalries spill over into violence.

Child, Fiona Barton

The Daily Post is downsizing, more online content, less staff. Kate Waters needs a good story to cement her 'star reporter' status and finding 'baby Alice' might do it.

'Alice' was taken from her hospital crib back in the 1970's and never found. Now a tiny skeleton has surfaced on an east London building site in Howard Street. Kate, saddled with a cub reporter sets about tracking down the story that she can 'feel' is there. Along with the rest of the public lapping up the growing headlines are three women who are connected to the missing infant; one in ways she could never have imagined. Kate is sure she's got a scoop but a chance encounter with a former Howard Street tenant spins the story into something else entirely and then the DNA test results come back...

N.B This is the second novel featuring journalist Kate Waters.

I'm so excited!

The official launch party for Case of Espionage happens this Tuesday 27th June. The overall positive reaction to the book has blown me away. As many writers will tell you after being alone with the story for so long (even after editing and beta reading) you begin to doubt that it's any good. I've had demands for a sequel (which I'm already working on)

Here's a link to the event details.
http://www.kingsenglish.com/event/paula-longhurst-case-espionage

We'll be live streaming the event on my author page on FaceBook too.
https://www.facebook.com/Paula-Longhurst-Writer-999348343451441/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel




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The Force, Don Winslow

If you live in New York, especially Manhattan North, ‘Da Force’ keeps you safe. They are the bravest, toughest, cops that NYPD has. An untouchable elite, ruled by Detective Sergeant Denny Malone. They are closer than family, they would die for each other. They do what needs to be done while the Mayor, the suits at one police plaza and others look the other way and take the credit. 

It’s a house of cards built on deals with the gangs and the mobsters and the judges because in this town everyone is a little bit dirty, even Denny Malone.

Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O, Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland

Magic was real but something caused it to die out in 1851.

A chance collision in a Harvard hallway leads to a whole new life for linguist Melisande Stokes. The guy she bumped into, Tristan Lyons recruits her into D.O.D.O a government black budget operation and the ancient cache of documents she translates for him prove that witches were useful members of society until their powers faded. Tristan and his superiors want to know why and to bring magic back even in a limited form for uses that are 'classified'. The burgeoning team that Tristan pulls together soon learn that magic has rules and whilst some can be broken if you mess with time, time will break you.

Midnight At The Bright Ideas Bookstore, Matthew Sullivan

'Bright Ideas' is the Denver bookstore where Lydia Smith works.

Joey Molina is young, damaged and one of Lydia's favourite 'book frogs' until the night Joey takes his own life amongst the book stacks. The old Lydia starts to unravel. Joey left her his collection of books, defaced in odd ways and the picture he carried in his pocket was of her and some friends on her tenth birthday. Memories surface of Lydia and her dad fleeing Denver for a cabin in the mountains the only survivor of the 'hammer man' attack.

People she thought she'd lost; childhood friend Raj, her estranged father, the cop who never solved the hammer man case start showing up at the store and calling; banging on that door in Lydia’s brain where the memories of that awful night reside. A clever debut mystery that keeps you guessing, studded with characters that booksellers and customers alike will recognize.

(N.B. Sullivan is a former employee of Tattered Cover in Denver)

The Space Between The Stars, Anne Corlett

In a Universe very similar to ours the governments of the world decided to solve their overcrowding problems by deporting certain ethnic groups and lower class citizens to outer space. Jamie Allenby, a white English woman felt so strongly about this that she and a large group of protesters went out there with them.

Over a decade later Jaime is estranged from her partner, Daniel and working as a veterinarian on far flung Soltaire. With scant warning a deadly mutating virus; coming seemingly from nowhere, strikes the colonists, and Jamie, who was certain the virus would kill her, is one of a handful of survivors. Humanity has been decimated and Jamie along with other survivors decides to go back to Earth. Picked up by a cargo freighter she and the others on board will have to work together, putting their various agendas aside in order to reach home.

And is Earth really the safe haven they believe it to be?

The Silent Corner, Dean Koontz

FBI Agent Jane Hawk has gone rogue in the eyes of her agency. Recently widowed and hunted by a mysterious cabal she fights to keep the last of her family safe. Jane was investigating a rise in suicides, her husband's among them. Now she's gone as dark as she can while attempting to gather evidence of a mind-bending conspiracy capable of tearing down life as we know it. She's the one variable 'they' never expected and she's determined to take 'them' down, or die trying.

The Party, Robyn Harding

Hannah has finally made it, she's dating the hottest boy in the school and been hanging out with the popular girls and she's petrified that her sixteenth Birthday party is going to be social suicide.

She need not have worried, what happens at her party will cause shockwaves in many lives for years to come in this mash-up of Mean Girls and Pretty Little Liars.

Magpie Murders, Anthony Horowitz

Who killed Mary Blakiston?

That's the question Susan Ryeland, editor at Cloverleaf Books is asking herself. Cloverleaf's star author, Alan Conway has always been hard to deal with but turning in a manuscript with the last chapters missing is unforgivable. Susan resolves to find the missing pages if it kills her...

Horowitz has given us two books in one and invites the reader to play detective alongside Ryeland. A wonderful mash-up of a Christie-esque who-dunnit with a bang-up-to-date murder mystery; clues and red-herrings galore.

Since We Fell, Dennis Lehane

TV reporting is a tough business and rising star Rachel Childs falls at the biggest hurdle. After an on-air melt down, Rachel becomes a virtual shut in; racked by panic attacks. Until Brian comes back into her life. Brian Delacroix, humble, Canadian, the only honest PI she’d ever met. Now working in the family lumber business he travels a lot. Rachel loves him, trusts him, marries him. With him by her side she begins to put her panic attacks in the rear view mirror.

Then she glimpses Brian on a street corner at a time he is supposed to be jetting to London and her long buried reporter’s instincts resurface. As she slowly works out what she is mixed up in, her feeling towards Brian start to shift.

Did he ever love her? Has he been lying to her all along? Should she kill him?

Dennis is coming to TKE! Sunday June 4th 2017 at 3:00 p.m. 

The Thirst, Jo Nesbo

Nesbo plays cat and mouse with the reader as well as his characters in this, the eleventh in the Harry Hole series.

Harry Hole is back, and happy? Well right now he is; married to Rakel, father to Oleg and lecturer at the police college but all that is about to change. Mikael Bellman blackmails Harry into helping with a case. A killer using Tinder to target his victims and Harry senses something about his signature that is ‘familiar’ although he can’t place exactly what it is. Working alongside DI Katherine Bratt and an enthusiastic young newbie, Harry and the team races against the clock to save Oslo from a killer who has a fetish for blood and an old score to settle with Harry and DI Bratt. 

Reviews?

Case of Espionage hit store shelves just over two weeks ago and TKE have almost sold through our first order, which is great!

Regular visitors here know that reviews are very important, especially for new authors like me and whilst I have several blurbs ready to go on the back of Rollover (and a Kirkus review to quote from) this all happened so fast that blurbs and reviews where the last thing I was thinking about for C.O.E.

I got a thumbs up from my beta readers (after editing) and I've had some favourable verbal reviews but written ones are what I need. Here is the link to TKE's website
http://www.kingsenglish.com/search/site/Paula%20Longhurst

Most indies will be able to get you a copy. It's on Am**on as well (I have no control over that, I wish I did but...)

Reviews, here or on Riffle would be greatly appreciated.

Pearl Thief, Elizabeth Wein (A prequel to Codename Verity)

Before Verity became a brave and unbreakable spy she was Scots lass Julia Beaufort Stuart.

Fifteen year old Julia, Julie to her friends made the mistake of coming home from her Swiss studies three days early and ended up in hospital because of it. She can’t remember being bashed over the head she’s just grateful to the McEwens, Euan and Ellen and their fellow Travellers, who found her injured on the path to their camp site and got her to hospital.

Returning to her grandfather’s estate to recover, Julie begins to remember snippets of what happened to her. She is keen to get to the bottom of the mystery because on the day she got hurt a family employee vanished. She grows closer to the McEwens, experiencing firsthand some of the prejudices they’ve become used to. Then a body is found in the river and the Travellers look like an easy target to frame for murder. Julie joins forces with the McEwens and her brother Jamie to find the real culprit and save her new friends.

Into the Water, Paula Hawkins

'When I was 17, I saved my sister from drowning.'

The drowning pool in Jules' home town has claimed many troublesome women over the years some suicides, some, not. Jules escaped south to London soon after her mother died. Her sister, Nel stayed and now Nel is dead; found floating, broken in the drowning pool. The local police begin poking around and as Jules reluctantly returns to her childhood home she finds Nel's death mourned by some and celebrated by others. Nel, an award winning photographer was researching a book on the macabre history of the town and its river, could that have prompted someone to kill her?

Jules' memories of growing up in this small town are about to suffer a jolt especially when Lena, Nel's teenage daughter goes missing.

New Project Cover Art

Rollover is coming, just not yet. Turns out my first ever published book is from the second series I've been working on. I'll actually have a copy in my hand tomorrow which is the official on sale date. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Good Byline, Jill Orr

Nothing ever happens in Tuttle Corner, well nothing more exciting than the local library sale. That's the opinion of Riley 'Bless her heart' Ellison, whose happily ever after went up in smoke when her future husband Ryan took off to Denver to 'find himself, and left 24 year old Riley on the shelf.

Riley's plan to move on with her life was supposed to involve some light dating by signing up with click.com but the death of her high school bestie, Jordan, upends Riley's life in ways she could never have anticipated when she agrees to write Jordan's obituary for the local paper. Suddenly the gorgeous Ajay, an 80llb furry assassin and an investigative reporter with a side line in batty conspiracy theories are orbiting her quiet little world and Ryan's unexpected return throws Riley for a loop.

Riley is certain Jordan was living her investigative reporter role to the hilt; but did it get her killed and by stepping into her shoes could Riley be in danger too. A fun, fresh and laugh out loud debut.

Fever Of The Blood, Oscar De Muriel

In the follow-up to ‘Strings of Murder’ De Muriel delves into more spooky goings on in Edinburgh. New Year’s Day 1889 signifies a terrible new beginning for the lunatic asylum where Inspector Nine Nails McGray’s sister resides. A patient murders his nurse and absconds. McGray and his reluctant partner Ian Frey are soon in hot pursuit; hotter after McGray learns that his mute sister was heard talking with the same patient, hours before he escaped.

McGray drags a less than enthused Frey across the border into England, in Lancashire, where more murders take place. During the worst blizzard in living memory with Frey now supporting McGray they chase the killer towards the home of the Lancashire witches, the infamous Pendle Hill.  

Song of the Lion, Anne Hillerman

An explosion in the parking lot at Shiprock High School leaves one man dead. Sgt Bernie Manuelito who was watching the basketball game and heard the first bomb go off is suddenly very much on duty, dealing with the panicked crowds, a rookie who is more keen to impress the FBI than to do his job and the possibility that there could be more bombs set to go off when the crowd leaves the gymnasium.

Bernie is pretty scuffed up by the time she gets home to find that Jim Chee, her husband was been ordered to Tuba City where a mediation is taking place over a possible development at the Grand Canyon. He has to babysit the mediator, Aza Palmer and things are getting heated on both sides. Sabotage and buckets of dead fish are the least of Chee's problems. Palmer doesn't want to be followed around and keeps giving Chee the slip and the FBI suspects an ecoterrorist plot to inflame tensions between the Hopi and the Dine tribes during the mediation.

Bernie, still investigating the Shiprock bombing, brings in retired lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and with his help begins to dig into a cold case from Leaphorn's past that reveals a simmering pot of revenge, about to boil over, in Tuba City.

My little passion publishing project

If you've been following my author page on FaceBook you'll know that the little 'passion project' I've been working on is very close to becoming a reality and to give myself that extra little kick in the pants to finish formatting and hit the 'publish' button? What better way than to sign up for the 'local author showcase' in July at TKE.

Cutaway, Christina Kovac

MISSING

The Metropolitan Police Department is seeking the public’s assistance in locating a missing person identified as Evelyn Marie Carney. She was last seen at approximately 9:48 p.m., on Sunday March 8, in the twelve hundred block of Wisconsin Avenue, NW.

Nightly news producer, Virginia Knightley‘s instincts are piqued by this notice. Rumours are circulating that the young lawyer was having an affair with a DC heavyweight and that she just doesn’t want to be found. Calling in a favour from an old flame Virginia begins to dig. She encounters a smokescreen of unhelpful lawyers, obstructive police, political horsetrading, bereft lovers and husbands and Paige Linden, Evelyn’s best friend who, like Virginia, is convinced that something terrible has happened to Evelyn.

As if this wasn’t enough to contend with ratings are down at the station and the person responsible for bringing them back up’s antics are hurting Virginia’s team.

A great debut novel with bucket loads of authenticity. Kovac spent 17 years producing crime and political stories in Washington DC.  

Mister Memory, Marcus Sedgwick

It was a crime of passion, Marcel Despres killed his wife Ondine in their apartment with a gun. Everyone heard the shot, or was it shots? Despres is declared insane and bundled with unseemly haste into a mental asylum. And there the case would've rested but for young police Inspector, Petit, psychiatrist Doctor Morel and Marcel Despres himself. For Marcel is no ordinary man, he remembers everything. Inspector Petit comes to believe that Ondine's death is more than the result of a lover's quarrel. He suspects a cover-up stretching from the mean streets of Pigalle to the very highest levels of French government.

Petit convinces Dr. Morel that locked up somewhere in Marcel's giant brain is the fact that will crack his case but he's not the only one who has reached that conclusion.

Six Wakes, Mur Lafferty

Far into the future. The Dormire, bound for Artemis, with a cargo of cryogenically preserved rich people filling her holds. Six crew and IAN, the AI are all that is needed to run the ship. The crew are all clones, working passage to expunge their various criminal records.

A quarter century into the mission something goes horribly wrong and Maria Arena wakes up in a cloning vat surrounded by floating dead bodies (one of them hers), there's no gravity, the ship is off course, the AI offline and someone on board is a killer.

A taut, exciting, read-in-one-sitting book. Lafferty takes the sci-fi and winds it around some very human traits.

Spook Street, Mick Herron

A man getting a bit absent-minded, going to the shops in his pjs should trigger the family talk about nursing homes. When the man in question is David Cartwright, legend in the secret service and grandfather to slow horse River; the worry is that the OB might shoot the postman, mistaking him for a Russian spy. There are so many secrets locked up in Cartwright's head. One secret in particular is threatening the entire secret service and wily Diana Taverner is out to bash it over the with a shovel and bury it, metaphorically speaking of course.

Jackson Lamb is called out to identify a body, one of his slow horses appears to have met an untimely end. Another is out on Spook Street, following a trail into enemy territory and deep into David Cartwright's past. And River, well he's about to have a bullet-riddled family reunion.

The Last Night At Tremore Beach, Mikel Santiago

Composer Peter Harper has lost his muse, shut up on the rugged Irish coast and still licking his wounds over his recent divorce. He’s pretty sure he’ll never write another award winning score again. The night of one of the worst storms in living memory Peter accepts an invitation from near neighbours Leo and Marie to have dinner with them. On the return journey Peter is struck by a massive bolt of lightning. He wakes up in hospital, seemingly unscathed and then the visions start. He sees a smashed fence, a desperate woman, only the fence is fine and the woman is perfectly safe. The visions only get worse, Peter can’t tell if he’s awake or in some lucid dream. 

Did the lightning fry his brain or amplify a latent power, or is he simply losing his mind?

Whatever is happening to him he’s certain of one thing; Leo and Marie are hiding something and it threatens the lives of everyone he loves.

Winterlong, Mason Cross

Winterlong, a top secret government group has a simple severance policy, a shallow grave with your name on it. Former Winterlong operative, Carter Blake is a rare exception. Five years ago he and colleague walked away from Winterlong after negotiating a pact of mutually assured destruction with the old director. Since then both have kept their heads down.  The new director wants his head on a pole and she’s coming after him with every asset she can muster. Blake knows every trick in the book, problem is Winterlong wrote that book. Armed only with his wits and some formidable fighting skills Blake goes on the run saddled with the added complication of a rogue software designer he was ‘retrieving’ for a client. Both sides are hurtling towards an explosive East coast climax during one of the worst snow storms in living memory.

N.B. This is book three in the series first two are Killing Season and The Samaritan

Behind Her Eyes, Sarah Pinborough

David and Adele Martin are the perfect couple; rich beautiful people and Louise Barnsley, David's part time receptionist, is in a perfect mess. She's having an affair with one and the other has just become her best friend. Who is playing whom though? Louise thinks she knows; however she's not even close to divining the couple's secrets, the ties that bind them and the secret one still keeps from the other.

The love triangle between David, Louise and Adele starts to spiral out of control; each of them thinking they can control the other two, bend them to their will, get what they want. Things aren’t looking good for Adele…

Come find me at the store so that we can talk about that ending.

The Girl Before, J.P. Delaney

One Folgate Street is the high tech dream of feted architect Edward Monkford. Prospective tenants have to meet his very exacting standards and only he can decide who lives there. Most of the time the place stands empty and then along comes Jane, still getting over the loss of her unborn child. She needs an uncluttered life and One Folgate seems to offer a perfect solution. 

Except, for the flowers regularly left on her doorstep for 'Emma' who bears a startling resemblance to Jane leading Jane to ask the question, who was the previous tenant, the girl before and why did she leave? A twisty little psychological thriller.

The Dry, Jane Harper

You lied. Luke lied. Be at the funeral.

Federal Agent Aaron Falk wasn’t going to go to his former best friend’s funeral. Too many memories and he hasn’t been back to Kiewarra since he and his father were chased out twenty years ago. Back then Ellie, his girlfriend was found dead and Luke was Aaron’s only alibi. Now Luke is dead, seemingly by his own hand. Aaron returns to his hometown and finds it slowly being sucked dry by the unending drought. His reluctant investigation into Luke’s death could be the spark that burns Kiewarra to the ground.

This is a great debut novel, wouldn't be surprised to see an Edgar headed Jane's way. 

Her Every Fear, Peter Swanson

When Kate was growing up she always assumed the worst about everything and everyone, until the worst actually happened; almost robbing her of her independence and her life. 

Kate now lives in a pokey little London flat so the offer of a flat swap with her American cousin Corbin sounds too good to be true. Soon Kate is arriving in Boston. But all is not well in her new apartment block, people are watching her, the girl across the hall is dead and the police won’t say how, just that Corbin is a person of interest. Does Kate really know her cousin at all? 

The tension ratchets up until Corbin’s past and Kate’s present violently intersect in another corking standalone thriller from Swanson. 

A Q & A with Jane Harper

1) There was a pretty heated auction that happened for THE DRY. But I also hear you had some other important stuff going on that day...

I think the day a novel goes to auction is something any author would treasure, but for me the memory is especially clear as by coincidence it was also my wedding day! Why celebrate just one life-changing event when you can celebrate two? I managed to resist any urge to check in with my agent and just concentrated on enjoying the day itself, but it definitely added to the excitement knowing the auction was taking place. I was so thrilled by the offers when I heard from her the next day, so it was a really crazy but wonderful few days for me.


2) Where did you see your first copy of The Dry on sale and what went through your head when you saw people buying it?

The first time I saw copies 'in the wild' was at my local bookshop in St Kilda, near Melbourne. I was walking past and the store had a huge window display with posters and copies of The Dry advertising the novel's launch event being held there a few days later. It was thrilling as that was the moment it all suddenly seemed real. I still absolutely love to see it in stores as the idea of seeing it on a bookshop shelf was something that really motivated and inspired me while I was writing it.


3) Who are some of your favorite authors? What authors inspire you?

I like to read widely, but my favorite books tend to be fairly fast-paced and with a few twists and turns along the way. I've been a big fan of writers like Lee Child, Val McDermid and David Baldacci for a long time, and in recent years I really enjoyed Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl and I love books by fellow Aussie authors Liane Moriarty and Hannah Kent. I do like to mix it up though with both commercial and literary titles because I think great books can be found across every genre.


4) Who would you cast as Aaron, Luke, Ellie and Gretchen in the movie version of THE DRY?

I get asked this a lot and I never have a good answer! I'm always a bit reluctant to pin the characters down to any particular actors because I like readers to imagine the characters in their own way. I'm also usually more interested to hear who other people would cast -- sometimes I completely see why they've chosen that person, and sometimes they have imagined the character in a completely different way to me, which I always find fascinating!


5) Was the setting for The Dry inspired by any particular place?

The fictional town of Kiewarra features heavily in the novel, and is a drought-stricken community in regional Victoria, Australia, five hours from Melbourne.

The town itself is an amalgamation of many rural communities I visited while working as a journalist in Australia and the UK. While none of those places were anywhere near as dysfunctional as Kiewarra, they helped me get a sense of what it is like for people so reliant on things they cannot control, such as the land and the weather.

I was also interested in those communities where people have known each other, for better or worse, for most of their lives.


6) How did the main character Aaron Falk develop?

Aaron Falk left Kiewarra under a cloud as a teenager and built a new life for himself in Melbourne as an officer with the Federal Police. He is a financial investigator who is reluctant to return to Kiewarra and even more reluctant to stay for any length of time.

I wanted his character to be very much at odds with the people he left behind in the town – he is fairly quiet and cerebral and is a fish out of water on his return. The fact that he is such an outsider allows him to be the readers' eyes and ears and it is through him they experience the shock at just how far this community has fallen.



7) What was the road to publication for The Dry?

I applied for the Curtis Brown Creative 12-week online novel writing course in late 2014, and as part of the application process submitted a synopsis and 3000-word extract. I came up with an idea for a murder-mystery set in regional Victoria, that eventually became The Dry.

The course started in October 2014, and I completed a first draft during the 12 weeks. I knew of the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript and set myself the goal of entering, primarily as an artificial deadline to myself to get the novel into shape. I entered the award in April 2015 and in May found out I had won.

On the back of that I gained agent representation through Curtis Brown Australia; the novel was sold at auction to Pan Macmillan in August 2015 as part of a three-book deal. The Dry has since been sold in separate three-book deals to Flatiron Books in the US and Little, Brown in the UK, as well as being sold for translation in more than 20 territories.



8) What are you working on now?

I'm currently working on a novel due out in Australia in 2017, and in the US and UK the following year. The main character from The Dry, Aaron Falk, returns and the book is once again based in Australia, but in a different setting. It is similar in tone and feel to The Dry, with a crime and mystery element. The book will build on Falk's character but can be read in its own right rather than as a direct sequel.



9) What advice would you give to aspiring authors?

I firmly believe writing is a skill that can be taught and learnt. Some people will find it comes more naturally than others but, like any other creative skill such as painting and dancing, most people benefit from expert tuition and advice.

I had tried a few times to write a novel and never got past the first few chapters. I ended up writing The Dry as part of a 12-week online course run by Curtis Brown Creative out of London. I found the external pressure and feedback helped me to really make progress, and start to believe I could actually finish my book.

I would advise anyone who is struggling to complete a novel on their own to consider a good quality course and see if that helps bring things together.



10) What's been the best part of the experience?


There have been so many fantastic moments with The Dry. My dream was always to write a novel that would get published, so one of the absolute best things now is being able to pick up a finished copy of the book and see my own words printed inside.




My thanks to Jane Harper and to Amy Einhorn and Amelia Possanza at FlatIron Books

Duplicity, Ingrid Thoft

Fourth in the excellent Fina Ludlow PI series.

Fina is called in by Carl Ludlow of Ludlow Associates to prevent an heiress giving away property to a church her mother (and Carl’s old flame) thinks is just after the girl for her money. Fina’s investigation seems to be going nowhere until a member of the church dies unexpectedly and then things really start to happen.

Threats, beat downs, tire slashings, the charismatic leader of the church files a police complaint about Fina, affairs, financial issues with the victim's family. Fina's family are also causing her grief. Rand has returned from Florida, his daughter Haley starts going off the rails immediately and Fina's parents seem to side with Rand despite knowing what he did to Haley.

Fina starts to investigate Rand's past; following a trail of blondes back to his college days in a bid to build a criminal case against him. She figures with enough evidence Carl will have no choice but to send Rand packing again, this time for good. She couldn’t be more wrong.

Beautiful Dead, Belinda Bauer

A serial killer is turning his victims into works of art and his next intended victim is TV reporter Eve Singer.

Eve works the murder beat for iWitness News, she has a mentally deficient father, a tyrant of a boss and a young blonde Fox News style clone angling to take her job. Eve is covering the murder when she catches the killer's eye. Without realizing his significance she forms an attachment, the killer starts feeding her tips, whispering in her ear, putting on a show just for her. Eve knows she’s walking a tightrope. This is the story that could either forge her career or make her the next victim and the killer knows she's beginning to doubt him...