Book After Book

Publication: 28th January 2020 – Jo Fletcher Books

From the internationally bestselling author of the Artemis Fowl series: Eoin Colfer’s first adult fantasy novel is a hilarious, high-octane adventure about a vodka-drinking, Flashdance-loving dragon who’s been hiding out from the world – and potential torch-carrying mobs – in a Louisiana bayou . . . until his peaceful world’s turned upside down by a well-intentioned but wild Cajun tearaway and the crooked (and heavily armed) law officer who wants him dead.

Squib Moreau may be swamp-wild, but his intentions are (generally) good: he really wants to be a supportive son to his hard-working momma Elodie. But sometimes life gets in the way – like when Fake Daddy walked out on them leaving a ton of debt, or when crooked Constable Regence Hooke got to thinking pretty Elodie Moreau was just the gal for him . . .

An apprenticeship with the local moonshine runner, servicing the bayou, looks like the only way to pay off the family debts and maybe get Squib and his momma a place in town, far from Constable Hooke’s unwanted courtship and Fake Daddy’s reputation.

Unfortunately for Squib, Hooke has his own eye on that very same stretch of bayou – and neither of them have taken into account the fire-breathing dragon hiding out in the Louisiana swamp . . .

For Squib Moreau, Regence Hooke and Vern, aka Lord Highfire of Highfire Eyrie, life is never going to be the same again.

Highfire is a genre-bending tour-de-force of comedy and action by the million-copy-selling master storyteller.

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I am delighted to take part in the blog tour for Highfire, the new adult fantasy novel by Eoin Colfer.

In the Louisiana swamp, Vern is hiding from the world and leads a quiet and depressing life binge-watching Netflix and drinking Absolut Vodka. Who is Vern? He is a dragon, probably the last one on the planet, and his only friend is an old Mogway. Until his path crosses with that of 15-year-old Everett Moreau, better known as Squib, and corrupted police officer Regence Hooke. From then on, his life will be far from quiet…

This is my first Eoin Colfer’s novel (I know… shocking!!!) and I loved it!!! Why have I never read any of his novels before? I enjoyed his sense of humour and the great characters he created. The plot is original and adventurous. It’s nothing at all what I expected and I can honestly say that I’ve never read anything like it.

The story is at times brutal and violent, but it is also funny, smart, and entertaining. The characters are well-developed. Vern is not your usual dragon. He is grumpy and angry all the time and he hates all humans. His friendship with Squib is unlikely and beautiful and I loved reading about it. Squib has been raised by a single mother and, no matter how hard he tries to avoid it, he is always in trouble, especially with local police officer Regence Hooke, an arrogant psychopath who is trying to turn the swamp in his own personal kingdom.

Highfire is poignant, thrilling, and addictive, a fantastic story that will make you laugh and will make you hold your breath at the same time. A must-read!!!

A huge thank you to Milly and Jo Fletcher for inviting me to join the blog tour and providing me with a copy of the novel.

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Follow the rest of the blog tour:

Eoin Colfer is the author of the internationally bestselling Artemis Fowl series, which has been translated into over forty languages. A Disney film adaptation will be released in 2019, directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring Dame Judi Dench. Eoin’s books have won numerous awards including The British Children’s Book of the Year, The Irish Book Awards Children’s Book of the Year and The German Children’s Book of the Year. Born in Ireland, Eoin was educated at Dublin University and qualified as a primary teacher, before turning his hand to writing in 2001. Highfire is his first adult fantasy novel.

Publication: 9th January 2020 – Penguin Books

An addictive thriller crossed with the darkest of fairytales that’s guaranteed to keep you up all night…

THE HIGHLY ANTICIPATED SEQUEL TO INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING NOVEL THE HAZEL WOOD

Alice has fought hard for a normal life. Having escaped the Hinterland – the strange, pitch-dark world she was born into – she has washed up in New York City, determined to build a new future for herself.

But when her fellow survivors start being brutally murdered, Alice must face the fact that the Hinterland cannot be so easily escaped. And that, from the shadows of her past something – or someone – is coming for her…

Amazon.co.uk: https://amzn.to/36lwwTl

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I have been waiting for so long to read this book!!! The Night Country was at the top of my list of books I absolutely have to read in 2020 and I devoured in two days (wish my job didn’t take away so much of my reading time). My expectations were really high and they were amply exceeded.

In The Hazel Wood, Alice left the Hinterland with the truth about her origins and followed by a bunch of the characters that inhabited her grandmother’s fairy tales. Now, Alice is still struggling with the truth and she is trying to find her place into the world. When someone starts killing her fellow characters, or ex-Stories, Alice needs to find out the truth before her world is destroyed. In the meantime, Ellery Finch remained in the Hinterland in search of adventure, but now he is looking for a way back to his world and his girl…

“The Hinterland was a clock, perfectly weighted and balanced and spinning in time.”

It’s so exciting to be back to the magic and menacing world created by Melissa Albert. You can’t read this as a stand-alone. It is mandatory to read The Hazel Wood, not only to better understand The Night Country, but also because it’s an addictive story. If you’ve read The Hazel Wood, you know the plot is dark and suspenseful and it is much more so in The Night Country. Alice and her mother Ella are back and their relationship is still far from easy, Ellery is finding his way back to his world, and we meet new characters and read new suspenseful and thrilling storylines.

Melissa Albert is a fantastic author and her stories are magical, thrilling, and original. Highly recommended!!!

A huge thank you to Penguin and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the novel.

 

 

 

JP Delaney is one of my favourite authors. I always look forward to reading his novels and I am never disappointed. His latest book is The Perfect Wife and it came out in hardback and eBook in August. It is suspenseful, gripping, and completely addictive and it is out today in paperback and I am delighted to share again my review of this unputdownable novel.

 

“There’s something I have to explain, my love,” he says, taking your hand in his. “That wasn’t a dream. It was an upload.”

Abbie wakes in a hospital bed with no memory of how she got there. The man by her side explains that he’s her husband. He’s a titan of the tech world, the founder of one of Silicon Valley’s most innovative startups. He tells Abbie she’s a gifted artist, a doting mother to their young son, and the perfect wife.

Five years ago, she suffered a terrible accident. Her return from the abyss is a miracle of science, a breakthrough in artificial intelligence that has taken him half a decade to achieve.

But as Abbie pieces together memories of her marriage, she begins questioning her husband’s motives – and his version of events. Can she trust him when he says he wants them to be together for ever? And what really happened to her, half a decade ago?

A gripping psychological thriller, perfect for fans of The Woman in the Window and The Wife Between Us.

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After devouring The Girl Before and Believe Me, JP Delaney is back with another brilliant and twisty novel that literally kept me on the edge of my seat. Weird and dark is one way to describe it, brilliant is another, utterly captivating is another one.

JP Delaney mixes artificial intelligence and obsession to create a mystery thriller set in Silicon Valley, the world’s capital of technology. Abbie Cullen is a beautiful and smart artist. Tim Scott is the founder of Scott Technologies, an innovative start-up. Tim and Abbie meet, fall in love, get married, and have a child. It’s the perfect love story, right? However, nothing is perfect in their love story and, as the author narrates Abbie and Tim’s romance from the beginning to the present day when Tim’s love leads him to use technology to create the perfect wife, I couldn’t help but wonder: was Abbie and Tim’s marriage as happy and perfect as it seemed?

Tim is considered a genius, driven and brilliant. Like all the male protagonists in JP Delaney’s novel, he is also obsessed. He is looking for perfection and, for him, perfection is embodied in Abbie. However, Abbie is a drug addict, a free spirit who doesn’t like to be controlled so Tim uses technology to turn her into the perfect woman, the perfect wife he’s been looking for. What started as a story of grief, great love, and second chances, turned into a psychological thriller about obsession and perfection.

The story is original and thought-provoking, full of intrigue, family drama, and suspense. Some of the story is hard to believe and yet there are themes that rise a few moral and ethical questions about our use of technology, artificial intelligence, data rights, and consent.

For me, THE PERFECT WIFE is JP Delaney’s best novel so far. It’s riveting, twisty and the jaw-dropping ending completely took me by surprise, and now I am already looking forward to the author’s next novel. A must-read not to miss!!!

A huge thank you to Hannah, Ella, and Quercus for providing me with a copy of the novel.

 

 

 

 

Publication: 23rd January 2020 – Hodder & Stoughton

All Beth has to do is drive her son to his Under-14s away match, watch him play, and bring him home.

Just because she knows that her former best friend lives near the football ground, that doesn’t mean she has to drive past her house and try to catch a glimpse of her. Why would Beth do that, and risk dredging up painful memories? She hasn’t seen Flora Braid for twelve years.

But she can’t resist. She parks outside Flora’s house and watches from across the road as Flora and her children, Thomas and Emily, step out of the car. Except…

There’s something terribly wrong.

Flora looks the same, only older – just as Beth would have expected. It’s the children that are the problem. Twelve years ago, Thomas and Emily Braid were five and three years old. Today, they look precisely as they did then. They are still five and three. They are Thomas and Emily without a doubt – Beth hears Flora call them by their names – but they haven’t changed at all.
They are no taller, no older.

Why haven’t they grown?

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2QPati9 

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Happy publication day to Sophie Hannah and welcome to my stop on the blog tour for her new novel, Haven’t They Grown. A huge thank you to Jenny and Hodder & Stoughton for inviting me to join the blog tour and providing me with a copy of the novel.

I have read a few novels by Sophie Hannah and I enjoy her writing style and her well-crafted plots. In this new novel, the mystery to solve is weird, unexpected and very difficult to figure out, at least for me who had to reach the shocking explanation to understand it.

If you discovered that two people you knew when they were children are still the exact same age as twelve years ago would you obsess about it and try to find out the truth like Beth does or would you let it go as her husband Dom suggests? The Leesons and the Bairds used to spend a lot of time together, going to dinners and holidays together, but then something happened and Beth and Flora, best friends since university, haven’t spoken since. When Beth Leeson sees Thomas and Emily Baird for the first time in years it’s like they are frozen in time. The last time she saw them, they were children, aged 5 and 3. Now, twelve years later, they are still 5 and 3. What is going on?

The characters are diverse and well-developed, although not always likable. My favourite was Zannah, Beth’s sixteen-year-old daughter. She is smart, fun, resourceful, and refreshing.

The plot is unbelievable!!! Full of twists and suspense, Haven’t They Grown is a thrilling and complex story about obsession and a mystery that borders to sci-fi (at some point, I thought the kids had been cloned for lack of another explanation) that will completely keep you glued to the pages.

Haven’t They Grown is a tense and gripping domestic thriller that will make you question everything you read: did Beth really see two children who haven’t grown up? Is Flora really in America with her husband or is she in England with a brand new family? What happened between Beth and Flora that they haven’t spoken in twelve years? And on and on and on.

Sophie Hannah did it again and created a brilliant and twisted thriller that it was very difficult to put down!

Sophie Hannah is an internationally bestselling crime
fiction writer, translated into 49 languages an published in 51 countries. Her psychological thriller The Carrier won the Specsavers National Book Award for Crime Thriller of the Year in 2013. Sophie is the author of the bestselling Poirot continuation mysteries. The Point of Rescue and The Other Half Lives have been adapted for television as Case Sensitive, starring Olivia Williams and Darren Boyd. Sophie is also a bestselling poet who has been shortlisted for the TS Eliot award. Her poetry is studied at GCSE and A-level. Sophie is an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. She lives in Cambridge with her family.

Publication: 16th January 2020 – Quercus

From the international number one bestseller comes the most clever and gripping thriller of 2019

It’s June 2008 and twenty-one-year-old Adam Lattimer vanishes, presumed dead. The strain of his disappearance breaks his already fragile family.

Ten years later, with his mother deceased and siblings scattered across the globe, Adam turns up unannounced at the family home. His siblings return reluctantly to Spanish Cove, but Adam’s reappearance poses more questions than answers. The past is a tangled web of deceit.

And, as tension builds, it’s apparent somebody has planned murderous revenge for the events of ten years ago.

Amazon: https://amzn.to/36NS3Vt

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I am so excited to take part in the blog tour for Six Wicked Reasons, the addictive new novel by Jo Spain. A huge thank you to Milly Reid and Quercus for providing me with a beautiful proof of the novel and inviting me to join the blog tour.

Jo Spain is an author I have been following and reading for a few years now and I always enjoy reading her books. Her stories are always thrilling and full of suspense, but this new novel really exceeded my expectations and it quickly became my favourite book from this author. I devoured it, staying up late to finish reading it.

Meet the Lattimer family, wealthy, envied, and pretty dysfunctional. The parents are Frazer and his wife Kathleen and then there are the six siblings, three brothers and three sister: Ellen, James, Kate, Adam, Ryan, and Clio. One of them disappears and turns up at the door ten years later. Where has he been for the last ten years?

To celebrate the reappearance of his son, Frazer calls all his children to the family home not only to celebrate the return of the prodigal son, but for some revelations of his own. As secrets, resentments, and jealousies surface, it is clear that this won’t be an happy family reunion.

First of all, the characters. Jo Spain created a cast of amazing characters: they are multi-layered, very well-developed and well-portrayed, but I can’t say I really liked any of them, at least at the beginning of the story. I found them selfish and entitled and some of them really got under my skin. However, the more I read, the more the truth about their past came to light, and the more I came to appreciate and like some of them (the villains never improve). Some of their stories broke my heart, some infuriated me, but they felt real and well-built.

The plot is brilliant. I would describe it as Liane Moriarty meets Agatha Christie: everyone is hiding something, there are flashbacks, police interviews, multiple suspects, weak alibis and strong motives, there are twists that will make your head spin, there is a police officer keen to find out the truth, all coming together under the beautiful pen of Jo Spain.

Six Wicked Reasons is a remarkable and unputdownable story of revenge, lies, secrets, and guilt, full of mystery and with a fantastic and unexpected ending. If you are already a fan of Jo Spain you will adore it, if this is your first novel, than you are off to a great start…

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Follow the rest of the blog tour:

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Jo Spain is a full-time writer and screenwriter. Her first novel, With Our Blessing, was one of seven books shortlisted in the Richard and Judy Search for a Bestseller competition and her first psychological thriller, The Confession, was a number one bestseller in Ireland. Jo co-wrote the ground-breaking RTE television series Taken Down, which first broadcast in Ireland in 2018. She’s now working on multiple European television projects. Jo lives in Dublin with her husband and their four young children.

Publication: 23rd January 2020 – Michael Joseph

She sleeps, a pale girl in a white room . . .

Driving home one night, stuck behind a rusty old car, Gabe sees a little girl’s face appear in the rear window.

She mouths one word: ‘Daddy.’

It’s his five-year-old daughter, Izzy.

He never sees her again.

Three years later, Gabe spends his days and nights travelling up and down the motorway, searching for the car that took his daughter, refusing to give up hope, even though most people believe that Izzy is dead.

Fran and her daughter, Alice, also put in a lot of miles on the motorway. Not searching. But running. Trying to keep one step ahead of the people who want to hurt them.

Because Fran knows the truth. She knows what really happened to Gabe’s daughter. She knows who is responsible. And she knows what they will do if they ever catch up with her and Alice…

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She is baaack!!! My favourite author is back with a brand new gripping and unputdownable novel that made my heart race. I am not exaggerating. The Other People is suspenseful, riveting, and surprising and it confirmed, once again, that C. J. Tudor is an amazing storyteller.

The story is told mainly from three points of views. Gabe is a broken man on a mission: find out who destroyed his family and took away his daughter. Three years after someone killed his wife, Gabe has left his job and his house and he is travelling in a white van to find anyone who could have news about his daughter. The only problem is that he is the only one looking for his Izzy because for the rest of the world she is dead and buried next to her mother.

Katie is a single mother working in a restaurant and she has noticed the thin man coming in once a week and orders coffee while searching for his daughter. She knows his story, but she has her own problems to deal with.

Fran is on the run with her daughter Alice. She can’t stop. If they stop, they will be found and Alice will be in danger, so they just keep running.

How are these three characters connected?

The plot is dark, twisty, but also heart-breaking. Gabe’s grief over the loss of his family was hard to read and very emotional. My heart really broke for him as he goes over his guilt, the regrets, and the past memories.

This was a rollercoaster of a read. Even though I figured out a couple of things early on, I was still surprised and shocked by the many twists that just kept coming and coming and I didn’t know where the story would lead.

I adored the author’s first two novels, so I had no doubts that her third one would be any less. The Other People is engaging, twisty, chilling and it made me hold my breath and stay up late at night to finish reading.

The Other People is out next week: https://amzn.to/36Np3h2

A huge thank you to Michael Joseph for providing me with an early copy of the novel.

 

 

Publication: 9th January 2020 – HQ

It’s Livia’s 40th birthday and she’s having the party of a lifetime to make up for the wedding she never had. Everyone she loves will be there except her daughter Marnie, who’s studying abroad. But although Livia loves Marnie, she’s secretly glad she won’t be at the party. She needs to tell Adam something about their daughter but she’s waiting until the party is over so they can have this last happy time together.

Adam wants everything to be perfect for Livia so he’s secretly arranged for Marnie to come home and surprise her on her birthday. During the day, he hears some terrible news. He needs to tell Livia, because how can the party go on? But she’s so happy, so excited – and the guests are about to arrive.

The Dilemma – how far would you go to give someone you love a last few hours of happiness?

One day that will change a family forever, The Dilemma is the breath-taking, heart-breaking new novel from the million-copy-selling, Sunday Times bestseller, B A Paris

Amazon: https://amzn.to/36WNx7j

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I am delighted to welcome you on my stop for the blog tour for The Dilemma, the wonderful new novel by B A Paris. A big thank you to Jess and HQ for inviting me to join the blog tour and providing me with a copy of this fantastic novel.

Livia and Adam have been happily married for twenty years and have two children in college. For months they have been planning and organizing and now the day they have been waiting for is finally here. For Livia, it is supposed to be her day, the celebration of her fortieth birthday, a big party to replace the lavish wedding she never had. The food and the music are ready, family and friends are on their way, but there are secrets that could ruin everything. Adam and Livia are both keeping a terrible secret from each other, but they both want the other to have one last happy evening before revealing the truth. As the night goes on and the party is in full swing, their secrets are a burden that it’s hard to keep hidden.

This is such a remarkable book!!! I was completely engrossed in the plot and the characters. The story is slow-paced, intense, and heart-breaking. My heart was pounding as I read and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. I liked the short chapters that alternate between Livia and Adam’s perspectives and how the author managed to pack the story into two days that are full of emotions and suspense.

The characters feel very authentic, with all their flaws and bad choices, and I really liked the characters of Livia and Adam. At the beginning, I couldn’t see why Livia was so obsessed with the party, but the more I read the more I understood her past and why it was so important to her. It was difficult to agree with Adam’s choice to keep his secret from Livia, even for just one night, but I could understand his need to protect her.

The Dilemma is different from B A Paris’s previous novels, but I think it is also my favourite so far. It’s not only a story of secrets and lies, it’s also a story of family and love and how far would people go to protect each other. It was very difficult to put The Dilemma down and I am sure will stay with me for a while!!!

Publication: 9th January 2020 – Simon & Schuster UK

When a man is found on a Norfolk beach, drifting in and out of consciousness, with no identification and unable to speak, interest in him is sparked immediately. From the hospital staff who find themselves inexplicably drawn to him; to international medical experts who are baffled by him; to the nationalpress who call him Mr Nobody; everyone wants answers.  Who is this man? And what happened to him?
 
Neuropsychiatrist Dr Emma Lewis is asked to assess the patient. This is her field of expertise, this is the chance she’s been waiting for and this case could make her name known across the world. But therein lies the danger. Emma left this same small town in Norfolk fourteen years ago and has taken great pains to cover all traces of her past since then.
 
But now something – or someone – is calling her back. And the more time she spends with her patient, the more alarmed she becomes.
 
Has she walked into danger?

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Although I still haven’t read Catherine Steadman’s debut, Something In The Water, I have been hearing so many great things about it that I leaped to the chance to read the author’s second novel and now I know why everyone is raving about this author.

The story follows two characters. The first is a man in his forties, found on a beach in Norfolk. He doesn’t have any belongings or ID. No one recognizes him and no one knows his name. He doesn’t even talk. Soon, the press is on the story and Mr. Nobody, as he’s been nicknamed, is a national interest. Enter Dr. Emma Lewis. She is a neuropsychiatrist, she studies human brain, and Mr. Nobody’s case seems to be one of a kind, so when she’s asked to be Mr. Nobody’s doctor she accepts even if this means going back to the place she left fifteen years ago. When she was a teenager, Emma changed her name and her identity and left Norfolk behind. Why did she leave? And why does Mr. Nobody seem to know exactly who she is?

I devoured Mr. Nobody. The pace is slow and the atmosphere is a bit claustrophobic, and the plot is gripping. I also enjoyed the part of the narrative focuses on how the human brain works. A person could go to sleep and wake up having forgotten the last forty years of their life. It’s both fascinating and scary and I found it all very interesting and informative.

The characters are very well-built. Throughout the story, Mr. Nobody remains a mystery that I couldn’t wait to unravel. We see him through the eyes of the nurses and the doctors. Until everything is revealed, I couldn’t figure out his role in the story. Is he good or is he bad? The truth was completely surprising and well-thought. Emma’s story is told in first person, but, of course, that doesn’t mean that everything is revealed right away. We know she is anxious about going back to Norfolk and she is afraid someone might find out the truth about her. But why? The author knows how to keep the tension high by slowly revealing her story, which wasn’t at all what I expected.

I liked the concept of the story, I found it original and intriguing and I love the cover. I LOVED the author’s writing style: detailed, clear, and captivating. Now, I really need to pick up Something In The Water and I am really looking forward to reading whatever she is writing next, but Mr. Nobody is definitely a must-read and it’s out in January.

A huge thank you to Jess and Simon & Schuster for providing me with a proof copy of the novel.

Today, I am super excited not only because Christmas is just a few days away, but because I am taking part in a FANTASTIC cover reveal.

I ADORE Rachel Abbott‘s novels. She manages to take me always by surprise with her shocking twists that I never see coming. Rachel Abbott is author of bestselling novels like Stranger Child, Kill Me Again, And So It Begins, just to name a few. Her books have been translated into over 20 languages and they have sold over 3 million copies in the English language.

Her new novel THE MURDER GAME is out in April, but, as an early Christmas present, I am delighted to reveal its BEAUTIFUL COVER…

And now more about the book. THE MURDER GAME is the second book featuring detective Stephanie King who we already met in And So It Begins. This is my favourite of Rachel Abbott’s novels so far, so I am really looking forward to read more about this character. Here is the synopsis:

A year ago today, we all gathered for Lucas’s wedding at his glorious Cornish home overlooking the sea.

But no one was married that day.

Now Lucas has invited us back to celebrate the anniversary. But the anniversary of what? The wedding that never happened, or the tragedy that occurred just hours before the ceremony was due to begin?

He’s told us that tonight he has planned a game. We have our costumes, we have our parts, and everyone must play. The game, he tells us, is about to begin.

What does Lucas want from us? What are we not being told? And what’s going to happen when this terrible game is over?

 

THE MURDER GAME is out on 16th April 2020 and here is the link to pre-order it: https://amzn.to/2rLNqMW

More about the author:

Rachel Abbott’s debut thriller, Only the Innocent, was an international bestseller, reaching the number one position in the Amazon charts both in the UK and US. This was followed by the number one bestselling novels The Back Road, Sleep Tight, Stranger Child, Nowhere Child (a short novel based on the characters from Stranger Child), Kill Me Again, The Sixth Window, Come a Little Closer and And So It Begins. Her most recent novel, The Shape of Lies, was released in February 2019.

Rachel’s novels have now been translated into over 20 languages and her books have sold over 3 million copies in the English language.

In 2015 Amazon celebrated the first five years of the Kindle in the UK, and announced that Rachel was the #1 bestselling independent author over the five-year period. She was also placed #14 in the chart of all authors. Stranger Child was the most borrowed novel for the Kindle in the first half of 2015.

Rachel splits her time between Alderney – a beautiful island off the coast of France – and the Le Marche region of Italy, where she is able to devote all her time to writing fiction. For more information, see Rachel’s website, or follow her on Twitter.

Website : http://www.rachel-abbott.com
Blog : http://rachelabbottwriter.com/
Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/RachelAbbott1Writer
Twitter: @RachelAbbott

 

 

Publication: 20th September 2018 – Quercus

Christmas day, and DCI Tom Reynolds receives an alarming call. A mass grave has been discovered on Oileán na Caillte, the island which housed the controversial psychiatric institution St. Christina’s. The hospital has been closed for decades and onsite graves were tragically common. Reynolds thinks his adversarial boss is handing him a cold case to sideline him.

But then it transpires another body has been discovered amongst the dead – one of the doctors who went missing from the hospital in mysterious circumstances forty years ago. He appears to have been brutally murdered.

As events take a sudden turn, nothing can prepare Reynolds and his team for what they are about to discover once they arrive on the island . . .

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Never title was more apt to the setting of a novel. This novel by Jo Spain featuring DCI Tom Reynolds and his team investigating a 40-year-old murder is set in a closed-down psychiatric hospital on a remote island that with its secrets and dark halls really gave me the chills and kept me glued to the pages.

The novel starts on Christmas Day and a woman is still hoping for her husband Conrad to knock on the door, after disappearing 40 years earlier, but what she receives is the call she’s been dreading. In another house, DCI Tom Reynolds is trying to enjoying Christmas with his family and trying to forget the last stressful months when he receives a call from his boss: a mass grave full of bodies has been found by St. Christina’s, an abandoned mental institution on the island of Oileán na Caillte. However, that’s not the most disturbing thing. The police is interested because among the bodies of the patients of the hospital, the body of doctor Conrad, who disappeared on Christmas Eve 40 years earlier, has been found and it’s clearly a murder. DCI Reynolds and his team travel to the hospital to try to figure out what happened to the doctor and the secrets that St. Christina’s holds.

I have been a fan of Jo Spain for a while now and I am captivated by her twisty plots, her well-developed characters, and her flawless and brilliant writing style. The Darkest Place is a particularly gripping story, with many surprises and twists and a claustrophobic atmosphere that gave me the chills. For some reason, remote islands are my favourite settings in crime stories and Oileán na Caillte is a fantastic place where to set a thriller: hard to access, bad weather, and few residents, all of them hiding something, and a mental institution full of horrifying story that really gave me goosebumps.

Gripping, compelling, and dark, this is another fantastic story by a great author who keeps churning out amazing novels.

A huge thank you to Quercus and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the novel.

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Jo Spain is a full-time writer and screenwriter. Her first novel, With Our Blessing, was one of seven books shortlisted in the Richard and Judy Search for a Bestseller competition and her first psychological thriller, The Confession, was a number one bestseller in Ireland. Jo co-wrote the ground-breaking RTE television series Taken Down, which first broadcast in Ireland in 2018. She’s now working on multiple European television projects. Jo lives in Dublin with her husband and their four young children.