Book After Book

Publication: 5th September 2019 – HQ

It all begins on a Monday, when four people board an elevator in a Manhattan office tower. Each presses a button for their floor, but the elevator proceeds, non-stop, to the top. Once there, it stops for a few seconds, and then plummets.

Right to the bottom of the shaft.

It appears to be a horrific, random tragedy. But then, on Tuesday, it happens again, in a different Manhattan skyscraper. And when Wednesday brings yet another high-rise catastrophe, one of the most vertical cities in the world – and the nation’s capital of media, finance, and entertainment – is plunged into chaos.

Clearly, this is anything but random. This is a cold, calculated bid to terrorize the city. And it’s working. Fearing for their lives, thousands of men and women working in offices across the city refuse leave their homes. Commerce has slowed to a trickle. Emergency calls to the top floors of apartment buildings go unanswered.

Who is behind this? What do these deadly acts of sabotage have to do with the fingerless body found on the High Line? Two seasoned New York detectives and a straight-shooting journalist must race against time to find the answers . . .

Pulsating with tension, Elevator Pitch is a riveting tale of psychological suspense that is all too plausible . . . and will chill readers to the bone.

**********

I am never getting on an elevator ever again. Never. I have never been a huge fan of elevators, but now I am even much less. As one of the characters of the novel said: “Take the stairs.”

New York City is built upward so elevators are a very important part of it. What would happen if you stopped all the elevators in one of the biggest cities in the world from running? Chaos, death, and panic. And Linwood Barclay portrays them perfectly in his new gripping novel, ELEVATOR PITCH. In three days, three elevators disasters cause multiple deaths so Richard Hadley, the city’s mayor, decides to stop all the elevators until they have been checked out. And while the entire city is on hold, an activist group called Flyover is planting bombs in the biggest cities around the United States. Are the two events connected? And how are they linked to the brutal murder of an elevator repairman?

What a rollercoaster of a read! Fast-paced, twisty, and engrossing, this novel made me hold my breath on more than one occasion. Sabotages, terror attacks, political scandals… the author knows how to keep the reader engaged. The story is told from multiple points of views, from the mayor trying to avoid criticism and scandal to the journalist who likes to portray him as the forever bad guy on her newspaper; from the police detective with PTSD who is trying to solve a murder and to prove to his colleague that he can do his job to the young woman who wants to impress her mother. Also, we get a front seat inside the sabotaged elevators and you can almost feel the fear of the people trapped inside. The tension (and my anxiety) during these moments was very high.

Linwood Barclay wrote a claustrophobic, suspenseful, and terrific novel that will surely give me nightmare and, yet, I couldn’t put down!

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

 

 

Publication: 16th May 2019 (eBook); 5th September 2019 (paperback)- Trapeze

When you read this book, you will think you know every twist in the tale.

Maria is on trial for attempted murder.

She has confessed to the crime and wanted her husband dead.

Lottie is on the jury, trying to decide her fate.

She embarks on an illicit affair with a stranger, and her husband can never find out.

You will think you know who is guilty and who is innocent.

You will be wrong.

**********

It’s my pleasure to welcome you on my stop of the blog tour for DEGREES OF GUILT, the superb new novel by H. S. Chandler. A huge thank you to Tracy Fenton and Trapeze for inviting me to join the blog tour and providing me with a copy of the novel.

What I know about jury duty comes from watching American Tv shows and I’ve always found it interesting. Twelve people who decide the fate of one person, who decide if that person is going to walk out free or if they are going to spend the rest of their life in a prison cell. How do you know if you made the right decision? In DEGREES OF GUILT, there is no question whether the defendant, Maria, is guilty or not as she admits right away that she used her husband’s head for baseball practice. No, what’s in question here is: why did she do it? What led her, one afternoon, to pick up a leg chair and swing it to her husband’s head?

And while Maria’s future is in doubt, another woman questions her life choices and wonders about her own future. Charlotte, “Lottie”, is a wife, a mother, and a bored housewife. At the beginning she was reluctant, but then she finds jury duty exciting (and not only because of the attention of a handsome man). This is her chance to be part of something big, something important. Lottie is tired of spending all her time cooking, cleaning, and playing the happy and obedient wife at her husband’s events. Will she risk everything in exchange for a thrill and some purpose in her life?

H. S. Chandler knows how to keep the reader on edge and glued to the pages. There are two women. One is a killer, but is she also a victim? Maria’s story is heart-breaking and thought-provoking. It shows that there is always more than one side to a story, but which side is telling the truth? At times, she seems cold-blooded, showing no emotions or regret, but there are other layers under the impassive facade of Maria that are slowly unpeeled. On the other hand, Lottie, has so many feelings. She is looking for excitement, but she feels guilty. She worries about what other people think of her, but she is not afraid to speak up. And, like Maria, she has her own secrets to hide. Those two woman are far from perfect? Sure. Sometimes their behaviour annoyed me? Yep. And then the author did a great job developing them and giving them the determination and courage of standing up to the men who tried to put them down and finally taking their own lived into their own hands.

DEGREES OF GUILT is a compelling, gripping, character-driven novel about control and abuse, full of tension and twists. Looking for a brilliant legal thriller? Then this should be at the top of your list…

A former barrister, HS Chandler is a pseudonym for bestselling crime author Helen Fields, who practised for thirteen years in both family and criminal law. Having extensively prosecuted and defended, she is an avid believer in the right to a fair trial, and in the invaluable role that juries play in the British legal system. Helen was born in Hampshire and now lives in the US.

CRADLE TO GRAVE is the eighth book in the Detective Kay Hunter series and it’s published on 6th October 2019 by Saxon Publishing. In the meantime, I am super excited to take part in the cover reveal for this brand new novel by USA Today bestselling author Rachel Amphlett.

 

“Thrilling start to a new series. Scared to Death is a stylish, smart and gripping crime thriller” Robert Bryndza, USA Today bestselling author of The Girl in the Ice

“Scared to Death… moves along at breakneck speed with twists and turns” Angela Marsons, bestselling author of the Detective Kim Stone crime thriller series

“Rachel always delivers sharp, compelling and assured books. I love them!” Mel Sherratt

 

 

When a faceless body is found floating in the river on a summer’s morning, Detective Kay Hunter and her team are tasked with finding out the man’s identity – and where he came from.

The investigation takes a sinister turn when an abandoned boat is found, covered in blood stains and containing a child’s belongings.

Under mounting pressure from a distraught family and an unforgiving media, the police are in a race against time – but they have no leads, and no motive for the events that have taken place.

Will Kay be able to find a ruthless killer and a missing child before it’s too late?

The Detective Kay Hunter series:

1. Scared to Death

2. Will to Live

3. One to Watch

4. Hell to Pay

5. Call to Arms

6. Gone to Ground

7. Bridge to Burn

8. Cradle to Grave

 

Before turning to writing, USA Today bestselling author Rachel Amphlett played guitar in bands, worked as a TV and film extra, dabbled in radio as a presenter and freelance producer for the BBC, and worked in publishing as a sub-editor and editorial assistant.

She now wields a pen instead of a plectrum and writes crime fiction and spy novels, including the fast paced Dan Taylor and English Assassins espionage novels, and the Detective Kay Hunter British murder mystery series.

After 13 years in Australia, Rachel has returned to the UK and is now based in the picturesque county of Dorset.

She’s a member of International Thriller Writers and the Crime Writers Association, with the Italian foreign rights for her debut novel, White Gold sold to Fanucci Editore’s TIMECrime imprint, and the first four books in the Dan Taylor espionage series contracted to Germany’s Luzifer Verlag.

www.rachelamphlett.com

Twitter: @RachelAmphlett

Instagram: @RachelAmphlett

Facebook: Rachel Amphlett

Publication: 22nd August 2019 – Corvus

PLAY
Andrew, the manager of Shanamore Holiday Cottages, watches his only guest via a hidden camera in her room. One night the unthinkable happens: a shadowy figure emerges onscreen, kills her and destroys the camera. But who is the murderer? How did they know about the camera? And how will Andrew live with himself?

PAUSE
Natalie wishes she’d stayed at home as soon as she arrives in the wintry isolation of Shanamore. There’s something creepy about the manager. She wants to leave, but she can’t – not until she’s found what she’s looking for…

REWIND
This is an explosive story about a murder caught on camera. You’ve already missed the start. To get the full picture you must rewind the tape and play it through to the end, no matter how shocking…

***********

I hate to admit it, but this is my first novel by Catherine Ryan Howard. How could I have missed her novels? I found REWIND engrossing, addictive, and twisty and I am already choosing her next novel to read.

A young rising instagrammer who is missing; a journalist looking for the truth; a creepy cottages manager hiding his dark secrets; a woman obsessively in love. Those are the protagonists of the thrilling new novel by Catherine Ryan Howard. They are intriguing and very different: I couldn’t give you a description of Natalie and Audrey, because there is not much to say about them apart that they are both looking for the truth. Andrew and Ickie Dick (or Richard) are creepy and I would never want to be alone with one of them, not during the day and certainly not at night, for example, in a deserted car park. And then there is Jennifer. She is a complex character and I didn’t like her or trust her from the beginning.

Now the setting. You know when you are watching a thriller or horror movie and the protagonists stop for a night in a isolated motel where there is a creepy owner and they are the only guests and you thing “that’s such a bad idea”? That’s what I though while I was reading about Shanamore Holiday Cottages. Isolated? Check. Eerie atmosphere? Check. Sinister and scary manager? Oh yes. Strange noises inside the cottage? Of course.

REWIND is fast-paced and highly suspenseful and, even though I kind of figure out what it was going on while I was reading and the different timelines left me confused at times – it was hard to figure out where I was in the story -, this is a rollercoaster of a reading and I was so addicted that I didn’t stop until I got to the end.

Publication: 5th September 2019 – Trapeze

A locked room. A dead body. A secret that went to the grave.

When retired police officer Finlay Shaw is found dead in a locked room, everyone thinks it’s suicide. But disgraced detective William ‘Wolf’ Fawkes isn’t so sure.

Together with his former partner Detective Emily Baxter and private detective Edmunds, Wolf’s team begin to dig into Shaw’s early days on the beat. Was Shaw as innocent as he seemed? Or is there more to his past than he’d ever let on?

But not everyone wants Wolf back – and as his investigation draws him ever deeper into police corruption, it will not only be his career on the line – but the lives of those he holds closest as well…

**********

I am super excited to welcome you on my stop of the blog tour for ENDGAME, the addictive new novel by Daniel Cole. A huge thank you to Tracy Fenton for inviting me to join the blog tour and to Orion for providing me with a copy of the novel.

William “Wolf” Fawkes is back! His mentor and friend Finlay Shaw is found dead in a locked room in his house and everyone think it’s suicide. So why Will is risking his freedom to prove that it is a murder? Will knows that Finlay would have never left his beloved wife Maggie so, after managing to postpone his arrest, he is determined to find out the truth about his mentor’s death and he is helped by his former partner DCI Emily Baxter, private investigator Alex Edmunds, Police Commissioner Christian Bellamy, detective Jake Saunders, and “lab boy” Joe.

ENDGAME is fast-paced, twisty, clever, and, above all, entertaining. It is hard to find a thriller that it is both suspenseful and funny, but Daniel Cole somehow managed to do that craftily creating a novel that keeps you glued to the pages. Will’s sarcasm and playfulness and his banter with Emily made me laugh out loud (I think I am a bit in love with him) and I found the other characters beyond likable. They are flawed, sure, but they are charismatic, engaging, and I really hope to read more about them in the future.

The narrative runs smoothly with flashbacks that take the reader back to important moments for the members of the team and their relationships. In Glasgow 1979, we see two friends and partners involved in a drug investigation that it will still haunt them almost forty years later; we read about the very complicated relationship between two other partners and its ongoing complications in the present time. Friendship, love, and loyalties are tested, truths come out, issues and murders are solved.

I am addicted to this trilogy and its characters and, even though I couldn’t wait to see how it ended, it left me wanting more and more, especially after reading the last page. ENDGAME, and the whole Ragdoll trilogy, is a must-read, one of my favourite book of the year!!!

At 33 years old, Daniel Cole has worked as a paramedic, an RSPCA officer and most recently for the RNLI, driven by an intrinsic need to save people or perhaps just a guilty conscience about the number of characters he kills off in his writing.

He currently lives in sunny Bournemouth and can usually be found down the beach when he ought to be writing book two instead.

Publication: 6th August 2019 – Headline

A humorous, big-hearted romp through the apocalypse, where even a cowardly crow can become a hero. Perfect for fans of Dawn of the Dead and Isaac Marion’s Warm Bodies.

S.T. is a domesticated crow. He is a bird of simple pleasures: hanging out with his owner Big Jim, trading insults with Seattle’s wild crows (those idiots) and enjoying the finest food humankind has to offer: Cheetos.

But when Big Jim’s eyeball falls out of his head, S.T. starts to feel like something isn’t right. His most tried-and-true remedies – from beak-delivered beer to the slobbering affection of the loyal, but dim-witted, dog Dennis – fail to cure his owner.

S.T. is left with no choice but to venture out into a frightening new world, where he discovers that the neighbours are devouring each other, and the local wildlife is abuzz with rumours of dangerous new predators roaming Seattle…

Humanity’s extinction has arrived, and the only one determined to save it is a foul-mouthed crow.

**********

Shit Turd, S.T. for short, is a domesticated crow who lives in Seattle with his owner Big Jim and with Dennis, a bloodhound with “the IQ of a dead opossum”. One day, one of Big Jim’s eye falls out and from there things go very wrong. The extinction of humanity has arrived and it seems that this domesticated crow is the only one who can save it.

HOLLOW KINGDOM is an hilarious laugh-out-loud novel and its protagonist T.S. is the funniest of all. He is an unlikely hero and not only because he is a crow, but his foul language and a knowledge acquired from watching TV with Big Jim don’t make him the right candidate to save the world from the apocalypse. And yet, he is smart and resourceful and, along with his best friend Dennis, S.T. embarks on a journey to find other domesticated animals who have seen their owners falling victims of the apocalypse.

Congratulations to the author for her superb debut: an original and thought-provoking plot, suspense, a few heart-breaking moments, fantastic descriptions of nature, and vividly drawn and engaging characters work brilliantly together and come to life under her clear and beautiful writing style.

If you are looking for a unique and unforgettable story with an exceptional and unusual protagonist, HOLLOW KINGDOM should be at the top of your list.

A huge thank you to Rosie and Headline for providing me with a proof copy of this captivating novel.

 

 

Publication: 25th July 2019 – Zaffre Books

Seven days. Three families. One killer.

It was supposed to be the perfect holiday, dreamed up by Kate as the ideal way to turn 40: four best friends and their husbands and children in a luxurious villa under the blazing sunshine of Provence. 

But there is trouble in paradise. Kate suspects that her husband is having an affair, and that the other woman is one of her best friends. 

One of these women is willing to sacrifice years of friendship and destroy her family. But which one? As Kate closes in on the truth in the stifling Mediterranean heat, she realises too late that the stakes are far higher than she ever imagined. 

Because someone in the villa is prepared to kill to keep their secret hidden.

**********

I have been hearing so many good things about THE HOLIDAY that I had to read it and I saw why everyone was raving about it. It’s so suspenseful and addictive… luckily I started reading it during the weekend because I devoured it in one day.

THE HOLIDAY is the story of four friends. Kate, Jennifer, Rowan, and Izzy have been best friends since college and to celebrate their fortieth birthdays they decide to spend a week in a beautiful house in the South of France along with their husbands and children, but things go wrong from the very beginning because Kate suspects her husband Sean is hiding something and her doubts are confirmed when she reads his text and she finds out that he is secretly messaging with one of her friends. Should she confront him? Or should she first find out which one of her friends betrayed her?

THE HOLIDAY is a tale of paranoia and suspicions. Like Kate, I found myself suspecting first Rowan, then Jennifer, and lastly Izzy, and then starting all over again. It wasn’t easy to figure out the truth when each woman is clearly hiding something and they are all found whispering with Sean or hugging him. Oh, and let’s not forget their children and all their drama: a 17-year-old girl clearly hiding something, two teenage boys looking for oblivion and with tendencies that border to obsession, a young boy that would do anything to please his sister and the older boys, and a spoiled 5-year-old girl who sees everything that happens among the adults. How couldn’t I be completely engrossed in this novel? The author did a great job building up the suspense and never revealing too much so that I didn’t know the truth until it was revealed.

The characters are not always likable, but they are vividly drawn and it feels like you are inside their head. Most of the story is told from Kate’s point of view and there were times when I found her annoying and I wanted to shake her and tell her to wake up and do something. Rowan was a bit snob while Jennifer was too smothering, and I seriously worried about the children’s mental health after the tragic ending of the holiday.

THE HOLIDAY is a psychologic thriller with capital letters… dark, gripping, and full of twists, it’s a must-read!

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

 

Publication: 1st August 2019 (eBook); 8th August 2019 (paperback) – Aria

The sequel to the bestselling phenomenon The Note – based on the true story of one girl and her ‘Train Man’…

A year after the kiss that brought them together in a snowy train-station doorway, Maya and James are embarking on another journey – this time around the world.

The trip starts promisingly, with an opulent and romantic Indian wedding. But as their travels continue, Maya fears that ‘love at first sight’ might not survive trains, planes and tuk tuks, especially when she realises that what she really wants is a baby, and James doesn’t feel the same. 

Can Maya and James navigate their different hopes and dreams to stay together? Or is love at first sight just a myth after all…

Perfect for fans of One Day in December, Our Stop and Marian Keyes. The Postcard continues the once-in-a-lifetime love story that readers so took to their hearts.

**********

My Travels with Train Man

Hi, I’m Maya, I’m 29, and I’m a stalker. Through completely non-grubby means, I have had Bono beckon me for a cuddle, The Hoff has laughed at my jokes, and Tom Cruise has led me by the hand on one of his red-carpet walkabouts. But the stalk of my life, the one I’m most proud of, was the handsome stranger on the train who ended up falling in love
with me.

For almost a year after he started getting the 8.21 a.m. to King’s Cross, I wore that little bit extra mascara and tried not to stare as he read books I loved. He was so beautiful and seemed like a good soul, but we never spoke. I tried to test if he would notice me by ‘accidentally’ dropping my ticket, to see if he would pick it up. My heart sang when he did, but I blushed too hard and squeaked too high to say anything more than an inelegant ‘Ta’.

It took almost a year for me to pluck up the courage to write him a note – on my birthday in May – and another eleven days for me to actually give it to him. When he emailed me at 5 p.m. to say thanks, happy birthday, but unfortunately he had a girlfriend, I was gutted but decided to cling onto the use of the word ‘unfortunately’. Remember, I’m good.

Months passed. Friends told me to move on. I went on the odd date. I even dated the guy I used to slow down for in kiss chase at primary school… but I just couldn’t get past the fact that they weren’t Train Man. My sister called me ‘too picky’. I know I sound like I was taking the fast train to Crazytown, but I really saw myself with Train Man.

Months after I’d given Train Man the note, I was doing a shoot for a newspaper I was working for (you might remember the whole Fifi Fashion Insider furore – yeah, that’s me), and who was the photographer at the studio? That’s right, Train Man. He didn’t get the chance to tell me his circumstances had changed. Stunned in shock and silenced by his beauty, I was too embarrassed to seize the moment. When his ex-girlfriend walked in, I fled the studio with a hot face and a broken heart; I thought they were still together.

Fast-forward a few weeks and I was on the last train home, stuck in the snow at 1 a.m. in a village outpost. I was about to panic, and there he was in the doorway. He told me he was single; he had been for months. He said he’d noticed me – HE’D NOTICED ME?! – way before I dropped my ticket or threw the note at him. He told me he’d noticed my sparkly eyes. We kissed in the doorway of a closed pub and that night I fell in love for real.

We no longer get the 8.21 a.m. to King’s Cross. In fact, we’re about to embark on another, bigger, adventure – my long-held dream of travelling the world for a year. And you, dear Esprit reader, are invited too…

7

New Year’s Eve 2015, Udaipur, India

‘YOU AND JAMES SHOULD GET MARRIED!’ bellows Josie from across the dance floor. She is teetering on skyscraper heels, in the same oyster hue and with the same satin sheen as her micro dress, clutching a bottle of Moët in her left hand. ‘BEING A WIFEY IS AMAAAAAAZING!’

Maya looks at the bright colours and rich fabrics swirling around them, relieved that James isn’t within earshot. It takes a lot of noise to drown Josie out, but the twelve dashing men banging out bhangra beats on kettle drums have spared Maya this time around. Maya doesn’t have to flush a shade of awkward and James doesn’t need to smile uncomfortably and change the subject.

It started three days ago at the mehndi ceremony, when Josie first started asking Maya why James hadn’t proposed yet – and if she thought he might. Maya was relieved to be easily able to change the focus of conversation onto Priyanka and her friends, and to lose Josie in the intricacies of floral and geometric henna.

The cringe factor was upped two days ago, after the cricket match that turned into a black-tie dinner. Josie was so giddy that the gang were back together that she had a bit too much fizz and started crying when she tried to explain how happy she was and that marriage really was the best thing she and Dominic had ever done.

On day three of the festivities – a boating trip followed by lunch at a palace on the lake – a tipsy Josie stood up on the sunset boat back across Lake Pichola and started twerking to ‘Put A Ring On It’, a backing track of which she played on her phone. She even straddled James for part of her routine, shoving her ring finger at him and pointing it in his face. James was not amused. The bride’s grandparents were not amused. Dominic was mortified and pulled Josie back into her seat before she capsized the boat and drowned everyone in it.

This morning, over breakfast of kachori and roti, in the palatial gardens that hugged the still lake, Josie was offering up her Italian wedding villa venue for Maya and James to wed in, even though it wasn’t hers to
loan out.

‘Oh, wouldn’t it be lovely to go back, Dom?’ she mused through faraway eyes.

‘Easy, Joze,’ replied Dominic, rubbing his droopy brown eyes, sensing the change in the atmosphere, while James scrolled through the photos on his digital SLR and Maya thought make it stop.

But it didn’t… Earlier, during the flower-filled Hindu ceremony, Josie had squeezed Maya’s arm as Jeremy and Priyanka took their seven steps around the fire, leaned in and whispered to Maya and James, ‘Oh gawd, you have to do this at your wedding.’

Zoë Folbigg is a magazine journalist and digital editor, starting at Cosmopolitan in 2001 and since freelancing for titles including Glamour, Fabulous, Daily Mail, Healthy, LOOK, Top Santé, Mother & Baby, ELLE, Sunday Times Style and Style.com. In 2008 she had a weekly column in Fabulous magazine documenting her year-long round-the-world trip with ‘Train Man’ – a man she had met on her daily commute. She since married Train Man and lives in Hertfordshire with him and their two young sons.

Follow Zoë:

Facebook: @zoefolbiggauthor

Twitter: @zolington

Website: www.zoefolbigg.com

Pre-order Links:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2XDiYhJ

Kobo: http://bit.ly/2Cg55hG

Google Play: http://bit.ly/2LMMxLs

iBooks: https://apple.co/2SlqNYt

Follow Aria:

Website: www.ariafiction.com

Twitter: @aria_fiction

Facebook: @ariafiction

Instagram: @ariafiction

 

 

Publication: 22nd August 2019 – HQ

‘I was pregnant with the baby of a man I had met once.
What was one normally left with after a first date? A bad case of thrush?’

After eight years together, Lil Bailey thought she’d already found ‘the one’ – that is, until he dumped her for a blonde twenty-something colleague. So she does what any self-respecting singleton would do: swipes right, puts on her best bra and finds herself on a first date with a handsome mountaineer called Max. What’s the worst that can happen?
 
Well it’s pretty bad actually. First Max ghosts her and then, after weeing on a stick (but mostly her hands), a few weeks later Lil discovers she’s pregnant. She’s single, thirty-one and living in a thimble-sized flat in London, it’s hardly the happily-ever-after she was looking for.

Lil’s ready to do the baby-thing on her own – it can’t be that hard, right? But she should probably tell Max, if she can track him down. Surely he’s not that Max, the highly eligible, headline-grabbing son of Lord and Lady Rushbrooke, currently trekking up a mountain in South Asia? Oh, maybe he wasn’t ignoring Lil after all…  

**********

When I heard that Sophia Money-Coutts had a new book coming out I knew I had to read it. I really enjoyed her debut novel, The Plus One. I found it hilarious and completely captivating. I expected the same from her second book and I wasn’t disappointed.

What I loved most about WHAT HAPPENS NOW? is the protagonist. Lil Bailey is realistic, engaging, and funny. She is honest, loyal, and kind, the type of character that I wish was by best friend. She is a teacher in a prestigious boys school in Chelsea, she has a few good friends, and she has a fantastic relationship with her parents. All in all, she is a normal girl, but her life becomes a bit complicated when, after a one-night stand (with a few sex scenes that made me cry from laughing), she finds out she is pregnant. Handsome and charming Max, the father of her baby, is a famous mountain climber and he comes from a noble family and they don’t have much in common. Lil has nine months to figure out her relationship with Max (does she have feelings for him?), her living situation (she is flat sharing with a couple who does yoga and has loud sex), and how she is going to raise her child (can she really be a single mother?).

As I already mentioned, I loved the protagonist Lil, she is my kind of gal. I liked her at the beginning of the story, but I also liked how she grows and develops, the person she becomes at the end. I also liked her friends, the twins Jess and Clem. This duo created some of the funniest scenes in the book with their witty dialogues and their easy relationship with Lil. Although sometimes I found him a bit snob, Max is a likable character, even if a bit mysterious. Other characters worth of mention are the children in Lil’s class who with their honesty and with their innocent yet embarrassing questions made me laugh quite a lot, and the feared and stern mistress of the school which I found a very interesting character.

Friendship, love, motherhood, and loss are all themes the author addresses with her clear and flowing writing style using humour, but also a few emotional moments that gave the story a more serious tone. I laughed, I fell in love with the characters, I was completely engrossed in the story, and I am hoping that we will get to read more about Lil and Max and what happens next.

A huge thank you to Joe Thomas and HQ for inviting me to join the blog tour and providing me with a copy of this brilliant novel.

Publication: 22nd August 2019 – Manilla

FOR THIS KILLER, IT’S A GAME OF A B C

Criminal profilers Jan Grall and Rabea W yler are assigned the gruesome case of a
man found murdered in a w ildlife park. Later, tw o more bodies are found, both
brutally mutilated, and authorities soon realise that the victims are linked by the
letters of the alphabet tattooed on their skin.

Then the killer strikes again and Grall and W yler receive a mysterious package
containing a blood-encrusted scrap of skin marked w ith a letter. And w hen Grall’s
hotel room is marked w ith a Z, the race is on to find out w ho this vicious killer is.
Before it’s too late . . .

A tense and exciting serial killer thriller by debut author, Lars Schutz.

**********

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for THE ALPHABET MURDERS, the debut novel by Lars Schutz. This dark and gripping novel is published today and I’d like to thank Tracy Fenton for inviting me to join the blog tour and Manilla for providing me with a copy of the book.

I do love serial killers in crime novels. Their minds are so twisted and you never know where the story is going to go. Also, I am a big fan of Criminal Minds and I do enjoy behavioural analysis procedure. In what I hope is the first of many cases, we meet Jan Grall, renowned profiler, and his colleague Rabea Wyler. They are called in the Westerwald area where there is a serial killer who leaves a letter of the alphabet tattooed on his victims together with quotes from famous literary works. For Jan the case is almost personal because he grew up in the area and coming back there means facing the ghosts from his past.

I found the setting claustrophobic and chilling and it perfectly fits with the suspenseful plot and some of the disturbing scenes. The chapters switch from character to character, including one of the serial killer’s victim, Tugba. Her point of view was the one I found more emotionally taut and thought-provoking: a young woman knowing she is about to die and doing everything she can to survive, including scratching her skin to erase the tattoo.

The author created a cast of complex and vividly-drawn characters. Jan and Rabea make a good pair of profilers and they both have a dark secret from their past that still haunts them. These are left a bit unresolved and I hope it means that will get to see more of these characters. They are called to investigate the Alphabet Murders by the local police. Anita Ichagawa is Senior Chief Superintendent, smart, strong-minded, and really good at her job. Stutter is Chief Superintendent, he likes to control and he doesn’t easily accept Anita’s place of command. He also doesn’t believe much in profiling and doesn’t make Jan’s job easy.

THE ALPHABET MURDERS is addictive and haunting, it is an accomplished and superb debut and I really look forward to reading more from this author and about these characters!!!

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Lars Schütz w as born in 1992. He w orks as a copyw riter for a large advertising
agency in Düsseldorf. The Alphabet Murders is his debut thriller.