🧙🏻 Halloween Book Review ~ The House on the Cliff by Victoria Scott

Boldwood Books
4 October 2025

Thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to review this book

1966: Standing on the rugged Cornish coast, Hallows Abbey can be a lonely place for the boys boarding there. For Theresa, however, it offers an escape from her father’s long shadow, and as the school nurse, she tries to be a comfort to those students struggling to adjust to their remote life. But, before the year is over, Theresa will make a terrible decision – and the consequences for the children in her care will change everything…

2025: With her own children having just left home, Amanda’s emotions are in turmoil when she arrives at the isolated school where her husband is to be Deputy Head. When she learns of the school’s tragic history, in which a group of boys went out on a boat trip and disappeared, she becomes obsessed with finding out what happened, even when her research risks upsetting the fragile equilibrium of the school. But when she starts to hear voices in the gardens and crying in the halls at night, she begins to wonder if she’s losing her mind.

Only one thing seems certain: this corner of Cornwall could well be Amanda’s undoing.

🧙🏻My Review..

This dual time story is a spooky read for Halloween. A remote boarding school perched on the end of a Cornish cliff, a secret which has been hidden for years, a distinctly creepy atmosphere and you have all the right ingredients for a haunting story which captures the imagination from the start.

In the present day Amanda and her husband are settling into living at Hallows Abbey, an isolated Catholic boarding school, which is situated in a remote part of Cornwall. Whilst Mike gets used to being deputy headmaster, Amanda is pretty much left to her own devices and so she becomes intrigued by the mysterious disappearance, many years ago, of a group of school boys, who went out in a boat and never returned. Moving quietly back to 1966 we begin to put together the threads of the mystery and develop a rapport with Theresa, a school nurse, who has her own secrets. 

The dual time aspect is well done and I found myself looking forward to both parts of the narrative. The author writes well and keeps up the momentum of the story creating a decidedly chilly atmosphere whilst at the same time looking more closely into the lives of Amanda and Theresa and the problems they were facing in their personal lives. The wild beauty of the Cornish coast is well described and adds another dynamic to the story.

I thought The House in the Cliff was an interesting story, with enough creepiness for an entertaining Halloween read.

About the Author 

Victoria Scott has been a journalist for many media outlets including the BBC and The Telegraph. She is the author of three novels published by Head of Zeus. 

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Book Review ~ Ten Poems from Cumbria from Candlestick Press

Candlestick Press
September 2025

Thanks to the publishers for my copy of this poetry pamphlet 

Cumbria is a place of fellside and farmland, of lakes, saltmarsh and rugged coastlines. To the north lies the vast Solway Plain which looks across to Scotland.

The poems in this selection conduct us on a journey of lively contrasts. We encounter weather, sheep, history, rivers, towns, traffic and dialect, and experience the vividness of living in a place of “wide-lidded skies”. On a summer walk we enter a transfigured landscape:

“The highest reaches of the beech –

six trees close-packed – were flame and they were water.

The green sun, the red cattle, the blue-faced sheep:

everything primary-bright, solid…”

from ‘Cinderdale’ by Helen Farish

This is a selection that crackles with all the colour and energy of England’s most north-westerly county.

Jacob Polley is a poet and novelist who was born in Cumbria.

Poems by Josephine Dickinson, Helen Farish, WN Herbert, Kim Moore, MR Peacock, Jacob Polley, PhoebecPower, William Scammell, David Scott and Claudine Toutoungi.

 📖 My Review 

Just a couple of hours drive along the M6 motorway and I can be in Cumbria. This north-westerly county has a rugged beauty which, once experienced, never leaves you and the lure of the fells and mountains seeps into the marrow of your bones.  Dotted with sheep, patchwork fields seem to roll along forever, against a backdrop of dark skies and scudding clouds :

“All summer the sheep were strewn like crumbs

across the fell, until the bracken turned brittle

and it was time they were gathered 

into the green patchwork of closer fields..”

From Flanking Sheep in Mosedale by David Scott 

Cumbrian dialect harks back to an older time when there was poetry in vernacular, banding together communities with patterns of speech we should barely understand and yet instinctively we of the north feel the meaning deep within our soul. I was especially thrilled to see the medieval village of Kirkoswald, a place my brother once called home, mentioned :

Who provides for the Hrafn his food?

Appleby Street and Kirkoswald.

Skinny Brant and Paradise Clough.

From Spells of the Raven by Josephine Dickinson

Reminding us that Cumbria shares itself with coastline is this beautiful poem:

A gull takes me to the edge of the town.

It is only grey  here; great slates of it

and the roll and smash of sea into stone.

From Whitehaven by Claudine Toutoungi

Beautifully presented, Ten Poems from Cumbria is a wonderful addition to the collection of regional titles, bringing the county gloriously alive. Capturing the beauty, and the unspoiled majesty, and all gathered together with a beautiful cover, it’s a perfect gift instead of a card for anyone who has visited Cumbria or who calls this beautiful place home.

About the Publisher 

Candlestick Press is a small, independent press publishing sumptuously produced poetry pamphlets that serve as a wonderful alternative to a greetings card, with matching envelopes and bookmarks left blank for your message. Their subjects include Mountains, Clouds, Walking, Birds, Wine and Happiness. Candlestick Press pamphlets are stocked by chain and independent bookshops, galleries and garden centres nationwide and available to order online.

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📖Book Review ~ A Tale of Two Dukes by Emma Orchard

Boldwood Books 
20 September 2025

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

 

No one is more surprised than Viola, Duchess of Winterflood, when she receives an offer of marriage from a man she’s not seen in over a decade. An independent widow, close to thirty, with two rambunctious boys, Viola has no obvious reason to accept the new Lord Ventris’s proposal. And yet… within two weeks, Viola finds herself walking down the aisle towards a man she despises and has sworn she'll never kiss. But kisses are all that’s off nothing else.

Accustomed to living a secretive life on the outskirts of society, Richard Armstrong never expected to inherit a title, nor the significant property that comes with it. But now that he has, he’s determined to keep it within his bloodline, and for that he needs an heir. And so, he seeks out the striking widow of his cousin, the late Duke of Winterflood, and offers his hand.

While their passionate but turbulent union raises eyebrows among their family, and the ton at large, both Viola and Richard carry their own secret reasons for agreeing to marry.

But as they start their new life together, they will soon discover that the shocking secrets they’ve both been keeping cannot stay hidden forever. And the revelations, when they come, could turn both their worlds upside down.

📖 My Review

When Viola, the widowed Duchess of Winterflood, receives an unexpected proposal of marriage from a man she has not seen for over ten years, she is rather shocked to hear from Richard Armstrong and even more surprised to find herself accepting his marriage offer even though it comes with certain conditions.

What then follows is a lovely story which takes us back to the time when Richard and Viola first met and the significant effect that this relationship would have on both of their futures going forward. As always the Regency period is brought to life and whilst Viola is a formidable bride she is also constrained by what society expects of her. Richard, with some deep secrets of his own is an interesting character, wonderfully handsome but with an aching vulnerability. 

As always, this talented writer gives us a passionate romance, which sits comfortably alongside the historical period in which it is set, with two central characters who share their innermost secrets in a story which has a dash of spice, a pinch of romance and a wonderful second chance at happiness.

About the Author

Emma Orchard grew up in Salford and was given tickets to the grown-up library at the age of 11 because she’d read all the children’s books and the librarians were sick of the sight of her. She became obsessed with Georgette Heyer and hasn’t stopped reading her novels since. She studied English Literature at university and went on to work at Mills & Boon and behind the scenes in television and in publishing.

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📖 Blog Tour ~ The Letter from the Island by Rose Alexander

Bookouture
24 October 2025

Thanks to the publisher for the copy of the book
and the invitation to the blog tour

 

Every week Calliope writes a letter to her twin sister who died sixty years ago. One day, she receives a letter back… 

Present day, London. Now an elderly lady and living alone in her basement flat, Calliope desperately misses the sun-soaked olive groves of her Greek Island home. It has been over sixty years since she ran away. When the letter postmarked from Crete lands on her doorstep, she is shocked to the core by what it says. Her twin sister is alive: We need to talk about what happened.

Now Calliope must make a confession to her beloved granddaughter Ella. Calliope needs to lay her lifetime of secrets to rest, and she needs Ella’s help…

1944, Crete. Calliope clutches the baby to her chest as they run down the cliff path to the blue water of the harbour. She is all the little one has left now, and they must escape. The boat the Allies sent won’t wait forever. If only she’d reached the village sooner, her twin sister would still be alive. She will never forgive herself, but she must stay strong for the baby.

Calliope must make one final journey home. And what her and her granddaughter discover in Crete will change the course of their lives forever.

📖 My Review ..

Calliope has kept a devastating family secret for over sixty years and when a letter arrives unexpectedly it brings all her old wartime memories to the surface and it would seem that the time is now right to lay down the ghosts of the past. Returning to her childhood home on the beautiful island of Crete is filled with emotion but as we are led gently into the past so the binds of family are rekindled and it’s a chance for Calliope and her twin sister, Calista , to reconcile.

Well written, with a lovely sense of both the past and present, the history of Crete during its occupation in 1944 is brought to life. The hopes and fears of Calliope and Calista and the frantic struggle for survival is brought to life so beautifully that you can’t help but form an emotional attachment to both of them. The dual timeline is done well, I could equally imagine Calliope’s rather lonely life in her present day London apartment alongside the sunshine and beauty of her once Cretan homeland.

With secrets, lies and reconciliation as its main themes The Letter from the Island is a lovely dual time story with interesting characters and a beautiful setting.

About the Author 

Rose Alexander has had more careers than she cares to mention and is currently a secondary school English teacher. She writes in the holidays, weekends and evenings, whenever she has a chance, although with three children, a husband, a lodger and a cat, this isn’t always as often as she’d like. She’s a keen sewist and is on a mission to make all her own clothes.

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📖 Blog Tour ~ Desolation by Keith Moray

Boldwood Books
17 October 2025

A Ralph de Mandeville Mystery #1

My thanks to the publisher for the book
And Rachel’s Random Resources for the invitation to the blog tour

The Black Rood of Scotland, stolen.

A coroner of York, murdered

An evil worse than plague itself, at large…

1361, York. As the country recovers from the war with France, and whispers that the pestilence has returned to England grow louder, fear is in the heart of every nobleman and commoner alike. Sir Ralph de Mandeville, ex-solider and newly appointed Justice of the Peace is sent to Langbarugh, just outside York, to investigate the murder of Coroner Sir Boderick de Whitby.

More deaths quickly follow, and while these are swiftly dealt with as plague victims, Sir Ralph and his two assistants Merek and Peter soon uncover something altogether more horrifying… A greater evil is at large in the northern wapentakes.

As panic escalates and the lines between plague and murder blur, Sir Ralph is thrust into a desperate race against time. Every shadow hides a potential killer, every cough could be a death knell. Can he unmask a murderer lurking in the terrifying shadow of the Black Death before they’re all consumed by a terror more sinister than any plague?

📖 My Review ..

The middle of the 14th century was a dark and dangerous time as England was still reeling from the effects of the war with France and only just recovering from the aftermath of the great pestilence in 1348, people are naturally cautious and fearful of an unknown future.

In 1361, Sir Ralph de Mandeville is a newly appointed Justice of the Peace, who has been sent to Langbarugh, near York, to investigate the untimely death of Coroner Sir Broderick de Whitby. This is an uneasy time as not only has the death left the locals feeling uneasy but there is also the very real fear that the deadly plague has once more resurfaced, and with a series of unexplained deaths everyone, it seems, has something to fear. 

This is an interesting medieval mystery with an authentic sense of time and with a complex and rather dark mystery at its core. The medieval setting is imaginatively described so that I felt like I was placed within the small Yorkshire villages watching as the mystery deepened. The characterisation is flawless, I especially enjoyed watching how Ralph de Mandeville, and his companions, set about solving the murder mystery and by the end of the story I was already looking forward to seeing how they would go forward in future stories.

Desolation is an atmospheric and well written historical murder mystery. 

About the Author

Keith is a retired GP, medical journalist and novelist, writing in several genres. As Keith Moray he writes historical crime fiction in the medieval era and in ancient Egypt, The Inspector Torquil McKinnon crime novels set on the Outer Hebridean island of West Uist, and as Clay More he writes westerns. Curiously, his medical background finds its way into most of his fiction writing.

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📖 Book Review ~ Ten Poems about Chocolate from Candlestick Press

Candlestick Press
August 2025

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this pamphlet 

Everyday treat, indulgent luxury or an addiction we can’t or won’t break – many of us have a passionate relationship with chocolate, making it perfect subject matter for poetry.

This luscious mini-anthology celebrates preferences for milk or plain, pralines or fondants, rich truffles or the sweetest hot chocolate drinks. Anyone who has ever craved chocolate will identify with poems that explore its sensuous aspects – taste, texture, mouthfeel – in an intensity akin to love.

And if chocolate is like love, then these poems explore the depth and shape of that love:

“Knotted smoke, dark punch
of earth and night and leaf,
for a taste of you

any woman would gladly
crumble to ruin.”

from ‘Chocolate’ by Rita Dove

These entertaining, unexpected and moving poems also explore the history of chocolate, and the price paid by those whose hard work brings it to our lips.

Poems by Clare Best, Alison Bracjenberry, Barbara Crooker, Rita Dove, Roy Marshall, Ife Olatona, Pauline Prior-Pitt, Louis Simpson, Oenone Thomas and Noel Williams.

Donation to Fairtrade Foundation 

📖 My Review..

I adore chocolate in all shapes and forms from smooth and silky, to bitter and crunchy, there is something about the taste of chocolate that just makes the world seem a calmer place. This fine anthology of ten chocolate inspired poems will have your tastebuds tingling.

‘Oh, chocolate! From the spice bazaars 

Of Africa, hulled in mills, beaten, 

pressed in bars. The cold slab of a cave’s

interior, when all the stars have gone to sleep’

From Ode to Chocolate by Barbara Crooker

I once knew someone who had worked, as a teenager, in the chocolate factory at Bourneville and even years later the smell and taste of chocolate made her feel really sick.

‘ When you start in a chocolate factory,

the teacher said (why did she glance at me ?)

they say, “Eat all you want” . After a week

They know the  slightest taste will make you sick.

This may have been a story adults tell,

All confidence, no proof. Like laws. Like Hell.’

From  Bournville Babies by Alison Brackenberry

There’s something for everyone in this collection and more than enough to satisfy any chocolate cravings with poems which express the sensual nature of chocolate, the comforting taste of it when we need a pick me up and the endless selection of confectionery which is available to us 24 hours a day. So, whatever your fancy, be it the simple sweetness of milk chocolate, the decadence of rich heavy duty noir, or the lure of a box of hand decorated delights, Ten Poems about Chocolate will satisfy your chocolate cravings and is the perfect gift instead of a card to the chocolate lovers in your life and even better if accompanied by a selection of their favourite chocolatey treats 🍫

About the Publisher 

Candlestick Press is a small, independent press publishing sumptuously produced poetry pamphlets that serve as a wonderful alternative to a greetings card, with matching envelopes and bookmarks left blank for your message. Their subjects include Mountains, Clouds, Walking, Birds, Wine and Happiness. Candlestick Press pamphlets are stocked by chain and independent bookshops, galleries and garden centres nationwide and available to order online.

Twitter/X @poetrycandle 

Blue Sky @candlestickpress.bsky.social

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📖 Blog Tour ~ The Son-in-Law by Ellie Monago

Bookouture
13 October 2025

Thanks to the publisher for my copy of the book
and the invitation to the blog tour

 

“Mom, meet my fiancé.” I look at the man standing next to my daughter and my heart starts pounding. I know him. He is the only person who knows all my secrets.

I play nervously with the white tablecloth in the restaurant my daughter Lise picked out. I want to make a good first impression on her fiancé. I watch as the door opens and a man in a crisp white shirt enters holding my daughter’s hand. The moment I see his face my blood runs cold. Why has he found me?

Lise slips out to take a call, leaving me alone with the man who could tear my family apart. Gavin smiles as he says the words that I hoped he never would: “You know why I’m here and what it will take to make me leave.”

My world starts to spin as my past and present collide. He’s been lying to my daughter about who he really is. But I will do anything to keep her safe.

Because only I know what my future son-in-law is capable of, how far he will go to get what he wants. But he underestimates how far I will go to protect my daughter. Which one of us will make it out alive?

📖 My Review..

When Lise first introduces her fiancé she expects her mother to be happy and supportive however, from an uncomfortable first meeting in a local restaurant it becomes obvious that Lise’s mother is far from pleased with this news. Diana immediately recognises Gavin, Lise’s fiancé, as he was once her daughter’s high school English teacher, this fact makes her very nervous, with reasons which become obvious as the story progresses.

This tense and tightly put together psychological fiction has all the necessary ingredients for an entertaining read. We have secrets from Diana’s past to explore along with the reason why she dislikes Gavin so much and it was interesting to see Lise’s own perception of what was happening. I enjoyed the mixing of time frames labelled ‘now and then’ and the way the other characters, particularly Gavin, alter the overall dynamic making it an altogether darker story. The shadow of toxic relationships is threaded throughout the narrative, along with lots of dark secrets which are finally exposed.

With an emotionally charged atmosphere The Son-in-Law is entertaining psychological fiction which kept my attention from start to finish.

About the Author

Ellie Monago is a novelist and practicing therapist. She’s also a wife and mother, and when you add it all up, she doesn’t wind up with much time for hobbies. But she’s an avid tennis fan, a passionate reader of both fiction and nonfiction—especially memoir (nothing’s as juicy as the truth!)—and she relishes a good craft cocktail.

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📖 Blogathon ~ My Girl by Jack Jordan

Simon and Schuster 
5 June 2025
Previously published 2016

Thanks to the publisher and Compulsive Readers
for both the book and the opportunity to be part of this Blogathon

 

Paige the mother of a murdered child and wife to a dead man.

She has nothing left to live for... until she finds her husband's handgun hidden in their house.

Why did Ryan need a gun? What did he know about their daughter's death?

Desperate for the truth, Paige begins to unearth her husband's secrets.

But she has no idea who she is up against, or that her life isn't hers to gamble - she belongs to me.

📖My Review..

Paige’s life is fast spiralling out of control, with her husband dead and her daughter presumed murdered there is nothing to stop her from drinking herself into oblivion. Even hitting rock bottom is still no incentive for Paige to get her life back together and with her family concerned for her welfare she is constantly battling against them as she fights her own personal demons.

My goodness, this is a difficult book to review without giving anything away, safe to say though that I was hooked right from the very start, reading faster and faster almost in disbelief at what was unfolding before me. The author certainly knows how to crank up the tension which comes so fast and furious that I had a genuine reluctance to put the book down. There is a constant feeling of unease as I felt that Paige was never going to have an easy time of it however, the plot twist, when it came, left me reeling. I read the book in one quick sitting, deeply invested in the story, and hoping that everything would work out.

Cleverly written, with fine attention to detail, My Girl grabs your attention right from the start and doesn’t let go until the whole scary story is played out.

About the Author

Jack Jordan is the global bestselling author of Anything for Her, My Girl, A Woman Scorned, Before Her Eyes, Night by Night, Do No Harm and Conviction, and an Amazon No. 1 bestseller in the UK, Canada and Australia.

Do No Harm was described as ‘chilling’ by Sarah Pearse, ‘brilliant’ by Lesley Kara and ‘pulse-racing’ by Louise Candlish. It was an instant Times bestseller on first publication and a Waterstones Thriller of the Month pick.

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📖 Book Review ~ Live, Laugh, Leave Me Alone by Harper Ford

Avon
25 September 2025

Thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

 

Lucy is fifty, frazzled and fed up. After spending half her life working, she’s tired, and her idea of inner peace involves a sofa, wine and a takeaway.

But when her boss announces his retirement, Lucy gears up for a well-earned promotion – that is until Tara, her annoyingly perfect colleague, swoops in, dazzling the CEO with her #BossBabe energy and commitment to a wellness bootcamp so hardcore it sounds like a cult.

Desperate to compete, Lucy lies about joining the same program — even though her body feels more landfill than temple. Now she’s trapped in four weeks of ice baths, crystals and green juices… not to mention jade eggs in unspeakable places.

As the wellness madness escalates and rivalries flare, Lu starts to wonder if she actually might be growing as a person – or if that’s just the kombucha talking? And why can’t she shake the feeling that maybe Tara isn’t as perfect as she seems?

📖 My Review ..

Lucy is at something of a personal cross roads, still waiting for that special promotion at work which will finally give her the dream role she craves only for the chance to be diminished by the arrival, into the company, of Tara, who also has her sights set on the same job. When Tara enrols on a wellness boot camp, Lucy has no choice but to try and keep up with her rival so she also joins the wellness group with no real interest whatsoever in any of the therapies.

What then follows is a great story which looks at the whole idea of wellness and the often fickle nature of an industry which doesn’t always meet expectations. Lucy is a great character, the story brings her to life so well, that she could be any fifty-something woman with all the angst that goes with this particular time of life. The story is funny in places and had me laughing out loud but there’s also some really serious issues as well, about the disappointments and hangs ups that so many of us carry around like baggage and also the minefield that is the wellness industry which can have both a positive and negative effect.

There is no doubt that what this talented author does so well is that she can be lighthearted one minute and make you chuckle out loud, and then, in the next, be deadly serious and move you to tears. She wraps every thing up so beautifully in a story which grabs your attention from the very beginning and which doesn’t stop being entertaining until the very last page.

If there is anything guaranteed to get you out of a reading slump it is the work of this lovely writer whose stories are the perfect antidote to reading ennui, Live, Laugh, Leave Me Alone didn’t stop making me smile until the story was finished.

About the Author

Harper Ford is an author, much of the time. She started out as a writer of historical novels, then found out she was funny during lockdown so decided to write contemporary romcoms too. She has a masters in writing and provides reader and writer services on her website beccanovelista.com

Live, Laugh, Leave Me Alone is her third coming-of-middle-age novel.

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📖 Blog Tour ~ Deadman’s Pool by Kate Rhodes

Orenda Books
23 September 2025

The Isles of Scilly Mysteries #8

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of the book
and Random Things Tours for the invitation to the blog tour

The islands’ secrets run deeper than the sea...

Winter storms lash the Isles of Scilly, when DI Ben Kitto ferries the islands’ priest to St Helen’s. Father Michael intends to live as a pilgrim in the ruins of an ancient church on the uninhabited island, but an ugly secret is buried among the rocks. Digging frantically in the sand, Ben’s dog, Shadow, unearths the emaciated remains of a young woman.

The discovery chills Ben to the core. The victim is Vietnamese, with no clear link to the community – and her killer has made sure that no one will find her easily.

The storm intensifies as the investigation gathers pace. Soon Scilly is cut off by bad weather, with no help available from the mainland. Ben is certain the killer is hiding in plain sight. He knows they are waiting to kill again – and at unimaginable cost..

 

📖 My Review..

Deadman’s Pool starts off with an absolute chiller of a prologue and with a mysterious narrator whose harrowing experiences sets the tone for the whole of the story and which had me quickly turning to the first chapter already eager to discover more.

When the remains of a young girl are discovered buried on the remote island of St Helen’s, DI Ben Kitto and his investigative team have the difficult task of identifying her especially as there are very few clues left at the scene. As the investigation gets underway it throws up more questions than there are answers and with each new revelation Ben begins to question everything he ever knew about the islanders and the place he calls home. There’s quite a dark subject at the core of the book which the author describes with her usual skill for tackling difficult scenarios but does so with a fine eye for detail and a sensitive approach towards all of her characters.

I think this Scilly Isle setting has to be one of my favourites of any thriller I’ve read as not only do the isles become a character in their own right but also its people come vibrantly to life especially those who have been in the series since the beginning. With each successive story, this is now the eighth in the series, I grow to like and admire Ben Kitto more. His personal journey is very much part of the narrative but it is also his utter commitment to any investigation and the natural bond he has with the place of his birth which makes each story so compelling. And of course there is also Shadow, such a wonderful character, who is in a league of his own when it comes to keeping a close watch over everyone, and when he sets off to find the perpetrators it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

Beautifully written, Deadman’s Pool is a deeply chilling and complex thriller by an author who knows how to hold the reader in the palm of her hand.  I was so engrossed in the story, and blown away by the conclusion, that I kept reading long after I should have put the book down to do something else.

About the Author

Kate Rhodes is an acclaimed crime novelist and an award-winning poet, selected for Val McDermid’s New Blood panel at Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival for her debut, Crossbones Yard. She has been nominated twice for the prestigious CWA Dagger in the Library award, and is one of the founders of the Killer Women writing group. She lives in Cambridge with her husband, the writer and film-maker Dave Pescod, and visited the Scilly Isles every year as a child, which gave her the idea for the critically acclaimed Isles of Scilly Mysteries series.

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📖 Book Review ~ The Women in the Shadows by Harriet Fox

HQ
9 October 2025
Thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

London, 1888. A monster prowls the gaslit streets, and the police are looking in all the wrong places, at all the wrong suspects. But three women refuse to stay silent.

Emma, the chief detective’s sharp-witted wife, sees the investigation failing. Maggie, a private investigator, exposes men’s darkest secrets. Bet, a police station cleaner, overhears what others ignore.

Together, they form an alliance to hunt down the killer dubbed Jack the Ripper. But as the women weave through the slums, brothels, and smoke-filled parlours of London’s underworld, they uncover corruption more sinister than they ever imagined.

The city belonged to men – until now.’

📖 My Review..

There are endless conspiracy theories around Jack the Ripper and many books, both fictional and non-fictional, have been written about him. Women in the Shadows takes what is already known about the murders and weaves them into a very readable fictional story about three women, from different backgrounds, who come together to try and solve the murders. Emma is the wife of Inspector Abberline who is in charge of the Ripper investigation, Maggie is a clever female private detective, and Bet is a feisty young woman for whom the streets of Whitechapel are achingly familiar.These intrepid women are a great bunch of characters, brought to life so clearly that you walk the streets alongside them as they do what they can in order to bring a killer to justice. However, I did suspend belief a little at some of the outcomes of their investigations but that added to the overall dynamic of the story.

The Women in the Shadows is a fascinating story which keeps true to the murder victims without sharing any of the more gruesome details and yet gives a plausible explanation for could have happened during the Ripper’s killing spree in the latter part of 1888. Well written, and with a realistic sense of time and place, the dark, and shadowy streets, around Whitechapel come alive, highlighting the poverty of its inhabitants, the desperate nature of those who seek comfort in a gin bottle and of the true vulnerability of those women who walked the streets at nights in fear of their lives.

About the Author

Harriet Fox is a writer and journalist who writes dark and twisty crime novels about women’s stories out if the shadows of history. Harriet is obsessed with crime fiction, horror films and ghost stories as well as history podcasts and cryptic crosswords.She also writes historical fiction as Kerry Barrett.

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📖 Book Review ~ Arkansas Black by Alexander Blevens

Lost Meridian Press
27 September 2025

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book to review 

 

A DYING ORCHARD

A CARNAL SECRET

A BROTHER’S LAST STAND

Tragedy strikes a Northwest Arkansas orchard when a late spring frost destroys the apple crop. Faced with bankruptcy, Jesse Fitch prepares to leave the family farm with his wife and son. His identical twin brother, however, vows to stay and braces for a fight against anyone who tries to displace him. Before the family can split, tragedy strikes again, revealing a secret that forever binds the twins together. As one brother clashes with the other, stretching bloodlines to a breaking point, the ultimate survival of the Fitch clan is uncertain.

Like two trees planted in the same spot and reaching for the same light, the Fitch twins can no longer thrive together; one must fall to the axe.

📖My Review

I wasn’t aware of the apple growing orchards of North West Arkansas, nor of the devastation which was felt by the apple growing community in the early years of the twentieth century. This once thriving industry historically produced millions of tons of apples but, at the time of this story, the area is facing financial ruin due to bad harvests caused by fire blight and harsh frosts. 

The Fitch family have toiled their apple orchards for many years but times are desperate and whilst Jesse can see the end is near, his twin brother Silas refuses to see reason, and with the bank about to foreclose on debts owed, Jesse sees that the only possibility is to cut their losses, pack up and leave their ancestral homeland. However, Silas has other plans which may well plunge the family into dangerous territory. The tension builds quite slowly, we get to know the main characters well and begin to understand their very different personalities. However, there is sense of impending doom as neither of the brother are quitters but when the chips are down there is only so much they can tolerate before they each reach breaking point, and with hidden family secrets threatening to surface, so the resentment between the brothers continues to fester.

Poignant and descriptive Arkansas Black brings to life the American history of ordinary folk who once toiled away, battling nature over nurture for little reward. It gives us an interesting slice of early American history, about a community of people facing real hardship, with no workable solution to ease their plight. Written with a fine eye for historical detail, Arkansas Black is well written historical fiction about a forgotten period in American history.

About the Author

Alexander Blevens is an Air Force veteran and a retired orthopaedic surgeon who lives and writes in Mississippi. Originally from California, he married a "New Orleans belle" and developed a keen eye for all things Southern.

 

Website

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📖 Publication Day Book Review ~ The Marriage Contract by Sasha Butler

Salt Publishing
6 October 2025

My thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to review this book 

 

‘Once she had thought of them, their love, as a fortress that nothing, not giants nor dragons nor men with fists and minds of gore could tear down. She realises now, that their love is malleable, mouldable, breakable. As soft as dreams

Summer in Worcestershire, 1577. Eliza Litton, a talented artist, is in love with childhood friend, Francis. But her tyrannical father, who rules the household with insults and fists, has other ideas. As summer comes to an end, Francis vanishes after a drunken night at the inn and Eliza’s father forces her to marry a gentleman, Edmund.

Thrown into a new, unfamiliar life with her husband who appears distant and cold, Eliza cannot tear herself from the memory of Francis. Yet her feelings for Edmund soften with time; he presents a life to her better than she ever dreamed. He provides her a safety she never had beneath her father’s roof and encourages her to paint, to pursue the things she loves.

As she begins to fall for Edmund, Francis is adrift on his own voyage, doing all he can to survive, fixated on returning to Eliza.

But as Eliza grows closer to Edmund, she uncovers a deceit she never imagined, causing her to question her own loyalties and commit her own betrayals. After everything, who will Eliza be? And what choices will she make?

The Marriage Contract vividly portrays life in the precarious and unforgiving Elizabethan era, exploring love’s many forms; how we can betray the ones we love, and how we can find forgiveness; and explores a woman’s fight to follow her desires and find her autonomy.

📖My Review..

Eliza and Francis, are childhood sweethearts, they dream of a life together however, Eliza’s abusive and controlling father has very different plans for his daughter and marriage to a blacksmith’s son is never going to happen. Setting his sights on a far grander match for his only daughter, Eliza has no choice but to obey her father’s wishes and so enters into a marriage contract with Edmund Cecil, a young man of means who has a gentle nature, and a lifetime of secrets of his own.

Delicately written, and with a quiet lyricism, The Marriage Contract brings Elizabethan England to life, from the rather forlorn wattle and daub house of Eliza’s childhood in rural Worcestershire, to her much grander moted marital home at Cecil Hall in Warwickshire, every part of the story flowed beautifully. I absorbed every word, went back to passages I found so beautifully written that I needed to re-read them and, in reading, I sensed a much older world around me, one that was filled with love, but overshadowed by grief and the hint of angry betrayal. Immersed in Eliza’s life I allowed her sorrow to consume me, noticed her small moments of triumph, and watched as she began to unburden her sadness, blossoming in a way that she could never have imagined when once she ran free, with Francis, in the fields around her childhood home. And what of Francis, well therein lies a another tale of loss and heartbreak, adrift and alone, he dreams of what might have been.

Bittersweet and utterly beautiful, The Marriage Contract is an exceptional debut novel from a talented writer whose love for storytelling shines with every carefully considered word. It is one of the best books I have read this year.

It’s so good I have decided to make it my Book of my Month for November.

About the Author

Sasha Butler is a writer based in the West Midlands. Her first novel, The Marriage Contract will be published in 2025 and was shortlisted for the Cheshire Novel Prize 2022 and the Bath Novel Award 2022, under the former title, As Soft as Dreams. 

She is interested in writing historical novels focusing on ordinary people who, despite living in eras so different from our own, are ultimately recognisable in their humanity - with desires, hopes, loves and fears.

In addition to novels, she occasionally writes short stories. Her short story Map of an Affair featured in Floodgate Press’ anthology, Night Time Economy (September 2024).

In her spare time, Sasha enjoys exploring National Trusts and planning trips to far-flung places. She lives with her partner in a little apartment with an ever-growing collection of books and plants.

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📖 Book of my Month ~ Willie, Willie, Harry, Stee by Charlie Higson with Illustrations by Jim Moir

Harper Collins 
9 October 2025

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book to review

Willie, Willie, Harry, Stee, Harry, Dick, John, Harry three. One, two, three Neds, Richard Two, Henries, four, five, six, then who? Charlie Higson has always been interested in the story of the fabled English monarchy: from the b*stardly to the benevolent, brilliant to the brutal. In this wonderful new book, with the famous rhyme he learned at school as his trusty guide, Charlie takes the plunge into the storied history of this most treasured of institutions – introducing readers to every single ruler since poor Harold was shot in the eye at the Battle of Hastings. Bloody treachery? Check. Unruly incest? Check. Short parliaments? Check. A couple of Cromwells? Check.

A rip-roaring journey that takes in the Normans, Stuarts and Tudors, not to mention the infamous Blois (how can we forget them?), Willie, Willie, Harry, Stee is an utterly engrossing and grossly entertaining primer on who ruled when and why.

📖My Review..

Willie Willie Harry Stee is an interesting romp through the history of England’s monarchs who ruled from 1066 to the present day. Their many failings and a few successes are all explained in an informative book which definitely makes history come alive. Whilst I was familiar with the rhyme on which the book is based it’s not something I learned at school and my party piece is to be able to recite the monarchs from William the Conqueror, through to Charles III, without the need to rely on the Willie, Willie,Harry, Stee rhyme.

This is one of those fascinating history books which doesn’t take itself too seriously and yet serves up a plethora of facts in an easily digested manner. The quirky illustrations by Jim Moir add an extra dimension and the rather serious faces of the monarchs on the cover of the book would certainly have me reaching for a copy in a book shop in order to have a closer look. The British monarchy is not renown for its fun factor and yet, such is the lure of the writing, that, on occasions, I found myself laughing out loud. It’s worth mentioning that the author has an engaging podcast about Willie, Willie, Harry, Stee which is available from wherever you get your podcasts and the historical content ties in nicely with the book.

Overall this is a great read and a useful aide memoir if you want to check up on a few facts about a monarch or two, or just to dip into and out of at whim and discover more about those monarchs who, for good or ill, have shaped our history. Short and snappy chapters help to make the history of our Kings and Queens easily readable, and for making rather complex history fun, I am delighted to have Willie, Willie, Harry Stee as my Book of the Month for October.

Willie, Willie, Harry, Stee is published by Harper Collins on the 9th October.

About the Author

Charlie Higson is a comedian and writer of screenplays and novels, including the Enemy and Young Bond series. He has written and performed on BBC’s The Fast Show and makes regular TV appearances as a guest, panellist and actor. Charlie is a huge horror fan and studied gothic literature at university. He lives in London.

James Moir, commonly known by his stage name Vic Reeves, is an English comedian and artist.

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X@HarperCollinsUK