Review ~ Miss Christie Regrets by Guy Fraser-Sampson

Urbane Publications
2017

What's it all about ...

The second in the Hampstead Murders series opens with a sudden death at an iconic local venue, which some of the team believe may be connected with an unsolved murder featuring Cold War betrayals worthy of George Smiley. It soon emerges that none other than Agatha Christie herself may be the key witness who is able to provide the missing link.

My thoughts about it...

I first discovered this author’s work when I read Death in Profile which is the first in the Hampstead Murders series of crime novels. That novel sets the scene for future books, and introduces us to characters who I am pleased to say make a welcome return in Miss Christie Regrets.

The story opens with a murder, the consequences of which will have a bearing on a subsequent, and seemingly unrelated, macabre discovery, and which will stretch the Hampstead police's investigative team's tenacity and resolve to their very limits. The secret at the heart of the novel has more than enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing, and the added inclusion of Miss Agatha Christie to the novel adds an element of charm and old fashioned mystery to what is in effect a modern-day murder investigation.

As always, the author spends time explaining both plot and malice. His turn of phrase and fine attention to detail always leaves the reader in no doubt that this type of detective story harks back to the golden age of detective investigation and to, perhaps, a more erudite way of tracking down a potential murderer.

There is an element of continuity in this second book which I liked, particularly in the way that certain characters have been allowed to develop more fully. It was good to meet up again with DS Kate Willis and her psychologist boyfriend, Peter Collins, and to ponder anew over the ambiguity of DS Willis’ relationship with her colleague, DI Bob Metcalfe. The dynamics of a functioning investigative team is maintained with all the appropriate ‘office’ politics that goes on behind closed police doors, which is fascinating to observe.

Miss Christie Regrets is a good continuation of the series and it's fair to say that whilst this story sits comfortably on its own merits, as with all series it’s probably best to start the series from the beginning. I am also pleased to note that there is to be a further continuation of the Hampstead Murders in the next installment, A Whiff of Cyanide, which is due to be released in Summer 2017.

Best Read With..A glass of a crisp Italian white and a few bite sized nibbles..

About the Author

Guy Fraser Sampson is an established writer best known for his Mapp and Lucia novels which have been featured on BBC radio and optioned by BBC television. 

Follow on Twitter @GuyFSAuthor

My thanks to the author and also to Urbane Publications for my review copy of this novel.

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Guest Author ~ David Charnick

Today I'm thrilled to welcome to the blog guest author

David Charnick

  

 David is introducing us to his book

The Dark Side of  East London

Pen and Sword
2016

The Dark Side of East London is intended to work on more than one level. At the most straightforward level it’s a collection of stories which are mainly criminal, and which are all concerned with darker deeds carried out in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. I’ve attempted to recreate the narratives from records such as the Proceedings of the Old Bailey, which can sometimes require a little judicious filling in! The important thing though has been to create readable stories, and accordingly at times I have used the present tense rather than the past to give a sense of immediacy.

This desire to bring the reader into the action has had its difficulties, particularly with regard to the chapter dealing with underage rape. This required treading a very fine line between responsible reconstruction and salacious detail. Nevertheless, I hope that the overall style of the book draws in the reader in a way that more straightforward narratives might not have done.

The reason for choosing stories of criminal acts and misdeeds is not in order to revel in sordid detail though. Like ghost stories, narratives of wrongdoing are anecdotal and so they provide evocative details of day-to-day life during times of crisis. As a consequence the stories I have chosen are intended to give the reader a feeling of what life was like, during my chosen period, in the Tower Hamlets, the settlements to the east of the City, in the shadow of the Tower of London.

On another level, this work is intended to bring into focus the importance of place. London is changing and developing over time, and the choice of time period for this book was made so that I might capture the change of character and feel as once individual settlements were absorbed by the nineteenth century sprawl of the metropolis of London. This change affected more than the demography; urbanisation and commercial advances brought new dangers to the people of London and other cities.

These stories are intended then to evoke the development of the East End before it became the East End, a term which did not come into use until the 1880s. But this is not a period to be seen in isolation, as if the past has no relationship with the present day. As a tour guide I am keenly aware that in places like London the past and present are really just chapters in the overall narrative. Similarly the future holds chapters which we have not yet reached. Time in London contends always with the imperatives of place, and often it is overridden.

The photographs which illustrate the book underline this idea. They have been taken especially by my friend and guiding colleague Alan Tucker and anchor many of these stories from the past firmly in today’s Tower Hamlets. The visible heritage of the East End and its story of continuity are important to me personally. I was born in Bethnal Green in 1964 and am still here, and my feeling for London’s ongoing story is embodied in my collection of short stories Death and the City, which takes the inspiration for its twelve stories from London lore and history that I have learned growing up here.

Old Gravel Lane Bridge
Now Wapping Lane

Although I am a City of London guide and a member of the London-wide guiding cooperative Footprints of London, I am also a member of the Tower Hamlets Walkshop, a guiding workshop group which has been developing on the back of an adult education course I teach locally. We are seeking to develop a coordinated guiding structure for the East End, and this book is a part of the overall initiative to maintain an awareness of the area’s continuity.

So much of our heritage – locally and nationally – is still under threat. In many ways it seems that the lessons of the 1960s and 1970s have not been learned, so the more we can appreciate the closeness and relevance of our past to our present, the less inclined we will be to let it go, and the readier we will be to embrace our part in this ongoing narrative. I hope this book will contribute in some way to encouraging this engagement.

You can find more about David by clicking here

Follow on Twitter @charnowalks

Find his books on Wordery.com

Huge thanks to David for being our guest on the blog today and for sharing his love of 

The Dark Side of East London so eloquently.

My Thoughts about The Dark Side of East London..

Living, as I do, in the North of England, I'm not hugely familiar with London and even less so with the east of the city, so it's been remarkably refreshing to read The Dark Side of East London and to learn things about the east end which I never knew existed. True, I'd heard the old Victorian myths and legends which sort of define the area, the most notorious being Jack the Ripper's association with its mean and murky streets, but what I didn't realise was that, in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, this area was blamed for so much social injustice, and thus was, ultimately accountable for pioneering social change within its boundaries.

The book is divided into nine absorbing chapters which highlight the darker days of crime and punishment, and as detail emerges, what becomes apparent is that this area of London was nearly always at the sharp end of the action. I think my favourite chapter has to be “Poison for the Asking”, as in the days before the 1868 Pharmacy Act it was all too easy for people to get their hands on noxious substances which they used, either in ignorance, or malice, with devastating and often, catastrophic effect.

The author writes with knowledgeable insight into this area, it is, after all, a place he knows like the back of his hand. However, what’s so important is that his zeal and passion comes across in the stories he shares and in the amount of meticulous research which has gone into bringing the book to life. There is much to take in, and because of that, this is not a book to whiz through at high speed, rather it is more to be savoured slowly, allowing the facts to unfold in fascinating detail. The book also shares some specially commissioned photographs which help to put old and new into context and which show those areas which have been highlighted in the stories.

Those who are acquainted with this area will no doubt be familiar with some of its dark and convoluted history. I think that the author has done a commendable job of highlighting, perhaps, some of the more forgotten, but no less remarkable, history of The Dark Side of East London.

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Review ~ The Girl from the Savoy by Hazel Gaynor

Harper 2016

A bit of Blurb..

Dolly Lane is a dreamer; a downtrodden maid who longs to dance on the London stage, but her life has been fractured by the Great War. Memories of the soldier she loved, of secret shame and profound loss, by turns pull her back and spur her on to make a better life.

When she finds employment as a chambermaid at London’s grandest hotel, The Savoy, Dolly takes a step closer to the glittering lives of the Bright Young Things who thrive on champagne, jazz and rebellion. Right now, she must exist on the fringes of power, wealth and glamour—she must remain invisible and unimportant.

But her fortunes take an unexpected turn when she responds to a struggling songwriter’s advertisement for a ‘muse’ and finds herself thrust into London’s exhilarating theatre scene and into the lives of celebrated actress, Loretta May, and her brother, Perry. Loretta and Perry may have the life Dolly aspires to, but they too are searching for something.

Now, at the precipice of the life she has and the one she longs for, the girl from The Savoy must make difficult choices: between two men; between two classes, between everything she knows and everything she dreams of. A brighter future is tantalizingly close—but can a girl like Dolly ever truly leave her past behind?

My thoughts about the book..

The prologue starts in 1916 and in a small Lancashire village Dolly Lane sees her sweetheart, Teddy go off to fight in the Great War. We then fast forward to 1923 as Dolly takes up a position as a chambermaid at The Savoy Hotel in London.There she comes into contact with the rich and famous, meeting people who live such lives that Dolly can only barely imagine. However, the fickle finger of fate, and a chance meeting with a struggling musician, soon propels Dolly into  a very different sort of life.

What I loved about this book was the way that the author very cleverly brings the past to life. There is a glittering reality to the story which is quite compelling. From the opulence of the guest suites at The Savoy Hotel, to the dusty backstage areas of London's theatre scene, the glorious and not so glorious image of the roaring twenties starts to come alive in the imagination.

The author has certainly done her research and fills the novel with wonderful descriptions of what it was like to be young and living in London at that time. I especially enjoyed the image of Dolly and her friend Clover as they try on rouge and pancake powder  in Woolworth's and spray the heady scent of the latest Yardley perfume on themselves. But amongst the gaiety is also sadness, the poignancy and heartbreak of Teddy's story which runs alongside that of Dolly, and also of the uneasiness of Dolly's association with the celebrated actress Loretta May, a woman who is facing her own particular demon.

Overall, this is a really good evocation of 1920's England, and as it follows the fortunes of this disparate group of people you can't help but become involved in the story of their intertwining lives and by the end of the novel you really hope that everything is going to work out for well for them all.


Fans of this talented author will be delighted with The Girl From the Savoy which was published in the UK by Harper Collins on the 8th September.

Best Read With.. a cup of Earl Grey tea and a slice of Battenburg

About the Author

Hazel Gaynor's debut novel The Girl Who Came Home was a New York Times and USA Today bestseller and winner of the 2015 RNA Historical Romantic Novel of the Year award. Her second novel A Memory of Violets was also a New York Times and USA Today bestseller.

Hazel writes a popular guest blog 'Carry on Writing' for national Irish writing website writing.ie and also contributes feature articles for the site, interviewing authors such as Philippa Gregory, Sebastian Faulks, Cheryl Strayed and Rachel Joyce among others.

Hazel was the recipient of the 2012 Cecil Day Lewis award for Emerging Writers and was selected by Library Journal as one of ten big breakout authors for 2015. Originally from Yorkshire, England, Hazel now lives in Ireland with her husband and two children.

Website click here

Twitter @HazelGaynor

Facebook click here



My interview with the author about The Girl from the Savoy can be found by clicking here 

My thanks to the author and to Harper Collins for my review copy of this book.

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Review ~ Death in Profile by Guy Fraser-Sampson

Urbane Publications
2016

When a woman's body is found in a quiet area of Hampstead, the investigative team suspect that it is the work of the serial killer they have been chasing for the last couple of years. The killer's modus operandi seems to be identical, and yet, the anomalies which appear in the investigation seem to provoke more questions than they do answers. Desperate for a result, a profiler is brought into the team to add another perspective, and suddenly, buoyed on  a wave of enthusiasm, the case seems to take off and before long is ready to reveal its secrets.

What then follows is a crime procedural story with a rather unusual twist, in that parts of the novel hark back to the golden age of detectives stories, with the author very much in tune with the work of Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers, and Marjory Allingham.  The sharply observed elements of classic detective stories adds a quirky twist and I found myself discovering some hidden gems hidden away in the narrative which were so reminiscent of the old classic detectives.

I enjoyed getting to know the police team, and found the complicated dynamics between the different characters interesting. They seem an odd bunch of people to be thrown together but yet when the chips are down they all seem to be able to pull together, with the exception of an old school copper who seems determined to do things his way. The main premise of the plot seems a little fanciful, at times, but I think this is entirely appropriate given the style of writing and its particular genre of old fashioned cosy crime.

The author has an interesting writing style, drawing the reader into the story with gentle humour and a wry wit which makes a refreshing change. Death in Profile is the first title in a proposed new cosy crime series and I look forward to reading more in the Hampstead Murders series.

Best Read with …. A pint of London Pride and a chicken pie …

About the Author

Guy Fraser Sampson is an established writer best known for his Mapp and Lucia novels which have been featured on BBC radio and optioned by BBC television. This is his debut work of detective fiction and the first in the Hampstead Murders series.







Follow on Twitter @GuyFSAuthor

Amazon UK

My thanks to the author for sharing his novel with me.

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Author Guest Post ~ Tracey Sinclair

I am delighted to welcome back to Jaffareadstoo

Tracey Sinclair

Author of Angels Falls 

  

Angel Falls Blurb

It isn't easy to surprise Cassandra Bick. When you run a human-vampire dating agency, your colleague is a witch who is engaged to a shifter and your business partner is one of London's most powerful (and sexiest) vampires, there's no such thing as a normal day at the office.

But when a mysterious Dark Dates client brings a dire warning of a new threat to the city's supernatural community, Cass and her friends realise they are up against their deadliest foe yet – and that this time, the danger is far closer to home than they could ever have imagined. 

Sexy, snarky and with more bite than a crypt full of vampires, Angel Falls is the latest in the Dark Dates: Cassandra Bick series. 

Hi Tracey ~ welcome back to Jaffareadstoo...

What is it about your writing that will pique the reader’s interest....?

I never set out to write a series. In fact, I didn’t set out to write genre fiction at all. After having my first two books published by a small press publisher, I had a few ideas in the pipeline, and, while they were brewing, I wrote a fun short story called Dark Dates for a friend who liked vampires. It was just a silly idea – a modern woman running a dating agency for vampires and humans, but living in a world where both humans and vampires are alive to all the clichés that surround the supernatural. But what started out as a throwaway project got its hooks in me, and the Cassandra Bick series was born.

I love writing the Cassandra Bick novels, but the drawback of a first-person protagonist is you see everything from her viewpoint. And as I fell a little more in love with the characters, I decided I wanted to see what they got up to when she wasn’t around. At first, writing a short story was just a marketing ploy – I was inspired by writers like Lee Child and Tess Gerritsen, who often publish ebook short stories to help promote the main novels. But another inspiration was Jim Butcher, who used his Dresden Files short stories to not only explore the world of his characters a bit more, but also to see it from a different angle. So, my first short story in the series – A Vampire Walks into a Bar – followed Cass’ suitors Cain and Laclos when they reluctantly have to team up to defeat a threat to the woman they both care about. It was enormous fun to write – and remains possibly one of my favourite things I’ve written – and since then, I’ve complemented the main novels with a handful of short(ish – they are often more novella length!) stories.

The benefits of these are numerous, for me. From a narrative perspective, I get to play around, and have things happen that don’t affect the central arc of the novels. I can introduce a wider set of characters – or expand on those that only feature briefly in the main books – and I see the main characters from a different point of view. Cass might argue with the men in her life, but she cares about them both: so as a writer, it’s fascinating to play with how other people might see them – whether it’s as arrogant, sexy, mysterious or terrifying. And these excursions have helped me develop the characters, since they now exist in a world beyond the narrow confines of one storyline. The relationship between Cain and Laclos in particular has become richer, funnier and, yes, sexier than I ever anticipated – to the extent that, when I started writing A Vampire in Edinburgh, it was going to be a standalone Cain story, and somehow Laclos ended up crashing the party, turning up uninvited halfway through the plot!

So, while I know some writers (and readers) see short stories as a somehow lesser medium, for me they are a great way to get more out of my characters, and spend more time in a world that has turned out to be far much more engaging than I ever would have imagined.

 Amazon UK : Angel Falls published 13 January 2016

Goodreads

A Vampire in New York and Other Stories: published  21 January 2016

About the author

Tracey Sinclair is an author and editor who lives in Brighton. She’s a massive geek and lover of all things supernatural (and, indeed, Supernatural) and who probably spends way too much of her time on Netflix.

Find more about Tracey and her writing on her website

Follow on Twitter @ThriftyGal

Huge thanks to Tracey for sharing her love of writing with us and for leading us by the hand into London's dark and dangerous world of shifters, vampires and demons..

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Review ~ A Dark and Twisted Tide by Sharon Bolton

Random House UK, Transworld Publishers
2014

It would seem that Lacey Flint has a morbid fascination for water and for the River Thames in particular. Her current penchant for wild water swimming in the gloomy waters of the Thames leads her to a gruesome discovery which will take her into the very dark and twisted world of missing women. Attached as she is to the marine police division Lacey should really know to leave the investigative policing to her detective colleagues, but from necessity Lacey and her nemesis, Dana Tulloch, have to join forces in order to plunge, quite literally, into the murky depths that hide beneath the waters of the hidden creeks and wharfs of London’s ancient river.

As we have come to expect from a Sharon Bolton novel, the action is fast and furious. No stone is left unturned and no detail is left unexamined and as always, the deeper into the story you venture, the more questions are left unanswered. Lacey commands your attention, she is the quintessential enigma. She has so many layers it’s like peeling an onion to reach into her heart and soul, and truthfully, I’m not convinced that we will ever truly find out what make this complex young woman tick. Her heart, as always, remains hidden, but at least in this story, she is granted a very short respite, with a couple of tender moments, which make you hope that one day she’ll be able to find some sort of comfort.

Maintaining a long running crime series requires investment both from the author and the reader and a real emotional bond needs to develop between the characters. There is no doubt that Sharon Bolton has created in Lacey Flint one of crimes most unfathomable protagonists, whose multi layered character really does drive forward these novels to such a degree that as I turn the last page and read the last word, I am already longing for the story to be continued in the not too distant future.

My thanks to NetGalley for my review copy of A Dark and Twisted Tide.

Published by Random House UK, Transworld publishers in May 2014.

About the Author

http://www.sjbolton.com/