Review ~ Song of the Dead by Douglas Lindsay

A dead man walks into a police station. He tells a tale - bizarre as it is grotesque - of kidnap and organ harvesting. John Baden's story of being held prisoner for twelve years sounds far-fetched - but it's all about to get much, much stranger.

DI Ben Westphall has been given the case because of his background in MI6. He also has a knack for getting inside people's heads and seeing things others would miss. Westphall is no ordinary detective and this is no ordinary investigation.

When his suspects start dying, Westphall realises someone is killing to cover up the truth. But what exactly is the truth? To find out, he'll have to question everything he's been told, before there's no one left to ask..

My thoughts..

When a dead man walks into an Estonian Police Station his appearance creates something of a conundrum, not just for the personnel involved, but also for DI Ben Westphall who is the Scottish detective in charge of the British side of the investigation. The 'dead' man's sudden arrival creates more questions than it does answers and before long Westphall is dragged into a bizarre investigation which gets more and more complicated as the story evolves.

I liked Ben Westphall from the beginning, he's an interesting character and his background in MI6 mean he has a good eye for working out the improbable, that he is also rather flawed, goes a long way into making him an interesting leading man. As with any new series there is a certain amount of scene setting and background about the lead characters but this was achieved smoothly and didn't get in the way of what is, in effect, a really tense murder mystery.

Song of the Dead is a really cleverly plotted crime thriller, with more than enough twists and turns in the plot to keep you guessing. Its complicated story line moving between dangerous situations both in Eastern Europe and some rather dark events in Scotland makes for fascinating reading.

Three titles in the DI WESTPHALL series will be coming from Mulholland Books in 2019.

About the Author

Douglas Lindsay was born in Scotland in 1964, at 2:38 am. Thirty-five years of little note ensued, before the world heralded the publication of his first book, The Long Midnight of Barney Thomson, which was adapted was adapted for the screen starring Robert Carlyle, Ray Winstone and Emma Thompson. As he was leaving the house to undertake a public engagement for the first time, his wife kissed him on the cheek and said, 'Whatever you do, don't be yourself...' Sadly, Lindsay continues to ignore her advice to this day.

Lindsay worked at the Ministry of Defence for over ten years and is married to a diplomat. He has lived in Dakar, Belgrade, Warsaw and Tallinn, an experience that inspired Song of the Dead. He now lives and writes full time in Somerset with his wife and their two children. 

 Twitter @DTSLindsay #SongOfTheDead


Amazon UK

🎄 Blog Tour ~ Friends Like These by Sarah Alderson

Jaffareadstoo is excited to be part of the  Friends Like These Blog Tour

Mulholland Books
13 December 2018
My thanks to the publishers for my copy of the book and the invitation to this blog tour

There's no such thing as a perfect life.Only a perfect lie.

We all know someone like Becca. 

She has the job everyone wants, a designer wardrobe, a hot-shot lawyer boyfriend, holidays to exotic locations. 

And she flaunts her perfect life all over social media. 

It drove her colleague Lizzie mad, but she couldn't stop looking. They were never really friends - and yet Lizzie knew everything about her. 

Or did she? 

When chance, and a terrible mistake, pulls Lizzie back into Becca's orbit years after they lost touch, she'll realise that you can't always believe what you see online... and that finding out the truth might be the worst thing you can do.

My thoughts about it..

Although Becca and Lizzie were once work colleagues they weren't particularly close but years later, Lizzie discovers something online about Becca which turns both of their worlds completely upside down.

What then follows is a story which pulls you in from the start, and there's so much going on that I don't know where to begin without giving too much of the plot away but what I can say is that the book cleverly shows just how much people can be taken in by social media and how everything you see on the screen is not necessarily the true story.

The author writes well and has created a set of unstable characters, who have no redeeming features, and I think that's what makes the story so much fun to read. I read the book quickly over the space of an afternoon and evening. I think the story benefits from being read in quick chunks rather than drawing out the action, as once the second half of the book gets underway there really is such a lot going on that you need to keep your eye on the game.

Friends Like These is a tense and taut psychological thriller which kept me gripped from first page to last, and the surprise at the end, which I didn't see coming, was a great finish to a good story.

Friends Like These by Sarah Alderson, Mulholland Books 
eBook, publication 13th December.

About the Author

Sarah Alderson is a British born, LA based author and screenwriter. She left the UK in 2010 to travel the world with her husband and then toddler daughter (a journey documented in her memoir Can We Live Here?). After living in Bali, Indonesia for five years, during which time she published seven young adult books, they moved to California, where Sarah now balances screenwriting for TV and films with writing novels. She also has a successful career as a romance author under the pen name Mila Gray.

Website

Twitter @sarahalderson #FriendsLikeThese

@MulhollandUK

Amazon UK

Christmas Read ~ The Deaths of December by Susi Holliday

Mulholland Books
November 2017
My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book to read and review

Blurb from the Book...

It looks like a regular advent calendar.

Until DC Becky Greene starts opening doors...and discovers a crime scene behind almost every one.

The police hope it's a prank. Because if it isn't, a murderer has just surfaced - someone who's been killing for twenty years.

But why now? And why has he sent it to this police station?

As the country relaxes into festive cheer, Greene and DS Eddie Carmine must race against time to catch the killer. Because there are four doors left, and four murders will fill them...

It's shaping up to be a deadly little Christmas.

My thoughts...

There's so much wholesome goodness in an advent calendar. Looking under each door to discover the hidden delight is something everyone can look forward to in the run up to Christmas. Now, when you've read The Deaths of December, the question is....will you be quite so eager to peak beneath the doors on your Advent calendar?

What looks to be an ordinary advent calendar lands on DC Becky Greene's desk in the police incident room and reveals far more than your average piece of dairy milk chocolate. Behind each door lies a photograph which reveals something horrific and which puts the whole investigative team on a race  against time to find whoever sent the calendar before their luck runs out.

This is an intelligently plotted and suspenseful crime story which doesn't get too encumbered by unnecessary police procedural stuff but which focuses on the realistic race to find the perpetrator of a series of violent deaths. The killer seems to taunt the police team, and for one member in particular, the race becomes a very personal challenge. We see two aspects of the story, that of the perpetrator, and also that of the two officers who are hell bent on finding the killer before the last few doors on the advent calendar are opened. DC Becky Greene and her relationship with her boss, DS Eddie Carmine is nicely developed and adds human interest to what is, in effect, a very dark story which has, it must be said, very little festive cheer.

I've read this author's crime stories before and am always intrigued by her ability to control a complicated story line with relative ease. She takes you by the hand and leads you into some very dark and dangerous places but does so with a light touch and an easy manner.

If you want something decidedly different then the The Deaths of December will make sure that you won't look at your innocent advent calendar in quite the same way ever again 😱

About the Author

Susi Holliday grew up in East Lothian. A life-long fan of crime and horror, her short stories have been published in various places, and she was shortlisted for the inaugural CWA Margery Allingham competition. She is the author of three novels in the Banktoun trilogy, Black Wood, Willow Walk and The Damselfly. She is married and lives in London.

Follow on Twitter @SJIHolliday #TheDeathsofDecember

@MulhollandUK

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Christmas Blog Tour ~ The Deaths Of December by Susi Holliday

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to be part of this Christmas Blog Tour 

Thanks to the publishers for my invitation to be part of this tour and for my review copy of Deaths of December

I'm delighted to be able to share Susi's Favourite Christmas Foods

My Favourite Christmas Foods...

Christmas has become synonymous with a time to indulge in far more food than you could ever really need or want, often with things that you never have any desire for the other 364 days of the year. In no particular order, here are some of my favourite Christmas foods:

After Eight Mints

Extremely addictive. Started on at the end of Christmas dinner, because even if you are stuff to the brim you can always fit in an After Eight. Usually finished before everyone has left the table, with the wrappers left in the box to annoy anyone who comes along later and stupidly thinks there might be some left.

Cheese and Biscuits

Cheddar, brie, camembert, roule, port salut. Cream Crackers, those loaf-shaped Hovis digestives, wholemeal thins, Tucs or Ritz. Grapes, celery, cranberry sauce. Ok, I confess – I probably eat cheese and biscuits at least once a week, but not the full variety J

Kilted Sausages / Pigs-in-Blankets

Whatever you might call those little sausages wrapped in bacon, they rarely make an appearance except with Christmas dinner, and no matter how many you make, there will never be enough.

Stuffing

I’m not even sure I particularly like it, but I pretty much only have it at Christmas, and if there is a Christmas dinner served without it, there’s trouble.

Sprouts

Much maligned, these little green monsters often get subjected to a re-boot to make them more appealing to those who say they detest them. But I actually really like them.

Maybe not enough to have them at any other time of the year.

Turkey

I actually don’t like turkey. We never had it at Christmas when I was growing up, usually having roast beef or chicken instead – but I love all the trimmings – in fact I am sure cranberry sauce was invented to give turkey some sort of flavour. I’m always pleased when pubs start offering their Christmas Specials, because then I can usually fit in several turkey dinners. Just not on Christmas Day.

Nuts in their shells

I don’t think anyone ever eats these outside of December, but who doesn’t like getting their hands on the nutcracker? That crunching sound is so satisfying. 

Actually, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t eat these all year round . . .

P.S. I am not a fan of Christmas cake, pudding or mince pies!

Hodder&Stoughton
16 November 2018

It looks like a regular advent calendar.

Until DC Becky Greene starts opening doors...and discovers a crime scene behind almost every one.

The police hope it's a prank. Because if it isn't, a murderer has just surfaced - someone who's been killing for twenty years.

But why now? And why has he sent it to this police station?

As the country relaxes into festive cheer, Greene and DS Eddie Carmine must race against time to catch the killer.

Because there are four doors left, and four murders will fill them...

It's shaping up to be a deadly little Christmas...

About the Author

Susi Holliday grew up in East Lothian. A life-long fan of crime and horror, her short stories have been published in various places, and she was shortlisted for the inaugural CWA Margery Allingham competition. She is the author of three novels in the Banktoun trilogy, Black Wood, Willow Walk and The Damselfly. She is married and lives in London.

Follow on Twitter @SJIHolliday #TheDeathsofDecember

@MulhollandUK

Huge thanks to Susi for her festive guest post today.

Review ~ Gone by Rebecca Muddiman

Mulholland Books
2015

250,000 people go missing in the UK every year. 91% of those reported to police are found within 48 hours. 99% of cases are solved within a year. And 1% stay gone.

When the remains of a young woman are unearthed , the police investigation leads the assumption that they are those of Emma Thorley , a teenager who went missing more than eleven years ago. However, as the police investigation gets underway, both DS Nicola Freeman and DI Michael Gardner find that there are more questions than answers , and most of the questions, at the heart of the mystery, seem to revolve around Emma's violent past.

What then follows is a dual time detective story, which reveals Emma's story in flashback whilst at the same time, keeping the momentum of the current investigation. There's an awful lot going on in the novel, with a realistic portrayal of life at the dull end of the social spectrum. It's a sad place where drug dealing, prostitution and violence are commonplace and where young lives are seen as nothing more than a commodity to be bought and sold. The police investigative team feels frighteningly realistic, filled with the petty squabbles and hidden nuances of a gritty crime office. The police procedural part of the story is well handled and the officers involved are presented with flaws and foibles of their own, which gives the story an interesting personal edge. 

I can well imagine Gone as a gritty TV drama as there are more than enough red herrings in the plot to keep you guessing and the sinister aspect of the story is tight and well controlled. This is now the second book in the DI Michael Gardner series, the first of which Stolen (2013), was this author's talented debut.

I am sure that this exciting series will continue to go from strength to strength and Rebecca Muddiman is certainly a crime novelist to watch....

My thanks to Bookbridgr and Mulholland Books for my copy of this book

About the Author

Twitter@RebeccaMuddiman

Amazon UK

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