📖 Book Review ~ Dirty Geese by Lou Gilmond

Armillary Books
2023

Thanks to Midas Campaigns for my copy of this book

June is the National Crime Reading Month and I am pleased to share my review of this crime novel by Lou Gilmond…

 

When Chief Whip Esme Kanha learns of the sudden death of the Minister for Personal Information, she bitterly regrets missing his desperate calls the previous evening. Unconvinced by the verdict of suicide, and suspicious that corrupt colleagues played some part in the man’s death, she decides to investigate – but she must tread carefully in a near-future world dominated by technology, where ‘what can see watches, what can hear listens, and what can be followed is tracked’.

Meanwhile, Big Tech executive Henri Lauvaux arrives in London. His mission: to ensure the new minister, Harry Colbey, will not prove as problematic as the last. As the West inexorably slides towards an Orwellian ‘Big Brother’ future, Harry Colbey and Esme Kanha join forces in a deadly cat-and-mouse game against political corruption – at great cost to themselves.

📖 My Review

Set some time in our troubled future this political thriller hits the ground running with the violent and unexpected death of a member of parliament, with Harry Colbey, his successor immediately rushed into post, it would seem that order has been restored as Colbey is seen as a safe replacement. However, with a strict a strict moral code, Colbey soon discovers that there are plans afoot which will alter the course of AI information sharing. Meanwhile chief whip Esme Kanha is also having grave doubts about the integrity of her political colleagues.

What then follows is a fast action political thriller whic takes the concept of a corrupt government and runs with it until its exciting conclusion. I enjoyed all the clever political innuendo and even though this is set in a somewhat futuristic environment there is no doubt that AI intelligence is frighteningly with us with its capabilities of doing exactly what this book suggests, namely interfering in all aspects of our personal life along with the wider implications for our social and political world.

This is the first book in a trilogy of books featuring Esme Kanha and Harry Colbey, I’m looking forward to reading them and also being on the blog tour for Divinity Games in July.

About the Author

Lou Gilmond is the author of three political thrillers - Dirty Geese, published 6th July 2023, Palisade published 21st November 2024 and Divinity Games to be published 17th July 2025. Under her given name of Louise Boland, Lou is also the founder of small but well respected publishing house, Fairlight Books,which focusing on nurturing and promoting new and emerging literary talent. She is also the author Bookshop Tours of Britain, a slow travel guide journeying across Britain, bookshop by bookshop - Lou is a keen champion of bookshops.

📖 Book Review ~ The Washashore by Marshall Highet and Bird Jones

Koehler Books
10 June 2025

Thanks to the authors for the copy of this book

Martha's Vineyard, 1929. 

Prohibition is in full swing, and Emily, a Midwest transplant, has never met her wealthy Aunt Isabel. That is until, after her mother's death, the courts declare Isabel her guardian. Their first meeting is a disaster. Emily's clumsy curtsy earns her only a frosty glare, and she quickly realizes she's in for a crash course in East Coast high society. But manners take a back seat to mystery when Isabel's dear friend, an accomplished sailor, vanishes at sea. Convinced it's murder, Isabel recruits her niece to catch the killer, pointing the finger at two dangerous a ruthless Mob boss and the fastest rumrunner in the harbor. While Emily crosses paths with gangsters on the island, she may just find home on its miles of coastline and among its quirky inhabitants - her stoic Aunt Isabel included.

📖My Review…

After the death of her mother, sixteen year old year old Emily Cartwright arrives at Martha’s Vineyard to live with her aunt Isabel. Her initial introduction to Hydrangea House is far from welcoming and living with her aunt is very different from her farm upbringing in Nebraska, but gradually Emily starts to settle into her new life and her relationship with her aunt becomes more congenial. When her aunt enlists Emily’s help in investigating the mysterious death of one of Isobel’s closest friends she is inadvertently drawn into a mystery which is as complicated as it is daunting. Set against the backdrop of the prohibition years we begin to learn more about those individuals know as rumrunners who were responsible for bringing in illicit liquor and of the organised crime gangs who were behind these illegal endeavours.

Emily is a feisty protagonist who is quick to involve herself in adventures and yet her willingness to cooperate with her aunt makes her an endearing character who you can’t help but admire. There is a good amount of intrigue and mystery which kept me guessing, and although I knew nothing of rumrunning or indeed much about Martha’s Vineyard, thanks to impeccable research and real sense of time and place I now feel I know more about both. The characters come alive, be it Bridget in her kitchen conjuring culinary delights, John Patrick teaching Emily to drive or Fiona instructing Emily on which dress to wear, there is something special about them all and collectively they give the book a cosy, warm glow.

The prohibition era is an important period in American history and the author explains this time well, including describing those who continued to flaunt the prohibition law. The Washashore is a well written coming-of-age murder/mystery, with an endearing heroine and a real sense of history. I enjoyed reading it.

About the Authors

In this author duo, Marshall Highet is the fiction-writing half, and Bird Jones is the researcher; together, they craft unusual stories that blend history and fiction. Marshall graduated from the BLSE and works as a copywriter, writer, and professor. Bird Jones is a professor emeritus at Elon University and has spent her professional life as a teacher, researcher, and ethnographer unearthing lost tales.

X@MarshallHighet

X @KoehlerBooks

📖 Blog Tour ~ Double Stakes by Alison Morton

20 May 2025

Mélisende Thriller #3

My thanks to the author for the book

and the invitation to the blog tour 

 

June is the National Crime Reading Month and I am pleased to share my review of this crime novel by Alison Morton…

A kidnapped daughter. A rigged election. A family under siege.

Former French special forces intelligence analyst Mélisende is desperate for recovery time after a gruelling mission. But when enforcers attack her family home in rural France, she uncovers a shocking truth – her sister-in-law’s gambling debt has put them all in danger.

Before Mel can untangle the crisis, she is ordered to Germany, where the daughter of Achim Nessler – the front-runner for chancellor – has been abducted. The kidnappers’ goal? To force Nessler to throw the upcoming election, paving the way for a hard-right victory that could upend not just Germany, but all of Europe.

Racing against time, Mel and fellow investigator Jeff McCracken dive into the murky world of extremist politics where old wounds and new betrayals collide. But as their hunt leads them deep into eastern Germany’s shadows, Mel discovers a chilling link between the case and her own family’s troubles.

Now, with both a nation’s future and her loved ones at stake, Mel must risk everything to stop a conspiracy that hits closer to home than she ever imagined.

📖 My Review…

Mélisande des Pittone’s peaceful retreat at her family home in France is shattered when she discovers that her sister-in-law’s behaviour has put them all in grave danger. However, before Mel can investigate further she is ordered to take charge of a complex investigation in Germany where the daughter of the man who is in line to be the next chancellor has gone missing. Together with her partner, Jeff McCracken, Mel discovers that nothing about this investigation is going to be straightforward and with particular problems from extremist far right political groups both Mel and Jeff soon discover that the case is far more complex than either of them could ever have imagined. 

Cleverly written, with a realistic sense of time and place, and plenty of believable action, we are plunged deep into the complicated world of European political activism and the extremist behaviour of individuals who will stop at nothing to get what they want. With tensions running high in this fast action thriller, we are plunged deep into a shadowy world where prejudicial doctrine flourishes. There are twists and turns aplenty and as Mel and Jeff edge closer to the truth so a very dangerous threat starts to become very personal for Mel and her family.

Whilst Double Stakes in the third book in the Mélisande Thriller series it is possible to read as a standalone story however, for better enjoyment, and to observe the character progression, it is better to enjoy this excellent series from the very beginning.

About the Author

Alison Morton writes award-winning thrillers featuring tough but compassionate heroines. She lives in Poitou in France, the home of Mélisende, the heroine of her latest three contemporary thrillers, Double Identity, Double Pursuit and Double Stakes. 

Her eleven-book Roma Nova thriller series is set in an imaginary European country where a remnant of the ancient Roman Empire has survived into the 21st century and is ruled by women who face conspiracy, revolution and heartache but with a sharp line in dialogue.

Six years’ military service, a fascination with Ancient Rome and a life of reading crime, historical and thriller fiction have inspired her writing. On the way, she collected a BA in modern languages and an MA in history.

For the latest news, subscribe to her newsletter at https://www.alison-morton.com/newsletter/ and receive 'Welcome to Alison Morton’s Thriller Worlds’ as a thank you gift.

Social Media Links

Connect with Alison on her World of Thrillers site: https://alison-morton.com

Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/AlisonMortonAuthor

Alison’s writing blog: https://alisonmortonauthor.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alisonmortonauthor/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5783095.Alison_Morton

Alison’s Amazon page: https://Author.to/AlisonMortonAmazon

Threads: https://www.threads.net/@alisonmortonauthor

BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/alisonmorton.bsky.social

Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/alison_morton  @alison_morton

Newsletter sign-up: https://www.alison-morton.com/newsletter/

📖 Blog Tour ~ The Evacuee’s Secret by Deborah Klée

Sherman House
6 June 2025

Thanks to the author and Rachel’s Random Resources
Ro the invitation to the blog tour

A forgotten village. A dangerous secret. A love that defies time.

In a Yorkshire village, condemned to be flooded as a reservoir, WW11 evacuee, Louise Pearson, commits a crime with devastating consequences.

A secret that keeps her away from her childhood home and her best friend and soul mate, Richard, for twenty years. 

In 1965, fleeing a dangerous marriage, Louise returns to Yorkshire assuming a new identity. But the village she once knew and loved is about to be submerged to create a reservoir. 

As the waters rise, so do the ghosts of her past. 

Will Louise uncover the strength to face her demons and reclaim the love she left behind? Or will the secrets that surface pull her under forever?

A heart-breaking story of love, loss and betrayal.

📖My Review ..

During WW2, Louise Pearson spent part of her childhood as an evacuee at Beck’s Farm in the Yorkshire village of Thorncrest. Now twenty years later Louise returns to the area as the village prepares for their beloved valley to be flooded to make way for a new reservoir. With emotions running high, Louise must keep the villagers on side whilst at the same time keeping her own secrets hidden. With an assumed name Louise doesn’t think she will be recognised but it seems fate has a funny way of intervening.

The author has captured the mood of the villagers well and described the emotional impact of them having to come to terms with the fact that their lives and memories are about to be swept away. There’s a nice amount of tension, particularly the relationship between Louise and Richard Braithwaite who have a shared history together. I was really interested in the way the village was about to be swept away forever, I had heard of flooded villages but hadn’t considered the trauma of homes and memories being obliterated.

The author has a lovely gentle style of writing which made The Evacuee’s Secret an absorbing read with enough drama and a hint of will they, won’t they romance added into the mix. The story ends of something of a cliffhanger which lends itself to the further continuation of this Secrets of a Sunken Village series. 

About the Author

Deborah writes uplifting page-turners about friendship, community, and emotional courage. The Evacuee’s Secret is a dual timeline WW11 story; the first book in Secrets of a Sunken Village series.

Her podcast, The Mindful Writer and YouTube channel, Castaway Books, connect authors with readers; aiming to support and celebrate other creatives.

Deborah lives on the Essex coast, where she loves to walk by the sea or the surrounding countryside filling her pockets with shells, and acorns, and her head with stories.

Facebook deborahkleeauthor 

Instagram deborahkleeauthor 

TikTok @deborahklee108

📖 Blog Tour ~ The Dangerous Love of a Rogue by Jane Lark

Boldwood Books
 31 May 2025
Thanks to the publisher and Rachel’s random Resources for the invitation to the tour.

 

Is he playing a game with her heart?

Lord Andrew Framlington is known as a rogue of the highest order, a fortune hunter, a man without honour. He plans to marry a wealthy bride to secure his future… but beneath it all, could he be longing for something more, something real?

Miss Mary Marlow, the enchanting sister of a duke, is everything he should not want – innocent, fiercely protected by her powerful family and entirely out of reach. Yet from the moment he sets eyes on her, Drew knows she is the one. Not just for her fortune, but for the way she makes him feel.

Mary knows Drew’s reputation and the danger he poses, knows surrendering to him would be reckless, yet his charm and stolen kisses leave her breathless. Torn between duty and desire, she finds herself teetering on the edge of ruin.

Can Mary trust a rogue with her heart?

📖 My Review..

Lord Andrew (Drew) Framlington is on the hunt for a rich wife and where better than to select one of the wealthy debutantes who attend the season’s most fashionable balls and soirées. However, Andrew is utterly bored by simpering young women, that is until he spots the delightful Miss Mary Marlow, and the chase is on. Unfortunately, Drew’s reputation as a rogue goes before him and Mary’s family are very protective of their daughter so Drew’s persistence is about to be tested to the limit.

This is a fun Regency romp which has everything you need to stir the senses, from a handsome, but troubled leading man, to a young ingénue who, despite her protective lifestyle, knows her own mind and when she sets her sights on Drew, well, let’s just say sparks are about to fly. There’s a real authentic feel to the story, the Regency world comes alive, from elegant ballrooms, to the secrecy of a gentleman’s club and the delicious temptation of a secluded summerhouse, the story comes alive with passion and more than a hint of spice.

The Dangerous Love of a Rogue is sheer escapism from start to finish and whilst it is the fifth book in the Marlow Intrigues series, it is possible to read it as a standalone story. Since its original publication in 2015 the book has now been recently re-published by Boldwood Books, with a delightful new cover.

About the Author

Jane Lark is an internationally bestselling author of both historical fiction and psychological thrillers. She has twice been shortlisted for the RNA Awards. The first in her new wartime saga series, The Great Western Railway Girls, will be published in February 2025.

Facebook: @Janelarkauthor

Twitter: @JaneLark 

Instagram: jane.lark

Bookbub profile: @janelark

📖 Book of my Month ~ In the Family Way by Laney Katz Becker

HQ
3 June 2025
Thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

Ohio, 1965. Every week a group of suburban housewives meet for their Tuesday card game, sharing gossip, advice and confidences.

Lily Berg has the perfect life. She’s married to a doctor, with an infant daughter and another on the way. She can’t let her husband know she’s struggling but she knows she can trust her friends. Becca, Lily’s best friend and next-door neighbour, is everything Lily isn’t. She’s messy and brash and never on time for anything. When she falls pregnant with a fourth child she desperately can’t afford, she turns to Lily. Although Lily’s little sister, Rose, got married last year, she’s not ready to give up her independence. Her modern marriage appears to be perfect, but behind closed doors things are very different. And Betsy is fifteen, pregnant and frightened. When Lily takes her in, from the local home for unwed mothers, she has no idea how much it will shake up all of their lives.

Over six months, the group will be put to the test by secrets, forced to make impossible decisions and face up to a society that isn’t ready for women to have their own dreams and ambitions.

📖 My Review

Set in suburban Ohio in the mid-1960s, this is the poignant story of a group of women who meet regularly to play canasta where they share the small details of their daily lives and gossip about what’s going on in their community. However, scratch beneath the surface and each of the women are facing their own problems which will have devastating consequences in a world which offers women little independence or freedom. Marriage and motherhood is seen as the pinnacle of success but as Lily, Rose, Becca, Sarah and fifteeen year old Betsy discover pregnancy comes with consequences and sometimes painful decisions need to be made.

Reproductive health is a thread which runs through the story binding each of the characters together in such a unique way and as each of their personal challenges are revealed so a common sisterhood is forged and strengthened. Each character resonated, their individual stories both heartbreaking and uplifting, each expressing an emotional commitment in a powerful story about strong women who did what they had to do regardless of the consequences. 

Impeccably researched, In the Family Way is a story about women, for women and acts as a timely reminder of how far we have come in terms of being in control of our reproductive health and yet it also reiterates that marriage, pregnancy, abortion, domestic abuse, rape and divorce are as relevant today as they were then, and that women are just as vulnerable when choices are taken away from them, or even denied them. The story had such an emotional and powerful impact on me that I am delighted to make it the Book of my Month for June.

About the Author

Laney Katz Becker is a award winning author and writer. A native Ohioan , she now resides on the east coast of South Florida with her husband.

 X@HQStories #LaneyKatzBecker #InTheFamilyWay

📖 Book review ~ Ten Poems about Vegetables from Candlestick Press

Candlestick press
May 2025

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this pamphlet 

We’ve all heard the phrase “eat your greens”, but vegetables come in countless other colours that are every bit as nutritious and delicious as the green ones.

This selection captures the many glories of the vegetable kingdom, finding delight in planting, tending and digging them up, as well as in cooking and eating them. Anyone who has an allotment or vegetable patch (or just a tub by the back door) will know there’s nothing quite like a home-grown potato or tomato.

From skinny beans to curvaceous aubergines, the poems explore the almost-human shapes and textures of vegetables, which appeal to the senses in so many different ways:

“It’s the perfect vegetable,
palette-green, bottle-glass-glossy,
three dimensional, curvy
on top, firm-limbed but friable.”

from ‘Broccoli’ by Siriol Troup

This irresistible anthology creates a vividly earthy world, full of charm and wit.

Poems by Alison Brackenbury, Miriam Darlington, Jen Hadfueld, Ted Kooser, Michael Laskey, Thomas Lux, Natasha Rao, Sumana Roy, Siriol Troup and Steve Waling.

Cover illustration by SaracBoccaccini Meadows

📖 My Review..

My father was an enthusiastic grower of vegetables and I have fond memories of him in the garden, in all weathers, tending his ramrod rows of onions and carrots, pulling the first crop of tender new potatoes or bringing into the kitchen crisp lettuce and succulent tomatoes. The simple joy of podding home grown peas or searching for the green strands of runner beans will remain with me forever. This latest anthology from Candlestick Press takes us into the vegetable plot of imagination where we relish the sights and tastes of ten different vegetables.

Currently waiting in my vegetable box is a glossy aubergine:

“ Aubergine, aubergine - slippery sheen

nightshade black; satin. Pick it up

put it back. Skin tacky like PVC-

lit up like a stripper - or the tight black trousers

on the snaking hips of a Greek waiter - seducer

of extra virgin olive oil”

From Organic by Miriam Darlington 

I like the idea of coming back as a tomato which is described so beautifully:

“I want to return 

from reincarnation’s spin covered in dirt and buds. I want to be unabashed, audacious, to gobble space, to blush deeper each day on the sun…”

From In my next life let me be a tomato by Natasha Rao

We tend to take vegetables for granted, just one of our five a day but we never really stop to consider the beauty of them and this fine anthology of Ten Poems about Vegetables reminds us of their beauty, versatility and the pleasure they give us be that in the garden or on our plates. It’s a perfect gift instead of a card for the enthusiastic vegetable grower or for who anyone appreciates the beauty of nature’s bounty.

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

Website