Category: Festivals

#Review of Festival Days by Julie Anderson @julieandersonwriter @HobeckBooks #HistoricalCrimeFiction #bookreview by Lou

Festival Days
By Julie Anderson

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Festivals are fun, full of joyous atmosphere and there’s often a lightness in the air. Festival Days celebrates that in 1951 and adds a twist of murder in what is book 3 of The Clapham Trilogy. I read it as a stand-alone and it holds up pretty well.
Thanks to Hobeck books, check out the lively jazz-filled cover. my review and the blurb as you scroll down…

May, 1951 and everyone who knew the dark days of war and rationing, is in the mood for a lively, uplifting festival that will change the tide to that of one of hope.
The atmosphere of anticipation for the present and future of something huge brewing is captured well. The something big turns out to be more that just the jovial atmosphere of festival days…

Detective Constable, Faye Smith is who readers meet because things turn rather sinister when a double murder that looks is more than a straight-forward killing when two bodies are discovered in old wartime shelters, and turn out to be more in gangland territory. She has her work cut out in not only solving the crime, but in a male dominated world, to prove herself as does her work colleague, Ellie Peveril.

Ellie Peveril, meanwhile also has her own domestic problems with her ex-fiance hanging around between the background and foreground of her life.

Julie Anderson mixes the light with the dark, the criminal underworld and domesticity in an intriguing way. It’s one that readers can be caught up in the characters lives and progresses the story at a great, fast pace. She changes the tempo, cranking it up, tightening events. the more you read, so what it becomes is a tense and gripping plot, at a time when everyone’s lives are changing one way or another.

This summer as all types of festivals loom large, this is the book to check out for your tbr pile and read to whet your appetite for them. It’s captivating for festival-goers and crime fiction fans alike.

Blurb

May 1951

Celebration is in the air with the Festival of Britain and for the first time in years the mood is one of hope rather than hurt.

For Detective Constable Faye Smith, London is not as safe as it seems. The criminal underworld is gaining strength, enjoying a lively existence below the surface. Then two bodies are found in the war-time shelters, a man and a woman. Who are they? What’s their story? Why were they murdered and how did they end up in the shelters?

Meanwhile, Ellie Peveril is busy with a celebration of a different kind. Ellie does all she can to support her friend but has her own worries, with ex-fiancé Patrick Haverstock looming in the shadows. Faye, keen to unravel the mystery of the double murder, finds herself tangled up in crimes that stretch far beyond a simple killing.

Faye and Ellie must face their toughest case yet as their lives change, irrevocably, for the future.

#Review of Bloody Scotland Panel – Watching the Detectives featuring Alex Grey, Neil Lancaster, John Sutherland, Graeme Macrae Burnet @BloodyScotland @neillancaster66 @GMacraeBurnet #AlexGray @policecommander @HQstories @OrionBooks #BloodyScotland #CrimeFiction

Watching the Detectives
Featuring Alex Grey, Neil Lancaster, John Sutherland, Graeme Macrae

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Crime in the Spotlight debut novelist before the main event was Reme Kone who has previously worked on producing Killing Eve, Lewis and more… The book sounded mysteriously dark and gripping.

The main event

This was an insightful talk into the minds of crime writers, viewers and readers of crime fiction, hostage negotiation situations, forensics and the human condition.

The authors were compelling to listen to and chose interesting slants about how they approached the topics they wanted to speak about.

The authors talked about people fascinating them and celebrating scenic locations such as The Highlands of Scotland. You could just imagine them drawing upon experiences and people watching, taking everything in for their next books, including the darkness of humans, such as incels, having to negotiate hostage situations and more…

They mentioned how now, people think they are experts in the field of crime. Now, most of these authors have worked in this field, such as in the police. Now, and you see it when people watch or read detective novels, people assume they’re experts because they read everything that they deem to be true. There is a great deal of detail and truth, but as previous people have mentioned, such as Sue Black, not all the details go into a book as it is also there for entertainment. I thought this an incredibly important point they made, perhaps to have people re-assess their position when they are reading or watching crime dramas unfold.

They dug around the reasons for such a thirst for crime fiction at the moment and it isn’t all because we are a blood-thirsty society. We like to explore the human condition, dig beneath the surface into the psychological make-up of a person, they observed. Characters are pushed to extremes and unlike in real life, when an end result could take years, it’s done all in one or a few sittings, so a lot faster for a resolution.

Each have books newly published and a book in the pipeline…

#Review by Lou of Murderous Media. A Bloody Scotland Panel featuring Jeremy Vine and Steph McGovern @theJeremyVine @StephLunch @BloodyScotland #Deadline #MurderOnLineOne #BloodyScotland

Murderous Media
Jeremy Vine and Steph McGovern

Review by Louise Cannon

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Jeremy Vine is someone who lots of us have listened to on the radio on BBC Radio 2 over many years. I practically grew up listening to Ken Bruce’s Popmaster, a bit of music and then Jeremy Vine, even when young on the radio on long car journeys to a UK holiday destination. He truly likes Agatha Christie.

Steph McGovern is known for doing some of the financial news on BBC Breakfast, who knew someone could actually make that watchable?! She has also done Steph’s Packed Lunch and has something else lined-up.

They are both highly entertaining and joyous on a panel together.

Both have debut novels published and have another on the way. These ones are set where they know, but in the case of Steph, she informed that she will be moving away a bit from the tv studio world in her second…

Jeremy’s is Murder on Line One and takes place at places where the radio listeners are tuning in… It sounds mysterious and entertaining. I’ll review in due course.

Steph McGovern’s is set on a tv set when the earpiece gets hacked and turns out there is an abduction… It sounds intriguingly immersive and I will review in due course…

The talk was illuminating and very entertaining. The insight behind the scenes, that they can carefully fictionalise through their experiences and what they’ve seen sounds interesting. They have terrific anecdotes about workplaces, Trump, Archer and more… They also talked about fiction being freedom from fact-checking to the same intensity and discipline you need to for the news, but there were some details they did check to ensure they were giving their readers correct information. They also gave insight into the beginnings of their careers and in Steph’s case, also the construction industry and the fact she dispelled the myth of needing a “BBC accent” to be on the telly.

They talked about their authentic selves and how they felt they needed to be their authentic selves on both the page and on-screen. What I often find interesting is that people who act or present, look confident, perhaps even a bit loud in that role, but in real life can be quite shy, something I have witnessed from some people I’ve had the privilege of meeting too. I think it gives hope for people and shows courage to be so exposed even when naturally shy and to be that honest with a room full of people too.

If you ever get the chance to see Jeremy Vine and Steph McGovern do a talk, I highly recommend it.

#Review By Lou of Happy Ever Afters with Sharon Gosling, Heidi Swain and Rebecca Ryan – a panel at Edinburgh Women’s Fiction Festival@EdWomensFicFest @sharongosling @WriteBecsWrite @Heidi_Swain #TheSecretOrchard #ThePhilosphyOfLove #HomeForChristmas

Happy Ever Afters
Sharon Gosling, Heidi Swain and Rebecca Ryan
Interviewed by Sara-Jade Virtue from publisher, Simon & Schuster

This was a thought-provoking panel with well-crafted questions centred around happy endings and what that meant to them.

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Sharon Gosling, Heidi Swain, Rebecca Ryan

The consensus was ‘Happy Ever Afters‘ involved working through problems/issues so couples can be together and/or for characters to be happy within themselves.

There was much discussion about how women’s fiction includes more communities, friends, family and how they all bring love as well as part of it being happy within yourself and relationships. They seem important messages to me and shows how romance/women’s fiction has evolved.

Sharon Gosling talked about tending to go to dark, imperfect places, with characters working out who they are ie reflecting life, and reaching a state of hope. On her latest book, The Secret Orchard, which is said to be a feel-good book about family, belonging and finding peace, she talked mentioned the history of apple and her fascination by how orchards survive for so long. In-relation of her book, she talked about how the past and future come together in the sisters and relates it cleverly back to the apple trees in the orchard. I haven’t read this book yet, but it sounds good.

I haven’t read The Secret Orchard, but I have read, reviewed and enjoyed:
The Lighthouse Bookshop  and  The Forgotten Garden

Rebecca Ryan, author of Philosophy of Love, is interested in women’s lives. She chose to write about people’s experiences of perhaps not having a traditional ‘happily ever after,’ but one of reflection and figuring life out.
She talked about how readers go into books with expectations. She reckoned there is a need to go into darker themes to see characters heal and how it’s about the journey, hope is happily ever after.
There was much discussion about how pivotal moments like sadness to go along with the romance, it makes it more like real life, which I found pleasing. I think it makes these books relatable on different levels.
Here is my review: The Philosophy of Love
Heidi Swain writes both standalone and series. She has a book published twice a year, one for Summer and another for Christmas. Her latest Summer book was:
The Holiday Escape. See my review below.Home for ChristmasHome For Christmas is her latest festive book (soon I will be reviewing this, so watch out for that). Having heard Heidi Swain talk, read previous Christmas books and reading her latest, she well and truly oozes with Christmas cheer and comfort, even though she has recently had a hard time at this time of year. Her answer was to be indulgent and create a character, a woman who she would love to spend time with and for us all to discover, who loves Christmas.
She reckons Home For Christmas was her favourite so far.Heidi Swain also gave insight in to the fact doesn’t write the same series back to back, which makes it interesting. I, personally quite like this as keeps everything fresh, since I like both her series and standalones.

Heidi Swain has written many books. Here are some reviews of books I’ve read and enjoyed.
The Summer Fair                 That Festive Feeling      The Holiday Escape
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Rebecca Ryan, Sara-Jade Virtue,                Morningside, Edinburgh
Heidi Swain, Sharon Gosling
Church in Morningside

#Review By Lou of Modern Family: Love, Drama and Defying Tradition with Georgina Moore and Melanie Cantor at Women’s Fiction Festival in Edinburgh @EdWomensFicFest @GeorginaMoore @melaniecantor #TheGarnettGirls

Modern Family – Love, Drama and Defying Tradition
Georgina Moore and Melanie Cantor

The Garnett Girls                                The F List

This panel was fascinating, entertaining and such a wonderful hour’s talk of sisters, family and all the different types of relationships in the world. It truly shows that traditional romance has changed and evolved from the days of it being just boy meets girl, it is more about how families relate to each other as well as a budding or growing romance. It truly was an hour’s talk and it felt quick, which is the sign of a good talk, that as well as it captivated me.

Georgina Moore, author of the fabulous The Garnett Girls, lives on a houseboat.
In-terms of fiction, she mentioned enjoying Little Women and The Ya-Ya Sisterhood.

I had the privilege of reviewing her debut novel, The Garnett Girls in hardback. It is now also available in paperback.
Love makes you do things you never knew you were capable of…. It follows Margo, who had a love affair with Richard, but it implodes. Readers also meet her daughters and follow their lives and how they relate to each other.
There are secrets to uncover…
Here is the link to my review of this character led book: The Garnett Girls Review

Georgina Moore has revealed to be writing her second book, which I just know I would like to read and review, based on such a strong debut.

Melanie Cantor is the author of Death and Other Happy Endings and most recently, The F**k It! List. A rare time when you can legitimately swear at a book festival and on my blog. I haven’t read this, but it is said to be an uplifting, laugh out loud read about a woman who is forced to re-evaluate her life at the age of 40.
Melanie Cantor, interestingly talked about empowering women, which Georgina Moore also contributed to and it felt hopeful and uplifting.

Pictures are of me with Georgina Moore, Morningside and church where the festival was held

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#Review of Peter May In Conversation with Craig Robertson @BloodyScotland Inc Link To Watch @authorpetermay @CraigRobertson_ #BloodyScotland

Peter May In Conversation with Craig Robertson

The Black Loch cover

Black Loch is Peter May’s latest book, set 10 years later than the previous Hebridean/Lewis book. You can find out more here: The Black Loch

I saw this talk in person. You can watch this until end of September online. The link at the end of my review.

He discussed his career as a journalist and working in tv and becoming an author. It came as quite a surprise how challenging it was to get published and how no one initially wanted to publish The Black House, which later became book 1 of the highly successful Lewis Trilogy. Now, he’s been tempted back to writing more set in this area all these years later. The Black Loch is out now! You won’t be disappointed. It turns out, it was as wise move to return to the Hebrides.

He wrote a series set in China, which was intriguing to hear about as he talked about actually going over to the country. He divulged about a “propaganda office” which was not as scary as it sounds and was a marketing department for books. It was interesting to hear about how things work in a different country to the UK. He also talked about his publisher liking this series and urging him to carry on, but how he. at a certain stage, wanted to move onto writing other things.

Overall, it was an insightful, interesting talk.

You can watch this until 30th September from the Bloody Scotland site here: Digital Link

*Please note I am not affiliated nor gain from Bloody Scotland, just merely sharing the digital link.