#Review of Old Bones in Puglia – A Daniel Leicester Thriller by Tom Benjamin @tombenjaminsays @RandomTTours #Thriller

Old Bones in Puglia is the seventh Daniel Leicester thriller and the first I have ever read. It works well as reading it as a stand-alone and probably in the book order too. So, it’s time to get acquainted with a side of Italy that brings a lot of intrigue and unexpected corners. Thanks to Random T. Tours, who’s blog tour I have joined with a copy of the book, I have a review of Old Bones in Puglia. Check out my review, the blurb and a bit about Tom Benjamin. He’s achieved something pretty positive and great, so do take a look at his short bio.
This is a little late for the blog tour due to a family situation, now sorted.

Daniel Leicester is a British detective from England, now residing in Bologna, Italy. He is on this travels to Puglia because a relative has died. It couldn’t be further from some divine, idyllic holiday destination. It turns out Puglia has quite a dark history and isn’t all as innocent as the revered saints. This is mixed with mafia clans, hidden catacombs and sinister ceremonies. There’s a bit of spookiness and uneasiness in feel to part of this that builds the sinister atmosphere. What also becomes clear is just how powerful the mafia is and how strong superstition and that belief in mysticism can be, even when it comes to murder. It becomes scarier still as Daniel’s daughter is snatched during a Holy Week procession. It shows the mafia is prepared to do anything to get what they want.

Tom Benjamin weaves creates palpable atmosphere with historic artefacts and intriguing characters in a way that becomes quite the immersive page-turner. The characters are written in an interesting way in the narrative which works rather well for the style deployed.

The plot keeps you guessing to the end and captures the imagination with rich descriptions through submersive scenery and characterisation within the plotlines.

Whether you’ve read the Daniel Leicester Thrillers in-order or not, since it stands alone pretty well, I recommend you check out Old Bones In Puglia. It does not disappoint and makes you see Italy in a different light.
Would I read more? Yes, I would go back and check others out as time allows.

Blurb

Discover Italy’s bewitching region of Puglia with the seventh Daniel Leicester mystery, the most propulsive yet . . .

English detective and Bologna resident Daniel Leicester has been summoned by a dying relative to the wildest corner of Puglia, home to revered saints, fearsome mafia clans, hidden catacombs and sinister ceremonies.

As Daniel discovers that his Italian family’s history runs deep in the veins of the region, old grudges resurface and life is breathed into ancient superstitions. He is enchanted by the mysteries of the region and joins a search for stolen antiquities, but when a contact is gruesomely murdered by mobsters, it’s clear that mafia rule is more powerful than local mysticism.

Lured by magic but trapped by the mob, Daniel finds himself unable to return to his beloved Bologna. His family is bound to Puglia more tightly than he ever imagined, and powerful people want answers he can’t give.

And when Daniel’s daughter is snatched during a Holy Week procession, he sees first-hand just how far they’re prepared to go . . .

About the Author

Tom Benjamin grew up in the suburbs of north London and began his working life as a journalist before becoming a spokesman for Scotland Yard. He later moved into public health, where he developed Britain’s first national campaign against alcohol abuse, Know Your Limits, and led drugs awareness programme FRANK. He now lives in Bologna.

A Quiet Death in Italy is the first novel in his Daniel Leicester crime series.

Find Tom on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook at tombenjaminsays.

#Review by Lou of A Cornish Legacy By Fern Britton Now Available In Paperback @Fern_Britton @HarperCollinsUK #ACornishLegacy

A Cornish Legacy
By Fern Britton

It’s time to fall in love with a visit to Cornwall all over again with A Cornish Legacy. . Below is the blurb and my review of her latest absorbing book.

Blurb

Escape to Cornwall this summer with the new emotional and uplifting novel from Sunday Times #1 bestselling author Fern Britton

Set by the wild Atlantic coast of Cornwall comes a story about finding home in the most unlikely places.

When Cordelia Jago learns she’s been left the crumbling manor house Wilder Hoo, perched high on the Cornish coast, she wonders if it’s one last cruel joke from beyond the grave.

Having already lost her marriage, her best friend and her career, she’s at rock-bottom. Now she’s inherited a house she hates, full of unhappy memories.

But as she fights with its echoing rooms and whispering shadows, the house begins to exert a pull on her. The wild Cornish landscape, the stark beauty of seagrass and yellow gorse against the deep blue sea, begin to awaken a connection she thought she’d buried forever.

Could she turn around this monstrous wreck of a house – and, along the way, let go of the secrets of the past and heal her heart too?

Review

Cordelia Jago is an interesting character. She doesn’t wear any make-up, is a bit fed up and all is a bit ordinary. She’s also not had things easy, having lost the major thing in life, so you really can feel for her. Things, however, change when she discovers she’s been left a manor house in a will. This manor house, Wilderhoo, like the setting in Cornwall, seems to be quite a character in itself and has quite profound effects on her, which in turn makes things quite thought-provoking for the reader.

What makes this inheritance really different is that Cordelia doesn’t actually want it. She remembers it from another place in time. It becomes quite a mysterious book in that way. It sweeps you up because by this time you want to know why she doesn’t want this big country pile to do up, apart from it being a money pit. Makes you want to read more into what the memories its bringing back as the house then appears to also have a life of its own… It really seems to go with the saying of “walls have ears”. This country pile just knows things and there are conscious and unconscious thoughts that Cordelia then has about it.

The book is succinctly set in both the past and the present, giving a whole picture about what’s been going on. It’s told in a very compelling way, and much like the house pulling Cordelia in, it draws you as a reader into its depths of emotion and life opportunities and life matters.

Fern Britton weaves the seascape, the manor house and the power of memories expertly together, creating a highly atmospheric, highly adept and compelling book.

#Review by Lou of By Your Side By Ruth Jones is now available in paperback. #RuthJones @TransworldBooks #RosieAinsworth @alisonbarrow @PenguinRandom

By Your Side
By Ruth Jones

Review by Louise Cannon (Lou)

I thought I would re-share my review of By Your Side by Ruth Jones to celebrate it now being available in paperback. I first reviewed for the hardback copy.

I am absolutely delighted to be able to review By Your Side by Ruth Jones, having enjoyed her previous books and tv work, thanks to Rosie at Transworld, Penguin Random House. The writing and creativity of Ruth Jones is divine! Readers are in for a treat of a rich, heart-warming, witty, emotional page-turning read with a rather unusual reason attached to travel to a remote Scottish island…
Check out the blurb and review below…

Blurb

DON’T MISS THE NEW NOVEL FROM THE BAFTA-WINNING CO-WRITER OF GAVIN & STACEY.

‘Ruth Jones writes with such warmth you can’t help but fall in love with the characters she creates.’ JAMES CORDEN

The joyful and life-affirming new novel from the co-creator of Gavin and Stacey and the Richard and Judy Book Club author of Love Untold.

Linda and Levi will never meet. But they’re going to change each other’s lives.

In her role at the council’s Unclaimed Heirs Unit, Linda Standish investigates the lives of those who’ve died alone and tracks down any living relatives. She’s been a friend to the friendless for the past thirty-three years. And now she’s looking forward to an early retirement.

But before she hangs up her lanyard, Linda takes on one last case – that of Levi Norman – a Welshman who made his home on a remote Scottish island for the past five years.

What brought Levi here? And who did he leave behind? Obliged to travel (by hearse) with her arch nemesis Fergus Murray, and helped (and hindered) by local residents, Linda searches for clues to a life now lost. And in the process unexpectedly makes new friends, and discovers things about herself she never knew.

Bursting with all the heart and humour that has made Ruth’s name as a screenwriter and author, By Your Side is about finding joy in the most unlikely connections, and the importance of holding onto friendship, love and community – especially when life gets messy.

Review

The Unclaimed Heirs Unit is a fascinating place. Imagine working there trying to piece together people’s belongings and unite them with their new owners. Linda Standish did that, and now, on the cusp of retirement, she takes on one final case. One which takes her to a Scottish island.

By Your Side draws you in with a little humour and a fantastic beginning and that’s it, the hook that doesn’t let go until the end, and even then, not completely, is there, compelling you to read on until the end.

Living in Scotland, myself and travelled around the country a bit, I can say she’s certainly done her research or used experiences well. I am impressed she has chosen, to mention Crainlarich, Perth and more… It’ll feel like a real adventure and road-trip for readers, especially those who have perhaps not heard of these places before. It’s also nice to see them get a mention with that feeling of familiarity for those who have heard of them or, like me, travelled to or through them.

By Your Side is exceedingly heart-warmingly emotional and highlights what is quite an unusual job, showing much care and attention so the deceased are not alone.

Ruth Jones brings together community, travel and discovery together that’s so absorbing that you forget the time as you’re drawn deeply into the plot and characters.

Linda is a fabulous written character who you really get to know, from her love pf chocolate, her kindness and pet hates.

Ruth Jones writes in quite an evocative way that makes you care about why Levi was on such a remote island and makes you want to know more about whether an heir will be found. The people you meet along the way are either enlightening, enriching or intriguing, humorous or a whole mixture.

Cleverly written, By Your Side has the contrast of the actual journey taken to the island with that of the life journey Linda Standish finds herself on. In turn it sends readers on quite the journey themselves throughout what quickly becomes a page-turner of a read.

By Your Side by Ruth Jones is a book I highly recommend isn’t just by your side, but in your hand as you settle down with a cuppa and allow the warmth and humour to ooze out of the pages into your very being.
By Your Side is a book you could pick up and read time and time again.

Buy Links

Waterstones Blackwells WH Smith

Bookshop.org Foyles Amazon

*Please note I am not affiliated to any of the companies or any person mentioned.

#Review of One More Day of Us by Shari Low @sharilow @BoldwoodBooks bookreview by Lou

One More Day of Us
By Shari Low

One More Day of Us by Shari Low is heartwarming with characters that are intriguing bringing a different angle to friendship. I have, thanks to Boldwood Books, my review and the blurb below the bright city lights and beautiful sunset cover.

Told in split time frames of 1990 and 2025, One More Day of Us tells a heartwarming, emotional tale of rekindling friendships.

In 1990 Moira Chiles, Carina Lloyd and Lisa Dixon have formed a band and are in a swanky hotel during a hot, humid summer in Hong Kong. Life is pretty good, they are popular and they play to full audiences. Then everything changes when Moira decides it’s time for her to leave the band to do her own thing, which takes her to cruise ships on the the heights of sunshine in the Caribbean to the greyer skies over the Glasgow pub scene.

In 2025, Moira has retired and life’s adventure takes her back to Hong Kong and this is where the emotional and observational writing gets deftly deeper, the point of whether after 30 years friendships can be rekindled or not. As she meets Carina and Lisa, readers learn what happened in those in-between years, meet a new generation and bit by bit what happened back then truly becomes exposed.
The relational dynamics between the then and now time points is interesting to see play out so makes investment in the characters and plot easy.

One More Day of Us is intriguing and emotionally moving. A great read as we enter the summer months.

Blurb

Would you give up your dreams for love? ❤️

1990: In a hot, humid Hong Kong summer, three young singers are loving life, performing to packed crowds every night in a swanky hotel bar. Twenty-three-year-old Scottish songbird, Moira Chiles is living the dream alongside Carina Lloyd and Lisa Dixon. They work hard, play hard, and always stick together… until one day Moira has to make a choice that changes everything.

Fast forward to…

2025: In a wet, chilly, Glasgow summer, Moira has just retired after singing in Glasgow pubs and Caribbean cruise ships for three decades. Now she’s ready for a new adventure – one that takes her to Hong Kong to revisit a world she left behind. Moira hasn’t seen Carina or Lisa for over thirty years, but will an invitation to join her on a holiday of a lifetime rekindle the friendships that changed her life? Or will stepping back in time expose secrets that could break their hearts?

#Review of Call of the Isles by various authors, Tantallon Tir – a set of stories from the best of Scottish and Scotland – based writers in the world. Think you know the Scottish Isles, think again… @Tantallon_2001 @tantallontir @randomttours #Scotland #scottishanthology #ScottishIslands

Call of the Isles
By various Scottish and Scottish-based authors
Publisher – Tantallon Tir

Call of the Isles takes readers on both a geographical journey, encompassing places like St. Kilda, Skye, Monkey Island in Loch Lomond and more… including all the way to Samoa and an emotional journey through grief, violence, hope, regret and recovery. I am hopping on the Random T. Tours blog tour today with a review of this fascinating, well put together book that shows what you don’t see when you visit the islands. It almost serves as a warning to the UK to pay attention to more than just the scenery.

The cover deserves a mention as it is fascinating and strangely thought-provoking. Sure, it shows an island and the sea, but looking closer, there’s a bit on the larger island that looks almost like a hole you can step into and the sea has interesting wave like markings that makes it look a bit fragmented, yet at the same time, creates one whole picture and in some ways, that’s a bit what the stories inside do. There are several short, snappy stories by a range of authors, but what unites them is both the societal issues and the sea.

Amongst the scenic, rugged landscape of the Scottish Isles as the sea laps up at their shores, sometimes calmly, sometimes ferociously, are also tales of residents on the islands that may not be what you expect. Call of the Isles is raw in many places, creating a vulnerability, a sadness, an anger in many of the storylines and rightly so. They tell a truth of what is unspoken, peoples stories of island life that you don’t hear on the news nor in a cosy reality show or documentary. These tell of unnoticed broken lives together with the harshness of the sea.
There are final messages, but not what you expect with dangerous myths and beliefs at play, a lost person, but with the person be found or lost to the island? There’s mentions of funding issues, issues in the whisky distilleries and more than you may think, the scattering of ashes, empty homes that just stand waiting for someone to live in them, memories of being on islands, such as Skye and more… These are all cleverly entangled with the complexities of emotions that come with them that are palpable, as though you are on these life journeys with everyone.

They aren’t uplifting tales, they show the other-side of the “fairytale” like lifestyles portrayed within idyllic looking scenery. This is what makes it a unique read, with each story told in approx 3 pages, making it easy to dip in and out as you learn through stories the hard lives lived within the islands that people forget when heading to them for a scenic holiday. They almost serve as a warning as well as an insight, telling people not to look away in abandonment, from the tourist right through to governments throughout the UK.

So, take a read and find another part of the truth within the islands of Scotland in Call of the Isles. They’ll make you see the islands in a different light.

Blurb

From St. Kilda to Samoa, Call of the Isles sails into islands beset with grief, violence, hope, regret and recovery.

A stunning set of stories from the best Scottish and Scottish-based writers in the world

The islands are calling.

#Review of The Marsh In May and Poems and Paintings by Ronald Rand a #book filled with #poems #paintings #art in #TheMarshInMay by #RonaldRand

The Marsh In May
and poems and paintings
By Ronald Rand

Ronald Rand is a cultural ambassador in the U.S. He takes his work of books and plays, encouraging drama and more across the country and other countries in the world. I have had the pleasure of reviewing a book and interviewing him before. He has once again given the opportunity to review another book, which he provided a PDF of in-exchange of an honest review. Check out my review and blurb below. Here is also the link to that interview, which will open in a new tab, so you can return here with, hopefully relative ease.

Interview

The Marsh In May takes readers to various places in the world such as Kathmandu, Olympia, Fez and more in a journey through 29 odes, shape poems and 30 paintings. After a devastating flood, which he had personal experience of as informed by Ronald Rand, himself, this is the creative work that emerged.

The poems are reflective, some, deeply so, others are lighter. There’s a quiet stillness in many of them, inviting the reader to be contemplative and study the circumstances and nature around them. What is written is of the everyday occurrences, done in a relatable, interesting seamless manner between the writing and artwork.

Sitting near a peaceful field or in a woodland or a beach with the sea gently lapping the sand would be some great places to be whilst immersing yourself in this book.

Is it possible to see the miracles of life happening right before our eyes?

The Marsh in May brings the reader into an unforgettable journey of soaring poetry on nature and the joys and mysteries of life, accompanied by twenty-nine full-color, luminous paintings by Cultural Ambassador and world-acclaimed solo performer, Ronald Rand in a stunning debut volume.

Within these pages, you’ll discover myriads of worlds within words – a harmonious dance between each poem and painting with some written as shape poems; others as odes to Thomas Wolfe, Edwin Booth, Jean-Claude van Itallie, and to the poet’s mother; and transforming experiences around the world to fantastical places including Kathmandu, Mostar, Olympia, and Fez.

Float along the Tennessee River, travel back in time to when art appeared in caves thousands of years ago, experience when Helen Keller first recognized water, and sit in a field with a chimney alone. Take a moment to rest easy within and soar inside Ronald Rand’s heartfelt paintings and poetry.

For everyone who loves poetry, nature, and the gift of life, you’ll be transformed by the miracles revealed in The Marsh in May.

The first book of Lucky Shoe Press with an introduction by author/publisher, Lawrence Knorr, Ph.D.

Features 29 full-color acrylic paintings by Ronald Rand, and a painting each by playwright Jean-Claude van Itallie, portrait artist Martha Carpenter, and Maribee.