Winter is upon us and the temperature is dropping, at least where I am, it’s a bit chilly, bordering on a bitterness in the air. There can be dark humour in these darker nights and it comes in the form of The Winter Job. A great Road Trip and Crime Christmas Read.
Antti Tuomainen is an interesting Scandi-Noir author and brings surprising twists and turns. If you know Scandi-Noir, it’s often quite dark in the themes and what happens. Antti Tuomainen cleverly turns some of this on its head. I first read The Rabbit Factor trilogy and saw this and he has written others that are stand-alone books, but this is the author who makes me want to read this genre. So, what did I think of this latest book that was a surprise gift left at Bloody Scotland Festival for me by Orenda Books? Find out below…
Review
There’s a Christmas promise to fulfil, a fabulous road trip which brings some unexpected people into the journey along the way, some with friendship, others with danger and there is a death.
There’s an important Christmas mission to avoid disappointment on Christmas Day. Ilmari has a piano to pick up for his daughter. There’s an important agreement to be made and he needs it for his daughter in 6 days time. It shouldn’t be too hard, but there is some poor driving and the transportation of something unexpected that defies the anything like any type of normal things that get moved. There are also suspicious businessmen along the way.
The Winter Job is not your usual Scandi-Noir nor your usual Christmas book. It’s quirky, it’s full of humour combined with dangerous twists. The big question is, will the piano get to where it needs to be in time?
For fun this Christmas with a crime theme, The Winter Job by Antti Tuomainen is a great treat for readers either for yourself or a present for someone.
Today I am on the blog tour for Compulsive Readers about the newest book by Sharon Bolton called The Token. Here is the blurb and then go onto my review.
Seven beneficiaries. Seven people who stood to gain a huge amount of money, for a reason none of them yet understood.
Seven strangers receive a mysterious note informing them of their impending inheritance of billionaire Logan Quick’s fortune. They each receive a token and soon embark on a doomed cruise where they will have to conquer their own demons, and each other, for a chance at the money.
But someone on this boat has something to hide.
Can the survivors work out the truth… or are they destined to drown?
Review
The prologue instantly has a dramatic pull and sets the scene. The Token starts off with a yacht, a storm and a beautiful backdrop of the Scilly Isles. It’s a fascinating look into human nature as readers learn more about the people and their attitudes to money and what their occupations are and their different backgrounds.
There are 7 letters with a token that get sent to people and a murder, which brings a page-turning psychological thriller as dangers and what people do collide.
It’s a fast-paced thriller that is fascinatingly observed how people relate to each other, what their motives are and how they cope or otherwise when up against it in the circumstances they find themselves in.
A NEW ENGINE FOR INVESTMENT IN UK-WIDE PLAYWRITING:
ROYAL COURT THEATRE AND JERWOOD FOUNDATION ANNOUNCE NATIONAL COMMISSIONING SCHEME
The Royal Court Theatre and Jerwood Foundation today announce the Jerwood Royal Court Commissioning Scheme.
Designed to support UK-wide investment and risk in ambitious new playwriting, the Scheme will provide six grants of up to £6,000 each, awarded jointly between a producer and playwright, to underwrite first payments for new play commissions.
The first round of applications will open from 2 December 2025 to 23 January 2026, and the Scheme will then run annually, with full information and guidance now available online.
The Scheme is further supported by the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, ensuring fair terms for commissioned writers.
The Royal Court, in partnership with Jerwood Foundation, today announces the Jerwood Royal Court Commissioning Scheme. The first of its kind, the Scheme will make six annual awards of £6,000 each from 2026, jointly supporting playwrights and producers to initiate original, ambitious new play commissions for stages across the country – investing in a national pipeline of ambitious and risk-taking new theatre.
Launching for the Royal Court’s 70th anniversary, the Jerwood Royal Court Commissioning Scheme marks a new era for the two organisations’ long-standing partnership, and a major expansion in the Court’s approach to playwright support – looking beyond its own stages to share resources nationwide. Separate from the Royal Court’s own productions, the supported commissions will be selected from open-access applications, open for joint submissions between writers and producing theatres or companies across the UK.
Royal Court Executive Director Will Young said: “The Royal Court is the national force for playwriting everywhere: not only on our own stages in London, but committed to the future of new theatre across the country. Working with the brilliant Jerwood Foundation, this game-changing scheme offers up-front support to playwrights, producers and theatres UK-wide, at a time when artistic budgets have never been more stretched – backing investment in bold, original plays that promise audiences the genuine thrill of the new.”
The Scheme is supported by theWriters’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) to ensure fair terms on commissioning agreements. WGGB’s own one-off 2022 ‘New Play Commissioning Scheme’, with UK Theatre and ITC, led to 18 commissions and inspired this new annual programme, supporting writers across the country.
Grants from the Jerwood Royal Court Commissioning Scheme will cover the non-recoupable first payments for six new play commissions per year, on at least WGGB minimum rates. By awarding funds at this point, the Scheme will unlock the first step in commissioning and underwrite financial risk, while encouraging theatres and producers to commit future investment towards completing commissions and undertaking full production.
Lara Wardle, Executive Director and Trustee Jerwood Foundation said: “Awarding this grant reaffirms Jerwood Foundation’s long-standing support of the Royal Court Theatre and enables the launch of the Jerwood Royal Court Commissioning Scheme, a crucial national scheme, which will unlock a route to the stage for new plays and support emerging creative voices. Jerwood is also continuing its support of Jerwood New Playwrights, now in its fourth decade, through which the Royal Court Theatre identifies and nurtures a new playwright of outstanding talent each year and I am delighted that the 82nd Jerwood New Playwright has been announced as 19 year-old Leo Simpe-Asante, which underlines Jerwood’s ongoing commitment to support excellence and emerging talent in the arts.”
The first round of applications will open from Tuesday 2 December 2025 to Friday 23 January 2026 only. Proposals must be made jointly between a playwright and a venue or company – whether subsidised, independent, or commercial – and should demonstrate clear artistic ambition and risk as well as a viable route to future production.
Full application guidance is now available via the Royal Court website. Applicants can also book for a free, open-access webinar on Thursday 4 December.
The Killing Stones has Detective Jimmy Perez in Orkney. He may have swapped Shetland for Orkney, but murders are still occurring giving him plenty of work ahead and mysteries to be solved. Check out the blurb and my review below…
Neolithic stones are often intriguing with engravings, markings and their formations. What makes this one so different is that it forms part of a murder case for Detective Jimmy Perez on the northerly island of Orkney, where he resides with his partner Willow and their young son.
The case becomes personal as he needs to delve into Andrew Stout, his childhood friend’s life as he’s found dead. Along the way, he also needs to untangle various webs of island tales to distinguish between factual truth and myth and legend.
The book is immersive in how it takes you into the lives of those who live on Orkney, whilst also showcasing the isolating, wild landscape, shaped by its challenging stormy weather. It’s a slow-burn to begin with, but sets the scene beautifully and allows it time to breath and readers to take both it and new characters who join the more familiar Detective Perez in. It’s interesting seeing someone move to a new place and how that works out for them, or in this instant, challenges them.
The mystery itself is intriguing with an excellently executed plot twist.
Whether you’ve read books by Ann Cleeves before or not, this is an excellent plotted book.
Fatal Shot is book 6 of the DC Mel Cotton Series. If you haven’t yet delved into this Mexton crime series I highly recommend that you do with its interesting threads and thought-provoking, sometimes chilling concepts and main characters you can follow the lives of. Today, I am on the Hobeck Books blog tour to review. Please note I am not affiliated to any publisher nor bookshop and all opinions are my own.
Blurb
Pleasure or murder?
Was journalist Jenny Pike seeking extreme pleasure or was she murdered? Mexton police and her partner are suspicious. Things just don’t add up. Who would want Jenny killed and why? If she was murdered, then why was there no trace of the killer?
Deadly weapons
A mystery gunman is injured as his weapon blows up in his face. Someone is making blank weapons lethal. Mexton police are baffled. Meanwhile, a ruthless gangster is after a stolen laptop, and he will stop at nothing to get it back. What is on that laptop?
A dangerous turf war
Soon Mexton is in turmoil with illegal firearms, a vengeful crime boss and an impossible crime to solve. A turf war between drug dealers looms and the police seem powerless to stop it. Can DC Mel Cotton and her colleagues solve the riddles facing them without getting killed? Can a lethal conflict be prevented, before someone gets seriously hurt?
Review
There’s a turf drugs war going on with two rival gangs and with other crimes going on too, the dead bodies soon mount up in their numbers. There’s plenty of crime solving to do as threads cleverly interweave each other creating a rich crime story.
Guns that are supposed to be for blanks have become increasingly lethal, through the use of modern technology and there’s someone who is clever and evil enough to be able to use and manipulate it, in this case, 3D Printers, not for good though, but for nefarious deeds. It serves as a bit of a warning when technology comes onto the mass market, seemingly innocently, there are always people who will use it for deadly intent. The awareness and usage of how people can twist modern technology, including 3D Printers, in a fictional tale is intelligently done and brings it back to what can happen in the real world in the realistic writing.
As the action increases, it comes to a solid, satisfying end with a compelling middle to get you there.
The Seagull was a play I bought a ticket for as a treat to myself to and was not disappointed, so I have chosen to write a review. The Seagull is currently touring. I saw it at the Lyceum in Edinburgh. Next it will swoop into Chichester Festival Theatre, see link below.
The Seagull is a relatable masterpiece!
The play may have been written many years ago, but it still feels fresh today with its eternally modern themes of a family estate which includes a fading actress, a writer and all their desires, ambitions and regrets. It’s fascinating dynamics to observe how everyone emotionally relates to each other, which is sometimes subtle and other times quite explosive in a backdrop of beautiful, well-crafted scenery. You can really see and feel the chasm that’s created between the ageing actress who likes the traditional and the younger writer who wants to bring something new and more imaginative to theatre. It was a delight to see a bit of play within a play. Throughout the play, you can see the vulnerabilities showing in how the characters express themselves outwardly and feel, inwardly. It’s a powerful play and one that’s still perfect for our times as the human condition is played out in its many forms, portraying the tragic and comedy of life.
Caroline Quentin sparkles with an exceedingly strong and impressive performance as ageing actress, Irena Arkadina. Her performance transcends into the audience as both the tactlessness and vulnerable sides to her can be both seen and felt. Her timing and ability to portray many emotional complexities within one person are sublime!
Lorn Macdonald plays Arkandina’s ambitious, yet depressive son, Konstantin with sensitivity, vulnerability.
Other stand out performances were Forbes Masson as Dr. Dorn, showing hidden depths, Tallulah Grieve as Masha who gave an expressive performance about how she feels about life, Harmony Rose-Bremner as Nina is convincing as the muse.
The others in this ensemble cast also held their own and gave strong, expressive performances that lure you into their psyche and lives. Together the cast is so powerful that this play makes you care, think, feel many emotions and draws you into their world.
This was the first Chekhov play I’d seen and I urge you not to miss it.
You can book The Seagull at Chichester Festival Theatre here: The Seagull
*please note I am not affiliated to any theatre nor performer. I bought my ticket and I was so impressed I wanted to write a review.
Bookmarks and Stages by Lou 