#Review of Judas Horse By Lynda La Plante @LaPlanteLynda @ZaffreBooks #DCJackWarr #CrimeFiction #CompulsiveReaders #BlogTour

Judas Horse
By Lynda La Plante

Judas Horse is book 2 of the gripping DC Jack Warr series. Discover what the Judas Horse means and what it entails.
This is also my second review of the blogathon, set up by Compulsive Readers blog tours and Lynda La Plante.
Find out more in the blurb and my opinions in my review and how you can read this too, below.

SOME KILLERS CAN’T BE TAMED . . .

‘Do you know what a Judas Horse is? When the wild mustangs are running free, you corral one and train it. When he’s ready, you release him and he’ll bring his team back into the corral – like Judas betraying them…’

Violent burglars have been terrorising residents across the English countryside. But when a mutilated body is discovered in a Cotswolds house, it becomes clear that this is no ordinary group of opportunist thieves.

As Detective Jack Warr investigates, he discovers locals with dark secrets, unearths hidden crimes – and hits countless dead ends. With few leads and the violent attacks escalating, he will have to act as audaciously as the criminals if he hopes to stop them.

When Warr meets Charlotte Miles, a terrified woman with links to the group, he must use her to lure the unsuspecting killers into one last job, and into his trap. But with the law already stretched to breaking point, any failure will be on Warr’s head – and any more blood spilled, on his hands…

Review

Judas Horse is as dark as betrayal is and it’s terrifying a community.
Jack Warr is grappling parenthood, family life in general and being in a new place where, in a way he’s still getting into the swing of things as it were. He relishes a new case that crops up. Burglaries aren’t all they seem in wealthy estates. Violence is soon afoot and there’s more to it all than meets the eye, which sends readers into twists and turns that are complex and compelling.

Judas Horse in some ways is a bit of a slow burn, but it does bring out the Cotswolds setting rather beautifully and gives a huge sense of place in the beautiful descriptive writing. It sets off the darkness of criminal activity nicely, that then takes prominence.

Jack Warr is an intriguing character who isn’t afraid to go a bit off piste and not work fully as a team, which makes him intriguing because you don’t quite always know what direction he’s going to take to try to solve the case.

#Review By Lou of Buried – Book 1 of the Jack Warr Series By Lynda La Plante @LaPlanteLynda @ZaffreBooks #DCJackWarr #CrimeFiction #CompulsiveReaders #BlogTour

Buried
By Lynda La Plante

I am pleased to be back on the blog tour for books by Lynda La Plante, previously I was reading and reviewing all of the Tennison series. This time I’ve been reading and reviewing the Detective Constable Jack Warr series.
I will be reviewing 4 books and then the hotly anticipated 5th when it’s made available.

SOME THINGS SHOULD REMAIN BURIED . . .

DC Jack Warr and his girlfriend Maggie have just moved to London to start a new life together. Though charming, Jack can’t seem to find his place in the world – until he’s drawn into an investigation that turns his life upside down.

In the aftermath of a fire at an isolated cottage, a badly charred body is discovered, along with the burnt remains of millions of stolen, untraceable bank notes.

Jack’s search leads him deep into a murky criminal underworld – a world he finds himself surprisingly good at navigating. But as the line of the law becomes blurred, how far will Jack go to find the answers – and what will it cost him?

In BURIED, it’s time to meet DC Jack Warr as he digs up the deadly secrets of the past . . .

Review

Buried is a great beginning to a series. You start to really get to know Jack Warr in a way that makes you want to know him more. He has a girlfriend, Maggie, whom he truly loves and they’re trying to find how they fit into their ‘new life’ in London. This makes them interesting characters. There’s already a profession in place and it isn’t about losing a love first, which all makes great stories, but this adds a different slant to creating a new life and feeling lost. I liked this and it felt authentic.

Buried is a clever, fully loaded title. There’s the concept of something being buried and to be uncovered in the investigation, such as a body from the cottage fire and the money from a cold case involving a train robbery, but also in DC Jack Warr’s personal life where he starts to uncover his own past as he delves into trying to uncover who his biological father is.

There’s lots to hook you into the characters with the complex personal life as well as the, sometimes, perhaps unorthodox methods of working within the case in DC Warr’s professional life. There’s quite a bit of depth for readers to explore and be gripped by.

It’s a brilliant beginning of a series that I can’t wait to continue…

You can have the pleasure of discovering this series too:

Buy Links:

https://lyndalaplante.com/books/buried/

Bookshop.org

#Review by Lou of The Whitlock Close Weddings By Karen Hollis @KarenLNHollis #TheWhitlockCloseWeddings #RomanticFiction #Neighbours #ContemporaryFiction #BookSeries

The Whitlock Close Weddings
By Karen Hollis

It’s time to get all nostalgic for the year, 1982 and meet the neighbours in Whitlock Close. Feel their pain, feel the love and re-live the times of music and more… and join a wedding.
The Whitlock Close Weddings is book 2 in the series, but reads well as a stand-alone too.
Today is my stop on the blog tour and below I have the blurb and written my review.

It’s 1982 and the residents of Whitlock Close have an exciting few months ahead of them. The Lincolnshire village is looking forward to two weddings!
Former school teacher Sarah Willington is set to marry Mark Thomas, guitarist of the successful boy band The Unflappables, and no expense is being spared.
The second wedding will be a quieter one, but who exactly is Norman marrying – Nora or Mabel?
Twelve-year-old Louise has to decide about her gymnastics career, following a shocking development with her friend Jayne’s health. Plus what on earth is going on with her boyfriend Toby?
Meanwhile, there are people moving in and moving out, cats going missing and a big Christmas trip away to the new Silver Sands Holiday Camp.
It’s going to be another eventful few months for the residents of the eight semi-detached houses in Whitlock Close.

Review

You really feel like you’re discovering the neighbours as you’re introduced to them as though you’ve just moved in yourself and someone is giving all the gen on the neighbourhood. It creates a nice, cosy feel, even though some have had hardships, whereas some have made a go at things and others are settling in.

I really enjoyed discovering everyone’s life and how they fit into Whitlock Close, it’s such a realistic community feel and you can visualise it all, without it being overly descriptive. I especially enjoyed following Louise’s life from her being 12 and turning 13 and her family, friends, her love for a boy and her gymnastics.

The nostalgia is fun with the music and films, especially Boy George and Gregory’s Girl that have in some ways stood the test of time and still talked about and played/shown today, which is great, so whether you were around for them the first time around or later, you may well have heard of some of the pop cultural points mentioned and if you haven’t, it’s a fun time to start an acquaintance with this very ‘happening’ year/decade.

There is a real mix of happiness, sadness, challenging times and pop culture that creates a great story that creates the neighbourhood, Whitlock Close and an entertaining, compelling story to read.

#CoverReveal and Blurb of Kill Them With Kindness by Will Carver @will_carver @OrendaBooks #KillThemWithKindness Coming 19th June 2025 Pre-Order Now #CarverCult

I am excited to be on the cover-reveal Orenda Books blog tour for Kill Them With Kindness. I’ve long been a fan of Will Carver’s writing and now he has another thriller that sounds original and taking a different look at the state of the world and society we live in, with many gripping twists and turns. To date, I have found his books to be compelling to the point they’re hard to put down. In my opinion they’re some of the most important, thought-provoking books in the thriller genre at the moment.
Check out the cover and blurb below of what’s coming on 19th June 2025.

Blurb

The threat of nuclear war is no longer scary. This is much worse. It’s invisible. It works quickly.

And it’s coming.

The scourge has already infected and killed half the population in China and it is heading towards the UK. There is no time to escape. The British government sees no way out other than to distribute ‘Dignity Pills’ to its citizens: One last night with family or loved ones before going to sleep forever … together. Because the contagion will kill you and the horrifying news footage shows that it will be better to go quietly.

Dr Haruto Ikeda, a Japanese scientist working at a Chinese research facility, wants to save the world. He has discovered a way to mutate a virus. Instead of making people sick, instead of causing death, it’s going to make them… nice.

Instead of attacking the lungs, it will work into the brain and increase the host’s ability to feel and show compassion. It will make people kind.

But governments don’t want a population in agreement. They want conflict and outrage and fear. Reasonable people are harder to control.

Ikeda’s quest is thoughtful and noble, and it just might work. Maybe humanity can be saved. Maybe it doesn’t have to be the end.

But kindness may also be the biggest killer of all…

Pre-order – Click to link to many bookshops

#Review of The Pearl Button Girl By Annie Murray Book 1 of #NewSeries #ChildrenOfBirmingham #AnnieMurray @PanMacMillan @chlodavies97 #ThePearlButtonGirl #BlogTour

The Pearl Button Girl
Book 1 of Children of Birmingham
By Annie Murray

The Pearl Button is the latest book by Annie Murray. It’s the first in a new set which follows the Fletcher family in industrialised Birmingham, with all the grit and warmth readers have come to expect. It gives me great pleasure to start off the Pan Macmillan blog tour with a review. Discover the blurb and review below.

Blurb

Annie Murray’s The Pearl Button Girl is book one in the Children of Birmingham series, starting in Victorian Birmingham and following the trials and triumphs of the Fletcher family.

Working at the local pearl button factory, Ada Fletcher is doing her best to make ends meet in trying times.

When tragedy strikes and her siblings are taken to a workhouse orphanage, Ada is saved from a similar fate by her neighbour, Sarah Connell.

But the roof over Ada’s head doesn’t come without a price: the Connells have too many children, not enough money, and Sarah’s reliance on drink means that it isn’t long before Ada needs to escape.

Determined to be more than just a factory girl, Ada embarks on a journey to reunite with her siblings. But in a teeming industrial city, will she be able to find long-lost family as well as a home and life to call her own?

Review

A new family and situations written in true Annie Murray style she still keeps to showing a family’s trials and tribulations of their life. This time it’s in a button factory and no matter how hard Ada Fletcher tries, she still faces such hardship and loses her siblings, Elsie, Dora, John, and Mabs to the workhouse. Her troubles don’t stop there as she embarks trying to find her family and create a new life.

Set in industrialised Birmingham, you get the sense of the hard times which some families came up against. The Fletcher family feels like it was a well researched creation of Victorian times when you aren’t living or working in a grand house. Through the Fletcher family, you’re skilfully shown the other side of society and how grim it could be. There’s also a sense of how people try to help where they can, even when their lives aren’t too much better with their own troubles and strife and that’s rather heart-warming.

There are elements of hope and Ada is such a well-drawn character that you want something good to happen to her.
There’s also warmth in Sarah Connell, but you can see she’s got her own family to juggle, although takes in Ada anyway and tries to accommodate her, you can feel her hardship and the toil it takes on the family as well as Sarah herself. She’s quite a complex character with a busy homelife and one that she is struggling to cope with. which adds interest in her and her home as well.
Sarah brings some compassionate feelings, but ultimately the desire is for Ada to be setting up a new homelife in a safe place and for something to happen so her future turns around for the better.

The Pearl Button Girl won’t disappoint and is sure to delight fans of Annie Murray.
It’s a story I recommend and it’s great getting into the grittiness, hardships and plight of a new family.

A Few Buy Links

Waterstones Amazon Bookshop.org

Find out who else is on the blog tour below, thanks to Chloe Davies at Pan Macmillan for inviting me and sending a copy of the book in exchange of an honest review.
Please note, I am not affiliated to any company.

#Review By Lou of The Re-Write By Lizzie Damilola Blackburn @DamilolaLizzie @VikingBooksUK #TheReWrite

The Re-Write
By Lizzie Damilola Blackburn

The Re-Write is an excellent second book. Lizzie Damilola Blackburn’s debut was the much praised, Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband.

Blurb

Two exes. One deadline. Can they make it to the end?

—-
Temi and Wale meet in London. They flirt, date, meet each other’s friends.

. . . Then Wale dumps Temi to go on Love Villa.

Instead of giving in to heartbreak, Temi throws herself into her dream: writing. She’s within touching distance of a book deal that would solve all her problems. But publishers keep passing on her novel and bills still have to be paid. So, when the opportunity to ghost-write a celebrity autobiography arises, Temi finds herself accepting.

And, of course, the celebrity turns out to be Wale…

Has too much time passed . . . or just enough to spark a whole new kind of relationship?

Review

Temi and Wale are interesting characters and have a lot of backstory, which means you really get into them. They both decide to go onto the reality show, Love Villa (I think we can all guess what that’s inspired by, right? And that’s quite clever). It gives quite an insight into reality tv and the goings on, even to the point where the characters do split.

There’s thought to what’s being talked about in the bookish world when Temi wants to write her autobiography, but its passed over so many times, showing it isn’t just as easy to have your name out there. It also talks a bit about what else is discussed in the bookish world, ghost-writers. That aside, there is also a love story and life’s struggles throughout it.

The Re-Write has heart, humour, romance and challenges to overcome with relatable characters and situations. It’s a terrific second book, making this author’s writing one to catch onto, if you haven’t discovered her already or to continue with, if you have already done so.