Jan The Dutchman is book 6 of the Mike Kingdom thriller series. They can be read as stand-alone books or as part of the series. If you like Slow Horses by Mick Herron, this is a great series to also discover. I am on the Hobeck Books blog tour, thanks to them for the slot and a copy of the book in-exchange of an honest review, which you can discover below along with the blurb.
Terry Bailey is on holiday in Gambia, enjoying his retirement from MI6 when he spots someone who he is convinced is Jan the Dutchman, a drug overlord linked to a Columbian cartel. It isn’t as simple as that. This cleverly becomes part of the mystery because he was shot by Terry, so is supposed to be dead and not exactly missed. He killed the husband of Michaela ‘Mike’ Kingdom, a CIA analyst based in London several years ago.
There’s also a threat to an airship that Mike is looking into, but is there a link to the two cases?
What ensues is another well-paced geo-political thriller that, this time perhaps has linked cases to that with the person who is presumed by Terry to be Jan the Dutchman. Mike wants to find the truth, but its also pulling at her emotions, that make a resurgence and bubble to the surface.
The mix of very real human emotions between relationships and what happened in the past and mystery interweaves very well, drawing you into both story threads.
It’s very interesting learning more depth of Mike’s character and how the past has an effect. The link between the personal and work life grows more intrigue in this taut thriller.
Jan the Dutchman is part of a series that just keeps hooking you in and has something for thriller readers everywhere to be immersed in, whether its characterisation or mystery or both.
Blurb
When a deadly enemy from her past appears alive and well, can Michaela ‘Mike’ Kingdom finally face up to her demons?
On holiday in The Gambia, Terry Bailey is enjoying his retirement from MI6 when he receives a shock. He spots a man in a car. It’s a fleeting glimpse. But it’s enough. He swears it is Jan the Dutchman, a drug overlord linked to a Colombian cartel. It can’t be Jan, as Jan is dead. Terry should know, he killed him.
Only one other person knows that Terry killed Jan – Michaela ‘Mike’ Kingdom, a CIA analyst based in London. Seven years ago, Jan had orchestrated the ambush in Holland that had killed Mike’s husband Dylan leaving her severely injured.
Was Terry tilting at windmills, Dutch windmills, or was Jan really alive seeking revenge? Terry tells Mike about the sighting and it re-opens wounds they both thought were long-healed.
It is now the beginning of a race to find Mike’s nemesis. But where to start? All Mike knew for certain is that he was not called Jan and he wasn’t a Dutchman. Apart from that, the search should be straightforward, shouldn’t it?
Jan the Dutchman is a thought-provoking and gripping sixth geo-political thriller that will delight fans of Frederick Forsyth and Mick Herron.
Interview with Sam MacGregor on OffFest (Offies) nominated show, Hold The Line
Interview by Louise Cannon
Hold The Line sits at the juxtapositions of comedy and getting across a really serious job and matter. This is a chance to see behind the scenes from Sam MacGregor’s real life experiences as an NHS worker on the front-line working as an NHS 111 call hanlder.
I recently had the privilege of interviewing Sam MacGregor about NHS 111, what the public don’t always see and about how he has brought his real life experiences together to create and star in his critically acclaimed theatre show, Hold The Line. There’s more to it than meets the eye and what he has to say is fascinating and important…
The play, that debuted successfully at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival is on tour from the 22nd April. Links to tickets and a trailer can be found at the end of the interview.
“Most people think of NHS 111 as the number you call for minor ailments – a twisted ankle, a high temperature, a late-night worry – but for the people on the other end of the line, the stakes can be just as high as those faced by paramedics and emergency responders. This hidden, high-stress side of the job – where even a ‘routine’ call can become a life-or-death crisis – is at the heart of Hold the Line, revealing the unseen strain of a role that asks people to absorb trauma in real time, with no time to process, pause, or recover.“
Set over the course of a single, nightmare shift in a London call centre, the play takes audiences into the rarely seen world of the unsung heroes of healthcare – the call handlers who juggle relentless targets, limited resources, and human lives on the line.
When Gary, a health adviser and unlikely everyman, picks up a routine call from a panicked son whose father is slipping into a diabetic coma, a normal shift suddenly spirals into chaos. With escalating stakes, impossible decisions, and the constant pressure to keep the lines moving, Gary is forced to confront the emotional and moral toll of a job that demands constant composure – even when lives hang in the balance.”
Without further ado, let’s welcome Sam MacGregor to Bookmarks and Stages.
Hold The Line is based on your real-life experiences working within NHS 111. What made you decide to create a show and how did you decide what life stories and experiences to portray on stage?
It wasn’t until a few years into the job that I realised there was potential for a story to be made here. I’ve seen enough medical dramas such as Doctors and Scrubs to know what would be interesting to the public. I knew that there was nothing like this in terms of NHS 111’s exposure to the public, so I wanted to make some kind of story. I thought long and hard about what stories to use, as there are a lot of complex and potentially interesting angles to look at. In the end I decided on there being two main patient/caller storylines that I thought would be a good story to follow. We have one call handler who deals with multiple medical calls on shift and two of them are particularly complex and are the bulk of the story we encounter.
How did it feel writing and knowing you were going to perform your experience of working in the NHS. Did you get something out of it and what do you feel at the end of each performance?
I think it’s quite empowering telling this story. I always get a rush when I perform on stage, but there’s extra satisfaction knowing it’s something you’ve written yourself, especially when it’s about a subject you have a personal connection to. I also think the audience appreciates that, as there have been times (at the Edinburgh Fringe for example) when people would be pleasantly surprised when I told them I had also written the show they had just enjoyed watching. Each performance can be different, so how I feel at the end can change every time. Usually I have a sense of pride in not only myself but my co-actor on stage (Gabi).
Have your colleagues seen it and what do they think of your show?
A fair few of the office staff came and watched it last year during our Edinburgh Fringe previews and had nothing but good things to say. For some staff it was the first time they had ever stepped foot in a theatre, so that is also lovely to hear!
People have called NHS 111 for all sorts of ailments, what the public aren’t shown is what happens behind the scenes when things turn from minor to serious and suddenly there’s a life or death situation. How does the responder handle this change?
If you’re an experienced call handler, and if a call goes from mundane to serious very quickly, you know what you have at your disposal. There’s a nurse and a supervisor, or even colleagues, who can step in and offer any assistance if need be. It’s a matter of keeping calm, remembering to breathe and just focusing on the patient’s needs for the duration of the call.
There’s both humour and tension in your show. How did you keep that balance and why do you feel it’s important to portray the highs, the lows and unexpected twists in what can happen in a single shift?
Most good comedies walk the line well between drama and comedy and I think Hold the Line does this well. The job itself is very up and down in terms of the types of calls you can get and the people you encounter, so I wanted to do it justice. There are parts of the play that hit quite hard, so I knew that there needed to be some light comic relief after these moments.
NHS 111 call handlers are under more pressure and stress than the public may realise. How do you deal with that and how do you portray the effects of mental health on stage so the audience really understands what is going on with some call handlers internally and externally?
Essentially you deal with it by finding a good balance between taking lots of calls but taking breaks, keeping hydrated and having lots of snacks. We usually have to remind the public how busy we are due to demand, and most of the time the public is very receptive to hearing this from us. I think frustration, tiredness and low moods are the main feelings expressed throughout Hold the Line between the staff in the play.
You expose the contradictions of a workplace where “productivity is key” – targets must be met, calls must be answered, and efficiency is always under scrutiny – yet where the fundamental mission is to keep people safe and well. How do you feel about that within the NHS and how do you portray this in your show?
It’s a tricky one because on the one hand I don’t think its helpful putting such a subjective and personal thing in strictly just an objective/numbers and data based way. However, if you didn’t keep an eye on these things then who knows what the NHS might look like. In our play, in the world in which we meet Gary (health adviser) we are constantly reminded of how busy the service is. The audience is privy to the data and numbers side of the job at the same time seeing how this effects not only Gary but the patients/service. I want people to understand Gary’s frustration and be affected by how this causes issues within the story. I don’t want it to be too jargon heavy and too obvious for the patients at how inundated the 111 service gets, but I think the play walks the line well between explaining enough but not too much so that the audience feels like its exposition heavy.
What does when human emotion collides with institutional indifference, how does it affect call-handlers who have more calls to take and whole shifts to do? What do you feel needs to change to make the institutional indifference attitude better?
There is always time for reflection or some downtime if your shift is getting particularly hard or upsetting, but the calls always keep piling up, and you are always reminded of this. There is always someone higher than your line manager who has to keep an eye on the quantitative side of things, like a pyramid of hierarchy. So despite being great at your job, if you take lots of breaks or maybe you aren’t hitting certain targets, you will be reminded about this.
What do you hope audiences take away with them?
Hope. Hope for a better and more productive NHS service. I want people to understand the humanity of the play, to care for a stranger if you have to, to listen and show understanding.
Not to get too political, but to really take home how precious the 111 service is as well as the NHS. People who probably use private healthcare are making important decisions that affect those who use public services, a service which they themselves (the politicians) don’t use.
Where can people follow across social media?
Instagram- @holdtheline_play
Instagram- Writer/performer- @samhazamacg- Sam Macgregor
Instagram- Performer- @gchanova- Gabriel Chanova
Instagram- Director- killeenmesoftly- Laura Killeen
‘While the theme is deadly serious, shards of humour lighten the darkness’ ★★★★The Times ‘Gripping and thoughtful production’ ★★★★★ LondonTheatre1 ‘Thoughtful, well-performed and quietly damning’ ★★★★ One4Review ‘Sharp, darkly comic episodes and poignant moments combine for a heartfelt drama’ ★★★★The List
Eva Verde, author of Lives Like Mine and the very popular, In Bloom has a new book for your collection, Them Girls. Thanks to Random T. Tours and Simon & Schuster, I have a copy to review and today is my blog spot.
Not everything is as it seems, not even marriage. Meet sisters Goldie and Vee in their 40’s. From the outside, they have it all. After all that grafting and dreaming paid off, right? On the surface, it looks like it. Look deeper and it just isn’t real. Even Goldie’s marriage to Benedict is all pretend. It worked for awhile, until Wolfie appears on the scene and everything falls apart. Vee’s life isn’t too pretty either. She’s also split from her ex-husband who only moves closer to her school bully, Julia.
There are insecurities at play and how far can they go to keep up anything in their faux lives? Goldie, however had a pop career in the 90’s and suddenly there’s a lot of speculation about it as a curious invitation is received.
Them Girls is an intriguing story of identity, what that means and how you can’t always just tell yourself and others something that just isn’t real. It all catches up in the end. How the sister’s lives are revealed in layers makes them interesting to read about as it’s hard to predict quite what direction they’ll go in next. They also have a unique opportunity to tell everything straight.
There is a vibrancy about the writing, pulling you in further into Goldie’s and Vee’s lives. It gets into its stride a few pages in, where what seems disjointed at first, starts to make more sense as the messiness of their complex lives becomes more apparent.
For a twisty insight into different lives, this is a solid, very interesting read with characters that compel you to stick with them through it all to the end.
Blurb
Two sisters, a lifetime of secrets, and the chance to set the record straight…Meet Goldie and Vee: sisters, dreamers, grafters. In their forties, both appear to have it all…
Until Goldie finds the courage to leave Benedict. Once upon a time their faux marriage worked, but when the magnetic Wolfie comes on the scene, her world of pretending falls apart.
Vee’s neat world is spiraling, too. Since her ex-husband Jamie started dating Julia her cruel school bully, Vee’s long-buried insecurities are out of control. She needs to get away, and fast.
So when Goldie suggests a holiday in France, Vee leaps at the idea. A curiously well-timed invitation – just as speculations around Goldie’s brilliantly brief pop career back in the nineties are beginning to resurface. Escaping’s one thing, but nothing stays secret forever, and as Vee and Goldie’s unresolved pasts make surprise returns, the stories them girls once told themselves begin to look very different…
A raw and real portrayal of two sisters, the lives they left behind and the lives they want to lead, Them Girls is bold and immediate and deals with themes of identity, class and the corruption of power . . .
Interview with Alexjandro Vilpa New Streaming Service, Vilpa Max
Interview by Louise Cannon
Streaming Services/platforms, we are all very familiar with them and watch from the likes of Netflix, Prime, Now TV, BBCI Player and more… Now there’s a new one to explore called Vilpa Max. Alexjandro has worked from the best award-winning producers, including those involved in blockbusters such as James Bond. The service is said to be already having a positive impact on the film and streaming industry from its launch earlier this year, 2026.
Here, in this fascinating interview, you can discover how you can access Vilpa Max and how you can get in touch if you work in the film industry and would like to consider it as a platform for your film. You can also follow on YouTube, Instagram, Tik-Tok, all of which you can find details of at the end of the interview.
Let’s now welcome Alejandro Vilpa to Bookmarks and Stages to tell you more…
Vilpa Max is your new platform and has the aim, firstly in the UK, North Africa and the Middle East, to provide short filmmakers from around the world an opportunity to present their work to a global audience. How did you come up with this idea and can you say a little more about the process of seeking out the filmmakers?
The idea came from my own experience as an artist. When I finished making my first short film, The Undertone of David Jansen, I faced the question of how to bring it to the market, and that’s when I realized there was a significant gap between emerging voices and the industry. So I decided to build a bridge — a space where emerging filmmakers and top-tier, award-winning cinema could coexist as equals. That’s how Vilpa Max was born.
We normally scout emerging filmmakers at festivals, and many of them also reach out to us directly. They all go through a curating phase, and if they meet the quality criteria, we offer them a place in our catalogue.
You already have short films set to be featured as Vilpa Max launches, including Oscar-winning short “The Mozart of Pickpockets” from writer/director Philippe Pollet-Villard, the Oscar-nominated “The Red Suitcase” from director Cyrus Neshvad, and Palme d’Or winning “All the Crows in the World” from writer/director Yi Tang.
What was their reaction to Vilpa Max and its aims?
They were very excited. I’ve been very fortunate to work with major producers in the past, such as the producers behind the James Bond films, so bringing Oscar-winning cinema to my app was not a new path for me.
What is the process for a filmmaker to get their work on the streaming platform?
They have to send their films to our email: business@vilpafilms.com. Then our team reviews them and gives an answer. If it’s positive, they get a place in the catalogue; if it’s negative, they are entitled to receive feedback explaining why their film didn’t make it into the catalogue. It’s important to mention that the number of submissions we are receiving is reaching our full capacity, so we might introduce a submission fee very soon.
One of the aims is to empower new voices by giving them opportunities to gain international visibility and positioning as they continue building their careers. What impact on both filmmakers and audiences do you feel Vilpa Max will have on their careers?
Vilpa Max is already having a positive impact on the emerging voices in our catalogue. All of the emerging filmmakers currently featured on the platform already reach hundreds of thousands of people through our social channels. This is something we constantly track and provide evidence of.
On the other hand, they have gone from not having their work on streaming platforms to being streamed alongside Oscar- and Cannes-winning films. This gives them a badge of credibility and a level of positioning that no other player in the industry could offer them.
Who will the filmmakers be able to show their production to?
To the audience we have in MENA and the UK, which is typically people between the ages of 22 and 55 who appreciate high-quality cinema. To give an example, we reached 11,000 subscribers in just six days of operation. This gives a good sense of the potential reach their work can have if they become part of Vilpa Max.
What genres of films can people expect to find to watch?
We have a wide variety of genres, including drama, horror, comedy, coming-of-age, and short documentaries. One of the audience favorites, however, is animated films. For example, we have Waves ’98, which won at Cannes in 2015 and is very interesting to watch. We also feature an emerging filmmaker, Arseniy Oleinik, with his animated film Cafe, and both are receiving a wonderful response from audiences.
You, the founder of Vilpa Max and Vilpa Films are an internationally published author in Mexico, Latin America, and Spain. You also work with Oscar-winning and Cannes-acclaimed films, are on the Forbes Business Council and have previously contributed to the script development team at Caledonia Productions, the U.S. branch of Eon Productions, the producers of James Bond. With all this experience, can you pinpoint that gives you the edge in the competitive nature of streaming?
Yes, the only reason I was able to create Vilpa Max is because I learned how to market content from some of the best producers in the world.
Where can both filmmakers and audiences find Vilpa Max when it launches on Saturday 31st January?
You can find us at www.vilpamax.com and also on the App Store as Vilpa Max. We are launching the Android version very soon. Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok as @vilpamax, and on YouTube for previews and trailers under the same handle.
Everyone Is Perfect Here is great for fans of a domestic psychological thriller and authors such as Frieda McFadden and Lisa Jewell. I am on the Random T. Tours blog tour and thanks to Severn House Imprint for the spot and for a copy of the book in-exchange of an honest review.
The title cleverly suggests that everyone is perfect, but are they really in amongst those pages? After all, we all know there’s no such thing as perfect. Delving into Carly’s life certainly proves this. No one knows what goes on behind closed doors or that facade of the perceived perfect house and perfect life!
As the reader, you see everyone as you look into the house as the psychological suspense quickly gathers pace.
Carla is an English professor and is doing great in her career. Life to all intent and purpose looks perfect, but she’s been building this normal life for a while, trying to leave her past behind. Her mother was murdered 15 years ago during a robbery and her picture-perfect step-family abandoned her at boarding school.
Things at work take a turn as one of her colleagues is found dead and that’s when everything really falls apart. Her name is scrawled near the body and there are similarities to her mother’s murder. So much then comes tumbling back in a traumatic way as memories become re-ignited, but eerily, there are also time-lapses in Carly’s memory
A sinister atmosphere builds, increasing and twisting tighter as the book goes on, as more messes with Carly’s mind. There’s a strongly felt eeriness to it all, that increases the more that unravels and the more that is discovered.
The layering of life experiences between past and present in the dual time-line are both strongly written with each as compelling as the other. They’re told from not just Carly’s point of view but other people who remember too. The way they are written ensures you investigate and question the reliability of everyone’s recollections of what happened. The biggest question of all surround Carly herself and whether or not she is capable of nefarious deeds or not.
Everyone is Perfect Here is highly intriguing tightly written book where each part of the jigsaw is compelling.
Blurb
A woman’s life is upended when her past comes back to mess with her mind in this psychological thriller full of twists and turns.
There’s no such thing as perfect.
It’s been fifteen years since Carly Bennett’s mother was brutally murdered during a home robbery. Since then, she’s worked hard to build a normal life with a stellar career as an English professor—far away from the picture-perfect stepfamily that abandoned her at boarding school.
When a male colleague is found dead in Carly’s office—her name scrawled next to his body—everything she’s strived for starts to fall apart. There are eerie similarities to her mother’s attack, and Carly determines to find the truth.
Yet things take a bizarre turn when she suddenly experiences lost time, waking up in strange places, and flashes of dormant memories . . . memories that can’t possibly be real. Because, if they are, then she was there the night her mother was killed.
Could Carly have been responsible? Or is something more sinister at play in her stepfamily’s perfect world . . .?
This eerie domestic suspense is perfect for fans of Frieda McFadden and Lisa Jewell.
Middle Rage is relatable, humorous and if you liked Riot Women on TV, you’ll be sure to enjoy this insightful, emotional and funny book. Thanks to HQ for supplying the book to review in-exchange of an honest review of Mollie Kendrick’s debut novel.
It isn’t always easy to talk about feelings, those real emotions that run through your life and for Emma it is her idea of hell, so she holds them in, all bottled up as tight as she possibly can. Her husband reckons she’s been nothing but angry for the past 5 years. She also has a daughter, who she tries to be more honest with as she is struggling through life. Interestingly, despite not wanting to open up, there is a family therapist on the scene. The therapist suggests a wellness retreat. It isn’t really Emma’s thing, but she goes to one, as she says, the maddest one she could find on Bodmin Moor, which explores ‘dark feminine divine’, run by Clover.
Once at the retreat, the story also follows Emma’s fellow attendees, Maggie and Fleur, who also have fascinating, challenging life stories. Fleur, readers learn, has known coercive control in her life. The attention to detail and sensitivity is profound. Essentially all the women are hurting in one way or another from their life experiences.
Mollie Kendrick has well-drawn characters that make you laugh and feel empathetic and sympathetic towards them. Readers are sure to relate to different parts of their lives, I won’t tell you which parts I related to most, but will say their life challenges are realistically written.
The mix of humour of the retreat’s activities and the seriousness of the subject matters is well-balanced as readers get to know the place and the women who are trying to change their lives.
Bookmarks and Stages by Lou 