#Audible #Bookreview by Lou of Hunter’s Chase by Val Penny @valeriepenny @darkstrokedark #ReadingBetweenTheLinesPR #SeanPia #CrimeFiction #ScottishNoir #TheEdinburghCrimeMysteries

Hunter’s Chase
By Val Penny
Narrated by Sean Pia

I am excited to be on the blog tour for the Audible version of Hunter’s Chase by Val Penny. I will say it is also available in paperback. This is book 1 of a gripping series set in the darker corners of Edinburgh. She is said to be “up there with Ian Rankin”, I happen to agree. So, if you’re an Ian Rankin fan looking for something different to read or listen to or a fan of crime fiction and Scottish Noir, this is an author I recommend.
Below, find out about the author, the books she’s written, the blurb for Hunter’s Chase, my review and links to her social media and how you can buy. Please note, I am not affilliated to anything or anyone and my opinions are my own. I thank Reading Between the Lines PR for gifting me the audiobook to review from. All you will see is available now.

About the Author

author pic 2 Val Penny’sothercrime novels, Hunter’s Chase Hunter’s Revenge, Hunter’s Force
Hunter’s Blood and Hunter’s Secret from the bestselling series.The Edinburgh Crime Mysteries. They are set in Edinburgh, Scotland, published by darkstroke Her first non-fiction book. Let’s Get Published is also available now and she has most recently contributed her short story, Cats and Dogs to a charity anthology, Dark Scotland.
Val is an American author living in SW Scotland with her husband and their cat.

Blurb

Hunter by name – Hunter by nature: DI Hunter Wilson will not rest until Edinburgh is safe.

Detective Inspector Hunter Wilson knows there is a new supply of cocaine flooding his city, and he needs to find the source, but his attention is transferred to murder when a corpse is discovered in the grounds of a golf course.

Shortly after the post-mortem, Hunter witnesses a second murder, but that is not the end of the slaughter. With a young woman’s life also hanging in the balance, the last thing Hunter needs is a new man on his team: Detective Constable Tim Myerscough, the son of his nemesis, the former Chief Constable Sir Peter Myerscough.

Hunter’s perseverance and patience are put to the test time after time in this first novel in The Edinburgh Crime Mysteries series.

Review

Author Val Penny takes readers/listeners onto the less than salubrious streets of Edinburgh, away from those the tourists routinely tread. The narrator, Sean Pia bring the city and all it’s characters to life in a wonderful way and is easy to listen to.

Readers first meet Jamie Thomson in the suburb Morningside, planning a crime, and then Sir Peter Myerscough, a Justice Minister, who Jamie just happens to bump into and then the action starts as they accidentally come across a body. This brings Detective Inspector Hunter Wilson onto the case and readers, in turn meet the what would seem, the whole police force. There’s an array of characters outwith the police force, from a Lord and Lady to a cleaner for MSPs, all who’s paths cross as Hunter and his team look deeper as the case ramps up and the bodies stack up in this gritty police procedural book. Val Penny sets the scenes well for various characters, so you get a snapshot of their lives before brutally killing them off. It adds to the curiosity as does the fact there is more than one body as you wonder who is next, who the murderer is and what, if any, is the connection. It’s certainly a book that will keep readers guessing.

As you get to know the police force more, it turns out D.I. Hunter Wilson has a dark sense of humour at times, which adds a bit of fun, especially to his thoughts of D.C. Tim Myerscough, who he’s been lumbered with and wishes he started early, just so he could put him to the test on how he is with corpses. There is more dark humour here and there as the book progresses. Knowing who Tim Myerscough is, he has a lot to live up to and also has his own issues to face, but stay focussed on the task in hand and has a lot to learn.

There’s a bit of simmering romance between a couple of the police staff and Hunter likes the women too. One in particular, he has his eye on is Meera in the morgue. I can think of a couple of times at least where romances have started in the morgue, so makes me wonder if this one will blossom and bloom in the future or not, and what morgues have that sparks such affairs of the heart. There is however a case to be solved and some pretty direct questions to be asked and a trip out to Musselburgh Racecourse to find out what’s been going on there as the area they investigate, expands as many lives are in danger, including Tim Myerscough’s very own. By the end, all becomes satisfyingly clear for who committed and attempted to commit murders and why.

The book flies by and if you enjoy Ian Rankin, you’re sure to enjoy this Scottish Noir series.

Click on links to Social Media and Buy Links

website blog Goodreads, Twitter – @valeriepenny, Facebook.

To purchase any of her books, the links are:

Audible

mybook.to/hunterschase

mybook.to/huntersrevenge

mybook.to/huntersforce

mybook.to/huntersblood

mybook.to/hunterssecret

bit.ly/LetsGetPublished

mybook.to/darkscotland

mybook.to/thefirstcut

#Review by Lou of Toksvig’s Almanac by Sandi Toksvig @sanditoksvig @HatchetteBooks @TrapezeBooks #HatchetteAudio

Toksvig’s Almanac
By Sandi Toksvig

Interesting, fun and purely wonderful in style, Tolksvig’s Almanac is the book that will entertain and take you to corners of facts that you may never come across otherwise. Written and narrated in her own unique style, it’s all fascinating for the brain. If you like QI or Chain of Curiosity, or humour within your history, this is one to check out, in fact a Must Have to add to your collection. Wit, Substance and Facts are all brought to the page in an absolutely marvellous, unique, eclectic, quirky style. It will have you intrigued and have you laughing too as you meander through each month. It is perfect for either listening to all at once or to dip in and out of. It’s such a joy to listen to and it would be to read as well. It is all pitched perfectly. This is one of those times I’ll say this is a Must Have Book or Audiobook for your shelves.

I’ve read most of Sandi Toksvig’s books – fiction and non-fiction and they never cease to amaze and I have adored her fiction and non-fiction books, ever since Whistling For The Elephant’s was published and read many more since, so I was curious and I loved this too. Thank you so much to Hatchette, Trapeze, Orion Books for accepting my request to review the audiobook version.

The book is available now and I have a link after the rest of my review below…

Blurb

Toksvig’s Almanac is intended merely as a starting point for your own discoveries. Find a fabulous (or infamous) woman mentioned and, please, go looking for more of her story. The names mentioned are merely temptations. Amuse-bouches for the mind, if you like. How I would have loved to have written out in detail each tale there is to be told, but then this book would have been too heavy to lift.’

Let Sandi Toksvig guide you on an eclectic meander through the calendar, illuminating neglected corners of history to tell tales of the fascinating figures you didn’t learn about at school.

From revolutionary women to serial killers, pirate nuns to pioneering civil rights activists, doctors to dancing girls, artists to astronauts, these pages commemorate women from all around the world who were pushed to the margins of historical record. Amuse your bouche with:

Belle Star, American Bandit Queen
Lady Murasaki, author of the world’s first novel
Madame Ching, the most successful pirate of all time
Maud Wagner, the first female tattoo artist
Begum Samru, Indian dancer and ruler who led an army of mercenaries Inês de Castro, crowned Queen Consort of Portugal six years after her death
Ida B. Wells, activist, suffragist, journalist and co-founder of the NAACP
Eleanor G. Holm, disqualified from the 1936 Berlin Olympics for drinking too much champagne

These stories are interspersed with helpful tips for the year, such as the month in which one is most likely to be eaten by a wolf, and the best time to sharpen your sickle. Explore a host of annual events worth travelling for, from the Olney Pancake Race in Wiltshire to the Danish Herring Festival, or who would want to miss Serbia’s World Testicle Cooking Championship?

As witty and entertaining as it is instructive, Toksvig’s Almanac is an essential companion to each day of the year.

Review

Sandi Toksvig takes you through many facts, philosophies and into corners you may not realise existed before as she meanders through each month of the year. Sure, you’d have heard of the main themes, but she delves into areas, rarely talked about. Sounds serious, but fear not, this is historical fact and humour spun together and also relates back to present times too.
There is much to learn and is well researched, written and (narrated for audiobook, which I listened to), in her own wonderful style that is unique to her and thank goodness for that! Sandi Toksvig makes everything sound very interesting and hooks you in. She adds a bit of her own personal analogies, thoughts and tips that readers/listeners may never have thought of otherwise…

She talks of extraordinary women, some who have achieved many great things, but also those who have committed crimes. There are so many different accounts that is interesting to dip and out of. She encourages people to use this as a starting point and then go off and perhaps look up more info yourself. Sandi Toksvig’s curiosity is also infectious. Her thirst for knowledge is impressive as is her research. All perfectly pitched, it is a Must Have on your reading or listening to lists.

Buy Link: Waterstones Amazon

#BookReview by Lou of – In The City of Fortunes and Flames – A Freddie Malone Adventure by Clive Mantle @MantleClive @award_books #ChildrensBooks #YA 8yrs plus

In the City of Fortunes and Flames
A Freddie Malone Adventure
By Clive Mantle
Rated: 5 stars *****

In The City of Fortunes and Flames is where to find a terrific time-travelling adventure to London, in the times of the plague, slavery and The Great Fire of London. This is book 3 of the Freddie Malone Adventure books and it’s quite the page-turner with lots of adventure and action, which is suitable from ages 8 and into younger YA/Teens.
Be re-acquainted with Freddie, Ruby and Connor and also meet some people from history along the way. There is good news in that there will be a further 2 books coming soon.
Find out more about In The City Of Fortune And Flames in the blurb and review…. I happened to have bought this book. It is available as a physical book and an e-book.

Links to books in order :-
                                 Amazon – Treasure At The Top of The Mountain
                                   Amazon – A Jewel In The Sands Of Time
Amazon – In the City of Fortune and Flames

Blurb

The mysterious world map on Freddie Malone’s bedroom wall ripples into life and the swirling vortex begins to form, but is Freddie prepared for where – and when – it will take him? Join Freddie, Connor and Ruby as they travel to the plague-stricken and fire-ravaged London of the seventeenth century, where the streets are ruled by a merciless gang of criminals and kidnappers. Stalked through time by the menacing, shrouded figure of the Collector, can the friends outwit their enemies and save history? It’s all just a question of time…

Review

Having read and reviewed and was very impressed by the calibre of the story-telling and the themes of the first two Freddie Malone books, I figured I would review the 3rd. Clive Mantle, quite rightly so, is The People’s Book Prize Winner Author. The books are suitable for confident readers ages 8 years plus. Very nicely this one starts off with what happened previously…

With the magical map Freddie got for his birthday in the first book, the map has more ideas…
The book starts with the brilliant and never-ageing poem – IF by Rudyard Kipling, it’s as pertinent now as it was in 1895, when it was written. IF is also pertinent to portals in this series.

The setting is London and the time is both the present and 1665/1666. There’s a map with a key chart, which illustrates the events at that time and then readers are reunited with Freddie and his friend Connor on a school production of The Pied Piper of Hamlin before a compelling adventure begins.

There are little references here and there of the Nepal (book 1) and Egyptian adventures (book 2), but it is okay if you’ve not read that one yet as it does also move onwards to this current adventure. This time the portal takes Freddie to London, 1665, where he meets a slave. Samuel Pepys is in need of a servant who can write, so Freddie is tested. There is, like the other books, a lot that children can gain within these books and that can feed their minds and get them curious about history. There’s also the mystery as to why the map took Freddie to 1665 and readers, apart from getting to know Pepys, also get to know something of King Charles II and the plague on Drury Lane. During the segments of Freddie being back in the present with Connor and Ruby, more is told of his journey. As time flips from the past to the present and back again, it is done in such a succinct way, that is easy to follow and understand. It’s a book that children and young teens can really get into as it is an engrossing page-turner. The facts mixed with the fiction is written in an expressive and exciting way with likeable fictional characters meeting those who really lived. This combination works really well.
As time moves on, Freddie (and readers), then experience the atmosphere of The Great Fire of London and the impact it had. There’s also intrigue within this, as indeed within the whole book.