Today I am on the penultimate day of the Random T. Tours blog tour of the mysteriously compelling Murder Under the Sun. There’s glamour, beautiful scenery and murder. Follow down to discover more in the blurb and then my review.
Blurb
An isolated castle, a deadly crime. Is this real or a nightmare?
In a remote castle high up in the Tuscan hills secrets are simmering among its glamorous English residents:
The ailing gentleman art-dealer.
His dazzling niece.
Her handsome Fascist husband.
Their neglected young daughter.
The housekeeper who knows everything,
and Connie, the English widow working for them.
Every night, Connie hears sinister noises and a terrible wailing inside the walls. Is she losing her grip on reality?
Or does someone in the castle want her gone?
Review
As the title eludes to, don’t be mistaken by the tranquil Tuscan Hills by thinking everyone is safe. It is perhaps a warning about not to stay in isolated castles. There are books and theatre plays with isolated castles, isolated houses that result in murderous scenes and other sinister goings on.
Murder Under the Tuscan Sun comes across as being a cosy murder in the title, but really it’s a gripping historical crime book, touching on the gritty and the psychological. It is quite dark as its mystique of compelling atmosphere envelopes all around you, sweeping you into its pages until it releases you out at the end… alive and un-accused!
The prologue is when Connie (Constance) returns to the castle in the 1940’s. Connie however had quite a life before this. She saw the 1920’s. She was a nurse in WW1 and she became a suffragette. She becomes a paid servant to care for an art dealer. It isn’t some cosy caring job in an idyllic castle. The castle is dark in mysterious in atmosphere, with all its sinister noises. It has secrets within those walls.
The family Connie works for isn’t all they first seem. It has a family member whom she is concerned is being neglected, an all knowing housekeeper, a Fascist husband (Italy is in the grip of extreme left politics – Communism, but there is an uprising of the extreme right – black shirts against the Communism of Italy), the niece and the art dealer. There’s something sinister about them all, which adds to the tension, which builds up throughout.
Later, she is worried she will be accused of his further ailing health and more… This was also a time of witchcraft and witches were hanged if caught in a nearby spot. It becomes increasingly sinister when there is music heard nearby. Connie’s state of mind becomes intriguing too and she may be in danger.
Enter the Italian Castle in its arty scenic descriptions at your pearl and enjoy the journey and the secrets that unfold into quite the climax!
I am pleased to be on the blog tour with a review for highly modern story – The Ugly Truth. Discover the blurb and review below.
Blurb
Melanie Lange has disappeared.
Her father, Sir Peter Lange, says she is a danger to herself and has been admitted to a private mental health clinic.
Her ex-husband, Finn, and best friend, Nell, say she has been kidnapped.
The media will say whichever gets them the most views.
But whose side are you on? #SaveMelanie #HelpPeter
Told via interviews, transcripts and diary entries, The Ugly Truth is a shocking and addictive thriller about fame, power and the truth behind the headlines.
Review
The Ugly Truth is like a story of our times. It’s a work of fiction but it has a feel of a mix of watching a true crime documentary as it has an interview format to it and then looking at Twitter and following other people’s accounts of the story and going back to the interview style. Once your eye is in the format, which, for me happened fairly quickly, it becomes a compulsive read as all is interwoven impressively well to create the story of the disappearance of Melanie Lange.
It is a cautionary tale of our times about social media and the impact when certain stories implode all within a thriller that is a compelling read in all its formats of telling this story of Melanie Lange and everyone who feeds into it, from her controlling dad, her envious sister, her husband who betrayed her. Is fame also all it is cut out to be?
Discover the truth about what happened, is everyone telling you the true story, is everyone reliable and work out what camp you are in – #SaveMelanie or #HelpPeter in this compulsive, slick, highly modern thriller that has a lot to uncover.
Thanks to Random T. Tours and Transworld Books for inviting me to review and a proof copy to review from.
About the Author
L.C. North is the pen name of Lauren North. She studied psychology at university before pursuing a career in Public Relations. Her first book club thriller – The Ugly Truth – combines her love of psychology and her fascination with the celebrities in the public eye. She is currently working on her second novel, and when she’s not writing, she co-hosts the crime thriller podcast, In Suspense.
L.C. North lives on the Suffolk borders with her family.
Today I am on the blog tour for Beautiful Shining People, thanks to Orenda Books and Random T. Tours. It is a book that will make you sit up and take notice. Check out the blurb and my review below and also discover a bit about the author.
Blurb
This world is anything but ordinary, and it’s about to change forever…
It’s our world, but decades into the future…
An ordinary world, where cars drive themselves, drones glide across the sky, and robots work in burger shops. There are two superpowers and a digital Cold War, but all conflicts are safely oceans away. People get up, work, and have dinner. Everything is as it should be…
Except for seventeen-year-old John, a tech prodigy from a damaged family, who hides a deeply personal secret. But everything starts to change for him when he enters a tiny café on a cold Tokyo night. A café run by a disgraced sumo wrestler, where a peculiar dog with a spherical head lives, alongside its owner, enigmatic waitress Neotnia…
But Neotnia hides a secret of her own – a secret that will turn John’s unhappy life upside down. A secret that will take them from the neon streets of Tokyo to Hiroshima’s tragic past to the snowy mountains of Nagano.
A secret that reveals that this world is anything ordinary – and it’s about to change forever…
Review
Beautiful Shining People actually seems totally credible and plausible. In someways it makes me think of that amazing tv drama – Years and Years By Russell T. Davies, that looks dystopian, but in reality, it is about things that are happening right now and yet was partly what was predicted only a few years ago. One of the reasons, when I saw the blurb, I wanted to take Beautiful People on to review as it seemed just as immediately important. Michael Grothaus, author of Beautiful People is equally stark and brave with his writing. It makes you (or ought to) sit up and notice as in a way, it is chilling and certain things seem plausible, that could actually happen and given in Years and Years certain things did actually happen, well, this book, like that tv drama, serves almost like a warning and a glimpse into the possibly not too distant future of today’s actions are tomorrow’s consequences.
Amongst that is also quite the thriller that harbours secrets and a juxtaposition of the ordinary and the extraordinary, that is tightly woven from the harshness of technology and how it isn’t all going to end up being used as innocently as its creators seem to think when they increasingly take over from humans to the warmth of a boy meets girl storyline.
Amongst the devastating consequences, there are some beautiful consequences to certain actions, such as a budding romance. This meeting, however between John and Neotnia isn’t an easy one, it’s a bit awkward because he, especially is quite socially awkward, but she opens his eyes to what the world has and opens his heart. There is warmth and human-kindness and little touches of humour to be found in this book.
It is a book that I highly recommend.
ABOUT MICHAEL GROTHAUS
Michael Grothaus is a novelist, journalist and author of non-fiction. His writing has
appeared in Fast Company, VICE, Guardian, Litro Magazine, Irish Times, Screen, Quartz
and others. His debut novel, Epiphany Jones, a story about sex trafficking among the
Hollywood elite, was longlisted for the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger and
named one of the 25 ‘Most Irresistible Hollywood Novels’ by Entertainment Weekly. His
first non-fiction book, Trust No One: Inside the World of Deepfakes was published by
Hodder & Stoughton in 2021. The book examines the human impact that artificially
generated video will have on individuals and society in the years to come. Michael is
One Moment is perfect for David Nicholl’s fans. I have the blurb and my blog tour review that I am closing the tour with, thanks to Random T. Tours for inviting me onto and the publisher – Corvus for the book in exchanges for an honest, non-biased review.
About the Author
Becky Hunterlived and worked in London for several years before moving to Mozambique to volunteer
with horses and try her hand at writing. A few years, a few destinations, and a few jobs later she had theidea that would become One Moment. Alongside writing, she now works as a freelance editor and publicist, splitting her time between Bristol and London, and constantly trying to plan the next adventure.
Blurb
One moment in time can change everything…
The day Scarlett dies should have been one of the most important of her life. It doesn’t feel fair that she’ll never have the chance to fulfil her dreams. And now, she’s still … here – wherever here is – watching the ripple effect of her death on the lives of those she loved the most.
Evie cannot contemplate her life without Scarlett, and she certainly cannot forgive Nate, the man she blames for her best friend’s death. But Nate keeps popping up when she least expects him to, catapulting Evie’s life in directions she’d never let herself imagine possible. Ways, perhaps, even those closest to her had long since given up on.
If you could go back, knowing everything that happens after, everything that happens because of that one moment in time, would you change the course of history or would you do it all again?
Review
One Moment is sure to have readers taking a sharp intake of breath as the words on the first page tumble out. It also has some One Day vibes about it, not a bad thing at all. Becky Hunter’s book is about how everything can change in One Moment and in the most shocking of ways.
It is a highly charged emotional read about grief and you see the impact death has on those left behind, especially in Evie’s life and then Nate keeps appearing, further changing her life.
The book also talks about MS – (Multiple Sclerosis – a disease with no cure and affects everyone differently), being an unpaid carer to someone with this, of course it piqued my attention further and scrutiny heightened. I will add that it isn’t mentioned lots and isn’t the whole story, but as part of this story and the way it fits in, it is done well.
Scarlett also has a pov in this book, yes, she is dead, (as the blurb says) but she in a state of limbo. It almost asks the reader to imagine what it would be like to witness what happens after your death, would you want to and would you change certain events? It’s an interesting concept in what is a fittingly emotional journey that shows all of life, how in a moment it can all change, so basically, perhaps not take it for granted, and so much of life’s connection.
This is a quick paced, compulsive read that packs a punch with a most unexpected ending!
Today I have a guest post , thanks to Richard Cobourne and Random T. Tours, you now have a chance to find out a little about Red Light and Bell, the second in the showbiz thriller trilogy. A trilogy that sounds so intriguing, even the blurb is mysterious as the cover and title. Discover the blurb and then read what he has to say as well as to how to order his books. It’s certainly fascinating and enlightening guest post. So, please join me, whilst I welcome Richard Cobourne to my blog. Thank you!
ABOUT THE BOOK
Real people, real events, real organisations, and real places are frequently mentioned in this trilogy – there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing, they are there solely to add authenticity and context, nothing more. You may like to think that this is entirely a work of fiction – but that’s up to you…
Richard Cobourne says:
Not many careers begin by taking the advice from a Christmas Cracker: “Write from what you know.”
Who would have thought my next-door neighbour, when I was aged just sixteen, would provide the knowledge to write this showbiz trilogy? Dick Bennet was Head of Sound at HTV — Wales’s independent TV channel. In 1973 he knocked on our door at the start of the school summer holidays where we lived in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. ‘We’re a bit short of people on the studio floor. Do you reckon you can push the Fisher Boom around?’
‘Err, what’s a Fisher Boom?’
‘It’s like a tricycle with a long arm and a microphone on the end.’
‘Okay,’ Said I.
‘We leave in fifteen minutes,’ said Dick.
And so, it began — many years working behind and in front of the cameras and microphones all over the world. I thought I was going to join the army — but those thoughts soon disappeared as I was dazzled by the lure of showbusiness.
That first day was captivating on the studio floor — as I learned to call it. HTV were producing a mini-series entitled, ‘The Inheritors’ starring among others Peter Egan, Robert Urquhart, Charles Dance, Bill Maynard, and Philip Madoc. Great actors, then young, all who went on to carve out illustrious careers.
To see and work with true professionals close-up was a thrill. To be able to speak with them was more than I could have imagined. Before long the smell of the grease paint had well and truly entered my blood.
For the next few years, I continued to freelance at HTV every moment I could — school holidays and weekends were filled with exhilarating experiences. But soon, too soon, I had completed my A-levels in Music, Maths and Physics and had to consider my future. I asked if there was a full-time job at HTV. I was told I would be better off at the BBC because, in those days, they offered proper training.
Naively one Friday afternoon I bounded up the steps of BBC Broadcasting House in Cardiff and asked for a job. Ten minutes later I was in front of Graham Walters, Head of Personnel. An hour later I had completed the application form to be told I had an interview the following Monday for the post of Trainee Audio Assistant. The interview went well for two reasons — firstly I go the job. Secondly, I met my future father-in-law. A month later I was on my way to the BBC’s Training Centre at Wood Norton, near Evesham, for what most considered to be the best broadcast training in the world.
News, current affairs, drama, thrillers, comedy, documentaries, sport, big music shows, huge orchestras, live events on radio and TV all over the UK and abroad followed — Terry and June; Charles’s and Diana’s wedding (Philip Schofield then worked in OB stores!); The Pope’s Visit; Elaine Paige; Val Doonican; more live major sporting events that I could possibly remember; The Old Grey Whistle Test; many years of Radio One Roadshows with Noel Edmonds, DLT, Tony Blackburn, Peter Powell, Simon Bates (who passed out on me upside down on a fairground ride), Mike Reid, Bruno Brooks, Simon Mayo, Steve Wright; the jungles of central Africa (close up with the silver back gorillas); drug cartels in Colombia; and three BAFTA nominations (but never won!).
Life was amazing making many good friends whom I still see today. But by the end of the nineteen eighties the BBC was changing, and I saw the metaphorical writing on the wall. I resigned.
After a short hiatus I formed my own production company. Somehow, we became successful working with some wonderful clients and with some well-known names — many pictures adorn the walls of my sh’office. Including Joanna Lumley; Toyah; Leslie Ash; Nigel Havers; Little and Large; Simon Bates; Tim Spall; Jeremy Northam (now a Hollywood star).
I continued to travel the world, one year racking up 91 flights — not sure that is something of which I should be proud? Some ridiculous travel such as a day trip to Cape Town, a day in Rio de Janeiro, with several to New York. I worked in virtually every European city. I have eaten in top restaurants, been in the swankiest of clubs, stayed at magnificent hotels and suffered in some very dubious locations. Along the way we won dozens and dozens of awards.
So, what you might say?
All the travel, stress and long hours took their toll. I have spent most of my career writing, producing, and directing; enthusing, educating, informing, and motivating various audiences but with a client and a defined purpose. I attempted to start writing a novel several times — but paying work interfered and they were soon shelved. I wanted — needed — to unlock the personal creative juices to do my own thing. So, I sold the business to enable me to write, to fulfil my ambition. Writing a novel is not a part-time job as many have found out.
Using the contacts made over the years, ‘celebrities’ and friends augmented my own knowledge — I have been back-stage with Access All Areas passes to many events including major sporting competitions, massive gigs, festivals, and intimate invitation-only special occasions — all helped me with deep background to ensure the tittle-tattle of real-life show-business, the law, parliament, and other aspects are accurately portrayed. The list of helpers is long, it includes: Spice Girl, Melanie Chisholm; broadcaster and voice-artist, Alan Dedicoat; Professor Kevin Doolan (Harvard); former BBC political correspondent Robert Orchard; a senior judge who specialises in trafficking, smuggling and slavery; former Sky News producer and war reporter Nick Purnell; The Rt Hon David TC Davies, MP for Monmouth, and Secretary of State for Wales; plus others who cannot or do not wish to be named, without whom etc…!
Going back to that Christmas Cracker: “Write from what you know.”
That’s what I have done.
‘Bandwagon’, the first in the trilogy, and now ‘Red Light and Bell’, the second, reflect some of my experiences (the finale of the trilogy, ‘End Turn’ is underway).
Yes, they are works of fiction — but the foundations are firmly entrenched in the real world, or as real as showbiz is or can be? Please enjoy for what they are…
*The title ‘Red Light and Bell’ is a filming term. A red light is illuminated, and a long bell sounded once before ‘going for a take.’ When the scene is completed, the red light is switched off and two short bells sounded. But in this novel it has another meaning…
Richard Cobourne writes with a production background in the broadcast, corporate, music and global eventsand communications industries. He has worked in the business-of–show all over the world for many years – and as a result has a deep understanding of the shenanigans of the industry.
He began his career working for the BBC, initially in the sound department of radio,
TV,and outside broadcasts. After fifteen years he left to co-foundOn Screen Productions Ltd,
which he sold in 2015 to pursue a career as a freelance consultant creative producer, occasional voice artist, and to enable him to write full–time. He is a member of The Ivy Club, BAFTA and the National Liberal Club.
This is the second novel in the showbiz thriller trilogy.The third, maybe final (who knows?),
is in progress.
Richard Cobourne lives with his wife on the Welsh side of the Wye Valley and in Fuerteventura.
PREVIOUS FICTION
•Bandwagon(the first Danny and Daisy showbiz thriller)
Sincerely Me has humour, darkness and a main character whose life isn’t going anywhere but suddenly something happens that means it is about to change in unimaginable ways. The author has previously written The Funny Thing About Norman Foreman, which captured the attention of Richard and Judy for their book club. Check out the blurb and my full review below. Thanks first to Random T. Tours for inviting me onto the blog tour.
Blurb
An uplifting and heart-warming novel about a family reunited, second chances and the power of forgiveness, from the author of Richard & Judy Book Club pick The Funny Thing about Norman Foreman.
Danny is the definition of a man who ‘could do better’. He drinks more than he should, currently lives in his best friend’s garden shed – and he hasn’t spoken to his sister in 16 years.
But when Danny is the subject of a misleading newspaper article, claiming his lifestyle is actually quite enlightened, he suddenly finds himself in the limelight. Letters begin to flood in from strangers seeking his guidance.
Wolfie is the daughter of Danny’s estranged sister, Lou. She’s never met her uncle, but her mother is struggling. So when Wolfie sees Danny’s picture in the paper, she sets out to find him.
Within a week, Danny goes from being responsibility-free to a big brother, an uncle and an unwitting existential ‘guru’ to some very lost souls.
Can he become the man they all need him to be?
Review
I got into the book right away. Danny’s life isn’t going too well and I’m sure not as he planned it. It is assumed it is an enlightened life, like they assume it is all care-free. He thinks of it rather differently and no wonder, since he doesn’t exactly have a fixed abode, no job after a period of lurching from one job to another, is single and his family are estranged. He also gets arrested for graffiti. It is an appealing read as here is a man whose life isn’t as he would have hoped and is far from perfect and yet he has a life changing moment. It is odd how life works out and also not as he may have expected it. He then turns into an agony uncle as people start writing to him for advice.Then, Wolfie, the daughter of his sister, Lou, turns up out of the blue. Suddenly it is like everyone wants a piece of him and he needs to grapple with this and readers need to read to see if he can be what they need to help them through their crisis. Lou, his estranged sister is also in a crisis, which is why her daughter has set off to find her uncle, even though they’ve never met before.
The book has humour amongst many sad, darker side of life topics, which adds a certain grittiness and it all in all a pretty good read from the start with all the characters you meet, but told from Danny and Wolfie’s point of view and are characters worth investing time in. It is worth seeing if life truly gets on a different track or if it is a temporary detour back to where he whence came.
Bookmarks and Stages by Lou 