#Review by Lou of The Lady in the Park by David Reynolds @davidreynoldswriter @muswellpress @RandomTTours #Debut #NewBook #Thriller #CrimeFiction #TheLadyInThePark

The Lady in the Park
By David Reynolds

The Lady in the Park is a strong debut thriller with some topical subjects like people trafficking, drugs and there is a murder. Something quite different makes this debut rather striking. Find out more in the blurb and my full review below on this blog tour. It’s a book that makes you realise that debuts are not to be sniffled at, but instead given a chance on…

Blurb

Introducing a unique and unorthodox crime solving duo –

meet ex Met DI Jim Domino, and his inquisitive six-year-old grandson, Danny…

When a woman is found unconscious on a ping-pong table in Warwick Gardens in Peckham, South East London, it looks like a case of mistaken identity. Why would anyone want to injure this popular local mum of six? But Jim Domino, ex-CID detective turned private eye, keeps asking questions. As the crime escalates to murder, Domino finds himself collaborating with his old colleagues in the Met. And, assisted by sharp observations from his six-year-old grandson, Danny, he finds that important clues can come from unexpected sources.

The first in an exciting new crime fiction series, The Lady in the Park weaves a rich tapestry of characters together with a twisty immersive plot that will leave readers craving for more investigations featuring the inimitable Jim Domino and his young sidekick, Danny.

Review

What is striking is the crime-busting duo. A grandad who has all the experience in crime-solving from his time in the Met and his 6 year old grandson. Admittedly, it is a strange combo, one which could have proven frustrating. It wasn’t at all. It was intriguing and observational in how the experience and connections to the Met that ex-DI Domino has and the sharpness of the eye of his grandson, Danny can compliment each other. Despite the unlikelihood of this actually happening, these characters, like the others are written in a believable manner, making them investable in as a reader. Danny has 6 year old traits and behaviours, which keeps him realistic and a pleasure to read about. There’s warmth and humour in this interesting family relationship. It’s also interesting to see how Jim Domino’s former Met colleagues also connect.

What is embarked on becomes more complex than how it starts with the murder of a lady in the park. There’s much to uncover to keep readers guessing where it will take them next.

The writing of the characterisation and plot of the crimes with their hard-hitting themes are engaging, with the situations of suburban London moving to the Thames creating an immersion and further understanding of the feel of the urgency of the story that’s within the mysterious pages.

It’s a great opener debut to a whole new series to adorn bookshelves and feast the eyes and mind.

About the Author

David Reynolds was one of the founders of Bloomsbury Publishing and is now a director of Old Street Publishing. Based in London, he is the author of Swan River: A Memoir of a Family Mystery, which was published by Picador to great critical acclaim and shortlisted forthe PEN/Acklerley Prize. Greystone Books published Slow Road to Brownsville which was reviewed in The Times, The Telegraph, The Financial Times and The Observer and praised by Robert Elms and the Reverend Richard Coles. His most recent book was Slow Road to San Francisco. This is his debut novel.

He has three adult children, six grandchildren and lives with his wife Penny in South West London. but still spends a lot of time with his grandchildren in Peckham!

#Review by Lou of The Coffee Shop Masquerade By T.A. Morton @TAMortonWriter @Earnshawbooks @RandomTTours #Blogtour #TheCoffeeShopMasqerade #Coffee #Books

The Coffeeshop Masquerade
By T.A. Morton

Coffee shops, most of us do love them, whatever the coffee type we order, from our favourite latte to cappuccino, flat-white and more, but this one is different from any you’d have stepped into before. This is a coffeeshop masquerade, this is when a cup of coffee isn’t just a cup of coffee, it’s much more, but still one for the coffee lovers. Discover more in the blurb and my review below as I close the blog tour.

Blurb

A mysterious mask abandoned in a Hong Kong coffee shop eavesdrops on the lives of those who enter, asking, who are we beneath our masks?

The Coffee Shop Masquerade is a captivating exploration of transient lives seeking meaning amid everyday encounters, much like the alluring cup of coffee that unites and intrigues us all.

As the enigmatic forces inspired by the Tao Te Ching loom over them, choices must be made, secrets revealed, and unexpected bonds forged—all under the watchful gaze of a mysterious mask.

Review

A cup of coffee isn’t more than what you think it is in The Coffee Shop Masquerade. Have you ever sat in a cafe and looked around at its customers and wondered who they are, what brought them there, what they do? In a coffee shop in Hong Kong, there’s a mask that observes everything and everyone. It’s a great way of creating people’s lives and answering all those questions and this mask is used to great effect, bringing depth of life to the people who come and go. It makes for a quirky read with a great premise. It’s a bit different from what I imagined it to be as it isn’t some big masquerade ball, the masquerade comes from the mask that links all these transient lives together. It carries an air of mystery about it.
The stories that people think are hidden are all there in coffee shops and the Tao Te Ching knows all their secrets, their loves, their sadness and happiness. Each persons lives give thought-provoking snapshots, with each chapter starting with an interesting quote.

Sit with a cup of coffee to feed the body and allow curiosity to takeover to feed the mind. Be enthralled by people’s lives and beware, the mask observes all.

About the Author

T.A. Morton is an Irish/Australian writer.

Previously, she worked as a journalist and editor for Longman Pearson in Hong Kong.

In 2020, she was shortlisted for the Virginia Prize for Fiction and the Bridport Prize.

She has a Masters in Crime and Thriller writing from the University of Cambridge.

Her novel Someone is Coming was published by Monsoon Books in August 2022 and has been optioned for television.

#Review by Lou of The Bleed by Paul Barrell

The Bleed
By Paul Barrell

The Bleed is a thriller inspired by true events. See the blurb and my review as part of the random t tours in below.

Blurb

THE BLEED A GRIPPING NEW CRIME THRILLER . SET IN SOUTH

LONDON, INSPIRED BY REAL EVENTS.

MARC MADISON IS A GHOST

AND YOU CAN’T KILL A GHOST

Marc Madison is a lovable rogue, with a flawed addictive

personality, but he had never been sacked for being prudent

with the truth, smoking a little weed or nursing the hangover

from hell. He is also one of the Mets top undercover and has

been tasked with bringing down the the drug KIngpin of

south London.

With the help of bad boy dealer Christian Marc Madison has

successfully infiltrated a maintenance firm he is getting ever

closer to The Duke Of York, the head of the OCG.

Until, one evening on the way home he suffers a cardiac

arrest and as he drifts between life and death, a strangers

touch miraculously brings him back to life. Although from

that moment something in Marc changed. Something that

went all the way back to his childhood and his twin brother.

When a chance encounter introduces him to Eva Chan a high

class Chinese masseuse, Marc feels strangely drawn to her

but has no idea Eva is embedded deep within the claws of

the drug gang.

With Eva a willing Bonnie to his Clyde, Marc is dragged

deeper into the south London drug world, a place where, in

the search for the truth about his brother, the stakes escalate

with each crime he is forced to commit

Review

The Bleed is a fast-paced, darkly gripping thriller that takes readers to the depths of a gang in London, 2018. Inspired by real events, it shows how flawed humanity can be and how deeply dark and dangerous some people can be when they’re part of a gang.

In comes Marc Madison, who’s also deeply flawed and had a massive heart attack, but nonetheless is determined to infiltrate the gang and bring them down.

There’s also a plot to find out who killed one of his family members.

Each part weaves seamlessly to create interesting characters in a space where fiction and true events collide, giving a great story and picture of what goes on. It’ll open your world to the darker side of society and make you more aware, a bit like what Adolescence does on Netflix.

Check it out for a tense must read thriller.

#Review by Lou of The Last Weekend by Hannah Begbie @hannahbegbie @harperfiction @harpercollinsuk @RandomTTours #Blogtour

The Last Weekend
By Hannah Begbie

Review written by Louise Cannon

It’s the weekend and where better to start it with a brand new book called The Last Weekend. It’s a good one for book clubs or just chilling out with after a busy week.
Today, I am on the final stop on the Random T. Tours blog tour with a review.

Blurb

Four women

Annie has brought her three best friends and their families together for a long weekend away in a gorgeous seaside Airbnb. It should be idyllic – sun, sea, sand, cocktails and laughter.

One shocking secret

But below the surface, none of these friendships are quite what they seem. And Annie has a secret – and an earth-shattering favour to ask of one of her friends.

A life-changing decision

As the idyllic weekend goes sour – arguments, grudges and a boat trip that goes awry – Annie must make her devastating decision – and change everyone’s lives, forever.

Review

Annie really wants the weekend get together to happen, even more than her friends whom she wants to join, but they all unite and go on their adventure to Dorset.

You get a real feel for the characters and their ups and downs, including disappointments career-wise and in ambitions as well as ageing parents. They have each other though and that’s what matters…. perhaps?
Not all goes swimmingly and tensions rise to the surface as this holiday doesn’t go quite as smoothly nor as idyllically as Annie had imagined.

The complexities of the relationships and challenges of being in such close proximity that become increasingly present creates some twists, making it compelling reading. It’s an interesting exploration of friendships and how they relate to each other and are in their personal lives.

Annie’s news really shakes things up and creates a desire to know how it ends and what, if anything is intact.

#Review By Lou of Note To Boy By Sue Clark @SueClark @SRLPublishing @RandomTTours #NoteToBoy #BlogTour

Note To Boy
By Sue Clark

Review written by Louise Cannon – Bookmarks and Stages

Note To Boy is more compelling and surprising than I ever expected. The fast, short chapters make it a book to relax into and forget everything around you. It doesn’t leave space for the mind to wander, not with compellingly written characters and circumstance. Find out more in the blurb and my review as part of the Random T. Tours blog tour below.
Check out the fantastic cover that looks like you can pick up the pieces of note paper. It’s very effective. Discover a bit about the author too.

Blurb

Eloise is an erratic, faded fashionista.

Bradley is a glum but wily teenager.

In need of help to write her racy 1960s memoirs, the former ‘shock frock’ fashion guru tolerates his common ways. Unable to remember his name, she calls him Boy. Desperate to escape a brutal home life, he puts up with her bossiness and confusing notes. Both guard secrets.

How did she lose her fame and fortune?

What’s he scheming – beyond getting his hands on her bank card?

And just what’s hidden in that mysterious locked room?

Review

Note to Boy is a fast-paced book where chapters are just a page or a few long, between Eloise and Bradley. It would make an interesting 2-hander play. It’s quickly compelling with cleverly placed parts where the narrative shifts to you, the reader, talking directly at you, as well as between Eloise and Bradley.

Eloise and Bradley are unlikely people to come across each other, but life’s paths collide and what comes next is a fascinating story about their two very different lives and backgrounds.

Eloise was once a fashionista of the highest order, but now has aged and is a bit cantankerous with it.
Bradley is 17, who has a tough life and is on a rough part of Kilburn. He answered an ad for a job to be her ‘domestic assistant’.
There are little bits in the way he is, which you have to suspend belief a little, but all in all, the creation of these two characters is quite wonderful and make you want to know more with every page.

The construction of the fast chapters and the way they speak to the reader, directly acknowledging the person turning the page, the manner which Eloise and Bradley communicate to each other as well is brilliantly done. Together, it hooks you in from the beginning.

Time flies when you read Note to Boy, which starts with a note. She can’t really remember his name, so Bradley becomes boy, but not out of malice, it’s just her memory. There’s a lot of humour and poignancy and of course 60’s fashion. It’s a rather entertaining book. One which I may well go back to and read again.

I highly recommend Note To Boy for a read you can relax into and not even notice the time whisk by.

About the Author

In a varied writing career, Sue Clark has penned BBC Radio and TV comedy scripts for the likes of David Jason, Lenny Henry, and Tracey Ullman, as well as contributing to newspapers, magazines, trade journals, and guidebooks, as a journalist, copywriter, PR, and editor.

But she had never done what she had always longed to do: write comic fiction. That is, until she was able to give up the old nine-to-five, take a creative writing course with Oxford University, join a writing group and – at last! – unshackle her imagination and let her love for comedy roam free.

The result, her debut comic novel, Note to Boy, was first published in 2020 and is now reissued with a bright new cover design. Her second, A Novel Solution, was published in June 2024.

Sue Clark believes no story, no matter how tragic, isn’t enhanced by an injection of comedy. And likewise, no story, no matter how comic, isn’t enriched by an injection of pathos. Her aim: to give the reader that winning combination of laughter, laced with a few tears, heart and humour.

#Review by Lou of No Precious Truth By Chris Nickson #ChrisNickson @severnhouseimprint @RandomTTours #CrimeBook #NewSeries #NoPreciousTruth #HistoricalCrimeSeries

No Precious Truth
By Chris Nickson

For a crime book set in Leeds, look no further than Chris Nickson. I’ve had the pleasure to review a few of his books now and they’re so captivating that you want to read more and there are plenty to choose from…
No Precious Truth is the start of a whole new series for Chris Nickson, where history and thriller weave in and out together and merge.

Blurb

Leeds, 1941. As the war rages across Europe, Police Sergeant Cathy Marsden’s life since she was seconded to the Special Investigation Branch has remained focused on deserters and home-front crimes. Until now.

Things take a chilling turn when Cathy’s civil servant brother, Dan arrives from London with a dark secret: he is working for the XX Committee – a special MI5 unit set up to turn German spies into double agents. But one of these agents has escaped and is heading for Leeds, sent to destroy targets key to the war effort. Suddenly Cathy and the squad are plunged into an unfamiliar world of espionage and subterfuge.

With the fate of the country and the war in the balance, failure is not an option, and Cathy must risk everything, including her own life, to stop a spy.

Review

Immersion into wartime Leeds is easily done with this book. Chris Nickson captures the mood and the social and political landscape well. Readers, through this book, walk side by side with the main protagonist, Cathy Marsden. There’s understandably fear in the air and around every corner, especially on the clearest nights, in case the Luftwaffe fly over and take perfect aim. There’s fear of the male family members being the next casualty or worse, death!
The sense of fear that must have been felt in such uncertain times is captured enough that it can be felt.

Cathy Marsden, in the midst of the war, has been seconded to Special Investigation Branch. Her brother in the meantime is trying to capture a German spy, believed to do untold damage to essential factories.

History and Thriller are merged rather well to make an exellent start to a new compelling series.