mystery – Judefire33 – The Book Blog

My #review of #ABitterRemedy by @Alis_Hawkins @canelo_co published 23/03/2023

Amongst the scholars, secrets and soporifics of Victorian Oxford, the truth can be a bitter pill to swallow…

Jesus College, Oxford, 1881. An undergraduate is found dead at his lodgings and the medical examination reveals some shocking findings. When the young man’s guardian blames the college for his death and threatens a scandal, Basil Rice, a Jesus college fellow with a secret to hide, is forced to act and finds himself drawn into Sidney Parker’s sad life.

The mystery soon attracts the attention of Rhiannon ‘Non’ Vaughan, a young Welsh polymath and one of the young women newly admitted to university lectures. But when neither the college principal nor the powerful ladies behind Oxford’s new female halls will allow her to become involved, Non’s fierce intelligence and determination to prove herself drive her on.

Both misfits at the university, Non and Basil form an unlikely partnership, and it soon falls to them to investigate the mysterious circumstances of Parker’s death. But between the corporate malfeasance and the medical quacks, they soon find the dreaming spires of Oxford are not quite what they seem…

An intriguing first installment of The Oxford Mysteries series by master crime writer, Alis Hawkins. Perfect for fans of Laura Shepherd-Robinson, Sarah Waters and Kaite Welsh.

Firstly thank you to Kate at Canelo Crime for very kindly sending me a proof copy of A Bitter Remedy.

When I saw the cover of A Bitter Remedy, I absolutely knew I needed to read it, especially as the colors match my brand!!

A Bitter Remedy is a historical crime novel, the first in a series, set in 1881 in Oxford at the birth of the women’s college movement. We follow our two main protagonists, Rhiannon “Non” Vaughan who is one of the first women to be allowed to study and go to lectures at Jesus College, Oxford, and Basil Rice, a Jesus College fellow who has a secret that he must keep hidden. Both are amazing characters, but they are far from the norm in Victorian society and find themselves investigating a strange death of an undergraduate.

The plot is superb in A Bitter remedy, and I adored Non, her fiesty, Intelligent, and gound-breaking character is amazing and I very easily loved her. Both Non and Basil are thrown into a world of propriety in the death of Sidney Parker and are drawn together to try to find out how and why he died and to get justice for him in a University that will do anything to keep things from the press and general public, in case it tarnishes their reputation.

Having never been to University, apart from a week’s Sales course over 30 years ago strangely at Oxford University, it didn’t mean that I couldn’t understand how University life was in 1881, especially for women. Alis Hawkins has obviously researched her history of women and how the female college movement started, and the setting is perfect for this novel.

I loved the intrigue, and the historical facts ( some had me scooting over to Google!) and I really felt I was actually there in the 1880s with Non and fighting her battles with her. I don’t want to give any of the plot away, but if you like historical crime fiction that is factual and also gripping, then A Bitter Remedy is going to be one to add to your reading list for 2023.

A brilliant 5 Stars from me, and I look forward to the second installment of The Oxford Mysteries.

Alis grew up on a dairy farm in Ceredigion. Her inner introvert thought it would be a good idea to become a shepherd and, frankly, if she had she might have been published sooner.

As it was, three years reading English at Oxford revealed an extrovert streak and a social conscience and she has spent the subsequent three decades variously working in a burger restaurant, bringing up two sons, working with homeless people, and – having trained as a speech and langauge therapist – helping teachers and families to understand their autistic children. And writing. Always. Nonfiction (autism related), plays (commissioned for production in heritage locations) and, of course, novels.

Initially fascinated by the medieval period, Alis began her crime and mystery career at Pan Macmillan with Testament, a novel set in a fictitious medieval university city. Part of Testament’s narrative takes place in the fourteenth century and part in the twenty-first which taught Alis that she is far more passionate about writing historical fiction than contemporary.

So she fast-forwarded four centuries from fourteenth South East England to nineteenth century West Wales to write a book based on Wales’s best kept historical secret: the Rebecca Riots. And then she fell in love – both with nineteenth century west Wales and her characters – and the result is the Teifi Valley Coroner crime series featuring visually impaired investigator, Harry Probert-Lloyd, and his chippy assistant, John Davies.

As a side-effect of setting her series in Ceredigion, instead of making research trips to sunny climes like more foresighted writers, she just drives across Wales to see her family.

You can Pre-Order A Bitter Remedy HERE

You can follow Alis Hawkins on TWITTER INSTAGRAM FACEBOOK

You can find Alis Hawkins Blog HERE

Finally, THANK YOU Dear reader’s for reading my Blog and continuing to follow me.

My #Review of #Chapter1 #MrJones’sSmokingBones by @iqbalacomics

Firstly thank you so much to Iqbal Ali for sending me the first chapter of Mr. Jones’s Smoking Bones, a comic.

Is anyone into historical mysteries featuring secret societies and occult magic rituals? Then Mr. Jones Smoking Bones is the comic for you.

The first chapter is very well written and really left me wanting more from this story. The story is set during Victorian times, and our main character is Mr. Barzakh, the opening chapter see him trying to “find” someone, maybe a former version of himself, by taking drug-induced “trips”, The artwork is really well drawn and being in black and white, it only adds to the atmosphere.

I was especially taken by the meeting between Mr. Barzakh and Queen Victoria! It really added to the mysterious storyline, and I like that there’s a lot left for us to imagine what is going to happen, as the storyline develops.

And the added inclusion of rituals, secret societies, and flaming skeletons had me gripped….I finished the first chapter and was left wanting more! Iqbal Ali is a talented writer and the artwork by Pricilla Grippa is really creepy and evocative.

I mean who doesn’t want to see 7 human skeletons fused together at the spine and the reasons behind it!?

If you like comics that are written about historical times and intertwined with horror and mystery then Mr. Jones’s Smoking Bones will be a must-read for you.

Iqbal Ali has written several other comics and they can be found on his website HERE, and if you sign up you will get free samples by email.

Iqbal Ali says “Mr. Jones’s Smoking Bones is my labor of love”, and it really has the feel of a comic that will be a success. I can’t wait to read chapter 2.

You can follow Iqbal Ali on TWITTER & INSTAGRAM

#Review of #TheRetreat by @SarahVPearse published by @TransworldBooks @PenguinUKBooks 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Most are here to recharge and refresh.
But someone’s here for revenge . . .

The new atmospheric locked-room thriller from the author of The Sanatorium, the bestselling crime thriller debut of 2021.
___________________________________

This is a warning for all our guests at the wellness retreat.

A woman’s body has been found at the bottom of the cliff beneath the yoga pavilion.

We believe her death was a tragic accident, though DS Elin Warner has arrived on the island to investigate.

A storm has been forecast, but do not panic. Stick together and please ignore any rumours you might have heard about the island and its history.

As soon as the weather clears, we will arrange boats to take you back to the mainland.

In the meantime, we hope you enjoy your stay.

Well after reading and loving The Sanatorium last year, I’ve been counting the days down to receive and read The Retreat.

And what a stinking bookbanger The Retreat is! From the outset we are taken on a spooky, locked island journey with out heroine DS Elin Warner on an Island called Reapers Island off the coast of Devon UK.

The Retreat moves along at at fabulously fast pace, with punchy chapters and superb characters. The description of Reapers Island is amazing and really struck me as being so visceral! How writers are able to take the reader to a place and make you feel like you are there, always amazes me, and Sarah Pearse has done it again here! I was almost out of breath at the climatic ending and it’s situation!! ( Nope not giving that away! )

For Sarah’s second book it is an amazing gem of a well written cast, and I love the way we are able to get into DS Elin Warners mind, and her doubts and fears really add to this storyline. The plot is stunning and I didn’t guess the perp until the very end when they were revealed, there are twists and turns a plenty and it really is a gripping read! Sarah seems to have a absolute gift at writing “locked room” mysteries and I am in awe of her talent, a modern Agatha Christie!

I hope with The Retreat this will seal Sarah’s writing in the Suspense/Thriller genre. And I cannot wait for the DS Elin Warner book 3!

A superb and gripping book and a 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ readi!

AUTHOR

Sarah Pearse

Sarah Pearse lives by the sea in South Devon with her husband and two daughters. She studied English and Creative Writing at the University of Warwick and worked in Brand PR for a variety of household brands. After moving to Switzerland in her twenties, she spent every spare moment exploring the mountains in the Swiss Alpine town of Crans Montana, the dramatic setting that inspired her novel. Sarah has always been drawn to the dark and creepy – remote spaces and abandoned places – so when she read an article in a local Swiss magazine about the history of sanatoriums in the area, she knew she’d found the spark of the idea for her debut novel, *The Sanatorium*. Her short fiction has been published in a wide variety of magazines and has been shortlisted for several prizes.

You can find out more about Sarah Pearse on her WEBSITE

You can BUY The Retreat HERE

My #Review of #TheBay #AllieReynolds @AuthorAllieR published by @headlinepg on 23.06.2022

The waves are to die for. It’s a paradise they’d kill to keep.

There’s a darkness inside all of us and The Bay has a way of bringing it out. Everyone here has their secrets but we don’t go looking for them. Because sometimes it’s better not to know.

Kenna arrives in Sydney to surprise her best friend, shocked to hear she’s going to marry a guy she’s only just met. But Mikki and her fiancé Jack are about to head away on a trip, so Kenna finds herself tagging along for the ride.

Sorrow Bay is beautiful, wild and dangerous. A remote surfing spot with waves to die for, cut off from the rest of the world. Here Kenna meets the mysterious group of people who will do anything to keep their paradise a secret. Sky, Ryan, Clemente and Victor have come to ride the waves and disappear from life. How will they feel about Kenna turning up unannounced?

As Kenna gets drawn into their world, she sees the extremes they are prepared to go to for the next thrill. And everyone seems to be hiding something. What has her best friend got involved in and how can she get her away? But one thing is rapidly becoming clear about The Bay: nobody ever leaves.

I absolutely loved Allie Reynolds first novel , Shiver so I have been impatiently waiting for The Bay to arrive and when it did (thank you Headline Books) I let out a little scream!

The Bay is an exciting, tense, claustrophobic and gripping novel. Set in Australia the descriptions of the surroundings really made me feel like I was there ( I’ve never been), and I loved the claustrophobic feel to this novel. It is a rare talent that a writer can make you feel penned in within the words of a novel, Allie Reynolds does this perfectly dare I say it her talent for this is is almost Agatha Christiesque! ( I made that word up!)

The novel is set amongst a group of people and revolves around surfing, now I have no knowledge of surfing but in The Bay, the language is easy to understand and indeed the spectacular way Allie Reynolds describes the feelings when surfing a wave or being under water were so vivid I can still see them in my minds eye now days after reading The Bay.

The cast of characters are all well written and easy to believe in, as is the storyline and plot…. There are many red herrings until we get to the final climax at the end, and I didn’t see that ending coming!

If you like your crime fiction to be vivid in its depictions and you like a locked room mystery, then you will love The Bay… I’m sure this will be a Summer Bestseller when it comes out on June 23rd.

An all round exciting and brilliant read, 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️,s from me!

About Allie Reynolds
Allie Reynolds’ debut thriller SHIVER is about a small group of former snowboarder friends at an isolated mountaintop reunion, high in the French Alps. SHIVER has sold in 24 territories to date and will be translated into 23 languages. The TV option has sold to Firebird Pictures.
Her second thriller THE BAY (UK, ANZ) / THE SWELL (USA) is set on a remote Australian beach and will be published in June 2022.
Born and raised in Lincoln, England, Allie moved to Gold Coast, Australia in 2004. She lives near the beach with her two young boys.
Many years ago she competed at snowboard halfpipe. She spent five winters in the mountains of France, Switzerland, Austria and Canada. These days she sticks to surfing – water doesn’t hurt as much as ice when you fall on it.
Her first ever job was a Saturday job in a bookstore, at age 14. She taught English for many years and became a full-time writer in 2018.

You can Pre-Order The Bay HERE

You can follow Allie Reynolds on TWITTER. INSTAGRAM. FACEBOOK

#Review of #TheOtherSideOfNight by @adamhamdy #AdamHamdy @panmacmillan #Released 15.09.2022 #UK

A big-hearted, big-brain, novel that you’ll finish in three days and think about for the rest of the year. Wonderful.’ Stuart Turton

David Asha wants to tell you a story about three people:

Elliott Asha, his son, broken by a loss that will redeem him.

Ben Elmys, a surrogate father and David’s trusted friend, a man who might also be a murderer.

Harriet Kealty, a retired detective searching for answers to three mysterious deaths, while also investigating a man who might turn out to be the love of her life.

Every word David tells you is true, but you will think it fiction . . .

Bestselling author Adam Hamdy returns with a story of soulmates torn apart by circumstance and three deaths that haunt the past, present and future. A genre-defying book unlike any you’ve ever read and a spellbinding novel about love, sacrifice and endless possibilities.

What authors are saying:

‘Like no crime novel I’ve ever read. The pages almost turn themselves and when I was finished I couldn’t stop thinking about the story’s incredible twists, turns, and surprises’ James Patterson

‘A strange, compelling, and ultimately moving head-spinner of a novel’ John Connolly

I really wasn’t prepared for The Other Side Of Night even though Adam Hamdy had told me ‘it’s Different!’

From the opening preface, I KNEW this was going to be a book that would probably stay with me for ages, and I was intrigued and excited to keep reading.

This is a difficult review to write in that I am loathed to give anything away, it needs to be read by EVERYONE! And it left me speechless and kind of dumbfounded when I had finished!! Yes, it really is that ‘different’ and utterly bloody amazing!

I have read all of Adam Hamdy’s other books including The Pendulum Trilogy and the Scott Pearce espionage thrillers and I loved them all, Adam is an artist at writing edge of your seat thrillers. So let’s say I’m familiar with Adam’s work….. well The Other Side Of Night is nothing like his other novels!! It is written with poetic charm and intelligence and – this may sound odd – but love, The Other Side Of Night oozes LOVE! No, it’s not a love story, well, it is of a sort, it’s a mystery, it’s a theory, it’s a thriller, it’s poignant….well it’s actually a mind-expanding and electrifying novel of huge proportions that I really want everyone to read!! I’ve never read anything like it before and I think it will win a LOT of prizes….if it doesn’t…it should!! This is Adam Hamdy’s seminal work, it’s a work of art and I am honoured to have read it!

This is one of those books that will stand the test of time, it needs to be on everyone’s to-read list, it needs to be a book to be studied in schools, and a book discussed in book clubs! THIS will be THE book release of the Autumn. It took me 2 days to read but it’s stayed with me, left me with lots of questions, and made me look at it in a TOTALLY different light, dare I say it….it’s CHANGED me! I will even re-read it so that I can get every ounce out of The Other Side Of Night!

If you buy one book this year, please make it The Other Side Of Night….you will not be disappointed!

A 5 star read ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️….( but that’s not enough! )

Adam Hamdy is a Sunday Times, Kindle, and international bestselling author and screenwriter.

Adam writes the Scott Pearce series of contemporary espionage thrillers [Black 13, Red Wolves], and has written two Private books with James Patterson [Private Moscow, Private Rogue].

He is the author of the Pendulum trilogy, a trilogy of conspiracy thriller novels. James Patterson described Pendulum as ‘one of the best thrillers of the year’, and the novel was a finalist for the Glass Bell Award for contemporary fiction. Pendulum was chosen as book of the month by Goldsboro Books and was selected for BBC Radio 2 Book Club.

Prior to embarking on his writing career, Adam was a strategy consultant and advised global businesses in the medical systems, robotics, technology and financial services sectors.

You can Pre-Order The Other Side Of Night HERE

You can sign up to Adam Hamdy’s website HERE

You can follow Adam Hamdy on TWITTER . INSTAGRAM. FACEBOOK

Adam Hamdy is also one of the Co-Founders of Capital Crime

#AudioBook #BlogTour #TheCuriousDispatchOfDanielCostello by @cmacwritescrime @Isisaudio @RedDogTweets

Stonebridge is a small town on the north coast of Northern Ireland. Most of its inhabitants are friendly, happy people. Most of them…
Because bad things happen even in the happiest of places. It’s a good thing, then, that Adam Whyte and Colin McLaughlin call Stonebridge home. Armed with an encyclopaedic knowledge of detective shows, a misplaced sense of confidence and a keen desire to see justice done, these two are the closest thing the town has to saviours. Which isn’t that reassuring…

THE CURIOUS DISPATCH OF DANIEL COSTELLO

Wedding bells are chiming in the idyllic, coastal town of Stonebridge. For Sam and Emily, it should be the happiest day of their lives. But, on the morning of the ceremony, the best man is found dead. The police quickly write his death off as a tragic accident, but something doesn’t seem right to wedding guest and groomsman, Adam Whyte.
Armed with an encyclopedic, but ultimately ridiculous knowledge of television detective shows and an unwarranted confidence in his own abilities, Adam and his best friend (and willing Watson) Colin, set out to uncover what actually happened to Daniel Costello.

This is my first review of an #AudioBook and I was so pleased to be invited to this #AudioBlogTour.

Chris McDonald’s Stonebridge mysteries are really well written and so I was looking forward to listening to the Curious Dispatch of Daniel Costello. The storyline is lighthearted and funny but with a serious murder plot in the background. I loved the narrative by Stephen Armstrong, one because he is from Northern Ireland and two because he has just the right pitch to set the mystery off, I felt he was really playing the parts of the main two characters (Adam & Colin) extremely well. I liked the fact that the chapters are short and snappy and the narrative was clear and crisp so a fantastic audio recording from @isisaudio

The Curious dispatch of Daniel Costello is a great mystery, it is sold as a cozy mystery but it’s a gripping listen and the way the two amateur sleuths manage to get to the crux of the mystery and unmask the murderer is really well written and crafted.

A murder mystery in the style of the olden days and a nod to the great Agatha christie but bought bang up to date with Chris McDonald’s brilliant prose. Very cleverly set in today’s world with highly relatable characters, and the best part is there are 4 other books in the series to listen to or read after this!

A 5 star listen from me!