Wednesday 21 October 2015

SHOWCASE - Stillwater by Melissa Lenhardt ~~ Small Town Mystery

Stillwater

Melissa Lenhardt

on Tour October 5 - November 7, 2015

SYNOPSIS



cover
Former FBI agent Jack McBride took the job as Chief of Police for Stillwater, Texas, to start a new life with his teenage son, Ethan, away from the suspicions that surrounded his wife’s disappearance a year earlier.
With a low crime rate and a five-man police force, he expected it to be a nice, easy gig; hot checks, traffic violations, some drugs, occasional domestic disturbances, and petty theft. Instead, within a week he is investigating a staged murder-suicide, uncovering a decades’ old skeleton buried in the woods, and managing the first crime wave in thirty years.
For help navigating his unfamiliar, small-town surroundings, Jack turns to Ellie Martin, one of the most respected women in town—her scandal-filled past notwithstanding. Despite Jack's murky marriage status and the disapproval of Ethan and the town, they are immediately drawn to each other.
As Jack and Ellie struggle with their budding relationship, they unearth shattering secrets long buried and discover the two cases Jack is working, though fifty years apart, share a surprising connection that will rattle the town to its core.



Book Details:


Genre: Mystery, Crime, Small Town Mystery
Published by: Skyhorse Publishing
Publication Date: October 6, 2015
Number of Pages: 288
ISBN: 1634502264 (ISBN13: 9781634502269)
Series: Jack McBride Mysteries
Purchase Links: Amazon Barnes & Noble Goodreads




Read an excerpt:

From Chapter One...
"Helluva case to get on your first day, eh?" the doctor said.
Jack nodded and gave a brief smile. He pulled gloves and more paper booties from his coat pocket and handed them to Jesson and the doctor. Jack walked down the hall and entered the room. Jesson stopped at the door.
"Gilberto and Rosa Ramos," Jesson said. "Found dead this morning by Juan Vasquez." He jerked his thumb in the direction of the man sitting on the couch. "Says he's Rosa's brother. He don't speak much English but from what I gathered, he came to pick Gilberto up for work and heard the baby screaming. When no one answered, he let himself in. Door was open. Found them just like that."
They were both nude. The woman lay facedown, covering half of man's body. The right side of the man's head was blown across the pillow. Blood and brain matter were sprayed across the bed, under the woman and onto the floor. A clump of long dark hair was stuck to the window with blood. Her right arm was extended across the man's chest, a gun held lightly in her grip.
Jack walked around the bed.
Doc Poole stood next to Officer Jesson. "It takes a special kind of anger to kill someone you are in the middle of fucking, doncha think?" Doc Poole said. "Ever see that in the F-B-I?" Derision dripped from every letter.
Jack ignored him. "Where's the baby?"
Jack hoped the revulsion on Jesson's face meant scenes like this were rare in Stillwater. If he wanted to deal with shit like this on a regular basis, he would have taken a better paying job in a larger town.
"Officer Jesson?" Jack said. "Where's the baby?"
"Oh. It's with a neighbor."
"Has anyone called CPS?"
"Why?"
"To take care of the baby."
"The neighbor offered."
"And, what do we know about this neighbor?"
He shrugged. "She didn't speak much English."
"So, she could be in the next county by now?"
"Oh, I doubt that," Jesson said. "She seemed like a nice sort. Very motherly."
Jack cocked his head and puzzled over whether his most senior officer was ignorant, naive or an amazing judge of character.
He turned his attention to Doc Poole. "What's the time of death?"
"Sometime last night."
"Can you be more specific?"
"Didn't see the need. Seems pretty obvious what happened."
"Oh, are you a detective?"
"No. I'm a general practitioner."
"You're the JP, aren't you?"
"No. I used to be." He chuckled. "Too old for this now."
"Yet, here you are."
"JP is on the way, Chief," Jesson said.
Jack kept his focus on Doctor Poole. "So you heard this over the radio and decided to come? Or did someone call you?"
"Well, I —"
"Do you have the instruments necessary to establish a time of death?"
"Not with me, but —"
"Then get off my crime scene."
The little man straightened his shoulders and lifted his chin. "I can see why Jane Maxwell liked you." He started to leave but turned back. "We do things different here in Stillwater."
"Not anymore we don't," Jack said.




Author Bio:

author
Melissa Lenhardt writes mystery, historical fiction, and women's fiction. Her short fiction has appeared in Heater Mystery Magazine, The Western Online, and Christmas Nookies, a holiday romance anthology. Her debut novel, Stillwater, was a finalist for the 2014 Whidbey Writers' MFA Alumni Emerging Writers Contest. She is a board member of the DFW Writers' Workshop and vice president of the Sisters in Crime North Dallas Chapter. Melissa lives in Texas, with her husband and two sons.

Catch Up with Ms. Lenhardt:
author's website author's twitter author's facebook



Tour Participants:




Giveaway: Sorry US Residents only

This is a giveaway hosted by Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours for Melissa Lenhardt. There will be one winner of 1 AMAZON US gift card and 1 copy of Stillwater (For US residents only.). The giveaway runs through November 14th, 2015.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
 
 
 

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Tuesday 13 October 2015

BOOK REVIEW ~~ Anything For Her by Jack Jordan ~ Crime Thriller



TITLE - Anything For Her 

AUTHOR - Jack Jordan

FORMAT - Paperback or Kindle

PAGES - 340


GENRE - Thriller/Crime/Mystery

PURCHASE - Kindle click here; Paperback click here

SYNOPSIS (From Goodreads)
Sometimes the past comes back to haunt you.


Louise Leighton’s life has fallen apart, all because of one fateful night. Her husband is an adulterer, her sister is his mistress, and soon, Louise will lose everything she owns. But she never imagined she would lose her daughter. 

Eighteen-year-old Brooke Leighton is missing. It’s up to Louise and the Metropolitan Police to find her. Has Brooke run away? Or has she been taken against her will? And can Louise aid the investigation without mentioning the night where all of her troubles began? 

If she mentions that night, she will incriminate her daughter for heinous crimes. But if she doesn’t, she may never find Brooke; and if she has been abducted, the person who took her may come for Louise, too. 

Sometimes the past comes back to kill you.


MY REVIEW 

This book was unputdownable! It wasn't a book where you had to read a few chapters before you were hooked, I was hooked from the start. I was really intrigued as to what this terrible family secret was that could split a family apart completely, affecting all members of the family in different ways. The author had made the characters really personable and very real.

The storyline was fantastic and utterly believable. There were so many factors to it and the author pulled them together with ease.

It was emotional and upsetting as it was tearing a very close family apart with the son Dominic having to go through things no young boy should have to go through. It was also gripping at the same time with some amazing twists and turns, usually Louise being at the end of something terrifying. Without adding any spoilers it was utterly intriguing and I couldn't put the book down as I wanted to keep reading to see who was behind all the bad things that was happening.

If you want a book that keeps you on the edge of your seat then you have to read this. I also think it would make a great screenplay. 


An amazing debut novel!! I am going to be watching out for Jack Jordans next book and hoping it's every bit as good as this one.





ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jack Jordan lives in East Anglia, England. He is an introvert disguised as an extrovert, an intelligent person who can say very unintelligent things, and a self-confessed bibliomaniac with more books than sense. 'Anything for Her' is Jack Jordan's debut novel. 

Goodreads Author Page https://www.goodreads.com/jackjordan

Author Web page - 

Check out the authors goodreads page for a giveaway! 

Monday 12 October 2015

Book Review & Author Interview ~~ Angels Sing to Rest by Chrinda Jones


TITLE - Angels Sing To Rest

AUTHOR
- Chrinda Jones

GENRE
- Crime Thriller

Purchase links. click here for Amazon; Click here for Smashwords

PAGES
- 206

SYNOPSIS

'Angels Sing to Rest' begins where 'Darkness Knows Me' left off: after the investigation into the death of the Deep Ellum Killer, Levi Devereux.

Detective Sergeant Olivia Gates returns from a two month suspension, to find her team has gained a new member, her ex-husband has been released from prison, and a 10 year old street kid has been murdered on her patch of South Dallas.

Her ex she thinks she can deal with, even when he drags their young son into the mix. The murdered boy with the crushed chest, isn't so easily handled and weighs heavily on her as more street kids are killed with an unimaginable sadistic flare and no discernible motive.

If the continuing body count wasn't stressful enough, Olivia's falling out with long time friend and colleague, Doctor Will Green, threatens any hope Olivia had for more than a friendship with the good doctor.

Drugs, gaming, prostitution and sadistic murders lead Gates and her team on a trek through the seamy underbelly of living rough on the streets of downtown Dallas.


MY REVIEW


Angels Sing To Rest is book 2 in the Will Green and Olivia Gates crime series. You could read it as a standalone however the background to the main two characters and their relationship wouldn't make as much sense as if you'd read the first one. I prefer to read a book series from the start but it wouldn't detract from your enjoyment if you hadn't read book one.

I really enjoyed the storyline to this book, albeit a bit gruesome in places. There are numerous characters in the book and if I hadn't picked it up for a couple of days, I had to go back and re-read a few pages to remind myself who was who. Having said that as I got into the book more, I really immersed myself into the story.

I got really frustrated with the relationship between the two main characters, Will and Olivia. Their on-off friendship had cooled and I wanted to shake them and tell them to work together to solve these horrific crimes. That is when I knew I was engrossed in the book.

The author brought the story together really well, and although I found it a little slow to start with, I enjoyed the book more and more as it went on. I look forward to book 3.




Book 1 - Darkness Knows Me 

INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR



Q: When did you realise you wanted to become an author?

A: There was this one particular book, several years back. It was one of many in a long line of “not so good” mysteries and thrillers I read over a period of a year. This particular book, the straw that broke the camel's back mystery, made me say aloud, “I could write something better than this.” I won't reveal the name of this particular book, because that would be bad form and no one wants to be a bad formy kind of person. Let's just suffice it to say that I still have the book around to remind me of what not to do when writing a mystery/thriller.

Q:Who are your writing inspirations?

A: I have always been interested in crime and mystery, something my mother said I inherited from my great-grandmother, who was a hoarder of dime store mysteries and crime novels. If I were made to choose a few of my favorite authors, I would have to say Martha Grimes (an American author who writes the British Inspector Jury series) and Val McDermid (the Scottish author of the Jordan/Hill crime series). Both of these authors write strong stories and well developed characters, something I strive for each time I sit down to write.


Q: Is there a reason why you chose to be a thriller writer and not a writer of say romantic fiction?

A: As I mentioned before, I think the mystery/crime thing might be in my blood. I believe if my great-grandmother hadn't been such a prolific songwriter, she would have turned her talents to writing her beloved mysteries. For me, the science of solving a mystery or crime has always been behind my love for the genres. I don't read romances, but I do enjoy a budding love story, which, by-the-way, my Olivia Gates and Will Green series has in and amongst murders.

Q: Have you secretly based any of you characters on family or friends?
A: No, I haven't based any of my characters on friends or family. I have modeled Olivia Gates, the female protagonist, a bit after myself, mainly my wavy, dark hair and my height.

Q: Where do you prefer to do your writing?
A: I have a home office, which at the moment, is filled with boxes of reference books and the like. The space is more of a place where I “store” the things of my writing, rather than where I actually “do” my writing. I have a wee bit of a neck problem, so sitting in front of a computer can be painful after awhile. So where do I do my actual write? Don't laugh, but I do a great hunk of my writing on my laptop, prone on my bed.

Q: When you were writing book one, were you, in the back of your mind, planning book two?
A: Yes, from the very beginning I planned for Darkness Knows Me, to become a series. Angels Sing to Rest is book two and, Only the Dead Know, is the third of the series, which is a work in progress. Depending on how Only the Dead Know ends, will determine whether or not there will be a fourth instalment to the series.

Q: Have you ever started reading a book yourself and given up on it a few chapters in, or do you persevere to the end?
A: I'm usually one for persevering to at least the halfway mark, but there have been books where getting to that halfway mark was a bit like being flogged with a wet sock for 150 pages. Not one of my more enjoyable experiences.

Q: Tell us one fact about Chrinda Jones that readers don't know.




A: One fact readers wouldn't know about me. Hmm . . . well . . . there was the time, from age four to about age six, when I lived in a one room cabin on a mountain with my parents and sister. When I say one room cabin, I mean one large room, no walls, wood fired cooking stove and an outhouse. Showers were taken at the national park down the mountain from our cabin. Remind me sometime to tell you about the night when an angry female grizzly bear pushed over our outhouse after chasing our dogs back up the mountain to our cabin.


Thank you Chrinda for joining me on my blog. I wish you every success with the book. 

Guest Post and Book Review ~ Letters From Malta - A secret kept for 50 years by Mary Rensten


TITLE - Letters From Malta

AUTHOR - Mary Rensten

PAGES - 234

FORMAT - Kindle or Paperback 

Click here to Purchase

SYNOPSIS
"When Jane Thornfield finds an envelope hidden in her mother's bedroom drawer it heralds the beginning of a journey of discovery. Long buried family secrets are unearthed and Jane is forced to question her very identity.

Jane's search for the truth takes her to Malta, where she learns about the harsh realities of life during the Siege of Malta in the Second World War. But her attempts to unlock a fifty-year-old secret are met with suspicion and a wall of silence.

Letters from Malta is about a woman's quest to make sense of her present and her past. The setting of Malta is brought vividly to life in this moving, perceptive tale of love and loss."


MY REVIEW 


Having been to Malta myself, several times as a child then again as an adult; and with a Husband who grew up in Malta with an RAF Father, I was most intrigued to read this book.

It was a well researched book both based on Malta of today and during WWII. My Uncle actually

helped with the set up of the War Museum in Valletta so I was used to it as a child as Malta's history was drummed into me. Having driven the roads of Malta many times, before and after they had tarmac, I could picture the routes the author was describing that Jane had travelled along. When she was speaking of the car garage in the book, it brought back fond memories of a friend we made in Malta called Charlie (they're all called Charlie) who owned a garage, and it really warmed me. 

I enjoyed the flow of the book and the descriptive natures of each character she met along the way. I found she brought the people alive and vivid images of what they looked like came into my head.

It was a good storyline, with twists and turns and disappointments along the way. There were lots of questions that had to be answered and it made me want to keep on reading it.

It was a nice light-hearted read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 




MEET THE AUTHOR

Mary Rensten is the vice-President of the Society of Women Writers and Journalists. Her novel "Letters from Malta" has just been published by Corazon Books.

Mary's novel was inspired by trips she made to Malta, and facts she learned about the harsh life for the islanders during WWII.


How a Holiday in Malta inspired my novel.

‘Malta? Never been there,’ I said.

 ‘So let’s go.’

A fortnight of sunshine and swimming, with unhurried drives in a hire car around an island only 16 miles long. How relaxing that would be!  Except that my husband had a plan. ‘We‘ll visit the silent city of Mdina, the ancient temple ruins at Hagar Qim, maybe the Buskett Gardens where the Knights of Malta flew their falcons, some of the cemeteries …’

‘Cemeteries? No!’

‘Military cemeteries. There’s one near an old airfield, Ta’ Qali ; remember what a strategic place Malta was in the Second World War?’

‘Oh, all right then, just one.’

A small rusty sign on the road to Rabat led us into a narrow lane, to a high wall and cypress trees. We parked the car, opened the creaky iron gate, walked respectfully, not speaking, along the path, looking at the incised stone slabs on either side, many of them - too many - marking the graves of young men who had died on this island in the 1940s. What sort of lives had they led here, these soldiers and airmen? Did they have Maltese wives, girlfriends? What if one of them were to fall in love with a girl in England, then come out here and …

‘I have to come here again,’ I said.

‘Oh no, it’s not giving you ideas, is it?’

Suddenly I wanted to see all the places on my husband’s list. As the story in my head took shape, I would see them, not just as a tourist, but as someone who had been here during a very dark time in Malta’s history, a time of constant air raids and the threat of invasion.  Had my ‘hero’ - I called him Peter and he was in the Royal Artillery - worked at Ta’ Qali perhaps? Had he walked around Mdina? luzzu fishing boats. Had Peter seen these, too?  So much to see, so much to imagine!  
Was he here when a bomb dropped on Mosta Cathedral, but did not explode; when the convoys with desperately needed supplies limped into Valletta Harbour?  I had my own list now: the prehistoric cart tracks, the Blue Grotto, its luminous water shading from ultramarine to turquoise,  villages like Marsaxlokk, with a harbour full of colourful

‘Enough,’ my husband said. We went for healthy walks along the Marfa Ridge, the wild headland at the northern end of the island; we swam and sunned ourselves.

Two years later, when we had our second holiday in Malta, it was no longer just Peter’s story; I had a ‘heroine’, writer Jane Thornfield, coming here and uncovering the past.  I was now seeing Malta through the eyes of both Jane and Peter, whose stories are linked, and when I met Maltese people, all so helpful, so willing to talk to me, even taking me to their homes, I was able to ask the questions that Jane would have asked.

My fiction had become a reality, and when I went back to Imtarfa cemetery to check a few final  details before we went home, I found it hard to believe that Peter was not buried there.

‘Is that it then? Are we done with Malta?’


‘No. I want to come back. There could be another story here.’

Reviews for Mary's book. 

Letters from Malta is about a woman's quest to make sense of her present and her past. The setting of Malta is brought vividly to life in this moving, perceptive tale of love and loss.

"The story sweeps you along and the characters are so real." Suzannah Dunn, best-selling historical novelist (The Sixth Wife, The May Bride)

"I couldn't put this down. I couldn't wait to find out what had happened in Malta 60 years ago." Meg Alexander, romantic novelist

"It has just the right combination of drama, humour, romance and intrigue to make it perfect reading at home or on holiday." TAR Entertainment

Sunday 11 October 2015

BOOK REVIEW - Everything She Forgot by Lisa Ballantyne - Suspense

Everything She Forgot

by Lisa Ballantyne

on Tour September 14 - October 17, 2015




Synopsis:

cover
Driving home, Margaret Holloway is rear-ended and trapped in the wreckage of her car. Just as she begins to panic, a stranger pulls her free and disappears. Though she escapes with minor injuries, Margaret feels that something's wrong. Flashbacks to the crash are dredging up lost associations from her childhood. And somehow, Margaret knows that it's got something to do with the man who saved her life. As Margaret uncovers a mystery with chilling implications for her family and her very identity, Everything She Forgot winds through a riveting dual narrative and asks the question: How far would you go to hide the truth-from yourself?


Book Details:


Genre: Suspense
Published by: William Morrow Paperbacks
Publication Date: October 6, 2015
Number of Pages: 432
ISBN: 0062391488 (13: 978-0062391483)
Purchase Links: Amazon Barnes & Noble Goodreads



Critical Praise:

“Ballantyne’s effortless prose took me across the Atlantic and didn’t let me return until its surprising and satisfying conclusion. A tight story that comes full circle and keeps you reading.” — Bryan Reardon, author of Finding Jake


Author Bio:

authorLisa Ballantyne was born in Armadale, West Lothian, Scotland and studied English Literature at University of St Andrews. She lived and worked in China for many years and started writing seriously while she was there. Before being published, Lisa was short-listed for the Dundee International Book Prize. Her debut novel, The Guilty One was translated into over 25 languages, long-listed for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and short-listed for an Edgar Allan Poe Award. The Guilty One was also the Autumn 2012 Richard and Judy Book-club Winner. She lives in Glasgow.

Catch Up: author's website author's twitter author's facebook


Tour Participants:




 
 
 

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Book Review

The book itself is split into chapters where each major character has a chapter to themselves. Some chapters referring to them in the present; some in the past. I often have an issue with books that go backwards and forwards in time, as if you don't pick the book up for a few days it gets confusing and you can forget where you got to.  With this book however, because the chapters were named after the characters, I found it an easier read.

Whilst the storyline itself was good, the story surrounding Molly, who was abducted as a young schoolchild, I did find it a little predictive in places, working out where the story was going.

I did get quite engrossed in the book; despising the religious Angus Campbell and loving he lovable rogue "Big George". It was easy to immerse yourself into the story.

I have one "niggle" about the book in that it's a crime story based in the UK, but there are a lot of words; phrases and spellings, that are American and wouldn't be used by British Gangsters, Law Enforcement or Brits in general. E.g Carryall (holdall); Tires (tyres); Pedophile (Paedophile). Just a small niggle.

I would like to have seen the story continue a little longer, especially in relation to Angus Campbell, as I felt (without giving any spoilers) that he needed punishing.

Having said all that it was an enjoyable read and a perfectly believable storyline.