Blog Tour Calendar: Ruabon, by Karl Drinkwater
Monthly Archives: July 2021
Review: Girls Who Lie, by Eva Bjorg AEgisdottir
At once a startling, tense psychological thriller, and a sophisticated and twisty police procedural from a rising star in Icelandic literature.
When single mother Maríanna disappears from her home, leaving an apologetic note on the kitchen table, it is assumed that she’s taken her own life – until her body is found on the Grábrók lava fields seven months later, clearly the victim of murder. Her neglected fifteen-year-old daughter Hekla has been placed in foster care, but is her perfect new life hiding something sinister?
Fifteen years earlier, a desperate new mother lies in a maternity ward, unable to look at her own child, the start of an odd and broken relationship that leads to tragedy.
Police officer Elma and her colleagues take on the case, which becomes increasingly complex, as the list of suspects grows ever longer and new light is shed on Maríanna’s past – and the childhood of a girl who never was like the others…
Continue reading “Review: Girls Who Lie, by Eva Bjorg AEgisdottir”Guest Post: Jonathan Hanson, author of Trail of the Jaguar
Today we have a post from Jonathan Hanson on characterisation:
Effective characterization has always been very high on my list of what makes a book readable. If I can’t connect with the characters, can’t find empathy for them, it’s difficult for their plights to draw me in and make me care. The book gets set aside, slowly subsumed under others in the reading pile until I find it again, bookmark on page 40 or so, and give it away. So I try very hard to make my characters interesting—even the bad guys. The easiest way to do this is to base a character on someone I already know and like, in which case half my work is done for me. Several such characters appear in Trail of the Jaguar. A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service law enforcement officer, for example, is based on a friend who’s worked for the USFWS and other game and conservation organizations.
Other characters, however, are cut from whole cloth—such as Jedediah Carson. It’s fair to say he might be an imaginary version of the father I never had, and thus, in his own way, comes from a certain powerful, if wishful, familiarity.
Trail of the Jaguar
Biologist and wildlife photographer Clayton Porter witnesses what appears to be a routine drug-smuggling flight across the Arizona-Mexico border. Instead, he uncovers a sophisticated operation involving a secret lodge high in the Sierra Madre, canned hunts for endangered jaguars, a ring of opioid-dealing doctors in the U.S., and a string of cartel victims partially consumed by a large predator. After he unwittingly throws a wrench into the works, Porter becomes a target of revenge, and resorts to skills from his military service to save himself and those close to him.
Purchase Link – https://books2read.com/u/bWrEPx?store=amazon
Author Bio –
Jonathan Hanson grew up northeast of Tucson, Arizona, with Sabino and Bear Canyons as his backyard, providing him with years of desert expeditions, hunting like the Apaches and building wickiups (which failed spectacularly).
He has since written for a score of outdoor and adventure magazines including Outside, National Geographic Adventure, Nature Conservancy, and Global Adventure, and has authored a dozen books on subjects including natural history, sea kayaking, wildlife tracking, and expedition travel.
Jonathan’s exploration experience encompasses land- and sea-scapes on six continents, from the Atacama Desert to the Beaufort Sea, from the Rift Valley to the Australian Outback, and modes of transportation from sea kayaks to sailboats to bicycles to Land Cruisers.
He has traveled among and worked with cultures as diverse as the Seri Indians and the Himba, the Inuit and the Maasai. Jonathan has taught tracking, natural history writing, four-wheel-driving techniques, and other subjects for many conservation and government organizations.
He is an elected fellow of the Explorers Club and the Royal Geographical Society, and a charter member of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, and lives in Southern Arizona with his wife of 37 years, Roseann Beggy Hanson.
You can follow Jonathan’s Overland Tech and Travel blog and order signed books at ExploringOverland.com.
Social Media Links –
www.facebook.com/authorjonathanhanson
Children’s Picture Book Review: Bertie at the Worldwide Games, by Wendy H. Jones, Illustrated by Barry Diaper
Blurb
Bertie the Buffalo is having fun on the farm where he lives in Scotland. Then a mysterious letter arrives inviting him to represent Scotland in the Worldwide Games. Bertie and his friends fly to Tokyo where they meet new and exotic animals and try to win first prize in all the different events. Bertie is sad when he isn’t winning any medals but finds out if he works together with his friends, he will be a winner in the end.
My Review
Thanks to the author and publisher for a copy of this book. I read a Bertie book last year and was so pleased to see another, Bertie is an adorable little buffalo.
Aww, this is so cute! Bertie and friends represent Scotland in running races in Tokyo, and learn the importance of team work.
I think the writing and illustration have improved since the first book. There’s something more vibrant about the illustrations. The story has a strong rhyme and I’m sure it’s ever so slightly more complex than in the first book. Maybe Bertie is getting a bit older so the prose is getting more complex?
I like it! The colours of the pictures are eye-catching the writing is fun and bouncy, and the message is good.
Author Bio
Wendy H. Jones is the award-winning author of the DI Shona McKenzie Mysteries and Cass Claymore Investigates. She lives in Scotland and is also an international public speaker and the president of the Scottish Association of Writers.
Illustrator: Barry Diaper
Barry Diaper is best known for his cartoons and caricatures for The Beano. He was once short-listed for the Daily Mail’s ‘Not the Turner Prize’. He lives in Salisbury, England.
Blog Tour Review: Clarissa (Lost Tales #3), by Karl Drinkwater
Clarissa
If you’re reading this: HELP! I’ve been kidnapped.
Me and my big sister stayed together after our parents died. We weren’t bothering anybody. But some mean government agents came anyway, and split us up.
Now I’m a prisoner on this space ship. The agents won’t even say where we’re going.
I hate them.
And things have started to get a bit weird. Nullspace is supposed to be empty, but when I look out of the skywindows I can see … something. Out there. And I think it wants to get in here. With us.
My name is Clarissa. I am ten years old.
And they will all be sorry when my big sister comes to rescue me.
Purchase Link – https://books2read.com/b/Clarissa
Continue reading “Blog Tour Review: Clarissa (Lost Tales #3), by Karl Drinkwater”Blog tour calendar: Trail of the Jaguar, by Jonathan Hanson
Blog Tour Calendar: Clarissa, by Karl Drinkwater
Blog Tour Calendar: Bertie at the Worldwide Games, by Wendy H Jones
Guest Post: John Mead
John Mead
John was born in the mid-fifties in Dagenham, London, on part of the largest council estate ever built, and was the first pupil from his local secondary modern school to attend university. He has now taken early retirement to write, having spent the first part of his life working in education and the public sector. He was the director of a college, a senior school inspector for a local authority, and was head of a unit for young people with physical and mental health needs. When he is not travelling, going to the theatre or the pub, he writes.
John is currently working on a seies of novels set in modern day London. These police procedurals examine the darker side of modern life in the East End of the city
Amazon author profile: https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07B8SQ2ZH
Goodreads profile: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17891273.John_Mead
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JohnMeadAuthor
Continue reading “Guest Post: John Mead”Review: The Beresford, by Will Carver
Just outside the city – any city, every city – is a grand, spacious but affordable apartment building called The Beresford.
There’s a routine at The Beresford.
For Mrs May, every day’s the same: a cup of cold, black coffee in the morning, pruning roses, checking on her tenants, wine, prayer and an afternoon nap. She never leaves the building.
Abe Schwartz also lives at The Beresford. His housemate Smythe no longer does. Because Abe just killed him. In exactly sixty seconds, Blair Conroy will ring the doorbell to her new home and Abe will answer the door. They will become friends.
Perhaps lovers.
And, when the time comes for one of them to die, as is always the case at The Beresford, there will be sixty seconds to move the body before the next unknowing soul arrives at the door.
Because nothing changes at The Beresford, until the doorbell
rings…
Everything Is Better With Dragons 