Author Archives: R Cawkwell

Hi I'm Rosemarie and I like to write. I write short stories and longer fiction, poetry and occasionally articles. I'm working on quite a few things at the minute and wouldn't mind one day actually getting published in print.

Review: ‘Lady First’, by Lea O’Harra

Lady First by [O'Harra, Lea]

Independently Published

Publication Date: 28th August 2017

I.S.B.N.: 9781549610981

Format: Kindle e-book and paperback

Price: Kindle – £2.00, Paperback – £7.99

Blurb

Murder is back, and it’s nastier than ever… Fujikawa in southern Japan is finally getting over the shock murder of a resident university head and, three years later, the strangling of a local child – when terror strikes the quiet, provincial town once more. When young Mayumi Ikeuchi is killed on her way home from her job at The Paradise nightclub in a Fujikawa park, there isn’t a shortage of suspects. These include Mr Tani – Mayumi’s boss – who likes to leer over the girls who work for him, and Atsushi Taniguchi, a man who seems quite normal to the outside world but is free with his fists around his wife, Yui. There is also Nose-san, a loner who lives with his aged, incontinent mother, with witnesses hearing the sounds of brutal, physical arguments coming from his house. Even Mayumi’s sister is reported to have been overly possessive of the girl, threatening her when Mayumi had declared she wanted to strike out on her own. Lise Foster and Yui Taniguchi forge an unlikely friendship after the death of Mayumi: one is a victim of violence and the other may become one. Lise is a teacher at the local school, living close to the murder site in Ogawa Woods, and is it her imagination or is there someone sinister lurking outside her home in the shadows? Could Lise be next? For Chief Inspector Inoue and Inspector Kubo – Yui’s brother – and their colleagues, it is a race against time to find the perpetrator before he strikes again.

Continue reading “Review: ‘Lady First’, by Lea O’Harra”

‘Fire Betrayed’ update

fire betrayedSave the date!

Fire Betrayed is now available for pre-order from Amazon.

Publication date: 1st December 2017

Price £1.99

Promotions

If you buy the paperback of  Fire Betrayed through Amazon, you can get the Kindle e-book free between 1st December 2017 and 31st January 2018. From 1st February 2018 the price will increase to 99p.

And as a bonus, Hidden Fire will be available for free for just one day – 1st December 2017

‘Fire Betrayed’ update and a way you can help me

In the past it wasn’t unusual for books to be published by subscription, where an author would solicit funds to pay for the publication of their book, in return the subscribers would receive a copy of the book and their name in the book. A list of subscribers was included. This idea has modernised, with sites like Patreon and Go Fund Me helping creatives raise funds to produce their work.

Continue reading “‘Fire Betrayed’ update and a way you can help me”

Review: ‘Sweet Pea’, by C. J. Skuse

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Published By: HQ

Publication Date: 2nd November 2017

I.S.B.N.: 9780008216719

Price: £7.99

Format: Paperback

 

Blurb

The last person who called me ‘Sweetpea’ ended up dead…

I haven’t killed anyone for three years and I thought that when it happened again I’d feel bad. Like an alcoholic taking a sip of whisky. But no. Nothing. I had a blissful night’s sleep. Didn’t wake up at all. And for once, no bad dream either. This morning I feel balanced. Almost sane, for once.

Rhiannon is your average girl next door, settled with her boyfriend and little dog…but she’s got a killer secret.

Although her childhood was haunted by a famous crime, Rhiannon’s life is normal now that her celebrity has dwindled. By day her job as an editorial assistant is demeaning and unsatisfying. By evening she dutifully listens to her friend’s plans for marriage and babies whilst secretly making a list.

A kill list.

From the man on the Lidl checkout who always mishandles her apples, to the driver who cuts her off on her way to work, to the people who have got it coming, Rhiannon’s ready to get her revenge.

Because the girl everyone overlooks might be able to get away with murder…

Continue reading “Review: ‘Sweet Pea’, by C. J. Skuse”

Changes to this month’s reviews

I had booked in John A. Heldt‘s Mercer Street in for Friday and M.N.Mekaelian‘s Choose to Rise: The Victory Within next week, but  Mercer Street doesn’t really fit into my interests at the minute. I don’t want to read a book and give it a bad review because I’m not in the mood, so I’ve shelved it. I was expecting to receive Choose to Rise: The Victory Within in early September but it hasn’t arrived yet. I’ve been in touch with the author and he’s going to resend, probably as an ebook this time. When the book arrives I will schedule it, probably for next year now.

Instead of those two books, on Saturday I’ll be reviewing C J Skuse‘s new book, Sweet Pea, which will be published by HQ on the 2nd November, and next week, on the 26th, I’ll be reviewing Lady First by Lea O’Harra (the pen name of Wendy Jones Nakanishi). It’s the third book in the ‘Inspector Inoue Mystery Series’. I’ve started it already, because I’ve nearly finished Sweet Pea.

Review: ‘The Watcher’, By Monika Jephcott

The Watcher Cover

Publisher: Clink Street Publishing

Publication Date: (10 Oct. 2017)

Format: Paperback

Price: £8.99

ISBN-13: 978-1912262021

Blurb

It’s 1949 when Netta’s father Max is released from a Siberian POW camp and returns to his home in occupied Germany. But he is not the man the little girl is expecting – the brave, handsome doctor her mother Erika told her stories of. Erika too struggles to reconcile this withdrawn, volatile figure with the husband she knew and loved before, and, as she strives to break through the wall Max has built around himself, Netta is both frightened and jealous of this interloper in the previously cosy household she shared with her mother and doting grandparents. Now, if family life isn’t tough enough, it is about to get even tougher, when a murder sparks a police investigation, which begins to unearth dark secrets they all hoped had been forgotten.

Amazon UK – http://amzn.to/2jpKeBs

About the author: Monika Jephcott Thomas grew up in Dortmund Mengede, north-west Germany. She moved to the UK in 1966, enjoying a thirty year career in education before retraining as a therapist. Along with her partner Jeff she established the Academy of Play & Child Psychotherapy in order to support the twenty per cent of children who have emotional, behavioural, social and mental health problems by using play and the creative Arts. A founder member of Play Therapy UK, Jephcott Thomas was elected President of Play Therapy International in 2002. In 2016 her first book Fifteen Words was published.

 

Website – http://monika-jephcott-thomas.com/

Continue reading “Review: ‘The Watcher’, By Monika Jephcott”

Review: ‘Drip’, by Andrew Montlack

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Published By: Rent-Controlled Films

Publication Date: April 2017

I.S.B.N.: 9781541102125

Price: £10.36

Format: Paperback

Blurb

“A hand wearing a fancy watch parted the office blinds, and J.D. felt nauseous with despair: suddenly he knew—even though he could not explain how—that all of his mojo had been permanently taken away.”

J.D. and George: thick as thieves since the fourth grade. J.D., the troublemaker, the stud: the alpha. George, the sidekick, the misfit: the loser. Upon graduating college, J.D. has convinced the only job creator in rusty Middlestop to hire them. BrewCorp, the hot new coffee and retail chain, is offering a vice presidency to the employee with the boldest plan for growth, and J.D. is determined to be the guy. When not sleeping with co-workers, he hatches his pitch for a one-of-a kind data pipeline. He is unbeatable–until George grabs the promotion. Now J.D. wants answers. His quest to find them—and to deal with the monstrous truth—is the subject of indie filmmaker Andrew Montlack’s wry debut novel, which features the same biting satire that made his mockumentary, The Devil’s Filmmaker, a cult classic.

My Review

Took me a bit to get into, and at first I couldn’t understand the ‘gothic’ part of the title, but then, of course I got the reason.

It’s an unusual vampire tale, set in the corporate world, of two friends. George is hopeless, JD is charismatic. Where George trips and falls through life, JD dances and laughs and gets his own way. Friends from a young age, the pair finally graduate from university and get jobs at BrewCorp, the latest business to set up in their small, dying town.

When George wangles the job of junior executive, JD is jealous – HE was going to get that position. George starts to change, and much to his chagrin, JD loses his mojo. Secrets about BrewCorp and its real purpose start to leak though, as the project that got them their positions comes to fruition.

I liked this story, eventually. It took a bit of getting into and JD, the main character, was a bit of a prick. The writing felt pompous but as with JD’s character, that gets better as the novel goes on and I certainly enjoyed the second half as the ‘gothic’ part in the novel became clearer.

Could have done with a bit of editing for spelling towards the last few chapters, even allowing for dodgy US spelling conventions. Story instead of storey is just about acceptable, souls when the word is clearly meant to be soles is not.

3/5

 

 

Review: ‘The Riveira Express’, by TP Fielden

The Riviera Express Paperback by Published By: HQ

Publication Date: 29th June 2017

I.S.B.N.: 9780008193706

Format: Paperback

Price: £7.99

Blurb

Gerald Hennessey silver screen star and much-loved heart-throb never quite makes it to Temple Regis, the quaint Devonshire seaside town on the English Riviera. Murdered on the 4.30 from Paddington, the loss of this great man throws Temple Regis’ community into disarray.

Not least Miss Judy Dimont corkscrew-haired reporter for the local rag, The Riviera Express. Investigating Gerald’s death, she’s soon called to the scene of a second murder, and, setting off on her trusty moped, Herbert, finds Arthur Shrimsley in an apparent suicide on the clifftops above the town beach.

Miss Dimont must prevail for why was a man like Gerald coming to Temple Regis anyway? What is the connection between him and Arthur? And just how will she get any answers whilst under the watchful and mocking eyes of her infamously cantankerous Editor, Rudyard Rhys?

Continue reading “Review: ‘The Riveira Express’, by TP Fielden”