Category Archives: Blog tours

Review: The Dead Man’s Empire, by W.P. Wiles

Release Date: 2025-09-23
Formats: Ebook, Paperback
EBook ISBN: 23rd September 2025 | 9781915998293 | epub | £4.99/$6.99/$7.99
Paperback ISBN: 23rd September 2025 | 9781915998286 | Trade paperback | £9.99/$18.99/$24.99

Book Description

Two in the  eye of the storm. Two in touch with the end. 

Syzenne. A princess?  Or a mere bargaining chip in a contest between two powers? 

Duna. A teenage girl dragged into a war by a fanatical priest? Or a child who can break mountains? 

As blood-thirsty elves sweep the land, as religions crumble and rumours spread of an empire of the dead revived it is two young women who hold the key. As the world spirals down into war, The Last Blade Priest must face the fear and wonder of The Dead Man’s Empire. In The Holy Mountain, W.P. Wiles has created an epic fantasy of incredible richness and originality. A celebration of the genre and breath of fresh air.

My Review

Thanks to the team at Angry Robot for sending me a copy of this book. I have been waiting for this book since I finished reading The Last Blade Priest. Now I have to wait for the next book. There had better be another book, Will!

We join Duna and Elecy after the end of The Last Blade Priest as they travel across the Hidden Land and travel to a neighbouring kingdom to get support. At the same time we follow, Syzenne of Penzique as she arrives in the court of the Miroline Empire as a potential bride for the Emperor, a 16 year old boy. Things do not go well.

In the Hidden Land, things are going badly as Augardine cultists start to influence the leadership of the League army and then something really terrible actions…

Syzenne is a Scourge, who finds a Boon in Miroline, while Duna is a Scourge, who left her Boon in the Hidden Land. There must be more Boons and Scourges out there, and they have to decide whether they should stand together or against each other.

I really enjoyed the development of the story and expansion of the world. The description of the world was lush, while the complex politics of the various groups is engrossing to read. The court of Miroline is grotesque and reminds me of descriptions of the Imperial Roman court by those who hated certain emperors. Syzenne’s disgust is visceral and the conflict between her understanding of the world, and that of those around her, including the snobbery of the Mirolines about anyone not part of their crumbling empire, help her to develop as a diplomat. Her random chaos is enjoyable to read.

The new characters are complex and pushed the narrative forward. I enjoyed following Syzenne’s adventures as she tries to survive the Miroline court and Duna’s qualms about her abilities as she follows the religious fanatics across the continent. Their development as characters was fun to follow and made complete sense.

Duna’s use of her power in battle, entirely under her control, unlike the chaos of her first battle under the influence of the elves, is a magnificent way to defeat the titan and the Miroline Empire. I loved it.

Inar is definitely not safe and Augardine is up to something! I know he is.

I couldn’t put the book down and now I really need to know what happens next. Chop chop Will, get writing!

Cover Reveal: Stop Dead, by Katrín Júlíusdóttir

Pub date: 21 May 2026
ISBN 13: 978-1-916788-96-1
EPUB: 978-1-916788-97-8
Price: £9.99

Buy Link:

https://geni.us/vJ4x

THE BOOK

Icelandic detective-in-training Sigurdís is studying criminal psychology in the US, but her plans are thrown into disarray when she discovers that her boss and mentor, Garðar, has been fired from Reykjavík CID over his investigation into Sigurdís’s father’s death.

Returning to Iceland to deal with the fallout, Sigurdís finds herself pulled into a disturbing case: controversial TV personality Olga Einars has been stabbed to death during the Reykjavík Marathon. Struggling to locate a runner waring the number 1407, who was seen near the murdered woman during the race, the police soon discover that several masked runners were wearing the same number.

As the mystery deepens, Sigurdís and her fellow detective Unnar soon learn exactly how unpopular Olga was – not just with the interviewees she humiliated on live TV, but with her own son, her business partner, a widower who insists that she had a hand in his wife’s death, and her ex-husband, who died in suspicious circumstances thirty years ago…

As her exploration into Olga’s past becomes ever darker and more harrowing, Sigurdís must also face the truth about her own father, while searching for an attacker who will go to any lengths to cover up their crimes…

THE AUTHOR


Katrín Júlíusdóttir is a former Icelandic politician, elected in 2003 and serving as Minister of Industry, Energy and Tourism, Minister of Finance and Economy and Social Democratic Alliance’s vice-chair until she retired from politics in 2016. Before she was elected to parliament, Katrín was an advisor and project manager at a tech company and a senior buyer and CEO in the retail sector, as well as the managing director of a student union at
Reykjavík University, where she studied anthropology and received an MBA. She is now managing director of Finance Iceland. Katrín won the Blackbird Award for best Icelandic crime debut for her first novel, Dead Sweet, in 2020, and it received immense critical acclaim, hitting the bestseller lists shortly after publication. In the UK, it was a Booksellers Circle Book of the Month and longlisted for the Waterstones Debut Novel Prize, debuting
at No. 15 on the Sunday Times bestseller list. Katrín was raised in Kópavogur, about fifteen minutes’ drive from downtown Reykjavík, and she now lives in the neighbouring town of Garðabær with her family. She is married to author Bjarni M. Bjarnason, who encouraged her to start writing, and they have four sons.

Review: Shake Out The Ghosts, by Al Hess

About the book

A brutal assault nine months ago left eccentric portrait artist Micah with facial scars and PTSD. He’s struggled to leave his apartment ever since, and he can’t let anyone in. Then his only sanctuary is disrupted by signs of a haunting. 

Between the 80s synth pop and motivation messages scrawled on his bathroom mirror, Micah finds himself more charmed than frightened by who he believes to be Cosmo, the deceased previous resident of his apartment. But when Cosmo’s ghostly visits suddenly stop, Micah is determined to lure him back. 

Meanwhile, sculpture artist Cosmo – dramatic, unconventional, and very much alive – is mourning his old self. His boyfriend’s a serial cheater, he’s continually passed over for a promotion at work, and he’s lost contact with his best friend. To make matters worse, his apartment is being haunted by the ghost of a bespectacled man with an eye socket of scars. It’s his last straw, and seeking a new start, Cosmo moves out. 

In a chance meeting, Cosmo and Micah’s paths cross again, and tentative sparks fly. But the phantoms of their pasts still linger. In order to find a future where they can both be happy together, Micah and Cosmo need to confront their trauma once and for all.

Continue reading “Review: Shake Out The Ghosts, by Al Hess”

Cover Reveal: Under the Blazing Sun, by Jenny Lund Madsen

PUBLICATION DATE: 21 MAY 2026
HARDBACK ORIGINAL | £ 16. 99 | ORENDA BOOKS

Book Description


Hannah is miserable. Her love life is in ruins, her contract demands a sequel to her bestselling crime debut – and she’s out of ideas. After a mortifying TV interview, her agent ships her off to a sun-drenched Sicilian villa with a simple order: finish the book. No distractions. No excuses.

But inspiration doesn’t strike – murder does.

When a night out ends in murder, Hannah finds herself at the centre of a murder investigation … again. The police want her out of the way, and the only person who seems to believe her is a young but charming Italian police officer. That is, until she doesn’t.

Soon Hannah is chasing suspects, fleeing crime scenes, and doing whatever it takes to avoid becoming the next victim. She came to write a crime novel. Now she’s trapped inside one.


ABOUT JENNY LUND MADSEN


Jenny Lund Madsen is one of Denmark’s most acclaimed scriptwriters (including the international hits Rita and Follow the Money) and is known as an advocate for better representation for sexual and ethnic minorities in Danish TV and film. She made her debut as a playwright with the critically acclaimed Audition (Aarhus Teater) and her debut literary thriller,
Thirty Days of Darkness, first in an addictive new series, won the Harald Mogensen Prize for Best Danish Crime Novel of the year, was shortlisted for the coveted Glass Key Award, longlisted for the CWA Crime in Translation Dagger, and won the Crime Fiction Lover Award for Best Crime Book in Translation. She lives in Denmark with her wife and young family.

Cover Reveal: The Bone Mother, by Suzy Aspley

PUBLICATION DATE: 7th MAY 2026
PAPERBACK ORIGINAL | £ 9. 99 | ORENDA BOOKS

Get your copy here: https://geni.us/6CRyhn6

Description

Martha Strangeways has settled into a quiet life in Strathbran, after the horrific events that traumatised the village a year earlier. But all this is
turned upside down when her friend at Glasgow CID, DI Derek Summers,
calls on her to help with a disturbing case: a human ear, with an unusual Celtic earring, has been found next to a railway line in the Highlands.

And when the body of a young woman wearing matching jewellery turns up
at a landmark church shortly after, the mystery deepens. Why has she been
laid out in a ritualistic fashion? Does her trek along the little-known
Cailleach Way have anything to do with her death? And who is running the
Facebook Group where she posted details of her journey to the shrine of
the Bone Mother goddess?

As Martha tries to unpick the threads, she finds herself entwined with a
ghost from her own past, and in conflict with the owner of a project that
threatens to destroy the goddess’s sacred land.

With Halloween approaching, and someone determined to protect the
goddess at all costs, can Martha and Summers catch the killer before they
strike again – and this time much closer to home…?

About the author

Originally from the north-east of England, former journalist Suzy Aspley has lived in Scotland for almost thirty years. She writes crime and short stories, often inspired by the strange things she sees in the landscape around her. She won Bloody Scotland’s Pitch Perfect in 2019 with the original idea for her debut novel and was shortlisted for the Capital Crime New Voices Award. In 2020, she was mentored by Jo Dickinson as part of the Hachette future bookshelf initiative. Crow Moon was longlisted for the Caledonia Novel Award, and shortlisted for the Val McDermid Debut Award and the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize.

When she’s not writing, she’s either got her nose buried in a book, or is outside with her dogs dreaming up more dark stories. She lives in Stirlingshire with her family.

Dragon’s Comments

I really like the sound of this one, might have to get myself a copy for the book hoard.

Extract Post: Sharks, by Simone Buchholz

PUBLICATION DATE: 26th FEBRUARY 2026
PAPERBACK ORIGINAL | £ 9. 99 | ORENDA BOOKS

In Wilhelmsburg, Hamburg’s so-called ‘problem area’, an American couple is found brutally murdered in a derelict house.

Prosecutor Chastity Riley is assigned the case and quickly finds herself waist-deep in a murky tangle of city planners, shady investors and vanishing officials. The gentrification machine is rolling on, and someone is sending a very clear message.

As November fog settles over the city, Chastity is coughing up blood, her personal life is a slow-motion disaster, and her former colleague, Faller, won’t stop interfering. But nothing’s going to stop her from cutting through the lies – not even the sharks circling ever closer…

Continue reading “Extract Post: Sharks, by Simone Buchholz”

Review: Sentient, by Michael Nayak

Publisher: Angry Robot
Publication date: 24th February 2026
ISBN: 978-1-915998-44-6
Format: Paperback
Price: £9.99

Book Description

Extinction Horizon meets Contagion in this sequel to 2025’s sci-fi thriller Symbiote, where the biological threat has escaped the South Pole and is now wreaking havoc upon Antarctica. 

The survivors of the South Pole massacre will find that getting off the Antarctic continent may cost them their lives…

Months after the events of Symbiote, sunrise has come to the ice continent, bringing with it the beginning of the annual tourist season. where 1,500 summer visitors will soon call the coastal McMurdo Station home. With them are the architects of the classified CIA program that unleashed the deadly microbes, who are determined to uncover what happened with their experiment and harvest samples of the mutation to turn into a biological weapon.

However, when Ben Jacobs returns from an impossible journey to the Pole and is reunited with Penny – an asymptomatic carrier of the symbiotic microbes – all hell breaks loose. When the sea ice surrounding the station becomes a fertile breeding ground for a new and more dangerous infestation, Rajan Chariya and his friends will have to join forces with the CIA to fight the onslaught of infected “sea people” roving the streets. With tensions high and stakes even higher, the question becomes when will the group stop being useful, and start becoming targets who know too much?

Worse, there may be more than one asymptomatic carrier….

With a heart-stopping pace and twists that will leave readers breathless, Sentient is a thrilling sequel that brilliantly combines all the best horror tropes with real world scenarios.

Continue reading “Review: Sentient, by Michael Nayak”