Review: The Beaver Theory, by Antti Tuomainen, trs. David Hackston

PUBLICATION DATE: 12th OCTOBER 2023
HARDBACK ORIGINAL | £16.99 | ORENDA BOOKS

Description

Henri Koskinen, intrepid insurance mathematician and adventure park entrepreneur, firmly believes in the power of common sense and order. That is until he moves in with painter Laura Helanto and her daughter…

As Henri realises he has inadvertently become part of a group of local dads, a competing adventure park is seeking to expand their operations, not always sticking to the law in the process…

Is it possible to combine the increasingly dangerous world of the adventure-park business with the unpredictability of life in a blended family? At first glance, the two appear to have only one thing in common: neither deals particularly well with a mounting body count.

In order to solve this seemingly impossible conundrum, Henri is forced to step far beyond the mathematical precision of his comfort zone … and the stakes have never been higher…

Continue reading “Review: The Beaver Theory, by Antti Tuomainen, trs. David Hackston”

Release Day Party!

Buy Link: https://amzn.to/3FuEygY

Blurb 

Lost among the dune-swept ruins of ancient glass towers, 14-year-old Spiric hunts for his stolen memories. Guided by the exiled scholar that found him, he embarks on a perilous journey across the Droughtlands to uncover his origins.

He’s told his red eyes mark him as a Hytharo, one of the long-extinct storm callers that sealed all water into the air itself before they were erased from history. In the thousand years since, thirst has been quenched simply by breathing, but that hasn’t stopped the surviving runic peoples from wanting water any less.

For without it, there’s no ink, no runes, no magic, and in the vast desert wastes of the Droughtlands, magic means power.

To Spiric, the mantra is eerily familiar.

Word of his presence ripples across the Droughtlands and pressure mounts on him to reverse the Hytharo’s final, sacrificial act. It’s only as his memories begin to return that he realises the true reason his people were wiped out.

With the fragments of Spiric’s memories growing bloodier and more desperate, he must determine whether carrying out his supposed fate will cause history to repeat, or if he can forge a new destiny, both for himself and the Droughtlands.

Author Bio:

Jonathan Weiss is an Australian Fantasy and Science Fiction author of The Flux Catastrophe and The First Hytharo series. He has a background in Journalism and commercial cloud sales and lives with his wife and three budgies in the Illawarra region of New South Wales.

Book Review: Stigma, by Jorn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger, trs, Rosie Hedger

PUBLICATION DATE: 12th OCTOBER 2023
PAPERBACK ORIGINAL | £9.99 | ORENDA BOOKS

Description

Alexander Blix is a broken man. Convicted for avenging his daughter’s death, he is now being held in one of Norway’s high-security prisons. Inside, the other prisoners take every opportunity to challenge and humiliate the former police investigator.

On the outside, Blix’s former colleagues have begun the hunt for a terrifying killer. Walter Kroos has escaped from prison in Germany and is making his way north. The only lead established by the police is that Kroos has a friend in Blix’s prison ward. And now they need Blix’s help.

Journalist Emma Ramm is one of Blix’s few visitors, and she becomes his ally as he struggles to connect the link between past and present, between the world inside and outside the prison walls. And as he begins to piece things together, he identifies a woodland community in Norway where deeply scarred inhabitants foster deadly secrets … secrets that may be the unravelling of everyone involved.

Continue reading “Book Review: Stigma, by Jorn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger, trs, Rosie Hedger”

Review: Vet at the End of the Earth, by Jonathan Hollins

Pub. Date October 2023
Price £16.99
ISBN-13 9780715654866

Description

The role of resident vet in the British Overseas Territories encompasses the
complexities of caring for the world’s oldest known land animal – a 190 year-old giant tortoise – and MoD mascots at the Falklands airbase; pursuing mystery creatures and invasive microorganisms; relocating herds of reindeer; and rescuing animals in extraordinarily rugged landscapes, from subtropical cloud forests to volcanic cliff faces.

Witty, warm and beautifully crafted, Jonathan Hollins’s tales of island vetting are not only full of wonderful creatures – they are also steeped in the unique local history, cultures and peoples of the islands, far removed from the hustle of modern life. These tales of island vetting are perfect for animal lovers, adventurers and armchair travellers alike.

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Review: White As Snow, by Lilja Sigurðardóttir, trs. Quentin Bates

P U B L I C AT I O N DATE: 12th OCTOBER 2023
PA PE RB AC K O R I G I N A L | £9.99 | ORE N DA BOOKS

Blurb

On a snowy winter morning, an abandoned shipping container is discovered near Reykjavík. Inside are the bodies of five young women – one of them barely alive.

As Icelandic Police detective Daníel struggles to investigate the most brutal crime of his career, Áróra looks into the background of a suspicious man, who turns out to be engaged to Daníel’s former wife, and the connections don’t stop there…

Daníel and Áróra’s cases pit them both against ruthless criminals with horrifying agendas, while Áróra persists with her search for her missing sister, Ísafold, whose devastating disappearance continues to haunt her.

As the temperature drops and the 24-hour darkness and freezing snow hamper their efforts, their investigations become increasingly dangerous … for everyone.

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Review: Divide – The Relationship Crisis Between Town & Country, by Anna Jones

Publication date Thursday,
September 14, 2023
Price £10.99
EAN\ISBN-13 9780857839732

Description

This book is a call to action. It warns that unless we learn to accept and respect our social, cultural and political differences as town and country people, we are never going to solve the chronic problems in our food system and environment.

As we stare down the barrel of climate change, only farmers – who manage two thirds of the UK’s landscape – working together with conservation groups can create a healthier food system and bring back nature in diverse abundance. But this fledgling progress is hindered and hamstrung by simplistic debates that still stoke conflict between conservative rural communities and the liberal green movement.

Each chapter, from Family and Politics to Animal Welfare and the Environment, explores a different aspect of the urban/rural disconnect, weaving case studies and research with Anna’s personal stories of growing up on a small, upland farm. There is a simple theme and a strong message running throughout the book – a plea to respect our differences, recognise each other’s strengths and work together to heal the land.

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