Fiction – Page 40 – Everything Is Better With Dragons

Review: ‘When the Waters Recede’, by Graham Smith

Published By: Caffeine Nights Publishing
Publication Date: 31st May 2018
Format: Paperback
I.S.B.N.: 978-1910720967
Price: £8.49

Blurb

When a car is pulled from raging floodwaters with a dead man in the front and the decapitated body of an evil woman in the boot, Cumbria’s Major Crimes Team are handed the investigation.

The woman is soon recognised, but the man cannot be identified and this leads the team and their former leader, Harry Evans, into areas none of them want to visit.

Before they know it, they’re dealing with protection scams and looking for answers to questions they didn’t know needed to be asked.

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Bonus Review #5: ‘Redemption’, by Jussi Adler-Olsen

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This edition

Published By: Penguin

Publication Date: 18th July 2013

I.S.B.N.: 9780141399997

Format: Paperback

Originally published in Danish as

Flaskepost fra P, (1st January 2009)

Blurb

Detective Carl Mørck holds in his hands a bottle that contains old and decayed message, written in blood. It is a cry for help from two young brothers, tied and bound in a boathouse by the sea. Could it be real? Who are these boys, and why weren’t they reported missing? Could they possibly still be alive?

Carl’s investigation will force him to cross paths with a woman stuck in a desperate marriage- her husband refuses to tell her where he goes, what he does, how long he will be away. For days on end she waits, and when he returns she must endure his wants, his moods, his threats. But enough is enough. She will find out the truth, no matter the cost to her husband—or to herself.

Carl and his colleagues Assad and Rose must use all of their resources to uncover the horrifying truth in this heart-pounding Nordic thriller from the #1 international bestselling author Jussi Adler-Olsen

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Bonus Review #4: ‘Children of Time’, by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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Published by: Pan Macmillan

Publication Date: 21st April 2016 (First published June 2015)

I.S.B.N.: 9781447273301

Format: Paperback

Price: 8.99

Blurb

The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age—a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind’s worst nightmare. Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?

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Alex’s Review: ‘The Planetsider’, by G.J. Ogden

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Published By: CreateSpace Independent Publishing

Publication Date: 18th February 2018

I.S.B.N.: 978-1983716720

Format: Paperback

Price: £8.99

Available from Amazon

Blurb

Several generations after ‘The Fall’, the scattered clusters of civilisation that grew in its wake live in ignorance of the past. No-one wants to know what caused such devastation or why. No-one, except Ethan. Ethan used to believe in the guardians; mysterious lights in the sky that, according to folklore, protect the survivors, so long as you believe in them. But the death of his parents shattered his faith and forged within him a hunger to know more. One night, a light grows brighter in the sky and crashes to the planet’s surface. Ethan then embarks on a heartbreaking journey in which harrowing discoveries unveil the secrets of the past, and place him at the centre of a deadly conflict. Powerful, thought-provoking and emotionally absorbing, The Planetsider is a gripping, post-apocalyptic thriller that will keep you hooked until the very end.

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Review schedule – May to September 2018

Hola peeps, it’s the end of April and this time for me to write the reviewing schedule for May. Except I’m starting my dissertation in a few days, so reviewing is taking a back seat. That doesn’t mean there won’t be reviews. Even I need a break from writing occasionally.

Which reminds me, Charley’s War is on to chapter 30 and is only half done. I’ll get there eventually.

So, what have I got booked in for the next few months?

Edit: It’s npw mid-July and some significant progress has been made with the dissertation so I’ve added some reviews to the schedule.

May

6th
- The Planetsider, by GJ Ogden
- Alex is reviewing this one. since it’s a YA novel.

June

1st
- When The Water’s Recede, by Graham Smith
- Crime novel
20th
- Tubing, by K.A. McKeagney
- Crime thriller

July

13th
- The London Mysteries, books 1 & 2, by Alice Castle
- Cosy crime set in modern London
19th
- Wrecker, by Noel O’Reilly
- Historical fiction set in Cornwall
27th
- Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, by Gina Kirkham
- Humour

August

3rd
- Duck Egg Blues, by Martin Ungless
- Crime/sci-fi
8th
- The Cheesemaker’s House, by Jane Cable
- This is to celebrate the novel’s fifth birthday
- Mystery/women’s fiction (maybe, I’m not too sure)
18th
- Implant, by Ray Clark
- Crime
23rd
- Love you Stationary
- A children’s picture book
24th
- Tommy Twigtree
- Also a picture book

There will also be a couple of promo posts this month:
12th
- Q&A about ‘The Bespokest Society Guide To London’
14th
- Promo post for ‘The Camberwell Calamity’, by Alice Castle
- The London Mysteries #3 – Beth’s adventures continue…

September – Nothing booked in so far.

It’s a bit spartan, I know and mostly crime, but I need to focus on my writing for a few months. As I said, there will be other, unscheduled reviews, because I have a pile of books waiting to be read.

Review: ‘Under The Woods’, by KA Richardson

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Published by: Bloodhound Books

Publication Date: 27th April 2018

I.S.B.N.: 9781912604241

Format: Paperback

Price:

Blurb

When a homeless woman, Cheryl Whiffen, hears voices in her head telling her to do bad things, she can’t help but obey.

But when Cheryl becomes the victim of a serial killer who is collecting angels, this time the voices can’t help her. She is deemed not worthy of being an angel and the killer has to find another way to dispose of her body.

TJ Tulley has connections in the police force – her brother Jacob is a digital forensic analyst and her soon to be sister-in-law is a CSI. She knows many of their colleagues so when someone breaks into her house at the riding stables she owns, it’s not a surprise when the police dispatch CSI Jackson Doherty.

Is there a link between a suspicious fire at the stables and the serial killer?

As TJ and Doherty get closer to the truth they don’t realise the danger they are in. He is a killer – he’s angry at their investigation and he’ll do just about anything to protect his angels…

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Review: ‘Mark Of The Devil’, By Tana Collins

MARK OF THE DEVIL final

Published By: Bloodhound

Publication Date: 24th April 2018

I.S.B.N.: 9781912604180

Blurb

While Inspector Jim Carruthers and team are busy investigating a series of art thefts they receive an anonymous tip about the body of a young woman on a deserted beach.

The bizarre clues to her identity, and what might have happened to her, include a strange tattoo, a set of binoculars and slab of meat left on the cliffs.

The team’s investigations lead them to a local shooting estate and its wealthy owner Barry Cuthbert. However, Carruthers suspects Cuthbert is not all he seems and the DI soon starts to wonder if the cases of the missing works of art, the dead woman and the estate are connected.

Then when the body of a young gamekeeper is pulled from the sea tensions boil over. The trail of clues lead the team to the unlikely locale of Tallinn and into the sinister world of international crime and police corruption.

Needing answers Carruthers must look further afield than Fife. However, the closer he gets to discovering the truth the more danger he finds himself in.

Since everyone who crosses the vengeful killers seem to end up dead, can Carruthers solve the case with his life in tact?

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Review: ‘Turn A Blind Eye’, by Vicky Newham

Published By: HarperCollins – HQ

Publication Date: 5th April 2018

Format: Hardback

I.S.B.N.: 9780008240677

Price: £12.99

Blurb

A dead girl.
A wall of silence.
DI Maya Rahman is running out of time.

A headmistress is found strangled in an East London school, her death the result of a brutal and ritualistic act of violence. Found at the scene is a single piece of card, written upon which is an ancient Buddhist precept:

I shall abstain from taking the ungiven.

At first, DI Maya Rahman can’t help but hope this is a tragic but isolated murder. Then, the second body is found.

Faced with a community steeped in secrets and prejudice, Maya must untangle the cryptic messages left at the crime scenes to solve the deadly riddle behind the murders before the killer takes another victim.

Turn a Blind Eye is the first book in a brand-new series set in East London and starring DI Maya Rahman.

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Review: ‘Pendle Fire’, by Paul Southern

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Published By: Bloodhound Books

Publication Date: 4th January 2018

I.S.B.N.: 9781912604098

Format: Kindle

Blurb

Social worker Johnny Malkin is battling a crippling workload and a hostile local community. That’s on a good day: things are about to get a whole lot worse.

Two fourteen-year-old girls are found wandering Aitken Wood on the slopes of Pendle Hill, claiming to have been raped by a gang of men. With no female social workers available, Johnny is assigned to their case. But what, at first, looks like yet another incident of child exploitation takes a sinister turn when the girls start speaking of a forthcoming apocalypse.

When Johnny interviews one of the girls, Jenna Dunham, her story starts to unravel. His investigation draws him into a tight-knit village community in the shadow of Pendle Hill, where whispers of witchcraft and child abuse go back to the Middle Ages.

One name recurs: The Hobbledy Man. Is he responsible for the outbreaks of violence sweeping across the country?

Is he more than just myth?

www.paulsouthern.org

https://www.facebook.com/paulsouthernauthor/

https://twitter.com/psouthernauthor

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Review: ‘The Cubit Quest’, by Trevor Leck

Published By: Clink Street Publishing

Publication Date: 2nd March 2017

I.S.B.N.: 978-1911525271

Format: Paperback

Price: £9.99

Blurb

Twelve-year-old Charlie Watkins could have inherited his dad’s massive intellect.
He got his massive feet instead.

Perhaps if Charlie had that intellect he might have been able to figure out why so many men in suits were suddenly following him or where his dad hid the Cubit – a mythical object that men have sworn to protect and even more have died trying to possess – before his so-called accident.

If starting yet another new school wasn’t bad enough, Charlie meets Mr Leopold, a disfigured, mind-reading lunatic and discovers that he alone must find the Cubit if he is to save his dad. The Brotherhood, however, have other ideas. Led by the ruthless Draganovic, they will stop at nothing to get their hands on it. With the help of Mr Leopold and fellow new boy Elvis, Charlie sets out on The Cubit Quest.

Hunting for the Cubit, playing football, lessons with the dreaded Funeral Face and unsuccessfully avoiding school bully Grimshaw by day, Charlie finds his nights no less complicated. Stalked in his dreams, he’s soon immersed in a world of power struggles, battling dragons and duels to the death. With the Brotherhood hot on his heels and as the bullets begin to fly, there are no guarantees that Charlie, or anyone else, will make it to the end in one piece.

Purchase from Amazon UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N12WKPG/

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