Book review – Page 49 – Everything Is Better With Dragons

Review: ‘Sweet Pea’, by C. J. Skuse

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…

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Review: ‘The Watcher’, By Monika Jephcott

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 Erika too struggles to reconcile this withdrawn, volatile figure with the husband she knew and loved before, and, as she strives to break through the wall Max has built around himself, Netta is both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/

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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?

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Review: ‘Sun, Sea and Sex’, by Greta Horwood

Sun Sea Sex Cover

Published By: AuthorHouseUK

Publication Date: 3rd August 2017

Format: Paperback

I.S.B.N.: 9781546280262

Price: £9.95

Blurb

Escaping to live on a Caribbean island, Zeeta and her two best friends reflect on their turbulent lives, loves and the decisions that shaped them.

Growing up Zeeta always strove to be the perfect daughter and be everything her parents hoped. Unfortunately, she soon realised that she’d never be good enough, it’s her brother who holds their love. Thankfully, she can always turn to her lifelong friend Sheila —a boy-mad teenager whose love of the opposite sex will follow her into adulthood with a rollercoaster of consequences. Determined to make something of her life Zeeta continues to be a model student and earns a place at cookery college where good qualifications should pave the way to a career and security. But getting the job she wanted proved impossible. However, a chance meeting on her train to work with Peggy —a vibrant and successful career woman— who offers Zeeta an exciting new job in London changes the course of her life forever.

Happily enjoying her new independence, and friendship with Peggy, Zeeta finally feels like life and luck is on her side. And so whilst at a work conference when she unexpectedly meets her childhood friend Martin Zeeta wastes no time throwing herself into a whirlwind romance. And when Martin proposes marriage she doesn’t hesitate but love never did run smoothly and all too soon Zeeta’s bliss leads to disaster and heartbreak. Reeling from events, on the rebound and emotionally unready, Zeeta quickly falls into a second marriage. But her second husband has a dark side one with a depraved sexual appetite. Trapped and afraid it is only with the help and support of her two best friends, Sheila and Peggy, that Zeeta will find the strength to finally emerge free and independent.

A story of life, love and friendship, Sun, Sea and Sex by Greta Horwood is the perfect next read for fans of commercial women’s and romantic fiction .

Purchase from Amazon UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sun-Sea-Sex-Greta-Horwood/dp/154628026X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1505983174&sr=1-1

About the author: Retired and living in Great Horwood, Buckinghamshire Greta Horwood is the pen name for Patricia Rudkin. An active member of her community, Patricia has worked as the secretary for the Village Hall management committee, arranged village fetes and fundraising events and worked as the caretaker for Great Horwood Village School. Along with her late husband, she also used to run a youth club called Great Horwood Sports and Activities Club. And up until last January she was a weekly contributor to the Buckingham and Winslow Advertiser and Great Horwood Village News. Patricia is also Membership Secretary and Welfare Officer for the Blue-Pointed Siamese Cat Club Committee and life member of the Seal Pointed Siamese Cat Club. She fund raises for cat welfare, via eBay for both clubs. Her other interests include Genealogy.

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Review: ‘Marked To Die’, by Sarah Hawkswood.

Published By: Allison& Busby Ltd.

Publication Date: 24th August 2017

I.S.B.N.: 9780749022402

Format: Hardback

Price: £19.99

Third in the Bradecote and Catchpoll Mystery series

Blurb

October 1143. A mysterious archer who kills cleanly and ‘dissolves’ into the forest, a missing train of pack mules on the salt road from Wich, and a lord in the wrong place at the wrong time, mean a crime the lord Sheriff of Worcestershire cannot ignore.

Bradecote, Catchpoll, and the eager Walkelin, are hunting a killer and a gang, and whoever is giving them orders. They are not helped by a reeve keen to keep his position, a lord with his own ends to serve, and a distrusting and vengeful widow with a haunted past, to whom Bradecote is increasingly attracted.

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Review: ‘Entropy’, by Bryn Lucas

Bryn contacted me earlier in the year to ask if I’d review his book Entropy. I liked the premise, so here we go:

Entropy: Political Intrigue in 2048 by [Lucas, Bryn]

Published By: CreateSpace

Publication Date: 17th July 2017

I.S.B.N.: 9781548895938

Format: ebook and paperback available

Price: £0.99 (ebook), £12.00 (paperback)

Blurb

Entropy is a speculative thriller set in the London of the very near future where the accepted political wisdoms of today have presaged the catastrophes of tomorrow.

Dylan Sharkey, a civil service desk jockey, is sucked into a revolutionary plot to bring justice to the dispossessed. His mission uncovers a foreign mole at the highest level of the British Government. Continuing his quest may cost him his life. Abandoning it would lose him his humanity.

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Review: ‘After The Fire’, by Henning Mankell

Published By: Random House

Publication Date: 5th October 2017

Format: Hardback

I.S.B.N: 9781910701768

Price: £17.99

Blurb

Fredrik Welin is a seventy-year-old retired doctor. Years ago he retreated to the Swedish archipelago, where he lives alone on an island. He swims in the sea every day, cutting a hole in the ice if necessary. He lives a quiet life. Until he wakes up one night to find his house on fire.

Fredrik escapes just in time, wearing two left-footed wellies, as neighbouring islanders arrive to help douse the flames. All that remains in the morning is a stinking ruin and evidence of arson. The house that has been in his family for generations and all his worldly belongings are gone. He cannot think who would do such a thing, or why. Without a suspect, the police begin to think he started the fire himself.

Tackling love, loss and loneliness, After the Fire is Henning Mankell’s compelling last novel.

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Review: ‘Asia Literacy and GLobal Competence: Collections And Recollections’, by Alicia Su Lozeron

Published By: Asia-America Connection Society

Publication Date: 28th September

I.S.B.N.: 9780998194158

Format: Available as E-book or Hardback

Price: £2.36 (Kindle E-book), £16.12 (Hardback)

Blurb

An irresistible shift of global power renders awareness about global competence ever more important. Through her collection of vignettes and articles about Asia and the world, Alicia Su Lozeron brings the Asian segment onto the western stage. She aims to raise that awareness and connects the West to the East by researching and analysing facts as well as describing experiences of cross-cultural nature. Her content is compelling, and her tales, beautifully narrated.

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Review: ‘A Visitor’s Guide To Georgian England’, by Monica Hall

A Visitor's Guide to Georgian England

Published By: Pen & Sword History

Publication Date: 4th September 2017

I.S.B.N.: 9781473876859

Format: Paperback

Price: £12.99

Blurb

Could you successfully be a Georgian? Find yourself immersed in the pivotal world of Georgian England, exciting times to live in as everything was booming; the Industrial Revolution, the Enlightenment, and the nascent Empire; inhabited by Mary Shelley, the Romantic Poets and their contemporaries. However, rather than just wondering about the famous or infamous, you will find everything you need to know in order to survive undetected among the ordinary people. What to wear, how to behave yourself in public, earn a living, and find somewhere to live. Very importantly, you will be given advice on how to stay on the right side of the law, and how to avoid getting seriously ill. Monica Hall creatively awakens this bygone era, filling the pages with all aspects of daily life within the period, calling upon diaries, illustrations, letters, poetry, prose, 18th century laws and archives. This detailed account intimately explores the ever changing lives of those who lived through Britain’s imperial prowess, the birth of modern capitalism, the reverence of the industrial revolution and the upheaval of great political reform and class division. A Visitor’s Guide to Georgian England will appeal to Romantic poetry lovers, social history fans, fiction and drama lovers, students and anyone with an interest in this revolutionary era.

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Review: ‘Fatal Evidence’, by Helen Barrell

a Fatal Evidence

Published By: Pen & Sword History

Publication Date: 4th September 2017

I.S.B.N.: 9781473883413

Format: Hardback

Price: £15.99

Blurb

If there was a suspected poisoning in Victorian Britain, Professor Alfred Swaine Taylor was one of the toxicologists whose opinion would be sought. A surgeon and chemist at Guy’s Hospital in London, he used new techniques to search human remains for evidence that had previously been unseen. As well as finding telltale crystals of poison in test tubes, he could identify blood on clothing and weapons, and he used hair and fibre analysis to catch killers.

Taylor is perhaps best remembered as an expert witness at one of Victorian England’s most infamous trials – that of William Palmer, ‘The Rugeley Poisoner’. The case of the strychnine that wasn’t there haunted Taylor, setting up controversial rivalries with other scientists that would last decades. It overshadowed his involvement in hundreds of other intriguing cases, such as The Waterloo Bridge Mystery; The Great Fire of Newcastle and Gateshead; and the investigation into female impersonators, Boulton and Park. Crime struck even at the heart of Taylor’s own family, when his nephew’s death became the focus of The Eastbourne Manslaughter.

Taylor wrote many books and articles on forensic medicine; he became required reading for all nineteenth-century medical students. He gave Charles Dickens a tour of his laboratory, and Wilkie Collins owned copies of his books on poisons. Taylor’s work was known to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and he inspired the creation of fictional forensic detective Dr Thorndyke; for Dorothy L. Sayers, Taylor’s books were ‘the back doors to death’.

From crime scene to laboratory to courtroom – and sometimes to the gallows – this is the world of Alfred Swaine Taylor and his fatal evidence.

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