Melanie’s reads

BLOG TOUR – The Wedding by Ruth Heald

Thank you to Sarah @bookouture for my place on the tour and ebook via NetGalley in exchange for review. All opinions are honest and my own.

Blurb

Just four words were printed in the card. He doesn’t love you.

I’ve been dreaming about this day – marrying Adam, my childhood sweetheart, who I’ve loved for eighteen years.

I didn’t realise the perfect day would turn into the perfect nightmare.

I was so excited to send out the wedding invitations, carefully writing everyone’s names on thick cream paper in beautiful cursive script.

I had no idea I was inviting someone to destroy our marriage.

I couldn’t wait to say ‘I do’ surrounded by loved ones clinking champagne glasses.

I couldn’t imagine that one of them would try to hurt me.

It was meant to be the first day of the rest of our lives.

I never thought it would be the end of my life as I knew it.

We were meant to share our vows, to toast our future. But when the truth comes out, shocking the onlooking guests and ripping my heart out, is a happy ever after possible?

A completely gripping and totally addictive read that will get your blood pressure rising and send shivers down your spine. Fans of Date Night, The Sister-in-Law and The Girl on the Train will devour this twisty, dark and gasp-worthy page-turner in one swift gulp!

My Review

Some books are like a leisurely stroll where you take your time admiring the scenery and getting to know the people you meet. This book is not that! This book is more like challenging Usain Bolt to a sprint and you are desperately trying to catch up. I was hooked right from the creepy prologue and I don’t know how Ruth Heald does it but she manages to write characters who you like but distrust in equal measure.

She’s also the queen of misdirection, a couple of times I thought I had it all sussed only to be proven wrong yet again.

With dual timelines of 2001 and the present and the setting switching between London and Thailand we meet A&E doctor Lauren preparing to marry GP Adam her childhood sweetheart. The narrative alternates between Lauren and Adam as we learn that someone is out to sabotage their happy day. So many suspects I thought my head would explode and the pace didn’t let up for a second. The short snappy chapters made this a very fast and easy read.

Poor Lauren having watched both her parents drown on a joint family holiday to Thailand eighteen years ago, has only her sister Tracey and she hasn’t seen her since their funeral as she runs a hotel back in Thailand. So when the wedding moves to Thailand I knew another tragedy would unfold there.

There is so much going on and a vast cast of characters that it felt like a gripping television drama series that you binge watch in a day and can’t wait to discuss with your friends to see who they think did it.

About the author

Ruth Heald is a psychological thriller writer from a suburban Buckinghamshire town. She studied Economics at Oxford and then worked in an eclectic mix of sectors from nuclear decommissioning to management consulting.

Seeking a more creative environment, she found a role at the BBC and worked there for nine years before leaving to write full time. Ruth is fascinated by psychology and finding out what drives people to violence, destruction and revenge. She’s married with one daughter and her novels explore our greatest fears in otherwise ordinary, domestic lives.

https://twitter.com/RJ_Heald

Links to buy

Amazon: https://bit.ly/3aM5b2g
Apple: http://apple.co/33DgtSA
Kobo: http://bit.ly/37uvhE0
Google: http://bit.ly/37xatf3

Don’t forget to check out all the other blogger’s thoughts on the tour. Happy reading!

Cover Reveal for The Frozen Girl by Roberta Gately

THE FROZEN GIRL – Publishing May 18th 2021

Blurb

The young woman’s mouth is slightly parted, as if waiting to speak. Her body is frozen in ice and her blue eyes stare at the sky, perhaps wanting to look at the stars one last time…

When the body of a woman is found in a frozen river, Jessie Novak and her partner Detective Sam Dallas rush to the scene. Jessie is shocked to find the girl in the ice is Sheila Logan, who she worked closely with for years. Jessie desperately wants to find out how this young and talented woman ended up an innocent victim.

But who would want to kill her? As she digs into Sheila’s past, Jessie realises she was having an affair with a colleague and may even have been pregnant. Was someone looking for revenge? Jessie knows how it feels to be betrayed by those you love—her mother walked out on her when she was just a baby and never looked back.

When another body turns up, this time Sheila’s elderly neighbor, Jessie sees a lethal pattern forming. Next, someone breaks into her car and she knows she’s being warned off the case. But with the killer in her sights, will she take the deadliest risk of her life? Can Jessie catch him, before he catches up to her?

This utterly addictive novel will keep you up all night! Fans of Lisa Regan, Angela Marsons and Tess Gerritsen will be totally hooked until the last heart-thumping page.

Links to purchase

Amazon: https://geni.us/B08XMTCBN2Cover

Apple: http://ow.ly/ObXK50DLC5R

Kobo: http://ow.ly/gfNV50DLC5k

Google: http://ow.ly/98Yp50DLZKh

About the author

Roberta Gately, lives in Boston where she works as a nurse at the Boston Medical Center. It was in the ER where she developed an interest in the investigations behind the crimes and the victims she encountered. Working in a busy ER is much like being a detective—the search for answers is a methodical process, not unlike the work required to solve a murder!

Her crime series with Bookouture stars the brave and brilliant ER nurse Jessie Novak who teams up with her detective friend to solve tricky Boston murder cases. Expect addictive mysteries, breathtaking suspense and a gutsy heroine you’ll never forget. When she’s not writing or working at the hospital, Roberta enjoys reading, working out and spending time with friends and family.

She has also worked in humanitarian aid, providing medical care in some of the world’s bleakest spots ranging from Africa to Afghanistan. Her two previous novels, Lipstick in Afghanistan and The Bracelet were based upon her experiences of nursing abroad. Her memoir—Footprints in the Dust tells the true stories of some of the extraordinary people she met.

Author Social Media Links

Roberta loves hearing from readers and you can get in touch with her using the links below.

Author website: robertagately.com<http://robertagately.com>

Twitter: twitter.com/RobertaGately<http://twitter.com/RobertaGately>

Facebook page: facebook.com/RobertaGatelyAuthor<http://facebook.com/RobertaGatelyAuthor>

Instagram instagram.com/roberta_gately<http://instagram.com/roberta_gately>

So now to the fabulous cover……….

BLOG TOUR – Fatal Isles by Maria Adolfsson

Thank you to Tracy @CompulsiveReaders for my place on the tour and to Zaffre Books for my gifted paperback in exchange for review. All opinions are honest and my own.

Blurb

A remote island. A brutal murder. A secret hidden in the past . . .

In the middle of the North Sea, between the UK and Denmark, lies the beautiful and rugged island nation of Doggerland.
Detective Inspector Karen Eiken Hornby has returned to the main island, Heimö, after many years in London and has worked hard to become one of the few female police officers in Doggerland.

So, when she wakes up in a hotel room next to her boss, Jounas Smeed, she knows she’s made a big mistake. But things are about to get worse: later that day, Jounas’s ex-wife is found brutally murdered. And Karen is the only one who can give him an alibi.

The news sends shockwaves through the tight-knit island community, and with no leads and no obvious motive for the murder, Karen struggles to find the killer in a race against time.

Soon she starts to suspect that the truth might lie in Doggerland’s history. And the deeper she digs, the clearer it becomes that even small islands can hide deadly secrets . . .

My Review

What a fantastic opening to a book, with an extremely hungover Karen trying not to wake the occupant of the bed as she searches frantically for her clothes the morning after the Oyster Festival. We soon learn she has good reason for not waking him as it turns out he is her boss.

However it only goes downhill from there as her boss’s ex wife is then found murdered and she is his alibi. Not great when you are the Detective Inspector assigned to the case. With the police all sticking by her boss even though it was an acrimonious marriage and he is a pretty horrible man, is that enough for murder? With very few suspects Karen starts digging into the victim’s past.

Having to fight against sexism in the workplace Karen has a tough job on her hands. The locals shut down and become insular, trying to protect their secrets.

It made a pleasant change to read from the point of view of a woman my age rather than the normal green and much younger police officers. It lent the book some gritty realism even when the setting was completely imagined, not that it ever felt fictitious.

I haven’t read much translated fiction, sometimes they work sometimes they don’t. This is very much in the former category and I look forward to returning to Doggerland.

About the author

Maria Adolfsson (b. 1958) lives in Stockholm where she, until recently, worked as a communications director and now writes full-time. The Doggerland series has been sold in to 18 languages to date, and has sold over 250 000 copies in Sweden alone.

Link to buy

BLOG TOUR – The pretty one by Clare Boyd

Thank you to Noelle @bookouture for my place on the tour and ebook via NetGalley in exchange for review. All opinions are honest and my own.

Blurb

Nell is the perfect child; more beautiful and more likeable and more loveable than me. If my pretty little sister never came home again, I’d finally be free from the terrible secret we share…

Anna is a wonderful mother. She gave up a career she loved to stay home with her children and her kind, polite daughters, Nell and Ivy, are a credit to her. As is Bay, her stepdaughter, whom Anna adores as much as her own two girls. But everything changes the day Anna’s middle daughter’s beauty catches the eye of a stranger in a café…

Quiet, sensitive Nell doesn’t want to have her face on a billboard for all to see. But she knows her family desperately needs the money, and perhaps it would be nice to have her mother’s full attention for the first time since Bay arrived? Could this be the escape from her stepsister’s twisted games Nell has been longing for?

But the moment Nell steps in front of a camera, the devastating secret she and Bay have been keeping breaks the surface – and the bonds of this close-knit family forever. But with both Nell and Bay insisting they’re innocent, can either girl really be trusted?

As Anna’s perfect blended family unravels around her, she is forced to pick a side. To save one daughter, Anna must betray another. Choosing the wrong girl will be more dangerous than anyone could ever have imagined…

An unputdownable read-all-night family drama that explores the dark consequences of sibling rivalry and the heart-wrenching emotional cost of keeping secrets from those you love. Perfect for fans of Big Little Lies, Little Fires Everywhere and My Dark Vanessa.

My Review

This is a book that shows a family’s pretence of normality when the reality is they are broken, dysfunctional and struggling to hold it all together. It also encapsulates an unsavoury behind the scenes look at the supposedly glamorous world of modelling.

I struggled with Anna as a mother and her chase for family perfection. As a mother of two girls I thought I would relate to her but maybe it’s because i think perfection is overrated I just wanted to shake her. The Japanese art principle to me is a better way of looking at flaws, embrace them, gild them and turn them into something wonderful. Whereas Anna just chooses to bury her head in the sand and ignore the obvious.

The children all had very distinct personalities, Nell desperate to please but also find independence, little Ivy who only wants a kitten but Dad is allergic and Bay. Now Bay was my favourite character and I wanted to hug her and murder her all at the same time. The tag line you’re only as perfect as your most troubled child was genius and fits this family and the book completely.

The short chapters kept the pace and the minutiae of chores and family life kept the realism of a stay at home parents daily struggle. This is a dark family drama that really puts parents and the modelling industry under the microscope and makes you ask how well do you know your kids?

About the author

Clare lives with her husband and their two daughters in Surrey, where her little green shed at the bottom of the garden provides a haven for her writing life. Before becoming a writer, she enjoyed a career in television, as a researcher in documentaries and then as a script editor in drama at the BBC and Channel Four, where her love of storytelling took hold.

Author Social Media Links:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/clareboydclark

FACEBOOK: clare.boyd.14
TWITTER: @ClareBoydClark
INSTAGRAM: claresboyd

Links to buy

Amazon: https://geni.us/B08TRGS59HSocial

Apple: http://ow.ly/UvNa50Dh3Xj

Kobo: http://ow.ly/SKFt50Dh3Wo

Google: http://ow.ly/owyE50Dh3YP

BLOG TOUR – The girl in the missing poster by Barbara Copperthwaite

Blurb

24 June, 1994 – Nineteen-year-old Leila Hawkins runs from her father’s birthday party into the stormy night wearing her sister Stella’s long red coat. Some say she was crying, others swear they saw her get into a passing car. Nobody ever saw her again.

Present – This time every year, on the anniversary of that fateful night, Stella decorates the small seaside town she grew up in with pictures of her beautiful missing sister. But after twenty-five years, is it even worth hoping someone will come forward? Perhaps the upcoming documentary will spark people’s memories by reuniting all the guests who were there the night Leila went missing.

As old friends gather and long-buried secrets begin to surface, the last thing Stella ever expects is a direct response from someone claiming they took Leila. They want private details of Stella’s life in return for answers. But as the true events of the night of the party play out once again, who is lying? And who is next?

From the bestselling author of The Perfect Friend, this absolutely gripping psychological thriller will keep you up all night and leave you sleeping with the light on. If you loved Gone Girl, The Girl on the Train and The Wife Between Us this book is for you!

My Review

I loved Barbara’s last book The perfect friend so I was really looking forward to this one. She is an author that knows her characters inside and out and while both books start with a slow burn they always race towards the conclusions.

Stella had my attention standing up to an abusive dog owner in the park, while she was doing her annual distribution of missing posters on the anniversary of her twin sister Leila’s disappearance. Twenty five years on and she is still reminded of it every time she looks in the mirror. Desperately needing closure she agrees to take part in a documentary, hoping she will get some answers.

Told mainly from Stella’s perspective and the clever use of transcripts from the documentary we learn more about that fateful night. With a wide suspect pool there doesn’t seem to be even one character that avoids suspicion.

I can only imagine the sheer amount of plotting the author had to do to bring this all together, using just the right amount of red herrings to steer the reader off course. I have an image in my head of the scene in Bruce Almighty with the over load of post it notes.

With the feel of true crime, conspiracy theories being brought to attention and documentaries being all the rage on Netflix I highly recommend giving this well executed book a read.

About the author

Barbara is the Amazon and USA Today bestselling author of psychological thrillers INVISIBLE, FLOWERS FOR THE DEAD, THE DARKEST LIES, and HER LAST SECRET.

More importantly, she loves cakes, wildlife photography and, last but definitely not least, her two dogs, Scamp and Buddy (who force her to throw tennis balls for them for hours).

Having spent over twenty years as a national newspaper and magazine journalist, Barbara has interviewed the real victims of crime – and also those who have carried those crimes out. She is fascinated by creating realistic, complex characters, and taking them apart before the readers’ eyes in order to discover just how much it takes to push a person over a line.

When not writing feverishly, she is often found hiding behind a camera, taking wildlife photographs.

Author Social Media Links:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/AuthorBarbaraCopperthwaite<http://www.facebook.com/AuthorBarbaraCopperthwaite>
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BCopperthwait
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/author_barbara_copperthwaite/
Website: www.barbaracopperthwaite.com<http://www.barbaracopperthwaite.com>

Links to buy
Amazon: <a href="https://bit.ly/37bi1UJ”>https://bit.ly/37bi1UJ<https://bit.ly/37bi1UJ?fbclid=IwAR1E_b8wkkwLTePgWFuJ9ZRKlPR6mSxCycRjncleDa_oAPJ0I-2oTJozDhE>
Apple: <a href="https://apple.co/39ycwCv”>https://apple.co/39ycwCv<https://apple.co/39ycwCv?fbclid=IwAR2NALcPHfuDv9WzsvqLp4cANzyzeNeuBnsrGdK4OlTSe3Jk7djtIklbtjE>
Kobo: https://bit.ly/3mdTSDi
Google: http://ow.ly/Vgnn50CxPSB

BLOG TOUR – Safe and sound by Philippa East

Thank you to the lovely Sian @HQ for my place on the tour and ebook via NetGalley in exchange for review. All opinions are honest and my own.

Blurb

Home can be the most dangerous place…

In a small London bedsit, a radio is playing. A small dining table is set for three, and curled up on the sofa is a body…

Jenn is the one who discovers the woman, along with the bailiffs. All indications suggest that the tenant – Sarah Jones – was pretty, charismatic and full of life.

So how is it possible that her body has lain undiscovered for ten whole months?

My Review

I love a good mystery and the blurb was an instant hook for me. I had so many questions running through my head before I had even started reading!

This book will pull you in and turn you inside out. With its unreliability you are never quite sure what to believe. Jenn, working in the housing department, who discovers dead tenant Sarah is an anxiety ridden mess who is obsessed with her son Charlie’s wellbeing making her seem too fragile to cope with such a find.

The timelines change as you get the story of a girl called Prin and her family. All the while I was trying to join the dots to make connections. Just like a difficult puzzle you don’t get to see the complete picture until the very last piece is put in its place.

As in reality people’s lives are often not what they lead the world to believe. When fantasy blurs with reality that’s when the problems start. An intriguing immersive read that had my head dizzy from all the spinning.

About the author

Philippa East grew up in Scotland and originally studied Psychology and Philosophy at the University of Oxford. After graduating, she moved to London to train as a Clinical Psychologist and worked in NHS mental health services for over ten years. Philippa now lives in the Lincolnshire countryside with her husband and cat. Her first novel Little White Lies was published in 2020 and was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger. Safe and Sound is her second novel.

Link to buy

BLOG TOUR – The art of death by David Fennell 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thanks to Tracy @CompulsiveReaders for my place on the tour and to Zaffre Books for my paperback in exchange for review. All opinions are honest and my own.

Blurb

London’s latest art installation is a real killer . . .

An underground artist leaves three glass cabinets in Trafalgar Square that contain a gruesome installation: the corpses of three homeless men.

With the artist promising more to follow, newly-promoted Detective Inspector Grace Archer and her caustic DS, Harry Quinn, must race against time to follow what few clues have been left by a savvy killer.

As more bodies are exhibited at London landmarks and live streamed on social media, Archer and Quinn’s pursuit of the elusive killer becomes a desperate search.

But when Archer discovers that the killer might be closer than she originally thought – she realises that he has his sights set firmly on her . . .

He is creating a masterpiece. And she will be the star of his show.

A DEBUT YOU WILL NOT WANT TO MISS

AND A KILLER YOU WILL NEVER FORGET

My Review

A shockingly macabre art installation by an artist calling himself @nonymous left in Trafalgar square, a cafe full of millennials being stalked online by a patron and a newly promoted DI Grace Archer working in the very police station where she arrested ex DI Andy Rees and whose job she now has. This book throws everything at you straight away and never lets it’s pace slip for a second.

The art installation is three homeless men in formaldehyde and their deaths are also being viewed as part of the art show by video and online streaming with the promise of more to come.

DI Grace Archer teams up with DS Harry Quinn and with the help of a former colleague NCA analyst Klara Clark they are in a race against the clock to solve the case.

This has everything I love in a police procedural, frosty boss tick, disgruntled colleagues with an axe to grind tick and a very modern murder. After reading this I am definitely glad that I take a book rather than a laptop to a cafe. This also disturbingly shows what people consider entertainment and art and an artist/killer who uses murder to grab attention. It’s like rubber neckers at a car crash I suppose.

This is refreshingly up to date, unsettling, creepy and in my opinion one hell of a debut.

About the author

David Fennell was born and raised in Belfast before leaving for London at the age of eighteen with £50 in one pocket and a dog-eared copy of Stephen King’s TheStand in the other. He jobbed as a chef, waiter and bartender for several years before starting a career in writing for the software industry. He has been working in CyberSecurity for fourteen years and is a fierce advocate for information privacy.

To find out more, visit his website: www.davidfennell.co.ukand follow him on Twitter: @davyfennell

Link to buy

BLOG TOUR – The girl from Silent Lake by Leslie Wolfe

Blurb

She felt a shiver up her spine as she approached the body, as if its coldness was somehow touching her own soul. The girl in the shallow grave was wrapped in a blanket like a newborn baby. Her skin was porcelain white, as if kissed by snow, and her hair was braided, tied with feathers. What had happened to this poor innocent girl?

Detective Kay Sharp vowed she’d never return to her childhood home. On the night of her thirteenth birthday her broken family was shattered beyond repair, and leaving was the only option. Unable to fix her own past, she’s been an FBI profiler for over a decade, desperate to save others.

But now Kay’s back and only she can solve the crime that has rocked the tight-knit community of Mount Chester to its core. A dead woman has been found by Silent Lake under the dew-covered Fall leaves, her hair braided and her body wrapped in a blanket. This small town may be a stranger to murder, but Kay recognizes the signs of a serial killer. She’s certain that the ritualistic nature of the scene means it’s just a matter of time until he strikes again––unless she catches him first.

As yellow do-not-cross tape flaps in the biting wind, another woman is reported missing. Kay leads a frenzied search for out-of-towner Alison Nolan and when she locates her car, Kay’s blood turns to ice as she shines her flashlight on the backseat and sees a teddy bear. Alison’s six-year-old little girl, Hazel, has vanished too.

Kay knows the missing-person investigation could turn into a murder case at any second. But as she hunts for the culprit, her own past closes in on her. Can she find the killer before it’s too late? And will the secret she thought she’d buried stay that way?

My Review

With an opening chapter that would chill any mother to the bone I knew I was in for an intense read. The descriptive writing made it feel like I was in the cabin with Alison and Hazel, watching on in horror at what was sure to come.

Then we are sat in the car with Special Agent Kay Sharp, an FBI profiler, as she returns to her hometown Mount Chester. With her brother in jail after a bar fight and what looks like a serial killer on the loose targeting women, she is brought in to assist local detective Elliot Young.

I always go in to a series knowing that the characters will grow with you as the series progresses, but Kay felt so fleshed out I liked her straight away and I loved the developing relationship between her and Elliot. Her past was an interesting sub plot and not only did it show why she became the woman she is, it also gave a welcome breather from the intensity of the main plot line.

This is dark and disturbing at times but shows a well researched insight in to profiling and catching serial killers. This serial killer in particular made me question the why more than I have previously, seeing how his mind works and his motivations. I can’t wait to read the next book and hope there are many more to come in the series.

About the Author

Leslie Wolfe is a bestselling author whose novels break the mold of traditional thrillers. She creates unforgettable, brilliant, strong women heroes who deliver fast-paced, satisfying suspense, backed up by extensive background research in technology and psychology.

Leslie released the first novel, Executive, in October 2011. It was very well received, including inquiries from Hollywood. Since then, Leslie published numerous novels and enjoyed growing success and recognition in the marketplace. Among Leslie’s most notable works, The Watson Girl (2017) was recognized for offering a unique insight into the mind of a serial killer and a rarely seen first person account of his actions, in a dramatic and intense procedural thriller.

Author Links

Website: http://www.WolfeNovels.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wolfenovels

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LWNovels

Amazon Book Store: http://bit.ly/WolfeAll

Link to buy

BLOG TOUR – The nucleus of reality by L A Davenport

Thank you to the lovely Heather at Overview Media for my place on the tour and ebook in exchange for review. All opinions are honest and my own.

Blurb

The truth is all around you

Thomas P— is exhausted. He’s been travelling for work so much he barely knows where he is. And then, while waiting for a table at a restaurant, he sees someone from his past. Exactly as she was twenty years ago, when they first knew each other. Deeply shaken, he tries to carry on as if nothing happened.

But when it happens again, in a different restaurant, in a different city, Thomas’s world begins to unravel. Haunted by a magnificent black parrot and a past he wants to forget, he becomes paranoid, unsure whether he can trust himself and the world around him.

After he sees another friend he thought he had forgotten, he realises he is lost and alone, and afraid of his own mind. Then an enigmatic woman tells him he is not seeing things but rather his memory has been mined to create life-like androids that are replacing the human race one by one.

And then he is arrested.

Will Thomas resist the mysterious woman and get his life back? Or will he join her cult and take up arms in the fight to save us all?

The Nucleus of Reality, or the Recollections of Thomas P—, is the story of a man trying to remember why he ended up losing everything but himself.

My Review

This book has the most unreliable narrator I have ever come across. I felt like I was slowly losing my mind as he was losing his. Thomas is empty and I am not sure if it’s through lack of food and sleep or if it has always been lying dormant and those things just triggered the onset of madness.

His marriage was hollow and in his words “Marriage was a coat that belonged on someone else’s shoulders. It never suited or even fitted me.” His job is no longer fulfilling and then he starts to see things that don’t make sense. Lucy a woman from his past, looking exactly the same as she did twenty years ago. More than that she has the same mannerisms and he is convinced that it’s her and what he sees is true.

But while he was so sure of what he was seeing I was the complete opposite. This is when it takes a turn into sci-fi and at one point the narrator even addressed me, the reader directly. Loved that!

This book is not for the faint hearted, it has mental health issues running as a concurrent theme and if you are even slightly depressed this could tip you over the edge as it portrays in my opinion the brink of sanity and it’s impact. The sci-fi element had glimpses of The Matrix and it felt, as it jumped between tenses, that I was lost down a rabbit hole and like Thomas trying to seek a way back to normality.

About the author

L. A. Davenport is an Anglo-Irish author and journalist.
Sometimes he lives in the countryside, far away from urban distraction, but mostly he lives in the city. He enjoys long walks, typewriters and strong black coffee.
The genesis of The Nucleus Reality, or The Recollections of Thomas P—, began in the queue for Wagamama in Liverpool. I was in that great city for a conference, and I was exhausted and somewhat disorientated. Really, I just wanted to go to bed, but I needed to eat more, and so there I was, standing in the queue, my mind racing but latching onto nothing.
Then, while I was waiting my turn, I saw the most extraordinary thing: A friend of mine, right there in front of me, exactly as she was twenty years ago. I was stunned. For a second I wondered whether it actually was her. But of course it wasn’t. Was it? And if it wasn’t her, how could someone look so much like her? And why now, why here, in a place with which neither of us had a connection?
It took an instant for me to realise that there was a story in this, and I began to construct the opening scenes while I waited to be seated. Realising that a) I would forget the details if I didn’t write them down and b) the whole story was crystallising in my mind in one go, I pulled out my notebook and started writing. For the rest of my meal, and under the puzzled gaze of the man sitting opposite me, I sketched out the plot from start to finish, writing in a blur, trying to pull down onto the page all the people, scenes and many, many ideas that filled my mind.
When the waitress, who with patience and kindness had indulged my distractedness, finally brought me the bill, I sat back and flicked through my notes. Here was a book, I realised, not just a set of ideas; moreover, a book that was ready to be written.
But it didn’t turn out like that. I had that experience in the restaurant towards the end of 2019, and we all know how things turned out the following spring. Still, the idea wound’t go away. Indeed, as I adapted and moulded it over the coming months, it grew, becoming ever more complex and so much more than a book about the consequences of someone realising they can no longer trust what they see.
It began to encompass ideas about the nature of memory and recall, our sense of identity, what it means to be disassociated from ourselves, how the cruel exploit the vulnerable and care nothing for the consequences, and the impact of severe mental illness on both the individual and those around them.
Then in August 2020, I finally had the chance to start writing again. I thought it would be difficult to write this book, especially as I knew I wanted it to be in the first person, but it was strangely easy to find a voice and let it flow. I realised I’d been wanting to write something touching these topics for a very long time.
L. A. Davenport is author of the novel Escape and the short story collections No Way Home and Dear Lucifer and Other Stories, as well as the memoir My Life as a Dog.
Links
The Nucleus Reality, or The Recollections of Thomas P—: https://pushingthewave.co.uk/books/ the-nucleus-of-reality/
My Life as a Dog: https://pushingthewave.co.uk/books/my-life-as-a-dog/ Escape: https://pushingthewave.co.uk/books/escape/
No Way Home: https://pushingthewave.co.uk/books/no-way-home/
Dear Lucifer and Other Stories: https://pushingthewave.co.uk/books/dear-lucifer-and-other- stories/

Book Review – Blame by Patricia Dixon 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to the author and Bloodhound books for providing a copy in exchange for review. All opinions are honest and my own.

Blurb

Who is going to pay the price?

Someone is after Frankie and her friends…

Frankie is running away from her past, and the repercussions of a night that changed her life forever. Hoping for a fresh start in France she unexpectedly and inconveniently falls in love.

Unbeknown to Frankie, back in England, the wheels of fate are set in motion when Herbert Dunne, a convicted murderer, is released from prison.

When he moves in with Margaret, a woman who he has formed an unlikely relationship with, their dark sides gradually emerge allowing inner demons to blossom.

News of Herbert’s release once again rocks the small village of Elkdale and as they remember the young woman he murdered, old scars are reopened.

But what is Herbert hoping to achieve by stirring up the past?

Soon, bitter emotions surface and someone seeks revenge. Someone who is going to make sure they all pay the price…

My Review

I love a good whodunnit but I’m in full awe and admiration mode when an author is confident enough in their writing to tell you early on who did it. Well one murder anyway!

Frankie the protagonist has changed her surname and moved away from Elkdale, hoping to leave the past far behind. Unfortunately the past has a nasty habit of catching up and this time it has brought a friend.

I liked Frankie from page one, when she is shown as a typical teenager, getting up to a little bit of mischief ( a girl after my own heart) then witnessing alongside her mates, Herbert the pervert commit murder.

Then this is where the tour de force comes in and what thoroughly deserves my five star rating. Herbert! Am I supposed to like a baddie this much? He’s completely at war with who he presents himself as and the contradictions of how he views Jesus and Mary while sitting at the chapel pretending to be pious had me in stitches.

So when mild mannered Margaret from the church starts visiting him in prison and dreams of a life with him on release, I thought I knew how this was going to play out. However it turns out she’s not all sunshine and kittens and they are a match made in, well it’s not heaven that’s for sure with Herbert’s views.

They aren’t the only ones looking for Frankie and her friends though and this is where the story takes a real turn and I’m left wondering who will get to her first. Luckily she has the lovely Fit Bit Jed and I was desperately hoping they would get a happy ever after. Did they or are things about to get messy?

With settings I could get lost in, characters that inspired even my dark little heart and the thrill of bad meeting bad, I thoroughly recommend this.

About the author

Patricia Dixon lives in Manchester and is an international best selling author of eleven novels. She writes across genres, including psychological fiction, historical suspense, family sagas and contemporary romance. Her stories are often set in her home city of Manchester and the Loire, a place to close to her heart and from where she gathers inspiration for her characters and tales. In May 2017 she signed with Bloodhound Books, leading crime and thriller publishers. Patricia has twice been long-listed for The Guardian’s Not The Booker Prize and has been nominated in the Crime Fiction Addict Readers Choice Awards. Her books regularly appear in the top slots for readers and bloggers book of the year. She has a busy year ahead with three new titles due to be released throughout 2021 If you would like to get in touch please follow the links below. Everyone is welcome. Email : dixon.patricia@icloud.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pbadixon Twitter: https://twitter.com/pbadixon

Disclaimer

I have become friends with the author, well I like to think we are, she may say otherwise (no restraining order yet though). As with all my reviews this did not cloud my judgement and if I thought it was pants I would not have reviewed.

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