Rachel's Random Resources

Less A Relic Than A New Find

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Crucial Black by Colin Garrow

Crucial Black Full Tour Banner

A brace of corpses. A bone-crunching machine. A new recruit.

Now employed by an Inverness organised crime gang, former petty thief Relic Black is teamed up with hitman Ali McKay, the man he almost killed a few weeks earlier. As the team tidy up
the loose ends after the shooting, gang member and bent cop DI McKenzie must
investigate the disappearance of two people, knowing Relic and Ali have already
disposed of the bodies.

Meanwhile, Rebecca’s unpopular colleague DI Swinney, suspects her of
involvement in the shooting. Knowing one of the bodies currently taking up
space in the mortuary remains anonymous, he discovers the man’s identity. Can
Swinney uncover the truth, dig the dirt on McKenzie and regain his former
status with the DCI, or will the gang step in to stop him?

Warning – strong language and adult situations throughout.

Crucial Black is book #2 in the Relic Black
Thriller series set in Inverness, Scotland.

NB book #2 is not a standalone – the series must be read in order.

Crucial Black COVER ebook Update JULY 2023

Over the last few years, there has been a move to build upon some of the pioneers of so-called “tartan noir” and the international success of the genre has seen a variety of regional variations spring up.

Inverness, with its highland locations, its tourism draw and its mix of city with genuine rurality on its
doorstep has featured in several of these types of novels before. ‘Terminal Black’, Colin Garrow’s 2020 novel introduced into the city the jauntily-named character Relic Black and, here, the low level criminal returns in book 2 of the series, out of his depth and in with the big dogs.

Garrow has something of the JD Kirk about his work. The vernacular is street-based, the action suitably  bloody and the narrative shot through with Scots, both in humour and language. He also does pace: there is no hanging aboot for any of the characters here.

The character of DI Swinney has also taken on something of a contemporary resonance with recent Scottish political events as well. Something which can only be in Garrow’s favour promotion and sales-wise.

Not for the faint of heart – I’d advise readers to take the warning note seriously – this is a novel which packs a punch and, for those of us based up here and who know the area – reads like a
map of the city.

Well worth your time!

Purchase Link

AMAZON https://geni.us/gXeQFS

SMASHWORDS https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1345380

Author Bio –

Black-n-white-port-2

Colin Garrow grew up in a former mining town in Northumberland. He has
worked in a plethora of professions including taxi driver, antiques dealer,
drama facilitator, theatre director and fish processor, and has occasionally
masqueraded as a pirate.

His short stories have appeared in several literary mags, including SN
Review, Flash Fiction Magazine, Word Bohemia, Every Day Fiction, The Grind, A3
Review, 1,000 Words, Inkapture and Scribble Magazine. He currently lives in a
humble cottage in Northeast Scotland where he writes novels, stories, poems and
the occasional song.

He also makes rather nice vegan cakes.

Social Media Links –

Twitter https://twitter.com/colingarrow

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/colinngarrow/

Website
https://colingarrow.co.uk/ 

Bookbub
https://www.bookbub.com/profile/colin-garrow

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

TikTok
https://www.tiktok.com/@colingarrowauthor

As Canadian as Kindness

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Garden Girl by Renny deGroot

Also on the blog tour today, Booklymatters and Rogue Book Reviews

Gordie MacLean, a 53-year-old bachelor detective is content minding his own patch of Cape Breton Island with its rugged coastal landscape and low crime rate. When the remains of a missing person are discovered though, he’s in the right place at the right time to be lead on the case. MacLean battles his sergeant’s scorn and his own demons to prove that he can hunt down the killer; a killer who will stop at nothing to protect their long-buried secrets.

I’ve never been to Canada. All I really know about the Great White North is that they people like ice hockey and they’re notoriously polite. I associate Canadians with that same attitude that the Portuguese have to the Spanish or the New Zealanders to the Australians: the quieter neighbours, all the better for slipping under the radar and given themselves the space to value decency and openness.

Basically, cliches.

I suspect that lack of firsthand knowledge was what drew me to Renny deGroot’s novel, Garden Girl. Well, that and Taz the dog. Gordie is an engaging central protagonist, a man in middle age heading his first murder case with a dubious superior and a new partner to break in.

All of which, when rendered into black and white, sounds a little cliché itself. But deGroot has managed to craft a collection of characters – bi and quadraped alike – with whom it is no hassle to spend time. Gordie may be taciturn but he’s a fundamentally good guy, wants to welcome his new partner and look after his hound, even as a new love interest enters the picture.

In fact, this charming atmosphere and friendly set of characters also accounts for the slightly uneven tone which the novel sometimes has. It feels, sometimes, that there was an earlier draft of this book where Gordie was a worse man or where there was a backstory to why a clearly capable crime fighter like Gordie is so stalled in his career. 

As it is, I think if deGroot wants to make this a series, she could channel Martin Walker or Donna Leon and lean into the camaraderie between her cops and her decent, nuanced characters because she can write an engaging plot and people. As a reader I want to spend time with them.

Overall, this is a good, honest detective tale, simply and competently told, sprinkled with (what feel like authentic) location details and narrated with aplomb by artist Nathan Foss. I’m just looking forward to the team’s next outing!

Purchase Links

https://www.amazon.ca/Garden-Girl-Cape-Breton-Mysteries/dp/B0CQPN99XP

https://www.amazon.com/Garden-Girl-Cape-Breton-Mysteries/dp/B0CQPKYL3S

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Garden-Girl-Cape-Breton-Mysteries/dp/B0CQPJM1TH

Author Bio –

Renny deGroot was born in Nova Scotia, Canada, a first-generation Canadian of Dutch parents.

Her novels have been shortlisted for the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize and a Whistler Independent Book Award. They have been awarded several readers’ awards from the U.K., Canada, and the U.S. She has published mystery, historical fiction, short stories and non-fiction

Renny has a BA in English Literature from Trent University and studied creative writing at Ryerson University. She lives in rural Ontario with her Great Pyrenees and Golden Retriever, and vacations at her cottage in Nova Scotia.

Social Media Links –

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

Twitter: Renny deGroot (@renny_degroot) / Twitter

Website: http://rennydegroot.com

Instagram: @renny_degroot)

TikTok: @rennydegroot

Narrator Bio

Nathan Foss is a professionally trained and working theatre, film and voice actor who has appeared in film, television and theatre productions. He was a lead actor in Budai with Xiao Sun, as Romeo in the Montréal Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Romeo and Juliet and as a lead in the film Avant Que Tu Part which was an Official Selection of the 2020 Cinema On The Bayou Film Festival. He acted, directed and produced numerous plays and short films including In Loving Memory and commercials for Bios Medical.

Nathan graduated from the Neptune Theatre School and participated in workshops with Tom Todoroff, Scott Brick, Peter Dickson and Marc Graue. He studied voice and singing with Janice Isabel Jackson of Vocalypse Productions. Nathan trained in jazz, ballet and modern dance with the Leica Hardy School of Dance and the Joseph Wallin School of Dance. He performed in improv and attended numerous workshops for the performing arts.

Originally from Dartmouth Nova Scotia, Nathan is bilingual and is now located in Montréal Québec. Versatile by nature, Nathan is excited about the opportunity to expand his onstage repertoire into the fascinating medium of audiobooks and voice work. This allows him to successfully integrate his three passions of direction, production and acting into one form.

Social Media Links –

Facebook

(29) Nathan K Foss | LinkedIn

Nathan Kyle Foss (@nathankfoss) • Instagram photos and videos

When the Tide Returns

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The Spy Across the Water by James Naughtie

Also on the #blogtour for #TheSpyAcrosstheWater today is MJ Porter

From one of our most treasured BBC broadcasters, The Spy Across the Water is the third instalment in James Naughtie’s brilliant spy series, woven around three brothers bound together through espionage.

We live with our history, but it can kill us.

Faces from the past appear from nowhere at a family funeral, and Will Flemyng, spy-turned-ambassador, is drawn into twin mysteries that threaten everything he holds dear.

From Washington, he’s pitched back into the Troubles in Northern Ireland and an explosive secret hidden deep in the most dangerous but fulfilling friendship he has known.

And while he confronts shadowy adversaries in American streets, and looks for solace at home in the Scottish Highlands, he discovers that his government’s most precious Cold War agent is in mortal danger and needs his help to survive.

In an electric story of courage and betrayal, Flemyng learns the truth that his life has left him a man with many friends, but still alone.

Is James Naughtie the most under the radar national treasure ever? If, like me, you grew up with his honeyed tones on Radio 4’s Today programme – and miss them still – then perhaps you might think he is. Reading The Spy Across the Water, made me feel really quite nostalgic for this man who’s voice is like a warm bath for the brain.

And Naughtie’s prose flows as seemingly effortlessly as his voice. Our central protagonist, Will Flemyng, is at the opening of the novel, US Ambassador under Thatcher’s government. One of the strongest aspects of the text is the way Naughtie does not fetishize those period details. Increasingly, one finds authors determined to insert their extensive research of their chosen historical milleau into their readers as though we were feeding to become fois gras and them the farmers. Naughtie does little to none of this.

Flemyng: good genre adjacent name; unobtrusively achieved by selection of spelling – and here, let us take a moment to appreciate what that particular spelling must have meant for poor JN’s typing and autocorrect functions on his word processor – is an attractive and debonair hero. A man of slick and accessible charm who can be a little prickly but always working towards the best available outcome.

This inner calm of the character clashing with the storm cloud building of the external events galloping towards him is mirrored by Washington setting intruding on the “Highland” rural idyll of the Flemyng family seat in Perthshire.

All in all, this is a fine spy thriller. It is smooth and slick without being showy or flashy. The cover wins points for me by not leaning on the “silhouette man” cliché which bestrides this genre like a colossus, but loses them again for the seeming cheapness of the design.

Overall, a literary thriller which wears its learning lightly and makes spending time with the hero a delight. Rather like discovering your childhood heroes are still thriving and working on their national treasure status.

Purchase Link – https://geni.us/TSATWRRR

Author Bio –

James Naughtie is a special correspondent for BBC News, for which he has reported from around the world. He presented Today on BBC Radio 4 for 21 years. This his third novel, and his most recent book is an account of five decades of travel and work in the United States – On the Road: American Adventures from Nixon to Trump. He lives in Edinburgh and London.

Social Media Links –

Follow James Naughtie

Twitter: @naughtiej

Facebook: @James Naughtie

Follow Aries

Twitter: @AriesFiction

Facebook: Aries Fiction

Instagram: @headofzeus

Website: http://www.headofzeus.com

Blog Tour Hashtag

#TheSpyAcrossTheWater

Literature and the Power of Love

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‘The Door-to-Door Bookstore’ by Carsten Henn

There’s a book written for every one of us…
Carl may be 72 years old, but he’s young at heart. Every night he goes door-to-door delivering books by hand to his loyal customers. He knows their every desire and preference, carefully selecting the perfect story for each person.

One evening as he makes his rounds, nine-year-old Schascha appears. Loud and precocious, she insists on accompanying him – and even tries to teach him a thing or two about books.

When Carl’s job at the bookstore is threatened, will the old man and the girl in the yellow raincoat be able to restore Carl’s way of life, and return the joy of reading to his little European town?

‘THE DOOR-TO-DOOR BOOKSTORE’ is a heart-warming tale of the value of friendship, the magic of reading, and the power of books to unite us all.

Translated by Melody Shaw

Sometimes one comes across a novel so simple in its artistry, so clean in its articulation and so charming and comfortable in its own skin that it deserves to be shared far and wide.

Carsten Henn’s ‘The Door-to-Door Bookshop’, lovingly translated by Melody Shaw is one such novel. Its setting and characterisation feels almost like a novelisation of a Wes Anderson film. The characters are charming and the plot matters less than the relationships between them and the pure joy of books, reading and friendship.

Like a love of literature – this deserves to be shared with the ones you love.

Purchase Links

Author Bio – Carsten Henn has worked as a radio presenter, wine and restaurant critic, and has published a number of successful novels. He lives in Germany.

Social Media Links –

https://www.instagram.com/carsten.henn/

http://carstensebastianhenn.de/

Death Among the Unexplored Places

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‘Death at the Caravan Park’ by Susan Willis

Clive Thompson heads for Whitley Bay caravan park to finish writing his novel. He’s never had a caravan holiday before and is warmly greeted by the manager, Liz Mathews, who lives on the park. She is single and cares for her ninety year old mother who has Alzheimer’s Disease. Clive meets the people in neighbouring caravans and has an amazing view from his veranda over the sea to St. Mary’s Lighthouse. However, Audrey goes missing during the night and Liz is beside herself with worry.  The police are out looking for her, but disillusioned by their efforts, Clive begins his own investigations.  

Caravans are weird. Perennial irritant of motorists, bete noire of old school misogyny Top Gear, they don’t really get the best press. When I was a kid, they were the destination of choice of my parents -my father needed disabled access, we needed somewhere which would take a dog and we needed it to be in the UK because there wasn’t the money for exotic foreign travel. Caravans were the answer. Ooh, the glamour of Paignton, Taunton and Formica-fringed world of 80s caravan parks.

Considering that caravan parks are by their design pretty anonymous, often secluded in rural spaces near beaches and contain a large number of transient and semi-permanent people in varying mixes, it is a wonder they do not act as the milieu of more crime stories – this is certainly the first I’ve read.

Susan Willis does a great job of weaving the sort of characters one encounters in caravan parks with a nicely structured first person narrative. Her lead, albeit somewhat startled, detective Clive talks us through the story and is a gentle and entertaining guide to events. Willis is particularly good at dealing with the issues which people go through on a daily basis – the Alzhiemer’s mother, the complicated family relationships – which do distract the every day.

Zipping along, confidently written and rooted in the real world, ‘Death at the Caravan Park’ would be an asset in any Sprite, static or twin axle tourer you care to name.

Purchase Links – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Death-Caravan-Park-Thompson-investigates-ebook/dp/B0C6YGTH79/

Author Bio –

Susan is a published author of eight novels and six novellas with short stories published in Women’s Weekly magazines. She is now retired from Food Technology and scribbles away in County Durham. Writing psychological suspense and cosy-crime novels with strong, lovable North East characters, is her passion. Last year, she brought us ‘Clive’s Christmas Crusades’, set in York. Following the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival, Susan wrote six Curious Casefiles which is now published by Northodox Press. She has incorporated up-to-date issues: poor mental health in a kidnap scene, the perils of social media, and an intruder on Skype.

Social Media Links –

You can find Susan’s books here: https://amzn.to/2S5UBc8    

www.facebook.com/susan.willis.710

Dark Sides to Beautiful Places

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‘The Secret of Villa Alba’ by Louise Douglas

1968, Sicily.  Just months after a terrible earthquake has destroyed the mountain town of Gibellina, Enzo and his wife Irene Borgata are making their way back to the family home, Villa Alba, on roads overlooked by the eerie backdrop of the flattened ghost town.  When their car breaks down, Enzo leaves his young wife to go and get help, but when he returns there is no trace of Irene.  No body, no sign of a struggle, nothing.

2003. TV showman and true crime aficionado Milo Conti is Italy’s darling, uncovering and solving historic crimes for his legion of fans. When he turns his attention to the story of the missing Irene Borgata, accusing her husband of her murder, Enzo’s daughter Maddi asks her childhood friend, retired detective April Cobain, for help to prove her father’s innocence. But the tale April discovers is murky: mafia meetings, infidelity, mistaken identity, grief and unshakable love.  As the world slowly closes in on the claustrophobic Villa Alba, and the house begins to reveal its secrets, will the Borgata family wish they’d never asked April to investigate? And what did happen to Enzo’s missing wife Irene? 

Bestselling author Louise Douglas returns with an irresistibly compelling, intriguing and captivating tale of betrayal, love, jealousy and the secrets buried in every family history.

When I went to Sicily, the bus which transferred us from the airport to the hotel had a stereotypically loquacious guide on board. As we travelled along the autoroute, he pointed out where the craters were where Judge Giovanni Falcone had been blown up by the Corelonesi crime family. As we passed through the city of Palermo, he highlighted the buildings high on the hills: begun; developed; abandoned; unfinished. Part of a Mafia concrete scam.

It is a volcanic island. It is an island of great wealth alongside great poverty. Kindness and historical violence, welcome and malevolence. Stunning beaches, parched inlands. It is beauty and beast. And it definitely has an aura and character all of its own.

I wanted to review Louise Douglas’ latest novel because of that background. The blending of historical reality and fiction and the contrasting time periods begins to take on something of that Jekyll and Hyde status of the setting.

A reluctant investigator, with his own personal connection to the mystery, there is something in Douglas’ writing style which brings to mind the doyen of the Mediterranean crime novel, Patricia Highsmith – and I can pay no higher compliment to her than that.

I finished the novel with a glass of our homemade limoncello. I can highly recommend both.    

Purchase Link – https://mybook.to/secretvillaalbasocial

Author Bio –

Louise Douglas is the bestselling and brilliantly reviewed author and an RNA award winner. The Secrets Between Us was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick. She lives in the West Country.

Social Media Links –  

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Louise-Douglas-Author-340228039335215/

Twitter https://twitter.com/louisedouglas3

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/louisedouglas3/

Newsletter Sign Up: https://bit.ly/LouiseDouglasNews

Would You Fight For Your Right to a Night at the Opera Now?

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‘SEAT 97’ by Tony Bassett

SEAT 97: wrong place, wrong time: the mystery of a very public murder
A man who had it coming, or mistaken identity?

People are finding their seats for a soul concert when a shot rings out. David Barron crumples to the floor. Next to him, journalist Nick Colton and his wife, Greta, step in to help.

The assassin quickly escapes from the building. Realising this might be the scoop of his life, Nick rushes after him.


Although the man evades him – perhaps a good thing, seeing as he is holding a gun – Nick is determined to find the killer. Despite the misgivings of the police.

So who was David Barron and why was he shot? Why was he holding the lethal ticket for Seat 97?

Can you work out the mystery?

This is a totally gripping standalone crime mystery set in London that will keep you guessing.

There is definitely something of the Eric Ambler/John Buchan about former journalist Tony Bassett’s latest novel.

These masters of the espionage genre were superseded by Alfred Hitchcock and those new-fangled talkies and, latterly, by one of the new big beasts operating in the field today, Charles Cummings.

Here, Bassett comes up with a perfect scenario for this type of novel: the unassuming couple on a night out to the theatre witnessing a shocking and violent death. But was it murder or misadventure? Well, the unlikely hero better find out – and off we go.

Bassett has already published seven novels and this latest outing is ample evidence that you are in a safe pair of hands. The events spiral for our protagonists excitingly and Bassett generates a feeling of impending tension which could explode at any minute.

Overall, ‘Seat 97’ may represent the worst night out at the theatre since the Lincoln’s, but it certainly represents value for money in the excitement stakes.

Purchase Links

Author Bio – Tony Bassett

A former Fleet Street journalist, has had seven crime novels published so far.

This latest book, Seat 97, introduces Nick Colton, a journalist who is swept up into a murder investigation. It is a standalone novel which may possibly lead to a series. The book is published by London-based independent publishers The Book Folks, who specialise in crime fiction.

Tony is best known for his Midlands series of crime novels featuring DCI Gavin Roscoe and DS Sunita Roy (Murder On Oxford Lane, The Crossbow Stalker, Murder Of A Doctor and Out For Revenge, all published by the Book Folks).

He first developed a love of writing at the age of nine when he and a friend produced a magazine called the Globe at their junior school in Sevenoaks, Kent. When he reached his teenage years, growing up in Tunbridge Wells, his local vicar staged one of his plays, about Naboth’s Vineyard.

At Hull University, Tony was named student journalist of the year in 1971 in a competition run by Time-Life magazine and went onto become a national newspaper journalist, mainly working for the Sunday People in both its newsroom and investigations department.

His very first book to be published, the crime novel Smile Of The Stowaway, was released in December 2018. It concerns a Kent couple who harbour a stowaway and then battle to clear his name when he is charged with murder.

Then, in March 2020, the spy novel The Lazarus Charter, was released. It involves foreign agents operating in the UK. The book has kindly been endorsed by Marina Litvinenko, widow of the murdered Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko, and by Stan and Caroline Sturgess, parents of the innocent mother-of-three poisoned with novichok in Salisbury in 2018.

Tony has five grown-up children. He is a Life Member of the National Union of Journalists. He lives in South-East London with his partner Lin.

Social Media Links –

www.tonybassettauthor.com 

www.twitter.com/tonybassett1

www.facebook.com/tony.bassett.92505

www.instagram.com/tonyba1

A Tasty Treat

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‘A Contest to Kill For’ by Evie Hunter

The competition is fierce….

Desperate to try and rebuild the reputation of Hopgood Hall, owners Alexi Ellis and Cheryl and Drew Hopgood agree to host a realty TV baking show, spearheaded by their arrogant but enigmatic head chef Marcel Gasquet. Hopefully the ratings will bring in bookings to the struggling hotel and Cosmo, Alexi’s antisocial feral cat, is hoping to get a starring role too!

The temperature is high…

Fiery and hot-headed, Marcel’s antics makes for brilliant television, but off-screen trouble is brewing. One of the contestants, femme fatale Juliette Hammond, makes it clear that she will do anything to secure the winning prize – even if it means sweetening up the prima donna chef.

The results are deadly!

So when Juliette is found dead, all eyes turn to Marcel. Has his fiery French temper got the better of him or has someone else fallen victim to Juliette’s devious ways?

With the reputation of the hotel in tatters and Marcel’s liberty on the line, Alexi needs answers and fast.  And the only person she can turn to for help is her old friend and private eye Jack Maddox.  Jack’s working his own case, but he can’t refuse Alexi and he knows more than anyone that this murder could cost them everything!

Purchase Link – https://mybook.to/ContestToKillForsocial

In my other life I have, this year, been teaching Home Economics. Because, well I said I’d help out and that is how small schools are staffed. So, English teacher to donning the chef’s whites I went. Hardly my natural zone, but needs must when the devil vomits in your kettle. In order to facilitate this, I have watched a quite simply Herculean quantity of Masterchef episodes. UK edition? Completed it, mate. Celebrity incarnation? Tick. Professional? I-Player rung dry. Singaporean, New Zealand, Australian and Celebrity Australian for a little international flavour: I have watched a lot of Masterchef.

And, I’m not going to lie, I understand the temptation to bump off some of the “characters” who present this format internationally.

So, apart from the fact that I had very much enjoyed Evie Hunter’s opening instalment in this series, ‘A Date to Die For’ this latest outing for Alexi, her dilapidated country house owning chums Cheryl and Drew and her chunky monkey sleuthing feline companion Cosmo really appealed for the opportunity to take out any lingering frustrations with celebrity chefs from my in-depth cooking research.

And Hunter, of course, does not disappoint. Her characters have texture – since the debut of the protagonists the world has moved on – they have changed and grown and are dealing with new arrivals. What Hunter maintains is the easy of interaction between them as well as a plot which zooms along reaching a nice rolling boil before satisfyingly concluding like a well-paced meal.

This is another successful outing for the Hopgood House crew and I look forward to dining at their table again in the future.

Author Bio –

Evie Hunter has written a great many successful regency romances as Wendy Soliman and is now redirecting her talents to produce dark gritty thrillers for Boldwood. For the past twenty years she has lived the life of a nomad, roaming the world on interesting forms of transport, but has now settled back in the UK.

Social Media Links –  

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/wendy.soliman.author

Twitter https://twitter.com/Wendyswriter

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/wendy_soliman/

Newsletter Sign Up: https://bit.ly/EvieHunter

Bookbub profile: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/evie-hunter-572c1816-05f2-47c2-9c13-6d10a229670b

Historical Resonance

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‘The Body at Carnival Bridge’ by Michelle Salter

How deadly is the fight for equality?

It’s 1922, and after spending a year travelling through Europe, Iris Woodmore returns home to find a changed Walden. Wealthy businesswoman Constance Timpson has introduced equal pay in her factories and allows women to retain their jobs after they marry.

But these radical new working practices have made her deadly enemies.

A mysterious sniper fires a single shot at Constance – is it a warning, or did they shoot to kill? When one of her female employees is murdered, it’s clear the threat is all too real – and it’s not just Constance in danger.

As amateur sleuth Iris investigates, she realises the sniper isn’t the only hidden enemy preying on women.

Purchase Link – https://mybook.to/CarnivalBridgesocial

I very much enjoyed the opening instalment in Michelle Salter’s novels involving Iris Woodmore, ‘Murder at Waldenmere Lake’

I described Salter’s novel as being in the “best traditions of the cozy crime genre” and I still stand by this judgement with Iris’ return in ‘The Body at Carnival Bridge’. I understand why, in these divisive times, there are people who have issues with contemporary novelists inventing characters who buck the trend of their historical periods and so we have a world of women and people of colour powering through social divides at a time in history when this was a significant barrier.

However, I’ve always been of the view that this is a distraction and distortion. One of the big issues is that you can often find real historical people who broke the moulds and have been written out of history and so fictional counterparts getting the airtime these pioneers deserved is rather charming.

Secondly, I think watching these characters interacting in their worlds and overcoming their challenges is entertaining.

These thoughts were pootling along in my head while I read this. Iris Woodmore might have found the real world even more stacked against her than she does in the novels but I particularly enjoyed the dynamic between her and potentially under fire industrialist, Constance Timpson.

This is yet another Golden Age-style romp from an author with the historical cajones to back up her lively world of deception and murder and a protagonist of suitable charm and nosiness to get herself into – and out of – plenty of entertaining trouble.

Author Bio –

Michelle Salter is a historical crime fiction writer based in northeast Hampshire. Many local locations appear in her mystery novels. She’s also a copywriter and has written features for national magazines. When she’s not writing, Michelle can be found knee-deep in mud at her local nature reserve. She enjoys working with a team of volunteers undertaking conservation activities.

Social Media Links –  

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MichelleASalter

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michellesalter_writer/

Newsletter Sign Up: https://bit.ly/MichelleSalterNews

Bookbub profile: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/michelle-salter

Without This, Nothing Else Matters

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‘Caring Conservationists Who Are Changing Our Planet’ by Kate Peridot.

Travel around the world and discover the stories of 20 conservationists and the endangered animals they are helping to save, including the orangutang, blue whale, Indian tiger, rhino, honeybee, Komodo dragon and sea turtle. Positive, uplifting and packed full of information, with 20 fun activities for children to try, this book will show children no one is too small to make a difference.  

When I was about nine years old, my Mum took me to London Zoo. We didn’t really do things like that very often and London was big and far away and expensive and a rare luxury.

I’ve never forgotten that trip. It was the late 80s and Zoos were moving away from being the preserve of manically depressed gorillas staring mournfully out of inadequate cages and towards being research and conservation centres, the way the public want them to be today.

Something was awoken in me for sure. And I badgered my Mum to sign me up to the World Wildlife Fund (the original WWF) right there in the park. I suspect that we could scarcely afford this but she acquiesced because, well, she is my Mum and she was/is lovely and I was spoilt.

I moved quite far from an interest in nature as I grew up but, in the last 10-15 years, that interest has come back with a passion. Children – of all ages, classes, and background are interested in the natural world but we lose it so quickly.

In this lavishly illustrated book, Kate Peridot aims to introduce to some of the most famous conservationists who have tried to make a difference and increase awareness. There’s a beautiful breadth of figures featured and a range of activities which could act as excellent introductory tasks for inquisitive young minds.

A full colour delight for the eyes, I have a couple of young nephews who will be getting this for their birthdays. Without their engagement in these issues, nothing else is going to matter anyway.

Purchase Links

Author Bio –

About Kate

Kate is an author of both fiction and non-fiction children’s books. Originally from London, she now lives with her family in the South of France. She writes wild and adventurous stories about animals, people and STEM that encourages a can-do spirit, a quest for knowledge and a sense of adventure. 

Caring Conservationists (Walker Books) is her first non-fiction children’s books. A further nine books are in production launching between 2023-2025. Find out more about Kate and her books at www.kateperidot.com .

Social Media Links –

https://www.instagram.com/kateperidot/

https://www.facebook.com/kate.peridot.7/