It is my very great pleasure to support Brook Cottage Books in spotlighting ‘Out of Control‘ by T A Belshaw and to offer the chance to win one of 5 ecopies and 2 signed paperback copies of the book. This giveaway is open internationally. See the end of this blog post for your chance to enter.

Originally published on 25th August 2015, ‘Out of Control‘ is a noir-suspence novella.

The Story

It began with a trivial moment of carelessness, but the shockwaves that reverberate from this seemingly insignificant incident, spread far and wide.
Ed and his heavily pregnant wife Mary are on an errand for Ed’s ailing father before the pair depart for warmer climes. But the winter of 1962 comes early and one innocuous event and a hastily taken decision will have devastating consequences for the family of young Rose Gorton. Mary’s already fragile mental state is put under further stress while Ed tries to make sense of events that are spiralling massively, ‘Out of Control’.

‘Out of Control‘ is available for purchase here:

AMAZON UK

AMAZON.COM

About Trevor Belshaw

Trevor Belshaw, aka, Trevor Forest, is a writer of both adult and children’s fiction. He lives in Nottingham, UK with his mad Springer Spaniel, Maisie. Trevor is the creator of Tracy’s Hot Mail (Crooked Cat Publishing,) and has recently released a noir novella, ‘Out of Control’.

Writing under the name, Trevor Forest, he has published fourteen children’s books including the Magic Molly series, The Stanley Stickle series, and Peggy Larkin’s War.

Trevor’s short stories and articles have appeared in various magazines including The Best of British, Ireland’s Own and First Edition. His poem My Mistake was awarded a highly commended status and included in the Farringdon Poetry competition best entries anthology. His children’s poem Clicking Gran, was longlisted in the Plough Poetry competition 2009.

Trevor’s short stories have been published in many anthologies including the charity anthologies. 100 Stories for Haiti, 50 Stories for Pakistan, 100 Stories for Queensland, The Best of Café Lit, (2011 2012 and 2013) The Best of Friday Flash Volume 2, Another Haircut, Shambelurkling and other stories and 24 Stories for Advent.

You can follow Trevor on Twitter and his web site

Enter the giveaway here

I’m delighted to be bringing an extract from Alison Ripley Cubitt and Molly Cubitt’s lovely family memoir of love and loss, ‘Castles in the Air‘ which was published in ebook on 25th November 2015. It is available to buy on Amazon UK and Amazon US.

The Story:

An eight-year-old child witnesses her mother’s secret and knows that from that moment life will never be the same.

After Molly, her mother dies, Alison uses her legacy to make a film about Molly’s relationship with a man she had known since she was a teenager. What hold did this man have over her mother? And what other secrets was her mother hiding?

Castles in the Air follows the life of Molly Ripley through the eyes of her daughter Alison. From Molly’s childhood in colonial Hong Kong and Malaya; wartime adventures as a rookie office girl in the far east outpost of Bletchley Park then as a young nurse in the city; tangled romance and marriage… to her challenging middle-age when demons from the past seem set to overwhelm her.

The writer in Alison can’t stop until she reveals the story of Molly’s past. But as a daughter, does she have the courage to face up to the uncomfortable truths of Molly’s seemingly ordinary life?

As she unravels the private self that Molly kept secret, Alison realises that she is trying to find herself through her mother’s story. By trying to make sense of the past, can she move on with her future?

Honest yet unsentimental and told with abundant love and compassion, this is a profoundly moving portrait of a woman’s life, hopes and dreams. We learn not only about Molly, but about mothers and daughters, secrets and love. A story for readers struggling to come to terms with the trauma of losing loved ones.

Read an extract from Alison’s moving story here:

In December 1941, just as Molly was sitting School Certificate, the schoolgirls heard some ominous news on the radio:

We were all greatly encouraged when we heard of the arrival of the mighty battleship, Prince of Wales and cruiser Repulse and all thought they would soon ‘sort out’ the Japanese. Then we heard on the news that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbour on December 2nd, 1941, thus drawing the Americans into the conflict – to be followed by air-raids on Singapore. Most of the children not taking School Certificate had been sent back to their homes. 

December 2 was, in fact, the date that Prince of Wales and Repulse arrived at the Singapore Naval Base with great fanfare. The attack on Pearl Harbour took place on 7 December, 8 December in Malaya, at the same time as the first Japanese bombing raid on Singapore. It was 4am in Singapore when Don and Ciss were woken by the air raid sirens. Their worst fears had come to pass. Their darling Molly was hundreds of miles away. All they could do was pray she would get home safely, but as a former Royal Marine, Don would have known only too well what perfect cover a remote jungle region could provide for an advancing Japanese land invasion.

 There were four of us Seventh Formers left – two girls whose families were in the diplomatic service in Bangkok (they spent the whole of the war years in the Cameron Highlands and I think their parents went to a Japanese POW camp). One girl [Marjorie] and I, both from Singapore and scheduled to take one more examination, were left. Neither of us realised the seriousness of what was happening. The Japanese were advancing rapidly down the Malay Peninsula, thus cutting off the Cameron Highlands and another hill-station.

Marjorie and I travelled down ‘The Hill’ for the last time together, then boarded the train at Tapah [for] Kuala Lumpur.

I made that same trip fifty years later in a modern car with power steering. It took over an hour and a half to negotiate the hairpin bends on that treacherous road. In 1941 it was little more than a dirt track.

We were to board the Night Mail Train from KL to Singapore where our parents would be waiting for us. We had dinner with one of our friends in KL and their cook-boy and driver took us to KL station. Suddenly the air-raid sirens sounded – the cookie hurriedly took us to the subway under the station. 

We were two rather frightened schoolgirls in our grey and blue school uniforms and hats, and suddenly we found our ourselves in a crowded subway, crammed with soldiers from all sorts of different regiments on the way up the Peninsula to fight the Japanese. The soldiers comforted us with sweets and cigarettes (we didn’t smoke) and made jokes. It was a relief to hear the ‘All-Clear’ sounding, but I shall always remember those brave men, and wonder to this day how many survived.

It was an eleven to twelve hour journey from KL to Singapore and I doubt if the two girls got much sleep that night.

We boarded the train again and arrived in Singapore where our anxious parents were awaiting us at the station. The war had come to our doorstep at last.

———————

Follow Alison on Twitter on Facebook and at Lambert Nagle Books

 

 

What if everything you thought you knew about London’s 2005 7/7 bombings was a lie?

In July 2005,  Detective Inspector Jake Flannagan, finds searching for the truth of the 7/7 bombings leads to more than he bargained for, as his girlfriend disappears and he is suddenly suspended from duty.

I ‘met’ the author of ‘The Theseus Paradox’, David Videcette on Book Connectors on Facebook and when I realised he was an ex-detective, whose writing also helped to support a charity, I was really interested to know whether he thought true crime and fictional crime had much in common. He kindly agreed to write a guest post for me which I’m sharing with you today.

HOW REAL IS CRIME FICTION?

by

David Videcette

As a former detective with twenty years in the job, I want my fiction to be as true to life as it can be.  But I also want to be entertained, because in real life, investigating crime is rarely very glamorous at all.  It’s often very tedious, extremely time consuming and in some cases takes many years to crack.  And who wants to read about boredom, overtime rates, child-care problems and yet another stolen sat nav?

Research, research, research

Once I settle into a story, I don’t want to be distracted from the plot by errors. An author of historical fiction wouldn’t write about an Anglo-Saxon eating a potato before the vegetable had been introduced to Europe.  The same should be true of crime fiction.  A bobby should be of the correct rank, wear the right hat, speak into the right radio and have the right ‘jam sandwich’ stripes down the side of their car.

Starting out in the police means learning your trade. You deal with with high volume crimes such as handbags nicked from the floor of busy pubs, phones pick-pocketed from people on the bus and neighbour disputes about parking spaces. You cannot progress to a higher rank in the force without putting in years of hard graft. You also cannot become the lead on a case by being a freelance art dealer or insurance consultant who is drafted in from the outside – although we all enjoy the escapism in imagining if that were us!

It’s true that we do use the expert opinions from external specialists. For example, I worked on a case where the evidence included 250 documents containing 250 different signatures and 250 different addresses. An external handwriting expert was able to analyse the script and tell us that there were actually only five authors in total. So rather than actually solving the case, that narrowed it down substantially. External experts may well change the course of the investigation.

The Crime Scene

Far from being the fascinating places that they often appear in fiction, crime scenes are very unpleasant and are not some form of canvas on which the criminal has deliberately painted.  The scene won’t give you the emotions or the motives behind the crime.  We are looking instead for fingerprints, DNA, footprints – things that have been left accidentally by the criminal.

Believe it or not – there’s very little blood at the scene of the average murder.  When someone is attacked and dies, the injury will have been serious enough for the heart to stop beating pretty quickly.  Blood ceases from being pumped out of the body. If a weapon like a knife or gun has been used, any damage is often internal and the vast majority of the bleeding will be internal too.

In contrast, GBH (Grievous Bodily Harm) scenes are far worse. At the two bloodiest crime scenes I’ve attended in my career – the victims both lived. Both of their hearts kept pumping large amounts of fresh, oxygenated, bright-red blood out of their bodies.  As a police officer you see much more gore when someone receives a horrendous wound to their head or hand, and then survives, than that associated with a murder victim.

Motivation, emotions and feelings

Anyone can look at a photo of a dead child and describe it. That’s easy. A good writer will also be able to describe what the emotions may feel like at the time. But how many writers could describe how it feels to see a dead child in front of them whilst standing alongside parents who had let their baby die through the stupidity of their own actions? How many could describe what that feels like?

The act of cold-blooded murder isn’t that fascinating to me. The motivation behind a crime is much more interesting.  A criminal investigator is immersed in a dark, dingy world where raw emotion is never far away.  The writer who can capture that, and get behind the motives for the killer’s deeds – those are the books I want to read.

Who gets it right?

Crime fiction works when the creators do their research.  Ian Rankin gets it nearly 100% spot on and I like Patricia Cornwell, she writes well. (Although Kay Scarpetta does seem to be overly brilliant at everything – from making home-made pasta to cracking the most unsolvable of police cases!)

The Bill, the British police procedural television series that was broadcast by ITV for almost twenty-seven years up until 2010, was a prime example of how important thorough research is to recreate real-life.

They’d call up and ask, ‘In this episode, we’ve got a police officer sitting at a computer screen looking for some information on a car theft ring. How does it work?”

I’d explain about our criminal intelligence system (CRIMINT) and what the computer’s monitor screen would look like so they could mock up an identical one. It was all about making it as real as possible for the viewers – many of whom were police officers themselves. Now that is what I call real attention to detail.

You never stop learning

Even though I’m a former officer, I still had to undertake research for my own police novel – and that’s despite it being based on a case I worked on for five years.  I hope my reader will learn about how a major police investigation works with as much precision as I’m able to give.  But first and foremost, I hope they will enjoy a twisty thriller that entertains them – because however accurate your research, you must always spin a tale that hooks people in.

DAVID VIDECETTE is a former Scotland Yard investigator who specialises in terrorism and organised crime. As a Metropolitan Police Detective he worked on a wealth of infamous cases and was a lead investigator in the London 7/7 bombings in 2005. His new thriller supports the work of the Police Dependants’ Trust.

You can chat to him on Twitter or Facebook.

Visit David’s Web Site to find out more.

Become a fan of The Theseus Paradox on Facebook.

THE THESEUS PARADOX IS OUT THIS WEEK ON AMAZON!

Here’s a little ‘thing’ that is doing the rounds on some of my favourite book blogs. I first saw it on Kate’s blog Biblophile Book Club and Anne from Random Things Through My Letterbox has joined in. Joanne from Portobello Book Blog has tagged me to take part. In turn I tag Sharon from Shaz’s Book Boudoir to tell us her 25 random things

So, what can I tell you?

What is your middle name?

It’s Jane. My first name was going to be Christopher but I didn’t turn out to be a boy after all

What is your favourite drink?

Tea! It’s the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning. I can’t drink wine much these days but I do like champagne and a good Mai Tai cocktail.

What is your favourite song at the moment?

Hmm. Life has been busy lately so I haven’t really listened to much music. I’m a big Bryan Ferry fan so one of my all time favourites is ‘Love is the Drug’.

What is your favourite food?

Apart from chocolate? Fruit. I love fruit. Very fond of a curry too.

What was the last thing you bought?

Christmas lunch at my garden group this lunchtime and I ‘bought’ a free ebook today too Married by Midnight by Talli Roland when I got back from lunch.

Favourite book of all time?

So many to choose from, especially lately when I’ve read some amazing books, but I think it has to be ‘Tess of the D’Urbervilles’ by Thomas Hardy. It takes me back to the summer before A’Levels when I read it as I was going to study it and so identified with Tess. It launched me into doing an English degree and teaching English so without it my life might be very different. I re-read it frequently now.

Favourite colour?

Jade. Although I seem to be buying a lot of pink recently…

Do you have any pets?

Unfortunately not at the minute. We used to have four cats at the same time, one of which was diabetic and we had to inject with insulin twice daily. We have decided life is too complicated for pets at the minute. My husband says I’m a ‘very demanding pet to look after’ so I suppose that’s enough!

Favourite perfume?

Tresor by Lancome. I wear it all the time.

Favourite holiday?

There are two that really stand out. A three week trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos and a month long trip to Brazil, Argentina, the Falklands and Antarctica. We swam with sharks in the Galapaogos where I suddenly realised I looks at bit like a sea lion in my wetsuit. Sharks eat sealions!

Are you married?

I have been married to Steve for almost 33 years and we were married within 10 months of meeting. A whirlwind romance that has endured!

Have you ever been out of the country?  If so, how many times?

Too many to mention. We have a couple of ‘big’ holidays and several city breaks a year. This year, for example, we’ve done a Caribbean cruise, toured various safari lodges in South Africa and visited Lisbon, Prague and Madrid.

Do you speak any other language?

Yes, French, but I’m not saying how well! I studied it for A’Level and in my first year at university so I can get by. It comes back when we go to France, but it’s very rusty. I was also surprised to find I remembered some O’Level German in Vienna last year.

How many siblings do you have?

I have a sister who is almost 9 years older than me, but she looks younger than I do.

What is your favourite store?

Any book shop. The covers, the smell, the excitement!

Favourite Restaurant?

I don’t eat out much as we have such lovely meals at home so I don’t really have one.

When was the last time that you cried?

Yesterday when the cancer nurse rang to say the latest biopsy for my husband was benign. I was so relieved. Keeping my fingers crossed for next week now.

Favourite Blog?

Too many to mention. I’ve only recently started blogging and other bloggers have been so generous with their advice and help. One I admire from a writing point of view is Sacha Black’s as it’s quite unusual.

Favourite Movie?

Brigit Jones’s Diary. Love it – especially when she gets her hair blown about in the sports car. (Shh, don’t tell anyone, but I enjoy it more than the book).

Favourite TV Show?

Strictly Come Dancing. Love the romance of it all and the costumes. I wish I could dance elegantly, but a foot injury prevents it.

PC or Mac?

PC (though I have a love/hate relationship with my iPad)

What phone do you have?

An LG smart phone something or other. I’m not in to phones – much prefer email.

What is your favourite pastime?

Daft question – reading. I love to walk and travel too and I’m a very keen gardener.

Can you cook?

Yes, but my skills are rusty because I used to work away from home quite a bit and when I was away 98 nights in one year all over the place including Jersey in the Channel Islands and New York, my husband had to learn or starve and as a result he’s become addicted to it so I am just the sous chef now.

Do you have any tattoos or piercings?

My ears are pierced. I didn’t want them doing but in contrast to most other people my mother insisted I have them done for my 15th birthday. Ugh.

‘No Longer Safe’ by A J Waines, the best selling author of ‘The Girl on a Train’, will be published on 4th February 2016 and is available for pre-order here.

She was your best friend. Now she’s your deadliest enemy – and there’s nowhere to run…

When Alice receives an invitation from Karen, her charismatic University friend, to stay in a remote cottage in Scotland, she can’t wait to rekindle their lost friendship. But two more former students arrive – never friends of Alice’s – and as the atmosphere chills, Karen isn’t the warm-hearted soulmate Alice remembers. Barely is the reunion underway before someone is dead and the fragile gathering is pushed to breaking point.

As the snow cuts them off from civilisation and accusations fly, Alice finds herself a pawn, sinking deeper into a deadly game she can’t escape.

NO LONGER SAFE is a chilling Psychological Thriller that delivers a delicious sting in the tail.

About the Author:

AJ Waines topped the UK and Australian Kindle Charts in 2015 with her number one bestseller, Girl on a Train. Following fifteen years as a psychotherapist, she is now a full-time novelist with publishing deals in France, Germany (Penguin Random House) and USA (audiobook).

Her first novel, The Evil Beneath, went to Number One in ‘Murder’ and ‘Psychological Thrillers’ in the UK Kindle Charts and Dark Place to Hide stayed for several weeks at Number One in ‘Vigilante Justice’. In 2015, she was featured in The Wall Street Journal and The Times and was ranked in the Top 20 UK authors on Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing).

You can follow A J Waines on Twitter, on Facebook, on her blog and by newsletter.

I love Emma Hannigan’s writing so I am delighted to be bringing you the opening chapter from her wonderful festive read ‘The Heart of Winter’ which was published in ebook and paperback on 22nd October by Headline Review.

There are other festive treats from Emma with other bloggers too.

When you’ve read Chapter One of ‘The Heart of Winter’ I’m sure you’ll want to know that it can be purchased from Amazon UK, Amazon US and direct from the publishers.

The Heart of Winter – Chapter One

                                                                             Wicklow County Council

                                                                              Attention: Mr Joey Craig

                                                                                   Huntersbrook House

                                                                                                        Wicklow

                                                                                                          Ireland

Dear Mr Craig

We are delighted to inform you of our decision to grant your commercial licence as requested. From this date forward Huntersbrook House has permission to operate as a commercial venue. Please note our terms.

✶ Licence to serve alcohol must be gained by applying to the address at the foot of this notice.

✶ The owners may host events on the grounds. Insurance for such events may now be applied for using this document.

✶ Huntersbrook House may host paying guests in an overnight capacity.

We will forward all relevant documents to enable full registration of your home as a business.

Kind regards

Mr Brennan

Wicklow County Council

 

Huntersbrook House

PIPPA SHOT THROUGH THE MAIN GATE OF HER childhood home, Huntersbrook. Almost instantly she passed the gate lodge to her right. The two-bed bungalow with its painted wooden-framed windows and immaculate hanging baskets reminded her of the cottage from Hansel and Gretel, minus the cauldron witch and cruelty, of course. It blended in so well, she found it hard to remember it hadn’t always been there. Grandma had built it a few years ago as her own oasis, away from the hustle and bustle of the main house. Sadly, she’d passed away before she could really make it her own. Still, Pippa mused, as it had transpired it was a good thing. Her parents Holly and Paddy had taken up residence there a couple of years ago and seemed to have found it quite easy to mould it into their permanent home.

It was still weird to Pippa that none of them actually lived in Huntersbrook House any longer. The stunning Georgian residence had been in the Craig family for generations. But the downturn in the economy had forced them to rethink things. Rather than letting it go, they’d come together as a family to save it.

As she zoomed up the drive she remembered her mother’s finger-wagging the last time she’d come home. ‘Do you absolutely have to drive that fast, Pippa? What difference will it make to your journey from the gate to the front door? Seconds? You need to slow down, my girl. Just look at the wonderful scenery that’s on offer if you choose to glide down the driveway toward the house.’

Pippa grinned triumphantly as she glanced back at the dust cloud she’d created. She knew she was being a bit of a brat, but she’d always had a problem with doing as she was told. Her mother was right about one thing though, Huntersbrook and the surrounding land was pretty spectacular. After the muggy, trafficjammed chaos of Dublin city, this really was like a slice of heaven on Earth. Not many houses boasted such an expanse of unspoilt land, bereft of freshly constructed housing estates or even purposebuilt shopping centres. The rolling fields as far as the eye could see were a joy.

Grinding to a halt at the back of the main house, Pippa jumped out of her car and stood onto the side, leaning on the door. Craning her neck, she tried to squint across to the right and into next door. Her sister, Lainey, had married Matt from next door and was now living in the farmhouse with her baby son, Ely, and father-in-law, Jacob. Their houses were very much separate, but close enough for Lainey to feel as if she hadn’t really left home. That was one of the many differences between the sisters. Pippa would get on a plane train or jet-ski at the drop of a hat if she thought it would lead to an adventure of any kind. While Lainey had always been a home-bird and was perfectly content living a stone’s throw from Huntersbrook.

As she walked in the side door to the kitchen Pippa was greeting by a happy screech from Ely.

‘Hello baby nephew!’ she said scooping him into her arms.

‘Hi Lainey,’ she said rushing to kiss her sister on the cheek. ‘I thought you might still be across the path in your lair.’

‘Joey said to be here for ten,’ she said. ‘It’s almost ten fifteen now. I’ve made scones and the coffee and tea are waiting for boiling water.’

‘Organised to within an inch of your life as usual,’ Pippa teased. ‘Where are Mum and Dad? I didn’t notice any sign of life at the gate lodge just now.’

‘Might that have been because you careered by at a thousand miles an hour?’ Lainey asked.

‘Who, me? Drive too fast? Nah,’ she said. ‘Have you seen them this morning?’

‘Last I spotted, Mum was wrestling with an apple tree she bought. Dad is pottering in a shed, I’m guessing. Do you know what Joey’s up to?’

‘Not a breeze,’ Pippa said picking a tasty sugary bit from a scone.

‘Hey, get away,’ Lainey said slapping her hand. ‘I’m putting them in a basket and we’ll all sit and have them nicely once Joey arrives. I can’t bear the way you pick like that.’

‘I get it from Mum,’ Pippa said shrugging her shoulders. She put a wriggling Ely down so he could continue playing with his wooden bricks on the kitchen floor.

‘That’s not a good thing,’ Lainey said crossly. ‘It’s so rude to pick food like that. Besides, remember the saying Grandma used to recite? “Little pickers wear big knickers”,’ said Lainey smugly.

‘Well my knickers haven’t changed size since I was sixteen,’ Pippa said slapping her own backside.

‘Don’t I know it,’ Lainey sighed. She looked down at her own figure. Instead of losing the post-baby weight after Ely’s birth last year, she’d kind of filled in around her saggy tummy. Even though her mother and Pippa shared that annoying picking habit, neither of them ever put on weight. She, on the other hand, seemed to put on half a stone by even being in the same room as a calorie.

‘I wish I had your metabolism,’ Lainey said wistfully. ‘I try so hard. I’m good for a week and then I seem to lose the run of myself and eat my way back to square one.’

‘Don’t be too hard on yourself,’ Pippa said. ‘You grew a person inside you. That has to have a totally nasty effect on your body, right?’

Lainey stopped short and stared at her sister. With her dark sleek ponytail trailing down her slender back and her stick thin legs in her painted-on-tight jeggings, she could easily pass as a model.

‘We can’t all look like you,’ Lainey snapped.

Pippa threw her head back and whistled before bursting out laughing. ‘Touchy touchy! Jaysus, someone got out the wrong side of the bed this morning. How about I go into the pantry and pull a black sack over my head and sit in the corner rustling?’

In spite of herself, Lainey’s scowl turned into a grin. ‘Shut up, Pip,’ she said swatting her arm playfully. ‘I suppose I’m a bit oversensitive. Mum didn’t help by telling me yesterday that I look “good and solid”.’

Sadie, who’d been their housekeeper for over forty years, came through to the kitchen from the hallway.

‘Ah now Lainey,’ she said gently. ‘I couldn’t help overhearing you just now. Your Mum didn’t mean any harm with that remark. I was there. She was trying to say that you’re toning up with all that walking you’ve been doing.’

Lainey sighed. It was typical that everyone would take Holly’s side. Nobody seemed to recognise that she treated her differently from the others. She’d never dare make a remark like that about Pippa. Even if she did, Pippa would probably drop-kick her, Lainey mused. Maybe that was what she needed. To be more forceful with her mother. Maybe then she’d treat her with a little more respect and little less disregard.

‘Your mother loves the bones of you three,’ Sadie continued. ‘Even though you girls and Joey are grown-ups now, she still sees you as her babies.’

‘Huh,’ Lainey said unable to let the comment slide. ‘When I was a baby she handed me over to Grandma. She was too delicate to cope with me and yet now she expects me to be unfathomably capable in everything I do.’

‘Your mother would walk over hot coals for each one of you,’ Sadie said firmly. ‘I remember the time you had chicken pox, Lainey. You weren’t more than four or five. You had the worst dose I’ve ever seen. You scratched and cried and your mother stayed awake for four nights on the trot bathing you in bread soda baths.’

Lainey busied herself with setting the table. Not for the first time, she felt Sadie had a rose-tinted image of what had gone on during her childhood. Lainey and Holly had been like sandpaper rubbing off one another from as far back as she could remember. No matter what Sadie or anyone else recalled, Lainey knew the truth. Holly had been there physically while Lainey was small, but mentally she’d been in a dark and clouded place where nobody, least of all her daughter, could reach her.

The sound of a car pulling up on the gravel outside made Lainey sigh with relief. She was uncomfortable with this conversation and didn’t want to get into anything negative with darling Sadie.

‘Here’s Joey,’ Pippa confirmed. ‘This better be good. I don’t appreciate being hauled out of bed at the crack of dawn at the weekend.’

‘It’s half ten, Pippa!’ Sadie said with a giggle. ‘Although knowing you it was dawn before that pretty little head of yours hit the pillow.’

Joey arrived in looking very smug.

‘What’s happening?’ Pippa asked, attempting to grab the A4 envelope he was carrying.

‘Ah-ah, all in good time,’ he said slapping her hand away. ‘Mum and Dad are on the way. They’re having a healthy discussion about an apple tree,’ he said. ‘They’re getting battier by the minute, you know?’

‘We know,’ Pippa said. ‘They were never exactly “normal” but the passing of time is certainly taking them to a whole new level of insanity,’ she grinned.

‘I’m getting out of here before I swat one of you with a tea towel,’ Sadie said. ‘Anyone would think this place is flanked by dotty geriatrics. I’d challenge any of you to a game of Scrabble and beat you. My mind is as sharp as a razor and your parents are babies in comparison to me. So be careful who you’re labelling as past it.’

Sadie disappeared, tutting and muttering about the youth of today.

Lainey laughed. ‘That’ll tell you, Pippa. Jeez, I have to hand it to Sadie, there are no flies on her!’

‘Quick one before the folks arrive,’ Joey interjected, glancing back to make sure there was no sign of them. ‘I need a bit of girly advice here.’

‘Ooh excellent,’ Pippa said leaning in.

‘Turns out I’m ninety-nine per cent sure I’m about to be promoted at work.’

‘Hey that’s amazing, Joey,’ Lainey said rubbing his arm. ‘Good for you.’

‘Yeah, thanks. I’m stoked. But it’s kind of a bit awkward. It’s going to mean a fair bit of social stuff. Skye isn’t really wired for sound when it comes to fancy-schmancy outings. Would you two be a little bit mindful of her over the next while?’

‘In what way?’ Lainey asked.

‘Well, help her out with stuff to wear and all that kind of malarkey.’

‘I’ll do that,’ Pippa said instantly. ‘Oh I’d love to give her a makeover. I tried a few times when we shared the flat, but she never seemed that interested.’

‘Hold up a second,’ Lainey said looking concerned. ‘Skye is beautiful just the way she is. She’s admittedly quite bohemian in style, but that’s part of who she is. I’m not sure she’d be too happy with either of us barging in and telling her what to look like.’

‘No and I don’t expect you to do that,’ Joey said attempting to back track. ‘It’s just that our social calendar is going to fill up quite a bit and these corporate do’s are a different kettle of fish from what she might be used to. Just keep an eye, that’s all I ask.’

‘Sure,’ Pippa said looking as if it was a perfectly reasonable request. Lainey wasn’t so sure. She was probably overthinking things as usual, but she couldn’t help feeling slightly protective of Skye.

‘Joey,’ she ventured. ‘Mum and Dad are about to walk in, but being the elder lemon here, don’t forget the reason you feel in love with Skye to start with. You love her because she’s different. Am I right?’

‘Yeah. Sure,’ he said. ‘Forget I said anything. It was literally just a thought and I only suggested it so she wouldn’t feel ill at ease. Maybe I’m on the wrong page. I’m only a man after all,’ he said bumping her shoulder and smiling.

Holly and Paddy arrived in amidst hugs and kisses. By the time they were all seated at the table with a cuppa and a fresh warm scone, they were all begging Joey to put them out of their misery and tell them why he had called them all to a family meeting.

‘It’s really good news,’ he announced. ‘We’ve been granted a commercial licence! We’re good to go as far as the authorities are concerned. Huntersbrook House, the venue, can officially open!’

Joey raised his coffee cup high in the air. ‘A toast to Huntersbrook House and her bright future.’

‘To Huntersbrook,’ they all chimed, grinning widely at each other.

Lainey smiled as she clinked cups with each of her family members. None of the gripes and cribs really mattered once they could all pull together when necessary. She glanced over at Pippa and Holly. Her mother had her arm around her sister and was kissing the side of her head affectionately as she smiled in delight. Lainey adored Pippa, but she couldn’t help noticing that her mother had never been that affectionate with her. As if to bridge that painful gap, she scooped Ely from his high chair and spun him around in the air, making him giggle loudly.

‘Wee,’ she said. ‘Huntersbrook is going to be a destination to be reckoned with, baby boy!’

They all clapped as Ely joined in, bashing his chubby hands together, lapping up the good humour.

—————

You can follow Emma Hannigan on Twitter and on her Web Site

I am very grateful to Corvus Books for a copy of Rosie Blake’s ‘How to Stuff Up Christmas’ which was published on 5th November 2015 in both ebook and paperback. It is available to buy from Amazon UK, Amazon US, Foyles and Waterstones

Having got engaged at Christmas, Eve is devastated just before the next Christmas to find an intimate photo from another woman on her fiance, Liam’s, phone. She runs away to try to fix her broken heart on a houseboat in Pangbourne. Not everything goes as she expects – especially when she tries to cook.

I have to be honest and say the title of the book, ‘How to Stuff Up Christmas’ didn’t really appeal to me and I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy it. I did!

This is a lovely, romantic Christmas story with plenty of twists and turns in the plot to keep the reader thoroughly entertained and there is the kind of ending readers of this genre will love.

The characters are great. Eve immediately gains reader empathy and it’s easy to relate to her and live her emotions with her so that the hardest hearted reader would want her to be happy. Even the most minor characters are vivid and convincing, especially Marmite, the dog.

I love the way we see the story from two perspectives; Eve’s and Greg’s, because it really adds to the depth of emotion conveyed. I particularly like the sightly awkward elements to their relationship as I feel they reflect the reality of what it’s like to test the water with an embryonic romance.

Equally appealing are the recipes that start several of the chapters. They made me hungry as I read and I felt I wanted to be baking Daisy’s Chocolate Biscuit Cake or the Christmas Cookies (Lebkuchen), so much so that I’m off shopping for ingredients when I’ve written this review.

However, what really brings ‘How to Stuff Up Christmas’ alive most for me is the quality of Rosie Blake’s writing. She conveys setting and appearance so effectively through small details that each scene really comes to life and is so easy to picture. Rosie Blake also has a deft touch with humour so that at times I laughed out loud. I’ll admit to shedding a tear or two as well.

Readers wanting a feel good Christmas read that is totally  engaging will be delighted by ‘How to Stuff Up Christmas’. I heartily recommend it.

You can follow Rosie Blake on Twitter and via her web site

 

Drama. Masquerade. Mischief.

It is my great pleasure to bring you a promotional post for Ravinder Randhawa’s book ‘A Wicked Old Woman’ in association with Faye Rogers.

The story:

A sharply observed, witty and confident novel. Linguistically playful, entertaining and provoking.

In a bustling British city,  Kulwant mischievously masquerades as a much older woman, using her walking stick like a Greek chorus, ‘…stick-leg-shuffle-leg-shuffle…’ encountering new adventures and getting bruised by the jagged edges of her life. There’s the Punjabi punk who rescues her after a carefully calculated fall; Caroline, her gregarious friend from school days, who watched over her dizzy romance with ‘Michael the Archangel’, Maya the myopic who can’t see beyond her broken heart and Rani/Rosalind, who’s just killed a man …

Vividly bringing to life a bit of the 60s, 70s and 80s.

Information about the book

Title: A Wicked Old Woman

Author: Ravinder Randhawa

Genre: Contemporary

Publisher: Matador

Format: Paperback & Ebook

Published: October 24^th 2015 (republished)

Goodreads Link

Amazon Link

About Ravinder Randhawa:

Ravinder Randhawa is the acclaimed author of the novels Beauty and the Beast (YA), A Wicked Old Woman, The Tiger’s Smile and the short story collection Dynamite. She’s currently working on a trilogy: The Fire-Magician. Ravinder was a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Toynbee Hall, Queen Mary’s University, the University of London, and founded the Asian Women Writer’s Collective.

Ravinder was born in India, grew up in leafy Warwickshire, now lives in London and agrees with Samuel Johnson’s saying (though of course, in a gender non-specific way) ‘…if a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.’  Loves good coffee and really good thrillers.

You can follow Ravinder on Twitter and via her web site and on Facebook and Goodreads

 

 

 

I recently read what, for me, was one of the best crime books I’ve encountered since I began blogging – ‘Cracked’ by Barbra Leslie. You can read my review by clicking here. I was so impressed by Barbra’s writing that I asked if she would mind asking a few questions and I’m delighted that she agreed.

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag Barbra. Thank you so much for being here.

Thank you!  I’m so happy to be talking to you.

Firstly, would you mind telling readers a little bit about yourself?

Sure!  I was born and raised in a small village in Nova Scotia, Canada, the youngest of six children.  Youngest by quite a lot, I might add – my next oldest sibling is eight years older than I am.  We owned a small grocery store and lived above the store, all of us.   My father died when I had just turned four, and my eldest siblings had moved out by then, off to university and their lives.  By the time I was 10 or 11, it was just my mother and me.  I moved to Toronto for university when I was 18, and other than lots of travelling and living other places for periods of time – London, Dallas, Texas – it’s been my home ever since.  I’ve been writing all my life – published my first story at 15, and poetry and short stories in university and after – but I was working long hours at day jobs by the time I was in my early 20s, and really living the life of a young woman about town.  I published a novel in the late 90s called Nerve, and wrote other things I never did wind up publishing, but an unpublished manuscript found its way into the hands of a producer and it got optioned for film.  I spent a lot of time on that screenplay, my first, and a fun project.  Hasn’t yet been made, but who knows?  It’s a fickle business, the movie business.

But I’ve worked in many kinds of legal jobs, from a writer for a legal newspaper to doing marketing for a big law firm, from tracking criminal cases for the Attorney General to working as a court reporter.

What made you decide to write crime fiction as opposed to any other genre?

Well, my first novel, Nerve, wasn’t a crime book, and I had never written crime fiction before.  Frankly the idea hadn’t occurred to me until, quite literally, the night I sat down and started writing a very early draft of Cracked.  And I love this genre so much now, I can’t imagine writing anything else.

Unless I do a foray into a post-apocalyptic novel or series, which I am also a bit obsessed with just now.

As you know, I thought ‘Cracked’ was the best crime thriller I’ve read since I started blogging, what gave you the idea for the novel?

That is such high praise, Linda.  I’m flattered.  I may even be blushing a little, sitting here at my desk!

I decided to come clean with this about a month ago, knowing the book was coming out, and questions like this might be asked.  So, in a nutshell: in 2005 when my marriage ended – and I knew I wasn’t going to have children, which I quite literally, at that time, couldn’t imagine living without – I embarked on a kind of odyssey of low living.  It wasn’t planned, of course.  At first I just started frequenting a local bar where a friend had gotten a job.  Soon, though, I realized that the new friends I had met there were doing a lot of cocaine.

Now, you must understand, I was about the farthest thing from a drug user – let alone addict — that you could imagine.  I had tried weed a number of times in my life and for the most part hated it, and the smell made me sick.  And in high school when my friends were experimenting with acid – it had a big revival at that time, at least where I grew up – I had no interest.  I do like my wine, but even that I didn’t really start drinking – again, with a few exceptions – until I lived in London when I was in my late 20s.  England taught me how to drink!  (But that could be a topic for another interview altogether: the difference between English and North American bar culture.  Maybe another day…!)  But sitting at my desk here tonight, when I think of it, I haven’t had any wine since – oh I guess a week ago maybe?  When I was doing crack, I pretty much counted the hours until I could do it again.

When I jumped into this life of partying with cocaine, things went downhill quite quickly.  I was, in retrospect, suffering from major depression, and I couldn’t bear to be alone with my sadness.  I fell in love with a man who was as damaged as I was, but unfortunately for me, his level of addiction beat me, hands down.  When he started doing crack, I eventually tried it.

I went from being a nice young middle-class matron to a hard-core crack addict in the space of about a year.  It ruined my life, put simply.  I lost myself, I lost my soul, and I could easily have lost my life.  And while I have been clean for about seven years now, there are aspects of that time that I am still climbing back from.

But I am so incredibly fortunate to have the people around me that I do, my friends.  None of my friends before this did any kind of drug.  I pushed them away for a long time, but when I was ready to come back to the land of the living they were there for me with open arms.

There is a very dark underworld in ‘Cracked’. Without spoiling the plot for future readers, how did you go about researching the world of drugs, guns and murder?

Well, drugs – I’ve told you about that.  While Cracked is most definitely fiction, the depictions of drug use pretty closely mirror my own experience.  Guns and murder?  I’ve spent years watching and listening to police interviews with accused, witnesses and victims in criminal cases, for a police service here in Ontario – but not, I hasten to add, in Toronto.  (And I take my confidentiality agreements very seriously!)  Plus sitting in a lot of courtrooms, reading a lot of police files while I was tracking cases for the Ministry – I was paid to get that education, you might say.

What made you decide on a female protagonist?

It wasn’t a conscious decision.  I’ve written from a male perspective before as well, and I’ve had editors think that I was a man, from my writing.  Which is bizarre to me, and funny.  But an editor at one publishing house rejected Cracked because of the drug use – which is fair enough, but as you know, Linda, the book isn’t about drugs, it’s just a part — and she couldn’t understand why a man would use a female pseudonym.  No woman could write this level of violence, she said.

I guess when I very first started writing the book, I took Danny Cleary on as a part of my psyche.  When I started a very early draft, I was sitting in Nova Scotia at my mother’s house, where I had gone to care for her when she was sick.  I was just getting clean, and I couldn’t tell her – I didn’t want to upset her – so I had no rehab, no help, nothing.  Writing Cracked was my rehab.  Although once I wrote a very rough draft I put it away for a long time.  It was hard to come back to; when I was newly clean and still having urges at times, I didn’t want to immerse myself into that world again.

I thought the first person narrative was incredibly effective. What made you write from this perspective and not the third person?

Excellent question, Linda.  I think, again, that it was unconscious.  When I sat down that night to start this book, I wasn’t sure what I was going to write, exactly.  I hadn’t thought past the basic plot.  But I just had to write it – the pull was as strong as any I have ever felt, to anything.  And I was using Danny as a sort of catharsis, I think.

How did you go about planning ‘Cracked’? Did it emerge naturally as you wrote or did you have meticulous plans before you began?

Before I began?  Absolutely no meticulous plans.  I knew the tone I wanted, the sort of style I wanted.  But in the back of my mind, the book was just all about revenge.  Take-no-prisoners revenge.  My life was in utter shambles at that time, and other than the time I spent at the gym in the afternoons while my mother slept – as I said, she wasn’t well and I tried to stick close to home – I exorcised my demons, and the book fair raced along.

However, the book you read does not much resemble the book I wrote originally, other than that the characters of Danny and Darren don’t change, and the very basics of the stimulus of the plot – Ginger’s murder and the quest for answers and vengeance.  But I must say, a good 60% of the plot changed when I picked it back up again, a long time later.

This is the first in a trilogy about Danny Cleary. Why did you decide to have a trilogy?

I realize that my answers here sound as though I’m a bit flighty, but it wasn’t a decision I made, as such.  I didn’t want to let Danny go – I couldn’t imagine this book being a one-off.  I had a million ideas for where I wanted Danny, and a possible series, to go.  (You know, there have been times over the last few years, when I’m having a bad day, when I’m feeling low, I just stop and start thinking about these characters, thinking about what they should do, and I feel utterly calm again.)

I had started an outline for the second book before I even finished my last draft of Cracked.  Then when Titan Books expressed an interest in signing me for the book, they asked for an outline of a third.  I said, “yes, please,” and it was down on paper, almost fully fleshed-out, that afternoon.  In fact, in some ways the third book became more real to me than the second.

And who knows?  If they do well enough, maybe we’ll see more of Danny et al!  I certainly hope so.

We hear quite a lot about Danny’s brother Darren in book one. Will he appear in the next part ‘Cracked; Rehab Run’?

Yes, absolutely.  But I’ll let you in on a little secret: the sibling who’s front and centre with Danny in the second book is Laurence, her TV producer brother who lives in New York.  The second book, most of it, takes place in rural Nova Scotia, where I grew up.  It’s my homecoming book.  But the book – the character — is so much about family that Darren is most definitely not the only family member that the reader will get to know.

Family is obviously important to Danny. How far do her views reflect your own feelings about family? 

For me, my family is my lifeline.  I have five brothers and sisters whom I love beyond anything.  And some of them have families.  In fact, in the acknowledgements section at the back of Cracked, I name them all.  My mother, had she lived to see this book released, would have loved that.

But I am probably closest to my three sisters.  The four of us get together every year or so, usually in southern California, where some of Cracked is set.  One of my sisters has lived there for 30 odd years — but she is not, I hasten to add, the basis for Ginger’s character.  I don’t have a twin, never did.  But I talk to my family constantly, and if someone is in crisis, someone else flies to be there.  We all live in different cities, or at least most of us do.  Orange County, Vancouver, Toronto, and parts of Nova Scotia.  My sisters and I are all very different; lead vastly different lifestyles and have different interests, but when you get us together, you can be pretty sure that for the first two nights no one within a quarter mile gets much sleep.  We share the same sense of humour.

And after the really awful years of my life, I can truly say I don’t think I would be alive without them.

And not having any family where I live, I’ve got friends who are as close to me as family and who, as my friend Linda likes to say, I would walk through fire for.

The different characters in ‘Cracked’ are quite tricky to pin down and decide who’s to be trusted. To what extent do you think multiple personas are typical of people in real life?

Another great question!  To answer this as fully as I would like, I would have to give away plot details, which I am obviously not going to do.  But I will say that the extent that it is used in crime/thriller/mystery books – or plays and films, for that matter – is not proportionate with real life.  No one would be getting anything done; we’d all be sequestered behind locked doors in mortal fear.

That being said, we are so often treated to stories of men who have double lives, with two different families who don’t know a thing about each other.  Or exponentially more horrific, serial killers who lead seemingly normal existences with responsible jobs and families who love them.  Dennis Rader, known as the BTK killer, was an upstanding citizen in his Kansas town; a church deacon, from what I’ve read.  I defy anyone to look at any photographs of that man and think that he was capable of the horrors he carried out; in fact he looks remarkably like someone who tried to sell me a car a few years ago.  Here in Ontario several years ago, we had Russell Williams, who was a Colonel in the Canadian Forces and, while in that role, committed two horrible murders and several sexual assaults.  And notoriously photographed himself in his victims’ lingerie.  His arrest was a shock to his community, and by all accounts to his wife.

I believe that evil does exist.  I think the majority of people in prison are not evil; most of them are products of their birth, circumstance, upbringing and untreated or undiagnosed psychiatric issues.  Evil exists; it just doesn’t usually wear the face we expect it to.  It’s just as likely to look like Ted Bundy as Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber).

These have been amazing and honest answers Barbra. I’d like to thank you again for agreeing to answer questions about ‘Cracked’ and to wish you all the success you so obviously deserve in your future writing.

Thanks, Linda!  And here’s wishing you continued success with the blog!!

You can follow Barbra on Twitter

‘Cracked’ was published in ebook and paperback by Titan on 24th November 2015 and is available from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com as well as from Titan. ‘Cracked’ is the first in the Danny Cleary series by Barbra Leslie.