I’m very fond of historical fiction and am delighted to share my review of The Strange Adventures of H by Sarah Burton for the blog tour. My thanks to Lucy at Legend Press for inviting me to participate.

Published by Legend Press on 1st June 2020, The Strange Adventures of H is available for purchase here.

The Strange Adventures of H

Orphaned young, H is sent to live with her doting aunt in London. H’s life is a happy one until her lecherous cousin robs her of her innocence, and the plague takes away the city and the people she loves. H is cast out – friendless, pregnant and destitute – into the rapidly emptying streets of London under quarantine.

Forced to fend for herself, she is determined to gain back the life she lost. H will face a villain out for revenge, find love in the most unexpected places, and overcome a betrayal that she never could have foreseen. Weathering it all, can H charm, or scheme, her way to the life of freedom and independence that she longs for?

My Review of The Strange Adventures of H

Being orphaned sends H on a lifetime of adventure.

Before beginning my review proper, I have to mention the superb cover design for The Strange Adventures of H as it is reminiscent of the ring-a-ring-a-roses we associate with the plague which features heavily in the narrative, and the blurring of skull and flower illustrates perfectly the precarious balance between life and death that resonates in H’s story.

I very much enjoyed Sarah Burton’s often surprisingly sexual presentation of the life of H. There’s no romanticising of the truth, but neither is there such hardship and difficulty in H’s life that there is unremitting misery. Instead The Strange Adventures of H is a really well balanced and thoroughly entertaining read. In fact, I found some of H’s comments very funny so that I frequently found myself laughing with her. And it is with her because her narrative voice is very strong, especially through the occasional direct comments to the reader. The Strange Adventures of H reminded me of Sterne’s Tristram Shandy in many ways, but for my money with a much more attractive protagonist!

The sense of the era is fabulous. Every sense is catered for, so that The Strange Adventures of H is a very auditory and visual book that transports the reader back to the early 1600s extremely clearly. The level of research that underpins this narrative is exemplary and I really appreciated the historical depth and the theatrical and literary allusions because they added a depth I wasn’t expecting.

Whilst there’s plenty of history for those who enjoy this genre, it was the vivid, colourful characters who made The Strange Adventures of H so engaging for me. I think this book would translate into a fabulous television series just as well as any Hardy or Dickens. H is a brilliant character.  Her feisty ability to reinvent herself and survive the vagaries of her environment is incredibly rewarding to read. Her relationships, and the way they illustrate society’s morality and prejudices, make her adventures ring out with both entertainment and authenticity. Many aspects of her life and character, whilst being firmly rooted in the era, are equally relevant to today so that The Strange Adventures of H feels both historical and modern.

Indeed, what I enjoyed so much about The Strange Adventures of H is the manner in which a very female version of history is presented, and one which is not about the higher echelons of society, but rather the ordinary person, H, whose adventures could have been those of any woman fallen on hard times in her era.

The Strange Adventures of H is a cracking romp of a read that I found hugely diverting. I really recommend it.

About Sarah Burton

The Strange Adventures of H is Sarah’s debut novel for adults. Sarah was the course director of Cambridge University’s MSt in Creative Writing. She has written for BBC History Magazine and reviews for the Times, Spectator, Guardian and Independent.

You can follow H’s adventures on Twitter @AdventuresOfH1.

There’s more with these other bloggers too:

It gives me very great pleasure to welcome Samantha Rose to Linda’s Book Bag today as part of her blog tour organised by Kelly at Love Books Group. Samantha is going to stay in and tell me all about her very first book.

Staying in with Samantha Rose

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag Samantha and thank you for agreeing to stay in with me. Tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it?

I have brought with me The Very Real World of Emily Adams. It is my first novel and man, it has been quite a journey getting it here, so I’m pretty excited to share it with you.

Congratulations. You must be thrilled to be in print. What can we expect from an evening in with The Very Real World of Emily Adams?

The Very Real World of Emily Adams is a dark yet uplifting story about a suicidal girl who meets a magical musician/motivational speaker, who likes to doll himself up in makeup and a dress on Ladies Night. There’s a portal, man-eating monsters, aliens, pop-culture references and an elevator with a personality.

Crikey, that’s quite a cast and plot!

Despite its dark themes, early readers have told me how much they have laughed—literally out loud—throughout the book, which is important to me, because I feel like laughter is a life-saving medicine in dark times.

It certainly is!

This novel is about finding your way again when you feel lost, and when things don’t work out the way you hope. If you can just find the strength to hold on through those times, you will find joy on the other side that is as deep and real as has been your despair. I really believe that, as it’s a lesson I’ve learned from experience, and one that I just had to share with people.

That sounds perfect for today’s world.

Here are a few reader reviews:

“I fell in love with Rain and Emily right away.”

“I have been hooked on every chapter! … It’s suspenseful, it’s romantic. Perfect story! Perfect ending!”

“I loved it. I still have [the characters] on my mind.”

“Not saying I neglected my children or anything, but…. [that’s] a testament to the quality of the book. The only time I get like that with a book is when I can’t put it down.”

Those are fabulous Samantha. You must be thrilled to get such a response.

What else have you brought along and why?

I have brought with me The Green Mile by Stephen King, and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

In The Green Mile, John Coffey is this beautiful character with remarkable empathy and the ability to heal others. Because of prejudice, he ends up on death row for a crime he didn’t commit. I read it in high school, and it has always stayed with me. There was such a dark, beauty to that story. Stephen King has been my hero ever since, and so much about that book has inspired The Very Real World of Emily Adams.

As an ex high school English teacher, I love the idea that reading in school had led you to writing Samantha.

However—let me now present The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It’s really not dark, other than the fact that the Earth is demolished to make way for an intergalactic bypass. The humor in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is just amazing. There were moments where I was in tears, I was laughing so much. And I just thought, “I want to do that. I want to write like this.” Throughout writing The Very Real World of Emily Adams (her last name is a nod to Douglas Adams, by the way), I’d hoped to try and marry the things I loved and had learned from these heroes of mine.

The Very Real World of Emily Adams is not your typical urban fantasy and I was concerned about that, but these authors have given me courage. I feel like both Stephen King and Douglas Adams are very brave in their writing. They are completely unapologetic, and that’s what makes them so inspiring and timeless.

And it sounds as if you’ve learnt from them to make for a highly entertaining read in The Very Real World of Emily Adams Samantha. Thanks so much for staying in with me to tell me all about it.

The Very Real World of Emily Adams

Emily Adams has reached a breaking point. Her boyfriend pushed her down the stairs, breaking her arm, and now she’s found herself in an unfamiliar city with fifteen cents in her pocket and nowhere to go. She’s decided that all that’s left for her, is to take matters into her own hands and put an end to her misery…

Until an encounter with a magic man in a dress changes everything.

In a story full of humor and heart, The Very Real World of Emily Adams shows that there is hope in darkness, triumph in tragedy, and the moment when things are at their worst is when you hold on the hardest, because you never know what good things are waiting for you on the other side of despair.

The Very Real World of Emily Adams is available for purchase here.

About Samantha Rose

Samantha Rose is a forever-student at Utah State University, who will one day have her Masters Degree in Psychology. She wrote her first novel in permanent marker on her sister’s vanity chair when she was three-years-old. It wasn’t well received.

She currently resides in the mountains, in a little house full of toys, where she’s enjoying her happily ever after with her Prince Charming and three adorable, little bears.

You can follow Samantha on Instagram.

There’s more with these other bloggers too:

It’s always a delight to find new to me authors and I’m delighted to welcome Eliot Parker to the blog today to stay in with me as part of his blog tour and tell me about one of his books. I’d like to thank Isobel of Blackthorn Tours for putting us in touch with one another and inviting me to participate in this tour.

Staying in with Eliot Parker

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag, Eliot and thank you for agreeing to stay in with me.

Tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it?

The book I am sharing is called A Knife’s Edge. This is a sequel to the book Fragile Brilliance, featuring Charleston (West Virginia) police sergeant Ronan McCullough. I have chosen it because Ronan is my favorite character. I love getting to set a story in my hometown of Charleston, West Virginia. A Knife’s Edge was an honorable mention in Thriller Writing from the London Book Festival in 2019 and received the Pinnacle Award for Thriller Writing from National Association of Book Editors (NABE).

How wonderful. You must be really pleased about that Eliot. Congratulations. Tell me, what can we expect from an evening in with A Knife’s Edge?

If readers spend an evening with this book, I think they will find that it is a classic thriller novel full of murder and intrigue. Readers that love a great mystery and believable subplots will also enjoy this book. One of the strongest traits of this book is the characters. As readers move through the novel, they will have a chance to get to know the characters quite well on an introspective, personal level. I think that allows readers a stronger understanding of why the characters do and say the things they do and say in the story. For example, the protagonist, Ronan, is a prickly sort. He can difficult with anyone from his bosses to his calm supportive partner Eric to his kind, good-hearted boyfriend Ty. Speaking of Ty, Ronan constantly lives in fear that his homosexuality will come to light. “A gay police sergeant working for the municipal police department in the state right in the heart of Appalachia was unfathomable.” Inexorably intense, Ronan presses forward with an investigation that links together numerous murders all connected in one way another to the mysterious and well-funded BTech Company.

I love a character driven narrative. I like the sound of A Knife’s Edge.

What else have you brought along and why have you brought it Eliot? 

I’ve brought some photos. The first picture is a picture of Mike and Chris, two Charleston Police Department officers who helped me get all of the details of police work right and helped me mold and shape Ronan into a character.

I hear a lot about the research that goes into writing but rarely do I see the people authors are in contact with.

This is the police badge of the Charleston Police Department, which is attached to the shoulders of each officer’s uniform.

The third picture is a sample blood testing machine that BTech uses in the book to manipulate blood samples. This machine is just a prototype and is not actually used by any law enforcement agency.

It looks as if it could be. Now, of course, Eliot, I want to know what happens with that blood testing machine! Thanks so much for staying in with me to chat about A Knife’s Edge and good luck with the book!

A Knife’s Edge

Six months after a drug cartel infiltrated Charleston, Ronan McCullough continues to fight the drug war that plagues the city.

His investigations are halted when the body of a mutual acquaintance, Sarah Gilmore, is found in the trunk of a burning car.

In an investigation that takes him deep into the professional and personal life of the victim, McCullough discovers secrets lurking in her past, and a tangled web of personal and professional conflicts, suspicion, and betrayal.

Was Sarah killed for those reasons or something larger?

As Ronan seeks answers, his life and the lives of those closest to him are used as pawns in a deadly game that has no ending.

A Knife’s Edge is available for purchase here.

About Eliot Parker

Eliot Parker is the author of four novels, most recently A Knife’s Edge, which was an Honorable Mention in Thriller Writing at the London Book Festival, and is the sequel to the award-winning novel Fragile Brilliance. His novel Code for Murder was named a 2018 Finalist for Genre Fiction by American Book Fest. He is a recipient of the West Virginia Literary Merit Award and Fragile Brilliance was a finalist for the Southern Book Prize in Thriller Writing. He recently received with the Thriller Writing Award by the National Association of Book Editors (NABE) for his novels.

Eliot is the host of the podcast program Now, Appalachia, which profiles authors and publishers living and writing in the Appalachian region and is heard on the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network and Blog Talk Radio. A graduate of the Bluegrass Writers Studio at Eastern Kentucky University with his MFA in Creative Writing and Murray State University with his Doctorate in English, he teaches English at the University of Mississippi and lives in Oxford, Mississippi and Chesapeake, Ohio.

You can find Eliot on Facebook and Instagram and follow him on Twitter @E4419 or visit his website for more information.

There’s more with these other bloggers too:

There are some people in the world of publishing who are just a delight and Kim Nash is one such lady. As a result, I’m thrilled to be part of the launch celebrations for Kim’s latest book, Sunshine and Second Chances. Kim’s staying in with me to chat all about this latest book.

I loved Kim’s debut novel Amazing Grace and you can read my review of that book here. I was equally impressed by her next, Escape to Giddywell Grange. You’ll find my review of that book here.

So, let’s see what Kim has to say about Sunshine and Second Chances.

Staying in with Kim Nash

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag, Kim. It’s far too long since we got together in person so I’m delighted to see you here today. Thank you for agreeing to stay in with me.

I know the answer, but which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it?

I’m bringing my latest book Sunshine and Second Chances.  People are describing it as a gorgeous summery read and who doesn’t fancy a trip abroad right now?

Absolutely! What a gorgeous cover. And congratulations are in order as I know Sunshine and Second Chances is out today. Tell us a bit more about what we can expect from an evening in with Sunshine and Second Chances?

In all of my books, this is my third, you will find strong female friendships. In Sunshine and Second Chances, four friends from University, all with different issues in their lives, and all either already celebrated or about to celebrate their 50^th birthdays, go on holiday to a gorgeous villa in The Algarve where they rediscover their hopes and dreams.  There’s sunshine, laughter, a little love, and that strong female friendship that I’ve been lucky enough to experience in my life.

How lovely to have a set of ‘older’ characters to read about. My next birthday will be my 60th so I shall look forward to reading about women I can relate to. I’m so pleased to have Sunshine and Second Chances on my TBR. 

This is what readers are saying so far, Linda so I hope you enjoy it too:

‘The perfect, feel-good, life-affirming summer read.’ Nicola May, No1 bestselling author of the Cockleberry Bay series

‘Sunshine and Second Chances is a gorgeous summery read about finding yourself.’  By the Letter Book Reviews

‘An outstanding summer read!’  Robin Loves Reading

‘Just gorgeous – perfect summer read.’ Being Anne

‘Such a fun, uplifting and inspiring read – you’re never too old to follow your dreams!’ Crime Book Junkie

“It’s just lush! I love it!” Crooks on Books

“My favourite book so far!” Stardust Book Reviews

“I couldn’t put it down! Full of feel-good fun, hope and friendship…” StefLoz Book Blog

You must be thrilled with those responses Kim. 

What else have you brought along and why?

Well, as the book is set in The Algarve, I’m going to take you to Vilamoura and we’re going to sit at one of the marina-side restaurants, where we can sit in the glorious sunshine and watch the world go by.

I think a carafe of Portugese Rosé would be in order, and I’ll be bringing along my friends Liv, Debs, Samantha and Fiona, and will introduce you to my gorgeous Portugese men, Eduardo, Bernardo and Josep.

Now THAT sounds a plan!

Last August myself and the fabulous bestselling author Nicola May spent a few days doing exactly this! And this is one of our very happy Portugese memories! My son Ollie and I have also had some gorgeous Algarge holidays and there are a couple of other snaps from those holidays too!

As it’s one of my favourite places in the world, it seemed the right location for me to whisk my readers away to.

I think it sounds perfect. Thanks so much for staying in with me Kim. All the very best with Sunshine and Second Chances. You pour the rosé and I’ll tell blog readers a bit more about the book!

Sunshine and Second Chances

It’s never too late to be offered a second chance at life.

Tim Walker has featured frequently on Linda’s Book Bag; last time introducing PERVERSE – a collection of short prose and verse, and sharing a poem with us in a post you can see here.

Another time Tim shared an extract from Arthur Dux Bellorum here and he has introduced his book Uther’s Destiny in a post you can see here, as well as previously writing a fabulous guest post about fiction and fear when the second book in his A Light in the Dark Ages series, Ambrosius: Last of the Romans, was published, and you can read that post here.

However, Tim and I have never stayed in together so today we are putting that right as Tim brings another of his books to share with us.

Staying in with Tim Walker

Welcome back to Linda’s Book Bag, Tim. Thank you for agreeing to stay in with me.

Tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it?

Hi Linda, thanks for inviting me to showcase my new book, Arthur Rex Brittonum, on your ‘Staying in with’ feature.

Published on 1^st June, Arthur Rex Brittonum is my new telling of the story of King Arthur, the legendary British king of Camelot fame. However, my Arthur does not live in a magical castle called Camelot, and there is no shining armour, as he is a rough-and-ready early sixth century warlord, busy organising armed resistance to the creeping colonisation of England by the Anglo-Saxons.

That sounds a bit different Tim. Tell me more about what we can expect from Arthur Rex Brittonum.

He is not distracted by the search for the Holy Grail, nor embroiled in a love triangle with Guinevere and Lancelot – although Guinevere does qualify as she is a character associated with Arthur in early Welsh folklore. Lancelot is excluded from my story because he was added to the legend by French poet, Chretien de Troyes, around the year 1180. The Teutonic (Germanic) Knights may date back as far as the latter years of the Western Roman Empire, and therefore I have included the rank of Knight in my story.

I have been researching what little is known about Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries, a period known as the Dark Ages, due to the paucity of hard facts about events and key people. What I have learned is that some historians believe that Arthur was a real historical character, upon whose shoulders a fantastic legend was built by a succession of Middle Ages writers, starting with Geoffrey of Monmouth in 1136.

Arthur is mentioned by Welsh chroniclers and some early church clerics, including the monk Nennius, writing around the year 820, who attributes twelve winning battles to Arthur. The Welsh Annales place Arthur at the Battle of Mount Badon around the year 519, and tell us his final battle was in the year 539 at Camlann, ‘where Arthur and Medraut (Mordred) fell.’ From these vague glimpses of a historical Arthur, I have built my story, including other historical characters, such as known tribal kings, to imbue it with as much historical realism as possible.

This sounds like a lifelong passion Time. It must have been fascinating to research. Why did you choose this subject?

My mission is to take the real Arthur out of the shadows of the romantic Mediaeval legend and locate him where he belongs – fighting Saxons in the early sixth century. He is one of British culture’s most revered legendary figures, together with Robin Hood and Saint George the dragon slayer. They are legends because their existence has not been categorically proven to the satisfaction of historians. Yes, I know that Saint George is an established historical character – a Roman soldier, who died in the year 303 AD. But George the dragon slayer is a legendary invention, perhaps based on an early English folk tale of Gaarge who slayed a ‘giant worm’ and freed a maiden. I believe two stories have been intertwined to create the legend.

It is my dream that in time (hopefully, in my lifetime), archaeologists and historians will uncover enough evidence to take Arthur off the ‘legend’ shelf and place him alongside real, historical, heroic figures like Alfred the Great and Richard the Lionheart, where he belongs.

My goodness. That’s quite a wish. So, what else have you brought along and why?

I have brought along four photographs of me visiting Roman sites that are connected to my books. I wanted to stand in places where a real, historical Arthur may have lived or visited, and soak up the atmosphere. Also, I wanted to get a sense of proportion and perspective, and imagine what life would have been like in post-Roman Britain. The Welsh folk tales that form The Mabinogion have King Arthur based at the town of Caerleon (‘Caer Legion’ in the post-Roman era).

Here I’m standing in the amphitheatre at Caerleon. I am attracted to the theory that Arthur ruled from ‘Caer Legion’ and the round amphitheatre was a pace where he held his council meetings – could ‘Arthur’s Roundel’ be the protype for the round table?

I bet it could. Where’s this next image from Tim?

Standing beside the wall of the Roman Museum in Caerleon, next to a skilfully made tiled mosaic of a Roman legionary.

An historian, Graham Phillips, makes a case for Arthur being a King of Powys and being based at the former Roman town of Viriconium (Wroxeter), near Shrewsbury. Archaeologists and historians confirm that the walled town was continuously occupied and part of it rebuilt in the two hundred years after the Romans left Britain, and it may have been a base for the kings of Powys.

I love this period of history Tim and you’re making me very jealous with your visits.

Here is a picture of me standing in the entrance that connected the Basilica to the Bathhouse in the ruins of Viriconium – the tallest standing Roman interior wall in Britain.

This picture is of me and my daughter standing in front of a section of Roman town wall at Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester) on the Hampshire/Berkshire border. Note the herringbone stonework pattern, a design that is intended to be earthquake-resistant.

How brilliant. I’ve loved hearing about Arthur Rex Brittonum, Tim. Thanks so much for staying in with me to tell me all about it. I’ll fetch my collection of Roman coins and you can see if any fit the period you write about!

Arthur Rex Brittonum

From the decay of post-Roman Britain, Arthur seeks to unite a troubled land

Arthur Rex Brittonum (‘King of the Britons’) is an action-packed telling of the King Arthur story rooted in historical accounts that predate the familiar Camelot legend.

Britain in the early sixth century has reverted to tribal lands, where chiefs settle old scores with neighbours whilst eyeing with trepidation the invaders who menace the shore in search of plunder and settlement.

Arthur,only son of the late King Uther, has been crowned King of the Britons by the northern chiefs and must now persuade their counterparts in the south and west to embrace him. Will his bid to lead their combined army against the Saxon threat succeed? He arrives in Powys buoyed by popular acclaim at home, a king, husband and father – but can he sustain his efforts in unfamiliar territory?  It is a treacherous and winding road that ultimately leads him to a winner-takes-all clash at the citadel of Mount Badon.

Tim Walker’s Arthur Rex Brittonum picks up the thread from the earlier life of Arthur in 2019’s Arthur Dux Bellorum, but it can be read as a standalone novel.

Fans of Bernard Cornwell, Conn Iggulden and Mathew Harffy will enjoy Walker’s A Light in the Dark Ages series and its newest addition – Arthur Rex Brittonum.

Arthur Rex Brittonum is available for purchase through Amazon US and Amazon UK.

https://amazon.com/dp/B087C983WQ

About Tim Walker

Tim Walker is an independent author living near Windsor in the UK. He grew up in Liverpool where he began his working life as a trainee reporter on a local newspaper, The Woolton Mercury. A media career ensued, including a stint overseas in Zambia.

His creative writing journey began in earnest in 2013, as a therapeutic activity whilst recovering from cancer treatment. He started an historical fiction series, A Light in the Dark Ages, in 2015, following a visit to the near-by site of a former Roman town.The aim of the series is to connect the end of Roman Britain to elements of the Arthurian legend, presenting an imagined history of Britain in the early Dark Ages.

His latest book is Arthur, Dux Bellorum, a re-imagining of the story of King Arthur, published in March 2019. Book four in the A Light in the Dark Ages series, it won two book awards in April 2019 – One Stop Fiction Book of the Month and the Coffee Pot Book Club Book Award. The final book in the series, Arthur Rex Brittonum, is due out in June 2020.

The series starts with Abandoned (second edition 2018); followed by Ambrosius: Last of the Romans (2017); and book three, Uther’s Destiny (2018). Series book covers are designed by Canadian graphic artist, Cathy Walker. Tim is self-published under his brand name, timwalkerwrites.

Tim has also written two books of short stories, Thames Valley Tales (2015), and Postcards from London (2017); a dystopian thriller, Devil Gate Dawn (2016); and two children’s books, co-authored with his daughter, Cathy – The Adventures of Charly Holmes (2017) and Charly & The Superheroes (2018) with a third in the pipeline – Charly in Space.

To find out more you can visit Tim’s website.  You can follow Tim on Twitter @timwalker1666 and you’ll find him on Amazon and Facebook.

I was delighted when Mark Tilbury got in touch to see if I’d like to participate in the launch celebrations for his latest book, The Last One To See Her as I have found Mark’s writing exceptional. I was hoping to surprise Mark and read for review today as well as share an extract from The Last One To See Her, but sadly I’ve been so overwhelmed by blog requests that I haven’t managed it. I do, however, have a fantastic extract to share with you today.

However, you’ll find my review of Mark’s You Belong To Me here and I have previously reviewed Marks The Abattoir of Dreams here. The Abattoir of Dreams became one of my books of the year in 2017 in a post you can read here. I was lucky enough to interview Mark when The Liar’s Promise was published (here) and Mark stayed in with me here on the blog to chat about The Abattoir of Dreams.

The Last One To See Her is out on 4th June 2020 and is available for purchase here.

The Last One to See Her

He says he is innocent. So why did he lie?

Mathew Hillock was the last person to see eleven-year-old Jodie Willis alive. When her dead body turns up four days later in his garden shed, the police think he’s guilty of her murder. So do most people in the town. But there’s no DNA evidence to link him to the crime.

Battling the weight of public opinion and mental illness due to a childhood head trauma, he sinks into a deep depression.

Can Mathew do what the police failed to do and find evidence linking the real killer to the crime?

The Last One to See Her is a terrifying story of what happens when you’re accused of a crime and no one believes you are innocent.

Doesn’t that sound just brilliant? Let’s read a bit from the book:

An Extract from The Last One to See Her

Prologue

2 a.m. August. 12 years earlier.

The baseball bat is wet and sticky with blood as Paul Whittacker opens the door to the master bedroom. He’s already killed the young boy and the young girl. Sleep tight, little ones. Now it’s the parents’ turn to die.

The landing light, probably left on for the children, casts shadows across the bedroom and turns it into an old black-and-white movie set. Even the blood on the bat appears grey and less indicative of its macabre history.

He stands for a while, catching his breath, observing, listening. His arms are shaking from the exertion of the kill. He needs a fix. To slip into the warm syrupy blanket of oblivion. But there is still much to do before he can allow his body to succumb to the needle.

He takes a few steps into the room and stops. His heartbeat pulsates in his ears. Sweat dribbles down his back. He tells himself to calm down and make ready for the kill.

The man snores and makes a strange gurgling noise in his throat. He smacks his lips and rolls over to face his wife. Hesitancy, that powerful adversary to careful planning, suggests it might be better to use a knife on him, but he doesn’t want to waste time going downstairs to look for one.

He creeps towards the bed, weapon raised, threat-level raised, blood pressure raised. He makes ready to strike. The woman sighs. It’s a seductive sound that arouses him. He considers raping her once he’s finished with hubby, but that means getting into a whole new area of forensic jiggery-pokery.

Sweat dribbles into his eyes. He stops, bat hovering two feet above the man’s face. He wipes an arm across his forehead. He’s seized with an uncontrollable urge to laugh when a bright-pink moth flies across the bedroom and lands on the wall just above the headboard. It’s strikingly beautiful in this black-and-white movie. He knows it’s just a hallucination. Residual imagery from last night’s acid trip.

He raises the bat and brings it crashing down on the side of Hubby’s head. The man responds by pawing his wife’s face as if trying to provoke foreplay. His legs kick out under the duvet.

Whittacker smashes the bat down again, this time eliciting a muffled scream from the victim, who raises his head six inches off the pillow. The bat wastes no time sending that head right back to where it came from. This time he is motionless. Not so much as a whimper.

Whittacker considers checking the man’s pulse, but his wife is now awake and exercising her right to scream. Her arms flail in what appears to be an attempt to defy physics and fly.

Whittacker steadies himself, takes aim, and raises the bat. But he is stopped by a sudden sharp pain between his shoulder blades. At first, he thinks he’s having a seizure. This thought is replaced by a more serious self-diagnosis – a heart attack brought on by stress.

The pain comes again, accompanied by a wet slapping sound. He cries out, blood bubbling on his lips. He drops the bat, legs bucking, spilling him to the floor.

Too many drugs spoil the moth.

He checks above the bed for the bright-pink insect, but the only splash of colour in this black-and-white world has gone. Something warm and sticky runs down his back. Sweat? Too thick. The golden-brown liquid from every needle he’s ever jabbed into his veins? Too painful.

The woman screams again. The sound bounces around the walls and pounds on his eardrums. This can’t be happening. Not now. Not when he is so close to…

The room suddenly goes quiet. Deathly quiet, you might say. Paul Whittacker doesn’t hear the woman wailing like a malfunctioning police siren. He doesn’t feel his body being turned over, or hear a male voice trying to soothe Mrs Wailing Siren with assurances that everything will be all right.

By the time the police arrive twenty minutes later, Paul Whittacker is lying on the bedroom floor in a pool of his own blood. The baseball bat lies next to him, pieces of skull and tufts of hair decorating the wood like ghoulish artwork.

The ceiling light has now switched the room from black and white to high-definition colour. Blood drips onto a white rug next to the bed, and Hubby’s gore saturates the pillows and duvet.

Whittacker doesn’t hear a policeman walk into the room and tell his colleague that there appears to be two child fatalities. One male, one female. He doesn’t hear Mrs Siren sobbing on the deathbed.

The world is now as black and silent as death itself.

Eek! I think that scene is going to stay with me some time…

About Mark Tilbury

Mark lives in a small village in the lovely county of Cumbria, although his books are set in Oxfordshire where he was born and raised.

After being widowed and raising his two daughters, Mark finally took the plunge and self-published two books on Amazon, The Revelation Room and The Eyes of the Accused.

He’s always had a keen interest in writing, and is extremely proud to have had seven novels published by Bloodhound Books. His latest novel, The Last One To See Her will be published 4^th June 2020.

When he’s not writing, Mark can be found playing guitar, reading and walking.

You can follow Mark on Twitter @MTilburyAuthor, visit his website and find him on Facebook.

There’s more with these other bloggers too:

There are some book covers that I absolutely love the moment I see them and Taryn Leigh’s The Secret Letters is absolutely gorgeous. I’m delighted to help reveal it here on Linda’s Book Bag today.

The Secret Letters will be published by Kingsley Publishers on 9th August 2020 in both e-book and paperback. The Secret Letters is available for pre-order on Amazon and all online bookstores, as well as from the Taryn Leigh directly.

Let’s find out more about the book:

The Secret Letters

Rachel, saved from an attack twelve years before by a faceless stranger, never got to thank him, never knew his name.

Despite the devastation she chose to rise above it to help others from their pain by becoming a psychologist… Her only issue now is that she’s an expert at fixing everyone else’s problems, and blind to her own.

After a long relationship with her boyfriend Will starts to go south, she turns to her best friend Amelia for guidance.

Suddenly her world is turned upside down when tragedy strikes and she’s left with no one to comfort her but Will’s rude older brother Ruari.

Paralyzed by fear, she struggles to take grip of her life, until the day when anonymous letters begin to appear from the stranger who saved her twelve years before.

Doesn’t that sound good? Taryn explains a bit more about how the book came about:

The idea for this story, came about one afternoon, when Alshandra Visagie visited our home and shared her harrowing account of being attacked in her home by a stranger.

The way she told that story shook me to the core. Having known of her story my entire life, it was completely different sitting in the room and having a first-hand account of it. Her bravery and courage together with her story of survival was hair raising to say the least, but completely inspirational.

I knew then, that I needed to somehow share her story with the world.

Being a fiction author, I contemplated for months how to tell that story. Whether to tell it like she had, or whether to completely fictionalise it. Eventually, I came to the realisation that I would use this book as an avenue to present the topic of a woman overcoming this horrendous attack, through a work of fiction, and then have her share it with my readers in her own words in live chats. So if you have read this book, look out for those chats on social media, and if you are wondering which part is applicable to her story, it’s found in my own fictitious account in Chapter Fifteen.

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And now, of course, I need to read The Secret Letters as soon as I can!

About Taryn Leigh

Taryn Leigh is a South African Author, who spent her childhood with her nose buried in books. Her love for reading transpired into her ambition to become an Author.

Taryn Leigh’s first book, Perfect Imperfections, is available in Paperback, eBook and AudioBook. She lives in Pretoria with her husband and son.

You can find out more by visiting Taryn’s website, finding her on Instagram and Facebook or following her on Twitter @tarynleighbook. You can also join her fan group on Facebook for giveaways and special news: Taryn Leigh’s Official Fan Group.