Having stayed in with Lizzy Barber here on Linda’s Book Bag to celebrate her previous novel, Out of Her Depth, I’d have loved to participate in the blog tour for Lizzy’s latest book, Nanny Wanted, but I’m taking time out from blogging for most of August to celebrate my husband’s birthday, for the family celebrations for my Mum’s 90th birthday and to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary.

However, slightly earlier than might have been planned, I’m delighted to share my review of Nanny Wanted today.

Nanny Wanted is published by Pan Macmillan on 17th August 2023 and is available for purchase through the links here.

Nanny Wanted

A remote Cornish mansion. The perfect couple. And the deadly secrets that bind them.

When Lily finally leaves her toxic relationship, a job as a nanny at Kewney Manor seems like the perfect solution. There, she can cut herself off from her old life, and never have to see him again.

The Rowes seem like a model family, and Lily falls instantly in love with her new home. But she can’t help feeling that something isn’t quite right. Why will nobody tell her about the nanny who came before her? Where does Laurie go at night? And what does Charles really want?

As Lily becomes increasingly entangled in the Rowes’s lives, she realizes that the perfect family may not be all that they seem. And as much as she fears the past she is running from, perhaps the present is where the real danger lies . . .

My Review of Nanny Wanted

Lily needs a new job.

Nanny Wanted is a cracking read that delves deeply into the psychology of who we are and what we are capable of doing, wrapped into an entertaining domestic noir thriller that grips the reader. It reminded me of a modern day Daphne du Maurier with a similar underlying darkness that I found captivating.

The plot is so well balanced as Lily finds herself inserted into life in Kewney Manor. Lizzy Barber depicts her settings both beautifully and vividly so that Nina’s ordinary life of looking after Bess and William contrasts perfectly with the unsettling, volatile sections relating to her interactions with Laurie and Charles. This creates tension and drama so that I found myself suspecting even the most innocent comment or action. 

Indeed, there’s an atmosphere of claustrophobia and threat in Nanny Wanted that leaves the reader on edge the whole time they are reading – a sense that something dark and wicked is approaching inexorably. I thought the title was brilliant because there is a vacancy for a nanny, but similarly it’s as if there’s something left uncovered or unsaid, as in nanny wanted to… which makes the reader’s imagination run riot! 

I loved the characterisation. Lily is by no means an innocent bystander and some of her actions made me rail against her and yet Lizzy Barber still managed to make me fascinated by what happened to her and to ensure I was on Lily’s side throughout – not least because her relationship with Nick prior to arriving in Cornwall throws light on her behaviour. 

The themes of Nanny Wanted are dark and compelling. Lizzy Barbour looks at nature and nurture, at coercive and toxic relationships, at identity and mental health, all woven into a narrative that feels intelligent and plausible. 

Nanny Wanted is deliciously dark and disturbing. It’s the kind of story that makes you want to read just one more page, and then another… I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

About Lizzy Barber

Lizzy Barber studied English at Corpus Christ College, Cambridge University. After ‘previous lives’ acting and working in film development, she is now the Head of Brand and Marketing for a restaurant group, working with her brother, a restaurateur.

Her debut novel, My Name is Anna / A Girl Named Anna (US), is the winner of the Daily Mail First Novel Competition. Out Of Her Depth was published in the UK and US in 2022 and was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick. TV & Film Rights have been optioned by Sony Pictures. Nanny Wanted will be published in August 2023.

Lizzy lives in London with her husband, George, food writer and strategy consultant, and their son, Marlowe.

You can follow Lizzy on Twitter @ByLizzyBarber and Instagram or visit her website for further information.

I’ve had The Unforgiven Dead by Fulton Ross on my TBR for some time and am desperate to get to it. However, having heard such brilliant things about it and with today being The Unforgiven Dead publication day, I simply had to invite Fulton onto Linda’s Book Bag to tell me all about it.

Let’s find out more:

Staying in with Fulton Ross

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

 Hi Linda, thanks for having me along!

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

I’ve brought along my debut novel, The Unforgiven Dead, which is published by Inkshares today! It is also one of five novels shortlisted for the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize, which I’m immensely proud about.

I imagine you are! Happy publication day Fulton and very well done on the nomination. So, tell me a bit about The Unforgiven Dead and how it came into being?

Thanks, Linda. The book came about through a collision of my love for Tartan Noir with the Highland folktales of my childhood. It’s set in the Scottish west highlands, and follows constable Angus ‘Dubh’ MacNeil, ‘dubh’ being Gaelic for black and pronounced ‘do’.

I’m glad you explained that! What’s Angus like?

As his name suggests, Angus is a fairly tortured character who harbours a painful secret. He is a taibhsear, which is Gaelic for someone who has the second sight. But rather than a gift, this is a curse he’s had to bear since childhood when he ‘saw’ his mother’s brutal murder but was unable to prevent it. Subsequent murders followed as he grew older, all of which he tried, but ultimately failed, to stop happening. Eventually, it all became too much, and when we first meet Angus he is self-medicating with anti-psychotic drugs in order to stifle his gift.

But the drugs don’t work, to coin a phrase and there’s been another murder. The victim is the daughter of an American billionaire who owns the fictional Kilcreggan estate and has caused controversy with his plan to reintroduce wolves. The murder itself echoes a pagan threefold death ritual. The victim is also discovered holding a corp-creadha—which is Gaelic for clay corpse. Essentially it’s a Highland voodoo doll. 

Wow. That all sounds fantastic. I really MUST read The Unforgiven Dead as soon as I can. Tell me more.

That’s the set-up, but what makes the book a little different from other crime novels is that we essentially have two investigations progressing at the same time—the rational police investigation led by the Major Investigation Team, and a supernatural investigation, led by Angus’s friend and mentor Dr Gillesbuig MacMurdo, known to us as Gills. And as these two investigations play off one another, the reader should be asking is the killer a who or a what. Angus himself is torn by this question, but ultimately he must embrace his dubious gift or watch more murders unfold. 

The Unforgiven Dead sounds very dramatic Fulton.

Just saying all this, I’m suddenly aware the book sounds a bit bleak, what with the tortured protagonist and ritualistic murders! But there’s also plenty of dry Scottish humour in there to add some light to the darkness.   

That’s good to hear. So, can you explain a bit about the title of the novel?

Certainly! The first thing to say is that it’s nothing to do with zombies! The Unforgiven Dead is actually a malevolent fairy host that appears in various Highland folktales. They’re known as the Sluagh in Gaelic, which translates into English as The Unforgiven Dead. Although described as fairies—Tinkerbell they aint! They are birdlike in appearance, often compared to a flock of starlings, but have leathery wings and wide gaping mouths. They appear around twilight, always from the west, and scour the skies searching for souls to steal. Usually, they target folk on their deathbeds or women in the throes of giving birth, although they’re not adverse to ‘lifting’ the odd child. Up until fairly recently there was a custom in the Outer Hebrides and Highlands of closing west facing windows and doors when someone was on their deathbed to prevent the Sluagh snatching the invalid’s soul. 

Crikey! It sounds as if considerable research has gone into the book? 

Absolutely, and so much of that research is merely background that informed the book rather than information that went into it. I studied Scottish history and Scottish literature at university, so they research side of things is something I love. That said, you have to be careful not to fall down too many rabbit holes! 

I bet you do. Many authors tell me that the majority of their research never finds its way into their books. But The Unforgiven Dead is your debut.  Tell me about your journey to publication.

It’s been a long and at times painful one! I started writing The Unforgiven Dead seven years ago, but my break came in 2018 when it was chosen by Inkshares as a winner of its crime and mystery contest. Inkshares in a Californian publisher, but they are launching a UK imprint this year which is being spearhead by two novels – mine and Unnatural Ends by a fantastic writer called Christopher Huang. I’m pretty thrilled that Inkshares is putting so much faith in me! I’ve been working with a great editor there since 2018, and my aim across the many, many drafts of The Unforgiven Dead was to leveraged the brooding Highland landscape as the backdrop for a grounded supernatural thriller that pushed the boundaries of the genre. 

I think The Unforgiven Dead sounds amazing. Given what you’ve told me about it I’m slightly nervous to ask this but what else have you brought along and why have you brought it?

 

I’ve brought along a bottle of Talisker whisky. Angus, and my favourite character in the novel, Gills, are often sitting around discussing the case while having a wee dram of Talisker.

We’ll pour some in a minute Fulton!

The other item I’ve brought is this book – The Gaelic Otherworld, by John Gregorson Campbell.

This collection of folktales and customs was hugely important when writing The Unforgiven Dead. Campbell was a minister on the island of Tiree, and also a renowned folklorists. During the 1850s he travelled around the Western Islands and Highlands collecting these tales and customs, which until then would never have been recorded as they were essential passed down orally from generation to generation. One of the themes of my book is how centuries of government attempts to tame the ‘wild Highlands’ has decimated Gaelic language and culture. Without the likes of Campbell many of these tales and customs would have been lost forever. 

It sounds to me Fulton, that you are about to establish yourself very firmly into a new tradition of such writing. Thank you so much for staying in with me to chat all about The Unforgiven Dead. I think I’m going to love it. Now, you pour a couple of whiskies and I’ll give readers a few more details about this fabulous sounding debut:

 The Unforgiven Dead

You could have saved her. 

Sure as the tide against his Highland shores, the refrain beats into Constable Angus ‘Dubh’ MacNeil’s mind. For years it has haunted him, accompanied by the faces of those he could not save—the Burned Man, the Strangled Woman, the Drowned Boy. All witnesses to a secret he cannot share and a gift he now refuses to embrace.

You could have saved her. The refrain drives Angus to the seashore at dawn, where a girl lies on the unblemished sand. She wears a green cloak and cradles a corps creadha, a Highland voodoo doll. She has suffered a ritualistic, three-fold death—her head bludgeoned, her throat cut, and symbolically drowned.

It is Faye Chichester, daughter of an American billionaire whose mission to reintroduce wolves to the Highlands has embroiled the village of Glenruig. But even as media and police swarm the area, that refrain—you could have saved her—echoes in all Angus’s thoughts. For he carries a burden, a blessing, a curse, a secret—dà-shealladh, the second sight of Gaelic lore.

Gills MacMurdo, noted folklorist, academic, and Angus’s oldest friend, confirms what the dà-shealladh is warning. Just as Faye’s death was three-fold, so must the murder victims fulfil the ancient pattern. More will die, unless Angus does what he must—close his eyes and see.

Published today,  27th July 2023, The Unforgiven Dead is available for purchase via your local bookshop, on Amazon and directly from the publisher here.

 About Fulton Ross

Fulton Ross is an author, journalist, and former shinty player originally from Fort William in the Scottish Highlands.

Having worked as a sub-editor, reporter, and occasional columnist for regional and national newspapers, he now splits his time between writing and acting as an unpaid chauffeur for his three children.  

A graduate in Scottish history and literature from Glasgow University, his writing reflects this interest in folklore, mythology, history, and Gaelic culture.

The Unforgiven Dead is his debut novel.

Fulton now lives in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, with his family and two annoying cats named May and June.  

For further information, follow Fulton on  Twitter: @FultonLRoss.

My enormous thanks to Kate Straker at Atlantic Books for sending me a surprise copy of The Lodgers by Eithne Shortall. I’m delighted to share a review of The Lodgers today.

The Lodgers is published on 27th July 2023 by Corvus and is available for purchase through the publisher links here.

The Lodgers

One house. Three strangers. A second chance at happiness.

Tessa’s life as an activist and volunteer worker takes a hit after a fall. At the ripe young age of 69, she’s no longer able to live alone and decides to take in two lodgers for free.

After the recent death of his brother, Conn is riddled with grief and determined to make amends. A free room seems too good to be true – until he meets the other lodger.

Chloe arrives at Tessa’s house to deliver a package and leaves with a room. But she takes an instant dislike to Conn, who refuses to say where he disappears to at night.

With everyone so busy keeping their own secrets, the mysterious package is forgotten. It’s addressed to Tessa’s daughter who’s been missing for 10 years – and only the contents have the answer to what happened…

My Review of The Lodgers

Tessa’s under pressure to sell her rambling home.

The Lodgers is absolutely wonderful and I could not have enjoyed it more.

What I so enjoyed about The Lodgers is that the dramatic events that shape the novel and affect the characters so deeply have mainly already occurred but resonate through the rest of their lives in ways Eithne Shortall portrays with incredible humanity, realism and sensitivity. The Lodgers is a book that really touches the heart and it is no exaggeration to say that I have chosen a paragraph towards the end of the book to be read at my funeral – not that I intend that happening just yet!

That might make The Lodgers sound maudlin but that assessment couldn’t be further than the truth. Certainly it considers some darker themes but I laughed aloud on so many occasions, particularly when Malachy was involved, and the story is infused with love, family, a sense of home and belonging that make it completely uplifting and beautiful.

I thought the setting of the book totally enhanced the story because places are minimal and therefore intimate. Most of the action revolves around the community centre and Hope House, making them feel every bit as much characters as the people. There’s a real sense of community and the clear message that we might have individual capacity, but we are stronger together with others.

And what people they are between the pages of The Lodgers. They could not have been more vividly presented, more appealing and more loveable – even (or perhaps especially) the rogues like Reggie. I loved the fact that Tessa is approaching 70 because she embodies the concept that older people are equally as valid as younger ones. I was completely smitten with Conn because he is himself – there’s no great brooding, sullen hero who makes a miraculous change, but rather his personality and the reasons for his actions are gradually uncovered with complete empathy. Chloe, of course, is an absolute star and again a catalyst for both humour and tragedy, illustrating how closely aligned those two concepts can be.

The Lodgers is the kind of book that is effortless to read, totally compelling and completely uplifting and heart-warming. It epitomises light in darkness, and positivity in adversity that restores the reader’s faith in humanity and the world around them. It’s a total tonic for the heart and I adored it.

I have no idea why I haven’t discovered Eithne Shortall’s writing previously, but I’m off to devour everything she’s ever written. I’m an instant fan.

About Eithne Shortall

Eithne Shortallis an author, journalist and occasional broadcaster. Her debut novel, Love in Row 27, was a major Irish bestseller, and the follow-up, Grace After Henry, was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards and won Best Page Turner at the UK’s Big Book Awards. Her third novel, Three Little Truths, was a BBC Radio 2 Book Club pick.

For further information, visit Eithne’s website, follow her on Twitter @eithneshortall or find Eithne on Instagram.

I can’t believe how long it is since lovely Nicola May stayed in with me here on Linda’s Book Bag. Nicola’s success has gone from strength to strength and it gives me enormous pleasure to join in with the cover reveal for Nicola’s latest book, A Holiday Romance in Ferry Lane Market, organised by Rachel of Rachel’s Random Resources.

Publishing on 24th October 2023, A Holiday Romance in Ferry Lane Market is available for pre-order on Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Let’s find out more:

A Holiday Romance in Ferry Lane Market

When soap actor Sabrina Swift loses her way due to a public scandal, she packs up her life, heads to Cornwall and randomly finds herself running a Christmas gift shop in the quaint and quirky Ferry Lane Market.

Changing her looks and identity to keep her anonymity, the newcomer starts to make friends and enemies as she walks a frosty path in the established community.

And as rumours start circling that the outside market is going to be shut down, Sabrina is not only ensconced in an unexpected love triangle but is also faced with a difficult decision that could alter both her life and those of the inhabitants of Hartmouth forever.

Charming characters and a beautifully written setting make for a delightful and uplifting tale that explores themes of self-discovery, belonging and the importance of following your heart.

****

I think that sounds just lovely!

About Nicola May

Nicola May is a rom-com superstar. She is the author of sixteen romantic comedies, all of which have appeared in the Kindle bestseller charts. Two of them won awards at the Festival of Romance, and another was named ebook of the week in The Sun. The Corner Shop in Cockleberry Bay became the best-selling Kindle book in the UK, across all genres, in January 2019, and was Amazon’s third-bestselling novel in that year.

You can find out more by visiting Nicola’s website, finding her on Instagram and Facebook and following her on Twitter @nicolamay1. All of Nicola’s books can be found here.

When a surprise copy of Bad Men by Julie Mae Cohen dropped into my post box, I was delighted and I’d like to thank whichever lovely publicist sent it my way. I’m delighted to share my review of Bad Men today.

Bad Men was published by Zaffre on 20th July and is available for purchase through the links here.

Bad Men

It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to kill them . . .

Saffy has a secret. A secret that she is deeply ashamed of. It’s not the fact that she’s a serial killer in her free time. In fact, she’s quite proud of that. After all she’s only killing the bad men. She is making the world a better place.

No, her secret is far worse than that. Saffy has a messy, inexplicable, uncontrollable crush. So while she’s busy plotting her next murder, she also has the much harder task of figuring out how to get a boyfriend.

But if there’s one thing Saffy knows, it’s how to get her man . . .

My Review of Bad Men

Serial killer Saffy is out to get her man.

Oh my goodness I enjoyed Bad Men. It’s utterly brilliant. I think Julie Mae Cohen may just have invented a new hybrid genre that is perfect for readers of romantic fiction, comedies, thrillers, murder mysteries and police procedurals and that is far, far better than the sum of its parts. I absolutely loved every moment of this witty and entertaining book.

Given the dark and disturbing opening and the fact that Saffy spends an awful lot of her time planning her next kill, Bad Men is so entertaining and funny. As we have Saffy’s first person voice speaking directly to the reader, we become complicit in her actions. This has the effect of making us entirely on her side even when she’s contemplating how to dismember or dispose of her next victim.

And that’s the crux. The men Saffy murders are not victims. They are abusers of all kinds; bullies and thugs who deserve what they get. They are indeed Bad Men! Far from despising Saffy for her actions, as my moral, rational brain thought I should, Julie Mae Cohen manipulated me into loving her sharp, sassy, feisty and hugely intelligent protagonist completely unreservedly.  As for Jon, I was on tenterhooks the entire story wondering just what might be in store for him as he is increasingly drawn to Saffy. No spoilers here though so you’ll need to read the book to find out.

The plot is breath takingly good. Brilliantly structured, fast paced and exciting, Bad Men zips along. I absolutely devoured the book, unable to set it aside because it’s written with such wit that even quite gruesome moments have a humour that ameliorates their unsettling effect. I thought this was genius.

Smoking hot and totally thrilling whilst dripping in wit, Bad Men is the thriller you simply mustn’t miss. I couldn’t have enjoyed it more.

About Julie Mae Cohen

Julie Cohen grew up in Maine and studied English at Brown University, Cambridge University and the University of Reading. Her award-winning novels have sold over a million copies worldwide, and have been selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club in the UK.

Julie is an Associate Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Reading, and runs an online school, Novel Gazing. She is a Vice President of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, a founder of the RNA Rainbow Chapter for LGBTQ+ writers, and a Patron of literacy charity ABC To Read. She won the 2020 Romantic Novelists’ Association Inclusion Award.

Her bestselling novel Together has been translated into eleven languages and optioned for television; The Two Lives of Louis & Louise was long-listed for the Polari Prize and has been optioned by Enderby Entertainment as a feature film. Her first historical novel, Spirited, was published in July 2020, with Summer People out in 2022. Under the name Julie Mae Cohen, her first thriller, Bad Men, is published by Bonnier in July 2023. She lives in Berkshire, UK with her teenager and a terrier of dubious origin.

For further information, visit Julie’s website, follow her on Twitter @julie_cohen, and find her on Instagram. Julie is on Facebook too.

Anyone who knows me will be surprised to see a book about football on Linda’s Book Bag, but with the Women’s World Cup just underway even I knew the Lionesses are about to kick off their tournament. Consequently, when a surprise copy of the children’s book Football Rising Stars: Leah Williamson by Harry Meredith dropped through my letterbox this week, and with the English school holidays upon us, I thought I’d better see what all the fuss is about.

Football Rising Stars: Leah Williamson will be published on 2nd August 2023 and is available for pre-order here.

Football Rising Stars: Leah Williamson

Leah Williamson OBE was the first British woman to have lifted a major football trophy, when she led the Lionesses to victory in the Euro 2022 tournament. Having played football from a young age, Leah has represented England from the youth team onwards, and has also been part of Arsenal’s FA cup-winning team. She is an outstanding player in both domestic and international fields and she is a role model both on and off the pitch.

About the Football Rising Stars series: Football Rising Stars dives into the incredible journeys of ten of the world’s best young players. Featuring fresh talents from England, Portugal, Norway, France, Germany and Spain, the series covers their unique rise; from playing football in the park and 5-a-sides to performing in front of capacity crowds on the biggest stage and in the biggest leagues.

You’ll find all the books here.

My Review of Football Rising Stars: Leah Williamson

The story of football’s Lioness Leah Williamson.

Let me say at the outset that I am at least half a century older than the target audience for this book with at best little interest in football and usually a tangible dislike of it. So the fact that I thought Football Rising Stars: Leah Williamson was smashing is a real surprise to me! 

Firstly, the book is brilliantly produced for young and emerging readers with clear, well-spaced text, engaging graphics and short chapters so that it is accessible and easily read. The language and style are, forgive the pun, pitch-perfect, because more challenging words are woven into relatively simple sentence construction so that more reluctant readers gain both knowledge and vocabulary. I could see Football Rising Stars: Leah Williamson being incredibly popular in the home or school settings. 

All that said, Football Rising Stars: Leah Williamson isn’t just for educational use as it is a book brimming with entertainment, interest and wonderful themes. I learnt all kinds of facts reading this book, and found it surprisingly empowering and engrossing for someone my age with no interest previously in the subject matter! 

Harry Meredith doesn’t belittle his readers by avoiding challenging issues and as he tells the story of Leah Williamson’s rise to fame in female football, he considers issues such as the toll it can take on physical and mental health, the sacrifices needed to play at the top level and the impact fame can have, so that young readers have a realistic but gentle insight into areas that they might themselves have issues with.

Similarly, themes of resilience, determination and self-awareness help young readers to understand themselves and this totally engaging book gives status to girls in a male dominated environment in a way that will appeal to all young people.

I really enjoyed Football Rising Stars: Leah Williamson. It educated me, it entertained me and it made me feel both proud and emotional about the journey remarkable young women like Leah Williamson have been on to pave the way for women and girls in today’s society. It also made me feel a little bit ashamed for having dismissed football as irrelevant in my life. Thanks to Football Rising Stars: Leah Williamson I know better now!

About Harry Meredith

 

What a strike! Harry Meredith writes stories for children and also works in e-commerce. He studied Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, where he majored in Children’s Literature and Non-Fiction. He also studied in the USA at Bennington College, Vermont. He’s a football fanatic, and when he’s not writing, working or heading out on adventures, you’ll find him watching football.

For further information, follow Harry on Twitter @_HarryMeredith or find him on Instagram.

I can’t believe it’s over two years since I reviewed Roderick O’Grady’s children’s book Bigfoot Mountain in a post you’ll find here. My enormous thanks go to Rod for sending me a copy of the sequel Bigfoot Island. I’m delighted to share my review today.

Published by Firefly on 20th April 2023, Bigfoot Island is available for purchase in all the usual places including directly from the publisher here.

Bigfoot Island

When Minnie spots a white boat bringing strangers to the cove below her cabin, she fears the hard-won peace of her tiny community at the foot of Bigfoot Mountain will be shattered. Kaayii too has to deal with an intruder on the mountain and, injured, needs to reach his family across the water. The two inhabit separate worlds but must find a way to work together to avoid disaster and protect the people and places they hold dear.

My Review of Bigfoot Island

Minnie’s about to have another Sasquatch adventure.

Having loved Bigfoot Mountain, I knew I’d be in for a treat with the sequel Bigfoot Island, but I hadn’t fully appreciated how seamlessly Roderick O’Grady would blend in key aspects of the first book to ensure full understanding, without slowing this narrative at all. Bigfoot Island can easily be enjoyed as a stand alone story, but it’s even better if you’ve read Bigfoot Mountain first. 

There’s an exciting and fast paced plot that encompasses peril, friendship and adventure. I think it’s inspired to have Kaayii’s version of events as well as the humans’ as it illustrates so clearly how perceptions and reasons for behaviour might not be what we believe, thereby teaching tolerance and understanding. 

Billy is a complete star. He’s kind, funny and just dim enough to make him the perfect best friend for Minnie. However, it is Minnie who is so wonderful because she’s brave, principled and caring, making her both attractive to young readers and a brilliant role model. She thinks things through before she acts so that she illustrates the perfect balance of head and heart in her decisions and behaviour. It’s so inclusive that her family unit with Dan is unconventional and I love the idea that her grief for her mother is not ignored. When this is linked to Grey’s behaviour, there’s a real poignancy to the story that is incredibly affecting.

With the environment at the heart of Bigfoot Island, including cohabitation between species, the natural world, weather, tides, flora and fauna, and so on, some of Roderick O’Grady’s descriptions are so beautiful, placing young readers and adults alike right at the heart of the action with Minnie and Kaayii. There’s a really visual quality to the story with the other senses vividly portrayed too.

Bigfoot Island is lovely. It is a modern parable of family, home, safety, refugees, outsiders and the need to live in balance with nature for the benefit of us all. It’s also a thoroughly entertaining narrative, imbued with emotion, that younger readers can simply enjoy in its own right. I thoroughly recommend it. 

About Roderick O’Grady

After embarking on an acting career in London, Roderick O’Grady moved to New York in the nineties. After some success off Broadway and in the US soap ‘As the World Turns’ he returned home with a wife and two children. His stage play, ‘A Foolish Fancy, How Not to get Ahead in the Theatre’ was a Time Out Critics Choice on the London Fringe. Bigfoot Mountain was his first novel.

You can follow Rod on Twitter @RoderickOGrady1. You’ll also find him on Instagram and can visit his website for further information.

I’m really very excited to welcome the amazing Fiona Cummins to Linda’s Book Bag today to chat all about her latest book. My enormous thanks to Chloe Davies (whom I had the pleasure of meeting recently) at Pan Macmillan for putting us in touch with one another.

Staying in with Fiona Cummins

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag Fiona 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’ve brought along All Of Us Are Broken, which is published by Pan Macmillan today.

Happy publication day for a fantastic book!

It’s the second in my series featuring troubled young detective Saul Anguish and forensic linguist Dr Clover ‘Blue’ March. I’ve chosen this book as lots of early readers have commented on the emotional punch it packs which makes me happy as I deliberately set out to write something that I hoped would move others.

It certainly fulfils your intentions Fiona. What can we expect from an evening in with All Of Us Are Broken?

As I mentioned above, I wanted to write a book which resonates with readers, and when someone gets in touch to tell me that it made them cry or they stayed up until 2am because they had to find out what happens at the end, it’s the best feeling in the world. All Of Us Are Broken tells the story of Christine Hardwicke and her two children, Galen and Tom. After a difficult year, they set off to Scotland in search of wild dolphins, but in a terrible stroke of misfortune, they stumble across the path of two spree killers, Missy and Fox, who are hell-bent on infamy. They force Christine into making an impossible choice between the life of her thirteen-year-old daughter and her eight-year-old son. I love writing about the landscape − it’s one of the reasons I wanted to set part of the novel in Scotland − and I was absolutely thrilled by a review in the Literary Review magazine which praised my ‘ravishingly described glimpses of the natural world.’

I think that sums it up perfectly!

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

I’ve brought as much food and drink as I can carry (these are the important things in life, right?).

Absolutely – though I might need to add books as an essential too.

My favourite snacks are crisps − although I’m trying to be healthy at the moment, so I’m eating those lentil chips which are much nicer than they sound, but I’ve brought along some pickled onion Monster Munch for you − and I’m partial to a vodka and soda with fresh lime and lots of ice.

I’ve also brought along a photograph of the wild dolphins leaping from the water at Chanonry Point on the Black Isle. These majestic creatures served as an inspiration for All Of Us Are Broken and I can’t wait to return to this stunning peninsula for a chance to see them again.

Thank you so much Fiona, for agreeing to stay in with me. I agree with everything you’ve said about All Of Us Are Broken. You pour a drink and pass me the Monster Munch packet and I’ll give readers a few more details:

All Of Us Are Broken

The electrifying crime novel featuring DS Saul Anguish from the award winning author, Fiona Cummins, author of Into the Dark and Rattle.

Every one of them has a dark secret

The Family

After a year they want to forget, the Hardwicke family set out to the Scottish Highlands for a much needed holiday.

The Crimes

They are about to cross paths with Missy and Fox, a violent and dangerous young couple hell-bent on infamy, their love story etched in blood and a dark past which must be uncovered.

The Detective

As the clock ticks down, Detective Saul Anguish is on the hunt to find the couple before more lives are lost.

The Mother – who will be forced to make an impossible decision.

Published by Pan Macmillan today, 20th July 2023, All Of Us Are Broken is available for purchase through the links here.

About Fiona Cummins

Fiona Cummins is an award-winning former journalist and a graduate of the Faber Academy Writing a Novel course. Rattle, her debut novel, was the subject of a huge international auction and has been translated into several languages. It received widespread critical acclaim from authors and reviewers. She has since written bestsellers The Collector, The Neighbour, When I Was Ten and Into the Dark in which she introduces DC Saul Anguish, a brilliant young detective with a dark past. Fiona lives with her family in Essex.

For further information, follow Fiona on Twitter @FionaAnnCummins and find her on Instagram.

Lovely Diane Solomon has appeared here on Linda’s Book Bag a few times and when I heard she had a new book, Eva, I simply had to invite her back.  I asked Diane about her experience of writing Eva and she kindly provided a super guest post and an extract from the book that I’m delighted to share today.

Let’s find out about Eva which is available for purchase here:

Eva

Eva possesses a unique and powerful gift. But is it a curse?

She plays down her beauty, to avoid attention. But it doesn’t work. She has a magnetic quality, a calm, a power of which she is unaware.

Never having known her father and having lost her mother when she was young, Eva believes she’s better off alone. She only connects deeply with animals, they are her first love. But another great love is on the horizon, along with other life-changing discoveries.

When they learn of her gift, the media jackals gather, and Eva is forced into the limelight she’s avoided all her life. Facing challenges at every turn, including her own inner demons, she must fight to protect, even embrace, her newfound ability.

But someone wants her dead.

A Guest Post by Diane Solomon

Welcome back to Linda’s Book Bag Diane.  And congratulations on your new romantic suspense novel, Eva. Has writing this book helped you realize anything about yourself in the same way Eva has a voyage of discovery?

It’s nice to be back, and that’s a great question! I came up with the idea for this novel 20 years ago, but it took me until now to feel ready to write it, to truly understand what I wanted to say.

Here’s a wee bit about the story. Eva, the 26-year-old protagonist, has not committed to love since the day when she was eleven, when she found her mother dead on the kitchen floor. Since then, believing she is better off alone, she has kept a safe distance from people, only connecting deeply with animals.

Then she discovers she possesses a powerful skill. Maybe it is a gift. But it might be a curse. She realizes she can heal an animal simply by holding it and meditating to a deep inner space where she connects with its spirit. Things get even more shocking when she finds she can heal humans as well. When through her healing, her grandfather recovers miraculously from the incapacitation of a stroke, word spreads quickly and her life is no longer her own.

Journalists hound her relentlessly and hand-delivered death threats confirm someone wants to kill her. Forced into the limelight she’s avoided all her life and facing challenges at every turn, Eva must fight to protect her newfound ability while also doing the most difficult thing of all: staying alive.

Eva is a deep love story, full of twists and turns, with the theme of our universal yearning for connection. Plus, it is loaded with heart.

I resonate strongly with the path Eva travels, that of her struggle is to overcome her inner demons in order to own her power and to flourish. To grow. Eva is continually challenged, when all the time, all she wants to do is look after animals. That’s where she feels safe and loved and where she can give love unconditionally without fear.

Some of that is me! This hit home as I wrote the book. What kept me from connecting deeply with other people my whole life was very simply the walls I created to protect myself. The walls Eva created. The walls we all create! We hide behind those walls, protecting ourselves from pain. Yet, ironically, those walls insulate us from the very thing we need to alleviate the pain. Connection to other people. I believe we all yearn for that connection.

Writing this book has been one of the most fascinating and rewarding experiences of my life. And I wrote it from my heart, hoping to grab yours!

****

Eva sounds fabulous Diane! And thank you so much for allowing me to share an extract too today:

An Extract from Eva

The anxiety in the room was palpable. The cat’s owners were a young couple, mid-thirties, with a pre-teen daughter chewing her nails. The mother, eager and polite, nodded frequently, birdlike. The husband was taciturn, stern-jawed, as if he knew the bad news even before it was delivered.

Michael told them the diagnosis clearly and as gently as he could. The tumor had invaded the jawbone and now even the sinuses. He explained it wasn’t a good prognosis for their pet. “I’m afraid it’s progressed too far even for that option. Your little cat is in pain. And there’s no guarantee the operation would be successful.” He paused. “I’m sorry to tell you, but the kindest thing to do would be to put her to sleep.”

The young daughter wailed and burst into tears.

“I know you’ll want to say goodbye. I’ll have her brought in.”

When the tech carried in the little calico, the small girl, who couldn’t have been more than eight or nine, reached for her pet. She held her close and buried her face in her cat’s fur.

“Come on honey,” her mother said. “Let the doctor look at her.” The mother gently took the cat and placed her on the examination table. She bent over to study the animal’s face. “Wait a minute… Charles, look,” she said to her husband. “Isn’t the tumor on this side? But, hang on… I can’t see it now.”

Michael stared in surprise at the cat’s face. He physically examined it, while it stood quietly on the table. There was no swelling.

“This is your cat?” he inquired.

The couple nodded.

What on earth was going on? The file described a large squamous cell carcinoma on the left side of the animal’s face and neck, invading the teeth, the jaw, the sinuses. But there was no tumor. He felt carefully. Nothing. With effort, he kept his face still, without expression. How to explain this? He looked again at the file, again scanned the x-ray.

The owners confirmed again it was indeed their pet.

Speechless, Michael excused himself and turned for the door, with the image of the little girl’s full eyes seared into his mind.

Two hours later, after several vets and techs had examined the little calico cat, they were all stunned, but no one had any answers. Kurt, the vet who had first examined her, was adamant that yesterday there was a large growth, an SCC. And he kept referring to the x-ray. “The x-ray doesn’t lie,” he repeated for about the third time, clearly feeling defensive.

“No one’s claiming you’re lying, my friend,” replied Jerry, the clinic’s founding vet. An older man with a full head of silver hair, he had the respect of everyone at the vet clinic for his knowledge and lengthy experience.

“But what the hell? How is it possible?” Kurt asked.

Jerry patted his colleague on the shoulder. “There must be an explanation…”

But no one had one.

Most of the staff headed home, but Michael just couldn’t leave. At this rate, he knew he was not going to be able to give a rational explanation to the owners of the cat. He had simply told them he’d like to keep her another night, because of the painkillers, and said he’d call them in the morning. They were fine with a reprieve from euthanasia but Michael knew he was just buying time.

Bottom line, there was no tumor anywhere on that cat.

Like Kurt had asked, how was that possible?

The only thing Michael could think of to do, because he needed to do something, was to watch the closed-circuit TV camera footage from the back room, to see what had happened since the cat was brought to them yesterday morning. What, if anything, anything at all, might explain this “miracle?” Damn it, he hated to even use that word. It didn’t mesh with the practice of science.

The veterinary practice had recently installed three cameras in the back room, two over the operation tables, and one for the line of cages housing the animals in their care. They ran 24/7 for insurance reasons, liability, and security. He didn’t think anyone had yet needed to view them, but now he logged into the app which controlled the cameras and hunted for yesterday’s date. He chose to view the camera focused on the line of cages. Fortunately, there was a fast-forward selection in the digital app, and he systematically plowed through many hours, sped up. He watched the assistants, vets, and vet techs as they moved in and out of the cage area, taking animals out and returning them, cleaning the cages, adding food to bowls. He saw an assistant lift the little calico from the cage and return her half an hour later, and glancing at the file, he confirmed this was the logged time of the X-ray. Scanning through a few more hours of normal behavior, he was beginning to think he should just bag it and go home.

Wait a minute, isn’t that…? He slowed the images to normal speed. Yes. It was Eva. Why was she there? Four in the afternoon of the previous day. He watched as she slowly moved past the cages, touching a Rottweiler through the bars, then opening the cage door of another dog, a little terrier mix, and stroking its ears. When she reached the last cage housing the Calico cat, she stood and stared, her head slightly to one side. She reached into the cage and gently scooped the cat into her arms. Sinking down onto a small metal stool at the end of the line of cages, she closed her eyes. As she held the cat close, Michael could see her lips moving, although he heard nothing. There was no sound, just this image of a young blond woman holding a small multi-colored cat. The look on her face was the same as the day he saw her holding the orange cat, Pumpkin. It was an intense, all-consuming tenderness and focus.

An idea struck him. “No.” Michael spoke the word aloud. “No,” he repeated. “That’s ridiculous.” He shook his head.

But he continued to stare at the screen.

****

I think we could all benefit from a touch of Eva in our lives!

About Diane Solomon

Diane Solomon began her career in the UK as a singer and songwriter on BBC TV. Then, after 15 years of traveling the world as an entertainer, the dreaded Chronic Fatigue Syndrome destroyed her career. She struggled for almost eight years, years of wading through half a life, finally regaining her health with the help of a homeopathic remedy. This launched Diane into new studies and a second career: homeopath and nutritionist which she practiced for twenty years, using a combination of nutrients, herbs, homeopathic remedies, and diet and lifestyle recommendations.

Now retired from practice and focused on writing, Diane lives in beautiful Hillsborough County, New Hampshire with her husband, Mark. Sometimes called a “Renaissance Woman,” she writes, edits, researches, designs and builds gardens, always seeking more knowledge, more understanding, and more creative flow.

For further information, visit Diane’s website, find her on Facebook and Instagram or follow Diane on Twitter @dianesolomon.

My enormous thanks to Helen Richardson for inviting me to participate in the blog tour for Anne Worthington’s The Unheard. I’m thrilled to be able to share my review today.

The Unheard by Anne Worthington was published by Confingo Publishing on 11 July as a Paperback Original at £7.50.  It is available now from the Confingo Publishing website.

The Unheard

The Unheard is the powerful and intensely moving debut novel by acclaimed documentary photographer Anne Worthington. It is a novel about memory, and what happens to the experiences that are too much for us, but we are unable to leave behind.

We meet Tom Pullan in 1999 when he has dementia. He lives with his wife, May. The visitors who come to the house aren’t the people he remembers. He would like to see the people that remain in his memory. The visitors say they have come to help but they only seem to cause trouble.

Fifteen years earlier, in 1984, Tom is working in an office amid sweeping redundancies across the country. His office is told there are going to be cuts and Tom is convinced he will be one of those who will lose their job. And he is sure that at the root of this, the person who’s orchestrating these changes is the prime minister. He watches her every day talking about cuts, all the while wielding an axe in her hands.

In 1931, Tom’s family walked away from their house leaving everything behind. They not only lost a home, but his brother has gone, and no one says a word. Now, he must do what he can to keep his father happy, and his father is never happy. Tom goes looking for his brother every day. He waits for his brother to come home because people don’t just disappear. Sometimes, waiting is all you can do when you can’t make sense of the world.

My Review of The Unheard

Tom has dementia.

If you’re looking for a light-hearted read that you’ll forget minutes after you’ve read it, don’t read The Unheard because this is a book that grasps your heart from the first page and keeps it in a stranglehold to the final syllable in a desperately sad, beautifully written, and scarily accurate narrative that affects the reader profoundly. The Unheard is an exceptional book.

Anne Worthington’s writing is so astute, so perceptive and so wise that I was completely mesmerised. I read The Unheard in one sitting then immediately read it again because I found it both brutal and sensitive – an accurate portrait of the human condition and such a clear insight into how we are the product of our past lives, that I felt a single read simply didn’t do it justice. 

Tom, May and Maggie leap from the page with huge emotional connection for the reader because Anne Worthington places us right inside their minds, sharing their innermost thoughts, emotions and experiences with razor sharp accuracy so it is as if their lives become readers’ lives. This makes The Unheard an uncomfortable, emotional, but totally compelling narrative that I found superb.

I thought the structure of the book was absolutely perfect. Regressing in time over three eras it uncovers layers to Tom especially that create an understanding of him that feels almost too much to bear at times. With social, domestic and political strata too, The Unheard is a kind of love song to the ordinary person, the oppressed and to those who have lost sight of themselves – to the unheard.

I thought The Unheard was astonishingly good. It’s a book that deserves to be lauded from the rooftops. Literary, exquisitely crafted and imbued with a desire to give the unheard a voice, I cannot recommend it highly enough. It’s quite wonderful.

About Anne Worthington

Anne Worthington is a documentary photographer and writer. She grew up in Blackpool in the Northwest of England before moving to Manchester.

Living in the inner-city area of Hulme during the time when Manchester was at the centre of the UK music scene, she became part of the mix of artists, ex-students and squatters that made the partly abandoned blocks of flats their own. It was in Hulme where the underground music and art was being made. She became part of the Dogs of Heaven collective that produced large-scale art performances.

It was during this time that she first picked up a camera and took photographs of the iconic estate before it was demolished, marking the end of an era of squat culture. Anne went on to become a documentary photographer and over the next twenty years, produced a body of work that highlighted the conditions of housing, and the effects of social and economic change that had begun during the 1980s.

Anne Worthington was awarded an MA Creative Writing with Distinction in 2018. She was a finalist for Iceland Writers Retreat, 2015, and shortlisted for Fish Flash Fiction Prize, 2018.

The Unheard won the Michael Schmidt Prize in 2018. 

For further information, find Anne on Instagram and follow her on Twitter @aworthington111.

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