Oh dear. I have a huge apology to give to writer Steve Orme. Steve contacted me last October and I promised a feature on Linda’s Book Bag to celebrate Steve’s most recent novel, Storm Bodies. Steve kindly wrote a guest post for me and I promptly forgot all about it!

I do have a good excuse – I had just returned from a family funeral at the time and four deaths of family and friends in January alone this year have been very distracting, but I do feel awful. I’m hoping to make amends to Steve today by finally getting round to sharing his excellent piece on another fascinating aspect of his writing – the irony being it has distraction at its heart too!

First though, let’s find out more about Steve’s thrillers:

Storm Deaths

A reporter is murdered, a television weather presenter inexplicably disappears. Are the cases linked? Detective Inspector Miles Davies has to find out.

His attempts are continually thwarted by his boss who seems intent on ensuring that Davies doesn’t discover the truth.

But why is Davies reluctant to investigate whether any members of a local basketball team are involved?

Davies knows he has to weather the storm and find answers – before more bodies are discovered.

Storm Deaths is available for purchase here.

Storm Bodies

A grisly discovery by binmen on their round. A woman leaves her place of work but fails to arrive home.

Is there a serial killer on the loose? Detective Inspector Miles Davies and his team need to find out.

But with the Chief Constable urging Davies to come up with a way to get bored youngsters off the streets and the media eager for headline news, time is running out.

Does a local basketball club hold the key? And how many more lives will be lost before Davies can make an arrest? The answers will leave you on the edge of your seat.

Storm Deaths is available for purchase here.

From Page to Stage

A Guest Post by Steve Orme

When I started to write my second crime novel Storm Bodies – a standalone thriller although it wraps up a couple of situations unresolved in its predecessor Storm Deaths – I couldn’t have envisaged how long it would take.

It would be about three years before book number two landed on the shelves. That was because an offer landed in my inbox that both staggered and excited me.

For more than a decade I’ve been trying to tell the story of a Victorian doctor, William Palmer, who was suspected of poisoning up to 14 people including his wife, mother-in-law and four of his children. I’d teamed up with a couple of colleagues I’d worked with in regional television to make a short taster programme about the man known as the Rugeley Poisoner because of where he came from in Staffordshire.

But getting a documentary commissioned can be more difficult than securing a publishing deal. We took the programme to the History channel who said it was crime. So we took it to the Crime channel who said it was history!

I’d been thinking for some time about writing a play but was struggling to come up with a suitable subject. Then I realised it was staring me in the face: a stage play about the Rugeley Poisoner.

I wrote the first draft of What’s Your Poison? and sent it to a friend of mine, John Goodrum, who runs a touring theatre company, Rumpus.

His verdict? “It’s okay but I can’t do anything with it. It would need too many actors. Rewrite it for three actors and I’ll have another look at it.”

What started off as a major production with eight actors sharing 20 roles between them had to take on another life.

The main consideration when writing a play nowadays is cost: it’s no good coming up with the most amazing play ever if a theatre or producer can’t afford to stage it.

So how could only three actors tell the story of William Palmer convincingly? I decided to have a couple discussing Palmer in the present day, one believing he was a serial killer, the other expressing the view that Palmer could have been a victim of a miscarriage of justice. Palmer would appear in flashbacks along with characters who were integral to the story.

I sent off the next draft and forgot about it while I continued to write Storm Bodies.

Then, in November 2022 I received an email out of the blue from John: he wanted to tour What’s Your Poison?

My elation and exhilaration were tempered by fear about how the play would look when it actually appeared on stage during its 14-date tour of England and Wales.

When I attended the first rehearsal, I was blown away. John Goodrum who directed the play decided to play Palmer himself. He cast two actors, Pavan Maru and Jodie Garnish, as the couple debating Palmer in the present. Pav also played John Parsons Cook, the man Palmer was convicted of murdering, while Jodie also took the role of Palmer’s wife Annie.

Right from the start all three bought into the play and got the characters spot-on. It was so much better than I’d imagined.

The play premièred at the Rose Theatre, Kidderminster. It went down amazingly well; it was one of the most exciting nights of my career.

Had I gone down the traditional route of writing a play and sending it to a theatre, I doubt whether it would have got into production, even  though I have a number of contacts in regional theatres.

What’s Your Poison? is now available for amateur as well as professional companies to produce. It has also led to the directors from a different theatre company contacting me about writing a play for them to stage in 2026.

The first one I’m offering them is a stage version of Storm Deaths. Theatre audiences love a crime story; take Peter James, for instance. Six of his books have been turned into stage shows and have grossed more than £17 million at the box office. So I’m endeavouring to introduce theatregoers to my main character, basketball-playing Detective Inspector Miles Davies.

Of course there are major differences between writing for the page and writing for the stage: apart from again reducing the number of characters, the basketball scenes have had to be changed because I don’t know any 6ft 10in actors!

If this new company doesn’t want to produce Storm Deaths, I should be able to bounce back with another idea we’re discussing.

There’s an old saying which states if you want to be a writer, you have to be a reader first. I obviously agree. And if you want to write for the theatre, you need to see as many plays as possible so you know what will work on stage and what won’t. I’ve got an advantage there: I’m the Midlands editor of the British Theatre Guide website, so I get to review all sorts of shows on my patch.

There’s little doubt that the main challenge facing writers today is getting their work out to a wide audience. I feel blessed that I’ve been able to write not only two novels which are available to the public but also a play which has been on a national tour. That’s driving me on each day to tell more stories no matter what the medium.

****

Thanks so much Steve and apologies once again for taking so long to share this. At least it only took three months and not three years!

About Steve Orme

Steve Orme is an award-winning journalist who has written for television, radio, newspapers, magazines and online websites.

He has written for national, international and local publications as well as becoming a valued member of the production teams for television and radio shows’ news and sports programmes. He has been writing about basketball for more than 35 years.

Steve is a fan of crime writing and has published Storm Deaths, and Storm Bodies in a series about basketball-playing police detective Miles Davies.

For further information about Steve, visit his website , follow Steve on Twitter/X @SteveOrmewriter and find him on Facebook and Instagram.

It’s just over a year since I was privileged to share an extract from Davis McCloskey’s Moscow X in a post you’ll find here. It’s my pleasure today to join the blog tour for David’s brand new book The Seventh Floor and, thanks to Rachel Nobilo, to be able to give away a copy of The Seventh Floor to a lucky UK reader.

Published by Swift Press on 30th January 2025, The Seventh Floor is available for purchase through the publisher links here where you’ll also be able to take a look at the opening of the book!

The Seventh Floor

ALL YOUR LIFE YOU’RE CIA.
THEN YOU’RE NOT.

A Russian arrives in Singapore with a secret to sell. When the Russian is killed and Sam Joseph, the CIA officer dispatched for the meet, goes missing, Artemis Procter is made a scapegoat and run out of the service. Traded back in a spy swap, Sam appears at Procter’s central Florida doorstep months later with an explosive secret: there is a Russian mole hidden deep within the upper reaches of CIA.

As Procter and Sam investigate, they arrive at a shortlist of suspects made up of both Procter’s closest friends and fiercest enemies. The hunt soon requires Procter to dredge up her own checkered past in service of CIA, placing her and Sam into the sights of a savvy Russian spymaster who will protect Moscow’s mole in Langley at all costs, even if it means wreaking bloody havoc across the United States.

Bouncing between the corridors of Langley and the Kremlin, the thrilling new novel by David McCloskey explores the nature of friendship in a faithless business, and what it means to love a place that does not love you back.

Giveaway

UK Only: A Hardback Copy of The Seventh Floor

For your chance to win a copy of The Seventh Floor by David McCloskey, click HERE.

UK Only and the giveaway closes at 11.59 PM UK time on Sunday 9th February 2025.

Please note that I will need a UK address to pass to the publisher for the randomly chosen winner’s prize, but will not retain any personal details once the prize has been sent.

About David McCloskey

David McCloskey is a former CIA analyst and consultant at McKinsey & Company. While at the CIA, he wrote regularly for the President’s Daily Brief, delivered classified testimony to Congressional oversight committees, and briefed senior White House officials, Ambassadors, military officials, and Arab royalty. He worked in CIA field stations across the Middle East. During his time at McKinsey, David advised national security, aerospace, and transportation clients on a range of strategic and operational issues. David holds an M.A. from the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies, where he specialized in energy policy and the Middle East. He lives in Texas with his wife and three children.

For further information about David, visit his website, follow him on Twitter/X @mccloskeybooks and find David on Instagram and Facebook.

There’s more with these other bloggers too:

My enormous thanks to Elizabeth Masters and Ana McLaughlin at Quercus for sending me a surprise copy of Life Hacks for a Little Alien by Alice Franklin. I’m delighted to share my review today.

Published by Riverrun on 13th February 2025, Life Hacks for a Little Alien is available for purchase through the links here.  

Life Hacks for a Little Alien

‘Climb up here, Little Alien. Sit next to me. I will tell you about life on this planet. I will tell you how it goes’

From her first words to her first day at school, Little Alien can’t help but get things wrong. She doesn’t understand the world the way others seem to, and the world doesn’t seem to understand her either. Her anxious mum and meticulous dad, while well-intentioned, are of little help.

But when Little Alien sees a documentary about the Voynich Manuscript – a mediaeval codex written in an unknown language and script – she begins to suspect that there are other people who feel just like her. Convinced that translating this manuscript will offer the answers she needs, she sets out on a journey that will show her a delicious taste of freedom.

So begins this charming, witty, and profoundly moving novel about the power of language, the wonder of libraries – and how to find a path that fits, when you yourself do not.

My Review of Life Hacks for a Little Alien

A neurodivergent child tries to make sense of the world. 

Life Hacks for a Little Alien is such a brilliant read. There are so many elements here that, despite being relatively brief, Life Hacks for a Little Alien would reward being read several times over. The presentation of language – its diachronic and synchronic development, its capacity for misinterpretation and confusion, and its key to understanding and our sense of who we are – is stunning. That might make the book sound dry or inaccessible, but not a bit of it. There are witty footnotes, definitions, and warmly humorous further reading suggestions that make this story zing with interest and engagement. I found myself laughing aloud throughout my reading. 

I loved the fact that Little Alien is gender ambiguous in appearance and is never referred to by a proper name other than the endearments from her parents. This means that the character feels relatable and universal. Whilst Little Alien is possibly far more neurodivergent than the majority of readers, how she thinks and feels is exactly how we’ve all thought and felt at some points in our lives. She could be any or all of us. This makes the story incredibly impactful and moving. The representation of authority from school teachers to the police, for example, is so deftly handled that the lack of understanding towards Little Alien feels terrifyingly realistic even as it is funny and entertaining.

I also loved Little Alien’s obsession with the Voynich Manuscript. I had never heard of it previously but was so convinced by Alice Franklin’s writing that I had to find out if it is real. It is! The inability to define and fully understand the manuscript echoes to perfection the manner in which society fails to have the key to neurodivergent individuals. It shows how children like Little Alien may have skills, intelligence and understanding encoded in their own personalities that others cannot appreciate.

With themes of intelligence, linguistics, integration, difference, the power of reading and, above all, the humane and sensitive exploration of who we are as individuals, I thought Life Hacks for a Little Alien was superb.

A love letter to language, to difference and to all those who’ve ever simply wondered about life. Life Hacks for a Little Alien is a witty, humorous and affecting story that deserves to be read far and wide. It provides the reader with understanding and a sense of belonging. It’s really quite wonderful.

About Alice Franklin

Alice Franklin lives and works in London. She has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. Life Hacks for a Little Alien is her debut novel.

I’m delighted that my latest My Weekly magazine online review is of the cracking thriller Black Tag by Simon Mayo.

Published by Penguin imprint Bantam on 30th January 2025, Black Tag is available for purchase through the links here.

Black Tag

Your house is on fire. What do you save?
You have seconds to decide.
If everything is about to burn, what do you rescue first?

When the West End Gallery in London’s fashionable Coal Drops Yard is set alight, the fire service must use the list of paintings lodged with it – a grab list – to snatch the key pieces of art from the flames.

But something has been altered. It’s the wrong list.

Then the ashes reveal another tragedy: an unidentified dead body. Someone who shouldn’t have been in the gallery. Crusading journalist Famie Madden wants to know who it is and why they were there. Soon it becomes apparent that the ashes are hiding much more than they should be – and that this is much more than a casual act of arson…

Bestselling author and legendary broadcaster Simon Mayo has created a spellbinding contemporary thriller. He weaves a story ripped from today’s newspapers that will take Famie far from the pages of her website into a murderous family saga stretching back over centuries.

My Review of Black Tag

My full review of Black Tag can be found on the My Weekly website here.

However, here I can say that Black Tag is a fast paced thriller that is totally absorbing and entertaining. It’s multi-layered and filled with intrigue that had me gripped. I thought it was fresh, modern and, actually, quite brilliant.

Do visit My Weekly to read my full review here.

About Simon Mayo

Simon Mayo MBE is a writer and broadcaster. His previous books include the Sunday Times bestseller Knife Edge, Mad Blood Stirring, Blame and the Itch trilogy, filmed for TV by the ABC. He hosts Drivetime on Greatest Hits Radio and hosts the ‘The Take’ film-review podcast with Professor Mark Kermode.

I’m delighted to share details today of my latest My Weekly magazine online review which is of Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney.

Published by Pan Macmillan on 30th January 2025, Beautiful Ugly is available for purchase through the publisher links here.

Beautiful Ugly

Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life.

Grady calls his wife as she’s driving home to share some exciting news. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by a cliff edge, the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there . . . but his wife has disappeared.

A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, and he can’t write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible: a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.

Wives think their husbands will change, but they don’t.
Husbands think their wives won’t change, but they do.

My Review of Beautiful Ugly

My full review of Beautiful Ugly can be found on the My Weekly website here.

However, here I can say that Beautiful Ugly is mind-blowingly fabulous, being twisty, creepy and totally compelling. Not to be missed!

Do visit My Weekly to read my full review here.

About Alice Feeney

Alice Feeney is a New York Times million-copy bestselling author of novels including His & Hers, Sometimes I Lie, Rock Paper Scissors and Daisy Darker. Her books have been translated into over thirty-five languages, and have been optioned for major screen adaptations, with His & Hers currently in production for Netflix, produced by Jessica Chastain, and starring Tessa Thompson and Jon Bernthal.

Alice was a BBC journalist for fifteen years. Her seventh novel, Beautiful Ugly, will be published around the world in January 2025.

For further information, visit Alice’s website or follow Alice on Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky and Twitter/X @alicewriterland.

There’s an irony to this blog post. 

When Victoria Purcell at Simon and Schuster kindly sent me a copy of A Second Act by Dr Matt Morgan I was completely intrigued. You see, my father-in-law suffered a cardiac arrest and was resuscitated, but was declared brain dead. He was in America on holiday at the time. My husband and I were told he’d be kept on life support for 24 hours but then we would need to give permission to turn the machines off. 

When we rang the hospital the next day, reluctantly prepared to give that permission, we were told he was sitting up in bed asking, ‘Linda. Steve. Yes. No.’ He was alive and actually not much worse than he had been prior to the cardiac arrest, living with the effects of two previous heart attacks and a disabling stroke. It appeared it was previous stroke damage that led to the ‘brain dead’ diagnosis. His response, once we’d managed to return him to the UK via air ambulance, was to continue to travel and to make the most of life.

All this meant I was really interested in reading A Second Act. 

And here’s the irony. I had hoped to post this review earlier, but four deaths of family and friends so far in 2025 have made life tricky…

A Second Act was published by Simon and Schuster on 16th January 2025 and is available for purchase through the publisher links here. 

A Second Act

I’ve worked as a doctor for over twenty years, caring for patients who are in the thick fog between life and death. I’ve met hundreds of people who have died, were resuscitated and lived. I’ve long thought that these are the people that we should be listening to, not influencers or business gurus. They know what really matters.

Dr Matt Morgan has met hundreds of people who’ve come back from the dead. Their hearts stopped, their bodies unresponsive, rescued from the brink of death by the modern intensive care techniques he specialises in.

People like Ed, who was walking through a park when there was a bang, a bright light and then nothing. Ed had been hit by a bolt of lightning – 300 million volts, enough to power a city for a day, coursed through his body, short-circuiting his heart. Ed was given life-saving CPR and he survived. He lives a little differently now, every day knowing the thin margins that separate life and death.

In A Second Act, Morgan introduces us to patients who’ve experienced hypothermia, overdoses, heart attacks and transplants to see how their lives have been transformed by the second chance they’ve been given. He shares the lessons they’ve learned, along with his own realisations about life and how to make the most of it. Life shouldn’t be wasted on the living.

My Review of A Second Act

An insight into, and provided by, those who have clinically died but have had a second chance at life. 

Written in a highly accessible style which hooks in the reader from Prologue to Epilogue, A Second Act is a fascinating book. There’s an intimacy as Dr Matt Morgan uses the first person to frame his case studies, but it’s so much more than that. There’s a real feeling that this is a man who has truly listened to those he’s spoken to about dying and being resuscitated. We learn about the author as well as about those whose stories he is relating.

A Second Act transcends any macabre interest in, or fear of, death so that it provides comfort and positivity as well as interest, making it hugely impactful. Indeed, I found so much here that I could take personally from the writing. Filled with sentences and comments that feel as if they have distilled philosophical thinking and advice into portable slogans, A Second Act entirely avoids truism and is a powerful reminder of appreciating who we are and what we have in our lives. It reminds us to look, to listen and to understand what is really important. At the same time Dr Matt Morgan doesn’t shy away from the challenges and difficulties some experience after their clinical deaths. This makes the book so realistic and important.

I’m not able to say too much about those who’ve experienced death here as it would spoil the discovery of their stories for other readers, but I wept for some and rejoiced for others. I loved every moment of their company and felt privileged to have met them vicariously through A Second Act.

A Second Act is a fascinating, moving and life affirming read that is also realistic and informative whilst managing to be both personal and universal. It’s a book about death that gives readers the permission to live life to the full. Wise, motivational and hugely important, it might even have you hosting your own funeral. I thought it was excellent and cannot recommend it highly enough.

About Dr Matt Morgan 

Image courtesy of Jake Morley

Dr Matt Morgan is a British intensive care doctor. His open letter addressed to patients during the 2020 COVID pandemic has been read by over half a million people worldwide and viewed by over two million times after featuring on the Channel 4 news. His articles have featured in the Guardian, the Telegraph, the Daily Mail, the Sunday Mirror and Huffington Post. A regular writer for the internationally acclaimed British Medical Journal, his article ‘A letter from the ICU’ is one of their most popular ever opinion article, read by over 130,000 people in 2020. His first book, Critical, has been translated into four languages. He lives in Cardiff with his family, enjoys long dog walks, photography, cold beer and even colder ice cream.

For further information follow Matt on Twitter/X @dr_mattmorgan and find him on Facebook, Instagram and Bluesky. 

It’s my absolute pleasure today to welcome debut author Catherine Airey to Linda’s Book Bag to celebrate her brand new novel which is out today. My huge thanks to Marie-Louise Patton and Laura Dermody at Penguin Random House for putting us in touch with one another.

Staying in with Catherine Airey

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag Catherine 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?

Hi Linda. I’ve brought along my first novel, Confessions.

I understand that Confessions is out today Catherine so happy publication day! I also hear that it is absolutely fantastic so congratulations. Tell me, what can we expect from an evening in with Confessions? 

There are multiple female perspectives in Confessions (and one male one). As the title suggests, these characters each have their secrets, things they are ashamed of, and Irish Catholicism is a thread throughout the novel. These characters’ stories brush up against real-world events and issues – from 9/11 to the legalisation of abortion in Ireland in 2018. So there’s lots of intrigue.

So would you call Confessions historical?

In some ways, it’s a historical novel, but with a focus on what it means to be young and not feel in control of your own story, which I’d argue is pretty universal.

I think you’re absolutely right – though I might add that getting older doesn’t always make one feel any more in control. 

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

I’ve brought along a Twix bar, which appears a few times in the  novel, almost like an easter egg.

Anyone who brings chocolate is always welcome!

I’d also like to listen to the album ‘Mistaken Identity’ by Kim Carnes, which came out from 1981. The song ‘Bette Davis Eyes’ is featured in the book. It was also the song I listened to right after I’d finished the first draft of Confessions. I’ll also share the chorus lyrics to ‘Hit and Run’, which I love as a piece of poetry: 

         Love will tear and do you in

         Turn you inside out and when

         All you got is less than dim

         You know, you’re grabbing at straws

        And you’d do it again

What perfect accompaniments to both Confessions and publication day. Thanks so much for staying in with me to chat about the book Catherine. I’m thrilled to have a copy waiting for me on my TBR! You put the album on and I’ll give readers a few more details about Confessions:

Confessions

‘I was at a time in my life where I got to thinking more about people’s choices – how everything would be different if just the slightest decision changed…’

It is late September in 2001 and the walls of New York are papered over with photos of the missing. Cora Brady’s father is there, the poster she made taped to columns and bridges. Her mother died long ago and now, orphaned on the cusp of adulthood, Cora is adrift and alone. Soon, a letter will arrive with the offer of a new life: far out on the ragged edge of Ireland, in the town where her parents were young, an estranged aunt can provide a home and fulfil a long-forgotten promise. There the story of Cora’s family is hidden, and in her presence will begin to unspool…

An essential, immersive debut from an astonishing new voice, Confessions traces the arc of three generations of women as they experience in their own time the irresistible gravity of the past: its love and tragedy, its mystery and redemption, and, in all things intended and accidental, the beauty and terrible shade of the things we do.

Published today, 23rd January 2025, by Penguin imprint Viking, Confessions is available for purchase through the publisher links here.

About Catherine Airey

Catherine Airey grew up in England in a family of mixed English-Irish descent, and now lives in Bristol. Confessions is her first novel. Confessions was acquired in a twenty-four hour, six figure pre-empt in the UK and a hotly contested six-figure auction in the US.

For further information, follow Catherine on Twitter/X @catherineairey and find her on Instagram.  

I heard Nadine Matheson speak so engagingly at a couple of literary festivals last year, but I’ve never got round to reading her. Consequently, I’m delighted that my first My Weekly magazine online review of 2025 is Nadine Matheson’s The Kill List. My grateful thanks to Isabel Williams at Harper Collins for sending me a copy.

Already out in other formats, The Kill List is released in paperback by Harper Collins imprint HQ on 30th January 2025 and is available for purchase here.

The Kill List

He will come for them, one by one…

Five shocking murders

Twenty-five years ago, DCI Harry Rhimes arrested Andrew Streeter for the brutal murders of five young people. Streeter’s ‘kill list’ of victims was found in his home, and he was convicted of all five crimes.

A legacy under threat

Now, Streeter’s convictions are being overturned, as new evidence implies the original investigation was corrupt. No one is more shocked that DI Henley. Because this case is personal; Rhimes was her old boss, and he’s no longer alive to defend himself. But when the killings start up again, Henley must face the truth: Rhimes got it wrong twenty-five years ago.

A hunt for a killer

Henley and her team reopen the original murder cases, but they must put their personal feelings to one side. Because the real killer is still out there, and he’s working his way through a new kill list …

My Review of The Kill List

My full review of The Kill List can be found on the My Weekly website here.

However, here I can say that The Kill List is a gripping and absorbing police procedural thriller that held me captivated. It’s much grittier than my usual reads and I thought it was a cracking book. I absolutely need to catch up with the first two books in the series immediately!

Do visit My Weekly to read my full review here.

About Nadine Matheson

Nadine Matheson is an author, podcast host and a criminal defence lawyer. In 2016, she won the City University Crime Writing Competition and has an MA in Creative Writing.

Her bestselling debut crime fiction novel, The Jigsaw Man was published in 2021 and is available in 15 languages to date.

For further information, visit Nadine’s website and follow Nadine on Bluesky, Instagram and on Facebook.

I receive an awful lot of books and occasionally one calls to me immediately and I’m unable to stop thinking about it until I give in and read it ahead of all the others waiting for me. So it was with This Is A Love Story by Jessica Soffer. I usually thank whoever has sent me surprise book mail, but I have no idea who sent me This Is A Love Story. If you were that person – thank you!

This Is A Love Story is published by Serpent’s Tail on 6th February and is available for pre-order through the publisher links here. 

This Is A Love Story

Abe and Jane have been together for fifty years: as two among the thousands of starry-eyed young lovers in Central Park, as frustrated and exhausted parents, as an artist and a writer whose careers were taking flight. Now, Jane is seriously unwell, and together she and Abe look back on their marriage – on the parts they cherished, and those they didn’t: Abe’s early betrayal; and the trials of raising their son Max, who, now grown, still believes his mother chose art over parenthood.

A homage to New York, to pleasure, loss and love that endures despite or perhaps because of what life throws at us, This Is a Love Story brings these layered voices together in a chorus as complex, radiant and captivating as the city itself.

My Review of This Is A Love Story

Jane and Abe share memories as Jane is dying.

Oh my goodness. This Is A Love Story is exquisite. I could not have loved it more. 

The story revolves around Jane, Abe, their son Max and Central Park creating an intimacy and depth that is astounding.  

Jessica Soffer’s prose vibrates on the page. It’s luminous, poetic, enthralling. It’s as if this book is an onion, and Abe peels away each layer as he shares memories with Jane and the reader. As he addresses Jane it feels as if he’s speaking directly to the reader too, so that they become woven into this profound, beautiful, mesmerising narrative. It’s a story that is read with a physical ache in your heart.  

I loved the fragmentary presentation of the text on the page because it reflects to perfection the disjointed way memories swell and fade in our minds. There is a chronology as Jane remembers, but it isn’t entirely linear which makes for greater depth in the narrative. The pendulum-swing from the Central Park to Abe and Jane’s perspective and back suffers a lurch when Alice becomes the focal point, mirroring so cleverly the way she is a jolt in the marriage between Jane and Abe. I found myself loathing her instantly when her name appeared at the top of the chapter, and yet I came to appreciate and understand her. Max too has his time as a focus so that the reader becomes intimately acquainted with them all, leading to a highly affecting read.

As well as a presentation of an enduring marriage, This Is A Love Story is also a love letter to Central Park in New York which is depicted with such fondness and reality it made me feel a genuine sense of loss that I didn’t find time to visit when I worked in the city. Central Park acts partly as light relief that ameliorates the intensity of the other characters’ experiences, partly as a Greek chorus giving insight into events and themes, and partly as a reminder of the quotidian life that continues in the world even when Jane, Abe, Max and Alice feel locked in the maelstrom of their own experiences. Jessica Soffer shows that we are all nothing in the grand scheme of life – and yet we are everything.

The themes of art, marriage, motherhood, nationality, home, creativity and, of course, memory are just a few elements of the rich tapestry that it This Is A Love Story. I suspect that with every rereading – and my word does this book deserve to be read time and again – the reader will discover something new about the characters and, importantly, bout themselves.

Written with a beguiling lyricism that bewitches the reader, This Is A Love Story is exactly that – a love story of truth and hurt, enduring companionship and memory. I absolutely adored it. It is not to be missed. Reading it makes the reader glad to be alive and far more appreciative and observant of the world around them. But be warned. This Is A Love Story will bruise your heart irreparably. I thought it was outstanding.

About Jessica Soffer

Jessica Soffer is the author of This Is a Love Story and Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots. She grew up in New York City and earned her MFA at Hunter College. Her work has appeared in Granta, The New York Times, Real Simple, Saveur, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue, and on NPR’s Selected Shorts. She teaches creative writing to small groups and in the corporate space and lives in Sag Harbor, New York, with her husband and young daughter.

For further information, visit Jessica’s website and find her on Instagram.

I love Dinah Jefferies’ books, and although I’m easing away from blogging slightly at the moment, I simply had to be part of the cover reveal for her latest book The Greek House.

I’ve missed reading Dinah Jefferies of late, but you’ll find my review of The Hidden Palace here, Daughters of War here and I chose Dinah’s’ The Tea Planter’s Wife as one of my books of the year when I began blogging in 2015. My review is here.

I interviewed Dinah here about Before The Rains and reviewed The Silk Merchant’s Daughter here with my review of The Sapphire Widow here. I also reviewed Dinah’s The Missing Sister, here.

Published by Harper Collins on 24th April 2025, The Greek House is available for pre-order here.

The Greek House

Can one house hold a lifetime of secrets?

Corfu, 1934

The moment Thirza Caruthers sets foot on Corfu, memories flood back: the scent of jasmine, the green shutters of her family’s home ― and her brother Billy’s tragic disappearance years before.

Returning to the Greek house, high above clear blue waters, Thirza tries to escape by immersing herself in painting ― and a passionate affair.

But as webs of love, envy, and betrayal tighten around the family, buried secrets surface.

Is it finally time to uncover the truth about Billy’s vanishing?

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I think The Greek House sounds fantastic. I can’t wait to read it.

About Dinah Jefferies

Dinah Jefferies began her career with The Separation, followed by the No.1 Sunday Times and Richard and Judy bestseller, The Tea-Planter’s Wife. Born in Malaysia, she moved to England at the age of nine. In 1985, a family tragedy changed everything, and she now draws on the experience of loss in her writing, infusing love, loss and danger with the beauty of her locations. She is published in 29 languages in over 30 countries and lives close to her family in Gloucestershire.

You can follow Dinah Jefferies on Twitter @DinahJefferies and visit her web site. You’ll also find Dinah on Facebook and Instagram.