What a pleasure today to share my latest My Weekly magazine online review which is of The Book Swap by Tessa Bickers. My enormous thanks to Alainna Hadjigeorgiou  for sending me a copy some time ago.

Published by Hodder and Stoughton on 5th September 2024, The Book Swap is available for purchase through the links here.

The Book Swap

A REASON TO LIVE. 
Still grieving the death of her best friend, Erin knows she needs to start living – but has no idea how. Then she loses her favourite book, a heavily annotated and containing her friend’s final words to her.

A REASON TO LOVE.
When James finds Erin’s note-filled book in his local community library, it sparks a life-changing conversation. He writes his own message back, and soon they are locked in an anonymous book exchange, with no idea who the other person in the margins might be.

A REASON TO FORGIVE?
But Erin and James have a shared history that neither of them realise. How will Erin react when she discovers the other writer isn’t a stranger at all – but the person she once swore she’d never forgive?

A story of second chances and new beginnings, this is a love letter to books – and a love letter to love.

My Review of The Book Swap

My full review of The Book Swap can be found on the My Weekly website here.

However, here I can say that The Book Swap completely took me by surprise. I had anticipated a light and engaging romance with references to books, but hadn’t anticipated the depth of emotion, the range of themes and the fabulous awareness of who we are as humans that makes The Book Swap simply glorious to read.

Do visit My Weekly to read my full review here.

About Tessa Bickers

Tessa Bickers has always been fascinated by people. What makes them different and what makes them the same. Those universal experiences from grief and loneliness, to heartbreak and love. She’s always told stories, either through songs or the books she’s been writing since her teens. All those years of her brother telling her she was nosy, when he didn’t understand it was purely for research purposes!

Tessa lives in Brixton with her partner, their young but very loud daughter and their one-eyed ginger cat, Rocky, with his mean left hook.

For further information, follow Tessa on Twitter/X @TessaBickers, or find her on Instagram.

It’s my pleasure to welcome the (extremely) patient David Jarvis to Linda’s Book Bag today. We’ve been meaning to stay in together and chat about one of David’s books for ages but life kept getting in the way. At last we’ve had a moment or two for me to find out more!

Staying in with David Jarvis

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

Linda, thank you for asking me. I have been looking forward to this for some time.

Yes! You’ve been incredibly patient whilst there has been too much life happening beyond my ability to deal with it! Tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it?

Tonight, I have brought along The Violin and Candlestick which was published on July 16^th by Hobeck Books. It is the third Michaela ‘Mike’ Kingdom novel after The Tip of the Iceberg and This Is Not a Pipe. Obviously, I am excited by all of this and very pleased with the three covers by Jem Butcher which are so distinctive.

Those are really dramatic and engaging covers. 

Tell me a bit more about Mike.

I created Mike Kingdom in 1999, although in truth she appeared on my shoulder one day and has shouted in my ear ever since. I just type. I plot five or so chapters ahead but invariably she wanders off. Twenty-five years ago, I wrote nine chapters introducing Mike to my agent, Gerald Pollinger (who, with his father, was Graham Greene’s agent). He told me that she was a winner but sadly he never lived to see her in print.

What a shame.

To anyone who doesn’t know Mike, she was a CIA analyst who was seconded to the Five Eyes (the group of agencies from UK, USA, NZ, Australia and Canada) in London under her boss, Leonard de Vries. She was in an accident that killed her husband and damaged her leg; her hair also fell out. Mike is feisty, blunt and doesn’t seem to know her limits. She is an analyst not an operative, but this does not stop her getting involved.

She sounds totally brilliant.

Writing the dialogue between Mike and Leonard is one of the joys of my life. They have a love/hate, father/daughter relationship but at times it is hard to know who wears the trousers.

I imagine so. Would you say, then, that character is the most important element for you in writing?

While character and plot are important to me, so is backdrop. Each book is set against an important issue or issues. I am not writing a lecture, but I would be sad if anyone came away after reading The Tip of the Iceberg, for example, and was not in awe of the wonderful Antarctic Treaty which covers 11% of the Earth’s land surface. This Is Not a Pipe covers the relationship between, Algeria (one of the largest gas producers in the world), Morocco and Europe. So much of the EU’s gas comes through two pipelines across the Mediterranean.

I love a book that has a deeper message David. What will we find in The Violin and Candlestick?

The latest in this series of spy/geopolitical thrillers is The Violin and Candlestick which is set in the Middle East; it covers the West’s relationship with Iran, Bitcoin mining and the bids for the 2040 Olympics but these are merely the context.

I am lucky in my previous life to have worked in so many countries and to have been involved in places and off-the-beaten-track parts that most people don’t get a chance to visit. They give me the settings.

And it sounds as though they give readers a chance for a bit of vicarious travel too. How would you sum up your books?

All of my novels must be gripping, credible and have an unguessable ending that is obvious in retrospect. I don’t like contrived devices such as ‘it was all a dream’ or the introduction of the murderer on the penultimate page. Finally, my books must be witty and have some light relief while remaining taut and entrancing.

They sound brilliant. How have they been received by readers?

If I may quote from some respected reviewers?

Please do!

“It’s genuinely excellent storytelling that’s incredibly well researched and written with such a light touch and some wickedly black and cynical humour whilst full of sub-plots that all come together with great craft.
A writer at the top of his game…”

“’The writing was as always superb, with so many witty moments and that true British humour. Honestly can’t wait to see what is next for Mike Kingdom!”

“”David Jarvis is up there with the greats of le Carré, Forsyth and Clancy. The Violin and Candlestick is the best book in the series so far … with tension, drama and misdirection keeping you guessing to the very end. This book is unputdownable and I do not use that adjective lightly!”

“This is another cracker from the brilliant David Jarvis.”

“David has done it again and written a relevant, twisty and unputdownable thriller, that keeps you guessing until the very end.”

“”This is a well thought out, well plotted spy thriller … it’s great seeing how Mike has grown over the three books. I never saw the twist at the end coming that was a big surprise. I was suspecting some and got it completely wrong. This is an engrossing, engaging read that will have you turning the pages fast.”

“Intricately plotted, pacy & with a twist I didn’t see coming, The Violin and Candlestick is a great addition to a 5 star series”

“I read a lot of crime, and thoroughly enjoy it, but these are BRILLIANT … an absolute cracking series. If you’re a reader, read them in order and one after another, you won’t be disappointed.”

“The Violin and Candlestick is a geopolitical thriller of the highest order, with fabulously drawn characters, a thought-provoking storyline and is written with some wit”

“Well, just when I thought this author couldn’t top his last book, he absolutely knocks it out of the park again.”

“The ending had me fooled, hadn’t seen that coming, for me that was down to the quality of the plotting and writing. One thing David Jarvis does make you do as you read the books is stop and think … I was drawn in from the opening page, a gripping and addictive read.”

Wow. You must be so thrilled with those comments David. I really need to catch up with the books don’t I?

You do Linda.

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

I’ve brought your chance to read a bit Linda! Here’s the start of The Violin and Candlestick …

CHAPTER ONE

Leonard de Vries fell out of the taxi onto the gravel of the pub car park.

This was all the more embarrassing as he was arriving for lunch, not leaving. Fortunately for him, he suffered no real injury apart from a slight graze to his nose. In fact, the act of standing up posed a greater problem, and he arrived at the door of The Greedy Pelican out of breath and licking the blood from his podgy finger, which he had been using to test his face for any damage. The taxi driver pulled over to a shady corner under some trees to eat. He was thinking that, if some punter wanted to pay him to sit and wait while he ate his sandwiches, he was more than happy to comply.

The only other person who saw this dramatic entrance was Leonard’s ex-employee, Michaela Kingdom, who was sitting inside and looking out through a grubby window. Mike, as she was known, was almost embarrassed at the pleasure she was deriving from watching the short, overweight man attempt a forward roll across the gravel. She had never forgotten him telling her that he had the mind of an athlete.

“No chauffeur to open your door today?” she asked as he approached her table; the pub was virtually empty at midday on a Tuesday.

“No, this is unofficial. That’s why I chose here,” he replied, explaining why he had come in a taxi from Chiswick to some godforsaken eatery near the reservoirs under the flight path to London Heathrow. He seemed disorientated and, after looking around, said, “I thought that this was just called The Pelican?”

“You mean you’ve been here before and still decided to come back?”

“It’s handy, and they used to do big rib-eye steaks, if I remember correctly.”

“Well, it was The Pelican, but now it’s part of a chain and has been rebranded. I had to google it. If you’re interested, that carved beam up there is from HMS Pelican, one of Drake’s ships that went around the world in 1577. I’m guessing that any other link to Sir Francis is pretty much lost. It now does ‘a mixture of Indian and Chinese’, or ‘fusion’ as they call it. It’s basically anything with rice. It’s ironic that Drake brought the humble potato to England from Virginia. I hope you aren’t hungry?”

Immediately, she regretted saying this as his face displayed just how hungry he was; this being nothing new. He wore his dark-green tie loose at the collar, in the style of Sir Les Patterson, more because the knot had tightened to a small lump over the years from his greasy fingers trying to adjust it.

“Sir Francis must be spinning in his grave,” he said.

“He was buried at sea.”

When she’d arrived, Mike had no idea if Leonard had actually booked, so she asked the manager to turn around the reservations diary so she could read the names. There she spotted Sir Donald Reeve. “That’s him,” she said as the manager, who had been born locally in Poyle, gave her an old-fashioned look. Mike was getting accustomed to Leonard using anagrams of his name specifically to irritate her and to test her decoding skills. Continuing professional development, he called it. She had another phrase in mind.

Carlos, the manager – and indeed people within a radius of several miles – would never have guessed that Leonard, under any of his aliases, was actually the CIA director in London and head of Five Eyes, an intelligence-sharing mechanism between the USA, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand that was based in Chiswick. Any subterfuge was really unnecessary: nobody even vaguely took a bit of notice.

Mike and Leonard agreed that, before getting down to business, they would order food and drinks. This didn’t take long.

“Right, let’s lay down some rules. You aren’t going to ask me to do any fieldwork, are you?” Mike asked after twenty minutes of small talk. The previous three times he had sent her into the field, it hadn’t gone well. This shouldn’t have been surprising as she had been a CIA analyst and not trained to leave the office.

“No, I swear on my mother’s grave. This is desk-based analysis.” His soft Alabaman accent made this sound almost believable, although his mother – who was just having breakfast in the suburbs of Montgomery, the state capital – may have had something to say about that.

Mike was wearing her jet-black Cleopatra wig and motorcycle leathers. She looked at him with her very-dark-brown eyes, but she said nothing.

“What?” he asked, holding out his arms, his palms upwards. “I really need a freelancer for a small task. It will suit you down to the ground. I can’t use my team. You’ll understand why when I explain.”

She stretched out her damaged left leg under the table, unfolded a napkin and placed it on her lap. “The second I think it might lead to fieldwork, I’m right out of here.”

“I get that.” He was at his most appeasing. “I know you’re an analyst, which is why I’ve lined up an operative you can call on if it ever becomes necessary … which it won’t,” he added quickly. “We call him Crip.”

“Leonard!” She put her head in her hands. “Leonard, you’re so un-PC. You cannot call someone that.” She contemplated this for a few seconds, then said, “He doesn’t actually sound that suited to fieldwork. I mean, really?”

“It’s short for Crippen. Chris Crippen. He worked for me, like you. He’s now a freelancer, like you,” he emphasised. “We’ll make a great team.”

“Oh, sorry.” Mike was so used to Leonard having a casual disregard for rules, manners, political correctness and just about everything that she had jumped to her own conclusion.

The waiter turned up with a basket of bread and some butter. Leonard picked up a roll with a crust so hard and thin that it shattered into pieces across the table as he tried to break it. He brushed his palms against each other and took a folded piece of card from his jacket pocket. On it was a series of telephone numbers, codes, names and addresses. He handed it to her and explained some of them before getting down to the real reason for the lunch.

“You know that the coordinating role in Five Eyes rotates every two years. You may not have realised that my term has just ended, and now it’s the turn of Barbara Aumonier from Canada. I can’t stand the woman, but that’s probably not important; she doesn’t like me either. It is important, however, because the USA thinks someone in one of the five agencies has been compromised and is selling the family silver. Finding this person is going to be difficult because we’re searching among friends. The team in the Counterintelligence Department at Langley is checking as discreetly as possible, but they have to be careful not to leave a trail. Heck, let’s be straight: they’re just pussyfooting around.” He stopped as the waiter approached with a large, well-done steak, some rice and a jug of an odd-smelling Asian sauce. Leonard waited until Carlos had served Mike her plaice with capers and retreated out of earshot.

His plate was very hot, and the steak was almost stuck to it. “So, this is what they mean by fusion, is it?” he said before tucking into the meat with a wooden-handled steak knife.

“How can I help? You know I no longer have access to the five countries’ systems, and I’m more likely to leave a trail or tip off anyone interested.” Mike looked at the small fork and fish knife she had been given. “Unless you can get me some access?”

“That won’t be possible.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m currently behind the eight ball. This week, I’ll probably be suspended and sent back to head office. If I’m lucky, I might get the job of ordering light bulbs. If I’m unlucky, I might be in a cell staring up at one.”

Mike looked at her old boss with genuine surprise. “Really? What have you done?”

“Jeez, you know I don’t always follow the rules, but I get enough results that no one cares. Now they’ve started digging and are wondering if it’s me.”

“And you have no idea who it might be?”

“Personally, no … but they think it must be someone with my level of access. It’s some of my files that have mysteriously turned up in the wrong hands.”

“How do I contact you?”

“All the numbers and codes are on that card. I didn’t want anything on the system connected to you. Crip’s details are on there too, but you won’t need him. I may not be able to contact you, so I wanted you both to have each other’s details. Nobody else knows, and please don’t tell anyone. There’s one more thing: this came in the post the day before yesterday.” He took out of his pocket a brass key with the word ‘DUPLICATE’ written on the attached tag and handed it to her.

“What’s this and who sent it?”

“I’ve no idea. There was a piece of paper that said it was for safekeeping and that he would call very soon to meet up. There was no name.”

“What am I meant to do with it?”

“Keep it safe in case I’m suspended. I don’t want it in our office, especially if we’ve been compromised.”

“Where do I start? What do you want me to do?” She was suddenly excited but, at the same time, overwhelmed with the magnitude of the task.

“Before they began to suspect me, they told me they were looking at a senior Australian agency director who might have got involved in some construction fraud. His name’s on the card. You could start with him.”

“Leonard, we’ve had our differences, but I’m sorry – really sorry. I’ll do my best.”

“And I’ll try to let you know if I’m suspended. Are you leaving that rice?”

That’s cracking! I’m even more determined to catch up now! But what’s that you’ve got there?

I have also brought along a candlestick; it is a sculpture of Icarus and I love the irony. He is naked but feels that it is necessary to wear an old flying hat. Just the idea of Icarus being anywhere near naked flames makes me smile.

I suspect you have a wicked sense of humour… Is art and sculpture important to you generally?

Art features in all of my novels in different ways. This Is Not a Pipe is a painting by Magritte; in it, he questions whether it is or can be a pipe. This is so relevant to the plot of my story. The Violin and Candlestick is a painting by George Braque. It is in front of this painting that key interchanges take place in my third novel while it is in a travelling exhibition in a Doha gallery. Giacometti’s ‘Running Man’ sculpture also features in the book… but I won’t spoil the plot.

No don’t! We’ll have to read the books and find out for ourselves. Thank you so much, David, for staying in with me to chat about The Violin and Candlestick. It’s been such an interesting evening. I understand the fourth book in the Mike Kingdom series is in the pipeline too so I think readers are in for a treat. Let me give them a few more details about The Violin and Candlestick.

The Violin and Candlestick

A businessman flies by private jet for a half-hour lunch in Doha, Qatar. This would have been no big deal except that he is the CIA’s main asset in the Middle East and, six hours later, is found dead in his villa.

Michaela ‘Mike’ Kingdom was meant to be investigating something else for Leonard de Vries, her old CIA and Five Eyes boss, when he asked her to help him find the killers. She had been one of his analysts in London before the ‘accident’ that had killed her husband and damaged her leg.

She told everyone many times that she didn’t do fieldwork, but no one listened, not even Mike herself. Leonard told her not to worry as he had organised help in the form of another ex-CIA agent, now a Paralympian in the US basketball team

The Violin and Candlestick is published by Hobeck Books and available for purchase here or on Amazon.

About David Jarvis

David Jarvis went to art college in the 1970s before setting up an international planning practice, which he ran successfully for forty years. This took him around the world from Trinidad to Croatia and from France to Saudi Arabia.

His canvases just got bigger and bigger.

He has now retired to Wiltshire to write and drink wine, not necessarily in that order.

For further information about David, follow him on Twitter/X  as @David_Jarvis_ , Instagram and Bluesky.

I can’t believe it’s almost five years since Nicola Smith stayed in with me here to chat about her debut novel A Degree of Uncertainty. I’m delighted to welcome Nicola back today to celebrate 13 Cornish Ghost Stories that she has contributed to with a superb guest post.

I confess 13 Cornish Ghost Stories had completely passed me by until I was ‘chatting’ with another contributor, Liz Fenwick, about it recently. With the nights getting noticeably darker, it seems the perfect time to take a closer look.

13 Cornish Ghost Stories is available for purchase here.

13 Cornish Ghost Stories

Cornwall is the perfect setting for tales, myths, and legends. The wild moors, the granite, the clay, the rebellious sea, and flat calm coves make the county a vast and inspirational canvas. The starry nights, needle-sharp gorse, and windswept tors and carns provide perfect backdrops to eerie full moons and ghostly goings-on. Mischievous piskies dance across our landscape, while the spectres of the past, both real and imagined, haunt our memories and our dreams.

There are new stories to be told around every corner, across every ley line, behind every menhir, and in the rocks and caves that litter our shores. Another 13 are already emerging from the mists….

Cornwall: riding a phantasmic wave

A Guest Post by Nicola Smith

As Elfy Scott wrote in The Guardian in January this year, “It feels as if ghosts are suddenly having a moment, a strange little resurgence into the mainstream. I think ghosts may be in vogue.”[1] She cites Ghost Story, a “wildly compelling” seven-part series hosted on podcast platform, Wondery as an example of their current popularity.

But has this slightly unsettling genre ever gone out of fashion? As Susan Hill, author of The Woman in Black once said, “ghost stories are a way of exploring the boundaries between life and death, between the known and the unknown, between order and chaos”[2]. Surely such things will forever be a preoccupation of mankind?

Of course, there will always be doubters and sceptics, believers and evangelists (and even those who outwardly rubbish the notion yet inwardly wonder at strange noises in the night). And for this reason, there is a ghost story for every bent, yet many readers have preconceived ideas of what constitutes a ghost story. But there is no single definition.

Stories of such spirits can be enlightening, thought provoking and even amusing. Of course, they can also be spine-chilling. The new anthology I have been lucky enough to be a part of embodies all these adjectives. 13 Cornish Ghost Stories brings to life original ghostly tales from all over the county, from an ancient pub in the windblown far west of Cornwall to the desolate plains of Bodmin Moor and the capricious light of St Ives, not to mention a storm-lashed Penryn.

Cornwall, it seems, is a perfect setting for a ghost story. From the former inmate who haunts Bodmin Jail to the young woman who still roams the grounds of Falmouth’s Pendennis Castle, the county is synonymous with ‘true’ ghost stories. Its tumultuous history is alive with tales of pirates, smugglers and tragic historical events, while its dramatic, brooding and often isolated land and seascapes provide a fitting backdrop for many mysterious happenings.

Each original story in 13 Cornish Ghost Stories has been conceived by a writer either born in Cornwall or based in Cornwall, each one familiar with the county’s nuanced ways and changing moods, as well as its hidden paths and coves, its pockets of forgotten moorland; its concealed treasures.

Cornwall allows the writer’s imagination to run riot. It is an animating spirit that fuels the creative mind, giving rise to a profusion of colourful tales, legends, anecdotes and stories that live long in the memory. Done well, a Cornish ghost story puts the reader at the heart of its dramatic land and seascape, transporting them to another world…in every sense.

Ghost stories might well be having a moment, and I urge dubious readers to open their minds to otherworldy tales. As Scott says, “…for so many of us, stories of the paranormal can be a strange, exciting and decadent activity, like buying oysters to eat in your own house.”

What could be more Cornish than that?

[1] The Guardian

[2] Susan Hill

****

What indeed? Thanks so much Nicola. Not only does this make me want to read 13 Cornish Ghost Stories immediately, it also makes me want to jump in the motorhome and head to Cornwall!

About Nicola K. Smith

Nicola K Smith is a freelance journalist based in Cornwall. She contributes to a range of titles including The Times, guardian.co.uk, Coast magazine and BBC Countryfile. She has just written her first novel, inspired by life in her home town of Falmouth, and set in a fictional Cornish town…

To find out more about Nicola, visit her website, or follow her on Twitter/X @NicolaKSmith740 and on Instagram @nicolaksmith740. You’ll also find Nicola on Facebook.

My enormous thanks to Lisa Shakespeare for sending me a surprise copy of The Inheritance by Cauvery Madhavan. I am delighted to share my review today.

Published by Hope Road on 19th September, The Inheritance is available in the usual places including directly from the publisher here.

The Inheritance

It’s 1986 and 29-year-old Marlo O’Sullivan of London-Irish stock has just found out that his sister is his mother. To steady his life, he moves to Glengarriff, to a cottage he has inherited, in the stunning Beara Peninsula. When a neighbour dies unexpectedly, Marlo takes over his minibus service to Cork. There is nothing regular about the regulars on the bus – especially Sully, a non-verbal 7 year old, who goes nowhere but does the journey back and forth every day, on his own. Marlo is landed with this a strange but compassionate arrangement, fashioned to give the child’s mother respite from his care. Sully’s obsession with an imaginary friend in the ancient oak forests of Glengarriff slowly unveils its terrible secrets – a 400-hundred-year-old tragedy revels itself.

My Review of The Inheritance

Marlo has inherited a cottage in Beara.

The Inheritance is a wonderful story that weaves the past and recent history into a tale of love, acceptance, forgiveness and belonging. I was completely captivated by it.

Cauvery Madhavan’s writing is beautiful. She depicts the wild attraction of Ireland to perfection so that she places her readers right in the heart of her settings. The Beara surroundings are every bit as much a character in The Inheritance as any of the people. The sound of Stevie bellowing, the colour of spilt blood, the touch of a hand and so on are simple, but carefully crafted, examples of how The Inheritance appeals to the senses and consequently becomes far more than the sum of its parts. It’s a magnificent book. I adored the naturalistic dialogue too, and the change in tone relating to the sections set in the early 1600s feels authentic and captivating.

The Inheritance is so difficult to categorise. There’s history steeped right into the landscape, and a sense of mystery with a touch of the supernatural through Sully that is realistic and totally believable. Religion, superstition and ritual all add layers of interest, and these aspects are frequently created with fond and gentle ribbing of the characters like Assumpta, so that The Inheritance feels written with, as well as about, love, tolerance and understanding. The brutality of the historical realism is balanced brilliantly by the humour and different forms of love in the more modern sections. Equally, this is a romance too. Consequently, The Inheritance appeals to a wide audience and is successful on every level. 

What is so completely engaging is the sense of community. The people here all know one another’s business, and the area is filled with long memories, petty rivalries and fierce loyalties so that I finished The Inheritance feeling, like Marlo, as if I’d been plunged head first into a real place with little to prepare me. Both Marlo and Kitty have strong reasons to find themselves on the edge of social acceptability, and yet they are also the heart of the narrative. The way in which the community is described means that every single character is unforgettable, vivid and absolutely true to life. I loved them all.

I loved, too, the echoing ripples of history and kinship that link past and present. Cauvery Madavan is literally giving voice to the mute, the ordinary and the forgotten in a powerful and affecting narrative. 

I completely lost my heart to The Inheritance because it is part of the rich, varied and engrossing culture of storytelling that those influenced by Ireland seem to achieve so effortlessly. I am delighted to find there are other Cauvery Madavan books to discover, because she is a writer with heart whose story held me transfixed and who demonstrates with warmth and understanding how letting go of the past enhances our present. Don’t miss this one. It’s glorious.

About Cauvery Madhavan

Cauvery Madhavan was born and educated in India. She worked as a copywriter in her hometown of Chennai (formerly Madras). Cauvery moved to Ireland over three decades years ago and has been in love with the country ever since. Her other books are: Paddy Indian, The Uncoupling and The Tainted. 

She lives with her husband and three children in beautiful County Kildare.

For further information, visit Cauvery’s website, follow her on Twitter/X @CauveryMadhavan and find her on Instagram.

Having spectacularly failed to read and review The Unfinished Business of Eadie Browne by Freya North in time for the hardback release in February, I am delighted to share my review today well ahead of the paperback release. My enormous thanks to Emma Dowson at edpr for sending me a signed copy of The Unfinished Business of Eadie Browne all those months ago.

I cannot believe it’s nine years since I reviewed Freya’s The Turning Point and The Way Back Home when I very first began blogging. You’ll find those reviews here.

The Unfinished Business of Eadie Browne is available now in other formats and will be released in paperback on 12th September 2024. Published by Welbeck it is available for purchase through the links here.

The Unfinished Business of Eadie Browne

When your present meets your past, what do you take with you – and what do you leave behind?

Eadie Browne is a quirky kid living in a small town where nothing much happens. Bullied at school, she muddles her way through the teenage years with best friends Celeste and Josh until University takes them their separate ways.

Arriving in Manchester as a student in the late 1980s, Eadie experiences a novel freedom and it’s intoxicating. As the city embraces the dizzying euphoria of Rave counterculture, Eadie is swept along, ignoring danger and reality. Until, one night, her past comes hurtling at her with consequences she could never have imagined.

Now, as the new millennium approaches, Eadie is thirty with a marriage in tatters, travelling back to the town of her birth for a funeral she can’t quite comprehend. As she journeys from the North to the South, from the present to the past, Eadie contemplates all that was then and all that is now – and the loose ends that must be tied before her future can unfold.

My Review of The Unfinished Business of Eadie Browne

Eadie is growing up.

The Unfinished Business of Eadie Browne is just wonderful. It’s an absolute love song to who we are as humans, to our frailties, our hopes, our fears and our dreams. I loved it.

In essence, the plot is relatively gentle as the story travels through Eadie’s childhood memories whilst she’s on a journey with her husband in 1999. I loved the gradual unfurling of why Eadie is making that journey and how her past life has led her to this point. It adds a little mystery that is engaging and interesting. 

What is so utterly beautiful and moving about how Freya North writes is the way she manages to depict with absolute perfection the different stages of Eadie’s life. Eadie’s home might be somewhat unconventional, but her early childhood and teenage school years are absolutely those anyone can recognise. As a result it feels as if we’re reading about a much loved and missed friend from our own past. I thought the exploration of her marriage was emotionally exquisite. The depth of love, and the ease with which life can intervene and make us neglect those we care for most, is conveyed by Freya North with tenderness and reality. 

Eadie is intricately drawn. Her self-delusion, the selfishness and uncertainty of her youth, her gradual maturity and the realisation of what constitutes friendship, belonging and home, all combine into a character whose vivid personality leaps from the page. And through Eadie and her reactions we come to know and understand her parents Terry and Jill and her other friends. Each one feels true to life.

But this is a tale about more than just Eadie, marvellous as she is. It’s a warm, sensitive and totally absorbing example of life. The Patricks and Rosses of the world can be found in any location and through reading about them we learn humanity and compassion, even as we are entertained. Freya North weaves the strands that bind the characters together with themes of trust, family, education, friendship, crime, poverty and society in such a rich tapestry that it feels as if the people and events in The Unfinished Business of Eadie Browne could happen in any school, town, nightclub or university. And it isn’t just the imaginative aspects of the book that are so convincing. Also woven in are historical and geographical strands, from music to national and international events, that add reality, depth and authenticity.

I’ve long loved Freya North’s writing and it has been far too long since I read her. The Unfinished Business of Eadie Browne has proven just what I’ve been missing. I thought this narrative was utterly brilliant. It has earned a place on my list of books of the year because it is a book about Eadie Browne, but also one about you and me. Eadie might be looking for her place in the world but she helped me find my place too. Don’t miss this one.

About Freya North

For more information, visit Freya’s website, follow her on Twitter/X @freya_north and find Freya on Instagram and Facebook.

I’m a huge fan of Gill Paul’s writing as you’ll see if you follow this link. Consequently, I’m thrilled that my latest My Weekly magazine online review which is of Gill’s latest book, Scandalous Women.

Scandalous Women was published by Harper Collins imprint Avon yesterday, 29th August 2024, and is available for purchase through the links here.

Scandalous Women

1966: In London, Jackie Collins‘s racy The World is Full of Married Men hits bookshops and launches her career. In New York, Jacqueline Susann‘s debut novel Valley of the Dolls is published, and she’s desperate for it to be a bestseller. But both are about to discover the price they will pay for being women who dare to write about sex.

Meanwhile, college graduate Nancy White is excited to take up her dream job at a Manhattan publishing house. But Nancy could never be prepared for the rampant sexism she is about to encounter.

When Nancy introduces the two Jackies, she fears they will become rivals in their race to top the charts. As she strives to achieve her ambition of becoming an editor, can all three women succeed despite the men determined to hold them back?

My Review of Scandalous Women

My full review of Scandalous Women can be found on the My Weekly website here.

However, here I can say that Scandalous Women is an absolute belter of a book and possibly my favourite Gill Paul to date. It’s interesting and compelling, filled with the most perfect blend of fact and imagination so that every moment is a real joy to read. I loved it.

Do visit My Weekly to read my full review here.

About Gill Paul

Gill Paul is an author of historical fiction, specialising in the twentieth century and often writing about the lives of real women. Her novels have topped bestseller lists in the US and Canada as well as the UK and have been translated into twenty languages. The Secret Wife has sold over half a million copies and is a book-club favourite worldwide.

You can follow Gill on Twitter/X @GillPaulAUTHOR, visit her website and find her on Instagram and Facebook for more information.

It was my absolute pleasure to meet lovely Claire Wilson at Harrogate International Crime Festival earlier this year and my huge thanks go to Claire for ensuring I received a copy of her debut crime novel Five by Five.

I’d heard Claire read from the beginning of Five by Five at Noir at the Bar and was completely hooked. It’s my pleasure to share my review of Five by Five today.

Five by Five is published by Penguin’s Michael Joseph on 29th August 2024 and is available for purchase through the links here.

Five by Five

Just because the most dangerous criminals in society are caught and locked up, doesn’t mean they stop committing crime.

That’s where Kennedy Allardyce comes in – working in one of Scotland’s toughest prisons, monitoring not just the prisoners, but also the staff.

And she’s just stumbled across her most dangerous foe yet – rumours of a corrupt guard, nicknamed Scout, with lethal influence. And what’s worst, it seems they’ve already realised Kennedy is on their tail.

Despite her growing fear, there is one thing going right for Kennedy. The enigmatic new prison officer Molly is beautiful and ready to sweep her off her feet.

But Kennedy can’t afford to let her guard down. Because with Scout hiding very close by, her next mistake might just be her last . . .

My Review of Five by Five

Kennedy Allardyce has criminals to catch.

What a cracking debut thriller. Claire Wilson writes with a fast paced authority that immediately gains and holds the reader’s attention. I loved Five by Five because it provides a completely fresh perspective. Whilst other police procedural stories might concentrate on catching criminals and putting them behind bars, here they are already in prison and not all the criminals are conscripts. It’s as if Claire Wilson lifts the skin of the justice system and invites the reader right to its beating heart. 

I had no idea that the role Kennedy fulfils actually exists so that Five by Five not only entertained me completely, it gave me real insight that felt authentic and fascinating. The depiction of prison life is hugely unsettling and there’s a creeping sense of tension and menace underpinning the narrative that I found highly effective. There’s violence and a considerable number of expletives in the story, but they all feel placed naturally and realistically in the prison setting. With Kennedy in danger so cleverly depicted, I found myself viewing those I encountered in the street with great suspicion and wariness!

Kennedy is a really interesting  character. She’s dogged to the point of stubbornness. She’s flawed and believable. She’s also self-aware and vulnerable so that I finished Five by Five feeling as if I’d been in the presence of a real person, not just a character in a story. Her developing relationship with Molly and her life with Ellie both add a softness to Kennedy’s character belied by her public persona at work and give a real sense of same sex attraction that is completely convincing. I’m so glad that the end of Five by Five suggests there’s more to come about her.

But for me, the absolute success of Five by Five is the sense of corruption and betrayal that is depicted on so many levels. I loathe unfairness and corruption with a passion so that Claire Wilson made me rage and fume. I found the story made me livid. The nepotistic, self-serving attitude of so many in all layers of society who are prepared to betray and hurt others for their own gains makes Five by Five a book that seeps into the reader’s brain until they can’t stop wondering how the narrative will end and how far retribution might be served. It makes for a fascinating book. 

With its fast pace, vivid characters and dramatic plot, Five by Five is gritty, compelling and surprisingly affecting. I thoroughly enjoy it and have a feeling Claire Wilson is going to be an author to watch! 

About Claire Wilson

Claire Wilson is from central Scotland. Her debut novel, Five by Five, was the inaugural winner of the Penguin Michael Joseph Undiscovered Writers’ Prize. The book is based on her day job as an Intelligence Analyst in a Scottish Prison.

For further information follow Claire on Twitter/X @ByClaireWilson, find her on Instagram.

Goldsboro Crime Collective

For just £20 a month (plus shipping) subscribers will receive a hand-picked, signed, first-edition crime & thriller collectible book.

Goldsboro Crime Collective is more than just a subscription service. It’s a vibrant community of crime fiction enthusiasts. Subscribers will receive the UNCOVERED newsletter, offering insights, recommendations, and opportunities to share thoughts on favourite reads. Exclusive member events will further foster connection and lively discussion within the community, making every subscriber feel a part of something special.

At Goldsboro Books they understand that not every book is going to suit everyone’s taste. Crime Collective members will benefit from the ability to opt-out of monthly choices two times a year (counted from your initial month) without cancelling. We require a month’s notice to opt-out – you cannot opt-out once the month in question has begun.

In addition to your monthly collector’s edition book and newsletter access, the Goldsboro Crime Collective will also give you 10% discount off all crime books in store and online at Goldsboro Books.

The first Goldsboro Crime Collective book selection is just being announced for September, so be sure to register your interest here to keep up to date with Goldsboro Crime Collective announcements with no obligation.

As I know Renard Press have the most amazing books, when Will asked if I’d like to read and review another of their publications, Fledging, by Rose Diell, I was delighted to accept. It’s my pleasure to share my review today.

Published by Renard Press on 28th August 2024, Fledging is available for purchase here.

Fledging

When Lia lays an egg she doesn’t know what to do. At her age, it’s impossible to escape the baby question, and all her friends seem to be having children. She feels her heart’s not in it – but all the same, there’s the egg, impossible to ignore, lying in a nest of towels in the living room.

Her partner on tour on the other side of the world and her mother diagnosed with a terminal illness, Lia finds herself torn, unsure whether she’s ready to give up on her songwriting dreams; but time is running out, and she must make one of the biggest decisions of her life.

Beautifully written and brilliantly original, Fledging is a riveting tale and resounding call for a woman’s right to make her own choices, whether that means embracing motherhood or living child-free.

My Review of Fledging

Lia has laid an egg.

Fledging is an incredible extended metaphor for motherhood and choice that is delivered with mesmerising skill in perfectly crafted prose by Rose Diell. I found it utterly fascinating. With the protagonist having given birth to an egg, the entire concept of the book is innovative and captivating.

Beautifully and yet sparcely written, there’s depth, allegory and enormous sensitivity in Fledging so that whilst this is a novella in length, there’s a profound intensity. Bird’s arrival causes Lia to question her attitudes to motherhood and allows her to make an informed decision about whether she wants to have a baby. As someone with absolutely no maternal instinct myself, I was riveted by Lia’s inability to separate herself from Bird and wondered just how the narrative might end. This is a story of choice, demands, and decision making, presented with skill and an emotional integrity.

As Lia’s own mother is unwell, the complexities of being potentially both parent and child, whilst trying to maintain a long distance relationship with David, hold down a job and develop her songwriting, ensure Lia feels so very true to life. Her predicament of being pulled in several directions at once and in trying to be all things to all people is a universal one so that Fledging feels as if it has been written for all women, regardless of their maternal desires. 

I loved the way Lia so often has to carry Bird like a physical burden, and yet when she is away from Bird, the tug of connection pulls at Lia’s emotions. Fledging is a narrative driven by turmoil, doubt and indecision, and it feels tender and compassionate so that it’s a highly affecting read. 

The themes of Fledging are important for today’s society and are explored here with mature intelligence. Guilt, choice, motherhood, relationships, professionalism, partnership, identity, family and societal expectation swirl around Lia’s looking after Bird, making for a story of thought-provoking significance and importance. This is book to generate discussion and wider of motherhood.

I found Fledging intense, relatable and essential reading for any woman contemplating motherhood but ambivalent about whether she really wants a child. Just don’t expect Rose Diell to make that decision for you because the powerful Fledging illustrates choice is personal and, frequently, inequitably decided so that every potential, actual, or denied, mother is as unique as this book. 

About Rose Diell

Rose Diell was born and raised in London but her heritage stems from various places beyond the British Isles. A lover of language in all its forms, she speaks French, Italian and Arabic, and has lived on three continents.

Rose writes in her spare time, with the encouragement and support of her writing circle, the Southbank Scribblers. She now lives in London again, with her civil partner and Tolstoy, an extremely fluffy ginger tabby.

For further information about Rose, visit her website, follow her on Twitter/X @RoseDiell or find Rose on Instagram.

Once again I am disappointed not to be able to find time to read a book. I just loved the sound of Sam Martin’s latest and, although I’m struggling to keep all the plates spinning at the moment, I simply had to invite Sam onto Linda’s Book Bag to tell me all about it. Luckily, Sam agreed to stay in with me!

Let’s find out more:

Staying in with Sam Martin

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag Sam 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 chosen Bitterblue. It is the latest of my three novels, published at the end of July 2024. I’ve chosen it because it is my latest book, and also because it is my very best work. At least, that’s how I think of it. My previous two novels both picked up book awards, and they are both film projects – one in development, and the other (a Czech-German co-production) in pre-production. But as a piece of work, Bitterblue is what I’m most proud of – and the one I surprised myself with the most.

That must be an amazing feeling Sam. I think authors do develop over their writing. And congratulations on the film projects for your other books too.

What can we expect from an evening in with Bitterblue?

You can expect a bit of a roller-coaster ride and I think you’ll get one because Bitterblue is a multi-narrative/multi-plot, multi-genre novel which weaves in and out of its cast of characters’ lives as they are confronted with their various conflicts and concerns which ‘life’ and circumstances have thrown up at them. In parts emotional and moving, in others thrilling, and at times not without its humour – Bitterblue is light – it is dark – it’s all the bits in between. If you have ever seen Robert Altman’s movie ‘Short Cuts’ you might get a rough idea of what the Bitterblue world of my book looks like…. maybe.

I haven’t seen the film but I love books that cross genres and don’t fit neatly into one aspect. Bitterblue sounds just my kind of read!

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

I wrote Bitterblue partly, but not all, in Marrakesh with the hotel rooftop terrace as my office and the all-out attack on the senses which the colours and never-ending din of the Medina below me provided, and with the Atlas mountains as a backdrop (although the novel has nothing to do with Morocco). I’ve brought along the only photograph which I have of my laptop, with the text of Bitterblue as I was working on it visible – and alongside it, what the work eventually ‘became’ (i.e. a physical book to hold and read). ‘Creation’ and ‘product’ together, if you will.

And I’ve brought along a whole lot of hope that you might like my story – or “stories”, because Bitterblue is a tapestry of stories woven together to form its ‘whole’.

I think Marrakesh’s blend of sensory experience sounds the perfect backdrop for writing a muliti-strand novel Sam. I love it there.

And importantly, I’ve brought along a heavy heart, which is a part of me because it is a part of the territory when you’ve had someone who you love so much hit with the fatal hammer which is motor neuron disease – and Bitterblue is part of my quest in life to raise money for the scientific research into an illness which the scientists sadly have no clue about. What I earn from my work – from film, from books – is part of my fight. If someone like yourself wishes to join the battle too – however small a role it might be – however seemingly insignificant – then you have my eternal gratitude. And if in years to come, someone can say “I once had motor neuron disease”… “had” – past tense – meaning that there really is a cure for the most cruel of fates – then you’ll have played a part in that, and you can feel proud about yourself. And on behalf of all those who have to suffer, you’ll have my ‘thanks’.

Oh goodness Sam. I am so sorry to hear this. I’m including the link here to the Motor Neuron Disease Association site in case any readers would like to make a small donation. It must be something that is with you constantly. 

It is Linda. It’s something which has come to shape and direct and influence my own life and what I do with it at every single moment.

Thank you so much Sam, for staying in with me to chat about Bitterblue and in so doing to raise awareness of a terrible disease that affects not just the person but their friends and family too. I hope our staying in together will go some way to helping.

Let me give readers a few more details about Bitterblue:

Bitterblue

Love and hate―a beautiful combination. These emotions consume Liam MacMurray as he struggles with the question, “What do I do about Nina?” But is Liam really who he says he is?

“Bitterblue” is a unique, multi-plot, multi-narrative roller-coaster that takes readers on a thrilling journey with characters forced to make decisions that challenge their beliefs and principles―even life or death choices, like the one Liam must face. Enter this gripping tale where nothing is as it seems, and every twist makes you question the true nature of love and loyalty.

Published by Arrow Gate in paperback on 30th July 2024, Bitterblue is available for purchase in all the usual places including here and directly from the publisher here.

About Sam Martin

Sam Martin is an author and screenwriter from the north east of England. He has written three full-length novels: Pictures Of Anna and One Day In June, which won first prize i.e. the Gold Award at the US 2023 BookFest Awards and was shortlisted for the Hemingway Awards in the US. Bitterblue is his third novel.

Sam’s last movie ‘Stand Up’, directed by Timo Jacobs, picked up 62 major awards at international film festivals in 2021, including Best Picture at the New York International Film Festival and in LA/Beverley Hills. It received its premier and nationwide cinema release in Germany in June 2022. One Day In June is also in pre-production as a movie project.

F0r further information, find Sam on Goodreads.