You know, it’s a real privilege to ‘meet’ new authors and find out about their books. It gives me enormous pleasure to welcome Kevin Stone to Linda’s Book Bag today to tell me about a book which has such an intriguing title!

Staying in with Kevin Stone

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag Kevin.

Thank you so much, Linda, for the invite. I’m excited to sit down (metaphorically) and talk with you.

Thank you for agreeing to stay in with me.

No, thank you! I’m honoured to be here.

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

I’ve brought my novel, The Onion Ring Lovers (Guide to Vermont), which was just published August 7^th. It’s my debut novel and, as I’m sure you can expect, I’m excited to share it with people. After years of writing and re-writing, and countless drafts, seeing it in print has been incredibly rewarding. Even more so is the opportunity to have it in the hands and on the screens of readers and book lovers.

Congratulations on your debut novel Kevin. You must be delighted to see it in print. What can we expect from an evening in with The Onion Ring Lovers (Guide to Vermont) A Novel?  

My family moved around frequently as a child. We never quite settled in a place to put down roots, so I often found myself in the role as an observer, an outsider looking in. In the course of one of our cross-country journeys across the United States, our family found itself in the unassuming state of Vermont. I did not know at the time what a profound effect my time in the Green Mountain state would have on me. The strain of so many moves, so little money, and one too many indiscretions had its final toll on our family. It was in Vermont that the family broke, and my parents divorced.

Gosh. What a memory. I think there’s a degree of autobiography in many books. How did this affect your writing?

It was on this foundation that I built the (fictional) story about the Suttons, a family that relocated to Vermont with the best of intentions but experienced the worst of outcomes.

Inspired by the unique and varied people of Vermont, the fiction novel is full of real and imagined places and facts. I wanted to create a picture of the Vermont that meant so much to me. Set in two timelines, the book alternates between the year that the Sutton family threw caution to the wind, sold everything, and cast their fate in running a snack stand in a year-round Christmas-themed attraction on a tiny island off the shores of Lake Champlain, and in the present, where the adult Jim Sutton returns to the state on the pretence of writing his travelogue novel The Onion Ring Lover’s Guide to Vermont.

I think The Onion Ring Lover’s Guide to Vermont sounds wonderful Kevin. How is it being received?

Some praise for the novel:

“What gives the book its power, however, is the autobiography that resonates behind every page. Stone has clearly harnessed deeply-felt memories in his book, and re-dressed them in fictive form. His descriptions of Vermont at its most beautiful, and later, at its most dangerous, merit reading again and again. “

Laura C Stevenson, author of Liar from Vermont

“I grew up in Vermont, and this book brought me home. The imagery is beautiful, the characters are engaging, and I didn’t see the ending coming. Stone not only captures the place but also the quirky nuance of the people in a way that is authentic and familiar, and yes, a little disturbing. Onion Ring Lovers is a strong debut novel, and it’s well worth your time. I look forward to more from Kevin Stone.”

Amazon review

Those reviews make me want to dive right in to The Onion Ring Lover’s Guide to Vermont.

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

I brought a couple of things!

First, there’s a book within the book. The (fictional) protagonist of the novel, Jim Sutton, is writing his own book, The Onion Ring Lover’s Guide to Vermont. Part of my (delicious) research for the book was going to some very real places in Vermont and writing reviews in Jim’s own hand. Alas, like so many authors forced to “kill their darlings,” the reviews were too long for the novel. They did not die off the page, but rather live on in digital form on the novel’s dedicated website, onionringlovers.com. This is a link to the page with Jim’s reviews.

Ha! That’s brilliant.

Second, I would like to share a recipe for low-carb, air fryer onion rings, a delicious and (marginally) healthier version of their deep-fried brethren. Delicious on their own, or with a remoulade sauce for dipping, these rings are the perfect companion to the novel!

Now that sounds just my kind of snack. What’s the recipe?

Air-Fried Onion Rings

Ingredients:

1 large sweet onion, cut into ½-inch rings

½ cup whole wheat flour

1 cup whole grain panko bread crumbs

1 egg

1 Tbsp. water

½ tsp. paprika

1 tsp. oregano

1 tsp cayenne pepper

Pinch of salt

1. Get three bowls. Fill the first bowl with a mixture of flour, paprika, cayenne pepper, oregano and pinch of salt. Fill the second bowl with the egg and water beaten together. Fill the third bowl with panko breadcrumbs.

2. Coat the onion rings in flour, dip into the egg mixture. Coat with panko breadcrumbs. You may need to press the panko with your fingers.

3. Spray the bottom of an air fryer basket with non-stick spray. Place the onion rings in a single layer in the bottom of the basket. Spray the onion rings with non-stick spray. For best results, cook the rings in batches.

4. Cook at 375°F for 6 minutes. Flip and cook for another 4 minutes.

You’ve made my mouth water Kevin. Not just for the onion rings either! I love the sound of The Onion Ring Lover’s Guide to Vermont too. Thank you so much for staying in with me to chat about it.

Thanks for having me Linda.

You head to the kitchen Kevin and get cooking and I’ll give blog readers a few more book details:

The Onion Ring Lover’s Guide to Vermont

Many children wish that every day could be Christmas. For one year, Jim Sutton and his family found themselves living that dream. As dreams go, however, it turned out to be more of a nightmare.

The Suttons were not caught up in some kind of “Groundhog Day” scenario. Far from it. While each day was distinct and separate, some days seemed to echo the one before, like a rerun nobody asked to relive. From 1977 through early 1978, the Sutton clan lived as permanent residents in a year-round Christmas attraction named, appropriately enough, Christmas Town.

The chain of events leading to how precisely they came to settle on an island in the middle of Lake Champlain, Vermont is found in two words: Bob Sutton (or as he was more colloquially called: Dad). Bob Sutton pried his brood from their comfortable lives in Boston, Massachusetts to relocate to the Green Mountain State. He bought a snack stand concession in Christmas Town, where he believed they would make their fortunes in a forever Winter Wonderland. None of the Suttons expected that this outwardly idyllic setting would lead to familial betrayal and tragedy.

Twenty-two years later, a grown Jim Sutton ventures out to write his novel. His muse: onion rings. The setting: the state he once swore he would never visit again. In a rusted-out beater of a car, Jim navigates his way through the countryside, sampling onion rings for his book, The Onion Ring Lover’s Guide to Vermont. When an accident strands him in the sleepy town of Strawberry Falls, little does Jim know that another dark family secret hides beneath the surface of this seemingly idyllic little New England town, a secret that some of the town residents would kill for to keep from coming to light.

The Onion Ring Lover’s Guide to Vermont is available for purchase from all the online stores including through the links here.

About Kevin Stone

Kevin lives in Tampa, Florida with his family, two dogs (one very good, one naughty), two guinea pigs, a rabbit, and a menagerie of plush critters who frequently come to life through a child’s dabbling in ventriloquism, imagination, and an assertion that there is no such thing as too many animals under one roof.

Kevin’s family moved around when he grew up. A lot. From Massachusetts to Missouri, they ultimately landed in Vermont. Not having Vermonter roots offered him the unique perspective of the outsider, never fitting in as a native son, always observing from a distance. His childhood experiences inspired him to write The Onion Ring Lover’s Guide to Vermont.

There’s more about The Onion Lovers and Kevin on the website, on Instagram and Facebook and you can follow Kevin on Twitter @onionringlovers.

It’s over a year since I’ve had the opportunity to read one of Dinah Jefferies’ wonderful books. Then I was reviewing The Tuscan Contessa in a post you can read here. Today it gives me enormous pleasure to share my review of Daughters of War and I’d like to thank Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part in this blog tour and to Harper Collins for sending me a copy of Daughters of War in return for an honest review.

Dinah’s’ The Tea Planter’s Wife was one of my books of the year when I began blogging in 2015, and you can read my review here.

Since then I was thrilled to interview Dinah here about Before The Rains and to review The Silk Merchant’s Daughter here and The Sapphire Widow here. I also reviewed Dinah’s The Missing Sister, here.

Daughters of War was published by Harper Collins on 16th September 2021 and is available for purchase through the links here.

Daughters of War

France, 1944.

Deep in the river valley of the Dordogne, in an old stone cottage on the edge of a beautiful village, three sisters long for the end of the war.

Hélène, the eldest, is trying her hardest to steer her family to safety, even as the Nazi occupation becomes more threatening.

Elise, the rebel, is determined to help the Resistance, whatever the cost.

And Florence, the dreamer, just yearns for a world where France is free.

Then, one dark night, the Allies come knocking for help. And Hélène knows that she cannot sit on the sidelines any longer. But secrets from their own mysterious past threaten to unravel everything they hold most dear…

The first in an epic new series from the No.1 Sunday Times bestseller, Daughters of War is a stunning tale of sisters, secrets and bravery in the darkness of war-torn France…

My Review of Daughters of War

War is raging as three sisters live through it in very different ways.

From the very first moment Dinah Jefferies wastes no time in plunging her readers right into the heart of the action so that Daughters of War captivates them immediately. The Second World War may be a well known era for historical fiction but Dinah Jefferies imbues it with a freshness and excitement that is superb to read and I adored this book.

The plot of Daughters of War simply zips along with the drama and ordinary daily life under Nazi occupation perfectly balanced so that this is a really fast paced, impossible to put down, narrative. What Dinah Jefferies does so well is to show her readers the brutality of war and its effect on the individual in a realistic way that is never simply gratuitous, so that the impact is felt all the more keenly. With beautiful writing, especially through descriptions of nature, to counteract man’s inhumanity to man, this means that there’s depth and maturity that gives Daughters of War a wonderful richness. Reading the book is a very visual experience and I could picture it all as if I were watching a film because the detail is so evocative.

The three daughters of the title Hélène, Elise and Florence are so credibly depicted as real, warm, vibrant people who transcend mere characters that now I’ve finished reading Daughters of War, I find them slipping into my thoughts as I wonder how they are after the events of the novel. Their very different personalities shine through the writing and Dinah Jefferies made me care about them completely. I desperately wanted a happy ending for them all, but you need to read the book to see if my wishes were granted. Similarly, the men in the book feel totally believable making for a very satisfying read. What I found particularly skilful in the writing was the way the girls’ mother Claudette influenced their lives even though she was physically absent from the story.

Obviously war is a major theme in Daughters of War, and I learnt new aspects that I hadn’t known about before which added to my enjoyment of the book. However, it is relationships, family, bravery, trust and betrayal, loyalty, love in many forms, and sheer human resilience that combine into a wonderful, maturely observed and eloquently presented narrative. I can honestly say that I lost myself in the story. It felt weird to look up and find I wasn’t actually in France with Hélène, Elise and Florence et al.

I think Daughters of War is the complete package and not to be missed. I thought it was excellent.

About Dinah Jefferies

Dinah Jefferies began her career with The Separation, followed by the number 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. As a teenager she missed the heat of Malaysia, which left her with a kind of restlessness that led to quite an unusual life. She studied fashion design, went to live in Tuscany where she worked as an au-pair for an Italian countess, and there was even a time when Dinah lived with a rock band in a ‘hippie’ commune in Suffolk. In 1985, the death of her fourteen-year-old son changed everything and she now draws on the experience of loss in her writing. She started writing novels in her sixties and sets her books abroad, aiming to infuse love, loss and danger with the extremely seductive beauty of her locations.

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

There’s more with these other bloggers too:

Earlier this year it was a privilege to be part of one of Bay Tales‘ fantastic online events, giving a book review of The Last Bear by Hannah Gold. You can see what I had to say here.  I also have a written review on Linda’s Book Bag here. Bay Tales co-ordinators Simon Bewick and Vic Watson have been bringing all manner of exciting virtual events since lockdown last year and you’ll find details of what’s been happening on the Bay Tales website.

Now, however, Bay Tales are going live with their first ever ‘in real life’ event and I’m delighted to bring you details:

Bay Tales LIVE 2022

Tickets are now on sale for one-day crime fiction event in the heart of Vera country. The team behind Virtual Noir at the Bar have released tickets for their first physical event – in their hometown of Whitley Bay, North Tyneside.

Bay Tales Live, a one-day crime fiction festival for readers and writers, will be held at Whitley Bay Playhouse on Saturday, 12 Feb 2022 and will feature some of the most successful UK crime writers, as well as introducing audience members to the brightest rising stars of 2022. Featured authors have had their books optioned by BBC, ITV and Netflix.

Simon and Vic

Keen to continue their habit of hosting the biggest names in crime fiction alongside new writers, Vic Watson and Simon Bewick – shortlisted for FutureBook’s Event of the Year last year – have collaborated with some of the UK’s biggest publishers to put together a programme of six panels featuring award-winning authors like Louise Candlish and Vaseem Khan as well as successful local authors Ann Cleeves and Trevor Wood.

And, just like their virtual shows, the pair couldn’t resist throwing a wildcard into the mix: inviting Dr Richard Shepherd, forensic pathologist and author of the Sunday Times bestseller Unnatural Causes, to speak at the event.

“This event is perfect for both readers and writers of crime fiction, with a little forensic pathology thrown in for good measure,” said Vic Watson who, prior to the pandemic, had been responsible for events in Newcastle and Harrogate. “The events I’ve hosted in the past, whether online or in real life, have always given audience members to connect with the featured writers. Bay Tales Live may be in a more formal setting but there will still be opportunities for people to meet the writers and get their books signed as well as to ask questions towards the end of each panel.”

After bringing hundreds of authors and readers together during the pandemic, Vic Watson and Simon Bewick would like them to connect in their hometown which also happens to be the setting for ITV’s smash hit TV show, Vera.

Local author Ann Cleeves, author of the Vera and Shetland series said: “I can’t wait to meet fellow readers and writers in Whitley Bay in February. I know it’ll be a brilliant day.”

Whitley Bay, a seaside town ten miles east of Newcastle, has seen significant investment and regeneration in recent years and the Bay Tales team are keen to raise the town’s profile by enticing crime fiction fans with a reasonably-priced day pass, leaving guests with plenty of money to spend while in the town.

Simon Bewick, who edited the NHS charity fund raising crime fiction anthology featuring Virtual Noir at the Bar authors, Noir from the Bar said: “We want to make this event truly affordable for everyone. At £30 for a full day festival featuring six panels and over twenty authors, we believe it’s the best value of its kind around.”

****

I don’t know about you, but I think this sounds an absolute cracker of an event and brilliant value for money. I’m hoping I’ll be able to pack up the motorhome and head there myself on Saturday 12th February 2022.

More information regarding the full line-up and where to buy tickets can be found on the Bay Tales website.

You can also follow Bay Tales on Twitter @bay_tales and find them on Facebook and Instagram.

It’s an absolute pleasure to welcome Scott Lothian to Linda’s Book Bag today. You see, Scott and I have been in touch with one another for almost three years but have never quite got our timing right! Today, however, we finally get the chance to stay in with one another to chat about Scott’s books.

Staying in with Scott Lothian

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

 Thank you for the opportunity, Linda. I am looking forward to our chat.

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

Today I brought my second novel, Deep Waters, which was published on August 2nd—the 76th anniversary of the heroic rescue of the surviving crew members of the USS Indianapolis. This is a story of a man’s life—from farm town quarterback to a crew member of the Indianapolis and on— and how he deals with a life not totally under his control. Deep Waters is very much a historical slice-of-life mystery—a combination of historical fiction with a good karma versus evil karma storyline that threads throughout and leads to the mystery-thriller ending. I am a Clinical Pharmacist by trade and I try to write character-centric stories incorporating history while using both to drive plot twists and turns.

Deep Waters sounds exactly my kind of read. I love character driven narratives. So, what can we expect from an evening in with Deep Waters?  

The reader should expect to find well-developed characters that they will love to love and some they may love to hate. Both of my books are filled with historical references related to the places and the times in each chapter, though I would not call them true historical fiction. Deep Waters is, in many ways, a hybrid novel of historical fiction with an odyssey-like life arc and a mystery-thriller ending. I believe this review sums it up well.

“Good Read – Interesting storyline with lots of twists! Great historical contexts – learned a lot. Very thrilling ending.” -5-stars (ChicagoShopper) 

You must be thrilled with that response. Deep Waters is appealing to me more and more as I also love books that don’t easily fit a genre. But tell me more about the characters. 

In Deep Waters, you get to know Jack (or Butch), a high school sophomore who is the varsity football quarterback and dating the head cheerleader, Candy. Life is good if he can avoid pissing off his father or getting beat up by his older brother. Then something happens that changes his life and he is forced to make his first big decision. I am very much a writer who holds to the contract of promise resolution, so any of Jack’s life decisions that may be second-guessed by the reader could have a different reality in the end.

Oo. Intriguing! And what about the timescale for Deep Waters?

The book takes place from 1945 through 2007 for reasons the reader will understand as they follow the story. The prologue starts in 2007 with the torture of a shipmate and friend of Jack’s, Chester, in an effort to find the rumored second atomic bomb on the Indianapolis and ends as two Knights Templar ships sail in opposite directions in the early morning hours of October 13, 1307. These two threads are the karma stories that twist around Jack’s odyssey and come together to create the “atomic” ending.

That’s some hook! What inspired you to write Deep Waters?

I was inspired to write this book by the story of the Indianapolis, amazed that this heroic story went mostly untold for decades. I thought about a “what if” scenario: what would the life of one of these men be like having survived this terrible tragedy and what if there was more to the story.

I pictured the life of a man who went through the tragedy of the sinking of the Indianapolis—four days in the water attacked by sharks and worn down by hunger, thirst and the elements. What was his life like? What if his life was filled with tragedy, hardship and disappointment? How would he handle these setbacks and how would it shape him as a man? What if there were evolving good and evil strands twisting around his life story that he had no control over, but could prove to be his ultimate undoing? I then built people around him to support his life paths and decisions.

Fascinating. And are all your characters fictional or are there elements of people you know?

This book especially has characters from my life. Jack’s family is in homage to my Janesville cousins. Also, I like to have fun with the names I use in my writing and you will find this true throughout this book. The Gardener, Marino Danielson, is named after my favorite quarterback (Dan Marino – sorry Peyton and Drew, but you are tied for #2). Chester “Gerbil” Best is named after a fraternity brother’s nickname (Gerbil) and my oldest son’s hamster (Chester). And there are many other names where the reader might catch some hidden meaning. Most every name in the book has a story, though it certainly may not be the same as the character experiences in the book.

As a Brit I might need to do a bit of further research there! I did watch a bit of American football and baseball on TV when I worked in New York but I hadn’t a clue what was going on!

In addition, as I was writing, I found that there are at least four Billy Joel song titles in the story. This was totally organic, but I may eventually have a contest to see if someone can find them all.

Ah! Now Billy Joel I do know!

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

Well, if we are chatting in the morning, it would certainly be over coffee and cinnamon rolls, since cinnamon rolls play a role in the book.

My Britishness comes out again here Scott. It has to be tea for me, not coffee!

If it were in the early evening, it would be with a cold beer or wine and chips with guacamole and salsa with a bit of a kick. I would hope this would create a comfortable down-to-earth mood for us both to converse, but I believe my books pair well with any drink from iced tea to a Manhattan. 🙂

I love a cocktail! I’ve really enjoyed hearing about Deep Waters, but how did you become a writer?

It is impossible to tell you how I came to be a writer without mentioning my first novel—so here we go. I do not remember being interested in creative writing in school, but must have come by the gene in my adulthood. The idea for my first novel, Perfect Posture, came to me during a slow, mystic windshield-wiper-driven trance-like commute home from the city. Not to date it outright, but the first chapters were written on a 286 computer. However, the book would go untouched for over a decade due to my ever-pressing duties as a loving husband and a grateful, proud father to three boys. Later in life, looking for a hobby, I started writing a somewhat-annual Christmas letter. I know what you are thinking, but these were more a comic report on what had gone wrong with the year, told with imperfect pictures and mocking commentary—very Onion-like. You will find humor throughout both books—ever lurking, but never smirking. Encouraged by many friends and my middle son, I took up the book again and ended up with a 200,000-word first novel that no agent in their right mind would even consider reading—oh, well.

I imagine they’d thing 200,000 words might need a bit of editing to be commercial!

I decided I was not going to strip the story of character development and other details just to get it read. I set out to write a murder mystery that was not Pulp Fiction or an extreme techno-thriller that showed only one speed and read like a superconductor manual. Instead, I wanted a classic evenly paced story somewhere in between. I wanted the reader to feel as if they were getting to know the characters, to care for them or to hate them as their actions might dictate. I aimed to create a palpable good versus evil tension in the reader much like that effected by Erik Larson’s classic Devil in the White City. I wanted to show a less sterile, technical or hectic side of a police investigation—a M*A*S*H-like attitude that is more true-to-life for people under constant stress than many realize. I had what I wanted in Perfect Posture and the review below really helped me understand that I may have more than a hobby here—though I am still writing for the fun more than anything else.

“Suspenseful book with great twists!! – Excellent read — and this is the author’s first book! Great fiction with Chicago area references — perfect for Baby Boomer generation. If I had the time, I never would have put it down — I love mysteries, and this one was well written with much character development. Looking forward to the author’s second book!” 5-stars (AH) 

I wrote my first novel as a hobby—for fun—and never truly thought it would come together as it did. For Deep Waters, I felt as if I had to write this novel and am very happy with the end result. Deep Waters—dedicated to the crew of the Indianapolis—may fill in some history for Perfect Posture readers, but is a totally standalone read.

I love that passion for writing you describe Scott. Thank you so much for staying in with me to chat about both Deep Waters and Perfect Posture. They sound highly intriguing.

Thank you, Linda. This has been fun and I appreciate you taking the time to chat.

My pleasure. Now, you make us a cocktail and I’ll tell readers a bit more about Deep Waters and Perfect Posture:

Deep Waters

What is a man’s life?

What does a man have control over as his life unfolds before and behind him?

Life starts us out with endless possible paths, then narrows our choices from paths that are desired to those that are often forced upon us.

Follow Jack as his life evolves from a high school football quarterback in Janesville, a small town in Wisconsin, to a crew member of the USS Indianapolis—the ship that delivered the nuclear bomb that helped end World War II and then suffered the worst open ocean disaster in U.S. naval history.

Watch how his life is entangled in questions of a possible second bomb on the Indianapolis and whether it leads to the nuclear destruction of a beloved American city or helps to bring to light a 700-year secret known only to the descendants of a lone Knight Templar on a remote Japanese island.

Follow the decisions Jack makes to survive and the paths he then has available to him as they narrow and lead him toward becoming a man he does not know. Find out if he will choose the right paths to survive a life not under his control.

Deep Waters is available for purchase on Amazon.

Perfect Posture

Perfect Posture aims to create a palpable good versus evil tension in the reader much like that effected by Erik Larson’s classic Devil in the White City.

A dead girl, clutching a stuffed toy elephant covered in political buttons, is found posed on a luggage carousel at O’Hare Airport. Chicago, oblivious to the evil that has gripped the city for the past two months, believes they have discovered the first victim of the errantly named “Patriotic Killer.” Only Lieutenant Jonathan Dearfield knows the truth: He must solve this case before the unimaginable happens.

Perfect Posture takes readers inside the mind of a killer, while chronicling the lives of those committed to stopping the escalating carnage. This book is rich with Chicago area history, and filled with personalities and relationships—both dark and occasionally comical—that readers will grow to love or hate as they follow the non-stop action to a twisting catastrophic end.

Perfect Posture is available for purchase here.

About Scott Lothian

Scott Lothian is a clinical pharmacist and lives in the Chicagoland area with his family. He has practiced for over 40 years concentrating in solid organ transplant, oncology and pain management, but for the past decade has been on the clinical IT side of healthcare.

He has two published novels to date: Perfect Posture and Deep Waters. He writes character-centric stories incorporating history while using both to drive plot twists and turns. The reader will always find characters who they will love to love or love to hate as well as a mix of levity and interesting history as the book spins to its exciting conclusion.

For more information, follow Scott on Twitter @ScottLothianBks, and find him on Facebook and Goodreads.

Having thoroughly enjoyed The Thursday Murder Club, my review of which you’ll find here, I was delighted to be asked to join the blog tour for Richard Osman’s second book in the series, The Man Who Died Twice. My thanks to Ellie Hudson at Penguin for inviting me to participate and for sending me a copy of The Man Who Died Twice in return for an honest review.

Published by Penguin imprint Viking on 16th September 2021, The Man Who Died Twice is available for purchase through these links.

The Man Who Died Twice

It’s the following Thursday.

Elizabeth has received a letter from an old colleague, a man with whom she has a long history. He’s made a big mistake, and he needs her help. His story involves stolen diamonds, a violent mobster, and a very real threat to his life.

As bodies start piling up, Elizabeth enlists Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron in the hunt for a ruthless murderer. And if they find the diamonds too? Well, wouldn’t that be a bonus?

But this time they are up against an enemy who wouldn’t bat an eyelid at knocking off four septuagenarians. Can the Thursday Murder Club find the killer (and the diamonds) before the killer finds them?

My Review of The Man Who Died Twice

The Thursday Murder Club team have a new case.

Having thoroughly enjoyed Richard Osman’s the Thursday Murder Club I was interested to see if I’d enjoy The Man Who Died Twice as much. I didn’t. I enjoyed it much, much more. In The Man Who Died Twice, characters and setting are established (although it doesn’t matter a bit if readers haven’t read the first book in the series) and feel both familiar and much loved. Richard Osman seems to have honed his narrative art, and I found The Man Who Died Twice more coherent, more engaging and brilliant fun.

Richard Osman has a keen eye for human observation and his varied sentence structure, his witty dialogue and his ability to stop his readers in their tracks with an emotional or humorous detail – almost in passing and often dealing with the prosaic – worked perfectly for me. I laughed aloud on several occasions and there were a couple of times when I shed a tear too. There’s a well-balanced visual aspect to the writing so that readers have sufficient detail to picture the scene without slowing the tempo of the story that enhances the reading experience.

Indeed, the plot absolutely romps along with a breathless pace and ridiculously clever storytelling. With Joyce’s first person accounts keeping the reader up to date, Elizabeth is often the driving force of the action, but ironically it is Ibrahim, who features less in this narrative than in the previous book, who is the catalyst for many events. Obviously I don’t want to spoil the story for others, but I found this aspect of The Man Who Died Twice a touching element. I absolutely love the fact that the majority of the people in The Man Who Died Twice are mature or old but that they are not patronised or stereotyped by the author. Rather, Richard Osman illustrates that life is what you make it regardless of years and that being of retirement age does not mean we need to retire form life and vitality.

I thought the title was inspired as it applies to more than one character in the book, but again, it’s so difficult to say why without spoilers. Themes too, are difficult to review without giving too much away so I’ll just say that woven into a hugely engaging story are some incredibly perceptive insights into morality, loyalty, friendship, love, relationships and family so that whilst being light hearted fun – in spite of all the murders – The Man Who Died Twice has smashing depth and provides the reader with food for thought.

I absolutely loved reading The Man Who Died Twice because it’s witty, tender and entertaining. Also, I’m off to knit a friendship bracelet as I’m really rather hoping I might bump in to Bogdan in person before too long!

About Richard Osman

Richard Osman is an author, producer and television presenter. Hid s first novel The Thursday Murder Club became an international best seller.  He is well known for TV shows including Pointless and Richard Osman’s House of Games. As the creative director of Endemol UK, Richard has worked as an executive producer on numerous shows including Deal Or No Deal and 8 Out of 10 Cats. He is also a regular on panel and game shows such as Have I Got News For You, Would I Lie To You and Taskmaster.

You can follow Richard Osman on Twitter @richardosman and Instagram. There’s more with these other bloggers:

Source

It’s a real pleasure to welcome Rosemary Johnston to Linda’s Book Bag today as the book Rosemary has brought along to discuss as we stay in together sounds exactly my kind of read. Let’s find out more:

Staying in with Rosemary Johnston

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

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

I have brought along my debut novella Source. It is about a woman, Kate, who returns to the west of Ireland with her teenage daughter Lavinia. She has come to clear out the family farm after the death of her parents. She isn’t really interested in anything that has been left behind at the farm except her father’s dictionary. The next day, she bumps into an old boyfriend, Brian, and together they discuss what has become of their lives and the reasons why Kate left to go and live in England. But it is also a book about migration and how, when we leave, we take our language with us, and as we migrate and change, so do words. But something of our original lives, or the meaning of the original words remains behind.

It sounds brilliant. What can we expect from an evening in with Source?

I suppose you’d call it literary fiction. But it is also a novella so it is quite short, only 12,000 words. You could read it all in one evening. It’s quite an emotional read, maybe a bit dark at times. There were parts of it that made me cry when I was writing it! I couldn’t believe the things the characters were saying to each other! But it has an uplifting ending.

I love a book where I can have a good cry Rosemary. What else will I find between the pages of Source?

It’s also quite thought-provoking, I think, in the parts of the book that about words and their etymologies. But it isn’t a difficult book to read. Because the main character, Kate, is interested in words, and what you can learn about the history of a word from the information contained in dictionaries, I decided to try and let her create a little sub story using only Viking words. When I started looking into it, it is amazing how many there are still in everyday use. But I finish the book with three Viking words which I think have a beautiful sound and I think if those words were spoken by someone from the north of Scotland, they’d sound just the same today as they sounded when spoken by the Vikings 1000 years ago. Those three words have also a very beautiful meaning. But if you want to know what those words are, you need to buy the book and read it to the end!

I think we certainly do. Source sounds so fascinating. I love the concept of words themselves being part of the story, not just the vehicle for telling it.

I like to think of this book like a song, something you could sing, or that sings to you. Like one of those evenings of singing and story telling with something to drink to make it all flow better.

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

I’ve brought along a bottle of wine, a Pouilly Fumé, because it is referred to in the book, but it is a nice wine too. And will no doubt help with conversation. The craic, as they say! I’ve also got some music, Van Morrison and Bruce Springsteen. Very atmospheric.

Well quite! And what’s that you’ve got?

It’s an extract from Source.

An Extract from Source

“Keep that book,” said Kate.

“What is it?” asked Lavinia.

“Poetry. Patrick Kavanagh.”

“Did granny like poetry?”

“No, she never read anything. It was your granddad’s book. There’s a dictionary somewhere. Keep that as well.”

Kate took the book from her fair haired, freckled daughter. She looked through its thick, mildewed pages for the poem that had been her first introduction to grown up poetry, many years ago. She could almost see her younger self, sitting cross legged and hesitant in front of the bookcase, not sure if it was permitted or not, to read grown up poetry.

Her father had found her there and asked what she was reading.

“Ah!” he said “Kavanagh! Great choice.”

And he opened the book and started to read:

“On Raglan Road on an autumn day I met her first and knew

That her dark hair would weave a snare that I might one day rue.”

He gave her back the book and said “We should pay more heed to the poets.”

At the time Kate had taken it as a general piece of advice.

“He liked poetry and history and languages,” Kate said. “The things he loved I came to love.”

“How did they meet?” asked Lavinia.

“He came to Connemara on the back of his friend’s motor bike. It was to the wedding of a cousin of his friend. Granny was there. Love at first sight. He wooed her with the poetry and all that.”

“Is this what you wanted?” asked Lavinia, handing an old book to Kate.

“Yes, that’s it. It’s his dictionary.”

Despite Kate’s claim that the objects in the house would provoke no sentiment, holding the dictionary filled her with that empty feeling that loss could fire at you; clearly the person who had made use of the book was no longer here to do so.

“It’s very precious.”

“That old thing?” Lavinia held her hand across her mouth. “That smell. It’s making me gag.”

“You don’t need to be so dramatic about it,” said Kate, smelling the book. But it was true, the book was musty, as if all the old words had gone off a bit, unused and trapped inside. Let us out! they might whisper. And the words in it might well be the key to unlocking the past. But the odour the trapped words gave off seemed to hold within it an accusation that it was the past itself that was tainted, no matter which words were chosen to describe it. Kate set the book down.

****

I’m intrigued Rosemary. Thanks so much for staying in with me to chat about Source. You pour yourself a glass of wine and turn up Bruce and I’ll give blog readers a few more Source details:

Source

Kate and her teenage daughter return to Ireland to sort through what is left of the family farm. But in doing so, Kate is brought to all the reasons she left many years ago. She can find no attachment to the objects of her past until she comes across her father’s dictionary.

Can words be the way for her to unlock the past? Can they help pave the way towards reconciliation? Can they help us understand ourselves?

Source is a book about beginnings and homeland and the words that accompany us on our journey.

Source is available in all the usual places including directly from the publisher here.

About Rosemary Johnston

Rosemary Johnston grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland and lives in North Yorkshire with her family. She has written for adults and children, and regularly writes articles on poetry, language and history. Her plays have been produced at the Gateway Theatre in Chester and she has completed a debut novel The Children of Angels’ Eyrie. She is an editor of Vixen Magazine.

You can follow Rosemary on Twitter @angelseyrie1901.

Like many others, I’ve been a bit miserable in recent times and when a surprise copy of A Poet for Every Day of the Year edited by Allie Esiri turned up in surprise book post from the lovely Hannah Bright at Midas PR, I was thrilled and actually quite emotional. My enormous thanks to Hannah for sending me a copy. I’m delighted to share a review of A Poet for Every Day of the Year today.

Published by Pan Macmillan in hardback tomorrow, 30th September 2021 A Poet for Every Day of the Year is available for purchase through the links here.

A Poet for Every Day of the Year

Allie Esiri’s beautiful gift anthology, A Poet for Every Day of the Year, is the perfect introduction to 366 of the world’s greatest ever verse writers.

Perfect for reading aloud and sharing with all the family, it is bursting at the seams with familiar favourites and exciting new discoveries. Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, Christina Rossetti and Emily Bronte sit alongside Roger McGough, Wendy Cope, Imtiaz Dharker, Leonard Cohen, Sylvia Plath and Ocean Vuong.

Each of the 366 poems features a small introduction that gives a sense of who the writer was, and not just the greatness of their work. Some offer insightful biographical details or key historical context, while others may provide quirky, humorous anecdotes.

The day-to-day format of the anthology invites readers to make poetry a part of their daily routine, and makes sure that they discover something inspirational, life affirming, provocative, moving or entertaining each and every day.

My Review of A Poet for Every Day of the Year

366 poets and poems.

I could not love A Poet for Every Day of the Year more. I confess I haven’t read the whole book yet as I am savouring the dated poems and poets each night so that this is a gift of a book that will last me the entire year. However, the format is the same for every day and includes an insightful and accessible potted history of the poet, with reference to social, historical and biographical detail that stirs such an interest in the reader that A Poet for Every Day of the Year provides even more entertainment by acting as a catalyst for further reading and research. For example, when I opened my copy on the day I received it, the poet was John Clare who just happens to have lived three miles from where I am, but there are other poets I’m much less familiar with so I have an introduction that can lead me to discovering more of their work. This adds to the significance and joy in reading A Poet for Every Day of the Year.

The Contents of A Poet for Every Day of the Year list the poem and poet for each calendar day although I prefer not to look at that properly until next year when I’ve enjoyed a daily surprise from the book.  With poets from Angelou to Wordsworth there really is something for any and every reader. One of the absolute pleasures here is the attention to more marginalised poets such as those from the LGBTQIA+ community so that A Poet for Every Day of the Year feels inclusive and engaging.

Allie Esiri’s introduction zings with passion for poetry and reading it is a true pleasure. I don’t want to spoil the discovery for others but she raises some interesting questions about context and the balance between poet and poem in the reader’s consideration that had me thinking when I wasn’t dipping in to the poems.

I also had fun with the index of first lines at the end of A Poet for Every Day of the Year, reading them aloud like performance poetry and seeing if they would work as found poems in their own right! This anthology has so much to offer and every time I think about it next to the bed ready for me to read last thing at night it brings happiness and a smile to my face.

A Poet for Every Day of the Year is utterly wonderful and an absolute must for any lover of poetry, of words, of people. It’s also a perfect gift for any reader at any time of the year. It feels sumptuous, substantial and captivating. I loved it unreservedly and it’s one of my books of the year because it brings human connection and joy to the reader. What could be better than that?

About Allie Esiri

Allie Esiri, who read Modern and Medieval Languages at Cambridge University, is an accomplished curator and host of live poetry events at The National Theatre, The Bridge Theatre, and at Hay, Oxford, Bath and Cheltenham literary festivals. Her anthology A Poem for Every Day of the Year was in the best books of the year list in The Times and the Observer and the audiobook is read by Helena Bonham Carter and Simon Russell Beale. Her anthology, A Poem for Every Night of the Year was a best book of the year in The Times and the New Statesman and won the IBW 2017 book award.

You can follow Allie on Twitter @AllieEsiri and find her on Instagram. There’s more information on Allie’s website too.

My enormous thanks to Tina Mories at Harper Collins for sending me a surprise copy of the children’s book Dogs in Disguise by Peter Bently and John Bond in return for an honest review.

I’ve previously reviewed another of John Bond’s children’s books – Mini Rabbit Come Home –  here on Linda’s Book Bag.

Published by Harper Collins Children’s Books on 16th September 2021 Dogs in Disguise is available for purchase through the links here where you’ll also find an audio sample.

Dogs in Disguise

An exciting new collaboration between the Roald Dahl Funny Prize-winning author Peter Bently and the incredibly talented illustrator John Bond!

Dogs come in all kinds of colours and sizes
But when no one’s looking they put on DISGUISES.

A joyful peek into the crazy antics of all sorts of dogs in disguise! Dressing up in clothing they find at home, these adventurous pooches blend into the crowd at all the places dogs aren’t allowed, like the store, the cinema and the swimming pool! But, not all of their disguises go quite to plan, with hilarious results . . .

From schnauzers in trousers to cosmonaut cockapoos, this jaunty rhyming text from hugely popular, award-winning author, Peter Bently, with brilliantly witty illustrations from John Bond, creator of the Mini Rabbit books, will have children howling with laughter!

My Review of Dogs in Disguise

You might think you know dogs, but they could be in disguise right under your nose.

Now, I’m at least 55 years older than the intended audience for Dogs in Disguise and a cat lover but I adored this book. Firstly, it has a thick, robust cover that will withstand many readings – both in the home and in other early years settings – that makes it feel high quality. The end papers are vibrant and colourful and there’s a richness to the colours used throughout that would make group use very easy because the images are strong and captivating. Indeed, the illustrations are an absolute delight to readers of any age. They bring a real smile to the face and I can imagine young children laughing with joy at some of the dogs’ antics, especially when Barney disguises himself as a tree!

The language is accessible and funny with lots of jokes that will appeal to small children (and adults!) so that Dogs in Disguise is engaging and entertaining. I do have my usual small criticism in children’s books that I prefer not to have words entirely in upper case letters in the middle of sentences, as I prefer to model expected use more conventionally. However, the language is fantastic for language learning. There’s a natural rhythm to the writing that makes the book easy to read aloud with a smashing rhyme scheme that increases vocabulary and means the book can also be used as a game as non-reading children guess the word to rhyme with the previous one. Some have full rhyme like ‘big’ and ‘wig’, but on other occasions the rhymes are homophones for example, so that Dogs in Disguise could be a brilliant tool for teaching developing writing.

In fact, there are many ways Dogs in Disguise can enhance home and classroom settings. Young children might take on role play for some of the situations included in Dogs in Disguise so that they develop interactive skills and imagination. The different activities the dogs get up to could easily lead to classroom discussions about hobbies; the various breeds of dogs might lead to children speaking about their own pets and thereby developing oracy skills or research skills as they find out more about each breed and so on. Numeracy might come through counting the different dogs or bones in the end papers perhaps.

But if all that sounds quite worthy, the real success of Dogs in Disguise is that it is an absolute joy. It might offer all manner of educational uses, but most of all this children’s book is witty and vibrant, arrestingly and charmingly illustrated, and enormous fun to read. I loved it!

About Peter Bently

Peter studied languages at Oxford University, England, and lives in Devon with his wife Lucy and their two children. After a career as a non-fiction editor, he turned to writing for children soon after the birth of his son Theo. Egmont published his very first children’s book, the bestselling A Lark in the Ark, which was shortlisted for the Red House award and the inaugural BookTrust Book of the Year awards.

Peter also wrote King Jack and the Dragon, which was shortlisted for the Kate Greenway Medal and selected as one of the American Library Association’s Notable Books of the year. Among his other titles, the hilarious The Great Dog Bottom Swap was shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, which he won in 2011 with Cats Ahoy!

You’ll find more information on Peter’s website and you can follow him on Twitter @PeterBently and Instagram.

About John Bond

John Bond is an illustrator, author and artist. He grew up on a farm in the Cotswolds and went on to study a degree in Illustration at Kingston University, London. He now lives and works in Worthing on the south coast. His studio is based at Colonnade House.

With a background in animation and digital media, he spent 7 years working at an award winning creative agency – designing and directing a multitude of projects for broadcast, digital, and interactive content.

He now works independently as an illustrator and artist, balancing commercial jobs with self initiated projects alongside running his own online store. Bond’s work has been exhibited in galleries worldwide and he has spoken at industry events such as Pictoplasma, Glug and Pecha Kucha.

For more information, visit John’s website, follow him on Twitter @iamjohnbond and Instagram or find him on Facebook.