Saint Justice by Mike Grist

Today I'm helping to close off the blog tour for Saint Justice, the first in the Christopher Wren series, by Mike Grist. It's a brutal, action packed, adrenaline ride! My thanks to Emma Welton at damppebbles blog tours for the invitation and to the author for my review copy. 

The Blurb:

Hundreds of human cages hidden in the desert. One man with nothing to lose.

Christopher Wren pulls off I-70 after three weeks on the road and walks into a biker bar in Price, Utah. An arbitrary decision he's about to regret.

The bikers attack Wren, leave him for dead and steal his truck.

Now he's going to get it back.

From a secure warehouse in the desert. Ringed with fences. Filled with human cages.

As Wren digs deeper, a dark national conspiracy unravels and the body count mounts, but one thing is for sure.

They picked the wrong guy to teach a lesson.

Saint Justice was published in paperback, audio and digital formats on 10th June 2019.


Purchase Links:

Amazon UK 
Amazon US 
Audible 

My Review:

When ex-CIA rogue Christopher Wren goes to steal back his truck from a biker gang, he finds more than he bargained for. In the huge warehouse he finds row upon row of empty cages, each one just big enough to hold a person. Then he discovers that homeless people are going missing from the streets of Chicago. And that is just the beginning... He soon has to call on both his own Foundation and his ex-employers.

I am a little conflicted about Wren but intrigued at the same time. He devotes his life to destroying cults and gangs but has his own Foundation, which seems to be a cross between the AA and a cult itself. The members are all ex criminals and the Foundation generally keeps them on the straight and narrow  but Wren still calls on themto break the law from time to time  in order to help him out. But it is always for the greater good. Wren is a sad man, haunted by demons and we learn a little bit about those as the book progresses. And they are not pretty. 

This is not always an easy read. There are some brutal moments and some really shocking ones too. There is plenty of violence and plenty of bloodshed. Grist does not pull any punches with his writing. But it is an exciting, page turning thriller as Wren uncovers more and more and races to destroy the evil he's up against. The denouement is exciting, violent and bloody, and the reveal shocking. This was a pulse quickening read from beginning to end and I look forward to finding out more about Wren in future books. 

The Author:

Mike Grist is the British/American author of the Christopher Wren thriller series. For 11 years Mike lived in Tokyo, Japan, exploring and photographing the dark side of the city and the country: gangs, cults and abandoned places. Now he writes from London, UK, about rogue DELTA operator Christopher Wren - an anti-hero vigilante who uses his off-book team of ex-cons to bring brutal payback for dark crimes.


Author Social Media Links:

Twitter  
Facebook 
Website: 

The Library Murders by MR Mackenzie - Q&A with main character Alyssa Clark!

Well the blog tour for MR Mackenzie's The Library Murders may have come to an end but I have an extra treat for you today - an interview with the girl herself, main character Alyssa Clark. And boy, she's not shy about expressing herself! Alyssa is the second of Mackenzie's women (characters, that is!) that I've interviewed - you can read my interview with Dr Anna Scavolini (from In The Silence) here - and neither of them have given me an easy time! 

Firstly, in case you missed my post at the weekend, here's what The Library Murders is all about:

The Blurb:

Alyssa Clark is about to find out that reading really can be murder.

She thought her new job in Thornhill Library would be safe and uneventful. Boring, even. But on her first day at work, a masked gunman storms into the building and blows away every member of staff on duty. Alyssa barely escapes with her life.

The police are satisfied they’ve got their man, but Davy, Alyssa’s colleague and the only other survivor of the massacre, is convinced the real killer is still at large. Alyssa – trying to move on with her life while dealing with traumatic flashbacks and the unwanted advances of an obsessive ex – is sceptical. However, when she stumbles across damning evidence of a cover-up, she agrees to join forces with Davy to help track down the real culprit.

But in her pursuit of the truth, will she find the closure she desperately craves… or provoke the wrath of a killer with unfinished business on his mind?

And do check out my Review.  

And now on to the main event! Just a wee word of warning, Alyssa's language is quite colourful!


Character Interview - Alyssa Clark 

Hi Alyssa, welcome to Suze Reviews and thank you for agreeing to talk to me. I wasn't sure that you would because I read that you weren't very happy with your interview with the Tribune?

Yeah, well, I said I’d give you ten minutes… but I’ll tell ya right now, my dude, if you’re gonna start asking me a bunch of pseudo-psychological mumbo-jumbo about what happened to me – y’know, trying to peer into my soul – then I’ll be out that door before you can say “holy shitballs”.

We can all hear that you're not a native Glaswegian and you're keen to point out that you are not American. So tell us a bit about where you come from.

I mean, I’d rather not, if it’s all the same. I’d only bore both of us into an early grave by talking about it. Let’s just say Littlehaven is the sort of teeny-tiny little town where everyone is someone else’s cousin and where the best future I could look forward to was a lifetime of waiting tables at my folks’ bar. Plus, I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Saskatchewan, but the winters there make the ones in Glasgow seem positively tropical.

And of all the places you could have gone, how did you end up working in a library in sunny Glasgow? 

(Bares teeth) You’re funny. I like you. But seriously, though, it was all about getting as far away from home as possible. And then I found out about the whole ancestry visa thing – cos obviously it makes total sense that I’m automatically entitled to a visa just cos one of my ancestors came over in a dinghy to escape the Highland Clearances or whatever – like, that’s completely not racist at all. But it worked out in my favour so I wasn’t gonna complain about getting to jump the queue, was I? And hey – I was hardly gonna complain about being able to park a whole fricking ocean between myself and the Boomers, now was I?

As for the whole library thing – well, let’s just say I needed to find gainful employment fast or else I’d find myself on a one-way plane back to Saskatchewan, the job came up and I somehow managed to dupe the interview panel into thinking I had something to offer the world of books. Hey – it’s their funeral.

You've got some impressive tattoos there on your arms.. So you want to tell us about them? And are there any that we can't see that you want to tell us about?

There’s not much to tell, really. I know you’re trying to read all sorts of into each and every ink swirl – like, does this one refer to the death of a beloved family pet? Does that one mean I’ve got daddy issues? But the reality is, I just think they look neat. And it’s a way of taking ownership of my own body, y’know? Like, changing it into something new and original ’stead of just accepting what nature gave me. As for ones you can’t see, are you some sort of perv?

OK, moving swiftly on. You're a bit of a video game whizz, aren't you? Is that how you relax? I think your game of choice is Super Smash Bros. What's your high score?

Eh, it’s a cool game, I s’pose, but to be honest my friends enjoy it a bunch more than I do. Great for couch co-op, but to be honest there’s only so much candy-coloured platforms and kerpow-splat sound effects I can take. If I really wanna work off some tension, I’ll fire up the Xbox and play some Left 4 Dead. Nothing quite beats blowing holes in zombie skulls to wind down after a hard day’s work.

You work in a library but are you a reader? What reading material is on your bedside table?

Just between us, before I started working at Thornhill Library, I hadn’t cracked a book since finishing high school. I’ve just never been much of a reader, y’know? ’Cept graphic novels. Those I can get into. Guess it’s cos there’s pictures ‘n’ shit ’stead of just walls of text. Heh, you probably think that’s dead low brow, but you’d be surprised. A lot of them deal with some heavy, heavy themes. Like, Transmetropolitan? Came out in 1997; totally predicted half the shit that’s going down in America right now.

It's fair to say you had a traumatic first day at work in Thornhill Library. How did ' The Event' affect you?

It didn’t. Not at all. I wish people would stop making out it’s some sort of a big deal. It’s just something that happened. I got shot. I lived. The others didn’t. End of. Next question.

I felt you went on a bit of a personal journey (sorry!) after The Event . Would you agree with that?

If, by “personal journey”, you mean that people won’t stop asking me what it was like and how it affected me mentally, physically and spiritually, then yeah, sure, one hundred percent. You know I’ve actually had people ask me if my life flashed before my eyes? I mean, how fricking clichéd can you get? But no, I don’t think I went on a personal journey. I’m exactly the same person as I was before that fruit loop pointed his gun in my face and opened fire – ’cept with a hole in the side of my head.

If The Library Murders was made into a film, who would play you? And what about Davy, Metcalfe and Tony Barbarossa?

Oh man, don’t even. A film about me? That’s like my worst nightmare. Knowing my luck, they’d cast some bottle-blonde LA floozy as me, die her hair black, paint some fake tattoos on her and call that doing me justice. Plus they’d rewrite what happened to make me all weepy and fragile and emotional, and give me a happy ending where I face my inner demons and find true love or whatever. If they wanna make a film about it, they can damn well write me out of it. Give the starring role to Davy instead. He’d love it. Fact, he’d probably wanna play himself – and to be honest he probably should. I can’t think of anyone else who’s annoying enough to capture his essence.

And Barbarossa? Man’s a fricking force of nature. I doubt there’s anyone in Hollywood who’d even come close to matching his presence. Or who’s tall enough. I mean, have you ever looked up actors’ heights on IMDB or whatever? They’re all midgets! Sorry – little people. Seriously, I reckon they’d have to do all that “forced perspective” shit they did in the Lord of the Rings films. That, or cast a bunch of dwarfs to play everyone else.

And a couple of fun (I hope) questions to finish on.

You're on a desert island. You can take one essential item, one luxury item and one book. What would they be?

Essential item: my computer (and a fibre optic broadband connection)

Luxury item: like, I probably shouldn’t be saying this, but probably a really good vibrator, to make up for all the sex I won’t be having while I’m stranded

Book: why, The Library Murders, of course. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

And finally, what would your spirit animal be?

Guess I’m gonna have to be honest and say a porcupine.

Actually, one extra question - is there anything you expected me to ask but I didn't? And what is the answer?

I’m amazed you got through the whole interview without asking me if my life flashed before my eyes when… you know. And it’s a good thing thing you didn’t, cos my answer would’ve got us both thrown off the internet.

Thanks so much, Alyssa, for dropping by. I hope this wasn't too awful and cringy for you, but I really think it's helped us to get to know you better. Thank you.

No, thank you. Makes a change from stamping books and helping bozos reset their email passwords.

Well, reader, I hope that gives you a feel for Alyssa and it has intrigued you enough to have a wee peak at the book. You can purchase from: 

eBook (Amazon)

Paperback (Amazon)
Signed paperback (via Gumroad)

And finally, the man behind it all!

The Author: 

MR Mackenzie (centre) on stage at Bloody Scotland 2019 with fellow authors Gordon Brown & Allan Martin

MR Mackenzie was born and lives in Glasgow, Scotland. He studied at Glasgow University and has an MA in English and a PhD in Film Studies.

In addition to writing, he works as a Blu-ray/DVD producer and has overseen releases of films by a number of acclaimed directors, among them Dario Argento, Joe Dante, Hideo Nakata and Jacques Tourneur. Writing as Michael Mackenzie, he has contributed chapters to books on cult cinema and regularly provides video essays and liner notes for new releases of celebrated films. He used to work in a library, before leaving to spend more time with books.

In 2019, his first novel, In the Silence, was shortlisted for the Bloody Scotland Scottish Crime Debut of the Year and longlisted for the McIlvanney Prize.

The Library Murders by MR Mackenzie

Author MR Mackenzie has taken a break from his Anna Scavolini series to write this standalone Glasgow-set crime novel, and I'm delighted to share my review for the blog tour. Huge thanks to Heather Fitt at Overview Media for the invitation and to the author for my review copy.

The Blurb:

‘An immersive slow burn, peppered with disquieting fire-crackers of revelation.’ – Morgan Cry

Alyssa Clark is about to find out that reading really can be murder.

She thought her new job in Thornhill Library would be safe and uneventful. Boring, even. But on her first day at work, a masked gunman storms into the building and blows away every member of staff on duty. Alyssa barely escapes with her life.

The police are satisfied they’ve got their man, but Davy, Alyssa’s colleague and the only other survivor of the massacre, is convinced the real killer is still at large. Alyssa – trying to move on with her life while dealing with traumatic flashbacks and the unwanted advances of an obsessive ex – is sceptical. However, when she stumbles across damning evidence of a cover-up, she agrees to join forces with Davy to help track down the real culprit.

But in her pursuit of the truth, will she find the closure she desperately craves… or provoke the wrath of a killer with unfinished business on his mind?

If you like twists, turns and compelling, conflicted characters, you’ll love this gripping new mystery from the McIlvanney Prize-nominated author of In the Silence.

The Library Murders was published by Mad House on 20th August 2020.

Buy Links: 

eBook (Amazon)
Paperback (Amazon)
Signed paperback (via Gumroad)

My Review:

I was lucky enough to get an early read of this and knew then it was a winner. A recent re-read confirmed that, and the few changes that have been made have only improved it. This is a standalone which sees Mackenzie taking a break from his Anna Scavolini series (see my review of McIlvanney Prize longlisted In The Silence here) but for Anna fans she makes the briefest blink-and-you-miss-it cameo here, and will be back properly in Mackenzie's next book, The Shadow Men. The Library Murders sounds like it should be a cosy mystery and there are elements of that here - the amateur sleuth and sidekick, the library setting - but it doesn't read as cosy crime, which for my personal taste is a good thing.

Alyssa Clark, a young Canadian living in Glasgow, turns up late and hungover for her first shift at Thornhill Library. Fifteen minutes after she arrives a gunman enters the library and shoots all the members of staff, Alyssa included. She survives, and together with colleague Davy, seeks the truth behind the event, convinced that the police are looking in the wrong direction. 

Alyssa is not an easy woman to like! She's prickly, brash, abrupt and selfish. But 'The Event' helps her look at things a little differently as she struggles with previously absent anxiety and paranoia in the aftermath of the shooting. We also learn where much of her anger and guilt come from later in the book. But whilst she's not easy to like, at least initially, she is a fabulously written character. Mackenzie seemingly writes young women (see also Anna and Zoe in previous books) with such ease it's slightly alarming! 😂 Alyssa comes across as completely authentic, beautifully drawn and described. The author has had some fun with her dialogue too, a favourite of mine being 'my dude'. She goes on a bit of a journey (sorry!) in this book, and by the end of it she was someone I'd happily go for a beer with. 

But Alyssa is not the only player here. There is a cast of colourful characters here, mainly, but certainly not all, library employees and customers. All different, individual but all rounded and whole. Davy and Metcalfe deserve a mention as does Benny, the latter being a more minor character but one who really stood out for me. Mackenzie has clearly enjoyed himself creating these characters with one or two being larger than life, but we'll all recognise someone we've known, lived next door to, worked with or whatever amongst them. The dialogue between them all is fantastic - lots of Glasgow banter and slang here, all very natural. 

As I hinted earlier the story is not cosy. The after effects of the opening incident for Alyssa are vividly described, as are the murders themselves. As in every good mystery there are a few red herrings and dead ends and the whole story is shot through with a wry humour. Mackenzie's writing is beautiful, almost lyrical in places, although my personal highlight is a little more low brow! 😂 He contracts 'For f**k's sake' into 'F**ksake' and then uses it as a verb which I just loved! Genius! But believe me when I say the writing is superb. 

The Library Murders is a joy to read - an intelligent, often humorous, well crafted crime thriller which will keep you turning the pages. And it touches on some serious issues such as loneliness, anxiety and guilt. But murder, blood and shattered glasses aside, it's a bit of a love letter to libraries and librarians, which given that the author was one himself until recently perhaps shouldn't come as a surprise. And we all need reminded of the importance of libraries. This book comes highly recommended - go get it! 

The Author: 

MR Mackenzie was born and lives in Glasgow, Scotland. He studied at Glasgow University and has an MA in English and a PhD in Film Studies.

In addition to writing, he works as a Blu-ray/DVD producer and has overseen releases of films by a number of acclaimed directors, among them Dario Argento, Joe Dante, Hideo Nakata and Jacques Tourneur. Writing as Michael Mackenzie, he has contributed chapters to books on cult cinema and regularly provides video essays and liner notes for new releases of celebrated films. He used to work in a library, before leaving to spend more time with books.

In 2019, his first novel, In the Silence, was shortlisted for the Bloody Scotland Scottish Crime Debut of the Year and longlisted for the McIlvanney Prize.

'With well observed characterisation, MR Mackenzie writes with precision and passion. He is a writer to watch.' — Caro Ramsay, author of the Anderson & Costello thrillers

'Mackenzie brings a fresh new voice to the field of Tartan Noir.' — James Oswald, author of the Inspector McLean novels

'MR Mackenzie is right up there with the best contemporary authors working today. His prose is of such high-quality that I am instantly addicted to the words on his pages.' — David B. Lyons, author of Whatever Happened to Betsy Blake?

'This is splendidly written stuff, triumphing in a variety of areas – not least that of its dialogue, which is idiomatic and vivid (overcoming the hurdle at which many contemporary crime novels fall).' — Barry Forshaw, Crime Time

Author Social Media Links: 

Website 
Facebook 

Twitter

Instagram

Goodreads

Little Falls by Elizabeth Lewes

Today is my stop on the blog tour for Little Falls, the raw, powerful debut novel by Elizabeth Lewes. My thanks to Emma Welton at damppebbles blog tours for inviting me onto the tour and to the publisher for my review copy. 

The Blurb:

She tried to forget the horrors of war – but her quiet hometown conceals a litany of new evils.

Sergeant Camille Waresch did everything she could to forget Iraq. She went home to Eastern Washington and got a quiet job. She connected with her daughter, Sophie, whom she had left as a baby. She got sober. But the ghosts of her past were never far behind.

While conducting a routine property tax inspection on an isolated ranch, Camille discovers a teenager’s tortured corpse hanging in a dilapidated outbuilding. In a flash, her combat-related PTSD resurges – and in her dreams, the hanging boy merges with a young soldier whose eerily similar death still haunts her. The case hits home when Sophie reveals that the victim was her ex-boyfriend – and as Camille investigates, she uncovers a tangled trail that leads to his jealous younger brother and her own daughter, wild, defiant, and ensnared.

The closer Camille gets to the truth, the closer she is driven to the edge. Her home is broken into. Her truck is blown up. Evidence and witnesses she remembers clearly are erased. And when Sophie disappears, Camille’s hunt for justice becomes a hunt for her child. At a remote compound where the terrifying truth is finally revealed, Camille has one last chance to save her daughter – and redeem her own shattered soul.

Little Falls was published by Crooked Lane Books in hardcover, audio and digital formats on 11th August 2020.


Purchase Links:

Amazon US 
Amazon UK 
Google Books 
Book Depository 
Barnes and Noble 

My Review:

Woah! I was left thinking about this intense, hard hitting story long after I finished it, Camille herself particularly. 

An army veteran and single mother, Camille Waresch now works for the County Assessor's Office making tax inspection visits to properties in the district. On a routine call one day she discovers a young man hanging dead in a barn. And that brings back a traumatic event that took place whilst she was in the army which has never really left her. Asked to make notes for the medical examiner at the current crime scene she learns more about what happened to the man immediately prior to his death and that brings back even more painful memories back for Camille. And she becomes convinced the two events are connected and determined, obsessed even, to find the truth. 

Our narrator here is Camille herself and we soon learn how deeply damaged she is by events in Iraq. Clearly suffering from PTSD she is a ball of pent up emotion - mainly anger and hurt. She is always intense and alert, never relaxes, barely smiles and doesn't know how to be around the people that care about her, doesn't know how to let them in. Having been deployed for much of her daughter's life, she struggles to connect with her, struggles to be a good mother. But she does know that she must protect her daughter at all costs, and Sophie has fallen in with a bad crowd...

Camille suffers frequent flashbacks and doesn't sleep well, and as a result is an unreliable narrator. The text jumps between what is happening in the present day and events in Iraq playing out in Camille's mind - she struggles to be sure of what's real and what's not, what is now and what was then. And thus so do we. The sentences are sometimes choppy, disjointed in places, like Camille's thinking. It's an interesting technique which really works. 

Whilst Camille is not necessarily easy to like and does nothing to endear herself to the reader, she's written in such a way that you can't help but be behind her, rooting for her. She is a woman who is hurting, and struggling to settle into civilian life when all she knows how to do is be a soldier. Lewes has forces experience and has clearly researched PTSD at length, and the writing is stronger for this. The scene setting is descriptive and rich - colours, sights and smells. The other characters we meet are interesting because we see them through Camille's eyes and she mostly views people in terms of threat to her or her daughter. We hear about their bad parts, mostly.  But I liked Darren - he seems a decent man, trying to do a hard job but fighting a losing battle with Camille.

The story is well paced, gaining momentum as Camille investigates deeper. The tension mounts as Camille gets closer to the truth and puts herself in more and more danger. Her sanity is tested. The writing is unflinching, pulls no punches. There are some graphic descriptions of crime scenes, references to torture and drugs and with the mental health theme running all the way through, this won't be a book for everyone. But I found it a challenging, rewarding read. A powerful, intense tale of anger, pain, a fight for truth and justice and a search for redemption. Was anything resolved for Camille at the end? I'm still mulling that one over.... Happy to recommend this book. 

The Author:

Elizabeth Lewes is a U.S. Navy veteran who served during Operation Enduring Freedom as a linguist. A practicing attorney, she resides in Seattle with her family.


Author Social Media Links:

Twitter
Instagram 

Cannibal City (Detective in a Coma book 2) by Jennifer Lee Thomson

It's my stop today on the blog tour for Cannibal City (Detective in a Coma Book 2) by Jennifer Lee Thomson. As an adopted Glaswegian, I'm always pleased to discover new (particularly crime) books set in the city, so this was a treat, as was Vile City, the first in the series, which I also read. My thanks to Emma Welton at damppebbles blog tours for the invitation and to the publisher for my review copy.

The Blurb:

A killer is stalking his victims on Glasgow's streets. 

Men are being abducted, kept tied up for weeks and force-fed, then strangled and their livers are being removed.

Detective Inspector Duncan Waddell has enough problems not least of all that his best friend and colleague Stevie who's meant to be comatose is talking to him and only him. Now he faces his most bizarre case yet.

This time he has help in the shape of FBI profiler Odessa Thorne who arrives as part of a new Police Scotland initiative.

When a career criminal comes forward to say he was targeted by the killer but somehow managed to get away, Waddell hopes it's the breakthrough they need. But can they trust this witness who's known to be a habitual liar?

As they close in on their ruthless killer Waddell must look into a heart of darkness to get his killer.

Cannibal City was published in paperback and digital formats by Caffeine Nights Publishing on 16th April 2020.

Purchase Links:

Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/2CZ4mVH

Amazon US: https://amzn.to/3jQUr5c

Waterstones: https://bit.ly/2CQ7Zxi

Book Depository: https://bit.ly/2Pa0tzu

My Review:

It's always good to find a new team to get behind and I found that in DI Duncan Waddell and his team. Based in Glasgow, they have to deal with some horrible cases. In Vile City it was missing women and sex trafficking but here it's something even more horrific. A man is found dead covered in burns with chain marks around his wrists and ankles. The post mortem shows that he had been forced fed and his liver removed. Waddell and his team are stumped. And when Duncan gets stumped, he likes to chew things over with his colleague Stevie Campbell, get his take on things. Except Stevie is in a non responsive coma and can't speak. But that doesn't stop him telling Waddell what he thinks. 

I liked the team. Waddell himself is a good, solid family man who is dedicated to his job. His best friend being in a coma had hit him harder than he would admit. I loved the little I saw of his wife Isobel and would have liked to have got to know her better. Stevie's replacement, DC Brian McKeith, made me laugh - tall (too tall really for most of the pool cars), earnest and keen, he struggles to impress Duncan, but than Brian has big shoes to fill. He has his moments though, when things come together and he's able to shine. I was slightly confused by his personal relationship with a co-worker which seemed to arrive from nowhere. From the others, Jim Henry was a stand out for me - a solid, serious, dependable man of faith. But everybody is generally well drawn. 

Adding the visiting FBI clinical psychologist was an interesting move and one that works, I think. Odessa Thorne brings a fresh take on the case and works hard to bring the doubters around. And later in the book, when Duncan has a very personal crisis to deal with, she is invaluable. 

The case itself is original, gruesome and complicated. There are plenty of blind alleys and red herrings. Told from multiple points of view the story hooked me in. I would have liked a different resolution but that's maybe just me. The writing is good although I found there to be some repetition. It's full of colourful similes and metaphors. This is true for both books and my very favourite came early in Vile City but it will give you a flavour of the writing in this one:

'The paperwork was piling up on his desk faster than knickers at a porn shoot...' had me snorting with laughter.

The text is shot through with humour and peppered with Glasgow phrases. All of this makes it richer and more enjoyable. 

Overall, I enjoyed this. I'd never read a book before where one of the main characters is in a coma - a really interesting idea. I liked the rest of the team and the story was satisfyingly twisty, gruesome and dark.

The Author:

Jennifer is an award-winning crime writer (she won the Scottish Association of Writers Award for crime thriller Vile City, the first book in the Detective in a Coma series) and is a member of the Crime Writers’ Association. She studied creative writing at Strathclyde University. She’s also a feature writer whose work has appeared in The Guardian, The Times and Scotland On Sunday.

She wrote the Detective in a Coma (so called because the detective in the title is in a coma and only the lead character in the series DI Waddell can hear him) and the Die Hard for Girls series of books.

A human and animal rights advocate, she wrote Living Cruelty Free - Live a More Compassionate Life which focuses on how we can be kinder to animals and each other.

In her spare time, she loves going for walks with her rescue greyhound Harley and plotting the perfect murder.

Author Social Media Links:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jenthom72 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VileCitybyJenniferLeeThomson/ 

Blog: http://ramblingsofafrustratedcrimewriter.blogspot.com

Website: http://jennifer-thomson.blogspot.com/ 

Unhinged by Olena Rose

There is more poetry today as I shine a spotlight on Unhinged, an emotional collection from Olena Rose as part of the blog tour. And I'm pleased to share one of Olena's short poems from the collection which I hope you'll enjoy. Thanks to Kelly at Love Books Tours for the invitation and to the author for my copy. 

The Blurb: 

Unhinged: Putting the Pieces Back Together by Olena Rose showcases the unshakable strength and perseverance of the human spirit during times of romantic turmoil. Through emotionally-charged poetic storytelling, the reader is taken on a journey of healing and transformation that gains momentum page by page. By book’s end, one is instilled with an unwavering sense of self-empowerment and confidence to overcome any challenges of the heart. 

Unhinged was published on 16th May 2020 and you can purchase it here. 

Excerpt:

Gold

You are worth every smile that you give.
You are worth all the kindness in your bones.
You are worth your selfless acts.
You are worth more than gold.

So don’t give up your worth
For all the money in the world!


The Author:

Olena Rose is an American poet based in New York City. If there is one constant in her life, it is her penchant for writing stories.

Giveth and Taketh by Rota

Some more poetry on the blog today. It's my stop on the tour for Giveth and Taketh, a short collection of poems by Rota. Thanks to Kelly at Love Books Tours for the invitation and to the publisher for my review copy. 

The Blurb:

Was Donald Trump able to become President because God abandoned us? Are Jews white? Does Hell have better weather than Heaven?

In Giveth and Taketh, Rota addresses all of these questions, discussing his own experience and political theology as a Jewish person in the Trump-era while also exploring broader issues of race, mental health and grief. 

Giveth and Taketh was published by Wild Pressed Books on 17th May 2020 and you can purchase it here. 

My Review: 

This was such an interesting collection for me to read. As I'm a white, nominally Christian, middle aged woman living Britain I have no idea what it's like to be a young Jewish man living in the US just now. In fact, I am horribly ignorant about the Jewish faith generally so learned a lot from these poems. 

The poems - there are eleven on them - have Jewishness at their core. We read about traditions and rituals but also frustrations and anger. Whilst often humorous, at least in part, they all address serious issues - global warming features heavily, and so it should. And there is much anger at the current US president - 'this flailing hate crime of a president' (from 'We Again Go Unmentioned ') - again rightly so, in my opinion (I'm not even American and he makes me angry!). Ronald Reagan, in power when the poet was born, also gets an unflattering mention. All of these points are made eloquently and beautifully.

However, as I said, these are poems about being Jewish. About a young man finding his place in his family, with the burdens that tradition brings, whilst often struggling with his faith. A poet questioning God and asking where he's been in 'Midrash': 'It seems like You've been sleeping for a long time.' But mainly this work focuses on the invisibility of Jews, and their faith, historically and in the present day. This issue is presented particularly powerfully for me in 'We Again Go Ummentioned' and 'While Contemplating School Ties in a DC Airport without Air Conditioning' (once I had Googled School Ties!).

Yes, this is a slim volume but it has plenty to say. Rota has taken important subjects and presented them in an  articulate, accessible manner, with a touch of humour and irreverence whilst still managing to pack a passionate and powerful punch. A meaningful collection that it was a privilege to read. 

The Author: 

Rota is a poet and public interest lawyer living in Ann Arbor, Michigan. 

His work has been featured by Button Poetry, Entropy!, FreezeRay Poetry, Alternating Current (February 2020), Jet Fuel Review, and elsewhere. He is a proud member of the MMPR collective and the Assistant Executive Editor of Knights' Library Magazine. 

By day, he supervises law students who provide free legal services to veterans. You can't miss him. He's the tallest Jew for miles.

Hinton Hollow Death Trip by Will Carver

I was so excited to read Hinton Hollow Death Trip, the latest from Will Carver, as I was desperate to see what he had in store for us this time. And I was not disappointed. He blew my mind. Again. Huge thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for inviting me on the tour and to the publisher for my review copy. 

The Blurb:

It’s a small story. A small town with small lives that you would never have heard about if none of this had happened.

Hinton Hollow. Population 5,120.

Little Henry Wallace was eight years old and one hundred miles from home before anyone talked to him. His mother placed him on a train with a label around his neck, asking for him to be kept safe for a week, kept away from Hinton Hollow.

Because something was coming.

Narrated by Evil itself, Hinton Hollow Death Trip recounts five days in the history of this small rural town, when darkness paid a visit and infected its residents. A visit that made them act in unnatural ways. Prodding at their insecurities. Nudging at their secrets and desires. Coaxing out the malevolence suppressed within them. Showing their true selves.

Making them cheat.
Making them steal.
Making them kill.

Detective Sergeant Pace had returned to his childhood home. To escape the things he had done in the city. To go back to something simple. But he was not alone. Evil had a plan.

Hinton Hollow Death Trip was published by Orenda Books as an eBook on 12th June 2020. It comes out in paperback on 13th August 2020. You can purchase/pre-order it (depending on edition) from the publisher, Hive, Waterstones, Amazon and all good booksellers. 

My Review:

Oh man, where on earth do I start? This is the third in the Detective Sergeant Pace series and follows on from Nothing Important Happened Today (see my review here). Don't worry if you haven't read the preceding books - I haven't read the first, Good Samaritans, yet - as this works just great as a standalone. Pace is not really a central character and relevant details from the previous books are included here (I was surprised how much was said about NIHT actually). 

With a name like Hinton Hollow Death Trip and a gorgeous floral front cover you might be forgiven for thinking you were picking up a cosy crime novel. But this is anything but cosy. It couldn't be any further from cosy - it is seriously dark. 

Our narrator for this tale is Evil itself. How mad is that? It's insane genius and it works. Evil accompanies Detective Sergeant Pace back to the town where he grew up. But Evil has already begun his (its) work in Hinton Hollow.  And he (it?) warns us right at the beginning of the book that we're not going to like it, tells us to stop reading and do something else. I have never seen anything like that in any other book. 

Set over five days Hinton Hollow Death Trip tells of a week that changed a town. A week when Evil came to visit and turned everything upside down. But in some cases he (it) doesn't have to push to hard. Sometimes it's just a whisper here, a thought, a wee nudge there that pivots someone's behaviour. Playing on someone's existing anxiety. Other times Evil has to work much harder, Throughout the book we are treated to seemingly random facts about the residents of Hinton Hollow, and about Evil itself. 'Another way Evil manifests itself: Estate agents.' Priceless. (*No offence to any estate agents reading this - blame Will Carver! 😂) 'What I know about the human soul: It's not my department.' But most of all Evil makes us question our own feelings, motivations and actions. 

Having Evil as the narrator is original, dark and twisted. But as he (it?) points out, if people could only be better, nicer, more considerate, he wouldn't have to work so hard and things wouldn't have to be so dark. It's interesting to see how little work he needs to do in some cases - shows it doesn't take much for people to snap. And I loved we got to know some of the residents of Hinton Hollow, and what a varied bunch they are. All vividly described. And the kids. The kids are beautiful. And heartbreaking.  

It's so hard to review this book. Not because I didn't enjoy it - I really did - but because it's so hard to describe. It won't be for everyone. It includes explicit descriptions of violence and its aftermath, sex and animal abuse. It is not a comfortable read. But it is worth the effort. It touches on the effects of social media, and bullying. Questions why we behave in certain ways. Prompts us to think about how we treat others, how we treat animals, what we eat and drink. Encourages us to look at our priorities and motivations. All the while delivering an original, shocking story of madness descending on one small community. 

It's unique, violent, challenging, uncomfortable, thought provoking, shocking. And quite brilliant. Carver has yet again delivered something that blew my mind. It will be one of my most, if not the most, memorable reads of this year. An easy five stars from me.  

The Author:

Will Carver is the international bestselling author of the January David series. He spent his early years in Germany, but returned to the UK at age eleven, when his sporting career took off. He turned down a professional rugby contract to study theatre and television at King Alfred’s, Winchester, where he set up a successful theatre company. He currently runs his own fitness and nutrition company, and lives in Reading with his two children. Good Samaritans was book of the year in Guardian, Telegraph and Daily Express, and hit number one on the ebook charts.