Life Sentence by AK Turner

I really enjoyed Cassie Raven's first outing in Body Language so was excited to read this new one. Life Sentence was published by Jaffre on 14th April 2022. Many thanks to Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers for inviting me onto the tour and to the publisher for my review copy.

The Blurb

Following her first outing in Body Language (published 2019), Camden mortuary technician Cassie Raven returns to solve another ingenious forensic mystery.

Mortuary technician Cassie Raven believes the last thoughts of the dead linger like static in the air...

Cassie has always had a strange affinity with death, ever since her parents were killed in a car crash when she was four. At least that's what she grew up believing...

But that was a lie. Cassie's father is alive. He was convicted of murdering her mother and spent years behind bars. Now he's out - and he's looking for her.

He swears he didn't do it. And Cassie wants to believe him.

To find the truth, she must turn detective. As she seeks answers, help is to be found in inexplicable places - for the dead are ready to talk.

My Review

Cassie has recently discovered that what she thought she knew about her parents is all a lie and that her father is in prison for murdering her mother. Until she discovers that he's out and determined to convince her that he's innocent. She so wants to believe him but isn't willing just to take him at his word. So, whilst she also looks into the death of a young man who comes across her table much of this book is taken up with her own story as she seeks to find the truth. 

I really like Cassie. She sports an alternative, goth style that you maybe wouldn't expect from a mortuary worker but she shows such deep care and respect to the bodies that she prepares, it's quite touching. And, occasionally, they 'speak to her. A sensitive soul, she is rocked by what she's finding out about her family and we see how it affects her relationship with her beloved grandmother. This is a beautifully written relationship with the love between grandmother and granddaughter radiating from the pages. 

Also interesting are Cassie's relays with young pathologist Archie and policewoman Phyllida. Archie is posh, well spoken, always well dressed in smart, expensive clothes. The opposite of Cassie, they shouldn't really get on but they do. They've formed a firm friendship and Turner teases of more. And Phyllida, uptight and by the book, is both irritated by and fascinated with Cassie, and vice versa. It's quite an odd dynamic, but one that really works, and it's a relationship I'm totally invested in.  

The main storyline is emotive, sad, shocking and heartbreaking. It's told with sensitivity, with a growing understanding for Cassie but with an increasing sense of threat. It's very atmospheric as Cassie immerses herself in the musical world in which her father used to be long, and I loved seeing her joy in the progress her friend was making following homelessness and addiction. The sub plot involving the death of a young man, a boy really, is also heartbreaking but, again, sensitively told. 

In Cassie Raven, AK Turner has given us an engaging protagonist, one the reader is rooting for throughout, and one with an unusual gift. Life Sentence is a story about death, life, love, family, jealousy, heartache and making up. About how events of the past can have a profound impact years later. Brilliantly and sensitively told, it never drags and is a really enjoyable read. 

The Author

AK Turner's first foray into crime fiction was a detective thriller trilogy, written under the pen name Anya Lipska, following the adventures of Janusz Kiszka, a fixer to London's Polish community. All three books won critical acclaim and were twice optioned as a possible TV series. In her other life as a TV producer and writer, AK makes documentaries and drama-docs on subjects as diverse as the Mutiny on the Bounty, the sex lives of Neanderthals, and Monty Don's Italian Gardens.

Quicksand of Memory by Michael J Malone

Delighted today to be sharing my review of the new book from one of my fave peeps. Quicksand of Memory by Michael J Malone came out in paperback on 14th April 2022, from Orenda Books. Many thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for inviting me into the blog tour and to the publisher for my review copy.

The Blurb

Scarred by their pasts, Jenna and Luke fall in love, brimming with hope for a rosy future. But someone has been watching, with chilling plans for revenge … An emotive, twisty, disturbing new psychological thriller by the critically acclaimed author of A Suitable Lie and In the Absence of Miracles.

Jenna is trying to rebuild her life after a series of disastrous relationships.

Luke is struggling to provide a safe, loving home for his deceased partner’s young son, following a devastating tragedy. 

When Jenna and Luke meet and fall in love, they are certain they can achieve the stability and happiness they both desperately need. 

And yet, someone is watching. 

Someone who has been scarred by past events. 

Someone who will stop at nothing to get revenge… 

Dark, unsettling and immensely moving, Quicksand of Memory is a chilling reminder that we are not only punished for our sins, but by them, and that memories left to blacken and sharpen over time are the perfect breeding ground for obsession, and murder…

My Review

I look forward to a new book from Michael Malone because I know I'm in for a treat and Quicksand of Memory absolutely delivers. 

Luke is setting himself up as a therapist, working from home as he brings up Nathan, the young son of his late partner, helped by her mother. He is only just starting out on this road and to supplement his income he works part time as a doorman. He is clearly a good man but we are given hints of a past, one that might not have been so rosy. The full picture is teased out tantalisingly throughout the book. 

Jenna is struggling with her mental health. She's trying to juggle part time work with the care of a demanding and  ungrateful mother after illness changed her. And the death of a former partner has affected Jenna more than she realised. She turns to Luke for help but as soon as the questions get difficult she leaves the session. However, that brief meeting was enough to ignite a spark between them and they hesitantly begin a relationship. 

Whilst the story is about Luke and Jenna's budding relationship, the main character has to be Danny. He's been dead for many years but he had such an impact on those around him, his influence is still felt in the present day.  

Luke and Jenna are both easy to like and you can't help but cheer them on. One of Malone's strengths is his characterisation. Luke and Jenna come fully formed and fleshed out with pasts, problems, hopes, fears and dreams. They are flawed. And they feel very real. Their tentative but burgeoning relationship makes us smile. But the shadow of Danny is never far away and there are other threats to their happiness. 

We learn about Danny through flashback scenes with him and Luke. In Danny, Michael Malone has created a truly toxic, controlling character, a man who strikes fear in many around him but who can present a completely different face to others. He's duplicitous and he really provoked some quite strong feelings in me. We feel his presence throughout the book. 

I must also mention Jamie, a young man with a difficult childhood. He comes to Alex for help and they develop a loose friendship. But Jamie is troubled and easily influenced by those around him. For me, he was a standout character, just heartbreaking, beautifully written. 

As well as writing novels, Michael Malone is also a poet and that shows in his beautiful writing. I noted a couple of examples but there are many others. 

'Jenna's smile was small, timid. A mouse peeking out from behind a wall'. My favourite couple of lines from the book. 

'...set off the tears. A silent slide of emotion down her cheek...'

'The wind lifted, signed in her ear...'

Quicksand of Memory is a study of memory, how it affects us, how we all view and remember things differently. Realising that not everything we believed was true. It's a story of love, friendships - healthy and toxic, heartache, revenge, pain and hope. How one person can still be affecting the lives of those close long after he's gone, the ripples of his actions still being felt. It's about breaking free. There are some real shocks in this book, and some uncomfortable moments for the reader, but it is so beautifully written and full of flawed, human characters that you will care about, root for and cry over, written with care and compassion. Just a gorgeous book. 

The Author

Michael Malone is a prize-winning poet and author who was born and brought up in the heart of Burns’ country. He has published over 200 poems in literary magazines throughout the UK, including New Writing Scotland, Poetry Scotland and Markings. Blood Tears, his bestselling debut novel won the Pitlochry Prize from the Scottish Association of Writers. His psychological thriller, A Suitable Lie, was a number one bestseller, and the critically acclaimed House of Spines, After He Died, In the Absence of Miracles and A Song of Isolation soon followed suit. A former Regional Sales Manager (Faber & Faber) he has also worked as an IFA and a bookseller. Michael lives in Ayr.


Be sure to check out the rest of the tour!

The Shot by Sarah Sultoon

Today is my stop on the blog tour for a book that I'm still struggling to find the words for - not great for a review, I know! It's The Shot by Sarah Sultoon published this month by Orenda Books. Huge thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for the invitation and to the publisher for my review copy. I will be purchasing a paperback copy.

The Blurb

An aspiring TV journalist faces a shattering moral dilemma and the prospect of losing her career and her life, when she joins an impetuous photographer in the Middle East. A shocking, searingly authentic thriller by award-winning ex-CNN news executive Sarah Sultoon.

Samira is an up-and-coming TV journalist, working the nightshift at a major news channel and yearning for greater things. So when she’s offered a trip to the Middle East, with Kris, the station’s brilliant but impetuous star photographer, she leaps at the chance.

In the field together, Sami and Kris feel invincible, shining a light into the darkest of corners… except the newsroom, and the rest of the world, doesn’t seem to care as much as they do. Until Kris takes the photograph. With a single image of a young Sudanese mother, injured in a raid on her camp, Sami and the genocide in Darfur are catapulted into the limelight. But everything is not as it seems, and the shots taken by Kris reveals something deeper and much darker… something that puts not only their careers but their lives in mortal danger.

Sarah Sultoon brings all her experience as a CNN news executive to bear on this shocking, searingly authentic thriller, which asks immense questions about the world we live in. You'll never look at a news report in the same way again...

My Review

Immediately on finishing this book, I took to Twitter. This is what my tweet said: 'I have just this minute finished The Shot by Sarah Sultoon. I have no words. There are tears running down my face. I have no idea how I am going to write a review of this powerful, extraordinary, heartbreaking book. That might have to be it.'

That was a few days ago. I've thought about the book often in the intervening time and I still feel the same! But I'll have a go at something more. 

Sami is keen to make her way in the world of TV journalism and determined to get off the night shift. Finding herself in the right place at the right time she is sent to Kabul with veteran photographer Kris. She is horrified by what she sees but proves to be an insightful journalist, keen to get the human story, the angle that no one else has got. With Kris she produces some powerful work which she is sure will make a difference back home, make people care, take action. Except it doesn't, and she can't understand that. Kris is much more world weary, has no such expectations, just a heart for the people he photographs and videos. The same happens with their assignment in Baghdad but finally their work from Darfur does make a difference, have an impact. But at what cost to Sami and Kris?

I am as guilty as the next person of watching the news and being horrified at what I see on screen, maybe even shedding a tear. And then turning off the TV, going to bed and not giving what I saw any further thought, like so many of us don't. The backdrop when I was reading this book and still as I write this review is the awful war in Ukraine. This has touched us - we are fundraising, collecting donations, attending demonstrations for our government to do more. Why has it touched us like this when there have been, and are, wars and atrocities all across the globe that haven't garnered this level of attention? Is it because it's closer to home? Is it because the people look like us (I realise that's controversial but maybe an uncomfortable truth, I don't know - it's a discussion I've had more than once in recent weeks)? Or is it maybe because of how it is presented in the media? Is it because we are seeing, and reading, the dreadful human cost of it all?

And this is what The Shot is about. That picture that captures a nation's imagination. Those words that mobilise a nation into action. But it's about so, so much more than that. It's also about the cost to the people bringing us those images and words. 

Sami is desperate to make a name for herself but unprepared for the sights she sees. To be honest, who would be? It must be so much worse up close and in the flesh, as it were, than it is on our screens. It takes her aback, scares and upsets her, but it sets a fire in her belly, and she doesn't understand why that isn't the same for everyone else when she comes back home. Kris only knows how to be a photographer/cameraman. Working pretty much all the time, he's forgotten how to be a husband and father, if he ever knew in the first place. He was probably like Sami once, naive and idealistic, but not any more. He's seasoned, world weary and maybe seems a little numb to it all. But that's really not the whole picture (pun intended). He has his own way of looking at war and its victims and there is a powerful, devastating moment towards the end when someone else gets it. Which is immediately preceded by a beautiful piece of writing echoing and reflecting an equally beautiful piece of writing in the prologue. 

So far I've skirted around what I actually thought about The Shot because, honestly, I'm struggling to put it into words. I was telling someone about it a week or two back and the tears just sprang up unbidden. The blurb states 'You'll never look at a news report in the same way again...' - never has a truer word been written. We see the devastation of war up close, the damage, the pain, the grief. We see the background workings of a TV news station, which was fascinating, and I'm sure pretty accurate, as Sarah Sultoon is more than qualified to tell us that kind of stuff. And we see the heartbreaking impact of it all on two souls in the middle of the maelstrom. An action packed, heartstopping, heartbreaking thriller, The Shot is not an easy book. Often uncomfortable reading, it's hard to call it enjoyable. But my goodness, it is incredibly powerful and impactful, and absolutely worth reading. A book that will stay with me for a very long time. 

The Author

Sarah Sultoon is a journalist and writer, whose work as an international news executive at CNN has taken her all over the world, from the seats of power in both Westminster and Washington to the frontlines of Iraq and Afghanistan. She has extensive experience in conflict zones, winning three Peabody awards for her work on the war in Syria, an Emmy for her contribution to the coverage of Europe’s migrant crisis in 2015, and a number of Royal Television Society gongs. As passionate about fiction as nonfiction, she recently completed a Masters of Studies in Creative Writing at the University of Cambridge, adding to an undergraduate language degree in French and Spanish, and a Masters of Philosophy in History, Film and Television. When not reading or writing she can usually be found somewhere outside, either running, swimming or throwing a ball for her three children and dog while she imagines what might happen if... Her debut thriller The Source is currently in production with Lime Pictures, and was a Capital Crime Book Club pick and a number one bestseller on Kindle.

Blood Sentence by Keith Nixon

I am delighted to be taking part in the blog tour for Blood Sentence, the first book in a wee while from Keith Nixon, a favourite of mine. Big thanks to Zoë at Zooloo's Book Tours for inviting me and to the author for my review copy.

The Blurb

Three bodies, one suspect. That suspect is you…

When the unidentified corpse of an apparent suicide victim is found hanging above a complex pattern of forty photographs of children, Detective Inspector Jonah Pennance of the Met’s specialist Sapphire Unit is brought in to investigate.

A post-mortem reveals the suicide was murder, and Pennance realises he knows the man. But as the body count rises, all the signs point to a care home in Kent – a place that Pennance is all too familiar with.

The problem is the only person connecting the victims is Pennance – and he has a solid motive for wanting them dead… Can Pennance prove his innocence?

Perfect for fans of Ian Rankin, Stuart MacBride, and Peter James Blood Sentence is the first book in the explosive series featuring Detective Inspector Jonah Pennance.

Blood Sentence was published by Gladius Press on 28th February 2022.


Buy Links

Amazon UK 
Amazon US

My Review

First of all, I just want to say how delighted I am that Keith Nixon is back! He never really went away, of course, he's just been beavering away in the background but I'm so pleased he's back with something new for us. I won't list the previous books of his I've read and reviewed as there are eight of them but if you put his name in the search bar they'll all come up.

So, to Blood Sentence. A new series and thus a new protagonist - DI Jonah Pennance, a member of a team which investigates the exploitation and abuse of children, the stuff of nightmares. A phone call from Wales drags him away from his brand new case - a man has been found dead in a car registered to Jonah Pennance. And so it begins...

Jonah Pennance is an easy man to like but I'm looking forward to getting to know him better in future books. He seems quite a straightforward, straight up kind of guy, but when we meet him he is still mourning the death of his sister six months earlier, although they weren't close. He is no nonsense, and has a good relationship with his colleagues and superiors. There's been a wee bit of history with partner Simone but they're through that now and have a comfortable relationship. I think, though, there's a wee bit of 'Will they, won't they?'. Pennance's life hasn't always been straightforward though and during the course of this book he has to confront some painful memories.

The storyline features illegal drug testing on vulnerable people but somehow there is also a link to Pennance's past. Nixon teases the two threads throughout the book until a very surprising and ultimately very sad conclusion. Oh, and there is a jealous wife in the mix too! There's a lot going on, and the story moves around the country so we get to visit London, Anglesey, Colwyn Bay, Thanet, Hastings and St Leonard's. And in our visit to Thanet it was great to see some familiar faces from Keith's Solomon Gray series (Pennance himself appeared in Dig Two Graves). But it never feels too busy, as the author has weaved it all together perfectly. The pharmaceutical elements to the story seem authentic and well researched and there is also an historical abuse of power discussed - obviously fiction but I fear it mirrors many real situations.

In Blood Sentence, Keith Nixon has given us a taut, suspenseful thriller that's full of intrigue. But it's full of heart too and great characters. A fabulous start to a new series and I can't wait to see what's next for DI Jonah Pennance and his team.


The Author

Keith Nixon is the best-selling author of sixteen novels and one million words in print, including the Margate based Solomon Gray series of over 250,000 copies in circulation and reached no.1 on Amazon in the UK, US, Canada and Australia.

Keith lived near the gritty seaside town of Margate, where many of his novels are based, for 17 years before relocating to the edge of the Peak District with his family where he lives today. Keith works in a senior sales role within a high-tech industry and has regularly travelled all over the globe.

His novels are published by Gladius Press and Bastei Lubbe (German).


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