The Death of Mrs Westaway

When Harriet Westaway receives an unexpected letter telling her she’s inherited a substantial bequest from her Cornish grandmother, it seems like the answer to her prayers. She owes money to a loan shark and the threats are getting increasingly aggressive: she needs to get her hands on some cash fast.

There’s just one problem – Hal’s real grandparents died more than twenty years ago. The letter has been sent to the wrong person. But Hal knows that the cold-reading techniques she’s honed as a seaside fortune teller could help her con her way to getting the money. If anyone has the skills to turn up at a stranger’s funeral and claim a bequest they’re not entitled to, it’s her.

Hal makes a choice that will change her life forever. But once she embarks on her deception, there is no going back. She must keep going or risk losing everything, even her life…

The brand new psychological thriller from the Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in Cabin 10.

I bloody loved this book – it had everything I look for in a page-turner with a great main character and a wonderfully gothic setting too. If you’ve just broken up from school for the summer like me then this is definitely deserving of a spot in your hand luggage as it is sure to keep you glued to your sunlounger desperate to find out how Hal’s fortunes actually turn out…

I’m going to do this review a little differently because I enjoyed the book so much. I’m going to do a wee ‘reading’ myself, explaining how much I loved Ruth Ware’s latest fictional feast.

The World

The setting of this book is fantastic. You’ll definitely be drawn right into Hal’s world and feel like you’re right there with her as she navigates this pretty intriguing set of circumstances. Hal’s world will remind you of the very best of Du Maurier with a dash of Agatha Christie in the idea that we have to find out who the person is within a closed group who ‘dunnit’ I absolutely love this ‘locked room’ setting and was drawn right into its gothic world where you just don’t know who you can trust. The house definitely comes alive as you’re reading as – just like Manderley – it takes on a life of its own and starts to intrigue the reader just as much as Hal herself. I was definitely under its spell and just could not stop turning the pages to see if I was right.

Wheel of Fortune

The plot is just as pleasing as the setting and I’ve chosen this card to represent the idea that you definitely feel like fate is playing its part in Hal’s predicament. There are quite a few misdirections and false clues and this made me like it all the more. Like all the very best mysteries you definitely feel caught up in something bigger than yourself and you’ll be impressed by Hal’s audacity as she attempts to pull this one off! You’ll definitely be tensely hoping that your suspicions are right as you get caught in this book’s spell. No spoilers, but there were times when I really wanted to shout through the pages to her and tell her what I thought was just about to happen!

The Empress

As well as setting and plot – this book definitely hinges on character and I’ve chosen The Empress to depict Hal herself as she navigates the mysterious world she finds herself in and attempts to find out the secrets at the heart of the intriguing Westaways. Anyone who has ever read a set of cards knows that it’s the people you’re reading, rather than the cards themselves and this family are not the easiest to second -guess. You will be captivated by Hal and her situation and hoping that this dark, Cornish house – that she herself compares to Manderley – is worth the not inconsiderable risk she is putting herself into.

The Magician

My final card is reserved for Ruth Ware herself. She is a bloody magician and I loved this book even more than her previous books. The fact that two of them will be appearing on our screens in due course made me enormously happy and optimistic that Mrs Westaway will be making it a hat-trick and that I’ll get to see Trepassen House for myself in the not-to-distant future. Hopefully, it’s even better than the one that I’ve imagined. I feel like I was whisked away from Scotland to beautiful Cornwall as I turned the pages and I can’t recommend it enough. Treat yourself to a copy and immerse yourself in Hal’s story without delay. This might be the perfect Summer read and I can’t wait to see where Ruth Ware takes us next…

Writer on the Shelf

Ruth Ware’s first two thrillers, In a Dark, Dark Wood and The Woman in Cabin 10, were international smash-hits, and appeared on bestseller list around the world, including the Sunday Times and New York Times. The film rights to her debut were snapped up by New Line Cinema, and her books are published in more than 40 languages.

Ruth lives near Brighton with her family. Visit her website at http://www.ruthware.com to find out more.

Advertisement

The Woolgrower’s Companion: Virtual Blog Tour

Kate Dowd’s mother raised her to be a lady but she must put away her white gloves and pearls to help save her family’s sheep farm in New South Wales.
It is 1945, the war drags bitterly on and it feels like the rains will never come again. All the local, able-bodied young men, including the husband Kate barely knows, have enlisted and Kate’s father is struggling with his debts and his wounds from the Great War. He borrows recklessly from the bank and enlists two Italian prisoners of war to live and work on the station.
With their own scars and their defiance, the POWs Luca and Vittorio offer an apparent threat to Kate and Daisy, the family’s young Aboriginal maid. But danger comes from surprising corners and Kate finds herself more drawn to Luca than afraid of him.
Scorned bank managers, snobbish neighbours and distant husbands expect Kate to fail and give up her home but over the course of a dry, desperate year she finds within herself reserves of strength and rebellion that she could never have expected.
The Woolgrower’s Companion is the gripping story of one woman’s fight to save her home and a passionate tribute to Australia’s landscape and its people.

I read this fantastic read lying in the hot sun in my garden last week and the soaring temperature almost made me feel like I was ‘down under’ in the Australian outback for the day… All I needed was a few ‘tinnies’ and I definitely feel like I was reading it on location.

The Woolgrower’s Companion is a fascinating and immersive read, describing the harsh and brutal reality of running a farm, beset by financial hardship and the complexities of the gender, cultural and racial divide and how it impinges upon the lives of the people whose lives are thrown together on the Dowd farm and how their trajectories criss-cross as circumstances conspire against Kate and her companions . It is a time period that I didn’t really know that much about and I love this kind of novel, where I finish it and end up on Google for hours, researching all of the events in the book and looking at maps and photos of the real settings and events that have been portrayed in its pages.

Rhoades’ novel begins as the war is ending and Kate is beginning to realise that her struggles are far from over. The battles that she’ll have to fight are as gruelling as many of the men on the front and little does she know what fate will throw at her as her whole world changes beyond all recognition. I loved the character of Kate and I found it easy to connect with her grit and determination as she battles to overcome the many obstacles that she has to endure.

If you follow my blog, you’ll know that I really love a novel where you get involved with the experiences and feelings of more than one character. I think that Rhoades is equally skilled at portraying the characters of Kate, the Italian Prisoners of War Lucca and Vittorio and her young aboriginal maid, Daisy – the vivid writing means that all of these characters engage the reader and they spring to life off the page. Rhoades paints a vivid portrait of their struggles to survive in a dangerous and unpredictable time in history. I hate including spoilers so all I’ll say is that Kate’s determination makes her stand out, in a historical period where women trying to assert themselves is definitely a risky proposition and there are several tense moments when your heart will definitely be in your mouth.

Kate’s life of ease and privilege before the war has ill-prepared her for the privations that she has to endure once every penny has to count – however, she refuses to let the difficulties that she has to endure to harden or coarsen her and she remains a sensitive and compassionate character throughout this novel. I loved the way that there was an excerpt from the real Woolgrowers Companion right the way through this novel and the way that connected with Kate’s experiences provided me with much food for thought as I was turning the pages.

The way that Joy Rhoades brings Kate’s situation so vividly to life on the page made me totally lose myself in this fantastic read. I couldn’t tear myself away from the suffering that she had to endure and even though Rhoades pulls no punches in her description of the way that Daisy is treated is both moving and disturbing as she opens your eyes to an aspect of Australian history that you might not know very much about. This lends The Woolgrower’s Companion an added poignancy and made me remember that even though this is a novel, the stories it tells were very much a reality for thousands of Aboriginal women who found themselves trapped in a situation that they were powerless to do anything about.

If you love a historical read that brings moral dilemmas vividly to life and enjoy being totally immersed in a powerful and vivid narrative then you’ll love The Woolgrower’s Companion. It’s a powerful story and I found myself quite emotional as it drew to a close, knowing as I did that even though Kate,

Lucca and Daisy were fictional characters, they really lived for me whilst I was lost in the book. I will definitely look out for more from Joy Rhoades as the balance of historical detail, wonderful characterisation and emotional punch was a winning combination for me.

I would like to thank Sian Devine for inviting me to participate in the blog tour – I am a huge Thorn Birds fanatic and have already bought this for several friends as an essential holiday read. – I’ll definitely be looking out for the other blog posts to see what my fellow bloggers thought of this emotional and memorable tale.

 

Writer on the Shelf

Joy Rhoades was born in a small town in the bush in Queensland, Australia, with an early memory of flat country and a broad sky. Growing up, she loved two things best: reading and the bush, often climbing a tree to sit with a book. Her family would visit her grandmother, a fifth-generation grazier and a gentle teller of stories of her life on her family’s sheep farm.

At 13, Joy left for Brisbane, first for school and then to study law at university. After graduating, she worked all over the world as a lawyer. It was in New York that she completed a master’s degree in Creative Writing at the New School University, and the people, the history, and the landscape of her childhood led her to start writing The Woolgrower’s Companion.

She now lives in London with her French husband and their two young children, but she misses the Australian sky.

You can find Joy on Twitter @JoyRhoades1, or follow her on Facebook and make sure that you visit her website to find out more about the story behind the book.

Love & Death in Shanghai – Blog Tour

Shanghai 1924. Sam Shuttleworth joins the Municipal Police to escape his working-class roots in Lancashire. He is looking for good pay, adventure and beautiful women.

Shanghai is torn by gang warfare, political instability and violence. After erotic affairs, and seeking stability, he marries his glamorous Russian lover. The relationship is tumultuous, with infidelities on both sides.
In the 1930s, Japan invades China and moves into Shanghai with consequent pillage, rape and cruelty. Sam has to negotiate between warring sides, and wonders if he will ever find peace amidst the chaos of his relationships and the bloody events of his career.

I was so excited to receive a copy of Love and Death in Shanghai after reading lots of books set in a contemporary setting, that I literally read it in a single sitting…

The fact that Love and Death in Shanghai has its roots in real life events and weaves a narrative around them is something which I especially loved about this book. I read it straight after the fabulous ‘I’ll be Gone in the Dark’ and I really enjoyed the post-reading research that I did to find out the ‘story behind the story’ in both cases.

All of you who’ve yearned to time travel to exotic climes and a very different world – Elizabeth’s book transports us to bustling and dramatic pre-war Shanghai and let me tell you, readers – I really feel like I got the chance to experience it for myself as if I was a time traveller magically transported there.

Love and Death in Shanghai is the kind of novel that I absolutely love. Sam and his Russian lover,  Lulu are connected despite their very different backgrounds and experiences. Elizabeth writes both their characters so convincingly that you really feel that you’ve spent time in their world, making it very hard to pull yourself away. It’s a novel made for immersing yourself in on a hot summer afternoon and I got lost in it in this weekend in this stunning summer weather

Sam is a character with lots going on beneath the surface. His life is very different from the industrial British world he left behind and his new life in Shanghai is certainly far from dull. His varied connections and relationships draw us into the many worlds of Shanghai and we get to peek behind many doors that might have remained locked to us.  The way we duck and weave with Sam from nightclubs to police business to high society is truly fascinating and such a fantastic technique to draw us closer to Sam and his world; I loved the idea that we were dropped into his world without all the answers and had to figure things out from the snippets we could gather – much as he would have had to.

Sam’s time in Shanghai spells the beginning of some very mysterious goings-on. This part too is convincingly conveyed – without being over the top or stretching our belief in Sam’s story.  The part of the novel which details the Japanese invasion is a fascinating and unputdownable one which really brings the setting to life and allowed me to lose myself in its twists and turns whilst remaining wholly connected to Sam and this exotic world that he’s found himself in.

Lulu’s story – is a successful counterpoint to Sam’s narrative that didn’t jar with or distract from his tale. There was a pleasing balance of her past and his present and both characters were so well-drawn that I felt like I  wanted to dedicate my attention to the way their stories interconnected, rather than feeling that one overwhelmed the other. The wartime setting was stunningly brought to life and I soon lost myself in the way that the glittering streets, glamorous hostesses and vibrant ex-pat life were decimated by the trauma of war and you will definitely get caught up in the drama alongside this novel’s characters

The atmosphere of turmoil and drama is perfectly maintained throughout this wonderful novel; the setting of pre-war Shanghai was something that I wanted to read more about as soon as I’d finished reading Love and Death in Shanghai. Elizabeth J. Hall manages to make the setting as compelling and ‘present’ as her characters. Even though I was reading it in Scotland, I felt Shanghai come to life as I walked in the footsteps of these characters and experienced their poignant and dramatic stories

Elizabeth J. Hall is a talented new voice. She draws the reader into her characters’ worlds and makes them live for us as we read. These characters’ tales are all the more powerful due to their connections with real-life events. I was happily engrossed in my Shanghai research and got lost in a post-reading, research haze for a whole afternoon after reading it. You’ll definitely love this novel if you like historical fiction that’s well researched and balances its characterisation with a real sense of being transported to a different time and place. I agree with Jill Dawson that it’s totally ‘riveting’

Writer On The Shelf

Elizabeth J.Hall works in politics in the UK. Love and Death in Shanghai, her debut novel was inspired by the life and death of her uncle who worked in the Shanghai Municipal Police in the 1920s and 30s. Elizabeth’s first memory is of her mother crying when she received a telegram reporting his assassination.

Elizabeth lives in East Sussex with her husband. After a degree in French, she trained as a teacher with a particular interest in social and health education. She worked in the USA, West Africa and London before becoming a consultant, developing programmes of health education abroad, including Central Asia and Russia.

Huge thanks as ever to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for the invitation to participate in this Blog Tour – I loved being transported to exotic climes and immersing myself  in Sam’s world whilst I read this book.

Love and Death in Shanghai can be bought from here.

Elizabeth J. Hall website: http://www.elizabethjhall.com/

 

I Found My Tribe – Blog Tour

Ruth’s tribe are her lively children and her filmmaker husband, Simon, who has Motor Neurone Disease and can only communicate with his eyes. Ruth’s other ‘tribe’ are the friends who gather at the cove in Greystones, Co. Wicklow, and regularly throw themselves into the freezing cold water, just for kicks.

‘The Tragic Wives’ Swimming Club’, as they jokingly call themselves, meet to cope with the extreme challenges life puts in their way, not to mention the monster waves rolling over the horizon.

An invocation to all of us to love as hard as we can, and live even harder, I Found My Tribe is an urgent and uplifting letter to a husband, family, friends, the natural world and the brightness of life.

I found My Tribe is available just now in ebook and hardback.  It will be available in paperback on the 28th June.  You can purchase a copy here.

 

I was so excited to receive a copy of this book and was really looking forward to reading it as I spent time last summer in beautiful Greystones and was looking forward to reading about how Ruth and her tribe got so much out of this gorgeous place and the strength they find in each other.

I loved eating at the Happy Pear in Greystones and found their philosophy on life so inspiring too. Dave and Steve also swim regularly in the bracing Atlantic in Greystones

and I find their words about their daily sunrise swim matches the mood of Ruth’s book so well.

‘Our swimrise routine is one of the best things to have come out of last year. It is the perfect combination of so many of the things we value in life – people, community, a connection to nature, showing up, overcoming fear, grabbing hold of the day and all with a really special sense of togetherness and joy. Plus, like lots of the best things in life, it’s totally free!’

I found Ruth’s memoir so inspiring. The full details about caring for someone with MNS is upfront, honest and direct. In it, she encourages us to just ‘dive in’ to the situations life throws at us and even though we might feel scared, we should embrace that feeling. She writes:

“I stand on those steps every time with raw fear. Your brain screams no! Steer past your brain. This makes no sense. That’s why it makes perfect sense.”

This is a book that has such a vivid voice, you’ll close the final page feeling like you’ve met Ruth in person. She’s not only astonishingly honest and direct, for a book dealing with such an emotive issue, she’s also incredibly funny. Friendship is one of the main things that keeps her going amidst all the things in her life which are outwith her control – where even her house isn’t her own as there are nurses there 24/7  Her absolute saviours are The Tragic Wives Swimming Club, made up of Ruth’s friend Michelle, a forensic psychologist and mother of four, and her childhood friend Aifric, an architect. Michelle’s husband, journalist Galen English, a keen cyclist, crashed his bike in 2014 leaving him paralysed and in a wheelchair. Ruth and Michelle became even closer as a result of their shared experience.

Plunging into the sea is not just escapism, but a chance to be fully in a moment with no stress or things to be done, just you and the elements, the perfect essence of living in the now.  I loved the story of her ‘mid life tattoo’ where she describes her son saying that praying to Poseidon made more sense than praying to any of the Catholic saints. The descriptions of her swims are perfectly described, but they are only one of the reasons this book is so good. Her descriptions of family life post-MNS diagnosis – including their decision to expand their family are so humanly drawn that you’ll feel like you are sitting in a cafe, with some of that fantastic coffee that Ruth enjoys so much, hearing it from her across the table – it’s heartwarming in the best possible sense as it’s so human. It’s hands-down the best book I’ve read this year and I think everyone should read it. You can read more about Ruth’s story here

Thanks so much to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour, she always knows that books that I’ll really love and I doubt I’ll read a better memoir in 2018. Make sure you look out for the other posts on this blog tour to see what these other bloggers thought of it

Writer On The Shelf

Ruth Fitzmaurice was born in 1976 and grew up in Co. Louth, Ireland. She was a radio researcher and producer when she married film director and writer, Simon, in 2004 and had three children. In 2008, Simon was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease and given three years to live. Simon went into respiratory failure in 2010 and was accidentally placed on a ventilator during an emergency procedure. He decided, against medical advice, to keep the ventilator; Ruth and Simon went on to have twins in 2012. In January 2016, Ruth wrote her first piece for the Irish Times about family life and a new passion, sea swimming. She lives in Greystones, Co. Wicklow, with her five children Jack, Raife, Arden, Sadie, Hunter, a dog and a cat. Simon passed away in October 2017.

Twitter @RuthONeillFitz

The Reading Party – Blog Tour

It is the 1970s and Oxford’s male institutions are finally opening their doors to women. Sarah Addleshaw – young, spirited and keen to prove her worth – begins the term as the first female academic at her college. She is, in fact, its only female ‘Fellow’.

Impulsive love affairs – with people, places and the ideas in her head – beset Sarah throughout her first exhilarating year as a don, but it is the Reading Party that has the most dramatic impact.

Asked to accompany the first mixed group of students on the annual retreat in Cornwall, Sarah finds herself illicitly drawn to one of them, the suave American Tyler. Torn between professional integrity and personal feelings, she faces her biggest challenge to date.

A fresh view of Oxford, seen through the eyes of a young woman historian appointed to a male college in 1976, who tells her own story with wit and feeling in this original and charming novel.

In 1992 I went on a Reading Retreat to a beautiful house in Glenesk called The Burn a  stunning Mansion House used by the English Dept of St Andrews University where I was an undergraduate student. This was an absolutely unforgettable four days for many reasons – and this was one of the reasons that I was so excited when Anne Cater invited me to participate in this blog tour for Fenella Gentleman’s new novel.

Visit The Burn Website here

I was totally intrigued by the premise of this novel and keen to immerse myself in this intense world by reading about it after experiencing this situation for myself so many years ago. It was interesting to read about the experiences of a woman being appointed as a  new Tutor in the very male-dominated world of academia in the 1970s; there are so many issues of equality and female experiences of closed worlds that still remain relevant so many years later. It’s tempting to see the 50’s as ancient history for young people today, but it’s quite alarming how little had altered by my experiences in the 90’s – and how much young women today might find resonant.

I enjoy books in ‘closed’ settings and this book is closed in both senses – it’s a single week
and a closed group of people, all thrown together in the week during which this reading party takes place: I also enjoyed the sense that this is a momentous week for so many of them – a week that alters things for nearly all of the people who take part in this academic retreat.

The Reading Party is set in gorgeous Cornwall, rather than rural Aberdeenshire like the retreat I went on – but there were so many things that really struck a chord. Both weeks allocated specific time for study but also time to enjoy the countryside and group tasks to bring people together, so what you get out of the experience is so much more than academic.  This was like my experience as being away from the structured environment of the university changed everything. It was interesting to see this experience from the other side of the table: witnessing the experience from the perspective of an academic rather than a student. Fenella Gentleman is a sensitive and articulate writer who has created a cast of characters that are wholly believable and interact very naturally with one another. I loved the character of Sarah, who has to evolve in front of our eyes as she tries to survive her first year in a job where being a woman is definitely more of a setback than a perk…

I really liked Sarah. She is able to be herself despite being presented with an alien social group that she has to navigate carefully if she wants to ‘survive’ – I loved hearing her internal deliberations and I think that this is one of the ways that Gentleman allows us to connect with Sarah so successfully. Who wouldn’t sympathise with that feeling of hesitation about ‘…how to pass the various decanters’ without looking like you just don’t fit in? It’s not just a question of gender, there are allegiances, social class and group dynamics to carefully navigate – it’s quite the tightrope act and Gentleman’s deft characterisation ensures that we are walking alongside Sarah every step of the way.

Sarah was easy for me to connect with – I liked all of her character traits as she is clever, compassionate and also determined to succeed which made her a much more interesting person, in my opinion. You will be intrigued to see how she copes and adapts to this ‘brave new world’ as the novel progresses and I think you’ll feel that she deserves to succeed as she does not let the setbacks she encounters deter her from feeling like being there is her right as a faculty member and hoping that her quietly dignified approach wins the day.

Even though I really connected with the precise situation that Sarah found herself in, I definitely think that you don’t have to have been on an academic retreat to enjoy this book.  It is still possible for readers to feel a genuine connection with the situation that Sarah found herself in, regardless of your own profession or set of circumstances. Who hasn’t felt like a fish out of water? Who hasn’t understood the right way to fit in – or felt judged for things that are totally outwith their control? For all of these reasons, Sarah’s situation is a very easy one to identify with and I know that many readers will engage with her refreshing take on being an ‘outsider’ in a very close-knit and well-established group. I didn’t want it to end – I wanted to relive my reading retreat experience forever…

I recommend this book to anyone who likes a compelling read with well-drawn characters where the historical period is lovingly recreated and the first-person narration lets you totally immerse yourself in that time and place. I loved reading about Sarah’s experience and it provoked a fabulous trip down memory lane for me as well as a fantastic and thought-provoking read.

 

The Reading Party was published by Muswell Press in  June 2018.

Thanks to the publishers and  Anne Cater for asking me to join the blog tour and for the advance copy.

Writer On The Shelf

Fenella Gentleman studied PPE at Wadham College, Oxford, when it went mixed. She participated in two reading parties in Cornwall. After graduating she worked in publishing, before moving into marketing and communications in the professions. She lives in London and North Norfolk.

 

You can find Fenella on Twitter here!

She is great company on Twitter and very supportive of her fellow authors too.

Deep Blue – Blog Tour Extract

Absolutely delighted to share this extract with you from Kristy McCaffrey from her novel Deep Blue.

If you are heading for the sun this summer, it’d be a great each read – just don’t pack a yellow lilo – Jaws fans will KNOW 🙂

 

In the deep blue ocean lives an ancient predator…

Dr. Grace Mann knows great white sharks. As the daughter of an obsessed shark researcher based at the Farallon Islands, Grace spent her childhood in the company of these elegant and massive creatures. When a photo of her freediving with a great white goes viral, the institute where she works seeks to capitalize on her new-found fame by producing a documentary about her work.

Underwater filmmaker Alec Galloway admires Dr. Mann and jumps at the opportunity to create a film showcasing the pretty biologist. As he heads to Guadalupe Island in Baja California Sur for a three-week expedition, it’s clear that his fan-boy crush on Grace is turning into something more serious. But even more pressing—Grace’s passionate focus on the sharks just might get her killed.

Too much food made diving difficult, so she’d get the majority of her calories at the end of the day. She gazed out the window of the salon at the flaming yellow ball cresting the horizon, biding her time until they could deploy the buoys or until a shark showed up. As she booted up her computer, her eyes kept landing on Guadalupe Island, sitting right at their front doorstep.

The ever-present grin took control of her mouth once again.

Someone let out a whoop. Grace sipped her coffee, her belly somewhat filled from half a bagel slathered with a thin layer of cream cheeseGrace slammed her coffee down and dashed out of the salon.

Tony stood on the upper deck with Missy and Stephie, leaning over the railing and pointing. “We’ve got a shark!”

Grace spun around and smacked into Alec. “Sorry.” His hands steadied her, but she ducked around him, leaning into the salon and grabbing the binoculars on the desk. She looped them around her neck and bolted outside, running down a set of stairs and to the fore of the boat. Alec was already on the pulpit that jutted over the water, a small handheld video camera capturing the ruckus. Grace came up behind him, scanning the water.

“There!” Tony yelled.

Grace concentrated on where Tony was pointing. A dark mass swam just under the surface, creating a sizable wake. The nearly black torpedo-shaped fish rose higher, and its skin revealed cobalt and turquoise hues against the blue sea. Grace’s heart pounded. She laughed aloud, shaking with giddiness. All her imaginings didn’t compare to that first moment when she spied these formidable and extraordinary creatures.

She brought the binoculars to her eyes. The dorsal fin—an object of terror for an entire generation raised on Jaws—broke the surface as the shark moved parallel to the boat and toward her and Alec’s position.

She squealed with delight.

“Old friend?” Alec said.

“I’m checking.”

“It’s the Professor,” Tony bellowed.

Grace studied the jagged edges of the dorsal fin, but it wasn’t until she saw a notch missing in his caudal fin that she agreed with her graduate student.

“We first saw him last year,” she said for Alec’s benefit.

“He looks to be about fifteen feet.”

She nodded. “He’s a beauty. We frequently caught him in the company of two females. We called them Mary Ann and Ginger, but they usually chased him off.”

“From what I hear, the females do seem to dominate around here.”

The Professor glided beneath the narrow walkway that held them. They both whirled to the other side.

Grace kept the shark dead-center in the binocular eyepiece as it swam away, awe swelling her chest, increasing the pounding of her heart. “They’re so powerful. It’s breathtaking really.”

“So, did you ever find out?” he asked.

“What’s that?” She strained to keep the Professor in her sights as he glided farther away from the boat, finally disappearing.

“Who he preferred—Ginger or Mary Ann.”

She let the binoculars dangle around her neck and looked at him, taking a deep breath as the excitement of the moment dissipated. “It was hard to tell. Maybe we’ll solve that puzzle this time.”

“My money’s on Mary Ann,” Alec said.

“Nah,” Double D said from behind them. He’d obviously heard their conversation. “If the Professor is the stud I think he is, then he’ll definitely go for the flashier woman.”

Amusement danced in Alec’s eyes. “Too much work. A man prefers his woman to be more down-to-earth.”

“Depends what you want that woman for.”

 

Copyright © 2018 K. McCaffrey LLC

 

Writer on the Shelf

When I was a little girl growing up in Scottsdale, Arizona, I would frequently narrate my life to myself inside my head. I enjoyed this shift into a third person point-of-view. Perhaps it was the feeling of control it instilled, but it also helped my young mind process the daily grind of my life. I also had an overwhelming compulsion to write. I have boxes of diaries from my youth as evidence.

My mother was a voracious reader, so I spent my teenage years snatching books from her nightstand. During that time, her tastes ran to science fiction and fantasy. I had a steady diet of Anne McCaffrey (no relation), Marion Zimmer Bradley, Piers Anthony, and Roger Zelazney. I was also deeply enamored of King Arthur. I fell in love with Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and was fascinated by the twists and turns of Wuthering Heights, but I really didn’t read romances until I was a young married woman living a few thousand miles from home. My husband and I didn’t have much money back then, so I would walk to the nearby library and read whatever bodice-rippers happened to be on the shelf. Despite some of the cheesy covers, I quickly fell in love with the rich storylines and surprisingly well-drawn characters. It became obvious, later, that these were the kind of stories I wanted to write.

I studied engineering in college. There are no engineers in my family (my dad is an accountant and my mom a glass artist/teacher) but I was drawn to it for two reasons. One, I liked math and my high school calculus teacher always spoke so excitedly about the relationship between math and the world around us. Two, I wanted to make my dad proud by being an independent woman with a good job. Starting salaries for engineers aren’t too shabby. Funny thing is, I’ve never worked as an engineer except for a few summer internships at Motorola. My most intense engineering endeavor was my thesis while earning a Master’s in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. I designed a computer model that tracked heat damage inflicted when removing orthodontic brackets from dinosaur teeth. No, not really dinosaur teeth. One of my coefficients was incorrect and I inadvertently designed giant teeth instead of small, human ones. When I discovered my error, I was quite embarrassed and processed it by sobbing and eating an entire box of chocolate doughnuts. The debacle cost me an extra semester at school, but I did finally graduate.

When my husband and I began our family, we both agreed that it was important to have a parent at home, and I jumped at the chance to spend all my days with my children. It was a real blessing. However, I soon felt the urge to stretch myself, to work my brain a bit, and it wasn’t engineering I desired to do but writing. So, with four children under the age of five underfoot, I penned my first manuscript. Suffice it to say, there were many stops and starts, and many a rewrite, but that story eventually became The Wren, which was published in 2003.

I’ve written a few more books since, and have learned, and continue to learn, the art of writing, the way my own process unfolds, and the fun and hair-pulling aspects of marketing and promotion. I credit the unwavering support of my husband for giving me the opportunity to pursue my dream, because it took me ten years to support my writing career.

And now, a few random and fun facts about me:

My favorite movie of all time is Star Wars. I’ve seen it well over 60 times.

When I was young, I wanted to be (in no particular order): a theoretical physicist, a meteorologist, or a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader.

My dream job after college was to work for Lucasfilm and do sound design for movies (but I opted for children instead).

In college, I was President of the local chapter of the Society of Women Engineers at Arizona State University.

I had a huge love of “Flash Gordon” starring Sam J. Jones. (The movie “Ted” and the homage to Jones really cracked me up.)

During college, I fought a bull while in Mexico for Spring Break. (I survived unscathed, but scared out of my wits. The girl after me didn’t fare so well and had to be taken to the hospital with a broken ankle.)

I met my husband in German class at ASU when I was 18.

I’m not very fluent in German. (Maybe because I was distracted by that cute boy sitting behind me?)

As a child, I had over 20 pen pals from all over the world. I’m still in touch with one—we’re Facebook friends.

I bummed through Europe with my boyfriend (who later became my husband). We slept on boat decks and train station floors, lugging packs from England to Belgium to Germany to Italy and finally to the Greek Isles. Do this while you’re young.

I’m still gripped with wanderlust and have also traveled to Argentina, Peru, China, Turkey, Scotland, Ireland, and my favorite trip to date—interacting with gray whales in Baja, Mexico.

What’s on my bucket list? Swimming with humpbacks in either the Dominican Republic or Tonga; great white shark cage-diving at Guadalupe Island (Baja, Mexico); visiting an obscure collection of islands in the Central Pacific called Kiribati; Kathmandu; and gorgeous and remote Mongolia.

My overall dream? Grow old with my husband, try my best to release my children into the world (it’s hard to disengage those mommy tentacles), and keep writing the next damned book that won’t let me alone.

If you have any questions regarding this website, you may contact me using the information below.

Kristy McCaffrey
c/o K. McCaffrey LLC
P.O. Box 25293
Scottsdale, AZ  85255
United States

kristy@kristymccaffrey.com

Mine by Susi Fox Blog Tour

@Deaco89

You wake up alone after an emergency caesarean, desperate to see your child. And when you are shown the small infant in the nursery, a terrible thought takes root: this baby is not your baby.

No one believes you. Not the nurses, your father or even your own husband. They say you’re confused and delusional. Dangerous.

But you’re a doctor – you know how easily mistakes can be made. It’s up to you to find your real child, your miracle baby, before it’s too late.

With everyone against you, is it safe to trust your instincts? Or are memories from your past clouding your judgement? This can’t all be in your head . . . can it?

It’s anyone’s worst nightmare, isn’t it? Knowing the truth and being unable to make other people believe what you’re telling them. It’s one of those dreams that haunts you the whole of the next day and I think that’s why I got so engrossed in this book. A good read often works because it taps into something in your psyche and scares you because you recognise that feeling –  and Susi Fox has definitely pulled this off with aplomb in Mine 

I loved the name of this novel and I felt that it really managed to convey something of the darkness at its heart. As well as a plaintive cry of possession for her tiny daughter that she is now told doesn’t exist, a mine is a dark and lonely space, below ground level where you are cut off from the rest of humanity – and this is very much how it feels for Sasha as this novel progresses.

This is a deft and captivating debut novel that knows how to play on our primal fears and exploits them very skilfully indeed. Sasha’s years of trying unsuccessfully to have a baby make her plight all the more devastating as she is left with a son she feels has usurped her daughter’s place and feeling like nobody believes her. Sasha’s medical background means that she is all too aware that your mind can do strange things once you’ve given birth, nevertheless she is adamant that this is not her baby and all the more determined to be heard.

Sasha and Dan’s relationship is also convincingly drawn and their long journey towards parenthood sympathetically described by Susi Fox. The narrative structure of this novel means that you are constantly questioning the information you’ve been given. Is the narrator telling you the truth – or merely the truth as they see it? Switching from the present day, within the confines of the hospital to their past and fertility treatment is a very effective method for making us question Sasha, even as we sympathise with her because of the situation she believes herself to be in.

I found myself wondering who was behind this elaborate switch and how it would all unravel as the book sped towards its conclusion – and then switching to thinking that maybe they were all right and it was all in Sasha’s head. Still, no spoilers, so you’ll just have to read Mine for yourself in order to find out the truth…

Mine is a dark, unsettling and gripping read that keeps you guessing right up until the end. It poses interesting questions about what we call ‘instinct’ and how much we should trust it, even when all of the evidence would point to the contrary. I enjoyed its strong narrative voice and the fact that it definitely held my interest throughout a sunny May afternoon. I devoured it in one sitting in my refurbished garden and think you’ll definitely love it too if you pack it in your case as one of your summer reads over the next few months.

 

To learn more about the author of Mine, Susi Fox visit her website here. 

Writer on the Shelf

Susi is a GP and writer of medical thrillers.

Her short stories have been published in Farrago, Visible Ink, The Medical Journal of Australia, page seventeen and Star Observer and have received various awards and shortlistings.​

She lives in the Macedon Ranges with her family and is completing an Associate Degree in Professional Writing and Editing at RMIT while writing her next novel and working part-time as a GP.

The Old You – A new read!

Lynn Naismith gave up the job she loved when she married Ed, the love of her life, but it was worth it for the happy years they enjoyed together.

Now, ten years on, Ed has been diagnosed with early-onset dementia, and things start to happen; things more sinister than missing keys and lost words.

As some memories are forgotten, others, long buried, begin to surface… and Lynn’s perfect world begins to crumble. 
But is it Ed s mind playing tricks, or hers…?

There is nothing better than having a brand new Orenda book land on your doormat, particularly on a hot weekend when you know that you’ll be able to lie on a lounger and dedicate serious hours of sunny reading to it. This was my very fortunate position when the newest Louise Voss novel, The Old You arrived in the post and it made me feel doubly lucky to be able to kick back and enjoy it in the middle of the hottest May since weather records began…

 

It had been a while since I’d fully immersed myself in a stunning slice of domestic noir and I felt like I enjoyed this novel all the more as my palate had been cleansed and I was so in the mood for it. I’m not sure whether other people get like this or not – I definitely go on genre sprees and can get saturated in one particular type of writing. I’ve been a fan of Louise Voss since reading Catch your Death where she performed a stunning literary duet with Mark Edwards and The Old You was the perfect way to reconnect with her skilful characterisation and deft plotting.

We share Lyn’s utter shock when the love of her life, Ed is suddenly diagnosed with Pick’s disease which is a very rare form of dementia. The distress and confusion which affected her after his diagnosis is fabulously drawn and really gives an insight into the way that dementia can turn life as you know it totally upside down. The skilful way that Voss has structured this novel means that we are just as unsettled as Lyn is when, as well as the changes that happen as a result of Ed’s condition odd and unsettling things begin to happen and we are never really sure whether to blame Ed’s actions  or Lyn’s paranoia for the situation which slowly unfolds.

So many books nowadays are labelled as pageturners that it’s such an amazing feeling when you’re presented with a book that is the genuine article. The Old You definitely keeps its readers on their toes and we are constantly forced to consider who exactly we can trust in Voss’ intriguing and compelling novel. Is the ‘real’ Ed the man Lyn fell in love with, a man whose personality and character is being eroded daily by this dreadful illness or is the angry and aggressive man who she now finds herself married to the real Ed, who is being slowly unmasked as his illness becomes more pronounced?

Ed’s memory is a fabulous vehicle to explore the changes in the dynamics of a marriage faced with a serious health condition. Lyn is constantly wrestling with a deep-seated feeling of unease about Ed’s actions – she can’t square the circle of whether it is Ed or her own suspicious mind that is causing her to feel so on edge and this is a fabulous way of keeping the readers on their toes. We are constantly drip-fed new information, but not enough to totally un-muddy the waters in this fiendishly clever tale. I enjoyed the feeling of disorientation which ensued and was delighted to be able to sun myself in the garden wondering exactly how far I could trust Lyn’s perception of events and trying to work out where Voss would end up taking us.

Lynn and Ed’s past only reveals itself to us slowly and this is one of the main reasons that this plot was so satisfying for me. I liked the ‘spaces in between’ where we are left wondering about aspects of their relationship and joint history and there were plenty of opportunities to be wrong about something and then flick back through the pages and see that the clues were there all along, scattered so cleverly by Voss.

I hate spoilers so I’m keeping my cards close to my chest with this one. The plot never feels contrived or ‘twist for the sake of it’ and this was why it was such a satisfying read for me. I’ve heard lots of readers complaining about the way that they’ve felt a bit cheated by the end of some of the inferior domestic noir offerings out at the moment. With The Old You there’s no need to worry; you’re in very safe hands. The characterisation is spot on and you too will be swept along, wondering whether your suspicions are correct as Lyn’s life changes beyond all recognition.

The Old You is my favourite mystery of the year. I know that Karen can pick them, but here I feel like she really has excelled herself. This is the perfect holiday read –  it will virtually make you a prisoner on your sunbed as you will be so loath to tear yourself way for any length of time because you’ll be too desperate to find out the truth about Ed and Lyn’s unravelling marriage.

The Old You is published by Orenda Books and is currently available on Amazon Kindle for a bargain price. Many thanks to Anne Cater for the opportunity to take part in this blog tour with such fabulous company. If you get the chance, be sure to check out the reviews from my fabulous fellow bloggers

Follow Louise on Twitter

Purchase The Old You

 

Writer on the Shelf

Over her eighteen-year writing career, Louise Voss has had eleven novels published – five solo and six co-written with Mark Edwards: a combination of psychological thrillers, police procedurals and contemporary fiction – and sold over 350,000 books.

If you haven’t read her backlist, you’re in for a treat, have a look here

Louise has an MA (Dist) in Creative Writing and also works as a literary consultant and mentor for writers at http://www.thewritingcoach.co.uk. She lives in South-West London and is a proud member of two female crime writing collectives, The Slice Girls and Killer Women.

Tubing – Going Underground…

Polly, 28, lives in London with her ‘perfect-on-paper’ boyfriend. She works a dead-end job on a free London paper. . . life as she knows it is dull. But her banal existence is turned upside down late one drunken night on her way home, after a chance encounter with a man on a packed tube train. The chemistry between them is electric and on impulse, they kiss, giving in to their carnal desires. But it’s over in an instant, and Polly is left shell-shocked as he walks away without even telling her his name.

Now obsessed with this beautiful stranger, Polly begins a frantic online search, and finally discovers more about tubing, an underground phenomenon in which total strangers set up illicit, silent, sexual meetings on busy commuter tube trains. In the process, she manages to track him down and he slowly lures her into his murky world, setting up encounters with different men via Twitter.

At first she thinks she can keep it separate from the rest of her life, but things soon spiral out of control.

By chance she spots him on a packed tube train with a young, pretty blonde. Seething with jealousy, she watches them together. But something isn’t right and a horrific turn of events makes Polly realise not only how foolish she has been, but how much danger she is in…

Can she get out before it’s too late?

I read Tubing on a hot afternoon and I guarantee that if you enjoy a hot and steamy summer read, you’ll be in for a treat if you give Tubing a go. By that, I mean the book, Tubing of course – taking it any further after you’ve read all about it in K.A McKeagney’s dark and erotic novel is entirely up to you…

If you’ve ever travelled on a packed tube carriage and locked eyes with a handsome and mysterious stranger, you’ll definitely be able to identify with Polly’s initial introduction to this underground scene in London. This hookup mechanism is both literally and metaphorically underground, allowing complete strangers to set up intimate encounters via Twitter where they can indulge in their ultimate fantasy of anonymous and risky sex in a public place. I’d never heard of this phenomenon before and I’m not sure if it is a real ‘thing’ or not but I’m sure that stranger things have happened.

Polly was a difficult character to grapple with, I was intrigued by her behaviour without being drawn to her personality. She acted very selfishly for this first part of the book and it’s only as the book continues and we can see her backstory and begin to appreciate the difficulties in her past that we can have a bit more sympathy for her as a person. Her actions are quite hard to understand at times as it feels like her obsession with the world of Tubing and her relationship with her boyfriend Ollie was a little bit like she was trying to ‘have her cake and eat it’ in terms of safety with a dash of sexual excitement.

Ollie’s sister was a stand-out character for me and without giving any spoilers, she’ll intrigue you too with her interfering as the book progresses. I do think there were a couple of times during this book that my suspension of disbelief hit a few rough patches, but it was a fast and racy read so I wasn’t too bothered about how probable Polly’s shenanigans might be in real life.

If you are heading for the beach this summer and enjoy a saucy read and a page-turning finalè, then you should definitely pack Tubing in your holiday suitcase. It’s not for the faint-hearted though and if you think you might have trouble with raunchy frolics on public transport then this is possibly not the summer read for you. It’s been pitched as Girl on the Train meets Fifty Shades so that might help you decide whether the ‘Sound of the Underground’ would be too much for you as a reader. If you like a bit of spice in your sunlounger read, then I’ve just found you the perfect holiday book. Enjoy!

Writer On The Shelf

K.A. McKeagney studied psychology in Bristol before completing a Masters degree in creative writing at Brunel. She won the Curtis Brown prize for her dissertation, which formed the basis of her first novel Tubing. She has worked in London as a health editor writing consumer information as well as for medical journals. Her writing has been commended by the British Medical Association (BMA) patient information awards.

She is currently working on her second novel.