Scenes from around Cragside National Trust House and Gardens
Cragside formal gardens and Nells Moss Lake
Amble Harbour & distant view of Warkworth Castle (and some sand eels – eek)
My trip to London this week really didn’t disappoint. I travelled down with Mandie to attend the joint launch of You Can’t See Me by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir and One by Eve Smith hosted by Goldsboro Books. A brilliant evening where I got the chance to catch up with fellow bloggers Karen Cole ( Hair Past A Freckle ) and Jacob Collins ( Hooked From Page One ). If you haven’t visited their blogs yet you really should. Both are excellent. Also caught up with the lovely Karen Sullivan of Orenda Books, and Ayo Onatade ( Shotsblog ) so all in all a wonderful evening.
Eva, Karen and Eve and the lovely Orenda Books cupcakes
Being the useless blogger I am at the moment, I didn’t get any window shots or general book picks. I did however treat myself to Goldsboro exclusive hardback edition of You Can’t See Me . The paperback copies of both books were waiting for me when I got home from work the next day as I have my Bert’s Books Orenda subscription each month. Look at my Forbidden Iceland book stack now! I also ordered the paperback edition of The Bleeding by Johana Gustawsson from Bert’s which arrived with subscription box. So pretty and a perfect match for the hardback. I am a very happy bunny now.
The hardback and paperback copies of You Can’t See Me and the full Forbidden Iceland bookstack – The Creak on the Stairs; Girls Who Lie; Night Shadows & you Can’t See Me.
One and The Bleeding plus my hardback edition of The Bleeding alongside the paperback with its glorious red spredges.
Now … as if a double launch and cupcakes wasn’t reason enough to celebrate, I was an especially lucky blogger this week as I walked away from the event with another four gifted books. Firstly I have to say a huge thank you to David Headley of Goldsboro Books and DHH Literary Agency for the proof copy of David Fennell’s The Silent Man . Book three in the Grace Archer series, it’s out August 31st and I’ve been reassured it is the darkest one yet ( and that is no small feat!). Can’t wait to tuck in. And a mahoosively huge thank you to Karen Sullivan, publisher extraordinaire, who gave me three of my most anticipated reads for the second half of the year – White As Snow , part of the Áróra Investigations series by Lilja Sigurdardóttir (12 October), The Murmurs by Michael J. Malone (14 September) and The Beaver Theory by Antti Tuomainen (12 October), the final book in the Rabbit Factor trilogy. Can anybody say eek! Well, I’m sure most of you probably can, but you know what I mean. Super happy. Super, super happy! And spoilt. So not worthy but I am not complaining.
The Silent Man and White As Snow
The Murmurs and The Beaver Theory
One Netgalley title this week (I mean, I’ve been lucky enough right?) Trust In Me by Luca Veste is out 14th September. Just need to squeeze into my reading plans … No new pre-orders after fixing the mess Amazon made last week. Probably just as well really. But I did squeeze in a few new e-books – ones I’ve already planned to read but feel guilty for not having done so already, so replacing, in some cases, e-arcs and proofs with purchased books At least the author gets a few pence even if they don’t have my review, right? They were The Silent Child by J.G. Kelly; Out of Time by David Klass; In Two Minds by Dr Soham Das; and Sweet Dreams by Anders Roslund.
L-R: Trust In Me; The Silent Child; Out of Time; In Two Minds; Sweet Dreams
Books I have read
Mirror Image by Gunnar Staalesen (31 August)
As Bergen PI Varg Veum investigates two different cases, it becomes clear that they are uncannily similar to harrowing events that took place thirty-six years earlier… A gripping instalment of the award-winning Varg Veum series, by one of the fathers of Nordic Noir.
Bergen Private Investigator Varg Veum is perplexed when two wildly different cases cross his desk at the same time. A lawyer, anxious to protect her privacy, asks Varg to find her sister, who has disappeared with her husband, seemingly without trace, while a ship carrying unknown cargo is heading towards the Norwegian coast, and the authorities need answers.
Varg immerses himself in the investigations, and it becomes clear that the two cases are linked, and have unsettling – and increasingly uncanny – similarities to events that took place thirty-six years earlier, when a woman and her saxophonist lover drove their car off a cliff, in an apparent double suicide.
As Varg is drawn into a complex case involving star-crossed lovers, toxic waste and illegal immigrants, history seems determined to repeat itself in perfect detail … and at terrifying cost…
A chilling, dark and twisting story of love and revenge, Mirror Image is Staalesen at his most thrilling, thought-provoking best.
Marina Bay Sins by Neil Humphreys
Detective Inspector Stanley Low – belligerent, bipolar and brilliant. A Chinese-Singaporean, educated in London, with a food in both cities. His mission, to eradicate violent crime wherever he finds it. Low is having a bad day. His bipolar disorder is ruining another session with his psychiatrist, and when a murdered prostitute and a dead expatriate are discovered at Singapore’s most prestigious hotel in the glamorous Marina Sins Bay, he is plunged back into the sordid underworld he was desperate to leave behind. Low goes undercover returning to a world that the city refuses to acknowledge; a world of gambling addiction, crime syndicates, international money launderers, immoral celebrities and corrupt politicians, all living in Asia’s cleanest metropolis. Marina Sins Bay may be the sparkling embodiment of the island’s devotion to economic prosperity, yet a corrupt underworld lies within the ‘Monaco’ of Asia. As Inspector Low gets closer to the unpalatable truth, he will demand answers to questions that society has chosen to ignore for too long.
Reykjavík by Ragnar Jónasson & Katrín Jakobsdóttir 17 August
What happened to Lara Marteinsdóttir? Iceland, 1956. Fifteen-year-old Lára spends the summer working for a couple on the small island of Videy, just off the coast of Reykjavík. In early August, the girl disappears without a trace. The mystery becomes Iceland’s greatest unsolved case. What happened to the young girl? Is she still alive? Did she leave the island, or did something happen to her there? Thirty years later in August, 1986, as the city of Reykjavík celebrates its 200th anniversary, journalist Valur Robertsson begins his own investigation into Lara’s case. But as he draws closer to discovering the secret, and with the eyes of Reykjavík upon him, it soon becomes clear that Lara’s disappearance is a mystery that someone will stop at nothing to keep unsolved . . .
The Raging Storm by Ann Cleeves (31 August)
Detective Matthew Venn returns in The Raging Storm, the next captivating novel in the Two Rivers series from Ann Cleeves, the number one bestselling author and creator of Vera and Shetland. When Jem Rosco – sailor, adventurer and local legend – blows into town in the middle of an autumn gale, the residents of Greystone, Devon, are delighted to have a celebrity in their midst. The residents think nothing of it when Rosco disappears again; that’s the sort of man he is. Until the lifeboat is launched to a hoax call-out during a raging storm and his body is found in a dinghy, anchored off Scully Cove, a place with legends of its own. This is an uncomfortable case for DI Matthew Venn. He came to the remote village as a child, its community populated by the Barum Brethren that he parted ways with, so when superstition and rumour mix and another body is found in the cove, Matthew soon finds his judgement clouded. As the stormy winds howl and the village is cut off, Venn and his team start their investigation, little realizing their own lives might be in danger. . .
Well … I am not going to jinx myself by saying I’m back, but it’s been a much better reading week this week. As I’m away next weekend there is no chance next week will be as productive so I’ll take this. Busy week on the blog – recap below:
#Review – The Murder List – Jackie Kabler #Review – The Ungrateful Dead – Adam Simcox #Review – One – Eve Smith #Review – Black Thorn – Sarah Hilary #Review – The Bleeding – Johana Gustawsson #Review – The Girl’s Last Cry – Alison Belsham
And that is that. No blog tours this week if you can believe that, but reviews every day including one today that I know someone has been waiting for for a very long time
