Today it is my turn on the blog tour for Duality by K.J. McGillick. Many thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for the opportunity to read, review and join the tour.

Sometimes only a good thriller is going to hit the spot, something fast paced and intriguing; a story line to keep you guessing right to the last chapter.

And Duality ticks all the books and more.

Let me introduce you to Mr Martin. Quiet, socially awkward and precise, Art Historian and Lawyer. When he calls his colleague Mary Cormier in small hours of the morning it is to report that he has found his ex wife Melinda Martin, an art restoration expert dead.

Mary, a 90 year old like no other (!) has absolutely no doubt that Mr Martin is entirely innocent and is prepared to put the reputation of both her firm and legal colleagues on the line to prove it.

But when another dead women, again connected to Mr Martin, is found things are suddenly far from certain.

 Add to the mix that the painting Melinda Martin was working on is reputed to be a lost Botticelli masterpiece thought to have perished as part of Savonarola’s Bonfire of the Vanities, a painting that may have ties to the occult and could be worth millions.

The police have Mr Martin in the frame, particularly when a passport bearing his image, but name of an international art forger and thief turns up at the crime scene.

 So where is this priceless painting now?

And is Mr Martin who he claims to be, a bumbling but brilliant academic and lawyer or is he Giuseppe Balestruccio, a sociopath forger with mysterious ties to the Vatican?

 This is a thriller which will take Mary and her team across the globe, from the USA, to both Florence and Rome. With a cast of colourful and unpredictable characters, we are wrapped up in a fast paced plot where anything seems possible.

Links to the Vatican and the underworld of Rome add a level of mystery which span the centuries taking in both the Catholic Church and the occult. Until almost the last page it is impossible to see where the truth lies.

Is Mary right to stick by her man? Or will Mr Martin surprise them all?

About the author…

Kathleen McGillick is a practising attorney. Having grown up in New York, she has lived for the past 33 years on Georgia. Her career has taken in Nursing as well as Law.

Kathleen is a Mother, Grandmother and seasoned traveller.

And it goes without saying that she writes a cracking thriller.

Purchase links…

UK –https://www.amazon.co.uk/DUALITY-Sides-Same-Coin-Misdirection-ebook/dp/B07VR84PWG/

US –https://www.amazon.com/DUALITY-Sides-Same-Coin-Misdirection-ebook/dp/B07VR84PWG/

And there is more …

The blog tour for Duality continues with these fantastic bloggers. Check out their thought on the book by following the details below.

I have said it before and I will doubtless say it again ( and again…and again…) I will never tire of the thrill of seeing places I know and love included within the pages of a book.

So when Rachel from Rachel’s Random Resources asked me to be involved in the blog tour for The Lost Daughter it was the setting that initially drew me in.

For Hull, in all it’s majestic and unique glory, was a large part of my University years. It was where I met my future husband and it is where several dear friends still live.

The Lost Daughter is set with the Hull of yester year. The story begins in the early 1930’s when Alice Goddard is involved in traffic accident after fleeing from her violent husband. This attack is one too many and in desperation Alice momentarily leaves her daughter, Daisy, to get help, but while Alice is incapacitated Daisy is given over to the authorities, abandoned by both her father and Grandmother.

Here is a cutting testimonial to the lack of rights and resources available to women suffering abuse and poverty at this time. Before the welfare state, Alice’s options are bleak and her daughter seems lost forever.

So begins a lifelong search, for both her daughter and the truth. We follow Alice’s journey, as through hard work and determination, she educates herself, eventually becoming a skilled nurse.

Life is hard but often kind to Alice as her hard work and gentle nature is rewarded, not only professionally but personally too, as she enters a new relationship.

But still Alice doesn’t forget her daughter.

This is a tale spanning almost twenty years and crucially including the Second World War. Alice’s nursing skills are in demand and like many others her’s is a busy war, filled with hardship tragedy and also adventure. The author reminds us time and again of the sacrifices ordinary men and women made for our country both home and abroad at this time.

But the spotlight is often turned on Hull and rightly so. It is often overlooked when talking about the Blitz that it wasn’t only London that suffered. Many northern manufacturing and coastal towns suffered too, as night after night German bombers caused havoc from the skies.

Indeed it is the author’s local knowledge and love for the area which shines through in this tale of humble beginnings and determination.

About the author…

Sylvia Broady was born in Hull and has lived all her life in Hull. She is keenly aware of the impact WW2 had on her home town and this is reflected in her writing.

Having had a wide ranging career in East Yorkshire, taking in childcare, NHS and work in the counties libraries, Sylvia is now a full time writer.

Social Media Links:

https://www.facebook.com/SylviaBroadyAuthor

https://twitter.com/SylviaBroady

https://sylviabroadyauthor.com

Purchase information…

From 22nd – 29th August, The Lost Daughter will be at the bargain price of 99p.

Amazon UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-Daughter-Sylvia-Broady-ebook/dp/B07F3KPN1J

Win a copy of ‘The Lost Daughter’

Win 2 x paperback signed books of The Lost Daughter and The Yearning Heart (OpenInternationally)

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/33c69494268/

*Terms and Conditions –Worldwide entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

And there is more …

The blog tour for The Lost Daughter continues with these fantastic bloggers. Check out their thought on the book by following the details below.

Lanny, Lanny, Lanny!! Where do I start?

As I tweeted last week Lanny was going to be a ‘read but not review book’. It was going to be the beginning of my personal foray into the ManBooker Long List. It took approximately 15 pages before I abandoned that idea, because Lanny was a book I immediately wanted to talk about, write about and share with as many people as possible. Lanny was a book that excited me and I am not very good at keeping quiet when that happens!

So what is it all about? Allow me to try and explain.

Lanny is set in the present day, in a village within commuter distance from London, a village found in the Doomsday book, the village where Lanny and his parents live.

Lanny’s mum is a former actress, now a writer, who is working on violent crime novels that somehow seem at odds with her personality. Lanny’s father works in the City, one of the village’s many commuters. Wrapped up in his job, he is stressed and feels no real connection to the village or most noticeably to his son. As a couple they are together but feel very separate. There is a sense of disconnect in their relationship and their belief systems, cleverly enhanced by the way Porter presents their individual points of view. Both are given separate sections, each short, each very much a capsule of their own thoughts and feelings, each very different to the next.

And what of Lanny?

Well, Lanny is unusual. He is a creative and sensitive boy. He alone in his family feels a connection to his environment, he alone in his family lives up to his surname Greentree. Wandering the village, Lanny is in touch with the world around him. He has a friendship with Pete, a famous but almost reclusive artist who has taken refuge in the village. Pete is loosely employed to teach Lanny art but their relationship is essentially a meeting of like minded souls; Pete and Lanny understand each other, and they learn from each other,

There is another character at work in this novel, one that is less tangible but no less real or important. Papa Toothwort is the village’s oldest inhabitant. He has seen peace and turmoil, prosperity and famine, and now, after a spell of apparent dormancy, Papa Toothwort has awoken. His legend is woven into the fabric of the village, in it’s history, in its church, but it seems that for many a year now Papa Toothwort has been largely forgotten. As the village has changed and the old traditional ways have receded further into the past Papa Toothwort, a pagan Green Man figure, has slipped further from people’s minds.

But now Papa Toothwort is awakening. The voice of the earth, and the all seeing eye of the village has been disturbed from his slumber. A malevolent force which seems to absorbed the years of abuse inflicted upon the ground Papa Toothwort is a shapeshifter and a trickster, able to get into the homes and sometimes the minds of the villagers. There is a very real sense that Papa Toothwort is here to teach someone a lesson, to claim back a village that has lost it’s sense of self.

And Papa Toothwort feels a connection with Lanny. Is it Lanny’s arrival in the village that has awoken him? Or is it the increasingly insular and distasteful behaviour of the villagers themselves?

The sections in the first part of the book that present Papa Toothwort’s point of view are disordered and fragmented. They are made up of Papa’s own thoughts as he awakes from his slumber, and supplemented by snatches of conversation he hears from around the village. Porter has created soundbites that are authentic and pithy, the like of which we might over hear in any pub, cafe or on any bus. Short bursts and phases they may be but they build a compelling portrait of life in the village. In the beginning they chime as humorous, fragments of gossip and trivia, but as time moves on they become more disordered, disturbed and disturbing.

As Papa Toothwort draws closer the style of his entries become more frantic, the tone of the snatched conversations becomes darker. And we find ourselves asking is Papa Toothwort inherently malicious or is he just a mirror, reflecting the mood and behaviour of the village and it’s inhabitants? Either way there is a terrible inevitability to what happens next.

Lanny is missing.

With this revelation we enter Part 2 of the book and the style changes again. Porter draws us into that terrible world where a child has vanished, where everything is unreal and chaotic. A world where time is precious but it seems to be behaving strangely. A world where judgements are made and false trails are laid. There is a insular, almost claustrophic feeling to the writing, a desperation for the truth and on some level a desperation to be believed.

In the immediate aftermath of Lanny’s disappearance the fragmentation of the village is ever more apparent. Feelings that have been hiding behind doors are openly expressed, as if Lanny’s disappearance has forced barely concealed ill feeling to the surface. When suspicion falls on those closest to Lanny we find ourselves in the paradox of those who understood Lanny least casting their net of judgement.

Part 3 of the novel brings resolution. It is dreamlike in style and flows in an organic way towards it’s conclusion. It is a mark of Porter’s skill as a writer that he has managed to create a book of such seperate styles that work so cohesively. The story of Lanny and his place within in the world is a simple but beautiful one. It is told in an original but entirely fitting way. The writing, it’s style, order and choice of words perfectly reflect the subject matter and personality of this book and it’s protagonist.

Sometimes you read a book and it speaks to you in the first few pages. Sometimes you read a book and you want to recommend it far and wide. Lanny is one of those books. Beautifully crafted, each phase or word placed with care.

Without a shadow of a doubt, Lanny deserves it’s place on the ManBooker Long List, and I am really hoping to see it on the Short List.

Rachel x

Today is my turn on the blog tour for the spine tingling thriller that is Control by Hugh Montgomery. Many thanks to Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers for inviting me along. Without further ado, on to the book..

About the book…

When dedicated Junior Doctor Kash Devan begins his rotation at the Victory hospital nothing could prepare him for the roller coaster ride. The things that Dr Devan will see and do and the decisions he will have to make will take him far beyond the every day grind of the wards. And change his life forever…

Consultant surgeon Mr Trenchard inspires respect and awe across the hospital. His charm and brilliance is legendary and never in doubt. From his first encounter Kash is dazzled by the older medic’s skill and flair.

And yet there are darker undertones that seem to follow the man. Not everyone is quite as smitten as Kash. Is there something sinister about the good doctor? What is left unspoken?

Normal hospital life is turned upside down when Trenchard is found unresponsive in his office one night. The scene has all the hall marks of an erotic game gone wrong and Trenchard is left brain dead, his reputation ruined and the air alive with gossip.

But is everything as it first seems?

For the quiet but astute Doctor Devan something just doesn’t quite add up. Who, for example put out the crash call? Who is the mysterious woman who has been seen visiting Trenchard, complete with younger man in tow? Why is there evidence of further harm to his patient?

And more importantly is Trenchard’s mind as damaged as it seems? Surely a brilliant mind isn’t so easily snuffed out? Or could he hold the key to his own fate, and if so can Devan unlock it in time?

But more importantly should he?

This is a novel full of questions. Questions about timing, motive, character and past. Questions all woven together to form a tangled web of dark intrigue where no one is above suspicion and nothing is ever quite as it seems. There are suspects abound, as it becomes clearer that more than one person has reason to wish Trenchard harm.

But it is a novel with a solid foundation in authenticity and impeccable knowledge. There is an well drawn sense of place and it’s setting is vivid in the mind’s eye. The addition to detail is apparent from the start and it grounds the events in an uncomfortable reality, which makes its unfolding events even more chilling.

With a well paced plot and believable dialogue, this is a snappy and intriguing thriller that will keep you guessing right up to the last sentence.

About the author …

Hugh Montgomery is a distinguished physician, known for his pioneering genetic research.  Outside the field of medicine, he was a founding member of the UK Climate and Health Council and is an endurance expert, who has run three ultra-marathons, scaled the world’s sixth highest mountain, jumped naked from a plane at 14,000 ft and holds the world record for underwater piano playing. Zaffre, Bonnier Books UK’s flagship adult fiction imprint, will publish Control in August 2019.

And there is more…

For more reviews of, and reactions to Control check out the rest of the blog tour.

I cannot tell you how thrilled I am to be taking my turn today on the blog tour for Arguing With The Dead by Alex Nye, published by Fledgling Press. Thank you to Kelly of #LoveBookTours for inviting me to take part.

So come with me and let’s us take a trip back in time, to 1839. To Putney, by the banks of the frozen Thames where a widowed Mary Shelley finally begins the process of sorting the jumble of papers left by her husband, Percy Shelley.

As she works she recalls in fascinating but often painful detail their lives together. A life that began in elopement when she was just 16 and ends in a isolated Italian villa with Percy’s death.

Told in the first person, this is the extraordinary but tragic life of an remarkable young woman. As the the daughter of William Godwin, and Mary Wollstonecraft, she carries a proud legacy, but one that comes to haunt her.

This account is marked by beautifully authentic voice, in which Nye captures perfectly the narrative voice of Shelley.

Nye places repeated emphasis on the fact that Wollstonecraft dies from complications of childbirth, leaving Mary with incredible feelings of guilt but also a true awareness of her own morality, particularly linked to the bearing of children.

Nye presents us with the stark reality of a 17th Century woman. A reality that includes limited if any birth control, perilous pregnancies and deliveries, followed by high levels of infant mortality. For all her mother’s brilliance and progressive ideas, and despite Mary’s own unconventional life style, this is a inescapable truth that marks her young life with Shelley.

And mother’s influence is so keenly felt, in so many ways . It is her mother she turns to in her mind during childhood, trying to escape the tangled web of her unhappy relationship with her Step Mother, Mary- Jane.

When the family’s reduced circumstances force them to leave their beautiful home, The Polygon, to live trapped between the polluted River Fleet, Newgate Prison and Smithfield market, it is the loss of her visits to her mother’s grave that leaves Mary mourning once more.

Mary longs for her mother, longs to be like her. Her birthdays are always tinged with thoughts of what might have been.

But most importantly her mother’s progressive ideas on the role and capabilities of women’s define Mary’s own life, but perhaps not in the way she would wish.

With incredible skill, Nye shows us how it is the ideas and indeed legend of Wollstonecraft that first draw Shelley to the Godwin family home. At first it seems that her adoption of an unconventional life with Shelley is the embodiment of her mother’s ideals. Indeed Wollstonecraft’s philosophy is used by Percy to justify the constant, and for Mary, difficult presence of her step sister Claire in their lives. For every time Mary seeks to push this cuckoo from the nest, Shelley sights her Mother, using her teachings to justify his relationship with Claire. He has found her Achilles Heel and cleverly uses the progressive arguments, held so dear to her heart, as a way of constructing a gilded cage.

It is the ultimate exploitation of an understandable weakness and one which reflects the double standards that run throughout the book.

Brought up in a progressive household and exposed to radical thinkers from an earlier age, it is heartbreaking for Mary to find that when she tests these boundaries she is repeatedly shun by those she loves and respects.

Her father, William Godwin, will not see her until she marries Shelley despite his free thinking political and philosophical views. Despite championing Wollstonecraft, some might saying exploiting her memory; despite, indeed, conceiving his own daughter out of wedlock.

And what of Mary’s own literary career. She is devastatingly talented, conceiving and creating Frankenstein aged just 19. This is a work which draws upon all of her feelings of worthlessness, isolation and disconnection. A work that embodies the idea that she herself is the monster, a product of men created in the myth of her mother but cast aside when she acts on the philosophies they only talk about.

It is the ultimate double standard, the ultimate gilded cage. And one which rears it head time and time again when Mary’s attempts to publish her novel. Nye shows in painful and infuriating detail how the work is rejected repeatedly, only to find a place published under a male pseudonym. A familiar story but set against Mary’s back drop one that seems so grossly unfair.

There is no doubt that the dead loom large in this novel. For it is truly a gothic tale. There is the air of a dark fairy tale woven cleverly through the narrative. The portrayal of a young woman who is continually in danger of straying from the forest path. For when ever happiness settles in Mary’s life it’s appearance is fleeting. Her relationship with Shelley is marked by continual sacrifice and loss, including loss of self and tragically loss of young life.

Through the character of Harriet, the shadowy figure of Percy’s first wife Nye creates a supernatural feeling of inevitability. It is Harriet who haunts Mary’s dreams and increasingly her waking hours. It is Harriet who seems to cast the final judgement on this unconventional union.

Is Harriet a ghost in the truest sense? Or is she a manifestation of a mind at the limit of what it can endure? A physical embodiment of guilt, regret and tragedy?

Arguing with the dead is historical fiction at it’s finest. Nye has captured the very essence of Mary Shelley, given her a voice, a point of view and allowed her story to shine. She has taken a tale we think we know well and given us fresh eyes through which to see it. In the style of great historical fiction Nye has whetted the appetite and made the reader want to find more. For many readers I suspect that this will be the beginning of a love affair with the story and work of Mary Shelley.

About the author …

Alex Nye was born in Leicester, England. She writes for both adults and children. Her children‘s novel Chill won a Scottish Children’s Book Award in 2007. Her historical novel For My Sins, based on the life of Mary Queen of Scots was published in 2017.

And there is more…

For more reaction to,and reviews of, Arguing with the Dead check out the other fantastic blogs listed below. This is just the beginning!

Arguing with the Dead – Alex Nye is published by Fledgling Press and is available now.