The Killer's Christmas List by Chris Frost #TheKillersChristmasList @cmacwritescrime @HarperNorthUK #BookReview @NewcastleNoir

 

In the picturesque village of Kibblesworth, DI Tom Stonem is dreaming of a quiet Christmas alone.

But in the shadow of the Angel of the North, a body lies waiting. The dead man is posed with a child’s Christmas list in his pocket, and the first mysterious item – 1. No angel – is crossed off.

When a second body is found – a woman, stabbed in the abdomen after her work Christmas do – Stonem is convinced there’s a grim connection between the crime scenes and the seemingly innocent list. 2. Red partee dress. Could this be a murderer’s twisted code?

As a blizzard rages in the Tyne & Wear countryside, the body count is snowballing. Can Stonem stop the killer before they get everyone on their Christmas list?

An anti-cosy Christmas crime novel for fans of The Killer in the Snow and One by One.

The Killer's Christmas List by Chris Frost was published on 23 November 2023 by HarperNorth. 

My husband read this one a few weeks ago and raved about it, he only reads digitally though and I'm a physical copy reader. I was delighted to buy a copy signed by the author at the Newcastle Noir Crime Fiction Festival at the beginning of the month. 

I've read a couple of this author's early books; published by Red Dog Press, as Chris McDonald, and really enjoyed them. I was interested to see how he would progress from the cosier end of the crime fiction genre, to a more psychological thriller type story. He hasn't disappointed at all! Just like my husband, I was gripped from the eerily tense prologue, right through to the explosive ending. 

This is a cold story! Set in the North East, around Newcastle and Gateshead, it's just a few days before Christmas and the weather is bleak. Constant rain, wind, snow. The feeling of the creeping cold infiltrating both the characters and the plot line adds such substance and depth to the narrative. I'm not sure that it would work quite so well if it were set in the Summer months. 

DI Tom Stonem has recently moved from the Manchester force to take up a post in the North East. He's due a couple of days to get his new home in order, and to try to rescue the remnants of his relationship with girlfriend Anna. However, things don't go to plan, and Tom is called out early. The body of a well-known local figure has been found in a pit alongside the iconic Angel of the North statue. Not only are Tom and his team expected to find the killer quickly, after all, the victim is a local MP, they are thrown another curve ball when a child's Christmas list is found on the body. The first item has been marked off. What on earth does it mean?

A second body, this time a young woman, is found. Again, that same Christmas list is found on her body. It's obvious that there's some link between the deaths, but finding that link, and the killer is not an easy job at all. 

Woven between the story of the numerous bodies that are found, and the ongoing police investigation are snippets from a child's diary. These really gave me the chills, the reader has no idea who wrote them, but the despair, and anger that is expressed in the words are frightening. There has to be a link, but what on earth is it?

Frost expertly creates characters who are both relatable and very flawed. Tom has his own burdens to bear which are slowly revealed to the reader. His past history is shocking and he struggles to contain his anger at times. A damaged man, but one who wants to find justice for those who've been killed so violently. 

I was totally hooked by the plot, it races along at various places, allowing the reader time to reflect and try to make their own guesses at the ending. 

An absolutely chilling read for this time of the year. The clever plotting and the complex mystery are genius. I loved it. 

Chris Frost grew up in Northern Ireland and now lives in the appropriately-named Marple. 

He is the author of ten crime books, including the Erika Piper trilogy and The Stonebridge Mysteries. 

He is a scriptwriter, and a regular voice on The Blood Brothers Podcast and Friends Of The North. 

He is a fan of football, heavy metal and dogs.

www.chrismcdonald.org

X @cmacwritescrime

Instagram @cmacwritescrime

Born In A Burial Gown by M W Craven #BornInABurialGown @MWCravenUK @LittleBrownUK #BookReview #AvisonFluke

 

Detective Inspector Avison Fluke is a man on the edge. He has committed a crime to get back to work, concealed a debilitating illness and is about to be made homeless. Just as he thinks things can't get any worse, the body of a young woman is found buried on a Cumbrian building site.

Shot once in the back of the head, it is a cold, calculated execution. When the post-mortem reveals she has gone to significant expense in disguising her appearance, Fluke knows this is no ordinary murder.

With the help of a psychotic ex-Para, a gangland leader and a woman more interested in maggots than people, Fluke must find out who she was and why she was murdered before he can even think about finding her killer...

Born In A Burial Gown by M W Craven was originally published in 2015 by Caffeine Nights Publishing. This updated version was published by Constable / Little Brown on 9 January 2020 and is the first book in the Avison Fluke series. I bought my copy in late 2020, and it's been sitting on my shelf for all that time. Do not ask me why. I have no idea! What an amazing book it is! 

I think it's fair to say that I am a massive fan of this author. I have read and devoured all of his Washington Poe series and am a firm fan of his latest series featuring the fearless Ben Koenig. I am now also, a huge fan of Avison Fluke and his eclectic team of police officers who work in deepest Cumbria

Craven always makes his settings a huge part of the plot, and in Born In A Burial Ground, the desolation of the Cumbrian countryside, mixed with the darker underbelly of the small towns in the area really do become characters in their own right. I doubt this would work so well in any other setting. 

Avison Fluke is a complex guy. He's a dedicated police officer but has many issues of his own that impact on his ability to do his job. This does not stop him, despite being a man of the law, he often bends the rules, in fact he snaps them in two at times, just so that he can stay in the middle of the action. A desk-bound job is not for Avison, he needs to be out there, he thrives on the complexities of the cases that he investigates. 

The body of a woman is found hidden on a building site. Shot once in the head, nobody knows who she was, or why she was killed. It becomes clear after the post-mortem that the woman had gone to great lengths to try to change her appearance. She was hiding from someone, but they've obviously found her. Avison not only has to find the killer, he has to find out her identity too. 

Surrounded by a team who comprise of Avison's oldest friend, Towler; a man with his own dark issues to deal with, along with team members that Avison's boss, Chambers, considers to be a little strange, but who Avison knows he can depend on, he sets to work. 

This is a gritty, often violent, but always thrilling piece of writing. There are scenes that will make your toes curl in horror, yet none of it feels as though it's done just to shock. Avison is dealing with dangerous people here, the sort who wouldn't think twice about killing their own grandmother for their personal gain. However, as with all of Craven's work, we do find some light, there's that trademark dry wit, along with an in-depth look at Avison himself. His history, his reasons for what he does. It's a combination of a thrilling, twisty thriller along with rich dialogue and excellent pacing. 

Highly recommended by me. The next book in the series is called Body Breaker and I'm certainly not leaving that one for so long before I read it! 

Multi-award-winning author M.W. Craven was born in Carlisle but grew up in
Newcastle.

 

He joined the army at sixteen, leaving ten years later to complete a social work degree. 

Seventeen years after taking up a probation officer role in Cumbria, at the rank of assistant chief officer, he became a full-time author. 

He is an instant Sunday Times bestseller and, for his Cumbria-set Washington Poe series, a recipient of the 2019 Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger, the 2022 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger and the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2023. 

The series has now been translated into twenty-seven languages

Instagram: @m.w.craven

Twitter :@mwcravenuk

Facebook: MikeCravenAuthor

Cut And Run by Alec Marsh BLOG TOUR #CutAndRun @AlecMarsh @RandomTTours #BookExtract

 

March 1916.

The Great War rages across Europe.

In the British Army garrison town of Bethune in northern France, a woman’s body is found in a park. Her throat has been cut.

Marie-Louise Toulon is a prostitute at the Blue Lamp, the brothel catering exclusively to officers of the British Army stationed in the area.

Wounded ex-soldier Frank Champion is brought in to investigate the crime - to find the killer believed to be among the officer corps.

But almost before his investigation gets underway another woman from the Blue Lamp is killed, her throat also cut. A third prostitute, meanwhile, has gone missing.

Then two more bodies are uncovered, including that of a British Army captain who appears to have taken his own life with his service revolver. But all is not what it seems…

Champion must face a race against time to save the life of another woman - at the risk of dying himself.

Cut And Run by Alec Marsh was published on 15 November 2024. As part of this #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour today,  I am delighted to share an extract from the book with you. 

Extract from Cut And Run by Alec Marsh 

Wivenhoe, Essex coast, England, March 1916

It was just past low water and the boats that lined the dried-out waterfront at Wivenhoe lay askew, their masts and idle rigging a confused bird’s-nest against the cold white sky. Several of the boats were held between taut ropes, braced like flies in a spider’s web. Others squatted in the soft muddy beds whichever way the receding waters had left them, their ropes sagging to the shore, draped in green

weed. Around them the riverbed was coated in marine and human detritus: the neck of a bottle protruded here, the iron hoops of a shattered barrel there. The damp air carried a pinch of salt that tickled the nose.

I pulled once more on the oars and the bow of my dinghy pushed through the water. For several minutes now I’d felt the change in the river; the tide was turning and the sea was once more claiming back the territory lost over the previous six hours. The tides made me think of the war: the constant advance and retreat of the sea not unlike like the frontline of battle where ground is taken and then yielded by well-matched opposing forces. A seagull swooped low over my head

– I ducked. Its flat call scraped the air like a violinist snatching his bow across his instrument’s sharp strings. The dinghy glided along under the power of the current...

I looked back out along the estuary towards the curve in the distance and the low line of trees on the horizon. As far as the eye could see the terrain was grey- brown; the low river banks, sprigged with tall grasses, giving way to the gentle incline of the exposed, glistening mud. Then, finally at the centre, the narrow channel: a chaotic, choppy sea of continuous undulations, where the shallow brackish waters remained a briny brown, no matter how blue the sky or brilliant

the sun. But the sun was not shining today; instead the whole seascape was leaden, dense, faintly forbidding. It was just as I liked it.

I pulled on my left oar, allowing my right blade to halt, and water to spill over it. The dinghy obediently turned to port, and with a heave of both oars, I arrived at the varnished stern of my boat Nancy. I shipped my oars and tied the dinghy to the bigger boat. A glance told me that Nancy was just as I had left her.

I unloaded the wooden tender; placing a pair of metal buckets, each piled high with oysters, onto Nancy’s teak deck, and depositing a hessian sack containing two good-sized soles that I had caught that afternoon beside them.

I arranged a pair of oily rags over the tops of the buckets to conceal their cargo and took them ashore. As I stepped down onto the jetty, a hot pain coursed through my left leg, stopping me mid-stride. The burning sensation was not unexpected; it sharpened and then dulled into a numbness, not unlike an episode of pins and needles, as I knew it would. I drew a breath, recovering myself, and looked across at the Rose and Crown, my destination. A glance told me that the

waterfront was clear – and pressed on

Alec Marsh was born in Essex. He is the author of the Drabble and Harris historical thriller series: Rule Britannia (2019), Enemy of the Raj (2020), Ghosts of the West (2021) and After the Flood (2024).

He graduated from Newcastle University with a first class degree in history.

Beginning his career on the Western Morning News in Cornwall, he went on to write for titles including the Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, The Times and London Evening Standard.

In 2008 he was named an editor of the year by the British Society of Magazine Editors. He formerly editor of Spear's Magazine, a title focused on luxury wealth and lifestyle. He continues to have bylines in The Daily Telegraph, the Daily Express, The Times, The Spectator and elsewhere. 

He is married and lives with his family in North Essex.

An Almost Perfect Summer by Jill Mansell #AnAlmostPerfectSummer @JillMansell @headlinepg @HeadlineFiction #BookReview

 

Nick is the most intriguing man Nella has met in a while. He's a 9 in the looks department (no one gets a 10), he makes her laugh, and he keeps her company when she ends up in A&E. But they live hundreds of miles apart.

Then Nella loses her job. There's a perfect role on offer at a Cotswolds holiday retreat. The catch is that her boss would be Nick. And that makes Nick the one man she can't risk falling in love with.

While Nella struggles with her feelings, a Hollywood star has found a haven at the retreat. Lizzie's sworn off people - especially men - until her friendly new neighbours entice her out of her shell. Maybe she needs a flirtation - with gorgeous Nick, perhaps? Not with taciturn local Matthew, though, who definitely isn't a member of her fan club. Then an astonishing secret revealed changes everything . . .

The scene is set for a fabulous new novel full of friendship, warmth and romance.

An Almost Perfect Summer by Jill Mansell is published on 16 January 2025 by Headline. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review. 

I've been reading Jill Mansells' novels for over thirty years and each year it is an utter delight to get my hands on a copy of her latest. I am not really sure how she manages to make her stories so fresh and exciting, filled with wonderful character who the reader will immediately fall in love with; but she does, and does it so well. I'm sure that I say that her current novel is my favourite so far every year; I'm certainly saying it this year! 

The luxury retreat in the Cotswolds is the perfect setting for the story. It is one of those places where people go for rest and relaxation, to be waiting on hand and foot. Where nothing is too much trouble. 

Nella initially meets Nick at a farm shop, and then later after she's had a nasty bump in her car. There is certainly an attraction there but they live miles from each other, so Nella does her best to forget him. However, when she loses her job and realises that her perfect job is available in the Cotswolds, she is torn. Nick would be her boss. They'd need to ensure that their relationship remained professional. 

Nella takes the job and this the just the beginning of what becomes a warm and heartfelt story of people trying to find their way in life. From Lizzie, the Hollywood film star, to Matthew, the widowed father of Maeve, here are a collection of people whose differences don't matter. It is the sense of community that builds around them that is quite magical. 

There's heartbreak and there's secrets that are slowly revealed. There is laughter and joy, along with tears and sometimes some sadness, but most of all, there's love and warmth and wit and wisdom. 

Once again, the Queen of Feel-Good Romance has delivered everything that I wanted in a novel. Highly recommended. 

Jill Mansell started writing fiction while working in the NHS, after she read a magazine article that
inspired her to join a local creative writing class. Since then she has written over twenty-five Sunday Times bestsellers. Her acclaimed novels include The Wedding of the Year, Promise Me, Should I Tell You?, And Now You're Back, It Started with a Secret and You and Me, Always. Jill's books have sold over 14.5 million copies worldwide.

Jill lives in Bristol and for many years worked in the field of clinical neurophysiology. You'd think inventing characters and stories would be easier, but she can assure you it isn't.

You can follow Jill on X @JillMansell, Facebook /OfficialJillMansell and Instagram @JillMansell

Deadbeat by Adam Hamdy BLOG TOUR #Deadbeat @PendulumCentral @RandomTTours #BookExtract

 

The author of the Scott Pearce series (Black 13, Red Wolves, White Fire) is back with a taut thriller following a desperate single father as he searches for the anonymous employer who hired him as a hitman.

Peyton Collard was a good man once, but his life changed after a horrific car accident. 

Divorced, drunk, and severely damaged, Peyton is offered a life-changing sum of money to kill an evil man. 

But as he goes on a vigilante journey that leaves a trail of bodies across California, Peyton wonders about the identity of his anonymous patron. 

Soon, his questions become an obsession, and he embarks on a tense and potentially deadly investigation to discover the truth about the murders he’s committed.

Deadbeat by Adam Hamdy was published on 3 December 2024 by Pendulum Central. As part of this #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour, I am delighted to share an extract from the book with you today. 

Extract from Deadbeat by Adam Hamdy

AN ANGRY GOD had snapped his fingers in my skull, killing half

my brain cells and traumatizing the leftovers. I opened my eyes and got lightning flashes across my vision. White fireworks that were regular features of my worst hangovers.

But who was I kidding?

I wasn’t hungover.

I was still wasted.

Last night’s session with Jim had run up my tab at Rick’s Bar like

the counter on a gas crisis fuel pump. Jim and I had rounded off the

night by doing a couple of lines of K in the fetid cesspit Rick calls a

men’s room, and my world had taken on a muffled, comatose, “fill in

the blanks” quality. I have no idea how I got back to the tiny rathole I

leased by the Long Beach Freeway. It was a dump, but it was my dump, and most of the stains on the threadbare faux-Persian rug were mine, so I didn’t mind coming round face down on the raggedy red floor.

There was thunder to go with the lightning flashes, and it took me a moment to realize the cracking noises weren’t imagined. Someone

was banging on the front door, no more than ten feet from my head.

“Open up, sir. Mr. Collard, we know you’re in there.”

I glanced around to see shapes at my window. My eyes wouldn’t focus properly, but the blocks of dark color suggested man-shaped lumps in uniform.

“Open up,” someone else said, rapping on the window.

“Yeah. Okay,” I replied, voice hoarse, throat raw.

Had I thrown up? I belched some bile, which burned when I swallowed.

Tequila, rum, vodka, and bourbon had all featured in past me’s

smorgasbord of drinks. Booze always convinced me I was invincible,and the more I drank the more invincible I became. I didn’t feel invincible now, though.

Left hand on the 1970s teak coffee table I’d found in a thrift shop,

and I pushed myself onto my side. Right hand on the arm of the green

corduroy couch someone over in Compton left in front of their house,

and I forced myself up from the floor. The room whirled like a

spinning top. Thankfully I wouldn’t have to do anything as complicated as get dressed. I was still clothed in my light jeans and a blue checked shirt worn unbuttoned over a black T-shirt, all crumpled and stained. I looked down at my bare feet and wondered where my shoes and socks were.

A mystery for another time, I thought as I staggered to the door.

Adam Hamdy is a bestselling British author and screenwriter who works with studios and
production companies on both sides of the Atlantic. 

He's currently adapting his novel Black 13 for Ringside Studios, and is developing his original screenplay, The Fear in Their Eyes with December Films.

Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney #BeautifulUgly @alicewriterland @panmacmillan #BookReview

 

Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life.

Grady calls his wife as she’s driving home to share some exciting news. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by a cliff edge, the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there . . . but his wife has disappeared.

A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, and he can’t write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible: a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.

Wives think their husbands will change, but they don’t.

Husbands think their wives won’t change, but they do.

Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney is published in hardback on 30 January 2025 by Macmillan. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review. 

Prepare yourselves folks; this one takes you one of the most twisty, mind bending rides that you will ever encounter. What appears to be an almost run-of-the-mill 'missing wife' mystery turns into a complex, psychologically chilling story. Narrated by two narrators who appear to be increasingly unreliable and populated by a cast of some of the strangest, most bizarre characters that I've ever read. This is a novel that pushes the reader's boundaries but grips with a very firm fist. 

Grady Green was a New York Times best selling author. It's difficult to imagine that just one year ago he was celebrating the success of his latest book. Twelve months on and he's a broken man. He is unable to write, he lives in a dingy hotel with his dog, he has no friends, no money and is most probably an alcoholic. Why?  Well, on the night that he found out that his book was a best seller, his phoned his wife Abby; she was driving home, with celebratory fish and chips. Whilst on the phone, Grady heard Abby stop the car, telling him that there was a woman laying in the road. Although Grady begged her to stay in the car, Abby got out. That was the last time that Grady heard from her. He dashed to the scene but Abby was gone, and she's still missing. 

Grady's agent is worried about him and offers him the chance to stay on the remote Scottish island of Amberley, in a cabin previously owned by a top author. Grady packs his car, takes his dog Columbo and makes the long journey to the ferry to the island.  However, he's not given the warmest of welcomes by the woman who runs the ferry, and is also Sheriff of Amberley. He has to leave his car on the mainland, and carry essentials to the cabin. 

Amberley has just twenty-five residents and as Grady meets each one of them, he realises that the community is a little strange. Everyone that he meets seems to know who he is. The most frightening thing for Grady is that he thinks that he sees his wife Abby on the island, not once, but a few times. However, he's aware that he's exhausted, his insomnia could be making him hallucinate, how on earth could Abby be here? 

Grady makes a very strange discovery under the floorboards of the cabin, it's quite macabre but is also the answer to his predicament. He gets on and begins to write his book. 

I'm not going to go into more detail about the plot, but it's an absolute belter. With characters who are perfectly created, yet always quite bizarre and the incredible setting of the wildness of the island, this author has produced a totally unpredictable, dark, chilling and extremely clever thriller. 

Highly recommended by me. 

Alice Feeney is a New York Times million-copy bestselling author. 

Her books have been translated into over thirty-five languages, and have been optioned for major screen adaptations. Including Rock Paper Scissors, which is being made into a TV series by the producer of The Crown. 

Alice was a BBC journalist for fifteen years, and now lives in Devon with her family. 

You can follow Alice on Instagram and Twitter: @alicewriterland

To find out the latest book and TV news, or to sign up for Alice's free newsletter, please visit: www.alicefeeney.com

White Slave by Cathy Thompson BLOG TOUR #WhiteSlave #CathyThompson @Abibiman_Publis @RandomTTours #Prize #Competition #Giveaway #Win

 

A former slave tells of an escapade involving him leading out a group of slaves from their former master, confronting the reality of racism in New Orleans in the 1800s, some years before the abolition. 

But did this in fact happen? Or could his retelling of the escape he led be what remains of the trauma of having been a slave himself?

It is a story of revenge and cowardice, of hypocrisy and community, of deep-rooted violence and the effect that leaves on the mind, but also a story about how the imagination serves as a place to hide away from that violence. 

White Slave by Cathy Thompson was published on 14 September 2024 by Abibiman Publishing. As part of this #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour, I have one copy to give away today.

Entry is simple, just fill out the competition widget in the blog post.  UK entries only please. 

GOOD LUCK! 

One copy of White Slave by Cathy Thompson

Cuckoo In The Nest by Fran Hill #CuckooInTheNest @franhill123 @Legend_Press #BookReview

 

It’s the heatwave summer of 1976 and 14-year-old would be poet Jackie Chadwick is newly fostered by the Walls. She desperately needs stability, but their insecure, jealous teenage daughter isn't happy about the cuckoo in the nest and sets about ousting her.

When her attempts to do so lead to near-tragedy – and the Walls’ veneer of middle-class respectability begins to crumble – everyone in the household is forced to reassess what really matters.

Funny and poignant, Cuckoo in the Nest is inspired by Fran Hill’s own experience of being fostered. A glorious coming of age story set in the summer of 1976.

Cuckoo In The Nest by Fran Hill was published in paperback on 23 April 2023 by Legend Press. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review. 

I have to own up that this book has been sitting on my shelf for a very long time. I am not sure why it has taken me so long to pick it up, but, oh my goodness, I am so happy that I've finally read it. I have a copy of the follow up; Home Bird, which will be published in March next year, and it's now firmly on my Christmas reading list. 

Many years ago, at the beginning of the 2000s, I became a volunteer mentor, working with young people who were either in the care system, or were at risk of being taken into care. I then went on to get paid employment with the same organisation and spent four years managing a project, recruiting and supporting volunteers to work with young people in the care system. I continued to work directly with them too. These were both the happiest, and the most emotional and challenging years of my career. Whilst it was my job to try to teach the young people, I also learnt so much from them. I will never forget some of them, their stories, their situations, their lives. 

Fran Hill uses her own experience of being fostered to create a wonderfully rich novel that is filled with warmth, humour and charm. 

Jackie is fourteen years old. Her mother died of cancer and she lives in a terraced council house with her father. Her Dad was a fireman, many years ago, but more recently he has just been a drunk. He lives his life through the bottom of a whiskey glass, slobbing around in dirty underwear, too lazy to climb the stairs. Jackie does her best, sometimes he is forced to steal food to make sure that they have something to eat. She tries to care for her Dad, but really she wants to be cared for herself. Jackie is intelligent, funny, sarcastic and loving. She is vulnerable and covers that by uttering hilarious one-liners and writing poetry. 

Things cannot continue though and her teachers have noticed the bruises. Jackie is to be fostered and her social worker takes to her to meet the Walls family. Parents Bridget and Nick and their own fourteen year old daughter, Amanda. 

What follows is a beautifully written coming-of-age story that will pull at the hardest of heart strings. As Jackie tries her best to fit in with her new family; welcomed by the adults, but derided by Amanda, she has many challenges to overcome. 

The Walls have their own secrets, skeletons in the cupboard, firmly being hidden by Bridget's constant preparation of food, Nick's escapes to his shed and Amanda's increasingly destructive behaviour. 

Throughout the novel, Jackie carries on. She takes things in her stride, rarely exposing her own feelings, unless it is in the form of a poem, but still managing to create new friendships, whilst constantly worrying about her Dad, especially when she is told that he in now in prison. 

Set in the searing hot summer of 1976, which I also remember very well, this is a brilliantly written novel. The characters are vibrant, colourful and realistic. The 1970s setting, with the food, the TV programmes and most of all, that overwhelming heat adds so much to what is already a evocative and nostalgic novel. 

Highly recommended by me. I'm really looking forward to finding out more about Jackie in the next novel.

Fran Hill is a 60-year-old self-employed English teacher and writer with two previous books; a memoir and a self-published novella.

Cuckoo In The Nest is her first full-length work of fiction.

She has written extensively for the Times Educational Supplement and lives in Warwickshire with her gardener husband.

She has two grandchildren. 

www.franhill.co.uk

X @franhill123

Instagram @franhill123

Bluesky @franhill123.bsky.social

Broken Madonna by Anna Lucia BLOG TOUR #BrokenMadonna @AHaywardWriter @RandomTTours #BookExtract

 

Italy 1949

At an orphanage in the poverty-stricken Apennine Mountains, 15-year-old Adelina has only one younger friend - enigmatic, fragile Elisabetta.

When Elisabetta claims to see the Madonna by the river, Adelina has doubts. But after Elisabetta appears to heal Giulio, an injured and traumatised young soldier, crowds flock to witness the mystery of Elisabetta’s miracles.

Adelina can no longer contain her misgivings and seeks out scheming priest, Padre Bosco. As the secrets of the past begin to unravel, Adelina, Elisabetta and Giulio each have to confront who or what to believe.

Soon they face a terrible reckoning which will cause deep ripples in all their lives, reaching across the years to 1990s England.

Broken Madonna by Anna Lucia was published on 16 November 2024 by Fluency Publishing. As part of this #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour today, I am delighted to share an extract from the book with you. 

Extract from Broken Madonna by Anna Lucia

Prologue 22 June 1938

River Mollarino, Apennine Mountains, Italy

Forgive me, piccina mia, little one.

Icy water rises up and grabs at the woman’s stretched, empty belly. In the makeshift sling her newborn baby wails, strong fists and feet against her mother’s swollen breasts. The baby opens her pale blue eyes, eyes that belong to a much older soul, and looks up.

The woman presses her pockets, feeling the weight of the pebbles, and she lifts her hand towards her child’s face. Her fingertips hesitate on the baby’s soft skin, the dimple on her right cheek.

She can’t do it.

Her hands plunge back into the water, and she tears at her pockets. The stones are too heavy.

The river pounds downstream, glistening in the moonlight, and swallows the wretched cries from the baby’s tiny body.

As the woman tries to edge backwards, her feet struggle on the slippery riverbed.

‘Almost safe, tesoro,’ she lies, as the baby lets out a terrified cry. 

A wave hits the woman’s side.

All at once, they’re sucked down, deep into the water.

No, no, per l’amore di Dio, no.

The sling is unravelling.

The woman kicks with all her strength, but the water pulls her this way and that. Her back strikes a boulder, hard. Suddenly her head breaks the surface of the water. She’s gasping for breath, the sling clutched tight in her hand, but there is no weight to it.

‘Elisabetta!’

Her scream echoes across the valley. The water is dragging her back into its cold embrace as she hears a voice.

A young man, crying out, thrashing in the water nearby. Just before she disappears, she sees her child in his arms.

Born in England to older Italian immigrant parents, Anna Lucia spent long, hot summers in the Apennine mountain village they had left behind to escape poverty and lack of opportunity. In the local dialect, she listened to the stories of elderly relatives about a time, place and way of life that was far, far removed from 1970s and 1980s suburbia.

Those voices, particularly of strong women who led tough lives, never went away, neither did the echoes of Catholicism.

Anna has been awarded support for her writing from Arts Council England, and also writes short stories, flash fiction and poetry. She is Chair of Trustees of literature development agency, New Writing South.

When not writing, Anna is likely to be found gardening, walking in nature or dancing the Charleston. She has broad interests in spirituality and dream analysis and reads tarot and astrology charts. She lives in Brighton, England.

X @AHaywardWriter 

IG @authorannalucia