End of Summer by Anders de la Motte @AndersdelaMotte @ZaffreBooks @kellyrose15 #EndOfSummer Transl. @neiltranslator #TranslatedFiction @ClareJKelly

 

You can always go home. But you can never go back . . .

Summer 1983: Four-year-old Billy chases a rabbit in the fields behind his house. But when his mother goes to call him in, Billy has disappeared. Never to be seen again.

Today: Veronica is a bereavement counsellor. She's never fully come to terms with her mother's suicide after her brother Billy's disappearance. When a young man walks into her group, he looks familiar and talks about the trauma of his friend's disappearance in 1983. Could Billy still be alive after all this time?

Needing to know the truth, Veronica goes home - to the place where her life started to fall apart.

But is she really prepared for the answers that wait for her there?

End of Summer by Anders de la Motte is published by Zaffre today; 19 August 2021 in paperback and is translated by Neil Smith. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review. It is translated by Neil Smith.

Raising my hands up now to say, this is one of the best books I've read in a long long time. I'm a huge fan of translated crime fiction and the translation of this Swedish story by Neil Smith is excellent, possibly some of the best translation I've ever read. 

It's a complex and incredibly intelligently written crime story that is told over two time lines. We have the present day where Veronica works as a bereavement counsellor.  She does this as much for herself as for her clients. Her past was marred by tragedy when her younger brother Billy disappeared from the family garden. Billy was never found and whilst many people thought they knew who was responsible, nobody was ever charged. Further tragedy followed when her mother took her own life and Veronica hasn't dealt with any of it so well. A new client arrives at her therapy session, speaking of his memories about his friend who went missing when he was a child. Veronica believes that he is speaking about Billy and she returns to her childhood home .... only to discover that there are many many secrets still to be uncovered. 

The reader is also taken back to 1983, beginning on the night that Billy disappeared. We follow the police investigations and we get to know the local community and the hierarchy of it. There are some larger than life characters here who in turn terrorise and intimidate the whole community. It's intriguing and clever and perfectly paced. 

My copy of this book is full of turned down corners, marking particular passages that jumped out at me. This author has such an insight into the human mind, and how communities work. He really gets into the mind of his characters, where their thoughts often speak far louder than their words. 

As with most Nordic Noir stories, the author creates such an enticing atmosphere as he describes this small Swedish community, there's an air of menace and fear that lingers over the whole town, it can be incredibly claustrophobic at times, but utterly engaging too. 

Slowly and cleverly, the secrets of Billy's fate emerge, and it really is unexpected and very shocking. When the reader comes to the end, it's plain to see, but before then, this clever author creates enough smoke and mirrors to totally grip his readers. The inclusion of anonymous letters woven throughout the text add a hint of mystery throughout, making the reader question every character.

Really impressive, I was totally hooked throughout and will look forward to reading more from this very talented author.

Anders de la Motte (b. 1971), a former police officer and security manager, made his

crime fiction debut in 2010 with Game and has since become one of Sweden’s most
beloved crime writers. 

De la Motte is the author of three acclaimed crime fiction series and in 2016 he embarked on his new series, the electrifying Skåne Quartet. Four stand-alone books: Rites of spring, End of summer, Deeds of fall and Dead of winter.

All four books of the series have been no1 bestsellers in his native Sweden and shortlisted for several awards.

Twitter @Andersdelamotte

Nobody's Perfect by Stephanie Butland BLOG TOUR #NobodysPerfect @under_blue_sky @ZaffreBooks @Tr4cyF3nt0n #BookReview

 

When her daughter was born with cystic fibrosis, Kate Micklethwaite vowed that Daisy would never be defined by her health issues. Kate is determined that her perfect little girl will be known for her love of butterflies, croissants and bouncing on trampolines, not for her condition.

Kate does all she can to be the perfect mother - whatever that means - and yet, somehow, has started seeing herself the way others see her: single parent, source of small-town scandal, drop-out, former mistress. Half a family.

When Daisy starts school, Kate meets her new teacher, the kind and charming Mr Spencer Swanson. Now, with more time on her hands Kate can finally start thinking about her own future. With her Open University dissertation deadline looming, Kate needs to decide what she wants next. But as she and Spencer get to know each other, Kate notices that people are whispering behind her back once more . . .

Nobody's Perfect by Stephanie Butland is published on 19 August 2021 by Zaffre. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review, as part of this Blog Tour, organised by Tracy from Compulsive Readers. 

Stephanie Butland is such a skilled author. I've been enjoying her books for a few years now and have such admiration for just how different each of her novels are. 

Kate Micklethwaite is a young single mother who never feels as she is quite good enough. She's long been the subject of small town gossip, going from the studious, intelligent girl who was expected to go to a top University, to a single mother of a child with cystic fibrosis, whose father is no longer on the scene.

Kate is determined that daughter Daisy will have the best possible life, dedicating her life to ensuring that she gets enough calories, that she doesn't pick up an infection and that she will never be defined by her illness. 

As Daisy is about to start school, Kate goes to meet her teachers and feels a spark that surprises her. Spencer Swanson is new to the school, and the subject of gossip too. Kate finds herself thinking of him a great deal, and struggles to deal with her feelings. She's completing her Open University degree, and has plans for the future, but sometimes plans don't quite go to plan. 

It is so easy to lose yourself in Kate and Daisy's world for these characters are perfectly drawn. The fierce love and protective instinct that Kate shows for Daisy is balanced out by her doubts about her own worth. She's not perfect at all, she has regrets, she often wonders what life would have been like if she hadn't become pregnant, but she's oh so real and relatable. 

Nobody's Perfect is a novel that teaches the reader, the sensitive way in which the author deals with having a child with a chronic illness is a joy to behold. She doesn't sugar coat this, but the absolute love that shines through is palpable. 

The supporting cast of characters wonderfully compliment the story, from Kate's long-time friend Melissa, to her wonderful mother and of course, Spencer Swanson. There is such a perfect mix of warm, humour and sensitivity here, coupled with more serious issues and lessons to be learned. 

Heartfelt and heart warming. Recommended by me. 

Stephanie Butland is a writer, who is thriving after breast cancer. (She used to say she was a survivor, but that was a bit lacking in joie de vivre.)

Although she’d never have chosen it, her dance with cancer has changed her life in many positive ways. Now she is happier, healthier, and more careful with her precious life and the precious people and things in it.

Her writing career began with her dance with cancer, and now she is  a novelist.

Aside from writing, she works as a speaker and trainer, and she works with charities to help raise awareness and money in the hope that cancer will soon be about as scary as a wart.

She lives in Northumberland.

Twitter @under_blue_sky

Gorilla by Christine Hamm #Gorilla @deadkitty12 BLOG TOUR @RandomTTours #christinehamm, #gorillahamm, #gorillapoetry, #traumapoem

 

Poetry. Women's Studies. Winner of the 2019 Tenth Gate Prize. This surreal series of prose poems, harmonic and jarring, pops the reader into a world where the animal is a danger-suit we might all don, or is a force of chaos that breaks families, or America's unconscious hatred of women. Perhaps it is our world, perhaps more real than surreal. One of the most unusual investigations of gender and family, this collection disorders and disturbs, knowing that upending the status quo makes the best manners of all.

Christine Hamm's GORILLA is a potent and wholly original collection that traces--with the indelible strokes of dream logic--the contours of domestic dramas and estranging losses, along with the menaces of masculinity. In these charged pages, we encounter animals in states of power and peril--including eponymous GORILLA, whose actions corrode and haunt, throughout the book--along with flying babies and oddball creatures, all set arrestingly in absurdist tableaus. The emotional complexity limned by Hamm is something to marvel at. These distilled poems are strange and dark enclosures that have 'a mind of [their] own, ' inviting us to be captive to their collective spell and astounding power.--Jenny Xie

Gorilla by Christine Hamm was published in March this year by Words Works

As part of this #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour, I am delighted to share an extract from the book with you today. 

Safe Word

He was telling you about his toys. He listed things made out of metal and animal hide, things that used electricity and sparked occasionally, things that clicked and linked together. You said you weren’t sure and he said he would go slow, so slow that you would forget to stop him once you began to feel pain. You said it was already hurting and you wanted him to stop. He said he stopped yesterday, that you forgot you were on a boat talking to him on the phone, and that he was still in New Jersey. You said that if he was in New Jersey, why were you still wearing a blindfold. He said you couldn’t see because it was night, and that it was okay to go to sleep now, just close your eyes and let go.

Christine E. Hamm (she/her), queer & disabled English Professor, social worker and student of ecopoetics, has a PhD in English, and lives in New Jersey.  

She recently won the Tenth Gate prize from Word Works for her manuscript, Gorilla.  

She has had work featured in North American Review, Nat Brut, Painted Bride Quarterly and many others. 

She has published six chapbooks, and several books -- including Saints & Cannibals.

www.gorillahamm.blogspot.com

Twitter @deadkitty12

Instagram @wolvesnwool

The Dark by Emma Haughton BLOG TOUR #Giveaway #TheDark @Emma_Houghton @HodderBooks #Win #Prize #Competition

 

In the most inhospitable environment - cut off from the rest of the world - there's a killer on the loose.

A&E doctor Kate North has been knocked out of her orbit by a personal tragedy. So when she's offered the opportunity to be an emergency replacement at the UN research station in Antarctica, she jumps at the chance. The previous doctor, Jean-Luc, died in a tragic accident while out on the ice.

The move seems an ideal solution for Kate: no one knows about her past; no one is checking up on her. But as total darkness descends for the winter, she begins to suspect that Jean-Luc's death wasn't accidental at all.

And the more questions she asks, the more dangerous it becomes . . .

The Dark by Emma Haughton is published on 19 August 2021 by Hodder & Stoughton. 

As part of this Blog Tour, I am delighted to offer one hardback copy as a prize. Entry is simple, just fill out the competition widget in this blog post.  UK entries only please. 

GOOD LUCK! 

One hardback copy of The Dark by Emma Haughton

Praise for The Dark 

'The kind of heart-pounding, sleep-stealing read that you want to recommend to everyone you meet. An absolutely thrilling book' CASS GREEN

'Chilling and atmospheric . . . had me turning the pages late into the night' MARK EDWARDS

'Tense, thrilling and unpredictable, with one of the most unique and dangerous settings imaginable' ALLIE REYNOLDS

'Set against the dangerous sub-zero temperatures end endless night of the Antarctic... Brilliantly atmospheric and terrifying' CATHERINE COOPER

'Tense, twisted and quite literally chilling - a locked room mystery in a unique setting where no one can be trusted' SUSI HOLLIDAY

'Atmospheric, original and full of tension' AMANDA JENNINGS

'A real edge-of-the-seat plot. I loved it. Original and accomplished' J.A. CORRIGAN

Emma Haughton grew up in Sussex; after a stint au pairing in Paris and a couple of half-hearted
attempts to backpack across Europe, she studied English at Oxford University then trained in journalism. During her career as a journalist, she wrote many articles for national newspapers, including regular pieces for the Times Travel section.

Following publication of her picture book, Rainy Day, Emma wrote three YA novels. Her first, Now You See Me, was an Amazon bestseller and nominated for the Carnegie and Amazing Book Awards. Better Left Buried, her second, was one of the best YA reads for 2015 in the Sunday Express. Her third YA novel, Cruel Heart Broken, was picked by The Bookseller as a top YA read for July 2016.

The Dark, Emma’s chilling new thriller for adults, is published by Hodder in August 2021.

Find out more at www.emmahaughton.com or www.facebook.com/emmahaughtonwriter. Or get in touch via Twitter: @Emma_Haughton

People Like Them by Samira Sedira T. Lara Vergnaud #PeopleLikeThem #SamiraSedira @BloomsburyRaven #BookReview @laravergnaud #TranslatedFiction

 

There are no monsters. Only humans.

Anna and Constant Guillot and their two daughters live in the peaceful, remote mountain village of Carmac. Everyone in Carmac knows each other, leading simple lives mostly unaffected by the outside world - that is until Bakary and Sylvia Langlois arrive with their three children.

The new family's impressive chalet and expensive cars are in stark contrast with the modesty of those of their neighbours, yet despite their initial differences, the Langlois and the Guillots form an uneasy friendship. But when both families come under financial strain, the underlying class and racial tensions of their relationship reach breaking point, culminating in act of abhorrent violence.

With piercing psychological insight and gripping storytelling, People Like Them asks the questions: How could a seemingly ordinary person commit the most extraordinary crime? And how could their loved ones ever come to terms with what they'd done?

Lullaby meets Little Fires Everywhere, this intense, suspenseful prize-winning novel explores the darker side of human nature - and the terrible things people are capable of.

People Like Them by Samira Sedira was published by Bloomsbury Raven on 8 July 2021 and is translated by Lara Vergnaud.

I read People Like Them in a couple of sittings, at just under 200 pages, it's a short novel, but one that packs an almighty punch.

Inspired by a true-life crime; a mass homicide committed in 2003 in a village in France that made headlines at the time, the author delves deep into the human psyche. Her ability to look deep into society and lay out how the insidious, covert racism and the power of jealousy can create monstrous acts from humans. As the author herself says... 'there are no monsters, only humans.'

The novel is narrated by Anna and begins during a court case. Her husband Constant is in the dock, charged with the murder of an entire family. Father, Mother, Three Children, all brutally slain in their own home. Constant was not a stranger to the family, he was their neighbour, and their friend. 

It is clear that Constant carried out the murder, he admits it, and the passages describing the killings are brutal and stark. What is also clear that this is totally out of character for this previously mild mannered man who has lived in the small French village of Carmac for many years. Raising his family, a huge part of the community. Yet he did kill them. Why?

The author excels in describing the close-knit community of Carmac. A village where the inhabitants are all white. When Bakary and Sylvia Langlois move into the village, things change. Not only are they wealthy and generous, but they are black. Whilst the villagers enjoy the hospitality laid on by the Langlois family and appear to accept them into their lives, there is an undercurrent of mistrust. 

For Constant, whose athletic career ended in tatters, there's an overwhelming feeling of jealousy, hidden from view, but appearing now and again in his speech and his attitude. When the Langlois employ Anna as their cleaner he is filled with rage, and later, when he and his friends feel let down by the actions of Bavary Langlois, his mind breaks. 

People Like Them isn't a fast paced plot, it is a homage to the characters and to village life. Expertly translated, the feel of this tiny community and the long-standing residents is superbly portrayed. The sense of place is excellent and the increasing tension, despite already knowing the outcome is so well done. 

With a hint of danger throughout and ever changing opinions on the characters, this is a beautifully written, astute story told with flair and skill. Recommended by me. 

Samira Sedira is a novelist, playwright, and actress who was born in Algeria and moved to France as
a young girl with her family. 

In 2008, after two decades of acting for film and the stage, she became a cleaning woman, an experience that inspired her autobiographical novel L’odeur des planches (The Smell of the Stage). 

People Like Them is her fourth novel and the first to be translated into English.

Lara Vergnaud is an award-winning translator who specialises in North African literature. 

Twitter @laravergnaud

Substitute by Susi Holliday #Substitute @SJIHolliday @AmazonPub #BookReview

 

Three people live. Three people die. You make the choice.

Like any mother, Chrissie wants to protect her family. She would do anything to keep them safe. So when a mysterious stranger turns up at her door, offering to prevent the deaths of the people she loves, it sounds too good to be true. The only problem: she must choose someone to die in their place. A substitute.

When her daughter Holly has a terrible accident, Chrissie has no option but to enter the programme. In that horrifying moment, she would do anything to save her. But even after Holly makes a miraculous recovery, Chrissie is convinced it’s just a coincidence. After all, who can really control the laws of life and death?

But as the dangers to her family escalate and her chosen substitutes begin to disappear, Chrissie finds herself in an underworld of hidden laboratories and secretive doctors. And the consequences of playing by their rules are far deadlier than she ever imagined…

Substitute by Susi Holliday is published on 12 August 2021 by Thomas & Mercer. My thanks to the author who sent my copy for review. 

I have been a massive fan of this author for quite a few years now. Her Banktoun trilogy remains one of my favourite crime series ever, and her standalone novels have all been thrilling and original. 

Substitute is another tense and quite chilling story from this really talented author. She takes one simple but very complex question and puts it to her main character, and as readers, we too will contemplate just what we might do in similar circumstances. 

Chrissie opens her front door to a man she doesn't recognise. Her knows her full name and he asks her if she's ever experienced grief. These words alone send Chrissie into a panic. She's spent many years grieving for her mother, and in a way, for her father who she is estranged from. The recent birth of her daughter Holly triggered the PTSD that her mother's death created and she's really struggling. 

Vulnerable and scared, Chrissie then signs up to an experiment that the stranger describes to her. She can prevent the deaths of three people of her choice. In repayment she must choose three people to die in their place. 

Most of us would turn and run when presented with such an idea, and in fact, two other women that Joseph Marshall; the man at the door, has approached have done just that. However Chrissie is damaged and frightened. She fears loss most of all, her life has been ruined by tragic loss and now that she's a mother, she is determined to protect her daughter, at any cost. 

The author takes us back to summer 1980, where we meet Michael, a scientist working on what could be a world changing drug. However, Michael is uneasy about how the project is progressing. His colleague and friend Edward seems to be swayed more by money and fame, than by science and the involvement of suits from the MoD increasingly worry him. 

This is a cleverly structured story that gradually gives up its secrets. Skipping back and forth from Chrissie's present-day predicament to the ongoing work of Michael, we slowly but surely realise just why Chrissie was selected to take part.

Substitute is clever. It's a techo-thriller, filled with science and also with single-minded people who will stop at nothing to create what they want. The author sensitivity examines the effects of grief and trauma, and how a damaged, flawed mind will impact on decisions made, with sometimes shattering effects. 

The most frightening thing about this story is how plausible it is. How many of us really know what is being created in secret labs around the world? How do we know just how far governments will go to achieve their aims?

Once more, Susi Holliday has produced a book that will thrill and keep the reader on their toes. Highly recommended from me. 

Susi Holliday grew up near Edinburgh and worked in the pharmaceutical industry for many years before she started writing. 

A life-long fan of crime and horror, her short stories have been published in various places, and she was shortlisted for the inaugural CWA Margery Allingham Prize. 

She is the bestselling author of eight novels and a novella, several of them written as SJI Holliday. Along with three other female authors, she provides coaching for new crime writers via www.crimefictioncoach.com. 

You can find out more at her website, www.susiholliday.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SJIHolliday, on Twitter @SJIHolliday, and on Instagram @susijholliday.

A Narrow Door by Joanne Harris BLOG TOUR #ANarrowDoor @Joannechocolat @orionbooks @Tr4cyF3nt0n #BookReview

 

Now I'm in charge, the gates are my gates. The rules are my rules.

It's an incendiary moment for St Oswald's school. For the first time in its history, a headmistress is in power, the gates opening to girls.

Rebecca Buckfast has spilled blood to reach this position. Barely forty, she is just starting to reap the harvest of her ambition. As the new regime takes on the old guard, the ground shifts. And with it, the remains of a body are discovered.

But Rebecca is here to make her mark. She'll bury the past so deep it will evade even her own memory, just like she has done before. After all...

You can't keep a good woman down.

A Narrow Door by Joanne Harris was published on 4 August 2021 by Orion. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review, as part of this Blog Tour, organised by Tracy from Compulsive Readers. 

It's over fifteen years since I read the first in the St Oswald's series; Gentlemen and Players and five years since I read the follow up; Different Class. Joanne Harris has long been one of my favourite authors, her ability to write in different genre and keep her readers entertained is amazing. I've been delighted to enter the world of St Owald's again, although it's a dark and twisted word with a lead character who is totally unforgettable. 

The 'narrow door' of the title refers to how difficult it usually is for a woman to enter and rise up in the world of academia. We meet Rebecca Buckfast, who readers of the previous books will remember as Becky Price. Rebecca is now the head of St Oswald's, and the school is no longer a 'grammar school for boys' but an academy. The biggest and probably most important of the changes that Rebecca has made. Girls now frequent these classrooms, taking lessons along with the boys, treated as equals. 

If Rebecca is the future of St Oswald's, then classics teacher, Roy Straitley is the past. Rebecca and Roy make up the core of this story, both taunted by episodes from their past, both tortured by memories of important people now missing from their lives. Rebecca can never let go of her brother Conrad who went missing when she was just a child, whilst Roy's memories are of his colleague Eric Scoones. Eric was his dear friend but revelations about him have tainted how he remembers their relationship. 

When Straitley is told that a body has been found in the school grounds, he is certain that Rebecca will deal with it. However, he is shocked by her apparent calmness and it is then that their stories begin to be told. 

Needless to say, as is to be expected from this author, the story that unfolds is beautifully and intelligently written. The battle between the then and the now, the fight against the patriarchy, the control and apparent ease within the writing is just outstanding. 

I thought about talking more about the actual story, but it's too complex and skilfully woven to describe without giving too much away. There is such cunning and sharpness here, it's a story that totally enfolds the reader and doesn't let go until the very final line. 

Another triumph from one of our finest authors. 

Joanne Harris is an Anglo-French writer, whose books include fourteen novels, two cookbooks and
many short stories. 

Her work is extremely diverse, covering aspects of magic realism, suspense, historical fiction, mythology and fantasy. 

In 2000, her 1999 novel CHOCOLAT was adapted to the screen, starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp. 

CHOCOLAT has sold over a million copies in the UK alone and was a global bestseller. 

She is an Honorary Fellow of St Catherine’s College, Cambridge, and in 2013 was awarded an MBE by the Queen.

www.joanne-harris.co.uk

Twitter @Joannechocolat