Smart Moves by Adrian Magson @AdrianMagson1 #BlogTour @DomePress #SmartMoves

International troubleshooter Jake Foreman loses his job, house and wife all in one day. And when an impulsive move lands him in even deeper water - the kind that could lose him his life - he decides it's time to make some smart decisions. The trouble is, knowing the right moves and making them is a whole different game. And Jake, who has been happily rubbing along things he always suspected were just a shade away from being dodgy, finds it all too easy to go with the flow. Now he's got to start learning new tricks. If he doesn't, he could end up dead.

Smart Moves by Adrian Magson was published in paperback by Dome Press on 16 August 2018. My thanks to the publisher who invited me to take part in this Blog Tour.

I'm delighted to share a piece of writing by the Author entitled 'It Helps to Know The Place'.

It Helps to Know the Place

When setting out with all my writing, I like to have a fairly clear picture of the settings my characters will inhabit. It helps with description and atmosphere if I can see and get a feel for where the action takes place. I’ve never been comfortable making up places, so I always try to use areas I’ve been to for that little extra touch of realism, even if I change the name. (And, of course, there’s always Google maps and street view to check detail where somewhere might have changed).

Of course, readers will paint their own picture from what they read, each one seeing it differently. But if knowing a place helps me do a better job of writing, then that’s important.

In ‘Smart Moves’, my latest book, the story takes place in London, mainland Europe and the US, all places I’ve lived, visited or worked. That was a big plus.

Depending on the book, I sometimes find myself having to describe a setting where I haven’t been, or where getting there could be, shall we say, problematic. For that I have a simple answer: I can always find somewhere like it, certainly close enough to give me a real feel for the area, the geography or architecture – even the movement of traffic and people.

But description itself doesn’t take much – and nor should it. I know from experience that putting in too much descriptive detail merely serves to slow the story down. As an editor said to me a long time ago – ‘Less of the birds in the trees and more of the action!’

In ‘Smart Moves’, there’s certainly action as Jake Foreman, my adventurous ‘hero’, who has lost everything through simply not paying attention to what was important, steers his way around London, across Europe and America, in an attempt to get ahead of the trouble that dogs him and reconnect with family, friends and even the real world.

In doing so he finds out who his real friends are – and they’re not always what he expected.

Hailed by the Daily Mail as “a classic crime star in the making”, Adrian had written 21 crime and spy

thriller books based around: Gavin & Palmer (investigative reporter Riley Gavin and ex-military policeman Frank Palmer; Harry Tate, ex-soldier and MI5 officer; Inspector Lucas; Marc Portman (The Watchman); investigators Ruth Gonzales and Andy Vaslik.

Adrian also has hundreds of short stories and articles in national and international magazines to his name, plus a non-fiction work: Write On! - The Writer’s Help Book (Accent Press). 

When not writing books, he’s a reviewer for Shots Magazine and writes the ‘Beginners’ and ‘New Author’ pages for Writing Magazine (UK).

Adrian lives in the Forest of Dean and rumours that he is building a nuclear bunker are unfounded. It’s a bird’s table. 

Adrian Magson – https://www.adrianmagson.com
Blog: https://adrianmagson.blogspot.co.uk
Twitter: https://twitter.com/adrianmagson1
Facebook: https://facebook.com/adrianmagsonbooks

North Sea Rising by R M Cartmel @CartmelDr @CrimeSceneBooks #RandomThingsTours #MyLifeInBooks

The year is 2039.
The setting is the British Isles – but not the British Isles as we know them today.
The brutal economic impact of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the EU, together with the ever-accelerating effects of global warming have led to a very different environment indeed, in almost every way. Politics, geography and technology are all in flux.
But some things remain the same – greed, murder, conspiracy and corruption among them. When Stephanie Flack, licensed private eye in the Royal Province of Anglia, is asked to track down some missing diamonds, she soon finds the trail leading her into some very unexpected and highly dangerous places, with dead bodies appearing with alarming regularity. Including, very nearly, her own.
R.M. Cartmel’s skilful characterisation, sharp observation and quiet irony provide a glimpse into a future which we can almost recognise. A brilliant, gentle, wry dystopian murder mystery.

North Sea Rising by R M Cartmel was published in paperback by Crime Scene Books on 16 August 2018. As part of the #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour I'm delighted to welcome the author here to Random Things today. He's talking about the books that are special to him in My Life in Books.

My Life In Books - R M Cartmel

I have been an avid reader all my life, and that is what led me to become a writer.

When I was a small boy I read boys' adventure stories like Biggles until I discovered Hammond Innes, Nevil Shute, and Alistair MacLean, who wrote sort of more grown-up boys' adventures. From those days I pick my first book:

On The Beach by Nevil Shute. It was the first book that I had ever read that did not have a ‘happy ending’. In fact it scared me witless. Here was a tale that told the story of the results of a conflict which conflagrated into nuclear war.

I continued to read avidly, and becoming a student in Oxford, I discovered a bookshop just ten minutes' walk from my college. I was in there often to get a new textbook for my studies and I took the opportunity to just browse. It was then that I discovered the value of a ‘good’ as in ‘memorable’ title. There was a book I saw several times, whose title kept leaping off the Science Fiction shelves shouting ‘Me! Me!’ and in the end I found I had a spare 3/6d and bought it:

Mindswap by Robert Sheckley. What I didn’t expect was that this story, on occasions, left me howling with laughter at the problems a man who went on holiday by swapping bodies with someone else who wanted to go where he was. The problem was that someone had nicked a personality along the line so he had to keep changing who he was just to stay alive!

From thereon I have always dabbled in science fiction, and once again it was a good title and a wonderful cover that grabbed me:

The Many-Colored Land, Volume I in The Saga of the Pliocene Exile by Julian May. And for the next few years I read each episode of the saga as they appeared

For my fourth book I have chosen:

Hans Helmut Kirst’s The Night of the Generals. This is a story about an obsessional detective in the middle of the Second World War who, despite all the brutality and carnage all around him in Warsaw in 1942 and Paris in 1944, was totally fixated on the murderer of two prostitutes. In true Agatha Christie style, the detective finally catches the killer in 1956 when he kills again. There is a message there - if you’re going to kill someone, never do it again. Kirst’s main subtext is the difference between being a German and being a Nazi. He has written several brilliant books on that subject and I could have chosen Brothers In Arms, Officer Factory, or Hero in the Tower but Night of the Generals is the most famous and they made a big Hollywood film of it starring Peter O’Toole, Omar Sharif, Donald Pleasance and Tom Courtenay.

For my fifth and final book, I have gone back to my bookshop browsing habits and spotted another ‘great title’ that wouldn’t leave me alone:

Quite Ugly One Morning by Christopher Brookmyre. The cover just had those words on the front. I bought it and read the book and loved his spiky sense of humour and his plotting. I have been an avid Brookmyre-o-holic ever since. Ask me which I think is my favourite, I have no idea, but that book was the first one. I am also aware I have seen him perform at several conferences, and he is invariably screamingly funny.

R M Cartmel - August 2018 

Following a highly successful career as a GP, RM Cartmel returned to his first love and took up writing again.

Well-known for his wine and crime series set in France, The Inspector Truchaud Mysteries, he also has a second, rather more offbeat series of North Sea Noir, which can be read as stand alone but connected novels, set in Peterborough. North Sea Rising is the second of these.

Twitter @CartmelDr

The Rest of Their Lives by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent - translated by @RosSchwartz @panmacmillan @CamillaElworthy

Filled with all the larger-than-life characters and enchanting storytelling that made readers fall for The Reader on the 6.27, Jean-Paul Didierlaurent’s follow-up novel, The Rest of Their Lives, is set to charm the world.

It’s difficult to find love in a profession like Ambroise’s – even his father despises what he does . . .

And while Manelle – a home-help for the elderly in the same small French town – adores her days spent with her eccentric clients, she too often ends her evenings alone.

So when an unusual request from Manelle’s favourite client – eighty-two-year-old retired chef-gourmand Samuel – brings the two of them together for an unlikely road-trip to Switzerland, along with Ambroise’s cake-loving grandmother, it might just be time for the rest of their lives to begin . . .

The Rest of Their Lives by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent is translated from the French by Ros Schwartz. The paperback is published by Pan Macmillan on 9 September 2018. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review.


This is a truly delightful story that I practically inhaled in one gulp. Jean-Paul Didierlaurent has a beautiful way with words, and creates some of the most unusual and most loveable characters for his readers.

Ambroise loves his job, however, nobody else does. Even his father despises what he does, but Ambroise will not give up and sets himself the highest of standards. Manelle also loves her job, she also goes that extra half mile to ensure that the elderly people that she cares for feel loved and safe. Both Ambroise and Manelle's private lives suffer due to their dedication to their clients.

When eighty-two year old Samuel makes an unusual demand, Ambroise and Manelle are brought together. Along with Ambroise's grandmother they begin what will become an incredible journey.

Whilst this certainly is 'an unlikely love story' as stated on the cover, the author also deals with some more serious issues that give the reader some food for thought along the way.

Beautifully written, and expertly translated into English, The Rest of Their Lives is gentle and funny and so warm. With characters who are a joy to discover, this is a novel that will delight readers. Really charming. Recommended by me.

Jean-Paul Didierlaurent won a number of short-story competitions and was twice awarded the Hemingway Prize before the resounding success of his first novel, the bestselling 'The Reader on the 6.27', which has been published in over thirty countries.

'The Rest of Their Lives' is his second novel.

Jean-Paul Didierlaurent lives in the Vosges region of France.

See You In September by Charity Norman @CharityNorman1 @ngaiomarshaward #yeahnoir #2018Ngaios

Cassy smiled, blew them a kiss.
'See you in September,' she said.
It was a throwaway line. Just words uttered casually by a young woman in a hurry. And then she'd gone.

It was supposed to be a short trip - a break in New Zealand before her best friend's wedding. But when Cassy waved goodbye to her parents, they never dreamed that it would be years before they'd see her again.

Having broken up with her boyfriend, Cassy accepts an invitation to stay in an idyllic farming collective. Overcome by the peace and beauty of the valley and swept up in the charisma of Justin, the community's leader, Cassy becomes convinced that she has to stay.

As Cassy becomes more and more entrenched in the group's rituals and beliefs, her frantic parents fight to bring her home - before Justin's prophesied Last Day can come to pass.

A powerful story of family, faith and finding yourself, See You in September is an unputdownable new novel from this hugely compelling author.

I'm delighted to be part of the Blog Tour for the Ngaio Marsh Awards 2018 with my review of See You In September by Charity Norman, published in the UK by Allen & Unwin in May 2017.

The Ngaio Marsh Awards are New Zealand's book prizes for literary excellence in crime, mystery, thriller, and suspense writing. They were established in 2010, and are named after Dame Ngaio Marsh, a New Zealand author and theatre director who was one of the four Queens of Crime of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. 
The winners of this year's awards will be announced at a special event at the WORD Christchurch Festival on 1 September, with visiting crime writers Denise Mina and AJ Finn presenting this year's prizes.

See You in September by Charity Norman - my review

I've been a fan of Charity Norman's writing for a long time. Her writing is powerful, she tackles difficult and often controversial subjects, but does it so very well. 

I've always had a fascination for cults, and really enjoy fiction that looks at how cults are formed, and how people become part of them. In See You In September, this extremely talented author has taken apart the whole process of how an ordinary young girl from London could wave goodbye to her family at Heathrow as she sets off on an exciting adventure holiday in New Zealand, intending to see them again in September, just a few months away, yet doesn't return for another four years. 

Cassy is an average twenty-one year old, she's studying law at University, has a boyfriend, an annoying younger sister and a stable family life. Her father can be annoying at times, he wants the best for her; he wants her to be a top lawyer, earning lots of money.
Cassy and her boyfriend Hamish are taking a trip to New Zealand, they'll be back in September to finish their degrees, but intend to have an exciting time away from the stresses of work.

However, things don't go according to plan and Cassy accepts a lift from a friendly group of people in a white van, leaving Hamish standing by the side of the road.

The group are from Gethsemane; a self-contained village in the wilds of the New Zealand countryside. When Cassy arrives, she finds it all a little bit hippyish and intends to stay for just a couple of nights and then continue her travels. Little does she know.

Charity Norman expertly details just how easy it can be for a determined cult leader, and his followers to persuade an intelligent, well-educated young woman to give up everything; including her money, her passport and her name and join their ranks.

Whilst the reader is aware that Gethsemane. whilst beautiful and serene, is the base of a cult, lead by Justin; a British guy who is revered by his followers. Cassy is unaware of this, but she falls in love with the place, and with the residents and with the whole feeling of belonging and love.

The author cleverly weaves the story of Cassy's family at home in with the story, and we as readers are aware of the total desperation felt by her parents and the anger of her sister. It can be a difficult read at times as Charity Norman wonderfully portrays the absolute heartbreak suffered by her mother especially.

I really liked the extracts from The Cult Leader's Manual - Eight Steps to Mind Control. This is a very clever addition to the story, allowing the reader to assimilate what is happening to Cassy with the tactics used by the leader of a cult.

See You In September is totally gripping, my paperback edition is over 400 pages long but I really couldn't put it aside and read it over one weekend. Charity Norman proves, once again, that's she's an incredibly talented, brave and adventurous author. I loved this and would recommend it highly.

Ngaio Marsh Awards 2018 

BEST CRIME NOVEL

• Marlborough Man by Alan Carter (Fremantle Press)
• See You in September by Charity Norman (Allen & Unwin)
• Tess by Kirsten McDougall (VUP)
• The Sound of Her Voice by Nathan Blackwell (Mary Egan Publishing)
• A Killer Harvest by Paul Cleave (Upstart Press)
• The Hidden Room by Stella Duffy (Virago)

BEST FIRST NOVEL

• The Floating Basin by Carolyn Hawes
• Broken Silence by Helen Vivienne Fletcher (HVF Publishing)
• All Our Secrets by Jennifer Lane (Rosa Mira Books)
• The Sound of Her Voice by Nathan Blackwell (Mary Egan Publishing)
• Nothing Bad Happens Here by Nikki Crutchley (Oak House Press)

Death In Provence by Serena Kent @SerenaKentBooks #BlogTour @orionbooks @AlainnaGeorgiou #DeathInProvence #MyLifeInBooks

When Penelope Kite swaps her humdrum life in Surrey for a picturesque farmhouse in the south of France, she imagines a simple life of long lunches and chilled rosé . . . What she doesn't imagine is the dead body floating in her swimming pool.

Convinced that the victim suffered more than a drunken accident, Penelope plunges headlong into local intrigue and long-simmering resentments to uncover the truth.

But with a meddling estate agent, an unfriendly Chief of Police, a suspiciously charming Mayor, and the endless temptation of that second pain au chocolat, life in the delightful village of St Merlot is certainly never simple. . .

Curl up and escape to the sunshine of Provence with this deliciously entertaining mystery!

Death In Provence by Serena Kent is published by Orion on 23 August 2018 in paperback. My thanks to the publisher who invited me to take part in the Blog Tour.  I'm delighted to welcome the author here to Random Things today. Serena Kent is the pen name for Deborah Lawrenson who is one half of the husband and wife author team RD Lawes and they are talking about the books that are special to them in My Life In Books, they've chosen four books each.

My Life In Books - Serena Kent

Deborah

The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
I first read this when I was thirteen and was mesmerised by the prose and the atmosphere of hopeless nostalgia. Perhaps Gatsby’s yearning for what he never quite had was easy to identify with; it certainly spoke to me at the time. The way Fitzgerald used words was equally romantic: the lush evocations of dust and stars, and the diamante glints of failure. It was a siren call to all kinds of possibilities, in books and in life.

Mary Swann by Carol Shields
Carol Shields was such an intelligent and engaging writer, often of quiet subject matter. I like all her novels but Mary Swann is my favourite, the story of a Canadian housewife who wrote poetry but is murdered by her husband before she is ever published. I’ve always enjoyed detective stories, and this combines a literary quest with the impulse to unravel the secrets of her writing life. Perfect!

Prospero’s Cell by Lawrence Durrell
For many years I thought Gerald Durrell’s My Family and Other Animals was the funniest and most endearing book I’d ever read. How I laughed with him at pompous older brother Larry and his literary pretentions. Out of curiosity, I picked up Prospero’s Cell, which recounts the same Corfu idyll from a very different perspective. Lawrence’s prose is lyrical and utterly entrancing. Alongside Gerald’s versions, it opens the door to all kinds of intriguing literary questions about biography and autobiography.

Imogen by Jilly Cooper
I love reading for pure pleasure and over the years Jilly Cooper’s novels have provided much glorious escapism. This was the first one I read - on a lounger in the garden, just before I went to university, in a break from the reading list of Sartre and Balzac - and I still remember my surprise and delight at the sheer fun and sparkiness of this tale of an innocent Yorkshire lass transformed by a trip to the South of France with a racy crowd of socialites. Jilly Cooper’s great gift is in writing sympathetic characters with bags of charm and mischievousness.

Robert

Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain-Fournier
An electrifying rite of passage novel from a French author who would undoubtedly have been better known, were it not for his tragic death in World War 1. A boy narrates the story of his hero, Augustin Meaulnes, whose searches for lost moments change his and his friends’ lives. There is a dreamy quality to the writing and its subject, the transition from youth to maturity and it made an indelible impression upon me when I first read it, aged about 15. I have not returned to it, preferring to retain the memory unsullied by the cynicism of age. I suspect now that I would find it less entrancing.

Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev
As a teenager I loved the melancholy of Russian novels, and this succinct work typifies that very Slavic trait. It has wonderful characters, particularly the cynical Bazarov, whom would be unlikeable save for the brilliance with which Turgenev insinuates him into our hearts. It is tragic and immensely fulfilling at the same time. It explores the gradual shifting of view between generations and meanders occasionally into the philosophical, which I always like in a book.

The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis
Everyone has read The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe but my favourite of the Narnia books will always be The Silver Chair. It has the terrific character of Puddleglum, the most mournful children’s character since Eeyore, and the adventures of Jill and Eustace in the Northern wilds of Narnia are exciting and at some points really quite frightening. It also has a moment, the entry into Narnia, which has stuck with me all my life since I first read it.

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
I have always loved reading mythology, and it was only a short step from Andrew Lang’s compendia of Greek and Norse tales to Tolkien’s epic. Suffice to say it blew my mind on first reading, and was then reopened around twenty times in quite close order over the next few years. I became quite geeky in my knowledge of the world of Middle Earth, and the extraordinary breadth of his vision, historic, linguistic and geographical. It never fails to stir me with its nobility and power. A modern day Iliad.

Serena Kent - August 2018 

Serena Kent is the pen name for Deborah Lawrenson who is one half of the husband and wife author team RD Lawes. 

Deborah has previously published eight novels including The Art of Falling, The Lantern, The Sea Garden and 300 Days of Sun.

For more information, visit : www.serena-kent.com

Author page on Facebook

Twitter @SerenaKentBooks