Love and Care by Shaun Deeney BLOG TOUR #LoveAndCare @shaun_deeney @Octopus_Books @RandomTTours #BookExtract

 

Shaun is finally free of responsibilities to anyone but himself; single, with two grown up daughters, he is just embarking on a new life in a new country when he gets a call to say his father is dying.

His mother has Parkinson's Dementia and is in a care home. Shaun faces a stark choice: should he give up his new-found freedom, or turn his back on the woman he'd fought so hard to protect, not least from his own father?

Shaun's mother had loved and cared for her son all her life. Could he now do the same for her?

Love and Care by Shaun Deeney was published in paperback on 9 February 2023 by Octopus Books.

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

Extract from Love and Care by Shaun Deeney

I hold my mother under each arm as she takes tiny shuffling steps towards the car, and open the passenger door to ease her slowly back onto the seat. I lift her skinny legs one by one into the footwell and make sure her slippered feet are flat on the floor. 

'Where are we going?' she asks, as I lean over to buckle her seatbelt. 

'For a rest,' I say, 'to a nice place. With your own room.'

'Why?'

I can't tell her why. So I lie and say this will only be for a week or two, just to give her a break. 'Like a hotel.'

The care home is a 1930s red-brick building with turrets, no doubt built as a grand home for a wealthy family.  A carer meets us in reception and leads us through to the day room.

 Praise for Love and Care

'An honest and thoughtful memoir. Moving but, ultimately, full of hope. Beautiful.' KATE MOSSE

'Superb. Love & Care is a book about the unbreakable bonds of family, the cruelty of passing time and a love that never dies.' TONY PARSONS

'A beautiful, intimate story of love and understanding - candid and funny. This is a lyrical memoir of hope and forgiveness.' RAYNOR WINN, author of The Salt Path 

'A heart-warming, heart-wrenching, and beautifully humane account of loving and caring.' NICCI GERRARD, novelist and author of What Dementia Teaches Us About Love

'An insightful tale of care . . . this book needed to be written.' JO GOOD, BBC Radio London

'A vital subject, a really strong voice and, hurrah, humour makes this absorbing reading.' CAROLINE RAPHAEL, Radio 4's Book at Bedtime

'An eye-opening - and at times jaw dropping - account that will make you weep with its tenderness and compassion . . . A highly readable tale of redemption and a celebration of love's many hues.' PAUL BLEZARD, Love Reading

'Moving' DAILY MAIL

Shaun Deeney is a former journalist and Emmy award-winning film and TV producer. 

He has made current affairs programmes for ITV on social issues, including care. 

He is also the creator of a podcast on caring for his mother called Love and Care. 

Shaun has a degree in English and American Literature from Kent at Canterbury. 

He has two daughters and loves listening to Frank Sinatra. 

For more information visit shaundeeney.com.

The Half Burnt House by Alex North #TheHalfBurntHouse @writer_north @MichaelJBooks #BookReview

 

Katie Shaw always looked after her younger brother Chris - until she left him alone one carefree afternoon and he was savagely attacked. He hasn't spoken to her since.

Now a mother, Katie vows not to repeat her mistakes. Carelessness cost her one family, and she won't let it destroy another.

Then she receives a call from the police.

They're investigating a particularly brutal murder, in a half-ruined house that once belonged to a notorious local serial killer. The case has thrown up many unsettling questions, but only one prime suspect: Chris.

The detective wants Katie's help finding him, but she has only one thing on her mind: proving her brother's innocence, and finally making up for her negligence all those years ago. But soon it becomes clear that the killer isn't finished yet.

Which means that even as she attempts to save her old family, Katie is placing her new one in deadly peril . . .

The Half Burnt House by Alex North is published on 16 March 2023 by Michael Joseph. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review. 

I am a huge fan of this author, his previous two novels; The Whisper Man and The Shadow Friend are two of my favourite crime fiction books of the past few years. It's been almost three years since The Shadow Friend and I've been longing to get to The Half Burnt House for all of that time. I know that this was not an easy book for the author to write, he mentions this in his author note, the ongoing pandemic and lock downs cannot have helped either. 

However, despite the wait and the difficulties, I can safely say that once again, Alex North has produced a novel that will delight. It's a complex, multi woven story, incorporating philosophical theories that are not always simple, but the author's ability to explain these, along with how they link into the plot is really quite excellent. 

The story revolves around Katie Shaw, a woman who is married to her childhood sweetheart, with a small daughter Siena. Katie and her brother Christopher were always close as children, however when tragedy struck Chris, Katie always blamed herself. Over the years, Chris has faced many issues, including addiction and homelessness and he and Katie have been estranged for two years. Their mother still has contact with him and when Katie receives a phone call from her Mum about Chris, her inner loyalty means that she must help, although her husband Sam would rather she stay out of it. 

Alan Hobbes, retired philosophy lecturer has been found dead in his sprawling mansion. The house is old and almost derelict and still bears the remains of the fire from many years ago that killed his infant son. Detective Inspector Laurence Page is assigned to the case, and from the very beginning he finds evidence that Hobbes expected his death, and even prepared for it. As Hobbes had spent many years teaching the theory of determination, this fits into his entire lifestyle. 

Christopher Shaw, who is missing seems to be connected to the death, but how, and why?

Prepare yourself for a roller coaster read that will sometimes take you out of your comfort zone and may challenge your beliefs. As new characters are introduced, seemingly unconnected, it can be a puzzle but North expertly weaves the characters together, creating ties that could never have been anticipated. 

Once again, as with his previous novels, the author concentrates on the parent-child relationship, this time it's the father/son relationship that is the theme and it's masterfully done, with a hint of the grotesque at times. Chilling references to murders from years before, soon become a huge feature of this plot and the clever and expert way that everything comes together is utterly spellbinding. 

Twisting, sometimes terrifying, but written so beautifully, The Half Burnt House is another cracker from this incredibly talented author. Highly recommended by me. 

Alex North was born in Leeds, where he now lives with his wife and son. 

He studied Philosophy at Leeds University, and prior to becoming a writer he worked there in their sociology department. 

The Whisper Man was a Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller, and is being published in more than 30 languages.

Twitter @writer_north

Mother's Day by Abigail Burdess BLOG TOUR #MothersDay @AbigailBurdess @headlinepg @RandomTTours @Wildfirebks #BookReview

 

The last thing Anna needs is a baby. Abandoned, adopted and living hand to mouth, she never dreamt of having a real family.

But when she meets her birth mother, everything changes - because the same day, she learns she's going to be a mother too.

Marlene is eccentric, generous with her considerable fortune and overjoyed to become a grandmother. Anna's living the dream. But is it her dream, or someone else's?

Now she will have to decide what she's willing to sacrifice for a real family - her future, her freedom, even her unborn child.

Mother's Day by Abigail Burdess was published on 2 March 2023 by Wildfire. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy as part of this #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour.

Mother's Day by Abigail Burdess is far more than just a psychological thriller. It's like a mash-up of a horror story, crime fiction, with some very dark humour thrown in for good measure. 

The premise of a woman who was abandoned as a baby, and is now pregnant and is just about to meet her birth mother for the first time is certainly intriguing, but the story is far far more than that. The characters are colourful and well drawn, and to be quite frank, most of them would be sectioned under the Mental Health Act in an instant. Only Anna, the newly pregnant mother seems normal, at first, but when she meets her mother and her half siblings, she seems to take on a new persona, added to the hormonal changes due to her pregnancy and it all goes a little bit crazy. 

However, crazy or not, it's a compelling story that I read in a couple of days (often with my jaw hanging in shock, to be honest!). There's something about the whole thing that makes the reader need to carry on, to find out just what's next in store for Anna and her baby. 

Oh, it's dark. Very very dark in places, and especially toward the end. Anna's birth mother Marlene is stark staring crazy, there's no doubt of that and her power and control over her children is astounding. She was never cut out for motherhood, but she does love a baby ... although she has no idea what to do with one. Marlene is the ultimate in narcissism, everything that anyone does or says, she turns around to make it about her. People seem to allow it, so she gets away with it ... well, for most of the book anyway. 

So, it you like a crazy ride of a book, that will make you wince in places, laugh out loud in others and then make you think a lot, this may be for you. 

I think Abigail Burdess writes really well, the descriptive prose is excellent and the characters are so well created. 

A difficult book to review, but one that I enjoyed reading. 

Abigail Burdess has written for and acted in various comedy shows for the television, radio and
stage. 

She also sometimes writes TV for kids, as well as plays and musicals. 

She lives in London with her husband, Robert Webb and their two children. 

Mother's Day is her first novel. 

For book updates, follow Abigail online: @AbigailBurdess

All The Little Bird-Hearts by Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow BLOG TOUR #AllTheLittleBirdHearts @TinderPress @RandomTTours @headlinepg #BookReview

 

Sunday Forrester lives with her sixteen-year-old daughter, Dolly, in the house she grew up in. She does things more carefully than most people. On quiet days, she must eat only white foods. Her etiquette handbook guides her through confusing social situations, and to escape, she turns to her treasury of Sicilian folklore. The one thing very much out of her control is Dolly - her clever, headstrong daughter, now on the cusp of leaving home.

Into this carefully ordered world step Vita and Rollo, a couple who move in next door, disarm Sunday with their charm, and proceed to deliciously break just about every rule in Sunday's book. Soon they are in and out of each others' homes, and Sunday feels loved and accepted like never before. But beneath Vita and Rollo's polish lies something else, something darker. For Sunday has precisely what Vita has always wanted for herself: a daughter of her own.

All The Little Bird-Hearts by Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow was published by Tinder Press on 2 March 2023. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review as part of this #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour 

Sunday Forrester is one of the most carefully and beautifully created characters that I've come across in a very long time. Her story is one filled with joy, with anguish, with difficulties, but always with honesty. This is an absolute wonder of a book, I was enraptured from the opening paragraphs, right up until the ending. My heart broke for Sunday, I laughed with her, and I discovered so much. 

Sunday and her teenage daughter live in the house that Sunday grew up in. She lived there with her parents and her sister, none of whom are still with us. Dolly's father; known to readers by Sunday's name for him; The King, is now married to someone else. The King's parents own a local farm shop and garden centre business and Sunday still works there. Dolly is bright and confident and getting ready for her exams, in preparation for a future life at University. 

Sunday is neither bright nor confident. She has very quiet days, on those days she will only eat white food. Sunday lives her life by the rules set down in an old-fashioned book on etiquette, never straying far from those instructions and often getting herself into trouble because of it. 

Sunday has always been a little different. Her own mother couldn't put up with her funny little ways, only her sister understood her. Her own daughter Dolly is used to her, although is often perplexed by the plain chicken breast and mashed potato served up for dinner. 

And then, one day, Sunday meets Vita. Vita and Rollo are a wealthy, glamorous London couple who've moved into the holiday let next door. Vita thinks nothing of popping in to see Sunday, dressed in pyjamas, or a ballgown, drinking milk from the bottle and smoking her endless cigarettes. Sunday and Dolly are soon swept along by this couple, arriving every Friday evening for dinner. Eating delicacies from Harrods, being treated to the finest champagne.

However, things are never quite as they seem and it becomes clear that it's not Sunday who interests Vita the most, but her daughter Dolly. 

Dolly begins to adopt Vita's way of speaking, wearing clothes just like hers, giggling with her in corners and taking trips to London with them. 

Sunday can see her daughter changing but has little control over it. She can do nothing to stop it, but is so aware of it. Despite her difficulties with communication and language, Sunday is shrewd and wise and she knows Dolly better than anyone else. 

This is a skillfully written debut from an author who is very talented. Her clear and concise insight into the working of the autistic brain and the barriers felt by Sunday are eye opening, and often quite heart breaking. 

All The Little Bird-Hearts is such a glorious read, I loved every single page. Highly recommended. 

Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Kent. 

Like her protagonist, Sunday, in ALL THE LITTLE BIRD-HEARTS, Viktoria is autistic. 

She has presented her doctoral research internationally, most recently speaking at Harvard University on autism and literary narrative. 

Viktoria lives with her husband and children on the Kent coast.

Twist of Fate by D L Mark BLOG TOUR #TwistOfFate @davidmarkwriter @AriesFiction @HoZ_Books @RandomTTours #BookReview

 

When an armed man massacres several people in central London, Claudine witnesses the whole thing. To her horror, one of the victims is her brother, Jethro.

Riven by grief, Claudine retreats to the house in the Fens where she and Jethro grew up. When the police contact her, she is left reeling when they tell her Jethro orchestrated the attack.

Why would a gentle, if troubled, middle-aged man cause such bloodshed – and why would he include himself in the list of victims?

Claudine finds herself down a rabbit hole of mystery, caught up in Jethro's research on a medieval cult. If she can't solve the riddle in time, more people will die... and the darkness will claim her too.

This twisty, unrelenting thriller is perfect for fans of Ruth Ware, Emma Kavanagh, and Sharon Bolton, using themes of grief to explore how people are never as straightforward as they seem.

Twist of Fate by D L Mark is published by Head of Zeus / Aries Fiction on 2 March 2023. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review as part of this #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour. 

David Mark is one of the cleverest crime fiction authors out there. Twist of Fate is a standalone story that encompasses not just criminal behaviour, but strays into even darker territory with the descriptions of fanatical religious zealots, local myths and legends and a smattering of horror. 

The enticing prologue, set thirty years prior to the main events of the plot is the perfect way to begin this story, the reader is never quite sure just what happened when the couple were disturbed during their illicit encounter that takes place near to a burial ground.

In the present day, Claudine is shocked to see her brother Jethro in the reception area of her smart London offices. Jethro is something of a recluse, usually staying put in his isolated cottage in the Lincolnshire fens. As Jethro tries to explain something to Claudine, and she does her best to hide her dismay about her smart colleagues realising that this is her brother, a blood-stained man enters the building and before anyone can stop it, Jethro is knifed to death. He is not the only victim, two homeless men have also been murdered. 

Shocked and distraught, Claudine travels to Jethro's cottage. Full of remorse and overwhelmed by guilt that she hadn't done enough for her brother, she is determined to find out why he decided to drive to London. Helped by Jethro's neighbour Peg, who has always kept an eye out for him, she begins to go through his belongings. 

Meanwhile DS Billy Dean is assigned to the case. Dean is a troubled man, a recovering alcoholic whose wife is about to leave him. He's angry, depressed and very multi layered, his anger at the world often gets in the way of his ability to look at things properly, but he knows that if he solves this case, it would be a way of getting one over on his wife. The wife who is also his superior at work, and who he must answer to professionally.

When the police inform Claudine that they believe that Jethro may have been behind the shocking deaths, she begins to dig deeper into his life. 

Mark excels in creating characters who are difficult to like, but are perfectly formed. His insight into the mind of those people who are dealing with addiction and with mental health is startling, this is dark and emotional writing that grasps the reader tightly. It is often very uncomfortable to read, but it's masterfully done. 

The description of the isolated fenlands of Lincolnshire are exquisite, adding depth to the story, and the small, tight-knit community that Jethro has been part of oozes realism too.

Mark delves into some frightening areas, the ability of one person to influence others into a brand of religion is so very well done, and the addition of ancient myths and legends that have influenced this so-called religion is just excellent. 

Intriguing, brilliantly written, and with a satisfying, if unexpected ending. Highly recommended by me.

D.L. Mark spent more than fteen years as a journalist, including seven years as a crime reporter with the Yorkshire Post. 

His writing is heavily inuenced by the court cases he covered: the jaded police ofcers; incompetent investigators; the inertia of the justice system and the grief of those touched by tragedy. 

He writes psychological suspense thrillers and historical novels, plus the DS McAvoy series (as

David Mark). 

Follow D.L. Mark at @davidmarkwriter and www.davidmarkwriter.co.uk

The Game by Scott Kershaw #TheGame @MrScottKershaw @HQStories @Alliyabouyis #BookReview

 

Across the globe, five strangers receive a horrifying message from an unknown number.

THE PERSON YOU LOVE MOST IS IN DANGER.

To save them, each must play The Game – a sinister unknown entity that has a single rule: there can only be one winner.

IF YOU LOSE, YOUR LOVED ONE WILL DIE.

But what is The Game – and why have they been chosen?

There’s only one thing each of them knows for sure: they’ll do anything to win…

WELCOME TO THE GAME. YOU’VE JUST STARTED PLAYING.

The Game by Scott Kershaw was published in hardback by HQ on 12 May last year. The paperback is published on 2 March 2023. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review. 

I don't think I will be the first person who had the voice of the character Jigsaw from the Saw movies in my head every time I looked at the front of this book. 'Wanna play a game?.....'

Just like the Saw movie franchise, this novel centres on a sick and twisted competition involving players who didn't sign up for this. Scott Kershaw has taken entirely different characters, from across the world and thrown them together in what becomes a compulsive, action packed thriller that I enjoyed very much. 

The reader is introduced to each player, one by one. We meet them as their part of the game begins and we don't really know much about them. The one thing that they have in common is that somebody that they love very much has disappeared, and they have instructions, via text message, what to do to save them. I must admit that I did find the initial introductions a little bit disjointed, especially as we know so little about each character, but as the story progresses, the reader learns more about each one of them, and it becomes much easier to follow. 

I can't say that I actually liked many of the players, all of them had their flaws and their weaknesses, but again, as we learn more about them, we do come to understand what they've been through in life. 

A race against the clock to the isolation of the Yorkshire Moors is done incredibly well, with one particular player having a particularly difficult journey. It can be difficult to read about Noah's time in transit, bringing home just what is happening to thousands of ordinary people across the world every day. 

Back to the Game though ...... no, I didn't guess what it was all about, and yes, I was incredibly shocked by the reveal at the end.  Getting to those chapters can be a violent ride at time, and there's blood and there's double crossing galore along the way. 

A gripping thriller, with an unusual premise and a cast of characters who are well crafted yet not always well behaved. Recommended by me. 

Scott Kershaw lives in Lincolnshire, in a Victorian cottage that was formerly ruled by mice. 

He likes the crackle of vinyl, the smell of paperbacks, the taste of a stiff drink and the view from a front row barrier. 

He’s getting too old and heavy for crowd-surfing, but that rarely stops him from trying. 

His first real love was cinema. 

His beagle, Darwin, is the one true king of dogs. 

The Game is his debut thriller. 

In September 2022, he appeared on a panel at Capital Crime in London.

Twitter @MrScottKershaw

On The Savage Side by Tiffany McDaniel #OnTheSavageSide @wnbooks #BookReview

 

Arcade and Daffodil are twin sisters born one minute apart. With their fiery red hair and thirst for an escape, they form an unbreakable bond nurtured by their grandmother's stories. Together they disappear into their imagination and forge a world where a patch of grass reveals an archaeologist's dig, the smoke emerging from the local paper mill becomes the dust rising from wild horses galloping deep beneath the earth, and an abandoned 1950s convertible transforms into a time machine that can take them anywhere.

But no matter how hard they try, Arc and Daffy can't escape the generational ghosts that haunt their family. And so, left to fend for themselves in the shadow of their rural Ohio town, the two sisters cling tight to one another.

Years later, as the sisters wrestle with the memories of their early life, a local woman is discovered dead in the river. Soon, more bodies are left floating in the water, and as the killer circles ever closer, Arc's promise to keep herself and her sister safe becomes increasingly desperate - and the powerful riptide of the savage side more difficult to survive.

Drawing from the true story of women killed in Chillicothe, Ohio, acclaimed novelist and poet Tiffany McDaniel has written a moving literary testament and fearless elegy for missing women everywhere.

On The Savage Side by Tiffany McDaniel is published by W&N in hardback on 02 March 2023. My thanks to the author who sent my copy for review. 

The inspiration for On The Savage Side is the unsolved murders of the Chillicothe Six. Six women who went missing in Ohio in 2015, some are still missing and the case remains unsolved. 

Tiffany McDaniel writes with a poetic grace that sweeps the reader along, despite the utter bleakness of the content. This is a literary blend of crime thriller and a coming-of-age story that at times is so emotionally challenging that I needed to take a break a couple of times during reading. 

The story begins when twin sisters Arc and Daffy are just young girls. Their father has died and their addict mother is hysterical. As their mother tears around the house, nailing their dead father's clothes to the window frames, the two girls seem to take this in their stride. As the story progresses, it becomes clear that they have experienced their mother's bizarre behaviour for many years. It is only the intervention of their maternal grandmother Mamaw Milkwood that gives a tiny bit of stability in their lives, until one day, she too is gone. 

The author skips from time zone to time zone. We meet the girls as children and we also meet them as twenty-year olds. It is Arc who narrates the story and her voice is strong, yet has such a sense of vulnerability and sadness ringing through it too.  Despite Mamaw's best intentions when the girls were small, they too find themselves echoing their own mother's life. Along with their friends, their world is made up of drugs and selling their bodies, and then the bodies begin to be found. 

This is a very dark, often brutal and incredibly emotional story. The beauty of the writing does little to hide the stark facts of the lives of these women, and of the evil that lurks within their community.  This author excels in characterisation, her ability to create such a sense of place and the almost dreamlike quality of the passages about the river that winds through the area tie seamlessly together to create a story that becomes unforgettable. 

Harrowing, yet gripping. Recommended by me. 

Tiffany McDaniel is a novelist, poet, and visual artist born and raised in Ohio. 

She is the author of The Summer That Melted Everything and BETTY.

www.tiffanymcdaniel.com