Panther by David Owen *** BLOG TOUR & GIVEAWAY ***

Life isn't going terribly well for Derrick; he's become severely overweight, his only friend has turned on him, he's hopelessly in love with a girl way out of his league, and it's all because of his sister. 

Her depression, and its grip on his family, is tearing his life apart. When rumours start to circulate that a panther is roaming wild in his south London suburb, Derrick resolves to turn capture it. 

Surely if he can find a way to tame this beast, he'll be able to stop everything at home from spiraling towards disaster?

Panther is a bold and emotionally powerful novel that deals candidly with the effects of depression on those who suffer from it, and those who suffer alongside them.

Welcome to the BLOG TOUR for Panther by David Owen, I'm delighted to be the host here on Random Things today.

Panther was published by Corsair (Constable & Robinson) on 7 May 2015 in paperback and is David Owen's first novel.  Corsair have kindly offered a paperback copy to one reader, if you'd like to win a copy of Panther, fill out the Rafflecopter widget at the end of this post.

Many of my blog followers don't read Young Adult novels. If you are one of those people, please, please, please put aside any preconceptions and read Panther. Although it probably is intended for a Young Adult audience, this is a perfect example of 'crossover' - anyone can and should sit down and read it. I loved it, it moved me, it made my heart hurt. It is beautiful, and real and quite wonderful.

David Owen is clever. His story is clever and his use of the Panther is very very clever.

There have been sighting in residential London streets of a Panther, and Derrick is determined that he will track it down and catch it. As far as Derrick is concerned, his family troubles began when the Panther was spotted. If he can get rid of it, he can make his family happy again.

Derrick also knows that when he has caught the Panther he won't feel the need to gorge himself on junk food any more. He won't have to make secret trips to the supermarket, or rummage around in dustbins to find his fix. He won't have to buy size XXXL t shirts from the charity shop and he will be able to find a pair of jeans that fit him.

When the Panther has been caught, Derrick's sister will stop crying. There won't be any more 'incidents'. The scars on her arms will fade and his Mum will be able to put the kitchen knives back into the drawers instead of hiding them in her bedroom.

Maybe, just maybe, when the Panther has been caught, Derrick's Mum and Dad will start getting on again, and maybe Dad will move back in.

There are scenes in this novel that so emotionally difficult, the words vividly show the anguish and despair of this teenage boy whose family has imploded. Using the Panther as a metaphor for the depressive illness that has torn the family apart is genius; the snarling, the ripping apart, the devastation and the fear caused by something that nobody can see, but everyone knows is there.

I haven't told you what the story is, I don't intend to. What I hope to have done is to make sure that you are so curious that you go out and buy a copy of this book immediately. I promise you that you won't be disappointed. You may feel a little emotionally battered by it it, but you will feel a sense of awe. It really is that good.

I am certain that Panther is going to be a huge success for David Owen. He is a very exciting new talent, certainly a name to watch out for.

My thanks to Grace from Constable & Robinson who arranged the Blog Tour and invited me to take part.


David Owen achieved a first class honours in BA Creative Writing and an MA Writing for Children at the University of Winchester, where he went on to teach on the BA Creative Writing course for three years. 

He is also an awards-shortlisted games journalist, with a particular interest in the applications for video games outside of entertainment, and he has written about games being used to treat depression, dyslexia and autism. 

David has been published as a poet in journals including Agenda and Seam. Panther is his first novel.

Find out more about David at www.davidowenbooks.com
Follow him on Twitter @davidowenauthor

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hunted by Paul Finch **** BLOG TOUR ****

Get hooked on Heck: the maverick detective who knows no boundaries. A grisly whodunit you won’t be able to put down, perfect for fans of Stuart MacBride and TV series ‘Luther’.

Heck needs to watch his back. Because someone’s watching him…I

Across the south of England, a series of bizarre but fatal accidents are taking place. So when a local businessman survives a near-drowning but is found burnt alive in his car just weeks later, DS Mark ‘Heck’ Heckenburg is brought in to investigate.

Soon it appears that other recent deaths might be linked: two thieves that were bitten to death by poisonous spiders, and a driver impaled through the chest with scaffolding.

Accidents do happen but as the body count rises it’s clear that something far more sinister is at play, and it’s coming for Heck too…

Welcome to the BLOG TOUR for Hunted by Paul Finch which   published by Avon in paperback on 7 May 2015.

I really wanted to be able to include my own review of Hunted in this post, but sadly, I became a victim of crime myself over the weekend. I was a bridesmaid for our friends. The wedding was beautiful and everything went as planned until bedtime when we went back to our hotel room to find that we had been burgled. So, things went a little 'off plan', and I've not had chance to finish Hunted yet.


Hunted is book five in Paul Finch's DS Mark 'Heck' Heckenburg series, and has many fans already. Do check out the other stops on the Blog Tour to read some reviews and thoughts from my fellow bloggers.



Keith at Books and Writers has an interview with the author.

Sonya at A Lover of Books is running a competition, she's giving away three copies of Hunted.

Shaun at Book Addict Shaun has a great interview with Paul Finch.







The PR for Hunted was fabulous, once again LightBrigade PR team excelled themselves. The first surprise parcel contained a couple of bizarre masks, the second was a gift of two spiders!  Very clever and very enticing - well done to them!

Paul Finch is a former cop and journalist, now turned full-time writer. He cut his literary teeth penning episodes of the British crime drama, The Bill. He is also well known for his work in the thriller and horror fields and is a two-times winner of the British Fantasy Award, and a one-time winner of the International Horror Guild Award.

Paul lives in Lancashire, with his wife Catherine and his children, Eleanor and Harry. 

His website can be found at: www.paulfinch-writer.blogspot.com

Follow him on Twitter @paulfinchauthor

A Killing Moon by Steven Dunne

For the young woman kidnapped on her way home from the pub, the nightmare is about to begin....

Weeks after Caitlin Kinnear goes missing, the police are unable to break her case. Worse they are not even certain harm has come to her. But determined to pursue all leads, DI Damen Brook and his team begin to trawl through the murky world of cheap migrant labour. Convinced that the answers lie hidden within its depths, Brook soon begins to realise Caitlin is in terrible danger.

When the body of another young girl turns up it becomes clear that Caitlin's abduction might not be an isolated incident and the race is on to save her. But with time running out, can Brook put the pieces together and find Caitlin before it's too late?

A Killing Moon was published in hardback by Headline on 7 May and is the fifth in the DI Damon Brook series by Steven Dunne.  I'd like to say that I'm Brook's number one fan, but I know there are others out there who would claim that they are too!  I reviewed the last two in this series; The Unquiet Grave and Deity here on Random Things previously.

Brook hasn't really got  a choice; he can get involved in the latest initiative from Chief Super Charlton, and head up the scrap metal merchant project, or he can act on the suspicions of his colleague John Noble and use his skills as a cold-case investigator. Despite Charlton's initial objections, Brook gets his way, not realising that Noble really is onto something. Something that is going to turn into one of the most complex, difficult, violent and potentially lethal cases that Brook will get involved with.

Steven Dunne does not allow his readers to gently edge themselves into this story. Don't expect to gradually get to know the characters, oh no. Prepare to be shocked by the opening chapter, your mouth may hang open for the rest of the book too.

A Killing Moon touches on many issues and enters the underworld created by Polish immigrants in the seedy back streets of Derby. Also running through this story are themes of extremism and people who are so convinced by their die-hard beliefs that their actions become shocking and murderous. There are stomach-churning scenes of inhumanity and cruelty, the tension is high and the action moves quickly.

Brook and his police colleagues are believable and incredibly well created, from the almost stereotypical Chief Super, to the Constables. Brook has, over this series, begun to leave some of his past behind, and his colleagues are often surprised during A Killing Moon when he shows a more human side. Brook has always struggled to fit into the team, he has suffered a breakdown in the past, and also been off sick after being injured on duty. However, despite his more human side beginning to show, he still has a sharp tongue and does not tolerate idiots or 'Americanisms', his sarcasm can be cutting, but he is loyal to his colleagues ... and Steven Dunne elicits a form of loyalty from his readers towards Brook too.

Steven Dunne's writing is refined and sophisticated. He writes intelligent thrillers that challenge the reader. He teases the reader throughout, allowing them to have glimpses of what may be to come, but never giving away the full story. This only adds to the intensity of feelings evoked by the story and the anticipation of what is to come is spine-tingling.

A Killing Moon is, in my opinion, the best in the Damon Brook series so far, and that is high praise from me as this character is my favourite copper in literature today.

My thanks to Headline and Bookbridgr who sent my copy for review.



Steven Dunne was born in Bradford, Yorkshire but moved to London after attending Kent University and St Mary's College in Twickenham.

He became a freelance journalist writing for The Times and the Independent and, after co-writing a comedy pilot, wrote the book for The Latchmere Theatre's award-winning pantomime Hansel and Gretel.

Since moving to Derby he has written five highly acclaimed thrillers, including The Unquiet Grave and Deity, all featuring DI Damen Brook of Derby CID

Follow him on Twitter @ReaperSteven

No Place For A Lady by Gill Paul *** COVER REVEAL ***

No Place For A Lady by Gill Paul will be published in paperback by Avon Books on 2 July 2015.

To celebrate the anniversary of the Lusitania today, the publishers are revealing the beautiful cover of the book, and I'm delighted to share this with you.

No Place For a Lady will hook anyone who’s loving Poldark, weeps at Suite Française, devours writers such as Victoria Hislop, and can’t believe their luck when they find Gone With the Wind is on the TV. 

Set against a backdrop of the Crimean War, packed with gripping drama, vivid historical detail and with a love story that will squeeze your heart tight – this is the perfect all-consuming summer read.

All’s fair in love and war …

1854. England is in the grip of a gruesome war.

Lucy Harvington, ill-educated beyond how to be a wife, has travelled to the Crimea with her handsome and impetuous officer husband Charlie.
As the day of battle dawns she can only pray her husband survives. If he doesn’t, what will become of her?

Dorothea Gray, volunteer nurse at the Westminster Hospital, is determined to follow her little sister Lucy to the front and to serve her country alongside her heroine Florence Nightingale and the pioneering nurses already risking their lives.

But neither sister could possibly have known the horrors they are about to witness – the courage, the cowardice, the danger – and the excitement – nor could they have guessed the risks they must take, the passion they will taste, and the simple fact that they may never see one another again …

Gill Paul's short story E-book We Sink Or Swim Together is out today.

The Weepy One: Part of the Love…Maybe ebook short story collection.

Gerda Nielsen is on her way from Brooklyn to Liverpool aboard the ill-fated Lusitania in 1915.

Jack Walsh is returning to England, ready to take up a post developing new types of portable field telephones to help the war effort. Unmarried, he’s keen to settle and as he and Gerda spend more and more time onboard together they realise that each has found someone very special.

But it’s the afternoon before they dock in Liverpool, and tragedy strikes. As the torpedoed ship lists to one side Jack and Gerda must make frightening decisions that become a matter of life or death …

A beautiful, romantic and moving tale based on a true story.

***This is a short story, which you can also buy as part of the Love…Maybe Eshort Collection***

Gill Paul is a writer of meticulously researched historical fiction. 

Her five novels include Women and Children First (set on the Titanic and published in 2012 for the centenary of the sinking) and The Affair (set in Rome in the early 1960s, and published in May 2013, on the 50th anniversary of the release of the Burton-Taylor Cleopatra movie). 

Gill has written several non-fiction books, including Royal Love Stories and World War I Love Stories.

For more information, visit her website www.gillpaul.com

Follow her on Twitter @GillPaulAUTHOR

Summertime by Vanessa Lafaye *** Paperback Publication, Author Post & BIG NEWS ***

In the small town of Heron Key, where the relationships are as tangled as the mangrove roots in the swamp, everyone is preparing for the 4th of July barbecue, unaware that their world is about to change for ever. Missy, maid to the Kincaid family, feels she has wasted her life pining for Henry, who went to fight on the battlefields of France. Now he has returned with a group of other desperate, destitute veterans, unsure of his future, ashamed of his past.

When a white woman is found beaten nearly to death, suspicion falls on Henry. As the tensions rise, the barometer starts to plummet. But nothing can prepare them for what is coming. For far out over the Atlantic, the greatest storm ever to strike North America is heading their way...

Back in December of last year I read and reviewed .... no, I raved about ... Summertime by Vanessa Lafaye which was published in hardback by Orion on 15 January 2015.

The paperback edition of Summertime is published today, 7 May 2015 by Orion.





I am so excited and thrilled that Summertime has been picked as a Richard & Judy Book Club
Summer read for 2015. This is a fabulous achievement for Vanessa Lafaye, and can only mean that more and more people will read this amazing book.

Congratulations Vanessa and Orion Books!

Summertime has also been nominated for the Newcomer of 2015 promotion – so please do vote via the Reading Agency website.



My full review of Summertime is here on Random Things, here's just a snippet of what I had to say;

"This is an incredibly powerful story, with deep and very detailed characters. The terrifying and powerful storm is described so well, with details that are both violent and heartbreaking.

A novel of small town America, of racial divide, of the strength of nature and ultimately a love story. Summertime is an exquisite piece of writing; rich, satisfying and beautiful."

I was not the only person to fall in love with Summertime. It went on to get rave reviews in the media and from other authors;

A storming debut novel [that] captures the racial and social tensions in southern America after the First World War. Part social history and part love story, this features the hurricane as a forceful, malevolent character in its own right, whipping through the pages. (THE BOOKSELLER)

'Powerful, beautifully written and simply unputdownable. If you can read this book and not be moved, you have a heart of stone.' (Cathy Kelly)

'I absolutely loved SUMMERTIME; it's rare to read something with such emotional intensity and such exciting pace. It is every bit as good as THE HELP, in my opinion.' (Elizabeth Noble)

1935. An Independence day BBQ simmers with racial tension and resentments. By morning, a terrible crime has been committed. Off the Florida coast, a hurricane is heading their way. So tense, I raced through it. (Fanny Blake WOMAN & HOME)

part love-story, part eye-opening insight into a tumultuous time in American history - the years after the First World War, when veterans tried to rebuild their lives and racial tensions ran high (GOOD HOUSEKEEPING)

A small community is rocked by an attack on a white woman and suspicion falls on war veteran Henry in a story set against the backdrop of a catastrophic hurricane. Vanessa Lafaye's Summertime is being compared to The Help and To Kill A Mockingbird. (Charlotte Heathcote SUNDAY EXPRESS)

I am delighted to welcome Vanessa Lafaye to Random Things today.  Vanessa has written a wonderful piece about inspiration.  I hope you enjoy it:

The Breath of Creativity

Vanessa Lafaye

Inspire verb
1. To fill someone with the urge to do something, especially something creative
2. To breathe in

It seems very appropriate that the word ‘inspire’ carries both the definitions above. Inspiration is not only the fuel that drives creative people: it is necessary to our continued existence, no less than breathing. Yet it is fickle, unpredictable, and unreliable. It abandons us when we need it most, and pays a visit at the least convenient times (e.g. on the toilet or during sex).

Without it, the gears of the imagination seize up, and the writer’s confidence turns to dust. It feels like every word must be excavated from the brain with a rusty spoon. The characters throw us quizzical, expectant looks, stuck mid-scene, waiting to be told what to do next. We flounder. Self-doubt rushes in to fill the vacuum. Cue panicked calls to agents and publishers for reassurance, and ill-advised chocolate/alcohol/shopping/baking binges. Writing is the worst job in the world!

When inspiration strikes, it does actually feel like a blow to the head, by a hammer made of angel feathers. Everything becomes clear in an instant: character motivations, plot turns, setting details. Energy and confidence flood back in and writing becomes easy, joyous, exhilarating. The words fly from brain to page and arrange themselves into meaningful patterns. The characters behave naturally, the setting glows. The only thing that matters is to keep doing it while the vision is still clear, while the ideas keep dancing together to music that only I can hear. It takes over every bodily need, including food. I’ve never experienced a Class A drug high, but I imagine that it feels like this. And I’m not at all surprised that artists of all kinds throughout history have sought inspiration there. Writing is the best job in the world! Until the next time…

So where does it come from, this essential yet elusive spark? I’ve been asked to write about what inspires me, so this is a personal answer, but of one thing I am sure: if it were sold as a potion, every creative type that I know would sell a kidney to get some of it.

I have a very visual imagination. I tend to write what I see in my head, so images in particular can be inspiring. This is how ‘Summertime’ came about. On a visit to Florida, I opened the morning paper to find an extremely striking, disturbing photo taken in 1935 after a ‘spectacle lynching’ in a small town in the state. A black man stands looking up at the corpse in the tree, whose legs dangle into the shot. The man’s face is blank of emotion. I started to wonder who he was, why he was there, what he was thinking. That man became my character Henry, even before I had a story. That lynching turned into a scene in the book when Henry goes on the run. As I write this, I have in front of me an historical image which gave me the idea for book 2.

Because I’m writing historical fiction, films set in the period are very inspiring. They help to immerse me in the speech, culture, and daily life of the past. It’s like watching a newsreel that my characters could have seen, and makes me feel part of their lives. I am also very inspired by the stories of the real people who lived through the events—their struggles, their sacrifices, their disappointments. I never forget the responsibility that comes from writing about stuff that actually happened to real people, not just to my fictional characters.

Sometimes a small detail can lead to much bigger inspiration. An early reader comment made me decide to develop the character Selma more than I had intended, and I began to research Haitian voodoo. This proved so fascinating that it turned into one of the most important themes in the book.

Everyone knows of the writer’s magpie tendency to pluck bits of real life for use in fiction. This can happen anywhere, any time. I met Poncho the macaw this way, on another visit to Florida. He was perched on a man’s shoulder (name forgotten) as he stopped to talk to interested people, astride his old bicycle. Poncho was magnificent. He waited patiently while his human talked all about macaw habits and biology. The man became the model for my character Zeke but Poncho entered the book unaltered. More recently, on a long plane flight, I was struggling to bring into focus the heroine for book 2 when I glanced at the woman across the aisle and saw her. The woman’s colouring was just what I needed to see, and I had to sneak several more surreptitious looks to imprint it on my mind.

Reading is, of course, another activity rich in inspirational sources. Reading ‘The Help’ inspired me but also made me decide to avoid heavy dialect in my book. I get inspiration from the clever ways that other authors structure their books. Although it may sound strange, I find reading book reviews very inspiring as well as educational and even motivational. Every Sunday while writing ‘Summertime’, I read the ‘Times’ book reviews. I learned a lot, about what reviewers like and don’t like. I picked up new items for my TBR list. Reading the reviews inspired me to keep going, in the hope that one day my book might be published, and someone, somewhere might review it. Never in my craziest, cake-fuelled delusions did I ever think that it would actually appear in the Sunday Times review pages, but it did. That was an anxious and incredibly surreal moment…and inspirational in its own way.

Vanessa Lafaye was born in Tallahassee and raised in Tampa, Florida, where there were hurricanes most years. 
She first came to the UK in 1987 looking for adventure, and found it. After spells of living in Paris and Oxford, she now lives in Marlborough, Wiltshire, with her husband and three furry children. 
Vanessa leads the local community choir, and music and writing are big parts of her life.

For more information about the author, visit her website www.vanessalafaye.wordpress.com
Visit her Facebook page         Follow her on Twitter @VanessaLafaye

Nightingales At War by Donna Douglas *** BLOG TOUR ***

As the war takes its toll, the Nightingale nurses must do their bit for king and country…

Dora is the devoted mother of twin babies but, determined to help the war effort, she goes back to work at the Nightingale Hospital.

More used to nights out in the West End, Jennifer and Cissy volunteer in the hope of tending to handsome soldiers. They soon find out that nursing isn’t quite what they were expecting.

For shy and troubled Eve, the hospital provides an escape from the pressures of home, but the life of a nurse is never easy, especially at wartime.

Can the nurses rally together while war rages all around them? And will the Nightingale Hospital survive the Blitz?

Welcome to the Blog Tour for Nightingales at War by Donna Douglas, published in paperback and ebook by Arrow on 7 May 2015.

Nightingales at War is the fifth in the Nightingales series, I have previously reviewed the first four books here on Random Things; The Nightingale Girls (September 2012); The Nightingale Sisters (April 2013); The Nightingale Nurses (November 2013) and Nightingales on Call (April 2014).

Although the Nightingales are something of a departure from my usual reading, I really enjoy this series and look forward to each new instalment. Donna Douglas continues to write engaging and dramatic stories, this time the Nightingale Nurses are having to deal with the atrocities of war. Not only nursing the wounded, but also worrying and wondering about their own loved ones, fighting overseas.

Dora is the lead character in this story. She's now married but has returned to nursing to help the war effort, and to try to keep herself busy and prevent her from fretting about her husband Nick who is posted overseas.

The reader is also introduced to new characters, this time the volunteer nurses; the VADs, rather than the students of previous books in the series.

As always, Donna Douglas captures the life of these amazing women so well. I was amazed when I learnt that the author was not a trained nurse, she has certainly done some fabulous research, and Nightingales at War is another wonderful addition to this great series.

I'm pleased to welcome the author, Donna Douglas to Random Things today. Donna shares with us her top five favourite books;

My top five all-time favourite books? Hmm, that’s a difficult one. I love all kinds of different genres, from Young Adults to sci-fi, as long as it has a story that reels me in and keeps me guessing right till the end with lots of plot twists and turns, and strong characters who live on in my imagination long after the book is over. My favourite book is generally the one I’m reading at that moment, but there are some that have stood the test of time, and that I’ll happily read over and over again. So here, in no particular order, are my top five…

ToKill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)

 I must confess I hadn’t read this book until about ten years ago, but I’ve lost count of the times I read it since! It’s by no means a lengthy book, but it still packs a powerful emotional punch. It looks at racism through the eyes of a child, so it manages to get a very strong message across in a very simple way. It’s also touching, warm and full of memorable characters. And forget Mr Darcy – Atticus Finch is just about my perfect romantic hero!

Room (Emma Donoghue)

Another story told through the eye of a child, and just as disturbing. Five year old Jack has spent his whole life with his mother in a small room. As the story unfolds, you find out why he’d never seen the outside world. I don’t want to give too much away, but it’s a wonderful, life-affirming story. I loved Jack, and I guarantee you will too.

Riders(Jilly Cooper)

Not exactly a literary heavyweight, but a heavyweight all the same (seriously, it could double as a doorstop). This eighties blockbuster is my all-time comfort read, the kind of book you just want to snuggle up in bed with when you’re under the weather. It follows the intense rivalry between Jake, a downtrodden gypsy boy with a gift for riding horses, and dastardly but sexy toff showjumper Rupert Campbell-Black.  It’s a classic bonkbuster, but one with real heart.

TheL-Shaped Room (Lynne Reid Banks)

This coming-of-age novel reminds me of my teenage years. Not that I spent my teenage years pregnant in an angsty London bedsit, you understand. But I read it when I was in my late teens, and I really felt for lonely single mum-to-be Jane, isolated from her uncaring father, who finds unexpected support from her new ‘family’ of colourful neighbours. 

JaneEyre (Charlotte Bronte)

I had to include at least one ‘classic’, and this is my absolute favourite. To be fair, it was always a toss-up between Charlotte and her sister Emily’s masterpiece Wuthering Heights, but having read both again recently I realised that Heathcliff wasn’t actually the tragically misunderstood hero I’d always imagined he was, but a bully with a personality disorder. I know Mr Rochester isn’t exactly perfect, but resourceful, stoical Jane has a lot more going for her than WH’s flaky Cathy, which is why Jane Eyre gets my vote. 

Donna Douglas lives in York with her husband and daughter. 

Besides writing novels, she is also a very well-respected freelance journalist and has written many features for the Daily Mail.

For more information about Donna; 
please visit her blog; donnadouglasauthor.wordpress.com/ 

Follow her on Twitter @donnahay1

The Lie by C L Taylor *** BLOG TOUR ***

I know your name’s not really Jane Hughes . . .

Jane Hughes has a loving partner, a job in an animal sanctuary and a tiny cottage in rural Wales. She’s happier than she’s ever been but her life is a lie. Jane Hughes does not really exist.

Five years earlier Jane and her then best friends went on holiday but what should have been the trip of a lifetime rapidly descended into a nightmare that claimed the lives of two of the women.

Jane has tried to put the past behind her but someone knows the truth about what happened. Someone who won’t stop until they’ve destroyed Jane and everything she loves . . .

I'm delighted to be the host on the Blog Tour for The Lie by C L Taylor.  The Lie was published in paperback by Avon on 23 April 2015.  I reviewed C L Taylor's last novel; The Accident, here on Random Things in April last year.







C L Taylor really does know how to keep her reader on the edge of their seat. The Lie is a complex and sometimes quite terrifying tale of how friendship can go very very wrong.

Jane Hughes lives a fairly quiet life, she works in an animal sanctuary and has recently started a relationship with the guy who could be 'the one'. Life has never been easy for Jane, but at the moment things seem to be going her way.

Until Jane receives a message. This message will turn her life upside down and can only mean
trouble. Five years ago Jane was called Emma and her life was very different, she was very different.

Emma and four of her friends decide to take a holiday in Nepal. It will be an opportunity to get away from everything. To work through their troubles, to relax, to have fun. Only two of them will return.

The retreat in Nepal seems like heaven. Relaxed and calm, organic food and no interference from the outside world - what more could they wish for?

It is not long before Emma realises that the apparent serenity and calm is a cover up, and that there is a dark and dangerous undertone running through this place. It seems that her friends are fully embedded into what is becoming more and more like a cult. Emma is desperate to get away, but others are desperate for her to stay.


The Lie is a fast-paced and pretty complex psychological thriller. Populated with characters who are easy to loathe, yet also so compelling, this is a story that takes the reader on a twisty path. There are explosive scenes of violence, with touches of cruelty, and the author cleverly ensures that the reader is just one step ahead of the main characters. Despite this, the ending is explosive and unexpected and leaves the reader feeling breathless.


C L Taylor is an excellent story teller. The Lie is a fabulous read, I would highly recommend it.

Yet again, Avon's PR company; Light Brigade PR have done a wonderful job in marketing this book. Just as they did with C L Taylor's previous novel, The Accident, they created a really spooky book mailing programme for The Lie.
Strange packages arrived through the post in the lead up to the actual book arriving - very clever, and somewhat unnerving too!

CL Taylor lives in Bristol with her partner and young son. Born in Worcester, she studied for a degree in Psychology at the University of Northumbria, Newcastle. She worked as a web developer, instructional designer and the manager of a university distance learning development team before giving up work to write full time in 2015.

Cally started writing fiction in 2005 and her short stories have won several awards and been published by a variety of literary and women’s magazines.

Her psychological thriller THE ACCIDENT was published in the UK by Avon HarperCollins in April 2014 and by Sourcebooks in the US in June 2014 (with the title ‘Before I Wake’). To date it has sold 150,000 copies in the UK alone and was listed as one of the top ten bestselling debuts of 2014 by The Bookseller magazine.

Her second novel THE LIE, a psychological thriller about friendship, betrayal and murder will be published in the UK on 23 April 2015 and June 2015 in the US.

Following the success of THE ACCIDENT CL Taylor signed a contract with Avon HarperCollins for three more psychological thrillers. Her third psychological thriller THE FORGETTING will be published in April 2016.

Her agent is Madeleine Milburn.

Sign up to CL Taylor’s newsletter to keep up to date with new releases, events and competitions.

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/callytaylor
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