Book Review – Stone Cold Trouble by Amer Anwar @ameranwar @dialoguebooks @LittleBrownUK #StoneColdTrouble

Happy publication day to Amer Anwar for Stone Cold Trouble! I’ve so been looking forward to reading this. Thank you to Dialogue Books and Little, Brown for letting me read an advance copy through NetGalley. Before I give you my review, here’s the blurb.

The Blurb

Trying – and failing – to keep his head down and to stay out of trouble, ex-con Zaq Khan agrees to help his best friend, Jags, recover a family heirloom, currently in the possession of a wealthy businessman. But when Zaq’s brother is viciously assaulted, Zaq is left wondering whether someone from his own past is out to get revenge.

Wanting answers and retribution, Zaq and Jags set out to track down those responsible. Meanwhile, their dealings with the businessman take a turn for the worse and Zaq and Jags find themselves suspected of murder.

It’ll take both brains and brawn to get themselves out of trouble and, no matter what happens, the results will likely be deadly. The only question is, whether it will prove deadly for them, or for someone else . . . ?

My Review

Trouble seems to find Zaq and this time it’s in the form of a necklace – hence Stone Cold Trouble. Jags’ Uncle Lucky (or not so lucky) has lost his wife’s favourite necklace in a gambling bet. He needs the two young men to get it back for him. But before he can get too involved, Zaq finds out his brother’s been beaten up and left for dead. Somehow Zaq has to juggle the two situations.

The pace is relentless as Zaq and Jags do their best to keep up with the ever evolving problems they find themselves in. Just as they manage to deal with one thing, another pops up taking them by surprise. As Zaq is spending his nights at the hospital with his brother, he’s sleeping during the day and often wakes up to unexpected and unwelcome news.

When Zaq stormed into my life in Brothers in Blood, I knew he was a pretty special character. Pair him with Jags and we have a double act better than Ant and Dec. One of the things I loved about Brothers in Blood was the location of Southall and Hounslow as I know these areas quite well. This time Amer Anwar has headed down the other way on the Uxbridge Road out to Hillingdon, Slough and Iver. I don’t know these places as much but I love how Amer puts in the little details to show he’s done his research. This usually means pubs. I’m not entirely sure I want to frequent these places but it adds authenticity to the story.

Amer Anwar has created some great villains but I don’t want to give the game away by telling you their names! Of course this leads to some pretty big fights. I don’t think I’ve read anyone better for fight scenes and I often wonder how Zaq is still standing by the end of the book!

The only thing I would have liked to have seen more of are the two young women, Rita and Nina. They had crucial roles in Brothers in Blood but as Zaq and Jags don’t want to involve them, they’re side-lined a bit. If there’s a third Zaq and Jags (fingers crossed) then I’d like to them to be a bit more present.

Overall I loved this fast-paced thriller where friendship and family are key. I can’t wait for another Zaq and Jags adventure.

NB. I don’t normally put trigger warnings in reviews but if you’ve already read Brothers in Blood then I must warn you that lemon and chilli appear again. Perhaps not as you expect but there all the same!

To buy Stone Cold Trouble click here.

Or support your local independent bookshop.

The Author

Amer Anwar grew up in West London. After leaving college he had a variety of jobs, including warehouse assistant, comic book lettering artist, a driver for emergency doctors and chalet rep in the French Alps. He eventually landed a job as a creative artworker/graphic designer and spent a decade and a half producing artwork, mainly for the home entertainment industry. He holds an MA in Creative Writing from Birkbeck, University of London and is a winner of the Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger Award.

And you can hear more about Stone Cold Trouble when Amer joins First Monday Crime on Monday 5th October. Follow First Monday Crime on Facebook and watch the livestream.

Blog tour – City of Spies by Mara Timon @MaraTimon @ZaffreBooks @Tr4cyF3nt0n #CityofSpies

I’m thrilled to be taking part in the blog tour of City of Spies. Thank you to Tracy Fenton and Zaffre Books for inviting me to take part. Before I share my thoughts, here’s the blurb.

The Blurb

LISBON, 1943: When her cover is blown, SOE agent Elisabeth de Mornay flees Paris. Pursued by the Gestapo, she makes her way to neutral Lisbon, where Europe’s elite rub shoulders with diplomats, businessmen, smugglers, and spies. There she receives new orders – and a new identity.

Posing as wealthy French widow Solange Verin, Elisabeth must infiltrate a German espionage ring targeting Allied ships, before more British servicemen are killed.

The closer Elisabeth comes to discovering the truth, the greater the risk grows. With a German officer watching her every step, it will take all of Elisabeth’s resourcefulness and determination to complete her mission.

But in a city where no one is who they claim to be, who can she trust?

My Review

With the 75^th anniversary of the end of WW2, many stories have started to emerge about the women who took part in the war effort. For decades we’ve known about the WRENs, the Women’s Land Army and those who went to work in munitions factories. However it’s only in recent years, and particularly around the anniversary, that others have spoken about their more secret jobs. Women weren’t just typists at Bletchley but code breakers too. My favourite story is about the 13 year old girl who helped her father design the Spitfire. However, the women who really risked their lives were part of the SOE – Special Operations Executive – female spies who were parachuted behind enemy lines. They were highly trained in various ways and their contribution to the war effort was huge. Mara Timon plays tribute to these women with her debut novel City of Spies.

We hit the ground running in this thrilling novel. Elisabeth de Mornay, a SOE agent, has to flee Paris when someone informs on her. The journey back to Britain is fraught with danger both from the Germans and the Resistance. Trust is a long-lost virtue in wartime. Surviving is a day-to-day occurrence. When she finally makes it to Lisbon, supposedly neutral, Elisabeth is given a new task and a new alias as Solange Verin, a wealthy French widow. Instead of evading the Germans, she has to get up close and personal, something which will take nerves of steel.

It’s abundantly clear that Mara Timon has done her research. There’s a cast of characters provided at the beginning which is a mixture of fictional characters and real people. Often the real people are only name-checked but it provides authenticity. Likewise part of the plot is based on true events that happened in Portugal but I don’t want to give any spoilers away!

This is a fast-paced story. Solange may appear to be living it up in neutral Lisbon but the spy is constantly on the look-out and discovers the Germans aren’t her only enemies. The threats weave in and out of each other. Surviving with a smile on her face doesn’t prove easy. As well as being fast-paced, the tension is constantly there. Will Solange get the information she needs? Will her cover be blown? Will she survive and make it back to Britain? Of course I can’t tell you what happens, you’ll have to read it for yourself.

I’m not normally a fan of spy fiction but I enjoyed this hugely, not least because the ending suggests a sequel. I really hope it does. Elisabeth de Mornay is too good a character to restrict to one book and the war isn’t over yet.

You can buy City of Spies here.

Or buy a copy from your local independent bookshop.

About the Author

Raised in New York Mara Timon moved to the UK almost 20 years ago; and fell in love with London and the way it melds the old and the new. Growing up with one parent fascinated with literature and the other with history, she started writing from an early age, although it wasn’t until a programme on the BBC caught her interest, and one ‘what if’ led to another, and another, that her first book began to take shape.

City of Spies is her debut novel.

And you can hear more about City of Spies when Mara joins First Monday Crime on Monday 5th October. Follow First Monday Crime on Facebook and watch the livestream.

Book Review – The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman @richardosman @VikingBooksUK #TheThursdayMurderClub

Happy publication day to Richard Osman for The Thursday Murder Club! Thank you to Viking for allowing me to read a proof e-book via NetGalley. Before I give you my thoughts, here’s the blurb.

 

The Blurb

In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders.

But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case.

Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it’s too late?

 

My Review

In The Thursday Murder Club, we have Elizabeth and Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron. Although they may be pensioners living in a retirement village and acutely aware their days are numbered, they don’t plan on wasting any of those days sitting around doing nothing.

Joyce has been asked to join after former and co-founding member, Penny, became too ill to take part. Penny, a retired police officer, was still haunted by past unsolved crimes so she started the club with Elizabeth. Each bring their own special set of skills. Ibrahim was a psychologist and a bit of a number-cruncher. Ron’s a former trade union leader and is able to make himself heard, loud and clear. He also has huge compassion that we see in rare moments. Joyce is a retired nurse and so brings some medical expertise. Elizabeth… well, we never know exactly what she used to do but there are enough hints to suggest a secretive and slightly murky past. Although they’re used to looking at cold cases, it isn’t long before a real murder happens and The Thursday Murder Club get the chance to try and solve it. And maybe more besides that.

I absolutely loved this the book. I giggled a lot and often read out parts to my husband which he didn’t fully appreciate as he was trying to go to sleep. There’s a cast of many characters and the viewpoint switches quite a lot which took a while to get used to.  As well as being humorous with an interesting plot, it’s also acutely observational. Richard Osman highlights perfectly the need that older people have to remain useful. Coopers Chase Retirement Village may be fictional but in the acknowledgements Richard Osman mentions a retirement village that he actually visited. It’s refreshing to know that such places exist.

I wish I could comment more on the plot but I don’t want to reveal any spoilers. Suffice to say things are not at all as they seem.

Overall, this book sums up the best in cosy crime – wonderfully eccentric characters, enough red herrings to eat for breakfast for a week and a quirky police duo trying (and failing) to keep one step ahead of the pensioners. I do hope there’s a second book planned. These characters are too good to be used only once.

 

You can buy The Thursday Murder Club here.

Or visit your local independent bookshop.

 

The Author

Richard Osman is an author, producer and television presenter. The Thursday Murder Club is his first novel. He is well known for TV shows including Pointless and Richard Osman’s House of Games. As the creative director of Endemol UK, Richard has worked as an executive producer on numerous shows including Deal Or No Deal and 8 Out of 10 Cats. He is also a regular on panel and game shows such as Have I Got News For You, Would I Lie To You and Taskmaster.

First Monday Crime is back! @1stMondayCrime @kate_bradley @erskine_fiona @hecallaghan @sophieglorita

We’re back! Well, sort of. Obviously we can’t all meet together at City University so we’re moving online and will live stream our events to our Facebook page for the time being. So just like and follow the page and then join us on Monday 7th September at 7.30pm. Our guests will be Kate Bradley, Helen Callaghan and Fiona Erskine. Our very own Sophie Goodfellow will be asking the questions. To give you some idea of what to expect, here are the blurbs for the authors’ books.

 

To Keep Her Safe by Kate Bradley

 How far would you go to save a child that isn’t yours?

You don’t know who they are. You don’t know why they’re hunting her. But you know she’s in danger.

What do you do?

When teacher Jenni Wales sees 15-year-old Destiny’s black eye, she’s immediately worried. Destiny isn’t your average student: she’s smart, genius IQ smart, and she’s in care. But concern turns to fear when Jenni witnesses an attempt to abduct Jenni from school.

Who are these men and what can Destiny know to make them hunt her?

With those around her not taking the threat seriously, Jenni does the only thing she can think of to keep Destiny safe: she takes her.

To buy click here.

 

Night Falls, Still Missing by Helen Callaghan

On a cold, windswept night, Fiona arrives on a tiny, isolated island in Orkney.

She accepted her old friend’s invitation with some trepidation – her relationship with Madison has never been plain sailing.

But when she approaches Madison’s cottage, the windows are dark. The place has been stripped bare. No one knows where Madison has gone.

As Fiona tries to find out where Madison has vanished to, she begins to unravel a web of lies.

Madison didn’t live the life she claimed to.

And now Fiona’s own life is in danger . . .

To buy click here.

 

The Chemical Reaction by Fiona Erskine

As Jaq is pulled further into a murky underworld of deceit and corruption, things take an explosive turn…

After escaping almost certain death amidst the ruins of Chernobyl, Jaq finds herself in even hotter water. Deep in debt, she decides to take on a risky contract in China. But when her former student and the chemical factory she was meant to be investigating both mysteriously disappear, she realises nothing is as it seems.

From fraudulent art auctions in London to a troupe of male strippers in Shanghai, the mystery of the vanishing factory begins to look ever more complicated as the days pass. Can Jaq work out what happened – and whether it has anything to do with her nemesis Frank Good – before time runs out?

To buy click here.

 

Such great books! Come along and join us on Monday 7th September at 7.30pm on the First Monday Crime Facebook page. And keep Monday 5th October free in your diaries! The panel for October will be confirmed soon.