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Lady Eleanor Swift travels to France for a holiday. On her first day at the villa, her unflappable butler Clifford discovers a body in the wine cellar and is promptly arrested for murder. Can Ellie prove his innocence and find the real killer?

The French For Murder is the 10th book to feature Eleanor, Clifford and Gladstone the dog.

The action starts straight away and Eleanor cannot believe that death has followed her on holiday. She doesn’t recognise the dead man but he is a film star. The French police arrest Clifford even though they don’t think he was responsible. To prove Clifford’s innocence and gain his freedom, she explores the decadent life of the Americans staying at the resort.

The usual wonderful humour between Clifford and Eleanor continues and I loved the bathing suit scenario. I dread to think how Clifford would cope with modern bikinis! His character is a curious mix of old fashioned attitudes and forward thinking. Ellie’s romance with Hugh takes a back seat as they are in different countries! But she has her staff in France with her so there is some familiarity for fans of the series.

I enjoyed the historical detail to the plot, characters and attitudes. The change of scene and the French characters added an extra dimension to the story. We don’t get to meet the murder victim before his demise so Ellie needs to delve deep to find out about his life and therefore potential motives.

The French For Murder is an enjoyable cosy murder mystery and a good instalment for the series.

I have previously reviewed the other books in the series:  A Very English Murder, Death at the Dance, A Witness to Murder, Murder in the Snow, Mystery by the Sea, Murder at the Fair, A Lesson In Murder, Death on a Winter’s Day, and A Royal Murder.

Book Description:

A grand villa, croissants for breakfast and a dead body in the wine cellar… Lady Swift can’t seem to take a vacation from murder!

Summer 1923. Lady Eleanor Swift is finally persuaded by her butler, Clifford, to take a villa in the south of France for the season. She plans to do what a glamorous lady abroad should: long lunches on the balcony followed by lazy afternoons lounging by the pool. Even Gladstone the bulldog is looking forward to a daily paddle in the ocean.

But when Clifford examines the wine cellar, he discovers there are no decent reds but there is a very dead body. The victim is famous American movie star Rex Armstrong. Poor Rex seems to have been stabbed with a sword from the film set. So how did he end up in Eleanor’s villa?

Before Eleanor even has time to change out of her travelling suit, her beloved butler is arrested for the crime. At sea without her right-hand man, Eleanor must gather her wits if she’s to outsmart a murderer and save Clifford.

Attending a glitzy party at the luxurious Hotel Azure with the film’s cast and crew so she can question her main suspects, Eleanor overhears the director having a most unsettling telephone call that throws all her theories out of the water. Can Eleanor unmask the true killer before her time abroad is cut murderously short?

A gripping historical murder mystery full of charm and intrigue, set in the beautiful French Riviera. Fans of Agatha Christie, T E Kinsey and Lee Strauss will adore The French for Murder.

Author Bio:

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Sheriff Jenna Alton and Dave Kane are finally ready to tie the knot but their plans are in jeopardy when a woman’s body is found in the town’s playground. Meanwhile, other women live in terror in underground caves…

Kiss Her Goodnight is the 15th book to feature Kane and Alton.

The main plot thread started in Pray For Mercy and was a loose end that I was eager to find out what happened next. Poppy was kidnapped three months ago (in the last book) and has been held underground by a merciless killer. She attempts to use her police training to encourage opportunities for escape. But has she got the emotional strength to cope with his twisted logic?

The subplot of Jenna and Alton’s wedding will appeal to fans of the series like me who have been waiting! Their wedding almost doesn’t go ahead and then their honeymoon goes spectacularly wrong. There is an added tension as they negotiate their personal feelings and professional lives: it increases their vulnerability but also their resolve.

Other members of the team step up in the investigation to allow Kane and Alton some personal time. There is some forensic detail and the torture of the victims is not explicitly described which leaves it to the readers’ imaginations. Poppy’s character arc is interesting as I didn’t like her much in the last book but now we want her to triumph over the depraved killer.

Kiss Her Goodnight is an entertaining thriller.

MEDIA PACK

Book: KISS HER GOODNIGHT 

Author: D.K. Hood 

Pub Day: June 1st 2022

Buy Links: 

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Audible:

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About the Book: 

She glances around as she locks the café door behind her. It’s growing dark and the quiet street is deserted. Tired, she starts on her short walk home. She thinks she’ll be safe inside within minutes, but the person watching from the shadows has other plans for her tonight…

When the body of a young woman is discovered in a local playground in the center of Black Rock Falls, Sheriff Jenna Alton and her deputy David Kane rush to the scene. Jenna recoils with horror when she sees the body, dressed in a thin nightgown, her face covered by a terrifying Halloween mask.

When the body is examined, red puncture marks are uncovered along her spine. Jenna makes a connection with a cold case where the killer tortured young women for years and was never caught. If the murderer has started killing again, Jenna knows it’s only a matter of time before another body is found.

Days later, when another victim lays slumped against the fence of a local landfill site, with the same puncture wounds and macabre mask, Jenna’s fears are confirmed. A serial killer is back in town and they’re picking off women one by one.

Then, as a third body is found, Jenna finally gets the breakthrough she needs. Dirt found underneath the women’s fingernails leads to a dangerous cave network in the mountains outside town. And once Jenna ventures into the dark, winding underground tunnels, will she find the person responsible for the deaths and take them down, or has she just walked into the killer’s trap?

Fans of Lisa Regan, Melinda Leigh and Kendra Elliot will be gripped by this crime thriller from USA Today bestselling author D.K. Hood. Prepare to stay up all night!

**Each Kane and Alton book can be read as part of the series or as a standalone**

Author Bio and Social Media 

A skip burns. When the flames dies down, the fire brigade find a charred body. DI Barton needs to discover if the death was deliberate and the fire intentional, or could both have been accidental…?

The Fire Killer is the 5th book in the DI Barton series and I have reviewed the previous book The Cold Killer.

The book is mostly written from DI Barton’s third person perspective. However, there are some chapters written from the Fire Killer’s viewpoint and this made me sympathetic to them due to their past.

I found the pace of the book to be rather slow and it was less dramatic than the previous book. The number of suspects narrows down quite early on and all seem to have had the opportunity to set the fire. DI Barton needs to sift through the alibis and detect potential motives in order to make sense of the two strands to the case.

I enjoyed the personal life of the officers especially John Barton. It is quite refreshing to have a police character with a settled and happy home life. Meanwhile there is a love triangle between other officers in the team which allows for some great banter between the characters.

The Fire Killer is a solid police procedural novel with a great lead detective.

The Fire Killer

When DI Barton is asked to investigate a seemingly innocuous fire that kills, he believes it’s either children fooling around or a worrying racially motivated crime.

As he delves deeper into the case, he soon realises that there is a history of similar blazes spread out over many years, all within a close area. And after an idea is suggested by pathologist Mortis, Barton suspects he has the arsonist’s motives wrong.

When a night worker comes forward with a tip, Barton narrows down the suspects. Yet all of them act suspiciously and he knows for sure that one or more of them are lying. And when a huge house blaze shocks everyone, Barton fears the killer has lost all control.

Who is The Fire Killer? What will be next to burn?

Purchase Link – https://amzn.to/3vzUaMh

Author Bio –

Ross Greenwood is the bestselling author of ten crime thrillers. Before becoming a full-time writer he was most recently a prison officer and so worked everyday with murderers, rapists and thieves for four years. He lives in Peterborough.

Social Media Links

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Maisie Clark is desperate to find an author to act as her mentor for a prestigious writing scheme. She travels from LA to Cornwall to seek out a reclusive author and ends up working as a maid at the hotel where he writes.

A Little Hotel in Cornwall box set contains 8 novellas, all between 150 and 250 pages each.

The first novella is also titled A Little Hotel in Cornwall and sees Maisie start her journey. It is written from her first person perspective and the style of writing is easy to read. There is plenty of humour as Maisie finds herself a job as a maid by pretending to be someone else. She also has to keep this a secret from her rich ex boyfriend who happens to be at the hotel. Maisie experiences the beginning of a new potential romance with local man Sidney. I enjoyed the premise of the book and Maisie’s bravery and passion shine through.

Maisie’s quest continues in the second novella which is titled A Spirited Girl on Cornish Shores. She continues to hide her identity from most of the characters and her relationship with Sidney develops further. The light hearted tone is maintained although this story is set around Halloween so has a spooky undertone as well. Maisie is a strong lead character and so easy to like that we really want her to succeed.

I look forward to reading the rest of the box set this summer and seeing how Maisie’s character develops as she strives to achieve her dream.

A Little Hotel in Cornwall: Books 1-8

All eight novellas in the UK bestselling series A LITTLE HOTEL IN CORNWALL are now available in one collection! Follow aspiring young author Maisie Clark as she stumbles into a role as a maid in the idyllic hotel by the sea, where there’s never a dull moment, from her quest to track down a reclusive English novelist, to her brush with jewel thieves and a whirlwind trip through Paris and London to name a few. All the while, she finds herself falling for the handsome and enigmatic groundskeeper Sidney Daniels. Could the key to unlocking her dreams be right in front of her?

This collection contains A Little Hotel in Cornwall, A Spirited Girl on Cornish Shores, Sea Holly and Mistletoe Kisses, The Cornish Secret of Summer’s Promise, A Train from Penzance to Paris, A Cornish Daisy’s Kiss, A Stargazy Night Sky, and The Cornish Key to Happiness.

Purchase Link – http://mybook.to/LHboxset

Author Bio –

Laura Briggs is the author of several feel-good romance reads, including the Top 100 Amazon UK seller ‘A Wedding in Cornwall’. She has a fondness for vintage style dresses (especially ones with polka dots), and reads everything from Jane Austen to modern day mysteries. When she’s not writing, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, caring for her pets, gardening, and seeing the occasional movie or play.

Social Media Links –

Author Facebook page: http://on.fb.me/1JjeMoI

Twitter page: http://bit.ly/1ME9ivJ

Giveaway to Win a PB copy of A Little Hotel in Cornwall: Books 1-8  and a scarf with cover art from the series printed on it. (Open to UK and US Only)

*Terms and Conditions –UK & US entries welcome.  Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below.  The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data.  I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.
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TRIGGER WARNING: graphic Holocaust violence including infanticide

Ana and Ester are friends in Lodz, Poland when the Nazis invade. Both are forced from their homes as a ghetto is established and Ester is locked inside. Ana is eager to help the Jewish community but this brings her to the attention of the Gestapo. Both women are sent to Auschwitz where they put their nursing and midwidery skills to good use.

The Midwife of Auschwitz is an historical novel set in Poland during the Nazi occupation. It is based on a true story but the two main characters are both fictional.

Ana is a midwife and Ester is a nurse and their skills save them from selection for the gas chambers when they arrive. Together they tend to the pregnant women in Auschwitz but the babies are killed or taken to be Germanised. They tattoo the mother’s number into the armpit of the babies in the hope that they can one day be reunited. There is hope and love in spite of the horrific ordeals in the camp.

The horrors that Ester and Ana witness and experience are explicitly described. I had to put the book down several times as the violence is so realistically recounted. Love for each other and for their families keeps the women going in the harshest of circumstances. The emotion and heartache are very raw and I was completely absorbed into the story.

The Midwife of Auschwitz is harrowing but a wonderful testament to the endurance of love.

Author Bio:

Anna Stuart lives in Derbyshire with her campervan-mad husband, two hungry teenagers and a slightly loopy dog. She was hooked on books from the moment she first opened one in her cot so is thrilled to now have several of her own to her name. Having studied English literature at Cambridge university, she took an enjoyable temporary trip into the ‘real world’ as a factory planner, before returning to her first love and becoming an author. History has also always fascinated her. Living in an old house with a stone fireplace, she often wonders who sat around it before her and is intrigued by how actively the past is woven into the present, something she likes to explore in her novels. Anna loves the way that writing lets her ‘try on’ so many different lives, but her favourite part of the job is undoubtedly hearing from readers. You can reach her on Facebook @annastuartauthor or Twitter @annastuartbooks.

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