1940, French bookseller Madeline discovers that her late husband had a son in Germany, making the boy half Jewish and in danger under Nazi rule. Meanwhile she is also enlisted by the Resistance to save banned books. 2011, Olivia discovers a photo of her great grandmother with a Nazi and wants to find the truth about her heritage…
The Bookseller of Paris is the second book in The Paris Sisters series. I have previously read and reviewed the first book, The Last Day in Paris.
Madeline is adjusting to life as a widow as well as the occupation of Paris by the Nazis. She is shocked when she finds out that her husband had fathered a child that he never knew about. She wants to travel to Germany to see the boy and protect him if possible. She also has another secret mission which also puts her in danger.
Olivia spots a photo in an auction lot and recognises her great grandmother Ada. She knows very little about her family history and is estranged from her grandfather Kurt. She travels to Scotland to meet him properly and try to find out about his past. I enjoyed her exploration and investigation of the truth behind the family secrets, in tandem with events unfolding in the 1940s narrative.
I thought both timelines were equally vividly portrayed and effectively imagined. The use of the two timelines allows the plot to unfold and interlink, and I thought this was well executed by the author. The writing style was easy to read and the characters felt authentic. At the end of the book is an author’s note which demonstrates the author’s research and basis on real events and people. This added extra depth and emotion to the plot and character depiction.
The Bookseller of Paris is a hugely emotional and enjoyable historical novel based on real life people for added poignancy.
Book Description:
Paris, 1940: Madeline tries to scream, but she can’t breathe. A German soldier is working to free her from the rubble – but if he reaches her, he will find the books hidden beneath her clothes…
When the Germans seize Paris, its peaceful streets fill with terror overnight, and nowhere is safe. Desperate to help her friends, Parisian bookseller Madeline Valette turns her bookshop into a sanctuary for those in hiding, but she knows it’s only a matter of time before she’s found out.
So when she is asked to join the Resistance and smuggle banned books from Berlin, she accepts, desperate to defy the Nazis. And while she wants to save precious books from destruction, she also hopes her trips to Germany might help her find the last living connection she has to her beloved husband…
Because Madeline has received a letter from a German woman called Ada, the mother of her husband’s son. Facing persecution, the Jewish boy is in terrible danger. But where are they now, and can Madeline help them before it’s too late?
When Madeline finally finds Ada and the child, she realises Ada is at the mercy of a high-ranking Nazi official and both their lives are now at risk. Can Madeline get them to safety? Or will the unthinkable happen to this innocent child?
The second unputdownable novel in the Paris Sisters series, this is the story of two women’s bravery in the face of the darkness of the Second World War. Perfect for fans of Roberta Kagan, Kristin Hannah, and Fiona Valpy.
Author Bio:
Suzanne Kelman is a 2015 Academy of Motion Pictures Nicholl Finalist, Multi-Award-Winning Screenwriter and a Film Producer. As well as working in film she is also an International Amazon Bestselling Fiction Author of the Southlea Bay Series – The Rejected Writers’ Book Club, Rejected Writers Take the Stage and The Rejected Writers’ Christmas Wedding. Born in the United Kingdom, she now resides in Washington State.
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Margery Lancaster tried to kill her abusive husband and their baby son. She went to prison and served her sentence but now she is targeted by a killer. The chief suspects are her ex husband and now grown up son. One dies before he can be investigated and the other is missing…
Poison Memories is the 12th book in the DC Morgan Brookes series of police procedurals set in the Lake District.
Morgan and Ben are battling the elements as the weather rages. This makes the crime scene difficult to preserve and the pair do their best to save evidence. Margery commited a terrible crime in the past but has completed her time in prison so deserves the police’s usual meticulous focus to catch her killer.
There are some hugely emotive topics covered in this book. Margery was abused and possibly suffering from postnatal depression but there is no doubt that her actions were terrible. Morgan’s superior officer is going through a nasty divorce and it is affecting his behaviour. Morgan reacts to both her victim and her boss with compassion as well as professionalism.
There is a spooky element to the book as the house was the site of murders centuries ago. Morgan hears creaking floorboards and whispers but could this be the weather? Her aunt Ettie, an empath and witch, has other ideas and I love her character. Ettie also met Margery in the past and this showed a slightly darker side to her abilities as well as their strength.
The relationships and dynamics between the police characters was fabulous as always in this series. There is teasing and banter but this is all underpinned by respect. The book has plenty of plot twists, despite only having two initial suspects so I was kept guessing. Chapters are quite short so the plot speeds along at a reasonable pace.
Poison Memories is an enjoyable police procedural with a good mystery and strong police team.
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Book: POISON MEMORIES
Author: Helen Phifer
Pub Day: JULY 2nd 2024
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About the Book:
Wind howls against the bolted front door, but the woman can still hear footsteps approaching. He has come for her. The memory of what she did still haunts her, and she knows she deserves to die…
Arriving at High Wraith cottage, Detective Morgan Brookes joins her horrified team, who have found a woman’s body chained and dangling from the gnarled branch of an old oak tree. It’s a race against time to preserve any evidence as heavy rain destroys the scene, but they’ve already identified the victim as a woman who once tried to kill her own family.
Twenty years ago, Margery Lancaster went to prison for poisoning her husband and infant son. They both survived, and Morgan must treat the pair as her first suspects. But before she has a chance to get to work, Margery’s ex-husband is brutally murdered, and Morgan’s heart thumps as she sees his hands tied with silver chains that match those found on Margery’s body. Then his son, now a local doctor, arrives at the station to be interviewed. Morgan watches in despair as he drops to the floor and falls into a coma.
With almost all of the forensic evidence washed away by the storm, and no family left to interview, Morgan’s last hope is tracking the two chains to a local hardware store. But the killer is already closing in on his final victim. Is it already too late for Morgan to stop him, or will she uncover the terrible secrets this family are hiding in time to save another life?
A heart-racing, edge-of-your-seat thriller for fans of Lisa Regan, Melinda Leigh and Rachel McLean. Will have your heart pounding as you reach the final, breathtaking twist.
Author Bio
Helen Phifer is the Bestselling writer of the hugely popular Annie Graham, Lucy Harwin, Beth Adams and her current series featuring Detective Constable Morgan Brooks published by the fabulous Bookouture.
She lives in the busy town of Barrow-in-Furness surrounded by miles of coastline and a short drive from the glorious English Lake District.
Helen loves reading books that scare the heck out of her and is eternally grateful to Stephen King, Dean Koontz, James Herbert and Graham Masterton for scaring her senseless in her teenage years. Unable to find enough scary stories she decided to write her own and her debut novel The Ghost House released in October 2013 became a #1 Global Bestseller.
She has written over twenty books in various genres and you can follow her over on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/helenphifer/
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TRIGGER WARNING: child sex abuse and trafficking
FBI agent Beth Katz has been searching for her partner Dax’s lost sister who vanished years ago. Finally she has found Ginny but it isn’t the reunion she and Dax wanted. Ginny has been brainwashed by her captor and helps him to traffic other girls for a paedophile ring. Beth’s serial killer instinct is fired up to seek revenge for the innocent victims…
Forgotten Girls is the 4th book to feature FBI agent and serial killer Beth Katz. Her alter ego is The Tarot Killer who kills other killers rather than sending them to prison.
Dax and Beth are thrilled that his sister has been found but there are huge repercussions and the agents begin an operation to catch the paedophiles. Thankfully, despite the dark content, there are no graphic scenes or imagery although we do see Beth’s sickened reaction to the videos she sees. There are two key suspects who go on the run so Beth and Dax along with other agents use the latest technology to track them down. But the paedophile ring is huge and rich and the team are in constant danger.
This case is intensely personal for Dax and he wants to make the perpetrators suffer. Beth and Dax grow closer in this book as she had finally learned to trust and crave human contact. This slows down the pace a little. Beth’s secret serial killer persona doesn’t appear until later in the book and I was impatient! She does have lots of violent attacks to contend with throughout the book but these are all in the line of duty and don’t have the usual impact.
Forgotten Girls is an enjoyable instalment in the series but I want to see more of Beth’s dark persona!
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Book: Forgotten Girls
Author: D.K. HOOD
Pub Day: July 31st 2024
About the book:
She bites her nails as she steals a glance at the stranger in the pickup truck beside her. She trusted him when he offered her a ride, but now, as he turns onto a deserted road leading into a dark pine forest, she knows she’s made a huge mistake.
Special agent Beth Katz races through the dense Montana woodland toward a small, isolated cabin. She’s investigating the disappearance of her partner Dax Styles’s sister who went missing as she walked home from school, and Beth finally has a solid lead. Outside the decrepit building, her heart pounds wondering what she will find on the other side of the door.
A young woman with long brown hair and cornflower blue eyes, just like Dax’s, shakes in the kitchen. It’s clearly Ginny, but before Dax can speak to his long-lost sister, Beth hears a noise from outside. In a rundown outbuilding, they discover another young girl, reported missing just weeks before. Dressed in a thin nightie, Ava cowers as Beth breaks into the padlocked room. Her captor has fled, but Beth will use every skill she’s got to track him down.
Working night and day, Beth uncovers more cases of young girls taken from remote roads near their homes. Twelve-year-old Shiloh Weeks vanished as she walked home just days ago. Her story remarkably similar to Ginny and Ava’s.
Beth and Dax are on a mission to stop to this twisted individual and save any new girls from being taken into the woods and lost forever. But when the trail leads them to a man impersonating a police officer to gain the trust of his victims, will Dax hand him over or take matters into his own hands?
Author Bio
D.K Hood is THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, USA TODAY, and #1 AMAZON MILLION COPY Bestselling Author of the Kane and Alton Series.
D.K’s spine chilling, fast paced serial killer thrillers revolve around Sheriff Jenna Alton and her ex- special forces Deputy, Dave Kane. As the main characters fight crime, their secret pasts are never far away. Set in and around the fictional backwoods town of Black Rock Falls, Montana, known locally as Serial Killer Central, D.K ‘s imagery takes the reader into the scenes with her. Given the title “Queen of Suspense” by her reviewers, D.K ‘s writing style offers her readers a movie style, sizzling fast thrill ride.
NEW SERIES: SPECIAL AGENT BETH KATZ-
Beth is a serial killer working for the FBI. By day she is a dedicated agent and by night she becomes the notorious Tarot Killer and hunts down vicious serial killers, who have slipped through the net of justice. With her handsome mountain man partner,
Agent Dax Styles, they fight crime by walking a very thin line of the law.
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Gerald Cartwright disappeared six years ago but his body isn’t found until his son starts renovation work on the family home. Gerald was still alive when he was bricked up behind a new wall…
Firewatching is the first book in the DS Adam Tyler series of police procedurals.
Adam Tyler struggles to fit in at work. He leads on cold cases so is separate from his colleagues who run active investigations. He is gay and his police officer father killed himself, both of which also put him at odds with his colleagues. On this case though, Adam needs the team to put personal differences aside and focus on working together to catch a killer. He works alongside an ambitious young constable who wants to get into CID but the pair have a bumpy working relationship.
Added to Adam’s troubles is the fact that Gerald Cartwright’s son Oscar is a suspect. Adam and Oscar had a one night stand the night before the discovery of the body and now Adam needs to put his conflicted emotions to one side to find the truth. The murder of Gerald is linked with a series of arson attacks and readers are also aware that two old ladies are being blackmailed. There are multiple layers for Adam to consider and I was kept guessing until the end.
There are no chapters as such, instead the book is divided into days. This means that the chronology of the plot is meticulous and detailed, and the pace is rather slow at first. There are breaks as the narrative moves between the experience of various characters, showing the investigation as well potential suspects. Each day starts with an anonymous ‘post’ by someone obsessed with fire and the connection to the main plot is not revealed until later.
I really liked Adam’s character. He has a lot of depth and emotional baggage but his career means a lot to him so he wants to succeed and prove himself. He struggles socially and emotionally which demonstrates a vulnerable side. I enjoyed his friend’s attempts to bring him out of his shell and accept and celebrate his homosexuality as a key component of his persona. I thought that the homophobic jibes experienced by Adam were unpleasant but sadly they felt authentic.
Firewatching is an enjoyable start to a new series with a strong lead character.
Book blurb:
A police procedural introducing Detective Sergeant Adam Tyler, a cold case reviewer who lands a high-profile murder investigation, only to find the main suspect is his recent one-night stand . . .
When financier Gerald Cartwright disappeared from his home six years ago, it was assumed he’d gone on the run from his creditors. But then a skeleton is found bricked up in the cellar of Cartwright’s burned-out mansion, and it becomes clear Gerald never left alive.
As the sole representative of South Yorkshire’s Cold Case Review Unit, Detective Sergeant Adam Tyler is not expected to get results, but he knows this is the case that might finally kick start his floundering career. Luckily, he already has a suspect. Unluckily, that suspect is Cartwright’s son, the man Tyler slept with the night before.
Keeping his possible conflict-of-interest under wraps, Tyler digs into the case alongside Amina Rabbani, an ambitious young Muslim constable and a fellow outsider seeking to prove herself on the force. Soon their investigation will come up against close-lipped townsfolk, an elderly woman with dementia who’s receiving mysterious threats referencing a past she can’t remember, and an escalating series of conflagrations set by a troubled soul intent on watching the world burn . . .
The world is coming out of lockdown. Smith is bored and not had any murders to investigate for months as criminals stay indoors. Now a clever killer is on the loose, murdering women and leaving their portraits behind…
The Painter is the 28th book in the DS Jason Smith series set in York.
A woman is killed in her own home and her blood is used to add the final brushstrokes to her portrait. More women are murdered and Smith is sure that the paintings contain a clue about the next victim so there is a frantic hunt to work out their identity before they can be harmed.
Once again there is a personal element in the case and Smith’s relationships with his family, neighbours and colleages are crucial to the plot development. I love Smith’s character and the way he is passionate about catching the killer. His boredom at the beginning made me smile as did his emotional attachment to his old banger of a car.
The plot races along and is dialogue driven so the interactions spring to life. There are plenty of twists and lots of victims so the police have their work cut out for them. Chapters are short so it is tempting to read just one more and as always the book finishes too soon: I want more!
The Painter is another briliant instalment in this series.
THE PAINTER (Detective Jason Smith #28) by Stewart Giles
From bestselling author: Stewart Giles comes another brilliant addition to the Detective Jason Smith series.
The Painter is the weirdest serial killer Smith has ever come across.
Detective Smith is bored. Lockdown has kept crime at bay, so when a call comes in about a brutal murder in a house not far from where he lives, he’s wide awake.
A woman has been brutally murdered – she has been left on display with a portrait of the scene on her lap.
Two days later, Smith receives an email telling him him the details of the next victim were in the painting.
When two more women are killed and the emails keep coming, Smith is running out of ideas.
The Painter has promised to keep on killing until Smith wakes up enough to see what has been staring him in the face the whole time.
It’s a case that Smith will have nightmares about for the rest of his life.
What readers are saying about THE PAINTER:
I loved all the action packed drama which is gripping and also liked how the killer communicated with Smith during the investigation. – CAROL
I adore this series. Stewart has the knack of grabbing the reader from the very beginning and not letting go. Jason has a wry sense of humour about him which eases the tension in a murder investigation and makes for a more light-hearted read. It’s twisty, it’s clever and it’s captivating. – MISFITS FARM
Stewart is a prolific writer and his books are always gripping, fascinating and a little dark, although with traces of humour. He has a very active imagination. Despite being dark, I find them easy reads and really enjoyable. – MAUREEN
A very intriguing read with many things going on one of which is a locked room which all adds interest and intrigue to the story. Many red herrings and curve balls certainly kept my brain ticking over. – AMAZON REVIEWER
Stewart Giles – Author Bio
After reading English at 3 Universities and graduating from none of them, I set off travelling around the world with my wife, Ann, finally settling in South Africa, where we still live.
In 2014 Ann dropped a rather large speaker on my head and I came up with the idea for a detective series. DS Jason Smith was born. Smith, the first in the series was finished a few months later.
3 years and 8 DS Smith books later, Joffe Books wondered if I would be interested in working with them. As a self-published author, I agreed. However, we decided on a new series – the DC Harriet Taylor: Cornwall series.
The Beekeeper was published and soon hit the number one spot in Australia. The second in the series, The Perfect Murder did just as well.
I continued to self-publish the Smith series and Unworthy hit the shelves in 2018 with amazing results. I therefore made the decision to self-publish The Backpacker which is book 3 in the Detective Harriet Taylor series which was published in July 2018.
After The Backpacker I had an idea for a totally new start to a series – a collaboration between the Smith and Harriet thrillers and The Enigma was born. It brought together the broody, enigmatic Jason Smith and the more level-headed Harriet Taylor.
The Miranda trilogy is something totally different. A psychological thriller trilogy. It is a real departure from anything else I’ve written before.
The Detective Jason Smith series continues to grow. I also have another series featuring an Irish detective who relocated to Guernsey, the Detective Liam O’Reilly series. There are also 3 stand alone novels.
Twitter: @stewartgiles
