Isla Frost returns to her childhood home when she hears that her father is dying. She has never forgiven him for her mother leaving and now the past is catching up with them both. A body is found on the estate, discovered by a schizophrenic villager. What other secrets will be revealed…?
Whispers is a wonderful mixture of spooky tale and police murder mystery.
Isla’s childhood memories are tainted by the night her mother disappeared, possibly running away with a man from the village. Now she has returned to find her dad just as harsh and emotionally distant as before. Her aunt is desperate to protect them both but acts as abrasively as her brother. The repressed emotion vibrates from their interactions and I waited with tredipation for an explosive revelation.
There are secrets galore amongst the villagers and I loved the interconnected stories. The past haunts most of the characters and there is also a significantly spooky feel to the book. The police element of the book is also strong, with interrogation and procedural features.
I found myself swept up in the story, wanting to find out the various truths that are being hidden and uncover the facts about the murder. In my opinion, the whispers in the title refer to the whispers of the past: half remembered things in Isla’s case and people’s voices in her dreams and the thoughts of her schizophrenic neighbour. Ghosts speaking metaphorically or literally…?
Whispers is a very enjoyable book that skilfully combines a haunted atmosphere with a police investigation.
Whispers book blurb
Ten years have passed since Isla Frost left the family manor. The past; a hidden memory comes to her in jolts. She blames one man for all that has happened. Her father, a cold brittle man who is now facing his mortality. Isla has returned to care for him. However, things are about to take a dark sinister turn.
A body has been found. Deep beneath the rocks of a cut off underpass. The rotten corpse of a long forgotten victim. So begins a quest for truth that will have Isla questioning everybody and everything she knows.
Old friendships are tested, family ties unbound, and Isla finds herself in the mouth of danger. What happened to her mother? Is her father a killer? How many other people need to die to protect a killer?
A tense stand-alone novel that lurks on the periphery of the haunted house genre, ‘Whispers,’ will delve into the secrets of the past to unveil a murderous conspiracy.
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Author Bio
Billy McLaughlin is a Scottish born writer with 8 books currently under his belt. Four of the books, including 2019’s serial killer thriller, ‘Four,’ are part of the DI Phil Morris Mysteries. His first full length novel, ‘Lost Girl,’ arrived in May 2016 and has gone on to achieve more than 15,000 downloads. The follow up, ‘In the Wake of Death,’ has received rave reviews for it’s dark tone and psychological elements.
His most downloaded book came in the form of 2017’s, ‘The Dead of Winter,’ a novella that focuses as much on the broken relationships of a small community as it does the crime itself. One reader described it as being like ‘a full series of Broadchurch.’ Once again, praise was leveled at the atmospheric tone with another reader suggesting that the material would work well as a movie.
Billy is passionate about reading but recognises the need for bite-sized thrillers for people who enjoy reading but simply don’t have the time. As he begins works on his ninth book, he finds himself even more excited about the writing process. ‘The Blood Runs Darker,’ arrived in December 2020. A new collection of short stories arrived in December 2021 and his 11th publication, ‘Whispers,’ came along on Christmas Day 2021.
Romy receives a terrible diagnosis and heads back home to the dad she hasn’t seen in 14 years. Flora’s already strained relationship with her mother is pushed to breaking point when she is forced to care for her after a fall. Lizzie and Edward begin a friendship but will it lead to love…?
The Sapphire Cove is an emotional novel with three separate strands which gradually combine. I have previously reviewed The Butterfly Garden by author Sophie Anderson.
Three women dealing with big issues. Seemingly unconnected but links begin to appear over the course of the book until the plot threads are fully interwoven. The three women are all easy to like as they deal with their unique situations. All of them have sadness in their past which they need to address.
It took me a little while to appreciate that Lizzie’s storyline was in the past (Blockbuster video!) and then my brain started to understand the connections between the women and my eyes began to gobble up the pages.
Love, forgiveness and the need to be true to yourself are all important themes in the book. Mental health issues are dealt with although not referred to directly. The emotion is heart wrenching as choices are made and lived with, but the feeling of lost opportunities remains dominant. There are several points where the dilemmas faced by the characters makes us as readers wonder how we would have handled their situation.
The Sapphire Cove was an engaging and emotional story about love, loss and second chances.
The Sapphire Cove: An absolutely heartbreaking and gripping page-turner by Sophie Anderson
My mother kept me. But she let my only sister go…
Flora has fled from her broken marriage to take care of her sick mother, in an isolated farmhouse with ice on its windows. She is shaken by her mother’s pale worn face and is determined to make her feel safe and looked after. But as she draws heavy curtains and lights fires, she makes a shocking discovery. Hidden at the bottom of a drawer lies a crumpled photo of a smiling baby girl she doesn’t recognise. A photo her mother refuses to talk about…
As Flora delves into the story behind her mother’s secret photograph, begging her for details, she is devastated to uncover a hidden teenage love affair, a dark betrayal and two little girls tragically split apart. Flora’s childhood was lonely and quiet, and she is shocked to learn things should have been very different.
As the world Flora knows crumbles around her ears, she is rescued from darkness by Joseph, a man she has never met, who has travelled from his far-away home above a sapphire cove in the Philippines. As they sip tea at Flora’s battered kitchen table Joseph begs Flora for her help. The baby in the picture is someone from Flora’s past, and she is dying.
With the clock ticking, Flora boards a plane, desperate to meet the girl from the photograph. But nobody gets to decide who dies and who stays alive. Will she arrive in time, or is she too late to find out why two innocent little girls were forced to live on opposite sides of the world? And will finding the truth about her real family free her from the pain of her past?
A heartbreaking and emotional read about love, letting go and a family torn apart in the saddest of circumstances. Fans of Jodi Picoult, Lucinda Riley and Jojo Moyes will never forget The Sapphire Cove.
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About the author
Sophie Anderson is an author of contemporary women’s fiction. She writes emotional stories about families and their secrets, friendship, forgiveness and personal growth. Her second novel ‘The Sapphire Cove’ is due to released on 18th February 2022 and her first novel ‘The Butterfly Garden’ came out in June in 2021. Sophie lives in East Sussex with her husband, four children and several animals. When she is not writing or ferrying her children around the countryside she enjoys travelling, delicious food, yoga, playing the piano, walking in the South Downs, binging on box sets and curling up with a good book!
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Instagram: @sophieandersonfiction
Jem returns to her flat in Penzance to discover a squatter, a cat and a bath full of rubbish. One of the bin bags contains a mallet that looks like it has been used as a weapon. Things don’t improve the following day when she discovers a body…
A Death at Silversmith Bay is the third book to feature amateur sleuth Jemima Jago and it is the best so far! There are no spoilers about events in the previous books. I have reviewed A Death at Seascape House and A Death at Candlewick Castle.
Jem finds herself embroiled in a new murder case when her sister crashes back into her life with a crazy story and a bloodied mallet. The cops aren’t much help and Jem needs to solve the case in order to protect her sister. There are plenty of characters acting suspiciously and with an apparent motive so there are twists to enjoy.
The humour was much more apparent in this novel and I loved the addition of Jem’s sister Tori. I have really grown to like Jem and especially in this book she has wonderful relationships with her friends and family. The continued love triangle with old flame Rhys and new romantic interest Hack still featured in this book and I still have no idea which man she should choose!
A Death at Silversmith Bay is an enjoyable cosy murder mystery and I look forward to the next book in the series.
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Book: A Death at Silversmith Bay
Author: Emma Jameson
Pub Day: February 21st 2022
About the Book:
Librarian Jemima Jago can’t resist a whodunnit, but finding a body in a bookshop is a plot twist she could never have expected…
Jem Jago is back at work with her antique books, and spending her weekends exploring her new home—the windswept Isles of Scilly—in her little sailboat, Bellatrix. She’s really starting to settle into island life. Unfortunately, murder in the Scillies is not as rare as some of her manuscripts…
On a trip out to picturesque Penzance with best friend Micki, the pair stumble across an intriguing mystery, not of the fictional kind. In Tatteredly’s second-hand bookstore, they discover the body of beautiful Gina Marrak, Micki’s former sister-in-law.
Jem can’t bear to see Micki so distraught, and with the hapless Detective Conrad in charge of the inquiry, she must do some sleuthing of her own to find out the truth. As she convinces Gina’s so-called friends to talk, Jem learns she wasn’t actually well liked in her little corner of Penzance. Did the jilted lover, the pretentious pub landlord or the rowdy real estate agent bump off poor Gina?
Poking around the scene of the crime, Jem finds an unusual book which leads her down an unlikely path. But can Jem get to the bottom of the mystery before the terrible tale comes to an end for her too?
A fun, cozy page-turner filled with mystery and intrigue, from the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Emma Jameson. Fans of M.C. Beaton, Faith Martin and Agatha Christie will be totally hooked!
Author Bio
Emma Jameson writes mysteries that readers call witty, romantic, and full of surprises. An aspiring novelist since age seven, she took a long, twisty route to the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. After years of working at a major medical center, her first novel, cobbled together on nights and weekends, became a runaway e-book bestseller. Now she writes full-time and has sold over half a million books. A compulsive reader and information hoarder, Emma is always searching for that fascinating nugget or startling fact that will spark another novel. A lifelong Anglophile, she resides in the United States, where she enjoys swimming, yoga, and serving the needs of not one, not two, not three, but four cats.
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1955, love at first sight for US Navy man Al Locke and nurse Elin Jenkins. But local events conspire against them. In the present day, Al returns to Wales to find Elin but discovers the village where she lived has been drowned by a reservoir…
The Drowned Village is a beautifully written novel about love and loss, set in Wales in the 1950s and modern day.
I was completely swept up in the romance between Al and Elin. There are wonderfully beautiful moments followed by heartache and turmoil. There is an overwhelming feeling of sadness for lost opportunities over the course of the book, yet this is countered by the enduring power of hope and love.
The characters are so well written that I felt like I was there with them, completely immersed in the plot. Al and Elin’s relationship is governed by external forces, his work, her community, other people’s emotions, which ultimately keep them apart.
My only quibble was that I found the modern plotline about Sophie’s unhappiness left me a bit unsatisfied. It almost seemed a little superfluous to the story and in my opinion there was more potential to develop this plotline to compare with the main love story.
Being a history graduate and undertaking my own family history research, I enjoyed the historical link to the search for Abraham Lincoln’s ancestors. I was also fascinated by the history of Wales depicted in the novel and enjoyed finding out about love spoons.
The Drowned Village was an enchanting book about the enduring power of love.
The Drowned Village: A heartbreaking and absolutely gripping WW2 romance by Norma Curtis
As he reaches the top of the familiar hill, a startling brightness draws him in like a vision. A glittering lake fills the entire valley. The pretty stone village, and all trace of the girl he loved, are gone…
Wartime Britain. Pushing aside drooping hollyhocks, Elin Jenkins tosses back her dark hair and runs up the familiar path to her family’s farm in the village. Laughing, Al catches her around the waist. ‘Marry me,’ he whispers. ‘I’ll use my Navy liberty leave. I don’t want this to end.’ Tears prick her eyes as she smiles up at him.
Three days later, Al is gone. And in the months that follow, Elin’s frantic telegrams to him go unanswered. Then she receives an invitation to his society wedding in Philadelphia. Scribbled on the back are three words: No hard feelings.
Present day. Al Locke, retired Navy Captain, smooths his silver hair and finishes up with a spritz of aftershave. With a spring in his step he hasn’t had for decades, he sets off up the well-worn track through the valley. He has no doubt he will meet her in the village today. He will at last hear the horrible truth of what happened to Elin after he left, and he’ll confess why he couldn’t face returning to her… until now.
But what he finds in that silent valley is a mystery that is greater even than his and Elin’s own. The village, once lively, is underwater. A shimmering ghost town in the depths of a vast lake. The tragedy of Elin and Al’s broken engagement sits at the heart of what happened here – Ellen’s irreparably devastated heart, and the home she tried so desperately to save.
A beautiful and heartbreaking read about secrets, heartache and forgiveness, based on a true story. Fans of Fiona Valpy and Lorna Cook will love this book.
(This book was previously titled The Captain’s Wife)
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Author bio:
Norma Curtis’s first published stories were for teenage magazines and she began writing novels when she joined the Romantic Novelists’ Association. Her first novel won the New Writer’s Award and was chosen as a WH Smith Fresh Talent title. A couple of years after being invited onto the RNA committee she was made chairman and following her two-year term of office she studied creative writing at City University before taking an MA in Prose Fiction at Middlesex University. The Drowned Village is her sixth novel and she lives in North London with her family.
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Twitter: @The NormaCurtis
Kitty Underhay’s fiance Captain Matthew Bryant is informed that he will have a temporary house guest, a witness in a notorious jewel heist. But when Kitty and Matthew arrrive at the station to collect their visitor, they discover his dead body instead. The killer must have been one of the other passengers in the enclosed first class compartment, but which one…?
It should be a happy time for Kitty and Matthew as they make preparations for their wedding but instead they find themselves investigating another murder. There are a limited number of suspects due to the circumstances of the closed carriage compartment. However their prime suspect becomes the next victim, leading to further plot twists.
I continued to enjoy the romance and respect between Kitty and Matthew. The peripheral characters were easy to discern and had unique personalities. This book had the very classical feel of an Agatha Christie novel, with a capsule cast and the sleuths unpicking the truths and motives.
Meanwhile, Kitty’s ongoing quest to find out what happened to her mother continues as she attempts to visit the prison where the villainous Hammett is being held. This plot thread has been woven through all of the previous books and, now he is in custody, a resolution may be imminent.
Murder in First Class is an enjoyable historical cosy murder mystery and I love the lead characters.
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Book: Murder in First Class
Author: Helena Dixon
Pub Day: Feb 16th 2021
About the Book:
All aboard a train bound for… murder.
Kitty Underhay is looking forward to a week of long lunches and wedding planning with her husband-to-be, Captain Matthew Bryant. But the plan is derailed when he is called on to collect a former comrade-in-arms, arriving on the 15:50 from Bakerloo. As the train bearing Simon Travers pulls up to the platform, a piercing scream rises over the screech of its brakes. Travers is dead in his seat, a dagger in his heart.
Who gave this defenceless man a one-way ticket to the next life? And why? And could Matt’s close connection put him at risk? Only a few individuals had access to Travers’s compartment, and Kitty must find out which of these seemingly benign passengers is in fact a cross-country killer.
But when Kitty’s prime suspect, the travelling salesman with no merchandise, is found murdered, she is stumped. Until she makes the connection between the two victims and realises that this murderer has an even more deadly destination in mind. Can she stop them before they strike again? Or will Kitty’s own next stop be the graveyard?
A pitch-perfect and totally gripping Golden Age historical cozy mystery! Perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, T.E. Kinsey and Lee Strauss.
Author Bio
Helena Dixon was born and continues to live in the Black Country. Married to the same man for over thirty years she has three daughters, a cactus called Spike, a crazy cockapoo and a tank of tropical fish. Helena was the RNA winner of the Romance Prize in 2007 and Love Story of the Year 2010.
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