Final Betrayal is the 6th book to feature Irish detective Lottie Parker, and it is the first that I have read.
Lottie’s team is in disarray due to a colleague’s death and another on maternity, and she may have a serial killer on her hands as well as a murderous half sister.
Two young women are found murdered days after a man (Conor) is released from prison who was convicted on the evidence of one of them. Soon, the other witness and her lover are murdered as well.
Lottie is forced to consider if Conor’s conviction was sound or if mistakes were made in the original investigation. Did the witnesses lie and why? Has Conor got his revenge or are other secrets ready to come to light?
Meanwhile, Lottie’s insane sister, Bernie, absconds from her medical facility. Lottie’s daughters are kidnapped but who has taken them, Bernie or Conor or someone else?
There is emotion in this book due to the relationship of Lottie with her children, a relationship that many working mums will understand. Lottie is also trying to develop a romantic relationship with Boyd but work gets in the way. Grief is a major theme in the book as Kirby struggles to deal with the death of his colleague and lover, while other characters cope with the murders of their loved ones.
Lottie is a really good lead character and I could identify with her dilemma of balancing her work and personal life. The book works well as a stand alone novel but I definitely want to catch up on the previous books.
This book literallly had me guessing until right at the end. Everyone seems to be hiding something and although we see things from other characters’ perspectives, it is impossible to work out the solution to the case until the author decides to enlighten us!
FINAL BETRAYAL by Patricia Gibney
‘She lifted the flap of the envelope and pulled out the single white page. As she opened it up she stared, open mouthed. Four words were typed on the page. I am watching you.’
When Amy Whyte and Penny Brogan leave a local nightclub in the early hours of Sunday morning and don’t arrive home, their families are beside themselves with worry. Conor Dowling has just been released from prison, a man full of hatred for Amy, the girl who put him behind bars in the first place.
The case is given to Detective Lottie Parker, when the girls’ blood-soaked bodies are found, days later, in a derelict squat. Chillingly, both girls are clutching silver coins in their hands – what message is this killer leaving behind? All the signs point to Conor but his alibi is water tight.
As Lottie examines Penny and Amy’s final days alive in a desperate search for clues, two more girls are found stabbed to death in a luxury apartment complex. Caught up in what is fast becoming her toughest case yet, Lottie is unaware that somebody is watching her every move.
Then Lottie’s two daughters, Katie and Chloe suddenly disappear from the town centre. Terrified that the killer has her girls, the stakes have never been higher for Lottie.
But as Lottie puts everything on the line to find her daughters and solve the case, she’s about to find herself in terrible danger – someone has a personal axe to grind with her and they know the best way to get to her is to hurt the ones she loves the most.
If you love Karin Slaughter, Robert Dugoni and Rachel Abbott, you’ll be hooked by this heart-stopping thriller from Patricia Gibney. Final Betrayal will keep you guessing until the very last page.
About the author:
Patricia lives in the midlands of Ireland. She is an avid crime reader so naturally she found herself writing in the crime genre. To date, (July 2018) Patricia has sold over ONE MILLION COPIES in the LOTTIE PARKER series.
A life changing experience in 2009, with the death of her 49 year old husband, meant she had to give up her career, and over the following few years, she rekindled her love of art and writing.
Initially Patricia wrote and illustrated a children’s book, but her real ambition was to write a novel. And she did!
In January 2016, she joined with Ger Nichol of The Book Bureau Literary Agency. In July 2016, Patricia signed with Bookouture for four DI Lottie Parker crime novels.
The Missing Ones (Book 1 to feature Lottie Parker) published in March 2017 and to date has reached a high of number 2 in Amazon UK Kindle charts and number 6 in the US. It also achieved number 1 in all its categories. It is a bestseller in UK, US, Canada and Australia.
Hello and welcome to the #StayClassyMama linky. I hope you are getting ready for a fabulous Easter weekend!
Please have a read of the rules and make sure you have my badge on your post or page!
Let your blogging friends know about the link up and encourage them to join us!
THE RULES:
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Add 1 or 2 posts (old or new), any topics welcome but a focus on the highs and lows of parenting is preferable: what meals and recipes have worked or not? what new toys have you discovered? where have you taken the kids this week? have you done a craft and got glitter everywhere? what gorgeous item of clothing is covered in snot?
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The linky will open at 6:00am on a Thursday and close at 11pm on a Friday
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Please comment on the host post and any other 2. I am going to aim to do my commenting and sharing over the weekend (but, you know how it is with life and stuff!)
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Hang on a minute… pelvic floor exercises can be fun?
Yes!
When I was a teen, I remember the joke image of women pulling ‘sucking on a lemon’ face to imply they were squeezing their pelvix floor muscles.
I would randomly practice pelvic floor exercises whenever I remembered but would soon get distracted and forget all about them until weeks or months later.
Fast forward 20 years and 3 children later…
Without going into details (you’ll be relieved to read!), my pelvic floor muscles needed a workout. The Perifit device helps women to exercise your pelvic floor but in a fun way using the latest technology.
The Perifit itself is made of medical grade silicone and connects to your mobile phone using bluetooth. It is super easy to set up, even for a technophobe like me!
There are various features on the app to help get you started. There is a test to guide you on to the correct program and a manual mode to have a practice or work in a specific way to be most effective for your body.
I have been using the post partum program to workout and am pleased with the progress that I have been making so far.
Here is an example of the games I have been playing: you have to catch the flowers and avoid the birds by squeezing and relaxing the muscles in your pelvic floor.
I have been interested to see my progress on the charts that the app offers. I obviously need to keep working on it!
Obviously, it is possible to work on your pelvic floor independently but the Perifit focuses you so you can actually feel the difference and can see the results, learning about your own body and how to exercise muscles effectively.
My overall experience with the Perifit has been very positive although I find it difficult to have some peace and quiet to complete the exercises with 3 kids around (as if they had’t done enough to wreck my pelvic floor in the first place!)
*I was sent the Perifit in exchange for this review. All opinions and photos are my own
Animal safety, species preservation and the protection of the planet are high on my agenda thanks to my veganism, and I have been looking for ways to raise my children’s awareness whilst still being age appropriate.
Tigeropolis- Caught In The Trap is the third book by R.D. Dikstra to be set in the fictional nature park in India. The tigers find themselves hunted by poachers who only regard the beautiful creatures as an opportunity to gain money for their skins.
Luckily, these are no ordinary tigers. They can fly planes. They can talk and plan with other animals to thwart the evil poachers.
The hapless humans are a fun element to the book. Both the park keepers and the poachers are no match for the clever tigers and the unity of the animals is in contrast to the selfishness of the human characters.
There is a real sense of adventure and danger whilst making a serious point about the risks to endangered species due to human greed.
The illustrations really bring the text to life and the young tigers are super cute! I would even say that the pictures give a warmth to the book as some of the scenarios could be a little frightening for younger readers. The friendly looking tigers will be easy for the children to relate to and make their circumstances more dramatic.
The books are aimed at age 7 plus so are perfect for Matthew to read alone and for me to read aloud to Anya. The text is easy to read and engaging.
Book blurb/press release:
Tigeropolis, a vast tiger reserve in the foothills of the Himalayas, is home to a family of vegetarian tigers – tiger cubs Bittu, older sister Matti, their mother Tala and Uncle Raj. For years, they’ve hidden from humans deep in the forest, adopting a modern lifestyle (they don’t hunt, they don’t roar and they live in a snug cave complete with a TV and Internet access!)
Their pleasant lifestyle is interrupted when they are forced to reappear. Tigeropolis is threatened with closure – people have stopped coming – they don’t believe there are any tigers left to see. The tigers know they need to reappear to encourage visitors to the park. Visitors will generate income and help keep the park (their home) open. But the humans ‘running’ the park prefer sitting in their guard-house drinking tea and eating chocolate cake. The tigers take it upon themselves to run
the park, all the while ensuring that the humans never realise who is actually ‘pulling the strings’.
Caught in the Trap is the third in the series, but each book can be read as a stand-alone story.
About the Author
Richard Dikstra is passionate about travel and wildlife having visited all seven continents and some 40-plus countries. His interest in wildlife started on a week-long trip on a cabin cruiser in Alaska’s Inside Passage surrounded by humpback and orca whales. Since that first trip he has, amongst other things, trekked in China in search of pandas, sat with mountain gorillas, camped out in the Canadian tundra watching polar bears, helped save a wounded water buffalo in Swaziland and visited nomadic reindeer herders in Russian’s Chukotka Peninsula.
A keen traveller and wildlife enthusiast, he helped found pioneering travel company Discovery Initiatives, and since 2000 he has been a shareholder and Non-Executive Director of specialist travel operator Steppes Group. In 2010 he produced the First TOFT Tiger Tourism Awards in Delhi – the event is now an established feature in the tiger conservation calendar – and a year later, in 2011, Richard helped set up citizen science site ‘Tiger Nation’.
He wrote the first Tigeropolis book in 2015, inspired by his first ever sighting of a tiger in the wild. The second book was published the following year. The audio book of Tigeropolis is narrated by Richard E Grant and Belle Media produced a tie-in Tigeropolis video game, available on Apple TV and iTunes. Richard also found time to write a lively comic strip series for Hull City football club (‘Tigers’), based on his Tigeropolis characters.
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Happy Monday everyone and welcome to Global Blogging!
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