Harry is called out of the blue by his childhood friend Paige to say that their other mutual best friend Richard has been arrested for the murder of their old teacher. He hurries back to the UK and is amazed to see how much has changed. But then the friends discover the teacher’s murder is being linked to the murder of a teen whose body was discovered by Harry and Richard twenty years ago…
The Blame is an intriguing thriller that centres around past and present murders. The suspense about the killings is maintained until the very end and I think it is impossible to guess!
Twenty years have passed since Harry and Richard found the body of their fellow school boy Graham. The murder was never solved and is now linked to the present day murder of a teacher. Paige and Harry are determined to prove Richard’s innocence but also face their own demons.
Harry is a hugely likeable character and I think my positive feelings towards him are strengthened by the first person narrative. He is loyal to his friends but his life in Canada has nothing to keep him there following his separation from his wife. Paige is a much more troubled character, involved with drugs, pursued by dealers, estranged from her husband who just happens to be Richard’s brother.
The style of writing and use of first person is instantly engaging and we are dropped straight into the plot. The pace is fast and the unfolding of events is non-stop. The characters and setting seem authentic and believable, and I thought the court procedure was portrayed realistically.
The Blame is a book full of red herrings and very entertaining.
Paige, Richard and me. We thought we’d be friends forever. But everything changed the day we took the short cut home from school along the old railway line. I wish we’d gone the long way. I wish we hadn’t seen our classmate, pale and still in the undergrowth. And I wish we hadn’t promised to keep one, awful detail a secret just between us…
Twenty years later, I have a brand-new life, and try never to think about my old one. But I’m dragged back when Paige calls out of the blue. Richard has been accused of something terrible. Everyone back home is whispering about the body we found years ago, and saying Richard deserves to be locked up…
Before I know it, I’ve returned to the small town I thought I’d never see again. Paige is almost the same as I remember – jet-black hair, slender frame – but why does she seem so nervous?
Revealing the truth about what we saw that day twenty years ago could clear Richard’s name… but will the blame fall on me? And can I really trust that Paige is on my side – or is she hiding her own dark secret?
When we find a strange note in Richard’s flat, only one thing is for certain: someone else knows the truth too. All three of us are in danger…
A totally addictive read by bestselling author Kerry Wilkinson about how the secrets from our past will always come back to haunt us. Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell, I Am Watching You and The Girl on the Train.
Author Bio:
Kerry Wilkinson is from the English county of Somerset but has spent far too long living in the north. It’s there that he’s picked up possibly made-up regional words like ‘barm’ and ‘ginnel’. He pretends to know what they mean.
He’s also been busy since turning thirty: his Jessica Daniel crime series has sold more than a million copies in the UK; he has written a fantasy-adventure trilogy for young adults; a second crime series featuring private investigator Andrew Hunter and the standalone thriller, Down Among The Dead Men.
Buy Links:
Rosie returns to her Devon home following the death of her mother. Her grief is further heightened by the revelation that her mother didn’t own their home and now it is set to be demolished. Rosie is detrmined to save her home in her mother’s memory but discovers other family sercets along the way. Can she heal the past as well as her own heart and will local farmer Liam help…?
Secrets at the Last House Before the Sea is a gentle and warm romance and family drama novel. It centres around second chances and forgetting the impressions of the past. Rosie remembers Liam as a player and struggles to see past their school days together. The gossip of the village creates an illusion of people that they struggle to live up or live down to.
Rosie and Liam have both been through the wringer emotionally. I was almost yelling at Rosie to ditch her selfish boyfriend Matt and finally see Liam for the kind man he is. Liam has sadness in his backstory: fears for his family’s financial future, worry about his father’s forgetfulness and a broken heart from being dumped at the altar.
I had read a lot of darker crime novels prior to this one and it provided some light relief. There was a warmth to the writing and a hope despite the emotion of the plot. The setting of Devon evokes the majestic breadth of the British weather! The whole tone of the book is uplifting and positive, facing life’s challenges and finding happiness in unexpected ways.
Secrets at the Last House Before the Sea is an enjoyable novel about love, hope and grief with a huge splash of family drama thrown in.
Liz Eeles’ Media Kit:
Title: Secrets at the Last House Before the Sea: A gripping and emotional page-turner
Publication day : 18/02/21
Author: Liz Eeles
Buy Links:
Description:
From the attic of Driftwood House there are stunning views of the deep green sea and sapphire sky. But Rosie can’t tear her eyes away from the faded photograph in her hands, and the words written on the back that will change everything…
Back in the tiny seaside village of Heaven’s Cove after the death of her mother, all Rosie Merchant wants is to hide her tears, rent out her childhood home, and get back to her ‘real’ life, away from the gossiping villagers and wild Devon weather she escaped from years ago.
She’s surprised to find a smiling man in hiking boots – local farmer Liam – waiting on the stone doorstep. His kind offer to help clear crumbling, isolated Driftwood House is hard to refuse, and despite Rosie’s determination not to let anyone get close, soon they’re walking and laughing together along the clifftops. As clouds scud across the endless sky and green waves crash against the shore, Rosie is reminded that nowhere is more beautiful than home.
Then, up in the attic of Driftwood House, Rosie stumbles across a photo which exposes the heart-stopping truth about how her mother came to live at Driftwood House years ago… and Liam only seems concerned about the implications for his own nearby farm. Did he know this painful secret all along, and should she run from Heaven’s Cove for good? Or will facing up to her devastating family history mean Rosie can finally put down roots in this beautiful place?
Get whisked away to the rugged, sweeping Devon coastline in this gripping story about old secrets, learning how to trust, and finding where home is. Fans of Debbie Macomber, Barbara O’Neal and Mary Alice Monroe will adore this gorgeous and uplifting read.
Author Bio:
Liz began her writing career as a journalist and press officer before deciding that she’d rather have the freedom of making things up as a novelist.
Being short-listed in the Corvus ‘Love at First Write’ competition and the Novelicious search for a new women’s fiction star gave Liz the push she needed to keep putting pen to paper …. and ‘Annie’s Holiday by the Sea’ (her first published novel) is the result.
Liz lives on the South Coast with her family and, when she’s not writing, likes to spend time walking by the sea, and trying to meditate. Her ambition is to be serene one day …. she’s still got a long way to go.
Author Social Media Links:
Website: N/A
Devoted siblings Leonora and Ricky are cruelly separated by their harsh violent father and alcoholic weak mother. Ricky is sent away to South Africa to ‘man up’ and live up to his father’s high expectations. Leonora is academically gifted but her father wants her to stay at home, cooking and cleaning. When Ricky’s father travels to South Africa for his son’s graduation, he is shot and Ricky vanishes…
The title of The Lost Brother seems a slight misnomer as Ricky doesn’t actually go missing until the second half of the book. While he is away at school he is only absent in the physical sense as he is still writing to his sister and always remains emotionally connected to her.
The descriptions of the family life are heartbreaking to read. I felt desperate for the children to escape their cruel and selfish parents. It is abuse, pure and simple: Mental, emotional and physical. My sympathy was completely aligned with Leo and Ricky. The final chapter has some explosive revelations which I was not expecting and turned around some of my impressions about the events and characters within the book.
Set in the 1980s, I didn’t really get much sense of the era except for the lack of modern technology. I did have to suspend my disbelief a little as I felt that the authorities would get more involved with the family even 30 years ago.
The narrative is provided through the dual perspective of Leo and Ricky, the latter being in the first person. However, this was compensated by Leo’s synaethesia which added an extra dynamic to her elements of the book. Ricky’s survival in the second part of the book felt realistic and I felt happy that he finally proved his strength and determination to himself.
The Lost Brother was an emotional book about the love between siblings in the face of adversity.
I have previously reviewed The Perfect Life by Susanna Beard.
BLURB: The Lost Brother
A brother sent away
A sister in a loveless home
A father ruthlessly murdered
Ricky and Leonora Bates are brother and sister, best friends, allies in a loveless family.
They are a constant disappointment to their domineering father.
He views Ricky’s quiet bookishness as weakness and Leonora’s feisty intelligence as unbecoming.
Then Ricky is sent away to a boarding school in South Africa to “toughen him up”. And Leonora is stuck dealing with her dysfunctional parents on her own.
The unthinkable happens.
Five years later, Leonora’s father flies down to South Africa to bring Ricky home. Something terrible happens. Her dad’s body is found with a fatal gunshot wound. And her brother is nowhere to be found.
Now Leonora must find out the truth.
Utterly absorbing and beautifully written, this taut psychological thriller will keep you guessing until its chilling conclusion.
SUSANNA BEARD
Despite enjoying the writer’s life, Susanna has an adventurous streak – she has swum with whale sharks in Australia, trekked in the mountains of Nepal and fallen down a crevasse in the French Alps.
Her favourite quote is from Winnie-the-Pooh: “Stories make your heart grow.” Apart from books, her passions include wildlife, dogs and tennis. She aims to keep writing, and never to get old.
BOOKS BY SUSANNA BEARD
COMING SOON!
FOLLOW SUSANNA ON
Continuing again with our family tradition NOT to have pancakes on Pancake Day, I made these yesterday for a snack. I wanted something quick and easy, and these little drop pancakes fitted the bill. Vegan and gluten free but just as good as ‘normal’ ones.
Ingredients for 6-8 pancakes
100g plain flour
50g caster sugar
80ml plant milk (I used soya)
1 flax egg (1 heaped tablespoon on flax mixed with 3 tablespoons water and set aside for 5 minutes to thicken)
Instructions
Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the milk and flax egg then beat together with a fork or spoon until bubbles rise to the surface.
Heat a tablespoon of oil in a frying pan. When hot, add 1-2 tablespoons of batter depending on the size and thickness you desire.
After one minute, flip the pancake over and cook the other side for 1 minute.
If you are confident then cook more than 1 pancake at once!
Makes 6-8 pancakes depending on the size and thickness required.
Serve with syrup or dairy free spread.
Will you be having pancakes this week ?
TRIGGER WARNING: this book involves child murder
Vulnerable children are ‘saved’ by a killer whose twisted logic makes murder acceptable. Dan Lockhart leads the investigation and once again calls upon psychologist Lexi Green to assist. She profiles the killer but her own boyfriend fits the criteria: is she dating a murderer…?
Lost Souls drops us into Lockhart and Green’s world 8 months after the previous book. Dan is still searching for information about his missing wife while Lexi has moved on from their ‘spark’ and is dating someone new. Lockhart’s search for his wife takes unexpected twists in this book leaving questions as to what will happen in this plot line in the next book.
Despite being in the middle of a pandemic in real life, few books have mentioned it so I enjoyed the inclusion of coronavirus to add little details in the story. For example, not shaking hands, being wary about distancing. This added a relevance and realism whilst also being bang up to date.
The majority of the book is told through the perpective of the police team but there are also chapters written from the killer and victim viewpoints. This ramps up the anticipation about the impending actions that we see unfolding. The characters were believable and I enjoyed the natural feel to the relationship dynamics.
The situations for the children are heartbreaking and were difficult to read as a mum. Yet working at a school, I know the terrible experience some children have and fully believe the dreadful statistics cited by the author. The motives of the killer were almost understandable based on the trauma of his past that is revealed over the course of the book. I had no idea as to the identity of the killer and kept guessing until the very end.
Lost Souls is the third book in the Lockhart and Green series. I have previously reviewed Knock Knock and Who’s Next? and can’t wait for the next book!
Media Kit:
Title: LOST SOULS
Author: Chris Merritt
Publication Day: Feb 2nd 2021
Description:
Please forgive me for what I’m about to do…
Standing at the school gates, he waits until the last child leaves the safety of the playground. And then he follows at a distance, keeping to the shadows. Only he knows what’s going to happen next.
In a quiet church, on a busy London street, 12-year-old Donovan Blair is found dead. His hands are clasped together as if in prayer. Just hours ago, he was happily playing with his friends at school, but now his body is lifeless, and his killer is long gone.
Detective Dan Lockhart is working alone on his wife’s missing person’s case when he receives a call telling him to get to the crime scene at St Mary’s Church immediately.
Bringing in psychologist Dr Lexi Green to help profile the murderer, Dan is convinced that the killer has provided a clue by leaving the body in a prayer position, and Lexi agrees. As they try to get into the mind of the person responsible, another victim is found. A 13-year-old girl, left in a different church, posed in exactly the same way.
Fearing the murderer may already have another child in his sights, Dan and Lexi work together to establish links between the two deaths, and soon discover that not only were both children in care – they had attended the same school. And when it emerges that Lexi’s new boyfriend works there, things become difficult between her and Dan. How much can he tell Lexi about the case? And could she be at risk?
As Dan makes a breakthrough in the investigation, he receives devastating news about his wife, Jess. But with children’s lives at stake and Lexi in danger, Dan must put his personal emotions aside and chase the killer. Can he and Lexi work out who is behind the murders before another vulnerable child is taken?
This nail-biting crime book is perfect for fans of Angela Marsons, Lisa Regan and Robert Dugoni. Once you pick up Lost Souls, you won’t be able to put it down!
Author Bio:
Chris Merritt is a British author whose crime thrillers combine psychology, suspense, and characters you care about.
All his novels are set in London, where he lives. He began writing fiction in 2014, after previous careers as a diplomat, based in Iraq and Jerusalem, and later as a psychologist working with victims and perpetrators of crime. He specialised in treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which sparked his interest in telling stories about how people cope when faced with extreme adversity.
Now he spends most of his time writing novels and drinking coffee while *thinking* about writing novels. When he’s not writing, he loves climbing and playing basketball.
Author Social Media Links:
