loopyloulaura

I am absolutely thrilled to have added a new author to my bookshelf! I didn’t find out until the end that this was actually the third in the series of DI Sam Clayton books. It works perfectly as a standalone but now I am intrigued as to what I missed (off to hunt for them…)

A woman is discovered murdered, impaled by her cello. Other members of the orchestra are targeted and an accidental death in the recent past is revealed to be murder too.

Musical politics are at the centre of the case that Clayton and his team need to investigate. There is also a personal worry as Clayton’s girlfriend is in the choir associated with the orchestra…

Play Dead was an excellent police procedural novel. The police team is at the heart of the book and their investigation takes place before our eyes. There is humour and banter as you would expect from a team and this gives a degree of realism without the hierarchical tensions that are often rife in police books.

The police characters are well developed and author Anne Penketh has made Clayton is particularly easy to like. The suspects are all acting suspiciously so I had no idea who was responsible for the murders. All of the investigation loose ends are tied up by the end of the book whcih I personally find more satisfying than open ended novels.

There is plenty of scope for more books as Clayton’s personal life has unfinished threads and Norwich is a big place, lots of potential crimes!

Play Dead (Detective Sam Clayton #3) by Anne Penketh

A SLEEPY ENGLISH CITY IS ROCKED BY A SERIES OF MURDERS TARGETING MEMBERS OF THE LOCAL ORCHESTRA.

WHO IS KILLING OFF MUSICIANS WITH THEIR OWN INSTRUMENTS?

Detective Inspector Sam Clayton is called in to investigate three victims with ties to the Norfolk Festival Orchestra.

Musician Kristina Manning is impaled by her cello spike.

The disgraced conductor is found with his head stuffed into a piano. He’s on the brink of death.

A trumpeter dies, poisoned by his mouthpiece.

Will Clayton’s new girlfriend, Melissa, a singer in the NFO, be next on the murderer’s list?

Is there a serial killer with a musical edge on the loose? And what does the disappearance of former orchestra member Lauren Garner have to do with it?

A MYSTERY WITH A STUNNING TWIST AND A RACE AGAINST TIME TO STOP A MURDER SPREE

PLAY DEAD is the third in a new series of page-turning crime thrillers set in an atmospheric part of Norfolk. Perfect for fans of LJ Ross, Mel Sherratt, Colin Dexter, or Ruth Rendell.

What readers are saying about ANNE PENKETH

“Five out of five stars!” Michelle K

“I had a hard job putting this one down as it had me fully engaged and wanting more.” Dawn J

“This book was brilliant from start to finish, it was totally gripping from the first page. I read this book in one sitting, it was so good I didn’t want to put it down.” Lynn G

“Great book to read on holiday with a satisfyingly twisting storyline.” CH

“A real page turner.” Barb D

“It had many twists which kept me guessing. I would never have worked out the ending.” Shamiela A

“Riveting read.” Penny B

“Sam Clayton is not your average hard-boiled detective. He has problems of his own as he sets out to find a serial killer.” Meg B

THE TEAM

Detective Inspector Sam Clayton leads the investigation into the North Norfolk murders, joined the police straight from school as a beat bobby in Manchester before rising through the ranks of the CID. He was transferred to Norwich after being promoted to DI following a high-profile case investigated by Lancashire Constabulary.

Detective Sergeant Julie Everett is an intuitive officer who was promoted to detective sergeant from her home town of Ipswich where she had a background in child protection. She is discreet about her personal life among colleagues, particularly about the tragedy which haunts her. She has to deal with a high-pressure job while raising her child who moved with her to Norwich.

ALSO BY ANNE PENKETH
THE DI SAM CLAYTON SERIES
Book 1: MURDER ON THE MARSH
Book 2: THE BAD SISTER
Book 3: PLAY DEAD

Anne Penketh – Author Bio

I’m a Lancashire lass but for most of my career, I’ve been a foreign correspondent. I’ve reported from all over the world on some of the most cataclysmic events of our time, including the Egyptian revolution and the collapse of the Berlin wall.

While in London I was diplomatic editor of The Independent, but these days I’m based in Paris and concentrating on fiction writing. The third in a series of crime novels featuring Detective Inspector Sam Clayton, Play Dead, is out now. My first novel, Food Fight, was published in 2015.

I’ve reported from Paris mainly for The Independent and The Guardian, but I also contributed to France24 television and Monocle radio.  As a freelancer, I’ve written for The New Zealand Herald and The National (Abu Dhabi), as well as the LA Times, the New York Times, the Radio Times, the Oldie, Monocle magazine, Quartz, and Spark News.

Between 2009 and 2012, I headed the Washington office of the British American Security Information Council (BASIC), a trans-Atlantic NGO focused on nuclear disarmament.

During my ten-year stint on The Independent I was one of the few journalists to report from Iran, North Korea and Saudi Arabia.

Earlier, I was a staff foreign correspondent with the French news agency, AFP, which posted me to Moscow during the incredible Gorbachev years. I also reported for AFP from France, and New York where I covered the United Nations.

I started my journalistic career in Canada, arriving with two suitcases to seek my fortune in Montreal, from where I reported for British newspapers before getting a job on the Montreal Gazette.

Before that, I was a postgraduate student at University College London whose French department nurtured my lifelong love of French literature and culture.

LINKS

Website:  www.annepenketh.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anne.penketh.9

I am a firm fan of Faith Martin’s Jenny Starling series so was interested to see how this new series compared……

The answer… just as good! Monica Noble is a vicar’s wife who has left her busy urban lifestyle and career to join her new husband in the English countryside. The old vicarage has been converted into flats and Monica wants to get to know her new neighbours better so arranges a garden party.

The party is in full swing when a gun shot is heard and one of the residents is found dead. Was it her cheating husband or his young lover? Was it the secretive professor who left his teaching role under a cloud? Was it any of the other new arrivals to the village?

The Vicarage Murder has the same narrative style as the Jenny Starling stories so I immediately felt comfortable reading the book and knew I would get absorbed by the plot and characters. These books have a traditional Englishness that is reminiscent of Agatha Christie and more recently Midsomer Murders.

There was more police procedure than in the Jenny Starling books and less antagonism with the lead character. The police characters will hopefully appear in later books and we will se a devleopment of them as people but also in their relationship with Monica Noble.

The author leaves plenty of clues as well as red herrings and misdirections to keep readers on their toes. I had no idea who the culprit was but that didn’t affect my enjoyment at all: an excellent read overall!

The Vicarage Murder (Monica Noble #1) by Faith Martin

Discover a new series of murder mysteries set in an idyllic English village. From million-selling author Faith Martin.

Meet Monica Noble: the vicar’s wife with a taste for solving crimes.

Please note this book was first published as “AN UNHOLY MESS” under Faith Martin’s pen name JOYCE CATO.

IN A QUIET COTSWOLD VILLAGE ALL HELL IS ABOUT TO BREAK LOOSE

Monica Noble is throwing a party to welcome the village’s new residents. The guests include Margaret and her cheating husband Sean, who’s a celebrity chef. Also on the list are an Oxford university professor, a 40-something divorcee, and the owner of a chain of gyms.

Then as the drinks are flowing, a shotgun blast rings out. One of the guests is found dead.

DCI Dury and Sergeant Jim Greer are soon on the scene and discover that the victim had many enemies. Almost all the guests harbour secrets and motives for murder. Even Monica’s daughter comes under suspicion.

When another villager is strangled to death nearly a week later, the stakes are raised.
 
Can Monica help the local detectives save her daughter and solve the murders before anyone else pays the ultimate price?

This is the first of a series of enjoyable murder mysteries with great characters and baffling crimes which will keep you gripped till the final page.

Perfect for fans of classic whodunits by authors like Agatha Christie, LJ Ross, TE Kinsey, and J.R. Ellis.

MONICA NOBLE was widowed young, leaving her to raise her feisty daughter on her own. That is, until she met and fell in love with Graham Noble, a country vicar (pastor), who enticed her to leave her high-flying job in advertising in the city and move to the Cotswold countryside. There she found bucolic life very pleasant indeed — until murder started to rear its ugly head. And she discovered, to everyone’s surprise, that she had a flair for solving the most unholy of crimes.

FAITH MARTIN is the best-selling author of the DETECTIVE HILLARY GREENE and JENNY STARLING mysteries, which have topped the global best-seller charts.

More MONICA NOBLE mysteries coming soon. Join the Joffe Books mailing list to be the first to hear about the next in the series.

JENNY STARLING MYSTERIES
Book 1: THE BIRTHDAY MYSTERY
Book 2: THE WINTER MYSTERY
Book 3: THE RIVERBOAT MYSTERY
Book 4: THE CASTLE MYSTERY
Book 5: THE OXFORD MYSTERY
Book 6: THE TEATIME MYSTERY
Book 7: THE COUNTRY INN MYSTERY

FAITH MARTIN

Faith Martin was born in Oxford, and has spent all her life within twenty miles of the university city, even working at Somerville College for five years before turning to writing full-time.”The author of the popular DI Hillary Greene novels, she also writes more classic-style ‘whodunits’ under the pen name Joyce Cato, but began her writing career as Maxine Barry, winning an award for penning romance novels! A popular writer for over 25 years, she has had nearly 50 novels published so far. Her hobbies include walking her now ageing dog, wildlife-watching,”reading and (reluctantly) gardening.”

I need to start this review with a trigger warning: this book deals with child abuse, human trafficking and modern slavery.

Why She Lied is not a pleasant book. It is not an enjoyable book.

It is a powerful book. It is a shocking book. It is a brave book.

Julie has been abused her whole life: by her mother, teachers, strangers and lovers.

There is a strange detachment to this book and the abuse and crimes are reported in an objective way, no emotion at all. This makes the emotional impact on the reader stronger as our imaginations  and empathy respond to the events.

I felt that the narrator has a certain detachment towards her daughter or maybe this is a coping mechanism to keep the good and bad in her life separate: throughout the whole book her daughter Stephanie is mentioned but never seen. I felt it slightly odd, especially as Julie goes off investigating, seeming to abandon her daughter entirely.

Julie appears very self-oriented due to the style of the narrative but this is because she is the only person she can truly trust and she has separated herself from events to protect herself.

Part of me is incredulous that this could be based on reality, and indeed, I am unsure of the extent to which it is memoir as the description says ‘true crime type’ and ‘memoir style’ and ‘based on a true story’, and the main character is Julie, the same as the author Julie Coons.

There was also a psychic or dream element to the book which I wish had been explored further as this showed an emotional side which was missing from the rest of the book.

My heart goes out to the author whose first book was a memoir of the terrible events in her life, and I hope the bravery of sharing her experiences can prevent these atrocities being suffered by others.

Welcome to the blog tour for a truly unique, true crime type thriller, written memoir style called, Why She Lied by Julie Coons. Please read on for an excerpt and a chance to win a copy of the book!

*Warning: This book has many extreme triggers including but not limited to, sexual assault, child abuse, violence, and various types of trauma.

Why She Lied

Publication Date: March 3rd, 2019

Genre: True Crime/ Memoir

Will she have to lose her child to save her child?

The day she tells her boyfriend she’s pregnant, is the same day he tells her he’s been accused of molestation. His trial is set to begin the following day.

She needs answers…

To get them, she tricks her boyfriend into signing a release form, giving her full access to all of his legal documents. She uncovers the truth, he’s guilty.

To save her unborn child from this monster, she gets an abortion.

FIVE YEARS LATER and still rebuilding her life, Julie finds out her ex-boyfriend has just become the most wanted man in America, involved in human trafficking. When detectives ask for her help locating him, she gets drawn into a baffling mystery. What began as a seemingly simple search soon turns into a much darker reality.

Someone from her past is watching…

Bit by bit, the tapestry of her own secret childhood begins to unravel. What she learns about her past will haunt her forever: family isn’t always what it seems.

Can she help bring this predator to justice, or will she die trying?

Add to Goodreads

Excerpt

I wanted to throw up. It was so disturbing to hear her talk about a grown man trying to have sexual relations with a child. I expressed my deepest condolences to her.

Then she asked me the million-dollar question: “Are you still with James?”

“No way, of course not, but I have a problem. I found out the day before he told me about his court date that I was pregnant with his child.”

I could actually hear her gasp on the other end of the phone.

Without taking another breath she said, “You have to get rid of that baby.”

Available on Amazon

Giveaway: Print Copy for residents of the United States, and a digital copy internationally!

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About the Author

JULIE COONS lives in a small town in Oregon. THIS DOES NOT LEAVE THIS HOUSE was her debut memoir. Amy’s bookshelf reviews awarded it the #1 position for top 10 books of 2018. Her second book WHY SHE LIED is based on a true story. Her books are written to lead a movement toward positive change. She tells the stories of her life with honesty and strength.

Julie Coons | Facebook| Twitter

Blog Tour Schedule

September 2^nd

Reads & Reels (Spotlight) http://readsandreels.com

Breakeven Books (Spotlight) https://breakevenbooks.com

LoopyLouLaura (Review) https://www.loopyloulaura.com/

September 3^rd

Scarlett Readz & Runz (Interview) https://scarlettreadzandrunz.com/

Touch My Spine Book Reviews (Spotlight) https://touchmyspinebookreviews.com

LIBRORUM IN SEMPITERNUM (Review) http://libroruminsempiternumhome.wordpress.com

September 4^th

Just 4 My Books (Review) http://www.just4mybooks.wordpress.com

Shalini’s Books and Reviews (Spotlight) https://bookreviewsbyshalini.com/

Reviews and Promos by Nyx (Review) https://nyxblogs.wordpress.com/

September 5^th

Kim Knight (Interview) http://kimknightauthor.wordpress.com

Jessica Belmont (Review) https://jessicabelmont.wordpress.com/

My Bookish Bliss (Review) http://mybookishbliss.com

September 6^th

Mermaid in these Jeans (Spotlight) https://mermaidinthesejeans.com

Dash Fan Book Reviews (Review) https://dashfan81.blogspot.com/

Misty’s Book Space (Review) http://mistysbookspace.wordpress.com

The Faerie Review (Review) http://www.thefaeriereview.com

The Magic of Wor(l)ds (Spotlight) http://themagicofworlds.wordpress.com

Entertainingly Nerdy (Review) https://www.entertaininglynerdy.com

Blog Tour Organized By:

R&R Book Tours

This was such a delightful book, following on from The Silver Ladies of Penny Lane.

Sixty something Tess has finally found love again, with an actor named Simon. The first part of The Golden Oldies Guesthouse focuses on the couple falling in love with a house in Cornwall and then renovating it to become a guesthouse. This is fraught with difficulties and puts their relationship under a great deal of pressure.

The rest of the book has the guesthouse up and running and tells the story of their diverse collection of guests. Dominic is broken hearted after being dumped by lover Patrick. Celia seems prim and proper but is running away from something. Titania is seeking out her former love rival. Jackie is trying to rekindle her marriage but is it already too late?

The development of the guests’ characters, the relationship of Dominic and his new love interest, the disintegration of Jackie’s marrriage and the mystery surrounding the women drive the second part of the plot. There is plenty of drama as well as hope and triumph.

Dee MacDonald’s style of writing is fun and warm, making you identify and sypathise with the characters. It is great to have more mature central characters and be reminded that retirement can be a new beginning.

I felt a little disappointed that the ending was rather open ended in terms of outcomes for the guests, but I wonder if we will catch up with any of them in later books…

Overall, a fab feel-good book that will tantalise you with mystery and make you smile.

The Golden Oldies Guesthouse

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