Carly, Jane and Rose Savage are trying to move on after the drama of recent months. Carly and Jane have a new role as debt collectors alongside their cousins while Rose is sitting her exams at school. The women find that their old enemies, the Alexanders, are trying to get back their hold on the area but are there other forces at work…?
A Savage Feud is the sequel to Savage Sisters, a gritty gangland thriller set in Glasgow.
Carly and her cousin Dean are fighting to keep their attraction under control and focus on their work. They are suspicious after a number of clients act oddly when they go to collect debts owing to the infamous Tallons and then have a run in with their enemies which includes Carly’s ex Cole Alexander and his brothers.
I enjoyed the drama of events and grandstanding of the characters. The author uses dialogue to demonstrate the Scottish accent effectively so I was immediately transported into the scenes. Trust and loyalty are important themes in the book as the gangs jostle for power and control.
Once again, there is violence and swearing, in keeping with the genre of the book. And also once again, the sisters show their softer side during their devotion to each other and their caring for their sick father. Carly and Dean are cousins but want to be more than that. They are afraid of creating a family rift so are fighting their feelings.
A Savage Feud is a gritty book with deeper emotional elements and engaging plot and characters.
A Savage Feud
In Glasgow’s Haghill, the Savage sisters strike fear into the hearts of their enemies the Alexanders.
Firmly ensconced in the criminal underworld, Carly and Jane Savage, along with girl gang the Unbeatable Bitches, their uncle Eddie and their cousins Dean and Harry, are finally making good money, running dubious errands for the notorious Tallan brothers.
Rod and Neil Tallan wield almighty power over their patch, and their reputation for ruthless revenge on traitors is legendary. The Savage sisters feel invincible until trouble arrives in the form of Jack Alexander. Recently released from notorious hellhole prison, nicknamed Monster Mansion, he’s dangerous, ambitious, and broodingly handsome. Could he persuade the Tallans that the Alexanders are more useful than the Savages?
But as the Alexanders know to their cost, you should never underestimate the Savages, and when their family are under threat, there’s no one more dangerous than a Savage sister…
Author Bio –
Heather Atkinson is the author of over fifty books – predominantly in the crime fiction genre. Although Lancashire born and bred she now lives with her family, including twin teenage daughters, on the beautiful west coast of Scotland. Her gangland series for Boldwood, set on the fictional Gallowburn estate in Glasgow begins with the title Blood Brothers.
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TRIGGER WARNING: suicide
Libby Curtis is a paramedic and is shocked to be called out to a teenager who may have been drugged and held against her will. She is upset and confused to discover a link with her stepson who seems to have the victim’s false fingernail in his car. Could he be a monster and will she protect him?
The Stepmother is a psychological thriller set in the UK.
Libby fell in love with Nathan and, although never wanting children herself, has been a dedicated mum to his children Sam and Sienna. Now they are teens and rebelling against their parents. Libby attends a patient she recognises and is devastated when she finds a clue that links to her stepson. She battles with her conscience as she hides evidence that incriminates Sam but can’t reconcile the criminal activity with her knowledge of the boy she raised. She is determined to protect him at all costs as she couldn’t save her brother who killed himself.
Meanwhile Gemma is obsessed with a crime from the past. A paedophile was convicted of one crime but there are a string of families with no answers about their missing loved ones. She wants to find the truth and bring peace to the families who are still grieving. Her investigation leads her to the Curtis family…
The book is written in the third person to show Libby and Gemma’s journey of discovery. I did like the little detail about Gemma’s guinea pigs being a guinea mum myself! Both women have to balance their families against the truth, the personal feelings versus what is right. I enjoyed the ‘what if’ element as it made me think carefully about what lengths I would go to to protect my own family whilst also considering the victims, law and truth.
The Stepmother is a tense and thought provoking book about the choices we make to protect our loved ones.
The Stepmother
She’ll do anything to protect her family…
Libby Curtis never wanted children, until she met Nathan, a gorgeous widower with two young children. Now ten years later she can’t imagine her life without Sam and Sienna – she’d do anything for her precious kids. Anything….
So when a missing teenager is found lying on the side of the road, Libby’s first thoughts are for her own kids. Are they safe? Are they home?
What Libby doesn’t expect is for her children to be involved in the girl’s disappearance. But when she discovers an item in her stepson’s car linked to the victim Libby’s fears increase.
She can’t believe that the sweet boy she’s raised could do something like that. But if not Sam….who?
Libby must discover the truth before her family is ripped apart. But someone is determined to make sure their secrets stay hidden – even if the consequences are deadly…
Author Bio –
Amanda Ashby and Sally Rigby are a crime writing partnership. Both authors live in New Zealand, have been friends for eighteen years and agree about everything (except musicals). They decided to collaborate on a psychological thriller which they then entered into a competition, run by Boldwood, and which they won!
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A woman dies while tombstoning on the southern point of the island. Her broken body is found beside a woman impaled on some rocks with a single bullet hole in her forehead.
Danger on the Island is the 11th book to feature DI Liam O’Reilly on Guernsey. There are no spoilers about the crimes in previous books but Liam’s personal and professional relationships have developed over the series. In this book he is struggling physically as he recovers from a serious injury which occured at the end of the last book, Sadness on the Island.
I have no idea why anyone would want to go tombstoning! The opening scene when Donna leaps off the cliff is so vivid and terrifying especially as she is killed. Tombstoning is also illegal so her friends are reluctant to help the police which adds to Liam’s frustration.
As usual, the plot develops at a rapid pace and there are more bodies in quick succession. Liam and his team spot a link between the posing of the bodies but have no idea on the motive or identity of the killers or victims. The investigation is further confused by mention of a cold case disappearance of a teenager.
I am always fully invested in Stewart’s books. The dialogue brings the characters to life, there is always plenty of action, and Liam is just a wonderful lead character.
Danger on the Island is another brilliant addition to this fab series.
Danger on the Island (DI Liam O’Reilly mysteries Book 11)
The Island of Guernsey isn’t exactly a favourite destination for adrenaline junkies.
But it does have one thing that attracts a new breed of adventure freaks.
Cliff jumping is taking off on the island, and June appears to be the best time of year for those that way inclined to choose to partake in the sport.
When a young woman is killed after a jump, her death is judged a tragic accident. But when her body is retrieved the remains of another corpse is found on the rocks below, so the Island Police are brought in.
It’s the last thing Detective Liam O’Reilly feels like. Still feeling the effects of a case that almost broke him, he really doesn’t need this.
But when he drags himself back to where he once was, and starts to understand what he’s dealing with he wakes up enough to realise he’s dealing with something much more dangerous than the cliffs that people are jumping off.
There is someone on the Island who likes to take things to the extreme, and O’Reilly is damned if they’re going to do it on his island.
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
Alfie Hook is enjoying a sneaky fish and chips supper when he is stabbed to death in his van. He is the husband of a local woman who has only just got out of prison for serious crimes. The police believe his death is linked to his wife’s activities until another body is found…
