Book Tour/Feature Post and Book Review: The Beach Hut Murders by Peter Boland

Hi, everyone!

Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for THE BEACH HUT MURDERS (The Charity Shop Detective Agency Book #2) by Peter Boland on this Books ‘n’ All Promotions Book Tour.

Below you will find a book description, my book review, the author’s bio and social media links. Enjoy!

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Book Description

It’s almost summer in Southbourne and the ladies of the Charity Shop Detective Agency are ready for another season of sun, sea and . . . murder.

Amongst the rows of charming brightly painted cabins, an elderly man’s beach hut is set on fire in the middle of the night — while he slept inside.

By day, Fiona, Sue and Daisy volunteer at the Dogs Need Nice Homes charity shop. But, by night, they investigate crimes. And they’re determined to get to the bottom of this murder.

Malcolm Crainey was a bit of an eccentric, but he was harmless really. Who would want to kill him?

The ladies soon uncover a long list of possible suspects. Neighbours who hated Malcolm for refusing to swap huts. Members of the snobby beach hut association who took umbrage with Malcom’s quirky beachcombed cabin decorations.

Then another hut is burned down in the dead of night. Thankfully there was no one asleep inside this time. But the pressure is on — can Fiona, Sue and Daisy find the culprit before the beach hut murderer strikes again?

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/181440983-the-beach-hut-murders?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=3grkwlQ1SM&rank=1

BOOKS BY PETER BOLAND

THE CHARITY SHOP DETECTIVE AGENCY MYSTERIES SERIES:

  • THE CHARITY SHOP DETECTIVE AGENCY
  • THE BEACH HUT MURDERS

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My Book Review

RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars

THE BEACH HUT MURDERS (The Charity Shop Detective Agency Book #2) by Peter Boland is an engaging amateur sleuth cozy mystery and the second book in The Charity Shop Detective Agency series. This series features three senior volunteers at the Dogs Need Nice Homes charity shop who also work together to solve murders in the small English town of Southbourne. This book, even though it is the second in the series, is easily read as a standalone.

Summertime in Southbourne has residents looking to cool down on Mudeford Spit. People day trip in to use the beach and there are also several beach huts for those who can afford them. One night a beach hut burns to the ground and the resident is saved, but later dies of smoke inhalation. The Spit’s liaison officer hires the Charity Shop Detectives to find out who committed the arson that led to the death.

As the ladies investigate, there are many leads, but they all lead to dead ends and the CCTV is no help either. When another hut is burned, they are happy to find their new friend was not home, but they are still stuck with no hard evidence. When a third hut burns and almost kills a couple with their two children, the ladies are desperate for a breakthrough and take desperate measures which could end their sideline as detectives.

I enjoyed this outing of the Charity Shop Detectives more than the first. Fiona, Sue, and Daisy are all delightfully quirky and individually unique with just the right skillset when they come together to investigate clues and solve their cases. The secondary characters are just as fun, and the dialogue is witty. I feel the plot is intriguing and well-paced, the red herrings and twists are well placed and kept me guessing throughout. I was surprised by the conclusion and by the epilogue even more so.

I recommend this cozy mystery for an engaging amateur sleuth cozy mystery read.

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Author Bio

After studying to be an architect, Pete realised he wasn’t very good at it. He liked designing buildings, he just couldn’t make them stand up — a big handicap in an industry that’s partial to keeping things upright. So he became an advertising copywriter, the highlight of which was creating an ad featuring Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman. He then tried his hand at writing his own stories and quickly realised there’s no magic formula. You just have to put one word in front of the other (and keep doing that for about six months). It also helps if you can resist the lure of surfing and drinking beer in a garden chair.

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Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: Fatal Legacy by Lindsey Davis

Book Description

An unpaid bar bill leads Flavia Albia to her most bitter and complex case yet.

Decades earlier Appius Tranquillus Surus wrote his will: it freed his slaves and bequeathed his businesses to them. He left an orchard to the Prisci, a family he was friendly with, on the condition that his freedmen could still take its harvest.

The convoluted arrangement has led to a feud between the two families, each of which has its own internal strife. Endless claims and counterclaims lead to violence and even death. Lawyers have given up in exasperation as the case limps on. The original will has disappeared, along with a falsified codicil – and might there be another one?

But is there a solution? Two youngsters from each side of the divide, Gaius Venuleius and Cosca Sabatina, have fallen in love, which could unite the feuding families. There is only one problem: were Sabatina’s grandmother and father really liberated in the Surus will? If not, the stigma of slavery will stop the marriage and the dispute will rage on forever.

Reconciliation seems impossible, but Albia will try. Her investigation must cut through decades of secrets, arguments, lies and violence to reach a startling truth.

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Elise’s Thoughts

Fatal Legacy by Lindsey Davis is the 11th book in the Flavia Albia series.  It takes place during the First Century in Rome.

The plot has Flavia Albia, the daughter of Marcus Didius Falco, taking over her father’s business as a private informer. She only has two hard and fast rules – avoid political and family cases because nothing good comes of either of them. Unfortunately, since Albia isn’t good at avoiding either, it’s really more of a guideline. So, when her Aunt Junia demands Albia track down a couple of deadbeats who owe her money, it’s an offer Albia can’t refuse.

It turns out to be a relatively easy job, requiring only some half-hearted blackmail, and it leads to some new work – tracking down some essential paperwork for the debtor family. But nothing is truly easy in Rome – if Albia doesn’t find the paperwork that proves that family’s ancestor was a properly freed slave, the family could lose everything. The more she digs, the more skeletons she finds in their closet, until murder in the past leads to murder in the present. Now, it’s serious, even deadly, and Albia has precious little time to uncover the truth.

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Author Interview

Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for the series?

Lindsey Davis: After writing twenty books in my much-loved Falco Roman detective series, I fought to be allowed a new direction. ‘Master and God’ examined the reign of the paranoid emperor Domitian, which I then used as a new, darker background to extend my Roman detective idea – only this time using a female protagonist. After twenty years, I felt that readers were more familiar with Rome than when I started, so I could now face them with a woman’s life in the Golden City. I thought this would be a refreshing nuance, good for me as a writer too.

EC: How did you get the idea for the character Flavia Albia?

LD: She was originally seen in a Falco story that was set in Roman Britain; I made her a tragic survivor of the Boudiccan Rebellion. Falco and his wife rescued her and brought her to Rome, adopting her as a daughter. Then I realized that I had created an interesting, very feisty character. In the Falco series I had great fun showing her as a troubled adolescent, but very perceptive about the new society she has joined.

EC: How did you get the idea for this story?

LD: It starts with a small everyday event, when two people fail to pay their bill for lunch. Albia is called in to chase them down and retrieve the money – so first, I had to work out how she might do that as a debt collector. She is hired to find some family documents. Slowly, lives are explored, leading into an extraordinarily complex family saga, covering several generations, and every kind of trouble that might afflict warring relatives. It’s a kind of mad soap opera plot, where eventually everything is found to lock together. Behind the events we laugh at, however, is a poignant discussion of ancient slavery: how it worked in a domestic situation, the vital importance of acquiring freedom, then the terrible consequences if someone who believed they were free could not prove it, or were they mistaken. I knew that if Albia could not provide a happy legal solution, she would have to obtain justice for the victims.

EC: Can you please describe Flavia?

LD: she is smart, determined, cynical. And a London Street urchin, but she is also the beneficiary of a good Roman education. She gives us a new perspective from that of the true Roman. Falco: sees Rome as a woman, an outsider, and someone who must fight hard to be accepted. She has a wild courage. And although no longer a scavenger herself, she never forgets how it felt, which gives her profound sympathy for others who are suffering or under threat of losing everything. Privilege will not spoil her. She has been slow to trust her new security, but I think she’s got there.

EC: Why the Roman Empire for the setting in the 1st Century?

LD: Because my first Roman novel was about the Emperor Vespasian and his mistress, Antonia Caenis (The Course of Honor). I came to know that period, then Vespasian’s accession after the madness of the Julio-Claudians made a suitable background for Falco, also striving to impose some order on the world he lives in. There is surviving Latin literature from this period, and of course the time capsule of the Vesuvius eruption. And I use archaeology as my starting point; there has been lots of good information discovered during my lifetime. That is still continuing, which keeps up the interest.

EC: How did Flavia grow since the first book in the series?

LD: She found mature true love, primarily. She stabilized, and accepted domesticity, where she takes responsibility for others and ruefully sees herself, with Tiberius, as the sensible center of a household and a family business. It makes her even angrier about anything that threatens the peace of people’s domestic environment and their right to personal ambitions. After a bad start in life and the tragic end of her youthful first marriage, she now accepts that even she may be allowed happiness.

EC: What role did women play in the Roman Empire?

LD: Much, much more than men have always said! Never mind the small aristocracy, who were as different and peculiar then as they are now (though not always: Vespasian was heavily influenced by his grandmother, mother, and obviously Caenis). It is evident from tombstones and inscriptions that in most of Roman society, women, especially as part of a domestic couple, were equal partners in the basic family unit. They were not supposed to go to law (but could do so) yet they could hold their own property, run businesses, and their influence is greater than the old established view. I am having fun exploring how females could fight what was supposed to be a patriarchal system. Sadly, the one profession that doesn’t seem to have been open to them is my own: we know of no successful female novelists!

EC: Did you intentionally make this story not as gruesome as the last?

LD: Yes. Absolutely. ‘Desperate Undertaking’ was based on known examples of horrible events on the Roman stage; some readers loved it, but I know some felt squeamish. I’m none too keen on live deaths in theatre myself. So next, I set out to write a story where it might appear nobody had died by foul play at all; I even make a running joke about the lack of a body. Of course, in the end it turns out that this is not the case, because in a crime novel there has to be murder. In fact, there are two killings, but one was a long time ago and the other happens very quickly!

EC: Why did most characters lie in the story?

LD: Because they are bad people! Or, you could say, normal people with secrets.

EC: What about the next book?

LD: Death on the Tiber published in April 2024 UK; July 2024 USA.

The plot has a group of well-heeled tourists arrive in Rome; when they leave, one is no longer with them. The body of a drowned woman is dredged from the Tiber, clearly the victim of foul play. It is believed she came to Rome from Britain. Rome is descending into serious gang warfare. A key mobster figure has died and will have a spectacular funeral; all the city crime lords – and their indomitable women – will be jostling for power in the aftermath. As Albia reluctantly investigates, she comments on the complex organization Rome uses to defeat the criminal underworld. She herself has allies, but they may be no help when she must confront an old enemy. She then faces a hard personal decision. Will she be consumed by the need for revenge, jeopardizing her new-found happiness?

THANK YOU!!

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BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.

Book Tour/Feature Post and Book Review: Deadly Depths by John F. Dobbyn

Deadly Depths

by John F Dobbyn

July 24 – August 18, 2023 Virtual Book Tour

Hi, everyone!

Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for DEADLY DEPTHS by John F. Dobbyn on this Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tour.

Below you will find a book description, my book review, an excerpt from the book, the author’s bio and social media links, and a Kingsumo giveaway. Enjoy!

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Book Description

The death by bizarre means of his mentor, Professor Barrington Holmes, draws Mathew Shane into the quest of five archeologists, known to each other as “The Monkey’s Paws”, for an obscure object of unprecedented historic and financial value. The suspected murders of others of the Monkey’s Paws follow their pursuit of five clues found in a packet of five ancient parchments. Shane’s commitment to disprove the police theory of suicide by Professor Holmes carries him to the steamy bayous of New Orleans, the backstreets of Montreal, the sunken wreck of a pirate vessel off Barbados, and the city of Maroon descendants of escaped slaves in Jamaica.

By weaving a thread from the sacrificial rites of the Aztec kingdom before the Spanish conquest of Mexico through the African beliefs of Jamaican Maroons and finally to the ventures of Captain Henry Morgan during the Golden Era of Piracy in his conquest and sacking of Spanish cities on the Spanish Main, Shane reaches a conclusion he could never have anticipated.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62997373-deadly-depths?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=FMg5z1atdu&rank=1

Deadly Depths

Genre: Mystery, Crime Thriller
Published by: Oceanview Publishing
Publication Date: August 2023
Number of Pages: 320
ISBN: 9781608095483 (ISBN10: 1608095487)

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My Book Review

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

DEADLY DEPTHS by John F. Dobbyn is an edge-of-your-seat treasure hunt thriller and intricate crime mystery mash-up novel that kept me turning the pages well into the night. This is a standalone novel that is a great mystery/thriller read and while the author is new to me, he does have other published books I will be checking out in the future.

Law professor Matthew Shane also has a love of archeology from his mentor, well known archeologist, Professor Barrington Holmes. Holmes is found dead at his office desk, and it is determined a suicide, but Matthew knows his mentor would never commit suicide.

His search for the truth leads him to a group of five archeologists, including the deceased Barrington, that call themselves “The Monkey’s Paw”. They were entangled in a mysterious expedition and since their return, they are being killed one by one.

Joining forces with the remaining members of “The Monkey’s Paw” and the help of an enigmatic Turkish antiquities dealer in France, Matthew is on a worldwide chase that may cost him his life, too.

I really loved this story. It is full of surprise twists, red herrings, and treachery. Matthew is determined to discover the truth, no matter the peril. He is an honorable, adventurous, and strong protagonist that is easy to cheer for throughout the hunt. The history of the Aztec artifact everyone wants, and the history of the Maroons of Jamaica were both interesting and well positioned throughout the plot to never interfere with the pace. The plot is well paced, fast and seldom lets up even when the plot goes back in time to the diary of a Welsh privateer. The climax was intense, and it leads to a very satisfying conclusion to both the mystery and the treasure hunt.

I highly recommend this high intensity action-adventure mystery/thriller!

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Excerpt

We arrived at an area of private docks in a town called Oistins. The driver stopped at the base of a wharf that anchored power boats of every size, speed, and description. One power yacht stood out as the choice of the fleet. The Sun Catcher.  My guide hustled us both directly to the carpeted gangplank that led on board a vessel that could pass for a floating Ritz Carlton. 

The engines were already revving. I was escorted to a padded deck-lounge with maximum view on the foredeck. I had scarcely  settled in, when we were slicing through late-afternoon sea-swells that barely caused a rise and fall. 

My guide, still in suit and tie, brought me, without either of us asking, a tall, cool, planter’s punch with an ample kick of Mount Gay Rum. For the first moment since Mick O’Flynn told me that someone was asking for me, I made a fully-considered decision. This entire fantasy could easily turn into a disaster that could outstrip New Orleans and Montreal together, but to hell with it. It was just too elating not to accept it at face value – at least for the moment.

My mind was just settling into a comfortable neutral, when I heard footsteps from behind that had more heft than I imagined my guide could produce. I made a move to swing out of the padded deck-chair, when I felt  the touch of a hand with authoritative strength on my shoulder. The voice that went with it had the same commanding undertone.

“Stay where you are, Michael. I’ll join you.”

A matching deck-chair was set beside me. I found myself looking up at a shadow against the setting sun that appeared double my bulk and yet compact as an Olympic hammer-thrower. The voice came again. “You’re an interesting study, Michael. I may call you ‘Michael’, right? I should. I probably know more about you than anyone you know. You might have guessed that by now.”

An open hand reached down out of the shadow. I took it. The handshake fit the shaker. It took some seconds for the feeling to come back into mine.

Before I could answer, the voice was coming from the deck-lounge beside me. “No need for coy name games. You know that I’m Wayne Barnes. And you know that I’m one of the, shall we say, associates in that little clique we call the Monkey’s Paws. In fact, your escort here, Emile, tells me it was the mention of my name that swung your decision to get on that plane.”

He nodded to my nearly empty Planter’s Punch. “Another?”

Before I could answer, he gave a slight nod to someone behind us. Before I could say “Yes”, or possibly, but less likely, “No”, a native Bajan in a server’s uniform was at my left taking my empty and handing me a full glass.

I was three good sips into the second glass before I said my first word since coming aboard. I looked over at Wayne. I seemed to have his full focus. His engaging smile seemed to carry a full message of relaxed hospitality, and none of the threatening undercurrents I was scanning for. “You have an interesting way of delivering an invitation, Mr. Barnes”

He raised a hand. “Wayne.”

“’Wayne’ it is. You must have an interesting social life.”

“I do. Do you find it offensive?”

I looked over the bow, past the deepening blue crystal water to the reddening horizon. I felt the soothing caress of the slightly salted ocean breeze. I took one more sip of the most perfectly balanced planters punch of a lifetime, and looked back at Wayne. “Not in the slightest. Yet.”

“Ah yes, ‘yet’.”

“Right. I’m sure this won’t impress you, Wayne, and it’s not a complaint, but I’ve had a week full of enough tragedy to fill a lifetime. Hence the ‘yet’.”

His smile and focused attention remained. “I know more about your week, perhaps, than even you do. But go on.”

The second planter’s punch was having a definitely mollifying effect. “I have no idea what you mean by that last statement, Wayne, so I’ll just pass on. Given that week, and the abrupt transport from hell on earth to . . . paradise on earth, I’d have to be Mrs. Shane’s backward child not to listen for a second shoe to drop.”

The smile expanded. Still no alarms. “Or perhaps you’ve come into a sea-change of good luck, Michael. Why not go with that?”

“Why not indeed? For the moment. Just one question. ”

“Alright.  One question. For now. Make it a good one.”

“Oh it is. It’s a beaut. Ecstatic as I am with all this, why the hell am I here?”

That brought a bursting laugh. “I think I’m going to enjoy having you around for a couple of days, Michael. You have an instinct for the jugular.  No chipping around the edges. We won’t waste each other’s time.”

“Thank you. But that’s not an answer.”

“No it isn’t.” He looked out to the diminishing sunset. “The only answer I can give you at the moment that would do justice to the question is this. And you’ll just have to live with it for now. You’re here for a quick but depthful education. I think you’ll find it well worth two days of your life. Are you in?”

“Do I have a choice?”

We both looked back at the rapidly diminishing shore-line behind us. “None that comes to mind. Now are you in?”

That brought a smile from me, another healthy sip of the planter’s punch, and a deep breath of the ocean-fresh breeze. “I’m in.”

We chatted through the sunset on far-ranging subjects that had no association whatever with Monkeys Paws, Maroons, murder-suicides – in fact nothing that gave a clue as to why my gracious host had chosen my company over the undoubtedly vast range of his acquaintances. By then, the moon had risen.

At some point, I was aware that the engines had stopped.  The splash of two anchors could be heard on either side. The sun had set. The shift from twilight to a darkness, penetrated only by a quarter moon went unnoticed.

I was slowly sipping away at my third or possibly fourth Planter’s Punch, when I became aware of a bobbing light approaching from the port side. Without interrupting the flow of conversation, I noticed that Wayne was following its approach with more than the occasional glance until it reached the side of the yacht. 

Within a few minutes, my original guide, still in suit and tie, approached Wayne’s side with an inaudible whisper. I sensed that a bit of  steel crept into Wayne’s otherwise conversational tone. “I’ll see him.”

I began to get up to provide privacy. Wayne held my arm in position. “Stay, Michael. Let your education begin.” My guide nodded to someone behind us and lit his path with a small flashlight.

I settled back, as a fiftyish man with narrow, cautious eyes and thinning grey hair that might have last been combed by his mother came up along Wayne’s right side. The loose wrinkles in his ageless cotton suit indicated that he might have been close to six feet, but for a constant stoop as if to pass under an unseen beam. The stoop caused his head to bob and gave him the look of one asking for royal permission to approach.

Wayne’s eyes turned to him. I noticed the stoop of the back became more noticeable. Wayne’s voice was calm and soft, but it commanded his visitor’s full attention. “Do you have it?  I assume you wouldn’t be here without it, yes, Yusuf?” 

The thin mouth cracked into a smile that conveyed no humor. “Of course. Of course. But perhaps our business . . .”

Wayne nodded toward me. “No fear. Mr. Shayne is here for an education. We shouldn’t deprive him of that, should we?”

The smile on the man’s lips did not match the apprehension in the tiny eyes, but he nodded. “As you say.”

“Then what are you waiting for?”

The man gave a slight glance to either side as if it were the habit of a lifetime. He reached into some deep pocket inside his suitcoat. I noticed a slight but tell-tale hesitation before he slipped out what appeared to be a hard, flat, roundish object, about seven inches across. It was wrapped in several layers of ragged cloth.

He held it until Wayne extended a hand and took it onto his lap.  He laid it on the small tray on his stomach. He looked back at the man, who simply forced a smile .

 “I assume it all went well?”

 “Oh yes, Mr. Barnes. No problems,”

 Wayne smiled back. “How I do love to hear those words.”

My eyes were glued to Wayne’s hands as he carefully peeled back one layer of cloth after another.  When he turned over the last layer, the object in the shape of a disc sent out instant glints of reflections of the rising moonlight.

I could see Wayne running the tips of his fingers over the entire jagged surface of the disc. He took a flip cigarette lighter out of his pocket, opened it, and lit the flame. When he held it close to the object, I could make out the resemblance of a human face, coarsely pieced together from chips of green stone.

Wayne held it up toward me and ran the flame in front of it.

“Do you recognize it Michael?”

“I’m afraid not.”

He nodded. “Most wouldn’t. Your friend, Professor Holmes, would spot it immediately. The Mayans made death masks to protect their important rulers in their journey to the afterlife. They go back to around 700 A.D.”

 “What stones are these? They look like jade.”

“Good spotting. The eyes were made of rare seashells.”

“And I assume valuable?”

He laughed again. “Right to the crux of the issue. Right, Michael.”

He turned the object over and ran his fingers over the back side of it. “One that apparently goes back as far as this, and belonged to the ruler we have in mind, the right collector will pay half a million. Isn’t that right, Yusuf?”

Yusuf’s grin was beginning to become genuine. “Oh yes. Oh yes. And more, as you would know, Mr. Barnes.”

Wayne swung his legs over the deck-lounge toward me. He sat up and very carefully replaced the wrapping that had covered the mask. He stood up and walked toward the man. “And the key to its value is that it is absolutely authentic.” 

Wayne looked down at the grinning eyes of Yusuf for several seconds. I think I let out a yell that came from the pit of my stomach when Wayne hurled the wrapped object over side of the yacht, into the pitch blackness that absorbed it with barely a splash.

I thought that the man would crumble to the deck. He barely held his balance. In the blackness of the night, I couldn’t make out his features, but I know to a certainty that every drop of blood left his face.  

Wayne called a uniformed attendant.

Before the man moved, Wayne took hold of his arm. I was almost as frozen to the spot as the man. I think we were both certain that he would be following the object into the blackness below. 

Wayne held him close enough to speak directly into his ear, but spoke loudly enough, I’m sure, so that I could hear. 

“It’s a fake, Yusuf. I’m sure you know that. But you’ll live to do me a service. You’re a delivery boy. Nothing more. I want you to take a message back to Istanbul. I want you to say just this. ‘You had my trust. I give it sparingly, and not twice. Rest assured, we’ll speak of this again.’ Do you have that Yusuf?”

The man had all he could do to nod.

Wayne signaled his attendant. “Take him back.”

The man was escorted, practically carried toward the back of the vessel. In a few minutes, I could see running lights heading away from the yacht.

Wayne sat back down. “What do you think, Michael? One more Planter’s Punch before dinner?”

I could only smile at the abrupt change of tone and subject. 

“No? Then shall we go in to dinner.  The chef should be prepared by now.”

When he stood up, I saw that he took something from under his deck-lounge. My mouth sprung open when a glint of light from an opening door of the yacht cabin lit up the death mask. I could see amusement in the smile of my host.

“What on earth did you throw overboard?”

“Oh that. I substituted my lap tray in the wrapping for the desk mask. I’ll keep the mask.”

“But if it’s a fake.”

“It is, but a fake by a well-respected forger of these antiquities. It has enough value for that reason alone to pay the expenses I’ve already incurred in acquiring it. Shall we go to dinner?”  

***

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Author Bio

Following graduation from Boston Latin School and Harvard College with a major in Latin and Linguistics, three years on active duty as fighter intercept director in the United States Air Force, graduation from Boston College Law School, three years of practice in civil and criminal trial work, and graduation from Harvard Law School with a Master of Laws degree, I began a career as a Professor of Law at Villanova Law School. Twenty-five years ago I began writing mystery/thriller fiction. I have so far had twenty-five short stories published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery magazine, and six mystery thriller novels, the Michael Knight/Lex Devlin series, published by Oceanview Publishing. The second novel, Frame Up, was selected as Foreword Review’s Book of the Year.

Social Media Links

JohnDobbyn.com
Goodreads
BookBub – @JohnFDobbyn
Instagram – #JohnFDobbyn
Twitter – @JohnDobbyn
Facebook – @JohnFDobbynAuthor

Purchase Links

Amazon https://amzn.to/3q4oPk4
Barnes & Noble https://bit.ly/43luYGZ
BookShop.org https://bit.ly/3WtWzn0
Goodreads https://bit.ly/43iKO58
Oceanview Publishing https://bit.ly/3q5m5D8

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KINGSUMO GIVEAWAY

https://kingsumo.com/g/husm5t/deadly-depths-by-john-f-dobbyn

Feature Post and Book Review: The Roommate Pact by Allison Ashley

Book Description

All of the fun, none of the heartache…as long as they stick to the agreement.

The proposition is simple: if ER nurse Claire Harper and her roommate, firefighter Graham Scott, are still single by the time they’re forty, they’ll take the proverbial plunge together…as friends with benefits. Maybe it’s the wine, but in the moment, Claire figures the pact is a safe-enough deal, considering she hasn’t had much luck in love and he’s in no rush to settle down. Like, at all. Besides, there’s no way she could ever really fall for Graham and his thrill-seeking ways. Not after what happened to her father…

Just as things begin to heat up way before the proposed deadline, Graham’s injured in a serious rock climbing accident—and he needs Claire’s help to heal. She’ll do whatever it takes to nurse him back to health…even if it means moving in to Graham’s bed and putting up with his little dog, who hates her. But with this no-strings arrangement taking a complicated turn, keeping “for now” from turning into “forever” isn’t as easy as they’d planned.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62325755-the-roommate-pact?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=pl4hNWwjbX&rank=1

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My Book Review

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

THE ROOMMATE PACT by Allison Ashley is a delightful and fun roommates to lovers rom-com, contemporary romance. I fell right into the premise, banter, and romance from page one. This is easily read as a standalone romance even though it does have some carryover characters from book one, Would You Rather.

ER nurse Claire Harper is not interested in any man who is a risk-taker after the loss of her father, but with a hectic work schedule and no boyfriend, she makes a pact one night while at the local bar with her roommate that if both are still single at forty, they will marry each other. She really doesn’t believe it will happen because besides being a firefighter and a recreational rock climber, both very risky, he also has a small rescue dog, Dorothy, that hates her. But a weird chemistry is starting to build between them.

When firefighter Graham Scott is seriously injured in a rock-climbing fall, Claire rushes to his side and will do anything to help him heal including putting up with Dorothy. Can they move from roommates to friends with benefits, to something more?

I loved Claire and Graham both so much. They are both interesting characters on their own, but Ms. Ashley takes them on an emotional journey of growth that is both believable and heartfelt. Graham is so carefree, and you can feel shallow, but when opening up emotionally with his journaling, he pulled at every one of my heartstrings. I always love the addition of a dog to a story and Dorothy was great as she was on her own journey of acceptance. There is something very special about these two, not only their chemistry, but also their emotional journey to love.

I highly recommend this exceptional rom-com, contemporary romance!

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About the Author

Allison Ashley is a music-loving, coffee-drinking mom of two who loves love stories. She’s an oncology pharmacist and spends her days focused on helping patients through one of the hardest things life can throw at them. Her escape has always been books—specifically books about happiness, love, and laughter—and it was inevitable that she’d eventually write her own. She promises to always write stories with deep romance, intense connection, and humor…but most of all, that coveted happy ever after.

Social Media Links

Website: https://authorallisonashley.wordpress.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorallisonashley

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AllisonAuthor

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/allison-ashley

Book Review: The Hero of Hope Springs by Maisey Yates

RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars

THE HERO OF HOPE SPRINGS (Gold Valley Book #10) by Maisey Yates is the emotional contemporary romance I have been waiting for in this Gold Valley series featuring two of my favorite characters. This book can be read as a standalone romance because it is a complete HEA, but all the family members continue to mature and change throughout the series.

Ryder Daniels has been the rock of his family ever since the death of his parents when he was only eighteen years old. He has kept the family ranch going and raised his younger siblings with the help of his sister, Iris. His days are dark as he deals with the grief of his siblings and the death of his dreams until he follows trail of sugar cubes, and suddenly there is sunshine in his life once again.

Samantha “Sammy” Marshall comes from a physically abusive home, and she escapes to watch the family of siblings on the ranch that is below her camper. She wants to be a part of a real family and leaves a trail of sugar cubes to see if Ryder will let her stay.

For seventeen years Ryder and Sammy have been friends and confidants, until Sammy decides her life is stagnant and she believes having a baby will change it. Ryder is not looking to be a father after raising his siblings, but he also will not let someone else have that type of connection to Sammy.

Can Ryder prove to Sammy that he truly loves her, and their relationship isn’t just from a sense of duty, and can Sammy let go of her fear of letting anyone all the way in after living through her parents’ abusive relationship?

I have been waiting for this relationship in the series and I was not disappointed. This is a very in depth and emotional look into both characters’ pasts and then the changes that becoming a couple brings. Best friends to lovers is a difficult road for both. This is a romance plot based more around internal changes and revelations and dialogue than any outside forces. The sex scenes are intimate and explicit, but not gratuitous. This is an intense and heartfelt coming together of two characters that I believe have always belonged together.

I always enjoy my return trips to Gold Valley!

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About the Author

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author Maisey Yates lives in rural Oregon with her three children and her husband, whose chiseled jaw and arresting features continue to make her swoon. She feels the epic trek she takes several times a day from her office to her coffee maker is a true example of her pioneer spirit.

In 2009, at the age of twenty-three Maisey sold her first book. Since then it’s been a whirlwind of sexy alpha males and happily ever afters, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. Maisey divides her writing time between dark, passionate category romances set just about everywhere on earth and light sexy contemporary romances set practically in her back yard. She believes that she clearly has the best job in the world.

Social Media Links

Website: http://www.maiseyyates.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaiseyYates.Author/

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/maisey-yates

Book Tour/Feature Post and Book Review: Murder in Myrtle Bay by Isobel Blackthorn

Hi, everyone!

Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for MURDER IN MYRTLE BAY (Ruth Finlay Mysteries Book #1) by Isobel Blackthorn on this Coffee and Thorn Book Tour.

Below you will find an about the book section, my book review, an about the author section, and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!

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About the Book

When feature writer Ruth Finlay and her elderly neighbor Doris Cleaver visit an antique and collectibles market in the small town of Myrtle Bay, they get a lot more than they bargained for.

After Ruth’s old tennis coach is found dead, they discover that there’s no lack of people who harbor a grudge against the victim, and a tangled web of family ties and lies begins to unravel. But can Ruth and Doris find the killer in time to avert a second murder?

A quirky feel-good mystery laced with intrigue, Murder in Myrtle Bay is the first book in Isobel Blackthorn’s ‘Ruth Finlay Mysteries’ series. Set in small town Australia, it is a sure pick for any fan of classic whodunits and cozy mysteries!

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62210711-murder-in-myrtle-bay?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=N3hwMjcUPN&rank=1

Murder in Myrtle Bay

by Isobel Blackthorn

  • Genre:  Cosy Mystery
  • Print length: 288 pages (83K words)
  • Age range: This is an adult book, but would be suitable for young adults
  • Trigger warnings: like the packet of peanuts that may contain nuts, this book may contain a murder…

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My Book Review

RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars

MURDER IN MYRTLE BAY (Ruth Finley Mysteries Book #1) by Isobel Blackthorn is an entertaining cozy mystery debut featuring Ruth Finley, a magazine feature writer and Doris Cleaver, her next-door elderly neighbor. The story is set in small-town Australia.

Ruth is asked to do a feature article on the local antique and collectibles market which used to be a clothing factory decades ago. Ruth takes Doris and as they are shopping, they discover the body of Ruth’s old tennis coach. Before he dies, he tells Ruth that he did not do it.

Even though the local police are on the case, Ruth and Doris feel they need to help the investigation because Doris has no faith in the detective’s intelligence. As they work through all the suspects, they discover a tangled web of family ties, affairs and lies. As they get closer to the truth, they find they must stop the killer before a second murder occurs.

I really enjoyed these two protagonists, and this story gives an excellent glimpse of their lives, quirks and all, without interfering with the pace of the murder plot. Ruth’s talent in the kitchen cooking for her father in the retirement center and Doris left my mouth watering. Doris is a character I would love to meet with her outlandish fashion sense, strong will to have things her own way and obsession with one suspect. The murder plot was well paced and there are plenty of red herrings and twists, so I was guessing to the end. My only difficulty was that there are a lot of family names and connections to keep track of through the story which I ended up writing down myself to keep them straight. This cozy has an amusing cast of secondary characters that lead to some humorous moments and lighten the mood. I will be anxious to see in future books if Ciaran becomes more than a handyman and what impact the return of Doris’s daughter has on her and Ruth’s relationship.

I recommend this delightful start to this new cozy mystery series.

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About the Author

Isobel Blackthorn is an award-winning author of unique and engaging fiction. She writes gripping mysteries, historical fiction and dark psychological thrillers. Her Canary Islands collection begins with The Drago Tree and includes A Matter of Latitude, Clarissa’s Warning and A Prison in the Sun. Her interest in the occult is explored in The Unlikely Occultist: A biographical novel of Alice A. Bailey and the dark mystery A Perfect Square. 

Her dark thriller The Cabin Sessions was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award 2018 and the Ditmar Awards 2018. Isobel’s  biographical short story ‘Nothing to Declare’ which forms the first chapter of Emma’s Tapestry was shortlisted for the Ada Cambridge Prose Prize 2019.  A Prison in the Sun was shortlisted in the LGBTQ category of the Readers’ Favorite Book Awards 2020 and the International Book Awards 2021. And The Unlikely Occultist: A biographical novel of Alice A. Bailey received an Honorable Mention in the 2021 Reader’s Favorite Book Awards.

Isobel writes non fiction too. She is the author of the world’s only biography of Theosophist and mother of the New Age movement Alice Bailey – Alice A. Bailey: Life & Legacy.

Isobel’s first work, which she wrote in 2008, is Voltaire’s Garden. This memoir is set in the mid 2000s and tells the story of building a sustainable lifestyle B&B in Cobargo on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia, which gained international attention when a firestorm razed the idyllic historic village on New Year’s Eve 2019.

Isobel’s writing appears in journals and websites around the world, including Esoteric Quarterly, New Dawn Magazine, Paranoia, Mused Literary Review, Trip Fiction, Backhand Stories, Fictive Dream and On Line Opinion. Isobel was a judge for the Shadow Awards 2020 long fiction category. Her book reviews have appeared in New Dawn Magazine, Esoteric Quarterly, Shiny New Books, Sisters in Crime, Australian Women Writers, Trip Fiction and Newtown Review of Books.

Isobel’s interests are many and varied. She has a long-standing association with the Canary Islands, having lived in Lanzarote in the late 1980s. A humanitarian and campaigner for social justice, in 1999 Isobel founded the internationally acclaimed Ghana Link, uniting two high schools, one a relatively privileged state school located in the heart of England, the other a materially impoverished school in a remote part of the Upper Volta region of Ghana, West Africa.

Isobel has a background in Western Esotericism. She holds 1st Class Honours in Social Studies, and a PhD from the University of Western Sydney for her ground-breaking research on the works of Alice A. Bailey. After working as a teacher, market trader and PA to a literary agent, she arrived at writing in her forties, and her stories are as diverse and intriguing as her life has been.

Isobel has performed her literary works at events in a range of settings and given workshops in creative writing.

British by birth, Isobel entered this world in Farnborough, Kent, She has lived in England, Australia, Spain and the Canary Islands.

Social Media Links

  • Website: https://isobelblackthorn.com/
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/IBlackthorn
  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/isobelblackthorn/

Purchase Links

  • Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Myrtle-Ruth-Finlay-Mysteries/dp/4824144493
  • Goodreads link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62210711-murder-in-myrtle-bay