Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for Sun, Sea & Murder: A Locked Room Mystery by J.S. Savage on this Overview Media Blog Tour.
Below you will find a book blurb, my book review, and the author’s bio and social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Blurb
Two baffling murders. A hotel full of suspects. One secretive sleuth.
The guests at The Orange Tree Hotel arrive looking forward to a holiday filled with sun, fun, and sangria. But when Russell Aspell, the hotel’s owner, is found dead inside a locked room, any hopes of a relaxing break under the Spanish sun are ruined. Soon, each of the guests will become suspects as their lies and secrets are uncovered.
Then, when a guest is murdered in plain view of everyone else, it’s clear the murderer is not only ingenious but utterly ruthless too.
In order to catch a killer, some perplexing questions will first need to be answered… How did the killer get in and out of a locked room? What is the significance of the mysterious notes found in Russell’s office? What happened to the money in the hotel safe? And why is someone stealing guests’ mobile phones?
Only a special type of investigator with a unique skillset will be able to piece together the clues to stop the killer before they strike again…
SUN, SEA & MURDER by J.S. Savage is an engaging and fun old fashioned locked room cozy mystery told from four protagonist’s points of view who are all English vacationers at a resort hotel in Spain. This is a very clever mystery plot from a new-to-me author that had me stumped.
A group of English vacationers have arrived at The Orange Tree Hotel in scenic and hot Spain for some holiday fun. The owner, Russell Aspell, is discovered dead in the hotel’s locked gym and the vacationers become suspects overnight. When the gum chewing, bumbling Inspector arrives on the scene, Russell’s longtime friend, Penny Haylestone, decides to do some detecting with the help of Marley, another vacationer and soon discovers secrets and lies among the group.
When a member of their group is murdered right in front of everyone at a cookout, the group realizes they are dealing with a ruthless killer and Penny is determined to uncover the killer before they strike again.
I absolutely loved this mystery, not only because it reminded me of the type of books that started me on my love of mysteries many years ago, but because all the red herrings and surprises kept me guessing as well as entertained from start to finish. I did not guess the solution to the mystery before the denouement and I love it when that happens. There are many characters, but they are all well defined by the author and easily sorted early in the story. Penny and Marley are a delightful mystery solving duo.
I highly recommend this enchanting locked room cozy mystery.
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Author Bio
J.S. Savage is a London based writer who hails from Northern Ireland. His love of detective fiction originated one hot, dusty day in Kandahar when he was serving with the R.A.F. From a bookcase, he picked up Agatha Christie’s The Mystery of the Blue Train, and though she cited it as her worst work, J.S. Savage became enthralled by the deceptions, red herrings, and mastery at work. This fascination with the genre eventually led him to try his hand at his own novel, and so, The Mystery of Treefall Manor was published in September 2023. His latest novel Sun, Sea, and Murder was published in April 2024. Both of these novels were chosen as Book of the Month by the Crime blog In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel.
J.S. Savage has been shortlisted in several short story competitions and is a member of the Crime Writers’ Association.
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for KNIFE RIVER (The Sheriff Ty Dawson Crime Thriller Series) by Baron R. Birtcher 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
A sheriff fighting to keep the peace in 1970s Oregon faces a shocking secret from his town’s past, in this crime thriller from the author of Reckoning.
There are rules in the West no matter what era you were born in, and it’s up to lawman Ty Dawson to make sure they’re followed in the valley he calls home. The people living on this unforgiving land keep to themselves and are wary of the modern world’s encroachment into their quiet lives.
So it’s not without some suspicion that Dawson confronts a newcomer to the region: a record producer who has built a music studio in an isolated compound. His latest project is a collaboration with a famous young rock star named Ian Swann, recording and filming his sessions for a movie. An amphitheater for a live show is being built on the land, giving Dawson flashbacks to the violent Altamont concert. Not on his watch.
But even beefed up security can’t stop a disaster that’s been over a decade in the making. All it takes is one horrific case bleeding its way into the present to prove that the good ol’ days spawned a brand of evil no one wants to revisit . . .
Genre: Crime Thriller Published by: Open Road Media Publication Date: April 23, 2024 Number of Pages: 338 ISBN: 9781504086523 (ISBN10: 150408652X) Series: The Sheriff Ty Dawson Crime Thriller Series
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My Book Review
RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars
KNIFE RIVER (The Sheriff Ty Dawson Crime Thriller Series) by Baron Birtcher is an intricately plotted crime thriller with buried appalling crimes and secrets from the sheriff’s small town’s past that are about to be revealed and become the cause of a horrific crime in the present. This is the fourth book in the Ty Dawson series, but each is easily read as a standalone story.
Sheriff Ty Dawson is a Korean War veteran, rancher, and sheriff in the 1970’s small town of Meridian, Oregon. Ty discovers a new music studio compound has been built outside town. A famous young rock star is recording a new album and filming his sessions. It will culminate in the filming of a live concert built in a new outdoor amphitheater. Ty does not want the headaches and crimes related to a large intrusion of outsiders, but he has no choice.
What Ty does not know is the singer has ulterior motives for picking this location and is in danger from someone who does not want crimes from the past to resurface.
This is a story that pulled me in, and I did not put the book down until the end. I enjoy that it is set in the 1970’s and I especially like the references regarding the music scene and musicians. The flashback scenes to the buried secrets were interwoven throughout the present in the story and just kept ratcheting up the tension to the climax when the two collide. Sheriff Ty Dawson is a fully developed character of moral conviction with a love of his family, friends, and town, but he is not blind to the changes happening in the world. There is just something in Mr. Birtcher’s writing style that pulls me into each book in this series and makes me believe Ty is real and could walk right off the page.
I highly recommend this exceptional crime thriller addition to the series, the entire series, and this author!
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Excerpt
Prelude:
FACING WEST
SOME SAY THAT to be born into a thing is to be blind to half of it. Oftentimes, the things we seek and discover for ourselves are those we hold most dear.
Any cattleman will tell you that a ranch is a living thing. Not only the livestock that graze the meadowland, but the blood that nourishes the hungry soil, the trees that inhale the wind, and the rain that carves runnels into the hardpan that, in time, grow into rivers. The Diamond D is no different in that respect, some would even say it was the beating heart of Meriwether County, Oregon.
As both a stockman and the sheriff of this county, I believe this to be true.
But the events that unfolded in the autumn of 1964 cast a cloud across that land. Not just across my ranch, but the entire valley, though they didn’t bear their terrible fruit until nearly a dozen years later, in the spring of 1976. The incidents still haunt me, though others paid a steeper price than I; some with their lives, or the lives of their loved ones, while some forfeit their sanity, and still others with their souls.
That is where this story begins.
CHAPTER ONE
LAMBS AND LIONS hold no sway over the springtime here in Meriwether County. Some years it will snow through mid-May, other times the golden sun rides high and bright, and the river flows fast, clear and deep with high-country melt on the first day of March. Most years, it’s both, with Mother Nature keeping her whims to herself until she alone decides to turn them loose upon us.
But this particular Saturday morning was unusually quiet, not even a breath of breeze stirring the leaves of the cottonwoods that grew thick and untamed along the creekbank. I was standing outside on the gallery, sipping my coffee as I leaned on the porch rail, watching my wife, Jesse, hammer the last nail into a birdbox she had made. She must have felt my eyes on her, as she looked up from her work and smiled. A few moments later, she stepped up the stairs to where I stood and kissed me on the cheek, smelling of sawdust and lemongrass tea.
“The bluebirds are back,” she said. “I just saw them.”
“You haven’t lost your knack for building those things.”
“Plenty of practice. You got home late last night.”
I had spent the previous day transporting a man all the way from Lewiston up to the Portland lockup to await his trial. He stood accused of murdering his own wife and young child. It had been a long, depressing day, and by the time I completed the intake paperwork, locked up the substation in Meridian, and finally drove home to the ranch, Jesse was already asleep.
But this morning, everything in her expression seemed overflowing with hope and expectation. Springtime was her season and always had been.
“Want a hand putting that thing up?” I asked.
She replied by handing it to me, together with the hammer.
She watched me hang the birdbox on a post beside the vegetable garden, outside the kitchen window where I knew she’d spend her quiet mornings secretly observing the bluebirds as they built their nest and reared their brood.
“You plan on helping Caleb pick the new cowboys today?” She asked me when I came back inside.
It was the time of year when we hired a few temporary hands for Spring Works, when we’d round-up the cattle and calves from every corner of the ranch; we’d vet, brand and sort the livestock, and mend a perpetual string of breaks in the wire along miles of fenceline before we turned the herd out to the pastures for summer grazing. The Diamond D employed three permanent cowboys in addition to me and old Caleb Wheeler—our foreman for more than three decades—but with 63,000 deeded acres and another 14,000 under a Land Management lease, Spring Works was more work than the five of us could handle in the short span of time required to get it done. Every year a couple dozen hopeful itinerant riders, ropers, rodeo bums and saddle-tramps would answer the call for a temporary employment opportunity, and every year Caleb Wheeler got more riled up about what he viewed as the eroding quality of the contemporary American cowboy. He’d cuss and grump and holler about it, but he’d end up settling on three or four hands he reckoned could help us get the job done with a minimum of aggravation.
“I’m staying out of it this year,” I said, and Jesse grinned. “Figured I’d lay in a cord or two for the woodshed instead, before the weather gets too hot.”
“I saw some deadfall down by Corcoran’s,” she said.
“That’s where I was headed.”
“Make you some lunch to take with you?”
“I don’t intend to be out that long.”
“Good to hear,” she said, and winked at me before she turned, and stepped inside the house.
* * *
HALF AN HOUR later I was straddling a fallen spruce, angling the chainsaw to buck the trunk into three-foot rounds that I’d later split into quarters with the long-handled axe. The solitary labor, the sweat staining my shirt, and the burn down deep inside my muscles were a welcome balm after the week I’d had, and the air was rife with the smell of pine tar, sap and chain oil. I looked up and caught some movement in the distance, where the BLM forest gave onto an open range already knee deep with wildflowers and whipgrass. I recognized Tom Jenkins’ roping horse moving hellbent-for-leather across the flats, with young Tom leaning across her withers, one hand on the reins and the other holding his hat in place on top of his head. His mount was an admirable animal, a grullo Quarter Horse that stood nearly seventeen hands, fast and thick through the chest. Tom Jenkins handled her well, and he was beelining in my direction like he had something on his mind.
I killed the power on the chainsaw and set it in the bed of the military surplus jeep I use when I do ranch work, stepped over to the fence and took a splash of water from the canteen I’d hung in the shade of a young cedar. I didn’t have to wait long before Tom pulled up in a skidding stop inside a cloud of dust, throwing a cascade of torn earth and pebbles through the barbed strands of the wire.
“Mr. Dawson,” he said and touched a finger to his hat brim, sounding nearly as breathless as his horse. “I was hoping that was you.”
“What are you doing out here all by yourself?” I asked, but suspected I already knew the answer.
When I’d first met Tom Jenkins, he was nothing but a kid with a limp handshake, no eye-contact, and the familiar slope-shouldered gait and posture of the typical aimless teenaged slacker. At that time, he’d been well on his way to serious trouble, the variety and scope of which would have landed him in a six-by-eight jail cell where the other inmates would have eaten him alive.
He is the nephew of my neighbor to the south of me, Snoose Corcoran, whose sister had sent the kid up here from California’s central valley to his uncle’s ranch in southeastern Oregon in hopes of putting some distance between young Tom and his unquestionably poor choices of acquaintances. Ill-equipped to deal with the boy himself, Snoose begged me to take the kid on as a maverick, and I’d reluctantly agreed. After six months working side by side with trail hardened cowboys on the Diamond D young Tom Jenkins’ attitude had been readjusted, straightening both his spine and fortitude. Now, at barely 18 years of age, Tom had assumed the reins of the floundering Corcoran cattle operation from his uncle Snoose, who had been gradually disappearing into a bottle.
“Cow and a calf went missing from my place,” Tom answered. “Fence busted by the westward line, and I figured them two mighta headed for the water.”
My ranch hands ended up nicknaming the kid “Silver,” after he’d astonished us all by stepping up and winning a silver buckle for the Diamond D in the team roping event at the annual rodeo. I knew Tom secretly treasured the handle they’d bestowed, wore it like a medal, but I never spoke it; that was between my men and him.
“Where’s your uncle?” I asked.
His shrug spoke sorrowful volumes.
“So, what set you hightailing over here to see me, son?” I asked. “What’s the trouble? Besides the missing beeves.”
“I was up there on the other side of the tree line,” he said. He twisted sideways in his saddle, took off his hat and gestured with it toward a distant stretch of blue sky. “There was an eagle making low passes over the meadow, so I stopped to watch it for a minute. It was so still and quiet out there, I could hear the eagle calling out while it was gliding on the thermals.”
“You don’t see something like that every day,” I said. “Not even out here in the boondocks.”
“No sir, that’s a fact,” Tom said. “But, while I sat there watching that creature flying, all of a sudden and out of nowhere, a helicopter come buzzing across the ridge, you know the one…”
“Big stone bluff, looks like somebody cut it down the middle with a KA-BAR knife.”
“That’s the one,” he said. “Well, that chopper came in fast, and went straight toward that bird…” The young man’s voice trailed off, his face contorted like he’d encountered a foul odor. “They circled it as it flew, like they were teasing it. Two men inside the—whattaya call it?”
“Cockpit.”
“Yeah, the cockpit. Then they started closing in on him, chasing it. The guy in the passenger seat had a rifle in his hands. I could see the barrel sticking out.”
What Tom was describing to me was not only a despicable and loathsome act, it was a serious crime. The mere harassment of a protected species is a federal offense; hunting and killing one merely for the sick thrill of it was another matter entirely.
“What happened, Tom?”
He swallowed drily, shook his head and looked down at the ground between us.
“He shot that bird right out of the sky, sir,” he said. “That eagle wasn’t even doing nothing, just gliding circles on the wind, and those assholes—sorry, sir—they shot him cold dead.”
I could imagine the creature’s confused and lonely cry as it spiraled down, bleeding, terrified and helpless, to the earth.
“You pretty sure about the location, Tom?”
“About four, five miles thataway, near the bluff, where the river makes that sharp bend to the south.”
“Did you get a look at either of the men?”
“Naw, they were too far away and moving pretty fast. But I got a good look at the whirlybird.”
I asked him for a description of the helicopter, and I knew right away he was referring to a Bell H-13, known to soldiers as a “Sioux.” They’d been in common use as scouting and medical evacuation aircraft by the military. I’d seen them every day when I was stationed in Korea.
“Like the choppers on that TV show?” I asked.
“Yes, sir. Exactly like on M*A*S*H.”
“Big glass bubble on the front? No doors? Looks kinda like a dragonfly?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did you see any numbers written on it? On the tail? Or maybe on the underside?”
Tom Jenkins pressed his hat back on his head and gazed up at the empty sky beyond the forest, like he could return that beautiful animal to where it rightfully belonged through sheer force of his will. The high peaks beyond the meadow were streaked with deep blue shadows in the sunlight, their cloughs and gorges washed in purple and topped with snow so white it hurt your eyes.
“I’m sorry, sir,” he said. “I don’t remember seeing numbers or anything like that.”
His face took on the aspect of defeat, as though some personal failure had cost the animal its life.
“You did good, Tom. You did the right thing coming to me straight away. There was nothing else you could have done.”
He nodded once, his lips pressed tight, and he leaned down to adjust a stirrup that needed no adjustment.
“You want some help finding your cows?” I asked, thinking he might appreciate the company.
“I can do it, sir, but thank you. I can haze ’em back home on my own.”
“You gotta get eyeballs on the critters first. I can help you, son.”
“Thank you just the same, Mr. Dawson… Sheriff… Hell, I don’t even know what to call you.”
His expression softened for the first time since he’d showed up, a brief and fleeting smile, then his focus drifted far away again.
“Something else, Tom?”
“Just wondering.”
“Wondering what?”
“Do you think you can catch those guys who shot that bird?”
“I’m going to try my damndest.”
His eyes remained fixed on the horizon.
“What’ll happen to ’em if you do?”
I drew a bandana from the back pocket of my jeans, removed my hat, and dried the sweat that had been leaking from beneath the band.
“It’s been against the law to kill an eagle since the 1940s. If you’re not an Indian, you can’t even possess a single feather. If you get caught, you pay a steep fine and then they send you off to jail. If you’re a rancher, you could lose the leases on your land.”
Tom turned his gaze back on me, and I noted for the hundredth time that this young man no longer bore any resemblance to the person he had been on the day he first arrived here from California.
“That punishment don’t seem tough enough,” Tom said. “Not for what I seen ’em do.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
He clucked softly to his horse, and reined her back in the direction from which they’d come.
“I’d better get a move on,” he said.
“Be careful out there, son,” I said to his retreating back, but my words were lost in the distance.
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Author Bio
Baron Birtcher is the LA TIMES and IMBA BESTSELLING author of the hardboiled Mike Travis series (Roadhouse Blues, Ruby Tuesday, Angels Fall, and Hard Latitudes), the award-winning Ty Dawson series (South California Purples, Fistful Of Rain, Reckoning, and Knife River), as well as the critically-lauded stand-alone, RAIN DOGS.
Baron is a winner of the SILVER FALCHION AWARD, and the WINNER of 2018’s Killer Nashville READERS CHOICE AWARD, as well as 2019’s BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR for Fistful Of Rain.
He has also had the honor of having been named a finalist for the NERO AWARD, the LEFTY AWARD, the FOREWORD INDIE AWARD, the 2016 BEST BOOK AWARD, the Pacific Northwest’s regional SPOTTED OWL AWARD, and the CLAYMORE AWARD.
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for THE SICILIAN SECRET by Angela Petch on this Bookouture Books-On-Tour book tour.
Below you will find a book description, my book review, and the author’s bio and social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Description
Italy, 1943. With war raging across the rugged cliffs and turquoise waters of his beloved Sicily, Savio’s pen scrawls desperately across the page. His letter must be sent in secret – or his life will be in terrible danger…
England, present day. Paige is devastated when her reclusive but beloved Aunt Florence dies – the only family she’s ever known. Inheriting her crumbling cottage, Paige finds an unfinished note. ‘I am sorry, Paige. It’s time to tell you everything. It all began in Sicily…’
Beside the note is a faded envelope – addressed to a woman called Joy – with an Italian postage stamp from 1943. The letter inside is made up of Roman numerals and snippets of sentences written in Italian. But who is Joy? Was someone sending a coded message? Paige is desperate to piece together the truth. But she soon discovers it will change everything she’s ever believed about her aunt, and her family history.
1943. Lady Joy Harrison may have grown up in a manor house, but she’s determined to fight for what’s right and use her fluent Italian to help the Allies. Breaking code on a long night shift, Joy reads a secret message that makes her whole body shake. A dark-eyed young man she once loved is in terrible danger on the shores of Sicily. Was the message sent by him? And will she ever see him again – or will the war tear them apart for good?
THE SICILIAN SECRET by Angela Petch is a captivating dual timeline historical fiction with protagonists in both the 1970’s and 1940’s that had me engrossed from beginning to end. This is a new-to-me author, and I will be checking out her back catalogue that I am surprised I have not read before.
In the 1940’s timeline, Lady Joy Harrison is determined to help in the war effort. When she trains for secret service, she meets an unlikely confidant. Savio is British born, but because of his Sicilian parents, they are gathered up and incarcerated. He is now training for service also. They fall in love but are separated without notice. Joy is sent to and works at Bletchley Park and Savio is sent to be a part of the invasion by the allies on Sicily.
In the 1970’s timeline, Paige is devastated when her Aunt Flo, the person who raised her, is killed in a traffic accident. As she is cleaning her aunt’s room, she discovers a box left for her with a mysterious amulet and an unfinished note telling her she has a secret to tell her, but it is unfinished. There is also a cryptic message in some sort of code and post marked from Sicily. After being shocked by what she learns at home in England, she is off to Sicily to hopefully discover more.
I loved this story so much even when I was crying. This author was able to emotionally connect me with all the protagonists in each timeline. I also liked that the plot was written in a way that was not only believable but also plausible. The research is obvious and extensive, from the internment camps on the Isle of Mann to the allied campaign in Sicily. All the plotlines intertwine and seamlessly reveal the plot secrets and heartbreaks. This is a historical fiction story that has everything I enjoy reading in this genre of book and it is beautifully written.
I highly recommend this beautiful and emotional historical fiction story.
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Author Bio
Author bio:
I’m an award winning writer of fiction – and the occasional poem.
Every summer I move to Tuscany for six months where my husband and I own a renovated watermill which we let out. When not exploring our unspoilt corner of the Apennines, I disappear to my writing desk at the top of our converted stable.
In my Italian handbag or hiking rucksack I always make sure to store notebook and pen to jot down ideas.
The winter months are spent in Sussex where most of our family live. When I’m not helping out with grandchildren, I catch up with writer friends.
It’s 1942, and as far as her father knows, Evelyn Bishop, heiress to an aeronautics fortune, is working as a translator in London. In truth, Evelyn—daring, beautiful, and as adept with a rifle as she is in five languages—has joined the Office of Strategic Services as a spy. Her goal is personal: to find her brother, who is being held as a POW in a Nazi labor camp. Through one high-risk mission after another she is paired with the reckless and rebellious Nick Gallagher, growing ever close to him until the war’s end brings with it an act of deep betrayal.
Six years later, Evelyn is back home in Los Angeles, working as a private investigator. The war was supposed to change everything, yet Evelyn, contemplating marriage to her childhood sweetheart, feels stifled by convention. Then the suspected cheating husband she’s tailing is murdered, and suddenly Evelyn is back in Nick’s orbit again.
Teaming up for a final mission, Evelyn and Nick begin to uncover the true nature of her case— and realize that the war has followed them home. For beyond the public horrors waged by nations there are countless secret, desperate acts that still reverberate on both continents, and threaten everything Evelyn holds dear…
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Elise’s Thoughts
Under The Paper Moon by Shaina Steinberg is a fun read. Between the scenes of WWII and the murder of someone in 1948 this blends a mystery and thriller. There is love, duty, loyalty, and forgiveness.
The heroine, Evelyn Bishop, has joined the OSS as a spy. Besides wanting to help the allies she is trying to rescue her brother, held in a German POW camp. Her supervisor is Nick Gallagher. They become intimate and grow close during the war until he betrays her.
Six years later, Evelyn is working as a private investigator. After trailing a suspected cheating husband, the suspect is murdered. Evelyn finds out that Nick is also a PI, who was working with the murdered victim. Teaming up for a final mission, Evelyn and Nick begin to uncover the true nature of her case, realizing that the war has followed them home.
The banter in the story adds humor to the story. There is a lot of action with some romance that includes a love triangle.
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Author Interview
Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for the series?
Shaina Steinberg: This is the first in a three-book deal, but I am hoping that I can continue writing more in the series. I love old movies and I started to watch movies from the 1940s. These had strong women like Katherine Hepburn or Ingrid Bergman. This is partly why I set it during this period. Plus, there is a correlation with my grandmother who was a strong and vibrant woman. She got married and did everything society expected of her. She had regrets because she really wanted to be a doctor or a nurse. She did not have many options in her life. My heroine, Evelyn, explores what my grandmother could have been.
EC: How did you get the idea for this story?
SS: I have been fascinated by WWII and my father read bedtime stories written by Elie Wiesel. He always said, ‘it can happen here so we must be vigilant.’ I see this is as a story that delved into the war, but not just that aspect. It shows what war can do to someone and the sacrifices made, especially what a parent would do to keep their child safe.
EC: Do you think there is a corollary between being a spy and a private investigator?
SS: Absolutely. Evelyn as a spy was extremely competent. She was taught to be undetected and how to notice small clues that might lead to something bigger.
EC: How would you describe Evelyn?
SS: She is very talented, good with a gun and able to speak five languages. She is a feminist and loves the adrenaline rush. She could be selfish, petty, sarcastic, stubborn but is also loyal, fearless, funny, and brave. She is from a privileged background. But after the war, her eyes are open, which gives her empathy.
EC: As with many of those in the military who have retired, they miss it. Please explain how you explored this in the story with Evelyn.
SS: There were two quotes in the book that refer to this. The first, “There is no place for me. Not here. Not there. Not anywhere.” The second, “Those first week’s home Evelyn felt as if she was under water. Sometimes it felt like sitting on the ocean floor with the weight of the water pressing down on her.” The second quote is like someone grieving and that grief encompasses everything in someone’s life. While later, after the grief is not so fresh, the person can be functional. The weight of the ocean water is the numbness. The first quote refers to how after the war she feels useless. Evelyn does not want to be a stay-at-home wife because she actively saved lives during the war and had a sense of purpose.
EC: How would you describe the hero, Nick?
SS: He was Evelyn’s commander during the war. During the war he felt fulfillment, a sense of purpose, confident, fearless, and self-assured. Now, after the war he feels hopeless with a sense of failure. He feels rage and anger. The anger is an undercurrent as to when he was abandoned by his family when he was so young, feeling his life was unjust and unfair. He uses that anger to motivate him.
EC: What about the relationship between Evelyn and Nick?
SS: Evelyn gave him stability, hope, and happiness. During the war they were bonded by danger. They are in love even though he betrayed her. From Evelyn he saw that she is kind, good, and has a belief in the goodness in people. Nick sees the world from her point of view, through her eyes. Nick gets a sense of purpose from Evelyn. I think she helps him channel all his anger into ways he can help others. After the war when he loses her, he loses his sense of purpose. I also think the war gave her a sense of purpose. She felt like she was doing something important that could save lives. I think a big part of Nick’s appeal is that he was her partner in that purpose, and he never thought of her as anything less than strong and capable.
EC: Is there a love triangle between Evelyn, Nick, and her current fiancé?
SS: Yes. There is a scene in the book where Evelyn describes James, her current fiancé,as “romantic, sweet, kind, and chivalrous.” Nick sees James as “desperate, needy, and old-fashioned.” If there was never WWII, she probably would have married James when she was twenty-two. Before she went to war that would have been enough because she did not know anything different. To her James is safe and represents her being home and her innocence as well as her living breathing connection to her brother. But what he represents is not enough for her anymore. Evelyn does not see a compability between her world before the war and one after the war. Her appeal for Nick is beyond more than their chemistry, but he was also there when she grew into the person she is now. But because of his betrayal she questions everything she saw and knew about him as well as how she sees herself.
EC: What is the relevance of the song, “Paper Moon?”
SS: Everything she felt about Nick was turned around once she thought he betrayed her. The song represents the way Evelyn sees their love. She thought their love was real and after he betrayed her, she now feels it was hollow. On a personal level it was one of my grandmother’s favorite songs, so it reminds me of her.
EC: Next book?
SS: It will be published in May of next year, with a working title An Unquiet Peace. One of my regrets was that I did not explore Evelyn’s female friendships in this book, but it is part of the second book. There are still conflicts between Nick and Evelyn. It will take place in October 1948 around the Berlin Airlift. Nick also has a case of a woman who wants to leave her marriage.
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.
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for MAMAN by F. E. Birch on this Overview Media Blog Tour.
Below you will find a book blurb, my book review, and the author’s bio and social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Blurb
DS Joanna Armstrong, a top child protection detective, becomes the accused when one of her twin babies develops facial bruising – sending her into a spiralling post-natal psychosis.
Her life falls apart in an instant. Her team are torn, the doctors think she’s fabricating her illness, and even one of her own colleagues appears hell bent on destroying her.
Can Joanna clear her name when everything seems stacked against her? Can she break through all the prejudice before time runs out? Or is she really mad like they all say?
Maman is a gripping tale of family, loyalty, and integrity, but most of all, truth and justice.
MAMAN by F.E. Birch is an intriguing psychological suspense/thriller about a woman in crisis and the battle over her guilt or innocence in her private life as well as the public justice system regarding her infant twins. This is a book that I could not put down.
DS Joanna Armstrong has seen and worked with the worst in the child protection system and now that bureaucracy has been turned on her after a very public breakdown.
This is a story that made me feel as if I was on a runaway train. It starts with the reader being thrown right into the middle of Joanna’s breakdown. The tension and stakes continue to increase from there. Her husband, Jim, and her social worker friend, Effie, both offer the type of support and love you want in your corner when your world is falling apart. Her colleagues and friends were not. It continually appeared the truth was less important than the punishment for perceived crimes.
The major plot twist and resolution for Joanna and Jim was very interesting and probably realistically occurs as a problem for others more than we know. I do wish there had been less time spent “in” Joanna’s head and more time spent on investigating the discoveries that are the plot points that support the climax and resolution because the ending seemed rushed to me.
I do recommend this riveting psychological suspense/thriller.
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Author Bio
F.E. Birch is an ex-cop from the North East but she’s not a Geordie. She is a prolific short story writer with a trail of pseudonyms and publications behind her. With a penchant for dark, deep and the disturbing, her crimes are rarely cosy. She has self-published two collections of competition winning short stories and her debut novel, She’s Not There was published early 2023 by Red Dragon. She is also published by Harper Collins (2013) with stories about being an undercover cop …
With a bendy EDS body, GSOH and a tad clumsy, she wears many hats and loves wigs. Her friends call her Effie.
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Reviews for THREE DROWNED GIRLS (Detective Freya Sinclair Book #1) and ONE LIAR LEFT (Detective Freya Sinclair Book #2) by Emily Shiner on this Bookouture Books-on-Tour book tour.
Below you will find the book descriptions, my book reviews, the author’s bio and social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Description
When Freya Sinclair was a little girl, she had no idea what her parents were hiding in the basement of her childhood home…
After five years away from her hometown of Fawn Lake, Detective Freya Sinclair isn’t expecting a warm welcome from the people she’s sworn to protect. She became a detective to bring serial killers like her parents to justice, but the tight-knit North Carolinian community can’t see past her twisted roots.
Minutes after stepping foot back home, the body of a dark-haired young girl is pulled from the river and Freya races to the scene. She’s determined to identify the child and finally prove herself, but before Freya even has a chance to search through missing persons, another girl is reported missing.
Freya’s heart breaks at the sight of little Isa’s blonde ringlets and pristine soccer uniform in the photo her father clutches, but the look on his face says he doesn’t trust Freya. Does he think she’s just like her parents, or does he have a sinister secret of his own?
But when another innocent girl is found drowned, Freya finds a white hair ribbon snagged on a branch, and instantly recognizes it as part of the soccer team uniform at the local school…
Two drowned girls. One daughter still missing. Can Freya save Isa before she becomes the third victim? Or has the killer already set their sights on Freya next?
THREE DROWNED GIRLS (Detective Freya Sinclair Book #1) by Emily Shiner is a captivating first book in a new crime thriller/police procedural series set in small-town North Carolina. What sets this dark serial killer series apart is that the female detective protagonist’s background is as shocking and twisted as the serial killers she chases.
After five years away, Freya Sinclair returns to her hometown of Fawn Lake, NC and returns to her place in the Fawn Lake PD as Captain of the Detectives. Not everyone is happy she is back.
On her first hour back on the job, a young girl is found floating in the local river. With the help of newly promoted Det. Candy Ellinger, they begin searching for her identity because no one has reported a missing child. Before they can make any headway, another girl is reported missing. When Freya discovers another young girl dead in the river, she knows she is in a desperate race to stop a serial killer, but the killer has set their sights on Freya as she gets ever closer.
I really enjoyed meeting this new set of characters. Freya is intelligent and determined to prove she can handle returning to her job. While the author gives some information on Freya’s past with the disclosure of her parents being serial killers, there is still much we don’t know, and I liked that because this first book is more of an introduction to the characters and how they are going to work together as a team and not an info dump. This is a darker crime thriller with the serial killing of very young girls, and discussions of serious topics, but I did not feel it was overly graphic. That said, while the overall crime plot is seriously twisted, and I think unique, I did not find it realistic which diminished my overall satisfaction. I am looking forward though to learning more about Freya and her team in future books in this new series.
I recommend this engaging first book in this new crime thriller series.
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Book Description
The one killer Detective Freya Sinclair never caught is back…
High up in the mountains of Clear Creek Forest, where mist clings to the pines, the bodies of Millie Woodward and Jolie Marin are discovered by their fading campfire. Could this be the work of the notorious Fawn Lake Killer? This forest was once his hunting ground. And Freya knows the tattered, red woolen scarf wound tightly around Jolie’s neck is hiding his chilling MO. Her throat has been cut.
The one case Freya has never solved has haunted her for years. She knows the Fawn Lake Killer is organized, that he never leaves any DNA. But why did he stop, and why has he resurfaced now? Before she can even search the forest, Freya makes a heart-breaking discovery in her own backyard: the body of Annaliese Nowland, her long blonde hair fanned out in the tall grass. Annaliese’s tongue is missing. Freya knows it’s a message: he’s silencing these women. And taunting Freya.
Working day and night to make a connection, Freya finally uncovers the missing puzzle piece: a photograph of all three victims in high school together. But there’s a fourth woman in the photo, her face turned slightly away from the camera. Freya must track her down before it is too late.
Freya won’t let the past repeat itself. Did these women die because of her failure, or is she overlooking a vital clue that points to someone close to home? Freya must face her demons if she’s going to stop this predator taking another innocent life. But he’s one step ahead. And he’s coming for her…
ONE LIAR LEFT (Detective Freya Sinclair Book #2) by Emily Shiner is an intriguing second book in this exciting crime thriller/police procedural featuring Detective Freya Sinclair and her team in the small town of Fawn Lake, NC. Even though this is only the second book in the series, I personally feel it is important to read them in order.
Detective Freya Sinclair believes the notorious Fawn Lake Killer has returned when the bodies of two women are discovered around their fading campfire and another in the grasses nearby. The MO is the same and once again there is no DNA found, but why has he resurfaced again?
Working to discover a connection, Freya discovers an old high school photograph with the three victims and a fourth woman with her face slightly turned away. Freya must track this woman down before the killer or she will have failed all over again.
This book had me turning the pages from start to finish. The characters are more fully developed than in the first book, but there were a couple of times I felt Freya did things that felt off for her character in my opinion. I do look forward to continuing following and reading more about her and the entire team of secondary characters though. The pace of the crime plot continued to build to the climax at a fast clip, and there were plenty of twists and surprises that kept me on my toes. The story is suspenseful right up to the end.
I recommend this exciting addition to this crime thriller series and am looking forward to many more.
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Author Bio
Emily Shiner always dreamed of becoming an author. After spending years devouring stacks of thrillers, she decided to try her hand at writing them herself. Now she gets to live out her dream of writing novels and sharing her stories with people around the world. She lives in the Appalachian Mountains and loves hiking with her husband, daughter, and their two dogs.
