Definitely not Broken

The Broken Afternoon is the 2nd in Simon Masons new Oxford series. The two Wilkins which are the main protagonists in this series are highly distinctive characters which bring a completely new flavour to a popular police location of Oxford. After Dexter and Hunter though, there had to be something unique to stick out against …

Two jobs, one technique

This week William Shaw's Reading Party has helped me to find a technique which I'm now using in my other job for the council, where my PA's read information out to me and then I read it back into the dictaphone. In the case of William Shaw, it was then played back live, but for …

The Master of Memory

In preparation for my interview with SJ Watson later today, I've just finished his latest book, Final Cut. Although I've known about this book since it first came out in 2020, because Watson was all over social media discussing it on several Zoom platforms, along with other authors, all looking for ways to connect with …

Ronnie’s Gothic Debut

Ronnie Turner joins the Orenda family with her gothic debut So Pretty, described by the publisher as 'Modern Gothic Wonderfulness' Given what I was looking for when Karen gave her description I was really curious and after I read the synopsis I was really intrigued. When I read about Teddy Colne and the phrase 'some …

In my view, Lesley’s best work

Now that I'm on the verge of finishing my third book with the arrival of So Pretty by Ronnie Turner, which will underpin the final interview for book 3, I've got to get on and do more work for book 4. Lesley Kara's The Dare is the final one of her books that I have …

A writers’ busy week

Now that the second week of January has started, the snooker tournament that I normally have to miss a lot of has slotted in nicely to the books I'm scheduled to read, like Lesley Kara's 2018 book The Rumour, as it was only around 7ish hours, allowing me to read the book in the morning …

Within four days of Publication

Given the last six months of reading has all been in preparation for books I'm writing and most of them have been from authors' earlier catalogues, Philippa East's I'll Never Tell is a nice change back to the old routine. Knowing how good her first two books were, I'd unwittingly stumbled upon a book around …

My new life

Formerly as a reviewer I wouldn't have gone back as far as 2015 to read and review a book, but now as a writer, the criteria for what I read has changed. SJ Watson's Before I go to Sleep, the book which made him famous, encouraged me when I was looking at psychological thriller writers, …

Thrillers together at Christmas

This Christmas I have been focussing on my upcoming book on psychological thrillers and looking at two authors who can come up with a cracking tale. Both the latest books by these two authors focus closely on family dynamics often prevalent within psychological thrillers, both Lesley's The Apartment Upstairs and C.L. Taylor's The Guilty Couple …

An unexpected read.

Anthony Horowitz's Magpie Murders was an unexpected read. After watching an event between him and Lucy Foley on the American launch of his latest book and hear him talk about Magpie Murders, which I had seen an advert for on Brit Box I ordered it from the library. Although, I don 't always know when …