Superman – Not A Great Grip On Lois
Archive | February 2024
Checkmate: A Gripping Serial Killer Thriller
From Amazon:
The first thriller in the Blackstone and Prescott series by New York Times and USA Today best selling author, Linda S. Prather. Adam Blackstone is challenged to a unique game of chess by a deranged opponent. There won’t be a stalemate, resignation or draw—the only way to win the game is CHECKMATE.
Adam Blackstone’s obsession with serial killers ran deep in his veins. As a psychopath himself, he couldn’t resist the pull towards their twisted minds and brutal crimes.
When he joins forces with FBI agent Samantha Prescott, they return to Blackstone’s birthplace of Lexington, Kentucky to play a dangerous game. But as the stakes rise and the endgame draws near, Blackstone realizes that winning means succumbing to his own darkness and becoming just like the killers he studies.
My Review:
Sam or Samantha is full of sass yet very quick and totally competent as her outward appearance didn’t give off the same vibe. Late to meet her prospective partner, dressed as plain Jane but deadly with a Glock. Checkmate is written skillfully using the game of chess. Agent Blackstone needed a guard, and Sam was who he ended up with. The wit and expertise jumped off the page from the start. Now it’s the next reader who get to find out the rest of the story.
Taking Notes on Murder
From Amazon:
Mysterious notes are showing up in Fiona’s kindergarten classroom claiming a suicide from 2005 was actually a homicide. Detective Landry maintains the messages are too vague, possess no integrity, and do not warrant a review of the old case. Fiona’s not convinced. She’s determined to find the author of the enigmatic notes and uncover the truth about a man who had many secrets and countless enemies, including Fiona’s mother and former suspect—Nancy Quinn! Can Fiona crack this cold case and what will it take to get Detective Landry involved? Don’t miss taking notes on this murder!
My Review:
Murder plus one. Whoever heard of an old murder and a plus one? Well, me for one. There can be actually plus two or three. Who knows? That’s the key. One never knows what’s around the corner when your main couple are peeking into an old cold case and it stirs up problems for quite a few others in town. Never mind a precocious little sassy kindergarten pupil, garulous other, and plenty of kind folks as well. The icing? How about long dead Grandma Ev showing herself? That would be a kicker if it even happens. Grandma Ev’s spirit does let everyone know her thoughts as coffee cups and more float along in mid-air.
Beetlejuice????
Amazon Versus Wells Fargo
Hula-Hoop
Stone Age
Good Luck to Murder
From Amazon:
Dreams, wishes, fantasies, and.. murder?
Fiona’s good friend and fellow teacher, Lucky Maguire leads everyone to believe he has won a huge jackpot! Only Lucky turns out not to be so lucky–he winds up dead and his supposed winning lottery ticket missing!
Yikes!
Did Lucky really win the lottery and if so, where is the ticket hidden?
Who knew for sure if he truly was Pittsburgh’s newest millionaire?
Double yikes!
Join Fiona and the gang for this winning cozy mystery that’s sure to keep you betting on the suspects!
Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2024
I found this book to be as awesome as the last one I read. I’m not reading them in order, but the main characters are well known to me. McDonald weaves not only romance, but murder, suspense, drama and spiritual entities in each book. Such fun to read an earlier book with those components as well as laughs liberally dosed throughout.
Dark Betrayal
From Amazon
Britain, February 392 AD.
The Roman Empire is on the brink of civil war.
The Western Roman Emperor Valentinian has died in mysterious circumstance following a long running dispute with the commanding general of his army, Arbogastes, a Frank. It is feared that Arbogastes has a candidate he will install on the Western throne as his puppet.
The Eastern Emperor Theodosius fears that the Empire will once more be plunged into civil war. The war chest is depleted, and Theodosius needs the money to finance an army. Previously the Emperor spared the lives of the usurper Magnus Maximus’ wife Elen and their two children when he was overthrown. He now wants old friends Flavius and Siward to find Elen. She might know what happened to the Silver Host, a treasure believed to have been hidden by Magnus and his men that can fund the looming civil war.
The political situation is now on a knife edge…
Rich with historical detail and intrigue, Dark Betrayal is an action adventure and a must for anyone interested in the time when Rome’s rule was threatened by political intrigue and barbarian uprisings.
My Review:
5.0 out of 5 stars Historical dramaReviewed in the United States on February 5, 2024
This is the first book I’ve read from this author. This novel is full of the Roman Empire around 392 AD and a total departure from any other historical book I’ve read. That it is based on actual history as we know it at this time, makes the reading more realistic. Of course, the Roman Empire as previously written as well as the brink of war, secret treasures, ladies of ill repute, mystery, murder, betrayal, and much more. It was a rough time, and it was dicey, but love also prevailed. I never knew where this book was going next.
The Low Road
Book Title: The Low Road
Author: Katharine Quarmby
Publication Date: UK: 22nd June 2023. US: 19th September 2023. Australia/NZ: 2nd January 2024
Publisher: Unbound Publishing
Page Length: 400
Genre: Historical Fiction / Lesbian Fiction / Women’s Literature
Twitter Handle: @katharineq @cathiedunn
Instagram Handle: @katharineq_ @thecoffeepotbookclub
Bluesky Handle: @cathiedunn.bsky.social
Hashtags: #WomensFiction #FeministFiction #HistoricalFiction #TheCoffeePotBookClub #BlogTour
Tour Schedule Page: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2023/12/blog-tour-the-low-road-by-katharine-quarmby.html
Book Title and Author Name:
The Low Road
Katharine Quarmby
Blurb:
In 1828, two young women were torn apart as they were sentenced to transportation to Botany Bay. Will they ever meet again?
Norfolk, 1813. In the quiet Waveney Valley, the body of a woman – Mary Tyrell – is staked through the heart after her death by suicide. She had been under arrest for the suspected murder of her newborn child. Mary leaves behind a young daughter, Hannah, who is later sent away to the Refuge for the Destitute in London, where she will be trained for a life of domestic service.
It is at the Refuge that Hannah meets Annie Simpkins, a fellow resident, and together they forge a friendship that deepens into passionate love. But the strength of this bond is put to the test when the girls are caught stealing from the Refuge’s laundry, and they are sentenced to transportation to Botany Bay, setting them on separate paths that may never cross again.
Drawing on real events, The Low Road is a gripping, atmospheric tale that brings to life the forgotten voices of the past – convicts, servants, the rural poor – as well as a moving evocation of love that blossomed in the face of prejudice and ill fortune.
Writing nature in The Low Road
Katharine Quarmby
One of the greatest joys of my life over the last few years has been watching small birds, trying to identify them and enjoying their birdsong, from the aggressive but tuneful robin to the liquid tones of a blackbird. What knowledge I had until recently came from my dad, who was really knowledgeable about the environment, perhaps from childhood growing up in Yorkshire, England, on a farm.
Although as a child I didn’t see the point of endless hours spent in bird hides and nature reserves, and grumbled when we went from youth hostel to youth hostel in the summer holidays, it has paid off. I’m happiest by water, gazing over green fields and gentle hills.
He died in 2017, when I was writing The Low Road, and in many ways the experience of grief and loss which is woven through the novel is an expression of the love I had for him, and other family members and friends we lost in a year when we experienced multiple bereavements.
His love of the natural world is woven into the book. Birds and the love of the Norfolk landscape is really where the book starts, as the main character, Hannah, recounts her childhood on an East Anglian farm, learning how to milk and her memories of living with her mother, before she dies, too young. “When we got to the church I would count the white and brown cattle out loud for Mama – one, two, up to thirty at times – as they grazed quiet upon the meadow lands… In the spring, violets and primroses burst out with colour in the green hedges and the birds sang their hearts out.”
After Hannah loses her mother, the people of the hometown we shared two hundred years or so apart, Harleston, in Norfolk, take up a collection for the orphan, and she is sent to the Refuge for the Destitute in London.
Hannah feels the absence of nature keenly in Hackney, and looks for it where she can – from the fields beyond the turnpike she sees on her first day, to the small nosegays that the kind housekeeper, Miss Clements, picks for the children on mother’s day, offering Hannah “daffydowndillys. I thought of how I had gathered flowers in the meadow for my mama”.
As she grows closer to another inmate at the Refuge, Annie, and even shares a hammock with her, she hears the sound of birds: “I heard the sparrows as they started yelling flying in and out of the ivy that had crept up the wall” outside the dormitory where the girls sleep.
The girls, desperate to stay together, conspire to steal from the Refuge, but are caught, stand trial and are convicted of robbery. They are to be transported, but first face the awfulness of the Female Penitentiary, prison hulks, and life on the streets. Hannah is transported separately from Annie, and sails to Australia not knowing if they will ever meet again.
In Australia, nature returns after the bleakness of London, and Hannah learns the names and calls of new birds and animals through the eyes of the man she is assigned to as servant, Frank. She is there to nurse his dying wife, and he is one of the few men she has met who abhors cruelty, whether it is to people or beasts, reminding her of her dead mother. Hannah lives on the farm with Frank and Eleanor, until she dies, and he then makes sure that she is free to leave. She chooses to stay, in a landscape she learns to love and which reminds her of the Norfolk home she lost so many years ago.
“A herd of healthy cows graze quietly in the field and then two men come walking, crying out to the cows…I close my eyes and listen to the sound of the cows going in for milking and the years roll away like a carpet up for beating and I am a child again”.
Hannah’s love of nature comes full circle, and at last she lives somewhere she can be safe. “I look overhead for the birds are circling, and then in a swift movement they swirl and come into roost. The great magpies strike out at last, one final defiant carol they give us, and then they settle and fall quite silent.”
Buy Links:
Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/mg5RAD
Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-low-road-katharine-quarmby/7418138?ean=9781800182394
Author Bio:
Katharine Quarmby has written non-fiction, short stories and books for children and her debut novel, The Low Road, is published by Unbound in 2023. Her non-fiction works include Scapegoat: Why We Are Failing Disabled People (Portobello Books, 2011) and No Place to Call Home: Inside the Real Lives of Gypsies and Travellers (Oneworld, 2013). She has also written picture books and shorter e-books.
She is an investigative journalist and editor, with particular interests in disability, the environment, race and ethnicity, and the care system. Her reporting has appeared in outlets including the Guardian, The Economist, The Atlantic, The Times of London, the Telegraph, New Statesman and The Spectator. Katharine lives in London.
Katharine also works as an editor for investigative journalism outlets, including Investigative Reporting Denmark and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
Author Links:
Website: https://www.katharinequarmby.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KatharineQ
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katharinequarmbywriter/
LinkedIn: Katharine Quarmby – Writer, Journalist, Editor – Self-employed | LinkedIn
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katharinequarmby_/
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Katharine-Quarmby/author/B004GH8LS6
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2082356.Katharine_Quarmby
When Angels Fly 