Crescendo by Joanna Howat

 

The story is stark and you’ve got to force yourself to turn the pages especially hard to read about the disintegration of a family.

Jamie and Caz lose their parents in a home fire. Jamie overnight becomes homeless living with a girl whom he met just once and who kindly allows him to live with her. Jamie is disorganized, does not know how to share chores and is a mess. Losing his job, which he is not interested in adds to the mess. Caz cannot cope with the normal workings of her marriage- caring for two little girls and very very swiftly goes into an abyss of drinking, cutting herself and sleeping her days and nights away. Stevie her husband avoids facing any unpleasant situation or the fact that his home life is spiraling out of control.

Jamie without any idea how to control matters takes up the slack of parenting two confused children, housekeeping the best way he can and trying to salvage his personal life and his destroyed piano in the best way he can (which is not much). The characters ebb and sway this way and that in a constant state of confusion, living for the moment and not caring for consequences. There is no stability or purpose in any of their lives till a crisis blows up in their faces and all of them have to face the consequences of their action and inaction.

Emotional and very pragmatic in its writing this is a good, but hard to read story.

Sent by Flying Dog Press for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.

The Mandeville Curse by Callie Langridge

 

Hettie has been entrusted with cataloging the contents of an estate in the form of photographing the items. Photography is her forte and both her parents and the Hills family where the items are, feel this is the remedy to get Hettie out of her present state of mind - inertia, depression and overwhelming guilt over the cruel death of her protege.

Set in 1937 but going back to the time that Hettie’s own grandfather and Sir Charles were young men the story explains the close links between the families and the history of each person in the story. There is a lot to assimilate- the family dynamics, the loss of an inheritance, the resulting enmity and deaths that result and the danger for the present family members too in a way completely unthought of.

The romance between Rhys an ex soldier and now a groom at the estate, and Hettie is a slow build up and adds to the depth of this story. Hettie herself is a strong woman and is unusually modern and independent for the 1930s, most probably due to her slightly unconventional and modern upbringing.

The book is part of a series but does well as a stand alone.

Sent by Storm Publishing for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.

The Midnight Hour by Kate Hewitt

 

Bordering on the fantastical, this futuristic read is normally not my thing. But this is quite probable the way the world is going, and I just couldn’t put it down.

The determination to survive has been there for a millennium and this book amply describes this. A family bonds and parents need to protect their children at any cost is also very clear in this story.

Set against a nuclear holocaust and the widespread destruction of major cities, one family’s escape to a safe haven is fraught with dangers mainly from fellow humans who have turned into marauding beasts, they themselves trying to survive.

There is a lot of violence, but it is a gripping and very emotional story, lasting much longer than the initial read, in the mind of the reader.

Sent by Storm Publishing for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.

Lunch Ladies by Jodi Thompson Carr

 

Set in small town America in the 1970s we read about three ladies and their families, and a parade celebrating America. The preparations that go into it, the wholehearted participation and the work involved and then the personal troubles that our part of the ladies lives.

Crystal, Coralene and Sheila do not think it is their duty to handle food stalls in the parade, but when asked to participate they do so very willingly. Each of them have quirks. Crystal scans the obituaries and tries to match the dead with a living person (sounds eccentric in the extreme but its very matter of fact in the book).  Coralene has a family and a nephew she has promised to look after, guide and protect and she takes those duties seriously, and Sheila lives in the past with no friends except one. She doesn’t like interaction and anyone getting even marginally close.

The characters were very real, heart warming and practical.

Thanks to Century House Press for sending me the book for a review, courtesy of Netgalley.

I am at this beautiful hotel in the mountainous part of Sri Lanka, cool and quiet. My entire family is here after twelve years all of them in one place. It is something to be enjoyed having them all.

Ruth’s First Christmas Tree by Elly Griffiths

 

Ruth was not a Christmas person but now that her baby girl is a year old, she is drawn into the Christmas spiel of food, gifts, a tree, tinsel and all the trimmings of a traditional Christmas. She has also invited Max for the first time into her home and is hoping for a relaxed, intimate period with him.

The expected seldom happens and so is it with the day. A party isn’t what it seems, a chance visit to a bedroom to take a call turns up something unexpected and Ruth’s return home is something she longs for. 

A very short magical read. Just right for Christmas.

A free download from Amazon.

A Midwinter Murder by Verity Bright

 

We follow the characters of Lady Eleanor, butler Clifford, Lady Eleanor’s entourage including the pug and the cat when they encounter another murder.

Invited by the reclusive Duke of Auldwyke to be his guest at his manor house Lady Eleanor is hoping for a romantic weekend with her fiancée far removed from murder and investigation, to give Max a Scotland Yard Detective a much needed break. The murder of the mild tempered Secretary to the Duke is puzzling. He has no enemies, everyone in the Dukes employ speaks well of him, but to investigate Max and Lady Eleanor are frustrated by the Dukes rigid rules of not meeting guests, despite inviting people to be his guests. Every guest here has a link to secrets long hidden and unraveling them adds to the danger because they are all snowbound in an isolated area with no recourse to any outside personnel (which the Duke has prohibited anyway) as he has an aversion to the Police. When an attempt is made on the Dukes life and a guest is murdered, the investigating duo has to step up and apprehend the murderer because it is evident, the murderer is getting desperate.

Despite the murder aspect, the investigations are always jolly because Lady Eleanor makes it so. 1924 England is well described, both the lifestyle as well as where the story is set.

Sent by Bookouture for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.

The Gentleman Spy Regency Mysteries by Bianca M. Schwarz

 

The continuity in the story is a highlight of all four books. We are dealing with a set of characters who appear in all four stories. In some of them one of the characters may take a leading role, and in the next it may be a supplementary one.

Sir Henry March is working to eradicate a ring of sex traffickers all of whom are protected because of their aristocratic birth. Prostitution was rife in Regency England and every form of sexual exploitation was rampant. 

The second book deals with the fact that Sir Henry must now decide on a wife especially to protect his illegitimate daughter Emily, who is in his care. His long time mistress Eliza now leaves his side and he rescues Isabella from the seamier part of London life and though she was never interested in marriage, Sir Henry is most persuasive and wins her over.

The third book deals with Allen, a dear friend of Henry who has been imprisoned and tortured mercilessly by the Russians, but is rescued and nursed back to health by Eliza. The story deals with uncovering who was actually responsible for Allen’s capture. The story uncovers a ring of spies and selling government secrets with a romance developing between Allen and Eliza.

The fourth book deals with Emily who is making her debut and a very successful one at that. Her romance with Max Warthon, whose grandfather is a mortal enemy of Henry, Emily’s father. He will not agree to the match and will do everything in his power to break the relationship. This book also deals with a group of powerful men involved in trade but also linked to the sex trade.

The stories brought to light the seedier aspects of Regency England society despite the veneer of respectability and the rigid rules of convention and behavior that was demanded in high society. The weakness of being a woman at the time was evident and without protection, their lot was open to exploitation. An unexpected feature was the detailed descriptions of physical relationships between lovers which I felt was not really intrinsic to the stories which were very interesting in their own right.

Sent by Central Avenue Publishing for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.

Beneath the Estate by Nick Allen Brown

 

The Biltmore Estate is magnificent  and more. A chance exploration brings a discovery of a machine decades old which has throwbacks to a long ago machine made by Leonardo da Vinci. What the machine is, how it works and getting it to work is the job of Daniel.

Not only are the odds against him by his colleagues on campus, who want to get rid of him from his professorship, but at Biltmore he faces antagonism from one quarter, who is against him and wants his own engineers to solve the mystery.

Working in two time frames is always interesting and we go back to Antonio who is a young inventor whom the Vanderbilts believed in, and the one who successfully built the machine, to the romance which started on the estate and then coming to the parallel story of Daniel and Penny who followed the identical way of romance.

The romance was just part of the story, the main part was the invention and in present times the remake and installation of the machine. The Vanderbilt family forms part of the background of the story.

Beautifully descriptive of every location the story was set in, the characters themselves were very interesting and varied.

Sent by Turner Publishing Company for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.

Death Takes the Lead by Rosemary Simpson

 

This story gave a detailed insight into the workings of theatre in England. The hardships the actors and actresses faced, the attitude of the aristocracy towards the theatre world, supporting and patronizing only when it suited them and treating them with disdain for the most part.

Prudence an heiress and Geoffrey Hunter ex Pinkerton,  have worked before in detective mode, and when the theatre erupts into one murder of the lead star of the play, murdered by arsenic poisoning both George and Prudence are drawn into the investigation because prudence’s friend  Lydia is so troubled by the murder which both Police and the theatre producer is trying to sweep under the carpet. The lead actor Septimus  was Lydia’s cousin. Going undercover as seamstresses was not very successful but they discover another victim smothered in a trunk followed by two attempts on both Lydia and Prudence’s life.

The detective work is thorough but there are many hurdles to overcome. The theatre community is tight knit and the murderer knows that they are being pursued. The number of suspects varies from day to day and in the meantime the production of the play goes on and the opening night is very successful, even though the lead actress and the producer are prime suspects. Characters were very well portrayed and the touch of romance was a nice touch.

Sent by Kensington Publishing for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.

A Body at the Grand Hotel by Benedict Brown

 Fourth in a series and another in which I could not get the cover copied for this post.

Marius has been invited by a Torquay book society to give an address to its members. He is looking forward to the event and makes a family trip of it along with Lady Isabella, who is part time detective with Marius.

At Torquay when the address finished, and when the audience questions started, Marius realises that the members are hostile and antagonistic and not like any book loving public he has met before. Openly critical of the methods used in his detective novels, they seem to want to humiliate him as much as possible. Marius begins to wonder why he was invited in the first place.

The patron Mrs Thistlewaite seems to control the entire society, which includes the hotel manager and even the local constable. When her body is discovered seemingly drowned, Marius and Isabella starts their enquiry along with their Inspector friend to search for the truth, because there are secrets galore and half truths abound. There are many suspects and many who are evasive and some who are downright crooked. 

The setting of Torquay is picturesque and Marius himself is clever as a detective along with Isabella but hopeless as a wannabe partner! You really want him to have a bit of spunk and not be so gentlemanly but this was a very orthodox England.

Sent by Storm Publishing for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.

A Perilous Premiere by Gail Meath

 

Vivian Steele has opened a fashion boutique which is turning out to be popular. Happily married (or so she thought) until she started investigations into her husbands death. Vivian always felt suspicious about George’s death but it was only after she started her enquiry did she realize his death was very much a planned murder, and that he had had a mistress on the side with whom he was planning to run away with.

At this stage Vivian is disillusioned but when she feels that she is being followed she begins to see that there is much more to George’s death than what meets the eye. Not only the local police but the mayors office is involved in the murder and cover up.

Vivian gets called to a hotel suite by an unknown female and finds the lady dead. There is a lot of incriminating evidence involving Vivian’s husband as well. There is also Preston who arrives on the scene and who from then on directs the action. Vivian doesn’t know who or what to believe in because she has been misled by many. Finding out that the reasons for the cloak and dagger stuff (and the murders) is because a valuable collection of coins has gone missing Vivian now has to protect herself from a gang including the local police who believe she has the coin collection.

The story was quick paced and the characters were wily and quick witted. 

Sent by BooksGoSocial for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.