The Echoing Shore by J.H. Mann

 

"I was running hard, gasping for breath in a dark, damp lane interspersed by shards of moonlight. From what or to where? I had no idea".

The Echoing Shore by J.H.Mann is a gripping psychological thriller, set in Cornwall.

It's been a while since I've read a book at such a speed, just in a couple of days, I just couldn't put it down.

Blurb:

The Echoing Shore

A Yeovil Literary Prize award winner

A lifeboat is lost off Cornwall's wild Atlantic coast. All eight crewmen die. The cause is never fully explained. Ten years later, Kate Tregillis, the editor of a small, struggling newspaper, becomes obsessed with solving the longstanding mystery.

Her investigations provoke a backlash of threats and violence in the insular fishing community of St Branok. In exposing the truth, she risks the future of her newspaper and even her life - and discovers that the man she loves has his own secrets.

From the first pages, we are plunged into the tragic events that would shatter the local fishing community of St Branok. A lifeboat, the Talan Bray, goes into the vastness of the North Atlantic into the storm, only never to come back. Eight crew members perish, including a young man who's only just joined in. There are no answers as to what's happened during the storm.

A decade later, Kate Tregillis, who works as an editor in the local newspaper, is compelled to look into the circumstances of the disaster, when a London freelancer named Danny Flanagan comes into the offices of The Gazette to offer his services.

Kate wonders if bringing Danny into the fold while knowing almost nothing about him is wise, but the newspaper is struggling, they need all the help they can get to keep afloat.

"The fate of the paper was on a knife edge. It could go either way and it was down to me - and me alone - to find a solution. Danny might be part of the answer".

"Even with a skeleton staff, the Gazette was devouring money. We needed more than a few interesting stories to survive. We needed a bloody miracle".

When Danny suggests a feature on the tenth anniversary of the loss of Talan Bray, Kate knows it has to be handled diplomatically, or there will be repercussions.

"The loss of the Talan Bray had been the biggest story to hit St Branok in a generation - hit being the operative word. It'd rocked the community to its core. And there remained a bitterness and rawness about it locally which made it dangerous territory. Still, we needed the whole community to be talking about the Gazette. Better to be talked about than ignored".

When Danny starts digging without a care whose feathers he might ruffle, the locals don't take to it kindly. The community closes its ranks and breathes hostility not just towards the newcomer Danny, but also Kate. The threats and violence escalate, and the future of the newspaper is becoming even more bleak.

"The truth, as Danny had pointed out earlier, was that I couldn't stop him investigating. He was a freelancer, free as a bird: a journalist able to sell his story anywhere he chose. If I told him to get out of our offices, I'd lose any opportunity for the Gazette to be part of the story".

Will Kate and Danny be able to discover the grim truth of what's really happened on that stormy night ten years earlier? 

Suspence and escalating menace are handled expertly, with the past stretching its tentacles into the present.

One of the things I particularly liked about the book is the realistic, ordinary-looking characters. 

I recently read a snippet from a writer's newsletter where she describes her successful colleague. Apparently she writes romance only about young, beautiful, successful women who meet and fall in love with rich handsome blokes, and live happily ever after in mansions, etc. I thought then, that's the kind of books I tend to avoid, though I presume there's a market for them. 

Both main characters in The Echoing Shore are not young, rich or beautiful, at least when it comes to their appearance. They are dedicated to their jobs, to the point of risking their livelihood and even their lives, searching for truth. 

Cornwall is one of my most favourite book settings, but often, this location is seen through rose-tinted glasses, unduly sentimental and idealistic, with ever so helpful, welcoming neighbours, and friendly communities. 

In this story, the small Cornish fishing village can be a hostile environment, aggressive, parochial, judgmental and truculent. 

The descriptions of Cornwall are again, not of a picture-perfect variiety. This landscape is dark, dangerous and deceptive, yet also stunning in its intense beauty. The author captures the atmospheric background perfectly, in fact, it's not so much a background, as a living, breathing entity which builds the local character, with its resilience and determination.

"Another mist had rolled in from the Atlantic and the wind had died. An unnerving stillness prevailed. The ocean swelled languidly, seemingly as thick as treacle, exuding a quiet menace..."

The Echoing Shore is a character-driven narrative. Kate is a strong-willed protagonist who knows her own mind and is not easily scared off.

Tight plotting, authentic setting, convincing real characters make this book riveting, intense and dramatic.

Flew through The Echoing Shore. Highly recommended.

Many thanks to J.H.Mann and Rachel's Random Resources for my copy of the book!

Praise for The Echoing Shore:

'A gripping story full of twists and turns' - Margaret James, Writing Magazine.

'An enthralling read that keeps you guessing to the end' - Victoria Howard, author and judge for the international 2023 Yeovil Literary Prize.

'I would definitely pick this book up from the bookshop shelf' - Claire Gradidge, winner of the Richard and Judy Search for a Bestseller competition.

 

Purchase Links

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Echoing-Shore-J-H-Mann-ebook/dp/B0DFT3LPTQ/

https://www.amazon.com/Echoing-Shore-J-H-Mann-ebook/dp/B0DFT3LPTQ/

 

Author Bio –

Jason Mann is an award-winning journalist and writer living in the South West of England with Nicola, his wife, and their lively whippet, Patch. He is also a shore-based volunteer for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Jason says: ‘Many of my stories are set in the wonderful county of Cornwall where truth can sometimes be stranger than fiction. I have swum and surfed there much of my life. It has been a special place for me with its legends, soaring cliffs, rugged moors and wild seas. The landscape has a raw, mystical magic. My father and mother’s recollections of rescues and tragedies on the North coast are often the inspiration for my stories. My father became one of the county’s early lifeguards after his predecessor was killed by a strike of lightning while standing in waist-deep water during a rescue.’

Social Media Links –

Facebook – www.facebook.com/jason.mann.9047

Instagram – www.instagram.com/jhmannauthor/

X (Twitter) – www.twitter.com/JasonMa74964503

Website: www.jhmannauthor.com

Murder at the Crooked Horse by Lesley Cookman

 

Murder at The Crooked Horse

After learning of a suspicious attempt to burn down a beloved old pub, The Crooked Horse, Libby Sarjeant and her friend Fran reluctantly agree to investigate.

But when a local antiques dealer mysteriously disappears after apparently taking out his boat, it appears there are dark and sinister forces at play.

Can Libby and Fran uncover a connection between the fire and the missing man? And will unravelling a deadly case put them in terrible danger?

Purchase Links

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Murder-Crooked-Horse-whodunnit-countryside-ebook/dp/B0DBPC7RX8

https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Crooked-Horse-whodunnit-countryside-ebook/dp/B0DBPC7RX8

Author Bio –  Lesley Cookman writes the Libby Sarjeant Murder Mysteries and the The Alexandrians, an Edwardian Mystery Series. She lives on the south east coast of England, and is a former model, actor, and journalist. Her four adult children are all musicians and writers.

Social Media Links –  https://www.facebook.com/LibbySarjeantMysteries/

https://twitter.com/CookmanCrime

 

Newsletter sign-up https://subscribepage.io/6ihOsU?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2rxyJBg7q6Po-G-iojYqQE7ivaz7gWMla19N79lwD0XT7TcaL57I5szgE_aem_5tLJHOeCc26CZFkHzUJyVw

Land: The Ten Worlds Book Two by Bjørn Larssen

 

"Land. I heard its song, sensed its heat. The raven stopped perching on me, trying to reach my land before me. Whatever Odin could muster right now, the blazing rage inside me was stronger. I sped up, determoned he'd fail. It was mine and it was calling me".

"The future was becoming the current, turning into the past, making space for the future that followed".

"They didn't name this land, because they knew what it was! Ice-land, that's what it is! Ice-land and ice-sea and ice-sky and ice-fire!"

Land by Bjørn Larssen is the second book in The Ten Worlds series (published 5 November 2024). This is a cool, dark (not just dark, grimdark!), spellbinding re-imagining of the Norse myths. 

It is an enthralling tale of love and hatred, betrayal and forgiveness, revenge and compassion. It is brutal and shocking at times, and there were moments, when I had to pause reading it and take a break. Not because I didn't appreciate the story, but I needed to gather my thoughts and emotions.

The Blurb:

Love. Land. Loss. Happy Never After.

The truth Maya fought for all her life turns out to be a lie a thousand years long. She neither understands nor knows how to wield her hidden power, simultaneously endless and limited, forcing her to face responsibility for the harm she causes and parry countless questions she has no answers to. Neither time nor space can stop her - but can she stop herself?

Bound with an unbreakable love spell, Magni and Thorolf, raised in darkness and pain, share only one thing: a fear of revealing their truths. One was born to be a God; the other only knows a slave's life. One craves peace and quiet; the other believes peace to be a brief reprieve between wars. As they mourn those they have lost, the constant war of their own threatens to destroy all they have left - each other.

Haunted by Gods old and new, in the shadow of Odin's raven, they head to conquer the new Asgard. Apart from their demons, nothing and nobody is what it seems. Unwilling to give up love, freedom, or land they're fated to live happily never after... unless destiny can be altered after all?

Following the events of the first book, when Magni and Maya are accused of plotting against Thor, they have to leave Ásgard. Accompanied by Goddess Freya, they cross from one world to the next, through the roots of Yggdrasil. 

There are two main threads in the narrative, the story unfolds through the voices of two protagonists, Magni and Maya. Their voices interchange, both emotionally charged.

Vengeful Freya puts an everlasting spell on Magni and Thorolf, making them fall in love with each other. One of them is a God, another is a slave. There is so much they can't agree on, the divide between them is a chasm. Both of them have suffered greatly. 

"What Freya had done to them was borne of malice, meant to be a punishment. She failed, or she'd fail".

Magni craves "boring" life, he wants to live an uneventful quiet life, of peace and hard work. Thorolf believes this kind of idyll is not sustainable, and the war is coming to engulf everything they know. It looks like they are totally incompatible. On top of that, their inner demons are trying to take over.

Their love-resentment demands a terrible sacrifice. Is there a happy ever after for them?

Maya's path is not an easy one either. She is trying to figure out her own origins, strengths and powers. Since she is not fully comprehending what she is capable of, Maya presents a danger to the world around her. 

"I was a tree the way Yggdrasil was a tree. I was destiny and I was destination, all the destinations, all the passages and routes and directions..."

The truth about her birth is demolishing all her preconceptions and assumptions, not only about herself, but her parents and even her age.

Maya is haunted by visions. There are too many questions, and very few answers.

"My visions were unwanted. I couldn't choose what or when to witness. What I experienced were destinies".

Intent on finding a new Ásgard, they have a perilous journey ahead. They cannot completely escape the old Gods, as Odin's raven accompanies them, uninvited, and ever watchful. What are Odin's plans? 

What is destiny? Is it truly impossible to re-shape or invalidate?

The story blends a twisty plotline with compassion for the flawed, vulnerable characters. There is wisdom, and courage, and flares of dark humour.

Magni's voice is full of confusion and internal strife. His anxiety is overwhelming, and affects his mood swings on a constant loop, he has difficulty concentrating on the present, and feels guilty and worthless. Even when clearly loved, he doesn't believe he is worthy of being loved. His thoughts are chaotic, the events of the past appear as an incomplete puzzle in his mind. 

Magni's stream of consciousness is so confused at times, that you plunge into that dark chaos and uncertainty with him. His mental distress is palpable.

"I have voices in my head," I said. My heart was racing. I am insane. "Some have names. Sometimes they argue and I can only listen, like I am outside. I think some don't even like me. Sometimes... I think that's why I forget... they take over..."

It's an authentic portrayal of a complex and nuanced nature of severe despondency, and of a dissosiative identity disorder.

While Why Odin Drinks is a satirical retelling of the Norse myths, this story is far from straight-comic (though the introducion written by Loki is truly amusing). That's not to say that humour is not present, but the overall narrative is charged, intricate and even shocking.

 This book will engulf you, and keep you captive. Perhaps because this year has been very challenging for my older son who struggles with his mental health, I found it haunting and devastating at times (Magni's dissosiative identity disorder, his mental anguish, disorganised behaviour, etc).

I might have read it differently in a different situation. I really wanted to hold this vulnerable giant in my arms and soothe his pain. 

What do I want to say? Read this book, and be blown away.

Author Bio:

An award-winning author of historical fiction and fantasy, dark and funny in varying proportions. His writing has been described as "dark", "literary", "cinematic", "hilarious" and "there were points where I was almost having to read through a small gap between my fingers".

His debut novel, Storytellers, won a Readers' Favorite Gold Medal (Best Historical Fiction Novel) and was shortlisted for Eric Hoffer Prize Award. His fantasy works, Children and Why Odin Drinks have been shortlisted for eleven (11) Indie Ink Awards - so far; Children was also nominated for a Staby Award (Best Indie Novel of 2020). Bjorn is a Queer Indie Award Laureate (best speculative fiction author) and very proud of it.

Bjørn has a Master of Science degree in mathematics, and has previously worked as a graphic designer, a model, a bartender, and a blacksmith (not all at the same time). He currently lives with his husband in Almer, which is unfortunately located in The Netherlands, rather than Iceland.

He has only met an elf once. So far.

His upcoming release, the second book in The Ten Worlds cycle - Land - is coming out on November 5, 2024.

The Sea House by Louise Douglas

 

"Still, it felt to Mila as if Elisabeth's anxiety, real or imagined, had pervaded the very fabric of the house. It was contagious".

The Sea House by Louise Douglas is a captivating psychological thriller, set in the fictional town of Morranez in Brittany.

The Sea House is the third book in the Toussaints Detective Agency series. I have read the first book (The Lost Notebook), which introduces Mila Shepherd, the main protagonist, and tells the story of how she ended up in Morranez.

The blurb:

The Sea House

A mysterious bequest and the legacy of a tragic love - only one person can unravel the hidden secrets of the past before it's too late...

When Elisabeth Quemener dies, she leaves a small parcel with the instructions that it must only be opened by Astrid Oake. The trouble is, no one knows who Astrid Oake is...

Elisabeth's family turn to Touissants detective agency for help but, when Mila Shepherd and Carter Jackson try to track Astrid down, their frustration soon mounts. Their only clue is a photo of two young women holding the hands of a tiny child. The women are smiling but Mila is haunted by the sadness in their eyes. Is this Astrid and Elisabeth and if so, who is the child? And why are there signs everywhere in Elisabeth's home that the old woman was frightened despite her living a quiet life with no known enemies?

As Elisabeth and Astrid's story slowly unfolds, Mila feels the walls of her home The Sea Houe closing in. And as the secrets finally begin to reveal themselves, she is ever more determined to carry out Elisabeth's final wishes. Because what is inside that unprepossessing parcel might just save a life...

Louise Douglas is back in the Brittany seaside town of Morranez with a heart-stopping, heart-breaking, brilliantly written and utterly compelling mystery. Perfect for fans of Kate Morton, Eve Chase and Lucinda Riley.

Mila Shepherd has moved to Brittany to look after her orphaned teen niece Ani, following the tragic death of her step-sister Sophie. They live in a big secluded house on the outskirts of Morranez on their own. Mila works in the Toissaints detective agency, which specialises in tracking down lost family members etc.

When the agency is approached by the daughter of the local lady who has recently died and left a strange request, they take on the case to find the recipient of the mysterious package - someone named Astrid Oake. The instructions are pretty bizarre: if the recipient is not found, then the package should be buried within the grave, and never to be opened.

Who is Astrid Oake? Nobody knows of her, she can't be found on any social media, and any search brings no results.

Mila is starting her search for clues in Elisabeth's house, and feels very uneasy. The empty house has spyholes, security cameras, burglar alarms, a number of bolts on bedrooms and panic buttons. 

"... Being alone in a dead person's house had never made Mila feel vulnerable before... Everything pointed towards Elisabeth having been afraid of someone or something. And that, Mila concluded, was what was making her scared now: fear by proxy."

The investigation seems to draw blanks. The only clue left in the house is an old photo of Elisabeth and Astrid as young women, holding a hand of a little girl. They are smiling in the camera, but their eyes are sad.

"It was, superficially, a lovely picture, with the two young women smiling, but when she looked closely, Mila could see the smiles were guarded; as if they were for  the camera; not from the heart".

The investigation's progress is slow, yet there is a development, which brings Mila to the UK, in search for Astrid's story, as well as getting answers to Mila's personal life issues.

On top of the problems of finding the elusive Astrid, Mila has to deal with very unsettling discoveries in her family's past, related to the death of Sophie and her husband Charlie. 

Will Mila find the elusive Astrid Oake? What's inside the mysterious parcel?

The setting of the sea resort in winter works perfectly as a bleak background to the dark drama that is going to be revealed, both in Mila's family life and the investigation she is conducting for the agency.

This is the fourth book by Louise Douglas that I've read, and as always I admire how the author sets the scene. The backdrop - descriptions of the seaside town out of season, the eerie house, the sinister farm in the English countryside - are evocative, vivid and atmospheric. 

The story is gripping and emotionally-charged, though I couldn't warm up to any of the main characters. Mila is rather insipid, still in thrall to her late step-sister's bossy and selfish behaviour. While reading this story, I remembered how much Sophie irritated me in the first book. 

You know this self-obsessed, fickle and capricious type in real life and try to avoid them at all costs. Growing up in a dysfunctional family, left by her egoistic father, unloved by her narcissistic mother, Mila is looking for crumbs of affection anywhere she can find them, and is not able to assert herself.

Mila has to decide what she is going to do with her life in the long term. She left her boyfried Luke behind in the UK, he is expecting her to come back at some point, yet Mila is uncertain about what she really wants. You feel sorry for Luke, who's been more than patient. The position which was supposed to be temporary until the solution is found turns into an indefinite one.

Mila is not a maternal material, having no children of her own, and her niece Ani is a moody teen, self-centred, totally unappreciative that Mila has sacrificed her job and personal relationship to look after her. Given her own parents' egoism and her sad upbringing, it comes as no surprise that Mila finds it hard to set the necessary boundaries. 

Themes of love and loss, bereavement and coping with grief, continue running through the book. These  topics are dealt with sympathetically and sensitively, and resonated with me, as I lost a very dear friend this year, who was like a family to me. Her death has affected me, and I'm feeling very emotional every time I think of her.  

One last quote from the book which I found very true and heartfelt,

"How easy it was to take people for granted when they were alive. Even when you didn't see someone often, still they were there, living and breathing, laughing and loving... But when they were really gone; when they were dead, and there would be no seeing them ever again, no chance to call them, or even to exchange a quick message, then the absence was something different; the missing became deep-rooted. And the world was different too. It was colder. It was lonelier; lacking something; less than it had been."

The Sea House is a gripping story, full of twists and turns, emotionally-charged and deeply sad at times.

When I see Louise Douglas's name on the book cover, I know it will be a tense psychological read, moving and immersive, and incredibly evocative.

Many thanks to Louise Douglas, Boldwood Books and Rachel's Random Resources for my e-copy of the book!

Purchase Link - https://mybook.to/seahousesocial

Author Bio –

Hello! I'm Louise, author of 12 novels mostly set in the Somerset countryside close to where I live and Sicily. I'm thrilled to have won the RNA Jackie Collins Romantic Thriller award 2021 for The House by the Sea which has sold more than a quarter of a million copies.

Social Media Links –  

Facebook: @louisedouglasauthor

Twitter: LouiseDouglas3

Instagram: louisedouglas3

Newsletter Sign Up: https://bit.ly/LouiseDouglasNews

Bookbub profile: @lesley119