The Contraband Killings by Lucienne Boyce

 

I'm thrilled to invite Lucienne Boyce to my blog. Today she is talking about walking holidays in the 18C. Are you intrigued? Scroll down to find out more.

The Contraband Killings: A Dan Foster Mystery

Principal Officer Dan Foster of the Bow Street Runners is sent to collect smuggler Watcyn Jones from Beaumaris Gaol on Anglesey, and bring him back to London for trial at the Old Bailey. As if having to travel to the wilds of North Wales isn’t bad enough, Dan is saddled with an inexperienced constable as his interpreter and assistant. At least it’s a routine assignment and shouldn’t take more than a few days.

 

But when the prison escort is ambushed and Watcyn Jones escapes, a straightforward transfer turns into a desperate manhunt. And as Jones’s enemies start to die, the chase becomes more urgent than ever. Dan’s search for the killer brings him up against a ruthless smuggling gang – and his chances of getting off the island alive begin to look far from promising.

 

Purchase Links

US - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BFRRSD72

UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0BFRRSD72

Author Bio –

Lucienne Boyce writes historical fiction, non-fiction and biography. After gaining an MA in English Literature, specialising in eighteenth-century fiction, she published her first historical novel, To The Fair Land (2012, reissued 2021), an eighteenth-century thriller set in Bristol and the South Seas.

Her second historical novel, Bloodie Bones: A Dan Foster Mystery (2015, reissued 2022) is the first of the Dan Foster Mysteries and follows the fortunes of a Bow Street Runner who is also an amateur pugilist. Bloodie Bones was joint winner of the Historical Novel Society Indie Award 2016, and was also a semi-finalist for the M M Bennetts Award for Historical Fiction 2016. The second Dan Foster Mystery, The Butcher’s Block (2017, reissued 2022), was awarded an IndieBrag Medallion in 2018. The third in the series, Death Makes No Distinction (2019, reissued 2022), is also an IndieBrag Medallion honoree, recipient of Chill With a Book Premium Readers’ Award, and a joint Discovering Diamonds book of the month. In 2017 an e-book Dan Foster novella, The Fatal Coin, was published by S-Books. The Fatal Coin is now available in paperback.

The Bristol Suffragettes, a history of the suffragette campaign in Bristol and the South West of England, was published in 2013. In 2017 Lucienne published a collection of short essays, The Road to Representation: Essays on the Women’s Suffrage Campaign. 

 

Other Publications

 ‘Not So Militant Browne’ in Suffrage Stories: Tales from Knebworth, Stevenage, Hitchin and Letchworth (Stevenage Museum, 2019)

 ‘Victoria Lidiard’ in The Women Who Built Bristol, Jane Duffus (Tangent Books, 2018)

 ‘Tramgirls, Tommies and the Vote’ in Bristol and the First World War: The Great Reading Adventure 2014 (Bristol Cultural Development Partnership/Bristol Festival of Ideas, 2014)

 

Social Media

 

Website: www.lucienneboyce.com

Blog: https://francesca-scriblerus.blogspot.com/

Twitter: @LucienneWrite

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/LucienneBoyceWriter/

Good Reads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6437832.Lucienne_Boyce

A Pedestrian in Wales (guest post by Lucienne Boyce)

In The Contraband Killings Bow Street Runner Dan Foster, who is looking for an escaped prisoner on Anglesey, visits the famous copper mine on Parys Mountain. While there, he sees a group of tourists on a tour of the works. Among them is a young man who is making a sight-seeing journey through Wales on foot. 

Walking holidays – or pedestrian tours as they were known – were very popular with English holiday makers in the eighteenth century. Not only were they cheaper than travelling by coach, they were healthy, and gave the traveller the notion that he was seeing more than the average traveller bowling through the country in his stagecoach. Since very few of the tourists could speak Welsh, they were usually deluding themselves about how much they understood about the places they visited and the people they saw. 

But travellers will be travellers, and one thing many of them love to do is write a book about their adventures when they get home. The pedestrians of the eighteenth century were no exception, and there was an outpouring of ‘walks’, ‘tours’ and ‘pedestrian tours’ through Wales. I read some of these when I was researching The Contraband Killings.

Travellers went to Wales for a variety of reasons. Many went seeking picturesque and awe-inspiring landscapes. Those who fancied themselves as artists could consult the Welsh artist Edward Pugh’s Cambria Depicta: A Tour Through North Wales Illustrated With Picturesque Views (1816) which set out an artist’s itinerary. Pugh guided artists to “the mountain’s craggy side, the cwm’s solemn profundity, the frightful brink of the cataract…and the tufted banks of the serpentine afon”. Pugh, who was born in Ruthin, was a Welsh speaker, and liked to throw in the occasional Welsh word. He advised on the best outlooks; encouraged his readers to visit some of the less-known places – Conway Castle had been “repeatedly painted” and “from the same spot”; and told them which places weren’t worth their trouble: “The shore from hence to Holyhead is very tame, and offers nothing for the pencil”.

Others went seeking Druidical ruins. One of these was the Reverend John Skinner of Somerset, who described his excursion with his brother Russell in his Ten Days’ Tour Through the Isle of Anglesey. They crossed to the island in the tracks of the Roman governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus whose troops attacked Anglesey; Boudica staged her rebellion while he was busy slaughtering Druids. Skinner sketched earthworks, standing stones and the prehistoric burial chamber at Plas Newydd (now owned by the National Trust); poked about in Bryn Celli Ddu burial chamber, disturbing nests of “immense spiders”; and copied out inscriptions he found in churches and on gravestones. 

Many budding mineralogists went to Wales: Pugh had promised his Cambria Depicta would also cater for their interests. The Reverend Richard Warner, who went with a friend on “A Walk Through Wales, in August 1797”, mentions collecting “good mineralogical specimens”. 107 Alongside his observations of ruins and landscapes, the Reverend also had an eye for the ladies. Clapping eyes on an innkeeper’s daughter near Dolgelly he noted “we had scarcely ever seen a girl more lovely or interesting”.

Others, as Pugh noted, went seeking “characters”: the Infant Hercules, eight years old, four feet two inches tall, and weighing nine stone; the witch Sian Bwt; Cady Thomas, the bearded lady; and bed-ridden Mary Thomas who had not eaten for seven years. Collecting – and where possible correcting – local superstitions was also popular with travellers. When Reverend Warner’s guide blamed his lameness on witchcraft, the Reverend tried to convince him his injury was due to natural causes. 

Skinner recorded tales of buried treasure, haunted stones, ignis fatuus, fairies and the “knockers” in the mines who led the miners to ore. He mocked the superstition of the “ignorant and illiterate”, and the ignorant and illiterate mocked back. The brothers went out in all weathers – rain, sleet, hail – and incurred “the ridicule of two old women who enjoyed a hearty laugh at our walking in the rain to hunt after stones”. 

But the young pedestrian in The Contraband Killings who attracts Dan’s attention has more than innocent tourism in mind, and it’s up to Dan to find out what murky deed he’s plotting… 

Lucienne Boyce

November 2022

www.lucienneboyce.com

Degustabox November'22

 Degustabox is a monthly food and drink subscription box. It's an excellent way of discovering new products which have only just appeared in the shops, or those which have been around for a while, but you haven't had a chance to try them yet.

Thanks to Degustabox, I have found new favourites to add to our shopping list, including some products which I otherwise wouldn't have tried.

Each time a monthly box arrives, its contents are a total surprise. You get a good selection of foods and drinks.

If you haven't tried Degustabox subscription box yet, and would like to have a go, I have a £3off discount from your first box (and you can unsubscribe any time), just use code DKRLN when placing an order. 

What did we get in the November Degustabox box?

The Jelly Bean Factory 36 Big Flavours (£1.50 for a 113g pouch) is a new mix of bold flavours. These gourmet jelly beans have a cripsy shell with a softer chewy core. Dip in the bag, and try to guess the flavour of your beans.

It has natural flavours, and is gelatine free.

Nutritional information: 375kcal and 76g of sugar per 100g.

Available on Amazon.

Bett'r Peanut Butter Cups (£2.99) is a new vegan and gluten-free alternative to chocolate butter cups like Reese's etc.

They are organic, guilt free, vegan.

Nutritional values: 79kcal and 3,5g of sugar per one cup (13g). 

Despite having not that much sugar per cup, they are very sweet. I would have also liked a slightly salty peanut butter to counter-balance the sweetness.

Available in major supermarket chains.

Halo's Chocolate and Orange flavoured mini donuts (£1.50 for a pack of seven) are a lovely teatime treat. Mini donuts are orange-flavoured and coated in chocolate, with bronze sugar sprinkles.

These donuts are steam baked rather than fried for a lighter calorie intake. My family scored them highly, I haven't had a chance to try even one, as they were gone in 60 seconds.

Available in major supermarket chains.

Heinz Made For Veggiez Miso & Chilli (£2.50) was my personal product of the month, and a discovery that promises to become one of our favourites.

Heinz Made for Veggiez is a new range of expertly crafted sauces, inspired by cuisines around the world. Add to the vegetables of your choice to jazz up your veggie dishes.

Coat and cook or use as a dip.

Ingredients include rice vinegar, white miso paste, rapeseed oil, Bramley apple puree, maple syrup, red chilli puree, ginger puree, coriander and more. This spicy, umami sauce is inspired by the cuisine of Japan.

Nutritional values: 117kcal and 4.3g of sugar per 100ml.

Available at Morrisons and Ocado.

I used it to coat slices of sweet peppers and aubergines, which I roasted to serve with poached fish. It was just beautiful with vegetables.

Filippo Berio Tomato & Ricotta Pesto/Truffle Pesto (£2.75/4.99) is a delicious pasta sauce. The range includes seven different pesto varieties, all made with only the finest ingredients. 

Made in Liguria, the birthplace and the brand founder and home of pesto. These versatile sauces will enhance a variety of dishes, from pasta bakes to panini.

You should receive 1 of 2 items in your box. We got Truffle Pesto, which is an aromatic and tasty pesto sauce, with the rich flavour of summer truffles. You don't need anything else - just stir in a big pan of freshly cooked pasta, adding a little bit of water from the drained pasta to create a creamy suace. A few shavings of Parmesan cheese, and it is a feast.

Ingredients include: cashew nuts, sunflower oil, Grana Padano cheese, extra virgin olive oil, summer truffle, pine nuts etc. 

This is a non-vegetarian sauce as Grana Padano PDO is not vegetarian.

Available at Ocado, Tesco & Filippo Berio.

Pot Noodle Fusions Katsu Curry/Chilli Chicken/Thai Green Curry (£1.39)  is a pot noodle with big flavours. 

You should receive one of three flavours in your box. We got Chilli Chicken (but we did try the other flavours before).

This is a vegan noodle, quite hot and spicy (three peppers labelling).

Typical values: 444kcal and 7.9g of sugar per pot.

Available in all major supermarket chains.

TEA REX Lemon, Turmeric & Ginger/Turmeric & Black Pepper/Rhubarb & Redcurrant/The Real Earl Grey/Rooibos & Blood Orange (£3.85) is a new inspiring range of fresh infusions, made with just fresh fruit, roots and leaves. 

Make a hot or cold brew, just squeeze and infuse. It has 4x more fruit and roots than a standard tea bag.

Caffeine-free, no sugar, 100% natural. 

You should receive one of five flavours in your box. We got Turmeric & Black Pepper, which is a combination of chopped turmeric root with crushed root ginger and cracked black pepper.

I confess I am not the biggest fan of turmeric in drinks, I much prefer to add it as a spice to savoury dishes, Indian-inspired. I did try it in chai latte, with added honey. 

Save £4, if you shop at www.tearex.co.uk - Get a Tea Rex infuser for £1 when you buy 3+ tubes. Add an infuser to your basket and then use £1Infuser at checkout.

I would love to try The Real Earl Grey and Rooibos & Blood Orange too.

Nando's Flavour Shaker Lemon & Herb/Garlic & Herb/Flavour/Peri-Peri Shaker Medium (£2) is a new range of savoury seasoning blends. 

You should receive one of theree flavours. We got Peri-Peri seasoning, which is a combination of African Bird's Eye Chilli, smoked paprika, black pepper, nutmeg, sea salt, dried red bell pepper, parsley, coriander and more.

Shake and sprinkle over your food to add a bit of heat and lots of flavour.

Try it with garlic bread, pasta, roasted vegetabls, stir frys and tacos.

Available at ASDA, Sainsbury's and Iceland (only Medium).

Heineken Silver (£1 per can or £6 per multipack) is an extra refreshing lager, with a clean crips taste, and low bitterness. Great to enjoy with friends and family at gatherings, or on Netflix and pizza nights.

Heineken is a well-known name in the world of international brewers. It is faous for its high quality beer.

Heineken Silver is brewed using an ice-cold lagering process and natural ingredients, thus creating a unique and distinct flavour of the 4% premium lager.

Nutritional values: 35kcal and 0 sugar per 100ml.

You will receive two cans in your box.

Available at Tesco, ASDA, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Co-Op and across convenience stores.

Double Dutch Drinks Double Lemon (£1.20) is a zingy taste of summer. Combining a mic-drop blend of lemon, lime and quassia, Double Dutch is fine on its own, and will enhance many a cocktail, with Pimm's, vodka or gin.

Quassia adds a more piquant note than traditional quinine, and is supposed to help digestion.

Double Dutch mixers are made with natural ingredients, no artificial sweeteners, and are low in calories and sugar.

Nutritional information: 21kcal and 4.9g of sugar per 100ml.

Available in major supermarket chains.

Green Sour Cherry/Orangeade (£0.99) is a healthier soft drink. Green drinks are low/no sugar and low calorie. 

Crafted using the finest ingredients, including natural, plant-based Stevia, and bursting with real fruit, these drinks are zesty and refreshing. Sour Cherry is my favourite of the two flavours.

You should receive 2 items in your box.

Nutritional values: 17kcal and 3.3g of sugar (Sour Cherry) and 23kcal and 4.6g of sugar (orangeade)

Available at Sainsbury's, Ocado, Holland & Barrett, and online on Amazon, with free delivery for Prime customers.

What is your favourite product from the last Degustabox?

The Cottage in the Highlands by Julie Shackman

 

"I know you think of yourself as some do-gooding girl-guide-"

I clutched the phone to my ear. "I beg your pardon?"

"You want to go wading in there, solving everyone else's problems and making everything a happy ever after... But life isn't like that".

The Cottage in the Highlands by Julie Shackman is an enjoyable romance story set in Scotland.

Leonie Baxter has been working as a junior reporter for The Silver Ness News for two years, and she loves her job. Silver Ness is "a quaint little Scottish seaside town a good hour's journey away from the centre of Glasgow". She loves everything about it: her office and colleagues, their easy camaraderie and shared lunch breaks.

"It was a joy, working for a local newspaper that so many members of the community relied upon and which had been a part of their family for over a hundred years".

But Leonie's life has been turned upside down, when she finds out that The Silver Ness is going to be amalgamated with one of their sister titles, which means the office is being closed down and she is out of job. What a blow, to be unemployed in time for Christmas! 

"I felt as though I had taken several positive steps towards the future, only to be turned around and ordered back to the starting line".

Leonie's love life is on hold too. Her ambitious ex left her in search of better job opportunities and a more successful catch. Leonie is lucky to have loving parents, and a ten-month old rescue cockapoo puppy named Harley.

During one of her long walks, when doltish Harley manages to escape, Leonie stumbles upon "an old, grand house squatting in the middle of a beautiful but overgrown front garden". The house looks fully furnished but abandoned, with a melancholic air. As a journalist, Leonie is imediately intrigued by the house. Her Spidey senses reawaken, as she thinks there might be a story there.

Her initial enthusiasm is dampened by Lily Cruickshank who lives in the cottage next door. At first, Lily is rude and unwelcoming, trying to get rid of the unwanted visitors to the area. Why is Lily so protective of the old house, Merry Wood?

Looking for a new job, Leonie finds out that Goddess is looking for an investigative journalist. 

"Goddess was a gorgeous publication and it was setting itself apart in the world of glossy magazines, with its grittier features and human-interest stories, as well as fluffier pieces on beauty and fashion".

It would be an ideal position, that is if you fancy working for formidable Athena Mayhew, edior and Goddess owner, "the feared lioness of the glossy magazine world".

Merry Wood is calling to Leonie like a magnet, she is driven to uncover its mystery. "Something told me there was unfinished business there and she [Lily] needed closure". By pure chance, Leonie comes across an old letter from Flynn Talbot, which adds an extra poignant layer to the mystery of the old house. Leonie is determined to find out the truth.

Resolved to trace the enigmatic Flynn Talbot, Leonie searches online until she finds someone who fits the bill, only to be thwarted again by them being reluctant to talk about the past.

Will Leonie be able to work out the puzzle? Will she get a job she wants? And will her own heart be mended?

Leonie is a good-natured and likeable character, albeit slightly on the naive side. Well meaning, she believes it her right to pursue queries which have nothing to do with her. If Lily wants to keep her secrets, maybe respect her wishes? Personally I would not be happy if someone went behind my back to dig into my past. 

The journalistic career of Leonie will draw inevitable comparisons with Andy Sachs from Devil Wears Prada. The character of Athena could well be Miranda Priestly in Tartan.

There are two interlinked love stories, but the main focus of the story is the mystery behind the house and its tragic past.

The cover design is colourful and pretty, though it seems that the artist didn't look deeper beyond the blurb. The artistic impression of a generic cottage in the woods doesn't quite match the book descriptions of Merry Wood and Lily's cottage. 

The Cottage in the Highlands has strong female protagonists. There are two equally compelling romantic narratives.

Full of secrets and simmering passion, the story captures the darkness of relationships. There is a mystery, there is romance, with lashings of real drama and parallel love affairs through different generations.

Trigger warning: domestic abuse.

This review is part of the blog tour for The Cottage in the Highlands.

Many thanks to Julie Shackman and Rachel's Random Resources for my e-copy of the book!

Purchase Links:

UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cottage-Highlands-romance-Scottish-Escapes-ebook/dp/B09YLF6PL5

USA - https://www.amazon.com/Cottage-Highlands-romance-Scottish-Escapes-ebook/dp/B09YLF6PL5

Author Bio – Julie Shackman is a former journalist from Scotland, who has always wanted to write feel-good romance. As well as being an author, Julie also writes verses and captions for greetings card companies. Julie admits to having an obsession with stationery and handbags. She is married, has two sons and has a Romanian rescue puppy, Cooper. The Cottage in the Highlands is Julie’s seventh novel.

Social Media Links – https://twitter.com/G13Julie

https://www.facebook.com/julie.shackman

https://www.instagram.com/juliegeorginashackman

The Sea Glass Beach by Tina Pritchard (book extract)

 

I'm delighted to welcome Tina Pritchard to my blog today. Find all about her book, The Sea Glass Beach, and read an extract.

The Sea Glass Beach

In 1950’s southern Ireland, single mother Theresa gives birth to a child she names Roisin. Arrangements are in hand for the adoption when Theresa changes her mind. The child, gifted and intuitive, is viewed by the local community as ‘odd’. Reeling from the news of Roisin’s heart-breaking expulsion from convent school, Theresa makes a momentous decision. To protect her daughter, she must send her away.

Canada’s wild beauty serves as a backdrop to a year of challenges for Roisin. She encounters trauma and devastating loss, but also gains a new family and finds love with the enigmatic Cal. Death, grief and culpability are potent forces she must somehow come to terms with. Can a tiny model boat unshackle her from her past and help her journey into a hopeful future?

Purchase Links

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BMJR3ZT3

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BMJR3ZT3

Author Bio – Tina Pritchard spent most of her life engaged in bringing up a family, taking a social science degree, working as a lecturer, a trainer and more recently as an independent celebrant conducting funerals, weddings and naming ceremonies. Her first book, a psychological thriller, In A Deep Dark Wood, was published in 2021. The Sea Glass Beach is a departure in genre and started life as a short story morphing over the years into a novel. It is a work of fiction inspired in part by her own mother’s experience of giving birth to a child at Sean Ross Abbey Mother and Baby Home in the 1950’s. That child, born all those years ago in Co Tipperary, Ireland, is the author of this book.

Tina loves to write and has won competitions for both her short stories and her poetry. She lives in a beautiful part of the world and gains much of her inspiration from walking her badly behaved terrier, Horace, in the Derbyshire countryside.

To give you a taster of Tina Pritchard's writing style, here is a short extract from the book:

[This extract reflects Roisin’s love of running in the forest close to her home in Ireland and her affinity with the natural world.]

Pausing to rest on the grassy bank, she dipped a foot into the icy, crystal-clear water. High in the branches of a solitary Scots pine, she heard the churr of a nightjar, the rare, ghostly sound rising and falling in the air and echoing through the trees. As the water trickled over her toes, she remembered her mother's warnings. Theresa was forever telling her she had one pair of feet and they had to last her a lifetime. Being barefoot, she warned, meant possible injury from sharp stones, discarded broken bottles or pieces of metal. With her feet cut to ribbons there would be no more running. ‘Then what would you do, Macushla?’ she would say.

Occupying Roisin’s thoughts this evening were less mundane matters. She was looking forward to the time of bounty soon to come. Then she would arrive home with her pockets full of nature’s gifts. These would be placed on her night stand: alder cones, ash keys, beech nuts, polished conkers and acorns that turned from bright green to brown before separating from their cupules. Toys were of little interest. Her playthings were the treasures provided by the natural world.

As the days grew shorter, Theresa would draw the curtains and light the oil lamp. Sitting together at the scrubbed table, Roisin would study the colour plates in her book of native trees and birds as her mother caught up with her sewing. She was aware she was different, having never encountered anyone who liked the same things as her. The girls at school weren’t disagreeable, but they did treat her as a novelty. They thought her amusing, especially when she got up the noses of the teachers or Father Kelly. She didn’t really mind being the centre of attention, as long as it was on her terms. She had little in common with the other girls and it wasn’t of real concern to her. She preferred to observe and listen.

12 days of chocolate giveaway (ends 12 December'22 midnight)

 It's that time of the year again, my lovely blog readers! The 12 days of chocolate giveaway has now become an annual event, which I run from 1 December. 

I don't know what the future year will hold and whether I might keep writing this blog. I nearly stopped several times this year, so it could be my last 12 days of chocolate giveaway. 

I won't be using the pretentious language of certain influencers and say that this chocolate giveaway has been "carefully curated" but I did enjoy choosing different chocolate bars for each day of the giveaway, as well as buying little bits and bobs to go with them. This is a kind of prize I'd be happy to win myself. And it's a different selection every year.

Hope you will enjoy it as much as I do. There is over 1,2kg of chocolate to win!

First of all, let me wish all my blog readers a stress-free Christmas and a happy new year! (and if you don't celebrate Christmas, you're welcome too, I'm wishing you a lovely festive season!).

I love chocolate, and this giveaway is my celebration of all things chocolatey.

Every day I will offer you a chocolate bar and a little something too, edible or decorative.

For 12 days I will be revealing a part of an overall prize, and each day there will be a new question.

As stipulated in the T&Cs below, the number of winners will depend on how many questions the first randomly selected winner will answer. If they answer all 12 questions, they get the whole lot. If they choose to answer less questions, they'll get less prizes, and the remaining part of the prize will go to the next randomly selected winner.

Day 1:

The first day will start with a bang - you'll find a Tony Chocolonely dark milk pretzel chocolate bar as well as one L'Occitane cracker (with mini toiletries).

Day 1 (1 December) question: What Christmas gift are you most looking forward to receiving (or giving) this year? (if you don't celebrate Christmas, then what festive seasonal gift)

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Day 2:

Christmas is not a "proper" Christmas without a good old marzipan, hence today's part of the prize is a Niederegger Apfel Schoko Crumble and Ritter Sport Marzipan.

Question 2 (December 2):

What does you family usually eat for Christmas dinner? Do you prefer traditional food, or can't wait to try something new each year?

Day 3 (3 December):

Today's part of the prize is Divine Limited Edition Dark Chocolate with Tangy Clementine + a Milk chocolate medal, with North Pole Approved Nice.

Question 3 (3 December): 

What's your favourite holiday movie?

Day 4 (4 December):

Green & Black's Organic Smooth dark chocolate and 10 gift tags are part of the prize for today.

Question 4 (4 December):

What is the most memorable (or even craziest) Christmas present you've ever received?

Day 5 (December 5):

E.Wedel Milk Raspberry chocolate bar and M&S Mulling Spices are today's contribution to the prize.

Question 5 (5 December):

What is your favourite carol?

If you haven't voted yet on ClassicFm for your favourite carol, hurry up, you have until 16 December to cast your vote to be in with a chance of winning a £500 John Lewis voucher. Now that would be a fab prize. I always vote for Gaudete, as it's such a timeless piece, which sends shivers down my spine every time I hear it.

Day 6 (6 December):

Today's chocolate bar is Milka Yogurt. And since we need to take extra care of our skin in winter, here are a couple pf Daily Care Sheet Masks.

Question 6 (6 December):

Given a chance, would you rather spend Christmas at home or at a new destination?

Day 7 (December 7):

Aero Snowy White for the fans of white chocolate, and a pair of Festive Feet Christmas novelty socks.

Question 7 (7 December):

It's been such a tough year, what with the world news and domestic politics, it is rather depressing. Looking back at 2022, what has been the highlight of the year for you? or the best thing that happened to you or your family in the last year? 

For me it's the birth of my adorable great nephew less than a month ago. I am now a great aunt, and I still cannot quite believe it. He's just the cutest little thing.

Day 8 (December 8):

Lotus Biscoff Milk Chocolate and a little Gisela Graham Christmas ornament are today's part of the prize.

Question 8 (8 December):

Again looking back at 2022, what TV shows did you enjoy the most? 

(Looking for recommendations, in case I missed something really good).

I love a mix of genres, and some of my favourite TV shows of 2022 were Ghosts, the final season of The Walking Dead, and The English.

Day 9 (9 December):

A new Green & Black's Smooth Mint Intensity bar + Tony Chocolonely Almond mini chocolate bar.

Question 9 (9 December):

Do you have a Christmas jumper?

I just bought a Batman Christmas jumper for my younger son for him to wear on the school Christmas jumper day. Not sure what's the connection between Batman and Christmas, but he loves it.

Day 10 (10 December):

Cadbury Winter Wonderland and Percy Pig Sty of Wonder are today's part of the prize.

Question 10 (10 December):

Do you have an advent calendar, and if yes, which one(s)?

My boys opted for Lego Harry Potter (younger son), Lindt chocolate (older son).

Day 11 (11 December):

Cadbury Dairy Milk Oreo chocolate bar and a chocolate Santa coin for today.

Question 11 (11 December):

What are your Christmas Eve traditions (if you have any)? Do you leave a mince pie and milk for Santa?

Day 12 (12 December):

This is the final day of the giveaway, and the final part of the prize includes Lindt Classic Recipe Hazelnut, a bag of Reese's DJ Santa's disco lights and a box of saucer crackers.

Question 12 (12 December):

I want to thank everyone who's been taking part in the chocolate giveaway. I enjoy reading all the answers.

There is no question for day 12, please wish a Merry Christmas to the person above you - you will need to scroll all the way down and click on Load More to see the latest entries. 

PLEASE NOTE - ALL COMMENTS ARE PUBLISHED, but due to the amount of comments not all are loaded at once. If you want to see your comment after the 4th of December, you need to click on Load More to see them all. Thank you!

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Many thanks to all the participants! I had a lovely time, reading all the replies.

THE FIRST RANDOMLY CHOSEN WINNER NEVER GOT IN TOUCH WITH ME REGARDING THEIR PRIZE, SO THE SECOND WINNER HAS BEEN SELECTED AND NOTIFIED.

Congratulations, please get in touch with me by email sasha1703@yahoo.com or on Twitter @maximka25.

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T&Cs:

The giveaway is open to the UK residents only.

Please leave your name or Twitter username in the comment if you login as Anon, or I will never know who has commented.

There will be one or more winners, who will receive all the goodies appearing during twelve days of the giveaway.
If the first randomly selected winner has replied to all twelve questions, they will receive the whole lot.
If the first winner answers less questions, they will receive the prizes only from the days they leave their reply.
The remaining prize(s) will be allocated to the next winner(s). Hope I don't have to send twelve different packages.

The more questions you answer, the bigger your prize will be.
Only one entry per person per day/question is allowed.

If you missed a day, you will have a chance to catch up on any other day until the end of the giveaway, as long as it comes in a SEPARATE comment.

Please note, if you answer 12 questions in one comment, it will count as 1 entry.

Once the winner is selected randomly, I will count their replies.
I will contact the winner, who will have 7 days to reply with their address details. Due to the nature of the prize which I hope to dispatch in good time before Christmas, the time limit to get back to me is shorter than usual.

All the prizes are provided by me, and are in no way sponsored by any brand.

This is my way of saying Thank you to my blog readers.

Previous winners are welcome to join in as well, you're not disqualified from winning again, if your name is drawn from the hat.

I will post the prize at my own cost.
If the winner's away when the parcel arrives and is not able to rearrange the redelivery, and if by some chance it is returned to me, please do not expect me to cover the cost of the postage again.
If that happens, the prize will be taken to the local food bank (foods) and charity shops (non-perishables).

I will send the parcel by Royal Mail, tracked and to be signed for.

Any personal data given (basically the winner's address details) will not be shared with any 3rd parties, and will be deleted after the prize is received by the winner.

The giveaway will end on the 12th of December at midnight.

Good luck!

Death on the Crags by Jo Allen

 

"He was falling.

Her eyes must be playing tricks. She blinked. but nothing changed except a sountrack kicking in to this nightmare, his terrified scream tearing the silence a split-second after the fall. He seemed to hang in the air forever, arms and legs flailing like a huge black bird that had suddenly lost the power of flight, and all the while that horrible, tortured scream hung on the wind".

Death on the Crags by Jo Allen is a compelling mystery/police procedural, set in the Lake District.

This is book 9 in DCI Satterthwaite series. This book reads as a standalone, but to understand the undercurrents in the police unit and dynamics of personal relationships, I suggest reading a few of the previous books. I started the series from book 4, and have read all of them onwards (except book no.8).

Blurb:

Everybody loves Thomas Davies. Don't they?

When policeman Thomas Davies falls from a crag on a visit to the Lake District in full view of his partner Mia, it looks for all the world like a terrible but unfortunate accident - until a second witness comes forward with a different story.

Alerted to the incident, DCI Jude Satterthwaite is inclined to take it seriously - not least because of Mia's reluctance to speak to the police about the incident. As Jude and his colleagues, including his on-off partner Ashleigh O'Halloran, tackle the case, they're astonished by how many people seem to have a reason to want all-round good guy Thomas out of the way.

With the arrival of one of Thomas's colleagues to assist the local force, the investigation intensifies. As the team unpick the complicated lives of those who claim to care for Thomas but have good reasons to want him dead, they find themselves digging deeper and deeper into a web of blackmail and cruelty... and investigating a second death.

A traditional British police procedural set in Cumbria.

Review:

From the first pages I thought that this book confirms yet again that Jo Allen is a master storyteller.

It's not just the intricate crime plotlines, it's also the continuation of personal stories that keep you turning the pages. With each book you get to see how the main characters' relationships develop. They almost become your family, as you get to know them. You sympathise with them, sigh at what you perceive as their short-sightedness and stubborn mistakes, but accept them for who they are. 

Jo Allen's ability to paint a picture with words, the use of descriptive language to set the background (the landscapes of Cumbria appear atmospheric, and often reflect the inner thoughts of the protagonists), the clever introduction of suspence - all keep you engaged and interested.

The case under investigation might appear as an accident to the police and ambulance who arrive at the scene of the fall on the crags, but the reader is alerted from the start of the book that it is much more sinister than that. 

One of the witnesses happens to be working alongside Jude. When the police begin looking into the victim's life and work, they come to the initial conclusion that Thomas Davies is a nice guy.

"There were bad apples, corrupt coppers, police officers whose heavy-handedness made enemies even among those who weren't criminals, but Thomas wasn't one of them. Or was he? Did he have something to hide - or know something someone else was determined should be kept quiet?"

Thomas's partner Mia behaves suspiciously, avoiding to talk to the police. She is obviously shocked to witness her partner's fall, but there is more to her reticence to communicate with the investigation unit.

Mia is one of those women who lack self-confidence, and self-destruct personal relationships. Abandoned by her mother as a young child, Mia has lived with her father, stepmother and stepbrother. She has resented her stepmother Sarah for many years, to the point of wishing her dead.

It is interesting to see a stepmother in fiction, who is not one-dimensional. We first see her through Mia's eyes, as an interfering annoying woman, but as we get to know her, Sarah is far from being the wicked stepmother. She has her faults, yet Mia has an unpleasant side to her too. 

The main plotline, crime and interpersonal, is running in parallel to the personal relationships between Jude, and Becca, and Ashley and her obsession with her ex. Jude and Ashley are friends with benefits. They trust each other, and work well as a team (as a reader, I never warmed up to Becca, and was hoping that Jude and Ashley will be together). 

"Sometimes he [Jude] thought he'd trusted her too much himself, given away too much, let her in on secrets about himself that she ended by understanding better than he did".

Death on the Crags is a gripping, intense and thought-provoking read. It makes you think about the complexity of human relationships, and frailties of love. I have great admiration for Jo Allen's work. She creates plausible flawed characters, unpredictable and multi-dimensional.

This review is part of the blog tour for Death on the Crags.

Many thanks to Jo Allen and Rachel's Random Resources for my copy of the book!

Purchase Links 

UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BB33T34Y 

US - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BB33T34Y 

Author Bio – 

Jo Allen was born in Wolverhampton and is a graduate of Edinburgh, Strathclyde and the Open University, with undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in geography and Earth science. She's been writing for pleasure and publication for as long as she can remember. After a career in economic consultancy she took up writing and was first published under the name Jennifer Young, in genres of short stories, romance and romantic suspense. She wrote online articles on travel and on her favourite academic subject, Earth science. In 2017 she took the plunge and began writing the genre she most likes to read -- crime.

Jo lives in the English Lakes, where the DCI Satterthwaite series is set. In common with all her favourite characters, she loves football (she's a season ticket holder with her beloved Wolverhampton Wanderers) and cats.

Social Media Links – 

https://www.facebook.com/JoAllenAuthor

https://twitter.com/JoAllenAuthor

https://www.instagram.com/joallenauthor/

The Automobile Assassination by M J Porter

 

"Wouldn't this be something if we'd uncovered some spying activity because of this? Your name would be in the national newspapers again." Mason didn't much like the thought of drawing attention to himself once more, but he was beginning to thinkk, as O'Rourke was, that there was something mighty intriguing going on. And, he admitted, perhaps it would be good not to be known as the custard copper".

The Automobile Assassination by MJ Porter is a historical mystery/police procedural, set in Erdington in the 1940s. 

This is the second book in the series. It reads perfectly well as a standalone, but reading the first book will give you a better understanding of the dynamics among the police unit, and explain some of the references to the previous big case.

Erdington, September 1944.

Chief Inspector Mason of Erdington Police Station and Constable O'Rourke are tasked to assist Sergeant Jones on the counterfeiting scam case. It had rumbled on for too long now, on a bigger scale, with a vily mastermind behind it.

"If he could just work out who was doing what and how they were doing it, Jones would be able to take the acclaim for solving the pesky counterfeit scam. Sergeant Jones would apprecaite it far more than Sam ever could. There had been cases of counterfeit ration books before, but this was something else entirely. Or so it seemed. Yet, the resolution remained just out of reach".

At the same time Mason is called to look into a new case, this time concerning a dead body found outside the Castle Bromwich aerodrome. The body appears to be in a bizarre position, shockingly bent double. With no identification papers or reports of missing persons, the identity of the murder victim is a mystery.

Mason and O'Rourke begin their investigation at the aerodrome.

"It seemed obvious to suspect something to do wiith the Royal Air Force. But perhaps that was what the person who'd killed the man had wanted them to think. It might be little more than a red herring... It was undoubtedly a good way of distracting them. The higher authorities would insist on a thorough investigation. Just in case the man had been compromised in some way. There were spies and counterspies, allegedly, throughout Great Britain".

The Royal Air Force personnel appear to be their prime suspects, but are they? Is the murder victim a spy? Is the place where his body has been found a random choice, or is it meaningful? Why does noone at the aerodrome recognise the dead man?

Mason, who's recently solved the so called The Custard Corpses case (see book 1), which has dogged his career for two decades, is resolute to discover the identity of the dead man, and track down his assassin. 

His boss, Smythe, is eager for Mason to deal with the counterfeiting scam, which is a plague on the local shopkeepers. Once again, the cases seem to be impossible to solve.

At first glance, Mason and o'Rourke seem an unlikely team. Mason, beleagured by the health issues, is not as spritely and physically fit as his younger colleague. But both of them are smart, observant, intelligent at slotting the pieces of the puzzle together, and complement each other.

The Automobile Assassination, like its predecessor, is written in the style of the classic crime fiction. It has that evocative mode of writing.

It is as much a historical fiction as a crime mystery story. The details of the historical background are well-researched, authentic and true to life.

A gripping atmosperic page turner, with engaging characters, and rich in historical detail.

This review is part of the Book Birthday Blitz for The Automobile Assassination.

Many thanks to MJ Porter and Rachel's Random Resources for my copy of the book!

 Purchase Link - https://books2read.com/TheAutomobileAssassination

Author Bio – MJ Porter is the author of many historical novels set predominantly in Seventh to Eleventh-Century England, as well as three twentieth-century mysteries. Raised in the shadow of a building that was believed to house the bones of long-dead Kings of Mercia, meant that the author's writing destiny was set.

 

Social Media Links –

Website: www.mjporterauthor.com/www.mjporterauthor.blog   

Twitter: https://twitter.com/coloursofunison

Facebook: www.facebook.com/MJPorterauthor

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Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/MJ-Porter/e/B006N8K6X4/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7163404.M_J_Porter

Linktr.ee: https://linktr.ee/MJPorterauthor