Photographed in the Writer's Room by Michelle L.E. Price

 

Spending your Valentine's day in lockdown? Curl up with the latest rom-com and a big box of chocolates!

Photographed in the Writer's Room

Former TV star Brandi Tyler's big screen debut crashed and burned amid rumours of an affair with her married co-star... Now, she wants nothing more than to quietly slink away from Hollywood. When she's offered an opportunity to get out of town and work on a project involving the photographer that launched her career, it seems like the perfect escape! Unfortunately for Brandi, her famous face makes hiding out even in a huge city like Houston a little tricky.

When the celebrated photographer's son offers to let her use his home for privacy, it seems like everything is falling into place. Little does she know that Michael Ames is a gorgeous best-selling author, and he comes with the package! As Brandi makes her way through old photographs and new scandals, Michael struggles with his new project, and they both fight the growing attraction between them.

Maybe a posse of new girlfriends, some Texas-sized boozy brunches, and a little private time in the writer's room will help this leading lady find her path back onscreen. And, if she can just picture it, maybe this time she'll even find love?

 

Purchase Links

US - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08T6HGFG6

UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08T6HGFG6

Author Bio:

Born in Montreal but raised in New England, author Michelle L. E. Price has been writing as long as anyone can remember. An avid reader who was on the verge of losing her mind as a mom to two small children, Michelle began writing her first book, Hidden in the Writer’s Room, as an escape… at least her characters would do exactly what she told them to do and she could always count on a happily ever after ending. She also enjoys wine, re-watching 90’s sitcoms and occasionally running, but heavily relies on writing to stay sane. Michelle is a firm believer that laughter and love are the best parts of life.

Social Media Links – 

https://www.instagram.com/michelleleprice/

https://twitter.com/MichelleLEPrice

Beneath the Fear by Sheila Rawlings #BlogTour

 

"Sam, what's the matter?" I pushed him away, urgently pointing towards the cliff top. My heart was now pounding. As panic consumed me, I began to struggle for breath.

"Up there... there's a man... up there. He keeps following me. I swear... he looks just like Stephen. I know that's impossible... but he does."

Tony followed my gaze up to where I was pointing, but there was nobody there.

Beneath the Fear by Sheila Rawlings is a twisty, atmoshperic psychological thriller set in Cornwall.

Samantha Copeland, a freelance illustrator, is used to getting her own way. Her husband Stephen is trying to finish paintings for his first major exhibition in Oxford, but Sam gives in to one of her "many self-centred whims" and insists that he leaves his artwork and takes her shopping. "I was very proud of him... but right now I wanted to be his only focus of attention". 

What begins as a caprice of a spoilt young woman, ends up as a tragedy. Everything is about to change dramatically, as they pass by the bank and happen upon a botched bank robbery. "In the proverbial blink of an eye, my perfect world fell apart forever. Neither it, not I, would ever be the same again". In the skirmish, Stephen is killed.

Sam is traumatised. Therapy sessions, on which her parents insisted, do not help. Three months after her husband's murder, Sam feels trapped and mentally tortured. "I still could not make sense of his death. All I knew was, despite all my carefully orchestrated plans, the love of my life had been cruelly snatched away and I had no idea what to do about it".

To escape her parents' suffocating love and the attention of the media, Sam escapes to Cornwall, to the cottage where she spent many a happy summer with her family as a child. "For my mother and I, it was simply a beautiful spot for a holiday. Full of fond memories, I felt myself drawn towards it, like a child reaching for a comfort blanket". 

In the small coastal village of Dynnargh she reconnects with her childhood friend Suzy, who appears very welcoming and amiable. Suzy is her godmother's daughter, with whom she hasn't been in touch for many years, but they easily resume their friendship.

Longed-for peace of mind doesn't happen, however. Sam gets a very uncomfortable feeling that she is being watched. She is spooked to see a figure on the clifftops which looks very much like her dead husband. Unsurprisingly, her nights are plagued by the vivid nightmares. 

Suzy doesn't take Sam's fears seriously, hinting that it's all in her mind.

Two men are vying for her attentions: Tony Walker, a journalist who moves into the cottage next door to write a book, and the local handyman Nathan Scott who works on Sam's cottage. They seem to detest each other, and create more tension around. 

Sam thinks of Nathan, "Now there was an enigma. I really had no idea what to make of him. He seemed friendly enough and I enjoyed his company. However, being around him made me feel strangely uneasy.

Finally, my thoughts circled back to Tony. Another person I was unsure of - although that was probably due to him being a journalist. Half of me considered him annoyingly arrogant and over-confident, while the other half found him intriguing and strangely compelling".

Who can Sam trust? Is something sinister happening, or is it all part of her imagination?

Sam who's been indulged by her parents since childhood, is rather immature. Having lost the love of her life, she seems to be detached from reality. During one of her therapy sessions she tells herself, "Finding myself a widow so early in my marriage was definitely not part of my agenda, so I refused to believe it", which sounds flippant and glib. 

Sam is not a very likeable character, but you begin to sympathise with her vulnerability and mental anguish as the story progresses. She has to grow up from a carefree young woman to someone who needs to make tough choices, and ultimately forgive herself.

If you frequent my blog, you might know of my love of books with a Cornish setting. As soon as I saw a promotional email inviting me to take part in the blog tour, I knew I had to read the book. The Cornish setting in this book is not a sunny summery background of many chick lit books. This is a brooding, unforgiving terrain, with treacherous tides and dangerous clifftops. The stark beauty of the non-touristy part of Cornwall sets a perfect background to the sinister tale of murder and stalking.

I didn't find the ending entirely convincing. Without giving any spoilers, I thought that some of the coincidences, while convenient for the plot, were somewhat improbable.

Beneath the Fear is an absorbing thriller, really evocative of the rugged coastline of Cornwall. It kept me flipping the pages right to the end. It is an exploration of the destructive power of guilt, aftereffects of trauma and running away to find inner peace and self-forgiveness.

Purchase Links 

UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beneath-Fear-Sheila-Rawlings/dp/B08KMBKNSZ  

US - https://www.amazon.com/Beneath-Fear-Sheila-Rawlings/dp/B08KMBKNSZ

Author Bio – 

Sheila Rawlings is an author of adult crime and psychological thrillers, and her debut novel, ‘Truth and Revenge’ was chosen as a finalist for the Wishing Shelf Independent Book Awards 2014. ‘Beneath the Fear’ is her second novel.

Born in Bexleyheath, Kent and educated at the prestigious Bexley Technical High School for Girls, Sheila originally trained as a graphic designer at Medway College of Art and Design (now the University of Creative Arts – part of Kent University). After graduating from college with a diploma in visual communication, she worked as a graphic designer for two mail order companies, designing and producing their catalogues. Wanting something more challenging, she then worked for several years as a graphic designer and production manager for a magazine publisher. During that time, she also assisted their PR and marketing department, designing exhibition stands for various clients.

It was while working with journalists she eventually rekindled her childhood love of reading and storytelling, prompting her to write her own novels. Sheila now lives in South London with her husband, Martin.

Social Media Links – 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SheilaRawlings (@SheilaRawlings)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SheilaRawlingsAuthor

Instagram: Sheila Rawlings (thrill_writer)

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

This review is part of the blog tour, please check out the other blog stops.

Peanut butter bars with Reese's Minis

 

I've recently come across an amusing quote: "If you like peanut butter pie, you are either Dolly Parton, or someone who loves her"(Kate Lebo, A Commonplace book of pie). It made me think that I don't remember ever eating a slice of peanut butter pie. I do love peanut butter cookies though, and some other bakes. I know some people love it on pancakes, but for me, it's a No.

Growing up in the Soviet Union, I don't think I even tried peanut butter until my early 20s, it was something I only read about in books set in America. Not sure why, as there were peanuts in abundance, and you could certainly buy cookies with peanuts.

We usually have one or two tubs of peanut butter in the kitchen. My husband eats it regularly for breakfast, on toast, with a generous amount of jam on top. My kids are not so keen on peanut butter sandwiches. 

There was a Sun-Pat Smooth Peanut Butter tub in the last Degustabox. Packed with 96% peanuts, it is a natural source of protein. For many people Sun-Pat is the classic peanut butter. It is suitable for vegetarians and vegans. Other ingredients include cane sugar, peanut oil, sea salt.

I fancied baking something quick and easy, and peanut butter slices ticked all the boxes.

My recipe reference was Taste of Home Annual Recipes 1999. I used to subscribe to Taste of Home magazine when we lived in the States, and have a few annuals. This one I got on eBay. I love their Mom's best recipes and meals on a budget sections.

I have adapted a recipe for Chewy Peanut Butter Bars (Meals on a budget).

Peanut butter bars with Reese's Minis

220g smooth peanut butter

125g butter

180g caster sugar

125g plain flour

1tsp baking powder

2 medium eggs

1tsp vanilla essence

2 heaped tsp hot chocolate (I used Cadbury's)

12 Reese's Minis

In a miixing bowl beat together peanut butter and sugar. Melt the butter and add to the mix. Sift in the flour and baking powder, add vanilla and hot chocolate (or cocoa), and beat in two eggs.

Spread into a greased brownie tin (I also added a layer of foil to make it easier to take out of the tin, once cooked). Add the Reese's minis to the dough and push them in.

Bake at 180 for about half an hour until browned, and edges begin to slightly shrink away from the sides of the tin.

Do not be tempted to cut the slices while the bake is still warm. The bake is very wobbly and might even appear under-cooked, but it is cooked. Let it set. Slice into rectangles or squares.

I thought the bars were even better the next day, they were very fudgey and properly gooey. My guys truly liked them, so I might be making them again very soon (if only to take better photos).

You can use any smooth peanut butter, and skip Cadbury's hot chocolate or substitute it with cocoa powder. It's just I bought a tub of hot chocolate to enter the competition, and now am looking for ways of using it (I find it too sweet as a hot drink). 

Set My Heart To Five by Simon Stephenson

 

Lockdown no.3 seems to be never-ending. Book lovers miss browsing in their favourite book shops, and attending book events and literary festivals.  Thankfully new books continue being published, but how much harder it is in the current circumstances to be a debut novelist?! 

Today I'm delighted to introduce Simon Stephenson's novel - Set My Heart To Five.

Set in 2054, when humans have locked themselves out of the internet by forgetting the names of their favourite teacher and first pet, Simon Stephenson’s dazzling debut, Set My Heart to Five, is a hilarious, touching, strikingly perceptive story of the emotional awakening of an android named Jared, and a profound exploration of what it truly means to be human. 

Set My Heart to Five is set to become a major motion picture with Edgar Wright directing, and Working Title, Focus Features and Universal Pictures producing.

Born in Scotland and now living and working in LA as a writer, Simon Stephenson is a former NHS doctor who worked in paediatrics. His memoir Let Not the Waves of the Sea about his brother being killed in tsunami was a highly acclaimed award winner. He spent two years writing at Pixar in San Francisco and originated and wrote Amazon’s forthcoming feature film LOUIS WAIN (starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Claire Foy). Julia Roberts is also attached to his screenplay TRAIN MAN.

Find out more about the author at www.simonstephenson.com

Today we have an opportunity to ask questions to Simon Stephenson:

• What inspired you to write Set My Heart To Five?

I had wanted to write a novel for the longest time.  And by ‘the longest time’, I mean a literal decade.  My previous book, a memoir, came out all the way back in 2011, and here we finally are now!  I’d started a whole lot of novels, but none of them quite took.  I work as a screenwriter, and through that work I’d sort of realized that I work best in the shaded area where ‘funny’ and ‘sad’ overlap.  I then got a job in the Bay Area, which is so tech-obsessed that you can feel like you are living in 2054.   

• Where did the idea for Jared, the android, come from?

 This is one of those classic things, where for a long time I believed I’d had this moment of creative inspiration, and the idea of an awkward android dentist who becomes a screenwriter had just popped into my head like creative magic.  It took a friend pointing out that I am an awkward human doctor who becomes a screenwriter for me to see that, yep, the apple did not fall so far from the tree!

• Did any films, tv series or works of fiction influence your writing process?

All of them!  But specifically, in the book Jared the android falls in love with a very specific kind of big screen blockbuster from the 1980s and 1990s: Forrest Gump, Thelma and Louise – that sort of thing.  And so I consciously tried to take the reader on the same kind of emotional journey those movies take me on.  You can decide whether or not I was successful! 

• What is the biggest difference between writing for the screen and writing a novel? 

On the day-to-day level, they both involve too much coffee and wrestling with the blank page. But I think the classic thing that people say is true: that novels – particularly those written in the first person, as Set My Heart To Five is – are quite internal, and movies external.  What I mean by that is that in the book you can simply have your narrator tell  thereader things, but in a screenplay the old maxim of ‘show don’t tell’ is true: ie you have to find ways to demonstrate things visually.  That is fine when your characters are robbing a bank or jumping out of an airplane, but it gets a lot harder when you are trying to convey something like Jared’s favourite emotion of schadenfreude.   

• What are you writing next?

I’m always envious of writers who can move consecutively from one thing to another.  I’m much more circular: I always have a bunch of things on the go, and sometimes come back to them after months or years – that’s probably why it was ten years between books! I’m currently working on a new novel, but also some film things too.  If I say too much I tend to jinx things, but I am definitely hoping the next one will not take a decade.

Thank you for this fascinating insight! 

This post is part of the blog tour! Read reviews and extracts as you travel along.

A Secret Scottish Escape by Julie Shackman(Cover Reveal)

Don't you dream of escaping from the humdrum limits of your own home? Aren't we all bored of looking at the same interiors and think of the days when we were able to travel and visit places? Sigh. We haven't travelled in a long time, but thanks goodness, books can take us anywhere we fancy. Books set in distant locations bring me hope that some time in the near future I will be able to visit them. 

Scotland is on my wish list, and I would love to see its wonders of nature and architecture. Until then, I can escape to Scotland via books.

I'm thrilled to reveal a cover for A Secret Scottish Escape by Julie Shackman (scroll all the way down to see it in its full glory).

A Secret Scottish Escape

Escape to the beautiful Scottish Highlands for a heartwarmingand feel good cosy romance that will whisk you away from lockdown!

When Scotland’s sleepiest hamlet becomes the centre of hot gossip, Layla Devlin finds herself caught in a mystery…

When Layla’s fiancée has an unexpected heart attack and dies – in another woman’s arms, no less – Layla is determined to pack up and leave Loch Harris, the village she’s always called home. But an unexpected inheritance and love for her quiet corner of Scotland send her down a new path.

Now Layla finds herself facing a whole new kind of drama. Rumours swirl that a celebrity has moved into Coorie Cottage and Layla is determined to have him headline her opening night at local music venue The Conch Club. But the reclusive star is equally determined to thwart Layla’s efforts. RafeBuchanan is in hiding for a reason, and soon his past comes to Loch Harris to haunt him…

 

Pre-Order Links 

UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Scottish-Escape-Julie-Shackman-ebook/dp/B08T5WWNDR/

US - https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Scottish-Escape-Julie-Shackman-ebook/dp/B08T5WWNDR/

Publication Date – 21st May 2021

Author Bio –  

I am a contemporary romance author from Scotland, who is obsessed with stationery and handbags.

I am married with two sons and have a poodle cross Romanian rescue puppy called Cooper. A Secret Scottish Escape is my fifth book.

I trained as a journalist and studied Communication & Media. When I’m not reading or writing, I love getting out for long walks, listening to music and watching romcoms.

 

Social Media Links – 

https://twitter.com/G13Julie

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

https://www.instagram.com/juliegeorginashackman/

And now Ta-Dah! Don't you love the pretty cover, showing a cosy cottage against the stunning backdrop of the loch and mountains.

Photo diary: week 5, project 365

 If I had to choose one word to describe the last week, it would be "apathy". I'm totally lacking any motivation or enthusiasm for anything, feeling just tired. Sick and tired of the lockdown, and everything it represents. 

On a positive note, a friend helped us to find more information about the Harris family (our Graveyard project). We discovered that Frank Edward Harris (the name on the gravestone which I showed in Photo diary a couple of weeks ago) was closely related to people who lived in our house. 

The Windrush is still pretty high, and you can see the flood protection sandbags in the Bridge Street outside the front doors. This is too close to us for comfort.

Eddie and I walked around the old Witney Mill complex to check out the floods. The lower part of the bridge is completely under water.

On Tuesday it was the Groundhog day, and guess what we watched, yep, Groundhog Day. Eddie has never seen it before, and I haven't watched it for many years either. It has dated a bit but still made me chuckle.

We baked a chocolate fudge cake (baking was one of the homeschooling tasks in the last week).

Eddie wanted to decorate it as a castle with turrets, but we couldn't find big marshmallows to put under cones to make towers. We also cheated a bit and used a ready-made frosting. The turrets look more like witches' hats.

A later walk in the afternoon on Wednesday, with the pink sky.

My brother sent me quite a few photos in the last week, which I wanted to share.

A fox in the snow - photo taken from the house in the evening.

Also he sent me the photo of the sign, saying "Swimming is forbidden" by the river, which is completely under ice and snow. This made me smile. 

Nothing like a pitiful smattering of snow we've got in the garden today, so much for the Beast from the East. Very disappointing Beast. 

I spent most of Friday, reading Last One at the Party by Bethany Clift. It's not often that I read a book in one day, but that's what I did. 

It's the end of the humankind after the big pandemic story. The main character is a woman who believes she's the only survivor in this apocalyptic world. There are some pretty revolting graphic visuals of the death from the virus in agony, families committing suicides, rotting corpses, etc. 

I would not recommend it to anyone who's lost someone in the current pandemic, as it will be too triggering. 

It made me think that publishing this book now (the author claims the idea of the book was born before covid) is not the most sensitive thing. The main character is also very dismissive of the covid, which again is rather heartless (and I do understand the difference between the opinions of the character and the author). 

To many people who have lost their loved ones in the current pandemic, it might appear that their grief is irrelevant or diminished.

Saying that, I found the book gripping and thought-provoking. Have you read it? What did you think?

Snowdrops and crocuses are already in bloom in the garden, not yet at full force, but give it another week or so, and the ground will be carpeted with the white and purple. 

One of orchids in the kitchen began to bloom as well.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Photo diary: week 4, project 365

 It seems only yesterday we were saying Good bye to 2020 and greeting a new year with a little glimpse of hope, and now we are parting ways with January. Since most days are very same-sih, I lost count of them. 

Last weekend was a bit different though, as we had the first proper snow of the season. Nothing like where my family lives, of course, they have had snow for months, deep-deep snow, with snow drifts higher than an average child, and temperatures plunging below 30C. My younger son dreams of going to Russia in winter, but I'm not so sure. I'd love to see the snowy streets of my hometown, and the beautiful vast whiteness of the nature, but I lived more than half of my life over here, and I think I would find the weather rather challenging. 

What did we do last week? Not much apart from homeschooling and the usual chores. We also finished watching the Agents of shield season 7 on Disney+, and the last episode was a bit of a let-down. Eddie and I have enjoyed the series. Overall, it was pretty good, some seasons are better than others, and the last one wasn't the best. Still I'm sad, there won't be new adventures of Coulson, Daisy and the gang anymore. 

The Dig has started on Netflix, and I want to watch this, but need to find out if it's suitable as a family film.

We built our snowman, yay! Not a big one, but still a snowman, with a carrot for his nose.

One more photo from that day - Eddie enjoying throwing snowballs at his father.

Since most of the remote learning is online, I make sure we have a break during the day to go out. We cannot have a walk later in the day, as my older son comes back home from school, and I have to divide my time and attention accordingly.

We saw these huge dirty snowballs in the Church Green on our walk. The snow didn't last long, and was already melting. The streets were all slushy. 

There were remnants of the snow on the roofs, and we saw this gathering of white doves. They looked as if they had an imprtant issue to discuss.

Project Graveyard still continues, we keep re-visiting the Holy Trinity and checking out the gravestones. We have identified one more Harris gravestone, and potentially two more, but they only have initials rather than full names. I have ordered a book called Edwardian Witney, and hope there might be some information we are after. Also a couple of friends offered to look for info on Ancestry for us. I will definitely take them on their offer, once I know a bit more of who is who.

There is a little playground next to the church. It seems empty every time we visit. Admittedly, we go out even in the drizzle, when we take a break between online learning. 

On Friday we decided to change our route and walk towards Cogges manor house. It is closed to visitors, of course, but we liked the nature around, and this old vicarage house. If only walls could talk, how many stories it could tell.

The fields nearby are under water. All the snow and torrential rain have raised the levels of water. The street not far from us is flooded, which is worrying. We had serious floods in Witney and around just before Christmas.

And the irresponsible local authorities have given permission to the avaricious builders to build more in the flood-prone area. Money rules. The locals sign one petition after another. A few years ago the local authorities refused to grant permission, then the big guys in London have over-ruled. Do they give a damn? It's not like they are going to ever live here.

Our town population is about 34,000. They plan to build over 3,500 houses more. Some of them will be dangerously close to the gas storage facility. Many of them will be in the Windrush Valley, which will endanger even more homes in town with the flooding.

Rather than showing the photos of the Windrush levels, here is a photo of my brother's cat. A fair warning ahead: there will be more pics of the cat in the future. He is a real beauty.

How was your week? Did you have snow and heavy rain where you live? 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Dark Memories by Liz Mistry #BlogTour

 

"The drizzle made the crime scene more sordid somehow. Dingy and dark, with shadows hovering just outside the lit crime scene area, it had the appearance of an apocalyptic world - a lawless one. The very thought of that made DS Nikki Parekh shudder".

Dark Memories by Liz Mistry, the third book in the DC Nikki Parekh series, is a fast-paced and nail-bitingly tense crime story. 

Last year I reviewed Broken Silence (the 2nd book in the series), a gripping and taut Northern Noir thriller. As soon as I saw that the next book in the series was available for reviewing, I knew I had to read it.

When the body of the local homeless prostitute is found under Bradford's railway arches, DS Nikki Parekh and her partner DC Sajid Malik are on the case. Nikki knew this woman - Peggy Dyson, who had been a friend of her mother from years ago. She "tried everything she could to help Peggy, but Peggy had lost too much, fallen too far and become too reliant on her various fixes to respond to Lalita's overtures".

The death of a "worn-out junkie wasn't on anyone's priority list". "Still, no matter how slim the chances were of finding the perpetrator, Nikki had to try".

When the first anonymous newsletter clipping arrives in the mail, Nikki suspects the local journalist Lisa Kane, her long-standing adversary, might be mocking her.

Another body is discovered. A murder, which is seeminly unrelated to the death of the junkie. That is apart from a second anonymous letter containing another clipping from a news report relating to the investigation. "None of it necessarily directly related to her, as fas as she could determine. Still, it made her nervous".

And then the third envelope arrives, with the old diary entries which make a very disturbing reading. "It seemed too coincidental for her to receive three anonymous missives so closely together..." Nikki is unsure what all this mail is supposed to mean. "She'd been threatened plenty of times, but these letters weren't overt threats - were they? They seemed more like clues to Nikki - but clues of what?"

The third murder happens on Nikki's old street, just opposite the house where she grew up. Her childhood was traumatic, but Nikki is a suvivor.

Underneath the third victim's body there is the diary from which she received several pages earlier.

Liz Mistry doesn't shy away from the darker side of crime in her stories. In the previous book in the series she explores the themes of the human trafficking and modern slavery. Dark Memories also has scenes which are very hard to read.

There are potential triggers in this book - such as child abuse, domestic violence, murder. 

As the violence escalates, Nikki and her team have to find the links between the three victims. To do that, she has to revisit the past. Lalita's and her memories might hold the key information to solving the identity of the murderer. "For a long time now, Lalita had wanted to open up to her girls about their childhood, but at the back of her mind she'd always wondered if her desire to get things off her chest was more for her benefir than theirs".

The tension is building and building.

Will Nikki be able to catch the killer, before he moves on to his next intended victim?

We observe the plotline unfolding from different perspectives: we watch Nikki and her team conduct the investigation. 

Alongside it, the story is being told from the perspective of the killer. We're inside his head, and while we might not be complicit, it feels distressingly voyeuristic. 

Dark Memories is a tough, edgy, uncompromising and thoroughly absorbing thriller. I cannot wait for Nikki's next adventure.

Purchase Links

UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dark-Memories-addictive-nail-biting-Detective-ebook/dp/B08NZ4LV2R

US - https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Memories-addictive-nail-biting-Detective-ebook/dp/B08NZ4LV2R

Author Bio – Born in Scotland, Made in Bradford sums up Liz Mistry’s life. Over thirty years ago she moved from a small village in West Lothian to Yorkshire to get her teaching degree. Once here, Liz fell in love with three things; curries, the rich cultural diversity of the city … and her Indian husband (not necessarily in this order). Now thirty years, three children, two cats (Winky and Scumpy) and a huge extended family later, Liz uses her experiences of living and working in the inner city to flavour her writing. Her gritty crime fiction police procedural novels set in Bradford embrace the city she describes as ‘Warm, Rich and Fearless’ whilst exploring the darkness that lurks beneath.

Struggling with severe clinical depression and anxiety for a large number of years, Liz often includes mental health themes in her writing. She credits the MA in Creative Writing she took at Leeds Trinity University with helping her find a way of using her writing to navigate her ongoing mental health struggles. 

Being a debut novelist in her fifties was something Liz had only dreamed of and she counts herself lucky, whilst pinching herself regularly to make sure it’s all real. One of the nicest things about being a published author is chatting with and responding to readers’ feedback and Liz regularly does events at local libraries, universities, literature festivals and open mics. 

She also teaches creative writing too. Now, having nearly completed a PhD in Creative Writing focussing on ‘the absence of the teen voice in adult crime fiction’ and ‘why expansive narratives matter’, Liz is chock full of ideas to continue writing.

In her spare time, Liz loves pub quizzes (although she admits to being rubbish at them), dancing (she does a mean jig to Proud Mary – her opinion, not ratified by her family), visiting the varied Yorkshire landscape, with Robin Hoods Bay being one of her favourite coastal destinations, listening to music, reading and blogging about all things crime fiction on her blog, The Crime Warp. 

Social Media Links –

FB https://www.facebook.com/LizMistrybooks/

Twitter @LizMistryAuthor

Website: https://www.lizmistry.com/

This review is part of the blog tour, please check out what the other book bloggers thought about this thriller.

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