We Have Books

The Sunday Girl by Pip Drysdale My Review The Sunday Girl by Pip Drysdale is a great Domestic Noir debut for this new author who has shown she is wickedly capable of the cunningly warped and twisted thoughts fans of psychological thrillers love. The eponymous Sunday Girl of the title is one Taylor Bishop, a modern girl many readers will find it easy to relate to. She has a successful career and lives in a great area of London, albeit in a minuscule flat. She’s bright, sexy and sassy, she is also ragingly, seriously angry and hurt and about to prove that “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” as the old adage goes. She has just split up with her long term boyfriend Angus, who she hoped was THE one, her forever man, but turned out to be the boyfriend you really don’t want to be involved with and he’s about to prove he’s an even worse louse than he at first appeared to be. This book is heart-racingly fast-paced, pulls no punches and reminded me of the original twisty tome Gone Girl. Alt...

Blog Tour East of England by Eamonn Griffin Today I welcome author Eamonn Griffin to Beadyjansbooks as part of the Blog Tour for his brand new "East Coast Noir" thriller - East of England. He has written this fab article for my blog where he shares his thoughts on writing in movies ... It's hardly surprising that Stephen King features as it's clear the darkness in his books have seeped into Eamonns deliciously dark writing style. Please read the article he has so kindly provided and then go read his dark and thrnew book. East of England which is available now  in paperback and kindle editions. The Blurb: Dan Matlock is out of jail. He’s got a choice. Stay or leave. Go back to where it all went wrong, or just get out of the county. Disappear. Start again as someone else. But it’s not as simple as that.  There’s the matter of the man he killed. It wasn’t murder, but even so. You tell that to the family. Especially when that family is the Mintons, who own half of what’s...

Blog tour - The Changeling by Matt Wesolowski. I'm delighted to have been invited along on the blog tour for the latest in the Six Stories series by Matt Wesolowski and in my opinion even better than it's predecessors, Six Stories and Hydra.  My Review: Being near the tail end of the blog tour, I've had to exercise a higher than usual amount of self-discipline and resist reading too many other reviews in case they influenced my review. I have, however, seen lots of social media posts saying how fabulous this book is and I concur. It is scary and chilling and has a real twist in the tail I didn't see coming, in fact, it swiped me sideways and left me reeling and my ears are still ringing. It is an emotive read, any book about a child who goes, and remains missing is sure to tug at anyone's heartstrings. It is menacing, coercive and really, REALLY, eerie and dark.  Little Alfie Marsden goes missing in the spooky and legend-ridden Wentshire Forest whils...

Review - The Doll Factory - Elizabeth Macneal. Two sisters Iris and Rose work together making dolls. It is the mid 19th century and whilst nearby the great exhibition is being planned, their days are long and repetitive, working for a hard taskmistress the girls dream of escaping to a more congenial life, Rose wants her own genteel little shop and Iris dreams of learning to paint. But both girls bear the scars of living in an era where medical care wasn't great. Rose has lost her beauty to the scarring of smallpox whilst  Iris has a hunched shoulder, due to a break in her collarbone at birth. and both girls fear no man will even look at them now. Iris's beauty, however, attracts the attention of two very different men. She is approached by artist Louis Frost, a member of the burgeoning pre Raphaelite brotherhood who begs her to model for his painting for which she barters art lessons in return.  Whilst in the shadows of the grimiest rookeries of old London, lurks lonely S...

The Taking of Annie Thorne - by C.J. Tudor. My thoughts: Here's one SCARY tale for you, horror at its creepy shivery best. Wow, this is a fabulous, scary, menacing story, that had me gripped all the way through. It's every bit as good as C J Tudor's wonderful previous book the Chalk man and similar in style and type of setting, though both are very different, stand-alone novels. This is a superb horror story well worthy of comparisons to Stephen King. Our protagonist is Joe Thorne, he's a teacher who returns to his childhood hometown, an old pit village called Arnhill, near Nottingham, to take up a position teaching at the local school he was once a pupil at. Joe is quite a complex character, though one I really liked. He obviously has a bit of a past, both back when he was a boy and in the intervening 25 years since he left school as he seems to know a few really dodgy characters and it isn't long until he starts bumping into folk from his childhood, this is a smal...

Today I welcome Linda Huber to my blog as part of the blog tour for her book The Cold Cold Sea. Linda has provided an enticing extract from her book to whet your appetite. Book Description and info: Blurb: They stared at each other, and Maggie felt the tightness in her middle expand as it shifted, burning its way up… Painful sobs rose in her throat as Colin, his face expressionless now, reached for his mobile and tapped 999. When three-year-old Olivia disappears from the beach, a happy family holiday comes to an abrupt end. Maggie is plunged into the darkest nightmare imaginable – what happened to her little girl?  Further along the coast, another mother is having problems too. Jennifer's daughter Hailey is starting school, and it should be such a happy time, but the child is increasingly moody and silent. Family life has never seemed so awkward, and Jennifer struggles to maintain control. The tide ebbs and flows, and summer dies, but there is no comfort for Maggie, alone now at th...

Review - Open Your Eyes by Paula Daly A well-written fabulous new page-turner from an author whose books never fail to grip you by the larynx and apply increasing pressure throughout, exactly what Grip-lit should be. This is a stand-alone domestic Noir thriller about Jane, a would-be author, married to Leon, the couple have 2 young children and everything is going fine apart from the books Jane writes being constantly rejected for publication. She knows how hard it is to break into publishing, she is a creative writing tutor and her husband has several successful published books under his belt already. One fateful day everything she knows is about to come crashing down around her ears, when suddenly Leon is attacked, right outside their own home and whilst he is in a deep coma in hospital she has to try and keep things at home on an even keel. But how can she ever feel safe where such a dreadful thing happened? The story is gripping on two levels, there is the deep mystery of who did t...

Blog Tour Today I bring you my thoughts on a wonderful new book, welcome to the blog tour for the new book Fatal Inheritance by Rachel Rhys which was published on 26th July 2018 and you can find it here. As my contribution to the tour and to whet your appetite here is my review of this wonderfully enjoyable book Review I’m deliriously happy to be included in the blog tour for this absolutely wonderful, feel-good romantic mystery by Rachel Rhys, aka Tammy Cohen, a brilliant novelist who turns her hand to two different genres with each persona she dons and does it with ease and panache. She demonstrated this succinctly in her first historical drama “A Dangerous Crossing”, which I also loved. you can read my review of that book here. Author Rachel Rhys If you’re looking for the absolutely perfect book to enjoy on holiday or curl up and relax with over the weekend then look no further you’ve found it in Fatal Inheritance. The period setting is post war England in 1948, where our heroine Ev...

Blog Tour and my review of An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena. Published by Bantam Press at Transworld publishers it is out on 26th July in Hardback . My Review: Welcome to the blog tour for An Unwanted guest, the new book by Shari Lapena author of twisty thrillers including the gripping book The Couple Next Door. Come in out of the snow, pull up a chair in front of a roaring fire and settle down for this twisty and puzzling thriller. (I know it’s still summer and this is a great holiday read, but its also one perfect winter read to look forward to as the nights draw in) This book is like a game of Consequences (I hope you used to play that party game when you were young or this isn’t a great start to my review) Cluedo meets Agatha Christie at the Hotel from the Shining, people die in mysterious circumstances, nobody knows who they can trust and the consequence is … everybody suspects each other of murder. Well, that sums it up quite nicely I think. It’s an out and out Whodunnit, w...

The Corset by Laura Purcell My Review WOW - brilliant, loved every word of this ravishing historical thriller. I do wish I hadn't read this book!! Only because I'm pretty darned certain it's going to such a hard act to follow that I'm going to find each and every new book I pick up for months, lacking in comparison and I'm saddened and green with envy that everyone who is yet to read this, still has it's delights to look forward to. The description had me chomping at the bit, the cover had me swooning and I KNEW without doubt that it was my kind of book to a T. Yet still I didn't know what absolute reading PERFECTION this completely spectacular book was going to be. Reminding me very much of two of my all time favourite reads Affinity and The Observations I am almost lost for words, to describe my feelings adequately after reading this. It is a historical twisty mystery which is deviously dark and devilishly delectable. Featuring two very different young wom...

Blog Tour and my Review – The Retreat by Mark Edwards I’m delighted to welcome one of my favourite authors of twisty psychological thrillers, Mark Edwards,  to Beadyjans books today with his latest terrifying new book – The Retreat. My Review: The Retreat is a clever and compelling thriller with great characters lots going on and plenty to scare the pants off you! If you’re reading my blog it figures that you’re a keen reader, blogger or writer and most of us who write, whether it be books, articles, blog posts or book reviews will surely have dreamt of some place quiet and peaceful to get away from the stresses of everyday life - the phones constantly ringing, people clamouring for our attention and thoughts and memories crowding in and interrupting the creative process. Well, that’s just what successful horror author Lucas thinks he’s found when he books a break at a newly created writers retreat in an old rural house in Wales, where owner Julia is trying to make ends meet after ...

Blog Tour and my review for The Old You by Louise Voss. Today I am part of the buzzing blog tour for the fab twistiness that is the latest thriller from Louise Voss. My Review “Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive” … There is a whole load of deception within these pages and to find out who is deceiving who and why, you’ll have to read it. I just read it and it blew my socks clean off. If you like your books to mess with your mind then this will fit the bill. The Old You begins quite gently with a dreadfully sad subject, the early onset of dementia and as we watch Lynn come to terms with her husbands sudden and rapid decline into senility it seems as though this is going to be a heart-breaking family drama, which it is …. in a way, however it is also Domestic Noir with a capital N, at its very darkest, filled with secrets and lies and OMG moments. Psychologically it’s mind blowing and so damned cunning it’s a joy to read. Lynn married Ed ten years ago when t...

Today I am part of the Blog Tour for The Man on the Middle Floor by Elizabeth S Moore, I was provided with a copy of this intriguing new novel by @RedDoorBooks to read and share my thoughts. My Review Review – The Man on the Middle floor Elizabeth S Moore The man on the middle floor is a dark and rather disturbing novel about several dysfunctional people who live in flats on the 3 floors of a converted London townhouse who become unwittingly involved in a spate of deaths which occur close by. Although the subject matter is dissimilar the writing style reminded me rather of early Hilary Mantel in particular her novel Beyond black. Although there is no hint of the supernatural in this tale of murder and mayhem and folk who just don’t fit the mould, there is the same sense of bleakness and desperation and cleverly constructed characters, shaped by their own pasts. The Victorian townhouse in question, overlooks a park and each floor has a lone, single occupant, each ensconced in their ...

My Review A really exciting roller coaster read, with 3 wonderful psychologically flawed and desperate women as lead characters and one rather vile man, who almost had me fooled into having some sympathy for him at the beginning but whom I soon learnt to loathe and despise as he revealed his true colours and I joined in with wishing he'd get his come-upppance. C.L. Taylor writes mind numbingly realistic - "Oh My God thank heavens that isn't happening to me" scenarios, with believable and relatable characters. They say you never forget your first love - well Lou has never forgotten hers!! The subject matter is both distasteful yet topical. The grooming of young girls by an older man in a position of trust, who abuses that trust and ruins lives. That man is Mike Hughes, a teacher, a mature married man. Hardly surprising that young impressionable girls look up to him, hero worship him, fall in love with him. But it's how he misuses that innocent love to his own evil ...