Tag Archives: faber and faber

August 19, 2022 · 3:30 pm

The Family Retreat by Bev Thomas – a review Blog Tour

I am delighted to be taking part in the blog tour for The Family Retreat by Bev Thomas which is out on the 25th August.

Screenwriter Rob and his wife Jess are going away for the summer after a year that has pushed Jess to the edge as she’s struggled with her job as a GP. Rob is convinced that this will be the perfect holiday they all need and their children are excited to be able to spend the summer at the beach. The family are staying in a rented cottage in a small village in Dorset and soon start to meet the neighbours in the close-knit community. Jess is particularly drawn to the slightly standoffish Helen, with her perfect husband and two well behaved children. However as the summer plods on it soon become clear that Helen isn’t quite what she seems!

The Family Retreat was a really good story that I read over a couple of evenings as it was absolutely gripping.

Bev Thomas’ debut novel was A Good Enough Mother which I also loved. When I reviewed that, at the time I said that it was part mystery and part emotional drama and the same goes for The Family Retreat. This is a book that makes you think and question people’s attitudes to others. It deals with some big issues including abuse and mental health, in fact my only slight criticism was that there seemed to be almost too many issues towards the end, however that was just a very small point as the story is excellent.

The Family Retreat was a really well written book, and I felt that the way that really sensitive topics were dealt with was very sympathetic and well researched. The characters were all interesting and well rounded, and without giving too much away the reveal when it comes is shocking and although all the clues are there I didn’t put them together. I particularly felt for Jess as we find out what happened in her life to lead to her sabbatical, and her tendancy to get too emotionally involved with others.

This was a engaging novel with the tension building slowly throughout with a sense of foreboding from the start. I would most definitely recommend this and it was a perfect hot weather read.

To find out what others thought of The Family Retreat visit the other stops on the blog tour.

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April 6, 2019 · 5:05 pm

A Good Enough Mother by Bev Thomas – BLOG TOUR

I was delighted to be invited onto the blog tour for author Bev Thomas’s debut novel A Good Enough Mother.
A Good Enough Mother follows Ruth Hartland, the Director of a trauma therapy unit in London. She is well respected psychotherapist with a fantastic career, yet her personal life is in bits. Tom her seventeen year old son has been missing for two years and has had no contact with anyone, her marriage has crumbled, and she has a difficult relationship with her daughter Tom’s twin sister. When a disturbed patient is referred she is shocked by the fact that Dan looks exactly like her missing son, and things soon start to spiral out of control as her professional boundaries start to blur.
This is a story of families told from the perspective of a mother dealing with both grief and guilt about her own part in the breakdown of the family. It was a gripping tale that I found fascinating. The author was a trained clinical psychologist and that comes across in the writing. As well as learning about Dan we also find out about other patients, they are background characters but give us a great insight into how Ruth usually works to contrast with her relationship with Dan.
This isn’t necessarily an easy read as it is emotional and sad. The quality of the writing draws you in as it weaves through to its inevitable car crash which I found quite shocking. The character of Ruth is intriguing. For someone who is supposedly at the top of the tree in her career she certainly makes some annoying mistakes, yet that is partly a consequence of her emotional state.
A Good Enough Mother is part mystery and part emotional drama both of which are utterly compelling. I would highly recommend this debut novel.

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March 21, 2019 · 5:14 pm

The Last Act by Brad Parks – an extract

Today I am excited to be able to share with you an extract from the thrilling new page-turner from the author of Say Nothing, Brad Parks.

The Last Act follows former Broadway star Tommy Jump. As his final run as Sancho Ponza draws to a close, Tommy is getting ready to give up the stage, find a steady paycheck, and settle down with his fiancée.

Cue Special Agent Danny Ruiz. An old school friend of Tommy’s, now with the FBI, Ruiz makes Tommy an offer that sounds too good to refuse. All Tommy has to do is spend six months in prison, acting as failed bank robber ’Pete Goodrich’.

Inside, he must find and befriend Mitchell Dupree, who has hidden a secret cache of documents incriminating enough to take down New Colima, one of Mexico’s largest drug cartels. If Tommy can get Dupree and reveal where the documents are hidden, the FBI will give him $300,000, more than enough to jumpstart a new life. But does he have what it takes to pull off this one final role?

Read on for an extract from this fantastic sounding novel.

We spent the next few hours getting granular with the details.
By the time we had something workable, it was three
o’clock in the afternoon. I felt ready to confront Danny Ruiz. Or as
ready as I could be.
We had decided I would make the call from a burner phone. If I
used the Randolph phones, the Bureau of Prisons would be
listening— which, if nothing else, would prevent Danny from being
able to talk freely. With Mrs. Lembo’s blessing, Agent Hall went out
and procured a flip phone that, by appearances, had not set the FBI
back much.
I told them I didn’t want to make the call in front of them, which
Hines had originally fought against. But I convinced her my job was
already difficult enough, without the added pressure of performing
for a live audience. I won the argument when I pointed out that we
were each going to have to trust each other a lot in the coming days
if this plan was ever going to succeed.
Eventually, she acquiesced. They set me up in an empty office
down the hall from the conference room. It was strange— strange
and powerful— being gifted with cellular technology again after two
months in the dark ages. In my hands, that cheap burner phone felt
like Excalibur.
Now sitting at a desk, like some midlevel BOP bureaucrat, I took
a few deep breaths to mentally prepare myself. I had to be the same
actor Ruiz and Gilmartin had hired. They couldn’t suspect I had
switched roles behind their backs.
I dialed Danny’s number. After three rings, he answered with a
cautious, “Hello?”
This was the first time I had actually talked to him since learning
what he really was. His treachery, the ease with which he had manipulated
me— and the unwitting guilelessness I had shown throughout
most of it— was coming back to me as both humiliation and anger.
But I swallowed the bile rising in my throat and, in my regular
voice— not my Pete Goodrich accent— said, “Hey. It’s Tommy.”
“Slugbomb? What’s this number you’re calling me on?”
“It’s a burner phone. I had a CO smuggle it in for me. I wanted
us to be able to talk without the Bureau of Prisons listening in.”
“Oh, right. Smart. So what’s up? Did Mitch finally make up
his mind?”
“Yeah, he did.”
“What did he say?”
“Not yet. We’ve got some business to discuss first,” I said, then
presented my newfound knowledge without adornment: “I know
what you really are, Danny. I know who you really work for.”
“I’m sorry, what?”
“I know you’re not an FBI agent.”
“I’m not?” And then, in typical smooth- Danny fashion, he tried
to made a joke out of it: “Then why am I wearing this suit right now?”
“Knock it off, Danny. I know about the drug charges you faced.
I know you killed Kris Langetieg. I know you threatened David
Drayer into cooperating. I know you have been lying to me about
everything.”
“Slow down, slow down. I have no idea what you’re talking about.
Did someone…… Did you hear something that got you upset? Help
me out here. I’m confused about where this is coming from.”
“Stop it. Stop pretending. It’s over.”

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September 24, 2018 · 4:20 pm

The Infinite Blacktop by Sara Gran – a review BLOG TOUR

Whilst normally I wouldn’t post twice in one day, sometimes there are just books that it is impossible to say no to, and this was one of them. The Infinite Blacktop is the first I have read by Sara Gran, although it is actually the third novel featuring Private Investigator Claire De Witt.

The book starts with a bang, literally, as Claire comes round after a car accident and realises that someone is trying to kill her. This starts off a novel that is actually three stories in one. There is the mystery in the present day of who is trying to kill Claire. We then shoot back to 1986 where Claire and her friends are teenage detectives until one of them goes missing. Then in the middle we visit 1999 where Claire is trying to get enough hours under her belt to qualify for her PI license investigating a murder in the art world.

I must confess that this took a little while for me to get into. It read at first as a bit Agatha Raisin with each title being The Case of something. (Yes I know lots of other classic detective stories also use this idea that’s just the one that sprang to my mind!) However Agatha Raisin this certainly wasn’t. Claire is moody, violent, has a penchant for drug taking and is happy to use whatever methods necessary to protect herself and solve her cases. I think I would probably have warmed to her more if I had read the previous books whereas in this I didn’t really take to her much. However the stories themselves were interesting. I especially liked the younger version of Claire and it was clever how all the parts interwove throughout.

This was an good read, despite the three timelines it was easy to keep track of and the story went along at speed. Once you get into the swing of the writing I really enjoyed it. Despite my odd reservation about some of Claire’s actions it shows what people are capable of when they are pushed. It is also fascinating to find out about Claire’s previous life and these other time lines give a great insight into why Claire is like she is.

If you like strong female lead characters who take no prisoners then you can’t go far wrong with this gritty tale of a female PI. I will definitely be starting this series from the beginning.

Sara Gran is the author of five critically acclaimed novels, including Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead, Come Closer and Dope. She also writes for film and TV, including ’Southland’ and ’Chance’, and has published in The New York Times, The New Orleans Times Picayune and USA Today.

Her latest novel is available here

 Visit the other blog tour stops to find out more:

IB_Blog_tour (1)

 

 

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