Category: Blog Tour

#BlogTour #BookReview The Quiet People by Paul Cleave @OrendaBooks @RandomTTours

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Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for The Quiet People by Paul Cleave. My thanks to Anne at Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part in the tour and to Orenda for my digital review copy. The Quiet People is available now as an ebook and will be published in paperback on 25th November 2021.

The Quiet People CoverAbout the Book

Cameron and Lisa Murdoch are successful New Zealand crime writers, happily married and topping bestseller lists worldwide. They have been on the promotional circuit for years, joking that no one knows how to get away with crime like they do. After all, they write about it for a living.

So when their challenging seven-year-old son Zach disappears, the police and the public naturally wonder if they have finally decided to prove what they have been saying all this time… Are they trying to show how they can commit the perfect crime?

Multi-award winning bestseller Paul Cleave returns with an electrifying and chilling thriller about family, public outrage and what a person might be capable of under pressure, that will keep you guessing until the final page…

Format: Paperback (300 pages)              Publisher: Orenda Books
Publication date: 25th November 2021 Genre: Crime, Thriller

Find The Quiet People on Goodreads

Purchase links
Bookshop.org
Disclosure: If you buy a book via the above link, I may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops

Hive | Amazon UK
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My Review

So, in The Quiet People we have a crime novelist writing a crime novel about two crime novelists who write crime novels. If that doesn’t get your head spinning just wait for what follows. A plot with more twists than a helter skelter, more turns than a merry-go-round and which will transport you into a dark hall of mirrors.

In their career as crime novelists the Murdochs have imagined all sorts of terrible things happening to other people but what if what’s happening to them is worse than anything they could have conjured up? After all, if you were going to commit the ‘perfect crime’, would you really choose your own child as the potential victim?

As the book progresses it builds up speed until it’s hurtling along like an express train, throwing its passengers (us readers) from side to side as it heads towards its unknown destination. But are Cameron and Lisa Murdoch driving the train or are they just passengers along with everyone else, powerless to determine what will happen next?

When everyone turns against you and suspects you of the worst crime possible, who can you rely on? Cameron, in particular, is about to find out and the answer may be more devastating than even he could have imagined. One piece of advice – probably best not to listen to Mr What If.

Incorporating elements such as press intrusion, betrayal, corruption, and the desire for revenge and retribution, The Quiet People exposes both the best and worst in people. It’s a terrific piece of crime writing and the epitome of a page-turner.

In three words: Clever, dark, gripping

Try something similar: End of Summer by Anders de la Motte

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Paul CleaveAbout the Author

Paul is an award-winning author who divides his time between his home city of Christchurch, New Zealand, where most of his novels are set, and Europe. He has won the New Zealand Ngaio Marsh Award three times, the Saint-Maur book festival’s crime novel of the year award in France, and has been shortlisted for the Edgar and the Barry in the US and the Ned Kelly in Australia. His books have been translated into over twenty languages. He’s thrown his frisbee in over forty countries, plays tennis badly, golf even worse, and has two cats – which is often two too many.

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#BlogTour #BookReview The Girl from Bletchley Park by Kathleen McGurl @rararesources @KathMcGurl @HQStories

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Welcome today’s stop on the blog tour for The Girl from Bletchley Park by Kathleen McGurl. My thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me to take part in the tour and to HQ Digital for my review copy via NetGalley. The Girl from Bletchley Park is available now as an ebook and will be published in paperback in January 2022.

The Girl from Bletchley ParkAbout the Book

A country at war. A heartbreaking betrayal.

1942.Three years into the war, Pam turns down her hard-won place at Oxford University to become a codebreaker at Bletchley Park. There, she meets two young men, both keen to impress her, and Pam finds herself falling hard for one of them. But as the country’s future becomes more uncertain by the day, a tragic turn of events casts doubt on her choice – and Pam’s loyalty is pushed to its limits…

Present day. Julia is struggling to juggle her career, two children and a husband increasingly jealous of her success.Her brother presents her with the perfect distraction: forgotten photos of their grandmother as a young woman at Bletchley Park. Why did her grandmother never speak of her time there? The search for answers leads Julia to an incredible tale of betrayal and bravery – one that inspires some huge decisions of her own..

Format: ebook (326 pages)                  Publisher: HQ Digital
Publication date: 3rd November 2021 Genre: Historical Fiction, Dual Time

Find The Girl from Bletchley Park on Goodreads

Purchase links
Bookshop.org
Disclosure: If you buy a book via the above link, I may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops

Hive | Amazon UK
Links provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

I really enjoyed The Stationmaster’s Daughter when I read it back in 2019 so my interest was immediately piqued when I learned Kathleen McGurl had a new book coming out.

There is a continuing fascination with the work carried out at Bletchley Park during World War 2, work which we now know proved of great significance to the war effort. The author takes us “behind the scenes” at Bletchley Park through the story of Pamela, a promising student of mathematics who is persuaded to defer her place at university and instead put her skills to work in the service of her country. During her time at Bletchley Park, Pamela makes friendships that will last a lifetime but also learns in the most dramatic way possible that not everyone is quite what they seem, the author deftly playing with the reader’s doubts and suspicions.

Interwoven with Pamela’s experiences is the present day story of Julia, Pamela’s granddaughter. As the book progresses the similarities between the situations the two women face become increasingly apparent. For example, a neat touch is that Julia runs her own IT business whilst Pamela worked on what could be considered an early version of a computer. In different ways, both Pamela and Julia experience betrayal by those they have come to trust but also find help from unexpected quarters. Along the way ties of friendship and affection are tested and both women have to summon up all their strength to protect those they care about.

I really liked the way Julia’s relationship with her two sons, Oscar and Ryan, was portrayed and how they progress from being stroppy teenagers to showing signs of becoming fine young men. Julia’s brother, Bob, and Drew, the husband of Julia’s business partner, act as counterpoints to other less than admirable examples of the male species. And, in the earlier timeline, Clarissa proves a steadfast friend to Pamela whose warnings, as it turns out, Pamela would have done well to heed.

The Girl from Bletchley Park will appeal to fans of dual timeline stories with an element of mystery, and those with an interest in the contribution, often largely unsung, of women to the war effort.

In three words: Engaging, emotional, intriguing

Try something similar: The Sea Gate by Jane Johnson

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The Stationmasters Kathleen McGurl author photoAbout the Author

Kathleen McGurl lives near the coast in Christchurch, England. She writes dual timeline novels in which a historical mystery is uncovered and resolved in the present day. She is married to an Irishman and has two adult sons. She enjoys travelling, especially in her motorhome around Europe.

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The Girl From Bletchley Park