BlogTour #BookReview The Ends of the Earth by Abbie Greaves @centurybooksuk

whatcathyreadnext1 Comment

Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for The Ends of the Earth by Abbie Greaves which was published in paperback on 6th January 2022. My thanks to Laura O’Donnell at Penguin UK for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my review copy.

The Ends of the Earth PBAbout the Book

Some love stories change us for ever.

For the last seven years, Mary O’Connor has waited for her first love. Every evening she arrives at Ealing Broadway station and stands with a sign which simply says: ‘Come Home Jim’.

Commuters might pass her by without a second thought, but Mary isn’t going anywhere. Until an unexpected call turns her world on its head.

It will take the help of a young journalist called Alice, and a journey across the country for Mary to face what happened all those years ago, and to finally answer the question: where on earth is Jim?

Format: Paperback (404 pages)       Publisher: Century
Publication date: 6th January 2022 Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Find The Ends of the Earth 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

The book alternates between 2018 and the six years from Mary and Jim’s first meeting in 2005 and his disappearance.

I don’t think I’m alone in being touched by Mary’s determination to continue her nightly vigil, holding her handwritten, and by now rather tattered, sign or by her conviction that ‘love is nothing if not patient’. ‘She will not give up. No. She will wait and wait and then wait some more.’ Alice Keaton, a young journalist on the local newspaper, is certainly struck by Mary’s story. ‘COME HOME JIM. Who knew that three little words could be suffused with such yearning, such pain?‘ It’s a pain Alice can identify with because of her own experiences and this, along with her journalistic ambitions, is what motivates her to befriend Mary and then embark on the search for Jim.  In the process, Alice hopes to lay to rest some personal ghosts and perhaps find some peace of mind through helping Mary.

As we learn, it was love at first sight for Mary and Jim, and their early years together were idyllic. Although every couple have their ups and downs, there are soon signs that everything is not quite right with Jim. Mary can’t – or won’t – see the warning signs because she’s so in love with Jim and so grateful she’s found someone who says she is the centre of his world, someone who would go ‘to the ends of the earth’ for her. For a long time, Mary believes it was Jim who rescued her from an otherwise lonely life but in fact it’s the other way around and it was she who rescued him.

When the evidence of Jim’s struggles can no longer be ignored, Mary is determined to help him through it. After all, as she tells herself, ‘Love wasn’t about the moments when you were dancing on the ceiling, it was about picking one another up from the floor‘.  And Mary does try, even blaming herself for Jim’s low mood, and seizing on the brief moments when he seems like the ‘old Jim’ as a sign things are getting better.  But they’re not. Mary’s guilt only increases following Jim’s sudden disappearance and it is this that fuels her lonely vigil, placing her life effectively on hold.  As she remarks to Alice, sometimes not knowing is better than knowing.

The Ends of the Earth is described as ‘at once a love story and a mystery’ but the way those two elements play out may be not quite what you were expecting. As the author demonstrates, sometimes there are no easy answers and life must go on, albeit on a different path than you might have hoped for.

In three words: Tender, insightful, poignant

Try something similar: Lost Property by Helen Paris

Follow this blog via Bloglovin

Abbie GreavesAbout the Author

Abbie Greaves studied at Cambridge University before working in a literary agency for a number of years. She was inspired to write her first novel, The Silent Treatment, after reading a newspaper article about a boy in Japan who had never seen his parents speak to one another before. Abbie lives in Brighton.

Connect with Abbie
Website | Twitter | Instagram

THe Ends of Earth Twitter Banner

#BlogTour #BookReview Betrayal by David Gilman @HoZ_Books @DavidGilmanUK

whatcathyreadnext

Gilman_BETRAYAL_Blog tour banner (1)-2Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Betrayal by David Gilman. My thanks to Sophie at Ransom PR for inviting me to take part in the tour and to Head of Zeus for my review copy. Do check out the review by my tour buddy for today, Jo at Murder, Jo Wrote.

BetrayalAbout the Book

Someone’s trying to start a war. And Raglan’s just walked into the kill zone.

It has been many years since Dan Raglan served in the French Foreign Legion, but the bonds forged in adversity are unbreakable and when one of his comrades calls for help, Raglan is duty-bound to answer. An ex-legionnaire, now an intelligence officer at the Pentagon, disappears. He leaves only this message: should he ever go missing, contact Raglan. But Raglan’s not the only one looking for the missing man.

From the backstreets of Marseilles, Raglan finds himself following a trail of death that will lead him to Florida, to the camaraderie of a Vietnam vet in Washington D.C., and into the heart of a bitter battle in the upper echelons of the US intelligence community.

Pursued by both the CIA and a rogue female FBI agent, Raglan’s search will place him in the cross hairs of an altogether more lethal organisation. Tracking his old comrade, he finds himself in the midst of deadly conspiracy, and on a journey to a fatal confrontation deep in the Honduran rainforest

Format: Hardcover (544 pages)       Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 6th January 2022 Genre: Thriller

Find Betrayal on Goodreads

Purchase links
Bookshop.org
Disclosure: If you buy a book via the above link, I may earn a small 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 absolutely loved The Englishman, the book that first introduced the world to ex-French Foreign Legion soldier and all-round action man, Dan Raglan, so you can imagine my excitement when I learned that a follow-up was on the way.

The description of Betrayal as a ‘high-octane international thriller’ is spot-on. The action comes thick and fast. If Raglan’s not engaged in deadly combat, he’s either preparing for it or recovering from it.  Raglan is seemingly indomitable; the ‘kill zone’ being a place he knows all too well.  As one character remarks to him, ‘Dead people appear on a regular basis when you’re around’. He’s also clever, tech-savvy, super-fit, has eyes in the back of his head and is adept at using any sort of weaponry you care to imagine. A man of many talents, he can pilot a plane, speak any number of languages, spot a security camera a mile off, find his way through a crocodile-infested mangrove swamp and even perform minor surgery on himself.  And who else do you know who stores bullet fragments in his tooth mug?

In the hands of the author, Raglan is not some sort of robotic killing machine. He’s also mortal and carries traumatic memories of things he’s seen – and done.  He’s a steadfast friend and demonstrates an unbreakable loyalty to the comrades who served alongside him in the French Foreign Legion. As he says, ‘the Legion was family’ and their motto ‘the mission is sacred’ is one he lives by. There are occasional glimpses of a softer side too even if he admits ‘I don’t have anybody tearing themselves apart over me’.

At this point I have a confession to make: I’ve developed rather a crush on Raglan. I know it’s unlikely, and I’m aware I might have formidable competition, but if there’s ever a vacancy for a Mrs. Raglan, count me in. (I hope my husband isn’t reading this.) Apart from anything else, I’d make sure he had a good supply of his favourite dark blue T-shirts and I’d even tend to a wound on his upper thigh. (I really hope my husband isn’t reading this.)

The pace of the book is intense and, despite being over 500 pages, the short chapters help the story move along like a whirlwind. A plot that involves people in positions of power engaging in activity that circumvents government oversight in order to achieve their own political ends, well that could never happen could it? Although, wait a minute… And don’t worry if you don’t know your DIA from your FBI or your CIA, all you really need to know is that there are bad guys out there – really, really bad guys – planning to do all sorts of unspeakable things and Raglan is out to stop them.

Those not completely obsessed by the thought of Raglan stripped to the waist or all sweaty after a punishing two mile run (I know, divorce papers arriving in the post any day) need not worry, your thirst for all-out action scenes will be fully quenched. The author serves up one bone-crunching, brutal and bloody scene after another making you wonder just how Raglan has survived so long. But has he met his match when he encounters a deadly opponent just as driven and ruthless as he is? I’m afraid you’re going to have to read the book to find out.

If you’ve survived reading this Raglan love-fest, I think it will be apparent that I absolutely loved Betrayal. To my mind, it’s everything you could wish for in an action thriller.  (By the way, check out the author’s website to see a photograph taken during a private tour of the Pentagon that formed part of his research for the book.)

In three words: Gripping, action-packed, pacy

Try something similar: No Way To Die by Tony Kent

Follow this blog via Bloglovin

David GilmanAbout the Author

David Gilman has enjoyed many careers  – including firefighter, being in the Paras and as a photographer – before turning to writing full-time. He is an award-winning author, is published in several languages and was also the screenwriter for A Touch of Frost.

Connect with David
Website | Twitter | Facebook

Betrayal Banner