Tag: blogtour

Blog Tour/Book Review: Dark Sky Island (Jennifer Dorey Mystery #2) by Lara Dearman

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Dark Sky Island Blog Tour v2

Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for crime mystery, Dark Sky Island (Jennifer Dorey Mystery #2) by Lara Dearman.

My thanks to Trapeze Books and NetGalley for my review copy.  You can read my review below.

Dark Sky IslandAbout the Book

DCI Michael Gilbert is called out to Sark – the world’s first dark sky island – after bones are found on Derrible Bay. He is followed by journalist Jennifer Dorey, driven by a secret in her own past. The remains are decades old, but after a body is discovered Jennifer and Michael fear there may be a killer on the island. Together they follow a dark trail of bad blood and a conspiracy of silence.

Everyone on the island is under suspicion. No one is what they seem. And the murderer could strike again at any time…

Format: Paperback (336 pp.)    Publisher: Trapeze
Published: 18th April 2019 Genre: Crime, Mystery

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com  ǀ Hive.co.uk (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Dark Sky Island (Jennifer Dorey Mystery #2) on Goodreads

My Review

Dark Sky Island is the second book in Lara Dearman’s ‘Jennifer Dorey Mysteries’ series. As someone who’s not read the first book, The Devil’s Claw, I can assure readers Dark Sky Island works perfectly well as a standalone. However, there are references to events in the first book making me wish I had been able to read The Devil’s Claw first. Having said that, the author clearly left a few plot elements unresolved at the end of The Devil’s Claw so that new readers don’t feel they’ve lost out and readers of the series can (finally) have their curiosity satisfied. Very clever.

I really enjoyed the unusual setting of the book – the Channel Islands of Guernsey and Sark. There’s loads of convincing sounding local detail and information about the history of Sark, in particular. I loved the way the author used the contrast between the seemingly idyllic island of Sark with its bicycles and horse-drawn carts, unspoilt natural landscape and rocky coastline and the brutal reality of murder. There’s an undercurrent of tension too between the locals and more recent arrivals, between old customs and modern developments. Given the only way on and off Sark is by boat, it gives a feeling of a locked room mystery. That sense of claustrophobia is enhanced by the island’s small population, made up of families who have lived there for generations and where pretty much everyone knows everyone else. Plenty of opportunity too for past feuds, long-held grievances and secrets in what Jenny refers to at one point as ‘this twisted paradise, with its shadowy figures and their veiled threats‘.

Through the alternating narratives of Jenny and Michael, as well as a few other characters whose part in the story is not immediately obvious, the reader follows the course of the police investigation into the identity of remains found hidden in a cave and the murder of a local man. In addition, Jenny has a very personal mystery she needs answers to. Are they connected? You’ll have to read Dark Sky Island to find out but what I can say is that as the book progresses the revelations comes thick and fast. There were also a few ‘I wouldn’t do that, Jenny/Michael, if I were you’ moments to get the pulse racing as the story builds to its dramatic conclusion. And you never can tell, can you, who’s a goodie and who’s a baddie?

I really enjoyed Dark Sky Island and as the author definitely seems to have left a few loose threads at the end of the book, I’m hopeful this isn’t the last story featuring Jennifer.

I received a review copy courtesy of publishers, Trapeze, and NetGalley.

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In three words: Gripping, atmospheric, suspenseful

Try something similar…The Temptation by Vera Morris (read my review here)

Lara DearmanAbout the Author

(Bio courtesy of author website) Lara was born and raised on the Channel Island of Guernsey. She moved to the UK to study International Relations and French at the University of Sussex, after which she endured a brief career in finance before giving it up to be a stay at home mum to her three children. A short course in Creative Writing at Richmond Adult Community College led to Lara studying for a Masters in Creative Writing at St Mary’s University, London. She graduated in 2016 with a distinction.

Having moved from Guernsey to Brighton to London to Paris to Singapore and back to London over the last fifteen years, she has now settled in Westchester, New York, with her family. Her first novel, The Devil’s Claw, combines her love of Guernsey, myths and folklore with her obsession with crime fiction and serial killers. In the sequel, Dark Sky Island, murder and mystery arrive on the beautiful and isolated island of Sark. (Photo credit: Goodreads author page)

Connect with Lara

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Blog Tour/Book Review: A Clean Canvas by Elizabeth Mundy

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A Clean Canvas Full Tour Banner

Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for A Clean Canvas by Elizabeth Mundy, the second book in the author’s fun Lena Szarka Mystery series. Thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my review copy.  You can read my review below.

WinThere’s also a giveaway too (UK only) with a chance for one lucky person to win a Winsor & Newton pocket-sized watercolour set and a signed copy of A Clean Canvas. To enter via Rafflecopter click here.

Giveaway Terms and Conditions

  • UK entries only.
  • Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.
  • The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner.
  • Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data.
  • I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

A Clean CanvasAbout the Book

Crime always leaves a stain…

Lena Szarka, a Hungarian cleaner, dusts off her detective skills when a masterpiece is stolen from a gallery she cleans with her cousin Sarika.  When Sarika goes missing too, accusations start to fly.

Convinced her cousin is innocent, Lena sweeps her way through the secrets of the London art scene. But with the evidence against Sarika mounting and the police on her trail, Lena needs to track down the missing painting if she is to clear her cousin.

Embroiling herself in the sketchy world of thwarted talents, unpaid debts and elegant fraudsters, Lena finds that there’s more to this gallery than meets the eye.

Format: ebook, paperback (288 pp.)      Publisher: Constable
Published: 3rd January 2019                  Genre: Mystery

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ Amazon.com |  Hive.co.uk (supporting local bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find A Clean Canvas on Goodreads

My Review

I really enjoyed the first book in the series, In Strangers’ Houses, and Elizabeth Mundy has repeated the same winning formula in this second outing for Hungarian cleaner, Lena Szarka, now running her own fledgling cleaning business. Although A Clean Canvas works perfectly as a standalone, there are some references to events in the first book.

A cleaner is a great premise for an amateur detective because of course they have unparalleled access to the homes of their clients (no search warrant needed) and can learn all sorts of things about them from the way they fold their socks to what they keep in the cupboard beneath their sink. As Lena confides, ‘Their houses speak… If you learn how to listen.’

I loved how cleaning is never far from Lena’s mind, whether as a means of relaxation or concentration (‘Polishing shoes always helped her think’), a spur to activity (‘She saw a dirty teacup and fought the urge to wash it up’) or as a way of judging character.  ‘She knew his type.  Ignore you unless they wanted something.  The kind of person you would clean for for years, dusting his television, washing his socks, wiping the dried up szar from his toilet bowl.  He wouldn’t even know your name and would never think to leave a tip at Christmas.’ [Even if you don’t speak Hungarian, I think you can probably work out the meaning of the word szar!]

Lena is smart, observant and has a logical mind; all useful attributes for a detective. Combine that with a strong sense of natural justice and loyalty to friends and relatives, and it’s no surprise Lena can’t help but get involved when her cousin is suspected of the theft of a valuable painting. And she’s thrilled when she’s able to team up with an old ally unexpectedly back on the scene…and perhaps not just for this case?

Lena’s mother, Greta (a personal favourite from the first book) makes a return appearance, albeit at a distance.  Greta is a woman who can fall out with someone over the matter of a burnt pan, who prides herself on making the definitive chicken paprikash and distrusts any man who doesn’t have a healthy appetite.  At one point, detecting the urge to make a goulash for the man for whom she harbours romantic feelings, Lena fears she may be turning into her mother!  On another occasion, Lena describes a girl as having ‘proportions her mother would have approved of’.

I really enjoyed getting to know Lena again and joining her on another adventure.  A Clean Canvas is a charming and entertaining read and I hope Lena’s plans for her new venture mean there will be further adventures ahead for her.

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In three words: Engaging, amiable, mystery

Try something similar…Madam Tulip by David Ahern (read my review here)

Elizabeth MundyAbout the Author

Elizabeth Mundy’s grandmother was a Hungarian immigrant to America who raised five children on a chicken farm in Indiana. An English Literature graduate from Edinburgh University, Elizabeth is a marketing director for an investment firm and lives in London with her messy husband and two young children. A Clean Canvas is the second book in the Lena Szarka mystery series about a Hungarian cleaner who turns detective.

Connect with Elizabeth

Website ǀ  Twitter  ǀ Facebook | Instagram |  Goodreads