Tag: historical fiction

Cover Reveal: The Blameless Dead by Gary Haynes

whatcathyreadnext1 Comment

I’m delighted to be taking part in the cover reveal for The Blameless Dead by Gary Haynes and to be spreading the word about this fantastic sounding book ahead of its publication in March 2019.

The Blameless Dead is described as ‘an epic, compelling, edge-of-the-seat drama that sweeps the reader from twentieth century Europe to modern-day New York, taking in some of the most important events of modern history and exposing them in honest and unflinching terms. Part murder-mystery, part historical novel and shot through with adrenaline-pumping action, this novel superbly demonstrates that, while the hostilities may cease and the peace be signed, the horror that is war is never really over.’

If that description gets your bookish juices flowing in the same way it did mine, why not add The Blameless Dead to your Goodreads To-Read shelf now?  I have and I’m really looking forward to reading the book and sharing my review as part of the blog tour next year.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

The Blameless DeadAbout the Book

In the dying days of World War Two, Pavel Romasko and his Red Army colleagues pick their way through the carnage and detritus of a dying Berlin. Stumbling upon the smoking remains of a Nazi bunker, they find something inside that eclipses the horror of even the worst excesses in the city above them…

As the war ends, retribution begins. But some revenge cannot be taken at once. Some revenge takes years.

And so it is, as post-war Europe tries desperately to drag itself back onto its feet, and soldiers attempt a return to normality, that retribution continues to ferment in the Gulags of the Soviet Union and beneath the surface of apparently ordinary lives.

Which is how, seventy years later, FBI agent Carla Romero and New York lawyer Gabriel Hall are enlisted to investigate a series of blood-chilling crimes that seem to have their roots in the distant past — even though the suffering they cause is all too present. And for one of them, the disappearance of young women is a particularly personal matter.

Gary Haynes author imageAbout the Author

Gary Haynes is a bestselling thriller writer, and member of the International Thriller Writers organisation. He studied law at university and passed his post-graduate legal qualifications before becoming a commercial litigator. He is a Freedom of Speech advocate and is interested in history, philosophy and foreign policy. Gary’s previous novels include the popular Tom Dupree series: State of Honour and State of Attack.

Connect with Gary

Website  ǀ  Facebook  ǀ  Twitter  ǀ  Goodreads

The Blameless Dead

Book Review: Bells of Avalon by Libbet Bradstreet

whatcathyreadnext1 Comment

Bells of AvalonAbout the Book

Thrust into a limelight she never chose, Katie’s been paired with Danny for as long as she can remember. Films, roadshow tours, and drugstore appearances…post-war Hollywood can’t seem to get enough of the sweetheart team. They’ll even fall in love one day.  But young love seldom survives the fog wake of Los Angeles – a place of dreams and nightmares.

Format: ebook (298 pp)                    Publisher:
Published: 26th July 2015               Genre: Historical Fiction, Historical Romance

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Bells of Avalon on Goodreads

My Review

In my interview with the author last year (which you can read in full here), Libbet confessed, ‘I’ve been obsessed with the glamour of vaudeville and the golden age of Hollywood since I was young.’   In Bells of Avalon, the author certainly creates a convincing sense of the period but what comes to the fore is not so much the glamour as the seedier side of Hollywood.  The reader sees the vulnerability of young actors to exploitation (in spite of their chaperones), the manufactured nature of their personas (voice coaching, cosmetic dentistry) and the limited shelf life of child stars. ‘Those children faded away, one by one, irrelevant casualties of the clunking Hollywood machine.’

The traumatic event in Katie’s childhood revealed early in the book makes her possibly the easiest character to empathise with, even if not all her later decisions seem entirely rational.   Danny is also a troubled character and his relationship with Katie is definitely far removed from that depicted in their films and pedalled by the studios’ publicity teams. ‘None of it was real, of course.  They were told what to do and when to smile.’

The book has frequent changes of timeline and location and, even within a particular time period, characters are often recalling (either in a waking or dreaming state) events from years before.  In addition, key facts about the lives of the characters are revealed, often quite late in the book.  A degree of concentration is therefore required from the reader to keep track of events and sort them into some sort of chronology. I confess that I had to reread some earlier sections to make sense of the story and, even at the end of the book – despite careful reading – there were things I was left unsure about, such as the significance of Katie’s ‘real name’.

Bells of Avalon will appeal to fans of stories set in 1950s and 1960s America and in which ‘boy meets girl’ doesn’t necessarily lead to ‘happily ever after’.

I received a review copy courtesy of the author.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

In three words: Intense, emotional, multi-timeline

Try something similar…Woman Enters Left by Jessica Brockmole (read my review here)

Libbet BradstreetAbout the Author

Libbet Bradstreet is a philanthropy writer currently residing in Austin, Texas. Since 2007, she has served as a fiction judge for the New York-based non-profit NYC Midnight. Her short fiction has been published by Ophelia Street Literary Arts Journal. Bells of Avalon is her debut novel. (Photo credit: Goodreads author page)

Connect with Libbet

Goodreads