Tag: mystery

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

 

Blog Tour/Book Review: The Blameless Dead by Gary Haynes

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The Blameless Dead banner (small)

I’m pleased to be hosting today’s stop on the blog tour for The Blameless Dead by Gary Haynes, due to be published by Endeavour Quill in ebook and paperback on 18th March 2019.  The book is described by the publishers as ‘an epic, compelling, edge-of-the-seat drama that sweeps the reader from twentieth century Europe to modern-day New York’. Thanks to Hannah Groves at Endeavour for inviting me to take part in the tour.

WinFor readers in the US, there’s a Goodreads giveaway with a chance to win a copy of the book.

To enter, follow this link but don’t hang about as entries close on 1st March 2019.

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.

Format: ebook, paperback (463 pp.)    Publisher: Endeavour Quill
Published: 18th March 2019          Genre: Thriller, Historical Fiction

Pre-order/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 The Blameless Dead on Goodreads

My Review

Switching frequently between Berlin in 1945 and New York in 2015, the author has taken a story of wartime atrocities and combined it with a contemporary crime mystery to create an action-packed thriller which, at time, explores some dark places and features some pretty depraved individuals.

Man’s inhumanity to man is a key theme of the book and how that can result in a desire for revenge and retribution lasting for years and which may be passed down through generations.   I was reminded of a quote from a book I recently read – Blood & Sugar by Laura Shepherd-Robinson – about the effect of the horrors of the slave trade on those who participated in that evil practice. ‘It’s the trade that does it to them.  Deadens the goodness in the soul’.   There’s certainly little goodness in the soul of many of the characters in The Blameless Dead.  Just the opposite, in fact.

From the scenes set in 1945 Berlin, it’s clear the author has been meticulous in his research with detailed descriptions of weaponry, uniforms and military units.  The turbulent history of Kalmykia in southern Russia and its distinctive culture, which is so pivotal to events in The Blameless Dead, was new to me.  In fact, I’ll admit I’d never heard of the region before reading this book.

In the book description, the publishers mention that the book exposes events of modern history in ‘honest and unflinching terms’. I won’t disagree.  Readers should be aware that the book contains references to wartime atrocities and to torture and abuse, including that of women and children.  There are brief descriptions of violence and torture.

Part crime mystery, part historical novel, The Blameless Dead is a skilfully constructed thriller that nevertheless delves into some dark and, at times, disturbing subject matter.  As the publishers say, the book demonstrates that, while hostilities may cease, the horror of  war is never really over and that it leaves a lasting legacy on those involved.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of publishers, Endeavour Quill.

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In three words: Dark, intense, suspenseful

Try something similar…A Quiet Genocide by Glenn Bryant (read my review here)

Gary Haynes author imageAbout the Author

Gary Haynes studied law at university before becoming a commercial litigator. He is interested in history, philosophy and international relations. When he’s not writing or reading, he enjoys watching European films, travelling, hill-walking and spending time with his family. He is a member of the International Thriller Writers Organization. (Photo credit: Goodreads author page)

Connect with Gary

Website  ǀ  Facebook  ǀ  Twitter  ǀ  Instagram ǀ Goodreads

The Blameless Dead Blog Tour Schedule