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Throwback Thursday: Madam Tulip by David Ahern

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ThrowbackThursday

Throwback Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by Renee at It’s Book Talk. It’s designed as an opportunity to share old favourites as well as books that we’ve finally got around to reading that were published over a year ago. If you decide to take part, please link back to It’s Book Talk.

Today I’m reviewing a book that was kindly sent to me by the author, David Ahern, quite a few months ago now but which has only just reached the top of my review pile. It’s the first in his humorous mystery series, Madam Tulip, published in April 2016.

MadamTulipAbout the Book

Derry O’Donnell, an out-of-work American actress living in Ireland, is young, talented, a teeny bit psychic … and broke. Spurred on by an ultimatum from her awesomely high-achieving mother, and with a little help from her theatrical friends, Derry embarks on a part-time career as Madame Tulip, fortune-teller to the rich and famous. But at her first fortune-telling gig – a celebrity charity weekend in a castle – a famous rap artist will die. As Derry is drawn deeper into a seedy world of celebrities, supermodels and millionaires, she finds herself playing the most dangerous role of her acting life. Trapped in a maze of intrigue, money and drugs, Derry’s attempts at amateur detective could soon destroy her friends, her ex-lover, her father and herself.

Format: eBook, paperback (308 pp.)   Publisher: Malin Press
Published: 3rd April 2016                       Genre: Mystery, Humour

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

 

Find Madam Tulip on Goodreads

My Review

This book was a light, easy read although I have to say this reader found it mildly humorous rather than laugh out loud funny. The author has laid the groundwork for future books in the series by giving us a little of Derry’s back story and creating a cast of colourful characters, not least of which are Derry’s mother and father who despite being separated seem to maintain a volatile on-off relationship. I especially liked Derry’s Irish father, Jacko: an artist, gambler and a bit of a lad with an eye for the ladies. He’s the total opposite of Vanessa, Derry’s super-efficient, chic American mother.

Although the book is entitled Madam Tulip, Derry actually spends relatively little of the book in that persona. However, her creation gives her access to Dublin high society and allows her to be privy to information that proves both useful and, it turns out, dangerous to her and those around her. As she says: “Fortune-tellers get told things!” Derry’s gift for fortune telling doesn’t mean she always get things right though as often her visions come in the form of riddles or symbols she can’t necessarily make sense of at the time. The author’s experience as a screenwriter is evident in some of the set pieces which are well-imagined and described.

I guess I would classify Madam Tulip as a ‘cosy’ mystery even though the plot involves drugs and one character does meet a particularly sticky end (but ‘off screen’).  It’s an entertaining, light-hearted mystery that put me in mind of the US TV series “Murder She Wrote” or the UK TV series, “Jonathan Creek”. If you like either of those, I’m sure you will enjoy this.

I received a review copy courtesy of the author in return for an honest and unbiased review.

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In three words: Light, humorous, mystery

Try something similar…Zenka by Alison Brodie (click here to read my review)

David AhernAbout the Author

David Ahern grew up in a theatrical family in Ireland but ran away to Scotland to become a research psychologist and sensible person. He earned his doctorate but soon absconded to work in television. He became a writer, director and producer, creating international documentary series and winning numerous awards, none of which got him free into nightclubs.

Madam Tulip wasn’t David Ahern’s first novel, but writing it was the most fun he’d ever had with a computer. The second in the Madam Tulip mystery series, Madam Tulip and the Knave of Hearts, was published in autumn 2016. He is now writing the third Madam Tulip adventure and enjoys pretending this is actual work.

David Ahern lives in the beautiful West of Ireland with his wife, two cats and a vegetable garden of which he is inordinately proud.

Connect with David

Website ǀ Facebook ǀ Twitter ǀ Goodreads

 

Christmas 3

WWW Wednesdays – 20th December ’17

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WWWWednesdays

Hosted by Taking on a World of Words, this meme is all about the three Ws:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

Why not join in too? Leave a comment with your link at Taking on a World of Words and then go blog hopping!

Currently reading

The Good EarthThe Good Earth (House of Earth #1) by Pearl S. Buck (Hardcover)

This Pulitzer Prize-winning classic tells the poignant tale of a Chinese farmer and his family in old agrarian China. The humble Wang Lung glories in the soil he works, nurturing the land as it nurtures him and his family. Nearby, the nobles of the House of Hwang consider themselves above the land and its workers; but they will soon meet their own downfall. Hard times come upon Wang Lung and his family when flood and drought force them to seek work in the city. The working people riot, breaking into the homes of the rich and forcing them to flee. When Wang Lung shows mercy to one noble and is rewarded, he begins to rise in the world, even as the House of Hwang falls.

The Twelve-Mile StraightThe Twelve-Mile Straight by Eleanor Henderson (eARC, NetGalley)

Cotton County, Georgia, 1930: in a house full of secrets, two babies-one light-skinned, the other dark-are born to Elma Jesup, a white sharecropper’s daughter. Accused of her rape, field hand Genus Jackson is lynched and dragged behind a truck down the Twelve-Mile Straight, the road to the nearby town. In the aftermath, the farm’s inhabitants are forced to contend with their complicity in a series of events that left a man dead and a family irrevocably fractured.

Despite the prying eyes and curious whispers of the townspeople, Elma begins to raise her babies as best as she can, under the roof of her mercurial father, Juke, and with the help of Nan, the young black housekeeper who is as close to Elma as a sister. But soon it becomes clear that the ties that bind all of them together are more intricate than any could have ever imagined. As startling revelations mount, a web of lies begins to collapse around the family, destabilizing their precarious world and forcing all to reckon with the painful truth.

Recently finished (click on title for review)

TheBiographiesofOrdinaryPeopleThe Biographies of Ordinary People, Vol.1 by Nicole Dieker (ebook, review copy courtesy of the author)

The Biographies of Ordinary People is the story of the Gruber family: Rosemary and Jack, and their daughters Meredith, Natalie, and Jackie. The two-volume series begins in July 1989, on Rosemary’s thirty-fifth birthday; it ends in November 2016, on Meredith’s thirty-fifth birthday.

When the Grubers move to a small Midwestern town so Jack can teach music at a local college, each family member has an idea of who they might become. Jack wants to foster intellectual curiosity in his students. Rosemary wants to be “the most important person in her own life for the length of an afternoon.” Meredith wants to model herself after the girls she’s read about in books: Betsy Ray, Pauline Fossil, Jo March. Natalie wants to figure out how she’s different from her sisters—and Jackie, the youngest, wants to sing.

Set against the past thirty years of social and cultural changes, this story of family, friendship, and artistic ambition takes us into intimately familiar experiences: putting on a play, falling out with a best friend, getting dial-up internet for the first time. Drinking sparkling wine out of a paper cup on December 31, 1999 and wondering what will happen next. (Intimate domestic drama – full review to follow)

MadamTulipMadam Tulip by David Ahern (ebook, review copy courtesy of the author)

Derry O’Donnell, an out-of-work American actress living in Ireland, is young, talented, a teeny bit psychic…and broke. Spurred on by an ultimatum from her awesomely high-achieving mother, and with a little help from her theatrical friends, Derry embarks on a part-time career as Madame Tulip, fortune-teller to the rich and famous. But at her first fortune-telling gig – a celebrity charity weekend in a castle – a famous rap artist will die.

As Derry is drawn deeper into a seedy world of celebrities, supermodels and millionaires, she finds herself playing the most dangerous role of her acting life. Trapped in a maze of intrigue, money and drugs, Derry’s attempts at amateur detective could soon destroy her friends, her ex-lover, her father and herself. (Light-hearted mystery – full review to follow)

What Cathy (will) Read Next

Three Things About ElsieThree Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon (eARC, NetGalley)

There are three things you should know about Elsie. The first thing is that she’s my best friend. The second is that she always knows what to say to make me feel better. And the third thing… might take a little bit more explaining.

84-year-old Florence has fallen in her flat at Cherry Tree Home for the Elderly. As she waits to be rescued, Florence wonders if a terrible secret from her past is about to come to light; and, if the charming new resident is who he claims to be, why does he look exactly a man who died sixty years ago?

1066WhatFatesImpose1066: What Fates Impose by G K Holloway (ebook, review copy courtesy of the author)

England is in crisis. King Edward has no heir and promises never to produce one. There are no obvious successors available to replace him, but quite a few claimants are eager to take the crown. While power struggles break out between the various factions at court, enemies abroad plot to make England their own. There are raids across the borders with Wales and Scotland.

Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex, is seen by many as the one man who can bring stability to the kingdom. He has powerful friends and two women who love him, but he has enemies will stop at nothing to gain power. As 1066 begins, England heads for an uncertain future. It seems even the heavens are against Harold.  Intelligent and courageous, can Harold forge his own destiny – or does he have to bow to what fates impose?