Tag: Reviews

#WWWWednesday – 17th November 2021

whatcathyreadnext4 Comments

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 Red MonarchThe Red Monarch by Bella Ellis (eARC, Hodder & Stoughton via NetGalley

The Brontë sisters’ first poetry collection has just been published, potentially marking an end to their careers as amateur detectors, when Anne receives a letter from her friend Lydia Robinson.

Lydia has eloped with a young actor, Harry Roxby, and following her disinheritance, the couple been living in poverty in London. Harry has become embroiled with a criminal gang and is in terrible danger after allegedly losing something very valuable that he was meant to deliver to their leader. The desperate and heavily pregnant Lydia has a week to return what her husband supposedly stole, or he will be killed. She knows there are few people who she can turn to in this time of need, but the sisters agree to help Lydia, beginning a race against time to save Harry’s life.

In doing so, our intrepid sisters come face to face with a terrifying adversary whom even the toughest of the slum-dwellers are afraid of…The Red Monarch.

White DogWhite Dog by Rupert Whewell (Whitefox)

A literary thriller set against the backdrop of the contemporary art world, it follows the fortunes of Ryder, a cynical art dealer who aspires to the heights, yet despises the people who populate those realms.

On his way to the top, back down, and back up again, Ryder encounters a picaresque collection of characters and gets drawn into a web of intrigue that involves murder, money-laundering and materialism. But can his new-found fame and fortune ever make up for the loss of the one thing he ever really valued in life?

White Dog will take you on a roller-coaster ride of sex, drugs and art – of violence, blackmail, hedonism and dark politics. Are you ready to face the wolves?

Recently finished

Lily by Rose Tremain (Chatto & Windus)

Now We Shall Be Entirely Free by Andrew Miller (Sceptre via NetGalley)

The Custard Corpses by M.J. Porter 

Eureka (Freya Wyley #2) by Anthony Quinn (Jonathan Cape via NetGalley)

What Cathy (will) Read Next

The Bookseller's SecretThe Bookseller’s Secret by Michelle Gable (Graydon House)

n 1942, London, Nancy Mitford is worried about more than air raids and German spies. Still recovering from a devastating loss, the once sparkling Bright Young Thing is estranged from her husband, her allowance has been cut, and she’s given up her writing career. On top of this, her five beautiful but infamous sisters continue making headlines with their controversial politics.

Eager for distraction and desperate for income, Nancy jumps at the chance to manage the Heywood Hill bookshop while the owner is away at war. Between the shop’s brisk business and the literary salons she hosts for her eccentric friends, Nancy’s life seems on the upswing. But when a mysterious French officer insists that she has a story to tell, Nancy must decide if picking up the pen again and revealing all is worth the price she might be forced to pay.

Eighty years later, Heywood Hill is abuzz with the hunt for a lost wartime manuscript written by Nancy Mitford. For one woman desperately in need of a change, the search will reveal not only a new side to Nancy, but an even more surprising link between the past and present…

#BlogTour #BookReview #Giveaway The Custard Corpses by M.J. Porter @rararesources

whatcathyreadnext2 Comments

The Custard Corpses Full Tour BannerWelcome to the first day of the blog tour for The Custard Corpses by M.J. Porter. My thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me to take part in the tour and to the author for my digital review copy. Do check out the posts by my tour buddies for today, Jo at books_for_the_shed and Lynn at Ellesea Loves Reading.

WinIf you like the sound of The Custard Corpses, then I’m pleased to say there’s a giveaway with a chance to win one of two copies of the book. Enter via Rafflecopter here.

Giveaway terms and conditions

  1. Open to entrants aged 18 or over.
  2. Worldwide entries welcome.
  3. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be 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.
  4. 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.
  5. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize

The Custard CorpsesAbout the Book

Birmingham, England 1943. While the whine of the air raid sirens might no longer be rousing him from bed every night, a two-decade-old unsolved murder case will ensure that Chief Inspector Mason of Erdington Police Station is about to suffer more sleepless nights.

Young Robert McFarlane’s body was found outside the local church hall on 30th September 1923. But, his cause of death was drowning, and he’d been missing for three days before his body was found. No one was ever arrested for the crime. No answers could ever be given to the grieving family. The unsolved case has haunted Mason ever since.

But, the chance discovery of another victim, with worrying parallels, sets Mason, and his constable, O’Rourke, on a journey that will take them back over twenty-five years, the chance to finally solve the case, while all around them is uncertainty, impossible to ignore.

Format: ebook (225 pages)               Publisher: N/A
Publication date:  21st March 2021 Genre: Historical Fiction, Crime, Mystery

Find The Custard Corpses on Goodreads

Purchase links
Amazon UK
Link provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

Ever mindful of the murder on his patch that remains unsolved and determined to one day provide the answers the victim’s family crave, as well as to bring the culprit to justice, Chief Inspector Sam Mason leaves no stone unturned when new evidence puts a completely different slant on the case.  Is there a link between the murder of Robert McFarlane and that of another murdered boy? If so, what could it be and what is the significance of the curious modus operandi of the killer?

Much like custard, as the plot thickens a series of fortunate discoveries lead to a painstaking search for clues and a delve into the past as Mason and his assistant, Constable O’Rourke, try to piece together the often flimsy evidence gathered at the time. With no recourse to modern forensic techniques, it’s down to good old-fashioned paper and pencil, and searches through dusty archives (all fuelled by plentiful cups of tea) that eventually provide Mason and O’Rourke with the breakthrough they have been looking for. But what they discover is more disturbing than they might have imagined.  I’ll admit I found some of it unexpectedly macabre.

The plot of The Custard Corpses is certainly ingenious and, of course, custard is delicious. However, given the nature of the victims, it isn’t what I would describe as a ‘cosy’ mystery.

In three words: Ingenious, intricate, suspenseful

Try something similar: The Ghost Tree (A Betty Church Mystery #3) by M.R.C. Kasasian

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About the Author

M.J. Porter writes: “I’m an author of historical fiction (Early English, Vikings and the British Isles as a whole before the Norman Conquest) and fantasy (Viking age/dragon-themed). I’ve recently written a relatively modern mystery novel set in 1943. I was born in the old Mercian kingdom at some point since 1066. Raised in the shadow of a strange little building, told from a very young age that it housed the bones of long-dead Kings of Mercia and that our garden was littered with old pieces of pottery from a long-ago battle, it’s little wonder that my curiosity in Early England ran riot. I can only blame my parents! I write a LOT. You’ve been warned!”

Connect with M.J. Porter
Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads

The Custard Corpses