From the Book Elf

  Settled Blood  by Mari Hannah Settled Blood by Mari Hannah was published on 27th August 2015 by Pan. My thanks to the author and the publisher for sending me a copy to review and to Tracy at Compulsive Readers  for inviting me to be part of #TeamDaniels  in the lead up to the next book in the series The Longest Goodbye to be published on 18th January 2024 Synopsis Settled Blood  is Mari Hannah's second gripping crime novel featuring DCI Kate Daniels. When a young girl is found dead at the base of Hadrian’s Wall, it’s not long before Detective Chief Inspector Kate Daniels realizes her death was no ordinary homicide. She was thrown from a great height and was probably alive before she hit the ground. Then a local businessmen reports his daughter missing, has Daniels found the identity of her victim, or is a killer playing a sickening game? As the murder investigation team delve deeper into the case, half truths are told, secrets exposed, and while Daniels makes ...

 Moving to Combe Tollbridge  by Roseanna Hall  Moving to Combe Tollbridge by Roseanna Hall was published on 3rd August 2023. My thanks to the author and Farrago Books for sending me a copy to review and to Random Book Tours for inviting me to take part on the tour Synopsis When a cosy country cottage goes up for sale in Combe Tollbridge, a small fishing village tucked away on a quiet corner of the Exmoor coast, young couple Jane and Jasper decide to make the move. But whilst Jane is returning to the place of happy childhood memories by the sea, another recent newcomer to the village, Angela, has sadder reasons for her move. Receiving a warm welcome from the colourful residents who call the village home, all three soon become embroiled in rural life, and find it not as sedate as they might have once imagined... My Review This is a lovely quirky novel set in an idyllic Cornish village  and embracing a wide array of loveable and, at times, eccentric characters...

  A Disappearance in Fiji by Nilima Rao A Disappearance in Fiji by Nilima Rao  was published in paperback on 31st August 2023 by Zaffre Books.  My thanks to the author and the publisher for sending me a copy to review and to  Rachel's Random Resources for inviting me to take part on the tour. Synopsis 1914, Fiji: Sergeant Akal Singh would rather be anywhere than this tropical paradise - or, as he calls it, 'this godforsaken island'. After a promising start to his police career in Hong Kong, Akal has been sent to the far-flung colony of Fiji as punishment for a humiliating professional mistake. Lonely and embarrassed, he dreams of solving a big case, thereby redeeming himself and gaining permission to leave. Otherwise, he fears he will be stuck in Fiji for ever. When an indentured Indian woman goes missing from a sugarcane plantation and Fiji's newspapers scream 'kidnapping', the inspector-general reluctantly assigns Akal the case, giving him strict instructions ...

  Abigail Returns  by Pauline Tate Abigail Returns by Pauline Tait was published on 30th May 2023. My thanks to the author for sending me a copy to review and to Random Book Tours for inviting me to take part on the tour. This is the first book in The Maran Bay series Synopsis With just over a decade missing to Dissociative Amnesia, and a newly broken heart, Abigail finds herself with no choice but to return to Lochside. The supposedly idyllic home on the Isle of Skye she had fled so dramatically six years before. And while struggling to find her way in a world she can’t recall, she must battle the conflicts of the present with the shocking secrets she uncovers from her past. Jamie’s support is invaluable, but how much does he know? Greg is loving and attentive, but does he have an ulterior motive? Meanwhile, the presence of a stranger on the island shakes Abigail to her very core. With no memory, she can only trust her instincts as she strives to build a life and a fu...

  The Murder Wall  by Mari Hannah The Murder Wall by Mari Hannah was first published on 12th April 2012 by Pan. My thanks to the author and the publisher for sending me the DCI Kate Daniels books to review and to Tracy at Compulsive Readers for inviting me to be a part of #Team Daniels in the lead up to the next book in the series The Longest Goodbye to be published on 18th January 2024 Synopsis The Murder Wall   is Mari Hannah's first gripping crime novel featuring DCI Kate Daniels. Eleven months after discovering a brutal double murder in a sleepy Northumbrian town, Detective Chief Inspector Kate Daniels is still haunted by her failure to solve the case. Then the brutal killing of a man on Newcastle’s Quayside gives Daniels another chance to get it right, and her first case as Senior Investigating Officer. When Daniels recognizes the corpse, but fails to disclose the fact, her personal life swerves dangerously into her professional life. But much worse, she is now being...

 Eternal Forest  by PJ Skinner Will exonerating a good friend’s husband of murder, implicate her instead? My thanks to PJ Skinner for sending me a copy to review and to Kelly at Love Book Tours for inviting me to take part on the tour. Synopsis Tanya Bowe, an ex-investigative journalist, and divorcee, runs a vintage shop in the coastal town of Seacastle. When her old friend, Lexi Burlington-Smythe borrows the office above the shop as a base for the campaign to create a kelp sanctuary off the coast, Tanya is thrilled with the chance to get involved and make some extra money. Tanya soon gets drawn into the high-stake arguments surrounding the campaign, as tempers are frayed, and her friends, Roz and Ghita favour opposing camps. When a celebrity eco warrior is murdered, the evidence implicates Roz’s husband Ed, and Tanya finds her loyalties stretched to breaking point as she struggles to discover the true identity of the murderer. Will she discover the truth before one of her fri...

  The Wildly Improbable Ideas  of Douglas Adams 42: The Wildly Improbable Ideas of Douglas Adams is published on 24th August by Unbound. My thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy to review and to Random Book Tours for inviting me to take part on the tour. Synopsis When Douglas Adams died in 2001, he left behind 60 boxes full of notebooks, letters, scripts, jokes, speeches and even poems. In 42, compiled by Douglas’s long-time collaborator Kevin Jon Davies, hundreds of these personal artefacts appear in print for the very first time. Douglas was as much a thinker as he was a writer, and his artefacts reveal how his deep fascination with technology led to ideas which were far ahead of their time: a convention speech envisioning the modern smartphone, with all the information in the world living at our fingertips; sheets of notes predicting the advent of electronic books; journal entries from his forays into home computing – it is a matter of legend that Douglas bought...