Deadly Truths by Paul Gitsham - #guestpost #authorinterview

I am so excited to be welcoming the author Paul Gitsham onto the blog today. Paul is the author of Deadly Truths and today he is going to be talking about why he sends his authors to Coventry. First, a little about the book...

The Blurb

How do you solve a murder when you’re shut out of the investigation?

Young detectives, Robinson Ellington Foxe and Amy Kennard, don’t want to work at Coventry’s Moat Lane police station.  Neither do their colleagues want them there. But it’s the last chance for two officers for whom doing the right thing has cost them their futures.

Despite a murder on their patch, they are lumbered with investigating a series of high-profile burglaries. But when a thief is killed in the house of an influential businessman, Foxe and Kennard are convinced it is linked to their cases and want in.

The official investigation is a whitewash, but Robbie and Amy keep investigating anyway.  As they uncover a web of deceit and corruption, reaching to the very top of the force, their own difficult histories are weaponised against them, and they find themselves fighting for their careers and their lives.

Welcome to Left on the Shelf Paul. Over to you.

Why send my detectives to Coventry?

Or rather, why aren’t more authors setting their crime fiction series in Coventry? This is the question I found myself pondering as I started planning my new Foxe and Kennard series. By the time I came to write the first in the series, Deadly Truths, there was no doubt in my mind where my two detectives would ply their trade.

Full disclosure, I’m a Coventry kid. I was raised here and lived with my parents until leaving for university in the mid-nineties. Since then I’ve lived in Bath, Cambridge, Manchester and even Toronto. You don’t have to look too hard to find crime novels set in and around those cities. But try the same with my hometown and there are slim pickings.

Which strikes me as really odd. Because Coventry has so much to offer a writer. Obviously, there’s the crime rate. Coventry is a mid-sized city and is plagued with the same problems as any of its contemporaries, such as Liverpool, Manchester or London. Once an engineering giant, and the heart of the UK car industry, the massive economic shifts in the 80s and 90s devastated the local economy, leading to a huge rise in unemployment and its accompanying social ills. Inspiration for any crime writers, whether historic or more recent is not hard to find. This is no Midsomer!

Then there is the city’s layout. Coventry has been rebuilt repeatedly since the medieval period. Littered all around the city are remnants of the city walls and ancient buildings, interwoven with the evidence of hundreds of years of building and rebuilding. Obviously, one can’t mention rebuilding without referencing the second world war, specifically the devastating blitz on the city centre that destroyed our beautiful cathedral and flattened the city’s heart. Since then there have been waves of regeneration, some more successful than others. Move out the city’s (in)famous inner ring road and Coventry is a patchwork quilt of areas of extreme wealth, the well-to-do middle classes and extreme poverty, with everything in between. Suburbs such as Tile Hill, Canley and Earlsdon feature large, expensive houses rubbing shoulders with mid-range terraces and “temporary” post-war social housing still occupied eighty years later. As any social historian or crime writer will tell you, those extreme contrasts are the perfect catalyst for crime.

The way I see it, if there can be terrific series set in Bradford (such as A.A. Dhand’s Harry Virdee and Liz Mistry’s Nikki Parekh to name just a couple), then why not Coventry?

I never cut my ties with Coventry, since I still had family and friends who lived here. But it was my Essex-born-and-bred wife who suggested we move back to Coventry a few years ago and this fully crystalised my decision to set my next books here. Not only would it now be easy to set my books in a real, living, breathing city – something which I have always admired about Ian Rankin or Peter James – but I was also starting to see Coventry through my wife’s eyes. My impressions of Coventry are now a mixture of thirty-year old memories, coloured with the emotions of a teenager, and the fresher memories of my wife who has only ever seen Coventry in recent times. Where I see the ghosts of shops and businesses decades gone, my wife sees attractive new developments with opportunities for young people and aspirations for the future.

Which led to the final piece in the jigsaw puzzle that became the Foxe and Kennard series. Posh-boy former London detective DS Robinson Ellington Foxe and proud, working-class Salford lass DC Amy Kennard had to be outsiders. Having left their previous forces under a cloud, they don’t want to be working in Coventry. Nor do their new colleagues want them here. And it is this pariah-like status that provides the necessary internal conflict that is the lynchpin of any good story. It also allows me to describe Coventry through fresh eyes. 

Hopefully there is something for all readers, both Coventrians enjoying a book set in the city they love and newcomers visiting somewhere new through the pages of a book. Deadly Truths is out now, with book two, Home Truths, ready to preorder for November. Book three is due next May and book four is currently being written. The crime fiction world will be getting to know Coventry a lot better over the next few years…

Many thanks Paul for being on the blog today

Book Details

ISBN:  978 1068730535

Publisher:  Straw Hat Crime

Formats:  e-book and paperback

No. of Pages:  336 (paperback)

Series:  Book 1 in the Foxe and Kennard series

Purchase Links

Bookshop.org

Amazon UK

About the Author

Paul Gitsham is the author of the Foxe and Kennard British detective series, the DCI Warren Jones series and the standalone domestic thriller, The Aftermath.

Brought up in Coventry, he started his career as a biologist. After gaining a PhD in molecular biology, he worked in laboratories in Manchester and Toronto, before retraining as a science teacher. Along the way he had spells as the world’s most over-qualified receptionist and spent time working for a major UK bank, ensuring that terrorists, foreign dictators and other international ne’er do wells hadn’t embarrassed the institution by managing to deposit their ill-gotten gains in a Children’s Trust Fund.

Paul’s final school reports from primary school said that he would never achieve anything if his handwriting didn’t improve. A somewhat kinder note urged him to become the next Roald Dahl. If anything, his handwriting has got worse and unless Mr Dahl also wrote police procedurals under a pseudonym, he has failed on both counts.

Paul is a member of the Crime Writers Association and the International Thriller Writers organisation and lives with his wife in the West Midlands in a house with more books than shelf space.

You can also find Paul at:

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The Other Killer by Heidi Field - #bookreview #blogtour

 Standing on the pavement outside the prison is a rush like I haven't felt in twenty years, like someone's been standing on my chest for two decades and they just stepped off...

***

It has recently come to my attention that I must make it clear at the beginning of my reviews that I received this book for free from Zooloo's Book Tours. I have not been paid for doing this and all opinions are my own. I am Bookshop.org affiliated, which means I earn a very small amount of money if you buy from there using my direct link. Although I include purchase links to Amazon, I am not affiliated with them. I include them to make it easy for you to navigate to them if you so wish.

***

The Blurb

You can change your name. Change your life. But someone knows exactly who you are.

Twenty years ago, Mason Tucker was tried and convicted as the teenager who helped lure young boys to the serial killer known as the Pied Piper of Peasedale. After serving his twenty-year sentence, Mason is freed and hopes to remain invisible while he rebuilds his life as an adult, hoping to become a man he can be proud of. A new town, a new flat, a new job and a new purpose.

But living with secrets is challenging, and protecting his anonymity, the woman who stood beside him, and her child becomes impossible when the past pushes back. Hard. Within days of his release, Mason suspects he’s being stalked. He’s threatened and twice attacked. He never imagined being outside would be more dangerous than being in prison. The police aren’t an option. One headline will destroy him.

Someone wants him punished, not redeemed, and as danger closes in, you will never suspect where the next threat comes from.

My Review

Although this book is the third in a series, it also works brilliantly as a stand alone novel. In fact, the author was on the blog last year talking about her first book in this series, The Other Boy, and I reviewed the second book in the series, The Other Mother. Both that and this latest book are excellent and very well worth reading.

This book begins with the release from prison of Mason, also known as the Peasedale Accomplice. He has served twenty years and now wants to live quietly, with a change of name and anonymity. However, within days he realises someone knows about his past and he is being stalked.

The chapters, which are all told from Mason's perspective, flit between past and present. This enables the reader to understand how he was drawn into such wrongdoing in the past. The present day chapters demonstrate to the reader that although he has had a hard life in prison, he shows a level of naivety of life on the outside. Whilst he truly desires to help youngster, Kenny, I couldn't help but think that it would end badly for Mason, whilst truly hoping that it wouldn't.

The author tells her story very well. It is full of twists and turns and kept me gripped from the first page to the last. She knows just how to drag the reader in and how to keep them enthralled. I found myself constantly wanting to get back to this book when I wasn't reading.

She understands her characters well and thus portrays them with detail, understanding and compassion. I was really moved by Mason's story and his desire for a second chance at life. He is a character that will stay with me long after the book is finished.

This is an exceptional series of books which I highly recommend. That said, there are times that this novel is dark and graphic, and readers should be prepared for this. It won't suit everyone and if that is you then I would give this one a miss.

Book Details

ISBN:  978 1970840629

Publisher:  Tule Publishing Group

Formats:  e-book and paperback

No. of Pages:  344 (paperback)

Series:  Book 3 in The Peasedale Wood Killers series

Purchase Links

Amazon UK

Amazon US

About the Author

Heidi Field was raised in the beautiful countryside of the South of England with her parents and her two sisters. In her twenties she was a freelance Sports Massage Therapist. She achieved a Degree in Zoology at the age of thirty and then went on to raise two boys and became the stepmother of three more young children. She still lives near her family home with her partner, their Great Dane and the children that have yet to fly the nest. 

In her early forties Heidi completed a Masters in Creative Writing at Winchester University. She entered the course hoping she would become a children’s fantasy writer and left with a burning desire to write contemporary mysteries and thrillers. 

Heidi wanted to put relatable people in extraordinary situations, challenge them, push them to their limits and watch them fight for their sanity. The Other Boy is her first novel.

You can also find Heidi at:

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(ARC and media courtesy of Zooloo's Book Tours)

(all opinions are my own)

A Taste of Evil by N.L. Holmes - #bookspotlight #blogtour

I am very happy to be shining the spotlight on this book today. A Taste of Evil by N.L. Holmes is set in Ancient Egypt and is part of the Hani's Daughter Mysteries series.

The Blurb

In Tutankhamen's Egypt, the vizier's head cook dies suspiciously, and it looks like murder to Neferet and Bener-ib. Only, who would want to kill a cook, a man admired by all?

Perhaps he has professional rivals or a jealous wife. But she is the longtime cook of Neferet's family, a dear retainer above reproach. Was her husband the good man he seemed to be, or did he have the shady past our two sleuths begin to suspect?

They'd better find out soon before the waters of foreign conspiracy rise around Neferet and her diplomat father. If they can't find the killer, it could mean war with Egypt's enemy, Kheta -- and someone else could die. Maybe one of our nosy sleuths...  

Book Details

ISBN: 979 8989905775

Publisher: Wayback Press

Formats: e-book and paperback

No. of Pages: 247 (paperback)

Series: Book 5 in the Hani's Daughter Mysteries series

Purchase Links

Amazon UK

Amazon US

About the Author

N.L. Holmes is the pen name of a professional archaeologist. She has excavated in Greece and in Israel and taught ancient history and humanities at the university level for many years. She has always had a passion for books, and in childhood, she and her cousin used to write stories for fun.

These days she lives in France with her husband, two cats, geese, and chickens, where she gardens, weaves, dances, and plays the violin.

You can also find her at:

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The Peepshow: The Murders at 10 Rillington Place by Kate Summerscale - #bookreview

In the evening of Tuesday 24 March 1953, Harry Procter, the star crime reporter of the Sunday Pictorial, drove over to a Victorian terrace in Notting Hill in which the bodies of three young women had been discovered...

The Blurb

In 1953, the bodies of three young women are found by a tenant in the walls of a Notting Hill house. He tells the police that he chanced upon them while trying to put up a shelf for his transistor radio.

As a series of further horrors are discovered, 10 Rillington Place becomes an address synonymous with murder.

A riveting tale of violence, misogyny and tabloid frenzy, The Peepshow lifts the veil on what really happened inside Britain's most notorious house - and suggests a new solution to the case that transfixed a nation.

My Review

I have read the majority of Kate Summerscale's books and enjoyed each one of them. So, when I saw this on my library shelves I picked it up and checked it out with a sense of glee.

It's no surprise that this book was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction in 2025. It was also a five-star read for me. 

The author has the ability to recreate a true crime story vividly on the page. I was already familiar with the murders at 10 Rillington Place, but this book still had something new to offer. She has created an easy-to-read, accessible retelling of the horrors which took place behind the innocent-looking front door of the Notting Hill house in which John Reginald Christie lived.

This was more than the retelling of a familiar story. It was an insight into the beliefs and culture of a community in 1950s London. It depicts the racism, misogyny and class differences of post-war Britain.

Despite this book being brilliantly written, it is an unsettling read nonetheless. How could we read of a serial rapist and murderer without a sense of shock, no matter how familiar one might already be with the story? We should be unsettled by such a quiet, unassuming man being able to carry out such brutalities. Although the author does describe the murders in some detail by using contemporary sources, at no point did I feel that she was describing these events in a gratuitous manner. Rather, she sought to present us with the facts of the horrendous crimes of this man.

It also considers whether the execution of Timothy Evans for the murder of his child was perhaps one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in Britain to date. Timothy Evans lived with his wife, and baby daughter, Geraldine, in the same house as Christie and his wife. Eighteen months prior to Christie's arrest, the bodies of Evan's wife and child were discovered in the house. It was largely the testimony of the apparently gentle and mild-mannered Christie which was instrumental in the conviction and execution of Timothy Evans.

The author's comprehensive research is evident throughout and the result is this excellent insight into the murders, society and legal system of 1950s Britain. 

Anyone interested in history or true crime will find this an excellent read that I highly recommend.

If you would like to read my review of Kate Summerscale's, The Wicked Boy you can find it by clicking here.

Book Details

ISBN:  978 1526660510

Publisher:  Bloomsbury Publishing

Formats:  e-book, audio, hardback and paperback

No. of Pages:  320 (paperback)

Purchase Links

Bookshop.org

Amazon UK

Amazon US

About the Author

Kate Summerscale was born in London and lived in Japan and Chile as a child. She was then educated at Parliament Hill school in London, Bedales school in Hampshire and at Oxford and Stanford universities. She worked at various newspapers and magazines until in 2005 she left her job as Literary Editor of the Daily Telegraph to write The Suspicions of Mr Whicher. She has judged several literary prizes, including the Booker Prize, and in 2010 was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She lives in London.

Kate Summerscale’s first book, The Queen of Whale Cay, was inspired by an obituary she wrote for the Daily Telegraph — it won the Somerset Maugham award and was shortlisted for the Whitbread biography prize.

 The Suspicions of Mr Whicher won the Samuel Johnson prize and the British Book Award for both Popular Non-Fiction and Book of the Year. It was a Richard & Judy Bookclub pick and was shortlisted for the Crime Writers Association Non-Fiction Gold Dagger in the UK and the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime in the US. Hat Trick productions adapted the story for ITV, and went on to make three fictional dramas about Jack Whicher’s investigations.

 Kate’s third book, Mrs Robinson’s Disgrace, was a Sunday Times bestseller, and her fourth, The Wicked Boy, won the 2017 Mystery Writers of America Edgar award for Best Fact Crime. The Haunting of Alma Fielding was shortlisted for the 2020 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, and The Book of Phobias & Manias has been published in 19 languages. The Peepshow was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction and won the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction.

You can also find Kate at:

Author Website

(media courtesy the author/publisher)

(all opinions are my own)

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The Unquiet Bones by Mel Starr - #minibookreview

 

Uctred thought he had discovered pig bones. He did not know or care why they were in the cesspit at the base of Bampton Castle wall...

The Blurb

Hugh of Singleton, fourth son of a minor knight, has been educated as a clerk, usually a prelude to taking holy orders. However, feeling no certain calling despite a lively faith, he turns to the profession of surgeon, training in Paris and then hanging out his sign in Oxford.

 Hugh is asked by a local lord to track down the killer of a young woman. She is identified as the impetuous missing daughter of a local blacksmith, and her young man, whom she had provoked very publicly, is in due course arrested and sentenced at the Oxford assizes. With graphic medical procedures, misdirection, and droll medieval wit, this tale will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.

My Mini Review

This is the first in a 17 book series and I enjoyed it very much. I definitely want to read the next in the series, A Corpse at St. Andrew's Chapel.

Set in medieval Oxford, Hugh de Singleton is a surgeon. However, his skills are noticed by Lord Gilbert of Bampton Castle who soon recruits him to solve a murder when human bones are discovered in the cesspit of his castle.

This is well worth reading and I highly recommend it.

Book Details

ISBN:  978 1782640660

Publisher:  Lion Fiction

Formats:  e-book, audio and paperback

No. of Pages:  256 (paperback)

Series:  Book 1 in the Hugh Singleton series

Purchase Links

Bookshop.org

Amazon UK

Amazon US

About the Author

Mel Starr was born and grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan. After graduating with a MA in history from Western Michigan University in 1970, he taught history in Michigan public schools for thirty-nine years, thirty-five of those in Portage, MI, where he retired in 2003 as chairman of the social studies department of Portage Northern High School. Mel and his wife, Susan, have two daughters and eight grandchildren.

(author media courtesy of Goodreads)

(all opinions are my own)

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Fine Points Malice and Payback by Sherrie Todd-Beshore - #bookspotlight #blogtour

 

Sherrie Todd Beshore’s Fine Points Malice and Payback explores how layered investigations and unresolved personal histories can intersect in unexpected ways. Set within Tucson’s homicide division, the novel follows a detective whose instincts sharpen just as the questions of his own past intensify.

Detective Andrew Coates discovers key threads linking three unsolved murders, a finding that propels him into the lead role on a new, related case. The fourth victim’s death mirrors elements seen in the earlier homicides, raising pressure from the department and the community. Matters shift again when a fifth victim survives, offering the first potential insight into the unknown killer. As Andrew works to understand the pattern, he navigates the emotional complication of forming a bond with the survivor’s sister. Alongside the professional challenges, the mystery of his abandoned infancy reemerges, echoing through the uncertainties of the case. Each revelation brings him closer to understanding how hidden details—past and present—shape the truth.

Book Details

ISBN:  978 1729137932

Publisher:  Independently published

Formats:  e-book, hardback and paperback (currently available on Kindle Unlimited)

No. of Pages:  450 (paperback)

About the Author

Sherrie Todd-Beshore began her writing career as a reporter and editor before moving into magazines and daily newspapers across Canada and the U.S. A dual Canadian–U.S. citizen, she later shifted from journalism to fiction, writing middle-grade mysteries and adult suspense thrillers. Her award-winning titles include The Crow Child, The Count of Baldpate, and Dream Gate II: Grabbing Time. She is the author of 17 books and has earned honors from the Independent Press Award and the Purple Dragonfly Book Awards. 

You can also find Sherrie at:

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(media courtesy of AME)

(all opinions are my own)

The Vanishing Act by Jo Jakeman - #bookreview

Eloise Ford was a Small Pond person. And within that pond, she wasn't even a big fish...

The Blurb

Life as a missing person is absolute murder...

When artist Eloise Ford hears that human remains found in an abandoned mine are believed to be those of long-missing teenager Elizabeth King, the shock sends her reeling.

It can't be true. Eloise knows this for a fact because... she is Elizabeth King.

Now, her carefully curated life in Cornwall is falling apart. Her husband is acting strangely, her children aren't speaking to her and she can't sell a painting for love nor money. But much more worrying are the signs that someone knows exactly who she is... and why she had to vanish thirty years ago.

Eloise needs answers. Is her son's ex-girlfriend just plain annoying... or does she know something? Will the detection skills of the online 'Truth Seekers' group prove more than amateurish? What's the real story behind those village newcomers?

And just how far would she go to keep her family, her friends, and her fraudulent life, safe?

My Review

I enjoyed every page of this super book and was sorry when it reached it's satisfying conclusion, as I would have happily carried on reading.

The main character is Eloise Ford, who enjoys her life. She has good friends, a wonderful husband, and two children who have flown the nest. However, she is keeping a secret from the past. She used to be known as Elizabeth King, and when remains of a woman are found and they are thought to be Elizabeth, Eloise is the only one who knows that the remains aren't hers. It is at this point that Eloise's carefully constructed life in Cornwall begins to unravel. 

The book is told from the alternating perspectives of Eloise and her son's girlfriend, Holly. Holly is a fabulous character, and whilst she has flaws of her own, is very likable. She is drawn into a true crime Facebook group called Truth Seekers UK, and some of the narrative is told via the posted messages in the group.  This added another dimension to the story. It served to break up the prose whilst moving the story along perfectly. In addition, we are also introduced to other characters.

The book was well plotted, with some marvellous twists and turns which kept me guessing.  The author's excellent writing style had me gripped throughout. It was perfectly paced for the genre, and it was easy to read and to become engrossed in the story.

I am now very keen to read other books by this author. This was a fabulous book to read. It is publishing today and I highly recommend it.

Other books available by Jo Jakeman are:

One Bad Apple

What His Wife Knew

Safe House

Sticks and Stones

Book Details

ISBN:  9781408718421

Publisher:  Constable

Formats:  e-book and hardback

No. of Pages:  368 (hardback)

Purchase Links

Bookshop.org

Amazon UK

About the Author

Born in Cyprus, Jo Jakeman worked for many years in the City of London before moving to Cornwall with her husband and twin boys. When she's not writing or reading, Jo walks the coastal paths and plots the fictional downfall of those who have wronged her.

She is the author of One Bad Apple. 

You can also find Jo at:

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(ARC and media courtesy of the publisher)

(all opinions are my own)

(Bookshop.org affiliated)

Clues to You by Claire Huston - #bookreview #blogtour

Kate squeezed past another huddle of chattering guests, her gaze fixed on the banner at the top of the noticeboard to the left of the reception desk...

The Blurb

One murder mystery weekend. Two rival sleuths.

They’re looking for answers. But will they find love?

Kate Brannon is delighted to be attending her first murder mystery weekend in a movie-worthy Victorian manor house. Still getting over being dumped, cracking the case would be a welcome boost to her flagging confidence. And the prize money wouldn’t hurt either.

But Kate’s dreams of victory become a nightmare with the arrival of Max Ravenscroft. Smart, enigmatic and annoyingly handsome, Max is Kate’s sleuthing nemesis. 

When she and Max are forced to work together, Kate despairs. But, as the investigation brings them closer, she finds being his partner in solving crime isn’t all bad. 

With growing suspicions that the game is rigged against them, can Kate and Max beat the odds to find the killer? And, as their partnership deepens, can they find romance too?

This rivals-to-lovers romance is a standalone romcom and part of the Love in the Comptons collection.

My Review

Clues to You was the winner of BBNYA 2024! More about BBNYA below.

It was a highly entertaining novel which I really enjoyed reading. Whilst it is the third book in the Love in the Comptons series, each book is completely standalone. This is the first in the series which I have read.

Set during a murder mystery weekend, friends Kate, Bella, Ethan and Max make up a team to solve the murder in a 1920's manor house. However, there are tensions between Kate and Max which creates the enemies to lovers trope perfectly and I loved the undeniable chemistry between them.

The author has done a great job in creating her characters. Kate and Max are believable and well fleshed out. The secondary characters are equally good.

Kate has always felt that Max thinks he is superior to her. However, this weekend she is determined to prove to him that she is just as capable as him of reading all of the clues and discovering the murderer.

The book had Agatha Christie vibes and I liked the way the author created a 1920's story within a  contemporary setting. She writes very well and really knows how to pull a reader into the story.

I am not in the least surprised that this book won the Book Bloggers Novel of the Year Award last year, and I feel it was a very worthy winner. I recommend this book to readers who enjoy murder mysteries, coupled with a nice romance.

About BBNYA

BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 15 finalists (16 in 2024) and one overall winner.

If you want some more information about BBNYA, check out the BBNYA Website https://www.bbnya.com/ or take a peek over on Twitter @BBNYA_Official. BBNYA is brought to you in association with the book blogger support group @The_WriteReads. 

Book Details

ISBN:  978 1913719906

Publisher:  Goldcrest Books International

Formats: e-book and paperback  (currently available on Kindle Unlimited)

No. of Pages:  379 (paperback)

Series:  Part of the Love in the Comptons series

Purchase Links

Amazon UK

Amazon US

Amazon CA

About the Author

Claire Huston lives in Warwickshire, UK, with her husband and children. She writes uplifting modern love stories about characters who are meant for each other but need a little help to realise it.

A keen amateur baker, she enjoys making cakes, biscuits and brownies almost as much as eating them. You can find recipes for all the cakes mentioned in Art and Soul, her first novel, at clairehuston.co.uk along with over 150 other recipes. This is also where she talks about and reviews books.

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(ARC and media courtesy of The Write Reads)

(all opinions are my own)

10 Ten Books I Want to Read in September 2025

 

Welcome September! The month when the leaves on the trees turn yellow, and temperatures dip. Although, who knows whether we may yet have a bit of late summer sun.

Whatever the weather, here are just ten books that I would like to read this month.

The Physician of Ninevah by Glenn Cooper

London, present day. Dr. Kate Mayne, a brilliant Assyriologist still recovering from heartbreak, devotes her life to uncovering the secrets of the ancient world. She never expects one of those secrets to walk into her life—claiming to be a royal physician from the long-lost city of Nineveh.

Assyria, 7th century BCE. Mannu-ki-Ashur, Chief Physician to King Ashurbanipal, faces an impossible choice. The woman he has loved since childhood is dying from a poison no medicine or forbidden magic can cure. In desperation, Mannu turns to an ancient ritual that sends him hurtling through time to modern-day London.

When Kate confirms Mannu’s identity through ancient texts only she can read, she is swept into a race against time, assassins from Nineveh, and the limits of belief. Together, Mannu and Kate must find a cure and confront a destiny that spans empires. Along the way, they discover a bond that might just be stronger than time itself.

Purchase Link 

 The Midnight Hour by Eve Chase

Present day Paris: Maggie Parker receives a call. The new owners of her family’s old Notting Hill home are digging up the basement. They’ve no idea what might lie beneath.

London, twenty-one years earlier: teenaged Maggie, babysitting her little brother, waits in vain for her mother to come home after a night out. Seeking clues to her mother’s mysterious disappearance, she's drawn away from the neighbourhood’s grand terraces and into its hustling backstreets - and the arms of someone else living on their wits.

Over two decades later, the clock is ticking on a secret set to shatter Maggie’s grown-up life. But the draw of the past is irresistible...

Purchase Link

 The Vanishing Act by Jo Jakeman

Life as a missing person is absolute murder...

When artist Eloise Ford hears that human remains found in an abandoned mine are believed to be those of long-missing teenager Elizabeth King, the shock sends her reeling.

It can't be true. Eloise knows this for a fact because... she is Elizabeth King.

Now, her carefully curated life in Cornwall is falling apart. Her husband is acting strangely, her children aren't speaking to her and she can't sell a painting for love nor money. But much more worrying are the signs that someone knows exactly who she is... and why she had to vanish thirty years ago.

Eloise needs answers. Is her son's ex-girlfriend just plain annoying... or does she know something? Will the detection skills of the online 'Truth Seekers' group prove more than amateurish? What's the real story behind those village newcomers?

And just how far would she go to keep her family, her friends, and her fraudulent life, safe?

Purchase Link

The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths

Ali Dawson and her cold case team investigate crimes so old, they're frozen - or so their inside joke goes. Most people don't know that they travel back in time to complete their research.

The latest assignment sees Ali venture back farther than they have dared before: to 1850s London in order to clear the name of Cain Templeton, the eccentric great-grandfather of MP Isaac Templeton. Rumour has it that Cain was part of a sinister group called The Collectors; to become a member, you had to kill a woman...

Fearing for her safety in the middle of a freezing Victorian winter, Ali finds herself stuck in time, unable to make her way back to her life, her beloved colleagues, and her son, Finn, who suddenly finds himself in legal trouble in the present day.

Could the two cases be connected?

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The Eights by Joanna Miller

They knew they were changing history.

They didn’t know they would change each other.

Oxford, 1920. For the first time in its 1000-year history, the world’s most famous university has admitted female students. Giddy with dreams of equality, education and emancipation, four young women move into neighbouring rooms on Corridor Eight. They have come here from all walks of life, and they are thrown into an unlikely, life-affirming friendship.

Dora was never meant to go to university, but, after losing both her brother and her fiancé on the battlefield, has arrived in their place. Beatrice, politically-minded daughter of a famous suffragette, sees Oxford as a chance to make her own way – and her own friends – for the first time. Socialite Otto fills her room with extravagant luxuries but fears they won’t be enough to distract her from her memories of the war years. And quiet, clever, Marianne, the daughter of a village vicar, arrives bearing a secret she must hide from everyone – even The Eights – if she is to succeed.

But Oxford’s dreaming spires cast a dark shadow: in 1920, misogyny is still rife, influenza is still a threat, and the ghosts of the Great War are still very real indeed. And as the group navigate this tumultuous moment in time, their friendship will become more important than ever.

The Eights is a captivating debut novel about sisterhood, self-determination, courage, and what it means to come of age in a world that is forever changed.

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A Keeper by Graham Norton

A masterly tale of secrets and ill-fated loves set on the coast of Ireland.

Elizabeth Keane returns to Ireland after her mother's death, intent only on wrapping up that dismal part of her life. There is nothing here for her; she wonders if there ever was. The house of her childhood is stuffed full of useless things, her mother's presence already fading. And perhaps, had she not found the small stash of letters, the truth would never have come to light.

40 years earlier, a young woman stumbles from a remote stone house, the night quiet but for the tireless wind that circles her as she hurries further into the darkness away from the cliffs and the sea. She has no sense of where she is going, only that she must keep on.

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 The Life She Could Have Lived by Laura Pearson

What if the answer to one little question could change your whole life?

Soon after Anna goes on the best date of her life with a man called James – she and her best friend Niamh visit a fortune teller. Who tells Niamh that she will have one great love. But all she tells Anna is that her future is with a man whose name begins with a J.

It won’t be Jamie though – he never calls. And then Anna meets Edward – gorgeous, kind, loving. He’s all she’s ever dreamed of. Until he asks her to make a choice about their future.

If Anna says ‘yes’ to him, her life will go one way. If she says ‘no’, it’ll go another. Both of the worlds could be happy. Both of the worlds could be heartbreaking… But as Niamh meets her one great love in both worlds, which of Anna’s answers – yes or no – will bring her life together with the person who she’s fated to be with?

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 The Traitor's Circle by Jonathan Friedland

Berlin, 1943. A group of high-society anti-Nazi dissenters meet for a tea party one late summer afternoon. They do not know that, sitting around the table, is someone poised to betray them all to the Gestapo - revealing their secret to the Nazis' most ruthless detective.

They form a circle of unlikely rebels, drawn from the German elite: two countesses, a diplomat, an intelligence officer, an ambassador's widow and a pioneering headmistress. Meeting in the shadows, rescuing Jews or plotting for a future Germany freed from the Führer's rule, what unites them is a shared loathing of the Nazis, a refusal to bow to Hitler and the courage to perform perilous acts of resistance. Or so they believe.

How did a group of brave, principled rebels, who had successfully defied Adolf Hitler for more than a decade, come to fall into such a lethal trap? And who betrayed them?

Undone from within and pursued to near-destruction by one of the Reich's cruellest men, they showed a heroism that raises a question with new urgency for our time: what kind of person does it take to risk everything and stand up to tyranny?

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 A Slowly Dying Cause by Elizabeth George

Amid the beauty of Cornwall’s coastline, the death of a local man shatters the peace with its violence. The body of Michael Lobb is discovered in his family’s tin and pewter workshop, and Detective Inspector Beatrice Hannaford is brought in to investigate. Suspicion quickly develops when it emerges that a mining company had been trying to buy the man’s land, and Lobb was the only remaining obstacle to the deal going through.

But every step of Bea’s investigation provokes more questions than answers, and the complexity of the case develops further as Lobb’s family life, rife with mistrust and deception, comes to light. With cryptic alibis and shifting motives, the tangled web of intrigue soon draws in her colleagues Thomas Lynley and Barbara Havers, who must search for a killer in a community that has very little trust in outsiders . . .

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 The Great West Railway Girls Do Their Bit by Jane Lark

1940 - As the Nazi invaders race across Europe, the women of the Great Western Railway works pull together like never before.

Catherine wrestles with self-pity after a machine-shop accident. With her fiancé and brothers on the front lines in France, she must find a new way to fight on the home front.

At her side are her steadfast GWR friends, among them Maggie, facing the loss of her father and family home, and Lily, desperate for news of her childhood sweetheart. All are determined to keep morale high and do their bit to win the war.

Amid blackout nights and rationed days, as the war creeps closer to home, these resilient women forge deeper bonds of sisterhood, confronting heartache and embracing joy. Standing up and volunteering to do even more, when hundreds of thousands of exhausted and wounded troops are rescued from Dunkirk and arrive in Dover. Britain’s ships and small boats saved them, now the trains must move them to safety and the women need to help to keep them alive...

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Happy September Reading!

Annie x

(Bookshop.org affiliated)

A Dark Death by Alice Fitzpatrick - #bookreview

Kate Galway stopped to catch her breath and stretch out her tight muscles. As a woman of a certain age with a waistline that was expanding at an alarming rate, she'd decided to walk from her cottage to the other side of the island...

The Blurb

Kate Galway is looking forward to a quiet summer working on her latest novel at her home on Meredith Island. For a place hardly anyone has heard of, her sleepy Welsh island is attracting a lot of visitors, including a conman posing as a psychic and group of archaeology students who believe they've unearthed evidence of a Roman temple. Part-way through the dig, however, the students make an even more startling discovery: a body ritualistically laid out in their trench. While intrigued by the murder, amateur sleuth Kate decides to leave this investigation to the professionals. However, when she learns that both the island mechanic and her university friend's son are prime suspects, she and hedonistic artist Siobhan Fitzgerald feel they have no choice but to get involved.

 My Review

When I was asked if I would review this book, I could not have been more pleased. I have previously read and reviewed the first book in this series, Secrets in the Water, which I had really enjoyed. You can read my review by clicking here. However, this book works very well as a standalone novel.

Set on a Welsh island, there lives a small, tight-knit community. It is a place where everyone knows each other and what is going on. The main character, Kate Galway, is a retired teacher who seems to have taught most of the younger people on the island at some point, and therefore, knows them all well. Nowadays, she is writing a novel whilst being an amateur sleuth alongside her friend, Siobhan.

There are a group of archaeology students and their lecturers on the island who discover evidence of a Roman settlement. Add into the mix a suspicious psychic who is visiting the island along with his PA Willow, and we have the perfect melting pot for murderous crime and for Kate to become involved in its solution.

I enjoyed this book very much. There were sufficient twists and turns to keep me gripped to the story. I also enjoyed getting to know the characters. I was already familiar with Kate from the previous book, and I was very happy to spend more time with her in this novel. The author has done a fantastic job in creating her character, and she is utterly believable and easy to engage with. 

Equally, the secondary characters are also well portrayed. The islanders are a quirky group of people who are all familiar with one another. It was great having some new characters join this story too in the form of the students, teachers and the psychic. They all came together very well and made this a brilliant story to read.

The island setting was beautifully depicted. Add to that a strong and riveting plot, a group of engaging characters with secrets, and the result is this brilliant addition to the cosy crime genre.

I very much hope that there will be more books in this series that I can enjoy as much as I did this one.

Book Details

ISBN:  978 1988754628

Publisher:  Stonehouse Publishing

Formats:  e-book and paperback

No. of Pages:  300 (paperback)

Series:  A Meredith Island Mystery Book 2

Purchase Links

Amazon UK

Amazon US

Amazon CA

Blackwell's

About the Author

Alice Fitzpatrick has contributed various short stories to literary magazines and anthologies and has recently retired from teaching in order to devote herself to writing full-time. She is a fearless champion of singing, cats, all things Welsh, and the Oxford comma. Her summers spent with her Welsh family in Pembrokeshire inspired the creation of Meredith Island. The traditional mystery appeals to her keen interest in psychology as she is intrigued by what makes seemingly ordinary people commit murder.

 Alice lives in Toronto but dreams of a cottage on the Welsh coast. 

You can also find Alice at:

Author Website

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(book and media courtesy of the publicist)

(all opinions are my own)