The Holocaust: An Unfinished History by Dan Stone - #BookReview

Ideology does not come from nowhere. The history of ideas is crucial, though it is insufficient for explaining the historical origins of Nazism. Ideas that seemed marginal at one moment became decisive at another, following the German defeat in the First World War and, especially, after the terrible effects of the Great Depression. In order to grasp the power of the forces that fuelled the Holocaust, we have to understand the toxic mix of ideas and events which propelled an apocalypic movement to the fore. Nazism was not merely a political programme but sought to be, as Goebels put it, "the very air which we breathe". It was not just an ideology but a... worldview.
 

***

An authoritative, revelatory new history of the Holocaust, from one of the leading scholars of his generation

The Holocaust is much-discussed, much-memorialized and much-portrayed. But there are major aspects of its history that have been overlooked.

Spanning the entirety of the Holocaust and across the world, this sweeping history deepens our understanding. Dan Stone reveals how the idea of 'industrial murder' is incomplete: many were killed where they lived in the most brutal of ways. He outlines the depth of collaboration across Europe, arguing persuasively that we need to stop thinking of the Holocaust as an exclusively German project. He also considers the nature of trauma the Holocaust engendered, and why Jewish suffering has yet to be fully reckoned with. And he makes clear that the kernel to understanding Nazi thinking and action is genocidal ideology, providing a deep analysis of its origins.

Drawing on decades of research, The Holocaust: An Unfinished History upends much of what we think we know about the Holocaust. Stone draws on Nazi documents, but also on diaries, post-war testimonies and even fiction, urging that, in our age of increasing nationalism and xenophobia, we must understand the true history of the Holocaust.

***

The Holocaust is a topic that we have become very familiar with although its ability to shock never lessens.  We all like to assign this level of barbarity to the distant past; something that happened a long time ago in history. 

However, the truth is that this happened less than a century ago and that fact alone is horrifying. It is beyond disturbing that ordinary people, fathers, sons, husbands and brothers were complicit in this.

Dan Stone's book sets out to explain how this, amongst other things were able to happen.  Of Hitler he says:

"This total absence of compromise, an inability to regard anything or anyone other than himself as correct, was why Hitler was so impervious to criticism, so assured of his own destiny - and why so many Germans were attracted to him.

The author goes on to explain how it was not the Nazi's alone, but other European countries that were compliant in the killing of the Jews and this was one factor towards the acceptance of killing on such a huge scale.  It was... "a continent-wide crime with many perpetrators, not just Germans."

As the book progresses the author looks to the way is which the Holocaust in remembered. He writes that this perception of the Holocaust as solely a German atrocity, and the downplaying of the involvement of other European nations has distorted history.

Just when we think that there is nothing to add to the canon of books on the Holocaust, a work such as this comes along and presents many new and challenging ideas. Personally, I learnt much that I had not considered before.  

Outstandingly researched and written, this book is a worthy addition to this particular field of study and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

ISBN: 978-0241388709

Publisher: Pelican

Formats:  e-book, audio and hardcover

No. of Pages: 464 (hardback)

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About the Author:

Dan Stone is one of the foremost experts on the Holocaust of his generation. He is Professor of Modern History and Director of the Holocaust Research Institute (Royal Holloway, University of London), and was on the advisory panel for the Imperial War Museum's new Holocaust Galleries. He is the author or editor of numerous books, including Histories of the Holocaust and The Liberation of the Camps.

(ARC and author info courtesy of the publisher)

(author image courtesy of University of London)

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Surviving the Holocaust and Stalin by Vanessa Holburn - #bookreview

Izabella Tauber stepped down from the train and instinctively put her hand out to steady herself against the steel pillar of Kistelek stations. She was aware her other hand was shaking. She looked at it, willing it to stop, willing herself to gather the strength to walk on. To finally walk home.

***

The horrors of Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen and labour camps were just the beginning of the struggle to survive for the Seiler family. As Hungarian Jews, they faced persecution of the very worst kind both from their own government and Nazi Germany. After liberation by the Soviets at the end of WWII they endured further punishment from the Stalinist regime concealed behind the Iron Curtain. 

This memoir is drawn from a recently re-discovered cache of precious family letters and exclusive interviews with Marta Seiler, who translated those letters for the first time. Marta has supplemented the account with childhood memories and original photos. 

The narrative is told through the voices of Marta, her mother Izabella and her father Lajos on a journey that takes us from 1935 to the present day. The reader is able to piece together the family's personal challenges set against the backdrop of international political conflict. Exploring themes of resilience, identity and inherited trauma, by the end of the book we learn how Marta rediscovered her forbidden Jewish identity, found her place within the community and has moved toward a place of tolerance. In the tradition of oral history, Marta told her remarkable family story exclusively to journalist Vanessa Holburn. For Marta it's important we learn the lessons of the past before they are lost for good.

***

This non-fiction title is an excellent example of how a horrific family story can be conveyed. The narrative is told succinctly and eloquently, and without recourse to dramaticism. The author has enabled the telling of Marta's family history, which she discovered through a collection of letters, photos and documents kept by her aunt.

Marta had been aware of these but it took the lockdown during the covid pandemic to make her focus on them and familiarise herself with the lives endured by her parents. 

Like so many people, following their internment in Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen they did not want to talk about their experiences. They wanted to look to the future and not to the past, and so Marta had never been made aware of how they suffered in the concentration camps, and later in Soviet occupied Hungary.

Not only did they endue the horror meted out by the Nazi's in the concentration/death camps but on returning to their homeland they further endured anti-semitism, Soviet occupation and Stalinism.

However, the overriding thing I took away from this book is that the Seillet's were not victims but survivors, and anyone who reads this book will be inspired by the way in which they were able to move forward whilst dealing with such a traumatic past.

Publishing in the UK today, I highly recommend this book.

ISBN: 978 1399062992

Publisher: Pen & Sword History

Formats: Hardcover

No. of Pages: 224

About the Author:

Vanessa Holburn is an author and journalist living in Berkshire in the UK.

Her publishing experience stretches over 24 years and her work has appeared in magazines, newspapers and digital outlets. Her consumer press credits include The Daily Telegraph, Private Eye, The Mirror, The Sun, The Independent on Sunday, The Express, Vegan Living, Woman's Own, Yours, Bella, Dogs Today, Wunderdog and Ask The Doctor.

She is the author of three previous titles, How To Pick A Puppy, How to be an Activist and The Amritsar Massacre. 

(ARC courtesy of NetGalley)

Top Ten New Releases in February 2023

Each month I get really excited about the books which are being published the following month. This month it has been particularly difficult to choose just ten as there are some amazing titles due to be released. However, here are my top ten.

Anne Boleyn: An Illustrated Life of Henry VIII's Queen by Roland Hui

'If you remember my love in your prayers as strongly as I adore you, I shall hardly be forgotten, for I am yours,' - Henry Rex, forever

Written by King Henry VIII to his sweetheart, the seductive and vivacious Anne Boleyn, his passion for her would be so great that Henry would make Anne his queen, and change the course of English history.

But the woman whom Henry had promised to love for all time would go from palace to prison, charged with heinous crimes. Her life ended on a bloody scaffold in the Tower of London.

Explore the incredible story of Anne Boleyn, the most famous and controversial of Henry VIII's six wives, in this exciting new account of her life told in words and pictures.

Untamed Shore by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Baja California, 1979: Viridiana spends her days under the harsh sun, watching the fishermen pulling in their nets and the dead sharks piled beside the seashore. Her head is filled with dreams of romance, travel and of a future beyond this drab town where her only option is to marry and have children.

When a wealthy American writer arrives with his wife and brother-in-law, Viridiana jumps at the offer of a job as his assistant, and she's soon entangled in the glamorous foreigners' lives. They offer excitement, and perhaps an escape from her humdrum life. When one of them dies, eager to protect her new friends, Viridiana lies - but soon enough, someone's asking questions. It's not long before Viridiana has some of her own questions about the identities of her new acquaintances.

Sharks may be dangerous, but there are worse predators nearby, ready to devour a naïve young woman unwittingly entangled in a web of deceit.

This Could Be Everything by Eva Rice

It’s 1990. The Happy Mondays are in the charts, a 15-year-old called Kate Moss is on the cover of the Face magazine, and Julia Roberts wears thigh-boots for the poster for a new movie called Pretty Woman. 

 

February Kingdom is nineteen years old when she is knocked sideways by family tragedy. Then one evening in May she finds an escaped canary in her kitchen and it sparks a glimmer of hope in her. With the help of the bird called Yellow, Feb starts to feel her way out of her own private darkness, just as her aunt embarks on a passionate and all-consuming affair with a married American drama teacher.   

 

THIS COULD BE EVERYTHING is a coming-of-age story with its roots under the pavements of a pre-Richard Curtis-era Notting Hill that has all but vanished. It’s about what happens when you start looking after something more important than you, and the hope a yellow bird can bring… 

Before Mrs Beeton: Elizabeth Raffald by Neil Buttery

The great Elizabeth Raffald used to be a household name, and her list of accomplishments would make even the highest of achievers feel suddenly impotent. After becoming housekeeper at Arley Hall in Cheshire at age twenty-five, she married and moved to Manchester, transforming the Manchester food scene and business community, writing the first A to Z directory and creating the first domestic servants registry office, the first temping agency if you will. Not only that, she set up a cookery school and ran a high class tavern attracting both gentry and nobility. She reputedly gave birth to sixteen daughters, wrote book on midwifery and was an effective exorciser of evil spirits. These achievements gave her notoriety and standing in Manchester, but it all pales in comparison to her biggest achievement; her cookery book The Experienced English Housekeeper. Published in 1769, it ran to over twenty editions and brought her fame and fortune. But then disaster; her fortune lost, spent by her alcoholic husband. Bankrupted twice, she spent her final years in a pokey coffeehouse in a seedy part of town. Her book, however, lived on. Influential and often imitated (but never bettered), it became the must-have volume for any kitchen, and it helped form our notion of traditional British food as we think of it today. To tell Elizabeth's tumultuous rise and fall story, historian Neil Buttery doesn't just delve into the history of food in the eighteenth century, he has to look at trade and empire, domestic service, the agricultural revolution, women's rights, publishing and copyright law, gentlemen's clubs and societies, the horse races, the defeminization of midwifery, and the paranormal, to name but a few. Elizabeth Raffald should be revered, not unknown. How can this be? Perhaps we should ask Mrs Beeton...

What Remains of Elsie Jane by Chelsea Wakelyn

Sam is dead, which means that Elsie Jane has just lost the brilliant, sensitive man she planned to grow old with. The early days of grief are a fog of work and single parenting. Too restless to sleep, Elsie pores over Sam's old love letters, paces her house, and bickers with the ghosts of Sam and her dead parents night after night. As the year unfolds, she develops an obsession with a local murder mystery, attends a series of disastrous internet dates in search of a "replacement soulmate," and solicits a space-time wizard via Craigslist, convinced he will help her forge a path through the cosmos back to Sam.

Examining the ceaseless labour of motherhood, the stigma of death by drug poisoning, and the allure of magical thinking in the wake of tragedy, What Remains of Elsie Jane is a heart-splitting reminder that grief is born from the depths of love.

A Gift of Poison by Bella Ellis

Haworth 1847 - Anne and Emily Brontë have had their books accepted for publication, while Charlotte's has been rejected everywhere, creating a strained atmosphere at the parsonage.

At the same time, a shocking court case has recently concluded, acquitting a workhouse master of murdering his wife by poison. Everyone thinks this famously odious and abusive man is guilty. However, he insists he is many bad things but not a murderer. When an attempt is made on his life, he believes it to be the same person who killed his wife and applies to the detecting sisters for their help.

Despite reservations, they decide that perhaps, as before, it is only they who can get to the truth and prove him innocent - or guilty - without a shadow of doubt.

Clara and Olivia by Lucy Ashe

I would kill to dance like her.

Disciplined and dedicated, Olivia is the perfect ballerina. But no matter how hard she works, she can never match identical twin Clara's charm. 

I would kill to be with her.

As rehearsals intensify for the ballet Coppélia, the girls feel increasingly like they are being watched. And, as infatuation turns to obsession, everything begins to unravel.

Not That Kind of Ever After by Luci Adams

One damsel + one wolf + many, many, many frogs = DISTRESS

Gloriously fun, romantic and feel-good, discover a 21st century London fairytale with an unforgettable twist . . .

Bella Marble is a true, hopeless, despairing romantic. Above all things, even above her wish to be a writer, she wants love.

But when her beautiful best friend moves out of their flat share to live with the most boring ogre in history, and her perfectly paired parents tell her their own love story is coming to an end, Bella's illusions of a happily ever after start to shatter. If they can't find 'the one', what chance does she have?

Disenchanted, Bella throws herself into looking for love in all the wrong places. London may be fresh out of knights in shining Armani, but it's got a surplus of frogs - and as Bella learns, kissing frogs can be extremely fun.

But Bella is forgetting the essential rule of all fairytales.

There is nothing more powerful than a first kiss . . .

Red Dirt Road by S. R. White

One outback town. Two puzzling murders. Fifty suspects.

In Unamurra, a drought-scarred, one-pub town deep in the outback, two men are savagely murdered a month apart - their bodies elaborately arranged like angels.

With no witnesses, no obvious motives and no apparent connections between the killings, how can lone police officer Detective Dana Russo - flown in from hundreds of kilometres away - possibly solve such a baffling, brutal case?

Met with silence and suspicion from locals who live by their own set of rules, Dana must take over a stalled investigation with only a week to make progress.

But with a murderer hiding in plain sight, and the parched days rapidly passing, Dana is determined to uncover the shocking secrets of this forgotten town - a place where anyone could be a killer.

A gripping and vividly atmospheric story from the international bestseller, this is a searing story perfect for fans of Jane Harper, Chris Hammer and Garry Disher.

The Witch of Tin Mountain by Paulette Kennedy

Blood and power bind three generations of women in the Ozark Mountains. So does an evil that’s followed them across the decades.

1931. Gracelynn Doherty lives peacefully on Tin Mountain, helping her adoptive granny work her cures. Despite whispers that the women are witches, the superstitious locals still seek them out, whether to remedy arthritis or a broken heart. But when evangelist Josiah Bellflower comes to town promising miracle healing, full bellies, and prosperity, his revivals soon hold Tin Mountain in thrall―and Granny in abject fear.

Granny recognizes Josiah. Fifty years ago, in a dark and desperate moment, she made a terrible promise. Now Josiah, an enemy, has returned to collect his due.

As Granny sickens and the drought-ridden countryside falls under a curse, Gracelynn must choose: flee Tin Mountain and the only family she knows, or confront the vengeful preacher whose unholy mission is to destroy her.

A Distant Voice in the Darkness by Leela Dutt - #blogtour #spotlight

 

I am delighted to be part of the blog tour for this book and am bringing you a short extract of A Voice in the Darkness by Leela Dutt. Hope this whets your appetite.

Blurb

Eleanor walks out on her student boyfriend Alec in Cardiff in order to seek the life she really wants, publishing sketches of everything that interests her.  Beginning in Rome, this takes her to Copenhagen and eventually to India, South Africa, New Zealand, Finland, Iceland, the USA and beyond.  Meanwhile Alec becomes a TV presenter who also travels the world, leaving his vulnerable young family behind. Eleanor, travelling with Alec’s teenage daughter, is caught up in an armed invasion of Lesotho, and is shot at a road block while they try to escape…

Published by 186 Publishing Limited 

Length 262 pages

Genre: Travel, Romance

Age category: 14 – 99

Date published: August 2022

Extract

What the hell is that hideous smell? Overpowering – burning, surely? But a hint of orange in it, surely – or am I imagining that?

Pause to get my breath back at the top of the stairs. I’m here in this hall of residence to return a book I borrowed, but the pesky girl isn’t in; it’s Friday night, she’s probably out clubbing. All right for some.

I can see smoke in the corridor now. Must be a fire. Let’s see, kitchen at the far end. Hurry, there’s someone coughing.

Open the door carefully – oh God a fog!

There’s someone in here; a very young man, peering at me through the mist. He must be a First Year student, like me, but eons younger than me. Tall, with an untidy mass of black hair that sticks straight up like a cartoon. And the most peculiar eyebrows, like a gable. He’s taken off a large pair of NHS glasses, all steamed up, and put them on the work top.

‘Oh hi,’ he says. ‘I’m not sure what’s gone wrong. I was only trying to cook a chicken for my mates…’

I barge past him and open the over door gingerly. Yes, he’s right, that blackened corpse must have been a chicken once. I grab a couple of cloths that someone’s conveniently left next to the stove and lift the dish out gently.

‘Oh, thanks! I wasn’t sure what… My name’s Alec Jenkins, by the way.’

About the Author:

Leela Dutt grew up in Golders Green with an Indian father and a Danish mother. After reading history at Oxford, she sold dress fabrics and became a teacher and a journalist, eventually running a database on housing research at Cardiff University. She writes novels and short stories, and has lived in Cardiff most of her life.

The Notekeeper by Hannah Treave - #BookReview #BlogTour

 

The lights of the runway dazzled up ahead. It was as though the twinkling blue and white lights had been arranged especially for her - a reminder that she had made the right choice. As the twin engines roared into life, she took a deep breath. The rumble of power beneath her would carry her thousands of miles away. This was it. No going back.

As the aircraft accelerated, she fixed her gaze on the lights. They flashed past so quickly they looked like one great line rather than individual dots. And then they were up, the plane soaring into the Australian night sky with all the grace and elegance of a leaping ballet dancer. She let out a loud gasp, the realisation of what she had done hitting her with such force she disturbed the sleeping passenger beside her.

***

In order to love again, first she’ll need to learn how to live again...

Following a tragedy, Zoe flees Australia and makes a life for herself in the UK. Two years later, working as a care nurse in Bath and knowing just how much comfort last words can bring, Zoe has taken it upon herself to become a notekeeper - writing down the final thoughts of her patients and delivering them to their loved ones.

Zoe’s new boss, Ben, isn’t happy about her getting so involved in the patients’ lives. Even as they clash, they both begin to realize that facing one’s past is the only way to move on. But life is never straightforward, especially for Zoe. In finally opening up her heart after all these years, is she about to have it broken all over again?

***

I enjoyed reading this book very much and becoming aquainted with the cast of characters.

The main character, Zoe, is multi-faceted and her journey to healing is a heartfelt and moving one. Running away from grief, and working as a nurse in a hospice she is constantly reminded of her own loss. However, this is not a depressing book but is thoughtful and sensitive, although many readers may do well to have a handkerchief tucked into their sleeve. 

The author handles the subject matter carefully and skillfully. The main theme in the book is that of dying and bereavement but ultimately it is an uplifting and hopeful novel. There were many joyous moments in the book, with the other characters playing a vital, and meaningful role. I particularly liked Miles, Zoe's colleage and fellow Australian. He brought humour and fun to the story.

Written in a light and accessible style this is a book that can be read in a two or three sittings. I certainly found myself being lured back to it when I had to put it down and I definitely read past my bedtime.

I will read other books by this author. This is the first book published under the pseudonym of Hannah Treave but she has released several books under the name of Fiona Ford, of which I soon hope to become acquainted. 

ISBN:978 1804361290

Publisher: Canelo

Formats: e-book, audio, paperback

No. of Pages: 352 (paperback)

Triggers: Death of a child, dying, grief, bereavement, cancer.

About the Author:

Hannah Treave is the pseudonym for Fiona Ford, an experienced freelance journalist and prolific novelist. She has written for the national press for many years (far too many to count) and is the author of the bestselling Liberty Girls series published by Penguin Random House. She lives in Berkshire with her husband and two cats and when she's not writing can be found in the gym desperately trying to exercise her way out of diet that is filled with just a little bit too much cake.

(ARC courtesy of Love Book Tours)

(author photo courtesy of Blake Friedmann)

(author bio courtesy of Amazon)

The Testing of Rose Alleyn by Vivien Freeman - #BookReview #BlogTour

 

Along with grey clouds and a consequent drop in temperature, there comes the return of what is never far away in these parts, a keen easterly breeze. Borne upon it, the plaintive sound of a concertina makes me think of the cold sea even further east. The tune reaches its conclusion as I draw level with the church and glimpse beyond it, in the school playground, a Maypole with its rainbow of ribbons. The end of each ribbon is held by a child who stands still in his or her starting place, returned from all the weaving intricacies of dance.

***

After her mother's death in January, late in her twentieth pregnancy, sixteen-year-old Rose had resolved never to marry. Defying expectations, she has escaped the same fate as her siblings in service, and left her rural home for the market town of Widdock. Here she now works as the assistant in a bookshop owned by inspiring and charismatic Leonard Pritchard, with whom she shares a love of poetry. At Apple Tree House, where she lodges, Rose has forged strong friendships with the other young women residents and with the hostel's cultured owner, Mrs. Fuller.

Rose enjoys her independence. But as her relationship with her employer deepens, her joy is tempered by reawakening fears about the reality of women's lives. Preoccupied, Rose is unprepared for trouble when it strikes. Coming from the least likely source, one in which she has always found solace, it threatens the very person now closest to her heart. How can words prove to be so damaging and dangerous? What can she do? As the storm gathers, will she ride it?

***

Set in 1900 the author has captured the period perfectly. It is slow paced to echo the time period and it would be easy to believe that this had been written contemporaneously.

Rose is a very likeable character and it is easy to sympathise with her fear of pregnancy and child birth. Consequently, when she falls in love and she is forced to confront those fears, the reader can engage with and understand her apprehension.

The setting is nicely described, and the author provides telling descriptions of the environment. It was very easy to share Rose's appreciation of the rural countryside. When there is a heatwave it was easy to identify with the feelings that they all shared.

I enjoyed reading about her life in the young woman's hostel. Mrs. Fuller, the proprieter, was an enjoyable character to get to know, as were the other young ladies who resided there.

For me, the main theme of the book was that of a young woman of her class and experience being able to break free of the expectations that were placed upon her. Like the rest of Rose's family, she had been expected to go into service. That she was able to secure employment as a book shop assistant speaks volumes about her character.

I think anyone who enjoys the gentle pace of fiction set during the turn of the twentieth century will enjoy this book.

ISBN:  979 8770841268

Publisher: 186 Publishing

Formats: e-book and paperback

No. of Pages:  269

About the Author:

Vivien Freeman grew up in North London and graduated in Art History from the University of East Anglia before settling in Ware, Hertfordshire. A published poet as well as a novelist, she taught Creative Writing for many years and has an M.A. in Scriptwriting from Salford University. She now lives in rural Wales in the Vale of Glamorgan with her husband, the poet, John Freeman.

The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett - #BookReview

 

WhatsApp messages between me and my agent Nita Cawley, 26 May: 

Amanda Bailey - The murder cases I've covered so far are all the same. Dead blonde, media frenzy, police fumblings, lucky psychopath.

Nita Cawley - It's our bread and butter.

Amanda Bailey - Already chewed over and spat out by every newspaper and crime reporter in the land. Same old, same mould.

Nita Cawley - I hear you. What do you have in mind?

Amanda Baily - Something else. Different. New. Oh, I don't know ... a novel?

***

Everyone knows the sad story of the Alperton Angels: the cult who brainwashed a teenage girl and convinced her that her newborn baby was the anti-Christ. Believing they had a divine mission to kill the infant, they were only stopped when the girl came to her senses and called the police. The Angels committed suicide rather than stand trial, while mother and baby disappeared into the care system.

Nearly two decades later, true-crime author Amanda Bailey is writing a book on the Angels. The Alperton baby has turned eighteen and can finally be interviewed; if Amanda can find them, it will be the true-crime scoop of the year, and will save her flagging career. But rival author Oliver Menzies is just as smart, better connected, and is also on the baby's trail.

As Amanda and Oliver are forced to collaborate, they realise that what everyone thinks they know about the Angels is wrong. The truth is something much darker and stranger than they'd ever imagined. And the story of the Alperton Angels is far from over.

***

Written as a series of WhatsApp messages, emails and interview transcriptions, Janice Hallett's unique expression of writing presents us with another extraordinary book. She is a breath of fresh air in the crime writing genre due to her singular approach. I very much enjoyed her book, The Appeal, last year, and if you would like to read my spoiler free review you can do so by clicking here.

The main character, Amanda Bailey, is a true crime writer. Even though she is presented to the reader entirely through a succession of short messages, she is a fully formed and well rounded character.

She is persuaded by her agent to collaborate on the story of the Alperton Angels with a fellow writer, Oliver Menzies. Watching the development of the two characters and their working relationship is gripping.

Another character who leaps off the page is Ellie, Amanda's editorial assistant. Her personal comments dotted throughout the transcriptions were one of my favourite parts of the book. She brings humour into what is essentially a dark and disturbing plot and adds a lighter aspect to the story.

There are plenty of twists and turns throughout and I really did not anticipate the ending. I shall say no more as I would hate to give anything away but I highly encourage you to read this book for yourself.

ISBN: 978 1800810402

Publisher: Viper

Formats: e-book, audio and hardback

No. of Pages: 432 (hardback)

About the Author:

A former magazine editor and award-winning journalist, Janice has written speeches and articles for, among others, the Cabinet Office, Home Office and Department for International Development. In screenwriting, Janice's first feature film RETREAT was released by Sony Pictures (co-written and directed by Carl Tibbetts) which starred Cillian Murphy, Thandie Newton and Jamie Bell. Janice’s stage plays have been performed at Theatre503, The White Bear, Hen & Chickens and TheatreN16. She was also one of six female playwrights selected by All The Rage Theatre for its Seize The Stage festival at Rich Mix. Her play NETHERBARD has twice been performed by Budding Rose Productions. Janice has had television scripts in development with Slim Film & TV and with Retort (part of FreemantleMedia). Her sitcom TWO LADIES was  performed at the Museum of Comedy in June 2019.

​

Janice was selected for the Triforce Creative Network year-long mentoring scheme and featured on the BBC New Talent Hotlist. She won Best New Screenplay in the 2014 British Independent Film Festival.

Janice's debut novel, The Appeal, was published by Viper (Serpent's Tail) in January 2021 and hailed as 'dazzlingly clever' by the Sunday Times. It went on to be the biggest selling debut novel of that year, was  a bestseller for many weeks in The Times and the Sunday Times, was shortlisted for Watersones Book of the Year 2021, shortlisted in the crime and thriller category of the British Book Awards, was the Sunday Times crime novel of the year, and won the Crime Writers Association New Blood Dagger for debut fiction in 2022.

Janice's second novel The Twyford Code, was an immediate Sunday Times bestseller in hardback and paperback on publication in 2022.

(author photo and bio. info courtesy of the author's agent)

(ARC courtest of NetGalley)