With her husband, Akhenaten, Nefertiti – the most powerful, charismatic and beautiful Queen of the ancient world – rules over an Empire at the peak of its glory and domination.
Together, they have built a magnificent new city in the desert on the banks of the Nile and are about to host kings, dignitaries and leaders from around the Empire for a vast festival to celebrate their triumph.
But suddenly, Nefertiti vanishes.
Rahotep – the youngest chief detective of the Thebes division- can see patterns where others cannot. His unusual talents earn him a summons to the royal court.
With ten days to find the Queen and return her in time for the festival, Rahotep knows that success will bring glory – but if he fails, he and his young family will die…
Today is my stop on the Nerfertiti & Tutankhamun blog tour. Many thanks to Anne Cater for the the chance to read and review.
My thoughts – This is a great period thriller. The author takes us back into the time of the Egyptians.
The author have obviously researched this period well as the book and the plot feels very authentic. The Queen Nerfertiti has disappeared and Rahotep has to find her.
This mission is not without its dangers, failure to find the Queen could result in the demise of not only Rahotep but his family too. He uses his detective skills find what out what has happened.
Such a good read that immediately transports you into that time.
Alex Coombs studied Arabic at Oxford and Edinburgh Universities and went on to work in adult education and then retrained to be a chef. He has written four well reviewed crime novels as Alex Howard.
Is she alive, or is she missing for good…? When the estranged daughter of Scotland’s premier art dealer goes missing, Private Investigator Hanlon is hired to find out where Aurora is. But what she thinks will be a relatively straight forward job, soon turns dangerous. The missing girl has a troubled past but what made Aurora suddenly pack her bags and disappear? Hanlon has her work cut out for her. The stakes are rising and she needs to get to the bottom of the case before someone else is attacked. And is Aurora still alive, or is she missing for good? A gripping new case for feisty female Private Investigator, Hanlon. Perfect for fans of Angela Marsons, Robert Bryndza and Lisa Regan.
Today is my stop on the Missing for Good blog tour. Many thanks to Rachel’s Random Resources for the chance to read and review.
My thoughts – I was really looking forward to reading this after reading Silenced For Good. I was not disappointed it was just as good as read as the first book.
This book sees Hanlon looking for a missing woman when her father enlists his help to find her. As he starts his investigation he realises the case might not be as simple as a missing persons case. Has she disappeared through her choice or against her will. There is a great range of characters Hanlon has to negotiate to get to thetruth.
Alexandra Wilson is a junior barrister. Aged twenty five, she is the eldest of four children. Her mother is White British, her father is Black British and her paternal grandparents were born in Jamaica and came to England as part of the Windrush generation. Alexandra grew up on the border of East London and Essex. She studied at the University of Oxford and was awarded two prestigious scholarships, enabling her to research the impact of police shootings in the US on young people’s attitudes to the police. She went on to study for a Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) and her Master of Laws at BPP University in London. Alexandra was awarded the first Queen’s scholarship by the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, a scholarship awarded to students showing exceptional promise in a career at the Bar.
Alexandra Wilson
Social Media Links –
You can follow Alexandra’s work on Twitter: @EssexBarrister
Publisher – Endeavour
Pages – 272
The Blurb –
In this powerful and moving memoir, a young mixed-race barrister shares her experience of a justice system still divided by race and class ‘Ayo was not in a gang. He was just an unfamiliar face to these boys. He was a black teenage boy in the wrong place at the wrong time. His friend managed to escape from the cul-de-sac. Ayo was not so fortunate. He was caught by the boys. Despite pleading with them, he was stabbed over 14 times before being left for dead. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene. He was just 17 years old.’ Alexandra Wilson was a teenager when her dear family friend Ayo was stabbed on his way home from football. Ayo’s death changed Alexandra. His death compelled her to enter the legal profession to search for answers. As a junior criminal and family law barrister she finds herself navigating a world and a set of rules designed by a privileged few. A world in which barristers sigh with relief at the retirement of a racist judge: ‘I’ve got a black kid today and he would have had no hope.’
In her debut book In Black and White, Alexandra beautifully re-creates the tense court room scenes, the heart-breaking meetings with teenage clients and the moments of frustration and triumph that make up a young barrister’s life. Alexandra speaks with raw honesty about her experience as a mixed-race woman from a non-traditional background in a profession that is sorely lacking in diverse representation. A justice system in which a disproportionately large number of black and mixed-race people are charged, convicted and sent to prison. She shows us how it feels to defend someone who hates the colour of your skin or someone you suspect is guilty, and the heart-breaking youth justice cases she has worked on. We see what it’s like for the teenagers coerced into county line drug deals and the damage that can be caused when we criminalise teenagers. Her account of what she has witnessed as a young mixed-race barrister is in equal parts shocking, compelling, confounding and powerful. Alexandra’s story is unique in a profession still dominated by a section of society with little first-hand experience of the devastating impact of violent crime.
Today is my stop on the In Black and White blog tour. Many thanks to Anne Cater for the chance to read and review.
My thoughts – This really is an amazing read. Alexandra Wilson takes us through her journey into the legal system.
A tragic event lead to her wanting to dedicate her life to helping people obtain justice. Unfortunately even though our legal system is held up to be the best in the world, she faced a mammoth journey, to get to where she is. That is testament to her character, not backing down to obvious racism and misogyny.
The book highlights how skewed our legal system and other institutions are when is comes to class and colour. At the time of writing this review – the Black Lives Matter campaign is very prominently in the news and when you read some of the statistics contained in this book, you will see why people protest and demand change.
Rebecca Buxton and Lisa Whiting met at secondary school, where they discovered a shared passion for philosophy. Rebecca is a DPhil student at the University of Oxford, where her research focuses on the political rights of refugees and forced migrants. Lisa is completing her MSc in Government, Policy and Politics at Birkbeck, University of London. Alongside studying, she works as a policy advisor in areas concerning practical ethics. Both Rebecca and Lisa are available for events, interview and features, as are various contributors.
• A beautifully illustrated introduction to twenty of the most important and underrepresented women philosophers, from 400BCE to the present day
• In 2015, women accounted for only 22% of philosophy professors at the top 20 US universities; in some fields of philosophy there has been almost no increase in the number of women since the 1970s
• Three of the most comprehensive histories of philosophy published in the last 20 years have made little or no mention of women
The history of philosophy has not done women justice: you’ve probably heard the names Plato, Kant, Nietzsche and Locke – but what about Hypatia, Arendt, Oluwole and Young? The Philosopher Queens is a long-awaited book about the lives and works of women in philosophy by women in philosophy. This collection brings to centre stage twenty prominent women whose ideas have had a profound – but for the most part uncredited – impact on the world. You’ll learn about Ban Zhao, the first woman historian in ancient Chinese history; Angela Davis, perhaps the most iconic symbol of the American Black Power Movement; Azizah Y. alHibri, known for examining the intersection of Islamic law and gender equality; and many more. For anyone who has wondered where the women philosophers are, or anyone curious about the history of ideas – it’s time to meet the philosopher queens.
Today is my stop on The Philosopher Queens blog tour. Many thanks to Anne Cater for the chance to read and review.
My thoughts – This is such an interesting read. Whether or not you know about philosophy, you would have heard of Plato and other well known philosophers, but have you ever heard of women philosophers?
This book will take you through the history of female philosophers, there are twenty of them highlighted in this book.
The authors have created a great volume so people can read about this extraordinary women in one place and give them the credit they deserve.
Louise Hall is from Malahide, Co. Dublin. She has previously published two works of non-fiction, Medjugorje: What it Means to Me and Medjugorje and Me: A Collection of Stories from Across the World. Her fiction has been published in The Irish Times and been shortlisted for numerous competitions, such as the RTÉ Guide/Penguin Short Story Award, the Colm Tóibín International Short Story Competition and the Jonathan Swift Creative Writing Awards. Pilgrim is her debut novel.
The Blurb – The past few months have made us realise that change is inevitable – sometimes good but sometimes it can be cruel and makes your world go out of control. We might experience anxiety, low moods, night sweats, exhaustion or worse. We lose all hope and feel that there is nothing to look forward to. Little Book of Hope helps you find your way back again – through Reflections to guide you through the difficult times, together with: Family. Friends. Rest. Time – for yourself. Walk. Talk. Cry. Grieve. Meditate. Pray. Accept things. Patience. Dedicated to all those around the world who have lost hard but loved much – that you may re-discover Hope and welcome the beautiful pleasure of joy back into your lives.
Today is my stop on the Little Book of Hope blog tour. Many thanks to Anne Cater for the chance to read and review.
My thoughts – What a beautiful book this is. It is reassuring to have a book like this to dip into as and when you need it. We are living through unprecedented times, loss is all around us, not just the loss of a family member or friend.
This book is the perfect accompaniment to have to read the wisdom contained in the pages. You can read from cover to cover, or as I said you can dip in and out.
The feeling of grief and hopelessness is personal, no two people feel it the same way, but sometimes we will all need a kind word or saying to think about.
Author – Most people know crazy cat ladies are a ‘thing’, but I’m a proud crazy guinea pig lady! I love fun in the sun and plenty of cocktails. My happy place is flip flops. I write stories to keep me company – my characters ensure I’m never lonely and always smiling (when I’m not tearing my hair out!)
Jessie was a shop worker dreaming of the big time, then YouTube found her. But staying in the limelight requires meticulous management: pop stars are made not born.
With awards night approaching, the pressure’s on for Tito, Jessie’s manager, to whip her into shape. Getting so close wasn’t in the contract, but then neither was him being murdered in Spain.
Alone and scared of the negative publicity, Jessie turns to Mack, her account manager at Eternal Forever, the UK’s first digital legacy management agency. But Mack’s got his own issues: the company’s fast running out of cash, his key developer’s on the turn and a blogger’s suicide looks suspicious.
With the help of J-Pop, Mack’s assistant and wannabe reality TV star, Jessie turns sleuth. But in a world where everybody’s watching, it’s hard to escape. Reputation is everything and some people will do anything to protect it.
Can Jessie remain on top or will her pop star crown come crashing down?
Today is my stop on the Eternal Forever blog tour. Many thanks to Rachel’s Random Resources for the chance to read and review.
My thoughts – This is another really good read from Syl Waters. The story involves many characters as Jessie comes out of nowhere to become an overnight pop sensation.
She is thrust into the public eye but she soon realises that it is not the dream she imagined it to be. The cast of characters are not all working in her best interest and when when something happens to her manager, she vows to get to the bottom of it.
Will she solve the mystery and will the spotlight suit her?
Helen Matthews writes page-turning psychological suspense novels and is fascinated by the darker side of human nature and how a life can change in an instant. Her first novel, suspense thriller After Leaving the Village, won first prize in the opening pages category at Winchester Writers’ Festival, and was followed by Lies Behind the Ruin, domestic noir set in France, published by Hashtag Press. Her third novel Façade will be published by Darkstroke in September 2020.
Born in Cardiff, Helen read English at the University of Liverpool and worked in international development, consultancy, human resources and pensions management. She fled corporate life to work freelance while studying for a Creative Writing MA at Oxford Brookes University. Her stories and flash fiction have been shortlisted and published by Flash 500, 1000K Story, Reflex Press, Artificium and Love Sunday magazine.
She is a keen cyclist, covering long distances if there aren’t any hills, sings in a choir and once appeared on stage at Carnegie Hall, New York in a multi-choir performance. She loves spending time in France. Helen is an Ambassador for the charity, Unseen, which works towards a world without slavery and donates her author talk fees, and a percentage of royalties, to the charity.
A drowned child. Estranged sisters. A once-perfect home.
Silence echoes louder than truth.
When seventeen-year-old Rachel’s baby brother drowns and her older sister, Imogen, escapes to live abroad with Simon, her musician boyfriend, Rachel must face the family’s grief and disintegration alone.
Twenty years later, Rachel is a successful businesswoman, with a daughter of her own, supporting her parents and their elegant Georgian home, The Old Rectory, that shackles them to the past.
Simon’s sudden death in Ibiza brings Imogen back, impoverished and resentful. Her family owes her, and she will stop at nothing to reclaim what she believes is rightly hers.
The rift between the sisters seems permanent. While Imogen has lived a nomadic life, filled with intrigue, in Spain and Tunisia, Rachel’s has appeared stable and successful but, behind the veneer, cracks are appearing. Now, she is vulnerable.
As the wall of silence and secrecy crumbles, danger stalks Rachel’s family. She must re-examine her baby brother’s death, find out what happened in Tunisia, and fight to hold onto everything she’s achieved –or risk losing it all.
Façade is a gripping tale of loss, guilt and danger.
Today is my stop on the Facade blog tour. Many thanks to Rachel’s Random Resources for the chance to read and review.
My thoughts – This is an excellent read that concentrates on what happened on a day in 1999.
The two main characters are Rachel and Imogen and they are sisters, however it is fair to say their relationship is fractured. As the story goes on we find out what happened in 1999 and how this one event has affected the two sisters.
There is a great mystery to the book and just when you think you have it all sussed out, it completely changes. It is this twist that will have you guessing right until the last page.
After 20 years following the flag as an Army wife, with spells in Germany and Belgium, Alexine settled as third generation in the family home. She has written diverse articles and two books, The Challenge of Caring (2001) and Comely Grace (2011). She has an Oxford BA in history, and is a trustee of Woodlarks Camp Site where disabled adults and children come for holidays.
The Blurb – Twitter users might not be so ready with their tweets had they risked the drastic punishments meted out to pamphlet publishers in the 1640s. Here is gossip for the nation, while in Farnham, Surrey, gossip fuels rivalries and domestic conflicts. And into this arrives Charity, an unwilling newcomer. Who, the gossips ask, is she? Why has she come? Which young man is she attracting? What will her choices be?
Today is my stop on the Charity’s Choice blog tour. Many thanks to Anne Cater for the chance to read and review.
My thoughts – This is an interesting insight into English life in the 1640’s and concentrates on one family, the Mannory’s.
They live in Surrey and are tanners, the author goes into great detail of the times that lived in and the life they would have lead at that time. The written word was becoming more popular in a time when the majority could not read or write. At that time there was an English civil war in progress and the King had been imprisoned on the Isle Of Wight. Printing became the vehicle for propaganda, influencing the people who could read. Those people would then go on to share their knowledge/opinions with others.
Charity finds herself involved with the Mannory family, through one of the sons and finds herself moving to Surrey. The sons of the Mannory family are very different and we see how expectations were different at that time, especially where it comes to women. So what does Charity choose and why?
Kate Humble is a farmer, writer, activist, entrepreneur and one of the UK’s best-known TV presenters. She started her television career as a researcher, later presenting programmes such as ‘Animal Park’, ‘Springwatch & Autumnwatch’, ‘Lambing Live’, ‘Living with Nomads’, ‘Extreme Wives’ and ‘Back to the Land’. Her last book, Thinking On My Feet, was shortlisted for The Wainwright Prize and The Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award.
If there is one thing that most of us aspire to, it is, simply, to be happy. And yet attaining happiness has become, it appears, anything but simple. Having stuff – The Latest, The Newest, The Best Yet – is all too often peddled as the sure fire route to happiness. So why then, in our consumer-driven society, is depression, stress and anxiety ever more common, affecting every strata of society and every age, even, worryingly, the very young? Why is it, when we have so much, that many of us still feel we are missing something and the rush of pleasure when we buy something new turns so quickly into a feeling of emptiness, or purposelessness, or guilt? So what is the route to real, deep, long lasting happiness? Could it be that our lives have just become overly crowded, that we’ve lost sight of the things – the simple things – that give a sense of achievement, a feeling of joy or excitement? That make us happy. Do we need to take a step back, reprioritise? Do we need to make our lives more simple? Kate Humble’s fresh and frank exploration of a stripped-back approach to life is uplifting, engaging and inspiring – and will help us all find balance and happiness every day.
Praise For Thinking On My Feet: ‘A lovely, civilised and transporting read, that should have all of us stepping out to meet the world with fresh eyes.’ -HUGH FEARNLEY-WHITTINGSTALL ‘An enticing read that makes every walk Humble describes an adventure.’ -RANULPH FIENNES ‘A beautiful and magnificent book. A paean to a simple act. I defy you to read this book and not be inspired to walk, march or hike – and as a result live a better life more connected with nature and the world around you.’ -SIMON REEVE ‘A lovely book, fast-flowing yet at every turn giving the reader pause for thought. Kate Humble makes a delightful companion, her words full of sunshine and the raw pleasure she radiates as she encounters life in its many unexpected forms.’ -BENEDICT ALLEN ‘It will encourage you to pull on a pair of boots and get out there yourself.’ -THE MAIL ON SUNDAY
Today is my stop on A Year of Living Simply blog tour. Many thanks to Anne Cater for the chance to read and review.
My thoughts – I think this book has come out at the perfect time. While this year has been tough for everyone, I think it has made a lot of us reassess our priorities. Lockdown has forced us to look at our lives, and what if anything we would like to change about them.
This book is beautifully written by Kate Humble as she takes us on her own journey of making her life more simple. As you read along you will find yourself inspired to make even the smallest of changes to your own life, sometimes just cleaning a drawer can make such a difference. Small changes are like ripples in water, the initial action can lead to bigger things.
Verity Bright is the pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing partnership that has spanned a quarter of a century. Starting out writing high-end travel articles and books, they published everything from self-improvement to humour, before embarking on their first historical mystery. They are the authors of the fabulous Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery series, set in the 1920s.
A medieval house, a dead body and some rather suspicious chocolate fudge? Call for Lady Swift!
Autumn, 1920. Lady Eleanor Swift, accidental amateur detective and retired explorer, is determined to take a break from investigating murders. So when a local politician dies suddenly at an elegant dinner party at Farrington Manor, she tries her hardest not to listen to the raft of rumours around the village that he might have been poisoned by the fudge. It’s the anniversary of the disappearance of her beloved parents and she’s promised herself not to get mixed up with any more mysteries. She isn’t sure they’d have approved.
But when she arrives home to discover that Mrs Pitkin, the kindly cook from Farrington Manor, has been dismissed without wage or reference because the police consider her a suspect, Eleanor knows she needs to act. If there was a murder, then she needs to track down the culprit and clear Mrs Pitkin’s name.
Accompanied by her faithful partner in crime, Gladstone the bulldog, who has the best nose for sniffing out bones in the country, Eleanor sets out to find the killer. And when another body turns up and she finds poisoned fudge in the victim’s house, Eleanor knows she’s on the right track. But can she sort the truth from the lies before she becomes a witness to another murder – this time rather closer to home?
An utterly charming cozy mystery! Warm and witty, fans of Agatha Christie, TE Kinsey and LB Hathaway will be totally hooked.
Today is my stop on A Witness to Murder blog tour. Many thanks to Bookouture for the chance to read and review.
My thoughts – To read more books by Verity Bright, click the links below to read my reviews.
A Witness To Murder is the third book in the Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery Series.
I am loving this series of books, I am huge fan of mysteries and this series ticks all the boxes. In this book Lady Swift sees herself looking into the death of a Member of Parliament and what I find interesting is how the author references the period. Women had not got the vote at the time the book is set. Due to her investigating she is invited to stand for election, a massive thing at that time.
The plot as always is well written and it is a great addition to the series.
