Blog Tour: Dead in the Water @SimonBowerBooks @MiddleFarmPress @damppebbles

Dead in the Water

Was it murder, suicide or an accident? Who will be next to die?

Six international friends all appear to be successful, albeit to different levels. A human rights’ lawyer, an IT geek, a businessman, a waitress, a phone guy and a physiotherapist. None of them are known to the police.

One of them must know what happened that fateful night on the catamaran.

Agent Georges Fournier is assigned the case in the French resort town near Antibes. He’s short on time, with a growing health problem and a District Attorney who just wants the case closed as accidental. But he’s not letting go.

Chrissie is a single mother and respected flight attendant in New York. When she finds out who her father is, she’s ecstatic and wants to meet him.

But within a week she’d wish she’d never known.

My Thoughts

Dead in the water starts with a bang, with a character floating in the Mediterranean and we read her last dying thoughts until she sinks to the bottom. We then zip five months back and we are introduced to the story through the character Charlie who seems to be telling the story. The chapters then go on to introduce the other characters Chrissie, Ana, Scot, Len, Mia and Agent Fournier.

The story jumps around a bit between the characters, locations and where we are in the timeline of the story. I found the beginning of the book a bit confusing as I struggled to grasp what was going on and who was who. Once I worked out what the formula of the book was I began to enjoy it more and tore through the pages.

The story is told in 1^st person through Charlie’s eyes and 3^rd person for the other character’s. Simon has carefully woven a novel out of seven different strands, seven character’s stories and their views on the what happened and why they did what they did. Simon has more or less written seven different stories and then spent time weaving them into a novel. Simon makes you feel that you were there with the character’s and at every location in the story.

This book involves some time invested in the beginning but once you get used to this unique and different way of story telling you’ll be flying through the book. I am very interested and keen to see what Simon does next.

***

Simon Bower is a British and Canadian author born in Berkshire in 1973. Since 1998, he’s adopted a global lifestyle, setting up home at times in Europe, Africa and North America.

In 2016 Simon turned to writing full time, which led to his first published work, Dead in the Water, being released in paperback and eBook by Middle Farm Press in 2018.

Simon currently lives in France, near the Swiss border, where his young family, mountains, acrylic paint and sharpened skis keep him in regular mischief.

 

Simon Bower Books          Simon Bower Books Author Page             Author Page

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My Thanks to Emma at Damppebbles and Simon Bower for giving me the chance to read Dead in the Water.

Blog Tour – Just – @jmortonpotts @rararesources #giveaway

Just

How far would you go to save a life?

On golden Mediterranean sands, maverick doctor Scott Langbrook falls recklessly in love with his team leader, Fiyori Maziq. If only that was the extent of his falling, but Scott descends into the hellish clutches of someone much more sinister.

‘Just’ is a story of love and loss, of terror and triumph. Set in idyllic Cambridge and on the shores of the Med and Cornwall, our characters fight for their very lives on land and at sea.

 

An unforgettable novel which goes to the heart of our catastrophic times, and seeks salvation.

My Thoughts

How far would you go to save someone life?

Before starting this novel I pondered the same thing and I guess I would go to the end of the world for my children.

This book is beautifully written and while reading it, I often felt like I was reading poetry. It feels like the author has carefully decided on which words to put on the page to get the maximun effect. The description in some of the scenes such as the boat ride with the traffickers, the dead bodies on the beach made me feel like I was right there and also educated me and made me want to know more.

The different POVs tell the story between Scott, His mother and Dr Fiyori Maziq who Scott fails in love with. At the beginning of this book Scott almost comes across as a stalker and a predator and Fiyori is his prey.

There are many complex relationships in this book that seemed to get very tangled together and at times I wondered how things could ever become untangled.

Life and Death feature very heavily in this book that at times made it a very difficult read. This book at times leaves you to fill in the gaps since you were last reading the character’s POV. Which added to the reasons for me of why you need to be able to invest the time in this story. It is most certainly not a book that can be picked up every now and again, you need to invest time and as a reader when I commute this was often hard to achieve in the time between getting on the bus and arriving at work.

This isn’t the all action book I hoped it would be. Though this might have been due to my expectations when I answered the original tag line question.

I enjoyed this book but I think it should come with the warning that you will need to invest the time to read this book and be completely immersed into the story.

 

Win  5 x e-copies of Just by Jenny Morton Potts (Open Internationally)

GIVEAWAY!

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Worldwide entries welcome.  Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below.  The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then I reserve the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time I will delete the data.  I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

Enter Here

Jenny is a novelist, screenplay writer, and playwright. After a series of ‘proper jobs’, she realized she was living someone else’s life and escaped to Gascony to make gîtes. Knee deep in cement and pregnant, Jenny was happy. Then autism and a distracted spine surgeon wiped out the order. Returned to wonderful England, to write her socks off.

Jenny would like to see the Northern Lights but worries that’s the best bit and should be saved till last. Very happily, and gratefully, settled with the family. She tries not to take herself too seriously.

Jmortonpotts   Jenny Morton Potts

Jenny Morton Potts

http://www.jennymortonpotts.com/

 

Jenny Morton Potts

Blog Blitz – No Comment

No Comment – Graham Smith

When a single mother, Julie Simon, is found in her kitchen with a stab wound to her stomach, Cumbria’s Major Crimes Team are handed the case. Under the supervision of DI Campbell and with advice from his former DI, Harry Evans, DC Amir Bhaki fights to discover who assaulted an innocent woman and left her with life-threatening injuries.
Nothing is as it first appears and when the team looks into Julie’s life they uncover a hidden sex-life that may just hold the key to the identity of her attacker.

****

I was excited to discover a new crime writer, so super keen to join the Blog Blitz for “No Comment” by Graham Smith.

I have read other Novella’s by similar authors but with this story I felt that so much had been crammed into a short space. I couldn’t help me feel that there was something missing from the story.

The story starts off Julie Simon’s who is alone in her kitchen with two men standing over her branding a knife. There is so much description in this first opening chapter, how that though Julie is bound and gagged life still goes on in her kitchen. The author tells us how Julie makes mental notes of the description of the men so she can report it all to the police if she makes it out of this alive. We are also given clues that these men want information about her son. It makes us question who is her son and what is he involved in. I for one thought her son was older and some criminal We are then taken to the aftermath and the clean up operation of when the police arrive.

The team come across as having no confidence in their new DI, as they visit on several occasions their former DI Evan’s who is now medically retired for advice and guidance. It almost felt like he was part of the investigation and there wasn’t really any use for the new DI. We later learn that DI Evans is going to be a consultant for the team and there is some question as to whether DC Laura Philips had anything to do with it.

I felt that we were being dropped into the middle of the story when we learn that Julie’s son is in prison for drug possession after drugs are found in his school locker and that he refused to name where or how he got them.

As I read the story and researched the author I began to wonder if this book is to bridge a gap between DI Evan’s injury and him becoming a consultant in a future novel.

This is a clever way, to make sure the series can carry on, while the author makes a huge change in the character’s and their role in the story.

Though I enjoyed reading this book, I felt like that there was something missing and just as we were dropped into the middle of a case the story ends in the middle of the case they were investigating.

I look forward to reading more from this author, but feel that this Novella wasn’t for me being a first time reader of Graham Smith where as those already accustomed to his character’s would possibly enjoy this book more.

About the Author:

Graham Smith is a time served joiner who has built bridges, houses, dug drains and slated roofs to make ends meet. Since Christmas 2000, he has been manager of a busy hotel and wedding venue near Gretna Green, Scotland.

He is an internationally best-selling Kindle author and has four books featuring DI Harry Evans and the Cumbrian Major Crimes Team, and three novels, featuring Utah doorman, Jake Boulder.

An avid fan of crime fiction since being given one of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five books at the age of eight, he has also been a regular reviewer and interviewer for the well-respected website Crimesquad.com since 2009

Graham is the founder of Crime and Publishment, a weekend of crime-writing classes which includes the chance for attendees to pitch their novels to agents and publishers. Since the first weekend in 2013, eight attendees have gone on to sign publishing contracts.

Grahamnsmithauthor                               @Grahamsmith1972

www.grahamsmithauthor.com

No Comment is available to purchase from: Amazon UK          Amazon.com

 

Thank you to Rachel and Graham Smith for providing me an ARC of “No Comment”