Flash Fiction – The Wall

The Wall

PHOTO PROMPT © Russell Gayer

 

“I’m going to climb that wall.” Jim said as we stood looking towards the infamous Trump Wall.

“I don’t understand, why you would?” I asked as we studied the wall from the barbed wire fencing.

“It’ll be a challenge.” Jim said turning to me “Have you ever wondered if the wall was there to keep us all in and not the other way?”

I looked at Jim puzzled, there were plenty of other routes out weren’t there? “But for how long?” Jim asked reading my mind….

That was the last I ever saw of Jim running towards HIS freedom.

***

I’ve not done Friday Fictioners in EVER! no idea why but I’ll just blame blogging, novel writing, insurance exams and…. But it is still going strong and run by Rochelle so make sure you pop by to check out her 100 word piece from the above prompt. You can visit other people who are taking part in this weeks 100 word picture prompt here

I struggled with what I wanted to say in this weeks piece, I kinda felt that the ending isn’t right and I could have made it longer, getting in everything I wanted to say. Freedom is a funny thing, but we are all entitled to it one way or another.

X

 

Book Review: Hunter’s Revenge – @valeriepenny @rararesources @crookedcatbooks #review

Hunter’s Revenge

Hunter by name – Hunter by nature: DI Hunter Wilson will not rest until his friend’s death is revenged.

DI Hunter Wilson is called to the scene of a murder. He is shocked to find the victim is his friend and colleague, George Reinbold. Who would want to harm the quiet, old man? Why was a book worth £23,000 delivered to him that morning? Why is the security in George’s home so intense? Hunter must investigate his friend’s past as well as the present to identify the killer and identify George’s killer. Hunter also finds a new supply of cocaine from Peru flooding HMP Edinburgh and the city. The courier leads Hunter to the criminal gang but Hunter requires the help of his nemesis, the former Chief Constable, Sir Peter Myerscough and local gangster Ian Thomson to make his case. Hunter’s perseverance and patience are put to the test time after time in this taught crime thriller.

My Thoughts:

This is a multi-layered story that kept me interested until the end.

When the book began I had not read the previous novel which meant at times I was confused as to what had happened before. If I had read “Hunter’s Chase” would I have known who the victim was at the beginning of the novel?

I liked the two characters of Dc Tim Myerscough and DI Hunter Wilson.

I liked Tim because he was still being a police officer and working in the same area where his dad the former Chief Constable Sir Peter Myerscough had been sent down. In the story, you could also tell how much Tim cared for people the way he was willing to splash cash around if it helped others. For example, putting money behind the bar at the wedding and offering to pay for extra police officers to watch over Jamie and his kids. In a way, it felt like at times he was trying to make amends for what his dad had done wrong.

The other characters were all well thought out and likeable. Though at times I felt confused as to who was who due to the use of nicknames. They all seem to be in a relationship with each other as well which also added to the confusion. At times it felt like if the character was single take Tim, for example, he had to end up with someone in the story. DI Hunter was even in a relationship with someone in the pathology department which also confused me due to the way he spoke about his family at the beginning of the novel. I guess I automatically assumed he was still with his wife. Which added to the confusion of why was he suddenly in bed with a colleague.

There is a same-sex relationship in this novel, and I liked how the author didn’t go out of her way to show this, they were just written about exactly the same as the other character’s. They were just your normal everyday character’s who happened to be getting married.

This isn’t a fast-paced crime novel which I am used to, you get to learn about all the character’s and you are part of almost every police interview that’s in the novel. There was no skating over that such and such interviewed someone and this was the result. Though at times I did find this frustrating! I kind of felt that was probably due to the types of novels I am used to.

The be all and end all is that I REALLY liked the novel and enjoyed the story and will be certainly looking out for more from this author in the future.

***

Val Penny is an American author living in SW Scotland. She has two adult daughters of whom she is justly proud and lives with her husband and two cats. She has a Law degree from Edinburgh University and her MSc from Napier University.

She has had many jobs including hairdresser, waitress, lawyer, banker, azalea farmer and lecturer. However she has not yet achieved either of her childhood dreams of being a ballet dancer or owning a candy store. Until those dreams come true, she has turned her hand to writing poetry, short stories and novels.

Her first crime novel, ‘Hunter’s Chase’ set in Edinburgh, Scotland was published by Crooked Cat Books on 02.02.2018. The sequel, ‘Hunter’s Revenge’ will be published on 09.09.2018.

 

Purchase Hunter’s revenge

 

Valerie Penny@valeriepenny

www.authorvalpenny.com

 

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

Book Review: Friends Request by @laurajm8

Friends Request

Maria Weston wants to be friends. But Maria Weston is dead. Isn’t she?

1989. When Louise first notices the new girl who has mysteriously transferred late into their senior year, Maria seems to be everything the girls Louise hangs out with aren’t. Authentic. Funny. Brash. Within just a few days, Maria and Louise are on their way to becoming fast friends.

 

 

2016. Louise receives a heart-stopping email: Maria Weston wants to be friends on Facebook. Long-buried memories quickly rise to the surface: those first days of their budding friendship; cruel decisions made and dark secrets kept; the night that would change all their lives forever.

Louise has always known that if the truth ever came out, she could stand to lose everything. Her job. Her son. Her freedom. Maria’s sudden reappearance threatens it all, and forces Louise to reconnect with everyone she’d severed ties with to escape the past. But as she tries to piece together exactly what happened that night, Louise discovers there’s more to the story than she ever knew. To keep her secret, Louise must first uncover the whole truth, before what’s known to Maria–or whoever’s pretending to be her–is known to all.

My Thoughts:

This book needs to be read by everyone as it has such a big message in it, that everyone needs to hear and believe in. This book tells us what we have already known for years but that have it printed in front of us is a different matter.

The way Laura writes the character’s you believe that you know them and you either fall into one group or the other. The popular kids who had it all and those who were struggling to get by day by day and I know where I fell.

Louise is carrying around the guilt of what she did when she was back at school in 1989 to Maria Weston. The story is told from present day 2016 and back in 1989 and the main star of the show is of cause Facebook. I am so glad I didn’t grow up in an age when everyone used social media and I worry for my children’s future. The worst I got was when someone used to phone me up and ask them why I kept phoning them (wtf!)

Since leaving school Louise has got married, had children, split from her husband and started her own business. Things are going great until she gets the friends request from Maria Weston, but she’s dead isn’t she. Louise decides the best thing to do would be to contact her past friends to see if they’ve had the same request thus starting a chain of events that unravels everything that went on before. Who those people are now, that she knew in her school days and what they have achieved and are still hiding in some cases. I love that during this novel that somewhere inside of her Louise believes that maybe Maria is still alive and over analysis everything Maria’s brother says to her.

At times in the story you want to scream and shake Louise, but then it wouldn’t make sure a good story would it?

A book about social media has been along time coming since Angela Clarke’s social media series, I am yet to read a book like this that deals with what went on at school and who we are now.

I can not recommend this book highly enough, though at points you need to suspend your beliefs but all the same if you didn’t it wouldn’t make such a good read would it?

Blog Tour – Chilling Tales of the Unexpected – @GirdharryAnn @rararesources

Chilling Tales of the Unexpected

Four twisty, short reads.
Addictive works of suspense,
That will leave you breathless and give you goose bumps…

Trading with Death
What sacrifice might we make for those we love? In the face of death, will we be selfish or selfless?

Tell Me a Secret
Deceit, lies and secrets – how well do we know those close to us?

Sweet Justice 
We follow Tess as she confronts the dark side…
​
Written on the Apple Tree 
A moment from a past life, a possession, or a simple meeting between strangers?

My Thoughts:

This box set comprises of four different short stories all exploring different emotions and subjects

I enjoyed these stories as I travelled to and from work they made a nice change from death and police procedurals they were short and sweet and left me thinking about them long after I finished them.

One thing I did feel is that all these short stories had something missing, I often felt that I was being dropped into the middle of something, which may have been the author’s intentions. I felt each story was either missing a beginning or they were the start of something bigger a taster of what was to come.

If you are looking for short and easy to read these stories definitely do deliver and stay with you long after you’ve finished them. But you won’t find yourself eager to read on because once the stories gets going it then ends and your left wondering what more there could have been and you’re on to the next story.

All the characters were believable and reading it I felt that I knew them, the delivery of the characters was spot on and the details and descriptions within the stories, such as the scary woods and the apple tree with the familiar markings make you feel like you’re there witnessing everything progressing.

I guess my favourite story which I particularly enjoyed was “Written on the Apple Tree”  this story very much reminded me of a wartime film with a split narrative of then and now.

One thing this box-set has done, has left me keen to read some of Ann’s full length novels

I would like to thank Ann and Rachel from Random Resources for giving me the chance to read and review this box-sets.

 

Born and educated in the UK, Ann Girdharry is a trained psychotherapist and has worked a

s a manager in the not-for-profit sector for many years.
Today she lives

in Montpellier, France with her husband and two children.
​
She writes suspense and thrillers, is a book reviewer and occasionally blogs for the Huffington Post UK. Her crime thriller novel, GOOD GIRL BAD GIRL, was an Eric Hoffer Book Award Finalist 2017. Two of her thrillers are READERS’ FAVOURITE Five Star Books.

@GirdharryAnn   Ann Girdharry Author

Ann Gridharry & Chilling Tales of The Unexpected

Ann Gridharry

Buy her box-set here

This Time Next Year…

Hey,

So I started this blog to diary my road to my publishing dreams. I have attempted flash fiction, joined a blog hop, moaned about my health, attempted some book reviewing and even attempted a 5 year journal (and failed)

At my last mentoring session at the weekend Rachel said by the end of the week I can start contacting publishers / agents!

And as this weekend the nominations for Crime novel of the year have come out from Theakston’s Festival. I felt that it was only right to mark this occasion by saying this time next year that will be me!!! I need to go on Davina’s tv programme

I have submitted already to two competitions and the third will go in also by the end of the week. I have my list of five agents and five publishers who I’m going to approach first.

Then I will begin the waiting game….

So hold tight….

IWSG Day!

Happy Insecure Writers Day!

Once a month we all come together and join in on a blog hop, the aim is to support other writers with their insecurities and offer encouragement. This is the brain child of Alex Cavanaugh and if you wish to join in just add your blog to the blog hop and join in.

So in the last month I have managed to get myself further into book blogging, but this is book blogging with deadline! I will await paperback novels to grace my letter box. I am currently reading The Things We Needs to Say by Rachel Burton who also happens to by the mentor. This is a genre that is completely out of my usual comfort zone but I have been making my way through the stories and mostly crying on the way to work. But more on that on the launch day!

This weeks question is…

What Do You Love About The Genre You Write In Most Often?

Well I write in crime, when I started my WIP over a year ago, I wanted to make it a thriller but when Rachel read the first bit of it she said that it’s a procedural crime story. So there we have it, I listened to advice from the greats likes of C L Taylor and Mark Edwards on writing a psychological thriller and I am clearly not good at it!

Even as a kid I have wanted to be a detective, I used to watch The Bill, Midsommer Murders and all the other great crime TV programmes. So I think as I can’t be a detective especially now even if I tried I will write crimes that need solving.

So I guess I am living my dreams through my characters and it is the only legal way you can get away with murder. I have already told my boss he is already on my hot list, even though his name sake appears in my WIP it’s totally not him, but I enjoyed writing him if you get me the things I wish I could do to my boss, who is a total different character it just has his name. No Spoilers here…

Though as much as I enjoyed writing my WIP I am regretting deciding to look into trafficking for my next novel… Also depending on feedback I might just be writing a male detective and not a female lead as I imagined.

Enough of my ramblings Happy IWSG day!

 

 

 

Book Review – The Detriment

THE DETRIMENT: A compelling detective thriller based on true events (DI Jake Flannagan Book 2) by David Videcette

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow, where do I even start!?

I had a particularly long train journey to take at the weekend, so decided to take my Kindle along for the ride. Well, David Videcette’s The Detriment was the reason I didn’t want to communicate with my family or get off the train in London.

The book starts, as always with our favourite detective Jake Flannigan, who is being punished for issues that happened in the previous book The Theseus Paradox. Don’t panic though, this story isn’t going to be all about life working from your desk, as Jake can’t ignore a potential terrorist attack and throws himself into defusing a potential car bomb. This more or less ends up with him in more trouble and sent to see Occupational health!

When I started reading this book, I was a bit concerned as I didn’t have prior knowledge of the car bombs or much knowledge of the car that drove into Glasgow airport. Compared to what I thought I knew about 7/7, but I need not panic, as there is much more to this story than those two incidents.

David has successfully managed to write something, that isn’t totally focused on a terror attack and has more depth than just the attempted attack.

Claire is of course back, and there is much more to her than we possibly realised from The Theseus Paradox, but those of us that hoped this story would start with them meeting up for a cream tea in Devon, will be sorely disappointed. As she continues to lead Jake astray and into more trouble than he could possibly navigate out of.

The ex-wife Stephanie is also back, and though we don’t know the ins and outs of their relationship prior to the books, it is nice to know that Jake is the kind of man, that will still drop everything for her, to come to her rescue. Even if one good deed, still had consequences, but some of the detail about their relationship I could really feel and understand. Especially when Jake and her hug and the power of that moment, fingers crossed that book three gives us more and even a reconciliation.

Detective Lenny, who really needs to take a holiday away from Jake! Adds depth to this story as a kind of partner to Jake, who goes along with Jake’s hair brain plans, giving us a sense (we hope) that someone thinks Jake is doing the right thing, so it will all work out okay in the end. Honest!
This book also addresses some of Jake’s issues with alcohol and sex, drugs and rock and roll which are cleverly brought to light using the occupational health doctor, showing us that all those years on the front line have had lasting effects on our hero. Like any other addict, he still manages to slip off the bandwagon at least one or is that twice?

The wtf comes as always at the end, and how Jake manages to cleverly get himself out of the mess he has once again found himself in.

The shocker also comes from reading the fact file at the end, as to how everything links together. David’s books are fast becoming as loved as J M Hewitt’s books. Though you may not realise it or even believe at the time, his stories are based on real life events and it’s not just a clever marketing ploy. Clearly, having taken a hell of a lot of research to connect the dots in such an engaging way.

Though I look forward to David’s next outing, I am afraid of what he might uncover next and whether we need to be calling Mulder and Scully?

*I am also glad he is now writing books I can spell, shame about his name though ; )

View all my reviews

IWSG – Research

 

Hey fellow worriers

I think this month’s topic is very apt as I continue to try and write a book with no one to ask for answers (no one I dare ask)

What is the weirdest/coolest thing you ever had to research for your story?

I wouldn’t say it’s cool but I have spent endless hours researching Murder, and ID of dead bodies and my current favorite missing persons, though a programme on the BBC recently helped with that, when I typed in the right word hey presto and where I had previously been stopped because I am not a member of the police force it appears if you google the right thing then you don’t need to be.

I am also an avid readers of Rebecca Bradley’s blog on police procedure and when I started writing an interview scene I went back to check it was right..

Someone once said just write the damn story and go back and check that it is right afterwards.. and where as what I have written procedure is right at the moment who knows if it will be when I get to the dreaded editing stage!

I was told that if you ask Siri where can I hide a dead body it’s responses are slightly amusing (small things)

The thing I am musing about most at the moment other than damn story lines and plot holes is why are competitions so expensive to enter? £15!!! one the other day.

it’s like if you don’t have loads of money, you can go to writing events / courses as some of them cost an arm and a leg! And you can’t enter competitions for the same reason. I guess I am just a struggling writer going no where fast.

 

Yesterday…

So yesterday was a bad day 😦

So I spent yesterday struggling with MS and my legs again, a girl at work told me she was too hot and I proceeded to come back from the toilets to offer her my jumper, as I just got all confused and then spent the next x trying to work out why I had offered my jumper if she was too cold!

Then came the bad news that one of my work colleagues has cancer for the 2nd time, and that broke my heart and I wanted to cry! Because the last person who I knew who had Cancer for the 2nd time being it breast cancer died, I was like I am not going to cry until she has left work at least, but I managed to hold off and I still haven’t cried! But thinking about the other person who died just breaks my heart and I was a bit like my MS is bad again cause it’s Winter time and now I am being told someone else has cancer again! 😦 So yesterday no writing was done and I pretty much sucked! Having only got the chocolate next to me now!

On the writing front, I went to a talk today by an author at the library in Nottingham, which was really interesting! And I have also been asked to review this guys book! Does that mean I am a proper blogger now? They have sadly only sent me the kindle version but it’s a start!

As for my writing career I sent the guy who did my creative writing course the first bit of the story I am writing at the moment! And asked him if he would read it and tell me what he thinks as it’s what I am looking to submit to the mentoring thing!

So tonight, chocolate fingers, location work for my story and sleep possibly! The sleep probably will win over everything else!

Much love

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