The Birthday House By Jill Treseder

I received The Birthday House by Jill Treseder as part of the Random Things Blog Tours. This murder mystery is a fantastic read, set in 1955, based on a disturbing real-life crime.

The Birthday House By Jill Treseder

The Birthday House

A Friendship. A Murder. A life that will never be the same.

The year is 1955, the location picturesque Devon. In a house by the River Dart, schoolgirl Josephine Kennedy posts invitations to her twelfth birthday party a party that never takes place. Horrific violence is committed that night in the family home, leaving all of its occupants dead.

Based on a disturbing real-life crime, this compelling story explores Josephine’s fate through the prism of friends and family – the victims and survivors who unwittingly influenced the events that led up to the tragedy.

Josephine’s best friend, Susan, is haunted by the secrets of the birthday house. Can she ever find a way of making peace with her past?

Jill Treseder

Jill Treseder - Author of The Birthday House

Taken from www.jilltresederwriter.com:


I started writing in a red shiny exercise book when I was seven years old. But in that time and place it was an ‘invalid’ activity, was overlooked, but never went away. It was many years before I felt able to call myself ‘writer’.
But there came a day when the phrase ‘I am a writer’ no longer sounded pretentious, but legitimate, and even necessary. Was it because I had a writing room instead of the corner of a landing? Or because I spent more time writing? Or because I’d got better at it? Or because I get miserable and bad-tempered if I don’t write? Probably a combination of all of the above.


Writing is my third career. The first was as a social worker with children and families, a job I loved, but left because I could no longer cope with the system.


This led to a freelance career as an independent management consultant, helping people to handle emotions in the work context. I worked in the IT industry, in companies large and small, as well as public organisations. Later I became involved in research projects concerned with the multi-disciplinary approach to social problems such as child abuse. So, in a sense, I had come full-circle.


All these experiences feed into the process of writing fiction, while my non-fiction book ‘The Wise Woman Within’ resulted indirectly from the consultancy work and my subsequent PhD thesis,‘Bridging Incommensurable Paradigms’, which is available from the School of Management at the University of Bath.


I live in Devon and visit Cornwall frequently and these land and seascapes are powerful influences which demand a presence in my writing.
Writers’ groups and workshops are a further invaluable source of inspiration and support and I attend various groups locally and sign up for creative courses in stunning locations whenever I can. I try doing writing practice at home but there is no substitute for the focus and discipline achieved among others in a group.


I have written some short stories and recently signed up for a short story writing course to explore this genre in more depth.
I live with my husband in South Devon and enjoy being involved in a lively local community.

My Thoughts

I couldn’t wait to read Jill Treseder’s The Birthday House, I love crime novels and being based on a real-life crime made this even more enticing. Beginning with Mrs Harrison, the house keeper discovering the bodies to Josephine’s best friend Susan as she hears the news and later on in life discovers there is more to the story.

I really enjoyed reading from everyone’s perspective, it gives you a clearer picture of how these crimes affect everyone from housekeepers, best friends. It also gives you am understanding of the murders thought process and a good look at the emotions and grief felt by everyone both in the lead up to the murders and after.

I read The Birthday House in one sitting as it was such a compelling and convincing read. Whilst this is only a fiction based on a real-life crime, you get the feeling Jill is very close to the mark. I would definitely recommend this novella to crime fans.

The Scent Of Death By Simon Beckett

I received The Scent of Death by Simon Beckett to review by Damp Pebbles Blog Tours. This is the 6th book in the David Hunter, crime thriller series.

The Scent of Death By Simon Beckett

The Scent of Death

What began as a straightforward case is about to become a twisted nightmare…

Once a busy hospital, St Jude’s now stands derelict awaiting demolition. When a partially mummified corpse is found in the buildings cavernous loft, forensics expert Dr David Hunter is called in to take a look. He can’t say how long the body’s been there, but he is certain it’s that of a young woman. And that she was pregnant.

Then part of the attic floor collapses, revealing another of the hospital’s secrets: a bricked-up chamber with beds inside. And some of them are still occupied.

And it soon becomes clear that St Jude’s hasn’t claimed it’s last victim…

Simon Beckett - Author of The Scent of Death/

Simon Beckett

Simon Beckett is the No.1 international bestselling author of the David Hunter series. These include:

  • The Chemistry of Death
  • Written in Bone
  • Whispers of the Dead
  • The Calling of the Gave
  • The Restless Dead
  • The Scent of Death

His books have been translated into 29 languages, appeared in the Sunday Times top 10 bestseller lists and sold over 10 million copies worldwide. A former freelance journalist, he has written for The Times, Daily Telegraph, Independent on Sunday and Observer. The inspiration for the first David Hunter noel came after a visit to the world-renowned Body Farm in Tennessee introduced him to the work of forensic anthropologists.

Join-winner (with Arne Dahl) of Europe’s largest crime fiction prize – The Ripper Award 2018/19 – he has also won the Raymond Chandler Society’s Marlowe Award and been short-listed for the CWA Gold Dagger, CWA Dagger in the Library and Theakston’s Crime Novel of the Year awards. He is also the author of several stand-alone novels including Stone Bruises and Where There’s Smoke. Simon Beckett Lives in Sheffield.

My Thoughts

I was instantly hooked with The Scent of Death, it reminds me of Patricia Cornwall’s Kay Scarpetta novels which I love. You just know St Jude’s is going to open up a can of worms and it does just that! The detail when it comes to David Hunter doing the autopsies is incredibly impressive and had me totally sucked in. Beckett covers police procedures perfectly making this a fully believable piece of fiction. I genuinely need to read the other 5 books in this series asap, Simon Beckett is an amazing writer filling the story with macabre details and twists and turns everywhere, interesting characters, and dark secrets, keeping you hanging on to every word.

The Secrets We Kept By Lara Prescott Blog Tour

I received The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott to review, a historical fiction around the banned masterpiece, Doctor Zhivago.

The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott

The Secrets We Kept

1956. A celebrated Russian author is writing a book, Doctor Zhivago, which could spark dissent in the Soviet Union. The Soviets, afraid of its subversive power, ban it.

But in the rest of the world it’s fast becoming a sensation.

In Washington DC, the CIA is planning to use the book to tip the Cold War in its favour.

Their agents are not the usual spies, however. Two typists – the charming, experienced Sally and the talented novice Irina – are charged with the mission of a lifetime: to smuggle Doctor Zhivago back into Russia by any mean necessary.

It will not be easy. There are people prepared to die for this book – and agents willing to kill for it. But the cannot fail – as this book has the power to change history.

Lara Prescott

Lara Prescott -Author

Lara Prescott was named after the heroine of Doctor Zhivago and first discovered the true story behind the novel after the CIA declassified 99 documents pertaining to its role in the book’s publication and covert dissemination.

She travelled the world – from Moscow and Washington, to London and Paris – in the course of her research, becoming particularly interested in political repression in both the Soviet Union and United States and how, during the Cold War, both countries used literature as a weapon.

Lara earned her MFA from the Michener Centre for Writers. She lives in Austin, Texas with her husband.

My Thoughts

Lara Prescott has certainly written an amazingly compelling read. With a mix of historical fact and fiction surrounding Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, it’s a real page turner!

Told through the eyes of two female spies taken from the typing pools of the CIA to smuggle Doctor Zhivago out of the USSR during the height of the cold war, The Secrets We Kept is a cleverly written novel, showing the level of research Lara Prescott must have put in to complete it.

With the literary love story between Boris Pasternak and Olga, his mistress and muse and the base of Zhivago’s heroine, Lara, interweaved throughout, The Secrets We Kept keeps you wanting to read on and know more.

The censorship of literature always intrigues me and it’s interesting to see the lengths those in power will go to, to ensure writers and those helping them are persecuted. With 2020 marking the 60th anniversary of Pasternak’s death, Lara Prescott’s novel will certainly help his legacy and the importance of Doctor Zhivago lives on.

The Deaths And Afterlife Of Aleister Crowley By Ian Thornton

I received The Deaths and Afterlife of Aleister Crowley by Ian Thornton to review. An epic alternate history novel based on one of the most reviled men in history, otherwise known as the Great Beast.

The Deaths and Afterlife of Aleister Crowley

The Deaths and Afterlife of Aleister Crowley

Aleister Crowley, Satanist, cult leader, debauched novelist and poet, his legacy has been hotly contested for decades. The truth is Crowley is alive and well, in the elevated and life-preserving air of Shangri-La. Called the wickedest man in the world, the Great Beast only laughs at those fools.

The British Secret Service, Churchill and Rasputin all knew the real Crowley, who was the greatest spy and Scarlet Pimpernel of the twentieth century. This genuine English hero and unrivalled drug fiend used his pre-eminent knowledge of the Occult to run amok behind the German lines in two world wars and ro rurn both Mussolini and Hitler into the twitching and hollow wrecks.

And so now the, the inspiration behind the music and sexual revolutions of the sixties is about to return for his curtain call, for there is dark Orwellian dystopia coming. And Aleister Crowley is convinced that only he can save the world.

My Thoughts

I was really intrigued when I heard about The Deaths and Afterlife of Aleister Crowley. The cover is really inviting and I couldn’t wait to read it! I finished feeling a little torn over it though.

It was fascinating to read from Aleister Crowleys’ point of view but it felt like the author rambled a little (don’t we all!?). This made it a little hard to stay focused. Whilst it is a little rambly, Aleister Crowley is certainly fascinating to read about.

Although I have heard of Crowley before, I will be doing some research to figure out which parts or true facts. Ian Thornton writes in a way that makes it impossible to decipher fact from fiction, blending both so well. It is definitely worth a read if you have an interest in Crowley and historical fiction. It may take a few sittings to finish though and some of the sexual debaucheries may not be to everyone’s taste.

Ian Thornton

Ian Thornton’s debut novel, The Great and Calamitous Tale of Johan Thoms (How One Man Scorched the Twentieth Century, but Didn’t Mean to) was published by Simon & Schuster Canada in September 2013. Harper Collins published worldwide on June 28th 2014. This was to coincide with the centenary of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the pivot of the novel. It was translated across Europe and taught at the Sorbonne.

Prior to becoming a novelist, Ian worked for the Broadcast magazine in London and also for Variety. He is a co-founder of the global television industry publisher, C21 Media and www.c21media.net.

He covered the royal wedding in London for CTV, Canada’s premier independent broadcaster. Ian has recently written for Wisden Cricketer, The Guardian, The Hindu and for the Soho House magazine, House. He also wrote on the football World cup in South Africa for the Canadian sports channel, The Score. Ian has also worked for Queen’s University in Ontario, where his project was presented at the White House as part of President Obama’s new media initiative

Ian is the official biographer of the Compton cricket club in California. He has been a judge on the largest Latin Amerian film festival, Expresion en Corto. He is currently producing a feature documentary.

Originally from Leeds, Ian currently resides in Toronto with his wife Heather Gordon and their children, Laszlo and Clementine.

Second Skin By Sue Bentley – Blog Tour

I received Second Skin by Sue Bentley to review, a fantastic fantasy featuring shapeshifting dragons! This is the first book in the Bridge of Fire books published by Endeavour Venture available from Amazon.

Second Skin

Second Skin

Estranged from birth and raised on tales of the great mountain castle of Idrith-Core, where her distant father serves as Lord Commander and confidante of the King, Aledra Jewel-Wing was now going there to court.

As one of the Drakkoni, a race of powerful shape-shifters and conquerors of a wild land, she joins her stepmother at the festival for all peoples. But when in attempting to save a life, Aledra shifts into her Drakkoni Secondskin – her beautiful second soul: a giant flighted lizard with flaming breath – she breaks an ancient oath, and the tremulous peace between the Drakkoni and Esrans is shattered.

Branded a fugitive, hunted by her father, and aided in escape by the master-mancer who raised her, Aledra begins a journey for survival across a war-torn continent.

Sue Bentley

Sue Bentley

Sue lives in a house surrounded by a wildlife hedge so she can pretend she lives in the countryside. She enjoys reading, walking, cinema, researching her books, and painting and printmaking, when she’s not writing — which isn’t very often!

My Thoughts

I thoroughly enjoyed Second Skin, Aledra’s quiet life quickly changes with joining her mysterious father in court. When things go wrong, she ends up being held in a cell where she finally meets her father. The master-mancer who taught her, helps her escape. Throughout there are complicated characters such as Aledra’s father, Aledra herself and Penda. A mixture of love, war and dragons, Second Skin is a fantastic start to the Bridge of Fire. I can see Aledra growing further throughout the series and can’t wait to see where it leads.

Have you read anything by Sue Bentley before?

American Dreams By Kenneth Bromberg – Blog Tour

I received American Dreams by Kenneth Bromberg to review, a crime novel published by Flame Tree Press. From Czarist Russia to America where dreams are made, we follow Max and his father through a world of crime.

American Dreams Bookcover

American Dreams

In 1904 Czarist Russia, Max, a four-year-old Jewish boy, witnesses his mother’s rape and murder by Russian soldiers. After the boy’s father extracts terrible revenge, father and son escape to New York and settle on the Lower East Side, a teeming melting pot of recent immigrants.

Max meets a young Polish girl, Sophie, and the two children become inseparable playmates. By the time they are teenagers, Max excels at both school and sports, Sophie has become a stunningly beautiful young woman, and friendship has grown into love. Their plans are shattered when Sophie is forced to marry a local crime boss and once again, Max must simply watch as the most important person in his life is taken from him. In response, he begins a ruthless and violent climb to the top of the New York underworld

Kenneth Bromberg

Kennerth Bromberg Author photo

Kenneth Bromberg grew up in the beach cities of Southern California. He has a passion for tennis, American history, and literature. Having attended the University of California, Los Angeles, he then worked for several years as a bartender. He eventually returned to UCLA to pursue an MBA and become a certified public accountant.

After retiring from accounting, Kenneth fulfilled a lifelong dream of becoming a novelist. His first work, American Dreams, is based upon stories told by his grandmother who immigrated to New York from a small Jewish village near Kiev in the first years of the 20th century. If you like Mario Puzo’s The Godfather and Ken Follett’s Century Trilogy, you will love this debut novel.

My Thoughts

I knew from the first chapter I would enjoy American Dreams as a crime fan and wasn’t disappointed. After a traumatic start for Max, we meet several other characters with some interesting backstories too, all leading them to America. Here they all work towards their own dreams. Forwarding to World War II where two of the sons of main characters serve, yet have their own dreams for the future too. American Dreams is rather violent throughout, mixing crime, love and a little history across several generations really well.

Do you enjoy violent crime novels too?

The Closer I Get By Paul Burston – Blog Tour

I received The Closer I Get by Paul Burston to read and review. This psychological thriller based around online relationships is deliciously creepy and twisted.

The Closer I Get By Paul Burston

The Closer I Get

Successful author Tom has writer’s block for the first time in his life. An online admirer, Evie is his main distraction, she simply won’t leave him alone. Eva is a smart, well-read and unstable woman living with her sick father. Social media is not only her escape but her everything and she takes social media friendships too far. When she’s hit with as restraining order, her world collapses, whilst Tom is free to live his life again and continue concentrating on his writing.

Things aren’t adding up though, Tom is also addicted to his online relationships, and they take a darker, more menacing turn, he’s powerless to change things. Because maybe he needs Evie more than he’s letting on!

Paul Burston

The author of five novels and the editor of two short story collections. Paul Burstons most recent novel The Black Path was a WHSmith bestseller. His first novel Shameless, was shortlisted for the State of Britain Award. His third novel, Lovers & Losers was shortlisted for a Stonewall Award. The Gay Divorcee, his fourth novel was also optioned for television. Paul is the founding editor of Attitude magazine. He has also written for many publications including Guardian, Independent, Time Out, The Times and Sunday Times.

My Thoughts

The Closer I Get is so creepy because it is plausible. Social media stalkers are all too real and Paul Burston captures both the victim and the stalkers perspectives perfectly with some added twists throughout. I would absolutely recommend this if you enjoy thrillers full of twists surrounding authors.

Have you read any of Paul Burston other novels?

Razia By Abda Khan – Blog Tour

I received Razia by Abda Khan to review as part of the Random Things Blog Tours. Razia is a fast-paced thriller exposing the truth behind Britains darkest secret.

Razia - Front cover 

How far would you go to free a slave?

The novel is published to coincide with World Day against Trafficking in Persons which is held on 30th July 2019. People trafficking and modernday slavery is a massive problem worldwide with very few countries immune from it. Raising awareness can help increase the prevention of that.

Razia

Farah Jilani is a lawyer who lives and works in London. Having just ended a long relationship. Her parents are looking for a husband for her whether she wants one or not. This all seems normal enough until she attends a work dinner. The dinner is hosted by a dangerously powerful man and Farah comes across a young woman being kept as a domestic slave called Razia.

Travelling from the law courts of London to the brick kilns of Lahore, Farah begins to uncover the trap keeping generations of people enslaved. Everywhere she turns, Farah faces deep-rooted oppression and corruption. She teams up with a human rights lawyer Ali in a bid to seek justice for Razia. When the authorities finally step in their actions have dire consequences.

Can Farah discover the explosive secret behind these tragic events?

Abda Khan

Abda Khan Author Photo

A lawyer and campaigner who works with victims of domestic violence, Abda Khan has written two novels. Her first novel Stained was published in 2016. Abda Khan was highly commended in the 2017 NatWest Asian Women of Achievement Awards in the Arts & Culture category.. She also won the Noor Inayat Khan Muslim Woman of the Year Award 2019

My Thoughts

Razia really is a gripping read, I managed to finish it in just one day. I just couldn’t put the book down, Abda Khans passion shows through her writing. Years of research has helped create a fast-paced, character-driven thriller that you simply can’t tear yourself away from. I will be keeping my eyes peeled for future novels from Abda Khan and hunting down a copy of Stained too as her writing really draws you in.

Do you enjoy thrillers that also help raise awareness of important topics too?

The Fragility Of Bodies By Sergio Olguín – Blog Tour

I received The Fragility of Bodies By Sergio Olguín to review, a crime/thriller/mystery set in Buenos Aires. Journalist Veronica Rosenthal thinks she knows Buenos Aire until her latest investigation. Revealing a city where life is cheap and the games boys play are to the death.

The Fragility of Bodies

The Fragility Of Bodies

This is the first in a series of novels by Sergio Olguin starring journalist Veronica Rosenthal. Set in Buenos Aires, The Fragility of Bodies is also a TV series currently showing in Argentina. This sensual and terse novel is fiercely critical of a system which tolerates the lives of young boys being put at risk by the powerful and wealthy of Buenos Aires for sheer entertainment.

Veronica, a successful, young journalist is beautiful and unmarried with a healthy appetite for bourbon and men. Driven by a sense of justice, lust and ambition, Veronicas is a fascinatingly complicated heroine. Hearing a local train driver has committed suicide, jumping from the roof of a block of flats, she decides to investigate. Drawn in by the suicide note left, confessing to four mortal ‘accidents’ on the train tracks.

As far as the police are concerned the case is closed, suicide is suicide. Veronica just can’t let it go though. Continuing her investigations takes her on a journey through an unfamiliar world of grinding poverty and junkie infested neighbourhoods. Not to mention train drivers on commuter lines haunted by the memory of bodies hit at speed by their locomotives at night.

With the assistance of a train driver informant, a recovering junkie and two street kids who will risk their lives for a can of Coke, Veronica uncovers a dark secret. Discovering a group of men betting on working-class youngsters, convincing them to play Russian roulette by standing in front of fast-coming trains to see who endures the longest.

With bodies of children crushed under tons of steel, those of adults yielding to relentless desire, the resolution of the investigation reveals the deep bonds which unite desire and death.

Sergio Olguín

Sergio Olguín

Born in Buenos Aires in 1967, Sergio Olguin was a journalist before turning to fiction. Awarded numerous awards including Premio Tusquets 2009 for Oscura monótona sangre (“Dark Monotonous Blood“). His books have been translated into German, French and Italian. The Fragility of Bodies is the first novel to be translated into English by Miranda France.

Translated by Miranda France

Miranda France is the author of two acclaimed volumes of travel writing: Don Quixote’s Delusions and Bad Times in Buenos Aires. She has also written the novels Hill Farm and The Day Before the Fire. She has translated much Latin American fiction, including Claudia Piñeiro’s novels for Bitter Lemon Press.

My Thoughts

The Fragility of Bodies was a fantastic read! I love darker novels like this that delve into the dirty secrets of the wealthy and powerful. Veronica refuses to give up no matter how tough things get or who she is up against. She is determined to get her story and uncover these dark secrets that lead to young boys being killed and train drivers having terrifying nightmares of bodies crunching under steel but can she stop it?

Do you enjoy darker novels?

The Awakening Aten – Blog Tour

I received The Awakening Aten By Aiden K. Morrissey to review, a crime/thriller/mystery novel based in Egypt. You are quickly enveloped in an Egypt of whispers, fears, webs within webs and deceit upon deceit through the eyes of two families.

The Awakening Of Aten

The Awakening Of Aten

The Awakening Aten is full of murder, intrigue, political and rebellious conflict, corruption, tomb robbing war and executions. All set against a background of fundamental ideological change. We discover all this through the eyes of two families, one royal and one a commoner.

Yuya, whose tomb is in the Valley of the Kings, is a foreigner who rises from slavery to become Regent to an infant Pharaoh. This Pharoah is the most powerful man in the world’s wealthiest empire. His children and descendants will remain at the very heart of the country’s destiny.

Kha is a tomb painter and builder who experiences the despair of imprisonment and the horror of war. As overseer of the King’s works, he restores the Great Sphinx and inscribes the ‘Dream Stela’ placed between its paws, still visible today. Through tragic and deathly events his family and that of Yuya become entwined.

This is a fictional tale of real people, whose possessions and artefacts can be seen in museums throughout the worlds. It gives a voice to those people, inspired by their personal items buried with them 3,000 years ago.

Aidan K. Morrissey

Aidan K. Morrissey Author Photo

Aidan is of Irish heritage and was the first member of his family to be born outside of Ireland. His professional life has caused him to travel the worlds. Now settled in the North East of England he concentrates on writing. A graduate in Law, having worked in a commercial environment, he qualified as a Solicitor in 1981. Aidan’s career developed in an unusual way allowing him to work in various countries including Italy, Brazil, USA, India and Germany.

A holiday in Egypt sparked his passion for Ancient Egypt, specifically the latter part of the 18th dynasty. A history, which Pharoah Horemeb (Djeser-Kheperu-Ra circa 1319-1292 BCE) tried to destroy, only came to light in 1922 with the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb. Aidan has built up a substantial collection of academic books and novels on Ancient Egypt. Learning its customs, traditions and daily life so The Awakening Aten is the culmination of many years of research. He has visited all of the major museums containing artefacts from Egypt throughout the world. As well as spending months in Egypt itself studying the funereal valleys and other sites. All of this supplemented by internet research.

The Awakening Aten is the first in a planned five-book series, looking at the fictional lives of real people through a period of major political and religious change, spanning approximately 130 years.

My Thoughts

I remember first learning about Ancient Egypt in school and like Aidan, it sparked a passion for learning more about Ancient Egypt so I was excited to read The Awakening Aten. Thankfully I wasn’t disappointed! It reads more lke a first party account of events instead of a fiction novel. Aidan’s writing is realistic and leaves you imagining everything so clearly, his depth of research shines throughout the entire book. Knowing The Awakening Aten is the first of five books I genuinely can’t wait to read more. Combining my love of reading and passion for Ancient Egypt, Aidan K.Morrisey has created an entirely unique series I’ll be hunting down for sure!

Do you enjoy historical novels? Do you have a passion for Ancient Egypt too?