Tag: Simon & Schuster

Murder on the Christmas Express by Alexandra Benedict

Murder on the Christmas Express by Alexandra Benedict

Summary:

Eighteen passengers. Seven stops. One killer.

In the early hours of Christmas Eve, the sleeper train to the Highlands is derailed, along with the festive plans of its travellers. With the train stuck in snow in the middle of nowhere, a killer stalks its carriages, picking off passengers one by one. Those who sleep on the sleeper train may never wake again.

Can former Met detective Roz Parker find the killer before they kill again?

My Review:

I do love a Christmas crime novel and last year I really enjoyed reading The Christmas Murder Game by Alexandra Benedict and Alexandra returns with another Christmas murder mystery. Murder on the Christmas Express (Simon & Schuster) is very much in the mind of an Agatha Christie murder mystery.

Every murder mystery needs its great characters to keep you guessing and Alexandra Benedict has written in some, well lets just say interesting characters that will keep you guessing. It is Christmas and everyone is trying to be somewhere but the weather is setting in and there is travel chaos. As the title suggests the main scene is aboard the sleeper and it is heading north to the Highlands but the snow is getting worse and so the train is not going to be stopping at all the stops. On board the train is the former Met detective Roz Parker, but one by one you get to meet the leading characters and what a real mix they are. There is a social media celebrity who is constantly engaging with her followers, then we have a quiz team, there is even a stowaway on board the train, there is a TV star and many others. In the small hours of Christmas eve, miles from anywhere the train is derailed and passengers are tossed around or jolted from their sleep. And a killer strikes. Now they are all alone and who is going to be next. It is down to our heroine Roz to take control and find the killer before there are more bodies to be found.

What I really enjoyed about Murder on the Christmas Express is the complex characters and just how the storyline flowed and the twists and turns that keeps the reader guessing. The train is going nowhere and it is a race against time to find the killer. Roz has her candidates but now she has to catch the killer. Probably not the book to read if you are heading to the Scottish Highlands on a sleeper on Christmas eve. There are a number of fun quiz games and anagrams to keep you involved as you read, in a similar frame as last Christmases offering from Alexandra Benedict.

All told I would be happy to recommend to anyone looking for a Christmas based crime novel. There are a number of themes involved in the story but I really enjoyed Murder on the Christmas Express.

352 Pages.

Murder on the Christmas Express by Alexandra Benedict is Published by Simon & Schuster and is now available in hardback through Waterstones, Amazon and through your local independent bookshop or through Bookshop.org that supports your local independent bookshop. UK Bookshop.org

Reputation by Sarah Vaughan

Reputation by Sarah Vaughan

Summary:

Emma Webster is a respectable MP.
 
Emma Webster is a devoted mother.
 
Emma Webster is innocent of the murder of a tabloid journalist.
 
Emma Webster is a liar.
 
#Reputation: The story you tell about yourself. And the lies others choose to believe…

My Review:

Many like me really enjoyed Anatomy of a Scandal which is being developed as a series for Netflix, but now Sarah Vaughan with another political thriller Reputation (Simon & Schuster) which is due out in hardback on 3rd March and this I can highly recommend.  

Now here is a book a really struggled to leave alone for very long, the story of Emma Webster who is an MP, she is dedicated to her role since becoming elected and also away from her position she is a devoted mother, but what happens when you life is turned upside down when you are a serving Member of Parliament and you feature in a major weekend newspaper with a photograph that seems to incite some on social media let alone some in her own party. There are threats made to her life, and there is even a bottle of water kept on her desk when she holds meetings back in her constituency in case of acid attacks. Some think Emma is fair game, and some take it to the extreme.

There is a real sense of claustrophobia when you are reading the story of Emma’s life, she is in constant fear of being followed even when she is cycling home. But then the story really reaches even new hights when a man dies, and Emma is implicated in the death of the man. What follows is a real tense courtroom drama, but just who is telling the truth?

Sarah Vaughan writes superbly and sets the scene as the drama plays out in court like you are part of the jury. Innocent or guilty you decide when you read for yourself. This is gripping and compelling drama and at times disturbing and makes for uncomfortable reading.

There are many themes being discussed within Reputation that include harassment and bullying it is very much a timely novel for the days in which we are living in.

I cannot recommend highly enough how Sarah Vaughan not only creates the settings and scenes in the novels she writes but also how she creates her characters, and this makes for powerful reading. And I for one am pleased I have.

480 Pages.

My thanks to Simon & Schuster for the NetGalley review Copy of Reputation by Sarah Vaughan. Published on 3rd March 2022 and is available to pre-order through Waterstones, Amazon and through your local independent bookshop or through Bookshop.org that supports your local independent bookshop. UK Bookshop.org

The Smallest Man by Frances Quinn

The Smallest Man by Frances Quinn

Summary:

My name is Nat Davy. Perhaps you’ve heard of me? There was a time when people up and down the land knew my name, though they only ever knew half the story.
 
The year of 1625, it was, when a single shilling changed my life. That shilling got me taken off to London, where they hid me in a pie, of all things, so I could be given as a gift to the new queen of England.
 
They called me the queen’s dwarf, but I was more than that. I was her friend, when she had no one else, and later on, when the people of England turned against their king, it was me who saved her life. When they turned the world upside down, I was there, right at the heart of it, and this is my story.
 
Inspired by a true story, and spanning two decades that changed England for ever, The Smallest Man is a heartwarming tale about being different, but not letting it hold you back. About being brave enough to take a chance, even if the odds aren’t good. And about how, when everything else is falling apart, true friendship holds people together.

My Review:

The year is 1625 and this is the remarkable story of Nat Davy. Nat is just ten-years-old but he is not like other boys of the same age. The Smallest Man (Simon & Schuster) by Frances Quinn is based on a true story that will span two decades. It is a remarkable story and one that is both fact and fiction.

Nat Davy was born into a family who were poor, but this never stopped Nat being happy but already the truth was becoming real to Nat and his family. Nat is different. Nat Davy is small but not just small, he is actually very small.

When you are different people stop and stare and they talk about you. Nat is our narrator as he tells his remarkable story. Nat’s life is about to change from a world of being shown off in a freak show. For the price of a Shilling he is taken from his family and is whisked off to London for a new life and is presented to the new Queen of England, Queen Henrietta Maria the wife of King Charles I.

He is to become the Queen’s latest pet to go alongside the dogs and also monkeys of court life. Imagine for one moment being a pet to the new Queen?

This is a life far and away from anything that Nat could have envisaged even at the tender age of just Ten. Soon Nat realises that the Queen is lonely and misses her family something incredible happens and the two form a unique bond of friendship.

England is now in the grip of a civil war Nat was about to embark on a journey of a lifetime with the Queen a life away from his home in Oakham. Nat is our hero and a character the reader will get behind and cheer with his triumphs and tragedies. Beautifully crafted and researched by Frances Quinn The Smallest Man is a triumph of a novel.

384 Pages.

Thank you to Jessica Barratt (Simon & Schuster and also Anne Cater (Random Things Tours) for the review copy of The Smallest Man by Frances Quinn.

The Smallest Man by Frances Quinn was published by Simon & Schuster and will be published on 7th January 2021 and is available to pre-order through Waterstones, Amazon and through your local independent bookshop or through Bookshop.org that supports your local independent bookshop. UK Bookshop.org

Follow the Blog Tour