Book Description:

Death’s Silent Judgement is the thrilling sequel to Dancers in the Wind, and continues the gripping series starring London-based investigative journalist Hannah Weybridge.

Following the deadly events of Dancers in the Wind, freelance journalist and single mother Hannah Weybridge is thrown into the heart of a horrific murder investigation when a friend, Liz Rayman, is found with her throat slashed at her dental practice.

With few clues to the apparently motiveless crime Hannah throws herself into discovering the reason for her friend’s brutal murder, and is determined to unmask the killer. But before long Hannah’s investigations place her in mortal danger, her hunt for the truth placing her in the path of a remorseless killer…

My Thoughts:

Death’s Silent Judgement is the second book in the Hannah Weybridge series. As this follows on from the first book in the series, I would highly recommend reading Dancers In The Wind first before reading this one.

I enjoyed catching up with Hannah again. She has not got over Caroline’s death which happened in the first book and is determined to put her investigative skills to use to help others.

The story line in this book deals with a sensitive subject which is sadly something that shouldn’t happen in todays world. It’s something that horrifies and sickens me. As much as I wanted Hannah to find out who was behind it all and put a stop to it, I did fear for her and her daughters safety as Hannah always seems to manage to put herself in dangers way.

Death’s Silent Judgement  is a story very much of  mystery and suspense. Thought not some fast paced crime thriller this still makes for a steady read that will keep readers hooked. With the ever complicated relationship between Hannah and Tom, the author makes sure she leaves the reader wanting more.

Goodreads rating 4/5 stars.

Death’s Silent Judgement is available to purchase from Amazon.

Delighted to be on The Mayfly blog tour today. For my stop I am delighted to be able to share with you a guest post from the author. The Mayfly is out now and available to purchase from Amazon.

Book Description:

A mutilated body discovered in the woods. A murderous plan conceived in the past.
A reckoning seventy years in the making . . .

When lawyer Charlie Priest is attacked in his own home by a man searching for information he claims Priest has, he is drawn into a web of corruption that has its roots in the last desperate days of World War Two.

When his attacker is found murdered the next day, Priest becomes a suspect and the only way to clear his name is to find out about the mysterious House of Mayfly – a secret society that people will kill for.

As Priest races to uncover the truth, can he prevent history from repeating itself?

Guest Post:

Dissociative disorder explained

 

Dissociative disorders are a series of mental impairments in which the sufferer experiences breakdowns in their perception of reality. For Charlie Priest, the main protagonist of The Mayfly, this manifests itself in bouts of detachment from the real world. At its most extreme, it can include out-of-body experiences and terrifying hallucinations.

The motivation for giving Charlie this condition began with the idea that he ought to have a specific vulnerability: his own personal kryptonite. I have professional experience of mental illness and it just seemed that dissociative disorder (the exact classification which Charlie suffers from will become clear as the series progresses) would allow the character to be highly functional ninety per cent of the time but, when a breakdown occurs, the consequences would be incapacitating.

I have always been sensitive to the fact, however, that this is also a very real condition that, in its most common form – depersonalisation disorder – may affect up to 2% of the population, that is 1.3 million people in the UK. Despite this, it is not widely known about outside of the medical profession.

There are various classifications and a spectrum of seriousness. Some people have had their lives utterly destroyed by this condition, whereas there are also those that are able to mask their symptoms and appear highly functional to the outside world. Priest falls in to this latter category, save for certain moments when he experiences attacks of extreme derealization, in which the real-world dissolves around him and is replaced by an unreal, nightmarish façade.

Everybody experiences a mild form of depersonalisation from time to time; drifting off while staring out of the window, day-dreaming. Moments where, for a short time, our sense of reality is disturbed, usually brought on by trauma, stress or fatigue (or recreational drugs!). The difference is that people who suffer from dissociative disorder experience these sensations on a much larger scale and for longer periods of time leaving them completely devastated – stranded in an arid, emotionless world. In extreme cases, this can even be permanent.

Dissociative disorder sufferers often report the feeling of being detached from their own bodies, like watching themselves in a film, or sitting behind their heads, helpless as their body moves around in front of them. This is undoubtedly a terrifying experience. In other cases, sufferers have described a feeling of detachment that was so extreme that they even questioned whether they had died.

The exact cause of dissociative disorder is unknown but there is strong evidence to indicate that trauma can cause symptoms of derealisation / depersonalisation. This may be brought on by blood flow to the front of the brain (responsible for rationality) reducing while increasing to the back of the brain (responsible for instinct). This is how the body responds to trauma (triggering the so-called fight or flight reaction), but the consequence of turning the back of the brain on and the front off causes the symptoms of dissociative disorder.

Equally, there is evidence of a possible genetic basis for dissociative disorder. Sufferers often have close relatives with the condition, something that is reflected in The Mayfly.

As a former employment and discrimination lawyer, I am very aware that mental illness is still a taboo subject in some quarters, most notably the workplace. We seem to have started to get our heads around physical disabilities; the world has adapted, albeit that progress is variable. But mental illness is far more difficult to tackle because it requires people to adapt on an emotional as well as physical level. Regrettably, there are still too many instances when this remains a bridge too far.

This isn’t a subject that is widely covered, or written about. My hope in introducing a character who suffers from dissociative disorder was to raise some awareness. If you’re interested in reading more, then Stranger to Myself by Jeffrey Abugel is a good place to start.

 

Book Description:

Brilliant. Complicated. Psychopath.

That’s the Four Monkey Killer or ‘4MK’. A murderer with a twisted vision and absolutely no mercy.

Detective Sam Porter has hunted him for five long years, the recipient of box after box of grisly trinkets carved from the bodies of 4MK’s victims.

But now Porter has learnt the killer’s twisted history and is racing to do the seemingly impossible – find 4MK’s latest victim before it’s too late…

My Thoughts:

I have to admit that to start with I was slightly unsure as  to whether this was a book in a series as it was obvious from the beginning that something had happened in Detective Sam Porter’s past and I felt slightly like I was missing out on something. Thankfully the further into the story I got everything is fully revealed.

The story alternates between a race for time for the police to find a missing girl before she becomes 4MK’s next victim and diary entries from the killers past. I have to admit I absolutely loved the diary entries. Talk about gripping stuff! What starts off as a young boy with a seemingly good up bringing by his parents ends up going into a whole new direction that I would never have guessed.

Like I mentioned, right from the start it’s obvious Porter is a troubled man. He has just returned to work after something has happened in his personal life. It doesn’t take long for the reader to work out the gist of what has happened before it is all fully disclosed. I think being back at work with his work colleagues brings a much needed distraction for Porter and I enjoyed the relationship that he had with them.

The whole story line to do with the killer and how they got their name was very clever. The balance between past and present was perfect and the author has you racing through the pages to find out more about the killer as well as whether Porter and his team will catch him in time.

The Fourth Monkey is a seriously intriguing read. There are so many interesting characters that stood out to me for various reasons and I’m hoping with how the story finishes that this is not the last we have seen of them. Gripping from the off, this is one tense and fast paced read and a  definite must read for crime lovers.

My thanks to Maxine Groves for an advanced readers copy of this book. All opinions are my own and not biased in anyway.

Goodreads rating 4/5 stars.

The Fourth Monkey is available to pre order from Amazon.

 

 

I am delighted to be the next stop on the That One May Smile blog tour today. That One May Smile by Valerie Keogh is the first book in the Gardia West Crime novels series. It is also out now and available to purchase from Amazon. For my stop, the author has very kindly written a wonderful guest post to share with you. Enjoy!

Book Description:

When Kelly Johnson’s husband disappears, her perfect world in the Foxrock suburb of Dublin falls apart. Then she stumbles on a dead body in the graveyard behind her house.
A coincidence? Garda Sergeant Mike West thinks so until he finds a link between the dead body and Kelly’s missing husband.
And then to add to the problem, Kelly disappears.
The investigation takes West first to Cornwall and then to Cork, on the trail of a tangled case involving identity theft, blackmail and illegal drugs. And as if the complications of the case weren’t enough there is the constant, irritating – and definitely unsuitable – attraction, to the beautiful Kelly, who will keep disappearing!.

Guest Post:

When I wrote my first novel, I did what most writers do, I sent it off to several agents, and then to several more. And then I sat back and thought about giving up.

Fortunately for me, one of my sisters read an article about self-publishing and sent it to me. It couldn’t be that simple, could it? To my surprise, it was and there I was, published on Amazon. Looking back, I realise what an innocent I was then, I really thought that was it, it was out there and readers would read it. That’s when I learned that being an indie writer is so much more than that. It’s about getting your name known, making contacts, seeing what works, and learning that it never, ever ends.

I’ve wasted money on promotions that promised to rocket me to the top of the best-seller list and more money on marketing specialists who promised the sun moon and stars. But all the time I have been learning the craft, not just of being a writer, but of being an author – and an Independent one at that.

One of the first things I learned was the importance of having a good editor – I was lucky to have found one who I immediately felt at ease with. She is invaluable and makes my novels the best they can be.

I listened to my readers and responded by making some changes.

I learned not to cry at bad reviews.

I learned to keep writing even when I wasn’t sure if the story was working.

I learned how wonderfully supportive the writing community is and have made good friends and contacts who are happy to share the secrets of their success – such generosity of spirit means such a lot, writing can be a lonely job.

I’ve learned that I want this – I want the life of a writer, the getting down in print of all the stories in my head. And if people enjoy them, which they seem to, well that’s the icing on the cake.

More than anything, I’ve learned never to give up.