#bookreader – Page 61 – Rosepoint Publishing

Hell and Back: Longmire Mysteries, Book 18 by Craig Johnson – #Audiobook Review – #westernfiction

in Western Fiction

Book Blurb:

A new novel in the beloved New York Times bestselling Longmire series.

Picking up where Daughter of the Morning Star left off, the next Longmire novel finds the sheriff digging further into the mysteries of the wandering without—a mythical all-knowing spiritual being that devours souls.

Walt thinks he might find the answers he’s looking for among the ruins of an old Native American boarding school—an institution designed to strip Native children of their heritage. He has been haunted by the image of the Fort Pratt Industrial Indian Training School ever since he first saw a faded postcard picturing a hundred boys in uniform, in front of a large, ominous building—a postcard that was given to him by Jimmy Lane, the father of Jeanie One Moon.

After Walt’s initial investigation into Jeanie’s disappearance yielded no satisfying conclusions, Walt has to confront the fact that he may be dealing with an adversary unlike any he has ever faced before.

My Review:

Yikes, this novel takes us to La-La Land, full on mystic, supernatural, spiritual heritage. It’s the continuation of Daughter of the Morning Star, Book 17 that I read in October of ’21. This narrative is a huge departure from any previous in the series, including the last in which he was introduced to the Wandering Without (a Cheyenne spirit).

The intro to the book discloses he will delve heavily in the “Indian Training School,” the Native American boarding school at Fort Pratt where young boys were taken to strip the children of their heritage. The history is horrific and still weighs heavily on the hearts of their people.

In Book 18, Walt wakes lying in the snow, slowly becoming aware he experienced a traumatic accident. It is the first of several different times, this one being when the school was full of boys. In a type of dream-like state, he visits his own early period, now believing he can see his deceased wife. A separate time period includes Henry Standing Bear and Vic on a search for him.

As he navigates the historical period of the school where he decides he must battle an evil spirit, the storyline takes on an ethereal quality, atmospherics, the boys struggling with their school administrators.

Enter Ground Hog Day. He’s moving around, experiencing exchanges with different characters, but each time he sees them it’s 8:17 pm…and doomed to rinse and repeat but he’s gradually becoming weaker (is he dying?)—and Vic and Henry keep searching for him.

“ …he rested the butt of an 1873 Winchester, the rifle that you could load on Sunday, shoot all week long.”

I’m a die-hard Longmire fan series (loved the Netflix series!), most especially the audiobooks with George Guidall narrating, putting himself in the shoes of Henry Standing Bear, firing off glib philosophical spikes. This one though was pretty wild, definitely had my head swirling. It was weird and unique. Maybe not everyone’s cup of tea but you can’t say it isn’t gripping.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Book Details:

Genre: Western Fiction, Native American Literature
Publisher: Recorded Books
ASIN: B0B1QRSRN2
Listening Length: 9 hrs 39 mins
Narrator: George Guidall
Publication Date: September 6, 2022
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Hell and Back [Amazon]
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

Rosepoint Publishing: 4.5 stars

The Author: Craig Johnson is the New York Times bestselling author of the Longmire mysteries, the basis for the hit Netflix original series Longmire. He is the recipient of the Western Writers of America Spur Award for fiction, the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award for fiction, the Nouvel Observateur Prix du Roman Noir, and the Prix SNCF du Polar. His novella Spirit of Steamboat was the first One Book Wyoming selection. He lives in Ucross, Wyoming, population 25.

The Narrator: George Guidall is a prolific audiobook narrator and theatre actor. As of November 2014, he had recorded over 1,270 audiobooks, which was believed to be the record at the time. Wikipedia

Audiobooks

More Harm Than Good: The Kilteegan Bridge Story-Book 3 by Jean Grainger – #BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

Rosepoint Rating: Five Stars

“He always joked that in other cultures, there was a lot of talk and very little action, whereas in Ireland the reverse was true.”

Book Blurb:

Kilteegan Bridge, Ireland 1974

For each member of the O’Sullivan family there are turbulent times ahead.

Eli’s need to do his best for his patients is a cause for a bitter divide in the community. Emmet seems hell bent on going down a path in life his parents dread but they’re unable to stop him. Jack’s life and liberty are in grave peril as his secret faces exposure, while Emily’s troubles are, it seems only just beginning with the return of someone she would much rather had disappeared forever. And Maria must decide, is blood really thicker than water, and should family always come first, no matter the cost?

In More Harm than Good, the Kilteegan Bridge Series continues, as the modernity of the 1970’s challenges Irish traditional ways, and generations clash, sometimes with deadly consequences.

My Review:

Master Irish storyteller Jean Grainger adds Book 3 to the emotional family drama Kilteegan Bridge series. Book 3 has progressed to the mid-70s (from the 50s in Book 1) to a strong climate of changing Irish attitudes. It’s hard to change and change doesn’t come easy.

Eli and Lena have seen their little ones become teens and the teens are exploring and rebelling as teens are wont to do. Some of the rebellion is serious and will spell major upheaval for both Lena and Eli as well as the extended family, all of whom face desperate problems of their own.

What secrets are Jack and Skipper keeping? Emmet and Nellie? Too young to know what they don’t know, too young and naïve to be aware they are being played. Too inexperienced to know what to do or where to turn. But they are family. And family sticks together always and takes care of one their own—in one way or another.

Don’t they?

I love the way the author builds her characters into flesh and blood. The village of Kilteegan so real, atmospheric, the people under the heavy hand of the Catholic Church that governs with an iron fist and manipulates their lives.

I love that daft sense of humor she brings to her tales. The analogies often break the tension just when it’s needed and never fail to bring a smile or chuckle.

“…sometimes you’re as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike.”

The narrative needs an occasional break from the serious turn into themes of religious control, homosexuality, unwed pregnancy, and mental illness. A couple issues are dealt with strongly and sympathetically, possibly revealing a more lenient attitude than the issues provided at the time.

I love it when Jean Grainger releases another novel in one of her series. I read both Book 1 The Trouble with Secrets and Book 2 What Divides Us and loved this addition, although it could be read as a standalone. The author can weave a historical chronicle into an Irish family drama that clutches at the heart and leaves ripples of familiarity. Few have not confronted a similar situation and easily understand the impact.

I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts and I’m looking forward to Book 4. Recommended!

Book Details:

Genre: Historical Irish Fiction, Historical British Fiction, Historical Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Fiction
ASIN: B0BFXLYXJK
Print Length: 280 pages
Publication Date: November 15, 2022 – Happy Release Day!
Source: Author contact

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble

The Author: JEAN GRAINGER is a USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR

SELECTED BY BOOKBUB READERS IN TOP 19 OF HISTORICAL FICTION BOOKS.

WINNER OF THE 2016 AUTHOR’S CIRCLE HISTORICAL NOVEL OF EXCELLENCE

Hello and thanks for taking time out to check out my page. If you’re wondering what you’re getting with my books then think of the late great Maeve Binchy but sometimes with a historical twist. I was born in Cork, Ireland in 1971 and I come from a large family of storytellers, so much so that we had to have ‘The Talking Spoon’, only the person holding the spoon could talk!

I have worked as a history lecturer at University, a teacher of English, History and Drama in secondary school, a playwright, and a tour guide of my beloved Ireland. I am married to the lovely Diarmuid and we have four children. We live in a 200 year old stone cottage in Mid-Cork with my family and the world’s smallest dogs, called Scrappy and Scoobi..

My experiences leading groups, mainly from the United States, led me to write my first novel, ‘The Tour’. My observances of the often funny, sometimes sad but always interesting events on tours fascinated me. People really did confide the most extraordinary things, the safety of strangers I suppose. It’s a fictional story set on a tour bus but many of the characters are based on people I met over the years.

[truncated—please see author’s page for full bio]

Many of the people who have reviewed my books have said that you get to know the characters and really become attached to them, that’s wonderful for me to hear because that’s how I feel about them too. I grew up on Maeve Binchy and Deirdre Purcell and I aspired to being like them. If you buy one of my books I’m very grateful and I really hope you enjoy it. If you do, or even if you don’t, please take the time to post a review. Writing is a source of constant contentment to me and I am so fortunate to have the time and the inclination to do it, but to read a review written by a reader really does make my day.

#TuesdayBookblog banner

What Have We Done by Alex Finlay – #BookReview – #suspense

Book Blurb:

A stay-at-home mom with a past.
A has-been rock star with a habit.
A reality TV producer with a debt.
Three disparate lives.
One deadly secret.

Twenty-five years ago, Jenna, Donnie, and Nico were the best of friends, having forged a bond through the abuse and neglect they endured as residents of Savior House, a group home for parentless teens. When the home was shut down—after the disappearance of several kids—the three were split up.

Though the trauma of their childhood has never left them, each went on to live accomplished—if troubled—lives. They haven’t seen one another since they were teens but now are reunited for a single haunting reason: someone is trying to kill them.

To survive, the group will have to revisit the nightmares of their childhoods and confront their shared past—a past that holds the secret to why someone wants them dead.

It’s a reunion none of them asked for . . . or wanted. But it may be the only way to save all their lives.

What Have We Done is both an edge-of-your-seat thriller and a gut-wrenching coming-of-age story. And it cements Alex Finlay as one of the new leading voices in thrillers today.

His Review:

Savior House is a foster home for orphans or wards of the court but has a consistent problem with young women going missing. The experience at the home is abusive and their disappearance is explained as them being disillusioned or disaffected and simply running away. The town authorities simply want the problem swept under the rug.

The POV of Jenna, Nico and Donnie are three of five who do not feel this is an acceptable answer to the problem. The five banded together to “bury” a secret and go their separate ways when the group home is shut down. Twenty-five years later something begins to happen to the members of their group. When the surviving trio attempt to investigate, strange things happen to them as well!

Sisters, separated soon after birth, meet in their twenties and cannot believe they are identical twins. Neither are endowed with a moral compass but will figure prominently in the investigation.

The three main characters are all damaged, one fighting addiction problems, and none are wholly engaging or empathetic. There are twists and turns and the pace tends to ebb and flow while keeping sufficient interest to find out the who and why.

The individuals shared a desperate history as the backstories of each are explored. Something happened that someone doesn’t want exposed—even now.

This book is entertaining and well-written but I found the subject matter disturbing. The overall tale is engaging and entertaining. Enjoy! 4 stars – CE Williams

I read The Night Shift earlier this year and found it an engaging manipulation of the plot and suspenseful, just a bit stronger with well-developed characters.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book. Currently on pre-order to be released March 7, 2023.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Suspense Action Fiction, Suspense, Suspense Thrillers
Publisher: Minotaur Books
ASIN: B09Y46CVQW
Print Length: 368 pages
Publication Date: March 7, 2023
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Link: What Have We Done [Amazon]
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Alex Finlay is the author of the 2021 breakout novel, EVERY LAST FEAR, and one of 2022’s most-anticipated thrillers, THE NIGHT SHIFT. His work has been an Indie Next pick, a LibraryReads selection, an Amazon Editor’s Best Thriller, as well as a CNN, Newsweek, E!, BuzzFeed, Business Week, Goodreads, Parade, PopSugar, Scribd, and Reader’s Digest best or most anticipated thrillers of the year. Alex’s novels have been translated into seventeen languages, and EVERY LAST FEAR is in development for a major television series. Learn more at https://alexfinlaybooks.com/

Have a Happy Thanksgiving

Defending Jacob by William Landay – #Audiobook Review – #throwbackthursday

Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Rosepoint Publishing: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney in his suburban Massachusetts county for more than 20 years. He is respected in his community, tenacious in the courtroom, and happy at home with his wife, Laurie, and son, Jacob. But when a shocking crime shatters their New England town, Andy is blindsided by what happens next: his 14-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student.

Every parental instinct Andy has rallies to protect his boy. Jacob insists that he is innocent, and Andy believes him. Andy must. He’s his father. But as damning facts and shocking revelations surface, as a marriage threatens to crumble and the trial intensifies, and as the crisis reveals how little a father knows about his son, Andy will face a trial of his own – between loyalty and justice, between truth and allegation, between a past he’s tried to bury and a future he cannot conceive.

Award-winning author William Landay has written the consummate novel of an embattled family in crisis – a suspenseful, character-driven mystery that is also a spellbinding tale of guilt, betrayal, and the terrifying speed at which our lives can spin out of control.

My Review:

I must admit that I chose this audiobook because I saw that it was narrated by Grover Gardner and I’m a huge fan of Mr. Gardner—the “Andy” of the Andy Carpenter series (by another author). His artistic rendition carries most any book to new heights, not just reading the book, but making the characters come alive—flesh and blood—along with their foibles. Such is the Andy in this book.

The hook at the beginning manages to jump what will become the meat and potatoes of this book—the POV by Andy Barber. Andy is happily married and they have a fourteen-year-old son, Jacob. Every now and then, the POV jumps over the catastrophic event in the family’s life that propels the legal thriller to a heartbreaking family drama.

Jacob is accused of the murder of a classmate. Andy becomes convinced that Jacob would not—could not—commit the heinous crime—stabbing three times the chest of the boy found murdered and left in the park. He is temporarily suspended from his position as ADA and becomes convinced beyond all reason (and mostly circumstantial evidence) that his son is innocent.

Meanwhile, Laurie, his wife is becoming alarmed at her crushing emotions and conflicting beliefs—then guilt over her thoughts. Could her son have killed that boy? The atmosphere in the air becomes increasingly contentious, Andy defending his son beyond reason. Jacob declaring his innocence. His mother no longer so positive—doubts seeping into the bedrock, loosening her private shocking fears and revelations to her husband.

Meanwhile, as Andy works second chair with the attorney they hired to defend Jacob, they are confronted with Andy’s own history—dark secrets he’d never shared even with Laurie. She becomes horrified and as her experience with her baby boy begins to shed more light on him, Andy continues the unreasonable and dogged resistance to the possibility.

The reader is first left with a child—yes, sometimes children can be cruel—but this is far beyond bullying—and increasing questions as to the veracity of Andy’s arguments. The toll on the family is unimaginable, threatening to ruin the marriage, his mother’s belief in Jacob’s innocence flailing wildly in the wind. While Andy is a well-developed main character, Laurie is more a strong periphery character and Jacob only known through the insight of Andy and his mother.

I’m a fan of legal thrillers and the courtroom dance in the narrative proceeds with all the drama a reader could want, the push-pull, win-lose. Written by a former ADA, the author knows the timing, the procedure, the lingo—it’s high drama in itself.

The family appears to survive the process albeit briefly when another event sends the reader back into high-pressure territory, gasping with shock at the turn of events.

And then; the final twist. I don’t care who you are. You never saw this coming. Yes, I know you’ve heard that before. No, trust me. This one is so beyond what you might have imagined it echoes over and over in your head, leaving you with a book hangover. The unthinkable. No do-overs here. You can run it over in your mind. It won’t change. I was almost sick.

Does that mean I wouldn’t recommend it? Are you kidding? This is crazy unique, gripping, heart-pounding, and unquestionably a novel both engaging and entertaining. The narration by Gardner is mesmerizing. (I guess it was turned into a TV series released in 2020.)

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Book Details:

Genre: Psychological Fiction, Legal Thrillers, Psychological Thrillers
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
ASIN: B0073OGZNM
Listening Length: 12 hrs 24 mins
Narrator: Grover Gardner
Publication Date: January 31, 2012
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Defending Jacob [Amazon]

The Author: William Landay’s latest novel is the New York Times bestseller “Defending Jacob.” His previous novels are “Mission Flats,” which won the Dagger Award as best debut crime novel of 2003, and “The Strangler,” which was an L.A. Times favorite crime novel and was nominated for the Strand Magazine Critics Award as best crime novel of 2007.

Visit the author at http://www.williamlanday.com or on Facebook at facebook.com/williamlanday

Narrator: Grover Gardner is an American narrator of audiobooks. As of May 2018, he has narrated over 1,200 books. He was the Publishers Weekly “Audiobook Narrator of the Year” and is among AudioFile magazine’s “Best Voices of the Century”. Wikipedia

Born: 1956 (age 66 years).

#ThrowbackThursday

Is There an Ultimate List of the Best Book Review Blogs?

Surprise, surprise, just as I was thinking of writing about some of my favorite review blogs and extended sources of book reviews, I was emailed a request by Jordan to consider being added to the Kindlepreneur Ultimate List of the Best Book Review Blogs.

Well, timing is everything!

I occasionally get a request to suggest a good book review blog by persons searching Quora for ideas and I’m listed in several directories as well. Of course, I confronted that same question after I published my grandfather’s manuscripts, and certainly for an Indie author publishing a debut novel, it’s a major concern. The first three rules of marketing any book are reviews, reviews, reviews. (Okay, maybe the first rule must be a well-edited novel, but you know what I mean.)

This appears to be the one definitive article that may answer all your burning questions. I particularly love Dave’s video—be patient—there is a lot of good information contained in that video where he goes into detail regarding the Amazon Book Review Rules (explained)!

Seriously, Amazon book reviews still hold a lot of weight whether or not you are in the school of thought that reviews are given less weight these days than they use to be or not. Amazon tends to change its rules, the algorithm by which they allow, or disallow, a book review. If it’s a good review, you don’t want to risk losing it owing to the failure of one of their rules. (I urge you to watch that video.)

According to Mr. Cheechaw of Amazon, “…we will continue to allow the age old practice of providing advance review copies of books.” Really? Maybe, maybe not, watch out for the caveats, and Dave covers many of them. (Don’t be a “gotcha!”)

While authors usually have an ideal word length for their novel review, there is a wide disparity of what just how many words that might be. For instance, one of my authors always reminds me to keep his reviews to a short paragraph—three or four sentences—so he can show more reviews on his first page. I’ve seen an average of between 500 to 1000 words and my reviews generally run between 400 to 800 depending on the novel.

I’m thrilled to be invited to this exclusive list of book review bloggers and would urge you to take advantage of the expertise that Dave Chesson’s website Kindlepreneur will provide you well above and beyond this list.

#TuesdayBookBlog

Back in the USSR by Patrick D Joyce – #BookReview – #YAHistoricalFiction

Book Blurb:

They can ban rock.

They can breed fear.

But one record spins out of their control.

When Harrison George, son of American diplomats, arrives in Cold War Moscow for winter break, he plans to daydream and hang out with his friend Prudence Akobo, street-smart daughter of foreign correspondents.

Instead, he and Prudence stumble onto the trail of the Album, a long lost Beatles relic and priceless symbol of freedom in a country where rock music is banned.

Chased by treasure hunters, gangsters and spies, they don’t know who to trust. If they don’t find the Album first, they could end up missing — or dead — themselves.

Harrison and Prudence face a choice. Will they be pawns in a game of global conflict, or can they help a maverick KGB agent on a mission of personal redemption?

His Review:

The story begins with Prudence begging Harrison (her best friend in Moscow) for a taped copy of The White Album, one of the Beatles’ most famous recordings. The government in the USSR has banned decadent western music, so everyone in Moscow wants to get a copy of the album! Harrison does not realize it but he and the album are highly sought after and prized.

This story slips in and out of the bad side of life in the Soviet Union. They feel the music destroys the control that the government holds over the people. A long term in jail could result from being caught with the music.

Harrison’s quest to find the mysterious lady of his dreams leads him and Prudence into a very dangerous situation. Gangsters and underworld figures will stop at nothing to get the album or tape. Prudence’s parents are Canadian and Harrison’s are U.S. citizens and both of their parents work in embassies. Harrison and Prudence manage to stay one step ahead of the gangs and organized mobsters.

This book is fun and fast-moving and the characters are well-developed. Geared for a younger target, but you might very well enjoy the adventure, I know I did. 4.5 stars – CE Williams

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: YA Historical, Action/Adventure
Publisher: Spy Pond Press
ASIN: B0BJ7JN8PN
Print Length: 313 pages
Publication Date: December 1, 2022
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Link: Back in the USSR [Amazon]
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Patrick D. Joyce grew up in diplomatic outposts throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas. He writes thriller novels and poetry, and has been a newspaper reporter, political scientist, and medical practice manager. He’s a huge Beatles fan and loves all kinds of music.

Connect with him at patrickdjoyce.com.

Enjoy Your Sunday

The Rising Tide: A Vera Stanhope Novel by Ann Cleeves – #Audiobook Review – #womensleuths

Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Book Blurb:

For fifty years a group of friends have been meeting regularly for reunions on Holy Island, celebrating the school trip where they met, and the friend that they lost to the rising causeway tide five years later. Now, when one of them is found hanged, Vera is called in. Learning that the dead man had recently been fired after misconduct allegations, Vera knows she must discover what the friends are hiding, and whether the events of many years before could have led to murder then, and now . . .

But with the tide rising, secrets long-hidden are finding their way to the surface, and Vera and the team may find themselves in more danger than they could have believed possible.

My Review:

Is Ann Cleeves an acquired taste? Installment ten of this series is my second (having read Book 9 The Darkest Evening), although I’ve read another Cleeves novel in a different series. I like Vera Stanhope—she’s not a profanity-spouting, booze-guzzling, bed-hopping DI. And I like the audiobooks, the narrator growing on me a bit as well as she projects the different voices, connotations, inflections of the text.

The storyline this time involves a group of old school friends who meet every five years at Holy Island—the site of a school trip. Unfortunately, it is also the site of a fatality at their first reunion. This reunion sees the death of another of the former students. Attempted to appear as a suicide, Vera suspects murder.

These are not fast-paced mysteries. The participants at the reunion are introduced and studied, listed as possible suspects or not. There remained a number of inquiries that Vera is loathed to delegate, but as she is getting older, begrudgingly allows her staff to tackle different aspects of the investigation, relinquishing the reins just a bit. And we get to know them as well, their POV, motives. I like both Joe and Holly. It’s a good team.

Vera has a sixth sense, honed from years with the department, as well as unhappy childhood experiences, that she often uses to jump to the next facet of exploration. It’s good that she does and is usually right.

Unfortunately, sometimes her timing is a bit off. In this case, tragically so. I mourned that loss so I wasn’t wholly thrilled with the ending this time. Still, now that I’ve found an almost contemporary protagonist, I’ll be looking for the next book in the series.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Book Details:

Genre: Women Sleuths, Police Procedurals
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
ASIN: B09Q7QC2NC
Listening Length: 11 hrs 28 mins
Narrator: Janine Birkett
Publication Date: September 6, 2022
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: The Rising Tide [Amazon]
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

The Author: Ann is the author of the books behind ITV’s VERA, now in it’s third series, and the BBC’s SHETLAND, which will be aired in December 2012. Ann’s DI Vera Stanhope series of books is set in Northumberland and features the well loved detective along with her partner Joe Ashworth. Ann’s Shetland series bring us DI Jimmy Perez, investigating in the mysterious, dark, and beautiful Shetland Islands…

Ann grew up in the country, first in Herefordshire, then in North Devon. Her father was a village school teacher. After dropping out of university she took a number of temporary jobs – child care officer, women’s refuge leader, bird observatory cook, auxiliary coastguard – before going back to college and training to be a probation officer.

While she was cooking in the Bird Observatory on Fair Isle, she met her husband Tim, a visiting ornithologist. She was attracted less by the ornithology than the bottle of malt whisky she saw in his rucksack when she showed him his room. Soon after they married, Tim was appointed as warden of Hilbre, a tiny tidal island nature reserve in the Dee Estuary. They were the only residents, there was no mains electricity or water and access to the mainland was at low tide across the shore. If a person’s not heavily into birds – and Ann isn’t – there’s not much to do on Hilbre and that was when she started writing. Her first series of crime novels features the elderly naturalist, George Palmer-Jones. A couple of these books are seriously dreadful.

In 1987 Tim, Ann and their two daughters moved to Northumberland and the north east provides the inspiration for many of her subsequent titles. The girls have both taken up with Geordie lads. In the autumn of 2006, Ann and Tim finally achieved their ambition of moving back to the North East.

For the National Year of Reading, Ann was made reader-in-residence for three library authorities. It came as a revelation that it was possible to get paid for talking to readers about books! She went on to set up reading groups in prisons as part of the Inside Books project, became Cheltenham Literature Festival’s first reader-in-residence and still enjoys working with libraries.

Ann Cleeves on stage at the Duncan Lawrie Dagger awards ceremony

Ann’s short film for Border TV, Catching Birds, won a Royal Television Society Award. She has twice been short listed for a CWA Dagger Award – once for her short story The Plater, and the following year for the Dagger in the Library award.

In 2006 Ann Cleeves was the first winner of the prestigious Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award of the Crime Writers’ Association for Raven Black, the first volume of her Shetland Quartet. The Duncan Lawrie Dagger replaces the CWA’s Gold Dagger award, and the winner receives £20,000, making it the world’s largest award for crime fiction.

Ann’s success was announced at the 2006 Dagger Awards ceremony at the Waldorf Hilton, in London’s Aldwych, on Thursday 29 June 2006. She said: “I have never won anything before in my life, so it was a complete shock – but lovely of course.. The evening was relatively relaxing because I’d lost my voice and knew that even if the unexpected happened there was physically no way I could utter a word. So I wouldn’t have to give a speech. My editor was deputed to do it!”

The judging panel consisted of Geoff Bradley (non-voting Chair), Lyn Brown MP (a committee member on the London Libraries service), Frances Gray (an academic who writes about and teaches courses on modern crime fiction), Heather O’Donoghue (academic, linguist, crime fiction reviewer for The Times Literary Supplement, and keen reader of all crime fiction) and Barry Forshaw (reviewer and editor of Crime Time magazine).

Ann’s books have been translated into sixteen languages. She’s a bestseller in Scandinavia and Germany. Her novels sell widely and to critical acclaim in the United States. Raven Black was shortlisted for the Martin Beck award for best translated crime novel in Sweden in 200.

Bio and photo from Goodreads.

Happy Autumn Weekend to you from Rosepoint Publishing

Rosepoint Reviews – October Recap—And I’ve Gotta Yell Uncle!

Rosepoint Reviews October Recap

October flew by and it would seem my schedule weighs increasingly heavier. I thought I could relax a bit after achieving the 500 review badge for NetGalley but that achievement coincided with harvest and I got embroiled with juicing, walking trails, and the search for a good used bike. We got our much revered Indian Summer and just couldn’t resist getting out of doors. Now, of course, we are looking at the upcoming holidays—all designed to be time sinks. Let’s face it—something has to give. First, I’ll try giving up one post a week.

Together we read or listened to seventeen books in October, most from NetGalley, but also audiobooks, and several author requests.

October reads

Many Are Invited by Dennis Cuesta (CE review)
How the Wicked Run by Annabelle Lewis
Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister (audiobook)
The Gods of Sanibel by Brian Cook (CE review)
Where Coyotes Howl by Sandra Dallas (CE review)
Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun by Elle Cosimano
Beartown (audiobook) vs The Winners by Fredrik Backman (CE review)
A Dangerous Business by Jane Smiley (CE review)
Her Deadly Game by Robert Dugoni (CE review)
Fries and Alibis by Trixie Silvertale
Ninety-Nine Fire Hoops by Allison Hong Merrill (audiobook)
The Last Summer in Ireland by Noelle Harrison (CE review)
The Quadrant Conspiracy by James H Lewis (CE review)
Murder at an Irish Bakery by Carlene O’Connor
Bullet Train (movie) vs Bullet Train (audiobook) by Kotaro Isaka
No Quiet Water by Shirley Miller Kamada
O’Brien’s Law by John McNellis (CE review)

I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed Bullet Train, but in a head-to-head which one? Would still have to go with the book. The movie, despite a dead-panning and understated Brad Pitt, was just too much flash bang Hollywood. I preferred the psychological study of the great mix of characters in Isaka’s book.

Did you see the movie or read the book? Both? Did you read any of the others above? I saw many thought The Winners was indeed a winner while the CE could not finish it—and as you know—very unusual for him.

Reading Challenges

My usual battle with trying to catch up the challenges. Lost the battle again, but you’ll see—I’ll eventually catch it up and win the war. My challenges for 2022 are all listed and linked in the widget column on the right. Please check out their progress by clicking the Reading Challenges page. I’m now at 92% of the Goodreads Challenge of 180 books at 166. I’ve already achieved the Audiobook Challenge, Historical Reading Challenge, and the NetGalley Challenge with a 98% Feedback Ratio. Phew! I’m feeling a bit like my granddaughter with our great-grandson—see that face? Yeah…

But speaking of getting older; our little Bichon Frisé, Frosty, will have her seventeenth birthday in January 2023. I’m not sure she’ll make that as she is declining before our eyes. Breaks our hearts and we watch her every day for signs she is suffering. So far, so good; eating and drinking her water, getting me up one to three times during the night to piddle. Maybe it’s not the books and blog that have me exhausted, but we love her too much to give up quite yet.

Thank you for joining me if you are a new follower and as always I appreciate those who continue to read, like, share, and comment—especially comment! Let me know if you saw something above that got your interest.