Medium Wave – Rose Zolock @rosezolock @rararesources @caffeinenights #blogtour #MediumWave

Hey there peeps and welcome to my stop on the Medium wave blog tour. I hope you enjoy my review and, indeed, the book. My sincere thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for this opportunity to shout about Rose’s book. So, onwards….

Author: Rose Zolock (@RoseZolock)

Publisher: Caffeine Nights

Where to buy: Amazon UK; Book Depository

The light shifts, subtly at first, but then, as if your peripheral vision begins to constrict, the light narrows more and more until only a pinprick remains. panicking you grasp for the lights as a penetrating cold envelops you and a voice in your ear whispers “we are here….we are blurrrrbbbbbbbb”:

“Becky Moran has built a career claiming to talk to the dead. A successful clairvoyant medium, a Cambridge graduate with her own radio show `Medium Wave’ and a team dedicated to crafting the celebrity myth – because Becky Moran is a fake. Until, one night, something supernatural, inexplicable, breaks through live on air as she is broadcasting. Becky Moran discovers the paranormal is real, the dead can indeed speak and she is being pursued relentlessly towards a battle for her very survival.”

‘This thing has no defined shape. Whatever energy exists within it, it cannot settle on a shape. The strands of darkness curl out and then wrap back inwards. The bulk of the shadow becomes concave, then bulbous, the height building in on itself but lacking any skeletal structure to wrap itself around. There are no eyes, no clearly defined head shape. It is creating itself from darkness, like a swirl of ebony ink dropped into a vat of putrid water, spreading silently….’

‘In Conversation with’….The Beardy Book Blogger. Who?

Mooching around the blogosphere I have noticed that one of the most popular post types seems to be the Blogger Q & A. Now, I’m not well known enough yet to be invited to take part in one of these things, and I am actually much too shy to ask to be invited when one asks, so I thought why not do one of my own. Me interviewing myself.

So I messaged myself.

I waited. No answer.

I messaged again. Then I remembered that I probably wouldn’t answer quickly as I’d be too busy procrastinating over whether the request was genuine or some scam or other.

So I checked out my blog, thought it looked ok – well, it looked daft if I’m honest, but that’s ok because I do like a bit of daft – and I replied.

I got back to myself surprisingly fast with the following questions, or more of a rambling chit chat, which I now present to you.

Enjoy and maybe you’ll learn something about The Beardy Book Blogger 🙂

The History Of The Book – A Complete and Factual Account. Part 1.

When I sat down to think about what kind of post I could write for my blog I was a little stumped. What I asked myself, what, I asked myself again in case I hadn’t heard myself, could I possibly write about that would be meaningful, insightful, intelligent – make a statement?

Then the light bulb came on.

It wasn’t an idea that came to me, it was just the timer switching the light on, but it did illuminate my bookshelf and the books upon it. Looking at them I thought, “where did all of these books come from? What is their story? What is the history of books?”

And then it came to me…..

Why don’t I write a post about my bookshelf? How shiny it is in the lamp light. How the grain really brings out the books? But then I thought, nah, that would be too totes emosh for everyone to read. So I thought on, and then something that I thought earlier came back to me….

Now, I’m no histographer, but I do know what the internet is, so I thought, how hard can it be to research and write a complete and concise history of the book-ed word? Well, I tried and discovered a ton of interesting facts that I just had to share with you all.

And so, I implore you to read on and found out wot I did find out as I present to you, in several parts-yet-to-be-decided…

THE COMPLETE AND ACCURATE HISTORY OF THE BOOK

Keeper – Johana Gustawsson @jogustawsson @orendabooks #Keeper #TheBeardyBookBlogger #TBBB

I really wish I had the gorgeous paperback to show you, but I don’t, so here’s the tiny, grey scale Kindle version. It reads the same, but it ain’t as sexy. Nope. Phooey. 😦

Author: Johana Gustawsson (Translated by Maxim Jakubowski)

Publisher: Orenda Books

Where to buy: Amazon UK; Book Depository; Foyles

“MURDER! MURDER! There’s been a murder!” the anguished cry echoes through the stinking, fog heavy streets of London. A policeman appears, blowing his whistle as you strain to see what is causing the commotion. There, lying in the filthy street, is the eviscerated corpse of a blurb….

“Whitechapel, 1888: London is bowed under Jack the Ripper’s reign of terror.
London, 2015: actress Julianne Bell is abducted in a case similar to the terrible Tower Hamlets murders of some ten years earlier, and harking back to the Ripper killings of a century before.
Falkenberg, Sweden, 2015: a woman’s body is found mutilated in a forest, her wounds identical to those of the Tower Hamlets victims. With the man arrested for the Tower Hamlets crimes already locked up, do the new killings mean he has a dangerous accomplice, or is a copy-cat serial killer on the loose?
Profiler Emily Roy and true-crime writer Alexis Castells again find themselves drawn into an intriguing case, with personal links that turn their world upside down.”

Ragdoll – Daniel Cole @daniel_p_cole @trapezebooks #ragdollbook

 

 

Author: Daniel Cole

Publisher: Trapeze Books

Where to buy: Amazon UK; Book Depository

 

The detectives approach the object hanging ominously before them, swaying slightly in the breeze from the cracked window. Cautiously they reach out to turn it around to face them. They put their hands to their mouth stifling the rising bile as ……the blurb is revealed……

“ONE BODY. SIX VICTIMS. NO SUSPECTS.

A body is discovered with the dismembered parts of six victims stitched together, nicknamed by the press as the ‘Ragdoll’. Assigned to the shocking case are Detective William ‘Wolf’ Fawkes, recently reinstated to the London Met, and his former partner Detective Emily Baxter. The ‘Ragdoll Killer’ taunts the police by releasing a list of names to the media, and the dates on which he intends to murder them.

With six people to save, can Fawkes & Baxter catch a killer when the world is watching their every move?”

My Little Eye – Stephanie Marland #MyLittleEye #BlogTour #Bookbloggers #bookblog #StephanieMarland @trapezebooks @crimethrillgirl

Well hello there lovely people. How are we all? Fine? Excellent. Welcome to my blog and to my stop on the My Little Eye blog tour. My sincere thanks to Alex (@alexxlayt) and to Steph for inviting me to pop my blog tour cherry with this book – exciting. So, without further ado….

 

Author: Stephanie Marland

Publisher: Trapeze Books (Orion imprint)

Where To Buy: Amazon UK ; Book Depository

Hey you! Yes, you, reading this post. No, not you, nosey bugger. Clear off back to your business. Yes, you….oh for pity’s sake….yessss, you, come here! Closer. I have a little secret to tell you and I don’t want the whole world to overhear me. I can trust you right? Coolio: here it is……Stephanie Marland is also….no, no I can’t tell you. I can feel the heat of this revelation from here. Oh, what’s that? A bag of Cadbury’s chocolate buttons? Well, that’s different. Ok, Stephanie Marland is actually…..drum roll…..Steph Broadribb, author of the most excellent Lori Anderson series, Deep Down Dead and Deep Blue Trouble. Ta daaaaaaaa! *glitter gun*

*spits out glitter* Wait….what? What do you mean you knew that? Oy, where are you running off to? Come back here with those chocolate buttons…..give….me….butt….ons….! Bastard. Ok, well, clearly they knew this little secret, but I’m guessing at least some of you didn’t, so I shall continue (sans chocolatey goodness).

But, suddenly the lights go off! A figure, unseen, grabs you from behind. A cloth smothers your face as you inhale the familiar scent of…blurb:

“Can a group of true crime addicts take on the police to catch a serial killer?

A young woman is found dead in her bedroom surrounded by rose petals – the latest victim of ‘The Lover’. Struggling under the weight of an internal investigation, DI Dominic Bell is no closer to discovering the identity of the killer and time is running out.

As the murders escalate, Clementine Starke joins an online true crime group determined to take justice in to their own hands – to catch the killer before the police. Hiding a dark secret, she takes greater risks to find new evidence and infiltrate the group.

As Starke and Bell get closer to cracking the case neither of them realise they’re being watched. The killer is closer to them than they think…” (I’ve deleted the last bit of this because I think it’s a bit too spoilery and it’s my blog, so, ner *pokes tongue out*)

Jimbo Yojimbo – David W Barbee

This cover is ever so slightly misleading because that isn’t Jimbo right there. This dude definitely doesn’t have a cuttlefish grafted to his mush.

 

Author: David W Barbee

Publisher: Eraserhead Press

Where To Buy: Amazon UK; Amazon US

My thanks to Lori (@tnbbc) for sending me my copy of Jimbo and giving me the opportunity to review it 🙂

 

From the green, sticky slime that oozes down from the tree above your head a small, blue frog plops onto the ground in front of you. It looks at you with it’s huge green eyes, opens its mouth and emits a strident and ear piercing….Bluuuurrrrbbb!!!!

“From the author of Bacon Fried Bastard and A Town Called Suckhole, comes a countrified samurai epic in the vein of Squidbillies if directed by Akira Kurosawa. 

A flood of frogs drowned the cities and gunked up all the guns. Now an evil restaurant chain called the Buddha Gump Shrimp Company rules a finger-licking shogunate of seafood mutants and murderous redneck swordsmen like Jimbo Yojimbo. Jimbo wants revenge on the Company for killing his family and stitching a cuttlefish to his face. After a daring escape, he will hack his way through hordes of crawdad soldiers, a church of quacking gun nuts on a jihad, and Bushido Budnick, the master chef who rules them all. But with every step he takes, Jimbo Yojimbo’s sweet revenge will surely begin to taste like shit gumbo.

JIMBO YOJIMBO is fast-paced post-apocalyptic redneck samurai tale of love, revenge, and a whole lotta mutant sumbitches.”

Well, I don’t believe me!

Look, you see that big old jpeg up there? That is telling you that voting is open for the Annual Bloggers Bash Awards 2018. And why, I hear you ask in a totally fake surprise voice, are you telling us this? Well, you see, and this is the good bit….drum roll please…

*sigh* for Pete’s sake, it’ll have to do…you see…*deep breath*

I HAVE BEEN NOMINATED FOR BEST NEWCOMER!

Ta daaaaa……..*poof* *glitter gun* *poof*.

When The Dragon Roars – Nesly Clerge

Author: Nesly Clerge

Where to buy: Amazon UK; Amazon US

A heartfelt thank you to Nesly (@clergebooks) and Shayla Raquel (@shaylaleeraquel) for sending me a copy of this book 🙂

The prison door slams shut behind you. You turn to face your new cellmate. He snarls at you, grabbing you by your prison scrubs, thrusting a piece of paper into your terrified face. On the paper, scrawled in barely legible script is a blurb:

“Secrets and lies force their way to the surface in Nesly Clerge’s newest novel of deception, crime, and buried history. Frederick Starks thought he’d already lost as much as one man could: A beautiful family, the luxurious life wealth provides, success, admiration—all stripped from him in one moment of madness that resulted in a fifteen-year sentence in a maximum security prison. Certain that life has gotten as bad as it can get, Starks contrives a way to rise to the top of the inmate hierarchy. But his assumption is wrong. Amid stunning revelations, betrayals, and violence, Starks faces one challenge after another, until a life-altering event forces him into the most brutal confrontation of all: the truth about himself.”

March reads – aka Wot I Readed In March.

Hi everyone. March was quite a good month for me reading wise. I read 9 books, all of which were most excellent. My lucky streak continues it seems. Now I know that 9 isn’t a lot. I saw someone over on Twitter who had read 48 in ONE MONTH! WTF? But considering I used to pretty much read one book a month I reckon that’s pretty good going, innit?

My favourite book of the month? Oooooh, now you’re asking (yeah, yeah, I know you didn’t ask me, but go with it!). Hands down I would say it was Johanna Gustawson’s amazing Block 46, closely followed by Seth Lynch’s A Citizen Of Nowhere. Both very different books, but both of them were unputdownable and I finished both in a day, more or less (take away time for a poo/wee, sleeping, eating, you know). But now I feel bad for Ragnar’s The Darkness or Christopher Fowler’s Wild Chamber. Urgh, I shouldn’t pick favourites. But seriously, every book here is a 5* book. In fact, you may notice that I no longer rate books by star any more (also RIP the RidicuRating(TM)). I now just state whether I think the book should be recommended or highly recommended. I’m thinking of a variation on this, so watch this space. Well, not this space, but a space I shall create on the blog at a later date. So, yeah, watch that space, when it occurs.

Links to my reviews are in the title (except for My Little eye, as I’m waiting for my date on the blog tour. I will link after…if I remember to! EDIT: I did and it is now there 🙂 )