#Fahrenbruary Review: Jukebox – Saira Viola @sairaviola @F13Noir @fahrenheitpress

Hello you yummy scrummy people and welcome to my beardy blog for what is Day 20 of #Fahrenbruary. If this is your very first visit to my blog, and you are unaware of what the aforementioned #Fahrenbruary is, then here is a very handy link to help clarify a few things:

Fahrenbruary? What’s that all about then? #Fahrenbruary @FahrenheitPress @F13Noir

Wasn’t that splendid? It really is a marvellous post, so if you skipped it and figured you’d come back to it later, may I suggest that you make a note on scrap of paper so you don’t forget. You really will kick yourself if you do.

So, I’m going to take an educated guess that you are here to read my brand new, never seen before, review of Saira Viola’s debut novel ‘Jukebox‘?

What’s that? You were looking for recipe suggestions for cooking a duck? How the hell did you end up here then? Well, seeing as you are here, I suggest that you just stuff it and stick it in the oven. It’s just a bird after all – like a floating chicken – how hard can it be? I reckon, 180°C/Gas Mark 4, for about 90 mins or so? Maybe cover it in foil and remove for the last 30 mins? Poke a skewer into the leg to check it’s cooked thoroughly; juices clear and all that. I have no idea if all of that’ll work, but I’m sure I saw it on TV somewhere.

Whilst you’re waiting for your duck to cook you may as well stay and read my review. It’ll pass the time and you may discover your new favourite author.

You will? Oh, I am pleased. *happy face*

As this is Fahrenbruary, Saira has also kindly provided us all with an audio extract of herself reading from Jukebox. I know right, how exciting is that, eh? You can find that at the end of the review.

So, without further ado, lets have us some blurb:

“Nick Stringer is a rookie lawyer but what he really wants is to run his own record label. His dream seems one step closer when old family friend and businessman Mel Greenberg offers to bankroll him.

Avery Cross is a junior reporter desperately searching for the story that’s going to make her name. Avery thinks there’s more to Mel Greenberg than meets the eye and that uncovering the truth about him might just be her ticket to the big time.

Nick, Mel and Avery’s lives converge against the backdrop of London’s underworld where glamour, crime & greed party side by side. It doesn’t take long before Nick begins to realise that if an offer looks too good to be true it probably is. 

In a city rocked by corruption and excess, one of them is going to learn that sometimes in life you get more than you bargained for.

Jukebox is Saira Viola’s brilliant full-length debut novel.”

#Fahrenbruary Author Q&A: Derek Farrell – author of The Danny Bird series. @DerekIFarrell @FahrenheitPress

Good morning to you all, unless it’s evening in which case good evening to you all, unless it’s night-time in which case a good night to you all.

No, wait, I didn’t mean good night as in goodnight, good night. Put that Horlicks away and take those pyjamas off right now!

Ewww, no, on second thoughts, put those pyjamas back on again, tooty sweety. No-one needs to see that no matter what time of day it may be where you are. Although you can take them off ag…. no! Best not… *whispers* call me!

Okay, let’s start this again shall we?

Hellooooooo and welcome to The Beardy Book Blogger. If this is your first time here I welcome you with a warm beard and an even warmer heart. Please feel free to look around and see stuff; mi blog es su blog 😃 If you have been here before then I am very grateful that you have returned. I wasn’t too sure that you would, if I’m honest. Haha, one can never be too sure about these things now, can one!

So, what delights do I have for you today, I hear you ask? Well, firstly, thank you for asking and, secondly, let me enlighten you.

Today marks the 15th day of the month long Fahrenheit Press/Fahrenheit 13 love fest that is #Fahrenbruary. If you are unaware of what that is all about, please feel free to take a small but enlightening detour to this link here, but do come back…

Fahrenbruary? What’s that all about then? #Fahrenbruary @FahrenheitPress @F13Noir

You’re back? Hurrah and so forth and so fifth.

Where were we? Oh yes, why are you here? Well, today I present to you a magnificent Q&A with one of my very favourite authors Derek Farrell.

Derek is the creator and author of the Danny Bird Mysteries series of books (Death Of A Diva/Nobody/Devil and the soon to be released Death Of An Angel), published by Fahrenheit Press.

You can find my reviews of the first 3 books below:

#Fahrenbruary Review: Death Of A Nobody and Death Of A Devil – Derek Farrell @DereklFarrell @FahrenheitPress

#Fahrenbruary Review: Death Of A Diva – Derek Farrell @DereklFarrell @FahrenheitPress

Derek also wrote a brilliant Guest Post for me for Day 14 of #Fahrenbruary and you can find that here:

#Fahrenbruary Guest Post: My Favourite Queer Crime Reads by Derek Farrell @DereklFarrell @FahrenheitPress #LGBTHM19 #LGBT

Intrigued? Well, I should bally well hope so too. So, patient reader, read on and discover what inspired Derek to create Danny Bird, what his favourite biscuit or cake are, and what type of sheets he has on his bed.

Enjoy. TBBB X

 

#Fahrenbruary Guest Post: My Favourite Queer Crime Reads by Derek Farrell @DereklFarrell @FahrenheitPress #LGBTHM19 #LGBT

Way-heeeeeyyyyy and welcome to the hairiest book blog this side of Yetisville, where, I am led to believe, there is an even hairier book blogger. Mind you, Yetis are not really known for their literacy and reading skills so I don’t think I have anything to worry about. But, in the spirit of inclusiveness, I wish them all the very best.

Today is the 14th day of #Fahrenbruary which just happens to be Valentine’s Day, or Fahrentine’s Day, if you will.

Haha, Fahrentine’s Day? Geddit? Fahrentine? It’s a mix of Fahrenheit and Valen… No? No-one? Oh come on! *sigh* Ok, maybe that’s a Fahrenpun too far. Be like that then *sulks*

Okay, sulk over.

Now, Beardy Fact Fans, Fahrenbruary (or, to give it its old, boring name, February), is also LGBT History Month; a month long series of events that looks at the history of, promotes awareness of and acceptance towards, the LGBT community. It is also a celebration of all things Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender, with events up, down and across the country, in schools, colleges, Universities, libraries, the local bakers, the putting green, roller rink, jumble sales, tiddly-winks tournaments, retirement homes; you name it it’s there, anywhere and everywhere.

In this spirit, Derek has written a post where he discusses his favourite Queer Crime reads, and his reasons for choosing them. There’s some great sounding books and authors in here, none of which, I’m ashamed to say, I have read (though I do have Patricia Highsmith’s “The Talented Mr Ripley” on my shelf as I love the film and the book was begging me to buy it in my local bookshop. Would’ve been rude not too, wouldn’t it?). I will hang my beard in shame, but after reading Derek’s post I fully intend to look into these further and I shall lift my beard once more.

Derek is of course the author of his own Queer Crime series: the sublime and wonderful Danny Bird mysteries (Death Of A Diva; Death Of A Nobody; Death Of A Devil and the soon to be released Death Of An Angel), all published by Fahrenheit Press. Danny comes home one day to find his boyfriend shacked up with the window cleaner (no, seriously). He turns around and leaves, and in the process leaves his old life behind, losing everything that he knew and had worked hard for. A sheer coincidence leads him to the Marquess Of Queensbury pub in South London, where he spontaneously applies for the bar manager vacancy, and lo and behold, he finds himself with a pub. Sadly this pub is also owned by the local crime lord “Chopper” Falzone, which is a shame. This is just the start of Danny’s problems. Of course, you’ll have to read the books to find out what those problems are 😉

Anyway, that’s quite enough of my prattling and general guffery. So, without further ado, or further adon’t, I’ll hand over to Derek.

Enjoy 🏳️‍🌈 TBBB. X

 

#Fahrenbruary Review: Death Of A Diva – Derek Farrell @DereklFarrell @FahrenheitPress

 

I’m not known for my diva tendencies, but for this book I dug deep and discovered my inner diva. She’s a suave, sophisticated and alluring one. I only hope I don’t end up face down on a table full of Charlie 😳

 

Sitting in her makeup chair, eyes staring lifelessly ahead, the diva is dead. Her sequinned dress glittering in the light cast from above; the little pools of reflected light sparkling across the paper held tightly in her hand. The policeman carefully prises it out of her grip and unfurls it. It reads, “The Last Will and Blurb of Lyra Day”:

“Danny Bird is having a very bad day. In the space of just a few hours he lost his job, his partner and his home. 

Ever the optimist, Danny throws himself headlong into his dream to turn the grimmest pub in London into the coolest nightspot south of the river. Sadly, everything doesn’t go quite as planned when his star turn is found strangled hours before opening night. 

Danny becomes the prime suspect in the crime, and then the gangster who really owns the pub starts asking where his share of the takings has gone… it seems things are going to get worse for Danny before they get better.”

#Fahrenbruary Review: A Dead American In Paris – Seth Lynch. @SethALynch @FahrenheitPress

Hello and a very warm welcome to my hairy blog 😁

#Fahrenbruary* continues on at a pace and so today I present to you a repost of my review of the 2nd book in this wonderful, wonderful series. This review originally appeared last year on the blog tour organised by the rather splendid, and all round ace blogger and blog tour organiser, Emma Welton, aka @damppebbles over on that Twitter (check her out here too… https://damppebbles.com/damppebbles-blog-tours/)

*if you’re not sure what #Fahrenbruary is all about, check out my post… HERE

Enjoy. 😁

Stalking your latest PI job through the streets of Paris you pass several cafés, resisting the temptation to enter each one and have a small snifter of Cognac. Then, suddenly, you spy your quarry darting into a small alleyway. Quickly, you begin to cross the road eager to catch him before he slips through your fingers again.

HONK… HONK…

From out of nowhere one of those newfangled autos passes behind you, belching exhaust smoke into the air and almost running into you, developing you in its smog. When will they ban these infernal contraptions? What’s wrong with the tram, train or the velocipede? As you regain your composure you realise that you have lost sight of your man. Drat! As the smoke clears, coughing and eyes stinging, you see something on the wall opposite you. You can’t make it out at first, but as your eyes refocus you see with some surprise that the writing scrawled on the wall of the alley is a… blurb:

Paris. 1931.

Arty Homebrook lived and died in a world of sleaze which stretched from Chicago to Paris but never beyond the gutter.

He’d been sleeping with Madame Fulton, which is why Harry Fulton promised to kill him. So far as the Paris Police are concerned it’s an open and shut case. Harry’s father has other ideas and hires Salazar to investigate.

As Salazar gets to grips with the case he’s dragged reluctantly into an unpleasant underworld of infidelity, blackmail, backstreet abortions and murder.

Salazar is far too inquisitive to walk away and far too stubborn to know what’s for the best. So he wakes up each hungover morning, blinks into the sunlight, and presses on until it’s his life on the line. Then he presses on some more, just for the hell of it.

#Fahrenbruary review: A Citizen Of Nowhere – Seth Lynch @SethALynch @FahrenheitPress

 

Hello again. Everyone doing okay? How is you personal #Fahrenbruary going? What’s that? Sorry, I couldn’t hear you over the excitement of reposting my review of Seth Lynch’s A Citizen Of Nowhere. 

This review originally appeared waaaaaaaay back last year when this little book blog was just known as the Stubbly Book Blogger. True story. Ok, not exactly a true story, the bit about the stubble, but it was one of my very first reviews. 

Anyway, enjoy this repost and please come back tomorrow for a repost of my review of the sequel: A Dead American In Paris. After that I will be sharing a brand new Q&A with Seth. 

Enjoy 😁

 

Voici le blurb:

“Paris. 1930.

Salazar is an English detective haunted by his experiences of the Great War, who wiles away the days playing chess and taking on as little work as possible. When the alluring Marie Poncelet hires him to find a missing man he quickly realises it’s a case he wishes he’d refused.

Finding a missing man isn’t anything like finding a man who doesn’t want to be found and Gustave Marty has covered his tracks with a smokescreen that will push Salazar beyond the limits of physical endurance and to the edge of insanity.

As he’s drawn deeper into the shadowy underbelly of the City of Light, Salazar’s closed, structured world is blown apart by the arrival of a friend from his pre-war youth, the beautiful Megan Fitzwilliam, whose tenderness and love of life is a stark contrast to the brutal violence that lies within him.

When that violence threatens to engulf them both, Salazar must seek redemption or lose the very thing that has finally made his life worth living.”

#Fahrenbruary Q&A with Paul Gadsby. Author of Back Door To Hell (pub Fahrenheit 13) @F13Noir @PaulJGadsby @FahrenheitPress

Welcome one and welcome all to my little hairy blog for my #Fahrenbruary Question and Answer post with the most excellent Paul Gadsby, author of “Back Door To Hell“, that book up there.

What do you mean ‘up where?’

Up there! That sodding great red and black picture; the one that has the book’s title splashed all over it.

Ohhh, now you see it do you? Tsk, some people just don’t look before commenting. 🙄

Okay, now we have that sorted, please scroll beyond the break for some enlightenment from Paul as to his inspiration for his two young protagonists in BDTH and to discover what his favourite biscuit is.

Oh, you can find my review of this most excellent book right…… HERE.

Enjoy 😁

#Fahrenbruary Guest Post: Ian Patrick author of Rubicon and Stoned Love (and the soon to be released Fools Gold) @IPatrick_Author @FahrenheitPress @F13Noir

Welcome to #Fahrenbruary Day 4.

Today I am very, very chuffed to bring to you a guest post written especially for #Fahrenbruary by Ian Patrick, author of those two books you can see up there. If you’ve missed my reviews of those books then you can check them out here:

RUBICON

STONED LOVE

In the piece below, Ian describes how his experiences as a (ex)serving police officer influenced his writing, and of the challenge of writing for a character as corrupt as Sam Batford and his boss Mike Hall.

Tomorrow I’ll be presenting a Q&A with Ian.

 

Enjoy, and over to you Ian 🖤

Stoned Love – Ian Patrick @IPatrick_Author @fahrenheitpress #Fahrenbruary

 

Detective Sergeant Sam Batford has been lying low at a remote safe house in the highlands of Scotland. He’s doing his best not to attract the attention of the enemies he made, on both sides of the law, during his last under-cover operation but Batford knows he’s just killing time until he’s called to account.

Inevitably the sharks begin to circle and as Batford is called back to front-line action in London he’s thrown into a deadly game of cat and mouse where it seems everyone is out to get him.

After having to endure a frustrating resolution to their previous undercover operation together DCI Klara Winter from the National Crime Agency is determined to prove that Batford has crossed the line into criminality and finally bring him to face justice.

All Sam Batford wants is to outwit his enemies long enough to stay alive and come out ahead of the game.

Fahrenbruary? What’s that all about then? #Fahrenbruary @FahrenheitPress @F13Noir

FAHRENBRUARY IS FINALLY HERE!

 

Break out the bunting, pop open the bubbly water, take off all of your clothes and run out into the street proclaiming to EVERYONE, wherever you may be in the world, that the month long celebration of the punk rock publishers Fahrenheit Press and Fahrenheit 13 is underway!

Now, there’s a slim chance that you may not know what the flipping blimey I am going on about here. You may have stumbled upon this post after turning the blogging equivalent of the wrong corner whilst blog surfing. You may have seen this on Twitter and, distracted by a cat chasing a mouse on a very small scooter, accidentally clicked on the link and…. piff paff poof… here you are. You may, of course, have clicked on the link on purpose and are genuinely intrigued as to what a Fahrenbruary actually is and what it will entail.

Well, whatever your reasons I warmly welcome you to my blog and I thank you for taking the time to read this and discover what Fahrenbury is and how it all came about 😊