Leigh Russell - Blog Tour for Fatal Act

Today, to celebrate the publication of Fatal Act we will have a couple of separate posts, the first of which is about the series leading up this, the sixth book. Read on as we also have an extract of the book for you to read - but come back later too to read about the terrors of browser history.

Fatal Act is Leigh Russell's sixth and latest book in the Geraldine Steel mystery crime thrillers. The Mole was fortunate enough to be invited to review the first Geraldine Steel mystery (Cut Short) for Nayu's Reading corner and he's have been lucky enough to review each one so far. He doesn't 'follow' too many detectives or mystery writers but Geraldine and Leigh are exceptions to both these rules.

Leigh's books are now translated into French, Italian and Turkish as well as German and even American (well, some translation is usually needed for the American market).

The next four books were Road Closed, Dead End, Death Bed and Stop Dead each of which brought forth a new and more sinister crime while keeping us abreast of Geraldine's turbulent personal life and progression to the Met.  

Stop Dead has been nominated for The People's Book Prize so why not slide over there and give it a vote - it well deserves your support!!

And now comes Fatal Act - the sixth in the series. I have to admit that as yet I haven't had chance to review it - although I hope to shortly. But the synopsis reads...

"A glamorous young TV soap star dies in a car crash. Returning for her sixth case, Detective Inspector Geraldine Steel is baffled as the driver of the second vehicle miraculously survives - and vanishes. Another young actress is murdered and, once again, the killer mysteriously disappears. Geraldine unwittingly risks her sergeant's life in their struggle to track down a serial killer who leaves no clues."

Which sounds intriguing enough but here's an extract to further whet your appetite...

"All she wanted to do now was get home safely. She drove slowly, looking out for a side road she could turn into. With luck she could slip away before her pursuer realised what she was doing. She passed a turning on the right, displaying a no entry sign. She braked abruptly. Her phone flew off the passenger seat. The van slowed down behind her. Worn out and stressed, she couldn’t even remember why she had been so angry with Piers. It had been a stupid argument in the first place. She wished she was back at home, away from the road at night and its wildness. Leaning forward to retrieve her phone from the floor, she punched Piers’ speed dial key. His phone rang, but there was no answer. She glanced in her mirror and glimpsed the other driver, his face a black mask in the darkness."

The Undertaking by Audrey Magee

 review by Maryom

Peter and Katharina get married without having met - not even for the ceremony itself. Theirs is a long-distance wedding, supported by a Nazi 'mail order bride' scheme; he is on Germany's Eastern front in Russia, she in Berlin. He gains a desperately needed honeymoon leave; she enjoys the status of being a soldier's wife and the promise of a widow's pension if he should die. Surprisingly, after an initial hiccough, they are drawn to each other.
The honeymoon period is short though and Peter has to head back to the front, now slowly advancing on Stalingrad but the thought of his wife back home gives him something to hold onto and fight for as conditions get worse for him and the entrenched German army...

The Undertaking is a compelling war story, the strength of the book lying in its depiction of WW2 from the standpoint of  'average' Germans, caught up in events they can't control. It seems hard to accept that a couple would enter into marriage without ever having met, choosing a life partner merely on a photograph, but presumably with government backing this was a common thing in wartime Germany. Peter's aims are quite simple - a break from mindless trudging through mud and snow while dodging bombs, bullets and anything else the enemy throws at him. Katharina's reasoning seems more socially motivated; like her father she wants to fit in the Nazi regime, and profit by it if possible.
The most vivid and memorable scenes, perhaps unsurprisingly, are those depicting life for Peter and his fellow soldiers. Like any such group they grumble about their conditions - the weather, the state of their feet, the incomprehensibility of orders, the food, the seeming lack of any over-all strategy and 'command's' use of them as cannon fodder  -  while still retaining that naive optimism that maintains 'it'll all be over by Christmas'. The reader, of course, knows better and that for both Peter at the front and Katharina in Berlin the future does NOT look bright.
Katharina's story seemed by comparison a little tame and less gripping, though to be honest, I couldn't bring myself to feel a lot of sympathy for her which may have affected my viewpoint. Her actions seem driven by self-preservation and a desire to move up in the world, with little care for anyone else.

The Undertaking is an impressive debut; compassionate without being sentimental, realistic without being gruesome. Audrey Magee is certainly an author I'll be keeping an eye on.

Maryom's review - 4 stars  
Publisher - Atlantic Books
Genre - adult fiction, WW2, 

 Buy The Undertaking from Amazon

The Crimson Ribbon by Katherine Clements

Review by The Mole

"Based on the real figure of the fascinating Elizabeth Poole, The Crimson Ribbon is the mesmerising story of two women's obsession, superstition and hope.

May Day 1646. The Civil War is raging and what should be a rare moment of blessing for the town of Ely takes a brutal turn. Ruth Flowers is left with little choice but to flee the household of Oliver Cromwell, the only home she has ever known. On the road to London, Ruth sparks an uneasy alliance with a soldier, the battle-scarred and troubled Joseph. But when she reaches the city, it's in the Poole household that she finds refuge.

Lizzie Poole, beautiful and charismatic, enthrals the vulnerable Ruth, who binds herself inextricably to Lizzie's world. But in these troubled times, Ruth is haunted by fears of her past catching up with her. And as Lizzie's radical ideas escalate, Ruth finds herself carried to the heart of the country's conflict, to the trial of a king."

While the synopsis above (lifted from the publisher's website) says "Based on the real figure of the fascinating Elizabeth Poole" I would suggest that it is very loosely based. Ruth - the pivotal character in the book - is wholly fictional and so her relationship with Cromwell and Poole is clearly fictional too. I sometimes feel that author's notes - which in this case come at the back of the book - should come first to add context but then they often, by necessity, contain spoilers. It's a tough one but knowing that Poole was a real person in history I was left wondering as I read "Is there any real evidence for 'this' or 'that'?".

It's a story of love and friendship and political loyalties at a very turbulent time in English history but in addition to that it highlights the injustice and terror that the witch hunts instilled in society.

There are some books that create tension in the reader and Ruth's fear of the witch hunt created that tension in me at certain times. When describing the lynching of a 'witch' I really felt I would rather not have had as much detail as there was. Also when she met Joseph on the road to London I felt that I knew exactly what was going to happen for the rest of the book and nearly put it down. I'm glad I didn't because I couldn't have been more wrong.

Many of the sex scenes (and there are a few) felt more detailed than they need be for my taste (I am an A1 prude) but the story became extremely turbulent with love and loyalties being stretched to the limit before the final scene which brought the whole thing to a conclusion.

On balance I enjoyed this book but please make sure that you do read the author's notes and make sure you leave them to the end.

Publisher - Headline Review
Genre - Adult Historical Fiction

Buy The Crimson Ribbon from Amazon

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Deborah Moggach

review by Maryom

 Norman is becoming too much of a problem for retirement homes to cope with. Not because of any health issues, but because of his improper behaviour towards the nursing staff! When ALL the local homes refuse to take him, he's forced to move in with family; his daughter Pauline guiltily feels she should look after him but son-in-law Ravi just wants him out of the house! Along with a cousin from India he comes up with a plan - to open a retirement home in a former hotel in Bangalore; the cost would be lower than in Britain, the weather better and surely Norman's reputation couldn't have reached that far! Filled with enthusiasm they produce brochures and soon elderly British residents are filling the rooms and discovering a new way, and lease, of life.

This is one of a big stack of Deborah Moggach novels I won in a Hay Festival competition last year and the first I've got round to reading as part of my New Year reading plans  It was previously published as These Foolish Things, and re-named as a film tie-in, though I suspect the plot of the film and the book differ.

It's a delightful, wry comedy about a group of 70-somethings, growing old, not quite disgracefully but certainly not in the sedate style their children expect of them. All the 'old folks' are still full of life and not at all ready to be written off just yet! In India they feel like they can shake of their 'oldies' image and just be themselves - maybe a little slower moving around but that gives all the more chance to soak up new experiences. For some there's even the possibility of a new romance ...

While light-hearted, it did make me wonder about the way we think about 'old people', particularly the assumption that having reached a certain age they're too old to care about anything, that sitting in a retirement home, maybe glued to daytime TV, is enough for them - I can't imagine it would be for me!

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars
Publisher - Vintage
Genre - Adult Fiction,  comedy

Buy The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel from Amazon

Mi and Museum City by Linda Sarah

Review by The Mole

Museums in Museum City are stuffy, serious and dull. Mi meets Yu and they spend a day making music and dropping pebbles and come to the conclusion that there should be a museum of the fun things they have been doing. After being refused permission they get the mayor to join in a fun and silly time, and they get the permission they want.

This book has to be one of the busiest books I have ever seen. Each page is packed with pictures and words and fun. With many plays on words (Well 'Mi and Yu' for a start!), sentences that trail in all directions around pages and pictures that chase after the words.

Children will love picking this book up time and again and finding little bits of silliness that they missed the last time (and all those times before) like "birdsong scent" and "museum of stackable lions".

A lovely book that will keep children entertained as they try to find more things to laugh at and one to be shared along with laughs and smiles.

Publisher - Phoenix Yard Books
Genre - Children's picture book

Buy Mi and Museum City from Amazon

A Love Like Blood by Marcus Sedgwick

review by Maryom

I've chased him for over twenty years, and across countless miles, and though often I was running, there have been many times when I could do nothing but sit and wait. Now I am only desperate for it to be finished.


In 1944, in newly liberated Paris, Charles Jackson stumbles on something horrific - a man seemingly drinking the blood of a murdered woman! Shocked and terrified, he freezes - and when he looks again, both man and woman have gone. Dismissing it as either mere imagination or one of the things that happen in war, Charles tries to put it out of his mind. Years later he returns to Paris, and sees the same man in the company of a beautiful young woman. This time he feels he must do something ..... and so begins a lifetime of plotting and planning revenge...

Despite my age, I love Marcus Sedgwick's teen and YA gothic thrillers, so his first book for an adult readership was bound to have me intrigued. It returns to many of his familiar vampire-inspired tales, but with an adult twist as it explores the depths that love, fear and revenge may lead to. Charles' obsession leads him across Europe from Paris to Marseilles, from the remote highlands of Scotland to a ruined Italian hill top village, on a quest that lasts decades as ultimately everything else falls by the wayside and only his thirst for revenge is left.
The style is much like a Victorian ghost story with the expectation of horror building with every page, drawing the reader in, and, even though the ending came as no surprise to me, I was enthralled.

It's a story as much about the pursuer as the pursuit. Charles' character develops and changes with his obsession, and the ending and resolution are as much about those changes as the actual culmination of the chase.

Maryom's review -  4.5 stars
Publisher -  Mulholland Books (Hodder & Stoughton)
Genre - vampires, thriller 

Buy A Love Like Blood from Amazon

The Vintage Girl by Hester Browne

review by Maryom

Evie Nicholson has a passion for antiques - not the quick turn-round high profit items that her boss would like her to find but the intimate little things that have stories to tell - old jewellery or a ragged teddy bear. So being asked to value the  family heirlooms at Kettlesheer Castle in the Scottish Borders, is almost a dream come true. The castle lives up to all her romantic expectations with history stretching back hundreds of years, turrets on every corner and a gala ball, complete with piper, at the weekend - if only Evie didn't have two left feet when it comes to dancing! She soon finds that castle-life isn't all fun - most of the time it's desperately cold and the McAndrews need to turn their antiques into hard cash to meet running costs while their son and heir, Robert, would happily just sell up totally. So while he tries to convince Evie to join in the dancing at the ball, she works on changing his attitude too - and in the process stumbles on a family secret that would be better not aired in public.

Just like Kettlesheer Castle itself, The Vintage Girl has all the romantic features you could want - a sympathetic heroine, a choice of handsome bachelors, an inconvenient girlfriend or two, a magical setting and, of course, a happy ending. The plot has a little more bite than the average rom-com with as much emphasis on Evie's 'treasure-seeking' as on any romantic entanglements, and although you expect all will end well, it isn't too predictable exactly HOW this will come about. While many romcom novels are fine to while away a few hours in a cosy armchair or sunning on a beach, few have enough plot to entice me back for a second or third reading - this one will. I've loved Hester Browne's style of chick lit since my daughter discovered The Little Lady Agency accidentally in an airport bookstore -and I'm glad to say I thoroughly enjoyed this too.

Maryom's review -  5 stars
Publisher - Quercus 
Genre - rom-com/chick lit, 

Buy The Vintage Girl from Amazon