Murder on the Nile by Verity Bright

September 27, 2024September 21, 2024 / drbethnolan / Leave a comment

I love this series of cozy mysteries featuring Lady Eleanor Swift. They remind me of Rhys Bowen’s Lady Georgie mysteries or Fliss Chester’s Cressida Fawcett historical cozies. I love the elements of 1920’s fashion and fun. This one was a true “murder on the Nile” locked room mystery. One thing I love about this series, though, is that while I’m working to figure out the clues and who the murderer is, I’m often laughing out loud at Lady Eleanor and her antics.

Thank you for my copy and for having me as part of the tour!

Book Description:

A cruise down the Nile, a camel ride around the pyramids, lunch in the shadow of the Sphinx… And a very dead body!

1924. Lady Eleanor Swift and her butler Clifford are touring the great, ancient sights of Egypt on a much-anticipated extended vacation. But when the pair arrive at the docks in Cairo expecting to board the luxurious paddle steamer advertised in their brochure, they are baffled by the crumbling old cruiser waiting for them. And things only go from bad to worse as death stalks the decks of the SS Cleopatra…

Two days into the trip one of their fellow passengers, Lieutenant Baxter, is found shot dead in his locked cabin. Immediately suspicious and desperate to see justice done, Eleanor discovers a half-finished note addressed to her hidden in Baxter’s travelling trunk. In it he asks her to deliver a vitally important letter to the authorities at their next stop down river: a priceless treasure worthy of a king has been stolen and an innocent man’s life hangs in the balance.

But before the sands of time wipe away all evidence on board, Eleanor must uncover who among the other travellers wanted Baxter dead. Was it the anxious archaeologist who doesn’t have an alibi, the reptile expert with a passion for the murderous Nile crocodile or the art dealer with a devious secret?

With the killer readying to strike again much closer to home, can Eleanor dig up the truth before she’s trapped in a tomb under the pyramids forever?

A gripping and twisty 1920s murder mystery set in Egypt, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, T.E. Kinsey and Lee Strauss!

Author Bio:

Confident woman at office with laptop computer, mobile phone, and schedule notebook.Gradients, Blending tool, Clipping mask is used.

Verity Bright is the pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing partnership that has spanned a quarter of a century. Starting out writing high-end travel articles and books, they published everything from self-improvement to humour, before embarking on their first historical mystery. They are the authors of the fabulous Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery series, set in the 1920s.

https://twitter.com/BrightVerity

Buy Link: NOT affiliated with BBNB

Amazon: https://geni.us/B0CYQBKJLNsocial

Bookouture Blog Tour for THE DAY SHE VANISHED by Jen Craven

September 25, 2024September 21, 2024 / drbethnolan / Leave a comment

I’m always happy to take part in Bookouture blog tours! This one was a psychological thriller that had me reading the entire thing in one sitting as I could not put it down and I needed to know what happened! Need I say more? Here’s the scoop:

Clutching my husband’s hand, I screech with delight as the rollercoaster loops through the air. I feel young and free for the first time in years, but as we roll to a stop and I look for our three beloved children in the crowd, I panic. I can only see two. Where is my daughter?

Today was meant to be special. A final fun family day out before five-year-old Summer joins her big siblings at school. But in an instant, we’re plunged into a nightmare. We scream her name as we frantically search the amusement park for a glimpse of her flaming red hair.

When the police ask about strangers, grudges and enemies, I have no answers, just questions. Why did I think I could leave my children alone, even for a minute? What kind of mother am I?

I feel in my heart that Summer is out there somewhere. But as I obsess about finding her, my family is falling apart. My eldest daughter Merritt is withdrawn. My son Gus is angry. And after seventeen years of marriage, my husband has never felt more like a stranger. Where does he go when he says he’s working late? Who is he constantly messaging?

I must fight to hold my family together, but I’m terrified Summer’s disappearance will destroy us all. Will I ever forgive myself for letting her out of my sight? Will I ever hold her tiny hand in mine again?

A completely gripping and emotional page-turner about every parent’s darkest fear. Perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult, Jojo Moyes and Kate Hewitt.

Author Bio:

Jen Craven is the author of emotional and suspenseful women’s fiction, stories where one decision changes everything. A former college instructor, she loves dark campus novels, which led to her contemporary debut, Best Years of Your Life, published in August 2022. Her writing style blends poignancy with drama to create what-would-you-do narratives of the human experience.
Aside from fiction, Jen has personal essay bylines in national outlets, including The Washington Post, Huffington Post, Today’s Parent, Scary Mommy and many more.
She writes from northwestern Pennsylvania, where she lives with her husband and three children. When not working on her books, she can be found thrift shopping, taking long walks, and beating her kids in backgammon.

https://www.jencraven.com/

Tweets by jencravenauthor

Buy Link: NOT affiliated with BBNB

Amazon: https://geni.us/B0DB84RY56social

Thank you for my copy!

Estrellas: Moments of Illumination Along El Camino de Santiago by Suzanne Maggio

September 21, 2024 / drbethnolan / 3 Comments

“Despite evidence to the contrary, I do not think of myself as a particularly courageous soul. I am not content to bask in my accomplishments nor do I spend much time tooting my own horn. I wasn’t raised that way. I was taught to downplay my successes. To steer clear of vanity. I was raised to be humble. So, as I sit down to write this, I hope you’ll forgive me for saying something completely out of character here, but I feel the need to tell you that 779 kilometers is a long way to walk – and I walked every single step…

…As you travel along with me on my journey, I invite you to take the opportunity to explore the spaces around you. Notice the way the sunshine peaks peek through the leaves of the dogwood tree. Listen to the gentle whirr of the wings of the hummingbird. Smell the salt in the sea air. Use your senses. Pay attention to the things that we are often too busy to see. To hear. To smell. Let them take you inward. See where the path leads you.

Buen Camino.”

So if you know me, you might know that my husband and I hope to walk the Camino when we retire in a few years. It was We Love Memoirs Day on August 31 and Suzanne’s publicist at PR By the Book had reached out about whether I’d like to read/feature her new novel. Since I’m a little obsessed with the Camino, I said yes (even though my tbr is hovering around 200 right now and I’ve just started a new full time job and was named to a selection committee for a major children’s book award so that’s another 90 books to read). What first amazed me about this book is how much Suzanne and I had in common. It actually was almost weird. I grew up in the North Bay Area (Napa) and Suzanne lives in Sonoma County. We both have grown children. She was turning 60 (I’m turning 59 – shhh! don’t tell). We both are Italian and Catholic. We both grew up in similar families (those Suzanne’s seemed like they had more means than mine did). We both went to BC. We both had loving but “complicated” relationships with our mother. We even both have great husbands and kids that we are close to!

So it was probably no surprise that I loved this book so much! Suzanne’s journey is personal, physical, and spiritual and I related to it so much. I loved “walking along” with her and hearing about the people she met and her thoughts and ruminations while on the Camino. I have friends who have walked the Appalachian Trail (it took months – a friend and her 15 children – see the blog “32 Feet Up”) but the Camino can also be a pilgrimage and I find that so compelling. This was a quick read for me, but a memorable one. Thank you for reaching out to me and for my copy so that I could share in Suzanne’s journey.

Here’s some information about the author:

Throughout her 30 year career as a licensed clinical social worker, Suzanne Maggio has helped hundreds of families improve their relationships by encouraging them to open their hearts and share their stories. She now trains the new generation of helpers as a university lecturer in Psychology, Counseling and Social Work. The granddaughter of Italian immigrants, she grew up understanding the importance of family and the pleasures of gathering around a dining room table laden with good company and delicious food. Passionate about travel, cooking and sports, Suzanne is an avid baseball fan. She attended her first New York Mets baseball game at the age of eight with her grandfather, a former sports writer from Italy. In 2016 she won a silver award from Travelers Tales for “Yo Soy,” a story about the search for identity while traveling in Nicaragua. Her work has been published in Sonoma Family Life, an award winning parenting magazine and Junior Baseball Magazine.

She lives in Northern California with her husband, where they raised their two sons and where they now manage three rambunctious dogs and a brood of demanding chickens.

Follow Suzanne Maggio!

on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecardinalclub

on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/bottomofninth

on Instagram: https://instagram.com/mamasuzanna

Thank you so much for my copy of Estrellas (which means “stars” FYI), and for sharing this experience!

Bookouture Blog Tour for Fliss Chester’s Death in the Mayfair Hotel

September 16, 2024September 14, 2024 / drbethnolan / Leave a comment

I absolutely adore this fun cozy mystery series set in the 1920’s. Cressida is always bumping onto trouble and I love that she goes everywhere with her little pug, Ruby. There’s always a lively cast of characters in each story and it will keep you guessing! I also love “holiday reads”, set during the holiday season.

Are you a fan of Rhys Bowen’s Lady Georgie (Royal Spyness series)? If so, you will certainly enjoy this series by Fliss Chester!

Book Description:

In a candlelit ballroom, London’s most fashionable amateur sleuth, Cressida Fawcett, is dancing the night away in her sparkling silk dress. It’s a night Cressida will never forget. Because outside the window, there’s a body under the falling snow…

Christmas Eve, 1925. The Honourable Cressida Fawcett is delighted to attend an exclusive ball at London’s glamorous Mayfair Hotel. When she steps out into the moonlit courtyard with her little pug Ruby wrapped in her furs, she is thrilled to see a dashing man propose to her best pal under the swirling snowflakes. But instead of squealing ‘yes’, Dotty lets out a terrified scream…

Because floating in the fountain, with her long blonde hair rippling in the ice-cold water, is the body of their dear friend Lady Victoria Beaumont.

It’s clear the wealthy young beauty was murdered, whacked over the head with a bottle of champagne. Would Victoria’s elderly husband Lord Beaumont kill his wife over rumours of her younger beau? Or did someone clobber Victoria to prevent her producing an heir for the Beaumont fortune?

A snowstorm prevents the authorities from arriving, and just as Cressida searches for clues, she finds herself locked inside a large wicker hamper. Why does the scent of the hamper’s smoky luxury tea remind her of the crime scene? And will a suspiciously rotund Ruby follow her snuffly nose and find Cressida in the nick of time?

Trapped in the hotel with a killer lurking among the guests, will Cressida lose someone dear to her heart? And when she finds a clue among the Christmas crackers, can Cressida solve her most mysterious case yet?

The perfect cozy whodunnit for a cold winter’s night. Fans of Agatha Christie, T.E. Kinsey and Lee Strauss won’t be able to put this down!

Author Bio:

Fliss Chester lives in Surrey with her husband and writes historical cozy crime. When she is not killing people off in her 1940s whodunnits, she helps her husband, who is a wine merchant, run their business. Never far from a decent glass of something, Fliss also loves cooking (and writing up her favourite recipes on her blog), enjoying the beautiful Surrey and West Sussex countryside and having a good natter.

https://www.instagram.com/flisschester/

Tweets by SocialWhirlGirl

Buy Link: NOT affiliated with BBNB

Amazon: https://geni.us/B0CZPCRZS2social

Thank you for my copy and for having me as part of the tour!

The Women by Kristin Hannah

September 14, 2024September 30, 2024 / drbethnolan / 1 Comment

I love Kristin Hannah’s books, so I was excited to see that she had another one coming out last winter. But everyone, and I mean everyone, was reading this novel and gushing about it. People were saying it the best book they ever read. They cried. It was unforgettable. Best book of the year. So I did what I often do – I stayed away. It is inevitable that when everyone loves a book, I can’t stand it, and I’m left feeling like I missed something.

So imagine my delight when I started reading this novel in September and truly enjoyed it! What a read! I loved the character of Frankie so much. I thought the depictions of wartime life were incredible. I don’t have much memory of the Vietnam War, except that it was on television news a lot and very scary to me as a young child. Kristin Hannah tells a story of strong women who made a difference, based on their courage and fortitude. It was a unique and important viewpoint to share.

Wonderful read and highly recommended! Thank you for my copy!

Description

A #1 bestseller on The New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times!

From the celebrated author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds comes Kristin Hannah’s The Women—at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided.

Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.

As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over-whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.

But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.

MURDER ROAD by Simone St. James

September 14, 2024 / drbethnolan / Leave a comment

This was a thrilling, sometimes creepy novel by an author that I’ve enjoyed before. I loved the supernatural element in this story! It kept me up reading at night.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing for my review copy!

Here’s the scoop:

Description

A young couple find themselves haunted by a string of gruesome murders committed along an old deserted road in this terrifying new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Cold Cases.

July 1995. April and Eddie have taken a wrong turn. They’re looking for the small resort town where they plan to spend their honeymoon. When they spot what appears to a lone hitchhiker along the deserted road, they stop to help. But not long after the hitchiker gets into their car, they see the blood seeping from her jacket and a truck barreling down Atticus Line after them.

When the hitchhiker dies at the local hospital, April and Eddie find themselves in the crosshairs of the Coldlake Falls police. Unexplained murders have been happening along Atticus Line for years and the cops finally have two witnesses who easily become their only suspects. As April and Eddie start to dig into the history of the town and that horrible stretch of road to clear their names, they soon learn that there is something supernatural at work, something that could not only tear the town and its dark secrets apart, but take April and Eddie down with it all.

Bookouture Blog Tour for Katie Gayle’s Murder on a Country Walk

September 13, 2024 / drbethnolan / Leave a comment

I LOVE this series – cozy mysteries featuring Julia Bird, former social worker, single older woman, and dog lover! In this one a body is found off a cliff near a popular walking trail and Julia is sure that it is not an accident. I actually didn’t figure this one out in advance either.

Thank you for my copy and for having me on the tour!

Book Description:

Julia Bird loves a walk in the countryside. There’s nothing quite like the fresh air and green rolling hills of the Cotswolds to clear your head. Unless you come across a dead body, that is…

When the local Berrywick vet, Dr Eve Davies, is found dead at the bottom of a cliff, the police believe it’s nothing more than a tragic accident, but Julia isn’t so sure. Just a few days earlier when she took her dog, Jake, to the vets, Dr Eve said she believed something awful was about to happen. It turns out she was right…

But who would want the beloved village vet dead? Was it her mother Kay, a down-and-out gambler who stands to inherit her unwedded daughter’s home? Was it her assistant Olga, who was close to getting fired? Or was it her cut-throat tennis partner Will, with whom Dr Eve had an argument shortly before she took a tumble? And who is the stranger skulking around Berrywick peering into people’s windows?

When a second body appears in the exact spot where Dr Eve was found, Julia knows it can’t be a coincidence. Both victims were pushed off the cliff, but why? Should Julia let sleeping dogs lie, or will she be like a dog with a bone to find the murderer?

A totally gripping and charming cosy mystery set in the English countryside. Fans of M.C. Beaton, Faith Martin and Betty Rowlands will love the Julia Bird Mysteries.

Author Bio:

Katie Gayle is the writing partnership of best-selling South African writers, Kate Sidley and Gail Schimmel. Kate and Gail have, between them, written over ten books of various genres, but with Katie Gayle, they both make their debut in the cozy mystery genre. Both Gail and Kate live in Johannesburg, with husbands, children, dogs and cats.

https://www.facebook.com/KatieGayleWriter

Tweets by KatieGayleBooks

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Bookouture Blog Tour for Murder in the Scottish Highlands by Dee MacDonald

September 6, 2024 / drbethnolan / Leave a comment

I love being in on the first installment of a new cozy mytery series and this one was engaging and fun to read. I also love a protagonist who is, shall we say, a “woman of a certain age” who is intelligent, strong, and interesting. Ally McKinley is starting a new life with a bed and breakfast in the Highlands when one of her guests ends up murdered!

I enjoyed this novel and definitely look forward to more in the series!

Thanks for letting me be part of the tour and for my copy.

Book Description:

Majestic mountain views, whisky by the fire and… a murder to solve? Join Ally McKinley at her cosy little guesthouse in the Scottish Highlands as she tackles her first puzzling case!

For recently retired Ally McKinley, the tiny village of Locharran is the perfect place to open the guesthouse of her dreams in a lovingly restored old Scottish malthouse. Before long she is making friends with the locals, including Hamish Sinclair, the earl who owns the nearby castle. But things take an unexpected turn when her first paying guest, American tourist Wilbur Carrington, is found sprawled across her cobblestoned courtyard with a dagger in his back…

With the police baffled, Ally’s instincts get the better of her, and she can’t resist launching her own investigation. In no time at all she and her Labrador puppy Flora are on the case, making enquiries over tea and excellent shortbread. She finds that Wilbur, a keen amateur genealogist, was convinced that he was the rightful Earl of Locharran… Even worse, he had plans that would put many people out of their jobs and even their homes.

But which of the locals resorted to murder? The hotel owner furiously trying to save his business? Locharran Castle’s fiercely loyal housekeeper who’d do anything for the earl? Or the earl himself, whose entire way of life was threatened by what Wilbur knew?

Looking for clues, Ally finds a faded photograph in a hidden drawer in Wilbur’s room. Could this be the key to solving the mystery? But when one of her suspects dies in a suspicious accident, Ally realises that things are getting a wee bit too close for comfort… Can she uncover the truth or will a killer get off scot-free?

An utterly unputdownable new Scottish cosy mystery series from bestselling author Dee MacDonald. Perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, Faith Martin and Clare Chase.

Author Bio:

Aged 18, Dee arrived in London from Scotland and typed her way round the West End for a couple of years before joining BOAC (forerunner of British Airways) in Passenger Services for 2 years and then as a stewardess for 8 years.

She has worked in Market Research, Sales and at the Thames TV Studios when they had the franchise.

Dee has since relocated to Cornwall, where she spent 10 years running B&Bs, and only began writing when she was over 70!

Married twice, she has one son and two grandsons.

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorDeeMacDonald
https://twitter.com/dmacdonaldauth

Buy Link: NOT affiliated with BBNB

Amazon: https://geni.us/B0D388V9HPsocial