Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder Blog Tour and Review

 

 

Book Summary:

Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder plunges readers into the heart of London, to the secret tunnels that exist far beneath the city streets. There, a mysterious group of detectives recruited for Miss Brickett’s Investigations & Inquiries use their cunning and gadgets to solve crimes that have stumped Scotland Yard.

Late one night in April 1958, a filing assistant for Miss Brickett’s named Michelle White receives a letter warning her that a heinous act is about to occur. She goes to investigate but finds the room empty. At the stroke of midnight, she is murdered by a killer she can’t see—her death the only sign she wasn’t alone. It becomes chillingly clear that the person responsible must also work for Miss Brickett’s, making everyone a suspect. 

Almost unwillingly, Marion Lane, a first-year Inquirer-in-training, finds herself being drawn ever deeper into the investigation. When her friend and mentor is framed for the crime, to clear his name she must sort through the hidden alliances at Miss Brickett’s and secrets dating back to WWII. Masterful, clever and deliciously suspenseful, Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder is a fresh take on the Agatha Christie—style locked-room mystery with an exciting new heroine detective at the helm.   

 

Shomeret's Review 

 

 I agreed to review Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder because it features underground tunnels underneath the city of London. I've been fascinated with urban underground existence ever since I first watched the Beauty & The Beast TV series starring Ron Perlman as the Beast and Linda Hamilton as the Beauty . In that series New York City had an underground secret society beneath its streets. Yet the underground investigative agency that Marion Lane becomes involved with is no utopian community like the one in that version of Beauty and the Beast. In fact, this mystery novel is for lovers of noir.

 

Instead of the protectiveness of Ron Perlman's Beast, we have a book in which an underground agency employee named Frank was suspected of murder by the investigative agency. Agency apprentice Marion Lane had to clear his name in order to prevent Frank from being confined to an underground cell for the remainder of his life. For me, Marion's loyalty to Frank redeems this book. Yet fans of dark fiction may be pleased by the threatening underground environment in which people got lost or killed.

 

The agency is concealing a terrifying secret that goes back to WWII. That actually wasn't that long ago in terms of the book's chronology since this novel opens in 1958. Unless Marion manages to discover that secret, she will never find out the truth about the murder. It really is a terrible secret. Once I found it out, I wished like Marion, that I didn't know about it. Maybe there should have been a sign on entering the agency's tunnels that said "ABANDON PEACE OF MIND YOU WHO ENTER HERE."

 

  Readers who love a dark tale of suspense will be electrified by Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder.

  

  

Author Bio: T.A. Willberg was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and holds a 

chiropractic masters degree from Durban University of Technology.

 MARION LANE AND THE MIDNIGHT MURDER is her debut novel and launch

 of her detective series. She currently lives in Malta with her partner.

 

 

T.A. Willberg photo by Oliver Wentzil

 

 

MARION LANE AND THE MIDNIGHT MURDER

Author: T.A. Willberg

ISBN: 9780778389330

Publication Date: 12/29/20

Publisher: Harlequin / Park Row Books

Buy Links: 

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Bookshop

Amazon

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Indigo

Books-A-Million

Target

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Author's Social Links:

Author Website

Twitter: @Tess_Amy_

Facebook: @tawillberg

Instagram: @ta_willberg

The Talking Drum: Blog Tour and Review

  Book Summary

It is 1971. The fictional city of Bellport, Massachusetts, is in decline with an urban redevelopment project on the horizon expected to transform this dying factory town into a thriving economic center. This planned transformation has a profound effect on the residents who live in Bellport as their own personal transformations take place.

Sydney Stallworth steps away from her fellowship and law studies at an elite university to support husband Malachi’s dream of opening a business in the heart of the black community of his hometown, Bellport.

For Omar Bassari, an immigrant from Senegal, Bellport is where he will establish his drumming career and the launching pad from which he will spread African culture across the world, while trying to hold onto his marriage.

Della Tolliver has built a fragile sanctuary in Bellport for herself, boyfriend Kwamé Rodriguez, and daughter Jasmine, a troubled child prone to nightmares and outbursts.

Tensions rise as the demolition date moves closer, plans for gentrification are laid out, and the pace of suspicious fires picks up. The residents find themselves at odds with a political system manipulating their lives and question the future of their relationships.

                            

                                        REVIEW 

Publicist Laura Marie asked me to join this blog tour for The Talking Drum, the debut novel of Lisa Braxton.  I accepted the free review copy that she supplied because I was interested in the issues involving race, class, immigration and urban culture conflict that Braxton raises.

The summary may lead readers to believe that female protagonist Sydney Stallworth is a character who solely plays a support role to others.  It's true that she's supportive, but I thought she genuinely believed in her husband's business.  The potential of The Talking Drum to become a center for African American culture was important to her.  Yet she also  pursued her own goals as well by becoming a local journalist.  If it weren't for her dedication in following the protests of the African immigrants in Petite Africa against the "urban redevelopment" that would shatter their lives, the truth about the fires in that neighborhood might never have been discovered.  I admired Sydney.   Because she cared so deeply, I felt that she inspired everyone around her to follow their own dreams.

Della Tolliver  is an example of someone who clearly benefited from the presence of Sydney in her life, though Della would never have believed it at the outset.  When we first meet Della, she's a very unhappy woman.  I didn't like her very much at that point, but she improves her life over the course of the narrative with Sydney's help.

Just as in real life, there is no permanent victory against the forces of "urban re-development" in The Talking Drum.  Let us hope that there will always be those like Lisa Braxton who will lift up the voices of the marginalized communities that could be impacted before it's too late.

                                   Lisa Braxton

 

Lisa Braxton Bio 

Lisa Braxton is an Emmy-nominated former television journalist, an essayist, short story writer, and novelist. She is a fellow of the Kimbilio Fiction Writers Program and was a finalist in the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition. She is the former president of the Boston Chapter of the Women’s National Book Association. Her stories and essays have been published in anthologies, magazines, and literary journals including Vermont Literary Review, Black Lives Have Always Mattered, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Northwestern University Magazine and The Book of Hope. She received Honorable Mention in Writer’s Digest magazine’s 84th and 86th annual writing contests in the inspirational essay category and was a finalist for the “Still I Rise” grant for Black Women Writers. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in mass media from Hampton University, her Master of Science degree in journalism from Northwestern University, and her Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing from Southern New Hampshire University. She lives in the Boston, Massachusetts area. 

Talking Drum Buy Links

Amazon.com

Indiebound

Barnes and Noble

The Kill Club: Blog Tour and Review

I'd read a description of The Kill Club by Wendy Heard before the publisher offered  me the opportunity to join the blog tour for this highly immersive crime thriller.  I'm not someone who enjoys books that are terrifying.  Yet an organization devoted to providing justice for victims of abuse is right up my alley even though a journey down that alley could haunt my nights.  Was I ready for this?  I wasn't entirely certain when I downloaded my review copy from Net Galley.

                            

All doubts vanished when I was introduced to the protagonist, Jasmine Benavides.  I'd read that Wendy Heard is the co-host of  a podcast called Unlikeable Female Characters. If the author intended Jasmine to be such a character, I have to say that she failed completely.  I absolutely loved Jasmine from the start--long before I really got to know her.  I had to discover more about this brave survivor of abuse who will not rest until her thirteen year old brother is also freed from the domination of their nightmarish foster mother, Carol Coleman.

Some might say that I'm perpetrating a spoiler when I reveal that Jasmine is a lesbian.  Other reviewers have already outed Jasmine, and I feel that mentioning her sexuality is helping the book reach its audience--the readers who need to see bold lesbian action heroes in their thrillers.

 Jasmine is also very human.  She makes mistakes.  A few of them have had terrible consequences, and she doesn't forgive herself  for them. Admittedly, Jasmine has an overly active conscience.  So she also blames herself for  disasters that weren't her fault.  Yes, Jasmine is an angst queen.   I actually admire angsty characters.  Protagonists who take responsibility for their actions are far more worthy of respect than those who self-righteously refuse to accept that they've ever harmed anyone.  People in the second category are usually villains.  Carol Coleman would be an example of that type of individual.

There were surprising twists in The Kill Club, but there were also a few that I found predictable.  Even though I sometimes knew what was going to happen next, I was still totally involved in the plot.   I was so invested in Jasmine as a character that I felt that I had become part of her world.  I would find myself thinking about where the narrative was headed when I was doing other things. This doesn't happen to me very often.

I did have one problem.  I felt that a police detective was portrayed  in a pivotal scene as being less competent with a gun than I would expect of an experienced officer.  That character's credibility as a detective was compromised. This wasn't a minor glitch, and it's the reason why I can't give The Kill Club five stars on Goodreads.

Despite the above criticism, the suspense was first rate and the characterization of Jasmine as a powerful yet vulnerable protagonist is what really makes The Kill Club by Wendy Heard well worth reading.

                             

                                                      Wendy Heard
                                              photo courtesy of MIRA

Death in a Desert Land--Blog Tour Review of Novel With Agatha Christie as a Detective

Death in a Desert Land by Andrew Wilson is the third book in Wilson's mystery series in which mystery author Agatha Christie is an investigator.  I applied for the blog tour and received a free copy for review from Stephanie Mendoza of Atria Books, the publisher of this novel.

I have a content warning for those who care about animals.   If you strongly object to reading about any incidents of violence against pets, this book isn't for you.

                               

The main reason why I wanted to read this novel is because it begins with Agatha Christie being asked to investigate the  death of Gertrude Bell by British intelligence which sent Christie to the archaeological site in Ur located in Iraq. Gertrude Bell was a fascinating woman who was a major factor in shaping the Middle East as we currently know it.  For more information, readers should see her Wikipedia article that I've linked.  I also knew that Agatha Christie had been to Ur because she met her second husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan, there in 1930.  One of her books, Murder in Mesopotamia, was drawn from her experiences in Iraq.  So Death in a Desert Land did seem historically feasible as well as being of particular interest to me.

The main focus of the case was on archaeologist Leonard Woolley, his wife Katherine, and events at the Ur excavation.  The Woolleys were also real individuals.  People may want to research them after finishing this book.  Wikipedia articles about them contain serious spoilers that would ruin your experience of reading Death in a Desert Land.

This is a tightly plotted mystery with all the requisite twists and a great deal of suspense.  Armchair archaeologists will love all the details about how archaeology was conducted during this period and the environment in which they worked.

A number of the characters are provided with intriguing backgrounds.  Determined women are significant to the story line though I wouldn't really consider this a feminist novel.   There are valid historical reasons why many women during this period could be primarily motivated by their relationships with men.  Agatha Christie, the protagonist, was more independent minded than other women in this book.  I felt that the characters were realistically portrayed.

I thought that Death in a Desert Land was a well-written mystery.  I also liked the opportunities it gave me to find out more about the real people who appeared in the novel. 

                                  Andrew Wilson

                                  photo by Johnny Ring

For more information about Andrew Wilson see his website at https://www.andrewwilsonauthor.co.uk/

Wingmen--Blog Tour with Author Guest Post

I'd like to welcome Almond Jones, the author of Wingmen whose female protagonist is a woman pilot during World War II.

                                 

Here is what Almond Jones wants to tell you about her book:

                                  
                                  GUEST POST

The process of writing Wingmen began almost a decade ago. I lived in a city with too many people and not enough opportunity. Then the economy changed – the degree I’d earned,  (I was told I couldn’t do anything without it), was useless. When I realized I didn’t have to stay where I was and that life could be different, the concept for the novel was born. By that time I’d given up on writing as a career (this was one of many times I’ve given up on my gift and decided it was an unimportant skill). So, I took a trip. I traveled for about a year and wrote the stories I wanted to write. And the first story I wanted to write was about a woman who knows who she is no matter what. I had no intention of becoming a publisher or publishing the book. I hadn’t even planned on writing a book. I just wanted to write – for me. I wanted to write because I don’t’ come across many stories I relate to. So, Celeste was that story. 

After writing the first draft, I put it away for several years. I didn’t think about it much until I decided to write again. But I wanted to do so on my own terms. I didn’t want approval or need permission from anyone to be who I know I can be… just like Celeste. That is the significance of Celeste Bonalee, She is her own person even in the face of pain, grief, life, and death.

 

It is important for people to know what that looks like – both men and women. The “Me Too” movement is strong but Celeste has nothing to do with that. Or trending diversity. Or the real need for more female voices. She is who she is and her story is worth reading. Period.

                                  SYNOPSIS

 Celeste is anything but average. In fact, she's one of a kind – a highly skilled courier pilot with dreams of owning her own hangar. One last delivery is all she needs.  There's only one thing stopping her... World War II. When Celeste is shot down over Paris in 1940, it'll take more than she ever expected for Celeste and her dreams to survive in a world that is falling apart.

Can Celeste and her wingmen make it back home in one piece? Or will war consume her generation and its aspirations?

You can view the Wingmen  trailer here. Wingmen is available now on www.almondjones.com, Amazon and Barnes & Noble.com.

 

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