Tag Archives: books

#BookReview ‘Down to the Woods’ by @mjarlidge #crimefiction

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One thing you know to expect from a DI Helen Grace book; the first theory and suspect she comes up with will not be the killer, usually the second one isn’t either. And you believe her each time. So just when you are wondering who the killer can possibly be, the book races to its conclusion and you never guessed it though the clues are there. Down to the Woods is the eighth in the Grace series by MJ Arlidge. He is expert at twisting, turning, somersaulting the plot and part of the fun as a reader is figuring out the puzzle he has set. MJ ArlidgeIn the New Forest, campers are disappearing from their tents and being chased through the isolated woods before being killed. I didn’t dwell on the gruesome bits; I prefer the puzzle part of crime novels, the answers are always with the people. Apart from PD James and Susan Hill, this is the series of crime novels I keep on reading. Why? Because Helen Grace is an unusual heroine; she is strong but vulnerable, confident yet quaking inside, spiky but desperate for companionship. For the moment that support comes from her team. The secondary story of her DS, Charlie Brooks, continues. Charlie’s daughter Jessie is having nightmares and the household is short on sleep, while Charlie’s husband Steve wants another baby. And there is a new DS, tall, dark, motorbike riding DS Hudson. Local reporter Emilia Garanita is pushing for the big story, overstepping the line, being a nuisance, endangering herself, as usual.
Just when I was beginning to think Helen was less of a livewire, running into danger without thinking first, when she does exactly that. Down to the Woods is perhaps a little less explosive than the earlier books, but this is now a mature crime series and Helen is 45. The challenge for Arlidge is to come up with stories that keep us guessing right until the end without relying totally on Helen. Female characters – Helen, Charlie and Emilia – are undoubtedly Arlidge’s strength and it will be interesting to see if DS Joseph Hudson joins the team on a permanent basis.
One thing disappointed me. More than any previous book, there seemed to be a lot of repetition of stuff the reader can work out for herself; of the ‘if this happens then that might be next’ sort of question. No need for the summarising.

Read my reviews other books in this series:-
EENY MEENY #1HELENGRACE
POP GOES THE WEASEL #2HELENGRACE
THE DOLL’S HOUSE #3HELENGRACE
LIAR LIAR #4HELENGRACE
LITTLE BOY BLUE #5HELENGRACE
HIDE AND SEEK #6HELENGRACE
LOVE ME NOT #7 HELENGRACE

If you like this, try:-
‘Wolf’ by Mo Hayder
‘Nightfall’ by Stephen Leather
‘Hiding the Past’ by Nathan Dylan Goodwin

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview DOWN TO THE WOODS by @mjarlidge https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3z6 via @SandraDanby

First Edition: ‘The Crying of Lot 49’ by Thomas Pynchon #oldbooks

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I admit here that I read Thomas Pynchon’s post-modern novella The Crying of Lot 49 at university and enjoyed it without really understanding it. First published in 1966, it tells the story of Oedipa Maas and what happens after her ex-partner dies. Pynchon had fun creating wonderful character names, so unusual and clever they reminded me of Charles Dickens – Oedipa’s partner is Pierce Inverarity, her husband is Wendell “Mucho” Maas, Oedipa’s lawyer Metzger works for Warpe, Wistfull, Kubitschek and McMingus, and in a bar she meets Mike Fallopian. The plot is labyrinthine, it is a Marmite book, love it or hate it, and I suspects features on many people’s lists of unfinished books. It does, however, have some interesting cover design.

Thomas Pynchon

US 1st ed JB Lippincott & Co 1966

The first edition in the USA was published by JB Lippincott & Co [above]. The current Vintage Classics edition [below] was published in 1996. Buy here

Thomas Pynchon

Vintage 1996 current ed

The story
In brief, Oedipa’s ex partner Pierce has died and she is named as co-executor of his will. The catalyst to the story is her discovery of a set of stamps which may, or may not, have been used by a secret underground postal delivery system called the Trystero. As she travels around California meeting a host of eccentric characters, Oedipa discovers that the Trystero was defeated in the eighteenth century by a real postal system, Thurn and Taxis. However Trystero went underground and survived into the 1960s by using secret mailboxes disguised as regular waste bins displaying its slogan W.A.S.T.E [We Await Silent Tristero’s Empire] and its symbol, a muted post horn. Without proof, Oedipa fluctuates between believing, and not believing, in the Trystero. Is she imagining it, or is it a practical joke?

Other editions 
My copy, bought for university, is still on my shelf today. It’s the Picador 1979 edition.

If you like old books, check out these:-
‘An Ice Cream War’ by William Boyd
‘Jane Eyre’ by Charlotte Bronte
‘Lord of the Flies’ by William Golding

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
First Edition: THE CRYING OF LOT 49 by Thomas Pynchon #oldbooks https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3Gt via @SandraDanby

My Porridge & Cream read: LM Milford @lmmilford #books #crimefiction

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Today I’m delighted to welcome crime writer LM Milford. Her ‘Porridge & Cream’ read is 4.50 From Paddington by Agatha Christie.

“My Porridge and Cream novel is 4.50 From Paddington by Agatha Christie. I think it may even be the first Agatha Christie book I read and began my love affair with her writing. It’s the book I pick when I’m feeling tired and want something easy to read. I almost wrote ‘simple to read’ but of course Christie’s plots are never simple. The copy I have is old and battered and I think bought from a second-hand bookshop while browsing. I couldn’t tell you exactly when I read it, but it’s probably back in my early teens and it helped me to find the writing genre where I belong. LM Milford“Miss Marple is one of my favourite characters. She looks like a fluffy old lady but underneath that outward appearance is a core of steel and a very quick brain. I love the way she solves the crime by using just her wits and her experiences of living in a quiet country village. Her knowledge of the psychology of human behaviour is what makes her so formidable. I also love Lucy Eyelesbarrow, quietly competent and determined and more than a match for the Crackenthorpe brothers (and father!).
LM Milford

“Elevator pitch for4.50 From Paddington: When Elspeth McGillicuddy sees a woman murdered on a train, she turns to her friend Miss Jane Marple for comfort. Miss Marple decides that she must find out who the woman was and what happened to her because the body was not found on the train. She works out that the body must have been dumped near Rutherford Hall and employs Lucy Eyelesbarrow to find it. Once the body has been found the race is on to find out who she was before the killer can strike again.”
Amazon

Lynne’s Bio
By day, Lynne works in PR and communications; by night (and at weekends) she writes crime fiction (as well as baking pies and chocolate brownies). In a previous life she worked as a local newspaper reporter which gave her inspiration for the story that became her first novel, A Deadly Rejection. She lives in Kent and spends far too much time on trains commuting into London for work, which does however give her time to work on plotting and writing her books.

Lynne’s links
Website
Twitter @lmmilford
Facebook 

Lynne’s latest book
LM MilfordLocal news reporter Dan Sullivan scents a story in the local council planning department and he begins to ask questions. But when his source dies in mysterious circumstances, Dan is implicated. He is quickly drawn into a world of lies, ambition and avarice as he fights to clear his name. The more he digs, the more someone tries to stop the story from ever seeing the light of day. Dan must decide what’s more important to him…the story, or his life.
Amazon

What is a ‘Porridge & Cream’ book? It’s the book you turn to when you need a familiar read, when you are tired, ill, or out-of-sorts, where you know the story and love it. Where reading it is like slipping on your oldest, scruffiest slippers after walking for miles. Where does the name ‘Porridge & Cream’ come from? Cat Deerborn is a character in Susan Hill’s ‘Simon Serrailler’ detective series. Cat is a hard-worked GP, a widow with two children and she struggles from day-to-day. One night, after a particularly difficult day, she needs something familiar to read. From her bookshelf she selects ‘Love in A Cold Climate’ by Nancy Mitford. Do you have a favourite read which you return to again and again? If so, please send me a message.

Discover the ‘Porridge & Cream’ books of these authors:-
Mary Grand’s choice is ‘It Shouldn’t Happen to a Vet’ by James Herriot
Simon Fairfax chooses ‘Heller with a Gun’ by Louis L’Amour
‘Dead Until Dark’ by Charlaine Harris is chosen by Rachel Dove

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
Why does LM Milford @lmmilford re-read 4.50 FROM PADDINGTON by Agatha Christie #books https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3QI via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘The Horseman’ by Tim Pears #historical #Devon

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The Horseman by Tim Pears is an account of the slow, meandering life on an estate farm in rural Devon. It is 1911 when, for modern readers, the sinking of the Titanic is not far away and the Great War looms. Two children, born into very different worlds, grow up not far apart; both have a strong love of horses. This novel is billed as a coming-of-age tale but it is also a description of rural farming methods. Tim Pears Told in a month-by-month format, the seasons unfold in a remote Devon valley where the passing of time is marked by the weather and the tasks undertaken on the farm. There is a long list of characters and at the beginning I confused who was who, but gradually they settled into their roles. Leopold Sercombe is the youngest son of the master carter working on the tenant farm of a large estate. He longs to escape school every day to run home and help his father with the horses; these are working animals, cart horses and cobs, they are almost characters. We are there as Noble gives birth; as Leo’s father shares one of the secrets of his trade, the use of dried tansy to give his horses a glossy coat; and the day Leo is given a chance to break Noble’s unnamed colt. “The boy watched the colt, his young lean muscular beauty in motion, then turned and walked towards the fence. There was but one spectator there, sitting on the top pole, feet resting on the lower, a youth in a Homburg hat, shirt, breeches, and riding boots of a sort worn by the master and his kind.” Lottie, daughter of the master, the owner of the estate, challenges the way Leo is handling the colt. And so begins their shared love of horses.
This is a 4* book for me. Why not 5*? Because the relationship between the two children takes a long time to start happening and then ends explosively which seems out of kilter with the spirit and pace of the story; because the slow, slow pace of the story and the passages of overly detailed description at times felt like sections for a ‘how to use farm machinery book’. But Leo is an entrancing character; his gentle authority with horses, his silences and thoughtful behaviour, make it essential to read The Wanderers, second in the trilogy.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK

If you like this, try:-
‘Barkskins’ by Annie Proulx
‘Anderby Wold’ by Winifred Holtby
‘Housekeeping’ by Marilynne Robinson

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE HORSEMAN by Tim Pears https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3QE via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘When All Is Said’ by Anne Griffin #Irish #contemporary

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This book stayed with me a long time after I finished it. Three words sum up When All is Said by Anne Griffin. Masterful. Emotional. Funny. It is the story of Maurice Hannigan as he sits at a bar one evening. He drinks a toast to five people and tells the story of his life. It is one of those Irish novels which makes your emotions tingle and say ‘yes, it is like that’, which makes tears prick your eyes and laughter rise in your chest. This is Griffin’s debut novel but she is an accomplished prizewinning writer who knows how to tell a story. It is unbearingly touching and will, without fail, make you cry. Anne GriffinMaurice is in the bar of the Rainsford House Hotel in Rainsford, Co Meath, Ireland. At the beginning we don’t know why he is there, the first few pages are an introduction to Maurice, how he feels his age, as he conducts an imaginary conversation with his son Kevin who lives in America. His first drink is a bottle of stout and as he drinks, he tells the story of his brother Tony and their childhood. A key incident in this section has reverberations throughout Maurice’s life and throughout this novel; a gentle reminder that we all may grow old, we may live in the same place or move away, but our childhood and our actions stay with us. We are introduced to Emily, owner of the hotel, and Svetlana, barmaid. Griffin has a talent with sense of place; she makes the hotel come alive.
Four more drinks follow. For Molly, a glass of Bushmills 21-year old malt. For Noreen, a bottle of stout. For Kevin, a rare whiskey, Jefferson’s Presidential Select. And for his wife Sadie, Maurice drinks a glass of Midleton whiskey. “Svetlana places my final drink down in front of me: Midleton, you can’t fault it. Majestic stuff. I look at it like she has just handed me the keys to a new harvester. It’s the autumn colours that get me. It’s the earth of it, the trees, the leaves, the late evening sky.”
As each story is told, Anne Griffin weaves in the present day so the two strands blend and the past explains Maurice’s situation, why he feels as he does, why he longs for what he longs for. This is a beautiful Irish novel about love, dyslexia, grumpiness, family, bullying, forgiveness and whiskey. I loved it and didn’t want it to end.

Read my review of LISTENING STILL, also by Anne Griffin.

If you like this, try:-
‘A History of Loneliness’ by John Boyne
‘Brooklyn’ by Colm Tóibín 
‘That They May Face the Rising Sun’ by John McGahern

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview WHEN ALL IS SAID by Anne Griffin https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3Qg via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘The Almanack’ by @MartineBailey #historical #mystery

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In 1751, eleven days were lost as Britain aligned with the Gregorian calendar and this is the year in which Martine Bailey sets her third novel, The Almanack. An original mixture of historical mystery, detective novel and romance, it has time as its theme throughout. The passing of time and the fixedness of the past, the slippery unpredictability of the future, and the way our choices made today can impact on the time to come. Martine BaileyTabitha Hart is travelling north from London, home to a village near Chester, summoned by a plea from her mother. On route she is robbed and arrives at Netherlea in shredded clothing to find her mother recently drowned. Tabitha left Netherlea in disgrace and her return is not welcomed by village gossips and officials but she refuses to ignore worries about the nature of her mother’s death. Consulting her mother’s Vox Stellarum, the Chester almanack, she discovers handwritten notes outlining her fears of someone called ‘D’. A childhood friend now village constable, widower Joshua Saxton, offers solid, reliable support as Tabitha struggles to stay in the village, caring for Bess, the baby daughter she left behind with her mother. It is clear Joshua is fond of Tabitha but she does not return his affections; awkwardness complicated when she meets Nat Starling, lodger at Eglantine Hall, a writer of ‘penny oracles, horoscopes and dream lore.’ Tabitha starts to make connections between her mother’s suspicions and the predictions in the printed almanac, written by De Angelo. Could this be the ‘D’ who threatened her mother? But there are many people in the village with the initial ‘D’. Who can she trust?
Almanacks, or printed yearbooks, not only contained a calendar, festival dates, seasonal notes, sunrise and sunset times, planetary alignments, historical facts and other country lore but also riddles, predictions and horoscopes. Exactly the sort of thing hack Nat Starling writes to scratch a living. The theme of time breathes in every chapter, together with the lost eleven days in 1751 that confused the established seasonal calendar. Although the past cannot be changed, memories of the past may vary between people and written records can be amended to tell a different version of the truth. Lies told in the past may in the future be deemed historical fact. And so Starling thinks on the river of time: ‘If he was standing here in the now, then to the left, downriver, the past was disappearing away into the night. Time past could never be changed: what was done was done. If only the past did not stay fixed like dead flies in amber. If only he could live his life again.’
A thoroughly enjoyable historical mystery, there is so much detail in this book it will repay reading. I did not fully engage with the riddles – one precedes each chapter – based on original riddles, with the answers written at the back of the book. Bailey manages the twists and turns of the plot, efficiently hiding the identity of ‘D’ until I finally guessed correctly just before the end. This is Bailey’s third novel and another brilliant read, evidence of her mastery of her period and intricate plotting.

And here are my reviews of other novels by Martine Bailey:-
THE PROPHET #2TABITHAHART
AN APPETITE FOR VIOLETS
THE PENNY HEART

If you like this, try this:-
‘The Cursed Wife’ by Pamela Hartshorne
‘Orphans of the Carnival’ by Carol Birch
‘Dark Aemilia’ by Sally O’Reilly

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE ALMANACK by @MartineBailey https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3QV via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 114… ‘Agnes Grey’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity, that the dry shrivelled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut. Whether this be the case with my history or not, I am hardly competent to judge. I sometimes think it might prove useful to some, and entertaining to others; but the world may judge for itself. Shielded by my own obscurity, and by the lapse of years, and a few fictitious names, I do not fear to venture; and will candidly lay before the public what I would not disclose to the most intimate friend.”
Anne BrontëFrom ‘Agnes Grey’ by Anne Brontë

Here’s the #FirstPara of JANE EYRE by Anne’s sister, Charlotte Brontë.

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Love in the Time of Cholera’ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
‘In Cold Blood’ by Truman Capote
‘Family Album’ by Penelope Lively

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara AGNES GREY by Anne Brontë http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2xM via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘Blackberry and Wild Rose’ by @Soniavelton #historical #Huguenot

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Blackberry and Wild Rose, the debut novel of Sonia Velton, is entrancing. So many novels are hyped prior to publication but disappoint on reading. This does not. Carefully imagined and cleverly plotted, it kept me reading until the end. It reminded me of Tracy Chevalier’s early novels in which the reader is immersed in a historical world down to the smallest detail. Sonia VeltonBlackberry and Wild Rose tells the story of two women in eighteenth century Spitalfields, London, where the houses are full of weavers and looms clatter every hour of daylight, set alongside the everyday noise, bustle and smells of market stalls, shops, inns and bawdy houses. In 1768, Sara Kemp arrives in Spitalfields from the country, sent away from home by her mother for something she does not understand. Obviously alone and lost, she is taken up by Mrs Swann and put to work in her brothel. Esther Thorel is an Englishwoman married to a Huguenot master of silk. Dissatisfied with her life with a husband obsessed by his business, Esther paints naturalistic flowers which she longs to see reproduced in silk. Dismissed by her husband, instead she fulfils the role expected by her husband and does good works with other Huguenot wives. When the paths of the two women cross one day outside the Wig and Feathers tavern, the lives of many people change. Sara, trying to escape Mrs Swann, must pay an unaffordable sum of money for her freedom. Esther pays the debt and employs her as maidservant in her household. Esther’s husband Elias is unaware of Sara’s background. Both women are blind to each other’s plight. Esther sees Sara as a charitable case, simply helped; Sara despises Esther’s inability to see the truth in front of her nose. It is apparent that there is one set of rules for men, another for women. Though so different, Sara and Esther are essentially trapped by their sex and by their roles, and dependent on the prosperity of the Thorel silk business.
Eighteenth century silk weaving was a highly competitive business, threatened by the import of light, cheap printed cottons imported by the East India Company. As the margins of the masters, including Thorel, are cut, the wages of their journeymen weavers are cut too. The weavers gather together in ‘combinations’, early trade unions, to press their case. Some are militant, issuing ultimatums. Some are violent. As this instability threatens the Thorel livelihood, Esther and Sara individually set off on paths which lead them into a conflict which ends in death. Both must make decisions; to tell the truth and suffer, or to lie and survive.
The woman are credible, contradictory, selfish, generous, often peevish and unlikeable. They are not modern women, with the morals and expectations of modern life, placed into a historical setting. Although both are independent and often wilful, they are eighteenth century women and so may not be to the taste of some readers. The men are similarly selfish, ambitious, deceitful and nasty – with one or two exceptions – and utterly believable. These are not stereotypes, there are characters which redeem faith in human nature, but this is not a novel in which the role of women is enhanced from the factual truth of the time. The story ends with a trial at which the judge says, ‘I understand that all this is difficult for you – a servant and a woman – to understand…’ But the men in this story underestimate the women at their peril.
The story of Esther, silk designer, is loosely based on the real Anna Maria Garthwaite, whose patterns and silks can be seen in London’s Victoria & Albert Museum. The title of the novel is one of Esther’s designs. Excellent.

If you like this, try:-
‘The Cursed Wife’ by Pamela Hartshorne
‘The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock’ by Imogen Gowar Hermes
‘The Penny Heart’ by Martine Bailey

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview BLACKBERRY AND WILD ROSE by @Soniavelton https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3Q4 via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘Nemesis’ by Rory Clements #thriller #WW2

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Nemesis by Rory Clements is the third in his Tom Wilde series which sees the American-born Cambridge professor tangle with more spies as Britain enters the Second World War. It is a page-turning read that I galloped through despite a few moments of confusion about who was double-crossing who; to the point where I started to distrust everyone except Tom. Rory ClementsIt is September 1939 and a strange time, the pause before war starts when sandbags are filled and the propaganda starts. Wilde, on holiday in southern France with girlfriend Lydia, negotiates the release of a former student, a brilliant chorister, from an internment camp. Marcus Marfield fought for the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War and seems to be suffering from PTSD. Wilde returns him to Cambridge though feeling uneasy about the circumstances of Marcus’s release. Marcus’s behaviour is worrying. Clements includes many of the characters featured in the earlier two books, including British spy Philip Eaton, doctor Rupert Weir and fellow don Horace Dill.
Critical at this stage of the war was America joining the Allies but two unrelated incidents spread bad PR in the US; the ambassador in Paris escapes assassination and a British ship The Athenia, carrying American civilians, is sunk. On board are the wife and children of Jim Vandenberg, Tom’s contact at the US Embassy. As Jim waits for news of his wife and sons, strange things start to happen around Marcus Marfield and Tom is pulled into the investigation. Though unqualified, he has a skill for spying and takes to it eagerly, always riding his distinctive Rudge motorcycle.
This is a fun, gripping series set at a fascinating time in Britain’s history when each side was plotting to win the propaganda war and influence America. It tempts me to start reading Clements’ Elizabethan spy novels.

Click the title to read my reviews of the other books in the Tom Wilde series:-
CORPUS #1TOMWILDE
NUCLEUS #2TOMWILDE
HITLER’S SECRET #4TOMWILDE
A PRINCE AND A SPY #5TOMWILDE
THE MAN IN THE BUNKER #6TOMWILDE
THE ENGLISH FUHRER #7TOMWILDE
A COLD WIND FROM MOSCOW #8TOMWILDE

And from the Sebastian Wolff series:-
MUNICH WOLF #1SEBASTIANWOLFF

If you like this, try:-
‘A Hero in France’ by Alan Furst
‘An Officer and a Spy’ by Robert Harris
‘Day’ by AL Kennedy

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview NEMESIS by Rory Clements https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3PU via @SandraDanby

My Porridge & Cream read: Kathryn Haydon @HaydonKathryn #romance #books

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Today I’m delighted to welcome romance author Kathryn Haydon. Her ‘Porridge & Cream’ read is The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran.

“I have chosen The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran because this is a book that speaks to me, soul to soul. The words reach out over the years and touch me as though they were written yesterday. It is the East speaking to the West in the manner of Rabindranath Tagore’s famous Gitanjali. Magical and mystical, with a wonderful cadence! Every human condition known to mankind is illustrated by beautiful verse. Kathryn Haydon“I first came upon this little book in the mid 1990’s. Quite by chance, really – although what is chance and what is really synchronicity? While doing a counselling course with the Exeter branch of the W.E.A., I attended a residential weekend on the edge of Dartmoor. We (students) were invited to bring along a special poem to read out, or a few lines from a book to share with the group. It didn’t matter what, so long as the words had significance and meaning. Someone read from The Prophet – I forget who – and I was spellbound. This is a flavour of what I heard:
“You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The Archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the Archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.”
“As soon as I could, I bought a copy for myself. It’s only a slim volume, sitting unpretentiously on my bookshelf, there to be dipped into whenever I feel need. What triggers a need? A myriad of things, from happiness to loss and the deep sadness of bereavement – and all life experiences in between.” Kathryn HaydonAmazon

Kathryn’s Bio
I am a West Country girl who loves to write, a romantic novelist published by Mezzanotte. The red earth of Devon is steeped in my bones, the county’s glorious coast and countryside my inspiration.  To date, I have two books published, both in the medical romance genre as befits a retired nurse! I write the kind of stories you won’t want to put down – real page turners, with characters who tug at your heart strings. Books with a feel-good factor, although please have a box of tissues at the ready because I suspect you’ll need them. My storylines pick-up emotive issues.

Kathryn’s links
Twitter
Facebook
Mezzanotte Publishing

Kathryn’s latest book Kathryn HaydonPalliative care nurse, Melanie Smythe is focussed on two things: the job she loves at Greenways Hospice and helping care for her twin nieces. There is no room for romance. In the past she’s been let down and the experience has left her wary. Melanie fears history will repeat itself. Then a chance encounter with new locum GP, Luke McGrath makes her think maybe he’s the one to change all that. There are differences between them, but the smouldering hot doc makes her pulse race. However, Melanie is holding something back and this leads to a misunderstanding. Angry and hurt, Luke severs their relationship. Will they be able to fix what’s been broken?
Amazon

What is a ‘Porridge & Cream’ book? It’s the book you turn to when you need a familiar read, when you are tired, ill, or out-of-sorts, where you know the story and love it. Where reading it is like slipping on your oldest, scruffiest slippers after walking for miles. Where does the name ‘Porridge & Cream’ come from? Cat Deerborn is a character in Susan Hill’s ‘Simon Serrailler’ detective series. Cat is a hard-worked GP, a widow with two children and she struggles from day-to-day. One night, after a particularly difficult day, she needs something familiar to read. From her bookshelf she selects ‘Love in A Cold Climate’ by Nancy Mitford. Do you have a favourite read which you return to again and again? If so, please send me a message.

Discover the ‘Porridge & Cream’ books of these authors:-
Julie Christine Johnson’s choice is ‘Pride and Prejudice’ by Jane Austen
Jane Cable chooses ‘A Horseman Riding By’ by RF Delderfield
‘Race of Scorpions’ by Dorothy Dunnett is chosen by JG Harlond

 And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
Why does romance author @HaydonKathryn re-read THE PROPHET by Kahlil Gibran? #books https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3PC via @SandraDanby