#Review #TheWonder #EmmaDonoghue

An eleven-year-old girl stops eating, but remains miraculously alive and well. A nurse, sent to investigate whether she is a fraud, meets a journalist hungry for a story. 

Set in the Irish Midlands in the 1850s, Emma Donoghue's The Wonder - inspired by numerous European and North American cases of 'fasting girls' between the sixteenth century and the twentieth - is a psychological thriller about a child's murder threatening to happen in slow motion before our eyes.

I was very curious to see what Emma Donoghue would do next after the incredible success of "Room". In "The Wonder" she has returned to the past and to another country but still exploring the emotive and powerful issue of parenting, motherhood, the vulnerability of children and the lengths people will go to for the love of a child. The location, era and premise may be worlds away from that of "Room", but this book is as haunting, psychologically thrilling and unforgettable. I loved it. 

Donoghue's writing is powerful, taut and clever. She uses language masterfully and this novel allows her to play with repetition, misinterpretation, literal and metaphorical interpretation, euphemism and ambiguity. I loved the play on words, the double meanings, the difference between what the characters thought they heard and what was said and the sage reminder of how manipulative language can be. Donoghue also celebrates how powerful language can be - not just through its usage by the characters but also through her imagery and skilful prose. This is a book to savour. 

The historical and social context of this novel is fascinating and allows Donoghue to write about rationality and science versus myths and faith. Lib and Anna's family are direct contrasts representing the medical world view versus the spiritual. There are constant contrasts between what is obvious and clear and the different ways in which it is explained through a mythical angle. Lib, our plain speaking, no nonsense nurse and protagonist, is quick to dismiss the religion, prayer and wonder of the family and community although this is attitude is tested and challenged as the novel progresses. 

I liked Lib a lot. At first she seems hard, too clinical, a little arrogant but as the story unfolds and we learn more about her and more about the world in which she operates, the more I liked her strength, perseverance and dedication. It is her thoroughness, her persistence and her diligence while caring for Anna which leads to the dramatic climax. Lib's emotional journey is immense - it is a real awakening and perhaps even a kind of epiphany. I liked this. Obviously the story is about Anna and the mystery surrounding her "wonder" but actually it is much about Lib and the journey she finds herself on. I liked her wry comments, her disparaging responses to the family, her flaws, her angst and her deep hidden secrets. 

There are so many fascinating comments from the characters that reveal attitudes to religion, prayer, women, nursing and mental health that there is almost too much to talk about in this review. On the one hand this is a gripping, powerful, mesmerising read about a young girl and a nurse, on the other hand it is a complex novel about duty, negligence, stories, parenting, manipulation and guilt. On the one hand the reader is absorbed in trying to solve the puzzle as to how Anna has survived with no food for four months; it is a crime story, a mystery, a thriller. On the other hand it is a novel about the stories we tell each other and how easily these stories, warnings, rituals and scripture can be misunderstood or abused. 

I enjoyed the shadow of Florence Nightingale whose ominous presence was felt on some of the pages. I thought her characterisation was original and intriguing. Lib's own character was so formed by the opinions and teachings of Nightingale it made a dynamic contrast with the local Doctor of the tiny town in which Lib finds herself attempting to carry out medical duties. I think Lib was a great choice of protagonist as she is so different from what I expected. She is fierce and "blasphemous". She emphasises the differences in culture between Ireland and England at this time and captures the tensions that existed politically and socially between the two countries through her character and interaction with the Irish characters. 

Donoghue's evocation of 1850s Ireland was excellent and it was impossible not to feel the dampness of the peat, the darkness of the earth and the hold of superstition, prayer and liturgy over the community. 

I liked that every character had a motive - and not always a very worthy one. Even Lib has a questionable motive at the beginning. Each character appears to want to help Anna but actually their search for the truth behind her 'wonder' is avoiding their own personal search for truth, answers and acceptance. In their attempts to uncover the truth behind what is happening in the O'Donnell household, Lib, Byrne, the O'Donnells and Anna have to confront their own hidden secrets and fears and face some painful truths.  

Just as with "Room" when my eyes could barely read the words fast enough and I kept forgetting to breathe, "The Wonder" is equally breathtaking. It is thought provoking, multilayered and gripping. It is a fantastic psychological thriller and quite frankly, a real wonder. 


The Wonder is published by Picador in September 2016.

EMMA DONOGHUE



www.emmadonoghue.com/

Emma is the youngest of eight children of Frances and Denis Donoghue. She attended Catholic convent schools in Dublin, apart from one year in New York at the age of ten. In 1990 she earned a first-class honours BA in English and French from University College Dublin, and in 1997 a PhD (on the concept of friendship between men and women in eighteenth-century English fiction) from the University of Cambridge. Since the age of 23, Donoghue has earned her living as a full-time writer. After years of commuting between England, Ireland, and Canada, in 1998 she settled in London, Ontario, where she lives with her partner and their son and daughter.




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#FierceKingdom #GinPhillips #Review

"The rules are different today. The rules are that we hide and do not let the man with the gun find us."

Fierce Kingdom is an incredible novel. It's set in a zoo, near closing time. As Joan persuades her four year old son, Lincoln, to leave and they rush towards the exit, she hears something. Gunshots.

They run. They hide. In the next three hours Joan has to use all her ingenuity and instinct to keep them safe. This novel is a exploration of just what we will do to protect those we love.

I knew I would like this book. I was intrigued by the words zoo, child, run and hiding. I've spent a lot of time at our local zoo with my young children so my imagination was already running away with me before I'd even started reading.

What I didn't know was how this book would totally take over my life for the time it took me to read. And how stunned I would feel at the end.

This book is outstanding.

The chapters are headed with a time. We start at 4.55pm and move forward, each section only a few minutes on. The last chapter is 8.05pm. Three hours and ten minutes over 273 pages. That's almost real time isn't it? You are almost reading Joan's story in real time. You are literally there with her, for very minute, for every ticking second that passes and that was the one thing that I found really striking about this novel.

I generally read quite quickly, but this book took me a long time - well, at least as long as 3 hours and ten minutes. I couldn't read it quickly. I couldn't rush through what was happening. I couldn't skim on to see what decision Joan made next. I couldn't and I didn't want to. I had to be there with Joan; listening out for every creak, every breath, deliberating with her as she weighed up her options, waiting with her as watched in the hope for a text message to come, holding my breath for as long as she did in case her son made a noise.

This novel is powerful and it is intense. But it is also gripping and compelling in a way I did not expect. The story is told in third person which helps give the reader some distance from Joan and perhaps prevent it from becoming too overwhelming. Despite the set up of the story, the writing is calm, measured, reflective and deliberate. There is nothing gratuitous in this novel and even though it happens over a very short, specific period of time, it is not a page turner in the traditional sense. Just as Joan's dilemma's weigh heavy on her mind, the words weigh heavy on the page. I could not turn away from it. I couldn't put it down.

Joan is a great protagonist. She is a very good mother. The bond between her son Lincoln and herself are incredibly strong - perhaps only in this desperate situation do we really appreciate how well a mother can read her child, manipulate her child to cooperate and to what lengths she'll go to to protect her child. But she is flawed. She has thoughts that she is ashamed of and that she is confused by. She makes choices that don't sit well and that in normal circumstances may lose her sympathy from the reader but her maternal instinct is so palpable, so strong and so consuming that the reader is totally with her for every minute that ticks by.

This is an incredibly well judged novel. The characters are convincing and behave in a believable way as they deal with the horrific situation they find themselves in. The setting of the zoo is so unusual and gives so much scope for the author. It's a setting everyone can relate to and where even taking refuge and finding hiding places runs further risks because of the animals that share this space with the characters.

Ultimately Fierce Kingdom is a fantastic thriller. A book that will leave you breathless and which continually makes the reader wonder what they might have done if they were Joan. It is a very readable, compelling story that will grab you and hook you in quickly. It is also a novel that asks some difficult questions; that explores a deeper, more hidden level of themes which include motherhood, nurture, responsibility, choices, heroism and gun crime.

Fierce Kingdom is beautifully written. Phillips captures Joan's half formed thoughts, her flashbacks and glimpses of memory that haunt her as she contemplates her situation. Phillips captures Lincoln effectively and his dialogue works. She introduces a few more characters to diffuse the claustrophobic tension and change the point of view, allowing us to leave Joan for a few moments and see what else is going on.

I didn't find this book traumatic to read. I didn't feel it was sensationalised or predictable. I was more moved by the relationship I formed with Joan and with her maternal instincts. I was more moved by the prose and writers use of language.

My proof copy is riddled with underlined phrases, notes, asterisks and comments. I want to reread it all over again. It's an outstanding book. It is a thriller but perhaps not in the way you are expecting. It is emotional. It will stay with you.

I want to end with a quote from Gin Phillips as I think I'd rather use her words than attempt using my own inadequate ones.

"As a mother of a five year old, I realised that every story I considered writing seemed to lead back to motherhood. No other subject seemed quite so compelling or complex. No other subject had the power to move me, terrify me, or make me laugh quite as much. For me, the novel is ultimately about what it means to be a parent. More than that, it's a look at the ways we are bound together, whether we are strangers or family."

The PR material that accompanied my proof copy compares this novel with Room and We Need To Talk About Kevin. I would agree.

Fierce Kingdom is published on 15th June 2017 by Doubleday

GIN PHILLIPS

Gin Phillips grew up in Montgomery, Alabama. After earning a degree in political journalism, gin worked as a freelance magazine writer for nearly a decade. She's lived in Ireland, Thailand, New York and Washington, D.C. 

Fierce Kingdom is her debut thriller. 

I am going to write a more detailed post about this book in the summer as it will make a fantastic book group read so look out for this. Keep up to date with my posts by signing up to receive my post via email, following me on Twitter @KatherineSunde3 or via my website bibliomaniacuk.co.uk

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#OneOfUsIsLying #KarenMcManus #Review

Pay close attention and you might solve this.

On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.

Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule.

Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess.

Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.

Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.

And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High’s notorious gossip app.

Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. 

Before the end of detention Simon's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn’t an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he’d planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who’s still on the loose?

Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this excellent read! With overtones of Gossip Girl, The Breakfast Club and We Were Liars, this is an engaging and gripping read that really captures the essence of being a teenager and life at High School. I know I am not the target audience for this Young Adult novel (although in my head I am only 17 and my guilty pleasures are binge watching "Pretty Little Liars" and "Gossip Girl"), I think we can all relate to stories set in school that involve the complex dynamics and invisible rules that govern the playground.

This book has a great premise. Someone dies from drinking a glass of water. It's that simple and that complicated. How can someone die from drinking water? No weapons, no natural disasters, no illness, nothing supernatural or untoward. Just water.

And then, the next day, tweets appear with a confession to murder........and the threat of revealing more hidden secrets about the other students that were in the room - the only people that can be responsible for the death.......

How could you not want to read on?!

McManus's novel embraces the current issues of social media and teenagers as well as exploring how much more complicated - or thrilling!- a murder investigation can become with the runaway power of Twitter and Facebook. The immediacy, anonymity, the speed and uncontrollable far reaching-ness of social media is captured in the novel and used effectively to create tension, suspense and pace for each of the characters. It's a modern novel for modern teenagers but it also explores more universal themes of peer pressure, fitting in, what is real and what is an illusion, secrets and blackmail. Despite its simple and direct language there is much that wrestles beneath the surface in this story which is why it is so much more compelling and so much more intriguing than just a melodramatic extended episode of a teen drama.

I must confess I also enjoyed the dry voice of the teacher at the beginning. The teacher's punishment to remove the students' devices from them is seen as the most unreasonable request and their horror at using pen and paper is entertaining. I liked the teacher's comment about “exploring the  magic of longhand writing. It’s a lost art.” Perhaps that shows my age and perhaps my alienation from this age group! 

There are overtones of films and books that have come before this but to be honest I don't see that as negative. In my opinion to be compared to films as iconic as Breakfast Club can only be a compliment and I'm sure this book will attract as much fandom and success as that film did in its time. The teenage voices are as astute and as candid and the random selection of characters is immediately intriguing. As is the role of Simon who immediately appears to have an ulterior motive or some kind of hidden knowledge that will have repercussions fro the group. 

“She’s a princess and you’re a jock….you’re a brain. And you’re a criminal. Youre all walking teen-movie stereotypes”

"Who are you?"

“I’m the omniscient narrator,” says Simon

Simon is unlikeable, isolated and he doesn’t fit in. He doesn't he want to fit in. He causes problems,- deliberately - and enjoys stirring up trouble with his social media app that reveals gossip to the whole school. He feels like he is a kind of puppet master and a bit untouchable, and yet he is the one who ends up dead........

"It’s eight-fifty am on Tuesday, and twenty-four hours ago Simon was going to homeroom for the last time. Six hours and five minutes from then we were heading to detention. An hour later, he died."

The novel then follows the four characters in the subsequent days as the investigation into Simon's death continues. It is clear that they all have secrets and they all have motives. The writing is taut and I liked the way McManus dangled hints and insinuations that kept me turning the page.

"There’s only one thing Simon might have written about me, but it would have been almost impossible to find out."

As the blurb says, pay attention and you may solve this riddle! The reader is invited to try and piece the jigsaw together, invited to try and peel back the layers and work out who is hiding what and who is a reliable narrator. And then to further complicate matters, anonymous tweets appear which send ripples through the entire school community. 

"I got the idea for killing Simon while watching Dateline." 

"Let’s face it: everyone at Bayview High hated Simon. I was just the only one with enough guts to do something about it. You’re welcome."

McManus has tapped it to some great classic themes in this novel. The most obvious being secrets and the fear of being exposed, how everyone has them and how far people will go to protect them. There is also the fact that the narratives are first person and therefore we are never quite sure who to believe. It's a great High School novel and would make a great film!

Perhaps the only small thing I found a little tricky was the fact that all the four narratives were in first person. Each section is clearly headed with who is narrating that section and although the voices are different, it did require me to pay full attention!

That said, I would like to congratulate McManus on the authenticity of her voices. I appreciate I’m not a teenager or perhaps the target audience for this book so my idea of authentic might not be quite right, but the importance of getting the voice right in a novel is imperative - and difficult! I think the challenges of finding authenticity in a young voice is often underestimated. To write convincingly as a teenage voice - or five!- which will resonate with its audience, feel fresh, original and realistic is a real challenge. It is incredibly well done here and everything felt very believable and relatable.

This novel will appeal to teenagers or anyone who loves a story about enemies, secrets, popularity contests, negotiating friendships and relationships and that time when you are caught between the adult and child world. It has huge appeal and it's a succinct, quick, well paced read that you should defiantly make time for! 

All in it's a good jigsaw, a good puzzle, all the characters have to come to terms with something and confront something in their lives. The variety of characters and their problems is well judged and the short chapters help to maintain tension and suspense throughout the novel. 

One Of Us Is Lying is published by Penguin on 1st June 2017.

KAREN MCMANUS 



@writerkmc
www.karenmcmanus.com

For more recommendations and reviews you can follow me on Twitter @KatherineSunde3 or via my website bibliomaniacuk.co.uk

#GuestPost #SueMoorcroft #JustForTheHolidays #ResearchingYourStory

In theory, nothing could be better than a summer spent basking in the French sun. That is, until you add in three teenagers, two love interests, one divorcing couple, and a very unexpected pregnancy.

Admittedly, this isn’t exactly the relaxing holiday Leah Beaumont was hoping for – but it’s the one she’s got. With her sister Michele’s family falling apart at the seams, it’s up to Leah to pick up the pieces and try to hold them all together.

But with a handsome helicopter pilot staying next door, Leah can’t help but think she might have a few distractions of her own to deal with…

Today I am delighted to welcome Sue Moorcroft to my blog. Sue is coming along to my Summer Scorchers Author Event in June where she will be chatting about her new book Just for the Holidays and forthcoming novel Just for Fun which will be out in August. 

Just For The Holidays features a rather handsome Helicopter pilot who has had an unfortunate crash. How did Sue research for this character? She got in a helicopter and crashed it. No, really. She did. That is taking research for writing very seriously! I needed to know more! So here is Sue, telling us just what lengths she will go to for her novels and her characters!

The lengths a novelist will go to …

When I posted on Facebook that I was beyond excited because a pilot was going to take me up in a helicopter and pretend to crash it, I received around 70 comments.

The majority of them said, ‘You’re mad!’

But they were all wrong. I was thrilled.

My hero Ronan Shea in Just for the Holidays is a helicopter pilot recovering from a shoulder injury after a forced landing. During my research, I was lucky enough to be introduced to Martin Lovell who owns a helicopter maintenance company, SkyTech Helicopters, and is also the company’s test pilot.

If the engine begins to fail in a single-engine helicopter the pilot has to take prompt action because he can’t park in mid-air. When Martin offered to take me up and demonstrate how the pilot retains full control via the art of ‘autorotation’, bringing the aircraft down at such an angle that the air passing over the rotor keeps it going, I could not believe my luck. I love helicopters and had always wanted to be flown in one. That my first flight was a pretend-crash deterred me not one whit.

I arrived at the airfield on a beautiful day. We walked through the hangar to the black Hughes 500 helicopter in need of a test flight. Martin performed the pre-flight checks and suddenly the door was opened and I was invited inside . . .

Martin strapped me into my seat and gave me a set of headphones and began a running commentary on the instrumentation and which switches he was flicking and why. The engine started and the whump whump whump as the rotor began to turn became faster and faster until the blades were a blur above us. A little hover, then we were turning, tip-toeing across the grass to the runway.

I don’t fully remember the take off. We just whooshed along and up and somehow we were above a village, above a reservoir, above the fields. The Hughes has great visibility, including what’s passing below your feet. Apart from this all-round vision and the fact that we were whizzing along at altitude, the cockpit felt a bit like a car – comfortable leather seats, a heater and a sat nav – but with a lot more banking and swooping.

Once up at 2000 feet Martin told me he would begin the autorotation. He wouldn’t actually switch off the engine (prudent of him) but would proceed as if he had. The RPM died, there was a fast initial drop then we swooped down on a diagonal flight path towards the ground.

It came up to meet us VERY quickly!

At the point where coming down to earth with a bump seemed almost inevitable, Martin ‘flared’ the aircraft and halted the momentum as surely as if he’d been able to apply brakes. In a real autorotation, he would then have performed a run-on landing and the helicopter should have sat down nicely on its skids (unless, as in Ronan’s case, a hidden land hazard was there to trip the helicopter up).

‘All right?’ Martin asked.

I gibbered something like, ‘Yes! That was fantastic! Amazing! Wow! That was fantastic-amazing-wow. That was really fantastic-amazing-wow.’

He turned us around again. ‘Now we’ll do it a bit more realistically, as if the engine’s cut without warning and the pilot has to act fast. That was just a gentle mock up.’

Up we went again. And wheeeeeee! We swooped down to Earth a lot more rapidly this time. Someone in the cockpit went ‘WHOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!’ and I don’t think it was Martin.

He pulled up at about ten feet and recreated the run-on landing this time. His accuracy was amazing because when we turned and flew back I could see the parallel lines where the skids had parted the longish grass but not touched hard ground.

Pretending to crash in a helicopter was truly awesome. I was exhilarated but never scared. I felt totally secure in the skill of the pilot.

I assumed that we’d pootle back to the hangar but instead we circled up again and flew on (ground speed about 100 knots, so not so much of a pootle) over the town where I went to senior school and over a supermarket my mum had texted me from an hour before, picking out churches and a golf course, ticking off the villages as we flew over them to the town where I now live. We circled over my house and then headed back to base.

I think it took about three minutes to get back to the airfield, a trip that had taken me twenty by car. We flew low-level along the runway so I could get an idea of what speed really feels like in a helicopter (rushy), then came back around and landed tidily outside the hangar.

Everything went quiet . . . apart from my heart, which was still whirring at full knots.

Pretend-crashing in a helicopter? Awesome.

JUST FOR THE HOLIDAYS by Sue Moorcroft was published on May 18th 2017 by Avon

You can buy a copy here

You can read my review for Just for the Holidays here



Tickets for Summer Scorchers have sold out but check my blog for reviews and write ups of the evening. You can follow my blog, visit my website bibliomaniacuk.co.uk or follow me on Twitter @KatherineSunde3

See below for my future events for which tickets are still on sale!

If you missed out on tickets for Summer Scorchers - don't miss out on tickets to my next events! Real Life Real Books in in July - link for tickets below and more details on website:

TICKETS FOR REAL LIFE: REAL BOOKS

And this event in June is free, but due to limited spaces you need to reserve your space using the link below the poster: 

BOOK YOUR SPACE HERE FOR GIN PHILLIPS EVENT

#SamCarrington #SpotlightSession #WhenMurderBecomesMuse #CrimeFest2017

When Murder becomes Muse: Inspiration from working with Prisoners

I was thrilled to see that Sam Carrington was going to be speaking at Crime Fest in one of the Spotlight Sessions and immediately highlighted it on my programme. I adore her novel Saving Sophie and it was one of the best debut psychological thrillers I read in 2016!

I was very impressed that Sam was giving a talk on her own to a smaller audience rather than appearing as part of a panel - how brave I thought, but then I remembered that this is a woman who sits in a room across from murderers for a living! So clearly chatting to a group of readers and bloggers would be a walk in the park!

I was also thrilled that the room was full - Sam's talk was scheduled against two panel events on Friday but there were at least 30 people crammed in to hear her speak -with some latecomers sitting on the floor. And I spotted the fabulous authors Elizabeth Haynes and Helen Fields sitting amongst the friendly crowd!

Sam began by briefly telling us a bit about her book and journey to publication, which has been pretty fast as she started submitting short stories in 2011 and began writing novels in 2013. You can order a copy of Saving Sophie here - if you are brave enough to admit to me that you haven't yet read it! We found out that she has always had a love for psychology and why we do what we do, so it seemed only natural that she would end up writing a psychological thriller herself. She was very influenced by Patricia Cornwell's novels as a reader.

Sam worked as a nurse and sometimes was present at Post Mortems. This interest in death (they're all like this at Crime Fest, the lovelier, gentler, softer the more you have to watch these authors....don't be fooled - such hidden darkness lurks inside their minds!!!) led to her taking a job within the Prison Service. Her role there involved working with individuals and groups of prisoners to help rehabilitate them. She had to design courses and then assess prisoners for their suitability of attending these courses. This meant putting them through a kind of screening programme which in turn meant being made fully aware of their 'offence account'.

Sitting in a room with a group of prisoners is one thing, delivering a talk to a room of 100 offenders is one thing. But Sam also sat in rooms with just one prisoner. No one else. Just her and a murderer!

It's amazing how quickly you can accept this as 'normal' and forget about the risks or danger you might be putting yourself in. I was forever setting of the panic button with my elbow or there was often another one ringing somewhere in the building - how quickly did help come? Rarely at all! As a prisoner once pointed out to me at the beginning of our one to one session! 

But I think what is more frightening is how the offender tries to coerce you, manipulate you in a way that you don't always realise you are being manipulated. They want you to agree with them and you want to be supportive and empathic in order to work effectively with them but at the same time, this is just their side of the story. I needed to remember that I never ever heard the victim's side. 

But then if I heard the victim's side I wouldn't have been able to do this job. 

A fascinating job! What was the most interesting or revelatory thing about this job?

Not realising quite what the job involved and not really thinking through what it would really mean to be sitting in rooms with prisoners every day! Also I had only seen murderers on TV or in films until this point so I had many preconceptions about how they would look, speak and behave. Of course, they are nothing like this in real life. I will never forget the first time I came face to face with a prisoner. I thought I would know I was in the presence of a criminal but there was nothing evil looking, odd or dangerous about him. He just started talking about his circumstances and the events leading up to the moment when he committed the crime and then, he just said "and then I killed her." So normal. No change in intonation. No drama. Just matter of fact. 

It shocked me. It was such a simple statement but it had such a huge impact on me. It was like a physical punch in the face. 

The shock of meeting a prisoner for the first time has never left me. 

In my time with the prison service I have worked with 6 lifers and several sex offenders. What is always shocking is the way they talk about what they have done; the normality of it. You don't need gruesome details about a crime for it to shock you. The simplest ways of saying things can be the most effective. I want to capture that in my writing. 

Did you ever feel yourself feeling sympathetic towards the prisoners you worked with?

There was a particular course I ran which meant we learnt a lot about the backgrounds of men and saw how deeply traumatic and truly awful some of their lives had been. You do begin to wonder about how much of what path they take is a result of their background. But that's an enormous ethical and philosophical question that is full of moral and psychological issues! 

You clearly have a huge wealth of stories and scenarios to draw on - more than what you can include in one book! How do you decide what to use in your writing?

You can't use it all - it's overkill. I try not to use whole chunks but just select bits. There's a balance between how much to put it and in my first novel I included everything which is why it is now at the bottom of a drawer and has never seen the light of day! 

My job was about rehabilitating the prisoners so I ran the risk of forgetting about the victims which is so dangerous. In my writing I'm interested in the why and the psychology rather than the actual crime. I want to concentrate on the psychological thriller aspect and continuously up the ante for the character. 

The session ended with a range of comments about nature v nurture and some recent scientific research examining the comparison between the brain scans of psychopaths and 'non psychopathic' people.

Can prisoners be helped?

Upbringing and society does affect the courses people take but you can help them with their decision making. The way the men I worked with thought about things, viewed things and interpreted things was very different to the way the rest of us might consider a situation or circumstances. Society, psychology and childhood have a huge impact on people and their behaviour but there are ways of attempting to help people try and understand why the decision they made and the course of action it led them on are wrong. 

And then we were stopped - Sam had overrun her slot by ten minutes! Seriously it didn't feel like it! I think we would have all sat there much longer and Sam ended by shuffling her notes apologetically and saying she hadn't talked about half the things she meant to! It didn't feel like that - it was a fascinating insight and talk about Sam's writing and how her murderers had become her muses! I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks so much Sam for a brilliant spotlight session!

I will be banging on the door of the bookshop to be first in the queue to buy Sam's new novel which comes out in November - sooooooooooo long to wait!! - unfortunately I can't find a cover image anywhere but listen to the blurb - Oh my word!!!

BAD SISTER  by Sam Carrington (Nov 2017) 

You can change your name, but you can’t change your past . . .

Stephanie Cousins is scared for her life. Her psychiatrist wants to help Stephanie through her fears, but Connie Summers will never truly know her. Stephanie’s history has been wiped away as part of the witness protection programme.

Stephanie isn’t even the girl’s real name.

But, then, Connie Summers isn’t Connie’s real name either. And that’s not all the women have in common. Secrets and mistakes have led them both to this point, and no one is more surprised than Connie by the similarities. As Stephanie tells Connie about her troubled relationship with her brother, Connie is forced to recall the circumstances surrounding her own brother’s tragic death. Just one thing in a myriad of memories she’s trying to put behind her.

When a mutilated body is discovered with Connie’s name written on its bloody hand, both women are caught up in the aftermath.

The body could be a message or it could be a threat.

Or, just maybe, it could be a gift.


You can read my reviews and interviews with Sam from 2016 by clicking on the links below:

Bibliomaniac's Review of Saving Sophie

Bibliomaniac Q&A with Sam Carrington

Bibliomaniac's stop on the Saving Sophie Blog Tour Dec 2016

SAM CARRINGTON



@sam_carrington1

samcarrington.blogspot.co.uk

I am a writer from Devon, but in a previous life I was a nurse in the NHS. After working hard to gain my Psychology degree (whilst attempting to bring up three children and work full-time) I left to work as an Offending Behaviour Programme Facilitator in a male prison. 

It is my experiences within this field and my interaction with prisoners which inspired my psychological suspense/crime fiction. 

Having come to a crossroads in my life, I decided to be brave and take a road which was risky, yet more desirable. With lots of support and back-up, I left work and concentrated on my writing. I began with short stories. Some of those stories, aimed for the womag market, have been published in women’s magazines, some in anthologies and some I self published in two collections.

But, novels were always what I really wanted to write. And so, with the advice 'write what you know', firmly in my mind - I began my journey writing psychological suspense novels based around crime. I finished my 'first' novel during 2014 and then immediately began the second. It is this novel that will actually be my first!

I titled it Portrayal, and when it was in its early stages I entered it into a competition - the 2015 CWA (Crime Writers' Association) Debut Dagger Award. 

I was shocked and extremely happy when it was longlisted (one of eleven). 

It's this novel, now with the title, SAVING SOPHIE which helped me gain my agent, and a publishing deal. 

You can follow me on Twitter @KatherineSunde3 and don't forget to search this blog for my other posts about CrimeFest 2017!  

#BombShellBooks #PressRelease

PRESS RELEASE!! 

Bombshell Books are back!

After launching with the hilarious The Queen of Blogging, Bombshell Books are back with two new authors and three fabulous novels.

Therese Loreskar returns with her sequel to The Queen of Blogging – The Queen of New Beginnings


Therese Loreskar started her career in 2010 self-publishing her first novel, which quickly became a critically acclaimed best-seller.
In 2014 she was signed by a Swedish publishing house before being signed by Bombshell in the summer of 2016. Her novel, The Queen of Blogging, received overwhelming feedback and the book was referred to as a modern Bridget Jones.

Therese has since had four bestselling children’s books.
Her never-ending energy for writing and entertaining people is her biggest trait.
Therese lives in the countryside on the west coast of Sweden. She has a big and busy household with her husband, two children, deaf cat, five hamsters and a grandmother.
When she is not busy writing stories she enjoys nature, people, history, redecorating the house without permission and all other kinds of creativity.

The Queen of New Beginnings will be published on August 10th this year. 


Guardian book prize shortlisted author, Suzie Tullett, signs with Bombshell
Books

Suzie Tullett is an author of contemporary humorous fiction and romantic comedy. She has a Masters Degree in Television & Radio Scriptwriting and worked as a scriptwriter before becoming a full-time novelist. Her motto is to 'live, laugh, love' and when she's not busy creating her own literary masterpieces, she usually has her head in someone else's.
Suzie lives in a tiny hamlet in the middle of the French countryside, along with her husband and two Greek rescue dogs. You can find Suzie on Twitter: @SuzieTullett or you can visit her website: suzietullett.com

Her heart-warming romantic comedy, The Trouble with Words, will be published on July 29th this year.

Debut author, Callie Langridge, joins Bombshell Books

Caroline was born and brought up in Berkshire. After a brief teenage spell in the depths of Lancashire, she moved back to London.

Having left school at 16, she studied drama before embarking on a career in marketing. This saw her work in music marketing in the heady days of Britpop in the late ‘90s. She unleashed her creativity in the design of window displays and marketing campaigns for the leading music retailer. More recently she has followed her passion for social history and currently works in marketing for a national historical institution, promoting projects and running events.
On hitting her thirtieth birthday, she decided finally to take her A levels and gained A’s in English Literature and Language, and Film Studies – not bad when working full time – and this spurred her on to take the first of many creative writing course. A few years later and she has had a number of short stories published and plays performed at theatres and venues across London.

Caroline lives in London with her long-term partner and an ever-growing collection of antique curiosities.

Her beautifully written and heart-wrenching debut novel, A Time to Change, will be published on September 24th this year.

Bombshell Books is an imprint of Bloodhound Books. Bombshell publishes brilliant women’s fiction and is on the look out for new authors. We want stories that will make you laugh, cry and fall in love. For more information visit our website – www.bombshellbooks.com 

#TheFindingofMarthaLost #CarolineWallace #BlogTour

THIS IS STATION ANNOUNCEMENT FOR ALL THOSE TRAVELLING ON THE BLOG TOUR FOR MARTHA LOST:

I LOVE THIS BOOK AND IF YOU HAVEN'T READ IT ALREADY THEN PLEASE DO!!!! 

And that's probably all I want to say! 

I do love this book. It was one of my most favourite books in 2016 and I have raved and raved about it up to the point where a friend said, "You really are a bit in love with this Martha girl aren't you?" Yeah, just a bit. 

I know. It's not like me to fall in love with fictional characters - I'm usually too busy stalking authors and confessing my love for them instead, but this time, I am in love with a fictional character! 

I am reposting a slightly edited review from last March here but I really hope you'll follow the rest of the tour and check back on the stops you may have missed. It's a lovely book and I think the new front cover is was stunning as the hardback version I had last year. I may have to buy another copy! 

BIBLIOMANIAC REVIEW: THE FINDING OF MARTHA LOST

How do you write a review about something so magical, inspiring, uplifting, imaginative, unique and stunning? Wallace's command of language is so masterful, anything I attempt to put into words will be seriously inferior!

"The Finding of Martha Lost" is set in 1976, Lime Street Station, Liverpool. Martha was abandoned as a new born baby in a suitcase on the train from Paris in 1960 . Sixteen years later she still remains hopeful that someone will come to claim her from the lost property desk where waits; the station is her home and she has never ever taken a single step outside of it in all her life.  As she waits, her life continues with mysteries to solve, secret tunnels under the station to discover and a suitcase that might have belonged to the Beatles to deal with. But Martha wants solve the mystery of who she is and who her birth mother is. The authorities have found out about her hiding out in the station and her time is running out. If she can't discover who she really is she will lose everything. After all, "to have your happy ending, you have to have your beginning."

I don't think I've read a book that is wholly set on a station before but it made me realise how well such a location lends itself to inspiring fiction. Stations are full of people, journeys, secrets, beginnings, endings and things that get left behind and forgotten. The building itself automatically creates a dramatic stage and Wallace ably evokes the atmosphere so that it is easy to visualise every nook and cranny. You feel as if you are standing there, pirouetting behind Martha and her group of colourful friends.

It's not just the setting and situation that are bewitching. It is the character of Martha. She is curious, vivacious, loving, warm, dramatic, energetic, colourful and out of a fairy tale. She spins and twirls across the platforms, oblivious to anything but seeing the best in things. Her infectious inquisitiveness seeps out of her, highlighting her childishness and naivety. Yet her observations about people, and the objects in Lost Property, indicate a more perceptive mind than many adults. Such observations often seem quirky and too fairy-tale like, but in reality they reveal deep insight and awareness. Martha also has a special gift: "When I rub my finger over something that is lost, I can tell how the item came to be lost." However, her real gift - her real magic, is being able to understand people's truths and hidden emotions.

Yes, this is a book of magic and wonder; where fairy tales and real life intermingle, producing an intoxicating brew which will leave you thirsting for more!

Martha collects books which she arranges by colour to create a "rainbow of secrets". It is her library of found books as she wants to "collect lost words and let them have a voice." She is concerned with showing respect for the books and seeing their beauty. Some of the books have inscriptions which "tell me a different story to the one in the book....these words weren't meant for me; it's like I've overheard a secret." The inscriptions are a secret message between the book giver and the book receiver; the reason for giving a book is another story of its own that interests her more than what is printed on the actual pages. Now I not only want to give even more books as gifts but inscribe every book I will bestow in the future!

Martha reflects on stories, books and language throughout the whole novel. The words "lost" and "found" are sprinkled across the pages as a constant reminder of Martha's need to "find" her birth mother and her own name. Her responses to books are so innocent yet so original and astute I am jealous of the way in which she is able to view the world.

Martha breaks all conventions. For example, of reading she says "Sometimes I think it's ok to meet characters and then create your own story for them.... If a character is killed or hurt and I'm not happy with that, I turn back to just before the events took a nasty twist." She is surely the most captivating and beautifully imagined character in children's fiction that I have come across in a very very long time.

As her search for her birth mother, name and National Insurance number continue, Martha begins to receive books in the post with inscriptions just for her. The books chosen are all brilliant choices to further illustrate the overriding themes of searching, of lost and found - for example: "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", "Great Expectations" and "Stranger in a Strange Land'. And the quotes about fairy tales scattered between the chapters are equally effective and from equally great literary voices. But they are not overly worthy, just gently reminding us of the continuation of Martha's fairy tale as she picks up the narrative and begins the next part.

There is more depth to the story than just a world of words and an enchanting sprite. It is an exploration of trust, friendship, questions and answers, love, safety, protection, being lost and being found. To borrow Martha wise words - "I wonder if being lost is more about waiting to be found."

The adjectives that follow "The Finding of Martha Lost" across Twitter are "remarkable, astounding, compelling, endearingly breathtaking, hypnotic, surreal and simultaneously innocent and wise". This is a Young Adult novel but the excitement and enthusiasm from the adult reviewers prove that children's fiction is pertinent to all ages and a great place to discover talented and innovative writers.

As other bloggers also found, this review took far too long to write and was a real challenge. Now as I come to an end, I feel bereft at leaving the world of Liverpool Lime Street and Martha's story.

Borrowing more words from the book, I'd like to end by repeating what is said to Martha: "You bring delight to all who cross your path."

I hope you also take the time to delight in Martha and her story.

@Caroline_S

www.carolinewallace.co.uk

And you can find me on twitter @KatherineSunde3 or via bibliomaniacuk.co.uk