Smorgasbord Cafe and Bookstore – Meet the Authors – #Thriller Daniel Kemp, #Scifi Thorne Moore, #Memoir #Africa Ann Patras

Over the summer I will be updating author’s details in the Cafe and Bookstore and also sharing their bios, books and recent reviews with you in this series…

Meet Daniel Kemp

Daniel Kemp, ex-London police officer, mini-cab business owner, pub tenant and licensed London taxi driver never planned to be a writer, but after his first novel –The Desolate Garden — was under a paid option to become a $30 million film for five years until distribution became an insurmountable problem for the production company what else could he do?

In May 2018 his book What Happened In Vienna, Jack? became a number one bestseller on four separate Amazon sites: America, UK, Canada, and Australia.

Although it’s true to say that he mainly concentrates on what he knows best; murders laced by the mystery involving spies, his diverse experience of life shows in the short stories he writes, namely: Why? A Complicated Love, and the intriguing story titled The Story That Had No Beginning.

He is the recipient of rave reviews from a prestigious Manhattan publication, been described as –the new Graham Green — by a managerial employee of Waterstones Books, for whom he did a countrywide tour of signing events, and he has appeared on ‘live’ television in the UK.

Daniel is also our resident comedian every other Friday on Open Mic Night where he shares his wonderful funnies.

A selection of books by Daniel Kemp

A recent review for The Story That Had no Beginning

Feb 23, 2021 Roberta Cheadle rated it five stars

This book is an interesting and complex story about twins, Tom and Alice Collins, who enter the foster care system at a young age and are raised separately. The book starts with Alicia Collinson, aka Alice Collins, and her sophisticated boyfriend hosting two friends for a dinner party. Unknow to the dinner participants, the ghost of her brother Tom, known as Bobby Brown among his peer group, is also in attendance. It is obvious from the start that Alicia is a woman of good financial circumstances who mingles with the elite of London’s society. It also becomes evident quite early on, that Tom’s life has followed a very divergent path and he was a member of the mafia-styled criminal class.

The book follows the paths of the twins and how they come to end up in their different circumstances and lifestyles. Alicia is a well-know and talented photographer who owns her own home in London and has plenty of money. Tom has money, albeit ill gotten, but he dies the death of a criminal.

Tom is a conflicting character as he is a man involved in high class prostitution and other shady and illegal dealings. Despite being a seasoned criminal, his narration of the story reveals a different side to his character. One that questions the life he lived and celebrates the good fortune and success achieved by his sister.

Alice or Alicia has the great good luck to become the protegee of a wealthy single woman with no children who effectively adopts her and sets her on the road to success in her chosen field of photography. Unknown to the naïve Alicia, her benefactor isn’t everything she appears to be and some of the people she socialises with are infamous for their continuous promiscuous behaviour with the same, or the opposite, sex. In a contrast to her brother, Tom, who is in the centre of the debaucherous lifestyles led by the wealthy upper classes of London, Alicia hovers around the edges, not realising what is right in front of her.

The author has an in-depth knowledge of the illicit behaviour of the British upper class and paints a detailed picture of how greed, selfishness and a complete disregard for the values and ethics of society lead to the downfall of people.

This book will make you question what success is all about and whether it leads to contentment as the stories of the many characters unfold. This is thought provoking tale as despite the huge difference in the siblings financial and social positions, both of them end up with money but neither of them have good reliable partners or simply and happy lives.

Read the reviews and buy the books also in audio: Amazon UK – And : Amazon US – follow Daniel: Goodreads – Website:Author Danny Kemp – Facebook:Books by Daniel – Twitter:@danielkemp6

Meet Thorne Moore

Thorne Moore grew up in Luton and studied history at Aberystwyth. Nine years later, after a spell working in a library, she returned to Wales, to north Pembrokeshire, to run a restaurant with her sister, and a craft business making miniature furniture. She took a law degree through the Open University, and occasionally taught genealogy, but these days, she writes, as she had always intended, after retiring from 40 years of craft work. She has had four novels published by Honno and two by Lume, all psychological crime mysteries and three of them historical and she is now writing science fiction.

Books by Thorne Moore

One of the recent reviews of Inside Out

katemaccormack 5.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing and compelling  Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 June 2021

Inside Out appears to mark a change in genre from Thorne Moore’s existing body of work but in fact it has far more in common with her previous novels than it has differences. It shares with them a high quality of writing, acutely observed settings, intriguing characters, twisting plot, varying time periods and dry wit. The only real difference is that is not on the same planet. Or indeed, for most of the novel, on any planet.

Thorne Moore has said herself that whatever the setting, she is always writing about what people might do when pushed to their limits, and Inside Out is certainly no exception to that. A group of disparate travellers are aboard a spaceship, ostensibly the space-age equivalent of a cruise liner, on their way to Triton. None of them is particularly sympathetic, they all have mysterious pasts and fairly obscure presents, but by the end of the story we know them and their motivations so well we are rooting for them all. The sense of hope and redemption at the end of the novel is hugely satisfying, and the exciting last few chapters worthy of any blockbuster sci-fi movie. Highly recommended. 

Read the reviews and buy the books – Amazon UK – Amazon US –
Universal – Goodreads – Website/Blog – Thorne Moore – Facebook – Thorne Moore Novelist – Twitter – @ThorneMoore

Meet Ann Patras

Ann Patras was born in Burton upon Trent, England quite a while ago.

In 1971 she emigrated to Canada for a year before returning to the UK where, in 1974, she married her boyfriend of five years. In 1980 she and her husband Ziggy rounded up their three small children and headed for Zambia, initially on a 2 year contract. They finally left Zambia in 1989, moving down to South Africa where they lived for 22 years.

Career-wise Ann commenced work as a legal secretary, changing tack to Administration in the brewing industry after she got married. After moving to Zambia and not officially being permitted to work, her time was occupied by voluntary posts with various social or sports organisations. In South Africa work ranged from the shipping industry, to dressmaker and finally as Administration Manager of the Watercolour Society of SA. In her spare time she spent several years as a Police Reservist, chiefly in the Mounted Unit in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg.

Always a keen letter writer, Ann entertained numerous family members and friends with tales of their various adventures, calamities and just plain silly activities over the years. She was constantly nagged by them to “write a book about it!”.

Buying her first PC in 1987 for the sole purpose of writing the book, Ann got through many PCs before ‘Into Africa: with 3 Kids, 13 Crates and a Husband’ was published in 2014. As this only covers their very first year of life in Zambia. Her second book, ‘More Into Africa: with 3 kids, some dogs and a husband’ was released in 2016. The final book in this Zambia Trilogy, ‘Much More Into Africa with kids, dogs, horses and a husband’ was released in January 2020.

Ann and her husband now live in Spain, where she has still more to write about their lives in Africa.

Books by Ann Patras

One of the recent reviews for Much More Into Africa

Vonda Wielsma 5.0 out of 5 stars Much More Entertainment  Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2021

I highly recommend Ann’s books to anyone who enjoys amusing antics and stories told in an entertaining manner about living in another country with young children. I couldn’t wait for this book to be available and was not disappointed. I love the stories as well as her way of sharing what she was thinking at the time.  

Read the reviews and buy Ann’s books: Amazon UK – And:Amazon US – Follow Ann:Goodreads – Website: Ann Patras Author – Facebook: Ann Patras Author

 

Thanks for dropping in today and I hope you are leaving with some books thanks Sally.