Over the course of the summer months I have been sharing the recommended authors who feature in the Smorgasbord Bookshelf along with their books and a selected review.
The first author today is Jaye Marie for her crime thriller Cross fire
About the book
DI David Snow has a serial killer to catch, a killer as mysterious as the crimes he commits.
Snow is due to retire, but not before he discovers why someone killed his sergeant and is now coming after him.
The killer seems to have a personal vendetta against Snow, but he is determined that no one else should die because of him. His efforts are hampered by the arrival of a new sergeant, ‘ruthless’ Ruth Winton, for she is not what she seems.
Alarm bells start to ring when Snow realises she is after more than just his job
A five star review for the book
DI Snow is ready for retirement until his partner Detective Jim Harris is murdered. This single event sets into motion the department’s hunt for Jim’s killer. When Jim’s replacement, Ruth Winton, shows up, Snow takes an instant dislike to the woman. She seems competent, but there is something about her that rubs Snow the wrong way.
When more bodies start piling up with the same wounds that Jim received, Snow considers the murders are all connected. He knows time is running out to catch the killers, but he has a problem. His health has taken a turn for the worse. If he’s too ill to find the killer, who will?
Leave it to me to start a series with the third book! However, I found “CrossFire” to be a standalone book. There are references to DI David Snow’s other cases, but nothing I couldn’t follow.
The book reminds me of some of the British mysteries I watch on Amazon Prime. As the suspense built, I kept turning pages, eager to find out what happened next. The characters are interesting, with Snow taking on the characteristics of the troubled detective. I found him to be a likable guy. There is great detail paid to the backstory of the murderer, which helped to propel the story forward.
If you like psychological mysteries, this was a good read. I’m excited to read some of this author’s other mysteries. Perhaps I should start with the first book in the series!
Head over to buy the book: Amazon UK – And: Amazon US
Also by Jaye Marie
Read the reviews and buy the books:Amazon US – and: Amazon UK – Follow Jaye Marie : Goodreads – Jaye Marie: WordPress Blog – Twitter: @jaydawes2
About Jaye Marie
Jaye Marie came to writing rather late but has always loved books.
She enjoys reading many different genres, so was surprised to discover a passion for writing detective thrillers. Four of them to date, with more to follow.
She also enjoy running a website/blog and all the wonderful people she continues to meet from all around the world. She learns something new every single day and it is much appreciated.
The second author is Jessica Norrie and I can highly recommend her novel The Magic Carpet.
About The Magic Carpet
Outer London, September 2016, and neighbouring eight-year-olds have homework: prepare a traditional story to perform with their families at a school festival. But Nathan’s father thinks his son would be better off doing sums; Sky’s mother’s enthusiasm is as fleeting as her bank balance, and there’s a threatening shadow hanging over poor Alka’s family. Only Mandeep’s fragile grandmother and new girl Xoriyo really understand the magical powers of storytelling. As national events and individual challenges jostle for the adults’ attention, can these two bring everyone together to ensure the show will go on?
One of the reviews for The Magic Carpet
This is one of those books that make you glad to be a blogger. You know the ones. The quiet, under-the-radar books that don’t really register on the ‘must-read’ radar. They aren’t the ones that everyone is fighting for a review spot for. The ones with month long tours of five bloggers a day that no one can find anything new to say about it by the end of the tour. This is one of the ones that you volunteer for because it sounds interesting and you have a gap in your schedule. You want to help out the organiser. You pop it in your diary and pretty much forget about it until it comes round in your reading rotation. Then – boom – you realise that you have stumbled on a beautiful gem of a book, a nugget of gold that dropped into your palm unexpectedly and you are so, so glad that you are a book blogger and that has allowed you to discover THIS book, this book that changes the way you think about things, that makes you see the world differently after you’ve read it. This is what makes book blogging such a privilege and a joy.
This book is unassumingly beautiful in so many ways. The construction, following the stories of a community through the alternating voices of different members from different backgrounds and different generations as they work on a school project, works perfectly to give clear voices to the characters. The author makes them all so distinct and believable, by the end I felt like I really knew these people; they were MY friends, MY neighbours, and I just wanted every one of them to get that happy ending. I thought she did such an amazing job of making each voice so authentic, really capturing the difference in the thought processes and speech of the children, parents and grandparents. It’s obvious that she has spent a lot of time observing characters and understanding them.
This is the story of our changing society. Of how we are trying to assimilate different cultures, backgrounds and faiths and re-weaving the tapestry of our country to accommodate the changes they bring. It reflects the difficulties this can bring, the misunderstanding and isolation this can cause for people of all backgrounds, how sometimes we fail, how some people resist but, underlying it all there is a strong vein of kindness and compassion in most people. This book is so relevant to these difficult and turbulent times in which we currently find ourselves, when it is so easy to believe the world has become a dark and unfriendly place. This book, with its message of hope is a welcome beacon, and I do firmly believe that, for the most part, the majority of us are these kind, compassionate, empathetic and tolerant people portrayed, despite the volume of protest we often hear. For the sake of my children, I so desperately want this to be true.
Throughout the book, the author gives light to a range of difficulties facing these families, which are sometimes hard to read. Domestic violence, racism and prejudice, abuse, isolation, bereavement. Unpleasant topics, but ones that people struggle with daily, often in silence, and these are things that can be affecting children in school, regardless of whether people know about them or not. One of the issues explored is how problems that parents are struggling with but believe they are hiding from their children can have a profound effect on the child. Children are acutely aware and sensitive and, regardless of whether adults speak openly about their problems or not, they cannot fail to be affected. The book illustrates this beautifully and, I hope, it will make more adults think about how they address problems with their children. It is difficult to know how much children should be exposed to, and the book acknowledges and explores that dilemma, but it is impossible to shield them completely.
The underlying message of this story is that, underneath colour and nationality and religion, we have so much more in common that we have differences and the exercise of having the children retell fairy stories, using their own words, demonstrates how our stories have so many overlaps and common themes. People are people the world over and, going back, have the same fears and problems, joys and successes and have used stories to record these. I thought this was such a clever and success motif to get across the point. If we allow ourselves to see it, there is more that binds us than divides us and as a society we need to highlight these similarities, rather than focus on our differences.
I am so happy that this book crossed my path. It is a thought-provoking, beautiful, sad, difficult but uplifting story and I would urge everyone to read it. It deserves a huge audience.
Read the reviews and buy the book: Amazon UK – And : Amazon US
Also by Jessica Norrie in English and German
Jessica Norrie, Buy: Amazon UK – And: Amazon US – Website:Jessica Norrie on WordPress – Goodreads: Jessica Norrie – Twitter: @Jessica_Norrie
About Jessica Norrie
Jessica Norrie studied French literature at Sussex University, and trained as a teacher at Sheffield. Then she wandered into parenthood, told her now grown up children stories, and heard theirs. A qualified translator, she worked on an eclectic mix of material, from health reports on racehorses to harrowing refugee tales. She taught adults and children, co-authored a textbook and ran teacher training. In 2008 came the idea for “The Infinity Pool”, which appeared in 2015 (and in German in 2018). Her second novel “The Magic Carpet”, inspired by teaching creatively in multicultural schools, was published in July 2019, and she is working on a third. She divides her time between London and Malvern, blogging, singing soprano, and walking in the forest and hills.
Thanks for dropping in today and I hope you will be leaving with some books.. Sally.
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