Monty's Book Reviews

  Widdershins Newcastle Witch Trials Book 1 Helen Steadman 5 Stars Pages: 300 Genre: Historical Fiction Published: 08 April 2022 Publisher: Bell Jar Books Publisher's Blurb ‘Did all women have something of the witch about them?’ Jane Chandler is an apprentice healer. From childhood, she and her mother have used herbs to cure the sick. But Jane will soon learn that her sheltered life in a small village is not safe from the troubles of the wider world. From his father’s beatings to his uncle’s raging sermons, John Sharpe is beset by bad fortune. Fighting through personal tragedy, he finds his purpose: to become a witch-finder and save innocents from the scourge of witchcraft. Inspired by true events, Widdershins tells the story of the women who were persecuted and the men who condemned them. My Review Based on a real life witch trial in northern England, Widdershins is a fascinating look at the motivation and methods of the so-called Witchfinders who persecuted innocent women, and th...

  The Lady's Guide to Escaping Cannibals Emmanuelle De Maupassant 4 Stars Adventure Ahoy! A lady's search for her missing brother takes her to the remote island of Vanuaka under the seeming protection of Captain Jorge de Silva. Battling her deepest fears, an erupting volcano and a bunch of cannibals, Lady Bathsheba Asquith finds herself in a desperate struggle to survive. Amidst all this, she finds herself drawn to the handsome Captain. A fun adventure story, with a piratical theme, containing some sensual adult content that was an interesting listen. Audio narration was excellent and professionally produced with additional sound effects Sleepless Night Audrey Walker 5 Stars First book in the 'Shelby Griffin' mystery thriller series. Great characters and an intriguing plot that sees Shelby and her partner embroiled in a gang dispute. An excellent introduction to the series One-Eyed Cy Gets Something to do Simon Carr 5 Stars Cy is reclassified as a pirate when his monste...

The Prisoner of Acre Murray Bailey Ash Carter Near East Thriller Book 4 5 Stars Publisher's Blurb Ash Carter returns to Israel on what should be a straightforward mission. However there is a mystery. Why did Alfred Duffy go AWOL from the British Army, go to Israel and then hand himself in at Acre Prison. The mystery deepens when Carter finds that Duffy escaped just as he arrived. The hunt begins but as the mystery unravels towards an exciting climax, it becomes unclear who is the hunter and who the hunted. Review A simple collection of an A.W.O.L. soldier who has handed himself in at Acre prison goes catastrophically wrong when the prisoner escapes shortly before Ash Carter arrives for the pick up. What follows is a far from straight forward 'prisoner on the run' chase that ultimately turns deadly. Book 4 in Murray Bailey's acclaimed 'Near East' crime series is a well researched, thrill-a-minute adventure story that propels the reader on a frantic manhunt throug...

  Special Edition of Daffodils and Deadly Deeds Do you enjoy clean heartwarming mysteries with gentle humour and a lighter tone - nothing too graphic, gory or profound? Are you intrigued by small town charm and historic English settings? Do you relish teaming up with a savvy female amateur sleuth to solve a puzzling whodunit? Then you'll love Daffodils and Deadly Deeds. Cosy crime whodunit, Daffodils and Deadly Deeds, is the latest installment in the Dotty Sayers Antique Mystery series featuring thirty-three-year-old aspiring antique expert, Dotty Sayers, and her British Blue cat, Earl Grey. (If you’d like to find out how Dotty was drawn into her first case - read the free series prequel  here .) Readers have been rooting for Dotty in the previous eight books in the series as she grows from a downtrodden, timid, military widow, to an independent young woman. Through hard work and her ability to connect the dots, she's blossoming into a confident i...

With 2024 now nearly a week old, I thought I'd compile a list of my top ten books of 2023. Unfortunately I've not been able to whittle it down to just ten so I tried to make it my favourite ten authors. Once again I failed as there are so many great books I didn't want to leave out. Even so I've had to be harsh and leave out many that would've made last years list (what do you mean I didn't publish a list last year? Yeah, I know, I was too busy reading and writing reviews and I completely forgot) My list is composed of 15 authors and contains 42 books from a variety of genres (it could easily have been 60 books from the 400 I read last year (ok, some of those were quite short and I've not got much else to do) Lets get on with it I hear you yell, so without further ado and in no particular order, these were my favourite reads of 2023 Scratch that. I'm going to list them in alphabetical order by author surname so no further favouritism can be gleaned from ...

  Hersassin Dan Abubakar 4 Stars Genre: Action, Adventure, Crime, Mystery, Thriller Pages: 266 Published: 11 November 2023 Publisher: Independently Published Publisher's Blurb /ha'sasn/ noun : a woman skilled in the fine art of death. Years after defying direct orders and relentlessly pursuing the man responsible for the murder of her partner and his family, Leah Givens is granted a second chance within the ranks of the CIA. Her new assignment: to monitor a university professor in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. What begins as routine surveillance takes a perilous turn as her new partner disappears, her subject meets an untimely demise, and a long-buried assassin from her past resurfaces. Leah finds herself entangled in a high-stakes race against time, where failure could result in a catastrophic event of unimaginable proportions. In "Hersassin," Dan Abubakar expertly weaves together heart-pounding action and relentless suspense in a masterfully crafted thriller that will ca...