Monthly Archives: September 2026

#coverreveal, Deborah Stone

Buried in Silence by Deborah Stone #coverreveal

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I’m thrilled to share the cover of Buried in Silence by Deborah Stone!

Deborah Stone

Blurb

The police say Calvin Cross died naturally.
Former Scotland Yard detective Ember Lockhart lost her career following a scandal. Now working as a private investigator, she is hired by Amelia Cross to investigate her husband’s sudden death on a flight into Heathrow.
Calvin had been frightened before he died, and the corrupted USB stick he left behind suggests he had good reason. As Ember begins asking questions, she is followed, warned and threatened to abandon the case. With reluctant help from her former colleague and ex-lover, Leo Campbell, she traces Calvin’s death to a secretive technology company involved in political blackmail and corporate espionage involving an elaborate plan to destabilise the British government.
Then Amelia is murdered, and the evidence is carefully arranged to frame Ember.
Charged with killing her own client, Ember must prove her innocence while pursuing an organisation prepared to eliminate anyone who gets in the way of their ultimate political goal.
*****
This sounds like it’s going to be a cracker of a read! I can’t wait for to come out.
Book Promo, Book Tour, crime writer, crime writing, Crime/Mystery, Edinburgh, Novels, police procedural, Val Penny

Murder in the New Town by Val Penny #MURDERINTHENEWTOWN

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I’m pleased to be welcoming author Val Penny and her newly re-branded DI Hunter Wilson series novel,  Murder in the New Town to Celtic Connexions.

Murder in the New Town

Blurb

Behind the elegant Georgian terraces of Edinburgh’s New Town, a killer is hiding in plain sight . . .

Detective Hunter Wilson is dragged from his bed by a frantic call in the early hours of the morning.

A young woman has been found dead in a flat above a betting shop on Frederick Street.

By the time Hunter arrives, it’s clear this wasn’t a crime of passion.

The victim has been beaten beyond recognition. The tips of her fingers are missing. The kitchen floor is soaked red with her blood.

Someone wanted to make sure she could never be identified.

But that’s not what stops Hunter in his tracks.

The flat is the home of his own son.

Murder in the New Town

Buy Links

PAPER BACK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/absolutely-gripping-Scottish-Detective-Mysteries/dp/1805737619

 KINDLE – https://www.amazon.co.uk/absolutely-gripping-Scottish-Detective-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B0H5QMD4CR

Excerpt

DI Hunter Wilson looked at the time on his phone before he answered the call. 4.03am. If this was some comedian from the sub-continent calling to tell him about putting in a claim for the accident he hadn’t had… Then he noticed it was Cameron calling him.

“What’s the matter, son? This is a hell of a time to phone.” Hunter whispered.

“I didn’t know who else to call.”

“What’s the matter? And it had better be good.”

“It’s far from good.” Cameron told his father of the scene that had met him and his new friends when they got back to his flat.

“She’s had what cut off? Bloody hell!”

“I know, Dad, I know. And her head has been bashed in too. What do I do?”

“Well, now we have Police Scotland in place there is a Major Incidents Team, imaginatively know as MIT, that deals with cases like this.”

“Oh, Dad no! The other girls’ll go mental. You come. Please? At least at first. I need your help.”

Hunter thought back to the days when Cameron used to ask for his help regularly: tying his shoelaces, drying him after swimming, learning to ride a bike. Those had been the golden years. It had been a long, long time since his son had sounded so desperate and pleaded for his help. It made Hunter feel good. He could help Cameron again. Brilliant! 

“You’re not back on the cocaine are you, Cameron? You’re not hallucinating?” Hunter said suddenly.

“No, I’m bloody not! But thanks for the vote of confidence. Believe me, I will be if you don’t get your arse over here pronto!”

“And that’s how you ask for help from your dad? A favour? Stuff you!” Hunter shouted back.

“What is it?” a bleary voice beside Hunter said.

“Please, Dad. Just come. I need you.” Cameron sounded like a little boy about to burst into tears. “Another person’s in my flat too. I’ve never seen her before. Just come, quickly, please Dad! I can’t tell you how awful it all is here.”

Hunter got out of bed and patted Meera’s arm. “Go back to sleep, pet. I’ve got to go and see Cameron. It’s an emergency.”

“At four o’clock in the morning? What’s wrong? Is he using again?”

“No. But he was out for the evening and got back to his home to find his flat mate dead on the floor”

“Why does he need you? Shouldn’t he call an ambulance?” Meera asked.

“It’s a bit late for that. She’s been mutilated; her head has been bashed in and the tops of her fingers cut off.”

“I’d guess she’s probably dead, right enough. But doesn’t Cameron need me more than he needs you? I’m coming with you,” Meera said in a determined voice that brooked no contradiction.

About the Author

Val Penny’s crime novels, form the bestselling series of DI Wilson Series set in Edinburgh.

She is an American author living in SW Scotland with her husband and their cat.

Follow Val at these links:

Website: https://www.valpenny.com

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B07C4725TK

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Authorvalpenny/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/valerieepenny/

Bluesky: https://www.bsky.app/profile/valpennyauthor/

Cath Staincliffe, crime writer, crime writing, Crime/Mystery, fiction, Novels, police procedural, suspense

Secrets on the Fells by Cath Staincliffe

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Today at Celtic Connexions, I’m reviewing Secrets on the Fells by Cath Staincliffe. The best part of being a blog tour host is discovering new authors and their books.

Cath StaincliffeBlurb

One bitter winter’s night, Detectives Donovan and Young are called to Fountains Abbey. A crumbling ruin out on the wild and windswept Yorkshire Fells. Where the air hangs heavy with local legend, ancient secrets and now the overpowering tang of freshly spilled blood.

College teacher Patrick Armitage lies sprawled across the stones, in a gory crimson pool. His handsome face is a mask of shock and disbelief.

Because Patrick’s not just been murdered. He’s been slaughtered. Stabbed over and over in the coldest blood.

Patrick was a devoted family man and everyone’s favourite drama teacher. Does that make him a tragic victim — or a consummate actor, who kept his true self hidden behind a spotless façade?

The deeper Donovan and Young dig, the more they realize that no one in this baffling case is quite what they seem.

Least of all Patrick’s grief-stricken widow. She begs the detectives for answers, but meets every question with hostile silence.

Then a vulnerable young witness vanishes from college.

And Young knows, with spine-tingling certainty, that Patrick’s killer is not done yet…
Cath StaincliffeBuy Links

Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/257572854-secrets-on-the-fells
Purchase Link https://mybook.to/secretsonthefells-zbt

My Review

While this is the third book in the author’s Donovan and Young series, the author shared enough of the characters’ backstories that I wasn’t confused about their working relationship or their personal ones with their spouses.

The book was fast-paced, and I enjoyed the differences between the two main characters. DC Shan Young is an eager and smart constable assigned to work with DI Leo Donovan.

The novel follows the pair as they unravel a murder at Fountains Abbey. I can’t tell you more without giving away spoilers.

This is definitely a series I’m anxious to read more of.

About the Author

Cath Staincliffe

Cath Staincliffe is a best-selling, award-winning novelist, radio playwright and creator of ITV’s hit show Blue Murder. Cath has been shortlisted for the CWA Daggers five times, winning 2012’s Short Story Dagger. She won the WGBB Best Radio Drama Award in 2019. Cath’s standalone titles describe the human impact of crime on ordinary families, giving voice to victims, the bereaved, survivors and witnesses.

Cath is a reading junkie who loves hill-walking or pottering in the garden. Her new detective series features chalk and cheese duo Leo Donovan and Shan Young in the stunning setting of the Yorkshire Dales.

Connect with Cath

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/authorcathstaincliffebooks/
X / Twitter https://x.com/CathStaincliffe
Website https://www.cathstaincliffe.co.uk/

Allison Symes, anthology, Book Promo, Books, Flash Fiction

Seeing the Other Side by Allison Symes #SEEINGTHEOTHERSIDE

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Today I’m hosting Allison Symes and her book, Seeing the Other Side.

Blurb

Perspective can be wonderful, but will you still feel the same if your view from the fence changes?

Allison Symes has long loved what can be done with flash fiction in terms of genre and even how it is presented. Here, you will find flash tales covering a wide range of genres. Some are written in acrostic format, some are linked flashes where a character will turn up in two or more tales revealing more about themselves as the stories go on, and many will make you laugh. Others will make you shudder. Justice is served in some of the tales too, though whether it is to the characters’ liking is another matter. Flash fiction is perfect for any mood or genre. Oh, and a Canada Goose comes into the book too.

Allison Symes, author of Seeing The Other Side, Tripping The Flash Fantastic and From Light to Dark and Back Again, is passionate about flash fiction and hopes her latest collection introduces more to the joy and fun of the form.

Exerpt

Getting Lost

 Where the hell was he now?

Goodness knew his sat nav had sent him in some strange directions in her time. He still hadn’t forgiven her for trying to send him the wrong way up a slip road. She’d told him the way so nicely too.

Well, she wasn’t catching him out with her tricks again. No way! He’d been checking the route before setting off. If her route didn’t match hers, tough. Like Sinatra, he would do it his way.

He thought back. Yes, he’d been looking for The Oak as he used pubs as landmarks. What he had found was a horse chestnut. He grimaced. He could’ve sworn he’d only winged it but that dent in his Audi would take some shifting. Still, that could be sorted out later.

Gloomy place this, he thought. Won’t get many visitors until they tart the place up a bit.

He sniffed. There was a distinct smell of rotten eggs. Oh yes, that would probably be the sulphur.

Now if he could only figure out where the hell he was, he would move on.

Buy Links

KINDLE – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Seeing-Other-Side-Allison-Symes-ebook/dp/B0H6MQFN8K

PAPERBACK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Seeing-Other-Side-Allison-Symes/dp/1915762456

About the Author

Allison writes flash fiction and short stories; she has been published online and in print by Bridge House Publishing, Cafelit, Iron Press and Chapeltown Books, who published her first flash fiction collection, From Light to Dark and Back Again in 2017.

Her second flash fiction collection, Tripping The Flash Fantastic, has now been published by Chapeltown Books.

She was one of the winners of the 2020 Waterloo Arts Festival Writing Competition with my story, Books and the Barbarians. She was one of the winners of this competition three years in a row. Please see Transforming Communities, To Be…To Become and Transforming Being as these are the compilations of the winning entries. Later in 2020 there should be a paperback of these three ebooks.

She also blogs for Chandler’s Ford Today, an online community magazine, and usually on topics of interest to other writers.She also writes for online writing magazine, Writers’ Narrative, and is one of their team of editors and also a freelance editor and runs workshops on that and on flash fiction.

Follow Allison at these links:

Website: https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com/

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Allison-Symes/author/B07T3HT18L

Books: http://author.to/AllisonSymesAuthorCent

YouTube:   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPCiePD4p_vWp4bz2d80SJA/

Facebook – Author Page – https://www.facebook.com/Allison.Symes.FairytaleLady

Facebook – Book Page  (called From Light to Dark and Back Again – I focus on flash fiction here) – https://www.facebook.com/fairytaleladyallisonsymes/

Substack – https://substack.com/@allisonsymeswriter1

Chandler’s Ford Today Author Page – Allison’s Weekly Column –  http://chandlersfordtoday.co.uk/author/allison-symes/

19th Century Architecture, architectural symbolism, atmospheric fiction, Book Launch, contemporary fiction, dual timeline, dual-timeline, haunted, Historical Fiction, King Park Press, modern researchers uncover past, Mystery, Novels, occult, Paranormal, SECRETS THROUGH TIME, supernatural elements, suspense, thriller, time-layered narrative

It’s release day for SECRETS THROUGH TIME!

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The wait is over… SECRETS THROUGH TIME has arrived!

For years, Milford Manor has held onto its secrets. Now, readers can finally step inside the forgotten rooms, uncover the hidden passages, and discover the mysteries buried beneath the ashes of Milford Hollow.

Yes, I’m a wee bit excited. Nervous, too, letting my latest book baby free in the outside world.

release day
ID 144571891 © Melinda Nagy | Dreamstime.com

Blurb

Past and present collide when echoes of the haunted emerge and secrets refuse to remain buried

When Nicole, her brothers and her husband stumble upon the ruins of Milford Hollow, a ghost town long forgotten by history, they’re drawn to the only building left standing: the crumbling stone shell of Milford Manor.

Rumours circulated about the fire that devoured the town despite its closeness to Little Lake, and something unexplainable drove those who survived the inferno away.

Inside the manor’s scorched walls, Nicole senses she’s not alone. Whispers drift through the halls, and a long-faded family portrait seems to watch her every move.

As Nicole unravels the manor’s dark past, she discovers a tragedy that links her own world to the secrets of a family long dead—and learns that some fires never truly burn out.

release day

If you pre-ordered SECRETS THROUGH TIME, it will magically appear on your device today.

Thank you to everyone who followed along on this journey—from the first glimpses of the characters to the mysteries hidden within the walls of Milford Manor. I hope you enjoy uncovering the secrets as much as I enjoyed creating them.

While I’m celebrating launch day at the local market, I’m thrilled that SECRETS THROUGH TIME is finally available for readers everywhere.

If you haven’t, you can order at this link: https://books2read.com/u/bMkj0V

Please enjoy the trailer I created to go with the book.