Rewind, recap: Weekly update w/e 04/08/19

Well this week has been a blast. Only two and half days in work and then I broke up for a long weekend of bookish fun. Yes, it was time for Bute Noir 2019. An absolutely cracking line up of authors, some truly amazing weather and some of the finest cake I have had the pleasure of eating, and it has led to one outstanding weekend. A massive thank you to Craig Robertson and all of the fabulous Bute Noir team for all of their hard work. If you are looking for a brilliant community led, regional festival to attend, you need to be hitting Bute Noir in 2020. You won’t regret it.

Now I will do more of a write up of the event when I get home – wifi is a little patchy here – but with writers such as Ann Cleeves, Stuart MacBride, Luca Veste, Ian Rankin, Mark Billingham, Chris Brookmyre, Mick Herron, Lin Anderson and Denise Mina at the festival, you can understand why I am still trying to take it all in. And no way in hell did I ever imagine I would be sat in a library on a small island, listening to all the folks around me singing a song with a chorus that has the liberal dropping of the c-bomb, but there you go.

All of this bookishness means I have bought and read very little this week. I did buy a couple of book off the back of some of the panels, Douglas Linsday’s Song of the Dead and Oscar de Muriel’s The Strings of Murder. Sounded right up my street.

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Obviously, with being at a book festival, it would have been rude to come away completely empty handed, so seeing as how Noelle Holten’s publishers saw fit to give her book, Dead Inside, a facelift, I have a new (signed) copy of that, and also Lisa Gray’s Thin Air.

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Netgalley wise I have had two titles. Louise Jensen’s The Family and Alison Belsham’s Her Last Breath.Looking forward to both of those.

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One Good Deed – David Baldacci

Murder and family secrets, a touch of romance and deeply-felt revenge – with the twist of all twists – make up the perfect page-turning thriller, One Good Deed.

For all those who love mystery, crime, Raymond Chandler and Agatha Christie from one of the world’s bestselling thriller writers, David Baldacci.

In 1949, Aloysius Archer arrives in the dusty Southern town of Poca City. He has nothing but a handful of dollars, the clothes he’s wearing and an appointment with his new parole officer. After his wartime experiences in Italy and a prison sentence for a crime he didn’t commit, Archer is looking for a fresh start and a peaceful life.

On his first night of freedom, Archer meets local business tycoon Hank Pittleman, who promises Archer handsome compensation to work as his debt collector. Yet Archer takes on more than he bargains for, as he becomes embroiled in a long-running feud between the drought-struck town’s most dangerous residents. When one of them dies, the authorities label Archer as their number one suspect.

A bloody game is being played above and below the law. Everybody playing has a deeply buried secret, and Archer must uncover them all – if he’s to avoid going back behind bars.

Dead Guilty – Michelle Davies

Dead Guilty by Michelle Davies is the captivating fourth novel in the critically acclaimed Maggie Neville series, following False Witness.

Has the killer in DC Maggie Neville’s cold case returned after a decade of silence?

Katy Pope was seventeen when she was brutally murdered on a family holiday in Majorca. Despite her mother’s high rank in the Met and the joint major investigation between the British and Spanish police, Katy’s killer was never caught.

Ten years later, Katy’s family return to the Spanish island to launch a fresh appeal for information, taking with them the now skeletal team of investigating Met detectives, and newly seconded Maggie as the family liaison officer.

But Maggie’s first international investigation quickly goes from being more than just a press conference when another British girl there on holiday goes missing, and Katy’s killer announces that it’s time for an encore . . .

That was it reading wise. Recap on last weeks posts below:

Penshaw – LJ Ross
Time of my Life – Laura Heffernan
Sisters of Willow House – Susanne O’Leary
Dark Secrets – Jack Steele
A Whisker in the Dark – Leighann Dobbs

So the week ahead is a mixed bag, and aside from a day trip to Edinburgh for the festival, we are definitely slowing down for the summer. We have tour posts for A Dream of Italy by Nicky Pellegrino and Mark Tilbury’s Torment and not a lot else this week. Looking forward to just reading and writing.

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I hope you all have a fabulously bookish week, and I’ll see you on the other side.

Jen