Blog Archives
The Book of Unforgivable Sins
If you like stories that ask what “unforgivable” really means while still delivering car wrecks, library heists, and small-town apocalypses, you’ll enjoy this book. The Book of Unforgivable Sins throws an immortal woman who has spent five thousand years sealed in a tomb together with a stressed-out archaeology student, then sends them racing from Egypt to Dublin to Chicago and small-town Iowa to find a legendary volume and stop an ancient sorcerer’s followers from using a death ritual to wipe out entire populations. Ricky Crowe, still cursed with immortality after an earlier showdown over the Scroll of Life and Death, is freed from Shendjw’s hidden mastaba by Jabari, a young Egyptian American on his first big dig, and the two of them chase clues to Marsh’s Library in Dublin, where The Book of Unforgivable Sins holds a handwritten version of the ritual that can strip Shendjw of his power and potentially save the world.
This one is fast and loud and sometimes a little wild, and I enjoyed that vibe a lot. The opening in Tarkhan grabbed me straight away, with Jabari’s mixture of awe and petty academic misery, and the whole sequence of him sneaking back into the tomb, cracking the ghost door, and finding “the mummy” in the sarcophagus had that great horror-movie energy that made me grin and wince at the same time. Once Ricky enters the story, the tone shifts into this snarky, bruised, found-family thriller that really worked for me. Her voice is sharp and funny, and the banter with Jabari, Adams, Green, and the others kept scenes from getting too grim even as bodies turned to ash in places like Marksville. The book leans on exposition about the earlier adventure with Cessair and the Scroll, though. There are chunks where characters sit and explain the previous novel and the metaphysics of the ritual, and every so often, that slowed the pace for me, even if the information was needed.
What I enjoyed was the mix of big ideas under all the chases and shootouts. The story keeps coming back to what immortality really costs and what people will do when they believe their cause is holy enough to excuse anything. Ricky’s five thousand years in the dark is not treated like a cool superpower; it feels like trauma and boredom and madness and survivor’s guilt, and the book is pretty blunt about how that messes with her. In the end, there is justice, a kind that left me uncomfortable in a good way, and I liked that the novel lets that sit instead of pretending it is simple.
By the time I turned the last page, I felt like I had gone through a whole season of a dark, pulpy TV show with these characters. The prose is straightforward and punchy, the jokes land more often than not, and the set pieces feel cinematic, even when the plot occasionally sprawls, and the mythology gets dense. I would happily recommend The Book of Unforgivable Sins to readers who enjoy contemporary fantasy thrillers with ancient magic, cults, and a bit of gallows humor.
Pages: 321 | ASIN : B0GQ6R7BD4
The Man in the Dam
Andrea Barton’s The Man in the Dam is a contemporary cozy-style mystery set around Mansfield and Lake Eildon in Victoria’s High Country, where journalist Jade Riley is meant to be writing a feel good arts piece about a local production of The Importance of Being Earnest. Instead, she wakes after a tense night with her partner Brett, spots a body in the property’s paddock dam, and the week turns into a knot of interviews, small-town suspicion, and a mystery that widens beyond that first death into family history and hidden motives.
What I liked most is how Barton anchors the book in everyday texture before letting the plot accelerate. The opening has that sharp, slightly painful intimacy of real life: Jade replaying a relationship argument, noticing mess on the counter, trying to steady herself, and then the sudden wrongness of seeing “something” in the water that becomes a person. The writing is clean and easy to move through, with lots of forward motion. And I enjoyed the author’s playful structural choice to use song titles for chapters, plus the nod to a playlist, which fits the creative-arts thread without turning the novel into a gimmick.
Barton’s bigger swing, though, is the way she braids “performance” into everything: the literal theatre production, the public masks people wear in a small town, and the private selves they protect when grief and money and reputation start pressing in. That theme lands because it shows up in character choices, not speeches. Jade is a journalist, so she has a believable reason to ask questions, notice tells, and keep pushing even when it gets uncomfortable. I also appreciated that the story doesn’t stay simple. It adds layers of family backstory and a second mystery that turns the book into something closer to a puzzle box, where one answer opens the next door and you start wondering how far back the damage really goes.
I’d recommend The Man in the Dam to readers who like character-driven mysteries with a strong sense of place, a community cast, and an investigation that feels like it’s happening over cups of coffee and awkward conversations rather than car chases. If you enjoy amateur-sleuth stories, theatre and arts settings, and mysteries that mix present-day danger with long shadows from the past, you’ll have a very good time with The Man in the Dam.
Pages: 310 | ASIN : B0GGWHFPY9
Libraries Preserve Stories
Dead Drop in Lily Rock follows a newly unhoused hiker as a Fourth of July stopover turns into an investigation of a murder at a library where classic-book devotion and small-town secrets lead to an interesting culprit. What sparked the idea to make a library the crime scene, and to make books function as evidence?
A Little Free Library is one of the last places we’d expect violence. Quiet, ordered, built on the assumption that knowledge is shared freely and stories are preserved with care. That sense of safety is exactly what made it the right crime scene.
Mysteries disrupt what feels stable in a community. A murder in a back alley is tragic. A murder at a Little Free Library is personal. It unsettles a town’s sense of who it is. It forces people to ask not just who did this, but why would anyone violate a community service devoted to ideas?
In Dead Drop in Lily Rock, books aren’t props. They’re catalysts. They carry history, ideology, memory, and sometimes controversy. A bookmark can signal allegiance. A marginal note can reveal motive. A banned title tucked into a Little Free Library can expose fault lines in a community that otherwise prides itself on harmony.
I was also drawn to the metaphor: Libraries preserve stories. A murder investigation uncovers one.
In Lily Rock, stories matter. So when something violent interrupts that space, the truth has to be found between the lines.
Officer Janis “Jets” Jets’s sarcasm is practically a climate. How did her voice develop, and what role does she play in shaping the tone of the series?
Janis’s voice developed before Avery arrived in Lily Rock. She first appeared in the original Welcome to Lily Rock Mystery series, sent as an undercover cop during the holiday season. Once Olivia arrives, in Getaway Death, Janis becomes the counterweight to Olivia’s empathy. When Olivia leans into intuition and connection, Janis leans into process and proof.
Her sarcasm grew organically out of that tension.
Small-town policing is intimate. You’re not just enforcing laws, you’re dealing with neighbors, gossip, fragile reputations, and people you’ve known since high school. Sarcasm became Janis’s armor. It’s how she maintains authority without becoming brittle. It’s how she keeps her footing when emotion threatens to swamp the facts.
In the Avery Denning books, Janis serves as tonal ballast. Avery feels the world deeply—animals, shifts in energy, subtle emotional undercurrents. Janis cuts through that with sharp clarity. Her voice sharpens scenes, prevents sentimentality, and keeps the series from floating away into pure intuition.
If Avery listens to crows, Janis reads warrants and sometimes invents her own to make a point.
Lily Rock feels authentic down to Mayor Maguire’s bookmark celebrity. What’s your process for inventing those hyper-specific town details without overloading the story?
I treat Lily Rock like a real town with zoning restrictions and a Chamber of Commerce. Before I write, I quietly ask the following:
What would this town brag about?
What would they put on a postcard?
What would they argue about at the hardware store?
Mayor Maguire, the labradoodle with local celebrity status, began as a small detail. But once he existed, the town responded to him. Someone would absolutely put him on bookmarks. Someone else would roll their eyes about it. Others called him psychic without knowing why. That’s how details become an ecosystem rather than decoration.
The key to avoiding overload is restraint. I think of world-building like seasoning. The reader doesn’t need the entire spice rack. They need the right pinch at the right moment.
A Little Free Library doesn’t need a full architectural history. It needs one crooked hinge, a banned book tucked inside, and a note written in a hurried hand.
Specificity creates authenticity. Selectivity creates readability.
How do you design clue trails so they feel fair and still deliver a snap of surprise?
For me, fairness is sacred to a mystery.
I design clues in three layers:
- Visible clues – The reader sees exactly what the sleuth sees. No hidden evidence withheld unfairly.
- Misinterpreted clues – These are the magic ones. The clue is accurate, but its meaning is slightly bent by context emotion, or assumption.
- Quiet clues – Small, almost throwaway details that only gain weight later.
The “snap” of surprise happens when a reader realizes: Oh. That was there the whole time.
I avoid surprise for shock’s sake. Instead, I aim for inevitability disguised as misdirection. The ending should feel both startling and earned.
And perhaps most important: I design suspect motivations before I design mechanics. If the emotional truth tracks, the clue trail will feel organic.
Mystery, at its heart, isn’t about trickery.
It’s about perception.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website | Audible | Amazon
Instead, she finds a murdered woman at the foot of a Little Free Library.
Arriving in the mountain town of Lily Rock for the Fourth of July weekend, Avery plans to rent a room from Stella Rawlins—a friendly local known for her love of books and quiet acts of defiance. When Stella is killed by a sabotaged firecracker hidden inside her library, Avery becomes the discovery witness… and an immediate suspect.
With parades planned and tensions rising over which books belong on public shelves, Lily Rock’s only police officer, Janis Jets, has her hands full. Olivia Greer, a constabulary consultant with a gift for listening, offers Avery a place to stay—and a chance to explain how she ended up at the scene of the crime.
As Avery begins asking questions, she uncovers a secret network of Little Free Libraries, anonymous religious threats tucked inside children’s books, and a second shocking death that turns the case deeply personal. Along the way, she reconnects with Brad May—older, steadier, and quietly trying to make a better life—awakening feelings Avery thought she’d left behind.
Soon it’s clear this isn’t just about books.
It’s about control, belonging, and who gets to decide which stories are worth protecting.
Armed with sharp instincts, a knack for noticing what others miss, and the growing realization that her outsider status may be her greatest strength, Avery steps into a role she never expected: amateur sleuth.
But in Lily Rock, asking the wrong questions can be deadly…
and staying might mean risking her heart as well as her life.
Dead Drop in Lily Rock launches a new mystery series set in the beloved Lily Rock universe—perfect for readers who love small-town whodunits, strong women sleuths, and cozy mysteries with heart.
The Quarry
The Quarry is a literary historical crime novel set around an Absheron stone quarry and the shifting criminal and political world of late Soviet Azerbaijan. It follows the rise and decline of Sani Absheronski, a legendary “thief in law,” and his uneasy rivalry with Malikajdar, the village “Aga” who builds an empire on fish, flowers, and quiet deals with generals. Around them orbit people like disabled ex dancer Maria, her sharp granddaughter Samaya, and Malikajdar’s son Hatam, whose secret love affair ties the families together. The story moves from the 1950s settlement days, through prison intrigues and black market schemes, to a violent tangle of betrayals that ends in Sani’s murder and the silence of Black January settling over Baku.
I felt like I was being let into a long, layered village conversation, where one story leads into another, and nobody ever starts at the real beginning. The writing has that oral, “come closer, let me tell you” feeling, especially in Maria’s long confession about the war, exile, and how she ended up in the quarry and in Sani’s bed. I sometimes got a bit lost in the flood of names and nicknames, and the translation keeps some awkward turns of phrase, but it also preserves the local flavor, the mix of Azerbaijani, Russian, and Tatar criminal slang. The novel is most alive when people are talking around a table, passing tea and money and half truths. As a literary historical crime novel, it moves more by memory and gossip than by big set-piece scenes, which makes the world feel lived in, even when the timeline slips, and I had to mentally backtrack.
I liked how the book keeps rubbing together the sacred and the dirty. Malikajdar runs a sanctuary and hires boats, bribes a general and still worries about who gets his blessing. Maria loses her legs to the saws of the quarry and then drags herself from shrine to shrine, trying to bargain with God for a different ending to her life. Samaya holds up the whole fragile family and still gets pulled into an affair that can only hurt her. The author keeps asking small, human questions inside big historical ones. What does loyalty look like when your “brothers” are criminals. How far can kindness go in a corrupt system before it breaks. By the time Sani is shot by a man calling him “brother,” and the crash and the roar of military planes fade into the bloody quiet of Black January, the metaphor is not subtle, but it is effective. Personal feuds feel tiny against the weight of tanks, yet the book insists they matter.
The Quarry is not a sleek thriller, and if you want a fast, twisty crime plot, this will probably feel slow and heavy. But if you are up for a grounded, talkative, sometimes messy literary historical crime novel that opens a window on late Soviet Azerbaijani life, with all its compromises and quiet courage, The Quarry is worth the time. I would especially recommend it to readers who enjoy character-focused sagas, who do not mind following a big cast across decades, and to anyone curious about how crime, family, and politics get tangled together on the margins of empire.
Pages: 229 | ASIN : B0882YSFVB
Beleive in the Characters
Say Goodbye, Misty Day follows a charismatic film star in the 1940s who is found dead in a Yorkshire hotel, leaving those still alive to explore questions about the cost of ambition and success. What first drew you to Misty Day as a character, even before her death?
The idea of Misty Day was born in a museum in Baku, Azerbaijan. There in the museum was a collection of the most exquisite dolls, which were handmade. It was from a doll that her basic character was created. I never saw her as a victim, she was a beautiful, strong young woman, who did not quit but fought back. The women I had in mind were Diana Dors a beautiful and talented actress. then the singularly talented actor that was Marilyn Monroe. These actors and of course Misty Day were not allowed to break free from their social structure. Misty Day was subject to hate mail and death threats and then out of jealousy was murdered. However, she was the triumphant one the end. Did she win the Oscar?
Misty is both central and absent. Do you think Misty is more a victim, a catalyst, or a mirror for the other characters?
I certainly do not consider Misty Day as a victim. Because the label stops the reader from seeing her worth. Nor is she a catalyst for the tragedy of others. She is a young woman who wanted to be something more than what she started out as. The dance that Hedda Pulse creates toward the end of the book shows us a power that has reached great heights, and she got there without stepping over others or hurting them. She is the mirror. It shows us what dreams are made from and what sacrifices you give up along the way in order to reach success. For Misty, she was determined that she would stay true to herself and that is the reflection that she would want people to see.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
You are right when you described some of the themes as raw! especially the death of the baby. It is partly biographical, my mother had a little girl who died, before she even had a chance to live. It was the same with Michael. He struggled to life and then his death was hard to write and I recognise that it is also a difficult chapter to read. Another compelling theme was that of domestic violence and how it is dealt with. For Petal it is the constant emotional and physical abuse that oftgen reduces her to the shadows. What I did not want was that the male character, the abuser should dominate and feel that their actions can be justified. In the case of the Petal and Frank they are eventually brought back together when they realise that both of them had been played.
The nicer themes of dance and comic elements give the book a sense of Britishness and character. The names were important and I think believable because, the story is believable.
How do you hope readers think differently about fame after finishing the book?
For me fame was never the most important aspect of the book. I wanted Misty to succeed because she needed to achieve. the most important aspect that a reader can take from the book are the characters. Grace Ful, the owner of the hotel. Geoffrey and Bertha Goodegge, staunch supporters of Grace. The Schnitzel sisters and their rise and fall and eventual rise again.
The focus on the Russian theme and the joining together of a family once more after the trauma of the fall and rise of family caught in the politics of change, under a regime that hated its people. I wanted that to be powerful and joyous.
What I want the reader to take from reading the book is the joy I had in writing it. I want them to believe in the characters. I leave the ending up to you the reader, does Misty Day win the oscar? well that is up to you. For me, I have already won something by the fact that I have had some excellent reviews. I believe in this book and believe that is should be read by as people as is possible.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website
In the chaotic world of 1940s England, where ambition clashes with tragedy and jealousy lurks in the shadows, one woman’s journey to stardom defies the odds.
Misty Day, a stunning and charismatic performer, rises from the glittering lights of the Fluff Queen stage to the silver screen; she captivates hearts and provokes envy in equal measure.
But as Misty navigates the treacherous waters of fame, she is haunted by poison pen letters, death threats and emotional turmoil from those who seek to shatter her dreams. Amidst the glamour, she finds solace at the Morning Glory Hotel and in the unlikely friendship of Hedda Pulse, an exotic dancer who has known profound loss yet emerges stronger, embodying resilience and grace. Together, they confront the emotional storms of despair, laughter, and pain, each step drawing them closer to the truth about ambition and the cost of success.
Say Goodbye, Misty Day is a stirring tale that captivates the heart, exploring the depths of human emotion and the power of hope. Will Misty triumph over the darkness that threatens to consume her, or will jealousy extinguish her light? Join her on this unforgettable journey of self-discovery and empowerment, where every setback is a setup for a comeback, and every goodbye is a step towards finding oneself.
Bring The Perpetrators To Justice
In The Long Game, a detective inspector discovers the horrifying truth behind the disappearances and murders of young girls in London. Where did the idea for this novel come from, and how did it develop over time?
The book is based loosely on the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, that is currently blowing up again. When I first started realising the horrors of what was occurring in this institutional sex trafficking operation, that seems like it has been operating with impunity for decades, I spent a lot of time thinking how it would be possible to bring the perpetrators to justice, when you’re fighting against such large and powerful organisations and individuals. My thought process led me to believe that the only way of infiltrating or fighting such evil, would be something completely radical, and involve investigators plunging into the gutter with them.
What was your writing process to ensure you captured the essence of the characters?
The heroes in the book were based virtually all on people I know, or have worked with over the years, and I took their personality, mannerisms and expressions and transferred them into the role they played in this book. For the villains, I tried to make them as unlikeable and vile as possible, drawing on experiences such as bad bosses I have had over the year, or unlikeable characters I have encountered.
What research did you do for this novel to get it right?
I have family members who used to work in the police, so I was able to draw on their knowledge for those aspects of the book. In regards to the criminals, it’s difficult to research extensively, as the subject matter is so taboo, but I drew on witness testimonies and accounts from survivors and investigators involved in Epstein and similar atrocities.
What is the next book you are working on, and when will it be available?
Good question. I wasn’t planning to do a sequel to the Long Game, and had started writing another book about international government and institutional corruption, and how the decisions they take affect ordinary lives. I then had a weekend where the whole premise of a sequel to the Long Game came to me, so I am currently stuck deciding between the two books, and which one to finish and release next. I will make that decision soon, and hope to have a finished book by the end of summer 2026.
Author Links: GoodReads | Instagram
When DCI Michael Dack is caught on camera abducting a young girl, the case should be open-and-shut. But nearly three years later, Dack resurfaces — not as a suspect, but as the head of a new police task force investigating a string of similar child exploitation crimes across London.
As the investigation deepens, so do the questions. Is Dack a rogue officer working undercover to expose a corrupt network? Or is he orchestrating the very horrors he claims to be hunting? His team is forced to confront the chilling possibility that the man leading the charge may be the monster they’re trying to stop.
Set against the gritty backdrop of modern-day London, The Long Game plunges into the murky world of police corruption, moral compromise and institutional rot. With echoes of real-world scandals, this is a tense psychological crime thriller, packed with jaw-dropping twists and morally grey characters that will keep readers turning pages deep into the night.
Perfect for fans of Line of Duty, Luther, and dark British police procedurals. If you like your crime fiction hard-hitting, thought-provoking and disturbingly plausible, you won’t be able to put this down.
A Dangerous Man
A Dangerous Man by J.L. Engel is an action thriller with a pulp-noir edge, built around a roaming vigilante known as Ghost who has been leaving bodies behind in city after city, until his campaign slams into Boston in what the media dubs “The Boston Massacre.” The story fans out from there into a manhunt and a larger conspiracy: an FBI agent (Connor Stone) and a seasoned Boston detective get pulled into the wake of Ghost’s violence, while corruption inside law enforcement and organized crime tighten the net, including a commissioner implicated in trafficking. By the time the book points its flashlight past the street-level players, it’s hinting at an even bigger, shadowy figure in the international crime world, “Mr. X,” waiting beyond the last page like a locked door you know is going to open later.
I liked how Engel chose to start. Not with a cool-guy monologue or a slow build, but with a 9-1-1 call from a terrified missing child while gunfire cracks in the background. Then he follows it with a procedural, boots-on-the-ground sweep where SWAT walks into a slaughter and finds women and children packed into a cellar like discarded cargo. That choice sets the tone: this book wants you unsettled, and it wants you there. The writing is detailed and tactical, with a lot of attention to how law enforcement moves and reacts, and it keeps hopping across multiple points of view to keep pressure on the story.
The author doesn’t pretend the world here is tidy. Ghost is framed as both a warning and a weapon, and the book leans into the ugly truth that “justice” can feel satisfying even when it’s horrifying, like when the commissioner publicly refuses to back an arrest and resigns on the spot. At the same time, Engel keeps poking at what all this spectacle does to victims, and how the internet turns real suffering into an endless loop of commentary. The most grounding choice, for me, is that Ghost isn’t just a killing machine. He’s powered by grief, and the book lets you feel the soft, dangerous pull of memory when he sees a news anchor who reminds him of his wife, Veronica, and his focus nearly slips. That emotional thread doesn’t excuse what he does, but it does give the story a heartbeat under all the impact.
If you like gritty crime thrillers and high-velocity vigilante stories, this one will be a great read, especially if you’ve ever enjoyed the blunt momentum of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher books or the darker comic-book mood of The Punisher, and you don’t mind your thrillers looking straight at ugly subject matter. The book itself invites a “Taken” comparison in spirit and intensity, and that’s not a bad shorthand for the kind of ride it is. I’d recommend A Dangerous Man most to readers who want relentless action plus a conspiracy thread that keeps widening, and who can handle graphic violence and disturbing trafficking-related scenes without needing the narrative to soften the edges. If you want a hard, propulsive thriller that doesn’t flinch, it’s worth your time.
Pages: 454 | ASIN : B0G2HXRHZV
True and Imagined Drama
On the Brink follows an ambitious man from childhood schemes into the ruthless advertising world of 1960s New York, where early trauma, unchecked ambition, and a single reckless choice put his hard-won future at risk. What first sparked the idea for On the Brink?
I had written a few books featuring Dave Powers, unfortunately publishing them without editing. When I decided to convert the books into a series, I began with Dave as a child. The fireworks caper was a critical part of the story.
The novel emphasizes momentum—how one choice leads to another. Was that a guiding principle from the start?
Yes. I created dramatic scenes (both true and imagined) to propel the storyline.
Since the novel is based on true events, how did you decide where to stay close to reality and where to fictionalize?
I tried to stay close to reality as much as possible. I deviated when I needed a more dramatic scene to move the action forward. In these cases, I created an extraordinary event to replace an uninteresting one. In these cases, the result is fact, not the process.
Is this the first book in the series? If so, when is the next book coming out, and what can your fans expect in the next story?
Yes, it is Book 1. All four books are published and I’m in the process of uploading new covers. In Book 2, Dave goes over to ‘the Dark Side’ and takes a job in Corporate America, a departure from his entrepreneurial focus. There he gets shredded by the bureaucrats and ends up a scapegoat in a major bribery scheme.
Author Links: GoodReads | X | Facebok | Website
Dave Powers has survived the unthinkable. Orphaned by tragedy, he claws his way from the wreckage of his childhood to the glittering chaos of 1960s Madison Avenue—where ambition, alcohol, and betrayal flow in equal measure.
Landing a coveted spot at one of New York’s most prestigious ad agencies, Dave discovers a world where creative genius battles nepotism and backroom deals. It’s the Mad Men era in full swing: brilliant, brutal, and unapologetically male-dominated.
Then he makes a fatal mistake.
He falls in love with his boss—a rare woman in the executive ranks, enigmatic and untouchable. It’s a romance that could cost him everything: his career, his reputation, and the fragile sense of self-worth he’s fought so hard to build.
Haunted by his past and surrounded by predators, Dave must decide: Will he let tragedy define him? Or can he rise above the wreckage and claim his place in a world designed to break him?
Based on true events, On the Brink is a gripping tale of ambition, forbidden love, and the cost of survival.
