Yvonne
A “Little Bird” literally filled this week’s Mailbox Monday post, with these two great new titles, by new to me authors … Seriously, thanks to the lovely Katie from Little Bird Publicity and of course the folks at NetGalley for the download links!
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FORGOTTEN BONES – (Dead Remaining – Book #1)
An unlikely pair teams up to investigate a brutal murder in a haunting thriller that walks the line between reality and impossibility.
When small-town police officers discover the grave of a young boy, they’re quick to pin the crime on a convicted felon who lives nearby. But when it comes to murder, Officer Susan Marlan never trusts a simple explanation, so she’s just getting started.
Meanwhile, college professor Eric Evans hallucinates a young boy in overalls: a symptom of his schizophrenia—or so he thinks. But when more bodies turn up, Eric has more visions, and they mirror details of the murder case. As the investigation continues, the police stick with their original conclusion, but Susan’s instincts tell her something is off. The higher-ups keep stonewalling her, and the FBI’s closing in.
Desperate for answers, Susan goes rogue and turns to Eric for help. Together they take an unorthodox approach to the case as the evidence keeps getting stranger. With Eric’s hallucinations intensifying and the body count rising, can the pair separate truth from illusion long enough to catch a monster?
VIVIAN BARZ
Vivian grew up on a farm in Wilton, a small town in Northern California. With a population then of a mere 3,000 and with plenty of fresh air and space to let her imagination run wild, she began penning stories from a very young age, with mixed reviews from her friends and class mates!
Vivian earned two bachelor’s degrees in film and media studies, and English, from The University of California, Irvine and whilst she has kept on writing into her adult life, she has also held down an impressive array of careers in unrelated industries as diverse as marketing and field archaeology.
Her work has seen her travel across the United States and Canada and on to Scotland and England, where she lived for a few years in London. She now lives in Southern California, where she still enjoys travelling, watching films and cooking.
Vivian also writes thrillers, mysteries and contemporary fiction, under the pen name of Sloan Archer.
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RELATIVE FORTUNES – (Julia Kydd – Book #1)
In 1920s New York, the price of a woman’s independence can be exorbitant—even fatal.
In 1924 Manhattan, women’s suffrage is old news. For sophisticated booklover Julia Kydd, life’s too short for politics. With her cropped hair and penchant for independent living, Julia wants only to launch her own new private press. But as a woman, Julia must fight for what’s hers—including the inheritance her estranged half brother, Philip, has challenged, putting her aspirations in jeopardy.
When her friend’s sister, Naomi Rankin, dies suddenly of an apparent suicide, Julia is shocked at the wealthy family’s indifference toward the ardent suffragist’s death. Naomi chose poverty and hardship over a submissive marriage and a husband’s control of her money. Now, her death suggests the struggle was more than she could bear.
Julia, however, is skeptical. Doubtful of her suspicions, Philip proposes a glib wager: if Julia can prove Naomi was in fact murdered, he’ll drop his claims to her wealth. Julia soon discovers Naomi’s life was as turbulent and enigmatic as her death. And as she gets closer to the truth, Julia sees there’s much more at stake than her inheritance…
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MARLOWE BENN – (Image credit to Keith Brofsky)
Born near Boston, Marlowe Benn grew up in an Illinois college town along the Mississippi River.
She holds a master’s degree in the book arts from the University of Alabama and a doctorate in the history of books from the University of California, Berkeley.
A former editor, college teacher, and letterpress printer, Marlowe lives with her husband on an island near Seattle.
Relative Fortunes is her debut novel.
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Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share links to the books that came into their house during the last week. This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well, after all you never know where that next “must read” book will come from.
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The people at Little Bird are great to work with. I hope you enjoy both books, Yvonne. I’ll be reading the second one!
Hi Mary,
Katie from “Little Bird” has emailed me from time to time with promotion and review opportunities. However just recently the communication between us has become much more frequent and regular, which is lovely, as they have some amazingly talented authors in their portfolio and some equally brilliant new books to feature.
I did notice that you have ‘Relative Fortunes’ on your want to read list, so we can compare notes about the story and that lovely cover art!
Thanks for taking the time to comment and Happy Reading 🙂
Both of these sound fascinating. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Relative Fortunes somewhere else lately. Hope you enjoy them.
Hi Cheryl,
I think that ‘Relative Fortunes’ has been doing the rounds of bloggers on both sides of the pond over the last couple of weeks. It sounds very much in the vogue of an Agatha Christie “Hercule Poirot” murder/ mystery, a style of narrative and dialogue I do enjoy from time to time.
I hope that you too have some great reading planned for this week and thanks for stopping by 🙂
Forgotten Bones sounds like my kind of read, I’ll have to look it up! Happy reading!
Hi Kay,
Enjoying a good thriller as I do, I thought that I might be a little more excited by ‘Forgotten Bones’. However, if I am being perfectly honest, I’m not too sure about Eric’s hallucinations and whether they take the story down a whole mystical route which may not be for me. I am definitely going to give it a try though, so I’ll let you know how I get on!
Thanks for visiting this week and Happy Reading 🙂
What an interesting pair of books and both sound quite good. At first glance, I’m drawn more to the second book, but we’ll see if that changes as you feature more from each in the future.
Hi Kelly,
I have to admit that I couldn’t choose one over the other of these two books, as it is rather like trying to compare ‘apples with pears’, they are so totally different in style .
For both authors, this is their respective debut novels in the genre, although Vivian Barz writing under the name of Sloan Archer, has an already successful reputation publishing books of a totally different sub-genre of thriller, which probably wouldn’t interest me as much as ‘Forgotten Bones’. I’ll leave a link and you can check out the page on Sloan’s website for yourself, if you ae intrigued to know more
http://sloanarcherbooks.com/books/
🙂
Thanks for the link, Yvonne. I think her book featured here looks far more to my liking than those published as Sloan. Honestly, I’d be up for either you have featured here. Both have nice covers, too!
I totally agree with you.
Have a peaceful weekend 🙂
I have to say, both of those sound very good indeed.
Hi Cath,
Two completely different sub-genres of the crime thriller, but as you say, both sounding like good reads, depending on my mood.
I would really have to be psyched up for a “thriller that walks the line between reality and impossibility”, but I am intrigued enough to give it a try.
As I said to Cheryl, ‘Relative Fortunes’ sounds very much as though it could have come straight from the pages of a ‘Hercule Poirot’ case and I really like the very dignified artwork of the cover, which sets the scene almost as well as the written premise.
I may not always have a full to bursting mailbox, but I am always pleased with some of the great new titles which head my way 🙂
These both sound good. Nice to have a ‘little bird’ tell you about them. 🙂
Happy Reading!
Hi Martha,
Katie from “Little Bird Publicity” is always fun to work with, even if I have to decline the odd invitation or review request, due to the pressures of everyday real life! How dare such mundane things as work get in the way of my reading !! 🙂
Have a good week and thanks for stopping by 🙂
Relative Fortunes has a lovely cover. I will be looking forward to your review of this book.
Hi Veronica,
The amount of input an author is actually allowed into the finished design of their books’ cover art, seems to vary vastly and depends on a great many factors.
However, like yourself, I definitely like the clean lines and simplicity of the cover of ‘Relative Fortunes’, so if Julia Kydd is to be carrying on with her own series of adventures, keeping the cover art as a matching set, would seem like a good idea, at least to my way of thinking.
Perhaps that’s just my OCD taking control though!! 🙂
Both authors are new to me, so I’ll have to check them out, thanks 🙂
Hi Nikki,
I like to give myself plenty of time to check out a new author and their book(s). I’m a bit of a nerd when it comes to research, I have come to the conclusion that after being married for 40 years, some of my husband’s traits are finally rubbing off on me!!!
Two completely different storylines in the crime genre and I am looking forward to reading them both.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope that all is well with you 🙂
Hi Yvonne, happy reading. These both sound good, especially Forgotten Bones.
Hi Naida,
I really like the sound of ‘Forgotten Bones’, so long as the blurring between truth and illusion doesn’t make this a story which is a little too fantastical for me to enjoy!!
Thanks for stopping by, it is good to touch base again and I hope that all is well with you 🙂