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Wish You Weren't Here by Portia Macintosh #Review

  I am delighted to feature a laugh outloud romcom by Portia Macintosh . Wish You Weren't Here was published on January 8th by Boldwood Books .   Don’t get mad, get Ethan! Lana has had enough. Her ‘perfect’ sister is getting married. In Australia. On Lana’s 30th birthday and no one seems to have noticed. To make matters worse, she’s been given a list of rules she must follow so she doesn’t upstage the bride. Well, rules are meant to be bent right? She’s found a killer dress, now she just needs the most inappropriate wedding date she can find. But where to start? All her attempts at online dating are simply disasters, and not in the right way! Too boring/married/easily intimidated! But then her drop dead gorgeous ex Ethan suddenly reappears in her life. With the power to make her dizzy with excitement she reminds herself why they broke up. Together they literally attracted chaos until their relationship imploded. They couldn’t make it work. But could Lana make this work ...
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Death in the Stars by Frances Brody **Blog Tour

I thoroughly enjoyed Frances Brody's Death at the Seaside so I am delighted to take part in the celebrations for her novel, Death in the Stars. It is the ninth in the Kate Shackleton mystery series.
 

Yorkshire, 1927. Eclipse fever grips the nation, and when beloved theatre star Selina Fellini approaches trusted sleuth Kate Shackleton to accompany her to a viewing party at Giggleswick School Chapel, Kate suspects an ulterior motive.

During the eclipse, Selina's friend and co-star Billy Moffatt disappears and is later found dead in the chapel grounds. Kate can't help but dig deeper and soon learns that two other members of the theatre troupe died in similarly mysterious circumstances in the past year. With the help of Jim Sykes and Mrs Sugden, Kate sets about investigating the deaths - and whether there is a murderer in the company.

When Selina's elusive husband Jarrod, injured in the war and subject to violent mood swings, comes back on the scene, Kate begins to imagine something far deadlier at play, and wonders just who will be next to pay the ultimate price for fame . . .

My Thoughts

It was good to meet up with Kate Shackleton, Jim Sykes and Mrs Sugden for what turned out to be an intriguing crime mystery. Set in 1927, it includes the eclipse of that year and started off at Giggleswick in Yorkshire which hosted a viewing of the phenomenon. I am particularly impressed with the pacing and plotting of the story as the momentum never flags as the clues begin to unfold. There are several red herrings and possible suspects as to who could be the murderer and the ending is a great finale to the book.

    The suspects are all larger than life characters and the theatrical flavour adds spice to the proceedings. I find that the 1920's lends itself to this genre of crime mystery and Frances Brody captures the feel of the times. It is obvious that she has thoroughly researched all the events which are mentioned and the settings. I was particularly fascinated to read about this in her acknowledgements section and to find out that there have long been rumours of tunnels beneath Leeds. As for the recipe for the Eclipse Cocktail- very tempting!

In short: great crime mystery writing with lots of period detail.


About the Author

  Frances Brody is the author of the Kate Shackleton mysteries, as well as many stories and plays for BBC Radio, scripts for television and four sagas, one of which won the HarperCollins Elizabeth Elgin Award. Her stage plays have been toured by several theatre companies and produced at Manchester Library Theatre, the Gate and Nottingham Playhouse, and Jehad was nominated for a Time Out Award. 

You can connect with the author at her website here  or on Twitter here.


Thanks to the publishers, Piatkus Books, for a copy of the book and a place on the Blog Tour. 

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