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Mix-U{ Under the Mistletoe by Margaret Amatt #Review #GlenbriarSeriesBook11

  We are returning to the beautiful Scottish Highlands for Margaret Amatt's eleventh in her Glenbriar  Series, Mix-Up Under the Mistletoe. This latest festive novel was published on 23rd November by Leannan Press .   She’s always on the outside looking in, but his door might just be the one to open for her this Christmas. ‘Her name’s Tilly. Tilly Thorpe. She lives in London.’   To stop his family from speculating about his love life, travel company CEO Rafe Harrington casually drops Tilly Thorpe’s name as his girlfriend. After all, they’ll never meet – she’s just a name he saw on a rival company’s website. But when Rafe arrives at his family’s home in Glenbriar for Christmas, he’s shocked to find ‘his girlfriend’ waiting for him. He has some explaining to do and so does Tilly. Why did Rafe’s family welcome her with open arms when she’s little more than a spy? Someone who’s trying hard to please her superiors, hoping it’ll bring some desperately desired happiness to h

The Cold Summer by Gianrico Carofiglio ** Blog Tour Review**

It is my pleasure to be on final day of the blog tour for Gianrico Carofiglio's crime novel, The Cold Summer today. It was published by Bitter Lemon Press  on 13th September 2018.


The summer of 1992 had been exceptionally cold in southern Italy. But that's not the reason why it is still remembered.


On May 23, 1992, a roadside explosion killed the Palermo judge Giovanni Falcone, his wife and three police officers. A few weeks later judge Paolo Borsellino and five police officers were killed in the center of Palermo. These anti-mafia judges became heroes but the violence spread to the region of Bari in Puglia, where we meet a new, memorable character, Maresciallo Pietro Fenoglio, an officer of the Italian Carabinieri. Fenoglio, recently abandoned by his wife, must simultaneously deal with his personal crisis and the new gang wars raging around Bari. The police are stymied until a gang member, accused of killing a child, decides to collaborate, revealing the inner workings and the rules governing organised crime in the area.


The story is narrated through the actual testimony of the informant, a trope reminiscent of verbatim theatre which Carofiglio, an ex-anti-mafia judge himself, uses to great effect. The gangs are stopped but the mystery of the boy's murder must still be solved, leading Fenoglio into a world of deep moral ambiguity, where the prosecutors are hard to distinguish from the prosecuted.

My Thoughts

I found the opening chapters of this crime novel to be particularly pleasing. It established  Fenoglio and I was soon intrigued as to what his personal crisis was all about. His thoughts about his estranged wife intrude throughout the story and put flesh on the character who you see. All the background we are given on his love of opera and art, together with his discussions on ethics and the human condition, add up to a fascinating and cultured man.

 You can feel the authenticity which Carofiglio's past experience as an anti- mafia prosecutor and judge brings to the treatment of the mafia plot. There is tremendous detail in the testimony of the informant which slowly builds up a complete picture of the investigation. It is sometimes hard to know who can be trusted, so muddy are the waters that  we are gazing into. It becomes clear that corruption lies at all levels of society. 

In short: A multi-layered story which takes a look at the depths of corruption beneath the surface.

About the Author



Award-winning, best-selling novelist Gianrico Carofiglio was born in Bari in 1961 and worked for many years as a prosecutor specialising in organised crime. 

He was appointed advisor of the anti-Mafia committee in the Italian parliament in 2007 and served as a senator from 2008 to 2013.

Carofiglio is best know for the Guido Guerrieri crime series; Involuntary Witness, A Walk in the Dark, Reasonable Doubts, Temporary Perfections and now, a Fine Line, all published by Bitter Lemon Press.

His other novels include The Silence of the Wave.
Carofiglio’s books have sold more than four million copies in Italy and have been translated into twenty-four languages worldwide.

You can follow him here: Twitter 

Book link: Amazon UK 

Thanks to Gianrico Carofiglio, Bitter Lemon Press and Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for a copy of the book and a place on the tour. 

Do take a look back at the rest of the tour!



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