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Murder in Bologna by T A Williams #Review #ArmstrongandOscarmysteryBook17 #PublicationDay

  Welcome to another instalment in TA Williams' Armstrong and Oscar mystery series, Murder in Bologna. Bologna, Italy's happiest city - or is it?   A grieving father asks Dan to uncover the truth behind the death of his gifted son, a student at Bologna's prestigious Art Institute. Accompanied by his loyal Labrador, Oscar, Dan heads north from Florence to investigate.   Still life or still death? The student's former girlfriend is consumed by grief and the Art Institute is mourning one of its brightest talents. But beneath the surface, Dan senses that someone is hiding the truth.   (Artistic) license to kill? Doing a favour for his friend, Commissario Virgilio Pisano of the Florence murder squad, Dan soon finds himself caught up in the shady world of drug dealing, organised crime and fraud on a grand scale.   A paintbrush with death When the killer strikes again, Dan faces one of his toughest cases yet. With Officer Oscar's nose for trouble, he m...

Lucy's Great Escape Little Duck Pond Cafe by Rose Green #Review

Following on from A Cornish Summer Holiday, in Rosie Green's series centred on the Little Duck Pond Cafe, we are travelling once more out of Sunnybrook for Lucy's Great Escape. 

Lucy never wanted to abandon her friends and family, and travel to the other side of the country to start a new life. And all without telling anyone where she was going. But these are desperate times. And finding herself with a nightmare of a dilemma, fleeing her home town seems like the only way she can protect herself and those she loves.

The Cornish town of Pengully Sands holds happy childhood memories for Lucy and seems the perfect place to escape to, although having little money and no friends, life atfirst seems grim.

But a chance meeting with Madison and the rest of the Little Duck Pond Café girls, plus a decidedly attractive local guy who won’t take no for an answer, gives Lucy a glimmer of hope for the future. Could she really settle in Pengully Sands and make a living by selling her watercolours?

But just as life is starting to look a little rosier, it becomes clear that someone back home –the last person she ever wanted to see –has tracked her down...


My Thoughts


  I always enjoy a visit to the Little Duck Pond Cafe series and to reacquaint myself with all the familiar characters and meet a few new additions. Following on from A Cornish Summer Holiday, this standalone novella takes us out of Sunnybrook to the Cornish coast where we meet Gracie again and also, central to this story, Lucy Honey. There are also some of the regulars from The Little Duck Pond who are there on holiday. You are given the opportunity to find out more about Madison who befriends Lucy.

    Rosie Green is a great storyteller and the novella format is just right for these short episodes, each featuring as central, a different character. Lucy's story turns out to have a few surprises. It is lovely to find out just why she is in Cornwall and to see her self belief as an artist grow. I do so hope that we get to meet her again, perhaps with a visit to Sunnybrook and fingers crossed she brings Gabe with her! Although not everyone you meet in this story is a kind and friendly soul, plenty are and most people are looking out for each other.

In short: A great series to follow.

About the Author


Rosie has been scribbling stories ever since she was little. Back then, they were rip-roaring adventure tales with a young heroine in perilous danger of falling off a cliff or being tied up by ‘the baddies’. Thankfully, Rosie has moved on somewhat, and now much prefers to write romantic comedies that melt your heart and make you smile, with really not much perilous danger involved at all –unless you count the heroine losing her heart in love.

Rosie’s Little Duck Pond Cafe series of novellas is centred around life in a village cafe. Each book can be read as a stand-alone story. The latest, ‘Lucy’s Great Escape’, is out now. Watch out for further tales of the Little Duck Pond Cafe, including the delicious ‘Log Fires & Toffee Apple Cake’, which will be published in autumn 2020.


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