Orenda Blog Tour - Ash Mountain Paperback Release

TITLE: Ash Mountain
AUTHOR: Helen Fitzgerald
PUBLISHER: Orenda Books
PUBLISHING DATE: May 14, 2020

FROM GOODREADS: 

Fran hates Ash Mountain, and she thought she’d escaped. But her father is ill, and needs care. Her relationship is over, and she hates her dead-end job in the city, anyway. 

She returns to her hometown to nurse her dying father, her distant teenage daughter in tow for the weekends. There, in the sleepy town of Ash Mountain, childhood memories prick at her fragile self-esteem, she falls in love for the first time, and her demanding dad tests her patience, all in the unbearable heat of an Australian summer. 

As old friendships and rivalries are renewed, and new ones forged, Fran’s tumultuous home life is the least of her worries, when old crimes rear their heads and a devastating bushfire ravages the town and all of its inhabitants… 

Simultaneously a warm, darkly funny portrait of small-town life – and a woman and a land in crisis – and a shocking and truly distressing account of a catastrophic event that changes things forever, Ash Mountain is a heart-breaking slice of domestic noir, and a disturbing disaster thriller that you will never forget…  

MY THOUGHTS: I have to be honest and admit that it took me awhile to get into Ash Mountain.  And overall, it was a rather short book coming in at slightly over 200 pages.  But in the long run, the novel turned out to be a solid read and I felt as if I broadened my horizons some by reading a book that dealt with an Australian bushfire, a natural disaster I've not encountered before in my vast reading.

Fran has returned to her small hometown to take care of her father, despite not liking the area very much.  Her daughter is there on weekends and being in town has brought up some childhoods memories which help showcase the dysfunctional family.  Drama ensues during a devastating bushfire and soon the story becomes one of survival. 

At first Fran comes across a little harsh but after getting to "know" her, one can see her snarky and sarcastic personality shining through.  And those just happen to be characteristics I love.  The story was very engrossing and I could tell the author was writing about things she knows and has experienced in the past.  As the book progresses, it picks up pace and toward the end, I was both scared and optimistic about the conclusion.  If you are looking for a family centered thriller/suspense novel, look no further.


RATING: 3 PAWS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Helen FitzGerald is the bestselling author of ten adult and young adult thrillers, including The Donor (2011) and The Cry (2013), which was longlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, and is now a major drama for BBC1. Her 2019 dark comedy thriller Worst Case Scenario was a Book of the Year in both The Guardian and Daily Telegraph. Helen worked as a criminal justice social worker for over fifteen years. She grew up in Victoria, Australia, and now lives in Glasgow with her husband.

Orenda Blog Tour - The Big Chill

TITLE: The Big Chill
AUTHOR: Doug Johnstone
PUBLISHER: Orenda Books
PUBLISHING DATE: August 20, 2020

FROM GOODREADS: 

Running private investigator and funeral home businesses means trouble is never far away, and the Skelf women take on their most perplexing, chilling cases yet in book two of this darkly funny, devastatingly tense and addictive new series! 

Haunted by their past, the Skelf women are hoping for a quieter life. But running both a funeral directors’ and a private investigation business means trouble is never far away, and when a car crashes into the open grave at a funeral that matriarch Dorothy is conducting, she can’t help looking into the dead driver’s shadowy life. 

While Dorothy uncovers a dark truth at the heart of Edinburgh society, her daughter Jenny and granddaughter Hannah have their own struggles. Jenny’s ex-husband Craig is making plans that could shatter the Skelf women’s lives, and the increasingly obsessive Hannah has formed a friendship with an elderly professor that is fast turning deadly. 

But something even more sinister emerges when a drumming student of Dorothy’s disappears and suspicion falls on her parents. The Skelf women find themselves sucked into an unbearable darkness – but could the real threat be to themselves? 

Following three women as they deal with the dead, help the living and find out who they are in the process, The Big Chill follows A Dark Matter, book one in the Skelfs series, which reboots the classic PI novel while asking the big existential questions, all with a big dose of pitch-black humour.  

MY THOUGHTS: The Big Chill centers around three women of the Skelf family who not only run a funeral home but are also private investigators.  It does seem the two seem to go hand in hand more often than not and it seems these woman can never get a moment of real peace.  I love the family dymanics and the fact that the book shows us three generations of one family. 

I do wish I had read the first book in this series but Orenda is definitely increasing my TBR of back titles.  While this book is rather dark at times, there are also some times of humor and I feel the author did a spectacular job of weaving the two together.  The Big Chilll also showcases science and some thoughts on parallel universes which surprisingly, was explained well and didn't confuse me.

If you love character driven books the The Big Chill will not disappoint.  This book is screaming for a series people can fall in love with and binge watch time and time again.  I can't wait for the next installment and more urgently, I can't wait for my copy of A Dark Matter to arrive!


RATING: 4 PAWS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Doug Johnstone is the author of more ten novels, most recently Breakers (2019), which has been shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year and A Dark Matter (2020), which launched the Skelfs series. Several of his books have been bestsellers and award winners, and his work has been praised by the likes of Val McDermid, Irvine Welsh and Ian Rankin. He’s taught creative writing and been writer in residence at various institutions – including a funeral home, which he drew on to write A Dark Matter – and has been an arts journalist for twenty years. Doug is a songwriter and musician with five albums and three EPs released, and he plays drums for the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers, a band of crime writers. He’s also player-manager of the Scotland Writers Football Club. He lives in Edinburgh.