The Crazy Psychologist

This novel by Miller H. Caldwell features a psychologist who is working on the beautiful island of Rousay.

Doctor Angie Lawrence is the director of a new, purpose-built centre for assessing and treating damaged teenagers.

She employs interesting an unorthodox treatments. These include nude swims for some patients, sessions with an African Grey Parrot call Harry (Don't worry about Harry, he is on the staff!) and Arthur, a Bassett Hound, amongst others treatments for the patients who vary from sufferers from abuse, eating disorders, elective mutes, the overly aggressive and so on.

As part of her treatment regimen she also offers her patients some varying degrees of responsibilities, as a way of overcoming the traumas that drove them to be treated by Doctor Lawrence in the first place,

She is married to Sam, who is an artist of some renown. He is particularly gifted as a painter of seascapes and he believes that Orkney will be the perfect location for him to explore his art.

But Sam is concerned about his wife's unorthodox methods. Are these, somehow, related to the traumas that afflicted the young Angie?

Sam is torn between trying to understand the methods in her madness, or the madness in her methods.

He is trying to protect his wife from her own self and from the demons that are welling up from her own past.

But what can her do? How can he protect her from the authorities?

How can he help her to overcome the demons of her childhood before they overcome her?

This is an interesting and utterly compelling novel from author Miller H. Caldwell.

It is published by Matador at £8.99 on August 28.

Death by Dangerous. A novel by Olly Jarvis

Death by Dangerous is a new legal thriller novel by published author and criminal defence barrister Olly Jarvis.

Jarvis used his many years of experience as a criminal defence barrister to weave a riveting novel set in and around Manchester and Bradford.

Death by Dangerous tells the story of John Anderson. He is the darling of the North West courts, a highly respected and very able prosecution barrister. His career is in the ascendency, going from strength to strength.

Until it all comes crashing down, when, following a terrible road traffic accident, in which he is severely injured, his whole world comes tumbling down about him.

Although he makes a slow and painful recovery from his physical injuries, he realises that he has no memory of the crash.

Was it his fault? What of his female passenger? Who was she? Why was she even in his car? Did some catastrophic error of judgement on his part cause a child to die?

For the first time in his life he faces the criminal justice system that he has spent his entire professional life working in, from the other side of the witness box. Accused of causing death by dangerous driving.

He is fully aware that, as one of the most senior prosecution barristers in the North West, being jailed would bring him face-to-face with many criminals who he helped bring to justice through his long career.

But how can he find out what really took place during the accident?

Was it an accident? What, exactly had taken place?

The truth takes him into the sordid underbelly of Manchester, taking him deep within the criminal underworld.

His former loyal colleagues and so-called friends in the prosecution service have already found him guilty, so he finds no help there.

But help in his quest for truth and justice does come his way, but from a rather unlikely source. Which leads Anderson to examine himself and he starts to re-evaluate his life so far.

But Anderson finds out that sometimes lambs are sacrificed to propitiate various Gods.

Anderson needs to work out who are the lambs, who are the evil shepherds and which Gods they are attempting to appease. And he needs to work out who the good shepherd is before it is too late.

It's an exciting novel, gripping with more than a few twists and turns before the shocking finale.

This book is published in paperback by Matador at £7.99 on 28th July. It will be available via the That's Books and Entertainment Book Shop, the link is on the right hand side of this page.

Lime 43 is a new cocktail is born with Licor 43 and Pure Lime Juice!

Whilst feeling pretty hot the other evening I accidentally hit on the recipe for a new cocktail which I have decided to name the Lime 43.

You take 50ml of Licor 43 and a couple of liberal splashes of Pure Lime Juice (it's made by the clever folks who brought us Pure Lemon Juice), in a large wine glass or a whiskey tumbler.

Then add ice cubes if desired and then top up to the brim with chilled Cream Soda, then stir.

And enjoy.


The website contains other cocktail recipes and some information on this awesome drink.

http://www.licor43.com/

"Ontreto" an ideal holiday read

The latest novel by crime thriller writer Peter Crawley is an ideal holiday read, for those of you who like to take the latest crime thriller with you to while away the hours as you sit, cocktail in hand, slathered in factor 50 as you laze, happily, by the poolside of your resort.

The setting of the novel is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. The name of the island is Lipari.

The island is real and what occurs throughout the book is fiction. Or is it? For it appears that the real history of  Lipari is just as dramatic (if not on occasion, more so!) than that set out in this gripping and compelling novel!

Former Marine and protagonist Ric Ross arrives on the island of Lipari. He carries with him a letter of introduction to Valeria Vaccariello, who is an ageing star of the Italian big screen, the world of the cinema.

She lives alone in a house called The House of Strangers.

Besides being a cinema star she has another reputation closer to home. She is known as la strega, or the witch.

In the midst of this Ric is befriended by il velaccino, a sailmaker. For a sailmaker seems to know a great deal about everyone on Lipari and what they get up to.

But then a politician dies and it is determined to be a homicide.

Ric's desire to trace the history of his family in Lipari is subsumed by the need to prove that he is innocent of the slaying.

But Ric's life is also in danger. Why would someone want him dead? Who are they? Who can he trust?

The book is due to be published in paperback by Matador on June 28th at £9.99, or as an e-book for £3.99.

Mike Woodhams "Run With the Brave"

In this novel by Mike Woodhams, we see the very welcome return of his character Frank Ryder, the MI6 operative.

We see him attached to a group of American special forces personnel i an operation that could change the outcome of events in the Middle East for the foreseeable future.

The American spy networks in Tehran have been all but destroyed, having been fatally compromised, so the expert help of British Intelligence has been called upon to assist the Americans.

Ryder and his team suddenly find themselves involved in a major battle that involves Iran and Israel, which has imperilled the very existence of the state of Israel.

Ryder and his team join with Israeli special forces and a group of desperate Iranian insurgents to track down and destroy a top secret Iranian missile base which is poised to launch nuclear warheads into Israel.

But the operation runs into difficulties when it becomes apparent that they have a traitor within their group.

Who is the traitor? Can the traitor delay the operation for long enough for the missile strike to be made, thus obliterating Israel in a nuclear firestorm?

Or can the resourceful Frank Ryder save the day and, indeed, the world?

The book is an exciting read and is available at £8.99 from Matador.

The (Phantasmagorical) Astrarium Compendium

The (Phantasmagorical) Astrarium Compendium is a new fantasy adventure novel brought to us by our guide to a world beyond our ken, Mark Roland Langdale.

We meet Gulliver. Gulliver is the owner of a large antique emporium.

But for all his knowledge of the wonderful objects that his emporium has on sale, grandfather clocks, brass telescopes, globes, and even more globes and even still ore globes, Gulliver had never actually travelled outside the county of Devon.

So, what with all those globes, perhaps it was rather apposite that Gulliver fell into one of those very selfsame globes and finding himself in a location far removed from ordinary space-time, where time (as we know it) no longer has any existence. And when just about anything could happen and, generally speaking, does happen.

Gulliver's life is very soon flipped totally from the normal and into a world of abnormal.

A world where it is perfectly natural to come across giant bottles filled with equally giant ships, both on the land and at sea, where one gets to meet Old Father Time himself, Queen Elizabeth I and Sir Francis Drake (complete with his Golden Hind!) , Hans Christian Anderson and the like.

This is all very well, but Gulliver loves his emporium and he misses Devon. So, how can he possible get back home?

By tracking down the mysterious "The Last Bookshop in the World" which is his only possible chance of getting home.

Can he find the bookshop? And what if Gulliver changes his mind? What if he decides he wants to stay exactly where he is?

But what of Alice? And Beagle?

To find out how it all turns out, it will cost you a mere £11.99 and it is out now from Matador.

Visit www.markrolandlangdale.co.uk to see the author's other fantasy novels such as The Flat Earth Society and the Great Globe Conspiracy and Professor Doppelganger and the Fantastical Cloud Factory, amongst others.

Chickens Eat Pasta, Escape to Umbria

Sometimes, we do some pretty crazy and weird things. And they look all the more crazy and weird because we do them during an otherwise mundane, fairly ordinary kind of time.

The case of jornalist and author Clare Pedrick is a perfect example of this type of phenomena.

One rainy, Sunday morning, bearing in mind that she was just 26-years-old, Clare was reading a Sunday newspaper and she happened to espy an advert of a beautiful, but ruinous, home in the Italian area called Umbria.

So, as you do, or rather, as Clare did, the decision was taken to purchase the house.

Clare employs her book as a series of artist's canvases, each depicting a different but interlocking part of the story. The warmth and the vibrant colours of Italy, the obvious difference between British and Italian culture, but the just as real differences between the different regions of Italy.

She also describes the kaleidoscope of different characters who she met on her travels and in the village where she settled down.

She fell in love with the house, faults and all and she also fell in love with a local man, who she married and with whom she has three children.

Her husband and the children all now love the house. Which is no longer ruinous, but rather restored to its former splendid glory. 

Chickens Eat Pasta, Escape to Umbria, is published by Matador at the end of next month and at £9.99 will make an excellent present for someone you love, or even for yourself.

As with all books its available via the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop at the right hand side of the site.