Seadogs and Criminals Book 1

Seadogs ands Criminals Book 1 is a novel by Alex Fisher.

The novel is set in Victorian England and the reader meets Joseph Winter who is a master criminal. In the teeming streets of London he is, with some irony, known by the sobriquet of Trace. Why? Because he never leaves a trace behind him.

But eventually things go very badly wrong for Trace, his reputation is smashed to pieces and his dreams of success smashed to nothing when a tip about a fabled treasure map fails to materialise. 

What can he do next? He decides to form a group of strangers who will be invited to join him in the hunt for the treasure in question. 

They take to the high seas and soon find themselves travelling to the ends of the Earth in a journey to unearth the vital clues as to the final resting place of the fabled treasure.

But eventually Trace begins to harbour doubts. Is this hunt worthwhile? What is he doing? Who can he trust?

It's a swashbuckling historical novel which will be a good read for people who like a tang of sea air in their fiction.

Published by Grosvenor House Publishing Ltd at £11.11 from Amazon or as an e-book for £2.84. 

A New Dark Age A Reckoning

A New Dark Age A Reckoning is a new novel from Ross Patrick.

It's set in the future. But not a distant, far away future, but a future that could be just around the next corner.

Society had began its long, slow collapse, crumbling around the people. 

Scarcity became more and more common and when most people could not afford to buy consumer goods, they began to riot. 

The ruling class was perturbed by the rioters and accused them of being antidemocratic.

Militarised armed police were sent out to deal with the riots.

However, with rising levels of unemployment tax revenues inevitably began to fall and larger corporations began to take over the direct funding of the police and the police became the armed wing of the corporations. This brought about battles between different business interests, all set about a background of a society in turmoil with falling standards of living and the very State tottering toward disaster.

Out in the provinces readers meet Esme Sedgebrook. Her future is mapped out for her. An arranged marriage, childbearing and a nice, safe domestic life. 

But what if this is not the life she opts for? What if Esme decides to flee her safe, comfortable life and join up with the uprising?

It's an interesting, dystopian novel.

Published by Brown Dog Books at £9.99 and is available from good book retailers and online.

The Crystal Palace Chronicles Star of Nimrod

The Crystal Palace Chronicles Star of Nimrod is a novel from Graham Whitlock.

From the very first page, readers will be hooked. Everyone knows that the Crystal Palace burnt to the ground on November 30, 1936. But who knew why it burnt down? The Alone Child, with his hidden box of used matches. The Alone Child knows.

85 years later, young Joe is bored and a bit lonely. His best friend has moved away, Joe loves his little sister, but she's annoying and Joe is a bit miffed that he is lumbered with the job of looking after her, whilst his Dad spends every hour that he can attempting to keep their struggling restaurant, Paradise, open.

Joe finds a broken compass in some bushes on the site where the Crystal Palace once stood. Without warning Joe finds himself plunged back through time to the year of 1888.

He meets a fellow teenager, H. G. Wells who gives him assistance along with Samuel Coleridge Taylor, the famed Iris Blondin, the daredevil daughter of the legendary tightrope walker, Charles Blondin, plus Doctor Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes and the Queen of the Gypsies.

Joe learns of a plot by a team of highly skilled and equally highly dangerous diamond thieves to steal a very famous diamond and with his new found friends he must work to thwart the gang and to learn of some mysterious and dark secrets of the Crystal Palace. He discovers that those secrets are, somehow, linked with the fate of his own family.

But what will happen to young Joe? Will he remain trapped in time with his new found friends? Or will he be able to find a way of returning to his own time and to his own family? Or would he be able to work out how he could retain both?

This is a very readable novel which has pace and a little bit of elan as it tells the story of Joe and his adventures.

It's published by Grass Roots Productions and is available at Waterstones, Amazon and other book retailers.

Although aimed at children of ages 11 to 13, older readers and adults will find much to captivate their minds.

It costs £8.99 and will make a superb Christmas present.

And the good news? It's the first part of a trilogy, so there's more to look forward to!

Graham has his own website at www.grahamwhitlock.com.

Sentenced

Sentenced is a memoir written by two apparently vastly different people; Victoria Oak, a London housewife with four children and Andrew Hawke, a British man  imprisoned in a notorious jail in Thailand. The ironically named Bangkok Hilton. Or, to use its correct name, the Bang Kwang gaol.

Victoria was travelling with her friends Alex and Alice, backpacking around the world. After five months of travelling they reached Bangkok. A 19-year-old British man called Michael hade tried to smuggle 3,000 pills out of Bangkok. Of course, he'd been caught and had been given a life sentence. Because his parents didn't have the financial resources to fly out to Thailand to visit him, they'd asked two British girls to visit him.

However, due to a mix-up they weren't able to meet him and they had asked Victoria and her friends to visit him in their stead. 

Victoria, Alex and Alice decided the next morning to make an impromptu visit to Michael, but as they'd arrived on the wrong day they were unable to see him as it was the visiting day of a different block. But without knowing the name of a particular prisoner, they wouldn't be allowed in.

Victoria decided to 'phone the British Consulate for advice and the extremely helpful receptionist there quickly gave them the names of three British prisoners who were being held there. 

So, they decided to visit one of the British prisoners who was being held there. The prisoner Victoria spoke with for that hour, the hour that proved to be very fateful for both of them, soon passed.

When Victoria returned home they began to correspond with each other in long, detailed letters. And this was the start of a lifelong relationship.

Victoria studied drama and English at Birmingham University and she married, became a housewife and had four children.

Victoria and her husband shared several passions, the chief ones being travelling and sports.

Victoria was able to complete the pilgrimage to Santiago in May 2012 and placed 2,000 prayer stones along the Camino asking for her friend Andy to be released from his incarceration.  

She had realised that her marriage had faltered and, in her mind, died, so when she returned she asked for a divorce. But this wasn't to be an easy, simple divorce, because it became a wearying five-year fight through the courts.

During this dreadful time Andy was released from jail and came to stay with Victoria at her home for almost two years. And during this time they collaborated together to write Sentenced. 

After her divorce Victoria took time out to do some more exploring, in South America, New Zealand and Australia.

Victoria then spent four years editing the manuscript, preparing it for publication. Just before the world was virtually shut down by COVID, she contracted pneumonia and Lyme's disease which left her weak and hardly able to function, this debilitation gave her the impetuous to get Sentenced ready folr publication within a year. Which she did.

It's a remarkable book well-written telling the life stories of two remarkable people and other people in their lives. It is also illustrated with a collection of photographs.

It's published by Grosvenor House Publishing at £10 in paperback, plus as an e-book. 

It's available from good book retailers and Amazon and will make an excellent Christmas gift.

The Fly and the Tree

In his new mystery novel The fly and the Tree, author and consultant neurologist Dr James I. Morrow brings lovers of mystery novels a great new read. 

So if you are looking for a suitable Christmas present for the mystery novel lover in your life (or maybe you are looking for a sneaky little self gift for yourself?) this is the ideal book for their (or your!) Christmas stocking!

We are introduced to a young and dedicated medical biochemist, Baz ("Don't call me Barbara!") Clifford. 

Baz makes a vital discovery during the course of her research work. But there's something wrong, or at least there's something that doesn't seem to add up.

Because the discovery that Baz has made casts doubt on the received wisdom that a young woman had died in what was nothing more than a terrible and tragic accident. 

However, the husband of the young woman and even the police themselves are not interested in what Baz has to say on the matter. They are all apparently convinced that her death was an accident.

But Baz has a very strong conviction that Cathy Marsden had, in reality, been the victim of a murder. 

However, there is one person who does believe in the theory that Baz is putting forward. A 16-year-old boy. What is his interest in the matter? He is convinced that Cathy Marsden was his own long-lost mother.

But who would have had the motive and the means to murder Cathy? And will Baz stir up problems when she continues her unofficial investigation? 

This is a very exciting, pacey read and it's a must read book!

It's published by The Book Guild at £8.99

That's Christmas: AlphaBetty Doodles & Her World of A to Z

That's Christmas: AlphaBetty Doodles & Her World of A to Z: Your little ones will really love  AlphaBetty Doodles & Her World of A to Z . And you will love it too, because it's a fantastically...

That's Christmas: Making Christmas Crackers in 1910

That's Christmas: Making Christmas Crackers in 1910: Making Christmas Crackers (1910) | BFI National Archive   I found this video on YouTube and I have shared it here for your viewing pleasure....