Guest Post: The Girl Before by JP Delaney @QuercusBooks #TheBloggerBefore

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Jane stumbles on the rental opportunity of a lifetime: the chance to live in a beautiful ultra-minimalist house designed by an enigmatic architect, on condition she abides by a long list of exacting rules. After moving in, she discovers that a previous tenant, Emma, met a mysterious death there - and starts to wonder if her own story will be a re-run of the girl before. As twist after twist catches the reader off guard, Emma's past and Jane's present become inexorably entwined in this tense, page-turning portrayal of psychological obsession.

Following in the footsteps of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train, The Girl Before is being brought to the big screen. The film is set to be directed by Academy Award-winning director Ron Howard.

Guest Post:

One of the things I really worked at with my book The Girl Before is the book’s narrative structure – it’s told in alternating chapters by two narrators, occupants of the same unusual minimalist house, three years apart. Gradually the woman who lives there now – Jane – becomes aware that the woman before – Emma – died in the house. She also discovers that Emma, like her, started a relationship with the architect who built it, and begins to wonder what really happened to her.

So far, so simple. But while I was writing the book I became intrigued by the well-known idea that killers have a ‘pattern’ – they get psychological satisfaction from repeating their previous murder, down to the last tiny detail. I began to wonder if it was possible to write these two women’s stories as though it were one continuous narrative, so that a scene flows naturally from beginning to end even though bits of it are taking place in the past – almost as if Emma’s story is being retold, with Jane as the new protagonist and potential victim.

If that sounds complicated to explain, hopefully it isn’t on the page – I think of it as almost being like the opposite of the movie Sliding Doors. Where that was one woman with two possible stories, this is two women trapped inside one story, so the big narrative question for the reader becomes whether the second woman can escape the ending that was written for the first. Hopefully it’s a new way of telling an old tale – and now that it’s finally about to be published, I can’t wait to see what readers think of it. 


Thank you to JP for this great guest post. Be sure to head to Rea's Book Reviews for yesterday's post and  On My Bookshelf tomorrow for the next stop on the tour!

#BookReview The Marriage Lie by @KimberlySBelle @HQstories

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Iris and Will's marriage is as close to perfect as it can be: a large house in a nice Atlanta neighborhood, rewarding careers and the excitement of trying for their first baby. But on the morning Will leaves for a business trip to Orlando, Iris's happy world comes to an abrupt halt. Another plane headed for Seattle has crashed into a field, killing everyone on board, and according to the airline, Will was one of the passengers on this plane. 

Grief-stricken and confused, Iris is convinced it all must be a huge misunderstanding. But as time passes and there is still no sign of Will, she reluctantly accepts that he is gone. Still, Iris needs answers. Why did Will lie about where he was going? What is in Seattle? And what else has he lied about? As Iris sets off on a desperate quest to find out what her husband was keeping from her, the answers she receives will shock her to her very core.

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Review:

Wow what a great read! I was in the mood for a page turner and this certainly didn't disappoint! The only thing I would say is that I think the blurb gives too much away!

Guest Post: Felling Big Trees by @rich_garon @bookbaby

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Felling Big Trees is the story of disgraced Congressman Fran Stewart as he turns to the American heartland to find redemption in the eyes of his daughter and the woman he loves. He has been adrift after losing his wife in a horrific car accident. Trying to free himself from a politically powerful mother-in-law who blames him for his daughter's death, Fran searches for a way to prepare a better future for himself and his teenage daughter, Becky. An innocent misstep one evening leads to political disaster for Fran. Fran travels through heartland towns where no one knows he's a former congressman. Stripped of the detachment that characterized his early years as a congressman, Fran is drawn to an everyman perspective that poses universal questions. What breeds inaction and apathy? How do we jumpstart a deeper connection to the injustices we see every day? What does it take to engender empathy in a meaningful and focused way? How far will we humble ourselves to help those with few resources? Fran has to stand up to prejudices and uncaring established ways. His story and how he relates to those he meets fits well with a time when compassion and tolerance are often overwhelmed by strident tones and lack of basic civility.

Guest Post: Hitting The First Key

There’s a lot to plan when writing. Even before one sits down at the computer, the mind is at work organizing, conceptualizing, projecting. I finally sat down and from scraps of paper and unorganized saved files, produced thirty pages of which I was very proud. I started to write my first manuscript. Maybe one hundred pages into the work, a friend whose writing skills I held in high esteem read what I had produced so far. I was devastated when he told me the first thirty pages absolutely had to go. I almost gave up right there.

Guest Post and Giveaway: Win The One by @johnmarrs1 @EburyPublishing

One simple mouth swab is all it takes. 

One tiny DNA test to find your perfect partner - the one you're genetically made for. 

A decade after scientists discover everyone has a gene they share with just one person, millions have taken the test, desperate to find true love. 

Now, five more people take the test. But even soul mates have secrets. And some are more shocking - and deadlier - than others...

A psychological thriller with a difference, this is a truly unique novel which is guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Guest Post:

When I first started planning to write The One, I knew that it was going to need a diverse ensemble of characters. The premise has a slight sci-fi edge to it – i.e that we all have a DNA Match out there who’s the person we are destined to fall in love with – so the rest of the story needed to have broad appeal to grab readers’ attention. Therefore it had to be very much character led.

The One follows five people, each of whom discover they have a Match somewhere out there, but they don’t have any idea who it is. That Match could be any sexuality, religion, race, location or age. And that gave me an awful lot of scope to play with.

#BookReview The Hanged Man's Noose by @JudyPenzSheluk @BarkingRain

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Small-town secrets and subterfuge lead to murder in this fast-moving, deftly written tale of high-stakes real estate wrangling gone amok.

Journalist Emily Garland lands a plum assignment as the editor of a niche magazine based in Lount’s Landing, a small town named after a colorful 19th century Canadian traitor. As she interviews the local business owners for the magazine, Emily quickly learns that many people are unhappy with real estate mogul Garrett Stonehaven’s plans to convert an old schoolhouse into a mega-box store. At the top of that list is Arabella Carpenter, the outspoken owner of an antiques shop, who will do just about anything to preserve the integrity of the town’s historic Main Street.

But Arabella is not alone in her opposition. Before long, a vocal dissenter at a town hall meeting about the proposed project dies. A few days later, another body is discovered, and although both deaths are ruled accidental, Emily’s journalistic suspicions are aroused.

Putting her reporting skills to the ultimate test, Emily teams up with Arabella to discover the truth behind Stonehaven’s latest scheme before the murderer strikes again.

Review:

What I like about reading is the opportunity it gives to the reader to discover new writers, genres and styles. Not all are good, some are indifferent and others could read over and over again.I was given a copy of The Hanged Man’s Noose by Judy Penz Sheluk to review and I am so glad I decided to read it.

This book conjured up so many lovely warm images for me; considering it is a book involving murder you may wonder how that is possible! Let me explain.
I love those Christmas films set in America where there is lots of snow, bounteous Christmas decorations and everyone is warm and friendly. Everybody knows exactly what is going on and there is a general feeling of happiness. That is exactly what happened to me with this book; it enabled me to envisage Lount’s Landing and the people there and every time I picked this book up I escaped into a different reality; that portrayed in the book.