Happy to be hosting today’s blog tour stop for fellow Lakewater Press author James L. Weaver, with Ares Road, the second book in his hard-hitting, character-driven Jake Caldwell series.

The series opener Poor Boy Road was one of the best new crime thrillers of 2016.

An IAN Thriller of the Year finalist, it introduced reformed mob enforcer Jake, an endearingly attractive hard guy with a heart of gold.

Now Jake is trying to go straight – but his first job as a private investigator doesn’t go quite as planned…

See our review here.

Meet the author: James L. Weaver, the marathon man who wants to be a survivor.

Meet  James L. Weaver, whose new novel Ares Road (published by Lakewater Press), follows the adventures of former mob enforcer Jake Caldwell.

Jake made his debut in Poor Boy Road, one of the best crime thrillers of 2016, which was named as a finalist in the IAN thriller of the Year competition.

Find out fun facts about Kansas City, why James believes in equal opportunities for potatoes and why he fears revealing his guilty secret will lead to a retraction of his Man Card.

My name: James L. Weaver. I was named after my dad’s best friend from his hometown who was killed in Vietnam.

This spring I took a business trip to DC and found him on the Vietnam Memorial wall.

My family: My immediately family consists of my wife of almost 20 years and my two
teenage kids, one of whom is scoping out colleges and making me feel really old.

Oh, and I can’t forget Dixon, our 8-month old festively plump beagle. Continue reading →

There may be more indigestible dishes than potato peel pie.

But, offhand, it’s hard to think what they might be.

And, it is, perhaps, telling that The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows doesn’t actually include a pie recipe.

But it doesn’t need one: this is a gourmet book about an extraordinary group of people surviving – just about – the German Occupation of the Channel Islands.

The story opens in 1946 – author Juliet Ashton, who Continue reading →

Fantasy writers don’t always get the respect they deserve.

While other authors have to think about research, and plotting, and characterisation – not to mention the little business of actually writing their magnus opus – the fantasy guys also have to create a whole new universe, complete with rules and regulations and customs and a back-story to match.

A massive undertaking, requiring ingenuity and enormous attention to detail.

So hats off to JC Norman, author of the third novel in the Sphere’s Divide saga, Tragedies of Emotion, for imagining a fantastical, complex Continue reading →

Help author Rachel Amphlett celebrate the publication of Will to Live, the second installment in her DS Kay Hunter crime thriller series.

Rachel’s throwing a Facebook launch party on April 04 and you can join her here between 8-9.30pm.

In the meantime, feast your eyes on the gorgeous cover of the new book, which promises to be every
bit as riveting a read as the series opener, Scared to Death.

About the book

When a packed commuter train runs over a body on a stretch of track known to locals as ‘Suicide Mile’, it soon transpires the man was a victim of a calculated murder. Continue reading →

Here’s the stunning new cover for Ares Road, the second book in James L. Weaver’s gritty, character-driven Jake Caldwell series.

The series opener Poor Boy Road was one of the best new crime thrillers of 2016.

An IAN Thriller of the Year finalist, it introduced reformed mob enforcer Jake, an endearingly attractive hard guy with a heart of gold.

Now Jake’s back and still trying to go straight. Continue reading →

The clue is in the title.

The Long Quiche Goodbye, first in the Cheese Shop mystery series, is pure cheese.

Author Avery Aames sets the tone on page one with references to Abbaye de Belloc, Manchego and Humboldt Fog – the latter, apparently, a great pairing with Chardonnay.

Inevitably the murder victim, the most hated man in small town Providence, Ohio, is stabbed with a wood-handled cheese knife.

Number one suspect is Bernadette, grandmére of Charlotte, new proprietor of Fromagerie Bessette, aka the Cheese Shop. Continue reading →

Many thanks Radio 4: you’ve turned me back on to Graham Greene.

I’ve been steering clear of Greene for donkey’s years after a bad experience with The Power and the Glory when I was in my teens.

However, listening to a late night Book at Bedtime serialisation of his 1951 novella, The Third Man, prompted me to give him another go.

Set in the dog days after the end of the Second World War, the book is based on the screenplay, which Greene also wrote, of the 1949 film noir of the same name. Continue reading →

Delighted to join the blog tour for Taste of the French Caribbean by Chef Denis.

You too can stir up an authentic taste of the Caribbean with Chef Denis Rosembert’s first ever cookbook.

The St Lucia born restauranteur lovingly curates his favourite dishes — from delicious jerk chicken to spicy mutton curry and sweet golden apple cake — bringing the unique flavours and exotic aromas of the island, renowned for its seafood and exquisite chocolates, vividly to life in your own kitchen.

At his much-loved restaurant Chez Denis in Norwich, England, Denis Rosembert blends the eclectic cuisines of Africa, Europe and Eastern India that combine to make St Lucian food so rich and so special.

His colourful, infectious, easy-to-follow recipes are the ultimate celebration of island life, food and drink and entertaining and will soon have you inviting friends and family round to experience your own taste of the Caribbean.

See our review here.

About Chef Denis

Denis Rosembert was born on the island of St.Lucia where he started training to be a chef in 1973.

After a couple of years he was invited to England to continue his training.

Since then Denis has worked in various hotels and restaurants across Britain and America in the role of Commis, Sous and finally Head Chef.

In 1989 he moved to Norwich, where after a brief stint working for the Sports Village, he finally realised his dream and opened his own restaurant Chez Denis.

Follow Chef Denis:

Website – http://www.chezdenis.co.uk/

Twitter – https://twitter.com/Chezdenis1

Confession time: some women have a ‘thing’ about handbags. For others, it’s shoes.

It’s the fantasy that a little Chanel purse or a pair of staggeringly high Jimmy Choos will make them into a better person.

Me? It’s doubtful a) that the contents of my tote would fit into any kind of Chanel bag that my bank account could afford or b) that I’d be able to totter more than a couple of steps in anything higher than a loafer.

No, this girl drools over cookbooks. I love everything about them: the orderly layout, Continue reading →