Blurb When Bryony Bennett's god-mother dies and leaves her a huge inheritance, Bryony jumps at the chance to get away from it all and...

FLASHES, FEAR AND FASCINATION I’ve been reading in blissful solitude for the last hour or so, totally immersed in my current read - a psychological thriller. The blinds and the curtains are both closed. Daylight ended some forty-seven minutes ago, earlier than normal due to the ominous, black clouds looming overhead. I’d shut out the darkness, happy to read in the lamp-light. I head into the kitchen to make my last hot drink before bed. Once the kettle noisily comes to the bo

No Axe To Grind Chapter 1 - Tessa Damn, this chainsaw is heavy. People brag about chainsaws like they’re some badass tool of empowerment—rev the engine, swing the blade, become the heroine in your own final girl horror story. No one tells you they weigh about the same as a toddler and have all the grace and charm of a rampaging bull. I grunt, dragging the beast across snow-packed ground, the metal teeth bumping into every tree in sight like it knows I have no clue what I’m do

THE LAST VISIT I enter the building, as I have done once a week for the last five years, via the broken main entrance doors. It’s dark inside, dark due to all the boarded-up windows. The windows have all been broken at some point and re-boarded many times, only to have them broken away again by local vandals. My footsteps echo eerily as I walk through the vast open spaces. Soiled sleeping bags lay around in plenty of corners, empty beer cans and spirit bottles alike have been

CHAPTER ONE   Police Constable Helen Pryce swore as she hugged the wheel of the Skoda Octavia SR. The downpour that had been threatening for the past hour suddenly fell from the sky as if a dam had burst somewhere above the roiling clouds that looked very much like the mushroom variety. The car’s wipers, even when swishing at top speed in a synchronised blur of motion, struggled to bat the rainwater away from the windscreen, such was the intensity of the deluge. Pryce and her

One Last Swing When Brianna’s family moved into the quiet neighborhood, the silence felt wrong to her—too still, as if the entire street held its breath. Bri, as her parents called her, tried to hide her unease. She already missed her old school, her friends, the familiar noise of downtown Pittsburgh. Her parents assured her she’d make new friends quickly, reminding her how bright and outgoing she was. She forced a smile, but something about the new house made her stomach tig

FUNERALS AND FAMILIARS (A COZY MIDLIFE MAGIC MYSTERY) An excerpt from chapters 2 and 3 Louisa shook hands with all of us. “I’m so sorry for your loss.” She peered at us through blue-rimmed spectacles that matched her cashmere sweater. My throat constricted. “Thank you,” Brenda said. Louisa opened a thin folder. “Shall we start?” “Please.” Brian grasped for his sister’s hand. I put mine on top of Cosmo’s carrier. “Your aunt Violet has left a clear set of instructions in her la

Extract from Missing Boy – Michelle Kidd (published 3 May 3023 by Joffe Books) Tuesday 30 October 2018 5.30 p.m. He placed the chair in the centre of the room and smiled. The sight of it always gave him a fluttering sensation in the pit of his stomach — the sense of anticipation, the intoxicating sense of what was yet to come. The room was slightly bigger than the one back home. He’d boarded up the single window, telling his brother he needed the room to be dark for his photo

Lawyer Simon Banks - leaving the gym Simon Banks, the lawyer. What can I reveal about the dodgy Simon? Let me think... He's a lawyer with a questionable reputation but he manages to always stay on the right side of the law...just. How does he do that? Well, it's because he employs others to do his dirty work...with no 'come back' on him. In court, he has earned himself a reputation for being arrogant and extremely ruthless in his usual role of being on the prosecution team. A

IGLOO Grand Prize Winner of the Eyelands International Book Awards, 2023 A coming-of-age-adventure-romance for everyone YA and upwards Nirvana, aged sixteen, is on a surprise skiing holiday in the French Alps for Christmas with her family, including Mum, step-mum Dominique and little brother, Claude. Disliking school at home, she’s equally fed up with ski school. What she wants to see in the Alps are not the back of the child in front of her or a white out but mountains! So,