Helen Hollick has a new release: A Meadow Murder and she's taking it on a #CoffeePotBlogTour

 

Book Title: A Meadow Murder 

Series:  A Jan Christopher Mystery - Episode 4

Author: Helen Hollick

Publication Date: 28th July 2023

Publisher: Taw River Press

Page Length: 153 pages

Genre: Cosy Mystery

Twitter Handle: @HelenHollick @cathiedunn

Instagram Handle: @thecoffeepotbookclub

Mastodon Social Handle: @cathiedunn

BlueSky Handle: @cathiedunn.bsky.social

Hashtags: #CosyMystery #CozyMystery #Devon #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub

Blog Schedule Page: 

A Meadow Murder

A Jan Christopher Mystery, Episode #4 

Helen Hollick

Blurb:

"As delicious as a Devon Cream Tea!" ~ author Elizabeth St John

"Every sentence pulls you back into the early 1970s... The Darling Buds of May, only not Kent, but Devon. The countryside itself is a character and Hollick imbues it with plenty of emotion" ~ author Alison Morton

***

Make hay while the sun shines? But what happens when a murder is discovered, and country life is disrupted?

Summer 1972. Young library assistant Jan Christopher and her fiancé, DS Lawrence Walker, are on holiday in North Devon. There are country walks and a day at the races to enjoy, along with Sunday lunch at the village pub, and the hay to help bring in for the neighbouring farmer.

But when a body is found the holiday plans are to change into an investigation of murder, hampered by a resting actor, a woman convinced she’s met a leprechaun and a scarecrow on walkabout...

This series is available to read on #KindleUnlimited

Universal Link: https://mybook.to/AMeadowMurder 

First accepted for traditional publication in 1993, Helen became a USA Today Bestseller with her historical novel, THE FOREVER QUEEN (titled A HOLLOW CROWN in the UK) with the sequel, HAROLD THE KING (US: I AM THE CHOSEN KING) being novels that explore the events that led to the Battle of Hastings in 1066. 

Her PENDRAGON’S BANNER TRILOGY is a fifth-century version of the Arthurian legend, and she writes a nautical adventure/fantasy series, THE SEA WITCH VOYAGES. 

She has also branched out into the quick read novella, 'Cosy Mystery' genre with her JAN CHRISTOPHER MURDER MYSTERIES, set in the 1970s, with the first in the series, A MIRROR MURDER incorporating her, often hilarious, memories of working as a library assistant. The front cover of episode #4 A MEADOW MURDER is Helen’s actual hay meadow on her Devon farm.

Her non-fiction books are Pirates: Truth and Tales and Life of A Smuggler. She lives with her family in an eighteenth-century farmhouse in North Devon and occasionally gets time to write...

Social Media Links:

Website: https://helenhollick.net 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HelenHollick  

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/helen.hollick

Amazon Author Page: https://viewauthor.at/HelenHollick

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/helenhollick

Blog: https://ofhistoryandkings.blogspot.com/  (promoting good authors & suggestions for books to read)

Subscribe to Helen’s Newsletter: https://tinyletter.com/HelenHollick

The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tours present: The Shadow Earl by Stella Riley

Book Title: The Shadow Earl

Series: n/a

Author: Stella Riley

Publication Date: 15th July, 2023

Publisher: Stella Riley

Page Length:  433

Genre: Historical Romance

Twitter Handles:  @RileyStella @cathiedunn

Instagram Handles:  @stellarileybooks @thecoffeepotbookclub

Tour Schedule Page: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2023/07/blog-tour-shadow-earl-by-stella-riley.html 

The Shadow Earl

Stella Riley

Audiobook narrated by Alex Wyndham

Blurb:

At the end of his Grand Tour, somewhere between Athens and Constantinople, Christian Selwyn, the young Earl of Hazelmere, vanished - seemingly without a trace.

Time passes.  In London, his uncle and cousin move into his home … while his unofficial fiancée, Sophia, is left desolate and in limbo.  Finally, his friends – loyal and close as brothers – set out to search in person.  

Christian’s startling re-appearance at a grand ball takes society by storm and fuels endless speculation. Where has he been during these three missing years? What happened to him?  

And more importantly, how did it happen?  

Only one thing is clear.  The earl who left England five years ago, has returned a changed man.  A man with secrets.

Excerpt

An incident between Messrs Selwyn & Shelbourne at the Cocoa Tree Club

  

Daniel immediately noticed two things.  Basil Selwyn and his idiotic friends sitting near the Hazard table … and a footman about to serve them a steaming bowl of punch.  Opportunity and temptation coincided. One very slight movement was all it took. The footman tripped, lurched, fumbled with the bowl … and a couple of pints of rum punch cascaded over Mr Selwyn.

‘What the – ?’  Basil leapt from his seat in a sticky shower, whirled to deliver a blistering tirade … saw Daniel and froze.  

‘You!’ he spat. ‘You did that, you bastard.’

Several gentlemen at the Hazard table stopped playing to watch.

‘What?’ asked Daniel. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. The poor fellow tripped, that’s all.’

‘Not without help,’ raged Basil, dripping and trying to drag off his ruined coat. ‘You tripped him. Deliberately.’

‘And risk the stuff being spilled over me?  Hardly. Dare I mention that you have a slice of lemon in your hair?’

Basil hurled his coat aside, groped blindly for the lemon and glared at the footman. ‘You.  Tell me the truth. He tripped you, didn’t he?’

The poor man hesitated, swallowed and stammered that it had been an accident. 

‘Calm down, Selwyn,’ advised Daniel as the footman fled. ‘Your imagination is running away with you.  It’s been doing that a lot recently, hasn’t it?’

More heads turned, somebody sniggered and play at the Hazard table ceased.

Ignoring this, Basil growled, ‘I know what you did!’

‘You don’t because I didn’t.’ Daniel smiled sympathetically,  ‘You should try Mrs Baxter’s Elixir.  My great-aunt swears by it when her nerves are – ’ 

‘There’s nothing wrong with my nerves, damn you!  You tripped the footman. Admit it!’  And when Daniel shook his head, ‘Then you’re a bloody liar!’ 

The gasp of shock that rippled through his audience was lost on Basil, as was the voice advising, ‘Take that back while you still can, Selwyn.’

Buy Links:

Universal Link: https://books2read.com/u/meqpeZ 

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shadow-Earl-Stella-Riley-ebook/dp/B0C6VMXVTC/  

  

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Earl-Stella-Riley-ebook/dp/B0C6VMXVTC/ 

Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/Shadow-Earl-Stella-Riley-ebook/dp/B0C6VMXVTC/ 

Amazon AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/Shadow-Earl-Stella-Riley-ebook/dp/B0C6VMXVTC/ 

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-shadow-earl-stella-riley/1143607582?ean=2940166065582

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/the-shadow-earl

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1401655

Winner of four gold medals for historical romance (Readers' Favourite in 2019, Book Excellence Awards in 2020, Global Book Awards in 2022 and Book Excellence Award in 2023) and fifteen B.R.A.G. Medallions, Stella Riley lives in the beautiful medieval town of Sandwich in Kent.

 

She is fascinated by the English Civil Wars and has written six books set in that period. These, like the 7 book Rockliffe series (recommended in The Times newspaper!) and the Brandon Brothers trilogy, are all available in audio, narrated by Alex Wyndham.

Stella enjoys travel, reading, theatre, Baroque music and playing the harpsichord.  She also has a fondness for men with long hair - hence her 17th and 18th century heroes.

Social Media Links:

Website:  https://stellarileybooks.co.uk

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RileyStella

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stellariley.books

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stellarileybooks/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/riley9631/stella-riley-books/

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/search?search=Stella%20Riley

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stella-Riley/e/B0034PB7UU 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/171405852-the-shadow-earl