The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour presents: The Fortune Keeper by Deborah Swift

Book Title: The Fortune Keeper

Series: Italian Renaissance Series

Author: Deborah Swift

Publication Date: 24th November 2022

Publisher: Quire Books

Pages: 412

Genre: Historical Fiction 

Tour Schedule Page: 

The Fortune Keeper 

by Deborah Swift

Count your nights by stars, not shadows ~ Italian Proverb

Winter in Renaissance Venice

Mia Caiozzi is determined to discover her destiny by studying the science of astronomy. But her stepmother Giulia forbids her to engage in this occupation, fearing it will lead her into danger. The ideas of Galileo are banned by the Inquisition, so Mia must study in secret.

Giulia's real name is Giulia Tofana, renowned for her poison Aqua Tofana, and she is in hiding from the Duke de Verdi's family who are intent on revenge for the death of their brother. Giulia insists Mia should live quietly out of public view. If not, it could threaten them all. But Mia doesn't understand this, and rebels against Giulia, determined to go her own way.

When the two secret lives collide, it has far-reaching and fatal consequences that will change Mia's life forever.

Set amongst opulent palazzos and shimmering canals, The Fortune Keeper is the third novel of adventure and romance based on the life and legend of Giulia Tofana, the famous poisoner.

'Her characters are so real they linger in the mind long after the book is back on the shelf'

~ Historical Novel Society

NB: This is the third in a series but can stand alone as it features a new protagonist. Other two books are available if reviewers want them.

Trigger Warnings:

Murder and violence in keeping with the era.

This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.

Universal Link: 

Audiobook Buy Links:

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/audiobook/fortune-keeper-the

Audio: https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/The-Fortune-Keeper-Audiobook/B0C63R95WM

Deborah Swift is a USA TODAY bestselling author who is passionate about the past. Deborah used to be a costume designer for the BBC, before becoming a writer. Now she lives in an old English school house in a village full of 17th Century houses, near the glorious Lake District. Deborah has an award-winning historical fiction blog at her website www.deborahswift.com.

Deborah loves to write about how extraordinary events in history have transformed the lives of ordinary people, and how the events of the past can live on in her books and still resonate today. 

The first in her series about the Renaissance poisoner Giulia Tofana, The Poison Keeper, was a winner of the Wishing Shelf Book of the Decade, and a Coffee Pot Book Club Gold Medal, and the latest in her WW2 Secret Agent series, Operation Tulip, is coming soon.

Read an excerpt from The Fortune Keeper 

From Chapter 9

Venice 1643

The day after meeting Brother Mario, Imbroglio arrived early at his bolt-hole – a second set of lodgings in the German quarter. The snow had stopped, but the pale winter sun was out and the place stank. It was above the night-soil collector, who took the human refuse by boat and dumped it at sea, out of the reach of men’s noses and away from the tidal flow into Venice. Though these lodgings lacked luxury, and were devilish damp, this place afforded him the privacy he wanted. On the top floor, with a sturdy door and a good firm mortise lock. 

He had a semblance of luxury at the Palazzo Dario, but here the stink would certainly put off all but the brave-hearted. Imbroglio tried not to inhale. With luck and a following wind he’d be gone by summer. Thank God, he thought, because it would be unbearable here then. He thrust the shutter open to get some air, but banged it shut again as the stench increased. 

Here, he was only Antonio Imbroglio, a poor pilgrim visiting San Marco. A crucifix was displayed prominently on the wall, for the sole benefit of the daily woman Signora Cicerone. 

He peered out through the striated light of the shuttered window. 

A few muffled-up street urchins were hanging on the corner hoping for work on the canal. They’d ignored him as he passed, as not rich enough to bother pestering. He enjoyed the switch of personalities – that one day he could be the count’s advisor, Signor Moretti, nobleman and Doctor of Law, parading in his fur-lined cloak, and another day, Antonio Imbroglio, the man who looked like a beggar. 

Now to check the contents of his trunk, a nondescript looking cask covered in scuffed leather, of the type a poor traveller might use. All the accoutrements of his assassin’s trade were here. He heaved open the domed lid and brought out the contents one by one.

Picklocks, gloves, razor and whetstone, a pistol with a walnut handle, his good duelling sword.

He paused. Beneath lay the souvenirs of those he’d killed. Time was, he could draw out each object – each precious gold watch, each diamond-fobbed seal, each ’broidered kerchief – and remember the face.

Now there were so many it was a mere heap of scrim-shaw.

He ran a thumb softly over the edge of the razor. It would need to be sharpened. He’d vowed not to use the damn thing here in Venice; it was there only for emergency. But things had gone wrong, so now he’d have to re-think. 

Curse Count D’Ambrosi. He shouldn’t have taken him on at cards. He should have realized the best gamblers in Europe were here in Venice at the Ridotto, and the stakes high. To his humiliation, Count d’Ambrosi had beat him playing Gillet and emptied him out. It looked bad, especially if he wanted a stake in the observatory – the biggest waste of money in Venice.

He began to sharpen the razor, thinking he’d be better off to sharpen his skills at cards. Meanwhile, thank God for Brother Mario and his pound of gold lira. 

This time would definitely be the last, he swore to himself, because now, thanks to that measly monk, he was onto something. Tomorrow, he’d find out if Agnese di Napoli, formerly Agnese de Verdi, could shed any light on the whereabouts of Giulia Tofana and her Aqua Tofana. The thought of it quickened his pulse. 

He liked to make people talk— before they were consigned to a place where they would never speak again. And imminent death was a marvellous incentive to loosen the tongue.

The rasp of the whetstone grew rhythmic in the quiet of the room.

Website: www.deborahswift.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/swiftstory

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authordeborahswift/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/deborahswift1/

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/deborah-swift

Amazon: http://author.to/DeborahSwift 

                

The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour Presents: Novice Threads by Nancy Jardine

Book Title: Novice Threads

Series: Silver Sampler Series 

Author: Nancy Jardine

Publication Date: 15th May 2024

Publisher: Nancy Jardine with Ocelot Press

Page Length: 356

Genre: Victorian Scotland Saga / Historical Fiction / Women’s Fiction

Tour Schedule Page: 

Novice Threads 

by 

Nancy Jardine

A thirst for education.  Shattered dreams. Fragile relations.

1840s Scotland

Being sent to school is the most exhilarating thing that’s ever happened to young Margaret Law. She sharpens her newly-acquired education on her best friend, Jessie Morison, till Jessie is spirited away to become a scullery maid. But how can Margaret fulfil her visions of becoming a schoolteacher when her parents’ tailoring and drapery business suddenly collapses and she must find a job?

Salvation from domestic drudgery – or never-ending seamstress work – comes via Jessie whose employer seeks a tutor for his daughter. Free time exploring Edinburgh with Jessie is great fun, but increasing tension in the household claws at Margaret’s nerves. 

Margaret also worries about her parents' estrangement, and the mystery of Jessie's unknown father.

When tragedy befalls the household in Edinburgh, Margaret must forge a new pathway for the future – though where will that be?

Read an Excerpt

The funeral came round far too quickly, yet not swiftly enough. It was only a few days after Doctor Oliver had officially certified the death that the house filled with various adult family members, those who could come at short notice, and other people whom Mister Duncan called real friends, stalwarts whom Helen hadn’t driven away during her last years at Albany Street.

Cook was busy. Kate was busy. Jessie was busy. All of them preparing for a small wake.

Margaret’s main task since Rachel’s last breath had been to assist Victoria with contacting those invited to attend the funeral, since the eldest Duncan daughter was in effect standing in for her mother who was not in any fit state to deal with anything to do with the burial.

Along with Jessie and Kate down in the kitchen, Margaret had pored over the recent newspapers to find advertisements for traditional mourning clothes for Victoria. Two days before the funeral, Kate and Jessie had gone off to one of the places advertised with Victoria in tow, leaving Margaret to look after a very upset little Elspeth. At the outfitters, Jessie had also bought swathes of black ribbon to trim Elspeth’s white dresses, a suitable way for the youngest Duncan daughter to indicate that she was also in mourning. Thankfully, Mister Duncan ensured the males had suitable attire because Margaret felt that would have been beyond her abilities.

It was a great relief that she hadn’t needed to make too many alterations to the new dresses that Victoria would wear for months to come.

Elspeth was rarely far from Margaret’s side, the little girl like a lost wraith.

It seemed so ironic that the little coffin containing her well-loved pupil sat across two tables in the drawing room, in the room Rachel hadn’t inhabited since before her accident.

With tears clouding her vision Margaret stood well back near the window, holding Elspeth tight to her side as prayers were said for the final journey that Rachel was now embarking on. And then Margaret kept Elspeth huddled against her skirts when the coffin was sombrely carried through the doorway and out to the horse-drawn funeral carriage that stood waiting outside.

During the short time it took to place the coffin just so, Margaret felt Victoria lead her little sister away from her clutches and up the stairs, something that had been prearranged.

None of the females in the house were meant to be accompanying Rachel on that last long walk through familiar Edinburgh streets to the Western Cemetery near Dean Water, but Margaret felt an inexplicable urge to follow after the male-dominated funeral procession. When she descended the front steps, the first time she had ever done so, the procession had already moved off, ponderously and reverently, all the men of the house pacing behind, including Gavin who had managed to come from Stirling.

Hesitating to gain some composure, it again was no surprise to find her hand grasped by Jessie who propelled her into motion.

Keeping well behind, she clutched Jessie and arm in arm they followed the bier all along Heriot Row and down towards Randolph Crescent. She was silent in memories of her time with her little pupil. On the last part through Dean Village, there was no escape from the flood that dripped off Margaret’s chin. Jessie was in like straits, yet both were determined to see it through. Neither had seen a proper burial before, though Jessie had stood beside her granny near the graveyard gates after Ruth’s death.

It wasn’t curiosity but rather a compulsion that drove Margaret to be there right at the end. The little girl who lay ahead of her, whose short life had been so momentous, had touched Margaret’s heart so deeply.

This title is available to read on #Kindle Unlimited. 

Universal Buy Link:  

Nancy writes historical and contemporary fiction. 1st Century Roman Britain is the setting of her Celtic Fervour Series. Victorian and Edwardian history has sneaked into two of her ancestry-based contemporary mysteries, and her current Silver Sampler Series is set in Victorian Scotland.

Her novels have achieved Finalist status in UK book competitions (People's Book Prize; Scottish Association of Writers) and have received prestigious Online Book Awards.

Published with Ocelot Press, writing memberships include – Historical Novel Society; Romantic Novelists Association; Scottish Association of Writers; Federation of Writers Scotland; Alliance of Independent Authors.

Author Links:

Website: http://www.nancyjardine.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/nansjar

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NancyJardinewrites/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancy-jardine-a919b03a/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nansjar2023/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/nansjar23.bsky.social

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/nanjar/ 

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/nancy-jardine

Amazon Author Page: viewauthor.at/findmybookshere

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5139590.Nancy_Jardine

The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour presents Rolling Home by David Fitz-Gerald

Book Title: Rolling Home

Series: Ghosts Along the Oregon Trail

Author: David Fitz-Gerald

Publication Date: June 15, 2024

Publisher: David Fitz-Gerald

Pages: 254

Genre: Western, Historical Fiction

Series Trailer: https://youtu.be/sWvp6dtbXvA 

Tour Schedule Page: 

Rolling Home: A Pioneer Western Adventure

David Fitz-Gerald

Climb aboard! Don't miss the heart-pounding climax of the Ghosts Along the Oregon Trail series. Rolling Home is the final installment.

In the heart of the rolling village, dissent brews as the stubbornest naysayer refuses to continue the journey. With an ominous early snowfall and memories of the ill-fated Donner Party haunting the pioneers, Dorcas Moon faces a new wave of challenges. Just when she believes things can't get worse, a disastrous river crossing claims their wagon and submerges their belongings.

As the rolling village approaches the final leg of the journey, the looming threat of outlaws intensifies. The notorious bandit known as The Viper and his ruthless brothers are determined to rob the greenhorns, sell their stock, and kill every last one of them. The pioneers had heard tales of their brutality, but now, with Dorcas' daughter kidnapped and Dorcas captured, everyone is in danger.

What will become of Dorcas Moon, her family, and their friends? Will anyone survive the perilous journey?

Rejoin the expedition and witness the thrilling end to a gripping saga.

This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.

Universal Buy Link: 

David Fitz-Gerald writes westerns and historical fiction. He is the author of twelve books, including the brand-new series, Ghosts Along the Oregon Trail set in 1850. Dave is a multiple Laramie Award, first place, best in category winner; a Blue Ribbon Chanticleerian; a member of Western Writers of America; and a member of the Historical Novel Society.

Alpine landscapes and flashy horses always catch Dave’s eye and turn his head. He is also an Adirondack 46-er, which means that he has hiked to the summit of the range’s highest peaks. As a mountaineer, he’s happiest at an elevation of over four thousand feet above sea level.

Dave is a lifelong fan of western fiction, landscapes, movies, and music. It should be no surprise that Dave delights in placing memorable characters on treacherous trails, mountain tops, and on the backs of wild horses.

Website: https://www.itsoag.com/GATOT 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorDAVIDFG 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorDaveFITZGERALD/ 

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

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/AuthorDaveFITZGERALD/ 

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/david-fitz-gerald 

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/dfitzgerald 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17341792.David_Fitz_Gerald

Linktree https://linktr.ee/authordavidfitzgerald  

The Coffee Pot Book Club presents: Shire's Union Trilogy by Richard Buxton

 

Book Title: Trilogy consisting of:

Whirligig (Book #1)

The Copper Road (Book #2)

Tigers in Blue (Book #3)

Series: Shire’s Union

Author: Richard Buxton

Publication Date: 

WG = 22/3/2017

TCR = 26/7/2020

TIB = 8/12/2023

Publisher: Ocoee Publishing

Page Length: 

WG = 479

TCR = 421

TIB = 424

Genre: Historical Fiction

Tour Schedule Page: 

Whirligig (Book #1)

The Copper Road (Book #2)

Tigers in Blue (Book #3)

by Richard Buxton

Shire leaves his home and his life in Victorian England for the sake of a childhood promise, a promise that pulls him into the bleeding heart of the American Civil War. Lost in the bloody battlefields of the West, he discovers a second home for his loyalty.

Clara believes she has escaped from a predictable future of obligation and privilege, but her new life in the Appalachian Hills of Tennessee is decaying around her. In the mansion of Comrie, long hidden secrets are being slowly exhumed by a war that creeps ever closer.

The Shire’s Union trilogy is at once an outsider’s odyssey through the battle for Tennessee, a touching story of impossible love, and a portrait of America at war with itself. Self-interest and conflict, betrayal and passion, all fuse into a fateful climax.

Written by award winning author Richard Buxton, the Shire’s Union trilogy begins with Whirligig, is continued in The Copper Road, and concludes with Tigers in Blue.

Read an excerpt from Tigers in Blue 

Giles County, Tennessee – November 1864

Their train stopped again. The three of them disembarked and walked beyond the engine. It had pulled up a handful of crossties before a fire-blackened and wounded trestle bridge that spanned a deep and wide ravine. There must have been three hundred men or more working on the repairs. They swarmed over the bridge, a busy blue infestation, some out along the incomplete top span, others either end of a crane carried on a flatbed railcar, many more perilously among the posts and cross-struts. Men struggled to shout instructions over a chorus of hammer and saw. Way down in the ravine and across a swift creek stood a clump of engineer officers. One held a sheet of paper so big he looked in danger of being lifted into the air. Others pointed and gestured up at the bridge. As Shire watched, a steam winch puffed into action on the crane-car and a thick trestle rose and swayed up from below like a miracle, before being claimed by many hands and dragged into the great puzzle of wood. Despite their industry, the nearer half of the bridge was missing the top forty feet.

The engine driver came and stood beside them, wiping sooty hands on a dirty rag. Rice, greasy hair pushed back off his forehead, asked, ‘If you knew the bridge was broke, why did you set out? We’ll be stuck for days.’

The driver took his time surveying the works. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘you’re welcome to climb down and up the other side, but any trains that happen along from Nashville will only queue up to go south. Watch a while.’ He turned to walk back to his engine. ‘These people will have us over before nightfall.’

With nothing to do but wait, Shire and Tuck left Rice at the engine and worked their way along the top of the ravine to a spot where they could watch the repair. The ground fell steeply away before them. Predictably, Tuck dropped his pack, took up his fiddle and sat. He hadn’t said a word today. A stiff breeze struck up under a gray sky. At least they had the car to retreat to if it came on to rain. Shire got out his dog-eared map of Tennessee and Kentucky and unfolded it carefully so as not to bring on further dishevelment. He found Pulaski and traced the rail line to Nashville via Columbia. Short of Franklin he found Spring Hill. They would pass right by. Clara had been full of dubious enthusiasm for her move when he’d left her. What would have changed since? He wouldn’t need the train to stop again to be certain how he felt. That question had always been for her, though he wondered if she’d answered it quietly to herself a long time ago.

He folded his map away and got busy with a fire. In the army it paid to eat when the opportunity presented itself. ‘I’ll cook your pork. We ate mine yesterday,’ he said. They often shared rations. That way if one of them got a runt portion the hardship was shared too.

There was no response from Tuck. Sometimes it was like living with an elderly relative whose mind had been misplaced. In his own time, Tuck bowed into a slow waltz, utterly at odds with the exertions of the bridge builders. Evidently, it carried on the wind into the ravine and on to those high on the bridge, as not a few faces turned their way. There was a moment’s lull in the hammering before it stuttered up again. Two men on the flatbed end of the crane-car moved elegantly into closed hold and took a turn or two before their corporal beat them apart with his hat. Shire smiled but saw Tuck was too far inside his tune to take it in.

Once he had the fire going, he dug in Tuck’s pack for the salt belly-pork they’d been doled out back in Athens. It was a mess in there. An apple long past saving, percussion caps loose that should have been in a box, a lone dollar bill left to its own devices. The string hadn’t been tied properly on the pork paper. The exposed meat had picked up a covering of cotton threads and other miniature detritus. Shire reasoned it would cook off in his small skillet. Tuck’s ration was more than ample, so he cut off two-thirds and put it to cook slowly, not too close to the heat so that the fat would stay aboard. He wrapped the remains with care and was finding a safe corner back in Tuck’s pack when he happened on something round and hard. He drew out an enamel doorknob.

He recognized it. Tuck kept it as a grim reminder of his parents who were burned alive in their farmhouse, Tuck’s home. The enamel was scorched on one side, a smooth, mute witness to their murders. He’d been about to look for some wild onion or anything that might flavor the meat, but instead he took the doorknob and went to sit next to Tuck.

He didn’t expect to be acknowledged, but the lack irked Shire all the same. The waltz looped around and around. Shire could have sworn some of the hammering was striking out one, two, three… one, two, three. ‘I think you’re slowing down their industry,’ he said.

Tuck played on. Shire felt a bubble of anger pop inside.

WG: https://books2read.com/u/3GP7AO

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/whirligig-richard-buxton/1130891070 

TCR: https://books2read.com/u/b5JRvR 

TIB: https://books2read.com/u/mVnXaA 

Trilogy Amazon Buy Links:

US:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08CDXDZDB 

UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08CDXDZDB 

 

Richard lives with his family in the South Downs, Sussex, England. He completed an MA in Creative Writing at Chichester University in 2014. He has an abiding relationship with America, having studied at Syracuse University, New York State, in the late eighties. He travels extensively for research, especially in Tennessee, Georgia and Ohio, and is rarely happier than when setting off from a motel to spend the day wandering a battlefield or imagining the past close beside the churning wheel of a paddle steamer.

Richard’s short stories have won the Exeter Story Prize, the Bedford International Writing Competition and the Nivalis Short Story Award. His first novel, Whirligig (2017) was shortlisted for the Rubery International Book Award. It was followed by The Copper Road (2020) and the Shire’s Union trilogy was completed by Tigers in Blue (2023). To learn more about Richard’s writing visit www.richardbuxton.net.

Website: https://www.richardbuxton.net/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardBuxton65

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShiresUnion

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/richardbuxton63

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/richard-buxton

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B06XV3FYQF/about

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16673953.Richard_Buxton

Excited to share the New Release from Tony Riches!

 

#NewRelease from Tony Riches, the next in his fabulous Elizabethan series!

BUY NOW from Amazon UK and Amazon US

Based on extensive research, original letters and records of the Elizabethan Court, this new account explores the life of Frances Walsingham, the only surviving child of Queen Elizabeth’s ‘spymaster’ Sir Francis Walsingham. 

Better educated than most men, her father arranges her marriage to warrior poet Sir Philip Sidney. After Philip is killed in battle, Frances becomes Countess of Essex, and is banished from court after her husband Sir Robert Devereaux’s rebellion against the queen. Can she marry for love, if it means turning her back on her faith and all she knows? 

The story which began with the Tudor trilogy follows Frances, Countess of Essex and Clanricarde, from her first days at the Elizabethan Court to the end of the Tudor dynasty and the rise of the Stuarts. 

Tony Riches was born in Pembrokeshire, West Wales and spent part of his childhood in Kenya. After gaining a BA degree in Psychology and an MBA from Cardiff University he worked as a Management Consultant, followed by senior roles in the Welsh NHS and Local Government.  He wrote several successful non-fiction books before writing historical fiction and has now returned to Pembrokeshire, where he enjoys sailing and sea kayaking.

Tony has an expansive catalogue of historical fiction - check out his website here