A collection of spine-tingling ghost stories from one of today’s most acclaimed suspense novelists. In this small but perfectly formed collection of supernatural short stories, bestselling author, Sophie Hannah, takes the comforting scenes of everyday life and imbues them with a frisson of fear. Why is a young woman so unnerved by the presence of a visitors book in her boyfriend’s inner-city home? And whose spidery handwriting is it that fills the pages? Who is the strangely courteous boy still lingering at a child’s tenth birthday party when all the parents have gathered their children and left? And why does the presence of a perfectly ordinary woman in a post office queue leave another customer pallid and quaking with fear?

Book Details:

Genre: Short Stories, Thriller
Published by: Witness Impulse
Publication Date: November 1st 2016
Number of Pages: 120
ISBN: 0062562126 (ISBN13: 9780062562128)
Purchase Links: Amazon 🔗 Barnes & Noble 🔗 Goodreads 🔗

Learn More:

Sophie Hannah is the New York Times-bestselling author of numerous psychological thrillers, which have been published in 27 countries and adapted for television, as well as The Monogram Murders, the first Hercule Poirot novel authorized by the estate of Agatha Christie.

INTERVIEW

Writing and Reading:
Do you draw from personal experiences and/or current events?
I do draw from real life, all the time — especially personal experiences. These two short story collections contain my experiences of betrayal, obsession, annoyance at the parents of my children’s friends, the horror of hosting a birthday party for an 8-year-old… Writing is a form of therapy for me. It’s how I deal with difficult things from real life!

Do you start with the conclusion and plot in reverse or start from the beginning and see where the story line brings you?
It’s one or the other. Either I think of an intriguing starting point that will hook the reader, and then work out where it will lead, or I come up with a surprising, hopefully unguessable solution, and then I work forwards or backwards.

Are any of your characters based on you or people that you know?
Lots! But as someone once said about someone else (I can’t remember who!) ‘If he didn’t want to end up in a book, he should have behaved better.’ No one ever recognises themselves anyway – we always imagine we’re wonderful and not particularly grotty, so when we read a grotty character, we don’t see ourselves, and think they’re nothing like us!

Your routine when writing? Any idiosyncrasies?
I plan a lot and obsessively. I write in the afternoon — because I’m too tired in the morning — and late at night. Often I finish a book at Lucy Cavendish College in Cambridge, where I’m a Fellow Commoner. There’s a lovely room there with an ace garden. It’s peaceful, and unlike my home there is no dog with a ball to distract me!

Tell us why we should read this book.
Because it contains all the weird dysfunctionality of real life – a lot of fiction tries to improve and tidy up real people and make them more lovely and normal. These stories don’t do that.

Who are some of your favorite authors?
Agatha Christie, Tana French, Ruth Rendell, Iris Murdoch and Edna St Vincent Millay.

What are you reading now?
I’m reading a new British crime novel called The Taken by Alice Clark-Platts. So far, it’s very interesting. The leader of a church, who is said to have been able to perform miracles, has been murdered… and the detective investigating the crime senses that his wife and daughter aren’t exactly distraught to be rid of him.

Are you working on your next novel? Can you tell us a little about it?
I’m working on a standalone thriller set in Arizona, provisionally titled Did You See Melody? It will be published in Summer 2017. Here’s the blurb:

She’s the most famous murder victim in America. What if she isn’t dead?

Pushed to breaking point, Cara Burrows flees her home, husband and children. Fifteen hours later, she’s checking into a five star spa resort in the foothills of Camelback Mountain, Arizona. All she wants is space to think, far away from everyone and everything she knows. Instead, she gets a shock in the middle of the night after being given the key card for a room that’s already occupied – apparently by a father and daughter…

Philadelphia’s most famous murder victim, Melody Chapa, has been dead seven years. Her parents, Naldo and Annette Chapa, are serving ‘natural life’ sentences for killing their seven-year-old daughter, after a successful campaign by former-prosecutor Bonnie Juno whose TV show ‘Justice With Bonnie’ brought to light crucial facts missed by detectives. But if Melody’s dead – as the evidence suggests she is – then how can a guest at a spa resort in Arizona have seen her?

Putting Annette and Naldo Chapa behind bars is the greatest achievement of Bonnie Juno’s life. When she learns what’s happening in Arizona, she laughs it off…until she discovers that the sightings of Melody are starting to stack up. At first it was just one uncertain English woman who walked into the wrong room in the middle of the night, easily dismissed as exhausted and not thinking straight after her long journey – but it turns out that Cara Burrows is not the only guest at the resort claiming to have seen Melody.

Feeling as if she has no choice, Bonnie heads for Arizona – but by the time she gets there, Cara Burrows has disappeared…

Fun questions:
Your novel will be a movie. Who would you cast?
Normal people from real life. The thing about famous actors that people have heard of is that everyone knows them already! I’d find new actors who had never been in anything before. And my dog, Brewster, would have to get a starring role!

Favorite leisure activity/hobby?
I love swimming, and walking my Welsh terrier, Brewster.

Favourite meal?
Assorted dim sum from any brilliant Chinese restaurant.

Catch Up with Sophie Hannah on her Website 🔗 & Twitter 🔗!

Tour Participants:

Enter for a chance to WIN!

This is a rafflecopter giveaway hosted by Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours for Sophie Hannah and Witness Impulse. There will be 5 US winners of one (1) eBook copy of The Visitor’s Book by Sophie Hannah. The giveaway begins on November 1st and runs through January 2nd, 2017.

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A collection of ingenious suspense stories from one of today’s most acclaimed novelists in the genre. Everybody has their secrets, and in Sophie Hannah’s fantastic stories the curtains positively twitch with them. Who, for instance, is the hooded figure hiding in the bushes outside a young man’s house? Why does the same stranger keep appearing in the background of a family’s holiday photographs? What makes a woman stand mesmerised by two children in a school playground, children she’s never met but whose names she knows well? And which secret results in a former literary festival director sorting soiled laundry in a shabby hotel? All will be revealed…but at a cost. As Sophie Hannah uncovers the dark obsessions and strange longings behind the most ordinary relationships, life will never seem quite the same again.

MY REVIEW

4 stars

This was a “new to me” author so I thought I would start off with this book. Glad I did because I now want to read more by Ms. Hannah.

THE FANTASTIC BOOK OF EVERYBODY’S SECRETS is a compilation of 10 short stories.

Did you ever wish you could read someone’s mind? To see what they are really thinking. This book does just that.

Like Friendly Amid The Haters, where a very passive agressive timid woman has murderous thoughts. Another was The Nursery Bear where a woman has conflicting thoughts about a neigbor and The Tub where the reader gets a look into their inner most thoughts.

Some of the stories left the reader wanting more, other stories having the reader wondering what exactly was going on.

A quick read, that is a bit eerie, and because of that, the pages kept turning.

Book Details:

Genre: Short Stories, Thriller
Published by: Witness Impulse
Publication Date: October 11th 2016
Number of Pages: 120
ISBN: 0062562096 (ISBN13: 9780062562098)
Purchase Links: Amazon 🔗 Barnes & Noble 🔗 Goodreads 🔗

Learn More:

Sophie Hannah is the New York Times-bestselling author of numerous psychological thrillers, which have been published in 27 countries and adapted for television, as well as The Monogram Murders, the first Hercule Poirot novel authorized by the estate of Agatha Christie.

Catch Up with Sophie Hannah on her Website 🔗, Twitter 🔗, or Facebook 🔗

Tour Participants:

Giveaway:

This is a rafflecopter giveaway hosted by Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours for Sophie Hannah and Witness Impulse. There will be 5 US winners of one (1) eBook copy of The Fantastic Book of Everybody’s Secrets by Sophie Hannah. The giveaway begins on November 1st and runs through January 2nd, 2017.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Get More Great Reads at Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours

REVIEW DISCLAIMER
This blog was founded on the premise to write honest reviews, to the best of my ability, no matter who from, where from and/or how the book was obtained, and will continue to do so, even if it is through PICT or PBP.
DISCLAIMER
I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me, in exchange for my honest review.
No items that I receive are ever sold…they are kept by me, or given to family and/or friends.
ADDENDUM
I do not have any affiliation with Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble. I am an IndieBound affiliate. I am providing link(s) solely for visitors that may be interested in purchasing this Book/EBook.

ABOUT THE BOOK

A baby is born and placed in his dead mother’s arms. When the funeral shroud is cast over her, his father decides to name his son Pall. It will soon become a name that strikes a shiver into the hearts of those who hear it in combat.

A lone survivor on a battlefield many years later, Pall dazedly recovers from the wounds of war. Despite the dead cast about him, everything he looks upon is unfamiliar to him. Wandering away from this scene of carnage, he encounters John Savage, a giant of a man who puts Pall within the sight of Savage’s seven–foot, nocked longbow.

What ensues from this deadly encounter is an elusive journey for truth. Yet, it is haunted not just by a ravening demon that is out to destroy Pall and John, but by the vision of a startling beautiful young woman protecting Pall from afar.

BOOK DETAILS:

Genre: Fantasy / Epic / Science Fiction / Action & Adventure/ Visionary & Metaphysical
Print Length: 243 pages
Publisher: Copper Beech Press
Publication Date: November 1, 2016
ISBN: 13: 978-1-365-28707-7
Kindle: 13: 978-0-9973827-0-9
ASIN: B01MAZDG4S

PURCHASE LINKS:

A. Keith Carreiro

A. Keith Carreiro earned his master’s and doctoral degrees from Harvard Graduate School of Education, with the sequential help and guidance of three advisors, Dr. Vernon A. Howard, Dr. Donald Oliver and Professor Emeritus, Dr. Israel Scheffler. Keith’s academic focus, including his ongoing research agenda, centers upon philosophically examining how creativity and critical thinking are acquired, learned, utilized and practiced in the performing arts. He has taken his findings and applied them to the professional development of educational practitioners.

Earlier in his teaching career he was a professor of educational foundations, teaching graduate students of education at universities in Vermont, Florida, Arizona, and Pennsylvania. He currently teaches as an adjunct professor of English at Bridgewater State University, as well as teaching English, philosophy, humanities and public speaking courses at Bristol Community College.

He lives in Swansea, Massachusetts with his wife Carolyn. They have six children and 13 grandchildren. They belong to an eighty–five–pound golden retriever, an eight–pound Maltese, and an impish Calico cat.

Due to his love of family, he has seen his fervor for history, as well as his passion for wondering about the future, deepen dramatically.

Starting on May 23rd until October 9th of 2014, he sat down at his computer on a daily basis and began writing the first book of a science fiction/fantasy thriller in a beginning series about the quest for human immortality.
Connect with A. Keith Carriero at these sites:

Writing and Reading:

Do you draw from personal experiences and/or current events?
I draw material from both areas. Depending upon the context of the writing, the audience I am writing for and the type of writing I am doing, all help determine whether or not I select from personal experiences and/or current events.

For example, the chapter, “Crisis of Conscience: War and Peace at UMO”, I wrote in Stephen King’s (2016) Hearts in Suspension was completely based upon when I was an undergraduate student at the University of Maine Orono, which was from 1966 to February 1969, and from 1970 to 1971.

For the Penitent –Part I, I fashioned a story that takes place in the future; actually it occurs in the 26th century. The story is set there as a result of my seeing the effects and impact science and technology are now having upon the world. I am particularly fascinated with the rate of speed our scientific prowess is having upon humanity and the earth as well.

Ray Kurzweil’s (2005) book called The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology made a great impression on me; as did Michio Kaku’s (2014) The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind. These two books, along with the great writing found in Tolkien and C. S. Lewis’s work, inspired me to write a story that could bring these seemingly disparate works together in a unified theme about the fate of human civilization. I have listed below two of my earlier blogs that describe some of the sources of inspiration that I used to begin writing The Immortality Wars:

Preparing – Part I . . .

Preparing – Part II . . .

Do you start with the conclusion and plot in reverse or start from the beginning and see where the story line brings you?
The genesis of a story seems to vary for me. In writing the first book of my science fiction/fantasy/thriller series, I started freewriting it. When I had written about 50 manuscript pages, the last scene of the novel came to me in a startling clear and lucid manner. The whole ending was crystal clear to me. I set aside the chronological order of writing it and wrote the concluding scene of the story. When I had finished the ending, I went back to where I had left off and resumed the action from that point until I reached the conclusion I had just written.

I wrote the first section of this series on a daily basis. From Friday, May 23rd until Wednesday, October 8th of 2014, and except for six days during that time, I managed to write a book that totaled a bit over 168,000 words.

Your routine when writing? Any idiosyncrasies?
I try to write in the morning, or about an hour after I awake, as I find that I am better equipped mentally and refreshed from the previous day’s writing. Sometimes story ideas come to me when I am sleeping, or at least percolate around the edges of my awareness, and starting anew in the morning helps me keep an edge to what I am composing.

I try to write a minimum of 500 words a day when I am involved in a project. I write until I feel the well has gone dry, or until the storyboard(s) I created for that passage of writing I have been working on are completed.

I am not aware of any eccentricities I have when I am writing. Since I have discovered that when I take the feather out that I had previously tucked onto the top of my right ear, that I can still compose a story, I stopped doing so a while back.

I don’t believe I have replaced the feather with any other literary whimsy since that time to ensure that I write in a disciplined manner.

Is writing your full time job? If not, may I ask what you do by day?
Writing is not my full time job, although I would like it to be. By day, and by evening at times, I teach college and university undergraduate classes on a part–time basis. I teach English courses at Bridgewater State University, as well as a variety of English, communication and philosophy courses at Bristol Community College (Fall River and New Bedford campuses). All of these courses are writing intensive. I have the distinct privilege of learning more about the craft of writing from my students and colleagues at both institutions as a direct result of teaching college level courses in the humanities.

Who are some of your favorite authors?
I am a voracious reader, and have been so since I was a young boy. I love books written in the fields of history, biography, science fiction, fantasy and detective/crime thrillers. I love to read the works of JRR Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, George MacDonald, T. S. White, Frank Peretti, General Lew Wallace, Lloyd C. Douglas, Stephen R. Donaldson, Terry Goodkind, the Brothers Grimm, Lee Child and Raymond Thornton Chandler.

What are you reading now?
I am currently reading two books by a great local author, Steven H. Manchester, Ashes (2016), and The Unexpected Storm: The Gulf War Legacy (2000). I am almost finished reading Mitch Albom’s (2015), the magic strings of Frankie Presto, Ian W. Toll’s (2012) Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942, and Newt Gingerich and William R. Forstchen’s (2005), Never Call Retreat: Lee and Grant: The Final Victory.

I just finished reading Stephen King’s (2011), 11/22/63, which is now one of my favorite books by him.

Are you working on your next novel? Can you tell us a little about it?
I am working on three novels. The first two are fiction. One of the two is the next book in The Immortality Wars series. It is called the Pilgrim, and it continues the story of the young warrior Pall Warren, his friend John Savage, and the young woman who watches Pall from afar, Evangel. As the Penitent ends on an unresolved action, I do not want to spoil what readers will be getting into when they reach the Pilgrim.

Due to its length, as well as the fact that I am on a limited publishing budget, I have split the Penitent into three respective parts. Part I was just released this past November, and it is available in eBook and paperback formats. Part II will be launched in April 2017, while Part III will be published in August 2017. Hopefully, the first part of the Pilgrim will be available to the public in December 0f 2017.

The second fictional story is still an idea, although the story and its main character, Darien de Sousa, are constantly on my mind. The action, setting, and main characterization are already set, as is the title of the story itself. It occurs in the Fall River, Providence and New Bedford areas during 1958. Darian is a World War Two veteran who is suffering, more than he readily admits to himself, from what was then called shell shock. Fellow Army officers from the European theater, where he served with distinction in the 45th “Thunderbird” Division, help him obtain a part–time job teaching history at Brown University to undergraduate students. His curiosity about what has happened to a former rival officer’s wife, who has gone missing, lands Darian into a secret and illicit world of sexual perversion and bondage. When his memories of the war are not ruining his rational ability to function, he pursues the clues he begins to amass while attempting to discover his rival’s missing wife.

The third manuscript I am working on is in making the chapter I wrote in Hearts in Suspension a full length book. After first submitting my initial draft for editing to Jim Bishop earlier this year (May/June 2016), Jim encouraged me to consider doing so. He is Stephen King’s first college English professor, and it was his idea to have King and some of Steve’s former UMO classmates and friends write about their university experience during the time period from 1966 to 1970. King’s (1999) Hearts in Atlantis is the inspiration for Hearts in Suspension. Bishop thought it would be worthwhile to take a work of fiction, which has King’s biographical roots as a UMO freshman morphed onto the fictional character of Peter Riley, and expand it into a full length nonfiction story.

To turn my chapter into a full length book will require a lot of research as I am interweaving local, statewide, regional, national and international events (cultural, scientific, economic and political strands) together with my own narrative as a college student during the 1960s. It is also not easy for me to write about those times. It was a turbulent, chaotic, and incredible era, particularly over what was happening in our popular. Music, the cinema and the visual arts were at incredible levels of expression, providing a powerful background to what was then occurring. On occasion, artists themselves made and drove the news stories of the day. They were inextricably linked to the spirit of the age.

Your novel will be a movie. Who would you cast?
Great Question. I thought that if the novel were ever turned into a movie, it would need to rely heavily on CGI. I would like to see what a completely animated movie would look like. I do not see it being “cartoonish”, but one literally expressing a civilization of mind blowing, technological sophistication set amidst stark realities of poverty and sometimes Neolithic cultures.

I would like mostly unknowns to act in it; yet, these actors need to be skilled in the artistry they are called upon to display. If the movie is done with CGI and real life animation, I would love to have any of the following actors participate in the voice overs:

Sir Patrick Stewart Jennifer Lawrence
Anthony Hopkins Scarlett Johansson
Jude Law Amy Adams
Gerard Butler Emma Stone
Steve Buscemi Zoe Saldana
Hugh Jackman Cate Blanchette
Sir Ian McKellen Ann Hathaway
Harrison Ford Hale Berry
Josh Hutcherson Sienna Miller
Chris Evans Gwyneth Paltrow
Gary Oldman Margot Robbie
Ryan Guzman Ana de Armas
Alexander Ludwig Thandie Newton
Will Smith Zoey Deutch
Colin Farrell Lucy Liu
Christian Bale Annabelle Wallis
Denzel Washington Natalie Portman
Chris Pine Kate Upton
Edward Norton Emma Roberts
Chris Hensworth Bella Thorne
Michael B. Jordan Elizabeth Olsen
James Earl Jones Jade Pinkett Smith
Paul Giamatti Emilia Clarke
Vigo Mortensen Helen Mirren
Ed Harris Rachel Weisz
David Wenham Glenn Close
Sean Connery Reese Witherspoon

Favorite Leisure Activity:
One of my favorite activities is being outdoors in nature. I love working in my organic and Japanese gardens.

Favorite Meal:
I love eating good, wholesome food that is organic and home cooked. I do not necessarily have a favorite meal, but a favorite style or approach to getting, preparing and cooking food.