eProof Review - Rough Justice

The last few months of reading for me has been all over the place. I know I have blogged my reading earlier this month of Evil Under The Sun and Bedknobs and Broomsticks earlier this month, then me DNFing The Glutton by A.K. Blakemore & The Doctor’s Mistress by Daniel Hurst and then reading the platter-cleanse reading Tristan and Lancelot: A Tale of Two Knights by James Persichetti & L.S. Biehler. Maybe I am being more brutal with reading things that make me happy and if it’s not, bye bye or maybe I’m struggling and I need a better balance (maybe I need to do a book cult). 

That’s tomorrow’s challenge, me thinks. After Apple Fitness+ yoga… 

But let’s change the subject. Completely. With something a little different. 

Title and Author: Rough Justice by Her Honour Wendy Joseph KC

Publisher: Transworld

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Gifted by UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review/reaction

Buy From (affiliate): https://uk.bookshop.org/

Old Bailey judge Her Honour Wendy Joseph KC talks the reader through four very different cases, each looking at the women in the dock and wonders how easy it is for any one of us to be in a court, whether that be a member of the jury, a witness or the person on trial. And, as she looks into these four cases, she discovers horrifying similarities between now and possible miscarriages of justice from years ago and wonders if the law has changed and how the law affects the marginalised and the easily exploited?

The Glutton - Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize

To celebrate the longlist for this year’s Dylan Thomas Prize (and the shortlist to be announced on Thursday 21st March), a bunch of book bloggers were asked very kindly if they fancied read one of the books on the longlist. One of them was me and it was a mystery which book I was going to get to read as I wanted it to be a surprise. 

The Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize is an award gifted annually and is opened to published writers in the English language under the age of forty. Let me put the link to Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize here so you can read more details at your leisure. 

Now, like I said earlier, it was surprise which book from the longlist I was going to get for review and, I will be honest, the title that was sent to me was one of titles I didn’t want. But, I knew whatever title I was going to receive, I was going to start reading that very day as I do always like a challenge and to try something new. 

The book in question: The Glutton by A.K. Blakemore. 

Title and Author: The Glutton by A.K. Blakemore

Publisher: Granta Books

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Gifted by PR company, Midas Campaigns, in exchange for an honest review/reaction

Buy From (Affiliate): uk.bookshop.org

Inspired by the French showman and solider Tarare (sometimes spelt Tarar) who lived from 1772 to 1798, we start the book with Sister Perpetue who is caring for a frail, dying man. A man who is once famed for having a ferocious appetite, the man who was once called the Great Tarare, The Glutton of Lyon. A man rumoured to have eaten a child. 

As this man tells his story, we see him from his humble beginnings and, as unrest slowly begins to grip France, a violent act leaves Tarare left for dead and his hunger awaken…

Let’s Lie and Play Mafia

You guys know I am a huge fans of the BBC show The Traitors, right? Same with the movies Knives Out and Glass Onion? So, the idea of these two being mashed together in a book excites me hugely. You can see where this is going, right? When the lovely people at Firefly Press asked if I wanted to be involved in a blog tour to celebrate the release of Lie Or Die by A.J. Clack, I knew I had to jump on it. 

Before I go any further, let me tell you about Lie Or Die. Kass is tricked by her best mate to get involved in a new TV reality show. Imagine Big Brother meets The Traitors and you get the idea. Ten contestants, one studio, forty four remote cameras. But when contestants start dying (for real), Kass and her fellow contestants are no longer fighting to win the game, but gifting for survival. 

I am thrilled that A.J. Clack has written a small guest post for this tour (and for this tiny little blog) about the game that inspired their debut: Mafia (sometimes is called Werewolf). I have never heard of this so quick Google/Wiki search for me, but I bet you guys know the game. If not, am going to pop a YouTube video below so you can watch…

Now we are all on the same page, I can hand over to A.J. Clack and their tips on playing Mafia/Werewolf. But before I do, I want to say a huge thank you to A.J. for writing this guest post and to Graeme at Firefly for emailing me and chatting about Lie Or Die. And if you’re curious over the book, you can check out either Firefly Press’s website or via Bookshop.org (Affiliate Link). 

With that out of the way, let’s lie, cheat and murder… 

Mini Catch-Up

Oh, the joy of blogger’s guilt. Been blogging for over 14 years (flipping heck, feeling old in book blogosphere! Hey Siri, play something young as I AM YOUNG, DAMNIT!) and, after a period of time, if you’re not blogging, you feel guilty for not blogging and chat about reads past, present and future. 

Plus, been going through a bit of a blogging/real life slowdown. Nothing wrong with that, but let me touch base with you as you guys know I haven’t vanished off the face of the earth with me blogging and reading (though if you follow me on my socials, you know I am very active). 

The main audiobook I listened to since we last chatted was Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie (affiliate link to bookshop.org is here). It seems that I might be considering doing an Agatha Christie a month or an Golden Age Mystery a month as I seem to have a load of these on my To Be Read lists (either on my physical shelves, my e-reader shelves or on my radar to investigate at a later date). Now, this seems to be one of the faves of the Poirot fans as it ticks all the boxes: a closed circle mystery of suspect on an holiday island off the coast, a messy love triangle (of sorts) and Poirot at his finest. I can see why fans of Agatha Christie rate this so highly. There is elements that are stuck in its time (the sexism at the end of the book where a successful businesswoman is told to quit her business so she can marry and be a good little wife left a sour taste in the mouth) and the case hinging on a lot of chance/luck…

Am I going to do another Christie this month? Yes, I think I am. I am leaning over between 3 titles (maybe a poll is needed on my socials?) and i am eyeing my British Library Crime Classics (I have one I am desperate to read but saving that for nearer the General Election as the murder is set at the Houses of Parliament). Would you guys like to know the British Library Crime Classics on my TBR? I am very tempted to blog them as they are a weird little mix…

Because I was having a bit of a DNFing blitz, I wanted to read something comforting but I wasn’t in the mood to reread (something I do want to do this year as I did NO REREADING last year. At ALL! I have three books I want to try and reread this year so hopefully, will attack them before the year is out). So, I dived into Mary Norton’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks (affiliate link to bookshop.org is here). This is a bind up of two stories (The Magic Bedknob and Bonfires and Broomsticks), which acts as the inspiration to the Disney movie, starring Angela Lansbury (I adore this movie. Yes, it’s trying too hard to be catch the success of Mary Poppins). And it was a delightfully cosy read but oh my, SO DIFFERENT from the movie. Yes, I knew going into this that the books were inspiration for the movie so there will be huge changes, but I was shocked on how different the two medias were and how dark the book got compared to the movie (yes, the movie is set during the Second World War, but we saw no one die. In the book, we saw someone get nearly burnt at the stake for being a witch).

But it was a nice read. Something I desperately needed as I go into reading some non-fiction (Rough Justice by Her Honour Wendy Joseph KC) and some literary/historical fiction (The Glutton by A…). Don’t worry, normal reading (and I use the term “normal” loosely) will return as I suspect that once these are done, I will be attacking my NetGalley backlog of audiobooks and eProofs (sorry in advance).