The Basel Killings by Hansjorg Schneider# Blog Tour#Swiss Noir @RandomThingsTours@AnneCater

ABOUT THE BOOK:

It is the end of October, the northern Swiss city of Basel is grey and wet. It could be December. It is just after midnight
when Hunkeler, on his way home and slightly worse for wear, spots old man Hardy sitting on a bench under a streetlight.
He wants to smoke a cigarette with him, but the usually very loquacious Hardy is silent—his throat a gaping wound. Turns
out he was first strangled, then his left earlobe slit, his diamond stud stolen. The media and the police come quickly to the
same conclusion: Hardy’s murder was the work of a gang of Albanian drug smugglers.
But for Hunkeler that seems too obvious. Hardy’s murder has much in common with the case of Barbara Amsler, a
prostitute also found killed with an ear slit, and her pearl stud missing. He follows his own intuition and the trail leads him
deep into a dark world of bars, bordellos and strip clubs, but also into the corrupt core of some of Basel’s political and
industrial elite. More ominously, he will soon discover the consequences of certain events in recent Swiss history that
those in power would prefer to keep far from the public eye

MY THOUGHTS:

This was a first for me. My first foray into , for want of better words, Swiss Noir. And this also the first in a new series. The Inspector Hunkeler Series. I have never read a crime novel set in Switzerland before. There is always a first for everything.

At first you may think you are in familiar territory,thinking Rebus, Mankell etc., flawed detectives with marital and drinking problems. But that is where the similarities end.

This book explores much more than just the flawed detective. It explores within the investigations into murders that are so similar that there must be a connection between them.

But this book also opens up the question on how we as a society treat immigrants and strangers on our shores. How our prejudices are formed not only by our own opinions but by the powers that be. Do they have something to hide? you will need to read to find out and you will enjoy finding out.

This book sees our hero trying to solve cases and being baulked at every turn, from petty office politics and governmental interference.

This is a slow burn of a book that takes the reader on a slow meandering trip through the dark part of Basel society. You will enjoy the ride.

The Basel Killings is a great read, especially for those that like their protagonists flawed and plausible, slightly eccentric, and their surrounds as gloomy and depressive as the crimes being investigated.

The Author and the Translator
Hansjörg Schneider, born in Aarau, Switzerland, in 1938, worked as a teacher, and journalist. He is one of the most
performed playwrights in the German language but is best known for his Inspector Hunkeler crime novels. Schneider has
received numerous awards, among them the prestigious Friedrich Glauser Prize for The Basel Killings. He lives and
writes in Basel.

Mike Mitchell lives in Scotland and has published over eighty translations from German and French, including all the
Friedrich Glauser Sergeant Studer novels and Gustav Meyrink’s five novels. His translation of Rosendorfer’s ‘Letters Back
to Ancient China’ won the 1998 Schlegel-Tieck Translation Prize.

The Beresford by Will Carver Blog Tour/ Standalone/Creepy @RandomThingsTours

ABOUT THE BOOK:

There’s a routine at The Beresford.
For Mrs May, every day’s the same: a cup of cold, black coffee
in the morning, pruning roses, checking on her tenants, wine,
prayer and an afternoon nap. She never leaves the building.
Abe Schwartz also lives at The Beresford. His housemate
Smythe no longer does. Because Abe just killed him. In exactly
sixty seconds, Blair Conroy will ring the doorbell to her new
home and Abe will answer the door. They will become friends.
Perhaps lovers.
And, when the time comes for one of them to die, as is always
the case at The Beresford, there will be sixty seconds to move
the body before the next unknowing soul arrives at the door.
Because nothing changes at The Beresford, until the doorbell
rings…

MY THOUGHTS:

This was my first read by Will Carver and what a bloody read it was! So exciting, creepy and disturbing! But I loved it!

Mrs.May runs an apartment block called The Beresford where the rents are cheap and everything is great. What can go wrong? Cheap lodgings, run by a sweet elderly lady. That is where you are wrong. All is well until the blasted doorbell rings. That is when you don’t have much time! Sixty seconds to be exact! That’s when then story really cranks up!

The opening chapter really sucked me in and the short chapters mean you can pick it up when you have a spare minute or two. Having said that I read this book in a few days.

Though this book is really creepy it has moments of dry and sick humour. The dark wit arrives in the form of the bizarre predicaments that seemingly ordinary characters find themselves embroiled in. I also chuckled at the stabs at both organized religion and social media and its effect on modern life.

The characterization , is quirky in the best possible way. Superb writing and a dark and claustrophobic read makes for a superb read. If you are a lover of Rosemary’s Baby and The Ammityville Horror the this book will appeal to you. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will pick up more of Will’s books in the future. Enjoyed and recommended. Go on and give yourself a treat!

THE AUTHOR:

Will Carver is the international bestselling author of the January David series.
He spent his early years in Germany, but returned to the UK at age eleven, when
his sporting career took off. He turned down a professional rugby contract to
study theatre and television at King Alfred’s, Winchester, where he set up a
successful theatre company. He currently runs his own fitness and nutrition
company, and lives in Reading with his two children. Will’s latest title published
by Orenda Books, Hinton Hollow Death Trip was longlisted for the Not the
Booker Prize, while Nothing Important Happened Today was longlisted for the
Theakston’s Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year and for the Goldsboro Books
Glass Bell. Good Samaritans was a book of the year in Guardian, Telegraph and
Daily Express, and hit number one on the eBook charts.

THE PUBLISHERS:

Orenda Books is a small independent publishing company specialising in literary fiction with a heavy
emphasis on crime/thrillers, and approximately half the list in translation. Orenda Books was voted
WINNER of the CWA Dagger for Best Crime and Mystery Publisher of the Year in 2020. They’ve been
twice shortlisted for the Nick Robinson Best Newcomer Award at the IPG awards, and publisher and
owner Karen Sullivan was a Bookseller Rising Star in 2016. In 2018, they were awarded a prestigious
Creative Europe grant for their translated books programme.
Three authors, including Agnes Ravatn, Matt Wesolowski and Amanda Jennings have been WHSmith
Fresh Talent picks, and Ravatn’s The Bird Tribunal was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award, won
an English PEN Translation Award, and adapted for BBC Radio Four ’s Book at Bedtime. Ten titles have
been short- or longlisted for the CWA Daggers; Doug Johnstone has been shortlisted (twice) for the
McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year and Helen FitzGerald, Matt Wesolowski and Will
Carver have been long /shortlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year.
Launched in 2014 with a mission to bring more international literature to the UK market, Orenda
Books publishes a host of debuts, many of which have gone on to sell millions worldwide, and looks for
fresh, exciting new voices that push the genre in new directions. Bestselling authors include Ragnar
Jonasson, Antti Tuomainen, Gunnar Staalesen, Michael J. Malone, Kjell Ola Dahl, Louise Beech, Johana
Gustawsson, Lilja Sigurðardóttir, Helen FitzGerald, Doug Johnstone and Will Carver.
http://www.orendabooks.co.uk
@OrendaBooks

The Queen of the Cicadas by V. Castro#Blog Tour# Urban Legends Superstitions#Hate Crimes @RandomThingsTours

ABOUT THE BOOK:

2018 – Belinda Alvarez has returned to Texas for the wedding of her best
friend Veronica. The farm is the site of the urban legend,La Reina de Las
Chicharras – The Queen of The Cicadas.
In 1950s south Texas a farmworker- Milagros from San Luis Potosi, Mexico, is
murdered. Her death is ignored by the town, but not the Aztec goddess of
death, Mictecacíhuatl. The goddess hears the dying cries of Milagros and
creates a plan for both to be physically reborn by feeding on vengeance and
worship.
Belindaand the new owner of the farmhouse – Hector, find themselves
immersed in the legend and realize it is part of their fate as well.

MY THOUGHTS:

If you are looking for the type of horror that has the bogeymen jump out wielding axes or fingers of talons etc. then this is not the book for you. But if you like books steeped in folklore, superstition and where the bogeyman is just over your shoulder then grab a copy!

Death is not the end for Milagros, a murdered migrant laborer turned urban legend, in V. Castro’s The Queen of the Cicadas. Tortured to death in the late 1950s on the farmstead where she briefly lived and worked, her spirit now haunts the refurbished farm-turned-hotel. Belinda learns of Milagros while staying at the hotel for a friend’s wedding and becomes obsessed with the dead woman’s story and the myths surrounding her, particularly that of La Reina de las Chicharras, the Queen of the Cicadas.

Making use of two timelines for much of the book allows Castro to explore Milagros’s history through Belinda, who talks with and befriends hotel owner Hector, as well as the aged local priest who served the town back in the 50s. Castro spares no expense detailing Milagros’s murder and the fates of her attackers in the aftermath of the woman’s death as La Reina de las Chicarras delivers justice. The Queen of the Cicadas is a sort-of Candyman or Bloody Mary figure, updated here with a nifty Latin twist.

The writing and well drawn characters will draw the reader into a slow read where the tension builds to a satisfying ending. If you like folklore horror then I can recommend this to you.

THE AUTHOR

Violet Castro is a Mexican American writer originally from
Texas now residing in the UK with her family. When not
caring for her three children, she dedicates her time to
writing.

The Storm is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything by Mike Rothschild#Blog Tour. @RandomThingsTours#Anne Cater

ABOUT THE BOOK:

An urgent, serious journalistic investigation into the bizarre cult that is taking
over American politics and the world.
‘An ideal tour guide for your journey into the depths of the rabbit hole that is
QAnon, and even shows you a glimmer of light at the exit.’ – Cullen Hoback,
director of HBO’s Q: Into the Storm
On 5th October 2017, President Trump made a cryptic off-the-cuff remark in the State
Dining Room. He called this gathering of top-ranking military officials ‘the calm before the
storm’ and refused to elaborate as journalist and politicos inquired further. But on the
online message boards of 4chan, elaboration began all on its own. In the days that followed,
an anonymous poster spun a yarn inspired by Trump’s remarks satisfied the deepest
desires of MAGA-America.
Did any of it come to pass? No. Did that stop people from clinging to every word they were
reading, expanding its mythology and promoting the theory for years? No.
The first in-depth book on the QAnon phenomenon, The Storm is Upon Us is a guided
tour through the conspiracies and cults that first fed the flowering of Q; its embrace by
right-wing media and a complex of grifters, gurus, and eventually, former President Donald
Trump; the rending of families whose loved ones became swept away by Q’s increasingly
violent rhetoric; and ultimately, the storming of the Capitol on January 6, which revealed
the full power of the venomous movement for all to see as it unfolded live on national
television

MY THOUGHTS:

I put in for this tour because I wanted to add more non-fiction to my reading diet. So I went into this book not knowing what I was letting myself in for.

Like most of you I had seen the storming of the capitol building and like most people, including the mainstream media, thought it was disgruntled Trump supporters. But this book tells you it was much more than that. At first Trump denied QAnon and then when it became clear that he had lost the election they became his friends{sic}.

This book tells the reader that Orwell’s 1984 has come to the mainstream and double speak has become a reality. It doesn’t matter what we say, we will deny it, change the goalposts and delete anything that says different!.My friend becomes your enemy, until I decide to change the sand my house is built upon.

I cannot say I enjoyed this book, but to a certainly found it interesting. I think it would appeal more to the hard and fast non-fiction reader who has an interest in politics and/ or conspiracy theories.

AUTHOR BIO
Mike Rothschild is a journalist, author, and the foremost expert in this ever-changing
QAnon conspiracy theory. He is a contributing writer for the Daily Dot, where he explores
the intersections between internet culture and politics through the lens of conspiracy
theories. As a subject matter expert in the field of fringe beliefs, Mike has been interviewed
by the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN and Yahoo – among many others. He is
also a frequent speaker, and podcast and radio guest on the topic of conspiracy theories,
including NPR’s weekly show “On the Media” and a Vice documentary. Rothschild has been
studying the QAnon phenomenon since early 2018, and was one of the first journalists not
only to reveal its connections to past conspiracy theories and scams, but also to openly
address its danger to the American public—and beyond