Rejection, Religious Intolerance, Greed…

… for possessions – everything John Lennon told us was wrong many years ago – were part of society in the past and they still are today.

IMAGINE 

 

In Victorian England, estranged sisters, Annie and Mary Ellen Underwood, fight for the love of one man, Edwin West. Their rivalry ignites passions, jealousies, family feuds, and deep hatreds already sparked by religious intolerance. Edwin loves them both, but both are forbidden fruit. Who will be the winners in this three-sided game, and what will be the price of a second chance at love for the losers? 

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Redundancy gives Richard, a talented musician, the chance to pursue his dreams, but his fiancée, Bridget, publicly ditches him, making enemies of his friends. Next. his ex-wife, Naomi, dumps teenage Maria on his doorstep, claiming she’s his daughter. Scrapping freedom and dreams, Richard moves from the town where he’s lived all his life and takes Maria and an unwanted dog, Ben, to London with him. Can they find in each other the love they’ve been denied, or will a hidden enemy split them apart?

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Offer Ends 15th October at Midnight

DCI Gerald Croft in DEADLY ENVY

Shattered Lives: A DCI Gerald Croft Thriller took a year in the writing, but it was always intended to be one of many books featuring the head of Garton Borough Police, and my “work in progress” has reached the 25% milestone.

The cover is still a surprise, in as much as it has yet to be designed, but rest assured, DCI Croft and his sidekick, DS Pringle, are being kept busy. They have an armed raid in which a jeweller was shot dead and a kidnapping to investigate. Behind the scenes, a murder by poison is committed and another planned.

Pass the Good Book. Thank you.

I, Sarah Stuart, do hereby declare I accept no responsibility for  any charges brought against a reader for the disposal of their nearest and undearest due to committing a copycat crime. 

Switch on Spectacular Sound!

Paul Tait – Home Made – Hand Played

Those of you who have followed my blog for a while will recognise my talented friend from the USA. It gives me great pleasure to tell you he has spent the summer creating a new album, and it is here, nine beautiful songs especially for you. My personal favourite is Abandoned To The Snow. Feel Free to leave a comment and tell us which is yours.

Home Made – Hand Played

 

Clean Romance FREE for a limited time.

Three Against the World

Redundancy gives Richard, a talented musician, the chance to pursue his dreams, but his fiancée, Bridget, publicly ditches him, making enemies of his friends. Next. his ex-wife, Naomi, dumps teenage Maria on his doorstep, claiming she’s his daughter. Scrapping freedom and dreams, Richard moves to London and takes Maria and an unwanted dog, Ben, with him. Can they find in each other the love they’ve been denied, or will an unknown enemy stop them?

Read a sample here. 

Amazon Reviews.

This is a fun story of romance or in fact, most of the time, a lack of romance for Richard. He is terrible at picking women and despite having a lot going for him, each relationship fails. In truth, by the end, he wasn’t showing the best judgement when using a dating site to find a wife and proposing in a ridiculously short time, despite the warning signs. At the heart of the story is a 14 year old girl, who is deposited on Richard’s doorstep by his ex wife, with the announcement the girl is his daughter. What follows is a charming story, which proves everyday life has plenty of twists and turns, drama and humour. The book ends with a twist and I already have the next in the series on my kindle so I am looking forward to discovering what life (or the author) has in store for Richard and Maria.

Never work with children and animals, the saying goes… but Sarah Stuart has flown in the face of this advice and produced a thoroughly enjoyable – dare I say, even spellbinding – story that revolves round the hopeless romantic Richard, his putative daughter Maria, and Ben, the Jack Russell who stole my heart. I love this author’s effortless and deceptively simple style – it immediately flowed and drew me into the narrative, and I was increasingly engaged with the characters and the plot. Some of the female characters were femme fatales of the worst kind, and I often wanted to yell at the ever-trusting and starry-eyed Richard: “Look out behind you!” However, in the past I have fallen foul myself into the giddy trap of placing hope over experience, and it’s a steep learning curve – and Richard is still on the baby slopes throughout most of this book. The themes in the novel are not simply romantic, and although Richard seemed at times to be throwing himself recklessly into yet another black hole of an inevitably mismatched relationship, I couldn’t help but admire his stamina and decency, and his numerous struggles to do the right thing. Maria’s low self-esteem when she is dumped on his doorstep at the age of fourteen is the outcome of cruelly abysmal mothering, and the book takes the reader on a journey over several years to see how love eventually helps to heal her wounds, as well as Richard’s. I unreservedly recommend this novel, and I’m looking forward to reading more of this author’s work.

 

The trilogy I didn’t intend to write.

A truly great trilogy.

Reblogged

Rebecca Bryn

The Chainmakers’ Trilogy –NEW COVER REVEAL

It all began when I saw a TV report about the Black Country Living Museum and the women chainmaker’s strike of 1910, when they fought the chain masters for a living wage and paved the way for a National Minimum Wage – the phrase The White Slaves of England piqued my interest. That children from the age of about four worked in backyard chain workshops alongside their mothers, sometimes for twelve hours a day for a pittance, appalled me. That a family all worked these hours and still couldn’t afford to put food on the table was scandalous. Men grew fat and built huge mansions on the blacks of white slaves as well as black ones. That troops shot railway strikers in South Wales was startling.

Social history fascinates me, even down to the everyday words and phrases we use without thinking about…

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Author’s New Book Receives A Warm Literary Welcome.

Readers’ Favorite announces the review of the Fiction – Thriller – Psychological book “Shattered Lives” by Sarah Stuart, currently available at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09BZJB9HT.

Readers’ Favorite is one of the largest book review and award contest sites on the Internet. They have earned the respect of renowned publishers like Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Harper Collins, and have received the “Best Websites for Authors” and “Honoring Excellence” awards from the Association of Independent Authors. They are also fully accredited by the BBB (A+ rating), which is a rarity among Book Review and Book Award Contest companies.

Reviewed By Susan Sewell for Readers’ Favorite

“Wanting to remove any claims to his vast inheritance, a serial killer is on the hunt for his recently discovered sister in the exciting thriller Shattered Lives: A DCI Gerald Croft Thriller by Sarah Stuart. Ralph Thyme is impatiently waiting for his grandmother to die. Tucking her away in residential care, he takes over the master suite in her mansion and inadvertently finds his grandfather’s hidden diary. The pages hold a family secret that directly affects Ralph: he has a sister named Olivia that he didn’t know existed. Not wanting to contend with anyone for what he considers his fortune, Ralph systematically begins hunting for Olivia to eliminate her. After the detective he hires finds Olivia, Ralph commits murder, but something dreadful goes wrong. In the meantime, the thirst for blood rages through Ralph’s veins, and Ralph commits more heinous killings. His crimes have DCI Croft urgently looking for a serial killer, but can DCI Croft capture Ralph before he finds his target? Or is it already too late?

Filled with drama and foreboding, Shattered Lives: A DCI Gerald Croft Thriller by Sarah Stuart is a heart-stopping murder mystery. It is an intense story that takes the reader on a ride of horror and suspense. The apprehension and intensity continue building throughout the plot, snowballing into a climactic and shocking finish. I read it with bated breath and could not put the book down until I reached the final page. It is a sensational story with a clever plot and intriguing characters with realistic personalities, both good and bad. Containing gruesome murder scenes filled with blood and gore, Shattered Lives is a riveting novel for mature audiences that will engage any reader who loves spine-tingling thrillers.”

You can learn more about Sarah Stuart and “Shattered Lives” at https://readersfavorite.com/book-review/shattered-lives/1 where you can read reviews and the author’s biography, as well as connect with the author directly or through their website and social media pages.

A few good reads.

cherime Macfarlane

This is one whopping tangle of a tale. Nor does it begin where you think it does. The greedy, ready to do anything to further his agenda vile twit didn’t start the ball rolling. No, the first generation set the stage for the horror to come. I must admit to having times when I wanted to tell DCI Croft to get rid of his tunnel vision. But for the most part he is a person with feelings which sometimes get in the way.

Be prepared to spend time reading this one. It sucks you in. It’s not comfortable in places, not in the least. It is a great story.

It all started with his other books. Since I like what I read I went to this one. I know the country a bit. Once owned property out that way. It is the definition of high lonesome. My sister lived in…

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Shattered Lives – Readers’ Favorite Pre-Publication Hit!

5 stars from Susan Sewell

Filled with drama and foreboding, Shattered Lives: A DCI Gerald Croft Thriller by Sarah Stuart is a heart-stopping murder mystery. An intense story that takes the reader on a ride of horror and suspense. The apprehension and intensity continue building throughout the plot, snowballing into a climactic and shocking finish. I read it with bated breath and could not put the book down until I reached the final page. It is a sensational story with a clever plot and intriguing characters with realistic personalities, both good and bad. Containing gruesome murder scenes filled with blood and gore, Shattered Lives is a riveting novel for mature audiences that will engage any reader who loves spine-tingling thrillers.

 

5 stars from Anne-Marie Reynolds

Shattered Lives by Sarah Stuart is a fascinating thriller that delves deep into two storylines: the mind of a psychopath and that of a sexual abuse survivor who must save another from the same fate to heal herself. It isn’t a story for younger readers or the faint-hearted: child sexual abuse, necrophilia, and graphic violence are just part of the substantial subject matter. This story delves into how a psychopath functions and what makes them tick, leading you down some dark paths through a truly twisted mind. It also guides you on a journey of discovery through the eyes of a child sex abuse survivor, more dark paths that eventually lead to the light. Shattered Lives is a gripping tale that will hold your heart in a vice while you read it, and it will have you turning the pages deep into the night.

Shattered Lives is coming soon at the introductory price of 99p/99c

 

Coming Soon – Shattered Lives

Murder shatters more lives than those of victims. Ralph Thyme, psychopath, is hooked on rape and strangulation.

Warning – this book contains graphic violence, necrophilia, and sexual abuse of a child.

Ralph Thyme, rejected by his parents, escapes twelve years of hell at boarding school when they’re killed in an avalanche. The only acknowledged heir to his grandmother’s millions, he discovers he has an elder sister, Olivia, whom his grandfather sold for fifty thousand pounds. Might she discover who she really is and claim half? Ralph decides not to risk it and kills her… or does he? 

Whatever the truth, he realises the detective he employed to find Olivia might shop him to the police when he reads of her death. He too must die… and his pretty blonde daughter…

DCI Gerald Croft has a serial killer on his patch, but who is he?

“Three Against the World” is FREE today!

Beware! Richard, Maria, and Ben will hook you, BUT, all is not lost. Books 2 and 3 are on offer at 99 cents or same worldwide.

Book 1 Richard finds teenage Maria on his doorstep, as unwanted by her mother as he is by his fiancée, dumped, like the stray dog, Ben, he adopted. Richard didn’t expect to fall in love…

Book 2 Richard and Maria’s marriage attracts enemies from the past prepared to risk killing innocent people to split them apart, but which one?

Book 3 Financial disaster threatens. When their daughter, Eleanor, tries to help, she renews ancient jealousies. Will the music they share keep them together, or must Eleanor remain one alone in the world?

Amazon Worldwide

Amazon UK

YES! The books are free or reduced everywhere, but UK readers are told “UNAVAILABLE” sometimes, so please use the correct link.