In keeping with the change of name for my Romance & Women’s Fiction Twitter chat [@SatBookChat previously known as @ChocLitSaturday] – I am announcing a change of features here on Jorie Loves A Story. Since January, 2014 I carved out a niche of focus which I named #ChocLitSaturdays as I have felt the best time to read romantic and dramatic stories are the weekends. This spun into a Twitter chat featuring the authors of ChocLit whilst I supplied weekly topics which would appeal to readers, writers and book bloggers alike. We grew into our own Saturday tribe of chatters – then, somewhere round the time of my father’s stroke in late [2016] and the forthcoming year of [2017] I started to feel less inspired to host the chat.
I had new plans to re-invent the chat in its new incantation as @SatBookChat but I also wanted to re-invent the complimentary showcases on my blog which would reflect the diversity of stories, authors and publishers I would be featuring on the chat itself. As at the root and heart of #ChocLitSaturday the chat were the stories I was reading which complimented the conversations.
After a difficult year for [personal health & wellness] this 2018, I am beginning anew this Autumn – selecting the stories to resume where I left off featuring the Romance & Women’s Fiction authors I am discovering to read whilst highlighting a story by the author I am chatting with during #SatBookChat. Every Saturday will feature a different author who writes either Romance or Women’s Fiction – for the remaining weeks of October and most of November, I will be featuring special guest authors during #SatBookChat whose stories I have either read, are reading or hope to read in the future if their newer releases. The reviews on Saturdays might inspire the topics in the forthcoming chats or they might be directly connected to the current guest author.
Our holiday break for the month of December will find us resuming #SatBookChat the week after New Year’s, 2019 where new guests and new stories will lay down the foundation of inspiring the topics, the conversations and the bookish recommendations towards promoting Romance & Women’s Fiction.
Acquired Audiobook By: This particular audiobook (‘Murder on the Marshes’) marked the first pre-order I placed on Audible.com when I had my membership with Audible. In the months since August, I decided to switch memberships to Scribd for the time being due to the reduction in cost for a subscription based service for audiobooks – however, I still have an active account on Audible and still use it to listen to audiobooks – either those I’ve purchased (past/ present), the complimentary ones I receive for review and/or the ones I’m either gifted or have won in giveaways. As this was an author I had previously read and loved – I happily awaited the publication date to arrive to where I could start listening to ‘Murder on the Marshes’. I am posting my review of this novel for my own edification and for continuing to want to share my readerly life on Jorie Loves A Story. I was not obligated to post an honest review nor did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Previously, I did host an interview with the author, Clare Chase and she provided the Press Materials for this series to use on both the interview and on my review if I elected to share one. She is also a guest via my chat on Twitter showcasing Romance & Women’s Fiction (inclusive of all sub-genres) @SatBookChat on the 27th of October to discuss this series and her character Tara Thrope.
Why I was excited about listening to ‘Murder on the Marshes’ and why it took me until October to begin listening to the story during #FraterfestRAT!
A lot of times I have the pleasure of joy of #amlistening to a sampler of the audiobook I want to purchase – however, in rare instances, there is an embargo on having those available publication. Ergo, I was wickedly itching to ‘hear’ the narrator, as listening to audiobooks for me is a brilliantly lovely visceral experience to where I feel pulled into the world a writer creates through the fusion of not just their written words which are eloquently interpreted & brought to life by the narrator – but the actual way in which the narrator voices the characters, sets the tone of the story and the ‘experience’ of hearing the story articulated through spoken dialogue – it’s a lovely immersion of bookish delight – so imagine, trying to ascertain ‘how’ this would sound without a guide? My curiosity nearly killed me,…
.@bookouture I've been so dearly EAGER to hear your #narrator, I can't help myself but read until the clock strikes twelve; pop into my #Audible library, see if I can🧐the #audiobook & sit here listening to the first bits whilst in full anticipation of what will start to unfold😁
— Jorie Story 📖🎧 (@joriestory) July 31, 2018
I’ve disclosed this before – a narrator can quite literally de-motivate me from listening to an author’s collective works even though I technically try to keep the door ajar to re-try another of their stories (similar of course, if I read a story in print, find it wasn’t my cuppa & try to find a different title of theirs to give a whirl of a chance of fitting my bookish wanderings). For me, the narrator makes/breaks the whole experience – I can give narrators a bone if say, the delivery isn’t quite posh or if it feels like their still gaining traction on their narration style – but overall, if their voice grates in my ears, if their approach is less than reasonable or even plausible – I can feel myself ‘pull out’.
Here’s how I reacted to hearing ‘Murder on the Marshes’
for the very first moment I found it available to ‘hear’:
A wicked good choice for #narrator – listened to a few minutes of the chapter, as I’m working on cooking dinner, but couldn’t not play the book!?She’s approaching #MurderOnTheMarshes in a similar vein as @EsmieMatthews approached #KayHunter I surmise I’ll be properly enthralled!
— Jorie, the Joyful Tweeter ?? (@joriestory) August 1, 2018
Having become so dearly transfixed by Alison Campbell’s style of embracing Kay Hunter, I was primed for ‘meeting’ Lucy Brownhill! Even though I’ve heard only a smidge of the first Chapter, I already could *feel!* this was the right narrator – her approach into embracing Tara Thrope echoes Campbell’s Hunter. In finding this realisation, I knew my time spent within ‘Murder on the Marshes’ was going to be epic, brilliant & chilling!
If you had told me back in *August!* my father would have had a health scare wherein we thought he might have a second stroke (due to issues with his hypertension) – I might not have believed you! I was emotionally taxed and stressed for over three weeks within August awaiting to see if everything would right itself again. Somewhere in those weeks, as I felt numb to reading and completely lost in my reading life as a result – I avoided stories like the plague! I couldn’t get focused on hearing audiobooks nor could I focus on reading them either – the whole month is a bit of a blur except for the emotions I felt as a result of the health crisis my Dad went through.
As a result of that – September started off on hard footing as I had my own share of health issues I had to transition through as well. Ergo, August & September were not the best months for me and this is after five months of Spring being especially wrecking for my health & wellness. However, similar to July being the month I reclaimed my reading joy after a hard Spring, so too, has October become a renewing month for me now that Autumn has taken hold!
Even with two low grade migraines these first weeks of October, I am undeterred – as I personally feel better than I had in the previous two months! Thus, my listening of this new story by Ms Chase was placed on ‘hold’ – even knowing the sequel was due out in October, there is only so much you can do when your facing adversity in life and doing the best you can to find your bookish joy again lost inside the stories you love reading. This is why when October started to draw closer, I knew I would want to seek out some readathons and/or reading challenges – fun events to get myself re-inspired into the stories I had to hold off reading or listening whilst life calmed back down again.
This is how I came to find #FraterfestRAT – which celebrates everything under the October moon from ghosts to Thrillers to crime dramas! It truly is an all-encompassing readathon and for me personally, it felt like the best way to get re-charged & re-fuelled to reading the stories I love during this time of year! I might have had a late start (due to the second migraine!) but for me personally, this readathon gave me the little nudge I needed to begin once again inside ‘Murder on the Marshes’!!
A notation about Bookouture & Hachette Books:
In [2016] I created a series of interviews featuring #Bookouture authors: Teresa Driscoll (feat. ‘Last Kiss Goodnight’); Natalie Meg Evans (feat. ‘A Gown of Thorns’); Renita D’ Silva (feat. ‘A Mother’ Secret’); Debbie Rix (feat. ‘Daughters of the Silk Road’); Kerry Fisher (feat. ‘After the Lie’); Helen Pollard (feat. ‘The Little French Guesthouse’) and Tom Bale (feat. ‘See How They Run’). I’ve been striving to collect all of these stories for my personal library whilst intending to share my ruminative thoughts – as I personally love to showcase a guest feature ahead of reading the stories which intrigue my bookish heart! Of this list, as of Thanksgiving 2017 – I have happily acquired the audiobook version of ‘The Little French Guesthouse’ which is a next listen of mine this year! I have more to share about how I acquired this audiobook when I share my ruminations!
Whilst for the past few years I’ve been a book blogger reading INSPY (faith-based) and Motivational stories (of fiction and Non-Fiction) from Hachette Books (USA) imprints: FaithWords and Center Street. At the time of coordinating this interview with Ms Chase, I had missed the fact ‘Bookouture’ was acquired by Hachette UK. This marks my first guest feature and showcased story for Hachette UK : Bookouture! (see also the announcement of the acquisition)
Meanwhile, as per my announcement recently featured on The Sunday Post, No. 6 – I purchased a copy of the digital audiobook version of ‘Murder on the Marshes’ which I am looking forward to listening too. My ruminations are forthcoming on behalf of this first installment of the Tara Thrope series as being this is my own purchase I am not obliged to post my reflections on this novel, I am choosing to showcase my reactions as Ms Chase is an author I personally love reading! (see also my review of ‘You Think You Know Me’)
Previously, you will remember, I crossed paths with Ms Chase through my readings of ChocLitUK (of which I am a reviewer) whilst I have had the pleasure of getting to know her personally through my bi-monthly chat @SatBookChat (previously known as @ChocLitSaturday).
On my connection to Clare Chase: When I started a chat in [2014] my path crossed with Ms Chase as she was a regular chatter of what is now known as @SatBookChat. Ms Chase and I started to notice our reading habits were aligning with each other, and her conversations were happy editions to my week as I liked finding someone else who liked the same types of stories I was gravitating towards myself. We continued to ‘chat’ about our reading habits even outside of #ChocLitSaturday (the previous name of the chat), which was a blessed joy for me.
I am disclosing this, to assure you that I can formulate an honest opinion, even though I have interacted with Ms Chase through our respective love & passion of reading inside the twitterverse whilst I host #SatBookChat and privately as well. I treat each book as a ‘new experience’, whether I personally know the author OR whether I am reading a book by them for the first time or continuing to read their releases as they are available. This also applies to hosting a guest feature by the author I share a connection.
Murder on the Marshes
Subtitle: A gripping murder mystery thriller that will keep you turning the pages
by Clare Chase
Source: Purchased | Personal Library
Narrator: Lucy Brownhill
As the sun rises, a wealthy young woman – Samantha Seabrook – is found drowned in the ornamental fountain of a deserted Cambridge courtyard, the only clue – an antique silver chain wound tightly around her throat.
It’s Tara Thorpe’s job to discover what happened to Miss Seabrook – but the case becomes personal when she learns that Samantha had been receiving death threats… rather like the one that landed on Tara’s doorstep the night the woman died.
Together with Detective Inspector Garstin Blake, Tara tracks the killer to the dank and dangerous fens on the outskirts of the city. But there’s something Tara can’t quite admit to Blake about her past – and it could make all the difference to whether they live... or die.
Places to find the book:
ISBN: 9781786814319
ASIN: B07FPNP92B
Also by this author: You Think You Know Me, Death on the River
Published by Bookouture, Hachette UK
on 1st August, 2018
Format: Audiobook | Digital
Length: 10 hours and 45 minutes (unabridged)
The Tara Thrope Mysteries:
Published by: Bookouture (@bookouture)
an imprint of HachetteUK (@HachetteUK)
Murder on the Marshes (book one)
Death on the River (book two)
celebrated its Pub Day → 17th October, 2018*
*this is a digital first release (ebook)
whilst other formats will follow including an audiobook!
Converse via: #TaraThrope, #Thriller and #Bookouture
About Clare Chase
Clare writes fast-paced romantic mysteries, using London and Cambridge as settings. Her influences include JD Robb, Janet Evanovich, Mary Stewart and Sue Grafton.
Brought up in the Midlands, she went on to read English at London University, then worked in book and author promotion in venues as diverse as schools, pubs and prisons. More recently she’s exercised her creative writing muscles in the world of PR, and also worked for the University of Cambridge. Her current day job is at the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Her writing is inspired by what makes people tick, and how strong emotions can occasionally turn everyday incidents into the stuff of crime novels. It would be impossible not to mix these topics with romance and relationships; they’re central to life and drive all forms of drama.
When she’s not reading or writing, Clare enjoys drawing, cooking and trips to the Lake District. Closer to home, she loves wandering round the pubs, restaurants and galleries of Cambridge, where she lives with her husband and two teenage daughters.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- #FraterfestRAT 2018
- #SpooktasticReads 2018
Gone to Ground
Frozen Fairy Tales
Call to Arms
Hell to Pay