Monty's Book Reviews

24/12/2024

Looking for something thrilling to read over the Christmas break? Try 'Singapore & Other Stories' by Murray Bailey. It's an excellent collection of short stories that make a perfect introduction to the full novels featuring Ash Carter, Bill Wolfe & Blackjack. Available on Amazon in eBook & Paperback

5/5: An enthralling collection of stories from the pen (keyboard) of Murray Bailey. If you haven't delved into the the adventures of Ash Carter, Bill Wolfe and Blackjack then this is the ideal way to get acquainted. Great characters coupled with engaging plots make these tales into page-turning deli...

03/12/2024

Excellent book and Callum is an awesome narrator

THE SWIM – A McLaren prequel novella. No mystery, but it tells the story of McLaren, this solver-of-mysteries, from his teen-aged years through the event that pushed him into leaving the police force and beginning his career as an investigator of cold cases.

THE SWIM
www.johiestand.com

Audiobook – Narrated by Callum Hale
Amazon: https://rb.gy/3gtlqs
Audible: https://rb.gy/bs2d3m

Trade Paper – https://rb.gy/29tir2

Ebook –
Amazon: https://rb.gy/pnh7ij
B&N: https://rb.gy/eeyvn2
Kobo: https://rb.gy/u722sj

03/12/2024

Well worth a read everyone

21/07/2024

Fandango's One Word Challenge - Scale Ships Log 3259-08-15 I’ve activated the automatic shutdown on the cryogenic chambers. It’s time to wake up the crew. We left Earth in 2049 aboard the Star ship Santa Maria – named after the flagship of Christopher Columbus, the greatest explorer in the planet’s history. Our mission was to locate the planet Terra 629 which was discovered to have an almost perfect Earth consistent atmosphere and soil/water composition....

Fandango’s One Word Challenge – Scale Ships Log 3259-08-15 I’ve activated the automatic shutdown on the cryogenic chambers. It’s time to wake up the crew. We left Earth in 2049 aboard t…

21/07/2024

Six Sentence Story Linkup Prompt Word : Wire Beads of sweat are forming on my forehead, running down through the gap between my eyebrows, down my cute button nose and then dripping onto my hands as I sit hunched over the improvised explosive device nestled in the corner of the room. I’m receiving instructions over the short wave radio from an expert but it is difficult to think straight when the timer that is strapped to the ten pounds of Semtex is continually counting down the seconds I have left to deactivate the mechanism…...

Six Sentence Story Linkup Prompt Word : Wire Beads of sweat are forming on my forehead, running down through the gap between my eyebrows, down my cute button nose and then dripping onto my hands as…

21/07/2024

(or Feud Glorious Feud) Fandango's One Word Challenge - Feud It all started at school. Stephen and Clive took every opportunity to prank each other. It was small scale at first, hiding each other’s belongings, leaving frogs in their beds in the dorm and other childish games. As the boys got older, the incidents became more elaborate. Clive was a dab hand at forging Steve’s handwriting and all kinds of trouble ensured when he faked letters and notes which were sent to various members of staff....

(or Feud Glorious Feud) Fandango’s One Word Challenge – Feud It all started at school. Stephen and Clive took every opportunity to prank each other. It was small scale at first, h…

20/07/2024

Fandango's One Word Challenge - Withdraw We’d ventured too far into enemy territory and instead of pushing back the Hun infantry, we’d become cut off from our unit. There were just the twelve of us left and I was determined that no more of my men would die today. After the gun fight at the abandoned French farmhouse, we’d buried our dead and hidden the bodies of the N**i soldiers in the barn....

Fandango’s One Word Challenge – Withdraw We’d ventured too far into enemy territory and instead of pushing back the Hun infantry, we’d become cut off from our unit. There were just the …

20/07/2024

Fandango’s Story Starter #158 “This is no ordinary book,” the proprietor of the used book store said to Jeremy. “It’s a gateway to a series of alternate universes” Nine year old Jeremy looked at him in awe. “Are you serious? I can go wherever I want just with this book?” “Within reason my boy, there is a limit to the number of gateways that can exist in a single tome”...

Fandango’s Story Starter #158 “This is no ordinary book,” the proprietor of the used book store said to Jeremy. “It’s a gateway to a series of alternate universes” Nine year old Jeremy looked at hi…

20/07/2024

mindlovemisery'smenagerie photo challenge #254 Image credit Sarah Whiley For the first couple of days we all said how pretty the clouds were, but then the perpetual twilight started to grate. The rays of the sun weren’t able to pe*****te the fluffy quilt that somehow surrounded the Earth. But it wasn’t just the sun, scientists tried to send probes into the cloud mass to take readings but they all stopped transmitting the moment they entered....

mindlovemisery’smenagerie photo challenge #254 Image credit Sarah Whiley For the first couple of days we all said how pretty the clouds were, but then the perpetual twilight started to grate.…

20/07/2024

The Unicorn Challenge - 19/07/24 - Photo Prompt - 250 Words Maximum Photo Prompt © Ayr/Gray In my younger days I was a bit of a fashionista. I’d spend every Saturday shopping for the latest trends and then strutting my stuff in the dance halls and later on the discotheques with my mates. I never had any trouble pulling the birds in my Teddy boy suit, my crepe soled shoes and my neatly coifed quiff....

The Unicorn Challenge – 19/07/24 – Photo Prompt – 250 Words Maximum Photo Prompt © Ayr/Gray In my younger days I was a bit of a fashionista. I’d spend every Saturday shopping for …

20/07/2024

MindLoveMisery'sMenagerie Luck Dip - Random Emoji Prompt I’ve been told time and time again that I think too much, I overthink things, I catastrophize. I’ve never been a glass half full kind of girl So, I was already on edge when I found myself on the wrong side of town. There was an accident on my usual route and my Satnav had ‘helpfully’ rerouted me to a part of town that I’d never seen before....

MindLoveMisery’sMenagerie Luck Dip – Random Emoji Prompt I’ve been told time and time again that I think too much, I overthink things, I catastrophize. I’ve never been a glass half full…

19/07/2024

Friday Fictioneers 100 Word Challenge hosted by Rochelle Wisoff PHOTO PROMPT © Lisa Fox “Don’t’cha just love the wild outdoors Barney?” “Sure do Fred, away from the raptor race in Bedrock” “I brought Wilma here on our first date and we watched the migrating Pterodactyls“ “Betty and me spent a weekend here, you can really see the stars without all the candlelight”...

Friday Fictioneers 100 Word Challenge hosted by Rochelle Wisoff PHOTO PROMPT © Lisa Fox “Don’t’cha just love the wild outdoors Barney?” “Sure do Fred, away from the raptor race in Bedrock” “I broug…

19/07/2024

Fandango's One Word Challenge - Feign I absolutely detest social gatherings, having to feign interest every time some desperate housewife wants to tell you all about her kids’ soccer teams and that her husband once met Donald Trump. Then there are the married men who feel the need to flirt, sometimes right in front of their wives. It’s mind-numbingly dull and I’d much rather be at home watching ‘The West Wing’...

Fandango’s One Word Challenge – Feign I absolutely detest social gatherings, having to feign interest every time some desperate housewife wants to tell you all about her kids’ soccer te…

15/07/2024

For six long months we’d been hunting for the fabled treasure. I say long months, they just felt long, they were just regular usual length months but its felt like years. The searing heat, the alien food that either sits in your gut making you feel bloated or passes right through your digestive system faster than a speeding Italian taxi driver and bloody Johnny foreigner with their ridiculous rules and unintelligible languages have all contributed to the depressed state I found myself in....

For six long months we’d been hunting for the fabled treasure. I say long months, they just felt long, they were just regular usual length months but its felt like years. The searing heat, the alie…

14/07/2024

Story Starter Challenge - "The train clattered along the tracks" Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie - Saturday Mix The train clattered along the tracks heading for the border. The picturesque, chocolate box quality, countryside slipped past unnoticed by my companion and myself. Keep a low profile, we agreed. Don’t attract attention. We’d travelled nearly 500 miles over the last four days, originally on foot, through the forests near Colditz castle, then by the horse and cart that we ‘borrowed’ from a farmyard....

Story Starter Challenge – “The train clattered along the tracks” Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie – Saturday Mix The train clattered along the tracks heading for the border. The p…

14/07/2024

Only Murders In My Mind - Photo Prompt - 250 Words Maximum The professor has always liked his own company, he’d often retreat to his study for hours to do heaven knows what. Over recent days he’d grown somewhat more secretive and a week ago retired to his inner sanctum. He’s not been seen since. For the first five days, the food trays left outside by the maid were duly collected and then returned, but two days ago they started to be returned to the kitchen untouched....

Only Murders In My Mind – Photo Prompt – 250 Words Maximum The professor has always liked his own company, he’d often retreat to his study for hours to do heaven knows what. Over recent…

13/07/2024

Challenge - Word Prompt - Exactly Six Sentences Hosted by GirlieOnTheEdge I woke up bleary eyed with a pain in my head that felt like it was trapped in a vice, due in the most part to the copious amount of alcohol I drank last night in the student bar. I listened for sounds of life from the rooms that I shared with two of my fellows, but all I could hear was the ticking of the clock on my bedside table....

Challenge – Word Prompt – Exactly Six Sentences Hosted by GirlieOnTheEdge I woke up bleary eyed with a pain in my head that felt like it was trapped in a vice, due in the most part to t…

13/07/2024

Challenge - Photo Prompt - 250 Words Maximum “You really want to go through with this? I asked. ” Remember when the Coley twins found seahorses heads in their sleeping area?” “It’ll be fine” replied my octopus friend. “He’ll never know it’s us” “What about when he made Eric the Eel an offer he couldn’t refuse?” I pleaded. “He’s not been seen since....

Challenge – Photo Prompt – 250 Words Maximum “You really want to go through with this? I asked. ” Remember when the Coley twins found seahorses heads in their sleeping area?” “It’ll be …