BLOG TOUR: The Man Who Ran - Mark Stibbe

When he saw it, it was like a shotgun discharging in Jake’s face. His unbeatable hand had been beaten. 

When Jake Graystone becomes addicted to poker, he decides to abandon his family and indulge his new-found craving without restraint. Running away to a northern city on Christmas Eve, he discovers the Arcadia Casino and starts to play. With the help of a rare gift for reading his opponents, he quickly gains fame and fortune.

One year later, again on Christmas Eve, Jake is challenged to a heads-up match by a player called the Undertaker. When his adversary tilts him, Jake finds himself on the run again. With the help of a German Shepherd and a homeless friend, Jake outfoxes the gunman who pursues him - until one fateful night when they come face to face.

I didn’t want to put this down. A heartwarming story that would be great as a film. I hope this book reaches addicts and helps turn their lives around - Angela Lee

If you like Christmas, you’ll absolutely treasure this book - Jimbo Sun

A thoroughly gripping, enjoyable read that tugs on all the right emotions - Jules Loveland

Winner of the 2020 Page Turner Award for Fiction, Mark Stibbe is a full-time novelist specialising in exciting supernatural stories. The Man Who Ran is the new, expanded version of King of Hearts. 

What did I think?

Well this was an unexpectedly poignant tale.  The Man Who Ran is like a mixture of your favourite Christmas movies and festive books all rolled into one.  Think the ghosts of A Christmas Carol, the dire straits of It's a Wonderful Life and the charity of strangers in Home Alone, to name but a few.

Jake is a maths teacher who is at risk of redundancy when he finds he has the skills to play poker.  Seeing an easy way to make money, he becomes addicted to gambling but there's a cost to winning at the tables and it's a price his wife and sons must pay.  Jake doesn't seem to care though, all he can think about is the next game so he walks out on his family without a backwards glance.

Oh Jake, I was so disappointed in him as he headed off to the bright lights of Casino City that sounded remarkably like Newcastle with an angel statue standing guard on the outskirts.  As we know, the house never loses and I thought Jake deserved everything he got when things inevitably turned to sh*t so I was surprised to feel empathy towards him the further down he fell.  I think Mark Stibbe has sprinkled a bit of the magic of Christmas inside the book as I was wishing peace and goodwill to all men (apart from the Undertaker) towards the end.

Incredibly poignant and thought-provoking, The Man Who Ran is a modern-day festive fable that really makes you stop and think about your own life and the rest of humankind.  It is entertaining but also compassionate and it has a hint of the supernatural to add an extra touch of magic over the festive period.

I'm putting The Man Who Ran on my book shelf alongside A Christmas Carol so I will be reminded to read it every December.  A highly recommended read.

I received a gifted paperback to read and review for the Love Books Tours Bookstagram Tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

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BLOG TOUR: Deep Dark Night (Lori Anderson Book 4) - Steph Broadribb

Fearless Florida bounty-hunter Lori Anderson travels to Chicago to trap the head of a notorious crime family, in a high-stakes, nail-biting mission that sees her trapped in one of the city’s tallest buildings during a blackout…

A city in darkness. A building in lockdown. A score that can only be settled in blood…

Working off the books for FBI Special Agent Alex Monroe, Florida bounty-hunter Lori Anderson and her partner, JT, head to Chicago. Their mission: to entrap the head of the Cabressa crime family. The bait: a priceless chess set that Cabressa is determined to add to his collection.

An exclusive high-stakes poker game is arranged in the penthouse suite of one of the city’s tallest buildings, with Lori holding the cards in an agreed arrangement to hand over the pieces. But, as night falls and the game plays out, stakes rise and tempers flare.

When a power failure plunges the city into darkness, the building goes into lockdown. But this isn’t an ordinary blackout, and the men around the poker table aren’t all who they say they are. Hostages are taken, old scores resurface and the players start to die.

And that’s just the beginning…

What did I think?

Oh my goodness, Deep Dark Night is an absolutely thrilling rollercoaster ride; the Lori Anderson series just gets better and better!  Every time I read a book in this series I can't imagine how Steph Broadribb can better it but then she goes and does it again and again!  Deep Dark Night is the fourth book in this outstanding series featuring bounty hunter Lori Anderson and you could most certainly read it as a standalone, but I suspect anyone who does so will scoop up the earlier books to read more of Lori's story.

Lori's family has always played a big part in this series but they were well and truly split up in Deep Dark Night.  Lori's daughter, Dakota, takes a back seat in this novel when she is left in the care of Lori's friend, Red, while Lori does what she hopes is her final job for FBI Agent, Alex Monroe.  Lori's partner, JT, heads to Chicago with her as her wingman but even he can't protect Lori 24/7 when events conspire against them.

Steph Broadribb has really outdone herself this time; Deep Dark Night didn't just have me on the edge of my seat gripping my kindle with sweaty palms, I was also holding my breath as if any disturbance in the atmosphere would affect the characters.  The whole story is balanced on a knife edge and the plot is so perfectly crafted with little cliffhangers at the end of chapters that make you keep reading just one more chapter until there are none left.  

Tense, claustrophobic and filled with danger, Deep Dark Night is my favourite Lori Anderson book so far.  It has made me want to read the whole series all over again to get my Lori fix; I'm totally addicted to Lori Anderson and I'm never going to rehab!  This is one of those books that you want to rate more than 5 stars but I don't think even 100 stars would be enough to show how outstanding it is.

Prepare to be reading well into the deep dark night when you pick up this book as you will not be able to put it down.  Deep Dark Night is a magnificent instalment to an outstanding series and I can't recommend it highly enough.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

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About the author:

Steph Broadribb  was born in Birmingham and grew up in Buckinghamshire.  Most  of her working life has been spent between the UK and USA. As her alter- ego - Crime Thriller Girl - she indulges in her love of all things crime fiction by blogging at crimethrillergirl.com, where she interviews authors and reviews the latest releases. She is also a member of the crime-themed girl band The Splice Girls. Steph is an alumni of the MA Creative Writing (Crime Fiction) at City University London, and she trained as a bounty hunter in California, which inspired her Lori Anderson thrilliers, She lives in Buckinghamshire surrounded by horses, cows and chickens. Her debut thriller, Deep  Down Dead, was shortlisted for the Dead Good Reader Awards in two categories, and hit number one on the UK and AU kindle charts. My Little Eye, her first novel under her pseudonym, Stephanie Marland was published by Trapeze Books in April 2018. 

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