Calamity in Camberwell by Alice Castle: **BLOG TOUR!**

Beth Haldane, SE21’s answer to Miss Marple, worries she is losing a kindred spirit when her friend Jen, the only other single mum in the playground, suddenly gets married and moves to Camberwell.

Soon Beth has to face much more pressing fears. Has something gone horribly wrong with Jen’s marriage? What is her husband really up to? Why is her daughter leading Beth’s son astray? And where on earth IS Jen anyway?

As Beth’s friends push her to start dating again, Beth turns to Met Police DI Harry York for help. But will they solve the mystery in time, or will it turn out that in south east London, not everyone gets to live happily ever after?

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The review...

I've never been to Dulwich (where protagonist Beth Haldane lives) or Camberwell (where her newly married friend Jen lives). Heck, I've barely been to London. But after reading Calamity in Camberwell I somehow feel I now have a clear image of both places and their inhabitants... particularly the Dulwich yummy mummies with their giant cars and white trousers and obsession with private tutoring (yes, we have them here too). Beth's particular frenemy, Belinda, being the quintessential example.


Alice Castle clearly excels at this observational detail, taking you right into the heart of these lives and communities. I definitely related to Beth, a single mother to ten-year-old Ben (though I never quite worked out why she didn't want him to call her "Mum") with a fascinating-sounding job running a newly-created research institute, which she loves. All this puts her in a tiny minority in Dulwich (where "women who worked and enjoyed it were in shockingly short supply"), so her friendship with kindred spirit Jen is important. Now, though, Jen's married, and in Camberwell, and there are inklings that everything in the garden is not as rosy as it could be... (I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say that poor Jen's husband-picking skills are not the best.) Then, Jen seems to just disappear...


Meanwhile Beth has other worries to contend with, like Ben's future education, pressure from her friends to begin dating, and her *very* slow-burning friendship with a certain Detective Inspector...


Calamity in Camberwell is a lovely read, intriguing and well observed, and Beth is adorable. I want to be her friend! It probably does help to have read the previous books in the series (which I haven't as yet, though I'm sure I will) but it's not essential as the story is self-contained... though I suspect may contain a spoiler for a previous adventure. I do want to know more about the back-story to Beth's job at Wyatt's and previous sleuthing!


Thanks to the author and Rachel's Random Resources for the opportunity to be part of the blog tour.






The author...

Before turning to crime, Alice Castle was a UK newspaper journalist for The Daily Express, The Times and The Daily Telegraph. Her first book, Hot Chocolate, set in Brussels and London, was a European hit and sold out in two weeks. Death in Dulwich was published in September 2017 and has been a number one bestseller in the UK, US, Canada, France, Spain and Germany. A sequel, The Girl in the Gallery, was published in December 2017 to critical acclaim. Calamity in Camberwell, the third book in the London Murder Mystery series, is published this summer, with Homicide in Herne Hill due to follow in early 2019. Alice is currently working on the fifth London Murder Mystery adventure. Once again, it will feature Beth Haldane and DI Harry York


Alice is also a mummy blogger and book reviewer via her website.


You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter


The giveaway...


Win a signed copy of Calamity in Camberwell (open internationally)


Terms and conditions - Worldwide entries welcome. Please enter using the link above. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within seven days then I reserve the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winner's information. This will be passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time I will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.