Bea DavenportRecensioni

Who would murder a nine month old baby? That is the burning question in this fantastic psychological thriller. A seemingly motiveless crime reeks havoc on a northern estate already in turmoil over the on-going miner's strike. Clare Jackson, a journalist with a chip on her shoulder after missing out on a promotion she deserved is determined top find out the truth. She befriends Amy a neglected child left to run lose on the estate but is she letting her own demons influence her actions?
I really enjoyed this book. It brought back memories of the eighties both good and bad (I remember those fish and chip crisps as well!) The way the miner's strike tore communities apart is sympathetically portrayed, as is the relationship between the community on the estate and the police and journalists who cover the strike. I have always lived in the South of England so was not directly affected by the strike but I remember the nightly news reports and the scenes of violence that occurred. Add a child killer into the mix and the Sweetmeadows estate becomes a powder keg.
However the story is not just a simple murder mystery there's so much more to it than that. It's about damage and how much a person, a community even a country can take before becoming broken. I loved it and sincerely hope it's the first in a series.

Jez is having the best day of his life - kicking goals in soccer, scoring As on tests - when he comes home to discover a cousin called Faustina he has never heard of, has moved into his house and worse, has his bedroom. Then slowly but surely Faustina takes over every part of Jez' life - his school friends, his parents and even his best mate. No-one believe him when he says she is evil; that is, until his father collapses in a restaurant, and Jez' mum glimpses something strange.

This Little Piggy is a great read that engages you from the beginning and keeps the momentum up until the end. Set against the backdrop of a troubled North East housing estate during the miners strike of the 1980's. Claire Jackson is a reporter following the suspicious death of a 9 month old baby.

There are a number of strands to the novel that maintain the interest over and above the search for the child's killer. What is the unspoken reason for Claire failing to attend for interview which means she was passed over for promotion? What is the truth about the enigmatic and mysterious Finn, the newly appointed Head of the Miners Union? What really happened at the Police station that resulted in the death of an innocent suspect? Why does Claire allow herself to become involved with Amy, a young 9 year old girl from the estate who claims to know what happened? What is the nature of her relationship with Joe (the photographer)?

It was interesting to see how the case develops from a viewpoint other than a traditional police procedural angle. Seeing how the search for the possible killer develops through the eyes of those reporting as well as those living on the estate offers a viewpoint often lost and makes the story more human. Again seeing the Miner’s Strike and its’ effects reported on from the inside offers a balance to the oft reported media and government viewpoint that those of us who remember it were fed at the time.

Claire is a very likeable character, and the depiction of a reporters’ life is a less than glamorous one that depends on hard work and dedication – something that Claire and her photographer colleague have in spades.

I did have an idea of who was responsible from quite early on, but that did not spoil the enjoyment as I still wanted to know how and why, as well as wanting answers to all the other strands running through the book. I am more than happy to recommend this book, it was a good read and I’ll be looking out for more from Bea Davenport.

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

1984, the north of England during the miners' strike. Journalist for local paper, The Post, Clare Jackson is investigating the death of a baby on the notorious Sweetmeadows estate, along with reporting on the strike and the unrest it's causing. She befriends a kid from the estate, Amy, who is suffering from neglect and whose presence and neediness helps Clare get over some things that happened to her.

This is a good book. I liked the fact that it was set during the strike which added an extra dimension to the story of the baby's murder and who might have done it. I did have a good idea of who it was by about half way but I liked how it all unfolded to reveal all at the end. I also liked how it was written from a journalistic angle rather than that of the police or the miners and their families. It's an easy and interesting read which kept me engaged all the way through.

This mystery/thriller takes the reader back to the gritty world of the miners' strikes in the early 1980s. The growing desperation of those miners as well as the crushing poverty that some of them face is well-drawn and gives a remarkable flavor to the backdrop of the story. As Clare attempts to solve the mystery of a murdered baby, she is also trying to rescue her career- damaged almost beyond repair by a personal tragedy she refuses to acknowledge. Her relationship with fellow reporters and police ring true, and it is easy to see why she gets sucked into attempting to create a better like for little Amy. The big twist wasn't much of a surprise to me, but I'm certain the read is supposed to suspect what is going on- only Clare is wallowing in ignorance, unable to separate facts from feelings. I wasn't thrilled with the end as I think Clare should have realized the need to cute ties and run, but that is a niggling quibble. Overall, this is a strongly written and enjoyable story; I will be on the lookout for more by this author.

A special thank you to Legend Press and NetGalley for a complimentary reading copy in exchange for an honest review.

Bea Davenport’s THIS LITTLE PIGGY is a riveting and compelling psycho thriller, centered on the murder of a baby, and the devastating times of political unrest, turmoil, poverty, tragedy, and tension of the Miner’s Strike.

In 1984, times were difficult during the Miner’s Strike, leaving England in disarray. There is trouble at the Sweetmeadows estate, where screams were not uncommon. The estate houses mostly miners, a collection of sixties-built, flat-roofed, box-shaped flats, up to four stories high. The local council had plans for knocking down the whole estate and rebuilding but there was no money. Some were even empty and boarded up, and what was left standing was mold ridden and damp and housed those among the desperate.

Residents are left shocked by the suspicious death of a baby. A mother, Debs, is frantic about Jamie Donnelly, aged nine months, appearing the baby fell from the balcony and died from the injuries. However, who would throw a baby off a balcony? Rob Donnelly says his wife is innocent.

Clare Jackson, is a driven journalist and is always trying to get a story, and sometimes it is difficult as the police are often closed mouthed and not very forthcoming to the media. Clare is also haunted by a personal trauma and then there is the little nine-year-old Amy, a misfit, which seems to know more than she is saying. Clare wants to help this little girl have a real life, thinking of her past life, and she may just be the only adult to help Amy.

Clare becomes involved personally, while chasing the story and will not give up, digging deeper as we learn more about the poor and bad living conditions of this community. Amy has a vivid imagination and is street smart; however, at times she gets carried away with her stories, so you did not know what to believe. At the same time the poverty and the picketing continues and the father of the baby is one that has chosen to go back to the mines to work, looked upon as a traitor.

In addition there are two other characters interacting with Clare (Joe), another writer for a different paper than the Post, and Finn, a newly appointed heard of the Miner’s Union. These two men do not get along. As the investigation turns up dead ends by the police, Clare is more determined to find the killer, while continuing to become emotionally involved in the life of complex Amy, the abuse, while following the Miner’s strike. A horrible accident, a whole string of pointless deaths, a whole estate that will take years to recover.

This is the kind of book you want to read in one sitting or weekend; however, I happened to be traveling and had to stop many times, as could not wait to get back to this well written intriguing mystery of political unrest, a crime thriller.

I enjoyed Clare’s character, told from her POV and her emotional relationship with Amy, making for a dynamic human interest story diving into social issues, with well- developed characters, and the author does a good job of capturing the era and tension. This was my first book by Davenport, and look forward to reading more!

Judith D. Collins Must Read Books

This is a psychological thriller beyond belief!

In 1984, the coal miners of Britain went on a strike that eventually would take two to three generations to recover from.

Clare Jackson is a reporter who missed a promotion due to personal reasons and had to recover from both events happening simultaneously while being sent on an investigation into the death of a nine month old baby, Jamie, on the housing estate where many of the miners resided.

She is a reporter for a local newspaper in the North East of Britain and basically acted as a one-man-band who never stopped for anything, as long as she could prove that she was the better choice for the promotion and shame her bosses.

She meets Amy, a little girl in the dilapidated flats, who had many stories to tell, some were fact and some fiction, and could not share everything she knew with the people around her. Nobody wanted to believe her.

Amy's situation spurred Clare on to become more than just a reporter. She instinctively wanted to protect and nurture the little girl despite warnings from her friends to stay away and stop her unprofessional attachment to 'a story'. But Clare was convinced that she could help Amy to become the adult she would like to be. She did not want to disappoint a little girl who had nobody else to take her hand and believe in her.

Clare became Amy's first real friend; a person she could trust. With Clare, being in the emotional state she was, combined with the psychological connection she felt she had with Amy, events started very soon to spiral out of total control for everyone involved. Clare related to Amy's situation. She was another statistic in the same column of history than Amy. She is an older version. She simply understood.

With her own unresolved issues influencing her actions, Clare tried to cover the human story of the baby, while also reporting on the situation behind the picket line where miners and police were increasingly moving into a volatile situation.

While being a walk down memory lane for us who remembered the strikes and its profound aftermath, this book also exposed human behavioral patterns which are not only possible, but scary as hell.

This is the second book I read of the author. The first one was
In Too Deep .

Both books have the same theme of little girls who were ostricised, rejected, socially isolated by their peer groups for different reasons. The effect it had on them manifested itself in their later relationships and actions.

I was so impressed with Bea Davenport's first novel, that I recommended it to many many people who love this genre. It is still one of the best books in this stable that I have read. This Little Piggy, with its powerful plot; various strong support characters; constant, relentless, and never-ending suspense; detailed and vicious psychosomatic, as well as somatopsychic undercurrent, is a brilliant second try for a seasoned journalist in her own right. It is just as much a strong historical fiction-candidate as it is a psychological thriller

My goodness, what a story! It was simply brilliant.

The review copy was provided by Legend Press via Netgalley. THANK YOU for this wonderful opportunity.

http://something-wordy-reviews.blogspot.com/p/this-little-piggy-by-bea-davenport...

In Too Deep by Bea Davenport is a Legend Press publication and was released in the summer of 2013. I received a copy of this book from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Maura and Nick live in the small town of Dowerby. Things are underway for the annual Dowerby Fair. One of the traditions of the fair is a medieval tradition that only women are subject to and that is a dunking booth. Nick is very involved in the planning of the fair. Maura is offended by the dunking but she is just blown off by the committee.
When a young, attractive reporter, Kim Carter, moves to town, she turns Maura and Nick's conventional life on it's ear.
Maura who has never connected with the people in Dowerby, makes an instant friend out of Kim. The two of them couldn't be more different. But, Kim sees the reality of Maura's life better than Maura. Kim helps Maura get a job and begins helping to advance herself.
Maura is also the mother of a young daughter and is beginning to have a very strained marriage. Her time with Kim is most fun she sees in life.

But, Kim is not all that popular in Dowerby. She is too open minded, to unconventional, too attractive, too outspoken and too career minded. Even Maura has a hard time with Kim's lifestyle and attitudes at times.
But, when life is really looking up for Kim, a terrible thing happens and Maura feels responsible and also feels like she could be in danger. There are people, including her husband, who do not want Maura telling her side of the story.
Maura feels as though she has no choice but to go into hiding, leaving her daughter behind.

Now five years after the events in Doweby, a reporter has found Maura. Once more she finds her life turned around.

Told from Maura's point of view, we alternate between the past and the present as she tell how she met Kim, got a job, her marriage issues, and the Dowerby fair. We then fast forward to current events and Maura deals with being found by Paul, a reporter that claims to have new information that could help Maura reunite with her daughter, Rose. But does she dare trust him? Could he lead Nick to her? Was it really possible that she could be a mother to Rose again?

The writing style is very unique in this novel. The author manages to build suspense at a slow pace that keeps you turning pages, impatient to find out how Maura's life came to this point and what has her feeling so guilty and so afraid.
The witch dunking is an actual event in fairs and this tradition was based in fact. Issues such as domestic violence, small town prejudices and politics are examined. If not for these barbaric traditions and the judgments passed by the folks of Dowerby, the events that led to this terrible tragedy would never have taken place.
Thankfully, Kim's influence on Maura was long lasting and Maura could have a second chance at a productive life and career.
I really enjoyed this book. It was difficult to read some of the passages regarding domestic violence, but I loved the slow build of suspense and the way Maura finally blossoms. Maura's transformation would never have happened if not for the friendship she nurtured with Kim. While Kim was not always the most moral person, she was the best thing that ever happened to Maura. It appears that Maura also makes some new friends that will be there for her in the future.
Overall this a good solid A.

Maura was one of those wallflowers: colorful enough to be sometimes noticeable, but most of the time so inconspicuous as to vanish into the bigger design of life on the wall, unless someone made the effort to take a closer look. Someone like her narcissistic husband, Nick.

Growing up, in school: "I (Maura) had the misfortune of being acceptable but not particular popular. I think, in a way, this is worse than being totally alone and rejected. You can see what you are let in on and what you're excluded from, what you're invited to and what was only for a more select group. You can be part only of some conversations, but listen to others without understanding them fully. You're the one left out when numbers are tight and you have no idea why. So at school I had friends, of a sort, but none that I really trusted or who trusted me, although I longed to be important enough to be taken into someone's confidence." She would experience the same in her adopted town Dowerby.

As an already married woman with a young daughter, Maura met Kim. She was her first real friend whom she could trust and who changed her outlook on life in many ways. Kim opened up a world of exciting possibilities to her, which she grabbed onto with everything she had. There was just one problem: the Dowerby town did not find comfort in the feisty, free-spirited new journalist in their midst. They did not appreciate Kim's nosy questions about town management and people's private lives, especially not those of the council members. Suddenly there was someone who did not flinch in rocking their safe little wooden boxes in which they flourished on corruption, mismanagement, greed, unfaithfulness, hypocrisy and fraud. Kim knew how to send the wood chips flying everywhere. The only box they would not allow to be shattered was the ancient-old dunking-chair of the Dowerby Fair.

"Everyday Kim said something kind, which I took home with me and thought over, and knew I was lucky." Kim would also expose the poisoned chalice in her life - one that Maura never would have identified on her own and even denied existed. She taught her daughter to become a people-pleaser like herself to safeguard herself.
But then Kim, the person who taught her to re-evaluate her own life, believes, self-image, unexpectedly died. The circumstances in which it happened, necessitated Maura to leave her daughter, as well as husband, and flee her old life to start a new life somewhere else under a different name...

For five years she got away with it, until a journalist tracked her down and forced her to confront her past and face her own truths.

The book does not only charm, engross and pull the reader into the story, it also contains beautiful prose like this: " Even the lipstick-coloured roses that filled most people’s gardens in Dowerby couldn’t cheer up the scenery..."

This is an excellent debut novel. Constant suspense in a fully developed plot. The weather becomes an effective tool, and not a pathetic phallacy, in the fast flowing tale of betrayal, love, intrigue, friendship and justice. A riveting drama.

What's that? First review for this book? How lucky I am!

This was a great read.

When I think crime, I don't think summer read. But I've read this whole book in the sun in my garden. It works. The setting is great and I could picture Dowerby perfectly. Although I knew it was set somewhere inspired by Alnwick and other Northern market towns, I was picturing Dowery just like that anyway, and would have regardless.

Maura was a rather frustrating character. She was in a poisonous relationship with her husband, and my, what a dick he was! Men like Nick deserve to die a very slow and painful death and I'm very glad of how the end turned out. Kim was great - glamorous and sassy she was just what Dowerby needed. And she wasn't afraid, not until the very end - and anyone would have been terrified then.

I feel sorry for Rosie in all of this and don't understand why she didn't say anything at nursery - isn't that the kind of thing a child would mention? Daddy made mummy cry? But then again, Dowerby's the kind of place this wouldn't have been taken further.

I loved the conflict between the characters and I loved the setting. I liked a lot of what the book had to say but resented some things.

Having attended an event with the author and hearing her talk of the book, I really want to know what the strand of romance was that she had had to edit out! I look forward to reading more of her adult offerings - and perhaps her young adult if they are published?