The latest edition of The Thursday Book Club was broadcast on 17th April 2025 at 2pm on Phonic FM. Joining host Jonathan Posner were Cathie Hartigan and Jason Mann. Click the names to find out more about them, and use the audio bar below to listen to the full show.
We reviewed Lock, Stock and Harold by Ebberley Finch.
Many thanks also to Cejay Leslie for their comment on the book: “I’m reading it at present and finding it very enjoyable.- well drawn characters and a lovely written style.”
This month I again carried on for the second hour, playing some old favourite tunes from 1983. So if you love these, keep listening after The Thursday Book Club finishes!
Listen to both parts of the show in full here:
The next show is at 2pm on the 15th May 2025.
NEWS
The Green Dragon Bookshop in Crewkerne has a Meet the Authors event on April 23rd between 1 – 2pm. Meet Rachel McLean and Millie Ravensworth, behind The Lyme Regis Women’s Swimming Club. Free event and all welcome. Rachel has written over 25 crime novels and is best known for her Dorset Crime series, as well as 7 dystopian thrillers. Book 1 in the series won the Kindle Storyteller Award in 2021.
Lucy V. Hay has a new non-fiction book out on April 22nd, co-written with indie film producer Clive Frayne called Don’t Screw Up Your Story which covers the foundations of writing craft – concept, characters and plot. They’ve a combined 40 years working in screenwriting and publishing between them, so there’s bound to be some tips that resonate with writers! Available on Amazon.
On the same subject, The Paper Lantern Writers have a book out on 1st May aimed at helping writers of historical fiction. It’s called Crafting Stories From the Past, and it’s a How-To Guide for Writing in that genre. So if you’re a writer looking for help and advice on things like ‘authenticity versus accuracy’ and ‘how to manage the paradox of time-travel’, or even, ‘How to represent horses through history’, then this is for you. Available on Amazon from 1st May..
The Paper Lantern Writers has also won 1st place in the Chanticleer Awards for Short Story Collections, with their anthology, Beneath a Midwinter Moon. This, their 2024 anthology, Destiny Comes Due, and their award-winning 2022 anthology, Unlocked, are all available on Amazon.
Mark Blackburn has a few bits of news: his prize-winning short story If You Go Down to the Woods has just been included in the Longtimber Tales anthology. His piece ‘Punk Is Dead, Long Live the New Romantic’ is in the current biannual Friends on the Shelf, and he and Pen Farthing will be discussing their books Operation Ark and Final Approach at the Sturminster Newton Literary Festival, which runs from 6th-15th June.
Helena Dixon, a regular news contributor, tells us that The Seaside Murders is available to pre-order now. Out April 30th, it features black-market gangs operating on the Kent coast in 1941, a mysterious body on the beach – and The Secret Detectives on the case again! It’s available on Amazon in audio, ebook and paperback.
Jack Stainton tells us he has just published his latest psychological thriller trilogy as a boxset. The Boss’s Wife, Dead Ever After and Truth Lies Beneath, together form the Two’s Company trilogy. Pitched as compelling psychological thrillers with great characters and stunning twists, they are perfect for fans of Freida McFadden, Mark Edwards, Shari Lapena and John Marrs. Available on Amazon.
Poole based writer Flora McGowan has a short story ‘The Home With the Hole’ included in a new anthology Detectives, Sleuths and Nosy Neighbors -Dying for an Answer, which was published on 7 April 2025 in paperback. The hardback, ebook and audiobook are to follow. Her contribution is about a woman who buys her very first home and, on moving in, discovers something she had not noticed before, that she is not sure what to do about. Not to worry, she has two friends who are only too happy to help investigate. Flora is the writer of the Carrie and Keith Mysteries series. and previously had a short story (The Lady of the House) in the Amazon best seller, The Little Shop of Murders charity anthology. Available on Amazon.
Richard Collis’s second novel, Wolf Mother, is recently released – the follow up to his popular 2022 novel The Pool. Available on Amazon.
