– ‘The Magic of Wor(l)ds’ blog is a hobby, reviews and other bookish stuff on this site are done for free.
I’m grateful of receiving a free copy from the publisher/author in exchange for an honest review of this book. –
About the Author :
Simon Van der Velde was born and educated in Newcastle upon Tyne where he trained and practiced as a lawyer. Writing, however, was always the real passion, and Simon has now left the legal profession in order to concentrate on his writing.
Since completing a creative writing M.A. (with distinction) at University of Northumbria in 2011, Simon’s work has won and been short-listed for numerous awards including; The Yeovil Literary Prize, (twice), The Readers’ Favorite Gold Medal, The Wasafiri New Writing Prize, The Luke Bitmead Bursary, The Frome Short Story Prize, The Writers’ and Artists’ Short Story Prize, The Harry Bowling Prize, The Henshaw Press Short Story Competition and The National Association of Writers’ Groups Open Competition.
Simon is the founder and chair of Gosforth Writers Group and author of the widely acclaimed, Amazon bestseller, Backstories, ‘the stand-out most original book of the year’ in 2021. His literary crime novel, The Silent Brother is published on 16th June, 2022 by Northodox Press. Simon is currently working on both Backstories II and his follow-up crime novel, Dogwood.
Having travelled throughout Europe and South America, Simon now lives in Newcastle upon Tyne with his wife, labradoodle and two tyrannical children.
Synopsis :
Title: The Silent Brother
Publication Date: 16th June, 2022
Price: Paperback – £ 8.99, Ebook – £2.99
Author: Simon Van der Velde
Publisher: Northodox Press
Available: Northodox.co.uk, Waterstones, Amazon, The Bound, & all good bookshops
Genres: Crime, urban, literary, contemporary and general fiction
Themes: Social justice, crime, nostalgia, the north-east, racism, family, love, redemption
When his beloved little brother is stolen away, five-year-old Tommy Farrier is left alone with his alcoholic mam, his violent step-dad and his guilt. Too young to understand what has really happened, Tommy is sure of only one thing. He is to blame.
Tommy tries to be good, to live-up to his brother’s increasingly hazy memory, but trapped in a world of shame and degradation he grows up with just two options; poverty or crime. And crime pays.
Or so he thinks.
A teenage drug-dealer for the vicious Burns gang, Tommy’s life is headed for disaster, until, in the place he least expects, Tommy sees a familiar face…
And then things get a whole lot worse.
Review :
After reading ‘The Silent Brother’ by Simon Van der Velde I needed a bit of a breather as it was, for me at least, a very intense read.
This book tells you the story of Tommy almost like a biography and it isn’t pretty and full of flowers and sunshine.
On the contrary, it’s dark and gritty, heart-wrenching and painfully realistic even in this day and age.
I hated the people around Tommy, although they too are the product of their situation, and felt hopeless at the choices Tommy made in his life.
I desperately wanted him to find a way out and find some kind of happily ever after he so deserved.
If he found it or not, I’m leaving in the middle, but although a bit unexpected in some way, I liked how Simon ended Tommy’s story.
An intense, heartbreaking and completely true portrait of life in Newcastle not so long ago.
The Magic of Wor(l)ds
I was a wife and writer at home when the Coronavirus hit. My husband was suddenly working from home, and I couldn’t get a minute’s peace while I wrote. I was going crazy and contemplated homicide. So I took a job as a contact tracer. The work took me away from Darcie and Connor, but at least it kept me out of prison. The job led me to write Have You Got A Kitchen Table? The Musings and Melancholy of a COVID-19 Contact Tracer. If you need a laugh pick up the audiobook!
Escape to breathtaking Ireland in a story of passion, mystery, and suspense.
John Reid is the creator of the DCI Steve Burt series of thriller and suspense crime fiction at its very best.
The world of warfare is changing, and a new weapons delivery system developed secretly in the UK is targeted by an international terrorist gang who set out to steal it on instructions from “The Voice”. “The Voice” is a mysterious mastermind who uses an electronic device to disguise his voice and keep his identity hidden.
Sometimes it isn’t just good police work that catches criminals. Sometimes you just have to watch them. This is the strategy DCI Steve Burt uses when presented with two different and equally baffling cases.
De boeken van bestsellerauteur Steve Berry worden alom geprezen vanwege hun rijkdom aan historische details en de grondige research. Zijn thrillers verschijnen in veertig talen.
De grootste kunstroof in de geschiedenis…
Sam Holland heeft altijd al een fascinatie voor de kwaadaardige kant van de mens gehad. Ze studeerde psychologie op de universiteit en noemt zichzelf een onvervalste ‘serial killer nerd’. Haar fascinatie voor moordenaars en misdadigers resulteerde in haar debuutthriller De echoman.
Jessica Ambrose is op de vlucht. Ze wordt verdacht van het in brand steken van haar woning, waarbij haar echtgenoot is omgekomen en haar dochtertje zwaargewond raakte. Haar enige hoop is de gewetenloze rechercheur Nate Griffin, die ervan overtuigd is dat ze onschuldig is. Samen proberen ze de ware toedracht van de zaak te achterhalen.
Johanna Mo groeide op in Kalmar, een van de oudste steden van Zweden, die met een brug verbonden is met het eiland Öland. De afgelopen jaren werkte ze als freelanceredacteur, vertaler en boekrecensent. De Eilandmoordenreeks met rechercheur Hanna Duncker in de hoofdrol zorgde voor haar internationale doorbraak.
Toen Hanna Duncker negentien jaar oud was, werd haar vader veroordeeld voor moord. De schaamte en verwarring zorgden ervoor dat ze van het eiland Öland wegvluchtte en ergens anders een nieuw leven opbouwde. Pas zestien jaar later, na het overlijden van haar vader, keert ze terug naar haar geboortedorp, om aan het werk te gaan als rechercheur bij de politie van Kalmar, aan de andere kant van de zeestraat.
Als Jenny thuiskomt op het Zweedse eiland Öland treft ze een leeg huis aan; haar man Thomas en hun veertien maanden oude zoontje Hugo zijn nergens te bekennen. Moet ze zich zorgen maken of staan ze zo weer voor de deur?
Peter Mohlin en Peter Nyström groeiden samen op in een klein Zweeds plaatsje. Ze schreven hun eerste verhaal toen ze tien jaar oud waren. Na succesvolle carrières als scenarioschrijvers en regisseurs voor theater en film besloten ze de draad weer op te pakken en samen hun eerste thriller te schrijven.
Bejubeld Zweeds vakmanschap met een internationale twist. Winnaar van de Max Bronzen Vleermuis voor beste thrillerdebuut én de prestigieuze Zweedse Crimetime Award.
Christina Courtenay writes historical romance, time slip and time travel stories, and lives in Herefordshire (near the Welsh border) in the UK. Although born in England, she has a Swedish mother and was brought up in Sweden – hence her abiding interest in the Vikings. Christina is a former chairman of the UK’s Romantic Novelists’ Association and has won several awards, including the RoNA for Best Historical Romantic Novel twice with Highland Storms (2012) and The Gilded Fan (2014). The Runes of Destiny (time travel published by Headline 10th December 2020) is her latest novel. Christina is a keen amateur genealogist and loves history and archaeology (the armchair variety).
Born centuries apart. Bound by a love that defied time.
Rhys Dylan was born and grew up in west Wales, went away to university in London, but came back to live and work in his country of birth. Along the way he indulged his imagination by writing books for children and adults under various pennames and in a variety of genres.
You can bury the bodies, but you can’t hide the truth.
The Magic of Wor(l)ds 