Review & Giveaway: Hill House by Blair Howard

Hill House

by Blair Howard

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GENRE: Mystery

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BLURB:

For more than ten years, she lay beneath the floorboards of Hill House. For more than ten years, she waited. Who was she? Who put her there? Why? Harry Starke vows to find the answers to those questions, but to do so he must embark upon an investigation that will put him and those close to him in deadly danger, take him deep into the underground city, the Dark Web, murder, organized crime, prostitution, and human trafficking. One by one, he peels back the layers, and with each one, he sinks a little deeper into the morass, the seamy underbelly of a world few know of, and even fewer want to be a part of. Hill House has many doors. None of them lead anywhere but into darkness and despair.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My Review:

It 's a compelling novel, a great mystery to be solved with a solution for me unpredictable.

Hill House is an old three-story house on top of a rise in Chattanooga and is about to be demolished. Two guys try to steal some floor boards but they do a chilling discovery. Lieutenant Kate Gazzara calls immediately Harry. They found the skeletal remains of a young girl, she had been buried under some wooden floorboards. Harry will not give up until he has solved this case and give justice to this poor girl. He will to investigate in really obscure places and will not be easy.

Harry is a complex character, with great intelligence and much intuition but he is also very human. In his life he has seen many men, women, guys died in horrible circumstances but still continues to suffer, can not remain indifferent to the remains of a girl who could be his daughter.

It is the third in this series but really does work well as a stand-alone - I had not read the earlier books and still thoroughly enjoyed this one. But it so well written and now I have to find time to go back to the beginning and read this series from the start.

I must say that this book is excellent from the cover till the end. The plot is strong, complex and engaging, the pace is fast and flowing, the characters are well-developed and believable. Excellent choice to use Harry as narrator of the story.

I have no hesitation in recommending it highly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EXCERPT:

We joined the group at the hole in the floor. All of them, including Doc Sheddon, were on their knees, three on either side. The exposed, rough-sawn joists were heavy, at least four by twelves on twenty-inch centers. Sheesh. They built ‘em to last back in the day. Something was wedged in the gap between two of the joists. It was wrapped in clear polythene sheeting, though age had not treated it well. It had degraded to a point where it was all but impossible to see through the several layers that surrounded the... thing.

“Hello, Kate, Lonnie,” Sheddon said. “Hey, Harry. How’s it hangin’?” I had to smile. Doc had been greeting me the same way for years and, as far as I knew, I was the only one he greeted that way.

“I’m good, Doc. What do you have?”

“See for yourself,” he said, inching his way sideways on his knees to give me room to join him. The others made room for Kate and Lonnie, although he remained standing.

The polythene had been torn... no, it had been slit, and then pulled apart to reveal the skeletal remains of.... Christ! I wonder if we’ll ever know.

“She was young, Harry,” Sheddon said, staring thoughtfully down at the skull. “Sixteen to eighteen, I should say, from what I can see here, but young, for sure.”

“She?” I asked. “You sure?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Blair Howard is from a small town in England, near Stratford-upon-Avon, on the edge of the English Cotswolds. Until the middle of 2015, he wrote sweeping historical epics, and is the author of five historical novels. In July of 2015 he decided to try his hand at writing mystery novels, and so we have Harry Starke, a hard-boiled detective, "the original tough guy, with finely tuned senses and good instincts, as well as a rougher James Bond type of attitude." Harry Starke, the first in the series, was released in mid-September 2015. The second book, Two for the Money, was released October 19 the same year. Book 3 in the series, Hill House, was released in mid-December 2015, and there are more to come.

Blair is also Kentucky Colonel, an honor bestowed upon him in 2008 by the then Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Steven L. Beshear. Blair is a travel writer and professional photographer specializing in golf travel, vacation travel, and golf course photography. His travels take him throughout the United States, Europe and the Caribbean playing golf, writing about his experiences, and photographing the golf courses he visits. You can follow him on About.com here: http://abt.cm/1zoDpei.

Blair is the author of more than 40 books and more than 4,500 magazine, newspaper, and web articles. His work has appeared in many national and international publications, including Delta's Sky Magazine, PHOTOgraphic magazine, The Mail on Sunday, The Walking Magazine, Petersen's Hunting Magazine, The Boston Herald, The Detroit Free-Press, The Anchorage Times and many more.

Visit Blair's blog: http://bit.ly/1KA0CCR

Blair's Website is: http://bit.ly/1zBru1C

Follow Blair on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blairhowardbooks  

On Twitter https://twitter.com/bcwhoward

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Blair-Howard/e/B001KHQS30

Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/Hill-House-Harry-Starke-Novels-ebook/dp/B019E9WE9C/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE

Blair Howard will be awarding a $15 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway