Warm hugs

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 January 2024

'A total joy from start to finish I love a good murder mystery

Felt like I was walking in and around Shaftesbury perfect backdrop

Looking forward to the next in the series!'

What a lovely 5* review for Field Murder!

Until I became a published author I didn't appreciate the importance of book ratings and reviews.

For many years we sold antiques on the Bay of E, and checking the feedback was my first job of the day. It was a vital part of the business, because the antiques business works on trust. If you sell an item to a fellow antiques dealer online and it turns out to have been stolen, or crucial damage has not been clearly photographed, or the material is not as described, then you immediately refund with many apologies and make sure you don't make those mistakes again. Anyone who earns a reputation for such practices soon runs out of people to deal with.

But books are subjective. I am a member of a book club where we bring the books we have read since the last meeting, and I don't think we have ever agreed 100% on liking or disliking a book, and there are only five of us! It doesn't mean the book is 'bad', it just means one or two people don't find the subject interesting, or maybe one character annoys them, or there could be something about the physical layout of the book which puts them off even picking it up. Recently I took a fantastic story by an author I love and whose books usually go down very well with the group, but because the next person who read it found one editorial mistake they rubbished it, described the plot as unlikely, and no one else wanted to read it. We all agree life is too short to read something you are not enjoying, although sometimes it is worth persisting with something which starts slowly because the magic might start one hundred pages in. I am reading a book at the moment which gripped me from the first sentence, and I don't want it to end. I know I will be reading those last precious pages slowly to make it last for as long as I can.

When I read reviews I often go straight to the 1* or 2* reviews before the 4* and 5* because you can often tell a lot about the person who has written them, more so than about the book! Low ratings without the explanation also reveal a lot about that person and tend not to be a reflection of the book.

Now that my own books are published I can see how sales are affected by reviews, but more importantly every time someone tells other people one of my books is worth reading it is like having a lovely warm hug. Thank you everyone who has taken the time to leave a review for everyone to see - hugs back to you!