Blogtour: Dead and Talking by Des Burkinshaw (A Porter and The Gliss Investigation)

Blogtour – Sunday 14th July

Hi all,

I have been busy lately haven’t I with all of these wonderful books that I have been able to read. 😀 – I love book-blogging, as I am doing two things that I love…reading and writing. I have come across a lot of great books since I joined forces with Rachels Random Resources and this one is bloody fantastic!

The book summary had me intrigued and I really couldn’t wait to get stuck into it. I loved the character interaction and the flow in which the story was written, made the book so easy to read. It was definately one of those books that are difficult to put down.

Big thanks, as always go to our host, Rachel – https://www.rachelsrandomresources.com
and to the author, Des Burkinshaw – www.desburkinshaw.com

Before I delve deeper into my review, lets have a little bit about the author.

About the Author

Des Burkinshaw

Born in the middle of the Summer of Love on a pre-fab council estate in Luton, teenage bitterness and a chance viewing of the Watergate movie, All the President’s Men, made him vow to become a journalist and bring down the government.

First he had to pay for his journalism course, so he became a civil servant. Literally the day he had enough for his fees, he packed it in.
Twelve years on from watching the film, he was a journalist at The Times and had a big hand in bringing down John Major’s government. News ambitions sated, he packed that in too.

Several years of working for Channel 4, ITV and the BBC as a senior producer saw him working across the world, but he eventually got fed up with asking bands how the new album was coming along, and packed it in.

He set up his own production company magnificent! in 2002 and simultaneously worked on the BBC Live Events team for another 10 years. But then six years of work on the Olympics came along, so he packed the BBC in. Again.

Des has jammed with many of his heroes from Paul McCartney to Brian Wilson, Queen to Nancy Sinatra. He has interviewed many A-listers, including David Bowie, Michael Caine, John Cleese and even Noam Chomsky.

He has directed/produced a fairly long list of people – Muse, Coldplay, Michael Jackson, Jay-Z, produced BBC3’s Glastonbury coverage for a couple of years, made films about leprosy in India, comedy shorts with Miranda Hart and Lenny Henry and played guitar for Chas and Dave at the Hackney Empire.

He has made 300+ short films for the Queen, MI5, the BBC, Sky, Discovery, EMI, the British Academy and dozens of authorities, charities and private sector firms. His most recent publication was a series of interviews with leading academics like Mary Beard on the state of the humanities which was published as a standalone magazine by the British Academy.

Fed up with travelling and determined to be a half-decent dad, he now works in London as often as he can. He runs the Young Directors Film School making movies with young people and is about to head up the Digital Film and Video MA at Tileyard. An avid musician and producer, he releases his third album as Romano Chorizo (he plays drums, bass, piano, guitar and really bad sax).

He hates to be pigeon-holed, thinks creativity is a learned state of mind and wishes they would teach people memory and learning techniques at school.

Dead & Talking is his first novel, the first in a series of Porter & The Gliss investigations.

About the Book

Dead & Talking

If a ghost appeared from nowhere, rescued you from suicide and then ordered you to start solving crimes to help dead people, what would you do? When it happens to Porter Norton, he just wants to put his head in his hands and have nothing to do with it. But now he has to atone for the family curse that has seen all the men die at their own hands for five generations. The Gliss, the sarcastic spirit that rescues him, says he can now and see and hear the Dead – if he’s close to their remains. Porter has to use his unwelcome gift to clear up past injustices. Or else. Forced to investigate the murder of a WW1 British Tommy executed for spying in 1917, he begins to suspect the case has links to his own family history. Along the way, Porter enlists the help of a bickering group of misfits, who struggle to stay involved – because only fools believe in the supernatural, don’t they? Full of pop culture references, banter and twists, the story takes us from present-day London and Flanders to scenes from World War 1. As Porter, The Gliss, and friends, get deeper into the explosive case, they discover their own lives and sanity are at stake. An evil from WW1 pursues them all.

Purchase Links:
US – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PLLNB4M
UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07PLLNB4M

My Review

How could a paranormal investigation two-man-team where one of the team is a ghost be so intriguing? Let me tell you, this book hooked me from the start! Fantastic character build ups and interactions helped to create a likeable, enjoyable, story and one that had my interest peaked.

Porter Norton is a man who is in a dark place when we meet him. A lot has happened in his life, which leads him to wanting to take his own life. This doesn’t go as planned, and he finds himself saved by The Gliss, a ghostly figure who tells him that he has to make up for all the ill-deeds that his family have done through the years. With this comes a story that is thrilling, mysterious, dark and funny. We read as together, this unusual team look into death of a British man in WW1. There was a fantastic dialogue between Porter and The Gliss, which created some humorous moments. The characters added were fantastic, each creating differing levels of like and dislike from the reader.

As the case unravelled, the characters were taken on a journey as secrets and tortured memories are disclosed. Porter struggles to deal with what he is discovering about his families traumatic history, and I read greedily as I raced eagerly towards the dramatic conclusions.

This book was amazing from start to finish and I really do hope that we read more from this fantastic crime duo!

Conclusion
Fantastic book! Great read! I will be looking out for future books of this author and I hope we read more about Porter and The Gliss.

Rating – 5 out of 5

If you guys would like to read more reviews, please check out the other bloggers on this tour.

Giveaway to Win 3 x Signed Copies of Dead & Talking (Open INT)

*Terms and Conditions –Worldwide entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.