Today’s book review comes with an added extra. Whispering Stories is taking part in the blog tour for Bloody Scotland – The Scottish International Crime Writing Festival which this year will be held in Sterling between the 15th & 17th September. See more below.

One sister is a cop.
The other a con artist.
Both are suspects.

DI Tess Fox’s first murder scene has two big problems. One, the victim was thrown from the balcony of a flat locked from the inside. Two, Tess knows him.

But the biggest problem of all is Tess’s half-sister, Sarah. She has links to the deceased and has the skills and criminal background to mastermind a locked-room murder. But she’s a con-artist, not a killer.

When two more bodies turn up, Tess now has three locked room mysteries to solve and even more reason to be suspicious of Sarah. Can she trust someone who breaks the law for a living, even if she is family?

Three Card Murder is a fabulous locked-door mystery novel that has you pondering how on earth crimes could be committed when there is no way that the murderer could escape without being seen – Or could they?

The book is the first in a new series featuring acting DI Tess Fox as she proves her worth to be the new DI as well as work out what is going on and how are people being killed behind locked doors. Not only that but she has her half-sister to watch out for, the sister that is a con artist and who she hasn’t seen for fourteen years.

The book had good pacing and the mystery of the killings was written superbly. DI Tess Fox is an amazing character. Perfectly flawed with an interesting background and family. The case was intriguing and kept you guessing most of the way through.

Three Card Murder is a riveting read. The interaction between the sisters was great to read about especially as they were both on the opposite sides of the law. The book does have you suspending reality at times and there were a few scenes that made me go – huh, especially the theories that are put forward for how the killer is disappearing. But overall, I enjoyed the book and read it in just a couple of days and I was kept entertained the whole way through.

J.L. Blackhurst is a pseudonym for Jenny Blackhurst who was born and grew up in Shropshire, where she still lives with her husband, two boys and two beagles. She has a Masters degree in Occupational Psychology and has worked in administration for the Fire Service and retail management before leaving to write full time.

She wrote her first book, How I Lost You after giving birth to her son in 2011 and since has written seven psychological thrillers, her first of which won her a silver Nielsen award and became a kindle number one bestseller in the UK and a Spiegel Bestselleren in Germany. She can solve a Rubix cube in three minutes.

One of the events at Bloody Scotland features the author of Three Card Murder Jenny Blackhurst (J.L. Blackhurst) plus authors Katy Watson and Sam Blake.

The event will be held at The Holy Trinity Church, Stirling on 16th August starting at 10.30am. Prices start from £7.00

Meet three authors who have cleverly crafted three classic, and seemingly impossible, mysteries for their characters to solve. Jenny Blackhurst’s exceptional Three Card Murder features three fiendish locked-room crimes in one book as two sisters, one a cop, one a con-artist, go head-to-head. In Katy Watson’s vintage murder tale, A Very Lively Murder, three actresses set out to catch a murderer before he or she can strike again. The Mystery of Four by Sam Blake features a vivid cast of characters and a classic mystery as murder strikes at the grand reopening of a restored country house.

To find out more visit – Bloody Scotland Locked Room Revival.