Today dear readers I am on the blog tour for Gin Palace (Published 16th February 2023) By Tracy Whitwell. A big thank you to the publishers Pan Macmillan for sending me a copy to read and review, always appreciated. Also to the wonderful Anne for the invite to take part in the tour, always a pleasure to work with.
Gin Palace
Ever since Tanz discovered she could speak with the dead, life has become a whole lot more interesting. But after putting herself in grave danger helping to solve a grisly murder, she’s now determined to ignore the voices and put all that nasty business behind her.
So when she’s offered another acting gig in her hometown of Newcastle, it feels like a perfect opportunity to spend some time with family and have a laugh with old friends.
But the dead won’t stay quiet for long. Soon Tanz is being drawn back into their world, and this time, the danger is much closer to home…
About The Author
Tracy Whitwell was born, brought up and educated in the north-east of England. She wrote plays and short stories from an early age, then in the nineties moved to London where she became a busy actress on stage and screen.
After having her son, she wound down the acting to concentrate on writing full time. Many projects followed until she finally found the courage to write her first novel – The Accidental Medium, a work of fiction based on a whole heap of crazy truth and now a trilogy, with more to come.
Today, Tracy lives in north London with her son, surrounded by a neverending supply of Aperol Spritzes and a coven of friends as spooky as she is. Tracy is nothing like her lead character Tanz. (This is a lie.)
My Review
The narrative follows Tanz shorty after the events of the first book, The Accidental Medium as she learns to live with her unusual gift of talking to the dead. Tanz is trying to put the horrific ordeal behind her, for months she has tried hard to be a normal human, with little success. She hides away in her bed with her cat Inka and has cut herself off from all the spooky stuff. After what happened in The Accidental Medium she can’t handle it anymore as she has started having nightmares. But when her agent, Bill calls with the offer of an acting gig in her home town of Newcastle, Tanz takes the opportunity to spend time with her best friend Milo and see her parents. However the dead have other plans for her and before she knows it, Tanz is pulled back into the underworld where a vicious spirt taunts her. What happened at the Black Gate and why does a little boy with a dirty face make her feel uneasy?
I was fascinated by this story, I greedily devoured each page, hungry for more. Whitwell’s writing style flows off the page beautifully. She writes characters such as Tanz who are relatable and have a wicked sense of humour. The reader finds Tanz stuck in a bit of a rut. She is desperate for money but is fed up of taking bad acting jobs. As you follow her to her new job on a show called Pendle Investigates where she plays a common prostitute, she interacts with a variety of characters such as Caroline May, an actress in her 60s who carries an air of arrogance about her. But it’s Tanz’s way with people that pulls you in, she’s blunt, honest and caring. She makes you laugh and you immediately want to be her friend. The reader watches Tanz’s relationships grow and flourish, it’s a joy to read as you find yourself smiling at her many charming interactions.
Tanz as a character was an absolute riot to follow. She has many comic moments and is an extremely likeable character but she also has a vulnerability about her. Lately she has been feeling bad about herself and is haunted my nightmares of a man with a scar on his neck coming to murder her. She can’t escape it and becomes determined to find out what secrets lie buried at the Black Gate. She gets a sense that Newcastle isn’t haunting her but rather she is haunting it by invading its past. She starts to hear and smell all manners of a past life and it excites her. Tanz knows that the past won’t stop pestering her until she has helped free whoever or whatever has chosen to haunt her.
I give Gin Palace By Tracy Whitwell a Five out of Five paw rating.
Highly addictive with a main character that keeps you laughing even when faced with ghosts. I could not get enough, I devoured this book and wanted more.
I haven’t had the pleasure of reading the first book but this book can be read as a stand-alone. I WILL be reading it dear reader, I have to, I am hooked!
Don’t forget to follow the rest of the blog tour, dates below, enjoy!
Links
Buy a copy
@WhitwellTracy
@panmacmillan
Hop hop wiggle wiggle
Bunny’s Pause 
Thanks for the blog tour support x