Blog Tour: Audiobook Review of Cut Short by BD Spargo
Today I am helping end the blog tour for Cut Short by BD Spargo. This is a debut novel crime thriller/police procedural and the second in the series is also available now!
Book Description:
Detectives can’t bury their mistakes, murderers can.
DCI Liam Doyle is haunted by the demons from his past and the challenges of the present: a broken marriage, a tarnished reputation, and a troubled young son who needs him. He’s newly moved out of south London – and out of his comfort zone.
When a murdered woman is found at a Lancashire beauty spot in his new patch. Doyle is tasked with finding her killer, along with his new detective sergeant, Anna Morgan.
As the investigation progresses, it becomes clear that things are not as they seem. A clever killer has created a complex web of deceit and is always one step ahead of Doyle … and the bodies are mounting up. Is the past the key to unlocking the present? When the stakes get higher, Doyle’s need to find the killer becomes personal and the detective is plunged into a desperate race against time. Will Doyle succeed before he has another dead body on his conscience?
Played out across the rugged Lancashire landscape, Cut Short is a gripping crime thriller layered with plot twists and sprinkled with humour. This fast-paced novel, the first in a series featuring DCI Liam Doyle, will have readers on the edge of their seats.
If you have enjoyed books by authors such as Ian Rankin, Stuart MacBride, JD Kirk and Alex Smith, you won’t want to miss Cut Short.
Cut Short
Series: DCI Liam Doyle #1
Author: BD Spargo
Narrator: Aubrey Parsons
Audio Published: February 6, 2026
Audiobook: 9 hours 43 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: March 8-14, 2026
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Jessica’s Review:
Cut Short is a gritty crime thriller/police procedural taking place ‘across the pond’ in Lancashire, England. I enjoyed this one and the fact that this is a debut novel is impressive! Cut Short takes place in present day with flashbacks to 1996 and 1999. Animal lovers be on the lookout for the deaths of two animals: I’ll first mention there is a death of a rabbit, which is just a minor two sentences. A larger warning in regards to beginning of the novel as we have a very brutal murder of a dog. It is necessary to the story and I was prepared for an animal death but wasn’t expecting what we got.
As this is the first novel in the series, we meet DCI Liam Doyle and he is just starting his job in a new location and what a start: a body! And things are just not what they seem. We also meet many more characters which a reader may or may not like. I like DS Anna Morgan and adore Pathologist Doctor Vedhika Gupta! Gupta is my favorite character! We get to know these characters along with Doyle and we get to see into his past and personal life, which is far from perfect. These characters all came off as ‘real’ to me.
As the case grows and more is discovered; the reader goes along with Doyle to work to solve the case. The story speeds up and I was really wanting to know how it was going to end! Cut Short is a fast paced novel that you don’t really want to put down and stop listening. The narrator Aubrey Parsons did a great job! He became DCI Doyle for me.
In addition to the grittiness of the story, we also get some humor in the novel to lighten the mood at times. I was surprised to find myself laughing at times with the humor. Now remember, this is a British author, so we have British humor!
Fortunately, the second in the series is available now in kindle and paperback. I’m optimistic that the second will be available on audio soon!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Audible US
Amazon UK
Audible UK
About the Author:
Fast approaching fifty; without enough money for a sports car, BD Spargo decided to express his mid-life crises by turning to crime …
Thankfully for pretty much everyone this meant writing crime fiction rather than anything more nefarious. Originally from London, he spent his early career working in television and theatre including on the Ruth Rendall Mysteries broadcast on ITV.
A life changing accident necessitated retraining and a change of direction going on to work in mental health services. This culminated in ten years managing a groundbreaking forensic psychiatric service. He now lives in Lancashire with his family and is getting acclimatised to the rain.
Contact BD:
Website
Bluesky
X @BDSpargo
Instagram @BDSpargo
See the whole blog tour:
Blog Tour: A Review of The Heart-Shaped Box by Lucy Kaufman
Today I am helping end the Blog Tour for The Heart-Shaped Box by Lucy Kaufman! I am sharing my review for this novella. If you are lucky enough to be in the UK, there is a giveaway going on! This is a page-turning psychological thriller novella about infatuation, revenge and the lengths we will go to for love.
Novella Description:
Victorian, rural Sussex. When headstrong daughter of a rector, Constance Timothy, receives a flurry of gifts in pretty little boxes from the charming, smouldering student doctor Smith Williams, her whole family anticipates a future betrothal.
Yet beneath the exquisite pastel lids and satin bows lie macabre secrets that entice Constance into a private world of obsession and darkness, where morality becomes blurred, loyalties are tested and unthinkable acts are possible.
One secret will shake the genteel world she knows to the core…
The first book of The Carousel of Curiosities series, this haunting novella is perfect for readers of Sarah Waters, Laura Purcell, and Angela Carter.
The Heart-Shaped Box
Series: Carousel of Curiosities #1
Author: Lucy Kaufman
Published: February 3, 2026
Kindle: 87 pages
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: January 19-29, 2026
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Jessica’s Review:
The Heart-Shaped Box is a short novella, just 87 pages, but it pulls you in! At first you think it’s going to have a little romance with Constance receiving gifts from her suitor Smith Williams, but then what the gifts are… The reader realizes that this novella is in fact, is going down a dark path!
The more gifts Constance receives the further into the macabre Constance goes, and she is seemingly enjoying it. As the novella progresses, there are a few unexpected twists and then the reader was left hanging: I need the second in this series as I need to know what happens! Ms. Kaufman, how many novellas will be in this series? When will novella two be released?
In addition to a potential romance this novella has topics that readers who enjoy ‘darker’ novellas will enjoy: Jealousy, the macabre, obsession, and more!
I received a copy to read and review as a part of the blog tour. I enjoyed reading this one! I just wish I had been able to sit down and read it quicker than I did.
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
UK Giveaway
If you live in the UK you can enter this giveaway: Subscribe to Lucy Kaufman’s newsletter at www.sepiaink.co.uk by 15th February 2026 (UK home address only) to win a small heart-shaped box of chocolates!
About the Author:
Lucy Kaufman is an award-winning author, playwright, audio dramatist and poet. 40 of her plays have been performed professionally around the UK and Australia, to critical acclaim. She has lectured in Playwriting and Screenwriting for Pen to Print and Canterbury Christ Church University and is a mentor at The Writing Coach. Originally from London, she now lives by the sea with her husband, sons, dogs and cats.
Contact Lucy:
Instagram: @kaufmanlucy
Instagram: @sepiainkpublishing
Sepia Ink Website
Blog Tour: The Colletta Cassettes by Bruno Noble: A Guest Post About Cars!
Today I am taking part in the blog tour for The Colletta Cassettes by Bruno Noble. And today Bruno is sharing about the Alfa Romeo versus the Lancia. **And if you are lucky enough to live in the UK, there is a giveaway going on to win some books, including The Colletta Cassettes!
The Colletta Cassettes is available now!
Book Description:
Liguria, Italy. Summer 1978.
The Kentish family are on holiday in idyllic medieval village of Colletta. Sixteen-year-old Sebastian is smitten with Rosetta, the hotel cleaner and waitress, much to his snobbish mother’s dismay, while his younger brother and their fellow hotel guests are obsessed by the World Cup, hosted by the murderous military junta in Argentina.
The boys’ father, Peter Kentish, has very different motivations for the trip. An investigative journalist, he spends much of his time interviewing a mysterious American, a disillusioned ex-CIA agent.
As Kentish uncovers the shocking extent of Operation Gladio, he delves into some of Italy’s darkest secrets. Darker still is the involvement of the USA. Those complicit will do anything to ensure that the truth is buried. For good.
Buy Your Copy Here:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Alfa Romeo versus Lancia
By Bruno Noble
I was playing football in the street with my friends when my father pulled up in a brand new white Alfetta. He let the engine idle as we gathered around it and depressed the accelerator to transform the gurgle into a growl and then into a throaty roar. How he grinned! I grew to love the sound. It would advertise my father’s return home from work or a night out. It was distinguishable from the engine noise of every other car in the street. Today one can type ‘Alfa Romeo engine sound’ in YouTube and listen to countless examples of the Alfetta’s now legendary ‘twin cam’ engine. There aren’t many YouTube videos of the noise of other mainstream automotive manufacturers’ cars.
During the 70s, however, Alfa Romeo and other Italian car manufacturers sourced low quality steel from the Soviet Union, and my father’s Alfetta became so rusty so quickly that it was replaced within two years with a red one. He passed the red Alfetta on to me, and I drove it into my mid-20s until I sold it for 10p to an Alfa enthusiast who wanted it for the Pininfarina-signed steering wheel – by that time only one door opened, only one window worked and the boot wouldn’t lock. But it still drove beautifully, which is why Alfistas – Alfa Romeo lovers – adored the cars: because the engines and the driving experience were so good. The Alfetta’s transaxle layout – with the engine at the front and the gearbox at the rear – helped achieve a perfect 50:50 weight distribution, giving the car excellent road-handling characteristics. The twin-cam engines just ‘sang’: they provided the soundtrack to many young lives in the 70s and 80s. And to many films of the time as well.
The Alfetta was a sports saloon: it was the first family car on the market that drove like a sports car. The police drove them. Prime Minister Aldo Moro’s bodyguards drove them. They were shot dead by his kidnappers in a white one on 16 March 1978, the virginal whiteness of the car in the press photographs contrasting ironically and horribly with the policeman’s uniforms and the body in the street.
The other car mentioned in The Colletta Cassettes is a Lancia. I don’t specify which type of Lancia, but I had in mind the Fulvia, not the sleek Coupé but the boxy Berlina. A true Alfista speaks the word Lancia through gritted teeth. The rivalry between Alfa Romeo and Lancia in the 70s and 80s was intense, with both competing in touring car racing and in rallying, where Lancia dominated. In terms of road car rivalry, Lancias were considered more luxurious and Alfa Romeos more sporty.
At the time when The Colletta Cassettes is set – 1978 – Alfistas could turn their noses up at Lancias, saying that they were Fiats in disguise, as Fiat had acquired Lancia in 1969. (Fiat would go on to acquire Alfa Romeo in 1986.) As I recall it, Italians were either pro-Alfas or pro-Lancias – it was the automotive equivalent of preferring either the Rolling Stones or the Beatles.
For me, there was only one make of car that Peter Kentish, our intrepid journalist and reporter en route in Italy to uncover the C.I.A.’s dirty deeds in Italian politics, could be driving. And only one make of car that the Mafia would be driving.
About the Author:
Bruno Noble study Philosophy and French literature at Southampton University. A circuitous route selling advertising space in financial magazines took him to the City where, amongst other things, he wrote markets and investment reports while impatient to write a novel. His first, ‘A Thing of the Moment’, was published by Unbound in 2018, and his second, ‘The Colletta Cassettes’, was published by Indie Novella in 2022 before being re-published by Inkspot Publishing in 2025.
Having enjoyed working collaboratively with other writers when he joined the Collier Street Fiction Group in 2021, Bruno started a part-time (two-year) Creative Writing M.A. at Birkbeck University in 2024.
UK GIVEAWAY
Win 3 x Stacks of 5 Inkspot Publishing books
Enter Here:
https://gleam.io/yhGHQ/win-3-x-stacks-of-5-inkspot-publishing-books-uk-only
*Terms and Conditions –UK entries welcome. Please enter using the Gleam box below. The winner will be selected at random via Gleam 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.
Contact Bruno’s Publisher:
Instagram: @inkspotpub