Category: Mysteries

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Topaz Eyes Takes a Turn!

This post is by Nancy Jardine.

A whole week has flown past in a flurry of sheer indulgence. I’ve been grandkid minding and last week we watched the series of Harry Potter films and completed a 1000 piece Harry Potter jigsaw. That was a real challenge since they returned to school on Monday 1st Nov., though I managed to finish it on Tues. 2nd. They are aged 10 and 7 years old so although they started well with the jigsaw, and helped with outlining the edges, it was not easy to maintain concentration for days on end when the binge film watching took priority.

Now what does that have to do with Topaz Eyes, you might well ask? Mainly that I forgot to promote that my Mystery Thriller Topaz Eyes has x3 days across Amazon when the #Kindle eBook version is #FREE. If you haven’t yet read it, there’s still time to grab a copy quickly!

Here’s what a reviewer said of it: “A velvety trip packed full of history, mystery and suspense. Nancy Jardine writes fluidly and skillfully to create a very unique novel that holds the attention until the very last page…”

You can use this link HERE to get your copy.
Enjoy!

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Rolling towards Bookweek Scotland 15th -21st November 2021!

This post is by Nancy Jardine.

Every year since 2012, when I was first published, I’ve been involved in some sort of activity during the festival time that is named Bookweek Scotland. It is generally held around the third week of November and has official participants all over Scotland. However, there are also many authors who do ‘something’ even if not on the official register or website. Last year was problematic due to Covid restrictions, and in all honesty this year isn’t really all that much better as some events won’t be happening as normal.

That said, back in April in a spirit of hope and optimism, I organised a booking for the Brechin and Angus Book Festival (north-east Scotland) being held from the 19th -21st of November. I’m delighted to say it’s currently still due to take place and fingers crossed that will still be the situation a few weeks from now. I’ll be doing book signings and selling of my novels alongside a number of other local authors and I’ll be giving an informal author talk/presentation on the Saturday afternoon, which I’m eagerly looking forward to. There may also be other impromptu opportunities for discussing my novels during the 3 day event. Many different activities, for adults and for children, have been arranged by the committee who have been beavering away for months to make the event a spectacular one.

Additionally, from today onwards (27th October 2021) my Ocelot Press novels will all be FREE across the Amazon network – BUT it will be different books on different weeks and for different lengths of time. Keep checking my Amazon author page to see which is available!


My FREE programme begins with the virtual reality based time travel adventure The Taexali Game. This novel is suitable for early teens through adult readers and has had many positive reviews for the ingenuity of the time travel mechanism. If you’ve not read it yet, please grab a copy HERE before the 30th Oct. and let me know how you find it. A review on Amazon of just a few sentences would be so welcome.

If you’d prefer a contemporary mystery thriller, you’ll find that Topaz Eyes – an ancestral based plot set in fabulous European locations – is FREE during the week beginning the 1st. Nov.

This will be followed by the contemporary corporate sabotage mystery Take Me Now (romantic comedy) during the week beginning 8th Nov.

Bookweek Scotland is the week 15th -21st Nov. and you’ll find the books in my Celtic Fervour Series will all be FREE on different days, on a rolling 2 day FREE duration for each of them and my FREE bonanza will finish on the 21st Nov. with Monogamy Twist, another contemporary mystery (romcom) that’s also genealogy based.

Confusing? Don’t worry. Just pop into my Amazon page every day and see what’s on offer!
Wishing you very Happy Reading!

p.s. And please remember that reviews are so important to all authors. Thank you!

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Book of the Month – Author Interview

This post is by Nancy Jardine

The Ocelot Press Book of the Month is The Calgary Chessman by Yvonne Marjot.

As part of the mini-celebratory blog tour, Yvonne is interviewed on Nancy Jardine’s blog today. Pop in and find out a bit about Yvonne and where the inspiration came from for the excellent Contemporary Mystery read The Calgary Chessman. She also has some great tips for writers…and readers.

Click HERE to access the post.

And HERE to go straight to a bargain ecopy of The Calgary Chessman

Enjoy your April reading!

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FREE eBook copies for Valentine’s Day!

This post is by Ocelot Press author Nancy Jardine

Hello from a presently very snowy part of Scotland!

Well, actually right now most of Scotland is under some degree of snow cover as the ‘Beast from The East Mark 2’ is blasting a large chunk of the United Kingdom with intermittent levels of snow-pelt.

It’s not unusual in my part of Aberdeenshire to get snow at this point close to mid-February, but  a snowy day does mean it’s a fine time to ‘coorie doon’ under a warm blanket or snuggle beside a roaring fire –  if you still have one – and read something entertaining and enjoyable.

Also, being the 10th of February 2021 as I write this, it’s getting closer to Valentine’s Day. It’s a time to pamper yourself, or someone you love, either by gifting them an eBook or buying one for yourself. It’s probably too late to get a paperback version posted, Covid 19 pandemic not helping with slow postal services, so gifting an eBook is possible.

To celebrate Valentine’s Day I am offering two of my Romantic Comedies #FREE during the next few days in eBook format across the Amazon network.

Take Me Now eBook is #FREE from Amazon on 11th, 12th and 13th of Feb. 2021.

Click HERE to get a Kindle copy

Monogamy Twist eBook is #FREE from Amazon on 12th, 13th and 14th Feb. 2021.

Click HERE to get a kindle copy.

If you’ve not read these ‘bit of fun’ reads yet,  then why not have go!

Enjoy and stay cosy!

Nancy Jardine

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BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH…

My first encounter with Shakespeare was at secondary school.  Then, as now, studying his works was a non-negotiable part of the English Literature curriculum.  Like most stroppy teenagers I found it very hard to understand the plays, and even harder to understand why anyone in their right mind would ever want to read them.  Faced with a few hundred pages of solid text written more than three centuries earlier, and in a near-incomprehensible style into the bargain, our collective response was “What on earth is the point of all this?”  (That, at any rate, was the gist of our collective response…)

What we stroppy teenagers had totally failed to appreciate, at least at first, is that the plays are not meant to be read in the same way that one would read novels.  They were written for performance.  It’s only when the text is translated into speech and action (on stage, screen or radio) that it really comes alive – and nowhere is this more apparent than in works which consist entirely of dialogue.

In an attempt to keep us interested, our English teacher allocated the main parts in the play to members of the class, and the key scenes were acted out at the front of the classroom.   Our efforts were hardly RSC standard, but they did serve as an early lesson in the basic principle of “show-don’t-tell”.  After this, Shakespeare did begin to make some kind of sense.

The play which we studied for O-Level (the equivalent of modern-day GCSE) was Julius Caesar.  As I struggled with the idiosyncracies of rhyming couplets and iambic pentameter, little did I realise that more than forty years later this very play would form the backdrop for what was to become my third novel.

TUCOA front

The Unkindest Cut of All is a murder mystery set in a theatre, during an amateur dramatic society’s production of Julius Caesar.  The novel’s title is adapted from a quotation from Mark Antony’s crowd-turning funeral speech after Caesar’s death.  The play is staged during the week which contains the Ides of March – March 15th, the date on which, according to tradition, Caesar was murdered.

Continue reading “BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH…”
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