“If you like psychological detective stories with a touch of humour and romance, you will love Sam Smith.”
An audio book of Sam’s Song, narrated by Suzan Lynn Lorraine, is now available from Amazon, Audible and iTunes.
Love Hurts. For Derwena de Caro, songstress, female icon, teenage dream, success brought drugs, alcohol and a philandering boyfriend. It also brought wealth, fame and a stalker, … fame and a stalker, or so she claimed. And that’s where I came in, to investigate the identity of the stalker, little realising that the trail would lead to murder and a scandal that would make the newspaper headlines for months on end.
Love Hurts. For me, Samantha Smith, Enquiry Agent, love arrived at the end of a fist. First, I had to contend with an alcoholic mother, who took her frustrations out on me throughout my childhood, then my husband, Dan, who regarded domestic violence as an integral part of marriage. But I survived. I obtained a divorce, kept my sense of humour and retained an air of optimism. I established my business and gained the respect of my peers. However, I was not prepared for Dan when he re-entered my life, or for the affection showered on me by Dr Alan Storey, a compassionate and rather handsome psychologist.
Sam’s Song. This is the story of a week that changed my life forever.
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I started reading this series with several later books, but I decided I wanted to go back to the beginning. I’m really glad I did because Sam’s Song, the first in the series, does a fantastic job of establishing the character of Sam. I knew from the later books that she’d been an abused child and an abused wife, and this book did an amazing job of portraying what that does to a person. When she cringed before her ex-husband, I wanted to yell at her to kick him in the family jewels, but I knew that would not be the reaction of someone who’d been beaten down most of her life. Her reaction was real and to be expected. Now that’s not to say that she’s a mouse either. She has been making her way out of victimhood and becoming stronger every day, and that’s even more clear by the end of the book.
I also thought the other characters in the book were well drawn. Sweets is great, as are his mostly bad jokes, and Alan is a rare find. But the characters of Derwena, Woody, Milton, and the ever-present and silent Tim are also great. As is Marlowe—we can’t forget Marlowe!
OK, you can probably tell that good characters are a must for me to like a book, but I also like a good story. Sam’s Song also has that with a murder, danger, and action. That’s all a must in a good private eye story, but it’s the characters that make the Sam Smith books really stand out.
Sam is the main detective of the story and she has been through a lot. Her childhood and her ex were terrible and she has got through them.
The story shows Sam as both strong and vulnerable as she solves her case.
The crime which she is trying to solve is a good thriller and it makes it easy reading as Sam goes through it.
The entire Sam Smith Mystery Series is terrific. Despite a brutal childhood and first marriage, Sam emerges as a private investigator who is sincerely interested in helping others. Along the way meets many memorable characters and some, as injured as she, are better for it. Additionally she meets a man whom she cannot believe to be true, but he is, and he manages to help her overcome her brutal early years and her insecurities and fears.
The story is told in the first person, by Sam herself, and the writing was straight to the point and succinct. I soon came to the conclusion I was reading a book by a very professional writer. So much so, I went back to Amazon to look who wrote it and do I know her. The answer was I didn’t, I’d never come across Hannah Howe before, and when I saw the book had a massive 333 reviews, I wasn’t the least bit surprised.
Being such a prolific reader, another thing I really liked about it was that it wasn’t big. My kindle told me it would take just over three hours to complete, and Amazon says 260 pages. That’s a perfect size for me.
Sam, is a flawed character, right away we get into her terrible marriage, and her terribl upbringing. She hides behind her long hair at times and is the first to admit she has issues. In her professional life things are very different. She may have offices in a seedy part of town but she is very good at what she does.
A friend in the local police department is a good asset, and Hannah Howe is great with describing every character physicality. You can just about ‘see’ what they look like. It enhances the story, and many of the other characters have some kind of quirk that makes them appear very real.
The storyline was exciting, tense, and dangerous in every way. Sam works her case and within a short time gets it resolved in a satisfactory manner.Hannah Howe
A well-designed crime thriller with easy wit and romance elements thrown in for good measure. The main character, Sam, is edgy and flawed and thoroughly engaging, with the story told from her perspective. The author deals with the gritty subject of domestic abuse with Sam’s violent ex-partner rather well, giving Sam enough frailty and strength of character for you to be rooting for her as she deals with her messy past.
Highly recommended!
There is a lot about the realities of spousal abuse and trying to deal with it which seems to overpower the storyline, at least in my opinion. I would not read other books in this series.
Crazy, Fun and Entertaining…
Sam is a Private Detective with a lot of baggage. Others have done well to describe the storyline so I want to focus on content and quality. For me, this was a solid five star read. The character development is amazing and by the end of the first chapter the reader has a pretty good idea of just how messed up Sam’s life really is. Add in the constant drama of self-indulgent, sometimes crazy supporting characters that make it difficult to discern fact from fiction, bad guys that you instantly dislike and an ex-husband that needs a good throat punch and you have a novel that you just can’t help but enjoy.
The book is professionally edited with few if any errors, the plot is suspenseful and the overall story is truly engaging. Sam’s Song has it all – suspense, drama and hope. Throughout the novel the author navigates the reader through a suspenseful investigation while experiencing a rollercoaster ride of humor, frustration, anger and love. For me, the characters made the plot realistic… each character had flaws, which made their story even more genuine and enjoyable. Even lovable, caring Dr. Storey had some baggage he was struggling to overcome. I would definitely recommend it to others and look forward to reading the next book in this series.
Fabulous book! I love Sam, she had me laughing out loud many times. The writing is spectacular. Every chapter propels the story forward. I can’t say enough good things about this series. It’s awesome, just try it!
This story is about a woman who has become a private eye after she has divorced her abusive husband. I cheered for her every time she took a step towards building her new life. My description may sound depressing, but the mystery is actually very inspiring.
Sam’s Song is a mystery written in the style of a British, or in this case Welsh, mystery. The characters are rather bizarre with all their idiosyncrasies. It was a fun story and held my interest for the first two-thirds of the book. Something happened at that point and the author seemed to start jumping from one thing to another. The storyline is familiar and the ending abrupt. It’s OK, but I didn’t find it fascinating or even particularly hard to put down.
In Sam’s Song, I watched Sam’s story unfold about her reasons for becoming a private investigator and the insecurities she holds onto even though she wants to be a strong, independent woman. For the most part, the pacing of the story was really balanced with only a couple of times where Sam’s internal musings became redundant, but this also reinforces her inner turmoil. Sam navigates through some intense scenes, yet I was really happy to see everything worked out well for her and it’ll be interesting to see how Sam’s future improves with better people in her life.