Blogiversary Giveaway: Take your pick from a selection of Crime/Thriller Books

You've heard the saying 'So Many Books, So Little Time' but sadly for me at the moment that is so true as looking at my current TBR piles it's made me realistically think about what I can actually read versus what I would like to read... I would like to read every single book but realistically it's just not possible!

So I've decided to run a couple of giveaways this week, as part of the blogiversary celebrations, offering someone the chance to win one of a selection of books that is either a duplicate (I already have proof copy or eBook) or has been received unsolicited from a publisher.  I've decided to split this into genres so today's books of choice are Crime or Thrillers.

The Write Stuff with... Ruth Ware

Today it's my pleasure to welcome Ruth Ware to the blog to talk about researching tarot cards for her latest book The Death of Mrs Westaway which is published this Thursday.

My new novel, The Death of Mrs Westaway, centres on a young woman, Harriet (better known as Hal) who sets out to defraud a strange family by claiming an inheritance that isn't hers. 

I knew when I created the character of Hal that I wanted her to be someone who was comfortable with deceiving others, and good at it, and so when it came to giving her a job, I decided that she needed a profession that would mesh with that, and give her the skills to pull off a con. Since the novel begins in the seaside resort town of Brighton, I decided to make Hal a tourist tarot reader, but a deliberately cynical one. One who does not believe in the power of the cards, and who bases her readings not on the cards her client chooses, but on her own reading of their character, and what she believes they want from the reading. 

I didn't know very much about tarot when I started writing, but one of the things I had not expected was how much fun I would have researching the cards and integrating them into Hal's readings and the plot. With that in mind, here are a few of my favourite cards... 

The Eight of Pentacles

Pentacles are the suit of the earth – sometimes called coins, they tend to represent money and wealth, as well as professional achievement and the world of work. What I love about this card is that many of the pentacles suit show fortune just appearing out of no-where, or lying about on the ground. This card reminds us of the importance of working at something. It shows a young man labouring over his task of carefully etching out eight pentacles. He's part way through his task with six completed pentacles hung up in front of him. He's deliberately ignoring the town full of people behind his back – he's totally concentrated on his creation. I feel like this card is a good metaphor for being a novelist, shutting yourself away to craft something out of nothing.