Dangerous Games by Gillian Godden

Val Penny ♦ August 24, 2020 ♦ Leave a comment

It is a pleasure to be involved with the launch of the novel, Dangerous Games run by Love Book Tours @lovebooksgroup #lovebookstours for one of my favourite authors, Gillian Godden,@GGodden. Enjoy the tour!

The Blurb

‘A gritty powerful story. A must read for fans of gangland crime.’

Kerry Kaya, Author

Annette Lambrianu is young, blonde, beautiful and bored. Life on the family vineyard with her husband and young son, Antonias, is not what she had expected. Yearning for excitement, she flees to London with her lover and the boy, only to find out the streets are not paved with gold.

Since being taken from his home by his mother in the middle of the night, fighting for survival is all Antonias Lambrianu has ever known. He soon learns that money is power and sets his sights on what he sees as a better future. When his past finally catches up with him, it unexpectedly opens up new opportunities, but new threats come hand-in-hand with them.

Antonias is determined that he will emerge triumphant, but there’s jeopardy everywhere and the stakes are high. Everyone, it seems, is playing dangerous games … Antonias most of all.

This is a tale of selfishness, cruelty, love and betrayal. But who will be the ultimate winner?

Dangerous Games is the origin story of gangster Tony Lambrianu. Book two in the series, Nasty Business, will be published in July 2019, and Francesca – available now – covers the next stage of his journey.

The Excerpt

Come on, Antonias, get up. Shush now, quickly.’ The bedroom was in darkness, only the moonlight shining through the blinds at the windows giving a little light to see by. Antonias yawned and rubbed his eyes.

‘Mummy, where are we going?’ The little boy, just five years old, looked up at his mother as she pulled back the bedclothes and began manoeuvring him out of his bed.

‘Shush, Antonias, we’re going to play a little game of hide and seek on Grandma and Granddad. Get up, now. Let’s be as quiet as mice.’

Little Antonias was still half asleep, and bleary eyed. It was the middle of the night. He stood while his mother dressed him in a T-shirt and trousers.

Annette was already dressed. She was being as quiet as she could, so she didn’t disturb the rest of the household, but even her breathing seemed to make a noise, and her heart was pounding in her ears.

Annette would be glad to see the back of this place. When she had met Marias on holiday, she had thought this was going to be la dolce vita, the sweet life. All she had got was life on a boring grape farm, owned by his parents.

She was nervous, but tried to hide it; she didn’t want to frighten her beautiful little boy. His mop of hair – golden, like her own – was a rarity, considering he was half-Italian, although his blue eyes were like his father’s – his, and that bitch, Miriam’s.

Smiling and hugging him close to her, Annette made it all seem like a little secret game they were going to play.

Antonias was still rubbing his eyes, and smiling and giggling with his mummy. Annette picked up the holdall containing the money she had taken from the safe. Miriam, her mother-in-law, had given her a cheque, but it wasn’t enough; she needed more if she was going to leave this place and start again.

Annette took Antonias’s hand and crept down the dark staircase, towards the front door. She opened it carefully, then turned and took one last look up the staircase and around the hallway, before stepping out into the darkness of the vineyard.

She winked at Antonias and put her finger to her lips, to indicate to him to be quiet. Slowly, they started to walk the long path that led up to the main road.

Annette had to carry Antonias half of the way. Although he was excited by the game, he was tired, and the night air made him shiver.

As Annette got closer to the main road, she looked around frantically. She was nearly out of breath. What with the holdall and little Antonias to carry, she was exhausted.

She looked around again and finally spotted the truck. It was parked in a lay-by, with its headlights on low beam. Carlos got out of the truck and smiled at her, and then he saw Antonias and the smile faded.

The Author

My name is Gillian Godden an Indie author and a full-time NHS Keyworker at a local inner-city medical centre in East Hull, East Yorkshire, England. My patients come from all sectors of society and no two days are ever the same. My duty of care is to my patients and during the recent pandemic, a lot of frightened and lonely people have relied upon us at the medical centre to offer guidance and support. This year is the 72nd anniversary of the NHS and we do everything we can to support outpatients when they need us.

When I come home I like to wind down and writing is my escape from the mental stresses of my day. My job is not a 9 to 5 job and I work to support my patients when they need me so my days can be long.

The medical team at the surgery work together to support all our patients during their time of worry and need.

On a more personal note, I grew up in a large family and am the youngest of 7 siblings. Over the years we have lost touch as life moves on. I lived in London for over 30 years and during this time I worked in various London stripper pubs and venues. I have a grown-up son who now lives and works in London as a haematology lab technician. He has been working on the COVID 19 testing and this has been a worrying time for us as a family.

Once he left for University 5 years ago I had more time on my hands I was encouraged to write a short story by a local library book competition. First prize was a P&O cruise and 2nd prize was £50, I lost to a pigeon fancier and an addicted crocheter.

My NHS colleagues supported my writing and encouraged me to continue to write, however being a little green and naive I went with a Vanity publisher, much to my cost. This experience did give me a platform to showcase my first book Francesca on Amazon and in the online book clubs. I was totally overwhelmed by the response and people messaged me via social media wanting to know more about the characters and how Tony Lambrianu grew up and became so successful in the London Gangland crime world.

To answer their questions I went backwards in time and wrote Dangerous games and Nasty business. These also were successfully received by my now increasing readership, so in order to complete the series, I wrote Dirty Dealings.

My readers are still interested in the characters throughout my books and asked for more information on the lives of Julie and Ralph Gold, so as I do everything I can to support my patients in my NHS job I wanted to do the same for my readers, so I am now writing Gold, the story of Julie and Ralph. Although this is standalone book readers who have read all my other books will soon be able to find out more about Julie and Ralphs life and how they met

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