The Crime Warp

For weeks now fans of Crime Fiction all over the world have been voting for their favourite UK Crime book of 2014 in ... The Crime Warp New Years Honours Award. Now voting has closed and The Crime Warp team are pleased to announce that The Crime Warp New Years Honours Award for best UK Crime Book 2014 goes to...

As a very chuffed, slightly smug and decidedly honoured Peter May Super Fan, I am proud to Launch The Chessmen Selfie Competition with the prize of  a HB copy of  Hebrides  to a winner chosen at random... and straight from the publishers a copy of Peter's newest book  Runaway   (release date 15th january 2015) The aim is to make the longest and most far reaching selfie  Chessmen  Chain  possible... so come on all of you who have read one or more of the trilogy get Selfieing To Enter:  1/ email a Selfie photo of yourself and a copy of  The Chessmen  or one of the other books in The Lewis Trilogy     (kindle readers use the kindle title or cover page in your photo)   to:   thecrimewarpblog@yahoo.co.uk 2/ Write Chessmen Chain  in the subject column 3/ Provide your name and where you live 4/ Don't forget to attach your Chessmen Selfie 5/Closing Date:  Midnight February 1st 2...

kindle £6.99 HB £9 In this, the 19th Harry Bosch book Connelly writes a tight plot with a huge sentimental nod to Bosch cases past catching the essence of Harry Bosch as he’s evolved –  In many ways (for me anyway) The Burning Room is reminiscent of John Harvey’s final Charlie Resnick book Darkness Darkness – Relax though I don’t think this is the final Harry Bosch book!

The Crime Warp New Years Award Countdown begins! Last Chance to Vote... Vote from our shortlist to enter the draw to win either a bundle of books or a trio of books.   Deadline 25th Dec 2014

I’ve been looking at what’s coming up in 2015 and there’s a superb crop of crime and thriller fiction waiting to hit the shelves. My pick this month are published on those crossover days of 31 December and 1 January – and as always, well worth looking out for.    Number one has to be Die Again by Tess Gerritsen . Rizzoli and Isles are back in the latest outing for the Detective and Pathologist duo, investigating a bizarre murder in Boston, where a man has been found butchered, gutted and hanging in his own home. The hope that this is just a single killing soon disappears when a second victim is found, and a link to previous killings emerges, indicating that the murderer has been at work for years and Boston has become his new hunting ground. The only way to catch the murderer is the temptation of a bait he can’t resist – a previous victim, the one that got away. Dark, horrifying and often harrowing, this is another top notch novel from Gerritsen. As always with...

The Crime Warp New Years Award Countdown begins! 5 days left to vote... Vote from our shortlist to enter the draw to win either a bundle of books or a trio of books.   Deadline 25th Dec 2014

Lisa Jackson & Nancy Bush These are A Quintet of Women Crime Fiction Writers who add a touch of romance, raw sex, raunchiness or  even the supernatural to their crime books. If you like your crime with a romantic flavour this quartet of books by a quintet of women is for you.

As a very chuffed, slightly smug and decidedly honoured Peter May Super Fan, I am proud to Launch The Chessmen Selfie Competition with the prize of  a HB copy of Hebrides to a winner chosen at random... and straight from the publishers a copy of Peter's newest book Runaway   (release date 15th january 2015) The aim is to make the longest and most far reaching selfie Chessmen  Chain  possible... so come on all of you who have read one or more of the trilogy get Selfieing

Book Review: The Zig Zag Girl by Elly Griffiths – Murder, Mystery, Mayhem … and a healthy dose of magic. Already a fan of Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway series I was keen to discover a whole new set of characters and I admit to being completely captivated by the Max Mephisto/Edgar Stephens duo which I hope will develop into a series of mystical magical crime books. Mephisto’s flamboyant, slightly jaded self-scrutinising character contrasts beautifully with Edgar Stephens’ slightly naive, easily influenced romantic character struggling against the ‘snobbery’ of his lower middle class background. The Zig Zag Girl is set in post WW11 Brighton amid a backdrop of variety performances , mysticism, magic.  When a women’s body is discovered cut into three parts, each housed in an individual wooden box and with the final part being addressed (using his army title) and delivered to Detective Edgar Stephens , Stephens is reminded of a magic trick invented by his friend and ex - army ...

The Gift by   Katia Lief (77p Kindle) Slushy, nostalgic and representative of the true meaning of christmas: family and love.   Karin Shaeffer takes herself off for a ride on her new Vespa, when a surprise theft makes her aware of an altogether darker, less benevolent  Christmas.

The Crime Warp New Years Award Countdown begins! 13 days left to vote... Vote from our shortlist to enter the draw to win either a bundle of books or a trio of books.   Deadline 25th Dec 2014

Dying For Christmas is  a totally enthralling read, written in two parts.    Throughout Dying For Christmas the tension ratchets up (even now I’m still trying to defrost the icy tingles that settled in my spine).   If you’re after a disturbing, creepy, well written story that keeps you guessing and challenges all your preconceptions then this is one for you.

Photo: Poppy Berry Today’s guest on The Crime Warp is A. N. Widdecombe, former politician, part time dancer and fiction writer.   I only recently found out that Ann was an author when her first foray into crime fiction, The Dancing Detective, was published on Amazon in July this year.   I thought Ann would be a perfect guest for The Crime Warp and here she is! So, welcome to The Crime Warp Ann.   My first questions are about writing in general - how important is writing and when did you start writing? What kind of things did you write about? I always wanted to write and finished what I grandly described as “my first book” when I was about nine or ten. In reality it was a couple of exercise books stuck together. I also wrote a play which friends and I used to act for the neighbours. By the time I was 18 I had produced a full-length novel but I am glad I did not try to get it published as it was set in Ancient Rome and I think the estate of Quo Va...