The Crime Warp

Again a wealth of great crime fiction for young Adults.  From Sci-Fi thrillers to current issues and, as usual, I am completely in thrall to the wonderful storylines and skill of the authors who produce such high quality fiction.

Detective Rick Morgan  after a serious injury on the job returns to work  in the homicide department in Franklin Nashville feeling like he has to prove himself.  When he is obliged to consult with Jenna Thompson, a secretive Forensic Artist on sabbatical from Baltimore Police force he finds himself attracted to her despite his distrust of her and therein lies the romance bit. Read on for the crime bit...

When Portland detective Joe Burgess rescues a young girl and her baby from a burning mosque in Portland Maine an investigation into arson develops into something far more complex as refugee Somali Muslims, a small community, Iron Angels Bikers, local gun and drug crime converge.

22 Dead Little Bodies (released 9th April 2015) is a novella set before Stuart's last book The Missing and The Dead and charts Logan McCrae's dissatisfaction with the new Scottish police force and the rivalry between the Major Investigation Team and the CID whilst desperately trying to find two missing children, placate two feuding neighbours, investigate the aftermath of a road rage incident and fend off DCI Roberta Steel's unreasonable demands... all in a day's work really!

HE'S WATCHING A gunman is stalking the wards of a local hospital. He's unidentified and dangerous, and has to be located. Urgently. Police Firearms Officer Aden McCarthy is tasked with tracking him down. Still troubled by the shooting of a schoolboy, Aden is determined to make amends by finding the gunman - before it's too late. SHE'S WAITING To psychologist Imogen, hospital should be a place of healing and safety - both for her, and her young niece who's been recently admitted. She's heard about the gunman, but he has little to do with her. Or has he? As time ticks down, no one knows who the gunman's next target will be. But he's there. Hiding in plain sight. Far closer than anyone thinks... This book starts at the end, which is quite a fresh approach, and something that I feel works well, because you want to read on to find out what has happened, (You don’t find out who the shooter is until the actual end of the novel). It starts wit...

I've missed the last two Thorne Books and was a bit worried that if I read Time of Death before I caught up with Thorne's life  I'd be at a disadvantage, however, rest assured that was not the case.  Billingham is such an intuitive and practised writer that Time of Death reads brilliantly as a stand alone and to be frank reading it served to give me a thirst to play 'catch up' pretty damn quickly; It's a good job I'm an insomniac!

Whilst searching for her friend, missing ex police officer, Mark Leech, DS Jane Bennett and her team discover the body of a young university student entombed in a dug out cave in Elmstead forest, with a camera installed for her killer to record her final moments of life.

Hello there – I’ve been reading less than usual because I’ve been so mad busy at work.   I’ve had to be quite choosy, so April’s trio is definitely the cream.    The Pocket Wife by Susan Crawford.   I think most of us have woken up at some point with a fuzzy head and struggled to remember exactly what happened the previous night.   Some details are sharp, others blurred and a few that are just a blank.   The protagonist of The Pocket Wife, Dana Catrell has the same problem when she wakes up one afternoon following a drunken session with a neighbour and friend Celia Steinhauser.   Dana remembers Celia showing her a photograph she took of Dana’s husband with another woman, but little else.   When Dana sees an ambulance outside Celia’s house and finds out she’s been murdered, her already fragile mind goes into overdrive.   You find that Dana has a history of mental illness and as she descends into another manic episode, there...

 A brilliant debut crime novel, set in Glasgow, with exciting, dynamic characters.  In Riven, A. J McCreanor gives us a police procedural with a huge moral dilemma - Is justice always served by the truth?  

I love the Elly Griffiths Dr Ruth Galloway, forensic archaelogy series and The Ghost Fields is no exception.  As well as the welcome return of  familiar characters; some crabby(DCINelson), some eccentric (Cathbad), some egotistical (Phil) and some down to earth (Ruth) what Elly deliver's is an excellent story backed up by impeccable research which she shares with the reader throughout the story in a non 'text book' way.  

  A Song of Shadows is beautifully written.  It meanders gracefully between the horrors of the past and the horrors of the present and still has time for the odd snippets of laugh out loud humour delivered by some of Connolly's larger than life characters eg The Fulci brothers or his guardian Angels, Loius and Angel

Last Resort is the 25th book in the Bob Skinner series and is as unputdownable as the first one was.  I believe in leading a jet setting life through my reading and in Last resort I got that for it takes us from Gullane in Scotland to L'Escala, Madrid and Barcelona and back to Edinburgh Perth and Glasgow with a wee stopover in the ski slopes of Andorra... not a bad round trip in anyone's book!

Women of the Dead is a fantastic study of extremes - from the bitter sweet to the creepily sordid, from the crazy to the heart wrenching, from the sad to the happy, full of hate, full of love... but always consistently and completely enthralling. A beautifully written novel that really gets into the psyche of the female vigilante who is serial killer, doting mother and daughter in law and loyal friend

A few ill-advised comments from an ex- James Bond and we’re up in arms in a debate about ‘racism’ and whether the country is ready for a black 007.  Ridiculous!   It shames me to say that it wasn’t very long ago that we all celebrated the election of the first black president of the USA, when actually what we should have been asking is, 'Why has it taken so long?'

I have followed the progress of James Carol (and Jefferson Winter) with eager enjoyment for the past year and am really pleased that he’s agreed to this interview (poor man doesn’t know what he’s letting himself in for!) James Carol’s character Jefferson Winter is extrovert, highly intelligent, instantly noticeable and gregarious.  When I first met his creator James Carol last year at Theakston's Crime Writing Festival, Harrogate I was immediately struck by the quiet calm that emanated from him.  I felt immediately relaxed and at ease  and then… I discovered what his day time job was and the reason for his calmness was clear.... read on to discover what James Carol does when he isn't writing!