The Crime Warp

Getting Ready for your summer holidays?  Bags packed? Books in suitcase? Kindle in hand luggage?.. then your nearly set... just time to have a quick peruse of The Crime Warp's Killer Summer Reads.  Here are just a few recommendations to while away boring car, train or plane journeys, to occupy your grey matter whilst relaxing at the pool or on the beach or as an aid to restful sleep after a hectic day sightseeing, entertaining the kids or shopping. 

As is the case every year, us lucky reader's get the chance to see our favourite crime writer's, critics, forensic experts and all, up close and very, very dangerous and 2015 at Theakston's Crime Writing festival was no exception.  So this year The Crime Warp decided to do our very own Honours awards for some of the lucky panelists using our own very exacting criteria for selection.  Read on to find out who fared well this year!

It was a busy, enjoyable and informative few days last week in The Old Swan Hotel, Harrogate (that den of iniquity) at the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Writing festival. Crime writer's are comedians, master's of the one liner, self- deprecating, social commentators and sardonic humourists, I attended most of the panels with ears pricked for the funniest quotes of the weekend and here they are... All you have to do is match the quote to the criminal panelist.  For the answers check out The Crime Warp Facebook Page.

Don't you think i t's nice to get a slightly different slant on your favourite Crime writers?  Well, with The Crime warp's Snog,Marry, Avoid game at Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival this year that's exactly what you get! Read on to find out which of our nefarious writers would snog a serial killer, marry a super sleuth and avoid other crime writer's... it's all very revealing (and extremely funny!)

An Evil Mind  first got me hooked onto Chris Carter's books so I Am Death had a hard act to follow, but boy does it pack a punch.  Detectives Robert Hunter and Carlos Garcia make a great tag team and the writing is deliciously obscene as Carter creates the world of the serial killer and his victims with an uncanny evil.  This is the 7th Robert Hunter book.  Release date 30 July 2015

Val McDermid Splinter the Silence Published by Little, Brown; Thursday 27 August 2015 £18.99, Hardback and eBook ‘That day, waiting had been almost unbearable. He wanted something more spectacular, something that couldn’t be ignored. These deaths needed to make a mark . . .’ Number one bestselling author Val McDermid is back with her most gripping, chilling, suspenseful novel yet, featuring two of the most distinctive and unforgettable characters in crime fiction: Tony Hill and Carol Jordan. Published on 27 August 2015 by Little, Brown, this will be the chart-topping crime writer’s 29 th book.

I’ve been blogging less regularly this year because work has been so busy, so I’ve been quite selective about what I’ve been reading.   This trio of novels is about as diverse as you could get but I guarantee that everyone who reads the Crime Warp will find at least one of these to be just up their street. The Man Who Watched Women – Hjorth and Rosenfeldt – Sebastian Bergman is genius criminal profiler, traumatised by the tsunami disaster of 2004 when his family were killed and he survived.   Bergman kicks against any offer of help, instead abusing alcohol and seducing women to distract him.   He recently found out he has a daughter Vanja, from an old girlfriend.   Vanja offers the tiniest glimmer of normality for Bergman, but he can’t bring himself to reveal his relationship to her, instead he watches her, in an almost stalker like way.   Meanwhile Stockholm is victim to a series of brutal and sadistic killings that are alike in almost every deta...

After the explosive cliffhanger ending in Sorrow Bound , the 4th Aector McAvoy book Taking Pity is altogether darker, grittier and punchier than it's predecessors.  It's brooding remorse combined with the sense that the norms have altered leaving unpredictability:  deliciously atmospheric!

Little Black Lies takes the psychological thriller onto a whole new level.  As well as a dynamic and heart wrenching tragic central story line Bolton  delivers an empathetic and convincing portrayal of the historic events of the Falkland War as well as its' legacy among the close Island community. .

  Not everyone who goes into the woods comes out… It was supposed to be a short hike, a way for Fletcher and Adam to kill time one boring afternoon. But when day turns into night and neither boy returns home, their town is thrown into turmoil. Search teams comb through the forest. Then Avery, the police chief’s daughter, stumbles on a body. It’s Fletcher- disoriented, beaten, and covered in blood. He has no memory of the incident, and worse yet, he has no idea what happened to the still missing Adam… As danger and suspicion grow, one thing becomes very clear. No one can escape the truth.

Just over a fornight to go till Theakston's Crime Writing Festival... can't wait! Each year Val McDermid hosts the New Blood panel at Theakston's Old Peculier crime writing festival.  Each year I am amazed by both the range and the talent of the new writer's on her panel  and this year is no exception.  I have thoroughly enjoyed each of the four books by debut authors, Renee Knight, Clare Mackintosh, Ben McPherson and Lucy Ribchester.  Read on for my reviews.