The Crime Warp

Close Your Eyes  by Michael Robotham  (6th Aug 2015) When a mother and daughter are murdered in their isolated farmhouse in Somerset DCS Ronnie Cray asks psychologist Joe O’Loughlan to help.  Soon he links it to other attacks in the area and the hunt to find the killer is on.

 I blogged last year about Deon Meyer’s previous Benny Griessel novel Cobra and seeing the advanced publicity this year for his new novel Icarus, it went straight on my review list. Icarus follows two parallel plots – the first, of Francois du Toit, a vineyard owner, slowly telling his story in a privileged discussion seemingly about to confess to his involvement in a crime to a criminal defence lawyer.  This first plot soon appears to be connected to the second, of a body found buried in sand dunes north of Capetown.  The dead man is Ernst Richter, head of Alibi, who specialise in producing fake documents for cheating partners.

   I'm all of a dither here with Val McDermid, graduate from Oxford University, author of a squillion crime fiction books, a children’s book, a remake of Northanger Abbey and a Forensics book.  Not only that, she has won many awards for her writing and was the winner of celebrity Mastermind 2012.   To say nothing of the fact she’s even got a morgue named after her- beat that if you can?  her new Carol Jordan/Tony Hill book Splinter the Silence is due for release on 27th August 2015.

As always with Val McDermid's  Carol Jordan/Tony Hill series ,as a reader we must be prepared to expect the unexpected and Splinter The Silence is no exception to this rule.  With an innovative new serial killer that the police have yet to identify as a serial killer the plot is intriguing and of course a dream adversary for Tony Hill to get his teeth into and a crusade for carol to relaunch her career with.  

  In a Dark Dark Wood  by Ruth Ware (30th July 2015) Sixteen year old Leonora  (Nora) Shaw, upset and let down, turned her back on her old life.  Now, ten years later, still fragile she accepts an invitation to her childhood best friend’s Hen weekend in Northumberland.  Within minutes of her arrival Nora realises she’s made the wrong decision.  The small group don’t gel and there is a malignant aura and then things go dreadfully wrong, someone is murdered and Nora is hospitalised and the chief suspect.

Doug Johnstone, Scottish author of  The Jump  (released 4th August 2015) and the widely acclaimed Gone Again, has found the time in his very busy blog tour to answer a few questions for The Crime Warp.  Doug is not a one horse pony... oh, no, he's is a multi- talented person with that rare combination of having both a scientific and a very creative mind.  Read on to find out more about him.

Having fallen in love with Sara Paretsky at Theakston’s Old Peculier crime writing Festival in Harrogate, I was excited to read the latest VI Warshawski offering from this lovely, humble and talented writer and I  wasn't  disappointed.  Warshawski is as sexy as ever, as tough as the steak I cooked for last night’s tea and as dogged as a traffic warden on commission.    Brush Back is as gritty as the coal piles she writes about and as full of soul and tradition and nostalgia and history as you could hope for.  

From Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible Rogue Nation , to vintage Christie in Partners In Crime on the TV and gritty euro crime Crossing Lines we're spoiled for choice this summer!