The Crime Warp

Welcome to The Estate - where even the darkest times have their lighter moments... Book Description Scars. Sometimes they’re visible. Sometimes they’re hidden deep within. After years of living as a single parent, all Donna Adams longs for is someone to make her smile, to share hopes and dreams with, to keep her warm at night. But when that certain someone gives her the attention she craves, true love doesn’t always follow the right path. Home from the army, Lewis is a changed man. Angry and consumed by grief, troubled by nightmares and flashbacks, his mind is worse now than ever. Shutting out what he’s seen isn’t easy, but he risks losing everything he’s come back to if he doesn’t, including his sanity. Megan Cooper hides her scars for fear of being rejected. Mary Marshall can’t always remember how she got hers. If the past could be erased to make a better future, we’d all want that, wouldn’t we? But life is never that easy for the residents of The Mitchell Estate… ...

The third book in the Flavia Albia series takes us into the heart of a local election campaign in ancient Rome. Words like political intrigue, corruption, backstabbing and ruthles s ness   spring to mind. In fact are there enough closets in Rome to fit all the skeletons?    In her profession as informer   our protagonist Flavia Albia, the adopted British daughter of Falco and his wife Helena, has to find out not only who the dead body is that surfaces in a   strong box in her father’s auction, but   also   the identity of   the murderer. Complicated Roman family politics overlap with   local politics   (the list of characters in the front of the book is   very   useful) .   If you have ever been disillusioned with   current politics ,   read this book - it makes   our politicians   look like models of rectitude.   Aided by the dishy Manlius Faustus, magistrate and campaign manager for his frie...

I half expected I Know Who Did It  by Steve Mosby, to be the traditional police procedural 'catch the paedophile' sort of book, but it was so much more than that and I am so glad I pestered the publishers for a copy!

Is it horror? Is it crime? Is it a supernatural mystery? This genre busting series set in rural Herefordshire involves a crucified body, Satanism and an exorcist, a young girl and her wayward friend. When you mix all this together you get intriguing, dark and creepy for sure, and altogether hugely entertaining. Bafta winner Stephen Volk wrote the screenplay for the three part ITV series Midwinter of the Spirit, which is based on the supernatural crime novel of the same title by Phil Rickman (1999).  Single mother, priest and newly appointed diocesan deliverance expert (aka exorcist) Merrily Watkins is played convincingly by Anna Maxwell-Martin. Her priest is not a lovable cartoon character from some sit com or a Chestertonian Father Brown, full of certainties and confidence in his vocation. Following closely to the characterisation in the books by Phil Rickman, Merrily is a well-drawn protagonist, full of flaws, doubts and uncertainties and as human as you can get. Her encount...

I love the way reading crime takes me out of myself. But historical crime even takes me out of my familiar setting, the 21 st Century in Yorkshire. Imagine you could time travel and are transported back to ancient Rome. Imagine walking down the streets jostled by elegant Romans, attractive sex slaves fresh from the baths, oiled gladiators and other, more hairy people, from all over the Empire. The next best thing is reading Lindsey Davis. She brings the society of the time, the setting, the food, the mores and above all, the ‘improbitas’ (that’s immorality to you and me) to life. For anyone who read and loved the Falco Series, Flavia Albia’s charm will not come as a surprise. For those unfamiliar with these crime novels set in ancient Rome, you have a treat awaiting you. Excellently researched with well-rounded characters full of spirit and colour, we are plunged into the heart of patrician Roman life. When a newly married couple are found murdered in their bedroom, the hou...

The Crime Warp is lucky to be able to publish messages f rom the authors Suzanne and Melanie Brockmann about their new Young Adult book Wild Sky.   (Release Date 6th Oct 2015) Read on....

Release date 27th August 2015 In this sequel to Diana Bretherick’s award-winning debut, City of Devils , Dr James Murray returns to Turin in 1888 to resume working with the influential criminologist, Cesare Lombroso. 

I’ve not blogged much for a few weeks now, but I've brought together reviews of five good novels and I’m sure you’ll find some, if not all of them excellent choices for you! Preserve the Dead by Brian McGilloway.   DS Lucy Black is back for her third outing in McGilloway’s third series of novels set in Northern Ireland.  Lucy is visiting her father in hospital when a body is seen floating in the nearby river.  The man is fished out and found to be dead.  In fact he’s not just dead, but he’s been embalmed!  However, that’s not Lucy’s only problem.  She’s soon supporting a neighbour’s sister who’s being beaten up by her husband, and if that’s not enough, helping out a young homeless girl.  McGilloway has developed the Lucy Black character well, weaving together grit and determination as well a little human weakness, which all our favourite detectives need.  Great as the third in the series, but could equally well be read as a standalon...

The Blissfully Dead  by winners of last year's Crime Warp Honours Award, Mark Edwards and Louise Voss, is the second in their DI Patrick Lennon series and is deliciously topical, chillingly credible and beautifully crafted. Release Date 29th Sept 2015.

The Girl With No Past    by Kathryn Croft is a chilling psychological thriller that shows how you can never fully escape from your past no matter how hard you try. (Release Date 15th October 2015)

In an intriguing side step MJ Arlidge has delivered as thrilling and unique a story as Eeny Meeny and Pop Goes The Weasel.  In Liar Liar we have a serial killer in the streets of Southampton whose pyrotechnics keep them at a safe distance to their victims but offer them the same thrills.  If an arsonist  serial killer isn't enough for you  prepare yourself to be blown away by the twists and turns that make Liar Liar enticingly unpredictable.

Nordic Crime has long held our attention as a hive of authentic, compelling stories from Iceland to Norway and from Sweden to Denmark. I've chosen a trio to recommend  to you.  The first a compelling domestic crime from Karin Fossum, the second a brooding Icelandic police procedural from Arnaldur Indridason and the third a shocking Swedish story based on real life by Anton Svensson.