The Crime Warp

UNQUIET SOULS by Liz Mistry The first in a gritty crime series based in West Yorkshire, and featuring DI Gus McGuire The Blurb: What is the link between the abduction of a little girl and a dead prostitute? When the body of a prostitute is discovered DI Gus McGuire is handed the case. But what first appears to be a simple murder soon turns into an international manhunt for the members of a twisted child trafficking ring. McGuire who is suffering with problems of his own, he must pick his way through the web of deceit and uncover the truth in time before the body count rises. Can McGuire identify The Matchmaker before it’s too late? And can he trust those he is working with? Unquiet Souls is the first book in a dark and compelling new police series. About the Author: Liz Mistry was born in West Calder, Scotland and educated at Stirling University before moving to Bradford for her PGCE, where she settled with her husband, Nilesh, ...

Every year I attend The Theakston's Old Peculier crime writing festival in Harrogate and every year I am introduced to new authors, old authors, new forensics and new ways of killing somebody.  But, the part I love most about Theakston's is the way I end up laughing throughout the weekend.  Here's just a few of the laughs from this years festival...

The Blurb When Zoe Walker sees her photo in the classifieds section of a London newspaper, she is determined to find out why it's there. There's no explanation: just a grainy image, a website address and a phone number. She takes it home to her family, who are convinced it's just someone who looks like Zoe. But the next day the advert shows a photo of a different woman, and another the day after that. Is it a mistake? A coincidence? Or is someone keeping track of every move they make . . . I See You is an edge-of-your-seat, page-turning psychological thriller from one of the most exciting and successful British debut talents of 2015 My Review I had eagerly awaited  this novel and was delighted when the publishers Little, Brown, asked me if I would like an advanced reader's copy. I didn't know what to expect, Clare Mackintosh's first book  I Let You Go was so good that I wondered how she was going to top it. I was more than pleasantly surprised,...

This is just a quick post to let Crime Warp readers know about the up coming publication of Peter Swanson's new novel Her Every Fear .  I loved Swanson's previous book The Kind Worth Killing and recently read The Girl With a Clock For a Heart , which I'd describe as gripping.  I was therefore genuinely excited when I heard of a new novel in the offing. Kate Priddy has decided it's time for a big change in her life.  In a bold move, she uproots hereslf from London to a new life in Boston having agreed an apartment swap with her distant cousin, Corbin Dell. But it’s not long before she believes her neighbour has been murdered, and her own fears and insecurities start to surface once more. Swanson's novels have a deep noir theme and one commentator has described this new novel as "a brilliant Hitchcockian thriller".  Her Every Fear is out in January 2017 - I can't wait! Romancrimeblogger

I’m listening to more novels as Audible Audiobooks when I go out for long walks and came across this novel almost by accident as I was looking at Audible releases.  Now I don’t especially look for books that have a technothriller theme, but I do think that novels like this explore and challenge important issues about technology, its impact on privacy and how it changes people’s behaviour.   So, the novel…Bethany Lehrer is the government minister in charge of the Digital Citizen (Digicits) programme, where people who sign up to the programme receive a digital ID which acts as a trusted ID for all public services.  Unfortunately, there are a few teething troubles with the pilot group, whose computers are invaded by pictures of dancing pigs, which defy all attempts to remove them.  More troubling is an online whistle-blower, sic_girl, who is posting information claiming that the Digicits programme has been hacked and private data compromised.  The...

For fans of THE FALL and Sarah Hilary, this slick, dark contemporary thriller will have you on the edge of your seat... Ruby is a vlogger, a rising star of YouTube and a heroine to millions of teenage girls. And she's missing. She's an adult - nothing to worry about, surely? Until the video's uploaded. Ruby, in the dirt and pleading for her life. Who better to head up the investigation than the Met's rising star, Detective Inspector Kate Riley? She's leading a shiny new team, high-powered, mostly female and with the best resources money can buy. It's time for them to prove what they can do. Alongside her, Detective Sergeant Zain Harris - poster boy for multiracial policing and the team's newest member - has his own unique contribution to make. But can Kate wholly trust him and when he's around, can she trust herself?   Ruby's millions of fans are hysterical about what may have happened to her. The press is having a field day and as the inv...

Today on the blog we have the wonderful Angela Marsons, and we're celebrating the publication of the paperback edition of her fabulous novel Silent Scream.  

Love You Dead is about Jodie Bentley, a childhood ugly ducking who reinvents herself as a beautiful woman looking for love.  Her plan is to marry a rich man so she can realise her dream of affluence and status.  Once she's got the money, well...the man dosn't really matter - it's then simply about finding a way to to get rid of him and keeping the money of course.  "Getting rid" of course, means murder! Jodie has a few false starts but she's a woman at the top of her game, effortlessly using her beauty and charm plus a dogged determination, that can only be desribed as professional, to find, seduce and entrap a wealthy man into her scheme of love, marriage and an extremely short life expectancy. This isn't the only part of the story - there's the matter of Grace's previously unresolved case, Sandy - that ever present ghost from the past - a plotline that never seems to be quite tied up, and finally his vile and manipulative senior officer Ca...

The New Blood panel at Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival is always one of my favourite.  Each year the new talent just seems to get better and better and 2016 is no exception.  As usual it is chaired by the Queen of Crime, Val McDermid and should be an interesting panel.  I'll not be missing it.  Read on for a snappy review of each of the four New Bloodites 2016.

I n The Kept Woman , the Will Trent, Angie Polaski, Sara Linten triangle is as intriguingly complex and deliciously edgy as it’s ever been.   Trent’s complex vulnerability combined with Linten’s strength and compassion and Polaski’s erratic behaviour just ratchets up the tension .