The Crime Warp

The Crime Warp is honoured to host an extract for M Jonathan Lee's new novel Broken Branches. Following the tragic death of Stuart Perkins, his younger brother Ian moves into the family home with his wife and young son. Grief and loss hang heavy over the house and Stuart’s death has prompted Ian to delve into the rumours of a mysterious family curse which has allegedly been the cause of several tragedies in the Perkins family history. Ian becomes consumed with his research and is determined to uncover the truth before it’s too late. M Jonathan Lee deals sensitively with issues of grief and depression in this intriguing, intelligently written novel which ends with a heart-stopping twist!  Read on for an extract...

Not often do you come across crime books set in 1936, in Britain. Those of us who remember the pre-war years, don’t talk about it, and the rest don’t understand the turmoil, even here in the UK. Our schools teach what happened in Germany and thus we feel smug about the naivete and nastiness of the Germans to fall for Nazism, thinking it could never happen to us. However, we too had fascists and Nazi sympathisers in our midst, in fact at the very heart of the establishment. 1936, a year of political turmoil, exacerbated by the scandal of King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, makes a stunning period for this dashing thriller.  Few would associate the murder of members of the sleepy ‘squirarchy’ and the unexplained death of a young woman with political intrigue at the highest level. We might suspect a communist and a German diplomat of shady dealings, a journalist at a push, but hardly two young English girls who met at school, even if one of them is a drug addict.  ...

I've reviewed a couple of Anne's books and we've been FB friends for a while so it was lovely to meet up with her in person at Crime Fest this year ... she's such a lovely person, it's quite difficult to imagine her writing such gritty books... but she does, and she does it with aplomb.  Lovely to have you hear at The Crime Warp HQ.

  This is the start of a delicious new series focusing on dishing the dirt on some of our very favourite detectives.  It gives me great pleasure to kick off with Malcolm Hollingdrake's DS David Owen who features in Malcolm's five books. The most recent of which, Dying Art ,was released on 17 July 2017.  Read on for the inside gossip .... 

Click  here  for details The Crime Warp is proud to be no 28 in the Top 50 crime blogs for reader's and writers ON THE PLANET .   As you know we work very hard to bring you news and views about crime fiction writers, readers, books and festivals, so to CELEBRATE  we're giving away a trio of crime fiction books to one lucky winner chosen at random on 1st Aug (midday GMT) 2017.  Read on for details ...

Every year I come to Theakston's old Peculier crime Writing festival and every year I am truly astounded by the sheer volume of people who attend this event. Crime fiction is the largest selling genre and as both a writer and a reader of crime fiction I am interested to find out exactly what makes us read Crime fiction.... so that's exactly what I've done.This article poses the question to many of our beloved crime fiction writers.  Tomorrow it's the turn of the readers and the day after its the turn of the Industry greats to tell us what exactly turns them on about crime fiction...

Yesterday many of our most beloved crime writers spilled the beans on what they love about the crime fiction genre.  today it's the turn of you the reader to tell the world what turns you on about crime fiction... and we got some brilliant responses. Thank you to all who took the time to join in.

There is a long tradition of  humour at Theakston's Old Peculier crime writing festival... and the 2017 one was no exception.  Here's a few of the humerous oneliners delivered with aplomb by your fave crime writers over the weekend.

Jill and Sue from Think Forensic Harrogate was the place to be this weekend! The annual crime writing festival is a highlight for many crime readers, but surprisingly also for the Old Swan Hotel staff.  I spoke with two lovely waitresses originally from Paris, Fatou and Alvina. In fact, Fatou chose to work in the Old Swan because of its connection with Agatha Christie. Despite the hectic schedule and long hours, she loves working the festival and says the crime guests are good fun and very friendly.  Last night she and the rest of team managed a new record. Between events they changed the ballroom over from 700 chairs - theatre style - to 350 chairs - cabaret style - in 9 minutes 29 seconds! An impressive feat! Once again, Think Forensic held super CSI workshops sponsored by Pan Macmillan's Thin Blue Spine for both crime writers and keen readers. I couldn't decide if I preferred the skeleton or the blood splatter head.  An innovation was th...

So here we are on the last day of Harrogate Crime Writer's festival and I'm so chuffed to be spending time with Tara Lyons on this glorious day!  A bit too early for Prosecco but we can have coffee instead!

We've had such a lot of entrants for the Marked For life by Emilie Schepp giveaway.  Anyway we are very proud to announce the winner below.

It's been a while since I did a Young Adult/ Teen fiction round up but here's my latest offering just in time for the summer holidays.  I've chosen three very different books this time.  the firs is called The Original Ginny Moon and is a mystery/suspense with a difference.  Crazy House by James Patterson is a Dystopian action packed read similar to Hunger games or Divergent and The Revenge is a psychological thriller exploring the consequences of seeking revenge. The Original Ginny Moon by Benjamin Ludwig (June 2017) is a haunting Available on Amazon Click  here tale of an autistic girl (Ginny Moon) who was taking from her abusive mother when she was nine and after a series of unsuccessful foster homes she settles with her 'Forever parents'.  Then an unexpected event triggers Ginny to remember something she left behind with her birth mother ... something she is determined to find because she is the only one who can take care of it.  this leads to a...

Available on Amazon Click  here The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter is powerful and poignant.  With a beautifully structured plot involving flashbacks combined with present day narrative, Slaughter creates a story that is emotionally riveting from page one. The novel opens with a scene from twenty eight years ago when two young sisters are practicing relay under their mother, Gamma's tutelage.  It soon become clear that they have recently moved into the 'higgledy piggledy' house because their own home has been burned to the ground in an arson attack prompted by their lawyer father  Rusty's insistence on defending clients that would otherwise be disenfranchised. Within hours their family has been decimated... their mother shot, and the two girls facing death at the hands of two of their father's ex-clients.

The Crime Warp is honoured to be part of Crime Writer of the year 2016, Emelie Schepp's Marked For Life Blog Tour.... and we're doing a BIG FAT GIVEAWAY! Ideal for lovers of gripping Scandi crime and TV series such as  The Bridge   this is a dark, character-led crime series that pulls the reader into the complex underworld of people smuggling, drug dealing and child assassins. When the head of migration is found shot to death in his home, no one expects to find child-sized handprints at the crime scene—especially because the victim and his wife never had children. Shortly after, on a nearby desolate shore, the body of a young boy is discovered... and with him, the gun that killed the government official. Focused yet brilliantly cold, Prosecutor Jana Berzelius quickly takes charge of the investigation but as details begin to unravel from the web of corruption and violence, Jana finds herself drawn ever further into a case with deep ties to her own past. Now, to pr...

Available on Amazon Click  here First we had Bosch, then we had Haller... now we have the deliciously different Renee Ballard.   Renee Ballard is a Hawaiian  surf/paddle freak.  She lives with her rescued dog in a van which she parks up near the coast, snatching a few hours sleep in her pop up tent before starting the late shift at LAPD.   Ballard is as addictive as Bosch yet she's very different.  Her back story has ended her up working the late shift with a partner who counts the hours till morning so he can get back to nursing his ill wife.  Ballard, like Bosch has principles and is stubbornly committed to maintaining them.  As The Late Show begins, Ballard and her partner are called to the scene of a brutal attack on a transgender woman in a less than salubrious side of town. meanwhile a shooting at a night club with five dead piques Renee's interest.  mainly because her ex -partner, who betrayed her before, and his b...

Today the Crime Warp hosts the third of Val McDermid's New blood panelists Kristen Lepionka  on her blog tour for The Last Place You look ... and I have to say I loved this book. It;'s really lovely to have you here today, Kristen, so let's crack on! 

Available on Amazon       Click  here I know Bradford like the back of my hand... and so does A.A. Dhand.  In the second of his DI Harry Virdee thrillers, Girl Zero, Dhand leads is through Bradford's underbelly and believe me when I say that by the end of it you'll never look at swimming pools, bleach or car jacks in quite the same way again. Girl Zero starts a year after his debut novel Streets of Darkness, on the eve of the Hindu and Sikh festival of Diwali.  But this year, for Harry and his family there will be no celebratory fireworks as his niece's body is discovered in a derelict school.

If I say “Austria” what is the first thing that pops into your head? Bet it’s (in no particular order) mountains, snow, heaving bosoms in dirndl dresses, beer steins and schnitzel. Well … all these things may feature in Austrian cosy crime, but I suggest you take those images, strangle them, stab them repeatedly, bundle them into a body bag and drown it in the nearest blue mountain lake. Because here we are introducing you to the dark and gritty Austrian psycho-thriller! To find out more about the Austrian crime scene (Scandi-crime watch your back) I have interviewed the popular Austrian psycho-thriller author and psychotherapist Andrea Nagele who has written many crime books set in both Carinthia, Austria and the Adriatic town of Grado in Italy – both in an area known locally as the “Alpine-Adriatic Region”. Andrea, thank you for talking to Crime Warp! Let me launch into my first question: What features in the Austrian crime scene? Quite a bit of light hearted ´regi...