The Crime Warp

Available here Ross is one of those writers that weaves a story so compellingly that even  the most reluctant reader is drawn in hook, line and sinker.  Believe me, his newest book Abel's Revenge  is no exception and The Crime Warp is lucky enough to, not only be part of the blog tour, but to have a sneaky little excerpt for you.  I defy you not to go out and read the book after reading this.  Now over to Ross...

Available here Everything Is Lies , is one of those thrillers that makes you start to question everything you know about people.  Who knows that we're being told the truth? Who knows what secrets lie in the past, waiting to jump out and redefine everything we held as TRUTH. We rely on those we love to be honest, but ... sometimes ... that's just not the case. Sophia is having a nice time at a work's party, when she gets a strange call from her mother asking her to come home. Knowing how needy her mum's always been, Sophia digs her heels in.  After all, her mum needs to let her go.  She needs to let Sophia get on with her own life, instead of trying to keep her glued to their small homestead business in the middle of nowhere.

When I was young I naively thought that most professionals were competent and did a decent job – politicians, doctors, lawyers, estate agents, spies, … that mistakes were the exception and not the rule. If you watch James Bond or Mission Impossible, everything works out, everyone is clever and skilled and competent, at killing, at evading certain death, at picking up women … slick. Now that I’m on the no-return side of getting old, I know better. Most so-called experts bumble along, cover their arses and put on a good show. And refreshingly, the author Mick Herron has the guts and humour to portrait reality.  Slough House is the security service’s solution to what to do with spent, incompetent and broken spies and agents. This tiny fiefdom of the British spy world is ruled and guarded by a rude, profane and fierce troll. Jackson Lamb is a man with nothing to lose and nothing to live for either, with the exception perhaps of looking after his pathetic family of lost ...

Chopra grew up in a village in rural India, moved to Mumbai aged 17 to train as a policeman, and has spent 30 years as a police officer in the subcontinent’s ‘city of dreams’. He has seen everything in Mumbai, both the light and dark.  He is ambivalent about the new wealth flooding the country, and the influence of globalisation which has transformed places like Mumbai; he is particularly bothered by how vast inequalities persist in the city. He has been married to Poppy for 24 years; they are childless, but this has only brought them closer together. When a baby elephant arrives on their doorstep, at first Chopra has no idea what to do with it... but gradually a bond develops. The Fields of Wheat moment… What is the most rebellious thing Inspector Chopra has ever done?  Available here In the first book The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra , Chopra is forced into early retirement (he’s only in his late forties). On his last day, th...

Available here The Suffering Of Strangers is the ninth in  Caro Ramsay's  Costello & Anderson series, set in Glasgow and, like the others in the series, The Suffering of Strangers is explosive, human and relevant.  Hot on the heels of receiving a bashing in court over a child abuse case which led to a child's death, Costello is at her lowest.   Relationship problems, a breakdown in communication with her one time work partner, Colin Anderson and an unfortunate meeting with a rough sleeper, who turns out not to be a rough sleeper, sets the scene. Then, still smarting from her defeat in court, Costello is put in charge of an unusual baby abduction case. Baby Sholto, taken from his mother's car, is replaced by an unidentified little Dons baby, later named Moses.  Unable to get a handle on what's going on, Costello begins to suspect some sort of child trafficking/surrogacy scam.  Meanwhile, Anderson, in the cold case unit, is put in char...

Available here Dark in Death is the third book I've read recently with the theme of storytelling or literature running through it ... and I'm loving it.  Perhaps it's because I'm an avid reader and an author as well, but it really resonates with me.  In Robb's Dark In Death, a series of murders replicate a crime fiction author's body (excuse the pun) of work, but with Eve Dallas and the trusty Peacock on the case, the identity of the killer doesn't stay undiscovered for long.

Available here Everyone grows up with their own bogeyman - that shadowy scary figure that haunts the darkness, instilling fear into your soul.. For me, growing up in the 60s and 70s my Bogeyman was Bible John, the Glasgow serial killer who terrorised women for a year and then disappeared off the face of the earth leaving behind a legacy of questions and fear.

Available here In this, the tenth book in the Ruth Galloway series we are transported to the Italian hills outside Rome, where Ruth has been asked by her ex-fling and fellow archaeologist, Dr Angelo Morelli, to consult on some bones.  Ruth, still rebounding from the events of the previous novel, The Chalk Pit,  jumps at the chance to escape for a while. 

Pearl is busy running her seafood restaurant, yet her curiosity draws her efforts to her part-time private investigation work, be it to find an anonymous writer of nasty cards or a murderer. Her paths once again cross with those of the attractive DCI Mike McGuire from the Canterbury police force and sparks fly. Is romance in the air? Murder on Sea, with its assortments of interesting characters, plays out in a windy and wet seaside resort town and the feisty heroine, Pearl, can cook as well as snoop. What’s not to like? This particular book takes place before Christmas, so if you are fed up with the holidays and glad to get back to ‘normal’, then perhaps save this book for next Advent. But if you have been struck down with the midwinter blues, then look no further than the Whitstable Pearl Series. There is something wholesome and life-affirming here, even with a murderer at large.  The one thing the Whitstable Pearl Mysteries offers that few crime books have is comm...