The Crime Warp

Author A.M. Peacock has a busy time ahead of him for the next few weeks. With his second DCI Jack Lambert crime novel just released, he's now embarking on a series of book signings throughout the North of England. So, I'm doubly glad he's managed to squeeze in a wee jaunt to The Crime Warp - (and he brought biscuits - Hob Nobs - Chocolate Hob Nobs, so he can come again.) A very big welcome to Adam Peacock with whom I've had the very great pleasure of dancing to Proud Mary with. (Bet he wishes I'd kept that one a secret too)  Tell us a bit about your current book release. This book is the second in the DCI Jack Lambert series, although it can be read as a standalone. Whereas the first novel involved a serial killer, and multiple plot threads, this one essentially flows from an initial murder, whereby a young, petty criminal is found tortured in a farmer’s field. What at first seems like a straightforward case for Jack and the team becomes anything but. As...

Take Me In by Sabine Durrant From the author of Lie With Me another cracking thriller. If you read this on summer holiday, on the beach and if you have kids, watch them. Carefully. Tessa and Marcus are on holiday with their only son and this boy nearly drowns in the sea. He is rescued by a stranger, a disconcerting man who uses their gratitude to worm his way into their lives. But what does he want, what does he expect? The sense of foreboding is not misplaced. The best psychological thrillers involve misdirection and menace and here you get it in spades. Published in hardback, eBook and audio book by Mulholland Books in 2018. How it Happened by Michael Koryta This is where police procedural meets cutting edge gritty hard core. FBI agent Rob Barrett interviews a drug addicted single mother with the reputation of being a liar and trouble maker who confesses to involvement in a series of gruesome murders. Apart from Barrett no one believes her, especially when th...

Steve Cavanagh   has been unmasked as the winner of The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award for 2019. Now in its fifteenth year, the Award is considered the most coveted crime writing prizes in the country, and one that receives substantial interest from authors, publishers, book sellers and fans of the genre in equal measures. Thirteen  is the Lisburn author’s fifth book in the Eddie Flynn series of crime thrillers, serving up a delicious twist to the traditional courtroom thriller, where in this instance the real killer is not the one on trial, but a member of the jury! Cavanagh   was presented the award by title sponsor Simon Theakston at the event hosted by broadcaster Mark Lawson at the opening night of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, staged by Harrogate International Festivals in the Old Swan Hotel, Harrogate. He   was one six shortlisted authors vying for the title from an original longlist of 18 crime novel...

You know that contented feeling you have after a delicious meal in good company? That’s how I felt after finishing The Bear Pit. In fact, I enjoyed this fourth book in the series as much as the first. (To read my review of the first, The Seeker, type this into the search bar on the top right of The Crime Warp blog page). I’m not that familiar with 17 th English history, and as the author portraits this period with a lightness of touch and excellent historical writing skills, it’s an engaging way to find out about Royalist plotting, assassination attempts on Cromwell, the Lord Protector, and life in London during this post Civil War period. I particularly enjoy the intrigue – who is a spy, who might be a double agent, who might be persuaded to change allegiance - S.G. Maclean draws interesting characters. I’ve noticed that she doesn’t ever reveal that much about Seeker himself, yet the fans of the series all seem to be intimately familiar with him, some even in love with him...

Available here I always get over excited at the prospect of a new Elly Griffiths' Ruth Galloway/Nelson novel. So giddy that I want to savour it ... don't want to rush it ... want to tease myself with the prosepect of reading it. So .. I have to plan. The time has to be just right, the mood just so ... PJ's, hot chocolate, a Caramel Log (or three) and i'm just about ready to begin ... so, just to tantalise you here's the blurb.  BLURB DCI Nelson has been receiving threatening letters telling him to 'go to the stone circle and rescue the innocent who is buried there'. He is shaken, not only because children are very much on his mind, with Michelle's baby due to be born, but because although the letters are anonymous, they are somehow familiar. They read like the letters that first drew him into the case of  The Crossing Place s, and to Ruth. But the author of those letters is dead. Or are they? Meanwhile Ruth is working on a dig in the Saltma...

For me one of the most anticipated events of the festival is always Val McDermid's New Blood panel. Over the years, I've discovered many New blood authors who have gone on to become firm favourites on my bookshelves. From Abir Mukherjee who writes about colonial India to David Mark who trails us round the strees of Hull and from Jane Harper's atmospheric Autralian novels to SJ Watson's haunting psychological thriller, I am always amazed at both the versatility and the originality of the new authors. Can't wait to find out more about this years four New Blood panellists and their books, but here's a sneaky little peek.  Available here Gytha Lodge  is a multi-award winning playwright who studied creative writing at UEA. Her debut,  She Lies in Wait , is dubbed as the biggest debut of 2019.  Val McDermid says  ' An atmospheric thriller that takes the idea of six friends with a dark place in their past and gives it a series of fresh, chill...

Grave Intent Blurb: Available here Robert Norris. An eighteen-year old petty criminal is brutally tortured and left in a farmer’s field to die. DCI Jack Lambert, and his team, think they have it all figured out. It’s a robbery gone wrong. Suspicion immediately falls on the man who called it in. What Jack doesn’t realise is that this is just the beginning. An escaped prisoner, an attempted hit, and a seemingly unending trail of violence and retribution follows. As the mystery unfolds, Jack begins to suspect the existence of a secret, but powerful, syndicate operating on the very edges of the North East’s criminal underworld. With the situation spiralling out of control, Jack finds himself at a crossroads—one which could lead him back into the kind of life he has spent a career running away from. Time is running out and this case might not only cost Lambert his job, but also his life… Author Biography A.M. Peacock grew up in the North East of England bef...

Available here I love a good Stuart MacBride ... I especially love a good Stuart MacBride when there's a long suffering Logan McRae and a bad (oh so very bad ... and decidedly naughty) Roberta Steele in the mix. The dynamics between the characters is fresh despite the fact we're into double figures now with this series and with each new book it seems that MacBride always manages to create distinct voices for his characters. So ... what's All That's Dead about? Well, here's the blurb ...  BLURB There’s a darkness in the heart of Scotland… The stunning new Logan McRae thriller from No. 1 Sunday Times bestseller Stuart MacBride. Scream all you want, no one can hear… Inspector Logan McRae is looking forward to a nice simple case – something to ease him back into work after a year off on the sick. But the powers-that-be have other ideas… The high-profile anti-independence campaigner, Professor Wilson, has gone missing, leaving nothing but bloodstain...

Today on The Crime Warp we have reviews of not one, but FOUR, Young Adult crime fiction novels. All four of these are fantastic reads and I would highly recommend them. We have: My Whole Truth by Mischa Thrace, a brilliant story about privilege to rival 13 Reasons Why. The Truth About Keeping Secrets   by Savannah Brown, a coming of age story with a criminal edge to it, exploring manipulation and peer control. Fated by Teri terry, a n all too realistic portrayal of a society gone wrong. Sea Change by Sylvia Hehier, a haunting coming of age of a grieving boy caught up in a murder investigation.   My Whole Truth by Mischa Thrace Blurb  Available here Seventeen-year-old Seelie Stanton never wanted to kill someone. She never wanted to be invisible in her own family, she never wanted to crush on her best friend Alyssa, and she definitely never wanted to know how effectively a mallet could destroy someone's head.  But the universe doesn't car...