The Crime Warp

When I heard Kia talking about her novel, Take It Back, at Bradford Literature Festival back in July, I just knew I had to read it … my review will be posted in a few days (heads up it’s brill), but I also knew that I wanted to do an author interview with Kia for The Crime Warp and lucky us, she graciously agreed. So cracking right on. Please welcome Kia Abdullah to the blog … Amazon Link Tell us a bit about  Take It Back Take It Back is a courtroom drama in which a 16-year-old girl called Jodie accuses four classmates of rape. Jodie is white and the four boys are from Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds, so this immediately draws the attention of the press and the public. Former barrister Zara Kaleel takes up Jodie’s case and together they enter the most explosive criminal trial of the year, exposing ugly divisions within British society.  I want the reader to not only decide if the accused are guilty but also to question ...

Amazon Link With my phobia of lifts, I don’t really know what possessed me to read this book. You’d think the title alone would have given me a clue! But I did and I’m very glad I did. As usual Linwood Barclay’s mastery of suspense and plot structure shine through and although I may well think twice about going into a lift alone … or indeed at all, this was a cunning storyline. Besides which the cover is brilliantly evocative. Blurb It begins on a Monday, when four people board an elevator in Manhattan. Each presses the button for their floor, but the elevator climbs, non-stop, to the top where it pauses for a few seconds, before dropping. Right to the bottom of the shaft. It appears to be a horrific, random tragedy. But then, on Tuesday, it happens again. And when Wednesday brings yet another catastrophe, New York, one of the most vertical cities in the world is plunged into chaos. Clearly, this is anything but random. This is a cold, calculated bid to terror...

Tell us a little about DCI Jack Lambert’s background Jack is a fairly complicated man. He is a bit of a loner, struggles to convey emotion and has a bit of a dodgy past. When he was young, he was involved with a bad crowd and spent time running with local gangster, Dorian McGuinness’, crew. Now, as a policeman, he is trying to get away from the person he used to be and is keen to make amends for the choices he made in earlier life. Added to this, Jack is gay. In the first book, he has just come out as homosexual at the age of 35. This creates a lot of problems for Jack in the shape of former jilted lovers, a semi-estranged family and a period of adjustment for his colleagues. Far from feeling liberated, Jack begins the book as miserable as he has ever been. He is, however, fiercely loyal to his team and the people close to him. He also has a bit of a temper and is handy with his fists… The Fields of Wheat moment… What is the most rebellious thing Jack has ever done? ...

Amazon Link I knew I liked Cristina Alger’s pacey style from reading her last book, (you can find my review of The Banker’s Wife here on The Crime Warp) but I loved Girls Like Us even more. Once again, she has hit the Zeitgeist on the head with the problems faced by many Latino women in America, underage girls procured for the parties of the rich and powerful and communities bullied by corrupt police departments. The protagonist is an FBI agent, Nell Flynn, who goes home to Suffolk County, Long Island, when her father, a retired cop, dies in what appears to be a tragic motorcycle accident. Suffolk County is the place of her past, her childhood, her high school years, and you might imagine she has fond memories – but that too is complicated, not least of all by the memory of her mother’s murder.   As Americans would say, Nell Flynn is a tough cookie, but as events unfold, it is questionable whether even she is tough enough to deal with the murders, trafficking and ...

Amazon Link The Runaway is the second in Ali Harper's No Stone Unturned Missing persons detective series and it's great. I loved The Disappeared (which was the first in the series), but The Runaway, in my humble opinion is even better and more so because it's based in Leeds and felt so immediate for me. So before I give you my review, here's the blurb: A body without a name… One night, the body of a young woman is found, naked but for a necklace, tied to a statue outside a block of luxury flats. There should be an outcry. But the police rule it a suicide, and move on   A case where nothing is as it seems… Private investigators Lee and Jo, owners of No Stone Unturned detective agency in Leeds, are tasked with looking into the case. Who was the woman? Did she really kill herself?   A world where danger lurks around every corner… As they investigate, Lee and Jo uncover shocking secrets. And when they see links between this case and another they are working on, the...

Amazon link Nobody brings ancient Romans to life like Lindsey Davis. I love her forgetful witnesses, dodgy tavern keepers, incompetent house slaves, shady temple augurs, corrupt Imperial transport managers, nosy housewives, hapless or brutal Praetorians, and finally, hard put-upon informers like Flavia Alba.  Just when I thought I knew all there was to life in ancient Rome, Lindsey Davis introduces new topics such as the Imperial Triumph Procession and the people who produce the exorbitantly expensive purple dye for colouring the emperor’s special robes. I knew a bit about the Murex sea sails of which you needed hundreds of thousands to make a useful quantity of dye, but I didn’t know that the process would be so stinky and smelly. Crime fiction in 3 D, that’s what you get when you walk down a Roman street with Flavia Alba, or just Alba to her friends.  And not every mystery, not even one set in ancient Rome can feature a murder which involves being pushed over t...

After a bit of time re-assessing the blog, with lots of coffee, a ton of biscuits, a few glasses (em, possibly bottles) of Prosecco, Toria and I have come up with a revamp for The Crime Warp.  I hope you like it - we do.  We thought it was perhaps time for us to re-introduce ourselves to you all, hence the rogues gallery at the beginning.  We think it's sleeker, sexier and seductive. You can connect with us via our facebook page :  The Crime Warp Facebook Twitter :                                                                  @LizMistryAuthor                                                                       ...

The Other Mrs Miller by Allison Dickson A well-received domestic thriller which is full of suspense and twists by the American author Allison Dickson. Do we judge children by the reputation of their parents? Are you ever free from the legacy of your parents? Is there an evil nasty gene that is passed on from one generation to the next? I certainly hope not, but some books make you think. A number of readers have described this as a darkly humorous book, especially the second part. If you are able to suspend your disbelief and find domestic treachery intriguing, you will find this novel hugely entertaining. Published in trade paperback by Sphere in July 2019, £13.99 A Secret Life by Christobel Kent I’ve always envied people who are not afraid to make mistakes. I’ve known people to take terrible risks and get away with it, yet, in a similar situation, I’m convinced I’d get into huge trouble. Responsibility weighs heavily on my shoulders and I feel like a stick...

My sister and I get on really well, in fact terrifically well. We never fight over anything, with one exception: The latest Essex Witch Museum Mystery . As I’m writing this review (and not her), you can tell that I got to read the book first, ha. As always, Syd Moore is highly entertaining. Her charming and witty protagonist Rosie Strange is my favourite Essex girl and I adore her, even though we are worlds apart. Unlike Rosie, I don’t queue for manis and pedis, or fashionable clothes and I don’t travel with lots of make-up and hair kit. But like Rosie, I have a decent dose of common sense mixed with an innate curiosity. Now that she and her colleague (and dare I say future lover?) Sam Stone are on the radar of MI5, they have been tasked to investigate strange happenings at a country house writer’s course. I won’t spoil the story, but I can say that Strange Tombs makes a nod to Agatha Christie and the country house classics where people are drinking cocktails in the dra...