The Crime Warp

Available to pre-order here A new short story anthology with a difference celebrates short stories from the archives of the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA). Vintage Crime  gathers gems from the mid-1950’s, when the CWA began, until the twenty-first century. The new compilation features an array of award-winning authors including Andrew Taylor, Kate Ellis, Simon Brett, Liza Cody, HRF Keating, Anthea Fraser and Mick Herron. Published by Flame Tree Press, the anthology is edited by former Chair of the CWA and CWA archivist, author Martin Edwards. Martin said: “ This is a collection with a difference, celebrating the work of CWA members since the Association was founded in 1953. Entertaining in their own right, the stories also demonstrate the evolution of the crime short story during the CWA’s existence, from the Fifties until the early twenty-first century.” The CWA was established by John Creasey, the prolific author of over 500 novels with worldwide sales in the 1970’...

Available here Published by Sphere Release date 28th July 2020  I've had When She Was Good on my TBR pile from Netgalley for absolutely ages and  other commitments kept pushing it down the pile. After reading the first in this series - Good Girl Bad Girl -  I was absolutely smitten by the characters and wanted to follow their journey and, just to be clear I WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED. When She Was Good is a brilliant follow up and is every bit as compelling as the first in the series. Although it could be read as a standalone, I'd recommend reading the first in the series first to get the full effect of this brilliant follow up, which follows the two main characters' journey, Here's the Blurb She has secrets. Six years ago, Evie Cormac was found hiding in a secret room in the aftermath of a brutal murder. But nobody has ever discovered her real name or where she came from, because everybody who tries ends up dead. He needs answers. Forensic psychologist...

Such a treat to have the very lovely and equally talented A.M Castle on The Crime Warp today for an author grilling ... oops I mean interview. It's especially nice since she brought cake, and I so love cake. Anyway here's what we talked about ... Enjoy! Tell us a bit about The Perfect Widow. The Perfect Widow came out as a paperback in January. It’s also available on Kindle and as an audiobook. It’s my first psychological thriller so, although all my books are my babies, this one is very special. I’ve loved the genre since reading Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier but wasn’t sure if I could write in the genre. I’m very grateful to the amazing Abigail Fenton at HQDigital for telling me I not only could but should. Where did the inspiration for  The Perfect Widow   come from? I went to crime writers’ and readers’ conference called Killer Women and listened to a fascinating lecture on psychopaths. As well as great nuggets like the fact that psychopaths dream in bla...

Available here Absolutely thrilled to bits to be part of the Lost Souls Blog Tour and to be posting my review today.  Thanks to Century Books, Cornerstone Publicity and Netgalley for the opportunity to be part of the Lost Souls Blog Tour. Lost Souls is available from 23rd July in Hardback and is a stunning collaboration between father and son Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman Here's The Blurb A DETECTIVE UNDER PRESSURE Deputy Coroner Clay Edison is juggling a new baby who won’t sleep with working the graveyard shift. For once he’s trying to keep things simple. A HAUNTING DISCOVERY When infant remains are found by developers demolishing a local park, a devastating cold case is brought back to light. A DESPERATE SEARCH FOR ANSWERS Clay has barely begun to investigate when he receives a call from a man who thinks the remains could belong to his sister – who went missing fifty years ago. Now Clay is locked in a relentless search that will unearth a web of violence, sec...

Dear Reader, Writing During a Pandemic For years I envied people who went on writing retreats, with nothing to do all day but write, undisturbed. The prospect of spending weeks focused on writing has always been, for me, an unattainable idyll. For over ten years, I have spent every available moment typing, often until late into the night, because during the day there are so many other demands on my time. With family commitments spanning four generations, teaching part-time at university, not to mention shopping and household chores, there is always something to do. Yes, I used to read about writing retreats with a wistful sigh. Then Covid19 came along, causing a global catastrophe of unprecedented proportions. The tragedy of so many deaths, and the grief and suffering the pandemic has caused, will affect us all for a long time to come. I suspect we don’t yet fully appreciate the effect it will have on our every day lives. As a society, and as individuals, we may not fully...

These books are set in the Scottish highlands and I really love that. I think the highlands with their remoteness and natural beauty combined with an, at times, unforgiving landscape is the perfect place for a deep dark and brooding crime series and Halliday does that in this series. I'm posting these reviews to mark the publication of the second in the series which is called Dark Waters and am thrilled to say that I feel this series is going from strength to strength. So here are my reviews. Available here From the Shadows A chilling serial killer book, with a fabulous main character. I really love the fact that Monica Kennedy is so different from many detectives. She's an Amazon - at over six feet tall. As a bit of a short ass , I find it intriguing to get some insight into how she perceives herself because of her height. I think women do this to themselves regularly. However,  I digress - Kennedy is also a single parent with secrets regarding her baby's da...

Dear Reader ... My current book is entitled The Girl I Used to Be and is based around the life of a teacher, Stella Ingledew, who has managed to forge out a decent life for herself despite a tough upbringing. However, Stella has secrets hidden deep in her past, some of them buried so far down that she had forgotten they even existed until a series of sordid events forces her to delve back into her childhood to work out who is intent on wreaking revenge and trying to ruin her reputation. I think it is every author’s dream for one of their books to be made into a film or television drama and from the very outset I have always had one actor in mind to play any of my characters from any of my books and that is Tilda Swinton. She has such presence and can play a range of parts from feisty (The White Witch in the Chronicles of Narnia) to vulnerable (Eva Khatchadourian in We Need to Talk about Kevin) such is her adaptability and talent. Available here In The Girl I U...

Available here Always love reading a Kim Stone novel and Killing Mind is excellent - perhaps my favourite so far. But then again, I say that every time and Marson's writing just gets better and better. I always find the idea of a cult so creepy and I think Killing Mind encompasses that creepiness so well.  Here's the Blurb It had seemed so simple. Get in, get the information, get out. But now they were getting inside her mind and she didn’t know how to stop them… When  Detective Kim Stone  is called to the home of Samantha Brown, she finds the young woman lying in bed with her throat cut and a knife in her hand. With no sign of forced entry or struggle, Kim rules her death a tragic suicide. But a visit to Samantha’s parents rings alarm bells for Kim – there’s something they’re not telling her. And, when she spots a clue in a photograph, Kim realises she’s made a huge mistake. Samantha didn’t take her own life, she was murdered. Then a young man’s body is found in ...

It's with great pleasure that I welcome Duncan Brockwell to The Crime Warp.  D C Brockwell is a full time dental technician from Burgess Hill, West Sussex, an avid gardener and part-time mixologist, meaning he loves mixing cocktails of an evening for his wife, Beks.   He writes crime thrillers, horrors and romantic dramas.   His first book, The Southern Belles was self-published in July 2019, and has received positive feedback.   Since then, he signed a 3 book deal with Bloodhound Books for his Nasreen Maqsood series, the first of which will be released on Wednesday 8 th  July 2020, called No Way Out. Subsequent instalments, Bird of Prey and Bad Blood will be released on September 1 st  and November 9 th  respectively. On January 4 th , his birthday, and the day the story starts on, Mr Invisible will be released by Bloodhound, and will be his first standalone novel. Tell us a bit about your current book release – Available here No ...