The Crime Warp

A different class of spy (guest reviewer Sylvia Campbell) Let me make it clear, I am all for bloody murder but loathe dystopian science fiction and, just as much, Dickensian poverty, filth and misery. It´s just not my thing. So when a crime book featuring poverty stricken street urchins in miserable turn of the century London was put into my hands I was not full of the joys of reading. Trust me, when I first opened the covers this book, the first crime novel by H. B. Lyle, it was an exercise of duty. After page 3 I could not put the damn thing down. I hunkered down with it every free minute of the day, delayed turning out the lights at night until my eyes went on strike and snuck it out of my bag in every queue I had to stand in.  Following the story of Wiggins, former street urchin and leader of the ´Baker Street Irregulars- clever, poor and trained by Sherlock Holmes- was addictive. Wiggins, now a hardened former soldier, street fighter and reluctant bailiff wi...

This book goes down like an ice cold lager on an infernally hot day. If you like your men tough and your women even tougher take yourself down the hot dusty roads of Mississippi to experience a decent, straight talking Sherriff taking on dangerous brothel madams, former armed forces colleagues, slick criminals and crooked politicians. Or, as the author puts it “It´s just getting good, Lil”, he said. “Everything we have been fighting for. All those people who want to turn back the clock to the bad ole days. The users, the racists, the peckerheads who praise Jesus but loot our land and people. We got ´em”. But does he? Or is his colleague the sharp shooting Lillie right when she says, “It´s over, kemosabe”. “Those fuckers had us beat before we even got started.” To find out you will just have to dive into ´The Fallen´ and take yourself to Jericho, Mississippi. Ace Atkins, an American journalist nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, is now a full-time crime writer who lives in Oxford, M...

  How exciting is that? The competition for first-time unpublished writers has selected Caz Frear´s thriller Sweet Little Lies for the podium spot. Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, who described Frear as “an exciting new talent” and praised her for her “storytelling ability, distinctive foice and fantastic grasp of character” have offered Caz, in association with WH Smith and publishers Bonnier Zaffre a publishing contract, representation from literary agency Furniss Lawton and assurance that her books will be stocked in WH Smith stores across the country. For this unmissable read, set in contemporary London with flashbacks to late 1990s Ireland, police detective Cat Kinsella investigates the murder of Alice Lapaine, who is discovered near the pub Cat´s father runs. Evidence emerges that links Alice to a girl who went missing in Ireland 18 years before… Sylvia Campbell from the Crime Warp team interviewed the budding new author: Hi Caz, it's great to be Crime Warpin...

Do you have a favourite piece of clothing? A wonderful old sweater say, warm and cozy – one that you ditch your stylish suits for the minute you walk in the door? One that you wear for comfort simply because it just feels so damn good? Well ´A good thief´s guide to Amsterdam´ is a book just like this sweater. It is not a cutting edge police procedural, it is not laced with current fads like supernatural… it is not even terribly gritty. It is just a wonderful moreish good read – a book with the easy feel good factor so needed in our challenging times. A book that you pick the moment you walk in the door and one that you cozy up with on a wet afternoon. Actually you may even wish for a wet afternoon to have the slightly guilty pleasure of a good long read.