The Crime Warp

I first heard of Mark a couple of years ago when I downloaded Killing Cupid onto my Kindle.   He and his writing partner Louise Voss have had great success, not just with Killing Cupid but also with their subsequent novels; Catch your Death and All Fall Down.   Last year I had the great pleasure to hear him speak at the Harrogate Crime writers Festival. His solo novel, The Magpies, is released on Amazon on Today!!!!!    (25th March).    About Mark; Q1.      Tell us about Mark? A1.      I grew up in Hastings, the kind of depressed seaside town that Morrissey sang about in ‘Every day is like Sunday’, a place with no jobs and where the locals are supposedly cursed by Alastair Crowley to never leave. Doing possibly the two worst jobs in the world in my twenties – answering complaints for the Child Support Agency and a rail company – I saw writing as an escape route and began writing novels. Fifteen years, several agents and countless rejections later, I had

Here’s my March post, highlighting some of the books I’ve got on my reading list.   This month’s choices mix a very well established author, a new author and a curiously captivating whodunit set in 1930’s Moscow.   I’m so taken by these three books, that I’ll be posting full reviews of each one in the coming months. Romancrimeblogger Just out - 14 March 2013 – Bleed Like Me by Cath Staincliffe I posted a positive review of Cath Staincliffe’s Scott and Bailey prequel last year and was delighted to see a second book in the series.   The plot in this second novel revolves around trying to find a missing father and his two sons, as the father is linked with three murder victims found stabbed in their beds.   The case is made more complex by the personal lives of the investigating trio of Scott, Bailey and their DCI Gill Murray, all of whom are struggling to deal with personal crises whilst trying to find out where the missing family has got to.   I’m not sure yet how this boo

Kiss And Die by Lee Weeks Lee Weeks resides in Devon but has spent long periods in Hong Kong.   Her detective, Johnny Mann, has an English mother and a Hong Kong triad boss (now deceased) father.                In Kiss and Die , Mann investigates the Triads new brand of recruits – The Outcasts, who are causing mayhem in Hong Kong’s poor areas- The Mansions.   Alongside this Johnny also has the problem of dealing with his dead father’s business empire with pressure from Triad bosses to amalgamate with them.   The discovery of a decapitated head links to the death of a young girl at an Outcast initiation ceremony and so begins the search for a female serial killer who targets adulterous business men visiting Hong Kong.                  Weeks weaves the plot together seamlessly creating a real feel for the less salubrious ide of Hong Kong life.   Her research into Triads and Oriental martial Arts weapons is detailed and I found it compelling to see a Police Officer t

Die Easy by Zoe Sharp             She’s done it again – Zoe Sharp has created another fast paced, thrilling Charlie Fox novel.               In Die Easy, Sean Meyer, having come out of his coma has now been deemed fit for service.   The problem is, Meyer has considerable memory loss and his memory of Charlie is from when they were estranged.               Charlie, uncertain about Sean’s fitness for work and concerned by his attitude to her is annoyed when they are sent to protect a client who is endorsing a huge charity fundraiser in New Orleans- a supposedly easy gig.             However when they become targeted by outlaws and their client refuses to withdraw, Charlie and Sean have their work cut out, especially when it seems that the guilty party could be closer than they think and the plot wider than they imagine.   It also appears that a gap in Seans memory surrounding one of the suspects could hold an important clue             In this book we see Charlie fac

The Dark Winter by David Mark A friend and I were discussing how Ian Rankin gave the city of Edinburgh a multi-faceted character.   A few days later I picked up The Dark Winter by David Mark and discovered that this debut author had ‘ done a Rankin’ on Hull.             From his descriptions of Hull’s dying Trawler trade and it’s adverse effect on Hull as a city,   to the nostalgia of his cobbled streets and café’s and the contrast between the new built box houses, the large houses on Hull’s periphery and the run down housing estates in the city centre, Marks creates a three dimensional Hull.             The story line is about a series of murders with links to Hull which have only one common denominator: The victim has previously escaped a death similar to the one which now claims them.   DS McAvoy a large Scottish man with a backstory that makes him unpopular with his colleagues, after research determines that the next victim will be a girl who escaped death in Iraq

  The Crime Warp celebrates International Women’s Day 2013                 International women’s day celebrates the various ongoing achievements of women.  In the crime fiction arena, with the likes of Agatha Christie leading the way we have a strong base for women writer's to come to the fore.  In fact there are so many female crime fiction writer's nowadays that we, at the crime warp,  are reluctant to attempt to enumerate them and their achievements.   Instead, we've opted to delve into the realms of the women characters  created by a some of these extremely talented women writer's.   This list is by no means conclusive and we’d welcome any additions you readers can add to our list. Christie at work Miss Marple by Agatha Christie    No list of women detectives would be complete without representation from Agatha Christie.   Her Miss Marple is an iconic figure in the land of crime fiction (or indeed St Mary’s Mead).   This septuagenarian spinster

Note: Any review about this book is, by necessity, going to be enigmatic because it has so many twists and turns in it that it would be impossible to do a detailed review without giving away a spoiler or ten! The novel is set in Missouri, US and has a three act structure. Basically, it is the story of a woman who disappears, in suspicious circumstances, on her fifth wedding anniversary.  The story is narrated alternately by her husband Nick and by Amy herself.  When it is Nick telling the story, we are in the present and following events as they unfold.  Amy’s voice comes from her diary and progresses from five years previously up to her disappearance. The book started quite slowly for me and indeed I had one false start where I read a couple of chapters and then put it down for several weeks before starting again.  For anyone else reading the book, my advice is to keep reading because this is one of these books which gains momentum as it progresses and by the time I was hal