The Crime Warp

Eileen Wharton, in case you hadn't twigged, is  one  of  the  funniest most endearing people I've ever interviewed.  She possesses that rare combination of humerous self- deprecation and incisive wit.  She has an eye for both the amusing and the sinister... and judging by some of her answers, her favourite song should be ' Little Old Gin Drinker Me!'   It's only 9AM and we've already cracked a bpttle! Please give a huge welcome to Eileen Wharton. This is a whammy of an interview.

Don't you just love it when an author interview throws up  a  wee snippet you least expect?  Well, debut author Lesley Kelly certainly surprised me with a few of her answers.  Please welcome Lesley to The Crime Warp where we are currently drinking coffee and eating Tunnocks caramel logs ... if you've never tasted one  I insist you go out now and buy some... fantastic creation!

A while ago I reviewed Spook Street by Mick Herron, and when I came across Deep Undercover , I thought that a book about real life espionage would be an interesting read. Jack Barsky’s real name is Albrecht Dittrich, an East German who was studying to be a chemistry professor, when in 1970 the East German authorities asked him to become a spy.   The KGB trained him to be an undercover agent in America, whose mission was to become integrated into American society and get close to the national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski.    Once in America, Barsky was basically left to fend for himself.   His first job was as a bicycle courier, with night school learning to be a computer programmer, working his way up in a life insurance company through diligence and talent.   His cover was compromised in 1988, but he refused to leave America because of his American family and was eventually caught by the FBI.   Barsky provided the FBI with information about his undercover

Available on Amazon Click  here I made the very silly mistake of starting  You Can Run by Steve Mosby, whilst on a writing retreat on my own in a remote Lancashire cottage in the middle of the night with the rain pounding the windows.... I did not sleep well!  And that's exactly why I would recommend this book (albeit with the caveat - don't read it in solitude!) for anybody with a fascination for a good serial killer read.

Our latest author interview on The Crime Warp is with Chris Brookmyre, who has published a total of 22 books and ebooks since his first book, Quite Ugly One Morning in 1996.  His latest novel Want You Gone is the final book in a Jack Parlabane trilogy that started with Dead Girl Walking in 2015, followed a year later by Black Widow , which won the McIlvanney Prize.  R – Hello Chris, welcome to The Crime Warp.  I’ve seen some reviews of Want You Gone , which have described your latest book as a technothriller.  Is that something you set out to write?   CB – No, I’d definitely shy away from calling it a technothriller, that would be to really misunderstand what the book is about.  There’s a perception that hacking or anything to do with hacking is ultra-modern, but if you look at the books you’ve just referenced – Dead Girl Walking and Black Widow , hacking is actually an old crime – if you look at hacking – it’s not about computers and code it’s actually about psy