The Crime Warp

To celebrate the publication of the paperback edition of Silent Scream on the 14th July join us on the 18th when Angela will be talking about:      You Know You're a Crime Writer When...        

How badly do you want to stay alive? To what lengths would you go to survive? Magnus, an aspiring comedian, goes on the run with a convicted felon dangerous enough to have been in solitary for three years. You think being falsely imprisoned as a rapist would be bad enough, but imagine escaping into a world where millions are dying from a terrible epidemic, ‘the sweats’, where everything that ever mattered is gone. At this point I’d have given up. But Magnus doesn’t want to die. He really doesn’t want to die. In the author’s words, ‘the only way to vanquish the sweats was to return to a point where life was sacred.’ Except it wasn’t. Gangs were roaming the countryside looting, raping, killing. Human evil and crime are inextricably linked and ubiquitous – even in an apocalypse. Nevertheless, when the world is burning, does justice even matter? After a thrilling prison break Magnus and his ruthless partner make it out of a burning, rioting London to the relative safety of the count...

Liz Mistry & Martyn Bedford  (MA Creative Writing Tutor LTU and YA author) When I first thought about doing the MA in Creative writing at Leeds Trinity University, I wasn't sure I'd be able to complete the course.  Suffering from severe depression that made it difficult for me to leave my bed, never mind my house for long periods of time, I knew this would be one of the most difficult things I ever did.  I didn't know it at the time but it would also prove to be one of the most fulfilling and beneficial things I've done for many years.

You know when you pick up a book that's full of great forensic facts, a touch of romance, a few murders and a damn good storyline  that its going to be a fast read ... and that's just what I felt when I read I've Been watching You.  KA Richardson has a deft touch with the plot twists and her characterization is great.

Can't believe it's almost that time of year again when the sun comes out and there's nothing but crime on everyone's minds.  Wine and beer flow, laughter floats on the air and all is well in the world.  The event you ask?  Well it's quite clearly Theakston's Old Peculier Crime writing Festival 21st -24h July 2016 Harrogate.

This novel is definitely not a ‘donkey at the Grand National’, as one critic once described crime fiction in relation to literature. If you like elegantly written mysteries with an international flavour, then the work of the award winning Argentine writer Claudia Pineiro is just the ticket. Betty Boo, the middle aged protagonist, is a previously successful author who is facing failure not only in her love life but in her career as a writer. Unable to start another book, she pays the bills by ghost writing for shallow celebrities. So when an unusual opportunity at a national paper presents itself, she can’t say no. After the death of a prominent industrialist, she is drafted in to provide a more literary take on events, to be published in parallel with the articles by a junior crime reporter. Set in the journalistic milieu of Buenos Aires, Claudia Pineiro uses her acute psychological understanding of human nature to strip bare editors and journalists alike. She dissects their ...

Once in a while you are lucky enough to come across a book so charming you immediately fall for it - a book with a cast of colourful characters so well drawn that you are immersed into the plot from the first page. How better to escape your every-day pressures, than a trip to Mumbai, India where you participate in the hunt for the famous Koh-i-Noor diamond, stolen in a brazen heist? ‘The most honest man in India’ is a hard label to live up to, but Inspector Ashwin Chopra (Retd) more than deserves it. Forced to take early retirement due to complex political machinations in the police force, Chopra sets up a private detective agency. When the Queen permits an exhibition of a selection of the British Crown Jewels with the famous Koh-i-Noor diamond as its centrepiece all of Mumbai is buzzing. Some Nationalists use this exhibition to advocate the return of the famous diamond to India, its country of origin. So who is to blame when the famous diamond is stolen? In a change from his us...