Tag: crime fiction

Worn down by a job he hates, and a stressful family life, middle-aged, middleclass Bradley picks up a teenage escort and commits an unspeakable crime. Now she’s tied up in his warehouse, and he doesn’t know what to do. Max is homeless, eating from rubbish bins, sleeping rough and barely existing – known for cadging a cigarette from anyone passing, and occasionally even the footpath. Nobody really sees Max, but he has one friend, and she’s gone missing. In order to find her, Max is going to have to call on some people from his past, and reopen wounds that have remained unhealed for a very long time – and the clock is ticking…

Publication coincides with International Women’s Month and Homeless Women’s Day, with a percentage of profits to SHELTER

Vanda Symon is a crime writer, TV presenter and radio host from Dunedin, New Zealand, and the chair of the Otago Southland branch of the New Zealand Society of Authors. The Sam Shephard series, which includes Overkill, The Ringmaster, Containment and Bound, hit number one on the New Zealand bestseller list, and has also been shortlisted for the Ngaio Marsh Award. Overkill was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger. Twitter @vandasymon, Instagram @vanda-symon, Facebook, @vandasymonauthor, www.vandasymon.com.

My thoughts: It’s easy to imagine that violent criminals are different from ordinary people, that no one with a 9 to 5 job, a family, a suburban life could do anything terrible. But that’s just not true. Behind that Pleasantville facade can be some really twisted people.

Billy is a street kid, doing what she has to in order to survive after being kicked out by her parents. Max is also homeless. They look out for each other, and when she goes missing, he’s the only one who cares. And he will do anything to find her.

Max is a fascinating character, there’s something sad and lost about him, and as his story is revealed, you understand why he’s so broken. But he’s also kind and loyal and he cares so much for Billy, she reminds him of someone he lost. Billy is street tough, brave, resourceful and terrified. I rooted for them both the whole time, hoping their story would end well. Bradley however, can get in the bin. What an awful creep. A very angry, disturbed man. I felt sorry for his family.

What follows is a clever, twisted tale of a good man using whatever resources he can, including turning to people he never thought he’d see again, to save an innocent life. Although he doesn’t know it, there is a deadline as Bradley’s rage and desperation to avoid being caught build. It’s also the story of a brave and rather incredible young woman who won’t be a victim and is channelling her grandmother’s love to stay alive and find a way to fight back.

I do sometimes wonder where crime writers get their ideas and characters from, especially the awful ones. Plumbing the depths of human depravity needs to be offset by the Maxs and Billys of this world. Good people in bad places. A hope of redemption and a fresh start.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own

Keep your enemies close
But keep your friends closer…

Six women:

Each receive a copy of an old school group photo, in which their own face has been savagely scratched out.
Within a week, two of the women are dead.


Detective Sergeant Tina Bassett:

Known to colleagues as the Hound, she believes both women were murdered by the same person and that someone is intent on killing off the class of 98 one by one ..

As the death toll rises , DS Bassett finds herself in a desperate race against time, as she delves deeper into the past to help uncover the catalyst to the unfolding rampage in the present.

Will she succeed in stopping a killer hell bent on having their revenge ?

Or will the class of 98 finally pay their price ..

Bad Sweet Things is the new gripping Irish Crime thriller from Maria Hoey, perfect for fans of Jane Casey , Claire McGowan and Claire Allan.

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Maria is an author and poet from Dublin, Ireland.  Her poetry has appeared in Ireland’s foremost poetry publication, Poetry Ireland. Her short stories have featured in various publications and been shortlisted for a number of awards.  

In 2017, Maria’s debut novel, The Last Lost Girl was published by Poolbeg Press, and went on to be shortlisted for the Kate O’Brien Debut Award 2018.  

Maria’s second novel, On Bone Bridge was published by Poolbeg in 2018. She has also had a book for children published by Poolbeg in 2019, The Little Book of Irish Saints. 

Bad Sweet Things was published in 2021 and listed in the Amazon Kindle Bestseller chart (Irish Crime).

Maria has one daughter, Rebecca, and lives in Portmarnock, Co Dublin, with her husband, Garrett, and their moustachioed cat, Midge.

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My thoughts: teenage girls are monsters and what these women did back when they were teenagers was pretty awful, it went beyond the usual bullying and became something far nastier. It’s finally come back to haunt them, someone wants them to pay for their crimes. Or these are just unfortunate accidents – as DS Bassett’s boss, known as Colonel Mustard (he’s called Coleman) would prefer. But Tina knows there’s something a bit off about these things, something isn’t right and she’s determined to prove it.

Clever, twisting and gripping this really makes you rethink the way you might have behaved and whether someone might be coming for you! Tina is a great character, tenacious and smart, she follows her gut and chases the tiniest scraps of evidence to try to prevent more deaths before it’s too late.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

Nobody can get into the mind of an erratic killer—except an unpredictable detective.

When a young man is found lying on a station platform with a hole in his head, DI Kate Young is called in to investigate the grisly murder. But the killing is no one-off. As bodies start to pile up, she is faced with what might be an impossible task—to hunt down a ruthless killer on a seemingly random rampage.

Meanwhile, Kate has her own demons to battle as she struggles to come to terms with her husband’s death. And she is hell-bent on exposing corruption within the force and bringing Superintendent John Dickson to justice. But with the trail of deception running deeper—and closer to home—than she could ever have imagined, she no longer knows who she can trust.

With her grip on reality slipping, Kate realises that maybe she and the killer are not so different after all. But time is running out and Kate is low on options. Can she catch the killer before she loses everything?

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USA Today bestselling author and winner of The People’s Book Prize Award, Carol Wyer’s crime novels have sold over one million copies and been translated into nine languages. 

A move from humour to the ‘dark side’ in 2017, saw the introduction of popular DI Robyn Carter in Little Girl Lost and proved that Carol had found her true niche.

February 2021 saw the release of the first in the much-anticipated new series, featuring DI Kate Young. An Eye For An Eye was chosen as a Kindle First Reads and became the #1 bestselling book on Amazon UK and Amazon Australia. 

Carol has had articles published in national magazines ‘Woman’s Weekly’, featured in ‘Take A Break’, ‘Choice’, ‘Yours’ and ‘Woman’s Own’ magazines and the Huffington Post. She’s also been interviewed on numerous radio shows discussing ”Irritable Male Syndrome’ and ‘Ageing Disgracefully’ and on BBC Breakfast television.

She currently lives on a windy hill in rural Staffordshire with her husband Mr. Grumpy… who is very, very grumpy. When she is not plotting devious murders, she can be found performing her comedy routine, Smile While You Still Have Teeth.

To learn more, go to http://www.carolwyer.co.uk, subscribe to her YouTube channel, or follow her on Twitter: @carolewyer

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My thoughts: as Kate continues her secret investigation into Superintendent Dickson (Book Two – A Cut for a Cut) a series of shocking and unexplainable murders. Starting with a body at the train station, shot with a bolt gun, no witnesses, no suspects. Kate and her team are racing against time to find the killer and stop more people from dying.

This was really clever, the way the case flips between the killer and Kate’s viewpoints and the lack of evidence makes her situation more complicated as the evil Superintendent won’t give her more resources or support. I really like this series and I want Kate to succeed and bring him down, despite the odds stacked against her.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

Rose Starling, abused wife, is living on benefits with her three children on an estate in a small town near Newcastle. Trying to keep one step ahead of the tallyman she dances in the shadows of various illegal dealings.

She’s got problems though when bits of her ex-husband keep turning up in different places and the slimey DI Savage seems to be bending the evidence to link her to the murder.

Adding to her troubles, she has to work in a topless bar to make ends meet and she’s being pressured into taking a “ job” for hard as nails Vera Devlin from the estate.

Desperate to extricate herself from the mess, she breaks into her old marital home to find the diary of her dead husband, setting off an explosive chain of events.

Set against a backdrop of Northern council estate life, this fast-paced, gritty, humorous novel exemplifies the problems caused by poverty, piles and unruly children.

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Eileen Wharton is an Oscar winning actress, Olympic gymnast, and Influencer. She also tells lies for a living. Her first novel was published in 2011 to worldwide critical acclaim. And she’s won awards for exaggeration. It did top the Amazon humour chart so she’s officially a best-selling author. She currently has five ‘lively’ offspring ranging from thirty-three to fourteen years of age, and has no plans to procreate further, much to the relief of the local schools and police force. She lives on a council estate in County Durham. She has never eaten kangaroo testicles, is allergic to cats and has a phobia of tinned tuna. She’s retired from arguing with people on the internet.

Follow her at: Twitter Facebook Instagram

My thoughts: darkly comic and peopled with real characters (I loved Rose’s friends Mags and Elsie next door), this is a look at life that’s raw and frankly a bit terrifying. Rose’s mean ex-husband has left her with no money but three children to raise, walking a tightrope between poverty and crime, struggling to get by. She takes on various iffy cash in hand jobs to supplement the scraps of benefits and even then she’s searching down the back of the sofa for bus fare.

After her ex gets murdered and the creepy police detective starts hanging about, she’s under pressure from the local gangster family to do a few jobs or else. Her boss also seems to be taking an interest in her.

Bits of this were hilarious and silly, but other bits were quite dark and sad. Rose hasn’t had an easy life and all she really wants is for things to go right for once. Three children is a lot for anyone and she’s totally alone apart from her friends. But as things escalate she discovers she’s not quite as unlucky as she thought and being resourceful and quite clever, she comes up with a plan to make things go right.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

The second book in the Shady Hollow series, in which some long-buried secrets come to light, throwing suspicion on a beloved local denizen.

It’s autumn in Shady Hollow, and residents are looking forward to harvest feasts. But then a rabbit discovers a grisly crop: the bones of a moose.

Soon, the owner of Joe’s Mug is dragged out of the coffeeshop and questioned by the police about the night his wife walked out of his life—and Shady Hollow—forever. It seems like an open-and-shut case, but dogged reporter Vera Vixen doesn’t believe gentle Joe is a killer. She’ll do anything to prove his innocence … even if it means digging into secrets her neighbors would rather leave buried.

My thoughts: as you can probably tell from my review of the previous book in this series, this is a lot of fun. With a cast made up of animals, it’s Farthing Wood for grown ups, there’s murder but instead of making me cry, it’s highly entertaining. Vera Vixen is an excellent protagonist with a nose for a story. Aided by Lenore the raven bookshop owner, and sometimes by police deputy Orville, she’s digging deep into Shady Hollow’s past.

Moose aren’t particularly aggressive, except during mating season (so says the internet) so Vera’s instincts about Joe are probably spot on, and it would be incredibly callous to keep making apple pies from the trees above his missing wife’s grave. But what does newcomer Octavia Grey have to do with any of this? And why does Vera’s boss seem so keen on her? Vera will get to the bottom of this, she’s certain.

Another excellent outing for the fox who won’t give up, and the rest of the quiet town, that’s got plenty of secrets. I would also appreciate a recipe book from the town’s resident panda chef Sun Li please. Reading this made me really hungry!

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.