Tag: crime fiction

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.

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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.

Ten years have passed since Isla Frost left the family manor. The past; a hidden memory comes to her in jolts. She blames one man for all that has happened. Her father, a cold brittle man who is now facing his mortality. Isla has returned to care for him. However, things are about to take a dark sinister turn.

A body has been found. Deep beneath the rocks of a cut off underpass. The rotten corpse of a long forgotten victim. So begins a quest for truth that will have Isla questioning everybody and everything she knows.

Old friendships are tested, family ties unbound, and Isla finds herself in the mouth of danger. What happened to her mother? Is her father a killer? How many other people need to die to protect a killer?

A tense stand-alone novel that lurks on the periphery of the haunted house genre, ‘Whispers,’ will delve into the secrets of the past to unveil a murderous conspiracy.

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Billy McLaughlin is a Scottish born writer with 8 books currently under his belt. Four of the books, including 2019’s serial killer thriller, ‘Four,’ are part of the DI Phil Morris Mysteries. His first full length novel, ‘Lost Girl,’ arrived in May 2016 and has gone on to achieve more than 15,000 downloads. The follow up, ‘In the Wake of Death,’ has received rave reviews for it’s dark tone and psychological elements.

His most downloaded book came in the form of 2017’s, ‘The Dead of Winter,’ a novella that focuses as much on the broken relationships of a small community as it does the crime itself. One reader described it as being like ‘a full series of Broadchurch.’ Once again, praise was leveled at the atmospheric tone with another reader suggesting that the material would work well as a movie.

Billy is passionate about reading but recognises the need for bite-sized thrillers for people who enjoy reading but simply don’t have the time. As he begins works on his ninth book, he finds himself even more excited about the writing process. ‘The Blood Runs Darker,’ arrived in December 2020. A new collection of short stories arrived in December 2021 and his 11th publication, ‘Whispers,’ came along on Christmas Day 2021.

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My thoughts: this was a really clever, gripping thriller about (literally) buried secrets and how a family history full of gaps can slowly erode love. Isla can barely remember her mother and has long blamed her distant father for this, but he truly loves his daughter, just lacking the means to express it. Returning to the family home to see him before he dies, brings up all sorts of questions and complex emotions.

But then human remains are found on the family’s land and a whole world of secrets come to light. People are spiralling, there’s a madman wandering the woods with a gun, and a detective trying to figure out how all the pieces, and people, fit together.

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

Music of the Night is a new anthology of original short stories contributed by Crime Writer’s Association (CWA) members and edited by Martin Edwards, with music as the connecting theme. The aim, as always is to produce a book which is representative both of the genre and the membership of the world’s premier crime writing association. The CWA has published anthologies of members’ stories in most years since 1956 with Martin Edwards as editor for over 25 years during which time the anthologies have yielded many award-winning and nominated stories by writers such as Ian Rankin, Reginald Hi l, Lawrence Block, and Edward D. Hoch. Stories by long-standing authors and ste lar names sit alongside contributions from relative newcomers, authors from overseas, and members whose work haven’t appeared in a CWA anthology before. Among the gifted stars of today whose fiction featured in a CWA anthology at an early stage of their crime writing careers are Mick Herron, Frank Ta lis, and Sarah Hilary. It isn’t a closed shop, and never has been.

FLAME TREE PRESS is the imprint of long-standing independent Flame Tree Publishing, dedicated to fu l-length original fiction in the horror and suspense, science fiction & fantasy, and crime / mystery / thri ler categories. The list brings together fantastic new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices. Learn more about Flame Tree Press at http://www.flametreepress.com and connect on social media @FlameTreePress

Martin Edwards (Editor) is the author of eighteen novels, including the Lake District Mysteries, and the Harry Devlin series. His ground-breaking genre study The Golden Age of Murder has won the Edgar, Agatha, and H.R.F. Keating awards. He has edited twenty eight crime anthologies, has won the CWA Short Story Dagger and the CWA Margery A lingham Prize, and is series consultant for the British Library’s Crime Classics. In 2015, he was elected eighth President of the Detection Club, an office previously held by G.K. Chesterton, Agatha Christie, and Dorothy L. Sayers.

The CWA (Crime Writers’ Association) was founded in 1953 by John Creasey, and organises the prestigious CWA Dagger Awards which celebrate the best in crime writing. The CWA is a pro-active, thriving and ever-expanding community of writers based in the UK but with a reach that extends worldwide.

My thoughts: I really enjoyed this collection of short crime stories, all linked by the theme of music. From murderous composers to tragic lives with a singular song as their backdrop. As a musical theatre fan, the title did remind me of a certain murderous Phantom, which was amusing.

There are short stories from existing series’ as well as standalones, but nothing you need to have read beforehand to enjoy these tales. Unless you want to! All of the authors are experts in their field and their victims, musicians, fans, or even just very annoying neighbours, all meet their ends in suitably macabre and definite ways. Perfect for crime fiction fans, whatever your preferred sub-genre.

*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 first book in the Shady Hollow series, in which we are introduced to the village of Shady Hollow, a place where woodland creatures live together in harmony—until a curmudgeonly toad turns up dead and the local reporter has to solve the case.

Reporter Vera Vixen is a relative newcomer to Shady Hollow. The fox has a nose for news, so when she catches wind that the death might be a murder, she resolves to get to the bottom of the case, no matter where it leads. As she stirs up still waters, the fox exposes more than one mystery, and discovers that additional lives are in jeopardy.

Vera finds more to this town than she ever suspected. It seems someone in the Hollow will do anything to keep her from solving the murder, and soon it will take all of Vera’s cunning and quickness to crack the case.

Juneau Black is the pen name of authors Jocelyn Cole and Sharon Nagel. They share a love of excellent bookshops, fine cheeses, and good murders (in fictional form only). Though they are two separate people, if you ask either of them a question about their childhood, you are likely to get the same answer. This is a little unnerving for any number of reasons.

My thoughts: this was a delightfully quirky read, all the characters are animals but it reads like noir. Think Disney’s Zootopia crossed with Philip Marlowe with lashings of humour. Vera Vixen is a great protagonist, a sharp eyed reporter with a nose for a good story, she’s first on the scene and determined to investigate and find the killer. Especially as the tiny police department are a little slow on the uptake.

Enlisting her friend, Lenore the bookshop owning raven, as her sidekick, she sets about checking the town’s alibis, but since everyone seems to have been home alone, there’s not a lot to go on. But she’s tenacious and brave, putting herself at risk to get the scoop and solve the case.

I really enjoyed this clever, fun book and can’t wait to read the rest of the series.

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

One weekend, while Andrew Mason was on a fishing trip, his wife, Brie, vanished without a trace. Most everyone assumed Andy had got away with murder—it’s always the husband, isn’t it?—but the police could never build a strong case against him. For a while, Andy hit rock bottom—he drank too much to numb the pain, was abandoned by all his friends save one, nearly lost his business, and became a pariah in the place he once called home.

Now, six years later, Andy has finally put his life back together. He sold the house he once shared with Brie and moved away. Truth to tell, he wasn’t sad to hear that the old place was razed and a new house built on the site. He’s settled down with a new partner, Jayne, and life is good.

But Andy’s peaceful world is about to shatter. One day, a woman shows up at his old address, screaming, “Where’s my house? What’s happened to my house?” And then, just as suddenly as she appeared, the woman—who bears a striking resemblance to Brie—is gone. The police are notified and old questions—and dark suspicions—resurface. 

Could Brie really be alive after all these years? If so, where has she been? It soon becomes clear that Andy’s future, and the lives of those closest to him, depends on discovering what the hell is going on. The trick will be whether he can stay alive long enough to unearth the answers. 

My thoughts: I could not figure out where this one was going. It just seemed so weird. Brie disappears and then six years later a woman who looks just like her appears outside her old house. Then she vanishes again. But can it really be Brie?

Both her husband Andy, and the detective who has been investigating the case want answers and the truth is stranger than they could imagine. Who could have done all of this and why? Andy’s new life could be torn apart by this and he just wants to close the chapter and move on with girlfriend Jayne. The answers are shocking and also quite sad as the people involved were ones he thought he could trust.

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