Tag: crime fiction

Private Eye meets Agatha Christie
What if the British people had been given a vote about invading Iraq in 2003. And the referendum split the nation with a 52% to 48% yes vote. A young activist is beaten to death after an anti-war demonstration. The police say her murder was random. It wasn’t. More activists will be murdered.
The activists only trust each other. Maybe that trust has already been betrayed. Witty, political and
provocative, this New Adult mystery is based on real events, and keeps the reader guessing to the very end.

Amazon UK (paperback)
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Michael Coolwood writes feminist cosy mysteries. His work is deeply political and his characters are
driven by a desire to make the world a better place. This is partly due to a respect for passionate, caring people, and partly because cuts to the health service in the UK have ensured he can barely leave the house due to his swamp of health problems. Read about his books and ongoing crises at
coolwoodbooks.com

Michael Coolwood

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Giveaway to Win a Paperback of Not in My Name by Michael Coolwood (UK Only) a Rafflecopter giveaway rules below.

My thoughts: this was a really interesting book, both in premise and in execution. The idea that a referendum on the Iraq War could be as aggressive and divisive as Brexit is very intriguing – and in this instance leads to shocking violence and tragedy.

It also draws on real events that were only brought to light in the early 2000s – and does so in a clever and compelling way. No spoilers here but I will say I am impressed with how it is done, reminding readers that there is injustice that still hasn’t been addressed.

The investigation that Phoebe and Sefu carry out among their fellow activists on the farm and how they learn the truth about Cassie’s death has an element of the Agatha Christie country house it-must-be-one-of-us stories, but the conclusion is both more shocking and sadder than anything Poirot could have found. A decision is made that will change some of the characters lives forever. I really enjoyed this thought provoking novel, its humour and pathos were engaging and entertaining while leaving plenty to ruminate on.

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

**UK entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the
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His biggest mistake was trusting someone he shouldn’t have…

When a body is found abandoned under a bridge, teeth and fingerprints removed, DCI Warren Jones and his team have little to go on. And once they finally identify the victim, the case doesn’t get any easier.

Estranged from his family but desperate to reconnect, the victim led a solitary life – apart from secretive liaisons with a series of partners he met online. Could one of them be guilty of his murder? Or does the truth lie closer to home?

The more Warren digs, the murkier the picture becomes – re-written family wills, sabotaged CCTV footage and black-market deals are just the beginning. Only one thing is for sure: whoever was behind the brutal murder, they carefully won the trust of their victim before ending his life…

My thoughts: a complex and clever case, where nothing is straightforward and there are more than a few suspects.

DCI Jones digs into the victim’s life as he hunts for a killer, finding a broken and bitter family with plenty of secrets and a double life that led to murder. Obsessed with spy films and living beyond his means, a desperately lonely man who didn’t have much in the way of friends or happiness, trying to keep his life from his unpleasant father and find a way to please him. There’s a knotty web to untangle to get to the truth and some other criminal activity comes to light as the case unfolds.

In a way the victim is very present throughout the story, despite it beginning with his death, Warren and his team have to dismantle all his carefully built secrets, the hotel room, hire car, credit cards that lead them to finally solving a case. It would help if the various suspects would just tell the truth, but that would make quite a dull story!

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

IT’S TIME FOR A NEW CRIME MYSTERY HERO

Dr Harrison Lane is everything you wouldn’t expect from a man with a psychology doctorate. For victims, he’s everything they need.
They look, but they don’t see…

As Head of the Metropolitan Police’s Ritualistic Behavioural Crimes Unit, Dr Harrison Lane knows his Voodoo from his Aum Shinrikyo and a Satanist from a Shaman.
Harrison had an unusual childhood, raised by a bohemian mother and one of the native American Shadow Wolves – the elite tracking squad that works with US Drug enforcers. After his mother’s murder, he dedicated his life to tracking down those who hide behind spiritualism and religion to do
evil.
Following the discovery of a missing boy’s body in what looks like a Satanic killing, Harrison is called in to help detectives. When a second boy is snatched, it becomes a race against time to save him, and sees Harrison come face-to-face with some dark secrets from his own childhood.
Preacher Boy is the first book in a gripping new crime mystery series from Amazon Top 20 bestselling
author, Gwyn GB. Perfect for fans of LJ Ross, JD Kirk, J.R. Ellis, J M Dalgliesh, Rachel Abbott, Joy Ellis and David Blake.

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Gwyn is an Amazon Top 20 bestselling author. She’s a former UK national TV newscaster and presenter, and journalist for national newspapers and magazines. Gwyn became a journalist because all she wanted to do was write and has finally realised her dream of being a full-time fiction author.
Born in the UK, Gwyn now lives in the Channel Islands with her family, including a rescue dog and 17-year-old goldfish.

Gwyn launched her debut novel, Islands as Gwyn Garfield-Bennett in 2016, the romantic suspense book rose quickly into the Amazon top 20. Her first crime mystery series, featuring DI Falle, launched with Lonely Hearts in 2017.
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My thoughts: this was a fast paced and clever police thriller, with a missing boy’s life at stake. The killer has a disturbing religious bent to his beliefs that he’s recreating in his crimes. Can Dr Harrison Lane decipher the clues and find the child in time?

Tense and gripping, the writing was so good I was completely hooked, this was a “can’t put it down” read.

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

Read my review of Into the Void, the author’s first novel.

A young woman has been murdered on Ripton Beach.
DSS ‘Archie’ Baldrick and DC Ben Travers eventually identify the body as that of Lucy Martin, who has been renting a bach in the area. Her husband, Oliver, seems to know very little about his wife or her background.
What was Lucy hiding? Why has she no family or friends?
As the number of suspects mounts up, Archie begins to conclude that the real answer lies in Lucy’s dark and mysterious past, and that the murderer may be just a little too close for comfort …

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Christina is a writer and professional proofreader living in the Waikato region of New Zealand. Four of her short stories have been published, one in a magazine and the others in anthologies produced by Page and Blackmore, Rangitawa Publishing and most recently in Fresh Ink: Voices from Aotearoa, produced by Cloud Ink Press.
As well as being a finalist in the 2020 Ngaio Marsh Awards, Christina’s first crime novel Into the Void was longlisted for the 2019 Michael Gifkins Memorial Prize for an unpublished novel.
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My thoughts: this was a clever and gripping thriller with plenty of red herrings and lots of mystery. Who is Lucy? Why would someone want to kill this former school teacher? There’s little to go on – she seems to have no past and no one really knew her, even her husband.

But slowly the case unrolls, and it spans three continents and thirty odd years. Proof you can never truly outrun your past.

The team of detectives are interesting and Archie is a bit distracted by his personal life to begin with, but is able to set things aside and hunt for the killer. His team might be small but they’re determined and hard working, even when the evidence seems sparse and the motive obscure. They felt quite realistic and Travers has a dry sense of humour, referring to his boss as “Turnip” but never to his face.

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

A MISSING GIRL. A RACE AGAINST TIME.
Ten-year-old Elodie Fry vanishes overnight, along with a rucksack filled with her meagre belongings.
Acting DI Gaby Darin and her team are fighting the clock to reunite Elodie with her distraught mother – but was Elodie kidnapped or did she run?
Later that day, a local undertaker uncovers a nasty surprise: the remains of an unidentified second
adult among a late pensioner’s ashes. Torn between the two investigations, Gaby decides the gruesome discovery at the crematorium must wait – the team are desperate to find Elodie before they lose her trail.
But as she follows the evidence, Gaby realises the two cases have a sinister connection… and there’s a killer on the loose.
Can Gaby find the missing girl alive… or is she already too late
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Born in Dublin, Jenny O’Brien moved to Wales and then Guernsey, where she tries to find time to write in between working as a nurse and ferrying around 3 teenagers.
In her spare time she can be found frowning at her wonky cakes and even wonkier breads. You’ll be
pleased to note she won’t be entering Bake-Off. She’s also an all-year-round sea swimmer. Readers can find out more about Jenny and her books on her blog and she can also be found on
Twitter and Instagram
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My thoughts: this was an enjoyable, solid police procedural. With several crimes being investigated, the team are flat out but slowly the connections are being made and there seems to be a link between some of the events.

It’s a race against time to find missing Ellie Fry, but there’s also a missing woman, a spare hip replacement (surely no one has 3 hips!) and Gaby still needs to send in her DI application form, if she ever finds time to fill it in.

Well written, with a strong narrative, interesting characters and lovely scenic Wales in the background, as murder and missing children take the detectives’ time and attention.

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

Welsh detective Winter Meadows takes on a new murder case.
There were a lot of things you could call Stacey Evans. And many of them would be true. And unprintable. But did she deserve to be murdered?
DI Winter Meadows has no doubt of the answer when he takes on the case.

The crime was violent.
The victim helpless. But the motives are many, and the only clue is a strange word left on Stacey’s body.
DI Meadows struggles to pierce the secrecy surrounding the teenager’s busy love life. Was the killer one of her pursuers acting out of jealousy? Maybe someone’s wife seeking revenge?

But as each suspect is excluded from the enquiry, and other markings turn up, Meadows is convinced that something more sinister is afoot.
When another body is found, a veil of silence descends like a fog upon Gaer Fawr. What more will it
take for the village to give up its secrets?

A KNOT OF SPARROWS is the fourth standalone title in a series of murder mysteries by best-selling
author Cheryl Rees-Price. It will appeal to fans of David Pearson, L J Ross, John Dean, Joy Ellis, and
Pippa McCathie.

• The full list of books is as follows:
• THE SILENT QUARRY
• FROZEN MINDS
• SUFFER THE CHILDREN
• A KNOT OF SPARROWS
  Cheryl Rees-Price is also the author of the standalone thriller BLUE HOLLOW.
  All of these books are FREE with Kindle Unlimited and available in paperback from Amazon.
  
  Amazon UK
  Amazon US

Cheryl Rees-Price was born in Cardiff and moved as a young child to a small ex-mining village on the edge of the Black Mountain range, South Wales, where she still lives with her husband, daughters and cats. After leaving school she worked as a legal clerk for several years before leaving to raise her two daughters.
Cheryl returned to education, studying philosophy, sociology, and accountancy whilst working as a
part time book keeper. She now works as a finance director for a company that delivers project
management and accounting services.
In her spare time Cheryl indulges in her passion for writing, the success of writing plays for local performances gave her the confidence to write her first novel. Her other hobbies include walking and gardening which free her mind to develop plots and create colourful characters.

The Book Folks

Cheryl Rees-Price

My thoughts: this was a solid police procedural crime thriller. The detectives were personable and easy to like as characters, none of them were a sort of Gene Hunt type, so I enjoyed following them as they solved the crimes and investigated the series of suspicious deaths in a village in Wales.

I did sort of guess the ending but it was very nicely done and the fact that they had so many suspects in some cases but virtually none in others made it interesting to see how a resolution could be reached and justice served.

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

A stalker. A popstar’s family murdered. A terrified photographer.

It’s thirty years since Becky White joined the police. Now, six months after leaving the force, she is
suffering from PTSD, when an old friend turns up with a tempting offer.
Following the creation of The White Knight Detective Agency, their first client is a press photographer – a member of the Paparazzi – a young woman with a mysterious and troublesome stalker.
But as the case develops, Becky and Joanna find themselves embroiled in murder. When they are unable to prevent further deaths, their investigation takes them down an unexpected path.
But can they trust their instinct? And will they identify the killer in time to save a child’s life?
Paparazzi, the second instalment in the bestselling Becky White Thriller series. takes you on a journey into the deceptive world of superstars – and those who follow them!

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Jo Fenton grew up in Hertfordshire, UK. She devoured books from an early age, particularly enjoying adventure books, school stories and fantasy. She wanted to be a scientist from aged six after being given a wonderful book titled “Science Can Be Fun”. At eleven, she discovered
Agatha Christie and Georgette Heyer, and now has an eclectic and much loved book collection cluttering her home office.
Jo combines an exciting career in Clinical Research with an equally exciting but very different career
as a writer of psychological thrillers.
When not working, she runs (very slowly), and chats to lots of people. She lives in Manchester with her husband, two sons, a Corgi and a tankful of tropical fish. She is an active and enthusiastic member of two writing groups and a reading group.
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My thoughts: this was an interesting crime novel, and I couldn’t guess the killer, which is always a good thing. As ex-copper turned PI, Becky is a fascinating character, she no longer has the powers to arrest she once had or the resources, but she’s still clever and has a nose for detection. Her colleagues Joanna and Will are able to assist and are as brave as she is, which comes in handy when confronting a murderer.

The only thing that jarred a bit for me was the inclusion of either MI5 or 6, looking to recruit Becky, they got in the way a bit and it wasn’t fully explained as to what they wanted, I found Roger a bit too pompous and oblique. Hopefully in the next book this plot line is expanded upon and makes a bit more sense as I got a bit fed up every time the investigation got a bit sidetracked.

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

**Terms and Conditions –Worldwide entries welcome. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and wil lnot be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random
Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.