Clare MacKintosh: I See You Sunday, Feb 26 2017 

complex mystery and great read and mystery to die for and police thriller Auntie M Writes Crime 12:01 am

i-see-you

After Clare MacKintosh’s I Let You Go comes the chilling tale of an average woman in an average town, where nothing about her life becomes average at all, in I See You.

Zoe Walker has two children still living at home and a partner who adores her. She’s even civil with her ex, after a failed marriage. Working means a long commute into London, which she uses to people-watch and she passes the time reading magazines and newspapers.

Then an ad catches her eye: is that her own picture staring back at her from the site FindTheOne.com? What starts out as a possible mistake soon turns into something much more, when Zoe’s nervousness at the ad has her scouring back issues and she uncovers sees a pattern. Other women whose photos were in these ads were raped, had their houses broken into, or worse–were murdered.

Kelly Swift it a policewoman on a mission, determined to show her superiors she’s learned from an early mistake when she let her rage get the best of her when dealing with a rapist. After time spent paying her dues on different details, she begs for a chance to prove herself once she and Zoe convince the powers-that-be that these cases are connected.

They soon uncover that these women were stalked by people who pay into a website to gain their daily routine. It’s a nightmarish concept that has Zoe and everyone around her looking over their shoulders.

This is a multi-layered story, with Kelly’s as strong as Zoe’s, and interlaced with snippets of the voice of the person behind the scheme. Soon Zoe doesn’t trust anyone, and the spectacular twist at the end evolves into a double twist.

MacIntosh’s twelve years on the police force give her police scenes authenticity, whether Kelly is dealing with police politics or interviewing a suspect in the custody suite.

Readers won’t be able to put down this accomplished psychological thriller.

As a special treat, here’s a short video of Clare MacKintosh talking about her first piece of writing and the surprises of a writer’s life:

https://youtu.be/bY0ku9BwfcU

 

Lori L. Robinett: Fatal Obsession Wednesday, Feb 22 2017 

mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:14 am

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I am so excited to announce that Fatal Obsession, my new thriller, just launched (the paperback will be released on February 25, 2017)! All formats are available HERE.
As you may know, Fatal Obsession is a Widow’s Web novel – an thrilling series where women face challenges that threaten to destroy them, just as they begin to find the strengths within them.

Sophie grew up in the foster care system, an orphan separated from her brother after their parents are killed. After she marries Blake Kendrick and gets pregnant, she’s thrilled to have a family of her own. When she learns that her husband, a brilliant cancer researcher, has experimented on their unborn child, her fairytale shatters and the nightmare begins.

The powerful man her husband works for is determined to use the research within Sophie’s body to save his dying mother. Sophie runs, terrified of what might be growing within her, worried that her baby might need treatment by the very man who is hunting them. The survival skills she learned in foster care serve her well as she must discriminate between who she can trust and who she can’t, who is a real friend and who is a threat. All the while, an experiment grows within her . . . will they escape?

Want a sneak peek?

Almost in slow motion, the SUV floated across the rain-slicked blacktop, into the other lane.

“Shit,” Blake muttered. “Hang on. We’re hydroplaning.”

The tail end of the Grand Cherokee whipped around as Blake spun the steering wheel. A brief flash of craggy rocks flashed across her field of vision, trees, then blackness. The next thing she knew, the Grand Cherokee sat sideways on the narrow road, the front bumper only a few feet from a huge boulder jutting up out of the trees. The dark ribbon of river flowed behind it.

Suddenly, she remembered.
The baby!

She cradled her stomach and held her breath for a moment, waiting to feel movement. Surely she’d know if the baby was hurt. Somehow, someway, she would know, wouldn’t she? The seat belt was still tucked securely under her bump, but she ran one hand along the strap. Her shoulder hurt where the belt had grabbed her, as did her chest. She closed her eyes and imagined her baby safely ensconced in her womb. She might’ve been sloshed around a bit, but she was well protected.

She swept her hair back over her shoulders, then swiveled her head to look at Blake. His hands still gripped the steering wheel, but he was staring at her stomach. “Is the baby okay?” he demanded. His nostrils flared.

“She’s fine. I think she’s fine.” Her hands splayed over her stomach. The miracle within her had to be okay. Sophie already cared about her baby more than she’d ever imagined possible. This little girl was going to have a good life, with a loving family, a princess bed to be tucked into every night, and loads of stuffed animals, whatever she wanted. There would be no pallets on the floor for her baby, no foster parents looking for a paycheck.

“Are you sure?” He reached across and clamped his hand onto her wrist and looked at his watch.

Sophie laughed and tried to pull away. He jerked her hand back and she blinked. Long seconds ticked by before he released her.

“Pulse is a little fast, but that’s to be expected.” The clinical tone of his voice matched the chill in the air.

“I’m fine, too,” Sophie said, stung by his focus on the baby.

“Of course.” He huffed out a breath. His jaw tensed and he took two deep breaths before continuing. “Of course I want you to be okay, too. The baby might be big enough to survive without you now, but it would certainly be safer for you to carry it to term.”

Sophie blinked rapid-fire, his words cutting deep. It took her a moment, but she finally squeaked out, “Please don’t call her it.”

“It. She. Whatever. All that matters is that the baby survive. My research–” He clamped his mouth shut.

Her eyes widened as she spun to face him. Her heart raced. “What do you mean? What have you done?” Images of the calendar hanging in their kitchen flashed through her mind. The weekly appointments at the Center, all the tests that had been done, all the prenatal vitamins that had been prescribed . . . Blake tended to be distant under normal circumstances, but he’d been so attentive throughout the pregnancy.

“I never should’ve said anything.” He shook his head and held his hands up, palms out, like he was giving up. “We’ll talk about this later. Right now, we need to get out of here.”

Ready for more? Get your copy today!
To celebrate the release, I’m giving away a $25 gift card to Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winners choice). Enter here (you can enter every day!):
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Yrsa Sigurdardottir: The Undesired Sunday, Feb 19 2017 

Award winning novelist and complex mystery and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:54 am

undesired
Yrsa Sigurdardottir’s latest novel veers from her outstanding series featuring Reykjavik lawyer Thora Gudmundosdottir into a different realm. The queen of Icelandic Noir has written a chilling stand-alone in The Undesired.

Alternating between to storylines, she tells of a bleak boys home in the 1970s, where young Aldis slaves away under the unsympathetic couple who run the home, saving her money to leave for the big city. Drawn to one young man, Einar, that decision will have disastrous consequences.

In the present, Odinn has been given his full charge of his 11-yr old daughter, Run, after the accidental death of his ex-wife. The government employees has been given the task of investigating alleged abuse that boys home, decades after the time.

The creepy factor ratchets up high once the two storylines being to merge with the accident that killed his wife.

This not the fast-paced ride of a thriller, but a slow, psychological build to a chilling and inexorable climax.

 

Lynn Chandler Willis: Tell Me No Lies Saturday, Feb 18 2017 

Award winning novelist and complex mystery and great read and mystery to die for and new series Auntie M Writes Crime 12:39 am

Please welcome Lynn Chandler Willis, to talk to readers about:
Small Town Newspapers Make For Great Fiction:

tell-me-no-lies-front

Title: Small Town Newspapers Make For Great Fiction
By: Lynn Chandler Willis

When it comes to writing advice, one of the more common statements is write what you know. We writers hear it all the time. I usually ignore it all the time. My newest release, Tell Me No Lies, is the exception.

I never intended for the main character, Ava Logan, to be a shadow of myself. Yes, she’s the publisher and owner of a small town newspaper. So was I. Yes, she’s the single mom of two kids—a son and a daughter. So am I. Yes, she has a border collie named Finn. So do I.

But that’s where the similarities end. The other 97% of what makes fictional Ava Logan, well, fictional, is—-fiction.

Ava tends to be hot-headed. I’m laid back like my father. I’m the apologizer—you know, the one who apologizes even when I shouldn’t just to keep the peace. Ava struggled through a not-so-happy childhood. I was raised by Ozzie and Harriet. Well, not really, but pretty darn close. Couldn’t have asked for a better childhood.

So what part of Ava Logan is real? Not so much Ava, as it is the what—the newspaper she owns. The Jackson Creek Chronicle is fictitious. But is it real. Every small town newspaper publisher struggles with the issues Ava faces in Tell Me No Lies.

How many different ways can you write a story about the local pumpkin festival and make each one new and exciting? How many “public service announcements” for fundraisers, benefits, and soccer sign ups are going to run before someone actually buys ad space? And how many town council members are going to be livid at something published that more-or-less refers to them as nitwits? Since small town councils rarely ever totally agree on anything, at least one, maybe more, will at one time or another be on the publisher’s side.

Small town politics can be, and often are, downright ruthless. It pits neighbor against neighbor. That guy across the street, the one whose son plays T-ball with your kid, asked for a special use permit to build some chicken houses on his property. The neighborhood is against it, but the guy is within his rights. How are you going to vote Mr. Council Member? And better yet, how is the newspaper going to cover it? Will they make the council look like a bully if the council denies it? Or will they take the neighborhood’s side? Or will they present both sides equally and fairly?

That isn’t as easy as it sounds. There’s an awful lot of gray area in the world of small town newspapers which often lead to a moral dilemma for the publisher. That makes for great conflict and good drama. Which makes great fiction.

Tell Me No Lies: Ava Logan, single mother and small business owner, lives deep in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains, where poverty and pride reign. As publisher of the town newspaper, she’s busy balancing election season stories and a rash of ginseng thieves. And then the story gets personal. After her friend is murdered, Ava digs for the truth all the while juggling her two teenage children, her friend’s orphaned toddler, and her own muddied past. Faced with threats against those closest to her, Ava must find the killer before she, or someone she loves, ends up dead.

Lynn Chandler Willis has worked in the corporate world, the television industry, and owned a small-town newspaper. Her novel, Shamus-Award finalist, Wink of an Eye, (Minotaur, 2014) won the SMP/PWA Best 1st P.I. Novel, making her the first woman in a decade to win the national contest. Tell Me No Lies is the first title in the Ava Logan Mystery Series with Henery Press. She lives in North Carolina with a border collie named Finn.

Website: lynnchandlerwillis.com

 

Ausma Zehanat Khan: Among the Ruins Tuesday, Feb 14 2017 

Award winning novelist and complex mystery and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:43 am

amongruins

Among the Ruins is Khan’s third novel featuring the unusual Canadian detecting team of Esa Khattak and Rachel Getty. Once again, Khan has crafted a story that surprises with its ability to reveal and educate issues of the world at large within the framework of a mystery.

After the powerful and sobering ending to last year’s The Language of Secrets, Khattak is on leave from Canada’s Community Policing Department. Estranged at this time from his sister, who figured heavily in that book, he travels to Iran to gather peace from his cultural heritage in the country’s gardens and museums.

But when he’s approached by a Canadian agent and asked to look into the death of a famous Canadian-Iranian documentary filmmaker, he finds himself embroiled in the murder of Zahra Sobhani, killed while trying to have a political prisoner released.

To this end, he enlists Rachel’s help without government sanction. The people Esa meets in his investigation form a microcosm of the many groups in Iran, from officers of the regime, to a ring of young dissidents whose actions have landed several of them in jail, suffering abuse, horrific torture, and even death. Many are there on false charges and are tried without legal counsel.

Back in Canada, it’s Rachel’s job to visit Zahra’s son and other family while Esa delicately tries to probe into the woman’s murder at the infamous Evin prison. It seems her death is a politically-motivated one, but Rachel soon uncovers other possibilities which are linked to the past. It will involved a museum, jewels, and the Shah of Iran. Rachel will need Esa’s high-placed friend to help with her investigation, but it soon becomes apparent she needs to travel to Iran.

The pervading tension intensifies and the threads come together after Rachel travels to meet up with Esa in Iran, where she goes undercover to find the details and evidence they require. It’s a cat-and-mouse game with Iran officials at their back, and the real threat of being thrown into prison themselves haunting their every move and upping the tension.

Khan allows readers to discover what Esa discovers: that there is real beauty and history to a culture that has been ransacked by extremists, both in their physical monuments and achievements, and in the poisoning of the minds of most of the world against a culture and tradition trying to live an ethical life.

Through the plot lines, Khan successfully explores the pressures on western Muslims who are seen by the world through the lens of the faction of ultra-conservative extremists who garner the news. Bringing Esa to Iran places him, with his Sunni background, in the minority in a Shia country. The detective will be forced to examine his own assumptions in a more critical manner, as he and Rachel unravel a decades-old mystery with a startling conclusion, at the same time as he strives to protect his partner and protege amidst the interplay the encounter between politics and religion, revenge and deceit, theft and greed.

Khan lovingly describes the beauty of the mosques and museums the duo visit, while not shying away from the violence some factions will inflict. It’s this dichotomy that makes the Iran of today spring to life under her talented pen. This a complex mystery that will have readers glued to the page. Highly recommended.

 

Deborah Crombie: Garden of Lamentations Sunday, Feb 12 2017 

Award winning novelist and complex mystery and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:06 am

garden-of-lamentations

Deborah Crosbie returns with the seventeenth novel in her English mysteries featuring detectives Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James in this popular and complex series that remains fresh and compelling. This is far more than a garden-variety police procedural, as the cases the two investigate affect their marriage and threaten lives.

The married duo have a blended family that includes adopted Charlotte, and live in Notting Hill but work out of different stations. Gemma finds herself seconded to the Notting Hill team for her local knowledge when the body of a young nanny is found in one of the private gardens in the area. It’s a death that has her puzzled, especially when she finds out another youth from the same block has previously died. ARe the two connected?

Duncan’s case couldn’t be more different. Loose threads from the last case have left him feeling he doesn’t know whom he can trust in Scotland Yard. His old chief had disappeared and he’d been transferred. Now Denis Childs is back with an obtuse explanation that sounds more like a warning–and then suddenly attacked. As he lies in critical condition, Duncan distances himself from everyone close to him to protect them, even his wife.

Both cases have emotional components and danger, and both detectives will find they need their friends more than ever. A satisfying read in a series that is always anticipated. Highly recommended.

 

Ron Liebman: Big Law Wednesday, Feb 8 2017 

great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:40 am

biglaw

Ron Liebman uses his years as a prosecutor and then litigator to inform his legal thriller, Big Law</em, as he skewers the legal system in all its glory and dismay.

Carney Blake is a young partner at a prestigious NY law firm. When the junior man is given a huge case, he hopes his suspicions as to the firm's involvement won't be founded.

But he's soon stuck as the pawn between two firms, in a place where he can't see a way out that will salvage his career–or his future, when he finds himself on the wrong side a criminal charge.

This is a fast read with larger-than-life characters. You don't need to understand law to enjoy the sticky situation Blake lands in. Having him address the reader directly in the first person narrative gives the reader a feeling of being in on the action from the first page.

Throw in a dose of humor and great New York City settings, and you'll read a satisfying legal thriller.

 

New in Paperback: Leather, Berry, Brekke, Kappes, Sigurdartdottir, and Armentrout Sunday, Feb 5 2017 

Award winning novelist and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:14 am

Several crime novels are new in paperback, and while being previously reviewed by Auntie M, she wanted to bring them to your attention. Near the end are two making their debut in paperback and she will spend more time with you on those.

darkforces

Stephen Leather’s Spider Shepherd thrillers are hugely popular. In Dark Forces, the MI-5 undercover agent find himself posing as a hitman and crossing the paths of terrorists. Can Spider stop a massacre?

14thcolony

Cotton Malone returned in Steve Berry’s The 14th Colony, with a tale that reflects his usual meticulous research and will have readers riveted to their reading. He will face Zorin, a Soviet operative headed to our Inauguration, with his deadly weapon right out of the archives of America’s oldest fraternal organization.

dreamless

Jorge Brekke’s suspense novels have been called “addictive” with good reason. Dreamless bring Chief Inspector Odd Singasker his most unusual case, when a young singer’s body is found staged with an antique music box playing a sad lullaby. How the song and the boxes are critical details is just one aspect of this compelling investigation into a race with a serial killer with a missing woman’s life at stake.

silence

Yrs Sigurdardottir’s The Silence of the Sea was named Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year with good reason. The chilling case for Thora Gudmundsdottir seems to have no solution when a huge yacht crashes into a pier in Reykjavik and is found to be completely empty. What happened to the crew and to the family on board?

NEW in Paperback:

aghostlyreunion

Tony Kappes’ Ghostly Southern Mysteries return with A Ghostly Reunion. Owner Emma Lee can speak to the ghosts of the murdered people at her Eternal Slumber Funeral Home. The action centers close to home, when an old friend, Jade Lee Peel, who made Emma’s high school life miserable, is found dead. Emma needs to be rid of the woman once and for all, before Jade Lee can cause trouble between Emma and her boyfriend, the Sheriff. Her solution is to solve the murder so Jade can cross over and leave Emma alone.

Only Jade Lee has other ideas. Still riding on her high school popularity, she’s not quite so keen to leave town as Emma would like. Filled with charm and Kappes’ usual brand of humor.

tilldeath

This one debuts on March 1st, so readers have a month to look for Jill Armentrout’s newest romantic suspense, Till Death. The book takes off with Sasha Keaton returning to the West Virginia inn her mother runs, ten years after escaping the serial killer The Groom.

Sasha wants to help her mother run the inn and put her old ghosts to rest. When women start to disappear, FBI agent Cole Landis swings into action to protect Sasha the way he wasn’t able to a decade ago. It’s a cat-and-mouse game with The Groom calling the shots.

But he hasn’t counted on the steely determination of Sasha, who wants her life back. A satisfying read for those who want a dose of romance with their suspense.

 

Stephen Leather: Takedown Friday, Feb 3 2017 

complex mystery and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:59 am

takedown
Stephen Leather’s Spider Shepherd series has made him one of the UK’s top selling thriller writers.

His newest, Takedown, veers to a standalone, but retains the high action he’s known for, this time with a female protagonist.

Charlotte Button, ex-MI-5, has been seen before in Leather’s series, and is now tasked with taking out a rogue Special Forces soldier. He’s already hatched one deadly plot. What she needs to do if figure out his next plan and stop him before he can act.

She has help in the form of Lex Harper, who assembles a team who are capable of stopping the rogue soldier before the massive attack they fear he’s planned. Readers of the Shepherd series will know Lex, and here they’ll see another side to him.

Having these two previously seen characters in their own book brings a fresh look to this kind of adventure-filled thriller.

While this is whirling, Charlotte finds that two of three flash drives, hidden in secret places, have been stolen. Containing information on dirty government operations from the past, their loss means her life is on the line if they can get to the third. Who is after her and why?

The storylines are expertly woven in a satisfying read. If you are a fan of Leather’s work, don’t miss this one.

 

Susan Alice Bickford: A Short Time to Die Wednesday, Feb 1 2017 

complex mystery and debut and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:41 am

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Susan Alice Pickford’s debut crime thriller, A Short Time to Die, tells the story of two women who become linked in a most unlikely way.

Marly Shaw has the misfortune to be born into an extended family whose relations rule her rural area of Central New York with an iron and physical grip, dispensing their own brand of revenge or twisted justice in often lethal ways.

After years of abuse and a narrowly missed brush with her own death, Marly vows to find a way out of the town and that life. She becomes the protector of her young niece and nephew, and soon finds what she thinks may be a way to leave Charon Springs behind her.

Over a decade later, human remains found in California are traced to this same family, both with criminal records. Detective Vanessa Alba needs to know how these two felons died, and who is responsible. She and her partner head to the Finger Lakes region to conduct interviews with the remaining members of the Harris clan, determined to figure out why these two would have traveled all the way to California, out of their element, to be killed–and soon come to see that they were perhaps not so undeserving of their fate.

The brisk cold and rugged terrain are vividly described, as are the tough characters that are cut from a mold some could mistakenly take for extinct. Marly is an intelligent young woman with a honed set of instincts borne out of her desire to survive this pathological family she’s attached to by way of her mother.

The action alternates between the year 2000 when the Harris clan sets in motion the deeds that will culminate in the two deaths of 2013. This allows the reader to see how the situation developed, and how desperately Marly wanted to escape and save her sister’s children.

A fascinating look at a diabolical family with an unlikely ending that develops. A strong debut with a unique cast of characters. Readers will be rooting for Marly from the first chapter.