Graham Smith: The Silent Dead Friday, Nov 30 2018 

complex mystery and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:19 am


Graham Smith’s The silent Dead introduces Detective Beth Young, working in the Lake District, one of Auntie M’s favorite settings. This one’s on her radar and here’s what the buzz is about the book:

He’d found one angel for his collection. One angel at a time was never enough…

Detective Beth Young has just joined the Lake District major crimes team when a body is found posed in a ritualistic manner – arms spread and graceful wings attached – at a crumbling castle in the hills of the Lake District.

The entire police force are on red alert. But Beth begins to feel she’s the only one who can follow the disturbing clues left by the twisted killer. Because she doesn’t think like everyone else. To Beth, crimes are puzzles she can solve. Even if real life is a little harder.

As more bodies are discovered in derelict stately homes across the Lake District, she knows she’s in a race against time.

But the killer is looking for another victim to add to his collection… Will Beth be able to save her? Or will he get there first?

A tenacious young detective with scars both physical and emotional, Beth Young will stop at nothing in her fight for justice for the innocent. The Silent Dead is the first book in the series. Set in the Lake District, it is perfect for fans of Joy Ellis, LJ Ross, and Peter James.

Readers love Graham Smith:
‘A talented storyteller.’ No.1 bestseller Peter James

‘Wowzer… this book is that fantastic I don’t know where to start. It literally blew me away!… If you’re looking for a fast-paced, gritty read that will have you on tenterhooks I highly recommend this.’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars

‘A brilliant thriller. This fast-paced crime thriller is packed with suspense. From the beginning I was hooked.’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars

‘Graham Smith is the name to watch in fast-paced, high-octane crime fiction. Smith writes with an assured energy that pulls the reader deeper and deeper into a plot that twists and turns… This is great, fully-leaded crime fiction.’ Craig Russell

‘The plot is dark and disturbing with tension that grows throughout the story.’ The Suspense is Thrilling Me

‘A dark and suspenseful read that just drew me in and placed me slap bang in the thick of things.’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars

‘One of the best serial killer thrillers I have read in a LONG time. I couldn’t stop turning the pages and devoured the book in two short days.’ Damppebbles.com

‘Couldn’t put it down. Full of twists and plots… Highly recommended.’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars

‘Hard-hitting, tightly paced and with lots of great twists and turns.’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars

‘I love, love, LOVED this book! I’ve always been a fan of serial killer novels and this one absolutely nailed it.’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars

‘A hell of a read, fast paced with bucketfuls of suspense… nail-biting with fascinating characters… If you are a lover of a highly original crime thrillers I would suggest you add this book to… the top of the pile, you won’t be disappointed I promise.’ The Book Review Café
Silent Dead Purchase Links
‘This is the type of novel that will keep you up all night reading… Graham Smith knows how to keep the crime moving, keeping all of his readers glued to every page.’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars

‘He will literally have you on the edge of your seat praying for the bad guys to get their comeuppance. Brilliant!’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars

‘It’s a really, really, really brilliant, superb, awesome book that you absolutely, unequivocally, must, without a doubt, have to read.’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars

You can find The Silent Dead at: BUY LINKS:
Amazon: mybook.to/TDDCover
iBookstore: https://tinyurl.com/ydhftyxx
Kobo: https://tinyurl.com/y75k5vng
Googleplay: https://tinyurl.com/ybchbhzl


Graham Smith is a time served joiner who has built bridges, houses, dug drains and slated roofs to make ends meet. Since Christmas 2000, he has been manager of a busy hotel and wedding venue near Gretna Green, Scotland.

He is an internationally best-selling Kindle author and has six books featuring DI Harry Evans and the Cumbrian Major Crimes Team, and three novels, featuring Utah doorman, Jake Boulder. His latest series features DC Beth Young and is highly anticipated before its November release.

An avid fan of crime fiction since being given one of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five books at the age of eight, he has also been a regular reviewer and interviewer for the well-respected website Crimesquad.com since 2009

Graham is the founder of Crime and Publishment, a weekend of crime-writing classes which includes the chance for attendees to pitch their novels to agents and publishers. Since the first weekend in 2013, ten attendees have gone on to sign publishing contracts.

Graham can be found at

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/grahamnsmithauthor
Twitter

Website
http://www.grahamsmithauthor.com

 

Robert Scragg: What Falls Between the Cracks Wednesday, Nov 28 2018 

complex mystery and debut and great read and mystery to die for and police procedural and police thriller and Series not to be missed Auntie M Writes Crime 12:17 am

Robert Scragg has a cracking good debut of a new series with What Falls Between the Cracks.

Introducing the London detective duo Jake Porter and Nick Styles, their latest case is a mix of old and new, when a severed hand is found in a freezer.

It’s strange enough to find a hand, in this case one missing a finger. Yet once DNA matches the hand to the apartment’s owner, Nina Barclay, its even stranger that her family agrees Nina hasn’t been since since 1983.

Why no one has been looking for Nina is just one of the many questions Porter and Styles must answer as they investigate Nina’s extended family and acquaintances, and find far too many unsavory characters.

As their search extends itself, everywhere they turn the team come up against walls thwarting their progress, from interior police structure politics and a drug squad case that has been slowly gathering evidence against one of their main suspects.

One of the highlights is the nice banter between the two detectives, balanced by Porter’s struggle to restart his life after a tragic personal loss.

This is the kind of police procedural Auntie M eats up. An accomplished debut, one that will have readers seeking the second Porter and Styles outing. Highly recommended.

 

Jo Spain: The Confession. Sunday, Nov 25 2018 

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


Jo Spain is the Irish international number one bestseller of the DCI Tom Reyolds series and the standalone psychological thriller The Confession. A graduate of Trinity College Dublin, former parliamentary assistant and vice-chair of the business body InterTrade Ireland, Jo now writes full-time.

In 2018 she co-wrote her first original television show, TAKEN DOWN, currently airing in Ireland, bought by ARTE Europe and also picked up for international distribution by industry giant Fremantle. Jo has now been headhunted to work on several European dramas.

Jo lives in Dublin with her husband and their four small children. Auntie M recently had the opportunity to speak with Jo about her writing and her books.


Auntie M: What drew you to writing crime fiction in the first place?

Jo Spain: Crime fiction is my favourite genre to read and to watch. I love the thrill of the mystery, the adrenaline of the whodunnit, and the satisfaction of the resolution. I think crime fiction storytellers are the hardest working writers.

AM: Your new release, The Confession, is your first stand-alone thriller after writing the popular Tom Reynolds series. Why the switch?

JS: The story had arrived fully formed in my mind and I knew it didn’t fit with the DCI Reynolds series. Tom is police procedural – each is a whodunnit. In The Confession, we know who did it, we just don’t know why.
I also wanted to stretch myself. I write really quickly and am currently averaging two books a year and two TV series. To keep on top of it all, I like variety, because each time I pick up a project it’s like a holiday from the other writing. If that makes sense!

AM: Did you find the experience of writing a stand-alone differed from writing for the series?

JS: Very much so. Over the course of a series you can develop much-loved characters so your readers have the satisfaction of the soap of their lives on top of the plots. But it’s hard, because you have to keep them going, with new developments for the same people in each book.
In a standalone, you have to create characters that readers will instantly love/hate. There’s no second chance, it’s all within the four-hundred-odd pages. Then you have to mentally wrap them up in your own head, and move on, so it’s a bit like mourning a set of characters each time.


AM: Will you go back to Tom now? Any other books percolating?

JS: The fourth Tom came out in Europe this year, The Darkest Place. I’ve a new standalone out in February, Dirty Little Secrets, and a new Tom, The Boy Who Fell next summer. And I just completed my latest standalone, due in 2020.

AM: You’re a busy woman! With four youngsters and jobs aplenty, how do you find time to write?

JS: I write full-time and my husband is here full-time, too. He works for me now, editing and proofing (he’s a former editor) and does the heavy lifting with the children. But we’ve managed to establish a lovely family/work routine and we’re both at home pretty much all the time. And I am a fast writer, which really helps.


AM: And publicity, how do you reconcile accomplishing that with family, job and writing demands?

JS: That’s harder, especially now I’m writing for TV. I try to condense all my publicity outings to short periods in and around book releases (but I make exceptions for very lovely bloggers). When my new TV show Taken Down, (which is based on an original idea) came out this month there was more publicity than I’ve ever had to handle. It was fun but exhausting.

AM: What piece of advice would you give to a new writer starting out in crime fiction?

JS: We all say it – read, read, read. Know your genre, hone your craft. I always advise the masters; Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle etc. And I personally plan out all my books because I feel excellent plots take a lot of organisation. At least, I hope that’s what my readers feel about my plots…!

AM: Who would we find on your nightstand waiting to be read?

JS: When I find an author I love I buy everything they’ve ever written and wait eagerly for the next. Some of my favourites include Fred Vargas, Louise Penny, Pierre LeMaitre, Chris Whitaker, Donato Carrisi, J.P. Delaney and Liane Moriarty. I’m a huge fan of well-written crime, I don’t tend to read formulaic-type thrillers, though I respect their skill.

 

Four set in England: Bolton, Cleeland, Westron, French Wednesday, Nov 21 2018 

Award winning novelist and complex mystery and great read and mystery to die for and Uncategorized Auntie M Writes Crime 12:04 am

Auntie M loves her trips to England and enjoyed being there for two weeks this summer doing setting research. Cornwall and Cambridge figured highly in the trip, so you can expect Nora Tierney to be spending time in each place in future books.

It seems appropriate then to feature several books set in the UK for your reading pleasure.

Auntie M previously reviewed Sharon Bolton’s The Craftsman when it was published in the UK, but it’s just out here in the US, so let’s revisit a snipped of what she said then:
Sharon Bolton’s novels are always original and well-crafted. Elly Griffith’s notes that her newest, The Craftsman, is ” . . . an absolutely terrific crime novel that takes your darkest fear and makes it real” in this first of a planned trilogy.

It’s 1999 and Florence Lovelady has returned to Lancashire for the burial of Larry Glassbrook, who has died in prison for burying three teens alive, thirty years before. She travels with her teen son, Ben, to Larry’s funeral, and stays on when a new piece of evidence comes to light. The case made Florence’s career, and yet she wonders now if she put the right person behind bars all those years ago.

The book swtiches to 1969, when the third of three teens has gone missing. The town is scared, and it’s down to Florence to suggest a re-enactment of the day the third, Patsy Wood, went missing. It’s a novel approach, but one her Superintendent decides to try.

When Flossie decides she must investigate a freshly-dug grave, she’s the one who finds Patsy’s body, buried on top of another corpse. It’s evident at once the teen was alive when she was put into the casket.

The horror of such a death is the stuff of nightmares for most people, and the dark and disturbing images stay with readers as the book advances and the perpetrator is caught. Or is he?

With its history of Pendle Hill witches in the area adding to the terrifying atmosphere, this is the kind of gothic novel that grips you by the back of your neck and doesn’t let go even after the last page is turned. You’ll learn the difference between caskets and coffins and why that matters. You’ll learn how the moon affects witches. And you’ll learn to be terrifed and then in awe of Florence. Highly recommended.


Anne Cleeland’s Doyle and Action series returns with Murder in Spite, and this time the action takes place in Doyle’s Irish home. What starts as a supposed holiday takes on an entirely different tenor when a priest implicated in earlier London case is found dead on the steps of the Garda station Acton visits, a knife through one eye the implement of his death.

Doyle, with her special ability to see through people, quickly susses out that there’s more to Acton’s helping out in this case, just as there’s more to be seen with an African cab driver who seems to appear at the most needed times.

Having their young son along only cramps Doyle’s sleuthing abilities a small bit. Another entertaining entry in a well-drawn series known for its complicated plots and charming protagonists.


Carol Westron’s Strangers and Angels is a Victorian Murder Mystery of the highest kind, filled with realistic period details, backed up by a complex plot that supports intriguing characters.

She takes readers to Gosport in 1850, along England’s the southern coast. Kemal is the Turkish midshipman on a training mission, accused of murder. With feelings running high against the Turkish sailors to begin with, it seems likely Kemal will face the gallows.

That is, until he finds help from two unlikely women: widow Adelaide and lady’s maid Molly. With little power or privilege between, the women have an almost insurmountable task to try to save the young Turk.

In a nice twist, Westron brings her sleuths into contact with real people from the era. A strong start to what should be a recurring series.


It’s always sad to see a beloved series come to an end, but Frieda Klein, Nicci French’s London-walking psychologist, perhaps deserves a rest more than most. Day of the Dead brings with it the resolution of the Dean Reeve case, the psychopathic killer who has eluded Frieda and the police for more than a decade, often with disastrous results to those Frieda cared about.

Charming and likeable, Reeves has been able to disappear and reappear at will, and become obsessed over the years with Frieda. After a decade of working with the police on cases, she now finds herself in hiding to protect those she loves.

But a showdown looms, and she must step out in public once again in order to bring Reeves to justice if she can. It will take a criminology student who tracks Frieda down to make the psychologist see that she herself holds the key to stopping Reeves, despite the cost to her personally.

As Frieda plays off against Reeve and his twisted games, she finds herself running up against her most formidable opponent. It’s a chilling climax that will stay with the reader long after the last page is read. A worthy conclusion to an addictive series.

 

Emily Littlejohn: Lost Lake Sunday, Nov 18 2018 

complex mystery and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:33 am


Emily Littlejohn’s third Colorado Detective Gemma Monroe mystery, Lost Lake, finds the new mother investigating a missing persons case that soon become so much more.

Four friends are camping at Lost Lake, despite the chilly weather, when they wake in the morning to find Sari Chesney has gone missing in the night. There’s no trace of the young woman, and the timing is most suspect.

Sari has been working on the special gala at the local museum and that night is its gala. As assistant curator, she would never miss this special evening, of great importance to gathering donors.

Gemma is slated to attend and does so, espcially when she’s summoned by the current director who claims a valuable diary, the gem of the museum for attracting donors, is missing.

Then a murder occurs, and Gemma realizes the history of the town and these people are wrapped together in more of a complex way than she’s imagined. Could the secrets of the past we impacting on the present in a deadly way?

Littlejohn’s prose elevates the detective investigation: “…Who was ultimately more authentic: the man who lived in meekness and possibly had a darker side, or the man who walked in darkness and struggled to find the light within?”

With the setting its own intriguing character, this is a strong entry in a compelling series.

 

Elly Griffiths: The Vanishing Box Tuesday, Nov 13 2018 

Award winning novelist and complex mystery and Continued series winner and great read and historical saga and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:55 am

Elly Grifftiths delightful period series, The Magic Men Mysteries, returns with The Vanishing Box, and it’s Auntie M’s favorite yet in a compelling series.

It’s almost Christmas in Brighton, and magician Max Mephisto is headlining a special act at the Hippodrome with his daughter, Ruby. With a television show in the offing, the Vanshing Box trick wows the audience. Things are changing for the magician duo in more ways than one.

An act gaining a lot of interest and controversy in the same show is the “living statues” act, where near-naked women freeze in a strange tableau of historic moments. While some appreciate the stillness of the women and others their strategic feathers and leaves, there are cries of obscenity in the town that pale in comparison when one of the young women is murdered.

Max’s good friend, DI Edgar Stephens, who happens to be Ruby’s fiance, leads the investigation into the death of the lovely young woman. He also must deal with his conflicted feelings for a colleague, with surprising results.

There will be secrets from the past woven into the fabric of the mystery Edgar must solve as the deaths mount up. And when the danger hits close to home, Edgar will realize this is his most important case yet.

A fine entry in the series, with the period details spot on. And don’t miss Griffiths’ new stand-alone Gothic thriller, The Stranger Diaries.

 

Matt Ferraz: Sherlock Holmes and the Glad Game Monday, Nov 12 2018 

debut and great read and historical saga and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:18 am

Please welcome Matt Ferraz, to tell readers about his new release based on two very popular figures, Sherlock Holmes, and Pollyanna:

Writing Sherlock Holmes and the Glad Game By Matt Ferraz

The genesis of Sherlock Holmes and the Glad Game was a challenge I made to myself: pick two characters in public domain that apparently have nothing to do with each other, and somehow make them work together.

I’ve been a Sherlockian all my life, and have wanted to write a book with the detective for some time. But who could I match him with? Other writers already had him meeting Jack the Ripper, Mr Hyde, Captain Nemo and so many others. What could I bring to the table that was new and fresh?

I was at a bookshop in my town when I saw brand new editions of Pollyanna and Pollyanna Grows Up, by Eleanor H. Porter. Those were books I had never read, but knew the basic premise: a girl who always sees the bright side of everything no matter what.

I had seen the 1920 movie with Mary Pickford, one of my favourite actresses, but remembered little of it. So I got myself copies of those two books, and while reading them, a novel started to form in my mind. No one had ever had the idea of putting Holmes and Pollyanna Whittier in the same story. After all, they’re so different!

But my mind was made up: I was going to write a book where she comes to London and assists Holmes and Watson in an investigation. People didn’t believe I could pull it off. In fact, my fiancée thought it was a crazy idea to begin with, but decided to give me the benefit of doubt.

I wrote the first draft of this book in a month – which is faster than I had ever worked before! For that whole month, I was completely immersed in the book, having re-watched several Holmes movies for inspiration and re-reading big sections of Porter’s books. My idea wasn’t simply to have Pollyanna ringing at 221b Baker Street offering a case for the detective to solve. I wanted to fit her in the Holmes cannon as organically as possible.

My book starts with Pollyanna becoming a good friend of Dr. and Mrs. Watson while Holmes was considered to be dead after facing Professor Moriarty. Pollyanna is in London to see a special doctor during an injury she suffered in her childhood – which is shown in the first Porter book. She eventually returns to America but shows up in London two years later, when Holmes is already back from the dead, with a brand new husband and a lot of trouble on her back. The best part of writing this story were the comedic possibilities in the interaction between these characters.

I tried to avoid making Pollyanna too annoying and naive – she’s actually pretty smart and kicks some butts. It was also nice to create a more humane Holmes, different from the stubborn and arrogant versions we’ve seen in movie and TV in the past few years. It’s a little, quirky and funny book I’m very proud of.

British sleuth Sherlock Holmes can solve any mystery from a small clue. American traveler Pollyanna Whittier can only see the good side of every situation. The only thing they have in common is their friendship with Dr. John Watson. When Pollyanna shows up in London with a mystery for Holmes to solve, she decides to teach the detective the Glad Game: a way of remaining optimistic no matter what. A dangerous – and hilarious – clash of minds, where these two characters of classic literature need to learn how to work together in order to catch a dangerous criminal.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07K7W4PQL/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42648425-sherlock-holmes-and-the-glad-game/

 

Catriona McPherson: Go To My Grave Sunday, Nov 11 2018 

Award winning novelist and complex mystery and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:36 am

Catriona McPherson’s newest standalone, Go To My Grave,
with a gothic thriller that’s eerie even as it’s a study in characterization.

For Donna Weaver and her mother, restoring Galloway beach house The Breakers and turning it into a posh inn has been the stuff of their dreams. Redecorated, filled with fresh flowers, Donna awaits the arrival of their first guests for a long weekend where she will cook and wait on them.

She’s juggling this alone as her Mum is at a wedding venue getting new clients when the gang of relations arrive for one couple’s tenth anniversary. It’s not long before most of them realize they’ve been at this very house decades before, for a sixteenth birthday party that didn’t end well.

Things soon start to happen that catch them off balance, playing games with their memories and the events of that party. Until the unthinkable happens and a body is found.

At once atmospheric, the tangle of people at this party confound Donna with their interwoven histories that are slowly revealed to her, as are the details of exactly what happpened at the party, when the participants swore to keep the details secret in a vow of silence they would take to their graves.

For some of them, this might just come true.

Disturbing and twisted, this is a deliberately devious mystery with a shocking and unexpected ending.

 

Ragnar Jonasson: The Darkness Wednesday, Nov 7 2018 

complex mystery and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:21 am

Iceland’s Ragnar Jonasson steps away from his Detective Ari Thor series to bring a stand-alone that will have the hair standing up on the back of your neck in The Darkness.

DI Hulda Hermanndottir is approaching retirement age at the Reykjavik Police when her superior calls her into his office to inform her he’s already hired her replacement. She’s free to leave instead of working her last year.

Stunned, unwilling to let go of the place and job that have been her home and sustained her lonely existence, Hulda pushes to be allowed a few weeks to solve one last cold case. While the widow has developed a new friendship with a fellow hiker, she has secrets of her own she’s hiding.

A Russian asylum seeker had been found murdered in a rocky cove, and the case speaks to her, especially when she starts to investigate and finds the original detective’s sloppy work led to a hasty conclusion of suicide.

Instead, Hulda finds threads of information that point to something else entirely, and don’t add up. The more she searches, the more convinced she becomes the young woman was murdered.

There is a startling conclusion to this grim story as Hulda nears the real story of what really happened to young Elena, one that will shock and surprise readers. Publishers Weekly notes: “Fans of uncompromising plotting will be satisfied.”

 

Andrew Michael Hurley: Devil’s Day Sunday, Nov 4 2018 

Award winning novelist and great read and mystery to die for and thriller Auntie M Writes Crime 12:02 am


Andrew Michael Hurley’s mines the Lancashire landscape when he brings John Pentecost an his young wife back to the Endlands in Devil’s Day.

Unsettling from the outset, John brings his newly pregnant wife, Katherine, home for the funeral of his grandfather, known as the Gaffer.

Dadda, John’s father, has his own agenda, and the funeral is the backdrop to the local legends and tales that are told and retold as preparations for the ritual to keep the Devil away from the sheep begin. Everything has a superstition behind it, and everyone on the moors is affected. But it’s all just tales and nonsense, isn’t it?

The unsettled landscape comes alive under Hurley’s talented pen, as the gripping tale shows Nature at her finest and her cruelest. The eerie feel to the entire tale had the Daily Mail note: “This impeccably written novel tightens like a clammy hand around your throat.”

With Katherine’s growing apprehension, is John merely failing to see the menace she sees, or does he know something more?

An accomplished followup to Hurley’s award-winning first novel, The Loney.