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.

 

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.”

 

Bruce Robert Coffin: Beyond the Truth Friday, Oct 26 2018 

complex mystery and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for and police procedural and police thriller and Series not to be missed Auntie M Writes Crime 12:16 am

Coffin’s third Detective Bryon crime mystery, Beyond the Truth, just may be his best yet.

The former Portland, Maine detective brings his knowledge of the town and his feel for the politics of crime management to the forefront in this newest addition to his series.

Both of the previous mysteries in the series, Among the Shadows, and Beneath the Depths, have a feel realistic feel because of Coffin’s background, and that truthfulness rings through here as well. The lousy food, long hours, mixed emotions and job culture are all exhibited.

Beyond the Truth has multiple layers that elevate it from the usual crime drama. There are issues haunting Byron that must be addressed and the status of his personal relationship, but at the center of it all is an officer-involved shooting, when a colleague and good cop shoots a teen fleeing from an armed robbery.

It doesn’t help that the gun the teen pointed at the officer isn’t found at the crime scene, and with echoes of so many recent officer-involved shootings, protests and riots soon break out.

Then there are the politics that revolved around that kind of crime, from the Mayor’s office to the police hierarchy. At the heart of it all is a dead boy and a good officer who feels he’s become undone by the circumstances and must face the fact he killed a young man.

This is topical on so many levels, yet has a very personal feel about it. Portland and its environs come alive under Coffin’s pen as he captures the many faces of that town. The investigation feels real, with families and friends of the dead youth investigated, his school and mates, and above all, the seedy underbelly of the town.

A tense and exciting read with a swiftly-paced storyline. Engrossing.

 

Michael J McCann: The March and Walker Crime Novels Wednesday, Oct 24 2018 

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

Please welcome Hammett Prize Finalist Michael McCann, to talk to readers about his March and Walker Crime Novel series:

Is setting important to readers when it comes to crime fiction?

For most of us, it can be more or less transparent, particularly in Scandinavian noir by Henning Mankell, for example, where our familiarity with rural and small-city Sweden is limited. For readers of William Kent Krueger or Anne Hillerman, on the other hand, a sense of place is more important for an appreciation of the story, even if we’ve never been to Minnesota or New Mexico.

As far as my novels are concerned, a Canadian setting might be equally unfamiliar to crime fiction fans, but it offers a different perspective to homicide investigation that will appeal to readers looking for an international flavour to their mysteries.

During 15 years with the Canada Border Services Agency, I had an opportunity to learn about law enforcement procedures common to all professionals, including interviewing and interrogation techniques, search procedures, firearms handling, and evidence processing.

I also worked alongside experienced officers from other agencies and was exposed to a wide range of Canadian legal requirements for policing in our country.

This time spent in public service provided an ideal training ground for writing crime fiction in a Canadian setting. As a result, my March and Walker novels reflect how the Ontario Provincial Police actually investigates homicides in their jurisdiction.

Given that the OPP is one of the largest law enforcement agencies in North America, a strong sense of verisimilitude is very important to my work.

It was a great honour when the first novel in the series, Sorrow Lake, was named a finalist for the prestigious Hammett Prize for excellence in crime fiction in North America. I hope that the next two in the series, Burn Country and Persistent Guilt, come close to matching that high standard.

I hope you’ll consider trying crime fiction set in Canada!

Find the March and Walker Crime Novel series on Amazon, in paperback or eBook, at my author page here: https://www.amazon.com/Michael-J.-McCann/e/B0031LPGCC/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1.

Electronic versions in epub format are also available from Kobo for any epub reader here: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/search?query=The%20March%20and%20Walker%20Crime%20Novel%20Series&fcsearchfield=Series&seriesId=8a03a5f5-a99d-537e-9aae-3f2f93609102.


Michael J. McCann

Michael J. McCann lives and writes in Oxford Station, Ontario, Canada. He was born and raised in Peterborough. A former production editor with Carswell Legal Publications (Western), he holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from Trent University with a major in English Literature and a Master of Arts in English from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.

He worked for fifteen years with Canada Customs (Canada Border Services Agency) as a training specialist, project officer, and national program manager (duty free shop program, complaints investigation, commercial compliance management) before leaving the public service to write on a full-time basis.

In addition to writing crime fiction, Michael J. McCann also reviews mysteries and thrillers for the New York Journal of Books.

 

Elsa Hart: City of Ink Thursday, Oct 18 2018 

complex mystery and Continued series winner and great read and historical saga and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:53 am

Elas Hart’s new Li Du novel, City of Ink, finds the 18th Century librarian’s return to Beijing to uncover the murderer of his mentor. With sidekick storyteller Hamza by his side, Li Du investigates when two bodies are found in a tile factory.

The period details add to the richness of the story as the idea of crime of passion doesn’t sit well with Li Du. For the second victim is the factory owner’s wife, and their supposed secret meeting led to their murders by her jealous husband.

Now a lowly secretary to the Chief Inspector, Li Du finds the husband refusing to confess to the murders. While admitting he was drunk that night, he has no memory of killing either victim.

It’s a twisted path he follows that will lead him to corruption of the highest order, with the future of thousands of Chinese in the balance.

Even his own past will come under scrutiny, which brings Li Du under the microscope and endangers his own well-being.

Hart’s research shows, in the way she brings this era to life, in the texture and colors and sights and sounds of a bygone time that seem just around the corner under her talented pen. Her characters are as well-woven as a Chinese silk tapestry.

There are enough twists and turns for any experienced mystery writer, but there is so much more here than that puzzle that keeps readers flipping pages. An accomplished addition to a satisfying historic series.

And if you enjoy historicals, Steve Berry’s The Lost Order is new in paperback. Gold from a secret Civil War society plays a role when it comes to light the secrets of the Knights of the Golden Circle, still operating, might be revealed. Cotton and his team find themselves racing around the US to piece together the plot that would cause disaster to the country.

 

Peter Blauner: Sunrise Highway Sunday, Oct 14 2018 

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

As a native Long Islander, Auntie M has long been intrigued with the string of unsolved murders from the place where she grew up and lived until her mid-40s. Now Peter Blauner delivers a possible solution with the story of one man who manages to hide his pyschopathy enough to cover his tracks for years in the very compelling Sunrise Highway.

Told in advancing years, readers figure out soon enough who the culprit is, watching Joey Tolliver rise from a teen on the cusp of a criminal career to becoming a decorated policeman.

Along the way he gathers supporters and people who owe him and look the other way, which allows his outrageous and horrific behavior to continue.

Then in 2017, when Tolliver is Chief of Police, a Latina NYPD detective, Lourdes Robles, finds that her investigation into the body of a young woman washed up on her patch leads her to similarities of a multitude of other female victims, a trail along Sunrise Highway in Long Island all the way to Brooklyn.

She’s tenacious and relentless, despite career and personal threats, in following the evidence, as she must fight against the political powerhouses in of the justice system itself. And just as it seems she’s making headway, she finds herself on the opposite site of the law.

The chapters alternate between Tolliver’s rise and Robles’ investigation, heightening the tension to a terrific pitch.

This read so plausibly it made Auntie M’s hair rise on her arms. It’s too believeable to see one person make a life’s work of extreme misogyny while supposedly upholding law and order.

The setting rings true with its familiarity, but the main attraction here are the strong characters, easily pictured and believed, along with the grunt police work and the thrill of escalating twists that will keep readers glued to the book. Highly recommended.

 

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