Author: Claire Askew
Published: August 2020 by Hodder & Stoughton
Category: Crime Fiction, Police Procedural, Book Review
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Robertson Bennet returns to Edinburgh after a 25-year absence in search of his parents and his inheritance. But both have disappeared. A quick, routine police check should be enough – and Detective Inspector Helen Birch has enough on her plate trying to help her brother, Charlie, after an assault in prison. But all her instincts tell her not to let this case go. And so she digs.
Tag Archives: Crime Fiction
#ThrowbackThursday ~ Good Behaviour by Blake Crouch #AudiobookReview #CrimeFiction
Good Behaviour, a collection of three novellas, was released in 2016 by Brilliance Audio and performed by Julia Whelan.
Blake Crouch comments in between each novella about the inspiration for Letty and how the drama series for TNT, based around her character, has evolved, including his collaboration with a TV writer and producer. Michelle Dockery, who played Lady Mary Crawley in Downton Abbey, is cast as Letty.
#Spotlight ~ Preserved by Fiona Sherlock #CrimeFiction @fionasherlock @rararesources
It’s my pleasure to join in the Publication Day Push for Preserved with a spotlight post, courtesy of Rachel’s Random Resources.
About the Book
Mini #AudiobookReviews ~ Murder Under The Sun/Killing Time/Still Dead by @neilmustard & @katonahprod #Cherringham #CosyMurderMystery #FridayReads
Cherringham is a long running cosy mystery series of shorts, featuring Sarah Edwards and Jack Brennan and narrated perfectly by Neil Dudgeon. Each story is complete, with character development and lives evolving as the time frame moves on. Great for a quick listen and I enjoy catching up with the characters.
Jack, a retired NYPD homicide detective, relocated to the Cotswolds after his wife died and now lives on an old Dutch barge moored at Cherringham, with his dog Riley. Sarah Edwards, a web designer, returned to Cherringham from London with her two children when her husband left the family for his boss. She now runs her own company. She and Jack are Cherringham’s answer to private investigators, except they help out for free.
The Killings At Badger’s Drift (Chief Inspector Barnaby #1) by Caroline Graham #MidsomerMurders #BookReview #TuesdayBookBlog
Author: Caroline Graham
First Published in 1987 by Century Hutchinson Ltd
Category: Murder, Mystery, Police Procedural, Book Review
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Badger’s Drift is an ideal English village, complete with vicar, bumbling local doctor, and kindly spinster with a nice line in homemade cookies. But when the spinster dies suddenly, her best friend kicks up an unseemly fuss, loud enough to attract the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby. And when Barnaby and his eager-beaver deputy start poking around, they uncover a swamp of ugly scandals and long-suppressed resentments seething below the picture-postcard prettiness.
Miss Simpson and her long time friend, Lucy Bellringer, had an ongoing but friendly rivalry as who could spot the spurred coral root orchid first. Each summer they searched in the beech woods for the rarely flowering bloom and this year Miss Simpson was excited to have the triumphant first sighting. Marking the almost hidden site she turned to return home when a sound stopped her and she tentatively decided to investigate. Miss Simpson saw something she shouldn’t have that day, and unfortunately sealed her fate.
#Extract from Forgotten Lives: A DCI Stirling Investigation by Ray Britain #CrimeFiction #Thriller @ray_britain
I’m pleased to share an extract today from Forgotten Lives, a soon to be released (10th January) follow on to Ray Britain’s debut novel, The Last Thread.
A single blow of the door-ram smashed the flimsy wooden door from its hinges and had barely landed before heavy boots trampled across it as helmeted, black-clad firearms officers pounded along the hallway shouting out commands as each room was reached, checked for occupants and contained as other officers raced behind them to reach the next room. Behind them, more officers thundered up bare wooden stair treads to secure the upper floor. Every officer carried a semi-automatic carbine rifle. Briefed for a potential confrontation with a skilled killer, the officers’ adrenalin-fuelled breathing filled the interior of the command vehicle a few hundred yards away where Stirling sat watching, waiting.
#GuestPost from #author @RobertBMcCaw ~ Where do characters come from and why? #Crime #Mystery set on Hawaii
I’m delighted to welcome Robert McCaw with a guest post. Robert is the author of the Koa Kane Hawaiian Mystery series and his new book, Death of a Messenger, the prequel to the series, is published tomorrow.
On Hawaii Island, an anonymous 911 caller reports a body at Pohakuloa, the Army’s live-fire training area. Hilo Chief Detective Koa Kane, a cop with his own secret criminal past, finds a mutilated corpse–bearing all the hallmarks of ancient ritual sacrifice.
He encounters a host of obstacles as he pursues the murderer–an incompetent local medical examiner, hostility from both haoles (Westerners) and sovereignty advocates, and a myriad of lies. Koa races to discover whether the victim stumbled upon a gang of high-tech archaeological thieves, or learned a secret so shocking it cost him his life and put others in mortal danger.
Will Hilo’s most respected detective stop this sadistic fiend–or will the Pohakuloa killer strike again, with even deadlier consequences?
Book links ~ Amazon UK | Amazon US |
Where Do Characters Come From and Why?
Often when I fall in love with a book or a movie, it’s because some unique character sparks my imagination, which leads me to wonder how and why the author conceived them. Consider Michael Connolly’s Harry Bosch or Renée Ballard, Barry Eisler’s John Rain, and Delia Owens’s Kya Clark. I’d love to interview these authors and delve into the origins of these fictional favorites to learn to what degree they are imaginary or not. Another question I often ask myself is why the author incorporated a particular character at all. The answer is usually evident for main actors in a story but can be more subtle and elusive for secondary players.
The Shadow Man by @Helen_Fields #CrimeFiction #NetGalley #TheShadowMan #TuesdayBookBlog
Author: Helen Fields
Due to be published (Kindle, Audio and Paperback) February 2021
Category: Police Procedural, Crime Fiction, Psychological, Book Review
Elspeth, Meggy and Xavier are locked in a flat. They don’t know where they are, and they don’t know why they’re there. They only know that the shadow man has taken them, and he won’t let them go.
Desperate to escape, the three of them must find a way out of their living hell, even if it means uncovering a very dark truth.
Because the shadow man isn’t a nightmare. He’s all too real.
The Shadow Man is a collector of people, an abductor, watching his victims and planning while learning their routines, until it’s time to make his move. In the opening sequence his plan goes fatally wrong causing him to be careless with his next victim.
#ThrowbackThursday ~ Dead Woman Walking by Sharon Bolton #CrimeFiction #Suspense
Published in April 2017 Dead Woman Walking was my first book by Sharon Bolton.
My Thoughts
Thirteen passengers in a hot air balloon glide over the Northumberland National Park. Unlucky, you might think. And you’d be right. Jessica Lane had booked the flight as a surprise for her sister, Isabel’s 40th birthday.
#ThrowbackThursday ~ The Obsession by Nora Roberts #RomanticSuspense #CrimeFiction
The Obsession is a stand alone novel by the very prolific Nora Roberts, first published in 2016.
