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CTG’s TEN (+1) COOL THINGS THAT HAPPENED AT BLOODY SCOTLAND

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Slice Girling it up at Crime in the Coo! [L-R: Louise Voss, CTG, AK Benedict]

Bloody Scotland (9-11 September) was, once again, bloody brilliant!

It’s a super friendly and dynamic festival with a brilliant team of organisers and volunteers.

It’s hard to pick just ten things, but I’ve done my best and cheated slightly by adding an additional thing (so technically it’s now eleven cool things!!) – and added a bunch of photos to show the rest …

  1. Getting picked up from the station and chauffeur driven to the hotel by lovely crime fiction blogger @GrabThisBook after being on a delayed train for over 10 hours
  2. Raising a glass to celebrate Craig Robertson’s brilliant new novel MURDERABILIA and catching up with all my crime writer and blogging friends
  3. Hearing Daniel Pembrey read from his debut novel THE HARBOUR MASTER in front of a massive crowd at the Albert Halls
  4. Laughing till I cried at the (NOT) BORN IN THE USA panel with Steve Cavanagh, Mason Cross, Gordon Brown and Catriona McPherson
  5. Singing with THE SLICE GIRLS (Alexandra Sokoloff, AK Benedict, SJI Holliday, Louise Voss) at The Curly Coo bar as part of the Crime in the Coo event
  6. Marvelling over the mouthorgan playing genius of Stuart Neville (at Crime in the Coo)
  7. Cheering at the bravery of the pitchers at the PITCH PERFECT event
  8. Being fascinated by Neil McKay and Alexandra Sokoloff (chaired by Alexandra Benedict) talking about the nature of evil
  9. Watching a piper shoot fire out of his bagpipes on every top note in Stirling town centre
  10. Sitting back and enjoying the conversation between top-of-their-game crime writers Ian Rankin and Quintin Jardine
  11. The England crime writers team beating the Scotland crime writers team at football (with some great moves – chesting the ball – by Karen Sullivan of Orenda Books; the only lady player).

Find out more about this brilliant festival at www.bloodyscotland.com and be sure to book your ticket for next year – I just know that it’s going to be fantastic.

You can buy Daniel Pembrey’s THE HARBOUR MASTER here

You can buy Craig Robertson’s MURDERABILIA here

Check out the GRAB THIS BOOK blog here

Check out THE SLICE GIRLS on Facebook here

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CTG PRESENTS: @MarkHillWriter spills some Online Secrets #TwoOClockBoy

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Today I’m thrilled (if a little worried for you) that the lovely Mark Hill is taking the reins at CTG HQ to scare the crap out of you talk about his stunningly good debut crime thriller THE TWO O’CLOCK BOY.

Over to Mark …

Tell me a secret. Write it on a piece of paper.

I’m sure there’s something about yourself – something that happened, something you did – that you’ve never told anyone. It’s probably a small thing, you can live with it.

But what if that secret was a terrible, dangerous thing, and it came back to haunt you? Just what would you do to make it go away? Secrets drive you to desperation. Before you know it, you’re crossing a line – doing things you never imagined you were capable of.

Just how far would you go?

Secrets – of the deadly variety – are catnip for crime writers.

When I began to write about DI Ray Drake and DS Flick Crowley and the other characters in my crime thriller The Two O’Clock Boy, I wanted to discover how the sins of the past can crash catastrophically into the present. I wanted a terrible secret to emerge which would pitch my characters into the molten heat of an emotional firestorm. I wanted to body slam them with those big, nasty emotions: guilt and rage and terror. I wanted to make bad things happen – very bad things – and watch them fall apart.

At the eye of this terrible conspiracy, trying to make sense of it, are my coppers – Drake and Crowley. They’re the ones who have to get to the truth of a series of murders, to bring to an end a deadly slaughter. And Ray Drake knows better than most about secrets, and about guilt and rage and terror…

Because Ray’s got a secret. And if anyone found out what it was… well, it doesn’t bear thinking about.

I liked Ray Drake when I started to get to know him, he flew off the page. I discovered Ray’s a family man. He’s a bit tense, perhaps – troubled – but a good copper, a great copper. He’s the kind of guy you’d want in your corner.

But now, knowing what I know about Ray, do I understand him?

No.

Do I trust him?

Absolutely not.

You see, Ray’s a lot like his city. You think you know him, but you don’t, not really. London is 2,000 years old. Secrets multiply within its boundaries like germs in a petri dish. Some of them are frankly macabre, unsettling. Bolt as much glass and steel to the city as you like, build it ever higher or wider, but its streets will always pulse with dangerous mysteries – and it absolutely will not give them up without a fight.

But sometimes secrets do emerge from its tangled, teeming streets. And one of them its on his way to give Drake and Crowley the fight of their lives.

You see, after several decades, The Two O’Clock Boy is back.

So, that secret I asked you to write down. Burn it, shred it, get rid of it how you see fit. But don’t ever kid yourself that you’ll ever be free of it.

Wow. So that should tempt you (and terrify you) to read Mark Hill’s brilliantly gritty crime thriller The Two O’Clock Boy.

THE TWO O’CLOCK BOY is out now in eBook. You can buy it from Amazon here

Find out more about Mark Hill by hopping over to his website at www.markhillauthor.com and follow him on Twitter @MarkHillWriter

And be sure to check out all the great stops along the path of The Two O’Clock Boy blog tour:

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CTG’s Bookish Confessions #amreading

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About ten days ago @bloke_book challenged me and a few others to confess our darkest bookish secrets. Having procrastinated for a little while, I’ve bitten the bullet, and am fessing up to my crimes against books …

Have you ever damaged a book?
Define “damaged”. If cracking a book’s spine before you start reading it is damage, then yes. I can’t help myself. Also turning corners down to mark my place. I do this as standard – there’s no point me having a book mark, I always lose it and then I lose my place! I’m also prone to dropping books in the bath (my favourite place to read). Some books escape with a tide mark around the bottom, others fall victim of a full drowning and have to be hung up to dry out! A book is there to be read, and it’s going to get bruised and dirtied up in the process – that’s my view anyway!

Have you ever damaged a borrowed book?
I try hard not to. If it belongs to someone else I’m extra especially careful with it (I don’t read it in the bath). BUT I cannot guarantee not to turn the corners of the pages down – it’s a habit, I just can’t stop!

How long does it take you to read a book?
It depends on the book. Some – like an action thriller – might be a couple of days, others might be longer. It also depends why I’m reading it – if I’m on a deadline for review it has to be fast, whereas if it’s for me, for fun, then I can take my time.

Books you haven’t finished?
Loads! I’m easily bored, so if a book isn’t doing it for me I stop reading immediately.

Hyped/Popular books you didn’t like?
Yes, but I’m not telling! What I will say is that spoilers can be a nightmare with books hyped from a long way before publication. I didn’t read GONE GIRL when it came out because someone had already told me the twist! (I think it’s a great story though, the book and the film).

Is there a book you wouldn’t tell anyone you were reading?
I’m happy to tell about any book I’m reading (unless talking about the book is embargoed until a certain date by the author or their PR).

Are you a fast/slow reader?

Both. Depends on the book and my mood.

Do you like to buddy read?
I’m not sure what this is. I like talking about books with my blogger friends and getting recommendations though.

Do you read better in your head/out loud?
If I’m reading someone else’s book I read it in my head. If I’m reading my own while editing, I read it out loud.

If you were only allowed to own one book, what would it be and why?

One book!! *gasps* I really don’t know, but it would be a close run thing between Michael Crichton’s A STATE OF FEAR and Lee Child’s KILLING FLOOR. Or maybe a Jilly Cooper book – either RIDERS or POLO! Simply because with all these books I’d be happy to re-read them over and over and over again.

Now it’s my turn to tag some people so I pick: Susi Holliday, Liz Barnsley, Alex Caan, Rod Reynolds and Mark Hill.

And while they’re putting together their confessions, be sure to check out what others in the chain – @Bloke_book @andymartinink and @KarinaMSzczurek have already confessed to …

http://bookebloke.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/the-reader-confessions-tag.html

http://andymartinink.co.uk/2016/08/confessions/

https://karinamagdalena.com/2016/08/25/reader-confessions/

CTG Reviews: CUT TO THE BONE by Alex Caan

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What the blurb says: “Ruby is a vlogger, a rising star of YouTube and a heroine to millions of teenage girls. And she’s missing. She’s an adult – nothing to worry about, surely? Until the video’s uploaded. Ruby, in the dirt and pleading for her life.

Who better to head up the investigation than the Met’s rising star, Detective Inspector Kate Riley? She’s leading a shiny new team, high-powered, mostly female and with the best resources money can buy. It’s time for them to prove what they can do. Alongside her, Detective Sergeant Zain Harris – poster boy for multiracial policing and the team’s newest member – has his own unique contribution to make. But can Kate wholly trust him and when he’s around, can she trust herself?

Ruby’s millions of fans are hysterical about what may have happened to her. The press is having a field day and as the investigation hurtles out of control in the glare of publicity, it becomes clear that the world of YouTube vloggers and social media is much, much darker than anyone could have imagined in their worst nightmares.

And the videos keep coming . . .”

CUT TO THE BONE is the latest debut coming out of Bonnier’s Twenty7 Books imprint, and it’s an outstanding edition to their line-up. Utterly contemporary, with a rapid pace and nail-biting tension from the get-go, it’s a super-twisty police procedural that kept me guessing right until the end.

The story starts with the disappearance of superstar vlogger, Ruby Day. This is a novel hot on technology – it’s bang up to date – but the human element is strong too, and Ruby’s story is heartbreakingly compelling. Bullied at school, Ruby turned to vlogging as a way to overcome her demons and help others. When her subscribers grew, she was catapulted into the spotlight, and with that came loyal fans, but also hangers on, and those looking to exploit her for profit. When she goes missing, DI Riley and DS Harris have a number of possible suspects who each has a stake in Ruby, but who would profit most from her disappearance? As the investigation cranks up, and more videos of Ruby in distress are released, it becomes clear that beneath the surface of Ruby’s business relationships and personal relationships there are darker, and seedier, motives than any of them could have possibly imagined.

The two main characters – DI Kate Riley and DS Zain Harris – make for an interesting pairing. Both damaged by the events in their past, they’re equally suspicious of others and find it difficult to trust people. They’re also both exceptional at what they do, and determined to get to the truth, and for justice to prevail (even if Zain’s version of justice may be a little more ‘hands on’ at times). Their origins – finding out why Kate Riley had to leave America and start over in the UK, and why Zain Harris is struggling to fit into his new role as a DS in Riley’s team – are fresh and original, and really made me want to spend time with them.

CUT TO THE BONE is perfect for readers who like their police procedurals fast paced, twisty-turny, and served with a side order of grit. I loved it, and can’t wait to read the next in the series.

CUT TO THE BONE is out in eBook now. You can buy it from Amazon here

Check out my interview with Alex Caan here and be sure to follow him on Twitter @alexcaanwriter

Hot New Crime Blogger @SmDee13 talks about why she chose @citywriting for her creative writing MA

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Today I’m handing over the reins at CTG HQ to a fabulous new crime blogger and crime writer – Sam Dennis. I met Sam earlier this year when she was in her second term on the City University London Creative Writing MA, and about to start her own crime fiction blog.

Today Sam’s talking about why she picked City University for her MA …

I’ve always known I wanted to write books one day but I wasn’t very good at it. I have plenty of half-finished stories, characters begging to tell their stories and book ideas in various notepads, diaries, scrap pieces of paper, etc. but I kept on getting stuck. One day I decided to search for a course that could help me. I came across City University London’s course and immediately felt intimidated by the prestige and the amount of work I’d have to do – to write a full-length novel sounded terrifying but I knew it was something I had wanted from a young and so I applied.

Fast-forward to today and I’m a few weeks away from finishing my first year. It’s been very intense but extremely rewarding Creative Writing MA. (They haven’t paid me to say that.) It’s not your average course and although I had done my research about how much writing we’d have to do in the first year, it was a bit of a culture shock to have to write between 1,000 – 2,000 words a week. Before this course I had starting writing many stories but had never really planned a story from beginning to end – I didn’t think you needed to, I thought it ‘just came to you in a dream’. That’s where the course came in and turned my scribbles into fully fledged idea that could one day (I hope) be published.

What I love about City’s course is that we focus solely on crime fiction, our teachers are published crime novelists so they’re more than qualified to give advice and teach us how to write, but more than that, we have regular visits by some of the best crime writers also. In our bi-weekly workshops we don’t spend time searching for ‘meaning’ – although we do have some hilarious conversations about what was going through the authors head when they wrote a particular scene – instead we think about the immediate questions the author poses, how they create tension, whether we need to like the main character or not (we do), the twists and turns, and then we think about how we can do the same for our novels and actually do it. In the beginning I was so scared and nervous to share my work and had immediately dismissed it but then everyone’s feedback encouraged me and let me know we’re all a bunch of dark people who enjoy writing about and discussing gruesome things.

As we’re almost at the final hurdle of the first academic year I’m now at the stage where I’m writing my first novel – I never thought I’d get to this point. We had to spend a lot of time planning and plotting, working on the characters and throwing plenty of curveballs at them, and it’s been a great help. I’m very much a plotter so I absolutely loved that part of the course. But this is the bit that really counts and where everything I’ve learnt from September 2015 to today will see me through writing my novel from start to finish so that it’s completed by September 2017. It’s amazing to me that I will have written over 100,000 words.

I’m completely sold to crime thriller books and spend a lot of my time reading, reviewing, discussing, recommending them alongside studying and writing one of my own. It’s very surreal. What I’d say to anyone who’s toying with the idea of writing a crime thriller novel and would like a little guidance on how to do so, invest in yourself and do this course – you won’t be disappointed at all. It’s one of the best decisions I’ve made so far and I’m excited to see where my book takes me one day.

A massive thank you to Sam Dennis for taking the helm of the CTG HQ today. 

You can catch Sam blogging about all things crime fiction over on her fabulous site www.thiscrimebook.com and be sure to follow her on Twitter @SmDee13

For more information about the brilliant Creative Writing MA offered by City University London (Twitter – @citywriting), hop over to their website here

 

CTG Interviews: Ava Marsh about her new thriller EXPOSURE

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Today I’m delighted to have the fabulous Ava Marsh – writer of the brilliant page-turning thrillers, UNTOUCHABLE and EXPOSURE – join me for a bit of a Q&A about her latest book EXPOSURE.

Welcome to the CTG blog, Ava.

So, your second book EXPOSURE is out this month, can you tell us a bit about it?

EXPOSURE follows the story of Leanne Jenkins, otherwise known as Kitty Sweet, a notorious young porn star who pleaded guilty to double murder nearly ten years ago. Up to this point, Leanne has always refused to tell anyone why she did it, but a visit from an old friend sparks an incident that convinces her to finally come clean to the prison psychologist.

EXPOSURE is set in the porn industry, and told through the eyes of Kitty Sweet (aka Leanne Jenkins). What sparked your interest in writing a thriller set in the porn world?

Having written about high class escorts in UNTOUCHABLE, it seemed a natural next step to centre a book in the other bastion of the sex trade, pornography. Again, I felt it was an industry which marginalised the women who worked in it, and I wanted to explore what that world would feel like to someone immersed in it. And it came to me very quickly that my main character would be a porn star in prison for double murder. From that premise, I had to work out why.

Kitty/Leanne is a bold yet very humanly flawed young woman, and despite her being in prison for double murder I found her instantly likeable and very easy to empathise with. What’s your process for creating such realistic characters?

Wow, now you’re really making me think! I guess writing in first person helps a great deal. It puts you inside someone’s head, experiencing the world through their eyes, reading their thoughts. But I also worked hard to provide clues within that opening chapter – the part where she rescues the little silverfish was there specifically to show that Leanne/Kitty had a softer side to the one she was portraying, along with her reactions to the news of her mother’s illness.

Occasionally I draw on things I’ve found out during research or just real life. Victor, for instance, was loosely based on a real character I read about in my research – a very nasty man indeed, who remains anonymous to this day. Generally though I have no particular formula, though I do go through a list of various character prompts and questions to develop a fuller picture of the people who appear in the book.

You include a lot of detail about the workings and goings on in the porn industry and the prison environment. How did you go about researching for this?

I’d like to say I did exciting things like go to a porn shoot or visit a prison, but the boring truth was I researched all of it online and from books. I have a kindle full of porn memoirs – if I ever lose it, people are going to think I’m either a pervert or some sort of obsessive fan.

Can you tell us a bit about your writing process – did you plot the story in advance or start writing and see what happened?

I’m a half-and-half sort of girl. I need the bones of the story – roughly what happens to whom and why – before I can start writing. I’m amazed by those authors who sit down to a blank document and begin typing, with no idea where they’re going. I’ll usually flesh out an outline and some character studies, so I have a basis from which to dive in. But I’m very flexible – when things occur to me as I go along, I’ll go back and make changes there or then, or put them on a snagging list for the second draft. Things always change, at least a little bit, as you get to know your characters and plot more intimately.

And, finally, what does the rest of 2016 have in store for you?

Hopefully plenty of tea, cake and sunshine! On the writing front, I’m halfway through one first draft, while brainstorming another new idea, despite having promised myself lots of time off after a very demanding schedule for the last 18 months. Somehow it seems easier to carry on working than sit around feeling guilty for not doing any writing. Perhaps this was because I was severely blocked for many years before I embarked on fiction, and now I’m always haunted by the sense that I need to make up for lost time.

A big thank you to the wonderful Ava Marsh for letting me grill her about her latest thriller – EXPOSURE – and here’s to a summer filled with tea, cake and sunshine!

In case you’ve not seen it, here’s the blurb on EXPOSURE: “In a world without boundaries it’s hard to know where to stop … Kitty Sweet isn’t like anyone you’ve ever met before. She’s an infamous porn star, imprisoned for double murder. As damaged as she is charismatic, as dangerous as she is charming. But once no different from you or I. Kitty’s past is full of heartbreak and desperation, of adulation and glamour. Of ruin. She’s descended to an underworld most people can only imagine, and lived to tell the tale … This is her story.” You can read my review here

EXPOSURE is out now. Buy it here from Waterstones or from Amazon here

And be sure to follow Ava Marsh on Twitter @MsAvaMarsh

 

 

The #EpiphanyJones Blog Tour: Michael Grothaus talks about The Importance of Dissatisfaction In Writing Well

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Today I’m delighted to be hosting a stop on The Epiphany Jones Blog Tour, and am handing over the hot seat here at CTG HQ to  Michael Grothaus to talk about why dissatisfaction is important in writing well.

Michael is a novelist and journalist who spent years researching sex trafficking, research which is put to use in his debut novel EPIPHANY JONES. Born in Saint Louis, Missouri, he has a degree in filmmaking, and as a journalist writes about creativity, tech, subcultures, sex and pornography, and the effects of mass media on our psyches.

Over to Michael …

The Importance of Dissatisfaction In Writing Well

In my novel EPIPHANY JONES there are two main characters. There’s Epiphany, for whom the book is named after, and then there’s Jerry Dresden. As you’ll soon discover when you start to read the book, Jerry isn’t in a good place when the story begins. He suffers from a horrible psychological affliction where he sees people who don’t really exist and he can interact with them—having conversations, even being able to “feel” them when he “touches” them—as easily as you or I can interact with each other.

But perhaps what’s worse is Jerry is also an addict, but instead of the usual addictions novelists write about—booze, drugs—Jerry has a porn addiction. But as with most addictions, Jerry’s addiction to porn comes from trying to dull the pain of past tragedy. Because of his psychological afflictions and addiction Jerry can be a pretty cynical, dissatisfied, angry guy.

When people finish reading the book, I’m not really surprised to hear them say “I started off not wanting to hang out with Jerry, but by the end of the book I loved him.” What does surprise me is more than a handful of people have added “You seem like such a nice, happy guy, Michael; I had no idea you had that much anger in you.” And some even then add “So, were you addicted to porn?”

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Now for the record: no, I’ve never had a porn addiction. But, hey, you write a first person story about a guy who has a porn addiction and some readers are just going to think it’s autobiographical. I get that. I do.

But what those same readers are right about is the anger. That dissatisfaction Jerry feels? That comes from me—at least part of it. And that dissatisfaction, I believe, is essential to being a good writer. Why? Because I’ve never met anyone who was completely satisfied, content, and happy who could write well.

I know people who want to “be writers” (whatever that means) who are wealthy, or privileged and never wanted for anything, or have never had a health problem, or never experienced significant loss—and none of them can write well. I know people who don’t care about politics, or the environment, or poverty, of the suffering that goes on around the world—and none of them can write well.

These people are not bad or stupid or foolish—indeed, they are all very fortunate (or lucky). Yet because of this rare good fortune they lack dissatisfaction, which is the single most important resource that writers have—if they use it wisely. Dissatisfaction spurs anger and anger can be used productively. Productively, it’s what gets you in front of your keyboard to write a story holding a mirror up to society so it can see itself as it really is. It’s what spurs you to write characters that challenge readers’ assumptions about why people are the way they are. It’s what allows you to create worlds as which you wish ours would be (or warn against what ours may become).

We would not have the masterpiece 1984 if George Orwell was not dissatisfied with the imperialism of his own government and the totalitarianism of other governments. We would not have THE GLASS BEAD GAME had Hermann Hesse not been dissatisfied with the lack of individualism among intellectual elites. And we would not have THE GREAT GATSBY had Scott Fitzgerald not been dissatisfied with the failure of the American dream.

As for me, I’m dissatisfied with things in life: our obsession with celebrities when there are real issues to pay attention to; the prevalence of sex trafficking that goes mostly unnoticed; the hypocrisy of those who condemn people with addictions but have their own vices securely locked away from prying eyes.

And yes, I’m happy too. But I’m also happy to be dissatisfied where dissatisfaction is justified. Dissatisfaction is a powerful tool for creativity and you can’t write well without it.

 

Big thanks to Michael for chatting to us on the CTG blog today.

Michael’s debut novel EPIPHANY JONES is out this month. Here’s what the blurb says: “A man with a consuming addiction. A woman who talks to God. And the secret connection that could destroy them both … Jerry has a traumatic past that leaves him subject to psychotic hallucinations and depressive episodes. When he stands accused of stealing a priceless Van Gogh painting, he goes underground, where he develops an unwilling relationship with a woman who believes that the voices she hears are from God. Involuntarily entangled in the illicit world of sex-trafficking amongst the Hollywood elite, and on a mission to find redemption for a haunting series of events from the past, Jerry is thrust into a genuinely shocking and outrageously funny quest to uncover the truth and atone for historical sins. 

A complex, page-turning psychological thriller, riddled with twists and turns, Epiphany Jones is also a superb dark comedy with a powerful emotional core. You’ll laugh when you know you shouldn’t, be moved when you least expect it and, most importantly, never look at Hollywood, celebrity or sex in the same way again.”

To find out more about Michael Grothaus visit his website here and follow him on Twitter @michaelgrothaus

You can buy EPIPHANY JONES by clicking the link here to go to Waterstones or click here to go to Amazon

And be sure to check out all the other great stops on the blog tour:

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*Calling All Reacher Fans* Event Alert: Andy Martin (and Lee Child) at Prospect Book Club on 20th June

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If you’re a Reacher fan then you’ll probably want to check out the June gathering of the Prospect Book Club, London.

On Monday June 20th, Andy Martin – Cambridge academic and number one Lee Child fan – will be joining the Book Club to discuss his book REACHER SAID NOTHING –  a book about Lee Child and the writing of his most recent thriller MAKE ME. Lee Child will also be joining the event via video link to answer audience questions, and give his perspective on his time with Andy. I’ve seen these two writers in conversation, and I’m sure this will be a very fun event!

To find out more and to get tickets click here 

What the blurb says about REACHER SAID NOTHING: “On 1 September 1994, Lee Child went out to buy the paper to start writing his first novel, in pencil. The result was KILLING FLOOR, which introduced his hero Jack Reacher. Twenty years later, on 1 September 2014, he began writing MAKE ME, the twentieth novel in his number-one-bestselling Reacher series. Same day, same writer, same hero. The difference, this time, was that he had someone looking over his shoulder. Andy Martin, uber Reacher fan, Cambridge academic, expert on existentialism and dedicated surfer, sat behind Lee Child in his office and watched him as he wrote. While Lee was writing his Reacher book, Andy was writing about the making of MAKE ME. REACHER SAID NOTHING is a book about a guy writing a book. An instant meta-book. It crosses genres, by bringing a high-level critical approach to a popular text, and gives a fascinating insight into the art of writing a thriller, showing the process in real time. It may well be the first of its kind.”

You can read my review of REACHER SAID NOTHING here and my interview with Andy Martin here

And you can read my review of MAKE ME by Lee Child here

CTG Reviews: BRIT NOIR by Barry Forshaw

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What the blurb says: “Barry Forshaw is acknowledged as a leading expert on European crime fiction, but his principal area of expertise is the crime arena of the British Isles. Continuing the earlier success of the series with Nordic Noir and Euro Noir, he now returns home to produce the definitive reader’s guide to modern British crime fiction. Every major living writer of the British Isles is considered, often through a concentration on one or two key books, and many exciting new talents are highlighted for the reader. And as the crime genre is as much about films and TV as it is about books, Brit Noir celebrates crime on the screen as well as the page.”

There isn’t anything that Barry Forshaw doesn’t know about crime fiction, so this gem of a book is like having your very own, personal crime fiction guru right at your fingertips.

This pocket guide to  crime fiction takes you on a bookish journey across the UK, and also showcases writers who set their books further afield. Taking each geographical area in turn, Barry Forshaw profiles many of the writers and characters who inhabit them, giving insight into both the writer, the characters and what it is about the authors books that especially stand out for him. By taking the journey with him you’re sure to add many more books to your ‘must read’ lists and films/TV series to your watchlist.

A treasure trove of a read – BRIT NOIR is the perfect reading companion for all those who love the crime fiction genre.

 

BRIT NOIR is out now. Click here to buy it from Waterstones or to buy it from Amazon click here

Barry Forshaw is one the leading experts on crime fiction, TV and film. His books include Nordic Noir, Euro Noir, Sex and Film, The Rough Guide to Crime Fiction, along with books on HG Wells and Stieg Larsson. He writes for the national press, edits Crime Time (www.crimetime.co.uk) and is a broadcaster and panellist. He teaches the history of crime fiction on the MA in Creative Writing (Crime Fiction) at City University. Follow Barry on Twitter @BarryForshaw3

#DontYouCry Blog Tour: Read an exclusive extract of Mary Kubica’s DON’T YOU CRY

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This morning I’m delighted to be hosting a stop on Mary Kubica’s DON’T YOU CRY Blog Tour and to be sharing an exclusive extract from the book with you.

Drumroll please …

The day we met, she asked me about my job and whether or not I’d be able to afford my half of the rent. That was Esther’s only qualification, that I pay my own way. “I can,” I promised her, showing my latest paycheck as proof. Five-fifty a month I could do. Five-fifty a month for a bedroom of my own in a walk-up apartment on Chicago’s north side. She took me there, down the street from the bookshop, just as soon as she finished reading to the tiny tots who pilfered from us the blood-orange poufs. I listened to her as she read aloud, taking on the voice of a bear and a cow and a duck, her voice pacifying and sweet. She was meticulous in the details, from the way she made sure the little ones were attentive and quiet, to the way she turned the pages of the oversize book so all could see. Even I found myself perched on the floor, listening to the tale. She was enchanting.

In the walk-up apartment, Esther showed to me the space that could be my room if I so chose.

She never said what happened to the person who used to live there in the room before me, the room I would soon inhabit, though in the weeks that followed I found vestiges of his or her existence in the compact closet in the large bedroom: an inde­cipherable name etched into the wall with pencil, a fragment of a photograph abandoned on the vacant floor of a hollow room so that all that remained on the glossy image was a wisp of Es­ther’s shadowy hair.

The scrap of photo I did away with after I moved in, but there was nothing I could do to fix the closet wall. I knew it was Esther’s hair in the photograph because, like the hetero­chromatic eyes, she had hair like I’d never before seen, the way she bleached it from bottom to top to get a gradual fade, dark brown on top, blond at the bottom. The tear line on the pic­ture was telling, too, the barbed white of the photo paper, the image gone—all but Esther.

I didn’t toss the photo, but rather handed it to Esther with the words, “I think this is yours,” as I unpacked my belong­ings and moved in. That was nearly a year ago. She’d snatched it from my hand and threw it away, an act that meant nothing to me at the time.

But now I can’t help but wonder if it should have meant some­thing. Though what, I’m not so sure.

 

Brilliant! I can’t wait to read more!

DON’T YOU CRY is out now. Here’s what the blurb says: “In downtown Chicago, a young woman named Esther Vaughan disappears from her apartment without a trace. A haunting letter addressed to My Dearest is found among her possessions, leaving her friend and roommate Quinn Collins to wonder where Esther is and whether or not she’s the person Quinn thought she knew. Meanwhile, in a small Michigan harbour town an hour outside Chicago, a mysterious woman appears in the quiet coffee shop where 18 year old Alex Gallo works as a dishwasher. He is immediately drawn to her charm and beauty, but what starts as an innocent crush quickly spirals into something far more dark and sinister. As Quinn searches for answers about Esther, and Alex is drawn further under the stranger’s spell …”

To buy the book click here to go to Waterstones, or go to Amazon by clicking here