CTG Reviews: Dead Man’s Time by Peter James

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What the blurb says: “A vicious robbery at a secluded Brighton mansion leaves its elderly occupant dying. Millions of pounds’ worth of valuables have been stolen.

But as Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, heading the enquiry, rapidly learns, there is one priceless item of sentimental value that her powerful family cherish above all else. And they are fully prepared to take the law into their own hands, and will do anything – absolutely anything – to get it back.

Within days, Grace is racing against the clock, following a murderous trail that leads him from the shady antiques world of Brighton, across Europe, and all the way back to the New York waterfront gang struggles of 1922, chasing a killer driver by the force of one man’s greed and another man’s fury.”

The ninth novel in Peter James’ award-winning Roy Grace series finds Detective Superintendent Grace juggling his job with the challenges of being a new parent. Sleep deprived and wishing that he could spend more time at home with Cleo and their baby son, Noah, instead Grace finds himself heading up the investigation into the robbery and violent assault of an elderly widow.

This story has all the hallmarks of a classic Peter James novel – tight plotting, lots of twists and turns, great attention to detail. It also combines the present-day crime with a past mystery which begins in Brooklyn, 1922, when a young boy witnesses the murder of his mother and the abduction of his father.

As Grace and his team investigate the present day crime, the two stories begin to intertwine through factors common to both – Gavin Daly, an elderly multi-millionaire with an unfulfilled promise, and a stolen broken pocketwatch.

As Grace pieces the evidence together it becomes clear that his team are not the only people hunting for the killer. With several leads eliminated, he follows the trail of stolen goods first to Spain and then to New York. The only problem is, his dedication to the case may well have blinded him to a threat much closer to home.

The theme of family is strong in this book. Peter James artfully interweaves the past and present crime stories, making the powerful and, at times ruthless, Gavin Daly a compelling and empathetic character. It’s also a fascinating glimpse into the world of New York gangs in the 1920s and the darker side of the UK antiques trade.

With fast-paced action, great characters and a pair of intriguing and emotive crimes to solve, Dead Man’s Time is a real page-turner.

Highly Recommended.

[With thanks to Pan MacMillan and Midas PR for my copy of Dead Man’s Time]

Competition Alert: CWA Debut Dagger & CRIMEFEST FLASHBANG

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CRIME WRITERS ASSOCIATION DEBUT DAGGER

Entries are now open for the 2014 CWA Debut Dagger competition. The competition is open to unpublished writers with entries judged by a panel of top crime editors and agents, and the shortlist sent to publishers and agents. First prize is £700, sponsored by Orion, and all shortlisted entries receive a professional assessment of their work. The entry fee is £25 and you’ll need to sent the first 3000 words (or fewer) of your novel along with a 500-1000 word synopsis of the rest of the novel.

The Debut Dagger closes on Friday 31st January 2014. The shortlist is announced at CrimeFest in May 2014 and the winner at the CWA Dagger Awards Dinner later in the year.

To find out more, hop on over to http://www.thecwa.co.uk/daggers/debut/

 

CRIMEFEST FLASHBANG COMPETITION


CRIMEFEST’s FLASHBANG writing competition challenges you to write a flash-fiction crime story in no more than 150 words.

Prizes include a pair of weekend passes to CRIMEFEST 2015 and other crime-related goodies. Shortlisted entries will be compiled by a judging panel of leading crime reviewers, and Zoë Sharp, author of the Charlie Fox series, will be the final arbiter. The judges are on the lookout for flashes of crime storytelling brilliance in 150 words or less. The entry fee is £2 (only one entry allowed per person).

Entries close at midnight on 3rd March 2014. The longlist will be announced on 7th April, the shortlist announced on 21st April and the winners announced at CRIMEFEST in May 2014.

To find out more, pop over to www.flashbangcontest.wordpress.com

CTG Reviews: The Woman in Black: Angel of Death by Martyn Waites

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cover image

What the blurb says: “Autumn 1940, World War Two, the Blitz. Bombs are raining down, destroying the cities of Britain. In London, children are being removed from their families and taken to the country for safety. Teach Eve Parkins is in charge of one such group, and her destination is an empty and desolate house that appears to be sinking into the treacherous tidal marshes that surround it.

EEL MARSH HOUSE.

Far from home and with no alternative, Eve and the children move in. But soon it becomes apparent that there is someone else in the house; someone who is far deadlier than any number of German bombs …

The Woman in Black.”

 

I’ve long been a fan of Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black, having read the book and watched the play at the theatre, so I was intrigued to see how Martyn Waites approached the writing of a sequel.

I wasn’t disappointed.

Angel of Death is every bit as chilling, heart-thumping and edge-of-your-seat thrilling as the original.

The central character, Eve Parkins, is a courageous woman. Kind and fiercely protective of the children in her charge, she’s a more approachable teacher than her boss, Mrs Hogg. As they leave London she feels especially protective of one particular child, Edward, who has recently been orphaned.

It’s difficult to go into plot details without spoiling the story for you, but what I can say is that Eel Marsh House is every bit as scary as in the first story. Now it’s rotting, the mould eating away at its structure, decay destroying its contents. This story will have you looking at mould in a whole other way, and watching the shadows in case they start to follow you.

When Eve, Mrs Hogg, and the children arrive at the house bad things start to happen. Edward becomes increasingly distant from Eve, his only solace found in an ancient and mouldy Mr Punch puppet. It isn’t long before Eve realises that they are not the house’s only occupants.

And as for The Woman in Black, well she’s a menacing presence. Watching. Manipulating. Killing.

Given that this is a sequel the presence and identity of the Woman is not a secret from the reader. She has more ‘on the page’ time than in the original book – you see her before the characters do, and because of her history you can guess what she’s thinking and you know what she’s capable of. But Waites still manages to keep the tension high, building the suspense towards a nail-biting, hiding-behind-a-cushion-as-you-read conclusion as The Woman in Black turns what should be a safe haven for the evacuees into a place more horrific than their worst nightmare.

Highly Recommended.

 

[With thanks to Arrow Books and Hammer for my copy of The Woman in Black: Angel of Death]

 

Event Report: CWA 60th Anniversary Event

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Barry Forshaw at CWA

Barry Forshaw at CWA

Last night I trotted into London for the CWA 60th Anniversary event. Held on the third floor of the fabulous Foyles flagship bookstore on Charing Cross Road, the celebrations began at 6.30pm with the announcement of the CWA’s recent polls to find the greatest crime writer, crime series and crime novel of all time.

The packed room fell silent as the winners were announced. And the winners are …

Best Ever Novel: THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD – AGATHA CHRISTIE 

Best Ever Author – AGATHA CHRISTIE

Best Ever Crime Series – SHERLOCK HOLMES

Following the announcement, an expert panel of crime thriller writers – Barry Forshaw, Belinda Bauer, Zoe Sharp and David Stuart Davies – debated the shortlist choices and winners, with panel chair, Barry Forshaw, playing ‘devils advocate’.

A lively discussion was had – with topics ranging from plot-holes in classic crime novels, what can an author do when they get sick of writing their protagonist (as Agatha Christie did famously with Poirot), and who is the best Sherlock Holmes?

Congratulations to the winners and Happy Anniversary CWA.

 

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Event Report: CSI Portsmouth

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Ticket, Book & Fingerprint Key-ring!

Ticket, Book & Fingerprint Key-ring!

On Saturday I made the trip to Portsmouth to attend CSI Portsmouth. Organised by crime writer Pauline Rowson, and one of many events taking place as part of the Portsmouth BookFest 2013, CSI Portsmouth was held at the fabulous Royal Naval Museum in the Historic Dockyard.

Now in its fourth year, the event brought together crime writers and crime solving experts.

The morning panel paired crime authors Pauline Rowson and Kerry Wilkinson, with real-life crime experts Michael Ellis of Hampshire Police and Dr Alex Allan, a Forensic Scientist specialising in Toxicology. The afternoon panel paired crime authors SJ Bolton and NJ Cooper with  real-life crime experts Brian Chappell, MBE, former DCI with the MET and Scotland Yard, and Sergeant Tony Birr from Hampshire Police Marine Unit.

Both panels made for some interesting discussions. For example, the debate in the morning panel around ‘legal highs’ and how the use of these unregulated and seemingly untested drugs are impacting on the police and other emergency services, and the conversation in the afternoon panel between NJ Cooper and SJ Bolton on whether provoking fear in themselves whilst writing helped them portray a scary and tension filled scene.

In addition to the panels, Haling Island Bookshop was on-hand for all your bookish shopping needs, and I was able to get my fingerprint (well, thumbprint) taken by Hampshire Constabulary and have it put into a key-ring!

If you’re interested in how crime is investigated both in real life and in crime fiction, CSI Portsmouth 2014 could be worth a visit.

CTG Reviews: NEVER GO BACK by Lee Child

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NEVER GO BACK cover image

NEVER GO BACK cover image

What the blurb says: “ After an epic and interrupted journey all the way from the snows of South Dakota, Jack Reacher has finally made it to Virginia. His destination: a sturdy stone building a short bus ride from Washington DC, the headquarters of his old unit, the 110th MP. It was the closest thing to a home he ever had. Why? He wants to meet the new commanding officer, Major Susan Turner. He liked her voice on the phone. But the officer sitting behind Reacher’s old desk isn’t a woman. Why is Susan Turner not there? What Reacher doesn’t expect is what comes next. He himself is in big trouble, accused of a sixteen-year-old homicide. And he certainly doesn’t expect to hear these words: ‘You’re back in the army, Major. And your ass is mine.’ Will he be sorry he went back? Or – will someone else?”

Classic Reacher. Unputdownable.

When I was halfway through this book I started to slow down, I was so enjoying the story that I wanted to make it last longer. Now that, to me, is a great book. In fact, I think this might just be my new favourite of the series – and that’s a tough call to make because they are all so good.

Anyway, this book sees Reacher finally getting to Virginia. Only Major Susan Turner isn’t there and Reacher is recalled back into the army to face an old homicide charge (and another, more personal relationship-based, legal situation). But does Reacher quit? Of course not, he’s going to find out why both he and Susan Turner are being held on trumped-up charges, and ensure that justice is served.

So I’m not going to discuss the plot further than that because, quite frankly, you need to discover it as you read and I really don’t want to spoil it for you.

What I will say though is that this book is a little different to the majority of the others in the series due to the depth of connection between Reacher and Major Susan Turner. Reacher isn’t alone. Sure, you might say that in previous books he’s always teamed up with someone (often a woman) to sort out whatever situation he’s uncovered. But this is different. With Susan Turner the connection is way more than professional and way more than physical. This isn’t a knight rescuing a damsel in distress. This is a pair of knights, a partnership of equals, a meeting of minds, bodies and souls. And it makes for some gripping reading.

It also shows elements of Reacher that have been less touched upon in other books. Yes, sure, there’s still the great action sequences at the series is famous for, and Reacher is just as tough and able to win a fight (even with his hands behind his back) and he’s super smart at thinking through the complex problems that he encounters. But this time the personal stakes are higher, and so is the tension.

In this book, more than any other, Reacher has the chance to put down roots and, for the first time, it seems like he’s really considering it. Question is, after so long on the road, will he?

Highly recommended.

 

[I bought my copy of NEVER GO BACK from Waterstones book shop]

Guest Post: Spooks and Things by Bernard Besson

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Author Bernard Besson

Author Bernard Besson

The Greenland Breach cover image

The Greenland Breach cover image

Today’s guest poster, Bernard Besson, has had a long career in French intelligence and law enforcement. He is a former chief of staff of the French FBI, was involved in dismantling Soviet spy rings in France and Western Europe at the fall of the Soviet Union, and is one of the country’s top specialists in economic intelligence. He is also a prize-winning thriller writer—eight of his novels have been published in French. His latest, The Greenland Breach, is a spy novel set on a backdrop of global warming and was just published by Le French Book. Here he talks to use about what this book means to him and how he writes.

Why did you start writing thrillers?

I got inspired to write my first thriller when I was at the DST, which is French counter-espionage, or the equivalent of the FBI. I was very lucky to be working during the fall of communism and the Soviet Union and learned how networks of Russian, Bulgarian, Polish, Czech and Romanian spies worked with their allies in France.

Where did the idea for The Greenland Breach come from?

The Greenland Breach is my first eco-thriller. It was the debate among scientists in France that led me to write this novel. They do not all agree on the causes of global warming.

The most prosperous nations are those that are able to understand and anticipate economic changes and well as natural changes. In The Greenland Breach we have both. It was very tempting to tell a story that recounted this reality. Fiction makes it possible to tell more truth than an academic work filled with numbers and statistics.

And I like to write about things that question or concern me. This book is about climate change and its political and economic consequences.  Greenland and the North Pole hold immense mining, maritime and agricultural opportunities. These will belong to those who will know how to discover them, as long as they have a strategy. The battle for the Arctic has already begun. It opposes Canada, Europe, the United States and Russia. The intelligence services of those countries are mobilized. And European and American businesses that have complicated relationships with the intelligence services—which can be both entertaining and dramatic.

What does this book mean for you?

For me, this book was an opportunity to pay homage to the men and women who work in intelligence, with whom I worked for a long time. It is not enough to collect information by satellite and intercept emails and telephone communications around the planet. You need to know what to do with it. It is not the information that counts, but asking the right questions. Intelligence, courage and an ability to adapt to the unforeseen are qualities that are just as important as the technology you use. I also show in The Greenland Breach that spying is only interesting if the political and economic leaders know what they want, and want it for a long time.

James Bond and Jason Bourne always seem to have firearms at hand. What’s the real story?

Ninety-five per cent of an intelligence officer’s assignments consist of gathering information and verifying it. Computers and software, along with general knowledge and conversational skills are more useful in this area than guns. Fortunately, I have never in my career used a weapon or killed anyone. I am happy about that. My characters don’t do it much either, or at least not with the usual kind of weapons. In The Greenland Breach, John Spencer Larivière handles the bad guy with a screwdriver, and Victoire Augagneur downs an adversary with a broken windowpane.

How would you characterize espionage today?

Today, keeping things top secret is less important than being quick to think and to gather information. One of the key battlegrounds is business, and both countries and multinational corporations are fighting for key strategic knowledge they hope to be the first to use. In my novel The Greenland Breach, my heroes are little-known actors in this economic war for the future. Those with the best information will win the battle. The blood splattered on Greenland’s ice cap belongs to shadow fighters, mercenaries fighting battles we don’t learn about on the evening news.

The Greenland Breach is published on 30th October 2013.

To find out more hop on over to http://www.thegreenlandbreach.com

CTG Reviews: Wicked Game by Adam Chase

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Wicked Game cover image

Wicked Game cover image

What the blurb says: “Joshua Thane, aka Hex, is a freelance assassin. His next target is Dr Mary Wilding, a British microbiologist suspected of trading secrets. Breaking into her house, he discovers someone has beaten him to it – she’s already dead. The portable hard drive he’s ordered to steal is also missing.

About to flee the scene, Hex comes face-to-face with Wilding’s teenage son. According to normal rules of engagement, Hex should kill the boy to protect his own identity and professional reputation, but turbulent memories from his past trigger a crisis of conscience.

Bewildered by his actions, Hex allows the boy to live and flees; yet his nightmare has barely begun. With his own life under threat for apparently botching the job, he embarks on an international quest to find the real killer and redeem his soul. Using his old contacts, including crime boss Billy Squeeze, he unravels a criminal conspiracy to develop and detonate an ethnically specific biological weapon. Rogue state, terrorist, or organised crime, whoever has the information, holds the power to deal to the highest bidder. And the British security services want it back …”

An experienced and respected assassin, Hex finds himself facing a very different problem and playing a very different role to his usual ‘MO’. Taking up the mantle of investigator, Hex uses his underworld contacts to find information, and forms an uneasy alliance with MI5’s dynamic agent Inger McCallen.

The story twists and turns as Hex uncovers the terrifying capabilities of Dr Wilding’s research, and begins to unravel the web of dangerous people that surround it as it becomes the most sought after weapon on the market.

While Hex’s profession as a freelance assassin doesn’t immediately endear him to the reader, he certainly makes for an interesting and complex character. He’s straight talking, action orientated, and full of determination. As the story progresses, and Hex puts himself on the line in order to recover the lethal bioweapon, I found him increasingly empathetic.

This fast moving spy thriller cranks up the pace to rocket speed in the final third of the book. The first novel in the new ‘Hex’ series, Wicked Game is sure to be enjoyed by fans and newbies to the genre alike. Definitely one to watch.

Recommended.

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CTG Reviews: City of Dreadful Night by Peter Guttridge

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What the blurb says: “July 1934. A woman’s torso is found in a trunk at Brighton railway station’s left luggage office. Her legs and feet are found in a suitcase at King’s Cross. Her head is never found, her identity never established, her killer never caught. But someone is keeping a diary. July 2009. A massacre in Milldean, Brighton’s notorious no-go area. An armed police operation gone badly wrong. As the rioting begins, highflying Chief Constable Robert Watts makes a decision that will cost him his career. Meanwhile, with the aid of newly discovered police files, ambitious young radio journalist Kate Simpson hopes to solve the notorious Brighton Trunk Murder of 1934, and enlists the help of ex-Chief Constable Robert Watts. But it’s only a matter of time before past and present collide …”

I love a good puzzle, and that’s exactly what this first book in Peter Guttridge’s Brighton series gives you. Twice over.

The mysterious cold case of the Brighton Trunk Murderer (an actual case) is twistingly intertwined with the investigation of the modern day Milldean shooting case. And both are giving Robert Watts a headache.

An excellent investigator, Watts loses his job as Chief Constable in the political fallout from an armed police raid gone bad. With his marriage falling apart, and the job he lived for gone, he’s at a loss of what to do. So when Kate Simpson, a young radio journalist and the daughter of an old friend, asks him for his help he agrees.

But Kate’s not the only one seeking his help. When Sarah Gilchrist, a member of the ill-fated armed operation, returns to work she can’t let the unanswered questions about what really happened go unanswered any longer. As she digs deeper it seems that the bungled raid wasn’t quite the accident it first appeared. That’s when she decides to call on Watts.

As Watts gets drawn into both cases he discovers links to people he knows and implications that have affected him, and his career, without his knowledge. But someone isn’t happy that their secrets are being uncovered, and as more police officers from the raid turn up dead, and threats to Watts, Kate, Sarah and those helping them are made, it seems both the cases are anything but cold.

This isn’t your average police procedural. The quirky narrative style, fresh characters and witty observations kept me turning the pages, keen to find out where Watts, Kate and Sarah’s rather unusual and distinctly unofficial investigations would lead them.

An intriguing journey through the darker side of Brighton, and a great introduction to a new series – I’ve already bought the next book ‘The Last King of Brighton’.

Recommended.

 

[With thanks to Peter Guttridge for my copy of the book]

Review: CROSS and BURN by Val McDermid

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What the blurb says: “Tony and Carol are facing the biggest challenge of their professional lives: how to live without each other. No one has seen Carol in three months, and the police brass no longer need Tony’s services. Even worse, both hold Tony responsible for the bloody havoc their last case wreaked on Carol’s life and family, and Carol has sworn she’ll never speak to Tony again. But just because Tony and Carol’s relationship is finished doesn’t mean that the killing is: a body has been discovered in an abandoned flat inhabited by squatters. Paula McIntyre, the number two detective investigating, is struggling to adapt to her new job and new boss who is emphatically not Carol. As connections to other missing or dead women emerge, a horrifying pattern becomes clear: someone is killing women, all of whom bear a striking resemblance to Carol Jordan. And when the evidence begins to point in a disturbing and unexpected direction, thinking the unthinkable seems the only possible answer.”

At the start of this book police detective Carol Jordan and clinical psychologist Tony Hill are not in a good place. Carol is broken. She’s turned her back on her career and her friends and thrown herself into a restoration project. Blamed by Carol for her brother’s death, Tony is guilt-ridden and lost. He’s buried himself in his work and his living alone. The rest of the MIT have moved on, but things just aren’t the same in their new roles. But when Paula McIntyre, ex MIT and now newly appointed bagman to DCI Fielding, gets a call that puts her on a case to challenge both her skills and her loyalties she knows that she’ll need the help of her old colleagues to make sure justice is done.

As you’d expect from Val McDermid the story is beautifully crafted, and although the book is focused around a murder case,  it is the relationships between the characters that make it such compelling reading. The characters feel utterly real: smart, flawed, passionate, withdrawn, searching, misguided, determined. The relationships that bound them together at MIT and made the team so strong have drifted, but to solve the case Paula has to reconnect them. It’s not easy, but as she juggles the pressures of working a tough case under a new boss, the changed dynamic in her personal life of a teenage boy to look after with her partner, Elinor, and gradually draws in input from her MIT colleagues it seems that they’re getting closer to the killer. Then the forensic evidence points in a direction none of them would ever have expected.

With her new DCI unable to see past the forensics, Paula draws on the skills of her ex MIT colleagues – Carol, Tony, Stacey to name a few – to investigate an alternative line of enquiry. She’s treading a dangerous path, one false move and her career will be over. But some things are more important – justice, both for the victims and for the wrongfully accused. But as another woman goes missing, can Paula find the real killer and save his latest victim before it’s too late?

Luckily Paula isn’t alone. As Carol’s strong sense of justice, and her determination to see it brought, gradually bring her back into the environment she’d left behind. But the question remains: will Carol and Tony’s relationship ever recover?

Utterly compelling and unputdownable.

Highly recommended.

[With thanks to Grove Atlantic for my copy of CROSS and BURN]

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