Tag: crime thriller

Just finished reading: High Heat by Lee Child

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High Heat cover image

High Heat cover image

What the blurb says: “July 1977. Jack Reacher is almost seventeen, and he stops in New York on his way from South Korea to visit his brother at West Point. The summer heat is suffocating, fires are raging in the Bronx, the city is bankrupt, and the mad gunman known as Son of Sam is still on the loose. Reacher meets a woman with a problem, and agrees to help her . . . and then the power grid fails and the lights go out, plunging the lawless city that never sleeps into chaos. What does a visiting teenager do in the dark? If that visiting teenager is Jack Reacher, the answer is: plenty.”

High Heat is a Jack Reacher Novella (Kindle Single). It’s 79 pages of fabulous Reacher action, and things get hot in more ways than one!

Reacher is younger, but just as tough (and tall) as readers of the series have come to expect. It’s his first visit to New York and he’s only in town for a short while, but he manages to make the most of it: helping a woman with a problem, identifying a killer on the loose, and even having time for a bit of romance.

If you’re looking for a sizzling summer read to tide you over until the next full Reacher novel comes out at the end of August, you should check it out.

A must for Reacher fans and all those who love a great action thriller.

Highly Recommended.

The Beauty of Murder by A K Benedict

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The Beauty of Murder cover image

The Beauty of Murder cover image

What the blurb says: “Stephen Killigan has been cold since the day he came to Cambridge as a senior lecturer. Something about the seven hundred years of history staining the stones of the university has given him a chill he can’t shake. When he stumbles across the body of a missing beauty queen, he thinks he’s found the reason. But when the police go to retrieve the body they find no trace of it. Killigan has found a problem – and a killer – that is the very opposite of reason.

Killingan’s unwitting entry into the sinister world of Jackamore Grass will lead him on a trail of tattooists, philosophers, cadavers and scholars of a deadly beauty. As Killigan traces a path between our age and seventeenth-century Cambridge, he must work out how it is that a person’s corpse can be found before they even go missing, and whether he’s being pushed towards the edge of madness or an astonishing discovery.”

Wow. Wow. Wow. They are the first three words (or one word repeated) that comes into my mind on finishing The Beauty of Murder.

This is a literary crime thriller which ticks all the boxes with a flourish: intriguing characters, fascinating storylines, gorgeous settings, beautiful prose and a sprinting pace. And it’s A K Benedict’s debut novel.

Stephen Killigan is a likable guy – he’s smart, likes a beer (or two, or more), and is looking for love. He also wants to do the right thing when he discovers the body of a missing woman. But being a good citizen soon turns out to be the start of a journey that threatens to destroy all he holds dear. When the police find no trace of the body, Stephen is determined to find out what happened to her. But as he finds clues to the mystery, each one makes less sense than that before it. Is he losing his mind as so many suggest? As the body count rises, and the links of the modern-day murders with those in 1635 become clearer to him, Stephen becomes the prime suspect. Yet he finds an unlikely friend in Inspector Jane Horne, who is trying to solve the series of seemingly unsolvable cases whilst keeping her own private health battles secret from those at work.

The Beauty of Murder is filled with unusual, memorable supporting characters like Stephen’s friend, Satnam, who likes a few beers and loves the girl in the library, and Robert Sachs, the “poncey philosopher who loves himself” who muses over the beauty of the dead. I think my favorite of these is Iris Burton, the eccentric academic who takes it upon herself to teach Stephen Killigan about time travel including what to carry in your kit bag and how to avoid paradoxes (in my mind she was played by Helena Bonham Carter!).

The relationship between Stephen Killigan and Jackamore Grass has real Sherlock/Moriarty feel to it: two highly intelligent men pitting their wits (and their lives) against each other to solve the mystery (in Stephen’s case) and win the game (in Jackamore’s case). Jackamore, who finds getting away with murder tiresomely easy, is pleased to at last have a worthy opponent, but as Stephen hones his skills and closes in on the truth, Jackamore starts to pick his victims from those close to Stephen.

Quirky, mind (and time) bending, and compulsively addictive, this is an outstanding literary crime thriller. I can’t wait to see more from this author.

Highly recommended.

[A bought my copy of The Beauty of Murder]

Interview with author Chris Allen, creator of the INTREPID series

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cover image

cover image

Today I’m excited to welcome Chris Allen, creator and author of the Alex Morgan spy thriller INTREPID series, to the CTG blog.

Chris’ latest novel, the second in the INTREPID series, entitled Hunter is out now. What the blurb says: Alex Morgan – policeman, solider and spy for INTREPID, the black ops division of Interpol – is on the hunt for Serbian war criminals. But these guys were never going to let it be that simple. An assassination attempt is made on the presiding judge of the international tribunal. Days later, the judge’s daughter, the famous and beautiful classical pianist Charlotte Rose, vanishes.

Charlotte isn’t just the daughter of a judge, she’s also the god-daughter of INTREPID’s veteran commander, General Davenport. It’s up to Morgan and the team to track the kidnappers and the missing woman before the very fabric of international justice is picked apart. Alex Morgan must walk the line between doing the right thing and getting the job done.

I found Hunter a rapid-paced, action packed rollercoaster of a story that I think will appeal to those readers that love action thrillers with plenty of real-world details. Knowing that Chris is a writer with first hand experience of action situations, I jumped at the chance to quiz him about creating the series and his writing process.

So, without further ado, I’d like to welcome Chris Allen and kick-off with my first question …

Alex Morgan, the lead character in your INTREPID series, is a no-nonsense, get-things-done kind of guy, what was your inspiration for creating him?

Over the years, since I was a kid, I’ve been influenced by many classic action heroes – all the obvious fictional ones from my early years like James Bond, Simon Templar, John Steed, Napoleon Solo, but my greatest influence by far has always been real-world heroes. I’ve been fortunate enough to know a few personally as well as taking an active interest in the exploits of the acknowledged, decorated variety. As a result, Alex Morgan is a mixture of my favourite fictional and real-world inspirations.

As a serviceman-turned-writer, how have you found the transition from being in the action to writing the action?

My military career came to an end due to injuries I sustained in service; basically, wear & tear brought on my use-by date prematurely. As a result my exit from a very active career as a Paratrooper was imposed on me. So, I had no choice but to change direction.

It was a natural process to then rediscover what my ultimate dream was all along. I’d wanted to write action stories ever since I was old enough to understand them. It took me a couple of years of being out of the Army followed by a deployment to East Timor with an aid agency before I felt ready to start writing. But once I’d started there was no stopping me!

Can you tell us a little about your writing process, do you plot out the story events out in advance, or just start writing and see where the story takes you?

Book one in the series, Defender, took me a decade to write and book two, Hunter, was roughly six months, so my writing process has vastly changed. Having a deadline to stick to as well as increased confidence has been a game-changer.

These days I plan a lot in my head and scribble ideas and plot lines in my little brown book.  It’s like putting a puzzle together or solving a complex problem. Then, I map the main ideas out on a whiteboard – using sticky notes or just a marker – and then connect the dots, bringing the plots and sub-plots together. I always have my brown book on hand for any other inspirations, as I’m constantly mulling the story over in my mind, examining it from all angles.

Once I have a good picture of where it’s all going, I bash out each chapter as fast as I can to get them on the page! Obviously once the first full draft is out, that’s where the real work begins, but the planning and researching is a huge part of the process for me.

Your books have been likened to those of Ian Fleming and Robert Ludlum, but who writes the books that you have on your ‘to read’ pile?

I was really thrilled when I realised people were putting me in their class, it’s a huge accolade and one I will always strive to be more worthy of.  Ian Fleming is my literary hero and I love Ludlum’s writing.

There is so much on my TBR pile at the moment, because when I’m writing I try not to indulge my action thriller habit by reading other work. Most of the books on my Kindle at the moment are the new writers I’ve been getting to know through global outreach and online activities as well as my mates on the local Australian authors’ scene. Those that I’ve been looking at before putting the pedal to the metal with Avenger include Aussie writers Greg Barron, Luke Preston, Nathan Farrugia, Nina D’Aleo, Tony Park’s latest and my new Minnesotan pal Doug Dorow. Once the first draft of Avenger is done I’ll also be reading Irish Crime writer Declan Burke and John Le Carre’s latest A Delicate Truth.

And what’s next for you, are you working on the next novel in the INTREPID series and, if so, when will we be able to read it?

Avenger is well and truly underway, and my aim is for it to be even more hard-hitting than the first two. I hope to have Avenger available by the end of 2013, and crack straight into the fourth in the Intrepid series. So, Alex Morgan has his dance card pretty full at the moment.

In addition, I’m working with a Hollywood producer – who just happens to be a very cool guy – on film and TV adaptations of the Alex Morgan/Intrepid series. But that’s about all I can divulge right now!

Author Chris Allen

Author Chris Allen

About the author:

Before penning his Alex Morgan espionage series, featuring the ultra-secret agency Intrepid from Interpol, Chris saw the world from under a parachute; made a difference in East Timor; protected Sydney’s iconic sails post 9/11; and most recently, held one of the most historic law enforcement appointments in Australia. Since self-publishing and then being signed by Pan Macmillan Australia’s digital imprint Momentum for a two-book deal, Defender and Hunter have wowed readers worldwide, with Avenger due out end-2013. Chris dreams of one day spending extended periods at an English country cottage in Surrey, preferably one that is walking distance from the local pub.

A huge thank you to Chris Allen for dropping by the CTG blog and letting me quiz him.

To find out more about his books and the man behind them, hop on over to Chris’ blog where he chats about all things thriller as well as a love of cult TV shows and movies from his youth at www.intrepidallen.com/blog.

[With thanks to Chris Allen and Pan Macmillan Australia, Momentum for my copy of Hunted]

Book Launch of The Twelfth Department by William Ryan

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The Twelfth Department

The Twelfth Department

I was thrilled to be invited to the launch of author William Ryan’s new novel The Twelfth Department. The event was held on Tuesday at the gorgeous bookstore Goldsboro Books by invitation of Pan Macmillan and Goldsboro Books. It was a fabulous evening.

The Twelfth Department is the third novel in William Ryan’s Captain Korolev series set in 1930s Russia.

I’ll be posting a full review shortly, but to whet your appetite here’s the blurb: When an eminent scientist is shot dead within sight of the Kremlin, police investigator Captain Korolev is ordered to find the killer. But when another scientist is murdered, and evidence of the professors’ dark experiments is hastily removed, Korolev realises that he’s caught in a dangerous battle  between two warring factions of the NKVD. Then his young son Yuri goes missing … 

The Twelfth Department is published by MANTLE today, 23rd May 2013.

Watch this space for my review …

Review: Chilled to the Bone by Quentin Bates

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book cover

book cover

What the blurb says: “When a shipowner is found dead, tied to a bed in one of Reykjavik’s smartest hotels, sergeant Gunnhildur “Gunna” Gisladottir of the city police force sees no evidence of foul play, but still suspects things are not as cut and dried as they seem. As she investigates the shipowner’s untimely death, she stumbles across a discreet bondage society whose members are being systematically exploited and blackmailed.

But how does all this connect to a local gangster recently returned to Iceland after many years abroad, and the unfortunate loss of a government laptop containing sensitive data about various members of the ruling party? What begins as a straightforward case for Gunnhildur soon explodes into a dangerous investigation, uncovering secrets that ruthless men are ready to go to violent extremes to keep.”

It’s easy to like Gunna, she’s strong and determined, yet compassionate and giving: a hardworking detective and a dedicated mother juggling the complexities of modern life. As Gunna starts to unravel the threads that bind a set of seemingly unconnected crimes together, she uncovers a secret community that she’d never realised existed. When a witness goes missing, the question is can Gunna find the truth, and the culprits, before the sinister man impersonating a police office does?

Told through several viewpoints, in addition to Gunna’s, over the course of the story we learn how initially unconnected events have brought the main point-of-view characters – Baddo, Hekla and Joel Ingi – to their current situation, and how, even though they may not realise it, they are bound together by the secrets they keep and the choices they have made.

The tension builds steadily throughout the story. Each character is conflicted, some are criminal, but through showing their many facets, and relationships both work and personal, Bates has a way of making each of them empathetic.  I found myself caring about each of them, compelling me to keep turning the pages, hungry to find out what would happen.

I’ve never been to Iceland, but I loved the evocative imagery of this novel, and the chilling sense of cold, that made the setting really come alive for me. At first the Icelandic names took a little bit of getting used to, but they add wonderfully to the authentic feel of the story, and I was soon used to them (although I’m not sure that my pronunciation would be correct!).

This is a beautifully crafted, intricately plotted, atmospheric thriller.

Highly recommended.

 

[With thanks to C&R Crime for my copy of Chilled to the Bone]

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Attending the (Transworld) Crime Scene

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Transworld Crime Scene poster

Transworld Crime Scene poster

On Wednesday I was really excited to be heading over to the first ever Transworld Crime Scene event at Transworld Publishers, Ealing.

Special guest for the evening was Cath Staincliffe, author of the Scott & Bailey novelisations, who was interviewed by Rachel Rayner, Commissioning Editor for Crime and Thrillers.

Cath spoke about her latest book in the series BLEED LIKE ME and about how she ensures that the novels dovetail in with the television series and also work as stories in their own right.

With the Scott & Bailey series, plus standalone novels and radio plays in production, Cath sounds like she never has a dull moment.

When asked about her writing process, Cath revealed that she always writes her novels out in longhand first before typing them onto the computer. To make sure the procedural details and technical aspects are correct, she checks them with a police adviser before the final draft.

After the interview, Cath signed copies of her new book, BLEED LIKE ME, and there was plenty of time to chat to the Transworld editorial crime team, bloggers, competition winners and the folks from Dead Good Books.

It was a fabulous evening.

As well as the Scott & Bailey series, Cath also writes standalone crime novels for C&R Crime. Her next standalone book BLINK OF AN EYE will be published next month.

BLEED LIKE ME by Cath Staincliffe is available now (watch this space for a review coming soon).

Review: GHOSTMAN by Roger Hobbs

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GHOSTMAN cover image

GHOSTMAN cover image

A rapid paced, nail-bitingly tense action thriller

When a casino robbery in Atlantic City goes horribly wrong, the man who orchestrated it is forced to call in a favour from someone occasionally called Jack. Only a few people know this man exists, some believe he’s dead and none know his true identity. Those are the closely guarded secrets of an exceptionally trained, experienced and talented criminal.

But as he struggles to clean up the mess left from the bungled heist, Jack finds himself increasingly more visible. With the FBI and other interested, and deadly, people on his tail, he’s forced to use every ounce of his skill, ingenuity and instincts to survive.

From the opening page this story hurtles along at a breathless pace. Jack is a mysterious character. Able to change his appearance, his voice and his persona in a moment, he is a true master of disguise.

He’s attractive, smart and although more than capable of defending himself, he only uses violence when he deems it necessary (which in the course of the book is quite often). He also translates classics into English as a hobby when he’s not on a job. Although you know he’s a criminal, he never seems entirely bad, and has his own moral code by which he operates.

At the start of the novel Jack reluctantly agrees to sort out the aftermath of a bungled casino heist as repayment of an old favour to the criminal mastermind Marcus. His brief is simple – find Marcus’ missing man and find the stolen cash.

But as he investigates the operation, discovering what actually happened outside the casino that morning, and who else is after the money, Jack realises there’s a whole lot more to the situation than he first realised. Add into the mix the bright and dynamic FBI agent Rebecca Blacker, and the mysterious and deadly criminal kingpin ‘The Wolf’ and soon Jack is fighting just to stay alive.

This rapid paced, nail bitingly tense action thriller has plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader guessing. This is a distinctive debut by 24-year-old novelist Roger Hobbs.

Highly recommended.

 

GHOSTMAN by Roger Hobbs is published in hardback by Bantam Press on 14th February 2013.

 

Just finished reading: The Calling (a John Luther novel) by Neil Cross

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What the blurb says: “Meet Detective Inspector John Luther. He’s brilliant; he’s intense. He’s obsessional. He’s dangerous.

John Luther has an extraordinary clearance rate. He commands outstanding loyalty. And yet he seethes with a hidden fury that at times he can barely control. Sometimes it sends him to the brink of madness, making him do things he shouldn’t; things way beyond the limits of the law.

This is the story of the case that tore Luther’s personal and professional relationships apart and propelled him over the precipice. Beyond fury, beyond vegeance. All the way to murder.”

I’m a big fan of the BBC series LUTHER (in which Idris Elba plays the title role) and couldn’t wait to read this book, the first novel in the John Luther series written by the show’s creator and writer Neil Cross.

Like the series, it’s a gritty and often shockingly brutal glimpse into the work of Detective Inspector John Luther. Rather than continue from the end of the second series, it takes the reader back to the time just before the first series begin and follows John as he works the case of the horrific murder of a man and his pregnant wife in their London home. As Luther and the killer become entangled in a deadly game of cat and mouse, Luther’s relationship with Zoe, his wife, begins to unravel. It’s a story that, just like its main character, is as intense as it is compelling.

If you’re a fan of the TV series, or a fan of gritty police procedurals, then this book is well worth a read.

 

Indie Spotlight: The Missing by Karl Vadaszffy

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The Missing cover image

The Missing cover image

What the cover says: “John Simmons is en route to London with his girlfriend, Jennie Michaels, whom he intends to propose to that evening. He pulls into the London Gateway Services, leaving Jennie in the car. But when he returns, she has disappeared. Frantic with worry, he turns to the police for help. The police doubt that Jennie exists: there is no trace that she ever existed.

John, convinced Jennie was not a figment of his imagination, sets out in a desperate attempt to find the woman he fell in love with. He has the help of Detective Sergeant Kate Nielsen, herself haunted by a botched undercover operation that led to her being raped four years earlier.

Everything he can remember of Jennie – where she worked, where she lived – turns out to be untrue. Nielsen, following John as he lurches from one lead to another, begins to wonder if Jennie could be the eleventh victim of a serial killer. Their investigation becomes increasingly urgent and threatens to bring back dark and murky images from Nielsen’s past.”

John Simmons is in a nightmare situation. His fear for Jennie and his determination to find her make him a sympathetic and compelling character. Even though everything he thought was true about his girlfriend turns out to be false, he won’t give up. Finally, he persuades DS Kate Nielson to help him.

But as John becomes increasingly desperate to find Jennie, and his behaviour becomes more and more erratic, DS Kate Nielson’s challenges grow. Her boss thinks John is delusional, and Kate herself begins to doubt if Jennie ever did exist.

But when another woman is brutally attacked and murdered, John’s convinced there’s a connection. As John and Kate hunt for the killer, they become targets themselves.

The race is on. Can Kate find Jennie and catch the killer before she becomes the next victim?

The Missing is an action packed, high tension read. The stakes continue to rise, and the list of suspects continues to grow, while the question ‘Did Jennie Michaels really exist?’ adds further complications.

Part police procedural, part action thriller, part psychological thriller, with more than enough twists to keep the reader guessing until the end, this is a debut novel well worth checking out.

Debut novelist, Karl Vadaszffy, is published by Peach Press in eBook format. You can find out more at his website: www.karlvad.com

The Missing is the first book in the DS Kate Nielson series.

 

Learning from the CWA’s ‘Is Crime the new Literary Fiction?’ event

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The Panel

The Panel

On Monday I went along to the Crime Writers’ Association panel event ‘Is Crime the new Literary Fiction?’ With Sophie Hannah, Lee Child, Peter James and Benjamin Black (John Banville) as panellists it made for a lively and entertaining evening.

In the first part of the session, the panellists discussed the question, reflecting that some of the best fiction in the twentieth century is crime fiction, and yet you do encounter snobbery about the genre. What came across really clearly was each of the panellists’ passion for the crime thriller genre and their love of writing it.

As the discussion broadened, each of the panellists talked about how they approach their writing, what interests them about the genre, and the importance of great characters and great stories.

As an aspiring crime thriller writer, the key takeaways from the session for me were:

  • On thinking about character’s in action, the discussion on psychological depth was really interesting: how everyone is a psychological puzzle and that choosing who to trust and what will happen when a character does/doesn’t embodies the puzzle questions we ask ourselves in life.
  • That there’s no ‘one size fits all’ approach to writing – that it could be starting with an essence of plot, or planning everything in advance, or not knowing what happens in the next line let alone the next chapter.
  • That characters and story are both important in crime fiction – that you need strong, likable and memorable characters and a great story including a puzzle and a satisfactory conclusion.
  •  And, on pace, that stories don’t have to be fast paced, but they do have to be compelling. Pace is about variation.

It was a fabulous evening and I’d like to say a huge thank you to the panellists, and to the Crime Writers’ Association for organising the event.

 

ps. CTG was delighted to meet Lee Child and Peter James after the panel finished, and had a true fan-girl moment when discussing a shared love of coffee with Lee Child.