Tag: novel

Review: BLEED LIKE ME by Cath Staincliffe

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cover image

cover image

What the blurb says: “The Journey’s Inn, Lark’s Estate, Manchester. Three bodies have been found, stabbed to death in their beds. A man – apparently the father and husband of two of the victims – has fled. The police are in a race against time to find him – especially when they discover his two young sons are also missing …

Manchester Metropolitan police station. Having survived a near-fatal attack, DC Janet Scott is quietly falling apart. And her best friend and colleague DC Rachel Bailey is reeling from a love affair gone bad. DCI Gill Murray is trying to keep the team on track, but her own family problems are threatening to tip her over the edge.

Finding the desperate man is their top priority. But none of them knows where he is going or what he intends to do next. Or what will they have to do to stop him …”

BLEED LIKE ME is based on the characters from the hit ITV series SCOTT & BAILEY.

It’s a police procedural, but as well as a race-against-time premise to find the missing children and their father, it delves deeper into the stormy personal lives of the three female protagonists.

And their lives are certainly complex. Covering challenges that many will relate to – from juggling work and home life, bringing up teenagers, and the illness of a parent – to the more extreme – recovering from an attempt on your life – the three women are up against it from the outset. Artfully written, this exploration of the characters lives doesn’t slow the pace, instead it adds layers of tension onto an already tense situation.

The setting is highly atmospheric, with Manchester and the surrounding area painted with a gritty realism. From getting the call, the three women work tirelessly, often a great personal cost, to try to find the killer and his two young children before it’s too late. The story twists and turns towards a nail-biting conclusion, defying you to put the book down until you’ve read the very last page.

With a great pace, deeply drawn characters, and high action, I think BLEED LIKE ME will appeal to fans of the series and those new to Scott & Bailey.

Highly Recommended.

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Review: Retribution by Adrian Magson

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cover image

cover image

What the blurb says: “An atrocity that allegedly took place under Harry’s watch in Kosovo in 1999 returns to haunt him when he receives a summons from an old UN contact. A lone assassin is tracking down all those who were present that fateful night, despatching his victims with cold, skilful efficiency. Who is he and why does he want revenge? If he is to uncover the identity of this ruthless killer and stay alive in the process, Harry must uncover what really happened in Mirovica back in 1999.”

I love a good action thriller and this novel doesn’t disappoint.

Harry Tate, an ex-M15 hunter now working in the private sector, doesn’t hang around. He’s a dynamic character, utterly focused on getting the job done, and with a strong moral compass. Hired to stop a potential terrorist plot and find the lone assassin picking off all those present at a UN compound on a specific night in 1999, Harry’s moral code is challenged when he discovers the horror of the crime the assassin is avenging. Pragmatic and logical, but prepared to do what’s necessary for justice, Harry is faced with a difficult dilemma.

What I especially like about this story is that Magson creates an utterly ruthless assassin, known as Kassim, yet although he commits a series of murders across the timeline of the novel, as a reader I found him both chilling and empathetic. That said, whilst Kassim certainly racks up the highest body count, the true title of ‘villain’ for this story really rests with another character (which I won’t name or it will spoil the story for you).

From London, across Europe and over to the States, Harry follows the clues, and the bodies. With the tension tightening notch by notch through each chapter, by the time you’re heading for the end the pace is breathlessly rapid and, as a reader, I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.

A joy to read.

Highly Recommended.

 

Book to Film News: Wentworth Miller to adapt Scare Me for the screen

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cover image: Scare Me

cover image: Scare Me

Exciting news just out of Angry Robot: Exhibit A HQ tells me that Relatively Media have acquired the film rights to Richard Parker’s psychological thriller Scare Me and have asked Prison Break actor Wentworth Miller to adapt the novel for the big screen.

Scare Me tells the story of a wealthy businessman who receives a phone call in the middle of the night asking him, ‘When did you last google yourself?’ He does just that, and discovers a website with photos of his own home, along with six other houses he’s never seen before. One photo shows a gruesome murder.

Sounds like it’s going to be a must-watch film.

For more details head over to http://exhibitabooks.com

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How Not to Write a Novel by Sandra Newman & Howard Mittelmark

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How Not to Write A Novel cover image

How Not to Write A Novel cover image

For those of us aspiring to write a published novel, ‘how to’ books that help us learn the craft can be a great resource, but how do you choose which ones to buy from all the many available?

Well here’s one with a difference.

Rather than focusing on ‘how to’, Sandra Newman and Howard Mittelmark focus instead on ‘how not to’. The result is this hilarious and entertaining book, that also drives home 200 different things to avoid in your work-in-progress.

It has sections covering plot, character, style, world-building, and also how (not) to approach agents.

With examples of each type of mistake clearly shown, this book is both fun to read and also really educational.

If you’re an aspiring author it’s well worth checking out.

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Review: The Circus by James Craig

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The Circus cover image

The Circus cover image

What the blurb says: “When the body of journalist Duncan Brown is found in the back of a rubbish truck, Inspector John Carlyle is thrown into the middle of a scandal that threatens to expose the corrupt links between the police, the political establishment and the hugely powerful Zenger media group.

Hunting down Brown’s killer, Carlyle finds himself going head-to-head with his nemesis, Trevor Miller. A former police officer turned security advisor to the Prime Minister, Miller has dirty money in his pockets and other people’s blood on his hands. Untouchable until now, he is prepared to kill again to protect his position, and having failed once already to dispose of Carlyle, he is not prepared to slip up again …”

I couldn’t help but warm to Inspector Carlyle. He’s a good bloke, battling a heavy workload in order to do a good job and solve his cases. And he’s got a lot on his plate, a targeted bomb that kills a teenager, a missing girl, and the murder of journalist Duncan Brown.

As Carlyle digs deeper into each case, he discovers a web of crime and corruption that stretches far into the halls of power in London. What made the story seem especially realistic for me is that it covers a number of themes that mirror much of what has happened in recent times, like phone hacking, and doesn’t shy away from showing a rather seedy side to journalism, politics and police work.

This is the fourth book in the bestselling Inspector Carlyle series. It’s a gritty story, set in a sinister London, and one that will have the reader trying to puzzle out both who did it and why did it.

I think fans of police procedurals will certainly enjoy this one.

 

The Circus by James Craig is out now, published by C&R Crime.

 

In the Spotlight: CHALK VALLEY by D.L. Johnstone

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kindle cover CHALK VALLEY

kindle cover CHALK VALLEY

What the blurb says: “In a remote mountain valley in British Columbia, a human monster preys on innocent lives.  After teenagers discover the body of a missing girl in Chalk Valley, searchers find the remains of two more victims secreted deep in the woods.  A serial killer is at work.

Chalk Valley police detective John McCarty is picked to lead a task force to find the murderer, but inexperience, politics and McCarty’s own inner demons quickly overwhelm him and the investigation falters.

Meanwhile, on a dark, lonely highway many miles from Chalk Valley, RCMP Sergeant Dave Kreaver comes across a van crashed at the side of the road. The driver is anxious to leave the scene, but Kreaver discovers an unconscious teenaged girl in the van. Kreaver feels in his gut that the driver could be the serial killer everyone’s looking for, but his inquiries are ignored. The task force is in well over its head, buried by thousands of leads and potential suspects. His supervisors tell him to back off and let the task force do its job.

 

Kreaver finds himself in a deadly cat and mouse game with a murderous psychopath, a race against time with innocent victims in play. Operating alone and without official sanction, can he stop the Chalk Valley Killer before he claims more lives?”

This complex, multi-agency and multi-location police procedural has the big picture feel of a television show like The Wire. Told through the point of views of a range of characters involved in the case – including police officers, journalists, victims and the killer – it shows how incidents that at first seem unconnected all fit together into a web of violence and terror.

The twists and turns of the story sprint along but there’s still plenty of procedural detail to satisfy fans of the sub-genre. With the killers point of view included, readers discover their identity before the police have collaborated all of the evidence – this ups the tension for the reader as you will on the various police departments, hoping that they’ll find the connections before it’s too late.

With a dramatic finale and a poignant ending this is a story well worth checking out.

D.L. Johnstone lives in the Toronto area. He’s co-authored several medical research publications and is a semi-dedicated fitness freak with a second degree black belt in Taekwondo. CHALK VALLEY is his debut novel.

You can find out more about him and his writing at www.dljohnstonewriter.com

A sneaky peep at the cover of the next Reacher novel …

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Today the Jack Reacher Official Facebook page shared the cover image of Lee Child’s next Reacher book.

If you want to check it out, nip across to Facebook and have a look here: http://www.facebook.com/JackReacherOfficial

The novel is called ‘Never Go Back’, and it’s out on the 29th August in the UK.

I can’t wait!

 

Review: The Poacher’s Son by Paul Doiron

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cover image

cover image

Stunningly atmospheric: an action packed and emotionally powerful thriller

What the blurb says: “Maine game warden Mike Bowditch returns home one evening to find an alarming voice from the past on his answering machine: his father, Jack, a hard-drinking womanizer who makes his living poaching illegal game. An even more frightening call comes the next morning from the police: they are searching for the man who killed an esteemed local cop the night before – and his father is their prime suspect. Jack has escaped from police custody, and only Mike believes that his tormented father might not be guilty.

Now, shunned by colleagues who have no sympathy for the suspected killer, Mike must come to terms with his haunted past. He knows first-hand of his father’s brutality, but is he capable of murder? Desperate and alone, the only way for Mike to save his father is to find the real culprit.”

The Poacher’s Son is Paul Doiron’s debut novel and the first in the Mike Bowditch series. It won the Barry Award and the Strand Critics Award for Best First Novel.

Mike Bowditch stands for everything his father doesn’t: honour, care of the natural world, and the overriding need to ‘do the right thing’. He’s carved out his own niche in the world as a game warden and even when his relationship doesn’t work out the way he’d hoped due to the demands of his work, he’s still determined and passionate about his job.

But, just like years before when Mike was just a kid staying with his father for the summer, his father’s actions pull Mike into a world that he doesn’t want to be involved in. Torn between the loyalty he feels towards a father than never earned it, and the job he loves and colleagues he respects, Mike is forced to make increasingly difficult choices in order to ensure his father gets a fair deal.

As well as a plot thick with twists and turns, this book showcases the forests and natural habitats of Maine so vividly that the setting of the story becomes almost like a character in its own right. What’s great about Paul Doiron’s writing is that you get a terrific sense of place without any slowing of the story.  With a cast of engaging characters, each with their own very particular view on the situation Mike finds himself in, and many with a reason to not be entirely truthful about what happened, I found myself rooting for Mike from the beginning.

Action packed and emotionally powerful, this atmospheric thriller had me gripped.

Highly recommended.

 

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.

 

Single or Multiple: what kind of a reader are you?

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books

books

What kind of reader are you?

I must confess I struggle to read one book at a time. I usually have two or three on the go at once: a hardback or paperback fiction, a non-fiction, and then a kindle or ePub fiction.

I read them at different times of the day, in different locations.

For example, a paper book is best to read in the bath for me, because I’m very likely to dip it in the water by accident.

But a kindle or ePub book is easier to grab for a quick ten minutes during my lunch break at work.

On the train it’s got to be a paperback or kindle/ePub – a hardback is just too heavy! Although, if it’s an excellent story by one of my favorite writers I’ll often make an exception.

And in bed any format works.

So, I guess that makes me a multiple kind of girl.

What about you?