crime – Page 3 – Everything Is Better With Dragons

Bonus Review #5: ‘Shadow Man’, by, Alan Drew

9781786493316

Published by: Corvus

Publication Date: 4th January 2018

ISBN: 9781786493316

Format: Paperback

Price: £12.99

Blurb

Southern California, 1986. Detective Ben Wade has returned to his hometown in search of a quieter life and to try to save his marriage. Suddenly the community, with its peaceful streets and neighbourly concerns, finds itself at the mercy of a serial killer who slips through windows and screen doors at night, shattering illusions of safety.

As Ben and forensic specialist Natasha Betencourt struggle to stay one step ahead of the killer – and deal with painful episodes in the past – Ben’s own world is rocked again by violence. He must decide how far he is willing to go, and Natasha how much she is willing to risk, to rescue the town from a psychotic murderer and a long-buried secret.

With eerie, chilling prose, Alan Drew brings us into the treacherous underbelly of a suburban California town in this brilliant novel of suspense; the story of a man, and a community, confronted with the heart of human darkness.

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Bonus Review #4. Also, Merry Christmas, and all that.

Women and the Gallows 1797 – 1837: Unfortunate Wretches

By Naomi Clifford

Published by: Pen and Sword History

Publication Date: 2nd November 2017

I.S.B.N.: 9781473863347

Price: £15.99

Format: Hardback

Blurb

131 women were hanged in England and Wales between 1797 and 1837, executed for crimes including murder, baby-killing, theft, arson, sheep-stealing and passing forged bank notes. Most of them were extremely poor and living in desperate situations. Some were mentally ill. A few were innocent. And almost all are now forgotten, their voices unheard for generations.

Mary Morgan – a teenager hanged as an example to others.
Eliza Fenning – accused of adding arsenic to the dumplings.
Mary Bateman – a ‘witch’ who duped her neighbours out of their savings.
Harriet Skelton – hanged for passing counterfeit pound notes in spite of efforts by Elizabeth Fry and the Duke of Gloucester to save her.

Naomi Clifford has unearthed the events that brought these ‘unfortunates’ to the gallows and has used contemporary newspaper accounts and documents to tell their stories.

Continue reading “Bonus Review #4. Also, Merry Christmas, and all that.”

Review: ‘White Bodies’, by Jane Robins

Published By: HQ

Publication Date: 28th December 2017

I.S.B.N.: 9780008217549

Format: Hardback

Price: £12.99

Blurb

Felix and Tilda seem like the perfect couple: young and in love, a financier and a beautiful up-and-coming starlet. But behind their flawless façade, not everything is as it seems.

Callie, Tilda’s unassuming twin, has watched her sister visibly shrink under Felix’s domineering love. She has looked on silently as Tilda stopped working, nearly stopped eating, and turned into a neat freak, with mugs wrapped in clingfilm and suspicious syringes hidden in the bathroom rubbish. She knows about Felix’s uncontrollable rages, and has seen the bruises on the white skin of her sister’s arms.

Worried about the psychological hold that Felix seems to have over Tilda, Callie joins an internet support group for victims of abuse and their friends. However, things spiral out of control and she starts to doubt her own judgement when one of her new acquaintances is killed by an abusive man. And then suddenly Felix dies—or was he murdered?

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Extract: ‘Who Killed The Mince Spy?’

As part of the 12 Days of Clink Street Christmas blog tour I’ve agreed to share an extract from Matthew Redford’s Who Killed The Mince Spy?; I’ve just posted a review of the book, so go an have a read of that if you want to know more.

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Review: ‘Who Killed The Mince Spy?’, by Matthew Redford

Published By: Clink Street

Publication Date: 6th December 2016

I.S.B.N.: 9781911525158

Format: Paperback

Price: £5.99

Who Killed The Mince Spy?

Tenacious carrot, detective inspector Willie Wortell is back to reveal the deviously delicious mind behind the crime of the festive season in this hugely entertaining, and utterly unconventional, short story.

When Mitchell the Mince Spy is horrifically murdered by being over baked in a fan oven, it falls to the Food Related Crime team to investigate this heinous act. Why was Mitchell killed? Who is the mysterious man with a long white beard and why does he carry a syringe? Why is it that the death of a mince spy smells so good?

Detective Inspector Willie Wortel, the best food sapiens police officer, once again leads his team into a series of crazy escapades. Supported by his able homo sapiens sergeant Dorothy Knox and his less able fruit officers Oranges and Lemons, they encounter Snow White and the seven dwarf cabbages as well as having a run in with the food sapiens secret service, MI GasMark5.

With a thigh slap here, and a thigh slap there, the team know Christmas is coming as the upper classes are acting strangely – why else would there be lords a leaping, ladies dancing and maids a milking?

And if that wasn’t enough, the Government Minister for the Department of Fisheries, Agriculture and Rural Trade (DAFaRT) has only gone and given the turkeys a vote on whether they are for or against Christmas.

Let the madness begin!

This short story by Matthew Redford follows his deliciously irreverent debut Addicted To Death (Clink Street Publishing, 2015).

Purchase from Amazon UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Who-Killed-Mince-Spy-Investigation/dp/1911525158/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1478177564&sr=1-2-catcorr&keywords=matthew+redford

About Matthew Redford

Born in 1980, Matthew Redford grew up with his parents and elder brother on a council

estate in Bermondsey, south-east London. He now lives in Longfield, Kent, takes masochistic pleasure in watching his favourite football team snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, is a keen chess player and is planning future food related crime novels. To counterbalance the quirkiness of his crime fiction Redford is an accountant. His unconventional debut crime thriller, Addicted to Death: A Food Related Crime

Investigation was published by Clink Street Publishing last summer.

Website – http://www.matthewredford.com/

Twitter – https://twitter.com/matthew_redford

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Review: ‘Resort To Murder’, By TP Fielden

Published By: HQ

Publication Date: 2nd November 2017

I.S.B.N.: 9780008193737

Format: Hardback

Price: £14.99

Blurb

Death stalks the beaches of Devon

With its pale, aquamarine waters and golden sands, the shoreline at Temple Regis was a sight to behold. But when an unidentifiable body is found there one morning, the most beautiful beach in Devon is turned into a crime scene.

For Miss Dimont ferocious defender of free speech, champion of the truth and ace newspaperwoman for The Riviera Express this is a case of paramount interest, and the perfect introduction for her young new recruit Valentine Waterford. Even if their meddling is to the immense irritation of local copper Inspector Topham

Soon Miss Dimont and Valentine are deep in investigation why can nobody identify the body, and why does Topham suspect murder? And when a second death occurs, can the two possibly be connected?

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Review: ‘Lady First’, by Lea O’Harra

Independently Published

Publication Date: 28th August 2017

I.S.B.N.: 9781549610981

Format: Kindle e-book and paperback

Price: Kindle – £2.00, Paperback – £7.99

Blurb

Murder is back, and it’s nastier than ever… Fujikawa in southern Japan is finally getting over the shock murder of a resident university head and, three years later, the strangling of a local child – when terror strikes the quiet, provincial town once more. When young Mayumi Ikeuchi is killed on her way home from her job at The Paradise nightclub in a Fujikawa park, there isn’t a shortage of suspects. These include Mr Tani – Mayumi’s boss – who likes to leer over the girls who work for him, and Atsushi Taniguchi, a man who seems quite normal to the outside world but is free with his fists around his wife, Yui. There is also Nose-san, a loner who lives with his aged, incontinent mother, with witnesses hearing the sounds of brutal, physical arguments coming from his house. Even Mayumi’s sister is reported to have been overly possessive of the girl, threatening her when Mayumi had declared she wanted to strike out on her own. Lise Foster and Yui Taniguchi forge an unlikely friendship after the death of Mayumi: one is a victim of violence and the other may become one. Lise is a teacher at the local school, living close to the murder site in Ogawa Woods, and is it her imagination or is there someone sinister lurking outside her home in the shadows? Could Lise be next? For Chief Inspector Inoue and Inspector Kubo – Yui’s brother – and their colleagues, it is a race against time to find the perpetrator before he strikes again.

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Review: ‘After The Fire’, by Henning Mankell

Published By: Random House

Publication Date: 5th October 2017

Format: Hardback

I.S.B.N: 9781910701768

Price: £17.99

Blurb

Fredrik Welin is a seventy-year-old retired doctor. Years ago he retreated to the Swedish archipelago, where he lives alone on an island. He swims in the sea every day, cutting a hole in the ice if necessary. He lives a quiet life. Until he wakes up one night to find his house on fire.

Fredrik escapes just in time, wearing two left-footed wellies, as neighbouring islanders arrive to help douse the flames. All that remains in the morning is a stinking ruin and evidence of arson. The house that has been in his family for generations and all his worldly belongings are gone. He cannot think who would do such a thing, or why. Without a suspect, the police begin to think he started the fire himself.

Tackling love, loss and loneliness, After the Fire is Henning Mankell’s compelling last novel.

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Review: ‘The One That Got Away’, by Annabel Kantaria

Published By: HQ

Publication Date: 21st September 2017

I.S.B.N.: 9781848455122

Format: Paperback (also available as an ebook)

Price: £7.99

Blurb

First comes the invitation…

Something makes Stella click ‘yes’ to attending her school reunion.

Followed by the affair…

It’s been fifteen years since Stella and George last saw each other. Their relationship may have ended badly, but there’s still an undeniable spark between them.

Then

the consequences…

But, once someone gets you back, what if they never let you go again?

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Review: ‘The Watcher’, by Ross Armstrong

35693731

Published by: HQ

Publication Date: 21st September 2017

Format: Paperback

I.S.B.N.: 9780008181178

Price: £7.99

Blurb

She’s watching you, but who’s watching her?

Lily Gullick lives with her husband Aiden in a new-build flat opposite an estate which has been marked for demolition. A keen birdwatcher, she can’t help spying on her neighbours.

Until one day Lily sees something suspicious through her binoculars and soon her elderly neighbour Jean is found dead. Lily, intrigued by the social divide in her local area as it becomes increasingly gentrified, knows that she has to act. But her interference is not going unnoticed, and as she starts to get close to the truth, her own life comes under threat.

But can Lily really trust everything she sees?

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