Crime Fiction Month Review: Block 46 by Johana Gustawsson

Reviewed by Louise Wykes

Falkenberg, Sweden. The mutilated body of talented young jewellery designer, Linnea Blix, is found in a snow-swept marina. 

Hampstead Heath, London. The body of a young boy is discovered with similar wounds to Linnea's. 

Buchenwald Concentration Camp, 1944. In the midst of the hell of the Holocaust, Erich Hebner will do anything to see himself as a human again. 

Are the two murders the work of a serial killer, and how are they connected to shocking events at Buchenwald? Emily Roy, a profiler on loan to Scotland Yard from the Canadian Royal Mounted Police, joins up with Linnea's friend, French true-crime writer Alexis Castells, to investigate the puzzling case. They travel between Sweden and London, and then deep into the past, as a startling and terrifying connection comes to light.

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback

Crime Fiction Month Giveaway: Take your Pick of these 3 Fab Reads

I can't believe it's the last day of May already so the final day of my Crime Fiction feature month.  Sadly my plans to read and review lots of crime fiction from my backlog this month didn't quite pay off due to illness and work commitments but hopefully you've enjoyed The Write Stuff with... guest posts from the authors.

As it's the final day I couldn't not do a giveaway for you so I'm giving someone the chance to win one of these books, Sirens by Joseph Knox, Watch Her Disappear by Eva Dolan or He Said/She Said by Erin Kelly.  These books were all on my list to read to review this month and I had planned to do separate giveaways for them alongside the reviews.  Instead the winner can take their pick of which book they would like to win, the other two will be put aside to do a giveaway alongside their review once I've read the books.

Crime Fiction Month: The Write Stuff with... Sinead Crowley

Today is the final The Write Stuff with... feature as part of this Crime Fiction month so it's my absolute pleasure to welcome Irish author Sinead Crowley back to the blog.  Sinead has written a piece on location, talking about the part of Dublin where she set her third novel One Bad Turn which is out this Thursday.

The nice thing about living in a city like Dublin is that people often come to visit you, and when they do they ask for recommendations on what to do and where to go. Obviously you tailor your response to their own circumstances – how mobile are they? Do they have kids? Does their taste tend towards Caravaggio, or clubbing?

But there is one outing I’d recommend to anyone visiting my city, if they have time. It’s stunning, it’s accessible and, as I discovered in my new book, it’s the perfect place to lose a body. Crime writers, we’re a cheerful lot.

You might have read about Dublin’s DART train in a Roddy Doyle book or seen it in a movie adaptation. In more up to date TV dramas it has largely been replaced by the shinier Luas Light Rail System as a shorthand for transport in the city. But the DART is still there, chugging away along the coastline, bringing commuters from as far away as Howth and Greystones into the city centre. However if you’re on holiday and can avoid rush hour you can also turn it into one of the most interesting journeys in the capital.

Crime Fiction Month: The Write Stuff with... Tina Seskis

Sadly this week there has been a poor showing on the Crime Fiction month front due to me being so far behind on reading, my plan to read and review quite a few crime books this week has failed spectacularly!

So instead I'm delighted to be able to bring forward this guest feature from author Tina Seskis, Write what you know (up to a point...).  Tina's new psychcological thriller The Honeymoon is published this Thursday and I'm hoping to read this for review sooner rather than later.

I don't think I was that little girl who wore pink, and dreamed of marrying her handsome prince, and wandered around pushing a dolly in a pram.  In fact, I know I wasn't.  I preferred roller skating, and Cowboys and Indians, and the Bay City Rollers (don't judge me), and the boy across the road was a partner-in-crime, not a sweetheart.  And then once I grew up and got boyfriends they were never husband material, and we were too busy breaking up and making up with each other to be worrying about any future together.

And then I hit my mid-thirties.  I fell in love, properly at last. We got married (on the island where Agatha Christie wrote And Then There Were None, as it happened). I was pregnant.  My dress looked like a pair of curtains.  The planning was chaotic.  The wedding had to be brought forward half an hour at the very last minute because we'd got the tides wrong. We were worried the band wouldn't turn up.  There was a terrible storm. It was fabulous.  We went on honeymoon, to The Mal—

Crime Fiction Month Giveaway: Win a taste of Crime bundle

This afternoon I have been having a bit of a sort out as sadly I'm running out of storage space so need to cull my books... don't worry they're not being thrown out as I've sorted into piles to take into work, to charity shop and to donate to my local library.  Whilst doing so I have come across a selection of sampler booklets, postcards and bookmarks that I've collected from various book events/festivals in the last year so have decided to give away as a bundle to a follower as a crime fiction taster.

Crime Fiction Month Review: Cursed by Thomas Enger

Reviewed by Louise Wykes 

When Hedda Hellberg fails to return from a retreat in Italy, her husband discovers that his wife's life is tangled in mystery. .Hedda never left Oslo, the retreat has no record of her and, what's more, she appears to be connected to the murder of an old man, gunned down on the first day of the hunting season in the depths of the Swedish forests...

Henning Juul becomes involved in the case when his ex-wife joins in the search for the missing woman, and the estranged pair find themselves enmeshed both in the murky secrets of one of Norway's wealthiest families, and in the painful truths surrounding the death of their own son. When their lives are threatened, Juul is prepared to risk everything to uncover a sinister maze of secrets that ultimately leads to the dark heart of European history.

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback

Crime Fiction Month Giveaway: Win a Copy of No Middle Name by Lee Child (The Complete Collected Reacher Short Stories)

As a blogger I'm very fortunate to be sent many books by publishers to review, some I get contacted about first but quite a few arrive unexpectedly.  But sadly there are not enough hours in the day to read and review every single book I receive so instead I often will do a spotlight post or run a giveaway to promote the book instead.

One such book I have recently received out of the blue is No Middle Name by Lee Child, a collection of his Jack Reacher short stories.

Jack 'No Middle Name' Reacher, lone wolf, knight errant, ex military cop, lover of women, scourge of the wicked and righter of wrongs, is the most iconic hero for our age. This is the first time all Lee Child's shorter fiction featuring Jack Reacher has been collected into one volume. Read together, these twelve stories shed new light on Reacher’s past, illuminating how he grew up and developed into the wandering avenger who has captured the imagination of millions around the world.

Emma's Review: Under an Amber Sky by Rose Alexander

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

When Sophie Taylor’s life falls apart, there is only one thing to do: escape and find a new one.

Dragged to Montenegro by her best friend Anna, Sophie begins to see the light at the end of a very dark tunnel. But when she stumbles into an old, run-down house on the Bay of Kotor she surprises even herself when she buys it.

Surrounded by old furniture, left behind by the former inhabitants, Sophie becomes obsessed by a young Balkan couple when she discovers a bundle of letters from the 1940s in a broken roll-top desk. Letters that speak of great love, hope and a mystery Sophie can’t help but get drawn into.

Days in Montenegro are nothing like she expected and as Sophie’s home begins to fill with a motley crew of lodgers the house by the bay begins to breathe again. And for Sophie, life seems to be restarting. But letting go of the past is easier said than done…

Amazon link: Kindle

Books Read: I'll Eat When I'm Dead by Barbara Bourland

RAGE Fashion Book is the world's most dynamic, ambitious magazine.
Its editors ­- like Cat Ono - have the power to change minds and the market.
They're savvy, sisterly and polished to perfection. Even the one found dead in her office.

Everyone thinks Hillary starved to death - but Cat knows her friend's dieting wasn't a capital P problem. If beauty kills, it'd take more than that. Hot-headed and fiercely feminist, Cat's sure she can match the investigating skills of Detective Mark Hutton, solve the case, and achieve sartorial fulfillment.

But going undercover, Cat's in over her head, and soon becomes snared in a very stylish web of drugs, sex, lies and moisturizer that will change her look - and outlook - forever.

Cat's about to find out what it really means to be a fashion victim.

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback

Books Read: All the Good Things by Clare Fisher

Twenty-one year old Beth is in prison. The thing she did is so bad she doesn't deserve ever to feel good again.

But her counsellor, Erika, won't give up on her. She asks Beth to make a list of all the good things in her life. So Beth starts to write down her story, from sharing silences with Foster Dad No. 1, to flirting in the Odeon on Orange Wednesdays, to the very first time she sniffed her baby's head.
But at the end of her story, Beth must confront the bad thing.

What is the truth hiding behind her crime? And does anyone - even a 100% bad person - deserve a chance to be good?

Amazon links: Kindle or Hardcover

Emma's Review: Summer at the Little Wedding Shop by Jane Linfoot

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

When the owner of Brides by the Sea, Cornwall’s cutest little wedding shop, offers Lily a job as their new wedding stylist, her first thought is – can she possibly pull it off?

Before she’s even sourced a fairy light or tasted a cupcake, Kip Penryn hires her services – but he’s opened an exclusive wedding venue in direct competition to her friend Poppy!

Lily feels like a traitor working for Kip, only everyone knows Penryn men are gorgeous but unreliable. All she has to do is sit back and watch him mess it up…doesn’t she?

Love is in the Cornish sea breeze this summer as the girls tackle their busiest wedding season yet. There’s plenty of bunting, bubbly and baking – but who is going to catch the bouquet?

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback

My Crimefest 2017 experience plus giveaway

This morning I am officially wrecked after an amazing weekend in Bristol for Crimefest 2017 😴 Last year I went to Crimefest for the first time just for the Saturday which was amazing but also very full on as felt like I needed to attend every single session.  But it also whetted my appetite for me wanting to experience the whole convention so as soon as the tickets went on sale I booked to return again this year but for the whole weekend, Thursday to Sunday.  And what a weekend it was 😉

Thursday

Day 1 lulled us into a false sense of security as didn't start until after lunch giving us delegates time to arrive and prepare for the weekend ahead.  I had already decided which panels I wanted to go to in advance and wasn't disappointed as each of the ones I chose was informative and entertaining.

• Debut Authors: An infusion of fresh blood with Steph Broadribb, David Coubrough, Mary Torjussen & Lucy V. Hay - moderated by Karen Robinson

• SHHHHHHH! Keeping Secrets and Telling Lies with Andrea Carter, Julia Crouch, Lucy Dawson, Rod Reynolds - moderated by Valentina 'VM' Giambanco

• What are you hiding? The Dark Side of Human Nature with Johana Gustawsson, Jørn Lier Horst, Doug Johnstone, Luke McCallin - moderated by Michael Stanley

Friday

After a reasonably early night and the memory of last year's experience I knew that it was virtually impossible to attend every panel of the day as physically, and mentally, you need a break if you're going to survive the day!

• Partners in Crime: Male/Female Police Duos with Sarah Hilary, Anne Randall, Stav Sherez, Luca Veste - moderated by Sarah Ward

• Behind Closed Doors: When Domestic becomes Noir with Jane Corry, Lisa Hall, Michael J. Malone, Mary Torjussen - moderated by Julia Crouch

As it was a gorgeous sunny day I decided to pop out for lunch and enjoyed a sandwich outside before coming back for the afternoon sessions 😊

Author Interview: Jenny Oliver

Today it's my pleasure to be chatting to Jenny Oliver on the latest leg of her blog tour for her new book The Summer House by the Sea which was published on Thursday.

Hi Jenny and welcome back to the blog.  It's been 9 months since you last visited as part of Food & Drink month so can you give readers a quick recap/intro to yourself.
Yes of course! I write funny, emotional books that have the aim of providing total escapism but also the hope that you can find something of yourself in the pages. 

If you had to give an elevator pitch for The Summer House by the Sea, what would it be? 
When Ava is hit by a bus, she realizes that the life she’s been living isn’t the life she wanted it to be! So when her Spanish grandmother dies she goes to live in her house by the sea for the summer. When her bullish, workaholic older brother turns up too, they discover secrets about their late mother, find what they have been missing in their own lives and learn how to be a family, on their own terms.

Where did the inspiration come from to set The Summer House by the Sea in a sleepy Spanish town?   
The inspiration came from an amazing holiday on the Costa Brava. We stayed in the tiny village of Sa Tuna and spent most of our days on the Aiguablava beach or exploring the winding hillside roads to arrive at beautiful towns like Cadaques. There was lots of tapas and sherry and sticky morning pastries. I loved it and knew it would be a great setting for a book. If you’re planning a summer holiday abroad I can highly recommend it! 

Crime Fiction Month: The Write Stuff with... Chris Lloyd

Today it's my pleasure to be handling the blog over to Chris Lloyd, author of The Elisenda Domènech Investigations series, to talk about the challenges (and fun) of setting stories in a real location.

It was the name that got me.

There are moments when you read or hear something that punches the breath out of you. I was researching in the city archives in Girona, in Catalonia, for a guide book and I came across the story of a small statue not far from where I was. Outside, I looked for the statue and found it above one of the medieval gateways into the city. She was serene and beautiful, a Madonna and child surrounded by ornate and brightly-painted curlicues and cherubs, and she was called the Virgin of Good Death. 

She was called that because she was the last blessing for prisoners as they were led out of the medieval city to be executed outside the city walls. It was the beauty and the brutality that struck me, the benevolence and menace, and it was the germ of the first book in my Elisenda Domènech series, about a police officer in present-day Girona. Back in the archive, I then came across a series of local legends that left my head reeling at their folklore wisdom and savage imagery, and that sealed the deal. I knew I had to write about it all. The problem was whether anyone who didn’t know Girona or Catalonia would be interested. I’d lived in Girona and Barcelona for 24 years and I’m passionate about Catalonia and its culture, and the one thing I was concerned about was maybe I was being just that bit too niche.

And that, I think, is one of the first dilemmas you face when you set your stories not just in a real location, but in a foreign one. There’s a balancing act between looking too narrowly at your setting while finding stories to set there that will appeal to a wider audience and to readers who might not know the place you’re writing about. It’s a question of finding a harmony between the local and the global, telling a universal story that we can all feel through a unique and very specific setting that only you can tell. But it’s precisely that intensely local atmosphere that can create its own strength and become even more powerful and evocative as long as you can find a way to use it as the vehicle to tell a story that touches on everyone’s life.

Emma's Review: The Forever House by Veronica Henry

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Would you know your forever house if you found it?

Hunter's Moon is the ultimate 'forever' house. Nestled by a river in the Peasebrook valley, it has been the Willoughbys' home for over fifty years, and now estate agent Belinda Baxter is determined to find the perfect family to live there. But the sale of the house unlocks decades of family secrets - and brings Belinda face to face with her own troubled past.

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback 

Crime Fiction Month Giveaway: Win a copy of Wicked Game & Deadly Game by Matt Johnson

Today's giveaway is for a pair of books by ex-policeman turned author Matt Johnson, Wicked Game and Deadly Game,  Despite having both of these books on my Kindle I have not yet managed to find the time to read either of them so if anyone could magic up a few more hours in a day I would greatly appreciate it 😉

2001. Age is catching up with Robert Finlay, a police officer on the Royalty Protection team based in London. He s looking forward to returning to uniform policing and a less stressful life with his new family. But fate has other plans. Finlay's deeply traumatic, carefully concealed past is about to return to haunt him. 

A policeman is killed by a bomb blast, and a second is gunned down in his own driveway. Both of the murdered men were former Army colleagues from Finlay's own SAS regiment, and in a series of explosive events, it becomes clear that he is not the ordinary man that his colleagues, friends and new family think he is. And so begins a game of cat and mouse a wicked game in which Finlay is the target, forced to test his long-buried skills in a fight against a determined and unidentified enemy. 

Emma's Review: Annie's Lovely Choir by the Sea by Liz Eeles

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

When twenty-nine-year-old Annie Trebarwith receives an unexpected letter from a great-aunt she’s never known, she leaves her shoebox-sized flat in London and catches a train to the rugged Cornish coast.

Salt Bay is beautiful and Annie begins to kindle a bond with her great-aunt Alice. Even though there is zero phone signal and the locals – including the gorgeous but brooding Josh Pasco – can be decidedly grumpy at times, Annie starts to feel at home in Salt Bay.

Soon Annie’s love of music leads her to relaunch the Salt Bay Choral Society, and she’s surprised to see how just much the choir means to the community – and she even starts to break through Josh’s surly exterior…

But London is calling Annie back, and she has to make a decision. Give up her old life completely, or leave Salt Bay, her new-found family – and the choir – behind?

Amazon link: Kindle

Crime Fiction Month: The Write Stuff with... Samantha Wood

What I love the most about blogging is discovering new authors, especially those overseas who I might otherwise not hear about.  So I was delighted when Australian Samantha Wood, author of The Bay of Shadows. responded to my shout out for authors to take part in guest posts for this Crime Fiction month.

I was talking to a friend recently about the plot for my next novel, and she asked if anyone was going to die in this one. I laughed and told her yes, because, really, that’s the beauty of being a novelist: you can get rid of all the pesky characters.

“Everybody dies in your books!” she continued.

“Not everybody,” I protested. “Just the bad guys.”

It did get me thinking about my piece for this blog, though. Especially Sharon’s question about why crime fiction/psychological thrillers are so popular. And what attracted me to write in this genre.

It certainly wasn’t a conscious decision, rather I think it was an essential element of the storyline, and one which unfolded organically. In The Bay of Shadows my main protagonist, Elena, is faced with a situation that can only be described as kill-or-be-killed and so decides to take whatever measures necessary to ensure her safety and that of her foster child, Daniel. When I started writing I didn’t know how the story was going to pan out so I let my characters lead the way – the end result was part romance, part thriller, part crime, which suited the plot and gave me a lot to work with. The other thing that really attracted me to this genre was the question, and the tagline of the novel: how far would you go for love? When people say “I would never do that,” I’m always intrigued by that answer. My first thought is: are you sure? Because we are all capable of amazing and terrible things given the right circumstances. As Elena says after a particularly violent encounter with her child’s father, “I’ll do whatever it takes.” And that is the message at the heart of the novel, that love makes us really powerful.

Emma's Review: The New Beginnings Coffee Club by Samantha Tonge

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Everyone deserves a second chance…don’t they?

Jenny Masters finds herself living the modern dream. Wife to a millionaire, living in a mansion and mother to Kardashian-obsessed ten-year-old April, there isn’t anything missing. Until, her whole world comes crashing down, forcing Jenny and April to leave behind their glittering life and start over with nothing.

With village gossip following her wherever she goes, she finds refuge and a job in the new coffee shop in town. As the days pass Jenny fears she doesn’t have what it takes to pick herself back up and give April the life she always wanted to. But with the help of enigmatic new boss Noah, and housemate Elle, Jenny realises it’s never too late to become the woman life really intended you to be!

Amazon link: Kindle

Emma's Review: The Butlins Girls by Elaine Everest

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Molly Missons gazed around in awe. So this was Butlin's. Whitewashed buildings, bordered by rhododendrons, gave a cheerful feeling to a world still recovering from six years of war. The Skegness holiday camp covered a vast area, much larger than Molly expected to see.

Molly Missons hasn't had the best of times recently. Having lost her parents, now some dubious long-lost family have darkened her door - attempting to steal her home and livelihood...

After a horrendous ordeal, Molly applies for a job as a Butlin's Aunty. When she receives news that she has got the job, she immediately leaves her small home town - in search of a new life in Skegness.

Molly finds true friendship in Freda, Bunty and Plum. But the biggest shock is discovering that star of the silver screen, Johnny Johnson, is working at Butlin's as head of the entertainment team. Johnny takes an instant liking to Molly and she begins to shed the shackles of her recent traumas. Will Johnny be just the distraction Molly needs - or is he too good be to be true?

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback

Crime Fiction Month Giveaway: Syringe Pen, Pencil & Black Notebook to be won

As a fan of all things stationery I couldn't have a feature month without some form of stationery giveaway so today I'm offering one follower the chance to win a pen in the form of a syringe, a thin blue spine pencil (think this came from a publisher) & you can't have a pen or pencil without a notebook to take relevant notes for any crimes you may spot 😂

Emma's Review: My Husband's Wives by Faith Hogan

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Paul Starr, Ireland's leading cardiologist dies in a car crash with a pregnant young woman by his side. United in their grief and the love of one man, four women are thrown together in an attempt to come to terms with life after Paul. They soon realise they never really knew him at all. The love they shared for Paul in his life and which incensed a feeling of mistrust and dislike for each other, in his death turns into the very thing that bonds them and their children to each other, forever. As they begin to form unlikely friendships, Paul's death proves to be the catalyst that enables them to become the people they always wanted to be.

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback

Emma's Review: Leopard at the Door by Jennifer McVeigh

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Stepping off the boat in Mombasa, eighteen-year-old Rachel Fullsmith stands on Kenyan soil for the first time in six years. She has come home.

But when Rachel reaches the family farm at the end of the dusty Rift Valley Road, she finds so much has changed. Her beloved father has moved his new partner and her son into the family home. She hears menacing rumours of Mau Mau violence, and witnesses cruel reprisals by British soldiers. Even Michael, the handsome Kikuyu boy from her childhood, has started to look at her differently.

Isolated and conflicted, Rachel fears for her future. But when home is no longer a place of safety and belonging, where do you go, and who do you turn to?

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback 

Crime Fiction Month: The Write Stuff with... Lev D. Lewis

Today's The Write Stuff with... feature In the Beginning comes from author Lev D. Lewis talking about the inspiration behind and creation of his debut novel Jellyfish.

“I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun. I put them on and went out of the room.” (Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Ch. 34)

The genesis of Frank Bale lay in my discovery that Raymond Chandler went to school just up the road from me in South London. I still find that surprising: Chandler, the master of Los Angeles-set PI novels, actually received a South London (albeit private) education.

After spending the summer dwelling on this fact, Frank appeared more or less complete: a down-at-heel private investigator working on the mean streets of London who had gone to a comprehensive school (a school where in real life my sister had gone to) half-a-mile away from where Chandler attended his public school.

Frank finds his own life bleak and boring but, aware of the Chandler connection, has developed a Marlowe fantasy to overcome the dullness.

I gave my nose another wipe and rang the doorbell, still wondering: goon or dame? That was the fantasy, the thought that behind the next door may lurk a goon with a gun or a dame with legs. It brought a frisson of sun-baked Californian menace to the wearying trudge down streets as cold and grey and wet as a drowned man’s shadow, between doors that only opened, if they opened at all, on the desperate and despairing . . . No wonder my nose is always running. If I had had anywhere to go, I’d have run too.

When, in the course of a routine job, Frank stumbles across a murdered student in an alley, he is forced to turn his fantasy into action armed with nothing but native guile and intuition.

And the Investigator’s Fallacy: the belief that my native guile and intuition counted.  

Crime Fiction Month Giveaway: Win a copy of Rupture by Ragnar Jónasson

Regulars of the blog will probably have noticed that Louise and I are proud members of #TeamOrenda and are always happy to support Karen Sullivan and her authors by reviewing and promoting their fabulous books.  One such book is Rupture by Ragnar Jónasson which Louise reviewed earlier this year and it was one of the first books that sprang to mind as a giveaway prize when I started planning this Crime Fiction feature month.

1955. Two young couples move to the uninhabited, isolated fjord of Hedinsfjörður. Their stay ends abruptly when one of the women meets her death in mysterious circumstances. The case is never solved. Fifty years later an old photograph comes to light, and it becomes clear that the couples may not have been alone on the fjord after all…

Review & Extract: The Other Us by Fiona Harper

If you could turn back time, would you choose a different life?

Forty-something Maggie is facing some hard truths. Her only child has flown the nest for university and, without her daughter in the house, she’s realising her life, and her marriage to Dan, is more than a little stale.

When she spots an announcement on Facebook about a uni reunion, she can’t help wondering what happened to Jude Hanson. The same night Dan proposed, Jude asked Maggie to run away with him, and she starts to wonder how different her life might have been if she’d broken Dan’s heart and taken Jude up on his offer.

Wondering turns into fantasising, and then one morning fantasising turns into reality. Maggie wakes up and discovers she’s back in 1992 and twenty-one again. Is she brave enough to choose the future she really wants, and if she is, will the grass be any greener on the other side of the fence?

Two men. Two very different possible futures. But is there only once chance at happiness?

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback

Crime Fiction Month Review: One False Move by Dreda Say Mitchell (Quick Reads 2017)

Hayley swore when she got out of prison that she would turn her life around.

But living on the Devil's Estate doesn't make that easy.

She spends her days looking after her daughter, and her nights collecting cash from people who can't get loans any other way.

But someone has just robbed her. And she has twenty-four hours to get the money back, or her boss will come for her.

Her criminal ex-boyfriend says he can help. Hayley wants nothing to do with him. But time is running out, and she has to choose - save herself, or save her soul?

If she makes one false move, her life will be over...

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback

Crime Fiction Month: The Write Stuff with... Kerensa Jennings

Today's The Write Stuff with... feature comes from debut author Kerensa Jennings talking about how a real life case inspired Seas of Snow. 

As a journalist who worked in television for many years, I was exposed to some of the best and worst of humanity. I have filmed in refugee camps where former child soldiers were teaching little children how to read and write. Directed the shoot of a life-saving quadruple heart by-pass operation. Made films for Make Poverty History, Comic Relief and Live8. Seen horrific rushes of suicide bombings, raw footage from terrorist attacks (including 9/11), and the unedited aftermaths of devastating earthquakes and floods. 

When I was Programme Editor of Breakfast with Frost with Sir David Frost, I was lucky enough to make programmes with a host of the world’s most famous people including world leaders, and stars from stage, screen, sport and music. The programme with Nelson Mandela is one of the highlights of my life – such an inspiring man. Such an extraordinary life.

Nothing I experienced throughout my TV career affected me as profoundly, or impacted me as emotionally, as leading the BBC News coverage of the Soham investigation. 

The BBC had been selected by Cambridgeshire Constabulary to work closely with them during the months of the investigation. They had quite rightly responded to the extraordinary levels of public interest in the case, and wanted to be able to tell their story. They felt a huge responsibility to do the right thing by the families and friends of the two little girls whose lives were so brutally stolen from them. The community in Soham discovered they had a killer in their midst, and two people who were prepared to hide in plain sight, telling lies after lies after lies to anyone who would listen. The nation was appalled and devastated that a man employed as a school caretaker could have committed such a monstrous act. 

Crime Fiction Month Review: Dead Simple (Quick Reads 2017)

A woman reports a crime to the police, with unexpected results

The grieving widow who finds that she's about to lose more than just her husband 

When a man attempts the perfect murder, it's not quite as easy as he thinks

Two men in prison play a deadly game of Scrabble

A young woman tries to trick an old man and gets more than she bargained for

Sometimes crimes are solved in ways you can't explain 

A murderer about to be hanged finds that's not the worst thing that can happen

You never know who's going to turn up at your door

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback

Crime Fiction Month: The Write Stuff with... Amanda Reynolds

Today it's my pleasure to welcome author Amanda Reynolds back to the blog as part of this feature month with a guest post talking about settings.

I didn’t set out to write a crime novel, only realising I had when I was invited to a Crime Writers’ party at my publisher’s! Perhaps that’s why I didn’t choose a traditional setting for the genre, but that’s the beauty of crime novels, they can be set anywhere.

My inspiration is the place I live, a small village surrounded by the dramatic landscape of the Cotswold Hills. It’s not gritty, or urban, quite the opposite, but the fascination for me is the contrast between the ascetics of a location and the lives of the inhabitants; the side we don’t see, led in private, and so different perhaps than we might perceive. 

The popularity of psychological suspense feeds on our collective absorption with the private lives of others, and as an author I am presenting you with a glimpse behind the closed door of a marriage. The protagonist is someone like you, or reminds you of someone you know. It’s this proximity to ourselves that draws us in, the thought we could so easily be in that situation, and if we were, what might we do? 

Crime Fiction Month Giveaway: Win a copy of Closed Casket: The New Hercule Poirot Mystery by Sophie Hannah

This Crime Fiction month hasn't gotten off to a good start on the reading and reviewing front  as I had planned to do a review and giveaway today but sadly I've not had as much reading time this week as I had hoped.  But fear not as I've just brought forward one of the other giveaways I had planned for later in this feature month.

Are you an Agatha Christie fan?  Today you could win a copy of Closed Casket, the new Hercule Poirot mystery which has been written by Sophie Hannah.

Hercule Poirot returns in another brilliant murder mystery that can only be solved by the eponymous Belgian detective and his ‘little grey cells’.

‘What I intend to say to you will come as a shock . . .’

Crime Fiction Month: The Write Stuff with... Janet Pywell

Today it's my pleasure to hand the reins of the blog over to Janet Pywell, author of the Culture Crime Series, to talk about Location, Location, Location.

I’m fortunate to have worked in the travel and tourism sector for over thirty years. This allowed me to travel extensively, meet interesting people and learn about foreign cultures and lifestyles.

I was lucky to work in a sociable industry that’s fun and often conversational, and where I was able to enjoy other people’s anecdotes and listen to their stories.

On a visit to Vilnius I met a Russian lady. We were on a trip where travel agents get to know a location and become familiar with hotels so they can sell the product to their clients back in their home country. One afternoon, a few of us found a small bar in the old town and over a glass of red wine we swapped stories:

She was happily married and had two children; a boy and a girl but when the boy was eight he became very sick. She had no money for his lifesaving medical treatment but she knew an old man with lots of money who liked her. So, she divorced her husband who then walked his ex wife up the aisle to marry the rich old man. She saved her son’s life but the old man wasn’t kind and with a new younger wife, he wasn’t in a hurry to die. When I met her she had just divorced the old man and remarried her first husband whom she’d never stopped loving.

Several years later she showed me professional photographs of her son. He was entering the world of fashion modelling. She had tears in her eyes and her chest was filled with pride and I remembered the story she had told me in far more detail than these few sentences. It made me realise the power of love and the sacrifice that she and her husband endured to make her son healthy and well.

The memory of sitting in the bar as they whispered their stories in broken English and halting sentences, struggling for the right words, amid their painful memories has stayed with me. Years of Russian suppression had built up resentment and I was interested to learn about the lives from the assortment of agents. It was a time when the Baltic countries were separating from Russia, cruise ships weren’t yet pulling in to their ports and ‘no-frills’ airlines had not yet opened up travel opportunities.

But I haven’t written about these people in my novels or these locations.