Review: Poisoned Ground by Barbara Nadel (5/5)

Ex-soldier Lee Arnold and his Muslim assistant Mumtaz Hakim run a detective agency in London's ethnically diverse, crime-ridden East End.

Mumtaz is approached by an Egyptian woman, Salwa, whose husband is in Belmarsh on terrorism charges.

Salwa convinces Mumtaz of her husband's innocence and persuades her to go undercover to prove it. But Salwa is not what she seems.

Trapped in an old tunnel that leads to the London docks, will Mumtaz escape with her life?

Review: Pop Goes The Weasel by M.J. Arlidge (5/5)

Starring returning heroine Detective Inspector Helen Grace Pop Goes the Weasel is the latest heart-stopping thriller from M.J. Arlidge, author of Richard &Judy Book Club pick Eeny Meeny.

A man's body is found in an empty house. His heart has been cut out and delivered to his wife and children. 


He is the first victim, and Detective Inspector Helen Grace knows he will not be the last. But why would a happily married man be this far from home in the dead of night?

The media call it Jack the Ripper in reverse: a serial killer preying on family men who lead hidden double lives.


Helen can sense the fury behind the murders. But what she cannot possibly predict is how volatile this killer is - or what is waiting for her at the end of the chase...

Review: Deserves To Die by Lisa Jackson (3.5/5)

Judged

As he watches, her body drifts below the water's surface, forever altered. Before he disposes of each victim, he takes a trophy. It's a sign of his power, and a warning—to the one destined to suffer most of all…

Condemned

In Grizzly Falls, Montana, Detectives Selena Alvarez and Regan Pescoli are struggling with a new commander and a department in the midst of upheaval. It's the worst possible time for a homicide. A body has been found, missing a finger. Alvarez hopes this means a murderer with a personal grudge, not a madman. But then a second body turns up…

Executed

As the clues begin pointing toward a suspect, Pescoli's unease grows. Even with Alvarez barely holding it together and her own personal life in chaos, she senses there's more to this case than others believe. A killer has made his way to Grizzly Falls, ready to fulfill a vengeance years in the making. And Pescoli must find the target of his wrath—or die trying…

Review: Broadchurch by Erin Kelly (4/5)

Inspired by the first season of the BAFTA award-winning ITV series, this is the official, unmissable Broadchurch novel. Incredibly moving and containing never-before-seen material, it takes you inside the minds and motivations of the unforgettable cast of characters.

It's a hot July morning in the Dorset town of Broadchurch when Beth Latimer realises that her eleven-year-old son, Danny, is missing. As Beth searches desperately for her boy, her best friend, local police officer DS Ellie Miller, arrives at work to find that the promotion she was promised has been given to disreputable Scottish outsider DI Alec Hardy.

When Danny's body is found on the beach Ellie must put her feelings aside as she works with DI Hardy to solve the mystery of Danny's death. As the case becomes a murder investigation the news hits the national press, jolting sleepy Broadchurch into the national spotlight.

As the town's secrets begin to unravel, members of this tight-knit community begin to consider those in their midst. Right now it's impossible to know who to trust...

Review: Private India by James Patterson & Ashwin Sanghi (4/5)

When Santosh Wagh isn't struggling out of a bottle of whisky he's head of Private India, the Mumbai branch of the world's finest PI agency.

In a city of over thirteen million he has his work cut out at the best of times. But now someone is killing women – seemingly unconnected women murdered in a chilling ritual, with strange objects placed carefully at their death scenes.

As Santosh and his team race to find the killer, an even greater danger faces Private India – a danger that could threaten the lives of thousands of innocent Mumbai citizens... 

Hall of Fame Review: The Wolf by Lorenzo Carcaterra (5/5)

In this thrilling novel by Lorenzo Carcaterra—the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Sleepers, Gangster, and Midnight Angels—organized crime goes to war with international terrorism in the name of one man’s quest for revenge.

My name is Vincent Marelli, though most people call me The Wolf. You’ve never met me, and if you’re lucky you never will. But in more ways than you could think of, I own you.

I run the biggest criminal operation in the world. We’re invisible but we’re everywhere. Wherever you go, whatever you do, however it is you spend your money, a piece of it lands in our pockets.

You would think that with that kind of power I would be invincible. You would be wrong. I made a mistake, one that a guy like me can never afford to make. I let my guard down. And because I did, my wife and daughters are gone. Murdered by terrorists with a lethal ax to grind.

That was my mistake.

But it was also theirs.

I wasn’t looking for a war with them. No one in my group was. But they’ve left me with nothing but a desire for revenge—so a war is what they’ll get. The full strength of international organized crime against every known terrorist group working today. Crime versus chaos.

We will protect our interests, and I will protect my son. We won’t get them all, but I will get my revenge, or I will die trying.

They will know my name.

They will feel my wrath.

They will fear The Wolf.

Guest Post: Setting of The Hidden Girl by Louise Millar

I'm excited to be part of the blog tour for Louise Millar's fantastic new novel The Hidden Girl. Today Louise is discussing the setting for The Hidden Girl which certainly makes for interesting reading. The Hidden Girl was the first book of Louise's that I read and I loved it, so look out for my review very soon.


When a country life dream turns into a nightmare . . .

Hannah Riley and her musician husband, Will, hope that a move to the Suffolk countryside will promise a fresh start.

Hannah, a human rights worker, is desperate for a child and she hopes that this new life will realise her dream.

Yet when the snow comes, Will is working in London and Hannah is cut off in their remote village. Life in Tornley turns out to be far from idyllic, who are the threatening figures who lurk near their property at night? And why is her neighbour so keen to see them leave? Plus Will's behaviour is severely testing the bonds of trust.

Hannah has spent her professional life doing the right thing for other people. But as she starts to unbury a terrible crime, she realises she can no longer do that without putting everything she's ever wanted at risk.

But if she does nothing, the next victim could be her . . .

The Setting of The Hidden Girl

As if this week wasn’t exciting enough with the arrival of the paperback of The Hidden Girl in bookshops, I’m embarking on my first blog tour. Thank you to everyone’s who’s invited me as a guest, especially to today’s host @bookaddictshaun from Liverpool, who loves ‘crime fiction and chicklit’.

So, to kick off, why did I choose Suffolk as a location for The Hidden Girl?

As a psychological thriller writer, I try to choose a setting that heightens the sense of vulnerability and isolation my characters experience, whether that is a lonely city street with unfriendly neighbours, or a remote rural spot where mobiles don’t work.
So my inspiration for Suffolk was not primarily the appearance of the landscape, but the number of times I’ve become lost there in a maze of narrow lanes with no signposts, and high verges obscuring my view.

As a writer, I found that intriguing: that you could be just a few miles from a town, but so disorientated. (And In case you think I’m just rubbish at following directions, two Suffolk readers told me recently that they still get lost, and they’ve lived there their whole lives!)
On one summer’s day, visiting family, I took yet another wrong turn down a dead end and did a U-turn outside a Victorian house. Its gate was locked, the shutters closed. Behind it was an overgrown walled garden. It was wild and beautiful, and looked abandoned.

I’d been considering a story for a while about what you would do if your last chance to have a much-wanted child lay in someone else’s hands. How far you would betray your principles to make it happen?

I imagined a FOR SALE sign outside this house, and a couple, Hannah and Will, stumbling upon it by accident on the way home from a Suffolk funeral to their small London flat. I imagined Hannah, at the end of her tether waiting to adopt, persuading Will that a move to this seemingly idyllic family setting might improve their chances with the agency.

As the idea took root, I then saw Hannah six months later, trapped in this new house by snow, up a ladder, frantically trying to decorate before her adoption social workers arrive for a very important visit – and then spotting something terrible out the window. Knowing with a chilling certainty that if she reported it, the social workers will have no choice but to postpone...

I set off home that day with plans to return with pen and camera to note down details about the Victorian house I’d found. But I never did. Because despite driving round and round, I couldn’t find it again.

And that’s when I knew I’d found the perfect hidden-away setting for a very creepy psychological thriller.

Thanks Louise! Also be sure to check out the other stops on the tour: