Crime in the Court

On Thursday 29th June a large crowd gathered at Goldsboro Books, Cecil Court in London to celebrate
Independent Bookshop Week

We welcomed by the wonderful David Headley managing director of Goldsboro Books
who thanked everyone for coming along to celebrate.

There were many familiar faces present, and I didn't manage to capture everyone with my camera as I kept getting involved in conversations, but it was fun evening.

Far left raising a glass is Len Tyler author of the Elethred Tressider and Elsie Thirkettle series and more recently a series set in the 1600's featuring
lawyer John Grey 

http://www.lctyler.co.uk/

 

Gilliam McAllister, far right  who has published her first book this year Everything But the Truth

 https://gillianmcallister.wordpress.com/

William Shaw, see left, whose latest book is Sympathy For The Devil to read a review of this excellent book click on the title above.

 http://williamshaw.com/
Below right is Vaseem Khan whose first book An Unexpected Inheritance introduced us to Inspector Chopra and Ganesh the baby Elephant.
His second book The Strange Disappearance of a Bollywood Star is a must read.
https://vaseemkhan.com/

 

On the left is Adam Hamdy whose First book Pendulum was published November 2016.
To read a review of this book click on the title above.
http://www.adamhamdy.com 

On the Left Literary Agent Broo Doherty
http://www.dhhliteraryagency.com/broo-doherty.html

with Alison Bruce, author of a series set in Cambridge, England, featuring Police DC Gary Goodhew.  There are seven books in the series.  To read a review of the most recent book Cambridge Black, click on the title.

The handsome chap to the right of the ladies is Martyn Waites who has written 10 books to date.  For details visit him at      http://www.martynwaites.com

Far left is Valentina M Giambanco, whose latest book
Sweet After Death is 4th in the Alice Madison series.

Below right is Ayo Onatade and
SJI Holliday whose latest book is
The Damsel Fly
Read about it at http://www.sjiholliday.com
and on Facebook and Twitter @SJIHolliday.

Below left is the amazing Barry Forshaw who is both aclaimed reviewer and author.  His latest book is Brit Noir.
http://www.barryforshaw.co.uk
with Barry are Liz, and Myles Allfrey,
co-organisers of CrimeFest Comference
http://www.crimefest.com/

The wine flowed and there was much talk and laughter,  and I have more photograhs when I can identify everyone.
Sorry about that odd woman who seems to have got in some of the photographs, I don't know who she is.

https://www.goldsborobooks.com/

‘Murderabilia’ by Craig Robertson.

Published by Simon & Schuster,
23 March 2017.
ISBN: 978-1-4711-5659-5

The morning train from platform 7 leaves the station to begin its daily journey. As is usual, a few minutes later it enters a tunnel but emerging out the other end the passengers are screaming. Hanging from the bridge in front of the tunnel is a naked man, a pile of clothes on the ground by his body.

DI Rachel Narey is given the case, but heavily pregnant and fainting, she is taken off and sent home for bed rest. Her partner, Tony Winter, an ex- scene of crime photographer, and now journalist takes on the role of following the case with her. He photographs the pile of clothes and the picture makes headlines.

Meanwhile Rachel Narey is restless and bored and starts surfing the web. She discovers a dark and grisly site of murder memorabilia for sale, where the buyers pay the highest prices according to the worst of the murders. Be it bricks from the houses where the crime took place, to pieces of hair, or clothes and jewellery belonging to the victim. Here she discovers a cold crime with links to the case she had to abandon. She and Winter dig deeper into this muderabilia site to follow the buying and selling of souvenirs relating to real life murders. Unknown to them, while they are doing this, someone is also following them, someone who has been buying memorabilia relating to Sharon Tate, the victim who made headlines when murdered while heavily pregnant!

This is a very different kind of crime story. Unbelievably gritty and gruesome, told by an author with an unusual and breath-taking imagination. It is meticulously researched, and stylishly written. If you like strong crime, then you will love this book.

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Reviewer: Linda Regan.

www.lindareganonline.co.uk

A former journalist, Craig Robertson had a 20-year career with a Scottish Sunday newspaper before becoming a full-time author. He interviewed three Prime Ministers, reported on major stories including 9/11, Dunblane, the Omagh bombing and the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. He was pilloried on breakfast television, beat Oprah Winfrey to a major scoop, spent time on Death Row in the USA and dispensed polio drops in the backstreets of India.
His gritty crime novels are set on the mean streets of contemporary Glasgow. His first novel, Random, was shortlisted for the 2010 CWA New Blood Dagger, longlisted for the 2011 Crime Novel of the Year and was a Sunday Times bestseller. He is also the author of a series of novels featuring crime scene photographer Tony Winter and Detective Sergeant Rachel Narey; Snapshot, Cold Grave and Witness the Dead.
Craig also has a weakness/fascination/obsession with black pudding and has travelled across Europe in search of the perfect pud. This admittedly strange pilgrimage included being a judge at the world black pudding championships in France.  

http://craigrobertsonbooks.co.uk/

Linda Regan is the author of six police procedural crime novels. She is also an actress. She holds a Masters degree in critical writing and journalism, and writes a regular column, including book reviews, for three magazines. She also presents the book-club spot on BBC Radio Kent. She is an avid reader, and welcomes the chance to read new writers. 

A review of her recent book Sisterhoods can be read here.  http://promotingcrime.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/sisterhoods-by-linda-regan.html

www.lindareganonline.co.uk

‘Six Stories’ by Matt Wesolowski

Published by Orenda Books,
30 March 2017.
ISBN: 978-1910633625

In 1996 Derek Bickers and Sally Mullen take five teenagers on an adventure weekend near Scarclaw Fell.  The group are members of an unofficial club, The Rangers, who have taken part in similar outings many times before, but on this occasion one member of the group,  fifteen-year-old Tom Jeffries, goes missing.  The alarm is raised, the area searched, but the boy cannot not be found. 

A year later Harry Saint Clement Ramsay, whose father owns the land around Scarclaw Fell, is in the area with two of his friends when the trio stumble upon Tom’s rotting corpse.  This grisly find converts the missing person enquiry into a suspicious death, and prompts an investigation.  The other members of the group, already traumatised since Tom’s disappearance, now find themselves questioned by the police as potential murder suspects.  The enquiry is thorough, but Tom’s death cannot be conclusively attributed to either misadventure or murder and effectively becomes a cold case.

Fast forward twenty years to 2017 and Harry, still haunted by the gruesome discovery he and his pals made, is contacted by a famously elusive investigative journalist who broadcasts using the pseudonym Scott King.  King wants to revisit the fatal Rangers’ excursion through a series of interviews with Tom’s friends, Eva Bickers, Anyu Kekkon, Charlie Armstrong, Brian Mings, as well as Haris Novak who befriended the group and, of course, Harry.  For a period of six weeks each member of the group will offer their perspective on the events of 1996, and at the end of the series listeners will be invited to consider their verdict on the case.

The author allows the narrative to unfold through the “Six Stories”, interspersed with Harry’s flashbacks and the reporter’s commentary.  Direct speech, reported in the podcast transcripts, injects pace as well as nuance into the story, and the presentation of different, often contradictory, viewpoints creates and maintains interest and tension.  The reader becomes a listener - looking forward to the next instalment/chapter to see what the next guest on the programme will reveal and how their lives have been affected by their involvement in the tragedy.  There are twists and turns in abundance in this refreshingly modern novel and the reader is kept guessing to the end.  A super book, highly recommended.

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Reviewer: Dorothy Marshall-Gent

Matt Wesolowski is an author from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in the UK. He is an English tutor for children in care and leads Cuckoo Young Writers creative writing workshops for young people in association with New Writing North. Wesolowski started his writing career in horror and his short horror fiction has been published in numerous magazines and US anthologies. Wesolowski was a winner of the Pitch Perfect competition at 'Bloody Scotland'; Crime Writing Festival 2015 and his short crime story 'Tulpa' was subsequently published in the Northern Crime One' anthology (Moth Publishing 2015). .Six Stories is his debut crime novel and available through Orenda Books .

You can follow Matt on twitter @concretekraken
 and his blog can be found at https://mjwesolowskiauthor.wordpress.com/

Dot Marshall-Gent worked in the emergency services for twenty years first as a police officer, then as a paramedic and finally as a fire control officer before graduating from King’s College, London as a teacher of English in her mid-forties.  She completed a M.A. in Special and Inclusive Education at the Institute of Education, London and now teaches part-time and writes mainly about educational issues.  Dot sings jazz and country music and plays guitar, banjo and piano as well as being addicted to reading mystery and crime fiction.