‘Defending Elton’ by T J Cooke

 Published by KDP.
19 Mar 2013.
ISBN: 978-1482751802

Elton Spears is a learning disabled young man with a very tenuous grasp on reality and little ability to fend for himself. It is not surprising that Elton has a long history of falling foul of the legal system. Jim Harwood is the solicitor who has defended Elton since his first arrest for stealing a box of giant Christmas crackers from Woolworths. However, this time, when Jim is summoned to represent Elton, it is very different and far more serious. Elton is accused of murdering a beautiful young woman whose body was thrown from the cliffs at Beachy Head. As Jim, the narrator of the story explains at the beginning of the story, he knows that Elton is innocent because it was Jim who killed the enigmatic young woman who had been his secret lover and then framed his vulnerable client for the crime.

However, just when the reader thinks they have discovered the ultimate anti-hero, Jim employs the best barrister he can to represent Elton, in the hope that he will be acquitted.

The story is told in alternating chapters. The present day chapters tell the story of the lead up to the trial and the trial itself; the back story chapters describe Jim's traumatic childhood and the strange, obsessive relationship with the young woman whom he knows as Sarena, a relationship that spirals into fatal violence.

Defending Elton is a fascinating, psychological crime novel, filled with moral ambiguity. It is impossible to condone Jim's actions but, as the story progresses, it is easy to understand why he has done it. Jim is the classic example of a person who has taken one false step and then another until he finds himself unable to go back. This empathy is strengthened by Jim's own loathing of what he has done. He spends his time divided between the desire to tell the truth and exonerate Elton and fear that the excellent barrister he has instructed will discover the truth behind Sarena's death. As the case progresses, Jim's fragile mental health crumbles under his guilt and stress.

The details of English legal procedure are expertly portrayed, as are its shortcomings. It is also a cutting indictment of the way society, the health and social services, and the legal system mistreat those with mental health or learning difficulties.

Defending Elton is a cleverly written and compelling book. I would recommend it as an exciting, challenging read, with a unique approach and all too human characters.

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Reviewer:  Carol Westron

T J Cooke, otherwise known as Tim, was formerly a legal executive and adviser to the BBC’s Eastenders. Since then he has dovetailed his career between advertising copywriting, freelance journalism, screenwriting and novels.  Tim has written numerous television and radio commercials for a variety of well known companies. He has written many hours of broadcast drama, notching up writing credits for some of UK’s most popular series, including London’s Burning, The Bill  and Bad Girls.

http://www.tjcooke.com

Carol Westron is a successful short story writer and a Creative Writing teacher.  She is the moderator for the cosy/historical crime panel, The Deadly Dames.  Her crime novels are set both in contemporary and Victorian times.  The Terminal Velocity of Cats is the first in her Scene of Crimes novels, was published July 2013. Her second book About the Children was published in May 2014.

www.carolwestron.com

‘The Bosch Deception’ by Alex Connor

Published by Quercus, 

30 June 2014. 

ISBN: 9781782065074

Hieronymus Bosch, born into a family of painters, was a sick nervous boy with a superior talent. His dreams gave rise to the terrible depictions of hell in his paintings. In an age where few common people could read, these depictions of the afterlife kept the faithful in line. The premise of this story is that his father and the clandestine Brotherhood of Our Lady conspired to cover up the fact that he died young and the family then painted his pictures from his sketches. Bosch was kept as a prisoner and treated badly, but one brother wrote the secret down and hid it, in a unique way.

Nicholas Laverne, excommunicated priest arrives in London claiming to have in his possession a series of secret note fragments that will destroy the reputations of both the Church and the art world. Laverne has the evidence to end over 500 years of silence and injustice.

A killer is intent on finding the evidence and silencing Nicholas. Add to the mix villainous art dealers, a fervent assassin and is Nicholas the man we think he is? Murder and mayhem ensues. Here is the mystery, are the notes genuine? Is the killer motivated by money or fanatical devotion to the Church?

The Bosch Deception is a good read. Alex Conner weaves an interesting tale.

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Reviewer: Sue Lord

Alex Connor  is also known as Alexandra Connor, and has written a number of historical sagas under this name. She has had a variety of careers including photographic model, personal assistant to a world famous heart surgeon, and working in a Bond Street art gallery. Having always had an intense interest in the history of art, Alex – who has previously written historical novels and non-fiction – is now concentrating on writing conspiracy thrillers set in the art world. She is listed in Debrett’s “People of Today” and is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

alexconnorthrillers.com

Sue Lord originally studied Fine Art and Art History, her MA is in Creative Writing. She now, revues, teaches, mentors and script doctors. She lives in central London and Cornwall. Her favourite pastime is gardening.

‘Angel of Death’ by Ben Cheetham

Published by Head of Zeus in paperback,

15 May 2014.  

ISBN: 978-1781853986

Cosmic justice invariably triumphs in crime fiction, and with it often comes another theme which is so familiar that it’s almost become a cliché: rule of law is not necessarily a route to justice.

In Angel of Death, one of the two protagonists, a jaded detective approaching the end of a demoralizing career, is all too aware that the law is used as a tool by the rich and powerful. The other has neither love nor use for the law; it has done nothing to prevent her downward spiral into the gutter, and seems intent on keeping her there.

The consequence is a series of killings, mainly of the kind of complacent low-lifes who have that money and power and don’t hesitate to use it: a real-life scenario all too familiar from news bulletins at the moment. Are the killings murder? Or natural justice?

It takes place mostly in Sheffield, a city whose grim, gritty and grey reputation goes before it. The story of Angel, abused teenage runaway turned heroin addict and prostitute, is not for the fainthearted, but more power to Ben Cheetham for making the reader – this one at least – root for her and cheer her on towards fulfilling her objective of revenge on her abusers as the tunnel vision of the law lumbers along ten paces behind.

The path taken by D I Jim Monahan is almost as thorny. Playing by the rules has meant Jim has lost everything that mattered to him; when his path crosses Angel’s through his uncovering of a crime far more heinous than the suspected arson which he is sent to investigate, the difficult questions at the back of his mind spring forward and refuse to be pushed down any longer.

The story is every bit as grim, gritty and grey as the well-drawn city, and the characters are just as convoluted as its streets. It’s Ben Cheetham’s second ‘steel city’ novel; the first was that rare but well-publicized phenomenon, the self-published bestseller subsequently taken up by a conventional publisher.

Cheetham seems to be specializing in the kind of moral dilemma which fiction deals with far more effectively than the legal system, though in Angel of Death the fickle finger of fate points at the innocent along with the guilty, and no one escapes undamaged.

For fans of the down and dirty style of mystery fiction, with plenty of gore and grime, Ben Cheetham is a name well worth seeking out.

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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick

Ben Cheetham   is an award-winning writer and Pushcart Prize nominee. His writing spans the genres, from horror and sci-fi to literary fiction, but he has a passion for dark, gritty crime fiction. His short stories have been widely published in magazines in the UK, US and Australia. Ben lives in Sheffield, UK

bencheetham.blogspot.com

Lynne Patrick has been a writer ever since she could pick up a pen, and has enjoyed success with short stories, reviews and feature journalism, but never, alas, with a novel. She crossed to the dark side to become a publisher for a few years, and is proud to have launched several careers which are now burgeoning. She lives on the edge of rural Derbyshire in a house groaning with books, about half of them crime fiction.

‘Spring Tide’ by Cilla & Rolf Borjlind

Published by Hesperus Nova, 

20 March 2014.

 ISBN: 978-1-84391-515-7

Twenty-four years ago, a pregnant woman was buried to her neck in sand and left for the tide to drown her.  When young police student Olivia Rönning picks this case as her ‘cold crime’ investigation, she finds that not everyone has forgotten the still-anonymous woman’s death.

This thriller cut quickly between three strands: Olivia’s investigation, the difficulties experienced by the homeless people of Stockholm, who are being targeted by thugs, and successful businessman Bertil Magnuson, who has just been awarded a medal for running Sweden’s most successful company abroad.  Part of the enjoyment of reading was in trying to guess the links between them.  The story was fast-moving, with a lot of exciting incidents and several truly surprising twists.  The characters were vividly drawn, particularly clumsy, outspoken Olivia, the homeless Tom Stilton and his friend Vanessa.  One sub-plot was a variation on child abuse I hadn’t come across before – nasty.  The description of places and, particularly, social mileu was vivid, though I’d have liked a map to help me keep track of where everyone was charging off to.  I did feel that at 472 pages the book was slightly too long for the amount of plot, but the exciting finish with a final twist kept me reading.

A Swedish noir that’s high in thrills but also has a social conscience.

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Reviewer: Marsali Taylor

Cilla & Rolf Borjlind  are not only Sweden’s most praised script writers for crime and thrillers, they are also bestselling authors. have written 26 Martin Beck-films for movie theater and TV and most recently the manuscripts for the Arne Dahl’s A-group series. In 2004 and 2009 Swedish television showed their long crime series The Grave and The Murders, written directly for SVT. The series became an immediate successes, among the critics as well as with the audience. The couple has wrote material for a number of other TV-series. Rolf Börjlind has written 18 movies and received a Guldbagge Award for the manuscript for the film Yrrol.

Marsali Taylor grew up near Edinburgh, and came to Shetland as a newly-qualified teacher. She is currently a part-time teacher on Shetland's scenic west side, living with her husband and two Shetland ponies. Marsali is a qualified STGA tourist-guide who is fascinated by history, and has published plays in Shetland's distinctive dialect, as well as a history of women's suffrage in Shetland. She's also a keen sailor who enjoys exploring in her own 8m yacht, and an active member of her local drama group.  Marsali also does a regular monthly column for the Mystery People e-zine.