‘The Babylon Gene’ by Alex Churton

Published by Head of Zeus. 8 September 2012. ISBN: 978-1-90880011-4

This is a lengthy and complex thriller, initially ranging from Istanbul to Oxford, before proceeding to embrace most of the civilised (if that's the correct word, given the amount of bloodshed!) world.

The story begins with the blowing up of a Freemasons' Lodge in Istanbul and spreads out from there.  The two main protagonists are polymathic Dr Toby Ashe (recruited by the SIS during his Oxford days) and cynically brusque Colonel Mahmut Asla (a career soldier), both trying to find out who was responsible for the Istanbul disaster and both, in their entirely different ways, very likable heroes. 

Throw loads of intrigue and danger into the mix, add firefights in the desert, the CIA, global threats and an Iranian scientist attempting to use genetic engineering as a weapon of mass alteration, plus a realistic combination of recent fact and believable fiction and you have a novel which will keep you engaged for much longer than the average adventure story.

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Reviewer: Susan Moody



 Alex Churton is a writer and composer. An acknowledged expert on Western Esotericism. He is the author of ten non-fiction titles on subjects such as alchemy, magic and Middle Eastern religions. The Babylon Gene is his first novel.

Susan Moody was born in Oxford is the principal nom de plume  of Susan Elizabeth Donaldson, née Horwood, a British novelist best known for her suspense novels. She is a former Chairman of the Crime Writer's Association, served as World President of the International Association of Crime Writers, and was elected to the prestigious Detection Club. Susan Moody has given numerous courses on writing crime fiction and continues to teach creative writing in England, France, Australia, the USA and Denmark.  In addition to her many stand alone books, Susan has written two series, on featuring PI Penny Wanawake (seven books) and a series of six books featuring bridge player Cassie Swan.

‘Heart of the Demon’ by Michael Fowler

Published by Caffeine Nights, 2012. ISBN: 978-1-907565-26-7

 

 The body of a 14 year old school girl, Rebecca Morris, is discovered in a derelict farm by a thief hoping to steal some stonework.  The body has been mutilated, a playing card lying on her chest and slashed in her torso the letters IIV and the number 3.  Gradually as time unfolds, so does the realisation that Rebecca is not the first, nor will she be the last unless DS Hunter Kerr and his team find the killer.

Whilst this is about a serial killer, this is not the standard gorefest which they can degenerate into, nor is it a psychological exposure intended to create allowances for the killer.  The motivation and the killer’s backdrop serves only to give some rationale for his behaviour, not an excuse.  I find this nicely counterpoints the clinical way in which some of the narrative is written, which at times seems to mirror the style of a police report.  This enhances the writing about thoughts and behaviours and creates a more real impact for the storyline, along with making some of the individual dialogue appear more realistic.

This is the first of a series starring DS Hunter Kerr and his team.  It is a complex and detailed police procedural which is written by an ex-police officer and it shows.  The plot is intricate, the details of the crime are thoroughly sketched in eloquent words and the narrative moves between the past and the present.  This is sometimes a clumsy way of introducing the killer and his history, but in this case it enhances the plot and does not give away who the murderer is.  The clues stack up, but whilst the reader has more information than DS Kerr and his colleagues, they too are following the narrative not ahead of it.

Michael Fowler has written a meticulous book, with style and good characters.  The key police force members are well drawn, as are some of the supporting characters which give the story depth, sometimes missing in a police procedural.  This is a good introduction to the characters and I will be looking out for the next in the series.

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Reviewer: Amanda Brown

 

Michael Fowler was born in 1957, in Rotherham, and grew up in the once industrial heartland of South Yorkshire where he still lives with his wife and two sons.  He served as a police officer for thirty-two years, both in uniform and in plain clothes, working in CID, Vice Squad and Drug Squad, and retired in 2006 in the rank of Inspector, finishing his career in charge of a busy CID department. He now writes and paints full-time.

‘Thieves!’ by Hannah Dennison

Published by Robinson,
20 September, 2012.
ISBN: 978-1-78033-065-5

This is the fourth and latest in a delightful comedy- crime series featuring Vikki Hill, an obituary reporter on the Gipping Gazette. Set in the charming and quaint countryside of Gipping-On-Plym, the story opens as Vikki leaves a hen night realising the home-made punch was filled with rather too much alcohol, and fearing she may be over the limit, and not wanting to risk being breathalysed, she decides to take the back  route home. On route she stumbles across the body of a woman in the local marsh land and being an ambitious young reporter is determined to solve the murder. Then gypsies arrive in town and set up camp on the land reserved for the local annual Morris dancing-thon, leaving the locals far from happy so when a slew of silver thefts start happening across the village, all fingers point in the direction of the gypsies, and Vikki Hill is determined to find the connections and win herself that much wanted front page scoop.

These stories are light reading, full of delightfully eccentric and quirky characters and guaranteed to keep you smiling and often laughing out loud. The dialogue is and sparkling, witty and full of humour. A series to lift your spirits, and a great idea for a Christmas present for most age groups.

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Reviewer: Linda Regan
www.lindareganonline.co.uk

Hannah Dennison One constant, however, was that I always sought after adventure. It was one of the reasons why I enlisted in Her Majesty's Royal Navy, only to discover that women sailors (known then as "wrens") never went to sea.  I hoped the local newspaper might offer some excitement-at the very least, the odd murder or two. So spent two years tucked away in beautiful Devon writing obituaries.  This was followed by a wonderful job in an antique, a spell as a secretary to a Formula One World Champion, a hostess in a nightclub, and then nearly a decade as a flight attendant for both commercial airlines and private jet charters. Eventually, I landed an agent and a three-book deal for Vicky Hill-and the rest, as they say, is history. One thing I've learned through it all is that "overnight success" actually takes about ten to fifteen years of consistent hard work. There are no short cuts to achieving your dreams.

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.

Leigh Russell

Leigh Russell in conversation with Lizzie Hayes

 Leigh Russell studied at the University of Kent where she took a Masters degree in English and American literature. A secondary school teacher, specializing in supporting pupils with Specific Learning Difficulties as well as teaching English, Leigh Russell is married with two daughters and lives in Middlesex. 

She is the author of four books
Cut Short, Road Closed, Dead End, Death Bed,
and Stop Dead due to be published May 2013. 

                                      

Q Leigh, your fifth book Stop Dead  featuring Geraldine Steel, will be available as an e-book in Dcember 2012, and will be in print May 2013. From where did Geraldine spring? Is she based on any one person or just purely from your imagination?

A Geraldine evolved, rather than sprang to life. In Cut Short the reader learns a little about her, and with each book different facets of her character emerge. She has developed quite a following (much to my surprise) that has grown as the series progresses. Neither Geraldine nor any of the other characters in my books are based on real people. They appear on the page as I write, and are all fictitious.

Q It is frequently said: ‘write what you know’. As your background is in teaching what was the thought process behind your protagonist being a police inspector. Why not an academic, or an amateur detective?  

A        ‘Write what you know’ always strikes me as very limiting.  It hardly makes sense, unless the phrase was dreamed up by someone who writes non-fiction. I have never worked for the police, or conducted a post-mortem - I’ve never even killed anyone. What is wrong with imagining events and settings? Isn’t that the meaning of fiction? Does JK Rowling have personal experience of swooping through the skies on a broomstick? As for EL James… on second thoughts, let’s not go there! I do like the idea of writing a crime novel with a private investigator, but the police today have so many resources at their disposal, I don’t think this would work in contemporary crime novels.

Q Do you have to spend much time in researching police procedures?  And have any of your readers,
particularly those in the police force ever contacted you to point out an error in procedure?

A         Since Cut Short came out in 2009 I’ve conducted a lot of research, and finding out about life as a detective Is part of that.  I talk to police officers and have spent time with a Murder Investigation Team, which was fascinating.  I’ve never worked for the police, but have gathered all sorts of information such as which Metropolitan Police station serves home made banana bread. This kind of attention to detail helps the reader believe in the world of my books.  I take as much care as I can to make sure all the details are accurate, although it’s not always easy.   Procedures can be quite complicated, and of course they are subject to change. So far none of my many fans on the police force have criticised the authenticity of my novels, even though my detectives might receive the results of a DNA test more quickly than would happen in real life, and Geraldine spends less time behind a desk with paperwork than a real detective inspector would. My readers all appreciate that I’m not writing a handbook on police procedure, but a novel. My priority is to serve the story. 

Q Not to give too much away, Geraldine is troubled by her origins. Is her area of concern something of which you have experience?

A This is not an area where I have personal experience, but I haven’t killed anyone either! Fiction isn’t writing about what you experience, but about what you understand and imagine. I try to empathise with all my characters, detectives, victims and killers. 

Q    You are still working as a teacher. As you have four books behind you and the fifth due out next year, I suspect that your pupils are aware of your books. How do they react to your writing? Has it increased your street cred?:-)

A       I’ve been teaching for a long time and am happy to use my experience now I’m an author as well. In addition to running Creative Writing Workshops for The Society of Authors and for Get Writing at the  University of Hertfordshire, I am often invited to talk to students at colleges and universities, and was     recently a guest lecturer at the University of Southampton. I am currently teaching a crime fiction unit to sixth formers, which is right up my street, and needless to say, I enjoy teaching creative writing skills. Children’s talent can be phenomenal, as it was among prisoners when I was recently invited to be a guest speaker to prisoners in a closed women’s Prison. I’ve just accepted an invitation to run a Creative riting week on the Greek Island of Skyros next August, which I’m really looking forward to! My
pupils like asking me about my books but I don’t say much about my writing when I’m at school. I’m not there as an author, but as a teacher, and my focus at school is on the pupils. As for my ‘street
cred’... I think I lost that a long time ago!  

Q.  Did you always want to write?

R.  No, I had no grand plan to become an author.  I simply had an idea one day and started to write.  It amazes me now that I didn’t stumble on my passion for writing earlier.  Now that I’ve started, there’s no stopping me! Fortunately, the Geraldine Steel series has been so popular, my publisher has asked me to write a second series to run concurrent with the Geraldine novels. This features Ian Peterson, the ser geant who works alongside Geraldine in her first three novels.  In Death Bed Geraldine moves from the home counties to London, leaving Ian behind. He’s been a popular character in his own right, so I’m thrilled to be creating a new series focusing on him, although it’s a challenge writing with a male

         protagonist.
 

Q When you decided to write crime fiction, were you influenced by any other writers? 

A There are so many brilliant crime writers it is hard to pick anyone out. I read crime fiction and there are some series that transfer well to the small screen as well. The world is opening up and we have been exposed to a lot of Scandinavian crime lately.  Henning Mankell is one of my favourites. It’s quite exciting how the whole world is opening up - and it works both ways.  A few days ago Cut Short reached number 4 on kindle on amazon.de. The first 3 on the list were titles in German, and then came Cut Short in English. That was a nice surprise!

Q Having a full-time occupation, how do you fit in your writing? Do you set aside a regular period for writing?

A. People often ask about my writing routine, but I’m really not organised enough to claim to have any sort of routine. I just write whenever I can.  Disciplined really isn’t a word that springs to mind when thinking about my writing habits. Compulsive? Yes.  Obsessed? Yes. But disciplined? No. 

Q. When starting a new book do you always have a clear view of how the book will work, and if so do your books always pan out as originally envisioned, or change during the writing process? 

A Yes, I always have a very clear view of how each book will work, no, my books never pan out exactly as I originally envisioned, and yes, they change during the writing process. I do my best to plan in advance, but books also have to be organic.  For me the process needs to be creative, as well as writing down predetermined ideas.

Q When embarking on a new book what area of the book challenges you the most?  And conversely do you have a favourite part of the writing process? 
A  I love the whole writing process, the initial planning, the writing, even the editing.  My favourite parts are the dramatic scenes. The more suspense and tension there is, the more I enjoy writing the scene. The biggest challenge for me is writing the final chapter. How do you finish a story, and leave behind    characters, who have occupied your thoughts for so long? It can be hard to let go. Luckily my publisher offers me multiple book deals so when I finish one book there is always another one to think about.

Q Who are your favourite authors?
A That is an impossible question to answer. There are so many! My tastes are quite eclectic. I love Dickens, all the Brontes particularly Emily, Ian McEwan, Kazuo Ishiguru, Edith Wharton, Melville… so many… as well as crime writers.  Two of my favourites have to be Peter James and Jeffery Deaver as they are both fans of my work who have been generous enough to write fabulous blurb quotes for my books. It is very exciting to receive endorsements from such brilliant authors.

Q  How long did it take you to get published?

A   My publisher telephoned me two weeks after I sent them the first draft of Cut Short and offered me a three book deal shortly after that. All three titles Cut Short, Road Closed and Dead End, went to       become international bestsellers, so my publisher commissioned another three books in the Geraldine Steel series. Death Bed came out earlier this year, and Stop Dead is out in print in 2013 and will be available to download in December 2012.

Thanks for chatting with us Leigh, and good luck with the new book, which I so look forward to reading.

http://www.leighrussell.co.uk

 

‘Dead Scared’ by S. J. Bolton

Published by Minotaur Books,
June, 2012.
ISBN: 978-0-312-60053-2

The brief prologue sets the scene for the reader:  Near midnight; one of the tallest towers in Cambridge, England; D.I. Mark Joesbury, racing up the stairs to its roof; and a young woman perched near the ledge at the top.  And then the reader is brought back eleven days in time to see how they got there, with a 1st person p.o.v. of D.C. Lacey Flint, which alternates with third-person perspectives.  Flint has been “loaned out” from the Southwark Police to the Special Crimes Directorate of the Metropolitan Police which deals with covert ops, typically being sent on “difficult and dangerous situations.”  As we are introduced to them, the slightly flirtatious banter underlying their meetings hints at the least of a possible romantic entanglement between them at some point in the relatively recent past.

Lacey goes undercover as a student at Cambridge University after the latest in a number of suicides, with a suspicion that there is more going on than meets the eye.  The death was only the latest of three suicides during the current academic year.  The only one outside of her police colleagues who knows the truth is Dr. Evi Oliver, head of student counseling.  The belief is that there is “something decidedly sinister” happening.  Lacey’s remit is to “keep a lookout for any unhealthy subculture that might be unduly influencing young people.”

Initially Lacey feels out of her element:  “I knew I’d never get used to it,” in a place where “Wordsworth and Wilberforce weren’t characters from history but alumni.”  But she is there to do a job, and it becomes increasingly urgent.  Within several days, one more death occurs.  And further investigation indicates that there have been a total of nineteen suicides over the past five years, far more than the general statistics on suicide would bear out.  And the manner of death chosen is not what might be expected, including self-immolation by one girl and another who’d decapitated herself.  As the days go on, whatever is going on threatens to ensnare Lacey herself.

This is a book at once not an easy read and yet difficult to put down, much more so on both counts as the book progresses. The fifth novel from Ms. Bolton, this is the first I have read, but it will certainly not be the last.  It is a nail-biter, beautifully written, and highly recommended.

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Reviewer: Gloria Feit

S J Bolton grew up in a cotton-mill town in Lancashire and had an eclectic early career which she is now rather embarrassed about. She gave it all up to become a mother and a writer. Her books have been shortlisted for several international awards, including the CWA Gold Dagger, the Theakston's Old Peculier prize for crime novel of the year, the International Thriller Writers' Best First Novel award and (four years running) the Mary Higgins Clark award for best thriller which was won by Awakening. Her latest book is Dead Scared, published in April 2012. Sharon lives with her family of four, one of whom is a food-stealing, rabbit-chasing  lurcher, in the Chiltern Hills, not far from Oxford.

Ted and Gloria Feit live in Long Beach, NY, a few miles outside New York City.  For 26 years, Gloria was the manager of a medium-sized litigation firm in lower Manhattan. Her husband, Ted, is an attorney and former stock analyst, publicist and writer/editor for, over the years, several daily, weekly and monthly publications.  Having always been avid mystery readers, and since they're now retired, they're able to indulge that passion.  Their reviews appear online as well as in three print publications in the UK and US.  On a more personal note: both having been widowed, Gloria and Ted have five children and nine grandchildren between them.

‘Blood Never Dies’ by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

Published by Severn House,
July 2012.
ISBN: 978-0-7278-8211-0

On a hot August day Inspector Bill Slider of Shepherds Bush police station, is called to an unexpected death in an attic room in a Victorian terraced house just off the Uxbridge Road. Here he finds the body of a man in his early thirties dead in his bath.  At first taken as a suicide Slider is not sure, as they can find nothing to identify the man.  The name Robin Williams under which he rented the room proves false.

Convinced this is murder, Slider first has to identify the corpse and that takes him and his team on a merry dance, through, tattoo parlours and Soho Porn studios.  As they trace the pattern of his recent life Slider finds nothing that adds up to who this man actually was.

This is a fascinating and intriguing mystery, just who and what was the mysterious Robin Williams.   

We meet again with the elegant fastidious Detective Sergeant Atherton, slider’s sidekick and friend;  and always a delight is Slider’s boss Detective Chief Inspector Fred ‘The Syrup’ Porson he of the famous malapropisms. An old-fashioned copper who dislikes meetings, hates politics and is allergic to golf.  Bald with shaggy eyebrows no one ever invites him to a brainstorming breakfast meeting.  When Slider brings him up to speed on the case he growls. ‘A case of walking your chickens before they can run, if you ask me’ 

After a couple of days when all the leads seem to present even more questions, Sliders morning report to Porson brings forth ‘Well, feelings are in the eye of the beholder’ What lines are you pursuing?

Well plotted with a satisfactory conclusion, a Cynthia Harrod-Eagles book featuring Bill Slider  is always a joy and this one does not disappoint only when I turn the last page and wonder how long I will have to wait for the next one.

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Reviewer: Lizzie Hayes

Cynthia Harrod-Eagles was born in Shepherd's Bush in London. She was educated at Burlington School, a girls' charity school founded in 1699, and at the University of Edinburgh and University College London, where she studied English, history and philosophy. She wrote her first novel while at university and in 1972 won the Young Writers' Award with The Waiting Game. Afterwards she had a variety of jobs in the commercial world, beginning as sales manager for the Coca Cola Company in Edinburgh, and ending up as pensions officer for the BBC in London, while writing during the evenings and weekends. The birth of the MORLAND DYNASTY series enabled her to become a full-time writer in 1979. The series was originally intended to comprise twelve volumes, but it has proved so popular that it has now been extended to thirty-four. In 1993 she won the RNA Novel of the Year Award with Emily, the third volume of her Kirov Saga, a trilogy set in nineteenth century Russia. Cynthia Harrod-Eagles still lives in London, has a husband and three children, and apart from writing her passions are music (she plays in several amateur orchestras) horses, wine, architecture and the English countryside.