A.A. Abbott

GREAT CRIME STORY WRITER

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Book Review – A Brush with Death, by Jean Burnett

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Curl up with a cosy mystery

Jean Burnett's cosy mystery or cozy mystery crime novel A Brush with Death beside a cup of coffee

My last four psychological thrillers were set in Bristol, and I enjoy reading other stories about the city. While Jean Burnett doesn’t name Bristol University in her cosy mystery,‘A Brush with Death’, the references to local landmarks make it pretty clear. This hilarious tale, laced with Jean’s trademark humour, is an absorbing read. And what better way to while away a dim winter day than curling up with a cosy mystery and a coffee?

Novel murder methods

The year is 1987. A serial killer stalks the campus. His gloriously over-the-top murder methods include electrocution by a computer, and an ice pick through the brain. Yet it takes a while for the police to cotton on. They’re convinced the first death is accidental. It seems reasonable to them that Lynne, a secretary in the English department, would unwittingly touch a live keyboard.

Only Cass Crombie, Lynne’s best friend, is convinced there’s been foul play. However newfangled these computers, they shouldn’t be dangerous. Someone has set out to silence Lynne, and Cass is determined to discover the truth.

The amateur sleuth goes undercover

Cass, a fortyish divorcée whose only child has left home, has too much time and not enough money. The university offers a solution when it advertises for cleaners. More importantly, working as a so-called domestic operative gives Cass a licence to snoop around. In these pre-outsourcing days, there’s time to stop for a coffee and a chat. Cass picks up gossip from support staff, students and academics. “Money and kudos are the motivating forces in academia,” a lecturer crisply informs her. Cass finds evidence of dirty dealings in pursuit of both.

Steamy affair

Detective Sergeant Don Newton realises what Cass is up to. He warns her off. She ignores his advice, albeit not his manly charms. Attracted to the hunky cop on first sight, she begins a steamy affair with him. This continues even when she’s arrested on suspicion of murder. Yes, the killer has struck twice more, and Cass is in the vicinity on each occasion. But a friend finds Cass a good lawyer, and she’s released to dive back into bed with DS Newton.

Escape from danger

Having unmasked the culprit, Cass escapes death at his hands by a whisker. (Of course! This is the first book in a series after all). Dumping Don Newton, she jets off to sunnier climes. Will she be back to solve more crimes and over-share with the sergeant again? We wait with bated breath for Book 2.

Do you like books that take you back in time? Then you’ll love my psychological thriller, ‘Run For Your Lies’. In 1992, families are ripped apart by the discovery of a body in Bristol’s Floating Harbour. Over thirty years later, a former teacher returns to the city she left in a prison van. Juliet has lost everything. She’s exhausted and unable to run from her foes any longer. But if they find her now, the consequences will be fatal. Read ‘Run For Your Lies’ in ebook, Kindle Unlimited, hardback, paperback, large print and dyslexia-friendly print.

Book review – A Saintly Grave Disturbed by Nikki Copleston

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A deeply satisfying short read

A Saintly Grave Disturbed by Nikki Copleston is a short read set in the English West Country

Short reads are having a moment. This detective story is a stunning example, packing tons of twists and emotional development into two hours. It’s a deeply satisfying read. 

Fleeing his demons to fight crime

Detective Inspector Jeff Lincoln has fled a failing marriage and personal tragedy to fight crime in England’s West Country. The city of Barbury might seem sleepy, but a stabbing on the local council estate and thefts from the museum keep him busy.  Then there’s the archaeological dig near the abbey, where volunteers appear to be falling victim to a mysterious assailant, perhaps even to each other.

Intriguing characters

While Nikki Copleston focuses on Jeff’s point of view, she also gives us insights into the thoughts of his colleagues, and other leading characters. There’s Beth Tarrant, for example, leading the dig and hoping to solve a family mystery while she uncovers the remains. Meanwhile, Trish Whittington, local librarian and Jeff’s lover, isn’t too besotted to ignore a sexy archaeologist.

Twists layered upon twists

Twists multiply and build upon each other, as Jeff links the crimes together and then finds his theories unravelling. Despite the complexity of the plot, the flow of the story is smooth, its separate strands neatly woven together at the end.

Flawless writing

Nikki Copleston is a class act, writing flawlessly and covering an amazing amount of detail in this interesting novella. It is the second book in a series about DI Jeff Lincoln (the others are all longer), but can be read as a standalone. ‘A Saintly Grave Disturbed‘ is a great way to dip a toe in the water and see if you enjoy Jeff Lincoln’s world. I suspect you will be hooked!

Do you like short crime reads? Then you’ll love ‘A Hint of Crime’, an anthology of short crime stories by the Bristol Fiction Writers’ Group. I’ve contributed three tales, all with a tantalising hint of mystery.

Book Review – Unlawful Killings by Wendy Joseph

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Compelling true crime stories

Unlawful Killings by Wendy Joseph is a true crime book as compelling as any thriller

True crime books are often racy, but speculative, accounts of the workings of a psychopath’s mind. Wendy Joseph’s book is not like that. As a former judge at the Old Bailey, she takes us behind the scenes at her trials. We learn not just about the roles of court officials, but the judges’ daily tea and their pecking order for chocolate biscuits. The book is laced with humour alongside the pathos of shattered lives.

As well as explaining how each story unfolds, Ms Joseph gives us a hint of what happens next. The cases include a stabbing, dangerous driving, child cruelty and a Mr Big dying at the hands of his battered wife. In the latter, the jury appear to decide that the widow has carried out a public service.

Ripples

Each crime affects not just the victim and defendant, but their families. It is impossible to feel unmoved at the anxious parents awaiting the fate of their child in the dock, or hearing that a much-loved son belonged to a gang. A crime creates ripples throughout the community, and the trial is a but a small part of that.

The future

Obliged to sentence in accordance with strict guidelines, Ms Joseph suggests we are storing up problems for society’s future. By the time prisoners regain their freedom after a long sentence, they are likely to be institutionalised and brutalised. How can we expect that to end well? She makes a plea for more work on rehabilitation and crime prevention.

The past

Ms Joseph also takes us back to the scene of each crime, with well-written and emotional vignettes. It is impossible to finish the book without shedding a few tears.

A fork in the road

The book begins with a school party visiting the court. The children, clearly engaged, act out a courtroom drama with enthusiasm. One of them might even be persuaded to follow in Ms Joseph’s footsteps. Schools outreach is possibly even more important than the ear of politicians. As long as Ms Joseph and her colleagues can convince young people to stay on the right side of the law, there is hope.

Do you love a well-written crime story? My latest psychological thriller, “Lies at Her Door” combines an old mystery with modern family drama.

A murder she can’t remember. A cop convinced she’s a killer. Her battle for freedom just became a fight for her life…

Book Review – The Lodger by Valerie Keogh

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Angels of Mercy dealing with death

Valerie Keogh's latest book psychological thriller The Lodger next to a pot plant

Nurses are useful people for a thriller writer to know. The Angels of Mercy save patients’ lives, but in doing so, they learn a lot about death. Valerie Keogh, a former nurse turned author, says she’s never committed murder. The Irish crime writer does enjoy finding creative ways to kill in her psychological thrillers, however.

Missing, presumed dead

Valerie’s latest book, The Lodger, features two characters who are missing, presumed dead. At least that is Leigh Simon’s fear, when both her creepy boss and hip young lodger disappear without trace.

Leigh is a go-getting young woman who has secured a high-flying job in the City of London. The City is notorious for paying handsome salaries to smart people and giving them boring work to do. This is true in the case of Leigh, a Cambridge maths graduate, whose skills are under-utilised in her role as a trader. The job is dull, its pressures exacerbated by her middle-aged boss’s lechery. Leigh fights back, only to find to her horror that he has vanished, pleading stress. Has she sent him over the edge? Another event unsettles Leigh even more. In an act of kindness, she has rented her spare room to Gina, a girl she hardly knows. Then Gina moves out suddenly, leaving a cryptic note behind. Yet someone is visiting the house, eating Leigh’s food and drinking her wine.  Leigh decides it’s time to track Gina down…

Suspense, twists and murder

Valerie Keogh writes convincingly of a fearful woman, gradually falling apart, doubting herself and others. The pages crackle with suspense. Of course, there is a murder – a suitably colourful one – but there are plenty of twists before we discover who, and why, and what has happened to the lodger.

If you enjoy a mystery amplified by twists and cliffhangers, you’ll love my latest suspense thriller, Lies at Her Door. Shy Lucy has spent her life in her brother’s shadow. When the spotlight of accusation shines down on her, can she clear her name? Or will the hunt for chilling secrets send her to her doom?

Settings in Fiction – a guest blog by Victoria Goldman

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Places inspire plots

Settings in Fiction illustrated by an English map

A strong sense of setting is important to me when I read. I enjoy books in which the backdrop becomes a character in itself – a haunted English country mansion, frozen Icelandic terrain, or even bustling London streets. I love familiar settings, where I recognise place names and buildings, visualising myself there as the plot unfolds around me.

So when it comes to my own novels, setting is essential to me when I write, using words to paint pictures of tree-lined roads and rundown houses, and eerie grassy parks after dusk.

A murder mystery in a sleepy English town

When writing my murder mystery debut, The Redeemer, I always knew that I would set it in Hertfordshire, on the cusp of rural and suburban life. Firstly, that’s where I live so it’s familiar to me, but secondly, the Jewish community I feature in the book is based on those in Hertfordshire and North-West London (and specifically the one in my own town). To set the book anywhere else just wouldn’t have felt ‘right’.

The difficulty in writing about the place where I live is that it will be instantly recognisable to anyone who lives there, or nearby, especially if it’s a relatively small town with a strong sense of community. This always leads to inevitable questions, from family and friends, in particular – So, who am I in your book? Is [xxx] based on me? Why did you put a park in that location when it’s over there?

To avoid this, I created a fictional Hertfordshire town. Hillsbury has many features of my own real-life hometown – a crossroads with a synagogue and church opposite one another (which partly inspired the book’s plot), a large spacious park, a Jewish cemetery (with a small airfield nearby) and several schools. By writing about a town that doesn’t exist, it doesn’t matter if I’ve moved the secondary school, added a mosque or an extra café, or changed the layout of the roads.

The secret of Whomsoever Lane

I’ve enjoyed going on long walks at different times of the day, at different times of the year, to inspire me and fuel my imagination. I’ve explored roads that I’d never noticed before, taken photos of the finer details and created visual memories of dilapidated houses with rusty gates and rotting window frames, muddy footpaths shrouded by low-growing shrubs, and gravel driveways edged with pristine flowerbeds.

Streets in my book are based on actual streets, and many would probably be recognisable if you drove down them – roads lined with bungalows, terraced cottages or large houses with sweeping driveways. Only one road in The Redeemer is an actual place, simply because I love the name (Whomsoever Lane), although I have moved it to a different location to suit the plot.

In the acknowledgements at the back of my book, I clearly state:

‘Hillsbury is a fictional town loosely based on where I live in Hertfordshire. If you know the area, some of the locations in this book may seem familiar. But I’d like to reassure everyone who lives nearby that none of you have been immortalised as a character in this book!’

Victoria Goldman is a journalist and author whose first novel, The Redeemer, has won praise from Louise Voss, Adam Hamdy, Marnie Riches and many more.

As a British thriller writer, I too love to infuse my fiction with a sense of place. New murder mystery and suspense thriller Lies at Her Door is set in the swanky district of Clifton, Bristol. When a skeleton is found under Lucy Freeman’s garden, the shy young woman is the prime suspect. Yet when she tries to clear her name, she realises that uncovering long-buried wrongs can be lethal…

Book Review – Phosphate Rocks by Fiona Erskine

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Phosphate Rocks by Fiona Erskine is a Scottish noir murder mystery set in a chemicals factory

Scottish noir

Years ago, before I threw caution to the winds and became a full time writer, I worked for a company who proclaimed themselves world leaders in phosphorus chemistry. They, too, relied on solidified bird droppings – the “Phosphate Rocks” of the book’s title – as their raw material. Fiona Erskine’s thriller says a great deal about this, and other little-known (but absolutely fascinating) facts about the industry.  A slice of Scottish noir, it begins in true murder mystery fashion with the discovery of a dead body when a chemical works is demolished. Brisk young Detective Inspector Rose Irvine soon homes in on the one man who holds the key to the mystery: John Gibson, the former shift manager.

Literature meets chemistry

As Rose questions John however it becomes clear that “Phosphate Rocks” is much more than a simple police procedural story. The corpse, encased in a crust of phosphate, is surrounded by ten objects. When John identifies each item, pouring out his reminiscences in the process, we receive a sequence of chemistry lessons. Furthermore, John’s memories are a rich seam of social history. He tells Rose about canny men and glamorous women and a manufacturing environment decaying as much as the deliquescent corpse.

Layers of mystery

Although the mystery is solved, it’s a bitter-sweet victory. Too many other questions remain unanswered. Is Rose the orphaned child of good-time girl Polly, who ended up feeding the fishes? What became of the proud workmen thrown on the scrapheap when the factory closed, victims of head office accountants?

This is not a formulaic, stripped down style of book, but it is beautifully written. If you fancy a refreshingly different crime story, “Phosphate Rocks” delivers it.

For a mystery with a difference, read “The Bride’s Trail”, first in my Trail series of British thrillers. When a shy graduate finds herself framed, can she survive long enough to clear her name?