Something In The City – an exclusive free book
Love a bargain? Get Something In The City, an e-book of short stories, FREE when you sign up for my newsletter – just drop me a line at aaabbottstories[at]aaabbott.co.uk with your name, email address, and the heading ‘Newsletters, please’. (You’ll receive short, interesting updates once or twice a month, and you can unsubscribe at any time.) Not every tale in the ebook is a crime story – there’s a dash of romance and horror too – but they’re all a great read. The book’s also a whistle-stop tour around England, with settings in sleepy Somerset as well as the busy cities of London, Birmingham and Bristol. These are places I know well, and it’s no surprise that they also pop up in my full-length crime thrillers.
Summer crime
Remember childhood beach holidays? Jessica does. At the age of six, her life changed forever. Many years later, the secret she’s uncovered could drive a family apart. Read short crime story Pebbles FREE.
A 5 minute crime thriller
You’ll also like “5 minute crime thriller” The Gap, available here for free, especially if
you’re short of time. It’s a taster for my Trail series of crime thrillers (which you can order from bookshops or Amazon*. You can also download samples from Amazon* to try before you buy).
Even shorter is The Harbour Festival, a piece of flash fiction performed at a Bristol Harbourside Story Walk on National Flash Fiction Day 2016. Read The Invisible Woman, my entry for the same event two years later, with other competition winners here.
Take a trip back in time
Mr Fripp Takes a Trip is my guilty pleasure, and I bet you’ll love it too. Writing it was a blast, drawing heavily on my youthful experiences of office life and getting smashed with colleagues on Friday night. I can still picture the concrete-clad wine bar where the action takes place. This isn’t a crime story, just a fast, fun read with a few laughs thrown in.
Yuletide Treats
Although Christmas comes but once a year, my short Christmas crime stories are evergreen. Here’s my latest, short psychological thriller The Un-Christmas. Download it FREE now. Continue the festive crime theme with Christmas Rules. 
Or maybe you’re dreaming about The Perfect Christmas, in which case, be careful what you wish for! Once you’ve sampled those festive delights, see me in my Santa hat and Christmas jumper, reading The Good Neighbour and The Crazy Cat Lady Christmas on video. To enjoy a great read yourself, download The Good Neighbour here – and enjoy an insight into the serial killer nicknamed “The Santa Slasher”!
I bet you’ll love the humour in Deadly Presents. A tongue-in-cheek tale of slimy politicians and recycled gifts, it was broadcast by BBC Radio Bristol at the end of 2019. You’ll enjoy A Christmas Getaway too.
Then there’s a little number I wrote specially for New Year’s Eve. Also broadcast on BBC Radio Bristol, The Magic Money Tree is a crime story around six minutes long. You can see me reading the tale (in another sparkly jumper) in this video. Download the short story to read yourself here.
A crime story reading
I often read stories in public, and it would be great to meet you! Check out my News page, and this video of a reading of the first chapter of crime thriller The Grass Trail at Hatchards bookshop in London.
Wondering why I’m wrapped up in woollies? It was 2 March 2018, and I’d battled through snowdrifts a yard high to get to Hatchards. It’s fitting, then, that The Grass Trail begins in the middle of winter. Killer Shaun Halloran, laid low by flu, meets his disgraced Tory MP cellmate for the first time…
