A.A. Abbott

GREAT CRIME STORY WRITER

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Thriller of the Month – 99 Red Balloons, by Libby Carpenter

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99 Red Balloons – named after, and featuring the 1980s song by the enviably beautiful Nena – is Libby Carpenter’s first novel. It’s a twisting crime thriller, and although it was only released a few days ago, it’s already creating a buzz.

A huge emotional punch

So what’s the fuss about? First and foremost, 99 Red Balloons packs a huge emotional punch for any parent, as it’s the story of two little girls who go out to buy sweets and don’t come back. With particular piquancy, the children are stolen three decades apart, leaving two families fractured.

The tale is told in the first person from different points of view – a child, an aunt, a grandmother, and chillingly, an abductor. This offers insights, often painful, into the characters’ lives and feelings. I would defy anyone to read the book from cover to cover without crying at least once. There are, however,  heartwarming aspects too, for example when grandmother Maggie realises her estranged son-in-law has never stopped searching for his lost daughter.

Not for your maiden aunt

Was there anything I didn’t like? No – it’s well-written, credible and flows beautifully – but I wouldn’t buy it as a present for a maiden aunt who hated swearing. Some of the characters are (believably) potty-mouthed. I also found it difficult to follow the switches between 1980s flashbacks and the present day, but I suspect that was a deliberate ploy by the writer to maintain tension. It certainly worked, with a couple of breathtaking twists towards the end of the story.

Crimetastic

I chose to buy the book because I met author Libby Carpenter at Crimefest earlier this year, and her short description of the plot gripped my attention straight away. In case you didn’t know, Crimefest is a crazy weekend in Bristol in May. Held at the Marriott Royal Hotel, home to many a corporate convention. it’s just like a business conference except that the subject matter is crime fiction. Avid readers and writers rub shoulders with the greats, there are panels and prizes, and publishers pay for unlimited wine for all. There are free books too. It’s a crimetastic bash and highly recommended – as is 99 Red Balloons.

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As well as reading crime thrillers, I also like to write a great crime story full of twists. The Grass Trail is my latest – a tense crime thriller similar in style to Robert Galbraith, Ruth Rendell and John Grisham. Shaun Halloran wouldn’t be in prison if Kat White hadn’t taken his gun. As soon as he can escape, she’s dead. But with his criminal empire crumbling, who can he trust? Find out more about this cracking crime story and download a free sample from Amazon (this is the UK link, but you can find the book on all other Amazon sites too).

Thriller of the Month – Bloodie Bones, by Lucienne Boyce

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Forced to read Georgette Heyer at school, I avoided historical fiction for years.  “Bloodie Bones”, a gritty detective mystery set in 1796, is as far removed from genteel Georgette as James Patterson is from Barbara Cartland. The award-winning story follows Bow Street Runner Dan Foster as he goes undercover to catch a murderer in the Somerset village of Barcombe.

Barcombe is not a happy place. The local squire, Lord Oldfield, has annexed its woodland and is about to take more land away from the villagers. His gamekeeper has been murdered and threats have been made against his life by the mysterious Bloodie Bones. Rumour suggests this is a phantom. Dan Foster, however, doesn’t believe in ghosts – he believes in bringing villains to justice.

As a policeman, Dan has a respectable, middle-class lifestyle, but dark memories underpin it. A former street urchin and bare knuckle fighter, he has known poverty. He is not, therefore, a great fan of Lord Oldfield, who is effectively stealing the villagers’ land from them under the Enclosure Acts. Nevertheless, the lord is acting within the law, and those who kill his gamekeeper and poach his game are not. Dan cannot allow sympathy for the villagers to stop him doing his job. Accordingly, he puts his life as risk – and comes within a whisker of losing it – to bring the culprit to justice.

This is not only a rollicking, twist-filled read, but a slice of social history. Writer Lucienne Boyce explains movingly how the dice were loaded against ordinary working people in the 18th century. Dan Foster is lucky to have escaped the horrors of his upbringing – and, in “Bloodie Bones”, he is lucky to escape with his life.

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Take a look at crime thriller “Bloodie Bones” on Amazon – click on the cover to look inside. If you’d like to read some of my own stories, subscribe for my newsletter and I’ll send you a free e-book of short stories.

 

When Crime Pays – Narconomics, a Book Review

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When I’m writing a crime thriller, I get advice from specialists – prison officers, policemen and even a farmer who once grew hemp (the legal equivalent of cannabis). One of these experts recommended “Narconomics”.

“You won’t know what drives criminals until you understand the economics of the drugs trade,” he said, assuring me that “Narconomics” would explain just that.

I expected the book, written by “Economist” journalist Tom Wainwright, to be rather dry. It turned out to be anything but. Wainwright describes meeting murderous central American crime bosses, harassed-looking lawmen and colourful designer chemical developers. He delves into the dark web, finding drugs freely available from dealers with feedback ratings just like sellers on ebay. A little old lady tells him about her heroin addiction, while Colorado’s cannabis entrepreneurs trumpet the jobs they’ve created since the drug was legalised. The goods and services on offer include weed tours and whacky chocolate as well as the predictable reefer shops.

Throughout his journey, Wainwright explains how criminals are seizing opportunities to supply products for which a demand exists. Just like a legal business, they must balance risk and reward. The extreme violence used by Mexican cartels and the friendly customer service from online dealers are two sides of the same coin, and no accident: they’re a rational response to market forces.

Although the book is free from graphs and turgid tables of figures, Wainwright occasionally refers to statistics. He shows how consumption of drugs hasn’t fallen despite the billions of taxpayers’ money spent on (attempting) to reduce the supply. Accordingly, he suggests that governments target demand. Prevention, he says, is cheaper than cure. Controversially, he also advocates legalisation. As an aside, he says that Colorado’s new marijuana factories and jobs might not survive worldwide weed liberalisation: global corporations would grow the product more cheaply in Asia and South America.

“Narconomics” is subtitled “How to Run a Drug Cartel”. It doesn’t deliver on this grandiose claim, and anyone expecting a primer in setting up an illegal business will be sadly disappointed. However, as an entertaining account of the business side of the drugs trade, “Narconomics” should be of interest both to readers and writers of crime fiction.

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My last crime thriller, “The Grass Trail” followed the fortunes of a drugs baron desperately trying to escape from his south London prison, and a Brummie businessman dallying with dope farmers in order to grow raw materials for a cancer-busting drug. Check it out here.

Thriller of the Month – Silent Scream, by Angela Marsons

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Thriller of the Month – Silent Scream, by Angela Marsons

British thriller writer Angela Marsons has sold 2m books. It’s easy to see why when you read her first crime thriller, Silent Scream (currently a bargain 99p on Amazon). The first page features a child’s clandestine burial, while a well-to-do woman is murdered in her bath in the next chapter. Marsons grabs the reader by the throat right from the start, and never lets go.

This twist-packed detective story has a very American feel, with the lawmen’s banter calling to mind vintage cop shows such as Hill Street Blues. However, like its author, heroine DI Kim Stone is based firmly in the Black Country.

The post-industrial urban sprawl to the west of Birmingham is sympathetically described. Marsons makes it clear that it’s not all high-unemployment sink estates; there are wealthy areas too. Occasionally, the distinctive local dialect crops up in characters’ conversations, but Marsons displays a light touch with that and there is no struggle to understand them.

So what of the story? Kim Stone finds herself chasing the serial killer of individuals who worked at a children’s home that burned down ten years before. Having established a link between the victims, Stone is in a race against time to protect remaining employees of the institution. Her suspicions that bodies will be found in the home’s grounds sadly proves correct. That triggers emotions for Kim Stone, who spent much of her early life in care. In fact, although perceived by others as cold and lacking in social graces, Stone is extremely emotional below the surface. In particular, she is determined to stick up for those without a voice. There is never any doubt that Stone will find the murderer, because she is so highly motivated by her desire to bring justice to the dispossessed.

Naturally, there are obstacles along the way – as well as plenty of red herrings and twists. The Queen of Suspense, Marsons keeps us guessing. Both the unmasking of the killer, and subsequent heartwarming ending, came as a complete surprise to me. They were, however, completely credible.

The book is a page turner, and I polished it off in a day. The only off note for me was Marsons’ rather harsh description of the Bull & Bladder pub. Luckily, she admitted the error and apologised in a later book. As a temple to Bathams Bitter, the alehouse serves some of the best beer in the land, and I’m jealous that one of her characters calls it his local. Having said that, I wouldn’t want to share the fate she has in store for him…

This is the first in a long series about Kim Stone. I’ll definitely work my way through the rest!

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I’m also a crime thriller writer, focusing on the buzzy British cities of Birmingham and London. Read “5 minute crime thriller” The Gap here.

Thriller of the Month – The Woodcutter, by Reginald Hill

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“I lived in a fairytale,” Wolf Hadda tells his psychiatrist from his prison cell. As far as he’s concerned, he achieved the impossible and won his fair lady.

Trouble is, they’re no longer together. In fact, Wolf, a former financial whizzkid, is now a convicted paedophile and fraudster. He’s penniless and his youthful good looks are gone, ravaged by an accident during an unsuccessful escape bid. Needless to say, he’s been abandoned by family and friends.

Elf, his psychiatrist, finally achieves the breakthrough that at first seems impossible. Wolf admits the crimes he’s been denying for seven years. He’s released on parole. Elf congratulates herself on a job well done. She visits his remote country cottage and even begins to acknowledge that she feels attracted to this reformed character. Then, as bad things begin to happen to those who have crossed Wolf Hadda, she starts to question her own judgement.

This isn’t so much a fairytale gone wrong as an allegory, especially as it features the shadowy JC, a spymaster with the power to put wrongs right. In a tale with many twists, it’s not always easy to tell who the good guys are, but at least we know by the end.

Reginald Hill sold millions of his Dalziel and Pascoe detective mysteries. The Woodcutter is another type of book altogether. With dodgy Russians, bent coppers, cokeheads and toffs, there are enough crazy characters and action scenes in The Woodcutter to please any thriller fan, but a heart-warming seasoning of humour and romance too.

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Like Reginald Hill, I’m a British crime thriller writer (my most recent book is The Vodka Trail), but I have other strings to my bow too. Get a free e-book of short stories – including crime, horror and romance! – by signing up here for my short and sweet newsletter.

Thriller of the Month – Flowers for the Dead, by Barbara Copperthwaite

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After taking time out to finish my latest crime thriller, The Vodka Trail, I’m reading lots of fabulous fiction again, and Thriller of the Month is back! Barbara Copperthwaite’s Flowers for the Dead is a psychological thriller on a par with Ruth Rendell’s darker works – an all too believable story of the harvest reaped from a dysfunctional childhood.

Anti-hero Adam is rich, young, athletic and alone in the world. He’s also painfully shy and can’t communicate easily with women. Although he knows the meaning of different flowers, having taught himself from an old book, even his hand-tied bouquets are misunderstood by the girls he fancies.

Orphaned in his late teens (and we learn more about that as the tale unfolds), Adam lives in a Victorian mansion in a swanky area of Birmingham. He travels far and wide in pursuit of young women – London, Colchester, Reading and inverness. It takes years for the police to realise they’re looking for a serial killer. Segueing between past and present to show us how a killer was made rather than born, Barbara Copperthwaite draws us skilfully into the minds of Adam, his victims and the policeman who’s racing against time to rescue the latest object of the killer’s fixation.

There’s just enough police procedural detail in the book to satisfy crime fiction fans, but this novel is all about the serial killer’s psychology, the warped logic that allows Adam to justify his acts to himself. Emotionally, nothing is black and white. It is possible to pity Adam, while still being repulsed by his crimes and rooting for DS Mike Bishop to save the day. The final suspense-filled finish is a real nail-biter.

This is journalist Barbara Copperthwaite’s second book and a third is expected soon – definitely one to watch!

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I’m a British thriller writer who’s just released The Vodka Trail – a suspense thriller. Just like Flowers for the Dead, the conflicts in the story have their roots in the past…