A.A. Abbott

GREAT CRIME STORY WRITER

serial killer

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.

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…