A.A. Abbott

GREAT CRIME STORY WRITER

spy

Book Review – Double Identity by Alison Morton

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Book Review. Alison Morton's international thriller Double Identity, set in Paris and London.

Dreams turn to nightmares…

Mel has found the man of her dreams. After an aristocratic upbringing in rural France and a spell in the French army, she’s ready to settle down and make babies. Parisian financier Gérard appears to be everything she’s looking for: rich, handsome and besotted with her. Sadly, a romantic holiday in London turns into the stuff of nightmares. Mel wakes up in a hotel room to find Gérard dead in bed beside her. Worse, London cop Jeff McCracken thinks Mel is the killer.

Partners from Hell

Once her innocence is proven, Mel is offered a job with an elite European spy team. She jumps at the chance. They’re investigating dodgy financial deals with which Gérard was apparently  involved. She hopes to prove him innocent and find his murderer. To their mutual dismay,however, Mel is required to work alongside the newly promoted Jeff McCracken. A man from a deprived background, Jeff regards as Mel as snobby. She sees him as coarse and misogynistic. Perhaps they are both right, but as the case progresses, they learn to work together. What they find causes Mel to question her belief both in herself and her relationships.

Absorbing action thriller

This is an action thriller, with plenty of fist fights and shoot-outs. They’re very believable, as you’d expect from Alison Morton, a former British Army captain. Her knowledge of Poitou in France, where she now lives, is also put to good use. While the genre is a departure for Morton, who previously penned a series of alt-history thrillers, the story follows her tradition of creating ballsy, kick-ass heroines.

Well-written and fast-paced, “Double Identity” is an absorbing read and a perfect piece of escapism during the pandemic. It’s currently on a blog tour, so you can find out more about it here.

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If “Double Identity” has whetted your appetite for an international thriller packed with action, dodgy deals and a strong female lead, look no further than “The Vodka Trail”. It’s the second thriller in my Trail series, and also a superb read on its own!

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Book Review – Broken Windows, by Janet Pywell

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A glamorous female sleuth

Broken Windows Female Sleuth Thriller Book Review
Broken Windows features mystery, action and adventure…

The glamorous Mikky dos Santos is a poacher turned gamekeeper.  She’s been a forger and an art thief, but now she’s turned from the dark side to work for Europol. “Broken Windows”, published on 30th June 2020, is the latest thriller to feature the colourful female sleuth. Mikky’s latest task is to spy on a London drugs gang, who use cultish practices to draw in deprived children longing for love and money. The cult’s talisman is an ancient and valuable dagger, and Mikky is charged with finding it.

Action in Morocco and London

At first, the assignment is fun. Mikky and her sidekick, ex-SAS serviceman Peter, go undercover in Morocco. Saintly charity worker Matt has rescued several teenagers from the cult and kept others from its temptations by training them in parkour. They’re so skilled in the extreme sport that they’re employed to act in a film being shot in Morocco. Mikky and Peter join them there, pretending to be photographers making a documentary.

Mikky learns enough to satisfy her boss, suave Spaniard Joachin, but by now she’s in too deep. Having bonded with the teenagers, she can’t just walk away when she realises the cult threatens their lives. Staying in touch with the youths when they return to their sink estate in London, she risks death to save them.

Everything a great thriller should be

The story not only fizzes with action (and, it has to be said, a touch of jetsetting), but offers interesting insights into both parkour and the high-end art world. There’s also a political angle, with an election looming and politicians desperate to smash the drugs ring and bring the public some good news. With adventure, twists and a happy ending, “Broken Windows” is everything a great thriller should be.

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Do you like thrillers showcasing female sleuths? British mystery thriller “The Bride’s Trail” is one of the best in the genre – click on the cover to start reading.

Gunpowder, treason and plot! They’re still with us…

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While we British remember the 5th of November, it’s easy to forget it’s a local tradition. The rest of the world don’t care that Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1606. Who knows what Britain might have looked like today if the plotters hadn’t been betrayed by a spy? Other coups of the past have had a massive impact on the shape of the world today – the American War of Independence, and the overthrow of monarchies in Russia, China and France, for example.

Intrigue simmers below the surface of big business too. While the Volkswagen emissions cover-up is in the news right now, the company’s been caught up in scandal before. In 1993, General Motors accused the German car maker of stealing its secrets. It cost VW over $1bn to settle, although it never admitted any liability.

The Matt Damon film, The Informant, was actually based on a true story of industrial espionage. The FBI used an inside man within the food industry to prove that an illegal cartel was fixing prices. The Insider, starred Russell Crowe in a similar role, as a whistleblower uncomfortable with his cushy executive job in Big Tobacco. It’s even harder, of course, to keep secrets in the digital age. They can be stolen at the touch of a button. Hackers recently attempted to blackmail British company Talk Talk – how many other companies have been clandestinely held to ransom?

Plotters and spies will always be with us. On Bonfire Night, we celebrate their failure. How very British – and what a great excuse for a fireworks party!

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I’m a British writer of short stories and crime thrillers. My first full-length book, Up In Smoke, features two corporate spies with totally different goals – one driven by money, the other by revenge. With counterfeiters, murderers, drug smugglers and a letter bomb or two, there are enough twists to rival the original Gunpowder Plot!