A.A. Abbott

GREAT CRIME STORY WRITER

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Book Review – To Die For, by Colin Ward

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Angela Marsons’ tough but tortured Detective Inspector Kim Stone featured in my blog in April. Ironically, only 6 miles from Kim’s base in the Black Country, Colin Ward’s DI Mike Stone is operating out of Aston CID. Are they perhaps related?

Another detective with a troubled past

I sometimes think Ruth Rendell cornered the market in crime stories about happily married detectives with her Wexford series, set in rural Sussex. Kim and Mike Stone, in the dynamic and densely populated West Midlands, face completely different personal and professional challenges. Just like Kim, Mike lives a single life, has a troubled past and is tasked with tracking down a serial killer. That’s where the similarities end. Mike is by no means a loner. He enjoys the buzz of managing his team of sleuths. The pages of the book crackle with the excitement of the incident room as ideas are captured on the whiteboard and underlings despatched to follow leads. A depraved murderer is slaughtering young mothers, and Mike must find him before more families are smashed apart. There is a heavy focus on police procedure. This is fascinating, yet doesn’t detract from the rising tension when more bodies are found and the killer begins taunting Mike with texts.

Twists in the tale

Birmingham provides a kaleidoscopic background to this thriller, from smart bars to parks to the sprawling estates that ring the city’s outer perimeter. I suspect anyone who knows Brum will work out how the killer is transporting his victims well before the nerve-racking showdown. However, other readers are unlikely to guess. There are still plenty of twists in the tale. For example, although Colin Ward sprinkles clues throughout the book, it was an agreeable shock to me when the killer was finally unmasked. I didn’t see it coming.

A Book Review of Colin Ward's Birmingham crime thriller To Die For

Carries the reader with it until the very last word

The book isn’t perfect – as a writer myself, I tend to spot typos and repetition, and I found a couple of dozen. However, the story is well-written and so compelling that I couldn’t stop turning the pages. Mike Stone’s life, sanity and love hang in the balance unless he can stop the killer. To Die For carries the reader with it until the very last word.

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Birmingham is a fascinating backdrop to Colin Ward’s book, and it also features in three of the tales in my short story collection, Something In The City – get it free here

Thriller of the Month – The Darkest Lies, by Barbara Copperthwaite

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Like the famous Echo & The Bunnymen song, “The Darkest Lies” revolves around a killing moon. On brightly moonlit nights, two young girls are brutally attacked. Fobbed off by police and betrayed by friends, Melanie, mother of one of the victims, turns detective to find out who’s responsible for the awful crime.

At thirty-three, Melanie is a housewife and journalist manqué who has lived in the same Fenland village all her life. She thinks she knows everybody’s secrets, including her daughter’s. After all, Beth is an only child, and both Melanie and her loving husband have a close relationship with her. Nevertheless, as Melanie unpeels the surface of her neighbours’ lives, unpleasant truths are revealed. Melanie finds herself in danger, too, but willingly embraces it in her quest to avenge her daughter.

The strain on Melanie’s mental health and her marriage are too apparent. It’s impossible not to sympathise with her despite the poor choices she makes in her desperation to cope. This maintains suspense, as do the tantalising glimpses of the killer’s thoughts that punctuate the narrative.

“The Darkest Lies” is Barbara Copperthwaite’s third thriller. As ever, the pages keep turning right up until the nail-biting conclusion – on a moonlit night, of course…

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Like Barbara, I’m a British crime thriller writer. With other authors, I’ll be taking part in a big online thriller giveaway in June – sign up for my newsletter to find out more, and receive a free e-book of short stories.

Thriller of the Month – Dark Fragments, by Rob Sinclair

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An unreliable narrator isn’t often used in a thriller, perhaps because it requires a great deal of skill to keep a reader engaged once it’s clear the “hero” is anything but. John Grisham did it well in “The Racketeer”. Now British writer Rob Sinclair joins him with “Dark Fragments”.

“Dark Fragments” is a departure for Sinclair, who has previously written tense third person spy thrillers about secret agent Carl Logan. This, his first book for crime publisher Bloodhound, is told in the first person by Ben Stephens. At first, management consultant Ben seems a nice, ordinary guy. He adores his children and his wife. Yes, he’s down in the dumps, but who wouldn’t be in his situation? After all, he’s being threatened by gangsters over a soured business deal, he’s haunted by the unsolved murder of his first wife, and his career has plateaued. We can all imagine struggling with that kind of baggage.

This is where Rob Sinclair is very clever. Having made us sympathise with the man, perhaps even identify with him, alarm bells ring as Ben takes extreme actions to solve his problems. Rash and impulsive, he resorts to infidelity and violence, all the while seeing himself as a victim. The level of self-justification is such that the dramatic finale of the book is easy to believe, although it still comes as a surprise.

Sinclair’s style is pacy, energetic and liberally punctuated with cliff hangers. In consequence, “Dark Fragments” is a quick read, which leaves the lingering feeling that the ordinary people you meet every day may not be quite what they seem.

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“Dark Fragments” is set in Birmingham, England. I also write crime thrillers that are (at least partly) set in the city and I very much enjoyed Rob Sinclair’s descriptions of its swanky and seedy areas. Do you like to read about places you know? Email me at aaabbottstories[at]gmail.com.

Thriller of the Month – Trouble with Product X, by Joan Aiken

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The late British writer Joan Aiken is best known as an author of supernatural children’s stories, but her adult tales are worth seeking out too. This thriller is like a Formula 1 car, racing along at breakneck speed with many twists on the way. It’s a period piece, written about fifty years ago and set in a world my parents would recognise, when a train from London to Penzance took nine hours and you could avoid rush hour traffic jams in London.

Just as TV’s Mad Men showcased the US advertising industry in 1960s Manhattan, “Trouble with Product X” sheds light on their counterparts in London. Product X is a wonderful new perfume, expected to take the market by storm. Certainly, manufacturers Gay* Gal think so, and ad agency Salmon and Bucknell is delighted to win the account. It’s all hands to the pumps and Martha, a young copywriter, is despatched to Cornwall to produce ads for TV. She’s accompanied by colleagues, cameramen and assorted hangers-on, including a creepy client and his unpleasant chums. The trouble with Product X, as she rapidly discovers, is that the formula has been lost – or has it?

Tension rapidly mounts as the rich and beautiful are revealed to be feckless kidnappers and murderers. Luckily, Martha finds some good eggs on whom she can rely, including stalwart colleague Tom and a community of brusque monks with hearts of gold.

The book is a fun, quick read, and could almost be approached as historical fiction given that the events take place five decades ago. Joan Aiken worked as an advertising copywriter herself, and writes amusingly of the flattery employed to sell unprepossessing products. There too many twists and turns in the plot to describe, but all are believable (just!), and the book is well-written. Hats off to The Murder Room for republishing it for the Kindle. Note that old paperbacks are available for pennies on Amazon under another title, “Beware of the Bouquet”.

 

*The word “gay” is used a lot in the book in a very old-fashioned sense, basically describing a desire to go drinking and dancing.

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I’m also a writer of fun, fast thrillers – read The Gap, a “5 minute crime thriller” set in modern London, FREE, here.

Why dyslexia doesn’t stop you reading…

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My grandfather was a telecoms troubleshooter. As a young Englishman in the early 20th century, he travelled the world, supervising the laying of cables across the sea, then keeping the signal crystal-clear after that. If equipment was broken, he’d fix it himself. His work took him to New York, Odessa and Persia, in ships and steam trains and a Model T Ford.

Despite his can-do attitude and undeniable skills, he never picked up a book. My grandfather was dyslexic; reading and writing was a struggle for him. He wasn’t alone, of course. Although I dodged that bullet myself (to compensate, fate decreed I’d be rubbish at DIY), dyslexia features in every generation of my family. In fact, 10% of Britons are dyslexic.

It isn’t that hard to produce a dyslexia-friendly book, but it costs more than a traditional paperback. That’s because, with larger letters and more space between the lines, the page count zooms up dramatically. Perhaps that’s why nobody has published fiction for adults with dyslexia – until now. Perfect City Press has produced new editions of my crime thriller, The Bride’s Trail, and its sequel, The Vodka Trail. Spot the difference! 

The Vodka Trail - Page 1 in traditional and dyslexia-friendly formats
The Vodka Trail – Page 1 in traditional and dyslexia-friendly formats

They’re also an option for older readers and anyone with visual stress – we’ve used a large sized sans serif font, lots of space, and cream paper, and they’re still affordable at £16.99. That compares with £7.99 for the traditional paperbacks and £1.99 for the e-books.

E-books are a great alternative, of course. You can adjust the style and size of the font, and sometimes the colour of the background. But for me, nothing beats a good old-fashioned paperback – and I suspect dear old Grandad would finally agree!

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I’m a British crime thriller writer. I’ve written a variety of short stories, and four full-length thrillers sizzling with suspense, sex, love and death. My latest, The Bride’s Trail and The Vodka Trail, are available in e-book, traditional paperback and dyslexia-friendly paperback editions through a variety of bookstores and online retailers.

A Fair, A Festival and Fabulous Beer – April’s Literary Highlights

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I’ve been hanging out with readers and writers at three very different events this month – the London Book Fair, a live fiction night at a pub in Birmingham, and the Hawkesbury Upton Litfest at a village in the Cotswolds. All were not only fun, but a chance to learn from other thriller writers. Most of all, I get a buzz being around others who love books as much as I do.

I wrote a blog about the London Book Fair in 2015. If you’re not sure why everyone in the book trade (apart from the most important people, readers!) hits town every year, do take a look! Deals are done, free wine flows and there’s frantic networking. For me, the key messages this year were to make my thrillers available as audiobooks and go for a darkly sinister cover for my next crime thriller. Watch this space!

I’ve also blogged about live fiction events and literary festivals before. I can’t recommend them enough to readers. Stories come alive when they’re read aloud by their writers. The pub night, organised by Donna of Twitter’s @TheCultureHour, featured the well-respected New Street Authors. They all proved to be polished live performers as well as writers. Even better, it was hosted by The Gunmaker’s Arms, the showcase and brewery tap for beers from the Two Towers Brewery. The beer was awesome, a bargain at under £3 a pint, and worth a trip to the pub in its own right. I indulged in their Birmingham Mild, a style of ale quite hard to find outside the British Midlands, yet one of the most delicious drinks on the planet.

It’s only natural that the Two Towers, named after nearby landmarks that inspired the great JRR Tolkien, would want to support the local literary scene. So, back to the books, the main event of the evening. Although there were stunning performances by master of suspense Andrew Sparke and the cutting, creative and comical Gareth J Wood, it was New Street Author David Wake who stole the show. His steampunk Derring-Do Club series had the audience in stitches. Check them out, and if you’re organising a litfest, ask him along. With a theatrical background, David knows how to make an audience very happy indeed.

Coincidentally, half of the Hawkesbury Upton Litfest was also hosted by a pub, the ancient Fox Inn. A sweet honey-coloured Cotswold stone village, Hawkesbury Upton is a world away from Birmingham’s gritty Gunmakers’ Quarter. Seemingly, everyone in Hawkesbury Upton loves to read. At any given time, at least two events were taking place for adults at this full-day festival, and there were art exhibitions and children’s workshops too. A charming green chalk line directed punters between the Fox and poetry performances at the Methodist Church Hall. Did I mention cake? It appeared the villagers were brilliant bakers too, with home-made goodies on sale with all those lovely books.

Highlight of the litfest for me was meeting cosy crime thriller writer Jackie Kabler, whose TV newsroom murder mystery is storming the charts. I too prefer to keep graphic violence out of my books (thriller author Joanna Penn used the term ‘torture porn’ at the lifest) and it’s encouraging to know that’s what readers like too.

I left Hawkesbury Upton staggering under the weight of new books to enjoy! As an amazing April literary feast draws to an end, these are next on my ‘to-read’ list:

Copper Trance & Motorways, by Andrew Sparke – I’m already chuckling at the office politics in this wryly observed crime thriller.

Screaming Blue-City Murder, by G J Wood – I’ve dipped into this fabulous collection of satirical, sweary short stories already. Although I write about a shinier version of Birmingham than Gareth, I love his focus on seedy, sinister secrets. He’s a genius.

Marry in Haste, by Debbie Young. Romantic short stories with happy endings, great with a cuppa.

Me-Time Tales, by Rosalind Minett. More short stories, the ideal solution for time-poor fiction lovers!

The Derring-Do Club and the Invasion of the Grey, by David Wake. After hearing his stirring steampunk at The Gunmaker’s Arms, there was no way I was leaving that pub without a copy to read!

Who Needs Mr Darcy? by Jean Burnett. There’s nothing quite like a Jane Austen pastiche, and unlike others, this one is zombie-free…

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I’m a British crime thriller writer, following in the footsteps of Ruth Rendell, Kate Atkinson and our transatlantic cousin, John Grisham. Read tasters of my work, including 5 minute crime thriller ‘The Gap’ here.