A.A. Abbott

GREAT CRIME STORY WRITER

trail

Book Review – Double Identity by Alison Morton

by

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.

__________________________________________________________

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!

__________________________________________________________

Book Review – Broken Windows, by Janet Pywell

by

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.

******

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.

When Crime Pays – Narconomics, a Book Review

by

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.

****************************************************************************************************

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.

Why dyslexia doesn’t stop you reading…

by

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!

*************************************************************************

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.