A.A. Abbott

GREAT CRIME STORY WRITER

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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.

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.