Book to check out

If you are looking for a good e book to buy and you don’t want to spend to much money and you love crime fiction, then this is the book for you and it’s only 99p on Amazon kindle at the moment

It’s December, and the Shannon family are returning home to their clifftop mansion near Kinloch for their annual AGM. Shannon International is one of the world’s biggest private companies, with tendrils reaching around the globe in computing, banking and mineral resourcing, and it has brought untold wealth and privilege to the family. However, a century ago Archibald Shannon stole the land upon which he built their home – and his descendants have been cursed ever since.

When heavy snow cuts off Kintyre, DCI Jim Daley and DS Brian Scott are assigned to protect their illustrious visitors. As an ancient society emerges from the blizzards, and its creation, the Rat Stone, reveals grisly secrets, ghosts of the past come to haunt the Shannons. As the curse decrees, death is coming – but for whom and from what?

To buy the ebook for yourself, you can go to the Amazon link below

May 2016 new books to check out

3/5/16

DIVINING MURDER – G M CAMERON

The evil that Andromeda saw in Glasgow Central Station and why she alone could see it was beyond her powers of explanation. But she told the police anyway and in that moment, the secrets of her past come back to try to destroy her. The karmic beasts arrive from all quarters, most of all from inside herself.

Donnelly investigates a gory murder in a Glasgow alley and has little more than Annie’s bizarre information to go on. Following it would make him crazy as her

Yet whatever he thinks, she knows a darker evil is haunting the city that police will have little power against.
But maybe she could see it coming.

5/5/16
PRIVATE INVESTIGATIONS – QUINTIN JARDINE

Quintin Jardine’s twenty-sixth Bob Skinner mystery sees the Edinburgh sleuth plunged into a gruelling new case in which no score will go unsettled. Former Chief Constable Bob Skinner has uncovered his fair share of crime scenes over his thirty-year career. But few have affected him quite as much as the horrifying sight he finds stowed in the back of a stolen car that collides with his on the outskirts of Edinburgh. As his former colleagues investigate, Skinner takes on an unusual commission of his own. The body count rises, motives appear, the hunt goes global, and potential conflicts surface. In his new guise, is Skinner is on the side of the angels…or working against them?

5/5/16

BLOOD TORMENT – T F MUIR

When a three-year old girl is reported missing, DCI Andy Gilchrist is assigned the case. But Gilchrist soon suspects that the child’s mother – Andrea Davis – may be responsible for her daughter’s disappearance, or worse, her murder. The case becomes politically sensitive when Gilchrist learns that Andrea is the daughter of Dougal Davis, a former MSP who was forced to resign from Scottish Parliament after being accused of physically abusing his third wife. Now a powerful businessman, Davis demands Gilchrist’s removal from the case when his investigation seems to be stalling. But then the case turns on its head when Gilchrist learns that a paedophile, recently released from prison, now lives in the same area as the missing child. The paedophile is interrogated but hours later his body is found on the beach with evidence of blunt force trauma to the head, and Gilchrist launches a murder investigation. As pressure relentlessly mounts on Gilchrist, he begins to unravel a dark family secret, a secret he believes will solve the fate of the missing child.

5/5/16

WILLOW WALK – S J I HOLLIDAY 

When a woman is brutally attacked on a lonely country road by an escaped inmate from a nearby psychiatric hospital, Sergeant Davie Gray must track him down before he strikes again.
But Gray is already facing a series of deaths connected to legal highs and a local fairground, as well as dealing with his girlfriend Marie’s bizarre behaviour. As Gray investigates the crimes, he suspects a horrifying link between Marie and the man on the run – but how can he confront her when she’s pushing him away?

Can Gray piece together the puzzle in time to stop the sleepy town of Banktoun being rocked by tragedy once more?

7/5/16

TOOLS OF THE TRADE – ALLAN L MANN

Tom Guthrie has recently retired from Tayside Police. He found life after the force difficult to deal with, so he started a private investigation company and found himself consulting to the newly formed Police Scotland.

The amalgamation of the old regional forces has left Police Scotland short of resources in Serious Crimes. When the body of Bobby Gant, head of research and development for a local outdoor clothing manufacturer, is found tied to the rocks below the high tide line at the foot of the cliffs of Arbroath, Police Scotland find themselves with no-one to spare.

Guthrie’s former Chief Inspector calls him to lead the investigation.

His assignment is not well received by his former partner who now runs the local station. Guthrie’s liaison – Alisdair McEwan, a fresh-faced and sometimes over-enthusiastic officer, desperately wants to impress, but the pair run into a web of lies, and less than helpful colleagues of the murdered man. In the midst of his frustration with the lack of progress in the murder investigation, a fire in an empty warehouse kills a homeless man. This is dumped in Guthrie’s lap – and he’s not too pleased. The second investigation threatens to derail the murder case.

Guthrie now has to juggle two deaths, a young partner, an antagonistic boss, and an unexpected relationship.

19/5/16
THE MALICE OF WAVES – MARK DOUGLAS – HOME

For five years Priest’s Island has guarded the secret of Max Wheeler’s disappearance. Each anniversary the boy’s family gathers at the scene to mourn his loss and to commission a new inquiry into the mystery. So far a retired chief constable, a private detective, a forensic archaeologist and a former intelligence officer have failed to uncover what happened to fourteen-year-old Max. Now Cal McGill, an oceanographer with expertise in tracking bodies at sea, has taken up the quest and finds himself caught between a father hell-bent on vengeance, a family riven by tragedy and a community resentful at being accused of murder. As Cal goes about his investigation he discovers an island that provokes dangerous passions in everyone that sets foot on it. And he has a nagging worry: if Max was murdered why shouldn’t it happen again?

28/5/16

EXILLE IN ELGIN – HUNTER J WALKER

In this, the fifth in the Death On The Clyde series of novels, Douglas Ashburner is seconded to Elgin in the north of Scotland for six months as a sergeant in uniform, far from his home in Glasgow. He lives in a freezing house on the side of a hill with a view across the Moray Fifth to the snow-covered mountains of Sutherland and is waiting for the weekend visit of his fiancée and her mother. However, the slow life is interrupted when a constable on traffic duty witnesses a car accident that isn’t accidental. Things go badly wrong and suddenly events come thick and fast. Some of the old team are brought together again, and new ones are added, to bring events to a conclusion.

30/5/16

RECKONING – LINDA TWEEDIE AND KATE McGREGOR

From the glamourous, decadent resort of Marbella to the mean, dark and dangerous East End of Glasgow, The Reckoning follows the new generation of bitter enemies, the Coyles and the McClellands. The feud between the families which has spanned decades should be over, following the deaths of mother and son, Diane and Bobby Mack, but someone is hell bent on exacting revenge for their deaths. The unknown enemy leaves a trail of despair and pushes the head of the Coyle family to the brink of destruction. A tale of murder, extortion and drug smuggling, there can only be one winner; but who? The Reckoning is the third and final book in The Coyle Trilogy continuing the drama brought to you in The Silence and The Betrayal.

May 2016 crime author of the month interview with Mary Paulson Ellis

 

1. How did you get started writing

I started by going to an evening class – 15 years ago now. I didn’t last very long because after about week 4 we had to hand in homework and I never seemed to be able to complete it. But the year after that I tried again and this time I went to every class for a year, completed all the assignments and discovered that it was possible to start a story and get to the end of it. After that there was no stopping me.

2. What drew you to write a crime novel
I didn’t see myself as writing a crime novel when I first started, The Other Mrs Walker. But at the same time I knew it had the hallmarks of a lot of crime fiction i.e. it starts with a dead body, it has a mystery to solve, it weaves in and out of crematoriums and mortuaries etc. I wanted to explore what happens when someone dies alone with no apparent next-of-kin. Then I got interested in the dead person and who they might have been. In the end I decided it was a sort of detective novel which is also a family mystery. I’m certainly drawn to what I call the ‘murderous’ side of family life – the dark places in the past where terrible things have happened. I really like that this too can fall under the all encompassing genre of ‘crime’.

3. Which writers past or present have influenced your style of writing?
In terms of what I am writing at the moment I am very influenced by the brilliant Kate Atkinson. I’ve followed her career ever since, Behind the Scenes at the Museum and I delight in her Jackson Brodie novels which began with, Case Histories. She has this amazing lightness of touch, very accessible and stuffed full of wit, character and story. And yet at the same time she is super clever as a writer, on both a technical and a thematic level. I’m always amazed by the emotional weight that her stories carry.

4. When you first started writing did you find it hard to get publisher interest?
Yes! Don’t all writers (well 99.9%). Over ten years or so I was lucky enough to get a few small things published online and in various magazines (short stories etc) and every one mattered because it was a little beacon in amongst the mass of rejections. Then I wrote a novel which took me six years to complete. This did get some attention from agents and publishers and I really thought it was going to be picked up, but it wasn’t. So I did have a moment about four years ago when I had to decide if I was going to keep going or prioritise other things in my life. I decided to give up my job and write another book which became, The Other Mrs Walker. The rest is history. There is no real rhyme or reason to these things, just each writer’s individual journey.

5. There are many interesting characters in your Novel,do you have a particular favourite one?
When I was writing the book, Clementine was my favourite character. She first appears in 1929 as a four year old and progresses from there into some very dark places where she does some very bad things. As a result, I really loved her! Then once I got to edit stage I became much more interested in Margaret Penny, my contemporary protagonist who is trying to work out the story of the dead woman with whom the book opens. But now I think I like Margaret’s mother, Barbara, best. She is an old curmudgeon who is either drinking rum or refusing to answer any questions. She is my tragic heroine.

6. What kind of research have you have to undertake for your Novel
I did quite a lot of research into what I call the ‘territory of the dead’ i.e. the people and places in Edinburgh that deal with cases of individuals who die with no next-of-kin. I thought I would begin with the person who forces the door after the call from the concerned neighbour, but in fact I began at the other end with a Humanist Celebrant who has conducted funerals for such individuals. I then moved on to the local authority crematorium where they arrange and pay for ‘indigent’ funerals and after that the Edinburgh City Mortuary, which was fascinating. I chatted to a forensic pathologist about the various stages of decomposition and met a Procurator Fiscal (Crown Official) who worked for the Fatalities Investigation Unit. Finally I interviewed a couple of police officers who were part of the Edinburgh Enquiry Team at that time – the unit that dealt with all non-suspicious deaths in the city. It’s been a fascinating journey. I have massive respect for all those for whom death is very much an everyday part of what they do. The rest of us don’t want to contemplate this too often, but it is going on all the time, all around us, day and night. I think it is wonderful that however we die, in whatever circumstances, somebody somewhere will take care of us with integrity and professionalism, even compassion.

7. Are the characters in your books based on any real life?
No, with one exception. There is a real life minister in Edinburgh who invites members of his congregation to attend funerals at which he isn’t certain any relatives or friends of the deceased will appear. I heard him speak on the radio about this when I was first writing the book and so I popped a minister into the book who runs an indigent funeral rota in Edinburgh. I met the person behind the fictional creation a few weeks ago when we appeared together on another radio show – a fascinating and insightful man. Other than that, I did try to realise the city of Edinburgh as a sort of ‘character’ in itself, based on my 25 years of living here. Also the house in London in which the Walker family grow up is based on one my mother lived in as a child in the 1940s and 50s and which I remember her talking about when I was young too.

8. What do you think makes your novels stand out from all the other Crime Fiction Novels out there
It starts with a dead body but no suspicious circumstances. It has a detective who isn’t really a detective at all. The scene of the ‘crime’ is an empty flat and the only evidence an emerald dress, an orange and a Brazil nut with the Ten Commandments etched in its shell. The real crimes lie in the past, but nobody is punished for them, at least not in the conventional way. What matters is how the deeds (and objects) of the past ripple through into the present whether you understand their significance or not.

9. Do you see any of your characters personality in yourself and vice versa?
Not particularly, but then perhaps you’re asking the wrong person. Sometimes it is easier for others to identify where the autobiographical elements creep in! There is a degree of wish fulfillment in some of my characters, however, in that I sometimes wish I could behave as badly in real life as I have them behave in the fictional world.

10. If you can, would you give us a sneaky peak into any future novels you have planned.
The Other Mrs Walker is all about women and girls. The book I’m working on at the moment is all about men and boys. It too has a narrative set in Edinburgh that also dips into the past. I see it as a companion piece to the current book.

11. In the Other Mrs Walker do you have a favourite scene that you wrote and why?
I loved writing the scenes set in the past which revolve around the house in London. I had a great time conjuring all its different incarnations, from the shelter dug into the lawn in 1944 to the Home for Troublesome Girls in the 1960s. I also liked writing the scene of Margaret at the city mortuary because I found it such an evocative place when I went to visit. But I think my favourite scene to write was the one set in London in 1933 when 8 year old Clementine lays out a little picnic for her twin brother and sister beneath the laburnum tree. It has a sort of Grimm’s fairy tale quality for me and if you read it you’ll understand why.

12. As a up and coming crime writer do you have words of advice you can share
Return over and over to those writers who inspire you to see how they do it. But also be confident in your own distinct vision and ideas. Also, never give up and don’t take rejection personally; none of us know what might happen in the future. It only takes one person in the right place at the right time to believe in your book for all sorts of things to happen. And, good luck!

Somehow she’d always known that she would end like this. In a small square room, in a small square flat. In a small square box, perhaps. Cardboard, with a sticker on the outside. And a name . . .

In a freezing, desolate Edinburgh flat an old woman takes her last breath surrounded by the few objects she has accrued over a lifetime: an emerald dress, a brazil nut engraved with the ten commandments – and six orange pips sucked dry.
Meanwhile, guided by the flip of a coin, Margaret Penny arrives back at her old family home, escaping a life in London recently turned to ash. Faced with relying on a resentful mother she has never really known, Margaret soon finds herself employed by the Office for Lost People, tasked with finding the families of the dead: the neglected, the abandoned, the lost. Her instructions are to uncover paperwork, yet the only thing Mrs Walker, the old woman in her current case, left behind is a series of peculiar objects.

But in the end it is these objects that will unravel Mrs Walker’s real story: a story rooted in the London grime and moving from the 1930s to the present day, a story of children abandoned and lost, of beguiling sisters and misplaced mothers, of deception and thievery, family secrets and the very deepest of betrayals; in which the extraordinary circular nature of life will glitter from the page. For in uncovering the astonishing tale of an old woman who died alone, Margaret will finally discover her own story too . . .

Home

Twitter @mspaulsonellis

Amazon Author Page

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=UTF8&text=Mary+Paulson-Ellis&search-alias=books-uk&field-author=Mary+Paulson-Ellis&sort=relevancerank

Book to check out

If you are looking for a good e book to buy and you don’t want to spend to much money and you love crime fiction, then this is the book for you and it’s only £1.00 on Amazon kindle at the moment

I enjoyed my first day at primary school. Of course, I didn’t know then that this was the first day of a suffocating friendship with a psychopath, a friendship I’d still be trapped in thirty years later.’
Joseph Staines left town with a stolen tallybook, but two suspicious deaths and a surprise inheritance have lured him back home to Edinburgh. No-one is pleased to see him. The debtors want him gone. The Police have some questions for him. And a mysterious stranger has been asking about him in the pub. To survive, Staines has to sober up, solve the murders, and stay one step ahead of the man who wants him dead.

To buy the ebook for yourself, you can go to the Amazon link below

April 2016 crime author of the month interview with Lesley Kelly

  

1. .How did you get started writing?

I came to writing fairly late. I wasn’t the kind of child who always wanted to write – in fact my childhood dream job was to be a librarian! But after many years as a reader I finally gave writing a go in my mid-30s.

2. What drew you to write a crime novel ?

The novel started life as a short story, which I wrote for the Scotsman/National Library of Scotland Criminally Good Writing competition, which celebrated 25 years of Ian Rankin’s Rebus. I loved the characters in the story so much that I wrote them into a full length novel. I also won the competition, which was a great motivator to keep writing!

3. Which writers past or present have influenced your style of writing?

I absolutely loved Louise Welsh’s crime novel The Cutting Room. It has a great protagonist, a compelling story, and was really, really well written. I also like Ian Rankin and Peter May for their story-telling ability.

4. When you first started writing did you find it hard to get publisher interest?

No. I was unbelievably lucky and was acceptable by the first publisher that I approached.

5. There are many interesting characters in your Novel, do you have a particular favourite one?

Probably the main character, Stainsie. He’s a man with many faults, most of them related to his consumption of alcohol, but somehow you can’t help liking him.

6. What kind of research have you had to undertake for your Novel?

Quite limited. It’s set in the area of Edinburgh where I both live and grew up, so I know it pretty well. I did do some research about Trinity’s nefarious past, though, which all found its way into the novel…

7. Are the characters in your book based on any real life?

Most of the characters in the novel are cheating, lying, self-serving alcoholics so I’d better make it clear they are all totally imaginary!

8. Do you see any of your characters personality in yourself and vice versa?

With reference to the previous answer I’m not sure I want to incriminate myself! There’s definitely no more than about 80% of my personality in any of the characters. And I definitely wash more than some of them.

9.What do you think makes your novels stand out from all the other Crime Fiction Novels out there?

It’s a crowded field with some fabulous writers (damn you, competition!) but I think my novel’s selling points are its strong sense of place and the humour in it.

10. If you can, would you give us a sneaky peak into any future novels you have planned?

I’m working on a couple of things, but both are in quite early stages.
11. Do you have a favourite scene in A Fine House in Trinity, and why?

Difficult to pick just one, but I did enjoy the scenes involving Wheezy, Stainsies’ best friend, and his particular take on life.

12. As an up and coming crime writer do you have words of advice you can share?

Enter lots of writing competitions. They are a great way to get feedback on your writing.

    

 I enjoyed my first day at primary school. Of course, I didn’t know then that this was the first day of a suffocating friendship with a psychopath, a friendship I’d still be trapped in thirty years later.’

Joseph Staines left town with a stolen tallybook, but two suspicious deaths and a surprise inheritance have lured him back home to Edinburgh. No-one is pleased to see him. The debtors want him gone. The Police have some questions for him. And a mysterious stranger has been asking about him in the pub. To survive, Staines has to sober up, solve the murders, and stay one step ahead of the man who wants him dead.

Social media:
Twitter handle is @lkauthor
Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/lkellyauthor/ 
Website at http://lesleykelly7.wix.com/author-blog

Amazon Page

April 2016 crime author of the month interview with Hunter J Walker

  

1. How did you get started writing?

I joined the local writers club and started writing novels. I did not finish any of the early ones, but it was fun. Although the characters morphed all over the place to start with, after sevral false starts I eventually finished the first of the Death On The Clyde novels: Shallow Water.

 

2. What drew you to write a crime novel.

After attending a weekend seminar the writers club organised on crime writing, I began to look seriously at the genre. I started by reading a lot of crime novels and sorted the books into those that worked well and those that didn’t and I tried to find what made the successful ones work.

 

3. Which writers past or present have influenced your style of writing?

I read all of the novels of: Ian Rankin, Stuart McBride, Jo Nesbo, Andrea Camilleri and I still rate Ian Rankin the best.

 

4. When you first started writing did you find it hard to get publisher interest?

It is hard for a first time novelist to get their work published in traditional print so I went the ebook route and started my own micro-publishing business. Although I do have another crime series in mind for which I’ll see if I can get a traditional publisher interested.

 

5. There are many interesting characters in your Novels, do you have a particular favourite one?

Norman the armourer: he has a geeky interest in technical things, like tanks and pistols, and all things mechanical and electronic.

 

6. What kind of research have you had to undertake for your Novels?

I read a lot of history, novels, newspapers and I watch obscure TV channels. Plus, I was fortunate to travel all over the world during half a lifetime working in industry.

 

7. Are the characters in your books based on any real life?

All the characters I create have elements of people I have met and read about, but I don’t use real people in my crime novels.

 

8. What do you think makes your novels stand out from all the other Scottish Crime Fiction Novels out there

Despite my best efforts the spooks (Intelligence and Security Servies) lurk around the edges of the action and sometimes take centre stage. Also I started the narrative of my principal character, Douglas Ashburner, with him as a detective constable in the Glasgow police major crime unit.This gives me a chance to have fun with the him before he has to become serious as he climbs further up the promotion ladder to detective inspector and (possibly) beyond.

 

9. Do you see any of your characters personality in yourself and vice versa?

Inevitably some of the author’s character traits appear in the characters, but writing in the third person with multiple characters means you can be the villians as well as the heroes.

 

10. If you can, would you give us a sneaky peak into any future novels you have planned.

I have the next Douglas Ashburner novel The Useless Assassin ready to go and it will be published on Amazon at the beginning of April. In this, Douglas is recommended by a taxi driver as the solution to a problem a Russian banker has: he thinks someone is following him with lethal intent.

The fifth and sixth novels in the series are in preparation and will be out later this year.

 

11. Out of all the Novels you have written do you have a favourite one that stands out to you?

The fifth one in the Death On The Clyde series: Exile In Elgin, which will be published in June, was fun to write and didn’t drag on. Some novels take forever to finish.

 

12. As an up and coming crime writer do you have words of advice you can share

Read widely and write as much as you can and your own style will emerge eventually – it may take a while, possibly years. Also follow your own instinicts are far as possible and ignore the pedants and naysayers.

DEATH ON THE CYLDE BOOKS

1. Sallow Water

2. A Crack in the Dark

3. Exciting Lives

4. The Usless Assassin 

Just Another Murder (Short Story) 

Links

 Website: http://stonehillandhunterpublishing.com/

 

Amazon Author page

 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hunter-J-Walker/e/B01C1KBTXS

 

Crime in Glasgow at the Aye Write Book Festival Tuesady 15th March with Bill Daly Alex Gray Peter Arnott and Graeme Macrae Burnet

 

 

 

April 2016 crime author of the month interview with Lucy Ribchester

  

1. How did you get started writing?

 

I’ve been writing since an early age. When I was little, if I loved a book, I’d try to write something similar. I think I wanted to try to capture that immersion you have in a good story, but to go even deeper, and be able to create and explore a fictional world on my own. I wrote little pastiches of Enid Blyton and Christopher Pike and later on spent my school holidays writing novels. That then morphed into writing plays at university and then, in my 20s I came back to novel writing.

 

2. What drew you to write a crime novel

 

I’ve always loved reading crime and mystery fiction and I wanted to write something I would enjoy reading, and that I would probably enjoy returning to time after time, as I knew it was going to be a long slog trying to get published. I also wanted my first novel to have a structure I could easily fall back on if I got lost. I think it really helped while learning to write. I find structure and pacing quite challenging and so having a precedent for the shape of the novel – as one has in crime fiction – gave me a steady framework in which I could let my imagination run riot.

 

3. Which writers past or present have influenced your style of writing?

 

I have very eclectic taste in books, and I’m not sure who has influenced my style and who I just love, but here goes: Angela Carter, Agatha Christie, Anais Nin, Jed Rubenfeld, Sarah Waters. I love Liz Lochhead’s plays, and The Hourglass Factory started out as a very surreal historical-modern play inspired by Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off (it changed a lot after that!). I’ve also been greatly inspired by my Scottish Book Trust mentor Linda Cracknell’s work particularly when learning to write short fiction, and similarly by Ian Rankin. His short stories are brilliant – how much development and intrigue they pack into such a small number of words. It was massive for me earlier this year when he tweeted about The Hourglass Factory!

 

4. When you first started writing did you find it hard to get publisher interest? 

 

As it turned out The Hourglass Factory got snapped up in a pre-empt within days of being sent to my publisher. However before then it was difficult to get an agent, and even after getting an agent’s interest it took a long time and a lot of rewrites before it was sent to my (now) editor. The whole thing took about 5 years between writing the first draft and signing the deal. In between I won a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award, which helped hugely, and began to get short stories published in various magazines.

 

5. There are many interesting characters in your Novel, do you have a particular favourite one? 

 

I loved writing Twinkle in The Hourglass Factory. Sometimes I was gobsmacked by what came out of her mouth and other times I felt she could be very wise. She seemed when I was writing her to have free will, and that was a great feeling to write with. In the Amber Shadows I love Piotr, but I won’t say why or what his role is because that would involve spoilers.

 

6. What kind of research have you have to undertake for your Novel

 

Different kinds, depending on what I’m studying and what mood I’m in! Visiting museums, looking at ephemera, old catalogues and magazines, reading novels from the period, secondary sources – history textbooks – and of course newspapers are fabulous resources, not just for their news stories but for the adverts. For both novels I visited the National Archives in Kew, which, if you’re a nosey parker like me, is just heaven. Seeing letters, reports and diaries gives you a hugely privileged peek into how people’s everyday working lives ran, and into the obstacles they had to deal with. They do say truth is stranger than fiction…

 

 

7. Are the characters in your book based on any real life? 

 

Goodness that would be telling! Some of The Hourglass Factory figures are based on historical figures, and of course there’s Emmeline Pankhurst in there. Usually I can trace a loose thread back to some sort of reality but it’s very distanced from the truth. For instance Twinkle was very loosely inspired by Catherine Walters – or rather how I imagine she might have been in later years. When I was writing Honey in The Amber Shadows, I always saw her as being very like Joan Fontaine in Suspicion and Rebecca – her mannerisms, her voice…especially in the colour-tinted version of Suspicion where she has red hair.

 

 

8. What do you think makes your novels stand out from all the other Crime Fiction Novels out there 

 

I think there are many wonderful crime novels out there and I don’t know if mine stand out, but I suppose what makes every novel unique is the author’s imagination, and what fuel they have given it to feed on – (see eclectic and random list of authors I love above)

 

 

9. Do you see any of your characters personality in yourself and vice versa? 

 

I try not to, but yes, inevitably sometimes. I think there has to be some of you in all of your characters, as that’s what makes them feel real.
 10. If you can, would you give us a sneaky peak into any future novels you have planned. 

 

Ahh I am superstitious about this so nope, sorry. Only my agent and my editor have the secrets!

 

11. As you have written a historical crime novel, do you have a favourite decade and why 

 

I wish I did. It would make life a lot easier. I keep jumping around and having to start from scratch with research. Generally I’m drawn to periods of excess – there’s something intoxicating and grotesque about them. I found it very hard to get inside the 1940s, because of the rationing and the austerity, until a friend said to me, ‘yes but people were emotionally extravagant then.’ That unlocked the whole of the Amber Shadows story for me, the emotional extravagance of wanting to believe in something and the indulgence of letting yourself believe it.

 

 

 12. As a well known crime writer do you have words of advice you can share

 

I don’t know about being well known but I can try. I think it’s nice to enjoy what you read and what you write. There are some writers who try very hard to be brilliant or clever. I would prefer it if people are moved or thrilled, kept in suspense or delighted (even in a macabre way) by my work – at least to have an emotional response to the story, because that’s how I respond to my favourite books. I guess the advice connected to that is to write what you like to read.

 

OUT 7TH APRIL

  

In a place where everyone is keeping secrets all the time, how do you know who you can trust?

 A brilliant novel of lies and intrigue at Bletchley Park by the author of the bestselling debut The Hourglass Factory. 

Perfect for all fans of The Imitation Game.

 On a delayed train, deep in the English countryside, two strangers meet. It is 1942 and they are both men of fighting age, though neither is in uniform. As strangers do in these days of war, they pass the time by sharing their stories. But walls have ears and careless talk costs lives…At Bletchley Park, Honey Deschamps spends her days at a type-x machine in Hut 6, transcribing decrypted signals from the German Army. One winter’s night, as she walks home in the blackout, she meets a stranger in the shadows. He tells her his name is Felix, and he has a package for her. The parcel, containing a small piece of amber, postmarked from Russia and branded with two censor’s stamps, is just the first of several. Someone is trying to get a message to her but who? As a dangerous web weaves ever tighter around her, can Honey uncover who is sending these mysterious packages and why before it’s too late…?

  
1912 and London is in turmoil…

 

The suffragette movement is reaching fever pitch but for broke Fleet Street tomboy Frankie George, just getting by in the cut-throat world of newspapers is hard enough. Sent to interview trapeze artist Ebony Diamond, Frankie finds herself fascinated by the tightly laced acrobat and follows her across London to a Mayfair corset shop that hides more than one dark secret 

Then Ebony Diamond mysteriously disappears in the middle of a performance, and Frankie is drawn into a world of tricks, society columnists, corset fetishists, suffragettes and circus freaks. How did Ebony vanish, who was she afraid of, and what goes on behind the doors of the mysterious Hourglass Factory?

 

From the newsrooms of Fleet Street to the drawing rooms of high society, the missing Ebony Diamond leads Frankie to the trail of a murderous villain with a plot more deadly than anyone could have imagined…

 

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