Written by LJ Sellers –

Jackson revisits the case and discovers that the original investigation was at best slipshod, and potentially corrupt. Meanwhile, a woman who has been in a coma for two years after an apparent drug overdose begins to wake up. As she regains consciousness, she claims that she had been attacked by her ex-husband. Jackson’s feisty colleague Lara Evans is brought into the action, while no-nonsense Sergeant Lammers calls the shots from police HQ.

Sellers is an award-winning journalist and this is reflected it the writing style. Dying for Justice has a straight, punchy, facts-first narrative with little or no room for reflection or respite for the main characters. The story moves at a dizzying pace, and is condensed into a very short time span. The events happen almost in real-time. As one surprise kicks the reader relentlessly forward to the next, there is no time to admire the scenery or to share complex self-analysis by the main characters.

This book may disappoint readers who like the geographical setting to be an essential part of the story. It is set in Eugene, Oregon, but the action could be taking place almost anywhere. We are left to guess what Eugene is like as a place to live and work. It does not inhabit the novel in the same way that New Orleans towers over the Dave Robicheaux novels by James Lee Burke, or in the way that the frozen wastes of Minnesota brood over John Sandford’s Prey books. This is not a criticism, merely an observation. The plot of Dying For Justice is so cunningly woven, the dialogue so good, and the speed of events so urgent that we are have no time to absorb how the environment may be shaping the events, or sit back  with the protagonists in the wee small hours while they ponder life’s mysteries over a glass of Bourbon.

The twists in the story defy detection by even the most hardened and observant of crime buffs, and it is an endearing quality in both Wade and Lara that, right up until the closing pages, they seem to be getting it wrong as often as they are getting it right. It is obvious that there is something of the author in the portrayal of the persistent journalist, Sophie, and the admirable police officer, Lara. Don’t expect to have your life view radically altered, or be forced to re-evaluate your take on the human condition, but if you want an excellent no-frills read, then Dying For Justice is worth reading.

Spellbinder Press
Print/Kindle
£1.99

CFL Rating: 3 Stars

The Damage has been out for a short while. Can you tell us a bit more about it?
The Damage picks up the story of reluctant Newcastle gangster, David Blake. Blake is now the boss of his firm because he can’t trust anyone else with the job. He has to deal with a world of troubles, including a rogue dealer in his crew, a very unreliable drug supplier, far too much interest from the local law and clashes with footballers, hookers and a Newcastle MP. Oh yeah, and someone has taken a contract out on him but he doesn’t know who.

The Drop was your debut. Did you always envisage writing more than one book about David Blake?
Initially I viewed The Drop as a stand-alone but, as I was writing it, I kept getting more and more ideas for the characters and realised there was a natural follow-on from The Drop. I wanted to write about the people who survived the first book and how they coped with the aftermath of those events a couple of years down the road.

The Damage has an action/thriller feel to it. Did you intentionally shift the tone from the grittiness of your first book?
To be honest it wasn’t a conscious shift in style. I didn’t even notice it. I try not to analyse what I do too much and just write each story in the way that feels most natural to me. I think I would run the risk of disappearing up my own arse if I was too analytical of the way I wrote. I do like to include some action in a book though. I couldn’t imagine writing a crime novel that just had detectives pondering clues in a murder case, until they eventually wander into someone’s living room and arrest him.

How have the books gone down in Newcastle, where they’re set?
Really well, thankfully. People from Newcastle seem genuinely chuffed to read something set in their city. They like the fact I mention pubs they drink in, their beloved Newcastle United or places they visit. I’ve not had any negativity about the books at all. I launched The Damage in Newcastle at the beginning of May and there was a lot of press interest, partly due to the TV adaptation of The Drop. I did interviews on radio, TV and for the newspapers up there.

If you could name one book which inspired you to write, what would it be?
I read A Kind of Loving by Stan Barstow in my early teens and loved it because he wrote about normal life in a northern town, and up till then I hadn’t realised you could do that. I thought everything had to be set in London or New York or exotic far-flung locations. It made me realise you could be a writer no matter where you are from.

What are your future plans?
To keep writing and see how far I can go with it. I’m thrilled to be a published author after a lot of years graft and now have the opportunity to work on more book ideas. The Drop and The Damage both had excellent reviews thankfully but they just make me want to work even harder on the next book. I never want to read a review that says ‘it’s not as good as his last one’.

There are three main character threads to this one – Megan, Ray and Broome. Try to stay with us because it gets complicated. Megan’s a middle class mother who drives her daughter to soccer practice weekly, has a breakfast island in the kitchen, and is married to a lawyer. However, she used to be called Cassie, a stripper and all-round good time girl in Jersey’s very own run-down gambling town, Atlantic City. She gave up that life 17 years ago just after the disappearance of Stuart Green, a customer in one of the strip clubs she danced in.

Broome was the police detective who worked the Green case. No body was ever discovered and Broom has been mulling it over all these years, visiting and trying to comfort the Green family. He contemplates what it’s like when a family member disappears completely. Ray, meanwhile, is a washed up photographer. He drinks too much and has been reduced to working as a fake paparazzi. Wealthy nobodies hire the company he works for to photograph their bah mitzfahs, parties and even dinner dates. When he’s not doing that, Ray seems to wander around in a daze thinking about the things that went wrong in his life, especially an unspecified bloody incident.

Now a young show-off called Carlton Flynn has disappeared, 17 years to the day after Stuart Green. Like Green he frequented Atlantic City’s strip bars and Broome makes the connection. Bored and curious about the old days, Megan is tempted to visit Atlantic City’s clubs again by her old friend, the barmaid Lorraine. And Ray gets beaten over the head with a bat when he’s mugged for his camera. Turns out he’d inadvertently snapped a photo of Carlton Flynn while visiting the ruins where said unspecified bloody incident occured, just before Flynn disappeared. The characters are drawn together as the threads of mysteries new and old are woven into Coben’s plotline.

Just like Atlantic City itself, the characters are big, brash, clicheed and have a rusty edge to them. There’s no shortage of cynical wisecracks and crude observations. And there’s just about the right amount of brutality as victims – both innocent and guilty – begin to pile up. Coben killed off his freaky Korean hitman for hire Eric Wu in an earlier novel, but here he introduces Ken and Barbie, the good looking fundamentalist Christians who work for the mob and love dishing out torture. Odd, repressed and menacing, they’re not the only killers lurkign in these pages.

Though Stay Close is not quite as gripping as some of his previous thrillers, the author continues to excel with his storytelling. His conversational tone throughout makes the book feel like light reading, but his hooks, twists and chapter-closing cliff hangers keep you turning the pages. One moment you’re wondering whether Megan’s going to be in trouble with her husband because of her past, the next gravely worried that Ken and Barbie are about to murder a stripper. It’s a great read and you’ll probably tear your way through it.

Orion
Print/Kindle/iBook
£9.99

CFL Rating: 4 Stars

If you love crime

How to enter
To enter our competition all you have to do is log onto Twitter and send a tweet to @CriFiLover. Your tweet must include the answer to this question: Where are Alex Gray’s crime novels set? Your tweet must also include the hashtag #CFLxSphere. You’ll need to be following us on Twitter as well, so that we can send you a direct message should you win.

If you don’t use Twitter, you can also enter by sending an email to info[at]crimefictionlover.com. Give your email the header CFLxSphere and include the answer to our question above, as well as your name and address.

Rules
Just like the characters in many of the books we review, we don’t like living by the rules, but just so that things are above board, here’s where it’s at: 1) One entry per reader. 2) UK residents only (sorry!). 3) We will draw the two winners at random from the entries containing the correct answer. 4) No cash alternative. 5) The competition closes for entries at 10pm BST on Friday 18 May 2012. 6) The judge’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

The prizes
Here’s some more information on the wonderful British crime books Sphere and Crime Fiction Lover are giving away.

A Pound of Flesh by Alex Grey
DCI Lorimer is back and this time two serial killers are operating on the streets of Glasgow. On the one hand somebody is brutally murdering prostitutes, while on the other businessmen are being taken down in methodical fashion. Working with psychologist Solly Brightman, Lorimer really starts feeling the heat when a prominent local politician is also murdered. And just to complicate things, it appears the investigation is being compromised by somebody who’s leaking vital details to the press. Watch for a review here on CFL soon. To get your hands on this cold blooded Glasgow-based police procedural, enter our competition!

Cop to Corpse by Peter Lovesey
You’d think that the streets of Bath are far more genteel than those of Glasgow (yes, we are being heavy handed with that clue), but the genre we’re talking about here is crime fiction and as you know, nowhere is safe. Three cops have been shot dead by a killer dubbed The Somerset Sniper and despite his limp DSI Peter Diamond of Bath CID must track down the murderer before another policeman is killed. Lovesey is a grand master of British crime fiction and here he weaves a tale that swerves this way and that. If you can work out which clues to shoot down as red herrings, and which are lasersighted on the killer, you’ll have a lot of fun working out whodunnit. Read our review here.

Nothing But Trouble by Roberta Kray
Finally, we’re going to drop you off on the mean streets of the East End of London where Roberta Kray will be your guide. Yes, we said Kray. The author is the widow of the late Reggie Kray, and here she tells a creepy East End story in which the past catches up with a group of women. Bored with shoplifting, a gang of teenage girls sends Minnie Bright into the home of the local weirdo Donald Peck. She’s murdered, and Peck later hangs himself in prison, protesting his innocence. Years pass, and investigative journalist Jessica Vaughan is friends with one of the gang, who is receiving strange letters and disturbing phone calls. Then another murder occurs. Can Vaughan, assisted by ex-cop Harry, unravel the mystery? You’ll find out if you enter and win our competition…

Remember, this competition closes on Friday 18 May 2012 so enter quickly. Good luck everyone!

The Murder Wall opens with the horrific double murder of a young nun and her priest in a Northumberland church, a crime which goes unsolved and is still dogging Kate Daniels one year later when the action jumps ahead to the fatal shooting of a prominent local businessman in a swanky dockside development in Newcastle.

Alan Stephens was a man with enemies, even within his family. As Daniels’ team delve deeper into the case they find his grown-up sons are happy to see the back of him and his young trophy wife is hardly the weeping wreck you’d expect. Ambivalent and with a dubious alibi she seems just the type to shoot him in the chest. But his ex-wife is the real problem. Jo Soulsby is already known to the police. A colleague and a friend, she is also one of their best profilers and when Daniels sees the connection between Jo and the murder she is forced to make a decision which could ultimately wreck the promising career for which she has sacrificed so much.

As the case evolves another murderer is on the loose. Stalking his prey, the killer works with brisk efficiency and leaves prayer cards in the mouths of his victims – the same MO as in the initial double murder. Daniels is on his tail but the Stephens case is becoming increasingly complex. Hints of a conspiracy involving Daniels’ superiors muddy the waters and as the bodies begin to pile up the secrets at the heart of her divided loyalties lead to dissent within the ranks. Saying more will spoil the story for you, but you’ll be rooting for Kate all the way through this one.

Mari Hannah has created a perfectly realised world here. The day-to-day slog of an investigation is realistically rendered, with a large cast of well-written characters giving a sense of weight often missing from this type of book. Kate Daniels is destined to take her place among the top rank of fictional detectives; her drive and toughness, coupled with all too credible flaws make for an engaging heroine, something the crime genre is currently crying out for. Stylistically The Murder Wall is like the best kind of TV cop show. It has short chapters with alternating viewpoints creating a breakneck pace and I found myself just tearing through it.

The Murder Wall is a police procedural par excellence and one of the most assured debuts I’ve ever read. Mari Hannah is a skilled plotter with a great eye for character and a wealth of personal experience in the field to draw on. Make no mistake, she is going to be huge.

Pan
Print/Kindle/iBook
£3.71

CFL Rating: 5 Stars

Read our interview with the author here.

Cairn’s first release will be a crime compilation in the form of Scanlon’s As Close As You’ll Ever Be, and it’s coming out in July. The Irish writer, now based in New York, has written a collection of experimental literary noir short stories about an Irish killer and the things he gets up to from the 1970s until the present day. Blood, violence, memories – they’re all themes here, and the writer was influenced by the likes of novelist Ken Bruen and poet DK Gavan. The book’s title is also a Boomtown Rats track.

Sounds like it’s one to watch out for, and we’ll keep an eye peeled for more crime releases from Cairn as and when they happen. You can find out more about Cairn here.

Whilst he may be

Back in the noughties Levine introduced his readers to a new crime duo in the form of Miami lawyers Steve Solomon and Victoria Lord. As partnerships go, this isn’t strictly a match made in heaven. Whilst Solomon is something of a renegade, Lord likes to do things by the book, but opposites seem to attract and that duality has resulted in a series of four novels now available on Kindle.

Solomon vs Lord
In this first book the pair must defend a former figure skater who has been charged with the murder of her incredibly wealthy husband. With crooks, con men and a nagging feeling that their client is probably being less than honest with them, will they be able to stop squabbling long enough to solve this case? Solomon vs Lord was nominated for the Macavity and James Thurber awards. Find out how to win this book below.
Buy now on Amazon

Deep Blue Alibi
Solomon and Lord return for their second case, and Solomon is keen to sink his teeth into something that could get their law practice off the ground. Lord on the other hand is keen to go it alone and with conflicts coming at her from all sides, she’s struggling to stay in control. When a yacht is washed up on Sunset Key with $100,000 and a dying man on board, Lord must defend her uncle who finds himself suspected of murder. Solomon and Lord race against time and must dodge the law to find a killer who may still be hidden amongst the sea of beautiful people and family secrets. Deep Blue Alibi was nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe award.
Buy now on Amazon

Kill All The Lawyers
What a title! As threats go, having a 300lb marlin shoved through your front door has to be one of the strangest, but that’s how this story opens, and the lucky recipient is Steve Solomon. Who could he possibly have upset enough that they would want him dead? Just when he thought things couldn’t get any worse he’s being bashed by the local radio station, become the new best friend of a celebrity shrink, and his personal and professional lives are spiralling into the abyss. With a killer on the loose, can Solomon regain control of things in time and stop Lord from leaving him? Kill All The Lawyers was nominated for the International Thriller Writers award.
Buy now on Amazon

Habeas Porpoise
A panicked phone call from his 12-year-old nephew in the middle of the night ends with Steve Solomon on a high-speed chase against animal liberation fanatics who have kidnapped a couple of dolphins from the local water park. Before the night is out, someone’s been killed. Solomon’s got a wrenched shoulder, managed to land himself with the task of defending one of the dolphin liberators, and finds himself pitted against Lord who has just been appointed prosecutor in the case.
Buy now on Amazon

Win Solomon vs Lord and a short story by Paul Levine
To celebrate the launch of the Solomon and Lord series on Amazon, the author is offering two prizes for Crime Fiction Lover readers. First up is a complete Kindle copy of Solomon vs Lord. And second prize is an exclusive short story for Kindle by Paul Levine called Solomon and Lord Sink or Swim. To enter use Twitter and tweet #SolomonvsLordxCFL to us @CriFiLover. Alternatively, you can enter by emailing us at info[at]crimefictionlover.com with the header Solomon vs Lord. Hurry and enter because the competition closes at 10pm BST on Monday 14 May 2012.

The winners will be drawn at random from all the entries. There is no cash alternative to the prize offered. The judge’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

Watch for our review of Solomon vs Lord soon here on Crime Fiction Lover or, if you’ve read any of these titels, please post your comments below.

Written by Elizabeth Wilson –

Harris is in London, and has made contact with his old friend Alan Wentworth, and his wife Dinah. Wentworth is a radio producer at the BBC, while Dinah works  at the Courtald Institute, where the director is Dr Anthony Blunt. Wentworth is to make a programme about Konrad Eberhardt, an exiled German scientist, and uses the trip to Kent for the Ebehardt interview to spend a night away with his mistress. Harris also has visited the German, and the paths of all the characters cross when Eberhardt is found dead after the funeral of a famous left-wing writer.

Harris returns to Berlin, followed by McGovern, and it is here that the detective meets Frieda. She fascinates him, but he realises that layer after layer of her story must be peeled back before the truth is revealed. Back in London, the news has broken of Burgess and McLean’s defection, and the Courtald is besieged by reporters wanting to speak to Dr Blunt, as it is rumoured that he is involved. The death of Eberhardt remains unsolved, but MI5 suspects that he had been working on potentially damaging memoirs.

The book is skillfully paced, and the role of Miles Kingdom is pivotal. We are given the faintest of hints as to just how crucial he is, but I have to say that I only realised this retrospectively. The plot structure is complex, and the eventual outcome is all the more disturbing for being hidden behind several very enjoyable smokescreens. The real triumph here is the way the lives of the disparate characters convincingly mesh together. I make one small criticism; of all the character links, the only one which is slightly contrived is that between Wentworth and Kingdom. They seem to have met sometime, somewhere during the War: ” Wentworth! When did we last… 1945, was it?”

This novel operates on many levels. McGovern is a likeable man – determined, honest, but aware of his limitations. London and Berlin are portrayed as vital characters in the plot. The former is weary, grimy but upper lips are stiffened despite everything, while Berlin is politically divided with everyone – whether ex-Nazi or Russian liberator – doing whatever it takes to survive. Middle-class English life is beautifully captured, and the language and dialogue are pin-point precise. Attitudes towards sexuality and gender are explored, and although Elizabeth Wilson is a  feminist, she has the lightest of touches when dealing with issues of homosexuality and the place of women in 1950s Britain.

The descriptions of how people at the time spoke and thought about marriage and sexuality are painfully accurate, and I write as one who was there, albeit a youngster listening to adult conversation. A good novel must make the reader care about what happens to the characters within. Amidst all the criminal activity, elegantly phrased mayhem, and dark international issues, I genuinely hoped that Wentworth’s infidelity would not destroy his marriage to the thoroughly admirable Dinah who, for me, is the real star of the show in this excellent book.

Serpent’s Tail
Print/Kindle/iBook
£5.92

CFL Rating: 5 Stars

When comedian Koo Davis

This book has surprising depth and is a fitting testament to the late, great author. It’s as much about fathers and sons, about success and failure, and about making an account, as it is about the good guys catching the bad guys. Westlake handles these themes as deftly as any writer of literary fiction could, and the book is never a struggle to read.

Only One Life by Sara Blædel
Inspector Louise Rick of the Copenhagen Murder Squad is back. This time she’s investigating the drowning of a young immigrant girl in Holbæk Fjord, but this is no ordinary drowning. The victim, Samra, has been found with a piece of concrete tied around her waist and two strange circular marks on the back of her neck. Her best friend Dicte suspects her death was an honour killing. Things become nasty when Dicte is found bludgeoned to death and Samra’s younger sister goes missing. Rick must tread carefully to find a killer in a tightly knit ethnic community.
Pre-order now on Amazon

Flesh and Blood by Mark Peterson
An undercover police officer’s been killed and a lethal shipment of pure heroin has just arrived on British soil. For Brighton copper DS Minter this is not looking like it’s going to be an easy collar. He embarks on a hunt for a psychopath who leads him on a collision course with his colleagues and forces him to face up to his own troubled past before he can discover the truth.
Buy now on Amazon

The Last Policeman by Ben H Winters
The end of the world may be fast approaching but detective Hank Palace still has a job to do. Welcome to Concord, New Hampshire. With six months to go until a massive asteroid hits the Earth, people are taking matters into their own hands. So when insurance salesman Peter Zell is found dead, Hank’s colleagues are happy to put it down to yet another suicide. However all the evidence suggests otherwise and Palace is not prepared to let his suspicions go.
Pre-order now on Amazon

27 Minutes by J M Johansen
When several homeless Vietnam veterans go missing from the streets of Richmond, no one seems to bat an eyelid. Nobody, that is, except Lisbeth Hansen, a registered nurse who runs a rehabilitation centre aiming to get the men back on their feet. When Lisbeth herself disappears, her father Erik, who just happens to be the local sheriff, jumps into action with his friend Mike Lombardi. However, their investigation is about far more than missing people. They’ve stumbled into something much more sinister and their own lives are on the line.
Buy now on Amazon