First Monday Crime June 2019 - Meet the Authors!

The next First Monday Crime is taking place on Monday 3rd June 2019. 

For the season finale, five super-talented authors will be presenting their books to (also super-talented author) Marnie Riches for her summer read in Blind Book Date. The authors will be Elodie Harper, Tom Wood, Howard Linsey, Steph Broadribb/Stephanie Marland and Amer Anwar. But who will be the winner???

Meet three of the authors taking part!!

Steph Broadribb/Stephanie Marland

As Steph Broadribb, I write the Lori Anderson action thriller series for Orenda Books. When researching the books I trained as a Bounty Hunter in California and travelled around the US scouting locations. My debut thriller – DEEP DOWN DEAD – was shortlisted for the ITW Best First Novel, the eDunnit eBook of the Year award, the Dead Good Reader Award for Fearless Female Character, and Dead Good Reader Award for Most Exceptional Debut. The second book in the Lori Anderson series – DEEP BLUE TROUBLE – came out in January 2018, with the third DEEP DIRTY TRUTH published in ebook in November 2018 and in paperback in January 2019.

As Stephanie Marland,I write the Starke/Bell psychological police procedural series for Trapeze (Orion). This series draws on my own experience as a blogger and the research I did (when working at a university for my day job) into human behaviour in online groups. The first book – MY LITTLE EYE – came out in April 2018, with the second – YOU DIE NEXT – due to be published in ebook and paperback in April 2019.

I’m a founder member and writing coach at www.crimefictioncoach.com 

I was born in Birmingham and grew up in Buckinghamshire, and most of my working life has been spent between the UK and USA. I’m an alumni of the MA in Creative Writing (Crime Fiction) at City University London, and a member of the International Thriller Writers (ITW) and Sisters In Crime organisations. I currently live in Buckinghamshire surrounded by horses and trying to wrangle an unruly but adorable puppy!

Find Steph on her website and on Twitter - @crimethrillgirl

Elodie Harper

Elodie Harper is a reporter and presenter at ITV News Anglia.  She's worked as a journalist for the past decade, including for Channel 4 News, ITN and BBC radio.  Her job has seen her join one of the most secretive wings of the Church of Scientology and cover the far right hip hop scene in Berlin, as well as crime reporting in Norfolk, where her novels are set.

In 2016, her story Wild Swimming won a short story competition judged by Stephen King.  It was published later that year by Cemetery Dance in the anthology Six Scary Stories: Selected and Introduced by Stephen King. 

Elodie's debut novel The Binding Song, was published by Hodder & Stoughton in 2017 and was followed by The Death Knock in July 2018. 

Find Elodie on Twitter - @ElodieITV

Marnie Riches - compère for the evening 

Marnie Riches grew up on a rough estate in Manchester, aptly within sight of the dreaming spires of Strangeways prison. She swapped those for the spires of Cambridge University, gaining a Masters degree in Modern & Medieval Dutch and German. She has been a punk, a trainee rock star, a pretend artist and professional fundraiser. In her spare time, she likes to spin, renovate houses and paint. Oh, and drinking. She likes a drink. And eating. She likes that too. Especially in exotic destinations.

Having authored the first six books of HarperCollins Children’s Time-Hunters series, her award-winning, best-selling George McKenzie crime thrillers for adults were inspired, in part, by her own youth and time spent in The Netherlands as a student. Marnie’s best-selling, critically acclaimed Manchester series about the criminal underworld of the UK’s second city took its inspiration from growing up on a rough estate in North Manchester’s infamous cultural melting pot, Cheetham Hill. Born Bad and the real life gangland stories that form part of the city’s sub-cultural heritage were featured on CBS Reality’s international hit documentary, Written In Blood. 

Tightrope – the first story in a series about flawed but fearless PI, Bev Saunders, launches Summer 2019 and is a must-read for fans of Martina Cole, Lynda la Plante & Kimberley Chambers.

Marnie appears regularly on BBC Radio Manchester where she discusses the day’s social media trends on Phil Trow’s drivetime show.

Find Marnie on her website and on Twitter - @Marnie_Riches

We'll all be cheering them on - on social media and in real life!

As a reminder, if you want a survival guide to First Monday, including how to get there, check out my post from last month here.

Find First Monday on:
Twitter - @1stMondayCrime 

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/1stMondayCrime/

Website - https://www.firstmondaycrime.com

BEST OF CRIME with Marnie Riches

Welcome to my latest BEST OF CRIME feature, looking at crime writers' top picks, from their favourite author and fictional detective to their best writing tip. 

Today I'm delighted to welcome 

MARNIE RICHES

for her Born Bad blog tour

to share her BEST OF CRIME... 

... AUTHORS
My favourite author in the crime genre is Thomas Harris, simply because he wrote The Silence of the Lambs, which is crime fiction perfection. For years, I was also a Scandi Noir devotee and loved Stieg Larsson - not necessarily for the elegance of his prose, but for the complexity of his stories, his characters and wonderfully insightful depiction of Swedish life.

... FILMS/MOVIES
I can’t only choose one! Perhaps it marks me out as a 1990s throwback, but aside from the seminal The Silence of the Lambs with Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster, I’m a huge fan of Tarantino and particularly adored Pulp Fiction. Tarantino’s stories and scripts really are top class. I loved Guy Ritchie’s Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels. His story-telling and stylistic cinematography were great and I love the depiction of London – I was living in Surrey Quays in S.E. Docklands at the time! In Bruges was a darkly comic masterpiece. Nowadays, I think the Scandis do crime movies best. The Swedish big screen adaptations of Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy were cracking – Noomi Rapace had me transfixed. I loved Headhunters and loved, loved, loved Jackpot – both Jo Nesbo stories on the big screen. I like my crime with a little dark humour and those two films have them in spades. Some of the best crime drama of late has most definitely been on TV…

... TV DRAMAS
Well, Breaking Bad of course! Without doubt, the best TV drama since… The Wire, which was the best TV drama EVER. Every series of both Breaking Bad and The Wire were flawless. Just brilliant. There was humour, violence, ingenious intrigue... The dialogue crackled. The characters were breathtakingly well drawn. The sets were SO authentic. The acting was phenomenal. I don’t mind saying that Breaking Bad inspired some of The Girl Who Had No Fear. And obviously there are the Scandis – what’s not to love about The Bridge and The Killing (not the American version, of course, but the original Danish)? Well written, beautifully shot, perfectly acted. Oh, and FARGO!!! Fargo has been incredible – both seasons 1 and 2. Billy Bob Thornton as the nutter? And Kirsten Dunst? Ah, the surprises just kept coming. I loved it. And then, there was the first season of True Detective with Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. Bloody brilliant! Nothing on British TV has measured up to the US and Scandinavian offerings, I’m afraid. Not for me.

... FICTIONAL KILLERS
On screen, I absolutely love Hannibal Lecter, Walter White, Jules Winnfield and Stringer Bell. Who can argue with the performances of Anthony Hopkins, Bryan Cranston, Samuel L. Jackson and Idris Elba? So much of on-screen charisma is down to the actor, as much as the script. Omar from The Wire, played by Michael K. Williams, is one of the coolest characters on TV. I loved the romance and poignancy of Richard Harrow in Boardwalk Empire, played by the yummy Jack Huston. In print, Lecter (again), Graeme Cameron’s unnamed protagonist in Normal is highly entertaining. Peter Swanson’s Lily Kintner in A Kind Worth Killing is a dastardly cowbag!

... FICTIONAL DETECTIVES
Obviously Paul van den Bergen is my favourite detective – I would say that! Clarice Starling is a standout investigator. I love McNulty, Bunk, Kima Greggs and Lester Freamon from The Wire. But I have also enjoyed the Franciscan Friar, William of Baskerville in Umberto Eco’s outstanding The Name of the Rose. If I’m honest, I usually like the bad guys rather more than the good guys. 

... MURDER WEAPONS
The Leopold’s Apple in Jo Nesbo’s The Leopard.

    

... DEATH SCENES
In print, the Snowman’s antics in Jo Nesbo’s most famous Harry Hole novel are pretty spectacularly gruesome. In the film, Pulp Fiction, Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) are in a car when Vega accidentally shoots his colleague, Marvin in the face. Very funny and surprising! There is also a scene in Breaking Bad where an informant – Tortuga – has been killed by the Cartel. From a distance, DEA detective, Hank sees a head moving slowly along the dusty horizon. It turns out to be Tortuga’s head on a plodding giant tortoise, emblazoned with the words, “Hola DEA”. I thought that was ingeniously cruel

  

... BLOGS/WEBSITES
I skim the newspaper websites for real life crime inspiration. The Manchester Evening News is particularly useful for reports of crime that might inspire my new Manchester series. For crime reading recommendations, I like to see what Grab This Book, Northern Crime and Crime Fiction Lover have got on the boil and of course, the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) and its sister site, the Crime Readers Association (CRA) are chock full of the latest info about British crime writing. Author, Rebecca Bradley does a great blog about the craft of writing too and writing.ie is great for writing tips…

... WRITING TIPS
Plan your story in advance. If you can describe it in one or two sentences, you’re on to something that readers will want to pick up and read. If you can fit your story into a two page synopsis with a beginning, middle and an end, the writing will be that much easier. Keep your high points roughly at 25%, 50% and 75% of the way through. Keep your beginnings and endings sharp. Make every chapter count. Write every day, if you can. Edit ruthlessly. If you’re bored whilst reading it, cut it. If the passage doesn’t move the story forwards, cut it.

... WRITING SNACKS

Nuts. Gin. Dark chocolate. Wine.

About MARNIE RICHES

Marnie Riches grew up on a rough estate in Manchester, aptly within sight of the dreaming spires of Strangeways prison. Able to speak five different languages, she gained a Masters degree in Modern & Medieval Dutch and German from Cambridge University. She has been a punk, a trainee rock star, a pretend artist, a property developer and professional fundraiser. In her spare time, she likes to run, mainly to offset the wine and fine food she consumes with great enthusiasm.

Find Marnie Riches on her website, FB page and on Twitter - @Marnie_Riches

About BORN BAD

Publisher's description

The battle is on…

When gang leader Paddy O’Brien is stabbed in his brother’s famous nightclub, Manchester’s criminal underworld is shaken to the core. Tensions are running high, and as the body count begins to grow, the O’Brien family must face a tough decision – sell their side of the city to the infamous Boddlington gang or stick it out and risk losing their king.

But war comes easy to the bad boys, and they won’t go down without a fight. So begins a fierce battle for the South Side, with the leading Manchester gangsters taking the law into their own hands – but only the strongest will survive…

Born Bad was published by Avon on 9 March 2017.

Look out for more BEST OF CRIME features coming soon.

Click here to read more BEST OF CRIME features.

Follow the Blog Tour

The Girl Who Walked in the Shadows by Marnie Riches - blog tour review

I am delighted to be today's stop on the BLOG TOUR for Marnie Riches' The Girl Who Walked in the Shadows, which was published on 31 March 2016 by Maze (Avon).

The Girl Who Walked in the Shadows

By Marnie Riches

Published by Avon/Maze (31 March 2016)

Publisher's description

Europe is in the grip of an extreme Arctic blast and at the mercy of a killer, who leaves no trace. His weapons of choice are razor-sharp icicles. This is Jack Frost.

Now a fully qualified criminologist, Georgina McKenzie is called upon by the Dutch police to profile this cunning and brutal murderer. Are they looking for a hit man or a frenzied serial-killer? Could there be a link to a cold missing persons’ case that George had worked with Chief Inspector Paul van den Bergen – two abducted toddlers he could never quite give up on?

The hunt for Jack Frost sparks a dangerous, heart-rending journey through the toughest neighbourhoods in Europe, where refugees and Roma gypsies scratch a living on the edge of society. Walking into the dark, violent world of a trans-national trafficking ring, can George outrun death to shed light on two terrible mysteries?

My verdict
The Girl Who Walked in the Shadows could possibly be read as a standalone. But I suggest you read the series in the correct order to understand the relationship between the main characters, Georgina (George) MacKenzie and Chief Inspector Paul van den Bergen. This book is set two years after the previous one (The Girl Who Broke the Rules). George is now a fully qualified criminologist, but she's just as opinionated as she was in the previous books. Yet again, she's working with Paul to solve some intriguing crimes, and their personal relationship is as complex as ever.

This is certainly the darkest of the three books in the series. It's a story of child abduction, paedophile rings and brutal murders. A serial killer nicknamed Jack Frost is taking advantage of the Arctic weather conditions to kill his victims. In a seemingly unconnected plot, taking place in the past, two children go missing in Amsterdam and their parents are looking for answers, using desperate measures to discover the truth.

As with the first two books, The Girl Who Walked in the Shadows is split mainly between London, Cambridge and Amsterdam. The three different settings work well yet again, with some very strong characters in each location. It took me a little while to get to grips with the different subplots in the book, especially the switch between past and present, but the jigsaw pieces gradually slotted into place.

'The Girl Who books' are gripping and highly enjoyable, with plenty of twists and turns. They are supposed to be a trilogy, but I hope it isn't the last we see of George.

I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.


Click here to read my review of Marnie's first book, The Girl Who Wouldn't Die.
Click here to read my review of her second book, The Girl Who Broke the Rules.
Click here to read about her pathway to publication.

Follow the Blog Tour: