BEST OF CRIME with Bevan Frank

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 

BEVAN FRANK

to share his BEST OF CRIME ...

... AUTHORS

There are several authors competing for my top spot but I would say it has to go to Dan Brown, who was catapulted to fame with The Da Vinci Code. All of his books are gripping and draw the reader inward. Brown’s ability to create suspense and cleverly merge the boundaries between fiction and reality is inspirational. 

... FILMS/MOVIES

Martin Scorsese’s The Departed – I am drawn to it and find myself watching it again and again. It has an excellent script and a great cast. 

... TV DRAMAS

If I look back on my early (earlier) years, Magnum P.I. with Tom Selleck was brilliant. Even today I still enjoy watching episodes again of Magnum and his friends solving crimes, so much so that I’ve always wanted to name my house ‘Robin’s Nest’ after the Hawaiian estate where Magnum lived, but my wife won’t hear of it. (As she constantly points out, my name is not Robin!)

If I am to consider ‘modern times’, then the best crime drama is a tie between The Sopranos and Money Heist (narrowly edging out Better Call Saul). They are all nothing short of brilliant, with characters and plots that linger long after I’ve switched off the remote control. 

... FICTIONAL KILLERS

Keyser Söze from Christopher McQuarrie’s The Usual Suspects. It’s a well-crafted story and I love the fact that the killer could be just another regular guy in the room with us. Someone you least suspect but someone who is calling the shots, someone with a brilliant mind able to hide himself from scrutiny while terrorising all who cross his path. Keyser Sözeis the perfect villain.

... FICTIONAL DETECTIVES 

While not a formal detective, Robert Langdon from Dan Brown’s books is a super-sleuth of note, trying to make sense of whatever is thrown his way as he gets to the bottom of deciphering clues, solving problems and saving the day.

... MURDER WEAPONS

What still stands out for me is Michael Crichton’s Prey, where the villain creates nanobots (made of nanoparticles) which evolve into clouds of autonomous intelligent swarms and become a lethal killing machine.

... DEATH SCENES

Without wanting to give anything away, a major death scene in Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo springs to mind. Here the person is fleeing in a car and crashes into a fuel tanker. After being stuck underneath it, the tanker then explodes. It took me by surprise!

... BLOGS/WEBSITES

I don’t have a specific website for writing or research. I do, however, recommend the book Immediate Fiction by Jerry Cleaver. It gives great tips on setting scenes, creating memorable characters and writing books generally. It also gives ways to overcome writer’s block (or ‘writer’s stuckness’ as I was once told to rather call it!) The book was an invaluable resource which helped me get to the finish line when writing my thriller.

... WRITING TIPS

Write for 10 minutes every day, even if you’re just writing rubbish! The premise is that this eventually becomes an ingrained habit. Everyone has 10 minutes in their day to follow their dreams. I used the ‘10 minutes a day’ concept to write The Mind of God. Some days if I was in the flow the 10 minutes became 20 minutes or 30 minutes etc. After one year I had a substantial nucleus on which to build. You’ll be surprised at how much you can do in these little gaps. 

... WRITING SNACKS

Before my stroke, tea. Since my stroke, coffee. And always salted caramel ice-cream and lots of chocolate. And a bottle of whiskey on stand-by!

About BEVAN FRANK

Bevan Frank has a BA degree in English and Political Studies as well as a postgraduate LLB law degree, both from the University of Cape Town. 

After qualifying as an attorney Bevan decided to follow his passion and opted down the path of writing and editing. He has worked as a business magazine editor, journalist, writer, plain language practitioner and communications consultant. His articles have been published in numerous publications locally and globally. 

Bevan lives in Hertfordshire with his wife and children. The Mind of God is his award-winning debut novel. He is currently recovering from a stroke and hopes to get going with his second thriller once he emerges from the haze. 

Find Bevan Frank on his website and on Twitter - @justcallmebevan

About THE MIND OF GOD

Publisher's description

A black box. A race against time. No turning back. When Liz Greene discovers that her father is missing, she is unwittingly drawn into a plot that could change the world forever. Before he went missing, Professor Harry Greene had been working on the black box global consciousness project. Now, Liz needs to find both her father, and his groundbreaking research before it's too late. On the same day, President of the United States Daniel Rafferty is in Cape Town to give an address at the Convention Centre. Is it a coincidence that the black box was stolen while Rafferty is in the same city, or is there an even more sinister terrorist plot at play? Follow Liz, as she and her friend, Tim Fletcher, decode one clue after another in a deadly hunt around Cape Town, all the while being pursued by an assassin and a CIA agent.

The Mind of God is available to buy from Amazon here.

Look out for more BEST OF CRIME features coming soon.

Click here to read more BEST OF CRIME features.

Deep Dark Night by Steph Broadribb

Deep Dark Night 
By Steph Broadribb
Published by Orenda Books (5 March 2020)
I received an advance reader copy from the publisher 

Publisher's description

A city in darkness. A building in lockdown. A score that can only be settled in blood…

Working off the books for FBI Special Agent Alex Monroe, Florida bounty-hunter Lori Anderson and her partner, JT, head to Chicago. Their mission: to entrap the head of the Cabressa crime family. The bait: a priceless chess set that Cabressa is determined to add to his collection.

An exclusive high-stakes poker game is arranged in the penthouse suite of one of the city’s tallest buildings, with Lori holding the cards in an agreed arrangement to hand over the pieces, one by one. But, as night falls and the game plays out, stakes rise and tempers flare.

When a power failure plunges the city into darkness, the building goes into lockdown. But this isn’t an ordinary blackout, and the men around the poker table aren’t all who they say they are. Hostages are taken, old scores resurface and the players start to die.

And that’s just the beginning…

My verdict
It feels very apt to publish this book review on Off-the-Shelf Books on Mother's Day in the UK, because Lori Anderson, the protagonist of Deep Dark Night, is very much a devoted mother. She also happens to be a kickass bounty hunter who get herself into various precarious scenarios. And the scenario in Deep Dark Night certainly seems to be her most dangerous one yet.

Lori and her partner JT have taken on a high-stakes case that involves not just gambling for money but gambling for their lives. And while everything falls apart around her, all Lori can really think about is getting back safely to her daughter.

Deep Dark Night is 'Die Hard on speed', with constant action through skyscraper blackouts, riots in the city and a locked-room mystery. The book sizzles with electricity, taking the reader on a rollercoaster of emotions, yet also has an intense claustrophobic feel to it. It's a brilliant fun one-sitting read that will push your adrenaline levels sky high.

Another reason I love this book is that due to its structure JT finally has 'a voice' as we follow his endeavours to keep himself safe, after he and Lori are forced to go their separate ways. Thanks to plenty of cliffhangers followed by a switch in viewpoint, this book constantly left me feeling on edge.

This series keeps on getting better and better, with Steph Broadribb expertly creating three-dimensional characters and plots that continue to shock, thrill and entertain. Looking forward to the next one.


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A Window Breaks by C.M. Ewan

A Window Breaks
By C.M. Ewan
Published by Pan (31 October 2019)
I received an Advance Reader Copy from Netgalley

Publisher's description

If your family was targeted in the middle of the night, what would you do?

You are asleep. A noise wakes you.

You stir, unsure why, and turn to your wife.

Then you hear it.

Glass. Crunching underfoot.

Your worst fears are about to be realized.

Someone is inside your home.

Your choices are limited.

You can run. Or stay and fight. 

What would you do?

My verdict
I was hooked from the outset. If it hadn't been for sleep and work, I would have read A Window Breaks in one sitting - instead, it took two sittings. My first sitting involved reading until 1.15 am. My second sitting involved ditching work for an hour after lunch (just as well I work for myself so my time is my own).

The book is split into two parts. There's the present, as Tom and Rachel try to keep their 13-year-old daughter safe from the armed intruders. And then there's the past, following the story of their 16-year-old son, Michael, who was killed in a car crash nine months earlier. Events are cleverly revealed by going backwards in time, with snippets of what really happened that night and how Tom has struggled to come to terms with Michael's death.

I read this book so quickly - I barely took a breath and could feel my heart pounding throughout. I had to force myself to slow down. I often worry with these fast-paced thrillers that everything will be unbelievable. But this all felt so real - from the characters to the setting and even the plot. It all seemed plausible too, nothing so outlandish that I sat there shaking my head. I could feel the tension, every moment of fear. I could picture it all. I felt as though I was there.

This is likely to be one of my books of the year.

My Emotional History Lesson with The Courier

Today, I'm on the Blog Tour for The Courier by Kjell Ola Dahl, which is being published in paperback by Orenda Books on 21 March 2019. (E-book already available.) If you haven't already bought The Courier, I highly recommend it (you can read my full review at the end of this post). Rather than republish my review on its own, I thought I would research some background facts. I certainly wasn't intending to turn this into an emotional history lesson - read on to discover more.  

I love it when crime novels or thrillers leave me wanting to know more. I don't mean in terms of plot but, instead, I mean in terms of my own knowledge. 

The Courier is set in Norway in 1942, 1967 and 2015. After reading the book, I realised I knew very little about the Jews living there during the Nazi invasion.

I wrote this in my original review:

"The book is steeped in history - Norway in World War 2 and the plight of its Jewish people during the Holocaust - with roots in espionage and wartime resistance. Its female protagonist, Ester, is strong and courageous, highlighting the importance of women during the war and how they risked their lives. I was fascinated by the social and political background, knowing very little about the Nazi invasion of Norway during World War 2. I found myself Googling snippets of information as I read the book - and now I've finished I want to know more!"

So I did go in search of more ... 

But where did I go and what did I find?
I actually found a lot more than I expected!

I thought I would find some facts about Norway during the Holocaust and the fate of the Jews there. Rather than rely on Wikipedia (as many people do), I found myself on the Yad Vashem website. For those who don't know, Yad Vashem is the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, Israel - the best place to go to for information on the Holocaust, with its testimonials, Hall of Names memorial and digital collections, and its fascinating (and heart-wrenching) Holocaust History Museum.

Here are five facts I found 

1. Germany invaded Norway on 9th April 1940. At that time, there were about 1,700 Jews living in Norway, including around 200 Jewish refugees from Central Europe. Most of Norway's Jews lived in the capital, Oslo, and about 300 lived in the city of Trondheim. (Source 1)
2. By early 1942, Jewish identity papers had to be stamped with the word "Jew." (Source 1)
3. During the Holocaust, 763 Norwegian Jews were sent to the death camps. Of these, 739 were murdered, mainly in Auschwitz. Another 23 Norwegian Jews were killed in Norway by the Nazis. And around 900 Jews escaped to Sweden, with the help of the Norwegian Underground. (Source 2)
4. More than 5,000 non-Jewish Norwegians were also deported to concentration camps; 649 of these died there. (Source 1)
5. The Germans gave up their control over Norway in May 1945. (Source 1)

Original sources are at the end.

Norwegian victims of Auschwitz

Unable to stop there, I carried on my search. Through Yad Vashem, I found a list of Holocaust victims (men, women and children) living in Norway who were then deported to Auschwitz and died there. If you want more details, the link is here. The information in the list is still lacking in many places, and will probably never be known. But in summary, the youngest was aged one year and the oldest was aged 75. 

I was astonished to discover that this list includes Jacob/Jakob Caplan/Kaplan and Solly Caplan/Kaplan from Manchester, England. It made me wonder about their stories. Were they brothers or maybe father and son? Jacob/Jakob was born in 1903 so would have been around 40 when he died, but there's no date of birth for Solly and there's no date of death for either of them. How did they end up in Norway and then in Auschwitz? If they had remained in England, they would never had died in the camps.

I mentioned this to Steph Rothwell (Steph's Book Blog) and she searched the Lancashire birth records - there are several Jacob and Solomon Caplans born between 1900 and 1910 in the Cheetham subdistrict.

Then my husband (a genealogy whizz) showed me how to access the Yad Vashem Pages of Testimony and I now know more about the brothers Jacob & Solly Caplan. These Pages of Testimony was submitted to Yad Vashem by Jacob's son in 1978:

Information (in Hebrew) was also submitted by their aunt, Malka Klein Gotfrid.

Remembering Holocaust victims

Finally, I want to mention a bittersweet burial and memorial ceremony I went to in January 2019 - one of the most emotional services I have ever been to and history in the making. It was for six unknown Jewish Holocaust victims, whose remains had been stored at the Imperial War Museum in London for twenty years, donated by an unnamed person, believed to be a survivor. 

We know nothing about these victims - their ages, places of birth or dates of death. But it IS known (thanks to forensic techniques) that these were five adults and one child. And we also know that they were all murdered at Auschwitz simply because they were Jewish. The remains were finally given a Jewish burial and a final resting place in Bushey New (Jewish) Cemetery.

As we stood outside in bitter temperatures, with ice and snow covering the ground, we couldn't even imagine what it would have been like for starving Holocaust victims in the camps, with their flimsy clothes. 

These six victims represent the six million Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust and who have no grave for their families to visit. Fifty Holocaust survivors attended the burial and memorial service, many of them wondering whether any of these victims were from their own families.

It's possible that one (or more) of them could have even come from Norway.

We will never know. 

The Courier by Kjell Ola Dahl

The rest of my review

Publisher's description

In 1942, Jewish courier Ester is betrayed, narrowly avoiding arrest by the Gestapo. In a great haste, she escapes to Sweden, saving herself. Her family in Oslo, however, is deported to Auschwitz. In Stockholm, Ester meets the resistance hero, Gerhard Falkum, who has left his little daughter and fled both the Germans and allegations that he murdered his wife, Åse, who helped Ester get to Sweden. Their burgeoning relationship ends abruptly when Falkum dies in a fire.And yet, twenty-five years later, Falkum shows up in Oslo. He wants to reconnect with his daughter. But where has he been, and what is the real reason for his return? Ester stumbles across information that forces her to look closely at her past, and to revisit her war-time training to stay alive…

My verdict
The Courier is a literary spy thriller, perfect for John Le Carré fans, and a very welcome addition to the Nordic Noir genre.

The book features a tightly threaded plot and convincing characterisation, so it didn't take long to worm its way under my skin. I was soon caught up in the lives of Ester, Gerhard, Sverre, Åsa and Turid. There's a sense of unease throughout the book, as Ester seeks answers to how her friend Åsa died. I was holding my breath in several gripping moments as she, Sverre and Gerhard played their cat-and-mouse games. I had no idea who to trust and who to believe, right until the final scenes.

The narrative switches seamlessly between Oslo and Stockholm in 1942 and Oslo in 1967 and 2015. Each chapter is clearly marked with the year and location so the multiple timelines were very easy to follow.  The writing is excellent (translated by Don Bartlett) - sparse where it needs to be, to move the story along at a fast pace, but highly descriptive elsewhere, with acute observations that paint a vivid picture of people and places.

So much tension bubbles away under the surface. But this is far more than just a thriller and a murder mystery. It's also a heartbreaking read, as Ester learns more about what happened to her family and her childhood friend. The ending brought tears to my eyes but also a strong sense of resolution.

Highly recommended!

Sources
1. Norway. Shoah Resource Center. Yad Vashem. https://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205966.pdf, accessed March 2019

2. Murder of the Jews of Western Europe. Yad Vashem. https://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/about/fate-of-jews/western-europe.html, accessed March 2019

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Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton - very early review

Three Hours
By Rosamund Lupton
Published by Penguin Books UK (17 October 2019)
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher via NetGalley

I don't usually read and review books this early, but I was told that I MUST read this one by another reviewer (Liz Barnsley of Liz Loves Books) - as it was well worth doing so. I also don't usually read books in one sitting like this, so I have to get my thoughts out of my system now! Apologies for such an early (but spoiler-free) review.

Publisher's description

In a rural English village in the middle of a snowstorm, the unthinkable happens: the school is under siege.

From the wounded headmaster barricaded in the library, to teenage Hannah in love for the first time, to the pregnant police psychologist who must identify the gunmen...

My verdict
Ironically it took me around three hours to read Three Hours. For most of that time, my heart was pounding with a strong sense of fear and dread, my throat tight, my jaw tense. I barely took a breath, occasionally coming up for air. This is a race against the clock – and in various places I wished that I could press a pause button to give the characters extra time.

The writing moves at a cracking pace, switching from person to person, then back again, with some expertly woven twists – so cleverly structured. Afterwards, I couldn’t stop thinking about all the little things that now made sense and slotted into place, that I’d blinked over when I’d read them the first time.

I felt as though as I was there alongside the characters, as if they were my own friends and family – all of it feeling so real and close to home. Yes, the plotting is incredible but it’s the writing that wowed me in particular and wormed its way under my skin.

While there’s a mystery at the heart of the book – who are these gunmen and why are they targeting this remote school in Somerset? – for me, the book was an emotional rollercoaster from beginning to end, fuelled by its human element and exploration of human nature. What drives us to perform immense acts of violence and also immense acts of love? 

Three Hours was a traumatic reading experience in many ways – it challenged me, thrilled me, stunned me and upset me - but I am so glad that I immersed myself within its pages. In several places, I had to pause and take a breath – scared to read on, yet scared not to. My youngest teen came into the room at one point while I was reading and I just wanted to pull him close and hug him, never let him go. This book made me worry about my teenagers, about sending them to school the next day, about the future of society. Yet it also gave me a sense of hope.

Three Hours is a thriller about ordinary people doing what’s right, going above and beyond their natural capabilities and comfort zone. It’s a message about society and vulnerability, love and the importance of community. This will be one of my top reads of 2019.

Storm Rising by Sara Driscoll

Storm Rising
by Sara Driscoll
Published by Kensington Books (27 November 2018)

Publisher's description

In the wake of a devastating hurricane, Special Agent Meg Jennings and her Labrador, Hawk—invaluable members of the FBI’s Human Scent Evidence Team—have been deployed to Virginia Beach. They have their work cut out for them. Amid graveyards of debris, and the buried cries for help, the search and rescue operation begins. The most alarming discovery is yet to come—a teenage girl hiding in the Great Dismal Swamp. Shaken by the storm, she has reason to be scared. But this young survivor is terrified of so much more.

Her name is Emma—a disheveled runaway lost to the sordid underbelly of a Virginia sex-trafficking ring. Its leader has disappeared in the chaos—along with other victims. With so much evidence, and so many witnesses, seemingly washed away, Meg joins forces with Special Agent Walter Van Cleave to ensure no further harm comes to their vulnerable charge. They soon discover that this is no small-time localized syndicate. Its branches are rooted in some of the most influential powers in Virginia. Now as Meg’s investigation digs deeper, she’s making some very dangerous enemies. And one by one, they’re coming out of the storm to stop her.

My verdict
I loved this book! Those four words sum up my entire review - so I don't really need to write anything else! But I will.

Storm Rising focuses on the devastating impact of floods following a hurricane and the discovery of a sex-trafficking ring involving young teenage girls. It's well researched (as always), with plenty of background into the K-9 search-and-rescue team and also disaster management and crime investigations. The book includes some interesting facts at the start of each chapter. This is great for me, as I love to learn something new when I read.

Storm Rising is well written and well plotted - I whizzed through it fairly quickly - with an amazing sense of place, thanks to the vivid descriptions of the floods. It kept me interested and entertained all the way through. The topic is very timely, with US floods (and also fires) in the media spotlight. The book highlights the impact of natural disasters on everyone involved, from those who lose their homes to those responding in an emergency.

Meg is a brilliant main character - although I think Hawk the dog is really the one in the limelight in this series. You could easily read this book as a standalone, but I would suggest you read the previous two books as well, to build up the characters and the dynamics between them.

The Courier by Kjell Ola Dahl - a cover reveal update!

In September 2018, I revealed the cover for The Courier by Kjell Ola Dahl, which is being published by Orenda Books in March 2019. Well, I'm delighted to reveal that the cover has been updated and you can see it below!!! 

If you missed the blurb the first time, here's a reminder!

*drum roll*

The Courier: Read the blurb

In 1942, Jewish courier Ester is betrayed, narrowly avoiding arrest by the Gestapo. In a great haste, she escapes to Sweden, saving herself. Her family in Oslo, however, is deported to Auschwitz.

In Stockholm, Ester meets the resistance hero, Gerhard Falkum, who has left his little daughter and fled both the Germans and allegations that he murdered his wife, Åse, who helped Ester get to Sweden. Their burgeoning relationship ends abruptly when Falkum dies in a fire.

And yet, twenty-five years later, Falkum shows up in Oslo. He wants to reconnect with his daughter. But where has he been, and what is the real reason for his return? Ester stumbles across information that forces her to look closely at her past, and to revisit her war-time training to stay alive…

Written with Dahl's trademark characterization and elegant plotting, The Courier sees the godfather of Nordic Noir at his best, as he takes on one of the most horrific periods of modern history, in an exceptional, shocking thriller.

I am so excited to read this book! I'm currently on the search for more 'Jewish books' to read, as I'm a book blog partner of Jewish Book Week in March 2019. So the timing is perfect!

AND NOW.... *drum roll*

The Courier: View the NEW cover

I love this! If you're familiar with Orenda Books, you'll know how brilliantly each jacket cover ties in with the story inside! 

The Courier: Read about author Kjell Ola Dahl

One of the godfathers of the Nordic Noir genre, Kjell Ola Dahl was born in 1958 in Gjøvik. He made his debut in 1993, and has since published eleven novels, the most prominent of which is a series of police procedurals cum psychological thrillers featuring investigators Gunnarstranda and Frølich. In 2000 he won the Riverton Prize for The Last Fix and he won both the prestigious Brage and Riverton Prizes for The Courier in 2015. His work has been published in 14 countries and sold over two million copies. He lives in Oslo. 

Find Kjell Ola Dahl on Twitter - @ko_dahl

For ALL of your Orenda news, visit the Orenda website and follow @OrendaBooks on Twitter.

The Courier by Kjell Ola Dahl - Cover Reveal!

Today, I'm delighted and excited to be hosting a cover reveal for The Courier by Kjell Ola Dahl, which is being published by Orenda Books in March 2019.

But before I show you the cover, you must read the blurb. 

If you're familiar with Orenda Books, you'll know how brilliantly each jacket cover ties in with the story inside!

*drum roll*

The Courier: Read the blurb

In 1942, Jewish courier Ester is betrayed, narrowly avoiding arrest by the Gestapo. In a great haste, she escapes to Sweden, saving herself. Her family in Oslo, however, is deported to Auschwitz.

In Stockholm, Ester meets the resistance hero, Gerhard Falkum, who has left his little daughter and fled both the Germans and allegations that he murdered his wife, Åse, who helped Ester get to Sweden. Their burgeoning relationship ends abruptly when Falkum dies in a fire.

And yet, twenty-five years later, Falkum shows up in Oslo. He wants to reconnect with his daughter. But where has he been, and what is the real reason for his return? Ester stumbles across information that forces her to look closely at her past, and to revisit her war-time training to stay alive…

Written with Dahl's trademark characterization and elegant plotting, The Courier sees the godfather of Nordic Noir at his best, as he takes on one of the most horrific periods of modern history, in an exceptional, shocking thriller.

This sounds BRILLIANT and I can't wait to read it! Yet another intriguing thriller being published by Orenda Books.

AND NOW.... *drum roll*

The Courier: View the cover

I love this cover! Elegant, eye-catching and sophisticated, which sums up all of Orenda's books, inside and out!

The Courier: Read about author Kjell Ola Dahl

One of the godfathers of the Nordic Noir genre, Kjell Ola Dahl was born in 1958 in Gjøvik. He made his debut in 1993, and has since published eleven novels, the most prominent of which is a series of police procedurals cum psychological thrillers featuring investigators Gunnarstranda and Frølich. In 2000 he won the Riverton Prize for The Last Fix and he won both the prestigious Brage and Riverton Prizes for The Courier in 2015. His work has been published in 14 countries and sold over two million copies. He lives in Oslo. 

Find Kjell Ola Dahl on Twitter - @ko_dahl

For ALL of your Orenda news, visit the Orenda website and follow @OrendaBooks on Twitter.

First to Die by Alex Caan

First to Die
By Alex Caan
Published by Bonnier (14 June 2018)
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher

Publisher's description

SOMEWHERE IN THE CROWD IS A KILLER 
Bonfire Night and St James's Park is filled with thousands of Anonymous protesters in a stand-off with the police. When a cloaked, Guido Fawkes mask-wearing body is discovered the following morning, Kate Riley and Zain Harris from the Police Crime Commissioner's office are called in.
The corpse has been eaten away by a potentially lethal and highly contagious virus. The autopsy reveals the victim was a senior civil servant, whose work in international development involved saving lives. Why would anyone want him dead? 
THEY WILL STRIKE AGAIN 
As the research team looking into the origins of the deadly virus scramble to discover an antidote, first one, then another pharmacist goes missing. Meanwhile, a dark truth starts to emerge about the murder victim: he was an aggressive man, whose bullying behaviour resulted in the suicide attempt of one of his former staff members.
AND TIME IS RUNNING OUT . . .
With thirty lives potentially at stake, Kate and Zain have their work cut out for them. Can they find the two missing pharmacists in time, or will they too end up dead?

My verdict

First to Die is the sequel to Alex Caan's Cut to the Bone, and you can't get more 'bang up to date' than this. Here you have a police team (and potentially the capital city) in crisis, with fears of a deadly virus on the loose. It's a race against the clock in case the killer strikes again.

Alex Caan has written a gripping, fast-paced crime thriller. He kept me guessing all the way through, as key characters (Kate and Zain) struggled to unravel the truth about who killed this senior civil servant, and why. The plot is complex, steeped in science and politics, with plenty of twists, turns and surprises throughout - and a few 'heart in the mouth' moments too.

Both Kate and Zain have complicated pasts and secrets to hide, with regular 'reveals' about their backgrounds fleshing out their characters and triggering intense emotions in both of them. While they're battling their demons, they're put their own lives in danger, which really ramps up the pace. There are plenty of other larger-than-life characters too, turning this into a fun read despite it's dark undertones.

While First to Die could be read as a standalone, I recommend reading Cut to the Bone first. I'm looking forward to seeing what Alex Caan comes up with next!

It Was Her by Mark Hill

It Was Her
By Mark Hill
Published by Sphere (17 May 2018)
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher.

Publisher's description

Do you want a thriller where nothing is as it seems?

Twenty years ago, Tatia was adopted into a well-off home where she seemed happy, settled. Then the youngest boy in the family dies in an accident, and she gets the blame. 

Did she do it?

Tatia is cast out, away from her remaining adopted siblings Joel and Poppy. Now she yearns for a home to call her own. So when she see families going on holiday, leaving their beautiful homes empty, there seems no harm in living their lives while they are gone. But somehow, people keep ending up dead.

Did she kill them?

As bodies start to appear in supposedly safe neighbourhoods, DI Ray Drake and DS Flick Crowley race to find the thinnest of links between the victims. But Drake's secret past is threatening to destroy everything.

My verdict
Yet again, Mark Hill has written a gripping crime thriller. I loved His First Lie (originally called Two O'Clock Boy), so was excited to read It Was Her, which is the next book in the DI Ray Drake series.

It Was Her focuses on dysfunctional families (okay, let's call them EXTREMELY dysfunctional families) and toxic relationships. It's filled with unreliable characters with distorted memories, hidden secrets and disturbing pasts.

This book is VERY dark and VERY twisted, with an air of mystery throughout, not just with the main plot, but also with the lead character Ray Drake. He's a complicated character to understand (conflicted, moody and damaged), and I can't say too much without revealing spoilers. To know more about his background, and his strained relationship with DS Flick Crowley, you should really read His First Lie before this book.

Mark Hill's writing is a pleasure to read, as it was in His First Lie too, with realistic dialogue and chilling descriptions of gruesome murders. With both books, I've found myself sympathising with some dubious characters, proving that not everything in life is clearcut and there's a definite grey area between 'good' and 'evil'. Can people really atone for the past?

It Was Her certainly kept me on my toes, trying to figure it all out (who was really to blame for events in the present and in the past?) and also left me wanting more (in a good way). Bring on the next book in the DI Ray Drake series!

Highly recommended!

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What makes the best crime fiction? by Paul E. Hardisty

I am delighted to be today's stop on the blog tour for Absolution by Paul E. Hardisty. Absolution is the fourth book in the Claymore Straker series, which is published by Orenda Books, and will be published in paperback on 30 May 2018.

What makes the best crime fiction? 

By Paul E. Hardisty

Realism, to me, makes the best crime fiction. When I read thrillers and crime stories (or any other literature for that matter), I don’t want to suspend my disbelief, I want to shudder with the realisation of what is possible, and what people are capable of, good and bad. A great example is the novel-within-a-novel HHhH by Laurent Binet. It is the story of the assassination in 1942 of Nazi SS Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heidrich by a team of Czech soldiers who parachuted into Prague specifically for the mission. It is a novel, but the chilling reality of the tale adds a poignancy and punch that a purely invented story simply cannot.

So when I write, I go to real events for inspiration. 

In my first novel, The Abrupt Physics of Dying, I used personal experience of working as a young engineer in the wilds of Yemen as civil war erupted around me, corruption ran unchecked, and powerful men scrambled to control the country’s developing oil resources, to build the story.  Fictionalising people and events around that reality, paradoxically, allowed me to tell the truth about what was happening then in a way my official scientific reports never could. 

In the third instalment of the Claymore Straker series, Reconciliation for the Dead, I take the reader back to 1980, onto the front line of a little-known war in Angola, when apartheid South Africa was fighting against the communists. One of the central plot elements of the book revolves around an obscure but bone-chilling secret program run by the South African government of the time, designed to keep the black populace in check. I had heard anecdotally of the existence of such a program many years before, when as a boy, I heard my father speaking with white South Africans who had fled the violence. Later, I heard similar stories from a hardened South African army veteran I met working in the oilfields of the Ukraine. So when it came time to write of Clay Straker’s harrowing past growing up as a child of apartheid, and found reference to these same events in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission transcripts, I knew it had to come into the story. 

The fourth Straker novel, Absolution, out now, is set in Egypt and East Africa, places I have worked in over many years and know well. Again, the key plot elements are built around true events and issues, one of which I experienced first-hand, quite intimately, and the other which (thank God) I only heard about in the news at the time (1997).  

Either way – personal experience or research – these true-life settings allow the rest of the fiction to be anchored in something which is even more thrilling, even more chilling, because it is absolutely real.  That, to me, is the best of crime fiction.

About Absolution

Absolution

By Paul Hardisty

Published by Orenda Books (E-book- available now; Paperback - 30 May 2018)

Publisher's description

It is 1997, eight months since vigilante justice-seeker Claymore Straker fled South Africa after his explosive testimony to Desmond Tutu’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In Paris, Rania LaTour, journalist, comes home to find that her son and her husband, a celebrated human rights lawyer, have disappeared. On an isolated island off the coast of East Africa, the family that Clay has befriended is murdered as he watches. 

So begins the fourth instalment in the Claymore Straker series, a breakneck journey through the darkest reaches of the human soul, as Clay and Rania fight to uncover the mystery behind the disappearances and murders, and find those responsible. Events lead them both inexorably to Egypt, where an act of the most shocking terrorist brutality will reveal not only why those they loved were sacrificed, but how they were both, indirectly, responsible. 

Here's a snippet of my review: 'The Claymore Straker series is impactful and thought-provoking, highlighting the damage humans can do, not only to each other but also to the planet. I always feel that I have learnt something by the end of each one - and look at the world through slightly different eyes.'

Click here to read the whole review.

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