A Thin Line Seattle detective John Corbin spends his working life catching rapists, murderers and paedophiles, but a new killer is on the prowl, ridding the world of villains before the police can intervene. As Corbin discovers more bodies, he is faced with a dilemma – the gap between good and evil appears to grow…
Month: August 2016
‘The Last Days of Newgate’ by Andrew Pepper
The Last Days of Newgate 1829, London. Following a suspect into the dark and dangerous rookeries, Bow Street Runner Pyke stumbles across a brutal murder. Finding himself involved in tracking down the killer, he is dragged into a deepening mystery that challenges all his talents as a thief taker. As the city seethes with religious…
Squeeze it Like Arnie
Over the last few months I’ve read and reviewed a fair number of books, and while most of them were enjoyable (good story, interesting characters etc), I kept coming across one particular issue. Now while this issue doesn’t cause me to chuck the book out the damn window, it’s quite irksome and constantly distracts me…
How to Tweet Nice
One of the things I love about the online writing community, is how supportive everyone is, promoting each other’s books, blogs and anything else that needs a bit of publicity. However, this bonhomie doesn’t extend to everyone and there are a few writers whose work I regularly re-tweet or otherwise endorse, who rarely (if ever)…
‘Dead Dogs and Splintered Hearts’ by Tom Ward
Dead Dogs and Splintered Hearts In this collection of 24 short stories, writer Tom Ward drops us into a world of love, death and dancing. Though held together by the book’s general theme (pooches and broken hearts), the subject matter ranges from Parisian cabaret and a house disturbed by the ghostly presence of Norman Mailer,…
‘Betrayal’ by Sharon Brownlie
Betrayal Caught in an endless spiral of rejection and abuse, Helen King is lured into a life of drugs and prostitution. Struggling to relinquish her addiction, she happens upon a former teacher, an encounter that opens up old wounds and sparks a new challenge – retribution. Trailing the teacher to Scotland, Helen sets out to…
‘Deadly Secrets’ by Gordon Bickerstaff
Deadly Secrets When biochemist Gavin Shawlens agrees to work on a new food additive, he becomes embroiled in network of intrigue and corruption. Discovering he’ll be working with former girlfriend Emma, he makes up his mind to walk away from the project rather than face seeing her every day. However, unknown forces quickly land him…
How Songs Saved My Characters…
Writing dialogue is often a bit of a sticking points for authors and finding ways to get past it to free up our creative juices can be frustrating to say the least. These days I find dialogue quite straightforward, but a few years ago, a couple of female characters had me tearing my hair out…