Happy Halloween! Hope You Get To Spend It Reading!

Happy Halloween! I hope you’re having a spooky day and getting more treats than tricks! Thanks for checking out my blog and mad love to all my followers- I appreciate your support! I hope you’re having a great day filled with dressing up, sweets,  silly decorations, pumpkin carving and, of course, reading!

If you need some inspiration on what to pick up today then take a look at The Top Five Best Short Reads to Spook You Out On Halloween as well as The Top Five Edgar Allan Poe Stories to Give You The Shivers and of course The Ten Best Horror Stories! Happy Reading!

Hugh Fraser Interview: “I’ve always enjoyed the gritty American crime writers like Elmore Leonard and James Ellroy”

This week I’ve got an awesome treat for fans of the Rina Walker novels, as I talk to Hugh Fraser, Actor and Writer extraordinaire, who offers me an insight into his books and how his experiences influenced them.  

Tell me about how you came to define your writing style. What drew you towards thrillers?

I’m not aware of having a particular writing style but I’ve always enjoyed the gritty American crime writers like Elmore Leonard and James Ellroy and I imagine I must have been influenced by them in terms of style and also as to my choice of genre.

How do you draw on your time acting and how does it inspire your writing?

When I was a student at drama school in the early 1960s I lived in Notting Hill when it was a much poorer and rougher area than it is today and so I was able to observe the deprived conditions that Rina Walker grew up in and the criminality and racial prejudice that existed then. When I had no acting work in the early days I also worked as a musician in the kind of Soho hostess clubs that Rina frequents with her girlfriend Lizzie.

Tell me all about the Rina Walker series. What was your inspiration?

I have always collected the black and white photographs of Roger Mayne and Bert Hardy who captured so many evocative images of the poverty and dilapidation of the post-war inner cities. Roger Mayne’s series depicting the street life of Notting Hill and North Kensington in the 1950s I found particularly evocative, with Teddy Boys in their drainpipe trousers and drape jackets, and Teddy Girls in pencil skirts and tailored jackets with velvet collars, strutting their stuff, while raggedy little kids in threadbare clothes play football and hopscotch, or gather on the steps of the tenements.

It was in this neighborhood and this kind of poverty that I imagined my heroine Rina Walker growing up, the daughter of a recently murdered gangster and alcoholic mother, forced into a life of crime at an early age in order to care for and support her two younger siblings and all too soon acquiring the skills and expertise of a contract killer.

What books do you like to read yourself and how do they impact on your own writing? 


I have just finished the wonderful Love Hurts by William Boyd and I’m about to start Milkman by Anna Burns, which has just won the Booker Prize. I’m afraid these kind of beautifully written novels, which make us consider our lives and how we live them, have little or no impact on my own writing. My books are no more than entertainment of a very basic kind.

If you could collaborate with anyone, living or dead, who would it be and why?

What an interesting question. I think it would have to be Marcel Proust – but only if he’d let me share his Madeleines.

What’s next for the Rina Walker series? Have you got any exciting plans to develop it that you can share with us? 


I have no plans to start another outing for Rina at the moment but I won’t be surprised if she gives me a nudge sometime soon.

Is there any other work you’ve got coming up that you would like to tell me about?

I’m going to Iceland in a couple of weeks to appear in the Icelandic Noir Festival, which I’m really excited about.

Are there any new books or writers that you are looking forward to moving forward? 


I heard Edith Eger on Woman’s Hour this morning talking about The Choice, her harrowing account of surviving Auschwitz and slave labour in Germany. I was deeply moved by her heroism and optimism after enduring such unbelievable hardship and I can’t wait to read it.

Anything you’d like to add?

Thank you for asking me to join you.

It’s been awesome hearing from you, thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. You can read more about Hugh and his work HERE.

The Top Five Sir Clinton Driffield Novels To Give You A New Series To Adore

Sir Clinton Driffield was the Chief Constable creation of J.J. Connington, the pen name of Alfred Walter Stewart, a renowned scientist who wrote during the Golden Age of Crime Fiction. Alongside his vast contributions to science, he became a renowned crime novelist and a member of the Detection Club, alongside such greats as Dorothy L Sayers and Agatha Christie, the Queen of Crime herself.

At his height Stewart, through his pseudonym, was a key player in the Golden Age and was epitomising the genre. Whilst his works were not the typical style of the era, without a dandyish, enigmatic detective, they came to symbolise the Golden Age’s reliance on the influence of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes novels. Sir Clinton Driffield is a policeman, but he has a military-esq style of detective, and whilst he is less flamboyant than his more famous influence, his methods of deduction are based on science and facts, in a similar vein to Doyle’s detective.

Similarly, his friend and detective assistance Squire Wendover is a Watson counterpart. At times the landowner is quick thinking and has a deep understanding of human nature- at other times he is completely dense. Often blinded by his own sensibilities, he is a perfect foil to Stewart’s detective, and his presence often leads to many intriguing discoveries.

Following his death Stewart’s Sir Clinton Driffield novels went out of print, however today they can be bought through Orion’s Murder Room imprint, and you can also find some second hand editions online. As a result of being taken out of circulation for so long, the novels were not made into TV shows or films, or continued on through new authors continuing the series, and as such their popularity have dropped over the years.

It was whilst I was reviewing the brilliant Golden Age anthology Bodies From The Library that I first discovered Sir Clinton, and since then I’ve been tracking the novels down through the internet and some bookshop trawling, which was great fun. Now, I’d like to introduce you to my new favourite so that you can enjoy the tales of this astute and often mercenary police detective, so check out my top five books which will give you a great introduction.

5. The Four Defences: Many of Stewart’s Sir Clinton Driffield novels were based around real events, crimes or ideas, in this case a real life mystery often dubbed the ‘blazing car murder’. In the novel Driffield is confronted with an unidentified body found in a lighted car. A local man is missing, however the body has been cleverly staged to look like him, but is soon found to be a different man altogether. Now Driffield has two mysteries to solve and a variety of strange stories to untangle in his search for the truth.

4. Tragedy at Ravensthorpe: The second in the Sir Clinton Driffield series, Tragedy At Ravensthorpe is a country house mystery set in a secluded country manor where a masked ball leads to theft, murder and general mayhem. Family friend Sir Clinton Driffield seeks to help his old friends’ family and delve into the truth behind the various mysteries and restore order in his usual droll and methodical manner.

3. The Boathouse Riddle: When Wendover acquires a new boathouse he is keen to show his new toy off to his friend, Sir Clinton Driffield, who is on holiday to enjoy some fishing and see his old friend. The boathouse quickly becomes the scene of a baffling crime, and when another body is dredged up from the lake on which the boathouse is situated Sir Clinton and his friend have to untangle a sweeping web of lies and deceits. Fast-paced and enticing, the novel is a rich human drama that keeps the reader hooked until the final twist is revealed.

2. No Past Is Dead: After an unusual ceremony celebrating everything unlucky, the leader of the Thirteen Club is found brutally killed in suspicious circumstances, which involves being shot, mauled by a cheetah and having his throat slit. Sir Clinton and his companion Squire Wendover are joined by a journalist pal, who was present at the dinner to untangle the knotted web of lies and deceits that made up the victim’s life to find out why he died. A second murder swiftly follows the first, putting the Chief Constable at the centre of a fiendish mystery.

1. Murder In The Maze: Praised by no less than T.S. Eliot himself, the first book to feature Sir Clinton Driffield is a startling piece of detective fiction. As regular readers will know, I am a firm believer that the first book in any series is, more often than not, the best place to start, and in this case Murder In The Maze is an ideal introduction. Faced with double murder committed by poisoned darts in the heart of a maze at a country manor house, Driffield must use all his detective skill to draw out the devilish culprit before they strike again.

Stealth Review: Rina Walker Is As Deadly and Dastardly as Ever

Hit woman Rina Walker returns in another breath-taking novel from actor turned author Hugh Fraser.

After taking on a job, Rina discovers that there is much more to it than she previously thought. Failing to undertake the contract, she gains the unwanted attention of both Military Intelligence and the Broadmoor inmate who issued the order. While she deals with the difficult task of cleaning up her own mess, Fraser’s protagonist is also perused by a group of mercenary gangland heavies thanks to another kill she carried out from her conscience.

With her naturally dangerous working life in disarray, Rina has to work hard and fast to stop it colliding with her private one and keep those she cares about safe. Fraser has a real skill in creating a multi-dimensional character whose life is both complicated and, at the same time, not too syrupy. His protagonist is always perfectly balanced in every respect, and this is seen again in Stealth, which despite being the fourth book in the Rina Walker series, remains every bit as brilliant as the first three.

One of Fraser’s real triumphs, which I have remarked upon in previous reviews of his work, is his dialogue, and Stealth lives up to its forebear’s names in this regard too. The dialogue is crisp and sharp, and is used as both a characterisation tool and a plot driver, keeping the narrative flowing so that readers gain vital information quickly, without what I call ‘info dumping’, where writers dump huge chunks of information on their readers so they just end up trawling through endless paragraphs of exposition. By integrating this information into his dialogue Fraser keeps his reader hooked throughout, and draws them in as the novel speeds through to its nail-biting conclusion.

In all, Stealth is another great addition to the already spectacular Rina Walker series, and I’m looking forward to the next one even though I’ve only just finished this one!

She Chose Me Review: A Brilliant Psychological Thriller

Another exciting blog tour article for you today! This time it is gripping thriller She Chose Me by Tracey Emerson, which was only published a few days ago. Hot off the press, I wasn’t sure what to expect with this thriller, but was pleasantly surprised to find myself hooked only pages in.

Having lived abroad for many years, protagonist Grace comes back to London to deal with her Mum, who is now dying. She then starts receiving disturbing Mother’s Day cards, despite not having any children herself.

That’s when things start to get really eerie. Emerson paints a chilling portrait of a woman driven to the brink of insanity by someone clearly out to torment her, with silent phone calls causing flashbacks to a past that Grace thought she had managed to outrun.

With the truth closing in on her, Grace becomes a disturbed mess and readers get to see Emerson’s exceptional characterisation in action. The author paints a remarkably astute and accurate picture of a woman on the brink, all the while keeping her readers guessing and giving them teasing clues that lead them piece by piece to the final, nail-biting finale that leaves readers on the edge of their seats.

I’ll be honest here: generally speaking, these psychological thrillers where human nature and personal conflicts are at the centre is not really my bag. Give me a good serial killer any day. But She Chose Me really is in a league of its own. This novel has style and class in abundance, and Emerson drives the narrative forward at a startling pace, giving the reader no time to dwell in what may or may not have happened. There’s no time for boredom in this fast-paced thriller.

Written in the first person, the novel shifts between past and present, giving the reader an intriguing insight into both Grace’s current situation and the events that led to it. This alternating narrative is done well, and is not clumsy as some attempts often are.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this tightly wound thriller, and I will be looking out for more of Emerson’s writing in the future- and I would suggest you do the same.

Bob Mayer Interview: “writing is a very personal experience”

Bestselling author Bob Mayer talks to me about his writing and the experiences that led him to writing such incredible work.

Tell me about how you came to define your writing style. What drew you towards writing?

I’ve been writing for a living for 30 years. My style has evolved over time. Initially I was very plot oriented and outlined quite a bit. The last couple of years I’ve shifted more to what I call streaming—which is setting up my characters in a setting and throwing obstacles in their path and just writing. I feel I’ve written enough that I can do it more ‘on the fly’ although that requires more rewriting and thinking than outlining does.

I started writing just to write. I didn’t think about getting published. I’d read so much it just seemed a natural outgrowth of that.

What is your career background and how did you get into writing novels?

I served in the Army for a number of years in the Infantry and Special Forces. After I resigned my active duty commission and was in the Reserves, I moved to Asia to study martial arts. I had some time on my hand, the original 512k Mac, and just started writing. I finished two manuscripts without thinking about selling them. Then someone read one and said, “This is like a real book!” And then I went through the long, arduous process of getting published.

Please tell me about your books and why readers enjoy them.

I write across a range of genres so some of my books should appeal to everyone. I’ve hit bestseller lists in thriller, romance, historical fiction, nonfiction, suspense and science fiction. My bestselling series are The Green Berets (military thriller) and Area 51 (science fiction). I’ve tended to write in areas that interest me. A lot of my focus is on history, psychology and the evolution of the mind. I also enjoy delving into myths and legends, which I did in the Area 51 and Atlantis series. I plumbed history with the Time Patrol books.

Are there any particular mediums or narrative troupes you like to use in your writing and why?

Not particularly. Point of view has been a struggle but I’ve settled in omniscient voice. My latest manuscript, which I just completed, is omniscient voice but following one character for the entire book which is something new for me.

I do like to move in time and place. For example, each Time Patrol book features six missions on the same day, such as Independence Day, but in six different years. So each book is essentially six short stories inside of an overall novel, which was hard but great fun to research the history and ask “what if?”

What do you enjoy reading and how does this influence your writing?

I enjoy reading writers better than me. Some favourite of my authors are Kate Atkinson, Richard Russo, Michael Connolly, Larry McMurtry, and Pat Conroy. I read a lot of nonfiction because history fascinates me. Also, I lean toward reading books for research rather than the Internet. With the Internet you have to know what questions to ask. With books you find the questions (and answers) you never thought to ask.

If you could collaborate with anyone, living or dead, on a writing project, who would it be and why?

I have collaborated and it is an interesting experience. Jenny Crusie and I wrote three books together with our best being Agnes and the Hitman. I learned a tremendous amount about writing from her. Much of which I put into this most recent book, New York Minute.

Ultimately, writing is a very personal experience. What I focus on these days is a writer’s process. I study other authors for how they create. Not just authors, but screenwriters—in essence storytellers. That’s our job. The oldest profession.

Have you got any exciting new plans or projects coming up that you’d like to share with me?

New York Minute launches a new series for me featuring a special character, William Kane. I’m pitching it as First Blood meets Breaking Bad. The first book is set in New York City in the summer of 1977, during the long hot summer of Son of Sam and the blackout. I grew up in the Bronx during that period. My character is also a graduate of West Point and Special Forces veteran (both of which I’ve done). So it’s rather personal.

This is a breakout book as I have a unique cast of characters inhabiting the world. I’m at work on the second book, Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door. My agent will be marketing New York Minute when I send it to her and I’m very excited about it.

Are there any new books or writers that you are looking forward to going forward?

Kate Atkinson has a new book out, Transcription, I will read as soon as I finish this biography of William Tecumseh Sherman.

Anything you’d like to add?

Thanks for giving me this opportunity. I’ve been doing this for 30 years and am more enthused about writing today than I have ever been. I’ve been compiling experience, craft and expertise and continue to strive to become a better storyteller.

Thanks for taking the time Bob- you can find out more about Bob and his work on his website HERE.

 

 

In Her Shadow Review: Another Insightful Thriller From Mark Edwards

Having loved The Retreat earlier this year, I was keen to see how Mark Edwards’ latest novel would turn out, and if it could live up to his previous success.

Spoiler alert: it did.

For the blog tour to celebrate the book’s release, I took a look and have concluded that this latest outing is every bit as good as his previous novel.

With its innovative take on the perfect life that’s not all it seems to be, In Her Shadow explores the complexities of human relationships and the issue of whether or not you can really know and trust anyone.

Protagonist Jessica is still coming to terms with the death of her seemingly perfect sister Isabel, even after several years. Then, when Jessica’s young daughter starts offering up details about her aunt’s life that she could not possibly know, Jessica becomes suspicious that her death was more than just a tragic accident.

As she delves into her sister’s seemingly idyllic life, Jessica finds herself uncovering secrets she never even dreamed of, as she comes to terms with the fact that her young daughter is intrinsically linked to the tragedy. With members of her family called into question, the protagonist sets out on a harrowing journey to uncover the truth.

Integrating the vulnerability of a child and the intense emotions of adults, the novel crafts a rich narrative that is both compelling and engaging. The characters are relatable and their responses to the tragic plot is relatable and understandable, something that is often lost in thrillers where characters behave in implausible ways and react uncharacteristically to tragedy.

In all, with its gripping plot and strong characterisation, In Her Shadow is a cracking thriller that stays with you long after you put the book down, which, in my humble opinion, is more than enough reason to pick the book up in the first place.

Super Thursday: It’s Been A Great Week For Readers

This past week readers have been treated to an array of new releases which will give us many new books to devour over the coming weeks.

This past Thursday, October the 4^th is known as Super Thursday, a term coined by the Bookseller Magazine for the day every year when publishers gear up for the Christmas rush by releasing a flurry of exciting new books.

This year more than 500 new releases were on offer on Super Thursday, a figure that trumps last year’s total. There’s something for everyone among the haul, including the latest release by renowned children’s author Jacqueline Wilson, whose novel My Mum Tracy Beaker marks the return of her beloved character.

For crime fiction fans there’s a plethora of new tomes out there to choose from, including the new one from this blog’s old pals Peter James and Hugh Fraser, whose latest Stealth looks set to be another triumph in the Rina Walker series. There’s also the latest offering from Rebus creator Ian Rankin, promising readers a great chance to immerse themselves in death and despair in time for Halloween.

Over the coming weeks they’ll be many more exciting releases in the run-up to Christmas, including the long anticipated autobiography of Michelle Obama, Becoming, Stay Hungry, the story of Boxer Anthony Joshua’s rise to stardom and Guy Martin’s latest offering.

In other genres there are some particularly hyped releases, including the latest in George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones series Fire And Blood, and the screenplay for the upcoming film Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindlewald by Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling.

All of this and more means that the festive season looks set to be a corker for readers and booklovers as they buy themselves a little treat to mark the end of a good year, to get themselves through the long slog home for the festivities or as a gift for a loved one.

Lethal White Review: The Best Of A Not-So-Brilliant Bunch

The forth instalment of the Cormoran Strike novels is excessively long- but don’t let that put you off, this is actually the best of the lot. Not that that’s saying a great deal.

Picking up directly from where Career of Evil left off, the novel shows Strike and his former assistant turned salaried partner Robin falling into an uneasy rhythm following her marriage. This is abruptly interrupted by the arrival of Billy, a highly disturbed young man who comes bearing tales of child murder, before leaving as quickly and loudly as he came.

With Billy now disappeared, and no real motive to investigate his claims, Strike takes the case of the foppish politician Jasper Chiswell, nicknamed ‘Chizzle’, who is being blackmailed. Keen to avoid divulging what he is being blackmailed about, the Minister commissions Strike and his agency, which now includes several employees, to obtain information he can use against his blackmailers, who, incidentally, include Billy’s older brother Jimmy.

While the 2012 Olympics takes London by storm, the case quickly descends into almost comical absurdity, with Strike and Robin pursuing multiple lines of enquiry, many of which revolve around Chiswell and his laughably posh family. One of the problems I find with Rowling’s Strike series is that I am always unsure if she realises that she crossed the invisible line between light-hearted satire and full-on ridiculousness which is present in all crime fiction.

After all, her protagonist does, on several occasions, mention how posh and out-of-touch his client and his family are, even at one point referring to them as teletubbies, but the reader remains baffled throughout by the intensity of their otherness and the fact that none of them seem to realise how incredibly self-incriminating they are being.

In this latest outing as in all the previous, Strike remains a mess of contradictions. Although Rowling goes to great pains to make him out to be a mess of a man who she describes on numerous occasions as ‘classless’, he also shown to be more at home in a swanky pub in Mayfair than among normal people. He is often slovenly and unkempt himself, yet he judges a young woman for having painted eyeliner over a piece of sleep in the corner of her eye.

The character also mentally derides his latest temporary secretary for not remembering that he detests milky tea despite the fact that he himself is completely incapable of thinking of the feelings of others, even crashing his colleague’s wedding and taking out her flowers in the prologue. Rowling either drastically underestimates the intelligence of her readers or she is unaware of how characterisation works, but either way, the result is the same; a protagonist with all of the sincerity of a Tory election promise.

Then, of course, there is the question of length. I don’t know if you’ve been to Waterstones lately to check it out, but this book is HUGE. In hardback it is over 600 pages long, although a good 300 of these are completely unnecessary. Rowling gets so bogged-down in the minutiae of surveillance and the day-to-day running of a detective agency that she lets her narrative run away from her, and spends fruitless chapters describing the perfectly mundane. There are also far too many needless characters, leaving the reader struggling to keep up with who’s who and what’s what.

Named after the colloquial term for a horse that is doomed to die due to a genetic condition, the one thing that Lethal White does have going for it is its foreshadowing. Rowling is able to skilfully direct her readers where she wants them to, and at times it is intriguing to realise where a certain detail came into play previously. Each chapter begins with a line from Rosmersholm, a play by Henrik Ibsen, which focuses on a time of political change and the emergence of a new order, a metaphor for the downfall of the Chiswells, whose gilded life is quickly disintegrating as the case develops.

There is also some great skill shown in Rowling’s depictions of her disgustingly upper class characters, particularly Jasper Chiswell. There is one scene, in which he is chewing with his mouth open, and he spits a piece of potato at Strike, which is so vivid that I physically reacted (the poor chap on the train next to me thought I was mental, but there you have it).

These brilliant, emotive stretches of text are interspersed with a lot of waffle, but there is some narrative excellence. Robin and Strike’s relationship is brilliantly handled, and it is great that their strange passion for each other does not overwhelm the main plot.

All in all, Lethal White remains by far the best of the Strike novels, although it is, fundamentally, too bloody long and at times completely absurd. Hard-core Rowling fans will love it; anyone else is better off elsewhere.