BritCrime Authors Best Books of 2015 - Part 2

by SJI Holliday

Are you itching to hear more brilliant book recommendations from your favourite BritCrime authors? Well you're in luck - here's the second part of our 'books of the year' - and you can read the first part here.

Quentin Bates

♠ The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood
♠ Old Flames by John Lawton
♠ Three Minutes of Silence by Georgi Vladimov

The Wicked Girls is populated by some truly vile characters and reeks of deception, lies and badly-kept secrets as the past comes to call. It’s a thoroughly unsettling read, full of surprises and it draws you into the shadowy world of a shabby fairground, a seaside resort that has seen better days and two women who are inexorably drawn together as they share a terrible childhood secret. It’s one of those books that stays with you for days after you’ve read the last page and begs the question: Should seedy seaside noir be a genre of its own?

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Mel Sherratt

♠ The Lie by CL Taylor
♠ Evil Games by Angela Marsons
♠ Daughter by Jane Shemilt

The Lie had me turning the pages so quickly. I felt like I was in the group of main characters. I could sense their horror, feel their pain, smell their filth, share their dread. I absolutely loved its dark, grungy feel, and it’s story of toxic friendships. I literally couldn’t put down until I had finished it.

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Helen Cadbury

♠ Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual by Michael Pollan
♠ Little Egypt by Lesley Glaister
♠ Café Assassin by Michael Stewart


Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual is a funny and straightforward way to think about what we eat. If you feel inundated by advice on diet and your health, Pollan is a breath of fresh air. Rules such as ‘eat nothing your grandmother wouldn’t recognise as food’ make complete sense when you look at the ingredients on the packaging of so much processed food. Fresh, mainly plant-based, food is what’s good for you and you don’t need to be faddy or fasting to make it easy to remember decisions that will improve your shopping and cooking habits. There are no banned substances, just a reminder that some things were always meant for treats, not every day. Food is fuel. Writers need fuel. This is an excellent book for writers and everyone else.

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Alexandra Sokoloff

♠ Half the Sky by Nicholas D Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn
♠ Those We Left Behind by Stuart Neville
♠ Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer



Half the Sky is nonfiction about the worst crimes in the world. This 2009 expose and rallying cry against global sex trafficking, gender-based violence, forced marriage, female genital mutilation and other atrocities is a book everyone should read every year, until every one of these horrors has been eradicated. The book has effective, practical actions that can be taken in minutes, and is essential reading for crime authors who use the arena of sex trafficking and want to do justice to the topic – and to the victims.

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Luca Veste

♠ What Remains by Tim Weaver
♠ I Know Who Did It by Steve Mosby
♠ The Death House by Sarah Pinborough

What Remains, Weaver's sixth novel, follows missing persons investigator David Raker as he investigates the murders which have consumed the life of a former Met detective Colm Healy. What at first seems standard fare, suddenly takes a very different turn. What transpires, is a story full of suspense, flair, and horrifying twists. It contains one of the best moments in crime fiction I've read in a long time, and is filled with extraordinary writing and plotting, Tim Weaver is fast becoming one of my favourite crime fiction writers.

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M.J. McGrath

♠ The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vasquez
♠ The Abrupt Physics of Dying Paul E Hardisty
♠ Fire Damage by Kate Medina

The Sound of Things Falling is set in Colombia in 2009 and it opens with the hunting down of Pablo Escobar's hippo. What else can I say? It was published a while ago, but a visit to the Medellin Crime Festival in Colombia introduced me to this masterpiece.

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Please join us for our free online Christmas Party at BritCrime Mansions, Sunday 13th December, 6:30 pm UK time, 1:30pm EST.

There will be three golden ticket-holders among the guests. Sign up here for a chance to win.

Join us on Facebook from 6:30pm on Sunday for a chat over a glass of virtual mulled wine. Find us here.

At 7:30pm UK time, 2:30pm EST a few of us will be live on Blab. Find us here.

#BritCrime Festival Special: Extended Interview with MJ McGrath

Don't miss this special BritCrime Festival edition extended interview with MJ McGrath from our friends at the Joined Up Writing Podcast. 

Here's the introduction from hosts Wayne and Leah:

This week we talk to The Bone Seeker author, MJ McGrath about her work and process as well as being a panelist at the online Crime Fiction festival, BritCrime. The festival runs from July 11th to 13th and features more than 40 Crime Authors, online panels, inside knowledge, book giveaways and opportunities for aspiring writers too. Check out the #BritCrime hashtag, follow on Twitter and scoot over to the website for more info.

Melanie McGrath is a successful journalist and writer with two CWA Gold Dagger nominations to her name. In addition to her Arctic crime series, Melanie has written several non-fiction books, some based on her world travels to places like Iceland, Madagascar, Mali, Namibia, Ethiopia, Malaysia, Russia, China, Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico and, of course the Canadian Arctic, which is where her Edie Kiglatuk series takes place.

Melanie has some fascinating insights in to her research and writing life, including a traumatic real-life experience that shaped the way she views the Crime genre.

Listen to the interview on the Joined Up Writing site here or find it on iTunes here.

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♠ Melanie McGrath is a journalist and author of bestselling nonfiction. As MJ McGrath, she writes the Edie Kiglatuk series of Arctic mysteries.The series has been translated into 18 languages. The Bone Seeker has been long listed for the 2015 CWA Gold Dagger and is a Financial Times crime pick of the year.

♠ Wayne Kelly is editor and soundman for MGL Media (@mglmedia) He loves writing, running, and co-hosting The Joined Up Writing Podcast. Follow Wayne on Twitter @MrKelly2u and say hello.

♠ Leah Osborne writes as Ileandra and Raven. Find her on Twitter @ileandraXraven

♠ Joined Up Writing Podcast Episode 23: Helen Smith talks about BritCrime

♠ Subscribe to The Joined Up Writing Podcast on iTunes

♠ Follow Joined Up Writing Podcast on Twitter: @JUPodcast

Panel 9: Foreign Bodies: 6pm–8pm, Sunday 12 July #BritCrime

BritCrime Panel 9: Foreign Bodies

6pm–8pm UK Time | 11am–1pm EST
Sunday 12 July

Live Q&A with the authors hosted on our Facebook page

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Quentin Bates: Summerchill

An Icelandic murder mystery...

It's the tail end of a hot summer when half of Reykjavík is on holiday and the other half wishes it was. Things are quiet when a man is reported missing from his home in the suburbs. As Gunna and Helgi investigate, it becomes clear that the missing man had secrets of his own that lead to a sinister set of friends, and to someone with little to lose who is a fugitive from both justice and the underworld. It becomes a challenge for Gunna to tail both the victim and his would-be executioner, racing to catch up with at least one of them before they finally meet.

Quentin Bates escaped suburbia as a teenager for a decade in Iceland before eventually returning to England. A former seaman, he fell into writing books largely by accident via an accidental career in journalism and now writes crime novels set in his adopted second home in Iceland. He is the translator of number one bestseller Snowblind by Ragnar Jónasson.

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M J McGrath: The Bone Seeker

 A gripping, atmospheric thriller set in the Arctic's long white nights...
A missing girl. A dark betrayal. Summer in the High Arctic. When young Inuit Martha Salliaq goes missing from her settlement, her teacher, ex Polar Bear Hunter Edie Kiglatuk enlists her police friend Derek Palliser to help search for the girl. But once a body is discovered floating in a polluted lake on the site of a decommissioned Radar Station, Edie's worst fears are realised.

As the investigation into Martha's murder begins, the Inuit community - and Martha's devastated family - are convinced the culprits lie within the encampment of soldiers stationed nearby. Before long Sergeant Palliser finds evidence linking two of the men with the dead girl. But Edie and local lawyer Sonia Gutierrez remain unconvinced. Why are the military quite so willing to cooperate with the investigation? What has Edie's boyfriend Chip Muloon, a simple academic researcher, got to hide? And why has the lake where Martha's body was found been suddenly cordoned off?

 A gripping, atmospheric thriller set in the Arctic's long white nights, in The Bone Seeker the very personal murder of a young girl will explode a decades-long tale of the very darkest betrayal. This is the third novel in the hugely compelling Edie Kiglatuk series, set in the Artic's long summer nights.

 Melanie McGrath is a journalist and author of bestselling nonfiction. As MJ McGrath, she writes the Edie Kiglatuk series of Arctic mysteries.The series has been translated into 18 languages. The Bone Seeker has been long listed for the 2015 CWA Gold Dagger and is a Financial Times crime pick of the year. 

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K T Medina: White Crocodile

A web of lies that stretches from Cambodia back to England...

When emotionally damaged mine-clearer Tess Hardy travels to Cambodia to find out the truth behind her ex-husband's death, she doesn't know much about the country or its beliefs.

On arrival, she finds that teenage mothers are going missing, while others are being found mutilated and murdered.

As local superstitions breed fear, Tess is drawn into a web of lies that stretches from Cambodia to another murder in England, and a violent secret twenty years old. 

K. T. Medina spent five years in the Territorial Army, first as an officer trainee and then as a Troop Commander in the Royal Engineers. She has worked at Jane's Information Group and McKinsey and Company, and as a lecturer at London Business School. Whilst at Jane's she spent time in Cambodia, working with mine clearance charities. She now writes full time.

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Daniel Pembrey: The Harbour Master

Ice-cold suspense in this Amsterdam noir tale as the search for a killer takes maverick copy Henk into a corrupt world of politics and power...

Maverick cop Henk van der Pol is thinking about retirement when he finds a woman’s body in Amsterdam Harbour. His detective instincts take over, even though it’s not his case. But Henk’s bigger challenge is deciding who his friends are – not to mention a vicious street pimp who is threatening Henk’s own family. As his search for the killer of the woman in Amsterdam Harbour takes him into a corrupt world of politics and power, Henk finds himself facing some murky moral choices.

The Harbour Master delivers for Amsterdam what fans of Scandinavian crime fiction have come to love: a fascinating light shone on the dark side of a famously liberal society, combining vivid characterisation with ice-cold suspense.

 Daniel Pembrey grew up beside Sherwood Forest, studied history at Edinburgh University, then worked for ten years at a technology company in Seattle and later Luxembourg. He now writes crime thrillers with a strongly ‘Euro noir’ flavour. To write The Habour Master, he spent several months living in the docklands area of Amsterdam, counting De Druif bar as his local ...

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Full programme here: http://britcrime.com/programme 

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Twitter: @britcrime
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