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Happy Christmas! #BritCrime


BritCrime Christmas Party
Happy Christmas!
Posted by BritCrime Authors on Friday, December 18, 2015
Thanks to everyone who joined us for the Christmas Party. Congratulations to our three Golden Ticket-holders, Linda H, Mary P and Kay S.

Cally Taylor sent signed copies of THE ACCIDENT and THE LIE to one lucky winner on the night:  Dawn-Carol T.

Helen Cadbury asked party-goers to post their best cracker joke. The one that made her laugh the most won a signed copy of  BONES IN THE NEST. Congratulations to Mary P. Her winning joke:

Q) What do you call a bunch of chess players bragging about their games in a hotel lobby?
A) Chess nuts boasting in an open foyer.

Thanks for joining us. Thanks for all your support this year. See you in 2016.

COVER REVEAL: An Unfamiliar Murder by Jane Isaac

http://www.janeisaac.co.uk
An Unfamiliar Murder by Jane Isaac
This is Jane's debut novel which was originally published in the US in 2012 and was nominated as best mystery in the ‘eFestival of Words Best of the Independent eBook awards’ in 2013. After regaining her rights last summer she is self-publishing the title on the 1st of March 2016.

Arriving home from a routine day at work, Anna Cottrell has no idea that her life is about to change forever. But discovering the stabbed body of a stranger in her flat, then becoming prime suspect in a murder inquiry is only the beginning. Her persistent claims of innocence start to crumble when new evidence links her irrevocably with the victim...

Leading her first murder investigation, DCI Helen Lavery unravels a trail of deception, family secrets and betrayal. When people close to the Cottrell family start to disappear, Lavery is forced into a race against time. Can she catch the killer before he executes his ultimate victim?

For more about the book - and about Jane - please visit www.janeisaac.co.uk

BritCrime Giveaway: And the winners are... @CrimeFilesBooks

Thanks to everyone who joined us for our Christmas Party over at BritCrime Mansions on Sunday. It was frantic and fun, and there were lots of giveaways and prizes on the night. Here are the names of the three Golden Ticket-Holders who will each receive a mystery parcel with a NEW RELEASE crime or thriller book every month for the next six months! Thanks to our friends at Crime Files for sponsoring this generous prize.


And the winners are...
And the winners are... Posted this last night. Thanks to everyone who joined us for our Christmas Party. There were lots of winners on the night. Here are the names of our Golden Ticket-Holders.
Posted by BritCrime Authors on Monday, December 14, 2015

Dark Brilliance: Agatha Christie and Poisonous Plants

Agatha Christie

Daniel Pembrey and Helen Smith will be taking part in Dark Brilliance on Tuesday 2nd February 2016 at the Chelsea Physic Garden in London with Rebecca Chance and Kathryn Harkup.

Tickets are £15 including a glass of wine, 6-8pm. Book tickets here.

Chelsea Physic Garden was founded in 1673 by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London. The Garden served as a site for the growing of plants used in medicines as well as an outdoor classroom for correct identification by the Society’s apprentice apothecaries and physicians. It also served as a base for the Society’s barge which enabled their global ‘herborizing’ expeditions. Correct plant identification was of course incredibly important to ensure that a selected plant would cure a patient and not the opposite.

January 2016 marks the 40th anniversary of Agatha Christie’s death, and considering that only Shakespeare and the Bible can claim to have more books in circulation than her, there will be a number of events across the country to mark this. Agatha Christie was a trained apothecary, and using her knowledge of the plants that could kill or cure, she took inspiration for the poisons used in many of her murder mysteries.

Christie lived near the Garden in the 1930s and 1940s and it is very likely that she was in fact a visitor. So, it seems only fitting that a discussion of her works and the use of poisons as the murder weapon should take place at the Physic Garden.

Join us for an evening of lively discussion and debate with an expert panel of speakers featuring the following authors and poisons specialists:

Rebecca Chance is the writer of Sunday Times best-selling glamorous thrillers and crime novels. An Agatha Christie obsessive with an in-depth knowledge of her novels and short stories, Rebecca has contributed an appreciation of Endless Night to the award-winning anthology Books to Die For and written a Christie-inspired short story set on the Orient Express for the New York Times magazine.

Kathryn Harkup is a trained chemist and freelance science communicator who delivers talks and workshops on the quirky side of science. Kathryn’s book A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie was published by Bloomsbury in September 2015.


Daniel Pembrey is a local crime writer and Friend of Chelsea Physic Garden. He has written murder mysteries set in various atmospheric locations, including Amsterdam and Tanzania. His Dutch detective series The Harbour Master will be published by No Exit Press in 2016.

Helen Smith is a British novelist who lives in London. Her first two books, Alison Wonderland and Being Light, followed the adventures of a London detective agency. Her most recent books, The Emily Castles Mysteries, are comedies featuring an amateur sleuth.

More about the event here.

BritCrime Christmas Party Replay #Blab

Thanks for joining us on Facebook and Blab tonight. You can watch the replay of the Blab below.



We were joined on Blab by Rebecca Bradley, Stephen Dunne, Elizabeth Haynes, Jane Isaac, Fergus McNeill, Marnie Riches, Alexandra Sokoloff, Helen Smith.

You can watch previous Blab sessions hosted on Helen Smith's personal account here.

We will be doing more of these next year. 

Booktrail Crime Fiction Awards 2015

The 2015 Crime Awards have been announced over at The Booktrail, a really wonderful site with detailed information about locations in featured books, including maps and photos.


"We write about books with a strong place or setting. We’ve been to Canada, Asia, deep into the Amazon Rainforest, walked around the streets of dystopian London and travelled the world with Phileas Fog – all via books!"

You can visit The Booktrail to find out which books are currently featured on the site (more are added every week) - and learn which BritCrime authors have been selected for the 2015 Crime Awards, including the book that gets the award for "that punch in the stomach feeling" and more!

BritCrime FREE Online Christmas Party, Sunday 13 December: Get Here If You Can


BritCrime Christmas Party: Get Here If You Can
BritCrime Christmas Party: Get Here If You Can
Posted by BritCrime Authors on Saturday, December 12, 2015

Sunday 13 December,
Free online Christmas Party
On Facebook 6:30pm UK time, 1:30pm EST
On Blab 7:30pm UK time, 2:30pm EST

Stealing Hollywood: Screenwriting Tricks for Authors #amwriting


Stealing Hollywood
BritCrime author Helen Cadbury talks about Stealing Hollywood
Posted by BritCrime Authors on Thursday, September 3, 2015
Rebecca Bradley, Helen Cadbury, Marnie Riches, Helen Smith discuss Stealing Hollywood by Alexandra Sokoloff.
More from us on Blab.

Stealing Hollywood
Stealing Hollywood by Alexandra Sokoloff
Are you finally committed to writing that novel or screenplay, but have no idea how to get started? Or are you a published author, but know you need some plotting help to move your books and career up to that next level? You CAN write better books and scripts—by learning from the movies. Screenwriting is based on a simple (and powerful) structure that you already know from watching so many movies and television shows in your lifetime. And it's a structure that your reader or audience unconsciously expects, and is crucial for you to deliver. 

In this textbook of the internationally acclaimed SCREENWRITING TRICKS FOR AUTHORS workshop, award-winning author/screenwriter Alexandra Sokoloff will show you how to jump-start your plot and bring your characters and scenes vibrantly alive on the page by watching your favorite movies and learning from the storytelling tricks of great filmmakers

The secret to becoming an award-winning writer?


Show us your award, Marnie
The secret to becoming an award-winning writer? "Writing, writing, writing..."
Posted by BritCrime Authors on Saturday, December 12, 2015

Rebecca Bradley, Helen Cadbury, Marnie Riches, Helen Smith
More from us on Blab.

#BritCrime Christmas Party Golden Ticket Giveaway

http://www.britcrime.com/giveaways/goldenticket/

Join us for a free online Christmas party, Sunday 13 December 2015
Join us on Facebook 6:30pm UK, 1:30pm EST 
Join us on Blab 7:30pm UK. 2:30pm EST

Dress code: Fabulous!
Wear your Christmas party hat


Three golden ticket-holders will receive a mystery parcel every month for six months, 
with a new release crime fiction book in it.

Includes new work by Stephen King and other award-winning, bestselling writers.

Visit this link to get on the guest list:

Generously sponsored by our friends at Crime Files.

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 GirlsThe 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?


♠♠♠


Mel Sherratt


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

http://amzn.to/1HyIANHThe 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.

♠♠♠


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.


♠♠♠

Alexandra Sokoloff


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


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Half-Sky-How-Change-World/dp/1844086828/
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.

♠♠♠

Luca Veste


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

http://www.amazon.co.uk/What-Remains-David-Raker-Novel/dp/1405913487?tag=brcrws-21What 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.

♠♠♠


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

Sound of things fallingThe 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.



♠♠♠




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 Authors Best Books of 2015 - Part 1

By SJI Holliday

After reading various 'book of the year' articles, we thought it made sense for us to share our BritCrime authors' favourites with you. What have crime writers been reading this year? You might be surprised! To shake things up a bit, these are not all books published this year, they're just books we've read this year... and they're not all crime - fancy that.



Nick Quantrill


♠ How to be Brave by Louise Beech
♠ Gun Street Girl by Adrian McKinty
♠ Living on the Volcano by Michael Calvin.

 How to be braveHow to be Brave is a love letter to the power of stories. It’s about a mother whose teenage daughter is struggling to come to terms with being diagnosed with diabetes. The deal is that if she accepts her injections, they’ll share the diary of her great-grandfather’s incredible survival tale on a drifting raft in World War Two. I really didn’t expect it to be to my taste, but it blew me away.

♠♠♠ 



S.J.I. Holliday


♠ Untouchable by Ava Marsh
♠ Into The Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes
♠ A Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson

 Untouchable
Untouchable is a sexy, pacy thriller with an incredibly compelling protagonist - Stella/Grace, a helpline worker by day, a high-class escort by night. Why has has she chosen this path in life, when she clearly has friends and family who wish that she hadn't? She gets embroiled in the worst kind of hedonism with the worst kind of people, but there is a vulnerability there too - coming both from her, and from many of the lonely types she meets. This novel is beautifully written - it is captivating, gritty and intelligent. I couldn't get it out of my head.


♠♠♠ 


Helen Smith


♠ The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber
♠ The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
♠ Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O’Nan

 The Book of Strange New ThingsThe Book of Strange New Things is a moving book about loss. An English missionary travels to a faraway planet that has been settled by people from earth. His job is to keep the indigenous population happy by talking to them about the Bible. His separation from his wife, who is still on earth, leads to a gradual estrangement. It’s an extraordinary book - one of the best I’ve read in a long time. Partway through reading it, I realised the author’s wife was dying as he wrote it, which gave it an added, almost unbearable poignancy.


♠♠♠ 


Marnie Riches


♠ The Abrupt Physics of Dying by Paul Hardisty
♠ To Rise at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris
♠ The Farm by Tom Rob Smith


 The Abrupt Physics of DyingThe Abrupt Physics of Dying has all the things I might look for in a thriller - a truly international plot set in Yemen about an environmental disaster; a conspiracy within heavy industry; political turmoil and corruption. Hardisty’s prose has a lyrical quality to it. His descriptions of the harsh Yemen landscape are vivid. His main character, Claymore Straker is a godless, fallible South African ex-soldier. Clay’s reflections on the devout Muslim beliefs of the Yemeni characters constitute intelligent soul-searching. There is even a love story at the book’s heart. But The Abrupt Physics of Dying, for all its literary finesse and environmentally aware politics, never loses pace. It’s gripping. It’s violent. It’s a bloody exciting read.

♠♠♠ 


Michael J. Malone


♠ The Death House by Sarah Pinborough
♠ The Cartel by Don Winslow
 The Death House♠ Canary by Duane Swierczynski


The Death House is an exercise in how less can be so much more. Children are taken from their parents in this strange world and left in a sanatorium till the strange sickness they carry kills them. Yet even in this most bleak of places, love can flourish. Made me cry. Need I say more?


♠♠♠

C.L. Taylor


♠ Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer
♠ A Man Called Ove by Frederik Backman
♠ First One Missing by Tammy Cohen

Rubbernecker
Rubbernecker won the Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year at the Harrogate Crime Festival in 2014. I can't remember the last time I liked a character as much as I liked Patrick, or found a character so fascinating. I loved the setting - a dissection class and a neurological ward - and I was desperate for Patrick to solve the mystery of number 19's death. It was a gripping, darkly humorous and fascinating book that gave me serious writer envy.

♠♠♠ 


What were your favourite books this year? Tell us in the comments!


Come back tomorrow for Part 2.



Five Short Stories to Savour

by Daniel Pembrey

http://smarturl.it/flzediI’ve just published a new short story, and it prompted to think back over the many short stories that I’ve both savoured as a reader and learned from as a writer. My new one – The Lion Hunter – is set in Tanzania, so it’s hard for me not to think of Hemingway, who wrote about Africa so vividly in the likes of Snows of Kilimanjaro. Still, in what follows, I’ll try to pick some less obvious titles, hoping that you might share some of the inspiration and excitement that came from these discoveries:

1. DH Lawrence – Odour of Chrysanthemums
Lawrence hailed from Nottinghamshire, and in this short story – one of his earliest – he writes about the coal mining communities there that he knew so well. The writing bears an almost forensic level of social insight, telling the story of a pregnant woman waiting for her husband to come home from the pit, or perhaps it’s the pub … In fact, the husband’s fate turns out to have been altogether different. Available here.

2. Roald Dahl – Lamb to the Slaughter
Who can forget the haunting theme tune to Roald Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected once heard on TV? Here is another short tale about a woman suffering through her husband’s return from work one evening … only this time, the husband’s fate is fixed in a most ingenious way. No spoilers, but let me credit SJI Holliday for reminding me of this one in her recent BritCrime blog post. Lamb to the Slaughter is available here.

3. Luca Veste and Paul D. Brazill (editors) – Off The Record 2 - At The Movies
While on the subject of BritCrime authors, what could be better than an anthology of stories inspired by classic films? Strictly speaking it’s not one short story, rather 47 … but who’s complaining when the authors include Eva Dolan, Chris Ewan, Helen FitzGerald, SJI Holliday, Steve Mosby, Nick Quantrill, Mel Sherratt and Luca Veste? What’s more, the proceeds go to two great literacy-related charities. Available here.

4. Stephen King – The Gingerbread Girl
There’s nothing quite like a riveting pursuit story, and they don’t come much more riveting than this one. This pulse quickening story type, utilised in such classics as Geoffrey Household’s Rogue Male, is somehow compressed into 80 pages here. It’s set in the part of Florida that Stephen King calls home for several months of the year, and that seasonal theme turns out to be a key plot point. Available in King’s story collection Just After Sunset, here.

5. Dorothy L Sayers – Suspicion
Suspicion was picked as one of the dozen best short detective stories ever written by a panel including Anthony Boucher and John Dickson Carr. Dorothy Sayers, an active member of the Detection Club, abides by the rule of playing fair with her readers in terms of the clues given out – in this case, about a poisoner at large in an English household. The clever use of main character Mr Mummery, and his increasingly suspicious point of view, will keep you guessing. Available in this collection, here.

And finally, which are your favourite short stories? Which ones have had the biggest affect on you? Do let us know!
♠♠♠

Daniel Pembrey’s The Lion Hunter: A Short Adventure Story is available here if you live in the UK or here if you’re in the US.

♠ Daniel is active on Twitter, https://twitter.com/DPemb, and also present on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/DPembrey. His website is danielpembrey.com




Wallace Shawn and Helen Smith at the National Theatre, London

Helen Smith will be appearing in a post-show discussion with Wallace Shawn at the National Theatre, London, after a production of his new play, Evening at the Talk House, on Friday 27 November, chaired by Chris Campbell, Literary Manager of The Royal Court.

The world premiere of Evening at the Talk House is directed by Ian Rickson. More about the cast and creatives here.

A reunion at the almost legendary club, The Talk House.

Still presided over by the kindly Nellie, there’s the same genteel atmosphere, the familiar drinks and the special snacks.

The playwright, the composer, the actress.
The former television star brutally beaten up.
The possibility of a pleasant night.

Just relax. Nothing has changed. These are nice people.


Wallace Shawn plays Dick in his own play, Evening at the Talk House. His writing includes the plays A Thought in Three Parts, The Designated Mourner, Marie and Bruce, Aunt Dan and Lemon, Our Late Night; and the book, Essays. His theatre work as an actor in England includes My Dinner with André, Aunt Dan and Lemon, Grasses of a Thousand Colours (Royal Court); and his one-man play, The Fever (Royal Court, National Theatre, and on tour). Films include, with André Gregory, My Dinner with André, Vanya on 42nd Street, and A Master Builder (also translator/adapter); Manhattan, Radio Days, Clueless, Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills, The Moderns, Prick Up Your Ears and The Double. TV includes Taxi, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Murphy Brown, Gossip Girl and The Good Wife.

Helen Smith is a novelist and playwright. Her work includes the novels The Miracle Inspector, Alison Wonderland and Being Light; the Emily Castles Mysteries; and children’s books, poetry and plays. She is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, The Crime Writers’ Association, Killer Women and English PEN, and the founder of BritCrime, She has appeared at literary events and festivals in the UK and US, and her work has been read or performed at the National, Royal Festival Hall, V&A Museum of Childhood, Amnesty International’s Headquarters, Edinburgh Festival and University of London.

Chris Campbell is Literary Manager of the Royal Court, and was the NT’s Deputy Literary Manager for six years. He has translated French plays for the National, Almeida, Donmar, Traverse and Young Vic, among others. As an actor he has worked at theatres such as the National, Royal Court, Traverse, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Birmingham Rep and Gate, and recently appeared in Trois Ruptures/Three Splits (Chelsea Theatre/The Print Room), and the film, The Iron Lady. He was appointed Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 2014.


Tickets here.

BritCrime Assistant Producer Chosen for Mentor Program

Stephanie Cox, who worked with us as Assistant Producer on our BritCrime Festival in July, has been chosen to participate in a prestigious mentorship program in the US.

Stephanie recently organised a conference for the Society of Young Publishers for North and Midlands. There's a write-up here: https://readingbetweenthefonts.wordpress.com/2015/10/29/sypnorthcomebackevent/

Stephanie is an editor at Emerald Group Publishing and also blogs at Bookmachine. You can read her recent interview with publisher Karen Sullivan of Orenda here. Karen founded Orenda a year ago and has already seen huge success with her books (Snowblind got to number one), which she promotes tirelessly. She's a good friend to authors, including many of us who are involved in BritCrime.

Congratulations to Stephanie for everything she has achieved so far. You can follow her on Twitter to keep up with her news.

Pre-Order for 99p: A Bad Death by David Mark

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bad-Death-McAvoy-Aector-Mcavoy-ebook/dp/B00W1SXTNO?tag=brcrws-21
A Bad Death by David Mark is available to pre-order for only 99p in the UK and 99 cents in the US Kindle stores.

A gripping new short story in the DS McAvoy series by David Mark, bestselling author of the Richard & Judy pick DARK WINTER.

Will Blaylock died while on day release from prison.

It was a bad death. But accidents will happen.

Detective Sergeant McAvoy isn't convinced, though. And he owes a debt to Will's cellmate Owen Swainson: a debt formed in blood and fear when they came together to catch a killer.

But their search for a murderer will rip open old wounds, and force old enemies out of hiding...

FREE James Bond literary event in London, 12 November

http://danielpembrey.com
Daniel Pembrey
Loved SPECTRE? Want to talk Bond?

Thriller writers Thomas Mogford and Daniel Pembrey will be discussing Bond and other legendary spy/thriller characters and their creators at Chelsea Library.

Thursday, 12th November 2015
6:30pm - 7:30.pm.

Tickets are FREE. Details here.

More about Daniel Pembrey
More about Thomas Mogford

BritCrime Ball Golden Ticket: Mystery and thriller new releases giveaway

http://www.britcrime.com/giveaways/goldenticket/
Please join us for the BritCrime Ball, a free online Christmas Party to be held Sunday 13 December.

Three golden ticket-holders will be revealed on the night.

Will you be one of them?

Make sure you're on the guest list here.

Alex Marwood wins Best Mystery Novel Award

Alex Marwood has won the Macavity Award for Best Mystery Novel for The Killer Next Door at Bouchercon, the world's largest crime fiction festival: http://bouchercon2015.org/macavity-award-winners/


The Killer Next Door
The Killer Next Door
No. 23 has a secret. In this bedsit-riddled south London wreck, lorded over by a lecherous landlord, something waits to be discovered. Yet all six residents have something to hide.

Collette and Cher are on the run; Thomas is a reluctant loner; while a gorgeous Iranian asylum seeker and a 'quiet man' nobody sees try to stay hidden. And watching over them all is Vesta - or so she thinks.

In the dead of night, a terrible accident pushes the neighbours into an uneasy alliance. But one of them is a killer, expertly hiding their pastime, all the while closing in on their next victim...

As a cloying heatwave suffocates the city, events build to an electrifying climax in this dark, original and irresistibly compelling thriller.

The Darkest Secret
You can pre-order Alex's new book, The Darkest Secret, at the special price of £2.99 for your Kindle. The price will go up on publication.

The Darkest Secret
Apologies for the general email, but I desperately need your help. My goddaughter, Coco Jackson, disappeared from her family's holiday home in Bournemouth on the night of Sunday/Monday August 29/30th, the bank holiday weekend just gone. 

Coco is three years old. When identical twin Coco goes missing during a family celebration, there is a media frenzy. Her parents are rich and influential, as are the friends they were with at their holiday home by the sea. But what really happened to Coco? 

Set across two weekends - the first when Coco goes missing and the second fifteen years later at the funeral of her father, where at last, the darkest of secrets will be revealed...Taut, emotive and utterly compelling, an unputdownable 'ripped from headlines' novel that you'll want to talk about with everyone you know.

New Releases by Four BritCrime Authors

http://smarturl.it/cjjdqx
Hidden by Emma Kavanagh
A gunman is stalking the wards of a local hospital. He's unidentified and dangerous, and has to be located urgently... 

Emma Kavanagh is a former police psychologist. Hidden is her second Novel.


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Written-Scars-Estate-Book-4-ebook/dp/B013YL33R8?tag=brcrws-21
Written in The Scars by Mel Sherratt
Scars. Sometimes they’re visible. Sometimes they’re hidden deep within... Welcome to the Estate where even the darkest moments have their lighter side.... 

Mel is one of the bestselling authors in the UK Kindle store. Written in the Scars is book four in her popular Estate series.



 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bitter-Chill-Sarah-Ward/dp/0571321003/?tag=brcrws-21
 In Bitter Chill by Sarah Ward

This is a story about loss and family secrets, and how often the very darkest secrets are those that are closest to you.

Sarah is judge for the Petrona Award. In Bitter Chill is her first novel.



Taking Pity
Taking Pity by David Mark
Taking Pity is a police procedural thriller that pulls no punches. It is the story of three officers who can take no more, and a merciless nemesis that takes no chances, no prisoners and no pity.

David spent more than 15 years as a journalist, including seven years as a crime reporter with The Yorkshire Post. Taking Pity is his fourth DS McAvoy novel.

Kindle Deal: Bonfire night bundle on offer today

The London Stories by Helen Smith
Three bestselling British mysteries in one bundle of fun. 

Join twenty-six-year-old amateur sleuth Emily Castles as she investigates a murder at a bonfire night party, blackmail during the end-of-term show at a stage school, and a disappearance at a department store in London.

“Fast paced, funny and mysterious... I can’t wait to see what Emily’s next adventure will be.”

**Limited time offer**  

Amazon UK: 99p
Amazon US: 99¢

Goodreads Readers Choice: Have You Voted?


Mark Edwards has been nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award for Follow You Home.

If you loved the book, this is your chance to get your voice heard as readers around the world vote for their favourite books.

Vote here if you would like Follow You Home to win: https://www.goodreads.com/choiceawards/best-horror-books-2015

Follow You Home by Mark Edwards

http://smarturl.it/30t928The page-turning psychological thriller from the author of #1 bestsellers The Magpies and Because She Loves Me.

It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime, a final adventure before settling down. But after a perfect start, an encounter with a young couple on a night train forces Daniel and Laura to cut their dream trip short and flee home.

Back in London, Daniel and Laura vow never to talk about what happened that night. But as they try to fit into their old lives again, they realise they are in terrible danger—and that their nightmare is just beginning…

♠ See more about Follow You Home on Amazon.