New Writer in Residence: Author @Marnie_Riches

You can find Marnie on BritCrime's Twitter and Facebook accounts this week.

Marnie Riches grew up on a rough estate in Manchester, aptly within sight of the dreaming spires of Strangeways prison. She swapped those for the spires of Cambridge University, gaining a Masters degree in Modern & Medieval Dutch and German.

She has been a punk, a trainee rock star, a pretend artist, a property developer and professional fundraiser. In her spare time, she likes to run, renovate houses and paint. Oh, and drinking. She likes a drink. And eating. She likes that too. Especially in exotic destinations.

Her George McKenzie crime thrillers for adults were inspired, in part, by her own youth and time spent in The Netherlands as a student. The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die launched to great acclaim in early 2015, won The Patricia Highsmith Award for most exotic location in a novel at the Dead Good Reader Awards 2015 and went on to be an Amazon top 100 bestseller. The follow-up, The Girl Who Broke the Rules was in the Suspense top 50 for months and months, being heralded as "one of the best sequels ever" by readers and being voted by many book-bloggers as one of their top 10 reads of the year.

The Girl Who Had No Fear has just been released. Buy it today for only £2.99

Website: www.marnieriches.com
Twitter: @Marnie_Riches
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Marnie-Riches-author-196117983745658/

♠ Marnie's Top Five Baddies She Loves to Hate
♠ Marnie talks about winning a Dead Good Reader Award

Cover Reveal and Pre-Orders

Paul Finch's new crime novel, Strangers, is published on 22 September.

Dark, gritty and always edge-of-your-seat: the NO.1 BESTSELLER is back with a standout new heroine…

Unknown, alone, and fearing for your life. As PC Lucy Clayburn is about to find out, going undercover is the most dangerous work there is. But, on the trail of a prolific female serial killer, there's no other option – and these murders are as brutal as they come. Lucy must step into the line of fire – a stranger in a criminal underworld that butchers anyone who crosses the line.

And, unknown to Lucy, she's already treading it…

Pre-Order Strangers from Amazon

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Daniel Pembrey's new e-book edition of The Harbour Master is published on 22 September.

Henk van der Pol is a 30 year term policeman, a few months off retirement. When he finds a woman's body in Amsterdam Harbour, his detective instincts take over, even though it's not his jurisdiction. Warned off investigating the case, Henk soon realises he can trust nobody, as his search for the killer leads to the involvement of senior police officers, government corruption in the highest places, Hungarian people traffickers, and a deadly threat to his own family...

Pre-Order The Harbour Master from Amazon

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Look out for the cover reveal for The Girl Who Had No Fear, the fourth book in Marnie Riches' George McKenzie series, on Sunday 18th September at 7pm on the Avon/HarperCollins' Twitter and Facebook feeds.  An edge-of-your-seat thriller, The Girl Who Had No Fear is available to pre-order now.

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Bitter Moon, the fourth book in Alexandra Sokoloff's Thriller Award-nominated Huntress Moon series, is now available for pre-order. A haunted FBI agent is on the hunt for that most rare of killers... a female serial.

FBI agent Matthew Roarke has been on leave, and in seclusion, since the capture of mass killer Cara Lindstrom—the victim turned avenger who preys on predators. Torn between devotion to the law and a powerful attraction to Cara and her lethal brand of justice, Roarke has retreated from both to search his soul. But Cara’s escape from custody and a police detective’s cryptic challenge soon draw him out of exile—into the California desert and deep into Cara’s past—to probe an unsolved murder that could be the key to her long and deadly career.

Following young Cara’s trail, Roarke uncovers a horrifying attack on a schoolgirl, the shocking suicide of another, and a human monster stalking Cara’s old high school. Separated by sixteen years, crossing paths in the present and past, Roarke and fourteen-year-old Cara must race to find and stop the sadistic sexual predator before more young women are brutalized.

If you're new to the series, start with Huntress Moon!

Pre-Order Bitter Moon from Amazon 

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The Girls Next Door, the gripping new thriller from Mel Sherratt, will be released on 27 October.

One warm spring evening, five teenagers meet in a local park. Only four will come out alive.

Six months after the stabbing of sixteen-year-old Deanna Barker, someone is coming after the teenagers of Stockleigh, as a spate of vicious assaults rocks this small community. Revenge for Deanna? Or something more?

Detective Eden Berrisford is locked into a race against time to catch the twisted individual behind the attacks – but when her own niece, Jess Mountford, goes missing, the case gets personal.

With the kidnapper threatening Jess’s life, can Eden bring back her niece to safety? Or will the people of Stockleigh be forced to mourn another daughter…?

A terrifying, compelling, police procedural which will thrill fans of Angela Marsons, Peter James and Rachel Abbott.

Pre-Order The Girls Next Door from Amazon for only 99p

#BritCrime Festival Saturday Morning Panel: The Replay

Plotting, crime fiction festivals, how to get that first draft done... and Marnie's mustard dralon sofa.

Featuring Tammy Cohen, Fergus McNeill, Michael J Malone, Marnie Riches, William Shaw and Luca Veste.


This is a really interesting conversation between six successful crime fiction novelists. Take a look.



♠ Watch the replay here:  Apologies for cutting off the very beginning of the discussion. Please watch this! You will be glad you did.

Introducing British Thriller Writer Marnie Riches

Marnie Riches grew up on a rough estate in Manchester, aptly within sight of the dreaming spires of Strangeways prison. She swapped those for the spires of Cambridge University, gaining a Masters degree in Modern & Medieval Dutch and German.

She has been a punk, a trainee rock star, a pretend artist, a property developer and professional fundraiser. In her spare time, she likes to run, renovate houses and paint. Oh, and drinking. She likes a drink. And eating. She likes that too. Especially in exotic destinations.

Having authored the first six books of HarperCollins Children’s Time-Hunters series, her George McKenzie crime thrillers for adults were inspired, in part, by her own youth and time spent in The Netherlands as a student. She also writes contemporary women’s fiction. The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die launched to great acclaim in early 2015, won The Patricia Highsmith Award for most exotic location in a novel at the Dead Good Reader Awards 2015 and went on to be an Amazon top 100 bestseller. The follow-up, The Girl Who Broke the Rules was in the Suspense top 50 for months and months, being heralded as "one of the best sequels ever" by readers and being voted by many book-bloggers as one of their top 10 reads of the year. Her third George McKenzie thriller – The Girl Who Walked in the Shadows – was released 31st March and is already wowing crime fiction fans.

You can buy The Girl Who Walked in the Shadows from Amazon for only 99p today.

Website: www.marnieriches.com
Twitter: @Marnie_Riches
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Marnie-Riches-author-196117983745658/


♠ Marnie's Top Five Baddies She Loves to Hate
♠ Marnie talks about winning a Dead Good Reader Award

Secrets of British thriller writers CL Taylor & Marnie Riches

Writing, research, planning and promotion....

CL Taylor and Marnie Riches talk about their new thrillers in the week that The Girl Who Walked in the Shadows and The Missing are released.




More about Marnie Riches: http://marnieriches.com/

More about Cally Taylor: http://www.callytaylor.co.uk/

Writing A Bestseller: Easy as 1,2,3 or E = mc 2?! by Marnie Riches

Hello BritCrime followers. I hope your Easter break was relaxing and that you're not all hyperglycaemic from eating too much chocolate.

Marnie Riches, author of the award-winning George McKenzie crime-thrillers, set mainly in Amsterdam and the UK, has got her third gripping installment coming out on 31st March 2016. It's called The Girl Who Walked in the Shadows and has already garnered some terrific 5* reviews from book bloggers and her fellow authors alike.

This twisty tale of the hunt for a cunning serial killer - Jack Frost - and two missing children during the worst Arctic snap Europe has ever seen is available to pre-order on Amazon for only 99p! Better for your waistline than buying those half-priced, leftover Easter eggs...

If you can't bear to wait another three days for The Girl or if you're writing your own novel, why not check out Marnie's latest blog post for the comprehensive Irish online guide to writing, Writing.ie?

Click on this link to find out if writing a bestseller is as easy as 1,2,3 or more like E=MC2!

Live interview with Marnie Riches & Cally Taylor #TheGirlWho #TheMissing

We have a Blab (live-streamed interview) scheduled for 8pm UK time, Thursday 31st March, with bestselling British thriller writers Marnie Riches and Cally Taylor to celebrate the launch of their new books, The Girl Who Walked in the Shadows and The Missing.

Please follow this link to subscribe. You can watch live. If you can't make it live, you will receive a recording of the interview to watch later.

More details nearer the time, but please join us if you can.

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 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.

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S.J.I. Holliday

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


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.

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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 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.

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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 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.

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Michael J. Malone

♠ The Death House by Sarah Pinborough
♠ The Cartel by Don Winslow
♠ 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?

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C.L. Taylor

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


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.

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


Come back tomorrow for Part 2.

Top 5 Baddies Marnie Riches Loves to Hate... #goodbaddies

by Marnie Riches

1: Hannibal Lecter – was there ever a baddie so charming, intelligent or warped as The Silence of the Lambs’ Dr. Lecter? This is the magnificent epicurean, created by Thomas Harris, whose favourite dish was apparently a victim’s liver with some fava beans and a big Amarone – all served on Meissner porcelain, of course. I loved him twenty years ago and I love him now.

2: Walter White – OK, so Walter White is not the creation of a crime fiction writer, but is the star character in award-winning TV phenomenon, Breaking Bad. But like the characters in my own George McKenzie series, Walter is just an ordinary guy who gets tipped over the edge by the shit that life flings his way. A seemingly benign family man, he is violent, competitive, calculating and remorseless but his motivations are almost always noble. That’s why he’s the best cook in town!

3: Annie Wilkes – Penned by Stephen King, of course! Famous for kidnapping and hobbling an author because he was “just another lying ol’ dirty birdy”, she is the undoubted star of Misery. I have a soft spot for well-rounded, female psychopaths in literature, because we see them so infrequently. Apparently just an eccentric, small-town bookworm, Annie’s utterly terrifying, unpredictable as hell and, well, kind of cockadoodie.

4: Kevin Katchadourian – A sullen, difficult, untrustworthy teenaged son to a reluctant, beleaguered mother, who tries everything in a bid to bond with her child. Kevin, the creation of Lionel Shriver, is a chilling representation of how motherhood can go badly wrong. He’s bright, he’s manipulative, deadly and lacking any remorse whatsoever. But he’s clearly just a vulnerable boy, too. I love and loathe him in equal measure.

5: The Leopard – Jo Nesbo is very, very good at coming up with really inventive violence, none more so than that used by the Leopard. For my part, the Leopold’s Apple used by The Leopard was the macabre star of the novel. I really couldn’t think of a more revolting way of being dispatched than by having a small metal ball inserted into your mouth, which expands and plunges needles into your head and then…Well. Read it and see for yourself. As a medieval history buff, I was fascinated by this fictional torture device - more suited to being used by the Spanish Inquisition than a modern serial killer.

♠ Marnie Riches is an award-winning thriller writer. The Girl Who Broke the Rules has just been released. You can see Marnie's discussion of the baddies she loves to hate by following the #goodbaddies hashtag on Twitter.

♠ Marnie Riches books on Amazon. Follow Marnie on Twitter @Marnie_Riches

Who would make your top 5 list of baddies in fiction? Let us know in the comments.

NEW RELEASE: The Girl Who Broke the Rules

The pulse-pounding new thriller from Marnie Riches is out today. For anyone who loves Jo Nesbo and Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Broke the Rules is for you!

When the mutilated bodies of two sex-workers are found in Amsterdam, Chief Inspector van den Bergen must find a brutal murderer before the red-light-district erupts into panic.

Georgina McKenzie is conducting research into pornography among the UK’s most violent sex-offenders but once van den Bergen calls on her criminology expertise, she is only too happy to come running.

The rising death toll forces George and van den Bergen to navigate the labyrinthine worlds of Soho strip-club sleaze and trans-national human trafficking. And with the case growing ever more complicated, George must walk the halls of Broadmoor psychiatric hospital, seeking advice from the brilliant serial murderer, Dr. Silas Holm…

Get The Girl Who Broke the Rules for 99p today.

Panel 10: Femmes Fatales 8pm–10pm, Sunday 12 July #BritCrime

BritCrime Panel 10: Femmes Fatales

8pm–10pm UK Time | 1pm–3pm EST
Sunday 12 July

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

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Helen Giltrow: The Distance

It's a suicide mission, and quite probably a set-up. So why can't she say no?

A blistering debut thriller that introduces the coolest heroine in contemporary suspense fiction. They don't call her Karla anymore. She's Charlotte Alton: she doesn't trade in secrets, she doesn't erase dark pasts, and she doesn't break hit-men into prison. Except that is exactly what she's been asked to do. The job is impossible: get the assassin into an experimental new prison so that he can take out a target who isn't officially there. It's a suicide mission, and quite probably a set-up. So why can't she say no?

 Helen Giltrow is a former bookseller and editor whose writing has been shortlisted for the CWA’s Debut Dagger Award. Her first novel The Distance – a dark suspense thriller set in the world of criminal espionage, with a strong female lead – has been hailed by Lee Child as 'fast, hard and very, very good'.

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Ava Marsh: Untouchable

A gritty commercial thriller with an addictive blend of sex and intrigue...

‘If you start feeling anything for a client – and it does happen – count the money. That always brings you back down to earth.’

 Stella is an escort, immersed in a world of desire, betrayal and secrets. It’s exactly where she wants to be. Stella used to be someone else: respectable, loved, safe. But one mistake changed all that.

When a fellow call girl is murdered, Stella has a choice: forget what she’s seen, or risk everything to get justice for her friend. In her line of work, she’s never far from the edge, but pursuing the truth could take her past the point of no return.

Nothing is off limits. Not for her – and not for them. But no one is truly untouchable.

Ava Marsh grew up in Margate, Kent. A former broadsheet journalist, she gave it up to work in the charity sector and write dark and rather risqué thrillers. She now resides in Battersea, London, and spends her spare time running, kayaking, and hanging out in cyberspace.

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Marnie Riches: The Girl Who Wouldn't Die

He's watching her. She doesn't know it yet...

When a bomb explodes at the University of Amsterdam, aspiring criminologist Georgina McKenzie is asked by the police to help flush out the killer. But the bomb is part of a much bigger, more sinister plot that will have the entire city quaking in fear. And the killer has a very special part for George to play…

A thrilling race against time with a heroine you’ll be rooting for, this book will keep you up all night!  
 Marnie Riches grew up on a rough estate in Manchester. She learned her way out of the ghetto, all the way to Cambridge University, where she gained a Masters degree in German & Dutch. She has been a punk, a trainee rock star, a pretend artist, a property developer and professional fundraiser. Previously a children's author, now, she writes crime and contemporary women's fiction. Marnie Riches is the author of The Girl Who Wouldn't Die - the first installment of the George McKenzie crime thriller series, published by Maze and Avon at Harper Collins. In her spare time, Marnie likes to run (more of a long distance shuffle, really) travel, drink and eat all the things (especially if combined with travel) paint portraits, sniff expensive leather shoes (what woman doesn't?) and renovate old houses. She also adores flowers.

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

Facebook page: http://facebook.com/britcrime
Twitter: @britcrime
Keep up to date with Festival news: http://britcrime.com/newsletter 

"The Girl Who Wouldn't Die" is shortlisted for a Dead Good Readers' Award - most exotic location!

Available on Amazon for 99p!

by Marnie Riches
I almost fell off the rickety old chair in my writing cave the other day, when I discovered that my debut crime-thriller, "The Girl Who Wouldn't Die" had been shortlisted for a Dead Good Readers' Award - namely The Patricia Highsmith Award for Most Exotic Location.

This first installment in the George McKenzie series only came out in early April 2015. I've been bowled over with delight by how well the book has been received by BritCrime readers. It seems that I'm not the only one who was waiting to read a thriller that was reminiscent of successful Scandi-noir series, but set somewhere with a little sweet and sour - zoet-zuur - flavour to it.

I chose Amsterdam as the main location for my series, because I used to live in The Netherlands when I was the same age as George. Like her, I was intoxicated by the heady mix of period architecture, grandeur and sleaze. Amsterdam's red light district is like nowhere else on earth. To see the thong-clad women in their red-lit booths; to stroll along the cobbled streets that flank the city's inky canals and pop into a coffee shop for a joint; to spend your tourist Euros on some strap-on erotic contraption in a sex-shop and then make your way to the galleries, eateries and museums all within the same twenty four hours is nothing short of bonkers! For me, it presented the perfect exotic location in which to set a crime-thriller!

So, if you agree that Amsterdam would be the best contender for this prestigious Patricia Highsmith Award for the most exotic location in a crime novel, I'd be so grateful if you'd cast your vote in The Girl's direction. There is a smorgasbord of exotic settings also up for the award in this category - huge names in the crime world. I wish them the best of luck too, of course. But if "The Girl Who Wouldn't Die" takes the award, it will be nothing short of a minor miracle, since I normally can't even win an argument.

Happy voting for your favourite contender, BritCrime lovelies!

Marnie Riches