Guests – Page 8 – Grab This Book

Guest Post…Deborah Bee: Writing a Dual Narrative

Two protagonists/dual narrative – rooky error or good plan?

Why did I do it for my novel, The Last Thing I Remember. I don’t really know. It just seemed eventually (after two years of thinking about it) like a good idea.

Writing this blog piece, I just googled “a novel with two protagonists” and now I’ve been put off the very notion of a two-hander. Basic fiction writing, it says, warns against prologues, dream sequences, flashbacks, adverbs and dual/multiple protagonists. Oops. I’ve got some of them as well. And it says they are absolute rules. ABSOLUTE. RULES. Shriek.

The problem, it seems to be, is that apparently you can’t tell a compelling story if it’s split down the middle, UNLESS, each protagonist is equally weighted, with their own story arc that contains similar highs and lows, conflicts and resolve, leading to a balanced conclusion. But even if you do that, it’s never going to work.

I didn’t know that. I haven’t been to a creative writing class. I wish I had. But now I do know, I’m in the foetal position under my desk. I’ve made a rooky error. Are my protagonists equally weighted? Do they have similar highs and lows? All I know was that it was sodding complicated running two stories at the same time. Even though they are tightly woven together, I got lost so many times along the way.

Then there’s the dual narrative bit. Similarly, that’s considered a bad idea, mainly because it’s so easy to get confused over who is speaking. The received wisdom seems to suggest that unless the story calls for it, a dual narrative is a bit of a triumph of style over content. The secret to success…to create two utterly distinctive voices that cannot be confused.

So thinking about it, the reason I did a two-hander? Well, to start with my first protagonist, the one I really started with, is in a coma. She has Locked-in Syndrome. She can’t move, blink, see, swallow, breathe. However she can hear. And she can think. She can’t remember how she got there, but she’s piecing it all together by the conversations she can hear, and from her slowly-returning memory. The problem I created for myself was how to keep the audience interested in a woman who is totally stuck in her own head. She’s sad, frightened and desperately trying to grasp hold of her memories.

Protagonist 2 then was really a pair of eyes. An undercover agent almost, who could describe life on the outside. Kelly is fourteen and should be the innocent of the piece. But right from the start we discover that she is far from innocent, far from her school-girl appearance. She’s mouthy. She swears constantly. She uses the wrong words. She’s funny. I wanted Kelly to be the antidote to Sarah.

The reason that a dual narrative was a useful structure – because Sarah can tell you things about Kelly that Kelly would never say. And vice versa. And both of them are fantastically unreliable witnesses.

Then, anyway. Along came Gone Girl. Two protagonists, dual narrative. It worked so well they made a film out of it. Rules out the window. It’s all her fault. Blame Gillian Flynn. You maverick Gillian Flynn. ABSOLUTE MAVERICK.

The Last Thing I Remember is published by Twenty7 Books and is available to download now:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Thing-Remember-emotional-thriller-ebook/dp/B0196P0S4W/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1456867082&sr=1-1&keywords=the+last+thing+i+remember

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February 11

James Goss – Douglas Adams: City of Death

HOW DOUGLAS ADAMS WROTE THE MOST POPULAR DOCTOR WHO STORY IN A WEEKEND. (and other things to shame all other writers)

If you’re not a Doctor Who fan, the chances are you’ll have met one at a party. They’ll have backed you into a corner, saying “No, but seriously, have you seen City Of Death? It’s really, really good. I mean, it’s by Douglas Adams and it’s set in Paris and it has Tom Baker in it and…”

At that point you’ll either be excusing yourself to lunge at the guacamole, or you’ll be hooked. And City Of Death is well worth your time. True Doctor Who fans (especially the ones blocking your path to the ham and pineapple pizza) will perhaps opine that it’s not the best Doctor Who story ever, but it’s certainly the most popular. On its original broadcast it got the show’s highest audiences ever – thanks in part to ITV being on strike, but we prefer to ignore that and concentrate on how brilliant it is.

City Of Death is a breezy story about time travel, art theft and a villainous Parisian Countess. It’s also terribly, terribly annoying – because Douglas Adams wrote it in a weekend. You look at the hundreds of other Doctor Who stories out there – some dogged by the elaborate excuses of late authors, some rewritten on the studio floor, and some painstakingly developed over the course of years – and then there’s City Of Death. When the original script fell through, Adams was grabbed by the show’s producer and stuck behind a typewriter until it was done.

Could such a thing be done now? 1979 was such a primitive time for the internet that it had never even got cross about Katie Hopkins (imagine that). Without the distraction of emails, texts, and wikipediaing Paris’s geography, Adams was forced to rely on his wits and a lot of coffee. And he got through it, and produced something brilliant – a story that’s genuinely funny, and a fiendishly complicated time travel plot that just works.

That’s the real legacy of City Of Death – one that haunts the rest of us. Anyone who’s ever used the “#amwriting” hashtag; Anyone who’s ever handed in a first draft and said “It’s rough but we’ll get it right in a few goes”. Douglas Adams wrote City Of Death in a weekend, and they pretty much started filming that first draft on Monday. It’s a fact which haunts everyone.

In fact, next time a writer friend of yours Facebooks to say “Managed 2,000 words today and nearly reached the summit! #Phew #SmashedIt”, why not just reply “Douglas Adams wrote City Of Death in a weekend”? I’m sure they’ll thank you.

City Of Death – Douglas Adams & James Goss – BBC Books

The Doctor takes Romana for a holiday in Paris – a city which, like a fine wine, has a bouquet all its own. Especially if you visit during one of the vintage years. But the TARDIS takes them to 1979, a table-wine year, a year whose vintage is soured by cracks – not in their wine glasses but in the very fabric of time itself.

Soon the Time Lords are embroiled in an audacious alien scheme which encompasses home-made time machines, the theft of the Mona Lisa, the resurrection of the much-feared Jagaroth race, and the beginning (and quite possibly the end) of all life on Earth.

Aided by British private detective Duggan, whose speciality is thumping people, the Doctor and Romana must thwart the machinations of the suave, mysterious Count Scarlioni – all twelve of him – if the human race has any chance of survival.

But then, the Doctor’s holidays tend to turn out a bit like this.

City of Death is published by BBC Books and is available in paperback and digital format. You can order a copy here.

James Goss is the author of two Doctor who novels: The Blood Cell and Dead of Winter, as well as Summer Falls (on behalf of Any Pond). He is also the co-author, with Steve Tribe of The Doctor: His Lives and Times, The Dalek Handbook and Doctor Who; A History of the Universe in 100 Objects. While at the BBC James produced an adaptation of Shada, an unfinished Douglas Adams Doctor Who story, and Dirk is his award-winning stage adaptation of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. His Doctor Who audiobook Dead Air won Best Audiobook 2010 and his books Dead of Winter and First Born were nominated for the 2012 British Fantasy Society Awards. His new book, Haterz, is out now.

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January 28

Guest Post – David Mark: Villains

Why are we obsessed with murder? What is it that make the act of killing so intriguing? Best-selling novelist DAVID MARK asks why it is that terrible acts are lethally compelling.

Go on, admit it – when you hear there’s a serial killer on the loose, you’re more excited than scared. It doesn’t make you a bad person. It makes you a human being. We can’t help it. We’re thrilled by that which terrifies us; we’re invigorated by the idea of a little extra peril in our day-to-day. If you discovered there was a dragon on the loose in Chipping Norton you’d be hooked, and a part of you would be hoping that the next bulletin involved a politician or a tabloid executive being roasted alive. Serial killers are our dragons. They add some danger. They add some colour. They brighten up the drive home. Me? I love ‘em.

These aren’t my actual opinions, by the way. They’re what I like to think of as loaded contentions. They might strike a chord with some, but please don’t think any of the above represents my actual view. I don’t really have a view. It comes with voting Lib Dem. It’s fun to wonder, though. I’ve never actually been to university but I’d imagine this is what it feels like at some of the more elite seats of learning. Right now I feel like I should be in my philosophy master’s private rooms, drinking some obscure liqueur and positing obscenely inflammatory hypotheses in the hope of impressing some overseas student who reads Kierkegaard for pleasure.

Where was I? Oh yes, death. Murder. Villainy. Hmm. Well, crime fiction is my stock in trade. If it weren’t for people’s continued interest in the act of murder then I would probably be writing romance novels and indulging in self-harm. But do I understand the allure? Do I actually have any real ideas about why pretty much every crime novel has the act of murder at its heart? Do I know why millions of readers around the world expect at least one corpse per novel and hope for plenty more? Why for example, do readers gladly overdose on serial killer novels but turn our noses up at the idea of an investigation into other types of crime? Why doesn’t Jack Reacher go after corrupt hedge fund managers? Why isn’t Rebus bringing down corporate price-fixers? And why isn’t my own Detective Sergeant McAvoy spending 400 pages a year chasing after trawler owners who deliberately break EU quota agreements?

Well, for me personally, it’s because there is something unique about murder. When you take a life, you don’t just take the victim’s life. You take their future. You take all they will ever be. There is no opportunity for revenge, redemption or redress. You stop a heart and you are making a decision from which there is no return. It’s the crime that most fascinates and terrifies us and it sells newspapers at an impressive rate of knots.

It’s the same in the entertainment business. Murder mysteries are the true kingpin of the TV schedules. Whether it be cosy poisonings in St Mary Mead or psychopaths cutting people’s feet off in Whitechapel, any show that promises a body, a culprit, an investigation and a resolution, can expect big ratings.

So am I being mercenary? Am I writing about murder because I know people are attracted to it? Or am I writing about murder because I’m capable of looking out at the world through eyes that sometimes scare me and that I’d rather channel that gift into planning murders than committing them? That’s certainly a theory. People do ask me where I get my ideas from and they don’t always think of it as a compliment when they say that the murderers in my books seem terrifying believable. But I’d like to take this opportunity to let readers know they are safe in my company. I don’t see myself going on the rampage any time soon. I suffer with bronchial problems and the idea of a hammer attack sounds awfully tiring.

What was I talking about? Villains, that’s right. Murderers. Killers. Why do they fascinate? Why do they sell? Could it be that they are simply the most interesting characters? If you can think of anybody in your social circle who is more interesting than Hannibal Lecter, you should probably ask them some searching questions and stop letting them babysit.

I’ve been asked several times whether I believe that everybody is capable of murder. My answer is ‘yes’. Given the right motivation and enough opportunity, I believe that everybody on earth could take a life. That’s not based on innate bleakness. That’s based on many years spent covering murder trials as a journalist. For every hundred murderers who stood in the dock, perhaps only one or two seemed to be cut from a different cloth to those in the public gallery. They were just people: men and women who had lost their temper, or their reason, or whose greed had overcome their sense of right and wrong. Most felt remorse for their crimes and those who didn’t seemed reconciled to the fact that there would be a punishment for their crime. They had killed for what they saw as a good reason and they had been caught accordingly.

Those handful of ‘different’ killers were the ones that fascinated me. Those men and women who had a little bit missing in their make-up, or perhaps, an extra little bit in their brain. They were the ones who killed because they wanted to know what the inside of somebody’s head looked like. They were the ones who took a life because they enjoyed the sound of screams. They were the ones who gave me the chills. Perhaps I write about such people because it is a way of keeping them contained; I put the monsters on the page so they don’t escape. But then again, I’m not sure I write about monsters. I write about people who could exist. People who kill, for good or for bad. I write about the different notions of justice and how good and evil are just a double yoke in the same cracked egg. I write about a good man chasing bad people and the toll that takes upon his soul.

Was there a point to this? I’m caught up in it now. I’m thinking about killers. I‘m wondering about goodness and badness and what it all says about me and my species. Perhaps that suggests that we haven’t resolved anything. It certainly suggests that murder remains fascinating. Perhaps that’s why I write about it. Hmm.

DAVID MARK’S new novel featuring DS Aector McAvoy, DEAD PRETTY, is out now, published by Mulholland Books.

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January 25

In Conversation: When SJI Holliday met JS Law

A few months ago I thought that it would be fun to try bring something different to my blog. I had enjoyed sharing guest posts and author Q&A’s as I felt they offered insights into an author’s creative process but I was looking for something a bit more reactive. The Q&A format I normally adopt did not allow for follow-up questions as all my questions are normally submitted in advance.

To get around this problem I decided to approach two authors and ask if they would be prepared to chat to each other (with me lurking in the background). I turned to Twitter looking with my guest ‘wishlist’ on standby.

I was thrilled, and more than a little humbled, that the first two authors I approached agreed to take part. First up was JS Law (author of the fantastic thriller Tenacity). I had loved Tenacity and at the time I asked James if he would like to be involved in my author chat his book had recently launched – not brilliant timing on my part as James was swamped with demands upon his time.

The other person I had wanted to ask was Black Wood author, SJI Holliday. Susi’s debut novel had really caught my attention in the early part of the year, I loved her characterisation and despite setting the story in a fictional town everything had seemed so very real as I read.

I had purposefully selected my guests from different publishers, I tried to make sure they came from different parts of the country and were unlikely to know each other outwith Twitter and Social Media…as it turns out 2 out of 3 was not bad!

After ‘introducing’ Susi and James I then got caught up in a bit of good natured name calling and cheeky put-downs. Seems my plan to bring together two strangers had not quite worked out that way. But it did make for an easy opening question for me:

Me: Perhaps I should open with bringing me up to speed? When I suggested this chat I had no idea that you two knew each other, I quickly find that I am wrong about this! So how did your paths first cross?

Susi: You can blame Harrogate for all this… I think we first met 3 years ago, and Jaegerbombs aside, we’ve become good mates – we both had lots of angsty chats before finding publishers, so it’s nice to be able to do stuff like this now when we both have books on the shelves. We’re a supportive bunch, us crime writers! You’ll find that a lot of us have got to know each other… helps with the days when we are banging our heads off walls wailing about how we can’t write 😉

James: Before getting my publishing deal, I spent a lot of time attending writing events, networking and trying to better understand the environment. I met Susi at Harrogate a few years ago and you might say we just hit it off. I recall at the time that Susi had an agent and no deal, and I was agentless, so we’ve both come a long way.

The crime community is quite small, but very supportive, and long before I was published I really loved that I could go to an event and hang out for a beer with writers that I’ve been fans of for years. I think this warmth and new circle of friends also helped me confirm what I think I already knew, and

that was that Crime and Thrillers was where I wanted to be. I look forward every year to the key events of Crime in the Court at Goldboro Books, Crimefest, Theakston’s Old Peculiar at Harrogate and Bloody Scotland, among others as it’s a chance to mix with the other writers and loads of readers, sink a few beers and remind myself that there’s a life beyond my current manuscript.

The publishing journey is different for us all, but at the events I gain so much experience from the more established writers and so much support, such as being friends with Susi, that it’s just part of the job now, and I wouldn’t miss any unless I had to.

So, Susi – drinking stories aside, why do you go to these events? Same reasons as me? If so, what value do you think you get beyond the support and encouragement?

Susi: I completely agree with James here. The events are invaluable, and I can’t imagine being a crime writer and not taking part in them. I’ve been doing some library events recently, and although they don’t always run exactly to plan (I had one with 3 attendees. One very old, one didn’t really understand English, and the third was aggressive and succeeded in making the whole thing rather uncomfortable) – it’s a great way to find new readers, as well as hone your skills when it comes to talking about yourself for an hour (which is much harder than it sounds). I tend to add anecdotes and mention other writers too, basically doing anything to keep the audience engaged and entertained. I have a great story about a psychopathic orange peeler, but not sure if I should commit it to print… it will be one of those folkloric legends… ‘Have you heard Susi Holliday talking about the weirdo with the orange?’

As James says, when we met, I had an agent but no deal. I actually hadn’t even finished the book at the time. I finished it a week later, but it took a good few months to find a publisher. I remember James being very supportive at that time, and he was also just starting to send out Tenacity to agents, so it was good to be able to give each other a rallying call when required.

I’ve written 50k words since I came back from Harrogate this year. I always come back from an event feeling buoyed and inspired. Hearing other authors speak is always entertaining (and that’s both on the stage and in the bar). It’s always great to chat to your author friends and peers about ideas, research and all that stuff. A lot of us have become good friends from meeting at events, and we keep in touch on social media and email too. It is a lonely thing, sitting down in front of a computer all day, talking to the characters in your head. We’re lucky that crime writers are a great bunch!

Something that I always find interesting is how we all manage to fit it all in. Writing takes time and headspace, and there are pesky things like other halves and kids and jobs too… I’ve recently taken a bit of time off to finish this draft, and I’m lucky that I can usually work part-time. How do you cope with fitting the writing around your day job, James?

James: Time is always an issue – family and a job that can be upwards of 50 hours some weeks – so for me the writing has to be my relaxation, the way I decompress. If it ever became a chore I genuinely don’t know if I could do it (I bet there’s a load of experienced authors out there now laughing at that now – like when a new parent talks about loving getting up at night with their lovely new baby, it soon wears you down). I write mostly in the evenings and on weekends when the kids are off doing other things, but I’m more and more looking to do retreats to give me big blocks of writing so that I can knuckle down. I have my first proper solo retreat coming up soon – 5 days in a remote cottage – so I’ll let you know how that goes – fingers crossed it’ll be very productive.

This always makes me think about wordcounts – I’m an obsessive planner/plotter and so when I start writing I usually like to have a very good idea what it is I’m going to write – with chapter plans and a good story summary. If I have this, I have, in the past, hit as many as 12,000 words in a day, though I can’t sustain that. A good evening for me is 2,500 words and a good day at the weekend would be 5,000 plus. It’s worth noting that my first drafts are very dirty, and I mean awful – filled with lines like ‘This is shit, write something better in here’ and ‘research snipers and write this again so it isn’t crap’ so there is a cost associated with my hight(ish) word count outputs.

How does that compare to you, Susi??

Susi: I’m not quite as much of a planner, but I did outline my second book and it meant I was able to get the words down a lot quicker. 5,500 is the max I’ve ever done in a day. 2,500 is more usual. I just wrote 50k in a month which was gruelling! I’m having a break now before starting edits – catching up on some reading before my to-be-read pile turns into an avalanche! I recently read The Blissfully Dead by Mark Edwards and Louise Voss, and Steve Mosby’s I Know Who Did It (both were brilliant).

Do you find that reading great books makes you doubt your own ability? Do you suffer from ‘everything I’m writing is shit’ syndrome? And I don’t mean during the first draft.

James: Oh god yes! I no longer read fiction during my first draft and William McIlvanney is to blame. I was reading his first Laidlaw book when I was working on one of my first drafts and his sense of place is so strong, his characterisation just spot on, his descriptive prose……. The list goes on and it just shales my confidence. But it’s more than that too – if I’m reading a really strong novel, I start to take on those traits, like during the Game of Thrones novels (no, I haven’t bothered to watch the tv series) I found I started to err towards longer more descriptive passages, you know, forty-two pages of what Dan was wearing and what she had for breakfast ;-), but seriously, I find that a strong writing style can really impact on me and I start to lose my own voice – so I try to be very careful.

During first draft, it’s all non-fic for me.

And, to be honest, I’m very hard on what I write – occasionally I write something that I think might not be shit, but not often – that’s why I don’t work in sales!

Susi: Manic is the only way I can operate. When things slow down, I get lazy. I’m just about to embark on my 3rd book now, and I’m hoping to write it fast and furious…

Meanwhile – yes, Bloody Scotland this weekend! Back full circle on the festival question! I’m looking forward to catching up with friends and doing the fresh blood panel. Plus I have a special event on the Saturday night…

****The Special Event was a star turn at the Curly Coo pub where Susi was joined by Alexandra Sokoloff, Lucy Ribchester, Kati Hiekkapelto, Steph Broadrib (Crime Thriller Girl) for a show-stopping, bar stomping performance of Chicago showtunes. Other performers on during the evening included Val McDermid, Steve Cavanagh and Michael J Malone.****

Prior to starting book 3, I’m trying to write a short story. Not written one for a while and feeling that it’s become difficult all of a sudden… James, do you write short stories, or is it novels all the way?

James: I love short stories! Love them. I used to write loads and have entered dozens of short story comps. I’ve just never won one 🙁 honestly, I doubt there’s any literate person in the UK that hasn’t beaten me at a short story comp!

Interestingly, Dan Lewis, my lead in Tenacity, started off as a short story. I forget what comp it was, but it was one where they give you a title, or maybe a topic, and you have to write a story. I wrote about a woman in a man’s world and created Dan. It was several years later when I came back to her again and wrote Tenacity, where she really came into her own.

****At this point in the chat the mania went into overdrive and we all got distracted elsewhere. On returning in late in the year we picked up where we left off and I was keen to find out what had been happening during the chaos. I had met Susi at Bloody Scotland where she sneaked a little information about her next book during her panel. James, I believe, was happily distracted by the Rugby World Cup. Christmas and New Year slipped by so I caught up with Susi to get some more information on her new book****

Me: Susi, in Stirling (Bloody Scotland) you indicated that you had a new book coming in 2016, can you share any more information yet?

Susi: Yes! It’s called Willow Walk. It’s set in Banktoun (same as Black Wood) but features new characters and a completely new story, so it’s a follow-up in some ways, but really it can be read standalone. It’s about a woman who is being stalked by the brother that nobody knew she had… It’s out in spring and I’m quite excited about it!

My most sincere thanks to James and Susi for giving so much of their time. I knew from the outset that I was asking for something which would be an ongoing distraction and they were magnificent in keeping this conversation going for a significant number of weeks, despite all their other commitments and constant demands upon their time.

SJI Holliday

SJI Holliday grew up in East Lothian. A life-long fan of crime and horror, her short stories have been published in various places, and she was shortlisted for the inaugural CWA Margery Allingham competition. She is married and lives in London. Her debut novel Black Wood was out in 2015.

Black Wood is published by Black & White Publishing and can be ordered here

JS Law

James joined the Royal Navy in 1993 as an apprentice and went on to serve for twenty years, the latter half of this career spent in the Submarine Service. He rose through the ranks, taking a commission as an engineering officer in 2001, and serving as a Senior Engineer and Nuclear Reactor Plant Supervisor, where his responsibilities ranged from the safety and operation of the submarine’s nuclear power plant to hydraulic plants, fridges and toilets; it was the latter of these tasks that brought the majority of any pressure.

His final years in service were spent training submariners in the role of Senior Lecturer in Nuclear Reactor Engineering, where he lectured and mentored future submarine operators of all ranks and rates.

Having written short stories and novels throughout his naval career, James completed an MA in Creative Writing at Portsmouth University shortly before leaving the navy in 2013, completing his debut novel, Tenacity, shortly afterwards.

James lives in Hampshire with his wife, Elaine, and two children. He spends what spare time he has riding his bike around the South Downs and travelling to Edinburgh to watch Scotland play rugby at Murrayfield stadium.

Tenacity is published by Headline and can be ordered here

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December 27

Talking Serial Killers – Vol 2

12 months ago I had the opportunity to chat with David McCaffrey, author of Hellbound. David had introduced a twist to his serial killer story and I was offered the opportunity to chat with David about Hellbound and about serial killers! During the course of our conversation I asked:

“Why do you think we (as readers) enjoy serial killer stories given the reality is such a horrific concept?”

It is a question that I have re-visited several times since my chat with David and I have been fascinated with the different responses that I have received so decided to collate the replies.

In April Alexandra Sokoloff visited and I asked: why do we love a serial killer story?

I think the serial killer has become an iconic monster, like a vampire or werewolf or zombie (maybe replacing the pretty much defunct mummy!). This icon is of course a very idealized version of what a serial killer actually is. And I think it was Thomas Harris who mythologized the serial killer to classic monster status, although Stevenson’s Jekyll/Hyde, Stoker’s Dracula (supposedly based on the real-life Vlad the Impaler), and various depictions of Jack the Ripper were strong precursors. We are fascinated by the idea of pure evil in a human being.

However, the other component of why we love a serial killer story is because most authors (and screenwriters and filmmakers) who write about serial killers are dishonestly romanticizing them and leaving out the unmitigated, repellent malevolence of these men. About which more in a minute.

And there is also an unfortunate percentage of the population that gets off on reading about rape, torture, and murder.

But that was not where it ended as, during the preparation for our Q&A, Alex indicated that she had lots to offer on the subject of Serial Killers! Manna for a crime blogger…a full Q&A just around serial killers was the result and is one of my favourite interviews that I have hosted. You can read our conversation in full here: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=696

In February I had the chance to chat with Karen Long about her second Eleanor Raven novel The Vault. Raven hunts down a killer who likes to keep his victims around long after their death…

Why do you think that we all seem to enjoy reading about serial killers?

It is one of the defining aspects of the conscious mind that we seek to understand the mind of another. Have you not said to a loved one, “What are you thinking?”, “Penny for them?” or you see the personality and empathy in a pet? We look for the similarities and fear the differences. A great white shark is more terrifying than an orca, both are apex predators, roughly the same weight but we feel less threatened by the orca (count the ratio of shark to orca documentaries on the Discovery channel). It looks back at us with an intelligence and complexity of purpose that we believe we can understand. It’s more like than unlike us. The unconscious mind is terrifying; simple motor responses that can’t be tempered or reversed by logic, emotion or negotiation leave us vulnerable and afraid. Those atavistic fears, tamped down by collective intelligence and analysis need an airing if we are to survive. What better way to practise than from the safety of your own living room, protected by hearth, locks and a telephone. When we confront the serial killer in the safety of our imaginations, we look into the shark’s mind. It is a lesson in survival that dares us to look into a mind devoid of reason.

You can read our Q&A in full here: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=520

Most recently I was delighted to welcome Marnie Riches back to Grab This Book. We were chatting about the first two books of The Girl Who series – Marnie’s hero (George) has had more than one brush with violent killers so naturally I wanted to ask Marnie about her thoughts on Serial Killers:

Why do readers love serial killer stories given how horrific the concept is in reality?

Serial killers form an intrinsic part of our collective oral history, like childhood tales of the bogeyman or urban myths. Every grown-up has heard of the Moors Murderers, Fred and Rose West, The Yorkshire Ripper… They’re gruesome anti-legends. Serial killers are so rare, that they always make headlines, and we read their stories with macabre fascination, precisely because they are such an anomaly in our otherwise ordered, safe and fairly predictable lives. Death is inevitable, but premature death at the hand of a violent killer is a primal fear, statistically founded on very little, but which we nevertheless experience with perverse relish and vicariously through the suffering of a few unfortunate individuals who do fall victim to society’s worst predators. Serial killers will always be fascinating.

You can read our Q&A in full here: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=1078

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December 24

Talking Serial Killers – Vol 1

Back in January I kicked off the year with a Q&A with Hellbound author David McCaffrey. David’s book put a real twist on the Serial Killer story and got me thinking about how I (as a reader) viewed books about serial killers. So I asked the question:

Why do you think we (as readers) enjoy serial killer stories given the reality is such a horrific concept?

I was quite happy with this question and have revisited it several times through the year. What has fascinated me has been the variety of responses I have received so I thought I would collate a few of them in a single post:

First is David McCaffrey’s reply:

I think we’re fascinated with the concept of absolute evil and how someone can become so devoid of empathy and remorse. There could be many reasons for this fascination…it is because we feel sorry for the events that lead them to become that way? Is it because we sometimes see aspects of ourselves in their character? It’s acknowledged that you cannot have good without evil, light without darkness. And because of this, as readers, we find ourselves eager to see what horrific acts characters can get up to and what will be done to defeat them.

After all, are they not the more interesting? We seek to find those moments where we can feel affinity with the shadier side of human nature because, as a contradiction, it also makes us feel safe. We know that evil is simply an excuse for unacceptable behaviour and that, if the surface of it is scratched, like a poorly rendered wall it will crumble away.

I think we’ll always find evil personable because at its core, we need to believe that there is more to it than simply basic desire to cause harm and that such characters are more complex than that. That good and evil are but two sides of the same coin. As Obadiah Stark tells Father Hicks prior to his execution “Evil is simply live spelt backwards.”

You can read the full Q&A here: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=463

In April I got to chat with Sarah Hilary:

Why do you believe readers of crime fiction enjoy a serial killer story when the reality is such a terrible concept?

Perhaps because it’s such a terrible concept. I do my best writing when I’ve become obsessed with an idea — not always a crime, sometimes a human condition, or a social or psychological phenomenon — and I have to write through it to satisfy my curiosity, or my terror. I’m often motivated by fear, or rather by the need to confront the things that scare me. There’s the vicarious thrill aspect too, of course. The ‘how would I survive?’. And let’s face it, there are some extremely stylish and compelling stories out there. Hannibal is a prime example, as was True Detective — something about these stories attracts storytellers and creative geniuses (designers, editors, actors) perhaps because of the challenge involved. It’s hard to look away from the spectacle, apart from anything else. I’m working on an idea of this kind in Tastes Like Fear, and the story has me adrenalised—the closest I’ve come to the notion of a story that ‘tells itself’ because of the momentum involved in trying to keep pace with a serial killer.

My full interview with Sarah took place following the release of No Other Darkness and you can read it here: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=743

One final one for today. Neil White stopped by when his latest thriller The Domino Killer launched. He took my question and ran with a full guest post:

Neil White:

Why are readers attracted to serial killers?

The answer is wider than that, because the question is really why are people attracted to serial killers. TV viewers devour factual shows that highlight the trail left behind by some maniac. Newspapers sell copies when a new mystery arises. The water cooler debates swell when there’s a new psychopath in town.

People are attracted to serial killers, so when readers turn to a book, it is no surprise that serial killer novels feature highly.

So why the attraction?

People are attracted to death. It’s why people peer over the edge of a cliff, even though they are scared of falling. They edge forward but the need to see over is compelling. But they don’t peer over the edge to see how nice the beach looks. They look to see how awful it would be to fall, to crash onto the rocks. Staring at death is life-affirming, re-assured by that quiet sigh of relief as you step back, safe again on the clifftop.

Then there’s the fascination with someone doing something they cannot comprehend doing, along with the vicarious tingle of fear.

People can understand some murders. The crime of passion, for example, or when violence goes too far when wearing the red mask of rage. But cold-blooded killings done just to satisfy an urge? Most people are not capable of that, cannot understand it, so it’s easy to be fascinated by someone who can plumb those dark depths.

Ian Brady described serial killers as the only brave ones in the world, because they are the ones who are fearless enough to give vent to their fantasies with no thought of the consequences. That’s complete nonsense, just grandiose boasting from a man who lives off scraps of infamy, but it’s an insight into his thinking, that it is all about the fantasy, about the lack of fear of the consequences, that the lack of empathy means that there is no thought for the victims. The victims are an irrelevance.

That is so different from the usual human experience. On the whole, people empathise, couldn’t hurt someone just for the pleasure of it. There usually has to be a reason, like hiding behind a war or political cause or because their emotions got the better of them. We can understand those reasons. We cannot understand the selfishness of a serial killer, so we are fascinated by people who behave differently.

There is also the second reason, that tingle of fear.

We read thrillers to be thrilled, read horror to be horrified, read scary stories to be scared. We enjoy that fear, because we know it isn’t real. It’s some distant thing, a shiver to be relished, that we have been dragged into the dark world of the killer, are brushed by that madness.

But distance is the crucial thing. Ripper walks are an industry in London, where the crowd oohs and aahs as the guide describes how women were slaughtered, running his thumb up his body to show the track of the knife at the spots where they died. I confess that, even now, when I go to London, I find myself in Spitalfields at the end of the day, enjoying a pint in the Ten Bells, where Mary Kelly spent her last night, trying to evoke the feeling of how it must have been back then, looking for the shadows of the Ripper.

Imagine how you would fare if you tried to organise such a guided tour around Leeds and Bradford, where Peter Sutcliffe murdered his victims. It would evoke rage. It would be wrong. Too close. Too recent.

So distance is crucial. It has to be a remote fear, a view from afar, because we love the tingle of fear but we like to be safe, where no one really gets hurt. Crime thrillers do that. They allow a glimpse over the cliff edge, but fundamentally it’s for the relief when the killer is caught, when the book is closed and our own lives are untouched

My review of The Domino Killer is here: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=907

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December 19

Guest Post – Marnie Riches: Serial Heroes

My Serial Heroes feature week draws to a close. For those joining late: I have been asking authors to tell me which ongoing crime/thriller series they enjoy reading (and why).

Thus far we have had Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct books – Douglas Skelton‘s selection. Day Two was Angela Marsons talking about Val McDermid’s Tony Hill books. Helen Giltrow introduced us to the wonderful Slough Houses series by Mick Herron and yesterday Michael J Malone took us to James Lee Burke country.

My final guest for this round of Serial Heroes is Marnie Riches. During 2015 I read both of Marnie’s Georgina McKenzie novels: The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die and The Girl Who Broke The Rules these were stunning reads – books I could not put down. I included The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die in my Top Ten Books of 2015 and have been delighted to see that several of my fellow bloggers also included Marnie’s books in their end of year selections. I associate Marnie with slick, gritty thrillers so was keen to see what she enjoyed reading.

Before contacting each of the authors that have kindly contributed to this week’s feature I had tried to guess which books they may select. I knew Douglas would likely select Ed McBain and was reasonably sure Helen would pick Mick Herron, however, I had Marnie as a dead cert for Stieg Larsson…nope!

Marnie Riches:

The end of the year on social media brings with it so many exciting round-ups and Top 10s of the year’s best books. I’ve been lucky enough to feature on a couple this year and am delighted that my George McKenzie series has garnered such support from readers and bloggers. There’s something special about discovering a brand new series, isn’t there? Something magical about a character’s fraught and complicated life, unfolding on the pages…a couple of books in, and often, they feel like old friends, telling their stories just for you.

An author who became a great source of inspiration for my own writing is the mighty Jo Nesbo. The Leopard was the first book of the Harry Hole series that I devoured. It was dark. It was brutal. It contained a perfect Scandi-Noir blend of coffee drinking, snow and murder. My imagination caught fire with the introduction of the gruesome Leopold’s Apple as an ingenious and dreadful torture device; a bringer of death by drowning. I had to read on. For me, this is one of the best books in the series, as we discover Harry, hiding away in Hong Kong, trying to smother his demons in a narcotic fug. The switch from Hong Kong’s sweaty high-rises to the snow-bound, claustrophobic Norwegian wilderness and ensuing epic trek to the Congo to catch a killer make this a truly international novel – exactly the sort of thing that I love to read and also to write, of course.

For my part, the real genius in Nesbo’s writing comes not so much from his characters but from his ability to tell a really gripping and often, wildly inventive yarn. Each of his killers despatch their victims in unusual ways, with a variety of different and warped motivations. There are twists and action sequences a-plenty, as we enter the worlds of addicts, ex-servicemen, the Salvation Army, hitmen and even artists. His books from the middle of his series – The Devil’s Star, The Redeemer, The Snowman and The Leopard – contain Nesbo’s best writing, I feel. The plotting is tight. The pace is fast. The books are long and packed with descriptive detail but are neither overblown nor undercooked. They evoke a gritty, realistic, rat’s-eye view of Oslo and its criminal underbelly.

What I also love about the Harry Hole series is the way that Nesbo weaves thematic complexity into his stories, so that beneath the main storyline of Harry-pursues-killer-and-catches-killer, there are layers addressing corruption within the police force, dysfunctional relationships, sexuality, existential angst of the middle-aged and the nature of addiction.

Characters usually constitute the most important element in a series’ success. Harry Hole is a wonderfully tortured individual, continually having to face the perils of addiction, scheming colleagues, sexual temptation from the women who come and go from his life and/or unrequited love for his The One – Rakel. I do prefer a man with a soupcon more sensitivity and an impressive intellect, as well as a propensity for derring-do, however dastardly – hence my enduring love of Thomas Harris’ Hannibal Lecter and my compulsion to create the misanthropic art-school drop-out, Van den Bergen. But Hole is indeed a belter, and Nesbo demonstrates beautifully how you must always chase your main character up a tree and then throw rocks at him or her. His subsidiary characters are often interesting too – none more so than the blushing Beate Lonn with her incredible ability to remember every face she has ever seen, diligently watching CCTV footage in the House of Pain. I must confess that my own detective, Marie – Van den Bergen’s IT expert – has, in part, been inspired by Lonn, though I sought to flesh Marie out a good deal more and in different ways. The introverted, soap-dodging Marie, who spends her days tracking the nefarious doings of traffickers and paedophiles online, really comes into her own in my third George McKenzie novel – The Girl Who Walked in the Shadows. Nesbo’s Rakel, though, always feels like a rough sketch of a woman. I wish Nesbo had taken the time to flesh his female characters out more, because they count! It’s only a very small criticism of a series that is consistently impressive, in the main.

Oddly, it is often the standalone novels penned by famous authors that turn out to be their best work. If you want to see Jo Nesbo’s writing at its cut-throat, breakneck-paced, fat-free best, read Headhunters. It’s slender in comparison to the Harry books but boy, is it good. And it’s funny too. Sometimes, even in a crime novel, a bit of funny goes a very long way.

So…sold on Nesbo yet? Well, if you haven’t read the Harry Hole series yet, I recommend you discover it this Christmas. Be careful. It’s addictive!

Jo Nesbo’s books can all be found on his Amazon page: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jo-Nesbo/e/B004MSFDCG/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1450485109&sr=8-2-ent

Marnie Riches has her own Amazon page too: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Marnie-Riches/e/B00WBJZ364/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1450485897&sr=8-2-ent and her personal website can be found at: http://marnieriches.com/

You can find Marnie on Twitter @Marnie_Riches or follow her on Facebook.

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December 18

Guest Post – Michael Malone: Serial Heroes

Day four and another chance for me to find out which books the authors like to read. My curiosity extends beyond a single title or a novel which inspired – I want to know which characters my guests like to follow and see developed over a period of time. I want to know the ongoing series that they look forward to reading or to revisit when the chance arises.

This week-long feature began with Douglas Skelton and Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct. Next was Angela Marsons discussing Val McDermid’s Tony Hill books. Yesterday Helen Giltrow shared her love of Mick Herron’s Slough House books.

Today I am delighted to welcome Michael J Malone, author of the phenomenal Guillotine Choice and creator of the DI Ray McBain series. Michael’s latest book Beyond The Rage has been receiving rave reviews (including my own 5 star review) and in 2016 his next novel, A Suitable Lie, will be published by Orenda Books.

I am particularly pleased that Michael was able to take part in this feature – his encouragement of my book obsession ultimately resulted in the creation of this blog. I am always keen to know what Michael is reading…over the years he has directed me to some fantastic books.

MICHAEL J MALONE:

James Lee Burke’s story is one that all writers should heed. His first book was published in 1965. Other books followed in 1970 and 1971. Then the publishing world turned their back on him and he couldn’t publish a word for love, money or whisky. His fourth book, The Lost Get Back Boogie was rejected 111 times – that’s not a typo – over a nine year period. Eventually, when it did get published it was nominated for Pulitzer Prize.

Proof it it’s needed in the William Goldman quote, “Nobody knows nothing.” Goldman was of course talking about the movie industry, but he might as well have been talking about publishing.

In 1984, while fishing, JLB’s friend suggested he should try writing a crime novel. Burke later decamped to a coffee shop and started scribbling on a yellow, legal pad. The Neon Rain, the first novel to feature Dave Robicheaux was born.

Once an officer for the New Orleans police department, Dave Robicheaux constantly breaks the ethical code during the course of just about every case he works on and in the current run of novels pursues cases in New Iberia, Louisiana as a sheriff’s deputy. He is a recovering alcoholic who is haunted by his service in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War and his impoverished, tough childhood in Louisiana; his mother abandoned the family (and was later murdered) and his father was killed in an oil rig explosion.

He may break the expected code of police ethics, but Dave has a strong moral compass and through the course of the books is continuously exercised by the abuse of power, social inequalities and the battle between good and evil.

When you crack open the spine of a James Lee Burke novel you are never in doubt that you are in for something special. There is a richness to this man’s writing that cannot fail to delight. His words transport you so that you feel you are on location with the characters and that poetry combined with the vitality and violence of his characters is a potent combination.

Burke specialises in imbuing his characters with certainty of action, even while their motives are conflicted. He has the talent to work his way under the skin of his characters; to cut into the underbelly of the human psyche and display it in all its many guises. Whether that be those individuals who succumb to the power and pulse of quotidian evil or those struggling to make sense of their lives and make peace with their lot

His set pieces are sharp and effective and his prose swoops and soars with a lyricism that would make a poet’s heart ache with envy. The plot continues to drive you forward but you force yourself to slow down: to savour the quality of the words arranged on the page.

James Lee Burke has won an Edgar award twice and he is acknowledged as one of America’s finest living novelists. If you haven’t already done so, you owe it to yourself to check him out.

You can find all of James Lee Burke’s novels at his Amazon Page: http://www.amazon.co.uk/James-Lee-Burke/e/B000AP7MME/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1450393644&sr=1-2-ent

Michael Malone also has a handy page over at Amazon to let you track down his books easily too: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Michael-J.-Malone/e/B009WV9V4Y/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1450393872&sr=8-1

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December 16

Guest Post – Helen Giltrow: Serial Heroes

It is Day Three of my quest to discover which ongoing crime and thriller series my favourite authors look forward to reading.

Thus far Douglas Skelton has shared his love of the Ed McBain 87th Precinct books and Angela Marsons told us why she enjoys Val McDermid’s Tony Hill stories.

Today I am delighted to welcome Helen Giltrow back to Grab This Book. I reviewed Helen’s brilliant thriller The Distance earlier this year and she kindly answered a few of my questions for a Q&A (one of the hardest I have written as The Distance was clever, sophisticated and I was a bit daunted sending questions through to Helen that would not show me up).

When I was planning this week of features I really wanted Helen to take part. Helen attended the Bloody Scotland festival in Stirling earlier this year – she was one of the fabulous Killer Women panel. I managed to catch up with her in the festival bookshop and we traded book recommendations for much longer than most people will talk about books with me! Helen mentioned lots of books and authors that afternoon but one author’s name stood out and her enthusiasm for his books shone through:

HELEN GILTROW:

Mick Herron’s Slough House series

I wasn’t going to like Mick Herron’s Slough House books. Forget Slow Horses’ shortlisting for the CWA Steel Dagger, and Dead Lions’ Gold Dagger, Best Crime Novel win. Forget the critical acclaim. Forget even the spy-thriller tag, which given that I was raised on Le Carre’s Smiley novels should at least have piqued my interest. On its original (US) paperback cover, Dead Lions was described as ‘a send-up’ and ‘a romp’. I like my crime fiction dark and serious. I nearly didn’t buy it.

If I hadn’t, this post would have been about another author’s books – Le Carre’s, James Lee Burke’s or Tana French’s. But right now, if there’s one series I would urge you to read – even if you don’t like espionage novels, or consider yourself allergic to books that win awards or get described as romps – it would be Slough House.

Let’s start with the premise. Slough House itself is a dingy central-London office building where the screw-ups of MI5 – men and women the Service no longer wants but can’t afford to sack – are subjected to an unending round of pointless, soul-destroying tasks, in the hope that they’ll resign. Variously alcoholic, addicted, personality-disordered, aggressive, inept, or just plain unlucky, they work under a former field agent, Jackson Lamb, who treats them with spectacular levels of abuse and contempt. But they refuse to leave, hoping that one day, somehow, they’ll get their chance to win their old jobs back …

A different author would simply have used that as the set-up, quickly springing his heroes out of their office prison and into a world that only they can save. Herron doesn’t, instead anchoring his action firmly in Slough House and thus setting out his stall. The international glamour of James Bond, the grimy endurance-test heroics of Jason Bourne? They don’t get a look-in. Here’s a series grounded in a world most of us can recognize – where ordinary, slightly useless, occasionally appalling people work in a horrible office, live in hope … and keep on screwing up.

Of course, there’s still escapist fun to be had, in spades. And great jokes. (The books are properly funny, the sort of funny that’s had me laughing out loud on trains; the dialogue in particular is a joy, packed with one-liners and smarting with noir-ish wit.) There’s gorgeous writing, too – Herron’s prose is lovely – and fiendishly twisty plot construction: some chapters are multiple-viewpoint masterclasses in misdirection and withholding.

And Herron knows his genre. Each book has a strong espionage hook: extremists threatening an innocent with execution in Slow Horses, a mysterious message left by a murdered former agent in Dead Lions, an Intelligence officer held to ransom in the forthcoming Real Tigers. Even so, you can’t help feeling that (as was famously once said of Le Carre’s Tinker, Tailor) they’re ‘not really about spying’.

What drives them are the characters. And not just the inmates of Slough House – which include River Cartwright, the series’ idealistic hero; the self-deluding hacker Roderick Ho; the unshakeably vile Lamb, whose cartoonish excesses hide a dark past; and Lamb’s recovering-alcoholic PA, the ‘mad governess’ Catherine Standish … A supporting cast spans the whole hierarchy of espionage, from burnt-out former assets and disgraced spies, through the lower ranks, the fixers and enforcers, to the ‘Second Desk’ of MI5, Diana Taverner – sophisticated, treacherous, and permanently at war with her boss Dame Ingrid Tierney – and her political masters.

The interchanges between the ranks, the jockeyings for advantage at every level, strike sparks that light these books. More than anything else these are stories about people, and the inequalities of power.

I guess that’s why I object to ‘romp’ so much – and ‘send-up’, and ‘caper’ too. For me, those terms imply not just a knowing smugness in the writing but also a frivolousness: it’s all right, it’s just a game. Herron knows its isn’t, especially when lives are at stake, or power is being abused. However fabulously entertaining the Slough House books are, they’re serious too, shot through with quiet tragedy, courage, grief, even tenderness; occasionally, anger. For all the energy, the wit, the stylistic fireworks, there’s a bedrock awareness of real-world issues in these books, a restrained seriousness behind the jokes, an intentness of purpose that I really, really like.

The Slough House series is good, and getting even better. I recommend you read it.

Slow Horses and Dead Lions are available in paperback, published by John Murray; they are also part of this month’s (December 2015) Kindle Deals, at 99p each.

The spin-off novel Nobody Walks – shortlisted for this year’s CWA Steel Dagger – has just been published in paperback by Soho Press.

The next Slough House book, Real Tigers, comes out in February 2016.

Visit Mick Herron’s Amazon page to see all his books and pick up any which take your fancy: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mick-Herron/e/B001JP3TOY/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1450304380&sr=8-2-ent

Helen’s Amazon page is here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Helen-Giltrow/e/B00J40VGW8/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1450304539&sr=8-14

I reviewed Helen’s brilliant thriller The Distance earlier this year and you can read my review: The Distance Helen also joined me for a Q&A when The Distance was released in paperback.

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December 15

Guest Post – Angela Marsons: Serial Heroes

Back in October I spent an entertaining evening listening to Mr Douglas Skelton discussing his writing experiences. During the course of the conversation Douglas told the assembled gathering that he was a fan of the Ed McBain 87th Precinct books. That got me wondering which other ongoing series of crime novels authors looked forward to reading. I decided I would try and find out.

I asked five authors if they would like to prepare a short guest post in which they shared their thoughts on their favourite crime series. As it was Douglas that started this quest he got to kick off proceedings yesterday and you can read his thoughts on Ed McBain’s books here:

Today I am delighted to welcome my second guest: Angela Marsons.

When I drew up my Top Ten books of 2015 Angela presented me with a bit of a dilemma – she released three books during the year (Silent Scream, Evil Games and Lost Girls) but under my strict rules I could only allow myself to include one of her books in the list. All were worthy of inclusion and if you have not yet met DI Kim Stone then I suggest you rectify that as soon as you have finished reading this article!

I will pass this over to Angela now – I suspect that she would not be alone with this selection…

ANGELA MARSONS:

When I was asked to write a piece about my favourite series of books there was no hesitation in my choosing the ‘Tony Hill’ series of books written by Val McDermid.

I love everything this lady writes and would happily read her shopping list if she would let me.

In the Tony Hill series Val McDermid taps into the two things that interest me the most in both reading and writing. Psychology and Crime.

Tony Hill is a psychological profiler who is both driven and damaged but very intriguing. None of the books satisfy my need to know more about him which has to be the mark of a true genius that after nine books I’m still hungry for more.

I enjoy the chemistry between the character of Tony Hill and Carol Jordan and the inability of our hero to take their relationship to the next level only adds to the intrigue of his character and offers us yet another layer to his personality. The character of Carol Jordan is not without her flaws but is the perfect foil to let Tony Hill shine.

It was through the television series that I discovered these books as I am a great fan of Robson Green who I think portrays the character perfectly. So well, in fact, that the part could have been written for him.

Even though I had watched the television series this did not detract from my enjoyment of the books. Many plot twists and storylines that exist in the books do not make it to the screen and reading the book is like rediscovering the story all over again but with many more stories expertly threaded in too.

To get the best out of these books I would suggest cancelling your plans, switching off the phone, laptop, iPad and smart phone and just immerse yourself in a spectacular journey that starts on the very first page.

Angela Marsons can be found over at http://angelamarsons-books.com/

She is also on Twitter: @WriteAngie

I reviewed Silent Scream, Evil Games and Lost Girls earlier this year and you can link through to my reviews by clicking on the book title. If you missed which of the three I included in my Top Ten I eventually opted for Evil Games (best villain in any of the books that I read this year).

Visit Angela’s Amazon page where you can easily purchase any of her books: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Angela-Marsons/e/B00J6D3914/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1450222771&sr=8-2-ent

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