Manchester – Grab This Book

The Silent Dead – Marnie Riches

She was lying as if asleep on the wooden kitchen floor, beneath the fridge covered with a child’s colourful crayon drawings. But her frozen expression showed she would never wake again…

When Detective Jackie Cooke is called out to the scene, she’s expecting a routine check. The bottle of pills on the kitchen table, next to the note with the single word SORRY written in a shaky hand, make it seem obvious what’s happened. But Jackie is shocked when she recognises her old schoolfriend Claire – and she is convinced Claire would never take her own life.

Determined to dig deeper, Jackie soon discovers evidence that proves her right: a roll of notes has been thrust down the victim’s throat. And when she finds another woman killed in the same way, she realises someone may be targeting lonely single mothers. As Jackie talks to Claire’s distraught children, one of them too young to understand his mummy is never coming home, she vows to find answers.

Both victims were in touch with someone calling himself Nice Guy – could he be the killer? Pursuing every clue, Jackie is sure she’s found a match in dead-eyed Tyler, part of a dark world of men intent on silencing women for daring to reject them. But just as she makes the arrest, another single mother is found dead – a woman who never dated at all.

Forced to re-evaluate every lead she has, with her boss pressuring her to make a case against the obvious suspect, Jackie knows she is running out of time before another innocent woman is murdered. And, as a single mother herself, she cannot help but wonder if she is in the killer’s sights. Can she uncover his true motivation and put an end to his deadly game… or will he find her first?

I received a review copy ahead of the blog tour but I read my own purchased copy. Thanks to Sarah Hardy and Bookouture for the opportunity to take part in the tour for The Silent Dead.

I’m going to cut to the chase – The Silent Dead is terrific. I raced through the story and got totally lost in Jackie Cooke’s life as she finds herself investigating the death of an old school friend.

Readers join the story as a mother drops her young son at nursery for the day. The teary parting from the boy and the heartwrench for his mum will be all too familiar for many parents and it’s an early indication of how Marnie Riches is going to play on our emotions over daily challenges and experiences. Grounding the backdrop to a murder story with elements of daily life, which we can all relate to, made everything seem more personal in The Silent Dead. After leaving her son in the care of his nursery teacher we follow Claire back to her house – it’s the last journey she will make as death awaits her.

When Detective Jackie Cooke responds to the call of a suicide she is shocked to see an old friend from her school days. She finds it hard to believe her friend would take her own life and Jackie has suspicions there may be more to Claire’s death than initially meets the eye. Jackie raises these concerns and finds her combatative boss is less than keen to read too much into matters. The evidence is a single parent with money worries who she left a note to say “sorry”. But Jackie isn’t convinced and wants to dig a little deeper. It turns out she had reason to be suspicious.

The Silent Dead takes Jackie and her colleagues deep into an investigation which will see them bashing heads with objectional ex-husbands, working girls, internet dating sites and facing the problem of the angry incels who live online and seek others who listen to their hateful rantings. Marnie Riches is very good at bringing disturbing and problematic people into her stories and showing the damage they can do when left unchecked. She shines a light on the worst of human nature and weaves compelling crime thrillers around the darker elements many of us choose to ignore (if we even know they are out there).

When not taking on the dark forces Jackie has her work more than cut out for her at home. She is a new mum who also has two older twins causing chaose at home. Returning to work early from her maternity leave, following the sudden breakdown in her marriage, Jackie is juggling work and family commitments. She is stressed, hormonal, frustrated and permanently exhausted – she felt one of the most realistic lead characters I have encountered for some time. Everyday problems ARE problems, not enough hours in the day, missing her kids, unable to get full parental support at parents night – all so relatable to many of us. This recognisable human dynamic of the day to day grind does add to the realism of the story and everyone wants to get behind Jackie and see her pull through and get some respite. If only it were that simple!

As I said at the start of this review – I really enjoyed The Silent Dead. I keep coming back to read more and more of the books Marnie Riches writes as I find them so readable. Pacing is fantastic, characters can be fun, serious and deadly dangerous and the story just flows. More of these will be very welcome.

The Silent Dead is published by Bookouture and is available in paperback, digital and audiobook format. You can order your copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0B3DQDSJ4/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

Category: 5* Reviews, Blog Tours | Comments Off

February 5

A Wash of Black – Chris McDonald

IT’S NOT LIFE THAT IMITATES ART. IT’S DEATH.

Anna Symons. Famous. Talented. Dead.
The body of a famous actress is found mutilated on an ice rink in Manchester, recreating a scene from a blockbuster film she starred in years ago.
DI Erika Piper, having only recently returned to work after suffering a near-fatal attack herself, finds she must once again prove her worth as the hunt for the media-dubbed ‘Blood Ice Killer’ intensifies.
But when another body is found and, this time, the killer issues a personal threat, Erika must put aside her demons to crack the case, or suffer the deadly consequences.

My thanks to Dylan at Red Dog Press for my review copy and the chance to join the blog tour.

A police procedural that introduces a new leading character in the form of Erika Piper. I have high hopes for this new series from Chris McDonald as A Wash of Black did a lot of things I like from my thrillers.

First up. Not Cosy Crime. Let me be very clear these are on the dark range of crime fiction reading list. As a reader of both crime and horror titles I felt A Wash of Black had horror-esk elements which it is worth flagging.

Some readers may remember Book Club perennial favourites Michael Slade? Slade wrote crime/horror novels set in Canada – Headhunter, Ghoul and Ripper often got bundled together and sold through mail order book clubs (in the days before Amazon). The dark tone and graphic violence in A Wash of Black gave me happy flashbacks to the Slade books. This is very much a plus point for Erika Piper.

So leaving memories of Canadian crime behind let us join Piper in modern day Manchester. A woman has been killed on the ice at a run-down ice rink. Her body pinned to the ice with knives and her throat slit so she bled out where she lay. When the police arrive to investigate they discover the victim was an actress and the manner of her death mirrors the way she died in a horror movie she had made a few years earlier.

Investigation naturally centres on the film crew currently making the sequal and on the author of the books which the films are based around. However the suspect list will grow as the victim’s fiance is behaving oddly as too is a local media studies student who has an odd fixation on the film.

Piper has to contend with multiple challenging and uncooperative suspects. This is not helped by the fact she is just returning to work after a period of convalescence and her confidence has taken a battering. Watching her find her feet while simultaneously being wrong-footed by the investigation made for fun reading.

A Wash of Black is a very promising start to this new series and as a fan of dark thrillers (could you tell?) I will keenly await the next book.

Murder, movies and malevolence – what more do you need?

A Wash of Black is published by Red Dog Press and is available in paperback and digital format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1913331210/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

Category: Blog Tours, From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

March 9

Born Bad – Marnie Riches

The battle is on…

When gang leader Paddy O’Brien is stabbed in his brother’s famous nightclub, Manchester’s criminal underworld is shaken to the core. Tensions are running high, and as the body count begins to grow, the O’Brien family must face a tough decision – sell their side of the city to the infamous Boddlington gang or stick it out and risk losing their king.

But war comes easy to the bad boys, and they won’t go down without a fight. So begins a fierce battle for the South Side, with the leading Manchester gangsters taking the law into their own hands – but only the strongest will survive…

My thanks to Helena at Avon for my review copy and the chance to join the Born Bad blog tour.

One of the reviews where I will cut to the chase…reading Born Bad was a joyous experience, I bloody loved it.

Manchester’s criminal underworld are a volatile crowd and Marnie Riches is going to light the blue touch-paper under these powerful gangs and pit them against each other in a battle for supremacy. It is going to be bloody, the players will be treacherous and, in a world where reputation is everything, nobody can afford to show any weakness.

The story will track multiple characters and their lives will intertwine. At the heart of Born Bad is Paddy O’Brien – he is head of the family and controls one of the gangs. Paddy gets what he wants and expects obedience, particularly from his wife Sheila. Although a powerful woman in her own right, Sheila cannot stand up to the volatile and aggressive behaviour of her husband and their relationship is somewhat strained. But when the opportunity comes for Paddy to get out and leave his enterprise behind both he and Sheila are eyeing up a new start, a clean break.

Needless to say walking away from the lifestyle which has defined him will not be easy and events will appear to conspire against him. A matter of family honour will lead to bloodshed – a hired killer engaged to avenge a perceived wrongdoing. But a death will demand a retaliation and a peaceful exit for Paddy and Sheila looks a bleak prospect.

The multiple focal points in Born Bad keeps the story flowing at a cracking pace. These are not nice people that we are reading about so you can be sure that something unpleasant will soon befall someone (I had such fun trying to predict who may not make it to the end of the chapter).

In a book of bad guys there are clear distinctions between those we are to root for and the really “evil” people we want to see fail. The character interaction is brilliantly handled, humour and empathy meets anger and irrationality and the reactions and responses are exactly how you would expect. The characters drive the story and they are wonderfully realised, without the depth and development that Marnie Riches bestows upon them the emotional engagement would not have been there for me. I believed in the characters and that gave Born Bad the life and vibrancy that a good book needs.

Yeah – I loved it.

Born Bad is published by Avon and is available now in paperback and digital format and you can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Born-Bad-Marnie-Riches-ebook/dp/B01KTKEX2Q/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1489098471&sr=1-1

Category: 5* Reviews, Blog Tours, From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

March 9

Guest Post: Marnie Riches – Born Bad

Manchester’s musical inspiration by Marnie Riches

Manchester has a world-class music scene, and I’m lucky to have been a teen before and during the Madchester heyday, when the cool kids went to the Haçienda. I used to go there almost every Wednesday and Saturday to dance my little cotton socks off, praying that I might clap eyes on New Order, who co-owned the place. I was also an aspiring rockstar in my early twenties, when I returned home for a year after university and an abortive first stab at London life, trying to get a band together. In 1996, you could say I was a contemporary of the upcoming (as they were then), Elbow, and if you’re an Elbow fan, you’d be interested to know that I tried and failed to bag off with the legendary Seldom Seen Kid at a party, shortly before he sadly passed away. I remember him painting the railings of The Temple bar just outside where I worked at Manchester’s Training & Enterprise Council. We’d chat about being in bands and the struggle to get signed and “make it”. I migrated back down to London a couple of months later to immerse myself in proper trainee rockstardom. Three years of close-but-no-cigar followed, playing the Britpop wannabe circuit in Camden and Islington, but alas, my excellent band had missed that groovy gravy train… We were always in the right place at the wrong time.

But sod that! I’m now a best-selling crime writer, so all’s well that ends well.

It will come as no surprise to you, then, given my musical past, that I have a soundtrack to all the novels I write. For Born Bad, it comprises quintessentially Mancunian classics. Here are my top four tunes with thoughts on why I’ve chosen them to describe musically a story about Manchester’s gangland and gritty underbelly:

Isolation by Joy Division

I was always more of a New Order fan than a Joy Division fan, but Isolation’s industrial sound and effortless lo-fi cool makes me think of Manchester. When it plays in my car – the only opportunity I really have to deafen myself with my favourite music, nowadays, since I work in silence – I envisage bleak, grey streets on council estates. I feel the urban anti-chic of the city pulsate through me with every beat, putting me in mind of Born Bad’s Leviticus Bell, living in his crappy high-rise council flat on the Sweeney Hall estate. He is isolated by his poverty, lack of opportunity and desperate situation at home. But he’s street-smart and authentically urban-cool. He’ll do for me!

Bizarre Love Triangle by New Order

Frank O’Brien in Born Bad owns the world-class super-club, M1 House. Though I’m not stretchy enough to go clubbing more than once or twice per year now, M1 House is an amalgam of all the great clubs in Manchester, past and present. The DJs play the best music. The kids have the best time, obviously blighted by lethal gang violence – not that Manchester clubs are immune to being occasionally caught in the crossfire. Bizarre Love Triangle played in the Haçienda during its finest hour. I can remember standing in the lofty foyer, by the full-height, industrial plastic flaps, ringing wet with sweat from dancing on the packed dancefloor, listening to the track booming from the sound system. I revelled in how marvellous it was to be a Mancunian, listening to one of Manchester’s biggest bands in one of the coolest clubs in the world at that best of times. The clean electronic sound, with Hooky’s distinctive bassline over the top, embodies Mancunian artistic endeavour and the need to dance the blues away. Listen to it and understand Manchester.

Fools’ Gold by Stone Roses

Though I was never a mega-fan of the Stone Roses, I always loved Fools’ Gold as a song that epitomised Mancunian cool. Its shuffling backbeat and Mani’s iconic, super-funky bassline represent everything that’s effortlessly, timelessly stylish about Manchester’s music scene. Since it was used in the soundtrack to Guy Ritchie’s gangster flick, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels – a film I must have watched at least twenty times for its slick dialogue, complex story-telling and sharp humour – Fools’ Gold has also acquired gangland connotations for me. In fact, the Manchester series with Born Bad as its first installation, is all about the pursuit of a villain’s fools’ gold – dirty cash you can barely get away with or enjoy spending because those ill-gotten gains might bring the law and the tax man down on you. The track brings to mind Manchester’s mean streets, its glittering new buildings and the clean crispness of freshly laundered money. Scratch the surface and you can see how really filthy it still is beneath!

How Soon is Now? by The Smiths

The Smiths are a long-standing love of mine, musically – the early Smiths, that is. Morrissey and Marr are undoubtedly one of the best songwriting duos ever and the pair encapsulated a working class desperation and loneliness like no other band has managed to do. Their sonically brilliant songs represent true Mancunian misery, black humour and poetry at its best. When I wrote about the hopeless life of Leviticus Bell in Born Bad, How Soon is Now? might have been his personal soundtrack. There’s nobody who truly loves him – even his own mother, Gloria. The chugging Bo Diddly-style guitar of Johnny Marr creates an impression of the grind of urban life with a searing, whining guitar-sound layered above it that puts me in mind of emergency service sirens, whizzing by in the night. But in among the canon of work by the Smiths, there are tracks that bristle with humour and hope, just as this book boasts the darkest and the lightest of moments, introduced by Gloria and the eccentric henchman, Conky McFadden. So, The Smiths had to be on my list!

If Marnie’s choices have made you want to revisit these classics then she has very kindly pulled together a Spotify playlist which you can access here: https://open.spotify.com/user/1142057371/playlist/0DgbSgJtWpOF14WgYiJC0e

Category: Blog Tours, Guests | Comments Off

December 12

Guest Post – Marnie Riches (The Girl Who Had No Fear and Born Bad)

I am delighted to welcome Marnie Riches back to Grab This Book.

The 4th George McKenzie novel, The Girl Who had no Fear, released a couple of weeks ago and plunges George into a whole new level of peril. But not content with putting our favourite criminologist through the emotional ringer, Marnie has also been working on a new series which will kick off next year when Born Bad releases.

I caught up with Marnie to chat about her busy year and what we can hope to see in 2017…

It’s been a busy 2016 for me. In addition to writing The Girl Who Had No Fear, I have also penned the first book in my brand new Manchester series, entitled Born Bad. I’m extremely excited about it. Not only am I playing god over a killer cast of new characters, but this is my first foray into print as well as e-book. As digital-first acquisitions by Avon’s imprint, Maze, the George McKenzie series (aka The Girl Who series) is not yet in print, though it has been both award-winning and best-selling. I do think we will see George in print at some point, but not yet, which makes the release of Born Bad on 9^th March 2017 a real milestone for my career as a crime writer. I’m hoping it’s going to be, like, EVERYWHERE (as my teenaged daughter would say).

Born Bad is set in my home town – Manchester: the most violent city in the UK. Though I’ve lived in London, Cambridge, Huddersfield and Utrecht, I’ve spent most of my life in Manchester – my formative years until the age of 18, and also the last nine years. I have great civic pride in this melting pot of a city, with its world class music and culture. Anyone born in Manchester has a little bit of grit running through their bloodstream, and of course, a little webbing between the old fingers! It being the most violent city in the UK, of course, means that Manchester is constantly abuzz with criminal activity. What better place therefore to set a series all about the (fictitious) villains that run Manchester’s criminal underworld – a story about north vs south and men vs women? I can reveal that the series has some incredible, surprising anti-heroes, feisty heroines and an entertaining army of quirky, mentally unstable muscle. I’m told readers of Martina Cole and Kimberley Chambers will love it but I think anyone who likes a good yarn about bad guys in a gritty setting will love it too.

I wasn’t in any way ready to take a break from the George McKenzie series, and in fact, I’m contracted to write a fifth book, which will be released in early 2018. While readers still clamour to read George stories, I’m clamouring the write them. There’s always more for George to say and do, and The Girl Who Had No Fear opens the door to a whole new dynamic in George’s extended family. It was my publisher that suggested I might like to write something set in Manchester. I jumped at the chance to have two series running concurrently. What fun to write! And long may the two series run…

Juggling the editing of one novel in a series at the same time as writing another novel in another series was a bit of a challenge logistically, but I got there in the end, thanks to some good time management and long hours. Fortunately, the manuscripts I deliver are, in the main, in pretty clean shape already (Solid graft. Nothing more), so the work wasn’t too extensive. It does require some mental agility to leap from one world and set of characters to another and then back again, however! It’s my pleasure to be kept on my toes in this way.

Thinking about it, writing about Manchester and Amsterdam makes perfect sense. Both are rainy, cold cities, roughly on a par geographically. The Dutch are very forthright. Mancunians are very forthright. Both cities have a big club and drug scene. I guess many readers of the George series will find something to love in the new Manchester series, if only it’s the bad weather and trafficking theme.

The Girl Who Had No Fear is available on this link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Girl-Fear-George-McKenzie-Book-ebook/dp/B01GNSR5M8/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1481494069&sr=1-1&keywords=the+girl+who+had+no+fear

You can read my review here: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=2223

Category: Guests | Comments Off