The Shadows In The Street, Susan Hill

Hill’s Simon Serrailler mysteries not only give you a police procedural with a thoughtful protagonist they also reflect the Cathedral town of Lafferton and the many characters you find roaming its streets. They show you the consequences for those touched by or suspected during a police investigation.

Dr Cat Deerborn, Simon’s sister is still in mourning for her beloved Chris. Her stepmother Judith is helping as best she can. There’s a rift brewing in the Cathedral community, Steven Webber, the new Dean and his pushy wife Ruth want to sweep away centuries of tradition and transform Lafferton Cathedral from high church to happy clappy.

Abi Righton, a local prostitute trying to make good reports another working girl missing and when that girl turns up dead and others follow Simon is called back from sabbatical. Could the killer be a disgruntled punter, a violent ex-boyfriend with form, or Looney Les the librarian whose efforts to help the prostitutes put him on the police radar. Then Ruth Webber goes missing. Simon’s team are running out of leads, the press are turning hostile. What Simon needs is a stroke of luck but it may be luck laced with tragedy.

Thoughts on The Mind's Eye

Reading The Mind's Eye by Oliver Sacks. After Warlord I needed a metaphorical bucket of cold water and this is it. Published in October, Sacks documents some fascinating case studies, but the one I can't get out of my head is a chapter called 'man of letters'. About (or should that be aboot) a Canadian writer who woke up one morning unable to read a word. He could see letters but they made no sense to him.

My idea of hell.

Weird thing is he could still write, he just couldn't read what he'd written but if he traced the letter in the air with his finger or his tongue he could work out the word(s).

Calendar Girl

A few months ago Jen Northington - late of King's English now living and working in New York - suggested a book blogger's calendar and now it's a reality.

Click on the title of this post to go straight to the site and see the fun book bloggers can have with a pile of books and a camera. Don't worry it's all in the best possible taste.

It's an 18 month calendar and all the proceeds go to FirstBook which is a charity that gives books to children in need www.firstbook.org

Thoughts on Warlord

Finished it yesterday and have been trying to write a blurb for it since then. Lets just say that I'm sure some people will be offended by this book because it does detail two actual deaths, one was murder the other a tragic papparazzi-fueled accident and there's several acts of vandalism and arson. Bell has blended fact with fiction, even fictionalising people like HRH and the Queen. This book is big over 500 pages - it won't feel like that when you're reading it. To me it felt real and it's a scary picture that Bell paints. All I can say is that the next writer to take over the James Bond franchise - if it isn't Bell - had better pull their socks up. Alex Hawke could take James Bond with one hand tied behind his back.

Still reading

As I've said before sometimes life intrudes on my reading and this week was definitely no exception.

Warlord by Ted Bell - comes out in November and to say the plot moves like an express train with no brakes is an understatement. Going to be a busy week, we've got the drive-through premiere of Mockingjay on Tuesday morning and also the marketing people will be around at the end of the week so lots of tweaks going on in the mystery room.

The Murder Room, Michael Capuzzo

I've heard loads of really good reviews for this. Before we go any further this is non fiction - what we classify as true crime. It is about the formation of the Vidocq Society a group of real life crime solvers - they come from every agency and country you can think of and they are the top experts in their field. They meet with one aim - to solve cases that have gone 'cold'. I'm still in the first part of the book - how three men brought the whole thing together. Fleischer, Bender and Walter are complete opposites but together they are formidable. So is this book. Michael Capuzzo's book reads like fiction - never dry, always compelling and the only reason I put it down last night was that little thing called sleep.

Reading and Writing stories

Sorry folks, been a busy week. My current read is Eighteen Acres by Nicolle Wallace - the eighteen acres in question is that big white house on Pennsylvania Avenue. We have a woman president, her female chief of staff and a journalist who just happens to be having an affair with the first husband. So far so good.

I do have orders in for Daniel Pinchbeck's new one and one called Fated which if it's a good as the pitch will do very well.

This week saw me attend my first Utah wedding reception (congrats to Rachel and Joey) and also gave me a great example of corporate nannying which is so going in the next book. Let me set the scene for you, certain US companies want a lean workforce - literally. Basically you give them a sample of your blood and from that, your blood pressure and your height and weight and they tell you everything you're doing wrong. In my case I'm proud to say it wasn't much and one of those values -cholesterol - has been adjusted downwards by big pharma so we're all borderline high (more people to scare onto statins). But to earn credits me and the other half have to participate in a healthy eating plan (he's doing stress relief) which means I have to write down everything I eat. As I said I can really have some fun with that - fictionally speaking as it's no fun in the real world.

Speaking of fiction, I'm holding steady around the 1300 mark on Authonomy. Now that may not sound like much but I started at 3000! Still enjoying my time on that site and I've found and backed some gems.

From the 'Research' File

When I write about a place in order to capture it I have to go there. Which is why I use places I've lived in or know like the back of my hand. Cheaper and god knows I can't just wheel the company jet since we don't have one. Now I have a much easier alternative courtesy of the folks at Google. Yep, Google Earth and Google Maps my two new best friends. I know most of UK thinks that these are invasions of privacy but to a writer they are solid 24 carat genius. In streetview you can walk across Hyde Park to the front of the Albert Hall - not in realtime - there are webcams for that which I'll get to in a minute. But you can see the area, the people, shops, architecture it gives you a feel for the place you can pull up directions, tube maps, and webcams.

Yesterday afternoon I wasted a good part of my writing time watching London Bridge, Covent Garden, The Millenium Bridge and Cardiff Bay (bloody Torchwood!)all streaming live on four separate screens on my laptop from a coffee shop in SLC. Cool!

Thoughts on Sleepwalkers

Reading this book is like watching a train wreck - you can't look away. Set in 1930's Berlin, it's about a Jewish detective in the lead up to Hitler taking power and even though you know the outcome you have to keep reading. Out in October.

Moscow Sting, Alex Dryden

Former KGB Colonel Anna Resnikov holds the key to a mole who has planted himself right at the heart of the new Russian government. Anna knows the mole’s identity.He helped her to deliver her dying husband Finn to the British Embassy in Berlin bearing a note ‘You betrayed him in life. Honour him in death.’

Finn warned his MI6 masters about Putin’s new Russia now his warnings are proving true. Everyone’s looking for the mole code named ‘Mikhail’ and someone’s about to spring a trap. With MI6 and the CIA snapping at her heels, Anna is snatched up by Cougar, a private US defense contractor. They want ‘Mikhail’ and the price is Anna’s son Little Finn.

Good Thief’s Guide to Vegas, Chris Ewan

Charlie Howard, mystery writer and part-time thief hits Vegas.

Nobody messes with Charlie's friend Victoria, especially not Vegas illusionist Josh Masters. Keen to teach him a lesson, Charlie performs his own brand of magic, making all the money vanish from the safe in Josh's suite while trying to ignore the naked redhead floating face-down in his Jacuzzi. Now the magic man has done a disappearing act and the owners of the Fifty-Fifty hotel and Casino think Charlie and Victoria were part of the team helping Josh cheat at roulette. If Charlie and Victoria can't banter their way to Josh or the money in the next forty eight hours, Charlie's going to to have to rob a Casino - the Fifty-Fifty.

New August Releases

Finished Shadows in the Street and now I'm having trouble putting down Sleepwalkers by Paul Grossman, set in 1930's Germany 1932-33 to be exact. Students with a passing nod at history will know what that means and the protagonist is Jewish. As I said hard to put down. Enjoy the new august releases