crime

The Mad Days of March

The Mad Days of March
Title: The Mad Days of March
ASIN: B092TQCTWP
Published: April 17, 2021
Author's Twitter: @PhilipCatshill
This is the daily diary of Terry March whose single act of kindness leads to a month of madness and mayhem. After helping an old guy dispose of a blood-stained carpet at the local tip, Terry rescues his old TV remote and while driving home, he uses it to zap phantom aliens! This leads him to an encounter with Police Sergeant Susan. His new resolution to be helpful leads to his first opportunity to be unfaithful to his wife of nineteen torturous years. A soon-to-be divorced Lauren offers her favours to thank Terry for his kindness, but Terry declines the invitation. Within days, another opportunity arises, and Terry can’t convince himself that those phantom aliens haven’t spirited him away to a parallel universe. Before that first week is over, Terry faces redundancy from his mundane job at the local council. In order to tackle the backlog of paperwork, the council employs a temporary typist, Ashley, who closely resembles Terry’s 19-year-old daughter, Megan. Terry’s wife, Brenda disappears and Carol, her twin sister moves in. When a body is found in his garden, Terry is arrested for murder and Carol adds to his torment by accusing him of rape! While in a police cell, Terry encounters further problems as Lauren’s police sergeant husband is the custody officer! But all is not lost! Police Sergeant Susan persuades Carol to withdraw the charge and mysteriously, that old guy from the tip makes a deathbed confession to the murder! But the mad days of March are not yet over. Ashley disappears. Terry’s daughter Megan suffers traumatic memories from her past. Lauren’s house is set ablaze, and a mysterious detective Dave is concerned that Megan too has disappeared! All this in a month of the Mad Days of March! Warning: Sexually explicit content. For adult reading only.

Assessed for Awesome Indies Book Awards

 

The Car Bomb

The Car Bomb
Title: The Car Bomb
ASIN: B00CP5CD5I
Publisher:
Published: May 7, 2013
Detroit’s top TV anchor Frank DeFauw hunts down the story of a judge who may be corrupt—and is one of his best friends. Booze, drugs, womanizing and a passion for the news are all part of what makes this brilliant, erratic newsman a major player in this deeply troubled city. Finally, Frank is forced to decide if digging out the truth about his pal the judge is worth risking his own career, family and skin. With supple prose, brilliant dialogue, sharply-drawn characters and a surprising plot, this is a gripping tale of betrayal, murder and redemption.

Reviewed 

 

Lies of the Dead

Lies of the Dead
Title: Lies of the Dead
ASIN: B00DNSDELS
Published: June 26, 2013
Author's Twitter: @shaunabickley
What would you risk to find the truth? When Liam disappears in a suspected suicide, his brother Tom is propelled into a world of lies and crime. Liam’s legacy of deceit is dangerous, and when Tom and his sister Andi find themselves in a dangerous showdown, Tom realises the truth may have too high a price. How well do we know those closest to us? When the police accept Liam’s disappearance as suicide, his older brother Tom needs to know more. Tom and his sister Andi search for answers, but don’t know who they can believe as they discover Liam’s friends and associates aren’t the people they claim to be. They are propelled into a world where their ideas of right and wrong don’t exist, and where people demand what neither of them possesses. Liam’s legacy of deceit is dangerous, and when Andi and her twin daughters find themselves in a dangerous showdown, Tom realises the truth may have too high a price. What would you risk to find the truth?

Assessed for Awesome Indies

Bloodie Bones

Bloodie Bones
Title: Bloodie Bones
ASIN: B00XJTCLBA
Publisher:
Published: May 11, 2015
Author's Twitter: @LucienneWrite
In 1796 Bow Street Runner and amateur pugilist Dan Foster is sent to Somerset to infiltrate a poaching gang suspected of murdering Lord Oldfield’s gamekeeper, Josh Castle. Dan has walked into a volatile situation: the locals are up in arms against Lord Oldfield for enclosing Barcombe Forest and depriving them of their rights to gather fuel and food. Against a background of vandalism, arson and riot, Dan discovers that there were others with a grudge against Josh. However, Lord Oldfield orders him to arrest the poachers. When Dan learns that Josh had a claim to the Oldfield estate his suspicions focus on Lord Oldfield. Before he can confront him, rioters attack Oldfield Hall protesting against the arrests. During the fight, Dan finds himself at the mercy of the local doctor and realises that he and Josh were rivals in love. Dan narrowly escapes death and arrests the murderer: Doctor Russell.  

Assessed 

And Justice for Some

And Justice for Some
Title: And Justice for Some
ASIN: B00MT6H8EY
Category:
Tag:
Publisher:
Published: September 16, 2014
Author's Twitter: @joannelessner
Actress Isobel Spice and her best friend Delphi Kramer are thrilled to finally have an opportunity to perform together, even if it’s just a cheesy interactive murder mystery at a judge’s lifetime achievement dinner. But when Isobel’s dramatic death scene is upstaged by a real murder and Delphi is left holding the still-smoking gun, Isobel drops the role of victim and assumes the role of detective.

Assessed for 

Blood-tied

Blood-tied
Title: Blood-tied
ASIN: B079T7M83J
Categories: ,
Publisher:
Published: February 13, 2018
Author's Twitter: @wendy_percival
A desperate crime, kept secret for 60 years. But time has a way of exposing the truth. And the repercussions are only just beginning. Esme Quentin is devastated when her sister Elizabeth is beaten unconscious, miles from her home. Two days later Esme discovers that Elizabeth has a secret past. Desperate for answers which the comatose Elizabeth cannot give, Esme enlists the help of her friend Lucy to discover the truth, unaware of the dangerous path she is treading. Together they uncover a trail of unresolved bitterness, blackmail and dubious inheritance and, as the truth emerges, Esme exposes evidence of a harrowing and pitiful crime. Realising too late the menace she has unwittingly unleashed, Esme is caught up in a terrifying ordeal. One that will not only test her courage and her sanity, but force her to confront her perception of birth and family.

Assessed 

 

The Death Game

The Death Game
Title: The Death Game
ASIN: B00IOP0M6K
Publisher:
Published: 26 Feb. 2014
Author's Twitter: @ChrisLongmuir
A world of mystery and intrigue in Dundee during the year 1919. And a new sleuth unlike any other currently in print. Kirsty Campbell, former suffragette and a policewoman in Britain’s newly formed women’s police service, returns to her home town of Dundee to become the city’s first policewoman. Her struggle for acceptance in the all male police force is not easy, and she fights for recognition. But Kirsty is not easily intimidated and, despite police attempts to curtail her activities, she defies her superior officer to pursue an investigation into a murder which is linked to missing orphan girls. Kirsty is an unusual character with a fascinating history and background. She has demons of her own to fight, as well as becoming involved in a deadly game of sacrifice and death? But how will she cope when the sins of the past come back to haunt her?

Assessed for Awesome Indies

 

Murder in the Synagogue

Murder in the Synagogue
Title: Murder in the Synagogue
ASIN: B008GYVHX6
Categories: ,
Publisher:
Published: July 2, 2012
This true crime classic is a precise and harrowing account of the assassination of Rabbi Morris Adler by 23-year-old Richard Wishnetsky, a Phi Beta Kappa scholar at the University of Michigan and a Woodrow Wilson Fellow bound for the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. A troubled intellectual seeker, Wishnetsky knew Rabbi Adler one of the nation’s most prominent and venerated religious leaders, yet he settled on this learned and charismatic man as the appropriate target of his deepest rage.

Assessed 

Admission of Guilt

Admission of Guilt
Title: Admission of Guilt
ASIN: B00D5Z5J62
Publisher:
Published: June 2, 2013
A 12-year-old girl is the desperate focus of three men–John, a dedicated young teacher, Charlie, a small-time private detective, and Steven, a major narcotics importer. Their lives collide when John makes a shocking move to save his students from the city’s drug wars, Steven’s young daughter goes missing, and Charlie, hired to find her, confronts a moral dilemma that will change all their lives.

Assessed