With the Lockdown about to enter another month
[with relaxation of some of the criteria], many of us look for methods of escape
from the ubiquity of this COVID-19 situation.
At times, reading for long periods becomes
difficult due to latent anxiety about our future. Sleep becomes elusive as the
nights become long; and when all that appears relevant is this weird virus in
our midst.
I have found immersive thriller fiction to be
one method of escape in these surreal times; especially when addictive narratives
are read to us via the Audible
platform.
Audible features many excellent crime and thriller
narratives, and supports
the genre, including sponsoring one of Crimefest’s annual awards.
Of many great thriller writers, I’ve come to
admire the work of screen-writer Nigel McCrery, with his extraordinary DCI Mark
Lapsie police procedural novels, narrated with verve by actor Glen McCready.
There are currently four books in the series,
with Scream being the latest release –
You will never have felt pain like it in your
life. I want you to know...there's nothing you can do to stop it - nothing you
can tell me, nothing you can offer me....
A woman screams in pain. Twenty-seven times,
until she dies. The sound file was sent to DCI Mark Lapslie from an anonymous
email address. Why is she screaming? Why would someone record that horrifying
noise? And why send it to him? He soon learns that the file was sent from the
hospital where he is being treated for synaesthesia - a neurological condition
that cross-wires his senses so he tastes sound - and where his new girlfriend
works.
When a body is discovered, the most shocking
murder scene Lapslie has ever encountered forces him to realise there is a
violent killer out there, a killer whose method of choice is torture. Will
Lapslie find the killer? Who will have to die before he does?
The preceding novels [available on Audible] are
–
Core of Evil
Thirteenth Coffin
Flesh and Blood
Bloodline
Tooth and Claw [read by Mark
Meadows]
Click Here
to read more
Nigel’s novels are available in paper and
eBooks from Quercus Publishing HERE
as well as Audible.
For many the name Nigel McCrery will be familiar from
his screenwriting work [Silent Witness, New Tricks et al], though this former policeman’s
crime-fiction is well worth exploring, especially when locked-down, and
an immersive distraction is required.
Nigel gave a revealing interview to the Daily
Mail in 2008 –
'I worked as a lorry driver, a bar tender and
even a hospital orderly shaving pre-operative patients. In 1978 I applied to join
the Nottinghamshire Constabulary. I didn't do it to solve crime, I did it
because I wanted to be middle class,' he says bluntly.
'My dyslexia didn't help. I had to take
statements home and correct them with a dictionary. Can you imagine doing that
now?
'I enjoyed my years in the force but there were
tough times. At the height of the miners' strike when I had a new baby and an
exhausted wife (he married Gill in 1976), I asked to be assigned away from the
picket line.
'Soon afterwards I found an empty bottle
hanging from a noose in my locker. There was a note with it which read,
"We've left you this because we heard you'd lost yours..."'
He quit the force in 1987 after injuring his
back, but his nine years in uniform would later give him the material he needed
to create Silent Witness.
He would base its protagonist, forensic
pathologist Sam Ryan, on Professor Helen Witwell with whom he worked in
Nottingham.
His years on the beat would also give him the
idea for New Tricks - born out of a chat he had with a detective who'd been
assigned to a squad dealing with cold cases.
Read More HERE
For more information on what’s available from
Audible > CLICK HERE
And to join Audible’s growing listeners and
become a member > CLICK HERE
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