Books to Look Forward to from Transworld

July 2018

Seven-year-old Hanna has never spoken a word. She is a sweet but silent angel in the eyes of her adoring father, but with Mummy, things are different. Suzette loves her daughter but difficulties with babysitters and teachers over the years have put a strain on their relationship and her sanity. Then Hanna speaks for the first time, to Suzette alone, and what she says is chilling. Suzette wants to write it off as a scary joke, but she's becoming increasingly frightened by Hanna's little games. Could she be in danger from her own child? And when it's her word against her daughter's, can she make her husband believe her? Bad Apple is by Zoje Stage.

An Unwanted Guest is by Shari  Lapena.  We can't choose the strangers we meet. As the guests arrive at beautiful, remote Mitchell's Inn, they're all looking forward to a relaxing weekend deep in the forest, miles from anywhere. They watch their fellow guests with interest, from a polite distance. Usually we can avoid the people who make us nervous, make us afraid. With a violent storm raging, the group finds itself completely cut off from the outside world. Nobody can get in - or out. And then the first body is found . . . and the horrifying truth comes to light. There's a killer among them - and nowhere to run. Until we find ourselves in a situation we can't escape. Trapped.

1948: an English housewife trapped in a dull marriage escapes to the South of France to claim a mystery inheritance. But rivals to her unexplained fortune begin to emerge, and now they want her out of the way ... She didn't have an enemy in the world... until she inherited a fortune London 1948: Eve Forrester is trapped in a loveless marriage, in a gloomy house, in a grey suburb. Out of the blue, she received a solicitor's letter. A wealthy stranger has left her a mystery inheritance but in order to find out more, she must travel to the glittering French Riviera. Eve discovers her legacy is an enchanting villa overlooking the Mediterranean sea and suddenly, life could not be more glamorous. But while she rubs shoulders with film-stars and famous writers, under the heat of the golden sun, rivals to her unexplained fortune begin to emerge. Rivals who want her out of the way. Alone in paradise, Eve must unlock the story behind her surprise bequest - before events turn deadly... Fatal Inheritance is by Rachel Rhys.

August 2018

A Treachery of Spies is by Manda Scott and is an espionage thriller to rival the very best, a high stakes game of cat-and-mouse, played in the shadows, which will keep you guessing every step of the way. An elderly woman of striking beauty is found murdered in Orleans, France. Her identity has been cleverly erased but the method of her death is very specific: she has been killed in the manner of traitors to the Resistance in World War Two. Tracking down her murderer leads police inspector Ines Picaut back to 1940s France where the men and women of the Resistance were engaged in a desperate fight for survival against the Nazi invaders. To find answers in the present Picaut must discover what really happened in the past, untangling a web of treachery and intrigue that stretches back to the murder victim's youth: a time when unholy alliances were forged between occupiers and occupied, deals were done and promises broken. The past has been buried for decades, but, as Picaut discovers, there are those in the present whose futures depend on it staying that way - and who will kill to keep their secrets safe...

Denton, 1984. After a morning's betting at the races, bookmaker George Price is found in his car, barely alive with a bullet in his head. As he's rushed to hospital, Detective Inspector Jack Frost and the Denton police force start their hunt for the would-be murderer. But with a long list of enemies who might want the bookie dead, the team have got their work cut out for them. And with a slew of other crimes hitting the area, from counterfeit goods to a violent drugs gangs swamping Denton with cheap heroin, the stakes have never been higher. Will Frost find the answers he's looking for before things go from bad to worse?A Lethal Frost is by Danny Miller.

Resin is by Ane Riel and is the story of what can happen when you love someone too much - when your desire to keep them safe becomes the thing that could irrevocably harm them. * Liv died when she was just six years old. At least, that's what the authorities think. Her father knew he was the only one who could keep her safe in this world. So one evening he left the isolated house his little family called home, he pushed their boat out to sea and watched it ruin on the rocks. Then he walked the long way into town to report his only child missing. But behind the boxes and the baskets crowding her Dad's workshop, Liv was hiding. This way her Dad had said, she'd never have to go to school; this way, she'd never have to leave her parents. This way, Liv would be safe.

Slow Motion Ghosts is by Jeff Noon.  It is 1981. London is bruised by austerity, social unrest and racial tension, and the police are at war. Anger has erupted in the Brixton Riots and is finding expression in protest, anarchy and punk. For Detective Inspector Hobbes, the battle lines are being redrawn within his own ranks as right and wrong are clouded by prejudice. Into this mess comes a murder. A promising young singer has been maimed and killed and the artistry of the crime is disturbing. On the hunt for the killer, Hobbes begins an investigation that will lead him deep into a subculture hidden beneath the everyday. A cult of personality that hides from the problems of the city and escapes to a world of its own, a world that is at once seductive and devastating. How far will Hobbes have to go to learn the truth? 

September 2018

Most weapons do what you tell them. Most weapons you can control. But what if the most dangerous weapon in the world isn't a smart missile or a stealth submarine or even an AI computer programme? What if it's a 17-year-old boy with a blisteringly brilliant mind, who can run rings around the most sophisticated security services across the globe, who can manipulate that weaponry and turn it against the superpowers themselves? How valuable would he be? And what wouldn't you do to get hold of him? The Fox is a race-against-time thriller across continents to find and capture, or protect and save, an asset with the means to change the balance of world power. Whatever happens he must not fall into the wrong hands. Because what follows after that is unthinkable...  The Fox is by Frederick Forsyth.

November 2018

Past Tense is by Lee Child.  Jack Reacher plans to follow the autumn sun on an epic road trip across America, from Maine to California. He doesn’t get far. On a country road deep in the New England woods, he sees a sign to a place he has never been - the town where his father was born. He thinks, what’s one extra day? He takes the detour.   At the very same moment, close by, a car breaks down. Two young Canadians are trying to get to New York City to sell a treasure. They're stranded at a lonely motel in the middle of nowhere. It’s a strange place … but it’s all there is.  The next morning in the city clerk's office, Reacher asks about the old family home. He’s told no one named Reacher ever lived in that town. He knows his father never went back. Now he wonders, was he ever there in the first place?

Launch of We are The Salt of The Earth

On Thursday 9 May 2018 The High Commission of Canada based at Canada House in London hosted the book launch of Roxanne Bouchard’s book We are The Salt of The Earth which is published by Orenda Books.  It is the first English translation of the novel. Her English translator David Warriner was also present and gave a reading from the book.

Author Roxanne Bouchard was interviewed by journalist Kathy Guest about We are The Salt of The Earth with the topics ranging from the fishing community and the people there.  How she did her research and the various themes that could be found in the novel. Roxanne Bouchard also read from the book in

French.

It was a brilliant launch with a vast number of people in attendance.  Not only were those in attendance treated to an interesting conversation between the author and Katy Guest but copies of the book were also given away to those who were there.

Congratulations to Orenda Books for having such a wonderful book launch in such a special place.

We are The Salt of The Earth by Roxanne Bouchard Published by Orenda Books (Translated by David Warriner)

As Montrealer Catherine Day sets foot in a remote fishing village and starts asking around about her birth mother, the body of a woman dredges up in a fisherman's nets. Not just any woman, though: Marie Garant, an elusive, nomadic sailor and unbridled beauty who once tied many a man's heart in knots. Detective Sergeant Joaquin Morales, newly drafted to the area from the suburbs of Montreal, barely has time to unpack his suitcase before he's thrown into the deep end of the investigation. On Quebec's outlying Gaspe Peninsula, the truth can be slippery, especially down on the fishermen's wharves. Interviews drift into idle chit-chat, evidence floats off with the tide and the truth lingers in murky waters. It's enough to make DS Morales reach straight for a large whisky...

Meeting “The Baron”

Back as a teenager in England in the 1970s, I enjoyed watching Steve Forrest playing the John Creasey character THE BARON in the ITC TV series [broadcast in the US by the ABC Network].

The show starred American actor, Steve Forrest, as John Mannering, an antiques dealer and sometime undercover agent working in an informal capacity for the head of the fictional British Diplomatic Intelligence, Templeton-Green (Colin Gordon). He is assisted by Cordelia Winfield (Sue Lloyd) and David Marlowe (Paul Ferris).

In Creasey's original novels Mannering was British and, after the few first entries, married. For the TV show, The Baron was transformed into a bachelor and by casting a Texan in the role, the producers decided that 'The Baron' would be nicknamed after the cattle ranch once run by his grandfather that was described as being "200,000 acres and 300 miles from Dallas" Read More HERE

And that brings me back to a writer that has excited me, with his highly literate and thought-provoking crime novel “Fistful of Rain”, which for me is as enigmatic and interesting as John Creasey’s The Baron. I am talking about the musician and writer Baron R Birtcher.

I first met up with The Baron, back in 2013 at Bouchercon Albany, NY State. I was moderating a Private Eye Panel discussion about tales involving private detectives, and specifically about Robert and Joan Parker.

Joining me on the panel were writers Baron Birtcher, Jack Bludis, Brendan DuBois, Charles Salzberg, and John Shepphird--to help keep the discussion lively and informative. My appreciation extended as well to author Reed Farrel Coleman, who had met Parker and discussed that encounter with me before the session began. He also talked to me about his essay in the 2012 anthology In Pursuit of Spenser: Mystery Writers on Robert B. Parker and the Creation of an American Hero (Smart Pop), edited by Otto Penzler--a book that would be of interest to any Spenser fan. Read More HERE

Anyway, after the panel I was intrigued by Baron Birtcher, his writing, and his music which are interrelated, as his novel titles indicate. So it was time to drink with The Baron, who too enjoyed the odd glass of ice cold Gin and Tonic. After chatting with friends I made a note to check out The Baron’s crime fiction, but as ever my planned intentions got interrupted with my massive reading obligations, and I never made it to exploring his fiction as I had other books I had committed to read for The CWA.

Then last month as I investigated new publications (as like many seasoned literary commentators / book reviewers) I was on the lookout for something new, something fresh. My attention was halted by an interesting review in Publisher’s Weekly, for a Crime Novel entitled “Fistful of Rain”. What made me pause initially was the title as it is an allusion to Warren Zevon, a favourite song of mine from “Life I’ll Kill Ya” – though it was the opening paragraph from PW that intrigued me.

Rancher Tyler Dawson, sums up the previous year, 1974, in the brief, cogent prologue of Birtcher’s elegantly written, bleak sequel to 2017’s South California Purples, as “one of the most demoralizing that I could remember.” He goes on to comment on such downbeat topics as the Watergate scandal and the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam. This sets the tone for what follows READ MORE HERE from PW

I noticed the author’s name – it was The Baron, the enigmatic writer from the PI Panel from Bouchercon 2013 Albany, and who I drank with late into the night. It was during that evening, author and friend Roger Ellory got excited meeting a fellow professional musician, turned crime writer. As I listened to these two chat about writing and gigging, little would I realize that many year’s later Roger and his colleagues would form a Rock Band THE WHISKEY POETS and tour, with their music infused with his lyrics, torn from his best-selling novels – CLICK HERE for more info

So I grabbed a copy of ‘Fistful of Rain’ which is a crime novel with a difference for it is a deeply thought-provoking Neo-Western set in 1970s America (coincidentally set at the same time I used to enjoy watching Steve Forrest as The Baron on British TV). It also opens with a favourite line of mine from the German writer / philosopher, Freddy Nietzsche, and throughout this taut crime novel is much insight that provoked deep thought – highly literary but with a lower case “l” and a literary novel with a plot, one involved in the darker side of Human Nature.

I reviewed it at Shots noting at the time –

Birtcher’s narrative is peppered with a diverse array of characters who circle the tale with rich dialogue and insight. The novel is a pleasure, as the author holds the reader in a firm clasp, reminiscent of the late great Elmore Leonard, with terse descriptions jimmied with conversations and talk that make one ponder about life, until the dénouement arrives and changes things, as the threads are tightened into a Cattleman’s lasso, making the reader take stock.

Read More HERE

Both Mike Stotter and I are big readers of Westerns, from our youth – so after putting The Baron’s ‘Fistful of Rain’ down, I emailed The Baron and asked for some insight into his work as in my opinion, he is sadly not as well-known as he deserves.

The Baron is published by the Independent Publisher, Sag Harbor’s The Permanent Press - and in 2014, Chris Knopf joined this most interesting publisher.

 Who is The Baron?

I was born and raised on a small horse ranch along the coast southern California, where my family lived side-by-side with my grandparents and my uncle’s family. After earning a bachelors degree in finance from the University of Southern California (USC), I spent a number of years working as a musician, singer, and songwriter.  After stepping away from live performance, I founded an independent record label, and later, a company specializing in artist management, most particularly musicians.

I moved to Kona, Hawaii in 1996, where I grew Kona coffee, and began writing what was to become my first hardboiled thriller, Roadhouse Blues, which went on to become a Los Angeles Times and IMBA Best Seller. This was followed by the next three books in the Mike Travis series (Ruby Tuesday; Angels Fall; and Hard Latitudes), each of which is set in the Hawaiian Islands.

 

The Advent of Rain Dogs

I was intrigued by one of the supporting characters in the Mike Travis series, a bar owner with a shadowy past about which he spoke very little. With the next novel in the Travis series on my horizon, I sat down to write a short character sketch about this character with the intent to get to know him better so that he could play a larger role in Mike Travis’ world.

The long and the short of it is that the story simply would not let me go, and what was supposed to have been a couple of pages of back story turned into a complete novel, my first stand-alone, Rain Dogs.  Set amidst the nascent cocaine culture of the late-1970s, it was received very kindly by readers and critics, and earned a starred review in Publishers Weekly, who said “…many books call themselves ‘thrillers,’ but this one is the real deal.” 

Introducing the Ty Dawson Series

Having somewhat accidentally written about the Seventies in Rain Dogs, I found myself wanting to explore the era more completely. Having been a teenager during the early part of that decade, my recollections tended to center around the music and atmosphere of a lively, though unsettling, political and popular culture. Stated differently, though I can vividly recall how it “felt” to live in those times, I did not necessarily understand the realities of events that had shaped them. As a result, I attempted to place myself into my father’s boots and re-examine the times through the eyes of a man of his generation—a relatively young man in his early-forties, with a young family, and facing social and political upheaval never seen in quite this form before—especially given the unprecedented presence and influence of television, film, and popular music of the time.

From the perspective of an author of crime fiction, the backdrop of the 1970s also allowed me to deal with matters of crime and its detection without the assistance of modern devices such as cell phones, or the existence of DNA typing or the use of the Internet. Frankly, I found it liberating to allow my hero, Tyler Dawson, to use “old-fashioned” intuition, bare knuckles, shoe leather, and his own moral compass to deal with the challenges that faced him.  

My most recent novel, Fistful of Rain, is the second in the Ty Dawson series, following 2017’s South California Purples.

The Baron’s Music

I have spent most of my life around music, not only as a producer and manager, but above all, a fan. I believe this is a common thread among those of us who are avid readers—particularly among us readers (of a certain generation). Like so many of us, I was profoundly influenced by the music of the times, and look back in wonder at the breadth and depth of the variety of musical genres to which we were exposed. One could hear Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, the Allman Brothers, and Joni Mitchell all in the space of a single hour listening to the radio.

I suppose that my takeaway from that experience is the importance of cohesion for an “album” to resonate to the core of the listener; the corollary being that—again, in my opinion—a book, or any narrative for that matter, is most successful when it becomes a full-immersion experience, like a concept LP. I believe it is critical for a book to have a “feel” that resonates and rolls through it from beginning to end.

In my attempt to accomplish that, I tend to choose my title first, then write to it. It is no accident that each of my books takes its title from a song (with the exception of Hard Latitudes, which was originally intended to be titled Run Like Hell). Before I begin writing, I will come up with a playlist that I feel is true to the feeling I want to maintain through the narrative arc, and I listen exclusively to that playlist for the duration, until the manuscript is complete. I have found that it helps to keep me “in my lane” and not drift too far afield where the soul and the feel of the book is concerned.

My books tend to contain a sort of nested-narrative format (I am fascinated by the butterfly effect) wherein there may be several different stories being told simultaneously, and coming together at the end. That format lends itself to an architecture that divides into different “sections,” each of which I name with the title of one of the key songs from my playlist. In that way, each book ends up with a soundtrack of sorts. In the case of Fistful of Rain, I’m sure that you noticed the Buffalo Springfield musical thread.

Words and Text © 2018 A Karim and © 2018 Baron Birtcher

Read More from International Thriller Writers ITW HERE and HERE

Innocent - A Gripping New ITV Drama Series from M.J. Arlidge and Chris Lang

Bestselling thriller writer and creator of the Helen Grace series M.J. Arlidge returns to his screenwriting roots to pen a four-part ITV drama series with Chris Lang.

Innocent will be broadcast across four nights from 14-17 May on ITV 1 and stars Hermione Norris and Lee Ingleby.

The four-part drama series tells the compelling story of David Collins (Lee Ingleby) who is living a nightmare. Convicted of murdering his wife Tara, David has served seven years in prison. He’s lost everything he held dear: his wife, his two children and even the house he owned. He’s always protested his innocence and faces the rest of his life behind bars. His situation couldn’t be more desperate. 

Despised by his wife’s family and friends, his only support has been his faithful brother Phil (Daniel Ryan) who has stood by him, sacrificing his own career and livelihood to mount a tireless campaign to prove his brother’s innocence. 

Convinced of his guilt, Tara’s childless sister Alice (Hemione Norris) and her husband Rob (Adrian Rowlins) are now parents to David’s children. For Alice there’s no doubt of his guilt and she’s utterly devastated by the prospect of David’s Appeal and Re-trial.

M.J. Arlidge

Innocent was written by M.J. Arlidge and Chris Lang of TXTV. M.J. Arlidge has worked in television for the last fifteen years, specializing in high-end drama production, including the prime-time crime serials Torn, The Little House and Silent Witness. Arlidge is also piloting original crime series for both UK and US networks. In 2015 his audio exclusive SIX DEGREES OF ASSASSINATION was a No. 1 bestseller.

Arlidge’s debut thriller, EENY MEENY, was the UK's bestselling crime debut of 2014 – and every book since has hit the bestsellers’ lists. His bestselling Helen Grace series includes POP GOES THE WEASEL, THE DOLL'S HOUSE, LIAR LIAR, LITTLE BOY BLUE, HIDE AND SEEK and LOVE ME NOT. Helen Grace was recently voted the ‘Kathy Reichs Award for Best Female Character’ in the 2017 Dead Good Readers awards.

Innocent stars Hermione Norris (Cold Feet, A Mother’s Son) and Lee Ingleby (The A Word, Inspector George Gently) and they will be joined by Daniel Ryan (Home Fires, Mount Pleasant), Angel Coulby (Merlin, The Tunnel), Nigel Lindsay (Victoria, Foyle’s War), Elliot Cowan (Da Vinci’s Demons, Frankenstein Chronicles) and Adrian Rowlins (Harry Potter, Dickensian).

Innocent starts Monday 14 May at 9pm on ITV. Continues Tuesday, Wednesday and concludes Thursday same week.

Anthony Award nominations

The Anthony Awards are given at each annual Bouchercon World Mystery Convention with the winners selected by attendees. Bouchercon is the World Mystery Convention. This year Bouchercon will take in St Petersburg, Florida, September 9-12, 2018. Winners will be announced at Bouchercon. Congratulations to all the nominees!

BEST NOVEL

The Late Show by Michael Connelly

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke

Glass Houses by Louise Penny

The Force by Don Winslow

BEST FIRST NOVEL

Hollywood Homicide by Kellye Garrett

She Rides Shotgun by Jordan Harper

The Dry by Jane Harper

Ragged; or, The Loveliest Lies of All by Christopher Irvin

The Last Place You Look by Kristen Lepionka

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

Uncorking a Lie by Nadine Nettmann

Bad Boy Boogie by Thomas Pluck

What We Reckon by Eryk Pruitt

The Day I Died by Lori Rader-Day

Cast the First Stone by James W. Ziskin

BILL CRIDER AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL IN A SERIES  

Give Up the Dead (Jay Porter #3) by Joe Clifford

Two Kinds of Truth (Harry Bosch #20) by Michael Connelly

Y is for Yesterday (Kinsey Millhone #25) by Sue Grafton

Glass Houses (Armand Gamache #13) by Louise Penny

Dangerous Ends (Pete Fernandez #3) by Alex Segura

BEST SHORT STORY

The Trial of Madame Pelletier by Susanna Calkins from Malice Domestic 12: Mystery Most Historical

God's Gonna Cut You Down by Jen Conley from Just to Watch Them Die: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Johnny Cash

My Side of the Matter by Hilary Davidson from Killing Malmon

Whose Wine Is It Anyway by Barb Goffman from 50 Shades of Cabernet

The Night They Burned Miss Dixie's Place by Debra Goldstein from Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery

Magazine, May/June 2017

A Necessary Ingredient by Art Taylor from Coast to Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea

BEST ANTHOLOGY     

Just to Watch Them Die: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Johnny Cash, Joe Clifford, editor

Killing Malmon, Dan & Kate Malmon, editors

Coast to Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea, Andrew McAleer & Paul D. Marks, editors

Passport to Murder, Bouchercon Anthology 2017, John McFetridge, editor

The Obama Inheritance: Fifteen Stories of Conspiracy Noir, Gary Phillips, editor

BEST CRITICAL/NON-FICTION BOOK 

From Holmes to Sherlock: The Story of the Men and Women Who Created an Icon by Mattias Boström

The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books by Martin Edwards

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

Chester B. Himes: A Biography by Lawrence P. Jackson

Rewrite Your Life: Discover Your Truth Through the Healing Power of Fiction by Jessica Lourey

BEST ONLINE CONTENT  

Writer Types Podcast 

Do Some Damage: An Inside Look at Crime Fiction

Jungle Red Writers

Dru’s Book Musings

BOLO Books