Scene of the Crime

Archive for 2010

Nick Quantrill’s Joe Geraghty Books: The Incredible “Hull”

Posted in Interviews, tagged Broken Dreams, England, Hull, Nick Quantrill, PI Joe Geraghty, Scene of the Crime on December 30, 2010| 1 Comment »

British author Nick Quantrill opened his PI Joe Geraghty series with the 2010 Broken Dreams, set in Hull, England. Here Geraghty, a former rugby player turned private investigator, becomes involved in a murder and subsequent police investigation that involves the demise of the city’s fishing industry and explores the problem of how Hull can build a new future for itself. A reviewer for thisisUll.com felt that “Quantrill’s passion for this neglected part of East Yorkshire is evident in his writing and reminiscent of Ian Rankin’s love affair with Edinburgh.”

Nick, thanks for joining us at Scene of the Crime. Let’s start out with your connection to Hull, England. How did you come to live there or become interested in it? (more…)

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Neil White’s Lancashire Crime Novels: Garret and McGanity on the Job

Posted in Interviews, tagged DC Laura McGanity, Dead Silent, Fallen Idols, Jack Garrett, Lancashire, Last Rites, Lost Souls, Neil White, Scene of the Crime on December 23, 2010| Leave a Comment »

British author Neil White is a criminal lawyer by day and a crime novelist by night. His books featuring reporter Jack Garrett and girlfriend DC Laura McGanity are set mostly in the Lancashire town of Blackley. White draws on his expertise and experience in the courtroom to provide reality-based fiction that has drawn acclaim from reviewers. The Blackpool Gazette hailed his first novel in the series, Fallen Idols, “a stunning debut.” Second in the series, Lost Souls, has, according to eurocrime.co.uk, “plenty of excitement, character development and tension…this book will make you squirm.” Closer Magazine called that same work “a fast-paced crime novel that will keep you guessing until the very end.”

White has published two further installments in the crime series. The Lancashire Evening Post felt that his third, Last Rites, “teems with menace, and the action builds to a terrific climax.” And White’s latest series addition, Dead Silent, is a “superb, tense, action-filled tale with lots of human interest and totally unputdownable,” according to Bookseller magazine. (more…)

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Leighton Gage’s “Irresistible” Chief Inspector Mario Silva

Posted in Interviews, tagged Blood of the Wicked, Brazil, Buried Strangers, Chief Inspector Mario Silva, Dying Gasp, Every Bitter Thing, Leighton Gage on December 17, 2010| 5 Comments »

Leighton Gage is the author of the award-winning Chief Inspector Mario Silva Investigations, set mostly in Brazil, where Leighton now makes his home. As Leighton notes on his homepage: “Silva has a big job. He’s a Brazilian Federal Cop. In his country there’s no FBI, no DEA, no Secret Service, no DHS, no CBP and most police corporations have no Internal Affairs Department. Mario and his colleagues have to do it all and more. And they do it while traveling a lot. The area of their responsibility is larger than the continental United States.”

The most recent title in the series, Every Bitter Thing, published this month, is “Gage’s gripping fourth mystery to feature quick-witted Chief Insp. Mario Silva,” according to Publishers Weekly. The New York Times called Silva “irresistible,” in its review of the same title. Other books in the series include Dying Gasp, from 2009, Buried Strangers, from 2008, and Blood of the Wicked, from 2007. Leighton’s books have earned praise from many corners. The New York Times found the series “top notch,” Publishers Weekly dubbed the books “intelligent and subtle,” and Booklist called it an “outstanding series,” adding, “Silva just may be South America’s Kurt Wallander.” (more…)

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Jackie Collins’s Lucky Santangelo Novels: They Ring True to What’s Going On

Posted in Interviews, tagged Goddess of Vengeance, Jackie Collins, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Lucky Santangelo on December 10, 2010| 2 Comments »

Photo by Greg Gorman

Jackie Collins needs little introduction to millions of readers around the globe. Her thirty or so novels of sex and sin have sold millions of copies. But mystery/thriller fans might be surprised to know that this British novelist and former actress (sister of Joan Collins) is also the author of a series of tough get-even novels featuring the Santangelo family, most of which are set in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

The books’ protagonist is plucky, adventuresome Lucky Santangelo, head of a Hollywood studio. Lucky’s tales often feature plots filled with not only steamy sex, but also crime and mystery. (more…)

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Yanks in the Glen

Posted in Diverse, tagged Donegal, Glencolumbkille, Ireland, Malinmore, peat, turfing on December 3, 2010| 11 Comments »

A valentine for Ireland.

I lived in the northwest of Ireland the year of the Iranian revolution, listening to the stages of the hostage crisis via BBC radio or reading of it in the Observer that I would hike over the headland to Glencolumbkille to buy on rainy, windswept Sundays. It was actually the book review section I was interested in; hard to ignore the headlines, though. (more…)

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John Burdett’s Bangkok Thrillers: Bronze Age Mysticism with Silicon Chips

Posted in Interviews, tagged Bangkok, Bangkok 8, Bangkok Haunts, Bangkok Tattoo, Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep, John Burdett, Scene of the Crime, Thailand, The Godfather of Kathmandu on November 29, 2010| 1 Comment »

John Burdett’s Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep made his first appearance in the 2003 novel, Bangkok 8. Since that time there have been three more novels featuring the Thai detective, with the most recent, The Godfather of Kathmandu, out this past spring. Many reviewers have noted that in this critically acclaimed series Western materialism confronts the spiritual approach of the East.

A reviewer for People magazine declared of Bangkok 8: “Like Thai cuisine, Burdett’s comic thriller blends spicy, sour, salty, and sweet – and makes for a delicious wake-up for jaded palates.” Carl Hiasson also had positive words about that series premier, declaring: “One of the most startling and provocative mysteries I’ve read in years. The characters are marvellously unique, the setting intoxicating, and the plot unwinds in dark illusory strands.” (more…)

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Steve Berry’s Cotton Malone Novels: The Perfect Mix of Thriller and History

Posted in Interviews, tagged Cotton Malone, Scene of the Crime, Steve Berry, The Alexandria Link, The Amber Room, The Emperor's Tomb, The Paris Vendetta. The Charlemagne Pursuit, The Romanov Prophecy, The Templar Legacy, The Third Secret on November 22, 2010| 9 Comments »

Steve Berry is the best-selling author of the Cotton Malone series, a blend of history and suspense that have catapulted Berry to the top of the thriller game. With over 11 million books in print translated into 37 languages and sold in 50 countries, Berry has come a long way from the 85 rejections he garnered trying to break into writing. With Malone, a former U.S. Justice Department agent turned rare-book dealer, Berry has found the winning combination, and his protagonist has made six appearances thus far, starting with The Templar Legacy in 2006, and continuing with The Alexandria Link, The Venetian Betrayal, The Charlemagne Pursuit, The Paris Vendetta, and The Emperor’s Tomb, just out. (more…)

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Leigh Russell’s D.I. Geraldine Steel: “Psychologically Acute”

Posted in Interviews, tagged Cut Short, D.I. Geraldine Steel, Dead End, Home Counties, Kent, Leigh Russell, London, Road Closed on November 16, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Leigh Russell arrived with a bang on the crime scene with her 2009 novel, Cut Short, shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger. She introduces D.I. Geraldine Steel in “a stylish, top-of-the-line crime tale, a seamless blending of psychological sophistication and gritty police procedure,” according to fellow novelist Jeffrey Deaver. “You’re just plain going to love DI Geraldine Steel,” Deaver added. Publishers Weekly also praised this “gritty and addictive” debut. Russell followed up this first success with the 2010 Road Closed, a novel that “confirms Leigh Russell’s promise as a writer… well-written, soundly plotted and psychologically acute,” according to the London Times. Eurocrime described it as “well-written and absorbing… with an exhilarating climax that you don’t see coming.” Dead End, the third in the D.I. Geraldine Steel series, will be published in June 2011. (more…)

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Sam Millar’s Belfast Crime Novels: Art Reflects Life

Posted in Interviews, tagged Bill Clinton, Bloodstorm, Brinks robbery, Karl Kane, Long Kesh, On the Brinks, Sam Millar, Scene of the Crime, The Dark Place on November 10, 2010| 6 Comments »

Sam Millar is one of those authors whose experiences in his private life rival those of his fictional protagonists. An IRA volunteer imprisoned in Long Kesh for his political beliefs and actions, he was the mastermind behind the 1993 Brinks robbery in New York, one of the biggest heists is U.S. history. He served more hard time, this time in the American penal system, but was ultimately pardoned by President Bill Clinton. Upon his return to Northern Ireland, he turned from the sword to the pen.

Winner of the Aisling Award for Art and Culture among other prizes, Millar is the author of a memoir, On the Brinks, as well as a number of edgy novels, among them two noir thrillers featuring PI Karl Kane. In the series debut, Bloodstorm, Kane delves into the murders of a group of Belfast men who, over twenty years before, were involved in a gang-rape death. Publishers Weekly dubbed this the “powerful first of a new crime series,” while Booklist termed it “a real find for aficionados of the classic hard-boiled novel.” Kane returns in the 2010 series addition, The Dark Place, a novel dealing with “hard-edged crime with a vengeance,” according to Booklist. Similarly, Publishers Weekly noted of this second series installment: “Millar distinguishes himself from many of his contemporaries in the genre with taut writing and a memorable lead character.” (more…)

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The Texas You Don’t Know: Jon Land and His Caitlin Strong Series

Posted in Interviews, tagged Ben Kamal, Caitlin Strong, Jon Land, Strong at the Break, Strong Enough to Die, Strong Justince, Texas, Texas Rangers on November 5, 2010| 2 Comments »

Thriller writer Jon Land started in the profession young. He was twenty-three when his first novel, The Doomsday Spiral, was published. Since then he has penned ten more stand-alone titles, and another thirty or so books in series such as the “Ben Kamal” books, featuring that Palestinian-American detective, and the “Blaine McCracken” series, about the exploits of a former government agent who has become an international troubleshooter.

With the 2009 novel, Strong Enough to Die, Land introduces fifth-generation Texas Ranger Caitlin Strong, “a tough original heroine,” according to Publishers Weekly. When we meet her, Caitlin has had a career change after being wounded in a shootout and after hearing her husband has been killed in Iraq. Now a psychological therapist, she discovers her husband is not so dead after all and further developments reveal a terrifying plot that reaches into every home and threatens the very core of the country, making Caitlin don her Ranger uniform once again. “The revelations are constant, the characters compelling and the action fast and furious,” noted Publishers Weekly. A Booklist reviewer agreed, terming this series opener “incredibly energetic and readable.” The second series installment, Strong Justice, also won critical acclaim, with Publishers Weekly calling it “intense [and] skillfully plotted.” (more…)

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