Frances di Plino's Blog, page 13

Soul Searching

Here's an extract from Bad Moon Rising. We are in the killer's point of view and he is looking for a soul to save.
He sang softly as he cruised. Friday nights in this part of town never changed, thank God. It made his work easier. The whores plied their trade in streets where no respectable people came; only those who used their services knew where to find them. As he edged the car around into Beacon Street for the fifth time he finally saw the whore he’d been searching for. She was leaning against the wall, eyes closed as if in prayer. He hoped she prayed. If she did God might save her. Almost as if she knew he was there, she opened her eyes and looked over towards the car. She was perfect for his needs. Almost the image of the girl in his precious photograph. If God approved of his choice, he’d make sure that she’d never turn into the hag that girl became.He slowed the car. It crawled forward a few yards and then stopped. He touched the button to lower the window on the passenger side. She stood up straight and smiled, a look of interrogation on her face. Why did they all look like that, as if they really wanted to get in the car and open their legs? His heart pounded and his hands felt slippery on the steering wheel. He could barely swallow. It was always like this when he came to collect one of God’s chosen.If she turned and walked away that would mean God didn’t want him to take her. It’s up to you, Lord. She moved towards him, and he waited, shivering with anticipation. If she got in, then God had spoken and he would do His work. She reached the car and leaned in through the open window. He almost gagged as a cloying sweet scent filled his nostrils. Forcing himself to smile back at her, he nodded in the direction of the dashboard where a wad of twenty pound notes were resting on the leather in front of the steering wheel.“Fancy a drive?”She nodded and opened the door, slipping into the passenger side of the car.“Like car,” she said.He didn’t answer as he eased the vehicle forward and drove away. He didn’t need to make conversation.

Free gift voucher to celebrate Crooked Cat's birthday

The publisher of Bad Moon Rising (and many other quality books) celebrates its first birthday today. Unlike most birthdays, where everyone gives presents to the birthday person, Crooked Cat Publishing have decided to turn that idea on its head by handing out gift vouchers.

Scoot over to this page and claim your free voucher: http://crookedcatpublishing.com/2012/11/21/crooked-cat-is-one/

Review of A Limited Justice

Catriona King's A Limited Justice is the first in what I hope will be a long running Belfast crime series. King is a former forensic examiner now living in Belfast, both facts which add to the realism of the settings and forensic science. Not that she overwhelms readers with her knowledge, far from it. There is just enough to paint the scenes and no more.

The story opens with a brutal murder in broad daylight, followed by the seemingly unrelated murder of a WPC. When it becomes clear that the two have been committed by the same person, instead of making life easier for the police, it becomes increasingly difficult for them to work out who the perpetrator might be.

DCI Marc Craig heads up a tight-knit force, intent on stopping the slaughter before the killer can strike again.

The story moves along at a great pace, but never feels rushed and the author has a sure touch, knowing when to switch scenes to make the reader desperate to find out what happens next.

Without adding spoilers it's impossible to give more feedback, other than to say I thoroughly recommend A Limited Justice and will definitely be buying the next DCI Marc Craig novel.

Review of Stay Close

Harlan Coben is one of my all time favourite authors and I wasn’t disappointed by Stay Close .
We have the usual mix of damaged characters, who are never quite what they seem, and an ending that I simply didn’t see coming at all.
One of the damaged is Megan, seemingly happily married with a loving husband and family. But seventeen years ago Megan used to live on the wild side and is now finding her longed for domesticity stifling. Taking a trip into her past connects her with a series of unsolved murders, threatening her life and present day happiness.
The other main character, Ray Levine, is a photographer who used to be at the top of his field. Haunted by a blood-soaked crime scene seventeen years earlier, his career nosedived and he now takes on sleazy faux paparazzi assignments to keep a roof over his head.
Detective Broome is still determined to solve a seventeen year old case. When another man disappears, the paths of Megan, Ray and Broome cross, with devastating consequences.
As the death-toll rises the plot twists and turns in completely unexpected ways. Just when the reader thinks they know what is going to happen next, Coben takes them off in a new direction.
I can usually work out who did what and why – but not in this case. It is, quite simply, a wonderful read and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Review of Blood Red Turns Dollar Green

Paul O'Brien has developed wonderful characters in his debut novel, Blood Red Turns Dollar Green. Opening with a dazed and confused Lenny, who has no idea what caused the accident which left him holding a shoe with someone’s foot still inside, far less how he came to be carrying a passenger he really shouldn’t have been anywhere near, the novel hits the ground running from the very first paragraph.
Staggering to a payphone, Lenny makes a call that causes the wrestling world to implode and the story then goes back in time, to long before the accident takes place. From that point on, we follow the fortunes of Danno Garland and his various wrestlers and employees, of whom Lenny is one, until we eventually catch up with the accident. The final part of the novel shows the aftermath, with Danno desperately trying to save his disintegrating empire.
Set during the sixties and seventies, when professional wrestling was fixed and run by those with the muscle to keep the ill-gotten gains to themselves, Danno had frequently been promised a share of the top flight rewards, but had always been pushed out.
When he makes a deal with the devil in the form of Proctor King, his fortunes change for the better. But there is always a heavy price to pay for doing business on the sly and Danno soon finds out that the price is higher than he ever dreamed possible.
Blood Red Turns Dollar Green is more than a novel about wrestling and crime. It is a wonderful portrayal of the people – their lives, loves, businesses, losses and heartbreaks. I am not a wrestling fan, but this book held my interest all the way through.
On the negative side, the formatting lets it down and the whole is in need of proofreading to fix the incorrectly facing dialogue marks and other punctuation issues.
I see from the final page that a sequel is in the offing. I’ll look forward to finding out what Danno does next.
      
   E-book version                     Paperback

Just Enough Violence to Convince

I was recently invited to take part in a discussion on crime writing (Feminists and crime fiction – an odd couple?) and this, together with my earlier post on Someday Never Comes, made me think about the nature of crime writing today.
The cosy crime end of the spectrum has changed little over the decades. A crime (or series of crimes) is committed, often quite gruesome and violent, but the reader never gets to see the detail, only the aftermath. Everything violent is glossed over and left to the reader’s imagination as the sleuths, both amateur and professional, track down perpetrators and solve seemingly unsolvable mysteries.
But this seems, to me at least, to be the only section of the genre untouched by the increasing depictions of violence. In Bad Moon Rising I show my killer in action and have sections of most chapters shown from his perspective. I feel the violence depicted is only that which is necessary and have avoided the gratuitous. I wanted his actions to come from an inner demon forcing him to carry out his brutal acts. But have I sold my readers short by doing so?
It seems that many of today’s crime thriller readers want to be there as victims are tortured for hours, or even days, before welcoming death as a blessed release.
Should I have introduced more violence? Had my killer keep his victims alive for days on end? I don’t think so because that would not have fitted his character. His acts were based on what was within his nature and to have him doing more would mean his character would no longer have been credible.
And this is the problem I have with overly violent killers in novels. The characterisation is not always credible. I know there are maniacs out in the real world who get off on torture, but all too often in novels this is depicted in ways which not only require me to suspend my disbelief, but to string it up from the rafters and leave it to choke to death.
I hope with Bad Moon Rising , and the forthcoming sequel Someday Never Comes, that readers will get to the final page believing that what they’ve read is so chillingly realistic it could have happened in their town.
What do you think – is the level of violence in crime too graphic, or not graphic enough?

The Next Big Thing - Someday Never Comes

The idea of this is that a writer puts up a post on his or her own blog answering ten questions about his/her work in progress, and then “tags” three – or five, depending on which version you see – other writers to do the same. Then, the writer posts a link to his/her “tagger” and to the people he/she is “tagging” so that readers who are interested can visit those pages and perhaps discover some new authors whose work they’d like to read.
I was tagged by John Hudspith, author of: Kimi’s Secret
http://kimissecret.wordpress.com/
John’s creativity and amazing imagination have created a heroine like no other and placed her in a world like no other to face dangers and creatures like no others. In short, his story is unique and the telling of it exceptional.
The writers I have tagged in my turn appear at the bottom of this post.
What is the working title for your book?Someday Never Comes. The title comes from a Credence Clearwater Revival album and exactly sums up the feeling of the girls held captive by human traffickers. One of the older girls tries to keep up the spirits of the new arrivals by telling them that someday they will be rescued but, for too many of these girls, someday never comes.
Where did the idea come from for this book?Whenever I see mention of human trafficking, I always wonder how these people get away with it. Why does no one report them to the police? What kind of people are they? How do they keep the girls hidden and yet also send them out on the streets to work? What happens to the girls as they get older? Do they ever escape? How are they prevented from running away? All these questions led me to Someday Never Comes. I needed to set DI Paolo Storey to work, tracking down the guys at the top.
What genre does your book fall under?As with Bad Moon Rising, Someday Never Comes is a crime thriller.
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?I have a real aversion to people spelling out what characters look like. I like to draw my own pictures when I’m reading, so I’m going to skip this question. I know who my characters resemble in my head, but that doesn’t mean my readers would see them the same way.
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?Evil men prey on young girls, but one man cares enough to stop them.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?Bad Moon Risingwas published by Crooked Cat Publishing. They want to see the full ms of my next book when it’s ready, so hopefully Someday Never Comes will join the first Paolo Storey novel in the same publishing house.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?I can’t answer that one yet because I haven’t finished the first draft. However, I do have the full plot mapped out chapter by chapter, so it’s just a question of finding the time to complete it.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?I haven’t found another book close to the storyline, but my themes are a cross between those of Val McDermid and Minette Walters – crime, but with a strong psychological emphasis.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?Recent news items about girls being stolen from other countries and forced into the sex trade made me wonder just how these evil people are able to get away with their deeds. I decided to do some research and, as a result, Someday Never Comes was born.
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?Although the subject matter is dark and exposes the baser aspects of human nature, DI Paolo Storey is a character readers can believe in. He’s far from perfect, but I’d like to think there are real life versions out there in the world who care as much as he does about bringing evil people to justice.
***The following three writers are all exceptionally talented, which is why I am tagging them for The Next Big Thing.
JJ Marsh – author of Behind Closed Doors (a Beatrice Stubbs crime novel)
Jill grew up in Wales, Africa and the Middle East, where her curiosity for culture took root and triggered an urge to write. After graduating in English Literature and Theatre Studies, she worked as an actor, teacher, writer, director, editor, journalist and cultural trainer all over Europe. Now based in Switzerland, Jill works as a language trainer, forms part of the Nuance Words project and is a regular columnist for Words with JAM magazine. She lives with her husband and three dogs, and, in an attic overlooking a cemetery, she writes.
http://www.beatrice-stubbs.com/http://jjmarsh.wordpress.com/
Gillian Hamer – author of The Charter
Born in the industrial Midlands, Gillian's heart has always yearned for the wilds of North Wales and the pull of the ocean. She has written obsessively for over a decade, predominantly in the crime genre. She has completed six full length novels and numerous short stories. She is a columnist for Words with Jam literary magazine, a regular theatre goer and avid reader across genres. She splits her time between Birmingham and a remote cottage on Anglesey where she finds her inspiration and takes long walks on deserted beaches with her Jack Russell, Maysie.
http://gillianhamer.wordpress.com http://gillianhamer.com
Catriona King – author of A Limited Justice (a DCI Craig crime novel)
Catriona is a doctor who also trained as a forensic medical examiner in London, and has brought that experience to bear in her debut novel, in which Marc Craig and his team comb well known Belfast streets in the hunt for a triple murderer.
http://catrionaking1.blogspot.com

Review of Painting by Numbers

How to describe Painting by Numbers, the debut novel by Scottish author Tom Gillespie? It has elements of a thriller, aspects of suspense, it’s psychologically intriguing, but, in truth, it defies classification.
Jacob Boyce, the central character, is a university professor obsessed by an obscure Spanish painting in a Glasgow art gallery. He is convinced he can decipher clues within the picture and cannot bear to spend a moment away from it. This leads to conflict within his marriage and the loss of his tenure at the university. So far, so normal.
However, when his wife disappears Jacob follows Ella’s trail to Spain, where his search for her becomes mysteriously entangled with his quest to uncover the painting’s secrets. From this point onwards readers are taken on a rollercoaster ride the like of which they are unlikely to have travelled in any other book. This is not a book for the hard of thinking and requires no small amount of concentration to follow its complex and intriguing plot, but the effort is well rewarded when the finale is reached.
The ending is simply stunning and I want to read the novel again to see if the clues were obvious, if only I had known what to look for.
                  
Paperback version                           E-book version
 

Winner announced

Today is launch day of the paperback version of Bad Moon Rising and to celebrate I’ve been running a free writing critique competition. I’m thrilled to announce the winner is Andrew Dunn. Andrew has already been notified and I look forward (as Lorraine Mace) to receiving his work for critique.
Also as part of today’s celebration Bad Moon Rising is being featured on the excellent Cathie Dunn Writes blog. (No relation, as far as I know, to the winner of the competition.)

Do Dead Women Sell Books?

The incredibly talented crime writer, JJ Marsh, author of Behind Closed Doors , invited me to debate a contentious subject - Feminists and crime fiction – an odd couple?  
We agreed on some aspects and differed on others, but what’s your take?
 Are crime writers indulging in sadistic misogyny, or are they portraying the truth as they see it?
Do dead women sell books? 
Does it matter if that is the case? Why not head on over to the post and have your say?


Feminists and crime fiction – an odd couple?