August 2017 Favourite Books

August's favourites are a little late this month. I had a week off to celebrate my birthday (30, how am I so old?), and I meant to be organised and schedule posts but never got round to it. I'm now rushing to hurry up.
This month's favourite books post is a steady balance of classics and new releases, with horror, humor and suspense all included.

July 2017: Favourite Books

July was more of a mixed month of reading than last month, though there were still a couple of Midsomer novels too. There's a mix of old and new, fantasy, comedy, classic and, of course, crime. Plus, I've actually read a couple of books which I've been meaning to read for a long time, so I feel good ticking them off my list.

May 2017: Favourite Books

It's been a bit of a disappointing month for reading, I've worked my way through a lot of mediocre thrillers (follow me on Goodreads to see what I've been reading). There are only three books that really stood out in May, and none of them are new releases. I actually haven't done much reading on my Kindle this month and it's been nice to get back to real books. You just can't beat 'em.

Book Shop Spot: Mermaid Tales Bookshop, Tofino, Canada

...and a mini book haul

I'm going to start doing semi-regular posts on Book Shop Spots; a brief review of bookshops I've visited. The majority of these will probably be located around Suffolk in the UK as that's where I'm based, but I'll start off with a book shop on the other side of the world; Mermaid Tales Bookshop in Tofino in British Columbia, Canada.

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Book Review

First off, I apologise if this review is rambling and confused; I've only been back from my honeymoon in Canada for a couple of days and I'm still incredibly jet-lagged. I'm actually writing this to try and stay awake.

I meant to review Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch (Gollancz) ages ago but it somehow got lost on the list. It was one of the books that I won in my crime book bundle from Orion and I read it a few months ago now. I was reading the second of the series, Moon over Soho, on holiday and realised that I never got round to reviewing this one.

Which I'm now rectifying because I thoroughly enjoyed it, I haven't read such an original book in a long time.

The Killing Lessons by Saul Black

Book Review

I'll put it right out there at the beginning; The Killing Lessons (Orion Publishing) is bloody terrifying and pretty damn miserable. It's not for the fainthearted, or anyone who walks dimly lit streets alone or opens their door to strangers.

The fact that it's about a serial killer who kidnaps, tortures and murders women should give you a clue, but so many serial killers have been romanticised in recent literature, films and television; think of the conscious stricken Dexter or Hannibal Lecter with his redeeming affection for Clarice.

Black's serial killer does not have a redeeming quality.

Crime Fiction Book Bundle and a Welcome

Hello and welcome to my brand new blog.

I'll be providing book reviews and news as well as some information on what I'm up to as a freelance writer and some tips for other writers out there.

You can find out more about me here and the sort of stuff I'll be posting about. But for now, let's get straight into it.

For my first post I’m going to write about something that may make any fellow crime fiction lovers out there jealous.

Last Christmas the Orion Publishing Group had a Twitter competition to win a bundle of their latest crime books.

I love crime fiction so I entered, not expecting to actually win, but I did!

A few weeks afterwards I received a lovely box of new books.