The Crime Writers’ Association has announced the shortlists for their prestigious Dagger awards. Nominees for the top prize – the Gold Dagger Award for the Best Crime Novel of the Year – are:
Top Ten: Crime Writers
19 August 2011 by 9 Comments
Every so often I worry that I’m not a “serious” enough reader. I don’t scour the new literary releases looking for the critics’ choice as my next purchase. I don’t obsessively plough my way through the shortlists of the highbrow book prizes. That’s not to say that I don’t read any literary fiction at all, but offered the choice of a Booker Prize winner or a good crime thriller I’d pick the latter any day of the week.
There is a wealth of enjoyable crime fiction available and hundreds of new and established crime novelists but I tend to find myself returning to the same authors over and over again. Here, in alphabetical order, are my top ten crime writers.
Top Ten: The Kindle – Bargain Books at Charity Shop Prices
5 August 2011 by 3 Comments
When I first got my iPad I immediately fell in love with it. There was so much I could do on it and the capacity for playing games was immense. I did download some free classic novels on the iBooks application but I never got round to reading them. I assumed that I wouldn’t enjoy books on an e-reader – I preferred the look, feel and smell of a real book. Then I discovered the rival Kindle App and all of that changed. I realised I could carry lots of books everywhere I went. Packing for holidays would no longer be traumatic as weight was no longer an issue. Best of all there is a great selection of cheap books to choose from – have a look, you’ll see that it’s easy to spend very little but get a lot of good reads.
Here are 10 books I’ve recently read on my Kindle:
1. Love, Sex and Tesco’s Finest Cava by Steve Carter
It was the unwieldy title and the thought of how anyone could enjoy Tesco Cava that attracted me to this book. The narrator Rob is 38 and newly divorced for the second time when he meets a new woman on an online dating site, this novel charts the ups and downs of their blossoming relationship and how this impacts on both their families. This is a great little book, full of humour and interesting characters and it’s good to read a romantic comedy from the man’s point of view. I read this in one day on holiday and it’s the perfect beach or lazy weekend read.
2. The Warsaw Anagrams by Richard Zimler
I had read one of Richard Zimler’s previous novels for work in my old job and really enjoyed it so this instantly appealed to me. A gripping thriller set in 1940 in the Warsaw Ghetto this novel explores the themes of loss, alienation, betrayal and brutality and tells the story of a crime set against the background of the greatest crime against humanity ever. This is both a moving account of the Holocaust and a fantastic crime story.
Kill and Cure
26 July 2011 by Leave a Comment
A run of the mill thriller with too many characters and not enough character development
One of the basic laws of crime thrillers is that they must have a flawed hero – the rule breaking detective, the alcoholic journalist or the idealistic doctor. We’ve all read the novels and recognise the standard characters, some are great, some are woefully cliché ridden. Stephen Davison’s addition to this rolecall is the hero of Kill and Cure…
London Calling
18 July 2011 by 1 Comment
The start of what could be a classic series
London Calling is the first novel in James Craig’s Inspector Carlyle series. So sure is Craig that the book will be a success that he has already announced the next two installments…