Book Review: A Deeper Song @RebeccaJBradley #ADeeperSong #DIHannahRobbins

A Deeper Song

 

How do you fight someone you can’t see?

Detective Inspector Hannah Robbins finds herself on the most perilous case of her career when a young man darts in front of her car. He’s covered in someone else’s blood and has no memory of how he got there.

Digging up the man’s past puts Hannah on a collision course with a dangerous stranger who wants history to remain hidden and who will stop at nothing to keep his secret.

Hannah finds herself in the biggest fight of her life.

Is this finally a case too far?

Download A Deeper Song for a heart-stopping read where the stakes couldn’t be higher.

For fans of Peter James and Angela Marsons

My Thoughts:

I am a BIG fan of Rebecca Bradley’s work and truth be known she is a large inspiration behind my Nottingham police procedural novels. So, when I had another chance to review her latest book I jumped at the chance! Though this is a DI Hannah Robins novel it’s a little different.

Hannah herself has been kidnapped and her team are tasked in finding her, this story gives the other members of her team a chance to shine. There is a mixture of real-life police work thrown in with fiction and though I know now that this is because Rebecca is a retired police officer, I think anyone new to her work wouldn’t notice.

This novel concentrates a lot on family, the family we have and the family that we choose. We a closer look at Hannah’s family dynamics that I know has been touched on in previous novels it feels more personal in this novel.

Rebecca also brings the character of Aaron more into focus in this novel, showing us how he feels in certain situations even though he has autism. I suspect after reading dead blind and the continued growth of Aaron Rebecca enjoys writing about character’s who have disabilities but still manage to hold down senior positions in the police force.

I am looking forward to the next Hannah novel and hope that I to can portray Nottingham crime and those that protect us as well as Rebecca does.

***

You can read the prologue for A Deeper Song on Rebecca’s blog HERE  it really is worth the click.

 

Grab your copy from:

 

UK   

 

Published in ebook and audio formats on 20^th February 2020

 

 

Rebecca Bradley is a retired police detective. She lives in the UK with her family and her two cockapoo’s Alfie and Lola, who keep her company while she writes. Rebecca needs to drink copious amounts of tea to function throughout the day and if she could, she would survive on a diet of tea and cake while committing murder on a regular basis, in her writing of course.

She writes the DI Hannah Robbins police procedural series and has also released a standalone novel, Dead Blind, about a cop who acquires prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness.

To receive a free novella sign up to her readers’ club and you will be able to download the prequel to Hannah Robbins series. Find it on the blog at rebeccabradleycrime.com You’ll also be provided exclusive content and giveaways.

Rebecca also has a blog which is full of useful policing resources which you will find through the above link.

 

Rebecca Bradley Crime    @RebeccaJBradley

 

Rebecca J Bradley   rebeccabradleycrime.com

 

Author Page

 

My Review of Dead Blind by Rebecca Bradley.

My Review of Kill For Me by Rebecca Bradley.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Book Review: Rage and Retribution @lomace @rararesources @AccentPress #DISterling4

Rage and Retribution

 

Can two wrongs ever make a right?

A man is found by the side of a canal, comatose and brutally attacked.

It quickly becomes clear that someone is abducting men and subjecting them to horrific acts of torture. After three days they’re released, fighting for their lives and refusing to speak.

A councillor is accused of fraud.

Montague Mason is an upstanding member of the community. That is until he’s publicly accused of stealing the youth centre’s funds – an accusation that threatens to rip through the very heart of the community and expose his best-kept secret. But how far would he go to protect himself?

Two cases. One deadly answer.

As the two cases collide, D.I. Paolo Sterling finds he has more questions than answers. And, when torture escalates to murder, he suddenly finds himself in a race against time to find the killer and put an end to the depravity – once and for all.

 

My Thoughts:

It was great to catch up with DI Sterling and Co since I last read a book in this series.

It took me sometimes to remember where I had left the team when I read Injections of Insanity last year. The more of this book I read I noticed changes in the character’s behaviour and how they had grown and changed since I last caught up with them.

What I like about Lorraine’s books is the DI Sterling is investigating more than one case, though the case that is the central story is kept at the forefront of our minds we also see him deal with other cases that no doubt keep an normal DI busy. While this is all going on the DI also has to deal with issues within his team such as work place bullying and when what one officer sees as a joke another might not.

There also plenty of humour in this book, and at times made me laugh out loud.

My only grumble is the use of WPC when referring to a female officer.

Though I had figured out who did it early on in the novel I was shocked by the ending and was left with my mouth hanging open as I read the final pages.

 

Grab your copy from:

 

UK                   USA

 

 

When not working on her D.I. Sterling Series, Lorraine Mace is engaged in many writing-related activities. She is a columnist for both Writing Magazine and Writers’ Forum and is head judge for Writers’ Forum monthly fiction competitions. A tutor for Writers Bureau, she also runs her own private critique and author mentoring service. She is co-author, with Maureen Vincent-Northam, of THE WRITER’S ABC CHECKLIST (Accent Press). Other books include children’s novel VLAD THE INHALER – HERO IN THE MAKING, and NOTES FROM THE MARGIN, a compilation of her Writing Magazine humour column.

You can read my Q&A with Lorraine Mace Here

My review of her previous book Injections of Insanity

  Lorraine Mace                   @Lomace

 

 

 

www.lorrainemace.com

 

 

Blog Spot

 

 

Book Review: Won’t You Save Me? @WendyDranfield @RubyFiction #DeanMatherson #Book3 !!!

Won’t You Save Me?

Detective Dean Matheson has returned to his hometown to begin his new job and put the traumatic events of his past behind him – but his fresh start won’t last long when the local area is hit by a series of strange disappearances and twisted killings …

A nameless girl badly beaten and dumped in front of the mysterious new church. A shocking murder scene discovered in the apartment over the diner. A child missing without a trace.

These are the crimes Dean Matheson is confronted with in his first week as detective. Are they isolated events, or is something altogether more disturbing happening in Maple Valley now that Dean’s back in town?

My Thoughts:

Just like When The Snow Bleeds I really enjoyed this third in my case second helping of this series!

All my favs are back especially Rocky though he is kind of a side character now though! This book left me wanting a kitten though! and wishing my cat was affectionate! Though she is an old lady…

Though I haven’t read Who Cares If They Die this novel answered a lot of the questions I had about character’s and brought their stories to an satisfactory end. I loved how some of the character’s got their comeuppance (no spoilers here)

I loved the banter between Dean and Eva, but wish they would just get it over with and have sex! We may all moan when two partners get together in a book but the amount of sexual tension I felt in this book is insane! Though this is mostly a credit to Wendy’s writing. Maybe I should get her to help me with my DI.

I flew through this book not wanting to put it down, trying to figure out who was really who and what their intentions were!

There are so many character’s in this book I am looking forward to learning more about and seeing them grow and develop.

Please don’t leave us hanging for to long before the next one, and for goodness sake get Eva and Dean together if not for the sake of Mulder and Scully but for your readers!

 

Grab your copy from:

 

UK  

 

  Kobo

 

 

Wendy is a former Coroner’s Assistant turned crime writer who lives in the UK with her husband.

Who Cares If They Die and Where the Snow Bleeds are the first two books in the Dean Matheson series, with more on the way. As well as her crime thriller series, Wendy has written a YA crime novel – The Girl Who Died – and she has several short stories published in UK and US anthologies. She has also been shortlisted and longlisted for various competitions, including the Mslexia Novel Competition.

My review of When The Snow Bleeds

For behind the scenes gossip and updates on her books (or photos of her cats), follow her on social media!

Wendy Dranfield                                     @WendyDranfield

 

 

WendyDanfield.co.uk

Book Review: Winter Dark @CallisterAuthor @Bookouture #Winter #BooksOnTour

Winter Dark

A girl with wide brown eyes looks into the camera. Below her picture, a clock ticks down. Cold traces the back of my neck, pricks my hairline. I will find you, I whisper.

It has been ten years since Winter – a headstrong loner with a broken past – was pulled off a mountain by special forces with the aim of turning her into the Secret Service’s most effective field agent. Now, she has just two weeks to bring down the head of a formidable criminal organisation, Alek Konstantin, before an innocent girl is murdered by a twisted killer in front of an online audience of millions.

Going deep undercover disguised as a paid assassin – alias Snow White – Winter’s aim is to infiltrate Konstantin’s inner circle. Calculating, charismatic and totally in control, he holds the girl’s fate in his hands. But every time Winter gets close to him, he melts away. He’s like a shadow, and yet he knows things about Winter – dark secrets she’s never told anyone. Who is he, and how can she reach him in time to save the girl?

Then Winter finds the body of a man from her past, stuffed in a dumpster with a bullet through his forehead, and things begin to fall into place. But with the girl’s death growing closer with every tick of the clock, and Winter’s protective shell starting to crack, does she have what it takes to bring down Konstantin before the clock hits zero?

Impossible to put down, Winter Dark is an action-packed and twisty read with a heroine you won’t forget. Perfect for fans of Lee Child, Sandra Brown and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

My Thoughts:

I really enjoyed reading this book and as it says in the “Letter from Alex” section she wanted to write a female Bond and she most certainly has. Alex has written an action packed thriller that is right on par with today’s surveillance age and the world we live in.

One thing I did enjoy about this book is that Winter isn’t bullet proof, she makes mistakes and gets hurt. She is also born to be out in the field and not locked up in a secure location watching footage and trying to hack into someone else’s mainframe. She is a new kind of agent who is tech savvy but also can handle herself when she needs to.

The author has also crafted some great character’s around Winter that though she thinks she is invincible and she doesn’t need anyone they have her back.

Alex has also crafted a likeable criminal mastermind Alek Konstantin, and only Winter knows who he is and what he looks like thanks to her photographic memory. But will be Winter be able to kill him if it came down to it?

I really enjoyed the rocky ride and this book undoubtedly provided and look forward to reading future novels from Alex. There is a new secret agent on the scene but this one is female and will quite happily kick your arse.

 

Grab your copy from:

 

UK

 

  Kobo

 

 

Google Play

 

 

Apple Books

 

Keep up to date with Alex Callister on

@CallisterAuthor

 

https://www.acallister.com

 

 

 

 

Book Review: The Quiet Girls @JMHewitt @Bookouture #CarrieFlynn #BooksOnTour

The Quiet Girls

 

 

‘Hattie!’ Carrie called, an edge to her voice. ‘Hattie, this isn’t funny, come out now.’ Carrie moved through the woods on shaking legs. She tried calling, shouting, screaming, but everything was quiet. Her little sister was gone.

Detective Carrie Flynn’s sister Hattie was kidnapped when they were both little girls. After the police failed to find the culprit, Carrie swore she would become a detective and solve the case herself. But the face of the man who snatched Hattie is a blank in her memory…

Twenty years later, eleven-year-old Melanie Wilson is reported missing, a quiet child who longs to fit in, just like Hattie… Carrie has to fight off memories of her lost sister to concentrate on the case, but she soon finds grainy black-and-white footage of Melanie boarding a boat and vanishing. She discovers Melanie has been taken to Pomona, a deserted island, almost inaccessible from the city. But who took little Melanie, and why?

Then the police receive a desperate cry for help from another young girl: I gave you his name, told you where to find him, but you did nothing. My blood is on your hands. Carrie traces the call to the same docks where Melanie was last seen. Now she has a second missing child to save.

But the sound of the broken voice has unlocked something in Carrie. The blurred face of her sister’s kidnapper is starting to become clearer…

Carrie is sure the lost girls are in terrible danger – and that there’s a link between her sister’s disappearance and this case. To find Melanie, Carrie must unleash the memories she’s buried for years. And if she uses her own demons to bring Melanie home, can she finally find out what happened to her sister?

This absolutely unputdownable thriller will keep you up all night until you reach the final heart-stopping page! Perfect for fans of Angela Marsons, Val McDermid and Lisa Regan.

My Thoughts:

I can not proclaim to love J M Hewitt anymore than I already do!

Hot of the heels of “The Night Caller” comes her second book with Bookouture “The Quiet Girls” and you are most certainly in for the ride of your life once more.

What if you think the only way to protect your daughter from the evils of the world was to scoop her and her mother up and move to a remote island. Just so you are prepared you ask a friend if his family want to come along to. Your prepared because your friend has a trade and he will be useful on the island. Though after all your careful planning you are in fact leading both your wife and your daughter into further danger and into a trap from the very people you are trying to protect her from.

Mean while back in England Carrie is still haunted by her sister’s disappearance all those years ago.

In this novel we learn more about what happened to Carrie’s sister Hattie and the aftermath that followed. Which at times I found heart breaking and even shed the odd tear.

Carrie is also hot on the case of a mystery phone caller, who is blaming the police for not capturing someone after they were given his name.

There are so many layers in this book and so many character’s stories to follow, though the author writes mainly from the character’s point of view and not those who are investigating the crime I found myself entwined wanting to know how everything pans out.

Ps: My daughter is named Melanie! I never knew it came from the wind in the willows!

Grab your copy from:

 

UK

 

  Kobo

 

 

Google Play

 

 

Apple Books

 

 

J.M. Hewitt writes crime fiction and is the author of two previous crime fiction novels and has been published in two short story publications. Her work usually incorporates twentieth and twenty-first century events and far flung locations, and her novels explore the darker side of human behaviour.

In contrast to the sometimes dark content of her books, she lives in a seaside town in Suffolk with her dog, Marley.

When she was ten years old she’d read all the books she owned, all those on her mother’s bookcase and everything the library had to offer. She decided the only course of action to take was to write her own stories. Thirty years later, she is still writing them.

 

J.M Hewitt Author               @JMHewitt

 

 

www.jeanettehewitt.com

 

 

My other reviews by J M Hewitt The Night Caller The Hunger Within

 

Book Review: Where The Snow Bleeds @WendyDranfield @RubyFiction @rararesources #DeanMatherson #Book2

Where The Snow Bleeds

“You want to know what I’ve learnt after living in Lone Creek all my life? I know the snow bleeds here …”
Former police officer Dean Matheson has been playing it safe since the case that cost him almost everything. But working as a PI doesn’t quite cut it, that is until a British woman walks into his office with a job that Dean can’t resist.

The woman’s daughter, Hannah Walker, and her friend Jodie have gone missing whilst working at a ski resort in Colorado. It’s clear there’s something sinister about the girls’ disappearance, but then why are the local police department being so unhelpful?

So begins Dean’s journey to Lone Creek on the trail of the missing girls – and he’ll soon find out that in Lone Creek, everyone has something to hide …

My Thoughts:

When the snow bleeds starts with the two main character Eva and Dean not forgetting his dog Rocky.

Dean is hiding from his past, while Eva is just coming back into the police force after losing her husband. These two seemingly different people end up coming together to investigate the disappearance of Hannah Walker and Jodie, who have vanished into thin air. A past police investigation had ruled that they have just upped and left of there own accord, but why is all there stuff still at the lodge if they left of their own accord something isn’t right and the pair begin their own investigation.

Though lodge and it’s location Lone Creek are hiding their own secrets.

I really enjoyed this book, but did get a bit frustrated with the length. This book is very much character driven. So though you get to “the exciting” bits and your only at 78%, this book tells the whole story about both of the main characters and not just all summed up in a epilogue. There are some laugh out loud moments that the girl on the tram discovered as I burst out laughing but I won’t spoil it for you…

I am really looking forward to the next part in this book and cant wait to find out what happens with Eva, Dean and of cause Rocky.

There are book trailers also HERE for her first two books Who Cares If The Die and When the Snow Bleeds

Grab your copy from:

 

UK                                     USA

 

 

 

Wendy is a former Coroner’s Assistant turned crime writer who lives in the UK with her husband.

Who Cares If They Die and Where the Snow Bleeds are the first two books in the Dean Matheson series, with more on the way. As well as her crime thriller series, Wendy has written a YA crime novel – The Girl Who Died – and she has several short stories published in UK and US anthologies. She has also been shortlisted and longlisted for various competitions, including the Mslexia Novel Competition.

For behind the scenes gossip and updates on her books (or photos of her cats), follow her on social media!

Wendy Dranfield                                     @WendyDranfield

 

 

WendyDanfield.co.uk

Book Review: The Night Caller @JMHewitt @Bookouture #CarrieFlynn #BooksOnTour

The Night Caller

Detective Carrie Flynn has spent twenty years searching for her little sister, who was kidnapped and never found. The worst part for Carrie is that she was with Hattie on that hot summer day. Carrie saw her sister’s abductor, but she was just a little girl herself, and remembers nothing. She will never forgive herself for letting Hattie down.

When the chance came to join the police force, Carrie didn’t hesitate. She would solve missing person cases and fight for justice – no more families stuck in limbo, no more grieving mothers, no more sisters growing up alone… But now a serial killer is stalking Carrie’s hometown of Manchester: late at night, people are going missing down at the canal. Six years, a dozen disappearances.

When another victim is taken, Carrie is sure the family is hiding something and she’s determined to find out the secret behind their silence. Why does the mother not want to answer Carrie’s questions? Who is the mysterious girl next door? Carrie knows that to track down the killer, she must find out everything she possibly can about the innocents they have chosen to hunt.

Carrie holds on to one fact: last year, standing by the water, she caught a glimpse of the killer, and the distinctive tattoo on his arm. He slipped through her fingers, but she won’t let it happen again. She’ll never stop searching, for the grieving families, for her belief in justice, and her hope that, one day, something she finds will lead her back to her lost little sister.

Can she finally solve the case that has cast a long shadow over her career and will the demons in her own past help her to catch this deadly killer?

If you love Val McDermid, Robert Dugoni or Angela Marsons you won’t be able to put down this dark and twisty thriller. J.M. Hewitt will keep you guessing until the very last page. 

My Thoughts:

I love J M Hewitt’s books, the first Exclusion Zone was in my top books read in 2016. I am also working my way through the audio book of this I LOVED it so much.

Then followed The Hunger Within it’s review can be found here.

J M Hewitt writes what I would call victim centred books, they don’t come with pages of police procedure like some crime book do. She focuses on the people that the crime has affected.

Someone is pushing people into the canal’s of Manchester, but they are not just pushing anyone they are targeting the homosexual community and also those who are operating in criminal circles.

Though the police have been trying to keep a lid on the drowning our lead detective Carrie Flinn is on to something. She is beginning to think that the pusher is two different people but she is keeping this to herself as she separates the files on her kitchen table. Carrie lives next to the canal and spends most night trying to spot someone.

Carrie has a partner Ben but there seems to be something between these two, whether he is careful of Carrie because of her past, or for some other reason I am sure we will find out in future novels.

While our detectives are trying to find who The Pusher is….

We meet the mother Emma whose son Jordan has disappeared and is thought to have possibly been pushed into the canal. But there is no body… Emma lives next door to Jade and her daughter Nia. There is a very strange set up and relationship between these two.

Through the book this set up is explained to us in a series of flash backs, everyone has their secrets and things that they don’t want the other person to know. Which leads to a complicated web of secrets. Plus what has the nosy neighbour over the road got to do with it all.

I really enjoyed this book and breif introduction to some new characters which we will hopefully follow in future. Now being published with Bookature J M Hewitt is at last being firmly pushed into the lime light she deserves.

Grab your copy from:

UK

 

  Kobo

 

 

Google Play

 

 

Apple Books

 

 

J.M. Hewitt writes crime fiction and is the author of two previous crime fiction novels and has been published in two short story publications. Her work usually incorporates twentieth and twenty-first century events and far flung locations, and her novels explore the darker side of human behaviour.

In contrast to the sometimes dark content of her books, she lives in a seaside town in Suffolk with her dog, Marley.

When she was ten years old she’d read all the books she owned, all those on her mother’s bookcase and everything the library had to offer. She decided the only course of action to take was to write her own stories. Thirty years later, she is still writing them.

 

J.M Hewitt Author               @JMHewitt

 

 

www.jeanettehewitt.com

 

 

Book Review: Appetite For Risk @jackleavers @damppebbles #launchweekend

Appetite For Risk

A fast-paced action thriller inspired by real events in the aftermath of the Iraq War.

With Saddam Hussein deposed and an entire country in need of rebuilding, former Royal Marine John Pierce hears the siren call of adventure and opportunity. His fledgling UK business is struggling to support his young family and he has connections in the Iraqi capital – fate seems to point one way.

In early 2004, Pierce rolls the dice when he jumps into a taxi in Jordan and heads for the turmoil of postwar Baghdad to grab a share of the reconstruction gold rush. But when Iraq spirals into the hell of a full-blown insurgency, he must rely on his wits and his local friends if he’s to evade the rampant bloodshed.

As the action rolls across the blood-stained Iraqi landscape and embraces London’s seedy underbelly, Pierce tangles with the authorities at home and finds himself thrust into the heart of British and American covert operations against Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Having set out with little more than ambitious goals and an appetite for risk, can a determined ex-bootneck survive the mounting chaos unscathed and succeed in hitting the jackpot?

My Thoughts:

I really enjoyed reading this book, though I felt was part autobiographical and part fiction.

The descriptions of the Iraq landscapes made me want to visit, almost like it was a tourist destination. Though I know from news reports that it is anything but.

Pierce is chasing his next big jackpot and Iraq seems like the ideal place to explore leaving his loving wife and children at home while he chases a pipe dream. Managing to get himself tangled up in a terrorist plot, that he has no choice but to help the secret service catch there man.

One bit that I think summed up Pierce’s life style completely is at the end, when he is like right my job here is done, I need to get to a meeting.

With Jack’s background and knowledge of the forces and their landscape I am sure he still has plenty more stories to tell, and I look forward to reading / hearing more.

Grab your copy from:

UK

There is even a cool video promo on YouTube for the book, see it HERE

Jack Leavers is a former Royal Marine with over thirty-years’ experience working in the military, private security, corporate investigations, maritime counter-piracy, and risk management. His varied career has included numerous deployments to conflict zones around the world such as Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan, trouble spots in Africa, and the Somali pirate-infested waters of the Indian Ocean.

@jackleavers

jackleavers.com

Book Review: Chloe: Never Forget @DanLaughey @rararesources @CreativiaPub #Book2

Chloe: Never Forget

 

An off-duty detective gunned down. A dead woman. A student missing, feared dead. And now, a former policeman in search of his past. All these people, dead or alive, have one thing in common. D.I. Carl Sant must discover what it is.

A series of cold-case enquiries leads D.I. Sant and his colleagues to investigate a botched assassination plot dating back to the 1980s. The deeper they dig into the case, the more secrets are revealed, including shocking connections to the infamous National Front.

Meanwhile, the memory of former P.C. Tanner, survivor of the assassination horror, is beginning to recover. Sant must find Tanner, and find out who is behind it all – before his superiors lose their rag and more lives are lost.

 

My Thoughts:

To my relief this novel starts off almost immediately after the 1^st one finished.

A we in the middle of the case and our DI Saint is in the middle of the investigation, he has been warned off the Drysdale Case once but that isn’t going to stop him investigating both Chloe’s disappearance as well. Something is a miss and it all seems to relate to a police case in 1980’s when two officers were shot and killed. This book also carries a heavy undertone of police corruption, who is on the good side and who corrupt. Does this book give a huge nod to Line of Duty or am I reading to much into it?

Also during this book we start to hear more from who we later find out is PC Tanner who is struggling to remember what happened on that faithful day. He also seems to fill in some of the back story of what happened that night.

Where Is this Chloe, is she still alive, did she have that meeting with Drysdale on the night in question?

Mia is still on hand to help our DI in the right direction and I’d be keen to see if she becomes a reoccurring character in future books.

One thing I did enjoy about this book is the trip back down the memory lane of Leeds, where I was a student back in 04/08. I recognised some of the places that where mentioned in this book, though I know how much Leeds has changed since my trip there last year.

I am not sure what I felt about the ending of this book. There are a couple of twists in the end (as to be expected) but you can sort of tell that the author is hoping to lead onto a third book. Though after being left disappointed at the ending of the first book and this one not having as much of a cliff hanger. I don’t particularly feel drawn to reading the next one especially it I am going to left hanging AGAIN!

A good read, that tied up the loose ends from book 1, but left me with more threads waiting to be untangled.

Grab your copy from:

 

UK                   USA

 

 

Dan Laughey is a lecturer at Leeds Beckett University where he teaches a course called ‘Youth, Crime and Culture’ among other things. He has written several books on the subject including Music and Youth Culture, based on his PhD in Sociology at Salford University. He also holds a BA in English from Manchester Metropolitan University and an MA in Communications Studies from the University of Leeds.

Dan was born in Otley and bred in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, a hop and a skip away from the Leeds setting of his Chloe novels.

His crime writing was purely academic to begin with. He’s written about media violence and tackled the age-old concern about television and video games influencing patterns of antisocial behaviour in society. After years of research and theoretical scrutiny, he still hasn’t cracked that particular nut.

He’s also written about the role of CCTV and surveillance in today’s Big Brother world, the sometimes fraught relationship between rap and juvenile crime, football hooliganism, and the sociocultural legacy of Britain’s most notorious serial killer – the Yorkshire Ripper.

All in all, Dan’s work has been translated into four languages: French, Hebrew, Korean and Turkish. He has presented guest lectures at international conferences and appeared on BBC Radio and ITV News in addition to providing expert commentary for The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph.

Dan Laughey                  @danlaughey

 

Read my review of Chloe: Lost Girl

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Book Review: How Not To Write Female Characters @bang2write @rararesources

How Not To Write Female Characters

 

Female characters. When fifty per cent of your potential target audience is female, if you’re not writing them in your screenplay or novel? You’re making a BIG mistake!

But how should you approach your female characters? That’s the million-dollar question … After all, women in real life are complex, varied and flawed. Knowing where to start in creating three dimensional female characters for your story is extremely difficult.

So … perhaps it’s easier to figure out how NOT to write female characters?

Script editor, novelist and owner of the UK’s top screenwriting blog http://www.bang2write.com, Lucy V Hay has spent the last fifteen years reading the slush pile. She has learned to spot the patterns, pitfalls and general mistakes writers make when writing female characters – and why.

In How Not To Write Female Characters, Lucy outlines:

•WHO your character is & how to avoid “classic” traps and pitfalls
•WHAT mistakes writers typically make with female characters
•WHERE you can find great female characters in produced and published content
•WHEN to let go of gender politics and agendas
•WHY female characters are more important than ever

Lucy is on a mission to improve your writing, as well as enable diverse voices and characters to rise to the top of the spec pile.

My Thoughts:

This is a short handy guide on how best to write female characters.

The author walks us through how to not fail into any of the common traps that authors fall into. The book also uses humor in places, to aid better understanding of where people get it wrong.

I shall be keeping this book at my side when I come to writing my WIP, making sure I avoid all the pit fails the author has mentioned and show my female characters in the best light.

This book is also currently FREE on Amazon, so quick grab it while you can.

 

 

Lucy V. Hay is an author, script editor and blogger who helps writers via her Bang2write consultancy. Lucy is the producer of two Brit Thrillers, DEVIATION (2012) and ASSASSIN (2015), as well as the script editor and advisor on numerous other features and shorts.  Lucy’s also the author of  WRITING AND SELLING THRILLER SCREENPLAYS for Kamera Books’ “Creative Essentials” range, as well as its follow ups on DRAMA SCREENPLAYS and DIVERSE CHARACTERS.

REVIEWS FOR LUCY V’S WRITING ADVICE:

‘A timely guide to creating original characters and reinvigorating tired storylines. ‘
– Debbie Moon, creator and showrunner, Wolfblood (BBC)

‘Lucy V. Hay nails it’
– Stephen Volk, BAFTA-winning screenwriter: Ghostwatch, Afterlife, The Awakening

‘Packed with practical and inspirational insights’
– Karol Griffiths, development consultant and script editor, clients include ITV, BBC, Warner Brothers

‘A top-notch, cutting-edge guide to writing and selling, not just practical but inspirational. Lucy’s distinctive voice infuses the entire journey. Quite brilliant. Here’s the woman who’ll help you make things happen.’
– Barbara Machin, award-winning writer & creator of Waking the Dead

‘Delivers the stirring call to arms that writers must not only write, but take their work to the next level themselves, making sacrifices and taking risks if they want to see their stories on screen.’
– Chris Jones, Filmmaker, Screenwriter & Creative Director at the London Screenwriters Festival

‘Writing and Selling Thriller Screenplays is a must-read for any writer, producer or director looking to create (or in the process of creating) a thriller production. It could also be immensely useful for those generally curious about the genre or looking to learn more.’ – Film Doctor

‘Lucy V Hay explains what a script reader and editor’s role in filmmaking, tells you to work on your concepts and that dialogue is the last thing to work on in her new book.’ – Brit Flicks

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