The Waiting Room
Written by Emily Bleeker — Children’s book illustrator Veronica is settling into family life in North Carolina with her new baby, Sophie, and it’s wonderful. Her husband Nick is supportive and pulling his weight and things are looking grand. Then, Veronica awakes one night to…
Dead of Night
Written by Michael Stanley — The South African crime writing duo Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip have taken a break from their Detective Kubu series, set in Botswana, for a standalone. The authors have never shyed away from tackling troubling subjects that beset the African continent like…
Tapping the Source by Kem Nunn
In the 1960s, it seemed that running away from home in a deadbeat town or suburb to live communally with the hippies in Haight-Ashbury was an ideal for many American youths. In the 80s, runaways were perhaps a bit less idealistic but being with the…
Paper Ghosts
In this tension-filled followup to her 2015 hit, Black-Eyed Susans, Julia Heaberlin finds an appealing protagonist in Grace, whose older sister went missing a dozen years ago. Now 24, Grace’s prime suspect in the disappearance is photographer Carl Feldman. Feldman has Alzheimer’s disease and resides…
Interview: Laura Marshall
Laura Marshall worked in conference production for nearly 20 years before she finally took the plunge and decided to try her hand as a crime writer. A Curtis Brown Creative novel writing course followed, and then she wrote Friend Request. Here a debut novel, with…
Where the Missing Go
Written by Emma Rowley — Cheshire schoolgirl Sophie Harlow went missing on 17 February 2017. The 16-year-old walked out of Amberton Grammar School during a revision period, and her family and friends haven’t seen her since. She left a note for her parents explaining she needed some…
Three Little Lies
Written by Laura Marshall — Ever noticed how the crime fiction world seems to go in cycles? Not long ago, so many books were being hailed as the next Gone Girl, then readers were overrun with stories featuring missing children. Last year, there was an…