What I've been reading
I love to share with you the books I've enjoyed
Hello and welcome to Making Crime Pay! I’m Nicki Thornton - I’m an author. I share my creative journey here and what I am learning along the way. I pass on my love of books by sharing what I am reading and review them so you can enjoy them too. I visit schools and other places to encourage a love of reading and help writing be more fun!
My latest novel is The Floating Witch Mystery, about three determined children, an eccentric witch and the world’s best magical detective who will stop at nothing to save everything they love.
If you would like to hear me read the opening chapter you can head here.
I love my Substack community. Thank you for being part of it. Thanks to everyone who is reading this and everyone who kindly supports me and my writing.
Nicki
Some cracking reads to share with you
I thought I should remind people I do more than spend my time excitedly sharing news of my own books - I read too. So this is a time to sit down, maybe even with a warm drink and let’s catch up.
I ended last year with finding one of my favourite reads Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister. You can remind yourself of what I loved about it here.
I was so lucky to start this year with some brilliant finds that I am delighted to share with you here. A mix of cosy crime, a psychological thriller, Aussie noir and some gorgeous nature writing. So are you ready?
Death Under a Little Sky by Stig Abell
When a high-flying cold case inspector arrives to take up his uncle’s inheritance in an isolated rural community, you just know he’s going to stumble upon a cold case!
Jake Jackson walks straight into a male-dominated, close-knit community, where isolated farms are worked by matriarchs with grown-up sons with no prospects of change or escape – and a shedload of secrets.
Human bones turn up during a local treasure-hunting game tradition and Jake is plunged into a situation he cannot ignore - an injustice crying out for resolution, thus setting up a classy mystery that is pitched between cosy crime and psychological suspense.
I loved every word of this story. The writing is stylish and atmospheric, I loved the plot and resolution. I liked the slow-pace and the main character, Jake, who is looking for a fresh start, away from the trauma of his work and the pieces of his marriage. He takes everything slow, from lengthening his runs and swims – he even chooses to wash his clothes in the lake, to the slow-burn romance with neighbouring vet, which is the emotional heart of the story and rebirth of Jake’s new life.
Bothering away at him is the sense that he must see justice done, even though finding anyone to trust or confide in him feels hopeless. Jake’s dogged determination not to be warned off sees tension rise. Everything is finely balanced and well-handled, from the dark themes of how one man can seek loneliness and isolation as a refuge, but how it can have a negative effect mentally on those who have no option to swap their life for anything else.
Should you ever want to remind yourself of a book I’ve reviewed, all the books I review make it (eventually!) into lists on my Bookshop.org page. (I love this site and how you can group things into lists.)
Dirt Town – Hayley Scrivenor
This award-winning debut is set in the eponymous scorched isolated town in Australia. Where everyone is related to everyone else and no one can make a move without everyone knowing. Is there such a thing as a secret?
This was the latest book for my crime fiction writers reading group - and they are great at getting right between the pages and seeing what works for them (or doesn’t).
What did they love about it?
When a girl goes missing no one knows quite why Esther Bianchi has disappeared, but there are endless suspects as everyone is connected in this small town.
This is a great set-up for the arrival of the out-of-town cop. Incomers are treated with suspicion in this rough and raw community where it’s the big families who really make the laws. It’s a tough job to unpick the cover-ups and lies. But the reader roots for truth and more than one justice to be served as it’s also obvious no one is going to risk speaking out.
This is a story told from multiple points of view and unfolds slowly, but with a lot of beautiful expressive writing and interesting characters (sympathetic and otherwise). We get to sit inside the homes and listen into those conversations.
Most of the perspectives are the powerless women, giving an interesting view of a place where the only people who have a voice are the men.
The kids and the cops give a moral centre to the novel, trying to do their best to wrestle some sort of dignity, justice and answers. The women play their own power games.
We discussed some interesting devices used - and their effectiveness, such as the reader being on the inside from the start and knowing that a body has been buried (loss of tension we felt). My crime fiction reading group also had a range of views on how satisfying the ending was in terms of the expectations of a traditional whodunnit mystery story. A great book, lots to discuss.
This is a welcome new voice in crime fiction, writing to tell those stories of people who never get to speak out and be heard.
Murder on the Farm - Kate Wells
Secrets and lies in rural communities is the theme of this book about Jude, who is dealing with grief while making a go of the farm left to her by her husband, Adam. Adam died unexpectedly, but farming was his side of the family.
But Jude has taken to the farm as strongly as she has to all Adam’s childhood friends. And it is the supposed suicide of one of these that gives Jude much more than lambing to worry about.
This is a nicely complex traditional murder mystery. I hope it is not a spoiler to say how much I loved the element of a puzzle game the murdered woman helped build. What a genius idea! I would have loved to have seen more of this as I enjoyed this element so much.
The writing is strong on the ties between families and friends and how even those closest to us are often wearing a mask. Jude is a courageous character and I love the way Kate Wells pauses to dwell on her personal struggles as well as leading the reader through the complex twists of the suspected murder. And there’s a cute toddler, adorable lambs and chickens on Malvern Farm. Kate weaves the farming story seamlessly into the crime action and there is plenty to unravel in a very satisfying way.
Death of a Bookseller – Alice Slater
I was eager to dive into this dark tale of a true-crime obsessed bookseller who becomes fixated on a new colleague, poet Laura. The unpopular and deeply creepy Roach is deluded into believing they have a connection – so why can’t Laura see it.
It's a dark tale of obsession.
Roach’s behaviour becomes increasingly disturbed as Laura continues to reject all offers of friendship. Roach turns from merely unpleasant to immoral as she fixates on that connection and rejection turns to revenge in terrifyingly creepy ways.
I felt like a grubby witness to disturbed and irredeemably creepy Roach as she secretly inveigles her way into every nook and cranny of Laura’s private life in an increasingly intrusive manner.
Roach is a true crime obsessive and I would have liked deeper exploration into true crime as entertainment and why so many people are drawn to it. It maybe would have given more understanding of Roach.
What I liked most about this story, apart from the high quality of the writing, particularly the descriptive writing, was the sad little bookshop where they both work. The failing chain bookshop, Spines in Walthamstow, is like a whole additional character, at first brashly seeing off two much-loved indies. Now tired, as unloved as Roach, and sinking against the fight with both online sales and failing high streets. It’s corners are dirty, it’s staff worn down and desperate, even its customers rude.
I enjoyed how every detail of the day to day life of the team is lovingly drawn. It drew me in as much as the Roach/Laura dynamic.
I can see why this has been hailed as the suspense thriller of 2023. But mostly I found I was rooting for the bookshop – will it survive and not be closed after Christmas? No spoilers!
Nature's Calendar: The British Year in 72 Seasons
by Kiera Chapman Rowan Jaines Lulah Ellender Rebecca Warren
I sprinkle this newsletter with thoughts of nature and the natural world because I find this important for creativity and well-being, so the final book I’m sharing with you today you might be hearing more of!
Inspired by a traditional Japanese calendar which divides the year into segments of four to five days, this book guides you through a year of 72 seasons as they manifest in the British Isles. It’s a book to encourage you to notice the natural world around you. I’m only at the start and I am already loving it!
What no children’s books reviews?
I usually mix in adult and children’s books, because my view is a good book is a good book whoever the audience is. But I’m saving some of my favourite children’s reads for special news of how I hope people might support an initiative to get more books into the hands of young people.
Thank you so much for reading. And I really hope you are finding something to read at the moment that gives you joy.
nicki x