Showing posts with label Graham Smith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Graham Smith. Show all posts

Saturday, June 2, 2018

Book Review, Giveaway: When the Waters Recede by Graham Smith






When the Waters Recede

by Graham Smith


Amazon US / UK


When a car is pulled from raging floodwaters with a dead man in the front and the decapitated body of an evil woman in the boot, Cumbria’s Major Crimes Team are handed the investigation.

The woman is soon recognized, but the man cannot be identified and this leads the team and their former leader, Harry Evans, into areas none of them want to visit.

Before they know it, they’re dealing with protection scams and looking for answers to questions they didn’t know needed to be asked.


My Rating:





Favorite Quotes:



Blessed with neither looks nor brains, she’d fought her way through life, powered by nothing more than a sharp tongue and a cruel streak... Such was her popularity, the list of suspects for her murder wouldn’t be a short one. Everyone who spent more than five seconds in her company could be added to the list, as they’d be sure to want her dead.


She was a right vicious piece of work. If she fell into the Amazon even the piranhas would be afraid to bite her.


If Bell’s wife was a car she’d be a twenty-year-old banger with a possible oil leak and dodgy brakes.


The DCI was a capricious man, who had the square head and shoulders of a rampaging bull – and the temperament to match.


Eric Adamson didn’t so much have a chip on his shoulder, but the whole potato field.


Tony made the kind of face only a gargoyle sculptor would appreciate…


My Review:



I was quickly immersed and held enthrall with rapt attention by Mr. Smith’s gripping tale and evocative writing.  His uniquely peculiar characters were as compelling as his cunningly crafted and well-honed storylines.  I relished and eagerly anticipated his clever introductions and amusingly colorful descriptions of each character, which I tended to pause over and savor, as they never failed to call forth a full visual such as, His comb-over reached from ear to ear and a small bloodstain decorated one of his chins where a razor had nicked the skin.”   

There were several intriguing and tautly written storylines which pull me so deeply into their vortex that I started hearing their different voices with accents, and I couldn’t wait to see how each of the complex threads was going to intertwine.  The Cumbria Major Crimes police unit was staffed by a group of quirky, complex, and multi-layered personalities with complicated relationships existing between them.  Intricate deceptions were everywhere.  This was a superbly written first-rate mystery and I loved every confounding puzzle piece and came away quite satisfied with the stimulating entertainment. 

And score! I hit a treasure trove and now have several new entries for my Brit vocabulary list which now includes toerags (a contemptible or despicable person), taken the mickey (take the fight out of), rubber-heeler (internal police investigation units), fly–pitching (street selling), owt (anything) and nowt (nothing).




Empress DJ



About Graham Smith 


Graham Smith is a time served joiner who has built bridges, houses, dug drains and slated roofs to make ends meet. Since Christmas 2000, he has been the manager of a busy hotel and wedding venue near Gretna Green, Scotland.

He is an internationally best-selling Kindle author and has four books featuring DI Harry Evans and the Cumbrian Major Crimes Team, and three novels, featuring Utah doorman, Jake Boulder.

An avid fan of crime fiction since being given one of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five books at the age of eight, he has also been a regular reviewer and interviewer for the well-respected website Crimesquad.com since 2009

Graham is the founder of Crime and Publishment, a weekend of crime-writing classes which includes the chance for attendees to pitch their novels to agents and publishers. Since the first weekend in 2013, eight attendees have gone on to sign publishing contracts.

Graham can be found at

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/grahamnsmithauthor

Twitter
https://twitter.com/GrahamSmith1972

Website
www.grahamsmithauthor.com



Giveaway



To celebrate the release of When the Waters Recede, Graham Smith is offering one lucky reader the chance to win all six books in the Harry Evans series.



To enter, simply sign up for his newsletter via the link provided before the 5th of June 2018 and you’ll be entered into not just this competition, but all competitions that he runs. Entrants from the whole world are welcome.

Thursday, March 22, 2018

Book Review: No Comment by Graham Smith





No Comment



The Major Crimes Team - A DI Harry Evans novella

by Graham Smith




When a single mother, Julie Simon, is found in her kitchen with a stab wound to her stomach, Cumbria’s Major Crimes Team are handed the case. Under the supervision of DI Campbell and with advice from his former DI, Harry Evans, DC Amir Bhaki fights to discover who assaulted an innocent woman and left her with life-threatening injuries.


Nothing is as it first appears and when the team looks into Julie’s life they uncover a hidden sex-life that may just hold the key to the identity of her attacker.

Purchase from Amazon UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/No-Comment-Major-Crimes-novella-ebook/dp/B07B6FMX9K/

Purchase from Amazon. Com - https://www.amazon.com/No-Comment-Major-Crimes-novella-ebook/dp/B07B6FMX9K/




My Rating:




Favorite Quotes:



He knew better than to assume that a good family meant he was a good citizen. Some of the most evil people he’d encountered were from decent families. They would present one face to the world and another to their victims. Their status in life a shield they would hide behind until it was time to swing a sword in private.


That one sentence about female cops explained to Campbell just why such an outwardly attractive man needed to use Tinder to get laid.


The public couldn’t, and probably shouldn’t, know how much investigating certain crimes took from coppers.  How there were sleepless nights and nightmares when sleep did come. How relationships failed and how solace was sought at the bottom of a bottle. Sometimes coppers chose drink, and sometimes drink chose them.


My Review:



This was my first experience with Mr. Graham Smith and his unusual yet compelling assortment of coppers who were working under new leadership.  The premise was unique and relevant and the storylines were active and cunningly crafted while giving the reader a chance to learn the quirks and personalities of the squad while they were tasked with a puzzling crime.  Each member was required to employ their unique skills and personal hidden talents that maybe shouldn’t be looked at too closely, but all their tricks were needed to dig deep and unearth a more devastating and disturbing problem than they had initially anticipated.   And I proudly add a new word to my Brit vocabulary list with woodentops – an informal and not so polite term for a British uniformed officer.  




Empress DJ


About Graham Smith



Graham Smith is a time served joiner who has built bridges, houses, dug drains and slated roofs to make ends meet. Since Christmas 2000, he has been the manager of a busy hotel and wedding venue near Gretna Green, Scotland.

He is an internationally best-selling Kindle author and has four books featuring DI Harry Evans and the Cumbrian Major Crimes Team, and three novels, featuring Utah doorman, Jake Boulder.

An avid fan of crime fiction since being given one of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five books at the age of eight, he has also been a regular reviewer and interviewer for the well-respected website Crimesquad.com since 2009

Graham is the founder of Crime and Publishment, a weekend of crime-writing classes which includes the chance for attendees to pitch their novels to agents and publishers. Since the first weekend in 2013, eight attendees have gone on to sign publishing contracts.

Graham can be found at

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/grahamnsmithauthor

Twitter
https://twitter.com/GrahamSmith1972

Website
www.grahamsmithauthor.com