Looking for a gripping mystery by a best-selling author? Full of twists and turns, this crime thriller will keep you turning the pages until the emotional conclusion.
A retired prison officer is murdered.
Drugs and contraband phones are out of control in the local prisons. How are they getting in?
Can Detective Sophie Allen discover the links between these crimes?
AND WILL SHE FIND THE MISSING DETECTIVE BEFORE TIME RUNS OUT?
A shadowy group with more influence than anyone suspected will stop at nothing to protect themselves.
Discover the truth in this enthralling crime mystery.
If you like Angela Marsons, Rachel Abbott, Colin Dexter, Ruth Rendell, or Mark Billingham you will be gripped by this exciting new crime fiction writer.
SHADOW CRIMES is book seven of a new series of crime thrillers featuring Sophie Allen, head of the Violent Crime Unit in Dorset.
DCI Sophie Allen is Dorset's acknowledged expert on murder and violent crime. She is 42 as the series starts, and lives with her husband and younger daughter in Wareham. Her elder daughter is studying in London. Sophie has a law degree and a master's in criminal psychology. Her brilliant mind conceals some dark secrets from her past.
DS Barry Marsh is based at Swanage police station. He's quiet, methodical and dedicated, the perfect foil for Sophie's hidden fragility.
Dorset. A beautiful English county which includes a stunning section of the coastline, but whose beauty belies darkness beneath the surface.
I love discovering great crime fiction. Michael Hambling hooked me from the opening scene. DCI Sophie Allen is a tough, likable character who can get the job done. Loved everything about the book and found the writing to very entertaining. It's easy to lost in the story! I'll definitely be reading the rest of this series.
Like many writers, I have been a keen reader all of my life. I remember one day as a nine year old in the summer holidays, when I visited the local library four times in one day because a child's ticket only allowed one book out at a time! I can even remember the plot of one book, a story about a boy taking up fly-fishing, read while sitting outside in a sunny back garden in Bristol.
I still live in the west-country, and set the location of my novels in this area. The early novels in the series are based in the Isle of Purbeck, one of the UK's most beautiful coastal regions. But the rest of the county of Dorset does get a look in, and there are scenes set in other locations in the central south of England.
I write because I constantly create scenes, people, imaginary conversations and unusual situations in my head. I have always done so, ever since I was a child. Using the richness of the English language to set down these creations in words is a great joy. Maybe by the time I've edited a passage for the umpteenth time it's beginning to lose some of its sparkle for me, but I do believe in reshaping and polishing until it's as good as I can make it. It then becomes something about which I can feel some justifiable pride.
Who are my own favourite writers? Hilary Mantel, of course. Not just the the recent Thomas Cromwell novels, but the brilliant and sly characterisation of Beyond Black.
Doris Lessing has written some startlingly original stories over many years. I'm also a great fan of David Mitchell. He shows great creativity in all of his novels.
Philip Pullman has written many books of startling originality, full of imaginative ideas. Not just the Lara series, but the earlier Sally Lockhart novels. One of my sons bought me La Belle Sauvage (volume one of the Book of Dust trilogy) for Christmas. I loved it, so much so that I've already re-read it a month later, something very rare for me. Wonderful stuff.
Another author I've come to admire greatly is Charity Norman. She writes about families in crisis situations and how the problem is partly resolved. I came to her books with "The New Woman", a novel that probes the problems created by gender variance. Her other novels are equally good. Her writing style is outstanding.
In crime fiction I like Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie novels and the books of Mo Hayder. I also enjoy Colin Dexter's Morse and Ian Rankin's Rebus novels.
I cannot compete with these greats, so I aim for something different. I hope that I have succeeded to some extent.
Check out the book Shadow Crimes by Michael Hambling as featured in this post from the Mystery Thriller Week blog.