OUR BOOKS

Crimebits - 100 opening gambits for great thrillers, selected and with an introduction by Lee Child. 

 Crimebits is a unique, interactive puzzle book of best first page thrillers, including Lee Child's judge's notes, and his Introduction. Writing challenges, crime trivia, brain-teasers, and editor's notes will be included. The puzzles are created by LA Times puzzle setter Robin Sears. BSPG recently ran the 'Black Spring Prize for Best Opening to a Crime Novel'. Now, BSPG are publishing entries from 100 of the finalists, the winner decided by Lee Child. 

Also, an afterword by Luca Veste.

Includes bonus short story by Black Spring Crime Series editor Luca Veste. 

List of authors - https://blackspringcrimeseries.com/authors

From the acclaimed author of the Joe Geraghty series

When a young podcaster is handed the story that will make her name, she realises that if she wants to expose the truth, she may have to become the story itself.

For Yaz Moy, a true crime podcast is a route out of small town purgatory into her dream job as an investigative journalist. Uncovering the story behind the murder of a corrupt police detective during an illegal rave thirty years ago, Yaz’s enquiries lead to the door of a powerful politician: her estranged father, Conrad Knott, a man with his own secrets to keep hidden. When Knott uses his influence to land her a staff job with a national newspaper on condition that she drops the podcast, she’s forced to choose between furthering her career ambitions or revealing the truth. Yaz must decide what she stands for and what she’s willing to risk, but can she live with becoming the story?

SALTBURN meets AMERICAN PSYCHO in this shocking new crime novel

Lucian is the Wykehamist, a bright, handsome, charming, and privately educated young man, who glides through life effortlessly, from Winchester College to Cambridge University, to London, and finally Hong Kong.

But when Lucian is arrested, his secrets begin to unravel, the dark, violent side of him exposed...

Introverted, yet beautiful, Clementine doesn’t allow anyone to get close to her. She struggled to make friends at Cambridge University, finding the elite circles too exclusive and intimidating.

But there was one man, Lucian, who she was desperate to know.

Now a journalist, Clementine cannot resist the urge to rediscover the man who has been her obsession for so long...

 The Black Spring Crime Fiction 2022 Prize Winner

  In the midwinter of 1862, a young woman is found dead by the river, her body marked by a sinister act of mutilation. The mysterious death spreads fear, for this is not the first corpse to be discovered. Speculation grows there is a killer stalking the city’s medieval streets. 

ADA FAWKES 

The country’s one and only crime scene photographer. As a woman, in Victorian England, this is a dangerous practice that arouses hostility and accusations of witchcraft and Ada has turned her back on her profession to begin a new quiet life in York. But, she is summoned by Scotland Yard to uncover the truth behind the dark happenings in the old city. 

DI SAM STRAKER 

The Yard’s best detective is dispatched from London to work with Ada. He is a man she knows all too well. Straker and Ada have a shared past and his unexpected arrival rekindles traumatic memories of their last investigation, a year earlier in Paris. But they must forget their differences. They know they need their combined skills and experience to solve this mystery 

Soon the hunt takes Ada deep into the shadowy heart of the walled city, until – confronted by a murderer prepared to kill again – she realises her worst nightmare is coming true . . . but she is prepared to put her own life at stake in order to stop the killing. 

Bolivia. 1991. A soldier arrives in the small town of Uyuni. A place where people endure rather than enjoy. Survive than live. 

The soldier knows they’re coming for him. Hunting him down so they can deal their own brand of justice.

He needs to get out. To make it to the border and escape what is waiting for him.

He’s prepared to do anything to survive.

Even kill.

This is noir fiction at its finest. With characters that you will root for, heartbreak and breathtaking writing, this is a story that will linger in reader’s minds long after you’ve turned the final page.
 

 Cormac McCarthy meets North-East England in this unforgettable novel, with a fresh and exciting voice from a debut author. 

It Takes a Killer . . .

Foster is not Jasper’s father. He’s the assassin who killed his family. Jasper was eight years old when he was kidnapped and raised by a killer. Not only raised . . . trained.

To Raise a Killer . . .

Jasper has now been a trained assassin for decades. Not only does he kill for a living, he has continued in Foster’s footsteps – raising a ‘family' of his own. Lost souls of the departed. Children who should be dead. Saved by Jasper.

To Raise a Killer . . .

Now, Jasper must contend with the imminent return of his most accomplished protégé, Gulliver. He decides to tell him everything - his life, how he came to be the man he is now, and what has happened to the family since he left. Only, there is someone else out there determined to stop Jasper and find the lost and missing. And they'll stop at nothing to bring an end to what Jasper has built.

A Crime In the Land of 7,000 Islands is a powerhouse crime thriller fused with folk tales and the influence of anime. 

This psychological literary fiction tells the tale of Ikigai Johnson, a Special Agent working out of the FBI's Portland, Oregon field office, who pledges to bring justice to children abused by a monstrous American in the Philippines. Amidst an expertly accurate police procedural, Ikigai recounts her tale to her eleven-year-old daughter through fantastical allegory. 

Her story exposes the damage that arises from exploitation, inequality, and generational trauma. Exploring the nuances of criminal justice, it enacts the battle between our courage and our submission to fear. It is an important call to act against evil.

"A Crime in the Land of 7000 Islands is an extraordinary feat of storytelling, blending the real and the fantastical, with a hard-edged crime procedural woven through the rich imagery of a child's imagination. This is a thriller like none you've ever read before." Stuart Neville, Bestselling author and LA Book Prize Winner

"Zephaniah Sole’s debut novel is hard-hitting, but 7000% worth the read. As many novels do, A Crime in the Land of 7,000 Islands dots around between locations and characters, but unlike most, it does a good job at keeping the flow intact. A blend of mythology, magical realism, and crime drama makes for an intriguing reading experience, amplified by its frame narrative. Whereas this narrative choice might make other books confusing or messy, this one manages to stay on track. There is a wonderful seamlessness between the different branches of the novel" 

Zanna Buckland, Co-Editor-in-Chief, Felix

"Sole is a fresh, bold and exciting new voice in crime fiction - Beautiful and powerful."

Michael J Malone

"Brought to you by a serving FBI agent! A Crime In The Land of 7,000 Islands is a powerhouse crime book like The Silence of the Lambs fused with anime and Grimm’s fairy tales."

By The Letter Book Reviews

"I really loved this book. I've never read anything written like this before and it cast a spell over me. The folk tale approach works beautifully." 

Alison Cross Reviews

 The Black Spring Crime Fiction 2020 Prize Winner

Chic Cowan will do anything to find his daughter's killer . . . even sacrifice his own sanity… and maybe he wasn’t all that sane to start with…

Six months ago, tough-as-nails, old-school, no-time-for-the new-school Glasgow Detective Chic Cowan received a call no parent should have to take. His daughter has been murdered, 4,000 miles away from their home in Scotland. Across the Atlantic ocean to a United States riven by protests and riots.

Determined to find out the truth, his way, and bring justice to those who killed his daughter, Cowan travels from Glasgow to Washington D.C., intent on discovering what happened. And Chic Cowan is both sarcastic, and brutal, when he has to be.

Taking him from the deprivation of Southeast D.C. to the opulence of Capitol Hill, Cowan soon realises that not only were his suspicions correct, but his daughter's murder may be only the beginning of a story that could have far-reaching implications for society itself.

Driven by grief and obsession, Cowan sets out to find his own justice. Because the justice currently on offer just isn’t good enough…

Set during the turbulence of a divided America, a plot that engages with what 'woke' means, and the realities of policing, The Scotsman is the blistering debut from a new Tartan Noir talent. This is Rebus meets Taken. 

  “A rollicking culture-clash conspiracy thriller, pitting old Glasgow against modern Washington, all driven by an endearingly obnoxious hero in the grieving but reckless Chic Cowan.”

Chris Brookmyre

"Rob McClure's debut novel introduces one of the most memorable detectives to come along in quite some time. [The Scotsman] is hilarious and infuriating, relentless and reckless, hard-headed and (occasionally) soft-hearted --a compelling lead in a compelling story full of hard twists and dark corners." 

Lou Berney, author of The Long and Faraway Gone, Whiplash River and November Road 

Jason Griffith was a Navy SEAL, but now he’s returning to Trinidad. He has been away for a long time with the US Special Forces and reclaiming a place in society is tough.

In an attempt to make some quick money, he reunites with some old friends. Only, they’re now criminals. Car thieves, to be exact. Jason needs the money though, so he joins with them.

That’s where things go downhill.

After they find a large quantity of drugs in the trunk of a stolen vehicle, Jason finds himself the target of a notorious drug lord. The killing begins, but it’s when Jason’s sister is kidnapped that it becomes personal for him.

With the clock ticking, Jason has to not only track down his now former friends, return the drugs, but find his sister before it’s too late.

One man against all the odds.
 

Coming soon...