Contemporary Authors

• Trust Me - 2017 Avon, London, United Kingdom
• Follow Me - 2015 Avon, London, United Kingdom
• Confessions of a Fashionista - 2013 Virgin Books, London, United Kingdom
• Watch Me - 2016 Avon, London, United Kingdom

• Angela Clarke Home Page - http://angelaclarke.co.uk

  SHARPLY OBSERVED AND EXTREMELY FUNNY’ – HELLO! MAGAZINE

  I’m The Sunday Times bestselling author of the Social Media Murder Series, a screenwriter, playwright and presenter. My debut crime thriller Follow Me was named Amazon’s Rising Star Debut of the Month January 2016, longlisted for the Crime Writer’s Association Dagger in the Library 2016, and shortlisted for the Dead Good Reader Page Turner Award 2016. Follow Me has been optioned for TV production. Watch Me the second instalment in the Social Media Murder Series went straight into the UK paperback chart at number 15 in January 2017. Trust Me the third in the Social Media Series published to tens of Amazon five star reviews in June 2017. My memoir Confessions of a Fashionista is an Amazon Fashion Chart bestseller.

  The feature horror screenplay Lure, which I co-wrote with Cal Moriarty won the First Scene Screenplay Festival 2017, placed third in the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival 2017 and is a quarterfinalist in the First Blood Screenwriting Contest. My debut play The Legacy enjoyed a sell-out run to rave reviews at The Hope Theatre, Islington in June 2015. The Daily Mail Online called The Legacy ‘witty, insightful and powerful ★★★★★’. And West End Wilma described it as ‘A fantastic debut ★★★★’.

  I guest appeared on CBS Reality’s real life crime series Written in Blood, which aired 24th September 2017 (in the U.K. Spring 2018 in the U.S.). I also appeared on the BBC Ouch’s Edinburgh Festival Stage in Tales of The Misunderstood, and hosted the book show Tales From Your Life on BBC 3 Counties in 2017. During 2015, I hosted and produced the current affairs radio show Outspoken on Radio Verulam. I also feature regularly as a panel guest on BBC 3 Counties, BBC Radio 4, and the BBC World Service, among others. I have given talks and masterclasses for many, including City University’s Crime Writing MA, Noirwich Crime Writing Festival, Camp Bestival, Panic! (in partnership with Create, the Barbican, Goldsmiths University and The Guardian), Meet a Mentor (in partnership with the Royal Society of Arts), Northwich Lit Fest, St Albans Lit Fest, BeaconLit, and the London College of Fashion. My journalist contributions include: The Guardian, Independent Magazine, The Daily Mail, Cosmopolitan, and Writing magazine. My satirical column Blonde’s Eye View appeared for a decade in The Wharf newspaper from 2003. (It is the longest running relationship I have in my life, apart from that with my parents). From 2009 to 2012 I wrote the popular anonymous column Confessions of a Fashionista for the Daily Mail Online. Deborah Arthurs, Femail Editor, the Daily Mail Online, says: ‘As an insider Angela gives a rare and fascinating insight into the murky world of the fashion industry.’

  I also work as a manuscript reader for The Literary Consultancy, and private clients. In 2015 I was awarded the Young Stationers’ Prize for achievement and promise in writing and publishing (and then I got very drunk).

  Oh, and I have a degenerative connective tissue disorder called Ehlers Danlos III, which does sometimes mess with my mobility. I have five different walking sticks ready for just such occasions. This has only fed my passionate belief we should encourage and support more marginalised voices into the creative industries, to truly reflect our diverse and rather fabulous society. I’m also very honoured to be a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

  You can find me on Twitter, on Instagram, or on Facebook. I’m the one who should be working.

  TEN THINGS ABOUT ME
  1. I’m a writer. I’ve written a memoir, novels, screenplays and play scripts. Not necessarily in that order.

  2. I’m not very good at saying no.

  3. I landed my first column after drunkenly lecturing a newspaper editor on his lack of female writers.

  4. I’m opinionated. Obvs.

  4. I was inspired to write my debut crime novel Follow Me after I was trolled online. Revenge is a dish best served in a publishing deal…

  5. I believe chocolate biscuits are a valid choice for breakfast.

  6. I’ve written for The Guardian, The Independent, The Daily Mail, Cosmopolitan, Writing Magazine and You Magazine among others.

  7. I’m almost always late. Or lost. Or both.

  8. I see my physio 2-3 times a week and complete an hours physio a day to help keep me mobile. And I never whinge. Or swear. Or binge watch Midsomer Murders and Murder, She Wrote because ‘I deserve it’. Nope. Nu-uh.

  9. I studied Advances in Scriptwriting at RADA, and got freaked out by the people who sing as they walk down corridors.

  10. I own enough books to build a double bed out of.

  11. I would quite like to do that.

  12. Maths was never my strong point.

  Photo credits. Top Left: Tim Wheeler. Right: Danny Loo.

• Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Angela-Clarke/e/B00B2P62OA/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1

  Angela Clarke
  Angela Clarke
  Follow
  Follow on Amazon
  Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations and more... coming soon.

  Learn More

  Angela Clarke

  Angela is The Sunday Times bestselling author of the Social Media Murder Series, including Follow Me, Watch Me, and Trust Me. Follow Me was named Amazon’s Rising Star Debut of the Month January 2016, long listed for the Crime Writer’s Association Dagger in the Library 2016, and short listed for the Dead Good Page Turner Award 2016. Follow Me has been optioned by a TV production company. Angela’s humorous memoir Confessions of a Fashionista is an Amazon Fashion Chart bestseller.

  The horror screenplay, Lure, which she co-wrote with Cal Moriarty, placed third in the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival in 2017. Angela’s debut play, The Legacy, enjoyed a sell-out run at The Hope Theatre in June 2015, and the Mail Online gave it five stars, calling it ‘witty, insightful and powerful’.

  Angela appeared on the BBC Ouch’s Edinburgh Festival Stage in Tales of The Misunderstood, and hosted the book show Tales From Your Life on BBC 3 Counties in 2017. During 2015, she hosted and produced the current affairs radio show Outspoken on Radio Verulam. Angela will be on CBS Reality’s real life crime series Written in Blood, airing Autumn 2017. She also features regularly as a panel guest on BBC 3 Counties, BBC Radio 4, and the BBC World Service, among others. Angela has given talks and masterclasses for many, including City University’s Crime Writing MA, Noirwich Crime Writing Festival, Camp Bestival, Panic! (in partnership with Create, the Barbican, Goldsmiths University and The Guardian), Meet a Mentor (in partnership with the Royal Society of Arts), Northwich Lit Fest, St Albans Lit Fest, BeaconLit, and the London College of Fashion.

  In 2015 Angela was awarded the Young Stationers' Prize for achievement and promise in writing and publishing. Angela, a sufferer of the debilitating chronic condition Ehlers Danlos III, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, volunteers with Womentoring, Meet a Mentor and at HM Prisons. She is passionate about bringing marginalised voices into the industry. You can find out more about her at www.AngelaClarke.co.uk

• Kings River Life - http://kingsriverlife.com/05/19/follow-me-by-angela-clarke/

  QUOTED: "Follow Me is set largely in contemporary London, at a time where today’s generation can’t get jobs, where they’re crippled by student debt, where they can’t afford to rent or buy in town, but they do have smartphones. So, everyone thinks they’re spoiled. More accurately, the book’s true location is online. The internet and social media, in particular, form the backdrop of the novel. Facebook has only just turned 10 years old, Twitter is even younger, and yet they have millions of users, and a vast impact."
  "Social media is the fastest growing 'new' community we have. And communities, with their spoken and unspoken rules, their tensions and their dramas, are the perfect backdrop for mysteries."
  "The idea for Follow Me arose after I was trolled online in response to a feminist newspaper article I wrote. People sent me graphic violent rape threats over Twitter, and I just couldn’t get my head round why someone would do that to a stranger? There are several reasons people may troll online, but the one that struck me as the almost accidentally vicious was that some people, through a combination of anonymity and proximity (or lack of), forget there is a real person on the other end of the internet. So, I took that concept to the extreme."

  Follow Me By Angela Clarke: Review/Giveaway/Interview
  IN THE MAY 19 ISSUE

  FROM THE 2018 ARTICLES,
  ANDMYSTERYRAT'S MAZE,
  ANDSANDRA MURPHY SECTIONS

  by Sandra Murphy

  This week we have a review of the thriller Follow me by Angela Clarke. We also have an interesting interview with Angela. Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win a copy of Follow Me, and a link to purchase it from Amazon, and an indie bookstore where a portion of the sale goes to help support KRL.

  Follow Me: A Freddie Venton and Nasreen Cudmore Mystery by Angela Clarke
  Review by Sandra Murphy

  Freddie Venton considers herself a journalist, but she’s working in a coffee shop, writing for free. When she runs into a childhood friend, now a police officer, she follows her to a crime scene. In a bold move, Freddie dons a crime scene investigator’s white suit and butts in to see a grisly murder.

  Her friend, Nasreen, is too stunned to out Freddie at the time, and it would be more awkward to do after. Freddie manages to insert herself into the investigation before being caught. It seems the murder is tied to Twitter of all things, and Freddie is an expert Tweeter. The police—not at all. Freddie is hired to be their social media person to follow the killer via tweets. The whole thing goes viral to the amazement of the police and even Freddie. Following clues, deciphering puzzles, and putting herself into dangerous situations leaves Freddie vulnerable and Nasreen frustrated.mystery book cover

  Freddie takes insane risks in her personal life as well as her so-called professional life. She has a hair-trigger temper, foul mouth, doesn’t think before she acts, and pretty much aggravates everyone she meets. One of the riskier things she does is to pick up a guy in a bar by using a cell phone app and spend the night with him, only knowing his first name as she boards the bus to leave. When she checks later, he doesn’t exist as far as the Internet is concerned. Could he have been the killer?

  This is not a cozy mystery but more a thriller. It was first published in the UK in 2012, followed by Watch Me and Trust Me, published here in 2017. If you’re a fan of a grittier, bloodier tale, this will keep you wondering until the end.

  Sandra Murphy lives in the shadow of the Arch in St. Louis Missouri. She writes about eco-friendly topics, pets and wildlife for magazines and reviews mysteries and thrillers for KRL. A collection of her short stories, published by Untreed Reads, From Hay to Eternity: Ten Tales of Crime and Deception can be found at all the usual outlets. Each one is a little weird and all have a twist you won’t see coming.

  Interview with Angela Clarke:

  KRL: How long have you been writing?

  Angela: I’ve always told stories. I can’t help it. And I’m not sure when that segued into the actual written word, probably when I was at school. After that I went verbal again, while I got a job and paid the bills. But I kept landing newspaper columns by accident, after telling stories to random people in bars. I like to get a reaction, whether it’s laughter, shock, or sadness. And so the writing never really started as actual writing, it just blossomed out of what I was already doing.

  KRL: When did your first novel come out? What was it called? Can you tell us a little about it?

  Angela: My first novel is Follow Me. When a serial killer starts tweeting clues as to who their next victim will be, a millennial cop and a wannabe journalist are thrown together in a desperate race to find and stop the “hashtag murderer” before he strikes again. Or before he follows them.

  KRL: Have you always written mysteries/suspense? If not what else have you written?

  Angela: My first published book was a humorous memoir of my time working in the fashion industry, called Confessions of a Fashionista: The Good, the Bad and the Botox. It featured stories about flying clients’ dogs in business class, bin-diving for missing $125,000 [worth of] jewelry, and a lot of shapewear. I also write plays and scripts, including comedies, family dramas, and horror. I like to mix things up, but mysteries and suspense stories hold a special place in my heart/imagination.

  KRL: What brought you to choose the setting and characters in Follow Me? Is this part of a series? Please tell us a little about the setting and main character for your book.

  Angela: Follow Me is set largely in contemporary London, at a time where today’s generation can’t get jobs, where they’re crippled by student debt, where they can’t afford to rent or buy in town, but they do have smartphones. So, everyone thinks they’re spoiled. More accurately, the book’s true location is online. The internet and social media, in particular, form the backdrop of the novel. Facebook has only just turned 10 years old, Twitter is even younger, and yet they have millions of users, and a vast impact. Social media is the fastest growing “new” community we have. And communities, with their spoken and unspoken rules, their tensions and their dramas, are the perfect backdrop for mysteries.

  angela clarke
  Angela Clarke

  KRL: I understand that this is the US publication of this book, when was it first published in the UK?

  Angela: Follow Me came out a couple of years ago in the UK, but I’ve been lucky and honored to have always had fabulous US-based fans campaigning for me to come stateside. And this launch is the perfect opportunity to introduce Freddie and Nas to more American readers.

  KRL: Do you write to entertain or is there something more you want the readers to take away from your work?

  Angela: I love to entertain people, and entertainment has to be the foundation for any novel you write. But, that doesn’t mean I don’t slip in a few things to make readers think. The idea for Follow Me arose after I was trolled online in response to a feminist newspaper article I wrote. People sent me graphic violent rape threats over Twitter, and I just couldn’t get my head round why someone would do that to a stranger? There are several reasons people may troll online, but the one that struck me as the almost accidentally vicious was that some people, through a combination of anonymity and proximity (or lack of), forget there is a real person on the other end of the internet. So, I took that concept to the extreme. What would you do if you saw a serial killer tweeting clues to their next victim? Would you tweet the answer? Would you retweet the killer? Would you set up a petition calling for their suspension? Would you follow them? And what if they followed back? If readers end up asking themselves questions about their and society’s use of social media after reading Follow Me, well, that’s just a bonus.

  KRL: Do you have a schedule for your writing or just write whenever you can?

  Angela: I write seven days a week. I resolve each New Year to take Sundays off, but it never really happens. But why would you stop when you get to do what you love?

  KRL: Do you outline? If not, do you have some other interesting way that you keep track of what’s going on, or what needs to happen in your book when you are writing it?

  Angela: I tend to have around six key plot points I know need to happen between the start and the finish of a novel. But when I reach those moments in the narrative, my characters often go in unexpected directions. That’s because I plotted those six key points based on what I would do in that situation, and my characters are very different people to me.

  KRL: If you had your ideal, what time of day would you prefer to write?

  Angela: At night! I’m a total night owl. I get going around 4 p.m., and hit peak flow around 1 a.m. When I’m on deadline I tend to work through the night. There’s a fallow period of peace late at night that is equaled only by the one I believe is also available: early morning. Though I’ve never seen the latter, so it might be a myth.

  KRL: Yay another night owl lol. Did you find it difficult to get published in the beginning?

  Angela: The first book I wrote was a women’s commercial fiction novel called All’s Fair in Love and Wardrobe. It took me two years, and landed me my agent. She read it and said she loved it and my writing, but that it wasn’t sellable in the current market and could I do something else? I said yes. (The answer to any question like that is always yes.) The next book I wrote was my memoir, Confessions of a Fashionista, which was published in 2012. That first book was a vital stepping stone to getting me to where I am now.

  KRL: Do you have a great rejection/critique or acceptance story you’d like to share?

  Angela: No. And I feel I should work on that. I need to be harshly but hilariously rejected so I can milk it for just this kind of situation. Readers who are masters of the wry put-down are welcome to apply for the job (though please not on my Amazon reviews; I’ll never get published again!)

  KRL: Most interesting book signing story in a bookstore or other venue?

  Angela: Not a book signing story as such, but I once persuaded Ian Rankin to put as many marshmallows in his mouth as possible and say his book title in the back of a van. (And then videoed it.) Does that count?

  KRL: How fun! Future writing goals?

  Angela: I’ve just been signed by a screenwriting agent, and I co-wrote a horror that placed in a number of LA Festivals and competitions, so writing something that makes it to screen is pretty high up the list!

  KRL: Writing heroes?

  Angela: Ernest Hemmingway, Agatha Christie, and Dorothy L Sayers. Actually, that’s a cocktail party I’d love to be a fly on the wall for.

  KRL: What kind of research do you do?

  Angela: My preferred method of researching is finding a person who does the same job as a character and interviewing them. Then I get them drunk. That’s when you get the good stuff.

  KRL: What do you read?

  Angela: Everything! On average I read around three books a week. I aim to stay on top of what is selling in my genre, as well as more widely in the charts, but I also include a healthy dollop of classics. I’m so lucky that this is my job. Schoolgirl bookworm me would never have believed it.

  KRL: Favorite TV or movies?

  Angela: I love Stranger Things and Mindhunter, but my failsafe favorite shows are soft-centered crime, or what we call Sunday night telly in the UK. So, Midsomer Murders, Murder, She Wrote, Castle, and Death in Paradise. JB Fletcher 4EVA.

  KRL: I love Murder, She Wrote! Any advice for aspiring or beginning writers?

  Angela: Write every day! The first draft of anything is rubbish, but you need to get that draft down before you can make it better. And persevere. Beyond talent, craft, and practice, perseverance is the thing that makes all the difference.

  KRL: Anything you would like to add?

  Angela: You should totally buy my book; it will change your life! Okay, it might not change your life, but it will certainly keep you entertained. And if it’s a success, I have more excuses to visit my American family. Help a girl and her fam out.

  KRL: What is something people would be surprised to know about you?

  Angela: I have a rare degenerative connective tissue disorder called Ehlers Danlos III, which means I suffer from chronic pain, suffer frequent dislocations and injuries, and I occasionally have to use a walking stick (I have five in different colors, to coordinate with my outfits). It also means I can pull my foot over my head and suck my toes, and my knees bend the wrong way. But my physio-therapist is not keen on me doing those party tricks anymore.

  KRL: Website? Twitter? Facebook?

  Angela: Readers can grab a free eBook of short stories at www.AngelaClarke.co.uk/Free
  Or find me on Twitter at @TheAngelaClarke
  Facebook at www.facebook.com/WriterAngelaClarke

  To enter to win a copy of Follow Me, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “follow,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen May 26, 2018. U.S. residents only. If entering via email please include your mailing address, and if via comment please include your email address.

  Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & mystery short stories in our mystery section. And join our mystery Facebook group to keep up with everything mystery we post, and have a chance at some extra giveaways.

QUOTED: "Clarke's exciting debut and series launch boasts a terrific premise."
"Readers will look forward to"

6/24/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1529869072851 1/2
Print Marked Items
Follow Me: A Freddie Venten and
Nasreen Cudmore Mystery
Publishers Weekly.
265.9 (Feb. 26, 2018): p68+.
COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Follow Me: A Freddie Venten and Nasreen Cudmore Mystery
Angela Clarke. Crooked Lane, $26.99 (336p) ISBN 978-1-68331-550-6
Set in London, British author Clarke's exciting debut and series launch boasts a terrific premise: a serial
killer targets trolls on the internet and then develops an ever-growing Twitter following because of the
publicity surrounding the murders. The first to figure out what's going on is Freddie Venten, a part-time
journalist and full-time barista, who happens into the investigation of the first murder through a chance
encounter with a childhood friend, Nasreen Cudmore, now a police sergeant. Freddie nearly compromises
the case and Nasreen's career by interfering. Making matters worse, the two had a falling-out as teenagers
over a mysterious incident, which adds a layer of tension in the incident room when Freddie joins the team
as the social media adviser. She's needed because the police turn out to be hapless at social media and in
making connections between what happens there and the murders--a bit too hapless to be plausible.
Freddie's too-frequent explanations of Twitter and social media are made up for by a riveting finale that
pays homage to Agatha Christie. Readers will look forward to Freddie and Nasreen's further adventures.
(Apr.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Follow Me: A Freddie Venten and Nasreen Cudmore Mystery." Publishers Weekly, 26 Feb. 2018, p. 68+.
General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A530637431/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=5d640e76. Accessed 24 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A530637431

QUOTED: "stylish, fast-paced case for her good-girl cop and her bad-girl reporter."
"Fans who miss the tart noir cycle are bound to enjoy it."

6/24/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1529869072851 2/2
Clarke, Angela: FOLLOW ME
Kirkus Reviews.
(Feb. 15, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Clarke, Angela FOLLOW ME Crooked Lane (Adult Fiction) $26.99 4, 10 ISBN: 978-1-68331-550-6
Clarke's debut thriller reunites two once-inseparable schoolmates just in time to tackle a nasty online serial
killer and each other.
Freddie Venton needs that extra something, that unique angle that will make her unpaid posts for London's
The Family Paper stand out so she can earn enough to quit her job as an Espress-oh barista. So moments
after spotting her old buddy Nasreen Cudmore, now a police sergeant, Freddie follows her to a crime scene,
dons plastic overalls and enters the house on Blackbird Road to find bank manager Alun Harding dead, his
throat cut as he sat at his computer busily masturbating. Her impromptu masquerade quickly detected,
Freddie would face serious charges if Superintendent Gray, who's in charge of the case, weren't so
impressed by her quick-witted ability to link the crime to a shadowy online presence calling himself
@Apollyon that he offers her--well, blackmails her into--the job of social media adviser to the investigating
team. Although Nas recoils from Freddie's unwanted intervention, and her boss, DCI Edwin Moast, takes an
instant dislike to Freddie, the team really needs her because they've inadvertently made @Apollyon's
Twitter feed so identifiable that his followers soon number in the tens of thousands. Freddie, feeling that "it
wasn't so much that she'd tasted death but that it had tasted her," is so desperate to prevent the Hashtag
Murderer from striking again that she follows every possible lead in the hope of identifying his next victim.
Her instincts are on the money, but she's still too late to prevent another murder, and then another. Where
will it all end? Not with this first installment, that's for sure.
Clarke makes it clear that this stylish, fast-paced case for her good-girl cop and her bad-girl reporter is only
the beginning of a new series; fans who miss the tart noir cycle are bound to enjoy it.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Clarke, Angela: FOLLOW ME." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Feb. 2018. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A527248287/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=a56b8a88.
Accessed 24 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A527248287

• Little Bookness Lane
  https://littlebooknesslane.wordpress.com/2017/06/12/book-review-trust-me-social-media-murders-3-by-angela-clarke/
  Word count: 549

  QUOTED: "dynamic and unflinchingly gritty."
  "Cocky verbal hostility and commitment issues aside, she’s a decent sort and her reactions to grim situations feel authentically impulsive, not forced for effect. Without a doubt, it’s her distinctive energy that steals the show."

  Book Review: Trust Me (Social Media Murders 3), by Angela Clarke
  posted in 2017, Reviews by Little Bookness Lane
  Publisher: Avon (Harper Collins UK)

  Publication date: 15th June 2017

  The force of Freddie Venton returns in the dynamic and unflinchingly gritty Trust Me.

  The technically homeless, romantically chaotic police consultant still fails to censor her thoughts before voicing them, meaning she remains a cause for concern to her school friend and semi-starched superior, Detective Sergeant Nasreen Cudmore, particularly since the momentously questionable use of a stationery cupboard.

  During their previous encounters they have been introduced to some very dark places and people, but there’s nothing worse than receiving an eye-witness report of an assault on a young girl only to find there’s nothing they can do about it. The ordeal was streamed live to an online audience but the video link can no longer be traced, so there’s zero chance of tracing the suspects in this digital vision of hell. And to make matters worse, the only viewer brave enough to step forward has been branded a tipsy hysteric, instead of being considered a credible source of valuable information.

  Damn. This is raw. Not only did the victim’s fear make a lasting impression but I felt the witness’s raging frustration too. Knowing the urgency of the circumstances and willingly reaching out to the authorities only be dismissed was insulting and incredibly judgemental – the lady lived alone, therefore that empty wine glass next to her laptop must suggest a vivid imagination has replaced all rational thought. The conclusion? No crime took place.

  And yet, how soul destroying it must be for police officers when deciding which ghost they should chase? Clearly a fair proportion of the community are vying for their attention in other ways, so making that instinctive call to effectively ‘abandon’ any potential crime must be immensely difficult, as oversights could have grave consequences.

  The assault may have appeared online but that doesn’t mean the trauma appeared any less real as it tore through these two-dimensional pages. Location and community also play a crucial role, as a run-down estate already heaving with illicit activity provides the perfect breeding ground for further apprehension to thrive.

  I’m a huge fan of Freddie’s clumsy attempts to follow basic procedure as well as her nose, despite what her colleagues are advising. Cocky verbal hostility and commitment issues aside, she’s a decent sort and her reactions to grim situations feel authentically impulsive, not forced for effect. Without a doubt, it’s her distinctive energy that steals the show.

  Trust Me is a story of hope that someone, somewhere, will believe yours.

  Rating: 4/5
  (I received a copy of this title *together Freddie’s new business card and a lovely postcard from the author* with my thanks, and it was my pleasure to read and provide this unbiased review.)

• Handwritten Girl
  http://handwrittengirl.com/book-reviews/trust-me-by-angela-clarke
  Word count: 540

  QUOTED: "fast paced with each chapter ending on a cliff hanger and leaving the reader thoroughly engaged."
  "Sharp, fast and insightful from the very start, Trust Me is another great story from Angela, packed with twists and drama, this book was a rollercoaster of a read!

  Trust Me By Angela Clarke
  by Bronagh on June 5, 2017
  Trust Me‘Trust Me’ is the third book in Social Media Murder series by Angela Clarke

  When Kate sees a horrific murder streamed live on her laptop, she calls the police in a state of shock. But when they arrive, the video has disappeared – and she can’t prove anything. Desperate to be believed, Kate tries to find out who the girl in the video could be – and who her killer is. Freddie and Nas are working on a missing persons case, but tensions in the police force are running high and time is ticking. When Kate contacts them, they are the only ones to listen and they start to wonder – are the two cases connected?

  ‘Trust Me’ is the latest book in the Social Media series and this time the book focuses on Periscope, a video sharing platform.

  We meet Kate, a school principal who witnesses a violent attack on Periscope but just as she goes to report it, the video vanishes leaving Kate to wonder did she really see it? Kate then goes to Freddie and Nas asking for their help but as there is no video, there’s no evidence so there is nothing that can be done. But Freddie believes Kate and begins her own investigation which brings forward more people who saw the horrific video and a proper case is established. The story is seen from the perspective of Freddie and Nas, Kate and the clever inclusion of people directly involved in the case.

  Like the previous books in the Social Media series, the book is sharp and snappy and flows at a fast paced with each chapter ending on a cliff hanger and leaving the reader thoroughly engaged. I love the relationship between Freddie and Nas, where Freddie is sharp and outspoken and not one for obeying rules, Nas is quiet and determined and regularly apologising for Freddie’s behaviour, their interactions made for entertaining and insightful reading as they pieced together the clues of the puzzle and how they regularly had to fight for their places in the predominantly male workplace.

  As the plot follows many perspectives, this gives the story a great sense of urgency as it is a race against time to solve the crime before it’s too late.

  I really enjoyed this story, it really highlighted the dangers of social media and how the platforms that we all use for fun and engagement, can also be used for such cruel activities.

  Sharp, fast and insightful from the very start, ‘Trust Me’ is another great story from Angela, packed with twists and drama, this book was a rollercoaster of a read!

  You can preorder the ebook and paperback from Amazon and will be available to buy from good bookshops from 15th June 2017.