![](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5eeae5409469f648051195eb/1594067756080-TWMO0FA8BIOUMARBGY7Q/image-asset.jpeg)
Crime stories that stay with you.
![](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5eeae5409469f648051195eb/1593141369945-1H2F4UIR7DWK34H5ECAP/image-asset.jpeg)
Get Your Exclusive Short Story
Join the McGinn Crime Ring for regular crime content and a gripping short story for members only.
“…dark, gritty and intense, McGinn’s style is taut and atmospheric. Highly recommended.”
— Jack Magnus Readers’ Favorite
The Sasha Stace series
A couple of things inspired me to write the series. The first was that an effective trial lawyer is not only legally competent and good with words, but the best of them are terrific orators in what is sometimes a theatrical bearpit. Before I wrote the Sasha series, John Grisham, Michael Connelly and Scott Turow, acclaimed legal thriller writers I admired, had all written books with men as their main characters. I wanted to try something different and the Sasha Stace series was born with Best Served Cold.
Critical Response
“The character of Sasha Stace is a fascinating one. She's a top lawyer, but very human - she makes mistakes, has doubts, is affected by her past and needs to work through her own issues while trying to help others. She's strong without being rigid or superhuman - a character that is easy to follow and empathise with. I really liked Presumed Guilty. It was a great page-turner.”
— Craig Sisterson Founder & Judge, Ngaio Marsh Crime Awards (NZ).
“McGinn’s private investigator novel, The Benefactor, is dark, gritty and intense and his style is taut and atmospheric. The story delivers action, suspense, and an insider’s look into politics, law and life ‘Down Under’. It’s most highly recommended.”
— Jack Magnus Readers’ Favorite
“Trust No one is an intriguing mystery set against the backdrop of Sydney. Sharp and witty dialogue, and memorable characters.”
— Deborah Rogers Rocking Good Reads.
The Books
Home Truths
Jonah Soloman # 1
The Benefactor
Working Title -
Clay Tempero #1 in series
Coming soon
In the murky depths of Sydney's political landscape, Clay Tempero, haunted by his own past, embarks on a relentless pursuit of truth. A murder trial entwines him in a web of missing records, a cunning paedophile, and a mayoral race rife with deceit. In a pulse-pounding thriller that explores the price of seeking justice in a city of secrets, Clay battles personal demons, betrayals, and framed charges from the shadows of Oxford Street to the corridors of power.
Mark McGinn
Mark McGinn lives in Christchurch, NZ with his family. When he's not writing or editing crime novels, he's enjoying sport, reading other crime writers, or he’s trapped in an 80’s - 90’s music time warp while walking in the hills near his home attempting to minimise the excesses of red wine and chocolate. He’s written 3 legal thrillers, a short story (free to those who join the McGinn Crime Ring), a short story published in an international anthology of short stories and a mystery - Home Truths (above) police procedural released in 2021. His most recent work, THE BENEFACTOR, is coming soon.
During a lengthy career in the New Zealand court system, Mark had the privilege of seeing some of the finest lawyers and judges in action in many notable criminal jury trials. That experience and his subsequent background in psychological assessment has enriched and driven his crime writing.
Other Crime Story Reviews by Mark
I met the author of Phoenixville Rising, Robb Cadigan, at a Thrillerfest conference in New York. He stuck me as an immediately likable, self-effacing, thoughtful conference attendee who had a ready capacity for wit and dry humour. He didn’t talk a lot about his book but I got the sense he’d written a whole lot more than a crime story. I wasn’t wrong. It’s a coming-of-age story, a love story, a bromance, a crime story and a thriller.
From the outset, you know you’re in for a treat. The book begins where it ends, just one of the interesting narrative devices Cadigan used to tell this remarkable story. Chapter one follows a piece of narrative that hooks the reader with the question, ‘what the hell has happened here’. One tiny sample from chapter let me know what I was in for. It is Sketch’s point of view, and in this case, a commentary about his best buddy, Boo.
“He was so skinny he was almost translucent. A road atlas of blue veins covered his body, which everyone made fun of when we all went swimming at the YMCA.”
Cadigan’s descriptive power peppers the story from beginning to end. I found myself in envy of his command of metaphoric phrase and to vividly show us the quality and strength of relationships that mirror the conflict and dilemmas in life. On the subject of conflict, my favourite scene was perhaps the most powerful in the book, a deep intrapersonal conflict Sketch wrestled with when faced with the dilemma of how to show his support for Boo and the consequences of that choice.
The novel is described as “a beautifully written love letter to the American industrial town”. I can’t argue with that but I’ll say it is much more. Phoenixville is a character in this literary fiction, revealing itself as a community in which residents struggle to find and hold jobs, provide for their families; where people struggle in the battle to find hope for the future and the forces that arise when those struggles coalesce.
Not only do we have that story, but Cadigan gives us another plot: one set in the 1860s where young Rebecca Wilton, daughter of the foundry owner, falls in love with a factory worker. How on earth does he bring these stories together? Well, watch out for the black diamond necklace. The telling of this concurrent story was Cadigan’s additional narrative device. Initially, and despite the skill he used to accurately reflect the language of the period, I’ll admit to doubting whether this would ‘work’. On reflection, I believe this was due to becoming immersed in the alternative plot when the break came. But the author pulls this off well, despite the challenges involved.
In a way, I left my comfort zone reading this book but I was rewarded big time. You cannot fail to finish Phoenixville Rising and in doing so, not be moved by the story and the way it is told. I look forward to his next project.
Want more?
Sign up for regular crime content and a gripping short story that is free for members only.
An emotionally confronting story