CRIMEWAVE # 10: NOW YOU SEE ME featuring 101 WAYS TO LEAVE PARIS
A hard-boiled tale of revenge in the City of Light


Crime wave #4: Mood Indigo featuring Leaving Seven Sisters (Nominated for the Crime Writer's Association 2001 Macallan Short Story Dagger)

...A story rich in London argot and a vivid sense of place. An ex-con investigates the murder of a Tory Minister's daughter in a tongue-in-cheek tale which cunningly avoids expected clichés. The judges admired the 'getting rid of the body' episode, one of the finest expositions of this vital ingredient that they had read.
Crime Writers Association Judging Panel

Crimewave #6 featuring The Remains of the Richest Man in the World
>...I wonder if anyone else reading "Remains of the Richest Man in the World" will be reminded of the powerful film The Limey? Avery's prose reads like the bleak, brutal script, but with its own dark vision. It is a lose-lose situation, but you can't tear yourself away even after the last word; you'll find yourself thinking about it later and at the oddest times. Combine Avery's brilliant piece with Conrad Williams' harrowing "Crappy Rubsniff" and you have a pair that are worth the cost of Breaking Point all on their own.
'...highlights include Simon Avery's grim 'Remains of the Richest Man in the World' (try getting the taste of it out of your mouth)...' Time Out Magazine

The Best British Myseries IV (edited by Maxim Jakubowksi) featuring Lost in Darkness (with Ian Faulkner)

>"Lost in Darkness" by Simon Avery and Ian R. Faulkner is a psychological tale of revenge. Charleton's girlfriend, Aimee, has been badly beaten and lies broken in the hospital. Charleton feels it is because he is black, and his rage at the people who did it manifests violently. Although the split personality/memory loss plot has been done before, Avery and Faulkner put it to good use here. What they came up with is a well-wrought crime tale that is thrilling to read.
Tangent Online

Birmingham Noir featuring The Art of Leaving Completely
>‘Dreams, as one of the contributors observes, are dangerous things – and danger lurks within these pages in an impressive kaleidoscope of settings. These are stories of betrayal, of communication breakdown and obsession. Some show the human cost of losing our ethics, while others reveal how madness can lurk in the supposed safety of a shopping mall or cathedral. But there is humour here too, and an awareness that we can make our lives better. Simon Avery’s perfectly observed narrative about moving on from a broken marriage is worth the cover price alone. Birmingham’s criminal underworld and sex industry are laid bare in these entertaining, saddening and shocking pages. Lock up your daughters, sons and the family cat until you’ve learned from these stories of crime in the city.’ Carol Anne Davis
Simon Avery's equally well-observed narrative delivers shocks from the start when a Romanian teenager finds herself forced into a life of prostitution. Her experiences are entwined with the actions of a middle-aged man whose marriage is failing. 'Once you begin to pick at a frayed thread, you find that everything unravels at a frightening speed.'
alchemypress.com
The book ends on a high note, with the brutal and emotive 'The Art of Leaving Completely' by Simon Avery... here outstanding with the picture of a marriage on the way out and a man who tries to save somebody else even though he can't save himself...
Peter Tennant TTA Press

Black Static # 1 featuring Bury the Carnival
Bury The Carnival by Simon Avery, is a fresh take on Pinocchio, with the role of Geppetto being taken on by Charousek - a man recently released from prison by despotic puritans. Originally imprisoned for his use of old magic, Charousek has returned to the village in time for the End of Darkness, a momentous occasion being witnessed for the first time by many of the town’s younger inhabitants. One of these is the reporter sent to investigate Charousek’s story. What she uncovers is terrifying and life changing. Moving and atmospheric, the gripping style of Avery’s writing delivers an excellently dark little tale... (Whispers of Wickedness)
Simon Avery's 'Bury The Carnival' opens the magazine in style with the longest story in the book; it has a fairytale feel (as in Grimm, rather than Disney), not just with it's mannequin protagonists but also a faux-Eastern European setting. But the sinister Precisemen -tools of the repressive Puritan government- give the story a contemporary twist, and the affecting protagonist and her lover invoke the reader's involvement. Highly recommended.Suite101.com