Newest Crime Reviews
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Crime
Blood Lines by Grace Monroe
In August 2005 a young woman has climbed up to Ruthven Barracks with her lover. On such a romantic spot she might well be expecting a betrothal, but if she'd known her history better she'd also know that the ancient stones echo more with bloodlust and betrayal than they do with love. The fate that awaits her is gruesome. Full review...
Ashes to Ashes by Barbara Nadel
On the night of 29 December 1940 Francis Hancock, undertaker from the East End and veteran of the First World War, left his aunt's house to head home when he was caught in the worst of the blitz that hit London that night. Incendiary bombs were falling all around him, buildings were burning and collapsing and he sought refuge in the only place that he could – St Paul's Cathedral. He wasn't entirely welcome as the cathedral was manned by a watch tasked by no less a person that Winston Churchill himself to save the cathedral at any cost. Outsiders might disrupt the work – and for some people having an outsider witness what was intended that night was not to their taste. Full review...
The Patience of the Spider by Andrea Camilleri
Inspector Silvan Montalbano is on enforced sick leave as a result of an injury sustained on his last case. His girlfriend, Livia, has taken time off work to look after him, but the kidnap of a local girl forces Montalbano back into harness. Susanna Mistretta is a student at Palermo University and she disappeared on her way home one night. Her moped is found not far from her home but her helmet is some way away in one direction and her backpack in the other. She lived at home with her parents and, sadly, her mother is dying. Will Susanna be released whilst her mother is still alive? In fact, will Susanna be released alive? Full review...
Dead Lovely by Helen Fitzgerald
Krissie tells us that she 'found herself' by accident, a piece at a time. The first bit in a tent, doing things with her best friend's husband that one really shouldn't be doing, especially as said best friend is asleep right next to him. The second bit dragging her friend's body across the rocks at the bottom of a cliff.
And the rest in the darkness of my parents' attic.
So much for the first page then! We know we're in for something of a rocky ride. Full review...
Lamb to the Slaughter by Aline Templeton
The dead sheep dumped at the Craft Centre went almost unnoticed. It seemed to be more of a litter problem than anything else and no one was quite certain afterwards if the animal had actually been shot. There was no doubt about Andrew Carmichael though. He'd been shot on his own doorstep on his way to a village meeting. A major supermarket chain wanted to buy the Craft Centre and convert it into their latest branch. Village opinion was divided. Some were looking forward to the prospect of better shopping than was to be had at the local Spar and more jobs in the area, but local shopkeepers, suppliers and farmers knew that it could be the death knell for them. No one knew whether Andrew Carmichael had decided to sell the Centre or not, but did someone feel strongly enough about the proposed sale to take a shotgun to the elderly man? Full review...
Dead Man's Footsteps by Peter James
Detective Superintendent Roy Grace doesn't have an easy job. First of all, the body of a woman is found in a storm drain; she later proves to be the wife of a 'businessman', Ronnie Wilson, who died in the 9/11 disaster, but the discovery of her body serves to remind Grace of his own missing wife. Then another body is discovered in a river in Australia; breast implants prove that she is Ronnie Wilson's second wife, yet she was supposed to have committed suicide shortly after her husband's death in the Twin Towers. Is there a connection between the two murders? If so, does this mean that Wilson is still alive? And who is the woman living in Brighton who seems to be running for her life? Roy Grace must pool all his resources to find out the truth. Full review...
The Chorister at the Abbey by Lis Howell
After the battered body of Morris Little is discovered in the college music department, two notorious local brothers are quickly arrested near the scene of the crime and make a drunken confession. Of itself that would not make much of a story but in true whodunit style there is more. Full review...
The Paper Moon by Andrea Camilleri
Michela Pardo was worried about her brother. They were close but Angelo had not been in contact with his family for several days. It's only with reluctance that Inspector Salvo Montalbano accompanies her to her brother's apartment and then only as an afterthought that they check the laundry room on the roof. Angelo Pardo had been shot in the face at point blank range and to add insult to injury his trousers are unzipped and left in a rather revealing way. Full review...
Careless in Red by Elizabeth George
It's not yet three months since the murder of his wife and unborn child and Thomas Lynley isn't even beginning to cope. Despairing of being in places where he can picture Helen he takes to the South-West Coast Path in Cornwall. Some six weeks into the walk, dirty, dishevelled and unkempt, he sees a climber fall to his death and Lynley's old life with New Scotland Yard is forced onto him when it becomes obvious that this is no accident, but murder. Full review...
Paper Butterfly by Diane Wei Liang
Mei runs her own private investigation business, although she calls it an information consultancy because private investigation is illegal in China. When she is asked to find a missing girl, a popular singer called Kaili, she expects to find that the girl is just taking some time out. But Kaili is eventually found dead, apparently murdered, and Mei is warned off the case. Curious, Mei continues with the investigation, and finds a link with a student called Lin who was involved with the student uprising back in 1989. Can Mei find out what really happened to Kaili? And where is the mysterious Lin? Full review...
Lost Souls by Neil White
D C Laura McGanity and her young son, Bobby, have left London and moved to Lancashire to join local reporter Jack Garrett, but it's not long before the calm and quiet proves illusory. Children are being abducted but then returned a week or ten days later, apparently unharmed and with no memory of where they've been or what has happened to them. There's urgency but not panic in the local police force. Then a woman's body is found. She's been strangled and her eyes and tongue have been brutally cut out. Full review...
White Nights by Ann Cleeves
A guest at the opening of a Shetland Isles art exhibition breaks down in tears as everyone else looks on in embarrassed horror. Jimmy Perez, on his first real date with one of the artists, Fran Hunter, helps the man to his feet, feeling it is his duty as a policeman to do so. The man, who is English, claims to have no memory of who he is or why he is there. Perez thinks that it has something to do with the light, the fact that the sun never quite slips below the horizon even at midnight. Here in the Shetlands they call it the 'simmer dim'. Everyone in the Shetlands goes a little crazy at this time of year. In the morning, though, the Englishman is found dead, hanging from the rafters of a fisherman's hut. Full review...
Whisper in the Dark by Robert Gregory Browne
I do love a good thriller, but a bad one is particularly disappointing. I expected great things from James Patterson, but found the novel I read to be awful. Receiving this new book – Whisper in the Dark by Robert Gregory Browne – I hoped it would be more successful. I hadn't heard of the author before; he's American and this is his second novel.
The blurb sounded good; the cover was nicely done – it all looked promising. I began to read and was gripped very quickly, but would the rest of it disappoint?
No, it didn't. Full review...
Maxwell's Point by M J Trow
Peter 'Mad Max' Maxwell's girlfriend, D S Jacquie Carpenter, is now back at work after her maternity leave and it was sensible to hire an au pair to look after baby Nolan. Leighford is nothing like Menorca, certainly in terms of weather, but Juanita Reyes seems happy in the sleepy seaside town. Her English is improving and she's obviously very find of Nolan. Returning from school one afternoon Maxwell finds Nolan happy in his cot but there's no sign of Juanita. Meanwhile a couple of ramblers are surprised when a dog digs up an arm on Dead Man's Point. Full review...
The Man in the Window by K O Dahl
A woman delivering newspapers discovered the body of Reidar Folke Jespersen. He was naked and his body was reclining in a chair in the window of his antiques shop in Oslo. He's been stabbed but there was a red string round his neck and J195 had been written on his body in indelible ink. Inspector Gunnarstranda was first to the scene, closely followed by Frank Frolich. The case will prove demanding with a tangled web of relationships and a history of betrayal which goes right back to the Nazi occupation of Norway. Full review...
