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[[Category:New Reviews|Crime]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= E G RodfordB0CYV674G2|title=The Bursar's WifeSwanton Morley (John Tanner)|author=David Blake|rating= 3.5|genre= Crime|summary=Private investigator George Kocharyan struggles along on the seedy side of CambridgeIt seemed like an open-and-shut case. A man, following the odd unfaithful spouse or checking up on benefit claimants for the Department of Work covered in mud and Pensions. This just about pays for his invaluable partblood -time assistant Sandra who knows how to work and carrying a knife, comes into the office computer, and her teenage son who George occasionally hires to do some of police station shouting that he hasn't killed the leg workman. Into this grubby world walks Sylvia Booker, wife A body at the bottom of the bursar a freshly dug grave at Swanton Morley College, overprotective mother, glamorous middlechurch -aged womanhe's been stabbed to death. Worried that her DCI John Tanner is just back from his honeymoon, which coincided with the birth of his daughter has fallen in with a bad crowd she hires George to look into itSamantha. Then one of You would think he'd be grateful for an easy answer but the unfaithful wives George had been following turns up dead, words 'perverse' and life begins 'John Tanner' were made for each other. He's sleep-deprived to the point of falling asleep at work but he's determined to keep going - probably because he can't get complicatedany sleep at home.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785650033</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Christopher FowlerStuart Douglas|title= Bryant Lowe and May: Strange TideLe Breton Mysteries - Death at the Dress Rehearsal|rating= 3.5|genre= Crime|summary= The thirteenth outing During location filming for Bryant his 1970's sitcom 'Floggit and May is looking very much like Leggit', leading man Edward Lowe stumbles across the dead body of a woman on the edge of a reservoir. The police seem happy to assign it will be their lastas an accidental death, but something about the whole thing bothers Lowe, and he enlists the help of a fellow actor, John Le Breton to help him investigate matters further. Arthur Bryant is on compassionate leave whilst tests are continuingThey travel across the country during their days off filming, uncovering more possible murders and, seemingly, which are likely a link to confirm that he is suffering from Alzheimer'sdeath during the Second World War. His condition But is worsening almost by there really a link between the day, memory lapses are morphing into full-scale hallucinations.deaths? And will they manage to uncover who is responsible before more people lose their lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857523422</amazonuk>1803368209

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=A K Benedict0008517061|title=Jonathan Dark or The Evidence Of GhostsDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell

|genre=FantasyCrime|summary=Maria King sits by the Thames mudlarking - sifting through the washed up treasures - on a regular basisFormer Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. Only today she finds There’s perhaps a ring little uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a box lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to move in with 'Marry me Maria' on Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the lid in braille. Blind from birth future she wants for herself and now blind by choice, the words can be for no one else but Ms King. her daughter? However a greater surprise awaits inside For the box: moment they’re enjoying life in the ring is still on a finger belonging to present and putting the last girl who received such a proposal. DI Jonathan Dark is assigned to the case, not realising what he's taken future on or the sort of help he'll need to call on. The dead are all around him, his plan is not to let Maria join themback burner.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409144550</amazonuk>|amazonus=<amazonus>1409144550</amazonus>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Clare Donoghue1786482126|title= Trust No OneThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating= 4.5|genre= Crime|summary= TheyBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 're an ordinary family, by modern standardsluxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. Richard and wife Nicola have split up, but are on reasonably amicable termsThere was no skull. The kids stay over Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with their Dad often enoughDCI Harry Nelson. He makes time for them and their friends. OkIt's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, so fourteen year old Harvey that she is dyslexic and has been diagnosed pregnant with his child as having ADHD. He's also got a quick temperresult of the one night they spent together some three months ago. But he's very protective Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of his little sister, 12-year-old Olivesickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447284291</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Quentin Bates0008551324|title=Thin Ice The Devil You Know (Officer GunnhildurD S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5

|summary=GunnhildurIt's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family life is a bit complicatedto approach the police. Her son Gisli Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is now struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the father body of two children, only they're not the traditional year or two apart, but just a few weeks missing person is buried and there are - as you might have gathered - two mothers involvedwho was responsible for her death. He's now living not with This person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the one that Gunna might have expected but police doing his best what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to maintain contact with serve the other, remainder of his sentence and his other son, of courseto get an early parole date. At workNot much to ask, two small-time crooks have robbed Reykjavikis it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's most infamous drug dealer of a couple of hundred thousand euros, but couldn't get away as their getaway driver failed even prepared to turn up. Two women do the other thing that Hardie demanded - mother make certain that DS Max Craigie and daughter - have disappeared along anyone who works with the motherhim is kept well away from what's car and a thief has died in suspicious circumstanceshappening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147212149X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= David Thorne0008405026|title= Promises of BloodA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating= 4.5|genre= Crime|summary= I love getting in on the ground floorIt's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. Thanks to this very website I She was one of never found and the first in this country investigation ground to read the ''Twilight'' series and was smitten from the starta halt. We'll ignore the films Now, her mother, Helena, the books and her father are worth a look! dead in their bed. In Initially, it looks like a completely different genre, straightforward murder/suicide but no less a lucky fluke it was through here that I stumbled across [[East of Innocence by David Thorne]] and put in an old-fashioned baggsy for whatever followed. On reading there's something about the second positioning of the series [[Nothing Sacred by David Thorne]] I commented bodies that I hoped that in the next outing Connell would see ''him up against, or siding with, some kick-ass-don't-take-it femalemakes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious.'' ''So far his women do tend What looked as though it was going to be 'birds or victims' ''. I'm pleased to say he's moving in the right direction… women are central to this story one way an open-and another-shut case is now a complex double murder. For Kerrigan is convinced that the first time heexplanation lies in Rosalie's given us female characters who disappearance: others (despite their plot-device rolessuch as Derwent's boss, which is varied and not always predictableUna Burt) are stronger than they look – strong in a number of different ways – he hasn't simply opted for my "kick-ass" option, he's more subtle than thatless convinced. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782395911</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Augusto De Angelis and Jill Foulston (translator)0571379877|title=The Murdered BankerKellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating= 3.5|genre= Crime|summary=Inspector De Vincenzi Edward Jevons is a working against the clock. A body was found in -class young man, obsessed with his old schoolupper-friend Giannetto Aurigiclass friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's apartment in the early hours of this morning a theatre director. He's also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and the investigating magistrate wants uses Edward to take over as quickly as possiblerun errands for him. The trouble is, Aurigi owed the dead man money, Edward has been acting strangely, in love with Stanza since their university days - and isnhe't trying s drunkenly confided how he feels to defend himselfRobert. Unless De Vincenzi finds strong evidence Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the contrary today, the investigating magistrate will see it as an open and shut case, and that will be the end two of Aurigi. But none of the evidence seems to add upthem kissing in a dark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782271708</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Ruth WareJo Callaghan|title= In a Dark, Dark Wood|rating= 4|genre= Thrillers|summary= Nora Shaw hasn't seen her friend Clare since Nora left school ten years ago and didn't look back. Now working as a crime writer and living in London, she is naturally surprised when she receives an invitation to Clare's hen party – a weekend in a woodland cottage in the Northumberland country. Curious as to why Clare would invite her after all these years Nora reluctantly agrees to come, but as the weekend unfolds something goes very wrong and old secrets are slowly revealed.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099598248</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Mary Higgins Clark|title=Death Wears a Beauty MaskLeave No Trace

|genre=Short StoriesCrime|summary=In 1972, Mary Higgins Clark began writing When a novella entitled ''Death Wears man is found crucified on the top of a Beauty Maskhill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. It'' She struggled s their first live case together, having previously been very successful with the story and put it aside, where it lay forgotton for several decadescold cases. When the author rediscovered the manuscript amongst some old files But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, she decided Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that she liked it and was ready draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to complete solve the long-awaited ending. ''Death Wears a Beauty Mask'' joins some of her other workscase in time, both old or will Kat find herself taken off the case and new, in an entertaining collection potentially, out of short stories full of mystery and suspense.a career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471143228</amazonuk>139851120X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Kelley Armstrong1035021803|title= City of the Lost|rating= 3.5|genre= Crime|summary= Detective Casey Duncan has a dark past, and itThe Antique Hunter's about to catch up with her. When her best friend Diana is attacked by an abusive ex, the two women realise they have Guide to disappear, fast. And they need sanctuary. Diana's heard of a hidden town that's so remote it's almost impossible to reach. A town that desperately needs a new detective.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751562521</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewMurder|author=Kate Ellis|title=The House of Eyes (Wesley Peterson)C L Miller|rating=43.5

|summary=D I Wesley Peterson wasnIt't too worried when Darren Hatman reported his daughter missings twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. She'd been working at Eyecliffe Castle s back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and it wasnCarole't difficult s close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to sense that she'd been annoying say the other staff with the stories of what she'd be doing when she got her modelling contractleast. There Arthur was just one point which left Peterson uneasy: Hatman claimed that Leanne had been stalked by a photographer and the case was obviously worth an enquiry or two. Eyecliffe Castle reason why Freya had not been home back to the wealthy D'Arles familyvillage: Arthur, but was now a luxury hotel and spashe feels, with the last remaining member of the family living let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the Dower House in man or pursue the groundsprofession she loved. Then Darren was found brutally murdered After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the grounds love of the castle: her life, who was it possible that Leanne had met a similar fate, murdered) and Freya and if so, why?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0349403082</amazonuk>James have now divorced.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ngaio Marsh1398524085|title=Scales of Justice (DCI Roderick Alleyn)Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=4.5

|summary=Swevenings seems like one of those idyllic places to liveCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. All that disrupts the tranquil lives of the inhabitants Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, is the fierce competition to catch the Old Un, a large trout which lives under the bridge over the stream which meanders through the villagenot. Then one day Nurse Kettle discovers Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of Colonel Carterette at edge of the stream and beside him is Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the Old Unriver. Carterette It was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had been brutally murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he was not couldn't stand the fisherman who had landed the Old Un. He was, though, the man who was in charge of publishing the controversial memoirs of the local baronetguilt. The investigation is beyond the capacity of the local constabulary, Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with their lives and Scotland Yard, in the person of Chief Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn is called in. And his primary interest is the fishwonder about what really happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B01AIK6U4Q</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Elizabeth Haynes1529900360|title=Behind Closed DoorsThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman

|summary=In 2003 Scarlett Rainsford It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on holiday in Rhodes with her parents and sister when she met a boydifficult cases. Her father wasnHis assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't at all keen on need the idea so Scarlett crept out at night to meet him and she help of a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it was Robin, Delaware''might'' have given him s partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the idea involvement was something that the man she wanted to run away from homeloved needed. The next case did look simple, though. On Two lovers were murdered in the last night swimming pool of the holiday Scarlett was bundled into a van - and into a life of terror and prostitutionremote property in Bel Air. Ten years later she turned up in her hometown when a brothel He was raided. Where had she been all these years, how had the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she got back is married to the UK an extremely rich man and why did her parents it's not seem all that pleased to find that she the Italian. But which of them was backthe primary target?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751549630</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Holly Seddon178763681X|title=Try Not To BreatheKnife Skills for Beginners|author=Orlando Murrin

|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=In Chef Paul Delamare took a teaching job at a residential cookery school in Belgravia. He didn't really want to but celebrity chef Christian Wagner had a way of getting both men and women to do what he wanted. Paul 'Try not to Breathe'somehow'' Holly Seddon offers an addition to got the somewhat overflowing thriller shelves. Of course, the reason this particular segment is bursting impression that he'd be at the seams is because thrillersschool to assist Paul, especially psychological oneswho had a broken arm, are just so compellingbut it didn't turn out that way. And there have been some good The teaching - and hugely successful - books in this category out there of late (before-I-gothe problems -are all his own. The one thing he hadn't expected was for someone to turn up dead. Unfortunately, he was the person who discovered the body and everyone knows that the police consider that person to-sleep-I'll-be-gone-with-a-girl-on-a-train)the prime suspect. So how does Holly Seddon match up?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782399453</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke1529421284|title=All Dressed in WhiteLaying Out the Bones|author=Kate Webb

|summary=Following It was one of those flash downpours that the success of ''The Cinderella Murder'' caseBritish weather often delivers in a heatwave. In a gully, people are lining up a human skeleton came to the surface and forensic testing proved the body to be featured on Laurie Moran's successful TV show: ''Under SuspicionLee Geary, who had disappeared nine years earlier. He'' Each episode revives d been a 'cold case' by returning to the scene of the crime, interviewing the friends known drug user and family of the victim and reviewing new evidence. The show has had 100% success record learning disabilities, so far, which has resulted in an influx it could have been a simple case of potential new cases to featuremisadventure but DI Matt Lockyer wasn't convinced. However Geary was a townie, when a desperate mother begs Laurie so what was he doing out on Salisbury Plain alone? There are connections to investigate the disappearance suicide of her daughter on her wedding day, Laurie knows that her story will make great TV; especially as Holly Gilbert and to two other deaths which were not considered suspicious at the scene time. Lockyer and DC Gemma Broad of the Major Crimes Review Unit (that'crime' is a luxurious hotel in Florida..s cold cases to you and me) investigate.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471148688</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jack O'Connell1529425867|title=Box NineLost and Never Found (A D I Wilkins Mystery)|author=Simon Mason|rating=24.5

|summary=The wind brushed against the review like a thousand kisses In Oxford, there are two D I Wilkins. Raymond Wilkins is of Nigerian descent, Balliol educated and always exquisitely dressed. D I Ryan Wilkins, son of Ryan and Sam knew that something out father of Ryan, is not. He's not any of the ordinary was happeningthose things. It wasnHe't since the long hot summer 1997 that he had the misfortune to read s white, originated from a book that had as much extraneous detail as thistrailer park, barely educated (reading's not ''really'' his thing) and his wardrobe consists mainly of shell suits and trackies. He felt to himself that there was little point They're usually in actually getting lime green or acid yellow. You might wonder if you're being introduced to the meat of a reviewpolice procedural written for laughs. Well, when instead he could witter on about something that had little to do with anything – perhaps this would get a little annoying over 352 pages? you're not. The two men are just different sides of the same policing coin. Welcome to Sometimes the world of Jack O'Connellcombination works brilliantly well. Sometimes it's ''Box Nine''problematic.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1453236775</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Torquil MacLeod1529431735|title=Missing in Malmo (Anita Sundstrom Mysteries)The Winter Visitor|author=James Henry

|summary=Anita Sundstrom wasnIt't best pleased when she was told to look into s February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the disappearance of British heir hunter Graeme Todd: missing persons werenmore surprising. He't really her thing and it seemed that it was only down to her because she was fluent in Englishd been exiled on the Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. There was The return has come about because he's had a similar reluctance when her letter from his ex-husband asked her wife, saying that she's ill and hasn't long to look into the disappearance of his girlfriendlive. But events took a sinister turn It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and Anita found herself deeply entangled in both cases. The first case seemed to be linked sent to a robbery which took place in Newcastle some twenty years earlier and watery grave in the second case boot of a stolen Ford Sierra. Is it seemed that Bjorn Sundstrom hadn't been entirely truthful with her about his relationship with Greta Jansson.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857161156</amazonuk>a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Robert Thorogood0861541774|title= The Killing A Nye of Polly CarterPheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating= 4|genre= Crime|summary=IDCI Domenic Jejeune'm s close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a fan of short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old-school murder mysteries…think [[:Category:Agatha Christie|Agatha Christie]], think [[:Category:Margery Allingham|Margery Allingham]]ally, Dorothy Sayers… These are stories as gamesGuy Trueman. Usually on the very edge of plausibility, gruesomeness kept to Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a minimum, police procedure trodden all over in hobnailed enthusiasm of insight knife - and flashes of inspirationhe killed a Ghurka. So it follows Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that I enjoy TV series in he might have planned to murder the same vein: Midsommer Murders, Poirot… and Death in Paradiseman. It was because my enjoyment of Now he could be facing the series was known that death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn''The Killing of Polly Carter'' was sent my wayt help Danny at all. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848454155</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jill McGown1521129886|title=Murder at the Old VicarageThey Had It Coming (Greg Mason mysteries)|author=Keith Redfern|rating=4.5

|summary=The vicarGreg Mason's daughter, Joanna, had mixed feelings when her husband called at just beginning to get his confidence as an investigator to the vicaragepoint where he'll warn someone about how much he charges. The last time sheIt'd seen him his violence had put her in hospital s a good job too because Greg and Joyce will soon have a baby and they're both delighted. Joyce will be more delighted about the baby when she'd been living with her parents ever sincegets past the morning sickness. She had her reasons for deciding Greg is approached by an old friend whose brother-in-law appears to see him, even though her parents would have preferred just to send him packingkilled himself. George Wheeler had more problems than his daughterStuart's marriage to worry concerned about: he was strangely attracted to a young widow his sister, Lucy, who had recently come 's struggling to the parish make ends meet and also had serious doubts about his vocationher son is not thriving. It was only his wifeLucy, he says, Marian who stopped the wheels from falling off is convinced that Gil would never have killed himself - it simply wasn't in his lifenature. But Marian The police and the coroner have accepted that the death was ''always'' that sort of woman. suicide, Then - on Christmas Eve - his son in law was battered to death with a poker in his daughterbut Stuart's bedroom at prepared to pay Greg to find out what happened on the vicaragenight Gil died.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1509809635</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Max Allan CollinsB0CK3MYJ56|title=Quarry's ListResponsibilities (Greg Mason mysteries)|author=Ann Macarthur|rating=4.5

|summary=The Quarry series is classic pulp fiction from Max Allan Collins that has spanned almost 50 It's the 1990s and Greg Mason's twenty-eight yearsold. The newest books He used to have a high-flying job in the series may city but it wasn't satisfying so he's now set himself up as a private investigator. 'Shades of Cameron Strike', you might be set in the pastthinking. Nice bloke, but where actually written recently. 's the life experience that backs up this profession? The success of On the other hand, he has been asked to look into something. [[QuarryJoyce and Helen are half-sisters, or rather, they were until Helen was killed in what's Choice by Max Allan Collins|newer books]]been written off as a tragic accident at an unmanned level crossing. Joyce - and her parents, has revitalised interest Oliver and Pam Hetherington - can't understand what she was doing there - or how she could come to fall in the original 1970s run front of booksa train. Once known as ''The Broker's Daughter'', ''QuarryGreg's List'' is the second book in the series that may not introduce you been asked to the character, but it does introduce you to why Quarry became a killer of killersinvestigate.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783298855</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andrea Camilleri1838954481|title=Blade of LightThe Misper|author=Kate London

|summary=When Mr di Marta arrived at MontalbanoRyan Kennedy killed a police officer: there's station to report an armed robbery on his wife the night before the most surprising point no doubt about that. He was not the robbery itself, but fifteen-year-old holding the fact that gun and pointing it had ended with a kissat DI Kieran Shaw. The Inspector's suspicions were aroused and he was convinced that He pulled the trigger but due to the vagaries of the jury system he was found not being told the full story. None guilty of both the witnesses' stories added up murder and it was difficult not to come to the conclusion that they were not ''meant'' tomanslaughter of the officer. And so lives must go on. Then For DI Sarah Collins that means leaving the capital and hoping for a body turned up quieter life in a burnt-out car which had all the hallmarks of countryside but when a Mafia hit. This isn't Montalbanomissing teenager is found on her territory she's only problem though drawn into a wider investigation - there's another case which keeps sneaking its way and back into his attention even though he should have nothing to do with itthe orbit of Ryan Kennedy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447264452</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Christopher Fowler1448309743|title= Bryant and May - London's Glory|rating= 4|genre= Crime|summary=In the depths of the last [[Bryant and May – The Burning Man by Christopher Fowler|B&M review I wrote]] I said '' Of course, it's unbelievable, farcical. But then you don't come to a Bryant and May story for realism. You come for absurdity.'' Naturally, I stand by that comment. Fowler has concocted his characters and has no shame in shunting them up and down the time-line of British history as he sees fit.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857523457</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewDevil Stone (DCI Christine Caplan)|author=Francis Duncan|title=Murder For ChristmasCaro Ramsay

|summary=Mordecai Tremaine used to be a tobacconist and he was a lover In the village of Cronchie on the West coast of romance novelsScotland, but these were not his main claim to fame: he has five members of a reputation as a sleuthwealthy family are found murdered. He was somewhat surprised to be invited to spend Christmas in The only item missing from the home is the peaceful village of Sherbroome at Devil Stone: myth says that if the country home of Benedict Gramestone is removed from Otterburn House, not knowing the man welldeath will follow. When he arrived on Christmas Eve the festivities were The only suspects are known Satanists but in full swingmany ways, but - observer that's an easy conclusion given that two of people as he was - he sensed tensions amongst them 'discovered' the odd assortment of guestsbody. In the early hours of Christmas Day the household The Senior Investigating Office is woken by screams and as everyone assembles downstairs they discover a dead body under the Christmas tree - and DCI Bob Oswald but when he looks decidedly like Father Christmas. Itdisappears, DCI Christine Caplan is pulled in to 'shadow's up to Tremaine to establish who committed the murderhim.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784703451</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1529077699|title=The Raging Storm (Two Rivers)|author=Christina JamesAnn Cleeves|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=''It's all bloody peculiar, isn't it, Sir?'' Well yes, it is. Jem Rosco blew into the local pub one evening in the middle of an autumn gale, stayed for about a month and then turned up, naked and dead, in a small boat, anchored in Scully Cove close to the village of Greystone, in Devon. Rosco had the status of a national treasure: a renowned adventurer, round the world sailor and all round ''celebrity''. I ''nearly'' said 'all-round good egg' but as we'll find out, he could be more than a little bit close with money and his background isn't exactly an open book. Where did he get the money for his first boat? How did he finance the trip?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529427045|title=The CrossingGirl in the Eagle's Talons|author=Karin Smirnoff

|summary=When DI Tim Yates ''Life has more to offer than people - prime numbers for example''. Lisbeth Salander has headed north to the small town of Gasskas, where the so-far-untapped natural resources of the area have sparked a gold rush. The criminal underworld has not been slow in coming forward. Salander's niece's mother is called the latest woman in the area to investigate have vanished without trace. It was only with reluctance that Salander became her niece's guardian but it quickly becomes obvious that Svala is a tragic collision between remarkably gifted teenager who's unaware of the part Salander played in her father's death.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1787636607|title=The Trap|author=Catherine Ryan Howard|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=It's a train scene replicated all too often in the early hours of the morning. Drunken revellers spilling out of clubs and looking for a council lorry way to get home. Some are lucky and manage to get one of the few taxis available. Others squash onto the night bus that will only go as far as one of the outlying villages. The woman all regret the 'taxi problem', particularly in the light of 'the missing women'. For one young woman, the final stop on the bus leaves her a level crossing, he expects it long way short of her home. She had intended to ring someone to come and collect her - but her phone's dead. The bus had driven off before she had the chance to beg the bus driver to be a straightforward investigationlet her use his. However, he soon realises thereThere's nothing straightforward about itno option but to start walking - unsuitably clothed and in high-heeled shoes.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784630411</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Frances Fyfield1405957174|title=A Painted SmileDeath at the Party|author=Amy Stuart

|summary=Diana Porteous is youngFrom the first page, rich and a widow. Shewe know that Nadine Walsh's reached the stage of being over the initial grief after the death of her husband, but her life lacks focusparty will not end well. It's then that her beloved stepThe victim - a man -grandson, Patrick, comes up with an idea: he suggests an exhibition of portraits entitled ''A Question of Guilt'' which encourages people is dying when we first meet him and Nadine consciously makes no effort to really look at call the pictures and work out what they think the subjects are doingambulance he so desperately needs. It began in a rather light-hearted way but itWhat we don's not long before everyone t know is caught up in who the preparations for the exhibition, man is or why Nadine prefers to be presented in the large wine cellar under the old schoolhousehave him die. Not everyone is sure I'd better give you a little more background so that ityou can understand what's suitable though..happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751555207</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= M L Longworth0008530025|title=The Mystery of Murder in the Lost CezanneFamily|author=Cara Hunter|rating= 34.5|genre= Crime|summary=Antoine Verlaque, investigating judge at AixIt was in December 2003 that fifteen-enyear-Provenceold Maura Howard came home and found the body of her stepfather, Luke Ryder, is asked to visit a retired postman who has uncovered an old canvas in his apartment, which just happens to be the former garden of their West London home . He had an injury on the back of famous nineteenth-century artist Paul Cezanne. When his head which could have happened if he gets there 'd slipped down the old man is deadsteps but the vicious beating his face had taken was obviously deliberate. Twenty years later, there's no canvas to be seen, one has been charged with his murder and an American art history professor is inexplicably in the living room. Itit's now up the subject of ''Infamous'', a true-crime show. A group of experts has been brought together to Antoine review the evidence and his team of policemen to find take the murderer and investigation further. More to the paintingpoint, they're going to do this live on camera, and with the help episode by episode. There's no dump of his girlfriend Marine Bonnet, work out who the woman in the painting is whole box set - and if it could really be a hitherto unknown Cezanneno shortage of cliffhangers. It's compelling viewing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0143128078</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gillian Flynn0241996104|title=The GrownupComing to Find You|author=Jane Corry

|summary=Our narrator, a selfNancy's mother and step-confessed expert father were brutally stabbed at givingtheir Sussex farmhouse and her step-brother, erMartin, relief to men, is branching outhas been convicted of their murder. WellWe first meet Nancy outside the court, carpal tunnel syndrome at such after Martin receives a young age isn't greatlife sentence. Instead of working at the back of The barrister tells her that she's received a dodgy tarot shop, 'silent sentence' - she's out front, pretending not been found guilty of anything but will have to see auras, and using her natural aptitude to read people (a skill mastered begging live with what happened for years with the rest of her onelife. Of course, it's made worse because Nancy's rich -eyed she inherited five million pounds from her mother), when a woman comes in with a serious demand. Piecing - and the papers are making the mystery most of what it . ''Farmhouse slaughter daughter'' is one favourite epithet and ''rich bitch'' might not be together for us, our heroine ends up in a very malevolent building, housing what might be the step-son from hell…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1474603041</amazonuk>printed but is undoubtedly spoken.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andrea Camilleri1529413680|title=Game A Chateau Under Siege (A Bruno, Chief of MirrorsPolice Novel)|author=Martin Walker|rating=4.5

|summary=Inspector Montalbano came to One of the main events of the Sarlat tourist season is the re-enactment of the aid liberation of his new neighbour when her car wouldnthe town from the English in 1370 and Bruno't starts there to see the show with some friends. It wasn't ''just'' gallantry which led him to do this: the fact that she was stunningly beautiful didn't harm her chances at s all. Montalbano wasn't to know where this simplebeen very carefully choreographed but goes badly wrong when, courteous act would leadKerquelin, although the man playing one of the main characters is seriously injured when he knew something was wrong: it wasn't that departs from the car wouldn't start - it had been deliberately damagedscript. Her husbandLuckily, a computer salesman, seemed only to be around occasionally his doctor is there and obviously didn't care what Liliana got up to when he wasn't there. And then Liliana began making advances to Montalbano, whilst she was carrying on a relationship with a young assistant the man is whisked away in a local clothes shophelicopter. What was going on?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447249216</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Ann Cleeves|title=The Glass Room A local doctor (D I Vera Stanhopeand friend of Bruno)|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=Inspector Vera Stanhope isn't big on friends wonders about his chances of survival but the hippy neighbours are good to her in terms of home-brew beer and conversation and when one of them goes missing she feels obliged to investigate. She knows that sheas he'd be furious if one of s a senior government employee, the team was playing at private investigator and it leaves her in the embarrassing position of being first on man who runs Frenchelon - the scene after a murder military has been discoveredstepped in. One of the tutors has been brutally murdered at The Writers' House daughter lives nearby and the other residents have made an easy assumption about another, who wielded the knifelives in California, but Vera must act professionally even though she knows thatis flying in with some of her father's she's hardly impartialfriends for a pre-arranged holiday.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B007I5O6LE</amazonuk>