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==Crime==
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{{newreview
|author=M C Beaton
|title=Hamish Macbeth: Death of a Valentine
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Remembering ''Hamish Macbeth'' from the 1990s TV series, in the person of Robert Carlisle, accompanied by a Westie called Wee Jock, I'm only just beginning to get to know the real Hamish as brought to paper by M C Beaton. More robust in appearance than your man Carlisle, with a shock of red hair, he's accompanied on his rounds by an indeterminate hound called Lugs and a wildcat called Sonsie. That both animals are referred to by the locals as the beasties, and only a special few of said locals are willing to look after them in Hamish's absence, says something about their temperament. Hamish would call it exuberance. Or loyalty.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849015090</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Bill Knox
|summary=Page gives us another ''The Body In The...'' book within a tried and tested format. The book jacket covers are always bright and jazzy and this one is no exception. We're deep in Norway, its picturesque countryside and world-famous fjords. We are in the company of two different but interesting women. Mother and daughter. Pix, the daughter (I think the name sounds as if it belongs to someone young) is a mother in middle-age with teenage children. She has responsibilities, but at times she behaves like a sixteen year old and I suppose that is part of her appeal. She cannot seem to say ''no'' to anyone and now finds herself enlisted to solve an unexplained death and a missing person. The latter is the more important as the missing person, Kari, is related to Ursula's best friend. Yes, perhaps a few too many names at the beginning of the book to grapple with but it soon settles down.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709090641</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Tarquin Hall
|title=The Case of the Missing Servant
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=We concentrate in and around bustling Delhi and straight away Hall gives a great description of his main character. Once seen, never forgotten apparently. And as if that were not enough to be going on with, we're also given the low-down on his 'team.' Their nicknames are very funny and all of this delightful information gives the reader a taster of what's to come later in the book. I can't resist giving one explanation. Puri has several undercover operatives (I'm smiling to myself just recalling it) one of whom is called Flush. Why? Simple. '' ... he had a flush toilet in his home, a first for anyone in his remote village in ...'' You just cannot help but smile, you really can't. And this gentle humour runs throughout the book.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099525232</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Dave Zeltserman
|title=Outsourced
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=I loved Dave Zeltserman's ''man out of jail'' series, with both [[Pariah by Dave Zeltserrman|Pariah]] and [[Killer by Dave Zeltserman|Killer]] being among the best crime thrillers I've read in a long time. All good things must come to an end, however, and with ''Outsourced'' he has branched out slightly.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687322</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=P J Parrish
|title=Paint It Black
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=The central character, PI Louis Kincaid has decamped to Florida. He doesn't really want to be there but he has no job prospects elsewhere, he's still young and he needs to do something, fill his days. Even when a well-paid job as a PI falls in his lap, he still hesitates. Then he thinks, what the hell's he got to lose, a man's got to eat etc.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847391338</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Valerio Varesi
|title=River of Shadows: A Commissario Soneri Mystery
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Rain was falling heavily in the River Po catchment area in northern Italy and the old hands knew that it would burst its banks and there would be flooding. But even they are surprised when they see Tonna's barge setting out downstream. He knows the river well, but his course out of the mooring was erratic and when the barge was eventually found Tonna was nowhere to be seen; the barge was deserted. Was it coincidence or something more sinister when Tonna's brother appeared to commit suicide on the day of his brother's disappearance: Commisario Soneri is convinced that there is more to this than meets the eye.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906694273</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Lesley Thomson
|title=A Kind of Vanishing
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=The novel interweaves between the past (the 1960s) and the present (the 1990s). Thomson gives us the run-down on the two playmates, the two young girls, Eleanor Ramsay and Alice. They have been instructed by their respective parents to play together nicely. The Ramsay family is middle-class, they live in a big, rambling house and are always busy doing things. Alice is an only child of working-class parents. They are over-protective and monitor her every waking moment. Will a noisy tom-boy and an angelic Alice who wears impossibly shiny shoes get on, have things in common?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0954930940</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Roger Smith
|title=Wake Up Dead
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Straight away Smith plunges us into the underworld of Cape Town and the street chat of the locals. Boozed up and drugged up most of the time, violence is a nightly occurrence. And when local 'businessman' Joe is gunned down, it sparks off a whole chain of events for his American trophy wife, Roxy. Strong language, strong violence and strong feelings from the local criminals and low-life are the order of the day in this uncompromising novel.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687578</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Caspar Walsh
|title=Blood Road
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=The book opens with an extremely uncomfortable and graphically depicted scene of violence, made all the more so by the cool, calm and collected manner of the perpetrators. The episode ends in a bloody death. We're in London so straight away there's a smattering of East End humour with lots more to follow. We're introduced to the main male character, Nick, who's really nothing better than low-life scum. That's pretty clear from the outset. Even although he's old enough to know better he's still scum. Add in the fact that he's a husband (separated) and a father and the whole sorry saga starts to unfold. His wife's sick of him and his criminal interests - and so are Jake and Zeb, his two sons.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755317505</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Rebecca Frayn
|title=Deceptions
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Life has not been easy for Annie Wray. Her husband died of leukaemia and she was left to bring up her two young children Dan and Rachel. She appears to have a second chance at happiness after meeting Julian who eventually proposes to her. Before they can set a date for the wedding though, twelve year old Dan fails to return from school one day and appears to have vanished without trace. This is the situation that is met by the reader at the start of 'Deceptions' and no one has a clue where he might be or what might have happened to him.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0743268784</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Frank Tallis
|title=Deadly Communion
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt arrives at the Temple of Theseus in Vienna to investigate the murder of a young woman at the hands of a deviant sexual predator. Discovering the woman died by the unusual means of a hatpin inserted into her brain, Rheinhardt soon turns to his friend the young psychoanalyst Max Liebermann for assistance and the type of psychological insight that only Liebermann, a disciple of Freud, can provide. Meanwhile, Liebermann is already caught up in his own investigations with a patient named Erstweiler, who believes he has seen his doppelganger and that this is a precursor of death.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099519720</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Marek Krajewski and Danusia Stok
|title=The Phantoms of Breslau: An Eberhard Mock Investigation
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Eberhard Mock (a name you would not easily forget) is a police Criminal Assistant. He's a single man still living at home with his father and leading a rather ordinary, uneventful life. Until, one day, four young men who are apparently sailors, are found dead. And Mock is asked by his superior to be part of the new murder commission. He accepts and from there on his life is one roller-coaster of events and emotions.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906694737</amazonuk>
}}