Difference between revisions of "Newest Crime Reviews"
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==Crime== | ==Crime== | ||
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| + | |author=Elanor Dymott | ||
| + | |title=Every Contact Leaves a Trace | ||
| + | |rating=4 | ||
| + | |genre=Literary Fiction | ||
| + | |summary=We learn from the prologue that the narrator, Oxford educated lawyer, Alex's wife has been murdered. We also know that Alex knew little of his wife, Rachel's past, particularly of the time that they spent together at Worcester College. This is critical in understanding who may have killed her, and why. What follows is Alex learning about this hidden past. ''Every Contact Leaves a Trace'' is partly a thriller and partly a whodunnit although the structure adopted by Elanor Dymott is somewhat unusual. | ||
| + | |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224094033</amazonuk> | ||
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{{newreview | {{newreview | ||
|author=Xavier-Marie Bonnot and Justin Phipps (translator) | |author=Xavier-Marie Bonnot and Justin Phipps (translator) | ||
Revision as of 13:29, 14 March 2012
Crime
Every Contact Leaves a Trace by Elanor Dymott
We learn from the prologue that the narrator, Oxford educated lawyer, Alex's wife has been murdered. We also know that Alex knew little of his wife, Rachel's past, particularly of the time that they spent together at Worcester College. This is critical in understanding who may have killed her, and why. What follows is Alex learning about this hidden past. Every Contact Leaves a Trace is partly a thriller and partly a whodunnit although the structure adopted by Elanor Dymott is somewhat unusual. Full review...
The Voice of the Spirits: A Commandant de Palma Investigation by Xavier-Marie Bonnot and Justin Phipps (translator)
In 1936 explorer Robert Ballancourt and his guide Kaingara visit a tribe of head hunters in Papua New Guinea. Ballancourt, seeking artefacts to sell on to museums, is drawn to the highly decorated skulls venerated by the tribe as they hold the spirits of dead ancestors and conquered enemies. Full review...
The Expats by Chris Pavone
Kate and Dexter Moore move to Luxembourg, along with their two young sons; a world away from their native Washington DC. The incentive is Dexter's great new job which will mean an expat lifestyle for a year or two, but good money and the chance to explore Europe. In the process Kate will be turning her back on more than Dexter realises. Up till their move to Luxembourg, Kate has led a secret double life as a CIA operative. As Kate comes to terms with the boredom of being a full-time housewife in an alien culture, they meet Bill and Julie, also expat Americans. They soon become friends, but Kate has her suspicions and discovers that the past is never far away. Full review...
Revenge of the Tide by Elizabeth Haynes
Genevieve worked as a sales executive by day and a pole dancer by night but her dream was to buy and renovate a boat where she could live. That was why she persisted in the pressured, chauvinistic world of software sales and the increasingly sleazy world of the private gentleman's club where she could earn a four figure sum each evening as well as getting a good workout. It was nip-and-tuck as to whether or not she made it but after a few months on the boat at a marina on the Medway she was feeling good enough about her life to hold a boat-warming party. It was planned as a mixture of the people she'd met at the marina and some of her sales colleagues from London. But on the night of the party a body washed up at the side of her boat and Genevieve knew the victim. Full review...
Nights of Awe (Ariel Kafka Mystery) by Harri Nykanen and Kristian London (translator)
Inspector Ari Kafka (no relation to the author or, indeed, the local pawn shop owner) is half of the Jewish police officers in Finland which he's sure is due to pay levels rather than religious conviction. Ari graduated 4th in his class at police academy which surprised his mother at the time. If his brother and sister could both graduate top of their university classes, what's wrong with him? His brother is always trying to encourage his attendance at family dinners and the local rabbi has to remind him of the whereabouts of the local synagogue. All this pressure is normally water off a duck's back to Kafka, but this is about to change. When two Arab bodies are found on a railway line, he must choose between loyalties to those he loves and to those he's sworn to serve. Full review...
The Fourth Wall by Walter Jon Williams
Sean Makin was a cute, much demanded child actor. Then he grew up and the cute became creepy as the baby face that had made him famous remained (due to a physical condition) but was unsuited to an adult's body. So the demand dried up and Sean tries to come to terms with his change of fortunes by writing a 'how to act' blog, intoxicating substances and appearances on a reality celebrity martial arts fight show. One day, whilst being beaten up for the cameras in a wrestling ring full of cottage cheese, he realises the depths to which he's sunk. Something has to change! Luckily change soon arrives in the form of 'Alternate Reality' magnate, Dagmar Shaw. Full review...
Spilled Blood by Brian Freeman
One night seventeen-year old Ashlynn is driving home. She gets a flat tyre and of all the places in the world finds herself stranded in the ghost town: an abandoned farm community that no longer exists on the map and that no-one with any sense would be driving through at the dead of night. But there is more than one kind of sense. These days, another kind says that if you are from the town of Barron (home to Mondamin Research) you don't drive through St Croix – a neighbouring community that is the focus of a recent cancer cluster. The people of St Croix blame Mondamin and by extrapolation everyone in Barron. For the young people this has spilled over into an outright old-fashioned feud. Full review...
The Troubled Man by Henning Mankell
Hakan von Enke was a retired naval officer and a man of routine. Each morning he went for a long walk in the forest near his Stockholm home, but one day he failed to return. It's a long way from Ystad, Kurt Wallander's home town and the only reason he became involved in the case was the fact that von Enke's son Hans was the partner of Wallander's daughter Linda. Wallander became concerned about von Enke some months before when they had a long discussion at his seventy-fifth birthday party. He'd seemed worried and wary of a stranger in the street. Von Enke's disappearance hit the family hard - and then his wife disappeared as well. Full review...
Never Apologise, Never Explain - An Inspector Carlyle Novel by James Craig
Agatha Mills and her husband lived in a flat near the British Museum and her body was found in the kitchen one morning. There were no signs of a forced entry or of doors being left unlocked as an intruder left so her husband Henry was arrested and charged with her murder. His only defence is that Agatha had enemies: she had been pursuing the disappearance of her brother in Chile in 1973 and was hoping that there would be a trial which would provide an answer as to what happened to William. The defence is outlandish and impossible to investigate, but could it, just possibly, be true? Full review...
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway
Joshua Joseph Spork (Joe to his mates) is a clock maker and clockwork mender in London’s East End. He’s spent his life emulating his craftsman grandfather, Daniel, and avoiding the shadow of his late father and crook, Mathew. However, one day all that changes with a visit from heavies, Messrs Cummerbund and Titwhistle and the even more sinister black-veiled Ruskinite monk. They want something that Joe only has a fragment of: The Hakote Book (Angelmaker of the title). He discovers that the mysterious metal punch cards in his granddad’s box are just the beginning. Can he find the rest and literally put the world to rights before all his friends are murdered? Assisted by a 91 year old special agent, an aged, ugly pug and Polly the insatiable (but rather useful) lawyer, he’ll have a jolly good try. Full review...
Creep by Jennifer Hillier
Dr. Sheila Tao is a psychology professor at Puget Sound State University in Seattle. She lives a double existence, having an affair with one of her students, but then getting engaged to a banker and former American footballer, Morris. Knowing that this double life cannot last, she dumps the student, Ethan Wolfe, but can't bring herself to confide in her fiancé that part of the reason she was seeing him is that she's also a sex addict. Full review...
Modesty Blaise: Live Bait by Peter O'Donnell
We're back in the gritty yet glamorous world of Modesty Blaise - at least, as gritty and glamorous as you could get in the Evening Standard daily comic strip in the late 1980s. Titan have had a mammoth undertaking to reproduce all the original strips in handy large-format graphic novel compendia, and this latest covers three stories, all of which I consider greater in depth than those in the other volume I've reviewed - Sweet Caroline. Full review...
So Much Pretty by Cara Hoffman
Haeden, New York is a small town of the type where nothing really happens. When 19 year old Wendy White goes missing, the local reporter, Stacy Flynn, thinks she’s found her big break, but her investigations lead her to a wall of silence which proves highly distressing to break through. Hoffman’s observations of small town life and small town personalities are compelling. No aspect is left unexamined, from the painful tedium to the quite contentment experienced as part of a whole spectrum of emotions experienced by visitors and residents alike. Full review...
Finders Keepers by Belinda Bauer
Set in Exmoor, plucky little Jess Took is kidnapped from her father's vehicle while he is off managing the local hunt. Before you can say 'who took Took?' another little boy is plucked from his parents' car. In both scenes the only evidence is a post-it note saying 'you don't love her' or him. On the case is DI Reynolds who is initially more concerned with how his new hair transplant is taking until the crimes escalate to a full scale serial abduction case. Full review...
Good Bait by John Harvey
DCI Karen Shields runs the over-stretched Homicide and Serious Crimes Unit and it's an early-morning call which takes her to Hampstead Heath and a seventeen-year-old Moldovan boy who's dead under the ice in the pond. Even working out who he was is difficult and she's got no idea that she's at the edge of a web of organised crime and gang warfare which will take up much of her time. Hundreds of miles away DI Trevor Cordon lives in a sail loft in Newlyn and his day-to-day duties are, well, undemanding but he's shaken out of his rut when an old acquaintance dies in London and he heads off to the capital to find the friend's daughter. It's going to be a lot more complicated than he realises - and it touches on Karen Shield's problems in a way that neither of them could ever have imagined. Full review...
The Cold Cold Ground by Adrian McKinty
The Cold Cold Ground is the first of a planned trilogy of police procedural novels featuring Sean Duffy. Set in 1980s Northern Ireland it's a little reminiscent of the TV show Life on Mars, full of reminders of the music and events of the period that evokes nostalgia in those who lived through it. In all good police procedural novels, the hero has to have a 'thing' that sets him apart. With Duffy it is that he is a Catholic in a predominantly Protestant police force. What this means is that no one trusts him on either side of the religious divide. And as this is set during the worst of the 'troubles' with hunger strikes and rioting on the streets, not to mention car bombs and other acts of violence, this is a big issue for him. Full review...
The Terracotta Dog by Andrea Camilleri
Montalbano was somewhat surprised to find himself having a heart-to-heart conversation with one of the most feared Mafioso in Sicily - and even more surprised when Tano the Greek indicated that he'd like to be caught and arrested. He wasn't giving himself up, you note - he wanted it to look as though what had happened was outside his control. Meanwhile, the rest of the team were dealing with a supermarket heist - the proceeds of which were inexplicably abandoned at a filling station. To cap it all, Montalbano discovers a secret grotto in a mountain cave, with two young lovers, dead some fifty years but still embracing - all watched over by a life-size terracotta dog. It's not a normal day for the detective - but then what is normal for him? Full review...
V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton
Ah, what bliss! To have a lovely fat copy of the latest in the Alphabet murder series sitting on my lap. This latest is reassuringly weighty, although I still managed to read it - or devour it as my husband would have it - in a very short time! I love the experience of reading these stories, finding myself caught up in Kinsey's world, unwilling to put the book down until I, along with Kinsey, have figured out what has been going on. Full review...
The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley
Bishop's Lacey, the closest village to Buckshaw, the de Luce family home, was the traditional sleepy English village, particularly in the nineteen fifties when this story is set. The arrival of a travelling puppet show causes some excitement, although it has to be admitted that the show is there because the van broke down rather than because there was an intention to stage a performance. There's a need to raise money for the repair of the van so Rupert Porson, famed puppeteer from the BBC, agrees to put on two shows in the village hall. There is, of course, a grisly murder. Full review...
Liar Moon by Ben Pastor
Near Verona, northern Italy, autumn 1943: Captain Martin Bora is a German military policeman, known to have conducted previous murder investigations. He is asked to look into the death of one Vittorio Lisi, a prominent local fascist who was run over in his wheelchair on his own estate by a car. The number one suspect is his widow Claretta. Full review...
Twisted Agendas by Damian McNicholl
Writing about Ireland and the Irish, especially the dimension of the Troubles and the IRA, from a third hand American perspective is a recipe for cliché and stereotype. Balancing and interweaving the story of American journalist Piper with that of Irishman Danny's search for independence in London does enable McNicholl in some part to achieve a wry and knowing stance, making us hope for a clever twist away from the predictably which always seems so close. Full review...
I Am Half-Sick of Shadows: A Flavia de Luce Mystery by Alan Bradley
The finances of the de Luce family are in a dreadful state and Flavia's father makes the decision to allow a film company to make use of the family stately home, Buckshaw, as a location. Flavia is in her element with new people to investigate, new processes to mull over and her friendship with Dogger, her father's manservant, to progress. There's obviously something strange going on when the star of the film persuades the director - much against his will - to put on a benefit performance for the village. When there's a snow storm which cuts Buckshaw and many of the residents of the local village off from the outside world - and then a murder - you have the makings of a classic 'locked room' mystery. Full review...
Slash And Burn by Colin Cotterill
The front cover suggests an action-packed, thriller-type read. But I hadn't bargained for the charm similar to Alexander McCall Smith. So, a light read then, fair enough. And I could tell from Cotterill's one page 'Acknowledgements' that he is a witty writer. And that is certainly underlined by the chapter headings, such as 'Another Fine Mess' and 'Lipstick and Too Tight Underwear.' Full review...
Victim Six by Gregg Olsen
Olsen will have you on the edge of your seat says Lee Child. I have read and thoroughly enjoyed some of Child's books so I couldn't wait to get started on this book. Would it be as good and as satisfying as Child's? Full review...
Shelter by Harlan Coben
Mickey Bolitar's girlfriend Ashley has disappeared, the latest in a long list of things to go wrong in his life. First his father died, then his junkie mother went into rehab, forcing him to move in with his uncle Myron, and now shy, beautiful Ashley has vanished. Full review...
The Impossible Dead by Ian Rankin
When it started it all seemed so simple. A constable in CID had been found guilty of, er, pressing his attentions on young women who came his way in the course of the job. Just to make certain that it wasn't a wider problem the Professional Standards Unit (or whatever it was being called this week) from another force was asked to investigate three officers who might have been overly supportive of the miscreant. Then an ex-policeman was shot by a weapon which couldn't exist and from there it all got, well, rather messy and in the middle of it all was Inspector Malcolm Fox of the Complaints. Full review...
Killed at the Whim of a Hat by Colin Cotterill
Jimm Juree was a crime reporter, just a heartbeat away from getting the job of her dreams when family circumstances forced her to quit her job and move to a fishing village on the Gulf of Siam. Forget all about the up-market resorts like Phuket where the money goes. It never gets anywhere near Maprao. Mair, her daughter Jimm and son Arny along with Granddad Jah have to try and grub a living out of the Gulf Bay Lovely Resort and Restaurant. Jimm's sister, who used to be her brother, has chosen to stay in the city, where she lives her life online and not always on the right side of the law. Full review...
The Hand That Trembles by Kjell Eriksson
I read and reviewed recently Eriksson's The Princess of Burundi and was rather disappointed. How will this book shape up? Sven-Arne Persson is an astute politician. He knows when to press the flesh for best effect and also when to turn on the smiles - even if those smiles don't quite reach his eyes. In short, he is a career politician. Calculated. And there's a great line on page 21 which sums him up beautifully - 'He was a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde of county politics ...' Full review...
The Princess of Burundi by Kjell Eriksson
Berit and Justus (mother and son) are waiting for John before they eat supper. He's late. Perhaps he's popped in to see an ex-colleague or nipped into the pub for a quick drink. But neither of these options ring true for Berit. John is currently unemployed which is a shame as he was very good at his last job. He's also not the most social or chatty of men. Some would even describe him as surly and a bit gruff. Full review...
Watson's Choice by Gladys Mitchell
Sir Bohun (that's pronounced 'Boon', in case you're wondering) Chantrey is not the brightest or most sensitive of men, but Sherlock Holmes is one of his great passions in life. To celebrate the great man's anniversary he throws a party at which the guests are invited to come as characters from the stories. Our heroine, Mrs Bradley, and her secretary Laura Menzies are among the guests but not everyone there is interested in Sherlock Holmes. Quite a few are interested in Chantrey's money and his announcement that he is to marry his poverty-stricken nursery governess provokes anger in certain quarters. Then the Hound of the Baskervilles makes an unscheduled appearance... Full review...
Temporary Perfections by Gianrico Carofiglio
This is the fourth book in the popular Guido Guerrieri series. The front cover is eye-catching, as is the title. As early as p.9 I could see that Carofiglio has a nice line in wit and irony. Ergo - 'When you appear before the Court of Cassation, you feel you're in an orderly world, part of a justice system that works ... the world is not orderly and justice is not served.' Full review...
Villain by Shuichi Yoshida
Well, I suppose I'd better begin with the bad which was there were moments at the start of this novel when I thought I couldn't possibly read it right to the end. It's written in such a stilted, factual style with details about the road networks of the local area and exactly how much anyone pays for anything they eat or buy or rent! Faced, for example, with the paragraph cars setting out from Nagasaki that take the pass road to save money take the Nagasaki Expressway from Nagasaki to Omura, then to Higashi-Sonogi and Takeo, and get off at the Saga Yamato interchange. Intersecting this east-west Nagasaki Expressway at the interchange is Route 263 I thought I'd never manage to read more than a couple of lines before falling asleep! Still, I persisted and actually, I'm glad I did. Full review...
The Dispatcher by Ryan David Jahn
Ian Hunt works as a dispatcher taking 911 calls in rural Texas. One day he takes a call from his 14 year old daughter. That would be enough to ruin your day in itself, but the daughter in question was kidnapped seven years ago, presumed dead. They have even held a funeral for her. That's really going to mess with your mind. What ensues is a desperate chase to find her once more before the kidnapper can escape or worse. Full review...
No Police Like Holmes by Dan Andriacco
At the 'Investigating Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes' Colloquium (in the UK it would probably be a conference) the St Benignus College in Erin, Ohio is due to receive a donation of the third largest collection of Sherlockiana in the world – including some rare pieces of substantial value. The plan is that there should be good publicity for the college and that the attendees have a good time – deerstalker hats not being compulsory. But even the best-laid plans are derailed by theft and murder. Jeff Cody is the public relations director at the college and he's determined to solve the crimes before his eccentric brother in law, Professor Sebastian McCabe. Full review...
The Shadows in the Street by Susan Hill
This is the fifth novel in Susan Hill's series about the detective Simon Serrailler. Although you could probably follow the story without knowing the previous books I think it does help to have some background on who all the characters are. I really love the way Hill weaves her story around some wonderful character studies. Simon is actually hardly in this novel, and the focus instead is on the 'extras', with a lot of details being put into characters who will only be around for this particular novel but who live and breathe through it wonderfully well. Full review...
