Newest Crime Reviews
A Pitying of Doves by Steve Burrows
The body of a senior attaché from the Mexican consulate was found in a local bird sanctuary, along with the body of the director. It was a strange tableau: the girl impaled on a branch and the man lying at her feet, both in a cage. The fact that the man is a diplomat isn't immediately evident - he was in the area under an assumed name. DCI (and birder enthusiast) Domenic Jejeune is conflicted. The immediate problem is obviously to establish who murdered the man and the woman - and even that's complicated by the political necessity of not to involving the Mexican consulate, thus tying his hands rather tightly. The thoughts which are running in the back of his mind though are about the full-time research position studying birds which the director's death has opened up. Could this be his escape route from the police force? Full Review
The Dark Angel (Dr Ruth Galloway) by Elly Griffiths
Dr Ruth Galloway has got used to being a published author, to being on television, but she's still flattered when Italian archaeologist Dr Angelo Morelli asks for her help with some bones which he's discovered in a tiny hilltop village outside Rome, but doesn't know what to make of them. Ruth succumbs to temptation: she and Angelo have some history (it was just the one night...) and it's years since she's had a holiday. Even a working holiday has to be an improvement. Castello degli Angeli isn't quite what she was expecting, but it will make a reasonable break for her, her daughter Kate, friend Shona and Shona's son Louis. Full Review
A Siege of Bitterns by Steve Burrows
Detective Chief Inspector Domenic Jejeune is new to Saltmarsh, but his reputation has come before him. Success in a high profile case has made him the poster boy for the police. There's a snag though: Jejeune isn't actually that keen on the job. He'd much rather be out birdwatching, but that doesn't bring in an income and there's a simple fact. Jejeune is very a very good detective, with insights which few other people possess. There's one advantage to the job too: Saltmarsh is situated in North Norfolk, the UK's premier birding country but sometimes Jejeune's mind is more on the birds than the job. Full Review
The Execution of Justice by Friedrich Durrenmatt and John E Woods (translator)
It's 1957, and we're somewhere in Switzerland, and there's just one case on everyone's lips – the simple fact that a politician has gone into the crowded room of one of those 'the place to go' restaurants, and point blank shot a professor everyone there must have known, and ferried a British companion to the airport in his chauffeur-driven Rolls before handing himself in to face the murder rap. Of course he's found guilty, even if the gun involved has managed to disappear. He's certainly of much interest, not only to our narrator, a young lawyer called Spaet – even if he rarely gets to frequent such establishments with such people, he is eager to know more, especially once he is actually tasked by the man in hand to look into things a second time. But what's this, where he opens his testimony about the affair with the conclusion, that he himself will need to turn killer to redress the balance? Full Review
Auntie Poldi and the Fruits of the Lord by Mario Giordano
How to describe this book - well for starters it's unlike anything I've ever read before. It's chaotic, mad, funny, fast-paced, confusing but once you get into it it's really good fun and totally enjoyable. Full Review
A Map of the Dark by Karen Ellis
FBI Agent Elsa Myers finds missing children. There's a link back to her childhood here, as she might not have been missing but she was certainly lost. Her mother was abusive and her father preferred not to do anything about it: there might have been a bit of pretense but there was no protection. All that should be in the past, although Elsa is still self-harming when under pressure, but her father is dying of lung cancer and although she would have hoped for some personal time with him, her boss has allocated her to a new case, that of 17-year-old Ruby Haverstock, and you can't waste any time when children go missing. Full Review
The Chalk Man by C J Tudor
The Chalk Man follows a group of friends haunted by an eerily terrifying spectre, conjured during one fateful summer. By the time the new term begins, friendships will be fractured, and a girl will be dead. But who is the killer; is it The Chalk Man, whose dusty white grip squeezes ever tighter, or someone much closer to home? Thirty years later, Ed has tried to forget about that summer, about all the poisoned, sinister memories of The Chalk Man. However, someone seems determined not to let him and when the letters start to arrive, the past follows, plaguing him and dredging up the fever dream nightmare of the summer of 1986, populated by fairs, ra-ra skirts and death. Driven deeper into the mysterious events surrounding Ed's sleepy suburban life, the reader cannot help but wonder; who is The Chalk Man, and will he ever let Ed go? Full Review
Name of the Dog by Elmer Mendoza
Okay, so call me a traditionalist but I enjoy picking up a book and instantly recognising the genre to which the book belongs and from here making an immediate, if not altogether accurate, assumption about whether I am likely to enjoy said book. Quite often it is not until we are fully immersed in a story we start to recognise and appreciate the style and tone of the writer and decide whether we are want to continue the story to completion. This surely is the process by which us mere reading mortals decide whether or not we enjoyed a book? Well, after reading Name of the Dog I have to be honest and say I did not know what to make of it on initial inspection. Nor have I settled my state of flux wherein I am trying to decide whether or not I really did enjoy Mendoza's tale of corruption and crime in Cartel run Mexico. Full Review
Forever After: a dark comedy by David Jester
Michael Holland is a cocky and brash young man who dies and gets made the offer of his lifetime; immortality. We follow Michael, a grim reaper and his friends Chip (a stoner tooth fairy) and Naff (a stoner in the records department) as they grapple with their long lives and finding a clean surface to sit on in their flat. Full Review
Buried Secrets by Lisa Cutts
You never know what goes on in a marriage: most people thought that Detective Inspector Milton Bowman had the ideal life. He had a beautiful wife and a house that had a mortgage which was smaller than most people's credit card bill. On the other hand, there weren't that many people who had a good word to say about him and when he was involved in a serious road traffic accident which left him minus a leg and with only a few hours to live, people were more worried about the extra work than saddened. When his wife's battered body was found in their kitchen, the idea that it was a murder/suicide seemed like the obvious answer. Full review...
Murder in the Snow: A Cotswold Christmas Mystery by Gladys Mitchell
Adela Bradley decided to spend Christmas with her nephew Jonathan and his wife Deborah at their new home in the Cotswolds. Mrs Bradley is a well-known psychiatrist but she's also a respected detective renowned for her sharp powers of observation. She soon comes to hear the story of a local ghost, that of a country parson whose apparition can sometimes be seen slung over the gate leading to Groaning Spinney: the ghost will play a part in what is about to happen. Jonathan Bradley has effectively become the local squire with the acquisition of his property and Mrs Bradley quickly becomes acquainted with some of the locals as they visit to give festive wishes. Full review...
By the Light of a Lie by Marjorie Orr
Tire Thane was devastated when her best friend, Erica, was killed in a hit-and-run accident (if, indeed, it was an accident) but she really couldn't understand why she should have been in Hammersmith. She'd left her getting into a taxi at 11 o'clock the night before outside the theatre in St Martin's Lane and she was on her way home to Hampstead to review papers ready for a court appearance the following morning. Then she died three hours later and miles out of her way. The police didn't seem likely to pursue the case on the grounds that it had probably been an accident, but being an investigative journalist made Tire suspicious and she wasn't going to leave her friend unavenged. Full review...
Marty's Master by Suzanne Elizabeth Reed
Margaret was nervous about going for the walk around the lake on her own, convinced until the very last moment that her husband would relent and go with her. She made it to the Blue Forge Club House where her friend Laura worked behind the bar, relieved that she'd managed to leave the drunken man who was Marty's master and some other suspicious-looking men behind her. Laura looked uneasy: her dead sister's widower, Avel, had remarried and his new wife, Elena, was in the clubhouse with Avel's children - three teenage girls and a boy who was little more than a toddler. Elena didn't look in the least pleased to be there and despite Avel's promises to pick them up, he was nowhere to be seen. Full review...
Wychwood by George Mann
Thirty-something Elspeth Reeves has lost her job and left her partner. Much as she prefers London, she decides to retreat to her childhood home in an Oxfordshire village for a short time to lick her wounds, but she arrives to find the neighbouring part of the Wychwood is a crime scene. Even broken-hearted journalists can't afford to pass up the chance of a story, particularly if they know they need to drum up some freelance work soon, so Elspeth can't resist sticking her nose in. With her childhood friend Peter the detective sergeant on the case there's an extra interest in it for Elspeth, and once she's spotted the connection between the ritualised murder and the local myth about the Carrion King, Peter and Elspeth pool their resources to try and uncover a serial killer. Full review...
Agatha Raisin and the Witches' Tree by M C Beaton
For those of you not familiar with Agatha Raisin she is essentially a short-tempered private investigator in her early 50s with an alcohol, doughnut and man obsession. Much like TV's Midsomer Murders, the small Cotswold village where Agatha lives has an astonishingly high crime rate with enough murders to sustain 28 books so far. Full review...
The Furthest Station by Ben Aaronovitch
When local police find something weird - spectres scaring commuters on a particular part of the Metropolitan Line, for example - they call for PC Peter Grant of the Special Assessment Unit, also known as The Folly. Stray river gods, missing Victorian children, fleeting 18th century dispatch riders, they are all in a day’s (or a night’s) work for The Folly. Full review...
The Happy Ending by David Stokes
Harry Pigeon is 97 years old. He's a bit shakey on his pins, can't move far without his walking frame, has been known to have a fall or two – so makes sure he has his panic button with him – but still he's managing well enough at home. Mentally he's all there, even if he does have these conversations with his wife, who's been dead the last 6 years. There's a point when 'doing ok' stops being quite so ok, a point when there's clearly no purpose left. No-one comes, even the paramedics seem to have shunted you to the bottom of the list, and well, it's all becoming just a bit too undignified. To be honest, when he found the morphine Betty'd been stock-piling against the day her own illness got too much for her but never used as it turned out, Harry was on the point of using it himself. Full review...
These Darkening Days by Benjamin Myers
Somewhere in his brain Tony Garner knew that getting hold of the knife was a mistake, but he liked knives and had quite a collection until they were all taken away after the accident which had left him, well, not quite as he ought to be. The problem with this knife was that it was beside the woman who was lying in the ginnell, one leg twisted under her rather strangely and with blood coursing down her face. Tony thought about ringing the police but dismissed the idea quickly. She was still alive - just - so an ambulance might have been a good idea, but Tony had an instinct for when trouble was going to catch him, so he dropped the knife down a drain and disappeared. Full review...
Portrait of a Murderer: A Christmas Crime Story by Anne Meredith
Adrian Gray was not a particularly pleasant man, but that was no reason why he should meet his death at the hands of one of his own children as they celebrated Christmas at Kings Poplars in 1931. None of the six children were fond of their father and several had cause to wish him dead. Richard was the eldest and was married to Laura. He was a politician and keen to advance himself - and to get a title other than the knighthood which he already had - but such endeavours cost money which he didn't have. He'd also been indiscreet with another woman who was attempting to blackmail him and was hoping that his father would advance some funds to get him out of the mess. Full review...
Y is for Yesterday by Sue Grafton
My very first crime fiction book was a Kinsey Millhone story, and I found it so utterly captivating that it converted me from a crime avoider to a crime lover! Since that first story, I have been committed to the alphabet mysteries, so it I felt both excited and a little sad to be holding the penultimate story in the series in my hands! Full review...
