Newest Crime Reviews
Crime
The Rage by Gene Kerrigan
DS Bob Tidey has been round the block a few times. He's middle-aged, has a less-than-perfect home life, but on the upside, he loves his job - especially court work and court appearances. Bob Tidey felt at home here. He's going to have his hands full shortly. Enter Vincent, the other main character. Fresh out of an Irish prison, he's strutting all over the place. You could say he's looking for trouble. Fed up with small-beer crimes, he wants to land a big one. A big one with big rewards and then he can put his feet up. Full review...
Drowning Rose by Marika Cobbold
We meet Eliza, the main character, many years after the terrible 'event'. Eliza is a grown woman now and has a fulfilling job at the V & A Museum in London. It's a far cry from her childhood in the peaceful countryside of her native Sweden but she seems happy enough. And in amidst the cheerful, jostling, Christmas crowds of the capital and its infectious atmosphere, she receives a rather worrying phone call, totally out of the blue. It stuns her, she has to catch her breath a little and it takes her back around twenty five years to that fateful day. And now Eliza is a bag of nerves. She'd tried so hard to cope, to keep the past firmly in the past but she hasn't been entirely successful. Full review...
The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime 8 by Maxim Jakubowski
The latest in the annual series of short story collections edited by Maxim Jakubowski gives readers a wide range of stories from authors as diverse as the much-acclaimed Ian Rankin and Kate Atkinson, newwcomers such as Nigel Bird and Jay Stringer, and father and son combination Peter and Phil Lovesey. Full review...
The Good Thief's Guide to Venice by Chris Ewan
'I'd never met a female burglar before, let alone one with the credentials to model lingerie, and I confess that I was more than a little intrigued.' So says Charlie Howard before he realises that the lady in question has stolen his most prized possession. A talisman that he thinks is essential to his writing is the framed first edition of The Maltese Falcon that hangs above his desk. All his mysterious visitor leaves in this spot is empty space. The explosive and chaotic events that follow are fuelled by Charlie's determination to get his book back. Full review...
Mixed Blood by Roger Smith
I reviewed Smith's Wake Up Dead and after reading the blurb on the back cover, this book would appear to be in a similar style. We meet Jack, his heavily-pregnant wife Susan and their young son as they relax in their smart suburban home. Smith paints a lovely picture: the setting sun, drinks on the balcony and views to die for (no pun intended here) over Table Mountain. What's not to like? But this idyll is about to take a nasty and unexpected turn for the worse as a couple of no-users, high on drugs, take their chance and break in to the Burns' home. And all this action is seen by a security guard nearby. Full review...
Mercy by Jussi Adler-Olsen
The Prologue intends to grab the reader's attention right from the first word. I liked that. A girl, or perhaps a woman (we don't know yet) is imprisoned somewhere, barely kept alive in some sort of dark, airless and smelly makeshift prison - but why? And by whom exactly? The story opens in 2007 and we learn that Copenhagen detective Carl is recovering from a near-death experience in the line of police duty. His colleagues were not so lucky. So we see a broken and rather vulnerable man trying to claw his way back to a normal life. Guilt, revenge, anger are perhaps some of the emotions coursing through his veins. His senior colleagues are at a loss as to what to do with him - he's a good copper, after all. The solution is that a fancy new title is invented along with a fancy new department, all for Carl. But will he cope? Full review...
Devil-Devil by Graeme Kent
In the Solomon Islands in 1960, Sergeant Ben Kella stands out as an oddity in many ways. Trained since childhood as an aofia, the traditional peacemaker of the islands, he was mission educated and sent away and appears to belong completely to neither the modern age nor the old customs. Finding his place in the world, though, will have to wait – because there's a missing anthropologist to find, a rebellious nun to protect, and a murder to solve. Oh, and a magic man has just cursed him. All in a day's work… Full review...
Dead Man's Grip by Peter James
What starts as a normal day for Tony Revere soon ends in his death after he is knocked from his cycle and is thrown under a truck. Carly Chase does not hit him but as she swerves to avoid him, her Audi smashes into a café window. A subsequent breathalyser test shows that she is still over the limit from the night before. Stuart Ferguson, the truck driver, is also not responsible for the accident but he was tired having driven for more hours than are legally permitted. The van driver who actually hits Tony first just doesn't stop. It seems like a tragic accident, especially as the weather was terrible and Tony was cycling on the wrong side of the road. Tony's mother, who has links with the Mafia, does not think so though and is set on revenge. Full review...
Kati Hirschel Murder Mystery: Hotel Bosphorus by Esmahan Aykol and Ruth Whitehouse (translator)
Kati has a lot to impart to her readers. She burbles on right throughout the book about all sorts of things which are on her mind. So we learn about her colleagues, friends and neighbours which all gives a nice hint of the Turkish way of life. As a German national, Kati can stand back and take a cool look at all things Turkish. But does she like what she sees all of the time? She soon tells us. She's not slow to highlight stereotypical German traits - the lack of humour, the discipline etc which can be at odds with Kati now living amongst the more laid-back Turks. We also find out that the locals are passionate about the telephone and mobile phones in particular. Forever glued to an ear apparently. So much so that she thinks 'Alexander Graham Bell must have had Turkish genes.' She also likes to go on and on about the terrible parking in Istanbul informing us that 'It takes thirty minutes to get from home to the shop, on foot or by car. I go by car.' I particularly liked that line. Full review...
Loose-Limbed by David Barrie
Captain Franck Guerin of the Brigade Criminelle was about to learn a lot more about ballet than he ever expected or wanted to know. Sophie Duval was a leading dancer with the Paris Opera Ballet – an etoile – and she was murdered in her home. A chord had been wrapped three times around her neck and then she had been strangled, but why? It seemed simple to rule out professional jealousy and she seemed to have little life outside of the ballet. The Opera Ballet is a tight-knit and dedicated world, but it's not long before it's a world of terror, because Sophie Duval is only the first person to die. Full review...
The Loner by Quintin Jardine
Jardine starts with some background on Xavier Aislado. Even at school in Edinburgh, his bulk and rather serious manner ensures that he sails through his academic courses. This is against the odds of a chaotic life at home. His Spanish father's a bit of a cold fish, his Scottish mother is as meek as a church mouse so Xavier (or Xavi) is really guided and nurtured by his rather ferocious grandmother, Paloma. Even I was afraid of her. She takes no prisoners, wears the trousers in the Aislado household (in both Spain and Scotland) and speaks her mind every time. Although there are certain areas which are out of bounds. But I also loved her too. Jardine has created a terrific character in Paloma, in particular. Full review...
Hamish Macbeth: Death of a Valentine by M C Beaton
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. Full review...
Stormtide by Bill Knox
Webb Carrick is a Chief Officer in the Scottish Fisheries Protection Service and he's out in the North Atlantic where he strays into the middle of a feud between shark hunters and local fishermen. It's a little time since it happened but they're still angry about the death of a young woman. The consensus of opinion is that she discovered she was pregnant and committed suicide from the pier. One of the shark hunters is held to be responsible. It all threatens to come to a head when Carrick boards a fishing boat and finds her skipper dead on the deck. Full review...
Cure by Robin Cook
New York City Medical Examiner Laurie Montgomery is returning to work after her maternity leave. It's been longer than usual because her son had a potentially fatal neuroblastoma but this is now in complete remission, but leaving him and going back to work is not going to be easy. It's not going to be easy for whoever is looking after JJ either. Laurie is just a little bit neurotic about leaving him. She's lost a bit of confidence with regard to the job too so it's perhaps fortunate that her first case is what looks like an open and shut case of a natural death. Laurie's not so certain though – although quite a few people would like her to make up her mind that no further investigation is needed. Full review...
Where Would I Be Without You? by Guillaume Musso
I love the cover, which I think angles this book firmly towards women. With that old Beach Boys hit from the Sixties as the title, it encapsulates everything you need to know when choosing this book. It's not really crime fiction, in that it lacks a whodunnit aspect in favour of following the protagonists, a French cop and a Scottish master criminal, through a romantic entanglement and into the jaws of death. The interest is in which of the two men will gain command of the other – and who is really driving the action – when both their attentions are focused on the same girl. Full review...
Falling Glass by Adrian McKinty
Like all good noir fiction, McKinty provides us with a charismatic central character - here in the form of Killian. Of Pavee traveller, Irish stock (otherwise known as 'tinkers') he has made his name as an enforcer of other people's laws, collecting debts and finding missing people. He's tough and capable of violence, but generally gets his man by avoiding force where possible. A sort of hit man with a conscience. However, when the book kicks off he has semi-retired, but his decision to invest his ill gotten gains in property has fallen foul of the property crash, so when a job comes up offering a cool half million for simply finding the ex-wife and daughters of budget airline magnate Richard Coulter, it's not one he can easily turn down. Killian knows this sounds too good to be that simple. And, of course, he's right. Full review...
Hamish Macbeth: Death of a Sweep by M C Beaton
Back in the mid-1990s, despite the encroachment of satellite and cable, Sunday evenings still seemed to be a time to sit down to watch the Beeb or ITV with the family for a dose of gentle viewing. "Drama" is too strong a word for the programmes that aired in that prime time slot (somewhere between 7pm and 9pm). Technically, they were dramas – but they were laced with humour, protected from over-exposure to violence or sex or the truly dark underbelly of the stories they actually told. Full review...
Maxwell's Island by M J Trow
Maxwell had never been intending to go to the Isle of Wight but when his colleague went sick at the last moment he volunteered to take her place on the school trip. His wife, Jacquie wasn't entirely convinced that this lived up to the family holiday they'd been planning, but she went along too. There were quite a few adults, as there have to be nowadays, including Medlicott, the new head of art, and his wife. Jacquie feels that it's even less of a holiday for her when Medlicott's wife goes missing and she's forced to be the policewoman she'd hoped to leave at home. Full review...
Into The Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes
The book didn't actually look that appealing. The cover is on the sepia side of dull. I didn't know the author's name and the title didn't really grab me. When I started reading we were straight into the transcript of a court case in which it seemed that a police officer was being questioned in court about his relationship with a woman. He was accused of being violent to her, but it seemed that the boot was really on the other foot. Then we were into a story – or even two stories – with two time lines some four years apart. Within ten minutes I couldn't put it down. Full review...
Kill Me Once by Jon Osborne
The title and the book cover plus the wording 'Introducing a new breed of serial killer' leave the reader in no doubt as to the type of book it is. A lot of innocent blood is going to be spilled throughout these pages. And, in the case of many individuals with evil at their core, we get to visit the childhood of one of the main characters, Nathan Stiedowe. I wasn't at all surprised to read that he was 'different' from the other little boys at school. He often got nasty nicknames thrown at him from his peers. But did he care? Add to all of that, his parents were bible-bashers but their fervent love of God didn't seem to extend to their son. Why? Nathan decided from a very early age that, in order to survive, he'd better develop a pretty thick skin - and fast. Full review...
Blood Rush by Helen Black
Lilly has had the baby she was expecting in the last book, and daughter Alice is the child from hell. Sweet and angelic with just about anyone other than her mum, she won't sleep at night, is prone to screaming fits and about as disruptive to a previously one-parent, one-child household as a baby could be. Fortunately father Jack (copper, ex-boyfriend, current status indeterminate) is welcome to come and lend a hand whenever he can spare the time. Of course, Alice adores him. Equally fortunately, first-born and now teenage son, Sam, is unbelievably cool about his baby sis. Just to round it off, Lilly and Sam's father are also on speaking and son-sharing terms (and sod his new girlfriend!). Full review...
The Sign of Fear by Molly Carr
Meet Mary Watson - a distant second to John Watson, who of course was a distant second to Sherlock Holmes. Fed up with staying at home while her new husband spends too much time at 221b Baker Street, or away with Holmes sleuthing, she gets to dabble her own feet in the underworld waters when a certain Professor Moriarty comes calling. Full review...
Cold Rain by Craig Smith
Life was pretty good for Dr David Albo. He'd just had fifteen months away from his job as an associate professor of English at a university in the mid-western USA. He lived on a plantation-style farmhouse with a beautiful and intelligent wife and a step-daughter who adored him. He was even going back to work in the expectation that he might well be offered a full professorship in the not-too-distant future and just to put the icing on the cake he's been clear of alcohol for two years. Yes; life was very good. Full review...
The Leopard by Jo Nesbo and Don Bartlett
Still completely traumatised by 'The Snowman' investigation, Inspector Harry Hole has fled Norway for the seedy underbelly of Hong Kong where he is happy to lose himself to debt and drugs. Back in Norway, two women are found murdered by the same gruesome means and Crime Squad believe they have another serial killer on their hands. Harry's boss, Gunner Hagen wants his best detective back, as he believes Harry is the only person who can find the killer, after two months with no leads. Despite being persuaded to return to Oslo due to his father's illness and with no apparent interest in the case, Harry's detective instincts take him straight to the murder scene when a third woman is found dead and he cannot resist getting involved, especially when the current investigative team seem to be making such a mess of it. Full review...
The Lost Stories of Sherlock Holmes by John H Watson, Tony Reynolds and Chris Coady
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a successful detective character will have far too many cases in his career for it to be at all realistic. The worst case in point are the Hardy Boys, who have had two hundred or more adventures and are still not 20. Slightly more literary, but no less busy it can seem, was Sherlock Holmes, for Watson declaimed many times that he did not write down all that man's exploits. Tony Reynolds here gives us eight more cases, making Holmes' workload even more impressive. Full review...
The Dead Women of Juarez by Sam Hawken
Although the story related here is a work of fiction, the situation is based on fact. The Mexican border city of Juárez has a shocking problem with female homicides (usually young and invariably pretty). Official statistics put the number of murders at 400 since 1993 while, we are told, residents believe that the true number of disappeared women is closer to 5000. But attention to this problem is diverted by drug crime, although the two may not be entirely unrelated. Anything that raises public awareness of this terrible situation, such as Hawken's book, is to be encouraged.
So much for the fact, what about the fiction? Full review...
A Sickness in the Family by Denise Mina and Antonio Fuso
In Eton Terrance there lives the Usher family, in a house above a basement flat where a gangster holds sway over a Polish "girlfriend". After a bloodbath in there, the Ushers expand downwards, clearing a cavernous hole in their home where a staircase is due to go. This is not the only crack in proceedings, however, as we soon discover while witnessing the fall of this House of Usher. Full review...
A Shortcut to Paradise by Teresa Solana and Peter Bush
The characters are introduced to the reader one at a time. The main ones have a whole chapter or two to tell their story, including a bit of background information but aside from all of this, they all seem to have some sort of connection to a swish, literary event. So, for example, there's a young, rather frazzled husband called Ernest. You can tell that he's a kindly, mild person. He takes his role as father, husband and (although meagre) breadwinner very, very seriously. He's a translator. He's had some bad luck to contend with lately and the household bills are piling up but he spares his wife the sorry details of their current financial state. But all he's doing is piling on the pressure for himself. Something's got to give ... and it does. Big-time. And without wishing to spoil the plot in any way, I think I can safely say that he ' ... decided to put himself into the shoes of the heroes he translated and, for the first time in his life, he took the bull by the horns.' Full review...
The Burning by Jane Casey
The book opens with a bunch of young women enjoying a drink-fuelled night out in the capital. And as often happens, there's always one absolutely paralytic - with drastic consequences. Casey gives her readers a sharp taste of danger early on as we accompany the unfortunate Kelly on a terrifying taxi ride. The media is stirring up a right old frenzy and calling this local serial killer The Burning Man. And yes, it's a suitably horrible title and we hear it time and time again throughout the book. Full review...
Bandit Love by Massimo Carlotto
In 2004 three criminals-turned-good are approached by a stranger to investigate a drugs haul, stolen from a fully-secure institute. Rather than be pressurised into the job by a man who cannot state what info he needs, nor for whom nor why, they let him die, leaving his ugly bling ring behind for his operators. In 2006 one of them has the nightmare of his girlfriend being kidnapped, and replaced by the same ring. Can the trio work out the identity of a man dead two years, involved somehow in the federal theft, and counter the current crime? Full review...
Kiss Me Quick by Danny Miller
The jacket cover is certainly eye-catching, a nice sepia-tinged photograph of Brighton seafront. The Prologue opens in the year 1939, also in the Brighton area. A young Jack Regent is enjoying the start of what appears to be a new life. He's apparently paid the price for previous 'events' and is now a reformed character. Or is he? The next couple of pages would suggest otherwise. But then again, Jack's smart, very smart. He makes sure that he doesn't get his hands dirty. He leaves that for others. For the mugs. Full review...
Grandville Mon Amour by Bryan Talbot
The first book in this series didn't end particularly well for DI LeBrock, the badger who works for Scotland Yard. At least the main problem, 'Mad Dog' Mastock, was sentenced to the guillotine. But in the prologue here he bursts out of his quandary, and once more causes problems for LeBrock - this time by slaughtering some Parisian prostitutes. Are they linked? What might their story be? And is there a darker part of the past yet to come out of some secretive hiding place, and cause even more danger and peril? Full review...
Frozen Out by Quentin Bates
When a body was washed up on the beach of a rural Icelandic fishing village the powers-that-be were rather keen that the death should be written off as an accident. After all, falling into the water when you've had far too much to drink is not unusual. Hvalvick's police sargeant, Gunnhildur, isn't convinced though. The 'drinking too much' was done in the bars of Reykjavik, some hundred kilometres away. If the man was too drunk to walk he was certainly in no position to drive a car – so who brought him to his death – and why? Full review...
The Oxford Virus by Adam Kolczynski
When Dr Olembé discovers a potential cure for cancer and is given the go-ahead to begin human trials, the potential rewards are huge. Sadly, his first human patient dies shortly afterwards. Medical neglect? Is Dr Olembé's reputation finished? Well, before we have much time to consider these things, a second body is discovered. This time it's a career academic at the university. Was this suicide? Are the two deaths linked? Part medical crime story, part academic satire, part speculative fiction, The Oxford Virus addresses this case. Full review...
