Newest Crime Reviews
Crime
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 is Sherlock Holmes. 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...
Far South by David Enrique Spellman
'Far South' is a highly unusual book. It's published as 'crime fiction' but this is really only part of the story. It's also a collection of creative endeavours that combines narrative with web-based content. We are told that 'David Enrique Spellman is the voice for the Far South Project. The Far South Collective is a loosely affiliated group of artists, writers, actors, filmmakers musicians and dancers. He works in close collaboration with Esko Tikanmäki Portogales, a Uruguayan web designer'. While I applaud its ambition in trying to add something more creative to the novel concept, I have slightly more mixed views about the success of this. Full review...
Until Thy Wrath Be Past: A Rebecka Martinsson Investigation by Asa Larsson and Laurie Thompson (Translator)
When we talk about 'Scandinavian crime fiction' and the name 'Larsson' there's an awful temptation to jump to conclusions about who exactly the author might be. Slow down though, because there's another Swedish crime writer with that surname and this one is very much alive and writing. Asa Larsson is not down with the southern softies in Stockholm but up in the far north, not far from Norway or Finland, in Kiruna, where she's placed Rebecca Martinsson, who works as a prosecutor, and Inspector Anna-Maria Mella. Those in the know have met them before and this is the third book in the series. Full review...
Dead on Time by Veronyca Bates
I reviewed Bates' earlier book Dead in the Water and enjoyed it for what it was - a light but enjoyable crime read. This book has the same look and feel about it. Bates has decided to base her crime within the corridors of power, local power that is, the council chambers. And some of us, perhaps many of us, secretly would like to know the ins and outs, the deals made etc by our locally-elected councillors (even although we agree that much of their work can be a tad dull and a tad tedious). But we'll probably shout from the rafters if they happen to get their comeuppance, as happens in this book. Mayor Boot has received his final comeuppance. He's dead. Full review...
A Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin
I haven't read any of Levin's books to date although I know various titles from television and films etc. And what struck me straight away was the terrific introduction by Chelsea Cain. Most intros can be rather dull and pedantic but this one is refreshingly different. It starts with the eye-catching line 'I could kill Ira Levin' and left me eager, very eager to get on and read the book. Full review...
Dead Water by Simon Ings
The standard advice to artists has always been "don't gild the lily". For those writers who appear not to understand how this relates to their art form, let me offer up a basic translation: don't complicate a brilliant plot!
Dead Water suffers from such gilding. Full review...
Tarantula: The Skin I Live In by Thierry Jonquet
In a large French country house, an expert in facial reconstruction surgery keeps a beautiful woman locked up in her bedroom. He placates her with opium, but barks orders through hugely powerful speakers and an intercom. She tantalises him with her sexuality, which he tries to ignore, except for when he seems to abuse it in a sort of S/M way when he does let her into society, as he forces her to prostitute herself. Elsewhere, a young, inept bank robber holes himself up in a sunny house, waiting for the heat to die. And finally, a young man is held chained up in a cellar at the hands of an unknown possessor. Full review...
Collusion by Stuart Neville
When I read the back cover blurb carefully, I discovered that most of the story is located in Ireland and not New York as I'd previously thought so I was just a little disappointed before I'd even opened the book. I'm usually a sucker for anything American in the fiction stakes.
Policeman Jack Lennon (his proper name is John and there's a good piece later on illustrating the fact that he's officially called John Lennon). Jack's on surveillance duty watching a couple of no-users as they sit and talk in a local cafe. Jack's in the comfort of his vehicle but still, he's not impressed with his latest task and says in his own words 'Yep, ... shit work.' Full review...
Death on the Rive Nord: An Inspector Lucas Rocco Mystery by Adrian Magson
Illegal immigrants are not a recent phenomenon. Back in 1963, in Picardy, a truck dropped a group of illegal workers close to a deserted stretch of canal, at the dead of night. Seven people left the truck, and it was only when the driver investigated that he found an eighth inside the truck, stabbed to death. It was a few days before the body surfaced in the canal and Inspector Lucas Rocco was given the job of investigating the death. The problems in Algeria were in the past but not forgotten and Rocco would find himself involved with notorious gang leaders from the former colony – and occasionally wondering if he has bitten off more than he can chew. Full review...
The Boys From Brazil by Ira Levin
A small group of powerful Nazis gather for a convivial post-prandial meeting, and collect identities and orders from their leader, who is sending them to different corners of the world in order that many innocent people may be killed. But this isn't when you might expect - it's the mid-1970s. It isn't where you might expect, for these Nazis are remnants of Hitler's regime that fled to south America for safety. And the deaths are being ordered for reasons you will never foretell. In that regard, then, you are as well-informed as chief Nazi hunter Yakov Lieberman, who hears tantalising hints of the plot, but cannot fathom it - nor indeed find proof it has indeed started. Full review...
The Hanging Shed by Gordon Ferris
This book is already The No 1 eBook bestseller so I was expecting a good read. Part of The Douglas Brodie Series, where Brodie, the central character, is a no-holds-barred journalist, although his past reveals that he's been a soldier and a policeman. Ferris elaborates further and gives his readers some background on Brodie. Brodie comes across, right from the start, as a resourceful, likeable and forthright man who has not been afraid to break away from his small-town roots in the west of Scotland. His present job is based in London but it's obvious that Brodie's heart's just not in it. He wants to return to Scotland, Glasgow in particular and try his journalistic luck there. An opportunity soon comes along - but it's one he was never in a million years expecting. Full review...
Frank Merlin: Princes Gate by Mark Ellis
In the early part of the Second World War there was a lull, when hostilities didn't really seem to get going – the so-called Phoney War. Some Londoners, who'd left the capital in the expectation of early bombing raids, began drifting back and there were still those who thought that peace could be negotiated – that we could stay out of the fight. Chief amongst those outside of the political classes who supported this view was the American Ambassador, Joseph Kennedy. Kennedy was, perhaps fortunately but not unusually, out of the country when one of the staff at the residence was murdered and her body fished out of the Thames. Full review...
Bad Intentions by Karin Fossum
Jon, Reilly and Axel had been friends for the best part of a couple of decades. Axel was the dominant one of the trio and Reilly was easily led. Jon - well Jon was vulnerable. Something had happened to them all at the end of the previous year and Jon had recently been in a mental hospital, but now, at the beginning of autumn, Axel and Reilly were taking him for a weekend at Dead Water Lake.
The three young men went out in a boat and Jon went over the side. Neither Axel nor Reilly made any attempt to help him and they didn't report his disappearnace until the following moring - and even then they said that he'd gone for a walk in the forest and had not returned. Full review...
The Siren by Alison Bruce
I recently read and reviewed Bruce's The Calling and thoroughly enjoyed it so I was hoping that this book would be equally good. The location is once again Cambridge. Two young women hastily meet up after hearing a local news item. A male body has been discovered in a gruesome and sorry state and has sent the two women into a right old flap. Although both are now in steady relationships and Kimberly is a mum, they obviously share a shady past together. 'It was a joke between them: Kimberly gets them both into trouble, Rachel gets them out.' Full review...
All Yours by Claudia Pineiro
Inés leads an ordinary life with her husband and daughter. So ordinary in fact, the term 'desperate housewife' could have been invented exclusively for her. She is under no illusions about marriage as an institution - but is convinced she knows all about her husband, and all about men and how to handle them – with a little help from her mother, whose observations on losing a man are always at the front of Inés' mind. When Inés follows her husband on an errand one night, she witnesses him having a violent argument with another woman; the woman then suffers a freak accident and dies. Inés takes charge of the ensuing trouble in her usual capable way, with the full confidence of someone who is always in control. But in trying to protect her husband, she comes up against much more than she bargained for. Full review...
The Vault by Ruth Rendell
The unthinkable has happened. Chief Inspector Wexford has retired. He's had a long career as he was already an Inspector when he first appeared in 1964 – perhaps not a good plan if you're looking for longevity in your character – but I doubt that Ruth Rendell could have anticipated quite how popular Reg Wexford would prove to be. And that's what he is now – plain Reg Wexford – with no authority to interview people and no warrant card in his pocket. He and Dora are splitting their time between Kingsmarkham and their daughter's coach house in London, but the novelty of trips here and there soon wears a little thin and Wexford finds himself at something of a loose end. Full review...
Fallen by Karin Slaughter
Faith Mitchell is not having a good day. A three-hour training seminar had stretched into four-and-a-half-hours, which meant that not only was she late picking up her baby daughter from her mothers' she was also starving hungry. This mattered more than it would for most of us, because Faith is diabetic. She needs to eat. Full review...
The Perfect Murder: The First Inspector Ghote Mystery by H R F Keating
'The Perfect Murder' was the first of HRF Keating's Inspector Ghote mysteries, first published in 1964. It has a kind of gentle charm and has some things in its favour, not least the believable Indian setting when the author had not visited the country in which he chose to set his character at a time when research would have been more difficult than it would today. Full review...
The Calling by Alison Bruce
The story's location is in and around Cambridge and we get the blow-by-blow account as DC Goodhew meets the different members of Kaye's family in order to build up a picture of her recent comings and goings. Kaye's mother seems particularly upset. A nice and effective touch by Bruce is that each chapter heading is simply that day's date. Kaye disappeared in March 2011 so that the reader feels a sense of the clock ticking - and still no Kaye. Full review...
Freedom by Daniel Suarez
A short while ago, I read Daniel Suarez's debut novel Daemon, which was a gripping technological thriller. It may not have been a terribly original idea, but it was well written if a little lacking in character building and it did seem to end a little abruptly. The reason for this abrupt end now becomes clear, as there is now a sequel, Freedom™. Full review...
Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer by Wesley Stace
"Nothing in recent fiction prepared me for the power and the polish of this subtle tale of English music in the making, a chiller wrapped in an enigma [New Statesman]"
"His handling of dry comic dialogue and cynical affectation is reminiscent of P G Wodehouse… an intelligent, fun and thoughtful piece of fiction [Independent on Sunday]"
Just two of the previous reviews that adorn the back cover of 'Charles Jessold…' Full review...
The Sacrificial Man by Ruth Dugdall
Synchronicity? Is that what they call it, when unconnected events chime with each other in unavoidable significance? Maybe it is just the human need to see patterns and make connections where there are none, but it's still weird when it happens. In a week that saw a storyline in Emmerdale echoed in a very personal documentary by Terry Pratchett considering the possibility of choosing the nature and time of his own end, I found myself reading 'The Sacrificial Man'. Full review...
Out Of Range by C J Box
Will Jensen, a Wyoming Game Warden of many years standing, had long held the respect of the townsfolk of Jackson. Recently though he seemed to have been going off the rails. Not turning up for work on time; a couple of DUIs; his wife upped and left. Then one day he cooks himself 14lb of meat. No vegetables. And slowly eats his way through it, washed down with whiskey, before he goes to fetch his .44 magnum from the pick-up. Full review...
The Track of Sand by Andrea Camilleri
Inspector Montalbano awoke one morning and saw the body of a horse on the beach in front of his house, but it's not long before it disappears, leaving only a track in the sand. How is he to investigate this when he doesn't know where the horse came from? It isn't long though before equestrian champion Rachele Esterman arrives at police headquarters to report her horse missing. It had been stabled at the home of Saverio Lo Duca, one of the richest men in Sicily – and one of his horses is missing too. When Montalbano finds that he and his home are under threat he wonders who he has upset – and the list of possibilities is disturbingly large and influential. Full review...
Sweet Money by Ernesto Mallo and Katherine Silver
A man whose nickname is Mole (and it suits him just perfectly) is released from prison. He's described as your average Joe Public, your man in the street so normal in every way that no one would look twice at him. And that's the point. He's clever and resourceful enough to blend into any crowd and in any situation. Now that he's served his time behind bars, has he become a reformed man? Is he going to opt for a lawful way of life from now on? You'd perhaps think so, wouldn't you? Full review...
Grievous Angel by Quintin Jardine
I recently read (and reviewed) Jardine's The Loner and found it an engaging work of fiction, so I was looking forward to dipping into my first Bob Skinner Mystery. I think the front cover alone may very well tempt readers with its attention-grabbing graphics which shouts out 'read me'. Full review...
London Calling: An Inspector Carlyle Novel by James Craig
The current government had been looking a little sickly in the polls for a while and it seemed that Edgar Carlton – charismatic and ruthless – had only to get to the finish line to be the next Prime Minister. His twin brother, Xavier, would be the next Foreign Secretary. Then a murderer targets former members of the Merrion Club – an exclusive, hedonistic group of undergraduates at Cambridge University – and this includes Edgar, Xavier and the current mayor of London, Christian Holyrod. Inspector John Carlyle of the Metropolitan Police doesn't take that long to work out why this is happening and who is at risk – but who is doing it is an entirely different matter. Full review...
