Newest Crime Reviews
Crime
The Dark Winter by David Mark
Just a couple of weeks before Christmas Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy was with his young son in the centre of Hull when he was alerted by screaming. The noise was coming from the church and McAvoy so nearly caught the man responsible. He'd brutally murdered a young girl who had already escaped as the only survivor when her family was slaughtered during the conflict in Sierra Leone. It's a difficult time for the police with a relatively new team at the Serious and Organised Crime Squad and it's a little while before the links to two other deaths emerge. Fred Stein had been the sole survivor of the loss of one of the three trawlers from Hull which went down in early 1968. He'd been part of a documentary about the loss but had disappeared - off Iceland - in the course of the filming. He was later discovered - dead in a drifting lifeboat. Full review...
Do Me No Harm by Julie Corbin
Dr Olivia Somers is minding her own business, trying to raise two kids alone in the wake of her divorce, when everything goes wrong and her son, Robbie, ends up in hospital. It’s hard to work out what really happened, or even if Robbie is giving her the full story, but when there’s a further incident, this time involving a break in at their home, it becomes clear that these are no random attacks, and someone is out to get them. With the help of a friendly (and handsome) detective, Olivia tries to piece together the puzzle to work who is behind the trouble, and it’s a race against time to figure it out before the next unwelcome surprise from the culprit. Full review...
Herring on the Nile by L C Tyler
A motley crowd of oddball characters (few of whom end up being who they say they are), find themselves as travelling companions on a luxury paddle steamer, cruising up the Nile. And when a murder occurs, it soon becomes clear that only a member of the crew or one of the guests could have done the dastardly deed. A couple of amateur detectives have to work fast to discover who pulled the trigger. Sound familiar? Full review...
The Betrayal of Trust: A Simon Serrailler Novel by Susan Hill
After the wettest summer for a hundred years we'll all be familiar with what happened in Lafferton. Heavy rain caused a landslip on the moors, blocking the nearby road. Thankfully, what we're not familiar with was the presence of a shallow grave and the skeleton of a teenage girl. The sharp eyes of one of the forensic team spotted that something wasn't quite right in another area - and a second grave was revealed. It was easy to identify the first body - the young girl had gone missing from the town sixteen years before - but the second body proved more difficult. And, in a time of financial cuts and staff shortages it's down to Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Serrailler to tackle the cold case on his own with just a little help on the new murder case. Full review...
The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura
The Thief is content roaming the streets of Tokyo, living on the contents of its wealthier citizens' pockets until, his original partner in crime (literally) introduces him to Kizaki, a local shady big shot. Kizaki wants the Thief's help on a straightforward job. He will just be one of a team tasked with breaking into a rich speculator's home, scaring him a little, taking the contents of his safe and departing. No rough stuff and the financial settlement Kizaki offers will more than compensate the pickpocket for his time. Full review...
The Shadow of What we Were by Luis Sepulveda
Chile, the modern day. Four elderly men meet for one last time, planning something suspiciously underhand, having made arrangements - and discussed Internet dating - online. We're let into the fact that the grandfather of one was a bank robber in a classic tale of Robin Hood-style wealth distribution, but as to what the outcome of their plans might be we're forced to wait. Elsewhere a domestic incident leads to a bizarre death - by record player. And you can just tell I'm suggesting you wait to discover the link... Full review...
Split Second by Cath Staincliffe
On a late December evening, Emma Curtis is on a bus travelling home from work when she becomes aware of a young lad being picked on by three others. Too scared to intervene, she sits alone feeling guilty but taking everything in. To her shame, nineteen year old student, Jason Barnes, comes downstairs on the bus and immediately challenges the three youths. Luke, the young victim, leaps off the bus and a chase follows. Jason continues to try and defend Luke, and they end up in Jason's front garden where his parents witness the brutal attack. Eventually the trio run off leaving Luke unconscious on the snowy ground. Worse still, is the realisation that Jason has been stabbed and tragically it turns out to be fatal. Full review...
Ten Weeks in Africa by JM Shaw
Stephen and Martha Odinga live with their younger siblings and ailing mother in the Makera slums, near Kisuru in Batanga, Africa. Their father was killed by the Army of Celestial Peace so they try to make a living on the streets. Corruption flows through Batanga like sewage through Makera though, and the protection payments they need to pay the police to continue trading are becoming prohibitive so Stephen searches for better paid employment in questionable career areas. Full review...
Sleepwalkers by Tom Grieves
Ben is the devoted proud father of two young children, the happily married husband of Carrie and a skilled car mechanic. He has all the makings of a wonderful life that would actually become one if he could just get a decent night's sleep. The problem is that he's haunted by vivid, violent nightmares. Meanwhile across town, 15 year old Toby also has nightmares and, on top of this, a body scarred with abuse, a fact his teacher, Anna, is determined to do something about. His parents have the appearance of people who love him but, where child abuse is concerned, that means nothing. Anna cares enough to get involved, not realising that it's an involvement that could cost her life. Indeed, as all three of them are about to find out, not all nightmares end on waking. Full review...
The Devil's Cave: A Bruno Courreges Investigation by Martin Walker
Easter was just two weeks away when Satanism came to St Denis. The naked body of a woman was spotted in an old punt drifting down the river. There looked to be a tattoo of a pentagram on her body and there were black candles at each end of the punt – but there was nothing to indicate the identity of the woman or where she had come from. Bruno Courreges, the Chief of Police had enough on his plate without this: he'd had an anonymous letter about some domestic abuse which had to be looked into and the town held a development proposal which seemed just too good to be true – even though it might mean that Bruno got the sports hall which he'd been after for quite a while. Full review...
No Sale by Patrick Conrad
The first suspect in a wife's murder is always the husband, and so it is with Shelley Cox, but Victor, a film professor, claims it must have been suicide. A picture emerges of a sad, alcoholic woman, who had an almost different identity and personality while out drinking in Antwerp's docklands area. Victor is happy enough to replace her with an enveloping relationship with a student who matches his knowledge and mimics his idols. But still, Shelley was the victim of a crime, and if the police who keep calling on Victor are correct, it could be but one of a series... Full review...
In Her Blood by Annie Hauxwell
Catherine Berlin is known to everyone simply as 'Berlin'. She's in her mid fifties, a civilian investigator with the Financial Services Agency - and she's been a heroin addict for more than twenty years. It's largely controlled by her GP - one of the few understanding ones left - who prescribes pharmaceutical-grade heroin on her weekly visit to his surgery. He's taught her to manage her addiction. Then two problems come together. On a pre-arranged meet with an informant who has information about a loan shark she finds the woman's body floating in Limehouse Basin - with the head nearly severed from the body. And when she visits her GP's surgery she finds another body. Then it's not just her job that's at risk. Full review...
The Silence by Alison Bruce
It seemed to begin when Joey McCarthy was stabbed to death in a pub car park. He'd arrived in his posh (if not quite new) car and lost his life in a random attack of violence. Charlotte Stone's mother died not long afterwards. There wasn't really anything suspicious about this (although her children thought that their father hadn't really done enough to help) and soon after two teenage friends committed suicide. Then DC Gary Goodhew found the body of another suicide victim and it brought to mind another investigation which had a profound effect on him - and a connection was made between him and Charlotte Stone. Full review...
The Caller by Karin Fossum
Lily's baby daughter was asleep in the garden when her husband came home and it was so peaceful that they allowed her to sleep on a little longer, but when they went to bring her in she was covered in blood. It seemed to be coming from her mouth - but when they got her to hospital there was no injury and it was apparently a practical joke. But that evening a message was left on Inspector Konrad Sejer's mat: 'Hell begins now'. It was the first in a series of such incidents. They weren't planned to cause physical harm but they left the victims shaken, feeling harassed and worried. Full review...
The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes by Marcus Sakey
A man struggles onto a deserted beach in Maine, United States, after almost drowning but, far from feeling relieved, he realises that something has been left behind – his memory. He finds an unlocked prestige car, a set of dry clothes that fit, some money, a gun and an urge to leave. (I know - if it had been a British beach, I'd have given it 5 minutes before it was empty and the wheels were off! Sorry... I digress...) So, driving to a local motel, he tries to find some glimmer of a past or an identity. The car belongs to a Daniel Hayes, so that's what he'll call himself for now. Then, by coincidence, it becomes more than that; it's becomes the name that the armed police yell as they surround his room. Can a man discover his past whilst outrunning his present? Someone is about to find out. Full review...
Hard-Hearted by David Barrie
It was difficult to think that anything was other than odd. A beautiful woman was savagely attacked in one of Paris' most elegant neighbourhoods, but all she took with her as she ran from the house was an old book - and a shawl. Even stranger was that she was a Sorbonne professor and she was dating a hedge fund manager. Then there was the influential Bank which did its best to persuade Captain Franck Guerin to carry out a couple of arrests - not necessarily because it would aid the case he was working on, but because it would help them. Throw in a billionaire who sleeps in the poorest hotels rather than at the beautiful home which he half owns and a serial seductress with an unusual line in honesty and you can see why Guerin is finding life a little confusing. Full review...
The Saint Zita Society by Ruth Rendell
Hexam Place in Pimlico is an exclusive street of white-painted stucco Georgian houses lived in by the rich and by those who serve them, who are far from rich. The help are a motley assortment of drivers, au pairs, cleaners and gardeners who decide to form the St Zita Society - Zita being the patron saint of domestic servants - but its purpose is occasionally hard to determine. There are minor problems they want to tackle, such as dog excrement being bagged and left in the street and situations where they have little hope of having any impact, such as none of the servants being invited to a particular social occasion. Perhaps the main purpose is to give an excuse for meeting in the pub. Full review...
Criminal by Karin Slaughter
The apartment in Atlanta was particularly sordid but made horrifying by the brutally-murdered body of a woman. Special agent Will Trent is almost involved in the investigation but his boss Amanda Wagner seems determined to keep him at arm's length. The murder brings back memories for Wagner of a murder in the city more than thirty five years ago - before Will was born - but Trent receives some disturbing news which has him going back to the children's home where he grew up. How does it all fit together? Full review...
The Village by Nikita Lalwani
A BBC film crew is sent to India to make a documentary about an Indian prison with a difference. There are no walls, the prisoners hold down jobs and their families live with them as a condition of acceptance. In fact, to all intents and purposes, it seems like an ordinary village which is all the more unusual when you consider that they all share the same crime category; all the prisoners have been convicted of murder. The programme makers (20-something British-born, Indian director Ray, ruthless producer Serena and ex-convict-turned-presenter, Nathan) are expecting an eventful shoot and, in return, the inhabitants are expecting a film unit exhibiting the standards for which the BBC has become world famous. Both parties will be sorely disappointed. Full review...
Eden Moore - Wings to the Kingdom by Cherie Priest
Dead soldiers from the American Civil War have been seen wandering around the Chickamauga National Park in Georgia, site of a notable Confederate victory in 1863. They don't speak, just point forlornly as locals turn and flee in the opposite direction. Eden Moore would rather ignore it completely, especially as show business psychics Tripp and Diana Marshall have already started investigating, complete with camera crew and full entourage. However, eventually her curiosity (and her friends' unstinting nagging) gets to her and she agrees to trespass after dark, quickly discovering that the gesticulating dead are a minor problem compared to the reason they've awoken. Full review...
The Blind Goddess by Anne Holt
Here is a rum do - a Nordic crime, and the launch episode of a currently successful series, that has sat untranslated for almost twenty years? What's more, when you start reading you may think the main character the author would choose to use as her principal heroine in future books should not be Hanne Wilhemsen, the too-good-to-be-true lipstick lesbian policewoman, but commercial lawyer Karen Borg, who is thrust into a world of criminal proceedings when a man who has clearly murdered another demands her and only her as the outlet of his truth. Is this a wise move from him - and just what is the game afoot, and who are the other main players? Full review...
The Black Path: A Rebeka Martinsson Investigation by Asa Larsson and Marlaine Delargy (translator)
In the far north of Sweden the frozen body of a woman was found in fishing hut out on the lake. She’d been tortured but the injury which killed her was clumsy, even amateur. Identification isn’t easy but it’s faily quick and Anna-Maria Mella and her colleagues hoped for a speedy end to the case. Then it all turned complicated when the body of a six-month-old suicide had to be exhumed and Mella and Rebecka Martinsson were drawn further and further into the investigation of corruption at one the country’s major mining companies. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, the mining company had enemies of its won - ones who would stop at nothing. Full review...
Until the Darkness Comes by Kevin Brooks
Private detective John Craine has returned to Hale Island, the scene of many childhood holidays, to get away from a painful past, his guilt, and his loss. And there's another reason - the possibility that he has a half-sister he's never met. But within hours of arriving, John discovers the body of a dead girl concealed in a pill box on the beach. He calls 999 but when the police arrive the body has disappeared and the officers clearly see him as a drunken fool prone to hysterical imaginings. Full review...
Portrait of a Spy by Daniel Silva
Gabriel Allon and his wife, Chiara, decide to rent a nice little Cornish cottage; the perfect hideaway in which to renovate art. A rosy domestic picture that, as any spy thriller aficionado will tell you isn't going to last long. It lasts, in fact, as long as it takes some middle-eastern terrorists to bomb Paris and Copenhagen and then move on to London's Covent Garden. Gabriel and Chiara are there, about to have lunch, but Gabriel is unable to concentrate on the menu and just let things happen. Mr and Mrs Allon end up being dragged back into the day job as they and their multi-national colleagues brandish a spectrum of experience and talent in order to take on a rogue Yemeni cleric who, embarrassingly enough, had been supported by the Americans. Full review...
Bed of Nails by Antonin Varenne and Sian Reynolds (translator)
When you're a policeman in Paris and your involvement in office politics takes a turn for the worse, you could end up in charge of suicides. That would make it your job to cope with all the jumpers, the pill-takers, the apparent suicide with two types of bullet through his head - even the naked men running into the flow of traffic around the ring-road. You might not get the case of the American junkie who dies performing a pierced-man act in a seedy club. No, looking into that is that man's closest friend, John, fresh from living in the French wilds as an outdoorsman. But in a Paris where cause of death can be so bizarre, a reason for death can have very far-reaching consequences... Full review...
Harry Lipkin, Private Eye: The Oldest Detective in the World by Barry Fantoni
Harry Lipkin may not be the fittest private investigator in Florida once you take into account his indigestion and his arthritis, but at 87 he's definitely the oldest. Despite this he still manages to make a steady living, picking up the little jobs that don't interest the police and Norma Weinberger's problem comes into that category. Small but expensive knick-knacks seem to be going missing from around the house so could it be a light-fingered member of staff? The suspects (the gardener, the butler, the maid and the chauffer) each have their own story and motive, leaving Harry to get the four down to a short list of one. A task that's perhaps a little harder than it sounds. Full review...
The Gilded Edge by Danny Miller
London: 1965
These were the dark days, when the Krays had yet to be brought to justice and the underworld in London was based on protection rackets and armed robberies.
These were the days when a politician getting caught with a call girl was a national scandal and generated genuine fear and outrage rather than a few front page headlines soon forgotten. The headlines generated then are still quoted now. Full review...
Meltwater (Fire and Ice) by Michael Ridpath
A group of internet activists decided to base themselves in Iceland whilst they prepared their latest exposé. This time it was a video of a purported Israeli attrocity which needed verifying and preparing for publication. All would have been well - or as well as such things ever are - if one of the group hadn't been murdered on a visit to a volcano. It was a volcano which caused the second problem - not the erruption of the small, pretty one which the group had visited with fatal consequences, but the big, ugly one which no one could pronounce and which disrupted air traffic all over Europe in the spring of 2010. Yes. That one. Eyjafjallajokull meant that travel too and from Iceland was exceedingly difficult and it disrupted the investigation of the murder. Full review...
The Wrong Man by Jason Dean
Ex-marine James Bishop worked for an elite protection company. The idea behind his last mission was to protect multi-millionaire Randall Brennan and his daughter Natalie but, instead, he found himself framed for murder. Who? Why? These why may be questions that need answering but that's not going to happen whilst he's serving a life sentence. However, where Bishop is concerned, that's only a minor blip compared to the task ahead. Full review...
