Newest Crime Reviews
Crime
Standing in Another Man's Grave by Ian Rankin
I've always had the suspicion that Ian Rankin thought too much of John Rebus to allow him to fade away and he'd certainly not kill him off, so it's an elegant solution to bring him back as a civilian attached to the police force and working on cold cases. It's purely by accident that he encounters Nina Hazlitt whose daughter Sally disappeared whilst on a trip to Aviemore many years before. Her body has never been found and her mother is still determined that she will find out what happened to her. She has some other information too - other girls have gone missing and there's a common thread. They all disappeared from close to the A9 over a period of years. Rebus is intrigued - and it won't hurt to have a look at the files, will it? Full review...
The Age of Doubt by Andrea Camilleri
The rain was dreadful and when he left for work Montalbano had only driven a matter of yards before he found that part of the road had been washed away, but it led to an encounter with a strange young woman, who - in turn - made Montalbano curious about a yacht in the harbour. He should have been concentrating on the corpse found floating in a dinghy at the harbour mouth but it was the Vanna which seemed to keep surfacing in his thoughts. Well, when he wasn't thinking about Lieutenant Belladonna - Laura - at the Harbour authority that is. She wasn't strange at all. Full review...
Crime and Guilt by Ferdinand von Schirach and Carol Brown Janeway (translator)
A fictitious, unnamed German criminal defence lawyer opens his files and takes us through some of the cases with which he's been involved over the years. Each of the eleven chapters is a fully formed recollection introducing us to such people as tragic Theresa and Leonhard, a sister and brother bound by deep affection despite the 'tough love' tactics of their millionaire father, the tale of the two muggers who picked the wrong (and very mysterious) victim and the story of Dr Fahner's fatal promise made to his wife. Full review...
They Call Me... Montey Greene by A R Yoba
He didn't believe in coincidences but he did believe in conspiracies.
Little does Montey Greene know how well this motto will serve him. Aside from a brief hold-up at customs, Montey is thoroughly enjoying his holiday in Milan. Recently separated from his wife, he's enjoying eyeing up all the lovely Italian women, meeting up with friends, and just generally pleasing himself. Full review...
The Gingerbread House by Carin Gerhardsen
In the late nineteen sixties there was a child in a preschool class at Katrineholm in Sweden. He was the one most of the others turned on. It was more than teasing. In fact it was far more than bullying and in adults it would have been called torture, but everyone - including the teacher - looked the other way and that boy grew up to be the outsider, without friends or family. One day, nearly forty years later and in Stockholm he recognised one of his tormentors and followed him to his cheerful, prosperous family home. Hans Vannerberg was a partner in an estate agency which he'd helped to build himself. Not long afterwards he would be discovered - brutally murdered - on the kitchen floor of a woman with whom he seemed to have no connection and who found him when she returned home from hospital. It was the first in a series of brutal murders in and around Stockholm. Full review...
The Greater Thief by Alexandra Carey
Shots ring out on a London street. Among those listening are three people for whom the effects will echo for a lot longer than the sound itself. Policeman's daughter and student Alice is sitting in a nearby pub doing uni work. Paul the local trainee vicar is on parish business. His connection is fancying Alice. They're friends and almost became an item but Paul is a lot older than she is, his hopes finally being dashed when she met Josh. Yes, Josh, a gang member with both a conscience and a heart, is the third person. The page from a book of poetry given to him by Alice is found on the resulting body. Did Josh commit the murder? Can Alice help him? And, if Paul is going to assist, how far dare he go? Full review...
A Grain of Truth by Zygmunt Miloszewski and Antonia Lloyd-Jones (translator)
State Prosecutor Teodor Szacki is attempting to recover from a broken marriage and has left Warsaw. He is prone to cheerless thoughts especially if deprived of his soothing iced tea. It is the very start of spring in the legendary and magical Polish town of Sandomierz on the banks of the Vistula. Szacki, who does not like to be bored, is soon preoccupied in solving a ghastly murder that has been staged in the style of a Jewish ritual and this particular city is notorious for ancient, tense and deep rooted relations between Catholics and Jews. To solve this crime Szacki will need to delve into the murky history of occupation; Nazis, Communists and patriots. He will also need to face his own self-doubts. He must search for 'A Grain of Truth' under the critical gaze of local citizens enflamed by press paranoia. Full review...
The Collini Case by Ferdinand von Schirach
'Later they would all remember it…the man was gigantic, and they all mentioned the smell of sweat'.
The man concerned is Fabrizio Collini, a quiet, respectable man, for thirty-four years a diligent worker at Mercedes Benz, an unexceptional person. Then, one day, he walked into a luxury Berlin hotel, up to the Brandenburg Suite and pulled a trigger. At least four times. Full review...
The Crime of Julian Wells by Thomas H Cook
American travel writer Julian Wells walks out of the house he shares with his sister, wanders down to the garden lake, rows himself out to the centre and slits his wrists. He dies alone as he silently watches his life drip into the water. Devastated, his friend and frequent travel companion Philip Anders, tries to come to terms with the loss the only way he can: by attempting to understand. Julian dedicated a book to Philip, mentioning a 'crime' that Philip had witnessed. Philip had always thought it to be a flip reference to his comment from years before that it would be a crime for Julian to waste time writing a certain piece, but, in the light of tragic events, is this actually the case? Is there a crime in the author's past? As Philip retraces the essence of Julian through his words, the places they visited and people they encountered he slowly uncovers secrets and a dangerous obsession. Full review...
Even Flow by Darragh McManus
Jonathon Bailey, Cathy Morrissey and Patrick Broder of Network 4 News sit in a viewing room unable to believe their eyes as the courier-delivered VT flickers in front of them. Wealthy banker's son and society playboy Cliff Hudson seems to be suspended from the top of a tall building by his ankles. He's tied to a friend identified as 'Steve', both terror stricken and whimpering an apology prompted by three men oddly dressed in tuxedos and balaclavas. As the city will soon come to realise, these men (pseudonyms Wilde, Whitman and Waters) are the 3W Gang, sworn to do society's dirty work for it as they isolate and punish bigots. Crusaders or criminals? Detective Danny Everard of the NYPD doesn't have the luxury of choosing, just the headache of trying to catch them. Full review...
Lamb by Bonnie Nadzam
David Lamb is anchored to his life by his career, his affair-ridden marriage and caring for his father. Over time, his wife divorces him, his father dies and his employers insist he takes a period of enforced leave. So what's left? There is just one constant remaining: his friendship with Tommie who, he feels, would be an ideal holiday companion. He suggests that they both take a short trip as it would do them both good and Tommie agrees eagerly. The adventure then begins in the form of a journey to a beautiful, remote cabin. David is 54 years old and Tommie? She's 11. Full review...
I Remember You by Yrsa Sigurdardottir
Too often, people – such as myself – refer to a book as being a rollercoaster read, mostly down to a simply topsy-turvy plot. But this is the true embodiment of a white-knuckle ride. It has the anxiety of the queue as we watch three people – a couple and another young woman – get ferried across the fjord to one of western Iceland's most remote outposts, with the aim being to renovate an old building as a guesthouse. There's the crunch of the roll-cage protection bars locking us in as we find that something very malevolent is hiding in the tiny settlement. And just as the car starts we might be seeking in vain the relieved thumbs-up from those leaving the ride, telling us all is well and all survived. Full review...
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...
