Newest Crime Reviews
Cold Hearts by Gunnar Staalesen
After refusing a prospective client, who afterwards viciously assaulted another prostitute, Margrethe goes missing. Her worried friend from the street visits Varg Veum, a local private investigator, in the hope that he will take the case and get to the bottom of it without the need for police involvement. Varg then investigates every lead and attempts to discover all he can about the missing woman’s unusual upbringing, racking up more trouble and past cases as well as creating dangerous enemies. Full review...
The Interpretations by David Shaw Mackanzie
The Interpretations is the second novel written by David Shaw Mackanzie. It's set in the Scottish Highlands, in the remote town of Dalmore, after the strange disappearance of one of its residents. The book is split into two parts. Part one takes place in the late 1980s while part two takes place in the early 2000s. In the first part we meet Tom Kingsmill, born and bred in Dalmore. Tom participates in a race with his local running club. Part of the race route Tom is expected to run leads over the newly-built bridge connecting Dalmore with the outside world. This bridge is the one Reverend McFarren has an obsessive hatred for. He believes the bridge is a bad omen after two teenagers jumped to their deaths just the month before. No one could have predicted the way in which the reverend's hunch is proved correct. Tom fails to finish the race - in fact, he has vanished entirely. Full review...
The Gift of Darkness by VM Giambanco
Thirteen days. These are the words etched into the door jamb of James and Annie Sinclair's bedroom while James, Annie and their two young sons lay on the bed, murdered. Newbie in the Seattle PD homicide division, Detective Alison Madison, gradually realises a truth as horrific as the scene with which she and her colleagues are faced. It all started with a historic kidnapping from 25 years earlier and now time is running out. Thirteen days… They aren't just carved words, they're a ticking clock. Thirteen days to solve the case. Thirteen days before darkness descends. Full review...
The Red Road by Denise Mina
Everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing when they heard that Princess Diana was dead, right? On that August night fourteen-year-old (but she looks sixteen, as she would tell you herself) Rose Wilson snapped. She'd been pimped out by her boyfriend and let down by everyone - but that night she committed two dreadful crimes and it seemed that her life was over. Then a defence lawyer took pity on her and set out to save her from the worst consequences. Well over a decade later DI Alex Morrow is a witness in the case of Michael Brown. Brown is vicious and brutal, damaged beyond hope of salvation but Morrow knows that something is wrong when fingerprint evidence places him at the site of a murder committed the week before - when he was safely in prison. Full review...
Stolen by Rebecca Muddiman
Stolen is a gripping tale about a child who is abducted. Her mother, Abbie, was forced from her car, taken off in a van and brutally attacked. Eventually, abandoned by her attackers, she found help from passing travellers but by the time that she returned to her car, Beth, her baby, had disappeared. A police search ensued but neither Abbie’s attackers nor the baby could be found. Things are further complicated when Paul, Abbie’s husband, discovers that he is not Beth’s natural father. He leaves Abbie alone but she refuses to accept that her daughter might be dead. Full review...
Midnight in Havana by Peggy Blair
It’s Christmas day in Havana and Inspector Ramirez is called to investigate the murder of a young boy. All initial clues lead to one man and it seems almost an open and shut case. Canadian tourist and detective Mike Ellis is the prime suspect and is apprehended very swiftly. Ellis has no choice but to trust that the Cuban legal system with all its flaws and peculiarities will actually give him the chance of a fair investigation. Midnight in Havana is the debut novel by Peggy Blair and presents us with a compelling mystery set within an exciting setting with a legal system that really adds to the suspense of the story. Full review...
The Start of Everything by Emily Winslow
After some flooding, the badly decomposed body of a teenage girl was washed up in the fens outside Cambridge. The major problem for DI Chloe Frohmann and DCI Morris Keene isn't how she got there - but who she is. There's no identification on her and despite the fact that she's obviously been dead for some time no one seems to have missed her. No family is in distress. No friends are worried about what has become of her. No employer is concerned about what has happened. Meanwhile, in Cambridge Mathilde Oliver the daughter of a don is trying to trace the Katja. Letters are being delivered to Corpus Christi College addressed to her, but she doesn't seem to exist. Also at the university a student dropped out of her course: Grace Rhys was uncertain about whether or not she wanted to study Maths and took a job as a nanny at Deeping House, the home of three families, another nanny and a young writer. Full review...
Evil and the Mask by Fuminori Nakamura
The novel begins when the protagonist is only eleven years old, and spans the rest of his life, alternating between the past and the present in the first half of the novel, until we catch up with the present day. At the start young Fumihiro is summoned to the room of his elderly father, the present president of the Kuki Group of interlinked corporations across Japan. What transpires next is a monologue from Fumihiro's father, telling the boy he was bred to be a cancer on the world and spread unhappiness. Fumihiro's father ends with introducing Fumihiro to his new adopted sister, Kaori, and informing them both that when they turn fourteen Kaori will be an integral cog in the plan to break Fumihiro's spirit; to 'show him hell'. Full review...
Children of the Jacaranda Tree by Sahar Delijani
Azar is in labour and about to give birth to her first child. Elsewhere she'd be looking forward to medical care for as long as she needs it and a good chance of a safe delivery. But this is Iran in 1983 and Azar is in the notorious Evin Prison for daring to believe in something different from the government. Amil saves date stones to make into a bracelet for his little baby as she grows into a child without him; he too is incarcerated. Even those on the outside need to be wary of what they say or do as Laila discovers when hair falls over her face while she's out walking. This isn’t the brave new world that the revolution was meant to provide, however it is the world in which they, their children and children's children will need to survive. Full review...
Invitation to Die by Helen Smith
I must confess I feel a little apprehensive writing this review. Why? It has to do with the subject matter of the book, a murder mystery set in a London Hotel. The murder victim just happens to be a blogger who writes book reviews [laughs to self nervously] and one of the key suspects is a writer who has taken offense at the poor reception that her book has received online. I keep telling myself that this is only fiction. Only fiction. Full review...
Never Forget by Lisa Cutts
DC Nina Foster isn't that unusual in the police force. She's perhaps a little overweight and a little too fond of wine. Her relationships don't tend to last but then the unpredictable hours which the job demands don't help in that area. She has some good friends within the force - part camaraderie, part common interest and a lot of knowledge that that these are the people you might be relying on in an emergency. Nina does have one secret though and it relates back to her childhood. She does her best not to give what happened to her any room in her head and most of the time it works. Most people have no idea about her history. Then a frenzied stabbing pulls Nina into her first murder investigation and the Major Incident Room. Full review...
Bryant and May and the Invisible Code by Christopher Fowler
Never judge a book by its cover? Oh come on... Doesn't that do a huge disservice to the army of graphic designers designing those covers? To be fair, the designers don't get the final say and we've all read things that didn't do what they said on the tin, but I think it's time we started giving a bit of credit to those that do. Full review...
Plan D by Simon Urban and Katy Derbyshire (Translator)
October 2011 and the Berlin wall is still intact. Inspector Martin Wegener of the East German People's Police faces another day dividing his mind between thoughts of his luscious ex-lover Karolina and work. On this particular day 'work' is a body found hanging from the GDR section of gas pipeline that joins Russian to Europe. Not only is he hanging, the deceased has eight knots round his neck and his shoe laces are tied together: a Stasi trademark. Who is he and why are the Stasi killing again? Martin needs answers and they're sending a West Berlin detective in to help him find them; not the best start to a day. Full review...
The Trader of Saigon by Lucy Cruickshanks
In the Saigon of the 1980s the Vietnam War is over but the traces remain. Alexander has deserted from the US army and makes a comfortable living selling girls to local business men. Phuc used to be a business man, complete with mansion and the means to keep his wife and three children in affluence. Now his family live in a shanty hut, afraid of the ruling government that spies through the eyes of children. At last he finds a way out, his luck just needs to hold. Hanh also lives in poverty, desperately trying to help her sick mother with the pittance she earns from cleaning one of the city's many open latrines. Then one day she meets someone who offers so much more. His name is Alexander. Full review...
What Lot's Wife Saw by Ioanna Bourazopoulou and Yannis Panas (Translator)
It's been over 20 years since The Overflow came, flooding half of Europe. Around the same time Violet Salt, a new multi-functional mineral, appeared, its production now governed globally by the mysterious, all-powerful Consortium. Meanwhile back in Europe The Colony, a haven for those escaping floods and indeed justice, is ruled by Governor Bera and six officials, the 'Purple Stars'. All seems to be well in a despotic, lawless way until the six wake up to the realisation that the Governor has died mysteriously in the night. The Consortium needs answers so choose the greatest crossword compiler of the age, Phileas Book, to investigate, whether he wants to or not. Full review...
Everyone Lies by A D Garrett
Detective Chief Inspector Kate Simms has something of a reputation within the force. It's not a good one and probably best summed us as unreliable: as she said herself, she spent four years on the naughty step all because she helped a colleague when she shouldn't have done. There's something of a history between her and Professor Nick Fennimore - a certain sexual tension which definitely shouldn't be there - but despite his history of failures he's the best there is when it comes to forensics. He's been in academia rather than practicing in the mainstream since his wife and daughter disappeared. His wife's body was found, but he's still obsessed about what happened to his ten-year-old daughter - and it's been five years. Full review...
To Catch a Rabbit by Helen Cadbury
Sean Denton's grandmother always said that his smile was his biggest asset. He wasn't overburdened with other qualifications. Being a Police Community Support Officer was OK for him but he was out of his depth when two young lads took him to the body of a young woman at a disused catering caravan. He was even more confused when when no one seemed that worried about who she was or what had happened - and deciding to look into it himself wasn't the cleverest thing he'd ever done. Full review...
The Dance Of The Seagull (Inspector Montalbano Mysteries) by Andrea Camilleri
Montalbano was about to go on holiday with his girlfriend Livia and it was quite an event as they hadn't seen each other for three months. As he sat on his verandah Montalbano saw the death throes of a seagull - it was almost a macabre dance - and he couldn't get what happened out of his mind, convinced that it was an ill omen. When he picked Livia up at the airport he told her that he had to go into the office but that he would be home quickly. He meant it too. The first problem began when Fazio's wife rang to say that he hadn't arrived home since going out to meet Montalbano the night before. The second problem was that there had been no arrangement to meet the previous evening. In the context of what would happen that night the fact that Montalbano completely forgot about Livia was no more than a small blip. Full review...
Pray for the Dying: A Bob Skinner Mystery by Quintin Jardine
Chief Constable Bob Skinner is in a very difficult situation. His race to prevent a murder didn't quite work out and he's now outside the theatre where what he dreaded has happened. There's carnage outside too: the killers have shot two policemen, one fatally and Skinner himself is responsible for the death of one of the killers. The other was killed by a member of the Security Services, but he'll need to be quietly airbrushed out of the record. Before long Skinner finds himself having to take on a role which he has always said that he would never want. And that's besides investigating whether or not the victim was the intended target and who was behind the operation because it's obvious that this was a professional hit. Full review...
Black Skies by Arnaldur Indridason
Detective Sigurdur Oli has worked himself into a difficult situation. It would be easy to ask why he did what he did. Easier still to say that he's doing the job he wanted to do, but a school reunion left him over-awed by the success of some of his contemporaries and when one of them asked for his help in sorting out a small matter it was a way of demonstrating his position to be able to say that he would help. A friend of his friend was being blackmailed over some photographs taken at a wife-swapping party and Sigurdur Oli agreed to have a word with the blackmailers and retrieve the photographs. It should have been simple - but when he arrived at their home the woman had just been brutally attacked and Sigurdur Oli only just avoided the same fate. He should have come clean about exactly what he was doing there. He didn't. Full review...
The Resistance Man: A Bruno Courreges Investigation by Martin Walker
When Old Murcoing passed on the priest called on Bruno Courreges, the chief of police in St Denis, as Murcoing had died clutching a bank note from the legendary Neuvic train robbery which happened in 1944. Murcoing had battled to find out what really happened to the money from the robbery - the reserves of the Banque de France - as the Resistance had certainly seen only a small part of it. That's not what's immediately concerning Bruno though. As a member of the Resistance Murcoing would have his funeral paid for by the state and it would be up to Bruno to organise this. He's also concerned with a series of burglaries on his patch - and it seems that one of them has led to a brutal murder. Full review...
Penitence by Bruce Crowther
Phil Davis is a detective in a small town in Texas and he's intrigued rather than professionally involved when he sees the body of an elderly road accident victim whose back is covered with scars which have obviously been inflicted over years if not decades. There's no suggestion that the death was anything other than accidental but Davis starts to wonder when he hears of other men with similar scars who have met an untimely - if seemingly innocent - death recently. And all his investigative instincts are alive when he encounters FBI agent Luis Valdez - seemingly one of the big beasts of the agency who's spending time looking into a murder with which he was incidentally involved as an adolescent some twenty five years earlier. To cap it all, someone was tried for the crime and has been in a mental institution since, so what is Valdez doing? Full review...
A Darkness Descending (Sandro Cellini) by Christobel Kent
It was a new political party and it seemed to have caught the public's imagination, particularly the young and even some older people, embarrassed by the antics of their prime minister. Then the leader, Niccolo Rosselli collapsed at a rally - but there was worse to come. His partner, Flavia, disappeared leaving behind a devastated Niccolo - and a baby who was only a matter of weeks old. She was found in a down-at-heel hotel, where she'd ended her life in the bathroom. But why would she do it? Why did she not leave a note? Sandro Cellini was called in to investigate - but quite what was he investigating? Full review...
The Detective's Daughter by Lesley Thomson
Terry Darnell - formerly Detective Inspector Darnell - came out of the Co-op in a village on the south coast, with the makings of an impromptu breakfast in a carrier bag and died of a heart attack on the way back to his car. He hadn't see a lot of his daughter in the last few years, but the death saddened Stella. She ran a cleaning company - Clean Slate - and was obsessive about cleaning and cleanliness, with her life based on order and it wasn't long before she began clearing her father's house. Hidden away in the attic were case papers relating to the Rokesmith murder, which had occurred some thirty years earlier and which had never been solved. Full review...
Just What Kind of Mother Are You? by Paula Daly
Lisa Kallisto is almost the typical Mum. She's got a husband and three children and she's permanently tired. Her full-time job at the local animal rescue centre frequently spills over into her home life and she's constantly chasing around trying to catch up with what she ought to have done. Husband Joe is a taxi driver and they can only just manage to afford the rent on their cottage in the picturesque lake district. It's normally pretty crime free but then a young girl - really only a child - is abducted and brutally raped. Then another girl of about the same age goes missing and Lisa was responsible for her safety. What do you say, what do you do in that situation? Lisa is about to find out. Full review...
Chilled to the Bone by Quentin Bates
It would have been embarrassing for the shipowner to be found tied to his bed in one of Reykjavik's smartest hotels, abandoned in the middle of an obvious bondage session, but he was past caring. Death was from natural causes. It would have been easy for Sergeant Gunnhildur Gisladottir to write this off as an unfortunate accident, but instinct told her that things were not quite as they seemed. Some discreet questioning around the hotels in the city brought to light several similar incidents, with the victims relieved of their credit cards and cash and grateful to keep everything quiet. It's almost benign crime, but then some disturbing connections came to light. Full review...
A Delicate Truth by John le Carre
It's 2008 and Paul is recruited by, apparently, the government to assist in an undercover operation in Gibraltar. It's perfectly straightforward and its success will impede a cell of Al Qaeda. Paul performs, is thanked and taken home without complications. Fast forward to 2011 and Toby Bell is promoted to the role of private secretary for Paul's recruiter, MP Fergus Quinn. Whilst acquainting himself with Quinn's CV, Toby uncovers the story of the mission, discovering not only Quinn's involvement but hints that it may not have been as straightforward as all that. Quinn also appears to have been connected with an organisation that's not all it seems, unfortunately for a particular pillar of a Cornish community for whom life will never be the same again. Full review...
