Newest Crime Reviews
The Wrong Girl by Laura Wilson
Phoebe Piper went missing on a family holiday in 2006 when she was just three years old and no trace of her has ever been found. There was a lot of publicity at the time and there still is some - particularly those computer-generated pictures which show what Phoebe would probably look now. The 'now' is seven years on and ten-year-old Molly Jackson is convinced that she is Phoebe Piper: she seems to have the proof. Life isn't going well for her at the moment: she's recently been uprooted from the life - and friends - she knew in London and is living in a Norfolk village, in the home of her great uncle Dan. Only, she's just found Dan dead in bed. Full review...
In the Company of Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon by Laurie R King and Leslie Klinger (editors)
Well, that's one way to get a heck of a lot of attention to your series of short story collections, for sure – get the estate of the author you're respecting to take you to court with the idea that the works cannot be published – the characters are so firmly established and entrenched, but established and entrenched as their property and therefore cannot be artistically reinterpreted, revived or otherwise returned to at all until full and final copyright statutes have expired. Never mind that the characters – one S Holmes and Dr JH Watson – hardly have parallels in how often they already have been mimicked. Never mind the fact that the estate of Conan Doyle was paid off in order for the first book to released. Still, the case was won and this sequel is in our hands. Is it worth all the legal documents? What is the important verdict, at the end of the reading day? Full review...
Raging Heat (Castle) (Nikki Heat 6) by Richard Castle
Fans of the television series Castle will come to this book ready-prepared for what’s going on, but for those unaware, in the series there is a character called Richard Castle who is an author. He observes a homicide detective, Kate Beckett, in her work and then writes a novel, Heat Wave, based on her character, changing Kate’s name to Nikki Heat and his own to Jameson Rook. After the book was written (in the television series) it was actually published in real life. Being a fan of Castle I immediately bought it and read it. To be honest, I found that the concept messed with my head too much! I kept thinking about who was who, within the book, translating Nikki’s name to Kate’s, and Rook’s to Castle, and it all became very confusing because even though Kate and Castle are 'real' they are, of course, fictional characters too! I didn’t read any more Nikki Heat books after that first one, until this one. It’s been a little while since I watched the TV series, and somehow coming at it fresh made a big difference and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Full review...
Half the World Away by Cath Staincliffe
Newly graduated Lori Maddox spends the year after University travelling, and visits China – working as a private English tutor. Back in Manchester, her estranged parents follow her adventures on her blog, “Lori in the Orient”. When all communication stops and silence persists, the parents report her missing, and learning that there is little they can do from Manchester, set out to China in order to search for their daughter. Flying to Chengdu, they have no knowledge of the country, customs or language, and are forced to turn detective in order to save their daughter… Full review...
The Slaughter Man by Tony Parsons
This is the second novel by Tony Parsons, which features DC Max Wolfe, single parent to daughter Scout, who first appeared in, The Murder Bag. This book is, without a doubt, a huge step up from the first in the series – an extremely fast paced, exciting crime novel, with a gripping plot and twisted characters. There is no guessing which turn the story will take as every page throws in another plot twist; it’s impossible to figure out who the killer is. On New Year’s Eve, a rich, well established family living in Highgate, London are brutally murdered and the four-year-old son has been abducted. Now it is up to Max to track down the child and figure out who was behind the murders. Full review...
I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh
A hit and run. A young boy killed. A family devastated. How can a mother ever recover from seeing her child killed right in front of her? When there are no leads, how can the police know where to look to bring someone to justice? Full review...
The Crime at Black Dudley by Margery Allingham
Black Dudley was unprepossessing from the outside, but imposing, if rather uncared for on the inside. It was isolated in dreary landscape and the location for a house party which George Abbershaw was attending. He hadn't particularly wanted to go and was convinced of the necessity only by the fact that the woman he loved would be a part of the party. The host was an invalid but apparently determined that his guests should enjoy themselves and was happy to have them re-enact the ritual of the Black Dudley Dagger. All the candles were extinguished and the dagger was passed amongst the guests: the atmosphere was sinister but the game seemed harmless enough, except that they would shortly discover that their host was dead. Full review...
No Place to Die by Clare Donoghue
It starts with a nightmare. Maggie Hungerford wakes out of one. Into another. She is awake, but this isn't her bed. This is the kind of place no-one should ever wake up. Full review...
As Chimney Sweepers Come To Dust by Alan Bradley
Flavia de Luce has left Buckshaw, the family home where she has lived all her life and has gone to school in Canada (actually, 'was sent' is more accurate - the decision was none of Flavia's making and she felt that she'd been banished). On the trip over she was accompanied by Dr Rainsmith and his wife, who were associated with Miss Bodycote's Female Academy, the school which Flavia would be attending. In fact, they delivered her there with scant ceremony late on the night they arrived. Flavia would have settled down to sleep, but first she was attacked by another pupil and then a dead body fell down the chimney. She already felt quite at home... Full review...
The Stolen Ones by Owen Laukkanen
By book four in any series things start to go one of two ways; stagnation or consolidation. Are these going to be a collection of books that slowly become the same story over and over again, or will the author distil what made the first books so good and build upon them for a stronger, richer and varied series? Looking at the score for ‘‘Stolen Ones’’, it would appear that the future is bright, the future is Owen Laukkanen. Full review...
Bryant and May – The Burning Man by Christopher Fowler
The Peculiar Crimes Unit (PCU) has a new set of overlords. For reasons that were explored in the previous couple of outings they have been transferred to the City Of London Police. The Met are still the big players in the area. City of London Police only police the old city, the square mile, the financial district in other words, that has very little in the way of street crime, because no-one lives there anymore and the people who work there are, by and large, either too rich to need to steal, or too smart to have to do so on the streets. Full review...
Mr Mercedes by Stephen King
Bill Hodges is a retired cop, spiralling down into a seemingly inescapable depression. Stuck at home each day watching dreadful American daytime TV, toying with the idea of shooting himself, it is only with the sudden arrival of a letter claiming to be from someone who committed an unsolved multiple murder, one of Hodges’ old cases, that he finds a new interest in staying alive. Is this actually the murderer? Why is he crawling out of the woodwork now? And can Hodges stop him from killing again? Full review...
The Detective's Secret by Lesley Thomson
Two 'hurricanes' link this story. There was the one in October 1987 which wasn't going to happen, but did and as it happened a man lay dying, locked inside an old water tower in west London. He had no identification, no one of his description was registered as missing and the body was never claimed. When the body was discovered there was a single, black glove on his back. In October 2103 there was the St Jude's storm. Late one night on the Piccadilly line a man seemed to jump beneath an oncoming train. Jack Harmon saw what happened and was sure that it was suicide, but the man's brother was convinced that it was murder. Full review...
Orkney Twilight by Clare Carson
18-year-old Sam Coyle's dad Jim is an undercover policeman. When he suggests that they take a trip to Orkney, somewhere they've enjoyed holidays in the past, Sam doesn't have to think about it, especially as she can take a friend. However for Jim it seems to be a working holiday, leaving Sam and her journalist student companion Tom to their own devices. Eventually they realise the same person is cropping up again and again, as if stalking them. Who is the watcher and what does he want? Until now her father's doom and gloom speeches have seemed a million miles from Sam's experience but now...? Full review...
Falling in Love by Donna Leon
Flavia Petrelli, who will be remembered by regular readers of the Commissario Guido Brunetti series as one of the suspects in the first case, Death at La Fenice, has returned to Venice to sing the lead in Tosca. But this time it's Petrelli who feels that she is a victim and for the strangest of reasons: she's being inundated with gifts. It began in other cities - the yellow roses thrown, in abundance, on to the stage, but this time there are even more roses. Her dressing room is filled with them and there's even a massive bouquet inside the locked apartment building where she's staying. It was Brunetti who proved her innocence the last time and it's to him that she turns with this latest problem. Full review...
A Possibility of Violence: An Inspector Avraham Avraham Novel (Inspector Avraham 2) by D A Mishani and Todd Hasak-Lowy (Translator)
Someone leaves a bomb outside a children's nursery in Tel Aviv. This time it's a fake. Next time? Police Inspector Avraham Avraham wants to find the bomber before next time as then it may not be pretence. Meanwhile Chaim Sara has a special interest in the bomb as one of his two sons attends the nursery. But is that the only reason he's interested? Full review...
Humber Boy B by Ruth Dugdall
We've all read the stories in the papers: children who kill, particularly children who kill children. We've always wondered what went through their minds as they did it. We've also wondered about what happens to them once they're no longer children, when they've grown up in prison and are then deemed fit to be freed back into real life. Full review...
Meet Me In Malmo by Torquil MacLeod
British journalist Ewan Strachan was invited to Malmo in Sweden to interview film director Mick Roslyn. They'd been friends at University but had drifted apart. Strachan was holding on to his job in journalism by the skin of his teeth, but Roslyn had made it big time in Sweden and was married to Malin Lovgren, the glamorous star of his latest film. It hadn't been easy to persuade his editor to fund the trip, but when Strachan found himself at the door of Roslyn's home at the appointed time there seemed to be no one there. When he tried the door he walked in only to find Lovgren dead on the floor. Full review...
Acts of the Assassins by Richard Beard
The rebellious cult leader is executed so that's that. Then someone steals the body. The police appoint Cassius Gallio to investigate but it all goes terribly wrong. He not only fails to find the body, the police informant from the initial conviction is killed in a way that mimics suicide. Gallio's career and life both stall until the case is secretly re-opened and he's deemed the man for the investigation as he's already comparatively invisible. It seems straightforward in that Gallio must uncover the truth but the people he needs to speak to are being culled one by one by the most innovative and bloodthirsty means. Full review...
Fallout (Tito Ihaka) by Paul Thomas
Maori Tito Ihaka may be disrespectful, brash and the sort of police sergeant who ploughs his own furrow but he gets results. He therefore seems the ideal investigating officer when the cold case of a murder at the party of a political high flier is reopened. However he's also given time to investigate something more personal: his father, union activist Jimmy Ihaka, may not have died through natural causes after all. Full review...
Soil by Jamie Kornegay
Jay Mize is a scientific man with a particular interest in soil and agriculture. He decides he is the one to pioneer a revolution in farming techniques and uproots his wife and son to set up an experimental farm on a plot of land in the country. Jay is also an obsessive man and his plans take over, becoming his only focus and causing his family to leave him. Then flooding ruins his crops and he is left at the end of his tether; things only get worse when Jay finds a dead body on his land and his tenuous grip on his sanity is released. Full review...
By Its Cover by Donna Leon
A prestigious library in the heart of Venice discovered that pages had been cut from many of its most valuable books and that several others were missing. This would normally have been investigated by a specialist department in Rome, but Commissario Guido Brunetti agreed to look into the thefts - partly for personal reasons and partly because it was the simplest way to move the problem forward. The staff at the library were certain that an American researcher was responsible, but there were quite a few factors which didn't quite add up for Brunetti and he decided to look at some of the other regular attenders at the library. Full review...
Elementary: The Ghost Line by Adam Christopher
Once an author dies, the characters they created are often left alone to live off this initial legacy, but it is increasingly normal to see past heroes rise again – quite literally in the likes of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Once out of copyright you can do what you like to a character; a character just like Sherlock Holmes. Not only do we get numerous new books starring Holmes set in the Victorian era, but there are currently two separate TV shows about modern Sherlockian adventures. Elementary is set in America and is more liberal than most adaptations with the lore, but can the tie in novel evoke any memories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle? Full review...
The Red House by Emily Winslow
On the face of it, it seemed quite simple. It was just that as you started to unravel what had happened, what might happen, there seemed to be more skins that on an onion. Maxwell Gant had taken his fiancee to meet his mother. He and Imogen were hoping to move to Cambridge, where Maxwell had applied for a job with one of the college choirs. Imogen had an unusual history - she had been adopted when she was eight after the deaths of her parents in a car crash. She'd managed to trace her two elder brothers after the four children had been adopted by different families, but she was still looking for her younger brother, Sebastian, who was only three at the time of the accident. Full review...
The Khazar Codex by Graham Fulbright
It's a brutal introduction to the story as a man is killed in the way that they did it in those days: two trees were pulled to the ground and the man lashed between them and then the trees were released. But that's only the background to the story which is set in the here and now and most of it is in The Kemble, a rather rundown theatre, which is presenting a revival of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia. On the opening night there's apparently a fire, but whilst most of the hostages are shepherded out of the theatre a group of seven members of the audience, two cast members and the prime minister's son, Nigel Hastings, are taken hostage. The 'terrorists' (for what else can you call people who take others hostage?) represent New METRO, a group of activists who are campaigning for disused underground stations to be converted for use by the homeless. Full review...
The Devil's Detective by Simon Kurt Unsworth
There are some obvious things in life (and death), but one of the most clear is that Hell will be Hellish. This is a place that sinners go to be punished. However, for every Dante’s Inferno, there is a depiction of hell that is not so bad. Who really wants to read something depressing about the desolation of souls, apart from those pesky 14th Century types? According to The Devil’s Detective, people in the 21st Century do too. Full review...
Death of A Liar by M C Beaton
Hamish Macbeth is still enjoying the relatively easy life of running the two-man station in remote Lochdubh in the highlands of Scotland. He could maybe do without current side-kick Dick Fraser's eternal presence on site, but has to admit that the man's cooking skills and his tendency to whip out a stove and frying pan in the remotest of locations do have their advantages. Still and all, it's not doing our eternal Sergeant's love-life any favours. Full review...
Before He Finds Her by Michael Kardos
The newspaper reports at the time were unanimous: in September 1991 Ramsey Miller held a party for all his neighbours and then, when it ended, killed his wife Allie and toddler daughter Meg, then ran away, remaining a fugitive from justice. The newspapers were wrong. Meg isn't dead but has been kept hidden by her Uncle Wayne and Aunt Kendra, had her name changed to Melanie and has led a sheltered life. No photos, no internet, no friends after school, no holidays away from home. That's no way to live and now she approaches her 18th birthday, Melanie/Meg wants to end her half-life in order to live fully and yet to do that she must risk any form of life. She must find her father before he finds her. Full review...
