Difference between revisions of "Newest Crime Reviews"
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| + | |author=Sarah Hilary | ||
| + | |title=Quieter than Killing (D I Marnie Rome 4) | ||
| + | |rating=4.5 | ||
| + | |genre=Crime | ||
| + | |summary=The attacks all seemed to be quite random, but the nights were dark, the weather freezing and D I Marnie Rome and DS Noah Jake were spending quite a lot of time on the streets of London. Then Marnie's family home was ransacked and every indication was that it had been done by someone (or on the order of someone) who knew her. Normally Commander Welland would have been able to give Marnie a degree of protection - he knew her history all too well - but his cancer had returned and he was going to be away for four months. His stand-in was nowhere near as understanding in this or other matters. Then it was established that a child was missing - had been missing for ten weeks - but no one had reported it. | ||
| + | |amazonuk=<amazonuk>147224110X</amazonuk> | ||
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|author= Sam Blake | |author= Sam Blake | ||
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|summary=It's forty years since Maria Turquand was murdered. She was beautiful, a bright light and promiscuous - and she was strangled in Edinburgh's Caledonian Hotel on the night that a famous rock star and his entourage were staying there. Her killer was never found: it's been preying on John Rebus' mind and it comes into conversation on the night that Rebus and his lady friend are dining at the Galvin Brasserie at the Cally. It's better than thinking about his health: he's got COPD and there's something on his lung which he calls Hank Marvin. Think about it. | |summary=It's forty years since Maria Turquand was murdered. She was beautiful, a bright light and promiscuous - and she was strangled in Edinburgh's Caledonian Hotel on the night that a famous rock star and his entourage were staying there. Her killer was never found: it's been preying on John Rebus' mind and it comes into conversation on the night that Rebus and his lady friend are dining at the Galvin Brasserie at the Cally. It's better than thinking about his health: he's got COPD and there's something on his lung which he calls Hank Marvin. Think about it. | ||
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140915940X</amazonuk> | |amazonuk=<amazonuk>140915940X</amazonuk> | ||
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Revision as of 14:18, 21 February 2017
Quieter than Killing (D I Marnie Rome 4) by Sarah Hilary
The attacks all seemed to be quite random, but the nights were dark, the weather freezing and D I Marnie Rome and DS Noah Jake were spending quite a lot of time on the streets of London. Then Marnie's family home was ransacked and every indication was that it had been done by someone (or on the order of someone) who knew her. Normally Commander Welland would have been able to give Marnie a degree of protection - he knew her history all too well - but his cancer had returned and he was going to be away for four months. His stand-in was nowhere near as understanding in this or other matters. Then it was established that a child was missing - had been missing for ten weeks - but no one had reported it. Full review...
Little Bones by Sam Blake
It was a fairly ordinary break in. A young artist's home had been given a going over, but it was hard to see that much had been taken. There were suspicions that it might have been one of the usual suspects, only the shoes weren't as they'd have expected to find them if that was to be the case. Something else was not as you might expect to find it: a wedding dress, an old heirloom piece by the look of it, and in the hem, stitched in there, tiny bones. Human bones. Full review...
The Chalk Pit (Dr Ruth Galloway) by Elly Griffiths
Norwich is - apparently - riddled with tunnels, many dating back to the time when chalk was mined there. When bones are discovered in one of the tunnels it seems obvious that they've been there for hundreds of years, but Dr Ruth Galloway, forensic archaeologist, isn't so certain. The colour doesn't look right and she has a suspicion that the bones have been boiled: they've also not been there that long. DCI Harry Nelson has a murder case on his hands. His team has other problems: DS Judy Johnson is investigating the disappearance of a local rough sleeper and there's not a lot to go on other than the rumour that she's 'gone underground', but what, exactly, does that mean? Full review...
Darktown by Thomas Mullen
Atlanta, Georgia. The Deep South. This is country that fought to keep the right to own slaves, and would continue fighting every last bastion of segregation as the United States slowly clawed its way to a humane system of governance of all her people. That's a history that today's southerners are variously proud or ashamed of, or choose to ignore, or hope to forget, or continue to strive against. Variously, because people are also individuals and we all hold to our own view of what is right. For many of us, what is right is sometimes hard to draw the lines around…but what is wrong is much more clear-cut. Divisions based on skin colour, or race, or creed are wrong. No two ways about that. Full review...
Dare to Remember by Susanna Beard
Lisa Fulbrook's best friend is dead – the victim of a brutal attack who fell to her death from her own apartment window. Lisa was there, she too was a victim of the attack that killed her best friend, and she is left with the physical and emotional scars to prove it. Traumatised by the events, Lisa flees to a country village to help settle her frightened mind. But what happened that night still torments her; she is plagued by vicious flashbacks and questions surrounding why she and her best friend Ali were targeted, because the one thing Lisa does know is that she can't remember what really happened that fateful night. How did their assailant know them? Was it planned? More importantly, why were they attacked? Full review...
Time To Win by Harry Brett
I have no idea what Great Yarmouth has ever done to Harry Brett, but, boy, is he getting his own back! Now personally, I don't much like the town, and I know it has its seedy side, like most places, but I can't believe it's quite this bad. According to Brett, the weather's as dreary as the down'n'outs, the streets are grim, and the people worse. He makes the point that no-one comes to Yarmouth for their summer holidays anymore…if that wasn't true before this book, it's likely to be so afterwards. If a place could sue for defamation of character, the town would want to. The opening shot is of Richard Goodwin going down into the murky waters of the Yare out back of his office. Goodwin was not a good person... Full review...
Snatch by Gregory Mcdonald
It's not often that you get two books for the price of one, but if you are going to see this anywhere it will likely be in a reissue. Taking the back catalogue of an author and compiling a larger book consisting of similar stories is a great way of reusing stock that you already have. Hard Case Crime have done this with two books by Fletch author Gregory Mcdonald. Surely two books that centre on kidnapping by the same author would be similar enough to be placed together? Think again. Full review...
The Pledge by Friedrich Durrenmatt and Joel Agee (translator)
In what sounds like rural Switzerland, a girl has been murdered and left for anyone to see in a forest. The police come, and soon find out who the villagers already think is the sole suspect – a man known for illegal liaisons with young girls. They have, in fact, to put a compelling case against lynch mob rule just to get him back for investigation. He does confess, after a lengthy process – and then hangs himself. But the leader of the investigation, even while walking across the airstrip to the plane waiting to take him to a different job elsewhere, is determined to follow up on the promise he made to the girl's parents, to make the guilty person face justice. It's a promise, however, with far-reaching consequences… Full review...
Kill the Next One by Federico Axat
After getting started with the opening chapters of Spanish writer, Federico Axat's Kill the Next One, you might be forgiven for thinking you are stuck with one of those machismo riddled tales where a middle-aged man with a mysterious past is forced to shoot or blunder his way through a by-the-numbers thriller. The spectre of Lee Child's successful Jack Reacher series creeping in around the edges of the page. The novel opens with Ted McKay and his Browning pointed to his temple. He has the perfect life, including a beautiful wife and two adoring children, but has discovered that he is also in possession of an untreatable tumour buried deep within his brain which is slowly killing him. However, right before he decides to take the shot and end his life, there is a knock on his door. Standing behind it is a man named Justin Lynch who tells Ted that he represents an all-knowing organisation that turns would-be suicides into opportunities to correct the imbalances of the law. Ted, instead of killing himself, could kill someone who really deserves it. Full review...
Out of Bounds by Val McDermid
When a teenage joyrider crashed a stolen car and ended up in a coma a routine check of his DNA revealed a connection to an unsolved murder from years before his birth. On the face of it, it looked as though solving the cold case should be straightforward, but it's not. Detective Chief Inspector Karen Pirie is an expert at clearing cases which have proved unsolvable but in this case it looks as though the law itself might prove to be an insurmountable barrier. She's drawn to another case too - one which she really has no business investigating - and one which has its roots in a terrorist bombing two decades earlier. Like the case of the teenage joyrider nothing is quite as it seems. Full review...
Evil Games (D I Kim Stone) by Angela Marsons
When Ruth saw the man who had raped her coming out of a local pub she was traumatised. He'd served his time (albeit it was rather short) and now he was free - and she was frightened. The rapist was murdered and DI Kim Stone and her team were called upon to solve the killing - and quickly. There was a little bit of a feeling that the man had got what was coming to him and didn't deserve a lot of sympathy, but professionalism won the day. Then more revenge killings came to light and it was obvious to Stone that there was something sinister behind what was happening. Full review...
The Trophy Child by Paula Daly
We've all encountered pushy mothers - the ones who seem determined not to let their children have a moment's peace between all the extra-curricular activities which they have arranged for them. Karen Bloom is in a different class though. Her son, Ewan, was something of a disappointment, but she's not going to allow that to happen to her daughter, the talented Bronte. There's not a moment to spare between the music lessons, dance classes and extra school work - sometimes they have to eat on the hoof from one lesson to another. The rest of the family can see the cost to Bronte and to the family as a whole, but Karen will not listen, will not change her ways. Then one day Bronte disappears. Full review...
Extreme Prey by John Sandford
Making a long running series evolve organically is a very tricky business; a character that has been around for 26 books, and nearly as many years, is not going to be the same person that started out. Age catches up with us all and many crime writer have come up against the problem of retirement; not their own, but that of their character. Why is a 70 year old still out chasing criminals and shooting things? Lucas Davenport is a character who has always been a maverick, doing what he wants, therefore quitting the police was never going to stop him. Full review...
The Ad Man by Timothy Dickinson
Tim Collinwood is single and so, working in Morocco as an advertising creative, he's free to enjoy all his host country has to offer: the expense accounts, the opulence and the women. Then it happens. He gets the contract of his life. He just needs to create a PR campaign that will reassure Morocco that French business has her best interests at heart. The truth may be otherwise but creating the façade is what advertising is about. Perhaps Tim should have noticed that there are clues from the beginning as to how shady this job is, including needing to work under an assumed identity. However, the secrecy becomes a side issue as something more important takes Tim's concentration: survival for him and those around him. Full review...
Rupture (Dark Iceland) by Ragnar Jonasson and Quentin Bates (translator)
Strange things are happening, as they are most wont to do, in rural Iceland. In a very remote fjordside community in the NW a passing visitor has left the legacy of a dangerous African virus, which has claimed two lives. It's becoming national news, to the extent that a TV journalist is in touch for updates. The community only has two policemen, trying to man their station round the clock between them to make sure instant responses are possible. But one of them has also been asked to look into a mysterious cold case from the 1950s, when a lady died from poisoning – and that in a community of only four adults and a baby. – Or was it five and a baby, as a newly-found photograph suggests? Elsewhere, in Reykjavik, a young couple are troubled by an intruder – but that won't have any connection to the other cases, surely? Full review...
What Remains of Me by A L Gaylin
On the hottest night of the year, June 28, 1980 teenager Kelly Lund walked into a wrap party and shot the director, John McFadden dead. Two to the chest, one to the head, dead and centre. She offered no defence, though her attorneys played up her drug use and the heat but she still got 25-to-life. A journalist saw something in her nervous smile on the court steps, part of her defence mechanism others might have argued, called it the Mona Lisa Death Smile and set about building a demon. Full review...
Blood Lines (D I Kim Stone) by Angela Marsons
Initially it looked like a robbery gone wrong, or possibly a carjack, only the car was still there and so was the expensive watch and the jewellry. Her wallet hadn't been taken either, but she'd been killed by a single, precise stab to the heart. There was no sign of anger: in fact there seemed to be a complete lack emotion and there was nothing to suggest that the victim had attracted the violence - she was a caring mother and dedicated social worker. D I Kim Stone wasn't alone in thinking that something didn't add up. Then a local drug addict was found with an identical wound. There's nothing to link the two cases other than the wounds and Stone's instincts. Full review...
Lost Girls (D I Kim Stone) by Angela Marsons
Charlotte and Amy were best friends: they seemed to do everything together and the trip to the swimming pool was no different. It was all carefully planned - they were to stay in the building until one of the parents arrived to pick them up. Only, it didn't work out like that: the mother's car was disabled and before the pick up time both parents had received a text message to say that the girls had been abducted. It would get worse too - the next communication would tell them that they would have to bid for the life of their child. The parents who bid the most would get their child back. The other would not return. It sounds unbelievable, but it had happened before. One child was released, but not even the body of the other child had been found. Full review...
Finisterre by Graham Hurley
The Second World War is almost lost but in a last, desperate roll of the dice the German High command launch Operation Finisterre. In America the apparent suicide of a scientist working on the atom bomb and off the coast of Spain the shipwreck of a German submarine, become catalysts as the plans spiral out of control, leading to a shattering climax. 'Finisterre' is a crime thriller packed with grit, suspense and style. Full review...
Then She Was Gone by Luca Veste
Tim Johnson took his baby daughter out one day and in the course of their walk he was attacked and the baby was stolen. But there was a problem: only Tim seemed to believe that there was a baby and the police were convinced that there was an entirely different crime and that Johnson was their only suspect. He went to prison and was largely forgotten about. Full review...
Tokyo Nights by Jim Douglas
Colin McCann, private detective, chronic smoker and dog lover, is charged with solving the mysterious death of the young and beautiful daughter of a wealthy businessman. The key facts of this case apparently hinge on the testimony of Charlie Davis, a ne'er do well dreamer with quick fists and a poet's heart. The only problem is that Charlie Davis has disappeared and appears to be unwilling to disclose his part in these tragic events. After some deliciously violent digging, McCann jets off to Tokyo and here is where the fun really begins… Full review...
Nazi Saboteurs on the Bayou by Steven Burgauer
A sudden death in New Orleans' red light district, the invention of a more effective US military landing craft with a big future, a crime family with links back to occupied Sicily and two Germans lurking suspiciously in America's southern states. All these are connected and, as World War II hots up across a fortnight in 1942, the links become more obvious as well as more dangerous. Full review...
Death Going Down by Maria Angelica Bosco and Lucy Greaves (translator)
In a strange time, in the years after World War Two, Buenos Aires is a strange city – peopled by her native residents, and many who fled the European theatre of war. And in a building that houses some of the more strange examples of those people on six levels of large apartments, something strange happens – one of them struggles home the worse for drink late one night and finds the lift descend to fetch him to his door, but carrying a blonde woman's corpse. A resident doctor soon turns up too, and the pair kicks into action the police investigation into her presence, which soon seems to point to suicide. This not being in a genre called suicide mystery, however, we know differently – but will certainly have to wait to piece the whole story together. Full review...
The Sleeping Beauty Killer (Under Suspicion 4) by Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke
Fifteen years ago, Casey Carter went to prison for the murder of her fiancée Hunter Raleigh. The evidence seemed indisputable; her fingerprints were on the gun that killed him and her skin tested positive for gunshot residue. She'd been known to be argumentative and passionate, qualities that earned her the nickname Crazy Casey thanks to a tell-all book by an ex-boyfriend. Even her family seemed to suspect her guilt. But now Casey is out of prison and determined to prove her innocence. Who better to help her than Laurie Moran and the Under Suspicion team? After hearing her case, Laurie promises to give her a fair hearing on her TV show and reinvestigate the circumstances of Hunter's death. Full review...
Mr Churchill's Driver: A Murderer's Story by Colin Farrington
2014: 50 years since William Gilbey's father Herbert was hanged for murder. This anniversary is different from those in the past in that it's given William the impetus to go and find out more about two mystifying parts of his father's history. Firstly the oddity of the murder: why randomly kill two women in the street in daylight? Secondly, when William was a child, Herbert had told him a story about a meeting between Winston Churchill and then Irish Teasoch Eamon De Valera during World War II. There's nothing in the history books so did this actually happen? This is definitely a good time to investigate, especially as William has just been released from prison after serving a sentence for murder himself. Full review...
Gathering Prey by John Sandford
Any fan of a long running series will dread the book that falls off the cliff. This is the story that just does not make sense, or is so reminiscent of previous outings that it may as well not exist. With 24 titles already written about Lucas Davenport, the Prey series by John Sandford is overdue this, but will Gathering Prey be the moment that the maverick cop Davenport becomes a shadow of his former self? Full review...
The Knife Slipped by Erle Stanley Gardner
Before we begin, I must confess. Confess that I am a hardboiled noir addict. Therefore, I approach each grisly tale of murder, private detectives and femme fatales with a sense of wonder but also scepticism. Surely, I think this one can't be as good as the last, it must have flaws, poor characters and lack the necessary grit to be a true hardboiled noir masterpiece? so you can imagine my trepidation when opening the Knife Slipped. I was wrong, wonderfully wrong. This book for me is the essence of the hardboiled noir genre and E.S. Gardner is a marvel. Full review...
Mercy Killing by Lisa Cutts
Albie Woodville was involved with the local amateur dramatic society and when it was decided that they would stage Annie and involve children from a local school the news was broken that he was a convicted paedophile. A local widow with two young children had started a tentative relationship with him: she terminated the relationship and the amdrams told him that he was no longer a member. It was bad enough, but deserved - then someone else took the law into their own hands and decided that the world would be a better place without Albie Woodville in it. He was brutally murdered. Full review...
Night School by Lee Child
The 21st Jack Reacher novel takes us back in time. Reacher is still an US Army MP. In the morning they gave Reacher a medal, and in the afternoon they sent him back to school. The medal was a Legion of Merit. Not his first, probably not his last, just another bauble to recognise what he'd done for his country and a plea for him not to talk about it. The 'it' in this case was some police work, in the Balkans, and a couple of shootings. Two weeks of his life. Four rounds expended. No big deal. Full review...
Rather be the Devil by Ian Rankin
It's forty years since Maria Turquand was murdered. She was beautiful, a bright light and promiscuous - and she was strangled in Edinburgh's Caledonian Hotel on the night that a famous rock star and his entourage were staying there. Her killer was never found: it's been preying on John Rebus' mind and it comes into conversation on the night that Rebus and his lady friend are dining at the Galvin Brasserie at the Cally. It's better than thinking about his health: he's got COPD and there's something on his lung which he calls Hank Marvin. Think about it. Full review...
