Difference between revisions of "Newest Crime Reviews"
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| + | |author=James Craig | ||
| + | |title=Then We Die: An Inspector Carlyle Novel | ||
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| + | |genre=Crime | ||
| + | |summary=If you were wondering where you might find Inspector John Carlyle, then having afternoon tea in the Palm Court at the Ritz might not be the first place which comes to mind. But don't worry - he's not gone upmarket - he's treating his mother and it comes as a bit of a shock when she announces that she's divorcing his father after fifty years of marriage. Carlyle thinks that what looks like a bit of trouble kicking off might be a welcome diversion - he's not ''big'' on family relationships - but he could never have imagined the ramifications of slipping away from table whilst his mother went to the ladies. | ||
| + | |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472100395</amazonuk> | ||
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|summary=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. | |summary=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. | ||
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447228715</amazonuk> | |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447228715</amazonuk> | ||
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Revision as of 11:48, 5 August 2013
Then We Die: An Inspector Carlyle Novel by James Craig
If you were wondering where you might find Inspector John Carlyle, then having afternoon tea in the Palm Court at the Ritz might not be the first place which comes to mind. But don't worry - he's not gone upmarket - he's treating his mother and it comes as a bit of a shock when she announces that she's divorcing his father after fifty years of marriage. Carlyle thinks that what looks like a bit of trouble kicking off might be a welcome diversion - he's not big on family relationships - but he could never have imagined the ramifications of slipping away from table whilst his mother went to the ladies. Full review...
Sandrine by Thomas H Cook
Sam and Sandrine Madison live the American dream. Both have jobs that they love, lecturing at the same college, an adult daughter and many memories that include a beautiful holiday in the Med. However the dream goes tragically sour. Sandrine is found dead and Sam is charged with murder despite his protestations that it was suicide. The court case begins and Sam starts a fight for his own life as the past catches up with him in unusual and unexpected ways. Full review...
A Marker to Measure Drift by Alexander Maksik
Jacqueline roams the beaches of the Greek islands offering massages for money to ward off starvation. It helps but hunger is always with her, lurking alongside the memory of a former life in Liberia and the mind's ear voice of her mother. Jacqueline is at least alive and existing, but at what cost? Full review...
The Never List by Koethi Zan
Friends since childhood, Sarah and Jennifer had always admitted that they were so cautious it was daft. They'd even composed their own 'Never List'. As long as they stuck to it they'd be safe, and safe they were until that one night. The night after the college party they forgot 'Never get into the car'. They did. The next thing they're aware of is waking up in a dark cellar with two other girls; four of them altogether but only three of them will emerge. A decade later, Sarah is safe once again, living under a new name with all connections to the past wiped. But then the letter arrives; he's coming for her. It's not over after all. Full review...
Beyond Rue Morgue: Further Tales of Edgar Allan Poe's 1st Detective by Paul Kane and Charles Prepolec (Editors)
C. Auguste Dupin is often regarded as the first fictional detective and at the very least Edgar Allan Poe’s character was the blueprint for many sleuths to come, most notably Sherlock Holmes. Dupin is an eccentric genius from Paris whose use of logic and deduction aid the police on their most baffling cases. The characters literary debut was in the short story The Murders in the Rue Morgue in 1841 and between 1842 and 1844 Poe wrote two more short stories about Dupin and his exploits. Beyond Rue Morgue contains nine stories (in addition to the original Poe tale) by various authors and gives many different takes on the same character or influenced by him. From samurai assassins and the apocalypse to an agoraphobic distant relative of Dupin attempting to solve a murder without even leaving her home; the different writers all take the intriguing character to places we wouldn’t expect and the creativity of all keeps the character fresh from story to story. Full review...
Last To Die by Tess Gerritsen
Somewhere in Italy one summer, a group of people are gathered to take down Icarus. They have no qualms about their mission of taking out this immensely wealthy man. His wife and his children are merely by-standers, not to be involved. His habits have been studied. He is a monster, to be dealt with. Full review...
The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken (Vish Puri Mysteries) by Tarquin Hall
For those of us have not met Vish Puri before he's a private investigator, based in Delhi. He's also a gourmet and more than a little bit overweight. It's not for nothing that his wife calls him Chubby. His current case is a little unusual: he's called in to investigate the theft of a moustache. Vish is no slouch in the facial furniture stakes, but his client is the champion and the loss is more than just an embarrassment. Then, to complicate matters Vish is present at a post-match cricket dinner when the father of a top Pakistani player dies - from poison in his butter chicken. When Vish is called in to investigate he has to become involved with the continent's mafias. And he has to travel to Pakistan. Yes - it's that serious. Full review...
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...
