Crime
All That I Have by Castle Freeman
Castle Freeman may sound like two thirds of a firm of provincial solicitors but thankfully this Castle Freeman is a man very skilled in writing about the law rather than practicing it. In his latest novel Freeman tells an intriguing tale involving local Sheriff Lucian Wing and his practical yet low-key approach to maintaining order in rural Vermont. Not for Wing the gung ho approach to fighting crime. He doesn't wear a uniform, he drives a battered old car rather than the standard issue sheriff's wagon and his gun, so ubiquitous in US law enforcement, is safely tucked away in his bottom drawer. Everyone in the area knows the sheriff and by and large they respect him and his slightly unorthodox way of doing business. Full review...
Daemon by Daniel Suarez
As the internet grows and technology advances, it's seems there is nothing you can't do. Recent innovations mean you can operate appliances in your own home from another continent and cars are more automated than ever. Huge online games allow users worldwide to interact and play against each other in huge arenas. Thanks to social networking, the internet can be addictive and, yes, I'm aware of the irony in writing that here. Full review...
The Killing of the Tinkers by Ken Bruen
Jack Taylor returns to his native Ireland with his tail between his legs. He's been lying low 'over the water' in London, licking his wounds. Jack (I'm slightly surprised that Bruen didn't give him a more Irish name) is a middle-aged, washed-up, disgraced ex-cop. As if that wasn't bad enough, he also has a lot of very bad habits. He acknowledges however that 'the new world is designed for non-smokers.' He also admits quite freely and openly that 'An alcoholic has dreams to rival that of any Vietnam vet.' Full review...
Killer by Dave Zeltserman
Here at the Bookbag, we've been very impressed with Dave Zeltserman's work thus far. He uses a wonderful noirish narrative that takes you straight to the heart of the story. His story telling is very straightforward, not weighing down the story with too much style, but sticking to the substance and delivering a hard-hitting work every time. With Killer, he has done the same again. Full review...
I, Sniper by Stephen Hunter
You don't often find novels or films based on the art of the sniper. Hiding out for hours motionless and then killing someone unseen from hundreds of yards away doesn't make for as interesting a story as a face to face shoot out. But with 'I, Sniper', Stephen Hunter has managed to combine the art of the sniper with the art of the crime thriller in a decent read. Full review...
The Missing by Jane Casey
In 1992, Sarah Finch's twelve year old brother Charlie says to her Tell mum I'll be back soon.
Sixteen years later, his family are still waiting to find out what happened to him. Now in her twenties, Sarah is teaching at a local private school while looking after her uncaring mother, who since Charlie's disappearance has slid into alcoholism. Full review...
The Godfather of Kathmandu by John Burdett
Sonchai Jitpleecheep is half 'farang' the son of a brothel madam and an American GI, but it's the latter rather than the former which is likely to hold up his promotion in the Thai police force, where he's a detective. He's also the part owner of a brothel where his mother, Nong, is the madam in charge. It's no problem for his boss, Colonel Vikorn, who has a few illegal interests of his own. He's currently in competition with the head of the army, General Zinna, to see who can raise the finance for a forty million dollar shipment of heroin which Sonchai's Kathmandu-based guru has for sale. Full review...
The Spire by Richard North Patterson
When student Mark Darrow discovers the body of a black fellow student, Angela Hall, at the foot of the spire in the centre of the college he attends, he little suspects that his best friend will be charged with the murder. Now, sixteen years later, Darrow is back, at the invitation of his mentor and now college provost, Lionel Farr, to become president of the college in order to rebuild its reputation after a case of embezzlement has left the college in a precarious position (conveniently, Darrow has become an ace financial fraud lawyer in the intervening years). As Darrow digs into what happened with the college finances, he also begins to look afresh at the trial of his friend and questions if he really was guilty as charged. He also finds time to start an emerging relationship with the provost's troubled, but beautiful, daughter. Is the real killer still at large and are the two crimes connected? Full review...
Among Thieves by David Hosp
In 1990, some valuable paintings were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum in Boston in the United States. The police investigation failed to find them and many felt they were lost forever. But soon the paintings and their whereabouts would be impacting on many people's lives… Full review...
Dark Entries by Ian Rankin and Werther Dell'Edera
The producers of Dark Entries, the latest hit reality TV show, are worried. Yes the six housemates are there, present and correct, and are ready to be scared witless en route to the one way out, and the brilliant prize that might await them somewhere in the merry-go-round of horror that is their new home. They are already being scared witless, by phantoms - but that's nothing to do with the TV producers. Full review...
True Blue by David Baldacci
Jamie Meldon, ex-criminal-defence attorney, now in private practice, leaves his office very late one night. He's met by the FBI. Very shortly afterwards Jamie Meldon is dead in a dumpster.
Mace Perry is working out, trying to stay fit, trying to stay sane, trying to stay alive long enough to get out jail in a couple of days' time. Perry was a cop. Under-cover, maverick and darn good at her job. Until she ended up stoned on meth, busted for robbery, convicted and sent down. Full review...
The Chalk Circle Man by Fred Vargas
Meet Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg. An unlikely police commissaire, he's an acquired taste for his colleagues. Short, ungainly, seemingly thinking about the most obtuse things in his pursuit of the truth, and endlessly doodling, but beneath his deathly slow speech and unexpected diversions into his childhood comes a surprisingly perceptive ability to find the culprit in whatever crime he is forced to solve. Full review...
More Deaths Than One by Jean Rowden
Constable Thomas 'Thorny' Deepbriar has a broken leg after his involvement in a case and so is taken by his wife, Mary, to recuperate in the seaside town where he worked as a policeman during the war. He expects to be bored - the most interesting thing on the horizon is a case of missing gnomes. Then he bumps into an old colleague - someone who left the force in a haze of suspicion. Shortly afterwards, a body is found on the beach. Even stranger is that the dead man is someone that Thorny and his colleague thought had died during the war. It seems that things are not as they seem. Can Thorny work out what is going on, even with a broken leg? Full review...
U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton
Several years ago I joined a funny little book group in London, and one of the first books we read was a Sue Grafton alphabet book. I had, up to this point, never read any crime fiction, foolishly feeling myself above such books, and so I was dubious about what I'd have to say about it. That book changed my literary life. I devoured it. I couldn't get enough! I immediately searched for all the other books in the series and read them quickly, one by one, swiftly followed by a delicious plunge into the world of Agatha Christie which gave me a joyously long reading list. And so now, years later, I find myself with the latest book in the alphabet series lying in my lap, a happy smile on my face as I found I read voraciously once again! Full review...
Dishonour by Helen Black
Modern lives.
Lily Valentine is heavily pregnant and trying to get her own law firm up and running (having been sacked from her previous job for a tendency to be a trifle too independent – or maybe just disorganised).
Ryan is a boy from the sink estates. Thin, angry, rebellious, but with an ability to charm and a serious talent for art that gets lost in his gansta-speak and tendency to skive off school.
Lailla and Aasha are good Muslim girls. Hard-working, sober, appropriately dressed, dutiful to their families. They're also English teenagers, with a fair dose of what that normally implies.
Jack is a copper, overlooked for the interesting cases (like murder), good at child protection, in love with Lily, addicted to the job, always trying to do the right thing, and not always succeeding. His current clean-living and caring attitude is driving Lily to distraction. Full review...
Maxwell's Retirement by M J Trow
Peter 'Mad Max' Maxwell has always been something of a dinosaur and even he realises just how far adrift he is when some of his sixth form students start receiving threatening messages on their mobiles. He might prefer to make a phone call or send a note when the need arises, but this isn't the way of the younger generation and Maxwell discovers that he's going to have to climb a steep learning curve if he's to help his students through the problem. Full review...
Mercy by David Kessler
In some ways, the first line of this novel says it all: 'It's hard to sit still when your client is scheduled to die in fifteen hours.' From this moment on, the action comes thick and fast, leaving the reader with barely the breath to murmer 'is it really probable that all this was left to the last day?' However, if you suspend your disbelief, then the author does deliver blockbuster plot twists and twirls that are very satisfactory. Full review...
The Disappeared by M R Hall
We first met Jenny Cooper in The Coroner when she had just taken over as Coroner for Severn Valley. It's now some months later and whilst she's settled into the job to some extent her relationship with her officer, Alison, is uneven and she's still shaky mentally and dependant on pills to a greater extent than she would care to admit. She's a feisty woman though and determined that she's going to do the job properly. Full review...
Captured by Neil Cross
Kenny is dying - brain cancer is hitting him just as he's barely turning forty. As a result he compiles a short list of rights to wrong, and people to create closure with. One, his ex-wife, might not be easy, two concern a misguided sense of a guilt of old. The fourth turns out to be a missing woman. The journey he takes in that redemptive exercise is not for the squeamish. Full review...
The Merry Misogynist by Colin Cotterill
Dr Siri Paiboun is now married to Madame Daeng and despite the fact that they have a combined age of going on for a hundred and forty they're behaving like the newly-weds they are. Even being the reluctant coroner for the Republic of Laos can't dampen Siri's enthusiasm for life. Well, it can't until he makes the gruesome discovery that a man is wooing and wedding girls in various parts of the country and then murdering them on honeymoon and binding their bodies to trees. What he does to his victims leaves the morgue staff sickened. There's a determination to find the man responsible and bring him to justice. Full review...
A Hard Death by Jonathan Hayes
I haven't read Jonathan Hayes' bestseller 'Precious Blood' so I was a fresh reader, so to speak. His writing biography on the inside cover of the book is impressive. My expectations were high. All the ingredients are in place for a good thriller. The location is The Everglades in Florida. Brooding, enigmatic, awe-inspiring and where we all seem to expect crocodiles to rear their heads out of the swampy waters every five minutes. Full review...
Curse of the Pogo Stick by Colin Cotterill
Dr Siri Paiboun usually managed to control his reactions in front of Judge Haeng, but occasionally he forgot himself and was more insolent than usual. This time the Laos national coroner (reluctant), communist (even more reluctantly) and shaman finds himself on a road trip with the judge and the Justice Department. Nurse Dtui (pregnant and married, although not in the usual order of events) is left to run the morgue along with Mr Geung, who might, or might not be a help, but probably not in the way that you might expect. As if that wasn't enough Nurse Dtui discovers a booby-trapped corpse, there's a geriatric hit-person on the loose and Siri is kidnapped. Full review...
Bad Penny Blues by Cathi Unsworth
Step into the seedy underbelly of London on the cusp of the Swinging Sixties. 'Bad Penny Blues' is the story of the hunt for a brutal serial killer targeting prostitutes in the west of the city, at the time a melting pot of immigrants from the Caribbean and Ireland, bohemian artists and media types, and even peers. Carnaby Street was just becoming the fashion centre of London and a new decade promised exciting possibilities. Full review...
Cold to the Touch by Frances Fyfield
There's something obsessive about Jessica Hurly. When Sarah Fortune encounters her on a cold, dark London morning, she's distraught because the man who fills all her thoughts has rejected her and it seems that her mother wants nothing to do with her. Jess is a talented chef but she's short of work – the occasion when she emptied a tureen of soup over the host at a dinner party did not enhance her reputation even if all the other guests were secretly delighted. Sarah senses her vulnerability, but it's Jess who organises the let of one of her mother's cottages in the sea-side town where she grew up so that Sarah can have a long break from the flat where she still smells a recent fire. Full review...
Bloody Women by Helen Fitzgerald
Before reading Bloody Women, I hadn't heard of the author Helen Fitzgerald and by the title and blurb, I expected a standard crime-thriller novel. But early on, I realised this wasn't the case. The novel was a kind of black comedy and written with wit and humour, despite the theme of murder and violence. Full review...
The Bodies Left Behind by Jeffery Deaver
When lawyer Emma Feldman and her husband Steven decided to buy a holiday home to give them the opportunity for much needed breaks from their hectic professional lives, they brought an old colonial house in the woods by Lake Mondac in Wisconsin, on foreclosure – it seemed like the deal of a lifetime. But on their first evening in the place, a series of strange snapping noises outside begin to freak the couple out. They know they are in real trouble when a man with shotgun and stocking mask appears at their window. Another enters the building and the only hope they have is that someone will take notice of Steven's phone call to the police, cut off by the intruders after he is able to get out only one word – This. Full review...
Agatha Raisin: There Goes The Bride by M C Beaton
Private investigator Agatha Raisin is not a happy woman. She is concerned with the rate at which her body is ageing; even worse, her ex-husband, James, is getting married to a much younger woman and Agatha has been invited to the wedding. She goes, with plenty of friends in tow and looks forward to the whole thing being over as soon as possible. She sees James just before the wedding, when he makes it clear that he has changed his mind and wants to pull out of the wedding. Then the bride is killed, by a bullet through the window, and James and Agatha are the primary suspects. Can they prove their innocence while finding out who the real perpetrator is? Full review...
Edwardian Murder: Ightham & the Morpeth Train Robbery by Diane Janes
Two murders took place in Edwardian England less than two years apart, one in the south-east and the other in the north-east. At first glance they seemed to have nothing to do with each other, but years later a link between them was hinted at though never proved beyond doubt. The author has investigated the connection and come up with a riveting book. Full review...
The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest by Stieg Larsson and Reg Keeland (translator)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the first of Steig Larsson's Millennium trilogy of thrillers, was a fine stand-alone novel. The second in the series, The Girl Who Played With Fire, continues the adventures of Lisbeth Salander, Larsson's finely crafted anti-hero. If you haven't read this second volume yet I advise you to stop reading this review now. I'm about to spoil the ending for you… Full review...
Tooth and Claw by Nigel McCrery
Another serial killer is on the loose, and yet again the police have failed to connect the deaths. Carl Whittley has just tortured a glamorous TV presenter to death - leaving a singularly gruesome tableau - and blown a hapless commuter to smithereens at a railway station. He's planning his next murder already, secreted away in the shed at the bottom of the garden of the house he shares with his invalid father. Carl is embittered and lonely - with his mother living away and pursuing a career as a forensic psychologist, there's only him to take care of his severely disabled father: to change the colostomy bag, to cook, to clean, to, well, just to bear it, really. Full review...
Acts of Violence by Ryan David Jahn
Kat Marino is stabbed on her way home from work. All she wanted was a hot bath after a hard day's work. From this point the novel skips nimbly from one neighbour to the next, all of whom are absorbed in their own dilemmas. There is the draftee with a sick mother, the nurse who thinks she has run over a baby, the woman who suspects her husband of cheating and others. We are shown what these characters were doing that evening, and how these events drag through to the morning. We are shown how in the midst of their own interesting, poignant and dangerous concerns a woman is stabbed in the courtyard onto which all their windows look, through which windows they witness the attack, and how these people did nothing. Full review...
Core of Evil by Nigel McCrery
Violet Chambers becomes Daisy Wilson through an aromatic cup of tea, flavoured with Christmas roses.
'"There are all kinds of horrible things in the Christmas rose," she said, watching to see whether Daisy could still hear her. "Helleborin and hellebrin are both like digitalis, which I've also used before, but there's saporin and protoanemonin as well. It's a very nasty cocktail."'
And now Daisy has met her rather sticky - and graphically effluent - end, and Violet has become Daisy, Daisy sets her sights on a new town, a new identity and, most importantly, a new victim. Daisy has problems with her memory - the identities go back so far that sometimes she can barely remember who is she is now, let alone all the whos she's been before, and most certainly not the who with whom she began. Full review...
Dead of Winter by P J Parrish
Loon Lake, Michigan is picture-postcard pretty – an idyll that sits serenely and snugly in the midst of a pine-peppered winter wonderland. Louis Kincaid needs a little serenity in his life and on arrival in Loon Lake he feels almost as if he has come home. Life has not been easy for Kincaid. A troubled, unhappy child of mixed race, passed around various institutions and foster homes, Louis figures that if he is going to put some integrity back into the world, he will need to wear a badge to do it. Full review...
Fear in the Cotswolds by Rebecca Tope
Thea Osborne is a house sitter by profession. When people go away she moves into their homes and looks after their animals and the property. This time it's winter and she's spending a month in the Cotswold village of Hampnett. It wouldn't be a job for all of us but Thea delights in getting to know the local people and the area. In the past she's also been involved with the police in solving various cases but it looks as though that might have come to an end as the relationship she had with DS Phil Hollis has crumbled. For the first time Thea feels like an outsider – and a foolish one - when she finds footsteps in the snow which lead to a body in a nearby field. When the police finally arrive the body has disappeared and the police obviously wonder if she's imagined it all. Full review...
Spade and Archer by Joe Gores
Sam Spade decides, bravely, to set up his one-man detective agency. It's the 1920s in San Francisco so we have the prohibition era and all that that entails. Many locals, of course, choose to disobey the law, stick two fingers up, so to speak and as a result there's lots of bootleg liquor.
Straight away, it's evident that Sam is a man of few words. He has the mannerisms of a cat - stealthy, quick on his feet. He's also a compulsive chain-smoker, but then again, most people were. In that era, holding a cigarette was an elegant, almost essential accessory. How times have changed. Full review...
Stop Me by Richard Jay Parker
Spam E-Mails can be incredibly annoying, but most of us will have had to deal with them. Fortunately, we can hit the delete button and forget about them as quickly as they came. I certainly prefer not to torture my friends by sending such rubbish on, no matter how bad my luck is supposed to become if I don't. But I wonder how many of us would react if a spam E-Mail actually was a matter of life and death, rather than just claiming to be? Full review...
Blood Born by Kathryn Fox
To give support to a vulnerable gang-rape victim, forensic pathologist Anya Crichton offers to drive Giverny Hart to the courthouse on the day she is due to testify against the notorious Harbourn brothers. But when Anya arrives at the house she finds Giverny close to death and faces a battle against time to save her. In the panic, Anya fails to take note of an important clue which might help tell whether it really was suicide or a cleverly staged murder. Worse still, in trying to save the girl's life, Anya has interfered with a crime scene and the case falls apart. She blames herself for the Harbourn brothers being allowed to walk free and only hours later there is news of another attack. A pair of sisters have been stabbed and raped resulting in the death of one, while the other clings to life. Full review...
The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny
Early one morning, in the village of Three Pines, the local restaurateur is woken by the ringing of the telephone. There is a body in the bistro and Olivier is stunned. The man has been bludgeoned to death, but there's no sign of a weapon, no obvious reason for the killing and no clues as to the identity of the victim. Meanwhile, in Montreal, Chief Inspector Gamache of the Sûreté du Quebec is called into investigate, along with his colleagues, Inspector Beauvoir and Agent Isabelle Lacoste. They've been to Three Pines before, but this time the village is in chaos. Full review...
The Naming of the Beasts (Felix Castor) by Mike Carey
Felix Castor is a talented exorcist living in London, with zombies, ghosts and succubi for friends, and the odd human. His best friend, Rafi, has been taken over by a demon called Asmodeus, for which Felix feels slightly responsible. As such, he needs to get Rafi back to normal - the problem is that Asmodeus has other ideas - basically to kill everyone who has anything to do with Rafi. Felix himself is probably on the list, but before he worries about himself, he needs to do something about his closest friends - namely Pen, his landlady, Juliet, a succubus (a demonic female spirit) and Sue, Juliet's lover. At the same time, there are horrible things going on in a central London gym, and Castor must do something about it before people start to die. Can he solve all his problems without losing any of his loved ones? Full review...
Three Weeks to Say Goodbye by C J Box
Three Weeks to Say Goodbye is narrated by Jack McMcGuane, who describes himself as a hard-working, regular guy (more of that in a minute though). Nine months previously, he and his wife Melissa had adopted a baby girl, Angelina, when their world is shattered by a telephone call from the adoption agency to say that there has been a mistake on the forms and the teenage biological father had not signed his consent and now wants to take the baby back. Even worse news is that the boy's father is an influential federal judge. They have, you've guessed it, three weeks to say goodbye to their daughter. Full review...
Wasp-Waisted by David Barrie
Franck Guerin used to be one of the elite, dealing with national security, but after an incident in Corsica which left him badly wounded he's been moved into criminal investigations. His first case proves to be something of a problem when a young model is found dead in a luxury hotel in Paris. Worryingly, a stunning photograph of the body is delivered to Exposé, a big-circulation scandal sheet, before the body is discovered and it can only have been taken by the murderer. Despite the provenance of the picture it's difficult not to be in awe of the skill and artistry which produced it. All Guerin has to go on is the very expensive underwear which the body is wearing – or you might almost say modelling. Full review...
Hustle by Will Ferguson
Cons generally come in two forms, the long con and the short con. The long con is more elaborate and has more that can go wrong, takes a lot longer to set up but has correspondingly higher rewards if everything goes right. This is the art of fleecing a single person out of a lot of money all at once. It is this that the BBC TV show Hustle and Richard Asplin's Conman are based on. The short con can be something as basic as a rigged game of find the lady, which aims to part as many people from a little bit of money as quickly as possible. The short con may have a lower return, but that return comes a lot quicker and this is the basis for Will Ferguson's Hustle. Full review...