Difference between revisions of "Newest Crime Reviews"

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[[Category:Crime|*]]
 
[[Category:Crime|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Crime]]
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[[Category:New Reviews|Crime]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->
==Crime==
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{{Frontpage
__NOTOC__
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|isbn=1529077745
{{newreview
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|title=The Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)
|author=H R F Keating
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|author=Ann Cleeves
|title=The Perfect Murder: The First Inspector Ghote Mystery
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|rating=4.5
|rating=3
 
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary='The Perfect Murder' was the first of HRF Keating's Inspector Ghote mysteries, first published in 1964. It has a kind of gentle charm and has some things in its favour, not least the believable Indian setting when the author had not visited the country in which he chose to set his character at a time when research would have been more difficult than it would today.
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|summary=A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a man in the park near Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens. The dead man was Josh - one of the care workers who was due to work a shift the night before but who had never turned up.  D I Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate the murder - but her only clue is the disappearance of one of the residents, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer.  Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the girl's diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. She knows that she has to find Chloe to discover what happened to Josh.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141194472</amazonuk>
 
 
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}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1529428289
|author=Alison Bruce
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|title=A Grave in the Woods (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel)
|title=The Calling
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|author=Martin Walker
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=The story's location is in and around Cambridge and we get the blow-by-blow account as DC Goodhew meets the different members of Kaye's family in order to build up a picture of her recent comings and goingsKaye's mother seems particularly upsetA nice and effective touch by Bruce is that each chapter heading is simply that day's date.  Kaye disappeared in March 2011 so that the reader feels a sense of the  clock ticking - and still no Kaye.
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|summary=Because of various property transactions, people were searching for the grave but when they found it, it came with three sets of bones.  They dated back to World War II and it fell to Bruno, the Chief of Police for St Denis, to discover the identities of the bodies and establish whether or not a crime had been committedAs if this isn't enough to worry about, the Dordogne River - normally tranquil - is flowing at record levelsIt's not just the local autumn rains that have caused the problem: various dams upstream on another river have had to release water and St Denis faces the possibility of a devastating flood.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849012040</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=152919640X
|author=Daniel Suarez
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|title=The Suspect
|title=Freedom
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|author=Rob Rinder
|rating=4
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|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=A short while ago, I read Daniel Suarez's debut novel [[Daemon by Daniel Suarez|Daemon]], which was a gripping technological thrillerIt may not have been a terribly original idea, but it was well written if a little lacking in character building and it did seem to end a little abruptlyThe reason for this abrupt end now becomes clear, as there is now a sequel, ''Freedom™''.  
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|summary=The nation's favourite daytime TV presenter, Jessica Holby, was murdered live on television and it seems that there's only one suspectHe's celebrity chef Sebastian Brooks and his contract stated that he must not serve anything containing miso to Jessica Holby.  She's seriously allergic and carries an EpiPen in case of emergencies.  Everything seemed as normal - as normal as they can be in a busy, live television studio - and Brooks served a ragout to Holby.  Her EpiPen was nowhere to be found and she was dead within minutesIt was soon clear that this was no accident.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857381229</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B0CYV674G2
|author=Wesley Stace
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|title=Swanton Morley (John Tanner)
|title=Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer
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|author=David Blake
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary="Nothing in recent fiction prepared me for the power and the polish of this subtle tale of English music in the making, a chiller wrapped in an enigma [New Statesman]"
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|summary=It seemed like an open-and-shut case. A man, covered in mud and blood - and carrying a knife, comes into the police station shouting that he hasn't killed the man. A body at the bottom of a freshly dug grave at Swanton Morley church - he's been stabbed to death. DCI John Tanner is just back from his honeymoon, which coincided with the birth of his daughter Samantha. You would think he'd be grateful for an easy answer but the words 'perverse' and 'John Tanner' were made for each other. He's sleep-deprived to the point of falling asleep at work but he's determined to keep going - probably because he can't get any sleep at home.
 
 
"His handling of dry comic dialogue and cynical affectation is reminiscent of P G Wodehouse… an intelligent, fun and thoughtful piece of fiction [Independent on Sunday]"
 
 
 
Just two of the previous reviews that adorn the back cover of 'Charles Jessold…'
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099546574</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Stuart Douglas
|author=Ruth Dugdall
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|title=Lowe and Le Breton Mysteries - Death at the Dress Rehearsal
|title=The Sacrificial Man
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|rating=3.5
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=Synchronicity?  Is that what they call it, when unconnected events chime with each other in unavoidable significance?  Maybe it is just the human need to see patterns and make connections where there are none, but it's still weird when it happens. In a week that saw a storyline in ''Emmerdale'' echoed in a very personal documentary by Terry Pratchett considering the possibility of choosing the nature and time of  his own end, I found myself reading 'The Sacrificial Man'.  
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|summary=During location filming for his 1970's sitcom 'Floggit and Leggit', leading man Edward Lowe stumbles across the dead body of a woman on the edge of a reservoir.  The police seem happy to assign it as an accidental death, but something about the whole thing bothers Lowe, and he enlists the help of a fellow actor, John Le Breton to help him investigate matters further. They travel across the country during their days off filming, uncovering more possible murders and, seemingly, a link to death during the Second World War. But is there really a link between the deaths?  And will they manage to uncover who is responsible before more people lose their lives?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908248009</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1803368209
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0008517061
|author=C J Box
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|title=Death in a Lonely Place
|title=Out Of Range
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|author=Stig Abell
|rating=3
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|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=Will Jensen, a Wyoming Game Warden of many years standing, had long held the respect of the townsfolk of JacksonRecently though he seemed to have been going off the rails. Not turning up for work on time; a couple of DUIs; his wife upped and left. Then one day he cooks himself 14lb of meat.  No vegetables.  And slowly eats his way through it, washed down with whiskey, before he goes to fetch his .44 magnum from the pick-up.
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|summary= Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little SkyThere’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the future she wants for herself and her daughter?  For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the future on the back burner.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848878044</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1786482126
|author=Andrea Camilleri
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|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)
|title=The Track of Sand
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|author=Elly Griffiths
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=Inspector Montalbano awoke one morning and saw the body of a horse on the beach in front of his house, but it's not long before it disappears, leaving only a track in the sandHow is he to investigate this when he doesn't know where the horse came from?  It isn't long though before equestrian champion Rachele Esterman arrives at police headquarters to report her horse missing.  It had been stabled at the home of Saverio Lo Duca, one of the richest men in Sicily – and one of his horses is missing tooWhen Montalbano finds that he and his home are under threat he wonders who he has upset – and the list of possibilities is disturbingly large and influential.
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|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway.  There was no skullWas this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months agoHer condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330507664</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0008551324
|author=Ernesto Mallo and Katherine Silver
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|title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)
|title=Sweet Money
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|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4
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|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=A man whose nickname is Mole (and it suits him just perfectly) is released from prison.  He's described as your average Joe Public, your man in the street so normal in every way that no one would look twice at himAnd that's the point. He's clever and resourceful enough to blend into any crowd and in any situationNow that he's served his time behind bars, has he become a reformed man? Is he going to opt for a lawful way of life from now onYou'd perhaps think so, wouldn't you?
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|summary=It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the policeNeither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her deathThis person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date.  Not much to ask, is itThe new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904738737</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0008405026
|author=Quintin Jardine
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|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)
|title=Grievous Angel
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|author=Jane Casey
|rating=4
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|rating=5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=I recently read (and reviewed) Jardine's [[The Loner by Quintin Jardine|The Loner]] and found it an engaging work of fiction, so I was looking forward to dipping into my first ''Bob Skinner Mystery.'' I think the front cover alone may very well tempt readers with its attention-grabbing graphics which shouts out 'read me'.
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|summary=It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night.  She was never found and the investigation ground to a halt.  Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed.  Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious.  What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murderKerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755356934</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0571379877
|author=James Craig
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|title=The Kellerby Code
|title=London Calling: An Inspector Carlyle Novel
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|author=Jonny Sweet
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=The current government had been looking a little sickly in the polls for a while and it seemed that Edgar Carlton – charismatic and ruthless – had only to get to the finish line to be the next Prime MinisterHis twin brother, Xavier, would be the next Foreign SecretaryThen a murderer targets former members of the Merrion Club – an exclusive, hedonistic group of undergraduates at Cambridge University – and this includes Edgar, Xavier and the current mayor of London, Christian HolyrodInspector John Carlyle of the Metropolitan Police doesn't take that long to work out why this is happening and who is at risk – but ''who'' is doing it is an entirely different matter.
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|summary=Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza.  Robert's a theatre directorHe's also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for himEdward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to RobertMost men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the two of them kissing in a dark passageway.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849019665</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Jo Callaghan
|author=Gene Kerrigan
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|title=Leave No Trace
|title=The Rage
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=DS Bob Tidey has been round the block a few times. He's middle-aged, has a less-than-perfect home life, but on the upside, he loves his job - especially court work and court appearances. ''Bob Tidey felt at home here.'' He's going to have his hands full shortly. Enter Vincent, the other main character. Fresh out of an Irish prison, he's strutting all over the place. You could say he's looking for trouble. Fed up with small-beer crimes, he wants to land a big one. A big one with big rewards and then he can put his feet up.
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|summary=When a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. It's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases.  But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a career?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846552567</amazonuk>
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|isbn=139851120X
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1035021803
|author=Marika Cobbold
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|title=The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder
|title=Drowning Rose
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|author=C L Miller
|rating=4
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary=We meet Eliza, the main character, many years after the terrible 'event'.  Eliza is a grown woman now and has a fulfilling job at the V & A Museum in London.  It's a far cry from her childhood in the peaceful countryside of her native Sweden but she seems happy enough.  And in amidst the cheerful, jostling, Christmas crowds of the capital and its infectious atmosphere, she receives a rather worrying phone call, totally out of the blue.  It stuns her, she has to catch her breath a little and it takes her back around twenty five years to that fateful day.  And now Eliza is a bag of nerves.  She'd tried so hard to cope, to keep the past firmly in the past but she hasn't been entirely successful.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140880817X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Maxim Jakubowski
 
|title=The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime 8
 
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=The latest in the annual series of short story collections edited by Maxim Jakubowski gives readers a wide range of stories from authors as diverse as the much-acclaimed [[:Category:Ian Rankin|Ian Rankin]] and [[:Category:Kate Atkinson|Kate Atkinson]]newwcomers such as Nigel Bird and Jay Stringer, and father and son combination Peter and Phil Lovesey.
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|summary=It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up.  She's back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole.  Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least.  Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the profession she loved.  After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849015678</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1398524085
|author=Chris Ewan
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|title=Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?
|title=The Good Thief's Guide to Venice
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|author=Nicci French
|rating=3.5
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|rating=5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary='I'd never met a female burglar before, let alone one with the credentials to model lingerie, and I confess that I was more than a little intrigued.' So says Charlie Howard before he realises that the lady in question has stolen his most prized possessionA talisman that he thinks is essential to his writing is the framed first edition of ''The Maltese Falcon'' that hangs above his desk.  All his mysterious visitor leaves in this spot is empty space.  The explosive and chaotic events that follow are fuelled by Charlie's determination to get his book back.
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|summary=Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up.  Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, is notShortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the riverIt was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt.  The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847399592</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1529900360
|author=Roger Smith
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|title=The Ghost Orchid
|title=Mixed Blood
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|author=Jonathan Kellerman
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=I reviewed Smith's [[Wake Up Dead by Roger Smith|Wake Up Dead]] and after reading the blurb on the back cover, this book would appear to be in a similar styleWe meet Jack, his heavily-pregnant wife Susan and their young son as they relax in their smart suburban homeSmith paints a lovely picture: the setting sun, drinks on the balcony and views to die for (no pun intended here) over Table Mountain.  What's not to like? But this idyll is about to take a nasty and unexpected turn for the worse as a couple of no-users, high on drugs, take their chance and break in to the Burns' home.  And all this action is seen by a security guard nearby.
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|summary=It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult casesHis assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the help of a psychologist only worked for a whileFinally, it was Robin, Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed.  The next case did look simple, though.  Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air.  He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and it's not the Italian. But which of them was the primary target?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687586</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=178763681X
|author=Jussi Adler-Olsen
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|title=Knife Skills for Beginners
|title=Mercy
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|author=Orlando Murrin
|rating=4.5
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|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=The Prologue intends to grab the reader's attention right from the first word.  I liked thatA girl, or perhaps a woman (we don't know yet) is imprisoned somewhere, barely kept alive in some sort of dark, airless and smelly makeshift prison - but why?  And by whom exactly?  The story opens in 2007 and we learn that Copenhagen detective Carl is recovering from a near-death experience in the line of police duty.  His colleagues were not so lucky.  So we see a broken and rather vulnerable man trying to claw his way back to a normal lifeGuilt, revenge, anger are perhaps some of the emotions coursing through his veins.  His senior colleagues are at a loss as to what to do with him - he's a good copper, after all.  The solution is that a fancy new title is invented along with a fancy new department, all for CarlBut will he cope?
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|summary=Chef Paul Delamare took a teaching job at a residential cookery school in BelgraviaHe didn't really want to but celebrity chef Christian Wagner had a way of getting both men and women to do what he wantedPaul ''somehow'' got the impression that he'd be at the school to assist Paul, who had a broken arm, but it didn't turn out that way. The teaching - and the problems - are all his own.  The one thing he hadn't expected was for someone to turn up deadUnfortunately, he was the person who discovered the body and everyone knows that the police consider that person to be the prime suspect.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141399961</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1529421284
|author=Graeme Kent
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|title=Laying Out the Bones
|title=Devil-Devil
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|author=Kate Webb
|rating=5
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|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=In the Solomon Islands in 1960, Sergeant Ben Kella stands out as an oddity in many ways. Trained since childhood as an ''aofia'', the traditional peacemaker of the islands, he was mission educated and sent away and appears to belong completely to neither the modern age nor the old customs. Finding his place in the world, though, will have to wait – because there's a missing anthropologist to find, a rebellious nun to protect, and a murder to solve. Oh, and a magic man has just cursed him. All in a day's work…
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|summary=It was one of those flash downpours that the British weather often delivers in a heatwave. In a gully, a human skeleton came to the surface and forensic testing proved the body to be Lee Geary, who had disappeared nine years earlier.  He'd been a known drug user and had learning disabilities, so it could have been a simple case of misadventure but DI Matt Lockyer wasn't convinced.  Geary was a townie, so what was he doing out on Salisbury Plain alone?  There are connections to the suicide of Holly Gilbert and to two other deaths which were not considered suspicious at the time. Lockyer and DC Gemma Broad of the Major Crimes Review Unit (that's cold cases to you and me) investigate.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849013403</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1529425867
|author=Peter James
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|title=Lost and Never Found (A D I Wilkins Mystery)
|title=Dead Man's Grip
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|author=Simon Mason
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=What starts as a normal day for Tony Revere soon ends in his death after he is knocked from his cycle and is thrown under a truck. Carly Chase does not hit him but as she swerves to avoid him, her Audi smashes into a café window. A subsequent breathalyser test shows that she is still over the limit from the night before. Stuart Ferguson, the truck driver, is also not responsible for the accident but he was tired having driven for more hours than are legally permitted. The van driver who actually hits Tony first just doesn't stop. It seems like a tragic accident, especially as the weather was terrible and Tony was cycling on the wrong side of the road. Tony's mother, who has links with the Mafia, does not think so though and is set on revenge.
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|summary=In Oxford, there are two D I Wilkins.  Raymond Wilkins is of Nigerian descent, Balliol educated and always exquisitely dressed.  D I Ryan Wilkins, son of Ryan and father of Ryan, is not. He's not any of those things.  He's white, originated from a trailer park, barely educated (reading's not ''really'' his thing) and his wardrobe consists mainly of shell suits and trackies.  They're usually in lime green or acid yellow. You might wonder if you're being introduced to a police procedural written for laughs. Well, you're not. The two men are just different sides of the same policing coin. Sometimes the combination works brilliantly well. Sometimes it's problematic.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230747256</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1529431735
|author=Esmahan Aykol and Ruth Whitehouse (translator)
+
|title=The Winter Visitor
|title=Kati Hirschel Murder Mystery: Hotel Bosphorus
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|author=James Henry
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=Kati has a lot to impart to her readers.  She burbles on right throughout the book about all sorts of things which are on her mind.  So we learn about her colleagues, friends and neighbours which all gives a nice hint of the Turkish way of lifeAs a German national, Kati can stand back and take a cool look at all things TurkishBut does she like what she sees all of the time?  She soon tells us.  She's not slow to highlight stereotypical German traits - the lack of humour, the discipline etc which can be at odds with Kati now living amongst the more laid-back Turks.  We also find out that the locals are passionate about the telephone and mobile phones in particular.  Forever glued to an ear apparentlySo much so that she thinks  'Alexander Graham Bell must have had Turkish genes.'  She also likes to go on and on about the terrible parking in Istanbul informing us that 'It takes thirty minutes to get from home to the shop, on foot or by carI go by car.'  I particularly liked that line.
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|summary=It's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprisingHe'd been exiled on the Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decadeThe return has come about because he's had a letter from his ex-wife, saying that she's ill and hasn't long to liveIt's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a watery grave in the boot of a stolen Ford SierraIs it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904738680</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0861541774
|author=David Barrie
+
|title=A Nye of Pheasants
|title=Loose-Limbed
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|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|summary=Captain Franck Guerin of the Brigade Criminelle was about to learn a lot more about ballet than he ever expected or wanted to know.  Sophie Duval was a leading dancer with the Paris Opera Ballet – an etoile – and she was murdered in her home.  A chord had been wrapped three times around her neck and then she had been strangled, but why?  It seemed simple to rule out professional jealousy and she seemed to have little life outside of the ballet.  The Opera Ballet is a tight-knit and dedicated world, but it's not long before it's a world of terror, because Sophie Duval is only the first person to die.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956251846</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Quintin Jardine
 
|title=The Loner
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=Jardine starts with some background on Xavier AisladoEven at school in Edinburgh, his bulk and rather serious manner ensures that he sails through his academic courses.  This is against the odds of a chaotic life at homeHis Spanish father's a bit of a cold fish, his Scottish mother is as meek as a church mouse so Xavier (or Xavi) is really guided and nurtured by his rather ferocious grandmother, Paloma.  Even I was afraid of herShe takes no prisoners, wears the trousers in the Aislado household (in both Spain and Scotland) and speaks her mind every timeAlthough there are certain areas which are out of bounds.  But I also loved her too.  Jardine has created a terrific character in Paloma, in particular.
+
|summary=DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy TruemanMaik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a GhurkaInitially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the manNow he could be facing the death penaltyDomenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755357167</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1521129886
|author=M C Beaton
+
|title=They Had It Coming (Greg Mason mysteries)
|title=Hamish Macbeth: Death of a Valentine
+
|author=Keith Redfern
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=Remembering ''Hamish Macbeth'' from the 1990s TV series, in the person of Robert Carlisle, accompanied by a Westie called Wee Jock, I'm only just beginning to get to know the real Hamish as brought to paper by M C Beaton.  More robust in appearance than your man Carlisle, with a shock of red hair, he's accompanied on his rounds by an indeterminate hound called Lugs and a wildcat called Sonsie.  That both animals are referred to by the locals as the beasties, and only a special few of said locals are willing to look after them in Hamish's absence, says something about their temperamentHamish would call it exuberance. Or loyalty.
+
|summary=Greg Mason's just beginning to get his confidence as an investigator to the point where he'll warn someone about how much he chargesIt's a good job too because Greg and Joyce will soon have a baby and they're both delightedJoyce will be more delighted about the baby when she gets past the morning sicknessGreg is approached by an old friend whose brother-in-law appears to have killed himselfStuart's concerned about his sister, Lucy, who's struggling to make ends meet and her son is not thrivingLucy, he says, is convinced that Gil would never have killed himself - it simply wasn't in his nature. The police and the coroner have accepted that the death was suicide,  but Stuart's prepared to pay Greg to find out what happened on the night Gil died.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849015090</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Bill Knox
 
|title=Stormtide
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|summary=Webb Carrick is a Chief Officer in the Scottish Fisheries Protection Service and he's out in the North Atlantic where he strays into the middle of a feud between shark hunters and local fishermen.  It's a little time since it happened but they're still angry about the death of a young womanThe consensus of opinion is that she discovered she was pregnant and committed suicide from the pier.  One of the shark hunters is held to be responsible.  It all threatens to come to a head when Carrick boards a fishing boat and finds her skipper dead on the deck.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849014574</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Robin Cook
 
|title=Cure
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|summary=New York City Medical Examiner Laurie Montgomery is returning to work after her maternity leaveIt's been longer than usual because her son had a potentially fatal neuroblastoma but this is now in complete remission, but leaving him and going back to work is not going to be easyIt's not going to be easy for whoever is looking after JJ either.  Laurie is just a little bit neurotic about leaving him.  She's lost a bit of confidence with regard to the job too so it's perhaps fortunate that her first case is what looks like an open and shut case of a natural deathLaurie's not so certain though – although quite a few people would like her to make up her mind that no further investigation is needed.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230750648</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Guillaume Musso
 
|title=Where Would I Be Without You?
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|summary=I love the cover, which I think angles this book firmly towards women. With that old Beach Boys hit from the Sixties as the title, it encapsulates everything you need to know when choosing this book. It's not really crime fiction, in that it lacks a whodunnit aspect in favour of following the protagonists, a French cop and a Scottish master criminal, through a romantic entanglement and into the jaws of death. The interest is in which of the two men will gain command of the other – and who is really driving the action – when both their attentions are focused on the same girl.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906040346</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=B0CK3MYJ56
|author=Adrian McKinty
+
|title=Responsibilities (Greg Mason mysteries)
|title=Falling Glass
+
|author=Ann Macarthur
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=Like all good ''noir'' fiction, McKinty provides us with a charismatic central character - here in the form of Killian. Of Pavee traveller, Irish stock (otherwise known as 'tinkers') he has made his name as an enforcer of other people's laws, collecting debts and finding missing people. He's tough and capable of violence, but generally gets his man by avoiding force where possible. A sort of hit man with a conscience. However, when the book kicks off he has semi-retired, but his decision to invest his ill gotten gains in property has fallen foul of the property crash, so when a job comes up offering a cool half million for simply finding the ex-wife and daughters of budget airline magnate Richard Coulter, it's not one he can easily turn down. Killian knows this sounds too good to be that simple. And, of course, he's right.
+
|summary=It's the 1990s and Greg Mason's twenty-eight years old.  He used to have a high-flying job in the city but it wasn't satisfying so he's now set himself up as a private investigator. 'Shades of Cameron Strike', you might be thinking. Nice bloke, but where's the life experience that backs up this profession?  On the other hand, he has been asked to look into something.  Joyce and Helen are half-sisters, or rather, they were until Helen was killed in what's been written off as a tragic accident at an unmanned level crossing.  Joyce - and her parents, Oliver and Pam Hetherington - can't understand what she was doing there - or how she could come to fall in front of a train. Greg's been asked to investigate.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687829</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1838954481
|author=M C Beaton
+
|title=The Misper
|title=Hamish Macbeth: Death of a Sweep
+
|author=Kate London
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=Back in the mid-1990s, despite the encroachment of satellite and cable, Sunday evenings still seemed to be a time to sit down to watch the Beeb or ITV with the family for a dose of gentle viewing"Drama" is too strong a word for the programmes that aired in that prime time slot (somewhere between 7pm and 9pm).  Technically, they ''were'' dramas – but they were laced with humour, protected from over-exposure to violence or sex or the truly dark underbelly of the stories they actually told.
+
|summary=Ryan Kennedy killed a police officer: there's no doubt about that.  He was the fifteen-year-old holding the gun and pointing it at DI Kieran Shaw.  He pulled the trigger but due to the vagaries of the jury system he was found not guilty of both the murder and the manslaughter of the officerAnd so lives must go on.  For DI Sarah Collins that means leaving the capital and hoping for a quieter life in the countryside but when a missing teenager is found on her territory she's drawn into a wider investigation - and back into the orbit of Ryan Kennedy.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849010218</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1448309743
|author=M J Trow
+
|title=The Devil Stone (DCI Christine Caplan)
|title=Maxwell's Island
+
|author=Caro Ramsay
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=Maxwell had never been intending to go to the Isle of Wight but when his colleague went sick at the last moment he volunteered to take her place on the school tripHis wife, Jacquie wasn't entirely convinced that this lived up to the family holiday they'd been planning, but she went along tooThere were quite a few adults, as there have to be nowadays, including Medlicott, the new head of art, and his wife.  Jacquie feels that it's even less of a holiday for her when Medlicott's wife goes missing and she's forced to be the policewoman she'd hoped to leave at home.
+
|summary=In the village of Cronchie on the West coast of Scotland, five members of a wealthy family are found murderedThe only item missing from the home is the Devil Stone: myth says that if the stone is removed from Otterburn House, death will followThe only suspects are known Satanists but in many ways, that's an easy conclusion given that two of them 'discovered' the body.  The Senior Investigating Office is DCI Bob Oswald but when he disappears, DCI Christine Caplan is pulled in to 'shadow' him.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>074900892X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1529077699
|author=Elizabeth Haynes
+
|title=The Raging Storm (Two Rivers)
|title=Into The Darkest Corner
+
|author=Ann Cleeves
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=The book didn't actually look that appealing.  The cover is on the sepia side of dull.  I didn't know the author's name and the title didn't really grab meWhen I started reading we were straight into the transcript of a court case in which it seemed that a police officer was being questioned in court about his relationship with a womanHe was accused of being violent to her, but it seemed that the boot was really on the other footThen we were into a story – or even two stories – with two time lines some four years apart.  Within ten minutes I couldn't put it down.
+
|summary=''It's all bloody peculiar, isn't it, Sir?''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956251579</amazonuk>
+
 
 +
Well yes, it isJem Rosco blew into the local pub one evening in the middle of an autumn gale, stayed for about a month and then turned up, naked and dead, in a small boat, anchored in Scully Cove close to the village of Greystone, in DevonRosco had the status of a national treasure: a renowned adventurer, round the world sailor and all round ''celebrity''I ''nearly'' said 'all-round good egg' but as we'll find out, he could be more than a little bit close with money and his background isn't exactly an open book. Where did he get the money for his first boat?  How did he finance the trip?
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1529427045
|author=Jon Osborne
+
|title=The Girl in the Eagle's Talons
|title=Kill Me Once
+
|author=Karin Smirnoff
|rating=4
+
|rating=5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=The title and the book cover plus the wording 'Introducing a new breed of serial killer' leave the reader in no doubt as to the type of book it is.  A lot of innocent blood is going to be spilled throughout these pages.  And, in the case of many individuals with evil at their core, we get to visit the childhood of one of the main characters, Nathan Stiedowe.  I wasn't at all surprised to read that he was 'different' from the other little boys  at school.  He often got nasty nicknames thrown at him from his peers.  But did he care?  Add to all of that, his parents were bible-bashers but their fervent love of God didn't seem to extend to their son.  Why?  Nathan decided from a very early age that, in order to survive, he'd better develop a pretty thick skin - and fast.
+
|summary=''Life has more to offer than people - prime numbers for example''.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009955092X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
+
Lisbeth Salander has headed north to the small town of Gasskas, where the so-far-untapped natural resources of the area have sparked a gold rush.  The criminal underworld has not been slow in coming forwardSalander's niece's mother is the latest woman in the area to have vanished without traceIt was only with reluctance that Salander became her niece's guardian but it quickly becomes obvious that Svala is a remarkably gifted teenager who's unaware of the part Salander played in her father's death.
|author=Helen Black
 
|title=Blood Rush
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime
 
|summary=Lilly has had the baby she was expecting in the last book, and daughter Alice is the child from hell.  Sweet and angelic with just about anyone other than her mum, she won't sleep at night, is prone to screaming fits and about as disruptive to a previously one-parent, one-child household as a baby could beFortunately father Jack (copper, ex-boyfriend, current status indeterminate) is welcome to come and lend a hand whenever he can spare the timeOf course, Alice adores him.  Equally fortunately, first-born and now teenage son, Sam, is unbelievably cool about his baby sis.  Just to round it off, Lilly and Sam's father are also on speaking and son-sharing terms (and sod his new girlfriend!).
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849014736</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1787636607
|author=Molly Carr
+
|title=The Trap
|title=The Sign of Fear
+
|author=Catherine Ryan Howard
|rating=3
+
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=Meet Mary Watson - a distant second to John Watson, who of course was a distant second to Sherlock Holmes. Fed up with staying at home while her new husband spends too much time at 221b Baker Street, or away with Holmes sleuthing, she gets to dabble her own feet in the underworld waters when a certain Professor Moriarty comes calling.
+
|summary=It's a scene replicated all too often in the early hours of the morning.  Drunken revellers spilling out of clubs and looking for a way to get home.  Some are lucky and manage to get one of the few taxis available.  Others squash onto the night bus that will only go as far as one of the outlying villages.  The woman all regret the 'taxi problem', particularly in the light of 'the missing women'.  For one young woman, the final stop on the bus leaves her a long way short of her home.  She had intended to ring someone to come and collect her - but her phone's dead. The bus had driven off before she had the chance to beg the bus driver to let her use his.  There's no option but to start walking - unsuitably clothed and in high-heeled shoes.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907685006</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1405957174
|author=Craig Smith
+
|title=A Death at the Party
|title=Cold Rain
+
|author=Amy Stuart
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
+
|genre=Crime
|summary=Life was pretty good for Dr David Albo.  He'd just had fifteen months away from his job as an associate professor of English at a university in the mid-western USAHe lived on a plantation-style farmhouse with a beautiful and intelligent wife and a step-daughter who adored him.  He was even going back to work in the expectation that he might well be offered a full professorship in the not-too-distant future and just to put the icing on the cake he's been clear of alcohol for two years. Yes; life was very good.
+
|summary=From the first page, we know that Nadine Walsh's party will not end wellThe victim - a man - is dying when we first meet him and Nadine consciously makes no effort to call the ambulance he so desperately needs.  What we don't know is who the man is or why Nadine prefers to have him die.  I'd better give you a little more background so that you can understand what's happening.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190580234X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move on to [[Newest Crime (Historical) Reviews]]
|author=Jo Nesbo and Don Bartlett
 
|title=The Leopard
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|summary=Still completely traumatised by 'The Snowman' investigation, Inspector Harry Hole has fled Norway for the seedy underbelly of Hong Kong where he is happy to lose himself to debt and drugs.  Back in Norway, two women are found murdered by the same gruesome means and Crime Squad believe they have another serial killer on their hands.  Harry's boss, Gunner Hagen wants his best detective back, as he believes Harry is the only person who can find the killer, after two months with no leads.  Despite being persuaded to return to Oslo due to his father's illness and with no apparent interest in the case, Harry's detective instincts take him straight to the murder scene when a third woman is found dead and he cannot resist getting involved, especially when the current investigative team seem to be making such a mess of it.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846554004</amazonuk>
 
}}
 

Latest revision as of 10:09, 9 September 2024

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Review of

The Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope) by Ann Cleeves

4.5star.jpg Crime

A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a man in the park near Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens. The dead man was Josh - one of the care workers who was due to work a shift the night before but who had never turned up. D I Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate the murder - but her only clue is the disappearance of one of the residents, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the girl's diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. She knows that she has to find Chloe to discover what happened to Josh. Full Review

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Review of

A Grave in the Woods (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel) by Martin Walker

4star.jpg Crime

Because of various property transactions, people were searching for the grave but when they found it, it came with three sets of bones. They dated back to World War II and it fell to Bruno, the Chief of Police for St Denis, to discover the identities of the bodies and establish whether or not a crime had been committed. As if this isn't enough to worry about, the Dordogne River - normally tranquil - is flowing at record levels. It's not just the local autumn rains that have caused the problem: various dams upstream on another river have had to release water and St Denis faces the possibility of a devastating flood. Full Review

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Review of

The Suspect by Rob Rinder

4.5star.jpg Crime

The nation's favourite daytime TV presenter, Jessica Holby, was murdered live on television and it seems that there's only one suspect. He's celebrity chef Sebastian Brooks and his contract stated that he must not serve anything containing miso to Jessica Holby. She's seriously allergic and carries an EpiPen in case of emergencies. Everything seemed as normal - as normal as they can be in a busy, live television studio - and Brooks served a ragout to Holby. Her EpiPen was nowhere to be found and she was dead within minutes. It was soon clear that this was no accident. Full Review

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Review of

Swanton Morley (John Tanner) by David Blake

3.5star.jpg Crime

It seemed like an open-and-shut case. A man, covered in mud and blood - and carrying a knife, comes into the police station shouting that he hasn't killed the man. A body at the bottom of a freshly dug grave at Swanton Morley church - he's been stabbed to death. DCI John Tanner is just back from his honeymoon, which coincided with the birth of his daughter Samantha. You would think he'd be grateful for an easy answer but the words 'perverse' and 'John Tanner' were made for each other. He's sleep-deprived to the point of falling asleep at work but he's determined to keep going - probably because he can't get any sleep at home. Full Review

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Review of

Lowe and Le Breton Mysteries - Death at the Dress Rehearsal by Stuart Douglas

3.5star.jpg Crime

During location filming for his 1970's sitcom 'Floggit and Leggit', leading man Edward Lowe stumbles across the dead body of a woman on the edge of a reservoir. The police seem happy to assign it as an accidental death, but something about the whole thing bothers Lowe, and he enlists the help of a fellow actor, John Le Breton to help him investigate matters further. They travel across the country during their days off filming, uncovering more possible murders and, seemingly, a link to death during the Second World War. But is there really a link between the deaths? And will they manage to uncover who is responsible before more people lose their lives? Full Review

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Review of

Death in a Lonely Place by Stig Abell

4star.jpg Crime

Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the future on the back burner. Full Review

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Review of

The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway) by Elly Griffiths

4.5star.jpg Crime

Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness. Full Review

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Review of

The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie) by Neil Lancaster

4.5star.jpg Crime

It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. This person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening. Full Review

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Review of

A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11) by Jane Casey

5star.jpg Crime

It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced. Full Review

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Review of

The Kellerby Code by Jonny Sweet

3.5star.jpg Crime

Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's a theatre director. He's also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the two of them kissing in a dark passageway. Full Review

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Review of

Leave No Trace by Jo Callaghan

4star.jpg Crime

When a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. It's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a career? Full Review

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Review of

The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder by C L Miller

3.5star.jpg Crime

It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced. Full Review

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Review of

Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? by Nicci French

5star.jpg Crime

Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, is not. Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. It was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened. Full Review

1529900360.jpg

Review of

The Ghost Orchid by Jonathan Kellerman

4star.jpg Crime

It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the help of a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it was Robin, Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and it's not the Italian. But which of them was the primary target? Full Review

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Review of

Knife Skills for Beginners by Orlando Murrin

4star.jpg Crime

Chef Paul Delamare took a teaching job at a residential cookery school in Belgravia. He didn't really want to but celebrity chef Christian Wagner had a way of getting both men and women to do what he wanted. Paul somehow got the impression that he'd be at the school to assist Paul, who had a broken arm, but it didn't turn out that way. The teaching - and the problems - are all his own. The one thing he hadn't expected was for someone to turn up dead. Unfortunately, he was the person who discovered the body and everyone knows that the police consider that person to be the prime suspect. Full Review

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Review of

Laying Out the Bones by Kate Webb

4.5star.jpg Crime

It was one of those flash downpours that the British weather often delivers in a heatwave. In a gully, a human skeleton came to the surface and forensic testing proved the body to be Lee Geary, who had disappeared nine years earlier. He'd been a known drug user and had learning disabilities, so it could have been a simple case of misadventure but DI Matt Lockyer wasn't convinced. Geary was a townie, so what was he doing out on Salisbury Plain alone? There are connections to the suicide of Holly Gilbert and to two other deaths which were not considered suspicious at the time. Lockyer and DC Gemma Broad of the Major Crimes Review Unit (that's cold cases to you and me) investigate. Full Review

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Review of

Lost and Never Found (A D I Wilkins Mystery) by Simon Mason

4.5star.jpg Crime

In Oxford, there are two D I Wilkins. Raymond Wilkins is of Nigerian descent, Balliol educated and always exquisitely dressed. D I Ryan Wilkins, son of Ryan and father of Ryan, is not. He's not any of those things. He's white, originated from a trailer park, barely educated (reading's not really his thing) and his wardrobe consists mainly of shell suits and trackies. They're usually in lime green or acid yellow. You might wonder if you're being introduced to a police procedural written for laughs. Well, you're not. The two men are just different sides of the same policing coin. Sometimes the combination works brilliantly well. Sometimes it's problematic. Full Review

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Review of

The Winter Visitor by James Henry

4star.jpg Crime

It's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. He'd been exiled on the Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. The return has come about because he's had a letter from his ex-wife, saying that she's ill and hasn't long to live. It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a watery grave in the boot of a stolen Ford Sierra. Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home? Full Review

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Review of

A Nye of Pheasants by Steve Burrows

4star.jpg Crime

DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka. Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the man. Now he could be facing the death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all. Full Review

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Review of

They Had It Coming (Greg Mason mysteries) by Keith Redfern

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Greg Mason's just beginning to get his confidence as an investigator to the point where he'll warn someone about how much he charges. It's a good job too because Greg and Joyce will soon have a baby and they're both delighted. Joyce will be more delighted about the baby when she gets past the morning sickness. Greg is approached by an old friend whose brother-in-law appears to have killed himself. Stuart's concerned about his sister, Lucy, who's struggling to make ends meet and her son is not thriving. Lucy, he says, is convinced that Gil would never have killed himself - it simply wasn't in his nature. The police and the coroner have accepted that the death was suicide, but Stuart's prepared to pay Greg to find out what happened on the night Gil died. Full Review

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Review of

Responsibilities (Greg Mason mysteries) by Ann Macarthur

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It's the 1990s and Greg Mason's twenty-eight years old. He used to have a high-flying job in the city but it wasn't satisfying so he's now set himself up as a private investigator. 'Shades of Cameron Strike', you might be thinking. Nice bloke, but where's the life experience that backs up this profession? On the other hand, he has been asked to look into something. Joyce and Helen are half-sisters, or rather, they were until Helen was killed in what's been written off as a tragic accident at an unmanned level crossing. Joyce - and her parents, Oliver and Pam Hetherington - can't understand what she was doing there - or how she could come to fall in front of a train. Greg's been asked to investigate. Full Review

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Review of

The Misper by Kate London

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Ryan Kennedy killed a police officer: there's no doubt about that. He was the fifteen-year-old holding the gun and pointing it at DI Kieran Shaw. He pulled the trigger but due to the vagaries of the jury system he was found not guilty of both the murder and the manslaughter of the officer. And so lives must go on. For DI Sarah Collins that means leaving the capital and hoping for a quieter life in the countryside but when a missing teenager is found on her territory she's drawn into a wider investigation - and back into the orbit of Ryan Kennedy. Full Review

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Review of

The Devil Stone (DCI Christine Caplan) by Caro Ramsay

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In the village of Cronchie on the West coast of Scotland, five members of a wealthy family are found murdered. The only item missing from the home is the Devil Stone: myth says that if the stone is removed from Otterburn House, death will follow. The only suspects are known Satanists but in many ways, that's an easy conclusion given that two of them 'discovered' the body. The Senior Investigating Office is DCI Bob Oswald but when he disappears, DCI Christine Caplan is pulled in to 'shadow' him. Full Review

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Review of

The Raging Storm (Two Rivers) by Ann Cleeves

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It's all bloody peculiar, isn't it, Sir?

Well yes, it is. Jem Rosco blew into the local pub one evening in the middle of an autumn gale, stayed for about a month and then turned up, naked and dead, in a small boat, anchored in Scully Cove close to the village of Greystone, in Devon. Rosco had the status of a national treasure: a renowned adventurer, round the world sailor and all round celebrity. I nearly said 'all-round good egg' but as we'll find out, he could be more than a little bit close with money and his background isn't exactly an open book. Where did he get the money for his first boat? How did he finance the trip? Full Review

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Review of

The Girl in the Eagle's Talons by Karin Smirnoff

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Life has more to offer than people - prime numbers for example.

Lisbeth Salander has headed north to the small town of Gasskas, where the so-far-untapped natural resources of the area have sparked a gold rush. The criminal underworld has not been slow in coming forward. Salander's niece's mother is the latest woman in the area to have vanished without trace. It was only with reluctance that Salander became her niece's guardian but it quickly becomes obvious that Svala is a remarkably gifted teenager who's unaware of the part Salander played in her father's death. Full Review

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Review of

The Trap by Catherine Ryan Howard

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It's a scene replicated all too often in the early hours of the morning. Drunken revellers spilling out of clubs and looking for a way to get home. Some are lucky and manage to get one of the few taxis available. Others squash onto the night bus that will only go as far as one of the outlying villages. The woman all regret the 'taxi problem', particularly in the light of 'the missing women'. For one young woman, the final stop on the bus leaves her a long way short of her home. She had intended to ring someone to come and collect her - but her phone's dead. The bus had driven off before she had the chance to beg the bus driver to let her use his. There's no option but to start walking - unsuitably clothed and in high-heeled shoes. Full Review

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Review of

A Death at the Party by Amy Stuart

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From the first page, we know that Nadine Walsh's party will not end well. The victim - a man - is dying when we first meet him and Nadine consciously makes no effort to call the ambulance he so desperately needs. What we don't know is who the man is or why Nadine prefers to have him die. I'd better give you a little more background so that you can understand what's happening. Full Review

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