Newest Crime Reviews
Crime
Far South by David Enrique Spellman
'Far South' is a highly unusual book. It's published as 'crime fiction' but this is really only part of the story. It's also a collection of creative endeavours that combines narrative with web-based content. We are told that 'David Enrique Spellman is the voice for the Far South Project. The Far South Collective is a loosely affiliated group of artists, writers, actors, filmmakers musicians and dancers. He works in close collaboration with Esko Tikanmäki Portogales, a Uruguayan web designer'. While I applaud its ambition in trying to add something more creative to the novel concept, I have slightly more mixed views about the success of this. Full review...
Until Thy Wrath Be Past: A Rebecka Martinsson Investigation by Asa Larsson and Laurie Thompson (Translator)
When we talk about 'Scandinavian crime fiction' and the name 'Larsson' there's an awful temptation to jump to conclusions about who exactly the author might be. Slow down though, because there's another Swedish crime writer with that surname and this one is very much alive and writing. Asa Larsson is not down with the southern softies in Stockholm but up in the far north, not far from Norway or Finland, in Kiruna, where she's placed Rebecca Martinsson, who works as a prosecutor, and Inspector Anna-Maria Mella. Those in the know have met them before and this is the third book in the series. Full review...
Dead on Time by Veronyca Bates
I reviewed Bates' earlier book Dead in the Water and enjoyed it for what it was - a light but enjoyable crime read. This book has the same look and feel about it. Bates has decided to base her crime within the corridors of power, local power that is, the council chambers. And some of us, perhaps many of us, secretly would like to know the ins and outs, the deals made etc by our locally-elected councillors (even although we agree that much of their work can be a tad dull and a tad tedious). But we'll probably shout from the rafters if they happen to get their comeuppance, as happens in this book. Mayor Boot has received his final comeuppance. He's dead. Full review...
A Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin
I haven't read any of Levin's books to date although I know various titles from television and films etc. And what struck me straight away was the terrific introduction by Chelsea Cain. Most intros can be rather dull and pedantic but this one is refreshingly different. It starts with the eye-catching line 'I could kill Ira Levin' and left me eager, very eager to get on and read the book. Full review...
Dead Water by Simon Ings
The standard advice to artists has always been "don't gild the lily". For those writers who appear not to understand how this relates to their art form, let me offer up a basic translation: don't complicate a brilliant plot!
Dead Water suffers from such gilding. Full review...
Tarantula: The Skin I Live In by Thierry Jonquet
In a large French country house, an expert in facial reconstruction surgery keeps a beautiful woman locked up in her bedroom. He placates her with opium, but barks orders through hugely powerful speakers and an intercom. She tantalises him with her sexuality, which he tries to ignore, except for when he seems to abuse it in a sort of S/M way when he does let her into society, as he forces her to prostitute herself. Elsewhere, a young, inept bank robber holes himself up in a sunny house, waiting for the heat to die. And finally, a young man is held chained up in a cellar at the hands of an unknown possessor. Full review...
Collusion by Stuart Neville
When I read the back cover blurb carefully, I discovered that most of the story is located in Ireland and not New York as I'd previously thought so I was just a little disappointed before I'd even opened the book. I'm usually a sucker for anything American in the fiction stakes.
Policeman Jack Lennon (his proper name is John and there's a good piece later on illustrating the fact that he's officially called John Lennon). Jack's on surveillance duty watching a couple of no-users as they sit and talk in a local cafe. Jack's in the comfort of his vehicle but still, he's not impressed with his latest task and says in his own words 'Yep, ... shit work.' Full review...
Death on the Rive Nord: An Inspector Lucas Rocco Mystery by Adrian Magson
Illegal immigrants are not a recent phenomenon. Back in 1963, in Picardy, a truck dropped a group of illegal workers close to a deserted stretch of canal, at the dead of night. Seven people left the truck, and it was only when the driver investigated that he found an eighth inside the truck, stabbed to death. It was a few days before the body surfaced in the canal and Inspector Lucas Rocco was given the job of investigating the death. The problems in Algeria were in the past but not forgotten and Rocco would find himself involved with notorious gang leaders from the former colony – and occasionally wondering if he has bitten off more than he can chew. Full review...
The Boys From Brazil by Ira Levin
A small group of powerful Nazis gather for a convivial post-prandial meeting, and collect identities and orders from their leader, who is sending them to different corners of the world in order that many innocent people may be killed. But this isn't when you might expect - it's the mid-1970s. It isn't where you might expect, for these Nazis are remnants of Hitler's regime that fled to south America for safety. And the deaths are being ordered for reasons you will never foretell. In that regard, then, you are as well-informed as chief Nazi hunter Yakov Lieberman, who hears tantalising hints of the plot, but cannot fathom it - nor indeed find proof it has indeed started. Full review...
The Hanging Shed by Gordon Ferris
This book is already The No 1 eBook bestseller so I was expecting a good read. Part of The Douglas Brodie Series, where Brodie, the central character, is a no-holds-barred journalist, although his past reveals that he's been a soldier and a policeman. Ferris elaborates further and gives his readers some background on Brodie. Brodie comes across, right from the start, as a resourceful, likeable and forthright man who has not been afraid to break away from his small-town roots in the west of Scotland. His present job is based in London but it's obvious that Brodie's heart's just not in it. He wants to return to Scotland, Glasgow in particular and try his journalistic luck there. An opportunity soon comes along - but it's one he was never in a million years expecting. Full review...
Frank Merlin: Princes Gate by Mark Ellis
In the early part of the Second World War there was a lull, when hostilities didn't really seem to get going – the so-called Phoney War. Some Londoners, who'd left the capital in the expectation of early bombing raids, began drifting back and there were still those who thought that peace could be negotiated – that we could stay out of the fight. Chief amongst those outside of the political classes who supported this view was the American Ambassador, Joseph Kennedy. Kennedy was, perhaps fortunately but not unusually, out of the country when one of the staff at the residence was murdered and her body fished out of the Thames. Full review...
Bad Intentions by Karin Fossum
Jon, Reilly and Axel had been friends for the best part of a couple of decades. Axel was the dominant one of the trio and Reilly was easily led. Jon - well Jon was vulnerable. Something had happened to them all at the end of the previous year and Jon had recently been in a mental hospital, but now, at the beginning of autumn, Axel and Reilly were taking him for a weekend at Dead Water Lake.
The three young men went out in a boat and Jon went over the side. Neither Axel nor Reilly made any attempt to help him and they didn't report his disappearnace until the following moring - and even then they said that he'd gone for a walk in the forest and had not returned. Full review...
The Siren by Alison Bruce
I recently read and reviewed Bruce's The Calling and thoroughly enjoyed it so I was hoping that this book would be equally good. The location is once again Cambridge. Two young women hastily meet up after hearing a local news item. A male body has been discovered in a gruesome and sorry state and has sent the two women into a right old flap. Although both are now in steady relationships and Kimberly is a mum, they obviously share a shady past together. 'It was a joke between them: Kimberly gets them both into trouble, Rachel gets them out.' Full review...
All Yours by Claudia Pineiro
Inés leads an ordinary life with her husband and daughter. So ordinary in fact, the term 'desperate housewife' could have been invented exclusively for her. She is under no illusions about marriage as an institution - but is convinced she knows all about her husband, and all about men and how to handle them – with a little help from her mother, whose observations on losing a man are always at the front of Inés' mind. When Inés follows her husband on an errand one night, she witnesses him having a violent argument with another woman; the woman then suffers a freak accident and dies. Inés takes charge of the ensuing trouble in her usual capable way, with the full confidence of someone who is always in control. But in trying to protect her husband, she comes up against much more than she bargained for. Full review...
The Vault by Ruth Rendell
The unthinkable has happened. Chief Inspector Wexford has retired. He's had a long career as he was already an Inspector when he first appeared in 1964 – perhaps not a good plan if you're looking for longevity in your character – but I doubt that Ruth Rendell could have anticipated quite how popular Reg Wexford would prove to be. And that's what he is now – plain Reg Wexford – with no authority to interview people and no warrant card in his pocket. He and Dora are splitting their time between Kingsmarkham and their daughter's coach house in London, but the novelty of trips here and there soon wears a little thin and Wexford finds himself at something of a loose end. Full review...
Fallen by Karin Slaughter
Faith Mitchell is not having a good day. A three-hour training seminar had stretched into four-and-a-half-hours, which meant that not only was she late picking up her baby daughter from her mothers' she was also starving hungry. This mattered more than it would for most of us, because Faith is diabetic. She needs to eat. Full review...
The Perfect Murder: The First Inspector Ghote Mystery by H R F Keating
'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. Full review...
The Calling by Alison Bruce
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 goings. Kaye's mother seems particularly upset. A 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. Full review...
Freedom by Daniel Suarez
A short while ago, I read Daniel Suarez's debut novel Daemon, which was a gripping technological thriller. It 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 abruptly. The reason for this abrupt end now becomes clear, as there is now a sequel, Freedom™. Full review...
Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer by Wesley Stace
"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]"
"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…' Full review...
The Sacrificial Man by Ruth Dugdall
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'. Full review...
Out Of Range by C J Box
Will Jensen, a Wyoming Game Warden of many years standing, had long held the respect of the townsfolk of Jackson. Recently 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. Full review...
The Track of Sand by Andrea Camilleri
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 sand. How 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 too. When 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. Full review...
Sweet Money by Ernesto Mallo and Katherine Silver
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 him. And that's the point. He's clever and resourceful enough to blend into any crowd and in any situation. Now 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 on? You'd perhaps think so, wouldn't you? Full review...
Grievous Angel by Quintin Jardine
I recently read (and reviewed) Jardine's 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'. Full review...
London Calling: An Inspector Carlyle Novel by James Craig
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 Minister. His twin brother, Xavier, would be the next Foreign Secretary. Then 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 Holyrod. Inspector 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. Full review...
The Rage by Gene Kerrigan
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. Full review...
Drowning Rose by Marika Cobbold
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. Full review...
The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime 8 by Maxim Jakubowski
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 Ian Rankin and Kate Atkinson, newwcomers such as Nigel Bird and Jay Stringer, and father and son combination Peter and Phil Lovesey. Full review...
The Good Thief's Guide to Venice by Chris Ewan
'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 possession. A 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. Full review...
Mixed Blood by Roger Smith
I reviewed Smith's Wake Up Dead and after reading the blurb on the back cover, this book would appear to be in a similar style. We meet Jack, his heavily-pregnant wife Susan and their young son as they relax in their smart suburban home. Smith 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. Full review...
Mercy by Jussi Adler-Olsen
The Prologue intends to grab the reader's attention right from the first word. I liked that. A 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 life. Guilt, 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 Carl. But will he cope? Full review...
Devil-Devil by Graeme Kent
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… Full review...
Dead Man's Grip by Peter James
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. Full review...
Kati Hirschel Murder Mystery: Hotel Bosphorus by Esmahan Aykol and Ruth Whitehouse (translator)
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 life. As a German national, Kati can stand back and take a cool look at all things Turkish. But 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 apparently. So 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 car. I go by car.' I particularly liked that line. Full review...
Loose-Limbed by David Barrie
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. Full review...
