‘A shadow moved between her and the sun, and a pang of relief went through her. Help was on the way.’ Murder can be brutal. It can be banal. But in DCI Geldard’s Norfolk, a ten year old murder is top of Greg’s priority list, until a rash of unsolved disappearances becomes something more sinister. […]
Would you know if you had married a serial killer? Of course you would, you think, by which you mean you would never have married him. But before you scoff too vigorously, you should know that Sonia Sutcliffe had no idea. One day, when her husband returns from a weekend away, Martha watches him put […]
‘Jack Palmer had seen the movies: when aliens invade, humans will come together to save the world.’ Unfortunately for Jack, when a superior alien race decide to invade earth, it seems the films are wrong: cowed by their brutally dispassionate taskmasters, whose punishment for every infarction, however minor, is instant death, most humans rapidly learn […]
Welcome to the world of DI Ridpath. After a serious brush with melanoma that forced him to take nine months off work, he’s ready to return to his post – but his boss has decided to sweep him into the long grass. His crime? Being ill on the job. Shunted into a new role as […]
This was my introduction to ‘Sunshine Noir’, which is apparently similar to Nordic Noir but set in brighter, sunnier climes, specifically, in ‘Facets of Death’, in Botswana. I am late to the party, both to the subgenre and to the world of Detective Kubu, but I’m glad to have finally investigated this treasure. Speaking of […]
Vultures and elephants, murder and corruption. What more could a book need? Ok, it’s only one elephant, but a very clever one. Meet Ganesha, a young and ingenious companion for (former) Inspector Chopra, sent to him by his missing uncle, for reasons unknown. Chopra owns a detective agency and this was my first introduction to […]
‘I’m not a romantic you know. I never was.’ Charlotte Lucas’ well-known rejection of Elizabeth Bennett’s emphasis on romantic love is put to the test in this re-imagining of the world of Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’. Could Elizabeth have been wrong in her prediction that Charlotte will regret her choice of husband? Readers of […]
“She’s not my mum…” When Jess hears these four words, whispered by a young girl in her local park, it sets her mind into overdrive. Why would Daisy lie? What might her mother, Morag, be hiding? Jess is determined to find out… What’s it about? Secrets. Suspicions. Trauma. From early on, in chapters subtitled ‘Before’, […]
It begins with a phone call…and it ends with a murder. TLDR: I loved this book. If you’re a fan of crime thrillers, you should probably read it. Oh how I do love an unreliable narrator and a narrative unwrapped in gradual layers until what you thought you knew lies in tatters. What’s it about? […]
Four victims. Four different locations. One strange mark on the bodies and one geographical link: all were born in Voineasa. In this slim Romanian noir novel, trained killer Sergiu Manta and police inspector Marius Stanescu are forced to work together to find out how these four disparate deaths are connected. Sergiu has his orders and […]