‘Sir Joseph Venell considered his sin, and smiled.’ Unfortunately for Sir Joseph, his smile is swiftly replaced by a grimace of fear as he is brutally attacked by an invisible adversary and left for dead in his own field. What has happened to Sir Joseph? Why do the investigators believe Thomas Tallant, a spice merchant […]
What do our most notorious killers deserve? This is the question M. J. Arlidge explores in this fast paced, violent tale that imagines what might happen if a vigilante infiltrated the probation service and decided to supply the bereaved families with the knowledge required to take their revenge… What’s it about? Arlidge’s chunky tale focuses […]
Two men flee across a continent, wanted dead or alive. Their crime? They killed the King… History records that Puritans Edward Whalley and his son-in-law, William Goffe, fled to America to escape the Act of Oblivion, passed in 1660, pardoning all Civil War participants except the 59 who had signed the death warrant for King […]
‘His gut was telling him he had stumbled on a crime that had something to do with little girls.’ When local police visit an elderly peeping tom, the confiscated photographs of multiple young girls are sent by an intuitive PC Carey to an even more intuitive DI Custer, of the recently formed Paedophile Unit, to […]
If something has been covered up for eighty years, someone, somewhere, knows why… I was intrigued by the premise of this book and was happy to accept a copy to review, but I was surprised as the story began and didn’t seem to be about a day by the pool, but instead focused on a […]
A father and son enter a ghost house at a theme park. They never come out. This isn’t Private Investigator David Raker’s case – he is hired to uncover what happened to Fiona Murphy, a mother who walked out of her house on boxing day 40 years ago and was never seen again – but […]
Six students. One murder. Your time starts now… Once again, Janice Hallett has created a cosy, clever murder mystery composed entirely of everyday documentation and messages, this time surrounding a multimedia art course. What’s it about? Since the start of their one year MA, the mature students have caused their course leader trouble, from setting […]
How does a whole village vanish? Well, it’s a small village – four houses, nine people – but this is still a cracking premise for a crime thriller. Where did the people of Black Gale go? Two and a half years on, there are still no answers. Enter: David Raker, a Private Investigator whose sole […]
‘Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation.’ This is a book that starts with an acknowledgement of a murder and nods at the impact this has had on the narrator’s life: ‘This is the only story I will ever be able to tell.’ There is […]
‘I had no interest in turning my gaze to my family. I was more interested in the strangeness of others.’ Yorkshire, 1979. Margaret Thatcher has just been elected and the news channels are brimming with news about the Yorkshire Ripper, both his crimes and the hunt for him. Meanwhile, two best friends are navigating life […]