I LOVE this book. This is a grower. I thoroughly enjoyed ‘The Perfect Victim’ while I was reading it, but it’s only when you reach the explosive finale that you can fully appreciate just how cleverly Corrie Jackson has pulled this story together. As soon as I finished it I was desperate to discuss it: […]
When Bartholomew Fynch is murdered, finding out whodunit proves challenging. Not only was he a secretive chap, rumoured to have worked for MI5, but he was deeply unpleasant and it gradually emerges that almost everyone in the village hated him enough to do him in. Oh, okay, EVERYONE in the village hated him enough to […]
Book groups and book blogging: two great ways to discover authors you might not otherwise have been aware of. My crime reading book group recently introduced me to the joys of Dana Stabenow’s ‘Kate Shugak investigates’ series. Set in Alaska it follows the adventures of a retired (but young) District Attorney investigator with four Aleut […]
Ah, small towns. Everyone knows everything about everybody. Except when they don’t. Murder in Dulwich means secrets in Dulwich and secrets mean that someone needs to investigate. In Alice Castle’s new London Murder Mystery series, that someone is Beth, mother, journalist, odd-jobber and, suddenly, amateur investigator. What’s it about? Meet Beth Haldane, thirty-something single mum. […]
Ah, the Carribean. Sun, sea and, erm, dead bodies. Calling all Agatha Christie fans: this is a classic locked room mystery in which all the protagonists are gathered together at the end for the big reveal. Can the reader solve the mystery before the detective? Mmm, possibly. (I didn’t.) If not you’ll be sure to […]
How far would you go to protect your family? Could you forgive those who have wronged you? And even if you could, can you ever truly go home? Billed as a novel for those who enjoy books by Raymond Chandler and John Grisham, John Hart’s second book, ‘Down River’, is a dark and atmospheric trip […]
I love unreliable narrators. So when I saw this story in which the main character openly announces, ‘Sometimes I lie’, well, I was hooked even before I read the rest of the blurb. This is journalist Alice Feeney’s debut novel and, yes, for fans of psychological thrillers, it is absolutely as good as it promises. What’s it about? […]
I love reading about forensics. Catching a criminal because of tell-tale threads of fibres or revealing smears of vital DNA is at the heart of shows like CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) and many a crime novel. There’s something so compellingly CERTAIN about forensic evidence…even when competing criminalists are arguing that a piece of evidence supports […]
Sometimes a book surprises you. Last year that book was David Young’s debut novel, ‘Stasi Child’ – winner of the CWA Historical Dagger award. Despite my vague belief that I don’t really enjoy reading historical fiction, despite my occasional professed boredom with another story focusing on life in post-WW2 Germany, I LOVED ‘Stasi Child’. It’s […]
Talented author and all-round-lovely-bloke G. J. Minett has his second novel, ‘Lie in Wait’ released in paperback today. To celebrate, I am reposting my original review . Enjoy! Then go book shopping. Go on. It’s a Wednesday. Three whole days to go ’til the weekend. Treat yourself – and your shelf. Last year I read and LOVED G. […]