If the cold doesn’t kill you, the truth will. As ever, the latest story in David Young’s Stasi series demands your attention with a chilling strapline, an intriguing cover and a tale of an impossible task. Karin Muller wants to know the truth about the murders she investigates, but in 1970s East Germany, the truth […]
This is story that deserves to be told. Although Young’s characters are fictional, the events depicted in 1945 during the death throes of Nazi Germany, are horrific facts. Though this is a primarily a detective story, it’s clear that ‘Stasi 77’ also functions as a disturbing reminder, not just of certain historical events, but of […]
‘It was almost like she seriously didn’t care about the exhaust system.’ This is why I enjoy Lianne Moriarty’s books. The third person narration offers a frequently amusing and consistently insightful look into people’s inner thoughts and closest relationships, usually supported by a gradually tightening suspense story. Having previously read and enjoyed several of Moriarty’s […]
‘Dark, disturbing and authentic.’ This was the CWA judging panel’s judgement and I completely agree with this description (whilst noting that I don’t know enough about prisons to comment accurately on the third, but the officers’ attitudes feel plausible). So why did ‘The Woman Before Me’ win the CWA’s debut dagger? What’s it about? Rose […]
It normally makes a brilliant party, the murder game. But that’s only true when no one actually dies… What’s it about? Secrets. Shame. The ancient history that binds friends together long past the expiration of their shared joy. The set up: Polskirrin, a beautiful house on a remote Cornish coastline. Eight guests, two hosts and […]
‘Hands Up’ opens with rookie Officer Ryan Quinn trying to look at himself in a mirror. Literally. He’s not a murderer. Not really. It was a justified shooting, even if the victim was a teenage boy with no weapon who committed no offence. Everyone says so: his superiors, his partner, his mother and his snooty […]
The detective and the celebrity blogger. Together, can they catch a serial killer? ‘Death Deserved’, the first collaboration between two well established authors of Nordic Noir, Jorn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger, is a brilliantly engaging tale of a police man hunt that seeks to apprehend a flamboyant serial killer who’s determined to manipulate the […]
What would you do to protect your sister? Would you be prepared to lie? If so, who to? The rest of your family? The police? How about the family of the boyfriend they killed? And is there anything that might make you reconsider those lies? Korede is about to find out… What’s it about? ‘Perhaps […]
 How did it come to this? We’ve all said things we later wish we hadn’t, but Kia Abdullah takes this concept all the way to trial in her sad and powerful court room drama, ‘Take It Back’. What’s it about? ‘Take it Back’ is a classic he said / she said narrative that presents the […]
‘Like a good detective story myself,’ remarked Miss Howard. ‘Lots of nonsense written, though. Criminal discovered in last chapter. Every one dumfounded. Real crime – you’d know at once.’ In renowned Belgian detective Hercule Poirot’s debut outing (in novel form, at least), everyone involved thinks they know at once who the killer is, but do […]