I’ll admit it: the title hooked me. Then, the premise: I love books that explore alternative possibilities, Sliding Doors style, especially ones with significant consequences, not just romantic ones. What’s it about? Joanna meets a man in a bar. He bothers her. She leaves, walking home alone. Then, she hears footsteps behind her. She’s sure […]
Do you like staying up all night? If not then you should definitely start reading T. M. Logan’s second thrilling novel, ’29 Seconds’, early on in the day. This is a gripping story that combines a twisting plot with a very relevant look at the way our culture rewards predatory male behaviour. What’s it about? […]
When you realise your police investigation is going to expose your own double life… #Awkward What’s it about? DI Helen Grace is summoned to ‘The Torture Rooms’, a Southampton night club that caters for a particular clientele, to discover a murdered man bound from head to toe. As she unwraps him, she discovers she knows […]
How do you investigate a crime the Stasi don’t want you to solve? This is a problem Oberleutnant Karin Muller is familiar with. David Young’s first thrilling crime novel, ‘Stasi Child‘, saw Karin investigate the mysterious death of a teenage girl who appeared to be escaping from West to East Berlin, and ‘Stasi Wolf‘, our […]
I had the pleasure of meeting Lisa Cutts at Crimefest in 2016. Listening to her talk, she was so friendly, knowledgeable and good humoured that I had to buy one of her books, which somehow over time got buried under a heap of other books. Having recently read and LOVED her fourth book, ‘Buried Secrets‘, […]
Hands up: who loves a novel with more twists than a slinky? Me! Me! Me! As long as they make sense in the wider context of the plot and characterisation, of course, which these do. Oh they do so beautifully. ‘Buried Secrets’ is the first of DC Lisa Cutts’ crime novels I have read, but […]
I think I just found a new favourite author. ‘Hide and Seek’ completely gripped my attention and I read it from cover to cover over a day and a half. It would have been even less, but I have three small children who like attention. (Did I say like? I meant insist upon.) What’s it […]
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 […]