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 […]
He said / she said: many rape cases are fought over belief; who will the jury trust? When Laura witnesses a brutal attack on a traumatised young woman, she calls the police and so begins a process of events that will leave her panic stricken, in hiding and fearing for her life. Now-husband, then-boyfriend, Kit, […]
It’s every parent’s nightmare: your child, taken. Missing. Years later the case is still unsolved, your child’s whereabouts still unknown, your arms still empty. Now rub salt in the wound: everyone, including you, thinks it was your own fault. Meet Caroline Shipley. This is her living nightmare. What’s it about? Fielding has evidently taken Madeline […]
London Society takes their problems to Sherlock Holmes. Everyone else goes to Arrowood. What if you were a jobbing detective who lived at the same time as the great Sherlock Holmes? What might you think of this so-called genius with an eye for the significant clue and a general dislike of people? Would you respect […]
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 […]
What if…the worst thing that ever happened to you wasn’t what happened, but not being believed? What if…that lack of belief in you left a killer free to kill again? This is Alex Taylor’s life. Will it also be her death? What’s it about? Usually, I like to give my own take on what a […]
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 […]