Victorian gothic: possibly my favourite genre. Here, Jess Kidd creates a darkly poetic and watery tale. At it’s heart: Bridie Devine, formerly a resurrectionist’s girl, then a medic’s trusted extra hands, and finally a private detective with a penchant for mind altering blends of tobacco and the odd nip of Madeira. I felt like I […]
‘At first I mistook the severed head for something else. It wasn’t until I was very close that I realised it was Lucy.’ I do love an effective opening sentence, and my word this one grabbed me. To my delight, the words and chapters that followed were equally compelling, and all of a sudden it […]
When a loved one takes their own life, we are stunned. Even if it was expected – and often it isn’t – we wonder how they can have taken themselves away from us. Dr Jo-Ann Rowland sought to investigate some of the whys by focusing on a specific sub-set of one community with a high […]
Forensics and psychological profiling are probably my favourite crime fiction elements. Kate Rhodes uses both effectively to create a fast paced and rather gruesome tale in ‘Blood Symmetry’, her fifth novel in her popular Alice Quentin series. What’s it about? Clare Riordan is out running with her son, Mikey, one morning when they are both […]
Six friends. Three secrets. One murder. The strapline of this novel suggests a crime thriller, but if that’s what you’re seeking, you might not find it here. A woman dies, that’s true, but somehow her death immediately becomes less important than the sex lives of the living. What’s it about? Maggie’s hen party is a […]
Louise Candlish is a thoroughly contemporary author. In this, her ninth book, she explores the awful impact of trial by media after a woman’s adultery leads to tragedy. I was really looking forward to reading this, having previously read and enjoyed Candlish’s later novels, ‘The Swimming Pool‘ and ‘The Sudden departure of the Frasers’, and […]
How do young lovers snatch time together in the 1930s? They play hide and seek, of course. But as a Christmas gathering in a great country house reaches its peak, one such game will result in murder, the unravelling of long hidden secrets and, potentially, a grave miscarriage of justice. What’s it about? When the […]
Dead Opposite the Church The factual title gives you a feel for how this crime novel will develop: facts are followed by facts and little intuition is needed to connect them, which is just as well, as our main protagonist is rather short on intuition… What’s it about? Edward Packman ran his weekly newspaper as […]
Puzzle fans rejoice: DI Manson is on the case. As part of their ongoing mission to revive excellent but neglected authors, Dean Street Press are reissuing some of the most entertaining golden age crime fiction. ‘Who Killed Dick Whittington’ (written by husband and wife writing team E. & M. A. Radford) is indeed a classic […]
‘I thought that love would last forever. I was wrong.’ So wrote Auden in his beautiful and haunting poem, ‘Funeral Blues’. But, what if it could? In these digital days of iPhones, iPads and iWatches, how far away are we from the possibility of an iRachel? Cass Hunter explores longing, loss, love and, erm, the […]