It begins with a phone call…and it ends with a murder. TLDR: I loved this book. If you’re a fan of crime thrillers, you should probably read it. Oh how I do love an unreliable narrator and a narrative unwrapped in gradual layers until what you thought you knew lies in tatters. What’s it about? […]
A locked room. A brutal murder. And a killer who can unwind time… Ooh, what a fabulous premise. I was sure I would love this before I even read the blurb, and I was right. Part myth, part mystery and completely compelling, ‘Black Lake Manor’ is a cleverly crafted tale with a satisfying ending. What’s […]
‘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 […]
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 […]
Some books really do give you precisely what the blurb promises. Mavis Doriel Hay’s ‘The Santa Klaus Murder’ is one of them. Hay is an author whose three detective novels had long been forgotten, but a few years ago the British Library opted to bring all three out of retirement by reprinting them in their […]
If you were going to kill someone, would you choose to do it in front of witnesses, and inside a locked room? I don’t feel like I’m going out on a limb here when I say that, no, I don’t think you would. But then, if you were going to kill someone and even confess […]
No one could have killed Polly Carter…but someone did. This is a locked room mystery that takes place in a garden with a cliff top and some extremely convenient shrubbery. Oh, and it takes place in the Carribean. And Polly’s a celebrity (of course: who else would have a cliff top with beach access conveniently […]