‘Jukes cried out in agony before toppling onto the ground like a skittle struck by a bowling ball.’ Murder. Kidnap. Mayhem. And that’s just the opening few pages. Tony Bassett is back with the sixth book in his DCI Roscoe and DS Roy series, although this time it’s not just the criminal gang causing mayhem: […]
I loved this book and look forward to Doyle’s next case. Oh, you want more information than that? Ok. If you like police procedurals, you should definitely read this. More information than that? Well, if you insist… What’s it about? When a woman’s broken body is found at the bottom of a cliff, it’s up […]
A murdered woman. A missing husband. An impossible crime scene. The strapline sounded a bit like a locked room mystery, but this is a police procedural with a purpose. When a wealthy woman is found dead in her locked London mansion by her cleaner, the key questions that arise are: what is the meaning of […]
Local drug dealer found dead – very dead. Death is surely an occupational hazard for drug dealers, especially those who are actively engaged in turf warfare, but when Tadeusz Filipowski’s body is examined, it becomes clear that more than one person really wanted him dead. It’s up to Heart of England police detective sergeant Sunita Roy […]
A missing man. A careless wife. An ailing business. Is Harry Bowers dead or deliberately missing? Heart of England police are determined to find out. What’s it about? I’m pinching the blurb for this one: The peace of a Midlands village is upset when local businessman Harry Bowers doesn’t return from choir practice. More concerned […]
This story brings together two of my favourite kinds of book: crime fiction and anything Jane Austen related. Now that doesn’t mean you need to be an Austen fan to enjoy this 23rd outing in the Dalziel and Pascoe series, but it means there’s a treat threaded throughout the story if you are. What’s it […]
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 […]
‘Two years of internet dating. It’s fair to say they haven’t flown by.’ Meet DS Manon Bradshaw: single, lonely, funny and clever. Steiner introduces us to Manon while she’s on her first, and last, date with Brian – or was it Keith? Either way, the sex was as dull as the conversation, leaving our lonely […]
Are you the person you want to be? While Steve Mosby’s ‘The Nightmare Place’ is primarily a crime thriller focused on the hunt to catch a violent serial offender, it has quite a strong tilt towards self judgement and self assessment, which I found interesting. DI Zoe Dolan could have turned into a criminal herself, […]
It must be quite frustrating at times for a police officer reading crime fiction and thinking, ‘but that would never happen that way!’ Debut novelist Desmond P. Ryan is here to address this problem: a former Canadian detective with 30 years experience on the force behind him, he’s penned the first in a planned series […]