All the Reviews

PLEASE DO NOT DISTURB comes with a wonderfully evocative sense of place and people, delivered with an affectionate comic touch. There's something reminiscient in here of lots of these styles of novels set in developing nations, where the people in positions of power and leadership are over the top, the worker's invariably put upon, hard working and blessed with bucket loads of patience and understanding, and everything seems to sort of muddle along in a way that would drive incomers mildly mad if you didn't see the funny side of it.

Glancy does a terrific job here at ... Read review

It's quite possible that there will be a few moments during the reading of this novel where you will want to punch the air in pride.  Our man Rebus still has the sharpest wit around and eases his way around tricky situations with the practiced air of one who expects little of others but demands much of himself.   The acceptance of DI Siobhan Clarke and DI Malcolm Fox that Rebus will always a part of their investigative lives is well and truly established in RATHER BE THE DEVIL; it is both sweet and savvy of them both.  The Rebus novels remain fiendishly clever and there's that ... Read review

A take on a noir romp with stylised good cop / bad cop characters, humour is a huge part of GOOD COP BAD COP. Therein lies probably the biggest problem - find it funny and it's going to work really well. Find it somewhat forced and the misogyny and objectification comes across as a bit creepy. Tackling a range of current day issues - from meth addiction to sex trafficking, there's a lot of sexual politics at the heart of GOOD COP BAD COP into the bargain. Whilst there's an interesting dynamic going on between the Good and the Bad cop of the title, you will need to deploy a hefty ... Read review

THE ASSASSIN ON THE BANGKOK EXPRESS is the second book in a series sub-titled "The Honourable Assassin", the first (with that title) released in 2015. Set, needless to say in Asia, they feature Vic Cavalier as the central protagonist. Cavalier is a newspaper reporter and freelance secret agent, with a long history of working in Asia. Long enough to have a daughter with his now ex-wife, a Thai doctor, his daughter having been kidnapped by the head of a Mexican Drug cartel with tendrils into Thailand, and Bangkok in particular.

If you've not read the first book there's ... Read review

Digging into the parental guilt that is heaped upon all new parents, HUSH LITTLE BABY is that needling little voice in your head telling you that you're not doing it right, and that someone else could probably do it better.  Sally's character alternates between maternal confidence and maternal guilt; we're never quite sure if she is genuinely apathetic, guilty, or simply exhausted.  The speed at which her child is taken from her is frightening, and the lack of real support she has shown to her is heartbreaking. This novel does much to illustrate that success is often just a facade, ... Read review

Partly a story around Iris Foster, partly a story around arson, BURN PATTERNS puts a complicated woman at the heart of a story about complicated offenders. Known as "The Fire Lady" Foster is a psychologist with a messy past that she's tried to put behind her. Until mid consultation with patients nothing to do with fires, she's hauled out by the police and taken straight to the site of a bomb planted at a local school. It doesn't matter how hard Iris tries to step away from her role as "Fire Lady" she's dragged back in - particularly as the initial bomb explosion leads to a range of ... Read review

The novella, TAINTED BY FIRE, from New Zealand based author Sidney Mazza, definitely telegraphs promise of things to come. There's an excellent idea at the heart of this work - an ordinary family man, living an ordinary sort of a life suddenly has everything tipped on its head, and he's in the fight of his life. There's plenty of potential for "what would I do" musings on the part of readers, as well as whatever it is that Bradley Cain decides to do.

It's not all promise though, and TAINTED BY FIRE is struggling a lot in places. There are too frequent leaps in logic which ... Read review

New Zealand's decision to declare itself nuclear-free in 1987 created quite a stir at the time, so it makes considerable sense that an autocratic Prime Minister approving a US Navel facility in the middle of Wellington harbour (and therefore allowing the possibility of nuclear powered vessels back into New Zealand waters) would create an even bigger stir. SHAFTS OF STRIFE is built around that concept - where daily protests and rallies occur, mayhem and anarchy ensue and, well all hell breaks out as the blurb says.

The novel builds a picture of an authoritarian Prime ... Read review

TATTLETALE is a bit of a muddy experience initially as the characters are established.  As doubt begins to direct Mags in her investigations, the pace picks up and we are questioning everything that she has been told about the life of her brother.  Mags is a terrific character (would love to see her again in another book) and the strength of her resolve drives TATTLETALE forward.  The viewpoints of the two women are in such opposition to each other that we do not know who is presenting their true selves, and who is operating behind a mask.  Secondary characters from the building all ... Read review