All the Reviews

Deadly Code, Lin Anderson

DEADLY CODE is the 3rd book in the Dr Rhona Macleod series, a series, which up until now I've really enjoyed, but for some reason this one didn't work. Mind you, terrific sense of place, very atmospheric what with Macleod off in the remote Scottish Isles battling the evil menace of a cult of Scottish extremists. Or I think that's what they were. The big problem was that the plot was a bit too silly at points. Not that the idea of extremists of any kind is a bad concept, but not where there needs to be so much coincidence and frankly, a whole heap of heavy lifting to get Macleod into ... Read review

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The Sunday Philosophy Club, Alexander McCall Smith

As strange as it may seem for somebody who prefers the darker side of Crime Fiction, I don't mind the occasional dabble in The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency and I've rather enjoyed a few of McCall Smith's other series as well. Alas THE SUNDAY PHILOSOPHY CLUB didn't work for me at all.

I think to like this book you're going to have to like the protagonist Isabel Dalhousie, and unfortunately, she's the sort of character that makes me profoundly uncomfortable. There was something vaguely passive aggressive about all her actions, behaviours and attitudes that made my skin ... Read review

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Alexander McCall Smith

The Sacrificial Man, Ruth Dugdall

After reading Dugdall's first book THE WOMAN BEFORE ME I was kind of expecting something a bit wow from THE SACRIFICIAL MAN. Which it delivered in that sort of sock removing, what the, oh boy, cook your own dinner I'm reading, kind of way.

Mind you, it's a bit on the sneaky side. The story starts out with Cate Austin out of the prison system, working her first new assignment which is a sentencing recommendation for Alice Mariani. As explained in the blurb, Mariani helped her lover to die, and she is dealing with the consequences of that on a legal and a personal level. ... Read review

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Eightball Boogie, Declan Burke

It really shouldn't work. Even in something as dark and noir styled as EIGHTBALL BOOGIE, there should be limits. Sure, hero's can be wise-cracking, dry, lone wolf investigators, or "Researchers". They can obviously have fraught personal lives, and goodness knows Rigby's personal life - what with a son he adores and an on again-off again live in partner, mostly pissed off with him in the extreme falls at the very least, into complicated territory. They can have mates that can be turned easily, enemies around every corner, cops, crooks and all. They can even be somewhat risky friends ... Read review

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Hard Labour, The Crime Factory

Buried in the darkest corners, or glittering away in the brightest hotspots there are bits and pieces of everyone's Australia being scribbled down on the back of beer mats, place mats, table cloths and menu cards. There are people writing great dollops of city based, mean gritty, and bright clean suburban streets based fiction. There are people out here in the hot, dry bits - Greater Australia as we all like to think of it - that are sitting in pubs, coffee shops and on the sides of dusty gravel roads weaving tales that are filled with a sense of who, what and where we all come from ... Read review

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David Whish-Wilson

Helen FitzGerald

Greig Johnstone

Deborah Sheldon

Andrew Prentice

Finbarr McCarthy

Amanda Wrangles

The Wrong Man, Jason Dean

I've got to start rationing this sort of thriller. I'm starting to develop a bit of a twitch when there are any loud bangs anywhere, and don't get me started on the reaction when anybody a bit furtive-looking is walking towards me on the streets of the local towns.... Although I will admit there's something rather appealing about close protection bodyguards. Except maybe not the lot that James Bishop gets himself mixed up with in THE WRONG MAN.

Bishop's been framed, and the initial action in the book sets up the circumstances of that event at breakneck pace, continuing ... Read review

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The Silver Dagger, Jame McLean

Sometimes I wonder if a book gets filed under "will get around to that" because of some sort of subconscious reaction to the blurb. I'm going with that. Makes me feel somewhat less daft than if I confessed that I put THE SILVER DAGGER down on a stack of unread books and then promptly forgot about it. It's not age, just poor stack management... really.

Anyway, the rediscovery of this book did give me a little pause for thought.

"Robert Carrana doesn't have much pity and he certainly has no compassion. What he does have is a passion for vengeance, a brutal heart ... Read review

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Scared Yet?, Jaye Ford

SCARED YET? is the second, standalone, psychological thriller from Jaye Ford. In this outing, readers are introduced to a woman who suddenly finds herself in a fight for her life against an unknown assailant for an unknown reason. When things escalate to her friends and loved ones, Liv doesn't know who to trust.

There is a lot that's not going well in Liv's life, and somewhere within all those problems, is the answer to who and why the harassment steadily ramps up. Because of the maelstrom surrounding her there are a lot of possible suspects. A bitter relationship with ... Read review

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The Voice of the Violin, Andrea Camilleri

There's a Renault Twingo referred to as having "committed suicide" when Gallo, the station's driver, he of the "Indianapolis Complex", slams into it in a spectacular example of mad driving that had me crying with laughter on page 4 of VOICE OF THE VIOLIN. Which is not a bad writing feat at all, in 4 pages you know that Montalbano's in a mood after a fabulous meal was interrupted by his nemesis Catarella. That his car's in the shop and he has to get to a funeral. That Gallo's a madman, and there's now a green Renault Twingo parked on the side of the road that's now got a smashed rear ... Read review

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Andrea Camilleri

Killing for the Company, Chris Ryan

I'm starting to wonder if it's become mandatory for ex-SAS or other special forces members to leave active duty and write books. It seems that there are a lot of options for this sort of informed thriller style book, but you'll need to be partial to something that includes a military theme somewhere.

KILLING FOR THE COMPANY has, as it's first military connection, an ex-SAS member, Chet Freeman, invalided out, now working in anti-bugging and surveillance on contract for a major American corporation. Long story short, he catches Suze McArthur, a peace campaigner, ... Read review

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The Paris Lawyer, Sylvie Granotier

It is always a pleasure to come across publishers who are bringing works from different cultures to the English-reading world, particularly when there is such a strong sense of place in the books I've been lucky enough to read from Le French Book (http://lefrenchbook.com/(link is external)). THE PARIS LAWYER has a particular French sensibility, combined with a clever take on lawyer based crime fiction.

The Parisian Lawyer is Catherine Monsigny, a young ... Read review

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Sylvie Granotier

Making Money, Terry Pratchett

Less of a review - more of a note to self. If Terry Pratchett published the doodles from the notepad on his telephone table I'd probably read that, so MAKING MONEY was no trial at all, even though it's probably not one of the better of the Discworld novels.

Maybe that's because there was a decided lack of wizards, maybe it's because Moist Von Lipwig isn't quite as flamboyant or, well let's say it, lunatic as some of the central characters in other books. Maybe it's also because the plot isn't quite as convoluted, layered, twisty, and, well lunatic, as others. ... Read review

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Terry Pratchett

The Burning, Jane Casey

The morning that I went for my drivers licence, I'm not sure who was the most worried. My very patient, very kind driving instructor or me. Because we both knew that when it came to parking, I might as well be driving a block of flats. It didn't matter what that poor man did, there was no way in the world I could "get" parallel parking, and nothing much has changed in the intervening years. So I guess from the opening scenes of Jane Casey's THE BURNING I was feeling a little frisson of connection with DC Maeve Kerrigan.

That connection alone is never going to be enough to ... Read review

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Cold Light, John Harvey

I do really like the fictional Charlie Resnick. Sure he's another loner cop with a fractured personal life and a work ethic that sometimes seems to veer dangerously close to avoidance of the mess of the personal life, but he's also a man who loves his cats, is good to his friends, seems quite attractive to the ladies, and makes a very mean sandwhich.

There is a pool of these good, solid police procedural series coming from a similar time, and I am working my way back through them on occasions. Some of the books are re-reads, some of them are new, all of them are ... Read review

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The Killer's Art, Mari Jungstedt

I got confused which is nothing, absolutely nothing, new. But one night, for some reason, I plucked THE INNER CIRCLE by Mari Jungstedt from the stacks, and started reading. Then I got quite convinced I'd already read the book. So I went to check and found UNSEEN, which I then re-read, ending up very struck by the similarities between the two plots. Which got me wondering if there were similarities in all of them, and as I had a number of the books to hand, I thought I'd read them in order and see what was going on.

Still managed to screw up the order completely. Sigh. Oh ... Read review

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Unspoken, Mari Jungstedt

I got confused which is nothing, absolutely nothing, new. But one night, for some reason, I plucked THE INNER CIRCLE by Mari Jungstedt from the stacks, and started reading. Then I got quite convinced I'd already read the book. So I went to check and found UNSEEN, which I then re-read, ending up very struck by the similarities between the two plots. Which got me wondering if there were similarities in all of them, and as I had a number of the books to hand, I thought I'd read them in order and see what was going on.

Still managed to screw up the order completely. Sigh. Oh ... Read review

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Unseen, Mari Jungstedt

I got confused which is nothing, absolutely nothing, new. But one night, for some reason, I plucked THE INNER CIRCLE by Mari Jungstedt from the stacks, and started reading. Then I got quite convinced I'd already read the book. So I went to check and found UNSEEN, which I then re-read, ending up very struck by the similarities between the two plots. Which got me wondering if there were similarities in all of them, and as I had a number of the books to hand, I thought I'd read them in order and see what was going on.

Still managed to screw up the order completely. Sigh. Oh ... Read review

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The Inner Circle, aka Unknown, Mari Jungstedt

I got confused which is nothing, absolutely nothing, new. But one night, for some reason, I plucked THE INNER CIRCLE by Mari Jungstedt from the stacks, and started reading. Then I got quite convinced I'd already read the book. So I went to check and found UNSEEN, which I then re-read, ending up very struck by the similarities between the two plots. Which got me wondering if there were similarities in all of them, and as I had a number of the books to hand, I thought I'd read them in order and see what was going on.

Still managed to screw up the order completely. Sigh. Oh ... Read review

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The Paper Moon, Andrea Camilleri

Please don't ask me what the correct order of this series is, as I've got absolutely no idea. I've never found the need to worry about it as each book works on its own, and each book is one of those little pieces of joy that just make you feel good.

Part of it has got to be Inspector Montalbano who is just so gloriously grumpy and idiosyncratic that he leaps alive from each and every page. Part of it is the setting which is woven into the action so seamlessly that you're just there, in that location, beside that ocean, in those restaurants, with those people. But ... Read review

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Andrea Camilleri

Death on a Galacian Shore, Domingo Villar

The discovery of the crime in any crime fiction, regardless of the culture it is based in, obviously becomes the major focus of a police procedural styled book. Increasingly this is balanced by the life, personality and colleagues of the central investigator. How those major elements blend together is becoming one of the strongest indicators of the cultural background of the story for this reader. Whilst there are some aspects that are universal, there are also aspects that really draw on local flavour. The food, the climate, the weather, the place, and how the characters interact ... Read review

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