All the Reviews

One of the best things about true crime books like RAZOR by Larry Writer is the way that they can inform your understanding of current day events.  When you hear the news of Gangland wars gone crazy (you realise that's happening again), blood in the streets (again), crime gone mad (again), notorious gangsters plying the media (again), the end of the world as we know it (again)...

The story of RAZOR is the story of gangland crime leaders Kate Leigh and Matilda (Tilly) Devine, and the sly grog shops and brothels run by each of them respectively in 1920's and 30's Sydney.  ... Read review

You hear these rumours, and they can panic a person.  "Christopher Brookmyre has gone straight with his latest book."  I was twitchy.  How could he (either to his readers or to himself)?  Surely the man cannot possibly have lost his acute sense of the bizarre, his sly, dry and clever sense of humour.  Could he?  Of course not.  Daft idea.  WHERE THE BODIES ARE BURIED might be a police procedural, crime fiction based book, but it's classic Chris(topher) Brookmyre from the start to the end.  How could it not be!  Glasgow Policing 101 - as explained to one of the main characters ... Read review

I remember reading the first book in what is now one of my favourite series quite a few years ago, I really really hoped that the author felt better about life once they'd finished.  I think the same sort of reaction to THE BROTHERHOOD bodes well for what I hope is going to be an ongoing series.

Mind you, you can't help but wonder if Yvette Erskine's going to be able to get back into Tasmania for research purposes if a few of the upper echelon characters in THE BROTHERHOOD are recognisable real people!  

THE BROTHERHOOD is a debut book which promises quite a ... Read review

THE SIREN'S STING is the second Stevie Duveen novel from Miranda Darling, following on from THE TROIKA DOLLS.

These books are thrillers, featuring Stevie who works as a risk assessor in the personal / company protection game. Starting off much where the first book ended, Stevie has been assigned to mind a temperamental opera star travelling on a luxury cruise near Somalia when pirates strike. Helping drive off this attack, there's something a little odd about how easily the pirates withdraw. But there's not a lot of time to consider that until later, as Stevie undertakes ... Read review

Okay so I'm a bit of a fan - which after two books is quite an achievement.  It's probably a little bit to do with the basic premise of genealogy being used to solve crimes (family tree research being an investigation in its own right after all), but mostly it's because Dan Waddell really can tell a bit of a tale.

There is a serial killer theme to BLOOD ATONEMENT, although initially it's only Detective Grant Foster who sees the parallels between the death of Katie Drake, and the disappearance of her 14 year old daughter, and a case 3 years earlier.  But do not let that ... Read review

I think I'll just keep saying this until I run out of breath completely - but really, the world needs more quality collections of Crime Short Stories.  CRIMESPOTTING, a fabulous little volume put together as a fund raiser for The ONECITY Trust, is subtitled "An Edinburgh Crime Collection".  It features stories by lesser and well known authors including (in alphabetical order) Lin Anderson, Kate Atkinson, Margaret Atwood, Christopher Brookmyre, John Burnside, Isla Dewar, A.L. Kennedy, Denise Mina, Ian Rankin and James Robertson.  (There are some stories here which go on to be included ... Read review

THE GHOST OF WATERLOO is the second Nicodemus Dunne book, set in 1800's Sydney in the earliest days of the Colony.  Reading the first in the series - DEATH AND THE RUNNING PATTERER will give you the complete background to Dunne - how he came to Sydney, how he came to be earning his way as a Running Patterer.  It also explains why his background as a London policeman would lead Governor Darling to call for his assistance when a major robbery and spate of murders proves not just difficult to solve, but potentially embarrassing for the Colony leaders.  Having said that, it would be ... Read review

There's something about the blurb to this book that seems to suggest that it's tending towards a romance.  If that's what you're looking for, you might want to consider your options.  Whilst we're talking relationship here, we're also talking manipulation, need, dependencies and some really really nasty behaviour.

It's not just the possibility of overt romance that could put a reader off - there's Margot herself.  At the beginning of the book she's starting out after a relationship that obviously controlled her, set her life's path.  She comes across as one of those ... Read review

The second Inspector Singh novel from Shamini Flint takes Singh to Bali to join the anti-terrorism efforts post a major bombing that ripped through the tourist areas.  What exactly Singh is doing as part of a anti-terrorism squad is no clearer to him than it is to anybody else, but the body in the wreckage, shot dead before the bomb gives Singh the sort of case that he's used to solving - a straight-forward murder.

When I read the first book (A MOST PECULIAR MALAYSIAN MURDER) I did comment "This book is definitely on the lighter side of crime fiction, I'll have to read ... Read review