Tag: Crime fiction

Review: CROSS and BURN by Val McDermid

Leave a comment

DownloadedFile-17

What the blurb says: “Tony and Carol are facing the biggest challenge of their professional lives: how to live without each other. No one has seen Carol in three months, and the police brass no longer need Tony’s services. Even worse, both hold Tony responsible for the bloody havoc their last case wreaked on Carol’s life and family, and Carol has sworn she’ll never speak to Tony again. But just because Tony and Carol’s relationship is finished doesn’t mean that the killing is: a body has been discovered in an abandoned flat inhabited by squatters. Paula McIntyre, the number two detective investigating, is struggling to adapt to her new job and new boss who is emphatically not Carol. As connections to other missing or dead women emerge, a horrifying pattern becomes clear: someone is killing women, all of whom bear a striking resemblance to Carol Jordan. And when the evidence begins to point in a disturbing and unexpected direction, thinking the unthinkable seems the only possible answer.”

At the start of this book police detective Carol Jordan and clinical psychologist Tony Hill are not in a good place. Carol is broken. She’s turned her back on her career and her friends and thrown herself into a restoration project. Blamed by Carol for her brother’s death, Tony is guilt-ridden and lost. He’s buried himself in his work and his living alone. The rest of the MIT have moved on, but things just aren’t the same in their new roles. But when Paula McIntyre, ex MIT and now newly appointed bagman to DCI Fielding, gets a call that puts her on a case to challenge both her skills and her loyalties she knows that she’ll need the help of her old colleagues to make sure justice is done.

As you’d expect from Val McDermid the story is beautifully crafted, and although the book is focused around a murder case,  it is the relationships between the characters that make it such compelling reading. The characters feel utterly real: smart, flawed, passionate, withdrawn, searching, misguided, determined. The relationships that bound them together at MIT and made the team so strong have drifted, but to solve the case Paula has to reconnect them. It’s not easy, but as she juggles the pressures of working a tough case under a new boss, the changed dynamic in her personal life of a teenage boy to look after with her partner, Elinor, and gradually draws in input from her MIT colleagues it seems that they’re getting closer to the killer. Then the forensic evidence points in a direction none of them would ever have expected.

With her new DCI unable to see past the forensics, Paula draws on the skills of her ex MIT colleagues – Carol, Tony, Stacey to name a few – to investigate an alternative line of enquiry. She’s treading a dangerous path, one false move and her career will be over. But some things are more important – justice, both for the victims and for the wrongfully accused. But as another woman goes missing, can Paula find the real killer and save his latest victim before it’s too late?

Luckily Paula isn’t alone. As Carol’s strong sense of justice, and her determination to see it brought, gradually bring her back into the environment she’d left behind. But the question remains: will Carol and Tony’s relationship ever recover?

Utterly compelling and unputdownable.

Highly recommended.

[With thanks to Grove Atlantic for my copy of CROSS and BURN]

Related articles

Guest Review: The Bat by Jo Nesbo

1 Comment

DownloadedFile-16

Today’s guest reviewer, Sally Fallon, talks about her most recent book club read – Jo Nesbo’s The Bat.

What the blurb says:

“HARRY IS OUT OF HIS DEPTH. Detective Harry Hole is meant to keep out of trouble. A young Norwegian girl taking a gap year in Sydney has been murdered, and Harry has been sent to Australia to assist in any way he can.

HE’S NOT SUPPOSED TO GET TOO INVOLVED. When the team unearths a string of unsolved murders and disappearances, nothing will stop Harry from finding out the truth. The hunt for a serial killer is on, but the murderer will talk only to Harry.

HE MIGHT JUST BE THE NEXT VICTIM.”

First published in Norway in 1997 but only recently translated into English, fans of Jo Nesbo’s books may find this first Harry Hole novel slightly slower paced than his others.  Since the success of The Snowman stormed the UK in 2010, and subsequent best sellers, fans will see how Jo Nesbo’s writing has progressed since this debut novel.

It introduces Harry to the reader and gives some background to his heavy drinking character.  The novel blends a pacy thriller with “aboriginal stories” however, for me, there is a lack of the subtlety which appears in his later novels.

Harry arrives in Australia to investigate the murder of a Norwegian girl, Inger Holter.  It becomes clear that Inger’s death is just one of many young, blonde women scattered along the eastern seaboard.  It retains the usual Nesbo plot elements and keeps you reading.  The second Harry Hole book (The Cockroaches) will be UK published in November.

Recommended.

CTG reports from Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival: Day 3

2 Comments
the big screen in the Albert Halls

the big screen in the Albert Halls

Onto Sunday, and it was hard to believe that the festival was almost over. But there wasn’t time to feel sad as I was booked into a full day of sessions.

The morning started with So You Want to Be a Crime Novelist? A bunch of eight brave writers pitched their novels to the panel – agent Mark Stanton, editor Alison Hennessey, and last year’s winner (and bookseller) Joseph Knobbs. All the participants pitched brilliantly and showed nerves of steel. Massive congratulations to the winners – Alex Cox and Dan Stewart – who both won a gorgeous Toshiba tablet.

Next was the Masters of the Dark session with Mark Billingham and Stewart Neville (chaired by Peter Guttridge). Both writers talked about how freeing it could be to write a standalone novel after focusing on a series, and touched on their research methods (like going out in a patrol car with a couple of Police Officers for the night shift). They also discussed the art of the plot twist – when it works, when it doesn’t, and when there are just too many of the damn things.

After lunch I headed to the Craig Robertson & Chris Carter session (again chaired by Peter Guttridge) entitled Chasing Serial Killers. They discussed where their ideas for stories begin – a murder scene, a motivation, or a character – and the strange places they can suddenly get ideas. Chris Carter talked about being on the beach when one of his story ideas popped into his mind.

In the final session of the day, At the Top of his Game, the ever-sparkling Peter Guttridge chatted to the ever-charismatic Lee Child with an audience packed to the rafters listening in. Peter focused the interview more on Lee than on Reacher, asking him about his own experience growing up, whether Reacher’s fighting techniques, including the head-butts,  are skills Lee himself honed (answer:  yes!), and what his plans are for the series (answer: three more books agreed, after that he’ll see if people want more – I expect that we will!). Of course Lee’s new book NEVER GO BACK was discussed, but as to whether Reacher finally gets to visit with ‘the woman with the great voice’ that he’s been travelling to meet for the past couple of books, well, I guess you’ll just have to read the story to find out! [No spoilers here!]

And then it was over.

All that remains is to say a huge thank you to Dom Hastings and his amazing festival team. Their friendliness, great festive spirit and endlessly positive responses to queries both before and during the festival made for a warm and welcoming atmosphere that I’m sure will bring people back to Bloody Scotland for 2014 and beyond.

[hop on over to www.bloodyscotland.com to check out the early bird offers for Bloody Scotland 2014]

Related articles

CTG reports from Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival: Day 2

Leave a comment
Queue for Jo Nesbo

Queue for Jo Nesbo

Now queuing might normally be viewed as an annoying if not frustrating aspect of festival going, but not at Bloody Scotland. The buzz in the queue for the sold out sessions at the Albert Halls was tremendous, and it was great to strike up conversations with fellow fans of crime fiction and find out what their highlights of the festival had been and which sessions and authors they were looking forward to seeing. In the process I managed to add a few more authors to my ever growing ‘must read’ list.

As for the sessions I attended, the highlights of my day were:

The Fresh Blood panel. Chaired by Michael Malone, the panel of Matt Bendoris, Lisa Ballantyne and Malcolm Mackay talked about their debut novels and their experiences of getting to publication. They talked of the challenges (and need for dogged determination) when juggling home, work and writing, with Matt Bendoris admitting that he wrote his debut (and second novel) on his Blackberry while standing on a packed commuter train en-route (and back) to his day job!

Thrilling Tales and Psychological Twists saw Professor David Wilson in conversation with Zoe Sharp and Julia Crouch. Professor Wilson asked Zoe and Julia to first read excerpts from their books – Julia from her most recent novel Tarnished, and Zoe from her new standalone novel The Blood Whisperer – and then invited the audience to say how the narrative had made them feel. It was fascinating stuff, and so interesting to hear the impact both the writers’ narrative had.

Professor Wilson was keen to learn what had prompted the authors to write crime thrillers and prompted Zoe Sharp speak of her real life experience of receiving death threats when working as a photo journalist. In a rather unconventional departure from the standard interview format he then turned a question to the audience – why do you read the crime genre? An overriding theme from the discussion was that readers enjoy the sense of justice and resolution in crime novels – something that you don’t always get in real life crimes.

So, by the end of these two sessions, I’d added five more books to my reading pile:

The Blood Whisperer by Zoe Sharp

Tarnished by Julia Crouch

The Guilty One by Lisa Ballantyne

Killing with Confidence by Matt Bendoris

The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter by Malcolm Mackey

 

I just hoped that there would be enough room in my case for all the books I wanted to buy, especially as there was still one more day to go …

 

[hop on over to www.bloodyscotland.com to check out the early bird offers for Bloody Scotland 2014]

Related articles

RUSH OF BLOOD by Mark Billingham

2 Comments
Rush of Blood cover image

Rush of Blood cover image

What the blurb says: “Three couples meet around the pool on their Florida holiday and become fast friends. But on their last night, the teenage daughter of another holidaymaker goes missing, and her body is later found floating in the mangroves. When the shocked couples return home, they remain in contact, and over the course of three increasingly fraught dinner parties they come to know one another better. But they don’t always like what they find. Then a second girl goes missing. Could it be that one of these six has a secret far darker than anybody could imagine?”

Holiday friendships: sometimes they last, sometimes they don’t. But they’re usually fun while they last, and don’t usually involve murder, unlike the holiday friendships made in Mark Billingham’s standalone thriller RUSH OF BLOOD.

What starts out as the story of three couples from England who meet at a Florida beach resort  takes a sinister twist when the daughter of a fellow holiday maker goes missing. Back in the UK, the couples stay in contact and over the course of three dinner parties, and a few girly and blokey evenings out, discover far more about each other than they might ever have wished for.

Billingham creates a huge sense of dread for what has, and might, happen. While initially each couple seems happy in their everyday lives and relationships, as the story unfolds the reader starts to realise that no one is exactly as they seem, and some have darker secrets than others. In fact many of the characters have rather unattractive traits: they’re mean or angry or jealous or attention-seeking or rude. But, you find yourself thinking, does that make them more or less likely to be the murderer?

This is a book that keeps you guessing. As a reader you know a bad thing has happened. You’re fairly sure one of the six holiday makers is responsible. But which one, and how they did it, provides an intriguing puzzle. Helping solve that puzzle along with you is Trainee Detective Constable Jenny Quinlan– an over-eager workaholic who is determined to crack the case (and meet the Florida homicide detective – Jeffrey Gardner – whose voice she so adores).

A cross between a police procedural and a psychological thriller, this high-tension, fast paced, character driven story is masterfully plotted and flawlessly told.

It’ll also make you think twice about striking up a conversation with the people sitting round the pool or beside you on the beach next time you’re on holiday!

Highly Recommended.

 

[I bought my copy of RUSH OF BLOOD at Harrogate Crime Writing Festival]

I AM PILGRIM by Terry Hayes

4 Comments
I AM PILGRIM cover image

I AM PILGRIM cover image

What the blurb says: “Pilgrim – the codename for a man who doesn’t exist – who once headed up a secret espionage unit for US intelligence. Before he disappeared into deep-cover retirement, he put all his experience into the definitive book on forensic criminal investigation. But that book will come back to haunt him.”

Pilgrim has retired from the spy life. He’s walked away from the job, written his book, and disappeared into a new life in a new country. But when NYPD cop, Ben Bradley, comes to call he realises that he didn’t erase his previous life (or lives) as thoroughly as he’d thought. Drawn back to New York, Pilgrim is pulled in to help solve a seemingly unsolvable crime – a woman found in a bath of acid, all forensic evidence destroyed. He recognises the case – it’s straight from the pages of his book – and finds only one small clue to the whereabouts of the killer. But that small clue, and the horrifying discovery of the US intelligence agency, sets Pilgrim on the first steps of an against the clock race to prevent a devastating attack on his country.

It’s tough to give a worthy description of I AM PILGRIM. Perhaps it’s a spy thriller, it certainly immerses the reader into the world of espionage and counter-intelligence, like a cross between Bourne, 24 and Homeland. But it’s also more than that. As a reader it feels like you’ve been sucked inside the private world of Pilgrim – you see what he sees, know what he knows, and feel what he feels – and that’s one hell of a scary place!

As Pilgrim pursues the man believed to be preparing a terrorist attack on US soil, he learns how the events in his life have led him to believe in the absolute necessity of the devastation he is planning. What I found particularly powerful about this story is how it builds a vivid picture of the life of the antagonist. It allows the reader to understand his conviction, although not forgive the horrendous actions he chooses to take as a result.

And the book is a brick: 700 pages of captivating story. By the end, not only had I learned more than I’d ever imagined about the intelligence world, travelled around the world, and been pulled along by the story, reading well into the night to discover what would happen next, but I’d also developed some pretty good muscle tone on my biceps! [although I guess this isn’t so relevant if you read the story on Kindle!]

A must-read for fans of spy thrillers, action thrillers and stories which have you thinking about the characters, and their world-apart realities, long after you’ve finishing reading the final page.

Highly recommended.

 

[Many thanks to Bantam Press for my copy of I AM PILGRIM]

Events Alert: So You Wanna Be A Crime Writer?

Leave a comment
Crime Author, Nick Quantrill

Crime Author, Nick Quantrill

As part of the Heads Up Festival in Hull, on Saturday 28th September crime author Nick Quantrill, published by Caffeine Nights and the creator of the Joe Geraghty series, will be joined by fellow crime writers David Mark and Nick Triplow to investigate what it takes to be a crime writer, in the session ‘So You Wanna Be A Crime Writer?’

It promises to be a lively event, with a combination of readings, conversation, panel debate and audience interaction. And what’s more, it’s FREE!

To find out more, pop over to the the festival website at http://ensemble52.com/news/show/61 

Norwegian by Night, by Derek B. Miller

4 Comments
book cover

book cover

What the blurb says: “Eighty-two years old, and recently widowed, ex-Marine Sheldon Horowitz has grudgingly moved to Oslo with his granddaughter and her Norwegian husband. When Sheldon witnesses the murder of a neighbour in his apartment complex, he rescues the woman’s six-year-old son and decides to run. Pursued by the Balkan gang responsible for the murder and the Norwegian police, he has to rely on training from over half a century before to try and keep the boy safe. Against a strange and foreign landscape, this unlikely couple, who can’t speak the same language, start to form a bond that may just save them both.”

Beautifully crafted, this novel is a real treat.

Sheldon is a man haunted by his past, by the people he has loved (and lost) and, having uprooted from New York to Oslo, is more than a little baffled by the world he now inhabits. He’s cynical, stubborn, begrudges the aging process and (according to his grand-daughter) is experiencing dementia. He’s also very funny.

But his uneasy routine is upended when he witnesses the murder of his neighbour. Fearing that the man responsible will harm the woman’s young son, Sheldon takes the boy on the run. Together they cross the city and make their way towards the only other place Sheldon is familiar with, his grand-daughter’s woodland cabin.

Divided from his young charge by age and by language, Sheldon draws on his memories to sustain him in this dangerous quest. He recalls his previous training as a Marine, and the advice of those who’ve been important players in his life, to help communicate with the young boy, win his trust and keep him safe. In doing so, Sheldon confronts much of the regret and guilt that he has carried with him for years.

Unconventional methods of transport (and clothing) make their journey into an adventure. But danger is always close behind in the shape of the Balkan gang led by the boy’s criminal father, and one question hangs over the unlikely pair as an ever-present menace: how long can an elderly man and a child evade capture? Sheldon knows that he needs to prepare himself for one final battle.

Norwegian by Night is highly atmospheric, showing Oslo through the eyes of a stranger to both the culture and the modern world. The characters are wonderfully vivid and real. This is a story that can make you laugh and cry on alternant pages.

Both funny and tragic, poignant and pulse-thumpingly suspenseful, Derek B. Miller’s debut novel is hugely compelling and will stay with you long after you have finished reading.

Highly recommended.

 

[I bought my copy of Norwegian by Night, in fact I read it on Kindle and then bought the hardback version too!]

DOWNFALL by Jeff Abbott

3 Comments
UK cover image

UK cover image

What the blurb says: “’Help me.’ When a young woman rushes into Sam Capra’s San Francisco bar and whispers these desperate words, Sam feels compelled to help. A moment later she is attacked by two killers. With Sam’s aid she manages to overpower the men, saving his life in the process before vanishing into the night. On discovering that one of the attackers is no mere thug, but, shockingly, one of the most powerful investors in America, Sam searches for the beguiling young woman who asked for help and unearths a deadly network run by some of the most powerful and influential people in the world …”

DOWNFALL is the third book in the Sam Capra series and begins with ex-CIA agent, Sam, living in relative peace, working for The Round Table and enjoying his cover life as owner of a chain of bars across the States. He wants a normal life, and this is as close to it as he’s had in a long while. But his peace is shattered when a young woman fleeing two male attackers rushes into the bar and begs for his help. Sam leaps to her aid, and in the process kills one of the men. As well as bringing him unwanted attention from the police and the media, this brings Sam to the attention of Balias – a master criminal who can make a person’s dreams come true, for a price.

As readers of the series will have come to expect, the story charges along at a breakneck pace. Using first person narration for main character, Sam Capra, as he sets out to discover who this mysterious network is and why they are after the young woman, and third person narration for the other main point-of-view characters, Abbott weaves the stories of Diana – a young woman who has discovered a terrible secret about her mother, Janice – a mother who will protect her daughter at any cost, Holly – a woman enchained by the choice of her ex-husband, and Belias – a man who thirsts for power and control at the highest level – between Sam’s. The stakes are high for all of the principle characters; the question is who will succeed and who will fail.

This constant raising of the tension made the story compulsive reading. DOWNFALL is an action thriller and so as you’d expect there are a lot of action sequences and fight scenes. Abbott is a master at the fight scene – they’re dynamic and tense with a real cinematic quality, making the reader feel like they’re in the scene ducking the punches along with the characters. What I especially like about his books, and this one doesn’t disappoint, is the locations these scenes often take place in – for example a child’s bedroom in a suburban house (the child is at school) – creating a great juxtaposition and additional conflict between Sam’s desire for domestic normality and the nature of his job.

Tight plotting, high stakes and high action make this page-turner of story a must for fans of action thrillers.

Highly Recommended [As are books one and two – ADRENALINE and THE LAST MINUTE].

[I bought my copy of DOWNFALL]

The Beauty of Murder by A K Benedict

4 Comments
The Beauty of Murder cover image

The Beauty of Murder cover image

What the blurb says: “Stephen Killigan has been cold since the day he came to Cambridge as a senior lecturer. Something about the seven hundred years of history staining the stones of the university has given him a chill he can’t shake. When he stumbles across the body of a missing beauty queen, he thinks he’s found the reason. But when the police go to retrieve the body they find no trace of it. Killigan has found a problem – and a killer – that is the very opposite of reason.

Killingan’s unwitting entry into the sinister world of Jackamore Grass will lead him on a trail of tattooists, philosophers, cadavers and scholars of a deadly beauty. As Killigan traces a path between our age and seventeenth-century Cambridge, he must work out how it is that a person’s corpse can be found before they even go missing, and whether he’s being pushed towards the edge of madness or an astonishing discovery.”

Wow. Wow. Wow. They are the first three words (or one word repeated) that comes into my mind on finishing The Beauty of Murder.

This is a literary crime thriller which ticks all the boxes with a flourish: intriguing characters, fascinating storylines, gorgeous settings, beautiful prose and a sprinting pace. And it’s A K Benedict’s debut novel.

Stephen Killigan is a likable guy – he’s smart, likes a beer (or two, or more), and is looking for love. He also wants to do the right thing when he discovers the body of a missing woman. But being a good citizen soon turns out to be the start of a journey that threatens to destroy all he holds dear. When the police find no trace of the body, Stephen is determined to find out what happened to her. But as he finds clues to the mystery, each one makes less sense than that before it. Is he losing his mind as so many suggest? As the body count rises, and the links of the modern-day murders with those in 1635 become clearer to him, Stephen becomes the prime suspect. Yet he finds an unlikely friend in Inspector Jane Horne, who is trying to solve the series of seemingly unsolvable cases whilst keeping her own private health battles secret from those at work.

The Beauty of Murder is filled with unusual, memorable supporting characters like Stephen’s friend, Satnam, who likes a few beers and loves the girl in the library, and Robert Sachs, the “poncey philosopher who loves himself” who muses over the beauty of the dead. I think my favorite of these is Iris Burton, the eccentric academic who takes it upon herself to teach Stephen Killigan about time travel including what to carry in your kit bag and how to avoid paradoxes (in my mind she was played by Helena Bonham Carter!).

The relationship between Stephen Killigan and Jackamore Grass has real Sherlock/Moriarty feel to it: two highly intelligent men pitting their wits (and their lives) against each other to solve the mystery (in Stephen’s case) and win the game (in Jackamore’s case). Jackamore, who finds getting away with murder tiresomely easy, is pleased to at last have a worthy opponent, but as Stephen hones his skills and closes in on the truth, Jackamore starts to pick his victims from those close to Stephen.

Quirky, mind (and time) bending, and compulsively addictive, this is an outstanding literary crime thriller. I can’t wait to see more from this author.

Highly recommended.

[A bought my copy of The Beauty of Murder]