All the Reviews

The first line of the blurb for THE CAMPERS describes it as "An engrossing and provocative exploration of privilege, hypocrisy and justice... " which is about as perfect a description as you'd ever want. This is discomforting, confusing, and confronting reading, a story that is classified as crime fiction for unusual reasons.

The first crime, and the obvious one, in this novel is the juxtaposition of the have and the have-nots. A safe, seemingly community-orientated enclave in the inner-city, "The Drove" is an idyllic location for those privileged enough to be ... Read review

HOME TRUTHS is the second novel I've been lucky enough to read by author Charity Norman that uses characters and connections to drive home an important, and devastating message. In REMEMBER ME she explored the complications of family, dementia and secrets. HOME TRUTHS is again an exploration of family and secrets, but it's also about grief, guilt and the viciousness of manipulation.

Starting out with the attempted murder trial of Yorkshire based Probation officer Livia Denby, the story commences as the jury announces it has ... Read review

Somewhere between fantasy, science fiction and crime fiction, with a nod to family tragedy, chicklit style girls out of control, the ups and downs of long term friendships, romance and relationship tensions, there will need to be a sub-category that AN ETHICAL GUIDE TO MURDER will slot into. In other words, which shelf this one goes onto is going to be a creative choice, because it's nothing if not very different.

The story revolves around Thea, and her secret power of life and death. Just by touching someone she can tell how long they have to live. She can also transfer ... Read review

Fans of the Bee Gees might find themselves with psychological issues post reading or listening to THE HITCHHIKER. I'm not sure I'll hear the particular track that's on high rotation in the car at the centre of much of the action here without a slight twitch ever again to be honest.

A master of psychological suspense Bergmoser's gone all out with THE HITCHHIKER, creating a central character who starts off reasonably benign, rapidly being revealed as the sort of sick, depraved, just flat out creepy, awful bloke that you kind of know is probably out there, but could really ... Read review

I'm not at all ashamed to admit that I'm a recent convert to football via the Matilda's. Fair to say men's football left me vaguely disinterested even though I did try to watch a World Cup once. But the Matilda's - well they were a revelation.Read review

I've read all but one of this series, all out of order, and in different formats - this time THE LITTLE SPARROW MURDERS was available as an audio book via the local library which worked out brilliantly. The narrator (Akira Matsumoto) was extremely easy to listen to, used a non-grating number of voices for the characters, and gave me a lesson on pronunciation that I really appreciated.

The story here is based around Yokomizo's main character, Kosuke Kindaichi, a private detective frequently referred to as "scruffy" being invited to a remote mountain village to look, with ... Read review

I love Sheila Hancock's view of the world. She comes across as acerbic, pointed, and not particularly interested in cutting fools any slack. She also is clearly a compassionate, loving woman who has lead a life. I'm not sure I go along with the idea that this is a book of overwhelming rage, as I have seen some reviews suggest. She just seems mightily pissed off with a lot of aspects of life, and being an ageing (but nowhere near her) woman myself, I have a lot of sympathy with the things that make you furious, although I don't think I'm quite at the stage of shouting at the TV yet, and there's no pigeons in this neighbourhood.Read review

Le French Book have released some excellent French crime fiction, translated into English, of which THE 7TH WOMAN by Frédérique Molay is already an international bestseller. As the blurb puts it "Winner of France's prestigious Prix du Quai des Orfèvres prize for best crime fiction, named Best Crime Fiction Novel of the Year, and already an international bestseller with over 150,000 copies sold."

A police procedural built around Chief of Police Nico Sirsky, there is a serial killer stalking and killing women in a macabre and vicious manner. The connection between these woman ... Read review

Ronni Salt’s debut is historical crime fiction at its best, with a strong sense of place and time and wonderful characters at its core.  Full review at Newtown Review of BooksRead review