All the Reviews

Mrs Sidhu's Dead and Scone, Suk Pannu

We first came across this character in the TV Series, MRS SIDHU INVESTIGATES starring Meera Syal who is just perfect as the caterer, and amateur eponymous sleuth at the centre of a surprising number of food adjacent (but not necessarily caused by) deaths. (Seems they all stem from a radio series). So finding the audio version of the first of a series of novels by Suk Pannu was a rather happy event, coinciding as it did with a bit of a period craving more amusing listening.

On the cosier side, this is lighter in style, but with depth and some interesting insight underlying ... Read Review

Going Zero, Anthony McCarten

Technology based thrillers like GOING ZERO can, sometimes, make this reader wary. Very wary, as the "tech" is often so far off course it endangers teeth and the book's ability to stay in one piece. Not so in GOING ZERO - the tech here might be a tad ropey in places, but the application was so believable, and the potential outcome so engaging, I was happy to let it roll along at, it has to be said, a clipping pace.

Basically the idea is that there's a big, high-tech company, run by one of those wunderkind tech bro types - Cy Baxter, although in the background there's a ... Read Review

The Tea Ladies, Amanda Hampson

THE TEA LADIES by Amanda Hampson is one of those interesting sort of novels that tippy toes a line between its cosy(ish) setting and some considerably more ruthless plot lines with a deftness that made for a really enjoyable reading experience. 

Set in Sydney in 1965 in the world of rag trade factories, tea ladies Hazel, Betty, Merl and Irene find themselves taking on the role of accidental sleuths partly because wrongs must be righted, partly because there's a young woman they believe might be in danger (sisters and all that...), and partly because, it has to be said, ... Read Review

Resurrection, Roger Simpson

The second novel, spinning off from the excellent TV series, Halifax f.p., RESURRECTION is definitely an unusual crime fiction novel, which would work well as a starting point if you've not read the earlier book - TRANSGRESSION.

Unusual for a number of reasons, the first being the viewpoint is that of a concussed, and struggling Jane Halifax. A formidable and supremely professional forensic psychiatrist, a near-fatal car crash left her in a coma, then, on wakening, unable to remember much of anything, including who she is, or those closest to her are. A classic wake into ... Read Review

A Man's Head, Georges Simenon

Book 5 in the Maigret series, and part of a now stalled attempt to go right back through them all via audio books. Stalled not because of this particular entry, which was a much more interesting read than a couple of the earlier books. Stalled mostly because of the weight of the queues elsewhere.

In this outing, Inspector Maigret is of the view that a condemned man is not guilty of the crime he's been convicted of. Over the course of a very short 10 days, he sets out to confirm that somebody else did, indeed, kill two female victims in their own home.

This ... Read Review

Want You Gone, Christopher Brookmyre

Well this is a disappointment. Not the book, but the fact that this another audio journey through a series that's gotten to the end. Jack Parlabane, book number 8, WANT YOU GONE. Here's hoping there are more on the way because I do so love this series (having read them all / now listened to them all).

This one is the story of nineteen year old Sam Morpeth. Left to care for her younger sister, who has Down's Syndrome, after their mother was sent to prison, she's an anxious, lonely and worried young woman. Not just because the constant pressure of a sister that doesn't ... Read Review

The Last Devil to Die, Richard Osman

The biggest problem I'm finding with the audio versions of the Thursday Murder Club entrants, THE LAST DEVIL TO DIE being the latest, is that the blasted things fly past in the blink of an eye. Even at silly number of chapters they just simply disappear, leaving me wanting more too quickly.

Although THE LAST DEVIL TO DIE pulled some deeply moving surprises on more than one occasion - the depiction of somebody (Elizabeth's husband Stephen) disappearing as Alzheimer's took over was heartbreaking. And helpfully educational, as we're inclined to not see Alzheimer's from the ... Read Review

The Quarry, Kim Hunt

THE QUARRY is now the second novel in a series featuring NSW ranger Cal Nyx. If you're new to these, it's a series that's going to be well worth following. There's no immediate requirement to read the earlier book first (THE BEAUTIFUL DEAD), although it will give you a slightly fuller picture of this fascinating central character.

Of course there are some elements here that are kind of expected these days. Nyx is a tricky character, from a difficult background, who has found her place, working in the Australian landscape as it gives her a sense of peace and belonging. As ... Read Review

Devil's Breath, Jill Johnson

Devil’s Breath is the first novel in a new crime series built around a neurodivergent professor of botanical toxicology, Eustacia Rose.

Eustacia Rose is currently ‘separated’ from her position at a university, disgraced after an incident in her laboratory. She lives alone in London with a hidden rooftop garden of poisonous plants.

There is a flat roof in north-west London that can’t be seen from the road, or from the windows of neighbouring houses, because it’s on top of a tall block of flats in a quiet residential ... Read Review