| Book | Review |
|---|---|
|
|
A Darker Domain, Val McDermid29/01/2009 - 2:09pmVal McDermid has tackled some social history that is obviously very dear to her own heart in A DARKER DOMAIN, and it has to be said, she's done it with considerable style. Not only does this book give you a fascinating glimpse into the social chaos and personal pain caused by the Miner's Strikes in early 1980's Britain, it carries the story of three unfathomable disappearances. Cold Case squad detectives DI Karen Pirie and DS Phil Parhatka are initially looking into the disappearance of Mick Prentice - reported missing 22 years after he supposedly broke ranks and joined ... Read Review |
 |
A Beautiful Place to Die, Malla Nunn24/12/2008 - 1:46pmOne thing that will strike readers of A BEAUTIFUL PLACE TO DIE firmly between the eyes is how an apartheid society is so incredibly foreign from the ways in which others of us live. That's not to say that there is an overtly "political" agenda in this book, rather the book does not take a step backwards in depicting South Africa under Racial Segregation laws. It also starkly draws a picture of the various societies within that - the 'English' South African's, the Afrikaner South African's and the native South African's. It is not a particularly pretty picture, and it's delivered ... Read Review |
 |
The Final Bet, Abdelilah Hamdouchi19/12/2008 - 1:40pmRemarked upon often as the first Arabic detective story translated, THE FINAL BET is a very slim volume that has a strong central message. The book really isn't particularly about Casablanca the place, or even the people. It's very much targeted straight at the way that the Moroccan legal system functioned at the time that it was written - and you can pick that thread up very clearly even without reading the afterword by the translator of the book - Jonathan Smolin. Othman has often thought about killing his elderly wife. The marriage is complicated by the difference ... Read Review |
 |
Befriend and Betray, Alex Caine (review by Sunnie Gill)03/12/2008 - 3:09pmBEFRIEND AND BETRAY is an insider’s story of this complex and murky world where you can trust no one. Not only did Caine have to be wary of the gang he was infiltrating, but he also had to be circumspect about who he trusted in law enforcement. His is a story of creating alternative identities and living on his wits, often for months at a time. It makes compelling reading. Just how such people live, how they maintain their own identity and the effects on their relationships outside their work is as fascinating as the details of the work itself. In some instances Caine’s ... Read Review |
 |
Cold Blooded Murder, Malcolm Brown14/11/2008 - 12:33pmMalcolm Brown is a journalist with the Sydney Morning Herald, where he covered (amongst other things) courts, royal commissions and coroners' inquests for more than 30 years. As well as editing COLD BLOODED MURDER, he has contributed a number of chapters, with remaining sections coming from a range of other journalists all from the region in which the crime was committed. The book is broken up into chapters about a number of recent notorious crimes in all parts of Australia. A number of these crimes are particularly well known - the Snowtown, South Australia "bodies in ... Read Review |
 |
The Black Path, Åsa Larsson13/11/2008 - 3:11pmTHE BLACK PATH is the sort of book that you need to read with your preconceptions and expectations firmly locked in a drawer. Having not read the second book in the series yet, I know something happened to Rebecka in that book, but the details aren't important to understanding, from the start of THE BLACK PATH, that she has been through a traumatic experience and she's struggling back into normal life. But one thing you will find with THE BLACK PATH is that Rebecka, or Anna-Maria or any of the other characters that either reoccur from earlier books, or step forward into ... Read Review |
Arctic Chill, Arnaldur Indridason31/10/2008 - 1:15pmThere are some authors who are on my buy immediately list. Some of these books I can happily hoard - waiting until just the right moment to sit and enjoy them. And there are the ones that are buy and read immediately. ARCTIC CHILL has definitely been one of those books. As soon as it arrived in the house it danced around before my eyes until I could finish what I was reading and start this one. And you know when you've picked up a fabulous book because you find yourself sitting in the car, reading it - "it's no problem I can wait in the car while you run in and do ... Read Review |
|
 |
Sawbones, Stuart MacBride11/10/2008 - 3:55pmSawbones is a novella, set in the US, not part of MacBride's series books set in Aberdeen. There are some similarities though - I harbour a fond belief that this author couldn't write out his shopping list without some sly, black humour involved. There is plenty of humour in SAWBONES. There's also a lot of gruesome moments, which again is pretty typical MacBride. He does love to gross you out, make you laugh, then make you stop and think what the hell am I laughing at for goodness sake! It's quite a tribute to the skill of the author that he can make that work in 114 ... Read Review |
 |
The Scent of the Night, Andrea Camilleri03/10/2008 - 6:51pmA large part of the attraction of these novels is the wonderfully grumpy, slightly eccentric, marvellously self-involved Inspector Montalbano. And the food - the meals that Montalbano insists on partaking on a regular basis are frankly, almost obscenely fantastic. Of course, for the books to be completely satisfactory there has actually got to be a story, and as with all these books, the story here is superbly Italian in its feel. The financier Emanuele Gargano has disappeared - as has a large amount of money that a lot of local retirees invested with him. An investigation had ... Read Review |
 |
A Florentine Death, Michele Giuttari12/09/2008 - 1:58pmMichele Giuttari is a real-life Italian policeman, head of the Squadra Mobile for around 8 years in his own right, so it's not too much of a stretch to believe that his central protagonist, Michele Ferrara, is more than a little autobiographical. The author has allowed his character to be slightly quirky, but undoubtedly he is the hero of the piece, and given the cases that Giutarri investigated, including the Monster of Florence, the reader has to assume that some of the events aren't that far from real life as well. As the bodies are found, seemingly pointlessly ... Read Review |
 |
As Darkness Falls, Bronwyn Parry09/09/2008 - 5:38pmA difficult setting, and a difficult task for the debut novelist. Bronwyn Parry does a fine job with bringing a small Australian bush town to life and this is the great strength of the read. You can taste the dust in the air and truly really picture everyone talking out the sides of their mouths (so thus to avoid the blowflies). Where it would be a stretch is in calling this a a crime novel, or even one of romantic suspense as there is no real mystery to solve or any pretense in constructing one. As a developing relationship drama it serves very well, and will draw the reader in ... Read Review |
 |
Assassin, Ted Bell12/08/2008 - 5:31pmASSASSIN is one of those books that has a real feel of a good, old-fashioned over the top, slightly lunatic thriller. One where the bad guys are particularly.. well villainous, slightly comical in some ways. Rich, obscenely rich, evil, powerful, bent on a grandiose evil scheme, the reasons for which don't really matter, the outcome potentially devastating for the free world - the good guys. Think the magnificently over the top James Bond type villains and add the luxury of print - words that can weave an even more unbelievable world than the visual can ever hope to achieve. Cue ... Read Review |
 |
The Ice Princess, Camilla Läckberg31/07/2008 - 8:12pmBilled, somewhat confusingly for me at least, as "the best selling thriller" from "Sweden's Agatha Christie", I was interested to read a quote from the author that said "When I write these stories, it is not the gory and macabre details that interest me; it is the psychology behind the crime. What makes a person commit the worst of all sins - taking another person's life." Now if there's one thing that I particularly like it's the exploration of the why behind crimes. THE ICE PRINCESS is set in the seaside town of Fjallbacka, a fishing village beset by the problems that ... Read Review |
 |
A Carrion Death, Michael Stanley18/06/2008 - 12:55pmSet in Botswana, A CARRION DEATH introduces the reader to, amongst a lot of other characters, Assistant Superintendent David Bengu. David is a big man. A very big man. As a young man, his friend Angus coined the nickname Kubu - which means Hippopotamus in Setswana. That friend belongs to one of the families in Botswana - his father, until he died, and his uncle have run the Botswana Cattle and Mining Company for many years. His friend - Angus and his twin sister Dianna are about to reach the age at which they inherit and they can take over from their uncle Cecil. In ... Read Review |
 |
After You With the Pistol, Kyril Bonfiglioli11/06/2008 - 4:13pmJoanna might not be quite what she seems, but Charlie most definitely is. In what has to be a homage to PG Wodehouse, Charlie and Jock are undoubtedly a latter day Wooster and Jeeves pairing, although possibly with more brandy and soda, a lot more guns and slightly less eyes than the original two. There's nothing even vaguely subtle in the totally over the top stylings of AFTER YOU WITH THE PISTOL and neither there should be - the book is sheer silly enjoyment. Mind you, sprinkled through some of the silliest moments there were lovely little snippets of wisdom and ... Read Review |
 |
A Greater Evil, Natasha Cooper16/05/2008 - 6:15pmA GREATER EVIL is the eight book in the series feature Trish Maguire - barrister and a bit of a champion of the underdog. In this book she takes on the challenge of proving one-time client (as a badly abused child) Sam Foundling didn't kill his pregnant wife Cecilia. Co-incidentally, Sam is one of Trish's favourite sculptors, long before she connected him with the child she had defended many years before (surname change on his part). Cecilia, co-incidentally has been working with Trish on an insurance case involving the iconic, but structurally faulty Arrow Building. Cecilia is, ... Read Review |
 |
Flesh House, Stuart MacBride13/05/2008 - 3:37pmIf you are teetering on the edge of fully-fledged vegetarianism FLESH HOUSE could be the trigger that pushes you over. MacBride is one of those author's who seem to be able to take the grotesque, the frequently cruel and absolutely obscene and wrap that in humanity. FLESH HOUSE is one of those books. At points you're giggling away at the magnificently over the top DI Steel, feeling for the put upon DS McRae, wondering whether DI Insch is really going to burst a blood vessel, and at the next minute you're peeking through your fingers reading some truly confrontational scenes. ... Read Review |
 |
A Deadly Business, Lenny Bartulin09/05/2008 - 3:26pmJack's life has certainly been a roller-coaster - there are liberal hints throughout the book of a somewhat less than spotless background and there's a pared down, minimalist sort of a private life. But his bookshop is something that is his, and he obviously knows a bit about the business. So he's surprised when somebody starts offering ridiculous amounts of money per copy for the books of a very obscure local poet - Edward Kass. But cash is cash, so after tracking down a copies he delivers them as requested. Hammond Kasprowicz doesn't really come across as a ... Read Review |
 |
Double Shot, Anna Blundy16/04/2008 - 1:33pmFaith is a newspaper woman - a war zone junkie; authority hating; vodka addicted; bad tempered; foul mouthed; loud; opinionated; single; with young baby; conflicted; tetchy; complicated newspaper woman with a history. Part of that history is personal - she's got this distant boyfriend Eden. Distant in their relationship - mostly because she keeps him that way, despite him being the father of her beloved baby Ben. Distant because he's headed off to Tuscany to write "those" sorts of columns - in Faith's words I mean, if that isn't money for old rope I don't know what is. 'As the ... Read Review |
 |
By Death Divided, Patricia Hall29/02/2008 - 12:08pmBY DEATH DIVIDED is the 14th book in the Thackeray and Ackroyd series. Laura Ackroyd is a journalist - her partner Michael Thackeray is a DCI. Fitting the double central characters, BY DEATH DIVIDED has two main threads - a missing Asian woman and her husband (which Thackeray is investigating) and domestic violence (which Ackroyd is reporting on). Both of these threads - probably predictably - meet up as the book draws to a conclusion. Mind you, there's nothing wrong with the predictability of this joining up, as it's done with a fair amount of aplomb and some darn good reasons ... Read Review |