-
No Alternative (Or why I wrote No Accident)
I didn’t need to write No Accident. I’d already written No Bodies, a perfectly good story to launch the Kent Fisher murder mystery series. A UK agent had read it from cover to cover, keen to see how an environmental health officer (EHO) would solve a murder. Alas, she didn’t take me or the book on. It needed polishing, some work on the characters. I was getting closer to a publishing deal, so why didn’t I do the work, improve the story and resubmit it? Something was missing. In No Bodies, there’s a reference to Kent Fisher helping the police round up a drugs gang. Yeah, just the sort of…
-
Blood and Money by Rachel McLean
29th March 2023. I enjoyed this first book in a new series, featuring a newly-created Police Scotland department, specialising in complex crimes. There’s no time for the new members to get to know each other when they’re thrown straight into a murder investigation. An Internet billionaire is shot at his retreat on the shores of Loch Lomond. While it’s not a straightforward murder, the killer leaves no trace and DI Jade Tanner suspects an assassination. It echoes with a similar killing in Glasgow the year before, adding to the challenges. Assisted by psychologist, Petra McBride and a new DS, Mo Uddin from Birmingham, the officers set about building a team…
-
Bleeding Heart Yard by Elly Griffiths
26th March 2023. Once again, Elly Griffiths has produced an outstanding and captivating novel, featuring Harbinder Kaur. She’s moved from Sussex to London, following her promotion to detective inspector. She’s soon thrown into a murder investigation when MP Garfield Rice is killed at a school reunion, attended by Cassie, one of the detectives in her team. It’s the start of a complex investigation, delving into the lives of several people, who were part of an elite group during their schooldays. They were also involved in the death of another pupil, pushed in front of an oncoming train. Is this death significant? Is it linked to the murder of Garfield Rice?…
-
The Big Four by Agatha Christie
The fifth outing for Hercule Poirot finds him facing a gang of master criminals, known as the Big Four. They’re spread around the globe and seek world domination. In their way stand Poirot and Captain Hastings, assisted by Japp from Scotland Yard at times. Written in 1927, this novel has a plot more suited to James Bond, who followed forty years later. One of the Big Four, known as the Destroyer, is the master of disguise. He turns up at various locations in the UK, killing those who threaten the organisation. While Poirot seems always one step behind him, he’s learning all the time. It’s a curious adventure that moves…
-
Dead Men’s Bones by James Oswald
15th March 2023. I enjoy reading the DI MacLean novels because they offer something a little different from the usual police procedurals. The books are always intriguing on several levels, and like any series, you get to follow the characters, their lives and relationships. The stories also have a supernatural element, which I find fascinating. In this fourth outing, Drew Weatherly, a well-known and influential politician has killed his wife and children before taking his own life. The investigation looks fairly straightforward, but you know it won’t work out that way. There’s the unexplained death of a former soldier, who was tattooed over his whole body before he fell to…
-
Lost Girls by Angela Marsons
13th March 2023. Wow, what a story. This is the third book in the DI Kim Stone series and it left me drained by the end. It’s a difficult read because of the kidnapping of two young girls, but compulsive. The stakes couldn’t be higher. Kim Stone may be driven and totally committed to finding and saving the girls, but she’s not the most experienced officer for the job. The tension is unrelenting throughout. The kidnappers have an agenda and plan. The parents put their trust in Kim. But they’re always playing catch up. And the kidnappers are doing their best to pit the two families against each other by…
-
A semblance of reality
(Or life, Jim, but not quite as we know it.) There’s already enough crime, violence, horror and despair in the world. Do you want me to add to it by writing grim, depressing or violent crime fiction? People are murdered and killers have to be caught, but it doesn’t have to be graphic, twisted or morbid. That doesn’t mean it’s a cosy village mystery where old ladies sleuth between baking cakes and tending their gardens. That’s enough generalising and stereotyping. I’ve nothing against either of these types of crime fiction – it’s simply not what I write or enjoy reading. My characters and series were created to entertain readers with…
-
Peril at End House by Agatha Christie
12th March 2023. While I make no secret of my love for Agatha Christie’s murder mysteries, each book I read makes me marvel even more at how original, creative and addictive her stories are. They’re set many decades ago, when values and standards varied from today, but the writing still feels contemporary in many ways, making them a joy to read. Peril at End House is set in the 1930s and features Poirot at his most arrogant, though Hastings manages to get a few shots in to deflate the Belgian’s ego. That said, Poirot also has the courage to admit he’s made a colossal mistake as he struggles to solve…
-
Underneath the Arches by Barry Faulkner
9th March 2023. In the latest Serial Murder Squad novel, Detective Chief Superintendent Palmer faces his most curious case to date. Locks of hair are being sent to a homeless hostel. DNA analysis shows the hair comes from dead people. But who’s taking the hair and why are they sending it in the post? Who does the hair come from? The squad are soon on the case, identifying one of the victims from the missing persons register. Taking advantage of Gheeta’s IT skills and Claire’s ability to ferret out information, coupled with Palmer’s instincts, it isn’t long before they’re on the trail of a killer with an unusual motivation. As…
-
Murder in a Welsh Town by Pippa McCaithie
5th March 2023. In the fourth book of this excellent series, Fabia Harvard and Matt Lambert have a murder on their doorstep when Ivor Gladwin, one of the actors in the town pantomime, is found dead. He took satisfaction in winding people up, which means plenty of suspects for his murder. And some of those suspects have problems of their own, which come to a head for one couple when a second person is murdered. It’s a complex case that overlaps with an undercover operation Lambert has not been informed about. With tensions running high, and one of the undercover officers in an affair with a suspect for Ivor Gladwin’s…
-
Desperate Play by Barbara Freethy
4th March 2023. The third book in the FBI series carries on the high standards set in the first two. This time it’s Wyatt Turner, who’s undercover at a company about to launch a defence satellite into orbit. But someone’s leaking secrets to a foreign power. When an employee is found stabbed to death at a funfair by her best friend Avery, Wyatt’s challenges increase. Not only must he find out who committed murder, he must protect Avery, who’s a key player at the company. The attraction between the two leads builds as they go on the run, hotly pursued by the bad guys. As the launch of the satellite…
-
E is for Evidence by Sue Grafton
28th February 2023. In her fifth outing in the series, private investigator Kinsey Millhone finds herself caught in an elaborate fraud. It starts with a mystery deposit of $5000 into her bank account, closely followed by her report into an insurance claim for a warehouse fire being replaced by a false account. The insurance company suspends her, leaving her angry and helpless. But not for long. With a little help from an employee at the insurance company and her usual dogged approach, she’s soon on the trail. Even the reappearance of her ex-husband doesn’t shift her focus as she strives to clear her name. And then someone from the family…
