Call Me Star Girl by Louise Beech

11^th January 2020. 4 stars.

I find many psychological suspense stories formulaic, relying on dark family secrets being slowly peeled away. Star Girl was quite different, being focused on the death of a pregnant woman, Vicky Valbon.

The story is told by Stella and her mother, Elizabeth, who abandoned her daughter at a young age. It jumps back and forth in time, which helps to build tension and suspense as more details are revealed. At times it felt like there were too many background details, slowing the pace and drawing out the story to delay revelations and key developments.

The characters are intense and driven by passion, often selfishly, often darkly, but the author portrays them sympathetically and deeply so you understand them and the way they think and behave. The intensity of the characters drives events and the consequences that lead towards a shocking climax. Several further twists then follow. Though they are clever and reveal what really happened to Vicky Valbon, I thought the twists drew out the ending, just taking the edge off the emotional impact.

Dark, occasionally disturbing, but always intriguing, Call Me Star Girl is a complex, consuming story that will take you on an emotional roller coaster. It will leave you drained but glad you took the ride.

Description

Stirring up secrets can be deadly … especially if they’re yours…

Pregnant Victoria Valbon was brutally murdered in an alley three weeks ago – and her killer hasn’t been caught.

Tonight is Stella McKeever’s final radio show. The theme is secrets. You tell her yours, and she’ll share some of hers.

Stella might tell you about Tom, a boyfriend who likes to play games, about the mother who abandoned her, now back after fourteen years. She might tell you about the perfume bottle with the star-shaped stopper, or about her father …

What Stella really wants to know is more about the mysterious man calling the station … who says he knows who killed Victoria, and has proof.

Tonight is the night for secrets, and Stella wants to know everything…

Dead at First Sight by Peter James

24^th December 2019. 4 stars.

You know you’re always going to get an original and topical plot with Peter James. With the fifteenth and latest outing in the Roy Grace series, it’s internet romance fraud and the havoc it wreaks on lonely people. On the surface, it doesn’t sound like a subject made for thrills, but when victims begin to fight back against the fraudsters the body count starts to rise.

And then there’s the welcome return of assassin, Tooth. He returns to Brighton, tasked with eliminating a couple of the bad guys by their former employer. Only Tooth’s not at his best.

Even though it lacked the pace and suspense of many of the Roy Grace novels, I enjoyed the story and the continuing struggles he has with his slimy boss, Cassian Pewe. The story’s easy to read and follow as the various characters head for the final showdown in the countryside. It looks like it could be mayhem, but Peter James always has a couple of welcome twists up his sleeve to make you gasp and smile.

While not the best of the series, Dead at First Sight remains an entertaining read with a serious message, highlighting the dangers of internet romance. There is humour, great writing and plenty of twists and turns from an author at the top of his game. He even leaves some unanswered questions from Grace’s private and work lives, so it will be interesting to see where the story goes from here.

Thoroughly recommended.

Description

You don’t know me, but I thought I knew you . . .

A man waits at a London airport for Ingrid Ostermann, the love of his life, to arrive. Across the Atlantic, a retired NYPD cop waits in a bar in Florida’s Key West for his first date with the lady who is, without question, his soulmate. The two men are about to discover they’ve been scammed out of almost every penny they have in the world – and that neither women exist.

Meanwhile, a wealthy divorcée plunges, in suspicious circumstances, from an apartment block in Munich. In the same week, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is called to investigate the suicide of a woman in Brighton, that is clearly not what it seems. As his investigations continue, a handsome Brighton motivational speaker comes forward. He’s discovered his identity is being used to scam eleven different women, online. The first he knew of it was a phone call from one of them, out of the blue, saying, ‘You don’t know me, but I thought I knew you’.

That woman is now dead.

Roy Grace realizes he is looking at the tip of an iceberg. A global empire built on clever, cruel internet scams and the murder of anyone who threatens to expose them.

An interview with author, Barry Faulkner

I first got to know Barry Faulkner during an online Q and A session for the UK Crime Book Group on Facebook. Little did I know what an interesting life he led before publishing his Serial Murder Squad novels. From washing the cars of London gang leaders to contributing material for light entertainment shows, Barry’s experiences have all contributed to the fast-paced, no nonsense crime thrillers he publishes. As someone who likes something a little different from the usual, I can highly recommend the stories, which made me think of The Sweeney.

My grateful thanks to Barry for taking the time to answer my questions. Over to you, Barry.

Please tell me a little about yourself and your writing.

My father, elder brothers, uncles and cousins were all on the wrong side of the tracks and sometimes ran with the notorious Richardson Brothers gang in South London in the 60s -90s. My mother was determined her youngest would not follow that family tradition and made sure I was kept away from it although I mixed with many of the ‘names’ as a kid and cleaned the Richardson’s rollers every Saturday for 10/- at their scrap yard in Camberwell as well as other members cars. The golden rule was never to go inside the cars or open the boots. I wonder why? I started writing at school and was encouraged to do so by a great English teacher called Mr Reid who saw something in my juvenile doodling. I owe him a lot.

When did you first realise you wanted to be an author?

I first realised I wanted to write when I read Cider With Rosie by Laurie Lee, I must have read it twenty times by now. The descriptive writing is the best I have ever read and paints a picture in your imagination that no other writer has ever equalled for me.

Describe the first piece you wrote and what it meant to you?

The first significant piece was a fun piece describing a weekend away at the coast with the scouts. It made the local paper and the Scout Magazine. I was hooked thinking that everything I wrote from then on would get published. Sadly not so.

What do you most enjoy about being an author?

The most enjoyable thing about being an author for me is the power to let my imagination run free and see where it takes me. I don’t plan a book other than the basic premise and where it is set. Each one has a different setting. The Last one, Ministry of Death is set in the NHS Drug Procurement Department , the one before that in the take away meals environment, I’ve also done Television, The City of London Financial District, Rock Groups etc..so half the fun of writing is the research into the different settings. I like to get it right.

What do you least enjoy about being an author?

I don’t think there’s anything I don’t enjoy about being an author.

I see from your Amazon biography, you worked as a copywriter for an advertising agency. How did this influence your writing?

Yes, advertising copywriter for Erwin Wasey Ruffrauth and Ryan in Paddington. A top US advertising agency whose boss lived in a suite at the Dorchester! I think some of the characters I came into contact in that industry have stuck with me and surface in the books from time to time. My character Benji, the next door neighbour and nemesis of my DCS Palmer is definitely from that workplace.

You were also a script writer and editor for TV during the 1980s and 90s. Can you tell us a little bit more about that and what you think it’s brought to your novel writing?

Whilst at the Advertising Agency I was writing stuff and sending up to the television companies and got lucky.( they won’t even look at unsolicited commissions these days which I think means they are missing out on a lot of new writers and we get the same old tosh all the time) Anyway I was called up and asked to contribute to various light entertainment shows during the 70s -90s and ended up as a script editor/writer on most of the Light Entertainment shows including Bob Monkhouse, Tom O’Connor, Russ Abbot, Not The Nine O’clock News etc. It broadened my outlook and way of writing as I spent a lot of time in the ‘writers room’ with other writers and we bounced ideas off each other as well as having my own work edited and on many occasions binned!

What made you want to move from TV scriptwriting to crime fiction novels?

The television job meant many days and even weeks stuck in hotel rooms at night and that’s when I started to put together various ideas for TV series, mainly of the LE format but all the time in the back of my mind I had this DCS Palmer character pushing to get out. I don’t know where he came from but I get quite a few emails and letters from retired ex Detectives and old South London criminals now in their 80s- 90s telling me they recognise various characters in the books so maybe some of the people I met as a youngster, from both sides of the law, have stuck in the recesses of my brain and emerge as a character in a book, who knows? Anyway, Palmer kept insisting he be written and I really got into him and the Serial Murder Squad in those hotel rooms. He was written as a pilot for a TV series but never made it.

Tell me about the inspiration and motivation to write the Serial Murder Squad series.

I wrote three Palmers for TV and being rejected they went into the drawer with all the other reject slips and then three years ago when I fully retired and time became available I went back, pulled him out and gave reign to all the plots in my head and in various notebooks that I’d kept over the years. So like many writers I sent them out and started collecting the reject slips but with the birth of Amazon there was another route to publishing as an Indie. I realised that floundering away on your own as a new indie would lead to mistakes and probably very little sales so I joined the Alliance of Independent Authors which was the best thing I have ever done in my writing career, I attended, and still attend a local meeting of members of that group in Cheltenham where the fonts of all publishing knowledge, Debbie Young and David Penny guided me through the tricky road of wannabe author to published author with several thousand Palmers sold. There’s about forty of them in various notebooks so many more Palmers to come I hope.

How would you describe your books to someone who has never read one before?

I think you have to have a USP (Unique Selling Point) or your books will get lost in the plethora of the police procedural genre of thousands of books. Many authors use their own area like Scotland or Cornwall to capture readers who recognise the settings. I use London as that’s my place of birth and I know it well, but realising how many are set in London I also have a USP of humour. Coming from a light entertainment background in television my mind is programmed to add (hopefully) witty and humorous remarks between my principle characters and with the addition of Benji, Palmer’s nemesis neighbour, I am able to run a fairly light back story against the main serial killer theme. Readers seem to warm to that and the juxtaposition and banter between the irascible old school DCS Palmer and his young IT and cyber expert Detective Sergeant, Gheeta Singh, chalk and cheese. So the reader will be taken into the darkness of serial murder but now and again will laugh.

Who inspires you and Why?

I’m not inspired much by books and authors these days, I get bored very easily and hate the current trend of every detective having an Achilles heel and family problems and pages and pages of back story not relevant to the plot but insisted on by traditional publishers to increase the book price and KU page read income. Not on. I recently spoke with a well respected traditionally published crime author who told me she had submitted her next book of 80,000 words to be told by her publisher to expand to 140,000!!! She wasn’t happy.

I do get inspiration from television. Television crime drama, especially the streaming channels of Netflix and Amazon are right up to date with their output. Forensics are state of the art and the characters well drawn, my all time favourite is The Sopranos, but currently I like Ray Donovan. I intend to start another series of books about a present day London Organised crime syndicate and having just watched The Irishman film on Netflix that is inspiring me to get going on it. That film is a classic, half true and half fiction but so well put together.

What’s the best compliment you’ve received about your books?

I suppose the best one is one I get quite a lot, ‘these books should be a television series’. I’d love to go back in time with them to the BBC commissioning editor who said ‘no’ and push them into his face and say, ‘see what you missed, I could have been a millionaire Rodney’

Do you have any favourite authors? What is it about them or their work that appeals to you?

My favourite authors? Laurie Lee for his use of descriptive words whilst moving the story along at pace, a complete master. Ed McBain, the all-time number one in the pulp fiction genre that I reside in. Robert Crais and his Cole and Pike novels, I rate them above Jack Reacher. His use of words and sentences is unique. Do try him.

If you could invite four guests (fictional or real, alive or dead) for dinner, who would you choose and why?

Four dinner guests? My great grandfather and my grandfather both of whom I never knew so I could find out the truth about a family business fortune gambled away in the 1800’s. Probably all make believe but it would be an interesting chat anyway as I know nothing about the family before my dad. Fred Karno, the UK’s first impresario who ran concert halls in the late 1800s and 1900s. He took Charlie Chaplin and his understudy, Arthur Jefferson, who later changed his name to Stan Laurel, to America and worked with Hal Roach on silent comedy film shorts for Buster Keaton and the rest of the silent comics. His life went from poverty to millionaire back to poverty ending up running an off licence in Dorset. And my fourth and last guest, Leonard Ernest ‘Nipper’ Read, DCS Read, the detective who nicked the Krays and many more top criminals whilst head of the Murder Squad in the late 60s-70s. He also helped clean out corruption amongst detectives at Scotland Yard with Commissioner Sir Robert Marks when close to 200 were sacked or took early retirement.

Please tell me about your latest project.

My current work load, and I don’t look at it as work as I enjoy it too much, I’m getting paid for having a lot of fun and meeting a lot of interesting people, however my current projects are finishing DCS Palmer book 10 ‘The Body Builder’ (there’s a clue!), getting my London Gang series underway and hassling Literary Festival organisers for a spot (unpaid) in there programme next year for my illustrated talk on ‘the Heists and Geezers of UK Crime from 1930 to Present Day’ or any other ‘crime’ spot they’d like to offer, I just love meeting writers and readers.

Thank you, Barry, for some fascinating insights into your life and writing. Good luck with ‘The Body Builder’. I look forward to reading it.

The Met’s Serial Murder Squad investigate the unusual deaths of three staff working at the Ministry of Health Drug Procurement department. Are all three deaths from natural causes or had the deceased stumbled on something that senior management and the pompous head of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee in the House of Commons want to hide away at any cost, even murder?

How does a Romanian drugs company fit into the jigsaw and can Palmer and the team uncover the facts before more deaths occur? DCS Palmer needs hard evidence to convince his boss that there is a serial killing going on so the team start to dig and are surprised at what they find.

(Read my 5 star review here.)

For details of my reviews of Barry’s thrillers, please visit my review page.

A Long Time Dead by Andrew Barrett

23rd November 2019. 4 stars.

I enjoy books that take me into new worlds. In this case it’s forensic science through the eyes of a Scenes of Crime Officer, who seems to have upset too many people.

While the story started slowly, the forensic detail during crime scene investigation was fascinating, but never to the detriment of the story. The author’s skill, practice and knowledge shone in these scenes, adding credibility and authenticity to the story.

I just wanted it to shift up a gear.

When it did, the whole story came alive, leading to a fast-paced, thrilling climax that kept me turning the pages. Roger Conniston, was a flawed but likeable lead character with plenty of determination, guts and conviction. By the end, I was rooting for him.

I’m look forward to reading more of his adventures.

Description

The police discover a woman’s naked body on her bed, arcs of blood tracked across the wall from a neck wound. This is the second such case Detective Superintendent Chamberlain has running. The first is still unsolved, and he’s desperate for a lead. Any lead.

It’s 1999, and Scenes of Crime Officer, Roger Conniston, is too busy obsessing over an arms dealer to worry about whether his coal-powered computer is Year 2000 Compliant; too busy cruising Wakefield’s night-life to worry about his wife or his lover, or the promotion he doesn’t really want.

Roger is about to make his move on the arms dealer when he’s arrested for the woman’s murder.

With Roger in the cells, Chamberlain can relax, and the arms dealer can resume his trade.

But Roger has to prove his innocence and find the true murderer. Not easy from behind bars – bars that are guarded by the same officer he’s been spying on.

A stressed investigator. A ruthless arms dealer. And someone else in the background plotting his death. Which of Roger’s new enemies want him out of the way?

The Calling by Jane R Goodall

22^nd October 2019. 3.5 stars.

In the last of the Briony Williams trilogy, the author lovingly recreates London 1976 in an atmospheric and different kind of police procedural.

It is the beginning of punk rock, carefree fashion, and teenage rebellion. Sharon, bored at school, escapes during a class visit to the Tate Modern, unaware that her new punk friends have links to Sudden Deff, a cult band with a wild stage show and some sinister beliefs and practices.

Detective Inspector Briony Williams, back in London, slowly pieces together some disparate evidence and clues, including a gallery of photographs of her and two colleagues in a fanzine dedicated to Sudden Deff. When one of these colleagues is brutally attacked, the threat becomes all too real and the race is on to identify and catch the culprits before they inflict more harm.

The author clearly has a great affection for the London punk scene, which she crafts and describes so vividly. Unfortunately, the level of detail contributes to the slow pace of the story, which stifles the tension and suspense until it catches fire in the second half. Once the investigation gets moving, the pace picks up, the various threads of the story come together for a climax that was over a little too quickly for my liking.

The characters are well-drawn, the dialogue is vivid, and the period is evoked with passion and care, capturing the raw energy and anarchy of the punk era. I loved the atmosphere, but wanted the plot to catch fire. The quality of the writing kept me going, and I’m glad I persevered because the story delivered in a memorable second half. But in the end it’s the punks I remember, not the murders solved.

Description

It is the fierce English summer of 1976 and the Punk movement is on the rise.

‘Chaos’ is the catchcry down in its heartland at the World’s End of London, and Detective Briony Williams wryly observes that though ‘they stick pins in themselves, wear leather masks, and insult the Queen’, most of this is not against the law.

But things take a darker turn as a new group calling itself ‘Sudden Deff’ shows signs of wanting to live up to its name.

When Briony learns that she and her colleagues have appeared on ‘Deff Row’ in the group’s fanzine, she is drawn into a fatal game with adversaries who always seem to be two moves ahead.

And when Sharon, a young runaway, moves into a squat with her new punk mates, she enters a sinister world and unknowingly puts her own life in danger.

Can Briony uncover the leader Sudden Deff before anyone comes to harm?

Or will she be too late to stop chaos from being unleashed?

Ministry of Murder by BL Faulkner

12^th October 2019. 5 stars.

This is third book in the series I’ve read and the most enjoyable yet. Like the previous books, the no-nonsense approach produces a direct story that’s easy to follow. The energetic pace, strong believable characters and humorous touches produce an entertaining and gripping story.

But unlike the previous two books in the series, where there is no let-up in the pace of the story, this one had moments where I could catch my breath and get ready for the next surge forward. These moments allowed me to get to know the characters better and gave the story a better balance, I thought.

The plot was topical, dealing with dodgy pharmaceutical suppliers that made money out of the NHS, with a little help from corrupt establishment officials. The pursuit of the criminals by DCS Palmer and his small, but elite squad was relentless. The result was a terrific, highly enjoyable story that kept me turning the pages to an exciting and satisfying climax.

I particularly enjoyed the interplay between the main characters and the topical theme, which offered some interesting insights into the establishment and how simple it often is to corrupt.

Highly recommended.

Description

The Met’s Serial Murder Squad investigates the unusual deaths of three staff working at the Ministry of Health Drug Procurement department. Are all three deaths from natural causes or had the deceased stumbled on something that senior management and the pompous head of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee in the House of Commons want to hide away at any cost, even murder? How does a Romanian drugs company fit into the jigsaw and can Palmer and the team uncover the facts before more deaths occur? DCS Palmer needs hard evidence to convince his boss that there is a serial killing going on so the team start to dig and are surprised at what they find

Dead If You Don’t by Peter James

9^th October 2019. 4 stars.

When you read a Roy Grace novel, you’re guaranteed an intriguing plot with many strands and some neat twists to wrong foot you. This one also incorporates a change of pace as the kidnap of a boy brings time pressures that crank up the tension and work rate of the police.

I enjoy the detail of the police procedures and the way the author brings mundane, but essential legwork to life. The characters too are carefully crafted and believable, especially the bad guys who are particularly menacing. The story moved between the various bad guys, the victims and the police, keeping the tension high as time began to run out for the kidnap victim, leading to an exciting climax with Grace risking his life once more.

While all the author’s trademarks are present in the story, the change of pace affected the balance between the investigation and the backstory. The short time span meant there was little room for the running backstory of Grace’s family life, which was a bit of a shame. However, his ongoing battle with his boss, Cassian Pewe, reached new and enjoyable heights.

Highly recommended.

Description

Kipp Brown, successful businessman and compulsive gambler, is having the worst run of luck of his life. He’s beginning to lose big style. However, taking his teenage son, Mungo, to their club’s big Saturday afternoon football match should have given him a welcome respite, if only for a few hours. But it’s at the stadium where his nightmare begins.

Within minutes of arriving at the game, Kipp bumps into a client. He takes his eye of Mungo for a few moments, and in that time, the boy is gone. Then he gets the terrifying message that someone has his child, and to get him back alive, Kipp will have to pay.

Defying instruction not to contact the police, Kipp reluctantly does just that, and Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is brought into investigate. At first it seems a straightforward case of kidnap. But rapidly Grace finds himself entering a dark, criminal underbelly of the city, where the rules are different and nothing is what it seems . . .

Takeaway Terror by BL Faulkner

2^nd October 2019. 4 stars.

This is the second novel in the series I’ve read and enjoyed. It only took me a day as the novel is short, delivering a direct, no nonsense, action packed story centred around the takeaway delivery market. But there’s no fat in this story – just incisive investigation and dialogue that never drag or meander.

The downside is that the story was over too quickly. I would have liked to savour it and the characters a little more, perhaps with a little more backstory and insights.

The likeable main characters are sharply drawn and spark well off each other, providing some welcome comic banter. The action draws you straight into the thick of the story from the first page and doesn’t let go until the exciting climax in a scrapyard.

Original and believable, the series offers something a little different from the formulaic police procedurals on the market, which I applaud.

Description

Three delivery lads working for London takeaway meal company Deliver-Eat are killed by a hit and run driver. Were they just delivering takeaways or something else? Palmer’s team soon find themselves looking at two organised crime gangs about to go into a turf war over the lucrative drugs trade. The surveillance teams that Palmer puts in place get him very worried when an old villain from his past who is an explosives expert is recruited by one of the gangs. The war explodes into action and Palmer’s team are in the thick of it. Will anybody get out alive, including Palmer?

Need You Dead by Peter James

26^th September 2019. 5 stars.

I’ve enjoyed every novel in the Roy Grace series. With an imaginative and complex plot, fascinating insights into police procedure and a few surprises as the story hurtles towards the climax, Need You Dead continues the consistent high standard of stroytelling I’ve come to expect from Peter James.

So, who killed Lorna Belling?

With suspects starting to form an orderly queue, this is not going to be a simple case for Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, who has problems of his own to overcome. While Grace finally puts the mystery of his ex-wife, Sandy, to bed, it’s only the start of more demanding challenges. With Assistant Chief Constable Pewe watching his every move, the pressure on Grace leads to more than a few sleepless nights.

With several suspects and an intricate plot that makes them all potential killers, the story kept me guessing right up to the breathtaking climax, delivering an unexpected, but satisfying twist I didn’t see coming.

This is quality writing, populated with strong, believable characters, delivered with pace and panache to provide yet another exciting instalment in the Roy Grace series. While all the novels work as standalones, reading the series from the start means each book delivers much more.

I would recommend this series to anyone as Peter James always delivers memorable, top quality crime fiction.

Description

Lorna Belling, desperate to escape the marriage from hell, falls for the charms of another man who promises her the earth. But, as Lorna finds, life seldom follows the plans you’ve made. A chance photograph on a client’s mobile phone changes everything for her.

When the body of a woman is found in a bath in Brighton, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is called to the scene. At first it looks an open and shut case with a clear prime suspect. Then other scenarios begin to present themselves, each of them tantalizingly plausible, until, in a sudden turn of events, and to his utter disbelief, the case turns more sinister than Grace could ever have imagined.

The Visitor by Jane R Goodall

23^rd September 2019. 4 stars

This complex novel pits folklore, superstition and the supernatural against forensic science and police procedure to produce an intriguing story about the hunt for an elusive serial killer. DI Briony Williams starts a new job with a murder that will take her to her wits end as she’s dragged through myth, superstition and fear in search of facts that will make a case and identify the Visitor.

I enjoyed the novel as I like something different from the usual run-of-the-mill police procedurals that seem to be everywhere these days. I’ve always been fascinated by superstition and the supernatural, both in terms of wondering what might be out there, and more importantly, the affect it can have on people and the way they behave. The author certainly provides a deep insight into ancient folklore and the way beliefs can manipulate, frighten and subdue people.

The investigation pits Briony against her more hard headed colleagues and superiors, who prefer a conventional, follow the evidence approach to apprehending the killer. The trouble is, the killer always seems to be several steps ahead, killing anyone who might reveal the truth about him.

While I liked the detail on folklore and superstitions, necessary for the plot, it seemed to come at the expense of character development. There were glimpses of personal issues and relationships that could have been developed to add more depth to the characters and story. Though fascinating, the detail needed to support the story inevitably slowed the pace in places, leading to a somewhat hurried climax.

That said, I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys something different and challenging. I’m moving on to read The Calling, the third and final book in the Briony Williams series.

Description

1974, Oxford.

Detective Briony Williams, starting a new job with the Thames Valley police in Oxford, is called to investigate the murder of a seventeen-year-old girl. Convinced that the girl’s murder is no ordinary domestic crime, Briony delves into the world of the supernatural when she finds a stone carved with an ancient cryptic message clutched in the victim’s hand.

The police need solid scientific evidence that will stand up in court, but in order to solve the case Briony must ally herself with a psychic girl and a druid leader. As Briony investigates, the danger deepens, setting her directly in the path of a killer bent on eliminating anyone getting close to the truth.

Undeterred, Briony must steer a course between the rational and the supernatural in her search for The Visitor.