Tag: books

A good police force is one that catches more crooks than it employs’ – Sir Robert Mark

A clever, accomplished Cambridge graduate with a good job and an attentive lover, Imogen Lester seems to have the world at her feet. But when her parents are murdered abroad while working for the Diplomatic Service, she is suddenly thrown headlong into a murky world of espionage and organised crime.
When she is charged with drug trafficking, even Ben Schroeder’s skills may not be enough to save her – unless a shadowy figure from Ben’s past can survive long enough to unmask a web of graft and corruption…

Peter Murphy graduated from Cambridge University and spent a career in the law, as an advocate, teacher, and judge. He has worked both in England and the United States, and served for several years as counsel at the Yugoslavian War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. He has written eight novels: two political thrillers about the US presidency, Removal and Test of Resolve; six historical/legal thrillers featuring Ben Schroeder, A Higher Duty, A Matter for the Jury, And Is there Honey Still for Tea?, The Heirs of Owain Glyndwr, Calling Down the Storm and One Law for the Rest of Us. His new series features Judge Walden who will return in 2019 with a fresh series of cases. He lives in Cambridgeshire.

My thoughts:

This was really interesting, rather than being a spy thriller or even a police procedural as I thought it might be, it was instead a clever legal drama with elements of the spy thriller and police procedural, a really enjoyable mix of genres.

Drawing on his extensive legal background Peter Murphy has created a complex and compelling plot, travelling from the sitting rooms of Hampstead to pre-perestroika Yugoslavia to the Central Criminal Court at the Old Bailey and the pubs of Soho and the West End.

With twists and turns aplenty, dead bodies dropping at the most inconvenient moments and dodgy cops happy to lie under oath, the reader is never quite sure what’s going to happen next. Very satisfying.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

Hella Mauzer has just been fired by the police and is now a reluctant private investigator. Escaping the mind-numbing routine of shadowing unfaithful spouses, Hella finds herself at the centre of an investigation of multiple murders.

It all begins when a prostitute is found floating upside down in Helsinki Harbour. Not exactly a high priority case for the Helsinki police, so homicide chief Jokela passes the job to his former colleague Hella. It’s beginning to look like a serial killer is at work when another lady of the night narrowly escapes being driven into the harbour, handcuffed to the car by her client.

What begins like a taut whodunit turns into something more tantalizing as Hella turns her attention to different suspects, often to the consternation of the fascinating Inspector Mustonen, charismatic, ambitious and trying desperately to live up to the standards of his high-maintenance wife.

Katja Ivar grew up in Russia and the U.S. She travelled the world extensively, from Almaty to Ushuaia, from Karelia to Kyushu, before finally settling in Paris where she lives with her husband and three children. She received a B.A. in Linguistics and a master’s degree in Contemporary History from Sorbonne University. Evil Things was her debut novel.

My thoughts:

This was a clever tale of murder and mystery in 1950s Finland, with a female PI doing her best to solve crimes and keep her business afloat.

At a time when women in the UK were only just about being allowed to join the police, seeing a female detective leading the charge is pretty interesting, makes a nice change from most historical crime novels with their male protagonists.

The writing is crisp and the plot tight, the supposedly straight forward death of a prostitute goes somewhere completely different and twists and turns around the city as Hella and Inspector Mustonen try to solve the mystery.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

“You have one hour to live.”

Those are the only words on the phone call. Then they hang up. Surely, a prank? A mistake? A wrong number? Anything but the chilling truth… That someone is watching, waiting, working to take your life in one hour.

But why?

The job of finding out falls to DI Helen Grace: a woman with a track record in hunting killers. However, this is a case where the killer seems to always be one step ahead of the police and the victims.

With no motive, no leads, no clues – nothing but pure fear – an hour can last a lifetime…

My thoughts:

I read the first Helen Grace book a while ago so I was vaguely familiar with the characters, but this can easily be read as a standalone.

A clever, twisted plot, a game played by a cruel and determined killer, and no immediately obvious links between the victims.

Arlidge is an accomplished writer and knows how to keep a reader successfully hooked as the detective and her team come ever closer to the truth.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour but all opinions remain my own.