State Prosecutor Chastity Riley faces her most challenging case yet, with a violent serial killer at large, who might just be uncatchable…
A serial killer is on the loose in Hamburg, targeting dancers from The Acapulco, a club in the city’s red-light district, taking their scalps as gruesome trophies and replacing them with plastic wigs.
Chastity Riley is the state prosecutor responsible for crimes in the district, and she’s working alongside the police as they investigate. Can she get inside the mind of the killer?
Her strength is thinking like a criminal; her weaknesses are pubs, bars and destructive relationships, but as Chastity searches for love and a flamboyant killer – battling her demons and the dark, foggy Hamburg weather – she hits dead end after dead end.
As panic sets in and the death toll rises, it becomes increasingly clear that it may already be too late. For everyone…
Simone Buchholz was born in Hanau in 1972. At university, she studied Philosophy and Literature, worked as a waitress and a columnist, and trained to be a journalist at the prestigious Henri-Nannen-School in Hamburg. In 2016, Simone Buchholz was awarded the Crime Cologne Award as well as runner-up in the German Crime Fiction Prize for Blue Night, which was number one on the KrimiZEIT Best of Crime List for months. The critically acclaimed Beton Rouge, Mexico Street, Hotel Cartagena and River Clyde all followed in the Chastity Riley series, with The Acapulco out in 2023. She lives in Sankt Pauli, in the heart of Hamburg, with her husband and son.
My thoughts: Chastity Riley is back. After her travels to Scotland, she’s back at work investigating crimes in Hamburg as a prosecutor, aided by detectives from the local police. Murdered pole dancers are being found in the streets, scalped and wearing cheap wigs. They’re all young, and work in the same club – The Acapulco.
The team look into their lives and the customers at the club. Someone really wants to humiliate these women – taking their hair and scalp, replacing them with gaudy wigs that you could buy anywhere. And is there a connection to a murdered pimp?
Chastity’s relationship with her neighbour has also stepped up a notch, spending nights in each other’s beds. Then there’s the theatre director, is he connected to the killings or just after Chastity? And her best friend, possibly her only friend, is acting a bit strange. Can she solve that mystery too?
I really like Chastity, she’s a complicated person, with a weakness for drinking and staying out all night, at odds with her professional life. She doesn’t let many people in and she takes too many risks. Faller and the other detectives worry about her, but she even shrugs them off. She’s put herself in danger before and probably will again.
This was another dark, twisted, clever thriller, looking deep into the heart of the nightlife in this district of Hamburg, itself a city of many faces. I enjoyed learning more about the area and the culture, and the passion for football that a lot of the characters share. This series gets better with each book and you learn a little bit more about Chastity each time too.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
A brutal double murder on a Norfolk beach horrifies the town of Cromer. The way the victims died is chilling and so Norfolk’s Major Investigation Team task DS Ashley Knight to manage the case. It soon becomes clear that the murders were carefully planned and the finger of suspicion points to an organised crime gang, but as the evidence mounts, a far more sinister theory emerges. Ashley has been allocated a young but opinionated partner in Hector Fade, and sparks soon fly. Annoyingly for Ashley, Hector is no pushover and looks destined for great things. When the pair delve into the case, they struggle to understand who would inflict such suffering on their victims and hope the crime is a one off from a deranged and dangerous individual. But then another body is found. There’s a killer on the loose who wants them to believe that the beach has a memory. They must be caught, or others will meet their end by the sea. Purchase
Ross Greenwood is the author of crime thrillers. Before becoming a full-time writer he was most recently a prison officer and so worked everyday with murderers, rapists and thieves for four years. He lives in Peterborough.
My thoughts: a new series from Ross Greenwood and he’s moved on to Norfolk, a place that seems very popular with crime writers, despite its sleepy reputation. I know that Cromer is famous for its crab, and indeed one of the characters is a crab man. When a severed head and a buried woman are found by an older lady walking her dog on the beach, the local CID spring into action.
The victims are a pair of local drug dealers, and hippies, mostly harmless. But they’re connected to a tragedy years before. As is the next victim, and there’s some strange graffiti that seems to be linked to these deaths.
While the Norfolk tourist board might not enjoy this book, I certainly did. I liked the relationship between Ashley and her newbie Hector, on the fast track to management, if he survives his training.
Ashley is experienced and dedicated, if a bit frazzled. Her personal life’s falling apart but she’s sure she can close this case and stop the killer. She just needs to work out the link between the victims, oh and find out how her boss is connected.
Clever, with plenty of twists and turns, and some entertaining characters, I think this is going to be a good series.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
When hundreds of birds fall from the sky into Slayton’s lake in a terrifying freak event, the waters are dredged – revealing a dark, long-held secret.
An old pram is pulled from the depths, with the bones of a baby still strapped inside.
It’s the moment that new mother, Cora, has been dreading since she moved to Slayton – because someone knows, and is going to make her pay.
With the help of forensic anthropologist Sophia Hudson, and the extraordinary young Elliott Carter, Detective Sarah Noble gets to the bottom of a cold case that refuses to stay in the past. Will she survive the secrets of the bone house?
My thoughts: poor Cora, her childhood was pretty awful, her stepfather was a monster, and then in care, she was abused. She’s trying to start over, to rebuild her life with her baby daughter Millie, and her bookshop. But someone knows about her tragic past and is willing to expose her secrets.
Thankfully the police are more or less helpful and compassionate. At least Sarah is, she wants to help Cora, to punish the people who hurt her and protect her and Millie from harm. Can the two women triumph over the darkness that seems to have been following Cora her whole life?
The story goes to some dark and horrible places, filled with collections of bones and stories of witches and madness. There’s several really horrible deaths and some nasty people who don’t seem remotely sorry for the terrible things they’ve done. Cora isn’t one of them, I felt sorry for her, she’d been punished enough. Sarah is a great character, filled with righteousness and compassion, she’s kind and genuinely wants to help people. From the homeless man in the police station reception to her friend’s son Elliot. And now Cora.
Gripping and creepy, this was hugely enjoyable and with just the right amount of horror. Although I will be skipping Slayton on any holidays I take.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
A vicious killer is on the loose . Victims targeted include an academic and members of Edinburgh’s high society.
When the Murder Investigation Team find out that the killer is connected to her past, DS Jane Renwick is banished to the side-lines and forced to look on as the manhunt ramps up at a ferocious pace.
Has someone from Jane’s birth family returned to haunt her? Is one of her relatives involved?
Where will the killer strike next?
This gripping police procedural is set in Edinburgh and Glasgow. The exciting novel is the first in Val Penny’s new series of Scottish thrillers.
Val Penny has an Llb degree from Edinburgh University and her MSc from Napier University. She has had many jobs including hairdresser, waitress, banker, azalea farmer and lecturer but has not yet achieved either of her childhood dreams of being a ballerina or owning a candy store.
Until those dreams come true, she has turned her hand to writing poetry, short stories, nonfiction, and novels.
Val is an American author living in SW Scotland. She has two adult daughters of whom she is justly proud and lives with her husband and their cat.
My thoughts: this was a really clever, gripping police procedural. Sidelined after a familial DNA match, DS Jane Renwick won’t just go home and twiddle her thumbs, she’s determined to find out whether her estranged brothers are out there – and which one of them’s a killer. She’s also picked up a stalker, is he her brother too?
The rest of the team are hard at work, looking for connections between the victims, trying to work out how the killer picked them and why, so they can stop him. Armed with Jane’s information, they’re also looking for her brothers. All three might be killers – their jobs suggest as much – as long as they’ve got the right Smiths!
I liked the characters of Jane and Rachael, their friends and colleagues, the way that even amidst terrible crimes they find time to banter and joke, stop for fish and chips, but always with half a mind on the investigation. I think this could be a really great series.
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*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own
Within hours of arriving in Montego Bay, Eddie Barrow and his friend Corey Stephenson witness a gruesome murder outside a bar. When the victim’s sister reaches out for help, they learn of machinations to conceal foreign corporate corruption and a series of horrific sex crimes. However, Barrow and Stephenson’s commitment to solving the case is put to the test once they find themselves in the crosshairs of a ruthless criminal network—one that extends beyond the shores of Jamaica.
Russell Brooks is an Amazon bestselling author of several thrillers—Pandora’s Succession, Unsavory Delicacies, Chill Run, and The Demeter Code. If you enjoy heart-pounding thrillers with conspiracies, martial arts, sex, betrayal, and revenge, then you don’t need to look any further and see why these are among the best mystery thriller books of all time.
My thoughts: this was really good, it hooked me right from the start as Eddie and Corey get involved in the terrible death of a young gay man in Jamaica. They’re there on Eddie’s book tour but after witnessing the crime, and seeing the disinterest of the police, they can’t help but look into it. The victim’s sister shows up at the book signing and Eddie promises to help.
Unfortunately Dwayne’s tragic death is part of something much bigger, a conspiracy that crosses oceans and far more complex than the two men originally think. There’s other terrible crimes all tangled up in it too, as they pursue another witness with a sad past.
Corruption, child abuse, homophobia, intellectual property theft, police looking the other way, it’s all in there. Along the way there are some powerful allies to go along with the dangerous enemies they’ve made. Eddie and Corey put their lives on the line for the truth.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Something slightly different today, there are three books out so far in this series – book four follows in a couple of months, and I’m reviewing book one today. However I highly recommend the whole series – details for books two and three follow my review of book one – The One Who Fell.
In the seaside town of Whitecliff, everyone looks out for each other. Everyone knows your name. And everyone knows your secrets…
Moonlight falls on the figure of the girl standing on the red-tiled roof. Her white dress and blonde hair flutter in the freezing night wind. And suddenly – she is gone.
Volunteering at the local nursing home is Millie Westlake’s one escape from the rumours that swirl around Whitecliff about her past. But speaking with elderly resident, Ingrid, as they play board games, Millie gets chills at her strange story about a young girl being pushed from a roof, somewhere across the valley…
Everybody thinks Ingrid is confused: but Millie knows how it feels to not be believed. Her parents died a year ago, and the residents of Whitecliff – such a quiet place, other than crashing waves and cawing seagulls – are convinced Millie killed them.
Desperately searching for evidence to find the girl Ingrid saw, a broken roof tile could prove Ingrid was telling the truth. But when strange footprints appear in Millie’s garden, she’s certain someone out there is watching.
Have Ingrid and Millie stumbled across something terribly dangerous? And with the town against her, will Millie have to face up to her own secrets to solve the mystery before it becomes deadly?
An utterly compelling, character-driven mystery by bestselling author Kerry Wilkinson, perfect for fans of Faith Martin, Mary Burton and LJ Ross.
Kerry Wilkinson is from the English county of Somerset but has spent far too long living in the north. It’s there that he’s picked up possibly made-up regional words like ‘barm’ and ‘ginnel’. He pretends to know what they mean.
He’s also been busy since turning thirty: his Jessica Daniel crime series has sold more than a million copies in the UK; he has written a fantasy-adventure trilogy for young adults; a second crime series featuring private investigator Andrew Hunter and the standalone thriller, Down Among The Dead Men.
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My thoughts: I really enjoyed the author’s previous books I’ve read so I was looking forward to this and it’s cracking. A resident at the nursing home where she volunteers tells Millie she saw a woman jump off the roof of the house opposite, and while Ingrid may suffer from some confusion, she’s positive about what she saw. Millie decides to have a little snoop and soon she’s sure something is going on in the house opposite the nursing home.
But Millie isn’t a police officer, and in an unfriendly town, where people think she’s involved in her parents’ deaths, it’s going to be hard to make anyone believe her. Retired journalist Guy might have written some nasty things about her, but he might also be the only one who will help.
Millie is a great protagonist, and the hints about her past make her more interesting – why has she stayed in a town where she’s a subject of gossip, did she have anything to do with her parents dying? She’s not entirely trustworthy, she definitely has secrets. So does Guy, and between them they’re highly likely to find things out but also put people’s backs up. Digging into things could make trouble for them both, and Millie’s either incredibly brave or just has no sense of danger, not everyone likes a nosey neighbour.
This first step into Whitecliff Bay is full of secrets and mysteries, and for somewhere where people claim to know their neighbours, an awful lot goes completely unseen and unnoticed. This series gets better and better with each book, so check out the next two below too and get reading!
In the darkness, the girl slumps against the rough tree bark. Her eyes are closed, her wrists tied. As consciousness fades, her last thought is of her best friend, and how much she regrets what she did…
Seventeen-year-old best friends Nicola and Millie were supposed to have a summer night of fun and freedom in the local park. But when dawn comes Millie realises Nicola is missing. Distraught, she searches for her alone: and finds Nicola tied to a tree, her purple Converse shoes missing, her long hair cut and scattered on the ground. With no memory of what happened, terrified Nicola begs Millie never to speak of this again…
Fifteen years later. With countless secrets and hurt between them, Millie and Nicola have not spoken in over a decade. But now Nicola has found her old purple Converse strung up in her garden. Is her attacker sending a message? Why now, after all this time?
In the small town of Whitecliff, people have long memories – but Millie is the only one who can help get answers. And, as she asks questions of their school friends, she realises one of them knows more than they should about her own family secrets…
Not knowing who to trust, and knowing Nicola’s kidnapper is still out there, Millie must ask: how far will they go to keep the truth buried forever?
Fans of Faith Martin, Ann Cleeves and LJ Ross won’t be able to put down this addictive mystery read set in the small seaside town of Whitecliff, where nothing is as it seems.
Up on the desolate moor, she tightens her coat against the bitter wind. The man she followed here points to a rock embedded in the mossy earth. ‘This is the place.’ But when they dig, what will they find?
Everyone in the small seaside town of Whitecliff knows the name Kevin Ashworth. Two boys disappeared thirty years ago – and although local teacher Kevin never admitted to knowing where their bodies are, he’s been in prison ever since.
Now, Kevin is finally ready to talk: but only to amateur sleuth Millie Westlake and journalist Guy Rushden. With the families of the boys desperate for answers, Guy and Millie are led to a lonely spot on the moors above Whitecliff. They’re on the moors expecting to find bodies… but what if they find something even more terrifying?
Reeling from their discovery, as Millie scours the local countryside and speaks to heartbroken families what she discovers changes everything she believes about Whitecliff and the people who live here. With rumours about her own dark past still haunting Millie, can she ever get justice for a decades-old wrong? Or as she gets closer to finding out who else Kevin has hurt, will she learn that some secrets are destined to stay buried?
An absolutely addictive mystery read that fans of LJ Ross, Mary Burton and Faith Martin won’t be able to put down.
Four dead bodies. One missing person. Let the game begin. When an anonymous tip-off leads Detective Nikki Parekh and DS Sajid Malik to the sprawling Salinger estate, Nikki’s senses are on high alert. The brutal murder of all four members of the Salinger family has shocked the sleepy Bradford village to the core. A mother, father, daughter, and son. . . all killed in exactly the same way – whilst sat around the coffee table, playing a game of Monopoly. But Nikki notices that there are five pieces on the board. One of the players is missing… Did they manage to escape the killer, or was the killer part of the game?
Born in Scotland made in Bradford sums up LIZ MISTRY’s life. Over thirty-five years ago she moved from a small village in West Lothian to Yorkshire to get her teaching degree. Once here, Liz fell in love with three things: curries, the rich cultural diversity of the city… and her Indian husband (not necessarily in this order). Now thirty years, three children, Scumpy, the cat, and a huge extended family later, Liz uses her experiences of living and working in the inner city to flavour her writing. Her gritty crime fiction police procedural novels set in Bradford embrace the city she describes as ‘Warm, Rich and Fearless’, whilst exploring the darkness that lurks beneath. Having struggled with severe clinical depression and anxiety for many years, Liz often includes mental health themes in her writing. She credits the MA in Creative Writing she took at Leeds Trinity University with helping her find a way of using her writing to navigate her ongoing mental health struggles. Liz’s PhD research contributes significantly to debates concerning issues of inclusion and diversity of representation within the most socially engaged genre of contemporary crime fiction. Being a debut novelist in her fifties was something Liz had only dreamed of and she counts herself lucky, whilst pinching herself regularly to make sure it’s all real. You can contact Liz via her website.
My thoughts: I really enjoy this series, I love the relationships between the characters, especially Nikki and Saj, and the rest of their team. Their boss DCI Abad is more prominent in this book, which as he’s dating Nikki’s sister is nice, because he’s becoming more of a part of her found family. And as there’s a wedding on the horizon – family is in Nikki’s mind.
There’s a murdered family, all sat round the table playing Monopoly – a game that definitely causes a few feuds and fights, but murder? When they look deeper, it seems there’s more going on. The eldest daughter went missing years before, is there a connection here?
Gripping as ever, this case moves between several different narrators and time periods – showing us a dark, hidden world, that Nikki and her team will bring to light and put an end to. It also seems to involve some of the more senior police figures, will that change things for the better?
Make sure you read the author’s note at the end, Liz is an interesting person and it’s always fun and insightful to learn about the inspiration behind an author’s work. I thought this was a particularly poignant one.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
A bullet to the brain. An estranged daughter. And a spate of brutal murders.
A bullet lodged in the frontal lobe is bound to cause a few health issues. For DI Al Crow, it’s just the beginning.
When his estranged daughter Rosie is accused of being involved in a grisly murder, Crow becomes her only hope of being acquitted.
Desperate to save his daughter, Crow goes all out to solve the case. He knows this is a chance to repair a rift that has torn his family apart and to prove to his bosses that he’s still up to the job.
The stakes are high, but things are complicated.
To solve the murder, Crow must reckon with his ex-wife’s connection to a seasoned, ruthless conman and Rosie’s relationship with a dangerously unstable psychologist. Can he crack the case and save his family and his career?
Her Last Chance is an intricate crime thriller that will keep readers on the edge of their seats until the very last page.
H J Reed lives and writes in Bristol, where she graduated with a PhD in psychology and began a long career lecturing in psychology and criminology, both in mainstream universities and in the prison education system. Her evenings were spent writing novels and short stories in various genres and styles, and pondering on the strange workings of the criminal mind. After a number of publication successes, she gained an MA in creative writing and went on to teach literature and the arts. Now, she is able to follow her lifelong passion and write crime fiction full time. When she is not writing, she can be found being taken for long muddy walks by a middle-aged, temperamental toy poodle, or in far-flung foreign cities thinking up new plots.
This is HJ’s first DI Crow novel published with Inkubator Books.
My thoughts: I really enjoyed this book, DI Crow is exactly my sort of curmudgeon. He’s on sick leave after a horrendous injury but swiftly on the case when his daughter Rosie is accused of assisting a murderer in escaping from the psychiatric hospital she works in.
Both he son-in-law John, know she’s innocent, but how to prove it? There follows an incredibly complex and twisting plot, the scheme behind it, the links to two other far flung similar cases (one in Spain) and several other incidents are somewhat tenuous, but Crow’s boss believes him. So they just have to tie it all together and nab the real suspect. Easy.
Totally gripping, excellent writing, clever, suspenseful and enjoyable. I look forward to more DI Crow books from their new home at Inkubator.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
They should have been watching. But my little girl is gone…
On this crisp October day, the class of six-year-old children are wrapped up warm in gloves and coats for their trip to a local farm. They giggle as they stroke the animals and search for the perfect Halloween pumpkin, and as I watch my daughter Claire race off with her friends, the pink ribbon in her hair bouncing, I breathe a sigh of relief. It’s been so hard since my husband died and my sweet little girl deserves to be happy.
But as the sun sets and the teachers gather the children, Claire is nowhere to be seen.
We call the police and frantically scour the fields and playgrounds, my heart breaking as I cry out Claire’s name. And then a detective shows me a video: my daughter, skipping away from the farm, holding hands with an adult in a bulky coat, their cap pulled down low.
My blood turns to ice. Claire would never leave with a stranger. Whoever took her must be someone I know.
But who could want to punish me this badly? Is it linked to the night I refuse to think about—the terrible night my husband died?
Did my mistakes put my baby girl in danger? Can I save her by finally facing the past? Or will I lose her forever when the truth comes out?
A brilliantly twisty thriller that will have you gripped from the first page to the final reveal. Perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn, Ruth Ware and Lisa Jewell.
Miranda Smith writes psychological and domestic suspense. She is drawn to stories about ordinary people in extraordinary situations. Before completing her first novel, she worked as a newspaper staff writer and a secondary English teacher. She lives in East Tennessee with her husband and three young children.
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My thoughts: I don’t have kids, but I did used to work with them, and with the same age group as the class in this book. You cannot take your eyes off them for a second. And a second is all it takes for little Claire to disappear. Who has her and why? Is it someone close to the family or is there a link to her father’s tragic death two years before? Who can be trusted?
The twists and turns just keep coming, it’s hard to know which characters are being truthful, they all seem to have things to hide, and as events develop, more coincidences occur – detectives never like those. Will they get Claire back safely? Well, you’ll have to read it to find out!
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
By 2:27 on a Thursday afternoon, the one-legged man from Room 8 at 147 Loxitor Avenue had been beaten to death with a lead pipe. Twenty-eight minutes later, Detective Mike O’Shea is testifying in a stuffy courtroom, unaware that, within an hour, he will be standing in an alleyway littered with beer cans and condoms while his new partner uses a ballpoint pen to flick bugs off of a battered corpse.
When a rogue undercover copper leaves Mike balancing what is legal with what is right, an unlikely rapport develops between Mike and the lead homicide investigator, a cop’s cop in stilettos.
At the end of his seventy-two-hour shift, three men are dead, and Mike O’Shea is floating in and out of consciousness in an emergency room hallway, two women by his side.
In the second of the Mike O’Shea Series, Death Before Coffee weaves a homicide investigation through the life of an inner-city police detective intent on balancing his responsibilities as a son, brother, and newly single father with his sworn oath of duty and the promise he made himself to find the man who murdered a former partner.
Born and raised in Toronto, Desmond P. Ryan graduated from UofT and joined what was then the Toronto Police Force. He has been a front-line officer, a beat cop, a patrol sergeant, an instructor at the Toronto Police College, and a detective over the almost thirty years of his career.
Whether as a beat cop or a plainclothes detective, Desmond dealt with good people who did bad things and bad people who followed their instincts. Now a retired detective, he writes crime fiction. Des is presently working on the Mike O’Shea Series and the Mary-Margaret Series, both published by Level Best Books.
Desmond lives in the Toronto neighbourhood known as Cabbagetown, where he can be seen wandering about, considering his next plot point or on his way to the pub.
My thoughts: we rejoin Detective Mike O’Shea 13 years after the events of 10-33 Assist PC which have shed his optimism, he’s not that cop any more. Now he just wants to get through the day and get a decent cup of coffee at some point.
That’s not to say he’s not a good detective, he is, one of the better ones, but he’s a bit more jaded, a bit less hopeful. And they still haven’t arrested Sal’s killer. Now with several cases on the go, in court and at the station, Mike’s a busy man. His personal life’s in free fall, he hasn’t had time to iron his clothes and there’s a murderer to find. All in a (very long) day’s work.
There’s plenty of action and familiar faces from the first book pop up, adding to the continuity. It’s the same city, but different, the passing of time and all that. But there’s still Sunday dinner at his mother’s, there’s still crime and he still hasn’t really spent any time with his son Max. The only rest he really gets is a trip to A&E.
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*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 