Tag: crime fiction

books, reviews

Book Review: If I Should Die – Anna Smith

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Private investigator Billie Carlson is back in the next gripping instalment of this utterly addictive series. Perfect for fans of Martina Cole and Marnie Riches.

PI Billie Carlson is in Cleveland, Ohio following a lead on the whereabouts of her son, Lucas. But when the trail goes cold, she is forced to return to Glasgow and a life of waiting and praying that one day she might see him again.

Back in the office and ready to throw herself into work, she picks up a call from Lars, an old friend from her teenage years in Sweden. He tells her some devastating news. His younger sister, Astrid, was found dead in the Highlands, frozen to death with traces of drugs and alcohol in her system.

The police are convinced that Astrid killed herself, but Lars knows his sister would never do such a thing. He begs Billie to investigate and to accompany Astrid’s body back to Sweden. Billie quickly agrees and soon finds herself involved in a web of institutional corruption linked to the dark recesses of the criminal underworld. Can Billie find out what happened to Astrid, or will she be silenced by those desperate to keep her from finding out the truth?

Published 11th May, available from all bookshops.

My thoughts: PI Billie Carlson is asked to go to the Highlands and bring the body of her friend’s younger sister home to Sweden after her shocking death. She digs into what happened to Astrid and finds herself embroiled in an international drug syndicate and a violent world hidden in the scenic Scottish countryside.

At the same time she’s also searching for her missing son – kidnapped and taken to the US by her ex-husband, she’s hired an American PI to search for her, one with connections on that side of the Atlantic, desperate for answers.

While her former colleagues build a case against the men who are responsible for Astrid’s death, Billie flies to New York hoping to be reunited with her toddler son.

There’s a lot going on in Billie’s life and with investigations on both sides of the pond, both personally important to her (but one more so than the other), she’s divided but wants both to come to a positive conclusion – to get justice for Astrid and for Lucas to be back where he belongs.

She’s an interesting character, with a bad habit of charging into danger and almost gets herself killed. Her secretary is called Millie, which made me laugh, and her relationships with her former cop colleagues are complicated, but they come through for her when she needs their help.

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

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Blog Tour: The Mystery of the Homeless Man – Gina Cheyne

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Why would an airline pilot exchange a world of comfort for life on the streets?
In 2006, Miranda meets an itinerant in the wood, she takes him home. He refuses to stay, desperate to return to the streets. Miranda gives him some money and forgets the incident.
Fifteen years later, the SeeMs Detective Agency is investigating an abandoned house and discovers a homeless man was found there: murdered.
No one knows who the dead man is or how he died, and, with one hundred and fifty unidentified street deaths per year, no one has time to find out.
But, the SeeMs Detectives have both time and a client.
Their investigation takes them into a surprising world of aviation, night-clubs and the homeless.
What they discover threatens one of their team. Can they save their colleague before the homeless man’s killer strikes again?

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Gina Cheyne is a retired helicopter pilot who has lived and worked in many countries.
At present she Lives in Chaos, although she originally came from Erehwon. Her schooling was so bad she had to be re-schooled by animals. She loves to laugh. Plays tennis badly, bridge slightly better,
golf even worse. She is exceptionally good at walking, unless it is muddy, then she is good at reading.

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My thoughts: this was a very convoluted crime novel, with a murderer who muddies the waters and at various points has different names and stories, all to confuse and mislead the detectives on their trail. The murdered homeless man is a victim many times over it seems, although he has a few things in his past that weighed on him.

Tracking down his old acquaintances, colleagues, family and lovers takes the team into the world of airline pilots and a complex web of relationships, accidents, enemies and the history of a house called Wild Garlic.

While they untangle the mess of the dead man’s life, one of their own is put in danger by a suspect. Can they unravel the story and save their friend in time?

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

books, reviews

Book Review: The Nice Guy and the Devil – Tom Trott

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Nice, France — Retired CIA agent, Cain, is living a quiet life, trying to stay out of trouble.

But he can’t turn off his old instincts like a lightswitch.

When an unsuspecting American woman becomes the target of criminals, he can’t sit back and do nothing.

What starts as one good deed puts Cain in the sights of highly-trained mercenaries, brings him to the attention of INTERPOL, and puts him on a collision course with evil personified.

With no one he can trust, in a land of double-crosses, Cain must rely on his wits to survive.

My thoughts: Cain is a complicated character, a former agent of some sorts, definitely a killer, but also seemingly a nice man. He wants to help people, either as a sommelier suggesting the perfect wine, or when a wedding gets shot up by terrorists, by hunting down the bad guys and putting a stop to them.

In this case he gets entangled with the Interpol agent who should really be arresting him, and a supposedly dead man. Known as The Devil, he’s an African warlord, terrorist and somewhere in France is his army. And they want someone from that wedding. Cain goes after the kidnap victim, and winds up in a whole heap of trouble.

I was hooked from the get go. A one night stand leads to his wedding invite, which he engineered because of something he’d overheard. He gets himself involved, when he could just go back to his nice quiet life. I think he misses being an international man of mystery. With his trusty and beloved car, he won’t let anyone else drive, he’s chasing after blacked out trucks full of crazy men with guns, relying mostly on his wits. Cracking stuff.

Currently available to read for free on Kindle Unlimited on Amazon. This is the sequel to The Florentine – also available now.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for writing a review. All opinions remain my own.

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Blog Tour: Thirty Days of Darkness – Jenny Lund Madsen, translated by Megan E. Turney

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Winner of the Harald Mogensen Prize for Best Danish Crime Novel of 2020 Shortlisted for the Glass Key Award

A snobbish Danish literary author is challenged to write a crime novel in thirty days, travelling to a small village in Iceland for inspiration, and then the first body appears…

Copenhagen author Hannah is the darling of the literary community and her novels have achieved massive critical acclaim. But nobody actually reads them, and frustrated by writer’s block, Hannah has the feeling that she’s doing something wrong.

When she expresses her contempt for genre fiction, Hanna is publicly challenged to write a crime novel in thirty days. Scared that she will lose face, she accepts, and her editor sends her to Húsafjörður – a quiet, tight-knit village in Iceland, filled with colourful local characters – for inspiration.

But two days after her arrival, the body of a fisherman’s young son is pulled from the water … and what begins as a search for plot material quickly turns into a messy and dangerous investigation that threatens to uncover secrets that put everything at risk … including Hannah.

Jenny Lund Madsen is one of Denmark’s most acclaimed scriptwriters (including the international hits Rita and Follow the Money) and is known as an advocate for better representation for sexual and ethnic minorities in Danish TV and film. She recently made her debut as a playwright with the critically acclaimed Audition (Aarhus Teater) and her debut literary thriller, Thirty Days of Darkness, first in an addictive new series, won the Harald Mogensen Prize for Best Danish Crime Novel of the year and was shortlisted for the coveted Glass Key Award. She lives in Denmark with her young family.

My thoughts: come with me to an Icelandic village in the middle of nowhere, in winter, where writer Hannah is attempting to write a crime novel in 30 days to win a bet. When there’s a murder, which she gets involved in and puts her safety at risk. She doesn’t speak the language, forcing others to have to speak English or Danish, she doesn’t know the people, but she’s pretty sure she can catch the killer. As you do.

I found Hannah a bit grating, she pushes her way into people’s lives and business with little regard for their feelings and clearly thinks very highly of herself. Her career is stalling as not many people seem that keen on her literary fiction – preferring crime writers like her nemesis Jørn. Which is why she boasts she can write a whole crime novel in a month. This tickled me, I do love it when writers poke fun at the industry and their own genre.

Especially when the book is so good, like this one. Jenny Lund Madsen has written a cracking crime thriller, with all the good ingredients – remote location, nosey outsider, secrets that have been buried for years, lots of possible suspects, a conflicted community, a lone policeman, and winter closing in. Iceland’s unique geography and the fact that the sun isn’t in evidence for much of the winter adds to the sinister atmosphere – snow bound crimes are always a bit more macabre than sunny ones. The winter darkness adds to the sense of claustrophobia and paranoia, someone here is a killer. They can’t leave, but neither can anyone else.

Full of suspense, intrigue and horror, this dark and twisted tale of murder and tragedy is absolutely perfect for a dark and stormy night’s reading. Or not, if you don’t want to stay up all night!

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

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Blog Tour: The Ex-Wife – Sally Rigby & Amanda Ashby

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My life was perfect until she came along. Norah.
Younger, prettier and about to marry my own ex-husband, they are a walking cliché.
I hate her. I hate them both.
She’s taken everything from me – my husband, my life, my home – but I refuse to allow her to take Cassie, my beautiful daughter. That’s a step too far.
Now I’ve discovered that Norah plans to have a baby of her own and that causes me no end of problems. She could destroy everything and reveal my deepest, darkest secrets.
That can never be allowed to happen.
No matter what it costs…
A brand new psychological thriller that will keep you guessing till the end! Perfect for fans of Sue Watson, Nina Manning, Shalini Boland
Purchase


Amanda Ashby and Sally Rigby are a crime writing partnership. Both authors live in New Zealand, have been friends for eighteen years and agree about everything (except musicals). They decided to collaborate on a psychological thriller which they then entered into a competition, run by Boldwood, and which they won!

Amanda: Facebook Instagram
Sally: Facebook Instagram
Joint Instagram

My thoughts: this was another clever, assured thriller from the writing team of Sally Rigby and Amanda Ashby. Family dynamics are at the heart of this book. Those of parents, children, couples and siblings.

It’s a tangled mess and a teenage daughter – with a dodgy boyfriend, doesn’t help. As Alice tries in vain to get over her ex, Mark, with his new fiancée Norah a source of huge envy, and co-parent seventeen year old Cassie. Norah only has her brother for support.

And yes, Alice goes too far in basically stalking Norah. But did she kill her? There’s secrets upon secrets here, some of which could ruin lives. Knotty and with some twists that’ll make your jaw drop, this is a brilliant and absorbing read.

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

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Blog Tour: Covert in Cairo – Kelly Oliver

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Cairo. December 1917.
Following a tip-off from notorious spy Fredrick Fredricks, Fiona Figg and Kitty Lane of British Intelligence find themselves in the hustle and bustle of Egypt. But ancient mummies aren’t the only bodies buried in the tombs of Cairo.
When a young French archeologist is found dead in a tomb in the desert with his head bashed in, and an undercover British agent goes missing, the threat moves closer to home.
As they dig deeper, soon Fiona and Kitty uncover a treasure trove of suspects, including competing excavators, jealous husbands, secret lovers, and belligerent spies! Fiona wonders if the notorious
Fredrick Fredricks could be behind the murders? Or is the plot even more sinister?
One thing is clear – If Fiona and Kitty can’t catch the killer, they might end up sharing a sarcophagus with Nefertiti.
With humor as dry as the Arabian desert, and pacing as fast as a spitting camel, Fiona and Kitty are back in another sparkling adventure, this time in WW1 Egypt.
Purchase


Kelly Oliver is the award-winning, bestselling author of three mysteries series: The Jessica James Mysteries, The Pet Detective Mysteries, and the historical cozies The Fiona Figg Mysteries, set in
WW1. She is also the Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University and lives in Nashville, Tennessee. She is bringing new titles in the Fiona Figg series to Boldwood, the first of
which, Chaos in Carnegie Hall, was published in November 2022.

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My thoughts: we’re in British occupied Egypt in 1917, Lord Caernarvon, Howard Carter, T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia) and Gertrude Bell are all present when Kitty and Fiona arrive (with chauffeur/chaperone Clifford and pooch Poppy in tow). They’re on the trail of the ever annoying Frederick Fredericks and a missing British agent.

The army is in town, with soldiers travelling back and forth to the Western Front, unlike WW2 where fighting took place in North Africa (my great-uncle was a Captain of a tank at the time), there’s no fighting in Egypt but as a British territory, there’s certainly a lot of war related activity. So of course there are spies, and undercover Germans (officially they’d been expelled from the country) as well as unhappy natives who wanted all of the Europeans gone. Then there’s the archaeologists and crooks stealing ancient artifacts to either sell on the black market or send home to museums.

With all this going on, Fiona and Kitty need to locate the agent, arrest Fredericks, hunt down black market smugglers, ensure the Suez Canal is in one piece, oh and Fiona would quite like to find Archie too. Easy. Armed with their collection of costumes, assistance from the local British intelligence bureau, Kitty’s array of skills (definitely not learnt in a French boarding school) and Fiona’s nose for trouble, they’ll be done in no time. Just a few balls, murders and kidnappings first.

It’s more like chaos in Cairo, as a French archeologist is murdered, they both get kidnapped several times, a British agent is poisoned, Fredericks appears and disappears, they hob nob with the local British celebrities and functionaries, and Fiona eats a lot of toast (local cuisine not suiting her). Tremendous fun and a bit silly, even with a war raging away in the background, Fiona even gets to dig out her beard and mustache collection.

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

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Blog Tour: The Acapulco – Simone Buchholz, translated by Rachel Ward

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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.

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Blog Tour: Death on Cromer Beach – Ross Greenwood

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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.

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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.

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Blog Tour: The Bone House – Caroline Mitchell

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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.

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Blog Tour: The First Cut – Val Penny

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It’s hard to escape a brutal past.

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.

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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. 


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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