Review: LAST SEEN WEARING, Colin Dexter

• 
  This edition read as an e-book on my Kindle (Amazon)
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0FG3X5NH8
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pan, Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 21, 2009
• Originally published 1976
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 309 pages
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0330468527
• Book 2 of 13 ‏ : ‎ Inspector Morse  

Synopsis (Amazon) 

Last Seen Wearing is the second Inspector Morse novel in Colin Dexter's Oxford-set detective series.

Why now? Why Friday 12th September – two years, three months and two days after Valerie Taylor had left home to return to afternoon school?
He frowned. ‘Something’s turned up, I suppose.’
Strange nodded. ‘Yes.’

After leaving her home in Oxford to return to school in London, seventeen-year-old Valerie Taylor completely vanished. Despite the efforts of the police and Chief Inspector Ainley, the trail went cold and she was never found.

Two years on, Ainley is dead, and Inspector Morse is handed the case. But now, someone has decided to supply some surprising new evidence . . . 

My Take

This title, the second in the Morse series, was first published 50 years ago. I have read it before, and have read it again for my U3A Crime Reading Group.

Morse is given the case of the disappearance of Valerie Taylor after the death in a road accident of the original investigator. After over 2 years since Valerie left home Morse is convinced she is dead. Lewis is less convinced. They haven't worked together very often so they are still learning about each other. 

Morse comes up with a number of theories about what has happened and then Lewis goes down with the flu. 

An intriguing investigation 

My rating: 4.5

I've also read

• 4.5, LAST BUS TO WOODSTOCK - #1
• 4.3, INSPECTOR MORSE: BBB Radio Collection
• 4.5, THE SECRET OF ANNEXE THREE - #7
• 4.6, THE WENCH IS DEAD -#8
• 4.3, SERVICE OF ALL THE DEAD - #4
• 4.4, LAST SEEN WEARING - #2
• 4.6, THE RIDDLE OF THE THIRD MILE - #6
• 4.6, THE JEWEL THAT WAS OURS - #9
• 4.8. THE WAY THROUGH THE WOODS - #10
• 4.7, THE DAUGHTERS OF CAIN - #11,
• 4.7, DEATH IS NOW MY NEIGHBOUR - #12
• 5.0, THE REMORSEFUL DAY, Colin Dexter  - #13

 

Review: BLOOD PACT, Fiona McIntosh

• 
  This edition read as an e-book on Libby provided by my local library
  
• Published: 2 December 2025, Penguin Australia
• ISBN: 9781761343612
• Pages: 384
• #6 Jack Hawkesworth series  

Synopsis (Publisher)
Detective Superintendent Jack Hawksworth is seconded by counter-terrorism to investigate a spate of domestic events. First it was needles in strawberries, then tampering with lipstick samplers and baby formula. But when toxic mushrooms enter the market system and a death occurs, a wave of terror is set to sweep the country. Breaking news of a possible serial killer only heightens the alarm.

There are no leads, no DNA, no witnesses, no CCTV footage. Jack and his team must work on instinct to figure out why someone would want to harm innocent victims, each of them curiously linked to a single blood transfusion.

When a hospital bomb threat erupts, it is up to the team to prevent the inevitable bloodshed. The clock is ticking, and no one is safe from the possibility of a tragedy on a catastrophic scale.

My Take

A quality offering from a local (Adelaide) author which moves at a fast pace and is filled with believable scenarios and well drawn characters. I regret that I haven't read all in this series and should remedy that some time.

There are plenty of red herrings as Jack's team attempts to identify the person behind the domestic terrorist events, and then a real surprise as the perpetrator is identified and we move into the culmination.

My rating: 4.6

I've also read

• BYE BYE BABY
• 4.4, FOUL PLAY, Fiona McIntosh

Review: THE HOUSE IN THE WATER, Victoria Darke (aka Victoria Scott)

• 
  this edition, large print, supplied by my local library
  
• published by Boldwood Books 2024
• ISBN 978-1-83561-692-5
• 498 pages 

Synopsis (publisher)

A secluded house. A lost notebook. A wartime secret.

1942: Young Irish nurse Ellen arrives at May Day House, tasked with helping the men there rehabilitate. But there’s something strange about the house, surrounded by water, on its own island in the Thames. And then there are the men: traumatised by their experiences of war, and subject to troubling methods in a desperate race to get them back to duty. As Ellen gets drawn into the world of May Day House, she starts to realise this will be no place to hide away from her own troubles…

2013: Philip and Meredith are the proud new owners of May Day House. Following a string of tragedies, the couple have moved to the area in search of a new start. But all is not what it seems in the riverside community. As their plans for the rundown house meet resistance from the neighbours, Meredith finds herself slowly unravelling: she hears voices on the water, sees figures where there can be no one there. When she finds an old notebook from the war, she seeks solace in the stories about the former patients of the island.

But will shadows from the past threaten her future happiness – and even her life?

My Take

The publisher refers to this story as a "Gothic timeslip novel", the first time I have seen that term used. It is set in two time frames, 70 years apart, around a house on a small island on the Thames, used as a hospital during World War II for soldiers suffering from the trauma they experienced in the war.

The new owners of May Day House are hoping to renovate it and bring new life to it but local residents are very much opposed to their plans. There are overtones of memories of the past reaching out into the present. This aspect of the story is very well done.

Meredith is certain that there are things that her husband Phillip is not telling her, and his absences as an airline pilot put additional stress on her already fragile mind.

Recommended.  

My rating: 4.5

About the Author

Victoria Scott has been a journalist for many media outlets including the BBC and The Telegraph. She is the author of three novels published by Head of Zeus. Her first book for Boldwood is a Gothic timeslip novel, The House in the Water. 

Review: A DEADLY AFFAIR IN THE DALES, Maria Malone

• 
   This edition read as an e-book on my Kindle (Amazon)
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0DWT1MG35
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ No Exit Press, Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 14, 2025
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 303 pages
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1835012291
• (Wren & Wilson 1) Kindle Edition
• alternative title: Death in the Countryside 

Synopsis (Amazon)

A delightful Yorkshire cosy mystery with a detective sergeant, her loyal spaniel and a town full of secrets.
Meet Sergeant Ali Wren and her trusty companion Officer Police Dog Wilson, a springer spaniel with a nose for trouble. Together they serve the small Yorkshire town of Heft, where everyone knows everyone else's business. And if they don't, that's a cause for concern…

Ali, who has just returned home to Heft, needs all her diplomatic skills, not to mention a huge sense of humour, to navigate the requirements of her job. Drama lurks around every corner, from rogue parking in the disabled bays to a feud between the long-established Hooley bakery and a fancy new 'cakery-bakery'. When Brian Bright reports his wife Melody missing, at first Ali thinks it's just another routine case. The evidence overwhelmingly suggests that Melody has simply left, tired of playing a supporting role to Brian's obsession with classic cars and his first (dead) wife.

But something niggles. When Ali and Wilson doggedly continue their investigation, they find there was more to Melody than anyone realised – and more to her disappearance too…

My Take

I have thoroughly enjoyed this new cozy, and look forward to another when it comes.

The author has created strong characters and believable scenarios. The plot features a number of spin-offs and reminded me a little in structure of local writer Garry Disher's Hirsch series which is not as cozy but also describes the role played by a local policeman.

5.0, BITTER WASH ROAD - Hirsch #1 - aka HELL TO PAY

5.0, PEACE- Hirsch #2

5.0, CONSOLATION - Hirsch #3

4.7, DAY'S END- Hirsch #4

4.7, MISCHANCE CREEK - Hirsch #5 

My rating: 4.5

About the author
Maria Malone's first crime novel, A Deadly Affair in the Dales (published as Death in the Countryside in the US) is set in the fictional Yorkshire town of Heft, and features Sergeant Ali Wren and her trusty police dog, Officer Wilson, a spaniel with a nose for trouble.

Maria worked in print journalism and television before ghostwriting for many years, working with extraordinary people on their autobiographies. A former Yorkshire Press Awards Journalist of the Year and Feature Writer of the Year, she lives in the North-East of England.   

Review: DAUGHTERS OF BATAVIA, Stefanie Koens

• 
  
  This edition read as an e-book on Libby supplied by my local library
  
  
  
• ISBN: 9781460766163
• ISBN-10: 1460766164
• Published: Harper Collins Publishers, AU, 29th July 2025
• Number of Pages: 384
• winner Banjo Prize for fiction
• Longlisted for Best Debut Fiction in the Indie Book Awards 2026 

Synopsis (publisher)

A woman searching for answers in her own life finds them - and much more - in the wreckage and haunting stories of the Batavia shipwreck. The powerfully moving historical debut from the winner of the Banjo Prize for Fiction. 

Two women. One shipwreck. And four centuries of secrets.

Shortly before Christmas in 2018, Tess McCarthy, a hard-working English teacher who never does anything out of the ordinary, flies to Western Australia's remote Abrolhos Islands. She is in search of answers - both to the infamous Batavia shipwreck and her personal family crises.

Amsterdam, 1628. Saskia, an orphaned young Dutchwoman, boards Batavia with relatives, bound for a new and potentially dangerous life in the East Indies - only for her world to first collide with Aris Jansz, the ship's reluctant under surgeon.

Tess, Saskia and Aris - their lives linked by secrets that span generations - carry the baggage of past losses and the uncertainty of their futures. And, in the most unlikely circumstances, they find qualities that echo through centuries: faith, acceptance, and love. 

My Take

The story of the wreck of the Batavia on Houtman's Abrolhos was told to me when I was quite young. I thoroughly enjoyed this re-telling with its dual time frames. We slipped easily between the present and 400 years ago. The characters in both were well presented and the stories were credible.

My rating: 4.6

About the author

Stefanie Koens grew up in Perth, reading, writing and dreaming of stories. As a teenager she won prizes in the Mary Durack Young Writers Award, then studied English, History and Education at Notre Dame University. She loves bringing local history to life and capturing family stories.  

 

 

Review: THE CAT, Georges Simenon

• 
  This edition read as an e-book on Kindle (Amazon)
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0F1R19JDK
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin, Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 6, 2025 
  
• Originally published 1967
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 154 pages
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1802068962 
• translated by Ros Schwartz 

Synopsis (Amazon)

An acerbic tale of marital warfare and emotional estrangement, in a brilliant new translation

In the oppressive silence of the sitting room, the woman finally smoothed out the paper and, without putting on her glasses, read the two words her husband had written:

The cat.

Amidst the din of their Parisian neighbourhood, Émile and Marguerite live in total silence. After a hasty marriage in their sixties, their uneasy peace was shattered when Émile’s beloved cat mysteriously disappeared and was later found dead. Branding his wife the culprit, Émile’s retaliation against Marguerite’s cherished parrot sparked a silent battle of wills. Now they live parallel lives, communicating only through spiteful notes, mocking glances and mute accusations. As their suspicion and resentment mount, this bitter game of psychological warfare becomes a twisted necessity, binding them together in a relentless cycle of torment from which there can only be one escape.

First published in 1967, The Cat is a masterful exploration of marital discord, loneliness and the absurdity of human relationships, painting a vivid portrait of two souls trapped in quiet desperation. 

My Take

A novella or a long short story rather than a full length novel, this explores loneliness and incompatibility within a marriage that both partners have come to too late. The marriage appears to come to grief over the poisoning of Émile’s beloved cat but in fact it was doomed long before that. Simenon makes the reader feel how loveless the marriage is. There are just too many other obstacles. 

I've read this as Simenon is one of the authors our U3A Crime Fiction Reading group is exploring in 2026. 

My rating: 4.4

I've also read

• 4.4, MAIGRET & the MAN on the BOULEVARD
• 4.5, MAIGRET & THE HEADLESS CORPSE
•  4.3, PIETR THE LATVIAN
• THE LATE MONSIEUR GALLET
•  4.4, THE RULES OF THE GAME
•  4.2, THE MAN WHO WATCHED THE TRAINS GO BY
•  4.3, THE CARTER OF LA PROVIDENCE
•  4.3, LOCK NO 1. Maigret #18
•  4.0, MAIGRET IN NEW YORK
•  4.2, A MAN'S HEAD 

Review: THE CUT THROAT TRIAL, S.J. Fleet

• 
  This edition read as an e-book on my Kindle (Amazon)
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0F74L6DHV
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Picador, Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 29, 2025
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 440 pages
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1761773204 
• THE FIRST LEGAL THRILLER FROM THE MILLION-COPY BESTSELLING SECRET BARRISTER WRITING AS S. J. FLEET 
  

Synopsis (Amazon)

It is one of the biggest trials of the year. Three seventeen-year-old boys are accused of the brutal murder of an elderly teacher on New Year's Eve.

Each boy denies it.
Each points the finger at the other two.
But they can’t all be innocent.

The three defence barristers have only one job: to persuade the jury that their client is not guilty. But they’re up against a prosecutor who needs to win the case, no matter the cost.

Because when the game is murder, the competition is deadly.

Launching a brilliant new voice in crime fiction, a criminal barrister with an incomparable insider’s knowledge, The Cut Throat Trial is the most gripping thriller of the year. 

My Take

I have thought very hard about the implications of starting this year's reviews with book with a rating of 5.0, but have decided that I really can't give it less.

The story involves a British murder trial where a jury is required to give a verdict of guilty or not guilty against each of 3 teenagers accused of murdering an elderly retired teacher. The narrative is very detailed and is told from multiple points of view: of the judge, the prosecutor and the defence lawyers, as well as the accused. It is virtually a "warts and all" narrative, considering what has influenced each of the boys, what is disclosed to the jury, what the verdicts were and why, and then what really happened.  It successfully puts the reader in the position of a member of the jury, trying to come to the right decision. 

This book reminded me very strongly of DICE by Claire Baylis in which a jury in New Zealand is required to give the verdict on several charges in a rape case involving four teenagers. That novel focussed on the points of view of the jury.

My rating: 5.0 

About the author

S.J. Fleet is the pen name of The Secret Barrister, a bestselling author and junior barrister specialising in criminal law.

They write for many publications and are the author of the award-winning blog 'The Secret Barrister'. They regularly appear in national print and broadcast media, and in 2020 Channel 4 News produced a four-part documentary series, The Secret Barrister: Disordered Justice.

Their debut book, The Secret Barrister: Stories of The Law and How It's Broken, was a Sunday Times number one bestseller and spent more than a year in the top-ten bestseller charts. It won the Books Are My Bag Non-Fiction Book of the Year award and was shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year and the Specsavers Non-Fiction Book of the Year.