MYSTERIES in PARADISE: 2014 British reading challenge

Showing posts with label 2014 British reading challenge. Show all posts

31 December 2014

Reading British crime fiction

With nearly half of the titles I have read or listened to in 2014 coming from British authors, there can be no doubt that British crime fiction is one of my preferred genres.

I joined the British Books Challenge 2014 hosted by Feeling Fictional. The aim was to read at least 12 books by British authors. This was really not much of a challenge for me as I read so much British crime fiction, so the challenge became really just a way of keeping my records.

Here is my list, more or less in the order that I read them. You'll see that there weren't really too many disappointments.

I have joined British Books Challenge 2015 hosted by Fluttering Butterflies

24 December 2014

Review: THE FLIGHT OF THE FALCON, Daphne du Maurier

format: Kindle (Amazon)
File Size: 448 KB
Print Length: 319 pages
Publisher: Virago; New Ed edition (June 7, 2012), first published 1965
Sold by: Hachette Book Group
Language: English
ASIN: B008258YAI

Synopsis (Amazon)

As a young guide for Sunshine Tours, Armino Fabbio leads a pleasant, if humdrum life -- until he becomes circumstantially involved in the murder of an old peasant woman in Rome. The woman, he gradually comes to realise, was his family's beloved servant many years ago, in his native town of Ruffano. He returns to his birthplace, and once there, finds it is haunted by the phantom of his brother, Aldo, shot down in flames in '43.

Over five hundred years before, the sinister Duke Claudio, known as The Falcon, lived his twisted, brutal life, preying on the people of Ruffano. But now it is the twentieth century, and the town seems to have forgotten its violent history. But have things really changed? The parallels between the past and present become ever more evident.

My take

I read a lot of Daphne du Maurier novels in my earlier years but nothing for some time. In fact I appear to have had a du Maurier binge in 1975, and even read THE FLIGHT OF THE FALCON back then, but remember nothing of the plot. I do remember how much I enjoyed her novels though.

The Amazon reviews of the novel are certainly a mixed lot. For me the novel has a sort of Gothic quality. Armino Fabbio discovers that his brother whom he was told was dead, shot down in flames in 1943, is not only alive, but just as manipulative as "Beo" remembers him to be. It is as if he has taken on the persona of "the Falcon", the sinister duke Claudio.

The action of the novel climaxes with the Ruffano festival, a one day event choreographed for the last three years by Aldo in his role as the Arts Director of the Ruffano Ducal Palace. This year he wants to involve all the town's university students in a re-enactment of the event which led to the death of Duke Claudio five hundred years earlier. Aldo offers Armino a part in the celebrations but he becomes concerned that it might result in bloodshed with student faculties attacking each other.

Meanwhile the investigation continues into the death in Rome of an old peasant woman. Armino realizes that he knows who she was and feels in some way responsible for her death. She was in fact the nanny of both Armino, and, before him, Aldo. There is a mystery attached to how she had come into their family.

I did enjoy reading this novel which I have included in my list for the Silver Vintage Reading Challenge. - a book by an author I've read before. I think it has survived fifty years very well.

My rating: 4.4

21 December 2014

Review: MURDER UNDERGROUND, Mavis Doriel Hay

format: Kindle (Amazon)- I bought it
File Size: 1558 KB
Print Length: 288 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Publisher: British Library Publishing Division (March 20, 2014) - first published 1934
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B00J5OU43U

Synopsis (Amazon)

When Miss Pongleton is found murdered on the stairs of Belsize Park station, her fellow-boarders in the Frampton Hotel are not overwhelmed with grief at the death of a tiresome old woman. But they all have their theories about the identity of the murderer, and help to unravel the mystery of who killed the wealthy ‘Pongle’. Several of her fellow residents – even Tuppy the terrier – have a part to play in the events that lead to a dramatic arrest.

This classic mystery novel is set in and around the Northern Line of the London Underground. It is now republished for the first time since the 1930s. Includes an introduction by Stephen Booth, award-winning crime writer.

My Take

The structure of this novel hinges on the two tenets of motive and opportunity and much of the plot focusses on constructing a timeline to show who was in the right place at the right time to commit the murder. This strategy wears a bit thin as the novel progresses.

Dorothy L. Sayers appears to have approved of it:

“This detective novel is much more than interesting. The numerous characters are well differentiated, and include one of the most feckless, exasperating and lifelike literary men that ever confused a trail.”

(Dorothy L. Sayers Sunday Times)

For me, the victim's name, Euphemia Pongleton, feels like a joke that went wrong: something that was meant to amuse the reader but somehow doesn't. Miss Pongleton is found strangled, "lying like a heap of old clothes", half way down the circular staircase of Belsize Park station, with her dog's leash wrapped around her neck. Her nephew Basil actually discovers the body but, for a variety of reasons, is anxious to keep that fact hidden from the police investigation. He confides in the real murderer who doesn't become an obvious suspect until towards the end of the novel.

The author does allow a little humour to poke through every now and then, and there is some pleasure in extracting the truth from the muddle of characters and their motives for doing away with Miss Pongleton. There is also the tangle of a stolen broach, a missing string of pearls, and a missing will. All this lends a complexity to the plot which the author does well to untangle.

My rating: 4.0

About the author
Mavis Doriel Hay (1894–1979) published three detective novels in the 1930s that are now extremely rare. Hay’s The Santa Klaus Murder is also published by the British Library.

18 December 2014

Review: A FEARSOME DOUBT, Charles Todd - audio book

Written by: Charles Todd
Narrated by: Samuel Gillies
Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
Series: Inspector Ian Rutledge, Book 6, first published 2002
Unabridged Audiobook from Audible

Synopsis (Audible)

In 1912 Ian Rutledge watched as a man was condemned to hang for the murders of elderly women. Rutledge helped gather the evidence that sent Ben Shaw to the gallows. And when justice was done, Rutledge closed the door on the case. But Shaw was not easily forgotten. Now, seven years later, that grim trial returns in the form of Ben Shaw's widow Nell, bringing Rutledge evidence she is convinced will prove her husband's innocence. It's a belief fraught with peril, threatening both Rutledge's professional stature and his faith in his judgment. But there is a darker reason for Rutledge's reluctance. Murder brings him back to Kent where, days earlier, he'd glimpsed an all-too-familiar face beyond the leaping flames of a bonfire. Soon an unexpected encounter revives the end of his own war, as the country prepares for a somber commemoration on the anniversary of the Armistice. To battle the unsettled past and the haunted present at the same time is an appalling mandate.

And the people around him - Among them the attractive widow of a friend, a remarkable woman who survived the Great Indian Mutiny; a bitter, dying barrister; and a man whose name he never knew - unwittingly compete with the grieving Nell Shaw. They'll demand more than Rutledge can give, unaware that he is already carrying the burden of shell shock, and the voice of Hamish MacLeod, the soldier he was forced to execute in the war. The killer in Marling is surprisingly adept at escaping detection. And Ben Shaw's past is a tangle of unsettling secrets that may or may not be true. Rutledge must walk a tortuous line between two murderers...one reaching out to ruin him, the other driven to destroy him.

My Take

If you are looking for some really authentic-feeling crime fiction based on the issues of the social aftermath World War One, then here is a series for you. I haven't read them all, but I have in particular enjoyed the audio versions. Each of the titles seems to have a focus on an issue related to the War. The issues that emerge in A FEARSOME DOUBT are the damage done to the survivors, whether physical as in the loss of a limb, or mental as in post traumatic stress or unresolved shell shock; another issue relates to those who profited by the war, while so many lost so much.

Highly recommended.

My rating: 4.8

I've also reviewed
A TEST OF WILLS -#1
SEARCH THE DARK -#3
A PALE HORSE -#10
4.5, A DUTY TO THE DEAD - Bess Crawford series
4.7, A LONELY DEATH -#13
4.6, THE CONFESSION - #14
4.7, HUNTING SHADOWS - #16

The full series according to Fantastic Fiction
1. A Test of Wills (1996)
2. Wings of Fire (1998)
3. Search the Dark (1999)
4. Legacy of the Dead (2000)
5. Watchers of Time (2001)
6. A Fearsome Doubt (2002)
7. A Cold Treachery (2005)
8. A Long Shadow (2006)
9. A False Mirror (2007)
10. A Pale Horse (2007)
11. A Matter of Justice (2008)
12. The Red Door (2009)
12.5. The Kidnapping (2010)
13. A Lonely Death (2011)
14. The Confession (2012)
15. Proof of Guilt (2013)
16. Hunting Shadows (2014)
16.5. Cold Comfort (2013)
17. A Fine Summer's Day (2015)

12 December 2014

Review: NO ORCHIDS FOR MISS BLANDISH, James Hadley Chase

format: Amazon (Kindle)
I bought it
File Size: 346 KB
Print Length: 188 pages
Publisher: The Murder Room (September 6, 2012). Originally published 1939
Sold by: Hachette Book Group
Language: English
ASIN: B00946TPFC

Synopsis (Amazon)

When Dave Fenner is hired to solve the Blandish kidnapping, he knows the odds on finding the girl are against him - the cops are still looking for her three months after the ransom was paid. And the kidnappers, Riley and his gang, have disappeared into thin air.

But what none of them knows is that Riley himself has been wiped out by a rival gang - and the heiress is now in the hands of Ma Grisson and her son Slim, a vicious killer who can't stay away from women, especially his beautiful new captive. By the time Fenner begins to close in on them, some terrible things have happened to Miss Blandish . . .

My Take

James Hadley Chase was an English writer born René Lodge Brabazon Raymond and well known by various pseudonyms, including James Hadley Chase, James L. Docherty, Raymond Marshall, R. Raymond, and Ambrose Grant. See Wikipedia for more details.

NO ORCHIDS FOR MISS BLANDISH (publ. 1939) is set in the gangster era of the mid 1930s in Kansas, although Chase had never been there. It was his debut novel, and the beginning of a long and immensely successful career as a novelist. Dave Fenner appeared in a second novel in 1941. He is an ex-journalist turned private eye, and works with the "bulls" (police) to find Miss Blandish.

I thought it had a surprisingly modern feel about it although it is exceptionally noir, with an incredible amount of violence, which apparently drew considerable criticism at publication. It was indeed based on events and people who had gained notoriety in the early 1930s in America. I didn't expect the ending to have the twist that it had, and I thought that was a redeeming feature. A fast paced thriller.

My rating: 4.4

I read this as part of my participation in the Vintage Mystery Bingo Challenge for 2014.

24 November 2014

Review: THE ENGLISH LADY MURDERERS' SOCIETY, Jim Williams

first published 2011 by Quartet Books, London
ISBN 978-0-70437-251-1
302 pages
Source: My local library

Synopsis (author website)

Janet Bretherton, a widow at 60, suspected of her husband's murder and involvement in the fraud which brought his company down, exiles herself to Puybrun, a small village in a picturesque corner of south-west France, where she nurses her grief and tries to rebuild her shattered world. She meets six other Englishwomen who live the expatriate life. Earthy has fled from a hippy camp in a damp corner of Wales. Carol claims to have slept with every man in the world called Dave. Belle has a husband, Charlie, who may or may not be real because no one has ever seen him. Joy is married to the appalling Arnold. And Veronica and Poppy try to discover the basis for the love they have for each other. The women form a group in which they take turns to teach each other the lessons life has taught them. At the same time, they grow more confident and gradually reveal the secrets of their pasts.

When Janet finds she has attracted the attention of Léon, thirty years younger than she is, yet seems to find her still sexually desirable as he invites her to go dancing with him, she asks herself: What are his real motives? And does she care? In the end, the process of discovery reveals a terrible secret which forces the women to decide how much they love each other: how far they can rely upon each other... even when the question is one of murder.

The English Lady Murderers' Society is a humorous and affectionate description of the solidarity of women in the face of the idiocy and unreliability of men. It celebrates the courage and beauty of older women. The author is familiar with the subject because he is married to one of them.

My Take

This is a cleverly plotted novel that brings together a group of expat English women who all have something to hide in one way or another, and who are mostly without husbands. Janet's husband has recently died, and she appears to be suspected of his murder. She left England without telling her daughter Helen where she was going and the phone calls they have are full of recriminations. It is Helen who tells Janet that the police want to talk to her, and who gives the police her phone number. Janet has a series of quite strange conversations with the detective in charge of the investigation into her husband's death.

Meanwhile the small group of expat Englishwomen in the small French village of Puybrun form a society and explore each other's company. They go bushwalking, learn painting, and play poker rather like many other retired women do. Meanwhile the investigation into Janet's husband's death continues and Janet works out what really happened to him.

My Rating: 4.5

About the author
Jim Williams first hit the news when his early novels had the uncanny knack of coming true. The Hitler Diaries was published nine months before the celebrated forgery came out. Farewell to Russia dealt with a nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union months before the Chernobyl incident. Lara's Child, his sequel to Doctor Zhivago, provoked an international literary scandal and led to his being a guest speaker at the Cheltenham Festival. Scherzo, a witty and elegant mystery set in eighteenth century Venice, was nominated for the Booker Prize. All of his fiction has been published internationally. The English Lady Murderers' Society is his tenth novel.

20 November 2014

Review: THE SOUL OF DISCRETION, Susan Hill

source: review copy, e-book format from Randhom House UK (Vintage Publishing) via NetGalley
#8 in in the Simon Serrailler series
published 2014

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

The cathedral town of Lafferton seems idyllic, but in many ways it is just like any other place. As part of the same rapidly changing world, it shares the same hopes and fears, and the same kinds of crime, as any number of towns up and down the land.

When one day DC Simon Serrailler is called in by Lafferton's new Chief Constable, Kieron Bright, he is met by four plainclothes officers. He is asked to take the lead role in a complex, potentially dangerous undercover operation and must leave town immediately, without telling anyone - not even his girlfriend Rachel, who has only just moved in with him.

Meanwhile, Simon's sister Cat is facing difficult choices at work that will test her dedication to the NHS. But an urgent call about her and Simon's father, Richard, soon presents her with a far greater challenge much closer to home.

To complete his special op, Simon must inhabit the mind of the worst kind of criminal. As the op unfolds, Lafferton is dragged into the sort of case every town dreads. And Simon faces the fight of his life.

My Take

I was once an assiduous follower of this series, but as you can see from my list below, it is about six years since I've read one. A few things have obviously happened in Simon Serrailler's life since then.

There are really four major scenarios explored in the novel: Simon Serrailler's undercover mission to identify men both detestable and dangerous; dying with dignity as it applies to terminally patients; Rachel's search for work to give meaning to her life; and how women fare when they cry "rape". As in the earlier novels that I've read the human interest aspects are cleverly interwoven with the criminal investigation. And the ending really leaves no doubt that there will be another in the series.

There were times when I felt as though the author was using the novel to promote her own strong viewpoints, but I guess that happens in most novels, if a little less blatantly.

The plot did leave me wondering whether police authorities would ever mount an undercover operation like the one that Serrailler becomes involved in, but the narration carries with it a great feeling of authenticity.

My rating: 4.6

I've also reviewed
VARIOUS HAUNTS OF MEN
THE PURE IN HEART
THE RISK OF DARKNESS
THE VOWS OF SILENCE

Simon Serrailler series
1. The Various Haunts of Men (2004)
2. The Pure in Heart (2005)
3. The Risk of Darkness (2006)
4. The Vows of Silence (2008)
5. The Shadows in the Street (2010)
6. The Betrayal of Trust (2011)
7. A Question of Identity (2012)
8. The Soul of Discretion (2014)

13 November 2014

Review: STAR FALL, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

source: review copy e-book provided by publisher Severn House on NetGalley
US publication date March 2015
ISBN 9780727884602
#17 in the Bill Slider series

Synopsis (NetGalley)

‘It’s quiet out there,’ says DS Atherton, at Bill Slider’s office window. ‘Too quiet.’

Right on cue, the phone rings. ‘Now look what you’ve done,’ says Slider. It’s a homicide. The post-Christmas lull is officially over.

The deceased is antiques expert Rowland Egerton, the darling of daytime TV, stabbed to death in his luxurious West London home. The press are going to be all over this one like a nasty rash: the pressure’s on Slider for a result, and soon. Egerton’s partner, the bulky, granite-faced John Lavender, found the body; did he also do the deed? Or was it a burglary gone wrong? A missing Fabergé box and Impressionist painting point that way.

But as Slider and his team investigate, none of the facts seem to fit. And it soon becomes clear that the much-loved, charming Mr Egerton wasn’t as universally loved, or perhaps as charming, as Slider was first led to believe . .

My Take

I have been intending to read a title by this author for some time, even years. The Bill Slider series began with ORCHESTRATED DEATH published in 1991, and STAR FALL is #17 so I have plenty to catch up on.

The style of this police procedural set in London is very similar to Ruth Rendell's Wexford series. From what I can see in STAR FALL Bill Slider is the central sleuth but he begins the series as a Detective Inspector and hasn't really progressed much up the ladder in nearly 25 years. The blurb for the first in the series describes him as "middle-aged and menopausal", so I am not sure that he has actually aged 25 years in that time.

There is plenty of "human background" on both Slider and the rest of his team in STAR FALL and the main plot of this cozy is carefully planned out. I found the plot of interest because I enjoy the various television shows that deal with antiques and the story seemed very plausible.

Certainly if you like cozies you might consider giving this series, or just this title, a try.

My rating: 4.4

31 October 2014

Review: MOSCOW BOUND, Adrian Churchward

source: review e-copy from NetGalley
first published in 2014 by Silverwood Books
ISBN 9781781322000
print length: 299 pages (Amazon)

Synopsis (NetGalley)

Ekaterina Romanova, the estranged wife of Russia's wealthiest oligarch Konstantin Gravchenko, asks Scott Mitchell, an idealistic young English human rights lawyer who is being intimidated by the authorities, to find the father she's never met.

She believes he's been languishing for decades without trial in the Gulag system. Meanwhile, General Pravda of military intelligence, though an advocate of transparency, is determined to protect a covert operation that he's been running for years.

General Pravda hinders Ekaterina and Scott at every turn and lawyer and client are forced to go on the run for a murder they didn't commit. As they descend into the Hades that is the world of international realpolitik Scott is compelled to reconsider his own values, and Pravda's life's work disintegrates, when Scott uncovers a 50 year-old Cold War secret, which both the Russian and US governments are still trying to hide from the public domain.

'Moscow Bound' is the first book in The Puppet Meisters trilogy, dealing with state abuse of power.

My Take

I really struggled to get into this book. There just seemed to be too much going on right from the beginning and I couldn't work out what the connection was between the "missing father" plot and whatever General Pravda was up to. And then about half way through, there was a glimmer of light and I thought I knew where the story was going and what the possible connection was between the two main strands. That's quite a lot to ask of a reader. Perhaps other readers won't be as obtuse as me.

However, after my glimpse of where we were headed, the reading experience did not really improve much. There were just too many characters to keep track of, too many sub-plots, and in the long run, for me, it strained the bounds of credibility.

This book was not for me, but I am willing to believe that others might find it a fascinating read.

My rating: 2.5

About the author -
Adrian Churchward is an English solicitor who has worked in commercial law practices for over thirty years in London, Los Angeles and Eastern Europe. He holds an M.Phil. from Essex University in Comparative International Law. His hobbies include writing and film-making.

He first acquired a taste for Russian culture in his early teens when he immersed himself in the works of Dostoyevsky and Gogol, rather than the school’s curriculum of Shakespeare and Chaucer. A sight-seeing visit to Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) followed in 1973 and laid the foundations of his life-long interest in the Russian people and language. For more see website

28 October 2014

Review: THE TOMB IN TURKEY, Simon Brett

source: e-book, review copy provided through NetGalley by Severn House
#16 in the Fethering series
published in 2014
ISBN 9781780290690

Synopsis (NetGalley)

Carole Seddon has never enjoyed holidays much. Nevertheless, she has allowed herself to be persuaded by her friend Jude to accept a fortnight’s free accommodation at a luxurious Turkish villa owned by Jude’s property developer friend Barney Willingdon.

But from the outset the holiday is marred by a series of menacing incidents: threatening messages daubed on the villa walls; and their host being accosted by a knife-wielding man at a local restaurant.

As Carole and Jude launch into what they do best - investigating - it becomes clear that Barney Willingdon has made plenty of enemies, with his ruthless business deals and complicated love life. Matters come to a head when Carole’s sightseeing trip to nearby Pinara is curtailed by the discovery of a body in one of the ancient Lycian tombs. And what really did happen to Barney’s first wife, Zoe?

My Take

It is no secret on this blog that the Fethering series is one of my favourite cozies. I enjoy the contrast between Carole, the prim and proper retired civil servant, and her neighbour Jude who has a rather laissez faire attitude to life and, from Carole's point of view, a rather murky past that doesn't bear thinking about.

One of the features of the plots is their unlikely nature, and this one particularly interested me because of its setting in Turkey, which I have visited at least twice, and because this is the first time that Simon Brett has taken his sleuthing busybodies outside of England.

This was perfect holiday reading, with the usual quirky humour as Brett pokes fun at his two main characters, from Jude being disconcerted by a neighbour who insists on staring at her cleavage, to Carole's need to find a purpose to having a holiday.

My rating: 4.5

I've also reviewed
BLOOD AT THE BOOKIES
THE POISONING IN THE PUB
4.4, THE SHOOTING IN THE SHOP
4.3, SO MUCH BLOOD
4.2, A DECENT INTERVAL
4.5, BONES UNDER THE BEACH HUT
4.2, GUNS IN THE GALLERY
4.6, THE CORPSE ON THE COURT
4.3, THE STRANGLING ON THE STAGE
4.2, THE CINDERELLA KILLER

25 October 2014

Review: AFTER THE SILENCE, Jake Woodhouse

review copy courtesy NetGalley via Penguin Books Australia
published 2014 by Penguin Books UK
ISBN-13:9781405914284
#1 in the Amsterdam Quartet

Synopsis (Penguin Australia)

A body is found hanging on a hook above the canals of Amsterdam's old town, a mobile phone forced into the victim's mouth.

In a remote coastal village, a doll lies in the ashes of a burnt-down house. But the couple who died in the fire had no children of their own. Did a little girl escape the blaze? And, if so, who is she and where is she now?

Inspector Jaap Rykel knows that he's hunting a clever and brutal murderer. Still grieving from the violent death of his last partner, Rykel must work alongside a junior out-of-town detective with her own demons to face, if he has any hope of stopping the killer from striking again.

Their investigation reveals two dark truths: everybody in this city harbours secrets - and hearing those secrets comes at a terrible price . . .

My Take

This is a well constructed thriller, particularly considering it is a debut novel. A police procedural set in Amsterdam, but by a new British writer, it clearly shows that there is a fine line between crime and fighting against it, that too often it is easy to cross that line, and that it is hard to know who to trust.

The novel brings together a trio of detectives whom I presume will be the core of the team for the next: all are flawed in their own way but each is well drawn. I thought perhaps the action of the final pages was a bit rushed, but there are plenty of openings for the next in the series.

My Rating: 4.4

About the author

Jake Woodhouse has worked as a musician, winemaker and entrepreneur. He now lives in London with his wife and their young gundog. After the Silence is the first book in his Amsterdam Quartet.

21 October 2014

Review: SHROUD OF EVIL, Pauline Rowson

source: review copy from Net Galley per Severn House
published 2014
available from Amazon
File Size: 1029 KB
Print Length: 235 pages
Publisher: Severn House Digital (August 1, 2014)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B00L37DKS8
#11 in the Andy Horton series

Synopsis (Net Galley)

Rugged Detective Inspector Horton investigates a missing person in a case that has personal ramifications which could end his career...When a private investigator goes missing, Detective Inspector Horton of Portsmouth CID believes he's probably run off with a woman. But when the man's car turns up, and a shocking discovery is made, things turn serious, and Horton himself embroiled in an investigation that has major personal ramifications, and could potentially end his career.

from Amazon (extra detail)
Detective Inspector Horton of Portsmouth CID is assigned the case of a missing person: Jasper Kenton, a private investigator. Eunice Swallows, Kenton’s partner, seems reluctant to help them, and Horton concludes that she is probably relieved to be rid of him. He instructs Sergeant Cantelli and DC Walters to put out the usual alerts, believing Kenton has probably run off with another woman.

But when Kenton’s car turns up, and a shocking discovery is made, things turn serious. Immediately, Horton finds himself embroiled in an investigation that has major personal ramifications and one in which he has no choice but to withhold vital information. As he struggles to crack the case, he knows it is only a question of time before someone discovers he’s kept silent and when that’s revealed, his part in hindering a major investigation will end his career . . .

My Take

I have been a fan of Pauline Rowson's Andy Horton series for some time now and this one did not disappoint. The book will really work best if you have read earlier titles in the series, but even so, there are plenty of hints about details from earlier novels.

The story follows the pattern of earlier ones: a police investigation into a local case, in this case a missing person involving Portsmouth CID and progress in Andy Horton's personal investigation into what happened to his mother nearly three decades earlier.

Once again it is meticulously plotted and the central characters are well drawn. Horton is a maverick, and the tensions between himself and his superiors puts his actions on a knife edge. By the end of the book, you can't help feeling that knowledge of what happened to Andy's mother is just around the corner.

My rating 4.6

I have also reviewed
DEADLY WATERS
THE SUFFOCATING SEA
4.4, DEAD MAN'S WHARF
4.3, A KILLING COAST
4.6, DEATH LIES BENEATH
4.5, DEATH SURGE

14 October 2014

Review: MURDER ON THE SECOND TEE, Ian Simpson

source: review copy from Net Galley
File Size: 403 KB
Print Length: 198 pages
Publisher: Matador (June 22, 2014)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B00L84Z2GO

Synopsis (Net Galley)

The first blow took Hugh Parsley by surprise. It fractured his right temporal bone and tore the middle meningeal artery. He stumbled and fell face down on the grass. A blow to the back of his neck cracked the occipital bone at the base of his skull. He was struck several times about the left temporal area. His brain ceased to function. Hugh Parsley was dead.

Murder on the Second Tee is the follow-up to the popular crime fiction novel Murder on Page One.

The directors of the niche Bucephalus Bank are meeting in a St Andrews hotel. One of them is found dead on the golf course. It is Flick Fortune’s first case as a detective inspector. As she struggles to uncover the murderer behind the bank’s respectable façade, she receives unexpected help from Detective Sergeant Bagawath Chandavarkar (Baggo), who is investigating a multi-million pound money laundering scam.

Another murder follows and Flick’s old boss and tormentor, ex-Inspector No, makes an unwelcome intrusion before the truth is revealed...

My Take

I think this novel suffered by being the second in a "series" where the author decided to change the central detective after the first novel. Flick Fortune appears to have been a detective sergeant in the first novel, and has been recently promoted into the position vacated when her old boss retired. Unfortunately for her the author has decided to give him a role as a private investigator on Flick's first case as a detective inspector.

The plot has a lot of potential: the first murder takes place in Scotland on the second tee of the most famous golf course in the world; but the bank is that employs the victim is an English one that has already come to the attention of the English police for its money laundering activities. The board of the bank is having a weekend away at St. Andrew's to attempt to resolve a board vacancy and some irregularities. The murder victim is one of the directors.

But for me the writing didn't quite hit the mark. The business of money laundering becomes quite complex and involves a shady American bank and some gangster like figures. While Flick Fortune is in charge of the murder investigation, an under cover cop does what he likes with the money laundering investigation. There are some unlikely scenarios towards the end of the story.

My rating: 3.6

About the author (Net Galley)

Ian Simpson is inspired by a number of authors, including PG Wodehouse, John Mortimer and William Boyd. His writing style is comparable to Christopher Brookmyre. Murder on the Second Tee is a pacey whodunit, laced with the humour that drew glowing reviews for Ian’s first novel, Murder on Page One. website

6 October 2014

Review: CURTAIN CALL, Anthony Quinn

Random House UK, Vintage Publishing
Pub Date Jan 8 2015
source: NetGalley

Synopsis (NetGalley)

On a sultry afternoon in the summer of 1936 a woman accidentally interrupts an attempted murder in a London hotel room. Nina Land, a West End actress, faces a dilemma: she’s not supposed to be at the hotel in the first place, and certainly not with a married man. But once it becomes apparent that she may have seen the face of the man the newspapers have dubbed ‘the Tie-Pin Killer’ she realises that another woman's life could be at stake.

Jimmy Erskine is the raffish doyen of theatre critics who fears that his star is fading: age and drink are catching up with him, and in his late-night escapades with young men he walks a tightrope that may snap at any moment. He has depended for years on his loyal and longsuffering secretary Tom, who has a secret of his own to protect. Tom’s chance encounter with Madeleine Farewell, a lost young woman haunted by premonitions of catastrophe, closes the circle: it was Madeleine who narrowly escaped the killer’s stranglehold that afternoon, and now walks the streets in terror of his finding her again.

Curtain Call is a comedy of manners, and a tragedy of mistaken intentions. From the glittering murk of Soho’s demi-monde to the grease paint and ghost-lights of theatreland, the story plunges on through smoky clubrooms, tawdry hotels and drag balls towards a denouement in which two women are stalked by the same killer. As bracing as a cold Martini and as bright as a new tie-pin, it is at once a deeply poignant love story, a murder mystery and an irresistible portrait of a society dancing towards the abyss.

My Take

The King died at the beginning of 1936 and so this crime thriller is set firmly against that year: not only is there the scandal of the king-to-be's affair with the American Woman, and lurking in the background a gruesome murderer who has already claimed three victims; but Hitler and Mussolini both menace on the European horizon. The popularity of Moseley and Fascism are growing apace throughout the country, anti-Semitic sentiment grows in London society, while other institutions cling to the old ways, homosexuality is condemned and punishable by gaol sentence when detected, and the Crystal Palace burns down.

The plot has at least three bases that feel their way towards each other. The historical background is wonderfully well done, without losing sight of the characters whose lives play out in the foreground.

An excellent read.

My rating: 4.6

1 October 2014

Review: SLEEPING MURDER: MISS MARPLE'S LAST CASE, Agatha Christie

format: Kindle (Amazon)
File Size: 425 KB
Print Length: 227 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0451200195
Publisher: HarperCollins; Masterpiece ed edition (October 14, 2010)
first published in 1976
Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers
Language: English
ASIN: B004BDOTLS

Synopsis (Amazon)

The owner of a seaside villa is plagued by strange feelings about its past…

Soon after Gwenda moved into her new home, odd things started to happen. Despite her best efforts to modernise the house, she only succeeded in dredging up its past. Worse, she felt an irrational sense of terror every time she climbed the stairs…

In fear, Gwenda turned to Miss Marple to exorcise her ghosts. Between them, they were to solve a ‘perfect’ crime committed many years before.

My take

The first thing that struck me is that this doesn't really feel like Miss Marple's "last case". Jane Marple is old but not as old as she is in NEMESIS. She is still able to travel, garden etc.

Secondly I think the writing style is actually Christie at her peak, and a little better than in CURTAIN, Poirot's last case.

I have actually read SLEEPING MURDER before, and seen TV adaptations, so the story was not new, and I had a vague memory of how it resolved.

In contrast, I had never before, as far as I can remember, read CURTAIN, and I have resolved to look for David Suchet's adaptation.

So this is the end of my journey, the last novel in my Agatha Christie Reading Challenge, to read her novels more or less in order of publication. It is a journey that began just on six years ago, although I had read many of the novels in paperback form in the late 1960s. Future blog posts will be used to explore some of what I have learnt in my journey.

There aren't similarities between CURTAIN and SLEEPING MURDER.
* both contain references to Shakespeare's Othello
* both contain references to X who is a murderer - in CURTAIN he pushes others to commit murder even if he doesn't commit it himself; in SLEEPING MURDER he appears to be the person actually responsible for Gwenda's stepmother's disappearance.

Miss Marple doesn't seem to play a large role in SLEEPING MURDER, more that of a consultant, although she does carry out some investigation herself. She does suggest to Gwenda a possible solution for her memories about the cottage Hillside, and then arranges to take a short holiday in Dillmouth at a B and B, which puts her right on the spot to give advice to the young couple.

In the long run a good read.

My rating: 4.7

This the final title for me in the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge. I have read all 66 titles, more or less in order of publication. The full list of titles is here.

I'll write in more detail in later posts about what I think I've learnt. Don't get me wrong, I am definitely NOT an expert on the novels of Agatha Christie. In fact, I now feel that maybe I should start again, to see if I can remember more of the plots of individual titles. But it has been a wonderful journey.

28 September 2014

Review: CURTAIN: POIROT'S LAST CASE, Agatha Christie

format: Kindle (Amazon)
File Size: 926 KB
Print Length: 228 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0425173747
Publisher: HarperCollins; TV tie-in ed edition (October 14, 2010)
Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers
Language: English
ASIN: B0046A9MUY

Synopsis (Amazon)

A wheelchair-bound Poirot returns to Styles, the venue of his first investigation (THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES published in 1920 , where he knows another murder is going to take place…

The house guests at Styles seemed perfectly pleasant to Captain Hastings; there was his own daughter Judith, an inoffensive ornithologist called Norton, dashing Mr Allerton, brittle Miss Cole, Doctor Franklin and his fragile wife Barbara , Nurse Craven, Colonel Luttrell and his charming wife, Daisy, and the charismatic Boyd-Carrington.

So Hastings was shocked to learn from Hercule Poirot’s declaration that one of them was a five-times murderer. True, the ageing detective was crippled with arthritis, but had his deductive instincts finally deserted him?…

My Take

Published in 1975, and supposedly written about 35 years earlier, which puts it at the beginning of World War II, apparently during the blitz.

Hastings, as narrator, makes his first appearance since DUMB WITNESS. In fact he has married, brought up four children, and then buried his wife. The timeline of Hastings' life doesn't quite fit real time so it is one of those things we don't look at too closely. His daughter Judith is one of the characters in the story, and seems to be in her early twenties.

Poirot, crippled with arthritis, a shadow of his former self, and confined to a wheel chair, brings Hastings to Styles to assist in the apprehension of X who has already been involved in five murders. He hopes they will be able to prevent another murder.

Poirot constantly tells Hastings that his mind, his little grey cells, is not impaired, just his body, and he needs Hastings to be the mobile one. However he refuses to tell Hastings who he has identified as X, and this puts him at quite a disadvantage. Poirot finds Hastings as frustrating to work with as he always has, and they do not manage to prevent more murders occurring. It is not for four months after the last murder that Hastings finds out the truth.

Even without the title the reader knows this is the final curtain for Poirot.

I don't actually think that I have read CURTAIN before and so the ending comes as a real surprise. I am not sure it fits with the Poirot I know from books that were written after this one. In many ways CURTAIN is a very black pessimistic book, fitting with the mood of the world when it was written.

The novel is relatively short, similar to earlier novels.

At the end of the Kindle version there is an interesting essay by Sir Charles Osborne in which he discusses the decision taken to finally publish the novel, and the impact that it had on the Christie reading public.

My rating: 4.6

I have been reading this as part of the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge, and this is the penultimate title.

Review: THE CRITIC, Peter May - audio book

series: The Enzo Files, Book #2
available from Audible.com
Narrated by: James Adams
Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
originally published 2007
source: I bought it

Synopsis (Audible.com)

Gil Petty, the world's number-one wine critic, is found dead and strung on a cross in the vineyards of France.

Enzo Macleod, Scots exile and former forensics expert, finds that the genteel world of winemakers hides a business driven by greed, envy, and desperation, with no shortage of possible killers.

My Take

I think it probably helped to have read the first in the series, EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE, which gave biographical background to Enzo McLeod, how a Scotsman comes to be in France, lecturing at a university in biology when he is in fact a forensics expert (although essential details emerge in the narrative).

The first in the series also gives the background to Enzo's quest to solve some unusual cold cases.

I haven't read many crime fiction titles set in the wine industry and thought that would be interesting too.

Before long Enzo finds out that there are a number of people who are not keen on him solving this particular cold case and attempts are made on his life.

For those who know little about the wine industry, the author has done plenty of research and I think you will learn quite a lot.

A good read.

My rating: 4.5

I've already reviewed
THE RUNNER
VIRTUALLY DEAD
FREEZE FRAME
4.7, THE BLACKHOUSE
5.0, THE LEWIS MAN
4.5, EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE (#1 in the Enzo McLeod series)

27 September 2014

Review: POSTERN OF FATE, Agatha Christie

format: Kindle (Amazon)
File Size: 595 KB
Print Length: 256 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins; 1st edition (October 14, 2010)
first published 1973
Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers
Language: English
ASIN: B0046H95MW
Tommy & Tuppence #5

Synopsis (Amazon)

A poisoning many years ago may not have been accidental after all…

Tommy and Tuppence Beresford have just become the proud owners of an old house in an English village. Along with the property, they have inherited some worthless bric-a-brac, including a collection of antique books. While rustling through a copy of The Black Arrow, Tuppence comes upon a series of apparently random underlinings.

However, when she writes down the letters, they spell out a very disturbing message:
M a r y – J o r d a n – d i d – n o t – d i e – n a t u r a l l y…

And sixty years after their first murder, Mary Jordan's enemies are still ready to kill…

My Take

This is the last novel that Agatha Christie ever wrote. In previous titles, NEMESIS and ELEPHANTS CAN REMEMBER she had brought the careers of her other sleuths to a close, although the final novels published relating to Hercule Poirot (CURTAIN) and Miss Marple (SLEEPING MURDER) were both written in about 1940).

Tommy and Tuppence appear together in four full-length novels and one collection of short stories. The collection of short stories is Partners in Crime, (1929), the four novels are THE SECRET ADVERSARY (1922), N or M? (1941), BY THE PRICKING OF MY THUMBS (1968); and POSTERN OF FATE (1973).

Unlike Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple the Beresfords actually age in real time, beginning in their early 20s in 1922 and in POSTERN OF FATE they are in their 70s.

Rather appropriately the mystery in this story begins with a code which Tuppence breaks with ease. While Tommy was the one who worked in Intelligence and then as a private detective, and Tuppence was the one who raised the children and kept the home fires burning, it always seemed to be it was Tuppence whom Christie favored.

This novel is also about memory. The house that the Beresfords have bought has changed hands many times since Mary Jordan died and, as in ELEPHANTS CAN REMEMBER, most of the knowledge about the "Frowline" is mixture of hearsay and innuendo. But the discovery of a gravestone in the local churchyard sets both Beresfords off on a hunt for the truth. Tuppence explores what elderly villagers remember while Tommy goes through more official channels. This is rather evocative of the strategy adopted by Hercule Poirot and Ariadne Oliver in ELEPHANTS CAN REMEMBER. I think it is also Christie exploring how her own memory works.

It turns out that the house that the Beresfords have bought has been "of interest" to British intelligence for decades as a possible hiding place for documents that the government would rather not see made publicly available.

In ELEPHANTS CAN REMEMBER there were references to cases that Poirot had solved, and there are similar passing references here to the previous novels in which the Beresfords featured.

Those who are looking in this novel for signs that Agatha Christie was "past it" or had Alzheimer's won't find it here. The novel is carefully plotted by a writer who still has something to say. However I think some of the episodes of dialogue between the Beresfords is a bit limp, nothing that I could imagine a husband and wife, even after about fifty years of married life, saying to each other.

In addition some of the plot strands get confusing with informants not clearly explaining the information they are passing on.

I think the novel is also a little outdated in its writing style although it may not have been at time of publication. It reflects a belief Christie held for all her life: that there are some persistent forces of evil that regenerate from one generation to the next. Sometimes they are not at first seen for the malignancies that they are.

My rating: 3.8

I've read this as part of the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge, and now I have just two titles to go.

1975, CURTAIN (Poirot's last case, written about 35 years earlier)
1976, SLEEPING MURDER (Miss Marple's last case, written about 35 years earlier)

26 September 2014

Review: ELEPHANTS CAN REMEMBER, Agatha Christie

Format: Kindle (Amazon)
File Size: 723 KB
Print Length: 243 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0062074032
Publisher: HarperCollins; Masterpiece ed edition (October 14, 2010)
originally published in 1972
Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers
Language: English
ISBN-10: 000712080X
ISBN-13: 978-0007120802
ASIN: B0046A9MWC

Synopsis (Amazon)

Hercule Poirot is determined to solve an old husband and wife double murder that is still an open verdict…

Hercule Poirot stood on the cliff-top. Here, many years earlier, there had been a tragic accident. This was followed by the grisly discovery of two more bodies – a husband and wife – shot dead.

But who had killed whom? Was it a suicide pact? A crime of passion? Or cold-blooded murder? Poirot delves back into the past and discovers that ‘old sin leave long shadows’.

My Take

The story begins with Hercule Poirot's writer-friend, Ariadne Oliver, attending a literary luncheon. A woman approaches Mrs Oliver to ask her about the parents of Ariadne's god-daughter Celia Ravenscroft. She wants to know which of Celia's parents killed the other.

Ariadne Oliver takes the problem to her old friend Hercule Poirot who ferrets out the answer.
He thinks it is a problem worth solving and so they both begin their own line of enquiry. Mrs Oliver tracks down old friends who might remember the incident at the time, and Poirot consults some professionals, in particular ex-Superintendent Spence and Mr Goby.

The novel explores the nature of collective memory, particularly when some people are under the impression they've learnt facts, but in actual fact what they "know" is hearsay, second hand information. And little by little Poirot uncovers what actually happened.

I don't really think I have read this novel before, but I actually managed to solve the puzzle a little ahead of Poirot. It is a mystery tinged with romance, a teasing out of the nature of love. I think Christie was desperate to get some ideas across, like whether a woman was likely to kill her husband and then kill herself.

In terms of her writing life, this is the second last novel that Christie ever wrote. I was particularly interested to find out whether she still had her writing powers. Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976) was after all 82 years old when this was published. It is the last Poirot she wrote (although not the last published).

For the most part the novel is well plotted and the characters are interestingly drawn. But the ending is a bit flat, almost like an amateur theatrical performance where the actors wave their goodbyes.

My rating: 4.3

I've read this as part of the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge. I now have 3 novels to go.

1973, POSTERN OF FATE (Last novel Christie ever wrote) - Tommy and Tuppence
1975, CURTAIN (Poirot's last case, written about 35 years earlier)
1976, SLEEPING MURDER (Miss Marple's last case, written about 35 years earlier)

17 September 2014

Review: THE SILKWORM, Robert Galbraith

published in 2014 by Speher
ISBN 978-1-4087-0403-5
#2 in the Cormoran Strike series
455 pages
source: my local library

Synopsis (author website)

A compulsively readable crime novel with twists at every turn, The Silkworm is the second in the highly acclaimed series featuring Cormoran Strike and his determined young assistant Robin Ellacott.

When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, she just thinks he has gone off by himself for a few days – as he has done before – and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.

But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine’s disappearance than his wife realises. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel were published it would ruin lives – so there are a lot of people who might want to silence him.

And when Quine is found brutally murdered in bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any he has encountered before…

My Take

I have previously read the first in this series, THE CUCKOO'S CALLING, and thoroughly enjoyed it. An ex-soldier, Cormoran Strike is a different sort of sleuth and he and his secretary/assistant Robin Ellacott make a good pair. Many of the themes/bylines that began in the first novel are continued and it will probably help a bit if you read them in order.

But to be honest I am a bit disappointed with THE SILKWORM. I thought it was a bit long and unnecessarily complex, particularly in the final explanations, almost as if the author wanted to keep the readers puzzled until the very end, and to be able to say with a flourish "There! You didn't guess that! Did you?"

Mind you, it is still a good read for the most part and you may not get as impatient as me for the ending to come.

My rating: 4.5

Read an extract on the novelist's website.

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