Review: FALL FROM GRACE, David Ashton

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 510 KB
• Print Length: 200 pages
• Publisher: Birlinn (May 1, 2011)
  Originally published in 2007
• Publication Date: May 1, 2011
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B006WB2B7Q
• #2 in the Inspector McLevy Mystery series

Synopsis  (Amazon)

The second in a new series of McLevy books, Fall from Grace revolves around the terrible Tay Bridge disaster. The story begins with a break-in and murder at the Edinburgh home of Sir Thomas Bouch, the enigmatic, egotistical builder of the Tay Bridge. McLevy is brought in to investigate. With the help of brothel madam Jean Brash, McLevy finds the murderer, but there is much, much more to unfold: murder, arson, sexual obsession and suicide.

My take

The book begins in Edinburgh in 1880 with the closure of a case that began with the murder of a butler nearly a year before. The story is told with the narration flitting between current events and those that had taken place in the previous year. Occasionally we also get a glimpse of McLevy's childhood for one of the characters in the current tale is Herkie, his childhood nemesis.

McLevy's sergeant, Martin Mullholland, is in love, and he has bought the ring, but his beloved, Emily is well below him in social status, and as luck would have it, her father is an unbending and unsympathetic man.

A warehouse fire has resulted in the contents of the warehouse being incinerated and in the middle of the ashes, a very charred corpse. The warehouse owner is filing an insurance claim and the insurance assessor is Robert Forbes, Emily's father. McLevy believes the fire is arson, and that the warehouse owner is involved in fraud. However Forbes, a former policeman, decides to approve the claim.

This is a multi-stranded plot, and it took me a time to grab hold of the individual strands, so to speak. They are cleverly manipulated towards a conclusion, but things do not always go well for Inspector McLevy. Along the way we have time to consider how policing methods have changed.

My rating: 4.4
 
I've also reviewed
4.3, SHADOW OF THE SERPENT - #1

Review: THE SHUT EYE, Belinda Bauer

• first published in UK by Bantam Press 2015
  
• ISBN 978-0-593-07287-5
• 302 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Publisher)

Five footprints are the only sign that Daniel Buck was ever here.

Yesterday they were a family just like any other: Anna and James, and their little boy, Daniel.

But in one careless moment everything changed.

A front door accidentally left ajar . . . and Daniel was gone.

Now they are a pair of strangers who can't even look each other in the eye.

Distrust and unspoken words fill the void where their son used to be.

Anna will go to any lengths to find Daniel - a four-year-old doesn't just vanish into thin air. But how far will this desperate search push her?

Right to the brink.

And beyond.

My Take

DCI John Marvel has one of those cases that just won't let you go: the disappearance of twelve year old Edie Evans on her way to school. At the time of her disappearance over twelve months before he even used the services of a medium, with no result. Edie's mother thinks she is still alive, but twelve months is a long time.

Now his boss wants him to find Mitzi, his wife's missing dog. And Marvel discovers that Mrs Clyde has been attending sessions held by the same medium.

John Marvel is far from the flavour of the month with Superintendent Clyde, and he really doesn't get on too well with the rest of the team either. He hopes that discovering what has happened to Mitzi will give him a leg up, but things don't go entirely to plan.

This is a mesmerising read with lots of twists and turns.  The resolution of the mystery is at once credible and incredible.

My rating: 4.8

I've also read
5.0, BLACKLANDS

Review: DARK CORNERS, Ruth Rendell

• available from Amazon for Kindle
• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Scribner (October 27, 2015)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1501119427
• ISBN-13: 978-1501119422

Synopsis (Amazon)

When his father dies, Carl Martin inherits a house in an increasingly rich and trendy London neighborhood. Carl needs cash, however, so he rents the upstairs room and kitchen to the first person he interviews, Dermot McKinnon. That was colossal mistake number one. Mistake number two was keeping his father’s bizarre collection of homeopathic “cures” that he found in the medicine cabinet, including a stash of controversial diet pills. Mistake number three was selling fifty of those diet pills to a friend, who is then found dead.

Dermot seizes a nefarious opportunity and begins to blackmail Carl, refusing to pay rent, and creepily invading Carl’s space. Ingeniously weaving together two storylines that finally merge in one shocking turn, Ruth Rendell describes one man’s spiral into darkness—and murder—as he falls victim to a diabolical foe he cannot escape.

My take

Ruth Rendell died earlier this year at the age of 85. So this stand-alone is the very last of her books, and of course as a long time avid reader of her books (there have been 60 of them in the last 50 years) I had to read it.

While I wouldn't rate it in her best 10, it still demonstrates what a remarkable story teller she was, and how she was able to get into the mind of her principal characters.

There is no doubt here who the "murderer" is, even though Carl caused his friend's death unwittingly. But it preys constantly on his mind and he becomes unable to work, to eat, to sleep. And Rendell asks the reader whether we would react in the same way. Or would we get it over and done with, and front up to the police with an admission that we were the source of the tablets that in all probability killed Stacey. Carl chooses not to and thus becomes the victim of Dermot, his upstairs tenant, who blackmails him by refusing to pay any rent. With no income, and unable to work, Carl sinks lower and lower, to the point where his girlfriend leaves him, and Dermot preys on his mind.

The story just misses out on creating enough tension although there is a second murder, and also another attempted one.

There is a second story thread running alongside the first: Lizzie Milsom, a friend of the dead girl Stacey, who moves into her flat, wears her clothes, and finally gets kidnapped in a case of mistaken identity. When Lizzie's father Tom gets a free bus card when he turns 60, he takes up a new hobby: travelling on buses. After being beaten up at one bus stop, he then has a nasty experience when a passenger gets off a bus, leaving his rucksack behind.

So a good if not brilliant final outing for an author who has left an indelible mark on British crime fiction.
For those who do not know, Ruth Rendell was the creator of Inspector Wexford, and also wrote under the pseudonym of Barbara Vine.

My rating: 4.4

I've also read
FROM DOON WITH DEATH - Wexford #1
4.5, A NEW LEASE OF DEATH- Wexford #2
4.6, THE BEST MAN TO DIE - Wexford #4
4.3, A SLEEPING LIFE, Ruth Rendell  - Wexford #10 
4.7, PUT ON BY CUNNING - Wexford #11
4.6, THE VAULT- Wexford #23 
4.5, NO MAN'S NIGHTINGALE- Wexford #24   
 
Stand-alones 
PORTOBELLO
4.7, THE MONSTER IN THE BOX
4.5, A SIGHT FOR SORE EYES
4.5, THE SAINT ZITA SOCIETY
4.6, THE MASTER OF THE MOOR

Barbara Vine
THE BIRTHDAY PRESENT
4.8, A DARK ADAPTED EYE

Review: TEN STAR CLUES, E.R Punshon

• first published 1941
  
• #15 in the Bobby Owen series
• File Size: 862 KB
• Print Length: 224 pages
• Publisher: Dean Street Press (December 7, 2015)
• Publication Date: December 7, 2015
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B017BWPLMG

Synopsis (Amazon)

“I’ll have breakfast ready before you’re dressed,” Olive said, her mind full of bacon and eggs, tea, toast.

“Can’t stop,” Bobby told her. “I’ve to be at Castle Wych at once.”

“What’s happened there?”

“Murder,” Bobby answered as he made for the door.

Bobby Owen has left London and is now a policeman in the bucolic county of Wychshire. The local community is stunned when a missing heir returns to Castle Wych, determined to claim his inheritance. But following the ensuing dispute over his identity, Castle Wych plays host to murder. There are ten “star clues” investigated by the resourceful Bobby, with help from his wife Olive, in this delightful and classic example of the golden age mystery novel.

Ten Star Clues, originally published in 1941, is the fifteenth novel in the Bobby Owen mystery series. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.

My Take

I read this novel as part of my participation in a meme at the blog Past Offences where the books read for December 2015 were all published in 1941.

The setting is England in 1940, preparing for a war that most think will never happen. Earl Wych lost three heirs one after another in the First World War, and then came the news that his grandson who had gone rather hurriedly to the United States was also dead. The current heir is a great nephew. Then a man visits the family solicitors with the claim that he is the dead grandson. The immediate family all thinks he is an impostor but Earl Wych and his wife the Countess surprise everyone by acknowledging the arrival as Bertram, the lost grandson.

This is a nice mystery for those who like a puzzle. Detective Inspector Bobby Owen works methodically with the Chief Constable on an astonishing array of suspects, assessing their opportunity and motive. 

Punshon, the author, was apparently a great admirer of Agatha Christie, but this novel is stylistically quite different to hers.

It is a carefully plotted Golden Age police procedural which left me feeling that I wouldn't mind trying another in the series, perhaps an earlier one, at some stage. I found the references to the impending war interesting, especially the lack of any idea by the characters that this was going to be very different style of warfare.

My rating: 4.2

About the author
Ernest Robertson Punshon (1872–1956) was an English novelist and literary critic of the early 20th century. He also wrote under the pseudonym Robertson Halket.^[1] Primarily writing on crime and deduction, he enjoyed some literary success in the 1930s and 1940s. Today, he is remembered, in the main, as the creator of Police Constable Bobby Owen, the protagonist of many of Punshon's novels. He reviewed many of Agatha Christie's novels for The Guardian on their first publication.^[2] Punshon was also a prolific writer of short stories, and a selection of his crime and horror fiction has recently been collected together.

Review: DAMAGE, Felix Francis

• first published Penguin Books 2014
• ISBN 978-0-7181-7883-3
• 437 pages
• source: My TBR pile

Synopsis (Penguin Australia)

Jeff Hinkley, undercover investigator for the British Horseracing Authority, is looking into the shady activities of a racehorse trainer. But as he's tailing his quarry through the Cheltenham Racing Festival, the last thing he expects to witness is a gruesome murder. Could it have something to do with the reason the trainer was banned in the first place - the administration of illegal drugs to his horses?

Days later, it's discovered that many more horses test positive for prohibited stimulants, a scandal that could throw horse-racing into disrepute. It's no surprise when the BHA receives a demand - pay up or face the consequences. In order to limit the damage to the sport, it's critical that Jeff find the perpetrator . . . but he'll soon learn he's up against someone who will stop at nothing to prevail. Jeff's mental and physical well-being is tested to the very limit, even his life is put on the line.

My Take

I was a long time reader of Dick Francis' thrillers, and don't mind saying that, even though I knew he was a collaborator in his father's final books, that I did not really believe that his son Felix would amount to much. But DAMAGE proves that Felix Francis has made it on his own.

This novel continues in the tradition of tight thriller, with a believable plot, and clues for the reader to work on.  Management of the British racing industry by an independent authority comes under threat as the BHA discovers that at one particular carnival 66 out of 69 horses have tested positive to a banned substance. Blackmail demands for five million pounds arrive with an injunction that the police are to be kept in the dark.

Tightly plotted, believable, and well written.

My rating: 4.5


I've also read
Francis, Dick & Felix
DEAD HEAT
SILKS
4.5, TO THE HILT
4.5, REFUSAL 
 

Review: FATAL CATCH, Pauline Rowson

• format: Kindle (ARC from Net Galley)
  
• Series: A DI Andy Horton Mystery (Book 12)
• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Severn House Publishers; First World Publication edition (January 1, 2016)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0727884972
• ISBN-13: 978-0727884978

Synopsis ( Net Galley)

Trust no one. Believe nothing . . .

DI Andy Horton is called out to examine a gruesome catch by two fishermen: a human hand. Is it that of missing violent criminal, Alfie Wright – or is he the killer? And where is the rest of the corpse?

Soon Horton finds himself immersed in a complex case where everyone has a reason to lie and no one is who they seem. Assailed by doubts both in his personal and professional life, Horton desperately tries to keep his emotional feelings under control and his focus on his work. His instincts tell him to trust no one and believe nothing; he’s not sure, though, whether this time he’ll succeed . . .

My take

Andy Horton is still very much pre-occupied with what happened to his mother Jennifer when she disappeared twenty years earlier. This theme alone would make it difficult to read these novels as stand alones although considerable detail is repeated from one novel to the next. Andy is gradually piecing his mother's story together and now he is contacted by a woman who says she is conducting university research into missing persons who choose not to resurface. Jennifer Horton is one of the people she is interested in.

Each novel is based around a current case, this time a severed hand which some fishermen haul in. The hand is identified from its fingerprints, and then Andy's team is told to back off - the man is purported to be a police informant, but Andy thinks this is most unlikely and out of character.

Meanwhile one of the fishermen who found the hand goes missing and then turns up dead.

This is #12 in the Andy Horton series and I would like Andy to hurry up and solve the mystery about his mother. While I have been enjoying the ride, and there is no doubt that each novel is well written, I am ready for something else to occupy Andy's attention. Surely the end of this plot line is in sight?

My rating:

I've 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
4.6, SHROUD OF EVIL

Review: EVIL GAMES, Angela Marsons

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 3425 KB
• Print Length: 384 pages
• Publisher: Bookouture (May 29, 2015)
• Publication Date: May 29, 2015
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00U7K5F4O

Synopsis (Amazon)

The greater the Evil, the more deadly the game…

When a rapist is found mutilated in a brutal attack, Detective Kim Stone and her team are called in to bring a swift resolution. But, as more vengeful killings come to light, it soon becomes clear that there is someone far more sinister at work.

With the investigation quickly gathering momentum, Kim finds herself exposed to great danger and in the sights of a lethal individual undertaking their own twisted experiment.

Up against a sociopath who seems to know her every weakness, for Detective Stone, each move she makes could be deadly. As the body count starts to mount, Kim will have to dig deeper than ever before to stop the killing. And this time - it’s personal. 

My Take

Angela Marsons is one of my finds of the year. Her Detective Inspector Kim Stone is a very interesting character but then so are the various members of her team. The setting is England's Black Country, and these are police procedurals with a real edge.

If you are wondering whether you should read these books in order, then the answer is definitely yes, and this is #2 in the series. 

As in SILENT SCREAM Kim Stone shows herself as a defender of those who have been damaged or manipulated by others, particularly by those who have no conscience. Her own past makes her well aware of the forms that psychological damage can take. She herself is still suffering from her past, and this makes it difficult for her to make friends or let others into her life.

Someone is playing mind games and Kim herself comes close to being broken.

An outstanding read.

My rating: 4.8

I also reviewed 4.7, SILENT SCREAM

Review: BRYANT & MAY: THE BLEEDING HEART, Christopher Fowler

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
• ARC from NetGalley
• #11 in the Bryant & May series
• File Size: 1305 KB
• Print Length: 401 pages
• Publisher: Transworld Digital (March 27, 2014)
• Publication Date: March 27, 2014
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00H51SZO0

Synopsis (Amazon)

It’s a fresh start for the Met's oddest investigation team, the Peculiar Crimes Unit.

Their first case involves two teenagers who see a dead man rising from his grave in a London park. And if that's not alarming enough, one of them is killed in a hit and run accident. Stranger still, in the moments between when he was last seen alive and found dead on the pavement, someone has changed his shirt...
Much to his frustration, Arthur Bryant is not allowed to investigate. Instead, he has been tasked with finding out how someone could have stolen the ravens from the Tower of London. All seven birds have vanished from one of the most secure fortresses in the city. And, as the legend has it, when the ravens leave, the nation falls…

Soon it seems death is all around and Bryant and May must confront a group of latter-day bodysnatchers, explore an eerie funeral parlour and unearth the gruesome legend of Bleeding Heart Yard. More graves are desecrated, further deaths occur, and the symbol of the Bleeding Heart seems to turn up everywhere - it’s even discovered hidden in the PCU’s offices. And when Bryant is blindfolded and taken to the headquarters of a secret society, he realises that this case is more complex than even he had imagined, and that everyone is hiding something. The Grim Reaper walks abroad and seems to be stalking him, playing on his fears of premature burial.

Rich in strange characters and steeped in London’s true history, this is Bryant & May’s most peculiar and disturbing case of all.

My Take

Once again Christopher Fowler delivers! Littered with quirky facts about London, this was again a delightful read. As always the PCU is under threat, this time mainly because their methods don't conform with those of 'modern' policing.

The novel was a "back number" for me, #11 in the series. The crimes are peculiar: a corpse apparently rising from its coffin despite being buried two days earlier, a young man of promise is killed in a hit and run, and someone has stolen the ravens from the  Tower of London.

Excellent characterization and fascinating threads to the story. 

My rating: 4.8

I've also reviewed
THE VICTORIA VANISHES
4.6, TEN-SECOND STAIRCASE
4.5, BRYANT & MAY AND THE INVISIBLE CODE
4.7, FULL DARK HOUSE
4.8, THE WHITE CORRIDOR
4.7, THE BURNING MAN - #12 

Review: BALLAD OF A DEAD NOBODY, Liza Cody

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 1729 KB
• Print Length: 320 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: iUniverse (June 1, 2011)
• Publication Date: June 1, 2011
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0055S9U76

Synopsis  (Amazon)

Elly Astoria had a miraculous musical talent. As a little girl she taught herself to play guitar and keyboard so that she could feed herself and her junkie mother. One rainy night she was spotted singing and playing by the founder of an indy women’s band. Later, cleaned up and better fed, she caught the eye of her future manager – and his creepy sister. It should have been a rags-to-riches story. Instead Elly’s career was cut short by her perverted and grisly murder.

Years after her death it looks as if Elly’s life has been overlooked. If anyone deserves rediscovery and a biography, it’s Elly. Clearly there is a story to be told and a mystery to be solved. But how?

My take

Liza Cody is an author who went off the radar for the first decade of this century. I do remember reading BUCKET NUT and MONKEY WRENCH when they were published twent years ago. I think I also read some of her Anna Lee series.

This book though was quite different to what I expected. The structure is a series of recorded interviews, excerpts from letters, emails and telephone messages which Amy makes in her quest to write a book that will make her mark in the world. Once she settles on the idea of a biography about Elly Astoria, Amy discovers that there is bit more to being a biographer than just collecting material. What do you do about the gaps where you haven't a clue where the truth lies? For example no one was ever charged with Elly's murder. Is a biographer a detective too?

Amy's quest takes her to tracking down members of MotherHood, the band Elly was "adopted" by, and she makes some odd discoveries. The band broke up straight after Elly's death and went their separate ways, although they and Elly's agents continued to get income from recordings and performance rights.

There was a point when I nearly gave up on reading the book. It began to seem rather long winded and disjointed and Amy seemed no closer to the truth. I'm glad I didn't give up though.

My rating 4.3

About the author
Liza Cody is an English crime fiction writer. She is the author of thirteen novels and many short stories. Her Anna Lee series introduced the professional female private detective to British mystery fiction.
Cody was born in London and most of her work is set there. Currently she lives in Bath in England. Her informative website can be found at www.LizaCody.com.

Anna Lee
1. Dupe (1980)
2. Bad Company (1982)
3. Stalker (1984)
4. Head Case (1985)
5. Under Contract (1986)
6. Backhand (1991)

Eva Wylie
1. Bucket Nut (1992)
2. Monkey Wrench (1994)
3. Musclebound (1997)

Novels
Rift (1988)
Gimme More (2000)
Ballad of a Dead Nobody (2011)
Miss Terry (2012)
Lady Bag (2013) 

Review: THE MOTH CATCHER, Anne Cleeves

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 1419 KB
• Print Length: 400 pages
• Publisher: Macmillan (September 1, 2015)
• Publication Date: August 25, 2015
• Sold by: Macmillan
• Language: English
• ASIN: B010NCHHDM
• #7 in the Vera Stanhope series

Synopsis (Amazon)

Life seems perfect in Valley Farm, a quiet community in Northumberland. Then a shocking discovery shatters the silence. The owners of a big country house have employed a house-sitter, a young ecologist named Patrick, to look after the place while they're away. But Patrick is found dead by the side of the lane into the valley - a beautiful, lonely place to die.

DI Vera Stanhope arrives on the scene, with her detectives Holly and Joe. When they look round the attic of the big house - where Patrick has a flat - she finds the body of a second man. All the two victims have in common is a fascination with moths - catching these beautiful, rare creatures.

The three couples who live in the Valley Farm development have secrets too: Annie and Sam's daughter is due to be released from prison any day; Nigel watches, silently, every day, from his window. As Vera is drawn into the claustrophobic world of this increasingly strange community, she realizes that there may be deadly secrets trapped here ...

My Take

I wondered whether I would have "seen" this story in the Vera series on TV. I am a great fan of the series but I am glad to report that this particular story has evaded capture, so far. I hope we continue to get some book-only Vera Stanhope stories.

For me the television series has given a vision of what Vera and the various members of her team might look like, and I must admit to their faces sitting there in my mind's-eye as I read, except that the "book" Vera is larger than the actress.

But what I love about the books is their language and the author's description of the other characters in the story. The words just slip down like good wine. The story flows and Ann Cleeves gives the reader  just enough for the little grey cells to work on. There are little puzzles to solve and little bits of humor to enjoy.

I also like the way Vera manages her team, and gets them to utilize their very divergent talents, by playing them off against each other. She is very sparing with her praise which just makes them work harder.

Six retirees, three couples, who decide to get away from it all, to make the most of the time that remains to them, and then find they haven't gone far enough. Three deaths, murders connected by place, but other connections very elusive. Cleeves makes the reader work hard to the very end.

A very satisfying read.

My rating: 4.8

I've also reviewed
mini-review RAVEN BLACK - Shetland #1
WHITE NIGHTS - Shetland#2
RED BONES - Shetland #3
5.0, BLUE LIGHTNING - Shetland#4
5.0, DEAD WATER  - Shetland#5
4.6, THIN AIR - Shetland #6
4.3, MURDER IN PARADISE - Palmer-Jones series #3
TELLING TALES (Vera Stanhope) #2
4.8, SILENT VOICES, (Vera Stanhope) #4
5.0, THE GLASS ROOM (Vera Stanhope) #5
4.9, HARBOUR STREET, Ann Cleeves (Vera Stanhope) #6
 4.5, BURIAL OF GHOSTS - stand-alone

Review: THE SHIVERING SANDS, Victoria Holt

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 1769 KB
• Print Length: 331 pages
• Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca; Reprint edition (September 3, 2013)
  originally published in 1969
• Publication Date: September 3, 2013
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00D2XA1GU

Synopsis (Amazon)

Ancient ruins. Family scandal. Forbidden love.

Caroline knows something is wrong. Her sister Roma has gone missing, and no one can tell her why. The only option is to go where Roma was last seen—an estate with a deadly history...

The Stacy family has lived off the Dover coast for generations, carefully navigating the treacherous quicksands nearby. But the sands aren't Caroline's biggest threat. Everyone here has a secret, especially enigmatic young heir Napier Stacy. No matter where Caroline turns, the ground she walks is dangerous. And the closer she comes to unraveling the truth, the closer she comes to sharing her sister's fate...

My Take

I read this for  the Crime Fiction of the Year (1969) Challenge, a meme housed at Past Offences.
In my younger days I read lots of Victoria Holt, and so I wanted to see whether for me this title weathered the test of time.

Perhaps unsurprisingly I found the plot developed much more slowly than it would in a more recently written novel. There are very heavy Gothic overtones right from the beginning: the black sheep of the family who accidentally murdered his elder, popular, handsome elder brother, banished to Australia but now summoned to return by his dying father to marry his father's ward; the mysterious disappearance of Caroline's sister from an archaeological dig; a building destroyed by fire where lights now show at night.

One of the aspects of the plot that has interested me is the actual time setting of the story. I have come across a reference to the vicar being appointed in 1888 so I am assuming it is all late 19th century. There are other factors that reinforce this: the curate goes off to Africa as a missionary, the main mode of transportation is horseback or trap, and there are no mentions of the dislocations that World War One will later cause.

So is this crime fiction? It is a question I constantly asked myself as I was reading. Certainly crimes have been committed - there is no doubt right from the beginning that Napier killed his brother Beau, accident or not, and these days that would have led to a homicide trial, rather than a retribution exacted by his father. And there are two other unexplained disappearances. But this is much more Gothic romance, closer to Daphne du Maurier and Georgette Heyer rather than Agatha Christie. The ending made me think of Edgar Allen Poe.

And here is an author that eventually led me on to crime fiction addiction.

My rating: 4.0

About the author
Victoria Holt 1906-1993 was a pseudonym used by Jean Plaidy.

Novels

Mistress of Mellyn (1960)
Kirkland Revels (1962)
Bride of Pendorric (1963)
The Legend of the Seventh Virgin (1964)
Menfreya in the Morning (1966)
     aka Menfreya
The King of the Castle (1967)
The Queen's Confession: The Story of Marie-Antoinette (1968)
The Shivering Sands (1969)
The Secret Woman (1970)
The Shadow of the Lynx (1971)
On the Night of the Seventh Moon (1972) (with James Ramsey Ullman)
The Curse of the Kings (1973)
The House of a Thousand Lanterns (1974)
Lord of the Far Island (1975)
The Pride of the Peacock (1976)
The Devil on Horseback (1977)
My Enemy, the Queen (1978)
The Spring of the Tiger (1979)
The Mask of the Enchantress (1980)
The Love Child (1981)
The Judas Kiss (1981)
The Demon Lover (1982)
The Time of the Hunter's Moon (1983)
The Landower Legacy (1984)
The Road to Paradise Island (1985)
Secret for a Nightingale (1986)
The Silk Vendetta (1987)
The Captive (1988)
The India Fan (1988)
Snare of Serpents (1990)
Daughter of Deceit (1991)
Seven for a Secret (1992)
The Black Opal (1993)

Review: THE DEVIL'S CAVE , Martin Walker

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 1071 KB
• Print Length: 385 pages
• Publisher: Quercus (August 2, 2012)
• Publication Date: August 2, 2012
• Sold by: Hachette Book Group
• Language: English
• ASIN: B007C4G0CO

Synopsis  (Amazon)

It is springtime France's Périgord, a time of beauty and calm. But not for Bruno, chef de police of the small town of St Denis. A woman's body has been found on a boat, bearing signs of a black magic ritual.

Bruno has too much on his plate as it is - mediating a domestic abuse case that needs careful handling and a dodgy local development proposal that seems just too good to be true.

But a murder case must take precedent and the roots of this one lie buried deep in the past - linked to a chateau above a bend in the river, to the reclusive old woman who lives there, and to the secret hidden in the Devil's Cave.

My Take

I have read a number of this series (see the list below) and really had them mentally categorized as cosies. But in THE DEVIL'S CAVE the action is grittier and the novel becomes quite a tense thriller.

The action starts off with a naked female body floating down the river in an old boat. It appears that she may have committed suicide, but may also have participated in some Satanic rites. Around the thread of identifying this woman Bruno's normal work continues on. Some developers want to build holiday villas but a number of the residents are opposed, including the assistant bank manager, despite the fact that his bank is participating in the project. Then there is the farmer who has beaten up his wife in a drunken rage, and the young girl who has gone missing.

I do like way Martin Walker has populated the town and surrounds with persistent characters, while at the same time the plot of a new novel introduces some ones and some new issues to keep the mix fresh.

These are police procedurals, but the way things are done in St. Denis is refreshingly different from both British and American ones. Bruno is a well developed and fascinating character too.

If you haven't yet tried this series, you are missing a treat.

My rating: 4.5

I've also reviewed
4.6, BRUNO, CHIEF OF POLICE 
4.6, THE DARK VINEYARD
4.6, THE CROWDED GRAVE
BRUNO and LE PERE NOEL: a Christmas Short Story

Review: THE OUTCAST DEAD, Elly Griffiths - audio book

• audio book from Audible.com
• Narrated by: Clare Corbett
• Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins 
• Series: Ruth Galloway, Book 6
• Unabridged Audiobook

Synopsis (Audible.com) 

Forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway has excavated a body from the grounds of Norwich Castle, a forbidding edifice that was once a prison. She believes the body may be that of infamous Victorian murderess Jemima Green. Called Mother Hook for her claw-like hand, Jemima was hanged in 1867 for the murder of five children in her care.

DCI Harry Nelson has no time for long-dead killers. Immersed in the case of three infants found dead, one after the other, in their King’s Lynn home, he’s convinced that a family member is responsible, though others on his team think differently. Then a child goes missing. Could the abduction be linked to the long-dead Mother Hook? Ruth is pulled into the case, and back towards Nelson.

From the author's website

Digging in the grounds of Norwich Castle, Ruth finds bones that date from the days when the building was a prison. She soon suspects that she has discovered the remains of Mother Hook, Norfolk’s most notorious murderess, a Victorian ‘baby farmer’ who killed her charges and sold their bodies to the so-called ‘resurrection men’.

Before long, a TV company is also interested and Ruth finds herself involved in a programme called ‘Women Who Kill’. The only consolation is the presence of a handsome American historian called Frank Barker. 
Meanwhile Nelson is dealing with the case of a young mother accused of killing her children. Then children in Norfolk start to go missing and the only clue is a note signed by ‘The Childminder’.

Could these disappearances possibly be linked to the long-dead Mother Hook?

My take

My incentive for reading this book was that I have already read the other 6 books in the 7 book series.
All of the audio books have been really well produced and this one was no exception.

The current case which DCI Harry Nelson is investigating concerns a family in which three young children have died and I was reminded of a non-fiction book that I read last year, MOTHERS WHO MURDER by Xanthe Mallett. In the story comparisons are drawn between this case and that of Mother Hook.

Ruth becomes involved in the making of a television program about Mother Hook, focussing on an excavation at Norwich Castle. During this time she meets American historian and television presenter, Frank Barker.

There is plenty of action in this novel and it was an enjoyable read.

My rating 4.7

I've also reviewed
4.6, THE CROSSING PLACES
4.6, THE JANUS STONE
4.6, THE HOUSE AT SEA'S END
4.5, A ROOM FULL OF BONES
4.8, DYING FALL- audio book
4.5, THE GHOST FIELDS, Elly Griffiths - audio book 

Review: IN BITTER CHILL, Sarah Ward

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
  
• File Size: 484 KB
• Print Length: 368 pages
• Publisher: Faber & Faber Crime; Main edition (June 30, 2015)
• Publication Date: June 30, 2015
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00WDE2LNU

Synopsis  (Amazon)

Bampton, Derbyshire, January 1978. Two girls go missing: Rachel Jones returns, Sophie Jenkins is never found. Thirty years later: Sophie Jenkins's mother commits suicide.

Rachel Jones has tried to put the past behind her and move on with her life. But news of the suicide re-opens old wounds and Rachel realises that the only way she can have a future is to finally discover what really happened all those years ago.

This is a story about loss and family secrets, and how often the very darkest secrets are those that are closest to you.

My take

Stories of child abductions strike a frisson of fear into the heart of every parent.

In this case two little girls  are abducted and one turns up a few hours later with little idea of where she has been and what happened. The survivor, Rachel Jones, has fragmented memories that make little sense to her: glossy green leaves, a black door, a tall man, a woman wearing sunglasses in December. There are things that Rachel never tells anybody, mainly because they make no sense to her. Sophie Jenkins' mother never stops looking and hoping.

Until she turns up dead in the Wilton Hotel, over thirty years after the date of the kidnapping. Superintendent Llewellyn was a PC back then and remembers being assigned to going on the house to house search for the children. He is convinced that the original investigative team was thorough, left no stone unturned, and he doesn't want the current team going over the same ground. At the same time bringing fresh eyes to bear may pick up something the original team missed. And they need to find out what prompted Yvonne Jenkins to kill herself after all this time.

Two days later there is another body, this time found in the very woods where Rachel Jones was discovered.

The main investigative team consists of DI Francis Sadler, DC Connie Childs and DS Damian Palmer. The dynamics of the team are interesting, in particular with Childs and Palmer competing for prime spot in Sadler's eyes.

The story is carefully plotted and turned out to be a lot more complex than I had at first thought. From about mid way I found myself hazarding various resolutions and it kept me guessing almost to the end.

This is a terrific debut novel, written with great assurance of style.

See another review at Reactions to Reading

My rating: 4.8

About the author
Sarah Ward is an online crime fiction reviewer at Crimepieces. She is also a judge for the Petrona Award for translated Scandinavian crime fiction. Her debut novel, set in Derbyshire, In Bitter Chill was published in July 2015 by Faber and Faber.

Review: AUNT BESSIE BELIEVES, Diana Xarissa

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
  
• File Size: 791 KB
• Print Length: 234 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publication Date: July 24, 2014
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00M3KKBPE
• #2 in the Isle of Man Cozy Mysteries

Synopsis (Amazon)

Aunt Bessie believes that Moirrey Teare is just about the most disagreeable woman she's ever had the misfortune to meet.

Elizabeth Cubbon, (Aunt Bessie to nearly everyone), is somewhere past sixty, and old enough to ignore the rude woman that does her best to ruin the first session of the beginning Manx language class they are both taking. Moirrey's sudden death is harder to ignore.

Aunt Bessie believes that Moirrey's death was the result of the heart condition that Moirrey always complained about.
The police investigation, however, suggests that someone switched some of the dead woman's essential medications for something far more deadly.
Aunt Bessie believes that she and her friends can find the killer.

But with Doona suspended from work and spending all of her time with the dead woman's long-lost brother, with Hugh caught up in a brand new romance and with Inspector Rockwell chasing after a man that might not even exist, Bessie finds herself believing that someone might just get away with murder. 

My Take

Feel like a bit of light reading? This gentle cozy may be just what you are looking for.

The setting is the Isle of Man, the narrator Aunt Bessie Cubbon. Aunt Bessie has been a refuge for the island's youth for decades, a place where they can go to stay when they have had enough of their parents. And so Bessie has her finger on the pulse of most happenings on the island, and lots of people trust her and owe her favours. She is also part of the island's "skeet" network, a group of friends who are quick to update each by telephone on the latest news and gossip. The local police find her an invaluable source of information and tips.

The author encourages the reader right at the beginning to read these books in order. She explains the origins of the series, which now numbers 7 titles (see Amazon) and the connection of the series to an earlier Romance series. Apparently some of the characters in the Romance series, including Aunt Bessie, have made their way across into the mystery series.The language is British English with some Manx words and terminology interspersed. A glossary is provided in the final pages.

 A delightful read.

My rating: 4.2

About the author
Diana has lived in several US states, the north of England and the Isle of Man. While she is currently in the US, she still misses the stunning scenery, wonderful people and fascinating history that make the Isle of Man so unique.

Review: THE GHOSTS OF ALTONA, Craig Russell

• Format: Kindle (Amazon)
  
• File Size: 1033 KB
• Print Length: 432 pages
• Publisher: Quercus (June 4, 2015)
• Publication Date: June 4, 2015
• Sold by: Hachette Book Group
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00TOOS2D0

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

Jan Fabel is a haunted man.

Head of the Polizei Hamburg's Murder Commission, Fabel has dealt with the dead for nearly two decades, but when a routine enquiry becomes a life-threatening - and life-changing - experience, he finds himself on much closer terms with death than ever before.

Two years later, Fabel's first case at the Murder Commission comes back to haunt him: Monika Krone's body is found at last, fifteen years after she went missing. Monika - ethereally beautiful, intelligent, cruel - was the centre of a group of students obsessed with the gothic. Fabel re-opens the case. What happened that night, when Monika left a party and disappeared into thin air?

When men involved with Monika start turning up dead, Fabel realizes he is looking for a killer with both a hunger for revenge and a taste for the gothic. What he doesn't know is that someone has been aiding and grooming a deranged escapee as his own, personal tool for revenge.

A truly gothic monster to be let loose on the world.

Winner of the Scottish Crime Novel of the Year 2015
Read a free chapter here

My Take

The announcement on Crime Watch that this novel is the winner of the Scottish Crime Novel of the Year 2015 reminded me that Craig Russell is an author that I was taken with nearly a decade ago, but I have read only the first two in the Jan Fabel series, and none since I began this blog.  I know I have some hard back copies of at least one or two novels on my shelves somewhere.

So this seemed an opportune moment to do some catching up with Jan Fabel.

What THE GHOSTS OF ALTONA did is convince me that I must read some of the novels I have missed in the intervening years. Jan Fabel has come a long way since the novel I read nearly ten years ago. Two years ago (in "novel time") he nearly died, and his near death experience (NDE) changed his whole approach to life. Not only is he now a member of the Club of the Living Dead, people who have experienced similar NDEs, he is participating in group research into what actually happens as people experience death.

There is a remarkable depth to this novel, a feeling of good research, as the reader meets others who have also had NDEs and reacted quite differently to Fabel. There is also an exploration of Fabel's leadership style, the way he feels as if he is a fatherly figure for his hand-picked colleagues in Hamburg's Murder Commission.

And this is a novel where cold case meets the present day. The discovery of Monika Krone's skeleton under the asphalt of a car park, a murder unsolved for fifteen years, seems to trigger a number of deaths, seemingly unrelated.

Excellent story telling.

I was however struck by plot similarities with a novel I completed last week, SILENT SCREAM by Angela Marsons: where the discovery of a skeleton in wasteland next to an orphanage triggers murders. But in reality the two novels take entirely different paths. THE GHOSTS OF ALTONA features a seasoned investigator, while in SILENT SCREAM we see a career just beginning.

My rating: 5.0

About the author (Fantastic Fiction)
Craig Russell is a British-born novelist and short story writer. His Hamburg-set thriller series featuring detective Jan Fabel has been translated into 23 languages. Russell speaks fluent German and has a special interest in post-war German history. His books, particularly the Fabel series, tend to include historical or mythological themes.
Author's web site:  http://www.craigrussell.com/

In February 2007, Russell was awarded the Polizeistern (Police Star) by the Hamburg Police, the only non-German ever to have received this accolade. In June 2007, Russell was shortlisted for the £20,000 CWA Duncan Lawrie Gold Dagger, the world's largest literary prize for crime fiction. He was the winner of the 2008 CWA Dagger in the Library. Russell was a finalist for the 2013 Ellis Peters Historical Dagger for Dead Men and Broken Hearts.

Mini review of BROTHER GRIMM published 2006 (My rating: 4.6)
A girl's body has turned up on a Hamburg beach with a note concealed in her hand. The note gives her name, that of a 13 year old who went missing on her way home from school 3 years earlier. But it is not the same girl. Fabel has worked this out even before her parents come to identify the body and confirm his suspicions. Then two more bodies turn up, posed at a picnic table in the woods, also with notes concealed in their hands. The notes say Hansel and Gretel, in the same tiny, obsessively neat writing.

Jan Fabel series (list from Fantastic Fiction)
1. Blood Eagle (2005)
2. Brother Grimm (2006)
3. Eternal (2007)
4. The Carnival Master (2008)
5. The Valkyrie Song (2009)
6. A Fear of Dark Water (2010)
7. The Ghosts of Altona (2015)

Review: SILENT SCREAM, Angela Marsons

• format : Kindle (Amazon)
• Series: Detective Kim Stone crime thriller series
• Paperback: 388 pages
• Publisher: Bookouture; 1 edition (February 20, 2015)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 190949092X
• ISBN-13: 978-1909490925

Synopsis (Amazon)

Even the darkest secrets can’t stay buried forever…
Five figures gather round a shallow grave. They had all taken turns to dig. An adult sized hole would have taken longer. An innocent life had been taken but the pact had been made. Their secrets would be buried, bound in blood …

Years later, a headmistress is found brutally strangled, the first in a spate of gruesome murders which shock the Black Country. But when human remains are discovered at a former children’s home, disturbing secrets are also unearthed.

D.I. Kim Stone fast realises she’s on the hunt for a twisted individual whose killing spree spans decades. As the body count rises, Kim needs to stop the murderer before they strike again. But to catch the killer, can Kim confront the demons of her own past before it’s too late?

My Take

I was reminded in reading this novel of the discoveries that have been made by recent government authorities, in this country and elsewhere, of the dreadful way children have been treated by those who were entrusted to their care. In Australia it has resulted in Royal Commissions exposing, among other things, systematic abuse.

D.I. Kim Stone has more understanding than most of how children have been treated in foster homes and orphanages because she has been there. She has a past that her colleagues are not aware of.

In this novel the institution where unspeakable things have occurred is Crestwood in the Black Country. The institution itself has gone, destroyed by fire, but some of the perpetrators of at least one crime live on, some of them waiting in fear for the truth to out. The pact they had made ten years earlier has held strong but is about to crack open. The death of first one then another will ensure that their connection to Crestwood will be seen, what they did exposed.

For the land next to Crestwood is about to become an archeological dig, despite efforts to prevent that happening.

I had read in other reviews that this is a remarkable first novel and I have to agree. Some elements of the plot are a bit standard: a female D.I. who is hard to control, a loose cannon who is too impatient to wait for the paperwork to be approved, a boss who threatens to stand her down but who is also prepared to defend her because she gets results. The superb creation of Kim Stone's character, and the way she interacts with her team, ensures that this is not a pedestrian novel. Far from it. It has a good level of tension that rachets up as the investigation progresses, and there is a lovely twist at the end. I'll be reading the next in the series: EVIL GAMES.

My rating: 4.7

About the author

Angela Marsons is the author of Amazon UK #1 Bestseller SILENT SCREAM.
She lives in the Black Country with her partner, their bouncy Labrador and a swearing parrot.
She first discovered her love of writing at Junior School when actual lessons came second to watching other people and quietly making up her own stories about them. Her report card invariably read "Angela would do well if she minded her own business as well as she minds other people's".

After years of writing relationship based stories (My Name Is and The Middle Child) Angela turned to Crime, fictionally speaking of course, and developed a character that refused to go away.
She is signed to Bookouture.com in an 8 book deal. The second book in the Kim Stone series, EVIL GAMES, is released 29th May 2015. 

Review: GIVE A CORPSE A BAD NAME, Elizabeth Ferrars

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
  
• File Size: 387 KB
• Print Length: 164 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1780020279
• Publication Date: December 1, 2010
  First published 1940
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004GXA5WU

Synopsis (Amazon)

On a cold winter’s night, a man is run over while lying drunk in the middle of a Devon lane. Driving the car is local resident Anna Milne, an attractive widow from South Africa. It could be an unfortunate accident, but strange coincidence hints at more. For the dead man also comes from South Africa. And he has Anna Milne's address in his pocket… In conjunction with the police, it is Toby Dyke, ex-reporter and man of no fixed occupation, who investigates the curious circumstance of the stranger’s death. 

My Take

This is a relatively short Golden Age novel that I've had sitting on my Kindle TBR for some time. I hadn't realised it was the debut title in a series of 6 novels. An interesting feature of the list is that the final title was published over 50 years after the fifth, and only a couple of years before the author's death. Not only that but it appears to have been the first of Elizabeth Ferrars' published work.

The plot is a complex one which poses some intriguing questions. Why does the local lord of the manor claim the dead body is his son whom he hasn't seen for some fifteen years, while Lady Maxwell says that it isn't. And who is sending anonymous letters to Toby Dyke to spur on his investigation?

And does Toby Dyke get it right or wrong at the end? Is he too clever for his own good?

This is a novel that has weathered the test of time quite well.

My rating: 4.4

About the author

Elizabeth Ferrars (1907-1995) was one of the most distinguished crime writers of her generation. She was described by Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine as 'The writer who may be the closest of all to Christie in style, plotting and general milieu'. Born in 1907 in Rangoon, Burma, the author grew up in Hampshire, England, before studying journalism in London. Her first crime novel, Give a Corpse a Bad Name, was published in 1940. During her career, she wrote more than seventy novels and became immensely popular in America, where she was published as E.X. Ferrars. In 1953, she became a founding member of the British Crime Writers' Association and, in the early 1980s, was awarded its Silver Dagger for a lifetime's achievement. She died in 1995.

Toby Dyke
Give a Corpse a Bad Name (1940)
Remove the Bodies (1940)
     aka Rehearsals for Murder
Death in Botanist's Bay (1941)
     aka Murder of a Suicide
Don't Monkey with Murder (1942)
     aka The Shape of a Stain
Your Neck in a Noose (1942)
Neck in a Noose (1993)

Review: WYCLIFFE AND THE DUNES MYSTERY, W.J. Burley

• this edition published 1995 by Corgi
• Originally published 1992
• #19 in the Wycliffe series
• ISBN 0-552-14221-2
• 220 pages
• source: My Mount TBR

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

The body of Cochran Wilder had lain buried in the sand dunes for 15 years. Inspector Wycliffe suspects the involvement of six people, now well-established figures in the Cornish community. All are disturbed by his questioning, and a second murder seems to confirm his suspicions.

My Take

I was familiar with the Wycliffe television series and picked this novel up from a second hand book stall a few years back but have never read it. The title is #19 in the Wycliffe series which eventually had 22 titles, none of which I have read.

Wycliffe, now a Detective Chief Superintendent, is approaching the end of his career, and is finding that it takes a lot to get him enthusiastic. He rarely gets to participate hands on in an investigation but there is something about this case that he finds interesting, especially as it will require a few nights away from home. It is an attractive alternative too to his bending his mind to the exigencies of an imminent restructuring of his section.

When a second murder occurs, Wycliffe has to decide whether the two are connected. He knows there are six people who have lived with the secret surrounding the death of the body found in the dunes for fifteen years. Just the fact that they all see each other frequently is a constant reminder of what they did. And one of them at least is at breaking point.

A very readable but pretty standard police procedural.

My rating: 4.4

About the author

W.J. Burley (1914-2002) started life as an engineer, and later went to Balliol to read zoology as a mature student. On leaving Oxford he went into teaching and, until his retirement, was senior biology master in a large mixed grammar school in Newquay. He created Inspector Wycliffe in 1966 and the series was  televised with Jack Shepherd starring in the title role.

Review: THE GHOST FIELDS, Elly Griffiths - audio book

• available from Audible.com
• Narrated by: Clare Corbett
• Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
• Series: Ruth Galloway, Book 7
• Unabridged 
• Published 2015

Synopsis (Publisher)

Norfolk is experiencing a July heat wave when a construction crew unearths a macabre discovery - a buried World War II plane with the pilot still inside. Forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway quickly realizes that the skeleton couldn't possibly be the pilot, and DNA tests identify the man as Fred Blackstock, a local aristocrat who had been reported dead at sea.

When the remaining members of the Blackstock family learn about the discovery, they seem strangely frightened by the news. Events are further complicated by a TV company that wants to make a film about Norfolk's deserted air force bases, the so-called Ghost Fields, which have been partially converted into a pig farm run by one of the younger Blackstocks. As production begins, Ruth notices a mysterious man lurking close to the Blackstocks' family home. Then human bones are found on the family's pig farm.

Can the team outrace a looming flood to find a killer?

My Take

These audio books make perfect listening and really present this series well.

Ruth Galloway, forensic archaeologist from North Norfolk University, is excavating a Iron Age dig when the buried World War II plane is discovered in Devil's Hollow, land that used to be part of the Blackstock Estate, now being "developed". Ruth is called to the site by her friend DI Harry Nelson. She quickly comes to the conclusion that the body in the cockpit was not only murdered but, although it has been dead for decades, has only recently been moved there from its original burial site.

There is quite a lot going on in this novel, including personal developments in Ruth's life.  It does help to have read earlier novels in the series, particular for appreciating the development of recurring characters. A DNA project reveals that one of Nelson's team has Blackstock blood, and then two people are attacked, presumably because they are connected to the Blackstock family.

English weather plays a major part in events too as the July heat wave comes to an end with rain storms and high tides. Blackstock Hall is cut off from the main roads by rising water, and Ruth hears a murderer's confession that puts her in real danger.

Good reading.

My rating: 4.5

I've also read
4.6, THE CROSSING PLACES
4.6, THE JANUS STONE
4.6, THE HOUSE AT SEA'S END
4.5, A ROOM FULL OF BONES
4.8, DYING FALL- audio book