Review: THE MISSING, P D Martin

• Format: Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 205 KB
• Print Length: 38 pages
• Publisher: Murderati Ink (March 4, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B007H3JBRQ

Synopsis (Amazon)

The Missing is two Sophie Anderson short stories - one set before book 1 in the series (Body Count) and one set after Body Count.

Story 1: Sophie Anderson is working in Victoria Police’s homicide department when her boss assigns her to a local kidnapping case. Her boss’s deal is simple: ‘Find my friend’s ten-year-old daughter and I’ll send you on the FBI course you’ve been nagging me about.’ But Sophie doesn’t need incentive to rescue a young girl. She throws herself into the case, racing against the clock to bring the girl home…only too aware of what the perpetrator might be doing to her.

Story 2: Sophie Anderson is still a relative newcomer to the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit when her profiling skills are called on for a kidnapping case in DC. Presidential candidate Senator Keen’s daughter is missing and Sophie’s mission is simple: find her and keep it quiet. But as Sophie investigates the senator and the daughter who’s kept out of the public eye, she discovers more than a straight case of kidnapping.

My take

A quick read, this one, just 38 pages, two short stories, both very polished.
Story 1 is an early Sophie Anderson, set in Melbourne before she has managed to persuade Victoria Police to send her to the FBI for training. Interesting to see how far her character has developed in later stories.

An interesting feature of the second story, published in the Australian Women's Weekly in 2006, is the two alternative endings. I preferred the first ending, which didn't have political overtones, myself.

What binds the two stories together is that both are about missing daughters, one in Melbourne, one in Washington DC. Comparing the two, and Sophie's profiling techniques, gives an excellent idea of how her skills have developed.

So if you have a Kindle, and 99 cents to spare, here's a quick taste of PD Martin, one of Australia's accomplished female crime fiction writers.

My rating: 4.6

Other reviews of PD Martin titles
FAN MAIL
THE KILLING HANDS

Review: THE KILLING HANDS, P.D. Martin

Pan Macmillan Australia, 2009, ISBN 978-1-4050-3902-4, 393 pages

Australian profiler Sophie Anderson is working with the FBI in Los Angeles. A male body has been found with the throat ripped out. Fingerprints identify this person as a member of the Yakuza who has not been seen for 15 years, and had been assumed dead. Sophie's investigation of the cause of death reveals that the victim was probably killed by a combination of kung fu strikes. In addition the leader of the FBI team investigating Yakuza activity believes he has a mole in his team. Further investigation puts Sophie and a colleague into mortal danger as the Yakuza becomes aware, through the mole, of their investigation.

#4 in the highly successsful Sophie Anderson series, THE KILLING HANDS could operate quite well as a stand alone. The author has included a little less backstory than we saw in previous novels, and yet just enough to pique the reader's interest in earlier books in the series. For Australian readers there is the added interest of Sophie's Australian nationality. Her parents Jean and Bob fly to LA from Melbourne to be at their daughter's bedside when she is hospitalised. Martin continues also to explore Sophie's paranormal powers, her ability to conjure visions that help her reconstruct what has happened to a victim. Sophie appears to have more control of these than in earlier books, but her colleagues are mainly unaware of them. Another thread of continuity, Darren Carter makes another appearance in this book, as does "American Psycho", a stalker who casts an occasional shadow across Sophie's life.

My rating 4.6

PD Martin is an Australian author living in Melbourne. In 2008 I reviewed FAN MAIL,  and commented on the two earlier books in the series: BODY COUNT and THE MURDERER'S CLUB.
There is no doubt that PD Martin is a very accomplished writer.

#5 KISS OF DEATH is already available in Australia and will be available in the US in August 2010.
#6 in the series, COMING HOME, is being written as an e-book (with 12 chapters) at the astonishing rate of a chapter a week. Readers are able to vote on the path that the novel will take from one week to the next. 8 chapters can be read so far online.
PD Martin says the resultant chapters are draft only, and will be "polished" prior to final publication. Martin talks about her writing process on her blog.

Other Reviews to Check

• Reactions to Reading: "The Killing Hands is another credible and engaging outing in the series and I’m looking forward to catching up with Sophie again soon."
• Sunnie's Book Blog:"P.D. Martin has become one of my favourite Australian crime fiction writers and THE KILLING HANDS has done nothing to change my opinion."

Weekly Geeks # 19: Top 10 books published in 2008

The challenge in Weekly Geeks #19 is to, before October 25,

1. Compile your list of favorites. Please be sure that books you choose actually were published in 2008, or at the very earliest in the winter holiday season of 2007. Sometimes books that come out then are left out.

2. Come back and sign Mr Linky with the url to your top books of 2008 post.

3. If you happen to see any non-WG bloggers making similar lists, please grab the url and come put it in Mr Linky for them. Let them know you’re doing that, please, in case they have some sort of objection; if they do, they can ask me to remove their link. I’ve already seen a couple favorites of 2008 posts, which is another reason I wanted to get started early.

4. Feel free to make changes to your list if you read something new in the next few weeks. After about October 25, I can’t guarantee your changes will be reflected in the master list. We’ll probably start compiling lists around then.

5. Please consider whether you’d like to help me compile lists.

If you follow my blog, then you'll know that creating such a list is no problem for me.
You can see my ranked list for all the books I have read in 2008 at Smik's Reviews (all my reviews)

Here are my top 10, chosen from books published in 2008

SHATTER, Michael Robotham
A CURE FOR ALL DISEASES, Reginald Hill
NEMESIS, Jo Nesbo
FAN MAIL, PD Martin
CARELESS IN RED, Elizabeth George
VOODOO DOLL, Leah Giarratano
WHERE WILL THERE BE GOOD NEWS?, Kate Atkinson
A KILLING FROST, R.D. Wingfield
DEAD MAN'S FOOTSTEPS, Peter James
NO TIME FOR GOODBYE, Linwood Barclay

There don't seem to be all that many crime fiction readers amongst my fellow weekly geekers, so my choices probably won't poll all that well, unless fellow crime fiction bloggers decide to chime in. There are some Australian authors in my list too - Michael Robotham, PD Martin, and Leah Giarratano - and they probably won't poll particularly well overall either.

Also, in our genre we have so much choice, so the choices could be wide ranging rather than concentrated. Much will depend on people sticking to the published in 2008 rule. Of course what it doesn't take into account that some books are published in some countries earlier than in others. We often find that books published in Australia are not available in the UK or the US until later, or vice versa. There are always flaws in any rule.

Meanwhile, you've read my list. Are any of mine in your top 10? What crime fiction have I left out that you would put in your top 10? Please feel free to list your top 10 in your comment, but only those published in 2008. I might work up a "local" poll for us in a couple of weeks time.

Time for Another Favourite Author, PD Martin

I wrote about PD Martin's latest novel FAN MAIL back at the beginning of the month. FAN MAIL is the third in the series and I'm sure there will be more. My rating for FAN MAIL was 5.0

PD Martin lives in Melbourne, Australia and developed a passion for crime fiction and story telling at an early age. This interest was backed up with formal education through a Bachelor of Behavioural Sciences (with majors in psychology and criminology) and a Postgraduate Certificate in Professional Writing (creative writing).

BODY COUNT (2005) was the first in the series
Australia's loss is America's gain. The Victorian Police sent Sophie Anderson on the FBI's International Program, a six week course at Quantico to refine her profiling skills. When the FBI discovered she had dual citizenship she was offered a profiling job with the FBI unit at Quantico. Sophie Anderson brings to the job psychic skills that she barely understands but that she recognises she has had all her life. Sophie specialises in serial killer profiling and is already, after only six months, establishing a reputation for herself. Sophie is assisting her friend Sam Wright with one of her cases, a serial killer operating in Washington DC. At the same time she herself is having some disturbing dreams that prompt her to check the security of her own flat before going to bed every night. When the DC Slasher leaves a personal message for Sam at the site of his latest victim, she is taken off the case and it is handed to Sophie.
My rating 4.4

The second was THE MURDERERS' CLUB (2006)
Put this one on your lists. It is Martin's second novel and better than her first BODY COUNT. The plot is very inventive. A serial killer is on the loose and leaving strangled bodies on or near the campus of the University of Arizona. Central character FBI profiler Sophie Anderson is an Australian from Melbourne who is visiting her friend Darren Carter when he becomes involved in the investigation after the discovery of first two bodies. We have learnt about the Murderers' Club in the prologue, people who meet in a chat room, and who are apparently behind the murders. Who, What, How and Why are all intriguing questions. An excellent, engaging read.
My rating 4.9

You can read more on PD Martin's website

FAN MAIL, PD Martin

Title: FAN MAIL
Author: PD Martin
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia
This Edition first published: February 2008
ISBN: 978-1-4050-3826-3
Classification: crime fiction/thriller
Price: $32.95 (Aust. Dollars)
389 pages
Author website: http://www.pdmartin.com.au

Sophie Anderson is a Melbourne profiler who featured in two earlier titles BODY COUNT and THE MURDERER'S CLUB. What makes Sophie stand out from the rest is her sixth sense which gives her visions, particularly images, related to the cases she is working on. Sometimes she sees events from the point of view of the perpetrator, sometimes from that of the victim. The visions are usually accompanied by dizziness, and can sometimes be triggered intentionally, but more often than not occur without warning. Sophie has been working for the FBI at Quantico and is now moving to the American West Coast so that she can get more "in the field" work. Only one person that Sophie has worked with knows of her visions. It is not something she generally wants her colleagues to be aware of.

She thinks her "visions" may come more reliably, or that she will be able to channel her abilities, if she can visit the scene of the crime. Her current role in the Behavioral Analysis Unit at Quantico is very desk bound, hence the transfer to the FBI agency in Los Angeles.

On her last day at Quantico Sophie is asked to conduct a tour for a novelist who writes rather gruesome crime novels with detailed crime scenes, but now the novelist has been found murdered - by someone who has copied the method from her latest novel. So begins Sophie’s first case with Los Angeles FBI Agency. She quickly finds out that there has been an earlier case – someone is killing crime fiction writers and using their own scenarios as a blueprint.

FAN MAIL takes up where THE MURDERERS' CLUB, the previous title in this series, left off. There is no doubt in my mind that, despite back-fill given by the author, the reader is in a better position to appreciate the continuity by having read the earlier title. Make no mistake though, the reader can treat FAN MAIL as a stand-alone, but I think Martin is on dangerous ground here if she stretches the threads in the series too far. She will need to decide whether, in future books, she expects readers to have read previous titles in the series, or just how important the back-fill is to the understanding of the current action.

I feel that PD Martin has come a long way in a short time in her skill as a writer. She is obviously increasing her understanding of the field with considerable research, and at the same time her control of the threads of the stories is very masterful. I thoroughly enjoyed FAN MAIL and look forward to the next in the series.

PD Martin lives in Melbourne, Australia and developed a passion for crime fiction and story telling at an early age. This interest was backed up with formal education through a Bachelor of Behavioural Sciences (with majors in psychology and criminology) and a Postgraduate Certificate in Professional Writing (creative writing).

http://www.pdmartin.com.au

My rating: 5.0

Australian Crime Fiction Snapshots

Check up on these interviews, the first in a series which is the result of a collaboration between Karen Chisholm (of the Aust Crime Fiction weblog), Damien Gay (of Crime DownUnder) and Perry Middlemiss (of Matilda).

Today's released interviews

• Matthew Freeman on Aust Crime Fiction
• Lucy Sussex on Matilda
• P. D. Martin on Aust Crime Fiction
• Adrian Hyland on Crime Down Under
• Marshall Browne on Matilda