Review: BROKEN PROMISE, Linwood Barclay

• this edition: e-ARC from publisher, Hatchette Australia, through NetGalley
• published July 28, 2015
• ISBN 9781409146452
• Available for pre-order from Amazon 

 Synopsis (Net Galley)

The morning it all started, newspaper reporter David Harwood had plenty to worry about. A single parent with no job, forced to return with his young son to the small town of Promise Falls to live with his parents, the future wasn't looking too rosy. So when his mother asked him to look in on his cousin Marla, who was still not quite right after losing her baby, it was almost a relief to put the disaster his own life had become to one side.

The relief wouldn't last long.

When he gets to Marla's house he's disturbed to find a smear of blood on the front door. He's even more disturbed to find Marla nursing a baby, a baby she claims was delivered to her 'by an angel.' And when, soon after, a woman's body is discovered across town, stabbed to death, with her own baby missing, it looks as if Marla has done something truly terrible.

But while the evidence seems overwhelming, David just can't believe that his cousin is a murderer. In which case, who did kill Rosemary Gaynor? And why did they then take her baby and give it to Marla? With the police convinced they have an open and shut case, it's up to David to find out what really happened, but he soon discovers that the truth could be even more disturbing...

My Take

This is a nice solid contribution to Linwood Barclay's list of publications but I was surprised to find that I had solved part of the mystery about half way through the novel, and was just left to work out the finer details. So, from that point of view, this is not one of Barclay's best. It does explore the motives people have for their actions, and there is a cast of interesting characters.

The setting is modern, identifiable by the economic effects of the downturn of the newspaper industry, which is what has forced David Harwood to live with his parents. He has returned to the small rural town where he first began his career, a town where everyone knows everyone else, but seemingly do not always know the reasons why they do things.

Very readable.

My rating: 4.4

I've also read
NO TIME FOR GOODBYE
TOO CLOSE TO HOME
4.5, FEAR THE WORST
4.6, NEVER LOOK AWAY
5.0, TRUST YOUR EYES
4.7, NEVER SAW IT COMING

Talk to Margot Kinberg

Yesterday Margot Kinberg who blogs at Confessions of a Mystery Novelist,  put out an appeal for crime fiction readers to participate in a survey:

As you no doubt know, in my ‘day job,’ I’m an academic. And one thing we academics do is conduct research. Today I’d like to shamelessly beg for your participation in tell you about a research project I’m currently doing.

My study addresses the question of what adults learn and remember from reading crime novels. And I can think of no more expert group of people than you folks to help me answer that question.

I would truly appreciate your help in this project. If you’re willing to be involved, here’s what you’d be in for:

·         Go to the study link to get started.

·         After indicating your informed consent to participate, respond to a survey. The survey contains 23 questions, all but one of which are multiple choice.

·         When you’re done, just submit your answers. That’s all.

Here are a few things to consider:

·         You are of course perfectly free not to participate if you’d rather not.

·         If you do participate, your responses will be anonymous. That is, I will not be able to link you to your survey responses. Neither will anyone else.

·         You will not be asked for any private identifying information, such as your name, email address or telephone number.

·         The survey should take no more than 20 minutes maximum.

Once I’ve got my data collected, I’ll gather the information and start getting some results. I’ll share the overall results with you on this blog.

I’ll also share the results at a conference I plan to attend later this year.

If you’d like to participate, thank you!!! Please click here to get started.

If you would rather not participate, that’s perfectly fine. I would appreciate your helping me spread the word though. The more participants who are involved, the more I’ll learn, and the more I can share with you.

Review: THE INSANITY OF DEATH, Felicity Young

• publication date 1 August 2015
• e-ARC from publishers HarperCollins Australia via NetGalley
• #4 in the Dody McClelland series
• see author website for two chapters
• Available for Amazon pre-order

Synopsis (author website)

To Doctor Dody McCleland, the gruesome job of dealing with the results of an explosion at the Necropolis Railway Station is testing enough. But when her suffragette sister Florence is implicated in the crime, matters worsen and Dody finds her loyalty cruelly divided. Can she choose between love for her sister and her secret love for Chief Inspector Matthew Pike, the investigating officer on the case?

Dody and Pike's investigations lead them to a women's rest home where patients are not encouraged to read or think and where clandestine treatments and operations are conducted in an unethical and inhumane manner. Together Dody and Pike must uncover such foul play before their secret liaisons become public knowledge - and before Florence becomes the rest home's next victim.  

My Take

Australian writer Felicity Young has certainly grown as a crime fiction author and this latest offering in the Dody McCleland series brims with confidence and authenticity. I have somehow missed reading #3 and feel that is an omission I must rectify.

Dody McCleland works as an assistant to Dr Bernard Spilsbury and is right at the centre of the suffragist world. If she is not present, then her lover Inspector Pike is, and between them they are a formidable pair. Besides being a murder mystery, the novel does a good job of presenting the injustices of a world where women lack equality and where males can deal with unwanted females in the most radical manner.  

If you like authentic history in your crime fiction then give this series a go.

My rating: 4.6 

I've also read
A CERTAIN MALICE
HARUM SCARUM
TAKE OUT
4.7, A DISSECTION OF MURDER
4.5, ANTIDOTE TO MURDER 

About the author
Felicity Young was born in Germany, educated in the UK and settled in WA. She lives on a small farm with her family, has trained as a nurse, studied music, reared orphan kangaroos and is a volunteer firefighter. The world of the Dr Dody McCleland mysteries is based on her grandmother's old memoirs. 

Her books

Stevie Hooper
1. An Easeful Death (2007)
2. Harum Scarum (2008)
3. Take Out (2010)

Also stand-alone title: A Certain Malice (2005) being reprinted as FLASHPOINT later in 2015 with a sequel promised in 2016.

Doctor Dody McCleland
1. The Anatomy of Death (2012)
     aka A Dissection of Murder
2. Antidote to Murder (2013)
3. The Scent of Murder (2014)
4. The Insanity of Murder (2015)
The next Dody McCleland book, A Donation of Murder, is set for release on May 1st 2016. 

Books on the Go

I discovered today that so far I have read exactly the same number of books as this time last year. According to Good Reads I am running 4 books ahead of schedule for a total of 140 for the year. Last year I read 137.

On my list for the immediate future I have

Library Book

• BLOOD REDEMPTION, Alex Palmer
• J, Howard Jacobsen
• THE SECRET PLACE, Tana French

from Net Galley

• KING OF THE ROAD, Nigel Bartlett
• EDEN, Candice Fox
• PAINTED BLACK, Greg Kihn

from my TBR

• PAVING THE NEW ROAD, Sulari Gentil

audio books on the go

• THE BURNING MAN, Christopher Fowler
• BELFAST NOIR, Adrian McKinty (editor), Stuart Neville (editor)

from my Kindle

• BURIED: Department Q #5, Jussi Adler-Olsen
• ASHES TO DUST, Yrsa Sigurdardottir
• A SIEGE OF BITTERNS, Steve Burrows
• THE SECRET ARTS, Azmar Dar
• IT HAPPENED IN EGYPT, Charles Norris Williams

review books

• GRAVEYARD OF THE ATLANTIC, Helen Goltz
• ONE TOO MANY, Maureen Jennings
• THE ABRUPT BUSINESS OF DYING, Paul Hardisty
• THE FOURTH REICH, Helen Goltz
• DEATH BY DISGUISE,, Helen Goltz

But that may all get knocked into a cocked hat if those Agatha Christie short stories I wrote about yesterday turn up from the library. I note also that some books have been on my "immediate reading" list for a while now.

Review: THE BANK INSPECTOR, Roger Monk

• Publisher: The Horizon Publishing Group
• ISBN: 9781922238375
• ISBN-10: 1922238376 
• Format: Paperback 
• Language: English 
• Number Of Pages: 422
• Published: 1st September 2014
• source: my local library 

Synopsis (Booktopia)

The perfect crime! One Monday morning, a bank branch is robbed. No one hurt or threatened. Not a hold-up. Not a tunnel into the vault. A three minutes robbery and the robber drives away. Not followed. Not caught. A perfect, flawless crime.

Detective Sergeant Brian Shaw hardly knows where to start, especially as he is distracted by an attempted murder in a nearby street. A story of greed, treachery and a heart-breaking family feud.

My Take

Thank you to blogging friend Bernadette for the recommendation to read this book. Her review at Fair Dinkum Crime is here.

This novel has so far not received the publicity it deserves. The plot is remarkably simple but at the same time intricately woven with a delicate twist. The setting is local - South Australia, Adelaide, Grote Street, Norwood, the Barossa Valley - some recognisable local scenery, set in 1950, some strongly drawn characters, and some intriguing mystery.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. For overseas readers I wish I could recommend an e-book but there doesn't appear to be one yet. I live in hope. I also have hopes that it will make the Ned Kelly shortlist.

My rating: 4.8

Author Bio: 

Roger Monk was born in Adelaide and grew up on the Yorke Peninsula and Lower North of South Australia. He spent over twenty-five years in banking, latterly as bank secretary, and five years in management development in the Australian automotive manufacturing industry before joining the University of South Australia. For many years, he has specialised in managerial and organisational behaviour and the psychological implications of business practices, and as a supervisor of Honours, Masters and Ph.D. students. He also works with tertiary students with Aspergers syndrome problems and on the preparation of textual case studies.
Roger holds a BA, a Master’s degree in Organisational Behaviour, an MBA, a Ph.D. in Human and Organisational Psychology and is a Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australasia. He has done substantial overseas research, lectured extensively in Hong Kong, and Singapore and has worked at the University of California, Berkeley, and at Cornell University.
Roger lives in the foothills above Adelaide with his wife, Valerie, a registered nurse, and enjoys writing, reading historical biographies and murder mysteries, gardening and fishing. He has grown and made his own dry Eden Valley Riesling at their property in the Barossa hills.
Roger’s novel “The Bank Inspector” is a crime/thriller story that will appeal to lovers of the genre and certainly all bankers all over the world.

Agatha Christie short stories to be read

I've managed to identify the Agatha Christie short stories to be read to complete my challenge.

Yesterday I commented that I thought I had a few collections to check
But in fact things are not as bad as that and I think I have only 10 stories unread.

I now have on request from my local library
1950 Three Blind Mice and Other Stories (nine short stories - US only), containing

• The Third-Floor Flat
• The Adventure of Johnnie Waverley

and
1961 Double Sin and Other Stories (eight short stories - US only), containing

• Double Sin
• The Double Clue
• Wasps' Nest

and POIROT INVESTIGATES (US published) for

• The Chocolate Box
• The Lost Mine
• The Veiled Lady

and THE REGATTA MYSTERY for

• Problem at Sea
• How Does Your Garden Grow

That will make my final tally 153 stories, matching the list at Wikipedia

Finishing off the Agatha Christie short stories

According to my records, although I have completed reading the Agatha Christie novels, I still have a number of short stories to go.

First of all I need to check out these collections:

• 1939 The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories (nine short stories - US only)
• 1948 The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories (eleven short stories - US only)
• 1950 Three Blind Mice and Other Stories (nine short stories - US only)
• 1960 The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding (six short stories - UK only)
• 1961 Double Sin and Other Stories (eight short stories - US only)
• 1971 The Golden Ball and Other Stories (fifteen short stories - US only)
• 1974 Poirot's Early Cases (eighteen short stories, also known as Hercule Poirot's Early Cases in the US)

However many of the short stories published in these collections were also published in other collections and I have actually read them.
So I have begun tracking the collections above through my local library network and finding the elusive few that I haven't yet read. The problem is compounded by the fact that some were also published under other titles according to whether they were published in the US or UK, or whether they were modified and then re-published.
So, a bit of tedious housekeeping ahead.

Currently I have 143 short stories on my list, but I am not sure how many there are in total.
Has anybody come across a number? An article on Wikipedia suggests 153, but I don't think that includes any recently "found".