Review: FORGET MY NAME, J S Monroe

• this edition published by Head of Zeus, 2018
• ISBN 9-781786-698056
• 419 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Amazon)
She arrived into Heathrow after a difficult week at work. Her bag had been stolen. Her whole life was in there - passport, wallet, house key. When she tried to report the theft, she couldn't remember her own name. All she knew was her own address.

Now she is at the door of Tony and Laura, a young couple living in Wiltshire. She says she lives in their home. They say they have never met her before. One of them is lying. But which one?

My Take

Tony and Laura feel sorry for the young woman standing on their doorstep and invite her to stay overnight in the hope that her memory will return. Tony says she looks like a Jemma, so that is the name they call her by. Jemma is carrying a small suitcase but there is no clue about who she is.

They take her to see a local doctor who thinks she recognises her. Jemma is diagnosed with a form of amnesia. Susie, the doctor, messages Laura warning her that she should be very careful about their house guest. At the local pub a man called Luke thinks he also recognises Jemma but is not sure from where.

After the doctor's message Laura becomes less comfortable with Jemma staying in the house.

An engrossing read where the tension builds as more clues accumulate about Jemma's possible identity.

I thought there was a bit of a hitch about midway through the book, and wasn't entirely happy with the final plot resolution.

My rating: 4.4

About the author

J.S.Monroe is the pen name of Jon Stock, author of five acclaimed spy novels and 'To Snare a Spy', a spy novella.

Jon lives in Wiltshire with his wife and three children. After reading English at Cambridge University, he worked as a freelance journalist in London, writing features for most of Britain's national newspapers, as well as contributing regularly to BBC Radio 4. He was also chosen for Carlton TV's acclaimed screenwriters course. Between 1998 and 2000, he was Delhi correspondent for the Daily Telegraph, and he also wrote the Last Word column in The Week Magazine (India) from 1995, when he lived in Cochin, South India, to 2012.

Review: AN UNWANTED GUEST, Shari Lapena

• this edition published by Penguin UK 2018
• ISBN 978-0-5930-7965-2
• 292 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

We can't choose the strangers we meet.

As the guests arrive at beautiful, remote Mitchell's Inn, they're all looking forward to a relaxing weekend deep in the forest, miles from anywhere. They watch their fellow guests with interest, from a polite distance.

Usually we can avoid the people who make us nervous, make us afraid.

With a violent storm raging, the group finds itself completely cut off from the outside world. Nobody can get in - or out. And then the first body is found . . . and the horrifying truth comes to light. There's a killer among them - and nowhere to run.

Until we find ourselves in a situation we can't escape. Trapped.

My take

For me this was a one sitting book.

It is almost a locked room mystery. A group of people staying in a remote boutique hotel, seemingly not knowing anyone except the person they arrived with. There is an engaged couple a few weeks away from their wedding, a man whose wife was murdered a few years before, a couple whose marriage has almost run its course, and yet another couple who have been together for a while but who in reality know very little about each other. Two women are lucky to have arrived after their car slid off the road on the ice. The hotel is cut off in a snow storm and there is no phone, and eventually no power. But two of them recognise someone they know among the others.

The first body is discovered at the foot of the stairs the next morning, but the murderer is not obvious.

A well constructed mystery and an excellent read.

My rating: 4.6

I've also read
4.5, A STRANGER IN THE HOUSE

review: RUN AWAY, Harlan Coben

• this edition (large print) published by Grand Central Publishing 2019
• ISBN 978-1-5387-3273-1
• 530 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (author website)

A perfect family is shattered in RUN AWAY, the new thriller from the master of domestic suspense, Harlan Coben.

You’ve lost your daughter.

She’s addicted to drugs and to an abusive boyfriend. And she’s made it clear that she doesn’t want to be found.

Then, by chance, you see her playing guitar in Central Park. But she’s not the girl you remember. This woman is living on the edge, frightened, and clearly in trouble.

You don’t stop to think. You approach her, beg her to come home.

She runs.

And you do the only thing a parent can do: you follow her into a dark and dangerous world you never knew existed. Before you know it, both your family and your life are on the line. And in order to protect your daughter from the evils of that world, you must face them head on.

My Take

I was pleasantly surprised with the direction the plot of this novel took.

Simon Greene's search for his daughter in the drug dens of Manhattan leads to his wife Ingrid being shot and one of those they met in drug den being shot too.
As Ingrid lies in a coma in a Manhattan hospital Simon continues to search for his daughter Paige.  He is joined by ex FBI investigator Elena Ramirez who is searching for a missing man.
Between them they uncover a trail of dead men who seem to have some connection with each other, but neither can explain how Paige is linked to the trail.

Simon thought he and his wife Ingrid had no secrets from each other, but he was wrong. The reason Paige runs away stems from Ingrid's past, before Paige was born.

Very readable story.

My rating: 4.5

I've also read
4.4, CAUGHT
4.3, DON'T LET GO
4.3, NO SECOND CHANCE 

Review: THE ONE, John Marrs

• this edition published by Del Rey 2016
• ISBN 978-1-79-503605-7
• 405 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (author website)

One simple mouth swab is all it takes. A quick DNA test to find your perfect partner – the one you’re genetically made for.

A decade after scientists discover everyone has a gene they share with just one other person, millions have taken the test, desperate to find true love. Now, five more people meet their Match. But even soul mates have secrets. And some are more shocking – and deadlier – than others...

My Take

Match your DNA purports to be the world's first scientifically proven test 100%  guaranteed to match a person with the one and only person you're genetically designed to fall in love with.
The DNA test is free and, once a match is found, then for a simple one-off fee applicants get information that allows them to contact their Match. There are no guarantees about the character of even gender of the Match. Contact is usually by email, but some couples take the plunge and use the phone to set up a date.

This story follows 5 couples who are sent details of their Match. Details can be confirmed from FaceBook pages and in each scenario one of the people contacts their Match.

In some cases the person has family members who has already participated in the DNA testing and has discovered, even married, their Match. They see the scheme as a way of cutting short the tedium of dating and looking for the One, the person of their dreams. But what if the person has lied about themselves, or there is some other reason why the Match will not work?

An intriguing and engrossing read.

My rating: 4.6


About the author
John Marrs is a freelance journalist based in London, England, who has spent the last 20 years interviewing celebrities from the world of television, film and music for national newspapers and magazines.
THE ONE is his third title.

Review: AS THE CROW FLIES, Damien Boyd

• this edition published 2015 by Thomas & Mercer (first published 2015)
• ISBN 978-14778210239
• 160 pages
• #1 in the DI Nick Dixon series

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

Rock climbers can't afford to make careless mistakes. But Detective Inspector Nick Dixon's former climbing partner, Jake Fayter, died doing just that. Or so it seems. Dixon suspects foul play, but his only leads are unreliable accounts of something odd happening in Cheddar Gorge seconds before Jake fell.

The more Dixon learns about Jake's life, the more he realises that Jake hadn't been quite the man he remembered...and a lot of people could have wanted him dead. Once Dixon gets too close to the truth, those people will emerge from the shadows and kill to protect their secrets.

As the body count rises, Dixon bends the rules to breaking point to lure out a killer and unravel a conspiracy of silence that will rock the sleepy town of Burnham-on-Sea to its core.

As the Crow Flies is the electrifying first novel in the DI Nick Dixon Crime Series.

My take

In the Prologue we are there when Jake Fayter falls from the Crow climb at Cheddar Gorge. The fall is so uncharacteristic of Jake who is Nick Dixon's former climbing partner that Jake's father John contacts Nick to ensure that the police carry out an investigation into whether this really was an accident.

The book nearly lost me right at the very beginning: the details about climbing felt so very technical that I wondered whether I would persist.

Dixon is newly appointed to the Avon & Somerset police and is currently involved in a case where funeral notices appear to be leading to burglaries. Nevertheless, on a Sunday, when he gets Jake's father's call, he heads over to Cheddar Gorge to see the scene of the accident himself. He decides that, for his own peace of mind, there is something to investigate.

This is one of those novels firmly bedded in the 21st century: FaceBook, Twitter, mobile phones and the tracing of calls etc. I understood most of that but it did add to the technicality of the plot, and wouldn't suit every reader.

There are now 9 titles in the series, and it will be interesting to read another to see what direction the author has taken. Here is the list from Fantastic Fiction.
1. As The Crow Flies (2013)
2. Head In The Sand (2013)
3. Kickback (2014)
4. Swansong (2015)
5. Dead Level (2016)
6. Death Sentence (2016)
7. Heads or Tails (2017)
8. Dead Lock (2018)
9. Beyond the Point (2019)

My rating: 4.2

About the author
Damien Boyd is a solicitor and crime fiction writer.

Drawing on extensive experience of criminal law as well as several years in the Crown Prosecution Service, Damien writes fast paced crime novels featuring Detective Inspector Nick Dixon. 

Review: ILLUSION OF DEATH, Brian Kavanagh

• this edition published by Vivid Publishing 2018
• ISBN 978-1-925846-43-0
• 188 pages
• source: review copy supplied by the author
• Author website
• Available for kindle 

Synopsis (publisher)

Power. Envy. Greed. Lies. All surround amateur sleuths Belinda Lawrence and Hazel Whitby in this maze of personalities.

An invitation to a private screening at a film group involves them in more than the cinematic arts.

Murder and the search for a long-lost film, involve them in more hair-raising adventures as they begin to investigate each member of the group, all of whom could be potential murderers.

Belinda’s skills are tested as she faces the greatest danger in her sleuthing life.

My Take

In the previous 5 novels of the series Australian Belinda Lawrence has been overseas, mainly in England. In title #6 author Brian Kavanagh has brought Belinda and her friend Hazel Whitby home to Melbourne.

Belinda visits the ACMI ( Australian Centre for the Moving Image) at Federation Square in Melbourne. She is standing in a display area waiting for Hazel who is out shopping when she is recognised by a former school friend. Bridie invites Belinda and Hazel to join her at a private screening of a pre-digital film being held by a small film society at the suburban home of a retired projectionist. Bridie is teaching film studies at the school that she and Belinda attended, and the film screenings are held weekly. Against Hazel's better judgement Belinda accepts the invitation.
Just as the screening of the film gets underway the group is interrupted by a member who bursts in to announce that the host, "Old Max" has been murdered.

Together with all the others present that night Belinda and Hazel become murder suspects, and they decide to conduct their own investigation of each of the members of the society, to find out why "old Max" was murdered, rather appropriately with a film splicing tool, and who the murderer is.

There is an almost cinematographic quality to the structure of this novel - each of the characters is introduced at the beginning with a sort of spotlight approach, almost as if they are on stage, and the spotlight moves from one to the other, capturing them in a moment of time.

Underlying the plot is a pioneering film/multimedia work produced by the Australian Salvation Army Soldiers of the Cross, and first screened in Melbourne in 1900. The National Film and Sound Archive has elements of the work in their archives but no full film is known to exist.

Very readable.

My rating: 4.2

I've also read

4.2, BLOODY HAM
4.3, A CANTERBURY CRIME
4.3, A WICKED DESIGN
4.3, MURDER ON THE ISLAND

About the author
Brian Kavanagh lives in Melbourne, the capital of the State of Victoria, in Australia. Brian is an an accredited life member of the Australian Film Editors Guild & a member of the Australian Society of Authors. He has many years experience in the Australian Film Industry in areas of production, direction, editing and writing.

His editing credits include THE CHANT OF JIMMIE BLACKSMITH, ODD ANGRY SHOT, THE DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND, LONG WEEKEND, SEX IS A FOUR-LETTER WORD and the recent comedy, DAGS.

He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Australian Screen Editors Guild and is an accredited member. An Australian Film Institute award for Best Editing for FROG DREAMING (USA title THE QUEST).

His first feature film which he produced and directed, A CITY'S CHILD, won an AFI award for actress Monica Maughan and was screened at the London Film Festival as well as Edinburgh, Montreal, Chicago and Adelaide, where it won the Gold Southern Cross Advertiser Award for Best Australian Film.

Review: WEEPING WATERS, Karin Brynard

format: Kindle (Amazon)
File Size: 1520 KB
Print Length: 512 pages
Publisher: World Noir (April 3, 2018)
Publication Date: April 3, 2018
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B0788ZTXY9
Text-to-Speech: Enabled

Translated from Afrikaans by Maya Fowler and Isobel Dixon

Synopsis

Inspector Albertus Beeslaar is a traumatized cop who has abandoned tough city policing and a broken relationship in Johannesburg for a backwater post on the edge of the Kalahari Desert. But his dream of rural peace is soon shattered by the repeated attacks of a brutally efficient crime syndicate, as he struggles to train and connect with rookie local cops, Ghaap and Pyl, who resent his brusqueness and his old-school ways.

A beautiful and eccentric artist and her four-year-old adopted daughter are murdered on a local farm, and angry white farmers point to her enigmatic Bushman farm manager as a key suspect. Along with Ghaap and Pyl, Beeslaar is plunged into the intrigue and racial tensions of the community and finds that violence knows no geographical or ethnic boundaries.

Weeping Waters marks the beginning of a great new series with a striking new setting, a strong ensemble cast of characters and suspenseful storylines.

My take

There have been a number of farm killings in the area, over recent times, blamed on stock thieves. Two farm workers had been brutally murdered just a fortnight before, their bodies discovered underneath the carcasses of sheep.

But this killing appeared to be different: a woman and a 4 year old girl, the bedroom chaotic as if someone had been searching for something.

Inspector Beeslaar has failed to find any clues about the stock thieves so far and local whites are asking for the reinstatement of commandos and acting as vigilantes themselves, convinced that they intent is to drive them from their land.

Huilwater Farm is isolated and the murders have been discovered by a neighbour calling in to pass the time of day.

The threads of the story focus on land rights, inheritance, and racial undertones, as well as the pressures on Inspector Beeslaar to "perform".

My rating: 4.6

About the author
Karin Brynard is a former political and investigative journalist and uses her research skills and eye for detail to fascinating effect in Weeping Waters. She is, today, one of Penguin South Africa’s biggest authors.

Review: QUOTA, Jock Serong - audio book

• audio book - source my local library
•  Narrated by: Simon Harvey
• Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
• Unabridged Audiobook
• Release date: 09-01-16
• Originally published: 28 May 2014
• Language: English
• Publisher: Wavesound Audio
• Read it on Google Books

Synopsis (Audible)

Charlie Jardim has just trashed his legal career in a spectacular courtroom meltdown, and his girlfriend has finally left him. So when a colleague slings him a prosecution brief for the remote coastal town of Dauphin, Charlie reluctantly agrees to go.

The case is murder. The victim was involved in illegal abalone trading and even more illegal drug trafficking. And the witnesses aren't talking. As Dauphin closes ranks around him, Charlie finds his interest in the law powerfully reignited.

My Take

HIS HONOUR: Mr Jardim, withdraw that comment immediately.

MR JARDIM: Your Honour, I'm not withdrawing it because it's got nothing to do with the merits of this case, just as your small-minded treatment of my client has got nothing to do with the merits of the case. I mean, could you have cocked this thing up any worse? Bloody helpless kid and you know she's back out on the street now. You're known throughout the state as a heartless old prick and a drunk, and seeing I've gone this far, your daughter-in-law's appointment to the court is widely viewed as a grubby political payoff. Today's pretty much the lowest I've seen you stoop but it's been a rich field of excrem—

HIS HONOUR: Senior, will you have Mr Jardim removed?

QUOTA takes an unusual case, the murder of an abalone fisherman who is also dabbling in drug distribution.

Charlie Jardim is trying to put together a case to prosecute the victim's murderers. The account given of events by the victim's brother just does not hang together so Jardim travels to a small seaside Victorian town to see if he can get people to talk.

On the way to Dauphin he hits a kangaroo and wrecks his car. He is easily identified as a city man, and outsider, and before long every knows the Prosecutor is in town. Only the pub owner will talk to him.

Eventually he befriends the victim's brother and gets a different version of what occurred, and more importantly, gets him to agree to replace the original statement that the police have on record. But this is just the start of the plot.

There is a strong Australian flavour to this recording reinforced both by the language particularly the dialogue, but also by the narrator's voice. There are superb descriptions of the Victorian countryside, of the heat, of the declining nature of the town, of the way things are ruled by one family, and the way others have to take drastic measures to survive.

My rating: 4.6

I've also reviewed
5.0, THE RULES OF BACKYARD CRICKET
5.0, ON THE JAVA RIDGE
4.8, PRESERVATION

QUOTA is Serong's first novel and didn't get the same attention and recognition that his later novels have. I think taht is possibly because his voice is so different to other Australian crime fiction writers.
He was a practising lawyer when he published QUOTA

Review: COLD BLOOD, Robert Bryndza

• this edition published 2017 by Bookouture
• ISBN 978-1-78681-149-3
• 351 pages
• #5 in the Erika Foster series
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

She fell in love with a killer, now she's one too.

The suitcase was badly rusted, and took Erika several attempts, but it yielded and sagged open as she unzipped it. Nothing could prepare her for what she would find inside....

When a battered suitcase containing the dismembered body of a young man washes up on the shore of the river Thames, Detective Erika Foster is shocked. She's worked on some terrifying cases but never seen anything like this before.

As Erika and her team set to work, she makes the link with another victim - the body of a young woman dumped in an identical suitcase two weeks ago.

Erika quickly realizes she's on the trail of a serial killer who's already made their next move. Yet just as Erika starts to make headway with the investigation, she is the victim of a brutal attack.

But nothing will stop Erika. As the body count rises, the twin daughters of her colleague Commander Marsh are abducted, and the stakes are higher than ever before. Can Erika save the lives of two innocent children before it's too late? She's running out of time and about to make a disturbing discovery...there's more than one killer.

Brilliantly gripping, Cold Blood will have you hooked from the beginning and holding your breath to the heart-stopping and shocking ending.

My Take

A young girl wants so badly to be accepted by her older boyfriend that she agrees to do whatever he asks, even to agree to covering up a killing which she witnessed.

Yet another gruesome tale from Robert Bryndza which is at the same time compelling reading, an exploration of forces that lead to murder.

The story hops between two time frames, keeping readers on their toes, and includes a period when Detective Erika Foster is rather predictably suspended for insubordination. But Erika doesn't let that stop her from continuing her investigation.

My rating: 4.7

I've also read
4.8, THE GIRL IN THE ICE #1
4.8, THE NIGHT STALKER #2
4.6, DARK WATER #3
4.8, LAST BREATH #4

Review: THE STRANGER DIARIES, Elly Griffiths

• this edition published by Quercus 2018
• ISBN 978-1-78648-740-7
• 408 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (publisher)

THE TIMES CRIME BOOK OF THE YEAR

THE RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK

A dark story has been brought to terrifying life. Can the ending be rewritten in time?

Clare Cassidy is no stranger to tales of murder. As a literature teacher specialising in the Gothic writer R.M. Holland, she teaches a short course on them every year. Then Clare’s life and work collide tragically when one of her colleagues is found dead, a line from an R.M. Holland story by her body. The investigating police detective is convinced the writer’s works somehow hold the key to the case.

Not knowing who to trust, and afraid that the killer is someone she knows, Clare confides her darkest suspicions and fears about the case to her journal. Then one day she notices some other writing in the diary. Writing that isn’t hers…

My Take

The narration in this story is from several different voices:
Clare Cassidy herself;
Harbinder, a former student at the school and is the detective sergeant carrying out the investigation into the death of Clare's friend and colleague Ella;
Georgia (Georgie), Clare's daughter and a student at the school;
The short story The Stranger written decades before by R.M. Holland in whose house the school is established;
Excerpts from the story are featured throughout the main story and the narrators change often.

This is a story about obsession. The murder victims appear to be linked by the fact they are teachers in the English faculty at the school.

This I think is the first stand-alone that I have read by Elly Griffiths who in 2016 was the recipient of the CWA Dagger in the Library for services to crime fiction.

Very readable.

My rating: 4.6

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
4.5, THE GHOST FIELDS - audio book
4.7, THE OUTCAST DEAD - audio book
4.7, THE WOMAN IN BLUE
4.7, THE CHALK PIT
4.4, THE VANISHING BOX

Review: LETHAL WHITE, Robert Galbraith

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 1480 KB
• Print Length: 656 pages
• Publisher: Sphere (September 18, 2018)
• Publication Date: September 18, 2018
• Sold by: Hachette Book Group
• Language: English
• ASIN: B07FD8PFJM
• #4 in the Cormoran Strike series

Synopsis (Amazon)

When Billy, a troubled young man, comes to private eye Cormoran Strike's office to ask for his help investigating a crime he thinks he witnessed as a child, Strike is left deeply unsettled. While Billy is obviously mentally distressed, and cannot remember many concrete details, there is something sincere about him and his story. But before Strike can question him further, Billy bolts from his office in a panic.

Trying to get to the bottom of Billy's story, Strike and Robin Ellacott - once his assistant, now a partner in the agency - set off on a twisting trail that leads them through the backstreets of London, into a secretive inner sanctum within Parliament, and to a beautiful but sinister manor house deep in the countryside.

And during this labyrinthine investigation, Strike's own life is far from straightforward: his newfound fame as a private eye means he can no longer operate behind the scenes as he once did. Plus, his relationship with his former assistant is more fraught than it ever has been - Robin is now invaluable to Strike in the business, but their personal relationship is much, much more tricky than that . . .

The most epic Robert Galbraith novel yet, LETHAL WHITE is both a gripping mystery and a page-turning next instalment in the ongoing story of Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott.

My Take

Cormoran Strike is approached by a Cabinet Minister who says he is being blackmailed, whose wife says there are trespassers in the woods on their property. And then Billy turns up saying he has witnessed a murder. Coincidentally Billy's father used to work for the Cabinet Minister.

The Cabinet Minister believes that the blackmail threat is coming from another Cabinet Minister's office so Robin, Strike's colleague, is installed in the Parliamentary office undercover.

That is just the beginning of the first theme of the story. The book is quite large, with complex intertwining themes, a large number of characters and incidents to keep track of.

But it was so well written that it just kept me reading. There is considerable development in the personal background for both Strike and Robin. The action takes place over a period of over a year.

I look forward to the next in the series.

My rating: 4.7

I've also read
5.0, THE CUCKOO'S CALLING #1 
4.5, THE SILKWORM  #2
4.6, A CAREER OF EVIL  #3

Review: THE DEVIL'S NOVICE, Ellis Peter - audio book

• Unabridged Audio book from Audible .com
• Narrated by: Vanessa Benjamin
• Series: Brother Cadfael, Book 8
• Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
• Originally published 1983
• Release date: 10-26-00
• Language: English
• Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Synopsis ( Audible .com)

Outside the pale of the Abbey of Saint Peters and Saint Paul, in September of the year of our Lord 1140, a priestly emissary for King Stephen has been reported missing. But inside the pale, what troubles Brother Cadfael is a proud, secretive 19-year-old novice.

Brother Cadfael has never seen two men more estranged than the Lord of Aspley and Meriet, the son he coldly delivers to the abbey to begin a religious vocation. Meriet, meek by day, is so racked by dreams at night that his howls earn him the nickname the Devil's Novice. Shunned and feared, Meriet is soon linked to the missing priest's dreadful fate. Only Brother Cadfael believes in Meriet's innocence, and only the good sleuth can uncover the truth before a boy's pure passion, not evil intent, leads a novice to the noose.

My take

There was more of the "local politics" of the Stephen/Maud civil war in this novel than in previous ones. Opportunist nobility and bishops are seeking to take advantage of the political chaos by setting up their own fiefdoms that support neither Stephen nor Maude. Nobody is quite sure of what the mission was of the priest murdered in the forest.

Meriet is the Lord of Apsley's second son, delivered to the Abbey to become a priest, while his first son Nigel is about to be married and will take over lands to the north as part of his wife's dowry. Brother Cadfael is pretty sure Meriet does not have a vocation, that he has come to the Abbey for some other reason.

Reading these novels in order pays off as some characters persist from one to the other, and assist in the development of Cadfael's character. Cadfael works in tandem with Hugh Berengar the deputy sheriff of Shrewsbury who is now consistently featured.

My rating: 4.2

I've also read
THE PILGRIM OF HATE
4.3, A MORBID TASTE FOR BONES
4.6, A CORPSE TOO MANY 
4.6, MONK'S-HOOD 
4.4, THE LEPER OF SAINT GILES 
4.4, THE VIRGIN IN THE ICE

Review: LAST BREATH, Robert Bryndza

• this edition published by Bookouture 2017
• #4 in the Erika Foster series
• ISBN 978-1-78681-145-5
• 357 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Amazon)

He’s your perfect date. You’re his next victim.

When the tortured body of a young woman is found in a dumpster, her eyes swollen shut and her clothes soaked with blood, Detective Erika Foster is one of the first at the crime scene. The trouble is, this time, it’s not her case.

While she fights to secure her place on the investigation team, Erika can’t help but get involved and quickly finds a link to the unsolved murder of a woman four months earlier. Dumped in a similar location, both women have identical wounds – a fatal incision to their femoral artery.

Stalking his victims online, the killer is preying on young pretty women using a fake identity. How will Erika catch a murderer who doesn’t seem to exist?

Then another girl is abducted while waiting for a date. Erika and her team must get to her before she becomes another dead victim, and, come face to face with a terrifyingly sadistic individual.

My Take

Another bold and breathtaking entry into this gripping series - it did not disappoint.

At the end of the last story (DARK WATER) Erika Foster stormed out when a colleague was promoted above her, thus denying her the credit for solving the case. However she finds herself in an office, pen-pushing, and she realises that she needs to eat humble pie to get herself back playing an active role in Murder Investigation.

She comes across a report about the resolution of a missing persons case and realises that it could have connections to a current murder investigation. She takes her intuition to Sparks, who got the Superintendent job she felt was rightfully hers, and he agrees to let her back into the team if she toes the line.

The reader finds out quite early on who is committing the abductions/murders and the investigation gets closer, partly through careful policing, and partly through Erika's intuition. Despite her promises to the contrary, Erika remains a loose cannon, who doesn't always look before she acts.

Erika's relationships with members of her small team are further cemented and explored, so it pays to read this series from the beginning in order to get the full character development.

My rating: 4.8

I've also read
4.8, THE GIRL IN THE ICE #1
4.8, THE NIGHT STALKER #2
4.6, DARK WATER #3  

Review: KILL SHOT, Garry Disher

• this edition published by Text Publishing 2018
• ISBN 9-781925-773224
• 242 pages
• Wyatt #9
• source: my local library
• for US readers: available on Kindle

Synopsis (Good Reads)

The latest gripping story in the popular Wyatt thriller series kicks off in Sydney and then unfolds on the beaches of Newcastle.

Some people just work better alone. Wyatt’s one of them. He’s been getting by on nice quiet little burglaries—one-man jobs—when he gets wind of something bigger.

A corporate crook, notorious Ponzi schemer, set to face court and certain jail time. He’s about to skip bail the old-fashioned way: on a luxury yacht with a million dollars in cash.

Wyatt thinks it sounds like something he should get into.

He’s not alone.

My Take

Most of Wyatt's recent jobs have been brokered by a day-release prisoner named Sam Kramer. Through his daughter Kramer passes on information he has gleaned from other prison inmates.  As a result Wyatt relieves people of their valuables, mainly through burglary, passes them on to a fence, and puts a commission into an safety deposit box for Kramer, keeping the remainder for himself. Periodically Kramer's daughter contacts him to let him know the family needs some money. It works well.

Wyatt is a cautious, yet confident man, careful to remain anonymous, leaving nothing his victims can identify him by, and watchful for signs that he has been noticed. He thinks back over what he's done, looking for errors.

The weak link in the scheme is Kramer's son who passes Wyatt's name on to someone else who like to cash in on the jobs that Wyatt is doing.

There are a couple of linked stories in this novel: a Ponzi scheme operator planning to skip the country with about a million dollars, and a couple from South Australia who've stolen a luxury boat.
Wyatt gets information about the first from Kramer. Looks like it might be easy pickings if he can work out where the Ponzi scheme money is.

There definitely an Australian flavour to this novel. And some how you forget that Wyatt is on the wrong side of the law.

My rating: 4.7

I've also read (not all are Wyatt series novels)
4.7, WYATT
4.8, WHISPERING DEATH
4.7, BLOOD MOON
4.2, THE HEAT
4.5, SIGNAL LOSS
4.7, HER
4.9, UNDER THE COLD BRIGHT LIGHTS

review: THE NIGHT STALKER, Robert Bryndza

• this edition published by Sphere 2018
• ISBN 978-0-7515-7147-9
• 370 pages
• source: my local library
• #2 in the Erika Foster series

Synopsis (publisher)


In the dead of a swelteringly hot summer's night, Detective Erika Foster is called to a murder scene. The victim, a doctor, is found suffocated in bed. His wrists are bound and his eyes bulging through a clear plastic bag tied tight over his head.

A few days later, another victim is found dead, in exactly the same circumstances. As Erika and her team start digging deeper, they discover a calculated serial killer - stalking their victims before choosing the right moment to strike.

The victims are all single men, with very private lives. Why are their pasts shrouded in secrecy? And what links them to the killer?

As a heat wave descends upon London, Erika will do everything to stop the Night Stalker before the body count rises, even if it means risking her job. But the victims might not be the only ones being watched... Erika's own life could be on the line.

My take

I have to admit being hooked on this series which I discovered last year.
The crimes in it are very noir (warning) and Detective Erika Foster thinks outside the square, loyal to those she leads, antagonises those supervising her (although they recognise that she is brilliant), and likely to be sidelined by her superiors at crucial times.

But again this was one of those books that just compels you to read on.

My rating: 4.8

I've also read

4.8, THE GIRL IN THE ICE  #1 
4.6, DARK WATER  #3

Review: TWISTED, Lynda La Plante

• this edition published by Simon & Schuster 2014
• ISBN 978-1-47112-588-1
• 500 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (publisher)

Marcus and Lena Fulford are the envy of their friends. Wealthy, attractive and successful, the couple, with their strikingly beautiful teenage daughter Amy, seem settled and content. But appearances mask a strained relationship almost at breaking point. Marcus's latest business venture has failed, draining Lena, the major breadwinner, dry. Putting Amy into weekly boarding school and striving to get her own career back on its feet, Lena remains alone in the luxurious family house as her marriage heads towards as amicable a divorce as she and Marcus can muster, and joint custody of their only child.

So when Amy arranges a sleepover with a school friend one weekend, neither parent sees the need to be in touch with her. It is only when Amy is reported missing from school and her friend's mother reveals that, instead of staying with them, Amy was visiting her father - a fact vehemently denied by Marcus - that Lena contacts the police.

DI Victor Reid, in charge of the case, fears the worst - abduction or murder. A family under constant police and press scrutiny, a father who has seemingly lied about his alibi for the weekend, a mother whose perfect world is crumbling beneath her feet, a detective under pressure from his impatient superiors to deliver a result, the length of time that Amy has been missing gathering speed… all conspire to make Lynda La Plante's latest thriller her most tense and terrifying yet.

My Take

Marcus and Lena Fulford are going through what they both insist is an amicable divorce process, after a separation of two years, when Marcus decides to accelerate things by bringing their lawyers together to discuss the terms of the divorce settlement.

Almost immediately Amy goes missing during a weekend when she is supposed to be having a sleepover at a friend's house. Lena reports her daughter's disappearance to the police and they launch an investigation. Amy is not found and Di Victor Reid suspects that her father may have had something to do with her disappearance. The misper investigation drags on and is handed over to a murder squad and that is when things get interesting.

This is quite a long novel and I changed my mind several times about what the ending would be, but not once did I really get it right!
 
My rating: 4.5

I've also read
4.5 ROYAL FLUSH aka ROYAL HEIST
4.5, DEADLY INTENT

review: THE MARMALADE MURDERS, Elizabeth J. Duncan

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
  
• Series: A Penny Brannigan Mystery (Book 9)
• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books (April 24, 2018)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1250101492
• ISBN-13: 978-1250101495

Synopsis (Amazon)

The Marmalade Murders is the ninth book in Elizabeth J. Duncan's award-winning mystery series, celebrated for its small-town charm and picturesque Welsh setting and starring amateur sleuth Penny Brannigan.

The competition is friendly and just a little fierce at the annual Llanelen agricultural show as town and country folk gather for the outdoor judging of farm animals and indoor judging of cakes, pies, pastries, chutneys, jams and jellies, along with vegetables, fruit and flowers. But this year, there’s a new show category: murder.

Local artist, Spa owner, and amateur sleuth Penny Brannigan agrees to help with the intake of the domestic arts entries and to judge the children’s pet competition on show day. When the president of the Welsh Women's Guild isn’t on hand to see her granddaughter and pet pug win a prize, the family becomes concerned. When a carrot cake entered in the competition goes missing, something is clearly amiss.

A black Labrador Retriever belonging to the agricultural show’s president discovers the body of the missing woman under the baked goods table. A newcomer to town, a transgender woman, is suspected, but amateur sleuth Penny Brannigan believes her to be innocent. She sets out to find the real killer, but when a second body is discovered days later, the case is thrown into confusion, and Penny knows it’s up to her to figure out what happened―and why.

My take

This a well plotted cozy set in Wales with a scenario that many a country woman would be familiar with. As Penny Brannigan says later, who could guess that a simple cake and jams competition could engender such violence?

Penny and her colleague Victoria are roped into monitoring the cakes, jams and marmalades as the local women bring them in to the competition. Later Penny also has to jusge the children's pets competition.

One of the competitors arrives late to hand her marmalade in, then disappears overnight, and then turns up dead under one of the trestle tables.

Very readable.

My rating: 4.2

I've also read 4.3, MURDER ON THE HOUR 

About this author
Elizabeth J. Duncan has worked as a writer and editor for some of Canada's largest newspapers, including the Ottawa Citizen and Hamilton Spectator. She lives with her dog, Dolly, in Toronto where she teaches in the public relations program at Humber College. She enjoys spending time each year in North Wales and is the first Canadian writer to win the Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery Novel Competition. The Cold Light of Mourning, her first novel, is also the winner of the William F. Deeck-Malice Domestic Grant and was shortlisted for an Agatha and an Arthur Ellis Award.

Penny Brannigan Mystery (Fantastic Fiction list)
1. The Cold Light of Mourning (2009)
2. A Brush with Death (2010)
3. A Killer's Christmas in Wales (2011)
4. A Small Hill to Die On (2012)
5. Never Laugh As a Hearse Goes By (2013)
6. Slated for Death (2015)
7. Murder on the Hour (2016)
8. Murder Is for Keeps (2017)
9. The Marmalade Murders (2018) 

Review: MINE, J.L. Butler

• this edition published by HarperCollins Publishers 2018
• ISBN 978-0-00-82641-9
• 424 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (publisher)

Set in the Inns of Court in London, where justice and corruption go hand in hand. J L Butler’s taut, gripping legal drama brims with suspense and obsession, and only you can solve the case…
A gripping, thrill-a-minute ride through London’s dark side’ Erin Kelly

Gripping, intelligent, thrilling’ Adele Parks

Intelligently written. Compulsive. I defy you to put this down.’ Jane Corry

Fatal Attraction meets Apple Tree Yard. This debut novel will be your new obsession.

Francine Day is a high-flying lawyer about to apply for silk, ambitious and brilliant. She just needs one headline grabbing client to seal her place as Queen's Counsel, Martin Joy. The attraction is instant. Obsessive.

They embark on a secret affair and Francine thinks she can hold it together. But then Martin's wife, Donna, goes missing. And Martin is the prime suspect.

As the case unravels so does Francine, because the last person to see Donna Joy alive, was her.

My client. My lover. My lawyer. My obsession.

My Take

This was a good book to start the year with.

In having an affair with her client divorce lawyer Francine Day is committing the unforgiveable. But she hopes she can keep it hidden. That becomes dangerous ground when Martin's wife Donna disappears. Francine has been suspecting that Martin and Donna don't really want a divorce, that they are still in love, or is Donna playing around with someone else?

Martin is worth tens of millions and Donna wants half his money in a divorce settlement. All sorts of thoughts go through Francine's head about why Donna has disappeared. But she can't stay away from Martin even though she suspects he has had something to do with Donna's disappearance.

The blurb says this is a slick page-turner, and it is not wrong. It will keep you reading until the very end.


My rating: 4.6

About the author
J.L. Butler trained as a lawyer and journalist. She lives in London with her husband and son. J.L. Butler is the pseudonym for Sunday Times bestseller, Tasmina Perry.