The continuation of Inspector Frost

The late R D Wingfield's Inspector Frost series, which spawned the much beloved and long-running tv series A Touch of Frost, ran to only six books:

• Frost at Christmas	1989	1
• A Touch of Frost	1990	2
• Night Frost	1992	3
• Hard Frost	1995	4
• Winter Frost	1999	5
• A Killing Frost	2008	6

In recent years. a prequel series has been produced by two authors then one author under the name "James Henry":

DS Jack Frost, 1980s

• First Frost	2011	1
• Fatal Frost	2012	2
• Morning Frost	2013	3
• Frost at Midnight	2017	4

And now, the prequel series is being continued by Danny Miller, in Lethal Frost published 9 August:

Denton, 1984. After a morning’s betting at the races, bookmaker George Price is found in his car, barely alive with a bullet in his head. As he’s rushed to hospital, Detective Inspector Jack Frost and the Denton police force start their hunt for the would-be murderer.

But with a long list of enemies who might want the bookie dead, the team have got their work cut out for them. And with a slew of other crimes hitting the area, from counterfeit goods to a violent drugs gangs swamping Denton with cheap heroin, the stakes have never been higher.

Will Frost find the answers he’s looking for before things go from bad to worse?

Review: The Prime of Ms Dolly Greene by E V Harte

I'm focussing my reading/reviewing this summer on debuts - including first crime novels from authors known for a different genre. Mostly British but I hope to throw in the occasional US or NZ author. My second entry in this feature, is E V Harte's The Prime of Ms Dolly Greene.

The Prime of Ms Dolly Greene by E V Harte, September 2017, 277 pages, Constable, ISBN: 1472124243

THE PRIME OF MS DOLLY GREENE is the first book in the Tarot Detective series and introduces the eponymous Dolly Greene. Dolly is scraping by after her divorce. She lives in a tiny one-bed terraced house along with her college-attending daughter, Pippa, and makes her living giving tarot card readings.

When she reads the cards for a young woman, Nikki, she foresees bad things for Nikki and even gets a vision of a bruised face. Nikki says she was recommended to Dolly by Dolly's older neighbour, Maurice but Maurice later denies this.

When the body of a woman is found in the nearby Thames, Dolly wonders if it is Nikki. Especially when she cannot get in touch with her.

It's only when there is a death on the street that Dolly starts to detect, with the assistance of a local and handsome police sergeant who is quite willing to keep Dolly up to date with the investigation(s).

The isolated nature of the street that Dolly lives in – with the properties fronting a cycle path – lends the story a village feel with all the residents knowing each other's business and their stories being quite entwined. The Tarot back ground is unusual and interesting and Dolly is a likeable character. The crime story, however, does take a while to get going and Dolly does little to find out if the dead body is Nikki until she is more directly affected. This has a traditional mystery feel to it, as indicated by the gorgeous cover, but it also contains some very modern language and sexual references/activities. The second book in the series, THE CASE OF THE FOOL, is out now.

E V Harte is the nom-de-plume of novelist Daisy Waugh.

Awards News: CWA Dagger Shortlists (2018)

The Longlists for the CWA's Daggers: Gold, Ian Fleming, John Creasey, International, Historical, Short Story and the Dagger in the Library were announced back in May and last night the Shortlists were announced. From the press release:

CWA Announce Shortlists for Prestigious Crime Writing Daggers

The Crime Writers’ Association announced the shortlists for the prestigious annual Dagger awards for crime writing at an evening reception at Daunt Books, Cheapside, London, on Wednesday 25 July.

The shortlists provide some interesting duplications. Resurrection Bay by Emma Viskic appears on the shortlist for the CWA Gold Dagger and the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger, while A Necessary Evil by Abir Mukherjee is on the Gold and the CWA Historical shortlists. Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke is on both the Gold and the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger shortlists. London Rules by Mick Herron also appears on the Gold and the Ian Fleming Steel longlists – he won the Ian Fleming last year with Spook Street, just as Mukherjee won the Historical with A Rising Man. Also listed for the Historical Dagger is LC Tyler’s Fire and Stella Duffy’s completion of Ngaio Marsh’s Money in the Morgue.

For the CWA International Dagger, familiar names of Fred Vargas, Pierre Lemaître and Dolores Redondo appear alongside Henning Mankell.

Lee Child makes an appearance on the CWA Short Story Dagger shortlist, as does Christine Poulson with her story ‘Accounting for Murder’ from the CWA’s own anthology, Mystery Tour. Martin Edwards, Chair of the CWA and president of the Detection Club, features on the Dagger in the Library shortlist. The CWA Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction represents as an eclectic shortlist as ever, with Piu Marie Eatwell’s Black Dahlia Red Rose a notable title with its new take on an infamous murder case.

The CWA Daggers, which are the probably the awards crime authors and publishers alike most wish to win, are awarded every year in 10 categories. The Diamond Dagger, for a career’s outstanding contribution to crime fiction as nominated by CWA members, was announced earlier in the year and will be awarded to best-selling author Michael Connelly at the Dagger Awards event on October.

Here are the CWA Dagger shortlists for 2018.

The CWA Gold Dagger

Steve Cavanagh The Liar (Orion)

Mick Herron London Rules (John Murray)

Dennis Lehane Since We Fell (Little, Brown)

Attica Locke Bluebird, Bluebird (Serpent's Tail)

Abir Mukherjee A Necessary Evil (Harvill Secker)

Emma Viskic Resurrection Bay (Pushkin Vertigo)

T he CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger

Mick Herron London Rules (John Murray Publishers)

Emily Koch If I Die Before I Wake (Harvill Secker)

Attica Locke Bluebird, Bluebird (Serpent's Tail)

Colette McBeth An Act of Silence (Wildfire)

C J Tudor The Chalk Man (Michael Joseph)

Don Winslow The Force (HarperFiction)

The CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger

William Boyle Gravesend (No Exit Press)

Joe Ide I.Q. (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

Danya Kukafka Girl in Snow (Picador)

.

Melissa Scrivner Love Lola (Point Blank)

Khurrum Rahman East of Hounslow (HQ)

Emma Viskic Resurrection Bay (Pushkin Vertigo)

T he CWA ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction

Piu Eatwell Black Dahlia Red Rose (Coronet)

David Grann Killers of the Flower Moon (Simon & Schuster)

Thomas Harding Blood on the Page (Heinemann)

Alexandria Mariano-Lesnevich The Fact of a Body (Macmillan)

T. Christian Miller & Ken Armstrong A False Report (Hutchinson)

Laura Thompson  Rex V Edith Thompson (Head of Zeus)

The CWA Historical Dagger

Abir Mukherjee A Necessary Evil (Harvill Secker)

L. C. Tyler  Fire (Constable)

Thomas Mullen Lightning Men (Little, Brown)

Ngaio Marsh & Stella Duffy Money in the Morgue (HarperCollins)

Nicola Upson Nine Lessons (Faber & Faber)

Rory Clements Nucleus (Zaffre Publishing)

The CWA International Dagger

Oliver Bottini, tr Jamie Bulloch Zen and the Art of Murder (MacLehose)

Pierre Lemaître tr Frank Wynne Three Days and a Life (MacLehose)

Henning Mankell, tr Marlaine Delargy After the Fire (Harvill Secker)

Jon Michelet, tr Don Bartlett The Frozen Woman (No Exit Press)

Dolores Redondo, tr Nick Caistor & Lorenza Garzía

Offering to the Storm (HarperCollins)

Fred Vargas, tr Sian Reynolds The Accordionist (Harvill Secker)

The CWA Short Story Dagger

‘The Last Siege of Bothwell Castle’ by Chris Brookmyre

Bloody Scotland (Historic Environment Scotland)

‘Second Son’ by Lee Child

No Middle Name: The Complete Collected Jack Reacher Stories (Bantam Press)

‘Smoking Kills’ by Erin Kelly

“The Body” Killer Women Crime Club Anthology 2, Edited by Susan Opie (Killer Women Ltd)

‘Nemo Me Impune Lacessit’ by Denise Mina

Bloody Scotland (Historic Environment Scotland)

‘Accounting for Murder’ by Christine Poulson

Mystery Tour: CWA Anthology of Short Stories, Edited by Martin Edwards

(Orenda Books)

The CWA Dagger in the Library

Nominated by libraries.

Martin Edwards

Nicci French

Edward Marston

Peter May

Rebecca Tope

Simon Kernick

The winners of the CWA Daggers will be announced at the Dagger Awards dinner in London on 25 October, for which tickets are now available. Visit www.thecwa.co.uk for more information or email admin@thecwa.co.uk .

Review: Tall Order by Stephen Leather

Tall Order by Stephen Leather, July 2018, 400 pages, Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN: 1473604176

Reviewed by Terry Halligan.
(Read more of Terry's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

Amazon blurb:
He is one of the world's most ruthless terrorists, codenamed Saladin. He plans and executes devastating attacks and then, ghost-like, he disappears.

Ten years ago he blew a plane out of the sky above New York - and now he's killed dozens in a London strike.

But one of the latest victims is related to the acting head of MI5, who knows exactly who she wants on the case: Spider Shepherd.

Dean Martin, a psychologically damaged former Navy SEAL, is the only person in the world who can identify Saladin. But Martin was killed ten years ago - wasn't he?

Shepherd must find Martin and take him back to the killing fields on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Revenge on the world's most wanted terrorist is long overdue, and Shepherd is determined to be the one to deliver it . . .

The story is very violent and bloody and there are scenes of torture that may upset readers of a more sensitive nature but they had to be included because they were very necessary to the very detailed story. The tension between the different personalities and the excellent characterisation make this a highly enjoyable thriller.

This is the fifteenth book in the series about Dan ‘Spider’ Shepherd and thirty-sixth overall of his titles but it could easily be the first as the author is so adept at his craft that there is a freshness to his writing which makes it truly exceptional. As a former journalist for ten years on newspapers such as The Times in London and The South China Morning Post in Hong Kong before becoming a novelist, the author is highly skilled in researching in depth before writing his stories and the authenticity of that highly detailed research is clearly shown in the meticulous descriptions and prose of his stories.

It is not a handicap to the new reader that this is Leather’s fifteenth book in the “Spider” Shepherd series as full explanations are given about all the characters and aspects of the plot.

Stephen Leather is one of the UK’s most successful thriller writers, an e-book and Sunday Times bestseller and author of the critically acclaimed Dan ‘Spider’ Shepherd series and the Jack Nightingale supernatural detective novels. Born in Manchester, he has been writing full time since 1992. His bestsellers have been translated into fifteen languages and several of his novels have been turned into films. In 2011 alone he sold more than half a million e-books and was voted by 'The Bookseller' magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the UK publishing world.

This seasoned writer is at the top of his game and immersing yourself in his world is deeply rewarding as it is a spellbinding and quite brilliant read. TALL ORDER is an extremely enjoyable book and a rattling good read. It was well written and therefore easy to read, even though it is quite lengthy at 400 pages but it is very cleverly plotted and I was completely gripped until the final exciting paragraph. I believe that this was the author's best book so far.

Extremely well recommended.

Terry Halligan, July 2018.

New books from Sara Blaedel (2)

I posted a few months ago about the new books coming soon from Sara Blaedel. I'm pleased to report that the first book in the Louise Rick series, The Midnight Witness, will be out in the US in October.

In August the US paperback edition of The Undertaker's Daughter, the first in the Ilka Nichols Jensen series, will be titled just The Daughter and will include a copy of The Night Women (apa Farewell to Freedom). The second book in the series, Her Father's Secret, will be out in March (US).

[I'm not sure who the translator is for these new books.]

In summary, the reading order is as follows:

Louise Rick

#1 The Midnight Witness
#2 Call Me Princess (apa Blue Blood (UK)) (apa The Silent Women (US, 2018))
#3 Only One Life (apa The Drowned Girl (US, 2018)
#4 Farewell to Freedom (apa The Night Women)
#5 The Running Girl
#6 The Stolen Angel
#7 The Forgotten Girls
#8 The Killing Forest
#9 The Lost Woman

Ilka Nichols Jensen

#1 The Undertaker's Daughter (apa The Daughter)
#2 Her Father's Secret

News x2: Jo Nesbo; Theakston Crime Novel of the Year 2018 Winner

Two very notable announcements yesterday. First up was the news of the new Harry Hole book from Jo Nesbo in 2019. I'm assuming the translator is Neil Smith who worked on The Thirst:

After the dramatic conclusion of #1 bestseller THE THIRST, KNIFE sees Harry waking up with a ferocious hangover, his hands and clothes covered in blood.

Not only is Harry about to come face to face with an old, deadly foe, but with his darkest personal challenge yet.

KNIFE, the twelfth instalment in Jo’s bestselling series featuring troubled Oslo detective Harry Hole, will be published in the UK on 11th July 2019.

Jo Nesbo will be launching his new Harry Hole thriller with a special guest event at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival 2019.

And sticking with Theakston, the winner of the 2018 Crime Novel of the Year was revealed to be...Stav Sherez for The Intrusions (Faber).

Also shortlisted were:

Spook Street by Mick Herron (John Murray)

Insidious Intent by Val McDermid (Little, Brown)

The Long Drop by Denise Mina (Vintage)

A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)

Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner (The Borough Press)

Blog Tour: Extract from Betty Church and the Suffolk Vampire by M R C Kasasian

I'm delighted to be a stop on the blog tour for Betty Church and the Suffolk Vampire. I've been a huge fan of M R C Kasasian's books beginning with The Mangle Street Murders which introduced Sidney Grice and March Middleton in the first in the Gower Street Detective series. This new series begins in 1939, some forty years or so after the Gower Street series, but there is a link as you'll see from the extract below....

All my life I wanted to be a policeman. It wasn’t a family tradition. My father was a dentist, as his father was too; my maternal grandfather a publisher of what was then modern poetry; and the women of the family were just that – the women.

It wasn’t the uniform either. The Horse Guards looked far more dashing, I thought, and like every quite nice girl, I loved a sailor. But a young policeman gave me a piggyback over a flooded street when I was tiny. He got soaked up to his knees and didn’t seem to mind. At that moment I knew that I wanted to be like him, helping people. 

It did not occur to me until a teacher ridiculed these hopes that nature had thwarted my ambition. Neither of the Suffolk forces would even consider applications from my sex – the very idea was absurd – but I was not so easily discouraged. I moved to London and became what was, even there, still an oddity – some said an abomination – a policewoman.

I started well enough in the Metropolitan Constabulary, considering I was a curvaceous peg in a square hole. Police officers were supposed to be tall, and I was, but they were not supposed to have long blonde hair, and I did. I passed the training course with distinction and was stationed in Marylebone. This was the posting I had dreamed of, having spent many a childhood hour on my godmother March Middleton’s knee in 125 Gower Street thrilled by tales of Aunty M’s adventures with her guardian, the irascible personal detective Sidney Grice. It was nearly sixty years since she had gone to live with him and almost as many since she had started publishing her accounts of their investigations. 

It was after I caught Hay, the Alkaline Shower Murderer, that my name was put forward for a vacancy and, to my surprise and my colleagues’ outrage, at the age of twenty-eight I was made a sergeant – only the ninth woman in the country to reach that rank. And that should have been that but then I foolishly arrested the ringleaders of the Paper Chain Gang – a big mistake because it was hailed in the press as a triumph after it had been Chief Inspector Heartsease’s case for the previous five years.

I never wanted to make enemies – I only wanted to be a good copper – but being a successful woman is the best way to make enemies that I know of.

I was thirty-eight when I had my mishap, which meant, of course, that I would have to be invalided out. It was only after leaving hospital that I realised I had a choice: I could feel sorry for myself and do nothing, or feel sorry for myself and go to the one person in the world who might be able to help.

Many thanks to Head of Zeus for this extract.

Betty Church and the Suffolk Vampire on Amazon.co.uk
Betty Church and the Suffolk Vampire on HoZ website
Betty Church and the Suffolk Vampire on GoodReads

HoZ on Twitter: @HoZ_Books
HoZ on Instagram: @headofzeus
HoZ on Facebook: Head of Zeus

M. R. C. Kasasian on Twitter: @MRCKASASIAN

Little People, Big Dreams - Agatha Christie

This series of Little People, Big Dreams books is aimed at the younger reader (suggested age range 4 to 7) and included among the artists, writers, inventors, scientists and other trailblazers is one Agatha Christie.

Amazon blurb:

In the Little People, Big Dreams series, discover the lives of outstanding people from designers and artists to scientists. All of them went on to achieve incredible things, yet all of them began life as a little child with a dream. The book follows Agatha Christie, who taught herself to read at the age of five, on her journey to becoming the most famous crime writer of all time. This inspiring and informative little biography comes with extra facts about Agatha's life at the back.

This entry in the series is written by Isabel Sanchez Vegara, illustrated by Elisa Munso and translated by Raquel Plitt and published by Frances Lincoln Children's Books.

I haven't come across this series before so I've pointed it out to my library manager.

Review: The Devil's Dice by Roz Watkins

I'm focussing my reading/reviewing this summer on debuts - including first crime novels from authors known for a different genre. Mostly British but I hope to throw in the occasional US or NZ author. I'm starting with Roz Watkins' very accomplished debut, The Devil's Dice:

The Devil's Dice by Roz Watkins, March 2018, 368 pages, HQ, ISBN: 0008214611

THE DEVIL'S DICE introduces DI Meg Dalton who has moved back to Derbyshire from Manchester after some personal issues.

Meg is called out to the discovery of a body in a small, reputedly haunted cave. The body is that of a local, male, patent lawyer and it looks like poison is the killer. Investigations into the deceased reveal that his personality had changed over the last few months and so suicide can't be ruled out.

Meg and her sergeant, Jai, proceed to investigate further, interviewing relatives and work colleagues. Meg has trauma in her past and the nature of this is slowly revealed over the book. Her mum is a carer for Meg's bed-ridden gran and this is an added pressure when Meg is busy on a murder case.

THE DEVIL'S DICE, a debut, is an absorbing book full of many layers - both the mystery side of it, bringing in local legends and the landscape, and Meg's personal life both as a child and current. It builds to not one but two dramatic set pieces

I very much enjoyed this book. I really liked Meg, she is humorous and likeable, with a diet of choccy biscuits and a cat called Hamlet. Her sidekick seems quite fond of her too... The plot is unusual and not one that could be easily guessed. It's a real page-turner with Meg getting into regular, serious scrapes though she is not one of those energiser bunny types and it takes its toll. And of course there is a well evoked Derbyshire setting which includes real places such as Matlock, alongside a fictional town.

The sequel, DEAD MAN'S DAUGHTER, is out next April and I'm really looking forward to it.

It's not overt but I checked with the author and I have been able to add Meg to my short list of vegetarian sleuths.

Review: Heavenfield by L J Ross

Heavenfield by L J Ross, August 2016, 264 pages, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, ISBN: 1530652685

Reviewed by Susan White.
(Read more of Susan's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

An isolated church in Northumberland and a man faces up to his death with a gun in his face. Later a group of pilgrims to the church, Heavenfield, are shocked to find a man kneeling over a body. The man is DCI Ryan, currently suspended from duty while investigations are undertaken into an operation that his superior, Detective Superintendent Gregson, thinks put other officers' lives in danger.

Ryan is acquainted with the dead man - Dr Mark Burrows - who was also a surrogate father to Ryan’s girlfriend, Anna. Gregson would be delighted if Ryan were found to be guilty of the murder and tasks Ryan’s friends and colleagues with the task of interviewing him as a suspect. McKenzie and Phillips are uncomfortable with the situation they have been forced into and soon find no cause to suspect Ryan. They increasingly suspect the mysterious group of influential people – The Circle – to be involved. The group has previously been implicated with dubious ritual practices but is very secretive and its membership are not known to those outside the group.

Gregson increasingly comes under suspicion for some of his dubious command decisions and then his wife goes missing.

The wide, beautiful countryside of Northumberland is really well portrayed. The writing capturing the lonely distances between towns and villages and the isolation that can develop in such a situation

This is the third book in the series featuring DCI Ryan and although the story in this book is a continuation of the previous two novels to a degree, it does work as a stand-alone. It requires a very competent writer to balance the narrative needs of a new reader to their work with that of those who have read the previous books and I feel that L J Ross carries it off. A good example of self publishing and it has encouraged me to look out for more of the author's work.

Susan White, July 2018

Review: Baby Blue by Pol Koutsakis tr. Anne-Marie Stanton-Ife

Baby Blue by Pol Koutsakis translated by Anne-Marie Stanton-Ife, June 2018, 292 pages, Bitter Lemon Press, ISBN: 190852491X

Reviewed by Lynn Harvey.
(Read more of Lynn's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

We always let down those we love most. And we always take the gamble that they’ll understand.

A spring night in Athens:
When a friend rings Stratos Gazis asking for his help, Stratos is surprised. After all it’s Stratos who usually calls him, not the other way round. Stratos immediately sets out into the Athenian traffic despite longing to see his current and childhood love Maria as they had arranged. At six foot three and 220 pounds Gazis draws attention and as he dislikes drawing anyone’s attention his route is carefully planned. Stratos is a “caretaker”; he takes care of people with a gun. But he doesn’t think of himself as a hit man. He does his research and if he considers the target doesn’t deserve to die then he won’t take the job. That’s his deal. He’s the best and he can afford rules.

Angelino is the old friend from the streets, an information dealer, who has asked for Stratos’ help and tonight Stratos finds himself a world away from the decrepit square Angelino used to live on with his ancient dog Hector. Stratos is buzzed into a graffiti-less neoclassical building past security guards and into a spacious sitting room filled with twenty guests at least. Angelino is hosting an investors evening. All of the guests are entranced by a young girl performing incredible feats of conjuring and magic. This is Emma; prodigiously talented, beautiful – and blind. Emma is the investment in question. To be precise, her bid to take part in the Magic Olympics. Winner takes Vegas and New York. And it is also Emma who is asking for help. She tells Stratos that when she was little she was rescued from an orphanage by a journalist. He brought her up and she regarded him as her father. They ended up living on the streets after he left his job. Three years ago he was murdered – tortured and shot. It was Emma who found his body. Now she wants Stratos to find her father’s murderer. She wants revenge.

It’s after midnight when Stratos hurries back to Maria. He spots a familiar car parked on his street. It belongs to another old friend, his closest, Kostas Dragas known as Drag, a famous homicide cop with the Athens police. Not the usual companion for a “caretaker” but again … it goes back to tough childhoods. Drag wants to discuss his latest case with Stratos: a series of killings. All of the victims had been spotlighted by a local TV station; named, shamed and identified as paedophiles. All were tortured and shot in the same distinctive manner and it looks professional. Drag agrees that it’s not Stratos. Still, he wants his view on the killings. In return Drag requests the coroner’s report on Emma’s father. But when the report comes back Stratos is struck by its details. The body of Emma’s so-called father bore all the same hallmarks as those of the dead paedophiles...

Pol Koutsakis is a Greek writer and playwrite and BABY BLUE is his second crime novel narrated by the character Stratos Gazis. (The first is ATHENIAN BLUES.) In this story Stratos takes on a convoluted, action-filled hunt for both the killer of Emma’s protector and the Avenger, a serial killer of paedophiles. He also juggles with his feelings for Maria; his knowledge of the danger that his chosen role brings her. The novel slices through modern day Athens from bottom to top; from the decay and corruption of modern Athenian poverty to the luxury and power of those who still “have”. According to writer Pol Koutsakis this is what fuelled him to create the ambiguous character of Stratos, a hard-bitten hero who straddles a grey area of morality. I do wonder if ambiguity of character is allowed to stretch to the women in Stratos’ world; they do seem to be either saints or sinners in his eyes. But I'm being rather tough. This is the world of Noir films that Stratos loves and frequently quotes. And in his noir world Stratos is much more Robert Mitchum than Bogart; tall, strong, menacing, he is effective, he does the job. I just miss a touch of Chandler wit to soften the bullet, if you pardon my phrase.

Modern Athens noir. Tough and unforgiving.

Lynn Harvey, July 2018

Review: The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz

The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz, April 2018, 400 pages, Arrow, ISBN: 1784757233

Reviewed by Terry Halligan.
(Read more of Terry's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

I read this book for review purposes but now that I've finished it it is very difficult to describe it as it is unlike anything that I've read ever before. The author, Anthony Horowitz, is famous for writing the 'Alex Rider' books and also for the marvellous scripts and executive production of the highly recommended Foyle's War TV series, but writing a one-off murder mystery, that masquerades as a non-fiction, true story is a very different kettle of fish.

The plot is extremely unusual: an extremely wealthy woman arranges her own funeral and then some hours later, she is murdered! Did she know she was destined to die? Who killed her and why? An unemployed former detective decides to investigate her death and as he is short of money he decides to write a book about the investigation and asks the author Anthony Horowitz to do the actual writing as he has successfully written books before. The former detective, who is named Hawthorne, and Horowitz frequently argue over the investigation, but when they aren't talking about the enquiry into the woman's death and the possible perpetrators, Horowitz talks about his own writing career and his success with the Foyle's War and 'Alex Rider' books. As this book is told in the first person from the point of view of Anthony Horowitz I found this extensive discussion of the writing experience very interesting.

The actual details of the murder mystery were a bit light but what we got instead was the Anthony Horowitz writing experience which I found very entertaining but this may not be what other readers may want and I appreciate this. Perhaps a more usual plot structure with more details of the crime and investigation and then a satisfactory conclusion would be preferred, rather than these perhaps irrelevant descriptions of the author's previous books.

On the whole I was very impressed with the book because it was so unusual with this mixture of the fiction of the plot and Anthony Horowitz's real writing career. I enjoy writers talking about themselves and the problems they have, as well as reading good crime fiction and I therefore recommend this book.

Terry Halligan, July 2018.

Review: A Long Way Down by Ken McCoy

A Long Way Down by Ken McCoy, July 2017, 240 pages, Severn House Publishers Ltd, ISBN: 0727887300

Reviewed by Geoff Jones.

(Read more of Geoff's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

Leeds, West Yorkshire, March 2014. Charlie Santiago, a successful businessman, plunges to his death from his high, office window. There has been signs of a struggle but the police investigating can find nothing, so the case is consigned to the Cold Case Unit.

The following March, journalist James Boswell is meeting a woman in a run-down hotel. Besides the woman there is a man who surprises James and kills him. His widow, angry that the police investigation suggests he was murdered by a prostitute, contacts Detective Inspector Septimus Black having been advised by Sep's girlfriend Winnie O'Toole that he is the best man to approach.

Sep is working for the Cold Case Unit and persuades his boss Detective Superintendent Jane Hawkins that he should investigate. Sep finds that Boswell was investigating Charlie Santiago's death. Sep visits the hotel where Boswell was murdered and interviews the receptionist, but then she too is murdered. Then there are several attempts on Sep's life, the last one nearly killing him and leaving him in a wheelchair. He believes that the attacks have been carried out on the orders of Carl Redman who was an associate of Santiago.

Sep and Winnie plan to disappear out of harm's way. Sep's colleague DS Fiona Burnside is a great help, but Sep is aware his old enemy DCI Robin Wood is up to something. Can Sep keep safe? Can he find out who killed Santiago and Boswell? Will he ever marry Winnie?

This is the second book in this series. The author also has four books in the Sam Carew series. I've read several and you can always rely on plenty of action and an enjoyable read. Recommended.

Geoff Jones, July 2018

New Releases - July 2018

Here's a snapshot of what I think is published for the first time in July 2018 (and is usually a UK date but occasionally will be a US or Australian date). July and future months (and years) can be found on the Future Releases page. If I've missed anything or got the date wrong, do please leave a comment.

• Anthology - Bodies from the Library
• Amphlett, Rachel - Gone to Ground #6 Detective Kay Hunter
• Ani, Friedrich - The Nameless Day #1 Jakob Franck
• Ashley, Jennifer - Scandal Above Stairs #2 Kat Holloway, Victorian Era
• Atherton, Nancy - Aunt Dimity and the King's Ransom #23 Aunt Dimity
• Begbie, Hannah - Mother
• Brabazon, James - The Break Line #1 Max McLean
• Carpenter, Elisabeth - 11 Missed Calls
• Carter, Ali - A Brush with Death
• Chirovici, E O - Bad Blood
• Dahl, Alex - The Boy at the Door
• Daly, Paula - Open Your Eyes
• Delaney, J P - Believe Me
• Dunn, Carola - The Corpse at the Crystal Palace #23 Daisy Dalrymple, Journalist, 1920s
• Elliot, Laura - Guilty
• Elsberg, Marc - Zero
• French, Nicci - Day of the Dead #8 Frieda Klein, Psychotherapist
• Gibney, Patricia - The Missing Ones #1 Detective Lottie Parker
• Granger, Ann - An Unfinished Murder #6 Inspector Jess Campbell & Superintendent Ian Carter, Cotswolds
• Hall, Lisa - The Party
• Harper, Elodie - The Death Knock
• Hay, L V - Do No Harm
• Henaff, Sophie - Stick Together #2 Anne Capestan
• Henry, James - Yellowhammer #2 DI Nick Lowry, Essex, 1983
• Hill, Suzette A - The Cambridge Plot #4 Rosy Gilchrist
• Huang, Christopher - A Gentleman's Murder
• Hunter, Cara - In The Dark #2 DI Adam Fawley, Oxford
• Jakeman, Jo - Sticks and Stones (apa The Exes' Revenge)
• Janes, Diane - The Poisoned Chalice Murder #2 Frances Black and Tom Dod, 1929
• Jenkins, Michael - The Failsafe Query
• Jewell, Lisa - Watching You
• Karjel, Robert - After the Monsoon #2 Ernst Grip
• Kasasian, M R C - Betty Church and the Suffolk Vampire #1 Inspector Betty Church, 1939, Sackwater, Suffolk
• Kernick, Simon - Dead Man's Gift #1 Short Stories
• Laws, Peter - Unleashed #2 Professor Matt Hunter
• Leather, Stephen - Tall Order #15 Dan Shepherd, SAS trooper turned undercover cop
• MacKay, Asia - Killing It
• MacLean, S G - Destroying Angel #3 Damian Seeker, agent of the Lord Protector, 1654
• Martin, Andrew - The Martian Girl
• Martin, Faith - A Fatal Obsession #1 Ryder & Loveday, Oxford, 1960s
• Mazzola, Anna - The Story Keeper
• Miloszewski, Zygmunt - Priceless
• Morton, Mandy - Magical Mystery Paws #6 The No. 2 Feline Detective Agency
• Nadel, Barbara - Displaced #6 PI Lee Arnold and his assistant, Mumtaz Hakim. East End London
• Obregon, Nicolas - Sins As Scarlet #2 Inspector Iwata
• Perks, Heidi - Now You See Her
• Rayne, Sarah - Song of the Damned #3 Phineas Fox
• Redmond, Heather - A Tale of Two Murders #1 Charles Dickens
• Reynolds, Amanda - Lying to You
• Reynolds, Rod - Cold Desert Sky #3 Charlie Yates, Reporter, USA
• Rhys, Rachel - Fatal Inheritance
• Robinson, Peter - Careless Love #25 Insp. Alan Banks, Yorkshire
• Rose, Jacqui - Toxic
• Stanley, Michael - Dead of Night
• Steadman, Catherine - Something in the Water
• Stein, Jesper - Unrest #1 Axel Steen
• Tangen, Geir - Requiem
• Tija, M J - A Necessary Murder #2 Heloise Chancey, Victorian London
• Tope, Rebecca - Crisis in the Cotswolds #16 Thea Osborne, House Sitter, Cotswolds
• Tremayne, Peter - Bloodmoon #27 Sister Fidelma
• Wood, Tom - Kill For Me #8 Victor, Assassin