Thursday, August 30, 2018

Review: Zen and the Art of Murder by Oliver Bottini tr. Jamie Bulloch

Zen and the Art of Murder by Oliver Bottini translated by Jamie Bulloch, August 2018, 384 pages, MacLehose Press, ISBN: 0857057367

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

She leaped up. “I don’t booze, for Christ’s sake!” The sentence resonated in her head, just as the footsteps crunching in the snow had echoed the night before. I don’t booze.

Saturday morning, Liebau, Germany.
It’s snowing. Hollerer glances out of his kitchen window just as a shaven-headed monk, dressed only in dark robe and sandals, appears out of the driving snow and makes his way along the street. A vision sent by my wife, Hollerer thinks. Some time later he recalls that the monk had been bruised about the head – perhaps not a vision. He buttons his police uniform over his paunch, fetches his service weapon from the bedside table and sets out to find the monk. At the steps of the village church a crowd including the mayor are gathering around the young man sitting cross-legged and silent, his bowl in front of him. The villagers are unhappy and want him gone. No begging is allowed after all and he could be just a forerunner for other cult members to come. Hollerer buys food for the monk who, by gesture, insists on sharing it with him. For now, annoyed by the mayor’s insistence that he do something, Officer Hollerer retreats.

Saturday morning, Freiburg.
42-year-old Kripo detective Louise Boni wakes up to snow. She hates it. Everything bad that has happened to her has happened in the snow. Her boss rings to call her into work but she refuses. His next phone message threatens disciplinary action and Louise takes her time calling back. Something strange is happening in Liebau, no-one else is available so Louise must go and take a look. Too hungover to drive, she takes a taxi and by the time she arrives in Liebau the monk has left – with Officer Hollerer following him in a patrol car. A young patrolman, eager to display his own “rally-driver” skills, gives Louise a lift to where Hollerer is parked in a white wasteland watching a black dot moving slowly up a hill. Louise and Hollerer follow the monk on foot but soon the overweight policeman reaches his limit. Louise borrows his gun, continues alone and eventually catches up with the monk. They walk in silence and later, helped out by supplies of food and warm clothing ferried by Hollerer and the young patrolman, Louise and the monk enter the forest where they shelter for the night. She establishes that he is Japanese and can understand English but he remains largely silent. Louise, caught up in alcohol-fuelled thoughts and haunted by images of her dead brother, divorced husband and the man she killed, eventually sleeps – waking to the grey light of dawn and the sound of a man’s voice. The monk is wide-eyed with fear, gesturing for her to follow him. They hide until full daylight when the monk resumes his journey.

Louise hands over the task of following him to the day shift, Hollerer and a colleague from Freiburg. The young Liebau policeman drives her back to the Freiburg headquarters. The ensuing argument with her boss is fierce. Louise wants back-up, cars and a helicopter. He wants her on enforced sick leave, “rehab” and a planned return to a desk job. In fact he insists that calls for back-up and helicopters based on “the hallucinations of a piss-head and the wanderings of a half-naked foreigner” are out of the question. Louise returns to her desk and asks her new Liebau colleague to start compiling a list of the nearest Buddhist institutions. Her boss interrupts and orders her home: “You’re on sick leave”…

ZEN AND THE ART OF MURDER is the first novel in Bottini’s "Black Forest Investigation" series and won a Deutsche Krimi Preis when it was published in 2005. Full of psychology and a wry wit, this story deals in the dark matter of child trafficking and murder. Louise is shut out from the official investigation, but stubbornly continues to prise open the riddle surrounding the terrified monk and his pursuers. But not before another death in the snow has shattered her fragile state. In Louise Boni, Oliver Bottini has created a convincing anchor – a woman flailing around amidst the clink of empty bottles; keeping a desperate grip on her self and her career through gut instinct and persistence. In fact Louise’s interior life provides almost as much suspense as that of the hunt for the killers. Bottini’s well-written characters bring humanity to the events and the story reads smoothly in Jamie Bulloch’s translation. This edition includes a short story prequel which fills out the details of the previous case that still haunts Louise.

Greatly recommended, particularly for lovers of the uphill struggles of the lone detective. A classic Nordic Noir set in the snows of a German winter.

Lynn Harvey, August 2018

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Review: Turn a Blind Eye by Vicky Newham

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 have also reviewed one from New Zealand. My fourth entry in this feature, is Vicky Newham's Turn a Blind Eye.

Turn a Blind Eye by Vicky Newham, April 2018, 368 pages, HQ, ISBN: 0008240671

I've been eagerly awaiting reading Vicky Newham's debut, having followed her progress via Facebook and in person at CrimeFest, and I'm pleased to report that it doesn't disappoint.

TURN A BLIND EYE introduces DI Maya Rahman, who is based in East London where she grew up after arriving from Bangladesh at a young age. The book opens with scenes in Bangladesh at the funeral of Maya and her sister's brother.

Returning to London, she is thrown into a murder case at the school she went to as a young girl. The headmistress has been killed and a cryptic message has been left. A message which indicates that there has been or will be more linked deaths.

Maya also has a new team member, a fast-tracked Australian, DS Dan Maguire, whose family is back in Australia. Chapters are told from the points of view of Maya and Dan with occasional chapters from the teacher who found the body.

TURN A BLIND EYE is a detailed and authentic feeling police procedural. The introduction of an outsider – Dan – gives Maya a natural opportunity to expand on the history, geography and background to the case and area that they're working in. Maya comes across as a serious, capable individual and there is a mystery in her childhood which could be resolved in one book or teased out over more. I'm looking forward to finding out which.

Thursday, August 16, 2018

Review: Blue Night by Simone Buchholz tr. Rachel Ward

Blue Night by Simone Buchholz translated by Rachel Ward, February 2018, 276 pages, Orenda, ISBN: 1912374013

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

“Driving through the countryside alone is like eating sellotape.”

Public prosecutor Chastity Riley’s car coughs and dies somewhere near Mecklenburgh. Since she accused her boss of corruption and shot off a gangster’s family jewels with an unauthorised firearm, Chastity has been sidelined into witness protection – and protection is all she is allowed to do, no investigating. So this country-weekend thing has been an attempt to break the monotony. It hasn’t worked. Now she has to get back to Hamburg for a case and she really needs a lift. Faller, with his big, 1970s, mid-life crisis totem Pontiac, is the one she chooses (all of her other friends being asleep, driving-license free, or out of it). She calls Faller, takes her bag out of her car and sets off down the road in the direction of Hamburg. Later, in that city’s St Georg Hospital, she stares at her unconscious client. He is smashed up badly. Ribs, arms and legs broken and a missing index finger. She holds his huge paw of a hand until night-time then takes a taxi home. Klatsche is making cheese sandwiches to go with the beer. Lifesaver.

Summer of 1982:
Faller: “I still visit Minou’s grave. A girl from the red-light district who died because I wanted her.”
Riley: “Frankfurt glows gold, orange, pink. We ride bikes. I wear my Dad’s American Army shirts. I miss my Mum.”
Klatsche: “I haven’t been born yet.”
Joe: “Hey. Hamburg.”

Hamburg, present day:
Klatsche is out shopping, stocking up his bar “Blue Night”. Chastity returns to her flat to shower then on to forensics at Police Headquarters to examine her client’s clothes: a good made to measure suit, no label; British shirt, American shoes. Upstairs she visits her friend Calabretta who has been locked into himself since his girlfriend dumped him for a Swiss professor. But now, Chastity is thinking that the life is returning to his eyes. Next, to size up the place where her client was attacked. It must have been a gang, no way could it have been a one man job. That evening, whilst baby-sitting Calabretta at Carla and Rocco's cafe, an activity which involves a lot of booze, Calabretta remarks that he thinks Faller is up to something – maybe wanting to go after The Albanian again.

1987:
Faller: “Homicide Squad. I’m new here. A lot of death since coke hit the red-light district.”
Riley: “Why is everyone falling in love?”
Joe: “I mostly work in St Pauli, quick and quiet.”

Hamburg, present day:
The hospital calls Chastity at 5.30 am, the patient is awake. Chastity however is very hungover. The police guard outside her client’s room nods her through when she presents her pass. Her client stares at her. Chastity thinks he was more charming unconscious. When he does speak, his accent is Austrian. He says his name is Joe...

BLUE NIGHT is the first of prize-winning crime writer Simone Buchholz’ “Chastity Riley” series to be published in the UK. Its lively, true-feeling translation by Rachel Ward allows this tale of bars, beers and the nightlife of St Pauli in Hamburg to read well at a brisk pace. Chastity is the daughter of an American serviceman stationed in Germany, brought up by him after her mother left them. By the time of this book she is only just hanging on to her job as a public prosecutor after having exposed some inconvenient truths in the department. She is bored, persona non grata and barred from investigating. But she is also surrounded by a network of friends with equally chequered backgrounds to buoy her up – hence the bars, cafes and beers. It goes without saying that when landed with the job of “protecting” a badly beaten giant of an Austrian who is giving nothing away, Chastity cannot resist some of that forbidden investigating. Who attacked him and why? The investigation takes her to a new contact in the old East, in Leipzig, and a glimpse of the devastation caused by the latest cheap, virulent drug heading in Hamburg's direction.

Buchholz quickly establishes her characters and their individual voices: the ex-jailbird bar owner, a broken hearted cop, an ex-cop with a vengeful eye set on the local crime boss (now “retired” and untouchable) who killed his girlfriend years ago, and an injured Austrian stoic with a missing finger. But it goes without saying that the predominant voice in the story is that of unorthodox, street-savvy and very likeable Chastity. Written with a sense of place, a fresh voice, and a fast pace.

Absolutely recommended.

Lynn Harvey, August 2018

Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Foreign Bodies: Zygmunt Miloszewski's A Grain of Truth on Radio 4


The latest endeavour in Mark Lawson's Foreign Bodies series on Radio 4, is a two part adaptation (by Lawson) of Polish crime writer Zygmunt Miloszewski's A Grain of Truth (tr. Antonia Lloyd-Jones).

The first part is avalable now to stream or download, and the second is on later today (at 3pm).
The Blood Painting
Foreign Bodies, Grain of Truth Episode 1 of 2

Taut crime thriller by leading Polish writer, Zygmunt Miloszewski, dramatised for radio by Mark Lawson. War time intrigue and modern politics mesh in a murder mystery.

The complexities and frustrations of the modern Polish legal system are the setting for this bestselling crime novel, featuring long suffering State Prosecutor Szacki who finds himself trapped in a limbo land of half-truths and secrets from post-Communist Poland. Will he prove himself to be a redoubtable seeker of the truth or will he compromise?

Episode 1: The Blood Painting
Szacki is finding small town Poland a little dull but a bizarre murder case soon throws him back into action. The crime scene is littered with grotesque clues suggesting that the murder is mirroring an infamous Jewish blood libel, drawing on historical anti-Semitism.

Monday, August 13, 2018

Review: Salt Lane by William Shaw

Salt Lane by William Shaw, May 2018, 464 pages, riverrun, ISBN: 1786486571

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

Publisher's Blurb (copied from Amazon)

SHE ALWAYS WENT TOO FAR

DS Alexandra Cupidi has done it again. She should have learnt to keep her big mouth shut, after the scandal that sent her packing - resentful teenager in tow - from the London Met to the lonely Kent coastline. Murder is different here, among the fens and stark beaches.

SHE WAS THE ONE WHO FOUND THE KILLERS

The man drowned in the slurry pit had been herded there like an animal. He was North African, like many of the fruit pickers that work the fields. The more Cupidi discovers, the more she wants to ask - but these people are suspicious of questions.

AND NOW IT WAS KILLING HER

It will take an understanding of this strange place - its old ways and new crimes - to uncover the dark conspiracy behind the murder. Cupidi is not afraid to travel that road. But she should be. She should, by now, have learnt.

Salt Lane is the first in the new DS Alexandra Cupidi series. With his trademark characterisation and flair for social commentary, William Shaw has crafted a crime novel for our time that grips you, mind and heart.


After the huge success of the “Breen and Tozer” series of historical police procedural mystery books set in the 1960s ended (see my earlier reviews of A SONG FROM DEAD LIPS and A HOUSE OF KNIVES I was uncertain how the author would follow that initial writing success, but I should not have worried as the first book of the new series is absolutely superb. Set on the coast of Kent it describes the daily trials and tribulations of a former Metropolitan Police detective sergeant who after a love affair with a married colleague ended badly decided to transfer to another police force outside London.

DS Alexandra Cupidi and her teenage daughter have to get used to a completely different environment after the hustle and bustle of city life and the reintroduction of a more rural setting. But settle she does although Zoe her fifteen-year-old daughter has a harder time but become very interested in ornithology and spends a lot of time bird watching with binoculars from various hides along the coast.

When Cupidi and her colleague discover a North African fruit picker apparently drowned in cattle excreta a whole new investigation is started. A lot of difficult questions need to be asked and answered before the enquiry can proceed. The story continues on and a lot of her new colleagues become involved as the investigation becomes larger than originally considered. The story ends with a very dramatic conclusion.

This book was the best one that I have read by the author to date. I thought it marvellous and so well researched it was really very easy to imagine an isolated farming community in Kent.

This is a really superbly interesting, atmospheric and deftly plotted police procedural but unlike his previous books it is set in the present day. I look forward to reading more stories about Alexandra Cupidi and the other authentic characters that inhabit the gripping police procedurals from this very talented author in the future, as I enjoyed this exciting book so much. Very highly recommended.

Terry Halligan, August 2018.

Saturday, August 11, 2018

Cover Theme - Reflections

I've noticed an increasing number of covers featuring reflections, or pseudo-reflections or inversions. Here are a few examples. Have you spotted anymore?




































Added 29/09/18 - Yesterday


















Added 6/10/18 - Love You Gone, 8/10/18 - The Friend, 10/10/2018 - Little Liar, 14/10/18 - No Turning Back






Added 6/1/19 & 8/1/19:






Thursday, August 09, 2018

Review: The First Prehistoric Serial Killer and other stories by Teresa Solana tr. Peter Bush

The First Prehistoric Serial Killer and other stories by Teresa Solana translated by Peter Bush, August 2018, 210 pages, Bitter Lemon Press, ISBN: 1912242079

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

I’d never been held up at gun-point before or seen anyone die (in real-life, that is), let alone like that. Bang-bang, a couple of shots and you’re on your way to the other side. You’ll soon see when I put the photos on Instagram …

THE FIRST PREHISTORIC SERIAL KILLER is a collection of short stories by Barcelona-born novelist and translator Teresa Solana. It’s a lively, bizarre, witty, cruel, crude and sometimes picaresque collection. The first five tales start with the story that gives the collection its name: three dead Neanderthals found with their heads bashed in with a rock, one after the other, prompt the weakling of the tribe to find out how they died (after all he has to keep his place in the group somehow). Be prepared for an anachronistic tale with a sharp eye for social status and a sly humour. The following four stories cover motifs such as domestic murder and a solution to corpse disposal, death and satire in the art world, ghosts in a quandary – and vampires in the era of sunblock. The remaining stories in the collection make up the prize-winning “Connections”; a kaleidoscopic collection of eight crime stories involving characters and events in and around Barcelona, all touched by a shooting in a Barcelona pharmacy.

This was my first foray into crime fiction in short story form and I was worried that I would grow tired of what I thought could become a predictable format. But Solana is not predictable and the outcome was that I enjoyed these stories hugely. Translated by Teresa Solana’s husband Peter Bush, this translation must be one of the closest matches to the writer’s voice and intentions possible. Solana’s earthy, dark wit; her ability to speak through varied characters; her satirical eye for the layers and workings of Barcelona society (which speak to everyone everywhere) and her finely crafted invention that knits together the stories in “Connections” mean that I shall definitely be on the hunt for a full length Teresa Solana novel.

Very highly recommended – for those with a taste for murder, the surreal, and possibly – the stories of Saki.

Lynn Harvey, August 2018

Tuesday, August 07, 2018

Who is Jack Ford?

Jack Ford's second 'Thomas J Cooper' book, Dead Edge is out this month. The first book in the series, The Killing Grounds, is 99p on kindle at the moment.

*If* you want to know who Jack Ford is/what they've written before then take a look at these two pages: 1 and 2.

Monday, August 06, 2018

Review: The Intrusions by Stav Sherez

The Intrusions by Stav Sherez, February 2018, 352 pages, Faber & Faber, ISBN: 0571297277

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

Amazon blurb:

When a distressed young woman arrives at their station claiming her friend has been abducted, and that the man threatened to come back and 'claim her next', Detectives Carrigan and Miller are thrust into a terrifying new world of stalking and obsession.

Taking them from a Bayswater hostel, where backpackers and foreign students share dorms and failing dreams, to the emerging threat of online intimidation, hacking, and control, The Intrusions explores disturbing contemporary themes with all the skill and dark psychology that Stav Sherez's work has been so acclaimed for.

Under scrutiny themselves, and with old foes and enmities re-surfacing, how long will Carrigan and Miller have to find out the truth behind what these two women have been subjected to?


Stav Sherez's third published novel, A DARK REDEMPTION, which was the first in a London-based police procedural series, was published in 2012 and shortlisted for the Theakston's Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year 2013. The second in the "Jack Carrigan and Geneva Miller" series, ELEVEN DAYS, was published in 2013 and I was very impressed with it. THE INTRUSIONS, published in 2017, has recently won the Theakston's Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year 2018.

I was also very impressed by THE INTRUSIONS, the only problem I had with it was the difficulty in remembering all that had occurred in the previous book as Detective Inspector Jack Carrigan, is still having to undergo the indignity of being investigated for apparent breaches of procedure that occurred in the previous story.

However, that is a subplot that takes away from the main investigation into the murders that happened at the Bayswater hostel. As usual, Carrigan and Miller develop their own theories behind what they think happened and investigate the facts as they feel they lead. However, the head of the department, Superintendent Branch, believes the enquiry needs outside psychological help and therefore insists that a profiler be added to the team. Unfortunately, the one assigned is a person that Carrigan has a terrible personal history with.

Carrigan and Miller, separately pursue different leads to save resources and it is very intriguing how each fact in the case in unearthed and how apparently unconnected details do eventually come together. They explore a lot of data and I particularly enjoyed the forensic intensity of this, which is normally skirted around in other books. The interaction of Carrigan and Miller is also interesting and of course there are tensions there as the chemistry between the two who spend many hours in each other's company can be problematic. Still it all comes to a most satisfactory conclusion and all the loose ends are eventually tied up. This is a very cleverly plotted book which I found most enjoyable. It was one that once you start it is very difficult to put down.

I'm really disappointed that the author doesn't release his books with the frequency of other mystery authors as the quality of the research and detail and sheer readability of his stories is really to be envied by many other less gifted writers. I just could not put this really gripping story down. Please Stav, don't leave it four years before the next Carrigan and Miller story comes out. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Terry Halligan, August 2018.

Saturday, August 04, 2018

Ngaio Marsh Awards Blog Tour: Review: Nothing Bad Happens Here by Nikki Crutchley

Having been hooked on New Zealand's tv shows, 800 Words and The Brokenwood Mysteries, I was very pleased to be asked again to get involved in the blog tour for the Ngaio Marsh Awards which celebrate New Zealand's crime fiction.

As I've been focussing on debuts this summer I asked if I could review one of the shortlisted debut novels and I chose NOTHING BAD HAPPENS HERE by Nikki Crutchley which is available in the UK.

NOTHING BAD HAPPENS HERE is set in the fictional coastal town of Castle Bay in the Coromandal region of the North Island. The book opens with the murder of a young woman and chapter one is the discovery of her body a few months later by a hiker.

Sergeant Kahu, who moved to the small town ten years ago after time working in the big city, is able to identify the body as British tourist Bethany, who disappeared a few months ago whilst travelling round the world and was last seen in the bar in Castle Bay.

Kahu is shunted aside when the “more experienced” detectives show up as does the press… And in the first of several misdirections, the author switches the main point of view from Kahu to Miller, a journalist who is to write a feature on Bethany with a hope of securing a promotion. Miller is dependent on alcohol and grieving the recent death of her mother.

Due to her late arrival and no accommodation in town, Miller has to stay at the New Age-y Haven, a wellness retreat whose current residents include local queen bee Patricia, wife of the mayor and two other young women. Patricia and other locals keep insisting that their town is safe and nothing bad happens there.

Miller's writing project is slow and though she befriends Kahu he doesn't give her much publishable material. A tip-off seems to lead to a suspect and another woman goes missing. Is Bethany's murderer a local and not a passer-through as first thought?

NOTHING BAD HAPPENS HERE builds an oppressive picture of a small town where there are no secrets or at least your secrets aren't secret forever. Autumn is coming and the wild weather adds to the feeling of claustrophobia. There are several scenes which I read one way and when I got to the end of the book I realised I'd read them completely wrongly. The author conceals the true meaning whilst putting things in plain sight. I'm not sure whether this is the first in a series but I'd like to read more about either of the main characters, Kahu and Miller and what happens in their lives after this dramatic episode which leaves them both changed.

I found myself thinking about this book, the setting, and the plot long after I'd finished reading it.

Wednesday, August 01, 2018

New Releases - August 2018

Here's a snapshot of what I think is published for the first time in August 2018 (and is usually a UK date but occasionally will be a US or Australian date). August 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 - Prague Noir (ed. Pavel Mandys)
• Adler-Olsen, Jussi - The Washington Decree
• Anderson, Lin - Sins of the Dead #14 Rhona MacLeod, forensic scientist, Glasgow
• Askew, Claire - All the Hidden Truths #1 DI Helen Birch
• Baldwin, Jackie - Perfect Dead #2 DI Frank Farrell, Dumfries
• Booth, Stephen - Fall Down Dead #18 Detectives Ben Cooper & Diane Fry, Peak District
• Bottini, Oliver - A Summer of Murder #2 The Black Forest Investigations
• Bowen, Rhys - Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding #13 Lady Georgiana Rannoch ('Georgie'), 1930s Britain
• Bruni, Riccardo - The Hawthorne Season
• Callaghan, Tom - Autumn Hunting #4 Inspector Akyl Borubaev
• Calonego, Bernadette - The Stranger on the Ice
• Charles, Paul - A Day in the Life of Louis Bloom #2 Brendy McCusker
• Clannachan, Lezanne - The Colour of Lies
• Clark, Ray - Implant #3 Gardener and Reilly
• Conroy, Vivian - The Butterfly Conspiracy #1 Merriweather and Royston, Victorian Era
• Cookman, Lesley - Murder and the Glovemaker's Son #19 Libby Sarjeant, middle aged actress/investigator, Kent
• Cotterill, Colin - Don't Eat Me #13 Dr Siri Paiboun, Laos
• Cross, A J - Cold, Cold Heart #5 Dr Kate Hanson, forensic psychologist, West Midlands
• Curtis, Emma - When I Find You
• De Giovanni, Maurizio - Nameless Serenade #9 Commissario Ricciardi, Naples, 1930s
• Dibdin, Emma - Through His Eyes
• Douglas, Claire - Do Not Disturb
• Eldridge, Jim - Murder at the Fitzwilliam #1 Former Detective Inspector Daniel Wilson
• Empson, Clare - Him
• Fields, Helen - Perfect Silence #4 DI Luc Callanach, Edinburgh
• Finch, Paul - Kiss of Death #7 Detective Mark 'Heck' Heckenberg
• Flint, Sarah - Broken Dolls #4 DC 'Charlie' Stafford
• Forbes, Elena - A Bad, Bad Thing #1 Eve West
• Ford, Jack - Dead Edge #2 Thomas J Cooper
• Goodwin, Dawn - The Pupil
• Gregory, Susanna - Intrigue in Covent Garden #13 Thomas Chaloner, Restoration London
• Hall, Patricia - Playing with Fire #7 Kate O'Donnell, Photographer, 1960s
• Hannah, Sophie - The Mystery of Three Quarters #3 Hercule Poirot
• Horst, Jorn Lier - The Katharina Code #12 Chief Inspector William Wisting, Larvik
• James, Ed - Kill With Kindness #5 DI Fenchurch, London
• Jecks, Michael - A Missed Murder #3 Jack Blackjack, Tudor Era
• Jordan, Jack - Before Her Eyes
• Kent, Serena - Death in Provence #1 Penelope Kite
• Lehtolainen, Leena - Derailed #10 Detective Maria Kallio, Helsinki
• Lelic, Simon - The Liar's Room
• Lloyd, Frances - Murder in Disguise
• Lyle, H B - The Red Ribbon #2 Wiggins, 1909
• MacNeal, Susan Elia - The Prisoner in the Castle #8 Maggie Hope
• Magson, Adrian - Smart Moves
• Mancini, Ruth - In the Blood
• Mangos, Louise - Strangers On a Bridge
• Mascarenhas, Kate - The Psychology of Time Travel
• Masters, S R - The Killer You Know
• McDermid, Val - Broken Ground #5 Karen Pirie
• McDermott, Alan - Run and Hide #1 Eva Driscoll
• McIntyre, William - Stitch Up #9 Best Defense
• Miller, Danny - A Lethal Frost #5 Inspector Frost Prequel (see also James Henry)
• Moran, Eleanor - Too Close For Comfort
• Mosawi, Anthony - Trust No One
• Noreback, Elisabeth - Tell Me You're Mine
• Rademacher, Cay - The Forger #3 Inspector Stave, Hamburg, 1947
• Riel, Ane - Resin
• Ripley, Mike - Mr Campion's War #5 Albert Campion
• Robinson, Steve - Letters from the Dead #7 Jefferson Tayte
• Scott, Manda - A Treachery of Spies
• Skuse, C J - In Bloom #2 Sweetpea
• Starr, Melvin R - Prince Edward's Warrant #11 Hugh de Singleton, Surgeon, 14thC England
• Theurillat, Michael - Death in Summer #1 Inspector Eschenbach
• Tremayne, S K - Just Before I Died
• White, Neil - The Darkness Around Her #2 Dan Grant, Lawyer
• Willocks, Tim - Memo from Turner
• Zur, Yigal - Death in Shangri-La #1 Dotan Naor