Reviews: Chambers, Hauxwell, Perry, Ramsay, Robinson, Simenon, Sundstol, Wagner

Here are nine reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, five have appeared on the blog since last time, and four are completely new.

NB. You can keep up to date with Euro Crime by following the blog and/or liking the Euro Crime Facebook page.

New Reviews

Susan White reviews Kimberley Chambers's The Victim which she recommends for readers of Martina Cole and Lynda La Plante;


Amanda Gillies reviews Annie Hauxwell's A Morbid Habit the third book to feature PI Catherine Berlin;

Terry Halligan reviews the latest in the William Monk series by Anne Perry, Blood on the Water which is now out in paperback;


Terry also reviews Caro Ramsay's The Blood of Crows the fourth in her Anderson and Costello series;

Michelle Peckham reviews Caro Ramsay's fifth and most recent Anderson and Costello book, The Night Hunter;


Michelle also reviews Ray Robinson's Jawbone Lake;

Lynn Harvey reviews Georges Simenon's Pietr the Latvian freshly translated by David Bellos as part of Penguin's project to republish and re-translate all the Maigret novels; this being the first in the series;

Laura Root reviews Vidar Sundstol's Only the Dead translated by Tiinna Nunnally and is the middle part of the Minnesota trilogy

and Lynn also reviews the Petrona Award shortlist-listed Light in a Dark House by Jan Costin Wagner, translated by Anthea Bell which is now out in paperback.


Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year. NB. Forthcoming releases by category for 2015 are now available.

Review: A Morbid Habit by Annie Hauxwell

A Morbid Habit by Annie Hauxwell, July 2014, 400 pages, William Heinemann, ISBN: 0434022969

Reviewed by Amanda Gillies.
(Read more of Amanda's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

This series by Annie Hauxwell is fabulous. Her protagonist, private investigator Catherine Berlin, is a damaged soul who struggles with her heroin addiction at the same time as doing her best for the people who hire her, even when her own neck is on the block. Hauxwell writes extremely well and her tales are as addictive for her reader as the drugs are for her main character. I was delighted to be given another of her wonderful books to review.

This book, A MORBID HABIT, is set at Christmas time. Berlin actually has a job – as a security guard – and is watching monitors in the warehouse she is working in. Things start to go wrong when an undocumented delivery van arrives and appears to drop something off. Her boss tells her to forget what she saw and attempts to help her with this by means of a £50 note. But Berlin can't. She leaves her job, disgusted at the bribe, and tells a journalist friend what she has seen. This is just the beginning of her problems. Initially all seems well as she is given another contract, by a reputable company, really quickly and is set to go to Moscow to perform a due diligence investigation on a businessman. All nice and straightforward. Or is it? Her guide and interpreter is not everything that she appears to be and then a body is found at the airport, clutching a sign with Berlin’s name on it. All too soon Berlin is on the run from just about everybody and, with her passport and prescription drugs taken from her, has no way of returning home or controlling her withdrawal symptoms. The pressure builds as Berlin tries to get to the bottom of everything and the reader is left wondering whether this time she really has reached the end of the line.

If you like a good book that has a gutsy woman as the main character, as well as a nail-biter of a plot, then you are going to love A MORBID HABIT. There is no need to worry if you haven't read either of the previous two books in this series, as each one works well on its own. However the series is so good that you won't be able to leave it at just the one instalment!

Highly Recommended.

Amanda Gillies, October 2014.

New Reviews: Brett, Ellis, Hauxwell, Nickson, Persson, Perry, Reichs, Thomas, Wheatley

This week's set of reviews, added to Euro Crime today, is a mixture of new reviews and a catch-up of those posted directly on the blog in the last two weeks, so you may have read some of them before if you're a regular :).

NB. There is also a Euro Crime page on Facebook which you can like and will keep you up to date with the blog (plus occasional extras).

New Reviews

Brother and sister detecting duo Blotto and Twinks are back in Simon Brett's Blotto, Twinks and the Riddle of the Sphinx, reviewed here by Mark Bailey;

Susan White reviews P R Ellis's Painted Ladies which introduces copper turned PI, Jasmine Frame;

Amanda Gillies reviews A Bitter Taste by Annie Hauxwell, the second book in her Catherine Berlin series;

Michelle Peckham reviews Chris Nickson's  Fair and Tender Ladies, the sixth in his Richard Nottingham series set in Leeds;

Laura Root reviews Leif G W Persson's He Who Kills the Dragon, tr. Neil Smith, the second in the Evert Backstrom series;

Terry Halligan reviews the latest in the Thomas Pitt series from Anne Perry, Death on Blackheath;

I review Kathy Reichs's Tempe Brennan short story Bones in Her Pocket;

Lynn Harvey reviews Ostland by David Thomas

 
and Terry also reviews the reissue of Dennis Wheatley's The Forbidden Territory.


Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.

New Reviews: Bass, Bates, Casey, Dean, Gillies, Hauxwell, Henry, Orford, Staincliffe

There were no reviews last weekend as I was away at CrimeFest and I've written up a few of the panels here.

Don't forget to vote in the International Dagger Polls.

Here are this week's 9 new reviews:

Amanda Gillies reviews Jefferson Bass's, The Bones of Avignon, published in the US as The Inquisitor's Key;

Maxine Clarke reviews Quentin Bates's Cold Comfort the second in his Icelandic series;

Michelle Peckham reviews Jane Casey's The Last Girl the third in the DC Maeve Kerrigan series;

Terry Halligan is very impressed with Jason Dean's debut The Wrong Man set in the US;

I recently reviewed, on the blog, Andrea Gillies's, The White Lie a tale of family secrets, set in Scotland;

Susan Hilary reviews Annie Hauxwell's debut In Her Blood;

Susan White reviews James Henry's Fatal Frost the second prequel to R D Wingfield's beloved series;

Lynn Harvey reviews Margie Orford's, Daddy's Girl, the third in her Cape Town series which has just been released in paperback

and Rich Westwood reviews Cath Staincliffe's prequel to the Scott & Bailey tv series, Dead to Me and he hopes there will be more.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.