Review Roundup: Bolton, Carol, Carter, Den Tex, Edwards, Gordon-Smith, Hodgson, Jones, Kelly, Mankell, Marklund, Mogford, Patterson & Ellis, Staalesen

Here are sixteen reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, all have appeared on the blog since last time.

If you like translated crime fiction then you may be interested in the International Dagger 2016 Speculation list of titles.

You can keep up to date with Euro Crime by following the blog and/or liking the Euro Crime Facebook page and follow on Twitter, @eurocrime.

New Reviews

Michelle Peckham reviews Sharon Bolton's Little Black Lies, set in the Falklands;

Susan White reviews James Carol's Prey, the third in the Jefferson Winter series set in the US;

Amanda Gillies reviews Chris Carter's I Am Death, the seventh in his Robert Hunter series set in LA;


Guest reviewer Bob Cornwell reviews the Dutch thriller Mr. Miller by Charles Den Tex tr. Nancy Forest-Flier;

Rich Westwood reviews Martin Edwards's The Golden Age of Murder - a history of the Detection Club;


Terry Halligan reviews Dolores Gordon-Smith's The Chessman, the ninth in the 1920s Jack Haldean series;

Terry also reviews The Last Confession of Thomas Hawkins by Antonia Hodgson, the sequel to the award winning The Devil in the Marshalsea;


Geoff Jones reviews J Sydney Jones's The Third Place, the sixth in the Viennese mystery series;

Geoff also reviews Jim Kelly's Death on Demand, the sixth in the Shaw & Valentine series set in North Norfolk;


Lynn Harvey reviews Henning Mankell's An Event in Autumn tr. Laurie Thompson;

Michelle also reviews Liza Marklund's Without a Trace tr. Neil Smith - the tenth and penultimate entry in the Annika Bengtzon series;

Lynn also reviews Thomas Mogford's Sleeping Dogs which takes Gibraltar-based lawyer Spike Sanguinetti to Corfu;

I review parts Three, Four and Five of Murder House by James Patterson and David Ellis


and Ewa Sherman reviews Gunnar Staalesen's We Shall Inherit the Wind tr. Don Bartlett which is the sixteenth in the PI Varg Veum series though only six are currently available in English and is the first of three from Orenda Books.

Review: The Last Confession of Thomas Hawkins by Antonia Hodgson

The Last Confession of Thomas Hawkins by Antonia Hodgson, June 2015, 400 pages, Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN: 1444775456

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

Antonia Hodgson's first novel, THE DEVIL IN THE MARSHALSEA, which I reviewed last year, won the CWA Historical Dagger Award 2014 and was shortlisted for the John Creasey Dagger for Best First Novel. It was also chosen as a Richard and Judy and Waterstones book club selection. In the author's second novel, she continues the adventures of Tom Hawkins and I thought this book was even better than the previous one, which won so much praise.

It is 1727 and Tom Hawkins, the protagonist who survived a full three months of incarceration, now lives in Covent Garden with his companion Kitty Sparks. Three months after his release he has been found guilty of a brutal murder and he is currently being dragged on a cart to Tyburn to hang, while the crowds jeer his name. What on earth has gone wrong and why does he expect none other than the Queen of England to save him with a last minute pardon? This is the beginning of the reader's increasing tension during the latest instalment of the adventures of Tom Hawkins, the Norfolk vicar's son who decided not to enter the church after university but is now a bit of a rake and lives in a house producing pornography in Covent Garden, spending his free time in bars engaged in drinking and gambling.

In the next house there is a man, Joseph Burden, a huge giant of a man, who is always protesting that Tom and Kitty are leading lives of the utmost depravity and they should repent and become decent human beings. He is a member of an organisation called The Society For The Reformation of Manners (morals), which was formed many years ago to rid the city of whores, thieves and sodomites and he has great influence with John Gonson, a city magistrate and a leading member of The Society and over the years they had investigated and closed a number of brothels etc and Tom is always arguing with him, sometimes quite violently.

On the journey to Tyburn, which can take apparently over over two hours, Tom is hauled in a cart behind his presently empty coffin and we recap over the circumstances that led to the present terrible predicament. We hear of his decision to agree to help, at the request of the Queen, to get rid of the husband of the King's lover who is causing a lot of problems at court. I should mention that this book is not for those who are easily shocked, as in order to portray an accurate account of life in London in 1727, the author describes some of the coarseness of human behaviour at that time but sometimes exhibiting a rather naughty wry humour in so doing.

The body of Joseph Burden is discovered, stabbed multiple times, the day after half of the street heard Tom shout at Burden that he would kill him during a rowdy confrontation and Tom is quickly arrested.

I thought that the first book, THE DEVIL IN THE MARSHALSEA, was one of the best historical thrillers that I have ever read. The breadth of the author's research and scholarship to give an accurate portrayal of life at that time is is truly remarkable. I was gripped completely with the fantastic and enthralling storyline in this continuation of the story in THE LAST CONFESSION OF THOMAS HAWKINS. I look forward to reading many more books from this very promising and talented new author. Extremely well recommended.

Terry Halligan, October 2015.

Reviews: Carol, Chambers, Dicker, Francis, Hodgson, McGrath, Ridpath, Runcie, McCall Smith

Here are nine reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, three have appeared on the blog since last time, and six 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

Michelle Peckham reviews Watch Me by James Carol, the second in his Jefferson Winter series set in the US;

Amanda Gillies reviews Kimberley Chambers' Payback, set in London's East End;

Laura Root reviews Joel Dicker's much talked about The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair tr. Sam Taylor;

Susan White reviews Felix Francis's Refusal which sees the return of Sid Halley;

Terry Halligan reviews the CWA Historical Dagger winning The Devil in the Marshalsea by Antonia Hodgson;

Michelle also reviews The Bone Seeker, the third in M J McGrath's Edie Kiglatuk series set in the Arctic;

Lynn Harvey reviews Michael Ridpath's Sea of Stone, the fourth and latest in his Icelandic series featuring Magnus Jonson;

Terry also reviews James Runcie's Sidney Chambers and the Problem of Evil the third in the series (and soon to be an ITV series)

and I review the audio book of Alexander McCall Smith's The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection read by Adjoa Andoh.


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.