New Reviews: Anderson, Black, Blake, Bruce, Gerhardsen, Jardine, Lackberg, Peacock, Wood

Here are this week's 9 new reviews which have now been added to the Euro Crime website:

Lynn Harvey reviews Just Business by Geraint Anderson, who has written "a fully-fledged thriller around the Cityboy character of Steve Jones";

Mark Bailey reviews Tony Black's Murder Mile the second in the DI Rob Brennan series set in Edinburgh;

Terry Halligan reviews the first of Nicholas Blake's Nigel Strangeways books, A Question of Proof which has been recently been republished by Vintage;

Michelle Peckham reviews Alison Bruce's The Calling the third in the DC Goodhew, Cambridge-based series which is now out in paperback;

I review Carin Gerhardsen's The Gingerbread House, tr. Paul Norlen the first in the Hammarby (police) series set in Stockholm;

Susan White reviews Quintin Jardine's Grievous Angel in which Bob Skinner looks back at his early career;

Maxine Clarke reviews Camilla Lackberg's The Drowning, tr. Tiina Nunnally which is now out in paperback;

Lizzie Hayes reviews Caro Peacock's fifth Liberty Lane mystery, Keeping Bad Company set in 1840

and Terry also reviews Tom Wood's The Enemy the second in the Victor hitman series.

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.

Gillian Linscott writing as Caro Peacock

A few years ago I was musing on the identity of Caro Peacock and after some investigation I discovered it was Gillian Linscott.

It seems that her new publisher Severn House are (correctly) capitalising on Ms Linscott's excellent reputation...

Bibliographies for: Caro Peacock and Gillian Linscott.

February's first reviews and competitions

Here are this week's new reviews and details of February's competitions:

Latest Reviews:

In Mike Ripley's January crime file, he reviews Death in Hellfire by Deryn Lake, The Templar by Paul Doherty, Death at Dawn by Caro Peacock and The Garden of Evil by David Hewson;

Fiona Walker reviews The Patience of The Spider by Andrea Camilleri which has just been published in the UK;

Maxine Clarke was relieved that Asa Larsson's The Savage Altar (aka Sun Storm) was every bit as good as she'd hoped;

Laura Root enjoyed last month's competition prize - Bad Traffic by Simon Lewis;

Maxine finds Sjowall and Wahloo's third Martin Beck book, The Man on the Balcony to be a "lean and compelling novel"

and I review the first in a new series: Into the Shadows by Shirley Wells - set in a small Lancashire village where the hunts for a domestic murderer and a serial killer collide.


Current Competitions (closing date 29 February):

Win a copy of A Vengeful Longing by R N Morris (no geographical restrictions)

Win a copy of Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn (UK & Europe only)

(geographical restrictions are in brackets)

Caro Peacock=Gillian Linscott

Just to complete the story, I listened to the relevant part of Phil the Shelf last night and it was confirmed that Gillian Linscott is now writing as Caro Peacock. Despite her being an award winner, her last two books under her real name didn't sell well enough.

Here's the blurb for the first, of a projected three, in the Liberty Lane series:

Duelling, derring-do, and dastardly deeds are all in a day's work for Liberty Lane: a new heroine for fans of Matthew Hawkwood and Sarah Waters's Victorian novels. June 1837. She should have remained in the care of her sour aunt in Chalke Bissett, but Liberty Lane was never one to obey instructions. Eager to be reunited with her beloved father, she heads for Dover. But her hopes of surprising him as he steps off the boat are dashed by an anonymous note informing her that he has been killed in a duel at Calais, and commanding her to remain where she is and speak to no one. Thomas Jacques Lane -- radical, romantic, scholar, republican, gambler and devoted father -had led an unconventional life. His movements in the days leading up to his death are a mystery, but of one thing Liberty is certain: he would never have taken part in a duel, for it went against everything he believed in. And if the author of the anonymous note expected her to swallow this lie and meekly obey his command to stay put, he had severely underestimated Liberty Lane. With no resources bar her own wits, she immediately sets sail for Calais in pursuit of the truth - and her father's killer. And as the nation prepares to celebrate the coronation of young Queen Victoria, Liberty uncovers a treasonable plot which could lead to another vicious civil war!

Phil Rickman's radio show

Maybe the mystery of Caro Peacock will be revealed on Phil Rickman's radio show on BBC Radio Wales, later this evening...

17:32 Phil the Shelf

5/7. Phil Rickman talks to writers Ariana Franklin, Caro Peacock and Robert Goddard. The Shelf Starter comes from Sarah Hollins from Aberdare.

The show is "Phil Rickman's round-up of the best in new books, including the Shelf Starter slot where listeners' manuscripts get the big novel treatment."

More information on the programme is on Phil Rickman's website and you can listen again online here.

Phil Rickman writes the Merrily Watkins series, now published by the nice people at Quercus.

Who is Caro Peacock?

I'm probably completely wrong on this but could these photos be of the same woman?

Author on the left is Caro Peacock, whose first book, Death at Dawn, has just come out. Author on the right is Gillian Linscott, whose last book came out in 2003. (A more recent but lower resolution photo is on the reviewingtheevidence site.)

From the author information on Death at Dawn: "Caro rides horses, climbs trampolines and spends some time every year studying wild flowers in the Alps."

From Tangled Web - Gillian Linscott has "passions for horse-riding and hill-walking."

Death at Dawn which is the first in the Liberty Lane series is set in 1837 and Gillian Linscott's Nell Bray series is set in the early 1900s.

Not much to go on, just a feeling of familiarity when I looked at the author photo on the jacket. Either way, Death at Dawn looks well worth checking out. The opening line is: "Would you be kind enough to tell me where they keep people's bodies".

Where are they now - Gillian Linscott?

A friend was asking me yesterday about new books by Gillian Linscott. It seems that she's not published anything since 2003. Linscott is probably most well known for her Nell Bray series about a sufragette, which currently numbers eleven. The first in the series, 'Sister Beneath the Sheet' is reviewed here at the women in world history site.

As well as a few standalones, she also wrote three books about ex policeman, Birdie Linnet early in her writing career. The first of the Birdie Linnet books is 'Healthy Body' which revolves around a French naturist centre and is reviewed here from a naturist's perspective.

If anyone can tell me if Gillian Linscott's still writing, please do drop me a note in the comments.

UPDATE Dec. 2007: Gillian Linscott is now writing as Caro Peacock.