New Reviews: Downie, Fitzgerald, Fredrickson, Lake, Leather, Malone, Molay, Rhodes, Rickman

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

In recent days, I've put a call out for a couple more UK/Ireland based reviewers and if you like copycat cover posts, here's my non-crime 'handy' display.

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 Ruth Downie's Tabula Rasa which is the sixth in the Roman Britain Ruso series but stands well on its own;

Lynn Harvey reviews Conor Fitzgerald's Bitter Remedy the fifth in the Italy-based Commissario Alec Blume series;

Geoff Jones reviews Jack Fredrickson's Silence the Dead, based on a true murder story in Illinois;

Terry Halligan reviews The Moonlit Door by Deryn Lake, the third in her Reverend Nick Lawrence series;

Terry also reviews Stephen Leather's White Lies which is the latest in the "Spider Shepherd" series, now out in paperback;

Amanda Gillies reviews Michael J Malone's Beyond the Rage;

Michelle Peckham reviews Frederique Molay's The City of Blood tr. Jeffrey Zuckerman the third in the 'Paris Homicide' series;

Michelle also reviews The Winter Foundlings by Kate Rhodes, the third in the Dr Alice Quentin series

 and Amanda also reviews Phil Rickman's stand alone, Night After Night.




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

New Reviews: Anderson, Cottam, Fitzgerald, Hogan, Meyer, Ohlsson, Widdecombe, Wiley

Here are eight reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, two 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

Amanda Gillies reviews Lin Anderson's Paths of the Dead, the latest in her Rhona MacLeod series set in Glasgow;

Michelle Peckham reviews F G Cottam's The Lazarus Prophecy - what links a monastery with a serial killer?;

Lynn Harvey reviews Conor Fitzgerald's The Memory Key, the fourth in the Alec Blume series set in Rome;

Terry Halligan reviews Phil Hogan's A Pleasure and a Calling about a more than nosy estate agent;

Terry also reviews Deon Meyer's Cobra tr. K L Seegers, the fourth book to feature South African cop Benny Griessel;


Michelle also reviews Kristina Ohlsson's Hostage tr. Marlaine Delargy, the fourth in the series;

Susan White reviews A N Widdecombe's The Dancing Detective which has a murder at a "Strictly Come Dancing"- type of competition


and Geoff Jones reviews Michael Wiley's Blue Avenue set in Florida.



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.

New Reviews: Casey, Delaney, Fitzgerald, Goddard, Hand, MacNeal, Neville, Oldfield, Wilton

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 few weeks, so you may have read some of them before if you're a regular :).

Also I've now set up a Euro Crime page on Facebook which you can like.

Michelle Peckham reviews Jane Casey's The Stranger You Know, the fourth in the DC Maeve Kerrigan series;

Amanda Gillies reviews Luke Delaney's debut, Cold Killing which is now out in paperback;


Lynn Harvey reviews Conor Fitzgerald's The Namesake, the third in the Commissario Alec Blume series;

Geoff Jones reviews Robert Goddard's The Ways of the World;

Lynn also reviews Elizabeth Hand's Generation Loss, the first in the Cass Neary series;

Terry Halligan reviews Susan Elia MacNeal's His Majesty's Hope, the third in the Maggie Hope series;

Terry also reviews Stuart Neville's Ratlines, which is now out in paperback;

Lynn also reviews Mark Oldfield's The Sentinel, the first part of the 'Vengeance of Memory trilogy'


and Rich Westwood reviews Robert Wilton's Traitor's Field, the second in the Tom Roscarrock 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.

Review: The Namesake by Conor Fitzgerald

The Namesake by Conor Fitzgerald, August 2013, 368 pages, Bloomsbury Paperbacks, ISBN: 1408831562

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

Arconti still did not reply. Instead, he slid silently out of his chair and fell face first into the scattered files and folders on the floor. Blume leapt up, rushed around, and flicked the magistrate over as if saving him from drowning in a pool of papers. The magistrate's face was grey, his body stiff and unresponsive.

Dead, just like that. Another dead Matteo Arconti. Two in one morning. A sudden urge to laugh welled up in him, but when it broke his lips, it was as an angry shout.

Milan: the magistrate and his police team watch the CCTV footage of a fourteen-year-old girl, a journalist's daughter, getting into a car – seemingly of her own will. The car drives off. The girl has now been missing since yesterday. The magistrate warns his team that it will not end well. Elsewhere in Milan an accountant is on his way to his office at an insurance company. As he throws his briefcase onto the back seat of his car he hears the sound of a van reversing at high speed towards him. The doors open. He is brutally overpowered and forced into the van, a bag thrust over his head, his wrists bound with plastic tape. His journey will last about an hour and a half and it will end with his death.

Rome: the next day. On the street named after two magistrates murdered by the Cosa Nostra in 1992, the accountant's body is dumped near the courthouse. Commissioner Alec Blume of the Rome police visits the site. He has been discussing the case of a doctor's supposed suicide with its investigating magistrate, Matteo Arconti. It is a case that appears to be linked to the powerful but secretive Calabrian mafia, the Ndrangheta. Now Blume is standing over the body of another Matteo Arconti, a Milanese accountant. Blume wonders if the Ndrangheta is sending a message and finding out precisely who sent it will take Blume on a bizarre and dangerous journey into the heart of Calabria.

THE NAMESAKE is Conor Fitzgerald's third book to feature Police Commissioner Alec Blume; the previous two being the THE DOGS OF ROME and THE FATAL TOUCH. Irish writer Fitzgerald has lived in Italy for over twenty years and I wonder if this is what has led him to choose a foreign-born resident as his lead character of the American-born Rome detective, Blume. The plot of THE NAMESAKE focusses on the Calabrian mafia or Ndrangheta. In an interview with writer Declan Burke, the author describes the Ndrangheta as: "… the most powerful mafia in Europe, not just Italy … They completely control the European cocaine trade … they have a GDP the size of Slovenia." This secretive society has been the subject of other crime novels such as Michele Giuttari's A DEATH IN CALABRIA. But the Giuttari novel is more of a straightforward police procedural. Being procedural does not appear to be Blume's forte and in THE NAMESAKE Fitzgerald provides a more intimate view of Calabrian life and its relationship to the Ndrangheta with its tight-lipped, allusive culture, strict hierarchies and codes of honour. These convolutions, of themselves, add to the mystery and suspense of Fitzgerald's book.

I admit to a bad start with THE NAMESAKE. It has a standard “crime novel” beginning in which the initial chapters are set in separate locations, describe separate incidents and involve different characters; but add to this a parade of administrative acronyms (although there is a helpful appendix at the end of the book ready to put it all in place); the fact that I had not read any of the Blume series before – and I lost my grip. My difficulty getting into the book may simply have lain in the contrast between Fitzgerald's style and that of the book that I had just finished reading. In all I decided that I had wrong-footed myself and gave it another go. My reward was a richer and warmer experience and one that would certainly encourage me to read more of the series. Fitzgerald's writing is shot through with a subtle humour which brought about a growing feeling of warmth towards the wilfully awkward and human Blume – whom I had initially dismissed as cold and misanthropic. The story's pace accelerates to an absorbing conclusion in a plot that ricochets between Milan, Rome and Calabria; whilst the vitality of Fitzgerald's characters accompanies a darker tone of dispassionate fatal events. Ultimately this book is a rewarding, thoughtful read. When asked in an interview what three words best describe his writing, Fitzgerald answered “Place, character, mortality.” I cannot sum up the core qualities of THE NAMESAKE any better.

Lynn Harvey, August 2013.

New Reviews: Faletti, Fitzgerald, Gakas, Giuttari, Gregorio, Kent, Ohlsson, Rinaldi, Vichi

This week we have an Italian theme with seven of the nine reviews either set in Italy, about an Italian or written by an Italian.

Here are 9 new reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today:

[Professor] Michelle Peckham reviews Giorgio Faletti's The Killer in My Eyes, tr. Howard Curtis and has some problems with the "science";

Michelle also reviews Conor Fitzgerald's The Fatal Touch the second in the Commissioner Blume series set in Rome;

Stepping briefly away from Italy, Amanda Gillies reviews the paperback release of Sergios Gakas's Ashes tr. Anne-Marie Stanton-Ife set in 2004 Athens, which reduced her to tears (in a good way);

Lynn Harvey reviews Michele Giuttari's The Black Rose of Florence, tr. Howard Curtis the fifth in the Florence-based Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara series;

Terry Halligan reviews Michael Gregorio's Unholy Awakening the fourth in their Hanno Stiffeniis series set in 19th Century Prussia;

Terry also reviews Christobel Kent's A Time of Mourning (apa The Drowning River) the first in the Sandro Cellini PI series also set in Florence;

Going north to Sweden, earlier this week I reviewed Silenced by Kristina Ohlsson, tr. Sarah Death the second in the series featuring a specialist Stockholm police team;

Maxine Clarke reviews Lucia Rinaldi's Andrea Camilleri: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction, "a complete accessory to the Inspector Montalbano novels and short stories by Andrea Camilleri"

and Lynn also reviews Marco Vichi's Death in Sardinia, tr. Stephen Sartarelli the third in the Inspector Bordelli series set in 1960s Italy.

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: Easter, Fitzgerald, Indridason, Lawton, Rayne, Robertson, Website Updates & New Competition

A new competition for July: Win a set of 3 books by Armand Cabasson (UK only)

Here are this week's reviews:

Pat Austin reviews The Watermen by Patrick Easter an atmospheric new series set at the end of the eighteenth century;

Laura Root reviews the second in the Alec Blume series from Conor Fitzgerald, The Fatal Touch, set in Rome;

Maxine Clarke reviews the Erlendur-lite Outrage by Arnaldur Indridason, tr. Anna Yates in which Elinborg comes to the fore;

Amanda Gillies reviews John Lawton's newest book in the Frederick Troy series, A Lily of the Field;

Lizzie Hayes reviews Sarah Rayne's the most recent stand-alone novel, What Lies Beneath

and Terry Halligan reviews the third in the Westerman-Crowther series from Imogen Robertson, Island of Bones, also set in the eighteenth century.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found by author or date, here.

Website Update

State of play at 10.7.11:

The Author Websites page now lists 898 sites.

The New & Upcoming Releases pages have been updated.

In Bibliographies there are now bibliographies for 1672 authors (8606 titles with links to 2031 reviews):

I've added new bibliographies for: Adam Baker, Parker Bilal, Adam Blake, Horst Bosetzky, Constance Briscoe, Kevin Brooks, Will Carver, Jason Dean, Stephen Done,James Douglas, Matthew Dunn, Mark Ellis, Monika Fagerholm, Friis, Agnete & Kaaberbol, Lene, Sergios Gakas, Tim Griggs, Jorn Lier Horst, Mons Kallentoft, Maxine Kenneth, Hans Koppel, Charlotte Link, M L Longworth, Bernard Minier, Laurence O'Bryan, Kristina Ohlsson, Andrea Penrose, Emlyn Rees, A D Scott, Johan Smits, Elizabeth Speller, Linda Stratmann, Stefan Tegenfalk, David Thomas, Antti Tuomainen, S J Watson.

I've updated the bibliographies (ie added new titles) for: Jussi Adler-Olsen, Ray Alan, Lin Anderson, Maureen Ash, Tom Bale, Jo Bannister, Robert Barnard, Colin Bateman, Veronyca Bates, Quentin Bates, Belinda Bauer, Carrie A Bebris, Mark Billingham, Mikkel Birkegaard, Benjamin Black, Cara Black, Sam Bourne, Alan Bradley, John Brady, Simon Brett, P J Brooke, Christopher Brookmyre, Alison Bruce, Fiona Buckley, Tom Cain, Kenneth Cameron, Andrea Camilleri, Rebecca Cantrell, Gianrico Carofiglio, Carol K Carr, Maureen Carter, Jane Casey, Joyce Cato, Camilla Ceder, Joanna Challis, Kimberley Chambers, Charlie Charters, Maxim/Maxime Chattam, Lee Child, Ann Cleeves, Barbara Cleverly, Martina Cole, Simon Conway, Lesley Cookman, Gary Corby, Colin Cotterill, Deborah Crombie, Donna Fletcher Crow, Charles Cumming, Elizabeth Darrell, Carol Anne Davis, John Dean, David Dickinson, Nick Drake, Alex Dryden, Jeremy Duns, Marjorie Eccles, Kate Ellis, Kjell Eriksson, Charles Finch, Jane Finnis, James Forrester, Christopher Fowler, Dick Francis, Guy Fraser, Tana French, Nicci French, Elizabeth George, Michele Giuttari, Philip Gooden, Susanna Gregory, J M Gregson, Tarquin Hall, Sophie Hannah, Tom Harper, Cora Harrison, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, Tim Heald, Mandasue Heller, Peg Herring, Matt Hilton, Anne Holt, Anthony Horowitz, Graham Hurley, Graham Ison, Claude Izner, Maxim Jakubowski, Bill James, Quintin Jardine, Doug Johnstone, Mari Jungstedt, Jessie Keane, Lars Kepler, Simon Kernick, Philip Kerr, Bill Kitson, Bernard Knight, Lynda La Plante, Camilla Lackberg, Deryn Lake, Stephen Leather, Simon Lelic, Frances Lloyd, Stuart/Stuart B MacBride, Shona Maclean, Adrian Magson, G M Malliet, Scott Mariani, Howard Marks, Michael Marshall, Edward/A E Marston, Priscilla Masters, Ava McCarthy, Val/VL McDermid, Adrian McKinty, Andy McNab, The Medieval Murderers, G J Moffat, Theresa Murphy, Amy Myers, Barbara Nadel, Jo Nesbo, Stuart Neville, Chris Nickson, Hilary Norman, Margie Orford, S J Parris, Ben Pastor, Caro Peacock, Mark Pearson, Stef Penney, Anne Perry, Leif GW Persson, Malcolm Pryce, Ann Purser, Sheila Quigley, Ian Rankin, Deanna Raybourn, Linda Regan, John F Rice, Roslund-Hellstrom, Priscilla Royal, Fay Sampson, Alex Scarrow, Stav Sherez, Alexander McCall Smith, Dan Smith, Sally Spedding, Cath Staincliffe, Mel/Melvin R Starr, Sara Stockbridge, The Mulgray Twins, Rhys Thomas, Brian Thompson, Peter Tickler, Peter Tremayne, Helene Tursten, L C Tyler, Valerio Varesi, Marco Vichi, Martin Walker, Jeri Westerson, Stella Whitelaw, Patrick Woodhead, Anne Zouroudi.

If you spot any errors or omissions do let me know.