New Reviews: Brett, Dugdall, Jaquiery, Kavanagh, Miske, Thorne, Vallgren, Wilson

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

Plus, in case you missed them, here are a few recent links that might be of interest:

The winner of The Petrona Award & the announcement in pictures

Lee Child interviews Maj Sjowall

CrimeFest panel writeups: Euro Noir & Nordic Noir

The International Dagger 2015 shortlist

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

New Reviews

A collection of mini reviews (by me) of recent Scandi-crime novels;


Mark Bailey reviews Simon Brett's Mrs Pargeter's Principle, the eponymous lady returns after a 17 year gap;

Susan White reviews Ruth Dugdall's Humber Boy B;

Terry Halligan reviews Anna Jaquiery's Death in the Rainy Season, set in Cambodia;

Michelle Peckham reviews Emma Kavanagh's Hidden, which revolves around a shooting in a hospital;

Lynn Harvey reviews Karim Miske's Arab Jazz tr. Sam Gordon, which has been shortlisted for the International Dagger;

Amanda Gillies reviews Nothing Sacred by David Thorne, which is the second in the Essex-based Daniel Connell series;

I also review Carl-Johan Vallgren's The Boy in the Shadows tr. Rachel Willson-Broyles

and Terry also reviews the reissue of The Mystery of Tunnel 51 by Alexander  Wilson.

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

New Reviews: Bilal, Cadbury, Cleeves, Mark, Smith, Thorne

Here are six new reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today.

I've also begun a new and occasional feature of highlighting books by a theme. The first post was on crime novels set in Norfolk (England).

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

New Reviews

Lynn Harvey reviews Parker Bilal's The Ghost Runner, the third in the Makana series set in the Egypt of a few years ago;

Terry Halligan reviews Helen Cadbury's debut To Catch a Rabbit set in Doncaster;

Vera is back in Ann Cleeves's Harbour Street reviewed here by Susan White;

Geoff Jones reviews David Mark's Original Skin, the second in the Hull-based DS Aector McAvoy series, which is now out in paperback;

Ardy Renko is back in Martin Cruz Smith's Tatiana, reviewed here by Laura Root

and Amanda Gillies reviews David Thorne's debut, East of Innocence, set in Essex.




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: East of Innocence by David Thorne

East of Innocence by David Thorne, January 2014, 320 pages, Atlantic Books, ISBN: 1782392203

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

This superbly written book is the debut novel for David Thorne. It is the first in a series to feature his protagonist Daniel Connell, a former city lawyer who has set up his own practice and is full of simmering anger, as well as being loaded down with baggage from his shady past. Thorne has set his book in Essex. He doesn’t say exactly where in Essex, though – and the effect is to make the county a rather dark and foreboding place. Having roots in Essex myself I found this to be particularly attractive, as having a rough idea of where things are happening, but not being entirely sure, is both frustrating and delightful!

In short, Daniel is struggling to make a go of his business after his disgraceful exit from a top City law firm. When an old school friend is beaten up by the police and wants Daniel to help him, his initial reaction is to keep well away but he gets dragged into it all the same and ends up losing part of a finger for his troubles. Then, when things really couldn’t get any worse, he is threatened into doing some dodgy work for a local gangster, after insulting the guy at a party. Far from happy, Daniel goes to visit his dad, a somewhat infamous local criminal, who really doesn’t like him, and ends up in even more trouble when he asks about his mum. Mum disappeared a few months after he was born and he has never known her. Eventually he ends up with some shreds of information on who she was and he sets out to find her, trying to leave the rest of his troubles behind for a few days. Only troubles have a way of finding you and Daniel must move fast to stay ahead of the game, and find out the answers to all his questions, before his pursuers catch up.

David Thorne is an established writer, having been involved in TV and radio comedy as well as advertising for the last 15 years. He has received acclaim for his previous work and the TV rights for this book series have already been sold. His debut novel is nail-bitingly exciting as well as dark and gritty. He is clearly an author to watch for in the future and I am really looking forward to reading the next in this series.

Highly Recommended.

Amanda Gillies, February 2014.