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.

CrimeFest - Cosies

I have shrunk these photos down somewhat so people can view them on phones etc but unfortunately they are a bit fuzzy.

The opening panel on "Cosies" featured from left to right:

Deryn Lake, Dolores Gordon-Smith, Lauren Henderson, Carola Dunn and Frances Brody.


Here are some random jottings and thoughts from the panel:

Frances Brody's third book in the series will be out in September and her books should be published in the US next year. Deryn Lake's historical novels (as Dinah Lampitt) will be reissued under the Lake name. (I first knew of this author as Dinah Lampitt and devoured her Pour the Dark Wine about the Tudor Seymours which I read in 89 or 90). The Mills of Gold is the first in a new series and there is a new John Rawlings, Death at the Wedding Feast, published in July. Carola Dunn's Anthem for Doomed Youth is the darkest in the Daisy series so far.

There was some discussion of what the term cozies/cosies mean eg between people who know each other well. Cozies more of a US term? Usually used as a pejorative term. The murder methods may not be cosy (at one point Deryn Lake rattled off her book titles and the murder methods in them) but the level of detail would be low and no forensics involved.


The panelists agreed about enjoying house hunting for their characters. Another thing that identified cosies was that the killer didn't take trophies!


Lauren Henderson (whose crime books I wouldn't describe as cosies!) is currently writing YA and bonk-busters (as Rebecca Chance). She commented that her YA (clean) was not selling in the UK as not gloomy enough.

New Reviews: Cordy, Harrod-Eagles, Lake, Sjowall & Wahloo

The following reviews have been added to the review archive over on the main Euro Crime website:

New Reviews:

Amanda Gillies reviews The Source by Michael Cordy which is more than a 'Da Vinci Code' clone;

Amanda Brown reviews the latest in the witty DI Bill Slider series by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles - Game Over;

Terry Halligan reviews the twelth John Rawlings mystery by Deryn Lake: Death in Hellfire

and Maxine Clarke reviews the sixth in the Martin Beck series by Sjowall and Wahloo - Murder at the Savoy which is to the same high standard as the earlier five.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found here plus for those thinking about their favourite books of 2008, there's a list (generated from my database) of British/European crime novels (written by British/Europeans) published in the UK in 2008, here. (I haven't yet updated it to include non-Europeans writing about Europe).

More new reviews will be added in January. The competition will also be back - win a copy of The Paper Moon by Andrea Camilleri.

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)