New Reviews: Carr, Colfer, Connor, McGilloway, Parot, Sharp

The reviews are back though expect another hiatus when I'm at CrimeFest (where the International Dagger Shortlist will be announced).

Here are this week's reviews:

Terry Halligan reviews the first in a new Victorian series, India Black by Carol K Carr;

Susan White reviews Artemis Fowl author Eoin Colfer's first adult crime book, Plugged;

Another author changing direction is Alex Connor, who has switched from historicals to a thriller in The Rembrandt Secret reviewed here by Amanda Gillies;

Maxine Clarke reviews Brian McGilloway's Little Girl Lost which is either a standalone or the beginning of a new series;

I review Jean-Francois Parot's rich brew that is The Saint-Florentin Murders, tr. Howard Curtis set in 18th Century France;

and Lizzie Hayes reviews Zoe Sharp's Fifth Victim, where "bodyguard" Charlie Fox goes to Long Island.

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

New Reviews: Eastland, French, Grimes, MacBride, Parot, Stanley

This month's competitions:
Win a copy of Deadly Trade by Michael Stanley (Worldwide)
Win a copy of Bad Penny Blues by Cathi Unsworth (UK only).

Here are this week's reviews:

Rik Shepherd reviews Eye of the Red Tsar by Sam Eastland, the first in the Inspector Pekkala series;

Maxine Clarke reviews the latest from Nicci French: Complicit;

Terry Halligan reviews the twenty-second outing for Richard Jury in Martha Grimes's The Black Cat;

Paul Blackburn reviews Dark Blood by Stuart MacBride, the sixth in the Logan McRae series;

Laura Root reviews the latest in the Nicolas Le Floch series, The Nicolas Le Floch Affair by Jean-Francois Parot, tr. Howard Curtis

and Michelle Peckham reviews one of this month's competition prizes: A Deadly Trade by Michael Stanley.

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

Reviews: Billingham, Blake, Bolton, Cotterill, Fitzgerald, Parot & New Competitions

Three new competitions for August, prizes are: The Third Pig Detective Agency by Bob Burke, Relics of the Dead by Ariana Franklin and Blood Law by Steven Hague (some restrictions apply).

Here are this week's reviews:

Tom Thorne is back in Mark Billingham's Blood Line, which reviewer Craig Sisterson calls a "taut tour de force";

Rome in AD 608 is the setting for Conspiracies of Rome by Richard Blake reviewed by Terry Halligan who found it to be "one of the most atmospheric historical novels I've read in years";

Amanda Gillies calls S J Bolton's Awakening "superb" despite her snake phobia;

Michelle Peckham reviews Dagger Winner Colin Cotterill's fourth Laos mystery Anarchy and Old Dogs concluding it's "an entertaining read that is thoroughly recommended";

Maxine Clarke has mixed views on My Last Confession by Helen Fitzgerald

and Laura Root has another enjoyable excursion into pre-revolutionary France in the third of the Nicolas Le Floch series by Jean-François Parot, The Phantom of Rue Royale.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found here.

New Reviews: Mike Ripley's Crime File, Campbell, Goodwin, Parot, Schenkel, Theorin

Slightly later than normal but I think they're worth the wait :-).

Here are this week's new reviews and details of the current competition:

Latest Reviews:

In Mike Ripley's latest crime file he reviews, Typhoon by Charles Cumming, The Paper Moon by Andrea Camilleri and Home Before Dark by Charles Maclean;

Maxine Clarke reviews Colin Campbell's Through the Ruins of Midnight. The author is a former policeman and Maxine calls the story "exciting, tense and authentic";

Norman Price reviews this month's competition prize (see details below on how to enter): The Bellini Card by Jason Goodwin saying that it's "top quality well written crime fiction";

Laura Root reviews the intriguingly named The Man with the Lead Stomach by Jean-Francois Parot, which is the second in the series and she recommends it to "those readers who enjoy a gripping but intelligent yarn";

Amanda Gillies gives her opinion of The Murder Farm by Andrea Maria Schenkel, writing that "at the same time as being repulsed, you are drawn to finish it"

and Maxine has found another stunning Scandinavian crime writer in the shape of Johan Theorin, whose debut, Echoes from the Dead is the one crime novel you must read this year.


Current Competitions:

Win a copy of The Bellini Card by Jason Goodwin*

* no restrictions on entrants (ends 31 July)

New Reviews

Here are this week's new reviews and details of an extra competition to the two mentioned last weekend:

Latest Reviews:

This week we go to America, Norway, France, Russia and Botswana in our reviews, starting with Lee Child's Jack Reacher in his latest paperback incarnation - Bad Luck and Trouble reviewed by sock knitter extraordinaire Pat Austin;

I review the second of the Vik-Stubo series by Anne Holt which is set in Norway and France - The Final Murder (US: What Never Happens) - I preferred this to the first book enormously;

Continuing in France, Laura Root reviews the first book to feature Nicholas Le Floch - The Chatelet Apprentice by Jean-Francois Parot set in pre-revolutionary Paris;

Karen Chisholm reviews the much publicised Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith set in Stalinist Russia;

Moving onto Botswana, Maxine Clarke calls - A Carrion Death by Michael Stanley a "rip-roaring read"

and back in France, Maxine has good things to say about Bruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker.


Current Competitions (closing date 30 April):

Win a copy of The Trophy Taker by Lee Weeks*

Win a copy of The Death Maze by Ariana Franklin**

Win a copy of An Expert in Murder by Nicola Upson**


* UK/Europe only
**No geographical restrictions on entrants