New Reviews: King, Nakamura, Smith, Stock, Swanston, Voss & Edwards

I've been away so apologies for the reduced number of reviews this week.

Here are 6 new reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today:

Lynn Harvey reviews Laurie R King's Pirate King, the eleventh in her Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes series;

Michelle Peckham reviews Fuminori Nakamura's The Thief, tr. Satoko Izumo and Stephen Coates;

Terry Halligan reviews Mackenzie Smith's debut novel Who Pays the Piper;

I review Jon Stock's Dirty Little Secret the conclusion of the trilogy about MI6 agent Daniel Marchant;

Rich Westwood reviews The King's Spy by Andrew Swanston, the first in the Thomas Hill trilogy set during the English Civil War

and Susan White reviews Killing Cupid by Louise Voss & Mark Edwards.

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: Dirty Little Secret by Jon Stock

Dirty Little Secret by Jon Stock, July 2012, 434 pages, Blue Door, ISBN: 0007300751

Dirty Little Secret is the conclusion to the Daniel Marchant/Legoland trilogy after Dead Spy Running

and Games Traitors Play and takes place shortly after the dramatic conclusion to Games Traitors Play.

Salim Dhar, the world's most wanted terrorist and Daniel Marchant's half-brother is in the UK. Daniel and his girlfriend - CIA agent Lakshmi - are safe at an MI6 training centre in Gosport. The CIA think both are traitors.

What no-one but Dhar, Daniel and Daniel's boss, Marcus Fielding, know is that Dhar is prepared to work for MI6. He will help keep Britain safe in return for his freedom.

When Dhar allows himself to be captured, his fee for working for MI6 is that he is allowed to escape from the Americans when he is taken to one of their detention facilities, Bagram in Afghanistan.

With Daniel wanted by the CIA, he has to go on the run and calling on friends for favours he crosses Europe and beyond eluding both the Americans and the Russians while fulfilling his side of the agreement. Meanwhile back at home Fielding is ousted by his deputy Denton whom Marchant believes is working for the Russians...

All the chasing and subterfuge is leading to a memorable terrorist attack, approved by Dhar, one the world will not forget. Will Daniel play along or is it a step too far?

Though I've now read all three, I read the previous two on audio book and I could still hear Paul Panting's superb narration in my head. It appears he wasn't available to record Dirty Little Secret

so I decided to switch to the print book rather than get used to another narrator at this late stage.

I raced through Dirty Little Secret with its exciting story and the constantly changing point of view and short chapters (124 chapters in 434 pages) with the irresistible temptation to read just one more chapter. I've really enjoyed this trilogy, and I do hope Jon Stock writes more. This spy series, unlike Stella Rimington's books, has sanctified torture and corruption at the highest levels and does not put the 'powers that be' in a very good light!

There are several references to the events in the earlier books and sufficient explanations for those who've not read the previous two but I would recommend reading them in order to avoid the inevitable spoilers that crop up in Dirty Little Secret.

New Reviews: Clark, Janes, McKenzie, May, Solana, Staalesen, Stock & Website Updates

Two competitions for March, both close 31st March:
1.Win a signed copy of Complicit by Nicci French UK only
2.Win From the Dead by Mark Billingham UK & Europe only

Here are this week's reviews:

Terry Halligan reviews Cassandra Clark's third Abbess of Meaux mystery: The Law of Angels calling it a "fascinating historical page turner";

Lizzie Hayes reviews Diane Janes follow-up to her CWA Dagger Award shortlisted debut novel: Why Don't You Come For Me, which comes "highly recommended";

Michelle Peckham reviews Grant McKenzie's second North America-set thriller, No Cry For Help;

Amanda Gillies reviews Peter May's The Blackhouse the first in a trilogy featuring "Lewis-born, Edinburgh-based, detective, Fin MacLeod";

I review Teresa Solana's A Shortcut to Paradise, tr Peter Bush one of the latest gems from Bitter Lemon Press;

Maxine Clarke reviews Gunnar Staalesen's Yours Until Death, tr. Margaret Amassian

and earlier this week I reviewed the audio book of Jon Stock's spy-thriller, Games Traitors Play.

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

Plus I've also refreshed the bibliography pages on the website:

State of play at 20.3.11:

The Author Websites page now lists 868 sites.

The New & Upcoming Releases pages have been updated.

In Bibliographies there are now bibliographies for 1636 authors (8372 titles with links to 1945 reviews):

I've added new bibliographies for: Geraint Anderson, Sara Blaedel, Robin Blake, Chris Carter, Eoin Colfer, Julia Crouch, Pablo de Santis, Jeffery Deaver, Patrick Easter, Elsebeth Egholm, Christopher (CW) Gortner, Howard Linskey, Kevin McCarthy, Lynn Shepherd, Didier van Cauwelaert, Alex Walters, Tim Weaver, Jan Merete Weiss and Robert Wilton

I've updated the bibliographies (ie added new titles) for: Michael Arnold, Lindsay Ashford, James Barrington, M C Beaton, Tony Black, Richard Blake, Fabrice Bourland, Rhys Bowen, Simon Brett, Andrew Britton, Maureen Carter, Kimbereley Chambers, John Connolly, Fay Cunningham, K O Dahl, Joy Ellis, Kate Ellis, James Fleming, M R Hall, Tim Heald, Susan Hill, Peter James, Paul Johnston, Doug Johnstone, Gene Kerrigan, Giles Kristian, Asa Larsson, Giulio Leoni, Karen Maitland, Hakan Nesser, Sheila Quigley, Matt Benyon Rees, Peter Robinson, Michael Robotham, Rosemary Rowe, Craig Russell, Nicola Slade, Roz Southey, M Stanford-Smith, Simon Tolkien, Christopher Wakling, Charlie Williams, Emily Winslow and Simon Wood.

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

Review: Games Traitors Play by Jon Stock (audio book)

Games Traitors Play by Jon Stock, narrated by Paul Panting (Whole Story Audio Books, February 2011, ISBN: 9781407471495, 10 CDs)

Games Traitors Play is the sequel to 2009's Dead Spy Running and is the middle part of the "Legoland" trilogy, Legoland being the nickname for the MI6 building at Vauxhall. And as before, the audio edition was published one month before the print edition.

The hero of this set of books is MI6 agent Daniel Marchant, the son of a former head of MI6 who is not trusted by the Americans but has the absolute trust of the current MI6 head, Marcus "the Vicar" Fielding.

As a result of the events in Dead Spy Running, Daniel has been grounded for a year by the Americans and is only now able to continue his mission to find his half-brother, Salim Dhar, who is also the world's most wanted terrorist, and turn him into a secret asset for Britain.

Daniel's pursuit of Dhar takes him to all over the world: Morocco, Sardinia, India but it seems the only way to meet Dhar is for Daniel to defect to Russia which is from where, Dhar's believed to be planning an attack on Britain. Daniel's the only person who has a chance of stopping him.

There is plenty of action in Games Traitors Play with an exciting opening chase sequence in Morocco and a nerve-wracking finale in Britain and a fascinating look at what goes on in a huge Indian temple mid-way through. Daniel meets some familiar faces from the first book - both friends and enemies and makes more of each along the way.

Games Traitors Play contains plenty of double-crossing and complicated political manoeuvring in particular when Daniel is trying to convince the Russians he wants to defect and the Russians have to be made to believe him. Daniel and Dhar's father seems to be pulling the strings from beyond the grave.

Games Traitors Play does give away nearly all the surprises in Dead Spy Running so it would be better to listen to them in the correct order. Dead Spy Running is a superb thriller and one that set a very high standard and I didn't feel that Games Traitors Play was quite as continuously gripping. Nonetheless it's still a very entertaining and enlightening listen and I'm looking forward to the next instalment.

As before, the narration by Paul Panting was superb, in particular the slightly harsh voice of Daniel and the refined, quieter tone of Fielding, and I hope he is available to record the final part of the trilogy when it's released.

There is a bonus disc with Jon Stock being interviewed by Maggie Mash (who narrates Stella Rimington's spy-series) and includes a few details of some new settings in book three, plus the fact that he wants Daniel to carry on after the trilogy.

You can follow Daniel Marchant on twitter: @MarchantMI6 and read more about the books and Jon Stock at his website.

New Reviews: Barclay, Child, Forbes, Mills, Stock, Weeks

Just one week left in May's competition - win a copy of Suffer the Children by Adam Creed. (There are no geographical restrictions on entrants.) Enter here.

The following reviews have been added to the review archive over on the main Euro Crime website. The theme this week is thrillers:

New Reviews:

A big welcome to New Zealand based writer/reviewer Craig Sisterson who joins the review team today. His opening review is of Alex Barclay's Blood Runs Cold;

Michelle Peckham reviews the paperback edition of Nothing to Lose by Lee Child;

Amanda Brown reviews the last of Colin Forbes's Tweed books - The Savage Gorge;

Book of the week is Mark Mills's The Information Officer reviewed here by Mike Ripley;

I review the audio book version of Dead Spy Running by Jon Stock (the audio version pre-dates the print version by about a month);

Maxine Clarke reviews the second in the Johnny Mann series by Lee Weeks: The Trafficked

and finally for a bit of non-euro crime, Amanda Gillies reviews Library of the Dead by Glenn Cooper.

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

Review: Dead Spy Running by Jon Stock (audio book)

Dead Spy Running by Jon Stock, narrated by Paul Panting (Whole Story Audio Books, June 2009, ISBN: 1407437011, 9 CDs)

This audio book version of Dead Spy Running will be available on 1 June, nearly a month before the print version. Quite a coup for Whole Story Audio Books and a noteworthy event. Like Stephen Fry, I am a big fan of audio books and leapt at the chance to have a review copy and I wasn't disappointed with the result.

Dead Spy Running is the first of a trilogy and the central character is MI6 agent Daniel Marchant. Daniel's father, a former head of MI6, was forced out of his job under a cloud of suspicion and died shortly afterwards. Daniel has been suspended pending an investigation into his father's activities to see if he was indeed a traitor. Daniel wants nothing more than to clear his father's name.

The book starts with Daniel and his fellow agent/girlfriend entering the London Marathon where Marchant's professional instincts kick in and he spots a fellow runner wearing a belt that could contain explosives. The runner soon confirms that he must run above a certain speed or the bomb will detonate.

When Daniel saves the day, he expects to be treated rather more as a hero than a suspect. And yet the Americans want to 'debrief' him, treating him as hostile. Daniel's boss, Fielding, aka "the Vicar" agrees to release Daniel to the CIA so long as he is returned alive and does not leave British soil.

Daniel's globe-trotting is about to begin, with the CIA ignoring Fielding's order and taking him on a rendition flight to Poland. Poland is soon followed by an MI6 assisted flight to India and Daniel begins to close in on the truth as to what his father's unexplained actions were all about, whilst all the while trying to avoid re-capture by the Americans and ultimately preventing one of the most shocking terrorist attacks of all time.

Dead Spy Running is 'edge of the seat' listening; from the very possible sounding Marathon scenario at the beginning of the book to the tense final set piece in India, the pace doesn't sag and includes a (rather too) memorable water torture scene along the way. The Indian setting was particularly well evoked. What I especially enjoyed was all the inside information about the relationships between MI5, MI6, CIA and also about what goes on in the MI6 building (aka Legoland), both the business side and the other snippets such as - does the MI6 boss actually have a butler?

Dead Spy Running is well written and just flows along. I was absolutely hooked and would have gone straight onto the next book, were it available. If you've enjoyed Stella Rimington's Liz Carlyle series then you'll love Dead Spy Running.

Narrator Paul Panting gives a marvellous performance, especially his world-weary Daniel, as well as whole host of other different accents and voices.

You can listen to a ten minute extract on the Whole Story Audio Books page.

Publishing Deals

From Publishing News:

Patrick Janson-Smith, now happily installed at HarperCollins and back from being fêted in New York, has made his first buys for his Blue Door imprint. He has secured WEL rights from Judith Murdoch to Anne Berry's debut The Hungry Ghosts, a novel set mostly in 1960s Hong Kong and telling the story of Alice Safford, the unloved and unwanted third girl in a family of four siblings who becomes possessed by the angry ghost of a Chinese rape victim. Janson-Smith describes it as "an absolute stunner of a novel: a family saga with magical-realist overlays, beautifully written and compulsively readable”. Berry, who was born in Aden and grew up in Hong Kong, now lives in Surrey.

He has also bought EDS Dylan Thomas Prize-winner Rachel Trezise's novel Shades of Crazy, which will "do for Cardiff what Trainspotting did for Edinburgh". Hers is "a beguilingly original voice” and she writes about "the underbelly of society with both insight and humour”. Broo Doherty of Wade & Doherty was the agent, and the deal was for UK/Commonwealth.

Finally, Janson-Smith has acquired Dead Spy Running, "one of the classiest thrillers I've read in ages”. Bought from Claire Paterson of Janklow & Nesbit, it is the first of a series written by the Daily Telegraph's Jon Stock.