Review Roundup: Carson, Dahl, Jonasson, Kestin, Millar, Siger

Here are six reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, all have appeared on the blog since last time.

You can keep up to date with Euro Crime by following the blog and/or liking the Euro Crime Facebook page and follow on Twitter, @eurocrime.

New Reviews

Amanda Gillies reviews Clare Carson's debut, Orkney Twilight;

Lynn Harvey reviews Arne Dahl's To the Top of the Mountain tr. Alice Menzies;

I review Ragnar Jonasson's Snowblind tr. Quentin Bates the first in his Dark Iceland series;

Michelle Peckham reviews The Lie by Hesh Kestin;

Amanda also reviews Louise Millar's City of Strangers

and Terry Halligan reviews Jeffrey Siger's Devil of Delphi.



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

Review: City of Strangers by Louise Millar

City of Strangers by Louise Millar, October 2015, 400 pages, Macmillan, ISBN: 144728111X

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

This superbly crafted thriller takes its inspiration from the subject of identity. It centres on the fact that everyone who knows Lucian Grabole, a man who was found dead in an Edinburgh flat, describes him differently to the reporter who is trying to find out about him. Other issues of identity also arise. First, Grace Scott, the reporter and central protagonist, is struggling to find herself professionally, after being with her first love for years and always putting his needs before her own. Then there is her new husband, Mac, who thinks Grace is somebody that she very obviously is not and seems to be struggling with a concept of marriage that is at odds with the person he is married to. Both characters are very likeable, decent people but at times their relationship makes you want to scream at them in frustration.

Interwoven with Grace’s journey of discovery, is another story that is also about people who are searching for answers. Crime reporter Sula McGregor and her new assistant Ewan, are following up on the discovery of a body found stuck down a well shaft on an Edinburgh hillside. Initially unknown, the body is later identified as a missing hill-walker but things get even more confusing when a second body is also found in the well. Sula and Ewan uncover a nasty plot of lies and deceit and nothing is as it first seems.

Ewan knows Grace from their time at college together and it is he who encourages her to pursue her story and realise her dreams with something big. Her search sends her to Amsterdam, Paris and Copenhagen before taking her back to Edinburgh, where she started. What she finds is a totally unexpected, but wonderfully complex, nightmare that will give the reader chills.

Louise Millar is a first-rate author who started her career as a journalist with several well-known magazines, including being senior editor at Marie-Claire. CITY OF STRANGERS is her fourth book and is a page-turning stunner.

Highly recommended.

Amanda Gillies, November 2015.

New Reviews: Ellis, Fossum, Grieves, Kent, Millar, Norman, Poulson, Simms

Here are nine reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, four have appeared on the blog over the last week and five 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

Terry Halligan reviews two books by Mark Ellis, Princes Gate and Stalin's Gold, both set in 1940;

Lynn Harvey is very impressed with I Can See in the Dark by Karin Fossum tr. James Anderson;

Amanda Gillies reviews Tom Grieves' second book, A Cry in the Night, set in the Lake District;

Susan White reviews The Killing Room, the fifth in the Sandro Cellini series by Christobel Kent, set in Italy;

Michelle Peckham reviews Louise Millar's The Hidden Girl, set in Suffolk;

I review Andreas Norman's debut, a spy thriller set in Sweden and Brussels: Into a Raging Blaze tr. Ian Giles;

Geoff Jones reviews, recent competition prize, Invisible by Christine Poulson

and Mark Bailey reviews Chris Simms' A Price to Pay, the second in the DC Iona Khan series set in Manchester.




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: Benn, Donovan, Evans, Garrett, Kaaberbol & Friis, Mark, Millar, Mishani, Taussig

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 whilst I've been away so you may have read some of them before if you're a regular :).

A reminder of the current competition: win The Distinguished Assassin by Nick Taussig (10 copies, UK & Ireland).

Laura Root reviews Tom Benn's Chamber Music, the second in the 'Bane' series set in Manchester;

Geoff Jones reviews Michael Donovan's debut Behind Closed Doors which introduces PI Eddie Flynn;

Susan White reviews the Kindle release of Geraldine Evans's Up in Flames, the first in the Casey and Catt series;

It's a very welcome return for Margaret Murphy who in conjunction with Professor Dave Barclay is A D Garrett and their first collaboration, Everyone Lies is reviewed here by Terry Halligan;

I recently reviewed Invisible Murder by Kaaberbol and Friis, tr. Tara Chace

Amanda Gillies reviews David Mark's Orginal Skin, the second outing for Hull's DS Aector McAvoy;

Michelle Peckham reviews Louise Millar's Accidents Happen;

Lynn Harvey reviews the International Dagger short-listed The Missing File by Israeli author D A Mishani, tr. Steven Cohen

and Susan also reviews this month's competition prize, The Distinguished Assassin by Nick Taussig.



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: Accidents Happen by Louise Millar

Accidents Happen by Louise Millar, April 2013, 351 pages, Pan, ISBN: 0330545019

Reviewed by Michelle Peckham.
(Read more of Michelle's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

ACCIDENTS HAPPEN is a psychological thriller based around the idea that some people appear to be very unlucky, even cursed, and suffer more misfortunes than others. In this case, Kate Parker is the unlucky person, as her husband was murdered, and her parents had earlier died in a car crash on the day of her wedding. Now, Kate and her 10-year-old son Jack live together in Oxford, having left their house in London where her husband was killed, to be close to her husband’s family. Kate is trying to recover from her husband’s murder and is obsessed with keeping herself and her son safe.

Kate’s obsession with risk levels, statistical chances of accidents in a variety of situations, and the like, severely limit her ability to live a normal life and worry her remaining family. This is not helped by Kate’s belief that someone is coming into her house when she and Jack are out, even eating food out of the fridge. She is so worried by this that she installs some sort of burglar proof cage to seal off the first floor of the house, preventing any burglars that might enter downstairs from accessing the bedrooms. Is she imagining things? Or is someone really able to somehow enter the house and roam about freely when she’s not there?

Then she meets a man, Jago, who is apparently a visiting professor in Oxford, teaching courses about risk and even seems to have written a book about it, which Kate eagerly reads. He gradually gains Kate’s trust, and starts helping her to take risks, overcome her fears and gradually turn back into the normal, happy woman she was before life cruelly took away the people she loved.

Interspersed between the story of Kate, are a few short chapters relating to an unknown boy, and his family, who live in a house where there are ‘snakes’ in the wall. Clearly something very bad happened to this boy, his house and his parents and gradually these chapters fill out the story. There has to be a connection between that story and the present day somehow, and slowly the links are revealed, with the expected dramatic conclusion.

The description of Kate’s apparent paranoia, its effects on her son Jack, and her husband’s family are convincing. Her gradual recovery back to a ‘normal person’ through her relationship with Jago is well described and carefully lulls the reader into a false sense of security before things start to fall apart. There is a fine line between real paranoia, and a simple uncertainty that things are not quite right, and the sense that Kate is both unclear and worried about which side of the line she does in fact lie is nicely conveyed. The only slight disappointment to me was the denouement, which seemed just a little too far fetched. But that slight misgiving aside, this was an intriguing book and an absorbing read.

Michelle Peckham, June 2013

Publishing Deals - Hannah & Millar

Two publishing deals have been announced today in The Bookseller:

Mari Hannah

Pan Macmillan has bought three crime novels by debut novelist Mari Hannah.

..."Mari has done everything right in creating what I know will be an extremely addictive series. She has the perfect protagonist in Kate Daniels and her North East setting adds such depth and atmosphere to these books."

The Murder Wall will be published in early 2012, with Settled Blood to be published later in the year.

and Louise Millar

Macmillan has bought world rights to two books by debut author Louise Millar, the first of which is described as "a gripping psychological thriller".

Journalist Millar's first novel, entitled The Playdate, is a dark tale about parenting and the nature of modern friendships. The book is due for publication in spring 2012, and is expected to appeal to fans of Barbara Vine, Sophie Hannah and crimewriting duo Nicci French.

A second, as yet unnamed novel will follow.