New Reviews: Connor, Delaney, Fitzek, McCoy, May, Veste

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

I still have a few more Euro Crime reviewers' favourite reads of 2013 to post, after which I'll reveal the overall favourite Euro Crime authors, titles and translators of 2013.

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

New Reviews

Terry Halligan reviews Alex Connor's latest art-thriller, The Caravaggio Conspiracy;

Amanda Gillies reviews Luke Delaney's The Keeper, just out in paperback and is the second in the DI Sean Corrigan series;

Michelle Peckham reviews Therapy by Sebastian Fitzek tr. Sally-Ann Spencer, which has just been reissued by Corvus;

Susan White reviews jockey A P McCoy's debut, Taking the Fall;

Lynn Harvey reviews Peter May's follow-up to his 'Lewis trilogy', Entry Island

and Geoff Jones reviews Luca Veste's debut, Dead Gone which  introduces DI David Murphy and DS Laura Rossi.



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: The Keeper by Luke Delaney

The Keeper by Luke Delaney, January 2014, 464 pages, Harper, ISBN: 0007486111

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

It is extremely difficult to do justice to this book. Twenty-four hours after finishing it I am still deeply involved with the emotions that were generated by reading it and that is, for me, a sign of a book that is beyond excellent; dark, disturbing and downright nasty. THE KEEPER will have you looking at people twice and making sure you lock the door at night. As to opening the door to strangers – well, I won’t be comfortable doing that for a while. Although I enjoy a number of different types of crime fiction, ‘well-written but dark and nasty’ is my favourite sort and this one is head and shoulders above most. THE KEEPER is Delaney’s second novel to feature his hero DI Sean Corrigan. The fact that it is his second novel ever is enough to take your breath away. This man has talent! Delaney’s past life in the MET and CID add a deadly ring of authenticity to his work. One is left wondering how much of his story writing is actually autobiographical.

To whet your appetite without giving the game away, Thomas Keller is looking for Sam. He loves her and knows she loves him. He is desperate to find her and keep her safe from harm. Only trouble is, he keeps finding lots of women that look like her and are pretending to be her. They deceive him with their lies and distract him from finding the real Sam. He has no choice but to dispose of these fake deceivers so that he can find and rescue Sam, as he knows she wants to be.

Enter DI Sean Corrigan. He has an uncanny knack of getting into the mindset of the killers he is charged with finding and, when Louise Russell goes missing, he is soon focused on identifying this latest crazy man before Louise turns up dead. He gets closer and closer to his quarry, hampered by an over zealous criminal psychologist and team members who are not quite telling him the whole truth all the time. Can he work his magic before it is too late?

THE KEEPER does have a link to the previous case that Corrigan was involved with, in COLD KILLING, but it is not necessary to read the previous book first. Except you should, because it is awesome. To put it simply, this book is great but if you are a bit squeamish then maybe it isn't for you, as some of the descriptions are very likely to make you feel extremely uncomfortable. I loved THE KEEPER and am already anxious to find out what happens next…

Extremely highly recommended.

Amanda Gillies, January 2014.

New Reviews: Casey, Delaney, Fitzgerald, Goddard, Hand, MacNeal, Neville, Oldfield, Wilton

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 in the last few weeks, so you may have read some of them before if you're a regular :).

Also I've now set up a Euro Crime page on Facebook which you can like.

Michelle Peckham reviews Jane Casey's The Stranger You Know, the fourth in the DC Maeve Kerrigan series;

Amanda Gillies reviews Luke Delaney's debut, Cold Killing which is now out in paperback;


Lynn Harvey reviews Conor Fitzgerald's The Namesake, the third in the Commissario Alec Blume series;

Geoff Jones reviews Robert Goddard's The Ways of the World;

Lynn also reviews Elizabeth Hand's Generation Loss, the first in the Cass Neary series;

Terry Halligan reviews Susan Elia MacNeal's His Majesty's Hope, the third in the Maggie Hope series;

Terry also reviews Stuart Neville's Ratlines, which is now out in paperback;

Lynn also reviews Mark Oldfield's The Sentinel, the first part of the 'Vengeance of Memory trilogy'


and Rich Westwood reviews Robert Wilton's Traitor's Field, the second in the Tom Roscarrock series.

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: Cold Killing by Luke Delaney

Cold Killing by Luke Delaney, August 2013, 464 pages, Harper, ISBN: 0007486081

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

What a fabulous story! Cold and twisted and, at times, very close to being too graphic with its grisly details; this book had me hooked right from the start! It is right up my street in terms of the way it messed with my head and is extremely well-written to boot. I loved it, especially the wonderful twist at the end that I was nowhere near guessing. COLD KILLING is Luke Delaney’s debut novel and, if this is a sign of things to come from him, as I am sure it is, then he is definitely a name to watch out for. Delaney’s years of experience in the Met murder squad are very obvious. His writing has an authentic ring to it and his main characters are all extremely scary people – even the good guy!

To give you a taste, the book is the first in a series featuring DI Sean Corrigan, who has an uncanny knack of being able to catch killers by empathizing with them. The product of an abusive childhood, he is haunted by his own memories and sometimes sails very close to the wind in terms of losing it himself. At a murder scene he is able to think like the killer and sees things that nobody else does. In this book he is shocked to discover that the murderer is extremely adept at leaving no traces of himself on the bodies of his victims. There is no link between the victims, and no apparent motives for the killings, yet Sean has a hunch that they are all the work of the same person and knows who this person is. All he has to do is prove it. Despite annoying several rather influential people, Sean continues with his search, getting closer to the killer but all the while knowing that his man is always a few steps ahead of him.

Chapters detailing Sean’s chase are interspersed with others written from the killer’s point of view; both his actions and his private thoughts. He is a cold and evil man, who truly believes he is superior to the people around him, including his wife and child who unwittingly help him maintain the farce being a decent, family man. He laughs at the police, as they think they are getting closer to catching him, and greatly enjoys leading them a merry dance across London.

If you like your crime fiction dark and twisted, and sometimes a little too twisted to be completely comfortable, then this book is most definitely for you!

Extremely highly recommended.

Amanda Gillies, August 2013.

Read another Euro Crime review of Cold Killing.

New Reviews: Bolton, Cotterill, Delaney, Keating, Nesser, Staincliffe, Sutton, Toyne, Vowler

Nine new reviews have been added to Euro Crime today. We say goodbye to Sarah Hilary as a reviewer today but look forward to her debut novel Someone Else's Skin which is released in 2014. Thank you for all your contributions Sarah. Her final review, below, is of Tom Vowler's What Lies Within:

Michelle Peckham reviews Like This, For Ever by S J Bolton in which Lacey Flint and co are in pursuit of a serial killer of ten-year-old boys;



Lynn Harvey reviews The Woman Who Wouldn't Die by Colin Cotterill, the ninth outing for the elderly Laos Coroner Dr Siri;


Terry Halligan reviews Luke Delaney's debut, Cold Killing which introduces DI Sean Corrigan;


I recently reviewed the audio book of Into the Valley of Death by H R F Keating writing as Evelyn Hervey;



JF reviews Hakan Nesser's The Weeping Girl, tr. Laurie Thompson which focuses on Ewa Moreno a former colleague of the retired Van Veteeren;


Susan White reviews Blink of an Eye by Cath Staincliffe, an author who "never fails to impress";

Rich Westwood reviews Henry Sutton's My Criminal World;



Amanda Gillies reviews Simon Toyne's The Tower, the final and best part of the Sanctus trilogy

and Sarah Hilary reviews Tom Vowler's debut crime fiction novel What Lies Within.




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.

Publishing Deal - Luke Delaney

News of a publishing deal for a former Met police officer, in today's Bookseller:

HarperCollins has signed a three-book crime thriller series written by debut author and former Metropolitan police detective Luke Delaney.

HC will publish the first novel, Senseless, which features DI Sean Corrigan on the case of an unusually vicious murderer, in early 2013.

[HC] said: ..."Luke Delaney has not only written a fabulously gripping and accomplished crime debut, but he also brings a fascinating authenticity to the genre which gives him a genuinely stand-out position in the market."