New Reviews: Anderson, Glynn, Hill, James, Nesser, Perry, Pryce

Here are this week's new reviews:

Lynn Harvey reviews the seventh (or eighth if you count the novella) in the Rhona MacLeod forensic scientist series from Lin Anderson: The Reborn and gives it a very strong thumbs-up;

Terry Halligan reviews Alan Glynn's Bloodland which he enjoyed very much;

Sarah Hilary reviews Susan Hill's latest Simon Serrailler, The Betrayal of Trust which deals with both a cold murder case and the issue of assisted dying;

[Professor] Michelle Peckham thinks that Peter James's standalone Perfect People is an interesting read though it is more science fiction than crime fiction;

Maxine Clarke reviews the latest in the 'Van Veeteren' series by Hakan Nesser, The Unlucky Lottery, tr. Laurie Thompson though it's his sidekick Munster who leads the investigation this time;

Rich Westwood reviews the twenty-seventh in the Pitt series by Anne Perry: Dorchester Terrace and suggests readers new to Perry, might want to start a bit earlier in the series

and Susan White reviews Malcolm Pryce's latest Aberystwyth Noir - The Day Aberystwyth Stood Still.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here and new titles by M C Beaton, Helen Black, Xavier-Marie Bonnot, Stephen Booth, William Brodrick, Sam Christer, James Craig, Adam Creed, Judith Cutler, Hannah Dennison, Paul Doherty, Carola Dunn, Giorgio Faletti, Caryl Ferey, Alex Gray, M R Hall, Patricia Hall, John Harvey, Paul Johnston, Jim Kelly, Graeme/G W Kent, Marek Krajewski, Roberta Kray, T S Learner, Donna Leon, Peter Leonard, David Mark, Edward Marston, Andrew Martin, Alex Marwood, Peter May, Kathleen McCaul, Matt McGuire, Danny Miller, Ian Morson, R T Raichev, Roz Southey, Gunnar Staalesen, Lyndon Stacey, Cath Staincliffe, D J Taylor, M J Trow, Nicola Upson, Laura Wilson, Jacqueline Winspear, Simon Wood and Tom Wood have been added to these pages this week.

The Herring in the Library

L C Tyler's next book, published in July, is The Herring in the Library, the third in his Herring series after, The Herring Seller's Apprentice and Ten Little Herrings. This comedic series features agent and author: Elsie and Ethelred (or Ethelred and Elsie series as they are known in the US). The fourth book is to be The Herring on the Nile!

I loved the Edgar-Award-listed Herring Seller's Apprentice and it's time I caught up with this series.

Synopsis: "When literary agent Elsie Thirkettle is invited to accompany tall but obscure crime-writer Ethelred Tressider to dinner at Muntham Court, she is looking forward to sneering at his posh friends. What she is not expecting is that, half way through the evening, her host will be found strangled in his locked study. Since there is no way that a murderer could have escaped, the police conclude that Sir Robert Muntham has killed himself. A distraught Lady Muntham, however, asks Ethelred to conduct his own investigation. Ethelred (ably hindered by Elsie) sets out to resolve a classic 'locked room' mystery; but is any one of the assorted guests and witnesses actually telling the truth? And can Ethelred's account be trusted? In the process, we meet one of Ethelred's own creations, the fourteenth-century detective Master Thomas, who is helped in his investigations of a mediaeval crime at Muntham Court by a small and rather pushy Abbess with a taste for honey cakes ...Is it possible that Master Thomas can shed some light on the twenty-first century case, and on Ethelred's own motives for investigating Sir Robert's death? "The Herring in the Library" is another ingenious outing for crime fiction's most mismatched double-act."

It's no coincidence that the covers have some resemblance in style to fellow-Last Laugh nominee Malcolm Pryce's Aberystwyth Noir series: