Reviews: Alaux & Balen, Bauer, Bilal, Fowler, Hannah, Judd, Shepherd, Todd, Whitney

Here are nine reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, four have appeared on the blog since last time, and five are completely new.

Please welcome new reviewer Ewa Sherman who makes her debut today.

A reminder that FriendFeed is being withdrawn on 9 April, so our crime and mystery group has new home on Facebook - Petrona's Crime and Mystery Friends. It's a closed group but there are admins in all time zones so you won't have to wait long to be approved. Do join us - new members are very welcome!

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

New Reviews

Laura Root reviews Jean-Pierre Alaux & Noel Balen's Deadly Tasting tr. Sally Pane the fourth in their cozy Winemaker series;

Michelle Peckham reviews Belinda Bauer's The Shut Eye;

Lynn Harvey reviews Parker Bilal's The Burning Gates, the fourth in his Makana series set in Egypt;


Mark Bailey reviews Christopher Fowler's Bryant & May - The Burning Man, the twelfth in this series which features London's Peculiar Crimes Unit;

Amanda Gillies reviews Mari Hannah's Killing for Keeps the fifth in the Detective Chief Inspector Kate Daniels series;


Ewa Sherman reviews Alan Judd's Inside Enemy which is the fourth in the Charles Thoroughgood series;

Terry Halligan reviews Lynn Shepherd's The Pierced Heart, the fourth in the Charles Maddox series;

Terry also reviews Charles Todd's A Fine Summer's Day a prequel in the Inspector Rutledge series

and Susan White reviews Rebecca Whitney's debut, The Liar's Chair.

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

Review: Killing for Keeps by Mari Hannah

Killing for Keeps by Mari Hannah, December 2014, 400 pages, Macmillan, ISBN: 144724611X

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

KILLING FOR KEEPS is the latest book by Mari Hannah and features her wonderful female DCI, Kate Daniels. True to form, Hannah does not disappoint and the opening pages of the book introduce you to the story in such a gruesomely shocking way that they have you, drawn in and captivated, right from the start. Some books take a while to warm up but this one is the complete opposite and punches you in the face right away. You have no choice but to carry on reading. Awesome! This is the second of Hannah’s books that I have read and this one is even better than the first.

In brief, the book opens with two grisly murders. The lifeless bodies of two brothers, or what remains of them, are found with various parts missing – one on the road under a van and the other on a hospital trolley - and DCI Daniels is called in to serve justice. Luck is not on her side. Although she quickly discovers the identity of the two men, the case quickly stagnates and she is pushed to her limit in order to get things moving again. Chasing her prime suspects takes her from her Tyneside home turf up to Glasgow and even out to Spain and at times both she and her readers feel as if the case will end up being left unsolved. With more lives at stake and the body count increasing, Kate must dig deep in order to save her own life as well as her career, and bring the guilty party home.

KILLING FOR KEEPS is a must-read if you like your crime fiction unpredictable and nasty but also enjoy good, solid characters that don’t back away when things start to get difficult. DCI Kate Daniels is one of those tough nuts that will hang on to something until the bitter end. I have my fingers crossed that her love life works out soon and can’t wait for her next case!

Highly Recommended.

Amanda Gillies, March 2015

New Reviews: Chatterton, Craig, Hannah, Holt, Lawton, Leather, Rickman, Shepherd, Yates

This week's set of reviews, added to the Euro Crime website today, is a mixture of new reviews and a catch-up of those posted directly on the blog in the last two weeks, so you may have read some of them before if you're a regular :).

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

New Reviews

JF reviews Down Among the Dead Men by Ed Chatterton, the second in the DCI Frank Keane series, set in Liverpool and this time also LA;

Geoff Jones reviews James Craig's The Circus, the fourth in the DI John Carlyle series set in London;

Amanda Gillies reviews Monument to Murder by Mari Hannah, the fourth in the DCI Kate Daniels series set in Northumberland;

Lynn Harvey reviews Anne Holt's Blessed Are Those Who Thirst tr. Anne Bruce, the second outing for Oslo's Detective Inspector Hanne Wilhelmsen;

Norman Price reviews Then We Take Berlin by John Lawton, a non-Troy book which "...certainly meets the Troy standard of eccentricity, humour, meticulous historical research and readability";

Terry Halligan reviews Stephen Leather's True Colours, the tenth in the "Spider" series;

Rich Westwood reviews The Magus of Hay by Phil Rickman, the twelfth book in the Merrily Watkins series;

Terry also reviews Lynn Shepherd's A Treacherous Likeness the third in the Charles Maddox series, this time involving a mystery around the Shelleys

and Amanda also reviews Christopher J Yates's debut Black Chalk, starting her  review with: "Oh this book is seriously good".


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: Monument to Murder by Mari Hannah

Monument to Murder by Mari Hannah, November 2013, 400 pages, Macmillan, ISBN: 1447246047

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

MONUMENT TO MURDER is Mari Hannah’s fourth book and it is glorious. London-born, but now living in Northumberland, Hannah is a former probation officer and a film/television scriptwriter. She has published four books in two years and has already either won awards or been shortlisted for them. In short, this is one talented lady and her fabulous book had me focused and fascinated from cover to cover. And I didn’t guess who the murderer was either!

The story follows two separate plots but they are linked, as the people involved in one are friends of the people in the other, so you have to concentrate or you could get confused. One story line follows DCI Kate Daniels – the protagonist in all four of Hannah’s books - who has her work cut out when two unidentified skeletons are uncovered on Bamburgh beach, near Alnwick in Northumberland. The remains turn out to be girls, aged 10 and 15 years, and both are found wearing imitation pearls. As if it isn’t hard enough, it is snowing and the terrible weather conditions make things almost impossible for Kate and her team, as the crime scene is a fair distance away from home. Driving is dangerous, so they have to stay in a local B&B and it is not very comfortable.

Meanwhile, the second story follows Emily McCann, a prison psychologist. Recently widowed, Emily has just returned to work and is struggling to regain some sort of normality in her life. This, however, is not easy, as one of the inmates, sex offender Walter Fearnon, is obsessed with her. He is due for release and takes great pleasure in telling Emily what he would like to do to her. Emily is driven out of her mind with worry and, when her daughter disappears, she can only imagine the worst.

A well-written and interesting read, MONUMENT TO MURDER is far more than just another police procedural. The characters are well developed and attractive, with interesting lives outside of their jobs. None of them have moaning partners, complaining about their hours, and the way both story-lines are intertwined really keeps you on your toes. Hannah is a very welcome addition to the growing group of talented British crime fiction authors and I am looking forward to seeing what the future brings her.

Highly Recommended.

Amanda Gillies, November 2013.

New Reviews: Black, Carver, Gregory, Hannah, Hill, Lock, McGilloway, Meyer, Rees

Competition: During May (closes 31st) you can win a copy of Tessa Harris's The Anatomist's Apprentice. The competition is open to UK residents. Answer the question and fill in the form here.

New Competition: Win YA Thriller Soul Beach by Kate Harrison here (UK/Ireland only)

Here are this week's 9 new reviews:

Amanda Gillies reviews Helen Black's, Twenty Twelve, which involves terrorism at the London Olympics;

Terry Halligan reviews Will Carver's The Two the second outing for Detective Inspector January David;

Terry also reviews Susanna Gregory's The Piccadilly Plot the seventh in the Thomas Chaloner Restoration series;

Susan White reviews Mari Hannah's debut, The Murder Wall the first in the DCI Kate Charles series set in Northumberland;

Lynn Harvey reviews Antonio Hill's debut, The Summer of Dead Toys, tr. Laura McGoughlin set in Barcelona and introducing Inspector Hector Salgado;

Lizzie Hayes reviews the paperback release of Joan Lock's Dead Image the first of six in the Victorian era, Sergeant Best series;

Laura Root reviews the latest in the Ben Devlin series from Brian McGilloway, The Nameless Dead writing that it "is one of the best books I have read this year";

Maxine Clarke reviews Deon Meyer's Trackers, tr. K L Seegers of which she states "this book may be the best thriller I've ever read"

and if you travel by train in the UK you can't have missed the posters for Emlyn Rees's Hunted, just out in paperback and reviewed here by Rich Westwood.

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 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.