Review: The Dark Angel by Elly Griffiths

The Dark Angel by Elly Griffiths, February 2018, 368 pages, Hardback, Quercus, ISBN: 1784296635

Reviewed by Mark Bailey.
(Read more of Mark's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

THE DARK ANGEL is the tenth in the Ruth Galloway Mystery series by Elly Griffiths – this time Ruth Galloway has a change of scene but even then she still finds a murder to investigate.

Dr Ruth Galloway returns home from Clough and Cassandra's wedding to find a message on her answerphone from an Italian former boyfriend and fellow archaeologist Dr Angelo Morelli, asking for her help. He has discovered a group of bones in a tiny hilltop village near Rome but does not know what to make of them – they might be Roman but there are anomalies. Ruth has not had a proper holiday in years and decides that even a working holiday to Italy is welcome.

Ruth and daughter Kate, together with friend Shona and her son Louis, travel to Castello degli Angeli. Here she finds a baffling Roman mystery and a dark secret involving the War years and the Resistance. She is soon joined by Harry Nelson - concerned about Ruth and Kate when he learns of an earthquake - and Cathbad. But by then the ancient bones have sparked a modern murder and Ruth must discover what secrets there are in Castello degli Angeli that someone would kill to protect.

I am a big fan of the Ruth Galloway novels and though I do feel that they are best enjoyed in sequence, you can probably pick up most of the background needed to enjoy each novel as you go along - probably more so here as there is a lot of scene setting in early chapters. There is the usual excellent characterisation that one expects in Elly Griffiths’ books – believable, flawed but ultimately likeable ongoing main protagonists: Ruth Galloway, Harry Nelson and Judy amongst the adults with Kate coming to the fore. There is the usual twisty plot here that engages the reader and this particular novel benefits, I think, from the change in milieu from East Anglia to Italy.

As I have stated about previous Ruth Galloway mysteries - if you do have a liking for modern cosies with perhaps a little hint of grit then I would strongly recommend this to you.

My major niggle would be that it is a bit convenient for Nelson to turn up, but even more so with Cathbad – yes there is a reason, but them both leaping on a plane at short notice is a bit of a stretch.

Mark Bailey, February 2018

Favourite Euro Crime Reads of 2017 - Mark

The penultimate entry in this series of Euro Crime reviewers' favourite British/European/translated reads of 2017 is from Mark Bailey:

Mark Bailey's favourite reads of 2017

Top 5 reads of 2017

In alphabetical order by author:

The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books by Martin Edwards (Non-fiction)
I was raised on golden age crime fiction (I have a school report from when I was aged 11 telling my parents off for allowing me to read such age-inappropriate material). Here Martin Edwards explores the evolution of the crime genre during the first half of the twentieth century through acknowledged masterpieces and some lesser known works.

The Chalk Pit (Ruth Galloway 9) by Elly Griffiths
In the underground tunnels beneath Norwich boiled human bones have been found by Dr Ruth Galloway. The finding that they are relatively recent and not a medieval curiosity means DCI Nelson has a murder enquiry on his hands.
DS Judy Johnson is investigating the disappearance of a local rough sleeper with the only lead being the rumour that she’s gone ‘underground’. This might just be a figure of speech, but the discovery of the bones and the rumours that the network of old chalk-mining tunnels under Norwich is home to a vast community of rough sleepers give cause for concern.
As the weather gets hotter, tensions rise. Another woman goes missing and the police are under pressure to find her. The dark secrets of “The Underground” seems to be the key – can Ruth and Nelson uncover its secrets before it claims another victim?
I am a big fan of the Ruth Galloway novels but I do feel that they are best enjoyed in sequence but you can probably pick up most of the background needed to enjoy the novel as you go along.
As usual there is the excellent characterisation that one expects in Elly Griffiths’ books that gives you believable albeit flawed but ultimately likeable ongoing main protagonists (Ruth Galloway, Harry Nelson & Judy especially in this one although Kate is coming to the fore). There is also the usual sufficiently twisty plot to keep you engaged whilst giving you a chance to solve the mystery before the protagonists do and there is a well-researched backdrop to hang the story on.
As I have stated about previous Ruth Galloway mysteries- if you do have a liking for modern cozies with perhaps a little hint of grit then I would strongly recommend this to you.

Police at the Station and They Don’t Look Friendly (Sean Duffy 6) by Adrian McKinty
Detective Inspector Sean Duffy is on holiday in the Donegal Gaeltacht with his girlfriend and baby daughter. He is called back to Carrickfergus where a man has been shot in the back in the Sunnylands Estate with an arrow. Uncovering who has done it takes Duffy down a dangerous road leading to a lonely clearing where three masked gunmen will force Duffy to dig his own grave. Hunted by forces unknown, threatened by Internal Affairs and with his relationship with his girlfriend on the rocks, Duffy needs all of his wits to get out of this investigation in one piece.
Once again, this a very assured police procedural with multiple serious themes (the peace process is still in the background along with the ongoing war (both in Ireland and elsewhere – the Gibraltar shootings provide a spark to more rioting)), economic regeneration (or the lack thereof in Carrickfergus) is in the middle and another cover up in the foreground) and great writing which is strongly literate but still keeps you engaged and turning the page.

A Rising Man (Sam Wyndham 1) by Abir Mukherjee (2016 publication)
Captain Sam Wyndham, formerly of Scotland Yard, is newly arrived in Calcutta seeking a fresh start after his experiences during the Great War. He has just arrived when he is caught up in a murder investigation that will take him into the dark underbelly of the British Raj. A senior British official has been murdered, and the note left in his mouth warns the British to quit India or else. With rising political dissent and the stability of the Raj under threat, Wyndham and his two new colleagues embark on an investigation that will take them from the luxurious parlours of wealthy British traders to the seedy opium dens of the city.
This is a well-researched book with Calcutta and India beautifully described. The dominant factor for me is relationship between Sam and his Indian Sergeant (who is preparing for an orderly transfer of rule by acquiring the requisite skills of a detective). This is both a very good historical novel and a very good thriller and the next in the series is on my to-be-read pile.

The Hidden (Monika Paniatowski 12) by Sally Spencer
The prologue has the daughters of PC Michael Knightly finding the body of a woman in the grounds of a local country house – he recognises her as DCI Monika Paniatowski.
Her team believe that the girl found dead in the woods is the victim of a ritual killing by a secret society in the heart of Whitebridge but without Paniatowski to back them up they are forced to treat it as a domestic. Therefore Meadows, Crane and Beresford operate by themselves – cutting corners, ignoring procedure, and running the risk that their careers could be brought to an abrupt and dramatic end.
Monika knows who the killer is and also knows that he is stalking her daughter Louisa but there is nothing she can do about it as she is one of the killer’s victims too and is lying in a coma – hearing everything, but unable to move or speak!
This is a good solid police procedural which is well researched and plotted and you are kept engaged as the plot twists and turns. The absence of Paniatowski is an issue but the other characters make up for it especially DS Kate Meadows and Louisa Paniatowski. I would recommend it to fans of police procedurals in general but especially those set in Britain.

Favourite Discoveries of 2016 (7)

Here is Mark Bailey's favourite crime/thriller discovery of 2016:

Mark's Favourite Discovery of 2016

The Library Suicides / Y Llyfrgell (Film 2016)

When famous author Elena Wdig commits suicide, her twin daughters Nan and Ana are lost without her. Elena’s final words suggest that her biographer, Eben, murdered her. One night, the twins set off to avenge their mother’s death whilst working as Librarians at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth but are disrupted by night porter Dan who finds himself unwillingly caught up in the saga.

I bought this on DVD after reading a number of positive reviews about it. It definitely isn’t crime or mystery but an offbeat thriller perhaps or Science Fiction or Horror even – it really does defy categorisation.

It is directed in Welsh by award winning director Euros Lyn (Broadchurch Series 1, Happy Valley, Doctor Who, Torchwood: Children of Earth) and based on a novel by Fflur Dafydd. It has a very small cast headed by Catrin Stewart as the twins and is shot almost entirely in the bowels of the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth (the scenes that aren’t take place just down the road from the building that acts as the police station in Y Gwyll/Hinterland which you see in long shots).

Why do I like it?
It plays with the whole notion of narrative and character – what you see and hear can be taken in multiple ways and you are not sure what is the truth or even if there is such a thing.
The cast are excellent especially Catrin Stewart who plays the twins so you begin to care about them – they may look identical but morally & psychologically they most certainly are not.

If you get a chance to see this (and given the involvement of S4C and BBC Films I would expect a TV showing in the UK in the next year or so) watch it – it is a great 87 minute film.

Favourite Euro Crime Reads of 2016 - Mark

Here are Mark's favourite British/European/translated reads of 2016:

Mark Bailey's favourite reads of 2016

In alphabetical order by author:

The Woman in Blue by Elly Griffiths
Personally, I am a big fan of the Ruth Galloway novels but should warn you that this is best enjoyed if you are following the series through in order but I still do think you can pick up most of the background needed to enjoy the novel as you go along. There is the usual excellent characterisation that one expects in Elly Griffiths’ books that gives you believable albeit flawed but ultimately likeable ongoing main protagonists (Ruth Galloway, Harry Nelson and Cathbad especially in this one) along with a sufficiently twisty plot to keep you engaged and a well-researched backdrop to hang the story on.
If you have a liking for modern cozies with a hint of grit than I would strongly recommend this to you.

Closed Casket by Sophie Hannah
This gets in as a most improved series as my issues with The Monogram Murders have been partly addressed. Edward Catchpool is now a much more rounded character who is a friend to Poirot – speaking of which the fussy Poirot we know and love is back which may be due in part to the Country House milieu of this novel and the book is a bit tighter which might be due to it being shorter (I reckon it is about 6% shorter). The plot still does rely however on Poirot making some leaps of logic that are perhaps a teensy bit heroic if one is being kind. I am optimistic that similar improvements on a third Poirot book by Sophie Hannah will get it into my Top 5 purely on merit.

Rain Dogs (Sean Duffy 5) by Adrian McKinty
Technically this was published in the UK in very late 2015 but January is Sean Duffy reading time for me (number six is being read at the moment). Again this a very assured police procedural with multiple serious themes (the peace process is still in the background, economic regeneration is in the middle and a political cover up in the foreground) and great writing which is strongly literate but still keeps you engaged and turning the page.

Rather Be the Devil by Ian Rankin
Rebus is back in his twenty-first novel appearance and is retired once again and his memories are turning to past events – one of those is a murder in the Caledonian Hotel forty years ago.
It is an utterly compelling and gripping read which I read worryingly quickly as you get engrossed in the book by both the characters and the plot lines. The ending does set up the series for more novels very nicely.

Then She Was Gone by Luca Veste
This is the fifth in the Murphy and Rossi police procedural series set in Liverpool.
They are investigating the disappearance of a politician which turns into a serial killer case with political underpinnings. This is a tight well written novel with strong well drawn characters which grabs your attention and keeps you turning the page (or clicking the Kindle).

Favourite Euro Crime Reads of 2015 - Mark

In today's instalment of the Euro Crime reviewers' favourite reads of 2015, Mark Bailey reveals his favourite Euro Crime titles:

Mark Bailey's favourite reads of 2015

Of the new releases in 2015, I would strongly recommend (in alphabetical order by author as I don’t want to choose an order)

Cavanagh, Steve – The Defence. Eddie Flynn is a New York lawyer who has not set foot inside a courtroom for over a year; he has to return to the courtroom when he has to defend the head of the Russian Mafia in New York who have Eddie's ten-year-old daughter Amy in a safe house. I am not usually a big fan of legal thrillers but I was persuaded to read this one by the reviews I read elsewhere – this is a really really impressive debut novel. Eddie Flynn is engaging character whom you do root for despite his murky past and present – he is a kind of ‘if you get given lemons you make lemonade’ guy who thinks on his feet and has friends who can help him out of an hole on both sides of the law.

Johnston, Paul - Heads or Hearts. The sixth novel in the series of novels featuring Quint Dalrymple and the first new novel for fourteen years (Skeleton Blues followed later in the year). The Year is 2033 and the UK along with most of the world, was torn apart by civil wars and criminal gangs in the early years of the twenty-first century. A referendum is looming to reform Scotland from its disparate elements – a quasi-democratic Glasgow, a quasi-monarchy in parts of the Isles and other systems elsewhere - when a human heart has been found on the football pitch at Tynecastle, rather appropriately the home of Heart of Midlothian Football Club. Quint Dalrymple is called in and the body count goes up before he uncovers a link to the planned referendum. This is a good mix of science fiction and crime fiction set in the future but with very limited technology (lower-level than what most people have access to today) with an engaging plot that goes along at a rate of knots and you can understand the motivation of the characters whilst not agreeing with them.

McGilloway, Brian - Preserve the Dead. A solid police procedural driven by old-fashioned detective work rather than technology and set against a backdrop of social unrest (the police are not trusted by large parts of the community, both Protestant and Catholic) and the aftermath of the collapse of the Celtic tiger which has left people adrift and vulnerable; although this is the third in a series, I feel that you could start with this one and read the others later.

McKinty, Adrian - Gun Street Girl. The fourth in the Sean Duffy trilogy (the fifth is out in January 2016) set in and around Carrickfergus in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Sean Duffy is struggling with burn-out and leaves the investigation of a brutal double murder in Whitehead to DS McCrabban and the two new DCs as it seems very neat and tidy. This is a very assured police procedural with a serious theme at its heart - the peace process - and great writing which is strongly literate but still keeps you engaged and turning the page.

Veste, Luca - The Dying Place. The second novel by Luca Veste featuring DI David Murphy and DS Laura Rossi. DI David Murphy and DS Laura Rossi make a grisly discovery in front of a church in Liverpool of the body of a teenage boy – his torso covered with the unmistakable marks of torture. They discover that the seventeen-year-old boy had been reported missing by his mother six months ago but no one has been looking for him – he was a known troublemaker but did no one care if he was alive or dead? The police soon realise that Dean Hughes is not the only boy who has gone missing in similar circumstances and that someone in Liverpool is abducting troubled teens with terrifying plans for them. Someone who thinks they are above the law. The criminology background of the author is apparent as the story highlights the impact of violent crime on the families of victims and how society, the police and the media have an implicit (and sometimes explicit) hierarchy of victims.

Favourite Discoveries of 2015 (I)

As per usual I have asked my fellow Euro Crime reviewers to come up with their favourite crime fiction discovery of the past year - be it book, film or tv series.

The first entry comes from Mark Bailey.

Mark Bailey's Favourite Discovery of 2015

My favourite discovery of 2015 was the DVDs of the French television series Les Petits Meurtres D'Agatha Christie (Agatha Christie's Little Murders) – I started out with the Region 1 box set put out by Acorn and got hooked in by the second series featuring Commissaire Laurence Swan (played by Samuel Labarthe), Alice Avril – a journalist (Blandine Bellavoir) and Swan's secretary Marlène (Élodie Frenck) who investigate crimes in the Nord-Pas-De-Calais in the 1950s.

The films (just over 90 minutes each) are a twist on Agatha Christie with basic plots intact but are very loose adaptations with a little more in the way of humour, gore and emotional relationship that one is used to with the British adaptations. They also travel a lot more over the canon – the 2015 films were Mademoiselle MacGinty Est Morte (Mrs McGinty's Dead), Un meurtre est-il facile? (Murder is Easy), Murder Party (A Murder is Announced) and Pension Vanilos (Hickory Dickory Dock) .

The addiction is such now that I am buying the DVDs from France when they are released and have the 2015 releases lined up for over Christmas to practice my rusty French on (there are no English language subtitles for the latest ones and indeed most of them – only 7 to date are available with English language subtitles of the 22 in the series and the 4 part ‘pilot’ Petits meurtres en famille (based on Hercule Poirot's Christmas)).

Why do I like them so much – because they are fun; they play with the conventions of Agatha Christie, have good characterisation and have characters that do develop as the series goes on (especially Marlène).

Review: Heads or Hearts by Paul Johnston

Heads or Hearts by Paul Johnston, April 2015, 240 pages, Severn House Publishers Ltd, ISBN: 0727885030

Reviewed by Mark Bailey.
(Read more of Mark's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

This is the sixth novel in the series of novels featuring Quint Dalrymple and the first new novel for fourteen years.

The Year is 2033. The United Kingdom, along with most of the world, was torn apart by civil wars and criminal gangs in the early years of the twenty-first century. Edinburgh, in the last free election in 2003, voted in the Enlightenment Party (a small grouping of university professors) who, with a mind-set influenced by Plato, guaranteed basic human rights such as work, food and housing but removed most elements of choice from people's lives. Crime has been pushed underground where it is fed in part by envy of the tourists who come for the year-round festival with its legalised gambling, prostitution and drugs just for the them.

Quintilian Dalrymple was a senior policeman in the City Guard who was demoted for his authority issues to work as a labourer, which is where we meet him at the start of the first book, BODY POLITIC, but he handles missing persons' cases in his spare time. He is an intellectual hard-boiled detective who doesn’t like the use of violence but tolerates it as a means to an end.

Now a referendum is looming to reform Scotland from its disparate elements – a quasi-democratic Glasgow, a quasi-monarchy in parts of the Isles and other systems elsewhere.

At the start of HEADS OR HEARTS, a human heart has been found on the football pitch at Tynecastle, rather appropriately the home of Heart of Midlothian Football Club. Quint Dalrymple is called in and the body count goes up before he uncovers a link to the planned referendum.

There are two big issues that have to be addressed here first in a review:

Yes, this is a mix of science fiction and crime fiction in that it is set in the future but there is very limited technology which is entirely lower-level than what most people have access to today with the computers in particular seeming quaintly archaic.

The second issue is can you start the series here? I think that you can start here, as there is enough back-story sprinkled throughout the first few chapters to give you both an overview of the milieu and a view into the mind-set and motivation of Quint, without it dominating the plot.

The plot itself is engaging and does go along at a rate of knots and you can understand the motivation of the characters whilst not agreeing with them - a key driving force is the camaraderie between Davie (his sidekick in effect) and Quint which has been built on throughout the series. The denouement does make sense given what has gone before and sets up the scene for future books.

The one slight downside is that Quint does tend to make allegations before he has the evidence to justify them which one suspects would have got him removed from the case quite early on in the novel, given the borderline dictatorship nature of the regime for which he reluctantly works.

This is a good addition to the series and I would definitely like to see where Quint Dalrymple goes from here.

Mark Bailey, June 2015

Review: Mrs Pargeter's Principle by Simon Brett

Mrs Pargeter's Principle by Simon Brett, April 2015, 192 pages, Creme de la Crime, ISBN: 1780290748

Reviewed by Mark Bailey.
(Read more of Mark's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

This is the seventh of the Mrs Melita Pargeter novels by Simon Brett and is published seventeen years after the last one, MRS PARGETER'S POINT OF HONOUR.

Mrs Melita Pargeter has always made it a point of principle that she should complete any of her late husband's unfinished business. Therefore, she finds herself attending the funeral of the rich and respected Sir Normington Winthrop not because she knows him personally but because he is one of the names in the little black book bequeathed to her by her husband, detailing all the people who ever worked for him with details of their particular skill sets. But what exactly was the connection between Mrs Pargeter's late husband and Sir Normington? The investigations of Mrs Pargeter and her associates draw her into a shady world of gun-runners, shifty politicians - and a kidnapped vicar.

I read this very quickly as I do for most Simon Brett books which I find an absolute joy to devour. There is a good solid plot here where you can usually work out what is going to happen but part of the fun of the Mrs Pargeter books is finding out how it happens. That, however, is just a small part of the enjoyment of a Mrs Pargeter book – the main part is the characters. The associates of the late Mr Pargeter (and now their children) are realistic up to a point but have a light comic twist – Mrs Melita Pargeter herself is a force of nature who has huge loyalty to her late husband’s memory although she might just suspect that not everything he did was entirely within the letter of the law.

If you like your crime novels with minimal violence and a hint of comedy then I would give the Mrs Pargeter novels a try.

Mark Bailey, April 2015

Favourite Euro Crime Reads of 2014 - Mark

In today's instalment of the Euro Crime reviewers' favourite reads of 2014, Mark Bailey reveals his favourite Euro Crime titles:

Mark Bailey's favourite reads of 2014

Of the new releases in 2014, I would strongly recommend (in alphabetical order by author as I don’t want to choose an order):

Paul Charles - The Lonesome Heart is Angry
I still don’t really think this is a crime novel in the marketing sense but it is a brilliant literary analysis of the day-to-day life in a small Northern Irish town half-a-century ago when the world was changing with excellent characterisation of people with complex emotions and motivation.

Christopher Fowler – Bryant & May and the Bleeding Heart
(The 11th book about Arthur Bryant, John May and their Peculiar Crimes Unit.) This is a good place for a new reader to start engaging in the weird and wonderful world of the Peculiar Crimes Unit with their move from being part of the Metropolitan Police to being part of the City of London Police.

John Harvey - Darkness, Darkness
(The twelfth and last Charlie Resnick novel.) This has Charlie Resnick haunted and damaged by the events of Cold in Hand – dark, thought provoking and deeply emotional.

Adrian McKinty - In The Morning I'll be Gone
(The 3rd Sean Duffy novel set in 1980s Northern Ireland.) The trilogy is now at least a tetralogy with Gun Street Girl being published in January 2015 with Duffy now a Detective Inspector investigating a double murder in Whitehead.

Kerry Wilkinson - Crossing the Line
(8th in the series of novels featuring Jessica Daniel (now a Detective Inspector) but being pitched as the start of ‘Season 2’.) This was the first in the series I read but I am half way through the rest now; I liked it because Jessica Daniel is an engaging lead character who is developed by the author during the novel so you do get to know her.

If I had to pick just one to recommend then it would be Darkness, Darkness by John Harvey.

Review: Crossing the Line by Kerry Wilkinson

Crossing the Line by Kerry Wilkinson, September 2014, 392 pages, Pan, ISBN: 1447247876

Reviewed by Mark Bailey.
(Read more of Mark's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

This is the eighth in the series of novels featuring Jessica Daniel (now a Detective Inspector) but is being pitched as the start of 'Season Two' as a signal that new readers can get on board comfortably without missing a lot of what is going on.

There are two main story elements here, the first starts right in the first chapter of the novel when a masked attacker begins a reign of terror by throwing acid in the face of a councillor (local politician) during a visit by the Home Secretary. This reopens a wave of media nostalgia as it is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the attacks of the Stretford Slasher - and that is the second main story theme. Running along with these is the personal situation of Jessica Daniel and her friends, especially her colleagues Izzy Diamond and, to a lesser extent, Esther Warren.

This is the first Jessica Daniel book that I have read and I was able to get up to speed with the character and her work and social situation very quickly so this is a good place to start the series. Having said that, I did enjoy it so much I bought all the earlier books in the series as e-books.

Why did I enjoy it – well Jessica Daniel is an engaging lead character and is developed by the author during the novel so you do get to know her. The supporting characters are also developed and they help to drive the plot along. The plot itself is coherent and makes sense – there are no wild leaps of logic.

My only real niggle when finishing the book, and the author does admit this in the afterword at the end, is that this novel does "feed into" the next novel, SCARRED FOR LIFE, which isn't out until next January.

CROSSING THE LINE is a good quality police procedural from an author that I will be following from now on.

Mark Bailey, September 2014

Review: The Cinderella Killer by Simon Brett

The Cinderella Killer by Simon Brett, May 2014, 192 pages, Creme de la Crime, ISBN: 1780290640

Reviewed by Mark Bailey.
(Read more of Mark's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

This is the nineteenth of the Charles Paris novels by Simon Brett and is published only just over a year after the last one, A DECENT INTERVAL so hopefully we will get these more regularly now – please!

Charles Paris is shockingly in reasonably long-term paid work albeit as one of the Brokers men in a performance of Cinderella in Eastbourne where he is so far down the bill he is amazed that he makes it on to the poster at all.

The big name of the show, as Baron Hardup, is a faded American sit-com star, Kenny Polizzi, who knows nothing of pantomime and is here almost entirely for the money although escaping his soon-to-be ex-wife proved an added incentive. She arrives in the country, Kenny goes off the wagon and soon he is found by Charles underneath the pier – no longer so full of life - having been shot.

As usual I read this very quickly as I do for most Simon Brett books. Personally I feel that both the murder aspect and the comedy aspect are much better handled in this one than in A DECENT INTERVAL. On the murder aspect, the killer is not that obvious although when revealed it does make total sense and in the comedy aspect, there are some great one-liners (the chapter sub-titles are also very funny if you know the traditions and running gags of Panto).

The best news for those of us who like Charles is there is a hint of sunlight in his relationship with his wife Frances. I am now just waiting to see what the next Simon Brett is to pre-order but will re-read some earlier Charles Paris stories in the meantime.

Mark Bailey, June 2014

Review: Bryant & May and The Bleeding Heart by Christopher Fowler

Bryant & May and The Bleeding Heart by Christopher Fowler, March 2014, 384 pages, Doubleday, ISBN: 0857522035

Reviewed by Mark Bailey.
(Read more of Mark's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

BRYANT & MAY AND THE BLEEDING HEART is the eleventh book about Arthur Bryant, John May and their Peculiar Crimes Unit.

BRYANT & MAY AND THE BLEEDING HEART begins with the Peculiar Crimes Unit having moved from being part of the Metropolitan Police to being part of the City of London Police which brings a new issue for them with a new very sharp and business oriented manager overseeing them. Their first case in their new jurisdiction involves two teenagers who witness a dead man rising from his grave at night in a London park. While the others investigate this, Arthur Bryant is seeking to find out how someone could have stolen all seven ravens from the Tower of London - as legend has it, when the ravens leave, the nation falls.

I think that this is a good place for a new reader to start engaging in the weird and wonderful world of the Peculiar Crimes Unit as there is a good amount of background information, much of it in the first few pages in the form of a memo from the Peculiar Crimes Unit chief, so that you can see what has gone before.

The dark humour that one expects of a Bryant & May novel is there with perhaps more of a tinge of reality than usual and overall this is yet another strong Bryant & May novel with the expected, very intricate plot with lots of twists, turns and misdirections – remember everything is magic.

Personally I thought this was the best one yet and am waiting for the next one - THE BURNING MAN.

Mark Bailey, April 2014

Favourite Euro Crime Reads of 2013 - Mark

In today's instalment of the Euro Crime reviewers' favourite reads of 2013, Mark Bailey reveals his favourite Euro Crime and/or translated titles:

Mark Bailey's favourite reads of 2013

Of the new releases in 2013, I would strongly recommend (in alphabetical order by author as I don’t want to choose an order).

Brett, Simon - A DECENT INTERVAL (the 18th of the Charles Paris novels by Simon Brett and the first to be published for 16 years; somewhat darker than before but still a good read)

McKinty, Adrian - I HEAR THE SIRENS IN THE STREET (the 2nd Sean Duffy novel set in 1980s Northern Ireland; yes I am biased as I go past most of the places in this novel on my train to work every day and part of this one is set in my village but this is a very assured police procedural with just one more in the series (AND IN THE MORNING I'LL BE GONE) to be published in January 2014)

Nesbø, Jo – POLICE & COCKROACHES (both tr. Don Bartlett) (the 10th & 2nd Harry Hole novels chronologically – POLICE carries on from PHANTOM and with COCKROACHES it was once again nice to see the back plot to the later novels explored in more depth)

Rankin, Ian - SAINTS OF THE SHADOW BIBLE (Rebus is back on the force, older but not wiser - demoted back to his 1987 rank so he could return with Siobhan Clarke as his boss)

Tursten, Helene - THE GOLDEN CALF (tr. Laura A. Wideburg) (the 5th Irene Huss novel in the series and to be translated into English; a fairly conventional police procedural with a likeable main character, well plotted with a good core idea and excellently realised characters who interact with one another realistically and are likeable).

Guest Report: Jo Nesbo in Belfast

Euro Crime reviewer Mark Bailey has very kindly written up Jo Nesbo's recent event in Belfast which was  part of the tour to promote Police tr. Don Bartlett:

Jo Nesbø Talk at the Ulster Hall. Belfast

15^th September 2013

David Torrans, owner of No Alibis who organised the talk with the publishers introduced the event saying that this was the largest audience of Jo Nesbø's UK and Ireland tour (he later tweeted that the audience was 825 people including press) and that the publishers had originally suggested doing it in the shop.

Initially Marie-Louise Muir (the main arts presenter for BBC Radio Ulster) interviewed Jo about his life and career for about 40 minutes before the audience had the opportunity to ask questions of Jo.

The first question asked by Marie-Louise Muir was where did Harry come from? Jo was a stockbroker by day and a musician by night flying to gigs in Norway when the market closed, performing, sleeping and then flying back to Oslo for the market opening the following day. He was commissioned by a publisher to write a memoir about life on the road with the band which included a tour to Australia which is where he learnt about the Aborigine myths that play a role in THE BAT. After a big tour, he wanted to rest from the band but still wanted to write having been the lyricist with the band and having always written, be it poetry or music. The choice of crime fiction was not driven by an interest in other Scandinavian crime authors but by the fact he didn’t want to return to stock broking and had five weeks to write a novel in – he submitted it under a pseudonym so the publishers didn’t market it as by a major Norwegian musician.

His relationship with Don Bartlett (the translator of all the harry Hole novels) was raised. Jo said that he trusted Don Bartlett as it would be impossible for him to translate the books himself as he knows “a bit of English” (you would not agree with this listening to him as he is fluent and very funny) but there is a “lost in translation” phenomena so he tries not to read the translations trusting Don to do his job as the English translation is important as other languages translate from the English rather than the Norwegian – Korean was given as an example.

Marie-Louise then turned to Jo's first book (THE BAT) pointing out how well it did critically winning the best Nordic crime novel award in 1997 - Jo said that he was so new to the game that he did not realise the significance of the award only realising how exceptional this was for a first time author until later. The critical success did not lead to sales, with sales only picking up with the third book or so; he said that the same pattern followed for the UK – he was not an overnight success as it took 10 years work to get really noticed.

The issue of the Harry Hole name was then discussed before returning to the character of Harry and his origins. Jo said Harry was the result of taking the hard boiled private eye of Chandler & Hammett and taking it one step further with Harry ceasing to function when he drinks – he is a character with flaws which makes him interesting; Superman needing Kryptonite to be interesting was cited as a parallel.

Jo was asked if he likes Harry? – Jo said that he is connected to Harry in the sense that Harry becomes real to him when Jo is writing him as Harry is partially based on himself as he feels most authors long-running creations are to some extent.

Jo feels that the quality of the writing is what attracts us to the Scandinavian crime genre be it in print, television or film - partly due to the number of writers working in the field now, so the best are very good.

He was then asked about where the ideas for the murders came from – as an example he explained that the apple bobbing in THE LEOPARD was adapted from a good childhood memory where him and his brother were told that they could not pick apples but not they could not eat them so they ate them while they were still on the on the tree but one day he got a big apple stuck in his mouth and he thought what would have happen to him as it was still growing. Related to this, he said that he does think that he went too far in the violence on THE LEOPARD but on the whole the violence tells you about the characters and drives the story forward.

He revealed that PHANTOM and POLICE were written in one big stretch so there is lots of linking back to PHANTOM from POLICE.

The session then turned into a question and answer session with the audience.

One audience member asked if the turbulent lifestyle of Harry has ever made him tempted to kill him off – Jo revealed that he does have a plan for Harry's life which he drafted while writing the third novel but that doesn’t mean that he will get there with the series. At the moment, he is a bit tired of Harry so he is writing a standalone novel but in six months time he will miss Harry so will want to sit down and write a new Harry Hole novel.

One interesting comment he made in the Q&A was that he is now writing for the readers as he has enough money for the rest of his life (you can see the Economics training at work there!).

The potential for film and TV productions was also discussed with The Snowman adaptation produced by Martin Scorsese being discussed but Jo doesn’t believe these things are happening until he is told it is being shot – however there is a television pilot based on a non-Harry story being shot in the US and a film based on his Doktor Proktor books for children should be out next year.

He was asked how he wrote the books – he said the process was forming the characters, then deciding key scenes and then tying it all together.

The evening then finished with a book signing with a very, very, long queue.

Mark Bailey

Review: Dead Man's Time by Peter James

Dead Man's Time by Peter James, June 2013, 416 pages, Macmillan, ISBN: 0230760546

Reviewed by Mark Bailey.
(Read more of Mark's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

DEAD MAN'S TIME is the ninth in the series of Detective Superintendent Roy Grace novels by Peter James.

In 1922 New York, 5-year old Gavin Daly and his 7-year old sister Aileen board the SS Mauritania to Dublin and safety - their mother has been shot and their Irish mobster father is missing. A messenger hands Gavin a piece of paper and his father's pocket watch - on the paper are written four names and eleven numbers, a cryptic message that haunts him then and for the rest of his life. As the ship sails, Gavin watches Manhattan fade into the dusk and makes a promise that he will return one day and find his father.

In Brighton in 2012, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace investigates a savage burglary where an old lady has been murdered and ten-million-pounds worth of antiques taken including a rare vintage watch. To his surprise, the antiques are unimportant to her family who care only about the watch. As his investigation continues he realizes he has stirred up a mixture of new and ancient hatreds with one man at its heart, Gavin Daly, the dead woman’s 95-year-old brother. He has a score to settle and a promise to keep which lead to a murderous trail linking the antiques world of Brighton, the Costa del Crime fraternity of Spain’s Marbella, and New York.

Again, Peter James produces crime fiction for those who like to have well-rounded detectives with a believable private life. The short snappy chapters are still there (126 chapters in 416 pages) but so is the slight hint of unrealism in the significant figure from his past and this is dragging on far too much and it really is the case now that you will appreciate this book much more if you read the series in sequence.

The other issue with this book for me is that the ending did seem rather too reliant upon coincidence to tie up the loose ends rather the intervention of Grace and his team.

Read another review of DEAD MAN'S TIME.

Mark Bailey, July 2013

Favourite Euro Crime Reads of 2012 - Mark

Continuing the series of Euro Crime reviewers' favourite reads of 2012 here are Mark Bailey's favourite Euro Crime and/or translated titles:

Of the new releases in 2012 (either in paperback or hardback), I would strongly recommend (in alphabetical order by author as I don’t want to choose an order):

Fowler, Christopher – BRYANT & MAY AND THE INVISIBLE CODE (10^th novel about Arthur Bryant, John May and the Peculiar Crimes Unit - another strong Bryant & May novel with a very intricate plot with lots of twists and turns; some new characters (some of which are almost fantastical) are introduced to set up for the future which he has got a 2 book deal for starting with BRYANT & MAY AND THE BLEEDING HEART).

James, Peter - NOT DEAD YET  (8^th Detective Superintendent Roy Grace novel)

Nesbo, Jo – THE BAT tr. Don Bartlett (the 1^st Harry Hole novel chronologically – it was nice to see the back plot to the later novels explored in more depth.

Rankin, Ian - STANDING IN ANOTHER MAN'S GRAVE (Rebus is back – I read it in a day and loved it)

Robinson, Peter – BEFORE THE POISON (not a DCI Banks book but it takes the well-used idea of somebody becoming obsessed with solving a decades-old murder and executes it very well)

Other 2012 releases that had good points were:

• McKinty, Adrian - THE COLD COLD GROUND (the 1^st Sean Duffy novel set in 1980s Northern Ireland; yes I am biased as I go past most of the places in this novel on my train to work every day but this is an assured police procedural in the main - the next book (I HEAR THE SIRENS IN THE STREET) is just out as I write and if it is just a tad better then that is one of my 2013 best reads sorted)
• Staincliffe, Cath - DEAD TO ME (the 1st Scott and Bailey tie-in novel by Cath Staincliffe; yes this is a tv tie-on but it captures the characters and is compellingly written)
• Tursten, Helene - NIGHT ROUNDS tr. Laura A Wideburg (the 4th Irene Huss novel; this is a good novel but I have seen the first 6 Swedish TV movie adaptions so I spoilt it for myself).
• Wanner, Len - THE CRIME INTERVIEWS VOLUMES ONE AND TWO (These are available most easily for Kindles but if you like tartan noir, they are a good insight into how authors minds work as they have interviews with 19 crime writers between the two volumes)

‘Blasts from the past’ series reread or read for the first time in 2012 are:

• Crispin, Edmund - the Gervase Fen series (I re-read these in the Summer. They are whodunit novels with complex plots written in a humorous, literary style with references to English literature, poetry, and music; my favourites are THE MOVING TOYSHOP (1946) and FREQUENT HEARSES (1950) – it is a crying shame that Crispin went 25 years between the penultimate and the last novel in the series).
• Burley, W J – the Wycliffe series (I remember the tv series with Jack Shepherd well and recently bought them on DVD but had never read the books; yes they are dated and even the later ones read like those written in the 1970s (they were 22 written from 1968 to 2000) but they are also tightly plotted concisely written books with a great sense of place and a complex main character)
• Edwards, Martin – the Lake District Mystery series (these were a new read for me and as said elsewhere on the website these are very classy page turners with a good sense of history and the area it is set in – the English Lake District)
• Harvey. John – the Charlie Resnick series (I am just over halfway through re-reading this quality police procedural series set in Nottingham in the late 1980s and 1990s in the main – the last one was published a decade later in 2008)

Again, they reflect in the main my liking for police procedurals.