Review Roundup: Bussi, Moore, Parsons, Patterson & Ellis, Roberts, Walters

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

*I am trialling a new approach at the moment in that all reviews will appear on the Euro Crime blog rather than being separate files as part of the Euro Crime website. I feel this will give the reviews more exposure and make them more findable in a search engine. The reviews will usually appear daily ie Monday to Friday, with occasional weekend postings, and roundups will appear on Sundays. The website will continue with bibliographies etc, the only change is that the reviews will be on the blog.

I'd be interested in any comments about this new approach.

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

Craig Sisterson reviews Michel Bussi's After the Crash tr. Sam Taylor;

Ewa Sherman reviews Margaret Moore's Broken Chord set in Italy;

Amanda Gillies reviews The Slaughter Man by Tony Parsons;

I review Part One and Part Two of  James Patterson & David Ellis's Murder House;

Amanda also reviews Mark Roberts's Blood Mist, the first in a new series


and Michelle Peckham reviews Minette Walters' The Cellar.




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

Review: Blood Mist by Mark Roberts

Blood Mist by Mark Roberts, August 2015, 352 pages, Head of Zeus, ISBN: 1784082880

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

This book is the first in a new series and introduces DCI Eve Clay, who heads a team searching for a particularly nasty, Satanic killer in Liverpool. The book is fantastic! It grips hold of you right away with a tantalizing prologue that feeds you some tasty morsels about Eve’s early life and sets you up, ready, for the horrors that are to follow.

When an entire family is savagely slaughtered in their own home, and DCI Eve Clay is asked to head up the investigation, little does she know that she is about to end up face to face with her own unsavoury past. She also appears to be dealing with a killer, or killers, who know more about her than she knows about herself: abandoned soon after birth, by parents unknown, Eve was first brought up by an elderly nun, Sister Philomena, and then spent the rest of her childhood in a Catholic children’s home after the old woman passes away. Eve is now happily married with a young son and the severe brutality of the murders has her in fear for the safety of her family; especially when she finds out that the killer(s) seem to know her. Her search for answers seems to be heading nowhere but then she receives a telephone call from a deadly name from the past: Adrian White, a sadistic, insane murderer who she caught and helped to lock away many years ago, wants to see her. He has information for her but definitely knows more than he is saying.

When a second family is murdered, Eve knows that she must act quickly before more lives are lost. Her investigations lead her to a very shocking truth that has her dealing with some extremely evil and dangerous people. The reader is left not only horrified by what is going on but also amazed that Eve has turned out to be as sane and level-headed as she has, given where she came from and how she was brought up. I am delighted that this book is the first in a series about DCI Eve Clay. She is a feisty, interesting and likeable character and I am rather pleased that the case she got to solve messed beautifully with my head!

Mark Roberts is a gifted writer and was a teacher for twenty years before putting pen to paper. His last book, WHAT SHE SAW, that was reviewed on Euro Crime last year, was long-listed for a CWA Gold Dagger – which is an indication of how awesome this author’s writing is. As with Robert’s previous books, BLOOD MIST is a hard hitting and disturbing tale. It leaves you chilled, exhausted and most definitely uncomfortable. If you like your crime fiction to be more of a thriller than a procedural detective story, then you are going to love this book. Mark Roberts is another talent to look out for in the future. He has already been added to my growing list of favourites and I am really excited to see what he produces next.

Extremely Highly Recommended.

Amanda Gillies, September 2015.

New Reviews: Brett, McNamee, Malone, Ramsay, Roberts, Siger, Welsh, Winspear, Yoshida

Here are nine reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, three have appeared on the blog over the last couple of weeks and six 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

Mark Bailey reviews the latest in the Fethering series by Simon Brett, The Strangling on the Stage;

Lynn Harvey reviews Eoin McNamee's Blue is the Night, the third part in a loose trilogy;

Amanda Gillies reviews Michael J Malone's Blood Tears, the first in the DI Ray McBain series;

Terry Halligan reviews Blind Alley by Danielle Ramsay, the third in the DI Jack Brady series set in Tyneside;

Amanda also reviews Mark Roberts's What She Saw, the second in the DCI Rosen series;

Terry also reviews the latest in the Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis series by Jeffrey Siger: Mykonos After Midnight;

Michelle Peckham reviews Louise Welsh's A Lovely Way to Burn, the first in the "Plague Times" trilogy;

Susan White reviews Leaving Everything Most Loved by Jacqueline Winspear

and Laura Root reviews Shuichi Yoshida's Parade tr, Philip Gabriel.



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: Fossum, Henry, James, Johnstone, Lawton, Rendell, Roberts, Vichi, Wilson

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 two weeks, so you may have read some of them before if you're a regular :).

News you may have missed in the last few days:

1. Margot Kinberg's has edited, contributed to and published an e-anthology of short stories, the proceeds from which are going to Maxine Clarke's (Petrona) preferred charity, the Princess Alice Hospice.
2. Borgen is back on BBC4 next weekend.
3. A "new" Hercule Poirot novella is available as an ebook.

Keep up to date with stories like these (and more) by following the blog and/or liking the Euro Crime Facebook page.

New Reviews

I review Karin Fossum's I Can See in the Dark, tr. James Anderson, a non-Sejer standalone;

Terry Halligan reviews James Henry's Morning Frost, the third in this well-received prequel series based on R D Wingfield's characters;

Michelle Peckham reviews Peter James's Dead Man's Time, the ninth in the Roy Grace series, which is now out in paperback;

Rich Westwood reviews Doug Johnstone's Gone Again, also just out in paperback;

Susan White reviews the re-released Second Violin by John Lawton, set during WWII;

Terry also reviews the new "Wexford" novel from Ruth Rendell - No Man's Nightingale - no rest for the retired chief inspector;

Another recent paperback release is Mark Roberts's The Sixth Soul reviewed here by Amanda Gillies;

Lynn Harvey reviews Marco Vichi's Death in Florence, tr. Stephen Sartarelli the fourth in the Inspector Bordelli series set in 1960s Italy

and Lynn also reviews Laura Wilson's The Riot the fifth in the DI Stratton series set in post WWII London.




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 Sixth Soul by Mark Roberts

The Sixth Soul by Mark Roberts, October 2013, 368 pages, Corvus, ISBN: 0857897896

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

This book, which is Mark Roberts’ first venture into writing for adults, is absolutely mind blowing and at times downright chilling. It is perfect! However, his plot centres on a very sensitive subject area – the killing of pregnant women and the subsequent harvest of their unborn children – so it won't be suitable for everyone. There is one particularly gruesome murder scene that is so well written it could cause people who like their fiction a little less nasty some distress, but don’t let this put you off.

The book is set in London and the policeman whose unpleasant task it is to catch the latest serial killer is DCI David Rosen. David is a really likeable character and, as the book progresses, you like him more, not less. He is devoted to his wife, and she to him, and they support each other beautifully. Also, she is tolerant and understanding of his working hours, which makes a nice change. The killer, dubbed “Herod”, has killed four pregnant women, and removed their babies, prior to the start of the novel. The story begins with the capture of his fifth victim and then follows what he does to her after that. It soon becomes clear that he has an extremely unpleasant, occult-focused, reason for doing what he is doing and intends to capture a sixth and final woman to complete his plans.

Still very much in the dark and becoming increasingly desperate for clues, as well as under scrutiny from his bosses, who want to take the case away from him, Rosen is contacted by a strange priest, called Father Sebastian Flint, who used to work for the Vatican and claims he has experience of exorcism. Rosen doesn’t really trust Father Sebastian and digs out some very worrying information about him. Meanwhile, victim number five is discovered, dead and mutilated, and the race is on to catch the killer before he abducts his sixth and final victim.

True to form, I found this book entirely absorbing, despite its uncomfortable subject matter, and was on the edge of my seat for most of the two days I took to read it. If you like your crime fiction nasty then this one is for you. I have high hopes that Rosen and his team will come back in another book to make this a trilogy or a series, we will have to see…

Highly recommended.

Read another Euro Crime review of THE SIXTH SOUL.

Amanda Gillies, October 2013.

New Reviews: Camilleri, Cleeves, Haynes, Kernick, Lipska, MacLean, Roberts, Sherriff, Templeton

Win Where the Devil Can't Go by Anya Lipska (UK only)






Nine new reviews have been added to Euro Crime today:


I review Andrea Camilleri's The Dance of the Seagull tr. Stephen Sartarelli, the fifteenth in this charming series;



Lynn Harvey reviews Dead Water by Ann Cleeves, the fifth in the (recently televised) Shetland series;


Amanda Gillies reviews Human Remains by Elizabeth Haynes, writing that her work "goes from strength to strength";
 

Terry Halligan reviews Simon Kernick's Ultimatum, the sequel to Siege;

Rich Westwood reviews this month's competition prize, Where the Devil Can't Go by Anya Lipska, and he's looking forward to the sequel;


Geoff Jones reviews S G MacLean's The Devil's Recruit, the fourth in her Alexander Seaton series set in seventeenth century Aberdeen;

Susan White reviews Mark Roberts's debut The Sixth Soul and found it "quite compelling";

Terry also reviews The Wells of St Mary's by R C Sherriff, now available as an ebook or POD, Terry says it was "much appreciated entertainment at the end of a hard day"

and Michelle Peckham reviews Evil for Evil by Aline Templeton, concluding that "Aline Templeton's books featuring Marjory Fleming keep improving with each new outing".




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.