New Reviews: Billingham, Franklin & Norman, Jungstedt, O'Byrne, Spencer, Wilkinson

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

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

New Reviews

Craig Sisterson reviews Mark Billingham's Rush of Blood, a stand-alone from a couple of years ago;

Terry Halligan reviews Winter Siege, begun by Ariana Franklin and completed by her daughter Samantha Norman, which is now out in paperback;

Michelle Peckham reviews Mari Jungstedt's The Dangerous Game tr. Tiina Nunnally;


Amanda Gillies reviews The Crime Writer's Guide to Police Practice and Procedure, Second Edition by Michael O'Byrne;

Rich Westwood reviews I Nearly Died by Charles Spencer


and Susan White reviews Kerry Wilkinson's Scarred for Life, the latest in the Jessica Daniel series.



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

Review: The Crime Writer's Guide to Police Practice and Procedure, Second Edition by Michael O'Byrne

The Crime Writer's Guide to Police Practice and Procedure, Second Edition* by Michael O'Byrne, March 2015, 192 pages, Robert Hale Ltd, ISBN: 0719816629

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

This fascinating, information-packed book is a must-have for anyone wanting to write crime fiction. It is more of a reference book than something to read from cover-to-cover and contains everything that crime writers might want to include in their police procedurals. The book is indexed, referenced, has a comprehensive listing of contents and a very useful acronym glossary at the back. There are no longer any excuses for crime writers who make mistakes through not doing their research before writing their books!

I was particularly interested in the forensics and DNA analysis section. Coming from a molecular biology background, a sure-fire way to put me off a book is to have wildly inaccurate DNA work in it. This particular chapter was first rate! The other chapters include topics such as: how the investigation begins in reality; profiling; the tools available to the police (like HOLMES); catching serial killers and what exactly is ‘use of reasonable force’.

Although I am not considering turning my hand to writing a book any time soon, I really enjoyed reading this Writer’s Guide. Its author, Michael O’Byrne, is himself a former policeman and his last position before retiring was Chief Constable in Bedfordshire, so he most definitely knows what he is talking about!

This book should be an essential on the bookshelf of every crime writer and is most definitely worth delving into for general interest’s sake as well. If you like finding out how things work, just for the pleasure of knowing, then this book is for you!

Highly recommended.

Amanda Gillies, May 2015

*The First Edition was reviewed in 2009.

New Reviews: Genelin, Guthrie, Joensuu, Le Fanu, O'Byrne, Rimington

Three competitions are currently running:

i)Win a copy of Crocodile Tears by Anthony Horowitz (US only, closes 9 Nov)
ii)Win a copy of Beautiful Dead: Arizona by Eden Maguire (UK only)
iii)Win a copy of Sheer Folly by Carola Dunn (UK/Europe only)

Details on how to enter can be found on the Competition page

Here are the new reviews that have been added to the website today:

Norman Price reviews Siren of the Waters by Michael Genelin the first of a series featuring Slovakian detective Jana Matinova;

Amanda Gillies enjoys Allan Guthrie's Killing Mum a novella in the Crime Express range;

Maxine Clarke reviews Finnish author Matti Joensuu's To Steal Her Love;

Laura Root reviews the Gothic sounding classic Wylder's Hand by J Sheridan Le Fanu;

Michelle Peckham reviews The Crime Writer's Guide to Police Practice and Procedure by Michael O'Byrne and says it's of interest to non-writers as well

and Terry Halligan reviews the latest from former MI5 head Stella Rimington - Present Danger.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found here.