New Reviews: Downing, FitzGerald, French, Giambanco, Jordan, McIlvanney, Matthews, Nesbo, Wagner

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 :).

Jut a reminder: I've now set up a Euro Crime page on Facebook which you can like.

Terry Halligan reviews David Downing's Jack of Spies, set just before World War One;


Susan White reviews Helen FitzGerald's The Cry;

Michelle Peckham reviews Nicci French's Waiting for Wednesday, the third in the Frieda Klein series;

Lynn Harvey reviews V M Giambanco's debut, The Gift of Darkness, set in Seattle;

Amanda Gillies reviews Will Jordan's Sacrifice, the second in his Ryan Drake series;

Geoff Jones reviews Liam McIlvanney's Where the Dead Men Go, set in Glasgow;

Terry also reviews Jeanne Matthews's fourth Dinah Pelerin mystery, Her Boyfriend's Bones, this time set on the Greek island of Samos;

I review Jo Nesbo's Police tr. Don Bartlett, "the new Harry Hole thriller" according to the cover...


and I also review Jan Costin Wagner's Light in a Dark House, tr. Anthea Bell the fourth in the haunting Kimmo Joentaa series set in Finland.


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.

Without You - Coming Soon to ITV1

According to my tv guide, ITV1 will be showing Without You next month. Without You is a two-part drama based on Nicci French's What to Do When Someone Dies and stars Anna Friel and Marc Warren. Here's the tv programme blurb:

School teacher Ellie Manning and her husband Greg are trying for a baby. One evening Greg doesn't return home from work and when the police knock on the door, Ellie is horrified to learn he has been killed in a terrible car accident. The police tell Ellie that Greg wasn't alone, a woman sitting in the passenger seat was also killed. A tormented Ellie begins to question: who is the mystery woman and was Greg having a secret affair?

Drowning in grief yet unable to accept Greg's infidelity, Ellie sets out to prove it to her sceptical friends and family. She borrows her best friend's identity to infiltrate the mystery woman's workplace and leaves no rock unturned to find out the truth, even if it puts her own life at risk.

New Reviews: Ashton, Clements, French, Godwin, Moss, Staincliffe, White

Do please vote in the International Dagger polls (top right of blog).

Here are this week's reviews:

I review two Inspector McLevy Mysteries (radio plays) now released on audio book, written by David Ashton: Servant of the Crown & The Picture of Innocence;

Terry Halligan reviews the latest "John Shakespeare" outing in Rory Clements' Prince, the third in this Tudor series;

Maxine Clarke reviews the first in a series from Nicci French, Blue Monday which features psychoanalyst Frieda Klein;

Amanda Gillies reviews Richard Godwin's Apostle Rising;

Michelle Peckham reviews Siren by Australian author Tara Moss;

Lizzie Hayes reviews Cath Staincliffe's thought provoking Witness (currently 99p on UK Kindle)

and Terry also reviews Michael White's The Art of Murder the second and latest in the DCI Pendragon series.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found by author or date, here.

Win: Complicit by Nicci French & Read an Extract

Euro Crime has 5 signed copies of the paperback of Complicit by Nicci French to giveaway. To enter the draw, just answer the simple question* and include your details in the form below.
*The answer can be found in the Bibliographies section.

This competition is open to UK residents and will close on 31 March 2011.
Only 1 entry per person/per household please.
(All entries will be deleted once the winner has been notified.)

Read a 20 page extract (pdf) which is hosted on the Euro Crime website here.

The hardback edition is reviewed on Euro Crime, here.

Who is more deadly?

An enemy? A friend?

Or a lover?

Bonnie Graham is in her friend’s flat. She is alone, except for the dead body lying in a pool of blood. What happened? What will she do? And is any or all of it her fault?

Bonnie is a music teacher who has spent a long, hot summer in London rehearsing with a band. It was supposed to be fun, but the tricky knots of the band’s friendships unravel with each passing day.

What was meant to be a summer of happiness, music and love turns deadly as lovers betray, passions turn homicidal and friendship itself becomes a crime. Someone in the band must be a killer. Is it Bonnie? And if not – who is it?

Complicit - Cover Opinions

This week's selection for "cover opinions" is the US, UK hardback and UK paperback covers for Nicci French's Complicit also known as The Other Side of the Door in the US. (The UK paperback is out in March 2011.)

So what are you thoughts on the US (LHS) and UK (RHS) covers? Which would entice you to pick the book up if you were not familiar with Nicci French?

If you have read it, how well does the cover match the story? And which title suits it best?

Here is the Euro Crime review by Maxine of Complicit.

Publishing Deal - Nicci French

Nicci French is to write an eight book series according to The Bookseller:

Michael Joseph will release the eight books in the series over the next ten years, with the first seven each named after a day of the week. The final title will bring the whole series together.

Psychotherapist Frieda Klein will be introduced as the series heroine in the first title, Blue Monday. It is set in London, with the plot centering around the abduction of a five-year-old on Monday, "the lowest point in the week." One of Klein's patients has an unexpected link to the case, and she is quickly at the centre of the search for the kidnapper.

Blue Monday will be published as a hardback on 23rd June 2011.

New Reviews: Eastland, French, Grimes, MacBride, Parot, Stanley

This month's competitions:
Win a copy of Deadly Trade by Michael Stanley (Worldwide)
Win a copy of Bad Penny Blues by Cathi Unsworth (UK only).

Here are this week's reviews:

Rik Shepherd reviews Eye of the Red Tsar by Sam Eastland, the first in the Inspector Pekkala series;

Maxine Clarke reviews the latest from Nicci French: Complicit;

Terry Halligan reviews the twenty-second outing for Richard Jury in Martha Grimes's The Black Cat;

Paul Blackburn reviews Dark Blood by Stuart MacBride, the sixth in the Logan McRae series;

Laura Root reviews the latest in the Nicolas Le Floch series, The Nicolas Le Floch Affair by Jean-Francois Parot, tr. Howard Curtis

and Michelle Peckham reviews one of this month's competition prizes: A Deadly Trade by Michael Stanley.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found by author or date, here.

Nicci French's website

Nicci French's website has had an overhaul and has several new features, one of which is a regularly updated blog. The blog posts aren't about their books, just everyday life.

Nicci French's eleventh psychological thriller, What To Do When Someone Dies, came out in early March.

Synopsis:

‘This is not my world. Something is wrong, askew. It is a Monday evening in October. I am Ellie Falkner, 34 years old and married to Greg Manning. Although two police officers have just come to my door and told me he is dead . . . ’ It's devastating to hear that your husband has died in a horrific car accident. But to learn that he died with a mystery woman as his passenger is torment. Was Greg having an affair? Drowning in grief, Ellie clings to Greg's innocence, and her determination to prove it to the world at large means she must find out who Milena Livingstone was and what she was doing in Greg's car. But in the process those around her begin to question her sanity ... and her motive. And the louder she shouts that Greg might have been murdered, the more suspicion falls on Ellie herself. Sometimes it's safer to keep silent when someone dies ...

Euro Crime reviewer Maxine Clarke had this to say about the two previous novels:

on Losing You: "I defy anyone to put down LOSING YOU after the first hundred pages...an overwhelmingly exciting plot, which delivers on its solution. Ten out of ten."

and on Until It's Over: "the pace of the plot guarantees that you won't want to put this book down until you have finished it".

Nicci French's website is here.

New Reviews

Here are this week's new reviews and a reminder that there's just a couple of days to enter March's competition:

Latest Reviews:

Geoff Jones reviews the newest in the Trish Maguire series by Natasha Cooper, A Poisoned Mind, calling it "well plotted and entertaining";

Maxine Clarke reviews The Cipher Garden by Martin Edwards, the second in his Lake District series, this one being a "variant on the classic "locked room" mystery";

Maxine awards "ten out ten" for the latest book in paperback by Nicci French, Losing You which revolves around a mother's frantic effort to find her missing daughter on a small island;

Fiona Walker provides the first Euro Crime review of Nemesis by Jo Nesbo and sums up: "A brilliant thriller rife with violence and vengeance, it may be lengthy but you won't want it to end";

Sunnie Gill reviews the third book from Ed O'Connor Primal Cut and suggests it's perhaps for readers who prefer "a walk on the dark side"

and I review the latest from Minette Walters The Chameleon's Shadow which will be on my list of favourite reads at the end of the year.

Current Competition (closing date 31 March):

Win a copy of A Carrion Death by Michael Stanley (UK & Europe only)

(geographical restrictions are in brackets)

New Reviews on Euro Crime

Here are this week's new reviews and a reminder of March's competition:

Latest Reviews:

Maxine Clarke reviews the latest thriller from Nicci French, Until It's Over, writing, "you won't want to put this book down until you have finished it";

Maxine also reviews the second in the Lorimer-Brightman series from Alex Gray, A Small Weeping, which she found enjoyable with a few caveats;

Geoff Jones was entertained by Mrs Tanner in L M Jackson's A Most Dangerous Woman set in Victorian London;

Norman Price provides several reasons why you should read the new outing for Bernie Gunther in Philip Kerr's latest, A Quiet Flame

and Laura Root recommends the long awaited new book from International Dagger nominee Dominique Manotti - Lorraine Connection - calling it "unusual, stylish and compelling".

Current Competition (closing date 31 March):

Win a copy of A Carrion Death by Michael Stanley (UK & Europe only)

(geographical restrictions are in brackets)