Reviews: Cameron, Carson, Koch, McCreanor, McKenzie, Murray, Rowson

Here are seven reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, two have appeared on the blog since last time, and five 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

Lynn Harvey reviews poet David Cameron's The Ghost of Alice Fields set in Edinburgh;


Michelle Peckham reviews Paul Carson's Inquest set in Dublin;

Lynn also reviews Herman Koch's Summer House With Swimming Pool tr. Sam Garrett;



Amanda Gillies reviews  A J McCreanor's debut, Riven set in Glasgow which introduces DIs Ross and Wheeler;

Michelle also reviews Sophie McKenzie's psychological thriller, Trust in Me;

Terry Halligan reviews Blood of the Rose by Kevin Murray, set in London, 1986

and Terry also reviews the latest in the DI Andy Horton series by Pauline Rowson, Shroud of Evil, set in Portsmouth.

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. NB. Forthcoming releases by category for 2015 are now available.

New Reviews: Blackmore, Camilleri, George, Huber, Leonard, Rickman, Rowson, Vichi, Wilkinson

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 :).

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

New Reviews

Amanda Gillies reviews Alex Blackmore's debut, Lethal Profit, a thriller set in Paris;

I review Andrea Camilleri's latest Montalbano, translated by Stephen Sartarelli, The Treasure Hunt;

Terry Halligan reviews the new Lynley novel from Elizabeth George, Just One Evil Act;

Susan White reviews Linda Huber's debut, The Paradise Trees, a psychological thriller;

Laura Root reviews Peter Leonard's Back from the Dead, the sequel to Voices of the Dead;

Lynn Harvey reviews Phil Rickman's The Heresy of Dr Dee, now out in paperback;

Terry also reviews Death Surge by Pauline Rowson, the latest in her DI Andy Horton series set around the Solent;

Completing the set of reviews for Marco Vichi's first four Bordelli novels, is Michelle Peckham's review of Death and the Olive Grove, tr. Stephen Sartarelli, which is the second in the series

and Amanda also reviews Playing with Fire by Kerry Wilkinson, the fifth in the DS Jessica Daniel series set in Manchester.


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: Death Surge by Pauline Rowson

Death Surge by Pauline Rowson, September 2013, 224 pages, Severn House Publishers Ltd, ISBN: 0727883216

Reviewed by Terry Halligan.
(Read more of Terry's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

This excellent police procedural is the twelfth mystery by Pauline Rowson. It opens with Detective Inspector Andy Horton enjoying time alone, on a free Saturday, on his yacht off of the Isle of Wight. He is considering the latest developments in his search for what happened to his late mother who disappeared in 1978 and his own efforts to try to trace what may have happened to her, when his thoughts are interrupted by a call on his mobile phone. It is Sergeant Cantelli, a close colleague whom he cannot ignore, who is really upset. It seems that Johnnie Oslow, his twenty-three-year-old nephew, has been missing since Wednesday.

It appears that Johnnie had been involved in criminality seven years before and Horton had helped him redeem himself introducing him to sailing via a charity that rehabilitated wayward boys and girls. Johnnie had grabbed the opportunity with both hands and gone on to get a job as a crew member on a Greek millionaire's personal yacht and also as a team member on one of the same millionaire's many racing yachts. He was supposed to be involved in Cowes Week racing on another yacht but had disappeared before he got to his destination. His mobile phone was not responding.

Horton appreciated the distress Sergeant Cantelli was feeling and said he would return to Cowes and begin looking into it. On the way he telephoned a couple of his men who said they would help look for the young man. So the investigation starts by Horton checking all known associates of the missing young man. He decides to question the young tearaways that he was involved with seven years before when he got into trouble and committed arson. They all individually say that they haven't seen Johnnie for years but the case carries on and a couple of weeks pass. More and more leads are checked until Horton is called to a crime scene and it turns out to be the dead body of one of the young former associates of Johnnie who has been brutally strangled. The story carries on in a very tightly plotted and sometimes very moving way until the very unpredictable and amazing ending.

The author is very skilful in her steering of the plot and the red herrings that she suggests, that indicate various possible outcomes, when later in the story alternative options are outlined that shoot down these original thoughts. I must admit that I had no idea who the killer was until the end and it was a big surprise. This is a very gifted author and I have had the pleasure in reviewing two of her previous stories BLOOD ON THE SAND and FOOTSTEPS ON THE SHORE and knew of the high standard of her work and had no hesitation when I saw that this book was available for review. Pauline Rowson emphasises the marine aspect in her novels and the quality of her very descriptive writing is superb. with her hero Andy Horton living on a boat and is always going back and forward over the Solent. There is the sailing around Cowes which is a novel aspect to an otherwise modern police procedural. I was gripped until the last page of this very well structured and plotted story. Recommended.

Terry Halligan, November 2013.

New Reviews: Blake, Creed, Garnier, McNeill, O'Connor, Rowson, Russell, Shepherd, Varenne

Here are 9 new reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today:

Rich Westwood reviews Nicholas Blake's third Nigel Strangeways mystery There's Trouble Brewing which was reissued earlier this year with three other titles;

Geoff Jones reviews Adam Creed's fourth DI Wagstaffe book Death in the Sun set in Spain;

Earlier this week I reviewed Pascal Garnier's How's the Pain? tr. Emily Boyce a most unusual short crime story;

Susan White reviews the debut from Fergus McNeill, Eye Contact set in Severn Beach;

Maxine Clarke reviews Niamh O'Connor's Too Close for Comfort, the third in her DI Jo Birmingham series set in Dublin;

Lizzie Hayes reviews Pauline Rowson's Death Lies Beneath the eight in her Portsmouth based series featuring DI Andy Horton;

Amanda Gillies reviews Leigh Russell's fourth DI Geraldine Steele outing Death Bed set in London;

Terry Halligan reviews Lynn Shepherd's Tom-All-Alone's (apa The Solitary House), set in the milieu of Bleak House

and Lynn Harvey reviews Antonin Varenne's Bed of Nails tr. Sian Reynolds set in Paris and Lynn writes that it is "a powerful and original debut crime story, definitely one for Vargas fans".

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: Ceder, Hannah, Masters, Nadel, O'Connor, Rowson

Here are this week's new reviews:

Maxine Clarke reviews Frozen Moment by Camilla Ceder, tr Marlaine Delargy, the first in a new Swedish series;

Michelle Peckham was gripped by Lasting Damage by Sophie Hannah;

Lizzie Hayes has lots of nice things to say about the latest in Priscilla Masters's Martha Gunn, Coroner series: Frozen Charlotte;

Laura Root reviews Barbara Nadel's A Noble Killing the thirteenth in this consistently good Inspector Ikmen series;

Susan White was disappointed with Niamh O'Connor's debut fiction book If I Never See You Again now out in paperback

and Terry Halligan reviews Footsteps on the Shore by Pauline Rowson an "excellent police procedural" set in Portsmouth.

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

New Reviews: Goddard, Hannah, Mankell, Robertson, Rowson, Welsh

This month's competitions:

Win the complete Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson on Unabridged Audiobooks (UK & Ireland)
Win a copy of Tell-Tale by Sam Hayes (worldwide)
Win a copy of The Preacher & The Stonecutter by Camilla Lackberg (UK only)

Here are this week's new reviews:

Geoff Jones reviews Long Time Coming by Robert Goddard;

Maxine Clarke reviews A Room Swept White by Sophie Hannah;

Maxine also reviews Henning Mankell's The Man from Beijing, calling it "marvellous";

Amanda Gillies reviews Craig Robertson's debut novel, Random which is published this week;

Terry Halligan reviews the latest in the DI Horton series from Pauline Rowson Blood on the Sand set in Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight

and Michelle Peckham reviews Naming the Bones by Louise Welsh and reports that it's as enjoyable as Welsh's previous books, The Cutting Room and The Bullet Trick.

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

Read an e-book week

Read an e-book week runs from 7 - 13 March and a couple of euro crime titles have been made available for free download for the occasion:

The out of print first entry in Simon Hall's series - TV Detective (apa A Popular Murder) - is now available free as an e-book from Accent Press. You will need to set up an account to be able to download the pdf for free. Go here.

Also a pdf of Pauline Rowson's In for the Kill can be downloaded from her website.