New Reviews: Bates, Beaton, Bolton, Harvey, Meredith, Mogford, Morris, Roslund & Hellstrom, Wilson

Here are nine reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, one has appeared on the blog over the last couple of weeks and eight are completely new.

Since the last set of reviews, we've announced the winner of the Petrona Award 2014; I've been at CrimeFest and you can see my notes on twitter @eurocrime or on #crimefest14, and there's been lots of tv news.

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

New Reviews

Geoff Jones reviews the latest in Quentin Bates's Icelandic series, Cold Steal which has just been released as an ebook;

I muse on the latest books in M C Beaton's Hamish Macbeth series including Death of a Policeman;

Michelle Peckham reviews the fourth in the Lacey Flint series by Sharon Bolton: A Dark and Twisted Tide;

Mark Bailey reviews John Harvey's Darkness, Darkness which is the last in the Resnick series and, I understand, his final crime novel;

Amanda Gillies reviews The Devil's Ribbon by D E Meredith, which is now out in paperback;

Rich Westwood reviews Thomas Mogford's Sign of the Cross which is set in Malta;

Terry Halligan reviews R N Morris's The Dark Palace, the third in the Silas Quinn series, set in 1914;

Lynn Harvey reviews Two Soldiers by Roslund & Hellstrom tr. Kari Dickson, which is now out in paperback

and Terry also reviews Capital Punishment by Robert Wilson, which is the first in the Charlie Boxer series and is also now out in paperback.

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: Bauer, Carol, Hilary, James, Knox, Leather, Magson, Morris, Rankin

Here are nine reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, four have appeared on the blog over the last couple of weeks and five are completely new.

The major recent news for fans of Scandinavian crime fiction is that the shortlist for the Petrona Award, which is for the best Scandinavian crime novel (in translation), has been announced. All the details are on the Petrona Award website.

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 encourages you to read Belinda Bauer's Rubbernecker which is now available in paperback;

Michelle Peckham reviews James Carol's Broken Dolls, the first in the ex-FBI profiler, Jefferson Winter series;

Michelle also reviews Sarah Hilary's striking debut, Someone Else's Skin which introduces DI Marnie Rome;


Rich Westwood reviews Christina James's In the Family, set in the Lincolnshire fens;

I venture off-topic with Annie Knox's Paws for Murder;

Terry Halligan reviews Stephen Leather's Lastnight - is it the end for Jack Nightingale?;

Terry also reviews the first in a new series from Adrian Magson, The Watchman;

Geoff Jones reviews R N Morris's The Dark Palace, the third in the Silas Quinn series



and Mark Bailey reviews Ian Rankin's latest "Rebus", Saints of the Shadow Bible.



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 Dark Palace by R N Morris

The Dark Palace by R N Morris, January 2014, 256 pages, Creme de la Crime, ISBN: 1780290594

Reviewed by Geoff Jones.
(Read more of Geoff's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

Detective Inspector Silas Quinn lives in a boarding house in 1914 London. He lusts after one of his fellow lodgers, a Miss Dillard, as well as having been rejected in love by his boss’s secretary Miss Latterley. Quinn is sarcastic and apparently renown for shooting his revolver and killing the bad guys! He is known as Quick fire Quinn much to his annoyance.

The day starts well when he discovers his immediate boss has been transferred and he is to take charge of the department. His boss Sir Edward Henry wants him to liaise with Lord Dunwich at the Admiralty. War with Germany is feared and they want him to identify any German spies. The only problem is there is no guidance on how to identify them.

One of his sergeants, Macadam, is interested in the department purchasing a camera for surveillance. The other sergeant Inchball is sceptical of the camera’s usefulness, but has his eye on a barber shop run by a German, Fritz Dortmunder. Quinn is invited to a premier of the famous Austrian film director and exponent of Kinematograph, Konrad Waechter's latest masterpiece entitled 'The Eyes of the Beholder'. Besides Waechter he meets one of the backers the German Oskar Hartman (who has a connection to Lord Dunwich), Porrick who owns the Picture Palace, the beautiful actress Eloise and Paul Berenger the main actor. Also in attendance is Harry Lennox newspaper proprietor as well as the director's assistant Diaz and his cousin Inti.

When a woman is attacked and apparently loses an eye near the premier of the picture, Quinn tries to resolve what is going on. Who is the stern faced man who follows Quinn on the Tube and turns up berating the film crew, who apparently knows something about the death of Quinn's father? When an actress/prostitute turns up murdered and has had one of her eyes removed and Lord Dunwich is sent a white billiard ball with an eye painted on it and another party is sent a playing card with its eye scored out, Quinn has his work cut out.

I've only read one other book by the author, one of his Porfiry Petrovich series, this is a much different book. I found Quinn very eccentric but entertaining. Recommended and I will read more of the Quinn novels.

Geoff Jones, February 2014

New Reviews: Beaton, Bond, Davis, Grieves, Hayder, Morris, Royal, Vichi, Wheelaghan

Nine new reviews have been added to Euro Crime today:

I review an earlier entry in the Hamish Macbeth series by M C Beaton, Death of a Valentine;


Allison & Busby are reprinting the Monsieur Pamplemousse series by Michael Bond, and Lynn Harvey reviews Monsieur Pamplemousse Afloat;


Lindsey Davis has begun a new series, Falco: The New Generation starring Flavia, the adopted daughter of Falco who makes her debut investigation in The Ides of April, reviewed here by Sarah Ward;


Amanda Gillies reviews Sleepwalkers by Tom Grieves which she loved: "if [] you love books that draw you in and freak you out, this one is for you!";


Sarah Hilary reviews Poppet by Mo Hayder, the sixth in the Jack Caffery series, writing that it's even better than Skin and Ritual;


Terry Halligan reviews the second in the DI Silas Quinn series The Mannequin House by R N Morris saying that it's an "excellent historical mystery book with a very intelligent and historically accurate plot";

Laura Root reviews Priscilla Royal's Wine of Violence the first in the Eleanor,  Prioress series, set in the thirteenth century, which gets its UK release almost ten years after its US one;


Michelle Peckham reviews Death in Sardinia by Marco Vichi tr. Stephen Sartarelli, the third in the Inspector Bordelli series, which she called "a real pleasure to read"

and fans of the BBC series Death in Paradise might want to check out Marianne Wheelaghan's Food of Ghosts the first in the DS Louisa Townsend series, set on the Pacific Island of Tarawa, reviewed here by Susan White.





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: Cain, Cleeves, Cregan, Eriksson, Lewis, Morris, Pearson, Roslund-Hellstrom, Zouroudi

The final set of reviews for 2011 will be uploaded next weekend. There are 9 new reviews this week (to make up for missing last week). Look out for some forthcoming blog posts from the Euro Crime review team on their new discoveries this year.

Here are this week's new reviews:

Terry Halligan reviews the fifth (and best so far he thinks) in Tom Cain's Carver series - Carver;

Lynn Harvey reviews her first but the fourth "Vera" book in Ann Cleeves's (now televised) series - Silent Voices which is now out in paperback;

Laura Root reviews the second of Sean Cregan's Newport set series, The Razor Gate which is an example of "futurist noir writing";

I review the latest title that has been made available in English in Kjell Eriksson's Ann Lindell series, The Hand That Trembles, tr. Ebba Segerberg;

Susan White reviews the second in Jonathan Lewis's DCI Bale and dog-handler Kate Baker series, Into Dust;

Geoff Jones reviews the fourth (and last I believe) of R N Morris's Porfiry Petrovich series, The Cleansing Flames;

Lynn Harvey also reviews the fourth in another series, Murder Club by Mark Pearson which features DI Jack Delaney and is set in London;

Maxine Clarke reviews Roslund-Hellstrom's Cell 8, tr. Kari Dickson

and Amanda Gillies reviews Anne Zouroudi's The Whispers of Nemesis, the fifth in the Hermes Diaktoros series.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here and new titles by George Arion, James Becker, Nancy Bilyeau, Ken Bruen, Paul Grossman, Oliver Harris, James Henry, Antonio Hill, Hjorth-Rosenfeldt, Bogdan Hrib, Camilla Lackberg, Andy McDermott, Roger/R N Morris, Leif GW Persson, Sarah Pinborough, Oana Stoica-Mujea, Roland Vernon, Jason Webster, Kate Williams and Juli Zeh have been added to these pages this week.

New Reviews: Davidsen, George, Hilton, Markaris, Morris, Nova

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, (lots of third books this week!):

Maxine Clarke reviews The Woman from Bratislava by Leif Davidsen, tr Barbara J Haveland;

Terry Halligan says that Elizabeth George is back on form with This Body of Death;

Michelle Peckham continues to enjoy the Joe Hunter series by Matt Hilton, now on its third entry: Slash and Burn;

Maxine also reviews Che Committed Suicide by Petros Markaris, tr. David Connolly, the third in this Athens based series;

Pat Austin reviews the third of R N Morris's Porfiry Petrovich series, A Razor Wrapped in Silk calling it "a little gem"

and Norman Price reviews The Informer by Craig Nova set in 1930s Berlin.

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

New Reviews: Gentle, Hayder, Morris, Rees

Two separate competitions are running in March. The prizes are Bleeding Heart Square by Andrew Taylor and The Herring Seller's Apprentice by L C Tyler.

The following reviews have been added to the review archive over on the main Euro Crime website:

New Reviews:

Amanda Gillies gives the thumbs up to Mary Gentle's historical-fantasy-adventure 1610: A Sundial In A Grave concluding her review "If you are looking for an absorbing read that will take you away to another place for a good long time, this is definitely the one for you";

Maxine Clarke reviews Skin by Mo Hayder which immediately follows on from Ritual starring Flea Marley and Jack Caffery;

Michelle Peckham is the third reviewer at Euro Crime to enjoy R N Morris's A Vengeful Longing, the second in this series featuring Crime and Punishment's Porfiry Petrovich

and Laura Root reviews the third in Matt Rees's Palestinian series, The Samaritan's Secret.

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

New Reviews & A New Competition

Here are this week's new reviews and details of the new competition:

Latest Reviews:

In Mike Ripley's latest Crime File he reviews: A Cure For All Diseases by Reginald Hill, Unforgotten by Clare Francis, Sacrifice by S J Bolton and Bad Traffic by Simon Lewis;

Maxine Clarke is unimpressed by Meltdown by Martin Baker (which seems to have had a lot of money spent on the marketing) calling it a "mechanically insipid effort" but she gives a suggestion for a better read in her review;

Maxine finds the latest Tony Hill book by Val McDermid, Beneath the Bleeding a thrilling read, only let down by the "ludicrous motivation" of the bad guy;

More praise for the re-emergence of Crime and Punishment's Porfiry Petrovich in A Vengeful Longing by R N Morris comes from Pat Austin

and Laura Root reviews the second in the Palestine set series by Matt Rees, The Saladin Murders (aka A Grave in Gaza).


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

Here are this week's new reviews and a reminder of February's competitions:

Latest Reviews:

First off, is Crimini a fine collection of Italian noir short stories, edited by Giancarlo De Cataldo, which I enjoyed very much even if I did have to read something a bit lighter half-way through (I'm eager to see Mr Crime Scraps' thoughts on the collection);

Italian expert Norman "Crime Scraps" Price turns his attention to Russia when he reviews one of this month's competition prizes, A Vengeful Longing by R N Morris, the second book (by R N Morris) to feature Crime and Punishment's Porfiry Petrovich. (Don't forget to enter the competition, see details below);

Maxine Clarke was very impressed with Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale calling it a "beautifully written, multi-layered book";

Maxine was less taken with Ice Trap by Kitty Sewell which didn't live up to her expectations

and Fiona Walker reviews the seventh in the Martin Beck series by Sjowall and Wahloo, The Abominable Man asserting that it's a "near-complete triumph".


Current Competitions (closing date 29 February):

Win a copy of A Vengeful Longing by R N Morris (no geographical restrictions)

Win a copy of Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn (UK & Europe only)

(geographical restrictions are in brackets)

Faber & Faber's Three (Historical) Investigators

Whilst I was updating my Euro Crime database with new titles for next year I came across a title from Faber and Faber called 'A Gentle Axe' by R N Morris.

Synopsis from amazon.co.uk:
St. Petersburg, Winter, 1867 - Two frozen bodies are found in an isolated corner of Petrovsky Park. The first - that of a dwarf - has been packed neatly in a suitcase, a deep wound splitting his skull in two. The second body, of a burly peasant, is hanging from a nearby tree, a bloody axe tucked into his belt. The detective Porfiry Petrovich, in his first murder case since Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment", suspects the truth may be more complex than others wish him to believe. His investigation leads him from the squalid tenements, brothels and drinking dens of the city's Haymarket district to an altogether more genteel stratum of society. Atmospheric and tense from its dramatic opening to its shocking climax.

This one's not out until next February but it seems Faber has a history (groan) of publishing crime novels with unusual heroes...

In July we had 'Critique of Criminal Reason' by Michael Gregorio:

Synopis from amazon.co.uk:
In 1793, Hanno Stiffeniis travels to Konigsberg to seek advice from Immanuel Kant. Whatever was said at that private meeting, it changed both their lives. Shortly afterwards, a close friend of the philosopher extracts a promise from the young man: never to return to Konigsberg. But ten years later, having become a magistrate, Stiffeniis is ordered to return there by the King. He must investigate a spate of murders which has reduced the city to a state of terror. Four people have died, and there is no sign of an end to the killing spree. Tension inside the city is heightened by the imminent threat of invasion: Napoleon is menacing the borders of Prussia. While hunting for a murderer in the criminal underworld of Konigsberg - forced to deal with scheming whores, necromancers who claim to speak with the victims, and the scum of the Prussian army - Stiffeniis is caught up once again in the enigmatic world of his former mentor, Kant. What demons haunt the magistrate's past and why has he had been enticed back to Konigsberg to deal with these grisly murders? Stiffeniis must face a dark truth which he would rather deny...

I'm not sure if it was terribly well received as shown by Peter Guttridge's review.

The third historical investigator appeared in June, in Jason Goodwin's, 'The Janissary Tree'.

Synopsis from amazon.co.uk
Yashim is no ordinary detective. It's not that he's particularly brave. Or that he cooks so well, or reads French novels. Not even that his best friend is the Ambassador from Poland, whose country has vanished from the map. Yashim is a eunuch. As the Sultan plans a series of radical reforms to his empire, a concubine is strangled in the palace harem. And a young cadet is found butchered in the streets of Istanbul. Delving deep into the city's crooked alleyways, and deeper still into its tumultuous past, Yashim discovers that some people will go to any lengths to preserve the traditions of the Ottoman Empire. Brilliantly evoking Istanbul in the 1830s, "The Janissary Tree" is a fast-paced literary thriller with a spectacular cast, from mystic orders and lissom archivists to soup-makers and a seductive ambassador's wife. Darker than any of these is the mysterious figure who controls the Sultan's harem.

The Independent's review is here.

Faber seem to have the market cornered for unlikely heroes of crime fiction. I'm just surprised they're not behind 'The Interpretation of Murder' by Jed Rubenfeld starring Freud.

What's the most unusual sleuth you've encountered?