New Reviews: Brett, Dugdall, Jaquiery, Kavanagh, Miske, Thorne, Vallgren, Wilson

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

Plus, in case you missed them, here are a few recent links that might be of interest:

The winner of The Petrona Award & the announcement in pictures

Lee Child interviews Maj Sjowall

CrimeFest panel writeups: Euro Noir & Nordic Noir

The International Dagger 2015 shortlist

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

New Reviews

A collection of mini reviews (by me) of recent Scandi-crime novels;


Mark Bailey reviews Simon Brett's Mrs Pargeter's Principle, the eponymous lady returns after a 17 year gap;

Susan White reviews Ruth Dugdall's Humber Boy B;

Terry Halligan reviews Anna Jaquiery's Death in the Rainy Season, set in Cambodia;

Michelle Peckham reviews Emma Kavanagh's Hidden, which revolves around a shooting in a hospital;

Lynn Harvey reviews Karim Miske's Arab Jazz tr. Sam Gordon, which has been shortlisted for the International Dagger;

Amanda Gillies reviews Nothing Sacred by David Thorne, which is the second in the Essex-based Daniel Connell series;

I also review Carl-Johan Vallgren's The Boy in the Shadows tr. Rachel Willson-Broyles

and Terry also reviews the reissue of The Mystery of Tunnel 51 by Alexander  Wilson.

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

Review: Humber Boy B by Ruth Dugdall

Humber Boy B by Ruth Dugdall, April 2015, 304 pages, Legend Press Ltd, ISBN: 1910394599

Reviewed by Susan White.
(Read more of Susan's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

A ten-year-old boy, Noah, falls from the Humber Bridge while out with his friends. His friend, another ten-year-old boy, is found guilty of his murder. Eight years later Humber Boy B, or Ben as he is called now, is paroled from prison and relocated to Ipswich. For his own safety he is told that he is not allowed back to Humberside or to be in contact with his own family and the Noah's family. Cate is the probation officer assigned to the task of re-introducing him to society. Ben is very ill-prepared for life on the outside after spending so long institutionalised, and Cate seems to be the only person who senses the lonely and confused child within the young man.

Meanwhile Jessica, Noah's Mother, has set up a Facebook page asking for people's support in finding her son's killer and a follower on the page, Silent Friend, is determined to help her get justice.

The author has worked with young children that have been committed to prison for similar crimes that form the basis for this story and this experience shows through in the writing. The boy at the centre of the story comes from such an emotional and physically deprived environment that, while making no attempt to provide excuses for Ben, the author manages to generate a degree of sympathy for him, that took me by surprise.

As the story of Ben's life is disclosed, we learn more about the circumstances leading up to the dreadful event and also more about the missed opportunities by various adults who could have intervened and prevented the death.

HUMBER BOY B is a very sad, disturbing read that raises some really uncomfortable truths about the impact on children raised in poverty with parents who cannot or will not care for them and also the difficulty for prisoners of any age who have been jailed for a long time, to assimilate into society without being taught up to date life-skills and receiving massive support.

The subject and the writer's treatment of it reminds me to a degree of Sophie Hannah. Recommended as a thought provoking and good read. This is only the third novel by this author and I will be looking out for more in the future.

Susan White, May 2015

New Reviews: Birkegaard, Briscoe, Child, Dugdall, Fleming, McCrery

Closing soon: October's Competition: Win a copy of Strangled in Paris by Claude Izner (UK only)

Here are this week's new reviews:

With the first of two books this week which may not be for the squeamish is Rich Westwood with his review of Mikkel Birkegaard's Death Sentence, tr. Charlotte Barslund;

Susan White reviews The Accused by Constance Briscoe her crime debut, already well-known as the author of the autobiographical Ugly;

Lynn Harvey reviews Lee Child's The Affair which takes Jack Reacher back to the beginning of his loner career;

Maxine Clarke reviews the CWA Award Winner, Ruth Dugdall's The Sacrificial Man;

Terry Halligan reviews James Fleming's conclusion to his Charlie Doig trilogy, Rising Blood

and Amanda Gillies reviews the second of the two books not for the faint-hearted: Nigel McCrery's Scream the third in the DCI Lapslie series set in Essex which is available in paperback.

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 David Belbin, Alex Connor, Ruth Dugdall, Paulus Hochgatterer, Bill Kitson, Alexander McCall Smith, Alexander Soderberg, Dag Solstad, Ferdinand von Schirach and Tom Winship have been added to these pages this week.