The Queen of Mystery - Short Stories on Radio 4, Episode 2

The latest in a series of short stories set at Festivals/Events running on Radio 4 is by Sarah Hilary and is called The Getaway. It was on last night but you can listen again for the next 29 days via iplayer or the website. Next Sunday, the story is by Val McDermid.

From the BBC Radio 4 website:

It's often said that there is something different about crime writers - they flock together, they enjoy each other's company and freely interact with their fans. Next week, thousands of fiction fans will head to Yorkshire for the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, and this new story series celebrates the very particular atmosphere of such festivals.

In this story, Sarah Hilary (who won last year's Crime Novel of the Year Award at Harrogate for her debut SOMEONE ELSE'S SKIN), takes us to an imaginary festival and a character desperate to break free of the mainstream.

Read by Melody Grove
Writen by Sarah Hilary
Produced by Kirsteen Cameron

Awards News: Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year 2015 - Winner

Not content with being the Euro Crime favourite read of 2014, Sarah Hilary has also won the (Harrogate) Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year 2015 for Someone Else's Skin.

Also shortlisted:

The Facts Of Life And Death by Belinda Bauer, Black Swan
The Axeman's Jazz by Ray Celestin, Mantle
The Outcast Dead by Elly Griffiths, Quercus
The Devil in the Marshalsea by Antonia Hodgson, Hodder & Stoughton
Entry Island by Peter May, Quercus

Read more at BBC News.

New Reviews: Allen, Arlidge, Burke, Hilary, Horst, Lemaitre, Linskey, Quinn, Smith

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

Susan White reviews Hania Allen's Double Tap, the second book in the Von Valenti series [the first book, Jack in the Box is currently free for UK Kindle];

Terry Halligan reviews M J Arlidge's debut, Eeny Meeny which introduces DI Helen Grace;

Craig Sisterson reviews Declan Burke's The Lost and the Blind;

Michelle Peckham reviews Sarah Hilary's No Other Darkness, the second book in the DI Marnie Rome series;

Guest reviewer Bob Cornwell reviews Jorn Lier Horst's The Caveman tr. Anne Bruce;

Ewa Sherman reviews Camille tr. Frank Wynne, the final part in Pierre Lemaitre's trilogy;

Geoff Jones reviews Howard Linskey's No Name Lane, set in County Durham in the '90s;

Lynn Harvey reviews Anthony Quinn's sequel to the well-regarded Disappeared, Border Angels

and Amanda Gillies reviews Anna Smith's A Cold Killing, the latest in the Rosie Gilmour series.





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

Review: No Other Darkness by Sarah Hilary

No Other Darkness by Sarah Hilary, April 2015, 416 pages, Headline, ISBN: 1472207726

Reviewed by Michelle Peckham.
(Read more of Michelle's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

This is the second novel from Sarah Hilary, following on from her highly successful first novel featuring DI Marnie Rome, SOMEONE ELSE'S SKIN.

This time, Marnie is faced with the task of how two small boys met their death in a bunker. Mr Doyle discovers their bodies when digging at the end of his garden, to make a vegetable patch. He lives with his family in a newly built house, has two children, with a third on the way, and is fostering a difficult fourteen-year-old teenager called Clancy.

Who are the children? How did they end up in the bunker? DNA testing only shows familial DNA present in the bunker, and this doesn’t help to identify the children. How were the homes built, without anyone knowing about the bunkers? Or did the builders, Merrick Homes, know about them, and could they have something to do with the buried children? And who is Alison/Esther, an inmate at Lawton Down Prison, about to be released on license, a character that appears in interspersed chapters. She clearly bears a huge guilty conscience for something, even though she has already been punished, by being locked up in prison.

Marnie’s first task is to try to discover the children’s identity, as this may throw up some clues as to why they were left to die. Eventually, she and her team do work out who they are. Then comes the huge roller-coaster of clues, with twist and turns, as DI Rome and her team try to work out who is telling the truth, and who is lying, until eventually they work out the unhappy truth, partly revealed through a the climactic ending.

Once again, Sarah Hilary has managed to pull together a well plotted novel, and DI Marnie Rome makes for a tenacious detective.

Michelle Peckham, April 2015

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: Someone Else's Skin by Sarah Hilary

Someone Else's Skin by Sarah Hilary, February 2014, 416 pages, Headline, ISBN: 1472207688

Reviewed by Michelle Peckham.
(Read more of Michelle's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

In a story that starts straightforwardly enough, DI Marnie Rome is on her way to interview a young Asian girl called Ayana Mirza, who is living in a women's refuge after her family attacked her with bleach, leaving her blind in one eye. The police want her to give a statement about what happened to her, to help show how dangerous the Mirza brothers are, and how Nasif, one of her brothers, was likely to have used a scimitar to slice off a man's hand. This is sickening violence, that needs following up. But on arriving at the refuge in Finchley, they happen upon a stabbing. Leo, the partner of one of the women, Hope Proctor, has somehow discovered the refuge, and managed to gain entry. A knife was produced and Hope then stabbed Leo in the ribs. Marnie’s partner Noah manages to save his life, with the help of Ayana. Was Hope acting in self-defence to protect herself from a violent partner? Or is something else going on? Where did the knife come from? And who is the man watching the refuge from the safety of his car? The man who writes a threatening message destined for one of the women in the refuge. Is the message meant for Simone, another scarred woman, hiding out in the refuge after a difficult childhood and a relationship with an abusive partner? And if so, why?

Meanwhile, Marnie has her own demons to contend with. A young man called Stephen, whom her parents had been fostering, after she had left home, stabbed her parents and killed them five years ago. Marnie still goes to visit the perpetrator to try to understand why he did what he did, and is desperately trying to come to terms with that horrific event.

This is a terrific first book, and one of the best first books that I've read. It explores violence, particularly against women, and its consequences with a new take on this type of violence. Marnie is an interesting, immediately likeable character and her interactions with her colleagues and friends, and reflections on her own experiences bring depth to the story. The history and fragility of the women who have experienced violence is nicely explored and with sensitivity. The plot is fast moving, and has plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader guessing, including a shocking twist that transforms the way that we think about one of the key characters. A great start, and hopefully more to come from this author in the future.

Michelle Peckham, February 2014

Favourite Euro Crime Reads of 2012 - Sarah

Continuing the series of Euro Crime reviewers' favourite reads of 2012 here are Sarah Hilary's favourite Euro Crime titles:

1. The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood
2. Finders Keepers by Belinda Bauer
3. To Love and Be Wise by Josephine Tey
4. What Lies Within by Tom Vowler (released Apr. 13)
5. Hanging Hill by Mo Hayder

Favourite Discoveries 2012 (8)

Today's instalment of favourite discoveries of 2012 comes from Sarah Hilary who blogs at Crawl Space as well as reviewing for Euro Crime. Sarah has chosen two tv series which are now available on DVD.

Sarah Hilary's Favourite Discoveries of 2012

My favourite discovery of 2012 was Good Cop with Warren Brown on the BBC. I thought this four part drama was exceptional, multi-layered, superbly acted and beautifully filmed. Most notable for making Liverpool look gorgeous, and for showcasing the range of the frankly astonishing Warren Brown.

A close second was The Bletchley Circle on ITV1, terrific cast, period detail to die for and the promise of a second series in the offing.

Read Sarah's Euro Crime reviews here.