Golden Age authors & characters living on

I recently posted this brief article about follow-ups to the Queens of Crime, written by modern authors, on my library's Facebook page:

Fans of the Golden Age queens of crime: Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy L Sayers, Margery Allingham and Josephine Tey may like to know that their characters and indeed lives carry on in a number of recent books.

Agatha Christie’s infamous 11 day disappearance in 1926 when she absconded to Harrogate has never been officially explained and she does not refer to it in her autobiography. Was it illness after the death of her mother or revenge on her philandering husband that prompted her flight? Or was it due to aliens as postulated by the Doctor Who episode, The Unicorn and the Wasp (available on iPlayer)? The Channel 5 film, Agatha & The Truth of Murder, now available on Netflix, also looks at this event. In books, rather than television, we have Andrew Wilson’s crime series featuring Agatha as the main character which begins with A TALENT FOR MURDER and has another and more sinister take on her disappearance.

If you can’t get enough of Christie’s most famous detective, Hercule Poirot, then you’ll be pleased to know that Sophie Hannah has brought him back to life in a series of books beginning with THE MONOGRAM MURDERS.

Ngaio Marsh’s debonair sleuth Roderick Alleyn returns for one last case in THE MONEY IN THE MORGUE a novel begun and abandoned by Marsh, but now completed by Stella Duffy.

Jill Paton Walsh took up the Lord Peter Wimsey mantle back in 1998 when she was invited to complete Dorothy L Sayers’s THRONES, DOMINATIONS. She has written another Wimsey book based on clues left by Sayers, plus two more from her own ideas.

Margery Allingham is probably best known for her Albert Campion series, televised in 1989/90 starring Peter Davison. Her husband, Pip Youngman Carter, continued the Campion series with two book and an unfinished one which has recently been completed by Mike Ripley as MR CAMPION’S FAREWELL. Ripley has gone on to write six more original Campion novels.

And finally Josephine Tey stars in a series of crime novels by Nicola Upson. As Gordon Daviot, Tey (real name Elizabeth MacKintosh), wrote plays including the hit ‘Richard of Bordeaux’ which starred John Gielgud. And it is this play which forms the backdrop to the first book in Upson’s series, AN EXPERT IN MURDER. In a later book in the series, FEAR IN THE SUNLIGHT, Tey is mixing with the Hitchcocks at Portmeirion.

Review: Did You See Melody? by Sophie Hannah

Did You See Melody? by Sophie Hannah, August 2017, 336 pages, Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN: 1444776134

Reviewed by Geoff Jones.

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

Cara Burrows, married with two teenage children and living in Hertford, England has flown out to Arizona, USA and has booked into a high class resort. Cara is pregnant and neither her husband Patrick nor Jess her daughter or Olly her son are keen that she keeps the baby. She is hoping that sometime away will make her situation clearer.

Arriving at the five star Swallowtail resort and spa in the foothills of the Camelback Mountains, Cara is exhausted from the journey. After checking in she uses her key to access the room and finds a man and a teenage girl occupying it. Traumatised at the man's aggressive attitude, she goes back to reception, where an apologetic receptionist upgrades her to a casita complete with infinity pool. The following morning she overhears a guest – a Mrs McNair telling the receptionist about sighting a missing girl – Melody. She disappeared seven years ago and her parents are serving a prison sentence for killing her. Accessing the internet Cara learns that Melody had a favourite cuddly toy named Poggy (a cross between a pig and a dog) and she realises that the young girl in the hotel bedroom had a similar toy. From a photograph and allowing for the time difference Cara is convinced this is the missing girl.

Aided by two American guests at the resort Tarin Fry and her daughter Zellie they investigate. They find that a lawyer who has a TV show – Bonnie Juno made the accusations about the parents. How dangerous are the people who have Melody? And is the girl the real Melody? What about Cara's thinking time about the impending arrival?

This is an unusual book by an experienced author. I found it entertaining if at times a bit confusing. However I would recommend as a good read.

Geoff Jones, August 2017

Review: The Narrow Bed by Sophie Hannah

The Narrow Bed by Sophie Hannah, February 2016, 416 pages, Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN: 1444776088

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

Kim Tribbeck is a stand-up comedian who has recently divorced her husband, Gabe, and has given up her lover, Liam. Kim was given up for adoption as a baby and has only recently found her family who were less than keen to welcome her. Unfortunately her birth mother died before she could meet her and now Kim's grandmother is dying in hospital.

At one of her gigs. Kim was given a little white book with a few lines of poetry written in it. She throws the book away but a year later connects the book with murders of pairs of friends who also had little white books found by their bodies. As Kim considers herself a person without friends, someone who doesn't have to depend on anyone, she cannot understand why she has been targeted by the killer but she does take her concerns to the police.

The team investigating the "Billy Dead Mates" killer includes DC Simon Waterhouse - a brilliant detective who has leaps of understanding that helps him solve cases, but who has difficulty working in a team. His wife, DS Charlie Zailer, although no longer working on his team, is drawn into the investigation although she is rather more interested in what her sister, Olivia, is up to.

This is the latest in the series featuring Simon Waterhouse and Charlie Zailer but can easily be read as a stand alone. I think one of the most appealing features of Sophie Hannah's books is her characterisation and her ability to include a level of description that makes her characters and situations interesting and engaging without slowing down the story.

A really good read.

Susan White, September 2016

New Reviews: Crouch, Dunne, Ferris, Hannah, Harper, Kallentoft, Kitchin, O'Connor, Shaw

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.

Michelle Peckham calls Julia Crouch's Tarnished, an "excellent book";

Geoff Jones reviews Steven Dunne's The Unquiet Grave, the fourth in the Derby-set DI Damen Brook series;

Susan White reviews the paperback release of Gordon Ferris's Pilgrim Soul;

Susan also reviews the paperback release of Sophie Hannah's The Carrier;

Amanda Gillies reviews Tom Harper's The Orpheus Descent;

Lynn Harvey reviews Mons Kallentoft's Savage Spring, tr. Neil Smith, the fourth in the Detective Malin Fors series;

Rich Westwood reviews Rob Kitchin's screwball-noir Stiffed;

Terry Halligan reviews Niamh O'Connor's Too Close For Comfort, the third in the Dublin-based Det. Sup. Jo Birmingham series

and Terry also reviews William Shaw's debut, A Song From Dead Lips, the first in a series set in the 1960s.

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 Carrier by Sophie Hannah

The Carrier by Sophie Hannah, August 2013, 464 pages, Hodder Paperbacks, ISBN: 0340980745

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

Gaby Struthers is a successful research scientist and entrepreneur, spending most of her life jetting around Europe for business meetings concerning her latest project, much to the annoyance of her partner, Sean. On her latest trip to Düsseldorf, her flight is cancelled and she meets Lauren Cookson, a fellow passenger who is devastated and frightened by the delay.

Lauren clings to Gaby who finds herself reluctantly becoming Lauren's companion on the distressing, lengthy and tiring journey home. Lauren mentions that she knows an innocent man who is accused of murdering his wife, and Gaby is horrified to realise that the man is Tim, the man she still loves, who gave her up to return to his wife, Francine

Gaby, without knowing any of the facts, knows that Tim is innocent and returns to England determined to prove it. With Tim back in her thoughts, she has to face the question of her feelings or lack of them for Sean, she has to persuade the police that Tim is innocent despite his confession of guilt and she has to discover why Lauren sought her out in Germany.

DC Simon Waterhouse is also not sure if Tim is guilty mainly because Tim cannot or will not say what his motive was in killing his wife. Tim’s friends, Kerry and Dan, have given a home to Tim and Francine after her stroke, and remain very loyal to Tim, backing up everything he says. Simon believes that a lot of information is being kept from him and he involves his team and his wife, DS Charlie Zailer, in his search for the truth, but nothing prepares him for that truth.

This is another compelling read from Sophie Hannah and another outing for Waterhouse, Zailer, Sellars, Gibbs and Proust. The interactions and relationships between these characters is a continuation from previous novels but the book stands alone. If you are looking for a thrilling murder, then this is not the book for you. If you are interested however in what makes people behave as they do and what lengths ordinary people will go to in response to extraordinary events, then you will enjoy this.

Susan White, August 2013

The Return of Case Sensitive

The ITV series based on Sophie Hannah's books returns to ITV on Thursday at 9pm with a two-part adaptation of the fourth book in the series, The Other Half Lives reviewed for Euro Crime by Maxine and Michelle.

The second part is on Friday at 9pm.

From the ITV website:
Case Sensitive returns for a second series, based on Sophie Hannah's best selling novel The Other Half Lives.

Alarm bells ring when DS Charlie Zailer (Olivia Williams) is asked to check a friend's new partner for a criminal record.

Joined once more by DC Simon Waterhouse (Darren Boyd), what follows is an investigation littered with thwarted dreams and murderous jealousy, as Zailer's suspicions force her to take erratic steps to keep the case on track and her friend safe from harm.

New Reviews: Akunin, Brophy, Craig, Ellis, Forshaw, Hannah, Harper, Mallo, Robinson

Win 3 Richard Nottingham mysteries by Chris Nickson (UK only) closes 29 February.

Here are this week's 9 new reviews:

Laura Root reviews the tenth (and final?) Erast Fandorin adventure from Boris Akunin, and translated by Andrew Bromfield: The Diamond Chariot;

Lynn Harvey reviews Kevin Brophy's The Berlin Crossing which is heavier on the love story than the spy story apparently;

Terry Halligan reviews the second in the John Carlyle series from James Craig: Never Apologise, Never Explain;

Lizzie Hayes reviews the newest Wesley Peterson/Neil Watson mystery from Kate Ellis: The Cadaver Game;

Maxine Clarke reviews Barry Forshaw's guide to Scandinavian crime fiction: Death in a Cold Climate;

Susan White reviews Sophie Hannah's Kind of Cruel the seventh to feature her detectives Waterhouse and Zailer;

Amanda Gillies reviews Tom Harper's Secrets of the Dead, calling it "another excellent book";

I review Ernesto Mallo's follow-up to the CWA International Dagger Shortlisted Needle in a Haystack: Sweet Money, tr. Katherine Silver set in 1980s Buenos Aires

and Mark Bailey wants more standalones from Peter Robinson after reading Before the Poison.

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 Kate Ellis, Claire McGowan, Peter Robinson and Robert Wilson have been added to these pages this week.

New Reviews: Bauer, Fowler, Gomez-Jurado, Hannah, Leather, Russell, Walker, Walters

Here are this week's new reviews:

Michelle Peckham reviews Belinda Bauer's sequel to the award-winning Blacklands, Darkside which is now out in paperback;

Rich Westwood reviews Christopher Fowler's Bryant & May off the Rails and catches up with London's oldest serving detectives...;

I review Juan Gomez-Jurado's The Traitor's Emblem, tr. Daniel Hahn which is more history than mystery;

Susan White reviews Sophie Hannah's Little Face and also reviews the "Flipback" format it came in;

Terry Halligan reviews Stephen Leather's sequel to Nightfall, Midnight which continues the story of Jack Nightingale with his sold-off soul;

Amanda Gillies adds Craig Russell's character "Lennox" to her list of favourites, here in in his second outing: The Long Glasgow Kiss;

Lynn Harvey reviews the fourth in Martin Walker's Bruno, Chief of Police series set in France: The Crowded Grave

and Maxine Clarke reviews Trust No One by Alex Walters (already known to Euro Crime readers as Michael Walters) which is set in Manchester (rather than Mongolia).

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 M K Bates, Laurent Binet, Patrick Easter, Karin Fossum, Christopher Fowler, Tom Grieves, Ewart Hutton, Arnaldur Indridason and Craig Russell have been added to these pages this week.

New Reviews: Bayard, Cotterill, Durbridge, Hannah, McDermid, Neville, Ohlsson & New Competition

New Competition: Win a copy of Strangled in Paris by Claude Izner (UK only)

Here are this week's new reviews:

Amanda Gillies reviews Louis Bayard's The School of Night set in modern day, and Elizabethan England;

Lynn Harvey reviews Colin Cotterill's Killed at the Whim of a Hat which is now out in paperback and she makes an unexpected comparison with a well-known US series...;

I review the audio version of Francis Durbridge's Tim Frazer Again read by Anthony Head;

Susan White reviews Sophie Hannah's Lasting Damage which is now out in paperback, and which reminded her of Barbara Vine's earlier work;

Maxine Clarke reviews the new Tony Hill-Carol Jordan from Val McDermid, The Retribution;

Terry Halligan reviews Stuart Neville's debut, The Twelve aka The Ghosts of Belfast (US) which he thought was brilliant and original

and I also review the debut from Kristina Ohlsson: Unwanted, tr. Sarah Death which is gripping despite being a bit predictable.

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 Declan Burke, Patrick Conrad, David Hodges, Arlene Hunt, Eva Joly & Judith Perrignon, J D Mallinson, Zygmunt Miloszewski, Harri Nykanen, Sam Ripley and Norman Russell have been added to these pages this week.

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.

Sophie Hannah's crime series to be televised

News from the ITV press centre is that Sophie Hannah's The Point of Rescue (the third in the series featuring DC Simon Waterhouse and DS Charlie Zailer) is to be televised:

ITV today announced it has commissioned a new two-part drama, Point of Rescue (working title), based on the highly acclaimed and chilling psychological suspense novel from Sophie Hannah.

Point of Rescue will star Olivia Williams (The Ghost, Dollhouse, An Education, The Sixth Sense, Rushmore) in the lead role of DS Charlie Zailer and Darren Boyd (Whites, Personal Affairs, Little Dorrit, Green Wing) as DC Simon Waterhouse.

It's a story which explores themes of identity, guilt and family strife. The 2 x 60 min drama will be adapted for ITV by Hat Trick Productions.

When Geraldine Bretherick and her five-year-old daughter Lucy are found dead in the bathroom of their luxury home, the case divides new DS Charlie Zailer and her DC Simon Waterhouse. Is it murder, suicide or something even more sinister, and how watertight is the alibi of the husband Mark?

Meanwhile, when Sally Thorne, a working mother with a husband and two young children, hears of the deaths, she is shocked and appalled. Months before she'd met a man called Mark Bretherick at a hotel and had a brief but passionate affair with him. Now she feels the need to get in touch with him again to offer her sympathy. Her friend Esther does not think this is very wise.

Point of Rescue (working title) will film on location in Buckinghamshire in October.

The whole press release is here.

Transatlantic Title Change Alert

It's just come to my attention that Sophie Hannah's The Other Half Lives (at title which I always think of and have to stop pronouncing in chemistry terms) is to be published in the US in June as the more mundane, The Dead Lie Down:



US synopsis:

Ruth Bussey once did something she regrets, and her punishment nearly destroyed her. Now Ruth is rebuilding her life and has found a love she doesn’t believe she deserves. Aidan Seed is also troubled by a past he can’t bear to talk about, until one day when he decides he must confide in Ruth. He tells her that, years ago, he killed a woman named Mary Trelease.

Ruth is confused. She knows first-hand that Mary Trelease is very much alive and takes her concern to Sgt. Charlotte “Charlie” Zailer of the Spilling Police. With her boyfriend, DC Simon Waterhouse, she decides to look into the matter, compelled by Ruth’s fear that something terrible may be about to happen. What she discovers propels her through London’s art scene, and the lives of five very odd people, to the unsettling secrets that bind them all.

This is not the first time this has happened with Sophie Hannah's books as, The Point of Rescue (UK) became The Wrong Mother (US).

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.

New Reviews: Hannah, Mieville, Nadelson, Noort, Russell, Thompson

There are two competitions running in September. One is for 2 children's adventure-thriller books by Andy Briggs and is open to the UK, and the other is for A Visible Darkness by Michael Gregorio which is open world-wide. Details on how to enter can be found on the competition page.

Here are this week's reviews:

Michelle Peckham reviews the paperback release of The Other Half Lives by Sophie Hannah;

Laura Root reviews The City and The City by China Mieville which is an intriguing mix of detection and science fiction;

Terry Halligan is impressed with Londongrad by Reggie Nadelson the latest in the Artie Cohen series;

Maxine Clarke reviews Back to the Coast by Saskia Noort (and her review will make you rush out and buy the book);

Craig Sisterson reviews the first in a new series by Craig Russell: Lennox, set in 1950s Glasgow;

and Geoff Jones reviews The Captain's Table by Brian Thompson the second of the Bella Wallis series, which is set in Victorian England.

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

New Reviews: Ammaniti, Clark, Hannah, Peace

Two 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:

Norman Price has good things to say about The Crossroads by Niccolo Ammaniti;

Terry Halligan reviews The Red Velvet Turnshoe by Cassandra Clark which goes onto his "best of 2009" list;

Maxine Clarke has mixed views on The Other Half Lives by Sophie Hannah (nb. not a book about physics)

and Pat Austin concludes her reviews of the Red Riding Quartet by David Peace with 1983 recommending the series "without a doubt".

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

Sophie Hannah publishing and tv deals

The lovely Petrona has sent me this snippet of news from The Bookseller:

Sophie Hannah's psychological suspense novels are to be adapted as prime time dramas after production company Hat Trick bought rights in Little Face and Hannah's three following novels.

The news comes as Hodder fiction director Carolyn Mays acquires five new novels from Hannah through Peter Straus at RCW.

Hannah's latest novel, The Point of Rescue, will be published in paperback in August. Hannah, who is also a poet, moved into thriller writing with Little Face, and followed it up with Hurting Distance.

Check out the Euro Crime page for Sophie Hannah with its link to a review of Hurting Distance, a book which "fulfils the high standard set by her first, LITTLE FACE".