New Reviews: Arjouni, Hayes, Kasasian, Malliet, Muir, L Russell, M Russell, Smith, Staincliffe

This first set of reviews for 2014, added to the Euro Crime website today, is a mixture of new reviews and a catch-up of those posted directly on the blog in the last few weeks, so you may have read some of them before if you're a regular :).

Euro Crime took a break over the festive period in terms of reviews however the review team revealed their favourite discoveries of 2013 in a series of posts. Currently we are part-way through unveiling the review team's favourite reads of 2013. After the individual lists have been posted I will tally them all up and reveal the overall favourite Euro Crime authors, titles and translators of 2013.

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

New Reviews

Lynn Harvey reviews Jakob Arjouni's final book, the fifth in the Kayankaya series, Brother Kemal, tr. Anthea Bell and she recommends it to "to all lovers of mean streets and wily detectives";

Terry Halligan reviews one of the "big" books of 2013, I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes calling it an "absolutely tremendous book";

I review The Mangle Street Murders by M R C Kasasian which is my favourite discovery of the year;

Susan White reviews the seasonal A Fatal Winter by American author G M Malliet which is perhaps one more for cosy fans;

Michelle Peckham reviews T F Muir's Life for a Life the fourth in the St Andrews-set DI Andy Gilchrist series, saying it's a "great read";

Amanda Gillies reviews Leigh Russell's Cold Sacrifice which is the first in a spin-off series featuring DS Ian Peterson;

Geoff reviews The City of Strangers by Michael Russell, the second in the Stefan Gillespie series, set in 1939;

Terry also reviews Anna Smith's Screams in the Dark the third in the Rosie Gilmour series, set in 1999



and Rich Westwood reviews the second of the Scott & Bailey novelisations, Bleed Like Me by Cath Staincliffe.


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.

Favourite Discoveries 2013 (9)

Today's instalment of favourite discoveries of 2013 comes from Terry Halligan who reviews at Euro Crime.

Terry Halligan's Favourite Discoveries of 2013

My favourite TV discovery of 2013 was The Doctor Blake Mysteries featuring Craig McLachlan as Dr Lucien Blake and set in 1959 Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. The first 10 episodes were shown daily Monday to Friday on BBC One from the 25th November. The stories are really different and very interesting and Dr Blake in an unusual protagonist in being a single Doctor who has inherited his practice from his late father and also works as a Police Surgeon. There are hints that he has been separated from his wife and child since the start of the Second World War, when he was interned as a POW, in a Japanese Camp and when released discovered that his wife and child were missing. I recorded all of the episodes and I'm currently enjoying them and I hope that more episodes will be shown.

Back in early October, I was staying overnight in a hotel in Buffalo, New York State and I saw an episode of Blue Bloods for the first time and now back here I'm able to watch that also on Sky. It is about a family in New York who are either serving police officers, one is commissioner of police (Tom Sellick) and his two sons are a detective and a patrol man and a daughter is an assistant district attorney. It has some very good plot lines.

Looking over the list of books that I've read during 2012, two American authors that I read as alternates to Euro Crime books stand out. The first is the US author Steve Berry who specialises in mystery adventure stories and the first I read was THE TEMPLAR LEGACY which is a much better written and interesting book than THE DA VINCI CODE. The second US author I discovered is Stephen Cannell and and the book is titled THE TIN COLLECTORS. Cannell is a similar author to Michael Connelly and has written many books but has sadly now passed away.

For Euro Crime, an author that I was introduced to this year was Chris Collett who writes really thrilling mysteries with her Birmingham based detective DI Tom Mariner. I've only read one by her for review called BLOOD AND STONE and I would like to read more.


The second author I was introduced to in doing a review for Euro Crime was the Sussex-born author Terry Hayes who wrote one of the best books of the year with his debut one I AM PILGRIM, which has been described as incredibly strong, absorbing and a thrilling story and compared to the sensation that was caused in publishing when Frederick Forsyth's THE DAY OF THE JACKAL was first released. Hayes although born in England, has lived in Australia most of his life and trained as a journalist and worked as a screenwriter on the Mad Max series of movies before turning to writing.

Review: I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes

I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes, July 2013, 704 pages, Bantam Press, ISBN: 0593064941

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

This is the best first thriller novel with a espionage/murder theme by a British-born writer I think that I have read for a very long time. It is a real block-buster. Absolutely sensational.

It tells the story of a 'consultant' called out to a horrific killing in a very low class New York flop house hotel. The victim's identity has been masked by the killer putting her body in bath filled with acid. This hotel is located very near Ground Zero. The story traces the past life of the consultant who was a high ranking CIA specialist assassin. He was born an orphan but brought up by very wealthy foster parents and trained as a doctor but was approached after leaving medical school and spent many years in the CIA. After 9/11 he resigned which is why he was lending his skills to the New York police department.

The story also describes the life of an Arab boy born in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia who had to witness the beheading of his own father and swore to avenge the killing not by attacking the Arabs but the Americans because they support Saudi Arabia. All the separate elements of this marvellous story come together in the dramatic conclusion.

Although this is his first novel, this author has massive experience of creating the screenplays for Road Warrior/Mad Max 2, Dead Calm and other films and TV, after a journalistic career in Australia. He has written an extremely gripping and highly imaginative story in his very first book with very well described characters and a plot which I don't think I'll forget for a very long time.

This is an absolutely tremendous book which, while it is quite long, covers much ground and the many adventures of the protagonist and his enemy. I do not think in view of this it could be any shorter. I was gripped and spellbound until I finished it in about three days! I'm looking forward to further books from this very talented new writer. Extremely enjoyable and well recommended.

Terry Halligan, December 2013.