Review: You Were Gone by Tim Weaver

You Were Gone by Tim Weaver, April 2018, 496 pages, Michael Joseph, ISBN: 0718189000

Reviewed by Geoff Jones.

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

David Raker had been visiting his newly discovered daughter Annabel, and her family, in South Devon. The telephone call from Charing Cross police station was made by Detective Sergeant Catherine Field. Raker was told that his wife was at the station and had been badly injured and told them that he had done it.

Raker is devastated, he buried his wife eight years ago. Derryn and he had been married for fourteen years. She died after many courses of chemotherapy for breast cancer. There are some inconsistencies in this woman's story but basically she knows a great deal about their life together and looks very much like his deceased wife. The police contact St. Augustine's hospital at the woman's request and speak to a consultant there – a Dr. Erik McMillan who tells them that Raker is suffering from Capgras delusion, a condition where people believe that a husband, wife or child has been replaced by an exact duplicate.

Raker who has built a reputation on finding what happened to missing people, is facing his worst nightmare and begins to believe he is losing his mind. He still maintains that the woman is not his wife but because it's Christmas time, he can't prove it. He can't even find the death certificate he last remembers was in the loft of his house. Then when the woman goes to spend the night at a hostel the police located for her, she vanishes and of course suspicion falls on Raker.

This is the ninth book by the author in this series. I have read four of them and they are always exciting mysteries and this one is no exception. It keeps you gripped and guessing up to the explosive finish. Recommended.

Geoff Jones, June 2018

Review: I Am Missing by Tim Weaver

I Am Missing by Tim Weaver, July 2017, 544 pages, Penguin, ISBN: 1405917849

Reviewed by Geoff Jones.

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

Richard Kite is someone who has no memory of who he is or where he came from. He was found besides a lifeboat station on the Hampshire coast. His name has been made up for him. He asks private investigator David Raker to try and find out who he is. He seems to have a west country accent but is not recognised locally.

Richard sees psychologist Naomi Russum based in London. Raker visits Russom's clinic but finds her evasive. He gains access to her office illegally and finds photographs that she uses in her sessions with Richard, they include two photographs of a mysterious woman. Raker follows Russum to a school – The Red Tree City of London school.

Raker finds a mutilated woman's body on a disused railway site and connects this to the school, and particularly to a teacher – Jacob Howson. He meets the school's head Roland Dell and meets the sinister security chief Alexander Marek. Can Raker find out who Richard is and why he has lost his memory?

There are three parts to the book. The main part is with Raker's investigation. The second part is a diary written by a young girl Penny Beck. She appears to live on an island in the south Atlantic, very similar in climate to the Falklands. She lives with her mother and stepfather and step sister Beth. There is an area on the island fenced off called the Brink and all islanders are warned to keep away. The third part is a travel book around Britain's shores.

I have read a couple of the author's David Raker series and enjoyed his compelling storytelling. This book is equally rewarding. I didn't find the storyline around the Brink very plausible, however this is a minor criticism. Recommended as a good read.

Geoff Jones, October 2017

New Reviews: Baylis, Brett, Charles, Connor, Corbin, Janes, Staincliffe, Weaver, Wilson

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

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 reviews The Tottenham Outrage by M H Baylis and she liked it very much;

Rich Westwood reviews Simon Brett's Blotto, Twinks and the Riddle of the Sphinx, which is now out in paperback;

Mark Bailey reviews Paul Charles's The Lonesome Heart is Angry, set in Northern Ireland;

Amanda Gillies reviews The Bosch Deception by Alex Connor;

Michelle Peckham reviews Now That You're Gone by Julie Corbin;


Terry Halligan reviews Tapestry by J Robert Janes, the fourteenth in the St-Cyr and Kohler series set in Occupied Paris;

Laura Root calls Cath Staincliffe's Letters to My Daughter's Killer - "a little gem";

Susan White reviews Fall From Grace by Tim Weaver, the fifth in his David Raker series and




Terry also reviews Robert Wilson's You Will Never Find Me, the second in his Charlie Boxer series.





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: Fall From Grace by Tim Weaver

Fall From Grace by Tim Weaver, August 2014, 592 pages, Penguin, ISBN: 1405913460

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

People go missing every day. Sometimes they walk out of their lives and sometimes they are taken against their will. After the police have done everything they can - and if the person still cannot be found - what then? Retired Detective Superintendent's Leonard Frank's daughter has perhaps more knowledge and resources than most but when she is warned off her investigating her father's mysterious disappearance by her superiors, she has no choice but to call in a specialist people-finder.

David Raker is already known and disapproved of by most police officers he has met. He is an ex-journalist and therefore perhaps their suspicions of him are understandable but they also question some of his methods. Because, of course, he doesn't have to follow the same strict rules in his investigations as they do. So he is a bit suspicious when serving police officer Melanie Craw approaches him to help track down a missing person and very surprised when he learns that it is her father, Leonard Franks.

Leonard and Ellie Franks lived in an isolated cottage on the moors in Dartmoor. Leonard went out to the woodpile to collect wood for the fire one winter afternoon and never came back. His disappearance, without clothes, money or telephone has everyone stumped - how was he spirited away from the house from which the moor stretches in full view for miles? Is the disappearance connected to an old case he worked, is it payback for a conviction and if he went willingly, why?

As Raker investigates, he struggles with the reluctance of Frank's old colleagues to talk to him but gradually pieces fall into place and then he finds himself up against men who will do anything to keep their secrets, even threaten the very people closest to him.

This is a really pacy thriller, the action packed into only a few days. The characters are very well written and engaging and I found myself understanding some of the actions of even the bad guys in the story. This is the fifth novel to feature the character David Raker but is easily read as a standalone. David Raker is new to me and I find myself wanting to read the other novels featuring him - this is an exciting read - a real find.

Susan White, September 2014

New Reviews: Garnier, Johnston, Kelly, McCarry, Nadel, Ridpath, Rimington, Taylor, Weaver

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.

Susan White reviews Pacal Garnier's Moon in a Dead Eye, tr. Emily Boyce set in a French gated community;

Terry Halligan review's Paul Johnston's The Black Life, the sixth in the PI Alex Mavros series;

Michelle Peckham reviews the recent paperback release of Erin Kelly's The Burning Air, calling it "a strong, psychological thriller";

Amanda Gillies reviews Charles McCarry's spy thriller, The Shanghai Factor;

Rich Westwood reviews Barbara Nadel's An Act of Kindness, the second in the Hakim and Arnold series and set just before the 2012 London Olympics;

Lynn Harvey reviews the first of two Second World War related titles this week with Michael Ridpath's Traitor's Gate being based on a true event;

Terry also reviews Stella Rimington's seventh and latest outing for MI5's Liz Carlyle, The Geneva Trap which is now out in paperback;

In D J Taylor's The Windsor Faction, reviewed here by Norman Price, the author takes a "what if" situation and presents an alternative version of the 1930/40s

and Geoff Jones reviews Tim Weaver's Never Coming Back the fourth in his David Raker, missing persons investigator series.



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.

Harrogate - Drawing the Line

My third panel and this time I took notes by hand. Drawing the Line featured Tim Weaver, Margie Orford, Penny Hancock, Gregg Hurwitz and N J Cooper moderating.

Panel blurb: When it comes to making moral choices, how far should a writer go? Do they worry about titillating those who may be tempted to emulate the terrible crimes they read about? And do writers ever fear for their own psyches when coming up with ideas which push the envelope of acceptability?

My notes:

NC commented that kidnap featured in novels by all 4 of them.

MO said that South Africa is much more dangerous than England, children, people do disappear. [I'm not sure if she was joking] said that she had morgue on speed dial as she has 3 daughters. South Africa is rape capital of the world. It's more fun to write emotional torture than physical.

GH said that he would sometimes leave an important bit out of a description eg if he was describing making a bomb.

MO came to write crime to try and understand why there is so much violence in South Africa.

PH wanted to explore the psychology of a woman (who'd kidnap a teenage boy) - wouldn't be interested in the scenario if the genders were reversed. Hasn't found any examples of a female kidnapping a boy.

TW said that 25% readers found his first book too violent and said he was hurt by that as it it implied that he had no control over his writing. There was going to be a scene with dog cruelty but he was advised (and did) to take it out.

MO was going to have the cat killed off - as didn't fit her character's life but she received an email from a fan saying whatever you do don't harm the cat. The cat was reprieved and she has to re-edit book and put cat care routines in!

MO - fear of fear, moved back to South Africa in 2001 with her 3 daughters and was scared but the mortuary on a Monday morning would show bodies of young men, not women. Said that dead women are often passed to women pathologists as men get too upset. Superstition that if you write about something you are warding it off.

Both GH and MO are reported to be more pleasant when working on a book.

There is a poison line you can ring in US and GH rang to ask about the poisonous nature of oleander and there was a pause and the recipient of the call asked "Sir, may I ask what number you're calling from"!

MO wrote journalist pieces but needed more space to explore true crime. Cops - fluke if they catch someone - only chiefs of police going to jail at the moment. Most people in South Africa experience violence themselves or a close family/friend has.

Publishing Deal - Tim Weaver

From BookBrunch:

Stephanie Bierworth has made her first acquisition since leaving Macmillan for Michael Joseph, buying Tim Weaver's debut CHASING THE DEAD as part of a two-book deal via agent Camilla Bolton of Darley Anderson Associates. "A terrifying psychological thriller" in the vein of Michael Marshall and Mo Hayder, it introduces readers to David Raker, ex-journalist and troubled missing persons investigator who is embroiled in a sinister chase when an old friend becomes convinced she's seen her dead son alive. Bierworth believes Weaver's is "one of those rare, spine-tingling thrillers that draws you in from page one, simply doesn't let you go and creates an atmosphere which stays with you for a very long time."