Review: Killer Women: Crime Club Anthology #1

Killer Women: Crime Club Anthology #1, September 2016, 210 pages, Killer Women Ltd, ISBN: 152720071X

Reviewed by Ewa Sherman.

Even if you haven’t yet heard the term ‘Killer Women’ you must have already read their books. Sixteen, London-based, bestselling and award-winning female crime writers have formed a group to offer innovative events, debates, talks and workshops to libraries, book groups, bookshops, literary and art organisations, turning their written words into spoken words of encouragement, debate and fun. They have been working incredibly hard organising the Crime Writing Festival 2016 due to be held in October. The Killer Women have also filled their first anthology with fifteen unique and brand new short stories, each representing the original styles of the authors. Their combined personal and professional experience is vast and varied hence no subject is a taboo, no topic is off the menu, no evil is left alone.

With endorsement by the one and only, much celebrated Val McDermid, who has also written the foreword, and including short biographies of all the writers with information on what inspired their particular stories, the selection is a wonderful invitation to read more. Or to get to know the featured authors: Louise Millar, Alex Marwood, Tammy Cohen, Melanie McGrath, Colette McBeth, Jane Casey, Erin Kelly, Sarah Hilary, Louise Voss, Alison Joseph, Helen Smith, Kate Medina, D E Meredith, Laura Wilson and Kate Rhodes. These Killer Women are no strangers to psychological suspense, thrillers, mysteries, historic crime series, contemporary detective fiction and police procedurals.

The tales vary in length because there’s no template for how long a good short story should be, and when the theme is right, and the observation is precise, they just work. So these sharp, imaginative and concise samples of their talent encompass fantasy, obsession and supernatural, mundane and boring, unusual and perfectly explainable. A real-life event that can spark excellent writing. Dementia and tricks that the human mind plays. Loneliness and vulnerability. Broken window and noisy crows. Buried secrets and manipulation. Wicked women and untrustworthy men. Clothes. Noises in the old house. Overstepping boundaries. Art.

Even as the bleakness is about to descend, a dash of humour and a moment of reflection come to the rescue, or the unexpected twist turns a story into a criminally satisfying surprise. This collection of written miniatures resembles a box of fine chocolates, each with a different filling under the silky cover of a darkness of soul and mind. But you might want to reach for a glass to calm your nerves, or to celebrate...

Ewa Sherman, September 2016

Harry (Hole) returns in 2017!

From today's Press Release:

Harvill Secker announce Harry Hole’s return

in a new JO NESBO novel in 2017

THE THIRST by JO NESBO will be published 4 May 2017

19 September 2016: In news that will delight his millions of fans worldwide, Jo Nesbo confirms that his hardboiled Oslo detective Harry Hole will return in his latest novel, THE THIRST, to be published by Harvill Secker in May 2017.

THE THIRST continues the story of #1 bestseller POLICE, Harry Hole’s last outing in 2013, which saw the maverick cop protecting those closest to him from a killer wreaking revenge on the police.  THE THIRST will see Harry drawn back to the Oslo police force when a serial killer begins targeting Tinder daters with a signature killing method that leads Harry on the hunt of a nemesis from his past.  It is the eleventh instalment in Jo Nesbo’s bestselling crime fiction series, which have sold over 30 million copies worldwide and are published in 50 languages.

Jo Nesbo says: ‘I was always coming back to Harry, he is my soul mate. But it is a dark soul, so it is - as always - both a thrill and a chilling, emotionally exhausting experience. But Harry and the story make it worth the sleepless nights.’

THE THIRST is one of several treats in store next year for the millions of Jo Nesbo and Harry Hole fans.  In January 2017, Harvill Secker will publish a 20^th anniversary edition of THE BAT, Jo Nesbo’s first Harry Hole novel, with a new introduction by the author.   In October 2017, Michael Fassbender will star as Harry Hole in the film adaptation of The Snowman, in which Nesbo’s detective tracks a serial killer murdering unfaithful women and leaving a snowman behind as a calling card.  The film will be directed by Tomas Alfredson (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Let the Right One In).

Liz Foley, Harvill Secker Publishing Director, says: ‘2017 will be the year of Harry Hole!  We are delighted to be bringing the millions of Jo Nesbo fans a thrilling new Harry Hole novel in The Thirst  and celebrating Harry’s first adventure with our special anniversary edition of The Bat, as well as watching Harry’s first foray onto the big screen with the film adaptation of The Snowman next autumn. It’s going to be brilliant to be back in Harry’s world again.’ 

Review: His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet

His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet, November 2015, 288 pages, Contraband, ISBN: 1910192147

Reviewed by Amanda Gillies.
(Read more of Amanda's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

This book, set in a remote crofting community in north-west Scotland in 1869, has been short-listed for the 2016 Man Booker prize. This well-deserved nomination speaks volumes for the quality of this wonderful novel: if you only read one book this year, then make sure it is this one! The author, Graeme Macrae Burnet, was the recipient of a Scottish Book Trust New Writer’s Award in 2013 and HIS BLOODY PROJECT is his second novel. Clearly a man of talent, Burnet is another one of those Scottish authors that we should most definitely keep a close eye on.

HIS BLOODY PROJECT is about a murder. A gruesome triple murder that shocks the small community where both the murderer and his victim live. The guilty party is a young man who goes by the name of Roderick Macrae. He is seen by his neighbour shortly after committing his dreadful act - covered in blood and carrying his weapons. There is no doubt that he is the guilty party and he is more than willing to admit what he has done. However, there is a question over his motive, and his sanity at the time of the crime, and his counsel bravely sets out to save him from the gallows. The novel consists of a series of reports, written by various officials to document the evidence of this shocking event and their opinions concerning the accused. They make for pretty somber reading but are nothing compared to the account written by Roddy himself, as he attempts to explain what he has done.

I am extremely grateful to both Karen and Contraband for giving me the opportunity to review this book. Every so often you get the rare opportunity to read something that is incredibly special and this is one of those occasions. I am still haunted by HIS BLOODY PROJECT: The vivid descriptions it contains of life as a crofter in the 1800s show that conditions were very far from pretty. The book is so harrowing and realistic that I even had to stop reading and find out whether the plot was based on a true story. If you like to be disturbed by what you read and enjoy first-rate thrillers that won’t let go of you when you have finished them, then you are going to love this book.

Extremely Highly Recommended.

Amanda Gillies, September 2016

Free TV Episodes on Amazon

I've only just spotted this: Amazon.co.uk, have made the first episode available to "buy" for free in 93 TV series - you can download as well as stream.

The list includes Scandi favourites such as Beck, Borgen, The Bridge, The Killing and The Legacy as well as French series such as Braquo, Spiral and The Returned, and the original Israeli series Hostages.

British series include Broadchurch, Father Brown, Grantchester, Happy Valley, Hinterland, Line of Duty, Luther, River, Shetland and The Tunnel.

Browse the whole list on Amazon.

Review: A Quiet Place by Seicho Matsumoto, tr. Louise Heal Kawai

Today's review is again courtesy of CrimeTime's Bob Cornwell.

A Quiet Place by Seicho Matsumoto, tr. Louise Heal Kawai (228 pages, June 2016, Bitter Lemon Press, ISBN: 1908524634)

What a pleasant surprise! Considered one of the most important (and prolific) writers of crime fiction in his native Japan, this is only the fourth novel from Seicho Matsumoto to be published in English (and the first to originate from a UK publisher). Well-chosen by Bitter Lemon too, showing another side (at least to this UK reader) of Matsumoto’s talent.

Matsumoto first wrote prize-winning mainstream and historical fiction, then experimented with crime in short story form (some, including 'The Face', considered the best short story of its year by the Mystery Writers of Japan, are collected in THE VOICE, published in the USA in 1989). In 1957 he published the ground-breaking POINTS AND LINES (1970 in US), a rare combination in Japan at that time of a crime story laced with acute social observation, often critical, of the society that surrounded him, a form he would champion throughout his life (he died in 1992). The book was a huge success, broadening the appeal of crime fiction throughout Japan. In the early '60s he wrote both what became in English INSPECTOR IMANISHI INVESTIGATES (Soho Crime US,1989), and PRO BONO, which took over 50 years before it became available in English (Vertical US, 2012). The first is a classic of painstaking police detective work, the latter both a mystery and a raging indictment (in the Japanese manner) of aspects of the Japanese justice system.

Now comes A QUIET PLACE (1975) written during a later period of Matsumoto’s career. Tsuneo Asai, a middle ranking civil servant working in a far from glamorous role in the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, is on a business trip with his boss when a phone call from his sister-in-law tells him that Eiko, his wife, eight years his junior and with a history of heart trouble, has died of a sudden heart attack. First ensuring that his boss is not inconvenienced in his absence, he immediately returns to Tokyo. After the funeral he visits the cosmetics shop where his wife collapsed and died. It’s in a quiet suburb of Tokyo that, suspiciously, Eiko had never mentioned to him “ever”. He starts to ask questions.

From these low-key, even mundane ingredients, Matsumoto slowly builds a fascinating tale. Tsuneo, for example, at first appears to have much in common with the “nondescript” but dogged detective Torigai of POINTS AND LINES, and the “worn-out” Inspector Imanishi. But here his quest, pursued with quiet, painstaking intelligence, is filled out by a great deal more personal detail. His deference to authority, and to his wife’s ill-health, his morality (Japanese sexual mores are explored in some detail), his driving ambition (but within the established hierarchy), all add up, given the later noir-ish developments in the novel, to an individual irrevocably caught within an unforgiving social system. He is far from, say, the amoral protagonists of Patricia Highsmith.

That said, the later twists in the tale and Tsuneo’s actions surrounding them, shows him in a much more calculating light. Note too that an action that sets the plot in motion at the start of the novel, is also key to the ending. Can you spot what it is?

A QUIET PLACE is a worthwhile crime novel and one that lives up to Matsumoto’s reputation as a keen critic of his country’s social mores. Let us hope that Bitter Lemon Press will continue to explore and make available more of his work.

Bob Cornwell
September 2016

Review: Ghost Target by Will Jordan

Ghost Target by Will Jordan, July 2016, 429 pages, Canelo, Ebook

Reviewed by Amanda Gillies.
(Read more of Amanda's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

The sixth book in the Ryan Drake series, GHOST TARGET will take you on an emotional journey as you follow Drake and his team on their most dangerous mission yet. Like the previous two books in this series, GHOST TARGET is available in ebook format only – no paperback – and is every bit as fantastic as we have come to expect from this brilliant author. It winds up the tension slowly and then, almost at the very end, when you feel as if you are at breaking point, it winds just a tiny bit further and leaves you burnt out and exhausted.

Once highly favoured CIA operatives, Drake and his team are on the run. After exposing Marcus Cain, the boss, as rogue in the last book, they are now wanted themselves and living in fear for their lives. Drake and McKnight have spent six months or so lying low in Marseille and have a very comfortable set up. Unfortunately, their peace doesn’t last and when a hired thug attacks Drake in the street he knows it is time to refocus and regroup. Gathering the team together, he decides the only way to end their current situation is to kill Cain. But how? He is unlikely to ever become an easy target and this may prove to be an impossible mission, even for Drake. Then an opportunity raises its head and the hunt is on. Drake knows this is the only chance he will have to set things right. He also knows that it is highly likely he could end up paying the ultimate price.

Will Jordan is most definitely a name to look out for. His books are always full of action and guaranteed to set you on edge. His characters are brave and honorable and you find yourself willing them on, wanting them to achieve the impossible. They always have done before but the challenges in this latest book seem to be too much, even for Drake and his team. If you like exciting, well-written books that are impossible to second guess then you are going to love this one. If you haven’t read any of Jordan’s earlier books then you really must do so first. This book reads well as a stand-alone but you will enjoy it so much more if you read the earlier ones first. Next please!

Highly Recommended.

Amanda Gillies, September 2016.

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 Releases - September 2016

Here's a snapshot of what I think is published for the first time in September 2016 (and is usually a UK date but occasionally will be a US or Australian date). September and future months (and years) can be found on the Future Releases page. If I've missed anything do please leave a comment.

• Anthology - Trouble is Our Business (ed. Declan Burke)
• Adams, Jane A - The Murder Book #1 Detective Chief Inspector Henry Johnstone, 1928
• Aird, Catherine - Learning Curve #23 DI C D Sloan, Calleshire
• Alzamora, Sebastia - Blood Crime
• Arlidge, M J - Hide and Seek #6 Helen Grace, Southampton Police
• Ashton, David - Mistress of the Just Land #1 Jean Brash
• Beaton, M C - Agatha Raisin: Pushing up Daisies #28 Agatha Raisin, Retired PR person, Cotswolds
• Benmore, James - Dodger of the Revolution #3 Artful Dodger
• Benn, James R - Blue Madonna #11 Billy Boyle, WW2
• Bradley, Alan - Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd #8 Eleven year old Flavia de Luce, 1950s England
• Broadfoot, Neil - All the Devil #3 Doug McGregor, Journalist, Edinburgh
• Buckley, Fiona - The Heretic's Creed #14 Ursula Blanchard, an Elizabethan lady
• Chatterton, Ed - Remission #3 DI Frank Keane, Liverpool
• Clare, Alys - A Rustle of Silk #1 Gabriel Taverner, Former ship's surgeon, C17 Devon
• Crane, Simon - The Secret Broker #1 Luca Voss
• De Angelis, Augusto - The Mystery of the Three Orchids #12 Inspector De Vincenzi
• de Villiers, Gerard - Surface to Air #? Malko Linge
• Francis, Dick - Triple Crown (by Felix Francis) #3 Jefferson Hinkley
• Frank, Matthew - Between the Crosses #2 Ex-soldier police detective Joseph Stark, London
• Gallagher, Stephen - The Authentic William James #3 Sebastian Becker, Victorian era
• Garnier, Pascal - The Eskimo Solution
• Grebe, Camilla - The Ice Beneath Her
• Hannah, Sophie - Closed Casket: The New Hercule Poirot Mystery #2 Hercule Poirot and Inspector Edward Catchpool of Scotland Yard
• Hawkswood, Sarah - Ordeal by Fire #2 Bradecote and Catchpoll, Worcestershire, C12
• Ho-Kei, Chan - The Borrowed
• Howard, Alex - An Incidental Death #4 DI Hanlon
• Inbinder, Gary - The Hanged Man #2 Inspector Lefebvre, Paris, 1889
• James, Ed - The Hope that Kills #1 DI Fenchurch, London
• Judd, Alan - Deep Blue #5 Charles Thoroughgood, ex MI6
• Keane, Jessie - Stay Dead #6 Annie Bailey
• King, Laurie R - Mary Russell's War #1 Mary Russell Short Stories
• Lahlum, Hans Olav - Chameleon People #4 Criminal Investigator Kolbjorn Kristiansen (known as K2) and young assistant Patricia, 1960s, Norway
• Malone, Michael J - A Suitable Lie
• Marrison, James - The Sleepless Ones #2 DCI Guillermo Downes and Sergeant Graves, Cotswolds
• Marshall, Michael - The Echoes of Her Passing
• Masterton, Graham - Living Death #6 Detective Superintendent Katie Maguire, Ireland
• McDermott, Andy - The Midas Legacy #12 Archaeologist Nina Wilde & ex-SAS bodyguard Eddie Chase
• Meier, Leslie - British Manor Murder #23 Lucy Stone
• Moody, Susan - Quick Off the Mark #2 Alex Quick
• Nickson, Chris - Modern Crimes #1 Lottie Armstrong, Leeds, 1920s
• Perry, Anne - Murder on the Serpentine #32 Charlotte and Thomas Pitt
• Price, Steven - By Gaslight
• Ravatn, Agnes - The Bird Tribunal
• Robertson, Craig - Murderabilia #5 DS Rachel Narey, Glasgow
• Russell, Leigh - Girl in Danger #2 Lucy Hall
• Siger, Jeffrey - Santorini Caesars #8 Former Athens police chief Andreas Kaldis & local police chief Tassos Stamatos, Mykonos
• Smith, Alexander McCall - Precious and Grace #17 Mma Ramotswe, PI, Botswana
• Spain, Jo - Beneath the Surface #2 Detective Tom Reynolds, Dublin
• Staincliffe, Cath - The Silence Between Breaths
• Stratmann, Linda - The Royal Ghost #2 Mina Scarletti, Brighton, 1871
• Walters, Alex - Candles and Roses (ebook only) #1 DI Alec McKay, Scottish Black Isle
• Ward, Sarah - A Deadly Thaw #2 DI Sadler, DS Palmer & DCI Childs, Bampton, Derbyshire

Blog Tour: Review of A Deadly Thaw by Sarah Ward

Just under a year ago, I reviewed Sarah Ward's debut, In Bitter Chill, for its blog tour and I was very pleased to be invited back to review book two, A Deadly Thaw.

A Deadly Thaw by Sarah Ward (30 August (ebook)/1 September (Hardback) 2016, Faber & Faber, ISBN: 057132102X)

I work in a public library which is really strapped for cash so I have been making the (too) few copies we have of IN BITTER CHILL, work as hard as I can. I was rewarded with one of my regular customers responding to my enquiry as to did he like it, by him replying...”It was bloody brilliant!”.

I too really liked IN BITTER CHILL and have been eagerly awaiting the sequel, A DEADLY THAW, also set in Derbyshire's Bampton.

The three detectives from IN BITTER CHILL, DI Sadler and his team DS Palmer and DC Childs (Connie) return and are confronted by a conundrum. Local man, Sadler identifies the newly dead body found in a disused and isolated morgue building as a contemporary of his, Andrew Fisher, however, Andrew's wife Lena has recently completed a long prison sentence for the murder of her husband.... So who was the man she killed, where has Andrew been hiding and why has he been killed now?

As Sadler wasn't very involved in the initial investigation in 2004, his team are tasked with finding out the answers to these questions. The obvious thing is to ask Lena about the dead man found in her bed. She is reluctant to answer and things get more difficult when she disappears. Her sister, Kat, believes it's a voluntary absence but is perplexed when Lena apparently sends her clues via a teenage boy. Whilst the police carry out their investigation, Kat, a therapist, gets help from one of her clients, and tries to find Lena herself.

With chapters left on cliff-hangers, alternating points of view and occasional time shifts, you can't help but race through A DEADLY THAW to get to the bottom of all the mysteries. As well as the crime elements there are developments in the relationships between the team members and already these characters are well established and real and you want to know what's happening to them outside of work. A DEADLY THAW is a darker book than the first, has an even more complicated plot, and looks at policing in the past compared to the more empathetic experience we (particularly women) would hope to get today when reporting a crime.

Roll on the next in the series, A PATIENT FURY...

Karen Meek, August 2016
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Yesterday's stop on the blog tour was at Crime Watch and tomorrow's is at Liz Loves Books.

Some 1930 Titles (for Past Offences)

The latest monthly challenge over at Past Offences is to read a book in September, published in 1930. Here are some British/European crime titles to choose from, first published in English in 1930, pulled from my database. This information is correct to the best of my knowledge however please do double check dates before spending any cash!:

Margery Allingham - Mystery Mile
Agatha Christie - The Mysterious Mr Quin
Agatha Christie - The Murder At The Vicarage
Clemence Dane - Printer's Devil (apa Author Unknown) (with Helen Simpson)
C S Forester - Plain Murder
Annie Haynes - The Crystal Beads Murder
Dorothy L Sayers - The Documents in the Case
Dorothy L Sayers - Strong Poison
Patricia Wentworth - Kingdom Lost
Patricia Wentworth - The Coldstone
Patricia Wentworth - Beggar's Choice

There are (many) more suggestions in the comments on the Past Offences page.

The Moomin Colouring Books

I haven't yet succumbed to buying one of the "adult" colouring books now available but I did spot this the other day in W H Smiths and it is a little bit tempting:

This stylish and unique Moomin Colouring Book features original artwork from the coveted archive of Tove Jansson, creator of the Moomins; one of the most cherished children's book series ever written.

Beautifully conceived and designed, this contemporary colouring book features striking patterns and scenes as well as all your favourite Moomin characters and their most memorable quotes. The perfect gift for Moomin fans.

Or, in November, this pocket-sized edition will be out:

In a new, perfectly pocket-sized format, The Pocket Moomin Colouring Book features original artwork from the coveted archive of Tove Jansson, creator of the Moomins; one of the most cherished children's book series ever written.

This smaller edition, perfect for colouring on-the-go, features striking patterns and scenes as well as all your favourite Moomin characters and their most memorable quotes. Including all your favourite scenes from The Moomin Colouring Book.

Birmingham Literature Festival - Euro Pass

The Birmingham Literature Festival is 6-16 October and one of the threads is a selection of events which can be covered by a Euro Pass (£30/£24) (or booked individually):

Walter Presents
Writers from the Ukraine
Cristina Sanchez-Andrade
Diego Marani and Frank Witzel: Europanto, pop, politics and paranoia
Jonas Hassen Khemiri and Elif Shafak
David Lodge and Philippine Hamen
The Bridge to Hinterland: With Hans Rosenfeldt and Ed Thomas
Beyond the Water’s Edge

Here is more information on a couple of the sessions:

Walter Presents
October 7 @ 6:00 pm - 7:15 pm
£10/8, Festival Pass/Euro Pass: FREE WALTER PORTRAIT

Walter Iuzzolino, the man behind Channel 4’s hugely successful Netflix of foreign drama, Walter Presents, watched over 3,500 hours of international television to curate a catalogue of TV and online hits including Deutschland 83, Spin and Blue Eyes.

He believes foreign drama is giving people the greedy fix once provided only by novels: “One episode is just not enough. And that type of fiction, built on cliff-hangers, is Dickens. It’s Balzac…. These TV series are also something that unite people. In the same way as people join book clubs, now they discuss TV series’.

In this very special event, hear from Walter himself about how Walter Presents came to be, and what makes it so compelling for UK audiences.

The Bridge to Hinterland
October 8 @ 7:30 am - 8:45 pm
£10/£8, Festival Pass/Euro Pass: FREE

Bilingual, border-town crime drama, The Bridge, set the bar for Nordic Noir. Season 3 attracted over 2 million viewers in the UK and Swedish detective Saga Noren became something of a national treasure. A fourth series is due to be filmed later this year.

Award-winning Welsh crime drama Hinterland was originally broadcast in English and Welsh, a first for BBC television drama.

The first two series have been screened internationally via Netflix. Filming of a third series began earlier this year.

Tonight, for the first time, we bring together the writer-creators of both series, Hans Rosenfeldt and Ed Thomas, to talk about making compelling bilingual TV drama. This is a unique opportunity to hear from the writers behind some of the most talked-about dramas to hit our TV screens in recent years.

TV News: Ängelby on ITV Encore

Swedish series Ängleby starts next week on ITV Encore. Episode 1 (of twelve) is on 31 August at 10pm.

A brief description from the ITV Press Centre of Episode 1:

Vera Fors, a mother of two, loses her job and her husband at the same time. The only work she can find is in a small community she’s never heard of, yet she gathers her belongings and the kids and drives off to start fresh in Ängelby. Right before she enters the town, she seemingly hits a boy with her car. In complete shock she concludes the boy is dead. But was it really Vera who killed him?

Review: Rough Cut by Anna Smith

Rough Cut by Anna Smith, January 2016, 416 pages, Quercus, ISBN: 184866432X

Reviewed by Amanda Gillies.
(Read more of Amanda's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

The long-awaited sixth book in Anna Smith’s fabulous series featuring feisty journalist Rosie Gilmour is with us, and it is every bit as fabulous as the previous books about her. Smith writes books that consume you. Her protagonist constantly finds herself up to her eyes in all sorts of trouble in her quest for the truth and takes you with her every step of the way. I love Rosie’s drive and ambition. I also love the way these books are written. They hold you captive and keep you guessing but are also a relatively quick read, so possible to whizz through in a couple of days – leaving you an exhausted heap by the time you have finished.

The novel opens with the gruesome scene of a prostitute with a dead punter at her feet. She has accidentally killed him in an erotic game that has gone terribly wrong and is left wondering what to do. She calls her friend, and fellow prostitute, for advice and the two of them are soon making their get-away; taking the punter’s mysterious briefcase with them. The contents of the briefcase turns out to be a pile of fake passports and a large number of rough diamonds. This discovery opens a whole can of worms and before too long there are threats being made on the girls’ lives by less than savoury men who want the case returned as soon as possible. Not knowing what to do, the girls turn to Rosie for help and she sets out to get to the bottom of the trouble.

As usual, Rosie doesn’t make things easy for herself and is looking into the apparent suicide of a young Pakistani bride at the same time as helping the prostitutes. What she finds out takes her to Pakistan, to rescue another young girl who suddenly disappears. What Rosie discovers shocks her to the core and soon she is once again running for her life. With diplomatic aid to help her escape, it seems as if Rosie might be safe this time, but you do start to wonder how long her luck will last.

One of the best things about Rosie is her sense of justice. Being a journalist, her purpose and passion is to seek out the perfect story. However, she also has an overpowering desire for fair-play and honesty. She keeps the police informed as much as she can and does her utmost to help those who ask her to. Only one thing is missing – TJ, her love. She misses him constantly and you, the reader, are also caught up in the loneliness she feels when she thinks about him. You have your fingers crossed that she will be reunited with her love but are not quite sure if she will ever see him again.

If you like a good plot that keeps you guessing and covers a current, controversial topic with sensitivity and tact, then you are going to love this book. It is not necessary to read the previous books in the series to enjoy this one but it makes it much more interesting if you do.

Highly Recommended.

Amanda Gillies, August 2016

Review: Hard Cover by Adrian Magson

Hard Cover by Adrian Magson, March 2016, 256 pages, Severn House Publishers Ltd, ISBN: 072788607X

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

I have read many books by Adrian Magson and there has not been a bad one yet and he has done it yet again with this latest Marc Portman thriller, the third one in this series.

Marc (codename Watchman) is working, as he usually does as a private contractor for the CIA/MI6 and has been sent into Russia to provide hidden, black ops, back-up for a wealthy Russian businessman who has lived in the UK for many years. Leonid Tzorekov was a former KGB officer but is now sympathetic to the West and is thought to be in Russia now with the object of meeting his old friend President Vladamir Putin to persuade him to be more sympathetic and moderate towards the West.

There are many, however, who do not want Leonid Tzorekov to meet with Putin and will do anything possible to stop him. Portman goes into Russia in disguise and under cover of darkness and puts an electronic beeper under the bumper of the Russian's car. He hopes this will aid him in following the target less overtly then without it. However, there are others who are considering the same tactic, but for more aggressive purposes.

This very exciting, tense adventure kept me guessing right up until the final sentence. I have had the privilege of reading the author's two earlier Marc Portman stories CLOSE QUARTERS and WATCHMAN; I have also read his NO KISS FOR THE DEVIL in his Riley Gavin series and two of his Lucas Rocco stories set in provincial France during the 1960s: DEATH ON THE MARAIS and DEATH ON THE RIVE NORD.

Adrian Magson is a very experienced author and when you open one of his titles you know that the book in question will provide a really interesting and tense plot, and thoughtful, well-described characters. He researches his plots in a thorough and painstaking manner in a similar way to fellow authors such as Stephen Leather and Simon Kernick. The reader can always expect a real sense of tense, nail-biting action and dramatic, page-turning suspense.

I look forward to reading any further adventures of Marc Portman and in fact any new books by this very talented and exciting author. Very strongly recommended.

Terry Halligan, August 2016.

Review: Rage by Zygmunt Miloszewski tr. Antonia Lloyd-Jones

Rage by Zygmunt Miloszewski translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, August 2016, 426 pages, Paperback, AmazonCrossing, ISBN: 1503935868

Reviewed by Lynn Harvey.
(Read more of Lynn's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

Olsztyn, Poland, November 2013.
In the morass of Olsztyn’s traffic system, Prosecutor Szacki can feel his belief in the sanctity of life waning – particularly regarding Olsztyn’s traffic designer. It is a cold, damp morning with some kind of persistent frozen sludge falling from the sky and accumulating on his windscreen. He considers running the lights, but being caught by the traffic police would be a dark stain on his service history as a state prosecutor. He ponders the mishmash of architecture in this once German city as he drags his old Citroën through its clogged streets. He has no great love for the Germans, they destroyed so much of his home city of Warsaw, but he considers the only characterful buildings in this city to be those built by its German administration. This morning he is due to make a presentation at a local high school. He is mortified, when he finally arrives, to find he is also expected to make a speech.

In the suburbs, a woman contemplates her endless list of imperfections. She tries to chose something to wear that will please her husband. From another room her small son lets out a wail. She rushes to soothe him, tries to find a DVD to stop his crying. What has she done with the day? She puts the kid in his high chair and gives him microwaved pancakes with cottage cheese. She’d better put on some make-up, get down to the supermarket, buy some real food and cook a proper meal for them. “Don’t want it!” yells the kid. She rushes back to her son. Can’t believe what she sees. The kid has encased the new, designer-smart, universal remote with cottage cheese and is aiming it at the TV whilst shouting for the Teletubbies. She could rip his head off. Really. But instead she snorts with laughter and hugs him, daubing her sweater with cottage cheese.

Szacki thinks his image represents the strength and stability of the Polish State – prematurely white hair, his “Bond” outfit of grey suit, sky-blue shirt, skinny grey tie, cuff links and steel watch. Standing on the assembly hall’s platform he stares out at the students. The speech looms. He wants to be upbeat, start with a joke, but he realises this isn’t his style. After a long, awkward silence, he starts his address: “The statistics are against you...” and coldly lists the horrors which are the crimes they are likely to commit during their lifetimes: theft, violence, murder, harassment, rape. If they want to avoid this outcome, the answer is simply – “Do no wrong.” The head teacher glares at him and herself hands the framed certificate to the winning student. Applause. Slipping away, Szacki answers his boss’s phone call with relief. Roadworks (what else) have exposed an “Old German”, their slang term for a long-dead cadaver. All he needs to do is go over and check it off as such.

The hole in the road has revealed an underground room, some kind of offshoot from the hospital. The body, lying on a rusted bed frame, is indeed no more than bones. A complete set. Szacki signs the remains off and heads home but with a sense of dread. Since August he has shared his home with the “Two Witches”: his girlfriend and his daughter, an unhappy sixteen-year-old recently transplanted from Warsaw when her mother, Szacki’s ex-wife, moved to live abroad with her new husband and his research job in Singapore. Szacki had found it fine living with his girlfriend and fine with his daughter. But the two together was another matter.

At the office next day Szacki listens to junior prosecutor Edmund Falk’s report. Szacki knows that the rest of the legal system have dubbed them “king of the stuffed shirts” and “prince of the starched collars”. Truly, in Falk, Szacki has met his buttoned-up match. He is just about tolerating Falk’s jibes at Szacki’s performance at Falk’s old high school when he is summoned by Professor of Anatomy, Professor Frankenstein no less, to the University Hospital’s anatomy department. The professor has been examining the “Old German’s” bones and has found a remarkable component: a modern prosthetic toe joint. So modern in fact that this particular one was fitted only two weeks ago….

Miloszewski’s third “Prosecutor Szacki” novel – RAGE – begins with a murder. It’s a shocking murder on many levels, springing out from the book’s first pages and vividly painted as a physical struggle between two bodies – one to kill and one to survive. A great hook. Most of the rest of the novel is written in flashback, describing the events of the previous ten days which start with skeletal remains being found in a basement tunnel in the Polish city of Olsztyn. These turn out to be not only very modern but composed of bones from more than one body and Prosecutor Szacki begins to think he has a serial killer on his hands, one who likes to dissolve his victims in lye. But the cases are not so straightforward. Not all the victims are dead. Some have been mutilated and left to live in terror. Szacki must find this madman soon. Even sooner when the threat and fear touches him personally.

Stitching his crime themes throughout the fabric and imagery of each of his novels, the theme which runs through Miloszewski’s RAGE is domestic abuse, more particularly, the abuse of women. He even uses Greek myth to underscore his topic, when the co-owner of a travel agency explains the subject matter of a poster on the agency wall, a reproduction of Iphigenia in Tauris (modern day Crimea). The myth’s story is told in shorthand: a Greek tragedy, a family tale of murderous fathers, mothers and sons. In this novel Szacki is older and psychologically darker as his Sheriff of Cool stance is increasingly disrupted by his own rising sense of rage. But RAGE is a terrific story, convincingly translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones; full of potential suspects for the reader, full of suspense, strong characterisation and a tang of one of Miloszewski’s own crime writing heroes, Henning Mankell. But this is Mankell through Miloszewski's lens of wit and irony laced with affection.

In an author’s note at the end of the book, Miloszewski reveals that RAGE is the final episode in a trilogy featuring State Prosecutor Teodor Szacki. I have read all three – ENTANGLEMENT, A GRAIN OF TRUTH and now RAGE – and have become a devoted fan of Szacki. If this review tempts you, then read them all. You must. Myself, I shall miss Szacki’s elegance, irony, sarcasm and flawed calm. In fact I shall have to miss Miloszewski's crime writing altogether as he has announced (in a blog interview and a guest post on “Crime Fiction Lover” and “Reader Dad” respectively) that he has also given up writing crime fiction.

“It’s always better to stop too soon rather than too late” he says. In Miloszewski’s case – not for this reader.

Lynn Harvey, August 2016

Heads Up: A Deadly Thaw blog tour

I'm currently reading Sarah Ward's second book, A Deadly Thaw, in preparation for the upcoming blog tour. You may remember how much I enjoyed In Bitter Chill and I can report that book two is every bit as full of well-rounded characters and contains an even more puzzling mystery.

Cover Theme: Flight of Stairs

The Anita Shreve title is from a few years ago and is not crime. Corrie Jackson's book will be out in September and Jenny Blackhurst's book came out last year.

Award News: Petrona Award Eligibles 2017

Here is a list* of books (48) that can be submitted for the 2017 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year ie:

• The submission must be in translation and published in English in the UK during the preceding calendar year ie 1 January – 31 December 2016.
• The author of the submission must either be born in Scandinavia** or the submission must be set in Scandinavia*.

(E-books that meet the above criteria may be considered at the judges’ discretion (does not include self-published titles))
**in this instance taken to be Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

More details about the award and the history behind it can be found on the Petrona Award website. The winner of the 2016 Award was Jorn Lier Horst for The Caveman tr. Anne Bruce.

Gender, country and publisher details are also included.

*This list will be updated as and when additional titles are identified.

Published in 2016

January

Stefan Ahnhem - Victim Without a Face tr. Rachel Willson-Broyles (M, Sweden) Head of Zeus
Jogvan Isaksen - Walpurgis Tide tr. John Keithsson (M, Denmark) Norvik Press
Leif GW Persson - The Sword of Justice tr. Neil Smith (M, Sweden) Doubleday

February

Steffen Jacobsen - Retribution tr. Charlotte Barslund (M, Denmark) Quercus

March

Friis & Kaaberbol - The Considerate Killer tr. Elisabeth Dyssegaard (F, Denmark) Soho Press
Lotte and Soren Hammer - The Vanished tr. Martin Aitken (B, Denmark) Bloomsbury
Jorn Lier Horst - Ordeal tr. Anne Bruce (M, Norway) Sandstone Press
Camilla Lackberg - The Ice Child tr. Tiina Nunnally (F, Sweden) HarperCollins
Viveca Sten - Closed Circles tr. Laura A Wideburg (F, Sweden) Lake Union Publishing (Amazon)

April

Simon Pasternak - Death Zones tr. Martin Aitken (M, Denmark) Harvill Secker
Erik Axl Sund - The Crow Girl tr. Neil Smith (M, Sweden) Harvill Secker

May

Torkil Damhaug - Death By Water tr. Robert Ferguson (M, Norway) Headline
Anne Holt - No Echo tr. Anne Bruce (F, Norway) Atlantic
Jari Jarvela - The Girl and the Rat tr. Kristian London (M, Finland) AmazonCrossing
Lars Kepler - Stalker tr. Neil Smith (B, Sweden) HarperCollins
Leena Lehtolainen - The Devil's Cubs tr. Jenni Salmi (F, Finland) AmazonCrossing
Kjell Westo - The Wednesday Club tr. Neil Smith (M, Finland) MacLehose Press

June

Karin Fossum - Hellfire tr. Kari Dickson (F, Norway) Harvill Secker
Hjorth-Rosenfeldt - The Man Who Wasn't There tr. Marlaine Delargy (M, Sweden) Century
Martin Holmen - Clinch tr. Henning Koch (M, Sweden) Pushkin Press
Mari Jungstedt and Ruben Eliassen - A Darker Sky tr. Paul Norlen (B, Sweden) AmazonCrossing
Jonas Hassen Khemiri - Everything I Don't Remember tr. Rachel Willson-Broyles (M, Sweden) Scribner
Minna Lindgren - The Lavender Ladies Detective Agency: Death in Sunset Grove tr. Lola Rogers (F, Finland) Pan
Liza Marklund - The Final Word tr. Neil Smith (F, Sweden) Corgi
Leif GW Persson - The Dying Detective tr. Neil Smith (M, Sweden) Doubleday
Gunnar Staalesen - Where Roses Never Die tr. Don Bartlett (M, Norway) Orenda

July

Emelie Schepp - Marked for Life tr. Rod Bradbury (F, Sweden) MIRA
Ragnar Jonasson - Blackout tr. Quentin Bates (M, Iceland) Orenda
Leena Lehtolainen - Fatal Headwind tr. Owen Witesman (F, Finland) AmazonCrossing

August

Yrsa Sigurdardottir - Why Did You Lie? tr. Victoria Cribb (F, Iceland) Hodder & Stoughton
Gard Sveen - The Last Pilgrim tr. Steven T Murray (M, Norway) AmazonCrossing

September

Camilla Grebe - The Ice Beneath Her tr. Elizabeth Clark Wessel (F, Sweden) Zaffre Publishing
Hans Olav Lahlum - Chameleon People tr. Kari Dickson (M, Norway) Mantle
Jo Nesbo - The Kidnapping tr. tbc (M, Norway) Harvill Secker (Not on Good Reads)
Kristina Ohlsson - Buried Lies tr. Neil Smith (F, Sweden) Simon & Schuster moved to June 2017
Agnes Ravatn - The Bird Tribunal tr. Rosie Hedger (F, Norway) Orenda

October

Steinar Bragi - The Ice Lands tr. Lorenza Garcia (M, Iceland) Macmillan
Torkil Damhaug - Fireraiser tr. Robert Ferguson (M, Norway) Headline
Kati Hiekkapelto - The Exiled tr. David Hackston (F, Finland) Orenda Books
Anne Holt - Beyond the Truth tr. Anne Bruce (F, Norway) Corvus
Mari Jungstedt - The Fourth Victim tr. Tiina Nunnally (F, Sweden) Doubleday
Mons Kallentoft - Souls of Air tr. Neil Smith (M, Sweden) Hodder
Thomas Rydahl - The Hermit tr. K E Semmel (M, Denmark) Oneworld Publications
Antti Tuomainen - The Mine tr. David Hackston (M, Finland) Orenda
Carl-Johan Vallgren - The Tunnel tr. Rachel Willson-Broyles (M, Sweden) Quercus
Joakim Zander - The Brother (apa The Believer) tr. Elizabeth Clark Wessel (M, Sweden) Head of Zeus

November

Christoffer Carlsson - The Falling Detective tr. Michael Gallagher (M, Sweden) Scribe
Kjell Eriksson - Stone Coffin tr. Ebba Segerberg (M, Sweden) Allison & Busby
Liselotte Roll - Good Girls Don't Tell tr. Ian Giles (F, Sweden) World Editions
Sara Stridsberg - The Gravity of Love tr. Deborah Bragan-Turner (F, Sweden) MacLehose Press - not crime

December

Anders de la Motte - Ultimatum (apa The Silenced) tr. Neil Smith (M, Sweden) Harper moved to May 2017
Helene Tursten - Who Watcheth tr. Marlaine Delargy (F, Norway) Soho Press

UK Kindle & Kobo Bargains

A few more bargains to snap up but don't delay!

Free

1. The Devil in the Marshalsea by Antonia Hodgson is currently free on UK Kindle and UK Kobo.

2. Rules of Murder by Julianna Deering is currently free on UK Kindle (but not UK Kobo).

3. Who Pays the Piper? by Patricia Wentworth is free on UK Kindle (I couldn't find it on UK Kobo).

4. The Dark Garden by E R Punshon is free on UK Kindle (I couldn't find this title on UK Kobo though other titles are available).

Reduced

1. Dark Angel by Mari Jungstedt tr. Tiina Nunnally is currently £1.99 on UK Kindle and UK Kobo.

2. Viveca Sten's first two books in the Sandhamn Murders series are currently reduced to £1 each on UK Kindle (I couldn't find them on UK Kobo) - Still Waters tr. Marlaine Delargy and Closed Circles tr. Laura A Wideburg.

3. Today only (5/8/16) in Amazon's Big Deal, Karin Alvtegen's Missing tr. Anna Patterson, Betrayal tr. Steven T Murray and Shadow tr. Steven T Murray are 99p each on Amazon Kindle. (At the time of writing, not price-matched by UK Kobo).