The continuation of Inspector Frost

The late R D Wingfield's Inspector Frost series, which spawned the much beloved and long-running tv series A Touch of Frost, ran to only six books:

• Frost at Christmas	1989	1
• A Touch of Frost	1990	2
• Night Frost	1992	3
• Hard Frost	1995	4
• Winter Frost	1999	5
• A Killing Frost	2008	6

In recent years. a prequel series has been produced by two authors then one author under the name "James Henry":

DS Jack Frost, 1980s

• First Frost	2011	1
• Fatal Frost	2012	2
• Morning Frost	2013	3
• Frost at Midnight	2017	4

And now, the prequel series is being continued by Danny Miller, in Lethal Frost published 9 August:

Denton, 1984. After a morning’s betting at the races, bookmaker George Price is found in his car, barely alive with a bullet in his head. As he’s rushed to hospital, Detective Inspector Jack Frost and the Denton police force start their hunt for the would-be murderer.

But with a long list of enemies who might want the bookie dead, the team have got their work cut out for them. And with a slew of other crimes hitting the area, from counterfeit goods to a violent drugs gangs swamping Denton with cheap heroin, the stakes have never been higher.

Will Frost find the answers he’s looking for before things go from bad to worse?

Review: The Prime of Ms Dolly Greene by E V Harte

I'm focussing my reading/reviewing this summer on debuts - including first crime novels from authors known for a different genre. Mostly British but I hope to throw in the occasional US or NZ author. My second entry in this feature, is E V Harte's The Prime of Ms Dolly Greene.

The Prime of Ms Dolly Greene by E V Harte, September 2017, 277 pages, Constable, ISBN: 1472124243

THE PRIME OF MS DOLLY GREENE is the first book in the Tarot Detective series and introduces the eponymous Dolly Greene. Dolly is scraping by after her divorce. She lives in a tiny one-bed terraced house along with her college-attending daughter, Pippa, and makes her living giving tarot card readings.

When she reads the cards for a young woman, Nikki, she foresees bad things for Nikki and even gets a vision of a bruised face. Nikki says she was recommended to Dolly by Dolly's older neighbour, Maurice but Maurice later denies this.

When the body of a woman is found in the nearby Thames, Dolly wonders if it is Nikki. Especially when she cannot get in touch with her.

It's only when there is a death on the street that Dolly starts to detect, with the assistance of a local and handsome police sergeant who is quite willing to keep Dolly up to date with the investigation(s).

The isolated nature of the street that Dolly lives in – with the properties fronting a cycle path – lends the story a village feel with all the residents knowing each other's business and their stories being quite entwined. The Tarot back ground is unusual and interesting and Dolly is a likeable character. The crime story, however, does take a while to get going and Dolly does little to find out if the dead body is Nikki until she is more directly affected. This has a traditional mystery feel to it, as indicated by the gorgeous cover, but it also contains some very modern language and sexual references/activities. The second book in the series, THE CASE OF THE FOOL, is out now.

E V Harte is the nom-de-plume of novelist Daisy Waugh.

Awards News: CWA Dagger Shortlists (2018)

The Longlists for the CWA's Daggers: Gold, Ian Fleming, John Creasey, International, Historical, Short Story and the Dagger in the Library were announced back in May and last night the Shortlists were announced. From the press release:

CWA Announce Shortlists for Prestigious Crime Writing Daggers

The Crime Writers’ Association announced the shortlists for the prestigious annual Dagger awards for crime writing at an evening reception at Daunt Books, Cheapside, London, on Wednesday 25 July.

The shortlists provide some interesting duplications. Resurrection Bay by Emma Viskic appears on the shortlist for the CWA Gold Dagger and the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger, while A Necessary Evil by Abir Mukherjee is on the Gold and the CWA Historical shortlists. Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke is on both the Gold and the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger shortlists. London Rules by Mick Herron also appears on the Gold and the Ian Fleming Steel longlists – he won the Ian Fleming last year with Spook Street, just as Mukherjee won the Historical with A Rising Man. Also listed for the Historical Dagger is LC Tyler’s Fire and Stella Duffy’s completion of Ngaio Marsh’s Money in the Morgue.

For the CWA International Dagger, familiar names of Fred Vargas, Pierre Lemaître and Dolores Redondo appear alongside Henning Mankell.

Lee Child makes an appearance on the CWA Short Story Dagger shortlist, as does Christine Poulson with her story ‘Accounting for Murder’ from the CWA’s own anthology, Mystery Tour. Martin Edwards, Chair of the CWA and president of the Detection Club, features on the Dagger in the Library shortlist. The CWA Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction represents as an eclectic shortlist as ever, with Piu Marie Eatwell’s Black Dahlia Red Rose a notable title with its new take on an infamous murder case.

The CWA Daggers, which are the probably the awards crime authors and publishers alike most wish to win, are awarded every year in 10 categories. The Diamond Dagger, for a career’s outstanding contribution to crime fiction as nominated by CWA members, was announced earlier in the year and will be awarded to best-selling author Michael Connelly at the Dagger Awards event on October.

Here are the CWA Dagger shortlists for 2018.

The CWA Gold Dagger

Steve Cavanagh The Liar (Orion)

Mick Herron London Rules (John Murray)

Dennis Lehane Since We Fell (Little, Brown)

Attica Locke Bluebird, Bluebird (Serpent's Tail)

Abir Mukherjee A Necessary Evil (Harvill Secker)

Emma Viskic Resurrection Bay (Pushkin Vertigo)

T he CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger

Mick Herron London Rules (John Murray Publishers)

Emily Koch If I Die Before I Wake (Harvill Secker)

Attica Locke Bluebird, Bluebird (Serpent's Tail)

Colette McBeth An Act of Silence (Wildfire)

C J Tudor The Chalk Man (Michael Joseph)

Don Winslow The Force (HarperFiction)

The CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger

William Boyle Gravesend (No Exit Press)

Joe Ide I.Q. (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

Danya Kukafka Girl in Snow (Picador)

.

Melissa Scrivner Love Lola (Point Blank)

Khurrum Rahman East of Hounslow (HQ)

Emma Viskic Resurrection Bay (Pushkin Vertigo)

T he CWA ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction

Piu Eatwell Black Dahlia Red Rose (Coronet)

David Grann Killers of the Flower Moon (Simon & Schuster)

Thomas Harding Blood on the Page (Heinemann)

Alexandria Mariano-Lesnevich The Fact of a Body (Macmillan)

T. Christian Miller & Ken Armstrong A False Report (Hutchinson)

Laura Thompson  Rex V Edith Thompson (Head of Zeus)

The CWA Historical Dagger

Abir Mukherjee A Necessary Evil (Harvill Secker)

L. C. Tyler  Fire (Constable)

Thomas Mullen Lightning Men (Little, Brown)

Ngaio Marsh & Stella Duffy Money in the Morgue (HarperCollins)

Nicola Upson Nine Lessons (Faber & Faber)

Rory Clements Nucleus (Zaffre Publishing)

The CWA International Dagger

Oliver Bottini, tr Jamie Bulloch Zen and the Art of Murder (MacLehose)

Pierre Lemaître tr Frank Wynne Three Days and a Life (MacLehose)

Henning Mankell, tr Marlaine Delargy After the Fire (Harvill Secker)

Jon Michelet, tr Don Bartlett The Frozen Woman (No Exit Press)

Dolores Redondo, tr Nick Caistor & Lorenza Garzía

Offering to the Storm (HarperCollins)

Fred Vargas, tr Sian Reynolds The Accordionist (Harvill Secker)

The CWA Short Story Dagger

‘The Last Siege of Bothwell Castle’ by Chris Brookmyre

Bloody Scotland (Historic Environment Scotland)

‘Second Son’ by Lee Child

No Middle Name: The Complete Collected Jack Reacher Stories (Bantam Press)

‘Smoking Kills’ by Erin Kelly

“The Body” Killer Women Crime Club Anthology 2, Edited by Susan Opie (Killer Women Ltd)

‘Nemo Me Impune Lacessit’ by Denise Mina

Bloody Scotland (Historic Environment Scotland)

‘Accounting for Murder’ by Christine Poulson

Mystery Tour: CWA Anthology of Short Stories, Edited by Martin Edwards

(Orenda Books)

The CWA Dagger in the Library

Nominated by libraries.

Martin Edwards

Nicci French

Edward Marston

Peter May

Rebecca Tope

Simon Kernick

The winners of the CWA Daggers will be announced at the Dagger Awards dinner in London on 25 October, for which tickets are now available. Visit www.thecwa.co.uk for more information or email admin@thecwa.co.uk .

Review: Tall Order by Stephen Leather

Tall Order by Stephen Leather, July 2018, 400 pages, Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN: 1473604176

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

Amazon blurb:
He is one of the world's most ruthless terrorists, codenamed Saladin. He plans and executes devastating attacks and then, ghost-like, he disappears.

Ten years ago he blew a plane out of the sky above New York - and now he's killed dozens in a London strike.

But one of the latest victims is related to the acting head of MI5, who knows exactly who she wants on the case: Spider Shepherd.

Dean Martin, a psychologically damaged former Navy SEAL, is the only person in the world who can identify Saladin. But Martin was killed ten years ago - wasn't he?

Shepherd must find Martin and take him back to the killing fields on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Revenge on the world's most wanted terrorist is long overdue, and Shepherd is determined to be the one to deliver it . . .

The story is very violent and bloody and there are scenes of torture that may upset readers of a more sensitive nature but they had to be included because they were very necessary to the very detailed story. The tension between the different personalities and the excellent characterisation make this a highly enjoyable thriller.

This is the fifteenth book in the series about Dan ‘Spider’ Shepherd and thirty-sixth overall of his titles but it could easily be the first as the author is so adept at his craft that there is a freshness to his writing which makes it truly exceptional. As a former journalist for ten years on newspapers such as The Times in London and The South China Morning Post in Hong Kong before becoming a novelist, the author is highly skilled in researching in depth before writing his stories and the authenticity of that highly detailed research is clearly shown in the meticulous descriptions and prose of his stories.

It is not a handicap to the new reader that this is Leather’s fifteenth book in the “Spider” Shepherd series as full explanations are given about all the characters and aspects of the plot.

Stephen Leather is one of the UK’s most successful thriller writers, an e-book and Sunday Times bestseller and author of the critically acclaimed Dan ‘Spider’ Shepherd series and the Jack Nightingale supernatural detective novels. Born in Manchester, he has been writing full time since 1992. His bestsellers have been translated into fifteen languages and several of his novels have been turned into films. In 2011 alone he sold more than half a million e-books and was voted by 'The Bookseller' magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the UK publishing world.

This seasoned writer is at the top of his game and immersing yourself in his world is deeply rewarding as it is a spellbinding and quite brilliant read. TALL ORDER is an extremely enjoyable book and a rattling good read. It was well written and therefore easy to read, even though it is quite lengthy at 400 pages but it is very cleverly plotted and I was completely gripped until the final exciting paragraph. I believe that this was the author's best book so far.

Extremely well recommended.

Terry Halligan, July 2018.

New books from Sara Blaedel (2)

I posted a few months ago about the new books coming soon from Sara Blaedel. I'm pleased to report that the first book in the Louise Rick series, The Midnight Witness, will be out in the US in October.

In August the US paperback edition of The Undertaker's Daughter, the first in the Ilka Nichols Jensen series, will be titled just The Daughter and will include a copy of The Night Women (apa Farewell to Freedom). The second book in the series, Her Father's Secret, will be out in March (US).

[I'm not sure who the translator is for these new books.]

In summary, the reading order is as follows:

Louise Rick

#1 The Midnight Witness
#2 Call Me Princess (apa Blue Blood (UK)) (apa The Silent Women (US, 2018))
#3 Only One Life (apa The Drowned Girl (US, 2018)
#4 Farewell to Freedom (apa The Night Women)
#5 The Running Girl
#6 The Stolen Angel
#7 The Forgotten Girls
#8 The Killing Forest
#9 The Lost Woman

Ilka Nichols Jensen

#1 The Undertaker's Daughter (apa The Daughter)
#2 Her Father's Secret

News x2: Jo Nesbo; Theakston Crime Novel of the Year 2018 Winner

Two very notable announcements yesterday. First up was the news of the new Harry Hole book from Jo Nesbo in 2019. I'm assuming the translator is Neil Smith who worked on The Thirst:

After the dramatic conclusion of #1 bestseller THE THIRST, KNIFE sees Harry waking up with a ferocious hangover, his hands and clothes covered in blood.

Not only is Harry about to come face to face with an old, deadly foe, but with his darkest personal challenge yet.

KNIFE, the twelfth instalment in Jo’s bestselling series featuring troubled Oslo detective Harry Hole, will be published in the UK on 11th July 2019.

Jo Nesbo will be launching his new Harry Hole thriller with a special guest event at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival 2019.

And sticking with Theakston, the winner of the 2018 Crime Novel of the Year was revealed to be...Stav Sherez for The Intrusions (Faber).

Also shortlisted were:

Spook Street by Mick Herron (John Murray)

Insidious Intent by Val McDermid (Little, Brown)

The Long Drop by Denise Mina (Vintage)

A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)

Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner (The Borough Press)

Blog Tour: Extract from Betty Church and the Suffolk Vampire by M R C Kasasian

I'm delighted to be a stop on the blog tour for Betty Church and the Suffolk Vampire. I've been a huge fan of M R C Kasasian's books beginning with The Mangle Street Murders which introduced Sidney Grice and March Middleton in the first in the Gower Street Detective series. This new series begins in 1939, some forty years or so after the Gower Street series, but there is a link as you'll see from the extract below....

All my life I wanted to be a policeman. It wasn’t a family tradition. My father was a dentist, as his father was too; my maternal grandfather a publisher of what was then modern poetry; and the women of the family were just that – the women.

It wasn’t the uniform either. The Horse Guards looked far more dashing, I thought, and like every quite nice girl, I loved a sailor. But a young policeman gave me a piggyback over a flooded street when I was tiny. He got soaked up to his knees and didn’t seem to mind. At that moment I knew that I wanted to be like him, helping people. 

It did not occur to me until a teacher ridiculed these hopes that nature had thwarted my ambition. Neither of the Suffolk forces would even consider applications from my sex – the very idea was absurd – but I was not so easily discouraged. I moved to London and became what was, even there, still an oddity – some said an abomination – a policewoman.

I started well enough in the Metropolitan Constabulary, considering I was a curvaceous peg in a square hole. Police officers were supposed to be tall, and I was, but they were not supposed to have long blonde hair, and I did. I passed the training course with distinction and was stationed in Marylebone. This was the posting I had dreamed of, having spent many a childhood hour on my godmother March Middleton’s knee in 125 Gower Street thrilled by tales of Aunty M’s adventures with her guardian, the irascible personal detective Sidney Grice. It was nearly sixty years since she had gone to live with him and almost as many since she had started publishing her accounts of their investigations. 

It was after I caught Hay, the Alkaline Shower Murderer, that my name was put forward for a vacancy and, to my surprise and my colleagues’ outrage, at the age of twenty-eight I was made a sergeant – only the ninth woman in the country to reach that rank. And that should have been that but then I foolishly arrested the ringleaders of the Paper Chain Gang – a big mistake because it was hailed in the press as a triumph after it had been Chief Inspector Heartsease’s case for the previous five years.

I never wanted to make enemies – I only wanted to be a good copper – but being a successful woman is the best way to make enemies that I know of.

I was thirty-eight when I had my mishap, which meant, of course, that I would have to be invalided out. It was only after leaving hospital that I realised I had a choice: I could feel sorry for myself and do nothing, or feel sorry for myself and go to the one person in the world who might be able to help.

Many thanks to Head of Zeus for this extract.

Betty Church and the Suffolk Vampire on Amazon.co.uk
Betty Church and the Suffolk Vampire on HoZ website
Betty Church and the Suffolk Vampire on GoodReads

HoZ on Twitter: @HoZ_Books
HoZ on Instagram: @headofzeus
HoZ on Facebook: Head of Zeus

M. R. C. Kasasian on Twitter: @MRCKASASIAN

Little People, Big Dreams - Agatha Christie

This series of Little People, Big Dreams books is aimed at the younger reader (suggested age range 4 to 7) and included among the artists, writers, inventors, scientists and other trailblazers is one Agatha Christie.

Amazon blurb:

In the Little People, Big Dreams series, discover the lives of outstanding people from designers and artists to scientists. All of them went on to achieve incredible things, yet all of them began life as a little child with a dream. The book follows Agatha Christie, who taught herself to read at the age of five, on her journey to becoming the most famous crime writer of all time. This inspiring and informative little biography comes with extra facts about Agatha's life at the back.

This entry in the series is written by Isabel Sanchez Vegara, illustrated by Elisa Munso and translated by Raquel Plitt and published by Frances Lincoln Children's Books.

I haven't come across this series before so I've pointed it out to my library manager.

Review: The Devil's Dice by Roz Watkins

I'm focussing my reading/reviewing this summer on debuts - including first crime novels from authors known for a different genre. Mostly British but I hope to throw in the occasional US or NZ author. I'm starting with Roz Watkins' very accomplished debut, The Devil's Dice:

The Devil's Dice by Roz Watkins, March 2018, 368 pages, HQ, ISBN: 0008214611

THE DEVIL'S DICE introduces DI Meg Dalton who has moved back to Derbyshire from Manchester after some personal issues.

Meg is called out to the discovery of a body in a small, reputedly haunted cave. The body is that of a local, male, patent lawyer and it looks like poison is the killer. Investigations into the deceased reveal that his personality had changed over the last few months and so suicide can't be ruled out.

Meg and her sergeant, Jai, proceed to investigate further, interviewing relatives and work colleagues. Meg has trauma in her past and the nature of this is slowly revealed over the book. Her mum is a carer for Meg's bed-ridden gran and this is an added pressure when Meg is busy on a murder case.

THE DEVIL'S DICE, a debut, is an absorbing book full of many layers - both the mystery side of it, bringing in local legends and the landscape, and Meg's personal life both as a child and current. It builds to not one but two dramatic set pieces

I very much enjoyed this book. I really liked Meg, she is humorous and likeable, with a diet of choccy biscuits and a cat called Hamlet. Her sidekick seems quite fond of her too... The plot is unusual and not one that could be easily guessed. It's a real page-turner with Meg getting into regular, serious scrapes though she is not one of those energiser bunny types and it takes its toll. And of course there is a well evoked Derbyshire setting which includes real places such as Matlock, alongside a fictional town.

The sequel, DEAD MAN'S DAUGHTER, is out next April and I'm really looking forward to it.

It's not overt but I checked with the author and I have been able to add Meg to my short list of vegetarian sleuths.

Review: Heavenfield by L J Ross

Heavenfield by L J Ross, August 2016, 264 pages, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, ISBN: 1530652685

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

An isolated church in Northumberland and a man faces up to his death with a gun in his face. Later a group of pilgrims to the church, Heavenfield, are shocked to find a man kneeling over a body. The man is DCI Ryan, currently suspended from duty while investigations are undertaken into an operation that his superior, Detective Superintendent Gregson, thinks put other officers' lives in danger.

Ryan is acquainted with the dead man - Dr Mark Burrows - who was also a surrogate father to Ryan’s girlfriend, Anna. Gregson would be delighted if Ryan were found to be guilty of the murder and tasks Ryan’s friends and colleagues with the task of interviewing him as a suspect. McKenzie and Phillips are uncomfortable with the situation they have been forced into and soon find no cause to suspect Ryan. They increasingly suspect the mysterious group of influential people – The Circle – to be involved. The group has previously been implicated with dubious ritual practices but is very secretive and its membership are not known to those outside the group.

Gregson increasingly comes under suspicion for some of his dubious command decisions and then his wife goes missing.

The wide, beautiful countryside of Northumberland is really well portrayed. The writing capturing the lonely distances between towns and villages and the isolation that can develop in such a situation

This is the third book in the series featuring DCI Ryan and although the story in this book is a continuation of the previous two novels to a degree, it does work as a stand-alone. It requires a very competent writer to balance the narrative needs of a new reader to their work with that of those who have read the previous books and I feel that L J Ross carries it off. A good example of self publishing and it has encouraged me to look out for more of the author's work.

Susan White, July 2018

Review: Baby Blue by Pol Koutsakis tr. Anne-Marie Stanton-Ife

Baby Blue by Pol Koutsakis translated by Anne-Marie Stanton-Ife, June 2018, 292 pages, Bitter Lemon Press, ISBN: 190852491X

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

We always let down those we love most. And we always take the gamble that they’ll understand.

A spring night in Athens:
When a friend rings Stratos Gazis asking for his help, Stratos is surprised. After all it’s Stratos who usually calls him, not the other way round. Stratos immediately sets out into the Athenian traffic despite longing to see his current and childhood love Maria as they had arranged. At six foot three and 220 pounds Gazis draws attention and as he dislikes drawing anyone’s attention his route is carefully planned. Stratos is a “caretaker”; he takes care of people with a gun. But he doesn’t think of himself as a hit man. He does his research and if he considers the target doesn’t deserve to die then he won’t take the job. That’s his deal. He’s the best and he can afford rules.

Angelino is the old friend from the streets, an information dealer, who has asked for Stratos’ help and tonight Stratos finds himself a world away from the decrepit square Angelino used to live on with his ancient dog Hector. Stratos is buzzed into a graffiti-less neoclassical building past security guards and into a spacious sitting room filled with twenty guests at least. Angelino is hosting an investors evening. All of the guests are entranced by a young girl performing incredible feats of conjuring and magic. This is Emma; prodigiously talented, beautiful – and blind. Emma is the investment in question. To be precise, her bid to take part in the Magic Olympics. Winner takes Vegas and New York. And it is also Emma who is asking for help. She tells Stratos that when she was little she was rescued from an orphanage by a journalist. He brought her up and she regarded him as her father. They ended up living on the streets after he left his job. Three years ago he was murdered – tortured and shot. It was Emma who found his body. Now she wants Stratos to find her father’s murderer. She wants revenge.

It’s after midnight when Stratos hurries back to Maria. He spots a familiar car parked on his street. It belongs to another old friend, his closest, Kostas Dragas known as Drag, a famous homicide cop with the Athens police. Not the usual companion for a “caretaker” but again … it goes back to tough childhoods. Drag wants to discuss his latest case with Stratos: a series of killings. All of the victims had been spotlighted by a local TV station; named, shamed and identified as paedophiles. All were tortured and shot in the same distinctive manner and it looks professional. Drag agrees that it’s not Stratos. Still, he wants his view on the killings. In return Drag requests the coroner’s report on Emma’s father. But when the report comes back Stratos is struck by its details. The body of Emma’s so-called father bore all the same hallmarks as those of the dead paedophiles...

Pol Koutsakis is a Greek writer and playwrite and BABY BLUE is his second crime novel narrated by the character Stratos Gazis. (The first is ATHENIAN BLUES.) In this story Stratos takes on a convoluted, action-filled hunt for both the killer of Emma’s protector and the Avenger, a serial killer of paedophiles. He also juggles with his feelings for Maria; his knowledge of the danger that his chosen role brings her. The novel slices through modern day Athens from bottom to top; from the decay and corruption of modern Athenian poverty to the luxury and power of those who still “have”. According to writer Pol Koutsakis this is what fuelled him to create the ambiguous character of Stratos, a hard-bitten hero who straddles a grey area of morality. I do wonder if ambiguity of character is allowed to stretch to the women in Stratos’ world; they do seem to be either saints or sinners in his eyes. But I'm being rather tough. This is the world of Noir films that Stratos loves and frequently quotes. And in his noir world Stratos is much more Robert Mitchum than Bogart; tall, strong, menacing, he is effective, he does the job. I just miss a touch of Chandler wit to soften the bullet, if you pardon my phrase.

Modern Athens noir. Tough and unforgiving.

Lynn Harvey, July 2018

Review: The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz

The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz, April 2018, 400 pages, Arrow, ISBN: 1784757233

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

I read this book for review purposes but now that I've finished it it is very difficult to describe it as it is unlike anything that I've read ever before. The author, Anthony Horowitz, is famous for writing the 'Alex Rider' books and also for the marvellous scripts and executive production of the highly recommended Foyle's War TV series, but writing a one-off murder mystery, that masquerades as a non-fiction, true story is a very different kettle of fish.

The plot is extremely unusual: an extremely wealthy woman arranges her own funeral and then some hours later, she is murdered! Did she know she was destined to die? Who killed her and why? An unemployed former detective decides to investigate her death and as he is short of money he decides to write a book about the investigation and asks the author Anthony Horowitz to do the actual writing as he has successfully written books before. The former detective, who is named Hawthorne, and Horowitz frequently argue over the investigation, but when they aren't talking about the enquiry into the woman's death and the possible perpetrators, Horowitz talks about his own writing career and his success with the Foyle's War and 'Alex Rider' books. As this book is told in the first person from the point of view of Anthony Horowitz I found this extensive discussion of the writing experience very interesting.

The actual details of the murder mystery were a bit light but what we got instead was the Anthony Horowitz writing experience which I found very entertaining but this may not be what other readers may want and I appreciate this. Perhaps a more usual plot structure with more details of the crime and investigation and then a satisfactory conclusion would be preferred, rather than these perhaps irrelevant descriptions of the author's previous books.

On the whole I was very impressed with the book because it was so unusual with this mixture of the fiction of the plot and Anthony Horowitz's real writing career. I enjoy writers talking about themselves and the problems they have, as well as reading good crime fiction and I therefore recommend this book.

Terry Halligan, July 2018.

Review: A Long Way Down by Ken McCoy

A Long Way Down by Ken McCoy, July 2017, 240 pages, Severn House Publishers Ltd, ISBN: 0727887300

Reviewed by Geoff Jones.

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

Leeds, West Yorkshire, March 2014. Charlie Santiago, a successful businessman, plunges to his death from his high, office window. There has been signs of a struggle but the police investigating can find nothing, so the case is consigned to the Cold Case Unit.

The following March, journalist James Boswell is meeting a woman in a run-down hotel. Besides the woman there is a man who surprises James and kills him. His widow, angry that the police investigation suggests he was murdered by a prostitute, contacts Detective Inspector Septimus Black having been advised by Sep's girlfriend Winnie O'Toole that he is the best man to approach.

Sep is working for the Cold Case Unit and persuades his boss Detective Superintendent Jane Hawkins that he should investigate. Sep finds that Boswell was investigating Charlie Santiago's death. Sep visits the hotel where Boswell was murdered and interviews the receptionist, but then she too is murdered. Then there are several attempts on Sep's life, the last one nearly killing him and leaving him in a wheelchair. He believes that the attacks have been carried out on the orders of Carl Redman who was an associate of Santiago.

Sep and Winnie plan to disappear out of harm's way. Sep's colleague DS Fiona Burnside is a great help, but Sep is aware his old enemy DCI Robin Wood is up to something. Can Sep keep safe? Can he find out who killed Santiago and Boswell? Will he ever marry Winnie?

This is the second book in this series. The author also has four books in the Sam Carew series. I've read several and you can always rely on plenty of action and an enjoyable read. Recommended.

Geoff Jones, July 2018

New Releases - July 2018

Here's a snapshot of what I think is published for the first time in July 2018 (and is usually a UK date but occasionally will be a US or Australian date). July and future months (and years) can be found on the Future Releases page. If I've missed anything or got the date wrong, do please leave a comment.

• Anthology - Bodies from the Library
• Amphlett, Rachel - Gone to Ground #6 Detective Kay Hunter
• Ani, Friedrich - The Nameless Day #1 Jakob Franck
• Ashley, Jennifer - Scandal Above Stairs #2 Kat Holloway, Victorian Era
• Atherton, Nancy - Aunt Dimity and the King's Ransom #23 Aunt Dimity
• Begbie, Hannah - Mother
• Brabazon, James - The Break Line #1 Max McLean
• Carpenter, Elisabeth - 11 Missed Calls
• Carter, Ali - A Brush with Death
• Chirovici, E O - Bad Blood
• Dahl, Alex - The Boy at the Door
• Daly, Paula - Open Your Eyes
• Delaney, J P - Believe Me
• Dunn, Carola - The Corpse at the Crystal Palace #23 Daisy Dalrymple, Journalist, 1920s
• Elliot, Laura - Guilty
• Elsberg, Marc - Zero
• French, Nicci - Day of the Dead #8 Frieda Klein, Psychotherapist
• Gibney, Patricia - The Missing Ones #1 Detective Lottie Parker
• Granger, Ann - An Unfinished Murder #6 Inspector Jess Campbell & Superintendent Ian Carter, Cotswolds
• Hall, Lisa - The Party
• Harper, Elodie - The Death Knock
• Hay, L V - Do No Harm
• Henaff, Sophie - Stick Together #2 Anne Capestan
• Henry, James - Yellowhammer #2 DI Nick Lowry, Essex, 1983
• Hill, Suzette A - The Cambridge Plot #4 Rosy Gilchrist
• Huang, Christopher - A Gentleman's Murder
• Hunter, Cara - In The Dark #2 DI Adam Fawley, Oxford
• Jakeman, Jo - Sticks and Stones (apa The Exes' Revenge)
• Janes, Diane - The Poisoned Chalice Murder #2 Frances Black and Tom Dod, 1929
• Jenkins, Michael - The Failsafe Query
• Jewell, Lisa - Watching You
• Karjel, Robert - After the Monsoon #2 Ernst Grip
• Kasasian, M R C - Betty Church and the Suffolk Vampire #1 Inspector Betty Church, 1939, Sackwater, Suffolk
• Kernick, Simon - Dead Man's Gift #1 Short Stories
• Laws, Peter - Unleashed #2 Professor Matt Hunter
• Leather, Stephen - Tall Order #15 Dan Shepherd, SAS trooper turned undercover cop
• MacKay, Asia - Killing It
• MacLean, S G - Destroying Angel #3 Damian Seeker, agent of the Lord Protector, 1654
• Martin, Andrew - The Martian Girl
• Martin, Faith - A Fatal Obsession #1 Ryder & Loveday, Oxford, 1960s
• Mazzola, Anna - The Story Keeper
• Miloszewski, Zygmunt - Priceless
• Morton, Mandy - Magical Mystery Paws #6 The No. 2 Feline Detective Agency
• Nadel, Barbara - Displaced #6 PI Lee Arnold and his assistant, Mumtaz Hakim. East End London
• Obregon, Nicolas - Sins As Scarlet #2 Inspector Iwata
• Perks, Heidi - Now You See Her
• Rayne, Sarah - Song of the Damned #3 Phineas Fox
• Redmond, Heather - A Tale of Two Murders #1 Charles Dickens
• Reynolds, Amanda - Lying to You
• Reynolds, Rod - Cold Desert Sky #3 Charlie Yates, Reporter, USA
• Rhys, Rachel - Fatal Inheritance
• Robinson, Peter - Careless Love #25 Insp. Alan Banks, Yorkshire
• Rose, Jacqui - Toxic
• Stanley, Michael - Dead of Night
• Steadman, Catherine - Something in the Water
• Stein, Jesper - Unrest #1 Axel Steen
• Tangen, Geir - Requiem
• Tija, M J - A Necessary Murder #2 Heloise Chancey, Victorian London
• Tope, Rebecca - Crisis in the Cotswolds #16 Thea Osborne, House Sitter, Cotswolds
• Tremayne, Peter - Bloodmoon #27 Sister Fidelma
• Wood, Tom - Kill For Me #8 Victor, Assassin

Review: The Memory of Evil by Roberto Costantini tr. N S Thompson

The Memory of Evil by Roberto Costantini translated by N S Thompson, March 2016, 480 pages, riverrun, ISBN: 0857389408

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

2011, Zawiya, Libya.
Men awaiting execution are noosed to a row of poplar trees leading to the village’s burnt-out, shot-out school. The Berbers, or Amazighs, have been amongst the first to rebel against Gaddafi earlier in the year and now this Amazigh village has been captured by his troops. An armoured SUV draws up and an Arab man in his 60s gets out: civilian dress, dark glasses, part of his ear missing. In the dust of the hot desert wind, this man calls the tune for both Gaddafi’s troops and their white mercenary leader as he dictates the ingredients for a vile and cruel massacre that spares not a man, woman or child in Zawiya.

1962, Tripoli, Libya.
As the desert wind blows sand into the villa courtyard four boys, two Arab and two Italian, solemnly cut their wrists and share an oath of blood brotherhood. Sand and blood. For ever.

2011, Rome, Italy.
Commissario Michele Balistreri walks through early morning Rome, exercising his painful knee before spending the rest of the day, as he prefers, indoors. First an espresso in his favourite bar. The radio spills out the latest on the war in Libya and in particular a brutal massacre at Zawiya. Balistreri leaves and heads for the office. He doesn’t want to hear any more about that war. He wants the darkness of his office.

2011, Tripoli, Libya.
Linda Nardi stretches out on her hotel bed in the quiet of sunset before the night brings the roar of NATO jets. She remembers her closeness with Michele Balistreri five years ago. They had talked, ate, spent time together, without so much as a kiss but it had ended badly. She knows that she should be getting on with the job of reporting this war, the massacre – but what she really wants is to return to her orphans and hospitals in Central Africa. In the morning she will be boarding a plane to Nairobi but for now …
In the hotel bar she bumps into a Lebanese acquaintance from Nairobi. What brings him here? “War is manna from heaven to businessmen”, he says. She asks about the hospital contract in Nairobi. Yes, he won the construction contract: Kenyan accounting, Italian rules. But the investors are Swiss? Nothing is ever really Swiss. He goes on to hint at profitable dealings for a certain bank, God’s Bank, in the Vatican state.
Just then Linda notices a beautiful Western woman surrounded by an obviously Libyan Secret Service group crossing the bar. They are followed by an Arab in his 60s, deeply lined face, part of an ear missing. The Lebanese businessman pales.
Is that a business competitor? No. Have you heard what happened in Zawiya, Miss Nardi? They say that man was behind the death of General Younis … Suddenly her acquaintance remembers something he must attend to. Sick of both Libya and the war, Linda returns to her thoughts of Nairobi.

THE MEMORY OF EVIL is Roberto Costantini's final part of his Commissario Balistreri trilogy. By 2011 (the primary setting of THE MEMORY OF EVIL) bad boy Michele Balistreri, sworn childhood blood-brother of Ahmed, Karim and Nico in 1960s Libya is reaching the end of his career as Head of Rome's Murder Squad. He is a man well-versed on both sides of the criminal fence, in his 60s, exhausted, in ill health and approaching retirement. Although the story begins with journalist Linda Nardi’s investigation of corruption in Nairobi and the death of a beautiful young woman and her two year-old daughter on board a cruise ship off Elba, these crimes are counter played by Balistreri’s increasing obsession with the past, in particular the riddle of his mother’s death in Tripoli of 1969. Supposedly a suicide, Michele is convinced she was murdered. But which of the people he knew and loved back then had killed her?

My sense of Roberto Costantini's trilogy is that it is a work in its own right. So I have to ask if it is a problem not to have read its previous novels. Costantini keeps events clear and apparent in the timeline so the problem is unlikely to be that of missing important elements in the narrative. But as THE MEMORY OF EVIL’s narrative heat rises, its chapters come short and fast, referring back and forth between 2011 and 1960s Libya as seen through the eyes of different characters. This focusses and builds tension but it’s possible that the staccato changes may confuse a reader new to the trilogy.

Above all THE MEMORY OF EVIL is crime fiction. It encompasses violence and unlikeable characters doing unspeakable things, investigative journalism and police procedural, plot twists and suspense, skilful writing and translation. But I do recommend this “saga” of an influential Italian family and its circle set against the backdrop of events in twentieth century North Africa and Italy during the rise and fall of Gaddafi. These are times, places and points of view not often caught in crime fiction and Costantini’s writing of this story is authoritative.

Lynn Harvey, June 2018.

Awards News: McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2018 - Longlist announced

From the press release, news of the longlist for McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2018. The winner is announced at Bloody Scotland which takes place in Stirling between 21 and 23 September.

Two years ago the Scottish Crime Book of the Year Award was renamed the McIlvanney Prize in memory of William McIlvanney who established the tradition of Scottish detective fiction. This year his son, Liam McIlvanney, has made the longlist for the 2018 McIlvanney Prize.

The complete longlist, revealed today, has been chosen by an independent panel of readers:

Lin Anderson, Follow the Dead (Macmillan)
Chris Brookmyre, Places in the Darkness (Little, Brown)
Mason Cross, Presumed Dead (Orion)
Charles Cumming, The Man Between (Harper Collins)
Oscar De Muriel, The Loch of the Dead (Michael Joseph)
Helen Fields, Perfect Death (Harper Collins)
Alison James, Now She’s Gone (Bookouture)
Liam McIlvanney, The Quaker (Harper Collins)
James Oswald, No Time to Cry (Headline)
Caro Ramsay, The Suffering of Strangers (Severn House)
Andrew Reid, The Hunter (Headline)
Craig Robertson, The Photographer (Simon & Schuster)

It features an intriguing mix of previous winners, established crime writing luminaries, some emerging talent and a debut. The award recognises excellence in Scottish crime writing, includes a prize of £1,000 and nationwide promotion in Waterstones.

The judges for the next round will be chaired by Craig Sisterson and include comedian and crime fiction fan, Susan Calman who like Craig is joining the panel for a second year and crime reviewer, Alison Flood.

The finalists will be revealed at the beginning of September and the winner kept under wraps until the ceremony itself which this year will take place at the Church of the Holy Rude in Stirling and followed by a torchlight procession – led by the winner accompanied by Denise Mina and Val McDermid – to their first event at the Albert Halls.

Both the opening ceremony and the torchlight procession are open to the public but tickets are selling fast and capacity is less than at the castle last year so people are urged to book them now.

Review: Running Scared by Bill Kitson

Running Scared by Bill Kitson, June 2018, 228 pages, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, ISBN: 719042292

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

With DI Mike Nash away on compassionate leave, DS Clara Mironova and the Helmsdale team are faced with a sudden and dramatic increase in crime. Minor offences ranging from theft, shoplifting, and poaching, pale into significance when a violent turf war breaks out between rival gangs of drugs suppliers. Within weeks the detectives have to cope with three murders, including the shooting of a police officer. As they struggle to investigate the killings, a batch of deliberately contaminated heroin hits the streets, resulting in the deaths of three addicts and causing panic in the media. The breathless speed of events puts the entire region on high alert. The detectives must capture the drug barons, break up their supply networks, solve the murders – and thwart the criminal mastermind before he can realize his ultimate ambition.

The plot of the book encompasses many different threads from murders, drug selling, animal theft to international migrant problems and it makes the very tight plot of the book twist and turn almost from paragraph to paragraph. But when all's said and done this book is a police procedural and part of the very charm of the story is the interaction of the various colourful detectives that we have learnt to know and appreciate in previous stories. Readers will need to concentrate to really enjoy the story but it is not always serious, there are incidents of wry humour to lift from the pathos of the sadder elements of the story.

As in previous books of his that I have reviewed, once you start a Bill Kitson book it is extremely difficult to put down and I had great trouble in closing this one also, until I reached the very exciting conclusion. The book may seem fairly compact but this author seems to put more storylines into 228 pages than many other rival authors can do in 400.

The author has published ten previous books in the DI Mike Nash series and five books in the Eden House Mystery series. I understand he also writes historical fiction and lighter romantic stories set in Greece under the pen-name 'William Gordon' and he has written six books in that series also. I will certainly look out for the Eden House Mysteries in the future. If you want to read a book that once started you won't want to put down then buy this one.

Very highly recommended.

Terry Halligan, June 2018.

Review: Bad Sister by Sam Carrington

Bad Sister by Sam Carrington, December 2017, 368 pages, Avon, ISBN: 0008200211

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

Connie Summers is a psychologist who has recently set-up a private practice after many years working with disturbed prisoners. She is now relishing the chance to work with victims of crime rather than the perpetrators and also has clients who have been relocated under the witness protection programme. One of these clients is Steph, a difficult young woman with a child who has escaped a violent relationship with a drug dealer after giving evidence against him. However as Connie struggles to get her to talk, she realises that Steph is frightened of more than just her ex-boyfriend and his associates. There are other people in her past from whom she is hiding.

When a body is found dumped outside the prison gates, DI Lindsay Wade and DS Charlie Hack find that it is Eric Hargreaves who had absconded from jail. He had been jailed for rape, only to be awarded early parole on the advice of several experts including Connie, only to rape again.

There is a third thread to the story running through the book of a young boy accused of setting fire to a house and causing the death of his father and step-mother. This at times, seems to have no connection with anything else in the story and the reader is left to speculate as to which main character the boy is linked with.

BAD SISTER is a good read, confusing at times as different characters' stories are narrated with the links to each, only being resolved at the end. The story centres on the theme of events in the past affecting the present and how they can never be totally forgotten or escaped. One of the issues for me was that I never really engaged with the characters – they were a bit too unbelievable for me. This is the author's second novel with a third to be published later in 2018.

Susan White, June 2018

Website Updates: June 2018

I've updated the main files on the Euro Crime website today. Euro Crime includes both British and other European crime fiction writers (that have been published in English); non-British/European born crime writers who are strongly associated with British/European crime fiction (eg. Donna Leon), and crime writers in translation from outside of Europe.

Just a couple of reminders regarding the New Releases page:

1. The main by month/by author pages refer to when a book is published (in English) anywhere in the world however the 'by category ie historical, translated etc' is specific to the UK.*

2. When a book is released "early" in ebook I am taking the publication date as to be when the print edition comes out (this is the rule we use for determining Petrona Award eligibility).

*I've also added the breakdowns for 2019: ie published in the UK in 2019 (ALL, Anthology, First Novel, Historical, Translated) - NB the Anthology one is currently blank.

As always, if you spot something wrong or missing, please do let me know.

Here's a summary of the usual updates:

The Author Websites page now lists 1077 sites.

In Bibliographies there are now bibliographies for 2610 authors (13113 titles of which 3077 are reviewed).

I've added new bibliographies for: Lisa Alber, Amer Anwar, Jennifer Ashley, Noel Balen, Noel & Vanessa Barrot, Peter Beck, Leo Benedictus, Lina Bengtsdotter, Roxanne Bouchard, Harry Brett, Steph Broadribb, JL Butler, Graeme Cameron, Ali Carter, Stevyn Colgan, Paul Colize, Aidan Conway, C J Cooke, Pino Corrias, M W Craven, Alex Dahl, Robert Daws, Tracee de Hahn, Will Dean, Emma Dibdin, Ashley Dyer, Rachel Edwards, Lexie Elliott, Melba Escobar, John Fairfax, Rebecca Fleet, Amanda Flower, Nicola Ford, Dianne Freeman, Jorge Galan, Frank Goldammer, Leonard Goldberg, Lisa Hall, Karen Hamilton, Zhou Haohui, Emma Healey, Sophie Henaff, L S Hilton, David Hingley, Susanne Jansson, You-Jeong Jeong, Lisa Jewell, D B John, Philip Gwynne Jones, Olivia Kiernan, Snorri Kristjansson, Phoebe Locke, Sabri Luatah, Rachel Lynch, Niki Mackay, Iain Maitland, Max Manning, Stephanie Marland, Agustin Martinez, Chris McGeorge, Dervla McTiernan, Stephanie Merritt, Elizabeth Mundy, Vicki Newham, Elisabeth Noreback, Clare O'Donohue, Lloyd Otis, B A Paris, Raj Persaud, E M Powell, Alex Reeve, Emma Rowley, Ahmed Saadawi, Michelle Sacks, Robert Scragg, Renata Serelyte, Susan C Shea, Leila Slimani, Catherine Steadman, Jane Steen, Jesper Stein, Soren Sveistrup, Emma Tallon, Geir Tangen, Hildur Sif Thorarensen, Lynne Truss, Elena Varvello, Julie Wassmer, Roz Watkins and Dylan Young. .

I've updated the bibliographies (ie added new titles) for: Jane Adams, Jussi Adler-Olsen, Stefan Ahnhem, Ursula P Archer, Ross Armstrong, Jean-Luc Bannalec, Jo Bannister, Belinda Bauer, Simon Beaufort, Mark Billingham, Cara Black, Tony Black, Sam Blake, Stephen Booth, Rhys Bowen, Gyles Brandreth, Simon Brett, Eric Brown, Alison Bruce, Fiona Buckley, Michel Bussi, Helen Callaghan, Andrea Camilleri, Christoffer Carlsson, Gianrico Carofiglio, James Carol, CJ Carver, Steve Cavanagh, Kimberley Chambers, Jean Chapman, Julia Chapman, Karen Charlton, Lee Child, Alys Clare, Rosie Claverton, Barbara Cleverly, Tammy Cohen, Daniel Cole, Tana Collins, John Connolly, Jane Corry, James Craig, Mason Cross, Charles Cumming, Fiona Cummins, Judith Cutler, Arne Dahl, Kjell Ola Dahl, Nadia Dalbuono, Saul David, Michelle Davies, Oscar de Muriel, Lara Dearman, Victor del Arbol, J P Delaney, A A Dhand, P C/Paul Doherty, Margaret Duffy, Ruth Dugdall, Elizabeth J Duncan, Carola Dunn, Martin Edwards, Jim Eldridge, Kate Ellis, P R Ellis, Marc Elsberg, Caroline Eriksson, Geraldine Evans, Helen Fields, Judith Flanders, Karin Fossum, Christopher Fowler, Tana French, Frank Gardner, Phyllis Gobbell, Ann Granger, Alex Gray, Clio Gray, Isabelle Grey, Elly Griffiths, Jack Grimwood, Johana Gustawsson, Lotte and Soren Hammer, Nell Hampton, Mari Hannah, Sophie Hannah, C S Harris, Tessa Harris, Cora Harrison, E V Harte, John Harvey, Veronica Heley, Mandasue Heller, Mark Hill, Susan Hill, Suzette A Hill, Anthony Horowitz, Jorn Lier Horst, Anna Lee Huber, Cara Hunter, Graham Hurley, Graham Ison, David Jackson, Peter James, Jessica Jarlvi, Matt Johnson, Doug Johnstone, Mons Kallentoft, Robert Karjel, M R C Kasasian, Jessie Keane, Lesley Kelly, Jim Kelly, Christobel Kent, Philip Kerr, Laurie R King, Bill Kitson, Alanna Knight, Volker Kutscher, Peter Laws, John Lawton, Stephen Leather, Leena Lehtolainen, Pierre Lemaitre, Donna Leon, Minna Lindgren, Howard Linskey, M L Longworth, Stuart MacBride, A J MacKenzie, Clare Mackintosh, G M Malliet, Scott Mariani, Ngaio Marsh, Laura Marshall, Edward Marston, Peter May, Anna Mazzola, Val McDermid, Liam McIlvanney, Catriona McPherson, Elmer Mendoza, Derek B Miller, Bernard Minier, Caroline Mitchell, Roger/R N Morris, Rebecca Muddiman, Barbara Nadel, Hakan Nesser, Chris Nickson, Liz Nugent, Carlene O'Connor, Gerard O'Donovan, Kristina Ohlsson, Chris Ould, Nikki Owen, Tony Parsons, Caro Peacock, Andrea Penrose, Anne Perry, Karen Perry, Sarah Pinborough, Oliver Potzsch, Laura Purcell, Melanie Raabe, Khurrum Rahman, Caro Ramsay, Ian Rankin, Jaime Raven, Deanna Raybourn, Dolores Redondo, Amanda Reynolds, Rachel Rhys, Matthew Richardson, Michael Ridpath, Mark Roberts, Craig Robertson, Michael Robotham, Laura Joh Rowland, Leigh Russell, C J Sansom, Ian Sansom, Manda Scott, Holly Seddon, EV Seymour, Gerald Seymour, Jackson Sharp, Zoe Sharp, Paige Shelton, Jeffrey Siger, Lilja Sigurdardottir, Yrsa Sigurdardottir, Chris Simms, Anna Smith, Martin Cruz Smith, Gunnar Staalesen, Cath Staincliffe, Katherine Stansfield, Viveca Sten, Jon Stenhugg, Linda Stratmann, Karen Lee Street, Martin Suter, Frank Tallis, Abbie Taylor, Andrew Taylor, C L Taylor, Aline Templeton, David/D B Thorne, Robert Thorogood, Rebecca Tope, M J Trow, Antti Tuomainen, Helene Tursten, Cathi Unsworth, David P Wagner, Martyn Waites, Martin Walker, Sarah Ward, S J Watson, Tim Weaver, Matt Wesolowski, Jeri Westerson, Kerry Wilkinson, Andrew Wilson, Edward Wilson, Inger Wolf, Simon Wood, Christopher J Yates and David Young

Review: The Body in the Boat by A J Mackenzie

This will be available in paperback in November 2018.

The Body in the Boat by A J Mackenzie, April 2018, 400 pages, Zaffre, Ebook

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

1796. Across the still, dark English Channel come the smugglers. But tonight they carry an unusual cargo: a coffin. Several miles inland, a respected banker holds a birthday party for his wife. Within days, one of the guests is found shot dead.

What links this apparently senseless killing to the smugglers lurking in the mists? Why has the local bank been buying and hoarding gold? And who was in the mysterious coffin?

Reverend Hardcastle and Mrs Chaytor find themselves drawn into the worlds of high finance and organised crime in this dramatic and dark Georgian mystery. With its unique cast of characters and captivating amateur sleuths, The Body in the Boat is a twisting tale that vividly brings to life eighteenth-century Kent and draws readers into its pages.

The expertly researched story is told by a Canadian husband and wife writing partnership and follows on from their previous stories in this series which I have read and enjoyed and which began with The BODY ON THE DOORSTEP. We learnt that in the eighteenth century many ordinary people were prodigious drinkers of alcohol and the Reverend Hardcastle was known to get through a huge amount (by modern standards of port and brandy) and fortunately a lot was supplied to him as free gifts from smugglers, keen that he as a magistrate as well as a clergyman should show a blind eye to their nefarious activities.

England is still at war with France, which feeds the atmosphere of fear and paranoia and brings with it fears that invasion is likely and that there are spies lurking every where.

For readers of the two earlier stories, you will be reassured that the Reverend Hardcastle seems, however, to have cut back on the volume of alcohol he gets through which in the first book seemed absolutely astounding. Apparently, now that he is a magistrate he has to set an example and also keep a clear head for when he is asked to act in his official capacity. However, at times of stress he seems to still enjoy a few glasses of port! He also however still seems to be at war with his housekeeper.

I was very impressed by the quality of the research and the historical detail of this well plotted and highly atmospheric story. The characters are all richly drawn and full of period detail. The rich plot kept me guessing until the final page and I look forward to reading further stories by these really very gifted authors. Most strongly recommended.

A.J. MacKenzie is the pseudonym of Marilyn Livingstone and Morgen Witzel, a collaborative Anglo-Canadian husband-and-wife duo. Between them they have written more than twenty non-fiction and academic titles, with specialisms including management, medieval economic history and medieval warfare.

Terry Halligan, June 2018.