Category Archives: Crime

‘Camille’ by Pierre Lemaitre

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CamilleThis is the third novel in a series from Pierre Lemaitre focussing on Camille Verhoeven, a detective with the French police, of which I’ve only read one – ‘Alex’.

When Camille’s lover, Anne, is caught up in what seems to be a jewellery store robbery gone wrong and left with horrific injuries, he immediately breaks all the rules to take on the case. But what seems to have seen a simple robbery soon takes a more serious turn, as the perpetrator sets out to remove all witnesses who could tie him to the crime – including Ann.

As he attempts to keep Anne safe, Camille’s attempts to hide his involvement with her from his colleagues grow more and more frantic. He comes under increasing scrutiny from his team and his senior officers, threatening to derail his career and destroy his friendships. Despite this, he preserves on regardless, throwing caution to the wind as he grows more and more desperate. Continue reading →

Jane Casey’s ‘After the Fire’

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After the fireA fire rips through the top two floors of a tower block, leaving three people dead. One of the dead happens to be the controversial right-wing MP Geoff Armstrong – one who has no business being in those flat that night, so far from home. Of those who made it out before the blaze took hold, a young boy is separated from his mother, an illegal prostitute flees the scene with nothing but the clothes on her back and a child from one of the block’s more dubious families suffers horrific burns.

To make things worse, it soon becomes clear that the fire is arson and Geoff Armstrong may not have jumped to his death to avoid the flames – he may have been murdered. With such a high profile death, the force are under increasing scrutiny and pressure to get to the bottom of the situation as fast as possible. But with any number of motives, potential suspects and possible intended victims, narrowing down the search is an enormous ask. Continue reading →

Kathy Reichs’ ‘Bones Never Lie’

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Bones never lieThe latest installment in Kathy Reichs’ long running crime series featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan, ‘Bones Never Lie’, continues in the vein of her previous novels – fast paced, full of twists and turns and a great main character that readers can relate to.

When young girls start showing up dead in circumstances that are strikingly similar to one of Tempe’s old cases, she is forced to face her demons as she, along with her team, try to catch ‘the one that got away’.

This ‘one that got away’ is a sadistic killer with every reason to hold a grudge against Tempe. But is the same person behind this latest spate of killings? With little evidence to go on, Tempe goes back over every detail of her old files, hoping to find the one thing that will break the case. But it’s not long before things get personal – and Tempe has to fight tooth and nail to stop the culprit before it’s too late.

Continue reading →

‘The Stranger You Know’ by Jane Casey

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The Stranger You KnowDetective Maeve Kerrigan has a strained relationship with her boss – the chauvinistic, obnoxious, but occasionally charming DCI Josh Derwent. But when a recent spate of murders in London starts throwing up parallels to the murder of Dewent’s girlfriend twenty years earlier, it soon becomes clear that her superiors suspect that he might have a darker side.

Despite being under strict instructions not to talk to Derwent about the details of their current investigation, Maeve finds herself increasingly torn between following orders and allowing Derwent to help her in her attempts to find out what really happened to his girlfriend all those years ago.

Although Maeve doesn’t believe Derwent capable of killing, the cases throw up more and more disturbing similarities. As more bodies are discovered, and the cold case brings old feelings to the surface, Maeve becomes increasingly unsure if she really knows her colleague at all. Continue reading →

Koethi Zan’s ‘The Never List’

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The Never ListBest friends Sarah and Jennifer list by the ‘Never List’ – a set of rules which dominate their lives. Above all, never take risks. But despite all their planning, the worst happens, and the girls are thrown into the middle of their worst nightmare.

Ten years later, Sarah is trying to move on with her life. But she’s still tormented by the past and trapped in a prison of her own making, and it seems that her persecutor hasn’t forgotten her. To give herself any chance of having a normal future, Sarah must face up to her demons. But is she putting herself back in harm’s way? And will what she is about to discover destroy her forever?

Koethi Zan’s The Never List was quite readable, but to me, it didn’t feel like it really offered anything new to the genre. The characters are described as going through some intense emotions, but they never really came alive to me and fell a little flat. The story trundles along well and picks up pace with some well-placed action scenes towards the end, but the twists were disappointingly predictable.

The author plays on society’s fears of hidden sociopaths disguised in plain sight. Continue reading →

A futuristic thriller

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Tomorrow and tomorrowThomas Sweterlitsch’s ‘Tomorrow and Tomorrow’ is set in the not-to-distant future, when technology has advanced. In the place of smartphones, people have software installed directly into their heads which is connected to the internet and connected to retinal display screens. People’s social media profiles are displayed automatically as they walk past, advertisements are videos that stream directly into your hear when you glance their way, instead of business cards people can just push their details straight into your address book and news streams offer constant real time updates in the corner of your vision.

Another new feature of this world is a virtual archive of the city of Pittsburgh, which has been completely destroyed by a dirty bomb that obliterated the city’s entire population. The archive is made up of video footage, taken from personal streams, social media sites as well as traffic, surveillance and security cameras. People are able to visit the archive, going to any time, any place and anyone and reliving the past through augmented reality software.

Dominic was one of Pittsburgh’s survivors, out of the city when the deadly bomb struck, but lost his wife and unborn child. He works in the archive, tracking down people and reliving their last hours to help settle insurance claims. He also spends a huge amount of his time living in the past – reliving the same memories of his wife, following her final moments and hearing her speak to him again and again. Continue reading →

‘Tigers in Red Weather’ by Liza Klaussmann

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TigersCousins Nick and Helena have grown up together, spending long, hot summers on Tiger Island. Having themselves become wives and mothers, these summer trips remain a yearly tradition.

Captivating and enticing, Nick is also volatile, selfish and unpredictable, her marriage is troubled by secrets and things left unsaid. By contrast, Helen has always been the quieter of the two, the one more willing to bend to Nick’s will. But in the heat of the summers, long buried resentments, jealousies and frustrations are quick to come to the surface. Through the decades, a storm is brewing that threatens to destroy everything and to test the ties of family, love and duty to their absolute limit.

I really liked the way this book was written. The author manages to evoke an impression of life in post war America beautifully, and the heat and oppression of the long summer days are conjured up so vividly they are like a separate character all on their own.

However, for me it felt like this book was more style over substance. Continue reading →

‘The String Diaries’ by Stephen Lloyd Jones

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String diariesThe best mystery novels keep adding twist after twist.
The best thrillers ramp up the tension and don’t let us go until we turn the last page.
The best supernatural stories include just a pinch of horror to keep us on the edge of our seats.

Stephen Lloyd Jones’ ‘The String Diaries’ was a perfect fusion of all three.

From the moment this book started, with our protagonist driving on a dark, remote road, trying to escape from a nameless but clearly dangerous pursuer, the bar was set high.

Hannah, along with her husband and her young daughter, is on the run from an enemy that has stalked her family across generations. He has the power to change his appearance at will and to speak in other people’s voices, and he is unswerving in his desire to hunt down Hannah as he has her predecessors.

From a remote farmhouse in Wales to a library in Oxford and a masquerade ball in nineteenth century Hungary, Stephen Lloyd Jones creates a thoroughly convincing story of an ancient hidden race, a spurned son and a dangerous obsession that won’t die. Continue reading →

‘The Ties that Bind’ by Erin Kelly

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The Ties that BindFleeing a bad relationship, struggling true crime journalist Luke runs to Brighton. Soon, he unwittingly stumbles across a story that has the potential to completely turn his career around. Joss Grand, now an upstanding business man and property owner, was once an infamous racketeer who ruled Brighton with an iron fist.

As he delves further into Grand’s murky past, and into the unsolved murder of his right hand man in the 1960’s, Luke soon finds himself increasingly over his head. His attempts to find the perfect story have stirred up old secrets that some people would prefer to leave buried. Someone is watching his every move, and it’s impossible to know who to trust. But by the time that Luke finds out just how high the stakes are, it’s too late.

There’s no doubt that Erin Kelly has a talent for writing skilful, well-structured mysteries, and this is no exception. It starts off quite slowly but then all of a sudden it picks up the pace and throws in a few curveballs to keep you guessing. The suspense gradually builds as the novel progresses and the twist at the end

My main problem with this book was that Luke wasn’t the most likeable main character. It was incredibly frustrating to watch his relationship with Jem develop. He then spends most of the book distrusting and ignoring his friends, whinging in self-pity when anything goes wrong and being wilfully stupid whenever the opportunity arises. Continue reading →

A review of ‘I Am Pilgrim’ by Terry Hayes

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I Am Pilgrim‘I Am Pilgrim’, the debut novel from Terry Hayes, takes us inside the most secret of secret intelligence agencies, following an attempt to locate the source of an imminent terrorist attack.

Having left the secret service, all the narrator wants to do is to be left alone to live out his life free from retaliation or revenge. But having been drawn back into the world by a particularly persistent pursuer, he finds himself at a seemingly typical crime scene in a New York motel. He soon realises that he’s up against a killer that has memorised all the tricks in the book (literally!) to evade the authorities. His presence at the crime scene sets into motion a series of events that reaches into the highest echelons of US security services. Soon he is tasked with a mission that carries deadly consequences – to derail a new kind of terrorist threat that has the potential to destroy the United States from inside its own borders. Continue reading →