New issue of Crime Review

We feature new 20 reviews in each issue of Crime Review (

www.crimereview.co.uk), together with a top industry interview. This time

it’s author Adam Brookes in the Countdown hot seat.

We’re on Twitter at:

Crime Review: @CrimeReviewUK

Linda Wilson: @CrimeReviewer

Sharon Wheeler: @lartonmedia

This week’s reviews are:

THE OTHER SIDE OF SILENCE by Philip Kerr, reviewed by Chris Roberts

Bernie Gunther is living a quiet life in the South of France in 1956 when

an old enemy reappears, and he is asked to undertake a sensitive task for

the writer Somerset Maugham.

A HERO IN FRANCE by Alan Furst, reviewed by Sharon Wheeler

Mathieu and his French Resistance colleagues must risk their lives to

smuggle British airmen out of the country and back into the fray.

THE 14TH COLONY by Steve Berry, reviewed by Arnold Taylor

The Cold War has been over for years and Russia has lost it. However, there

is one man who refuses to accept this and has plans to take a horrifying

revenge on the US.

CITY OF JACKALS by Parker Bilal, reviewed by Chris Roberts

Cairo investigator Makana is asked to find a young student who has gone

missing. The next day a human head is fished out of the river next to the

investigator’s houseboat.

SCARLET WIDOW by Graham Masterson, reviewed by John Cleal

Beatrice Scarlet marries a Protestant preacher and emigrates to America.

When animals are found slaughtered, with indications of satanism, she

suspects a human hand.

THE PLEA by Steve Cavanagh, reviewed by Chris Roberts

Lawyer Eddie Flynn is given a proposition by the CIA: he has 48 hours to

get hired by a man accused of murder and persuade him to plead guilty, or

see his wife go to prison.

THE PRINTER’S COFFIN by MJ Carter, reviewed by John Cleal

Blake and Avery are back in England and charged by philanthropist and

social reformer Lord Allington with investigating the strange murders of

two printers.

TIME OF DEATH by Mark Billingham, reviewed by Linda Wilson

Two children are missing from Polesford and hopes of finding them alive are

rapidly fading.

DANGEROUS CARGO by Pauline Rowson, reviewed by Sharon Wheeler

Former marine Art Marvik is roped in by the intelligence services to

investigate the recent death of a man – who was supposed to have died 55

years previously.

THE REVELATION CODE by Andy McDermott, reviewed by Linda Roberts

A cult leader is determined to bring about a biblical apocalypse, and when

archaeologist Nina Wilde is kidnapped to further his plans, it’s up to her

husband Eddie Chase to throw a spanner in the works.

THE MYSTERY OF THE LOST CEZANNE by ML Longworth, reviewed by Arnold Taylor

A friend asks Antoine Verlaque to visit a man called Rene Rouquet, who

lives in an apartment once occupied by Paul Cezanne, and who may have

discovered a lost Cezanne painting. When he arrives at the apartment he

receives a severe shock.

MIDNIGHT SUN by Jo Nesbo, reviewed by Ewa Sherman

Jon Hansen is on the run after betraying Oslo’s biggest crime lord, the

Fisherman. But hiding in a small town in the far north of Norway, close to

the Arctic Circle, brings its own dangers, and the never-ending daylight is

just one of them.

GAME OF MIRRORS by Andrea Camilleri, reviewed by Sylvia Maughan

Inspector Montalbano notices his neighbour, Mrs Lombardo, looking under the

bonnet of her car.  It turns out that the car has been deliberately

damaged.  Meanwhile a bomb has exploded in town, all giving Montalbano a

lot to think about.

RUNAWAY by Peter May, reviewed by John Cleal

Five young Scots run away to swinging 60s London. Their adventure turns

sour when they find few people can be trusted and favours always expect

returns. Fifty years later three return to solve a mystery killing.

THE FORSAKEN by Ace Atkins, reviewed by Chris Roberts

In Jericho, Mississippi, the release from prison of ‘Chains’ LeDoux

re-awakens memories of a brutal lynching nearly 40 years ago.

CALLED BACK by Hugh Conway, reviewed by John Cleal

A blind man stumbles on a murder. Because he cannot see, the assassins

allow him to go. He later recovers his sight and falls in love with a

mysterious girl who is in some way involved in the crime.

THE Z MURDERS by J Jefferson Farjeon, reviewed by Anthea Hawdon

After witnessing an apparently random murder, Richard Temperley sets out to

find some answers.

ART IN THE BLOOD by Bonnie MacBird, reviewed by John Cleal

Sherlock Holmes is approached by a beautiful French cabaret star when her

illegitimate son by an English aristocrat goes missing.

ORANGEBOY by Patrice Lawrence, reviewed by Linda Wilson

Marlon promised his mother that he would have nothing to do with drugs, but

when he falls under Sonya’s spell, keeping that promise suddenly becomes a

lot more difficult.

THE STORM (audiobook) by Virginia Bergin, reviewed by Linda Wilson.

With the killer rain still falling from the sky, teenager Ruby Morris has

to survive in a hostile world.

Best wishes

Sharon