Crime Review Update

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 Brad Parks in the Countdown hot seat:
http://crimereview.co.uk/page.php/interview/4894



We’re on Twitter at:

Crime Review: @CrimeReviewUK

Linda Wilson: @CrimeReviewer

Sharon Wheeler: @lartonmedia



This week’s reviews are:



THE NATURE OF THE BEAST by Louise Penny, reviewed by Chris Roberts

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache has retired to the small village of Three
Pines. He goes back to work when a nine-year-old boy disappears, and
discovers something in the woods that represents a threat to world safety.



MISSISSIPPI BLOOD by Greg Iles, reviewed by John Cleal

Dr Tom Cage is on trial for the murder of his former black nurse and lover,
but refuses help from his lawyer son Penn. Meanwhile the whole Cage family
is under threat from the Double Eagles, a savage KKK splinter group.



LOVE LIKE BLOOD by Mark Billingham, reviewed by Linda Wilson

The usually straitlaced DI Nicola Tanner teams up with archetypal maverick
DI Tom Thorne to investigate a series of killings.



THE LEGACY by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, reviewed by Ewa Sherman

Out of his depth detective Huldar and the child psychologist Freyja must
work together to get any information from seven-year-old Margrét, the only
witness to her mother’s horrific murder.



SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL by William Shaw, reviewed by John Cleal

A prostitute with an influential client list is murdered. DS Cathal Breen
finds himself blocked as the case assumes international importance.
Meanwhile, his pregnant girlfriend, former WDC Helen Tozer, brings her
intuition to the investigation – wanted or not!



DEADLY GAME by Matt Johnson, reviewed by Linda Wilson

Special Forces soldier-turned-police officer Robert Finlay is seconded to a
unit investigating the trafficking of young women from Eastern Europe into
sex slavery in the UK.



THE WOLF CHILDREN by Cay Rademacher, reviewed by Arnold Taylor

It’s 1947 and the long, freezing winter is over. The discovery of the body
of a young boy, lying across an unexploded bomb in the ruins of Hamburg
shipyard, sparks off an investigation which turns up further young victims.



TATTLETALE by Sara J Naughton, reviewed by Kati Barr-Taylor

Mags Mackenzie hasn’t spoken to her brother Abe for years, but she flies to
his bedside after he falls down four flights of stairs. It looks like
suicide, but something doesn’t ring true. 

STASI WOLF by David Young, reviewed by Chris Roberts

Oberleutnant Karin Muller is drafted south to assist in the recovery of two
infant twins who have been abducted, a search that eventually becomes very
personal.



RECONCILIATION FOR THE DEAD by Paul Hardisty, reviewed by John Cleal

Former SADF paratrooper Claymore Straker returns to South Africa to testify
before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and seek absolution for his
unwitting part in a horrifying act of inhumanity.



THE WHITE ROAD by Sarah Lotz, reviewed by Linda Wilson

Simon Newman has a bad reputation to live down. When he made a clandestine
trip into a Welsh cave with another man, only Simon came out alive. Now he
intends to make an attempt on Everest, the world’s highest mountain.



THE STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE OF A BOLLYWOOD STAR by Vaseem Khan, reviewed by
Chris Roberts

The Baby Ganesh Detective Agency is called into action once again when an
actor vanishes, disrupting the filming of a big-budget Bollywood
spectacular.



THE STOLEN CHILD by Sanjida Kay, reviewed by Kati Barr-Taylor

Evie is the stolen child, the little girl artist Zoe Morley and her husband
Ollie adopted. The little girl whose father wants her back.



THE SALT MARSH by Clare Carson, reviewed by John Cleal

Sam Coyle’s father lived and died in the shadows of undercover policing
among the criminals, spies and radicals of Cold War London. He left nothing
to his daughter but tradecraft, paranoia and enemies.



THE HIT by Nadia Dalbuono, reviewed by Sylvia Maughan

A television executive and his family are involved in a car accident. But
things are not necessarily what they seem.



DARKNESS by Karen Robards, reviewed by Kati Barr-Taylor

Gina watches in horror as a plane explodes and debris crashes into the icy
water around her. But her nightmare has only just begun.



HER DARKEST NIGHTMARE by Brenda Novak, reviewed by John Barnbrook

As a teenager, Evelyn Talbot was abducted, tortured and left for dead by
her psychopathic boyfriend. Now, as an adult she has established a mental
health facility in Alaska, specifically to research psychopaths. When the
murders start suspicions and fear grow in the isolated community.



THE KEEPER by Alastair Gunn, reviewed by Jim Beaman

DCI Antonia Hawkins believes that the victims of a serial killer have all
been kidnapped and then hunted down in a twisted game.



AMNESIA by Michael Ridpath, reviewed by John Barnbrook

Clémence is asked by her aged great aunt to look after an old friend, an
octogenarian, who has lost his memory in a fall and is living in an
isolated cottage in the Scottish Highlands. Helping him find his lost
memories opens many unwelcome doors.



THE AMATEURS by Sara Shepard, reviewed by Linda Wilson

Case Not Closed is a website devoted to solving cold cases. When Aerin
Kelly posts there about her sister’s disappearance and murder, several
members decide to help.



Best wishes


Sharon