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 Chris Carter in the Countdown hot seat:



We’re on Twitter at:

Crime Review: @CrimeReviewUK

Linda Wilson: @CrimeReviewer

Sharon Wheeler: @lartonmedia



This week’s reviews are:



FEVER by Deon Meyer, reviewed by John Cleal

In a world where the majority of the population has been destroyed by a
pandemic, an altruistic academic sets out to build a society free from the
pressures of South Africa’s past.



COLD BLOOD by Andy McNab, reviewed by Linda Wilson

When his former CO calls in a favour, Nick Stone ends up on a walking trip
to the North Pole.



FOREVER AND A DEATH by Donald E Westlake, reviewed by Sylvia Wilson

Millionaire businessman Richard Curtis, who was forced to leave Hong Kong
when the Chinese took over, plans a terrible revenge.



THE SPY’S DAUGHTER by Adam Brookes, reviewed by Chris Roberts

Pearl is an American teenager with a genius-level grasp of developments in
artificial intelligence, only recently awakened to her Chinese parents’
plans for her future.



GIVE ME THE CHILD by Mel McGrath, reviewed by Kati Barr-Taylor

An unexpected night-time visitor and a bag of lies is about to destroy Cat
Lupo’s family.



SIX STORIES by Matt Wesolowski, reviewed Ewa Sherman

In 1996 teenager Tom Jeffries vanished from an Outward Bound centre. His
body was found a year later. In 2017 in a series of podcasts investigative
journalist Scott King attempts to discover what really happened.



UNFORGIVABLE by Mike Thomas, reviewed by John Cleal

Terrorists hit a multicultural event in Cardiff and follow up with more
bombings. With police resources stretched, DC Will MacReady is unhappy to
be assigned to investigate the murder of a girl, but soon realises there is
a link between the events.



WOMAN OF STATE by Simon Berthon, reviewed by Arnold Taylor

It is 1991 and the Troubles are still ongoing in Northern Ireland.
Eighteen-year-old Maire Anne McCartney is caught up in a violent honey trap.

 

RED EARTH by Tony Park, reviewed by John Cleal

A South African woman is carjacked. Police are dealing with the
assassination of the American ambassador by a suicide bomber and cannot
respond, so helicopter pilot Nia Carras and wildlife researcher Mike Dunn
are called in to pursue the vehicle.



THE ESCAPE by CL Taylor, reviewed by Kati Barr-Taylor

‘Keep an eye on your daughter.’ These are six words of advice to Jo
Blackmore – or a threat. She must save her daughter and plan their escape.



THE SILK STOCKING MURDERS by Anthony Berkeley, reviewed by Anthea Hawdon

A vicar’s daughter goes missing and Roger Sheringham, a crime writer and
amateur sleuth, is asked to investigate. This simple case leads to a chase
to stop a serial killer from striking again.



ASHES TO ASHES by Paul Finch, reviewed by John Barnbrook

A killer has a caravan kitted out as a torture chamber, and he has moved to
Bradburn, home of DS Mark ‘Heck’ Heckenberg. In the same town, there is
another monstrous killer who, armed with a flame thrower, is burning his
victims to death



A TRUE AND FAITHFUL BROTHER by Linda Stratmann, reviewed by John Cleal

A wealthy philanthropist disappears from a locked Masonic hall. Lady
Detective Frances Doughty is drawn into a case that involves her own family
and puts her life at risk.



GHOST MONTH by Ed Lin, reviewed by Chris Roberts

When Jing-nan hears that his high school sweetheart has been murdered, he
is determined to get an explanation, especially when he gets warned off.



FALLING CREATURES by Katherine Stansfield, reviewed by John Cleal

Country girl Shilly finds love with the strangely gifted Charlotte Dymond
on an isolated Cornish farm. When Charlotte is murdered she sets out to
find the truth.



TWO LOST BOYS by LF Robertson, reviewed by Chris Roberts

Marion ‘Andy’ Hardy is on death row for the rape and murder of two women.
Janet Moodie is preparing a case to convince the courts that he doesn’t
deserve to die.



EXECUTING MAGIC IN THE MODERN ERA: CRIMINAL BODIES AND THE GALLOWS IN
POPULAR MEDICINE by Owen Davies and Francesca Matteoni, reviewed by Linda
Wilson

The early modern era saw a grisly trade in the body parts of convicted
criminals and their means of execution and its uses in popular medicine.



DIGGING IN THE DARK by Ben Johnson, reviewed by Kim Fleet

A history of the Yorkshire resurrectionists: body snatchers who robbed
graves and sold the cadavers to medical schools for research.



CITY OF LIGHT, CITY OF POISON by Holly Tucker, reviewed by Linda Wilson

Nicholas de la Reynie, the first police chief of Paris, is given the job of
cleaning up the streets of Paris and ridding it and its courts of poisoners
and black magic.



YOUNG BOND: RED NEMESIS by Steve Cole, reviewed by Linda Wilson

James Bond receives a mysterious package from beyond the grave and has to
work out the meaning of the cryptic notes left by his father.



Best wishes


Sharon