Sunday, October 27, 2019

Crime Review Update: 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 Alex Marwood 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 TURN OF THE KEY by Ruth Ware, reviewed by Madeleine Marsh

Rowan lands what seems to be her ideal job, a role as live-in nanny with a family in a remote village in Scotland, paying a generous salary, bonus and with all living expenses covered. But what should have been a dream turns into a nightmare.


SAVAGES 2: THE SPECTRE by Sabri Louatah, reviewed by John Cleal

France’s first Arab president is shot on election night. As he lies between life and death, riots explode, terrorist attack threatens and political factions battle for power. Caught in the middle is a third-generation French family whose roots are in the Kabyle region of Algeria.


NIGHT by Bernard Minier, reviewed by Ewa Sherman

Detectives Kirsten Nigaard from Norway and Martin Servaz from France join forces in search of a notorious cunning serial killer on the run. All clues point to Martin’s earlier personal painful history with the murderer, but this time the life of a five-year-old boy is also at stake.


THE PUPPET SHOW by MW Craven, reviewed by Linda Wilson

A serial killer is torturing men and then burning them alive, leaving their bodies in stone circles in and around the Lake District. Disgraced copper Washington Poe teams up with the brilliant but socially inept civilian analyst Tilly Bradshaw in the hunt for the killer.


DIARY OF A DEAD MAN ON LEAVE by David Downing, reviewed by John Cleal

As war looms, a Soviet undercover agent faces a crisis of belief when he becomes involved with the German family he lodges with.


LADY IN THE LAKE by Laura Lippman, reviewed by Sylvia Maughan

Maddie Swartz, a respectable housewife, decides she needs a change, so she goes to live on her own and tries to get a job in a newsroom. A young girl is murdered and Maddie finds the body. This is just the start of Maddie’s troubles.


A VERSION OF THE TRUTH by BP Walter, reviewed by Kati Barr-Taylor

Joanne’s life will go into freefall the moment her son opens the file on his iPad.



KEEP HER CLOSE by MJ Ford, reviewed by Arnold Taylor

DS Josie Masters is on her way to see her mother in an Oxford care home when her phone rings and she is told to go immediately to Oriel College where a girl student appears to have gone missing. It soon becomes clear that she is not the only one.


WHISKEY WHEN WE’RE DRY by John Larison, reviewed by John Cleal

Seventeen-year-old Jessilyn Harney, orphaned and alone, is desperate to fend off starvation and predatory neighbours, so cuts her hair, binds her chest flat and rides to find outlaw older brother Noah and bring him home.


CALL HIM MINE by Tim MacGabhann, reviewed by Chris Roberts

When journalist Andrew and his photographer boyfriend Carlos come across a body in the street, Carlos pushes for answers and pays a terrible price. Andrew is determined to identify those responsible and exact some sort of retribution.


TAKE IT BACK by Kia Abdullah, reviewed by Linda Wilson

Former barrister Zara Khaleel is branded a traitor to her religion when she starts working with a white teenage girl who accuses four seemingly well brought up Muslim boys of rape.


THE CLOSER I GET by Paul Burston, reviewed by Kati Barr-Taylor

Tom never realised a moment’s politeness at one of his book signings would take him to the edge of hell.


THE RINGMASTER by Vanda Symon, reviewed by Chris Roberts

Detective Sam Shephard fights unfair criticism from her boss as the Dunedin police tackle the murder of a student in the Botanic Garden.


THE FATHERLAND FILES by Volker Kutscher, reviewed by John Cleal

When a drowned man is found in a freight elevator in a Berlin pleasure palace, Inspector Gereon Rath faces a case which leads him into confrontation with the rising Nazi party.


THE WREN HUNT by Mary Watson, reviewed by Linda Wilson

Wren Silke is sent undercover to the sinister Harness Foundation in an attempt to uncover its dangerous secrets.


DEATH AT THE PLAGUE MUSEUM by Lesley Kelly, reviewed by Kati Barr-Taylor

Mona and Bernard are called in after a secret meeting in Edinburgh, where two of the four attendees are dead and a third is missing.


JUDGE WALDEN: CALL THE NEXT CASE by Peter Murphy, reviewed by Chris Roberts

Resident Judge of Bermondsey Crown Court Charlie Walden introduces another selection of cases coming under his purview, together with more of the administrative complexities which complicate his life.


WHERE THE TRUTH LIES by MJ Lee, reviewed by Anthea Hawdon

An empty grave. An old murder. DI Tom Ridpath must find his way through new tasks and old loyalties to find the truth about a serial killer stalking the streets of Manchester.


HIS DARK SUN by Jude Brown, reviewed by Linda Wilson

The year is 2022 and the world is sweltering in the grip of a permanent heatwave. Nineteen-year-old Luke Spargo knows that he’s the only one who understands and can halt the inevitable. But Luke’s methods won’t meet with universal approval.


THE CORPORATION by TJ English, reviewed by Chris Roberts

The non-fiction story of exiled Cubans who contested Castro’s leadership from the USA, and of one who built a lottery-based organisation which moved into money-laundering, drug trafficking and murder.


Best wishes


Sharon


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