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 Caz Frear in the Countdown hot seat:

http://www.crimereview.co.uk/page.php/interview/8742

We’re on Twitter at:

Crime Review: @CrimeReviewUK

Linda Wilson: @CrimeReviewer

Sharon Wheeler: @lartonmedia

This week’s reviews are:

THE GOLDEN TRESSES OF THE DEAD by Alan Bradley, reviewed by Linda Wilson

When a finger is found in her sister’s wedding cake, young sleuth Flavia de Luce is determined to identify its erstwhile owner.

BLACKTOP WASTELAND by SA Cosby, reviewed by Chris Roberts

Beauregard ‘Bug’ Montage tries to extricate himself from money problems by driving for a jewellery heist, but the outcome threatens to destroy his life.

LAUNCH CODE by Michael Ridpath, reviewed by John Cleal

An order for a nuclear first strike in the paranoia of the 1980s Cold War threatens world apocalypse. Thirty-five years later, as a writer threatens to reveal what really happened, the family of a key player in the drama is threatened by unknown forces trying to keep the incident secret.

COLD FEAR by Mads Peder Nordbo, reviewed by Ewa Sherman

Danish journalist Matthew Cave is in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital. Faced with the disappearance of his half-sister Arnaq and a murder inquiry that might have involved his father Tom, he finds himself in a strange search for the killers across the vast frozen land.

CRY BABY by Mark Billingham, reviewed by Linda Wilson

A seven-year-old boy has gone missing while playing with a friend in a wood next to a park, with his mother nearby. A police officer is determined not to have another child’s death on his conscience.

ALL IN HER HEAD by Nikki Smith, reviewed by Kati Barr-Taylor

Jack is back, and Alison is terrified – for her safety, her sanity and her life. But she cannot remember why.

THE WOMAN DOWNSTAIRS by Elisabeth Carpenter, reviewed by Viv Beeby

When the bailiffs are called in to a ground floor flat, they make a gruesome discovery. And the residents of Nelson Heights discover that they know very little about their neighbours.

THE NIGHT LAWYER by Alex Churchill, reviewed by Chris Roberts

Barrister Sophie Angel defends a young man accused of rape while facing some issues in her own life both current and past.

DEATH IN FANCY DRESS by Anthony Gilbert, reviewed by John Cleal

The dissolute Sir Ralph Feltham is murdered at a fancy-dress ball at his former home Feltham Abbey. Lawyer Tony Keith and his adventurer schoolfriend Jeremy Freyne, there to look into possible links to a

blackmail ring, investigate.

SEVEN LIES by Elizabeth Kay, reviewed by Kati Barr-Taylor

Jane and Marnie have been inseparable since childhood. And Jane will make sure that never changes, whatever it takes.

SEVEN YEARS OF DARKNESS by You-jeong Jeong, reviewed by Chris Roberts

After tragic events at a remote Korean reservoir, a young man is persecuted wherever he goes. After seven years he receives a package which reveals the truth about the past.

MAGPIE LANE by Lucy Atkins, reviewed by Linda Wilson

When the eight-year-old daughter of an Oxford academic goes missing, there are a limited pool of suspects, with the spotlight falling first on her parents and their live-in nanny.

FINDERS, KEEPERS by Sabine Durrant, reviewed by Sylvia Maughan

Verity Ann Baxter tells the story of her developing relationship with new neighbours Ailsa, Tom and family. It is a love-hate relationship, as Verity and Ailsa become more and more involved in each other’s lives. But who is guilty of Tom’s murder?

DISTURBANCE by Marianne Kavanagh, reviewed by John Barnbrook

Sara lives in a beautiful isolated house with an irrational abusive husband and two sons, one off to university and one autistic. Serious events cause dramatic changes to her life, but dog walker Katie is always there to protect her.

NO BAD DEED by Heather Chavez, reviewed by Linda Wilson

No good deed goes unpunished, as Cassie Larkin finds out when she stops to help a woman being attacked by the side of the road.

THE HONJIN MURDERS by Seishi Yokomizo, reviewed by Chris Roberts

A newly-wed couple are found dead inside a house locked from the inside, with the weapon, a bloody samurai sword, stuck in the snow outside. Renowned detective Kosuke Kindaichi is on the case.

COME BACK FOR ME by Heidi Perks, reviewed by Kati Barr-Taylor

Questions compel Stella to return to the island when she sees the TV report that someone has found a body at the bottom of her childhood garden.

KRAYS: THE FINAL WORD by James Morton, reviewed by John Cleal

Madness, assault, robbery, arson, murder, protection rackets, murder – a new look at the rise and fall of the East End of London’s most notorious gangsters.

MANHUNTERS by Steve Murphy and Javier F Pena, reviewed by Chris Roberts

The true story of two agents of the US Drug Enforcement Agency, in the words of the subtitle, telling ‘How we took down Pablo Escobar’.

CRIMINAL BRITAIN by Mirrorpix, reviewed by John Cleal

A look at some of Britain’s darkest criminal cases in a picture anthology from the files of the Daily Mirror.

Best wishes

Sharon and Linda

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