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:
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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