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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