Monthly Archives: April 2016

#BookReview ‘Hiding the Past’ by Nathan Dylan Goodwin #familyhistory #crime #genealogy

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An unusual hybrid of genealogy and record checking plus amateur detective stuff makes Hiding the Past by Nathan Dylan Goodwin a worthy page turner for a holiday week. Anyone who loves family tree research, and a good crime novel, will like this with its narrative stretching from World War Two to present-day politicians. Nathan Dylan GoodwinWithin days of taking on a new client, genealogist Morton Farrier knows this case is different: one, his client pays a fee of £50,000 straight into his bank account; two, the client shoots himself in the head. Or does he? Helped by his girlfriend Police Community Support Officer Juliette, Farrier studies the background of his, now dead, client, Peter Coldrick, a study which leads him to two key years: 1944 and 1987. Official records for Coldrick’s descendants have mysteriously disappeared, Morton is being followed by a glossy black 4×4, and it may be his imagination but a usually helpful archives officer is proving difficult to pin down.
Morton is an interesting character, adopted, rubbing along awkwardly with his widowed adoptive father and soldier brother, quick with a sharp word whilst knowing he should be kinder and hating himself for it. I also liked the clear drawing of his setting around the Kent & Sussex towns and villages of Sedelscombe, Rye, Tenterden and Lewes, an area I lived in and loved, Goodwin makes them feel real on the page. This is the first of, at the time of writing, four Morton Farrier novels, so expect to read more about Morton’s own adoption story in future books.

Read my reviews of the next books in the Morton Farrier series:-
THE LOST ANCESTOR #2MORTONFARRIER
THE ORANGE LILIES #3MORTONFARRIER
THE AMERICA GROUND #4MORTONFARRIER

If you like this, try:-
‘In the Blood’ by Steve Robinson
‘Mrs Sinclair’s Suitcase’ by Louise Walters
‘The Knife with the Ivory Handle’ by Cynthia Bruchman

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview HIDING THE PAST by Nathan Dylan Goodwin http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1U3 via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘The Murder Room’ by PD James #crime

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Written in 2003 The Murder Room, the 12th in the Adam Dalgliesh crime fiction series by PD James, is preceded by an excerpt from TS Eliot’s poem ‘Burnt Norton’:
‘Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.’ PD James Time is a theme layered throughout this book. Its setting is the Dupayne Museum on Hampstead Heath, so historical time is represented by the exhibits at the museum. Time, recently passed, is examined and re-examined as part of the murder investigation. Time future, is represented by the theme of Adam Dalgliesh’s love for Emma and his courtship of her, a path not easy or untroubled.
Like all Dalgliesh novels, murder happens within a tight community. The Dupayne Museum has a small community of owners, staff and visitors. At first glance the victims are not clearly attached to the museum, but this is a James novel: of course they are, we just don’t know how yet.
The murder doesn’t happen for quite a while as James takes her time introducing us to the circle of potential victims and criminals, their connection to the museum and their life outside it. There is an air of the past about it, as if it was written in the thirties, an antidote to modern fast-paced modern crime novels so in itself representing a portrait of changing crime fiction. Time is given to characterization, setting, motivation, and not to dramatic action scenes: more Christie and Sayers than James or Rankin.
In the course of reading The Murder Room, I considered why I enjoy reading detective novels and what I take from them. I like the mystery, the tension of the chase, the fitting together of disparate elements. I do not like violence, graphic sex or language. But most of all, I like the examination of human nature, the contradictions, the surprises, the privacy of the mind laid bare. PD James excels at all of this; she remains my favourite author of crime fiction, and Adam Dalgliesh my favourite detective.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK

Click the title to sample the first paragraph of THE MURDER ROOM.

Read my reviews of the other Adam Dalgliesh mysteries:-
COVER HER FACE [#1 ADAM DALGLIESH]
A MIND TO MURDER [#2 ADAM DALGLIESH]
UNNATURAL CAUSES [#3 ADAM DALGLIESH]
SHROUD FOR A NIGHTINGALE [#4 ADAM DALGLIESH]
THE BLACK TOWER [#5 ADAM DALGLIESH]
DEATH OF AN EXPERT WITNESS [#6 ADAM DALGLIESH]
A TASTE FOR DEATH [#7 ADAM DALGLIESH]
DEVICES AND DESIRES [#8 ADAM DALGLIESH]
ORIGINAL SIN [#9 ADAM DALGLIESH] … read the first paragraph HERE
A CERTAIN JUSTICE [#10 ADAM DALGLIESH]
DEATH IN HOLY ORDERS [#11 ADAM DALGLIESH]
THE LIGHTHOUSE [#13 ADAM DALGLIESH]
THE PRIVATE PATIENT [#14 ADAM DALGLIESH]

Here are my reviews of the two Cordelia Gray mysteries:-
AN UNSUITABLE JOB FOR A WOMAN #CGRAY1
THE SKULL BENEATH THE SKIN #CGRAY2

And two other books by PD James:-
INNOCENT BLOOD
TIME TO BE IN EARNEST

If you like this, try:-
‘The Shadows in the Street’ by Susan Hill
‘Due Diligence’ by DJ Harrison
‘The Truth Will Out’ by Jane Isaac 

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE MURDER ROOM by PD James via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1QP

#BookReview ‘Dead Simple’ by Peter James @PeterJamesUK #crime #Brighton

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A plot that twists and turns, a dramatic beginning, a likeable detective in Roy Grace and a cleverly-drawn setting. Brighton is full of potential for a crime writer looking for a setting and it is clear Peter James knows and loves the Sussex seaside city. Dead Simple is a page-turner with clever ideas and a couple of twists I didn’t see coming. Peter JamesThe story opens with a stag night which does not go to plan, a missing groom, a car crash, an absent best man and a frantic bride. As the horrible realities of the situation become clear, with no witnesses and no clues, the police struggle to find the missing groom before the wedding on Saturday. But a few things do not ring true and that, coupled with Detective Superintendent Roy Grace’s controversial use of a medium, bring fresh, if confusing, clues.
Peter James has created an authentic police community which feels real from page one, this is not the first in a series where the first novel is about setting the scene and the context. James hits the ground running with a believable detective. Roy Grace is a maverick, and I like him. James spends a day a week with the Sussex Police Force and this experience is evident on every page without shouting ‘research’.
I’ve found a new favourite crime writer. This is a long-running series.

And here’s my review of THE HOUSE ON COLD HILL, also by Peter James.

If you like this, try:-
‘Nightfall’ by Steven Leather #1JACK NIGHTINGALE
‘Unnatural Causes’ by PD James #3ADAMDALGLIESH
‘The Vows of Silence’ by Susan Hill #4SIMONSERRAILLER

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview DEAD SIMPLE by Peter James @PeterJamesUK http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1QB via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘The Killing of Polly Carter’ by Robert Thorogood #crime

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The Killing of Polly Carter is second in the ‘Death in Paradise’ series by Robert Thorogood, and the first that I have read. I picked it up, unaware of the TV series of the same name, so I am playing catch-up. Robert Thorogood My first reaction was that it seemed lightweight, but the story and the characters pulled me in. This definitely fits into the comfort crime category so effectively occupied by MC Beaton. Detective Inspector Richard Poole is a man out of place. An English policeman on a tiny Caribbean island, he is a proper chap who persists in wearing leather shoes and woollen suits even at the height of the summer heat. His team is small and their resources are limited, which makes this more of an old-fashioned tale as they put together clue after clue. The setting is luscious.
Supermodel Polly Carter is dead, is it suicide or murder? In the true Agatha Christie fashion, of whom Thorogood is a childhood fan, this is a ‘closed room’ mystery where few people have the opportunity and motive. One by one, each of Polly’s family and friends are suspected, cleared then suspected again. In true Christie fashion, when the culprit is unveiled I thought ‘oh of course’ without actually guessing the identity correctly.
The book covers are beautiful.

Here’s my review of THE MARLOW MURDER CLUB #1MARLOWMURDERCLUB by the same author.

If you like this, try:-
‘An Uncertain Place’ by Fred Vargas
‘No Other Darkness’ by Sarah Hilary
‘Business as Usual’ by EL Lindley

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE KILLING OF POLLY CARTER by Robert Thorogood http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1Tj via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘The Little Red Chairs’ by Edna O’Brien #war

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The Little Red Chairs by Edna O’Brien is a fictional portrait, a ‘what if’ scenario: what if a war criminal, a Balkan war lord, was on the run and pitched up in a small town in the West of Ireland. What if the locals took him at face value. What if one woman saw him as a way to bring a child into her childless marriage. What if his true identity was revealed. What then… would happen to the woman. This is the story of Fidelma, to reveal more about her would be to giveaway the drama of the book. She is a sad character, unsatisfied with her lot, reaching for the unattainable and ultimately suffering for her need. Edna O’BrienThis book has attracted some outstanding reviews, but I hesitated. It sat for a while on my Kindle before I read it, I think because the subject matter is depressing and intimidating. O’Brien’s writing is at times flowing and lyrical especially when describing nature, at times her structure is a little wavy and the story a little flabby. Some passages are horrifying in their brutality, the war flashbacks are vivid. I find violence, when left to the imagination, more effective than violence written on the page or acted on stage.
I never really settled into reading this book. It is split into three parts, each with a different personality. The portrayal of small town life in Ireland in the first half was so full of sketchy characters I got confused. I longed for a simpler format to allow the moral dilemma to come through. In part two, Fidelma is in London, searching for healing, and for answers. She cleans a City tower block, and works in a kennel for abandoned greyhounds. At The Centre, where Fidelma goes for support, we hear the stories of abused refugees and asylum seekers, they are victims of war, genocide and physical assault and sexual abuse. For me, their stories sit uncomfortably alongside Fidelma’s own self-created dilemma and, I think because of this, I was left oddly untouched. In part three, Fidelma goes to see Vlad in The Hague at the war crimes tribunal. I admit to not understanding her motivation in going there, but it is a conversation in a bar with a victim of genocide which finally prompts Fidelma to complete the circle and return to Ireland to see the other victim in all this – her husband.
The power of O’Brien’s topic is undeniable. Is it a comment on our gullibility, how we can all be taken in by appearances; or a comment on how we avoid confrontation, not wanting to be the person to say the difficult thing, the one thing which afterwards people say ‘I thought that too.’ It is also a comment on a society which punishes and isolates the victim.

If you like this, try:-
‘Dominion’ by CJ Sansom
‘The Aftermath’ by Rhidian Brook
‘A Long Long Way’ by Sebastian Barry

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE LITTLE RED CHAIRS by Edna O’Brien via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1TY

#BookReview ‘The Silent Twin’ by Caroline Mitchell @Caroline_writes #crime

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Blackwater Farm, an isolated farmhouse outside the town of Haven, is a creepy place: things move, are thrown and rattle, and not just because of the wind. In The Silent Twin by Caroline Mitchell, the new owners of the farm, a young couple with identical twin daughters, have plans to convert the place. But all is not well. Caroline MitchellWhen nine-year old Abigail goes missing, the cracks become ravines. Detective Constable Jennifer Knight is a policewoman, a Family Liaison Officer with an unusual skill. This is the third book in the Knight series by Caroline Mitchell and the first I have read, so it was a while before I realized she is a psychic. Jennifer is not an unreliable narrator as such, but her ‘take’ on things for me at times conflicted with what I expected from a police investigation. Is she a psychic first or a police officer?
Everyone has something to hide and at one point I suspected each member of the family and their inner circle as the murderer. The story is told from three main viewpoints – Joanna, the young mother; Jennifer, who seems rather mysterious; and diary entries by an unknown person – and so starts the guessing game. Whose diary is it, whose viewpoint can be trusted?
If you often read crime fiction, then Jennifer will not seem a reliable narrator of a murder investigation. She belongs to a specialist team often on the periphery of the main case. In The Silent Twin, her commanding officer often seems to be operating to another agenda. But it is an interesting premise, a detective story that is just a little bit different.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK

If you like this, try:-
‘Eeny Meeny’ by MJ Arlidge
‘A Death in the Dales’ by Frances Brody
‘Business as Usual’ by EL Lindley

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE SILENT TWIN by @Caroline_writes via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1WI