Tag Archives: crime fiction

#BookReview ‘The Truth Will Out’ by Jane Isaac @JaneIsaacAuthor #crime

A great beginning, it made me want to check that the loft space of our house is sealed and inaccessible from outside. In The Truth Will Out by Jane Isaac, the lives of two young women are never the same again after a holiday to Italy. The truth of their trip dawns on them on their way home, and the days after their return are fraught. One is attacked, the other flees. Detective Chief Inspector Helen Lavery is on the case, hindered by the appearance of a central police team led by her ex-lover [odd that so many crime novelists feel the need to add a romance theme, is this because so many crime novels are read by women?]. So, a good combination of tension: will the baddies catch up with Eva, will the attacker strike again, and how will Helen cope with seeing her ex?
A competent crime thriller with a female detective who, refreshingly, is not an alcoholic, on the verge of a nervous breakdown or being bullied by male officers. A few plot weaknesses aside – I never fully bought-into Eva’s flight and lack of concern about Naomi – this was a good tale though perhaps it could have been a little shorter. A slightly lacklustre final few pages.

If you like this, try:-
‘An Uncertain Place’ by Fred Vargas #8COMMISSAIREADAMSBERG
‘The Accident’ by CL Taylor
‘Angel with Two Faces’ by Nicola Upson #2JOSEPHINETEY

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE TRUTH WILL OUT by Jane Isaac @JaneIsaacAuthor http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1Iw via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘Due Diligence’ by DJ Harrison ‪@djharrison99‪ #crime

3 Replies

An accountant, at the beginning of a crime novel? Stick with it because what at first appears to be a quiet first chapter takes off with a briefcase full of cash and leads to money laundering, assault, murder and all sorts of financial shenanigans. Due Diligence is first in the Jenny Parker series by DJ Harrison. Set in the business world, and underworld, of Manchester, accountant Jenny Parker is sent to conduct due diligence of a company’s finances. That briefcase full of cash, £20,000, is the beginning of the trouble for Jenny which sees her lover dead and risks her marriage, her son, and her life.
A quick-moving story, Jenny is a likeable heroine who finds toughness she never knew was harboured within herself. The storyline jolts around a little but DJ Harrison has drawn a support network around Jenny, including the wonderful security boss Gary. The financial and business background is well constructed, and the fraud all too believable.

If you like crime, try:-
‘Business as Usual’ by EL Lindley
‘An Uncertain Place’ by Fred Vargas
‘Eeny Meeny’ by MJ Arlidge #1HELENGRACE

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview DUE DILIGENCE by ‪DJ Harrison @djharrison99‪ https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-1Qj via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘Liar Liar’ by @mjarlidge #crimefiction

8 Replies

I loved the ending… a tasty titbit to make me anticipate the fifth book in the series by MJ Arlidge about Southampton detective Helen Grace. Don’t start reading an MJ Arlidge novel, unless you have nothing to do but read. Because the story moves so fast you won’t want to put it down. Liar Liar is the fourth in Arlidge’s Helen Grace series set in Southampton, UK. Arlidge is an expert storyteller, he has created two likeable female detectives – DI Helen Grace and DC Charlie Brooks – and put them in a real, gritty, believable setting.
The writing is graphic. The theme of this book is fire – there’s an arsonist on the loose in Southampton, setting serial fires – so the description of fire in all its stages and its after effects is at times graphic. Is someone trying to cover up a crime? Could it be a revenge attack on one person disguised by multiple fires? Or is it an insider with a grudge?
It is a quick read, 448 pages. Arlidge writes TV drama and his skill at keeping the tension going is clear on every page.

Read my reviews other books in this series:-
EENY MEENY #1HELENGRACE
POP GOES THE WEASEL #2HELENGRACE
THE DOLL’S HOUSE #3HELENGRACE
LITTLE BOY BLUE #5HELENGRACE
HIDE AND SEEK #6HELENGRACE
LOVE ME NOT #7HELENGRACE
DOWN TO THE WOODS #8 HELENGRACE

If you like this, try:-
‘Big Sky’ by Kate Atkinson
‘Wolf’ by Mo Hayder
‘An Uncertain Place’ by Fred Vargas

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

#BookReview ‘Devices and Desires’ by PD James #crime

19 Replies

Perhaps of all the Adam Dalgliesh books so far, and Devices and Desires is the eighth in the series by PD James, this is the one with the strongest sense of place. The East Anglian coast: a bare, windswept, desolate landscape, its coastline dominated by Larksoken nuclear power station, it is a tight-knit community where there are few secrets and no hiding places. The power station’s staff, its purpose and existence are at the centre of this murder mystery. Dalgiesh’s Aunt Jane has died and he visits her house, which he has inherited, both as a break after the Berowne murder [featured in the previous book, A Taste for Death] and as an opportunity to consider the house and decide whether to sell it or keep it. Meanwhile, the community on the remote coastal headline is being terrorized by a serial killer, The Whistler. And, of course, a few pages into the book, The Whistler kills. Or does he?
This is a magnificent mystery, I challenge anyone to work out the plot twists and turns. But it is not just James’ talent at plotting which sets this book aside from its predecessors. It is thoughtful, considered, and very moving: about death, love, and all the big human emotions.
I wonder how far ahead James planned her books. Reading A Taste for Death, I noticed that Book Four [of seven] is called ‘Devices and Desires’. Evidently James liked the title and used it for this eighth, and she repeats the phrase several times throughout the book: “Here the past and present fused and her own life, with its trivial devices and desires, seemed only an insignificant moment in the long history of the headland.”
I read this book many years ago and still have my original copy [below], I think I prefer this cover design. Read my reviews of the other Adam Dalgliesh mysteries:-
COVER HER FACE #1ADAMDALGLIESH
A MIND TO MURDER #2ADAMDALGLIESH
UNNATURAL CAUSES #3ADAMDALGLIESH
SHROUD FOR A NIGHTINGALE #4ADAMDALGLIESH
THE BLACK TOWER #5ADAMDALGLIESH
DEATH OF AN EXPERT WITNESS #6ADAMDALGLIESH
A TASTE FOR DEATH #7ADAMDALGLIESH
ORIGINAL SIN #9ADAMDALGLIESH … read the first paragraph HERE
A CERTAIN JUSTICE #10ADAMDALGLIESH
DEATH IN HOLY ORDERS #11ADAMDALGLIESH
THE MURDER ROOM #12ADAMDALGLIESH … read the first paragraph HERE
THE LIGHTHOUSE #13ADAMDALGLIESH
THE PRIVATE PATIENT #14 ADAMDALGLIESH

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:-
‘Or The Bull Kills You’ by Jason Webster #1MAXCAMARA
‘The Accident’ by CL Taylor
‘Wolf’ by Mo Hayder

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

#BookReview ‘A Taste for Death’ by PD James #crime

19 Replies

Two men found dead in a church: murder and suicide, or double murder? One a politician, the other a tramp. Because A Taste for Death is a PD James novel we know it is murder, but we don’t know why or who by. A Taste for Death differs from the preceding six in this series because of its length [656 pages], compared with its predecessor Death of an Expert Witness [400 pages]. For this we get extra plot twist and turns, more detail about the potential suspects, more internal monologues, and more of the literary depth which characterizes the later Dalgliesh novels. Some readers will appreciate the extra detail, others may prefer a quicker moving, shorter, crime novel.
The story is book-ended by the meeting and subsequent relationship between Miss Emily Wharton and 10-year old Darren Wilkes. They find the bodies and after that their very human story is lost in the swirl of police procedure and suspicion, accusations and alibis.
Commander Adam Dalgliesh heads up a new squad to solve serious crimes which need sensitive handling. This murder of Sir Paul Berowne, a government minister, is the squad’s first case. On Dalgliesh’s team is John Massingham, familiar from earlier novels, and newcomer Kate Miskin. Miskin’s storyline is a welcome female perspective in a male-dominated job [this book was first published in 1986].
This was the first novel I read, I still have the original paperback [below]. Certainly I have a clear memory of a man called Berowne murdered in a church. It was the beginning of a fondness for Adam Dalgliesh and I have read every one of his series since.

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 Killing Lessons by Saul Black
One False Move by Harlan Coben
No Other Darkness by Sarah Hilary

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview A TASTE FOR DEATH by PD James via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1MD

#BookReview ‘Business as Usual’ by EL Lindley #crimefiction

#BookReview ‘A Question of Identity’ by @susanhillwriter #crime

11 Replies

A Question of Identity by Susan Hill starts with a flashback to a trial: a man is found not guilty of three murders. Elderly, vulnerable women. Such is the public outcry that he is given a new identity. This is the seventh book in the successful Simon Serrailler detective series. Lafferton, ten years later. A woman is killed. Elderly, vulnerable, murdered the same way as those three women in 2002. But how can Simon Serrailler track down a villain who doesn’t exist: the man was given a new name, a new face, a new identity and was relocated. But we’re talking about murder, so surely one police department will help another?
This is an intriguing premise, all too believable. As ever with Hill’s novels, this is efficient and chilling. She introduces us to prospective villains, each seems a little questionable: but are we being unfair, reading something into signs that don’t exist, generalising, making assumptions? In parallel with the introduction of prospective villains, we are also shown prospective victims.
Whilst Simon Serrailler deals with this emotional case, his own heart is being pulled between love and guilt, and his sister Cat must manage two warring children.
An excellent tale which keeps the pages turning, an examination of the jury system. When ‘not guilty’ can be the wrong verdict, when ‘with reasonable doubt’ can condemn more vulnerable women. A disturbing take on the efficiency of our justice system.

And also by Susan Hill, HOWARD’S END IS ON THE LANDING

If you like this, try:-
‘No Time for Goodbye’ by Linwood Barclay
‘The Art of the Imperfect’ by Kate Evans #1SCARBOROUGHMYSTERIES
‘A Taste for Death’ by PD James #7ADAMDALGLIESH

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview A QUESTION OF IDENTITY by @susanhillwriter via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1CR

#BookReview ‘Death of an Expert Witness’ by PD James #crime

19 Replies

What a great title. Ask most people to name a PD James novel, and this is probably it. Death of an Expert Witness has a gloriously convoluted plot surrounding a Fens village, a forensic science laboratory, and a tightly-knit community linked in ways the reader cannot forsee. The clues are there but each is so fleetingly mentioned, so parsimonious, and so intertwined, that you will forget each and discount its importance. When the senior biologist at Hoggatt’s Laboratory is found dead, New Scotland Yard is called in. Commander Adam Dalgliesh arrives with Detective Inspector John Massingham; it is not the easiest of working partnerships, another layer of grit added to the oyster.
PD James’ observations are at times heart-rending. Of a victim’s elderly father: “The old man sat there, staring straight ahead. His hands, with the long fingers like those of his son, but with their skin dry and stained as withered leavers, hung heavily between his knees, grotesquely large for the brittle wrists.”
The technical detail, at which James is always so reliable, is interleaved here with the writing style I associate with the later Dalgliesh books. On his way to interview a bereaved relative, Dalgliesh stands on high ground and looks towards Hoggatt’s Laboratory. “Under the turbulent painter’s sky, with its changing clusters of white, grey and purple cumulus clouds massing against the pale azure blue of the upper air, and the sunlight moving fitfully across the fields and flittering on roofs and windows, it looked like an isolated frontier outpost, but welcoming, prosperous and secure. Violent death might lurk eastwards in the dark fenlands, but surely not under these neat domestic roofs.” But regular crime readers know that is exactly where crime lurks.
Dalgliesh’s observations, about the process of life and death, the motivation of murder, the role of life of art, of religion, of poetry, are becoming denser in the transition which elevated PD James’ books from crime fiction to literary fiction. There is so much more in her books than murder. “Death, thought Dalgliesh, obliterates family resemblance as it does personality; there is no affinity between the living and the dead.”

Read my reviews of the other Adam Dalgliesh mysteries:-
COVER HER FACE #1ADAMDALGLIESH
A MIND TO MURDER #2ADAMDALGLIESH
UNNATURAL CAUSES #3ADAMDALGLIESH
SHROUD FOR A NIGHTINGALE #4ADAMDALGLIESH
THE BLACK TOWER #5ADAMDALGLIESH
A TASTE FOR DEATH #7ADAMDALGLIESH
DEVICES AND DESIRES #8ADAMDALGLIESH
ORIGINAL SIN #9ADAMDALGLIESH … read the first paragraph HERE
A CERTAIN JUSTICE #10ADAMDALGLIESH
DEATH IN HOLY ORDERS #11ADAMDALGLIESH
THE MURDER ROOM #12ADAMDALGLIESH …read the first paragraph HERE
THE LIGHTHOUSE #13ADAMDALGLIESH

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 Killing Lessons’ by Saul Black
‘The Guest List’ by Lucy Foley
‘The Mystery of Three Quarters’ by Sophie Hannah #3POIROT

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview DEATH OF AN EXPERT WITNESS by PD James http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1Ff via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘The Betrayal of Trust’ by @susanhillwriter #crime

11 Replies

The trust betrayed in The Betrayal of Trust by Susan Hill is marital, parent/child, doctor/patient, in a thought-provoking drama about the bonds between us – personal and professional – and the responsibilities we bear. Exploitation, dominance and manipulation should not belong in the patient/carer sphere, but here in the sixth book of her Simon Serrailler series, Hill examines the difficult zone of terminal illness.

Heavy rains and floods reveal first one skeleton, then another. The first is identified, the second is a mystery. Serrailler must investigate, working almost on his own as police cutbacks see drug busts getting more staff than his investigative team. And then at what promises to be a dull evening, an official dinner at which he wears his police hat, he falls instantly in love: never a convenient time, for all sorts of reasons. In the midst of love at first sight we see a different Serrailler, not in control of the situation, distracted, wracked by longing.
This is the sixth in the series, but unlike other crime series you can read these in or out of order. Of course there are references to long-running storylines – all related to the Serrailler family – which may pass you by if you read them out of order, but that will not affect your enjoyment of the story. Susan Hill crafts her book well, as both stand-alone detective story, and long-term story arcs. But if you can, read from the beginning.

And also by Susan Hill, HOWARD’S END IS ON THE LANDING

If you like this, try:-
‘The Vanished Bride’ by Bella Ellis #1BRONTEMYSTERIES
‘The Killing Lessons’ by Saul Black
‘Pop Goes the Weasel’ by MJ Arlidge #2HELENGRACE

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE BETRAYAL OF TRUST by @susanhillwriter http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1CN via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘The Killing Lessons’ by Saul Black #crime

6 Replies

The Killing Lessons by Saul Black is an intense thriller that opens with a murder particularly tough to read because it features a woman and her two children at an isolated farmhouse. Why is it so horrible? The three are vulnerable, the countryside seems threatening, the snowy landscape is forbidding, and there seems no escape. I had mixed feelings about this book. I enjoyed the story and the efficient writing, I disliked the scenes of violence and skipped past them. The two killers are cold, ceaseless, unforgiving and unstoppable.
There are three story strands: the killers and their psychological battle for power; the daughter Nell, who flees and takes shelter; and the homicide detective Valerie Hart, troubled, alone, regretting a broken relationship [don’t all detectives these days?].
This book is more than its violence, more interesting are the predicament of Nell, and Valerie’s reaction to the appearance of her ex-lover. All three story strands are about trust: betraying it, losing it, and learning to trust again.

If you like this, try:-
‘Wolf’ by Mo Hayder
‘Eeny Meeny’ by MJ Arlidge #1HELENGRACE
‘Wilderness’ by Campbell Hart #1ARBOGAST

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE KILLING LESSONS by Saul Black http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1HA via @SandraDanby

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SANDRA DANBY'S BOOK REVIEWS

Sharing thoughts on the books I read, new authors, favourite authors, classics re-visisted

Tag Archives: crime fiction

#BookReview ‘The Truth Will Out’ by Jane Isaac @JaneIsaacAuthor #crime

#BookReview ‘Due Diligence’ by DJ Harrison ‪@djharrison99‪ #crime

#BookReview ‘Liar Liar’ by @mjarlidge #crimefiction

#BookReview ‘Devices and Desires’ by PD James #crime

#BookReview ‘A Taste for Death’ by PD James #crime

#BookReview ‘Business as Usual’ by EL Lindley #crimefiction

#BookReview ‘A Question of Identity’ by @susanhillwriter #crime

#BookReview ‘Death of an Expert Witness’ by PD James #crime

#BookReview ‘The Betrayal of Trust’ by @susanhillwriter #crime

#BookReview ‘The Killing Lessons’ by Saul Black #crime

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