Tag Archives: detective fiction

#BookReview ‘Cover Her Face’ by PD James #crime

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Can I remember a time when I didn’t know of the existence of Adam Dalgliesh? No. Cover Her Face, the first in the PD James series about the thoughtful detective, was published in 1962. So it was an interesting exercise to re-read this novel when I am so familiar with the last books in the series. How to describe the style of PD James’s detective: detection by deduction and perception. PD JamesThe Maxie family has a new parlourmaid, Sally Jupp, who is found dead in her bed. This is almost a ‘closed room’ mystery in that the murder takes place in a country house with a limited number of suspects. What is unclear is the real story of Sally, her background and how she became an unmarried mother. Is Sally a victim, or is she a manipulative young woman who twists situations and people to her advantage? And who feels most threatened by her? There are plenty of potential culprits and Dalgliesh’s summary at the end – leading up to the naming of the murderer – reminded me of Agatha Christie.
Any Dalgliesh fan will be curious to read about his first appearance. There is almost nothing inside his head here, something the later books do so well, showing us the thoughtful, tortured poet detective. Here, his character is still forming.

Read my reviews of the other Adam Dalgliesh mysteries:-
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
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
THE PRIVATE PATIENT #14ADAMDALGLIESH

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:-
‘A Fatal Crossing’ by Tom Hindle
‘Business as Usual’ by EL Lindley
‘The Killing of Polly Carter’ by Robert Thorogood

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

#BookReview ‘No Other Darkness’ by @sarah_hilary #crime

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Amongst children’s books and tins of peaches, two bodies are found in an underground bunker. Two children, curled around each other like commas. For investigating officers DI Marnie Rome and Noah Jake, the case disturbs their own difficult childhood memories. Are they searching for a sadistic murderer, or someone who intended to hide not kill? Then it gets worse, as the plans for other forgotten bunkers are discovered. This is No Other Darkness by Sarah Hilary. Sarah HilaryThis is the first Marnie Rome book I have read, and there were things I liked and things I didn’t. I didn’t like the grotesque description of the inside of the bunker. But I did like the storyline, full of fresh ideas. It is about families: broken ones, cracked ones, and how the past affects the present. Can the past ever be forgotten? Is it possible to start again after tragedy, to have a second chance of getting it right? Or is any attempt bound to fail?
This is an underground mystery of tunnels, bunkers, sewers and dark hiding places. What is the murderer trying to hide, and who from? And what role do the mysterious preppers play? These shady people who plan in case of nuclear attack, storing food and specialist equipment should the worst actually happen.

If you like this, try:-
‘Eeny Meeny’ by MJ Arlidge #1HELENGRACE
‘Due Diligence’ by DJ Harrison #1JENNYPARKER
‘Business as Usual’ by EL Lindley #1GEORGIECONNELLY

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview NO OTHER DARKNESS by @sarah_hilary http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1Bb via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘The Shadows in the Street’ by @susanhillwriter #crime

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After a spell of reading historical books, I needed a comfort read, something familiar. A pageturner, but well-written. So I picked up The Shadows in the Street, fifth in the Simon Serrailler detective series by Susan Hill. And I tweeted about it. Susan Hill replied with the question: “Comfort?!!” Susan HillI know what she means; a crime thriller should not be comfortable reading. I replied: “Okay, discomfort with familiar characters.” I finished the book that same day, but sat back and considered what made me feel comfortable with this series of books. Firstly, the quality of the writing. Hill’s detective Serrailler is a literary gem, he is distinctive but believable, seems ordinary but is extraordinary. And he is surrounded by a close-knit family whose stories I also follow from book to book. Hill is particularly good at creating mood – a skill also used in her ghost stories – and her description of place is minimal but so effective. For example, “It was a damp, mild October night with a thin mist drifting away over the black water of the canal like a spirit departing a dead body. The air smelled green.” And there is depth to her writing, literary and cultural references there for you to delight in recognising but which don’t matter if you don’t get them.
In Lafferton, two prostitutes are murdered. Simon Serrailler is on sabbatical leave on a remote Scottish island. A librarian takes food parcels to the prostitutes, one of whom is beaten up by her boyfriend. As usual with Hill’s books, each new chapter makes you want to devour the book in one sitting as she lays out first one possibility then another. Of course nothing is as it first seems.

Read my reviews of the other novels in the series:-
THE VARIOUS HAUNTS OF MEN #1SIMONSERRAILLER
THE PURE IN HEART #2SIMONSERRAILLER
THE RISK OF DARKNESS #3SIMONSERRAILLER
THE VOWS OF SILENCE #4SIMONSERRAILLER
THE BETRAYAL OF TRUST #6SIMONSERRAILLER
A QUESTION OF IDENTITY #7SIMONSERRAILLER
THE SOUL OF DISCRETION #8SIMONSERRAILLER
THE COMFORTS OF HOME #9SIMONSERRAILLER
THE BENEFIT OF HINDSIGHT #10SIMONSERRAILLER
A CHANGE OF CIRCUMSTANCE #11SIMONSERRAILLER

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

If you like this, try:-
‘The Farm’ by Tom Rob Smith
‘Or the Bull Kills You’ by Jason Webster #1MAXCAMARA
‘Last Light’ by Alex Scarrow #1LASTLIGHT

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE SHADOWS IN THE STREET by @susanhillwriter http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1z1 via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘One False Move’ by @HarlanCoben #crime #basketball

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A strapline across the top of the front cover says ‘A Myron Bolitar novel’. It meant nothing to me. I have never heard of Myron Bolitar. I have heard of Harlan Coben though, but know nothing about him except that he writes crime books and is extremely popular. His name sounds Scandinavian, but this is US crime not Scandi-crime. The book’s been sitting on my bookshelf for ages, a charity shop purchase, waiting for the battery of my Kindle to flicker and die. It died, so I picked up One False Move and read it in two days. Harlan CobenMr Coben knows how to make you turn the pages. He nails a character description in a few sparse lines: “Norm Zuckerman was approaching seventy and as CEO of Zoom, a megasize sports manufacturing conglomerate, he had more money than Trump. He looked, however, like a beatnik trapped in a bad acid trip… Che Guevara lives and gets a perm.” So we have Norm’s name, job, professional standing, age, physical description, financial worth and personal style – in three sentences.
Bolivar is a sports agent. There seemed to be all sorts of back story going on which meant nothing to me and didn’t affect my enjoyment of the story. Next time my Kindle flickers and dies, I will pick up another book by Harlan Coben. Bolivar’s new client runs into trouble – it reminded me of my father who used to watch the opening titles of The Rockford Files, the one where Jim’s answerphone clicks on a leaves a message saying there’d been a murder or someone had disappeared. Dad used to say, “It is dangerous being a friend of Rockford, everyone he knows gets murdered.” It seems that everyone Myron Bolitar knows runs into trouble too.
The fact that the context of the story is basketball wasn’t what drew me to the book, but the sport didn’t matter. I wanted to know what happened to the characters. It’s the fifth novel in the series.
This is a roundabout way of saying, I enjoyed One False Move.

Read my review of a young adult novel by Harlan Coben:-
FOUND #3MICKEYBOLITAR

If you like this:-
‘Snow White Must Die’ by Nele Neuhaus
‘Jellyfish’ by Lev D Lewis
‘Dead Simple’ by Peter James

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview ONE FALSE MOVE by @HarlanCoben http://wp.me/p5gEM4-18o via @SandraDanby

Great opening paragraph… 29

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pd james - the murder room 30-4-13“On Friday 25 October, exactly one week before the first body was discovered at the Dupayne Museum, Adam Dalgliesh visited the museum for the first time. The visit was fortuitous, the decision impulsive and he was later to look back on that afternoon as one of life’s bizarre coincidences which, although occurring more frequently than reason would expect, never fail to surprise.”
‘The Murder Room’ by PD James