Mother of two Gina Royal reinvents herself, Sarah Connor style, when she discovers her husband is a prolific serial killer who has tortured and killed a succession of women in her garage. Even with her husband (now ex) on death row and a succession of new identities for her and her children, she can never […]
Thriller
White Nights by Ann Cleeves
The second in Cleeves’ series set in the Shetland Islands, White Nights is a solid little murder mystery, as comforting as a warm blanket over the knees on a cold day. Her first Shetland novel, Raven Black, was more gripping but this is still a good read.
Under the Harrow by Flynn Berry
This one really gets under your skin. The protagonist, Nora, goes to visit her sister but finds her murdered. From there on Nora’s actions and thoughts become somewhat disordered, the past matted with the present and her determination to find her sister’s killer driving her to suspect almost every male she comes across. Accompanying Nora […]
A Talent for Murder by Andrew Wilson
An odd little book, trying desperately to contrive a fictional murder mystery out of the real life disappearance of Agatha Christie in 1926. The plot is fairly ludicrous but it does paint a convincing portrait of the era among the stiff-upper-lip class of English people and gives us a tiny glimpse of the unique mind […]
Beneath the Skin by Nicci French
I’m not usually a fan of serial killer novels, but this one is told mostly from the perspective of the women terrorised by him, and done extremely well. Each of the three women are well drawn, and at least two of them are likeable. I devoured this novel over a couple of days and want […]
Mission Flats by William Landay
Landay is the king of the great story with the kicker in the tail. From the prologue in this one, I was hooked. Our protagonist Ben Truman, chief of police in the small town of Mission Flats, Maine, may be accused of being a little slow on the uptake at times but he’s a good […]
Hidden Depths by Ann Cleeves
Cleeves’ books are consistently absorbing and somehow comforting, like a nice cup of tea. This is the the third in the Vera Stanhope series, and you just know Vera’s going to get her (muderous) man. The books are a quiet study of human nature: detective inspector Vera is badly dressed, overweight, often drunk and consistently […]