Crime Fiction
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REVIEW: The Killer in the Snow (DI James Walker #2) by Alex Pine
Very few authors can keep me engrossed in a story from the beginning, through the middle until the very end. Alex Pine has done just that with The Killer in the Snow. The cover initially pulled me in, but I stayed for the storyline. A family massacre with mother, father and daughter killed in cold blood. It initially looks like a murder-suicide but as the investigation delves deeper it’s found to have dark connotations to a similar murder/suicide on the same property twenty-four years ago. Are the two connected? Or is this a deathly case of coincidence? If you’ve been a follower of my blog for any length of time,…
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REVIEW: Heads or Tails (DS Malice Series #3) by Rob Ashman
Heads or Tails is gambling on a knife’s edge. Valerie Riggs was thrown into the primordial soup with Two-Face. Who makes life and death decisions based upon the flip of a coin? Valerie does, and she is resolute in its whispered answer. They say everything happens for a reason, but Valerie believes that the toss of a coin will keep her safe … it hasn’t done her wrong yet. It’s an addictive tale of compulsion and delusion with characters that leave you feeling relieved that you walk on the sane side of the street. Heads and Tails opens with a taster of Valerie’s mental capacity. The lady doesn’t display behaviours…
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REVIEW – Exit by Belinda Bauer
Exit by Belinda Bauer was a testament to humour and the conflicting need to do the right thing. Felix, a man that has known his share of hardship in the world with the deaths of both his wife and son longs to do some good in the world. He watched his son depart painfully and doesn’t wish to see others in that position, so after much deliberation, he joins the exiteers. A group that believes stringently in euthanasia and the right to choose. Bauer has created a tightly plotted and dark story that shows investigates the complexities of aided suicide. Exit is as complex as it is touching. Aided Euthanasia…
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REVIEW: Sawbones by Stuart MacBride
Sawbones was a Stuart MacBride first for me and I can gladly say it will not be the last. With brutal imagery and a raw and fantastical landscape, I flew through the pages of this short novella. Who instantly pops into your mind when you think of serial killers? Jack the Ripper, Jeffrey Dahmer, Harold Shipman, and Ted Bundy immediately come to mind. Well, MacBride’s Sawbones could give them all a run for their money. A man that kidnaps and tortures young girls to death by the hacking of their limbs for what seems like fun. What happens though when a serial killer takes the wrong girl and ignites the…
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REVIEW – Deadly Caller (Detective Jane Phillips) by OMJ Ryan
Deadly Caller is yet another novel by OMJ Ryan that never fails to get the gears moving. There’s only one thing you should do when seeing this in bookstores – THAT IS INSTANT BUY. It won’t be a shock to find out that Ryan’s skill impressed me from Jane Phillip’s first outing. He instigated my love of police procedurals and has only made that love grow stronger. The author has used the technology of a pandemic world and made it deadlier! A murder was witnessed over a zoom meeting. I’ve come to expect the unexpected from Ryan, but this is another stellar outing for Phillips and her team! “There is…
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The Dark Remains by William McIlvanney & Ian Rankin
The Dark Remains is undeniably authentic and a true testament to everything Glasgow was in the ’70s and ’80s. I haven’t had the pleasure of reading the Laidlaw series by the late and great William McIlvanney but I will be rectifying that as soon as possible. Gangland Glasgow and its brutal violence and its territorial wars, the tone was set and it was addictive as it was horrifying. Ian Rankin had massive shoes to fill but he laced them up, took pen to paper, and paid homage to Scotland’s father of Tartan Noir. The Dark Remains is just that, dark. It doesn’t pull any punches, it doesn’t pretty anything up,…
