My Review (5 stars out of 5) Private investigator Sal Kilkenny must manage childcare and domestic chores while checking up on an errant wife and snooping around a nursing home. When a man suspects his wife of playing away, he asks Sal to find out where she goes. Meanwhile, an elderly woman worried about her…
Month: March 2023
‘The Way of All Flesh’ by Ambrose Parry
My Review (5 stars out of 5) Edinburgh, 1847. Medical student Will Raven begins an apprenticeship to the renowned Dr Simpson where he meets housemaid Sarah Fisher – who also has an interest in medicine. Though the two initially don’t hit it off, they share a concern about a series of gruesome deaths in the…
‘Divided Empire’ by Brian Kitchen
My Review (4 stars out of 5) Britain, 391 AD. While the powers-that-be in Rome vie for control of the empire, Flavius Vitulasius and his pal, Siward, are engaged on a confidential mission – an important document, the ‘Pagan Concord’, could rip Britain apart leading to civil war between the Christians and Pagans. Teaming up…
‘The Summer House’ by Keri Beevis
My Review (3 stars out of 5) Following their grandmother’s sudden death, twins Lana and Ollie are back at the old woman’s house. But the place brings back bad memories. The murder of the siblings’ older sister Camille occurred in the summer house. While Lana identified the killer, it was her brother who discovered the…
‘Dead Man’s Grip’ by Peter James
My Review (5 stars out of 5) Detective Superintendent Roy Grace takes on a seemingly straightforward case following a road traffic incident involving three vehicles and a bicycle. But the dead person – the cyclist – turns out to be the offspring of a notorious Mafia family, and they want vengeance. When the driver of…
‘The Healer’ by Antti Tuomainen
My Review (5 stars out of 5) In the days leading up to Christmas, a climate catastrophe looms over Helsinki – but flooded subway tunnels and abandoned vehicles aren’t the only issue. With ruthless private security firms taking the law into their own hands, poet Tapani Lehtinen and his wife Johanna are some of the…
Heroes and Collectives
How many central characters should a novel have? One or two? Three? Or… Most novels have a hero or heroine, or in some cases, a pair of heroes or heroines. In creating what I hoped would be a new thriller series, I realised I’d gone a bit overboard in character-creation mode and for a while,…
‘The Body Farm’ by Patricia Cornwell
My Review (5 stars out of 5) A research institute testing the decomposition of corpses comes in handy when Kay Scarpetta seeks help with a mysterious mark on the body of a dead girl. In Black Mountain, North Carolina, the doc is called in along with newly promoted Pete Marino and FBI buddy Benton Wesley…
‘Broken Rhodes’ by Kimber Silver
My Review (4 stars out of 5) Back in the town where she grew up in Harlow, Kansas, Kinsley Rhodes wants answers. Following the murder of her grandfather, she needs Sheriff Lincoln James to track down the killer. But Kinsley and the sheriff don’t see eye to eye. Kinley’s difficult past won’t allow her to…
‘The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man’ by Paul Newman
My Review (5 stars out of 5) In 1986, together with close friend and screenwriter Stewart Stern, Paul Newman began to tape an oral history. His aim was to provide a biographical record, including comments from family members, friends, actors and movie directors. The idea focused on everyone being entirely truthful – a no-hold-barred account…
