My Review (5 stars out of 5) Eighty-six-year-old Harry Black dies while out walking on the beach. But his apparently quiet existence in a small town in the Gulf of Thailand isn’t quiet enough for whoever shoots him. What did Harry Black know that threatened his life, and who did he tell? Former police inspector…
‘As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning’ by Laurie Lee
My Review (5 stars out of 5) (Audiobook) Leaving his home in a Cotswolds village, Laurie Lee walked to London, earning a living as a labourer and busking in the streets with his violin. Yearning to travel, he set out for Spain, travelling from the northern to the southern coast… I never got around to…
‘A Darker Domain’ by Val McDermid
My Review (5 stars out of 5) The case of a woman and her baby son – kidnapped twenty-five years earlier – lands on DI Karen Pirie’s desk following a recent development in Tuscany. But Karen already has another case to deal with from 1984 – the same year of the kidnap. Risking her boss’s…
‘A Long Way From Home’ by Peter Carey
My Review (4 stars out of 5) Speed-loving Irene Bobs and her car-salesman husband embark on the Redex Trial, a ruthless car race around 1950s Australia, over bad roads and in terrible conditions. Along with their neighbour—former school-teacher-turned-navigator, Mr Bachuber—they aim for the prize. But things don’t go the way they planned, not least when…
‘Out of Sight’ by Anna Legat
My Review (4 stars out of 5) This is book six in the DI Gillian Marsh series, and the first I’ve read by this author. The story concerns a murder investigation where the list of suspects gives the police plenty to think about. Detective Marsh is out of the picture for some of the tale…
‘Open Your Eyes’ by Heather J Fitt
My Review (4 stars out of 5) Edinburgh journalist Frankie becomes embroiled in a dark online world when she is assigned a high-profile crime story. Focusing on women’s safety and how attitudes have hardly changed since the era of the Yorkshire Ripper, Frankie enlists the help of her partner, but things soon get out of…
‘Make Me’ by Lee Child
My Review (5 stars out of 5) Getting off a train at a remote station named Mother’s Rest, could be just another stop for Jack Reacher. But when he meets a woman who’s waiting for someone—someone who hasn’t turned up—it leads him into a mystery. The townspeople seem reluctant to let either Recher or the…
‘Men Who Hate Women’ by Laura Bates
My Review (5 stars out of 5) (Audiobook) An important book that charts the rise of secretive, extremist communities, tracing the roots of misogyny from men’s rights activists and pick-up artists to Men Going Their Own Way, trolls and the Incel movement, in the name of which some men have committed terrorist acts. If I’d…
‘The Promise Tree’ by Elisabeth J Hobbes
My Review (4 stars out of 5) Eighteen-year-old Edwin lives with his grandfather – a man who appears not to like his grandson, though the reasons are unclear. Haunted by memories of a mysterious girl and a sycamore tree, Edwin is grateful when the old man allows him to escape to Yorkshire to stay with…
‘A Necessary Evil’ by Abir Mukherjee
My Review (4 stars out of 5) In 1920s India, Captain Sam Wyndham and Sergeant Banerjee of Calcutta Police embark on a murder investigation after witnessing the assassination of a maharaja’s son. Journeying to the kingdom of Sambalpore, they find that, aside from its diamond mines and beautiful palaces, the region is torn by conflict.…
Colin Garrow 