My Review (5 stars out of 5) Lawyer Charlie Trust has his view of California’s Carbon Beach spoiled one morning when sheriff’s deputies march across to the house of one of Charlie’s neighbours. Soon, two bodies are carried away in black bags. Arnie Duncan and his wife have been shot in their living room. The…
Category: Crime
‘Shadow Hunt’ by Tom Bale
My Review (4 stars out of 5) Former cop Joe Clayton takes a job as a bodyguard for businessman Valentin Nasento and his wife Cassie. Living with the family in one of half a dozen houses on a little island called Terror’s Reach, Joe hopes to keep his head down until he can sort his…
‘Mindhunter’ by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker
My Review (5 stars out of 5) This is the story of how FBI agent John Douglas helped set up the Behavioural Science unit, which also inspired the hit Netflix show of the same name. Spending time interviewing serial killers and teaching profiling skills to other agents and police officers, Douglas himself was the model…
‘The Mysterious Mrs Hood’ by Kim Donovan
My Review (5 stars out of 5) (Audiobook) In the fishing port of Great Yarmouth in September 1900, a young woman known only as Mrs Hood had been staying in a local lodging house. When she was found dead on the beach, strangled with a bootlace, police struggled to learn her identity, and that of…
‘On Creating a Series…’
Creating a new series is a bit of a challenge for any author – not only must you come up with a bunch of brand-new characters, but you also need to know where they live, what work they do and any interesting pasts they’ve had before appearing fully-formed in a new adventure. I’m not a…
‘Broken Ground’ by Val McDermid
My Review (5 stars out of 5) A body found buried in a peat bog in a remote spot in the Highlands, sends cold-case investigator DCI Karen Pirie to the scene. Buried along with the body are a pair of pre-war motorcycles, but the condition of the body suggests the murder is more recent. As…
‘Contempt of Court’ by Jake Needham
My Review (5 stars out of 5) Having left his job as a Virginia divorce lawyer, Charlie Trust now drives a cherry red 1969 Mustang and spends his time watching the ocean from a borrowed house on Carbon Beach. But the owner of the house interrupts Charlie’s peace when he suggests the former lawyer might…
‘The Locked Room’ by Holly Hepburn
Purchase Link My Review (4 stars out of 5) In her basement office within the Baker Street Building Society, Harriet (Harry) White responds to letters addressed to Sherlock Holmes. Spotting something in The Times that challenges her fictional hero to prove his worth, propels Harry on a mission to locate the mystery writer, who titles…
‘Embouchure’ by Archibald Fitz
My Review (4 stars out of 5) An American artist, jazz buff and sci-fi writer lives with his Italian muse in Quebec’s Bohemian enclave of De Lorimier. When his business partner is killed by a bomb, he finds himself in the spotlight as a suspect in the investigation. But hints of French terrorism, the Mafia,…
‘End of Watch’ by Stephen King
My Review (5 stars out of 5) Now running a detective agency along with his side-kick Holly Gibney, ex-detective Bill Hodges is intrigued to learn that the letter Z has been written at the scene of the crime. Hodges discovers the evidence suggests the culprit to be Brady Hartsfield, the notorious ‘Mercedes Killer’. But with…
Colin Garrow 