My Review (5 stars out of 5) Struggling with the demands of her work as a shop manager, part time storyteller, and witch-tour guide, Sarah Sutherland must also deal with looking after her elderly father. Living in a house once occupied by Alie Gowdie – a woman executed as a witch during the time of…
Category: Crime
‘Hidden Depths’ by Ann Cleeves
My Review (5 stars out of 5) Following a night out, a mother arrives home to find her son strangled, his body laid in the bath and decorated with flowers. The murder sets Inspector Vera Stanhope on an investigation but she soon has another body to deal with – one that replicates the stylized setting…
‘Dead Man’s Time’ by Peter James
My Review (4 stars out of 5) Detective Superintendent Roy Grace must investigate a vicious robbery at a Brighton mansion, which soon turns to murder when an old woman dies. The search for valuable antiques stolen from the house pits Grace against the dead woman’s brother, who is keen to recover one particular item, as…
‘The Pottery Cottage Murders’ by Carol Ann Lee and Peter Howse
My Review (5 stars out of 5) In January 1977, escaped prisoner Billy Hughes entered the home of Gill Moran and her family, threatening their lives. Keeping them in separate rooms, he secretly murdered five members of the family one by one. After three days, Hughes took Gill with him to flee, but by then…
‘Arsenic at Ascot’ by Kelly Oliver
My Review (4 stars out of 5) This is book four in the Fiona Figg and Kitty Lane Mystery series, and the first I’ve read by this author. Well-known mistress of disguise and wartime spy, Fiona Figg, finds herself shunted around the war office dealing with mundane tasks, rather than getting to grips with espionage…
‘Shamus Dust’ by Janet Roger
My Review (5 stars out of 5) A Christmas crib. A nurse lighting candles in a church. A dead body. In snowy post-war London, City Police has a murder to deal with, and a frightened councillor hires investigator Newman to look into the killing. But Newman soon finds he has more on his plate than…
‘The Infirmary’ by LJ Ross
My Review (5 stars out of 5) (audiobook) A serial killer stalks the streets of Newcastle, apparently targeting his victims at random. But when the female DCI in charge of the case goes missing, the ante is well and truly upped for DCI Ryan as he takes over the hunt for the killer. With each…
‘Who the Hell is Harry Black?’ By Jake Needham
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…
‘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…
‘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…
Colin Garrow 