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…
Category: Crime
‘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…
‘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.…
‘Wild Fire’ by Ann Cleeves
My Review (5 stars out of 5) Recent newcomers to Shetland—an English family with an autistic son—are shocked to find the body of a young nanny hanging in their barn. As the police begin their investigation, rumours quickly spread and the dead woman is linked to several individuals, prompting yet more stories and malicious gossip.…
‘Beyond Evil’ by Nathan Yates
My Review (5 stars out of 5) In Soham in 2002, two ten-year-old girls, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, went out to go and buy some sweets, but they never came home. Among the volunteers who came forward to help in the search for the missing girls was school caretaker, Ian Huntley, who also put…
‘The Distant Echo’ by Val McDermid
My Review (5 stars out of 5) When four drunken students discover the body of a woman in an ancient Pictish cemetery, they soon find themselves suspected of her murder. With blood on their clothes, they struggle to maintain their innocence as they try to move on with their lives. When a cold-case review is…
‘The Riddle of the Sands’ by Erskine Childers
My Review (5 stars out of 5) (Audiobook) First published in 1903, The Riddle of the Sands influenced many spy stories by writers such as John Buchan, Ian Fleming and John le Carre. When civil servant Caruthers is invited on a duck-shooting holiday with his yachting enthusiast pal, Davies, he learns about his friend’s recent…
‘The Raven’s Mark’ by Christie J Newport
My Review (5 stars out of 5) (Audiobook) A brutal murder heralds the start of a cat-and-mouse game for Detective Chief Inspector Beth Fellows as she faces a case that could change her career – or bring it to a crashing end. Realising the killing could be linked to an earlier attack, gives Beth a…
‘Shatter the Bones’ by Stuart MacBride
My Review (5 stars out of 5) Aberdeen mother and daughter singing sensation Alison and Jenny McGregor make it through to the semi-finals of a TV talent show. But their growing popularity rockets when the pair are kidnapped. A ransom demand calls for money – lots of it – and if the target isn’t met,…
Colin Garrow 