My Review (4 stars out of 5) This is the fifth book in the DI Barney Mains series and the first I’ve read by this author. Following on from the previous book, DI Mains is haunted by his belief that the assassin known as The Ghost is still alive. The theory is strengthened when a…
Category: detective
‘The Skeleton Road’ by Val McDermid
My Review (5 stars out of 5) The discovery of a skeleton on the roof of a gothic building in Edinburgh gives Detective Chief Inspector Karen Pirie a difficult starting point. The task of identifying the bones, which have lain there for several years, means the lack of evidence leaves the team little to go…
‘Mr Mercedes’ by Stephen King
My Review (5 stars out of 5) Recently retired detective Bill Hodges is tormented by ‘the Mercedes massacre’, a case he couldn’t solve. Now, a letter from the killer gets him thinking. Maybe there’s away he can hunt this guy down himself and bring the perp to justice. But his retired stance means he could…
‘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…
‘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…
Colin Garrow 