My Review (5 stars out of 5) (Audiobook) When sixteen-year-old Harriet Vanger disappears from a family gathering, the very fact of her living on an island owned by her family – the powerful Vanger clan – has huge implications for the police investigation. Forty years later, the girl’s body has never been found, but her…
Category: murder
‘The Watermen’ by Patrick Easter
My Review (4 stars out of 5) 1798 – the Port of London. Villainous Irishman Boylin gets the opportunity to take revenge on his nemesis, Captain Tom Pascoe, the man responsible for giving Boylin 200 lashes on board ship. When Pascoe is offered the position of River Surveyor in the newly formed marine police, he…
‘Looking Good Dead’ by Peter James
My Review (5 stars out of 5) When the body of a woman is found in a field in Brighton, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is reminded of the disappearance of his own wife. However, identifying the corpse proves difficult as the dead woman’s head is missing. Meanwhile, on his train journey home, struggling businessman Tom…
‘The Talented Mr Ripley’ by Patricia Highsmith
My Review (5 stars out of 5) Striving to avoid his debts, Tom Ripley is given an opportunity when a businessman offers him a free trip to Europe to track down the man’s errant offspring. With money in his pocket and a talent for forgery, Ripley sets out to create a new life for himself…
‘Pretty Evil New England’ by Sue Coletta
My Review (5 stars out of 5) Exploring murder in nineteenth century New England, crime writer Sue Coletta tells the stories of five female serial killers – Jane Toppan, Lydia Sherman, Nellie Webb, Harriet E. Nason and Sarah Jane Robinson. Delving into their individual backgrounds, she looks at the events that drove these women to…
‘The Bleak’ by Keith Dixon
My Review (5 stars out of 5) When Sam Dyke meets a new client, her strange behaviour suggests he should drop her like a hot doughnut, but something about Margaret’s story intrigues him. Working in a secret research unit, the woman has serious concerns about her boss, whose own behaviour has taken a turn for…
‘Atlanta Deathwatch’ by Ralph Dennis
My Review (5 stars out of 5) Atlanta, 1974. Private investigator and former cop Jim Hardman takes what he can get in a world where getting beaten up and shot at are par for the course. Along with his pal Hump Evans, Hardman agrees to look into the disappearance of a young woman – girlfriend…
‘Let This Be Our Secret’ by Deric Henderson
My Review (4 stars out of 5) (Audiobook) True crime story set in Northern Ireland where an apparent suicide pact turned out to be a double murder. Eighteen years after the incident, dentist Colin Howell confessed to police, telling them he and his former lover, Hazel Buchanan, murdered their respective spouses. Although superbly narrated by…
‘Fred and Rose’ by Howard Sounes
My Review (5 stars out of 5) (Audiobook) Over a period of several years, Fred and Rose West murdered a series of young women, burying many of the bodies under their own house at 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester – their victims including one of their own daughters. Other bodies were discovered buried at the Wests’…
‘No Going Back’ by Robert Crouch
My Review (5 stars out of 5) Journalist Harry Lawson drowns in a swimming pool, prompting super sleuth Kent Fisher to wonder if it really was an accident. Discovering a series of crossword clues and text messages from the journo, sets Kent on the murder trail. But working out why Harry was at the party…
