***** At an isolated cottage, three women meet to carry out an environmental survey. On her arrival, the first of the three makes a gruesome discovery. Amid the initial investigation of what looks like suicide, the women begin their work, but all three are hiding secrets and when another death occurs, Inspector Vera Stanhope turns…
Category: murder
‘The Two Fathers’ by Keith Dixon
***** NB This post first appeared as part of the Blog Tour for ‘The Two Fathers’. Cinema manager Brian turns up at Sam Dyke’s house one night asking for help. Despite Dyke’s reluctance to take on what appears to be a ‘divorce’ case, he listens to Brian’s story and learns that the wife, Jessica, is…
‘Dolores Claiborne’ by Stephen King
***** When Vera Donovan dies suddenly, her housekeeper Dolores is ready to tell her version of what happened, but with gossip and long-standing suspicions about how her own husband died, Dolores needs to put things straight, so her story is going to be told her way and it’s going to include pretty much everything. This…
‘The Umbrella Man’ by Jake Needham
***** When bombs explode in three American hotels in the heart of Singapore, Inspector Sam Tay is close by – so close by that he is injured and spends several days in hospital. On waking, he is disturbed to learn that he won’t be involved in investigating the bombings and has instead been assigned to…
‘Strangers on a Train’ by Patricia Highsmith
**** On a train journey to meet up with his flirtatious wife in the hope of her agreeing to a divorce, Guy Haines falls into conversation with another passenger, Charles Bruno. Bruno is an odd man whose interest in Guy unearths deep-seated uneasiness about the task Guy hopes to accomplish. Bruno, however, has an idea…
‘Rivers of London’ by Ben Aaronovitch
***** Probationary cop Peter Grant longs for an interesting transfer in the Metropolitan Police Service, but after a strange encounter with Nicholas Wallpenny (who happens to be a ghost), what he gets is something unexpected. Learning that his new inspector is also a bit of a wizard, Grant finds himself talking to dead people, casting…
‘Family’ by Owen Mullen
***** NB This post first appeared as part of the blog tour for ‘Family’ via Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources. When gangster Luke Glass gets out of prison after a seven-year stretch, he has no intention of going back. The only way to avoid trouble is to get out of the family business, but with…
‘Troubled’ by Joy Mutter
***** The discovery of a naked body on the banks of a river in Sheffield, sets off an immediate police investigation. DCI Cosgrove and his team soon find themselves immersed in the dark world of grooming gangs, manipulation and child abuse. With kooky scientist Fenton Nightingale on the run, Cosgrove and his DS Theresa Smart,…
‘The Man Who Died’ by Antti Tuomainen
***** Mushroom entrepreneur Jaakko is only thirty-seven years of age, so when a doctor reveals that he’s been poisoned and will soon die, Jaakko is determined to find out who is responsible. But that isn’t his only problem – the new mushroom company across the street are trying to steal his customers, one of his…
‘Double Indemnity’ by James M Cain
***** Insurance agent Walter Huff gets into deep water when he meets beautiful temptress Phyllis Nirdlinger. Cooking up a plot to kill the woman’s husband, Huff looks forward to getting the money and the girl. Unfortunately, the plan to pull off the perfect murder falls foul of Huff’s boss, Barton Keyes, who knows more about…
Colin Garrow 