**** Glasgow villain Malkie Thompson has ambitions. Feeling constrained by his boss McAlister, he decides to take over and establish his own firm, and if that means getting rid of anyone who stands in his way, that’s fine with him. This is a novella that introduces Mark Newman’s Crime Syndicate series. The plot rolls along…
Category: murder
‘Noel’ by AJ Griffiths-Jones
***** When a rain-drenched Dutch traveller hitches a lift to a rural French monastery, the monks take care of him. But when the young man dies, detectives Mallery and Hobbs launch an investigation and the monastery’s seventy inmates quickly fall under suspicion. The mystery deepens when the Dutchman’s grandmother arrives, as the old woman introduces…
‘Absolute Proof’ by Peter James
***** When journalist Ross Hunter gets a phone call from a person claiming to have proof of God’s existence, he’s tempted to dismiss the old man as a nutcase. But after meeting Dr Cook, Ross finds himself intrigued, if a little sceptical. Following an urgent call with the offer of further proof, Ross discovers Cook’s…
‘High Force’ by LJ Ross
***** (Audio Book) Following the escape from prison of murderer Keir Edwards, one of DCI Ryan’s best detectives is missing. Kidnapped from her own home by the notorious serial killer, Ryan knows Edwards will flaunt his new-found freedom and won’t hesitate to slice up his most recent captive. With Detective Sergeant Frank Phillips at his…
‘Midtown Huckster’ by Leopold Borstinski
***** Welcome to my stop on the Blog Tour for ‘Midtown Huckster’ (Alex Cohen #3) by Leopold Borstinski. Thanks to Emma at Damppebbles Blog Tours for including me. My Review: Working with mobster Lucky Luciano, Jewish gangster Alex Cohen needs to find a new way to make money. But when his boss is nabbed for…
Oh, What a Lovely Murder
Ever since Blackwood’s Magazine published Thomas De Quincey’s satirical essay, ‘On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts’, in 1827, the British (and of course the rest of the world) have been fascinated by the slaughter of our fellow man in all its many permutations and variations. De Quincey’s musings were prompted by the…
‘Driftnet’ by Lin Anderson
***** A murder in a Glasgow flat sees forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod attending an early-morning crime scene. The shocking killing of a teenage boy brings back memories from MacLeod’s own past as she struggles to come to terms with the disturbing resemblance between herself and the victim. Having given up a baby boy for adoption…
‘The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher’ by Kate Summerscale
***** During a summer night in 1860, a terrible crime is committed. When the Kent family of Road Hill House wake up the next morning, they learn that three-year-old Saville is missing and soon discover he has been brutally murdered. As local police fail to track down the killer, Jack Whicher of Scotland Yard is…
‘Stranger Still’ by Michaelbrent Collings
***** Legion has a purpose – to teach, to avenge and to murder. Witnessing a married couple kidnapped at the side of the road, he follows them, knowing he’ll have to make choices about his actions—who to save, who to kill. But with a Russian crime syndicate involved, there are a lot of decisions to…
‘The Bowery Slugger’ by Leopold Borstinski
**** Arriving in America in 1915, Alex Cohen is tagged with an unusual name, courtesy of a dull-witted official. Moving into a tenement apartment with his family, Alex’s reputation as a fighter (Slugger) secures him work in one of the many gangs who use extortion and muscle to make their money. This is book 1…
Colin Garrow 