My Review (5 stars out of 5) A disturbing case sets Detective Superintendent Roy Grace on the trail of a serial killer. Someone is targeting young women who all have similar features. Bizarrely, those bodies that have been recovered have been branded with the words, ‘U R Dead’. Following the abduction of Logan Somerville, Grace…
Category: murder
‘Mary Ann Cotton – Dark Angel’ by Martin Connolly
My Review (5 stars out of 5) In West Auckland, County Durham, in 1872, Mary Ann Cotton was arrested and charged with the murder of her stepson. Married four times and supposedly having borne twelve children, she was found guilty and hanged in Durham Goal. Charting the details of the trials and claims she may…
‘Ripley Under Ground’ by Patricia Highsmith
My Review (3 stars out of 5) A team of art fraudsters at the Buckmaster Gallery in London plan an exhibition of work by Derwatt – a dead artist whose works they’ve been forging. Tom Ripley’s part in the scam requires him to help perpetuate the myth. Travelling to England from his home in France,…
‘The Shadow of Death’ by Philip E Ginsburg
My Review (5 stars out of 5) (Audiobook) During the 1980s, a killer stabbed six women in the Connecticut River Valley, between New Hampshire and Vermont. Despite rigorous investigations, the murderer has never been caught. Author Philip E. Ginsburg reveals the pioneering forensic methods police and FBI agents used to track the killer. The only…
‘Silent Voices’ by Ann Cleeves
My Review (5 stars out of 5) Following her doctor’s orders, DI Vera Stanhope makes the effort to take regular exercise by swimming a few lengths of the pool in her local gym. When she discovers a body in the sauna room it looks as though the woman died of natural causes, but ligature marks…
‘The Fells’ by Cath Staincliffe
My Review (5 stars out of 5) In the summer 1997, Vicky Mott leaves the cottage where she’s staying with her friends and walks off into the early morning light. Her disappearance is put down to the serial killer known as the Fellside Strangler but when Vicky’s body is discovered twenty years later, the possibility…
‘The Custard Corpses’ by MJ Porter
My Review (5 stars out of 5) (Audiobook) Birmingham, 1943. A twenty-year-old murder sets Chief Inspector Mason on the trail of a killer. Along with his sidekick Constable O’Rourke, he investigates the death of a boy – Robert McFarlane – who was murdered in 1923. Weirdly, although the body was discovered on dry land, the…
‘Hidden Depths’ by JH Mann
My Review (4 stars out of 5) What I liked most about this book are the author’s descriptions of the Cornish landscape, which set the scene beautifully in this story of lies, deceit and secret affairs. Open water enthusiast Cathy loves to swim in the Atlantic, but when she joins in with a scheme to…
‘No Time for Doubt’ by Robert Crouch
My Review (5 stars out of 5) A decomposed body is found in a dingy bedsit, leading Kent Fisher to dig into his past. Uncovering a series of crimes from thirty years ago, he must ask some probing questions to find out the truth. With the help of his detective pal Belinda, Kent sets about…
‘Killing Eve – Codename Villanelle’ by Luke Jennings
My Review (5 stars out of 5) Russian orphan Oxana has been trained as a ruthless assassin. Controlled by a group known only as The Twelve, her handler, Konstantin, delegates her targets. Meanwhile, MI5 officer Eve Polastri follows the killer’s progress, but an error of judgment leaves Eve out in the cold. Given a shabby…
Colin Garrow 