Review (5 stars out of 5) When a phone call interrupts her gap year to bring her home to Scotland, Ellie Rook is faced with the news that her mother has perished after plunging over an infamously dangerous waterfall. Without a body, Ellie and the rest of the family try to make sense of the…
Category: Writing
‘The Great Escape’ by Paul Brickhill
My Review (5 stars out of 5) The classic wartime adventure story that tells how 600 men worked on a plan that would eventually result in 76 men escaping from a prisoner-of-war camp. With men engaged in digging, forging passports and other documents, making suitable escape outfits and keeping the Germans occupied when they got…
‘A Passion for Poison’ by Carol Ann Lee
My Review (5 stars out of 5) In post-war Britain, teenager Graham Young developed an interest in poisons. Reading and researching everything he could about his soon-to-be obsession, the fourteen-year-old landed himself in court after trying out his experiments on people. Charged with poisoning a schoolfriend and members of his own family, he was diagnosed…
‘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…
‘High Risk’ by Ben Timberlake
My Review (5 stars out of 5) (Audiobook) Ben Timberlake delves into his various careers and non-careers as an archaeologist, Special Forces soldier, combat medic and drug addict, emerging in one piece, though perhaps not quite the same man as he once was. From a truly scary near-death experience in a very dodgy bar in…
‘Sherlock Holmes of Baking Street’ Nancy Holder and Margie Deck (Eds)
My Review (5 stars out of 5) This is a compilation of essays, personal reflections and short stories using the general theme of baking as a starting point. As with any anthology, some pieces are more appealing than others but for fans of the detecting duo Holmes and Watson, there’s definitely something for everyone. Several…
‘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…
‘Forgive Me’ by Kateri Stanley
My Review (4 stars out of 5) Amid lots of twists and turns this book reads like a mix of horror, fantasy and paranormal, with the narrative going off in different directions every five minutes. Not that there’s anything wrong with that – but for me it made the plot a little hard to follow…
‘The Dead American’ by Jake Needham
My Review (5 stars out of 5) When an American software engineer is found hanged in his Singapore apartment, the police quickly log it as a suicide and close the case. However, journalist Emma Lazar thinks otherwise and calls on Inspector Sam Tay for help, believing the police are covering up something more sinister. Trouble…
‘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…
Colin Garrow 