‘The Alaska Sanders Affair’ by Joel Dicker

Published by Quercus Books,
12 September 2024.
ISBN: 978-1-5294-3381-4 (HB)
Translated from the French by Robert Bonnono

Alaska Sanders was a beautiful young woman, having some success in local beauty contests and hoping for a career in acting.  She was murdered by a lake near Mount Pleasant, the small town in which she lived.  There were two suspects, one (Walter Carrey) died in custody and the other, Eric Donovan, pleaded guilty to murder and has so far been in jail for 11 years.  Then another woman is murdered, and Eric’s sister, Lauren, thinks that this may support her belief that he is innocent.

The author Marcus Goldman, whose book ‘The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair’ has brought him much success, is struggling with the idea of its being made into a film and sets out to find the person in the title, Harry.  Marcus visits his friend Sergeant Perry Gaholowood, whom he had met while researching for the book and who had been involved in the Alaska Sanders case.  He is very fond of Perry and his family and is deeply shocked when Perry’s wife, Helen, dies suddenly.  In trying to understand what Helen was doing in the time before her death he finds some snippets of evidence which seems to relate to Alaska’s death. Gradually Marcus and Perry unpick the various strands of this cold case.

The book has the feel of an autobiography and is structured to lead the reader back and forth through the years.  The characters (of which there are a number) are introduced without overloading the story line.  They are well drawn with definite roles to play, even when not actually involved in the investigation.  As Marcus journeys back and forth through the years and drives back and forth through the various landscapes, small, disconnected memories are unearthed and fitted together, existing evidence is re-evaluated, other crimes are revealed and, gradually but inexorably, the hunt for the truth moves forward.

The story is intertwined with Marcus’s own search for Harry Quebert and also, now that he has achieved such success, for his own way forward.  The time travel is deftly handled and the overall plot leads the reader on.  It is a long book but presented in a way that makes it easy to keep track of the investigation, with shortish dated sections which encourage the reader to read just a bit more.  The book about Harry Quebert is referred to, but it is not necessary to have read it to follow this story, though readers of this book may well be encouraged to do so. 
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Reviewer: Jo Hesslewood
Other books by this author: Marcus Goldman series:  The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair, The Baltimore Boys, The Alaska Sanders Affair.  Standalone Novels: The Disappearance of Stephanie Mailer, The Enigma of Room 622, Un Animal Sauvage. 

Joël Dicker was born in Geneva in 1985, where he studied Law. His first Book The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair was nominated for the Prix Goncourt and won the Grand Prix du Roman de l'Académie Française and the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens. It soon became a worldwide success publishing in 42 countries and selling more than 3.5 million copies. In the UK it was a Times number one bestseller, and was chosen for the Richard and Judy Book Club as well as Simon Mayo's Radio 2 Book Club. His latest book is The Disapperance of Stephanie Mailer. 

Jo Hesslewood.  Crime fiction has been my favourite reading material since as a teenager I first spotted Agatha Christie on the library bookshelves.  For twenty-five years the commute to and from London provided plenty of reading time.  I am fortunate to live in Cambridge, where my local crime fiction book club, Crimecrackers, meets at Heffers Bookshop .  I enjoy attending crime fiction events and currently organise events for the Margery Allingham Society.

‘A Voice in the Night’ by Simon Mason

Published by Quercus,
16 January 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-52942-590-1 (HB)

It must be a source of continual wonder to colleagues in St Aldates police station in central Oxford that, despite having a chaotic and seemingly dysfunctional approach to his work, and being suspended on more than one occasion, the inarticulate, scruffy and totally politically incorrect DI Ryan Wilkins still has a job. His ambitious, articulate and clever partner, DI Ray Wilkins, could hardly be more different. Tension bubbling between the two Wilkins is heightened by the arrival of Chief Superintendent Rebecca Wainwright who intends to raise standards. She warns the Wilkins duo that she regards them as a problem and then sends them to investigate the death of an elderly man found in wet pajamas on the lawn of a local hotel.

The dead man is identified as Joe Emmett, an expert in ancient languages. Joe uses his skills both to authenticate old documents and to expose forgeries that can be sold for vast sums of money. He had not been a guest at the hotel, but Sebastian Franks, a friendly rival with whom Joe had been debating earlier that evening was staying there.  Ray and Ryan conclude that Joe’s death was suspicious. It looked as though he had drowned in the nearby river. But who had got him out of the river and deposited him on the hotel’s lawn?

The highest profile crime under investigation in Oxford is the murder of a security guard at the Pelzer Institute of Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies. It was linked to a robbery at the Institute, but the thieves had been disturbed and were thought to have left empty-handed. DI Hare’s remarkably quick progress with reporting results from this investigation contrasts sharply with the lack of the Wilkins’s progress in finding Joe’s killer. Numerous twists and turns later, investigations into Joe’s death and the security guard’s murder begin to overlap.

In the meantime, other crimes, particularly shoplifting and threatening behaviour, impinge on DI Ryan Wilkins’ life. His younger sister, Jade, works in the Co-op in Kennington and looks after her daughter Mylee and DI Ryan’s son, also called Ryan.  After Jade reports Michael McNulty for shoplifting, his thuggish brothers threaten the safety of her two young charges. When DI Ryan tries to protect his family, the McNultys reciprocate maliciously by revealing details about Ryan’s personal life that threaten to destroy him.

This book is peopled with a range of characters who do not necessarily behave as one might expect. It keeps you guessing to the end.  DI Ray Wilkins’ ambitions and his desire to please Superintendent Wainwright raise the tension between the two Wilkins. However, when the chips are down, much to Ray’s surprise, loyalty and care for his colleague finally make an appearance. The relationship between DI Ryan and his little son Ryan - one of the most lovable characters in the series - is a joy to read. DI Ryan’s incredibly awkward interviews with Joe’s widow Greta also make for memorable reading. Overall, A Voice in The Night makes another excellent and entertaining addition to the three previous books in the series.
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Reviewer: Angela Crowther 

Simon Mason is an author of children's and adult books. His first adult novel, a black comedy entitled The Great English Nude, won the Betty Trask first novel award and Moon Pie was shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction prize. Running Girl is his first story starring Garvie Smith. Simon lives in Oxford with his wife and their two children. His most recent series’ are the Finder mysteries and the DI Wilkins Mysteries.  

Angela Crowther is a retired scientist.  She has published many scientific papers but, as yet, no crime fiction.  In her spare time Angela belongs to a Handbell Ringing group, goes country dancing and enjoys listening to music, particularly the operas of Verdi and Wagner.

Icon of Genre Announced for Final CrimeFest

 

CrimeFest has announced an icon of the genre,

Lee Child,
will take part in its final convention in May 2025.

One of the UK’s leading crime fiction conventions, which is hosted in Bristol supported by title sponsor Specsavers, CrimeFest announced 2025 will be its final event after 16 years.

Organisers have said they are putting all their energy into making the final event one to remember.

The celebratory finale features a record number of Diamond Dagger recipients in attendance.

Alongside Lee, fellow Diamond Dagger recipients confirmed are Peter Lovesey, Simon Brett, Lindsey Davis, Martin Edwards, and John Harvey, as well as in spirit, John le Carré (with his two sons) and Dick Francis( as represented by his son, the crime writer Felix Francis).

Le Carré’s sons are the film producer Simon Cornwell, who is behind adaptations of his father’s work, including The Night Manager for the BBC starring Tom Hiddleston and Olivia Colman; and Nick Harkaway who, to much acclaim, recently brought back his father’s famous literary creation, George Smiley, with his novel, Karla’s Choice.

John Harvey has written over 100 books, including his series of jazz-influenced Charlie Resnick novels. Harvey has a number of short stories due for publication this year, including his story Criss-Cross in Playing Dead, a new collection of stories written by members of the Detection Club, edited by Martin Edwards, and published in March. Also out in March is his new poetry collection, Blue in Green, published by Shoestring Press.

Also confirmed is the Icelandic author known as the Queen of Nordic thrillers, Yrsa Sigurdardottir, who is also a regular face at CrimeFest and will return to help celebrate CrimeFest’s sixteen years.

Also attending is the award-winning author Barbara Nadel, author of the much-loved Inspector Cetin Ikmen series, adapted for TV as The Turkish Detective starring Haluk Bilginer, which aired on BBC2 in June 2024. Trained as an actress, Barbara Nadel used to work in mental health services. She now writes full time and has been a visitor to Turkey for over twenty years. The latest in her Cetin Ikmen series, The Wooden Library, is out in May. She also has a new title in her Hakim and Arnold series, The East Ham Golem, out this February.

Adrian Muller, co-host of CrimeFest, said: “Lee Child, alongside American author Jeffery Deaver, has played a very special role in our history. Both were special guests at our very first CrimeFest, they were there for our fifth anniversary, and for our tenth anniversary. Jeffery has prior commitments; however, we’re working on him participating in CrimeFest remotely, and we're thrilled Lee will be there in person to help celebrate our final year.”

The Jack Reacher creator, whose books have been adapted to the big and small screen by Tom Cruise and for Amazon Prime, will attend with his brother and co-writer, Andrew, who has taken over writing the series.

Lee Child said: "Sadly all good things come to an end - and Adrian Muller's Bristol CrimeFest is one of the very best things ever. It is a warm, friendly, relaxed, and inclusive festival, hugely enjoyable for authors and readers alike. Myles, Liz, Donna and Adrian, their team of volunteers - and Dame Mary from Specsavers - have my sincere thanks for many delightful weekends over the years."

Already announced for the long-weekend [15 – 18 May] at Bristol’s Mercure Grand Hotel is the author and CWA chair, Vaseem Khan, who will be Toastmaster at the CrimeFest Awards night. Vaseem is author of the Malabar House historical crime series set in Bombay. Upcoming is his continuation of the James Bond franchise with Quantum of Menace, the first in a series featuring Q.

2025 also welcomes the return of author Cathy Ace, who will close the Gala Dinner event. Cathy's Cait Morgan Mysteries have been optioned for TV by the production company, Free@Last TV, which is behind the hit series, Agatha Raisin.

CrimeFest was created following the hugely successful one-off visit to Bristol in 2006 of the American Left Coast Crime convention, and CrimeFest runs on the US model. The first CrimeFest was organised in June 2008.

Unlike other major crime fiction events in the UK, any commercially published author who signs up can feature on a panel. In this way, CrimeFest has provided many authors with a platform they would not have been offered elsewhere in the UK.

Donna Moore, author and co-host of CrimeFest, said: “We’re proud to be a unique and perhaps the most democratic crime fiction event in the UK. Readers have discovered and met writers they otherwise may never have heard of. All delegates – be they authors, readers, from the book trade, or aspiring writers – come together as equals to celebrate the genre they love. We very much appreciate the talent and ongoing support of much-loved regulars, along with first-time attendees.”

The convention also continues its Community Outreach Programme. In partnership with the independent Max Minerva’s Bookshop and participating publishers, CrimeFest gifts thousands of pounds of crime fiction books for children and young adults to school libraries.

With thanks to Specsavers, librarians, students, and those on benefits are offered significantly discounted tickets.

To find out more, or to book your spot as a delegate, go to:
 https://www.crimefest.com/

‘Dead Man’s Shoes’ by Marion Todd

Published by Canelo London,
9 January 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-80436217-4 (PB)

Dead Man’s Shoes starts with a request for DI Clare Mackay to help capture the Chainlink Choker who has already killed five gay men over a wide area in northern England. Intelligence indicates that the Choker will target Clare’s patch in St Andrews, Scotland over the coming weekend. Clare and her team combine with officers from Dundee to try to trap the killer who is thought to be a painter/decorator. They adopt a two-pronged approach: checking the numbers of all vans crossing the border from England, and surveilling secluded areas around St Andrews where the Choker might take his next victim to kill him.

Sure enough, a man is found dead at the side of a country road.  The dead man is Theo, a member of the Glancy family, some of whom, including his brother Danny, are already known to the police.  When Clare and one of her sergeants visit Theo’s mother, Ruby, they find Val Docherty has got there first. Clare has been trying to bring Val to justice for all manner of crimes for several years, but so far Val has always wriggled out of any charges brought against her. Now it seems that Val is involved in Retro’s, a local club managed by Ruby Glancy with her son Danny running the bar.

Clare is not convinced that Theo was killed by the Choker. Theo had last been seen alive walking away from Retro’s wearing his brother’s jacket.  Had he been killed by mistake instead of Danny, maybe as part of a drugs turf war? The search for the Choker quickly becomes entangled with a complicated investigation involving members of the Glancy family. The pace intensifies when Danny disappears, and another young man is abducted and badly beaten.

Reading Dead Man’s Shoes is like doing a cat’s cradle.  It starts with a couple of simple moves but rapidly develops into an intricate pattern of threads. Fortunately, the interrelated plots are clearly outlined and easy to follow. Clare Mackay is a very humane detective who gets on well with her subordinates.  On the personal side, she is having to reconcile herself to the fact that her beloved father is ageing and will in future need supportg instead of being the constant support he has always provided for her. Neither time nor energy allow for proper discussion of her future with her now live-in partner, DCI Alastair Gibson. This is a pity because he has been offered a new job which will almost certainly impinge on their current lifestyle.  I fear we will have to wait for the next book to discover how this issue gets resolved.  Overall, a very readable story written with good local knowledge and a wide variety of characters who interact well together even when arguing about really important issues like the correct order to add custard, jelly and fruit to a trifle.

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Reviewer: Angela Crowther.

Marion Todd studied music and worked for many years as a piano teacher and jobbing accompanist. A spell as a hotel lounge pianist provided rich fodder for her writing and she began experimenting with a variety of genres. Early success saw her winning first prize in the Family Circle Magazine Short Story for Children national competition and she followed this up by writing short stories and articles for her local newspaper. Marion has also worked as a college lecturer, plantswoman and candle-maker and now is a full-time writer, penning the DI Clare Mackay series of crime fiction novels set in St Andrews. Marion lives now in North East Fife, overlooking the magnificent River Tay. 

Angela Crowther is a retired scientist.  She has published many scientific papers but, as yet, no crime fiction.  In her spare time Angela belongs to a Handbell Ringing group, goes country dancing and enjoys listening to music, particularly the operas of Verdi and Wagner.

Coming Soon: The Antique Store Detective and the May Day Murder by Clare Chase

Published by Bookouture,

17 January 2025

The Second book in the

Bella Winter Mystery Series.

Everyone in Hope Eaton climbs the hill to Sweet Agnes’ Spring on May Day, to greet the dawn and leave tokens among the flowers.

Antique store owner Bella Winter grumbles about the early start, but she has to admit that watching the sun rise over the flower-strewn grove is worth it. And her interest deepens when she sees that one of the offerings this year is a little doll stuck all over with pins…
a perfect replica of Mary Roberts, who lives nearby.
Determined to find out what lies behind this bizarre threat, Bella dives into a murky mess of strange events. Mary’s house is up for sale, but someone’s trying to wreck the deal, leaving rotting weeds on her front step. And Mary claims she’s seen a cloaked figure watching her from the woods…
Bella’s half convinced this is all nonsense, but then Mary is found dead, her prized carving of the spring stolen from her dresser. The police say it was a heart attack, but was she literally scared to death?
Soon Bella has uncovered a string of further mysteries. Why is Mary’s nearest neighbour missing? Who graffitied her boss’s house with a warning the night she died? And why would anyone want Mary’s carving?
All paths lead back to the spring itself… but does it hold answers or more danger? And can Bella track the killer down before she’s cut off at the source?

 

 Clare Chase writes classic mysteries. Her aim is to take readers away from it all via some armchair sleuthing in atmospheric locations. Like her heroines, Clare is fascinated by people and what makes them tick. Before becoming a full-time writer, she worked in settings as diverse as Littlehey Prison and the University of Cambridge, in her home city. She’s lived everywhere from the house of a lord to a slug-infested flat and finds the mid-terrace she currently occupies a good happy medium. As well as writing, Clare loves family time, art and architecture, cooking, and of course, reading other people’s books.

www.clarechase.com

‘Palisade’ by Lou Gilmond

Published by Armillary Books,
21 November 2024.
ISBN: 978-0-7490-3154-1 (PB)

Some books should come with a health warning; this is one. Lou Gilmond puts forward a scenario that makes the world we live in a very, very scary place.

We’re used to cookies on websites which analyse our likes and dislikes. Some people even click routinely on ‘Accept All’ when they’re given the choice of whether or not to opt out. CCTV in shops, on street corners, in car parks has also become routine. And in some places delivery drones have already begun to replace the ubiquitous white vans.

But what if we couldn’t opt out of the cookies? And the CCTV could listen as well as see, and became so small and discreet that we didn’t know it was there? And the drones had facial-recognition software, ostensibly to ensure the delivery went to the right person? And scariest of all, what if all this information-gathering technology was joined up and fed into a central system in a way that made deepfake video indistinguishable from reality?

That’s the world Lou Gilmond’s characters could be living in if a particular piece of legislation is passed. Her protagonists are politicians, and strongly opposed to the kind of mass surveillance which would become the norm. They have recently, and narrowly, lost a general election, and the new government is a coalition between the other main party and a small one whose agenda is very much on the side of the new legislation, which is thinly disguised as a means of making the world a safer place. Esme Kanha is the Shadow Chief Whip, and still has access to people with influence. Harry Colbey is a backbencher who finds himself hindered and attacked, sometimes physically, at every end and turn. They soon realize that the people who stand to profit as a result of the legislation are out to get them.

Their characters are clearly defined: Harry is a fighter for what he believes in, determined to get round every obstacle places in his way; Esme is more devious, perceptive, fiercely intelligent, willing to circumvent, even break, long-established rules in order to combat the insidious march of artificial intelligence in the wrong hands. Their cohorts and opponents are equally well drawn: Elliot, Esme’s wry and observant assistant, Melody the new girl who learns quickly; Clarissa, Harry’s ex-wife, apparently vain, shallow and acquisitive but with hidden depths; his daughter Chloe who is easily taken in. Then there’s Jameson, the bumbling, obtuse opposition party leader, and Jackie Rolt the ambitious but ultimately honourable new prime minister.

Political thriller hardly begins to describe this book. There’s a new twist every few pages, as Our Heroes try desperately to stay a step ahead of the encroaching tide of AI and persuade their fellow MPs that the price the people they serve will pay for the new legislation is much higher than anyone realizes. Will they succeed? Or will the power-hungry technocrats win out? This is a book everyone should read and be afraid. Very, very afraid.
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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick

Lou Gilmond is an alumna of the Curtis Brown Creative Writing School and also has a diploma in Creative Writing from the University of Oxford, England. The Tale of Senyor Rodriguez is Lou's debut novel, inspired by the magical City of Palma and the surrounding countryside to the south west of the island. Here sheep still wander freely with bells around their necks and potter along to the whistle of the shepherd.  Lou is hopeful another book will follow soon, but as London is the location for the writing, it is likely to involve less sheep.

Lynne Patrick has been a writer ever since she could pick up a pen, and has enjoyed success with short stories, reviews and feature journalism, but never, alas, with a novel. She crossed to the dark side to become a publisher for a few years and is proud to have launched several careers which are now burgeoning. She lives in Oxfordshire in a house groaning with books, about half of them crime fiction.

Coming Soon: 'Bloodline' by Priscilla Masters

Published by Severn House

7 January 2025

 Book 16 in the Joanna Piercy series

Detective Inspector Joanna Piercy's joy at her close colleague Detective Sergeant Mike Korpanski's return to work is short-lived. Elderly Joseph Holden has been taken hostage in his secluded mansion overlooking Rudyard Lake by an armed intruder. And the hostage taker insists he will only speak to her.

With just a four-day hostage negotiation course under her belt, Joanna is feeling the heat. How does the hostage taker know her name? What does he want? As the questions multiply and Rudyard Lake is sealed off by an armed response unit, Joanna is about to discover that the roots of this shocking event lie deeply buried in a terrible crime - a crime that happened far away and many years ago . . .

Priscilla Masters was born in Halifax, and brought up in South Wales, one of seven multi-racial children adopted by an orthopaedic surgeon and his Classics graduate wife. Priscilla trained as a registered nurse in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham. She moved to Staffordshire in the 1970s, had an antiques business for a while and two sons. She started writing in the 1980s in response to an aunt asking her what she was going to do with her life! Winding up the Serpent was her first Joanna Piercy story, published in 1995.  There are now fifteen books in the series. She has also written several medical standalones and a series set in Shrewsbury, featuring coroner Martha Gunn. Her most recent series features Dr Claire Roget who is a forensic psychiatrist who has some very unpredictable patients.  

http://www.priscillamasters.co.uk/  

Coming Soon: 'In At The Death' by Judith Cutler

Published by Severn House,
7 January 2025

Book 6 in the Harriet & Matthew Rowsley
series

  The future of Thorncroft House and its occupants is in the balance while a mysterious murder brings up a past best forgotten!
An authentic Victorian murder mystery depicting upstairs-downstairs life in nineteenth century England.

October 1861, England. Harriet and Matthew Rowsley, the housekeeper and estate manager of Thorncroft House in Shropshire, have to cut short their successful trip to Oxford when they receive a telegraph: a decapitated and mutilated body has been found on the estate.

While trying to help the strangely slow police investigation, the couple face an unsettling threat to their livelihood: after years of searching, a legitimate heir of Thorncroft estate has been found! They find themselves hosting an American gentleman whose charm doesn't quite conceal his alarming plans for the future of the estate and all its inhabitants.

Falsely imprisoned and forced to be silent about the identity of the murdered man, Harriet not only has to confront her past but also share a secret of her own that could change her and her loved ones' lives forever . .

Available in Hardback, Audio and Kindle Format 

Judith Cutler was born in the Black Country, just outside Birmingham, later moving to the Birmingham suburb of Harborne. Judith started writing while she was at the then Oldbury Grammar School, winning the Critical Quarterly Short Story prize with the second story she wrote. She subsequently read English at university. It was an attack of chickenpox caught from her son that kick-started her writing career. One way of dealing with the itch was to hold a pencil in one hand, a block of paper in the other - and so she wrote her first novel. This eventually appeared in a much-revised version as Coming Alive, published by Severn House. Judith has eight series. The first two featured amateur sleuth Sophie Rivers (10 books) and Detective Sergeant Kate Power (6 Books). Then came Josie Wells, a middle-aged woman with a quick tongue, and a love of good food, there are two books, The Food Detective and The Chinese Takeout. The Lina Townsend books are set in the world of antiques and there are seven books in this series. There are three books featuring Tobias Campion set in the Regency period, and her series featuring Chief Superintendent Fran Harman (6 books), and Jodie Welsh, Rector’s wife and amateur sleuth. Her more recently a series feature a head teacher Jane Cowan (3 books). Judith has also written three standalone’s Staging Death, Scar Tissue, and Death In Elysium. Her new series is set in Victorian times featuring Matthew Rowsley. Death’s Long Shadow is the third book in this series. 

http://www.judithcutler.com 

Phil Rickmam 1950-2024: A Tribute by Lynne Patrick

The crime writing community is poorer today and for many days to come after the loss of Phil Rickman, creator of Merrily Watkins, parish vicar, diocesan exorcist (they call them deliverance ministers these days) and investigator of crimes with an element of the weird and wonderful.

 

The Merrily series runs to sixteen titles, with a seventeenth manuscript delivered and scheduled for publication in 2025. Less well known but equally rich in those weird and wonderful criminal doings are his five standalones, two mini-series and two books for older children. How he found time for any of them while he was being a respected journalist and hosting a highly successful regular radio show is a mystery that will now never be solved.

A Lancastrian by birth, since the 1970s Rickman had made his home in the Welsh Marches with his wife Carol, a fellow journalist, whom he credited in every book as his first reader and toughest editor. He loved the area for its connections with the past and the air of mystery which pervades many aspects of life there and was fascinated by the thin veil which separates the known world from the much greater unknown. I once saw him change most of the sceptical minds in a festival audience when he first asked who did and didn’t believe in ghosts, and who wasn’t sure, then told a story from his own experience and asked the same question again.

 

The key themes Rickman set out to illustrate every time he put fingers to keyboard were there are more things in heaven and earth..., followed closely by don’t mess with what you don’t understand. Mostly it was something malign and uninvited interfering with ordinary life; on one occasion unscrupulous developers were threatening to build on the site of ancient standing stones. There was always a body, sometimes more than one; and when the police became involved, they were as human, fallible and real as Merrily and her cohorts. There was usually – though not always – a rational explanation for spooky goings-on, and equally often the reader was simply left to make up his or her own mind. The novels were a masterclass in atmosphere, and to a regular reader the characters became old friends, or foes to be battled with alongside Merrily herself.

 

The strange, weird and spooky is often a feature of crime novels and other crime writers choose clergy people as protagonists, though perhaps not chain-smoking, swearing ones. All the same, Phil Rickman’s books were unique. It’s saddening to think that after the one he delivered to his agent only days before he died, there will be no more. Rest in peace, Phil, wherever you are. You’ll be sorely missed.

Books by Phil Rickman

The Merrily Watkins series

The Wine of Angels

Midwinter of the Spirit

A Crown of Lights

The Cure of Souls

The Lamp of the Wicked

The Prayer of the Night Shepherd

The Smile of a Ghost

The Remains of an Altar

The Fabric of Sin

To Dream of the Dead

The Secrets of Pain

The Magus of Hay

The House of Susan LulhamFriends of the Dusk

All of a Winter's Night

The Fever of the World

Grayle Underhill series
(first two published under the name of Will Kingdom)

The Cold Calling,  Mean Spirit
 Night After Night

 John Dee series

The Bones of Avalon,  The Heresy of Dr Dee

Marco series
(for older children, published under the name of Thom Madley)

Marco's Pendulum
  Marco and the Blade of Night

Standalones

Candlenight
 Curfew / Crybbe
 December
 The Man in the Moss
 The Chalice

'An English Garden Murder’ by Katie Gayle.

Published by Bookouture,
28 April 2022.
ISBN: 978-1-80314067-4 (PB)

Julia Bird a retired social worker has moved from London to a village in the Cotswolds.  Now in her early 60’s, following an amicable split with her husband Peter, she is starting a completely new life. Her cottage is cosy but surveying her garden she feels things need to be done. The first job is to demolish the old shed and create a chicken coup. She has always wanted to keep chickens and now is her chance. She calls up the village handy man to pull down the shed. His young nephew is quick to get the job done and in no time at all he appears at the back door to announce that the shed is down, but there was a dead body under it.

DI Haley Gibson of the local police arrives, and an investigation gets underway. Forensics establish that the body, is that of a young girl and has most likely been there more than two decades, which is a relief to Julia, but also a sadness that such a young girl was murdered.

So, Julia sets out to uncover the reason this young person was killed. In a small village the news of a dead body being discovered is the main topic of conversation and in no time, Julia becomes acquainted with many of the villagers, not least because it seems that everyone eats in the ‘The Buttered Scone’ which Julia had been frequenting since she moved into the village.

Within a matter of days in the village, the first friend she made was with Jake, a chocolate Labrador who was being trained to be a guide dog, but failed dismally, and somehow Julia ended up with him.  Of course, taking him for regular walks was also a good way of learning who is who in the village. Apart from her longtime friend Tabitha who also lives in the village, she has made the acquaintance of a rather attractive doctor, the village gardener and sees on all her walks, a dotty 90-year-old, who she has yet to identify.

Soon, Julia is convinced she has discovered the killer’s identity, then a second body is found, and Julia has to do a rethink.  During her sleuthing times she has shared her thoughts with DI Hayley Gibson, who is not receptive to her, and asks her to leave it to the police, but Julia is on the trail…

This is an enjoyable read.  Full of interesting well-defined characters. It is also a good tantalising mystery, and the identity of the killer was a shock. One I had not suspected. Highly recommended.
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Reviewer: Lizzie Sirett

Katie Gayle is the writing partnership of Kate Sidley and Gail Schimmel.