‘The White Circle’ by Oliver Bottini.

Translated by Jamie Bulloch. 
Published by Quercus,
6 June 2024.
ISBN:  978-1-52940-923-9 (HB)

In this, the sixth and last of Oliver Bottini’s Black Forest Investigations series, Louise Boni an independently minded, proactive Chief Inspector with Freiburg’s criminal police, has reached a state of emotional and psychological exhaustion. On the domestic front she rarely communicates with her family, on the emotional front she and her lover Ben can’t agree on what country to live in, and at work she is missing and mourning her old boss, Rolf Bermann.

Late one night, a young colleague, Kilian, who is working undercover with the regional Criminal Investigation Bureau, arrives at Louise’s flat with disturbing news: someone in Freiburg has just taken delivery of two pistols with silencers.  The inference is clear. Somebody is going to be shot. Unfortunately, Kilian has no idea who is the intended victim or when and why they are going to be shot. Louise must answer these questions, but time and resources are short. Germany is hosting the World Cup: every spare policeman is on security duties.

Louise’s new boss, Lief Enders, offers to help, but he is constantly distracted by problems with an alcoholic wife who doesn’t want to move to Freiburg. Louise has sympathy for the couple because of her own history with alcohol. Her other helpers are Natalie, who deals with the IT side of things, and colleagues in patrol cars who help when they are available. There is some hindrance from other agencies in the force who are either corrupt or guarding their empires.

Louise identifies the problem as originating from a right wing, neo-nazi type organisation. Unfortunately, its members act in a carefully constructed network - nobody knows whom they are dealing with so they can’t incriminate others or help the police with enquiries even supposing that they wanted to. The potential victim’s attitude to their impending fate doesn’t make her job any easier either. After selflessly putting herself in danger fighting for justice and peace and coping with seeing a colleague killed in front of her, we leave a drained Louise Boni heading for some well-earned rest and recuperation. 

Masterly written with both insight and foresight, and beautifully translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch, The White Circle highlights the re-emergence of disturbing racist tendencies in Europe.  At the same time, Bottini take us on a complicated, investigative journey and portrays the personal lives of a wide variety of characters with inherent sensitivity.  Will Louise and Enders return in another series?   Who knows? 
 ------
Reviewer: Angela Crowther
Other books by this author:  Zen and the Art of Murder, A Summer of Murder, The Dance of Death, and Night Hunters, The Invisible Dead..

Oliver Bottini was born in 1965. Four of his novels, including Zen and the Art of Murder and A Summer of Murder of the Black Forest Investigations have been awarded the Deutscher Krimipreis, Germany’s most prestigious award for crime writing. In addition, his novels have been awarded the Stuttgarter Krimipreis and the Berliner Krimipreis. He lives in Berlin.

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.

The Turkish Detective

 

Sunday 7 July 2024
9pm
Sees the first of a new Series on BBC2

Based on the books by author
Barbara Nadel 
featuring Detective Cetin Ikmen.

Not to be missed.

Barbara Nadel was born and brought up in the East End of London. She has a degree in psychology and, prior to becoming a full-time author, she worked in psychiatric institutions and in the community with people experiencing mental health problems. She is also the author of the award-winning Inspector Ikmen series and received the Crime Writers' Association Silver Dagger for the seventh novel in the series Deadly Web. There are now 27 books in the series. 

‘Midsummer Murder’ by Cecil M. Wills

Published by Galileo,
20 June 2024.
ISBN: 978-1-91553032-5
First published 1956

The action of this story takes place in the cathedral city of Storminster. Typed poison pen letters begin to circulate which make accusations and threats, sometimes raking up the past of their recipients. One letter is the cause of a suicide, and a well-respected local is arrested and put on trial, with apparently damning evidence, following a subsequent murder. Who is the mystery typist, and is the obvious person the murderer? These are questions that occupy the local police as well as the unassuming Reverend Selwyn Sneddicombe who becomes for a short time in cahoots with a reporter on the local paper. The whereabouts and ownership of a typewriter become important matters.

Wills writes in an engaging style, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the early stages of the novel as he gives us portraits of the dramatis personae during a meeting of the committee organizing the cathedral bazaar (your reviewer – an organist – was particularly pleased to read that this was to raise funds for the replacement of the organ). There is the usual collection of local worthies and social climbers with their associated jealousies and snobberies, the women (it must be said) being the worst. The two spinsters at the meeting, for instance, ‘were ladies of uncertain age; and both were narrow in their views; but these were the only points they had in common; for there was bitter rivalry between them.’ The bishop’s wife probably ‘had these ladies in mind when she bewailed the dullness of the worthy.’ Sir Derrick Mathers is ‘an impecunious baronet of ancient lineage and pugnacious temperament.’

The novel becomes a little bogged down for a time three-quarters of the way through with the trial of the suspected murderer, plodding along as it does with a good deal of repetition. One wonders what else is going on at that time (particularly with the Rev. Sneddicombe’s investigations into the letters) given that there seem to be no other suspects, and one also wonders why nobody seems to be interested in discovering the identity of the woman who was apparently present at or shortly before the murder. Fortunately, though, when matters seem to be drifting to a predictable conclusion, our ordained detective gets to the bottom of the mystery via a decent twist.

Despite minor reservations about the court case section, I thoroughly enjoyed the novel. Although published originally in 1956, it is very much in the style of the Golden Age. There is a relatively closed community as well as love interest, one strand of which concerns a pivotal character (Nigel Villiers, a chancer). My pleasure was maintained by descriptions such as ‘Selwyn Sneddicombe was standing in a corner of the room in the attitude of a stag at bay; but there was but a single hound to represent the pack – and she of the female gender,’ and later the splenetic Sir Derrick is seen ‘painting his front door a bilious yellow-brown,’ which seems highly appropriate. All ends well, and for some reason I was reminded of Oscar Wilde’s ‘The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means.’
------
Reviewer: David Whittle

Maitland Cecil Melville Wills (1891-1966) was born in Bristol. He was educated at Charterhouse School, Godalming, Surrey and at Manchester University. In 1915, he married Gladys Aimee Fothergill Hughes. He gained the rank of Captain in the Royal Engineers. He fought in both World Wars and gained the rank of Major-General in the Staff, War Office. He wrote 25 novels which were published between 1934 and 1961.

David Whittle is firstly a musician (he is an organist and was Director of Music at Leicester Grammar School for over 30 years) but has always enjoyed crime fiction. This led him to write a biography of the composer Bruce Montgomery who is better known to lovers of crime fiction as Edmund Crispin, about whom he gives talks now and then. He is currently convenor of the East Midlands Chapter of the Crime Writers’ Association.

‘The Chalk Man’ by Adam Lyndon

Published by Joffe Books,
30 April 2024.
ISBN: 978-1-83526524-6 (PB)

Detective Inspector Rutherford Barnes and his trainee Detective Constable Will Howlett are called to investigate a man’s body found in the public toilets in Eastbourne. It seems to be a drug overdose, his face is blue, white, his mouth stretched open.

Their attention is then abruptly drawn to a woman who has collapsed onto the pavement. Suddenly a young man falls, convulsing on the ground, then two more people collapse. Will rushes to help as panic spreads.

Barnes dashes to his car, grabs a megaphone and tries to control the crowds, but they take no notice and many fall and are trampled, some to death. Whilst at the scene, Barnes receives a frantic telephone call from Tamsin, his wife to say Maggie his youngest stepdaughter has disappeared. Barnes persuades a firefighter at the scene of the seeming chemical attack to see if Maggie is one of the casualties, but there is no sign of her. Later they learn that it seems she was abducted from school on her way to rugby practice.

From some years back Barnes has a sworn enemy, Stratton Pearce, who blames the detective for the death of his girlfriend and son. He is the first-person Barnes thinks of as being responsible for Maggie being snatched, but he is in prison isn’t he?

It is then thought the chemical attack and the abduction of the seven year old Maggie could be connected.

An ambulance that had been stolen is reported to have been seen near the said attack and also close to Maggie’s school. Barnes is now convinced that the two crimes are connected and is at his wits end. However, little does he know things are about to get a lot worse, his nightmare is only just beginning. It seems he has more than one sworn enemy.

A very detailed and concise kidnapping story which I had a real job to put down. It grabs the reader by the throat and does not let go. Highly recommended
------
Reviewer: Tricia Chappell 

Adam Lyndon was born and raised in Sussex. He has been a police officer for twenty years both in the UK and in New Zealand, working across a range of disciplines including uniformed ops, firearms command and as a detective in CID and specialist investigations. He went around the world a couple of times, living in New Zealand for a year before realising home was where all the stories were. Adam writes gritty, Eastbourne-based police-procedurals with hard-edged authenticity, forming a daisy chain along the south coast alongside the likes of Graham Hurley and Peter James. He has been married for twenty years and has four children. His ambition, as his children keep reminding him, is to own a dog.

Tricia Chappell. I have a great love of books and reading, especially crime and thrillers. I play the occasional game of golf (when I am not reading). My great love is cruising especially to far flung places, when there are long days at sea for plenty more reading! I am really enjoying reviewing books and have found lots of great new authors.

Published Today: A Lurking Primrose By Suzette A. Hill

Published by Severn House

2 July 2024

Available in Hardback & Kindle Format

Book eight in the
Francis Ougterard series

Erasmus House, a prestigious prep school for boys in Lewes, is in uncharacteristic disarray over a looming visit from Her Majesty's inspectors. Convinced that inspectors dislike old-established schools, headteacher Mr Winchbrooke devises a cunning plan to drag Erasmus House into modernity - by replacing the rustic paintings of eccentric local artist and amateur sleuth, Primrose Oughterard, with more 'challenging' abstract works.

But Primrose's paintings are the least of Winchbrooke's worries when the school's assistant matron, Miss Memling, is found dead in a Brighton hotel room, clutching an empty gin bottle. Was there more to the dull Aida Memling than met the eye? As a school trustee, Primrose springs into action, and upon discovering there was poison in Aida's gin, becomes convinced of foul play. With her brother Francis' pets Maurice and Bouncer by her side, can Primrose solve the Memling mystery?

Suzette A. Hill was born in Eastbourne, Sussex, in 1941; but has lived in many locations - the Midlands, Nottingham, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Berkshire - and finally in retirement in Ledbury, Herefordshire. Although being an English graduate of two universities and having taught ‘Eng. Lit.’ all her professional life, she never contemplated doing any creative writing herself. It was only when she was sixty-four and well retired, that out of idle curiosity she thought she might try her hand at a short story - just to see what writing fiction felt like. And to her ongoing surprise A Load of Old Bones plus its six sequels was the result. A Little Murder was the first in a new series featuring Rosie Gilchrist. There are five books in the series.  Her most recent series is Southwold Mysteries. Her latest book is...
  A Lurking Primrose..

 http://www.suzetteahill.co.uk/   

Mysteries Set Around a Café or Restaurant.

 

ALTER, Judy	2013	Murder at the Blue Plate Café
	2013	Murder at the Tremont House
	2013	Murder at Peacock Mansion
	2018	Murder at the Bus Depot
BAKER, Bree	2018	Live and Let Chai
	2019	No Good Tea Goes Unpunished
	2020	Tide and Punishment
	2020	A Call for Kelp
	2020	Closely Harbored Secrets
	2021	Partners in Lime
	2022	Pleading the Fish
BYERS, Beth	2017	Spaghetti, Meatballs, & Murder
	2018	Cookies & Catastrophe
	2018	Poison & Pie
	2018	Double Mocha Murder
	2018	Cinnamon Rolls & Cyanide
	2018	Tea & Temptation
	2018	Donuts & Danger
	2018	Scones & Scandal
	2018	Lemonade & Loathing
	2018	Wedding Cake & Woe
	2018	Honeymoons & Honeydew
	2018	The Pumpkin Problem
CAHOON, Lynn	2018	Who Moved My Goat Cheese?
	2018	Killer Green Tomatoes
	2019	One Potato, Two Potato, Dead
	2019	Have a Deadly New Year
	2020	Deep Fried Revenge
	2020	Penned In
	2021	Killer Comfort Food
	2021	A Pumpkin Spice Killing
	2022	A Fatal Family Feast
	2022	A Basketful of Murder
CHILDS, Laura	2009	Eggs Benedict Arnold
	2008	Eggs in Purgatory
	2010	Bedeviiled Eggs
	2012	Steake & Eggs
	2013	Eggs in A Casket
	2014	Scorched Eggs
	2016	Egg Drop Dead
	2018	Egg on Ice
	2021	Egg Shooters
CLOVER. Leena	2019	Raspberry Chocolate Murder
	2019	Orange Thyme Death
	2019	Apple Caramel Mayhem
	2020	Cranberry Sage Miracle
	2020	Blueberry Chai Frenzy
	2021	Mango Chili Cruiser
	2021	Strawberry Vanilla Peril
	2021	Cherry Lime Havoc
	2022	Pumpkin Ginger Bedlam
COLE, Lyndsey	2015	Blueburied Muffins
	2015	Strawburied in Chocolate (2015)
	2015	Blackburied Pie
	2015	Very Buried Cheesecake
	2015	Raspburied Torte
	2015	Poison buried Punch
	2016	Cranburied Coffee Cake
	2016	Wineburied Wedding
	2016	Jingle Buried Cookies
	2017	Easter Buried Eggs
	2017	Boo Buried Cupcakes
	2017	Merry Buried Christmas
	2018	Cherry Buried Cake
GERBER  Daryl Wood	2013	Fina Sentence
	2014	Inherit the Word
	2014	Stirring the Plot
	2015	Fudging the Books
	2016	Grilling the Subject
	2018	Pressung the Issue
	2018	Wreath Between the Lines
	2019	Sifting Through Clues
	2020	Shredding the Evidence
	2021	Wining and Dying
	2022	Simmering with Resentment
	2017	A Deadly Éclair
	2017	A Souffle of Suspicion
GILBERT, Heather Day	2020	No Filter
	2020	Iced Over
	2020	Fair Trade
	2021	Spilled Milk
	2021	Trouble Brewing
	2022	Cold Drip
	2022	Roast Date
	2023	Shade Growth
GREGORY, Lena	2018	Scone Cold Killer (2018)
	2018	Murder Made to Order
	2018	A Cold Brew Killing
	2020	A Waffle Lot of Murder
	2021	Whole Latte Murder
	2021	Mistletoe Cake Murder
	2023	No Small Murder
LIN, Harper	2015	Cappuccinos, Cupcakes, and a Corpse (2015)
	2015	Tea, Tiramisu, and Tough Guys
	2015	Margaritas, Marzipan, and Murder
	2016	Lattes, Ladyfingers, and Lies
	2017	Americanos, Apple Pies, and Art Thieves
	2017	Cremas, Christmas Cookies, and Crooks
	2018	Espressos, Eggnogs, and Evil Exes
	2018	Double Shots, Donuts, and Dead Dudes
	2019	Macchiatos, Macarons, and Malice
	2021	Punch, Pastries, and Poison