‘Dark Shadow’ by Simon Dinsdale

Published by Sharpe Books,
1 December 2023.  
ISBN: 979-887041399-0 (PB)

The opening of this story is set on a bitter cold night in Northern Island at the time of The Troubles. An undercover agent code name ‘Alpha’ is following orders against his better judgment which results in him nearly losing his life, and the death of a young man. 

Twenty-five years later we meet Detective Superintendent Christian Dane, an ex-army man who is now a police detective. Dane has an ex-wife who has whisked his 8-year-old daughter to another country, and he is unable to visit her. The fact that he writes to her regularly but keeps the letters in a file, I found rather endearing. He also has elderly parents. But his father who is a retired vicar barely speaks to him.   

Although an experienced officer, when he is called to the brutal slaying of three petty criminals, it is the most vicious crime scene he has come across. Two of the victims are identified as the Corper twins Billy and Benny, of B&B Holdings. Known as unpleasant bits of work.  Both had been shot in their legs and heads. 

He calls in Detective Constable Hayley Cross, a talented young officer, to assist him.  But whoever the killer is he/she has left little to explain why these three were murdered. With very little forensic evidence to go on Dane is puzzled. 

As the investigation proceeds two more bodies are discovered, and a French fisherman is shot on a Dorset beach. Also, with same MO a cocaine dealer in Cambridge. Putting it slowly together Dane realises, that whoever is orchestrating this is no ordinary drug dealer. None of the people who buy their drugs from him can identify him. 

Dane is under increasing pressure to apprehend the killer. When he finally realises who the killer is he turns to his old Army commander, General Smith, for help. 

Cleverly plotted this is an intriguing mystery that I could not put down.  There is also a surprise ending I certainly didn’t see coming.  I can’t wait to read the next book in this series. Highly recommended.
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Reviewer: Lizzie Sirett 

Simon Dinsdale served twelve years with the British army in the 1970’s before joining Essex police in 1980. He spent 30 years in the police eventually achieving the rank of Detective Superintendent. Over his career he led over a hundred major investigations. He now writes, travels and speaks about his experiences. He lives in Essex.

'The Edge of Darkness' by Vaseem Kahn

Published by Hodder and Stoughton,
22 January 2026.
ISBN 978 1 399 74785 1 (HB)

Like The City of Destruction, the previous book in this superb Malabar House series, The Edge of Darkness is set in India in 1951.  The setting is however completely different, moving from the seething metropolis of Bombay to the mountainous, jungle region of the Naga Hills District, an area in the north-east bordering with Burma (now Myanmar). Tensions are running high throughout India and the army, commanded by Colonel Shroff, has already been sent to quell resistance in the Naga area where insurgents are continuing their longstanding fight for independence. 

Inspector Persis Wadia is India’s first female detective. Highly intelligent and independently minded, her tactless approach to those in authority and ability to upset the male dominated police force by being outstandingly good at solving crimes, Persis has finally met her comeuppance.  She has been posted to the small and isolated Kohima police station in the Naga district which is a week’s journey from Bombay. On arrival Persis is billeted in the luxurious Hotel Victoria. She has only been there for a few weeks when the headless body of Mohan Sinha, the area’s governor, is discovered in his room. 

Tight security at the hotel dictates that the crime had to have been committed by somebody inside the building. Apart from Persis and Apeni Ao, the hotel’s female owner, and a couple of hotel staff, that left only the five guests staying in the hotel: Sinha’s aide John Templeton, American husband and wife missionaries Florence and Christopher Danvers, Italian journalist Maria Fontanelli, and businessman Oran Rake. 

The local, demoralized police chief, Roshan Seth, who used to be Persis’s boss in Bombay, has also been shunted off into the wilderness. He puts Persis in charge of the investigation. Apart from a keen young sub-inspector, James Angami, she has little other help.  Persis soon finds reasons to suspect all the guests. Some are not whom they profess to be, whilst others, including the murdered man, have previous history both with each other and the area and its troubles. So, was this killing politically motivated, a product of the modern, local insurgency as Colonel Shroff insists? Is the insurgency being encouraged and supported by outside agencies like the Americans and the Chinese who are following their own agendas? Or, is the killing more personal?  Are modern grievances, some possibly with roots extending back to earlier cruelties and crimes being settled? As the intrepid Persis tries to separate personal and local issues from the national picture, she manages to survive several hair-raising, life-threatening situations. 

In The Edge of Darkness Vaseem Kahn combines history, humour and criminal misdemeanors with an attractive range of individual characters in a delightfully easy to read and fascinating story. Apart from the odd flutter of attraction between James and herself, Persis struggles to manage her feelings for Archie Blackfinch, an Englishman she met in Bombay. Archie had been in a coma since he was shot months previously. However, he regained consciousness just before the end of the story when he rings Persis and asks her to come back to him. Will she? Won’t she?  Can one of the most attractive and interesting female characters in today’s crime genre get herself reinstated back to Bombay? Hopefully we will find out in the next installment - book no 7 - from Malabar House.
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Reviewer Angela Crowther 

Vaseem Khan was born in London in 1973. He studied finance at the London School of Economics. He first saw an elephant lumbering down the middle of the road in 1997 when he arrived in the city of Mumbai, India to work as a management consultant. This surreal sight inspired his Baby Ganesh Agency series of 'gritty cosy crime' novels. His aim with the series is to take readers on a journey to the heart of modern India. He returned to the UK in 2006 and has since worked at University College London for the Department of Security and Crime Science. Elephants are third on his list of passions, first and second being great literature and cricket, not always in that order. His first book The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra was a Times Bestseller and an Amazon Best Debut. The are five books in the series. In his Malabar House series, there are six books. His most recent series is Q Mystery, There are two book in this this series. 

http://vaseemkhan.com 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/VaseemKhanUKFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/VaseemKhanOfficial/

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.