‘A Bespoke Murder’ by Edward Marston

Published by Allison & Busby,

26 September 2011.

ISBN: 978-0-7490-0990-8

May 1915 and the Lusitania sailing from New York is in sight of land when she is torpedoed by the Germans.  The story is told by stewardess Irene Bayard who had worked on the Lusitania since her maiden voyage in September 2007.  

The sinking of the Lusitania provokes ferocious revengeful action in her home port of Liverpool.  The shops of anyone with a German name are looted, and even naturalised British citizens are not safe but beaten up at random. Sadly this action is soon seen in other major cities. But in London matters take a sinister turn when a tailor’s shop on Jermyn Street in London is burnt out and the owner killed.  Whilst fleeing from the shop at her father’s insistence Ruth Stein is waylaid by two soldiers and raped.

Assigned to the murder case are Inspector Harvey Mamion and Sergeant Keedy. The former, a family man, the latter a ladies man, but maybe he just needs to meet the right girl.

Whilst the action taken by Mamion and Keedy as they investigate both the murder and the rape, have all the hallmarks of a good detective story, with the satisfying knowledge that the strong arm of the law has a long stretch, much of the strength of the book is in the characters and their lives on the home front during war. Following her recent experience, Irene decides that she will return home to her sister Dorothy in London, and find work there.  Ruth Stein a quiet rather sheltered middle-class girl attempts to deal with the dreadful thing that has happened to her and, along with her family, the death of Jacob Stein. 

Cleverly plotted, well written and invoking the atmosphere of the time, I heartily recommend this book as an excellent read. I am delighted to see that this is the first in a new series and I look forward to the next one.

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Lizzie Hayes

Edward Marston was born and brought up in South Wales. He read Modern History at Oxford then lectured in the subject for three years before becoming a full-time freelance writer. His first historical mystery, The Queen's Head, was published in 1988, launching the Nicholas Bracewell series. A former chairman of the Crime Writers Association Edward has worked in radio, film, television and the theatre. Edward lives in the Cotswolds with is wife, author Judith Cutler.  A Bespoke Murder is the first in the Home Front Detective series.

‘The Drop’ by Michael Connelly

Published by Orion 27^th October 2011.
ISBN: 978-1-4091-3428-2

LAPD Detective Harry Bosch has been put on DROP – Deferred Retirement Option Plan, and is currently assigned to the Open-Unsolved Unit. The thousands of unsolved cases are slowly being evaluated in the light of forensic developments such as DNA.  A cold hit is when DNA from an old case is matched to the DNA in the nation’s databases and then the case is re-opened.  With his long experience Harry gets the cases that require careful handling, and when a cold case from 1989 gets a DNA hit for the rape and murder of young woman which points to a convicted rapist who was only eight at the time of the killing, the case is immediately assigned to Harry.

Within hours of being assigned his new case Harry gets an urgent call to investigate the death of Councilman Irvin Irving’s son George.  It appears that the Councilman who has considerable clout with the police department has requested that Harry take-over the investigation.  As Irvin Irving and Harry have clashed on many occasions over the last twenty-five years, with Irving seemingly bent of destroying Harry’s career, he is surprised and suspicious of the request, but is unable to get out of it.  Although told to put his cold case on the back burner and to concentrate on the death of George Irving, Harry continues to pursue both cases along with his new partner David Chu.  

As with previous books I was fascinated by the detail of the chase as Harry follows the trail of these two cases that twist and turn like live snakes.  While the cold case leads Harry in pursuit of justice for a brutally murdered young girl, the current case immerses him in politics, corruption and conspiracy.

While juggling with two cases, with the Police Chief and Councilman Irving constantly on his back, Harry is also a single parent caring for his fifteen-year-old daughter, and trying to have a personal life – a tall order.

A compelling entry in this excellent series, I couldn’t put this book down and read into the early hours to finish it.  One of the best books I have read this year, put it in your ‘must read’ list.

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Lizzie Hayes

Michael Connelly was born in Philadelphia, PA on July 21, 1956. After graduating in 1980, Connelly worked at newspapers in Daytona Beach and Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  After three years on the crime beat in L.A., Connelly began writing his first novel to feature LAPD Detective Hieronymus Bosch. His first book The Black Echo, based in part on a true crime that had occurred in Los Angeles, was published in 1992 and won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel by the Mystery Writers of America. Connelly followed up with three more Bosch books, The Black Ice, The Concrete Blonde, and The Last Coyote, before publishing The Poet in 1996—a thriller with a newspaper reporter as a protagonist. In 1997, he went back to Bosch with Trunk Music, and in 1998 another non-series thriller, Blood Work, was published.  Connelly's next book, Angels Flight, was released in 1999 and was another entry in the Harry Bosch series. The non-series novel Void Moon was released in 2000 and introduced a new character, Cassie Black, a high-stakes Las Vegas thief. His 2001 release, A Darkness More Than Night, united Harry Bosch with Terry McCaleb from Blood Work.  In 2002, Connelly released two novels. The first, the Harry Bosch book City Of Bones. The second release was a stand-alone thriller, Chasing The Dime. Lost Light was published in 2003. It is another in the Harry Bosch series but the first written in first person. Connelly's 2004 novel, The Narrows, is the sequel to The Poet. His 11th Harry Bosch novel, The Closers, was published in May 2005. The Lincoln Lawyer, Connelly's first-ever legal thriller and his 16th novel, was published in October. This book introduced Mickey Haller, a Los Angeles defense attorney who works out of the back seat of his Lincoln Town Car.  Echo Park, was released in October 2006. The Overlook, Michael's 18th novel, was originally serialized in the New York Times Magazine. This Harry Bosch story was published as a book with additional material in May 2007. Michael's 19th novel, The Brass Verdict, was released in October 2008. It introduces Lincoln lawyer Mickey Haller to LAPD Detective Harry Bosch in a fast-paced legal thriller. Michael's 20th novel, The Scarecrow, was first released in May 2009, and reunites reporter Jack McEvoy and FBI Agent Rachel Walling for the first time since The Poet. In the 15th Harry Bosch novel, Nine Dragons, Bosch goes to Hong Kong to find his missing daughter. It is the most personal Bosch story since The Last Coyote.  In October 2010, The Reversal was released. This book has Mickey Haller and Harry Bosch working together on the high-profile retrial of a brutal child murder. The Fifth Witness, a Mickey Haller novel, was released in April 2011.     Michael lives with his family in Florida.

‘Cage of Bones’ by Tania Carver

Published by Sphere,
17 September 2011.

ISBN: 978-0-7515-4525-8

Employees of a building company inspecting an old house for demolition, discover a feral child in the cellar imprisoned in a cage of human bones.

Detective Inspector Phil Brennan of the Essex Police Major Incident Squad, calls in his partner psychologist Marina Esposito, to try and talk to the child, but the child can barely form words. 

As the CSI and the detectives investigate the cellar it becomes apparent that this is not an isolated incident. They have disturbed a killer who has been operating secretly undetected for many years.

How has this killer operated for so long, where are his victims? And more importantly does he have accomplices that have enabled him to have stayed hidden for so many years?

This is the most action packed thriller that I have read for many a year. The story moves along at a cracking pace. The characters are well fleshed out and each of their lives a story in themselves.  Detective Rose Martin, manipulative and power hungry, who had an affair with DCI Ben Fenwick, and is now is well in with his successor DCI Brian Glass, back on duty after a period of recuperation following her abduction in an earlier case. DS Mickey Philips, who has unexpressed feeling for DC Anni Hepburn -will he ever be able to voice them?  And Faith – what is her story?

It’s not a comfortable book, delving as it does into the depths into which humans can sink. Greed, lust for power, and evil. As Phil Brennan digs around he becomes more and more uncomfortable – but he cannot put his finger on the cause of his discomfort, he only knows something is wrong, but what?  As the hunt for the killer intensifies before he kills again, there are secrets long buried now rising to the surface which will have a profound effect on Brennan, and those around him.

For lovers of a good thriller this is a must.  Atmospheric and plain scary you won’t be able to put it down. 

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Lizzie Hayes

Tania Carver is the pseudonym for the husband and writing team Martin Waits and his wife Linda Waits. Martin Waits is the author of the Joe Donovan crime series set in Newcastle.

‘Rip Tide’ by Stella Rimington

Published by Bloomsbury, July 2011.

ISBN: 978-1-4088-1112-2

Mitchell Berger who has lived in most places in the world, is now living in Athens and co-ordinating aid for the charity UCSO. A call that an aid ship bound for Mombasa had been subject to a hijacking attempt, which had been foiled by a French Navy patrol is on the face of it good news. However this is the third hijacking of an aid ship and Mitchell surmises that it is no chance attack, as like the earlier two hijacking this particular aid ship was carrying unusually expensive cargo.  With a sigh Mitchell telephones the London Headquarters of UCSO and alerts his boss David Blakey to the problem. An ex-MI6 officer David decides to have a chat with an old colleague.

Meanwhile, the problem reaches MI5 Officer Liz Carlyle by a different route as the French Navy who captured the pirates have found that one of the gang has a British passport.  Would Liz like to question the prisoner?  During the decade that Liz Carlyle has been in MI5 things have changed dramatically following 9/11. So a British citizen of Pakistani descent in a gang of Somalis pirates raises a red flag.

As Liz investigates the background of the prisoner Amir Khan, and tries to make sense of the chain that has resulted in Amir being part of a pirate gang, a separate prong of attack is being put in place in Greece.

Whilst the investigation steps up, and Liz and her team try to get a handle on the facts and information that they are uncovering, equally fascinating are the behind the scenes politics and relationships inside MI5 and MI6

On a personal level Liz is currently enjoying a relationship with a French counterpart, but can relationships ever stand still?

An exciting entry in this excellent series, this book is recommended.

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Lizzie Hayes

 Dame Stella Rimington joined the Security Service (MI5) in 1968 and during her career she worked in all the main fields of the Service's responsibilities - counter-subversion, counter-espionage and counter-terrorism - and became successively Director of all three branches. She was appointed Director-General of MI5 in 1992. She was the first woman to hold the post and the first Director-General whose name was publicly announced on appointment. She has written her autobiography and five Liz Carlyle novels. She lives in London and Norfolk.

 Earlier books in the series are: At Risk, Secret Asset, Illegal Action, Dead Line and Present Danger

‘Taboo’ by Casey Hill

Read by Olivia Caffrey

Published by Whole Story Audio Books, July 2011. ISBN: 978-1-40748-565-2

(9 CD’s) Playing time 10 Hours.

Reilly Steel forensic investigator, California born and bred, has taken a job in Dublin, to bring the Dublin police force into the forensic twenty-first century. Ireland had come as something of a shock to her.  Originally Ireland had sounded magical from tales told by her Irish father Mike Steel, but the Ireland of today she has found to be a very different place, and so has her father.

When the bodies of a young man and woman are found in an apartment in a good part of town it looks initially a possible killing followed by suicide, with no third party involved, but Reilly voices other possibilities much to the disgust of  Detective Pete Kennedy of the Serious Crime Unit - he is keen for an open and shut case. But Detective Chris Delaney has a more open mind and at least listens to her.  As more bodies turn up it becomes a serious possibility that they have a serial killer operating in Dublin.

Having a young American female brought in to update their forensic operation unsurprisingly creates tension and in some cases resentment. Reilly deals with the situation with professionalism. As Reilly and her team sifted through the ever increasing crime scenes, I was enthralled as along with the detectives the deductions begin to point in an unexpected surprising direction.

This is a well-plotted and fascinating mystery, with an interesting protagonist, who has a troubled past that is only slowly revealed, keeping the reader avidly turning the pages.  I highly recommend this mystery and eagerly look forward to hearing more of Reilly Steel.

Much of my enjoyment in this story comes from the narration by Olivia Caffrey - she has a beautiful voice, with that lovely Irish lilt which effortlessly produced a credible American accent when the story called for it.

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Lizzie Hayes

Casey Hill is the pseudonym of husband and wife writing team, Kevin and Melissa Hill. Melissa is a bestselling author in her own right with her hugely popular novels about contemporary women's lives. A deserve to delve into the darker side of fiction led her to team up with Kevin to write Taboo, the first in a series of forensic thrillers featuring Californian-born investigator Reilly Steel.

Olivia Caffrey has stage, film and TV experience, including Playing the Field and Waking the Dead. Her film credits include Conspiracy of Silence and The Matchmaker, and she has performed in a number of theatre productions including Pride and Prejudice and A Christmas Carol.

‘A Medal for Murder’ by Frances Brody

Published by Piatkus, 2010.
ISBN: 978-0-7499-4192-5

At the end of the Great War seeking information as to what happened to her husband Gerald, posted missing, Kate Shackleton undertook to locate missing persons as a kindness to other women in situations such as herself. Although still unclear as to what happened to Gerald, Kate has now in 1922 set up as a Private Investigator and following a robbery at a pawn-shop Kate is retained by the distraught owner to advise his customers of the loss of their items and if possible to track down the culprit.

Visiting Harrogate to carry out her contractual obligation for the pawn shop owner, and taking the opportunity to see a play, Kate virtually trips over a dead body outside the theatre. Seeking another pawn shop customer Kate is approached by Captain Wolfendale who fears his granddaughter Lucy who was in the play has been kidnapped. Soon Kate is drawn into the lives of the actors.

The story is told with a series of flash backs to the turn of the century when Lucy’s grandfather was a Captain during the Boer war.  The descriptions of the scenes are quite harrowing, and invoke a terrible period in British history.

In A Medal for Murder, Frances Brody had produced a fascinating tale of deception, and murder, as she skilfully negotiates the reader through a tangle of fraud and dishonesty. 

The characterisation is superb. Interestingly, one of Kate’s decisions brings her into direct conflict with her trusty sidekick the ex-policeman Sykes.  Whilst I could see Kate’s point, I felt that the reader knew more about the character in question than did Kate, and I wondered if Kate’s decision would come back to haunt her.

An excellent story well paced that keeps the reader turning pages. One of those unable-to-put down books.  Highly recommended.

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Reviewer: Lizzie Hayes

 

Frances Brody is a pseudonym of Frances McNeil who lives in Leeds where she was born and grew up. She worked in the USA as a secretary in Washington DC and New York. Frances studied at Ruskin College, Oxford and read English Literature and History at York University.

Starting her writing life in radio, she has written scripts for television and theatre. Frances turned to crime for her fifth novel, Dying in the Wool, set on the outskirts of Bradford, Yorkshire in the 1920s.

‘Love Lies Bleeding’ by Jess McConkey

Published by William Morrow, 2011. ISBN: 978-0-06-199968-0

Samantha Moore, had everything, the perfect job, a loving fiancé, and wealthy parents. Then she is attacked by a group of young men in the car park of her office, and emerges from a coma two months later, a frightened girl in constant pain with no confidence and low self-esteem.  To help her recuperation her father and her fiancé the plastic surgeon Dr Jackson Van Horn arrange for her to stay at a cabin in Minnesota.  They employ Anne Weaver to stay with her during her period of recuperation. As Anne is a physical therapy assistant she can help build up the wasted muscle in Sam’s leg which is also part of the reason for her low self-esteem.

This book had me edgy from the beginning, even reading it I began to feel suffocated by father Laurence Moore and fiancé Jackson. Both continually ignoring anything Sam said and steamrollering over any suggestion she made as if she was mentally deficient. Also the constant harping on the need to take her medication, that clearly turned her into a zombie.

Whilst Anne Weaver has her own set of problems she sets out to help Sam recover by imposing a relatively strict regime to improve the muscle tone in Sam’s damaged leg. But any progress is constantly undermined by the visits of Laurence Moore and Jackson.  And who is the lady in lavender that Sam sees in the dead of night? Is she real or a hallucination?

The story is narrated from multiple points of view, the most chilling being the first person narrative by an unknown person, who is clearly disturbed, but not knowing the person’s identity has the reader questioning everything and everyone.

It is a mind bending work as I stopped on several occasions wondering just how would one react in that situation. Would you suspect that the people you trusted didn’t have your best interests at heart, and why and to what end?

With many interesting characters, this a cleverly crafted work, that had me suspecting everyone.

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Lizzie Hayes

Jess McConkey is the alter ego of author Shirley Damsgaard, author of the Ophelia and Abby series.

For information on Jess and Shirley visit www.shirleydamsgaard.com

‘The Accidental Assassin’ by Jan Toms

Published by The History Press,

25 July 2011.

ISBN: 978-0-7524-6270-7

Victor Green works for the tax office, thirty-seven and unmarried Victor is nervous of most things particularly authority, so when he receives a letter from the Council telling him to cut back his trees which are overhanging the road, Victor gets out the ladder.  Not happy with heights, a bird fluttering in his face and Victor falls killing a man passing beneath him, who was walking his poodle.

Reports of the incident in the in the local paper identifiy him as Vincent Green, but Victor is not too concerned as returning to work he is for the first time centre of attention – a novelty for Victor. The subsequent arrival of a cheque for £20’000 payable to V Green has Victor mystified, but with no return address, just an unsigned note with the words ‘ Be more discreet next time’.

Eventually the victim is named as Tommy Hewson, known as ‘Gruesome Hewson’.  This information is conveyed to him by his local bobby Constable Alan Grimes, who tells Victor that he has done the community a service as Gruesome was part of one of the gangland mafia. He gives Victor some background on the two gangs the Pretty Boys and the Blues Brothers who both started their lives in South London and subsequently moved to the Isle of Wight. The whole thing alarms Victor so much that Alan has left before he remembered the cheque.

Soon Victor is caught up in the gang warfare unaware that both gangs think that he is the Vincent Green, the name used by international hit-man Vincenzo Verdi. As the two gangs try to take each other out hapless Victor is constantly in the wrong or maybe the right place at the wrong time, leaving innocently a trail of bodies behind him.  And when a lady takes an interest in him Victor is initially transported, but be careful what you wish for.

Jan has created some marvellous characters, Alan Grimes close to retirement and recently widowed, his daughter Charity who feels it’s her mission feed him lentils to keep him healthy, The Blue Brothers, Reggie, Randy and Dodge, and the Pretty Boys - Harry, Garry, and Barry, not to mention Fluffy the poodle. A fun read had me laughing out loud.

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Lizzie Hayes

Jan Toms is descended from a long line of Islanders. Her previous works include twelve novels published under the name of Janet Mary Tomson; she has also written articles for Island Life Magazine, and the on-line magazine

Suite 101

, mostly historical in content. She is also the author of The Little Book of the Isle of Wight. Jan has recently taught creative writing for adult males in Camp Hill Prison. She lives in Freshwater on the Isle of Wight.

‘Portrait of a Murder’ by Stella Whitelaw

Published by Robert Hale
31^st August 2011.

ISBN: 978-0-7090-9272-8

Harriet Dale is an out of work actor. To keep her a roof over her head she leases a shop which comes with an upstairs storeroom, in which Harriet lives. In her shop Magpie she sells vintage clothes which she picks up in a variety of places, charity shops being the most favoured.  But her main source of income whilst ‘resting’ is working as an insurance claims investigator for fat Gil  Paterson who has sexual designs on her.  Her current assignment is to get close to Barry Digby-Jones who has made a claim for a stolen painting ‘The Frightened Lady’ which Harriet discovers has an unusual history, in that the lady in question sat for the painting before her wedding, but was murdered as soon as the painting was finished, but before her wedding. The 200 year-old painting has gained a reputation of being cursed in that anyone who moves it dies. 

Attending a fashion event at the Longstreet Manor in West Sussex, the home of Barry Digby-Jones, Harriet slips into her persona of Henrietta, wealthy model girl about town.  Soon Barry Digby-Jones has sexual designs on her also.  Evading Gil’s pudgy hands and keeping Barry at bay is manageable – just. Then attractive Axe Winston steps into the picture, and lures her to lunch and feeds her strawberries on the beach – all manageable, but ex-lover Denzil who is stalking her with a knife is not manageable.

To get closer to discovering the whereabouts of ‘The Frightened Lady’ Harriet uses another of her disguises and becomes Harry – student.  Rushing around and adopting disguises is tiring but fun, but soon matters take a sinister turn, and despite being warned by DI Brice McDonald, who incidentally is the only man that Harriet would like to have sexual designs on her, she continues to pursue the painting which gets her into all sorts of trouble.

I enjoyed this caper immensely, Harriet is an engaging and resourceful protagonist, and her many guises entertaining.  There is a good twist at the end, and the mystery of the missing painting is satisfactorily resolved.  Good characterisation and some marvellous dialogue.

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Lizzie Hayes

Stella Whitelaw is a British writer and journalist. She began her writing career as a cub reporter and rose to become the first female chief reporter in London. She has published 47 novels, as well as over 300 short stories in national women's magazines. She was Secretary of the Parliamentary Press Gallery at the House of Commons.She was awarded an MBE in 2001 for services to journalism. She won the Art of Writing competition in the London Magazine, judged by Sheridan Morley and the Elizabeth Goudge Cup at Guildford University. She lives in Surrey.

‘Eyes Wide Open’ by Andrew Gross

Published by William Morrow, July 2011.
ISBN: 978-0-06-165596-8

Dr Jay Erlich is a happy man, married with two teenage children he is celebrating his twentieth wedding anniversary with his wife Kathy, when he receives a call from his elder half-brother Charlie that his son twenty-one-year-old Evan has died.  Whereas life for Jay has worked out well, for Charlie, a child of the sixties things just went from bad to worse. Always trying to make it in the music business, his penchant for drugs and alcohol not helping, Charlie has frequently hit bad times.  Jay has over the years provided financial support on many occasions for Charlie his wife Gabriella and their son Evan who was bipolar. 

When Jay arrives in California it is to find both Charlie and Gabby in a bad way – angry that the hospital where Ewan was taken after a violent episode should just a few days later send him to a place that let him walk out on his own, and finish up dead at the bottom of the cliff.  Recorded as a suicide, Charlie asks Jay to take on the hospital who so badly let down their son.

As Jay seeks to discover the truth of Evan’s death he finds that despite being a doctor himself he is stonewalled by the doctor who was treating Evan, and the mental health social worker. The only person from whom he gets any cooperation is Detective Sherwood from the Coroner’s office. Then a number of oddities have him suspecting that Evan’s death may not have been suicide, but that the answers to today’s tragedy are locked in Charlie’s head back in the past.

Jay’s quest for the truth takes him on a horrific journey as he delves into his own families past and uncovers the secrets that Charlie has kept for thirty-five years. This is a chilling and macabre story that takes Jay into the evil of a 1960’s cult.  And soon Jay himself is in danger, and those he loves are at risk.  Just how far do the tentacles of this cult stretch?  Who will help him but more important who will believe him?

Well crafted and cleverly plotted, this is a thrilling read. Unable to put it down, I read it in one sitting. You will too.
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Lizzie Hayes

Andrew Gross did a major in English at Middlebury. Then a stint at the Leslie Fay Companies, a women's clothing firm started by his grandfather. Later he went into the sports apparel field, and ended up president of HEAD Ski and Tennis.  His is the author of The Blue Zone, Don’t Look Twice, The Dark Tide, Reckless. He has also co-authored with James Patterson six other books. Andrew is married and lives in Westchester County, New York.