‘Sticks and Stones’ by K. J. Larsen

 Published by Head of Zeus Ltd,
13 September 2013 
ISBN 9781908800534

This book goes at a fizzing pace as heroine Cat DeLuca pursues various crooks. She is a PI who investigates men whose wives believe they are cheating on them to get the evidence of their perfidy; and sometimes she looks at women whose husbands suspect them of extra-marital activity The task involves much chasing of cars and much clambering on to places from which clear photos of the behaviour of the men and their paramours can be taken. It is not an easy task! The name of Cat’s agency is the Pants On Fire Detective Agency.

The people that Cat works for are frequently rather eccentric in their responses to their cheating spouses - guns feature strongly! This particular story centres on Cleo who is assisting Cat in her business burt also angry with her cheating, lying husband Walter. When Walter is shot Cleo is the obvious suspect so Cat has to work hard to show her friend’s innocence. Cat comes from a big exuberant Italian- American family with strong involvement in the law business which can be difficult but also helpful to her as a PI. Her Mama is constantly distressed that her daughter won’t take a safe job in dispatching for the police. When Cat is in her mother’s good books she is given heavenly homemade cannoli but when she isn’t the food is withheld.

Food is a major feature here. Cat succeeds against the odds in tracking down the real murderer and solves other crimes at the same time!

-----------

Reviewer: Jennifer S Palmer

This is the second adventure for Cat DeLuca - the first was Liar, Liar. A further story, Some Like it Hot is previewed at the end of Sticks and Stones

K J Larsen. The three sisters Kari, Julianne, and Kristen write under the pen name, K.J. Larsen. Writing a novel together was second nature for the three sisters who created their own Nancy Drew mysteries as kids
Kari Larsen lives at the foothills of Mt. Rainier and loves hiking, stand-up comedy, and the Blues. She’s written a column for a local paper as well as numerous plays and children’s stories. Kari is also a regular contributor at www.kidamentals.com with blogs and information on how to encourage creativity in children. Julianne is the youngest of the six Larsen girls.   She teaches classes in organic gardening and is a gifted artist and poet. She lives on a farm with her horses, her beagle, and more four legged children than any person with good sense.

http://kjlarsenauthor.com/

Jennifer Palmer Throughout my reading life crime fiction has been a constant interest; I really enjoyed my 15 years as an expatriate in the Far East, the Netherlands & the USA but occasionally the solace of closing my door to the outside world and sitting reading was highly therapeutic. I now lecture to adults on historical topics including Famous Historical Mysteries.

‘The Last Alibi’ by David Ellis

Published by Quercus,
26 September 2013.
ISBN: 978-1-78087-792-1

This is another novel featuring defence lawyer Jason Kolarich. This time Jason himself is on trial for murder but of whom is deliberately not made clear until towards the end of the book. He is being represented by his law partner Shauna Tasker. The novel switches between the trial in the present and the past, six months earlier, when a young man called James Drinker sought Jason’s advice because he feared he was being framed for several serial murders. But as Jason investigates it becomes clear that nothing about Drinker is as it seems. Drinker is manipulating Jason for his own ends - but what are those ends? Jason is becoming increasingly uneasy about Drinker but the attorney-client relationship means that he has to keep his unease to himself. Moreover, Jason’s own problems - an increasing dependence on pain-killing medication for a serious sports injury affecting his personality about which no-one knows - are making more and more difficult for him to carry on working. Shauna is horrified at what is happening to Jason and places much of the blame on the beautiful yet manipulative court reporter Alexa Himmel with whom Jason is becoming increasingly but dangerously involved. Events proceed inexorably to a compelling and dramatic climax.

The novel’s complex narrative structure, admirably controlled by the author, makes it difficult to give much detail as to the plot. It is, however, well worth reading. For details as to the author and some of his previous titles see the review of The Wrong Man.

-------

Reviewer: Radmila May

David Ellis  is a lawyer and award-winning author of nine novels. Dave currently lives near Chicago with his wife Susan, their children Abigail, Julia, and Jonathan, and their pug, Otis.

http://davidellis.com

‘The Investigation’ by Jung-Myung Lee

Published by Mantle,
27 March 2014.
ISBN: 978-0-230-76871-0 (Hardback) 978-0-230-76872-7)Trade paperback)

In Japan in 1944, Yuichi Watenabe, a young prison guard with a passion for reading, is given the task of investigating the murder of another prison guard, Sugiyama Dozan. The Fukuoko prison is for dissidents which include many Koreans who oppose the Japanese occupation of Korea. Seventeen year old Yuichi, the shy bookish boy, was called up in 1941 and assigned to prison guard duties while the murder victim, Sugiyama, was a forty year old veteran, known for his brutality. Yuichi must interrogate the Korean prisoners to find a murderer and he finds the poet, Yun Dong-ju, and the frequently punished Choi Chi-su may have information to help him understand.

This is a crime novel in which poetry and the horrors of war become central. The brutality of the treatment of the prisoners by their guards is hard to accept but the some of the prisoners manage to transcend their treatment. The atmosphere of such a prison camp is clearly evoked in beautifully spare prose. The poems of real life Yun Dong-ju are quoted, as are other Western literary books to expand an understanding of the human condition and the concept of freedom. We can follow the effects of music and poetry on individuals.

The puzzle for Yuichi seems to be solved quite quickly but the ramifications are so complex that he has to continue investigating and finding more and more inexplicable happenings. There are a number of significant images here such as the kite flying but the one I appreciated most was the use of the (real) bookworms in a library to indicate a story development. Jung-Myung Lee sways the sympathies of the reader towards different protagonists by his clever manipulation of events, attitudes and his excellent writing.

For a Western reader this gives a good impression of the Second World War war from the Korean and Japanese perspectives. It is a literary and crime novel of stature. The use of a real poet as a major character is clever.
-------

Reviewer: Jennifer S Palmer

Jung-myung Lee has written many books in Korean but this seems to be the first one to be translated. The translator, Chi-Young Kim, has good experience at his task.

Jung-Myung Lee  was born in Korea. He has sold hundreds of thousands of copies of his books in his native Korea. One, Deep Rooted Tree, was made into a popular TV series.

Jennifer Palmer Throughout my reading life crime fiction has been a constant interest; I really enjoyed my 15 years as an expatriate in the Far East, the Netherlands & the USA but occasionally the solace of closing my door to the outside world and sitting reading was highly therapeutic. I now lecture to adults on historical topics including Famous Historical Mysteries.

‘Down Among the Dead Men’ by Ed Chatterton

Published by Midas,
14 November 2013.
ISBN: 978-0-099576686

 

DCI Frank Keane has to deal with a really gruesome and brutal killing of a husband and wife, which on the face of it looks like a murder suicide, but the son is missing and that puts doubt on the picture he and his force is seeing.  Evidence starts to emerge which indicates that not all is as straightforward as it seems. DCI Keane starts to ask awkward questions and links the murders with a local film project and, potentially, its stars.  The investigation becomes politically hot, as the film is seen as an important promotion for the city, and the death count increases.  Keane and his team are stretched to the limit trying to follow up leads, without losing an important city initiative. 

The narrative moves from Liverpool to Los Angeles and merges some of the difficulties of police procedure, with the politics of both locally and internationally driven investigations.  The gritty realities of Liverpool are lightened by the relationships between the characters depicted and the contrast between the two cities in the story.  DCI Keane has many characteristics of the typical fictional detective: lonely, drinks, often bucks the system, but his flaws also help drive the story forward.  The other characters, working with Keane and the criminals/victims, are sketched out in some detail and each scenario is nicely paced. 

This is a slow burn story, but the tempo is fast enough and the characters drawn finely enough to keep the attention right up to the explosive end.  The differences between the two cities which play host to the events of the tale are emphasised by the contrast between the pace of the story in each.  This creates a surprising and interesting take on the police procedural.

------

Reviewer: Amanda Brown

Ed Chatterton was born in Liverpool, England and, working as Martin Chatterton, has been successfully writing and illustrating children's books for twenty-five years. In addition to his award-winning career as a writer, he has also worked as a graphic designer, university lecturer, commercials director and failed lingerie baron. After spending some years moving between the UK and the US, he emigrated to Australia in 2004 and became a citizen in 2006. He lives in northern NSW and is married with two vampires.

‘The Outsider’ by Chris Culver

Published by Sphere,
15 August 2013.
ISBN: 978-0-7515-4912-6

With a title that evokes Albert Camus’ L’Etranger, the reader immediately understands that Detective Ash Rashid of the Indianapolis police force sees himself – and is indeed seen by others – as on the outskirts of the world he inhabits both professionally and personally. An ethnic minority police officer, a Muslim who drinks alcohol, a father who is frequently absent from his family… all these elements make Ash an outsider, giving him both freedom – and the uncomfortable self-awareness that comes with it.

Perhaps to counteract this, the author initially presents Ash as a little bit worthy; he feels uncomfortable lying to his wife – not because he thinks it’s wrong but because his religion tells him so – and yet he struggles to make it through the day without drinking... This makes the protagonist hard to relate to at first, but he settles into a well-rounded, conflicted character, struggling to do the right thing in an environment whose pressures make “the right thing” difficult to identify, let alone act on.

The narrative begins as Ash unexpectedly receives a visit from the local mob boss, presenting him with a gift of $5000 and the news that Cassandra Johnson, an acquaintance of Ash’s has died. Confused, Ash sets off to find out more and discovers that, not only is his informant correct, but that his friend has been murdered. Determined to bring the killer to justice, his investigation leads him to the worst areas of Indianapolis where he discovers drug dens and a witness who is murdered shortly after telling him that the police may have been involved in Cassandra’s death.

Worried, he continues to explore, stumbling across the unorthodox methods used by his fellow officers via some rule breaking of his own. With the waters getting increasingly muddied,  misinformation, red herrings and more dead witnesses block Ash's progress and he has a hard time proving his suspicions; that the murder of Cassandra Johnson and the arrest of fellow Muslim Thomas Rahal for drug dealing and the murder of a police officer are somehow related and part of a larger criminal conspiracy.

Desperate, he makes contact with some confidential informants on both sides of the legal system and uncovers information that the courts may not want revealed...

On the surface, this is a standard crime thriller novel where a felony is committed and our dedicated sleuth works his socks off to solve the bring the perpetrators to justice. But underneath the familiar and somewhat formulaic facade, this is a tale of our times: social injustice, police corruption, convoluted financial dealings and politicians pulling the strings behind the scenes. Wheels turn within wheels, pushing Ash Rashid into a corner where, as is so often the case in real life, there is no right answer.

------

Reviewer: Joanna Leigh

Chris Culver grew up in southern Indiana. After graduate school, Chris taught courses in ethics and comparative religion at a small liberal arts university in southern Arkansas. While there and when he really should have been grading exams, he wrote The Abbey, which spent sixteen weeks on the New York Times bestseller's list and introduced the world to Detective Ash Rashid. He and his wife along with a labrador retriever named Roy, now live near St Louis, Missouri, where Chris is working on the next Ash Rashid novel.

Joanna Leigh studied French and German at university. She works in the aerospace industry and is a chartered marketer in the UK. She describes herself as a voracious reader, enjoying genres as varied as crime thrillers, historical fiction and autobiographies. Joanna lives in London. She is the daughter of crime thriller writer Leigh Russell.