Tag: Crime Fiction Blog

The Running Grave. Robert Galbraith

Strike and Robin are back for their latest instalment and the story is really good.

The latest client wants his son brought to safety from a Cult run from a farm in Norfolk.

The clan have long been accused of abusive and coercive behaviour, but hide behind a wall of of litigation against those that make the accusation they appear almost bomb proof.

The only way to shut them down, and release their clients son, is to gather evidence from inside.

Somebody needs to go undercover. Join the “religion” and live at the farm.

Whoever that is is going to need a strong mind to withstand the torturous regime inside that attacks both body and mind.

It fall to Robin to enter the building but both Strike, her family, and her new Police Officer boyfriend are against it..

Nevertheless she insists she has to be the one and worms her way in.

What follows is a dark tale of a manipulation of the mind and a weakening of the body.

Can she stay strong enough to stay true to herself, to gather evidence, and to get out unharmed and mentally undamaged.

Meanwhile on the outside Strike and his team carry on that investigation whilst covering the usual distractions of day to day detective agency work.

Bullet points. I loved the story, I loved the characters, I loved the little side stories that detract from the main plot and give a bit of humour, and yes there’s a but coming.

“But” it’s long and I’m pretty sure the story wouldn’t have lost any of its impact if some of the more erroneous text was left out. As much as I like descriptive narratives at times it can go too far.

On numerous occasions I found myself skipping pages which described the decor of a pub, or room within the compound.

I like long books, but only where the text is relevant. Unfortunately, and really unusually for me, I stopped reading this book twice and went to read other books before going back.

After reading 900 plus pages the end seemed a little rushed. Which surprised me.

But the last few paragraphs, of the last chapter , made reading every word worth it.

Pages 961. Audio book length 34 hours 13 minutes. Narrator Robert Glenister

The Scorned. Alex Khan

A good Police Procedural novel with strong characters.

At times this book is a tough read and contains triggers for anybody who has suffered domestic abuse.

A tough Asian Lady who has run away from her own “arranged” , and abusive marriage is now a Detective Sergeant working on serious crimes. Moomy Ali is a great character.

When two women, with no apparently link are brutally murdered, within hours of each other Moomy and her team are tasked to investigate.

Why have the Home Office sent an observer in to watch over the team, even before the first victim is identified.

The teams fears that they are being used as some form of political pawn doesn’t stop them carrying out an investigation that uncovers a disturbing scenario.

There appears to be a group of people being manipulated to kill, born on their hatred of women.

During the investigation they uncover bigoted hate in various forms, which are unfortunately very realistic and believable.

But which group, and which leader are responsible for the killings.

As much as this book is a great story it’s also a sad reflection on elements of today’s society.

Frighteningly realistic, and at times hard to read, it’s a great book.

Pages 377. Publisher: Hera Release Date: 5th October 2023

Saving Myles. Carl Vonderau

Every parents nightmare, and that’s just the beginning.

As a father I would do anything to ensure my daughters safety, and that’s where things start to go wrong for Banker Wade.

His son Myles is really troubled, failing school, heavily into drugs, slowly ruining his own life.

Wade arranges an intervention. He has Myles forcibly taken from his home and placed into rehab, for a year.

When Myles comes home he runs off to Mexico with his “Girlfriend” and is kidnapped by the cartel.

To raise the ransom Wade agrees to work for another Bank, but what he is actually doing is working for the Cartel.

This is a story of love and sacrifice that leads to a parents downward spiral.

Moralistically I emphasised with Wade, and wanted to slap Myles.

But ultimately I wanted to shout at Wade to wake up and see what he was getting himself into.

And all of this is only the begining

Publishers Gumph ⬇️⬇️⬇️

When the FBI can’t help, an unassuming banker takes matters into his own hands to bring his son home

Wade, a respected banker in La Jolla, CA, and his estranged wife, Fiona, make the unbearable decision to send their teenage son, Myles, away to an expensive treatment center after a streak of harmful behavior. After a year of treatment, Myles comes home, seemingly rehabilitated. But soon, he sneaks off to Tijuana to buy drugs—and is kidnapped.

When the ransom call comes, Fiona is frantic and accepts help from Andre, the Quebecois whose charity Fiona runs. Wade is wary of Andre’s reputation and the bank he owns, but seeing no other way to secure a kidnap negotiator or the ransom, he swallows his doubts to get his son home.

In order to get the ransom money, Wade makes a deal with Andre—he’ll work for Andre’s bank in exchange for the cash. But as Wade races to rescue Myles before his kidnappers lose their patience, he realizes he’s wrapped up in more crime than just a kidnapping—he’s now indebted to a cartel.

Age of Vice. Deepti Kapoor

A story of greed, corruption and abuse.

Based in India this book follows a group of people.

A boy from an impoverished village that is sold into servitude.

A rich spoilt brat, the son of gangster whose raping villagers of their land and children.

A journalist who wants to get to the bottom of everything that is happening in the villages, only to find herself in a world of alcohol and drugs that sends her life spiralling out of control

There lives are thrown together, over years, the good becoming bad and the bad becoming worse.

At the core of the story is greed, corruption and the Caste System.

One thing that this cooking pot of characters, greed, and corruption is sure to bring is an explosive end.

What it delivers is a slow building pressure cooker of a story that had me hooked from the very beginning.

My allegiances changed as I moved through the book. My liking for some characters changed to hate, my hate for others ……just got worse, but it added to the magnetism of the story.

Brilliant.

If you are a person that only reads one book a year, and are looking for that poolside read.

This is it.

Pages: 589. Publisher: Fleet. Available now

The Blue Pool Murders & The Lighthouse Murders. Rachel McLean

Books seven and eight in the Dorset Crime series, which in itself is a spin off from the Birmingham Crime Series, both of which have interwoven themes, running storylines and shared characters

Although these books can be read as standalone stories I would really suggest, and highly recommend, that the reader invested in the books that come before, because this is a brilliant continuing story, that will have fans of the TV series Line of Duty salivating.

DCI Lesley Clarke moved from the West Midlands to Dorset as a form of recovery following an injury during a terrorist attack. There were a few of things she didn’t expect.

Firstly that Dorset was going to be the scene of so many murders.

Secondly that she would be dealing with major crime lords

Thirdly, and most significantly that she would fall into a situation that would involve her investigating the death of her predecessor, a death formally recorded as suicide, but which is beginning to look more and more suspicious.

Her investigations into the death of retired DCI Mackie seems to be inextricably linked to her current investigations and, because she doesn’t know who she can trust, she turns to a selective few of her new colleagues, one of her old ones and surprisingly a local journalist.

That is the running theme throughout this series and it’s addictive

Book 7 The Blue Pool Murders, sees Lesley and her team investigating the death of a Local Crime Boss.

His body is found floating in an isolated pool in a nature reserve. The one piece of evidence at the scene points to somebody very close to her. Should she hide it, there’s already enough duplicity and underhand behaviour in the force, does she need to add to it. Or is somebody trying to discredit her, or have her removed from the Major Investigation Team by having her credibility as a neutral investigator brought into question.

As the bodies mount, and Clarke and her team get closer to the truth, the links to Mackie also start to add up.

Book 8 The Lighthouse Murder starts with a body discovered in Portland Bill Lighthouse. The victim is linked to Lesley. Her team in Birmingham put him away just before she moved south.

He should still be in prison but his escape was rigged when he was being transferred from one of the Dorset Prisons.

The big question is why was he killed within hours of escaping.

Again the bodies mount up but Clarke is without one of her team. A major player, her DS has been arrested and suspended.

She feels like it’s getting harder to keep investigations on the right track.

When Police Officers start “running interference” on her investigations, in apparent careless but innocent ways her paranoia of who to trust deepens.

She returns to Birmingham as part of the investigation and starts to interact with her old DI Zoe Finch, the one copper she knows she can trust.

These two books almost finish off the running story.

Book 9, The Ghost Village is out this summer and according to the publicity material it is the book in which the story concludes

I quickly became hooked on Rachel McLeans books when I read the first of the Zoe Finch books set in Birmingham. Now her works is amongst my favourite Crime Fiction being written today.

As her books are published they go straight to the top of my reading pile, and never get relegated.

Brilliant.

The Misper. Kate London

A new author to me and I’m not surprised to find out that she has experience as a Met Detective.

This story is as real as it comes. The aftermath of the killing of a Police Officer.

The life of a Roadman and the effects on his psychological health, and that of his “family”

The story of how Ryan Kennedy ended up getting involved in gangs. How that escalated to him carrying drugs and blades, and ultimately a gun.

The probability that if you carry a weapon you will put yourself in a position where you brandish it, and eventually use it.

The frustrations of the Police when the vagaries of the law, the distinctions between murder and manslaughter, the proof of intention the “ mens rea” means a young cop killer gets off relatively lightly

The celebrity that the young cop killer has in prison, balanced against the fact he is a frightened 15 year old boy who knows his only way of surviving is to keep his mouth shut.

The effects of the mental health of the police officers involved in the operation in which the undercover detective died.

The blame culture balanced against the arrogance of those who think it wasn’t their fault.

The surviving widow with the young child.

All of this in the first quarter of the book, and it really sets the atmosphere of the story

The Publishing Gumph

When Ryan Kennedy is imprisoned after killing a police officer, he knows what he has to do. Keep his mouth shut about who he was working for, keep his head down, and rely on his youth to keep his sentence short. When he gets out, he’ll be looked after.

Following the death in the line of duty of a fellow detective, DI Sarah Collins has left the capital for a quieter life in the countryside. But when a missing teenager turns up on her patch, she finds herself drawn into a much bigger investigation – one that leads her right back to London, back to the Met, and back to Ryan Kennedy, the kid who killed a cop.

This powerful novel from a former Met detective explores the devastation that organized drug-running gangs can wreak on young lives. It asks who deserves to be saved – and whether saving them is even possible…

Publisher Corvus. Publishing Date : 3rd August 2023

The Snow Killer & The Soul Killer. Ross Greenwood

I picked up Snow Killer on a recommendation, and I’m really glad I did. It was that good I went straight to book 2 The Soul Killer

Gentle Giant, and family man, DI John Barton is the main Police lead and a cracking character, but what steals the show in these books, and makes them stand out in current crime fiction, is the main criminals.

Greenwood dedicates as much time to the criminal and their activities, as he does to the Police and their investigations.

The criminals sections are written in the first person, with the investigation side written in the third person.

This allows Ross to get right into the criminal mind and explore the psyche the murderers.

The Snow Killer

In this book the killer is out for revenge. 50 years ago her family were murdered in a Gangland killing. She escapes badly injured, with the killers thinking she had died.

It took her a few years but she got revenge. Now a he’s killing again, but why.

An old Lady annoyed at the way the youth have no respect. The way the neighbourhood is run by silly, arrogant, tooth sucking teens.

Barton really has his work cut out. The old cases don’t even come on his horizon until a retired officer comes under suspicion for an unrelated issue.

Who would suspect an old lady. But then again we were all young once, and why would our attitude change just because our body isn’t as strong.

A gun is a great leveller, so is a well placed knife in skilled hands

Soul Killer

Following on from the aftermath of the shocking end to the Snow Killer

This time the killer is very close to home.

Again revenge is at the heart of the crimes. This time the killer is young, clever and calculated. But what Greenwood does brilliantly is show the escalating downward spiral of their mental health as they start to make mistakes.

One killing has to lead to another, just to cover up their tracks, the more killings the more chance of a mistake. The cold calculated killer starts to turn into a panicked psychopath.

One of Barton’s team is a new and very blunt young DC. The team find him hard to get on with but Barton sees something in him and lets him have his head. He hits the nail on the head quickly but is largely ignored, after all how could the person he thinks is a serial killer be responsible, they wouldn’t hurt a fly.

Both of these books had me hooked. I’ve not come across any other stories that give the killer so much time in a story, and have them writes so well.

Greenwood gives a real gravitas to the mind of the killer. He looks at their history, in both stories the issues the killers have started years ago and have festered in their minds.

He looks at the planning and consequences. The average person these days think they are Forensically aware, and know that a mistake will almost inevitably lead to their capture. So when killers start to make mistakes, even the coolest start to panic. The more they panic the more mistakes they make.

Barton’s team are good at what they do. There are some great characters amongst them, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, but everybody knows their worth, what they are good at, and how to support each other.

At the end of the second book, in the acknowledgments, yes some people do read them and I’m one of them, Greenwood states he didn’t realise, when he was writing the first book, that it would turn into a trilogy.

Well it must really have come as a surprise to him that it went beyond book three. In fact according to Amazon there’s five books in the series.

How good are the first two. I’ve just finished Soul Killer and immediately downloaded the rest of the series.

The books are also available as Audiobooks, narrated by David Thorpe

Publisher Boldwood Books. Available now on Amazon.

The Deptford Murder. Jez Pinfold

Detective Chief Inspector Bec Pope. A new Police Officer on the book shelves, and hopefully one here to stay.

The Deptford Murder introduces Pope in spectacular fashion.

The first body is found posed in a church, with a personal message to Pope, in the form of a formal invitation, placed neatly on the body.

The second body appears within hours, another message to Pope.

This is the beginning of a cracking story that had me turning the pages well into the night.

Pope is a great character. Typical of a Police Officer her job takes president over her family, even she admits it.

She works late, drinks when she gets home, has trouble sleeping. She lives with her husband and his kids, but it’s not an easy relationship.

As another attack takes place more pressure is put on Pope’s team, mainly born of her own professionalism, but they crack on and work long hours to find the killer before there are more victims.

Inevitable there is strain on family relations, and almost as inevitably there is a close bond between Pope and one of her colleagues. But will “that” line ever be crossed.

As the investigation, and the book, fly along, surprising connections start to be made and the final twist is a real surprise, without being out-of-the-blue, or unrealistic.

This is hopefully the first of a series. Pope, and her team in Londons Met, are really well conceived. As individuals there is great promise, as a team the scope for the stories to come is wide and I can’t wait to read whatever is to come

Print length: 302 pages. Publisher: Joffe. Published: 3rd December 2022.

The Prisoners Wife. Ali Blood

I don’t usually read the Gangland type of crime book, but the spiel for this one got me intrigued.

Am I glad I read it? Yes.

Emma is married to a man she thought was the best thing that had ever happened to her, until he put that ring on her finger. Then the true Tommy Driscoll appeared, bullying, coercive, and frightening.

Who she thought was an honest business man, is in fact a Gangland boss. His businesses just a front for all of his illegal activities.

The book starts with Tommy being found guilty of carrying a firearm and being sentenced to five years. Emma’s joy at the thought of freedom from him is short lived.

His brother Liam, and his right hand man Fraser work at Tommy’s behest to ensure she is living a life of incarceration on the outside, just as much as she is on the inside. His threats to her are chilling. Do nothing, live like a nun, wait for him to get out.

But she’s already made a mistake, a one night stand whilst Tommy was on remand.

Now the one night stand is trying to blackmail her, and if her husband finds out……..

But where is the real threat.

Who can she trust.

She can’t turn to her family because Tommy is using threats against them to control her.

The Police? Why should she trust them.

This is a great story with some vicious twists.

The surprises keep coming all the way to the last chapter.

A cracking book. At times this is a tough read but it’s always compelling and I found it hard to put down.

Ali Blood is a new author to me but I’ll be keeping my eyes open for her books in the future

Pages: 400. Publisher: Avon. Publishing Date: 2nd February 2023

The Silent Dead. Marnie Riches

Detective Sergeant Jackie Cooke is not your average fictional Police Officer, but I think she’s probably one of the most realistic.

A newly separated single mother with twins boys, one of who is the “child from hell” and a few months old little girl.

She is battling her ex partner, who wants to take her for a much as he can, having contributed very little, and relies on her mother, who lives in a granny-flat in the basement, for child care.

When she’s at work she’s worried about her kids and the over reliance she places on her mom. When she’s at home she can’t stop thinking about her cases.

Her work is suffering because of her home life, and her home life is suffering because of her work.

The icing on the cake for Cooke is that she was a DI, but stood down when she became pregnant with her daughter, and the new DI is, in her opinion, inept.

So that’s the backdrop to the story and it really adds a touch of reality that helped me engage with Cooke.

When she attends a murder scene to find out that it’s an old school friend of hers who has been killed, she is caught slightly off guard.

When the investigation starts to take her into the world of, online dating, and seedy hook ups she wonders what her old friend had got herself into in the years they had been out of contact.

The fact that more murders show a similar MO, leads Cooke and her Sergeant into the murky world of on line hook ups.

I have come across the phrase Incel in a few books recently, but Marnie Riches seems to have hit the right balance of menace and desperation that people that fall into that category exude and suffer.

I love the main characters in this book.

The crimes are really well considered and fit the story perfectly.

A great read.

Pages: 325. Publisher: Bookouture. Publishing Date 1st November 2022