Tag: crime novels

The Devil’s Code. Michael Wood

The second in the Dr Olivia Winter series.

Her father is still alive and in prison but has no big part to play in this book, except that a TV series based on his killings is about to be aired on prime time television. Bringing Olivia back into the unwelcome spotlight.

The main story in this book centres on the investigation into a series of murders. Isaac McFadden is in prison for one murder. He was stopped by the police for a faulty light on his car, but they discovered a dismembered body in the boot.

Throughout his arrest and questioning he replied no comment to all questions. In court he was found guilty of one murder. But when his daughter started to clear out his house she found a note book with some coded entries, and an eclectic mix of items she’d never seen before, hidden in the bedroom.

The police now think there may have been more than one murder and turn to Olivia to help her crack the code in the book, and McFaddens code of silence.

Moving to Newcastle to help the police she has to interview the daughter, a woman that is going through what Olivia went through, finding out the father she loved is actually a killer. She tries to help her emotionally, but the spotlight from the TV series has an adverse effect.

I have to say the plot in this book is brilliant. I love the characters, the way it’s written, the story, the cadence, everything.

I think the code in the notebook is clever, and most of it I’d never have got, but the two parts the team really struggle with, for me, were the most obvious. It didn’t detract from my enjoyment, but I think most people will suss it quite quickly.

The fears at the end of my review of the first book didn’t transpire. Olivia Winter is a brilliant Forensic Psychologist, who was the only survivor when her father killed her family, the latest in a series of his killings.

My fear was that it would be another of those series where the incarcerated father would be the go too expert relied on by the law abiding daughter. Apart from the TV series he has little part to play and is hardly mentioned, but when he is ……..

The second book in a series can often be “the difficult second book” but if anything this one is even better than the first, and now I can’t wait for number three.

Pages: 477. Publisher: One More Chapter. Audiobook length: 13.48 hours. Narrator: Olivia Mace

The Collector Series. Dot Hutchison

There are four books in this series, I picked the first one up over Christmas and finished the last one on the second of January.

Yes, I was hooked.

This is a remarkable series, not just for the stories, which are superb, but for the structure and the way they are written.

The stories centre around an FBI team in the Crimes Against Children division.

Each book contains a gripping story but is told from a different team members point of view, with that character in each book being written in the first person.

In the case of the first book the first person, present tense is mainly used for one of the victims.

This, almost unique, style of writing over the series gives a great insight into the personality, emotions, and relationships in high profile investigation teams.

#1 The Butterfly Garden

Teenage girls kidnapped from the streets and held inside a secured garden. The man who takes them is only known to them as the gardener. He’s a collector, a collector of butterflies, in this case human butterflies.

Once the girl has been kidnapped the are subdued and their back is tattooed with their own unique, colourful set of butterfly wings. The girls is given a new name and released into the garden where they interact with other girls who are also being held.

The butterflies are treated well, except when the Gardener wants sex. In his mind he’s being gentle and saving them from the outside world. But they have a life span and when they reach 21 he kills them, before putting them into a glass frame in resin to display them.

But he’s not the biggest threat to the girls. His son is a monster and uses, and abuses, the girls in the worst way.

Special Agent Victor Hanoverian, and his partner Brandon Eddison, and their team investigate the latest disappearance and start to piece together a case that surprises even these veterans.

The pace of this story is frantic. Following one of the girls experience from just before she’s taken, until ……..well until the end of the book but that would be a spoiler.

#2 The Roses of May

This time Eddison is the main character with the story being written in the first person tense from his point of view.

Young women are being killed and posed with flowers on, or around the body. The type of flowers are different for each girl and seem to have a relate to her in some way.

One of the victims sisters, Priya, is receiving flowers, specifically the same type of flowers the victims were posed with, in some type of predictive countdown to another killing, but is she the target.

Eddison has a relationship with Priya, he had investigated her sisters murder and had kept in touch.

A running theme throughout the series is that the team form friendships with victims, and in some cases the bond is more like family. Often the victims become unofficial councillors, they understand the team like nobody else can, and from very different positions, share the experiences of the crimes they are involved in.

In this story the relationship, between Eddison and Priya, is the main focus of the story and it works really well.

#3 The Summer Children

Team members are introduced through the series, in this book Special Agent Mercedes Ramirez, a background character in the previous books, takes centre stage.

Blood covered children, clutching teddy bears, are being left on her doorstep.

Each time the child is told to talk to Ramirez and that she’ll look after them. They are told by a woman who’s forced the child to watch her kill their parents, telling them that they would be safe now and that she’s saving them.

Ramirez has always given the child victims of the crimes she investigates a teddy bear to help comfort them. The killer is now using this against her.

Her emotions are fraught as she tries to dig into past investigations in an attempt to find a link. The killer is described as looking like an angel, and in a really unusually spin the children are all sure it’s a woman.

#4 The Vanishing Season

One of the newest members of the team, Eliza Stirling takes the first person point of view for the final book in the series.

A young girl goes missing around Halloween time. She was walking home from school in a nice safe neighbourhood and nobody saw a thing.

The girl bears a striking resemblance to Stirling, enough for her to be moved to a desk for the investigation because her looks are to emotional for the family.

Her frustrations are shared by her partner Eddison. It’s the anniversary of his sister’s disappearance, and she was about the same age as the latest victim, and had the same blonde hair and blue eyes, and he is also sidelined because of the triggers the similarities might bring.

The detective in charge of looking for Edison’s daughter is long retired but he never stopped looking for her.

When he, and others start to link numerous disappearances over nearly 30 years, it looks like a serial kidnapper has been taking girls for generations.

The story of the investigation, in this book, is a tool to examine the relationship between Stirling and Eddison, and the extended team of FBI agents and past victims.

It’s one of the best finales to a series I’ve ever read.

Emotions run high, friendship and relationships are strained the bonds are tight but not indestructible.

This is a short but brilliant series. I had not heard of Dot Hutchison before but these books have been available for some time. Why she’s flown below my radar I have no idea. But she is firmly on it now.

Publisher Thomas & Mercer

The Dark Arches. Andrew Barrett

This is the second book in the DS Regan Carter series, and as brilliant as it is, it come with a but…….you have to read book 1 A Random Kill first.

It’s not often I say a book can’t be read as a standalone but this really does feel like a continuation of the last, and without reading Random Kill you would be thoroughly confused.

That said, this is a fantastic story. Carter has not only annoyed a deranged gang leader, Bradshaw, she has identified his mole in the Police, or at least one of them.

So with Bradshaw still missing a significant drug package, and a good few thousand pounds, he is really miffed with Carter.

His crew has a loose cannon that’s too unpredictable, unreliable, and utterly violent, who is fixated on Carter. So the best thing Bradshaw can do is set him out to get her and fix his biggest problem.

Meanwhile Bradshaw has come up with a plan to get rich quick, the way he does it is not original, but the scale of the effect it has is massive, and also totally realistic and believable.

Carter is heading-up one avenue of the investigation, whilst her boss starts looking at the person Carter identified as the leak.

What follows is an intriguing story. Carter is out for Bradshaw. Bradshaw knows this and sets psycho Eric after her.

However Eric proves to be a burden and Bradshaw decides he’s too much of a risk and sets him up to fail.

The dance that follows is as good as anything on Strictly.

The suspense contained in the chapters is palpable. At times I had to tell myself to breath

The end of the book, just like the first, leaves the door, not only wide open, but knocked off its hinges, for the continuation in book three.

I really wish I hadn’t found this series until it was complete. I only had a couple of weeks wait between finishing A Random Kill before this one was published. Now I’ll have to wait months for the next instalment.

It would have been a massive book, if it’s only a trilogy, but Galbraith (Rowling) gets away with 1000 page books, so I think this would have been an epic, but brilliant, one book story.

Pages: 328. Publisher: The Ink Foundry

36 Hours. Angela Marsons

Wow. In fact several wows

Wow 1 How is this book 21 of the series. I know time flies but it only seems like yesterday I was enthralled by Silent Scream.

Wow 2 The fact that the series just goes from strength to strength

Wow 3. What a brilliant story.

Kim Stone and her team are back, but at first not officially.

When Stones not so favourite journalist turns up on her doorstep with a half baked story Kim should not be giving it any credence, but there is something about the message that Frost brings her that impacts and makes her take it seriously enough to text her team, on their day off.

So what exactly is it that grips Stone. Frost has been given a deadline. If she doesn’t follow the clues she’s going to be sent, and solve the puzzle within 36 hours, somebody is going to die.

Not everybody, including Stone’s boss take it seriously and the team are given the opportunity to bail out, or help Kim with the investigation on a voluntary basis.

To make matters more complex Stone includes Frost in the team and gives her a seat in the office.

Even those that decide to stay find this a step to far and the tension in the office is palpable.

The first clue leads them to a box, amongst the contents is an audio file in which a person can be heard screaming.

As each clue is discovered the contents get more horrifying.

I’m running out of superlatives to describe Angela Marsons books. Amongst all of the things she’s always good at, characters, plot, settings, this one added a rhythm to story that only the really best authors seem to get right.

Any author can add pace but this story pulses. The anxiety of a new clue and the rush to find it, the lull and anticipation when the team, back in the office, are waiting to hear what Kim and Bryant have found whilst out in the field.

As a Black Country lad I always look forward to seeing where the plot will be set, in this case they race across many locations that are absolutely perfect for hiding clues.

Pace, suspense and a terrific story meant that I read this book in as close to one sitting as it is possible whilst carrying on with a normal life.

Can it be read as a standalone, yes.

Should you read the rest of the series in order, I would, but then again I’m lucky enough to have been in from the start.

Pages. 362. Publisher. Bookouture. Audiobook length. 8 hours 3 minutes. Narrator Jan Cramer

Father’s Day. Richard Madeley

As good as this book is, and it is really good, I fell I have to start this review with a warning, there are triggers in this story that may affect people who have been affected by eating disorders, self harming, and bullying.

That is part of the reason this book is so good. It’s a story of modern day society that needs telling.

For the young girl, Lucy, suffering from PTSD having witness her mother die in horrific and tragic circumstances, life is a lie.

Lucy was living the perfect life in a small village in Cornwall. On a visit to a harbour that life changes when she and her dad witness a horrific accident that leaves her mother dead.

In an attempt to get away from constant reminders they move to the quiet Cotswold town of Willersey.

Becoming more reclusive, spending lots of time in her room, wearing baggy clothing, long sleeves in the height of the summer, all indications that her father eventually picks up on to identify what she is going through.

But there’s an outside influence that her Dad, Nick, has no idea about, until it’s too late.

When a man is murderer and left displayed in the Cirencester Amphitheater, a close to retiring Detective Chief Superintendent is in charge of the investigation.

It doesn’t take much to connect the dots. The storyline is pretty much established in the first few chapters. There is no who done it, more how he did it.

And more importantly what will the outcome be.

I haven’t read any other books by Richard Madeley, I don’t know why, he just hasn’t come onto my radar as far as authors go.

It was my wife who saw Richard talking about his book on the television, and it was her who recommended it to me.

If she hadn’t I’d have never picked it up. I’m so glad she saw that TV show. My next stop is downloading his back catalogue.

Pages: 373. Publisher. Simon & Schuster. Audiobook: 8 hours 25 minutes. Narrators Jamie Parker and Juliette Burton

The Alter Girls. Patricia Gibney

I can’t believe we’re already at book 13 in this series.

Don’t worry if you haven’t read the others because this can be read as a standalone and is still a fantastic read.

The ongoing stories involving Detective Lottie Park, her team, and her family add to the series massively, but the main story in each book is the real star.

In this book two young girls go missing on a snowy day. The only problem is nobody really notices they’re missing for a good few hours.

Both girls are connected to the church through the choir and serve as alter girls, both are very young, still in primary school.

When the first girl turns up dead in the Cathedral grounds people naturally start suspect the involvement of somebody in the clergy. A bias that has riddled the church for years.

When the second girl is found in similar circumstances the Catholic Fathers come under even more suspicion.

Lottie can’t afford any type of bias as her team start the investigation.

The families of both girls also have their secrets, but the main person Lottie would suspect, one of the girls fathers, is in prison

Nobody writes crime fiction better than Patricia Gibney.

She relates the frustrations of the investigation team with unerring realism.

When instinct is telling you there is something wrong, but there is no evidence. When old biases rear their head, but you daren’t act on them because people will think you’re going for the obvious, easy hit.

Gibney never shies away from putting her characters through the mill. She never avoids a difficult subject. In the Alter Girls she addresses some of the concerns people have around the clergy. She looks at the secrets kept behind closed doors in, what should be the sanctuary, of the family home.

And all the way through she shows the minefield that is building hypothesis during an investigation. It is absolutely compelling.

The book is just over 500 pages long but every word is used well and is relevant to the current story, or the ongoing stories of the main characters.

As close as it could be this was a “pick it up and read from start to finish” for me. In fact if I hadn’t have to go to work, it would have been.

Pages 504. Publisher: Bookouture. Audiobook 13 h 35m. Narrator Michele Moran

Anna O. Matthew Blake

I’ve read a few books with really original plots recently but I think this one stand out.

Anna O is an infamous young lady who was found lying between two people who had stabbed to death. She was asleep, and four years later she still is.

The judiciary wants to put her on trial, but first they need to get her into a fit enough condition to stand trial.

They have her moved to the Abbey sleep clinic on Harley Street and place her under the treatment of Dr Benedict Prince, who has recently published a paper on Resignation Syndrome. (That had me reaching for Google and spending a good hour reading about the syndrome)

From there the plot splits between several characters.

Benedict himself.

His ex wife, who was the first Police Officer on the scene of the murder.

Anna O’s Mom, an ex Shadow Minister, now Vicar , who was, and is, more interested in saving her own reputation than that of her daughter.

Anna’s Dad, a Banker who has little in common with his wife or daughter.

Lola, a blogger and armchair detective that is linked to Anna, and possibly the murders. Her online persona is @Suspect8. Insinuating she was at the scene.

The plot is brilliantly woven from the outlook of each of these characters.

It’s a battle for the truth. Is Anna O a murderer, or a convenient scapegoat.

Can Benedict rouse her from her sleep and have her sufficiently compos mantis enough to tell her story.

The Publishers Gumph


What if your nightmares weren’t really nightmares at all?

We spend an average of 33 years of our lives asleep. But what really happens, and what are we capable of, when we sleep?

Anna Ogilvy was a budding twenty-five-year-old writer with a bright future. Then, one night, she stabbed two people to death with no apparent motive–and hasn’t woken up since. Dubbed “Sleeping Beauty” by the tabloids, Anna’s condition is a rare psychosomatic disorder known to neurologists as “resignation syndrome.”

Dr. Benedict Prince is a forensic psychologist and an expert in the field of sleep-related homicides. His methods are the last hope of solving the infamous “Anna O'”case and waking Anna up so she can stand trial. But he must be careful treating such a high-profile suspect–he’s got career secrets and a complicated personal life of his own.

As Anna shows the first signs of stirring, Benedict must determine what really happened and whether Anna should be held responsible for her crimes.

Only Anna knows the truth about that night, but only Benedict knows how to discover it. And they’re both in danger from what they find out.

What I thought

It’s a real page turner of a book. I’d never heard of Resignation Syndrome before, and I’ve found out that it’s a relatively newly diagnosed condition, but I can see many more authors using it as the spine of a plot.

The plot itself is really good and with one exception I didn’t second guess where the story was going.

At 448 pages it’s a bit long but not a page is wasted.

I can’t wait to see what Matthew Blake writes next.

The Lies You Wrote. Brianna Labuskes

Of all the crime fiction books I’ve read, and that stretches into many hundreds, this is the first one I’ve read that has a Forensic Linguistic expert as it’s main character.

It’s an original approach and it really works. I can’t remember how many times I disappeared down a Google Rabbit Hole researching some of the terms and phrases used in this book, and it’s fascinating.

FBI linguistics specialist Raisa Susanto is called in to assist in a case which appears to be a copy cat murder.

A famous murder suicide some years before has been the point of speculation for the usual crime conspiracy theorists for years.

A young man murdered his mother and father before killing himself and leaving his three younger sisters without a family.

He left a suicide note and the local police decided it was a slam-dunk, open-and-shut case.

For years people have theorised that the investigation was too short. There were rumours in the small community that Alex Parker was a youth with issues, accusations of assaults by him on young girls were brushed over because his Mom and Dad were almost town “royalty”.

But there were rumours about them as well, was it a really a perfect marriage?

The suicide note has long been an item of speculation. Susanto uses it herself in lectures, hypothesising on its credibility and authenticity.

When a couple are found murdered, posed in the same way that the Parkers had been found, the FBI launch an investigation with Susanto, and Forensic Psychologist Callum Kilkenny making up part of the team.

The usual scepticism is thrown Susanto’s way. How can she be of any help.

But she can. Word patterns, phrases, unusual use of terms, inconsistencies in tenses, are just a small way she looks at the words written by different people involved in the investigation

And, because of her familiarity with the original crime, through her studies and lectures, she is uniquely placed to start spotting links.

So is this really a copycat, or is it more sinister.

As much as Alex Parker was a hateful figure, and easy to identify as the killer of his parents, did he really commit suicide or was he another victim.

This is a cracker of a story. I loved its originality.

Years ago I was involved in a murder investigation where Forensic Linguistics played a huge part in getting a man convicted of murdering his wife.

I’ve since seen that linguistic expert lecture to college and university students, and hold them captivated by the way he and his team have aided in criminal investigations.

So I’m not surprised that somebody has used a linguistic expert as their main character.

Thinking about it I’m more surprised by the fact that this is the first, that I’ve read, where it’s happened.

Billed as book one in the Raisa Susanto series I can only hope it’s the first of many, because if this book is anything to go by, it’s going to be a fantastic series. 🔲

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer. Publishing date: 28th November 2023 available on preorder

The Girl’s Last Cry. Alison Belsham

Detective Lexi Bennett book 2.

Its early in the series but I’m already really engaged with Lexi Bennett. As far as Detective Inspectors go in modern fiction Lexi is relatively “normal”, and for me that’s a refreshing change.

When she almost stumbles across a crime scene its the start of an investigation that takes us into an area that is becoming increasingly more concerning.

A young girl falls from a tower, but is it suicide or was she pushed?

The girl is a student at a school where she sings in the choir. It’s also a school where Lexi’s nephew is a student, and when he hears about the death he is insistent that Lexi finds out what really happened.

With her boss telling her that this investigation should be carried out by local officers, not Lexi’s major crime team, she asks to be let carry on until it can be established why the girl killed herself.

But then a second death, another musically talented child is found dead.

A coincidence? No

But who is responsible.

That is when the story goes into a world that is becoming a daily reality.

Influnencers.

Puppeteers working online to bend peoples thoughts and emotions, and in this case its not fashion trends they are pushing, or the latest music videos, it’s pushing vulnerable people to a place where they want to end their own lives. And then being there to make sure they don’t back out at the last second.

Lexi and her team work quickly to identify what is going on, and why these young people have taken their own lives.

The big question is, has a crime even been committed.

I really enjoyed this story. Yes, we as readers know straight away that somebody is leading these students, praying on their vulnerability, and is ultimately responsible for their deaths, but the Police don’t.

The tenacity of Lexi, and her team, does eventually lead to a proper investigation being carried out, but it takes time, and they take a lot of pressure from above to write the deaths off as not being suspicious.

The story plays on the fact that there are introverted vulnerable people that seek solace online, instead of turning to their family.

It shows the way people can hide behind pseudonyms and groom vulnerable people.

In my youth bullies were a physical presence. People that could not hide behind a keyboard or computer screen. They got away with being abusive by hiding their behaviour from those strong enough to stand up for the people who were suffering.

Today they can remain anonymous. Even the victim doesn’t know who they are being abused, or groomed by.

How is that a fair fight.

And if the victim isn’t ever physically touched, just coerced, from a distance, how can the police ever find a perpetrator.

There have been a few books covering this subject recently, including Robert Galbraith’s (Yes, I know who it is really) The Ink Black Heart, but this is the best one I’ve read.

A great story in a series that has quickly made it on to my must-reads-as-soon- as-available list.

Pages: 401. Publisher: Bookouture. Publishing Date. 11th July 2023

Out Of The Ashes. Louisa Scarr

As a retired Fire Officer, and current Fire Investigation Consultant and Fire Procedures and Science Lecturer, I always open books which contain fire scenes with trepidation. However, I have to say that this book has got everything spot on. The Fire Scenes, along with the interaction between the Police team and the Fire Investigation Officer, is stunningly accurate.

This is the fifth outing for Detectives West and Butler and just like the four before it it is a great read.

Now working in two separate forces it takes a cross boarder crime to bring the two together as a team, which is not to everybody’s liking.

At first they are kept apart, West investigating a stalker, and Butler investigating an arsonist that has set fires in both force areas.

When the teams realise that they may be dealing with the same person committing both crimes it is inevitable that they start to work closely together again, and the old spark is rekindled, in more ways than one.

As with real fire setters the crime of setting the fire begins to escalate. And when the frequency of when they are set isn’t enough, the severity and dangers to others start t increase.

But when two people die in different fires are they randomly unlucky or is there a connection to the fire starter.

If the stalker is responsible is the target of his attentions in danger from an arson attack.

The tension mounts as the investigation continues, who is the fire setting stalker, and why are they not leaving any evidence that might identify them.

Meanwhile the relationship between West and Butler is also smouldering. The year working in different forces, and the fact that they are both in relationships hasn’t done anything to dampen that fire.

Can they both concentrate on the case, and keep each other at arms length.

The want the case over quickly. One of them will take unnecessary risks. This story might not have the happy ever after ending.

What a book. Without other commitments it would have been a one sitting read, what it was was a distraction when I should have been doing other things. Brilliant.

I was convinced I knew who the stalking fire setter was, and I’m sure that was because of some canny writing, but it wasn’t until they were revealed that I realised I was wrong.

A clever plot, completely realistic, and a brilliant balance of crime investigation and personal battles amongst the main characters.

Pages: 411. Publisher: Canelo Crime. Publishing date: 6 July 2023