Tag: Crime Series

Salt Island. Lisa Towles

The way of writing that involves just one persons perspective, a story told from one persons point of view, through their eyes, through their thoughts and emotions, is one of the most effective ways of telling a story, and Lisa Towles is a master at it.

Billed as Ellwyn and Abernathy book 2, the story is purely told via Mari Ellwyn’s point of view, and this work’s fantastically.

Ellwyn starts the story in the British Virgin Islands on a personal quest but is quickly called back to California when her mother is taken ill.

Whilst there she is contacted by an old friend to look into things which are happening around a young entrepreneur that specialises in financing agricultural start ups and companies.

Somebody is trying to discredit Jack Darcy, but is anything they are doing illegal? The drip of intimidation is skating the edge of legality. Rumours that his high profile wife has been abducted only add to the intrigue, but no missing persons report has been filed.

Meanwhile Abernathy is off investigating the death of two brothers in an agricultural accident in a small farming town and keeps going “off-radar”.

Ellwyn employs some of the side characters from the series to help her with her investigations and to keep an eye on her Mom, who’s erratic behaviour in hospital can’t all be the result of her suffering a stroke.

When Ellwyn starts to receive warnings, it’s not about her case, it’s about her partners, but why do the people who are sending her the message also appear to be involved in her case.

A great story that has some complex plots weaving through it.

The frustrations felt by Ellwyn are passed to the reader because of the way the story is written. She, and the reader, do not know what is happening to her partner, until it’s revealed by her discoveries and observations.

The distraction of her Moms illness and behaviour diverts her from her investigations.

You would think that this style of writing is simplistic, but it’s not, it’s realistic.

We only know what we know. So why should that be any different in a book. I’ve fully brought into this series and I can’t wait for the next book

Pages: 297 Publisher: Indies United Publishing House. Available now

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

Deadly Fate. Angela Marsons

Book 18 of my favourite series is yet another one which raises the bar.

I have been with this series since book one, and the way Angela Marsons keeps the series fresh and relevant has amazed me.

It can’t be easy to be original in such a crowded genre, but somehow she manages to do it.

On top of that she has me reaching for Google on more than one occasion. This time it was to delve into the world of Psychics and Mediums, and not in a fanciful way.

The use of Barnum Phrases made so much sense when I found out what they are.

Murders happen in all sorts of communities and effect all sorts of people.

People who say they can contact the dead will always be controversial. But it’s not just sceptics, there’s a snobbery amongst the people with the “gift”

Mix religious beliefs in with that and there are numerous reasons to Murder.

The publishers blurb


The woman’s bright blonde hair floats in the breeze. She almost looks like she could be resting on the soft green grass. But her brown eyes stare unblinking up at the sky, and the final cut across her mouth is dark with blood. Her words silenced forever…

Late one evening, as the final church bell rings out, Sandra Deakin’s cold and lifeless body is found in the overgrown graveyard with multiple stab wounds. When Detective Kim Stone rushes to the scene, the violence of the attack convinces her that this murder was deeply personal. What could have caused such hate?

As the team dig into Sandra’s life, they discover she believed she could communicate with the dead. Was that why she was targeted? The last people to see her alive were a group of women who had a session with her the night before she was killed, and as Kim and her team pay them a visit, they soon learn each of the women is lying about why they wanted Sandra’s help…

Kim realises she must dig deep and open her mind to every avenue if she’s going to stand a chance at solving this case. And when she learns that Sandra was banned from the church grounds and had been receiving death threats too, she’s ever more certain that Sandra’s gifts are at the heart of everything.

But just when she thinks she’s found a lead, the broken body of a nineteen-year-old boy is found outside a call centre – a single slash across his mouth just like Sandra’s. Kim knows they are now racing against time to understand what triggered these attacks, and to stop a twisted killer.

But they might be too late. Just as Kim sits down at a local psychic show she discovers something that makes her blood run cold. Both Sandra and the call centre were named in an article about frauds. And this show stars the next name on the list. She looks around the audience with a feeling of utter dread, certain the killer is among them…

What I thought

I’ve run out of words to use in praise of the books in this series, brilliant, fantastic, excellent and any other word I could find in a thesaurus to match, and yes this book is at least as good as all of the rest.

Would I recommend it to friends. I think they’re all fed up of me saying “you need to read the latest Angela Marsons” but they’re all going to hear it again about Deadly Fate.

Another brilliant addition to the best crime fiction series on the shelves

Amz: https://geni.us/B0BWS4G1V5cover

Apple: http://ow.ly/Arq550N3kI9

Kobo: http://ow.ly/lVaF50N3kHk

Google: http://ow.ly/6sjR50N3kFY

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.

What The Shadows Hide. M.J Lee

Ridpath is back for another instalment of this Police Procedural series with a twist.

Ridpath is a DI in Greater Manchesters Major Investigation Team, but following a brush with cancer he has been on secondment to the Coroner, acting as her Head Investigator.

But with staffing, and budgeting issues within the Police he is increasingly been brought back to his old team to add his expertise and experience,.

With Greater Manchester Police in Special needs, and with a follow-up inspection by the Inspectorate of Constabularies only days away, the last thing the force needs is a high profile case that has gone unsolved for over 6 months, but that’s what they’ve got.

Two bodies found bricked into a hidden room in an office block by demolition contractors.

With the original investigation team failing to identify the bodies, or make even the smallest step forward in the murder investigation, Ridpath is given the poison-chalice of solving the crime in seven days.

To make matters worse a new temporary Coroner is appointed, following an attack on sitting one, and he’s flexing his muscles in an attempt to get Ridpath to concentrate his time on working solely for the Coroner.

Ridpath, and his very small team are bolstered by a DNA and Genetic Research specialist who gives the team hope but seven days is a small time span to solve what is effectively a cold case, and most likely his Police career.

M.J Lee has created a great Detective in Ridpath, and by combining his duties as a Coroners Officer, with his Police duties has developed character that has the scope to carry out investigations in a relatively unexplored way.

The book can be read as a stand-alone story, but this is a cracking series and well worth reading from the beginning.

Pages: 382. Publisher: Canelo Crime Publishing Date 23/03/2023

Three Widows. Patricia Gibney

A group of women have formed a self help group following the loss of their husbands, either by death or them just leaving the marriage

Women who at the start of their loss are at their most vulnerable

It’s only a small group and when one of them goes missing it leaves a big hole. When a second goes it must just be a coincidence.

Mustn’t it???

The last thoughts of one of them when they are taken is how unfair it is on her children, they’ve only just lost their Dad.

When the body of the first woman to go missing turns up DI Lottie Parker and her team are given the task of investigating.

Lottie was widowed young and has been a single Mom to young children. She starts to feel the anxieties that may throw her off her “A” game.

One of the murdered women has been living reclusively, hardly leaving the house. But the rest of the group didn’t know that, in fact what did they know about the young widow Éilis.

It’s not long before Parker begins to think there is more to the Grieving Woman’s group than meets the eye.

The Lottie Parker series is now at book 12 and doesn’t show any signs of losing its impact.

This story, like the others, is a hard hitting Police Procedural, wrapped up in a psychological thriller.

Parker is one of the best Police characters on todays book shelves. I’ve said it before but Patricia Gibney puts a lot of herself into these books.

You can’t write books as good as these purely based on research. The policing side, yes. The crimes, yes. But the emotions and feelings have to come from the heart

I always recommend this series to people who want to know why I get hooked on crime fiction. And it’s going from strength to strength.

Pages: 507. Publisher: Bookouture Available now.

A Truth For A Truth. Carol Wyer

Carol Wyer

 

Wow. Where do I start.

This has been a great series from the start and its got even better with the addition of this book.

Kate Young has been trying to break the ring of abusers she thinks is responsible for her husbands murder. The problem is the ring includes at least one Senior Police Officer.

Throughout the series she has been driven by the voice in her head, that of her husband.

But now she’s killed somebody, somebody in power, somebody who was part of the ring.

The Police, and probably her team, will be asked to investigate his death.

But first they have to find the body, at first its just a missing persons case and Kate is doing her best to carry on as if she has nothing to do with the death.

Then there’s the bigger problem. Her husbands voice of reason is being fought against, and at times replaced, by another voice. The voice of the man she murdered, and he’s ridiculing her.

As much as this is a great crime story its also the story of a woman having a breakdown, she’s functioning but her mental health is really on the edge.

Can she keep her mind long enough to escape blame.

Can she break the ring and expose everybody involved.

The very last page made me gasp out loud.

There has to be another book. It can’t end there, or can it.

Pages: 411. Publisher: Thomas & Mercer. Publishing Date: 4th April 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.