Author: steven

Bloods Echo by Isabel Maldonado is a pacy page turner – I read it in one sitting, could not put it down!

Veranda Cruz is a narcotics detective in the Phoenix PD engaged in a highly personal war with a Mexican drug cartel who threaten her and her family. There is some good misdirection, a side order of romance and a great climax to this first novel plus a slight opening in the ending to pave the way for a follow on novel.

This is good easy reading and would make a great movie, worth trying out.

3.5/5

That’s me in the Middle by Donald Jack is the second in the series of novels about Bartholemew Bandy a Canadian World War 1 pilot. Jack served in the second war and subsequently wrote the Bandy series between 1962 and 2002.

Bandy is a somewhat chaotic upper class character who seems to get buffeted by events as he stumbles through the Great War. ‘That’s me in the Middle’ feels like classic farce with the scenes tenuously threaded together until the end when it almost makes sense. It is light, humorous and very reminiscent of Jeeves and Wooster but in parallel there are chilling observations on the horror and human waste of the war.

I wasn’t enjoying reading “That’s me in the Middle”, I am not a fan of a genre that eulogises the lifestyle of the old British aristocracy or the mad cap escapades of its heroes (although I love modern farce such as the novels of Jonas Jonasson) but by the time I got to the end of it I had changed my mind, it’s not great but it isn’t terrible. If you want something light about war (yes I know what a contradiction in terms that is) this might be worth a read.

3.5/5

Darktown by Thomas Mullen is set in Atlanta in 1948. Atlanta has just appointed its first black police officers to patrol the black ghettos within the city. The murder of a young black woman looks like being ignored and covered up by the all white detectives until two black officers start asking questions.

I loved this, it is charged with racial tension, historic detail and a plot that you don’t want to put down. It’s well written builds to a superb climax and I can’t recommend it enough. If you like hard boiled crime, read this. I’m looking forward to reading more by Mullen

4.5/5 (because nothing is perfect)

Off the Grid by CJ Box is another in his series featuring Joe Pickett and Nate Romanowski. If you haven’t read any of Box’s novels I would recommend going back to the beginning of the series starting with Open Season.

Joe Pickett is a Wyoming game and fish warden, Nate is his somewhat mysterious falconer friend who lives off the grid (hence the title) avoiding federal government who have a long running vendetta against him. This is a page turner which combines stunning descriptions of the wild country of Wyoming with a plot being hatched by a group of middle eastern terrorists (kind of popular baddies at the moment). A good holiday read.

3.5/5